My kitchen

Discovery Thursday

18 February 2016

Fun discoveries for your Thursday – favorite kitchen tools, updated recipes, and my latest obsession with BBC Radio’s podcast Desert Island Discs. Desert Island Discs I can’t get enough of the online treasure trove of Desert Island Discs – interviews with public figures broadcast weekly on BBC Radio since 1942. Selections from the vast archives […]

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Sparking joy

13 March 2015

I haven’t gotten around to the real meat of Marie Kondo‘s improbable bestseller, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (the tidying part, that is). But the real magic of the book is Kondo’s simple perspective: hold on to the things you love, or as is translated in the book, things that spark joy. And get […]

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Kitchen geekery

27 June 2014

The fact that I cannot buy anything casually is tied directly to my hard-knocks immigrant training not to throw useful things away. Anything I buy, I’m likely to keep forever – which means I’d better love it. So the things I geek out over in the kitchen are multi-use, smartly designed items that are priced […]

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Kitchen, the sequel

18 June 2014

Well, we did it. We finally moved into our new place, more than three years after we bought a leaky old house on a lot with potential. Funny how much can change in three years. Suddenly I’m not the mom loaded down with kids in her arms. My first child just graduated from elementary school, […]

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Never-MT

25 October 2011

Of all the useful tricks in my dream kitchen, the Never-MT is the cheapest (and most goofily named). It’s the kind of gadget that seems utterly lame to kids but extremely cool to chore-burdened adults: for $10 you can be saved from endless refilling of your sink soap dispenser. It’s ingenious. It’s not like filling […]

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My friend Faith

13 October 2011

It’s been a strange, volatile week, starting high, plunging low and ending with the realization that most everything is a high compared to the lows that could be. The week began last Thursday with a rare and exciting treat: lunch with a new friend, the lovely, curious Faith Durand, Managing Editor extraordinaire of my favorite […]

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My jolly salt pig

6 October 2011

It probably says something odd about me that I do not own a coffee maker, an electric mixer or a slow cooker, but I do own a salt pig. It’s not an item that would be on anyone’s kitchen essential list – a small dish for salt would suffice – but I came across this […]

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Strawberry oatmeal shortcakes with maple vanilla cream

29 May 2011

It’s the ultimate summer treat: juicy strawberries piled on soft, moist oatmeal shortcakes, served with a dollop of maple vanilla cream. Homemade strawberry shortcake is an easy make-ahead dessert that makes you look like a genius in the kitchen: mix briefly in one bowl, drop by spoonfuls on a baking sheet, and in 20 minutes […]

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Happiness is a butter bell

14 September 2010

I discovered the butter bell a year ago, and now my family can’t live without it. Gone are the days of battling rock hard butter to spread on toast while four hungry children clamor for their breakfast. Now butter gets spread smooth as frosting, toast gets distributed, and munching mouths are happily silent for a […]

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Cast iron skillets – nonstick old school

6 September 2010

Cast iron is the chinese grandma of cookware: the ultimate in practicality, durability and value – and it only gets better with age. It is also nonstick the old school way. If anyone out there is still using Teflon-coated pans, I urge you to wake up and smell the plastic. A high quality cast iron […]

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