It’s our last week of school before the winter break, thank goodness! Cards need to be mailed, packages wrapped and shipped and the list needs to be checked twice. With a packed schedule this week, I want to make sure our dinners are as easy as possible. We will rely on pantry staples and a…
Prosecco Pomegranate Spritz
Quick and colorful, a prosecco pomegranate spritz can be your signature cocktail this holiday season. And with half the glass full of pomegranate juice, it’s less caloric than a traditional cocktail. Not that calories count in December. A little elf told me that one, but I’m not sure I believe it. (Whole 30, see you…
Easy Peppermint Bark
Super Easy Peppermint Bark Holiday baking is one of the best parts of the season, and everyone in my house has their favorite. My oldest makes the most amazing grain-free and gluten-free peanut butter blossom cookies. She tops them with flakey Maldon sea salt and Hershey’s kisses, mind blowing combo! My son always wants to…
Holiday Granola to Feed a Crowd
If you don’t have a large sheetpan, use two cookie sheets when baking the granola and rotate them halfway through. The granola needs to cook in a single layer so it toasts evenly. If you use dark baking pans, decrease the time by 10 minutes and check the granola while cooking to make sure it…
Weekly Meal Plan: December 3-December 8
I’ve decided to “shop my freezer” this week. We have a full size freezer and it’s brimming with good-quality meat from Yonder Way Farm, frozen organic vegetables and homemade chicken bone broth (just what the doctor ordered for winter sniffles). This week I have cooking classes and food photography to shop for. As far as…
Blistered Shishitos with Everything Spice
This is the time of year when you may find yourself with neighbors who stop by for a glass of wine, extra family members to entertain and feed or just hungry mouths in general. Grab some Shishito peppers and everything bagel spice and fire up your oven, help is on the way. If you’ve been…
Weekly Meal Plan: November 26-December 1
Currently we have an unlit Christmas tree in the middle of the room, furniture that needs to be relocated until after the holidays and no elves anywhere in sight. Tomorrow morning school starts again, and with it three more weeks of routine and homework until we head to our family’s happy place in Idaho. Before…
Shaved Brussels Sprout Salad
Ok friends. I swore to my kids I wouldn’t try to create a healthy Thanksgiving menu, but I do think it’s good to balance virtue and vice. When you have a table filled with probably twenty pounds of butter-and carb-filled side dishes, it’s important to have something green. Yesterday in the Houston Chronicle, I had…
Weekly Meal Plan: November 19-24
Thanksgiving is here! As much as I tell my cooking class students to be organized and to prep ahead of time, I’m not feeling very together. We are enjoying a brief holiday visit to New York with my two daughters and my sister and her two girls. We are eating, walking, shopping and generally just…
Weeknight Meal Plan: November 12-17
SUNDAY Marcella Hazan’s bolognese is a masterpiece of comfort food. Serve it over riced cauliflower, spaghetti squash or good old-fashioned pasta. Marcella may be rolling in her grave at the suggestion of serving this over anything but good-quality pasta, but do what you will. MONDAY Simple roasted salmon, chermoula, broccoli sautéd with red pepper flakes…