Do you feel that little bit of crisp coolness in the air yet? Temperatures near us have finally dropped, making me crave hearty soups and comforting sheet pan meals. Even though it isn’t officially fall yet, I’m still planning this week’s dinners around some of my family’s fall favorites. Consider this week’s meal plan the official welcome wagon.
When my eighth-grade math teacher told me I’d use algebra every day in my adult life, she was right. I just never realized how much of my daily brainpower would be devoted to calculating and managing the cost of an early-onset seltzer habit. Do you go with store-brand, or LaCroix? Is there a better deal online, or in stores? And what do you do if you get a taste for Spindrift, the Champagne of flavored seltzers, and ordinary bubbly water won’t cut it anymore?
Fortunately, Trader Joe’s has a habit of making tasty copycats of cult-favorite products, and this week they just released a fancy new seltzer of their own.
Years ago my husband and I thought we were frugal people. We looked for sales, drove used cars, and otherwise opted out of an extravagant life. However, it somehow missed our attention that we were still living beyond our means.
Since ours was a one-income, self-employed household, we’d never learned how to budget. In fact, we’d kinda dismissed it as being impossible to budget on an irregular income. Credit cards and home-equity loans fooled us into thinking we were doing just fine.
Every year after Thanksgiving dinner, when the guests are gone and we’re scrubbing the last of the dishes, my family and I go over the meal in detail. What did we all scoop up seconds of, and what did we push to the sides of our plates? What would we make again next year, and what needs to go back to the drawing board?
At this point we’ve pretty much got the turkey (grilled), mashed potatoes (garlicky), and dinner rolls on lock. But every year, we’re not entirely sold on our sweet potato recipe, the vegetable side dish, and, most importantly, the stuffing. Why can’t we seem to master the perfect stuffing?
Honestly, I think we play it too safe. Switching to cornbread is too sharp of a pivot, and with so many vegetarians in our family, sausage is out of the question. But unlike the mashed potatoes and the dinner rolls, it feels like stuffing is a place where we can have a little fun.
That’s why this year I’m proposing a wild mushroom stuffing, which I’m confident will please both the stuffing purists (there’s still celery and parsley and thyme!) and the adventurous eaters alike. It’s so good, you won’t want to wait until Thanksgiving to eat it.
You probably think I’m rude when I sneak away from the table, taking a few plates to the kitchen, trying and failing to go unnoticed. You probably think I won’t let you help because I’m too uptight about the way things are done. (You would have been right about that 10 years ago, but I’ve recovered, and will happily let other people clean these days.) Worst of all, it might seem like I want the party to end, and for you to go home.
But none of that would be true. I don’t want you to help with the dishes, but it has nothing to do with any of that.
Pizza is a never-ending source of controversy. Fights about the superiority of Neapolitan over New York-style, or whether Detroit’s thick crusts are preferable to Chicago’s deep-dish seem quaint in comparison to our now annual arguments about what’s acceptable to put on any kind of dough. If you thought it couldn’t get more silly than the pineapple topping fight of 2017, strap in: In 2018, we’re seeing a backyard barbecue staple being spread in lieu of marinara.
You’ll almost never find our kitchens without a can or two of black beans stocked in the pantry. This versatile ingredient can be used in so many different ways. From soups and chilis to enchiladas and salads, the possibilities are seemingly endless. We chose our 20 favorite black bean recipes to get you started with something new.
Fact: Cleaning up as I go is a tough thing for me. I’m also prone to spills. By the time I’m done with a cooking or baking project, it usually looks like a bomb went off in my kitchen.
Because I’m innately a messy cook, many of the recipes I’ve ripped out of magazines or borrowed from my mom often end up coated in flour or covered in some kind of liquid that makes the ink run. (Sorry, mom.) I also like to use recipes that I find online, and few things make me more nervous than bringing my phone, tablet, or laptop into my kitchen. Don’t even get me started on the state of my cookbooks. (Those five pages are stuck together from now on? Cool, I didn’t want to make that gooey chocolate cake, anyway!)
So, yeah, I could use some help.
Chickpeas are an invaluable pantry staple that I have stocked in my kitchen at all times. We already know they can be blitzed into hummus, roasted into a crunchy snack, or used as an easy salad booster, but that is just the beginning, friends. If you’ve got a can of chickpeas on hand, then you’ve got the start to quite a few easy, satisfying weeknight dinners.
Back in 2017, I started to notice a new kitchen color trend emerging. I never expected it and I certainly didn’t expect it to still be cool in 2018. Any guesses? The photo above is a big hint. The color: mint green!
Mint green — a barely there, optimistic, soothing hue — works well in the kitchen because it’s a color reminiscent of a sweet confection. Here are some different ways in which I’ve seen mint green used in the kitchen recently.