Happy Thanksgiving week, friends! This past year has been so tumultuous — moreso, even, than I anticipated when I was drafting last year’s post on thankfulness from under a cozy blanket of blissful ignorance and optimism. But on Thursday, we’re hosting Thanksgiving for the first time since we moved back to California, and I’m ready to spoil the family that has kept our spirits afloat despite the leaden cloak of cancer with love in the form I know best: food. But rather than sharing our holiday dinner plans here (no matter how much I love the word spatchcock, I’m in … Read More
Three Cheese Butternut Squash Pasta Bake with Mushrooms + Chard
Some weeks ago I saw a Tasting Table video on Facebook I couldn’t resist. Jumbo shells, stuffed with roasted butternut squash and ricotta, topped with burrata and baked. It was undeniably appealing, instantly evocative of the frozen, cheese-stuffed jumbo shells my bestie Whitney and I used to heat up for summer lunches back when Costco was Price Club and we still owned more cassette tapes than CD’s. Looking in my fridge, I was heartbroken to remember using the last of our ricotta on that morning’s toast (with sliced pears and honey — never a bad idea) — but was blasted with hope in the … Read More
Creamy Hummus Soup with Crispy Soyrizo Gremolata (Vegan)
Like so many recipes that find their way to this space, this soup was a happy accident. A well-meaning attempt (and I do mean well-meaning, as not a corner was cut!) at Kenji Lopez-Alt’s intriguing Israeli hummus recipe — more on what makes it so intriguing later — watered down, quite literally, into a slurpable meal worthy of your soup spoon. Too many times I’ve daintily tucked pita into a creamy bowl of restaurant hummus while every fiber of my being screams good lord woman, eating it by the oversized spoonful is the clear winner of all ideas ever! And too many times, apparently, I’ve … Read More
Ultimate Fall Chopped Salad with Honeyed Tangerine-Turmeric Vinaigrette
There are no new words to communicate how quickly this holiday season came upon us. There are even fewer words to relay how unprepared I am for the coming days of packing, travel and stretchy pants. And the internet knows far more than me about how to put your best bird forward, so I’ll spare you my attempt. Instead, as has become habit of late, I’ll keep things on the short side (I’m actually working on a new pigtales piece that will exhaust whatever vocabulary I leave on the table in this post) and just drop this most colorful salad into … Read More
Savory Pumpkin Cannelloni with Candied Walnuts + Crispy Sage (Dairy-Free)
As I write this, Lana is on the baby cam arranging her bed buddies around the perimeter of her crib, and her baby doll just won’t sit up the way she wants. It’s fascinating to me the way she’ll prop her up, watch her slouch forward, frown, prop her up again, etc., without so much as peep — when I know that, if I were in the room with her, she’d be whining almost instantly for my help. It’s moments like this — little, stalkery episodes where I stand back and admire her persistence or strength (she deadlifted a compost … Read More