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There's something about eating a hamburger with a knife and fork that's just wrong. Not that I haven't done it. Plenty of times.
Every year I go into the summer with grand plans: Gourmet family picnics! Service Projects! Homemade gelato! And then when I blink my eyes and school is starting again, I realize things didn’t exactly go as planned. We didn’t quite get through our entire summer reading lists, we squabbled a little
Some people geek out about Star Trek movie release dates or scoring tickets to Super Diamond. Me, I anxiously await new books by Michael Pollan. Ever since I read The Omnivore’s Dilemma in 2009, I’ve pre-ordered every one of his subsequent books. And then when I get the call from the
So, this came in my organic box last week. And yes, I know what it is, thank you very much. I do like fennel (even though its licorice taste reminds me of Good & Plenty). But that didn't keep the poor thing from languishing in my veggie basket for almost a week.
If you pay attention to ingredients, you’ve probably noticed that agave nectar is everywhere these days. Since it’s marketed as a healthy alternative to refined sugar, it’s become the darling of many natural brands, who add it to everything from Agave Plus Granola to So Delicious Fruit Bars to Oogave Natural
When I first heard about the Paleolithic Diet a couple years ago, I thought it was for hard-bodies (my CrossFit friends) and slightly deranged people only.
Of course I'm fully prepared for 45 minutes of driving and kids changing and doing homework in the car. No problems there. What I can't abide is missing dinner.
People ask me about my pots a lot. Thus makes perfect sense because my pots are basically the stars of this blog and they’re front and center in all my cooking classes. I love my bright, heavy pots. And I just realized I kind of take it for granted that everyone
I've had a rocky relationship with lentils. During the 90s, lentil soup was the rage, and usually it was gritty just okay tasting at best. Then a few years back, I spent some time in a part of Asia where the entire diet is basically lentils. After that trip I thought I would never eat another one.
Even when it's balmy, I tend to make a lot of soup. It's the easiest way I know to use up wilting produce and turn disparate items into a harmonious and satisfying meal. Since the highest temperature we've reached around here since last Saturday was about 14, you can bet I've been at the stove happily stirring soup.
A few days ago I had the, ahem…pleasure of going to the grocery store with both my kids in tow. As any mom probably knows, I am using the word “pleasure” ironically. I know people with toddlers and preschoolers still have to do this, and I kind of enjoyed it when
It’s New Year’s Eve. I won’t bore you with too many thoughts on self-reflection or the little moment I had yesterday when I took down the Christmas tree. The holidays barreled through with so much force this year that I rarely sat back to enjoy them, which is about the only
Can you believe it’s already December 21st? Where the heck did this month go? I had planned a big holiday gift guide post for last Friday (while you presumably would still have had time to shop), but with the tragic events that happened that day, I just couldn’t
I'm not going to suggest anyone be quite as obsessive about saving food as I am, but in the spirit of giving, think of not wasting food as a way of helping make sure everyone gets enough to eat.
Let's not give those big-box retailers reason to think that we want Thanksgiving turned into a mere prelude to Black Friday, which, let's face it, has become a holiday devoted to celebrating consumerism and the desire for more more more.
This here is an idea for something to eat the night before the big meal — or even tonight. And yes, it would make a lovely, if nontraditional, addition to your holiday lineup. If you're into that kind of thing.
What are we going to do for dinner? If that’s a question that you dread with every fiber of your being, it appears you are not alone. During my classes, particularly my newest offering, Stress-Free Weeknight Meals, I’ve noticed that knowing how to cook is really not the
Promoting potentially cancer-causing foods like high-fat Kentucky Fried Chicken and hormone-laden Yoplait Yogurt just because their packages sport a pink ribbon during the month of October might not be the best way to make people aware of (or find a cure for) breast cancer.
It's because of this—and our great weakness for all things spicy—that I can justify devoting an entire Sunday to chile peppers. It's educational to head across town to the Mexican supermarket in search of the exact variety of dried guajillos called for in a green chili recipe...
What should I buy organic if I’m on a limited budget? This is the question I seem to get asked the most. If I’m in an expansive mood, my answer can quickly veer into eye-glazing territory. I’m pretty passionate about organic food and tend to get long winded when
The glorious weather pattern we’ve had for the last week or so—eighty-fifty, eighty-fifty, eighty-fifty—won’t last forever, I know. This time of year, I try to appreciate every beautiful day, because tomorrow it might be snowing (also beautiful too, of course, but not. Quite. Yet.). I also know that
After The New York Times published this misleadingly titled article last week, I had planned to dedicate this post to (yet another) defense of organic food and the people who choose to eat it. (The article outlines the findings of a research review conducted at Stanford, which concluded
It’s been a while, I know. Even though my mantras for the summer were “live in the moment” and “don’t over-commit,” the days and weeks were still a blur. A tasty blur for sure: We took weekly trips to the farmer’s market for local corn, heirloom tomatoes, and
Well, they’re finally here. Summer peaches are my single favorite thing to eat (okay, aside from tacos), and once they’re really and truly in season, I go a little crazy. I think this is because by now I’ve suffered so much indignation and disappointment stemming from my inability
Some of you probably saw the article in The New York Times business section last weekend entitled “Has Organic Been Oversized?” If you did, and if you’re at all like me, it probably made you mad. And frustrated. The article is about how many organic food brands (most, actually) have
Back in the early nineties, I was a single twenty-something living in a tiny attic apartment. My pantry was the shelf above the half-sized 1940s-era refrigerator, and my dining table was a folding card table from Cost Plus. Most evenings I worked out or went out, and I
Or, how not to waste all that beautiful local produce you couldn’t resist at the farmer’s market. I love going to the farmer’s market this time of year. Not only is it a fun destination for a family bike ride and weekend breakfast, but of course there’s all
The very idea of “summertime meal planning” is kind of an oxymoron, right? I mean it’s pretty farfetched to imagine any sane person sitting down on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon with a stack of cookbooks and a notepad to plan out the week’s meals — well, unless of
If the dressing for this warm-yet-summery salad seems vaguely familiar to you, I must take a minute to thank you for being a loyal reader or subscriber. The recipe was was buried in one of my overly long, multiple-recipe early blog posts, and a version of it
Remember how you felt as a kid on the last day of school? I was almost surreal, right? I mean, three months — THREE MONTHS! — of vacation is too long to even get your head around really. Now, as a mom, my feelings aren’t that different. I
Regardless of whether or not you’re in a mild (or severe) panic about the impending last day of school or have been barely keeping your head above water during the “May-nia” (as a friend called the end-of-May craziness, which is otherwise known as “May-hem”…) of the last few
The other night I accidentally conducted what turned out to be a very interesting experiment. For several reasons I won’t bore you with, I went an entire night without sleeping. Which I’m pretty sure I haven’t done since finals week in college. As expected (And I know these
Wow, it’s a snack bonanza this week here on Real Life Delicious. Today’s guest post is from my good friend Helen Olsson. Helen’s awesome blog, Mad Dog Mom, chronicles her adventures in parenthood, which have included taking her three kids backcountry skiing, llama trekking, and on multi-day camping
One of the food-related things that seems to vex moms more than any other is what to give kids for after-school snacks. I am right there with anyone who struggles with this. It took me a while — an embarrassingly long while actually — to realize why my
I recently learned that it’s generally accepted among food writers, bloggers, and chefs that if you change at least three ingredients in a recipe you can call it your own and use it or write about it without crediting the source. Since I rarely, if ever, follow a recipe
We just got home from Mexico and I miss it. A lot. I miss the incredibly blue water, the warm salty air, our Gaudi-esque sand castles, the smoothies (of which I think my daughter might have set a record for consumption), the long days without WiFi — and of course I
This year when I gave up sweets for Lent, I honestly didn’t realize just how much of a sacrifice it would be. The first few days were the worst, coming off all the Valentine’s chocolate and forcing myself to toss a bar of Green & Black’s because just
When I served this for dinner the other night, my husband pronounced, “This is the best thing you’ve ever made.” As you can imagine, I’ve made him a lot of things over the years, so I took that as extremely high praise. Plus, if you’re like me, you’re
In my house, zucchini isn’t officially “disgusting,” but it isn’t going to win any popularity contests either. I happen to love the stuff, but even I have to admit it needs some dolling up. And since it’s so plentiful this time of year, I seem to devote an inordinate amount of
I’ve been meaning to start posting some super quick family dinner ideas for a while. What I’m talking about here are meals you can easily make on a night that includes back-to-back soccer and baseball practices, yet another emergency trip to Petco, a math test prep, a social studies project —
When I told my friends I was going to see Michael Pollan at the Paramount Theater last week, one of them asked if he was the lead singer for the Killers and another said that seemed like an odd venue for a book signing. I agree it was a bit random to pay money for tickets for what is essentially a stop on a writer's promotional tour — a writer who is not JK Rowling! — but Michael Pollan is a rock
Thanks to some of my recent posts about things like chocolate cake and wrapping food in bacon, it might be easy to forget that I started out blogging as “The Food Evangelist” — with a focus on the importance of eating clean, healthy food. I guess this is because I
