728x90


Dalai Mama Dishes

by Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Dalai Mama Dishes

Catherine Newman cooks for the family

Empanadas

Posted 1 day ago
Yum. Wrap these in a napkin or paper towel before you foil them up for the lunchbox; there's a bit of that appealing orange-grease situation. Not in a bad way.
You know the kind of day where you're on the toilet, and you hear a splashy little plonk behind you, and for just a second you're afraid that the glasses that you pushed up onto your head so that you could rub cream into your face because you don't have time to be on the toilet doing nothing else--you're afraid for just a second that your glasses have slipped through your hair and fallen behind you into the actual contents of the toilet bowl? I say "for just a second" because a second later you're not afraid anymore because now you know for sure: they have. That's the kind of day you'll be glad to have empanadas in your freezer: 20 minutes in the toaster oven (really, by the time you've washed and dried your glasses and then washed and dried them again just to be sure, and then sniffed your wrist and forearm for the fiftieth time, they're ready!),… Read More
9 people found this post helpful 8 Comments

Walnut-Orange Cake

Posted 1 week ago
This is a lovely and widely appreciated cake. It has a faint greenish hue, which I love.
It can be hard for families to let their members change. Have you noticed that? You will get an aquarium-themed calendar every year for the rest of your life because you had a neon tetra when you were ten. You will never be served orange juice again because you once threw it up in the car into a beach towel. In my family, I am still the person with a terrible sense of direction because I read a map wrong… Read More
7 people found this post helpful 3 Comments

Lemon-Herb Roast Chicken

Posted 2 weeks ago
There is just something so Mr. Bean about a roast chicken, isn't there?
Here's what I love about roasting a chicken in wintertime: you spend approximately 11 seconds with it (albeit a monumentally revolting 11 seconds), and then it cooks all by its lonesome for the next hour or two, filling your house with warmth and a deliciously aromatic anticipation of dinnertime. Ben, when he was little, used to say, "Ooooh, Mama--what's that chickeny, chickeny smell?" "Chicken," I'd say, and he'd say, very Sherlock Holmes, "I thought so!"

Plus, this is the… Read More
7 people found this post helpful 11 Comments

Amazing From-Scratch Hot Chocolate

Posted 3 weeks ago
My mother made us these place mats, which are not machine-washable, and the fact that we all but keep them in a vault drives her crazy. Look, Mom! I'm using them! Sort of.
We are a people of many rituals. Which means that, come a wintery forecast, spoons get put in the freezer, ice cubes tossed out of doors, and pajamas worn inside out to bring on the snow. And the snow, thus brought on, itself brings on the customary warm-up snack of hot chocolate and popcorn. First the kids gear up to help Michael shovel: from what I can tell, peering out the window, this seems to mean a great deal of… Read More
9 people found this post helpful 8 Comments

Pork So Good It Could Make You Cry

Posted January 11, 2010
If this photograph doesn't move you, then maybe skip this recipe.
My friend Jonathan just lovingly accused me of being a porkophile, and he's right--though it's a bit of the pot calling the kettle a pot, or whatever, given that this man just raised and butchered five enormous pigs. Be that as it may, pork has situated itself in some of the most wildly memorable eating experiences of my life: at this Chinese-Cuban place in New York City, for instance, where the not-overly-inspiringly-named "Fried Pork Chunks" turn out to be crispy,… Read More
16 people found this post helpful 7 Comments

Winter Sunshine Bars

Posted January 04, 2010
Oh lemony lusciousness! I wore lemon perfume when I was 12, made by the Love's Babysoft people, only packaged in a yellow phallus instead of a pink one.
There's been some confusion here about what, exactly, the word "resolution" means. Michael is famous for setting the bar so low that it's pretty much just resting on the floor where you might trip over it and--oh, great!--meet your New Year's goal completely by accident. One year, for example, he resolved not to struggle with inadvertently short lengths of dental floss. "I'm going to throw it away and start with a fresh piece," he vowed, while I committed to such… Read More
16 people found this post helpful 13 Comments
Search Recipes
Need Ideas for Dinner?
Swap recipes with other parents
300x250

About Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman is the author of the memoir, Waiting for Birdy: A Year of Frantic Tedium, Neurotic Angst, and the Wild Magic of Growing a Family, available online and in bookstores nationwide.

View My Profile View My Guestbook
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
November 2009
October 2009
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
August 2006