We all know that family dinners matter. We know that they help to protect our kids from issues such as teen pregnancy and drug and alcohol use. We understand how they offer us a time to connect and share about our days. We appreciate how meals together provide an opportunity to teach manners and conversational skills. We get it. Family dinners are important. But the reality is that family dinners can also be an added…
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Twice in the past year, my sons (ages 8, 10) have given their grandparents a really special gift: a full meal cooked entirely by them. I have hung out in the kitchen to oversee the process, but they have done all of the work (with the exception of taking very hot things out of the oven and draining a large pot of pasta). If I am being honest, though, these gifts have been incredibly labor…
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Thanksgiving is just the beginning. Between now and New Year’s Day, there are so many celebrations. Parties, family gatherings, and special traditions are all included in this busy time of year. For a lot of us, this means tons of cooking, which can be wonderful, but also exhausting. So why not enlist some help? Big cooking projects that are tied to special occasions are fantastic opportunities to get even reluctant cooks into the kitchen. Here…
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2018 Holiday Gift Guide for Every Kind of Cook I will never forget the Christmas my mother only gave me cooking tools. I was 22-years-old, living on my own for the first time, and had been scraping by with two pots that had been bought in a bodega on the first floor of my building, a couple of cheap knives I think I had gotten at IKEA, and a set of measuring cups and…
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As I have written about before, food and family dinners were essential parts of my childhood. Ironically, however, despite my mom’s best attempts, cooking was not. The poor woman tried everything to entice me to cook and I did dabble a bit, but mostly I just wasn’t interested. And yet she persisted. If I wanted cookies, I had to make them myself (the first attempt was incredibly memorable, but that’s a story for another post)….
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