meat loves salt

My last post in this series is devoted to some of my favorite kitchen appliances… The freezer. I get rather embarrassed when a friend comes over and wants to stick, say, a pint-size tub of ice cream in my freezer, and I don’t really have space for it. I’m afraid I look like quite a hoarder if you peek in my freezer! When I’m good about it, I try to keep a rough inventory of what’s …

After all that meal planning and grocery shopping, the real fun begins… Saving time with prep work. I have a certain system I like to follow each week. Upon returning home from the grocery store, I make sure the dishwasher and sink are cleared. I go through the fridge and toss out anything that’s gone bad. I also take this opportunity to do a wipe-down of the fridge if it needs it. I then wash and …

Grocery shopping is always a challenge when you live in a big city. The grocery stores are smaller, prices are higher, parking is more of a hassle (and if you’re not driving, well, then you have to deal with hauling groceries home), and kitchens are teeny tiny. My own kitchen is outfitted with an apartment-size oven and dishwasher, which is to say — miniscule! It’s a challenge to cook from home even if you wanted …

When I think back to childhood, I tend to think of my dad effortlessly filling the dinner table every night with an array of home-cooked dishes. Weekends were even more elaborate, some Saturdays devoted entirely to cooking together as a family. I always knew our meals didn’t just appear out of thin air, but I don’t think I fully understood just how much a labor of love it was to provide us with a homemade …