Takeout beef and broccoli has a secret, and it is not the sauce. For years, Silas and I ordered it on lazy Friday nights and I assumed the restaurant had some kind of magic I could never copy. My first homemade attempt came out with chewy beef, soggy broccoli, and a sauce that looked like … Read more
Silas ate two full plates of this skillet before he stopped to ask what was in it. I told him it was ground beef and rice. He looked at me like I had hidden a secret ingredient somewhere in the pantry. I hadn’t. That’s the whole story. We’ve cooked in a lot of rental kitchens … Read more
The first time I made chicken and rice soup, it looked perfect at dinner and turned into chicken and rice porridge by the next morning. Silas opened the fridge, stared into the pot, and asked if I had accidentally made risotto. The rice had soaked up nearly every drop of broth overnight. Honestly, I couldn’t … Read more
The first time I made fish soup, I turned a perfectly good piece of cod into sad, grey confetti. Silas ate it anyway, which tells you everything you need to know about him. It took me a few more tries to figure out the fix, and it was almost embarrassingly simple. Fish needs way less … Read more
This soup costs less than a drive-thru run and tastes like it simmered all afternoon. It actually takes about 50 minutes, and I found that out by accident. Silas and I had just moved into a short-term rental with one decent pot, a knife that had clearly given up, and a fridge holding ground beef, … Read more
What if the easiest dinner in your week is also the one everybody fights over? That is what ground beef quesadillas do in my house. One skillet of seasoned beef, a big handful of melty cheese, and a tortilla that turns golden and crunchy in butter. I have made these more times than I can … Read more
Most homemade enchiladas taste flat for one simple reason, and it isn’t the beef. It took me more attempts than I’d like to admit to figure out what was going wrong. Once I did, this beef enchiladas recipe went on repeat in my kitchen. We’re talking tender corn tortillas, juicy seasoned beef, a deep red … Read more
My husband Silas is not a stove hoverer. He is a “just call me when it’s done” kind of guy. Then I pulled the first batch of huli huli chicken off the grill, and he was standing next to me with a fork before I even set the tongs down. The skin was dark, glossy, … Read more
This soup tastes like lasagna that took all day, and I spent about 20 minutes on it. Silas ate three bowls of my first batch and then asked if I had secretly been in the kitchen since breakfast. I let him believe it for a full minute. This slow cooker lasagna soup has everything we … Read more
Lentil soup has a reputation for being the sad, beige food you eat when you are trying to be good. I used to agree with that. A few years ago I made a pot that tasted like warm dirt, and Silas ate every bite, smiled politely, and said, “It’s very healthy.” That is husband code … Read more