We canceled our cable service last year and I’ll admit that sometimes I miss it. Mainly when I just want to lie on the couch and watch pointless TV—with six channels, there’s rarely anything good on. But back when I had channels like HGTV, Food Network and TLC, I could usually...

Neko first tasted artichoke last year while we were out to eat. My mom and I were sitting outside on the patio at an Italian restaurant giving the kid repeated instructions to not shove entire leaves in her mouth, but instead use her teeth just to scrape off the artichoke meat from the base....

In an article in this month’s Kiwi magazine, one mom explains her reasonings for deciding not to take her children out to eat. She says she’s too stressed to enjoy her meals. Her kids get bored, make a mess and are noisy, all of which puts her on edge. We’ve all been...

Neko isn’t a big chicken fan. But she loves olives and she loves citrus, so at least she’ll eat components of this dish. You can buy preserved meyer lemons or make your own. It’s not hard to do—Neko helped me make ours. You do need to plan ahead so that they can sit for a...

I am in love with this soup. I read about it two weeks ago and I’ve already made it twice since then. When the weather turns super hot, I plan on trying it chilled, and I am so excited about that. Neko isn’t a soup girl. Well, not a pureed soup girl. She loves miso soup,...

You may notice there are no photos of Neko eating these biscuits. That’s because the first (and last) bite she took was immediately catapulted out of her mouth as soon as it touched her tongue. I’ve hesitated to post “failure” recipes here before, but I’m making an...

The bad thing about making your own pizza dough at home is you never want take out or delivery again. It’s not that take out pizza isn’t good, it’s just that the crust loses something on its way to your house. Especially if you like your pizza crust thin and crunchy like we...

Make this tart now while you can still get good fresh Swiss chard. Seriously. It’s easy—you use frozen puff pastry or a premade pie shell and you end up with a complete one-dish meal. Neko ate some of the puff pastry and goat cheese, but she wasn’t such a fan of the chard this...

I think I’ve mentioned here before how a good dipping sauce goes a long way to getting my kid to eat something she might not try otherwise. This salmon is ridiculously good with or without the dipping sauce. I paired it with rice and steamed cauliflower and Neko first dipped her...

Stop the presses. Neko ate chicken! And not just a small bite out of obligation. She actually enjoyed this chicken, happily tossing it back and asking for more. This is the recipe that did it. It’s apparently the only chicken dish I can ever make again, as Eric has also declared it...

Tofu gets an undeserved bad rap. It’s not like tofu has some kind of strong, offensive flavor. It’s virtually tasteless, absorbing the flavors of whatever sauce you pair it with, much like chicken. I think the fact that tofu is not meat but is used to imitate meat is what scares...

Neko eats a lot of pasta. She calls noodles “noo noo,” and they’re one of her favorite foods ever. In any form. Sadly, most pasta doesn’t offer much when it comes to nutritional value. I usually try to boost her pasta’s nutritional value by adding cheese for protein and tossing in...

I first made spanakopita when I was in college. I didn’t cook frequently and so layering all the individual sheets of phyllo dough and assembling the whole thing took me forever. I think it was 9 p.m. before the dish was ready to eat. After that I avoided making any dish that involved...

For the most part, I prefer summer to winter. I’ll take the heat over the cold any day. But when it comes to seasonal produce, the winter has some great offerings. Dark leafy greens are always a welcome sight at the grocery store. And summer squash just can’t hold a candle to...