Mom's Kitchen Handbook

I’d been scouting around for just the right dessert to share for Fourth of July. Something delicious, pretty, and so easy you could be out enjoying the holiday instead of in your kitchen fussing over pastry. Then, like a minor miracle, into my inbox came a recipe from Snack Girl, who sends me healthy snacking [...]

Several years ago Mr. Mom’s Kitchen and I took a sabbatical for four months to haul our brood through a handful of little country towns in Europe. At the time, our kids were tiny, the youngest just shy of her first birthday. We brought along so much gear — from multiple car seats to a [...]

Chicken Paillard with Wine and Capers sounds like everything that it’s not: fussy in a Julia Child sort of way, terribly fattening as so many French dishes are, and far better suited to a grown up’s palate than a child’s. In fact, once you get your chicken pounded, which you can bang out in five [...]

When my friend Meg stopped by yesterday, she commented on the bowl of cherries adorning my kitchen counter. “Cherries,” she said, “Where can you get affordable cherries?” “You can’t,” I told her, “I paid five bucks a pound for those.” Yes, a bowl of precious jewels, they are. I was thinking about that conversation later [...]

I knew it was time for summer break when I found myself driving the final morning carpool of the year shoeless, wearing only pajamas and a robe. I simply couldn’t bear one more day of hustling to get dressed and convinced myself that since my sleepwear was black, it could pass for proper clothing. Never [...]

Hydrate in Style Getting plenty of water into your kids is never so important as when temperatures rise in the summer months. So I thought I’d share my favorite new kitchen acquisition: this trio of Babushkups. An “end of school year” gift to my girls from Mr. Mom’s Kitchen, these charming tumblers come in a [...]

If you are doing any airplane travel this summer, you are likely to encounter the seductive scent of cinnamon rolls as you pass by a Cinnabon, that storefront eatery as ubiquitous in airports these days as security lines and cranky passengers. The smell is so powerful, you’d think they were bottling it in a laboratory [...]

It was a year ago today that we took off for several weeks on a trip that included a few adventures. Among them was booking our family into Fontana del Papa, a bed and breakfast that doubles as a cooking school in the countryside an hour north of Rome. I was a little worried taking [...]

Look at that knife. Ain’t she a beauty? It was a gift from my friend Leigh, an excellent cook in her own right who knows I’d appreciate a heavy-handled Japanese wonder like this one over a bejeweled trinket any day. She gave it to me for my birthday five years ago and I think of [...]