Dinner with Kirsten

My sister bought me a bundt cake pan as a present years ago, and I absolutely love it. But, I’ve only actually used the pan a handful of times. I lugged it from Nebraska to New York, then from my apartment to Geoff’s, and it has been sitting neglected in his cupboard ever since.
Every […]

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When I buy groceries, I like to pick at least two or three types of meat for weeknight meals, and I usually don’t have a clue what I’m going to do with them. But I never thought that my Trader Joe’s pork chops would end up floating in noodle soup.

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I’ve made and sampled a million different pumpkin breads, most of them tasting about the same. That’s why I pounced on this recipe – it’s different. It doesn’t knock you over the head with spices or turn into a dark brown loaf, but instead bakes up into a delicately flavored moist and dense quick bread. […]

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I love minestrone soup, and this version is quick, easy and healthy, making it a perfect weeknight meal. You can mix and match different seasonal vegetables and make it with or without meat, but don’t leave out the kale.
I didn’t even realize I liked kale until I tried this recipe. This member of the cabbage […]

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I’m somewhat of a cooking snob, but when a friend recommended Cooking Light as a great recipe resource and the opportunity to buy a discounted subscription came along, I jumped on it. The magazine has been delivered to my apartment monthly since June, most issues languishing neglected in my magazine wrack. But the October issue […]

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While I was in high school and college, I ran my parents’ farm stand during the summer months. We sold tomatoes, peaches, melons, but most of all, we were known for having the best sweet corn. Sometimes I would wake up at dawn to pick corn with my Dad. We would drive out to the […]

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I eat zucchini as part of almost every meal, especially in the summer. Geoff is getting tired of it. But this stuffed version is a great change from my normal steamed or sautéed dishes. A meatloaf-like filling is piled into the hollowed-out squash and baked until the topping is crispy and the zucchini is tender. […]

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I’m so proud of this dish that I’ve rattled off instructions on how to make it to a handful of people, including the check-out guy at Trader Joe’s. It’s one of those golden main courses that can be made a million different ways, depending on the ingredients you have handy and what you feel like […]

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My Dad has a soft spot for mills (as in flour mills). My family used to visit them everywhere, on almost every summer vacation, and we would always leave with bags of freshly stone-ground flour, cornmeal and buckwheat. They would sit in the refrigerator for indeterminate lengths of time, dripped on and squeezed to the […]

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I love hamburgers, but, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been trying to eat healthy. So, I’ve been making turkey burgers about once a week for months. Faced with yet another package of ground turkey meat in the fridge, expiration date ticking down, I turned to epicurious.com for inspiration.
I’ve become a Sriracha addict, so I […]

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