DISH: Lemony Tarragon Chicken Salad; Shrimp Salad with Basil and Chives
TYPE: Lazy afternoon lunch
MAIN INGREDIENT: chicken/shrimp, fresh herbs, mayonnaise

During my childhood, I’d always make sure to take a few weeks away from the summer’s main event—camp, community service adventures and, eventually, the all-important internship—to spend a few lazy weeks on Martha’s Vineyard with my parents and extended family. When the sun was shining, there were plenty of active ways to spend my time. But when the weather decided to offer up…

I was going to Phoebe’s a couple Friday nights ago. She was making pastas and had invited a nice round group of 10 to eat before going out into the (rainy) evening. I, of course, volunteered to bring dessert.

Since the pastas would be rich and carb-loaded, I decided I would make something less heavy than ordinary. While not weightless, the chocolate pudding I had planned would leave us more likely to actually leave Phoebe’s apartment than after downing, say, a buttercream-iced cake or some such. When I decided…

Brown Sugar Shortbread
Coconut Shortbread
Makes 16 cookies each

A really nice thing about shortbread is that you don’t have to cream the butter and sugar the way you do for a lot of the best desserts. There’s something a whole lot less fussy about it, and then there’s the added plus that if you don’t own any kind of mixer, you’ll save your forearms the arduous task of mixing. Because in shortbread, you use your fingers to wedge the flour particles into the butter, making for a tender, crumbly cookie. In fact, the ingredient…

DISH: Middle Eastern Pasta Salad
MAIN INGREDIENT: Whole Wheat Pasta

Between weekends away and long days at work, I hadn’t had time to food shop in a while. I had been eating lunches out, mainly, and dinners too, and when I was home, I reverted to good old stables of pasta, eggs, and toast. (Cereal, even, was out, since I was too lazy to buy milk.) I tried to get my veggies in at lunch, with salads, and that way I felt less guilty about not having anything terribly nutritious if I did

…

EVENT: Better Biking

TYPE: Gratitude
GOODS BAKED: Oversized Chocolate Chip Muffins
For a long time, I rode hybrid bikes.They’re very comfortable, have lots of gears for going up and down hills, and they’re intrinsically non-committal, being hybrids and sort of like road bikes and sort of like mountain bikes. However, they don’t go very fast, they’re annoyingly heavy to carry in and out of apartments, and, frankly, they’re not very cool. That’s why, when my friend from work, Junie, who woke up one morning last year an avid and knowledgeable cyclist, found a little Bianchi track bike

…

Avocado and Pink Radish Crostini
Makes about 15

This recipe could not be simpler, or more suited for the season (not to mention my refrigerator), and yet, I don’t think I would have thought of the combination had it not been for Chocolate and Zucchini. I’ll admit that before Spring hit this year, I was never the biggest radish fan. If I were, it would have been inevitable that I’d have topped a crunchy sliver with a bite of avocado as I do with most any vegetables year round, and in the summer,…

EVENT: Old Friend, Old Flavors
VENUE: Phoebe’s Apartment, Flatiron
PARTY SIZE: 2
TYPE: Casual Weeknight Dinner
MENU: All Grown-up White Cheddar Broccoli Mac n’ Cheese; Mixed Greens with Lemon-Basil Vinaigrette

My friend Anna was like my sister growing up. Our families spent all their time together, her friends were my friends, and though our eating habits could not have been more different in our respective homes, we shared a lot of meals. I had always thought of my house as the black hole for…

a real dining room table, complete with full place settings, and crusty bread

EVENT: The Rents Woke Up One Day and Decided to be Social

VENUE: Phoebe’s Parents’ Apartment, Upper West Side

PARTY SIZE: 8

TYPE: Sunday Supper, Moroccan Feast

MENU: Carrot Salad with Orange Flower Water; Fish Tagine with Chermoula, Preserved Lemon, and Mint; Haricot Vert; Couscous; Assorted Tarts

The summer after my senior

…

I brought these to a potluck recently. I thought of a) reheating them, and b) topping them with a sauce, but in the end, I did c) none of the above. The same amount of tofu-zucchini mixture would make burger-sized croquettes for 3 or 4 people, and they’d be good served à la Phoebe’s chickpea burgers, with raita and slaw.

DISH: Saturday Salad with Walnuts, Zucchini, Dates, Radishes, and Gouda
TYPE: Favorite Foods
MAIN INGREDIENT: Lettuce

The other day, I was walking down Park Ave, back to the office from Just Salad, my favorite lunch take-out place in Midtown. It is a design-your-own-salad venue; you pick greens, add-ins, and dressing, and the guys behind the counter assemble, chop, and charge you (kind of a lot). So there I was carrying an enormous salad in a bag, wishing that there were fewer than six and a half blocks between salad and my cube, because…