Spring. Need I really say more. As gifted rays shine through my windows only to be outdone by chirping birds and vivid blooms, I am haunted by images from the Midwest, my Midwest, where so many people suffer unthinkable hardships. Although this little simple blog about real food should stay on mission, I can’t help but think that my spring and favorite time of year in California where the hope and promise of all that can blossom is a far different spring for our dear friends in central states. Our hearts go out.

Spring is short and in some years we’re nearly robbed of the season when one minute it’s winter and without warning we’re amid the oppressive heat of summer. I hold onto it where I can. Produce comes onto to the scene with a splash. After months of root vegetables suddenly, strawberries – cheap, plentiful, red – enter like Dame Edna at church. Peas, asparagus, fava beans, and artichokes join the display. When prepared in a simple risotto, the vegetable come alive for an impressive and manageable one-pot meal. read more

Most mornings I’m caught in a kitchen roundabout within the refrigerator-pantry-bread bin-fruit bowl intersection looking for a new breakfast idea until I arrive at what? fruit smoothies and poppyseed bagels again? Either the days are passing quickly or I am losing stamina ideas. I don’t know if this is a rut or an obsession, but I land on one idea and then feed it to the family for days, perhaps weeks, such was the case withcrepes. Now, it’s baked german pancakes and you’ll be amazed by their effort to payoff power. read more

Why don’t I want to like Gwyneth Paltrow? Maybe it’s something about feeling inadequate in nearly every category of human function. It’s like Gwyneth can’t just act in a few roles, she has to win an Academy Award. She can’t just socialize, she has to hangout with the likes of Stella McCartney, Jerry Seinfeld,and Cameron Diaz. She can’t just do a few sit ups in her living room, she has to have a personal trainer at her home Pilates studio. She can’t just sing in the shower, she has to have a plum role on Glee. She can’t just be a wife, she has to marry a gifted rock star. She can’t just cook, she has to cook with Mario Batali in Spain. She can’t just write a blog, she has to dominate the blogosphere with her GOOP (literally and figuratively). She can’t just post a few recipes like the rest of us, she has to publish a cookbook. No,US Magazine, Gwyneth Paltrow is not Just Like US. And that’s why I want to hate her. But I can’t because, if for no other reason, her cookbook, which was a Mother’s Day gift from my sister, is on the money. Healthy, smart, approachable.

By the way, don’t you love the support that moms give to each other on Mother’s Day. read more

Brussels sprouts are a polarizing vegetable. It seems people either love them or they hate them. Admittedly, I played on the latter team until now. The latest rage in vegetable preparation, shaving raw vegetables so thinly that even the toughest and most bitter of the pack are desirable, made me like brussels sprouts. Inspired by a few notable foodists, I tried the technique on brussels sprouts and then dressed them with flavor enhancers like lemon juice, nutty cheese flakes, and bacon morsels. The method is easy and the result satisfying. Why all the trouble to eat brussels sprouts? They are members of the exclusive and almighty cruciferous family of vegetables:cauliflower, brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, kale, and bok choy. read more

I don’t know really how I feel about this Engagement Chicken business we’ve been hearing about. Glamour Magazine’s editors, namely Cindi Leive, the one with the hairstyle I wish I had, have published a book about using food to get what you want. Front and center isa chicken recipe that it seems at least seventy women on record have made for their guys and proposals followed. The recipe itself started with the already-married Italian cookbook authorMarcella Hazan. The chicken recipe is basic – lemon halves within a whole chicken and roasted. We at crunchtime love a goodroasted chicken because it’s the dinner that keeps on giving asecond, even third time around. According to the book, it seems men love it too. Someone said they think it’s the combination of the aroma, the dazzling home-cooking gesture, and that the recipe simply produces a no-fail delicious meal.
My issue with engagement chicken is, of course, the idea of any woman putting such effort into manipulating a proposal rather than the relationship. If a woman wants to be married that badly, then she should just propose. Situation #34 when it’s just better to be gay.

Yet, at my wedding, our best man revealed in his toast that my husband read more