Shelby Vittek

No matter where I am, this simple tilapia recipe always reminds me that he was and always will be present in my life.

"It seemed as if her death was less significant than the ones making headlines, even though it didn’t feel that way to me."

"I had invested nearly all of my twenties into a relationship, and yet here I was, still making dinner for one alone in my kitchen."

This is a no-brainer.

At the end of last year, as the Thanksgiving holiday was getting closer, I felt myself drifting away. Everything was cloudy and bleak. I couldn’t focus at work. I didn’t feel much like reading any of the books that sat waiting for me in a tall pile on my coffee table, or binge-watching any of the shows I’d been meaning to see. I couldn’t muster up enough energy to get dressed for the gym or a yoga class (yet alone get out of bed before 10 a.m.

I was a teenager when the 100-calorie snack pack trend took off around 2006. I was working as a cashier at Wegmans, and I watched as more and more customers (mostly women) loaded the 100-calorie boxes into their carts and onto my conveyer belts. The boxes were filled with small, colorful packets with familiar brand-name snacks like Oreos, Wheat Thins, and Doritos.

For a long time I listened exclusively to music while cooking, occasionally getting annoyed when a song I didn’t like popped up on the playlist and I had to clean off my hands in order to skip it. That all changed when podcasts started taking off a few years ago. If, like me, you live alone or tend to do much of your cooking by yourself, listening to podcasts will help pass the time away.

I’ll admit it: The number of outstanding food podcasts that exist sometimes overwhelms me. I’m never able to listen to all the episodes fast enough. Longstanding favorites like the Splendid Table, the Sporkful, and Spilled Milk have only gotten better over the years, but there are plenty of recent arrivals and food-related podcasts that are tackling important topics and delving into difficult discussions about the food and restaurant worlds.

It's tangy, rich, and salty-sweet, with a secret ingredient not found in most American mayos.

When you’re living on a tight budget, having a handful of affordable recipes you can turn to is crucial. I know I often fall back on making dishes like sweet potato and black bean tacos or fridge-dump fried rice during the last week of the month, when rent is due. It’s easy to find yourself in a recipe rut when funds are limited. But there’s a whole category of cookbooks that focus on budget-friendly recipes for you to turn to!

Eating on a budget doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice flavor and nutrition at mealtime. Whether you’re saving up for a family vacation, or making room in your budget to pay off those student loans, it’s possible to eat well on the cheap.

I think it’s time we have a talk about pickles. For whatever reason, pickle-flavored everything has been the biggest food trend of the year — replacing pumpkin spice as the flavor of the moment — and it shows no signs of slowing down. According to data calculated by Statista based on the U.S. Census data and Simmons National Consumer Survey, 239.17 million Americans consumed pickles in 2017. This figure is projected to increase to 245.56 million in 2020.

We might be living in a golden age of wellness, self-care, and body positivity, but it wasn’t that long ago that diet-related trends were the driving force behind food marketing. Anybody remember America’s obsession with 100-calorie snack packs? In 2004, Kraft launched a new line of 100-calorie packs of snacks like Oreo Thin Crisps and Wheat Thin Minis to appeal to consumers who were trying to lose weight.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship with plastic. Perhaps you have too, Because the problem with our plastic-filled world is a topic that has become impossible to ignore. First, there was that awful, horrible video about the turtle with a plastic straw in 2015 (watch at your own risk). This year there was the June 2018 National Geographic cover unveiled in May, with an arresting photo of a plastic shopping bag partially submerged in the ocean, giving the illusion of an iceberg.

YouTube is quickly becoming the new Food Network. What first started as a website full of cute cat videos and funny home videos has transformed into a major home for food and cooking content — and not just for celebrity chefs. Of course, professional chefs like Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver certainly have a following on YouTube, but so do a variety of self-taught cooks. From kitchen hacks to cooking technique how-tos, there’s a video for cooks of all levels.

We’ve come a long way since the beginning days of Cake Boss, but if there’s anything that the number of YouTube baking channels shows us, it’s that our infatuation with watching elaborate cakes be made hasn’t gone away. There are plenty of professional and self-taught bakers making a name for themselves on YouTube, with large followings and plenty of baking cred.

We are living in the golden age of cooking videos. Whether they’re watching for entertainment or food inspiration, or as an aid in meal creation, more people are tuning in to cooking videos than ever before. According to a study conducted by Millward Brown Digital, Firefly, and Google in 2014, nearly half of all adults watch food videos on YouTube, with millennials watching 30 percent more food content than other demographics.

For more than five years I lived in a tiny studio apartment without a dishwasher. Every evening I’d wash the day’s dirty dishes by hand and then cram them into an overcrowded drying rack, occasionally breaking a wine glass in the process. As the skin on my hands gradually wrinkled from the water, I’d stare at the seemingly never-ending mound of dishes in my sink and dream of the day I would never have to hand-wash them again. I wanted nothing more than a dishwasher.

I’ve spent the vast majority of my adult life living — and eating — alone. When I first moved into my own place, I dreamt of becoming a person who ate all her meals at the kitchen table. I dreamt of replacing screen time with a book during mealtime, meditating on each and every bite. And I’ve tried my best to evolve into this healthier idea of a person. But it just wasn’t meant for me.

A year ago, I finally replaced the stiff IKEA futon in my living room with my dream sofa from West Elm — one I had spent years saving up and planning for. The mid-century sofa quickly became my most beloved piece of furniture, but from the very beginning I was concerned its light grey fabric would attract accidents. My biggest fear was that someone would drop a big saucy meatball or spill a giant glass of wine on it.

Five years ago, my microwave suddenly stopped working — the clock went dead and no beeping sounded when I pressed on any of its buttons. At first I thought I’d maybe tripped a breaker, which happened frequently in my old apartment building. But when I went to check the circuit breaker panel in the basement, I found nothing out of order. Everything was fine, except for the fact that my microwave had just died on me.

It’s been nearly a decade since my mother has attended a family Thanksgiving dinner. She stopped speaking to her mother and siblings when I was still a teenager, for reasons that remain important to her — reasons that I respect and empathize with but might never fully grasp myself. When I was younger, before my mother became estranged from her family, our Thanksgiving rituals included voicing what we were most thankful for that year.

Good for your wallet and good for you.

One whole chicken goes a long way when you live by yourself. I learned this when I was in graduate school and living in a tiny studio apartment, doing my best to stick to a budget that was even tinier. The best way for me to stretch my dollars and still enjoy healthy, delicious meals wasn’t by eating packets of ramen or rice and beans every night for dinner, but by roasting a whole chicken once a week. Sticking to a financial plan is still important for me.

This month we’re looking back on all the strange and wonderful food jobs people have held during the summer. Whether it’s a job at a local scoop shop, a grocery store, or the concession stand at a baseball field, the skills and memories you gather in those short, hot months usually turn out to be invaluable. Here’s Shelby Vittek on her experience working at Wegmans, which was a dream come true.