Life In The Kitchen

It also helped me feel more connected to my Jewish heritage.

"This is a lesson I’ve taken to heart."

Number 1 is simple but has a big payoff.

This is a game-changing fact.

If household chores fall entirely on your shoulders, you'll want to read this now.

Make this new year a happy one!

The woman has some serious standards!

And I have four key tips that just might help you, too.

I labored over what was coming with me to Hawai’i, but here are 10 of the items that made the cut.

It's pretty old-school, and it's pretty great.

It's the little things!

Sometimes a little change goes a long way.

These little tips will go a long way.

It's time to say goodbye to the things that waste your time, cost you money, and sacrifice the overall quality of your meals.

Getting food on the table to satisfy all your picky family members isn't easy. What is easy: forgetting to take care of you! Here's how NOT to make that mistake!

Because a card in the mail is a million times better than Zoom invite in your email.

Adulthood is happening! We like to think of this list as a “next-level” guide to making your kitchen feel more grown-up.

"I bought the pot to make me feel better about food, but it really makes me feel better about life."

When life gives you lemons, slice them.

Netflix can wait!

When dinner becomes distance learning, everyone wins.

It's making a difference in the way I eat, and helps me feel like I have a handle on the day, even for just a little while.

"Once you get a hang of it, you won’t think twice about separating your garbage — and, honestly, it will change your life."

Just keep stirring.

Do you agree with this list?

The food that brings us comfort during a crisis doesn’t have to be complicated or even that great. It can be as simple, available, and nostalgic as instant pudding

Some timely advice.

Here's what that means to me.

I'm looking forward to vegetables and anything that doesn't start with an e and end in a g.

Here's what we're doing to find joy in unexpected places.

Because most gyms are closed these days!

What would you say?

"This week, I'm making it a point to tackle the complete disaster that is my apartment."

Love is in the air this time of year. It's also in the kitchen (if you know where to look for it).

The couples that meal plan together ...

It's the kitchen version of making your bed in the morning!

Because it's too cold to grill outside, we may as well make the most of the indoor space we have.

Here is what you need to know about this short-term food “reset.”

I'm a culinary school graduate, a food editor, and a cookbook author, and I *still* learned a ton.

Here's how it works, what you're supposed to eat, and why it's so popular right now.

You know that smell.

Six little strategies helped this couple save up enough money for a down payment.

Fix that leaky faucet! And your gunky sink sprayer! Today!

Go ahead and leave this page open on your laptop for someone to "accidentally" see.

It's time you fall head-over-heels!

My only regret is that I didn't get one sooner.

Yes, Insta ...

It's not just a heat issue. Sometimes we resent being in the kitchen instead of outside!

Without starting a fight.

Before my diagnosis, I had never experienced what can happen when the energetic power of a collection of lovely people, a vibrant community, focuses its love.

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’m not saying that I got sober and the next day I was all like Julie and Julia. It was a slow progression over the course of a few years.

I hosted a small party for my daughter’s birthday the other weekend. After making sure the cake was baked and the decorations were hung on the wall, I felt pressed to deep clean. Not just pick up stuff, but dust baseboards and thoroughly mop the floors and shine the stainless appliances and wipe down every bathroom afresh. I didn’t want the parents dropping off their kids to think I was a slob. Fortunately or unfortunately, I didn’t have time. And guess what.

I’m planning on attending graduate school this fall, so I’ve been trying to save $1,500 a month in hopes of taking out as little in student loans as possible. After crunching some numbers, I realized that, aside from housing and utilities, the majority of my money went to groceries (I’m Hungarian, and I have a deep love for meat, especially artisanal salami from my local Eastern European butcher). I decided to limit myself to $200 per month on groceries.

To start, I feel the need to point out that I’m really talking about a little infestation. Actually, I don’t even like the word infestation — we caught ONE mouse and haven’t seen anything since then. I know what most of you are going to say: There’s no such thing as having just one mouse. But we caught the one and that was it. So there you go, we had one mouse — and it shockingly made me love my kitchen even more. Here’s what happened.

Kitchn and our sister site, Apartment Therapy, are all about improving your home and making it a better place to live, so it’s very bold of me to use a superlative here. Of course, as we say, nothing you do for your home is ever wasted, but over the years I have found that there are a few things that are especially transformative — things that go beyond decorating and get to the very core of what makes you happy at home.

There’s a sort of satisfying pleasure to carefully turning your Instant Pot’s pressure-release valve to “open” and watching the symphony of steam that pours out, signaling that dinner is done. Less fun is watching that same steam spurt droplets of moisture onto your upper cabinets or kitchen shelves. Not only is it annoying to clean up, but it also might be doing potential damage to the wood and paint.

There was a year or two of my life where it felt like every week I was being added to a meal train for friends welcoming new babies, or moving, or losing loved ones. If you’re not familar, meal trains are calendars that coordinate meals for our loved ones, usually when they’re going through a life change. Maybe they’ve just had a baby and are busy with diapers and new sleep routines. Maybe they’re grieving over the loss of a parent so they can’t cook for themselves.

It’s a universal fact that Mondays are tough. We’re not going to say they’re the worst because you can master them, but it’s a safe assumption that the first day of the work week causes you some stress. Maybe a lot of stress. And maybe you start worrying about Mondays on Sunday, so then your Sundays start to become stressful too. Well, we’re here to help you ward off those Sunday scaries with a few kitchen coping mechanisms.

In the weeks leading up to my first round of Whole30, I spent hours scouring Pinterest, blogs, and what felt like every corner of the internet searching for delicious-sounding compliant recipes to fill my upcoming meal plan. While I felt productive about planning ahead and lining up recipes, it was also extremely time-consuming. And to be honest, while I came away with a long list of recipe ideas, I felt just okay about them; they didn’t necessarily get me excited.