I hate going out to dinner on Valentine’s Day. Restaurants create these “romantic” prix-fixe menus and charge outrageous amounts for them, you have to call weeks in advance to make a reservation, and really, with all the pressure around having amazing food and fantastic wine and impeccable service and the most romantic night of your life, I’d rather just stay in and have a nice, quiet meal at home.
Here’s the question, though—who takes charge of the cooking on Valentine’s Day?
I’m completely immersed in Half Broke Horses and had to restrain myself from reading ahead and finishing the whole thing this weekend. It certainly has that Little-House-on-the-Prairie-for-grownups vibe; I loved that the family started out living in a dugout, just like Laura Ingalls Wilder did in On the Banks of Plum Creek. I was a huge fan of those books […]
Everyone loves pizza. Everyone loves dip. Put the two together, and you have an instant hit on your hands. This recipe for hot pizza dip is the perfect dish to bring to a Super Bowl party—it’s easy to make, a fantastic crowd-pleaser, and can be assembled beforehand and then just popped in the oven for about 10 minutes before serving.
New Year’s Eve—December 31—is a night full of Champagne, noisemakers, and dreaming up unrealistic resolutions that won’t last more than a month (or maybe just a few days). Tomorrow is Chinese (or Lunar) New Year, which is a holiday full of eating. Which is my favorite kind of holiday, by the way. Many Asian families will gather tonight on New Year’s Eve for a big, multi-course feast filled with traditional foods, most of which are symbolic—long noodles for a long life, a whole fish for abundance, a whole chicken for prosperity, and my least favorite, seaweed “hair” with dried oysters for wealth.
Don’t worry—you won’t need to hunt down shredded seaweed or boil shriveled shellfish in order to celebrate the Year of the Rabbit. While you could simply roast a whole chicken or steam a fish, here are a few other Chinese-inspired recipes to make your feast even more festive.
Hello, everyone! I’m Maggie Shi, a deputy editor for RealSimple.com, where I work with content across several different areas—food, money, family, work, and life lessons. My job involves everything from overseeing photo shoots for the website to collaborating with the magazine editors to writing our daily recipe newsletter. I also blog regularly about food here on Simply Stated and am attempting to cook my way through the Real Simple recipe repertoire this year.
I’m an avid reader, so I’m incredibly excited to be leading the February book club.
So last night we got walloped with another huge snowstorm—19 inches in Central Park, according to the New York Times. New York City schools are closed today, JFK airport is closed, and most buses aren’t running in the city. But thanks to the magic of the subway, I’m here in the office instead of frolicking outside in the park, building snowmen and drinking hot chocolate. Ok, I probably wouldn’t be frolicking outside—I’d be staying warm and toasty in my cozy apartment, wearing my PJs, drinking copious amounts of tea, and cooking and baking. Here’s what I would be making today—if we had a Snow Day. Which, you know, we don’t.
Last week I made the Real Simple Roasted Salmon and Potatoes With Dill for dinner. When I’m cooking salmon at home, I always buy wild salmon—I’m worried about the mercury, PCBs, and other toxins that are found in higher levels in farmed salmon. I took home my salmon, cooked it up, and ate it. It was delicious. Juicy, fatty, and full-bodied, with a lovely pink color. It was, I realized later, almost certainly not “wild” salmon.
