Journal — Edible Living

We’re two months deep into a New Year, and tons of the things I planned on bringing you in January and February faded behind the blur of snow days and school closings, two weeks of construction (we have new wood floors!!) and occasional escapes to the mountains to ski. I am learning to have a looser grip on all the things I’ve planned (including my kids staying little forever) and riding the wave. I like this looser version of myself, but it’s not always quite as productive.

No matter, sometimes time gives us new and necessary inspiration. So let’s get right to it—these Lemon Ricotta Pancakes are light, ethereal, beautiful and easy to make—and they really take to any topping you can think of.

I made them during a blustery white squall last week that left us with another dusting of powder—and they are very apropos apres ski feeling fare (something about the lemon! And Egg? And the souffle-like quality of the egg whites folded in? We pretended we were in Austria).

DECADENT (INSTANT POT) CHOCOLATE PUDDING

This seems like a chocolate pudding weekend. Anyone else feeling it? Not quite deep winter, but not yet spring. Snow melting, but with no spring break plans in sight. That spells chocolate, and a slow burn on comfort food for me. Not the gooey pasta bakes and endless pots of stew of February, but something a bit more, well, hopeful. The twinkle through my windows tells me it’s not too risky to to cling to the light. And yet it’s not time for peas and asparagus, either.

So, pudding!

CRANBERRY SNACKING LOAF

We’re cranberry crazy over here. It’s partly because I signed up for a huge shipment of organic cranberries, direct from Maine, many months ago, and have been dolling them into muffins and cakes, bundt and loaves ever since. But mostly because cranberries remind me of my grandmother, who always stood, steadfast, quietly grinding cranberries with oranges and orange peel, apples and sugar through her own cast-iron meat grinder, making the sauce at every holiday meal.

I’m missing her, and my own mother, this year. Missing the smell of zest and tart cranberry filling the air, mingling alongside carols from my parent’s retro stereo, on morning till night, from Thanksgiving till New Year’s Day.

BACON, EGG AND AVOCADO TOAST WITH TURMERIC DRIZZLE

Welp, my kids both told me this week that they’re becoming Pescatarian. It’s not surprising, really—fish is our family’s common ground. It’s the only animal protein my husband eats (after 20 + years as a strict vegetarian), and therefore what I make, mostly. Except bacon. My kids LOVE bacon and come summer, I like an occasional piece, too.

If it were going to be my last piece of bacon for a while, this toast is a good way to go out.

BLACKBERRY-BANANA-SMASH ICE CREAM

The world is a challenging place right now. There is a lot of sorrow, but also a lot of momentum and love and support for Black Life Matters. Hearts are opening. Minds are changing. Love is growing.

Maybe it doesn’t seem like it, perhaps, because there is a lot of turmoil too. A lot of sad stories being shared. A lot of violence. A lot that is hard to understand, for little people, certainly, but for big people, too. But still, love is growing.

So what does that have to do with ice cream? Well….

READ ON FOR THE RECIPE

TAGLIATELLE WITH SPICY TOMATOES, SHRIMP AND AGED FETA

One thing is for sure, the quarantine has brought my kids’ pasta-with-red-sauce dreams to fruition. We are embracing all the carbs. Every last one.

They’re fine with spaghetti and marinara on repeat, but I need a little something more to keep things bright and inspired. Last week I made a quickie pasta dinner that we’re sticking to—a riff on Shrimp Saganaki, my favorite shrimp dish from Greece, but made simple and so beautiful with a pile of chewy noodles, like a fat bucatini or tagliatelle.

RECIPES, QUICK + EASYSarah CopelandApril 4, 2020pantry meals, shrimp, italian food, pasta, easy recipes

THE FAMILY WAFFLE // (LIGHT-AS-AIR, GLUTEN-FREE CHIA WAFFLES)

Growing up, waffles were a special-occasion treat, the kind of breakfast that made my mom sigh (waffle iron, batter spills, over-sugared kids) and my dad smile with glee (strawberries, whipped cream, truly living). In this way, my marriage is similar: I am for a simpler, saner, healthier morning. András is for waffles. Always for waffles.

OATMEAL YOGURT PANCAKES WITH BLACKBERRY CRUSH

THIS, FRIENDS, is the very first recipe I ever wrote for my first solo cookbook, The Newlywed Cookbook, many moons ago. While pancake consumption is up 200% in our house (thanks, quarantine), I thought it was high time I share it with you here.

This fluffy, sustaining pancake is as delicious as it is beautiful—and super special to me, because I created the recipe while writing the proposal for my first book, holed up in a friend’s cabin in the woods. I was there for a long weekend with my then very new husband, Andras, aiming to write a book proposal in just three days, stopping and taking breaks only to feed and walk laps around the garden (feels kind of like these days were in, now)…

A PORRIDGE PRIMER: PART II (MORE TOPPINGS)

Have you been porridge-ing since I last wrote you (here)? I hope so. As promised I wanted to keep your porridge bowls at their most nourishing best with more porridge topping ideas. These don’t have to be complicated, for fussy.

One way I keep porridge topping fun and easy for everyone involved is to set up a quickie, DIY-porridge topping bar for my family twice a week. It may include my all-purpose-porridge topper (basically, stewed frozen fruits in pure maple syrup. Ratios are here), or a small tray lined with jars of honey, granola, jam, preserves, peanut/almond/pumpkin seed butter, apple butter and the like.

A PORRIDGE PRIMER: HOW TO FALL IN LOVE WITH PORRIDGE

I’ve been wanting to talk to you about porridge for a long, long time. Like many years. It wasn’t cool to talk about porridge until fairly recently, which is fine, because I never found the time anyway, but here’s the thing: Porridge—be it millet or oats or hot cereal or polenta, rice porridge or the like, is one of the simplest, most satisfying meals on the planet. It’s also incredibly easy to top and completely blow your kid’s minds (or your own) with a new and beautiful bowl any winter morning.

RASPBERRY RIPPLE ICE CREAM CAKE

For Labor Day weekend, you don’t need something fancy, and certainly nothing laborious, that pulls you away from soaking in the last bits of summer, that eeks into your good long chill in a hammock or the chance to catch the way the sun hits your daughter’s pink, freckled nose. No, this weekend you need something easy and—without a doubt—you need something make ahead. Because after all, even summering hard until the back to school bell rings on

READ ON FOR THE RECIPE

WINTER RADISH AND KALE SALAD WITH CITRUS AND HERBS

It is not a mistake that a simple, arresting radish and parmesan salad appears on the front cover of my book FEAST (which came out 5 years ago) and that a radish, kale and citrus salad is headlining my journal today--feeling as fresh and new as ever. Radish salad never goes out of style.

t’s right at home in the middle of winter--starring dense watermelon radishes and shiny pink turnips shaved into wispy rounds, and elevated with juicy, fleshy citrus (above)--and yet it’s absolutely the right thing to do come spring and summer, when delicate easter egg and punchy globe radishes appear.

To master the art…

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