Category Lunch ideas

It was a rainy Thursday, the first time I made stuffed peppers on my own. I’d just moved into my first real apartment after college—tiny, a little crooked, and with a stove that groaned louder than I did after a…

It was a cold Sunday afternoon, the kind where you lose track of time because the house smells too good to do anything but linger in the kitchen. My oldest had just invited a few friends over to watch the…

There’s a kind of magic in discovering a recipe that makes you feel like you’ve somehow outsmarted the clock. These rotisserie chicken tacos were born during one of those weeks when life didn’t pause—not even for dinner. I’d just come…

I still remember the first time I made peach salsa. It was one of those sultry mid-July afternoons where the air feels thick and the only thing that makes sense is staying barefoot, windows wide open, and eating something cold…

I’ll never forget the first time I made an egg casserole. It was a snowy Sunday morning in January—one of those quiet, frosted-over mornings when the world feels hushed and slow, and the house smells like coffee before anyone says…

It was the second week of September—one of those bridge weeks between summer and fall—when the days still feel warm but the evenings start whispering about sweaters and earlier dinners. I remember standing in my little kitchen, flipping through an…

I still remember the first time I made chicken tenders from scratch. My youngest, Sam, had just come home from his first week of kindergarten, tired and overwhelmed, with that quiet little look that said the world had been just…

There’s a particular summer memory I always come back to when I think of fried zucchini. It’s late July, and the heat has settled over the backyard like a heavy quilt. My husband is dragging the hose across the garden,…

I still remember the first time I made blackened chicken. It wasn’t in some sun-drenched New Orleans kitchen or on a dreamy Southern road trip—it was on a Tuesday night in my tiny, slightly chaotic apartment kitchen, years ago. I…

I still remember the summer my neighbor Rosa brought over a basket of zucchini the size of my forearm. She had a small garden that overproduced every August, and she was always trying to offload a few dozen onto the…