Hi! It’s Caro, back from maternity leave. I’m currently writing from bed, with a baby on my boob, and the melodious sounds of hammering and sawing happening in the background. I’ve mentioned it on Instagram, but we officially moved into the new house last weekend! Except that the new house is nowhere near ready for us to move in.
A huge reason we fell in love with this home is that it has two cottages in the back — we live thousands of miles from our families and many of our friends, so having space to host them for extended stays was really important to us. And now those cottages are really coming in handy! George is living in one with Cashy in a crib and one of the big boys in bed with him. I’m living in the other with Tav in a crib and one of the big boys in bed with me. The big boys switch places every night because they both want to be with Tav — they often all fall asleep piled in the bed beside the baby before being carried to their proper place.
Only one refrigerator fully works, and it’s the one in the cottage that doesn’t have a stove, so to cook dinner I load up a box with ingredients and lug it across the property every night, and then lug the leftovers back to “my house” after dinner. Cashel escapes whenever George turns his back during bedtime and sprints to my cottage to sleep with me. Last night the power went out and I was in bed nursing Tav in the dark. George came in to check on us and shined a flashlight on the bed and goes, “do you know Archie (our barn cat) is in bed beside you... ?” I did not.
It’s complete and utter chaos! But it’s chaos that I feel extremely fortunate to have. The house is going to be so special. I am going to have a big enough kitchen to not have to store my KitchenAid and food processor in the garage for the first time in my life. Sure, four boys will be sharing one bathroom, but they will also have a real life *playroom.* Feeling lucky and grateful for all of it, even in the crazy moments, like when my 3 year old shows up butt naked on my cottage doorstep in the dark of night and tells me, “I brave I come all alone here!” Ha!
Coming back from maternity leave is bittersweet. I’ve been self-employed for all of my babies, and it can be really difficult to take a true maternity leave when one is self-employed. But my team (three cheers for Molly, Jillian, and Adam!) made my fourth maternity a true *leave.* I laid on the couch and binged romance books and shows for a solid six weeks. It was heaven. All of your continued support and excitement over our guest chefs was so incredible and made me feel secure in my decision to step away for a few weeks. And financially, sponsors like Bobbie helped allow me to still earn an income during that time. Before we move on from maternity leave entirely, we’re going to share a little wrap up of all our guest chefs’ recipes. I’m so grateful to every single one of them for filling in while I was out.
The best part about taking this leave is that I am coming back so energized and full of new ideas for recipes and content and how to make this newsletter a place where you guys learn new things, find community, and feel less alone in the throes of dinnertime.
I’m excited to be back.
xoxo
Caro
Thank you, thank you to the incredible chefs who shared recipes with us over the past 10 weeks. It was so fun to taste what some of the most creative talents in the food world cook when they don’t feel like cooking, from Yotam Ottolenghi’s insanely flavorful orecchiette puttanesca and José Andrés’s real-deal salmorejo to Ina Garten’s easy, elegant mustard-roasted fish with haricots verts and everything in between. We hope you discovered some new-to-you voices and learned more about people you already adore — and that you enjoyed their delicious meals! Here’s a recap of everything we cooked:
one-pan orecchiette puttanesca — a Yotam Ottolenghi-style Italian feast!
chopped italian deli wraps — a no-cook stunner from Gaby Dalkin that’s as perfect for school or work lunches as it is for busy nights
salmorejo from José Andrés — the most authentic version you’ll ever make
greek-style sheet-pan gnocchi — Jenn Lueke’s delicious spin on everyone’s favorite type of sheet-pan dinner
saucy ground beef teriyaki bowls — Nicole Keshishian Modic’s weeknight fave that takes less than 30 minutes from start to finish
spicy cherry tomato and garlic pasta — the beauty is in the technique here, and Notorious Foodie meticulously walks us through it
marinated steak tips over herby rice from Dan Pelosi — AKA, what to cook when you don’t feel like cooking but do feel like hosting
ricotta custard pancakes — “heavenly clouds of fluff” from Samin Nosrat that are delicious any time of day
30-minute crunchy-cheesy bean bake — a please-everyone vegetarian family dinner from Jenny Rosenstrach
mustard-roasted fish with haricots verts — a Parisian delight that’s shockingly simple, brought to us by Ina Garten!
I went into Tavish’s life with the loose plan of combo feeding him (AKA both breastfeeding and bottle feeding with formula) because it worked really well for me with Cashel… but you never know if the baby will be on board with your plan! I’m happy to report that Tav and I have gotten into a good groove with his feeding over the last month. I — or whoever he’s with — typically feed him a bottle of Bobbie around 11 a.m. and another before bed, then I nurse him throughout the rest of the day/night. I like bottle feeding him those times in particular because it allows me to focus on work in the late morning when all the other boys are at school and Tav is sometimes with a sitter, and it lets me do bedtime with the big boys while George (or one of our moms if they’re visiting, or a sitter...) puts Tav down. I wanted to share what’s been working for us because hearing how other families do things has been so helpful to me over the years (I’ve said this before, but I didn’t even know combo feeding was a thing until I had my third baby and a friend told me about it — I thought you had to pick one or the other).
Bobbie is a mom-founded and led, made in the U.S. formula brand with a European-style, USDA Organic recipe that has undergone extremely rigorous testing. I love it, and, more importantly, Tav loves it! I’m beyond grateful for Bobbie sponsoring my maternity leave so I could take some true time off to recover. Appreciate you and the work you do, Bobbie team!
Click here for 50% off your first Bobbie order — no code needed, the discount automatically applies at checkout!
I’ve been very into making good-all-week salads the past few weeks and am in the process of developing a new one to share with you this Saturday!
While all the good-all-week salads we share here are filling enough to be considered dinner salads, not all dinner salads are good-all-week salads. The distinction is how well the leftovers hold up in the fridge. If we say a salad is “good all week,” we mean the dressed leftovers will stay delicious stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 or 4 days (though you will want to hold off on adding any crunchy topping like nuts until right before you eat). Only certain greens, like kale and cabbage, and certain toppings are hearty enough for that — a spring mix salad would turn sad and soggy by day 2!
To make our good-all-week salads easy to find, here’s an index of them. Eat them for dinner, prep them for lunches, or do both!
farro fattoush (above, middle)
good-all-week good-for-mother-earth spring salad (keep the greens separate in the fridge, but prep everything else!)
lemon-parm chicken, quinoa, & kale salad (above, left)
rainbow chicken chop (above, right)
While we’re talking big salads, let’s talk big salad bowls. Whenever we share an entrée salad recipe, at least one person comments something to the effect of, “what do I make this in?! none of my bowls are big enough!”
When we say you need a big bowl to make these salads in, we mean very big! If you don’t have one, you can always use a large wide pot like a brasier, Dutch oven, or even a big wok instead.
If you are on the hunt for a big salad bowl (it’s a worthy investment, we promise!), look for one that’s wider than it is deep — somewhere in the 11- to 15-inch diameter range — so that the toppings are easy to access. In a bowl that’s tall and narrow, it can be hard to wade through the greens to get to the good stuff on the bottom.
The same goes for what you eat your salad from — wide, shallow “coupe” bowls are best. We shared these roundups earlier this year but get asked for bowl recs often, so figured it was time to resurface them!
Each week we dip into the What To Cook archives to see what was on our table this time in years past. Put these seasonal meals on your menu for the days ahead!
1. sheet-pan miso maple mustard chicken, sweet potato, and brussels, 2024
Autumn isn’t official until you’ve cooked a cozy sheet-pan chicken dinner filled with fall veg! Your leftovers will transform easily into harvest bowls for lunches — read the “do your thing” note above the recipe for a how-to!
2. ham and fig grilled cheese, 2023
If you see any perfectly plump figs lingering on your tree (or at your farmer’s market, or at the grocery store), grab ‘em and make this low-lift family-friendly dinner while you can.
3. honey chipotle salmon tacos, 2022
The lovely Carolina Gelen shared this tasty weeknight dinner with us during Caro’s maternity leave with Cashel years ago. You’ll love the fresh mango pico de gallo with these tacos — it also makes a delicious app served with tortilla chips.
4. sheet-pan sausage, sweet potatoes, and apples, 2021
A one-pan dinner that will ease you into fall foods by way of sweet potatoes, carrots, apples, and sausage roasted in a sweet-and-savory glaze. Even if it’s 90°F where you live, it will hit the spot!
Somehow it’s almost October?! We’d love to hear all about your September favorites — books you read, shows you watched, clothes you wore or acquired for fall, memories you want to remember. We’ll pick one commenter at random to send this big Quince salad serving bowl to! We’ll also round up community faves in next week’s So Into That. Comment by end of day Sunday, September 28, to enter to win1.
PS, congrats to Patton (@patton366871), who won last week’s Ina book giveaway!
A note about links! We use affiliate links when sharing product recs, which means we may earn a small commission off of purchases you make through those links. This does not cost you anything extra and is a way to support the production of and team behind What To Cook. Sponsorships are another way we partner with brands that we authentically love and can personally vouch for.
Giveaway open to paid subscribers of this newsletter who are at least 18 and live within the U.S.
We missed you, Caroline! Hope life becomes steadily less chaotic. Can’t wait to see the new house finished! I’m so into Great British Baking Show being back. It’s such a comforting vibe and I love watching the creativity without too much over produced drama. It’s a real happy place.
Welcome back! The best book I’ve read this month is Atmosphere! It ripped my heart out 💔