Amanda, I agree with you that cooking can be a great pleasure. It's messy, it's creative, and there are few things more empowering than the realization that, if the can opener has disappeared, you can get into a can of tomato sauce with an ice pick and a hammer.

Margaret, I'm usually the first to get my back up against the wall when mostly male foodie-writers implore already overworked women to get back into kitchen and save the health of the nation by doing more cooking from scratch. For instance, Michael Pollan has teed me off on this front before, since he clearly thinks women are easier to bully on this front, and so bully women he shall do.

The dawn of DoubleX inspired me to start a project in which I entertained on Tuesdays, a day I had decided unscientifically was the most inconvenient in the week. For eight months,  I doggedly slogged through regular dinner parties , fending off strep throat and fatigue as I spatchcocked game hens and brewed big pots of chili. Though I am a food writer and a former professional cook, I had shied away from entertaining because I have a tendency to overdo it. I dirty too many pans and make too many trips to the grocery store for expensive ingredients.

On a recent Thursday, I decided to get two families together with ours in an attempt at some platonic matchmaking—something I’d been meaning to do on Tuesday nights, but have shied away from in practice. So many dishes! So much facilitating! To further complicate matters, I encouraged my friend K. to bring her mother, since my own maternal unit was in town for the week.

Our cat Maxine died last week at the age of 17 without ever knowing that she’d been portrayed on the big screen. In mourning her this week, I can’t help but think about the movie version of Maxine with mixed feelings. Julie & Julia—well, half of it, anyway—is based on my 2005 memoir of the same name, and in that book, Maxine played a not-inconsiderable role.

This is one of several reader responses we've published responding to the question "What have you given up in the recession?" Read more reader responses and Emily Bazelon's related story on recession concessions. Next question: What haven't you given up, despite the recession? Send answers to us at doublex.recession@gmail.com.

My friend was heading off to an evening Muay Thai boxing class (a flying-limb, crazy-exhausting form of martial arts training) this Tuesday, but we were eager to get a visit in, so we fashioned a playdate for our boys that would spill into early dinner. In the spirit of Tuesday night, I should have opted for sandwiches. But this seemed too boring, so I thought of something just as easy and more wine bar-ish, like a giant tapa.

Although I am a food writer and a former restaurant cook, I don't entertain at home all that often. This mostly has to do with my tendency to overdo it. The problem is, I think of the clever cooking project first, and the reality of the entire event afterward. For example, I might get it into my head that I want to smoke a duck in the barbecue, so I invite friends over on a Sunday night for a picnic.