Life
Tuesday Night Dinner Party: 16 Key Lessons Learned From Slapdash Entertainment
Simplify, serve snacks, eat outside, etc.
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.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
Health & Science
The Tao of Stevia
Sizing up the latest entrant in the zero-calorie sweetener market.
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What fro-yo addict worth her Pinkberry card wouldn’t kill for a zero-calorie sweetener that doesn’t cause bladder cancer or carry the faint taste of rubber? And if it comes straight from the earth and not from the corridors of a scary laboratory? Why, even better.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
I have vowed to stop letting my perfectionism in the kitchen keep me from entertaining. I’ll toss aside my restaurant finesse and make do with what is already in the fridge. Like exercise, I’ll make entertaining a habit, and see if I can make it less overwhelming—less about the food, even, and more about the people I welcome into my house.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
Goodbye, Gourmet: In Praise of Food Snobbery
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As part of my never-ending war on clutter, I was about to scrap the 20-odd-year collection of Gourmet magazines in my office closet, but then I heard the news today of its demise, and I’m glad I didn’t. I thumbed through an issue from 1996: It has a dozen-plus page article from Nancy Silverton with exhausting details on making sourdough breads from scratch. Gourmet always pitched its articles and its recipes for the ambitious—it was a point of pride both before and after Ruth Reichl took over the magazine in 1999 and modernized it.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.
Life
Over Casserole, a Puppeteer Past Comes to Light
The revelations of a Tuesday night dinner party.
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I have vowed to stop letting my perfectionism in the kitchen keep me from entertaining. The old me could barely pull off a dinner party because my ambitions of restaurant finesse just didn’t scale down to my kid-crowded life. So I decided to change my model.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
“We had the best dinner ever at our friend’s house,” said my twins over dinner a couple of months ago.
“Wonderful, what was it?” I asked.
“Chicken tenders and broccoli,” they said.
“Oh, really?” I said, spooning the lamb siniyeh (a Palestinian dish of rice, eggplant, pine nuts, and lamb) onto their plates. “What made it so good?”
“The broccoli had cheese sauce!”
“I see,” I said. “What other dishes do you really like?”
My three boys didn’t have to think much.
“Sushi.”
“What else?”
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
Kids & Parenting
A Chef's Menu for Her Non-Foodie Kids
They like their dinners simple and repetitive.
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Vered Guttman is a professional chef, but found that her kids are less impressed with her Swiss chard leaves stuffed with lamb and rice in lemon sauce than their friends' moms' simple quesadillas. After realizing that "children don’t want novelty.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
Photograph of Maxine Powell courtesy of Julie Powell; Still of Amy Adams © 2009 Sony Pictures Digital Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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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.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
Life
Tuesday Night Dinner Party: Turn Frozen Tuna Into a Feast
Add baby carrots and it's a banquet for bikers.
I have vowed to stop letting my perfectionism in the kitchen keep me from entertaining. The old me could barely pull off a dinner party because my ambitions of restaurant finesse just didn’t scale down to my kid-crowded life. So I decided to change my model.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
Life
Tuesday Night Dinner Party: Not Too Vain to Make Quickie Chili
Inauthentic and just one dish, but it’ll have to do.
My mother served dinner pretty much every Sunday night to family and friends. Even when she didn’t have time to make anything elaborate, it was a given that the house would be full of extended and unofficial family. One of the most common dishes she served was a totally non-Texan version of “chili” that her mother had used as a frugal entertaining dish when she was a child in postwar-era Maryland.
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.

SNL: Equal Opportunity Objectifiers
Jon Hamm spent most of the Saturday Night Live episode he hosted last night shirtless.

Confessions of a Woman Comedy Writer
Allison Silverman accepts one from New York Women in Film & Television (and tells us why it's rare).
Comments
How about Sunshine Cleaners?
By: guerillacropolis | Tue, 05/19/2009 - 09:15
How about Sunshine Cleaners? The female protagonist in that movie, well at least the "stable" one, successfully runs a crime scene clean up business with her family.
I can't think of too many more, but it seems there have to be others.