Crispy Cheese, Yes Please
The latest entry in our cheesy repertoire is Nargisse Benkabbou's crispy halloumi with tomatoes and white beans. It's got everything we crave in a cheese-centric dinner — blistered cherry tomatoes, velvety white beans and melty, brown-speckled slabs of halloumi that stay a little chewy in the center, all of it drizzled with lemon, olive oil and a touch of honey. And since we can whip it up in just half an hour, there'll even be time for a 'Pride and Prejudice' rewatch, depending on the homework load.
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Egg and cheese toasts with salsa: Although the stars of Rick Martínez's vibrant new cheese toast recipe are runny-centered eggs and bracing, chile-spiked salsa, there's enough gooey queso Chihuahua on the bolillo rolls to qualify this dish for mother-daughter cheese night. Onto the list it goes.
Sheet-pan salmon and broccoli with sesame and ginger: Sporting a pretty, springtime palette of pinks and greens, Lidey Heuck's healthful sheet-pan supper features bright, pungent flavors from a glaze of fresh ginger, rice vinegar and soy sauce, with a gentle crunch from a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
Avgolemono chicken soup with gnocchi: Most avgolemono soup recipes call for rice to help thicken the eggy, lemon-spiked chicken broth. But Carolina Gelen's speedy version of the Greek classic uses shelf-stable gnocchi and the torn-up meat from a rotisserie chicken to give it a heartier, stewlike texture. It stays beautifully silky, though, from egg yolks whisked into the broth.
Coconut curry with potatoes and greens: Perfumed with lime and Thai curry paste, sweetened with coconut milk and swirled with leafy greens and soft cubes of potato, Hetty Lui McKinnon's light-bodied curry is the stuff of one-pot dreams. Serving it with rice noodles may be overindulgent, but that's precisely why it earns my highest endorsement.
Made-in-the-pan chocolate cake: Cocoa powder gives this super easy cake a deep, bittersweet flavor, balanced with a sprinkle of powdered sugar on top in lieu of icing. Cut it into squares and serve it straight from the pan. Utensils are optional, and they'd only slow you down anyway.
To get these and all the other thousands of well-tested recipes at New York Times Cooking, you'll want to subscribe. If you're hit by a technical snafu, email the smart people at cookingcare@nytimes.com for help. And I'm at hellomelissa@nytimes.com if you want to say hi.
That's all for now. See you on Wednesday.
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SEPTA service cuts to affect 52,000 School District of Philadelphia students, prompting panic among parents
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To Parents on the First Day of Kindergarten: What Your Kids Really Need From You
This school year is THE year for me—my youngest is going off to kindergarten. The bittersweet feeling of this transition is acute. As much as this is a big moment for our kids, the first day of kindergarten for parents is equally momentous. The last 5 years have been filled with so much parenting intensity. There's been joy, exhaustion, struggle, love, self-doubt, and all the rollercoaster of emotions that come with the early years of parenting. We've survived sleep deprivation, tried to keep our patience during many a toddler tantrum (which still rear their head once in a while), managed the ups and downs of potty training and now we have a 5-year-old who hardly resembles that little baby we brought home years ago. Our 5-year-olds are now eager learners, excited by the world around them. They are now able to (mostly) hold a conversation with us for longer than a minute, even if it is about their favorite insect or fictional character. With our help and guidance, they have made amazing developmental leaps and are now ready to take on the new adventures that kindergarten will bring. The first day of kindergarten for parents: The kids still need us As a mom in this stage of life, it's easy to feel like our kids don't need us anymore. Sure, they are still young, but they are so independent in many ways. There's no more changing diapers, hourly feeding (well, unless raiding the pantry counts), rocking, and soothing. However, after experiencing the first day of kindergarten with my 9-year-old a few years ago, I have a little more perspective on what this transition means for parenting. As you might have guessed, these kids of ours, even with their 'big-kid' mentality, still really need us. They need us to model kindness With school and more interaction with friends, our kindergartners will inevitably encounter some experience of unkindness. Many of our kids have probably encountered a bit of this already. 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They need us to help them find their passions With the first day of kindergarten comes a whole new world of learning for our kids. Many kids gravitate toward certain topics right away—dinosaurs, trains, cowboys, mermaids. This intense interest in one topic is perfectly normal and actually kind of awesome for kids' developing brains. While kids don't have to find their lifelong passion in kindergarten, I have found it helpful and fun (for them and us) to offer them opportunities that might spark their interests. School does a lot of this for us by exposing them to many different topics and skills. However, some kids may not find their interest in school. The first day of kindergarten for parents means that you may have to play a big role in helping them find their passion. My youngest child, while he loved preschool, didn't find anything that totally piqued his interest. I took it upon myself to find books, videos, etc. that might be something he could really get into. So far, it's been comic books! He loves 'reading' them and trying to write his own. You never can tell where a simple interest can take kids' learning. They need us to help them figure out their emotions Little kids (and even not-so-little ones) have big emotions. Although our kindergartners may be mostly past the tantrum days, those big emotions sometimes still overtake them. Long days of learning and less quiet time often mean meltdowns come day's end. Many schools are getting on the bandwagon with social-emotional learning, but it often falls on us parents to help our kids cope when big emotions try to take over. Kids often hold their emotional selves together well at school, and the teachers may report they are so well-behaved under their watch. Once at home with us, they often break down and let out all the emotional tension that has piled up during the day. We should consider this a good sign! As hard as it is to be the 'emotional trash can' for our kids, it means they feel safe and comfortable with us to let their guard down. This struggle has been real for me and my now 9-year-old. Even as a third-grader last year, he often came home an emotional mess after the ups and downs of a busy day. We can become the 'emotion coaches' for our kids to help them figure out these emotions, label them and understand that no emotions are 'bad.' It's also important to realize, however, that we don't have to get our kids 'back to happy' too soon and that making them happy all the time may not even be part of our job. We can listen, we can guide, but we usually can't force the emotions we want them to have. Ultimately, modeling self-regulation is the best gift we can give them. We don't have to join their emotional turmoil but we can be there to support them as they work through it. They need us to help them find meaning in their struggles (but not always fix the struggles) This relates a lot to the issue I just discussed, but in a more tangible way. Upon entering school, kids encounter a lot of challenges they haven't experienced before—kids who don't 'play nice,' teachers they may not enjoy, school work that is hard, etc. These are real challenges, and our kids need real guidance. However, in many cases, we cannot 'fix' the problem. It's tempting as a parent to try to fix it all—change teachers, separate classmates, call the principal…the list could go on forever. In some cases, this type of intervention might be needed, but in many cases, we just need to be patient. The first day of kindergarten for parents oftentimes means reminding yourself to be patient. Many times, kids work out their differences with classmates, they learn to love that teacher after all or the little extra explanation you give on that math problem makes the concept 'click' in their brain. Patience often pays big dividends in their maturity, growth, and in ours. Many times, our kids don't really need us to fix the problem; they just need us to listen and provide a context of meaning for their struggle. They just need a hand to hold as they face the challenge themselves. Kindergarten parents, I will be with you in spirit as you drop off your little ones. Enjoy the moments and be ready for a whole new parenting job. Best wishes for the first day of kindergarten! Solve the daily Crossword
