If you’re not familiar
with Debbie Koenig’s killer food blog Words To Eat By, it’s my pleasure to
introduce you. It’s everything a blog should be: approachable yet honest,
hysterical and even rates high on the “yum” scale. To top it off, Koenig just
came out with her first cookbook, Parents Need To Eat Too—boasting more than 150 recipes—for new parents. —
As a mom herself, (her
son Harry is five), Koenig learned the hard way that acknowledging the kitchen
(or even stepping foot in it) when you first have a child is daunting. But with
the right prep, a short list of ingredients and simple menu—you can feed the
whole house. Inside you’ll find recipes ranging from “un-recipes” (for those
who aren’t exactly skilled in the cooking department), naptime meals,
one-handed meals and great bites for breastfeeding mamas. Here, Koenig dishes a
bit more on the project.
In five words or less
(you can do it!), describe your cooking philosophy.
I have two, if you’ll
allow me ten words total:
Cook once, feed everyone. Well.
AND
Authenticity,
shmauthenticity. Trust your tastebuds.
100 volunteer moms taste-tested each of your recipes to perfection. How
cool! Tell us about the process of rounding up the troops and the best/hardest
part of the honest truth.
By the time I started the
book, Harry was already well beyond the baby stage. I wanted to be sure the
recipes really worked for overwhelmed parents and as baby food, too, so I used
my blog and social media to find volunteers. I figured I’d get a dozen moms,
maybe 20, but I wound up with more than 100! Some of them were avid home cooks,
but many more were struggling to get dinner on the table. Each month we worked
on one chapter—I’d send out a list of recipes, and the moms would request the
ones they wanted to try. Each recipe in the book wound up being tested by
anywhere from five to 20 moms, and I only included the recipes with
overwhelmingly positive feedback. The hardest part was coordinating all that
information each month—some months, I had hundreds of reports to sort through.
And once I recorded all the feedback, I’d go back and adjust recipes to reflect
what I’d learned, then re-test them myself. The last few days of each month
were always a sprint, with me wondering why I’d created all this extra work for
myself. I’m still amazed I pulled it off. But I’m so glad I did, because I know those recipes work!
I hear you have a soft spot for the slow cooker. When did you first fall in
love?
In the book I call the
slow cooker “the new mom’s best friend,” but I came to it kicking and
screaming. I was a real snob, convinced that the slow cooker was only good for
making overcooked, flat-tasting stews. But then Harry came along and I was
forced to face reality: With so little kitchen time, the slow cooker was a
lifesaver. My parents showed up with a shiny new one when Harry was a few weeks
old—I tried it out and never looked back. Now I use it with flavors from around
the world—Italian Wedding Soup, Moroccan Red Lentil Stew, Aloo Dal Gobi, Ropa
Vieja…
What’s the best and
worst feedback your son, Harry, has ever given you about a dish you cooked?
Oh god. Don’t get me
started on my darling boy’s eating. His Approved List is a moving target, so
I’ve stopped trying to figure out what he’ll eat—I cook what I cook, and I make
sure there’s some element he liked recently and hope for the best. I think he
feels guilty for refusing to taste a lot of what I cook, so when he does like
something he’s quite effusive about it. He’ll say, “You make the best
chicken soup, Mommy,” and he sounds a little like Eddie Haskell—that kid
on Leave It to Beaver who
was always sucking up to Beaver’s mom. It makes me laugh—he’s so obvious. But he really does love my soup. He’ll eat
six or seven matzo balls in one sitting.
Sometimes
you have to eat out. What are your top three restaurants to frequent with
kid in tow?
We’re generally
homebodies, but when we do go out we’re lucky—Williamsburg is full of great
family-friendly spots. We love DuMont Burger for, well, burgers and fries. La
Superior for Mexican street food (I love the soft tacos, and when he’s not
making a meal out of chips, Harry’s been known to down a chicken flauta or
two). And Egg for brunch—I dream about their country ham biscuit. It covers all
the salty-sweet-fatty-crumbly bases. We’re also major hot dog hounds, so we’ll
hop in the car and drive up to Mamaroneck, my hometown, for Walter’s, or to
joints in New Jersey and Connecticut. A hot dog worth traveling for is a
special thing, indeed.
Interested in Parents Need To Eat Too? Debbie will be teaching
a special Mother’s Day workshop at Caribou Baby this Saturday, May 5. For more
details, see here.
