Blog - Two Red Bowls

butterscotch mochi bars // a common table giveaway!

12.14.2018

It’s two months of A Common Table giveaways! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook here and holding a giveaway of one of my favorite kitchen treasures used in the book every week, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway. This post is in partnership with Pyrex. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

The time has come–it’s the very last A Common Table giveaway. What a couple of months it’s been! It has been so incredibly special seeing the book in your hands, all the things you’ve made, and reading all your stories and kind words. I can’t thank you enough for sharing with me and for making this a dream come true.

collard wontons // a common table giveaway!

11.30.2018

You guys, it’s time. Christmas season is here! B2 and I are firmly in the “Christmas-music-starts-with-the-last-bite-of-Thanksgiving-dessert” camp, so Frank Sinatra is currently crooning in the background nonstop, our tiny carted-over-from-Brooklyn faux tree is set up in our living room, the lights are up (B3 starts every morning by running into the living room saying “Lights? Lights?”) and I could not be happier. If this were not cozy enough, my tragic aversion to coffee and tea in the first and second trimesters is finally letting up–joy!–so I’ve been guzzling all the very sweetened very diluted lattes my pregnant nose can handle.

a thanksgiving round-up and some (non-cookbook) news

11.20.2018

It’s a baby musubi–for a baby musubi! Now that A Common Table has been out in the world for almost a month (phew), I can finally tell you all about this little secret we’ve been holding onto. B4 is on the way! This time, we’re having a little girl–and we could not be more excited. Or bewildered. How does one raise these “little girls” you speak of?

chinese scrambled eggs & tomato // a common table giveaway!

11.17.2018

It’s two months of A Common Table giveaways! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook here and holding a giveaway of one of my favorite kitchen treasures used in the book every week on Instagram, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway.

I originally found Hannah at Speck & Stone more than three years ago, probably through someone’s beautiful photos of her rustic stoneware, and ever since a big box of her gorgeous pieces arrived, they’ve graced my table and this blog in nearly every post (I could link to them all but then we’d be here all day!) not to mention the cover of A Common Table itself. For someone as clumsy as I am, buying handmade ceramics is a tricky business. I’m always tempted to save them for special occasions, tucked away where I can’t smash them (lest this happen) but Hannah’s sturdy yet beautiful pieces have become a mainstay at our meals despite all my uncoordinated tendencies. The bowl in these photos, especially, has proven itself to be pretty much the most perfect bowl I never knew I needed–the ideal size for everything from dishing up sides for a crowd to an extra big bowl of something cozy to enjoy on your own. And now Hannah has made two just like it to give away this week! This goes for all the giveaways over these couple of months but I wish I could win about five more for myself.

shanghainese lion’s head meatballs // a common table giveaway!

11.09.2018

It’s two months of A Common Table giveaways! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook here and holding a giveaway of one of my favorite kitchen treasures used in the book every week on Instagram, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway.

These lion’s head meatballs are one of the handful of recipes in the book that was originally on my blog. It was one of the very first, actually, posted nearly five years ago to the day! And whenever I’ve been asked what my favorite recipe in the book is, I’ve had to say it’s this. First, and perhaps most importantly, it’s just one of the most delicious things I’ve ever made: The meatballs are a marvel, tender, light, and juicy like little clouds that practically melt into your rice. They’re burnished brown on the outside from a quick fry, then steamed over an impossibly tall pile of bok choy until the greens wilt into a flavorful heap under the juices from the meatballs, so you get a full meal with a side all in one. They’re one of my favorite winter meals, one we used to make in the depths of Brooklyn winters while the world outside was frosted white, and they’re so good that they’ve become one of the most made recipes I’ve ever posted (and, to my utter surprise, even won a contest once!)

asian pear and jasmine crumbles // a common table giveaway!

11.02.2018

It’s two months of A Common Table giveaways! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook here and holding a giveaway of one of my favorite kitchen treasures used in the book every week on Instagram, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway.

My earliest memories of Asian pears are from my grandparents’ kitchen in a concrete high-rise in bustling Shanghai, sitting around an old, worn table under fluorescent lights after a long flight from the United States. Asian pears are meant to be eaten peeled, and I can still see the ribbons of peels as they curled off my grandmother’s paring knife, seamless, swift, and unbroken, piling around the slices as she set them before us. (To my mother’s dismay, this is not a skill I have ever mastered.)

gochujang eggs in purgatory // a common table giveaway!

10.26.2018

It’s two months of A Common Table giveaways! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook here and holding a giveaway of one of my favorite kitchen treasures used in the book every week on Instagram, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway.

When I was picking which recipe to share with you this week using the item in this week’s giveaway, I nearly couldn’t decide because I had so many choices. A Lodge cast iron skillet is the backbone of so many dishes in my kitchen–from perfect golden pancakes to the crispest-edged bindaetteok, gently browned grilled cheeses to steaks with the perfect crust, to soft, gooey cinnamon rolls–that I feel like it might be on every page. But with the weather cooling down and cozy vibes abounding, these eggs, warm and comforting with a subtle heat, ended up the only logical choice.

a common table is out!

10.23.2018

a common table

It’s out! A Common Table is on shelves today, and I need someone to just pinch me now.

pappardelle with lamb ragu // a common table giveaway!

10.19.2018

I’m back! It’s the Friday before A Common Table ventures out in the world, therefore (1) the last Friday to preorder, if you like, and (2) the first Friday of a ton of giveaways of some of my most favorite things in the book over the next two months! From now until December, I’ll be sharing a recipe from the cookbook and a giveaway every Friday here and on Instagram, and you’ll have a week to enter before the winner is announced, along with a new giveaway.

a common table: events and preorder fun!

10.16.2018

Hi friends! Just popping in to share a few cookbook-related tidbits now that there’s just one week (!!) to go until A Common Table is out in the world! It still doesn’t feel totally real, despite the whole box of copies that arrived last week for giveaways (more on that starting this Friday!) but in the meantime, here are some details on goodies for those of you who have preordered, plus details on a couple of events we’ll be having in the next few weeks should you be around and want to nosh on mochi together and talk about food. I would absolutely love to meet you! Thanks a million for all your kind words–I can’t wait to share the book with you in one short week.