Lucy Madison | Pen & Palate

Article

Things to Eat When You Are Useless (Also: A Recipe for Date Smoothies)

Illustration: Tram Nguyen

Hello my name is Lucy and I am in purgatory. I am nine months pregnant, days away (I HOPE) from giving birth, and also from publishing our book, and also from moving apartments. All of my belongings—save, like, two pans, a blender, a million diapers, and a movable bassinet—are in boxes, and even if my kitchen weren’t totally packed up I would not feel like cooking anyway. I barely feel like standing up. All I can bring myself to do is eat things Rob brings to me and watch the French Open via European livestream. While lying on my side. In bed. Read more

Article

Turmeric Tonic

Illustration: Tram Nguyen

Everyone is sick right now. This is a thing I have heard about before—the winter-to-spring transitional bug. Each year around this time, people talk about how “something is going around,” and that something is basically a cold or flu that is mysteriously related to the changing of the seasons. In the past, I cackled privately about this obviously fake phenomenon, because, as I like to brag about to people (because I am an asshole), “I just don’t get sick that often.” Read more

Article

Healthy-ish Granola Bars to Eat in the Future

Illustration: Tram Nguyen

Lately I have frequently found myself wide awake at 6 a.m., tired but unable to fall back asleep, frantically googling things like “what can a person eat with one hand?????” This is because my body is currently hosting a child and, did you know, it is impossible to sleep when you have a human fetus crushing your internal organs. Read more

Article

Chocolate Tahini Shortbread Cookies

Illustration: Tram Nguyen

I try not to post too many cookie recipes on here, because cookie recipes = cookie testing = cookies lying around the house, and frankly I have no willpower in the face of freshly baked cookies. I am not one to deprive myself of treats, but I suspect it is less than healthy to eat a full batch of butter/flour/sugar/chocolate in a single sitting by oneself more than, say, once a month, and recipe testing usually requires making lots of batches of something in relatively short order. Because my version of restraint is by most standards, uh, pretty modest, I do my best to not tempt fate too often.

Article

Not-At-All-Healthy Bacon, Cheddar, and Scallion Dip

Illustration: Tram Nguyen

Happy New Year! I know January is supposed to be all about health, and so far my record in this department has been more or less fine. In the last few weeks I have cooked myself a brothy chicken soup with rice noodles, a kale and zucchini frittata, and a shrimp vermicelli bowl. I drank a few spinach, banana and blueberry smoothies. I attempted to choke down some sardines, for Omega-3s. I have done yoga every day this month. I even took an exercise class that came dangerously close to jazzercize. (That last activity was terrifying.) All those things were fine! I feel good! But let’s be honest, healthy living is boring. Read more