This just in: we’re still in the middle of a massive recession. And in these times, in which job security is non-existent, financial forecasts are bleaker than a 14th Street dive bar at 8 in the morning, and your shifty-eyed landlord is robbing you blind for a “junior one-bedroom,” there may not be a whole lot of cash leftover for fancy dinners at Minetta Tavern. (Plus we’d sooner starve to death than dip into the booze budget. Sorry, Ozersky, but it’s true.) Well, meet Phoebe Lapine and Cara Eisenpress (above), two savvy New York ladies and the Ivy League-educated minds behind the new food blog, Big Girls, Small Kitchen.
They’ve taken a well-established principle–that cooking at home can be an economical, practical and fun alternative to dining out–and combined it with their natural skills in the kitchen to produce a site designed to aid the busy, 20-something New Yorker who doesn’t have the time, knowledge or equipment to cook like a pro. They’ve also got a growing database of original recipes that run the gamut from Mediterranean lamb burgers to matzoh crunch ice cream (Passover dessert, anyone?), each one colored with personal anecdotes, photos and commentary. Additional posts offer solutions for preparing meals for one (or many) and creative suggestions for those of us who would rather go Macgyver than go food shopping (i.e., make use of whatever we already have sitting around in the pantry/coat closet). And once you’re no longer dropping $100 at dinner every night, just think of all the money you’ll be able to squander on alcohol.
-Justine Goodman
