Around the Table with Alexandra Stafford

On seasonal eating, her mom's peasant bread recipe, & her family's weekly pizza night

Welcome to this week’s Around the Table interview—grab a seat and join us. Our hope with this interview is to open up a tiny little window into someone else’s kitchen. We want to see the way food shapes who they are and how they move around the world. We want to learn about their favorite recipe, and why it means so much. We want to read about their favorite memory in the kitchen. If they’re parents, we want to hear how they feed their family and what sorts of memories they’re making present day with their little ones.

Most of all, we want to be reminded that no matter where we are in the world, what our beliefs are, or where we’re going, there’s something magical about the way food can bring us together. The way it can heal us. The way it says, “I love you.” The way a warm bowl of soup can sometimes say more than a hug.

If you like this interview, don’t forget to click the little ❤️! And remember to check back every other Wednesday for a new installment.

A little introduction

I’ve followed Alexandra Stafford’s blog for many years, and I very proudly own her first book (Bread Toast Crumbs) and second (Pizza Night). I remember reaching out to her about specific recipes in both books and being surprised at just how quick and helpful she was! Her blog is a constant source of meal planning inspiration, and her pizza dough recipes in Pizza Night have truly leveled up the pizza game in my house. I love the way she approaches food (you’ll see what I mean!), and I loved hearing about the way she feeds her family, too. Read the full interview below, featuring Ali’s beautiful kitchen, the peasant bread recipe that I’m pretty sure almost broke the internet, and some cooking inspiration for the week! -Katie

Alright, let’s jump in!

What’s your story? Give us three sentences that help our readers understand a little bit of what makes you you.

I’m a mother of four kids. I’m a homebody. I’m half Greek, half British, and I love feeding people.

Bring us into your kitchen

Describe your kitchen for us. Tell us your favorite part about it.
My kitchen has butcher block countertops (Meredith: Swoon!), open shelves, white lower cabinets, and wood floors. My favorite part about it is that my cookbook collection lives on the open shelves. My second favorite part about it is that plates, cups, bowls, etc. all live in the lower cabinets, which has allowed my kids to access them since they were very young/small, which has in turn allowed them to help set the table and put dishes away.

What’s your favorite kitchen utensil or tool?
Flat-bottomed whisk. It is especially great for eggs, vinaigrettes or when whisking things on the stovetop—liquids or sauces that are in saucepans or skillets—it’s just a much better shape for that sort of job. (I actually wrote a whole story about it for Bon Appetit a few years ago.) This is my favorite one and I have it in both sizes (small and Xlarge).

What’s your favorite way to cook?
Cliche as it sounds: seasonally. But it’s the truth, and it’s how I learned to cook while working in professional kitchens in Philadelphia. I subscribe to a CSA nearly year-round, and the produce from that, coupled with the local produce I can get at my little co-op, inspire my cooking on a daily basis.

This time of year is probably the least inspiring in terms of local options, but I can get really beautiful tender salad greens (from baby spinach and kale to Asian mixes and other mixed greens) from my local farmers markets and co-ops. These greens are so tasty on their own, I tend to make very simple salads with them with either this lemon vinaigrette or this apple cider vinaigrette. Maybe I’ll shave in some carrots or radishes, and maybe I’ll crumble in some feta or goat cheese, but otherwise I keep it very simple. I’m so looking forward to the first crunchy snap peas of the season and, of course, the tomatoes, which are many months away at this point.

How do you organize your favorite recipes?
I have two old tabletop file boxes, one for sweet/baked recipes, one for savory, in which I store old magazine and newspaper clippings. Sadly, I don’t subscribe to any cooking magazines anymore, so I haven’t added to that collection in a long time. As noted, I have all of my favorite cookbooks in my kitchen with pages dog-eared and margins marked up with notes. All of my other favorite recipes are either on my blog or bookmarked in my Chrome browser from other sites. I don’t use Pinterest or any other recipe organizer.

We love recipes here. Will you share one that means something to you? (And if you’re up for it, can you tell us why it’s so important?)
My mother’s peasant bread. This is the recipe I saw spark so much happiness and curiosity in people for as long as I can remember. It’s the simplest recipe, but people, upon tasting it or receiving it as a gift, act as though it’s gold. It’s the recipe/food that made me realize how much joy simple efforts can bring to people. (Katie: I can attest to the joy this recipe brings! And on a side note, I'm pretty sure it was my first introduction to you and your cooking.)

Cooking:

It’s no secret that we love cookbooks. Could you tell us about your favorite(s), whether they’re tried and true classics in your kitchen or something you’ve only recently discovered?
I have a few favorites, my oldest being Sally Schneider’s A New Way to Cook. I don’t cook from it that much anymore, but it was the book that taught me so many classic techniques and so many classic flavor pairings. Sally Schneider is my Julia Child—I learned so much from her, and I still reference her books when I find myself in a cooking rut.

I love Chez Panisse Vegetables especially in the summer. I’ve made dozens of recipes from that book, and every year I find new ones I love.

I love Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons, which is filled with so many vegetable-forward and just so darn tasty recipes.

The latest cookbook to land at my door is Tahini Baby by Eden Grinshpan, and I am so drawn to so many of the recipes. (Katie: This is on my list! It looks wonderful!)

Why is cooking important to you? And when did you realize that?
I think I saw at a pretty young age how good food can make people so happy. I went to a boarding school for high school but I was a day student, and when my boarder friends would come to my house and eat my mom’s food, I would see them light up with every bite. And it would be for simple things: my mother’s peasant bread, homemade salad dressing (the easiest thing to make and infinitely better than bottled), simple grilled chicken, properly cooked and seasoned rice, etc. I started cooking more on my own in high school, and when I got to college, I missed having a kitchen. I moved off campus my senior year in fact so that I could have a kitchen because I loved cooking so much for me and for others.

What’s your favorite food-related memory from when you were growing up?
I don’t have a specific favorite memory, but more of a general favorite memory of summer meals on our screened-in porch with my parents, brother, sister (and dog!). I feel like those meals spanned hours from prepping salads, making bread, grilling, setting the table, eating, lingering until the sun had long set, listening to the crickets chirp, and seeing the fireflies glow in the dark as we cleared the table at the end of the night.

What’s your go-to breakfast? And when you’re feeling fancy/have more time?
I love a bowl of muesli (I make it in large batches) soaked in oat milk with grated apple or bananas or berries with a piece of toast (often this because we always have it on hand) on the side and a cup of coffee. When I have more time, I love a poached egg on toast, and if I have good avocados on hand, a sliced avocado sprinkled with sea salt on the side is heaven.

What’s your go-to meal when you don’t have time to cook?
These crispy potato-egg-and-cheese tacos: so fast, so delicious, so satisfying.

You’re hosting dinner this weekend for a group of good friends. What’s on the menu?
If there are no vegetarians in the crowd, I’d grill skirt steak and serve it with Caesar salad on the side, focaccia, and roasted cauliflower. If vegetarians are in the mix, I’d make these stuffed peppers, a simple salad, and focaccia. I love serving chocolate chip cookies for dessert (Meredith: We do, too! Nothing better than a freshly baked cookie).

Family:

What do you love to cook for your family?
On a day-to-day basis, I feel best when I’ve made my kids a good balanced meal with a good protein and lots of veggies. We make our kids scrambled or poached eggs every day for breakfast. They don’t like the school lunch, so we always pack them something relatively healthy, either leftovers or a sandwich. For dinner, I make a lot of roasted chicken (like this one and this one) and serve it aside roasted cauliflower (olive oil + salt) or boiled broccoli with butter and salt or oven fries or raw veggies (peppers, cucumbers, carrots) I cut up and put out with hummus. They do love chickpeas and black beans, and they love pasta as well—this is my go-to tomato sauce recipe, which they love with any noodle.

Do your kids like cooking? (And do you let them in the kitchen to help?)
They do! They particularly like to bake—cookies (they love making the one-bowl chocolate chip cookies from Pizza Night), cakes, peasant bread—but I have been trying to get them into more savory cooking. They all know how to make a few salad dressings, namely this one, the recipe for which I have printed and tucked in the drawer where I keep all of my vinegars and oils, so they can access it easily. They know how to poach and scramble eggs. They know how to make grilled cheese…all simple things.

Does anyone else in your family enjoy cooking like you do? Is that where you got it from?
I attribute my love for cooking to my mother and aunt, both of whom are excellent cooks and who for as long as I can remember spend most of their time thinking about what recipe they are going to cook next and talking about it with each other. I spend my time similarly. (Katie: My people!)

Do you have any infamous dishes in your family? Ones that simply can’t be skipped each year or that somehow make it onto every holiday spread?
We have a few holiday favorites like this potato gratin and these rolls and these brioche cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning.

Are there any food traditions you’re establishing now with your own family?
Not just saying this to stay on brand, but we do have a weekly pizza night, and it continues to be our favorite night of the week, not only because of the food on the table, but also because often it’s on a Friday night, a nice cap to the end of the week, or on a Sunday night, after we’ve all been scattered in a million different directions all weekend long and have finally reconvened before a new week begins.

What did your kids’ school serve for lunch today, or what did you pack them?
My kids love bringing leftovers to school. If we have leftover taco meat, we’ll heat that up and stick it in a thermos and send it along with the fixins’ (tortillas, lettuce, cheese). They also love bringing in leftover chickpea curry and rice as well as any leftover chicken or pasta. When we don’t have leftovers, we make sandwiches: turkey, pb&j, etc.

What’s a kitchen shortcut you’ve learned since becoming a mom?
Packets of taco seasoning: this is something I never thought I would ever buy, but they feel like such a gift. Yes, I know it’s simple to mix a bunch of spices together and make my own. But it’s even easier to buy them. I make a double batch of this recipe nearly every other week, and we make very simple tacos with the small street-style flour tortillas from Trader Joe’s with shredded lettuce and cheese—that’s it. But my latest favorite use for taco seasoning is this: take one packet and sprinkle it over one package of boneless skinless chicken thighs (6 small thighs); drizzle with olive oil to coat and toss to ensure the seasoning is rubbed all over the thighs. Let marinate all day or overnight or for just a couple of hours; then grill them. We use this meat for tacos as well. I don’t add any salt when I use taco seasoning because they tend to be salty. My favorite packet is the Whole Foods 365 “mild.”

Just for fun:

What are you loving reading/ listening to / watching right now?

Watching: Slow Horses. I think it’s my all-time favorite show.

Reading: Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld. So good—don’t know why it’s taken me 20 years to read. (Meredith: Loved that one. Romantic Comedy is also great). I get most of my book recommendations from Jenny Rosenstrach’s Dinner: A Love Story Substack.

Listening: Calypso by David Sedaris. My husband and I recently saw David Sedaris live in Albany, and he was as funny as anticipated. I love his audiobooks so much because he narrates them (or most of them), and his delivery is just so good.

Where else can we find you on the internet?
Blog: alexandracooks.com
Newsletter: Never Miss A Recipe
Substack: Pizza Every Friday

If you could only eat one cuisine or food for the rest of your life, what would it be?
This is so hard! I love Indian food so much and feel like I could live on saag paneer, naan, and rice. But also: pizza. It’s just so good.

What’s something sparking joy for you at the moment? (Can be anything—a new moisturizer, a book, a conversation with a friend, etc.!)
My co-ed adult league soccer on Tuesday nights. It’s the one hour of my week during which I forget about everything else, and I always walk off the field on such a high. It’s like therapy.

Where would you like to take a trip to next?
I am so boring in that I rarely travel, and the last trip I took was to Italy, but I’d really love to go back. I only spent 5 days there and only got to Rome and Naples, and it wasn’t enough time. There is so much more of both of those cities I’d love to explore and so much more of the country I’d love to experience.

What’s your favorite place to go out to eat near you?
There is a restaurant a few towns north of me in Ballston Spa called Next Door Kitchen and Bar. It’s cozy, and I go there every few months with two of my neighbors, who are dear friends. They make great cocktails, and their menu is seasonally driven, which, as noted, I love.