This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, One Potato may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Food People, Parent Picks: we ask our favorite chefs, food writers, and industry insiders who we interview in our Order Up! Series to share the products, books, and bites they can’t live without.
🍽️ Make Family Meal Time Easier with Peas & Hoppiness Meal Planning App from our friend Ann Kent. Enjoy the confidence of feeding your family quality food while spending less time, money, and energy thinking about what’s for dinner! Use code ONEPOTATO30 for a 30-day trial.
Earlier this week, we chatted with Cathy for her Order Up! interview, where she shared her own food memories from growing up, learning to cook from her Taiwanese mom and upstate New York dad, and how becoming a parent has reshaped the way she thinks about food, writing, and dinner time.
Cathy’s the author of The Food of Taiwan, Sheet Pan Chicken, and Win Son Presents: A Taiwanese American Cookbook. She’s also a James Beard Award-winning food writer and creator of the long-running blog Not Eating Out in New York, where she first chronicled her adventures in home cooking. These days, she’s balancing freelance writing, teaching, and parenting an 18-month-old—with a trusty cast iron pan always on the stove and a bag of Bob’s Red Mill muesli never far away.
As a follow-up to Tuesday’s chat, we asked Cathy to share a few of her everyday staples and family favorites—from her go-to weeknight dinner to the snack she always has stashed in the freezer. Here are Cathy’s Food People, Parent Picks.
🍝 Your current weeknight dinner MVP?
Sheet pan meatballs! Ever since I realized my toddler loves them, it’s become our go-to. I skip the stovetop and just roll them straight onto a pan with whatever veg I’ve got—broccoli, cabbage, you name it. I did write a cookbook on sheet-pan dinners, after all. The whole thing roasts together, and dinner’s done. Sheet Pan Chicken by Cathy Erway [Bookshop, Amazon]
🍚 One pantry staple you’re never without?
Rice, for sure. It’s the backbone of so many meals. I also keep dried shiitake mushrooms and cornstarch on hand—they’re pantry heroes in our house.
🥄 Kitchen tool you swear by?
Ok, hear me out. A fish spatula—but not just for fish! It’s thin, flexible, and perfect for flipping eggs, lifting roasted veg off a sheet pan, or getting those crispy bits out of a cast iron skillet.
🍞 A travel bite you still dream about?
On a pre-baby trip to Spain, I had the simplest, most perfect tapa: a small piece of toast, slathered in butter, topped with a whole anchovy. It sounds humble, but it was truly unforgettable.
📖 Favorite cookbook (besides your own)?
Marcella Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking is a classic for a reason [Bookshop, Amazon]. But I also love The Talisman Italian Cookbook [Amazon], it’s vintage, charming, and full of sauces I return to again and again.
🥣 Grocery item you’re always restocking?
I go through at least two bags of Bob’s Red Mill old-fashioned muesli every month. It’s not fancy, but it’s reliable, satisfying, and always in our pantry.
🧁 Kid snack discovery that’s on repeat right now?
Canned salmon frittata-muffin things! I make them in a muffin tin with a little breadcrumb and egg, then freeze them. Ziggy loves them, and they reheat in 30 seconds. Honestly, canned salmon doesn’t get enough credit.
🍳 A well-loved kitchen item with a story?
My Le Creuset cast iron pan. It used to be blue, but now it’s basically black from wear. It lives on my stovetop and has seen everything from paella to late-night leftovers. It’s our kitchen’s workhorse.
🥖 Go-to food gift to give (or receive)?
I love bringing back edible souvenirs—Herbes de Provence from France, saffron from Spain, or a special something I stumble upon in NYC. It’s personal, and it always feels like a little adventure in a bag.
