Chef Molly Yeh’s lockdown life full of recipes, baby firsts

The food blogger and author of “Molly on the Range” had already sketched the tablescape, sent hand-drawn invites incorporating the vegetable theme, and crafted cute marzipan carrots as cake toppers.

Since then, the 32-year-old Yeh has balanced the daily frustrations and isolation of quarantine life with the many joyful firsts of her toddler, Bernie. The constant that has held it together is food, or in Yeh’s case, tahini. She’s fond of incorporating her favorite ingredient in original recipes that fuse her Chinese and Jewish heritage.

“Food has truly taken on a different meaning, both in starting a family and also in the pandemic,” says Yeh, who lives on a sugar beet farm with her husband and baby near the Minnesota-North Dakota border.

The young family never went to a restaurant and rarely ordered takeout, cooking from scratch and finding delight in Bernie’s milestones, despite monotonous routines and seemingly endless household chores.

“There were so many special moments that were happening in this terrible thing around us,” says Yeh, who recently caught up with The Associated Press while in town for the South Beach Wine and Food Festival. “Imagine your first time smelling and tasting fresh bread, your first time baking cookies.”