Summer is right around the corner and I can hardly contain myself. Over the next few months farm fields in the northeast will yield copious amounts of produce just begging to be made into fresh, delicious meals. I can’t wait to rip open my summer recipe file and start making my favorite warm weather foods including green salads, fresh pesto in pasta, roasted tomatoes and rhubarb tarts. When I really think about it, the number of recipes I have that are dedicated to foods available in June, July and August is simply staggering, and I can’t wait to share them all with you. This week, during a freakish ninety degree heatwave, I decided to kick-off my warm weather cooking with one of my favorite light summer dinners. This recipe isn’t necessarily made with fresh food from the farmer’s market, but it is lighter fare made without any of the common heavy ingredients (i.e. cream and gruyere) I usually cook with during the winter season. For this reason, the dish is lighter in taste and weight, making it easier to stomach during the warmer months when I don’t want to eat heavy foods.

I first encountered this recipe when I cut it out from an old issue of Self magazine. The original recipe was written by Jennifer Garner, who was on the cover that month. I don’t know Jennifer but she seems like a really cool Hollywood mommy, a person I would like to invite over for dinner and a playdate with the kids. Given that she is a cool working mom, and the fact that I see her cooking awesome things with Martha Stewart on a somewhat regular basis, I surmised that her recipe was worth a try. After all, right off the bat I could tell that it was a simple recipe based on quality flavors, perfect for Naptime Chef-ing.

Needless to say, her recipe was an immediate hit with the whole family, although I did have to make some initial adaptations to suit our tastes. The first, and most drastic, change I made to the recipe was switching the main ingredient of shrimp to chicken. I cut out the shrimp due to my extreme aversion to the sea creature. (I will spare you the details regarding why I don’t eat it, because, trust me, you really don’t want to know.) In any event, my daughter prefers chicken over shrimp as well, so this substitution made the most sense for us. Also, since I usually make this in the spring and summer, I had a lot of fun adapting the seasonings to play with the flavor. Naturally, the fresher the herbs I have on hand, the better the overall flavor of the dish becomes.

Preparing this dish during naptime is quite easy and I recommend doing it if you want to save time in the evening. However, if you don’t walk in the door until six-o’clock you’ll have no trouble having dinner on the table by six-thirty. The best part about this meal, apart from the simplicity in it’s preparation, is the delicious flavor. When we eat it we find that each bite bursts with a rich tomato flavor which is absorbed beautifully by the orzo. The tomatoes are brightened nicely with the fresh herbs and salty feta, giving it a warm salty/sweet taste. I have thought about trying it with different pastas, but I think that might overwhelm the sauce, making it seem more like a spaghetti meal. Best of all, when there are leftovers I eat them cold with a fresh crumbling of feta for lunch the next day. I often feed it this way to my daughter as well, which she loves. I suppose if I knew Jennifer Garner I would call her at this point and say thanks for the great recipe idea. But, since I don’t, I will just keep getting excited for the summer cooking ahead.

If you need advice on just about anything, ask a mother. Seriously, mothers are often the best resource when it comes to answering all sorts of practical questions like how to get a grass stain out of jeans, how to bring down a fever, and, of course, how to get your child to eat vegetables. I know lots of clever mommies these days, some I have met on the playground, and others I have known all my life. My friend Jenny is one of these clever moms. I first met her about ten years ago when she married one of my childhood friends and we have been friendly ever since. Jenny and I have a lot in common these days, most notably that we are both mothers of active and fun children.

Jenny’s son is about one year older than my daughter and we joke that they are already boyfriend-girlfriend. Her son takes my daughter on romantic races in his Little Tykes car, taking care that her feet are securely perched on the dashboard so that she won’t stub her toes. Then, post backyard grand-prix, they exchange strong hugs which slightly resemble football tackling moves. At meal time they sit together in pint-size chairs at a miniature table feeding each other bits of food off their trays. Last month, when we were at their house, Jenny’s son fed my daughter some pasta with homemade tomato sauce and she went wild, acting like it was the best thing she had ever tasted. To confirm her notion I tasted it myself, she was right, it was delicious. Noting my daughter’s glee over the tasty sauce I asked Jenny for her recipe. She was glad to share the basics of it, admitting she had never written it down since the ingredients change a little every time she makes it. Naturally, the lack of written notes did not deter me, in fact, I viewed it as the perfect Naptime Chef challenge.

Jenny devised her basic marinara recipe as a way to feed her son vegetables he would not eat in their raw state. I knew Jenny was smart, but upon hearing the basis of her recipe theory I realized that she is, actually, brilliant. Every other week Jenny makes a simple tomato sauce packed full of vegetables and freezes it in individual portions. Then, when mealtime arrives, she thaws the sauce and adds it to whatever pasta dish she is making. Taking her cue I quickly got to work, starting with a straightforward variety of vegetables I would like my daughter to consume: onion, garlic, red pepper, carrots and tomatoes. Making the sauce, following the instructions below, took a very short amount of time. When it was complete I poured individual portions into snack-size freezer bags and lined them up in my freezer. As expected, they froze beautifully and thawed well when it was time for dinner. Thankfully my daughter seemed to recall the taste of the sauce from her play-date, gobbling up a huge bowl of alphabet shaped pasta stirred with sauce and grated cheese. I immediately called Jenny to thank her for the great idea. She was thrilled to hear about my success in devising the recipe and agreed that it should be shared with all of you. So here it is, from one clever mommy to another.

In 1968 Beverly Gillia won best cheesecake at the Great Abraham & Strauss Cheesecake Contest, collecting a $1,000 gift certificate to the store as her prize. (For those of you not familiar with A&S, it was a department store located in Brooklyn which was later bought by Macy’s.) I was not there to witness the contest, but I know that she won because I have the recipe. It was given to me by my mother-in-law who clipped it in the late 1960’s, when it was printed in one of the first ever issues New York Magazine. I know it seems like I should be skeptical of a cheesecake recipe that is over 30 years old, after all there are so many excellent, newer recipes for cheesecake that are available on the internet and in nearly every cookbook I own. However, despite these truths, there is a reason why this recipe was kept around by my husband’s family for all that time. This cheesecake is delicious, a true classic, and, as we all know, classic recipes are the ones that truly stand the test of time.

I Naptime Chef-ed this cheesecake on Monday for my husband’s birthday. Every year that we have known each other I have made him a homemade birthday cake, a tradition that works well since he enjoys eating sweets as much as I enjoy making them. His only modest request when baking his treats is that I keep them simple and familiar, sticking with traditional flavors like chocolate, vanilla or coconut. This is not a problem for me, over the years I have made some really amazing cakes including a decadent malteser cake by Nigella, since malt balls are his most favorite candy, Amanda Hesser’s chocolate “Dump-It” cake, and black-bottom cupcakes from an old Food & Wine recipe. This year, in keeping with the theme of classic flavors, I decided to stray from the traditional flour based cake and make this cheesecake. Cheesecake may not be regular chocolate or vanilla, but it is a classic flavor nonetheless, and my husband agreed that it was a good idea.

Like all cheesecakes, making this one requires concentration from start to finish. To prepare for the cake preparation I took all of my ingredients out of the refrigerator in the morning to make sure they were at room temperature by naptime. I then assembled the batter, taking great care to make sure it was completely smooth so as to avoid lumpy cake, and poured it into the pan. I then, very carefully, wrapped the outside tightly in aluminum foil to prevent any of the hot water bath from seeping in and ruining the batter. Finally, I popped it in the oven and watched it carefully, stopping the baking once the cake was set and the top was golden brown. Cooling the cake also required careful monitoring. First I cooled the cake in the oven with the door ajar, then on a rack in the kitchen and, finally, in the refrigerator. It may seem like overkill to go to such trouble cooling the cake, but this method helps the cheesecake set, so it gets firm without being too dry.

I have to say, Beverly really knew what she was doing when she developed this recipe. This was absolutely the best classic cheesecake I have ever tasted, and one of the easiest I have ever made. My husband and I were both thrilled with the results. The cake had a light and silky texture, the taste was wonderfully smooth and bright, with a subtle hint of lemon. We both agreed that the graham cracker crust was an excellent addition, lending the cake a sweet crunch. In celebration of my husband’s birthday we allowed my daughter a small slice, which she inhaled in two bites, begging us for more. At the end of the day I happily slipped the recipe back into my file with notes on how to add the crust. The birthday celebration had gone off without a hitch and the dessert was all that we had hoped for, once again proving that the classics are always winners.

I don’t know what is worse, caring for a sick child when you are healthy, or being sick and trying to entertain a healthy child. Based on a recent personal experience, I would argue that the latter is far more difficult. As parents we are all aware that winter is known as “cold season” because germs run riot through every indoor play-space, library and public arena in the greater New York area. The only way to avoid these germs completely would be to live in total seclusion for four months which is, obviously, not an option. When spring arrived last month I wrongly assumed that “cold season” was over, my daughter hadn’t had a cold in weeks and I was feeling very proud that I had avoided a bad cold all winter. Suffused with confidence I began to let my guard down, neglecting to wash my hands after toddler gym-class and not replacing the bottle of hand sanitizer for my purse. These were moves, it turns out, I would later regret.

I now know that germs do not depart the northeast upon the arrival of spring weather. I learned this the hard way when I recently woke up very sick and my daughter seemed to be completely healthy. It was a startling reversal of roles, I had to care for myself while protecting my daughter from contracting my germs, not the other way around. All I wanted to do was spend the day in bed, however, all my daughter wanted to do was spend the day playing with her friends. So, armed with tissues, Tylenol and lemon tea I staggered through our daily routine, keeping my distance from other people while silently berating myself for not being more careful. Naturally, while I was sniveling away at the playground, the last thing on my mind was what I was going to make for dinner. Thankfully, when I was about to break down and extract a take-out menu from the drawer I experienced a moment of clarity, this was the perfect occasion for an emergency meal.

Of all the emergency meals I keep up my sleeve, this one, Soyaki Chicken Thighs, is the easiest. It is a simple and satisfying chicken bake made with two ingredients which I always have in my kitchen, chicken thighs from the freezer and marinade from the pantry. Like all good emergency meals it is simultaneously uncomplicated to prepare and delicious to eat. Preparing this during naptime is breeze, barely requiring any effort on the part of the preparer. I simply season the chicken thighs, place them in baking dish, pour the marinade over and let them sit for the remainder of the afternoon. At dinnertime I slip the dish in the oven to bake, prepare my side dishes, and wait for the oven timer to ring.

I love this dish because chicken thighs are incredibly moist and tasty, perfect for absorbing the flavors of the marinade. I also find that chicken thighs hold up better than chicken breasts when they are baked, they stay juicy and tender instead of getting tough and dry. As noted in the recipe my marinade of preference is Trader Joe’s Island Soyaki. It makes the chicken taste almost identical to the sesame chicken served at our local chinese restaurant, only less greasy and more flavorful. (In fact, the chef at the chinese restaurant really should consider using Island Soyaki, it would probably improve their dish.) If you don’t have access to this sauce I would recommended substituting it with Soy Vay Teriyaki Sauce, which is readily available in most grocery stores nationwide. I don’t want to make any bold claims like this dish was responsible for my recovery, however, I am not going to dismiss the idea, either. After all, by the time I woke up the next morning I was already feeling much better.

I am a dessert person through and through. I have a sweet tooth that would make Willy Wonka’s head spin, and the grocery bill, denoting bags and bags of Domino sugar, to prove it. Since a young age I have been a firm believer that the end goal of every meal is dessert. As a child I was known to speed-eat my way through many family dinners, so I could get to whatever sugary treats my mom had on hand, as soon as possible. Naturally, being a dessert lover, I would then spend several minutes eating one single cookie or brownie, taking my time to savor every crumb. The pace of my eating – spending a minute on a large plate of food and several minutes on one bite of cookie – greatly perplexed my parents. But, since I never got cavities or indigestion, they let me have my sweets after dinner, not wanting to pick a fight they could never win. The love of all sweet things has never left me, I proudly carried my sweet tooth straight through high school, college and into the present day. I will always be a dessert lover and, now that I have my own kitchen, I can bake sweet treats just about any time I want.

When I plan my meals, for holidays or otherwise, I always make sure I plan for a decadent dessert to cap off the meal. I like to make things that are scrumptious and tasty, calories be damned, the kind of sweet dish that sticks in your memory as being out of this world. I know I’ve achieved my goal when someone can’t quite recall the whole dinner menu, but can describe what was served for dessert in great detail. I have to say I’ve made a few extraordinary desserts in my life, most of which I’ve been able to duplicate. And, thankfully, in making these beautiful things I have been good about keeping a record of most of them, stashing them in my recipe box with a flag that the recipe is definitely worth making again. The cake I made this Easter is one of those recipes that has stood the test of time. After all, chocolate cake is a classic dessert, there is nothing fussy, trendy or frilly about it. I’ve made this cake many times before and have never once been disappointed. Judging by the way my friend’s often ask me to make it, I don’t think they have been disappointed, either.

This cake is much lighter and sweeter than the one I shared with you in February. I prefer to serve it for spring and summer events, the light flavor and color seems more appropriate for the seasons then something dark and dense. And, as with all my favorite baked goods, it is a cinch to prepare during naptime. Combining the ingredients takes very little time and, because it is so light, the baking time is quite short. The lightness of this cake comes from the generous heap of whipped egg whites that are folded into the batter before baking. When it is in the oven they cause the whole cake to rise up in a great poof, which slowly collapses as it cools. The end result, when the cake is fully cooled, is that a shallow crater, about one inch deep, forms on the top. Some might find this ugly and unappetizing, but don’t let the imperfection deceive you – this cake is delicious. To add to the lightness of the cake I like to drop dollops of whipped cream into the crater, along with a scattering of chocolate candies. To me it looks like a cloud of sweet vanilla has landed on top of my rich chocolate pillow. Whenever I eat this cake, which is often, I am always struck by the wonderful rich chocolate taste and light texture. It is really a wonderful standby for someone like me with my sweet tooth. In fact, the details from Easter Dinner last Sunday are already slipping away, but I can still tell you about the cake.

My family holidays can be divided into two categories: 1) holidays I will always remember, or 2) holidays I can’t wait to forget. Of course, I can only place a holiday experience into the appropriate category after it is over, since it is only on rare occasions that I can anticipate what the holiday will be like before it takes place. Usually it is upon the first sign of good news – a college acceptance letter, a pregnancy announcement, a new family pet – that I am able to breathe a sigh of relief and put a notch in the “holiday to remember” column. Or, sometimes holidays head straight downhill from the moment they begin, like when I got the flu on Christmas Eve, or my grandmother broke her hip on Thanksgiving morning. This is when I chalk up the occasion to be a total loss and vow to start suppressing the memories as soon as possible. However, despite the fact that sometimes I really do want to forget a holiday, I always come back for more. After all, holidays occur yearly, thus, each new year is a chance for redemption.

Easter 2008 was a holiday to forget. My daughter, who was so young she could barely sit up, came down with her first, teeny tiny cold. Little did I know that a tiny cold meant I would lose entire nights worth of sleep, bringing on such strong sleep deprivation that I actually considered buying my first ever six-pack of Red Bull. All in all the holiday wasn’t much fun and passed quickly in a blur of saline nose drops, humidifiers and dirty burp clothes. I think I took one photo and put the camera away for the remainder of Easter Sunday, not wanting to document the unfortunate scene taking place in our household. Yet, despite this terrible memory, I was excited for Easter this year. My daughter is a whole year older and beginning to appreciate holiday celebrations, especially when there are presents and sweets involved. This year’s Easter began with a fun family morning, watching her open her plastic eggs to find graham cracker bunnies tucked inside, followed by the consumption of far too many sweet treats before lunchtime. Then, when she finally went down for her afternoon nap, it was my turn to have some holiday fun.

For me, of course, holiday fun means cooking up a storm in the kitchen. For the past few weeks I have spent several hours pouring over cookbooks, perusing the offerings at the local gourmet stores, and writing new recipes to serve my family for Easter dinner. After several iterations over the course of two weeks I finally settled on the menu:

Greek Lamb with Mint Yogurt Dipping Sauce
Green Beans with Toasted Walnuts and Walnut Oil
Herb Roasted Potatoes
Warm Rolls with Butter
Easter Chocolate Cake with Sweet Vanilla Whipped Cream

We centered our Easter menu around the main course, lamb. For some reason my family has always eaten lamb for Easter, I remember even my grandmother serving it to us, with a big dollop of mint jelly on the side. This year, while I was creating a new recipe, I was inspired by the flavors of Greece. Maybe it was because I had recently eaten out at a local Greek restaurant with friends, the taste was on my tongue and I wanted more. After consulting several cookbooks my husband and I settled on a basic, yet flavorful preparation involving several Greek influences. We began by marinating the lamb in red wine, always the best meat tenderizer, and a mixture of Greek herbs. After letting it marinate for several hours we removed the lamb, covered it in a mixture of bread crumbs, more Greek herbs and fresh thyme. Then we roasted the meat for about twenty minutes, and let it rest for about five minutes before serving. When we bit into it we were delighted with the delicious, juicy cut of meat, which was tender to the bite and bursting with flavor. To accompany the meat we whipped up a smooth mint yogurt sauce which was easily made by combining a few basic ingredients. The dip was cool and minty with a slight lemon aftertaste, perfect for dipping the lamb. I also think it would be wonderful for dipping vegetables, breads and even other cuts of meat.

The strong flavor and crisp texture of green beans were the perfect accompaniment to the dark, flavorful lamb. When making green beans I feel that it is helpful if they are jazzed up a bit, preferably by throwing in an unexpected ingredient, so I am always searching for ideas of what to add. For this particular preparation I was inspired by a recipe in one of my all-time favorite books, Cooking for Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser. I loved the idea of adding a warm nutty flavor to the green beans through the addition of walnuts and walnut oil. The recipe did not disappoint, as we ate my husband and I agreed that the dish yielded excellent flavor along with a satisfying crunch. The dessert that followed our meal was a showstopper, which is why I plan to devote an entire post to it on Thursday, sorry for the wait. Until then I will leave you with the following two recipes, surefire winners in our book. I will definitely be making these for future holiday meals, and, as long as these are on our table, I am sure they will become holidays to remember, as well.

It has been raining like, well, April, for the past two weeks. My daughter and I been spending most of our days gazing forlornly at the playground outside our building, watching it drip with water, little rivers cascading down the shiny metal slide and into the sand pit. However, despite the incessant pitter patter of raindrops on the windowsill, I can’t bring myself to get down about all the wetness given the horrible winter we had. After all, spring rain brings with it promises of a new, fresh warm-weather season. A time when we can skip outside with our brand new tricycle and spring-weight knit poncho from grandma, minus the heavy parkas and fleece hats. And, perhaps most importantly for me, spring means that summer, with all of it’s fresh farm food, is right around the corner.

I am dedicated farmer’s market shopper and will happily brave all kinds of weather to patronize the farm stands. As I write summer crops are just starting to grow in the fields, the bounty of which we won’t see at the market for another few weeks. However, despite having to wait a bit longer for the wonderful fresh corn and spring asparagus, there are still many reasons for me to shop there. In the months prior to the summer foods a small, but dedicated, group of farmers will trudge over to 97th street on Fridays to offer a smattering of root vegetables, a few bushels of apples and lots of delicious hot cider. In addition to this the fish monger from Long Island reliably brings freshly caught fish and shellfish, and I can always count on Ronnybrook for fresh milk and butter. But, above all, my favorite stand these days is the pork purveyor. I read somewhere lately that “pig is big,” and in our house it is more than ever.

Last week my daughter and I braved the puddles to obtain our favorite bundle of fresh, sweet sausages. Both of us love visiting this stand, I obtain my amazing homemade organic pork sausages, and my daughter is always, very generously, given a free freshly cooked slice of breakfast sausage. Don’t ask me why this is the favorite food of my toddler, but it is. Once the sausages have been obtained we happily wheel home, dreaming of dinners to come. I discovered this pork purveyor about a year ago and have been cooking these sausages weekly ever since. I have to say, I have come up with some great sausage dishes, but the one I want to tell you about today is, perhaps, my most favorite. The preparation, roasted in a pan with red grapes and onions, is simple and straightforward, perfect for Naptime Chef-ing.

I know this is not the first time sausage has been prepared like this, there are many variations of roasted sausages with grapes, but after some tweaking I developed a recipe for my family that we can call our very own. In my opinion the best part about this dish is how the simplest ingredients yield the most amazing flavor, the whole being greater than the sum of it’s parts. To prepare it, during naptime, I simply prep the grapes and onions as instructed and put the pan in fridge where it can easily stay for a few hours while I attend to other things. Then, when it comes time for dinner, I simply pre-cook the sausages and lay them on top of the grapes and onions, and pop it in the oven. In no time I have gorgeous fresh roasted sausages on a bed of juicy grapes draped with wilting onions. It takes about five more minutes to prepare the sauce and, voila, dinner is served. I like to serve this dish with a green salad and a slice of french bread, or, when we are in the mood for heavier fare, I serve it with egg noodles or potatoes.

This flavor of this dish is a pitch perfect balance of savory and sweet. The sweetness comes from the red grape juice which is balanced well with the tart onions and dash of balsamic vinegar. I love the way the flavor of the grapes are somehow enhanced by the roasting, it is an unexpected yet delicious way to enjoy fruit. I am such a creature of habit that if it weren’t for this blog there is a good chance this is the only way I’d prepare sausage ever again. It is an even greater reward for me that my daughter likes this dish, too. The roasted grapes are soft and juicy which are perfect for her little mouth, she likes to eat them with handfuls of the crumbled sausage. I am still excited for the summer offerings to hit the farmer’s market in full force, I am already thumbing through my favorite summer recipes trying to decide what to make first. But, until then, I will continue my trips through the rain to my Friday market, I am already dreaming about what I’ll make with my sausages tomorrow night.

Sometimes, on the weekends, I put my husband in charge of cooking. I am lucky, he is a very capable cook, having grown up in a household where both parents regularly turn out delicious meals that would make any chef green with envy. Since I’ve known him he has made some fantastic dishes including homemade vegetarian spring rolls, mustard-crusted rack of lamb, and all sorts of seafood dishes involving scallops, which are my favorite. It is pretty rare that he takes a misstep in the kitchen. I’ve only seem him burn – no, char – a pork tenderloin once. In his defense we were also trying to hang pictures in the other room at the same time, hence, we learned our lesson about multi-tasking when cooking. Last month, having witnessed many of his past successes, I decided it was time to give him a true challenge. I put him in charge of an emergency meal.

You see, that morning my daughter and I had just flown home from Florida. The trip had not gone well, my daughter was wide awake and crying for the entire flight, plus, she had a low-grade fever. We were tired, cranky and not in the mood to do anything other than be lazy on the sofa while watching Dora and Boots scamper over rickety bridges. For the duration of the afternoon my husband served as chief runner, jogging back and forth from the kitchen bearing sippy cups of ice water and cheddar goldfish for my daughter, and fresh cranberry spritzers with sourdough pretzels for me. By dinner time I recovered enough from our flight trauma to generate a small appetite, and, after all the running to and fro, my husband was ravenous. When he looked to me, desperate for meal ideas, I held both hands out to my side and turned my palms upward. I was at a loss for inspiration, he was on his own.

Being the resourceful guy that he is, in the middle of this meal crisis, he pulled a brilliant move. From the dark recesses of a kitchen cabinet he retrieved our panini maker. We had received the panini maker as a gift at my “alphabet” themed wedding shower in Cooperstown, my hometown. My friend, Christina, was assigned the letter “P” and, thus, bought me a panini maker. I hadn’t registered for it but I am forever grateful for the gift. The panini maker quickly became one of our most favorite kitchen gadgets from the moment we unwrapped it. In our pre-parenthood years, when we were both working at offices, we would come home spent and uninspired after long days at work. It was during these times we discovered that, as long as you have a loaf of bread, almost any combination of ingredients can form a panini. In this particular instance my husband had spied a fresh loaf of sourdough bread on the counter, along with recently purchased thinly sliced spanish jamon, roasted vegetables and a ball of mozzarella in the fridge. I hadn’t planned on making sandwiches with all these ingredients, but, despite my original intentions for them, it was obvious they were meant to form our dinner.

As with any toasted sandwich the assembly was a total snap. It was even snappier because of the low-tech kitchen tool we had at our disposal. All we had to do was assemble sandwiches and squash them between the heated plates to toast. During the few minutes it took to cook I had time to refill my spritzer, pull a plate out of the cupboard and prepare myself for warm, oozy mozzarella. As expected the flavors of this sandwich were perfect. Instead of using anything too heavy my husband had drizzled the inside of the bread with olive oil and a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar. The dreamy mozzarella perfectly offset the sweet vegetables and salty jamon. I found comfort in every single bite, exactly the kind of meal I needed after an arduous journey. Even my daughter liked the sandwich we made for her, just a simple pressed cheese of fresh mozzarella with diced vegetables on the side. I think she was as grateful for the warm, homemade meal as I was. After we tucked her into bed that evening I hugged my husband, congratulating him on surviving an emergency meal, one of the great cooking challenges of all time. I was glad to be home.