What’s Going on Today: Heatwave continues: slow stroll to morning Farmer’s Market, quick stop at Arts and Crafts show on town green.
Naptime Goals: Set garlic, olive oil and basil to marinate for salad. Pre-chop mozzarella and tomatoes.
Tonight’s Menu: BBQ chicken, Caprese Pasta Salad, Peanut Butter Swirl Brownies.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: I love whomever invented the concept of sidewalk chalk.

It’s been wayyyy too hot hot hot to turn on the oven this week. During summer days like this I don’t steer clear of cooking altogether, I just choose dishes that don’t require long hours cooking with high heat. After all, years of experience have taught me that there will be plenty of days in January when I am layering on wool socks and braising short ribs while freezing containers of ragu! On Saturday we were having our neighbors over for dinner and I decided to make my favorite caprese pasta salad. A delicious simple salad that is almost a complete no-cook affair, it is packed with a fresh summer flavor that can’t be beat.

I first read this recipe years ago in the The New York Times and have been making it ever since. I’ve always been a fan of the traditional caprese salad (who isn’t?) and it seemed only right and natural that pasta be added to give it more heft, transforming it from an appetizer to a side dish or main course. I’ve served it as both. My only tip for you is to make sure you squirrel away a bowl or two for lunch the next day before you present the dish to your guests, there won’t be any left by the end of the meal.

The only heavy duty cooking required to make this salad is boiling the rigatoni at the end. Otherwise, the rest of the assembly can be accomplished at the lazy pace I generally prefer for summer cooking. I started assembling the salad at naptime by setting the garlic, olive oil and basil in a big bowl to marinate while I pre-chopped my mozzarella and tomatoes for later. Then I spent the rest of naptime setting the chicken in the marinade and working at my computer. After my daughter woke up she helped me dump the tomatoes into the bowl and give it another stir. I then abandoned the project for a second time, opting for a (sweltering) trip to the playground. All that was required that evening was boiling the pasta, tossing it with the garlic olive oil, cheese and tomatoes and the salad was ready. Paired with the grilled chicken, a citrusy green salad and some amazing strawberry margheritas (brought by my awesome neighbor) we all managed to enjoy a terrific, and cool, dinner on a hot summer night.

What’s Going on Today: 6am wake-up call (wha?!) from daughter, out and about eeeaaaarly. Errands around town, trip to playground, picnic lunch.
Naptime Goals: Make Vegetable Quiche for dinner tonight, catch up on things around the house and maybe take a quick nap before daughter wakes up!
Tonight’s Menu: Slice of vegetable quiche, white wine, strawberry-mint ice-cream for dessert.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: When decorating a nursery always install black-out shades.

When my daughter wakes up early and my husband tells me he’ll be at the office late I know I’m in for a long day. I don’t blame either one of them, sometimes my daughter wakes up early when the sun is especially bright, and my husband works hard at his job which often requires long hours. The only person kind of stuck in the middle of this equation is me. I want to give my daughter my full attention during the day, but I’m also responsible for the entire household and any errands or chores that need to get done.

When days like this happen I know I need to keep dinner simple and healthy. I like to Naptime Chef dishes that are delicious and fun, but not overly fussy. I also choose dishes that don’t require hours to cook since I still want some time during naptime to put my feet up. Some may wonder why it is worth cooking at all. But I know good food will keep me going well into the evening, plus cooking during naptime helps me relax in the middle of a hectic day.

When this scenario played out earlier this week I decided to make my favorite simple Vegetable Quiche. As you’ll see above, I had a lot of leftovers from my farmer’s market wares last week and didn’t want anything to go to waste. I love this recipe because it is adaptable. In this case I added some onions, fresh baby spinach, toasted pine nuts and Parmesan cheese. There have been many instances when I’ve added different greens, additional cheese and finely chopped vegetables. There are nearly endless different possibilities and I encourage you to get used to the recipe and play with the ingredients a bit to see what works best for you. Enjoy!

What’s Going on Today: Morning at the Beach!
Naptime Goals: De-sand beach bag, wash beach towels, prep Chinese Chicken Salad for dinner.
Tonight’s Menu: Char’s Chinese Chicken Salad, leftover Brownies from the beach.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: Sometimes kids panic when crabs pinch their toes!

We love living in a beach town. When the weather is hot and sunny, like it has been for the past few days, we walk a short six blocks to a beautiful stretch of sand on the Long Island Sound. Though we miss our friends in NYC, it is hard to beat spending mornings poking around tidal pools and eating picnic lunches with the sandpipers. For our beach picnic just the other day I brought classic peanut butter sandwiches – for some reason I’ve always felt the peanut butter and saltwater go well together – pretzels, mint lemonade, and a fresh batch of Barbara’s brownies.

This recipe was given to me by Uncle Kevin’s wife, Barbara. She adapted it from the manual that came with her food processor almost 30 years ago! I love these brownies because they are absolutely delicious and extremely straightforward to make. I whipped these up during my daughter’s afternoon naptime the day before our picnic. It is remarkable that they lasted through the night since my husband is a bit of a brownie maniac, but they did.

I love the taste and texture of these brownies. They are soft and chewy with a deep chocolate flavor reminiscent of a chocolate wafer cookie. Their strong taste makes them wonderful for ice-cream brownie sundaes or, alternatively, chopped up and added to homemade ice-cream. Since they are so dense and fudgy I choose to cut them up into smallish squares, I don’t need a huge portion to enjoy huge taste. I should note that instead of walnuts I used chocolate chips, but you can certainly go ahead and add the nuts if you’d prefer. Either way, they are great served warm, or cold, or at a beach picnic down the street.

What’s Going on Today: Picking up knives from new knife sharpener (!), library trip, fun in the sun, Mom’s night out!
Naptime Goals: Make Strawberry Mint Ice-Cream, organize schedule for babysitter, clean up email inbox.
Tonight’s Menu: Mom’s night out! (Dad and daughter eating leftovers)
Parenting Lesson of the Day: Introduce kids to their local library early and often, it is a wonderful place!

This week I had a really fun Mom’s night out. You all know that I love to cook for my family, but even the best of us need to go out with our friends once in a while. On the days when dinner plans are already made, I use the time I might have spent rolling meatballs to play in the kitchen. I’ll often experiment with new ice-cream flavors, baked goods and stock the pantry with some honest-to-goodness batch cooking (5lbs of homemade granola anyone?!)

I’ll get to the batch cooking later this summer, right now I am going to tell you about ice-cream. As you can see we are in full summer mode here and my cooking is beginning to reflect that. Instead of diving into my favorite cookie recipes, recently I’ve been breaking about my good ole’ Cuisinart Ice-20. For the next three months I’ll use this almost as much as I use my KitchenAid mixer, generating pint after pint of our favorite summer freezer staple.

Since we are still taking advantage of strawberry season, this week I decided to make some delicious Strawberry-Mint Ice-Cream. I love the flavor pairing of strawberry and mint, it is both refreshing and sweet. As you’ll see, I was even able to finish off the batch in full cocktail dress, wedges and all.

What’s Going on Today: Returned from high school reunion yesterday, tired but happy. Re-group with fresh groceries, playgroup, pick-up new library books.
Naptime Goals: Monday Catch-Up: Mail, laundry, general house-cleaning, put away groceries.

Tonight’s Menu: Paninis, salad, seltzer (no more wine!)
Parenting Lesson of the Day: Kids don’t have much sympathy for Mom when she’s tired.

My high school reunion was a blast, though it did make me feel a little old. Some of the younger girls at reunion were born in the late 80’s and early 90’s and had just graduated from college – what?! When did we get so old? Despite feeling slightly out of date, my classmates and I had a blast. We even held our own staying out late at a local pub catching up, something I haven’t done in ages.

The day after I got home was a typical Catch-Up Monday. There were laundry piles, bills, emails and loads of other little things to attend to. I usually have a day like this every couple of weeks. I find that dedicating one entire day to running the household seems to be the most efficient way to do things. This way I can spend a lot of time doing fun activities like going to the beach, strawberry picking or visiting local museums.

Luckily, last week when my friend Nicole came to visit she’d followed the wonderful tradition of bringing us Bread, Salt and Wine. I couldn’t have been more grateful for her thoughtfulness. With the bread still in it’s bag I decided to forgo major Naptime Chef-ing that afternoon in order to concentrate on household stuff. In the evening I used the bread to make up some yummy pressed sandwiches for all of us. As you know, I swear by paninis as a great, healthy dinner in a pinch.

My friend Cecily shared with me a cool secret she’d come up with recently to make her sandwiches even more flavorful, marinating the tomatoes. By tossing them with some balsamic vinegar, olive oil and salt the tomato flavor is enhanced and the extra oil gets soaked into the bread, giving everything a little more moisture and taste. I gave her technique a go with this sandwich and I think it works really well. We devoured these so quickly that I barely had time to take a picture. The good news is that after my Catch-Up Monday I was ready for the rest of the week. And, boy, I have some great Naptime Chef-ing planned!

What’s Going On Today: Rainy day in CT, sing-along at the beach before cloudburst, errands in the afternoon.
Naptime Goals: Strawberry-Raspberry Cobbler, roast vegetables, marinate chicken.
Tonight’s Menu: Chicken with Veggies, Cobbler (our second one this week!) with Strawberries from the farmer’s market.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: When conversing with toddlers always have a pen handy, they say the funniest things!

I have pretty much gone strawberry-crazy these days. As you’ll see above, last week my daughter and I picked 12lbs of strawberries together at a local farm. It took me two full naptimes to preserve, freeze and bake with all of the berries, and even that was barely enough time. I would have loved to have taken all weekend, but strawberries are so delicate I had to act quickly before they turned. Luckily, I managed to preserve the little rubies to the best of my ability and now have a nice stash for the rest of the year. This also means I’ll most likely be garnishing everything I make – from risotto to pancakes – all summer with my jams and syrups. My daughter seems to be game for this, as it is I’m expecting her to turn into a strawberry any second she’s eaten so many already!

When we had our barbecue last Sunday, I decided to make a fruit cobbler to bring along in addition to Uncle Will’s Ribs. I still had some fresh strawberries on hand as well as a small packet of raspberries I’d picked up at the market. It was almost a no-brainer to make a fruit cobbler during my daughter’s afternoon naptime. I washed and sliced the fruit, made the crumbly topping and popped it in the oven to bake while I prepared the meat.

I love this particular cobbler recipe because it works with almost any kind of fruit. Also, the loose oatmeal topping has a taste reminiscent of an oatmeal cookie with the added cinnamon. Of course, you can omit the spice if you’d like, but I love it. Since the heatwave was particularly awful when I made this the first time I opted to serve it with vanilla ice-cream, though whipped cream would work well, too. And, best of all, when it was finished baking I simply let it cool on the counter before taking it next door for dinner. It was the perfect make-ahead dessert. I know I’ll be making this again when we bring back a big haul of blueberries next month.

What’s Going on Today: Returning from Martha’s Vineyard with a pile of laundry and an overtired kid.
Naptime Goals: Sort through mail, laundry and fridge. Make grocery list.
Tonight’s Menu: Meatballs for Choir Boys from the freezer, Salad, Wine.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: There is nothing like a visit to the grandparents to tire kids out!

On Tuesday we returned from Memorial Day on Martha’s Vineyard with a car full of laundry and sand. It was a great vacation. As you’ll see above, our time away included amazing weather and mellow days. Our time was mostly spent browsing local art fairs and peaking into our favorite shops. These low-key activities were the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of everyday life.

This trip was our first family getaway since the move last month and we both seized the opportunity for a mental break. My husband caught up on novels and crossword puzzles while I caught up on cheesy iTunes movies. As for cooking, I mostly relied on old favorites. One day we cooked up some hot dogs, another we enjoyed some fresh scallops with pasta and, get this, our last night we even had a date night while my in-law’s babysat. (Yeah!)

I began looking forward to scallops with pasta the week before we even arrived on the Vineyard. It is one of my favorite simple dinners and I haven’t made it in a bit since I haven’t found a good fish store in CT yet. So, the minute my daughter went down for her nap I raced to The Net Result and picked up almost a pound of diver scallops for dinner. Then, instead of cooking them during the day, I waited until just before dinner and whipped up this simple and elegant meal. I hope that scallops come your way this summer and, if they do, here is one great way to enjoy them.

What’s Going on Today: Enjoying Memorial Day weekend on Martha’s Vineyard.
Naptime Goals: Whip up some Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi during naptime, pop it in the fridge until dinner. Read magazines in the sun.
Tonight’s Menu: Ricotta Gnocchi with butter and cheese, green salad, fish on the grill.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: Fresh air + sun = happy children.

Memorial Day on the Vineyard was relaxed and low-key, just the way we like it. The weather was so nice that we didn’t really want to spend any time indoors, even during naptime. In order to maximize our time at the beach, I mostly concentrated on prepping food after my daughter’s bedtime and, for dinner, I stuck to recipes that could be completed in a relatively short time-frame.

Homemade Ricotta Gnocchi is exactly one of these dishes. I make it a lot and really should have told you about it before now. To prepare the gnocchi I simply mix the four ingredients in a  bowl, form the logs and cut out the dumplings during naptime. Then I place them in plastic container and leave them, covered, in the fridge until dinner. Cooking them is amazingly easy and efficient. Bring salted water to a boil, add the gnocchi and cook them until they rise to the surface. This takes about five minutes, which is just enough time to make some browned butter with sage and get the Parmesan cheese out of the fridge.

Combined with our favorite fish from the grill and a green salad, our gnocchi rounded out a gorgeous dinner. It was also a hit with our daughter, ever the fan of anything with browned butter. Rest assured, gnocchi is not the only homemade thing I cooked over the weekend. In fact, I did an entire film about another dinner I made and will be writing about that on Thursday. Not surprisingly, the meal was also centered around some amazingly fresh seafood. I swear, there is nothing like a trip to The Net Result, our local Vineyard fish store, to signal the beginning of summer.

P.S. While you’re waiting for the next post, pop over to my blog on The Family Kitchen at Babble for the chance to win a trio of Tessa Kiros books! (The contest runs for one week.)