What’s Going on Today: Cold, cold, cold. Edit book manuscript, keep the kiddo entertained indoors.

Naptime Goals: Assemble Eggplant Involtini, laundry, house cleaning, emails

Tonight’s Menu: Eggplant Involtini (Deconstructed), Salad

More Great Meatless Entrees: Artichoke-Lemon Pesto with Pasta, Artichoke Lasagna, Eggplant Parmesan, Caprese Pasta Salad, Spanish Garlic Soup, Tomato Soup Florentine, Sweet Potato & Lentil Stew

It is easy to get sucked in to cooking lots of hearty, meaty dishes in the deep of winter. Last week I posted two (2!) recipes for short ribs, twice as many as I published last summer. I think it is some part of my biological make up that I prefer hot heavy food in the winter, and cool light food in the summer. Since I go to the gym regularly I seem to be able to handle this sort of eating pattern. If it ever gets to the point where I can’t zip my jeans you’d better believe I’ll tone it way down, real fast. But, for now, I’ll stick to my warm winter casseroles and slow-cooker recipes in January and love every minute of it.

Today’s recipe was inspired my devotion to the idea of Meatless Mondays. (The movement to eat an entirely vegetarian diet at least one day a week in order to save the planet.) It was also inspired by my fondness for vegetarian food in general, particularly my undying devotion to eggplants. Which, frankly, is a love only outdone by my obsession with artichokes! Luckily, I married a man who joins me in the eggplant eating corner so he is always up for whatever I have in store. In this case, I decided to give my favorite Nigella Eggplant Involtini recipe a twist, or, rather, an untwist, and deconstruct it for a great make-ahead dinner. I grilled up the long strips of eggplant, mixed the delicate bulgur wheat/feta/pistachio stuffing and… stopped there.

It’s been a long while since I wrote a Travel Series. The only reason is because it’s been a long time since I traveled. I’ve been sticking to my regular Cooperstown, Martha’s Vineyard, Sag Harbor, Charleston and Florida travel rotation for the past two years. Not bad, I know, but my husband and I were in the mood for change recently and decided to spend the weekend up in Boston. My daughter spent the weekend being spoiled by her grandparents while we had a blast eating and relaxing around Beantown.

The first meal we ate in Boston was a delicious brunch at the South End Buttery. The South End is without a doubt my favorite emerging neighborhood in Boston. If I were to live in Boston that is the neighborhood I would choose. It reminded me a lot of the Upper West Side, my old stomping grounds in NYC. I’d read about the South End Buttery and we couldn’t wait to give it a try. We ate in the subterranean room of the restaurant, enjoying the cozy club-like atmosphere on such a cold day. My Huevos Rancheros were out of this world, while my husband devoured his decadent Eggs Benedict. On our way out we grabbed some cookies, Peanut Butter Reece’s Pieces for me, Chocolate Walnut Chunk for him, before hitting the town for a long walk to the movie theater for a matinee of The King’s Speech. Those cookies are still haunting me. Don’t be surprised if you see that peanut butter cookie recipe here soon!

This is the latest installment of my Tales from the Trenches Series. An ongoing series where friends and readers share their stories and recipes about the great food they fit into family life. We all have tips and tricks to share with each other: when we cook, what we cook and how we cook the delicious food we love to eat. If you are interested in contributing a story and recipe please feel free to contact me. Today Lisa, a Texas transplant living in New York City, is sharing her go-to recipe for the homestyle Texas chicken tacos she makes after work with her family. She is a busy working Mom but still maintains her love of cooking. Lisa happens to work at Ellen Hanson Designs. Do you remember when Ellen herself shared her recipe for amazing Chicken Curry? As you can see by the photographs (taken by their friend Kristy Knight) this is a design firm with plenty of talent. When I saw these photographs (turns out the whole office ate tacos for lunch after the photo shoot) I told them they ought to add a food blog to their website!

A popular fall back for unprepared parents is the TACO night. At our house, taco night is chicken tacos with rice and beans garnished with shredded red cabbage, avocados and lime slices.  We always add grated cheese and sour cream (or yogurt). My five year old son has had the job of chief grater since the day he could hold himself up on the kitchen stool. Being good Texan transplants, we keep corn and flour tortillas stocked in our crisper drawer. This dish is fun to put together as a family, and it works well if you have no meat in the house  – you can sauté almost anything, and if you wrap it in a tortilla with cheese it will taste good!

Please come over here to learn about The Cooperstown Club, my entry and in the Tyson Chicken Sandwich Challenge! I need your vote! Best of all, the winner gets a donation to their favorite charity. Mine charity of choice is Socks-n-Undies Sunday!

In the mood for an amazing set of pasta bowls from Williams-Sonoma and some terrific goodies from Crate & Barrel? Come over and check out this post about the new Crisco Mediterranean Recipe contest and enter to win all of this, and more, for yourself! It is as simple as leaving a comment and stopping in to say Hi. Read Full Post…

What’s Going on Today: Catching up after the weekend in Boston! Back to work on the book.

Naptime Goals: Unload groceries, set up the slow-cooker, ignore it until dinner time!

Tonight’s Menu: Slow-Cooker Short Ribs Pronvencale, Egg Noodles and Salad.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: A little time away is good for everyone.

Last weekend my husband and I spent the first weekend without our daughter since she was born. We went to Boston while she stayed, happily, with her grandparents. We missed her a lot, but I think the time alone was most sane thing we’ve done in a long while. We really needed a break from our routine. We ate what we wanted when we wanted, went to movies, explored Boston (travel series to come soon) and even took some time to do pretty much nothing. There was no schedule, no extra noise, just peace and quiet with each other. Of course, we were happy to have our reunion on Monday. I was thrilled to give my little bug a big hug and kiss and listen to all of her stories about time with Nana.

When we arrived home late Monday night the house was clean and oddly peaceful, even when we had rolled our bags upstairs and deposited laundry all over the bedrooms. It seemed we had managed to bring our aura of calm happiness back home with us and I didn’t want to spoil it too quickly by snapping into my usual Type-A Mom mode. So, instead of writing up several shopping lists and embarking on a mega-grocery trip that evening, I spent 15 minutes at the store buying just enough to get us by for a few days. A bigger grocery trip could wait.

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

Today’s Powernap Situation: Too many Clementines, what to do?

The only problem with Clementines is that there are so many in each bag. I mean, really, I don’t need 3 dozen fruits for three people. However, my daughter loves Clementines so I buy the big bag anyway and force my husband to take some to work while I gulp down equal amounts with every meal. I found this strategy of eating them in mass quantities is the best way to guarantee none will have a chance to rot and be thrown out. I hate wasting good food. I’ve baked with Clementines before but find that recipes usually only call for two or three of them. Not enough to make a significant dent in my bowl. Plus, it means adding more sweets to my day, not necessarily the healthiest way to enjoy fruit.

Last week I was staring at a near full bowl of Clemmies (my daughter’s name for them) knowing we were leaving on a trip in less than 48 hours. I wondered, could I slice them in half, sprinkle them with sugar and broil them like I did with oranges and grapefruits for a quick nutritious dessert? Would their juices caramelize enough that I could use some to make a delicious caramelized citrus vinaigrette?

This is the 10th installment of my Tales from the Trenches Series. An ongoing series where friends and readers share their stories and recipes about the great food they fit into family life. We all have tips and tricks to share with each other: when we cook, what we cook and how we cook the delicious food we love to eat. If you are interested in contributing a story and recipe please feel free to contact me. Today my friend Gina is sharing her New Year’s Resolution and how it has affected her cooking style in the New Year. Gina and I immediately connected over the point that she never, ever sacrifices cooking delicious food just because she has such a busy family life. There is always a way to fit it in, and this is how she does it!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have something to confess: I am to cookbooks what Imelda Marcos is to shoes.  I own WAY too many.  It’s true: I have rarely met a cookbook I didn’t like, and my rather vast collection is threatening to take over my house and force my family to find alternative living arrangements.   And while I cook and bake constantly, it seemed that I owned an awful lot of books with great recipes that had never seen the light of day.  In order to justify owning so many cookbooks, I made a New Year’s resolution this year to get them off the bookshelves and start using them on a weekly basis.  While the blog, book and movie “Julie and Julia” has inspired a growing number of food blogs devoted to cooking from one book from start to finish, I chose instead to select recipes from a wide variety of books and hopefully remind myself why I bought the book in the first place.

Here I’m sharing a new favorite recipe for braised short ribs from “Urban Italian” by Andrew Carmellini, a fantastic book with wonderful stories and recipes by one of New York’s most talented chefs.  Braises are great for this time of year and perfect for starting early in the day as they usually require a few hours of advance cooking before they’re ready to serve.  And while my two children are admittedly a few years beyond the napping stage, I still use the afternoon hours to get a head start on dinner since my side job as family chauffeur usually interferes with any last minute dinner preparations.

What’s Going on Today: Shoveling, sledding, laundry, more shoveling.

Naptime Goals: Peel garlic cloves, cut up the chicken, write Babble columns.

Tonight’s Menu: Mistral’s Chicken, creamy polenta, arugula salad.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: Pulling them in the sled can be quite a workout!

There is something about snowstorms that sends me running for my dutch oven. It is like the cold weather triggers some deep seeded need for rich, homey food that is piping hot and packed with flavor. Luckily, when this happened during the snowstorm in Connecticut last weekend I had a roaster chicken and my camera at the ready. As the flakes fell on Friday night visions of tender roast chicken and porridge-like polenta danced in my head. A meal that was hearty, but not heavy; flavorful, but not overwhelmingly so.