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Today is the day. My daughter is back in school and we are in officially in back-at-school mode. For her this means a fresh start with a new teachers and classmates. For me this means it is time to revisit our quick dinner favorites, lunch box ideas, and stock the freezer with homemade snacks. While the jist of back-to-school cooking is that meals should be fast and healthy, there is still a lot that goes into it. A lot of things I make in advance and I am always mining the freezer for sauces and herb mixes I’ve made in bulk. I draw on all of my resources to get dinner on the table every night! Luckily, the new baby is on a great new nap schedule I can return to naptime cooking, but I still have to be smart about my time with everything else on the docket. Here are a few tips for your own back-to-school cooking and our family favorites I’ll be making a lot this fall!

I am still working on a very tight back-to-school schedule so I am just stopped in with a short and sweet recipe today. We made these yesterday for my daughter to pack in her bag for snack on her first day of school. She loves corn muffins and I love the idea of her having these mini-muffins with her to curb her hunger come mid-afternoon. This recipe is super easy and lots of fun to make with kids. It makes a regular batch of muffins but you can easily double it and freeze a huge bag like I did. To all you parents out there packing the kids off to school this week and next…good luck!

Earlier this month we spent almost three weeks in Cooperstown and it was pure heaven. We stayed with my parents and spent as much time as possible enjoying their garden, all the wonderful restaurants, and, of course, swimming in Lake Otsego. I love lake living in the summer. It is so simple and refreshing. This year the water was a little cool due to the all cooler nights we had, but that didn’t deter us from being completely waterlogged by the end of the day. Here is a peak at some of the fun summer things we did, including an update on our favorite spots from a few years ago:

Art by the Lake: This was one of our newest favorite activities this year. For one day many of my favorite local artists like Mary Nolan and Tracey Helgeson were in a big tent on the Fenimore Art Museum lawn. I popped the baby in the baby backpack and we wandered from stall-to-stall while my daughter took part in the kids arts and craft activity in the center of the tent. There was even a local jazz trio and a food “truck” from Origins Cafe, the cafe started at our favorite nursery by the daughters of the owner.

One of the chief complaints among foodie Cooperstonians is that there is a dearth of gourmet food shops in the area. In fact, the closest place they can buy things like fancy cheeses and exotic produce is 90 miles northeast in Albany. To counter that, however, there is a vast expanse of farmland and the farmer’s market is truly one-in-a-million. So, while I’ve been here this month I’ve been enjoying all kinds of delicious corn, squash, tomatoes, and fruit. I haven’t, however, been able to find a single interesting or exotic mushroom. It is sliced cremini, portabello, or nothing at all.

Last month I got my first pizzelle maker from Wayfair and used it to make ice cream sandwiches. The recipe I started with produced cookies too thick to eat on their own but were perfect for frozen treats. Since then my Mom and I have been hard at work testing and re-testing pizzelle recipes to find the perfect one. We like our pizzelles thin and a little crisp and after some online research concluded that butter, not oil, was the key to our pizzelle-making success!

I am a big fan of preserving. Over the years I’ve written about many of my favorite jams, jellies, and pickles and I’ve linked to the recipes below. I even included a few never-seen-here canning recipes in my cookbook. In addition to my own recipes, I am a devotee of Marisa McClellan’s blog, Food in Jars, and cookbook of the same name. I also frequently consult my Ball Blue Book and Well-Preserved for recipes and answers to my myriad of canning questions. I’m fairly sure preserving is one of those things I’ll always practice but never master. The nuances of each recipe and idiosyncrasies of produce ensure that no canning batch is ever truly a slam dunk. Every year at least one or two variables has to be adjusted to accommodate sour fruit or soggy cukes. No two batches are ever exactly the same. Which is exactly why I love it.

At the end of July I snuck out to Martha’s Vineyard for two nights to visit my in-laws. There are so many great things to do on the island but we didn’t have a lot of time. One of the things we made a priority this year was a visit to the ArtCliff Food Truck.  The ArtCliff Diner is an institution on Martha’s Vineyard. It has been there since the beginning of time and serves the best food ever. Okay, not quite the beginning of time, but it has been there since I remember. Since it isn’t open for dinner a few years ago it started the food truck to serve up a few popular diner-like eats with a smile.

Today I am thrilled that my dear friend Lori of Recipe Girl has stopped in to chat about her awesome new cookbook. I have been a huge fan of Lori’s for years. Her website is gorgeous and she is has a truly extensive recipe database. Her new book is equally as wonderful. It is chock full of Recipe Girl favorites, and a whole bunch of new recipes too! If you want your own copy of her book she is generously giving one away…details below!

One of my favorite parts about summer is casual family gatherings. I love the spontaneity of getting together with a family or two, having some casual eats and kicking back. Last week we did just that before we left for our annual summer trip to Cooperstown. My neighbors and I picked a back yard to meet in, loaded up the coolers with some drinks, and all contributed a few eats to the buffet. Since the gathering was mostly kids I decided to make an old summer favorite, a chocolate cookie icebox cake.

I am taking a little break from the regularly scheduled food programming today to talk fitness. I am in the middle of a fairly intense fitness regime to lose the baby weight and get back in shape. It is going well, but I still have a little bit further to go. My goal is to be comfortably back in my skinny jeans by Thanksgiving. It takes a while for the bod to bounce back post-baby! The good news is that I have lots of reasons to stay motivated. I love it when my clothes fit a little better each week, plus I have a few killer workout outfits I feel good wearing. My most recent fave is from this cool company that focuses expressly on women’s fitness and swimwear called Albion Fit.

I know, I know, here I go with the rhubarb again. What can I say, I am addicted. I have a problem with stewed, sweetened rhubarb. This decadent breakfast treat came about last weekend when I was eating my strawberry rhubarb skillet jam out of the jar with a spoon. I wanted to eat it for breakfast on toast, but my daughter wanted french toast, so I decided to combine my ideas into one dish and make Strawberry Rhubarb Stuffed French Toast. Yes, sometimes I even amaze myself at my 7am culinary capabilities.

One of the things I buy the most at our local farmer’s market is berries. Strawberry, blueberries, raspberries, you name it, I love them. Since the season is fairly fleeting in the Northeast I buy as many as I can and preserve a whole bunch for winter. I also freeze a few bags worth, and then eat the rest! Last week I had the pleasure of interviewing Alison Sweeney about blueberries and how she incorporates them into her active lifestyle. I really like Alison and her positive, healthy message on behalf of her work with the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council which is why I am sharing it with you today.