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I will admit, I was a tad skeptical when I received a T-Fal Actifry machine in the mail in December. I am not a fan of deep frying, especially since I am now concentrating on losing the baby weight. However, the claim of the Actifry was intriguing. Could this machine really make ALL the dishes in the book while using minimal amounts of oil to keep them on the healthy side?  Why was Oprah telling the world that that machine changed her life when she is not a paid spokesperson? I always thought machines like this were strictly for making donuts and french fries – delicious, but most unhealthy. Curious, I put the machine to the test last weekend.

I am lucky enough to have grown up with a mother who is a knitter. Not just an occasional craft knitter, the real deal hand knit sweaters and afghans every winter kind of knitter. She is the kind of person who can knit in front of the television without ever looking down at what she is doing – that is how good she is. Not only does she knit for herself and her kids, she also knits at quite an astonishing pace for her grandchildren. My kids have multiple baby blankets, not a mention an amazing collection of handmade hats, sweaters, ponchos, and more. When she was visiting earlier this month she even measured my daughter’s stuffed dogs to make them each hand knit coats (!) One of my favorite things she has made my children are these adorable knit animals. She makes one for my daughter every year and now she has started making them for my son.

There are three things I missed when I was pregnant: wine, raw milk cheeses, and oysters with mignonette sauce. I didn’t really care about missing out on raw fish since I am not a big sushi eater, and I couldn’t have cared less about the minimal caffeine guidelines since I can barely stomach more than a milky latte three times a week. I just really missed sipping a glass of wine while nibbling on a yummy cheese plate (my favorite no-cook dinner!), and ordering the occasional oyster platter with my husband on date night. Today, to celebrate Valentine’s Day AND my return to non-pregnant status I am celebrating with a Valentine’s Day champagne cocktail, a trio of delicious cheeses from our amazing local cheese shop, and the promise of oysters the next time we go out.

Today I am psyched to be hosting a great giveaway for Angie’s Kettle Corn. I recently received a huge box of it in the mail and my whole family fell in love with its awesome salty/sugar taste. It reminded me of the popcorn I used to get at the movie theaters in Scotland when they would ask if we wanted sugar tossed in the already salted popcorn. I always said yes – it was so delish! Today Angie’s is generously offering a pack of 20 popcorn snack bags that should be enough to be taken into a child’s classroom for a special snack. If you can’t take it to school it would also be great for a playdate treat or for putting in birthday party gift bags!

To enter to win a package of Kettle Corn for your child’s classroom (contains 20 7-ounce bags of corn):

1) Leave a comment sharing your favorite Valentine’s tradition with kids.

2) Subscribe to Kelsey Banfield on Facebook

3) Subscribe to The Naptime Chef newsletter on the upper right hand corner of the page.

4) Contest runs from February 13th at 12:00pm ET through February 20th at 11:59PM ET. Winner will be announced in the February 22nd newsletter!

I am frequently asked about preparing fish on weeknights. It seems a lot of people think that seafood needs such special handling that it should be reserved for cooking on weekends or nights without time constraints. I always beg to differ with this opinion, preparing seafood for a quick weeknight meal is so easy! One of the ways we enjoy seafood on any given evening is by picking up frozen fish that has already been prepped like this Tortilla Crusted Tilapia from Sea Cuisine. It is not that I am trying to skirt preparing the fish, it is just that Sea Cuisine actually takes the time to prepare the fish correctly and the flavors are delicious. Plus, it is a company I can stand behind since they fiercely committed to sustainability, a cause that is deeply important to me.

Today I am thrilled to be chatting with one of my all-time favorite bloggers and published authors, Luisa Weiss of The Wednesday Chef. In case you missed it, last spring Luisa’s first book, My Berlin Kitchen: A Love Story (with Recipes), was released. It is a terrific food memoir (foodoir?) that chronicles her life to date beginning with her young childhood in Berlin, Germany. I won’t give away all the stories in the book, but suffice it to say Luisa has spent her life living around the globe, finding love and solace in her kitchen, and is currently – happily – living in Berlin with her husband and infant son.

I loved this book not only for the rich storytelling but also the uniquely German and American recipes. I’ve earmarked so many things to try and am specifically hoping to master the Elderflower syrup and Springerle cookies before the year is out. Luckily for us, Luisa stopped by to answer some questions and give away one of her books!

1) I love the food memoir format of your book. Did you ever debate about writing a cookbook, or did it always seem like a memoir was the right format for you?
When I first started thinking about writing a book, I did consider a cookbook, but I was never really sure what the angle would be. On my blog, after all, I mostly write about other people’s recipes. In fact, it felt like I had far more personal stories to share than recipes, so eventually a memoir wiggled its way out of me. In retrospect, it made a lot of sense and I’m glad that my agent saw the potential in me. I needed a little convincing! I wasn’t sure anyone would really want to read about my journey.

Oho, was there ever. I’d say there was probably about a year of feeling utterly stuck. I’d left New York and was adjusting to life in Berlin during a very long, harsh winter. All the plans I had for writing went straight out the window. I think deep down I was just plain scared – terrified – of the hard work that lay before me. There were a LOT of truly awful chapters and then a lot of time in which nothing got written. It was so scary! Luckily, my publisher gave me time and eventually the weather got better (haha) and I started my own internal creative thaw. But there were many hard moments – writing a book is what I imagine what running a marathon is like. Episodes of total runner’s high and episodes of utter torture.

At the moment, I’m very happy to be in Berlin. I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be, which is epic – it’s what I was looking for my whole life. That being said, I like to daydream about spending a few years in southern California, where it’s always warm and sunny.

All of the positive reviews and letters have been absolutely amazing, but my favorite thing is to hear from readers with similarly mish-mashed background who say that no one has ever been able to sum up their experience so succinctly or authentically and that reading my book made them feel less alone. Those are the letters that bring tears to my eyes – it can be a little lonely growing up this way and I’m so glad to hear that my book gave comfort to others. It’s really incredibly gratifying.

My favorite food memoirs are Cooking For Mr. Latte by Amanda Hesser, Tender at the Bone and Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl, A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg and Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. My favorite cookbooks? It’s hard to make a list, since I have so many favorites. But at the moment, I’m really loving Nigel Slater’s latest book, Kitchen Diaries II, and at night I’ve been curling up with The Little House Cookbook that I got for my birthday from a dear friend. It’s so cozy and reminds me of reading The Little House in the Big Woods and falling in love with Laura Ingalls Wilder as a kid.

Thank you! I’m home with Hugo full-time so he’s exposed to my American side all day long: we listen to Ella Jenkins, Pete Seeger and Natalie Merchant, I read him my favorite English-language baby books, plus there will be a few trips a year to see his grandparents in the US and I hope to send him to a bilingual daycare/school here in Berlin when the time comes. His dad’s in charge of his German side, though of course since he’s growing up here, he won’t need as much helping along with that.

Baked goods! I’d like to find a more attractive term for the stuff, but desserts isn’t accurate, since German sweet baking encompasses breakfast and tea time too. The German/Austrian baking tradition is unparalleled in the world! From strudel to doughnuts to rustic yeasted fruit pies to towering tortes to myriad Christmas cookies to fruit bread and braided sweet loaves, nut-studded breakfast buns, marzipan confections and more – it’s an entire universe.

Ooh, I don’t know just yet! A book of some kind, yes, though I swore up and down I’d never write again after I finished My Berlin Kitchen. We’ll see. Hopefully I’ll know more in the next few months. (Editor’s note: please, please write another book!!!)

To win a copy of My Berlin Kitchen:

1) Leave a comment below sharing your favorite German food!

2) Contest runs from February 12th through February 19th at 7:00am. Winner will be announced in the February 22nd newsletter! Good luck!

While I like the general sentiment of Valentine’s Day we don’t get overly involved in crazy gift-giving. Instead, we like to stick to sweet simple gifts, homemade crafted items and home cooked meals. This year I plan on making these awesome individual chocolate caramel lava cakes for our Valentine’s Day dessert. (It is anyone’s guess whether we’ll be celebrating while both kids are asleep or with a wide-awake newborn sitting alongside the table in a swing!) Either way, these cakes are so much simpler than they look. They come together in a snap and always look impressive when “dressed up” for the table.

I like to think of Valentine’s Day as a holiday that is meant to be fun and sweet. In our house we try to stick to thoughtful gifts, especially of the homemade variety, that don’t come with high price tags. Here are some of my favorite gift ideas for family and friends. They are all really fun to give and are especially appropriate for foodies! (Stay tuned tomorrow for a fun Valentine’s Day giveaway where you can win gifts for your child’s classroom!)

This cute cookbook art print from Food52, because any foodie would love this on their wall!

Plan a date with your partner! Wrap up a wedge of his or her favorite stinky cheese and attach a gift certificate for a cheese class. My husband and I took a beginners cheese class at Murray’s a few years ago and had such a blast! (photo: Blue Mountain Gorgonzola from Murray’s Cheese)

A selection of homemade jams from Maiden Preserves would be perfect for Mom, or your generous friend who set up the amazing dinner meal train after your new baby was born. (photo: Maiden Preserves jams)

This vintage-style apron would be so pretty monogrammed “Nana” or whatever your children call their grandparents. (photo: IceMilk Aprons)

A few pints of custom ice cream for your Dad who’s love of ice cream is so legendary people always keep it in their freezer for when he visits.

The Anatole books by Eve Titus for your child who is obsessed with France, cheese, and talking animals. (hint: the mouse works at fromagerie!)

Lately, perhaps more than ever, I have been really appreciating my iPad. In the past I’ve had a lot of fun playing with cooking apps and using it for email, but these days it has become a lifeline. I am on it day and night, not only for email, but to keep up with the outside world, order baby products, and pretty much organize my whole life.  Here are of the few the apps I’ve been relying on the this year. I am curious, do have any apps or websites you rely on?

Artkive: Because pre-school is a never-ending art project. I love all my daughter’s artwork. But if we saved every piece we would have to lease a storage unit! This cool app allows us to photograph and store everything digitally. Later on we can have it made into a printed book. There is also a feature that gives me the option to share the artwork with anyone I want via email. Genius!

Today I am having a fun chat with my friends Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs from Food52 about the second volume in their award-winning cookbook series. You may remember that last year I was thrilled to feature the first Food52 cookbook on the blog since I had three (!) recipes printed in it! I don’t have any recipes in the second book, The Food52 Cookbook, Volume 2: Seasonal Recipes from Our Kitchens to Yours,  but I am still completely enamored of the content. The recipes, organized by season, are all winners of the Food52 weekly contests and are lauded for everything from their complete originality (Savory Salt & Pepper French Toast) to their tasteful simplicity (Clementine Pound Cake).

Earlier this month we were having a lot of discussions on Facebook about food I was making and freezing in preparation for baby’s arrival. I also shared how I prepared my pantry for the next month when I won’t have the flexibility to dash to the grocery store like I usually do. Since I am now on the other side of all this I thought I’d share how things are going, what we are eating, and what people are bringing. I hope these help answer a lot of your questions regarding food suggestions for things to bring new parents! If you need more ideas check out my New Parents & Potlucks category in my recipe index. I will also definitely be including a chapter on New Parent Food in the next book. So if you have any requests for recipes or cuisines or food for special diets you’d like to see please let me know and I will do my best to accommodate!

I always struggle with the proper balance of screen time for my preschooler. My husband and I generally lean toward keeping her exposure fairly limited. Like most things with kids, we think (hope) that if it comes in measured amounts it will be constructive in all the right ways. For example, she is obsessed with the iPad. So, when we let her play with it we make sure she gets engaged with an age-appropriate learning game. We were pretty psyched when she got interested in maps based on Stack the States and she ended up asking for a globe for her birthday.  As for movies, she likes all the normal ones for her age. I can never deny her the classic Mary Poppins late on a snowy Saturday afternoon. I remember loving that movie as much as she does. It is especially poignant for me when she dances around the room to the soundtrack and sings the songs from memory.

Lemonade Stand from Olive Us on Vimeo.

To that end I’ve become totally enamored with the Olive Us web series by Design Mom. I have to admit, we started watching Season 1 long before I even knew the Mom, aka Gabrielle Blair, was a blogger. A fellow Babble blogger, no less. Ooops! Now I’ve become addicted to reading the Design Mom website as well. Anyway, my daughter and I have watched every single episode multiple times and I frequently post them on my Facebook page to encourage you all to do the same. These cute five minute vignettes chronicle the six Blair children and their adventures in France and Colorado. I love that they focus on interesting children-centric activities in a way that motivates the watcher to get up and go try it herself. For example, my daughter has already made hand cookies with her own Mere-Mere and she is begging me to find a farm where we can collect our own eggs. Once we are done with that she would like to try her hand at pottery. Whew – I am tired just thinking about it! But I am psyched to see her interested in all of these cool topics.

Above you’ll find our favorite episode about the lemonade stand. I already have a string of real burgees and my brother’s old railroad lanterns set aside for next summer when I’m sure you’ll find us on our corner setting up something similar!