Columns

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. To my friend Adelaide Mueller is sharing her easy recipe for delicious Fettuccini alla Vodka and Caesar Salad. The recipes can be prepared ahead of time (like during naptime!) and assembled right before dinner. Adelaide frequently fits cooking and easy entertaining into after-work hours and weekends. She is trained in French cuisine and tests recipes for blogs and cookbooks (like mine, for example!), while also writing her own blog The Moonlight Chef.

Like many people, my husband and I rush through the week in anticipation of the weekend.  We occasionally get to eat dinner at home maybe once or twice a week, but with work and other commitments, we don’t get to do this as often as we’d like. Oftentimes, on a crazed night, we’ll stop by our favorite neighborhood pizza spot or Korean restaurant.  And on the weekends, we’ll often meet friends out.  So when we do get to pull up chairs to our own table, light the candles and fold the linen napkins, I like to make something special and involved.

For a long time, Citarella’s vodka sauce was our favorite weekend meal.  Spooned on top of pasta and topped with freshly shredded Parmesan cheese, it made us happy. As I began to feel more confident and comfortable creating my own recipes, I decided to take on our preferred jar of pasta sauce. Once I figured out what made this sauce so delicious (heavy cream, high-quality canned whole tomatoes, a splash of vodka) and the texture so unique (cubed pancetta, delicate leaves of basil and strings of onions) I went to the stove.

What’s Going on Today: Lazy Saturday morning at home.

Naptime Goals: Wrap up book recipe testing, catch up with husband after being away last week.

Tonight’s Menu: Book recipe (shhh! can’t tell)

Last week I was trolling my mother’s recipe box for new ideas and pulled out this recipe for pancakes. She smiled broadly when I asked her about it which I took as a sign to prepare myself for warm family stories about how my grandmother used to make them for her and her siblings growing up. But, instead, she told me how she used to make the pancake batter when she visited my elderly grandmother, Harriet, once a week, and how Harriet would use the batter to make herself three pancakes each morning all week long. My mother would repeat this batter-making process at her visit the following week, and so on, enabling Harriet to make fresh pancakes for herself for years on end. In short, these weren’t the food of my mother’s childhood, they were the food of my grandmother’s widowhood.

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: Need insta-satisfying salty snack, preferebly not laden with calories.

Like most people, I am often faced with instant gratification snack dilemma: I want a salty snack right this second (!!), but not a boat load of calories. Everyone touts the benefits of snacking on vegetables. But, I’ll be honest, I rarely consider vegetables a satisfying snack unless they are roasted and placed atop a garlic rubbed crostini. For quick mid-day snacks I usually crave something salty and crunchy, like potato chips or crisp french friends. The only problem with those is that they are not known for being bathing suit friendly, and with summer approaching I need to be mindful of my waistline! When faced with my snack dilemma the other day I had to think fast. Last week I OD’d on Dorie’s delicious buttery Jammer cookies and knew I needed to dial it down this week to compensate for the several sticks of butter I’d already ingested. Enter spiced popcorn.

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 my friend Jaime from the blog Prep Ahead and Dine In is sharing her amazing slow-cooker stew and french bread recipe!

Life with our three little girls is fabulously busy!  Preschool drop offs, dance carpools, Girl Scouts, story hours, play dates and MORE! There’s never a dull (or quiet) moment around here! The hours before dinner, better known in this house as “the witching hour,” prohibit the required chopping, sautéing, stirring and other necessary prep work that comes with serving a family dinner.  However, sitting down each night, all together, to a home cooked meal is of utmost importance to us. Family dinners give our daily lives shape. They force us to slow down, linger, and connect instead of moving on to the next “to do” list item.  Admittedly, finding the time and recipes necessary to facilitate this daily gathering is a challenge I rise to meet daily.  It comes easier for me now, but that wasn’t always the case.

The Rose Sculptures on Park Avenue

Last week I had a couple days of play time in New York. Well, I can’t say it was all play, I did squeeze in a dentist appointment, but I didn’t let a little teeth cleaning get in the way of my fun. The neat part about my New York adventure is that it spanned the course of two days. I miss living in my old Upper West Side neighborhood so much that it was a real treat to come in one evening for dinner and then back the next morning for breakfast. It was like being back home again!

Tuesday:

3:21pm: Scramble to make the Metro North train to Grand Central. Because of the snow storms several of the trains are out of commission and the regular train schedule is reduced making everything so much harder. Make the train by the skin of my teeth and it is smooth sailing from there. Use the train ride to catch up on emails, Facebook and Twitter. All this technology time makes me wonder what I ever did before blackberries were invented?!

4:40pm: Arrive at Grand Central later than planned because of an unexpected rail stop in the Bronx. Dash to catch a cab to meet Cara & Phoebe for coffee at City Bakery. I am so excited that their new book cover is on Amazon. Everyone start pre-ordering tout suite! The three of us try to meet up every few months to shoot the breeze and catch up on life. It is also a good excuse to indulge in the offerings at City Bakery. It is one of my favorite spots in the flatiron district – I lived 7 blocks away for 6 years! – and I am deeply devoted to the pretzel croissants and hot chocolate.



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 my friend Nicole is sharing her recipe for Chicken Pot Pie that she has deconstructed to help it appeal to her children. Not only is Nicole a home cook to boot – we regularly swap recipes and you will definitely see a few of hers in the cookbook – but she also runs a full-time business in New York City. She knows a thing or two about preparing food ahead of time, like in the morning before work or making dinners on the weekends and freezing them for the week. Just look at this Pot Pie recipe, it is perfect for children and adults and comes with freezing instructions!

I didn’t grow up in a casserole household.  I think my mother, having experienced her fair share of casseroles as a child (and, I assume, not positively), made a very conscious choice to steer clear of any dishes calling for canned cream of mushroom soup. So, it was more than three years into my marriage to my husband before I made my first foray the world of “one dish wonders” prompted by my husband’s request for chicken pot pie.

When the request came, one cold Sunday afternoon, I admit to feeling stumped. It seemed too easy.  But, as this was a pre-kids, lazy weekend afternoon, I had plenty of time to explore for recipes.  I poured over cookbooks, scanned the internet, and began experimenting that night.

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: Make a delicious, decadent breakfast for my daughter and husband with my snazzy new waffle maker!

This week I am all about my new heart shaped waffle maker. Can you tell? If you want a waffle maker like this be sure to stop by this post on my Products Review page to enter to win one! After you’ve done that come back and we can talk waffles. Chocolate Malt Waffles to be specific. Today’s Powernap is brought to your courtesy of my sweet tooth. Sure, I love poached eggs on toast for breakfast, too, but why not go hog wild for Valentine’s Day! Who wouldn’t love to wake up to a stack of waffles with thin slices of strawberries and whipped cream. I know I would!

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 Melinda is sharing a great recipe for Tetrazzini she makes for her family. And, speaking of family, I’d like to congratulate my friend Cheryl Tan on the publication of her family food memoir, “A Tiger in the Kitchen.” Today a group of bloggers are celebrating Cheryl’s book and I am thrilled to be included.

Melinda Nelson is the editor of Minneapolis-St.Paul Home magazine and the mother of India, age 13, and Peter, age 16. Given the demands of work, school, snowboarding, skiing and other sports, Melinda loves simple but satisfying entrees that can be made ahead on weekends, refrigerated or frozen and heated on busy weekday evenings. Tetrazzini, a baked pasta dish made with cooked, chopped meat, spaghetti noodles, and a savory white sauce, is a favorite of Melinda’s family and friends.

According to San Francisco legend, the recipe was created at the Palace Hotel by a chef named Ernest Arbogast for Luisa Tetrazzini, an Italian opera singer who lived, Eloise-style, at the hotel for many years. “The original version was extremely decadent, with heavy cream, sautéed mushrooms and sliced almonds, but I prefer a slightly lighter version, made with milk and without mushrooms or nuts,” Melinda says. “You can also find recipes for Tetrazzini that call for canned cream of chicken soup and bouillon, but I’ll never be that short of time!”

What’s Going on Today: Manic Monday, pre-school spring social auction meeting, gym, groceries, weekend laundry!

Naptime Goals: Make dumplings, assemble soup in slow-cooker and brainstorm for school fundraiser ideas.

Tonight’s Menu: Sausage & Spinach Soup with Cornmeal Dumplings, cheese toast.

More Great Slow-Cooker Recipes from Project Sam: Spicy Sausage Slow-Cooker Lasagna, Slow-Cooker Short Ribs Pronvencale.

The snowbank at the end of our driveway stands one foot higher than my SUV. I have been known to exaggerate from time to time, but I can assure you that is not the case here. If we get one more flake of snow before this stuff melts I am buying a one-way ticket south, as in Mexico-south, and kissing away shovels forever. You’ll know I’ve made good on this threat when I start writing about the naptime margaritas I make in my beach shack while my daughter naps in a hammock strung up between palm trees! I think after I’m finished writing this I might research affordable plane tickets. However, until my tropical beach dwelling fantasy comes true, you can still find me here, in snowy Connecticut, digging my daughter out of snow piles and slow-cooking up a storm.

This week I decided to work on a hot soup recipe for Project Sam. I was inspired to make it after reading the January Bon Appetit issue about winter greens. Unfortunately, the winter greens required for the recipe managed to elude me at the store, so I used baby spinach instead. The rest of the ingredients were basic and easy to find and the resulting meal was just the balm I needed to soothe my frazzled and frozen nerves.

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: I needed a cake to showcase the flavor of Meyer lemons for my lemon-loving parents.

My parents came to visit last week and we had a blast together. I loved showing them around our new town and watching them enjoy their granddaughter. You should have seen her face when they surprised her at school pick-up! Cooking-wise I had some fun, too.  During the course of their visit I gave them a preview of a few book recipes and treated them to some flavors they can’t get locally in Cooperstown. For example, my Mom can’t find Meyer lemons in upstate New York so I had baked her this Meyer lemon cake. It was inspired by my friend Merry’s cake recipe, though I tweaked the flavorings and used my favorite Fiori de Sicilia from King Arthur Flour in lieu of several other extracts. It was the perfect treat for snowy winter visit. This spring when they come back I’ll take them to our farmer’s market and we’ll bake with something with fresh strawberries!

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’s Tales from the Trenches is from Amy Roche.  Amy and her husband are originally from Minnesota, and now live in Pasadena, California.  After graduating from college in 1997, Amy went to California with Teach For America.  She still teaches in inner-city Los Angeles.  She is currently working half-time as a reading intervention specialist at an elementary school in East L.A.  They have one daughter, Camilla who is two years old and usually naps!

I hit the mother-in-law jackpot when I married my husband.  Grandma Coco as she’s now called, has all the qualities a daughter-in-law could hope for.  She’s outgoing, interesting to talk with, generous and she is by far the best home cook I’ve ever met.  She is the reason I now consider myself to be a “foodie.”

I married into an Indian family, and I didn’t know it at the time, but Indian culture revolves around two things: food and family.  I remember thinking it odd at first that my husband’s family talked so much about food.  At every family get-together his parents and sisters would go into incredible detail about the delicious meals they had eaten since they last saw each other.  My eyes would glaze over, but it was their way of catching up.  I puzzled at the way they would get menus ahead of time and then discuss them for hours before ever heading out to the restaurant.  Food is not a spur-of-the-moment thing for them, it’s the main event.

My husband and I met in high school, so Grandma Coco had years to introduce me to a wide variety of dishes and accustom my palate to a whole host of South Indian delights.  When things looked to be getting serious between Pat and me, she started instructing me in the basics: daals, chicken tikka masala, rice, chapattis.  As the years went on, she exposed me to a greater variety regional dishes and gave me many helpful kitchen tips.  The best advice she gave me for efficiently organizing my weekly menu was to plan each week thematically.  If you want Indian, plan out an Indian menu for the whole week.  Or if you’re thinking Italian or Mexican, plan out a whole week menu for that cuisine.  That way, leftovers combine nicely and any extra ingredients are more likely to be used up.

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.