Powernap: Quick Recipes For When Time is Limited!

Last year I replicated the Roasted Peach Lemonade I had first tried in Atlanta at BlogHer Food. It was extraordinary and we drank it all summer long. Last week I found the first peaches of the season in our store and decided it was time to revisit our favorite summer beverage. Of course, not being able to simply leave a classic recipe alone I decided to change it up and make it into iced tea instead.

I could’ve made a dozen or so pies with all the strawberries that we picked last week. But in the interest of my waistline I decided to forgo that idea and diversify my strawberry based projects. Since my daughter did a lot of the manual labor it was important that she be included in some of the strawberry cooking decisions and her request was strawberry lemonade. She is a big fan of lemonade in general and her eyes lit up at the prospect of making it at home from scratch.

Yesterday we had our first heat wave. It was miserable. In a just a few hours our gorgeous spring-like 70-degree weather was replaced with a sticky 90-degree afternoon. Pushing my daughter to school in the stroller felt like walking through glue, the driveway was suddenly too hot for bare feet. To perk myself up, while she was at school I decided it was time to break out a recipe my mom had shared with me a long time ago, refreshing homemade ginger ale.

My Georgetown and Boston book parties at JMcLaughlin last week were amazing – thanks to everyone who came out! After three days of traveling I was happy to arrive home late Thursday night. (I am not used to traveling so frequently!) It was such a reward to hug my daughter after not seeing her for a few days. On Friday, to spend a little time together, I went to school with her and chaperoned a class field trip. Never underestimate how much fun it can be talk a bird walk with a bunch of preschoolers! By the end of the day I was tired and ready to put my feet up and enjoy a glass of wine. For dinner I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to pull together an involved dish so I decided enlist of my powernap powers and dream up a new pizza recipe for a quick, easy dinner.

I have been a longtime fan of Elizabeth Bard’s romantic foodoir, Lunch in Paris. Elizabeth’s friendly voice is so enjoyable and her Paris adventures, both foodie and romantic, make for a delightful read. Naturally, I gravitate toward any book containing recipes, especially contemporary French ones, which is why I’ve cooked my way through half the book over the past year. One of the recipes I’ve been turning to again and again is the simple french yogurt cake. I know the yogurt cake is ubiquitous in many french cookbooks, but this particular recipe is especially moist and I like it better than all the other ones I’ve tried.

When were cleaning out the fridge before our trip to Charleston I found a large bag of onions. This was not a surprise in the least, I always stock up on onions since I cook with them all the time. To use some up I decided to caramelize them and make a fresh version of our favorite vegetable pie. It seemed like the perfect thing to have on hand for the last few days before vacation. There is nothing easier to heat up in a pinch between loads of laundry and packing suitcases! I whipped up this easy pie while my daughter napped, then kept it in the fridge for a few days while we nibbled on a slice here and there as needed.

I am never one to pass up the opportunity for a cookie recipe experiment. When I returned from Thailand earlier this month I discovered our sweet stash completely depleted. Turns out my husband was hungry when he was home alone for a week! I was in the mood for some simple chocolate chippers but wanted give them a little extra oomph. With a fresh bag of Scharffen Berger Chocolate Chunks and a handful of pretzels remaining in our snack jar I decided to make up a new, cool cookie variety.

A few months ago I bookmarked the recipe for homemade chai concentrate on The Kitchn. As you all know, I am a huge chai drinker. I don’t drink it just for the caffeine either, I truly love the warm vanilla spicy flavors. I often buy my favorite chai tea at Target, but I loved the idea of making this concentrate at home. One simple scoop gives ordinary black tea an instant chai makeover. While readjusting to the post-Thailand time change last week this recipe suddenly seemed incredibly relevant. I was gulping down several cups of tea per day and was desperate for a new flavor while struggling to stay awake until 8pm.

Today my friend Debbie Koenig of Words to Eat By is here to share a great recipe for parents and tell us about her great new cookbook, Parents Need to Eat Too!

I love the slow cooker nearly as much as Kelsey does. Around here we call it the New Mom’s Best Friend—after my son was born my parents foisted one upon me wisely gave me one. In fact, the second post-baby recipe I shared on my blog was Slow Cooker Ratatouille. The really telling part: I didn’t have a chance to post that until Harry was seven months old.

I am in packing mode so this week is all about speed and convenience without compromising taste, of course. One of my go-to quick meals is the classic panini. There are nearly endless combinations of what can be pressed between two slices of bread and this particular recipe was inspired by a panini I ate at LaGuardia airport last November. Yes, you read that correctly, a sandwich bought at an airport inspired me. I tell you – good food can be found just about anywhere!

My friend Kirsten and I are always exchanging recipe tips on Facebook. We would prefer to chat about cooking in person, but she presently lives in Tokyo so Facebook and email are our best bet for direct communication at the moment! Last week she shared her new favorite method for making clean-eating chicken chili: adding a healthy scoop of quinoa for texture. Genius! I thought. Having recently begun to work with quinoa myself, I was excited to give her idea a shot.

Last week I noticed my stash of frozen bananas had grown a little too large. I always have at least three in there for emergency banana bread, but during the holidays I didn’t bake any so the pile had grown to nine. We were in need of some fresh snack food so this was perfect timing. Underneath the bananas I also found the last of the pecans I’d use to make Spiced Pecan Snowballs for Christmas. With these two things in hand, an hour until school let out, I decided to whip up a fresh loaf of banana and top it with an crunchy pecan streusel. I had never topped banana bread with anything before, but there is a first time for everything, right?