The Naptime Chef

Phoebe and Cara’s website, Big Girls, Small Kitchen, was one of the first blogs I ever read. We started blogging around the same time and I remember being immediately taken in by their cool concept of quarter-life cooking. To be honest, I felt a little bit like I was reading a flashback to my own twenties in New York. For five years I lived in a one room studio with a kitchen that had been converted out a closet. Those were the days when the cutting board was always spread over my sink and the two mixing bowls I had were in constant rotation. I even had to hang the dish rack over my sink to drain after I hand washed it dish. Good times.

Apparently I am not the only one who was reading Phoebe and Cara’s blog — I am not surprised by this — and fast forward to today when they are officially published authors. Hooray! I was so excited when I got their book, In the Small Kitchen: 100 Recipes from our Year of Cooking in the Real World in the mail I could hardly contain myself. Despite the fact that I am, ah-hem, not in my twenties anymore, their style of recipes appeal to me and I love their just hangin’ out with friends style.

Come by and check out this amazing post about my recent trip to King Arthur Flour Blog & Bake and this great Summer Tomato Pie I made!

What’s Going on Today: Celebrating the end of preschool, year one, enjoying the first real days of summer.

Naptime Goals: Prep chicken and potatoes for dinner, laundry, organize last round of winter clothes drop-off for Goodwill.

Tonight’s Menu: Skillet Chicken with Potatoes & Haricot Vert.

I got into making skillet meals this spring. I was given a new skillet and have been having so much fun learning how to cook whole dinners that only required dirtying one pot. When I made this latest meal I was also reminded of how nice it is to cook without having to turn on the oven, it helps keep the kitchen cool in the summer heat! However, of all the benefits of skillet meals, the best thing, I think, is that they can be just as substantial as anything you bake in the oven. No watery vegetables and weak noodles here: chicken, beef, cheesy lasagna, pizza, you name it, it can almost always be cooked in a skillet! As I was thinking about Father’s Day and Dad Food I realized that a skillet meal would be a great idea to share. Substantial, manageable and naptime chef-friendly, it is the perfect celebration meal Dad would love. It can even be made with the skillet you might win my giveaway!

I love my Dad, he is one of the most special people in the world to me. I am sure many of you feel the same way about your fathers too. When it comes to celebrating Father’s Day I like to break out what I consider “Dad Food.” Mother’s Day is all about sweet breakfasts in bed, Father’s Day is all about hearty fare, grilled dishes and stick-to-your-rib hot sandwiches. It is not that my Dad, or my husband for that matter, are overeaters, but they do eat differently than I do. I prefer lighter dishes and sweat breakfast, while they always prefer a savory, more substantial meal.

To help you with your Father’s Day cooking I am going to give you some great tips today, and a great new Dad Food recipe tomorrow. Today I am also throwing in Anolon Nouvelle Copper 10-inch Skillet for a fun giveaway. This new skillet is made of fast and even-heating hard-anodized aluminum with a durable metal-utensil safe nonstick interior and allows you to flip omelets and pancakes effortlessly everytime. It is even oven safe to 400ºF. Now, wouldn’t Dad love one of those? Yes, he would! Read on.

What’s Going on Today: Last week of school!

Naptime Goals: Rhubarb-Lavender Jam

Tonight’s Menu: Homemade Mini-Pizzas, salad, wine

For More Great Rhubarb Recipes Don’t Forget to Read All About Rhubarb (Naptime Simple Tips)

Product of the Week: These canning tongs are most excellent for canning small batches at home. They are much easier to use for picking up jars than regular kitchen tongs and one pair will last a lifetime. Need your own pair of canning tongs? Buy one today at my Amazon store!

It probably comes as no surprise that I am working with rhubarb a lot these days. I swear, I’ll be doing everything I can to buy, cut and cook with those tart stalks straight through September! My friend Amy first told me about this jam recipe last summer and pointed me in the direction of this delicious website. I then relayed my idea for this jam to my friend Cathy (aka Mrs. Wheelbarrow) and she shared her secret Rhubarb-Lavendar Jam recipe with me. I promised I wouldn’t print her recipe, but it is similar to the one seen here. It was difficult to find fresh lavender this early in the season, but I managed to score a fresh jar of French Culinary Lavender from Penzey’s. With it in hand I decided to test my own variation of this recipe while my daughter was at one of her last (weep!) days of preschool for the summer.

I love to incorporate fresh seasonal fruit into just about everything I serve in the summer. In the Northeast our season for cherries, berries, peaches, apricots and plums is quite short it is necessary to get while the gettin’ is good. Our weekly farmer’s market opens in June and on every single visit I come home with a basket or quart of this or that. We even go strawberry and blueberry picking in the summer when the harvest at our local farm is ripe. There is nothing like eating a fresh picked strawberry right in the field.

Today I thought I would share some of my favorite ways to bake with summer fruits. Of course, they can always be thoroughly rinsed and eaten as is, but it fun to bake and cook with them too. Here are my tips on how to make the most of summer fruits, especially in the northern climates where the season is so short!