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What’s Going on Today: St. Patrick’s Day!
Naptime Goals: Make pistachio pound cake for Kerry, wrap up tax filing for 2010 (!)
Tonight’s Menu: Pizza picnic with friends at the beach.
We are not Irish but I got in the spirit of St. Patrick’s Day yesterday and made a pistachio pound cake. Pistachios are not Irish in origin, obviously, but the loaf is green and pretty much anything that is green seems to fit the bill today, right? Right. After I baked this loaf I gave it straight to my friend Kerry. Her birthday was last week and I was late in baking her a birthday treat because I had a book deadline. With a name like Kerry you know she is Irish, and even if you didn’t know her name, her red hair and freckles are a dead giveaway! So, I figured, since Kerry was Irish and today is St. Patrick’s Day there was no better thing to make her than this!
I’m stopping in today with a fun little ditty about the True Prep book signing with Lisa Birnbach at JMcLaughlin Westport last week. I whipped up some fun goodies for everyone to enjoy and we had a great time! Check out my friend Jessica’s article about the event on her blog The Entertaining House, and my friend Melissa wrote a great summary of it on her blog Melissa C. Morris. We all had a very fun, very preppy time shopping the JMcLaughlin wares, sipping white wine and nibbling the Marion Cunnigham brownies recipe that is in the actual True Prep book (omg, they are so good!). Be sure to stop by and enjoy JMcLaughlin this spring, the clothes are fabulous and the company is even better!
Hi! My segment with Brian Kelsey (@KelsontheHouse) on Martha Stewart Living Radio on March 9th was fantastic. I had a blast meeting the Sirius team (and Rascal Flatts, too!) and chatting with Brian about kitchen tips and recipes. To see some of my recipes and the show summary online, check out this article. To listen to the segment, click HERE. Many thanks to Brian for having as his guest and to the whole Sirius team at Martha Stewart Living Radio!
Just a reminder that today I’ll be on Martha Stewart Living Radio being interviewed by Brian Kelsey at 3:00pm ET. You can tune in on Serious 112 or XM 157. To listen you can sign up here for a 7-Day free trial on Sirius Radio and listen straight from your computer!
If you are just finding this site after listening to the show let me give you a quick introduction to The Naptime Chef!
* You can always browse my recipes and recipe categories on my Recipe Index Page.
* I send out a really fun weekly newsletter and you can sign up in the upper left hand corner or by SUBSCRIBE HERE. I often do special giveaways and exclusive previews for subscribers and never, ever sell my list!
* I have a really fun Facebook Fanpage.
* I am active (maybe too active?) on Twitter and here is where to follow me: @TheNaptimeChef
* I post webisodes for my made-at-home cooking show 2 to 3 times per month, here is my Cooking Show Channel on MEVIO.
* I write a fun daily column on Babble’s The Family Kitchen if you want more Naptime Chef recipes.
* My first cookbook, The Naptime Chef: Fitting Great Food Into Family Life is being released in Spring 2012 by Running Press
* I recently co-hosted a cool online cooking class about Picky Eaters and you can find the show summary here. I really believe that all parents can still cook and eat great food even with kids in the house. In short, we all can be naptime chefs, so come join in the fun! As always, contact me with questions, thoughts or concerns! Welcome!
What’s Going on Today: Rainy day errands, laundry, general feelings of need to commence spring cleaning are beginning to emerge.
Naptime Goals: Make manicotti to bake for dinner, finish laundry, consider cleaning closet?
Tonight’s Menu: Arugula & Pea Manicotti with Toasted Pine Nuts, Green Salad, White Wine.
More Great Rainy Day Baked Pastas: Orecchiette with Pancetta & Three Cheeses, Crunchy Mac&Cheese with Bacon, Stuffed Shells with Homemade Ricotta, Eggplant Parmigiana
In my house rainy days and baked pasta go hand in hand. I love to whip up a warm, creamy dish during naptime and serve it up, all hot and bubbly, for dinner. Manicotti is one of those dishes that fits perfectly into this scenario. I usually approach it like my favorite lasagna, stuffing it with a nutmeg scented ricotta and topping it with homemade marinara. But on this particular rainy day I in the mood to try something different, a little risky even.
Last week I participated in a great cooking class with The Motherhood regarding picky eaters. It was so much fun to spend an hour chatting with friends and guests about ways to placate picky eaters and expanding their palate. Here is a summary of the show. It included so many great talking points, here are a few of my favorite take-aways I hope will help you!
Picky Eating is Normal!
As Stacie from One Hungry Mama said:
– There’s an evolutionary explanation for some picky phases. (some phases come at times of increased mobility, when baby might be exploring places without mama or papa immediately nearby to protect them. Pickiness, natural skepticism of new foods, prevented the cave baby from putting just about anything – like a poisonous berry – in baby’s mouth)
Just Try It
Many participants use the “one-bite rule” to get their kids to try a food before simply refusing it.
“Our rule is you just need to take a full size bite, chew, swallow and then say, ‘Yes, please’ or ‘No, thank you,’” said host Jennifer Leal, Savor the Thyme.
And Keep Trying It
“Always introduce food several times in several forms,” said host Kelsey Banfield, The Naptime Chef. “Kids will pick up on it eventually.”
“It can take upwards of 6-10 tries for a child to accept a new food – so it’s super important to the course by repeatedly serving healthy foods (openly!) and modeling eating them, too,” added Stacie Billis. “Even when they say they don’t like them!”
