The Naptime Chef

What’s Going on Today: Scheduled teacher visit from school. Library to return books, playtime with friends.
Naptime Goals: Prepare ingredients for Apple Snack Muffins, clean house to prepare for visit.
Tonight’s Menu: Meatballs for Choir Boys, Green Salad, Garlic Bread, Apple Muffins.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: You can’t wait for them to start school, and then they do.

When her teacher called the other day to schedule a home visit it really hit home. I have a preschooler. I know I have many years to look forward to with her living at home, but I can’t quite believe our time together with zero obligations has drawn to a close. For almost three years we have been together from sun up to sun down, no nanny, no cleaning lady, and only a few babysitters here and there. It’s been the just two of us and we’ve become quite a team.

With the book underway and other projects up my sleeve it is probably a good time for school to start. She needs more stimulation then just off-key singing with Mom and time at the playground with the neighborhood kids. I’m sure she’ll excel at all of the singing, jumping and arts & crafts activities they throw at her. But I’m still going to miss her. After three years of non-stop time together nobody knows all of her as well as I do. And, I venture to say, she’s gotten to know me pretty well, too.

Sometimes, I think, the best way to cope with change in the air is to bake. In this case, with the teacher due to arrive the following the day, my daughter and I decided to make some snack muffins to give to her. I mixed up most of the batter during naptime then let my daughter add the shredded apple and put them in the muffin tins when she woke up. We popped them in the oven to bake, then let them cool all afternoon. The following day the teacher came and the kiddo served them to her on a paper napkin with the letter “B” printed on it. The teacher’s last name and our last name have the same initial, a coincidence we loved. The rest of our visit was easy and fun. Together we remarked on the delicious chewy texture, intense apple flavor and slight punch of cinnamon in each bite. They set the tone for what I hope will be a wonderful year.

What’s Going on Today: Taking advantage of last week without preschool obligations (!)
Naptime Goals: Prepare dough for Cherry & Cream Cookies, test two recipes for the book.
Tonight’s Menu: Two book recipes (I can’t tell you which ones!), Caesar Salad, Cherry & Cream Cookies for dessert.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: I don’t think she understands what I mean when I say “you are starting school next week,” but she seems excited about it.

There is nothing I love more then stumbling across a recipe that grips me with such excitement I shift around my schedule to make it straight away. I am doing a lot of cooking during naptime these days, since I am hard at work on the book, but I still need to make room for spontaneity.

Last week I was studiously reading my new issue of Bon Appetit and came across an article about Christina Tosi, the pastry chef at Momofuku Milk Bar, and her indulgent recipes. With words like Crack Pie, Chocolate-Malt Cake and Blueberry & Cream Cookies springing off the pages it was all I could do not to drop everything and make all three right then and there. I love desserts like these, ones that are unfussy and indulgent with a child-like quality, and I was thrilled to see that someone at such a high-end restaurant shared this sentiment.

Here you’ll see that I decided to do a riff on Tosi’s cookie recipe, using dried cherries instead of blueberries. I also opted to make it more Naptime Chef-friendly, cutting the chilling time by two-thirds. Of course, if you want to chill the dough for 24 hours or more, feel free to do so. I decided to work with my usual time table, mixing dough during naptime and baking it after my daughter went to sleep. I could have, however, waited to bake them the following day at naptime if I’d preferred. Tosi’s recipe calls for a few large cookies, but I like small drop cookies for home eating. I played with the baking time to compensate for the smaller cookie size and it worked like a charm.

The speed at which these disappeared from the OXO Good Grips container on my kitchen counter has to be a record-breaker for my household. The chewy texture and smooth milky taste was so unique all three of us went nuts. Each cookie perfectly encapsulates the flavors of cherries, cream and butter. My daughter is a berry nut and kept asking begging and pleading for more, often negotiating them as a reward for my requests that she pick her her toys and use her “indoor voice.” I couldn’t blame here for trying, we all were looking for excuses to have just one more.

What’s Going on Today: Reminiscing about vacation in Cooperstown earlier this month. Organizing daughter’s fall wardrobe!
Naptime Goals: Start ironing labels into daughter’s clothes. Bake loaf of Savory Ham & Cheese Bread.
Tonight’s Menu: Savory Ham & Cheese Bread, Caprese Salad, White Wine.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: The fashion philosophy of a toddler: “More is more.”

Leave it to my Mom to introduce me to a new bread that I want to make, and eat, every single day for the rest of my life. As some of you might know, my mother is a total Francophile. She even went so far as to ask my daughter to call her Grandmere. It didn’t work – my daughter calls her something that might resemble an abbreviation – but she got her point across. There is no French lineage in the entire history of our family, but that doesn’t mean we can’t pretend.

Of course, the best way to pretend to be French is by eating the food. According to my Mom this savory ham and cheese bread would be the centerpiece of a French country lunch. A fresh loaf paired with a platter of fresh tomatoes and pitchers of citron presse, this would comprise a wonderfully simple summer meal. I don’t know if this is true or not, I’ve never stayed in France for more than five days at a time, but I’ll take her word for it. It certainly worked for me when we had lunch in Cooperstown.

Not only is this bread easy to bake during naptime, it really does make up the perfect snack or light summer meal. I love it’s dense chewy cheesiness studded with salty ham. I found that toasting it made it taste similar to a gourmet slice of grilled cheese. It’s pebbly texture is also very appealing, giving it a rustic quality befitting the style in which it should be enjoyed. I’ve seen breads similar to this in baskets at fancy restaurants, but I think I’ll think with eating it the French way. On the back porch, for lunch, with Mom.

What’s Going on Today: Trip to the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Fair, lunch on the dock.

Naptime Goals: Put chicken in bbq sauce to marinate, make peach crumble, make Watermelon Margaritas.

Tonight’s Menu: Home Guacamole, Cheese & Fruit, BBQ Chicken, Cous-Cous Salad, Green Salad, Watermelon Margaritas, Peach Crumble.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: The more kids the merrier.

One of the best part’s about being on Martha’s Vineyard for us is catching up with friends. We chose this week especially to come out and visit because we knew our friends would be here as well. Early in the week we took an awesome boat trip with our friend Phoebe from Big Girls, Small Kitchen, (more on that soon!), and the next night our friends Adam and Kate came over with their two boys for a BBQ.

Since it’s summer vacation and we’re all in a relaxed mindset we put together a fun, easy menu for everyone. During naptime we put the chicken in to marinate, made the peach crisp and whipped up a pitcher of these awesome margheritas. My friend Char gave me this recipe and I knew there was no better time to give it a try. Sweet and tasty, they are the perfect refreshment for an evening in the yard with the kids.

What’s Going on Today: Morning trip to the local market, pick up dry cleaning, romp at playground on the beach.

Naptime Goals: Accounting, finish Babble column, bake Plum Torte

Tonight’s Menu: Artichoke-Rosemary Pizza, Plum Torte, Glass of Albarino

Parenting Lesson of the Day: What’s worse: finger paint or marker?

I’ve been making this Plum Torte all month and it’s finally time I told you about it. At first I wasn’t going to because it is so simple. So incredibly simple that it almost didn’t seem unique enough to write about. But then, after searching through my cookbooks for other plum torte recipes, I realized that it’s simplicity doesn’t indicate laziness of the baker, it is, in fact, the true beauty of the recipe.

Generally speaking, summer fruit desserts are at their best if the baker uses a light touch. When fruits are in season their flavors are so incredibly delicious that it’s almost criminal to augment them too much with batters and heat. Instead, as with this torte, it’s best when the fruit’s flavor is enhanced by an easy, light batter and baked only until just softened. In this recipe the light batter is dotted with so many plums that you almost can’t see the actual batter. While it bakes the fruit slowly sinks into the cake, creating little wells of plum juice on top. Each bite brings a mouthful of sweet, juicy baked plum with a hint of cinnamon and soft vanilla crumb. It’s just the right amount of cake to offset the intense fruit flavor, like a little cushion for the plums to fall back on.

Baking this is quite easy during my daughter’s afternoon naptime. As I noted, I’ve made this on a weekly basis all month. When I was in Cooperstown I sliced the torte in two and took some over to Geri. This week I took some to a neighbor on a whim. I plan on making it again next week, too. As my research showed, there really are dozens more torte recipes I have on hand that I should/could try, but I think I’ll stick to this one for now.

What Going on Today: Trip to favorite Farmer’s Market in Connecticut, pizza lunch at the market, ask neighbor to babysit our fish next week while we are on vacation.

Naptime Goals: Prepare Eggplant & Goat Cheese bake for dinner, finish up some blog posts, packing (again).

Tonight’s Menu: Eggplant & Goat Cheese Bake with country bread, panko chicken tenders, banana bread.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: Your child’s growth rate will always exceed your expectations. Be prepared to buy new clothes/shoes every 6 months. Or more.

During our brief vacation interlude in Connecticut I’ve been catching up on house chores and farmer’s markets visits. I’ve also been reviewing our upcoming preschool calendar (I can’t believe we’ll be on a school schedule soon!) and taking baby steps towards ordering my daughter some much needed fall clothes. It’s been so hot this summer all she has been wearing is sundresses, but I know she’ll be wearing her jeans before we know it. (Weep.) I better get her a pair that fit!

The impending move toward fall has left me scrambling to cling to any last signs of summer. The farmer’s market is overflowing with produce and my daughter’s afternoon naps are still long, so I am going to cook up my fresh vegetables as often as possible. Come January I’ll be mourning these afternoons so very much – not the cooking part, I still be doing that – but the fresh, local vegetables will be long gone.

This week I decided to take advantage of the gorgeous eggplant at the market. Their deep aubergine is so alluring, like exotic jewels piled high in a bin, I can never pick up just one. Being that is too hot for Eggplant Parmesan I decided that do a simple eggplant bake instead. My friend Mary gave me the idea for this method earlier this summer. I made up my own recipe based on her description and have been making it with great gusto ever since. Thinly sliced eggplant is drizzled with olive oil, chopped herbs, goat cheese and tomatoes, then roasted at a high temperature and served hot for dinner. It’s kind of like a ratatouille, only the vegetables remain separate instead of melting into a soft mush. I like to serve it with a little rice or pasta, but it can even be eaten straight out of the pan it’s so good.

As you’ll see, I prepared this during naptime the other day and popped it in the oven right before dinner. The roasting took little to no time at all. It was a perfect way to savor a few more bites of summer. How I never want to see it end!

What’s Going on Today: Catching up with old friend’s on vacation, morning at the beach, long overdue laundry loads.

Naptime Goals: Make two Apricot-Blueberry Cakes for friends I haven’t seen in way too long, finish (or, at least, attempt to) laundry and last chapter of awesome book.

Tonight’s Menu: Going out to dinner with my family.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: When the kids you used to babysit start babysitting your own kid, you start to feel old.

I did a lot of baking two weeks ago in Cooperstown. It was so nice being at home with more helping hands. Since I didn’t have to pay as much attention to things like house chores and major grocery runs, I was free to bake and cook for entire naptimes. So, like any mother who has learned to seize any free moment with the tenacity usually reserved for Target coupons or a cheap happy hour, I did just that. I think my poor mother has been stocking up her pantry ever since I left!

My friend Barbara and I were in the midst of one of our typical email correspondences the other week when she reminded me of this Rhubarb-Almond Cake. The recipe originated with her and she constantly makes it with other fruits. Without any of the favored red stalks on hand last month, she gave it a try with apricots and blueberries instead. A happy combination of bright citrus and tart berry flavors, it was a hit with her family as I was sure it would be with mine.

Since visiting Cooperstown in the summer often means reunions galore I decided to make two of these cakes. One for my family (after all, we have to sample some, don’t we?) and one for the summer family I used to babysit. Making the cake is a simple one bowl affair so all I had to do was double the recipe and stir for an extra minute or two. After a scant five minutes of stirring and chopping everything was ready. They were popped in the oven while I went to change the laundry and snag ten minutes on the porch.

The cakes were gorgeous fresh out of the oven. Fragrant and golden, it was actually a little tough to part with one. In fact, I almost didn’t since it turns out I didn’t butter my cake pan well enough. Thankfully my good friends weren’t at all perturbed when I gave it to them still in the pan, with a note asking them to return the pan when they were finished. (Next time I’ll line it with parchment paper.) From the sounds of the thank you’s on the other end of the phone when they called the next day, I don’t think they minded the presentation one bit.