The Naptime Chef

Last month a super fun book arrived in the mail for me to peruse, Stirring up Fun with Food: Over 115 Simple, Delicious Ways to Be Creative in the Kitchen. Initially I figured it was just another celebrity cookbook, but upon further inspection I realized that it is not just a just-for-kicks publishing project. This book is, in fact, amazingly cool and features terrific recipes for families. Sarah Michelle’s whole premise is making food fun for kids. But the key is that it is regular food – not “kiddie” food that a parent would never want to try. Here she and Gia have taken delicious recipes and made them a little more fun for children, but kept them perfectly appealing for the whole family.

Luckily, I got to have a little e-chat with Sarah Michelle about her work and here are a few fun things she shared! :

Sometimes I buy bananas and they last for a week on the counter and the kids eat them all time. Other times they turn brown within 24 hours of coming home from the store! It’s so frustrating, but that just gives me another excuse to bake. In an attempt to break away from our favorite banana bread recipe I made this easy banana crumb muffins with our latest round of brown bananas.

When I get into a cooking rut the first thing I do is turn to recipes and books I love. Sometimes I just spend a week or so revisiting old recipes. Other times I decide to crack open favorite books and challenge myself to try something new. It can be anything from a full dinner recipe, to a quick baked treat, to a cocktail. There is no limit to what I’ll try and having someone else already have written the recipe for me a huge help. Not to mention, reading the recipes of others is a terrific learning opportunity. Hardly a recipe goes by when I don’t learn a new technique or flavor pairing.

It’s that season again…time for new books! I’ve been loving all the new covers I’ve seen popping up on my screen lately. It’s been wild to see all the good stuff that is coming out this spring. I can’t wait! Here are five books I’ve pre-ordered or ordered so far this season:

Provence to Pondicherry: Recipes from France and Faraway by Tessa Kiros. I am a longtime fan of Tessa’s and this book is one of her best. It is equal parts history book, travel companion, and cookbook. Fascinating and lovely, a joy to read. (released March 7th)

Dinner Chez Moi: 50 French Secrets to Joyful Eating and Entertaining by Elizabeth Bard. I’ve adored her previous books and cook from them all the time. I can’t wait to see this one! (coming April 4th)

The Wellness Project: How I Learned to Do Right by My Body, Without Giving Up My Life by Phoebe Lapine. I’ve been a longtime fan of Phoebe’s and I can’t wait to read her memoir. She’s had a long road battling autoimmune disease and in this book she bears all so we can learn from her journey to wellness. (coming May 16th)

Food52 Mighty Salads: 60 New Ways to Turn Salad into Dinner — and Make-Ahead Lunches, Too by the Editors of Food52. I basically buy all of their books and this oneis especially intriguing because I am psyched for summer produce! (coming April 11th)

Food52 Ice Cream & Friends: 60 Recipes & Riffs for Sorbets, Sandwiches, No-Churn Ice Creams, and More by the Editors of Food52. I am a huge fan of homemade ice cream and haven’t got a new ice cream cookbook in a while. Naturally, this looks amazing since it is from Food52 and I’ll be sure to get the ice cream machine out once it warms up! (coming April 11th)

I have to stop in today to share some cool stuff I just got from TripAdvisor. I’ve recently started working with them and I am so excited to dive into their brand. I’ve always loved using TripAdvisor for advice on where to eat and sleep when I travel. The site is without a doubt the most comprehensive travel site on the web and it is my first stop whenever I need information. People always write in with the best advice and I love reading their comments. Recently TripAdvisor teamed up with eBags on a new luggage collection and I was lucky enough to preview it.

We celebrate many holidays in our house and one of them, which we are celebrating today, is National Cereal Day. I know, I know, it’s definitely not the most important holiday on the calendar, but it certainly is a fun one. Today we celebrated it with a bunch of goodies my friends at General Mills Cereal sent me last week. There were boxes of our favorite cereals, a pretty personalized spoon, pretty paper fans, and more.

Today I am catching up from two days of work on a super exciting new project I can’t wait to reveal. In the mean time, I have to post about this super recipe I found on My Little Paris when it landed in my inbox last week. It is a recipe from Poilane, one of the many amazing places we visited when we traveled to Paris a few springs ago. It is the best kind of sweet in that it is delicious and it barely takes any effort.