101 Meals...

I've been reading Best Food Writing 2008, I know, I know, major nerd, but the essays and articles are perfection... And it's ideal reading for someone with kiddos, as you can slam out an entire piece in about 10 minutes...

One of my favorite articles in the anthology is Mark Bittman's article from the NYT on 101 quick meals (actually it's 101 simple meals ready in 10 minutes or less, but I'm a smidge skeptical on the 10 minutes or less, as anytime I'm trying to whip-up something to eat, I've got kiddos underfoot and that inevitably adds a good 15 minutes to the whole enterprise...)

So let's just call it 101 meals ready in 30 minutes or less and call it a day, deal?

Virtually all of Bittman's meals look great to me, and as they're intended for quick summer eating, they also require minimal oven use, but there are only a few guaranteed to be out-of-the-gate hits with Audrey, so I'll start with those and ease her in to a few more.

Next stop tuna...yes, my child doesn't like tuna...sigh.

Four meals Audrey is sure to like from Summer Express: 101 Simple Meals Ready in 10 (30) Minutes or Less ;-)

• Fried egg “saltimbocca”: Lay slices of prosciutto or ham in a buttered skillet. Fry eggs on top of ham; top with grated Parmesan.
  
• Make a thin plain omelet with two or three eggs. Sauté cubes of bacon or pancetta or strips of prosciutto until crisp. Cut up the omelet and use it and the meat to garnish a green salad dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (sans salad, unfortunately)
  
• So-called Fettuccine Alfredo: Heat several tablespoons of butter and about half a cup of cream in a large skillet just until the cream starts to simmer. Add slightly undercooked fresh pasta to the skillet, along with plenty of grated Parmesan. Cook over low heat, tossing, until pasta is tender and hot.
  
• Hot dogs on buns — with beans!

Homemade Pizza Part II

Friday night's homemade pizza was such a success that we decided to made another big batch of dough for Sunday dinner. We're still working on getting the crust super thin (any tips here?), but that was our only big issue -- seriously so, so easy and incredibly good...

I picked up some crumbled mild Italian sausage, a tiny bit of really good pepperoni and some organic mozzarella at Whole Foods for the girlie's pizza. They wanted a sort of straightforward "meat lovers", but since we were making it ourselves, we could control the quality and amount of meat, which made me feel better about the whole endeavor.

We just used an organic tomato basil pasta sauce that I also picked up at Whole Foods and spread a thin layer on the crust with a pastry brush. The girl's especially loved this part, as it was like they were "painting" their pizza, and they could control the amount of sauce they wanted. (Audrey is a light sauce girl, but the neighborhood joint never gets it right... Yet another bonus of making it ourselves.)

For the grown-up pizza, I went a little wild and topped it with a smidge of pasta sauce, some very finely sliced drunken goat cheese, a little smattering of the mozzarella, a bit of the crumbled sausage + a few crumbles of bacon, some arugula and some pine nuts.

It was incredible!

Two Milestones

image via Tamara Davis Cooking show

We're experiencing two milestones at our casa... Audrey is hosting her first sleepover guest tonight and I made my first homemade pizza dough so the girlies can have a little "make your own pizza party".

I suppose the second doesn't seem like much of a milestone, but I've been a smidge intimidated by making homemade pizza dough. I decided to go with a recipe from the Tamara Davis Cooking show, as I've had success making her dishes before (and her videos ensure that I don't screw things up too badly.) Turns out I had nothing to fear. The process was awfully easy, and there was something strangely liberating about squishing my hands in that dough to knead it. Audrey would love it...we'll definitely make it together next time.

So, what are you cooking this weekend?

Pizza Dough (for 4 small pizzas) adapted from Tamra Davis Cooking Show

• 4 cups of bread flour
• 1 package of active dry yeast
• 1½ Teaspoons of salt
• 2 Tablespoons of olive oil

Sprinkle 1 package of active dry yeast in a half a cup of warm water. Let it sit for 5 minutes.

In a Cuisinart, put in flour and salt. Pulse.

Add olive oil, yeast, and another 1 ½ cups of room temperature water. Pour the water in slowly while the Cuisinart is on.

Stop blending when the dough binds. If it is too moist add more flour, if it is too dry add a little more water.

Knead the dough on a floured surface into a ball. Place the dough ball into a well-oiled bowl. Seal with plastic wrap or foil. Make sure the seal is tight to keep the dough moist. Let it sit for 2 hours.

It should double in size. On a well-floured surface, shape your dough by using your hands, into pizzas. Place them on parchment paper until you are ready to use.

One of Our Favorite Things

I’m diggin these features on Cookie’s site that unearth some of the best snack foods and organic frozen foods, as despite my best intentions to never buy processed food, well, it’s just not going to happen. The reviews are a good reference if you need a few back-ups in the freezer or some snacks to ward off backseat meltdowns.

In that spirit, I thought do a weekly post sharing one of our favorite food “products” -- highlighting a few of the things that we’re really loving amidst all the “choices” at the supermarket.

This week’s favorite is the insanely yummy Sunbutter.

My friend Jodi turned me on to this nectar of the Gods when her family stayed with us a few weeks ago. We were chatting about how her daughter Arden has a few classmates with nut allergies, and in trying to find a sub for her fave p-nut butter sandwiches she came across Sunbutter, which is basically sunflower seed butter.

What started out as a stop-gap became one of her family’s favorite things... they like it better than peanut butter. I was totally intrigued as we’re HUGE peanut butter fans around here. Well, Jodi was right. This stuff rocks. Both girlies love it, Bryan loves it, and I’ve been eating it every morning on my English muffin in lieu of my normal smear of p-nut butter.

So, spill...what's one of your favorites?

Friends, We Have A Win...

And, it's a vegetable!

We roasted a big batch of cauliflower last night, and it was a huge, huge hit with Audrey.

Success.

The cauliflower was incredibly tasty on its own, just tossed with a bit of olive oil and sea salt and roasted at about 425 for 20 minutes or so, but the bar was raised significantly when we dipped it in the "magic sauce" that I originally whipped up for our skirt steak. (I also ended up dumping a bunch on my baked potato. By the end of dinner my entire plate was green -- it's that good.)

Our friend Ben, made this sauce for one of our Sunday dinners, and it has since been one of our faves. It's sort of the love child between a chimichurri and cilantro salsa + you really can't mess it up, it's totally improvisational...a beautiful thing!

Magic Sauce

(This is a very inexact creation, experiment a bit with the following ingredients, but a food processor is key.)

• Small bunch of cilantro, stems cut off
• Small bunch of parsley, stems cut off
• 1-4 cloves of garlic depending on your preference
• 3 poblano peppers OR if you want a mild sauce, 1/2 a green bell pepper
• Juice of one small lime
• Olive oil (but I was completely out last night so I used a bit of walnut oil instead... I know, I know, how does one run out of olive oil??)
• Sea salt, Fresh cracked pepper and Spike to taste

Chop the cilantro, parsley, garlic and peppers and lime juice in a food processor, slowly add in about 1/8 cup of oil and pulse for a few more seconds.

Add in salt, pepper and spike, pulse again, taste and add any additional seasoning.

The Sad, Sad State of School Lunch Part II – Glimmers of Hope

Photo by the lovely and talented (and incredibly kind) Chelsea Fuss

First up, the Lake Highlands Community Garden -- A first of its kind partnership between the City of Dallas and local residents to find a productive and beneficial use for unused property owned by the city… We’re on the waiting list for a plot and really, really excited about this.

How does this relate to the state of school lunch you ask? I recently finished Alice Water’s biography and was incredibly inspired by her Edible Schoolyard project and how it ultimately influenced a complete re-engineering of the school lunch program at Berkley public schools. I think this garden is a huge step for our city and one that will hopefully trickle through our school district.

We’ll see.

Next there were Michelle Obama’s recent remarks regarding school lunch and the responsibility of the USDA to ensure the children eat nutritious meals in school. (via school lunch talk)

“We’re approaching the first big opportunity to move this to the top of the agenda with the upcoming reauthorization of the child nutrition programs,” she said. “In doing so, we can go a long way towards creating a healthier generation for our kids.”

There’s still time to sign the petition urging congress to update the USDA’s School Nutrition Standards.

Small steps…but steps nonetheless!

Sunday Dinner + Dip of the Week

image via Gourmet

This week lovely cousin Erin + boyfriend Ben hosted a special Father's Day Sunday dinner at their place. Erin whipped up an amazing meal of pork chops with a blueberry sauce, green beans and roasted potatoes. It was incredibly tasty!

Audrey, in what I would consider a major win, shunned the uncured pepperoni pizza that I brought from Whole Foods as backup, and dove into the pork chops (sans blueberry sauce, but still) + veggies with gusto. She even rubbed her tummy in appreciation... Nice.

our Sunday dinner via little e

But the pièce de résistance was the edamame arugula dip and crostini that Erin served before dinner. Erin's got some seriously magical dips up her sleeve, and given that it's insanely, un-fathomably hot in these parts of late, I could do an entire dinner of a great dip. No oven, minimal effort, light, but still incredibly tasty and satisfying.

To that end, I'll try to post a rockin good dip here each week this summer.

Herewith Erin's dip, adapted from the May 2009 Gourmet:

• 1 cup shelled shelled fresh or frozen edamame
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided, plus additional for drizzling
• 1 1/2 cups packed baby arugula (1 1/2 ounces), divided
• 3 tablespoons grated Pecorino Toscano
• 1/4 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• Sea salt to taste
• 1 baguette
• 1 garlic clove, halved crosswise

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle.

Cook edamame in boiling water, uncovered, until tender, 3 to 4 minutes, then drain and transfer to an ice bath to stop cooking.

Pulse edamame in a food processor until very coarsely chopped, then transfer half of mixture to a large bowl. Add 1/4 cup oil, 1/2 cup arugula, cheese, lemon zest and juice, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper to edamame in processor and purée until smooth. Add to bowl. Coarsely chop remaining cup arugula and gently fold into edamame mixture. Salt to taste.

Cut 16 diagonal slices (1/3 inch thick) from baguette and place on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with remaining tablespoon oil. Bake until pale golden and crisp, 8 to 10 minutes. Rub with cut side of garlic.

You can either spoon edamame dip onto baguette toasts and drizzle with olive oil or serve the dip in a bowl and let folks dip the toasts in.

Either way, it’s PERFECTION.

Yet Another Reason I Love This Man...

He makes homemade cheese straws, and they are really (really) good.

He’s actually been obsessed of late with recreating a "healthy" Cheese Nip… The man loves Cheese Nips. But I reminded him that he also loves those asiago cheese straws we buy at Central Market, so why doesn't he try to recreate those instead and then cut a few into little Cheese Nip shaped rectangles.

He was in, and after a little Internet research and careful reading of the back of a Cheese Nip box (scary stuff), he set to work. The result was oh so much better than a Cheese Nip, but no real surprise there…

Cheese Straws

• 1/2 stick of unsalted organic butter (softened) and cut into pieces
• 1 1/2 cups extra-sharp White Cheddar cheese (grated)
• 1 teaspoon each of shredded parmesan, Romano and asiago cheeses
• 3/4 cup organic flour
• 1/2teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes or 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (rounded)
• 1 tablespoon organic milk or half-and-half (we used half-and-half)
• You could also add about 1/2 teaspoon of chopped rosemary to these for a little twist, but we didn't this time...

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine the butter, cheeses, flour and salt and cayenne or red pepper in a food processor, and pulse until coarse. Add in milk or half and half until a smooth dough ball is formed.

Lightly flour your surface and roll the dough out until it’s about 1/8-inch thick. We don’t have a rolling pin (sad I know), so we floured an empty sparkling lemonade bottle. It works great ;-)

Cut the straws into thin strips about 1/3-inch wide using a floured pizza cutter. The dough gets sticky, so flour is your friend here.

Bake straws on a cookie sheet for about 12 minutes, remove and let cool.



We’re headed down to Bryan’s cousins’ ranch outside of Austin this weekend and thought it would be fun to bring along some homemade treats, so we're toting along the cheese straws and a big batch of the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Something tells me these won’t survive the trip down, as they’re perfect little car snacks.

Have a lovely Father’s Day weekend!

The Game Changer

What I’m about to admit may hurt a few of you. I expect you may feel a bit like I did when I discovered my husband (who has otherwise great taste in food) doesn’t like olives and stinky blue cheese. I was crestfallen, perhaps even a smidge devastated. Olives and stinky blue cheese are two of my all-time favorite foods. But I digress (perhaps delaying the confession?).

Here goes; I’m not crazy about avocados.

There I said it. I don’t hate them per say, I’m just not really a fan -- I don’t buy them and when they come on something I've ordered, I bequeath them to someone who actually enjoys them… that sort of thing. And with guacamole, I’m mezzo mezzo. I would never make it or order it, but if it’s already on the table, I’ll dip a few chips in.

But recently there’s been a change. A few months ago, my friend Stephanie showed up at a party toting some homemade guacamole specked with feta cheese. I dipped the corner of a chip in and was completely intrigued... In the days after the party, I couldn’t get it out of my mind and set out to re-create my own version at home.

After a little experimenting, I came up with the following simple and foolproof recipe, and I have to say (all modesty aside) it’s amazing… Truly.

I highly recommend giving it a whirl this weekend.

p.s. – yes this is the same guacamole that set off Audrey’s "gag fest 2009". Don’t hold that against it…you know we’re working on her taste buds here.

Guacamole with Feta Cheese

• 3 ripe (preferably organic) Haas avocados
• One small container crumbled feta cheese
• 1 lemon
• Sea salt, fresh ground pepper and Spike to taste
• 1 medium diced tomato (preferably local + organic) *
• 1 small Vidalia onion *
• About ¼ cup finely chopped cilantro *
  

* I often substitute the above three ingredients with the better part of a container of Whole Foods Pico De Gallo. It’s perfection.

The assembly couldn’t be easier, I just dice my avocado, squeeze in the lemon, add the feta and the pico and smash it all together with a fork. Then I add in my salt, pepper and Spike to taste and smash a little more.

Our Absolute, Without a Doubt, Favorite Cookies

My girlies love cookies so much, it’s almost embarrassing (the way they clamor for them, you'd think I'd deprived them of sugar their entire lives.) So this post is pure recipe sharing. There'll be no tales of cajoling Audrey to take a bite of something new or epic gagging sessions to regale you with... Sorry.

From the time I could read a recipe and turn on the oven, I’ve made some variation of the cookie recipe found under the lid of the Quaker Oats container. In it’s own right, it’s pretty much a perfect recipe – I’ve never made a bad batch of cookies using it. But, as an adult, I like a slightly less sweet, more “wholesome” tasting cookie, so I've tweaked it a bit and the girlies are none the wiser.

Oatmeal Dark Chocolate Cookies

• 3/4 c. firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/4 c. turbinado sugar
• 1 organic egg
• 1 stick unsalted European butter (softened)
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1 1/2 c. organic, whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 3 c. organic, old fashioned oatmeal (uncooked)
• 1 bag good quality, dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat together softened butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, vanilla, and almond extract. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon; add to butter mixture, mixing well. Stir in oats and chocolate chips.

Put rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 8 to 9 minutes. Cool 1 minute on cookie sheet; remove to wire cooling rack. Store in tightly covered container. 4 1/2 dozen.

The Sad, Sad State of School Lunch

image via limonada's flickr set

I had planned to post a few recipes today, but I keep stumbling on little blurbs, articles, etc… about the dismal state of our nation's school lunch program, so I thought surely that was some sort of sign that I needed to talk about it here, no?

First up, let’s take a quick peek at the school lunch calendar from a school in France, courtesy of the lovely Stephanie.

image via stephmodo

With nary a slice of pizza, hamburger, fruit cup or French fry anywhere to be found, these kids are feasting on fillets of salmon, organic steak, green beans, apricots, crème brulee, zucchini flan, organic omelets… The daily costs of these amazingly perfect lunches? Three U.S dollars.

Now let’s take a quick quiz courtesy of Mom’s Rising.

"Which of the following is considered a junk food according to national school nutrition standards?"

A. Hi-C Blast - vitamin fortified sugar water
B. Poland Springs seltzer water - water with bubbles
C. French fries
D. Candy Bars

"If you guessed A, C or D you'd be wrong. Seltzer water is the only item on this list banned as a junk food because it doesn't contain any vitamins or minerals. "

"The USDA's school nutrition standards were developed in the 1970's and are no longer consistent with nutrition science or current concerns regarding childhood health. For example, USDA does not consider candy bars, snack cakes or French fries to be junk foods in schools. USDA standards don't even address calories, saturated and trans fats or sodium."

I can’t decide if this makes me sad or furious…or both. So I signed this petition, and you should too!

Seriously friends, it’s time to motivate…and until things change, pack your kiddo’s lunch...

Other great school lunch related links of late:

• Hungry for Change
• Lunch Lessons
• Angry Moms
• School Food Policy
• Brain Fog Blog

Five Failures, One Success and A Really Good Meal

Sunday dinner with my lovely cousin and her boyfriend Ben has become a bit of a ritual. They’re avid cooks and equally passionate about tackling new recipes and eating local/sustainable, so it’s especially fun to cook and eat together.

It was a team effort, with Bryan grilling the sausages for my pasta as well as some lemons for Erin’s salad, which was a great combo of arugula, pine nuts, shaved Campo De Montalban (we’re loving that stuff) and a simple dressing of olive oil, a little champagne vinegar, some lemon juice, salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.

For dessert I made a strawberry rhubarb crumble -- it was my first time to cook with rhubarb, so I was a smidge nervous, but I have to say it was incredibly easy and turned out pretty freakin yummy (I started with this recipe from Smitten Kitchen and then added some brown sugar and oats for the crumble…) Next time I think I’ll go wild and omit the strawberries; I’m living on the edge here people, completely surrendering to the perfect tartness that is rhubarb.



In Audrey news, she tried five new foods this weekend with surprisingly little resistance.

Her foodie adventures and reactions as follows:

• A bit of grilled lemon (above) -- Hated it.
• Homemade hummus on some baked pita – Hated it.
• A piece of drunken goat cheese – Hated it.
• A bit of local mozzarella from Mozzarella Company -- I think she would have normally liked it, but it came out of a tomato mozzarella salad, so it was infused with some olive oil, basil, tomato and a bit of vinegar, thus – Hated it.
• A bit of rhubarb crisp w/ice cream (I'm determined that she'll love fruit crisp) – Hated it.
• A bowl of wheat fettuccini topped with shaved parmesan and mild Italian sausage – Loved it, but this wasn’t a stretch for her at all, so I’m not sure it counts.

Tomorrow, I’ll share a few recipes!

Sprouted Kitchen + What Are You Cooking?

image by hugh forte for sprouted kitchen

Words can not describe how gorgeous + perfect this site is (spotted via kristina, who, by the way, authored this week's blogger's favorites over on SL)... I'm planning to attempt these carrot cake cookie "wiches" this week-end. Audrey will probably shun them, but no matter, I'll just eat them all myself.

image by hugh forte for sprouted kitchen

In other weekend food news, we're having a little picnic with friends this evening, and Audrey and I have been planning what we'll pack all week. There's such an art to a good picnic; I try to pack things that are easy to eat outside and that hold up well to the heat, but I also want some special treats, some sort of homemade sweet or fun adult beverage...

that cheese...audrey's picnic dream -- image of philippe stark's (of course) picnic via t magazine

I think we've settled on the following, but we'll see how things evolve as the day progresses:

• Sunbutter sandwiches on whole wheat bread (more on Sunbutter later...it truly is incredibly yummy)
• A block of that Campo De Montalban
• Plums
• Homemade hummus and baked pita chips
• Tomato mozzarella salad
• Homemade oatmeal/dark chocolate cookies
• Sparkling lemonade for the kiddos
• Lillet blanc for the grown-ups

Tomorrow morning we're headed to a new community "farmer's" market that I'm incredibly excited about...The vendors include local cheese makers, bakers + chocolatiers, farmers (meat + veggies) and local artists and artisians. It's small, and this is the first weekend, so if you live in the Dallas area be sure to go support it. I'll report back Monday with our finds.

Finally we have an especially yummy Sunday dinner planned: locally made whole-wheat fettuccine with roasted asparagus, sweet Italian sausage, cherry tomatoes and goat cheese. My goal is to get the girlies to try one bite of the dish in its final form, and I'll of course have a back-up plate of pasta with sausage and Parmesan only for when the gagging and crying inevitably commences... fingers crossed.

So, what are you cooking this weekend??

A Set Back

I had this grand scheme last night.

Here was my thinking: I could magically displace any squeamishness Audrey has about the core ingredients of a particular dish (i.e. warm fruit), and she would happily lap it up with abandon, if she made said dish herself.

+ I wanted something sweet, and I’ve recently instituted a rule that we can only eat sweets if we make them ourselves -- from scratch (in an attempt to both eat fewer sweets and curb our serious addiction to boxed Ghirardelli double chocolate brownie mix...)

So while Millie and Bryan were happily ensconced in her room playing some combination of princess and the hokey pokey (don’t ask), Audrey and I set out to make berry crumble.

We sort of improvised our way through it, forgoing a formal recipe, and true to plan, I had her do almost all of the work while I guided her through the process. I also took this time to tell her about the blog… how I wanted to cook together more and for her try new foods and then write about them so we could remember it all when we’re older.

She was way into it, and I was positive she would love the crumble; you can see where this is going, no?

We let it cool, made some lightly sweetened loosely whipped cream to pile on top, and she dove in. Friends, it was way, way worse that the great guacamole debacle. She completely freaked out. It was epic: the gagging, the crying, the pleading for water… From her totally overblown reaction, you would have thought I’d just fed her the contents of her sister’s diaper.

“Don’t worry mom”, she managed to say after recovering from her meltdown extraordinaire. “You can just say I didn’t like it on the blog…”

She didn’t like it.

But I did… A lot.

Berry Crumble

• One cup of organic blueberries
• One cup of organic raspberries
• ½ tsp of fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp of sugar in the raw
• 1 tbsp whole wheat flour
• ½ cup oatmeal (not quick oats)
• ½ cup all purpose flour
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ¼ cup crushed pecans or walnuts
• ½ stick of butter chilled and diced into cubes

Pre-heat oven to 350.

In one bowl mix berries, lemon juice, sugar in the raw and whole wheat flour gently with a wooden spoon or spatula, evenly distribute berry mixture into 4 ramekins.

In another bowl mix together oatmeal, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, brown sugar and nuts, add in chilled butter cubes and crumble together with fingers, cover the berries in each ramekin with the crumble mixture.

Place ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake for approx 30 minutes or until bubbly, let cool and serve with vanilla ice cream or lightly sweetened, loosely whipped cream.

The Fallbacks

Those boy scouts were clearly onto something when they coined the motto “Be Prepared.”

It's become our kitchen mantra, as having a go-to dinner for when we work late, are totally uninspired or lazy, or forget to go to the grocery store (sadly it happens more often than I’d like to admit) is our key to avoiding the siren song of chicken nuggets.

Our quick-food panacea is without a doubt eggs. We love them…from our head down to our legs even (sorry I couldn’t resist) + there’s nothing easier to fix based on everyone’s particular preference. I can just whip a few together with some sea salt, a little fresh cracked pepper + some Spike (so good), melt a little pat of butter and then slowly (slow is the key) scramble them over medium-low heat. Right before they finish cooking, I throw in a handful of grated sharp white cheddar or parmesan and serve them up to Bryan and the girlies with buttered wheat toast.

While they’re happily munching away (usually coming back for seconds and thirds), I poach or fry an egg for myself and do a little open faced sandwich on toast. To keep things interesting, I switch up the cheese, sometimes throw on a thin little piece of ham I've warmed in the pan, maybe add a little tomato salad...

But no matter what, it’s always good.

A Win

image via zabars

I've somehow convinced Audrey to try a bite of something new every single day. This wasn’t an easy feat. Let's just say Audrey is squeamish.

She gags merely looking at certain foods (that aren't, by the way, particularly gross.) She clamps her nostrils shut tight with her fingers when we walk through the seafood, olive or cheese section of Whole Foods. She’s a bit dramatic that one.

At any rate, I’ve cajoled her to expand her taste buds a bit. Here’s pretty much how it goes down: I come up with something I want her to try (usually a bit of what I’m eating for lunch or dinner, like a small arugula leaf lightly coated with vinaigrette or a smidge of an asparagus spear roasted in olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt), she resists, wiggles around, clamps her hand over her mouth and shakes her head vehemently. I remind her of our agreement…blah, blah, something new every single day, blah, beg her, tell her how good it’s going to be -- how much she’ll love it…And then I bribe her with a piece of chocolate after dinner. That does the trick, and she quickly puts the item in her mouth, chews it up and immediately starts crying that she HATES it.

We’ve never had a “win.”

Yesterday’s attempt was by far the worst. I gave her a smidge of guacamole with feta cheese on the end of a homemade tortilla chip, which I was convinced she would love, as (not to brag) my guacamole is pretty kickin'. But no such luck. It was an epic disaster; the minute it hit her mouth, she gagged, then screamed, then spit it in the sink. I was pretty bummed.

A few minutes later, I went back into the kitchen to find Audrey perched at the island, eating the entire block of Campo De Montalban that I'd put out as a little pre-dinner snack… It's a Manchego-like semi-hard goat/cow/sheep milk cheese that is mild and nutty but definitely not the bland string cheese sticks that she normally gravitates to.

A Win at last! Almost made up for the guacamole. Almost...

Cornbread Breakfast

There are two indisputable facts about Audrey:

1. The child loves cornbread… Adores. It. (She would eat a half a dozen cornbread muffins slathered in butter in one sitting if I let her.)
   
2. Getting her to eat breakfast before school is akin to say, getting her to play in a bathtub full of snakes. She won’t. And then she heads to school and (according to her teacher) is grumpy right up until the mid-morning snack.

So (and I have no idea why I didn’t think of this before) last night I suggested that we make a loaf of homemade cornbread together so she could enjoy her favorite food for breakfast. And lo and behold it worked! We had a blast making this super simple recipe from Fanny at Chez Panisse, (which I highly, highly recommend for any budding foodie…) and she woke up this morning immediately asking for (demanding) a thick slice topped with butter. I had a slice too but slathered mine with some local strawberry rhubarb jam…

It was seriously good!

Cornbread adapted from Fanny at Chez Panisse:

• ¾ cups of organic cornmeal
• 1 cup of organic all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon of organic sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 organic, free-range egg
• 1 cup organic milk (whole or 2%)
• ¼ cup melted butter

Heat the oven to 425

Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Make a well (a hole) in the middle and add the egg and milk. Gently stir the dry things into the egg and milk until it is all mixed and smooth. Stir in the melted butter

Pour the butter into a buttered loaf pan and bake about 20 minutes until browned on top.

Top Ten

Yesterday Audrey and I documented all the "healthy" foods she loves the most. We thought this would be a good way to come up with new combinations and give us ideas for things we can try out that are similar to what already tastes good to her... Baby steps.

Audrey's Top Ten:

1. Nectarines/Peaches
2. Strawberries
3. Blueberries
4. Wheat penne with butter and fresh Parmesan cheese
5. Her dad's "crispy chicken"
6. Corn on the cob (and cornbread, more on this later)
7. Steak
8. Mashed potatoes
9. String cheese
10. Cinnamon toast on wheat bread

We really need to work on the green veggies...not a single one on the list.

What are your kid's favorites?

The Beginning...

Foodie
S: (n) epicure, gourmet, gastronome, bon vivant, epicurean, foodie (a person devoted to refined sensuous enjoyment (especially good food and drink))

I'll start with an embarrasing confession... Pre-kids, my smug but well-meaning self proclaimed to anyone within earshot that my children would never eat chicken nuggets and mac & cheese for dinner every night or be completely, utterly and totally obsessed with candy.

Oh I was naïve.

You guessed it, my kid’s favorite meal? Nuggets and mac & cheese. Up until now out of some combination of desperation and surrender, (a husband, two small daughters, a household, a full time job) I’ve given in. Sure I bought those organic, free-range, antibiotic/hormone-free nuggets whenever possible, and the mac & cheese is Annie's, but boy have I had to eat my words (no pun intended.) And don’t even get me started on candy – it's literally the bane of my existence.

But those days are over. I want my two young daughters to love, appreciate and understand good food -- why it's important, where it comes from, how to enjoy it. Maybe it's asking for too much, but I want them to be little foodies. Desperately.

My desire is two fold: for one, I really don't want to cook two differently meals every. single. night., and there are only so many dinners of organic nuggets and Annie's mac and cheese that I can stomach. But my primary motivation is to create in my two daughters a healthier, more confident, more passionate attitude about food than I had as a teenager and young adult (for too many years, as as someone who came of age in the era of snackwells, food was the enemy.)

So this is the space where I’ll share our family's food "experiences" and where I'm hoping you'll share yours too, as I'm guessing I'm not alone here. What worked, what didn’t, what we cooked together, what we read, where we went and what we ate when we went there…

Welcome to our family food journey.

Let’s see how it goes!