ShareTweet I love sweet potatoes. I love them baked. I love them mashed with butter and crunchy flakes of salt. I love them in kielbasa stew and in hand pies. I love them forgotten to bathe in the fat of a slowly roasting chicken. But no matter how much you love something, no matter how much… Continue Reading
Category Archives: baking with kids
Caramelized Banana Dutch Babies: One Dish Breakfast Solutions To Feed Big Families
ShareTweet Breakfast for six is a tall order. Bella doesn’t eat fruit. Jack doesn’t like breakfast. Steve likes a toasted bagel with cream cheese, pepper, and ruby red tomato slices. And both Juju and Baby Sophie like a feast of little tastes. Me? I like to sleep in and be woken with a steaming caffe latte and… Continue Reading
Chocolate Mousse Trifle: Magical Desserts from the Fridge
ShareTweet When I think of a mouth watering dessert, I usually picture something hot out of the oven, something oozing with dark chocolate ribbons. But the fridge, or even the freezer, can be just as effective in creating magical desserts. After a few hours in the fridge, this chocolate mousse trifle is layer after layer… Continue Reading
Butter Tarts: a Newfound Love
ShareTweet Butter tart. The name alone is mouth watering. How can you go wrong with a pastry whose name begins with butter? Those were the thoughts that ran through my head the first time I ever heard of butter tarts, while visiting my dad and his soon to be wife in Calgary. We were at… Continue Reading
Midnight Cherry Cookies
ShareTweet Romantics make unconventional bakers. I want my kitchen full of magic, full of spontaneous last minute ingredients. A pinch here, a pinch there. I don’t need the certainty of the same result every time. For every failure, I’ll have a surprise success. Every time slick egg whites whip up into perfect peaks, I am dazzled… Continue Reading
Sweet and Crumbly Sables: a Grown Up Sugar Cookies for the Entire Family
ShareTweet My kids are suckers for sugar cookies in pretty shapes. We buy them, we make them, but they don’t give me the same thrill as my children. When it comes to sugar cookies, my heart belongs to the French sugar cookie: le Sablé (pron: sablay). Sable is the French word for sand, a reference… Continue Reading
Chocolate Souffles to Close out Valentine’s Day
ShareTweet After frantically making Valentine’s Day cards for too many kids tonight, I’ve become a full fledged Valentine’s Day grump. Now that there’s no candy exchanged in our schools, I don’t really see the point. The moms race around to help their kids make these little cards as well as a pretty little box to… Continue Reading
Sweet Potato Hand Pies
ShareTweet How much of a sweet potato fan are you? I tasted my first patate douce as a teenager, learning how to speak English and became an instant fan of this very American vegetable. An oven roasted sweet potato with a generous pat of salted butter tastes so good, it’s hard to believe that it’s… Continue Reading
Nutella Lava Cookies
ShareTweet Afternoons in our house are quiet, blissfully so. While Baby Sophie naps, I have the house to myself and a few hours to get work done. But when 2:30 rolls around, I start to prepare for the 3:30 onslaught, when the hungry kids storm through the door. Our two favorite snacks are warm chocolate… Continue Reading
Classic Vanilla Rice Pudding from the Downton Abbey Cookbook
ShareTweet Have you fallen under the spell of Downton Abbey yet? Judging from my Twitter and Facebook feeds, it seems as though more people are passionate about the fashions and scandals of the Grantham family and their servants than about the upcoming Superbowl. I certainly am. My Sunday nights are devoted to Downton Abbey, and… Continue Reading
Chocolate Pot de Creme: an Obsession Worth Every Calorie
ShareTweet Some recipes just beg to be made again, and be made again quickly. I made Rooibos Pots de Creme last week and they were so creamy, so decadent, that I had to make another batch. I’d be playing tennis or talking to friends, and suddenly all I could think about was sinking my spoon… Continue Reading
Progressive Holiday Party Help
ShareTweet Are you planning on hosting a Christmas party this year? If the prospect seems a little daunting from an expense or effort point of view, consider hosting a progressive party with your neighbors. My latest post is up at Snackpicks, and it’s filled with holiday ideas, easy recipes and valuable advice on hosting progressive… Continue Reading
Brownie Meringue Pie for No-Fruititarians
ShareTweet My oldest daughter is a strict non-fruititarian. The last time she ate any type of fruit was on the tip of a plastic coated baby spoon, ten years ago. She eats her vegetables with gusto, but refuses sweeter and juicier produce. We’ve tried to entice her with rewards, peer pressure, and threats with fruits… Continue Reading
Chocolate Pecan Pie and Bidding Long Distance Thanksgiving Blues Goodbye
ShareTweet Since moving away from New Jersey, our Thanksgiving celebrations have involved packing and flying instead of baking and cooking. I miss the days of driving to my mother in law’s house with pecan pie carefully balanced on my lap. Don’t get me wrong, our table is still overflowing with food, and reuniting with everyone… Continue Reading
How to Make Salted Caramel Sauce
ShareTweet Salted caramel is a trend I can’t imagine getting tired of. I get bacon fatigue. Bacon donuts, bacon ice cream, as a nation, I’d say we’ve achieved bacon overload. But call me naive, I don’t think we’ll reach that point with salted caramel, as long as it’s made with quality ingredients. Real sugar. Real… Continue Reading
Sour Cream Pumpkin Muffins to Cure Monday Blues
ShareTweet I need to start the day with something indulgent, something that coaxes me out of bed, like a kiss on the head to cope with the chill of fall. A muffin should be sweet and fun, a little treat to get you going in the morning. These sour cream pumpkin muffins do the trick.… Continue Reading
Stone Soup: a Child’s Invitation to Fill the Pot
ShareTweet Have you ever made stone soup? More than a simple vegetable soup, it can be an invitation to get creative and fill the pot for the whole family. Long before my kids discovered the Disney Channel and its bevvy of child stars, Little Bear was our favorite show. That mysteriously half-clothed bear wandered through… Continue Reading
Is Good Food Wasted on Babies?
ShareTweet Is good food wasted on babies? Of course not. Even before the first teeth breaks through, babies have little taste buds, just waiting to be tantalized. Transitioning babies to table food used to overwhelm me. I mourned for the convenience of those little baby food jars, so portable, so convenient but really, so blah.… Continue Reading
Give Fall a Tropical Kiss with Mango Souffle
ShareTweet For years, I gave mangoes a wide berth at the supermarket. Not because of any distaste for them, but because in my mind, mangoes were tropical vacation extravagance, not a fruit to be offered up as an afterschool snack. I love mangoes, love their exotic fruitiness, their juicy texture, and their luscious golden color,… Continue Reading
Just a Simple Little French Cake: Fondant au Chocolat
ShareTweet French food has a reputation as being fussy, fancy, and complicated to prepare. While the elaborate sauces served at restaurants like Le Bernardin are great examples of French cuisine, they’re not representative of the type of cooking done at home in French families on weeknights. French cooks, just like American ones, have recipes they… Continue Reading
Six Easy Tactics for Better School Lunches
ShareTweet I like to think of myself as a fun-loving heathen, as someone happiest with a car full of kids setting off on a day of unstructured adventures. But yesterday, I danced in the street all the way home when I kissed my three oldest kids goodbye and sent them off for their first full… Continue Reading