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: Cooking with Kids
Mango Shrimp Tacos and Asian Steak Tacos: Taco Night Al Fresco Fiesta!
ShareTweet Taco night has been a longstanding tradition in our household, long before we relocated to Chicago. But the rich Mexican community here and the abundance of delicious taco joints has inspired us to take taco night to a whole new level. Taco night used to mean seasoned ground beef served with a few colorful… Continue Reading
Quick French Weeknight Dinner: Pork Medallions with Mustard Sauce
ShareTweet When people ask me what type of food I like to cook, saucy French foods is my usual reply, but I worry that this gives the wrong impression. Our weeknight meals usually involve a protein with a sauce, but they’re far from fancy. Whipping up a little sauce to top boring pork chops is… Continue Reading
Bruschetta with Homemade Ricotta and Slow Roasted Tomatoes
ShareTweet This weekend, we baked and cooked as a family for the Chicago Food Swap. With the exception of a few challah loaves, everything we made for the swap was from Jennie Perillo’s new cookbook Homemade with Love. Steve and Bella made her buttermilk donuts in lemon and decadent dark chocolate. I made slow roasted tomatoes and homemade… Continue Reading
Homemade with Love – a Beautiful Cookbook from a Beautiful Cook
ShareTweet Homemade with Love is Jennie Perillo‘s first cookbook. It has the great recipes and lush images of a great cookbook, and while it is certainly destined to become one of your favorites, it’s so much more than just a great cookbook. Homemade with Love is Jennie’s ode to cooking from scratch and a love… Continue Reading
Quick and Dirty Croque Madame
ShareTweet Chances are that you’ve had a Croque Monsieur, the French take on grilled cheese sandwiches: bread, ham and cheese bonded with a generous dose of creamy bechamel sauce. But have you had Croque Monsieur’s better half, the Croque Madame? A Croque Madame is essentially a grilled ham and cheese with an egg on top.… Continue Reading
Chicken Croquettes: Roasted Chicken Leftover Solution
ShareTweet One thousand years ago, back when I was a size 0 and took it for granted, I studied abroad in Barcelona. After a disastrous month with an overprotective old señora, my program transferred me to the home of a very hip young single woman named Maria who was a hairdresser for movie sets. When… Continue Reading
Sweet Asian Chicken Thighs Inspire Highly Inappropriate Thoughts
ShareTweet Chicken thighs are sexy. There’s just something about the eroticism of the word thigh, combined with the utterly boring blandness of chicken, that appeals to me. That probably makes me something of a degenerate, but it is what it is. Chicken thighs are sexy, especially when they’re slick with a sweet Asian glaze. This… Continue Reading
Tealightful Gift Basket Giveaway
ShareTweet I come from a family of passionate tea drinkers. My mother and sister like their tea sweet and milky. They start their day with a steaming cup, and go through another 2 or 3 throughout the day. My mother in law also loves tea, but she prefers hers to be fruity and fragrant, and… 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
Roasted Squash Arancini: a Celebration of Leftovers
ShareTweet Leftovers are unappealing. Dumped into dented plastic containers, they get shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten, until they’re discovered weeks later, covered in funky patterns of furry chartreuse mold. I’ve been reading a fantastic little book by Tamar Adler called An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace that challenges the… 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
Relaunching a Fall Favorite: Rainbow Pumpkin Chili
ShareTweet Last fall, this colorful and sweet pumpkin chili won a neighborhood chili cook-off. This fall it’s winning a different sort of contest: the baby Sophie finger food contest. Beans are such a great source of protein, and with so many fun colors, this chili is irresistible to a baby suddenly hell bent on feeding… 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
It’s Never Too Early to Raise an Adventurous Eater
ShareTweet If you ask my 5-year old Juliette what her favorite food is, she’ll reply, “Sushi!” without hesitation. Before you report me to the authorities, let me reassure you that she means sushi rolls filled with vegetables, and not raw fish. She’s tried sushi tuna and salmon, but prefers the veggies. If you chat with… Continue Reading
With Crepes, It’s All About the Pan
ShareTweet We flipped crepes for dessert last night in celebration of Mardi Gras. Although we don’t keep Lent, we do believe in celebrating anything that involves a fun dessert, especially when the excitement of flipping crepes is involved. The kids like their crepes with a pat of melting salted butter and a generous sprinkling of… Continue Reading
Chocolate Fudge Terrine Drowned in Vanilla Cream
ShareTweet Romance doesn’t mesh well with calendars. I had a cake in mind for Valentine’s Day, a cake I had not made before but that still craved: a rich chocolate terrine drowned in a sea of vanilla cream.I imagined it as the perfect end to a romantic dinner of roasted pear and goat cheese appetizer,… Continue Reading
Zoku Pops Truly Give Kids Free Rein
ShareTweet As soon as my children can stand and hold a wooden spoon, I put them to work in the kitchen. This isn’t forced labor doing chores, but just joining in the fun if they’re at all interested. Whether it’s peeling carrots for chicken noodle soup or breaking eggs to make fudgy brownies, I’d much… Continue Reading
Curl Up with this Pumpkin Corn Soup Topped with Pears and Prosciutto
ShareTweet Now that Halloween is over, discount pumpkin bins are popping up everywhere. I grabbed a few pie pumpkins from the supermarket this weekend to make a fall bounty soup. I wanted to create a bowl of pure comfort, something filled with fall vegetables but also sweet, like curling up with a good book under… Continue Reading
Coconut Milk Chicken Pot Pie
ShareTweet A million years ago, when I gave birth to Juliette in New Jersey, my friends kept us fed with homecooked meals for over a month. Every other day a new meal would be delivered, complete with kid-friendly desserts, bread, and salad. It was amazing, like a long draw-out community hug that ended right when… Continue Reading
Wild Boar and Relaxation in La Campagne
ShareTweet As our plane to France was circling over Charles de Gaulle airport, I glimpsed fields of golden wheat and got that rush of being home feeling. Even though I grew up in Paris, it’s the French countryside where I spent weekends as a child that really resonates with me. There’s something about the colors,… Continue Reading