IT’S THE TAIL END OF PLUM SEASON IN ROME. With so many to eat in so little time (namely, before a fruit fly colony invades our kitchen) plums got upgraded from snack item to dessert to dinner. These sweet little beauties are a great source of fiber plus vitamins C, A and K. To be…
Chocolate scones with peanut butter
TOAST. TOAST WITH JAM. TOAST with peanut butter. This is how most mornings begin at our house, with a request for the same thing. Every day. Toast. In the past it’s been oatmeal which I admit is a gooier task to prepare and certainly to clean up. But really, how much can a piece of…
Straccetti, arugula salad with sizzling strips of steak and Parmesan cheese
STRACCETTI IS A CLASSIC ITALIAN MEAL, so naturally I’d never heard of it. That was before I moved to Rome and discovered that Italian food is more than pasta, tomatoes and cheese. (But they do that very well.) One of my favorite summer meals has turned out to be a version of the Big Salad…
Zucchini mini-muffins with dried cranberries
LET IT BE SAID THAT COOKING WITH FOUR KIDS under three is crazy ill advised. A fact, now burned clearly into my brain, was somehow unknown when I went into this project last week. A fellow ex-pat brought her toddler and baby over for some pint-sized baking at my suggestion. Along with my own toddler…
Scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, really
I DIDN’T MAKE IT FOR PHOEBE. This was a parallel lunch last week; I made her some nice fluffy eggs with cheese and planned to top mine with smoked salmon, a decadent treat I got hooked on during my NYC days.
Barefoot Contessa Makeover: Plum-blackberry crisp
WE WERE HEADED FOR THE BEACH and needed to bring a dessert for lunch afterward. The requirements were simple enough: must be baked ahead of time and also hold up for an hour in the car. (And if it could not involve a 30-pound Le Creuset baking pan, even better.) There would be six adults,…
Beginner baby food: 5 first foods for babies
HERE WE ARE AGAIN. I’m thrilled to say that Estelle is now officially an eater. A foodlet, I don’t know but she’s eating solid food and that’s good enough for me. We started her on the classic “beginner” foods and once she got the hang of it her reaction went from eyes-closed shuddering to an…
Italian style pasta & cheese cups
A PORTABLE LUNCH DOESN’T GET MUCH BETTER than this. With a play date coming up, Phoebe and I set out to make lunch for her and a play pal but there were strings attached. It had to withstand a trip across Rome via stroller. That’s where this new recipe came in. Continuing on my Sneaky…
Barley raisin breakfast bars
WE NEEDED MORE BREAKFAST options. So, back I went to The Sneaky Chef. Phoebe is a raisin fan and I’m a champion of whole grains which made “Mom’s Barley Breakfast Bars” a no-brainer. I followed the recipe this time, with the small exception of adding an extra teaspoon of cinnamon and doubling the raisins. …
Chicken with pickle sauce
THERE’S A SECRET INGREDIENT IN this one. It’s even pictured above. The trouble with a mystery like this though, is that if you’ve read the title of the post it’s already given away. Hmpf. Anyway, pickles.
Strawberry oatmeal breakfast cookies
JAM IS A POPULAR ITEM at our place. Especially strawberry, especially in the morning. So when I saw a recipe for Strawberry Vanilla Breakfast Cookies in my Sneaky Chef to the Rescue cookbook, I jumped at the chance.
Peanut butter chocolate chip bacon cookies
YES, BACON. Thanks to an international subscription to The Food Network magazine, Paul was crunching his way through a dozen over-sized chocolate chip cookies tonight. But these weren’t just run of the mill birthday cookies. In addition to your basic flour, brown sugar, eggs and whatnot, these guy-friendly treats included peanut butter, bacon, a dash…
Roasted fish with potatoes
IF YOU’RE NOT A FISH PERSON–more importantly, if your kids aren’t–this dish is for you. Tender and mild, the fish fillets simply roast under a bed of thinly sliced potatoes slathered with olive oil plus fresh rosemary and lemon. The flavors are subtle yet the dish feels hearty. Decidedly not fishy. In fact, my toddler…
a garden birthday party with low sugar “dirt cups”: happy 2nd birthday phoebe!
THE DIRT CUPS WERE a process. For Phoebe’s second birthday I set out to create a garden party in Villa Ada, Rome’s largest park. And the star of the show, other than the birthday girl’s pretty fabulous tutu, was the “dirt cups”, aka, brownies and pudding mixed together in tiny terra cotta pots with worms,…
turkey & cheese roll-ups, an easy lunch or snack idea
PHOEBE IS A MEAT LOVER. I’m not sure why but she even gets excited about saying the word, “meat!” Anyway, I’m using this to my advantage these days–and enjoying easy lunches. Here’s today’s idea: Roll a slice of fresh turkey from the deli around a little rectangle of cheese. Try to use organic and experiment…
Slow food lunch: Chickpeas like I’ve never seen (or tasted)
THESE WERE, WELL delicious. On a tip from our trusty Italian guidebook Gambero Rosso, we stopped for lunch at Taverna 58 on our way to Mattinata. The restaurant is associated with the Slow Food movement, which supports restaurants fitting three criteria, as per the website:
how to get toddlers to try seafood
THIS POST COULD’VE been called “how to get a toddler to try seafood” except I have no idea how to do that. Here’s how it worked for us (hint: it involves flavors she already likes.) We’re in Puglia right now (the southern coast of Italy; the heel of the boot) and in this region of…
Grilling: The long, slow road to dinner
I DIDN’T THINK I LIKED GRILLING going into tonight’s dinner and now it’s confirmed. I hate it. What’s appealing about spending two hours in front of a smokey mess, poking, coaxing, begging the coals to just light already? Wondering when/if the whole thing will ever, ever be hot enough to cook meat without giving everyone…
Barefoot Contessa Makeover: Lemon chicken with pesto potato salad
WE’VE HAD A BREAKTHROUGH in the potato department. Never a fan of them, Phoebe actually said, “I ont aunt tatoes” when I was trying to play up tonight’s dinner—a tough task considering that we were swimming (aka, the most fun activity ever) just before the potato conversation. But potatoes it was. Only I added a…
Ina Garten’s Lentil soup with sausage
WE LOVED IT, PHOEBE DIDN’T. Such is life, especially when you’ve got a toddler. This lentil soup, originally inspired by the Barefoot Contessa, is a favorite for Paul and me but this time I added a couple of special ingredients: lentils that Paul got from the Salone Del Gusto food festival plus fresh turkey sausage….