Here in the Cucina Bella household, we are pretty big fans of Chinese food. It only takes a passing mention of Chinese food to get us debating about ordering it — take Chinese New Year. Cate mentioned that she had to order her Chinese food dinner and I couldn’t get to the takeout menu fast enough. Good timing too, since I wasn’t sure what to make for dinner that night.One of the few main dishes that we can all agree on is Beef with Broccoli. Shawn tolerates the broccoli, Will savors it and we all like the meat. But face it, Chinese food isn’t too good for you. At all. Okay, yes, that was the understatement of the year. Read the rest of this entry…

Advice for New Bloggers is a new regular feature here at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Inspired by Dine and Dish’s Adopt-A-Blogger event, and written with my adoptee in mind (Hi, Rachel! Click here to check out Fairy Cake Heaven), it appears every Tuesday.

Sometimes you just have too much going on to focus on blogging along with everything else. Work, family, and other home responsibilities can be stressful and time-consuming. When life gets too busy, it’s okay to take a break. Your readers want the best of you . . . so taking a break can be advantageous to everyone.

Recharge and then return.

And you don’t always need to tell your readers about the break (though I would recommend doing so if it’s going to be an extended break). Use your discretion and avoid making promises (I’ll be back by . . . ) because you can never be 100 percent sure that you can follow through with them.

And yes, I just needed a bit of a break the past few days. See? It happens to everyone.

Well, if that title doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what does.

Let’s get something established off the bat: I consider myself a fairly liberal person – few things offend me. Few things make me blush. And I rarely see something and wonder how that ended up in a magazine or on television or wherever. I believe in an open and honest relationship with kids and don’t shy away from difficult topics. But I also don’t invite uber-sexuality into my home either. I don’t subscribe to magazines that are inappropriate for my children to flip through and I don’t frequent late night pay per view (in fact, I never order pay per view anything – waste of money IMHO).

One of the magazines that arrives weekly in my little black mailbox is New York Magazine. My husband and I both read it. I typically check out the restaurant reviews and “In Season” column first, and then flip through the interesting articles. I have clippings of “In Season,” in a file in my office. I’ve learned about so many interesting foods from there that I wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

So, after several years of subscribing, I have a reasonable expectation that the magazine won’t run anything that my young children shouldn’t see. I expect to be able to read a reasonably interesting food section. Read the rest of this entry…

Advice for New Bloggers is a new regular feature here at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Inspired by Dine and Dish’s Adopt-A-Blogger event, and written with my adoptee in mind (Hi, Rachel! Click here to check out Fairy Cake Heaven), it appears every Tuesday.

One of the best things about the food blogosphere is the sense of community that has developed between food bloggers from all over the world. It’s almost like being in one great big global neighborhood of people with like interests. But as a new blogger, how do you get to know your new “neighbors”?

When I started blogging I wasn’t sure. But then I learned about food events hosted by different blogs. Intrigued, I entered a dish in a Sugar High Friday event. Then I learned about Weekend Herb Blogging and ARF/5-A-Day Tuesdays. I joined in for both. Since then, I have taken part in countless events and virtually met a good deal of great food bloggers.

So, if you want to be a part of the community, start joining in events. You never know who’ll you’ll meet.

There are two great resources for finding them: Is My Blog Burning? and Sticky Date.

In the past, when I have bought leeks, they have sat in my refrigerator until they turned brown, moldy and emitted a disgusting juice that my husband would clean up. That’s the not-so-pretty truth. I’ve wanted to try them, have bought them and then haven’t done a thing with them. Sad, but true.

Until now, that is.

The worst part isn’t that I let produce sit in the refrigerator until it rotted. No, sir, though that is a bad thing in of itself. The worst part is that when I finally make them, I discovered that I really like leeks. Go figure. They have a somewhat sweet flavor with a mild onion-y flavor. It’s more of a hint of onion flavor, really. Mmmm. Read the rest of this entry…

I have these photos of red cabbage I took recently that I really like . . . so, rather than just show you the photos, I thought I might make them into a moderately useful post. Here are five interesting facts about red cabbage.

1. Red cabbage is a good source of the flavonoids, a powerful antioxidant that can help protect your body against serious illnesses like cancer. “Flavonoids help the blood vessels to relax. The compounds have that benefit. It also protects the cholesterol from becoming oxidized. It’s not necessarily dangerous to you until it’s oxidized. Once it’s oxidized then it sticks to your arteries,” registered dietitian Joanne Shearer told ABC’s KSFY station (click here to read more).
2. It is the flavonoids in the cabbage that give it its color. Red cabbage has a flavonoid called anthocyanin, which is also found in blueberries and flower petals.
3. Red cabbage is high in fiber, which aids in digestion by forcing out all the bad stuff along the way.
4. Red cabbage can be used for kitchen science experiments. The purple leafy vegetable is considered an indicator, which can be used to distinguish between acids and bases. Doesn’t that sound like fun? You make cabbage juice and see if it changes color when you add another liquid to it. Click here to find out what to do, and what it all means.
5. Red cabbage can also be used as a natural dye for cloth or food. How about a cabbage tie-dyed t-shirt?

See? Interesting.

Will loves cheese. And berries. And grapes. And pasta. And beef. And chicken. And eggs. And just about everything you can imagine, except for green beans. He could do without those. He’s also not too fond of sausage, but he’ll tolerate it.

He’s the kid willing to try anything – even if only for a bite. A few nights ago, he ate spinach lasagna and a spinach salad with great glee. There was no complaint over the green stuff in it, no demand for something else. He just ate what he was served. Meanwhile, our friend’s daughter ate the pizza that her parents brought for her. The pizza that they stopped at a restaurant for and brought to my house when I was making a perfect good (and nutritious) meal that I knew my toddler would gobble right up. Will gave her a funny, “it’s just pizza, what’s the big deal?” look.

So, that leads me to a little rant. Read the rest of this entry…

Advice for New Bloggers is a new regular feature here at Sarah’s Cucina Bella. Inspired by Dine and Dish’s Adopt-A-Blogger event, and written with my adoptee in mind (Hi, Rachel! Click here to check out Fairy Cake Heaven), it appears every Tuesday.

This one is pretty simple.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of wanting to produce a lot of content for the sake of doing so. Maybe you think it will drive more traffic to your site or perhaps you think that it will help you to gain credibility in the blogosphere faster. Lots of bloggers, myself included, have fallen into that trap at one time or another. But when I looked back at the breadth of quantity content I created, it was no where near as good as the quality content I created before and after that point.

Posting every day is great, but it can drain you — especially if you have 50 million other things going on in your life. Take it slow, write every piece with thought and care (and don’t forget those photos!) and your blog will be something to be proud of.

See? Simple.

Today is my first day back to work after maternity leave. I had to drop my two cute little kids off to daycare and drive an hour to work. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love my job. But I don’t think it’s ever easy for a parent to leave their children. Well, at least not a full-time parent who is invested in raising their kids.

Breakfast is, on the best days, a challenge for me. I have a hard time cooking that early in the morning for one thing. And when I do cook, it’s often on the disastrous side. Many a good omelet has been scorched in the early morning hours.

But, that being said, breakfast is the most important meal of the day (everyone knows that!). It gives you fuel after going eight hours or more without any. It revives you and gets you going for the day.

Somehow, I don’t think that a cup of coffee and a cracker is going to cut it.

Well, I’ve seen these little egg concoctions all over the Internet. The first time was on Kalyn’s Kitchen. Kalyn calls them Egg Muffins and pops two in the microwave before running out to school (she’s a teacher). Cate over at Sweetnicks calls them Egg Cups, since she gets a similar picture as I do with the term “muffin.” Recently, these appeared on Fit Fare, which (in the interest of full disclosure) I edit, and author Patricia DiGiacomo Eddy called them mini frittatas. I like that name, so I am going with it. Read the rest of this entry…

I had a rude awakening on Friday when I suddenly realized that it was Friday and the meat I had planned to serve for dinner was a big no-no. If you are in a similar situation and looking for a yummy dish to feed your brood, check out these recipes from Sarah’s Cucina Bella:

• Grilled Tilapia
• Light and Healthy Tilapia
• Fillo Clams Casino
• Lobster Stuffed Mushrooms
• Smoked Salmon and Brie Sandwich
• Seared Tuna with Sesame Soy Drizzle
• Baked Tilapia with Warm Tomato Relish
• Easy Sauteed Catfish
• Sauteed Tilapia with Lemon-Caper Pan Sauce
• Lobster Risotto
• Beer Steamed Clams