When I was in New York this past weekend, I was surprised to see that even the famed Junior’s Bakery has gotten in on the cupcake act. But surprisingly, I didn’t eat any cupcakes while I was in the city. Not from Crumbs. Not from Magnolia. None. I just didn’t feel like it.

But when I arrived home to the smiling faces of my kids, I wanted to make some cupcakes with them. Specifically, this recipe that I’ve been working on. Awhile back, I had this idea to put some grated summer squash into cupcake batter as a way to use up extra squash. After all, we put zucchini in bread, right?

I bounced the idea off Will and Paige … they were all for it.

So, we set about to make these. I finely grated the squash using a box grater (a food processor would work too). Then Will and Paige, added, mixed and prepared the other ingredients. Finely, the batter was divided into cupcake liners and baked. Frost with your favorite frosting and voila … delish cupcakes.

The chocolate creates this amazing bottom layer. Then there is the soft cake, sweet frosting and sprinkling of salty, wonderful crushed almonds. It’s an amazing and fabulous contrast. As for the summer squash, it melts into the background.

You may be surprised to see that I use a boxed mix for these cupcakes. Honestly, when it comes to cake, I prefer to start with a box. Why? In my experience, cakes tend to be finicky … it doesn’t take much to have a perfect good cake turn into a scary dry mess. Boxed mixes practically guarantee batter success.

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When I was a little kid, I dreaded having baked potatoes with dinner. It got to the point where I would audibly groan at the mention of them (how awful, right?). There was just nothing about them that I enjoyed. I’ve never been a fan of sour cream, and melty butter on semi-mashed potato doesn’t do it for me. In fact, the whole cross-cut and squeeze technique for eating baked potatoes was a turn off.

Weird? Yea, probably a little.

Since then, I have grown to like baked potatoes. There’s a world of difference between baked potatoes, cross-sliced and squeezed open, and baked potatoes, sliced and topped with something yummy (sharp cheddar, black beans and salsa, I am looking at you!). Heck, I even like them served that traditional way, as long as there is a fresh, fabulous mix-in to make it special

Fortunately, my kids don’t share my aversion to the traditional eating of baked potatoes. In many ways, they are easier eaters than most people I know, open to trying just about anything — and liking much of it. When it comes to eating potatoes, they love them any which way. Sure, Paige, wants her baked potatoes cut up like me (it’s easier to stab with a fork), but they will eat them plain, or with butter or sour cream or cheese or whatever. And me? I let them eat them however they want.

There’s a lesson in that. Had I been allowed to eat potatoes however I wanted at a young age, I might have never dreaded seeing baked potatoes being pulled out of the oven, steaming hot. I might have discovered how different flavors, stirred in or just topping it, can totally change the potato.

When it comes down to it, aside from using utensils, there isn’t one right way to eat most foods. Corn on the cob can be bitten off the cob, buttered or not, or cut from the cob before eating. Does it really matter which way its eaten? I don’t think it does …

Now, I know it’s summer and this is hardly time to be heating the house for baked potatoes. The good news? You don’t have to! You can have baked potatoes now — just grill them. Wrapped in aluminum foil and rubbed with salt, they are easy, fast and delicious.

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Aren’t those adorable? When I was a little girl, I heard about a recipe for Celery Race Car Snacks and beggggggged my mom to make them with me. She did – just once – and I was totally smitten. I made them myself a few times as I got older, but eventually stopped.

When celery appeared in my CSA box last week, the idea immediately popped into my head. I could practically taste the creamy peanut butter on the crispy, cool celery. YUM! I am not a huge fan of celery, but when prepared this way, who can resist munching on it?

The best part is that this recipe can almost entirely be kid-made. Your child will need enough hand control to handle a dull knife (or be willing to accept help from you). Will and Paige both spread their own peanut butter in (Paige did need a little help). Next comes the assembly. You need a little mom-muscle to insert the toothpicks. Will took care of attaching his own wheels. Meanwhile, Paige lined her carrots up for easy stabbing (which I did, at her request). Finally, you add the chocolate chip driver — which is something any kid can do. Then it’s time to eat.

Doesn’t this beget playing with your foods? Well, yes, but sometimes that’s a good thing. Will tried — and loved — celery for the first time today. Paige wasn’t as fond of it, but she is certainly building a comfort level by touching and exploring its crevices. Generally, I am totally anti-playing with food, but really this is one time when it’s just A-OK. I thought mine might want to make race car noises and race them around their plates. Um. No. Once the driver was eaten and the wheels removed, they both turned them into pirate ships before devouring.

It’s a car! It’s a craft! It’s super fun.

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When the email arrived months ago asking if I would speak at the annual BlogHer Conference in August, I answered a quick yes. The topic, Family Foodies: Raising a New Generation of Gourmands, couldn’t be more perfect for me. It’s everything I am passionate about: cooking good, healthy, budget-friendly meals that my whole family will eat.

In fact, I answered yes before I figured out the details of how I would manage to steal away for a few days sans kids.

Every time I think about the panel, I smile. I am speaking with two great food-blogging moms: Stefania from CityMama and Danielle from Foodmomiac. We spoke a few weeks ago about our perspectives and ideas about raising kids who eat well. I couldn’t help but feel a connection to these women as our perspectives aligned.

It’s sure to be a great panel. If you are headed to BlogHer, plan to drop in and listen!

In the meantime, I am hard at work preparing for the panel. I’ve been thinking hard about why my kids will try pretty much anything and why their food interests are so ranging. Here are five things I do, that you can too.

5 Tips for Getting Your Kids to Try New Things

1. Let them touch it. Look, we all were taught not to play with our food, but seriously sometimes getting wrist deep in dough or getting all touchy-feely with a veggie can be great for kids. It really helps them open up to foods they haven’t tried before.
2. Let them help you. Like #1, getting kids involved in the cooking process really helps kids to open up to new foods. Sure, a completed loaf of Zucchini Bread might be a little intimidating, but if you see if go from simple ingredients like zucchini, flour, sugar and oil to a loaf, then it’s not so much.
3. Show them where it comes from. If you live near a farm, it’s an awesome adventure for kids to see where their food comes from. Call ahead and the farmer may even let your kids walk through the crops and see peppers still on the plant and tomatoes ripening on the vine. Or, you can also take your kids to local Pick-Your-Own fields to experience harvesting first-hand.
4. Don’t assume they won’t like it. It does kids a great disservice if you just up and assume that they aren’t going to enjoy something. Kids are surprising and if you approach new foods with the belief that the idea that it could be their new favorite food, then they are more likely to want to at least taste it.
5. Don’t expect them to scarf it the first time. All it takes is one bite. Maybe it will be an insta-hit. Maybe they will tolerate it. Either way, eating just one bite of an unfamiliar food is a big step towards being open to trying new things. Plus, but requiring just one bite, you create an eating culture that encourages being adventurous.

And hey, readers, are you going to BlogHer ’10 in New York next month? Let me know in the comments if you will be there. I would love to meet and speak to you in person!

If there is one thing my kids love, it’s options. So, when I suggested that we make our own smoothies this afternoon, they were both totally psyched. We were in the grocery store when I mentioned it and Will’s reaction was priceless. “Smoothies? Really?!? Yay!” Then, when they saw the array of ingredients spread out on the counter, they were beyond delighted.

I started out by asking each of them if they wanted a creamy or an icy smoothie. They both choose creamy, so we started with a half cup of plain yogurt each. Then, they choose their fruit (strawberries and pineapple for Paige and banana and strawberry for Will). Finally, we topped it off with a 1/4 cup of milk and blended it all to perfection.

They loved that they got to dictate the flavors and also blend the drinks themselves. I love seeing the sense of accomplishment when they do things like this. It makes every spill and drip 100 percent worth it.

They both loved their creations. Paige’s was lightly sweet with a flavor that made her say “Oh! Yum!” Honestly though, I wasn’t as big a fan of her combination (no matter — it only really mattered that she liked it). And Will sucked his Strawberry Banana Yogurt Smoothie down in record time. Yes, he loved it.

For my part, I made a Banana Pineapple Smoothie … a light, chilly, refreshing drink with coconut water, banana, pineapple and ice. It was A-MAZING. Totally a must-make.

What’s your favorite smoothie combination?

P.S. Cate and I joke about being on the same wavelength … so you’ll imagine my surprise when I checked her blog tonight. This was a total coincidence. But head over to Sweetnicks for a Pineapple Orange Smoothie Recipe.

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Our family is off having fun this week (check in Friday for pics, details and more!), so we’re pretty busy. But don’t worry: There is a whole great line-up of recipes that will post this week.

Today’s is a great, easy homemade iced tea. We all love iced tea and this one is a wonderful, refreshing one, perfect for any adventure. And hey, how timely! This month is National Iced Tea Month. Who knew that such a thing even existed!

This is a great, fast thing to make with children. My kids and I gathered in the kitchen this morning, measuring and counting out tea bags to get this ready to go.

It’s a fantastic way to practice counting skills and reinforce number recognition with your kids. We counted the tea bags by 2s, which is a great skill for my almost-5-year-old. And Paige, who is wise beyond her years, helped me figure out when I hit the four cup line on my measuring cup when measuring the water and apple juice.

As for the beverage itself? This is a ridiculously easy recipe for making iced tea. Sweetened with apple juice (a trick I picked up from my cousin when she introduced me to a fab Barefoot Contessa iced tea), you don’t have to worry about settling sugar or getting the proportions perfect since the measurements are just so easy. We use a funnel to make pouring the brewed tea way easier.

You’ll need a 1-gallon pitcher for this one. I picked mine up at Target. Splurge for a good one … the seal is so much better and you are way less likely to have spillage.

Off to our adventure … but be sure to check in this week — I have a great orzo recipe for tomorrow and a wonderful guest post on Wednesday. Total must-read from a fabulous blogger.

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Today is Will’s last day of preschool. Ever. I can hardly believe it. You always hear people say that children grow up so quickly, but only in experiencing it can you appreciate just how true that is. It seems like just yesterday that I was uncomfortably pregnant with him and now he’s almost 5. Time really does fly.

I’ve been thinking the same thing about Paige recently … she’s gone from round-faced baby to thinking, plotting, planning little girl in no time. The other day, I was working on a recipe (this recipe, in fact), when Paige pulled up her trusty pink stool and started asking questions. I was photographing some cubed chicken at the time. She wanted to know what it was, why I was taking pictures and what I was going to do with it.

She followed me through the kitchen as I added all the ingredients to a mixing bowl and then stirred it all together. I explained every step of the process as I went, with her listening and watching intently and with great curiosity. She is at a point where she really wants to understand everything she sees.

These children … they are amazing.

In regards to this sandwich … it’s a wonderful, easy fast lunch that involves no heating of the kitchen (SCORE!). Perfect for hot days … or any day … the combination of briny olives, crunchy bits of cucumber, moist chicken chunks, creamy, salty feta and an easy dressing is fabulous on pita bread. For the chicken, I used leftover grilled chicken, but you could easily substitute rotisserie chicken or even those premade chicken strips (Trader Joe’s sells them in the freezer section).

It’s definitely a crowd pleaser.

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Happy Memorial Day everyone! Hope you and yours are enjoying a lovely day together.

We woke up late this morning, had a little breakfast and then made a big batch of these cookies together. These cookies are a little hardier with a touch of oats, which makes them perfect for ice cream sandwiches (just take two cookies, spoon a little ice cream in the center, smush together and freeze until set). These will be the perfect dessert for the pool party we’ll be attending later today.

As for cooking with kids, cookies are perfect for making with your children since they offer ample opportunity for kids to get involved — even very young ones. Just be careful to realize if a step is just beyond your child’s ability. For instance, Paige today dropped two spoons into the running mixer while adding the flour … turns out, she still needs help holding spoons since she tends to let go once the flour is added.

What have you been cooking with your kids (or grandkids or nieces and nephews) lately? Share!

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With the mixer already swirling together butter, sugars and vanilla beans yesterday, all I could think was how much I hate that famous quote about necessity being the mother of all invention. It was playing on repeat in my head since mid-baking, I discovered that we were out of all-purpose flour.

So, I abandoned the recipe I was making and made Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies with a good amount of vanilla beans. My departure ended up creating these wonderful, chewy, chocolatey cookies … oh, they are divine. Buttery flavors, a fabulous texture and all that chocolate … YUM!

Something else good that came from making these? Will got to try something new … he broke the eggs for the dough. A few weeks ago, his school had a lovely Mother’s Day tea and one of the other moms mentioned that she loves to bake and her son often bakes with her. In talking about it, she told me that he loves breaking eggs, which is something that I have shied away from letting Will do before.

With a little help though, I discovered that Will is ready for this task … and better yet? It’s the most effective egg breaking I’ve done in a long time. Recently, I’ve had a problem getting a good clean break when cracking eggs. But this time? Clean and perfect. Guess I have a new egg breaker!

He also added the dry ingredients to the mixer, something he’s an old pro at.

I love cooking with Will. He loves to understand all the hows and whys of what we do. And while his never ending questions are really never ending, they are also such great questions. Why are you adding baking powder? What does it do? Why do you use so much flour? And even when he doesn’t help me make something, Will always wants to know how foods are made. He asks me about what ingredients I used, what steps I took … it’s awesome.

Are your kids interested in cooking? How do you encourage their interest?

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It’s spring break in the Caron household and we are ready for adventure!

Originally, I had hoped to whisk my kids (and my husband, if he could go) off to Florida for spring break this week. Unfortunately, it’s just not happening. I could blame it on many things (the budget, my work schedule, etc), but ultimately it just comes down to two things: I am not sure that my nine-year-old car is really up for that magnitude of a trip and I am willing to save the cash we would have spent this week for some fun vacay stuff this summer. Hopefully next year we can make it to Florida.

So, instead of that road trip, we are sticking close to home this week and having adventures all over the place. It’s going to be a very active week for us … we have plans for long walks, fun hikes, trips to the park and zoo and so much more.

It’s also a bit of a break week for my kitchen. Although I am still cooking, we are going uber simple for meals. As much as I love creating, I need a little break too. So, instead of a complicated Cooking with Kids recipe, this is our special (but oh so simple) trail mix for this week.

This is a Will creation. I piled a bunch of potential mix-ins on the table and let Will decide what went in and how much of it. He was so excited to be totally in control of the making. And the result? It’s perfect for snacking on the go.

What do you like to take for snacks on the go?
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