The judges: Laura Koski, MA, RD at Price Chopper, MaryEllen Fillo of the Hartford Courant, Teresa LaBarbera of WTNH and me.

I love this photo. It was such a fun time — judging a cooking event here in Connecticut recently. Let me back up for a sec.

Back in July, I was invited by the National Mango Board to be one of the judges of a fun cook-off between two chefs when their Mango Hometown Tour came to Hartford, Connecticut, on August 26.

After I peeled myself off the floor in shock (there’s a National Mango Board? They want me to be a judge?) I agreed to do it. I mean, of course I did. The whole idea of tasting incredible foods from two of Hartford’s finest chefs was too good to pass up. And the fact that I love mangoes helped a lot too. Read the rest of this entry…

I love beets.

They are one of those vegetables that you can toss with a glaze or chop into a salad. But they don’t require special preparations to be great. They can also shine alone with just a sprinkle of sea salt. When steamed or boiled just right, where they still have a bit of give when you bite into them and they spring back with a trickle of sweetness, they are spectacular.

But beets aren’t just tasty, they are incredibly healthy too. They contain high amounts of folate, potassium, vitamin C and iron. The nutrients are known to help guard against birth defects and heart disease, as well as fight inflammation.

Best of all? Beets are at their freshest right now. When you eat in-season produce fresh from the farm, like these were, the taste is far superior to off-season produce that has been flown thousands of miles and picked before its peak of perfection.

Do you like beets? How do you eat them?

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I just wanted to say a big hello to everyone who is just discovering my site. A very nice person submitted my post on parmesan rosemary sweet potato fries to StumbledUpon, and I have had a number of new visitors since. Thank you all for visiting! And welcome to the Shell Avenue crew and Michigan family too!

Be sure to check out my recipes section for more tasty dishes like zuppa toscana, bacon cheddar barbecue chicken rollatini, and sinfully good salted triple chocolate brownie cookies.

Also, I wanted to give a special thanks to Maddie of Better in Pink!, my site’s host, who has worked hard to ensure that I had enough bandwidth to stay up and running with all of my great new visitors. Thanks Maddie!

See all the Wordless Wednesday participants here.

I was absolutely blown away by my overflowing CSA box this week. So much great stuff to use!

The heirloom tomato, grape tomatoes and a red tomato went into a tomato and blue cheese salad (more on that later this week). Another tomato went into a summertime favorite for the kids and I: lemony tomato pasta . . . again, more later this week. I have big plans for pestos — a basil one and a kale one that I am experimenting with.

Now, off to roast radishes, beets and more. As for the corn? It has a date with the grill … mmmm.

Any suggestions for summer turnips? I’ve never had them before. Read the rest of this entry…

As far as summer salads go, coleslaw is a classic. It’s great with everything from hamburgers and hot dogs to fried chicken. But as classics go, there are millions of variations with differing ingredients lists and must-haves. Some are more saucy, some are less. Some have the traditional creamy dressing and others have oil and vinegar or sweet and sour versions . . . talk about classic confusion.

For this recipe, I adapted Robert Irvine’s version from Dinner: Impossible. But the recipe makes so much dressing that I added additional cabbage to soak it up. I also used an herb vinegar instead of the white wine he suggests, and added some blue cheese to the dressing.

The result is a very creamy coleslaw with just the right amount of sweetness.

When I served this with dinner, I fully expected to be the only one eating. Shawn isn’t a cabbage–or coleslaw–fan and I just didn’t think Will would be interested. It’s not the most inspiring looking dish, after all. But boy, was I wrong. When I asked Will if he wanted some, more out of politeness than an honest belief that he’d want it, he said yes. And then, he asked for seconds.

Yay! My boy likes his mama’s cooking! Read the rest of this entry…

Oh, what a mess. A huge, giant mess.

It seemed like such a great idea: Go get ice creams, stroll home, collapse on the lawn and finish them. Except Will’s ice cream had other ideas. It melted like instantly.

Did I get upset? Nah. Why worry? THe stroller can be cleaned. So can Will.

Instead, I laughed. We laughed. I never imagined that the ice cream would melt so quickly and I suspect it came as a surprise to Will as well. I may still be picking bits of dried up ice cream from the stroller belt, but it doesn’t matter. The stroller is just an object. No harm, no foul.

See, that’s the thing about parenting. Sometimes you just have to remember: it’s okay just to laugh. And baby, I am still laughing.

I should have taken a picture of Paige. I really should have. She enjoyed the papery, thin, crispy bits of kale I gave her . . . but since it was papery, thin and crispy, it also broke apart very easily. That meant green specks everywhere — in her hair, on her hands, in her diaper . . . oy. Shawn had a good ol’time with the polka dotted bath water later that night.

Yes, so crispy kale. This is a different take on a veggie that not everyone tries. But everyone should. It’s much firmer than other greens like spinach and Swiss chard.

We eat a lot of kale. Russian kale, actually. It’s in season and always ultra fresh. But there is only so much sauteed kale a family can take. So I decided to try something different: roasting it. Turns out, it’s my farmer cousin’s favorite method of making it.

Shawn and Will liked the crispy, salted kale. Just make sure that you cook the kale in one single layer — no overlap. That way it will get perfectly crispy. Read the rest of this entry…

We had our feet in the surf the other day, Will, Paige, my brother and sister and I. As waves would come, we’d all leap into the air. I supported Paige, who is just learning to stand, with my hands while we jumped up and down. Each time, she’d let out a gleeful cackling laugh. Will kept asking to do it again and again until the surf began to edge the small sandbar we stood on down to nothing. We crossed through the water and back to shore just before the water completely covered the sand . . .

It’s still summer here. We’re spending as much time as we can enjoying everything that the outdoors can offer. Soon, the season will turn to fall, then winter. It will be harder to withstand the temperatures for a little outdoor play, but we will try anyway.

When we get deep into summer like this, simple food is king. Burgers on the grill, corn on the cob and fresh vegetables. As in just-picked vegetables. That’s why I joined a late summer CSA here. Not only do I get a box of produce each week, but I also am forced to expand our palates even more — something I relish in. Read the rest of this entry…

It’s Wordless Wednesday.

I promised you big news today . . . well, are you ready for this? I’ve decided to devote more time to my writing and my children, so as of about 4 p.m. today, I am a freelancer again. Yep, I’ve chosen to trade a long commute for a five-second one and my Monday morning planning meetings for choo-choo construction with Will and Paige.

It certainly wasn’t something I came to lightly. But the cost of the commute, daycare, etc, plus a growing freelance business, made me seriously consider if I was better off working at home. You can read all about my decision on SheKnows.

Right now, I am looking to finish up my last project at work and tidy up some freelance work that’s dragged on because I work too much. But as of Monday, I will begin looking for new opportunities to enlarge my business and I am hard at work on a new book proposal (and word has it the first book may indeed may its debut this year as planned. Fingers crossed). If you hear of any opportunities, drop me a line.

More news to come in the coming months. I’ve got some big things going on . . . hope you’ll stick around for the ride.