When Shawn and I used to eat out (a frequent occurrence in our pre-children days when money was plentiful and bills were not), I would order Buffalo Chicken Salad whenever it was on the menu. I loved the crunch of the fried chicken, the spice of the buffalo wing sauce and the creamy coolness of the blue cheese. When you put a variety of flavors and textures like that together, it’s almost certain to please my senses.

Actually, if we are going to be super honest, just the mere act of putting buffalo wing sauce on salad at all makes me super happy. Something about the spicy tang flavor wrapped around the cool, crisp lettuce just does it for me. When I was fresh out of college, I would sometimes pack buffalo wing sauce as dressing for my lunch salads at work.

What?

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These eggs remind me of summer. Sweet fresh tomatoes are encircled with the brilliant flavor of fresh basil. There’s slightly sweet roasted garlic, which I have been obsessed with lately, blended with rich heavy cream — a nod to winter. And the warmth of the baked dish make it perfect for a chilly morning. Or dinner.

I feel in love with baked eggs in tomato-based concoctions last winter. Runny yolks are always a favorite of mine, but even more so when they are paired with flavors that compare, contrast and compliment them. And it’s a great bonus that there are so many possibilities for flavor combinations. This seemed like the perfect dish to make when Betty Crocker and Land O’Lakes recently asked me to create something with Land O’Lakes eggs.

This version is a favorite since it uses so many fresh ingredients (and, of course, fresh flavors). There is just no contest when you start with ingredients in as close to a natural state as you can get. I bet this would be even more amazing in fall, when fresh tomatoes and basil from local farms are available and the air just starts to take on that crisp coolness.

But for now, hothouse tomatoes do the job just fine.

Want to try this for yourself? It’s easy. Read the rest of this entry…

Healthy living is and has been for a long time a big goal of mine. I aim to cook real food as much as possible and we shop mostly at farmers markets in the summertime.

But I am not without flaw. Put a bag of barbecue potato chips in front of me and I can’t resist their sweet crunch. I also have a sizable sweet tooth. Oh, and I have been trying to kick the diet soda habit for awhile now (and have been fairly successful in recent weeks).

When I was recently asked to read and review Why Women Need Fat: How “Healthy” Food Makes Us Gain Excess Weight and the Surprising Solution to Losing It Forever by William D. Lassek, M.D. and Steven J. C. Gaulin, Ph.D., I was intrigued. And I am so glad I said yes because this book had me hooked from page one. Read the rest of this entry…

Every so often, we’ll be eating dinner at our kitchen table and Will will look up and say “Mommy, you’re a good cooker.” It warms my heart. Most of the time, he loves what I make (of course, there will always be a few duds … and we usually agree on those).

A lot of things that come out of my kitchen are made with the kids in mind. Two Cheese Meatball Grilled Cheese, Sausage Bolognese, Blueberry White Chocolate Buttermilk Pancakes and Cocoa Peppermint Thumbprint Cookies are prime examples. We eat a lot of pasta and broccoli and yogurt because they love these things. And eggs, Paige is crazy for all kinds of eggs.

But as a mom, I think it’s important to do things for yourself sometimes too. A woman I met online a few years ago used to always sign notes “Take care of you.” At the time, Will was in preschool and Paige was still a toddler. The sentiment was lost on me, probably because I was so busy taking care of them. But now, I totally get it. You can’t get lost in the shuffle. And sometimes all it takes is whipping up a simple hummus to do something nice for yourself, especially if you are a mega-fan of hummus like me.

Yes, Will and Paige would love the sweet roasted garlic, tart lemon and meaty walnuts in this tahini-free hummus. It has a terrific citrus quality that’s complemented by the garlic and walnuts. Such great flavors together. Will and Paige would happily reach for the sweetest of the veggies on the plate and scoop up big globs of hummus. But this one is for me … just for me. I like to load up a plate with bell pepper strips, sugar snap peas and carrots for dipping with a good hummus like this. It’s a perfect lunch. Or snack.

Maybe I’ll share another day. But today, this is mine. Read the rest of this entry…

When Paige turned four-years-old a few months ago, she had a pretty simple request for dinner: pasta. Like many kids, she and Will adore pasta, calling it one of their favorite foods (along with salad, broccoli and chocolate). And they aren’t just talking about macaroni and cheese. They love it so many ways — such as in carbonara or pasta with shrimp and kale. Of course I obliged the birthday request, making a trio of pastas for dinner. Paige was in heaven.

The birthday dinner selections included this Sausage Bolognese, a hearty, rich sauce that is simmered for about an hour to allow the flavors to really develop. Bolognese is a longtime favorite of mine. When made right, it develops an incredible meaty richness that is irresistible. When I saw loose sweet Italian sausage at a favorite market just before Paige’s birthday, I was totally inspired to combine her love of anything with sausage with my love of bolognese. It was a huge hit.

If the original version I made was good, this version which has been further tweaked to get it just right is amazing. With diced tomatoes for a little more texture and good red wine for that richness, it’s both filling and satisfying — the perfect combination. The fresh basil in the sauce brightens it up a little so that it’s not too heavy, as meat sauces can sometimes be.

Of course, this isn’t a weeknight dinner. This sauce needs to simmer for awhile. So save this recipe for the weekend when you have some time to spare. It’s largely hands-off cooking, but not being pressed for time is an important thing when it comes to making longer cooking time dishes like this.

What’s your favorite pasta dish? Share in the comments.

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A little over a year ago, Shawn, the kids and several of our friends were on the Cape (Cape Cod, that is) for a wedding. One evening, we got takeout from a little place in Orleans, Massachusetts called Sir Crickets. We all ordered something different — fried clams, fried oysters (mmm!), clam chowder, fish and chips … there was just an array. We all shared a bit, which I love to do. It allows you to try so much more without going crazy. Total bliss.

The fried oysters — the first ones I’ve ever had — were amazing: tender, meaty and beautifully cooked. But as delicious as the fried oysters were, the standout dish was the New England clam chowder, which was ridiculously creamy, well-seasoned, a little smoky and loaded with clams and potatoes. It had taken some convincing to get me to try it, but when I did it totally reawakened a long dormant love of chowders in me.

Unfortunately, my friends and I skipped our annual fall trip to the Cape this past year, so I didn’t get to indulge in my favorites again. Maybe that’s why I have become a little obsessed with New England-style cooking. Why should it take a trip to the Cape for me to enjoy things like New England Clam Chowder?

This recipe for New England Clam Chowder comes from my family cookbook, which was created about 30 years ago with personal recipes from my grandmother, her sister and cousins. It also has journal entries from my great-great grandmother. The first time I saw the cookbook, I read through from cover to cover soaking in every word. It was almost like eavesdropping, but better. There’s such a special connection to my family’s past in that book. Read the rest of this entry…

When you plan your meals ahead of time, the evening goes much smoother. It becomes simpler to just finish up whatever you need to (work, laundry, whatever) and then move into a speedy dinner prep. Unfortunately, I fell back into bad habits recently and wasn’t planning dinners. Heck, I wasn’t even thinking about dinner … until it was time to make it. We consumed a lot of pasta. It was really chaotic, and I hate chaos.

But I am working on it (we’re on day five of planning success!). Honestly, the stress of having dinner roll around without a plan is something I don’t need. No one needs it. And it’s just too easy to skirt the issue with a little bit of planning.

The slow cooker really comes in handy. It’s just so simple. You toss the ingredients in early in the morning and then when dinnertime rolls around, you have a hot, ready to go dinner. If you are struggling with dinners, you should totally get your slow cooker out and give it a shot. Having this stew bubbling away the other afternoon provided such sweet peace of mind so that I could focus on what I needed to without stressing over what I would toss together for dinner.

Oh, and this Slow Cooker Beef and Veggie Stew is a great dish to re-start your slow cooking adventures with.

This stew has a faint French onion-ness to the broth, but not so much that onion haters will balk (and the onion pieces are big so they can pick ‘em out anyway). And the roasted garlic adds dimension to the broth. The slow cooking blends the flavors as it renders the stew meat completely fall-apart tender. The vegetables – carrots, broccoli stems, potatoes and sweet potatoes – give the stew bulk so that it fills you up.

Did you catch that it has broccoli stems. Stems! The part that no one loves to eat. I keep stems in my freezer for using in recipes like this. And honestly, after slow cooking the stems for so long, the kids and I really enjoyed them in this stew. It was an unexpected but welcome element.

Eat this with a slice of buttered bread. Just divine.

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Last year, Will repeatedly came home from school requesting “eggies” for lunch. Aside from being clearly somehow related to eggs, I had no idea what he was talking about. I tried to have him describe the eggs he wanted, but I was just baffled. Finally, I emailed the mother of the girl who was bringing the “eggies” and asked what they were. Hard-boiled eggs. Who knew?

These days there are a lot of eggies in our house. We eat them a lot — on salad, chopped in sandwiches and all sorts of things. In fact, the kids had them for breakfast today with clementines and toast. Based on their clean plates and excited woots, I think they liked them a lot. But these eggies on an open-face sandwich? They are all for me … just don’t tell the kids. Oh, but we don’t call them eggies. That just seems silly. Read the rest of this entry…

Do you ever peek in other people’s baskets at the grocery store? It’s probably a little voyeuristic, but I totally do. I just find it fascinating what people buy. I notice the folks who buy a ton of frozen meals and the ones who stock up on meats. I notice the ones with tons of snacks, and the ones with just fresh foods. And then there are those who buy like two bananas, a gallon of milk and chips — and then I wonder if that’s dinner.

If you were to check out my grocery cart, you’d think I love yogurt. Like totally adore it. On any given week, I buy at least three varieties of yogurt — Greek fruit on the bottom yogurts for my husband, those little yogurts with cookie crumbles to stir in for Will and yogurt drinks for both Will and Paige. Sometimes there is even more yogurt since Paige adores yogurt too. Sometimes I eat some of the ones with the mix-ins too, but more often I leave the yogurts to everyone else.

But with the new year here, I’ve decided to give Greek yogurt another try. In the past, it just didn’t appeal to me with its thicker texture and tang. But things change. We grow, adapt, live and learn … and guess what? When I decided to use Greek yogurt in the parfait I have been thinking about for days … I really liked it. The whole dish is just delightful … like a chocolate covered strawberry and strawberries and cream all wrapped up into a single guilt free package.

And hey, if I can add a little healthy decadence to breakfast, it’s totally worth it. Read the rest of this entry…

Today was the last day of Christmas break for the kids … the last day for them to play with all their new toys unfettered. Their last day to ride bikes and build Lego houses with each other all day. Their last day to watch cartoons over lunch. So, I thought something warm, toasty and buttery was in order — it’s been a great break from school and heading back to our regimented schedule is kind of sad.

Hello, grilled cheese.

When I was a little girl, grilled cheese was one of my very favorite lunches. My grandmother would butter slices of perfectly square white bread and sandwich a slice or two of orange American cheese in the center, frying them to buttery, gooey cheesy goodness. I loved the texture variations of the sandwich — the smooth, warm cheese and the crisp toasted bread. I’d eat as much of the cheese as I could from the center before eating the bread.

I still love a good grilled cheese. But it’s definitely not the most lean of lunches — it can be though if you make a few small changes. Read the rest of this entry…