For me, and many a parent, I suspect, cupcakes have become ubiquitous. Birthday parties, class treats, play dates – they all call for a cupcake, portable, portioned for tiny hands and crowd-pleasing. So, as the mom of two little boys, I make a lot of cupcakes. And being the healthy hacker that I am, there […]
This recipe for chocolatey-banana muffins is adapted from a great pregnancy nutrition book called Feed the Belly. I made them dozens of times during my two pregnancies, tinkering with the recipe as I went. They’re a great snack for mamas-to-be, as they’re high in fiber, protein and omega-3s, and they got me through many a serious […]
I grew up with a strong Christmas cookie tradition. “Cookie Day” was a really big deal, planned months in advance. We spent a full Saturday each season baking dozens and dozens of cookies with my wonderful Martha Stewart-esque aunt, who would prepare as many as eight different batches of dough in advance so that my sister and I […]
Apple picking has been a tradition in my family for as long as I can remember. My auntie used to take us every year when we were kids, to the orchards of Oak Glen or Tehachapi, in Southern California. We’d come home with bushels of apples, and she’d go into apple processing overdrive. Apple butter, apple […]
The end of summer is technically right around the corner, yet the farmer’s markets in San Francisco are still bursting with peak summer produce. We seem to get everything late, including summer – we’re just now finally getting the streaks of warm weather, without the daily fog invasion. September is the month we look forward […]
One of the very first finger foods I made for my son were the Quinoa-Beet Pancakes from Kim Boyce’s fabulous alternative-flour baking book, Good to the Grain. He named them Pink Pancakes and they became his most-requested dish. Four years, an additional child and countless batches later, my version has evolved into a slightly cleaner riff on […]
I have hundreds of cookbooks. Literally. I’m sort of addicted. Can’t stop buying new ones. I read them cover to cover, like a novel, before bed usually. I plaster them with sticky notes, tagging recipes, plotting out a meal agenda for the coming week, month, year. I know, total food nerd, right? The funny thing is, I almost never follow a recipe exactly.
After the Vitamix, the kitchen appliance that gets the most use in our house is the waffle maker. I’d resisted buying one for years, dismissing it as a one-trick pony. But then I had kids, and they grew old enough to demand waffles (or really any vehicle for maple syrup), and I caved. And now […]
Little boys need snacks. Constantly. Ones that can travel, fit in pudgy little hands and go straight to hungry mouths without requiring adult assistance or refrigeration. They also must be healthy, with nutritionally-dense, whole-food ingredients. Oh, and bonus points for being nut-free…
