zucchini makes an easy soup

in

Basic recipe: Cook zucchini (and/or yellow squash which is what we had) in broth and then puree it. HERE is the recipe.

Notes: I didn't have creme fraiche on hand (who does?) so I used some Ricotta and a little milk but you could use cream cheese or plain yogurt. Or nothing--the cream just gives it a little richer taste. I added the sherry vinegar right to the soup but you can also serve on top of each bowl. It's a very mild yet tangy soup which any kid who eats soup would like. You could even throw in a few noodles! And it really can be served hot or cold. Make a batch and freeze half for November. 

There is another recipe for zucchini soup via Grant Achatz that I also love and is only a tiny bit more complicated but richer and better for a party. 

nope, dinner is still not ready and whining won't help

in

I realized today that we are making progress. Only one year ago, this is how our family dinner went down:

Family Dinner, 2014

5:45 pm: Nate is in his room-he was punished for calling me a poopy-head and hitting Mack in the bath. Mack is crying because he’s hungry.

6 pm: Michael gets home. 

6:15 pm: we sit down for dinner but the chicken isn’t ready yet and Nate refuses to even try the cauliflower with cheese sauce or humous and carrots. He asks for ketchup. Mack eats everything but wants what everybody else is eating, even though it’s the same thing that’s on his plate. He cries and begs with no words throughout dinner making conversation very difficult.

6:18 pm: Nate eats four strands of pasta and asks to be excused. We say no and he slides off his chair onto the floor, then tries to stick forks in water bottles. We tell Nate to join us; he cries. Mack cries and begs to be let down from his chair even though he’s still eating. Nate goes to his room while Mack cries. We let Mack down and quickly finish the boys’ dinner.

6:25pm : I clean up a million dishes.

When I talk to the many amazing, smart, accomplished women I know who lament the fact that they have to make dinner for their family, I get it, and for the first time in a long time, I think I can be useful. Since leaving the professional world six years ago, I've had a hard time feeling adequate but the one area I've mastered is cooking for my family. So until I return to the office or publish a bestseller, I'd like to offer some tips, strategies and recipes—along with humor and empathy— for my mom friends who are out doing the hard stuff of working, parenting, being a woman in this world. Dads, of course, welcome too.

6:00 pm sucks. It is the most stressful part of the day--parents are exhausted from work (or taking care of kids); kids are tired and hungry and whining or fighting. It's hard to come up with creative meals that will feed everyone and not repeat the same thing every night. It's hard to know what to do in advance or what should be saved for later. It's hard to make something healthy and simple with minimal cleanup.

Let's start from the beginning: Kids are hungry. Dinner is not ready. What to do? Put some cut up veggies in a bowl. Next open a single serving bowl of plain greek yogurt and mix in some seasoned salt (or onion salt). Add a tablespoon of milk and stir. Announce your creation and set it out on the table. Pour the wine.

when your coleslaw disappears

in

We celebrated the 4th of July on the 5th of July because rain was expected and there was too much traffic to go to Long Island on a Friday evening. The Davis/Chases came to Cove Road and we joined Brook's friends from DC who had three kids. So there were 10 adults and 8 kids who needed to be fed and a whole lot of mess to be cleaned up.

Then someone threw out the cabbage. A large ziplock bag of hand-shredded green cabbage and ribboned carrots that I had been marinating in salt and cider vinegar for 12 hours. Despite a passionate search no one could find it and we had to call off the dogs. Actually, Emma, the dog, who is usually all over me when I"m cooking was oddly nowhere to be found.

A note: Colelaw is coleslaw is coleslaw. Except if you live near a deli in Long Island where the coleslaw looks just like the potato salad and the macaroni salad and the shrimp salad because they are all just small plastic containers of mayonnaise. I know someone people love the stuff but for some reason it totally grosses me out so I decided this year to make the salads.

I also made Spanish spice-rubbed grilled chicken which was delicious--even cold the next day-- and easy. It's also a good model for grilled chicken on the bone: brine, rub, grill. I made a few changes to the recipe which was already changed a few times since it started with Bobby Flay. I used multiple chicken parts, not just breasts. Also, when I discovered that the garden was growing spearmint not mint (which may have made it to taste like toothpaste), I skipped the sauce. I just did a quick yogurt sauce--plain whole yogurt, lemon juice, chopped parsley, drop of honey, olive oil, salt and pepper. Then watered it down a bit. It did the trick.

With that I served this  watermelon feta mint salad ...but I added cherry tomatoes cut in half because the watermelon was a little worn out.  (By the way, I love Jacques Pepin. So old school French but increasingly practical for home cooking.)

Back to the cabbage. Since my original was gone, I bought a bag of pre-shredded coleslaw mix and doused it with white vinegar and salt, then tossed it with the sauce I had made earlier: yogurt, mayo, mustard (see below). Despite or perhaps because of the initial cabbage disaster, several people said it was the best coleslaw of their lives. Hmmm...maybe marinating is useless. Maybe everyone was hungry. Maybe everyone was begin nice because they threw away my cabbage? We'll never know.

But just in case the truth was spoken, here's the recipe

Do-over Coleslaw

  1. Mix shredded cabbage mix with 2 tablespoons white vinegar and 1/2 tsp salt and let it sit for one hour.
  2. Then add dressing:
  • 1 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tsp Dijon
  • splash of pickle juice
  • one garlic clove grated
  • Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper

two ingredient pizza

in ,

A few months ago Kirsten, babysitter extraordinaire who works for Remi's family, told me about a recipe she had found online. Pizza dough made from 1 cup yogurt and 1 cup flour. That's it!! I was skeptical but she swore by it. I  first tried it out at my inlaws and it was a hit, even with the adults. The dough was crispy and soft and full of flavor.

Since then I make it frequently, always including the kids in the process because it's so super simple and I like the idea of them learning to cook or at least appreciate cooking. But the other day when I suggested we make yogurt pizza for dinner, Nate said he wasn't interested.

"What if I make the dough and you guys do toppings?" I suggested

"Yeah Sure." His new response to everything.

This actually worked much better because it was faster and not nearly as messy without the kids throwing flour all over the floor and rubbing yogurt in their hair. 

Two-Ingredient Pizza

  • 1 cup plain whole yogurt (I use Fage)
  • 1 cup self-rising flour (or add 1 tsp baking powder  and 1/4 tsp salt to all purpose flour

Preheat oven to 450.

Mix in large bowl and then knead (I do this in the bowl to save cleanup) for 5 minutes, adding flour if needed, until it's tacky but not sticky. At this point I cheat a bit and add a few drops of olive oil to the dough, but you don't have to. Roll the dough out thin and place either on a board (if you're transferring to a hot pizza stone) or on the oiled underside of a sheet pan. Then hand it over to the kids with a bowl of tomato sauce (canned) and a bowl of shredded Mozzarella. You can put the pan right in the oven or slide the masterpiece onto your stone.

Bake about 10-12 minutes until cheese is bubbly and crust is starting to brown.