My family and I had the good fortunate to have spent a long weekend on Martha's Vineyard recently. I've had the opportunity to visit several times before and was looking forward to introducing the boys to "The Vineyard" as it often called. Of course they got to experience some homemade island ice cream, The Flying Horses, the Gingerbread Houses, the sun, sand and surf of course. What we didn't expect was the amazing produce and creative food from a surprisingly large number of local producers for such a small island. It was like a mini photography retreat for me - the photo opps were too numerous to count.

So here is just a small selection of some of my favorite pics from a food blogger's perspective. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves!

Morning Glory Farm Strawberry Festival - live music, games, activities and great food.

Strawberry cupcakes

Strawberry lemonade and Spinach Salad with Strawberries, Walnuts and Parmesan

Strawberry Salsa and Chilled Cucumber Soup

Farm hands working the grill

Festival Menu (one of each please!). Everything was outstanding.

West Tisbury Farmers Market was THE place to be Saturday morning

Garlic scape aplenty

This season's favorite ice cream parlor based on the crowds

What are some of your favorite farmers markets? How do you like to spend your summer vacation?

Is there anything better than BBQ chicken on the grill in the summer? The more napkins the better, right? Gotta love leftover cold chicken for a picnic the next day (or breakfast in some cases - ahem). There's usually a bottle of store-bought BBQ sauce in our house for emergencies. But I recently decided to test two very different BBQ chicken recipes from two of my favorite chefs: David Chang and Martha Stewart.

So join me in my fantasy "East meets West" BBQ Chicken Throwdown between David Chang of Momofuku fame and Martha Stewart, domestic goddess. Who will prevail? Read on to find out.




Spicy Korean BBQ Chicken
Adapted from David Chang, Men's Health

INGREDIENTS:
8 skinless chicken thighs
1 Tbsp sriracha hot sauce
2 Tbsp grapeseed oil, plus more for cooking
1/2 cup apple juice
1 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp Japanese shiro (white) miso
1 tsp minced ginger
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 tsp kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped scallions

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the chicken in a large resealable plastic bag. In a medium bowl, mix together the sriracha, oil, apple juice, honey, miso, ginger, garlic, and salt. Add 1 cup of water and mix thoroughly; mix in the onion and scallions.


Pour half the marinade mixture into the plastic bag with the chicken, seal, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to a day. Refrigerate the remaining marinade in a small covered saucepan.

2. When you're ready to eat, remove the chicken from the fridge. Place the saucepan with the reserved marinade on medium heat and simmer until the mixture is thickened and saucelike, about 20 minutes.

3. Brush a grill or grill pan with grapeseed oil and set the heat to medium high. When the grill is ready, cook the thighs until the undersides have charred grill marks and release easily from the grill, about 8 minutes.

4. Flip the thighs and cook until a meat thermometer inserted in the middle reads 165°F, about 8-10 minutes more. Let them rest for 2 to 3 minutes, and serve with white rice and grilled vegetables like scallions, mushrooms, or bok choy. Makes 4 servings

The Good: Unique combination of flavors - sweet, spicy, earthy, salty - makes this stand out. Easy to whip up.

The Bad: Went light on the sirarcha sauce since I wanted to make sure this was not too spicy for the boys. The end result was good if not a little tame. Will dial up the heat next time.

Grade: A-. This was a big hit at our backyard BBQ. Serve with grilled scallions and this is a knockout dish.

Brown-Sugar BBQ Chicken
Adapted from Martha Stewart

INGREDIENTS:

The Good: Essentially there are only five ingredients to this dish. So simple yet so delicious.

The Bad: Even with the oiled grates, left such a mess on the grill.

Grade: A. A HUGE hit with all my boys. And even better the next day. Never buying store-bought sauce again.

If this first week of summer vacation is any indication of what the rest of the summer will be like, then it it going to be a fun, fabulous and boozy one. I was able to join several fellow Boston Parent Bloggers for a Mom's Night Out at The Cottage Chestnut Hill. Here's a quick recap:

The Cottage Overview
I've heard great things about The Cottage in Wellesley so was excited to hear a second MA location opened five weeks ago in Chestnut Hill. Owners John and Laura Wolfe brings their upscale, casual, SoCal dining concept to the East Coast, focused on light, fresh and local ingredients.

The Location

After some confusion as to the restaurant's location (we were told they were at the Chestnut Hill Mall, only to find out they are down the street next to Legal Seafood on Route 9), we were greeted by  friendly staff and brought to a private dining room.  The place just exudes atmosphere, transporting you to a sophisticated beach side house. And the place was slammed on a Monday night. Off to a good start.

The Booze

(left to right) Rosemary infused pomegranate margarita, Thai basil sangria, spa drinks (non-alcoholic), summer ale by Pretty Things Beer

Amazing summer cocktails served with charm by the bar manager and servers. All the drinks went down way too easy. *Hiccup*

The Food

Servers brought samples of their signature bites:

Sesame Ahi Tuna Nachos

I'm a sucker for seared ahi tuna so practically stalked the server to get a taste of the Sesame Ahi Tuna Nachos. The tuna was prepared perfectly. Not sure how I feel about the "nacho" chip. I don't like my raw fish to be too busy with other flavors and textures.

Fried California Avocado

The Cottage's take on potato skins, the Fried California Avocado is breaded and fried, served with Vermont jack and cheddar cheese, spiced sour cream, applewood bacon, and pico de gallo. It was pretty tasty, but was on the rich side for me to go back for more.

Fried Calamari

Aloha Chicken Tenders with pineapple salsa

Cheese platter

Pretty local cheese platter served a selection of local cheeses, fruits and honey, toasted pistachios, artisan bread.

Raspberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding

The evening ended a sweet note with some signature desserts. I went with the highly recommended Raspberry White Chocolate Bread Pudding. It was dense but not too sweet.


Family-Friendly
The Cottage is touted as being family-friendly, offering a kids menu, crayons and wikisticks to keep small fingers busy. Lunch/dinner options for kids are the expected fare - Hot dog, grilled cheese, PB&J, chicken fingers, mac and cheese. I was disappointed (but not surprised) to see such items as I would have loved to have seen smaller portions of some of their popular entrees on the kids menu (my kids would love Ale Battered Haddock + Chips). But chef Todd assured us parent bloggers that offering kids healthy, balanced sides, along with consideration for allergies, was a high priority. 

Overall, it was a great night and fun to catch up with fellow Boston Parent Bloggers. Everyone at The Cottage was friendly and attentive. I'll be taking the family sometime soon and hope to see the same attention to service, food presentation, and addictive cocktails when we go!

king of all street food sauces

Things we look forward to in the summer: Sun. Surf. Sand. No school (sometimes). Street festivals. Yup. It's the only time of year I'll brave crowds to sample a variety of morsels out of chafing dishes and sterno. My kinship for this type of event started with my family's booth at the Taste of Hartford during the summers of my childhood. It was at this food festival I got to try everything from Jamaican patties, soul food, pub fare to steamers.

dragon parade to kick-off festivities

I was excited to take the boys to the Dragon Boat Festival earlier this month and introduce them to some "street food," culture and competition. Touted as N. America's longest running dragon boat festival, the Boston Dragon Boat Festival featured 50 race teams, performances, martial arts demonstrations and Asian food vendors on the banks of the Charles.

The festival was just the right size in terms of number of attendees and exhibitors. The only thing I wished there was more of were food vendors. There were less than 10 food vendors limited to typical Chinese-American fare, traditional Chinese "snack" food, Korean, Indian and Thai. Here is a sampling of some of the food we tasted:

bah-chang: Asian Tamale

We started out with Zongzi or bah-chang. Kind of like an Asian tamale, bah-chang is a traditional snack served at Dragon Boat Festivals. Bah-chang is a sticky rick dumpling wrapped in bamboo leaves filled with pork, shrimp, chicken, chinese sausage, mushroom, egg and peanuts. We also tried the non-meat bah-chang filled with sweet red bean paste. These were pretty good, but did not hold a candle to my grandmother's. I'm dying to try this recipe from Tiny Urban Kitchen as it seems closest to how my grandmother made hers. 

There was also Mandoo, Kimchee Pancakes and teriyaki sticks grilled on site:

makeshift kitchen by Choi's Food

Koren Food Options

Our best bite of the day was from Harvard Square's Cafe of India. We ended up getting a meat/veggie combo of saag paneer, chicken tikka masala and naan. Man was it good!

Too much yummy-ness to choose from!

samosas

Tandori Chicken

The boys ate very well that day. And even seemed to enjoy the entertainment. We couldn't get close enough to the dragon boat races however. Overall, it was a great way to spend a Sunday. Scoping out the next street fair (click here for a listing). St. Anthony's Feast anyone?

When I started this blog, nutrition and eating wholesome foods has always been a given, but has never has been my focus for choosing what to write about or where to dine. You probably won't see me blog about deep-fried oreos or review a meal at a national fast-food chain. You also won't find a post about the latest food pyramid (now a plate??) and reading nutrition labels - I'll leave that to the experts like Joy Bauer or Oprah's Dr. Katz. But if you watch this video and you have kids, it's hard to ignore the fact that kids are just getting too much sugar these days.

So when a fellow parent in my son's kindergarten class asked if anyone was interested in tapping into Jamie Oliver's campaign to eliminate sugary flavored milk from our schools, I said "me!" If you aren't familiar with Jamie Oliver's latest campaign:

"It's not just soda that's full of sugar. Kids are getting it from the chocolate and strawberry milk they drink at school too. Flavored milk also has other ingredients you won't find in the plain stuff - colors, flavors, artificial sweeteners - which don't make it more nutritious.
Add your name to support this campaign asking schools to choose plain milk, and make the sweetened varieties an occasional treat." - Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution website

Lead by fellow parent Amy Vachon, a handful of parents and I wanted to go beyond signing an online petition and get our schools to consider eliminating flavored milk - or at the very least encourage kids to choose the white stuff.

Cut to Thursday, June 9th, 2011: Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution's National Flavored Milk Day of Action - the first-ever coordinated, grassroots action on this issue. Over 300 individuals from all over the country organized student activities, demonstrations, and conversations with school officials to urge their communities to eliminate flavored milk.

The event was well-organized and gained momentum as the days progressed. The Food Revolution team equipped groups with a 12-page "playbook," fact sheets, templates, calculators, and a Facebook page as a way for groups to connect with each other. They held "office hours" and live chats on the days leading up to the 9th. If only more businesses and organizations were this well-organized!

So what happened at our school? Check it:

Handed out free white milk and wristbands to every student, funded by Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates

Cafeteria was decorated with student-created "milk art"

Created and distributed flyers with milk facts to students

And it worked! Kids were choosing white milk!

Kids wore the wristbands proudly

I realize we have a long way to go in changing policy and eating habits. In fact, we were met with some resistance by several parents who felt "it was their God given right to have freedom of choice."Another argument we heard was if we eliminated flavored milk, then how will kids learn to make healthy choices?

Food services and the Dairy Council fear that by eliminating flavored milk, milk sales would plummet. Maybe. But I was inspired by what I saw that day and don't feel this is totally true. For example, one student asked if she could get chocolate milk for free and we had to explain to her we were only paying for white milk. She explained she didn't like the taste of white milk and was ready to walk away empty handed. Then turned around and grabbed a white milk.

I'd like to think we made a positive impression. Not only with the kids, but the cafeteria staff and school leaders. Change can happen if we're all in it together. 

Any book that begins with "She longed for adventure" is sure to be a page-turner. And when this opening sentence is referring to a chicken named Louise, how can you *not* want to read on?

Louise, The Adventures of a Chicken by Kate DiCamillo and Harry Bliss is a story about a not so chicken chicken who leaves the warmth of her hen house only to find herself caught by pirates, survives a sinking ship, joins the circus, escapes a lion, kidnapped in a bazaar, only to free herself and other chickens from imminent chicken doom. My boys LOVE it. I love it. What's not to love?

Anyway, in the first chapter "Louise at Sea", the hungry pirates all have their own ideas on how they want to cook Louise. "Fried!" shouts one nasty-looking pirate. "Fricasseed!" shouts another. My oldest always giggles at this one.

So it is Louise that I think of every time we make Ming Tsai's Mushroom Chicken Fricassee with Edamame. This is one adventure I'm sure Louise is thankful to skip!



Mushroom Chicken Fricassee with Edamame
From Ming Tsai's Simply Ming One-Pot Meals

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds unskinned bone-in chicken legs with thighs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
1 large red onion, halved and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 pound mushrooms, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 tablespoons minced fresh tarragon
2 cups canned whole roma tomatoes, roughly chopped, with the juice from measuring
1 cup shelled edamame


DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Season the chicken with salt and pepper

2. Heat a large roasting pan or large heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, add the chicken and sauté, turning once, until brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a plate and set aside.

3. Drain the pan of all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add the onion, garlic and mushrooms and sauté until lightly brown, 2 to 3 minutes, and season with salt and pepper. Add the tarragon, tomatoes with their liquid, and edamame. Mix well and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.

4. Top with the chicken, transfer to the oven, and bake until the chicken is cooked through, 20 to 25 minutes. Transfer to a platter and serve.

The Good: GREAT weeknight meal. Easy to prepare with tons of flavors. Edamame gives it an unexpected twist. Boys could not get enough.

The Bad: Boys hated the mushrooms (to be expected). I had to shell the edamame by hand (oof), but you can purchase shelled edamame at most stores.

Grade: Solid A. Get this in the oven, grab a copy of Louise and enjoy (yeah, I'm a sick mama)!

Memorial Day is right around the corner, which means the premier of summer blockbusters. And as a mom of two young kids, I will be watching them over the winter months. On my couch. Once they've hit cable. Sigh. Anyway, this post is not about the movie-going habits of this poor sap, but my continued quest to find the perfect meatball recipe.

As I mentioned in the prequel post "In Search of the Perfect Meatball Recipe", we've tried almost every meat combination and cooking technique for making these orbs of ground meat goodness. But there was one recipe that I've been dying to try - Polpette alla Napoletana by Mario Batali. It has all the makings of a great meatball - simple ingredients and traditional preparation. What peaked my interest was his technique for adding toasted pine nuts.  The result - a lush, crunchy, buttery surprise in each bite.

According to umdaddy, this was the end to any movie franchise on this topic. He claimed it to be the best meatball ever. Both boys devoured them. And my favorite -- my oldest shouting with excitement that he never knew there were "seeds" in meatballs and wanted to plant a meatball tree in the yard. If only my boy. If only.


The Good: well-balanced flavors. Pine nuts add a crunch and rich component.

The Bad: these bad boys did not hold up too well. I'm guessing I did not wring out enough moisture from the bread.

Grade: A-. We would've given it an A+ (or if we're sticking to the movie analogy, two thumbs up) if it hadn't been the fact it did not keep its shape or hold up well.

Click here for the  Polpette alla Napoletana by Mario Batali. (You'll be glad you did)

• Introduce new foods often - I'm always trying new recipes/dishes almost every day
• Start them young - chop up your food for little ones (your knife skills will improve dramatically)
• Don't give up - experts suggest it takes more than 20 times before your kid determines if he/she really likes something

But I do have one 'ace up my sleeve' that has curbed picky-eater syndrome at our house. Chopsticks. The kids love the challenge of using them to pickup morsels of food - from tofu to cheerios to broccoli. There are plenty of kid chopsticks and training chopsticks out there. But then I came across Edison Chopsticks at my last shopping trip to Hmart. They are Ah-mazing. Made for leftys and right-handed eaters, they have finger guides for instant proper positioning (that can be removed once they get a hang of it). They are super cute. Easy-to-clean. Even my two-year old got a hang of them after the first try.


I'm not making any guarantees these chopsticks will make your kids clean their plates of tofu and spinach. But it will make for some laughs... and maybe a bit of a mess the first couple of times. The last food for thought is not to make meal times a battle. We all know how willful some kids can be. And trust me, sometimes a battle of the wills is not worth a piece of broccoli.

What are some other tips/advice you have for parents to curb picky-eater syndrome?

This week was Teacher Appreciation Week (I know, shouldn't every week be teacher appreciation week?). Parents of my son's elementary school were asked to show their gratitude by bringing in some food for a teacher luncheon. Kindergarten was in charge of dessert. Sigh. Couldn't Kindergarten be in charge of bringing in a killer bouillabaisse or tagine? That I could do. Bake? Not so much.

As luck would have it, I was the lucky recipient of these to try:


From the makers of dessert decorating icons Betty Crocker and Cake Mate, Signature Brands recently launched a new line of easy-squeeze decorating icing. There is Oreo Ultimate Icing made with real Oreos and S'mores Dessert Icing made with genuine Hershey's cocoa. The squeezable pouch is supposed to make it easy for anyone (even me) to pipe icing on a treat.

So I decided to bake chocolate cupcakes from scratch topped with these bad boys for my son's teachers. I had my boys help bake the cupcake using the chocolate cupcake recipe from our Flour cookbook. Thanks to Joanne Chang's easy-to-follow recipes, it was surprisingly fun and not too difficult. The boys and I could not help ourselves from having little tastes of the batter off the whisk. God was it good.


Next I had my Kindergartner help frost the cupcakes. He had no problems with the squeezable pouch (or eating straight icing for that matter).


The verdict? They were pretty tasty. I kept on thinking I was eating the creme filling of an Oreo. And who can deny that stuff is good?

No. They don't come close to a butter cream frosting from scratch from the likes of Mix Bakery or Party Favors. But if you're short on time or lack the baking chops like me, these are convenient and the kids love them.

>>Now for the fun part: my very first GIVEAWAY! Signature Brands is offering one lucky umommy reader a chance to win this:

Included in this gift pack: ingredients and recipe cards to make S'mores Whoopie Pies and OREO Brownie Bites, cupcake liners, frosting tips, a wooden spoon and a spatula.

To enter, leave a comment on what you would make with this icing by Friday, May 13th at 11:59pm EST. A winner will be selected at random by Random.org. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I was given Signature Brand Icing in exchange for sharing information with my readers. Opinions are my own.