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.

As I inch closer to 40, I'm finding myself mourning the loss of my younger-self. Ah, to be carefree and energized with the appetite and metabolism of a 24-year-old again. Gone are the days of binging on pastries and cocktails only to be burned off by a couple of days' worth of exercise. I've become painfully aware of the old adage "a second on your lips, forever on your hips." Sigh.

So I'm turning over a new leaf. No more egg sandwiches and bowl after bowl of cereal. I need to find a healthier alternative that I know my whole family would still enjoy. There had to be something healthy (kind of) and certainly scrumptious in my Flour cookbook, right?

I realize Granola and Good Morning Muffins won't be part of your next detox regime. But they are pretty healthy and damn delicious.


Mom's Granola
Adapted from Joanne Chang's Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery and Cafe

INGREDIENTS
2 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 1/2 cups wheat germ
1/2 cup shredded coconut
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup sliced almonds
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup vanilla extract
2 teaspoons vanilla exract
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup raisins

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper

2. In a large bowl, combine oats, wheat germ, coconut, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, cinnamon, and salt and mix well. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, honey and vanilla. Pour wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly until the dry ingredients are evenly coated.

3. Pour mixture onto prepared baking sheet and spread in an even layer. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown. Stir the granola with a spatula several times during the baking to ensure even browning. Let cool completely, then add the cranberries and raisins and mix to distribute them evenly.


The Good: Super easy to whip up. Sprinkle on top of some yogurt and you got yourself a great breakfast.

The Bad: If you lose the revised instruction (like I did), the original recipe says to bake for 45-50 minutes. DON'T. I ended up burning some of the granola :(

Grade: B. If I hadn't slightly burned them, I think these would be extraordinary.

Good Morning Muffins
Adapted from Joanne Chang's Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery and Cafe
(makes 12 muffins)

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup wheat bran
1/2 cup hot water
1 small zucchini, grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 chopped walnuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1 apple, peeled, cored and chopped (about 1 cup)
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
1. preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners (or coat with nonstick cooking spray or butter)

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the wheat bran and hot water until bran is completely moistened. Add the zucchini, raisins, walnuts, coconut and apple and stir until well mixed.

3. Using a stand mixer fitted with the whip attachment, beat together the sugar and eggs on medium speed for 3-4 minutes, or until the mixture thickens and lightens. On low speed, slowly drizzle in the oil and then the vanilla (about one minute). When the oil and the vanilla are incorporated, remove the bowl from the mixer stand.

4. In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, oats, baking powder, salt and cinnamon until well mixed. Add the flour mixture to the egg mixture and fold carefully just until the dry and wet ingredients are well combined. Then add the bran mixture and fold again just until well combined. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin cups, dividing it evenly and filling the cups to the rim.

5. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until the muffins are lightly browned on top and spring back when pressed in the middle with a finger tip. Let cool in pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

The Good: Moist and flavorful. My youngest could not get enough. Served them over Easter and they were a hit.

The Bad: Because of all the good-for-you ingredients, pretty lengthy ingredient list!


Grade: A. Makes any morning a good morning!

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the second annual Cupcake Camp Boston as a member of the "cupcake crew" to help Kelly of Mix Bakery. I'm *still* coming down from the sugar rush.

First, what is Cupcake Camp? According to the website, Cupcake Camp "is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and eat cupcakes in an open environment." Basically, bakeries and amateur bakers gather to show off their baking chops by handing out free cupcakes. This year it was held at The Center for Arts at the Armory in Somerville. Organizer Elizabeth Ginsberg of Free Food Boston did an amazing job of corralling dozens bakeries and amateur bakers, including securing King Arthur Flour as sponsor.

Even though the event is free (thus drawing hundreds of people just within the first hour), a suggested $5 donation to Lovin' Spoonfuls was collected at the door to sweeten the already sweet event. Over $2300 was raised for Lovin' Spoonfuls, a Brookline based non-profit organization that recovers otherwise wasted food and delivers it to local soup kitchens and crisis centers.

If anyone thinks cupcakes are just a trend, then I think they would feel differently after attending Cupcake Camp. The smell of sugar was just as overwhelming as the enthusiasm that night.

Okay, enough preamble. Here are some photos from Cupcake Camp 2011.

Mad rush as the doors open at 7pm.

I was part of the Cupcake Crew with Mix Bakery. All 16 dozen minis were gone in an hour!

One of my favs - Party Favors. Red Velvet was very good.

Treat make-your-own cupcake bar

mixing in chocolate frosting with m&ms, toffee and peanut butter cups

I found some hair in the frosting, so was not able to enjoy this stone-cold creamery like cupcake.

 

cocktail inspired cupcakes by Cupcake MoJo

Frosting Vegan Cupcakes at Biba's Baked Goods

Red Velvet from Sweet

My favorite cupcakes were the salted caramel cupcakes from Mix Bakery (and not because I was part of the cupcake crew!). Whole Foods' Two-Bite cupcakes make a great everyday cupcake treat for a household of hungry kids. I was disappointed in Treat having found hair in the frosting (blech). Party Favors of Brookline consistently delivers moist cupcakes with sublime butter cream frosting.

Off to work out for the next three months to burn off all the calories I consumed!

marveling at vanilla beans (first for both of us)

As I've mentioned on this blog, I am not much of a baker. Consequently, desserts around here are usually store-bought. Sure, I'll make the occasional oatmeal raisin cookie, muffins or quick bread. The fact that my boys know exactly what to do with the immersion blender but will look at our stand mixer as some scary kitchen appliance says something about my baking skills.

So as a challenge to myself, I bought myself the Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston's Flour Bakery + Cafe cookbook by Joanne Chang. I thought best to ease into what I would consider the master class of baking cookbooks with a no-bake recipe: Brown Butter-Crispy Rice Treats. This would be a fun and easy treat to make with my oldest. And the stand mixer would take a back seat to our stovetop.

split vanilla bean, using the tip of a knife to scrape beans into melted butter

browning butter

mixing rice cereal with 2 sticks of butter and 2 bags of marshmallows

possibly the best rice crispy treats in the world

• The Good: Easy to make with only a few ingredients

• The Bad: You have to be careful not to burn the butter when browning. Vanilla beans can be pricey.

• Grade: A+. My childhood memories of this classic treat comes nowhere close to this rendition.

"Celeriac: the unsung frog prince of winter vegetables" - NPR

My brain is telling me it is officially Spring. Yet I had to use my scraper this morning to clear snow off my car before taking the boys to school this morning. Yes, I live in New England. "If you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes." is said with as much frequency as "wicked awesome" around these parts. So I figured best to embrace these last whimpers of winter with a hearty stew before I start complaining about how hot and humid it is a few minutes later.

Colorful ingredients to brighten up a cold March day

This recipe for short ribs with root veggies come from our new favorite cookbook, Ming Tsai's Simply Ming One-Pot Meals. We've been cooking our way through this cookbook and have found a winning recipe on nearly every page. The extended forecast calls for cold weather through the rest of this month. So why not cook up this stew now 'cause its wicked awesome.




Short Ribs with Root Veggies
Inspired by Simply Ming One-Pot Meals

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon chili powder
6 single-rib short ribs
3 tablespoons grapeseed or canola oil
2 onions, cut into 1-inch dice
2 tablespoons minced garlic
1 lb carrots, cut into 1-inch rounds
6 celery stalks, split lengthwise and halved
1 celeriac (celery root), peeled and cut into 1-inch dice
1 large sweet potato, 1-inch dice
1 large parsnip, cut into 1-inch rounds
2 tablespoons soy sauce

DIRECTIONS
1. In a large shallow plate, combine the flour and chili powder. Season the ribs with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour mixture.

2. Heat a stockpot or other tall wide pot over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the oil and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, shake the excess flour mixture from ribs, add them to the pot, and cook, turning once, until browned about 8 minutes. Set the ribs aside.


3. Add the remaining oil to the pot, and swirl to coat the bottom. When the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic and saute, stirring, about 3 minutes. Add the carrots, celery, celeriac, potato and parsnip. Season with salt and pepper. Add the ribs, soy sauce and enough water to almost cover the ingredients. Season to taste.

4. Cover and cook over medium heat until a paring knife passes through the meat easily, about 3 hours. Transfer the ribs and vegetables to a large bowl and serve.


The Good: Easy to make, full of nutritious veggies and short-ribs that melt in your mouth.

The Bad: Stew base was on the thin side. Not a quick weeknight meal (3 hours on the stove). Although boys ate some of it, they did not love it.

Grade: B. Will try making this in a crock pot as a weeknight meal.

Or in this case Eye Produce. I took a photography class at the deCordova over the winter with hopes of becoming chummy and proficient with my DSLR. It was a great introductory class for anyone interested in going beyond the little green box, tulip or running man settings on your camera. One of my favorite homework assignments was to shoot color. What better place to do that than at one of my favorite places to shop for groceries: Russo's.

If you are interested in learning more about Russo's, check out my post: The insider's guide to shopping at Russo's. In the meantime, take a gander at my homework and get inspired to cook up a storm this weekend.

We knew life would be dramatically different once we had kids. We were prepared to give up sleep, exercise, reading, and pretty much anything else associated with our former pre-parenting lives. The one thing we were not willing to sacrifice was dining out. We brought the boys out to restaurants as soon as possible. I think we may have stopped for burritos on our way home from the hospital with our brand-new baby (you work up an appetite after giving birth you know).

So it comes to no big surprise our boys know the drill when it comes to eating out - break out books/activities/toys reserved only for restaurants (and request a plastic cup of ice if youngest grows impatient). They are *pretty* well-behaved at this point. Sure they have their moments. And no, we are not so brave (or delusional) and try to take them to a place like Sorellina or other fine dining establishments. But we are not limited to kid-centric places like Rainforest Cafe either.

One of the goals of starting this blog was to chronicle our attempts at raising adventurous eaters. And what better way to do that than to check out the myriad of cuisines the city has to offer. Our oldest son has grown to look forward to trying new restaurants. And thanks to a kids' digital camera my sister gave my oldest for Christmas, we now have budding food blogger on our hands :)

So I've decided it would be fun to hand the reigns over to my 5-year-old occasionally and have him take some photos and explain what he liked (or didn't like) about some new restaurants we recently checked out.

So without further adieu, dining at La Carreta Mexican (Manchester, NH) from the eyes of a five-year-old*.

5-year-old: "The restaurant smelled new. Everything looked nice."

5-year-old thought light fixture over our table was beautiful

5-year-old: "I love to eat corn chips while I wait. I don't like salsa though. Too spicy."

Hooray! Chips!

5-year-old: "I LOVE fish tacos! It is too hot to eat right away though."

Finally the food arrives. Fish Tacos - yum!

5-year-old: "Here comes my brother's food. He loves rice."

Baby brother's meal - rice & beans.

5-year-old: "Mom's food is really hot."

Don't touch! Mom's fajitas are hot!

(umommy review)
La Carreta Mexican is based in Southern New Hampshire and has quickly expanded with a total of five locations, including one in Framingham, MA. With a large and loyal following, La Carreta offers an extensive menu that include authentic Mexican cuisine ranging from the usual fajitas and quesadillas to house specialties such as Enchiladas Mole Poblano and Cazuelon.

Bottom line: This is solid Mexican food. They have a kids menu too ($4.75 plates). A serious step up from other Mexican restaurants we've tried.





**Note: Energetic 5-year-old + 2 megapixel Vtech Kidizoom camera = blurry photos. We're working on "steady hands" and composition!