Recipe: Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies

If your children are anything like mine, they're strangely picky about what they will and won't eat. One loves breaded fish, but won't eat black beans. The other happily eats quinoa, but refuses grilled chicken. 

Given that both will eat more than cereal or mac-n-cheese, I should probably just be grateful. But I keep trying to sneak healthy items into their diet nonetheless. 

Enter the brilliance of zucchini chocolate chip cookies. This recipe arrived courtesy of The Produce Box with a heap of locally-grown zucchini, so I gave it a try. While the cookies turned out more cake-like than I expected, they were a complete and total hit -- both kids (and my husband) loved them! We've also shared them with other friends ages 8 and under with regular success.

Full disclosure: The first time I made the cookies, I didn't tell the kids what was in them. After they had already enjoyed them, then I confessed. Now they find it highly entertaining to tell their friends there's a "secret ingredient" in the cookies.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 1 cup white flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon (I used a heaping 1/4 tsp.)
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 1 cup finely shredded zucchini (I used 1 medium-sized zuke)
• 12 ounces chocolate chips (I used the mini-sized semi-sweet ones)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (I never actually do this at the beginning because it takes me longer to get everything ready than it takes the oven to heat up. Is that just me? Or is it just because I have a five-year-old "helping" me?)
2. Cream butter and sugar. Add egg, honey and vanilla.
3. Combine flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a separate bowl. Blend flour mixture into liquid mixture. Mix in shredded zucchini and chocolate chips until well combined.
4. Drop cookies by spoonful onto greased baking sheet and flatten with the back of a spoon. (I used parchment paper and no grease. You definitely want to keep the dough flat because the cookies don't really melt down at all.)
5. Bake for 10-13 minutes. (My oven needs 13.)

Do you have a favorite recipe with a "secret ingredient" disguised inside? Share it in the comments so we can all enjoy your genius.

Recipe: Sweet Potato Apple Soup

Being a convertible girl, I'm also very much a warm weather girl. I love sun dresses, sandals, gin & tonics and all the other loveliness that comes with spring and summer.

But there are a few things that make fall and winter worthwhile. Stylish boots, sweater dresses, 7& 7... and soup. One of my wise friends actually refuses to say the word "fall," instead calling it "the season of soup." It does sound much more appealing.

Thanks to combined recipes from another friend and a magazine, I made a delicious (and easy and healthy) soup last week that you definitely want to try out -- what I love most about it is that it's a smooth, creamy soup without any dairy in it.

My version is the first recipe below, with a variation from my friend (including her notes) below that -- or you can go to Real Simple online and use theirs.

Sweet Potato Apple Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• kosher salt and black pepper
• 2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into pieces
• 1 acorn squash, peeled, seeded and cut into pieces (it had been in my pantry for far too long and needed to be used)
• 1 apple (I used Granny Smith but others would work just fine), peeled and chopped
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• generous pinch ground nutmeg

Directions

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Add the sweet potatoes, acorn squash, apple, broth, nutmeg, and 1½ cups water to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, until the potatoes are tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
3. Use a handheld immersion blender to puree until smooth. (If you don't have an immersion blender, you really should buy one. Or, working in batches, you can transfer the mixture to a blender and puree, adding more water if necessary to reach the desired consistency.)

Golden Winter Soup

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp butter
• 5 cups 1/2 in. cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 lbs.)
• 1 russet potato peeled and cubed
• 1 granny smith apple peeled and cut
• 1 tsp kosher salt (optional -- when I add it I don't add as much broth or it can get too salty)
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 medium leeks sliced
• 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth (low-sodium might be a good option if you do the salt)
• 1 cups half-and-half

Directions

1. Melt butter in large Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add squash, potato, salt, and pepper to pan; sauté 3 min. 
2. Add leek; sauté 1 min. 
3. Stir in broth; bring to a boil. 
4. Reduce heat, and simmer 20 min. or until potato is tender stirring occasionally. 
5. Blend to a smooth consistency.I use my immersion blender to get a smooth consistency. You can also put half of it in the blender and then pour into bowl and then pour rest into the blender. After it is blended, you stir in the half-and-half. 

Friday's 5: Holiday Recipes

One of the downsides of actually learning to cook (and doing it regularly) is that you're bound to make some stuff that tastes bad now and then. This week I got a little too adventurous and tried to make pumpkin quinoa pancakes (see photo) -- the muffins are so good, I though it would work.

As it turns out, not so much. They weren't awful, just not very good -- not worth the effort.

But at least I'm trying. And blessings on my sweet husband who eats whatever I make with a smile. My kids? Well, not always.

Anyway, December is the season of cooking, with holiday meals, parties and treats at every turn. So here are links to five recipes that might be useful for some of those dinners plus a bonus recipe for a treat:

• Kale with cranberries: I know some of you are kale-haters, but I promise you this one is easy to make and delicious to eat.
• Brussels sprouts and carrots: A simple recipe combined with a grammar lesson -- what more could a nerdy cook ask for?
• Pumpkin soup: This one works just as well with butternut squash or other similar veg. Delicious as a starter course or a lunch option.
• Butternut squash with cumin couscous: Like the soup recipe, this is another that makes great leftovers for taking hot lunch to the office.
• Lasagna: The official title of this recipe was "The Best Lasagna" and they're totally not kidding. You'll want to make an extra for the freezer.
• Marbled chocolate treats: Perfect for cookie exchanges, teacher gifts or your own holiday dessert.

When you're done cooking, let me know and I'll be right over for a taste. Or maybe just leave us a link in the comments with your favorite holiday recipe to share.

Let Them Eat Pizza (with a gift card!)

Meal planning doesn't happen as religiously around here as it used to -- but I'm trying to get back into the habit. With or without a plan, we still probably eat pizza about once a week, or at least every other week.

So when the local marketing team for Papa Murphy's Pizza asked me if I'd like a gift card to try out their pizza, I was happy to accept. They recently opened a store in Raleigh that's near Cameron Village, so we stopped by last week on our way home from the library.

Papa Murphy's has a little video so you can see for yourself, but it's sort of like Subway for pizza except that you take the pizza home to bake it. They have some signature combinations that you can choose from or you can pick your toppings -- then they assemble the whole thing fresh in front of you. The nice part of that for us was getting the half-and-half arrangement required to keep both kids and grown-ups happy.

When they assemble your pizza, they build it on this paper plate that can somehow magically go straight into the oven -- if you're keeping track, that's one less pizza pan to wash after dinner. My only fear was that the family size pizza almost didn't fit in my oven (see photo), but it turned out fine.

As it turns out, the family size is enough for my family at dinner (four of us, served with a salad) and lunch again the next day (for two of us). Tasty pizza, made fresh, served hot out of the oven -- all in all, a successful dinner.

And now, thanks to the lovely Papa Murphy's team, YOU TOO can walk into the store, whip out your gift card and take home dinner -- if you enter to win here. I'll even throw in a spiffy PM water bottle and coffee travel cup (now you're REALLY excited, I can tell). It's just what you need to take a break from all the holiday turkey coming up.

Because we don't do a lot of giveaways over here at My Convertible Life, I'm going to keep it simple. First go to the Papa Murphy's website to be sure you can get to a store nearby -- and while you're there take a look at the other menu items, like cookie dough, salads, lasagna, cookie dough, bread sticks, cookie dough. Then just leave me a comment below with your email address and/or Twitter handle so I can get in touch with you if you win. Entries must be received by 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 18, 2012.

It's that easy. Just like bringing home the pizza.

Recipe: Pumpkin Quinoa Muffins

Quinoa. Also known as "keen-wah."

It's one of those foods I felt like I was supposed to be eating, but then the healthy breakfast recipe I made with it was so disgusting that it made my kitchen stink and I actually took the stuff outside to the garbage can. And then I was left with this open bag of organic quinoa that I couldn't bring myself to toss because it was so expensive.

Twitter and Pinterest to the rescue, of course. Unfortunately I no longer remember which person tweeted the link to this recipe from Once a Month Mom, but it is awesome. Seriously.

Click the link for the complete original recipe, but here are my notes and adaptations. My kids and husband go through these so fast, that it's almost not worth making them without doubling the recipe...


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 cups cooked quinoa (I've found that if you cook 1/2 cup of dry quinoa in 1 cup of water, you get a generous 1 1/2 cups of cooked quinoa, which works fine.)
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups pureed pumpkin (This is about what a can of pureed pumpkin contains, so by doubling the recipe you don't have that half a can of pumpkin sitting in the fridge.)
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 4 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup semi-sweet mini chocolate chips (They taste just fine without the chocolate chips. But because my children fight over things like who got the muffin with more chocolate chips in it, I found it was easier to put a scoop of muffin mix in the paper liner first, then place 5 chocolate chips in each one, then another scoop of mix on top. Yes, that's what my life has become.)

The original recipe is for 12 muffins, but I can usually get 18 out of it -- meaning that the doubled recipe gets me 36 muffins. If you prefer to make big heaping muffins, then maybe you'll only get 24. Also, she suggests freezing them and microwaving for breakfast, but they've never lasted long enough at my  house to get all the way to the freezer so I can't vouch for that step.

When you make these, let me know. I'll be over with hot tea for both of us.

On Faith and Biscuits

Is it wrong to select your church based on its proximity to Biscuitville and its faith formation schedule?

Because I'm pretty sure those were the two main criteria that landed us at our new spiritual home.

I'm not proud of this. But sometimes I think we, as parents, make decisions based on what will cause us the least amount of angst. And right now in my life, I'm realizing that choosing anything that takes me more than 10 miles from home or adds evening activities into an already overfilled week causes me much stress. That stress then makes it harder for me to pray, to focus, to actually listen while I'm at church.

So we've signed on at a Catholic church that's less than three miles from our house (and even closer to Biscuitville) and offers faith formation classes* for BOTH kids right after mass on Sunday mornings. Did I mention they have BOTH a 2nd grade AND a pre-K class? And we get to drop off BOTH kids for an hour on Sunday morning?

You see my point, right?

Now the real test will be if we can actually get ourselves up, dressed and out the door in time for mass. Send prayers, y'all.

* If you're not Catholic, "faith formation" is the same thing as Sunday school. It's just not always on Sundays. And it used to be called CCD or the "Confraternity of Christian Doctrine." Now you know.

** And also? That picture is more than a year old and yes, she's chewing with her mouth open. But look how cute and happy she is at Biscuitville!

Click here to read more posts about why I gave up Catholicism for Lent and how I keep finding myself Catholic after all these years.

Recipe: Delicious Kale with Cranberries

I'd never even heard of kale until it arrived in my Produce Box last year. Tried making kale chips -- because that seemed to be the item most people were raving about -- but the texture and flavor both left much to be desired. I disguised the rest of last summer's kale in stir fry and decided that would be enough of that.

Then I accidentally ate the most delicious sweet and savory kale side dish at a friend's house and discovered a new love for the super healthy green. Here's the recipe (taken from allrecipes.com), along with my annotations. 

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced (I used the pre-minced garlic in a jar)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (I used honey mustard)
• 4 teaspoons white sugar (would recommend using less than that -- I used 2 tsp agave)
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups stemmed, torn and rinsed kale
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries (I used Craisins)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/4 cup sliced almonds

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Stir in the onion and garlic; cook and stir until the onion softens and turns translucent, about 5 minutes. Stir in the mustard, sugar, vinegar and chicken stock, and bring to a boil over high heat. Stir in the kale, cover and cook 5 minutes until wilted.
2. Stir in the dried cranberries, and continue boiling, uncovered, until the liquid has reduced by about half and the cranberries have softened -- about 15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with sliced almonds before serving.

Let us know -- what's your favorite way to serve kale?

Photo from allrecipes.com.

Recipe: Brussels Sprouts and Carrots

My friend over at Pretty*Swell is working hard to eat healthy -- not only is she doing a great job, she's sharing her tasty recipes with the rest of us. Her recipe from earlier this week inspired me to share this one for brussels sprouts and carrots -- a friend brought it to a group dinner a few years ago and everyone loved it. I've made it instead of green beans for Christmas the past two years with great success, but Suzanne's post reminded me that sprouts aren't just for the holidays.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons chopped shallot (or use a little onion and a little garlic, if that's what you have on hand)
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided (I generally have pretend butter in the house -- or "oleo," as my grandmother called it -- and it works just fine)
• 1 pound carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick pieces
• 1 pound brussels sprouts, halved lengthwise
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar

 Directions:

1. Cook shallot in 2 tablespoons butter in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, 1 to 2 minutes. 
2. Add carrots, brussels sprouts, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables begin to brown, 3 to 4 minutes.
3. Add water and cover skillet, then cook over medium-high heat until vegetables are tender, 5 to 8 minutes. 
4. Stir in vinegar, remaining tablespoon butter, and salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking note: Vegetables can be cut 1 hour ahead and kept at room temperature. They also keep well for leftovers in the fridge.

Word nerd note: You'll sometimes see "Brussels sprout"spelled with a capital "B," but I've opted for the lower case here. In general, style manuals prescribe a streamlined style for capitalization of words derived from proper names but used with a specialized meaning. This means that regardless of the style manual you consult (I like AP, myself), you are likely to decide to lowercase the "B" in brussels sprouts just like with the initial "F" in french fries. In case you were wondering. [Puts Grammar Police badge back in pocket.]

Have a favorite healthy veggie side dish recipe? Share it with us in the comments, please!

Friday's 5: Trade-Offs

When Junius was a baby, I thought he would be this tiny, needy, helpless (and adorable, but still exhausting) bump on a log forever. And I was terrified.

I looked at my friends with toddlers and school-aged kids and longed for the day when my child wouldn't be attached to me in such a literal way.

Of course, as it turns out, those early days quickly disappeared. Sometimes I miss the baby days, but I also enjoy the advantages of not having an infant in the house. Now that I've got a 6-year-old and an almost 4-year-old, life looks really different.

But I've been noticing lately that there are good and bad sides to having kids who are getting older and more independent. So for those of you still wandering in the hazy exhaustion of newborn-ness, here are five trade-offs that you have ahead of you.

1. Reading: 
   The Good: Now that Junius can read he can better entertain himself and Pippi. He's also better at answering my questions because he has access to a lot more information.
   The Bad: Now he can read everything -- including speed limit signs (which may or may not correspond to the speed of my car), event announcements (that I wasn't planning on taking him to) and other less appropriate material. It's like baby-proofing, but different.
2. Clothing:
   The Good: Junius gets himself up every morning and gets dressed before waking us up -- he's our school day alarm clock. And now Pippi is old enough to dress herself, too -- great that the only person I have to dress in the morning is myself.
   The Bad: There's no telling what they'll come up with. For Junius, it's probably red gym shorts with a different-shade-of-red t-shirt. For Pippi, well... she could go through as many as four (ahem) unusual selections in one day, usually involving something a) sparkly, b) pink, c) flouncy, d) too big/small or e) all of the above (see photo).  
3. Eating:
   The Good: My kids can make their own breakfast now, reach the snacks in the pantry and fix juice out of the fridge -- again, one less chore that falls on my plate.
   The Bad: They're making their own food choices sometimes without asking, meaning they're fixing Chex Mix for breakfast or eating the last banana that I needed for smoothies.
4. Time:
   The Good: Because Junius really is our household alarm clock, it's very helpful for him to be able to tell time. It's also nice to tell him that a friend is coming over at 4:00 and have that actually mean something.
   The Bad: It's a lot harder to convince him that it's time to go to bed when he can look at the clock and tell that it's only 6:15.
5. Television:
   The Good: So it's probably not our most stellar parenting move, but we've discovered that we can sleep in a little on Saturdays now that the kids are able to work the TV (including the TiVo) on their own. Hey, I still remember sitting in front of the test pattern with my brother on Saturday mornings waiting for cartoons and I turned out okay -- trusting that my kids will, too.
   The Bad: If we're not up with them, then they're choosing their own programming -- which is often the Disney channel (and I'm sorry, but I think most of those shows are terrible) or occasionally something less-than-kid-friendly from TiVo. 

As they say, the grass is always greener... If you've got a newborn, what older stage are you looking forward to? Or if you've got older kids, what mixed blessing of the future should I be worrying about now?
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Recipe: Pumpkin Soup

Full credit for this recipe goes to Ilina at Dirt & Noise.

She was pinning all these great pumpkin recipes last week and I had this pumpkin sitting on my counter from The Produce Box (not the jack o' lantern pictured here, of course -- but I'm still very proud of my first-ever carvings). So I asked her for an easy but tasty recipe recommendation.

Here's what she sent:

Pumpkin Soup

small cooking pumpkin (or substitute butternut squash)
olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 clove minced garlic
2 tablespoons apple sauce
3 cups chicken broth
1 cup pulp free orange juice
splash (or more) dry white wine
pinch cinnamon
1-2 teaspoon paprika
1-2 teaspoon cumin
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup cream

Roast pumpkin and cook until soft. Scrape out seeds and reserve pulp. On medium heat, cook onion and garlic in olive oil until slightly browned in a dutch oven. Add apple sauce, chicken broth, orange juice, wine and give it a stir. Turn heat to low. Mix in pumpkin and seasonings. Simmer for at least 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Take off the heat and whisk in the cream. Use an immersion blender or puree it in batches (though this step is not necessary). Serve with bread and garnish with fried onions and cashews.

* * *

It turned out delicious -- plus I'm super impressed with myself for being able to say that I made pumpkin soup from scratch. But I do have a few notes to go along with the recipe.

Not knowing how to roast pumpkin, I googled it and came up with this solution: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place the pumpkin cut side up on a parchment lined baking sheet. Season with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. Turn cut side down and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Place in oven and roast until skin is golden brown and the pumpkin is tender, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Next time, I think I'd use less orange juice -- unless maybe I had a bigger pumpkin. Don't skimp on the spices -- they're yummy. I did use my immersion blender because it makes me happy and makes the soup smooth and lovely. And sadly I didn't have any fried onions or cashews in the pantry, so I just crumbled Saltines into my bowl -- the saltiness is a nice balance to the soup flavor.

Junius didn't like it, but Pippi did -- so that makes it a win at our house.

Now go show Ilina some blog love (remember what we talked about on Friday?) and then leave us a link to your favorite pumpkin recipe here in the comments.
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A Week in My Life: Friday at the Fair

Keeping up with Adventuroo's "A Week in My Life" project. has turned out to be nearly impossible. Too much life happening to have enough time left over for writing about it. But I'm doing what I can -- check out my Monday here and my Tuesday here. Then you'll have a good idea about why I'm so tired.

Friday was no ordinary day. It was Go to the North Carolina State Fair Day.

So for our documentation purposes here, we'll skip over the morning part where I went to work, Pippi went to preschool and Junius went to the office with his Daddy, blah blah blah. Let's jump straight into the crazy fun part....

If you can make it, they can fry it. More on that later, but we just couldn't resist a photo on the way in.

Self-portrait so that my dermatologist will be impressed. The weather was NC perfect on Friday -- but definitely required sunscreen and a hat.

The one ride we all went on together was the Ferris wheel (or, "ferist wheel," as Junius calls it). This unedited photo was taken while we waited in line.

Here are my two dare devils, waiting for the wheel to start turning...

...and here are my white knuckles as I gripped the handle. I was seriously nervous on this ride. My children were not. I spent much of the ride telling them to hold on and sit down. It's been a long, long time since my days on the Carolina Cyclone and Thunder Road.

The view from the top of the Ferris wheel was very cool. But it was hard to grip the handlebar with one hand and take a photo with the other hand without dropping my iPhone.

Some of our beach buddies came into town for the day so they could go to the Fair. And what a bonus for us that we were already planning to go on the same day! Pippi was so happy to see her friend, they kept holding hands and hopping around. So adorable...

Junius really liked controlling the map. I'm not sure how well-developed his sense of direction is, but knowledge is power -- and now that he can read, he really likes having the power tools.

Junius and his beach buddy directed us (more or less -- okay, less) to the animal area, where we watched the sheep getting sheared. The sheep did not seem happy about this plan. The children were mesmerized. I was considering switching to synthetic fabrics.

I don't know what this lovely girl's name is, but she was one of the people showing off recently-sheared sheep in the animal section. She must be really good at it because she had on one hell of a belt buckle. Pippi was jealous.

And here's another celebrity at the Fair -- my friend, the Practical Cook. In addition to being awesome because of her deep and abiding love of cereal, she is also a Deep Fried Ambassador for the NC State Fair. Seriously. She has a media pass and everything. Check out her blog -- including video of her taste tests with deep fried Kool Aid, deep fried bubblegum and the Krispy Kreme burger. I'm not kidding.

Pippi was desperate for ice cream with sprinkles. Not sure you can see it here, but she ended up with sprinkles in her hair because she was so excited.

Thanks to a tip from the Practical Cook, based on her extensive deep fried Fair research, we located the best stand for deep fried Oreos. After sharing a taste with Pippi, she promptly declared the Oreos to be even better than ice cream. If you'd like to hear an on-the-scene description of what it tastes like, check out the video at the end of this post. Here's a peek inside...

While we were indulging, Junius was busy spending the last of his ride tickets (which we bought in advance because they are SO much cheaper that way). He looks kind of serious in this photo, which could be because he takes his fake four-wheeler driving very seriously or might actually be because he is flippin exhausted.

By that point, we had clearly overstayed our welcome at the Fair. Thus, Pippi got carried back down the long and winding path back to the car (free parking at Gate 8, thankyouverymuch) -- first on a mommy piggy-back and then on daddy's shoulders.

And before you get alarmed that I'm not wearing my hat anymore in this photo, rest easy knowing that it was dark out by then. Seriously time to go home -- but worth staying to see the Fair light up as we said farewell until next year.

A Week in My Life: Tuesday

Yes, I know it's Wednesday. But Tuesday was very full and there was no time for blogging -- but lots to document. I'm participating in Adventuroo's "A Week in My Life" project. You can see my Monday here.

Tuesday started painfully early for a good cause. If I look a little blurry in that first picture, it's because I was volunteering at my polling station at 6:30 a.m. in the RAIN in the DARK and I wasn't totally awake yet. The kids joined me at 7:30, mostly playing in the car for my last half hour of greeting. (Translation of J's post-it: "Christine is are [our] school board.") And no, no one wanted my little candidate flier.

Once our shift was up, we headed home to play. Also to lay out the newspaper across the counter because it was somehow soaking wet inside the plastic bag.

At 9:00 we got ready for our friend Baby J, who hangs out with us on Tuesday mornings. That means dumping out an entire basket of toys and then confiscating all the tiny things he might try to eat. We also got our They Might Be Giants station playing on Pandora (via TiVo, which I LOVE). You can see here that we all love Baby J very much. He loves us too, although sometimes I think he'd like a little more personal space.

At 11:00, we loaded up Baby J and took Pippi to her gymnastics class. Baby J took a nap while Junius played games on my iPhone.

After we returned Baby J to his parents, we loaded back into the car with lunch and headed to Daddy's office for flu shots. Junius, apparently exhausted from the morning, gave out along the way. Pippi managed to keep herself awake by singing the entire time.

Junius and I were very brave for our shots (Pippi already got hers at the pediatrician). Then we argued over who would get to push the buttons in the elevator.

On the ride home, we rocked out to one of our most favorite CDs: the aptly-titled Songs Your Mom Will Like by Big Bang Boom. That's Pippi beatboxing and playing the air trumpet on track 14. Buy it now and thank me later.

After a little rest time (read: 30 minutes of TV) at home, we loaded back into the car (are you noticing a theme here?) for some play time at our friends' house. Pippi showed us how she can buckle her own seat belt (which can take up to 5 minutes, depending on the amount of whining involved). We admired our friends' fabulous Halloween decorations, debated the scientific names of toy dinosaurs and generally had a whirlwind of fun.

At 6:00, we picked up Daddy and went out for dinner at a local restaurant that was having a fundraising night for our arts school. Junius impressed his friends by reading all the signs on the way in (yes, first-graders are that cool). The kids played with wikistiks while we waited for our food (smart restaurant), then Pippi cleaned her plate and part of Junius' too. My girl loves some pasta. I had the yummiest bleu cheese mac-n-cheese with bacon -- comfort food on a rainy night.

Back at home, we filled milk cups (I don't know why, but that blue cup is THE ONLY WAY Junius will drink milk and he MUST have it at bedtime every night) and went upstairs for bed. Junius brushed his teeth and protested all the photography. I spray-treated Pippi's shirt (why oh why do I ever buy white shirts for her?) and pondered the need for gender-specific children's toothpaste. Then Daddy showed the kids pictures from his day touring cool Raleigh locations like the science museum and the RBC Center.

It was my turn to read to Pippi. She picked out "The Shy Little Girl," a book I somehow still have from my childhood. I love how much she loves the book, even though parts of it are really dated. The trick to getting Pippi to sleep is to get her to be still -- see how she fidgets with her hands to stay awake?

Finally at 8:00, with both kids asleep, my political junkie husband and I settled in on the couch for election returns. With two laptops, an iPad, an iPhone and the television between us, we stalked the results, read tweets aloud, flipped news channels and cheered for the victory. Who says you can't have champagne on a Tuesday?

And so my day ended where it began -- worn out, but happy to support a great candidate.
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Recipe: Jay's Famous Frittata

My friend Momsicle posted some amazing brunch recipes on her blog this week, then invited some other "foodies" on Twitter to join in. Given that I couldn't resist the notion of being called a "foodie," I decided I must have something to contribute.

But given that I'm not actually that fancy in the kitchen, I'm stealing sharing a friend's recipe. Technically it's her husband's recipe, which I had the good fortune to sample at their daughter's third-birthday party. Because that's the classy kind of friends that Pippi hangs out with.

Sorry there's no photo -- I was too busy eating that day to take pictures.

In case anyone is looking for something tasty to make for mom on Sunday (for brunch, second breakfast or elevensies), here's a great option.

Jay's Famous Frittata

Chef's disclaimer: Jay does not measure, so all measurements are approximate. Feel free to use more or less of whatever, or add your own ingredients in place of ham, pepper and onion as you like.

Ingredients:
2T butter
1 small onion, diced
1 large pepper, diced
4-5 oz of cooked ham, diced
8 eggs
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup mild cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large oven-safe pan, sautee butter with onion, pepper, and ham. Add salt and pepper to season.
2. In a mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, and more salt and pepper to season.
3. Once ham/onion/peppers are golden/translucent/tender, pour egg mixture into sautee pan.
4. As the eggs begin to cook, move the mixture in the pan so that the eggs cook evenly (chef says "lift the eggs on the side of the pan so that the other eggs get underneath").
5. Once the eggs are almost done, sprinkle with cheese and pop under the broiler until the cheese is melted.
6. Slide onto a platter and serve -- feeds 6-8 people, depending on how hungry you are. 

Remodeling 5: Eating Without a Kitchen

When your kitchen looks like this, you have to rethink dinner. And breakfast and lunch, for that matter, since there's no table either -- but dinner is the most significant challenge.

With a major renovation under way, we couldn't afford to just eat out for every meal. And who really wants to drag a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old to a restaurants every night anyway?

For the second installment in Five Lists about Home Renovation Week, I share with you five survival tips for getting by without a kitchen and without breaking the bank:

1. Phone a friend: Without the kindness of friends who invited us over to eat or cook and one who even gave us open access to her kitchen (thanks, Ms. S!), we would not have made it through. I pulled lasagna from the freezer and heated it at a friend's house while the kids played. I brought pizzas to another friend's and cooked enough for all of us. It was so nice just to sit at a table in a home to eat dinner, even if it wasn't my own home.
2. Grocery dining: My grocery budget was way down for the past month since there wasn't anywhere to cook. So we decided to just eat at the grocery store instead. Harris Teeter sells tasty-fresh, custom pizzas for $7.99 on Mondays -- we just took ours upstairs and people-watched at the store while we ate dinner. 
3. Coupon/Groupon: We got a lot of use out of our CityPass coupon book and some strategic Groupon purchases so that we could get special deals at restaurants when we needed them. Somehow, a BOGO deal makes everything a little better.
4. Family night: On Tuesdays at Chick-Fil-A, kids get a free meal with the purchase of a grown-up meal. Plus we had a very generous gift card from another friend (thanks, PY!), so that made the deal even sweeter. Of course, other restaurants offer family night deals, too (like Moe's), but CFA is always the favorite at our house. I think it's the free ice cream.
5. Grilled cheese: When we just needed to have an easy meal at home, we pulled out the George Foreman cooker panini maker and fired up some grilled cheese sandwiches. Heat up some soup in the microwave, throw some fruit on the kids' plates, and it's a surprisingly well-balanced meal. Just had to get a little creative about the location (and notice, there's ALWAYS cereal):

But after too many nights of watching my kids eat dinner like this...

...I'm more than excited to be fixing dinner in this...

That sneak peek photo is courtesy of the little comment fit that Momsicle threw yesterday. More to come later this week, so stay tuned!

Remodeling Week:
Hire People You Trust
Tips for Prospective Remodelers
Things He Left Behind
Kitchen Before and After

Wordless Wednesday: Cookie Concentration

Pippi takes her cookie decorating very seriously.
Note the girly apron, the not-so-girly remains of a 'Canes tattoo
and the total excess of orange gel on that one cookie.

Best Smoothie Blender for the Best Smoothie Recipe

My husband has this great smoothie recipe -- he was already making them every day when I met him, so I give him full credit. He named the concoction after his very sweet dog and the three types of berries in the original recipe.

As a girl who loves breakfast, I couldn't help but fall in love with a man who had his own special morning beverage. And when I was pregnant, it was the perfect second breakfast (just after breakfast and before elevensies, of course).

We make one most every weekday at our house and divide it up between two stadium cups and two smaller cups with straw lids. We've tweaked the details a bit along the way, but the substance is still the same as it was 11 years ago. The family that smoothies together stays together, right? And there's no tastier way to stay regular and healthy, trust me.

When we got married nearly 10 years ago, we got a blender as a wedding gift. It survived about a year or two of smoothies. We replaced it with another regular blender that lasted two more years.

Then we bought the Waring Commercial Bar Blender. [Insert dramatic, angelic music here.]

After six faithful years and somewhere in the ballpark of 1,500 double smoothie spins, our bar blender finally quit last week. Full of unblended smoothie ingredients, of course, but I really couldn't complain after all those years [see photo].

So what did we do? Promptly went online and ordered a new one just like it, but with a chrome base (you know, to match our soon-to-be-snazzy new kitchen).

Thanks, Waring, for keeping us in healthy, tasty breakfasts for another six years.

Emmet's Triple Delicious Fruit Smoothies

1. Put the following ingredients in your Waring blender:
• 2 peeled bananas
• 1 6-oz. container of light yogurt (fruit or vanilla flavors)
• 1 6-oz. container of water
• 1 6-oz. container of light vanilla soy milk
• 2 handfuls of frozen strawberries (I use about 10 of the Costco ones)
• handful of frozen mixed berries (I use Costco's raspberry, blueberry, marionberry mix)
2. Blend.
3. Pour in cups (2-4, depending on serving size).
4. Feel better about the day ahead.

Note: We paid for our new blender -- no promise of compensation for this post. But Waring, if you're reading, I'm happy to be your next paid spokeperson for smoothie production.

Recipe: Purple Potato Risotto

If you need a lovely dish to take to an ECU Pirates dinner or a Northwestern Wildcats party, have I got the recipe for you: Roasted purple sweet potato risotto.

Actually, the recipe called for regular NC sweet potatoes -- I found it in a deck of recipe cards courtesy of the NC Sweet Potato Commission.What, you didn't know North Carolina has a Sweet Potato Commission? It is the state vegetable, after all.

But anyway, I had all these purple sweet potatoes left from our Produce Box, so I just substituted them in. And WOW, is it purple. Also, quite tasty (despite the fact that my photo here makes it look like a dumped-out can of cat food) -- my husband even had seconds.

And, did I mention it's very, very purple?

Here's the recipe, with my usual amendments. Will probably try it again with orange sweet potatoes to see if it changes the taste or just the color.

Roasted Sweet Potato Risotto

Ingredients:

• 2 medium sweet potatoes [I used 3 because they seemed slightly smaller than medium.]
• 1/4 cup olive oil, divided
• 4 cups hot vegetable stock, divided [I used chicken stock because it was in my pantry.]
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion [I mis-read this ingredient and used 1/2 an onion. I think it was fine.]
• 1 tbsp minced garlic [I used elephant garlic from my Produce Box -- worked fine.]
• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice (12-oz package)
• 3/4 cup white wine
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary [I used dried. Fresh probably would have been better.]
• 1 1/2 tsp thyme leaves [Dried again.]
• 3 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese [I used shredded because it was in the fridge. Also added a little more as a topping when I served it.]
• 1 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp black pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat over to 350. Peel sweet potatoes and cut in half.
2. Cut half of the sweet potatoes into 1/4-inch dices and set aside.
3. Cut the remaining sweet potatoes into 1-inch chunks and toss with 1 tbsp olive oil. Roast until soft, about 30 minutes. Puree in a food processor with 1/4 cup vegetable stock; reserve.
4. In a large saucepan, heat remaining 3 tbsp oil and sauté onion and 1/4-inch diced sweet potatoes over medium-high heat. Cook about 3 minutes until softened but not browned.
5. Add garlic and arborio rice and cook 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in wine and cook, stirring until completely absorbed. In the same manner, add hot stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring until each addition is completely absorbed and stock is use up.
6. Add sweet potato puree, rosemary, thyme, butter and Parmesan. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Let me know what you think if you try it out. Or, if you have a favorite sweet potato recipe, add it here in the comments.

Friday's 5: Pork Tenderloin All Week Long

One of my favorite ways to cook is to fix one thing and make it last through as many meals as possible. That's the beauty of cooking pork tenderloin -- there are so many ways to serve it that are easy to prep, once you've done the initial cooking.

Whenever Harris Teeter has the Smithfield pork tenderloin on sale, I usually buy one and keep it in the freezer until I'm ready. They tend to be close to 3 lbs (because they actually put two in a package), so it's way more than we can eat in one or two meals. Thanks to tips from my friend Ms. S, I've come up with five different meals from one package of tenderloin.

1. Pork tenderloin with veggies: For the first meal, I cook the tenderloin in the oven (according to package directions) -- sometimes I marinade, sometimes not. Here's a good recipe (and a borrowed photo above) I found online. Slice and serve with whatever veggies you like best -- we often use broccoli and mashed potatoes.
2. BBQ pork pizza: Get a ready-made pizza crust or the great pizza dough at Trader Joe's (near the cheese section). Use BBQ sauce instead of tomato sauce. Chop up or shred some of the pork and layer on top with some red onion (you can cook them a little to carmelize if you like) and shredded Italian cheeses.
3. Pork and peach salad: Use your favorite mixed greens. Add slices of pork along with peaches (I like to warm them a little first), walnuts, cranberries and feta cheese. Toss with a little vinaigrette.
4. Pork and black bean burritos: Whatever your preferred ingredients are for burritos, use the same approach. Here's a good recipe -- just add pork.
5. BBQ pork sandwiches: The key to this very simple meal is to get nice, soft sourdough bread (I like Pepperidge Farm) and some smoky gouda or muenster or provolone cheese. Toast the bread, layer with pork, BBQ sauce and cheese, then let it get warm and melty under the broiler. 

What's your favorite way to serve pork tenderloin? Or better yet, what's your favorite item to cook once and serve all week?

A Perfect Way to Welcome Fall

Today, while doing laundry, I found four hardened kernels of corn at the bottom of my washing machine. Under normal circumstances, that might seem strange -- but we spent last Saturday at Hill Ridge Farms, so I actually knew where they came from.

Apparently when you let your kids play in a huge sandbox filed with corn instead of sand, they're likely to bring some of it home in their pants. They're also likely to have an absolute blast.

Despite other people's recommendations, I've always been a little skeptical about the hayride-pumpkinpatch-cornmaze-farmanimals events that get publicized each fall -- just sounded itchy, smelly and cold. But some friends invited us to join them and the weather was perfect, so I agreed to go along.

As it turned out, I couldn't have hoped for a better day. From the moment we turned off Tarboro Road in Youngsville, the staff at Hill Ridge Farm was friendly, organized and attentive. We had an easy time in the parking lot, quickly got our tickets and were inside playing without any trouble (think Caniac Carnival, not that other family outing). We even arrived early enough to get in our train ride and hayride without waiting in line.

At $10 per ticket, it's not a cheap outing -- but each ticket gets to take home a pumpkin, so it's not a bad deal either. Plus I didn't feel as guilty about taking pictures while my kids wandered around the pumpkins as I do when we're pumpkin shopping at the farmer's market.

After all that playing and pumpkin-picking, we needed a break and a snack. Pippi begged for kettle corn -- and again I was suspicious, as I'm a traditional movie-theater popcorn kind of girl. But oh-my-delicious-freshly-popped-sweet-and-salty-goodness, I take it all back. The suspicion, that is, not the kettle corn. Because we ate it all.

And we didn't feed any of it to the animals, even when they tried showing us their most clever tricks. Because the signs say not to share people food with the animals, and it was hard enough sharing it just among the four of us.

The morning's big finish involved a slide built into a hill, complete with little burlap sack to help the ride along. In the not-too-distant past, Junius would have been too afraid to try this on his own, but here's my big boy now. Might have made me a little misty-eyed if he hadn't been having so much fun.

All in all, it was a spectacular morning for the whole family, plus we all took glorious naps when we got back home. A perfect fall Saturday, if you ask me.

A few final tips, in case you're planning to head out there this weekend:

• Go early. Farm opens at 9 on Saturday -- be there.
• Wear sunscreen. It may be fall, but little faces still get sunburned on a pretty day.
• Buy the regular tickets plus one train ride. The super pass is more than you need (at least for little kids).
• Bring a picnic, if you want to save a little money. Plus, your kids may fall asleep on the ride home, so it's easier if they've already had lunch.