And away we go!

Didn't want anyone to think that potential stardom had gone to my head. If I am rather silent these next several days it's simply because our family is returning to Tyler Place for the third year in a row and I think I am leaving my computer at home. Maybe.

So, while my children are having all sorts of adventures with their camp groups, I will be taking some (well earned) time in an Adirondack chair, reading a book...or maybe I'll be taking a yoga class...learning how to throw a pot...doing a low ropes course perhaps...canoeing on Lake Champlain...or going for a long bike ride with Jeff, before we get ready for cocktails and the parent-only dining room. (Can you say bliss?)

But, you can rest assured that I'll come back from this vacation rested, and invigorated to cook up a storm so I can share more ideas for simple family-friendly meals with all of you!

The first try-out

Wow! I did it. I was so nervous that my tummy ached (or maybe that’s attributable to the amount of coffee I had before the interview). I am pretty sure I spoke too fast (shocking, I know), but we got about three questions in three minutes, that's it! Anyway, I think I did a good job, and paired with that monstrous application, it will give the casting folks a good idea of who I am. They said we’ll know by Tuesday if they’d like us to come back in. My fingers are crossed!

Tonight's "Rainbow Plate", and dinner for us too

Children are supposed to have at least five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, but as we all know getting them down the hatch can be a real challenge for parents. We use a “rainbow plate” game at our home. At each meal, my children count the colors on their plate. This creates excitement and a desire for colorful foods including a variety of fruits and vegetables which are a natural source of color.

Tonight's dinner included: "taco turkey" (ground white meat turkey + our favorite taco seasoning and chopped onions sauteed together), a whole wheat wrap rolled up with melted cheese, a cilantro yogurt dip (store bought this time, from TJ's), green grapes, plus peaches, tomatoes and cucumbers from our CSA. I plan to have pretty much the same thing-- I'll make a salad with the cucumbers and tomatoes + some lettuce from our CSA, chopped avocado drizzled with some lemon, a scoop of the turkey, some shredded cheese and I can thin the yogurt dip by whisking it with a little milk for a creamy dressing. Easy meal that pleases both my kids and us parents! (Black beans would have been a good addition too, but I forgot to put them out!)

My little one just jumped out of the tub, saw the picture and excitedly announced, "I just ate that mama!" My free time comes to a screeching halt....time for bedtime stories!

Monster Mush (aka Spinach Risotto)

Here’s another simple dinner, though this one requires you tend to it while it’s cooking. I recently made this on a night when dinner wasn’t ready (truth be told, I probably hadn’t even figured out what I was going to make) but the kids were hungry, tired and I seized the opportunity to make something easy and get them to bed! If you have kids who like oatmeal, risotto can be an easy sell.

While risotto from scratch is just as easy, I keep a box of Trader Joe’s Wild Mushroom Risotto in the pantry for those nights when I am in a pinch. So, this recipe included:
Trader Joe’s Wild Mushroom Risotto
Chicken Broth
1 bag Organic Frozen Spinach
Parmesan, shredded

I simply toasted the risotto in a bit of olive oil (which coats each grain of rice in a bit of fat) until the grains were translucent. I know this isn’t the way you’re technically supposed to do it, but I never have time to also heat the broth so I add it room temp (straight from the pantry) in small amounts while stirring the rice, almost constantly. In case you’re wondering if it works, yes. This is the way I’ve always done it, and it’s just fine. You’ll see the broth becoming creamy as the rice cooks and takes on some of the starch from the rice. Keep adding a bit more broth until the rice is also a creamy consistency but still a bit al dente. It takes a little practice because you want the liquid mostly absorbed, but the rice not too mushy. Texturally you want individual grains, so watching it as it is cooking is key and you should taste away as it cooks!

Because I was tossing in a bag of frozen—yes folks, straight from the freezer—spinach, I left the burner on low even though the rice was technically done. But normally, once the rice is cooked you’d remove it from the burner and stir in the cheese as a creamy finale. Count on the risotto taking about 20-25 minutes, start to finish (a tad bit longer than normal, since the broth wasn’t heated).

Experts always say you need to heat it right away, but in our house you’ve often got the kids eating early with me, and my husband eating much later. Maybe I’m not a purist, but I think my risotto heats up just fine with a little additional chicken broth to prevent it from becoming too dry.

If your children are bummed by the addition of veggies, try giving one of them the opportunity to name the meal something funny. We called this risotto with spinach, “Monster Mush” and they laughed at their wittiness as they ate it all up.

Chance to give a CSA a try!

Summer travel is about to ramp up, which means that I'll miss picking up our weekly CSA (Community Support Agriculture) offerings a couple times in the coming weeks. I know a bunch of friends have been wondering what a CSA is like? I will happily let a couple of local Full Plate reader families each have a week try! If you like it, maybe you'd sign up next year too and support one of our local farms. Pick-up is on Saturday mornings at the New Canaan Farmer's Market. Please email me if you are interested and I will offer up the available dates (free of charge, of course). A chance to enjoy the wonderful taste of summer from Gazy Brother Farm!!

Soy-Citrus Marinade for Salmon (made in minutes!)

I zipped around town with my little one this morning running errands. I had hoped to do some cooking while the kids napped so one stop was the fish market. But, as we all know, some days just don’t go quite as planned. My older one decided to make kites instead of nap, and my little one fell asleep minutes before we were all three due to leave for a swim lesson. Sweet. So, I popped the diaper off, the Elmo undies on, transferred him to his car seat and hoped for the best. The little one and I spent the swim lesson in the Y bathroom stall while my older one splashed about learning new tricks I wish I could have seen. Seeing as how neither kid seemed to have recovered from their ear infections of last week, we then tacked on a trip to the pediatrician (always fun at dinnertime) and a detour to Walgreen’s which experienced a run on antibiotics today and was out of stock. Fear that my little one would wet in his car seat if I trekked two towns over for the meds, we went home and made quick PB&J’s, showered, got them in their PJ’s and off we went, again. By the time I came home I was spent…and I still had to make dinner for my husband and me.

For a meal made, literally, in minutes it was pretty darn good. I made the marinade in the couple minutes the kids picked out their books for the night and let the salmon marinate for about a half hour while I put them to bed; I preheated the oven to 400 while checking my email; and in the 15 minutes it took to roast the salmon, I steamed some broccoli, toasted sesame seeds, reduced the marinade and heated up a rice side dish packet.

Salmon Marinade: whisk soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, a bit of honey, a splash of orange juice, a splash of sesame oil (olive oil would work well too as the base, if that's what you have on hand...or if you do not care for sesame!) and some chopped onion; let the salmon marinate for about a half hour. Before popping it in the oven, I also drizzled it with a bit of honey. I removed the salmon from the marinade but took some of the onions and popped them on top of the fish, then roasted the salmon on a rimmed cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. While the salmon was cooking, I reduced (boiled down to half its volume) the marinade which I then drizzled on the steamed broccoli and the salmon.

Short on time, I steamed the broccoli in the microwave (by adding a couple T of water to the broccoli in a ceramic bowl, covering with a plate and microwaving it for 2 ½ minutes).

The fish market had black and regular sesame seeds which I picked up on a whim, at $2 each. Texturally and flavor-wise they were a nice addition sprinkled on the salmon and broccoli.

And, as I have mentioned before, I am not at all opposed to using prepared foods as long as I recognize (and would cook with) all of the ingredients. The one I used tonight was Trader Joe’s Lentil Rice Biryani. They come in pantry stable pouches and I always keep a couple on hand. Seeds of Change also makes some good ones. This TJ's one is made with: basmati rice, water, potatoes, onion, chickpeas, tomatoes, sunflower oil, French green beans, green lentils, mint leaves, cumin, chili powder, coriander, turmeric, cardamom, clove and cinnamon. Delicious!

I cannot make this stuff up...

I’ve been staying up really late to complete the application for The Next Food Network Star in anticipation of Friday’s cattle call. Like every mom I know, I do not have a plethora of downtime during my day, so something like this is tackled after everyone’s fed and the kids are asleep. Well, today I used up my couple minutes of afternoon “me” time (when the “Rockin’ Real Wheels - Firetruck” DVD was playing) to jot down edits friends had passed along. I left the application sitting on the kitchen table and went to put our little one down for a nap. As folks on the Full Plate Facebook Page know, my older son spent his quiet time making a "kite" from scraps of paper. What paper you ask? Actually, my NFNS application. Yep, colored upon, cut into small pieces then taped together along with straws & ribbon. And this, my friends, is why the Full Plate name is so perfect.

Little trip to Rowayton

I’ve been meaning to post this and it totally skipped my mind. Seeing as how summer is flying by, I wanted to make sure I mentioned this to my local friends... While I gave up all regularly scheduled babysitting in ’09 (part of my financial prudence program), this summer I splurged (since my sanity was at stake) and found two wonderful drop-offs for my little one. One is Green Moon in Rowayton. Run by “Miss Veronica” and “Miss Lorena”, I knew it was a great find when my little one basically runs down the stairs to smooch the big photograph of these two wonderful gals before actually getting to hug them in person. Any place where my child is happy makes me happy.

The game plan was for me to go for a long walk while he was doing art, taking a walk to look at the boats and singing songs with other little people. But since the sprained ankle put a damper on that, I’ve rediscovered Rowayton Market. The food is just ok, but the setting is fabulous. (Actually, I take the ok comment back: Dough Girl’s cupcakes are fabulous…so yummy they’ve become our weekly happy habit.) The Friday before the Fourth of July, my husband took our older son out kayaking from there, and I have known at least one couple who did this as a late afternoon activity before an early date night at Rowayton Seafood. How civilized. And if you go down there on a Friday, don't miss the Farmer's Market. The setting can't be beat, and they've got some great vendors you might not find anywhere else. (My personal favorite is the pickle guy.) For being so close, Rowayton feels like a world away.

Our (Little) Summer Bounty

We've been dutifully tending to our itty bitty garden (all you avid gardeners don't laugh, it's all I could manage this summer)...

and look what we have! Our very first tomatoes of the season. Apparently my two-year-old didn't pluck off all of the green tomatoes to make cannon balls for his shovel catapult earlier this week. So, we each took one little red tomatoe. It was delicious.

Fixing Curry

I mentioned that I was making dinner from what I had on hand, right? Well, I should have just gone plain and simple. But no, I decided to get a little fancy, and had to fix the curry to make it edible.

Here’s what I started with (and should have ended with): Chopped new potatoes and onions, sautéed in olive oil.

Then I threw in a carton of cherry tomatoes. Next some chopped kale. (The remainder of my CSA and farmer’s market bounty from last week.) The idea was to have the tomatoes stew and become part of the sauce.

Next a jar of Trader Joe’s Punjab Spinach Sauce (which I keep in my pantry for times like these). I guess now is as good a time as any to mention that I am not at all opposed to using these meal helpers as long as I recognize all of the ingredients within. If it’s all stuff I’d cook with anyhow, why not use a little help here and there? We’ve all got a lot going on in our lives, and it would be ludicrous to assume we’re going to cook from scratch each night! Trader Joe’s has a bounty of these prepared sauces, frozen items, and envelopes of goodies I keep on hand.

OK, so back to the curry. Next I tossed in a handful of raisins (for texture and some sweetness)...

and a bag of frozen organic spinach and a bag of organic frozen peas. I should have just let the potatoes cook, the flavors blend, and enjoyed the meal as is over brown rice.

But I added some sherry vinegar. Sherry vinegar?! It was there, it smelled yummy. I like zing. So, I poured it in. Too much in. It didn’t make it zingy. Between the bitter kale and the vinegar the curry was downright sour. I needed to add a base and something sweet to make this meal edible. Back to the pantry. I had a can of Light Coconut Milk. Added that. Still needs something more. Checked the fridge…orange marmalade….no sugar added apricot jam…voila!: a jar of Mango-Ginger Chutney. Added a little. Added the whole jar.

The irony of it all? When my husband had the curry he commented that it was a little too sweet for his tastes.

The moral of the story: Trader Joe’s Punjab Spinach Sauce is yummy as is. And you can feel good about whipping up a “homemade” meal using it. No need to try to get fancy. It’s made with: tomato puree, spinach, light cream, tomatoes, onions, lemon juice, ginger, garlic, sea salt, canola oil, coriander, cumin, turmeric, paprika, red pepper, cinnamon, and cloves. All things you recognize.

Can I make a meal with what we've got around here?

Today I am under "house arrest"—again—with two sick little boys, one of whom is potty training. In addition to blowing any chance I had of a “break” this week, I haven’t found it very appealing to venture into a supermarket with these two. So, we’ve been making do with what we’ve got in the fruit bowl, the pantry and fridge. Meals have been a sort of creative game. Last night my Wednesday Supper Exchange saved the day, since it was switched to Tuesday this week and my friend Liz made a delicious meal. The whole family enjoyed a grilled chicken with honeydew salsa that was yummy. Today, it’s looking a little bleaker. Thankfully, I think I have enough ingredients on hand to whip up a vegetable curry that'll get us through one more day? (Photo of last night's dinner courtesy of Epicurious.com, since we ate it before snapping a pic.)

Star Light, Star Bright...

Today I am not cooking, I am foraging. In what is easily one of the more exhausting rites of parenthood, I am potty training our little one. This leaves me very little time to cook, as I cannot take my eyes off him for more than mere minutes, for fear that he will forget to go. All of this together time has me thinking that maybe I would like to go back to work. Kidding, sort of. But I have listened to those of you who prodded me to try out for The Next Food Network Star....I am seriously considering it. It could be fun. It would be wild. We'll see?