Tag Archives: The Whole Family Cookbook

Jul 22Cooking with Tweens at Star Academy

After their shopping trip to the farmer's market, the middle schoolers at Star Academy were excited for our cooking class together. And after worrying a bit about eating kale, they devoured our meal with gusto! Now that we had the ingredients, we had to prepare them and cook them up. We walked down to the Star Academy Kitchen and we started cooking. We had an amazing day cooking our creations and eating them. We tore off Dinosaur Kale leaves and then we massaged the dinosaur kale...

Jul 11Full Belly Farm Summer Camp (+ Mini Frittata Rec...

Full Belly Farm Summer Camp (+ Mini Frittata Recipe)

Thank goodness there were no speed traps on the highway when I was on my way to pick up our daughter from camp at Full Belly Farm. I missed her and couldn't wait to hug her and hear about her adventures. Of course, it came as no surprise when she wanted to show me all of her favorite animals, including a calf, some goats, and the chickens. We climbed over the fencing that surrounded the mobile chicken tractors and looked inside to see if the eggs had been collected yet. We found nearly...

May 2Girl Scouts Cook: Asian Extravaganza

It's tempting to make this a wordless post - to let the photographs speak for themselves. Cadette Scouts creating an Asian extravaganza in the kitchen is quite a site to behold. They are eager, hungry, and excited to play with their food. Yes, 12 year olds like to play with their food. We decided to make the Purple Rice from my book, The Whole Family Cookbook, instead of plain white sushi rice. And the girls went to town on some sushi. One pair even made a sushi roll so big that...

Mar 11McDonald's Oatmeal Throwdown (& Steel Cut Oatmea...

McDonald’s Oatmeal Throwdown (& Steel Cut Oatmeal Recipe)

I tend to be too trusting. I want people to be good, and I want their intentions to be honorable. But sometimes, companies have ulterior motives, and their goodness isn't meant to be. Take the golden arches, for example. When I read Mark Bittman's piece in the NY Times, I was disappointed (but not surprised) to discover that the oatmeal being offered at McDonald's "contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and only 10 fewer calories than a McDonald’s cheeseburger". Really? I...

Jan 17How NOT To Give a Cookbook As A Gift (and cake!)...

I know that the holidays are over, and you probably don't have to think about giving anyone a gift for awhile. But after receiving what was quite possibly the most unsuitable-for-me-cookbook, I have a few thoughts on the idea of appropriate gift-giving. Know something about the person you are giving a gift to. If you like the person, try to learn something about her interests or recent experiences. For example, if the person recently had gastric bypass surgery, you probably don't want to buy...

Dec 312010 Has Been a Good Year (What’s Next?)

It has been a good year for What's Cooking! I have met amazing people and have accomplished things that I never thought possible. Here are a few highlights of 2010 - a good place to start if you are just getting to know me and my mission: Readers started sharing their amazing stories about their experiences in the kitchen with family in our new series, What's Cooking with YOUR Kids. Here's how you can participate, too. A group of parents in our school district began the tedious...

Oct 17Judging Blog Success- My Washington Post Quote a...

Judging Blog Success- My Washington Post Quote and a Perspective

Over the past year or so, I have been struggling with the idea that my blog wasn't very well-known. But then I realized that I was using the wrong parameters to judge success. I can't compare myself to some of the top-notch bloggers that I adore - we each have our own distinguishing feature. My photographs are good, but they'll never compare to Shaina's, Heidi's, or Alice's. My recipes will always taste delicious (unless I am writing about a flop) but they won't be as refined and well tested...

Jul 20My Cookbook Got A Name!

Much like most of you, I have more balls in the air during the summer than I do the rest of the year. Along with curriculum development for my cooking camps this summer, I have been working on my book and juggling my children and their play date schedules. Things have been so busy, in fact, that I don’t even think I have officially announced the name of my new book! I have to admit, it was getting tiresome calling the book “It” all the time. That’s not the kind of name that most...