10-Minute Lemon Thyme Scallops

This week is all about the Best Of ChowMama 2009! To help ensure that you begin 2010 with a recipe box loaded with quick and healthy recipes that your whole family will love, I’ve hand selected my favorites (recipes that I return to over and over again) and the most popular recipes as measured by traffic and comments (ones that worked out well for me and you).
Today is all about main dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tomorrow I’ll hit ya with veggie sides. Wednesday has snacks and apps covered. I’ll serve up healthy sweets and desserts on Thursday. And, on Friday, I’ll list the best parenting posts of 2009—because how we feed our families is most definitely a parenting issue.
Enjoy. Try a new recipe. Chime in with your favorite 2009 ChowMama posts or what you’d like to see more of in 2010.
And, of course, THANKS for a great year. Cheers!
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My birthday just passed. It’s not a big birthday—34—and I’m practically 7 months pregnant, so I wasn’t inspired to do anything other than hang with my family and have a nice meal. Despite my specific request for no special events, the ChowPapa went ahead and made plans. He said that, technically, it fell into the hanging with family  and eating well categories, so he wasn’t going against my wishes. (Not to mention that the plans were made way before my no-special-events request.) Regardless, it all worked out because he planned a wonderful birthday experience worth the time and energy it took to gussy up this large and in-charge (see photo) pregnant body of mine.
The special event was Dinner with Lidia (Bastianich) and Nonna (her 84-year-old mother), part of a series of special events at one of her NYC restaurants, Becco. Becco’s chef, William Gallagher, prepared a six course menu featuring some of Lidia and her mother’s favorite summer dishes. Lidia and nonna feasted with us, walked around, chatted with whomever approached them, and signed books. They were sure to say hello to everyone in the place and were both so warm and hospitable that it barely seemed like I was sharing the party with (about) 75 other people.
Yup. 75 strangers. I’m not always down with dinner with random people. I have to be in a certain mood. This was my birthday dinner and I was a bit apprehensive about having to make small talk when all I really wanted was to feast and meet Lidia. But we were lucky to be seated with lovely folks. And, in fact, the best part of the night turned out to a be a beautiful conversation about grandmas and how they influenced our great love of food.
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Sunday was Greek Easter (well, really, Christian Orthodox Easter, not just Greek). Yes. This past Sunday. Not the Sunday before. That was everyone else’s Easter. (There’s nothing like growing up trying to explain the Eastern Orthodox calendar to friends, but I digress.) While a very holy holiday, Easter celebrations in Greece tend to be casual gatherings as much about religion as a welcome to Spring. My mother tells stories of outdoor picnics, lambs roasting on spits, and tables full of red eggs, mezzes, and tsoureki (sweet bread made especially for Easter). 

Like my mom, I have fond memories of casual Easter get-togethers centered around big meals cooked by my yiayia. And this Easter was no different. Still the baby of the family—well, besides Isaac—I have to really push to have family gatherings at my place. But I didn’t complain about heading to my aunt’s place this year since, to be honest, cooking a big holiday dinner was more of a fun fantasy than a reality I felt like taking on. So Isaac, ChowPapa, and I happily made our way to NJ for a surprisingly delicious Greek Easter meal.

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I almost didn’t write this post. We all know it–yogurt is super nutritious and already a staple of many families’ diets. Famed pediatrician Dr. Sears said, “Yogurt is one of the healthiest foods you can feed your family.” What more can I add? But something nagged at me.

Yogurt products are one of the most successfully marketed foods in the supermarket. I wonder if that’s because we know how nutritious yogurt is and are always hungry for more? Or because misinformation about yogurt makes it easy to spin the nutritional benefits of new products? Maybe it’s neither, but the question was compelling enough for me to dig in. 

So, what’s the scoop on yogurt?

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When Isaac first started eating meat, at around 11 months or so, I made shepherd’s pie all the time. Mike and I love it, and mixing ground meat with mashed potatoes makes it a very friendly way to introduce animal protein to an early eater. Plus, you can throw in a huge variety of veggies.
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