Photo: LDHNY

We’re definitely coming out of the woods as far as the infancy craziness. Not only is our new ChowBaby dreamy and laid back, but he’s also already 2-months-old! He’s sleeping for longer chunks of time and even allowing me to get a decent night’s sleep most evenings. While I’m excited to be able to make dinner every night again (at least for now), I always like to make one dish a week that will last a few meals and/or freeze well. It’s a trick that every family cook should add to their repertoire. It takes hardly any extra time or effort and affords you a night off from cooking, not to mention great packed lunches. The best is when your freezer start to fill up with such meals. It takes the pressure off, especially useful during busy times like the holidays.
This Spinach Lasagna is made with my Deliciously Simple, Rich (Turkey) Meat Sauce. The combo of vegetable, lean meat, pasta and cheese makes this a healthy, complete meal. Once you make the sauce, which takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours largely unattended (and can be made a day or two ahead of making lasagna), putting the lasagna together is a snap. It requires no more than 15 minutes prep time.
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Photo:Hamachi!

I don’t usually make meat sauce. See, the ChowPapa used to make a mean meat sauce back in the day and, along with orzo risotto, it became one of those dishes that only he made. But it’s been ages (seriously—I’m talking years) since he’s made a batch, so I decided to take matters into my own hands.
Knowing how to make a delicious ragu is a gift—something handed down or perfected over time—so I prepared for several rounds of recipe development before I had anything worthy of sharing. But (not to toot my own horn or anything!) this sauce was rocking after the first try, even having used turkey instead of beef. Wanna know how I did it? Read on!
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Just yesterday I posted that I was sitting Thanksgiving out. But by now you probably know that I didn’t mean that literally. Right? I mean, I couldn’t keep from cooking all together. That’s just silly! I just meant that I’d make a little something something… like this Apple Cranberry Chutney.

Making a cranberry sauce was a risky choice. See, my mom isn’t that into cooking. She doesn’t have recipes to pass down, nor does she have any signature recipes. Well… except cranberry sauce, which is why I probably should have left it alone. But I couldn’t help myself. It’s so easy to make and, even though her recipe will always be the holiday recipe, I had to entertain some ideas I had for making it my own.
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Photo: prettywar-stl

The ChowBaby and I were stuck on the train coming back from the American Museum of Natural History the other day. It was naptime and I was hell-bent on keeping him from falling asleep so that I could put him down when we got home—and actually get an hour or two of work in! So I regaled him with some of his favorite stories, including the one of my honeymoon in Tunisia.
Not only did I manage to keep him awake, I was also inspired to make something honeymoon-ish to surprise the ChowPapa when he got home from work. Without much time to spare, I whipped up one of my favorite North African street foods: the omelet sandwich. It reminded me that a simple change of spices can make something old Iike an egg sandwich new again.
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Photo: jensteele

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I’m on a peach kick—enjoying my first truly delicious peaches of the season. Maybe it is the wet weather we’ve had, but my first peaches in July were mealy. Ick. Now that August is here, however, all that has changed. And the ChowFamily is relishing my favorite pitted fruit.
For dessert last night, I decided to macerate some peaches. Pre-kid, macerating usually involved alcohol. But post-kid, I’ve turned to using either sugar alone or a combo of sugar and balsamic vinegar. In combination with the kick of a  little fresh ginger, this goes great over whole milk yogurt for a snack, over ice cream for dessert, and even spread on toast for breakfast.
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Photo: bookgrl

I was at a summer beach barbecue last weekend and my ChowBaby was having too much fun building sand castles to stop and eat something. I watched him consume fistfuls of blue corn tortilla chips because they were easy to nosh on the run.

After a short while I realized that chasing after him with: “Honey, do you want some of this corn on the cob?” or “Take a bite of this grilled sausage—I know you’ll love it.” or “Please eat this watermelon!” was not going to get him to consume anything close to a proper meal. And it was going to put a serious damper on my fun.

So I let it go. But I swore that at my next party, I’d bring this Mango Avocado Guacamole. It’s a sweet a savory, picnic-friendly, nutrition-dense accompaniment to those ubiquitous tortilla chips.

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