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).
Phew! 2009 was a busy year filled with lots of ChowMama goodness. I hope this week’s picks help kick off a delicious 2010 while we gear up for a new year of recipes, tips and discussions. To end the “best of” extravaganza, I’m highlighting a few posts that fall under the “parenting” header. Instead of highlighting a recipe, these posts focus on a tip that (hopefully) makes cooking for your family easier, a way of thinking that (maybe) sparks a shift towards more inspired eating, or a topic that (with any luck) gets a thoughtful debate started. These are my favorite posts to write. I hope you enjoy them, too. Let me know if you do!
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Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

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).
You’ve been waiting for today, haven’t you? Healthy sweet treats and desserts it is. Enjoy! Tomorrow is the last day of this “best of” extravaganza and we’ll delve into parenting posts, because how we feed our families is central to how we raise our kids.
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Brooke’s Homemade Cheese Crackers

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 I serve snacks and apps. The list isn’t long, but it’s a handful of keepers. Tomorrow? Healthy sweet treats and desserts.
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Photo: ilmungo

So, life was going smoothly. Even with a new baby at home. Holiday shopping was getting done. Decorations were put up. Hanukkah was celebrated without a hitch (my ChowBaby and I even found time to make Sufganiyot, home made jelly donuts). And holiday cookie dough was made and frozen in plenty of time for Christmas. Then, it hit. Hard. My super easy, teeny tiny ChowBaby stopped sleeping during the day. Not good. Please. Be. A. Phase.
I’m amazed at how incredibly far behind I’ve fallen in just one week of sleepless shenanigans. We’re suddenly three days from Christmas and I’m more a mess than I’ve been since he was born. Tired. Crabby. Stressed. Losing it. Yes, lovelies. I know you can hardly imagine me losing it, but it does happen every once and a while. (HA!) And the only thing keeping me sane right now is the cookie dough in my freezer.
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Photo: Sassy Radish who also offers great tips on working with pie dough—just scroll down on this post

And so let the holiday preparations begin! Actually, they’ve already begun at my house and I have a freezer full of cookie dough to prove it (these Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies and two others—Chewy Chocolate Toffee Chip and Molasses Spice—to be posted soon). But, for now, next up is pie crust.
I usually make a simple pate brisee—this one from Martha is great—but I’ve been swayed by Serious Eats to try something new. Two years ago, they spoke with Christopher Kimball about best recipes of the year and he mentioned this pie dough. That’s enough to convince me to try something new. How about you? Want to try it with me?
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Photo: JenT

We are well into Hanukkah, a holiday that encourages fried food. Can you think of any better traditional holiday foods than potato pancakes (latkes) and DONUTS?! This is good stuff people.
Okay, okay. I realize that fried foods (are also rolled in sugar) are not the kind of thing I usually recommend feeding young children, but it’s a special holiday treat. Fried foods are part of the magic and fun of the Festival of Lights and, hey, everything in moderation, right?
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