Alas, this is not a perfect world.

Last year, I made it a goal to break from tradition and try all new dishes for Thanksgiving. This year, I’m going to mix and match. I really missed my mom’s cornbread-sausage stuffing (the essence of Thanksgiving for me), so it’s going back on the menu. I’ll probably stick with tried and true buttermilk mashed potatoes, but maybe mix up the green veg with the kale and brussels sprouts salad recipe I saw in Bon Appetit. Instead of sweet potatoes I’ll revisit a butternut squash casserole I loved.

Cranberry sauce… not sure yet.

Rolls… yes, there will be rolls. Which ones? Good question.

Pie? Eek. I don’t know. Pecan this year?

I have ordered a turkey, so at least there’s that. I am going to try dry-brining for the first time.

So I have my work cut out for me over the next week and a half! I just saw this make-ahead Thanksgiving planner from Melissa Clark in the NY Times. She shares a smart timetable for those of us who like to make as much ahead of time as possible. Now, if only I could decide on the menu….

Newsflash: I have a sweet tooth. That is probably not a shocking revelation to anyone who knows me even in passing. I love me some baked goods.

I try to contain my love for all things dessert to the weekends, when I’ll try a new cake, cookie, pie, or cobbler recipe. I always aspire to give away or throw away the leftovers by Monday, and occasionally I even do it.

Since we’re planning on moving this week (although, at the rate this move is going it might be the following week…), all of my bakeware is in boxes. So this weekend required an uncomplicated, special-equipment-free dessert, and when I saw a recipe for Silky Chocolate Pudding on the fabulous Smitten Kitchen blog I knew I found my mark. Rich, creamy, and delicious, the pudding hit the spot. And best of all (or worst of all?) there are no leftovers to agonize over.

Click here for the recipe.

She’s a prodigy, right? A chip off the old block.

Well, maybe. Truth be told I really can’t take any credit other than having the good fortune to be on the invite list to an event at Virgil’s Real BBQ to celebrate the opening of a Virgil’s outpost at the Atlantis Paradise Island resort in the Bahamas.

At the Virgil’s in Times Square Rosa and I were met with delicious pina coladas (virgin of course…don’t be crazy) and yummy finger foods. But within minutes Rosa was whisked off to a special kids-only cooking class. After donning a chef’s hat and apron, and under the friendly and enthusiastic direction of chefs from Virgil’s and Atlantis, she and several other kids made their proud and hungry parents a gourmet lunch.

Apparently, this is one of the many activities kids can do at the Atlantis kids club, Atlantis Kids Adventures. They can learn to make everything from pizza to frozen fruit treats in a huge, colorful kitchen while their lucky parents lounge on the beach. Sounds like a plan to me!

After their cooking adventure we ate the fruits of our children’s labor: the muffins, chicken, shrimp, and cole slaw, plus barbecue brisket and mac ‘n cheese. Dessert was scrumptious banana pudding.

Rosa and I left Virgil’s stuffed and happy. She is ready to book her trip to the Bahamas, and heck, if she keeps cooking for me I’ll even buy the ticket.

–

The corn muffins were one of the highlights of our meal, and, happily, I scored the recipe so I could make them at home. I’ve simplified the recipe a bit, but they’re still savory and delicious thanks to the flavorful add-ins. One word of warning: the first time I made them I thought I was being clever by baking them in paper muffin cups. Bad idea! These muffins are so moist that they stuck to the paper, and I lost about a quarter of each muffin. Just grease your muffin cups well with Pam, bake, and then use a knife to gently loosen them from the sides of the cups.

Virgil’s Cornbread Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins

Ingredients:

Cooking spray
½ cup yellow cornmeal
¼ cup flour
¼ cup sugar
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
¼ cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tablespoons melted butter
2 oz. shredded cheddar cheese, about one cup
corn from one ear, or about one cup frozen corn kernels
2 scallions, chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Spray a 12-cup muffin tin with non-stick cooking spray, like Pam.
2. In a medium-sized bowl whisk together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.
3. In a large bowl whisk together the buttermilk, milk, egg, and melted butter.
4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir just until the dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in the cheese, corn, scallions, and cilantro.
5. Spoon the batter into the muffin cups and bake until golden brown, about 18-20 minutes.
6. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then transfer the muffins to a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

His Op-Ed in today’s Times, though, was terrific. He started by busting the myth that fast food is cheaper than “real”, home-cooked food. He continued on to dismantle the other common excuses for fast food’s popularity:

- fast food is cheaper on a per calorie basis
- people can’t afford real food
- people don’t have access to fresh food
- people don’t have time to cook (Actually, as Bittman notes, “The average American watches no less than 90 minutes of television a day.”)

The core issue, he declares, and I strongly agree, is that many people see cooking as work and fast food or takeout as a reward, “a pleasure and a crutch”.

People just don’t want to cook.

Bittman continues with thoughts on how to change that attitude (Kids Cooking Classes!), our “food carnival” culture, this feeling that food should be instantly available without any effort other than getting in car or dialing a telephone.

Yes, eating real food takes some work, maybe 20-30 minutes a day. But the rewards are incalculable.

One way I find new chicken recipes is by adapting dishes created for other meats, especially pork. One of my recent favorites is this dish I found in Everyday Food. It’s an Emeril recipe (!) for cumin-orange pork loin. I’ve made it several times using pork tenderloin (already an adaptation…). Tonight I tried it with chicken breasts and was really pleased with the result. I made a few other tweaks, and ended up with this recipe:

Orange & Cumin Chicken Breasts
3-4 servings

3 to 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 ¼ teaspoons kosher salt
1 Tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tablespoons sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons orange marmalade
juice of one navel orange
chopped cilantro for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 400° F.

2. In a small bowl, mix together the cumin and salt. Rub the cumin-salt mixture all over the chicken breasts.

3. Heat the olive oil in a large, oven-proof sauté pan over medium-high heat. Place the chicken breasts in the pan and cook for 5 minutes per side.

4. In the meantime, whisk together the vinegar, marmalade, and orange juice.

5. Pour the orange mixture over the chicken breasts and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake until the chicken breasts are just cooked through, about 20 minutes (longer if the breasts are very large).

6. Transfer the chicken to plates or a serving platter. If the orange sauce seems too thin, cook it over medium-high heat for a minute or two to thicken it. Drizzle the sauce over the chicken, top with cilantro to taste, and serve.

If you don’t have an oven proof sauté pan, after browning the chicken on the stove-top transfer it to a baking dish, top with the orange mixture, and bake. The only downside here is that if you want to thicken the sauce after baking the chicken you have to put it back in the pan (another downside: two dishes to wash).

Any other favorite chicken breast recipes I should know about?

The recipes I developed for the Parents project appear in the September and October issues. But even more fun was working with the women directly and coming up with plans of attack to help them.

There were a few main strategies I focused on. One was what I have dubbed the First Commandment of Weeknight Dinners. A second, a.k.a the Second Commandment of Weeknight Dinners, is Prep Ahead.

Prep as much as possible ahead of time. That might mean spending an hour Sunday afternoon chopping and bagging vegetables for the next couple of days or even whisking together a simple marinade on a weekday morning for your pork chops or chicken breasts.

Prepping ahead is essential for me, and yesterday afternoon I knocked several items off of my weeknight dinner prep list:

- Roasted beets for a salad Monday night

- Blended together a dressing for the beets. (Before eating tonight I sliced the beets and tossed them with the dressing. There will likely be enough beet salad left for me to take for lunch on Tuesday.)

- Stirred together a ginger-soy sauce marinade for tonight’s pork chops.This morning I put the chops in a Ziploc bag with the marinade.

- Washed and trimmed sugar snap peas.

- Toasted sesame seeds for the snap peas.

- Washed and chopped cauliflower for Wednesday night’s dinner.

- Made a soba noodle salad for Rosa’s (and my) lunchbox this week. I added some shredded chicken left over from Sunday’s dinner.

This doesn’t cover me completely for the rest of the week, but it sure made dinner tonight a breeze and will continue to help me out later in the week.

All that prep took me about an hour-and-a-half, including clean-up. Ninety minutes isn’t nothing; it’s a chunk of time that some weekends I don’t feel like putting in. But, I usually do it. Having healthy, less-stress family meals is important to me, and I know that I have to make the prep a priority.

Bagging cauliflower on a Sunday afternoon isn’t sexy. But on Wednesday night, when I’m walking in the door at 6 PM (if I’m lucky), I’ll be happier to see that Ziploc than my husband.

Just kidding!

(But, seriously, I love having pre-prepped veggies in the fridge.)

I admit it, last year I took the easy way out. I packed her lunch the year prior to pre-K when she was at Montessori school and there was no other option. Last year, I gladly took the school up on their free lunch offer with nary a twinge of guilt.

Frankly, though, it came back to bite me.

Last school year – exposed to chicken nuggets, cheese sandwiches, and chocolate milk on a daily basis – Rosa officially became a picky eater. When we’d eat one of our regular dinners that she used to enjoy, salmon, say, she’s crinkle up her nose and say, “DISgusting!”

Perhaps her pickiness was simply age-related, or maybe being around the other kids would have spurred her choosiness even if she had brought her own lunch. Nevertheless I now feel all of the guilt that I blissfully denied last year.

So it’s time to start a long year of packing lunches. I’ll do three days a week and Dave two. But as anyone who has packed lunches for any length of time will attest, packing interesting, nutritious, appealing lunches day in and day out can be daunting.

For starters there are a few key limitations:

1. No peanuts! (Understandable, but oh so sad).
2. No microwave, so no hot leftovers.
3. Cold cuts everyday may be a hit, but I don’t like packing such processed foods on a regular basis.
3. Did I mention that Rosa (and likely your child, as well) is very, um, discriminating?

The good news is that there are loads of inspiring resources online and experts to be consulted.

First off, I checked in with Lauren Slayton of Foodtrainers for her lunchbox suggestions. She offered some great ideas and tips:

• Pack Chobani Champions or Fage Greek yogurt with side car of preserves. This offers a little more protein and kids enjoy mixing the yogurt themselves.
• Don’t be afraid of condiments for young kids: pesto, hummus, vinaigrette. I think parents can go too plain. (JH note: I agree; if the food doesn’t taste good no kid is going to eat it)
• Thermoses work well for the non-sandwich eater: soups and pastas especially as it gets colder.
• Always include a fruit and a vegetable, to keep lunches colorful and nutritious.
• Ask the teacher to leave food that’s uneaten so you can see what’s going over well and what isn’t.

Lauren also notes that her pet peeve is waste from lunches (brown bags, baggies, plastic spoons, paper napkins etc.). That’s a good point. Imagine one year’s worth of lunch box waste dumped in one big pile…that’s a lot of baggies. Smart options include bento boxes (here’s Rosa’s), plus reusable snack bags like these for crackers and fruit.

I also found a few other useful lunchbox links:

I wrote this piece last year for iVillage: How to Pack a Healthful Lunch Your Child Will Actually Eat.

Over the weekend I found this fun website. It’s not devoted to kids’ lunches, per se, but has quirky tips and lunchbox DIY’s for anyone’s packed lunch.

Bon Appetit’s blog recently had some tips for better boxed lunches.

Finally, I read this article in the Times last week about how to keep kids’ (or your) lunches safe from bacteria. I will definitely be buying an insulated lunch container or including a cold pack for Rosa from now on.

So, what’s going in Rosa’s lunch this fall? Well, thank goodness for almond butter… Also, I’m planning brown rice and chicken salad with carrots, which I know she likes. Soba noodle salads. Cheese and crackers. Yogurt. Whole grain muffins. Homemade fruit bars. Fruit salads. Whole wheat pasta salads.

It’s not easy to stay inspired on the lunchbox front. But I’ll keep sharing new ideas and would love to hear yours as well.

So I still get a little internal thrill when I eat pasta with a different kind of sauce/topping. One of my favorites is my mother-in-law’s pasta with rapini and Italian sausages. OMG that is good (and a great weeknight meal…recipe to come in the next couple weeks).

But lately I’ve also been really into what I’m calling presto veggie pasta.

This dish is great for a few reasons – it’s on the table in under a half hour, prep included. It makes use of any vegetable odds and ends in the fridge. And since it includes pasta and vegetables, it makes both kids and grown-ups happy. (Whole wheat pasta would also be a winner in this dish.)

This post won’t include a recipe – because there really isn’t a recipe for this endlessly variable dish. But there is a method, and it’s a quick, healthy meal to have in your back pocket.

But, when I typed up the method, below, it seemed surprisingly complicated. I swear, it’s not. To show you how straight-forward this really is, here is a haiku-esque, streamlined take on the process:

1. Boil pasta.
2. Saute veggies.
3. Add pasta and pasta cooking water to veggies.
4. Add other yummy things.
5. Season and serve.

Easy, right?

As for which vegetables to use, you have a lot of leeway: leafy greens, tomatoes, squash (summer or winter), broccoli, cauliflower, eggplant, green beans, asparagus, peppers, or mushrooms to name more than a few. The only thing to keep in mind is that if the vegetable is exceptionally hard, like cauliflower or butternut squash, it’s best to start with it cooked. You can cook it specifically for this dish, even a couple of days before. Or, this is when leftovers come in mighty handy.

The Extended, Detailed Method for this Very Simple Dish

1. Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook the pasta until about a minute short of al dente.
2. In the meantime, as the water is coming to a boil, heat a dollop of olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan over medium-high heat. Preferably, this pan will be big enough to hold all of your veggies AND your cooked pasta.
3. Sauté some onion and garlic until soft, but not browned. Add your veggies; sprinkle with salt. Tonight I used two zucchini and some leftover oven-roasted cherry tomatoes. Cook the veg until tender and lightly browned.
4. About this time your pasta should be done. Before draining, reserve a cup of the pasta cooking water. Drain the pasta, add it and the water to the pan with the veggies. Using a wooden spoon scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Cook for another minute to meld the flavors.
5. Add anything else you’d like. I included a couple tablespoons from the bottom of a jar of basil pesto and a few leftover toasted pine nuts. What else would be good at this stage? Chopped herbs, baby spinach, raisins, toasted walnuts… things that need very little to no cooking.
6. Taste your pasta. Make sure it’s well-seasoned. Since there isn’t a sauce, per se, this is very important. Add more salt and/or pepper if necessary. Serve topped with grated Parmesan, crumbled feta, or a spoonful of ricotta. A drizzle of olive oil might be nice too.

There you have it. Presto veggie pasta.

But today was a milestone — a true culinary adventure. We decided to eat lunch by sampling different pork buns in Chinatown. I set an itinerary, largely thanks to my awesome friend Nina, packed water bottles in my purse, and we took the F train into Manhattan where we walked from restaurant to restaurant. Rosa, who is five and a half, trekked around Chinatown like a pro without a single complaint.

At each restaurant we ordered at the counter and found a place to sit nearby. We shared a steamed pork bun and a baked pork bun at each place. Our first stop was Hop Shing at 9 Chatham Square.

Hop Shing

Steamed pork bun at Hop Shing

Baked pork bun at Hop Shing

Next we tried Mei Li Wah at 64 Bayard St.

Rosa ate most of the filling out of the baked bun before sharing with me.

But first Rosa rode on an elephant. The music was in Chinese.

Rosa riding a coin-operated elephant.

Finally, we popped into Sun Sai Gai at 220 Canal St., bought our buns and sat on the curb outside with a few of the workers.

Eating on the curb at Sun Sai Kay

The winner? Well, it was a tie between Hop Shing and Sun Sai Gai. The baked pork buns at Hop Shing were stupendous: big, golden, and puffy with a sweet glaze on top and soft, flavorful pork tucked inside. The pork at Sun Sai Gai was different, and I almost liked it better. It was tangier, more like barbecue pork and less mushy, more chewy. Really you can’t go wrong at either place.

And did I mention that pork buns are the deal of the century? Ninety cents each at Hop Shing and a buck a pop at Sun Sai Gai.

To cap of our gastronomic adventure we took the train back to Brooklyn for smooth, creamy ice cream at Ample Hills. Rosa tasted the vanilla bean and milk chocolate before opting for the vanilla. The milk chocolate was “too good” she said.

Not bad for an average, summer Friday. Hopefully the first culinary adventure of many for this mother-daughter duo.

Me, Rosa, and my mother-in-law

I just saw a headline from last year that declared that more women would rather visit the gynecologist than see their mother-in-law.

That’s harsh.

I’m a lucky girl: not only do I love my mother-in-law, she feeds me well too!

For the next week I’ll be giving up my post as head chef in my family while we visit my husband’s parents in Montreal. But, of course, I won’t stay out of the kitchen completely. I’ll be sous chef for my mother-in-law Iolanda. While it may sound like a demotion, I am 100% okay with it. For one thing, all the meal-planning pressure and shopping will be off my shoulders. And even better, I learn so much from her. She was born and raised in Italy and produces meal after delicious meal. I wrote a couple of essays about cooking with my mother-in-law last year for iVillage:

Cooking with My Mother-In-Law: Inspiration Strikes

Cooking with My Mother-in-Law: Just One of the Girls

One of the things I’ll be asking her about is her weeknight dinner strategy, both now and when she was raising three very hungry boys.