We’re always looking for ways to make real food feel special for kids, and frankly I will take any ideas you all have for getting your kids to eat the good stuff when they’d rather have fast food. We tried this approach.

You know how every fast food chain celebrates a movie release or holiday with special meal? And because of that – oh, and sugar-salt-fat addictive whammy in their foods – they have lured us to their counters to say supersize me (and my butt and my kid’s butt).

We took a page out of their book for a food celebration in our home and a then took another page from their menu for our dinner and then another page out of Cooking Light to make our dinner, well, out of real food. That was three pages which were only three thousand one hundred fifty four pages short of what we were celebrating in the first place.

It was February, so very long ago – reading month for my son’s fourth grade class. The goal, not the contest, was that every student read 400 pages. The record, not the contest, was 2000 pages. My son just happens to love reading (anything but his mom’s blog -“it’s weird to write about our dinner”) and he just happened to fall into the Pendragon series – well the rest was history – 3157 pages later.

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Although February is the shortest month for most folks, it seems very long to me. Like the actors parading on the red carpet at one award ceremony after another, I spent most of the month flitting between lectures and interviews. It looks glamorous to be picking out new designer dresses and shoes every week, but I can attest that after going through my personal supply of red dresses, pants, shoes and skirts to promote heart disease awareness, standing in heels in the cold at the ready to have a microphone in my face, or going through my lectures one more time so it’s perfect-I am tired and ready to put my feet up. If only I could end it all popping champagne with a co-worker as fun as say Helen Bonham Carter looks.

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It’s no mystery that a salad with seafood and citrus can satisfy most appetites, but the citrus in this recipe might surprise you.

Sometimes, on rare occasion, when not minding my manners, I can dish out a bite of food snobbery. It’s simply passion talking, however, when singing the praises of fleur de sel, or insisting on a beautiful purple heirloom tomato, or debating whether or not Red O is worthy of a month in advance reservation. Make no mistake, I get just as much delight digging out forkful after forkful of Kraft macaroni and cheese from the pot, while standing over the stove. Classy.

When this same gal received fruit from the produce peddlers thatlookedlike a citrus the size of a head, she should have known what it was. Instead, she was clueless, which showed she really didn’t know fruit from fruitopia.

So, I posted a photo of mystery fruit on Facebook and immediately got the answer from the farmers who said, “it’s apomelo (you idiot).”Ah of course pomelo.

What’s a pomelo?

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I was in a marinara sauce rut.Addicted to the ease of cracking open a jar of sauce and tired of tomato stains on my plastic storage bins and utensils, it was time to do something novel with pasta. Inspired by a Food Network magazine suggestion in the corner of a small article, I gave this weeknight dinner a whirl. Complete with a sauce reduction that sounds Mario Batali fancy, yet this sumptuous dinner, is anything but taxing.

Granted, it took the kids a few minutes to get over that the pasta wasn’t drenched in red tomato sauce and that it had nuts in it, but I found that the bites of tortellini rather muffled their complaints and eventually they came around. The flavor combination of fresh sage, parmesan reggiano, and buttery walnuts is wonderfully rich and satisfying as is. read more

You know how you’re supposed to take a hot shower on a hot day to better regulate your temperature. Take heed in the idea of eating a frozen dessert in winter.

Recently, we guest posted this recipe on Cooking with My Kid site created by Rebecca and her son Gus. My son Griffin is a little older than Gus and I find that at 10 he’s less eager to join me in the kitchen, so I lure him with machinery and desserts. He likes motors, blenders, juicers, knives and whip cream. He is the kitchen warrior with a sweet tooth!

Griffin and I are big fans of homemade gelato, especially stracciatella, which is chocolate chip. This recipe is easy with the help of a cheap ‘ole ice cream maker, and even easier when you store the gelato in the freezer for a ready-made dessert.

The best part is that we use 2% milk, less sugar than most ice cream recipes, and dark chocolate, which gives all that anti-oxidant goodness. read more