Like many schools, my daughter’s preschool does not allow nuts in the snacks and foods served to the kids due to allergies. I decided to make my own nut-free snack mix and during the shopping trip, found myself staring blankly at shelves lined with packaged snacks. Wow, there are a lot of foods stamped into different shapes, colored, salted and packaged to catch little eyes’ attention.

As I was marveling at the hugely expanded family (or shall I say school) of Pepperidge Farm® Goldfish Crackers®, I had the idea to create a fishing-inspired snack mix. I was turned off by the new “colored” fish, which is a bit silly because it isn’t as if the traditional orange-colored fish are au natural. The “flavor blasted” varieties, though they promised to be explosively tasty and super-charged, did not make my mix either. I bought a bag of pretzel fish, graham cracker fish and the mini cheddar fish.

Long, skinny snack sticks became the “fishing poles” and one gummy worm was curled up under each pile of fish as “bait.”  I was excited about the concept and it seemed like a good sign that I had numerous interruptions after assembling the first snack cup in order to take a photo:

Perhaps a piece of candy was not an appropriate addition to the preschoolers’ mid morning snacks. But, I just couldn’t resist. I set up the twenty-eight cups at the mini tables and left before snack time, so I was unable to witness the kids’ reactions. Hopefully, the gummy worm surprise caused more excitement than mayhem and did not garner too much disapproval from the teachers.

Gone Fishing Snack Cups

Fish Snack Crackers
Gummy Worms
Pretzel or Bread Sticks

Put one gummy worm at the bottom of each cup. Fill with mixed fish crackers and add the sticks as fishing poles.

Mangoes and avocados seem to be available year round, flown in from far flung, magical, tropical fruit producing lands. Though they can be pricey, they offer a little taste of something different when the local produce selection starts to become more and more slim and less colorful through the winter months.

Our daily cuisine has been all about ease lately. This month has been one of the busiest on record. Though I feel like I am always saying that, we have truly reached a new level of craze. I often have some slow-cooked, shredded pork or beef in the freezer, which I use to whip up easy tacos or nachos. Even frozen fish fillets or fish sticks taste good snuggled in a fresh tortilla. Add a can of black beans (doctored up with a little cumin and oregano), top with some shredded cheese or sour cream, and you have a decent meal.

If you want to take the easy, decent meal to the level of what I consider somewhat impressive weeknight fare, all you have to do is whip up this mango avocado salsa. Just five ingredients, that is all. (Okay, six if you count the salt)

A spoonful of this colorful salt-sweet blend will crown any taco elevating it to a new realm. Make plenty because you may want to eat it by the spoonful, or by the “chipful,” mounded high on a salted corn tortilla chip.

Mango Avocado Salsa

1 mango, peeled and cut into small chunks
1 avocado, peeled and cut into small chunks
1/2 cup of chopped red onion
Cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
Salt

Put mango, avocado, cilantro and red onion in a bowl and gently stir to combine. Squeeze juice over the mixture and sprinkle with salt to taste.

Thank you to those who continue to visit despite my infrequent recipes and ideas. I have been cooking, eating and photographing with the intention of posting. But, as often happens during summer, I choose to spend all extra time outside playing in the yard, gardening, swimming or drinking cold beer on the porch rather than working on the computer.

Today, I come to you with a quick tip. Do you have a fruit fly problem? I seem to have brought an entire community of them into the house last week on some extra ripe bananas I bought for making baby food. Luckily, I remember a trick my dear friend Stephanie taught me. Remove the fruit that is causing the problem or put ripe fruit in the refrigerator. Leave a cup of apple cider vinegar on the counter for a day or two. Done deal. Fruit flies go for the last swim and your kitchen is fruit fly free.

I’m baaaack… After returning from vacation, one of the many recent thunderstorms in Chicago seemingly broke our modem/router disconnecting us from the internet for a number of days. I never realized how much I rely on “being connected” for recipes, weather reports, maps and working at home. After hours on the phone with customer service, a trip to the ATT store and some reconfiguration, we have returned our household to the 21st century.

Due to excessive summer heat and wonderfully fresh produce, we are eating a lot of simple, cold foods. The above photograph turns up the corner of my mouth as it is the product of three wonderful friends. Last summer, we spent an evening at my friend Jessica’s house enjoying her lush back yard. She is a fellow food aficionado and served up a mouthwatering spread. That evening, Jessica introduced me to this simple delight – radishes on buttered bread with salt.

About a month ago, my friend Kathy was leaving for a culinary escapade in France (which you can read about here.) Kathy’s footprint is all over this blog as she introduced me to this almond tea cake, these pecan rolls, she makes these mini cookies and her coup d’etat, THE Flag Cake. Before she skipped town, I was fortunate enough to be the recipient of her kitchen “overstock.” She delivered some passion fruit simple syrup she had been using to make a friend’s wedding cake (we made it into passion fruit mojitos), a few loaves of bakery bread and a bunch of deliciously spicy radishes still dirty from her garden. Yes, it is good to be Kathy’s friend.

A few days later, we shared a summer evening with my pal Ebony’s family. They are not only food lovers but much better chefs than I am. Culinary experiences with these two, whether a pancake brunch or chili that took 24 hours to make, are always a unique pleasure. I put Ebony to the task of buttering the bread and slicing the radishes. Perhaps it is the talented designer in her that led the way to this beautiful result. She sliced and placed the radishes on the bread just so before sprinkling them with Australian pink flake salt. Had I prepared them, it would have most certainly been a more haphazard heap. Aren’t they gorgeous?

A simple piece of bread with butter, radishes and salt will forever please my palate and remind me that I am fortunate to be surrounded by big-hearted, food-loving friends.

Some years ago, I received a Barefoot Contessa cookbook for my birthday. A quick flip through the pages revealed recipes that looked simple and easy to follow. When I dug a bit further, I noticed that a number of the side dish recipes were so easy, there was nothing more than a vegetable, some olive oil and coarse salt. Initially, I scoffed, feeling that the multiple roasted vegetable recipes were just page fillers.

It turns out that Ina Garten knew something long before I did. The best thing to do with fresh vegetables at their peak IS to toss it with a bit of good olive oil, sprinkle it with salt and roast it. This easy preparation lets the flavor of the vegetables shine.

We arrived in Greece a few days ago to visit  my in-laws and all of our cousins. Usually, we plan our annual voyage in September but because Mini Whipped will be starting preschool, we altered our routine and will spend the first two weeks of July on the island of Corfu. Though I was worried about the heat, we have been pleasantly surprised by temperatures that peak at around 90 degrees accompanied by light breezes and comfortable evenings.

July has also surprised us with colorful and bountiful growth. Most things grow happily and vigorously on this island. Magenta bougainvillea are climbing everywhere, pink and white blossoms are bursting from every bush and roses are peeking out from unexpected corners. Though we always enjoy some vegetables from the garden, we are witnessing the height of production from the plants. Most exciting for me are the fruit trees. White-fleshed nectarines are waiting to be plucked in the front yard and the soft, green figs are nearly falling from the trees.

To make an easy side dish last nights, Mini Whipped walked through the garden with her grandparents, plucking tomatoes, eggplant and peppers. I followed Ina Garten’s lead and cleaned them, cut them, tossed them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt and roasted them in a 375 degree oven for about half an hour. The flavor was remarkable.

Since many likely do not have the luxury of a garden like this, find your local farmer’s market and ask the farmer’s what is at the freshest and at its best. Keep preparation to a minimum and enjoy the finest of the season.

I suppose it was my bragging around town about my explosive garden of backyard greens that awarded me this recipe. During a visit to a client, my new pal Emily and I digressed from the work topic at hand and began talking gardening and chard.  She excitedly jumped to the edge of her chair as she recommended this recipe from Fine Cooking. By the time I had returned to my office, I found the link in my inbox. One glance through the ingredients and I knew it would taste good. The end result delighted me even more than I expected.

After my multiple bunches of northern lights chard were planted in the ground (you can see by the gorgeous stems where it gets its name), I learned that Mr. Whipped did not like chard and wouldn’t eat it. It could be that he had expressed such feelings before and I blocked them out when planning the garden. Admittedly, the sleeplessness of Baby Whipped has my listening skills at an all-time low.

Because I found this recipe so intoxicatingly delicious, I insisted that he try a bite. He liked it! So, here you have a magical recipe that can turn a chard hater into a chard tolerator. I followed Emily’s suggestion and skipped the butter at the end mostly to show an ounce of restraint in honor of my weight loss goals. I am sure that the tablespoon of butter would only have further elevated the experience. Though the recipe suggests you serve the dish immediately after cooking, I found that it made a delicious cold salad for lunch the following day.

Go ahead chard haters… I dare you.

Rainbow Chard with Pine Nuts, Parmesan & Basil
from Fine Cooking

13 to 14 oz. Rainbow chard (about 1 large bunch)
1 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbs. pine nuts
Kosher salt
1 Tbs. minced garlic
1 Tbs. cold unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
1/4 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil leaves (8 to 10 large)

Pull or cut the stems from the chard leaves. Cut or rip the leaves into 2- to 3-inch pieces and wash and dry them well. Rinse the stems and slice them crosswise 1/4 inch thick.

In a 12-inch nonstick stir-fry pan or skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook, stirring constantly, until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer the pine nuts to a plate, leaving behind as much oil as possible.

Return the pan to medium-high heat, add the chard stems and a pinch of salt, and cook, stirring occasionally, until shrunken and beginning to brown lightly, 6 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook just until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Add the chard leaves and 1/4 tsp. salt. Toss with tongs until just wilted, 1 to 2 minutes. (If using a skillet, you may need to add the chard in batches, letting the first batch wilt before adding more.) Remove the pan from the heat, add the cold butter pieces and stir just until the butter has melted.

Using tongs, immediately transfer about half of the leaves and stems to a serving plate and arrange. Sprinkle on half of the Parmigiano, basil, and pine nuts. Layer on the remaining leaves, stems, and pan juices, and garnish with the remaining cheese, basil, and pine nuts. Serve immediately.

I have an unwritten list of food-related “to dos” in my head. This year, making homemade granola for the first time was one of them. Others include starting a compost pile, canning something for the first time (possibly pickles from cucumbers I grow in my garden) and making homemade phyllo dough in the Whipped kitchen. Though he doesn’t know it (until he reads this), I have a few plans for Mr. Whipped too. I would like him to try grilling fish on a cedar plank and start making homemade sausage again.

Everyone in the Whipped household loves granola sprinkled on yogurt with fresh fruit. It’s as easy as a bowl of cereal but so much more satisfying. Our favorite store-bought brand is Bear Naked Banana Nut granola but it is expensive and when we buy a bag, it goes too fast. Making a weekly bin of granola, like Kickpleat of Everybody Loves Sandwiches and Poppytalk does, seemed like a good practice for our brood. Since Kickpleat inspired me, it made sense to start with her Everyday Granola.

My granola planning began with a trip to the bulk food bins at Wholefoods. I was eagerly anticipating the trip, fondly remembering how I used to love the process of shopping from bins of any kind. Finding the numbers and writing on the twist ties as well as unloading the bulk foods into containers at home appealed to the same part of me that loved playing “office” as a kid. Though I am a cluttered person, the process of organizing and sorting brings me pleasure.

About half way through my granola ingredient buying experience, I realized that my current life circumstances have changed my appreciation for bulk food buying. Always short on time, I found the hunting and searching for the right items, missing pens, buried scoops and broken twist ties stressful and aggravating. I don’t want to be one of those grumps that is always in a stressed rush but running a business, limited babysitter hours and the management of a household and two kids has its challenging realities.

Once home with my thin, overly large, rustling bags of seeds and grains, Mini Whipped and I set about untying twist ties and mixing up our first batch of granola. The preparation is very kid-friendly as it basically requires just mixing everything together. A large bowl, lots of ingredients and a wooden spoon make for a happy toddler with well-directed energy.

When Mini Whipped went to bed, I baked the granola, stirring occasionally as directed. After it cooled, I stored it in a few tupperware containers where it awaited our breakfast routine. The next morning, we filled our bowls with yogurt, topped it with a heap of our homemade granola and adorned our creation with fresh berries. Delicious. Satisfying. Our first batch of granola has lasted more than a week.

Next up? I heard Lottie + Doof’s granola is a standout. Then I might head over to Coconut and Lime for her Almond Cherry Coconut Granola.

Everyday Granola
from Everybody Loves Sandwiches
3 1/2 c organic large-flake rolled oats
1/2 c wheat germ
1/4 c flax seed
3 T ground flax seed
1 1/2 c dried shredded coconut
1 c walnuts, roughly chopped
1 c almonds, roughly chopped
1/4 c sunflower seeds
2 T cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
large pinch each of cardamom and nutmeg
1/2 t of kosher salt
1/4 c canola oil
1/4 c apple sauce
1/3 c brown sugar
1/3 c honey
1 t vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 325ºF. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. In another bowl, stir the oil, applesauce, brown sugar, honey and vanilla together until it emulsifies somewhat. Pour the wet over the dry ingredients and stir well so that everything gets evenly coated.

Spread mixture on a baking sheet or large glass baking pan and toast in a 325 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, checking on it and stirring it occasionally until mixture is dry. When cool, store in a tightly lidded container.

Whipped: I took this pretty picture of one of your favorite foods so we can teach other people how to make them.

Mini Whipped: Oooh, you mean Sweet Potato French Fries?

Whipped: That’s right. You usually help me make them and then gobble them all up so can you tell people how we do it?

Mini Whipped: I can’t do the cutting up. Mommy do it. I just sit on the counter.

Whipped: That’s right, we peel the potatoes and then cut them up in thin pieces. Then we put them in a bowl, right?

Mini Whipped: Yeah, that’s right, with olive oil!

Whipped: And what do we do then?

Mini Whipped: Then toss, toss, toss.

Whipped: WIth your hands?

Mini Whipped: Yes Mommy! And then they get olive oil all over them and my hands, they get so sticky.

Whipped: Isn’t that the fun part?

Mini Whipped: But what’s after that? What do we do with cooking then?

Whipped: Do we do a sprinkle?

Mini Whipped: Oh yeah, shake, shake and sprinkle sprinkle. Sure do. But what do we do next after we sprinkle?

Whipped: We put them on a baking sheet and then we do a sprinkle of sea salt all over.

Mini Whipped: Yeah Mommy, on the pan and then cook!

Whipped: Do you put them in the oven?

Mini Whipped: Nooooo…. too hot. Mommy do it.

Whipped: Yes, I put them in a hot oven, about 400 degrees and cook about 40 minutes, tossing them around once in between. They are done when they are a little browned on the edges and sides and a fork slides in easily.

Mini Whipped: (puzzled look)

Whipped: Then we get to eat them, right?

Mini Whipped: Yum yum yum, eat them all up!

Whipped: Thanks for helping teach this recipe today. Think you can help again sometime and share the other things you like to eat?

Mini Whipped: Sure do. Like broccoli and sweet potatoes and everything I need to cook and eat.

I am sure I am not the only kid that made up names and stories about my food. The fantasy especially helped the vegetables go down easier. Broccoli florets were trees, cauliflower were my birch trees, brussels sprouts were bushes, cooked carrots became telephone poles and stringy squash made rough telephone wires. The landscape, when arranged appropriately on the plate, most certainly helped the food taste better.

As Mini Whipped enters full toddlerhood, I have tried a number of things to get more veggies down her hatch. Luckily, she isn’t the pickiest of eaters but like most kids, she has her particularities. I encourage her to be playful with her food and the technique seems to be working. She helps me cook regularly and we enjoy gathering ingredients, assessing recipes by discussing the photos in the cookbooks, using the most fun kitchen tools from whisks to citrus zesters and making up stories about what we are eating.

Eating is necessary for sustenance and survival. But, how fortunate we are that we have the luxury to also make it so much fun! For those of us who are writing and reading food blogs, we can be grateful to have enough to eat and to have enough time on our hands to “play with our food.”

Broccoli with Cheddar Sauce
“Trees with Cheese”

Steam broccoli until crisp tender, about 4 to 5 minutes. Meanwhile, melt butter in a medium saucepan. Whisk in flour, mustard powder and salt to taste. Gradually stir in milk, whisking over medium-low heat until thickened. Add cheese, stirring until completely melted. Season to taste with white pepper. Pour over steamed broccoli and serve immediately.

Every now and then, it is nice to get back to basics. Though many of you likely know how to roast a simple, acorn squash, I am banking on the fact that a few may not think about how easy and delicious this autumn side dish can be. I have tried a few other fancy things with acorn squash but I feel this simple roasting method suits it best.

As a child, I used to tolerate the sweet mash out of an acorn squash. Once I had worked through the top sugary layer, I rejected the inner flesh. Recently, an increased appreciation has me savoring each bite, scraping out every soft morsel until skin falls limp on my plate. A half acorn squash is such a visually beautiful addition to a meal. The dark green and bright orange add color while the natural curvaceous shape creates undulations that call out for the tip of your spoon to cozy in to a curve and dig in.

Stop passing by the mounds of squash in your produce section.  Grab a few next time and roast them up in a simple, sweet, butter bath.

Basic Baked Acorn Squash

1 acorn squash
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup
Salt & pepper
Nutmeg

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut the squash in half and scoop out all of the seeds and pulp inside. Soften the butter to room temperature. Combine it with the sugar and maple syrup. Rub the insides and top edges of the squash with the butter mixture. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Place the halves on a baking sheet, cut side up. If needed, slice a small piece off the opposite side to keep them standing upright. Be careful not to cut too deep and make a whole or the butter mixture will drip out and melt. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour or until very soft when pierced with a fork.