Image by Kozumel

It’s so simple, I can’t believe I don’t do it more often. I’m sure I say this about a lot of things, especially when it comes to cooking. But it really is true about making popcorn.

This past weekend I was at the grocery store, about to buy some pre-made popcorn, when I remembered that I had some popcorn kernels waiting for me at home. I had bought them a while back with the intention of making homemade popcorn with the kids. That never happened. But on Saturday, I had a vision of having a movie night with my kids, and it included popcorn, so I decided that this would be the night that we would make our own.

My memories of making popcorn as a kid include shaking the Jiffy Pop popping pan non-stop until all the corn was popped and then very carefully opening the foil in such a way that I would not get totally burned by the steam! I used to do this with my dad on our at-home movie nights in the 70’s. Then microwave popcorn came along and pretty much replaced Jiffy Pop in my world. I’m quite sure I ate way too much of that stuff as a teenager.

The other night we made our popcorn old-school style – with a big pot on the top of the stove, canola oil and some popcorn kernels. I used three tablespoons of oil to 1/2 cup of kernels. This recipe made about three cereal-sized bowls of popcorn (I would definitely double the recipe next time for a family of four).

My three-year-old son was napping but my six-year-old daughter, Lucie, was pretty excited about making the popcorn. She had never made popcorn this way before and really had no idea what she was in for. I myself have always found the anticipation of waiting for those first kernels to pop pretty exciting (maybe that was an early sign of my passion for food!). We set up a little station at the stove with Lucie standing safely nearby on a step stool (The Learning Tower would be perfect for this). I used a 10-quart stockpot with a clear glass cover so that we could see the corn once it started popping. And sure enough, after a few minutes, the newly popped kernels started ricocheting off the sides and top of the pan and Lucie was excited as I remember being as a kid.

After most of the kernels had popped, I let Lucie choose the toppings. We separated the popcorn into three small bowls. Lucie chose salt and pepper for one bowl, fennel seed and salt (her idea) for another bowl, and cinnamon for the third bowl. After tasting the bowl with the fennel seed, we decided that we definitely should have ground them up with a mortar and pestle first, but overall it was really tasty. After I tasted the cinnamon popcorn I decided it needed a little sugar – and sure enough, that one ended up being the favorite!

Homemade popcorn is sure to become a permanent fixture at our movie nights in Brooklyn.

Feel free to leave me a comment about your favorite popcorn toppings. I would love to get some new ideas for next time.

Image by VirtualErn

My husband was not home for dinner last night and so I wanted to make something quick and easy. Lucie asked for pasta and meatballs, which I did not feel like having, so I settled on pasta and sausage instead.

There is a dish I make fairly regularly that basically consists of Farfalle (bowtie) pasta, chicken sausage, peas and mushrooms. When I went to the store for the sausage, they did not have any mushrooms, so I decided (in the interest of time and convenience) I would leave them out. When I got home, I realized that my last onion had gone bad and my neighbor wasn’t home to lend me one, so I had to ditch that part of the recipe as well. This was turning into a pretty boring pasta dish!

I rummaged through my fridge to see what else I had and found some organic baby carrots. I decided I would add those. What I ended up with was pasta with chicken sausage, peas and carrots…and it was actually pretty tasty. I have to admit though, seeing the peas and carrots mixed together made me feel like I had been transported back to the 1950’s.

Here’s the recipe:

• 1/2 lb. Farfalle pasta
• 3/4 lb. of chicken sausage, cooked and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 bag of frozen peas
• 1 cup of organic baby carrots, cut into small pieces
• 8 oz. of chicken broth*
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• Freshly grated parmesan cheese, to taste

Put water on for pasta. While water is beginning to boil, cook the chicken sausage in a little olive oil on the stovetop until cooked through and set aside. Put the carrots in the pan and saute until they begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, cut sausage into 1/2 inch pieces. Put sausage back into the pan with the carrots and add the chicken broth. Keep the sausage, carrots and broth on simmer while pasta is cooking. When pasta has about 5 minutes left, add the frozen peas to the broth mixture and continue to simmer until pasta is cooked. Drain pasta and add all ingredients together.

Serve in shallow bowls with freshly grated parmesan and black pepper on top.

Very kid-friendly and fast dinner!

*I buy Pacific Natural Foods Organic Free Range Chicken Broth in 8-ounce packages and use one of those when I make a recipe like this.

Image by Another Pint Please

On Sunday night, my husband grilled a T-bone steak we had recently bought on sale at Fairway. I had some broccoli rabe in the fridge that I had bought a couple of days earlier and I decided to get some corn on the cob since my son, Ronan (2.5), seems to love it (and he doesn’t eat much of anything). I also had been craving a leek-tomato quinoa salad that I made a few times in the past, so I added that to the menu as well.

The steak was grilled to about medium-rare with maybe just salt and pepper on it. I boiled the broccoli rabe for about five minutes and then sauteed in some garlic and olive oil for another five minutes or so. Corn on the cob (very good, from Florida) was boiled for ten minutes and then served with butter and salt (is there any other way?). And the quinoa salad was made almost exactly as the recipe calls for minus the scallions (I didn’t have any and didn’t feel like going to get some).

Both kids (ages 5.5 and 2.5) seemed to love the dinner. My daughter, Lucie, mainly ate the meat – she is a huge carnivore. But she did eat about half an ear of corn and maybe a bite each of the broccoli rabe and quinoa salad. Ronan, who normally doesn’t eat much dinner, ate a bunch of quinoa, a whole ear of corn, a few pieces of steak and maybe a bite of broccoli rabe.

I thought the meal was delicious, but mostly I was happy that my kids ate so well.

I practice what I preach with Small Bites – I don’t EVER ask my kids to eat something that they don’t want to eat. But that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t bother me when they don’t eat. So of course it makes me very happy when they dig in and enjoy good, healthy foods that I’ve cooked for them. Especially when it’s something like quinoa that is very new to them and I don’t make very often.

I’ll call this meal a success!

Photo by Princessrica

Yesterday morning I asked Lucie, my five-and-a-half year old daughter, what she wanted for dinner. Her reply: “spaghetti with a little sauce on the top and two meatballs on the side.” Okay so, spaghetti and meatballs. I was fine with that since it was chilly and rainy outside and it’s a quick enough meal to make.

I made dinner pretty quickly by using half store-bought and half homemade foods. The spaghetti was Barilla Plus, one of my favorite brands of pasta. The marinara sauce was from one of the many local Italian pork stores in my Brooklyn neighborhood, Esposito’s. The meatballs were homemade by me using about 90% of my mother-in-law’s recipe. And then I made broccoli on the side (steamed with fresh lemon juice and salt on top).

When I served Lucie she said, “that’s not how I wanted it” and she promptly moved one meatball to one side of her plate and the other meatball to the other side. She clearly had a picture in her mind of exactly what she wanted her dinner to look like when I had asked her that morning. So funny to me, but just goes to show you how particular kids can be about their food…even those who are considered ‘great eaters.’

Anyway, Lucie ate both of her meatballs, a bunch of spaghetti and a couple of pieces of broccoli. Ronan, my two-and-a-half year old son refused any meatballs and ate a bunch of spaghetti and a bunch of broccoli. I don’t really like broccoli. I much prefer broccoli rabe, and cook that often. But one day when I made broccoli I noticed that my son ate it up and particularly liked the tiny florets we dubbed ‘baby broccoli.’ Many of you know that my son is not a great eater. Do a search for “Ronan” on this blog and you will find numerous posts over the course of the first three months of feeding him solid foods when he literally would not taste a thing. So now that I know he enjoys eating broccoli, I am resigned to making it once a week or so.

Here is my “recipe” for meatballs. It may not be exact, but that’s the fun of it!:

• About 1.5 lbs. ground beef and pork mixed
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 big handful of fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon of freshly ground fennel seeds (optional)
• Salt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix with your hands until well-combined. Form into balls about the size of a golf ball and cook on the stovetop in a little olive oil. Turn the meatballs, browning on approximately three sides before dropping them into your favorite sauce to finish cooking.

I used about half the meatball mixture for last night’s dinner and froze the other half for another time.

For a more exact recipe, I always trust my friend Jennifer Perillo at In Jennie’s Kitchen:

Mama’s Meatballs

I’ve posted about my new favorite fish recipe already, but I made different sides with it the other night, so I wanted to give you a run-down of how the kids liked everything.

Wednesday night we had:

• Tilapia cooked my new favorite way
• Sugar snap peas, steamed with a little salt
• Brown rice
• Leftover sweet potato “fries”

Lucie (5 1/2) was feeling a bit sick, so she mostly ate the brown rice with some butter on top and a bunch of the snap peas. No fish, no sweet potatoes. Oddly enough, my very un-picky daughter does not like apple sauce, sweet potatoes or macaroni and cheese.

Ronan (2 1/2), who many of you know almost never eats any dinner, ate a lot of rice, a few snap peas and a bunch of sweet potatoes. I don’t think either kid touched the fish, unfortunately.

The sweet potatoes I made came from an Epicurious recipe that I found ages ago:

Roasted Sweet Potato Slices

They’re pretty good. But I noticed the other day that the recipe says not to peel the potatoes and none of the reviews said that they should be peeled, so I made them this time unpeeled. Not a good idea. They really need to be peeled. So make sure if you do make this recipe you peel the potatoes and cook them a good long time so that they’re nice and crisp.

Image by Mharrsch

Last night I made this very easy recipe for fish (which I’ve reprinted below) that my mother gave me about a month or so ago. I think I’ve made it three times since she’s given it to me. You can use it with any mild white fish. I happen to buy tilapia most often for my family since it’s so inexpensive and tends to have no problems with mercury or other contaminants (see The Environmental Defense Fund’s Seafood Selector for more information).

I usually serve the fish dish over brown rice and last night we also had brussels sprouts.

Lucie (age 5) who usually eats a great dinner, was not so interested last night. She had a few brussels sprouts, which she loves, despite the fact that they are clearly not in season right now and were very bland-tasting. She also had a few of the grape tomatoes that were on top of the fish, and maybe a bite or two of rice and fish. Ronan (age 2), who never eats dinner, ate a bunch of fish and rice and maybe one brussels sprout.

My verdict: Fairly successful

Here is the fish recipe:

1 container of grape or cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1-2 lbs. white fish
Salt, to taste
Pepper, to taste
Sliced lemon (2 under each fillet)
3 cloves of garlic (thinly sliced)
1.5 Tbsp. drained capers

Preheat oven to 400° F. Line baking pan with foil, drizzle with 1 Tbsp. oil. Salt and pepper fish. Put fish skin-side down with lemon slices underneath. Heat oil in frying pan, saute garlic for 30 seconds, add tomatoes and a little salt, stir for 1 minute. Add in capers. Spoon over fish. Cover with foil and crimp edges. Bake 12-15 minutes or until fish flakes with a fork.

The lemon, oil and tomatoes make a nice sauce that you can spoon over rice or cous cous when you’re ready to serve the meal. I added a little white wine last night as well, which of course never hurts!

My friend requested this recipe from me yesterday and I realized you can only find it in the November 2007 issue of the Small Bites newsletter entitled, oddly enough, Parsnips. Who would have thought?

So here is the recipe reprinted for you. Go forth and bake!

Yummy Pumpkin Muffins

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. baking powder

3 tsp. pumpkin pie spice or 1 tsp. each cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves

1/2 tsp. salt

1 cup oil

1 15 oz. can of pumpkin or 1 cup fresh pumpkin puree

4 eggs

1/2 cup chopped nuts and/or 1/2 raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350° F. Use muffin liners or spray-on oil to line muffin pans. Blend all ingredients in a bowl and mix at low speed until moistened. Beat at medium speed for two more minutes. Fill muffin pans about 3/4 full and bake 20-25 minutes. Makes two dozen muffins.

*I must give credit where credit is due and tell you that my daughter’s incredible preschool teacher is the one who gave me this recipe about a year and a half ago. Thanks Aleksandra!

Image by Brighterworlds

Here are a few links to some of my favorite recipes as well as recipes I’ve bookmarked but have not yet tried:

Pasta with Tuna and Olives

Summer Minestrone with Fresh Basil - One of my favorites

Lemony Ricotta Pasta with Basil

Lamb ‘Falafel’ with Lemony Tahini Sauce

Sunday evening we had dinner at a friend’s house. While my friend made Jamie Oliver’s Simple Baked Lasagne for the grown-ups (and any of the kids who asked for it), she took my advice from a recent Parenting magazine article, 6 Ways to Encourage Your Child to Eat Fish, and made a quick tuna ragu for the kids.

The ragu was made using a jarred tomato basil sauce and a can of light tuna, drained. That’s it. I tasted it myself and it was delicious. Even my friend’s husband said he would have been happy having that for dinner. Although, don’t get me wrong, the lasagna was incredible!

The ragu was served over mini cheese ravioli. I’m not sure how much of it Lucie (age 5) ate because she was sitting at a separate table from me (although she did request some lasagna and had a lot of Italian bread!). But Ronan (age 2) who, as you may know, is not much of a dinner eater, gobbled it up. He even took some of the sauce with his fork and spread it on his Italian bread and ate it that way.

As I was perusing the Jamie Oliver site for the lasagna recipe, I found his version of a tuna ragu, which is a little more complicated, but not very:

Our Favourite Tuna Pasta

If you’re concerned about feeding tuna fish to your young child, check out KidSafe Seafood for information on how to do it safely.

Image by John Kratz

Small Bites was recently interviewed for an article for Parenting Magazine’s website. Check it out:

6 Ways to Encourage Your Child to Eat Fish