Music Feature: Philadelphia Chickens

I thought I would tell the parents out there about a fun book and CD Cate received as a gift from one of Nate's aunts. It's called Philadelphia Chickens by Sandra Boynton. There's one word that describes it perfectly: SILLY. And your kids will love it! :) Also, if you've ever read "The Belly Button Book" by Sandra Boynton, you finally get to hear how the belly button song goes. I'm sure you've been dying to know.

Sorry to the non-parents out there...promise I'll get back on food for the next post!

Click here for the MP3 album version.

Healthy Eats: Trans Fats

Hey everyone, no cute picture today...plus, I don't know that a glob of trans fats would be very appetizing to look at!

I've been on the anti-trans fats crusade for about 10 years. I was so happy when the FDA finally required food labels to include trans fats in 2006. I just read about a little glitch in the system, however, that I wanted to share with you. As long as the serving size has less than 0.5 grams of trans fats, they can put 0 g on the label and say there's no trans fats. Granted, 0.5 g isn't a lot, but if you're eating more than one serving, it adds up. And you really don't want any in your system anyway, no matter how small the amount. Lesson learned: check the ingredients list as well as the nutritional label. If it says 'hydrogenated' or 'partially hydrogenated' anywhere, then you've got trans fats. Don't eat it!

Why are trans fats so bad? Like saturated fats, they raise your bad cholesterol. However, trans fats take it one step further and actually LOWER your good cholesterol, something saturated fats don't do. Ah, the wonders of modern science. If you have a choice between a spread or real butter, go with real butter. It will do less damage and your body knows how to process the natural foods much better.

Gotta love all of our processed foods out there. Geesh.

Week 31 Menu

You'll see my plan for Sunday is the same this week...that's because tonight we're actually having pork soft tacos, the pork compliments of my Aunt Sue who was in town this week. She cooked it in the crock pot with some chile powder and fresh lime juice - came out delicious! Beans, rice & guacamole are also on the menu.


The avocados I picked up yesterday are perfectly ripe - can't wait for tonight's guac! It is a tad strange, however, that these avocados come form Chile...I live in San Diego County, which produces 95% of the nation's avocado crop! I need to get out to the local farmstands, I suppose...

MONDAY:
- Pool Party at some friends'...just have to do veggies & dip!

TUESDAY:
- Book Club for me, Hot Dogs for Cate & Dad

WEDNESDAY:
- Chicken Salad Sandwiches (didn't get to this last week)
- Fresh Fruit
- Chips

THURSDAY:
- Pasta of some sort - whatever catches my eye at the store
- Caprese Salad & Baguette

FRIDAY:
- Rachel Sandwiches
- Fresh Fruit
- Chips

SATURDAY:
- Eat out perhaps?

SUNDAY:
- Pork Chops
- Veggie
- Rice

POST YOUR MENUS! :)

Roadtrip! Leave the gun, take the cannolis...

This is my final roadtrip post from this summer's fantastic east coast trip. I can't believe I've been home for nearly 2 weeks and am still writing about the trip - amazing how much blog post fodder I collected!

I thought I would end with one of my most favorite Boston spots. Modern Pastry in the North End (the "little Italy" of Boston). Not only is it just a great, authentic Italian bakery, but they do in fact make the best cannoli in Boston, and, perhaps, the U.S. as I've yet to find one better. I LOVE CANNOLI. And, like bagels, I've gotten a little picky about my cannoli. Modern Pastry does not disappoint. My favorite: Plain shell, ricotta filling, chocolate chips sprinkled on the end. For some reason I was able to overcome the almost irresistible urge to make a trip up to Boston solely for a cannoli...I still don't know how I did it. This picture is from last summer - Cate's first visit to Modern and her first taste of cannoli, which she loved. She IS her mother's daughter.

Want to see Modern Pastry in all it's Italian glory? Go the day before Thanksgiving. You won't hear any English and the line will be out the door with little Italian ladies picking up their pre-ordered Thanksgiving desserts. So much fun to watch.

Ciao, delicious East Coast food. Back to the land of burritos and veggies...

Roadtrip! BAGELS

Ah, the bagel. When done right, they are soooooooo good. When done wrong, fahgeddaboudit. New York and New Jersey have cornered the market on good, real bagels. Once you've had a REAL bagel, there's no going back. I know, I know - you're got this bagel shop down the street in your town that is just GREAT. Eh, if it's not in the tri-state area, I probably can't believe you.


How do you know it's a real bagel? Well, first off you probably have to be in NY or NJ - sorry to everywhere else! Second, it's got this awesome crispy outside...geez, don't even know if that's the right description, but you'll know what I mean when you eat it. Lastly, the inside is chewy and NON-bready. Bready = Bad. Chewy = Good.

I had a delectable bagel from Chester Bagel & Deli on my last day out East. Chester is the next town over from where I grew up. These bagels were perfect, just what I needed to get my bagel fix. It's a good thing we got them the last day or I would have eaten FAR more than would have been good for me.

While we're talking bagels, I feel it my obligation to share with you the source of the best bagels in the world: H&H Bagels. They're the best bagels in NYC, and since NYC has the best bagels, well, that makes them the best in the world. Every time you go to NYC you must be sure to swing by H&H. They do ship anywhere in the world, but there's nothing like getting it straight out of their ovens.

Disclaimer: Just because a bagel is in NY or NJ does not automatically make it good. I had a TERRIBLE bagel my first day in Jersey. You have GOT to go to the right spots!!! :) This post is a BIT long...perhaps I'm a BIT obsessed?

Roadtrip! Hot Dog Johnny's

Ever wondered what you might find in scenic Buttzville, New Jersey? Why Hot Dog Johnny's, of course! Our last night in NJ we took a beautiful drive up to Buttzville (yes, that really is the name of the town, and yes, it is a TINY town, and yes, they have a post office) to have dinner at the famous Hot Dog Johnny's.


They don't have a menu. We asked, silly us. The menu is hot dogs and french fries - duh, you city-folk customers. The hot dogs (cooked in peanut oil) are only $1 - you can't even make a hot dog at home for $1! The french fries were yummy. You can also get drinks - soda, birch beer (kinda like root beer), fresh buttermilk - and ice cream. It's a fun place to go and it really is in a beautiful spot by the Pequest River.

Week 30 Menu

Already time to plan another menu? Time is flying by too fast...before I know it I'll have another baby! Here goes...and please share your menus - remember, it doesn't need to be fancy!

MONDAY:
- Chili
- Corn chips
- Salad

TUESDAY:
- Chicken Salad sandwiches
- Fresh fruit salad

WEDNESDAY:
- Leftovers

THURSDAY:
- Dinner with family in town

FRIDAY:
- Eat out?

SATURDAY:
- Hamburgers on the grill
- Stuff to go with it...maybe potato salad? fruit? we shall see...

SUNDAY:
- Pork chops
- Rice or potato
- Veggie

Roadtrip! Buongiorno from NJ!

One thing in which New Jersey is not lacking is diners. I didn't get a chance to eat at a diner this trip, not that there wasn't opportunity - practically every town has a diner. The only thing more plentiful than diners, however, is Italian food. I can't believe how much Italian food I ate in the week I was out there. All GREAT, of course - I was probably a walking garlic clove. This is one genre of food that the East coast definitely has the West coast beat at. I'll give good Mexican food to the West, but really, East coast food in general can't be beat. (Hopefully I don't start some East coast-West coast, Tupac-Biggie battle here.)


So, I went into Long Valley (my humble hometown) to prove to you the abundance of Italian and pizza joints. I clocked the mileage from Long Valley Pizza (Italian restaurant #1) to Salerno's (Italian restaurant #4 and home to AWESOME garlic bread knots)...1/10 of a mile. That's right FOUR Italian/pizza restaurants in 1/10 of a mile. If I expanded the mileage to about 3/10 of a mile, it would have been five!


The funniest part is THIS is the view across the street. Okay, so there are more than just fields in Long Valley, but the 15,000 or so people who live in this town have kept these restaurants open for years. If you took away the Italian restaurants, the better part of NJ would starve. And my town isn't the only one - we drove west through some VERY small NJ towns, and even THEN we passed Italian restaurant after Italian restaurant....out in the middle of NOWHERE.

There MAY be a reason for the overabundance of diners and Italian restaurants...but I don't want Tony Soprano coming after me, so I'll just stop here.

Roadtrip! Picking Peaches in the Garden State

Our last stop on the East Coast tour was New Jersey. New Jersey gets a bad rap, but it is, after all, the 'Garden State,' and if you can get yourself beyond the Turnpike and the Newark Airport, you'll realize the nickname really does apply!


Cate loves peaches. Luckily it's peach season in NJ, so our first day we went to a local farm for Cate's first venture into the world of harvesting food. I have to tell you, the town where I grew up is in beautiful country, especially the spot where my parents live now and where we went peach picking. Picturesque farmland and trees as far as the eye can see. Cate had a blast picking the peaches, and picked all kinds of unripe beauties for us to (not) enjoy. :)

Roadtrip! Sweet Tomatoes Pizza

Cate and I are HOME. After a crazy morning in JFK airport, our first flight on JetBlue went great...gotta love the TVs and the fact that Cate slept for 2 1/2 hours. Our trip East was loads of fun and I'm so glad we went, but it is nice to unpack and settle back home.

I still have a bunch of Roadtrip posts for you, which is a good thing since my cooking this week won't be very spectacular. Today is the last Cape Cod spot and probably one of my favorite places we go every year.


Our Cape weeks always start on Saturday...we generally go down, get the key to the cottage, then pick up some pizza at Sweet Tomatoes. Oh man, this pizza is GOOD. VERY thin, awesome tomato sauce, so tasty. This year we got hawaiian (my favorite) and greek (also great). Cate beat everyone and ate FIVE slices. No one has ever accused that girl of being a bad eater.

I would like to link to their website, but it looks like individual Sweet Tomatoes restaurants have their own sites, like this one and this one. I'm not even entirely sure of all their locations. If you live in Mass, check out the links and see if you can't track one down near your home. The one we visit is in Sandwich, Mass - they don't seem to have a website. This post is making me really miss this pizza...

Roadtrip! A&W on the Cape

So, we definitely did some eating out on Cape Cod and one of the spots we hit was an A&W...not one of those A&Ws that are attached to KFC or whatever it is they're doing nowadays, but an honest-to-goodness A&W with the awesome root beer. The root beer just tastes so different than bottled or canned...yum. Which makes me wonder why I didn't take any pictures of it!! But I did take a picture of the hot dog so you can see even A&W knows what kind of hot dog buns we should all be using...

Week 29 Menu

I am STILL on the road, but Cate and I do arrive home this week so I'm going to attempt a menu here. :) Thanks for all your menus the last few weeks! Please keep them coming, especially since my menu this week ain't so great.


My sis-in-law Jess made this delicious caprese salad for lunch one day down the Cape. Isn't it purty?

Monday:
- Still in New Jersey

Tuesday:
- The day we get home...pick something up somewhere

Wednesday:
- Spaghetti with meat sauce
- Veggie or salad
- Rolls or garlic bread

Thursday:
- Chicken Cordon Bleu (you know, those frozen ones)
- Rice
- Veggie

Friday:
- Hot dogs or hamburgers
- Fresh fruit
- Carrots and dip

Saturday:
- Chili

Sunday:
- Chili leftovers

Roadtrip! Brown Bread

My mother-in-law Pat introduced me to a uniquely New England product this trip that I feel I should share with you all. Interestingly, Nate's never even heard of it, even though his mama loves the stuff. One day as we're making lunch Pat says, "Have you had brown bread?" I was confused, couldn't figure out what she was talking about...then she said, "You know, in a can?" Then I got REALLY confused. Pat disappeared only to walk into the kitchen 10 minutes later with a can of Brown Bread, yes, a can. She ran to the store so I could try it right away. She says the best way to eat it is to slice it, put butter between the slices, then bake in the oven until warm.


The verdict? Well...it's alright. Pat loves it, she grew up on it, and various New England grandparents love it as well. Nate's sister hates it. Cate decided to show some granddaughterly support and couldn't stop eating it...she thought her discs of brown bread were cookies. It was pretty cute, actually. So there you go, a little more New England food education for you.

Roadtrip! Cottage Kitchen

Nate's family has been going to the same summer cottage in Sandwich, MA (Cape Cod) for somewhere around 15 years. Due to some logistical issues, we ended up in a different cottage this year, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise.


This year's cottage was a beautiful place to stay. Recently renovated and full of light, one of the best features was the kitchen. The cottage is located on the beach, with a marsh out back. The kitchen has a huge corner window overlooking the marsh and for most of the week, there was a breeze blowing in through the windows. The view was lovely and peaceful. Normally I don't look forward to our assigned night to cook, but this year I welcomed it (imagine the cooking I'd do if this was my kitchen at home). I didn't even mind chopping a bag of potatoes with a terrible knife! We found these huge sunflowers at a local farm, which made the already bright kitchen that much cheerier. Aaaahhhh.... :)

Thanks to Nate's family for a wonderful week, and, while I'm glad we had such a great place to stay this year, it sure made it hard to leave! Cate called the cottage "my new house" all week...if only...

Roadtrip! French Memories

Nate's family is from a town called Cohasset in Massachusetts. Cohasset is a seaside town 20 miles south of Boston, complete with a beautiful harbor, town green and cute main street (not to mention AWESOME houses that I'll never be able to afford but can always dream about!). Nate and I spent a lot of time there in our early years and I love it so much.


One of our favorite little spots in Cohasset is a bakery called "French Memories." It's on Main Street (no website) and is full of the best pastries, tarts, bread and cheeses. Their nut twists and raspberry croissants are my FAVORITES. This place is authentic (the owner is French) and apparently they have live music there once a week or something now. Anyhow, I was able to get over to French Memories one morning while we were in town. It was just as wonderful as ever!

Week 28 Menu

Okay, I promise this is the last week where I'm not doing ANY planning! Thanks to all those who posted menus and recipes last week - so great! :) Can't wait to see what you're eating this week!

We are back from Cape Cod, but I still have 1 more week of fun...off to New Jersey to visit my family. Anyhow, I have some fun food reports to give to you from the trip...once my laptop is online I will post! Until then, I need you all to share your menus once again so there's some inspiration here on the blog!