Best of May 2013
Oops, Friday completely ran away from me since I was head down in the cave working on a couple of deadines...goodbye May and welcome June! Following my January, February, March, and April best-of posts, today I'm rounding up the most helpful, insightful, favored-by-the-community posts from May. I hope you enjoy this month's roundup! Also, here are a few of my favorite recent pins: Laurel and Vi will love this sidewalk chalk paint, food photography tips for beginners, pantry items that double as beauty products, easy wall clip organization, printable superhero masks, and a cake size and serving guide.
In a meal rut? Need some lightning fast inspiration? (I feel like I've been eating a lot of salads and quesadillas these days...) Today, 
I'm thrilled to announce a new blog post series that I've crafted with lovely (and long-time!) contributor 
Today, Hillary of 
When 
I love when I can be the chill mom who doesn't care about another snow day. But the reality is that that is not where I'm at right this second; my work load is very heavy and Violet hasn't been sleeping well (cue zombie mom music). Given that everything in Massachusetts seems turned upside down today, I'm skipping the Weekly Blueprint and instead present you with what offered a wonderful source of cabin fever relief this weekend: a recipe for ridiculously easy and yummy gluten-free peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. Seriously, 5 ingredients, 10 minutes of prep time, and 10 minutes of baking time is all that stands between you and a dose of happy.
I'm so proud to work with the American Cancer Society and it was super fun to put together 
For me, part of 
Today, 
Happy Monday -- I hope you all are enjoying the long holiday weekend! As you probably know, I'm in Ethiopia right now on a mission trip with 
I love cooking, but like many parents, on weekdays I need dinners to come together fast (often one handed while I haul around Violet, whose latest great delight is honking my nose repeatedly). We've been in a bit of a food rut, so when my friend 
Today, 
Happy Monday everyone -- I hope you enjoyed a wonderful first official weekend of summer! We took a quick trip to celebrate my father-in-law's retirement from ministry. It was major from a quantitative perspective (a 41 year career including 2,000 or so sermons!) and it was also quite moving to be present for his final sermon and to witness the love of the community. What a gift, and I hope all of us experience such connection and meaning in our lives. We're now back and sorting out our summer routine for the week (every week is apparently going to be different around here); here are some handy/fun ideas to consider in this week's 
Happy Monday everyone -- I hope you enjoyed lots of time outside during the glorious weekend (a stark contrast to today...)! I'm in Washington, DC right now for a short client-related trip and will head home later today, and I'm feeling quite nostalgic being here. I first spent time in the DC area back during college when I served as a White House intern, and then lived just outside the District when Jon was in graduate school. I wish I was here for longer to walk around and soak everything in but I'm thinking it would be fun to visit as a family sometime soon. Meanwhile, I hope you're all getting ready for a great week. Here are some handy/fun ideas to consider in this week's 
Happy Monday everyone -- I hope you had a wonderful weekend! Laurel and I had an amazing 
Happy Friday everyone! I hope you have a lovely weekend ahead -- if you observe Easter and/or Passover, I hope your reflections and celebrations are wonderful. I am off with Laurel today and she loves all things holiday projects so we have a 
Today, 
Today, Hillary of 
Happy Monday -- I hope you had a lovely weekend and are gearing up for an excellent week. Of note in my sphere is that I will be introducing the new Boston Mamas contributors very soon, diving into book writing mode (Asha and I just started a 
Even though the process can become messier and the results less perfect, I love baking with kids. It makes for a fun project (just this week we had a friend of Laurel's over for a baking play date -- so fun!), offers yummy rewards, and you can choose to work in some math teaching if you like. Laurel and I recently tried a new (to us) cookie recipe from Lori Longbotham's 
Today, 
Happy February! While I don't pay much attention to Valentine's Day from a commercial standpoint -- Jon and I don't exchange gifts -- the day does offer a fun inspiration point for crafts and food around our house. (Plus, I love the colors red and pink!) As I've mentioned before, I adore 
Hello everyone -- apologies for the radio silence! I considered posting from the road but decided to be present and immerse myself in 
Pursuant to yesterday's 
This past weekend I co-hosted a 
Sometimes kids come up with the most brilliant ideas. I wanted to make pumpkin bread the other week (our oven finally got fixed so I've been on a bit of a baking bender) and Laurel suggested that we make a cream cheese frosting and call it cake. Brilliant. I doubled/adjusted slightly this 
In my ongoing quest to find protein-rich 
Today, 
Hello friends! Per usual, the web was replete with interesting tips and inspiration this week. Here are some links that I thought you'd find interesting -- enjoy!
My friends Anne and Michael live in London, and during a recent visit stateside, they introduced me to the term "butler's salad," which apparently refers to a salad comprised of pantry (or refrigerator) odds and ends. I couldn't get enough of Anne's butler's salad, and ever since that visit I've been inspired to eat a lot more greens (and make use of random leftovers from the fridge). However, given the frequency with which I'm now consuming salad and the fact that I'm often assembling while carrying baby Violet, I've also found it super helpful to do some prep work in advance. Here are my 4 steps to building an awesome butler's salad:
I recently wrote about getting back to basics with 
A couple of months ago I discovered how remarkably easy it is to 
Over the holiday weekend we had friends over for our first grilling and chilling of the season and as I was flipping through 
Hello everyone -- I hope you have fantastically relaxing plans for the Memorial Day long weekend! We're going to be staying local and keeping it low key since June will be a bit crazy, but at the very least, yummy food and fun and games with Laurel and Violet are on the docket. (Admittedly, hopefully we'll also chip away a bit at some household to do's.) Meanwhile, I thought I'd share 12 bits of web awesomeness to entertain you over the long weekend. Enjoy! 
I recently saw Jennifer of 
Though Laurel has been more experimental with vegetables since we embarked on our CSA journey last year, green vegetables (save cucumbers) remain a sticking point. Until recently, when my sister Jenn brought over a spinach pie and Laurel shocked me by both offering to try it (usually I have to ask) and loving it. So of course I was eager to find an easy recipe to take advantage of this new love. And I found it in 
In the weeks following Violet's birth, I have been utterly touched by the kindness and generosity of many people, and Jon has encouraged me time and again to not be too proud -- to take people up on their offers to help. Even so, shortly before the April break, I was hesitant to accept a dinner drop off offer from my friends Eli and Sheri of 
Hello everyone! I just wanted to let you know I'm going to be a bit quiet this week. It's my first school vacation with Laurel and Violet and I'm excited to spend some time relaxing with the girls. We're planning on seeing friends, climbing trees (I'm actually thinking about trying it), finding crazy ways to wrap presents, making the best lemon cake ever for my mother-in-law's birthday, and probably snuggling a lot while reading piles of books (Violet's proven an impressively captive audience so far). And if there's any time leftover, I hope to get a handle on some client work and do a little 
One of the indulgences associated with my first week recovering at home with Violet was watching a little daytime TV while nursing; in particular, The Nate Berkus Show. I met Nate at BlogHer and enjoyed 
Today, from 
I have some friends from the Midwest who joke regularly about the awful (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) casseroles they grew up on, but there is something so wonderfully easy and practical about the concept of one-dish meals that cover the protein, veggie, and starch angles. This week I was on "casserole patrol" duty to help a friend in need and was utterly thrilled with this 
Though I found myself a tad depleted at the end of the whirlwind of holiday gatherings and guests we hosted, one thing I love about entertaining is assembling menus and trying out new recipes. (Admittedly -- perhaps not surprisingly given yesterday's 
If you didn't have a chance to watch 
I'm not sure what my problem is, but I'm having the hardest time wrapping my brain around the fact that Thanksgiving (my favorite holiday!) is next week. If you also need help getting in the holiday spirit, and/or want to pick up some awesome tips and inspiration, tune in to 
Thanks to 
Today, 
Our CSA has been rendering loads of zucchini, and in addition to enjoying it in the form of 
Here are some links that caught my eye this week, and that I curated over at 
One thing I adore about the return of cool fall weather is baking. And this week Laurel and I busted out our first batch of fall cookies. We decided to try something new: the chocolate-chocolate chunk cookies from Lori Longbotham's 
Following a busy summer and lovely Labor Day weekend celebrating Laurel's birthday, it's been fun to get caught up on blog reading. Here are some links that caught my eye this week, and that I curated over at 
To celebrate Laurel's birthday this past weekend, it was all about unicorns and rainbows. I'll be posting a unicorn party how-to soon, but first, I wanted to share how I made the rainbow cake. I made two rainbow cakes -- one for her girlfriend party on Sunday and one for her family party on Monday -- and in both cases, the kids and grownups went berserk over it, with many grownups asking how I did it. Here's the tutorial:
Last week I took the time to cook something from my pre-parenting days. I was enjoying the 
A couple of weeks ago I hosted my mom's birthday party and asked my siblings to bring dishes for potluck. Since my family is so large, it's always fun to see what people bring, and for this event, they did not disappoint; to accommodate my mom's food preferences we prepared mostly vegetarian and the array of colors and flavors was fantastic. There was a lot of great food that day, but the dish I went back for seconds (and, admittedly, thirds) on was my sister-in-law Estelle's quinoa and black bean salad. I've heard a lot of talk about quinoa this year (it's a good source of protein and is high in fiber, among other things) but hadn't gotten around to trying it yet. Now I'm a total convert.
The other week we received some zucchini from our 
I recently started helping my web savvy friend 
June is a celebratory month in our house, given Jon and my 
On Saturday we had some fellow soccer-loving friends over to watch World Cup, and my friend Heather brought a fantastic bean dip that was -- admittedly -- way more awesome (and quickly devoured) than the basic layered dip I made. Heather kindly sent me the recipe, which originated from her friend Betsy. I'm totally making this dip next weekend for another party I'm hosting. Yummy.
When I was training for 
When the warm weather returned, so did my voracious appetite for salads and cold things such as hummus and tabbouleh. We've been consuming vast quantities of these foods (I especially like hummus because it reminds me to eat carrots) and I soon found myself disgruntled by the volume of plastic containers we were acquiring. We reuse them all for storing leftovers or Laurel's craft supplies or other odds and ends, but we definitely don't need more of them. So I decided to start making more of these small container items from scratch. I'm still tweaking my tabbouleh recipe and will share that when I land on just the right blend; meanwhile, if you have a food processor, hummus is ridiculously easy to make.
I'm currently in the final stretch training for 
Today, 
Before it gets too hot to turn on your oven, try these cookies from Sarah Magid, recommended by 
Today, 
Amidst the sadness of attending 
Here's a roundup of inspiration as you plan for Easter and Passover. At Make & Takes, I love the 
One of my favorite ways to make a lazy weekend morning feel special is with scones. And these currant scones by Martha Stewart are simple in composition (without any forethought I had all the ingredients on hand) and are easy enough to whip up while everyone is still lolling around in jammies. I made these scones last weekend for company and they were a huge hit; light (um, seeming), flaky, and delicious. And everyone was happy to simply nibble these special treats alongside fresh fruit. Easy peasy.
I stopped drinking coffee several months ago and since have been consuming a lot of herbal tea. And our friend Taina recently introduced us to a fantastic tea blend (inspired by her mama friend Jess) that I’ve been enjoying daily (I am, in fact, enjoying a cup right this minute). One batch is great to share with friends after dinner, or to enjoy through the day, whether it sits stove top at home or in a travel thermos at work. And it seems to me that the citrus-ginger blend could help stave off, or at least soothe, winter colds.
Today, 
I love that every culture embraces some variation of food wrapped around food (e.g., dumplings, empanadas, etc.) and I recently was inspired to translate the idea to baked treats. While at 
I adore hors d’oeuvres -- the variety they offer (I love sampling a little bit of everything at a meal), the artfulness, the utter cuteness of food in miniature. And to make any occasion feel special without a huge amount of work, try these elegant little 
I love mailing goodies to people who aren’t expecting them (which I did on Monday as a thank you for a favor), and this Bon Appétit recipe for 
Today, 
There was a lot of holiday cookie talk on 
I first connected with Michelle Stern of 
Last week I attended a media event hosted by 
Today, 
It’s been so long since I posted about baking with apples that I couldn’t remember whether I already posted my mom’s 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
This past weekend our friend Rhoda introduced us to a dessert that impressively satisfied everyone’s sweet tooth while accommodating her lactose intolerance. Admittedly, though I 
I’m always striving for simplicity in life and this approach definitely translates to how I operate in the kitchen. For my second 
Today, 
Today 
Every so often Jon one-ups me in the kitchen, which leaves me both a tad surprised (read: vaguely jealous) and utterly grateful that he knows how to cook and bake. And this past weekend, he decided to make banana bread with Laurel and it was way better than my standard recipe. The loaf was gobbled up within a day and Laurel and I repeated the recipe yesterday, instead opting to make muffins - the advantages being plenty of awesome crustiness, faster baking time (handy for summertime baking), and improved portion control.
Today, 
Today, 
On chilly, raw days like today, I gravitate towards Asian comfort foods, and this weather reminded me that I’ve been meaning to post about my favorite way to prepare tofu. Don’t scowl; it really tastes fantastic! The original inspiration came from Susanna Foo’s Pan-Seared Tofu with Scallions & Ginger in 
Yesterday we enjoyed a fabulous BBQ with friends, and amidst the plates and piles of food, one simple yet elegant dish stood out as my favorite. A modern twist on traditional (sometimes unfortunately soupy) coleslaw, Bon Appétit’s 
Before it gets too hot to turn on your oven, try this bread recipe from 
One of my favorite time and energy savers these days is store-bought rotisserie chicken. I don’t need to remember to prep and bake it (perfect, since there’s no way I’m turning the oven on today…), my kitchen is saved from pan dripping smoke, and the chicken is ridiculously versatile. Today, I’m sharing our latest favorite usage of rotisserie chicken: fast and fantastically yummy chicken pesto salad.
Last night my willpower was put to the test when I gathered with some lovely mama pals for an evening of wine and desserts. As I described in yesterday’s post about 
Today, 
I haven’t even begun to sort out Easter crafts or goodies for Laurel, but luckily some lovely other bloggers have done my homework for me. Here are some cool Easter/Passover/Spring craft and treat ideas that caught my eye around the web this week per Love These Links!, where I share clever, resourceful, thought provoking, and/or hilarious links that I think would be of interest to the fabulous readers who peruse Boston Mamas. Enjoy!
Today, 
Monday night I met up with some mama friends for a lovely evening of catching up, crafts (bring a long abandoned project to work on…), and desserts. My fabulous friend Sarah brought a plate of divine meringue cookies studded with chocolate. Sarah kindly has shared her recipe for Two-Chocolate Forgotten Cookies (pictured, the last cookie standing):
Despite the disaster that is my inbox, clearly my mind is elsewhere on domestic matters. Here’s what caught my eye around the web this week – interesting for those who enjoy pets, baking, gardening, and/or not getting sick - per Love These Links!, where I share clever, resourceful, thought provoking, and/or hilarious links that I think would be of interest to the fabulous readers who peruse Boston Mamas. Enjoy!
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
In an ideal world, I’d make everything from scratch, but often – not surprisingly – time is an issue. But the one thing I never, ever compromise on is granola. Store bought granola has never suited me (too sweet, not clumpy enough, skimpy on nuts and fruit, etc.), and the good news is that granola is super easy to make at home. I made 
A couple of weeks ago Laurel and I attended a super fun 
This post is a bit oddly juxtaposed to the 
Today, 
Today, 
Pursuant to my recent 
Given my love of baking and crafting, I’ve always wanted to make a gingerbread house, and not surprisingly, Laurel is totally on board with this idea. In anticipation of today’s early school closing, I hunted for some leads so Laurel and I could enjoy some time plotting our gingerbread structures and making templates. Following are my three favorite how-to's, which have useful information for both novice and experienced bakers. I’ll also jot notes on our process in case we come up with any particularly brilliant or time saving ideas to share for future use. Happy building!
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
This summer largely felt like a busy blur; one exception being a fabulously relaxing vacation we took with friends in Maine. During this trip my friend Anne made an amazing chicken salad; it’s a family recipe that she approved of my sharing here.
This weekend I hosted my mom’s birthday party, and since Koreans tend to make a hearty meal spread then opt for fruit or lighter desserts following, I made this 
Today, 
I’m not sure whether it’s coincidence or consequence that June-born Jon loves cherries, but every year he’d rather have cherry pie than cake. The year Laurel was born, in my sleep deprived, frantically trying-to-bake-while-on-a-conference-call state, I dropped my fully assembled pie as I tried to put it in the oven. I thus was too traumatized last year to try again, but when Bon Appétit’s June 2008 issue featured this 
Today, 
Ready, set, grill! Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
Today, 
And now for our weekly dose of web highlights from some of our stylish blog partners: 
Weekend Reading: 
Today, 
Following installments 
Let your holiday baking season begin with this masterpiece by 
Following installments 
) to present some of her tips and menu ideas to help parents squeeze in breakfast. Here’s the first tip of the series: 
. The finale included a fabulous allergy-friendly piggy cake:
(a 
(shown; click thumbnail to enlarge). 
. We don’t make the cake nearly as frequently as we’d like to, but we’ve been spending a lot of 
($23.10 at Amazon). This amazing volume is great for novice bakers, or those who wish to know more about the science of baking. The collection includes clear directions, illustrations, and impressive description of how the test kitchen arrived at each recipe.
), I dubbed this salt magical because it truly makes everything taste fantastic. It provides particularly wonderful seasoning for simple sautéed vegetables, or for meats of any kind.
(shown; available at 
