April 2011
23 posts
Making Groceries: Pickles →
When it came for Making Groceries this week, I found myself in a bit of a pickle. Growing up, two pickle slices accompanied most lunches and I loved them. But somewhere in adulthood I…
Kid Music for Grown-ups: In the Nick of Time →
The term children’s music has the power to draw the hairs on the back of my spine to anxious attention. Annoying tunes piping from minivans is the stereotypical symbol of every parent’s…
7 tags
Aspire to Mediocrity!
One of the things I’m most proud of as an adult is being a terrible swimmer.
It took months of hard work to get to that point. Although I took a few rounds of swim lessons as a child and practically lived at the pool every summer, I never really learned how to swim. I goofed off with my friends, played Marco Polo or underwater tea party. I used the breast stroke and doggie paddle to...
2 tags
Happy Easter! →
We had a lovely Easter Brunch with family and dear friends.
Here was our buffet.
Max and Jack baked these carrot cake cupcakes, and Max decorated them!
Lemon Meringue Tart with Amaretti Cookie Crust →
This dessert is the direct result of my giving up sweets for Lent. I am super excited for Easter Brunch (Notice how I didn’t wait for dinner?) and plan to completely indulge my love of sugar. My…
Pistachio Salad →
Did the name of this recipe tempt you? From the moment I first tasted pistachio oil, I’ve been dying to celebrate it. One of my favorite things is to drizzle it onto a piece of homemade…
3 tags
Bunny Puppet Craft →
Here’s a little craft project for Easter: make bunny puppets! Older children can decorate their own, or you can make them as a surprise. I made these for Max and Jack in less than an hour. It’s a…
5 tags
Carrot Cake Cupcakes
Carrot cake is the perfect dessert for Easter, celebrating the Easter Bunny’s favorite food. Topped with green coconut, jelly beans and a pipe cleaner they make a cute Easter basket even grownups get to enjoy. I didn’t reinvent the wheel for this Easter design. I made these cupcakes with my mom when I was a little girl, and am looking forward to making them with my little ones this...
Baked Salmon with Lemon-Dill Butter →
Baked, buttery salmon is one my table’s pleasures. The trick is to not overcook it. This is really more of a method than a recipe, but it’s my very favorite way to prepare salmon because of its…
Making Groceries: Unartificial Sweetener →
File this weeks’ edition of Making Groceries under slightly obscure.
First it was saccharine (Sweet & Low). Then aspartame (Equal, Nutrasweet). Then sucralose (Slenda). The newest in artificial…
5 tags
Spanakopita Baskets →
A tisket. A tasket. A Spanakopita Basket!
Here’s a lovely side for Easter brunch, the classic Greek spinach dish, spanakopita, presented in an adorable fillo dough basket. I based this recipe on…
5 tags
Easter Brunch Menu
Hippity, hoppity, Easter’s on its way, and that makes me think of lemons. I know, I know, Easter is supposed to be all about the egg, but to me, the taste of spring is light and bright. Nothing is lighter and brighter than the glorious lemon, so it is featured in every single recipe on my brunch menu.
Here is a wonderful menu for Easter brunch. Take it part and parcel or pick and...
3 tags
Books to Nurture Children's Spirituality
Much attention and energy is spent on nourishing a child’s body and mind, but it’s important not to neglect their little hearts as well. One of the tasks of parenthood is explaining the world and God to our children, a daunting task to say the least. Once their vocabularies discover the word, why, it becomes even more challenging. Explaining complex spiritual ideas can make even the...
Will Work for Cookies →
A few days ago, Jack got his first job in the kitchen. We were meeting friends for a picnic the following day, so we baked oatmeal-raisin cookies to share. Max is my expert helper in the…
Hi mamaguru followers!
First of all, thank you. I really appreciate your support.
I want to let you know that a few weeks ago I started a new blog called, Making Groceries with mamaguru here on tumblr. I did this to attract food people who might not know there was something for them on mamaguru.
Making Groceries is a column I have on mamaguru.com (my primary blog) where I explore different techniques and recipes to...
Will Work for Cookies
A few days ago, Jack got his first job in the kitchen. We were meeting friends for a picnic the following day, so we baked oatmeal-raisin cookies to share. Max is my expert helper in the kitchen, but Jack has always been too little. At 18 months, it’s time he started pulling his weight, so I set up their little table in the middle of the kitchen.
There were two jobs: dumping and...
Making Groceries: Strawberry Jam →
Exactly five hours after my family picked strawberries on a farm, I had them neatly sealed away as jam in beautiful glass jars. This was my very first experience canning, and I was…
Strawberry Pickin’ →
The prime growing season has not begun for most of the Northern hemisphere, but in Miami, it’s almost over. Luckily we got in a trip to Knaus Berry Farm last weekend to do some…
3 tags
Max said,
One of the great things about little boys is that they LOVE traffic. Instead of grumbling, they’re super excited to see cars and trucks in action. Today we drove past a dealership with balloons tied to the antennas of all the cars.
Max said, “Look at that car lot. Look at those balloons! Wow! That is a car party!”
Can you imagine? His little mind personifying cars...
6 tags
Trip to a Bangalore Market
After writing about my trip to a local Indian Market last week, it occured to me that I’ve been to an authentic Indian Market. I studied yoga in Bangalore, India for three months while I completed my teacher training. Most of my time was spent with my teacher, but Sundays were free. What I wish I could convey are the smells that go along with these photos. Some fragrances were so sweet...
Making Groceries: Mac and Cheese →
It wasn’t until I was old enough to babysit that I ever tried Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. The parents who hired me left a box for me to prepare for their kids. I followed the directions,…
1 tag
April Fools
I announced a fictitious pregnancy on Facebook. I pulled this one off a few years ago too. Some people are quite upset, but I think it’s funny.
My husband programmed my phone so that his name was replaced with Fidel Castro’s. I was puzzled by his texts until I figured it out.
I’m not a prankster by nature, but a harmless April Fools joke is fun. Did anyone else play a joke...
