A Little Vegetarian...Roasted Veggie Curry

Photo from Elizadomestica.com

A vegetarian dish that fits my rules: easy prep, works well with whatever I have in my fridge, and my family likes it. Feel free to adapt the veggie list to what you have. I keep coconut milk stocked with my pantry staples for dishes like this. Leftovers are great for lunch.

Roasted Veggie Curry

adapted from Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers

serves 4-6

cooked rice

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch chunks

2 carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/2 in thick rounds

1 onion, peeled and diced

1 head cauliflower, cut into bite size pieces

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons grated ginger root

2 Tablespoons Curry powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 can coconut milk

1 can diced tomatoes, drained (or one or two fresh tomatoes diced)

1 14 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 bunch cilantro, chopped

plain yogurt

Preheat oven to 450. Start your rice cooking. (I prefer short grain brown rice.)

Toss sweet potato, carrot, cauliflower, and onion with oil and salt. Spread veggies in single layer on a baking tray. Roast for 20 minutes, stirring once after 10 minutes.

As soon as .you get the veggies in the oven, whisk together in a bowl the ginger, coconut milk, curry, and salt. Stir in tomatoes and chickpeas.

After veggies roast for 20 minutes, pour the coconut milk mixture over the veggies and return to the oven for 5 minutes.

Serve over rice, topped with cilantro and a dollop of yogurt.

A quick shoutout for my fave vegetarian cookbook Moosewood Restaurant Simple Suppers. Quick meals, nothing too unfamiliar since it uses mainly pantry staples, and it makes it easy for Meatless Mondays.

A Little.....Creativity

“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.” -Albert Einstein

Entertain yourself with these creative on-line sources! Photos came from the respective websites.

Create symmetrical art on Myoats.com . Be sure to check out the artwork of others while you are there. (How do they DO that?)

Create flame painting on Escapemotions.com. Cool colors.

Create a tune on ToneMatrix. Just a short little chime-ditty. Anyone can create music. You know you want to. (Sorry, no pics of this)

Create some origami with the Origami Club. Projects ranging from easy to difficult. You'll find something you can do.

Quick spurts of creativity make your day brighter. :)

A Little Easter Lunch Menu

Easter food traditions? Yeah, I got 'em, too. Surprisingly, none of them are from my family or Mr. Wonderful's. Not even traditional recipes. Just the same food ideas that are prepared differently every year according to my whims. This time I found one magazine article that made me think "aha, this is the menu". Southern Living Magazine won the entire spread (except for dessert, which will be explained later.) As usual, photos are from their respective websites.

Start with the usual deviled eggs and add to the menu......

Cat Cora's Feta Spread (Htipiti) as featured in Southern Living. I love to have olives and something on hand for nibbles when guests come. I'm excited to try this. Another recipe in the same article was pefect for the usual main dish...

Roast Leg of Lamb. It is the only time of year I make something like this. I'm looking forward to trying Cat's recipe. She hasn't steered me wrong so far. If you can't find lamb in your area, she suggests a Boston Pork Butt.

Lemon Roasted Potatoes. It also got an outstanding review by home cooks on Southern Living's website. Don't they look gorgeous?

Oregano Green Beans. Olive oil, garlic, parsley, lemon, and feta. Yes, please!

Pavlova with Lemon Curd and Fresh Berries from Chow.com. Pavlova is a traditional dessert for Easter in my house - a nod to Mr. Wonderful's New Zealand heritage (It is the national dessert of New Zealand). I make individual pavlovas, with a depression molded in the middle to hold the lemon curd and berries. Nice, light, and refreshing. Easy for entertaining because the merengues and the lemon curd can be made ahead.

Happy Easter!

A Little ....Serious Chocolate

Simply So Good's Mint Brownies and showing off her mad photog skills

This is a dessert you do not want to have around your house when you are alone. This is a call-your-chocoholic-girlfriends-over treat. Serious chocolate. Why the warnings?

Because this involves 7 1/2 sticks of butter.

Pick your jaw up off the floor. It is okay. These brownies will totally satisfy in a little 2" square. You don't need more. You won't want more. Seriously rich.

From Simply So Good. Check out the rest of her blog. I am seriously impressed.

Click here for Simply So Good's Mint Chocolate Brownies.

Chocolate Mint Brownies
4 cups sugar
3 cups flour
2 cups cocoa (dutch process)
1/2 teaspoon salt
5 sticks (2 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, melted
8 eggs
2 tablespoons vanilla

Grease and flour a 12 x 18-inch baking sheet. In a large mixing bowl combine sugar, flour and cocoa. Mix ingredients. Pour in the melted butter and beat just until blended then add eggs and vanilla. Mix thoroughly. Pour into prepared pan and bake at 350 degrees for 30-35 minutes. Cool completely.


Mint Layer:

2 sticks (1 cups) butter, softened
4 cups powder sugar
1 tablespoon milk
¼ teaspoon peppermint extract
Few drops of food coloring (pink or green)

Blend all ingredients until smooth and spread over cooled brownies.


Chocolate layer:
12 oz. package semi-sweet chocolate chips
¼ cup butter

Put chocolate chips and butter in a bowl and microwave for 70 seconds. Stir to blend. Spread over mint layer. Refrigerate until set.

A Little Parenting - Teaching Kids to Cook

"Oh I never let my kids in the kitchen. I'm too afraid they would get hurt."

This response came to me during a cooking class I was teaching at my church. This woman's daughter (who was a senior in high school) had babysat my children the night before. The teen called me during my date to ask me how to fix the dinner I had left on the kitchen counter: a box of macaroni and cheese and a plate of fruit.

I was shocked. Was this mother serious. She also had other children at or about to enter the teen years. None of them knew how to cook? I took a quick pool of the other women in the group. Out of all of their children, no one really knew their way around the kitchen. How were those kids going to survive the first time on their own? The first mom replied that she learned to cook after she got married.

I was asked about my own children and when they started learning how to cook. My answer? "As soon as they can stand." Kids love to participate in the kitchen. Cooking and nutrition are important skills to master. It is also a great way to spend time with your kids. Here is my timetable of when kids should learn certain skills:

The Love Magnet, age 4, helping to make oatmeal cookies in 2007.

Ages 2-7: Kids love to dump, pour, stir, drop, and make messes. I keep kid-size aprons around because I know that when I pull out the cookie pans, my youngest will be pulling up a chair so she will be tall enough to help me.

Age 8: this is the magic age in my kitchen when my kids get their first real cooking lesson. I always start with spaghetti....without a recipe and without commercially prepared sauce. Sauce-from-a-jar tastes too sweet to me. So I teach the kids how to create their own tomato sauce with plain canned tomato sauce and adding fresh garlic, anchovy paste, and spices. My kids really get into it and love to come up with their own blend of secret spices. Some are amazing.......others not so much. (The year Firstborn used cinnamon and nutmeg in his tomato sauce will go down in family legend). Wednesday night is always spaghetti night at my house and one of the kids does the cooking. When spaghetti is mastered, then cookies and brownies from scratch follow (dessert for Spaghetti night!) followed by grilled cheese sandwiches and scrambling eggs. After that, I let the kids browse my cookbook collection or watch cooking shows to come up with the next recipe they want to try. They usually want to try their favorite foods.

Ages 8-12: Knife skills! When I cook, I turn my kids into sous chefs and let them take care of the veggies and fruits. I can monitor them for safety and demonstrate when they need it. The kids need to pass of knife skills as part of their Scouts program so it does double duty.

Age 12: By this time my kids they can follow most recipes. For breads, I always start with biscuits, muffins, and quick breads, followed by yeast breads. This is also the time to learn cakes from scratch. That way, when the child comes to me at 10:00 at night and tells me he needs cake/cookies/baked treat for school the next day, I can reply "Great! You know where they ingredients are. Be sure to clean up the kitchen before you go to bed." WOOT!

Secondborn making his famous baconated deviled eggs at Grandma's, Thanksgiving 2010.

My kids are making me proud in the kitchen. Firstborn (age 18) makes an incredible grilled pork loin with a mustard/vinegar sauce that tastes restaurant quality. Secondborn (14) loves making deviled eggs in all their variations. Thirdborn (10) once chose to make pink lemonade cupcakes for a book report (In the book The Seven Silly Eaters, the family made a pink lemonade birthday cake). Even The Love Magnet (8) loves to help in the kitchen. She is still at the dump/pour stage, but I plan on letting her learn knife skills when she has better manual dexterity. Having Down syndrome, we take things slower with her, but we still treat her the same as her brothers. She wants to learn how to cook, too.

Bring your kids into the kitchen and make some memories!

A Little Cuisine ... a week worth of dinner plans

I've been really lax about meal planning lately. School has gotten to me. You think I'd learn that menu planning is what saves my sanity. Lesson learned again, I planned a week's worth of dinner menus (with enough leftovers for my lunches). Since I try to cook vegetarian every other day or so, this menu reflects that. As always, photos are from the respective websites.

First off, I've been craving Swedish comfort food. So Sunday dinner will be Swedish Meatballs with mashed potatoes and gravy, and pickled cukes from My Adventures In Food. She blends Alton Brown's recipe with Cook's Illustrated. It's gotta be good, right?

Monday is meatless at my house. I need a slow cooker recipe since I have school right up until dinnertime. So Monday's meal will be African Eggplant and Chickpea Stew over quinoa from Eating Well Magazine. Monday=Family Night=dessert night at our house, so as long as the kids try three bites of this, they can stuff themselves with banana splits later. Just means more leftovers for my lunches.

Tuesday night will make my carnivores happy. Philly Cheesesteaks recipe is from Eating Well Magazine, too. I'm serving this with sweet potato oven fries.

Wednesday night is always some form of spaghetti night at my house. This time it will be Martha Stewart's Tuna Spaghetti with Lemon and Breadcrumbs. All I need is a green salad and homemade focaccia and I'm good to go.

Thursday night is another night I need to put my slow cooker to work. I'm making cornbread and Smoked Turkey and Lentil Soup from MyRecipes.com

Friday night is my time to enjoy cooking in my kitchen. I love to keep miso paste on hand for Cooking Light's Miso Glazed Salmon. Smashed potatoes and greens. Date night food.

Saturday night is another night I like to eat vegetarian, but don't make my family join me. So I'm going to make Ina Garten's Herbed Baked Eggs. Unfortunately, Ina didn't have a picture of them on Foodnetwork.com, but Shutterbean's blog did. Mr. Wonderful and the boys can fry up bacon to go with it. All I need is some seeded whole wheat toast and fresh fruit.

There you go, a week worth of dinner menus. I have my shopping list ready to go and I'm feeling like I'm in control again. Don't forget to leave a comment with your dinner ideas. I'd love to try them.

A Little Sweet - Valentine Treats

Love, love, LOVE researching for holiday treats! My favorite holiday for treats? Valentines Day of course. Here is what I'm looking to make this year. (Again, picture are thanks to their respective blogs and websites)

Darla at Bakingdom came up with these darling raspberry meringues filled with chocolate. I love the color and tiny size. I am planning on making these to fill cellophane bags for teachers and friends. And a bowl for me. Wouldn't these be great for a bridal or baby shower party anytime? So darn cute!

Sugar Cooking who loves sugar AND cooking (heh!) baked up Red Velvet Cupcakes. My Firstborn loves red velvet cake and his birthday is the first week of February. I'm going to bake a batch of these and secretly invite his friends over. He'll love it.

I found this recipe for Strawberry Napoleons over at Cinemon Girl. I've been making these for years. Its my go-to dessert when I have unexpected guests during the summer. I always keep strawberries (or blueberries, blackberries, raspberries) and puff pastry on hand. The one thing I do differently: I drizzle chocolate on the bottom pastry, top with berries and cream, then drizzle the top pastry layer with more chocolate.

Okay, I will admit that America's Test Kitchens recipe for Triple Chocolate Mousse Torte is a little bit labor intensive. Sooooo worth it! It makes a gorgeous presentation that just begs for a dinner party. Do not be intimidated. It isn't hard, just takes effort.

A Little Romance... The 14 Days of Valentines

20 years ago, while engaged to Mr. Wonderful, I decided to do something completely romantic: I made up the 14 Days of Valentines. Each day, I did something original and inexpensive (we were poor college students) and really put effort into letting him know how much I loved him.

10 years after we were married, I was decluttering drawers and found in his side table drawer every single poem, valentine, and love note I made him for the 14 Days of Valentines when we were engaged. My first thought was "how sweet that he saved all this!" I began to wonder why I didn't continue the tradition. My man needs to feel loved and appreciated. So I started up again. You can do this, too. Heads up on the few rules:

1. Think small, inexpensive, or free. Originality and creativity are more prized than extravagance.

2. This is not to guilt your man into buying you jewelry or flowers. This is completely selfless.

3. Try to be sneaky about this.

4. On Valentines Day, end it with a romantic dinner at home. Yes, at home. Put the kids to bed early, light candles, and have the ultimate quiet meal with your love. If you don't cook, don't worry. Take out is fine. Costco has great meal items, order a fancy schmancy dessert to share from a bakery, or just get takeout from your fave place and take it home. Or head to a romantic place and eat in your heated car. Make out after, in your heated car. When was the last time you did that?

Fun ideas I've done in previous years:

Day 3 is always two movie tix and a box of our fave movie treat.

Day 5 is always "4 cute kids and one cute wife". On year I snapped pics and blew them up into 8x10 black and white prints which I put on his mirror along with the title written in red lipstick. He laughed out loud when he saw it that morning and left it up for weeks, lipstick and all. This year I'm making a collage print at Costco and sneaking into his office to put it up the night before.

Day 10 is always "Ten Things I Love About You". That list is written in calligraphy, rolled into a scroll, tied in a big ribbon, and left on his pillow to find when he gets home.

Day 13 is always "Thirteen ways to say I Love You". I've post-it-noted his truck, stuck hearts on his briefcase, and written in dry-erase marker on his mirror. I've said I Love You in French, Italian, Swahili, Navajo, Klingon, and Vulcan (those last two were a riot). Each year I try to find different languages I haven't used yet.

Other ideas, writing sonnets that he has to read out loud, cheesy poetry, candy bar posters, homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast (the kids loved sharing that one). Iron a shirt for them, write a letter of appreciation, send them a pizza at work with a pepperoni heart........be unique.

Smother that man in sweet love! For more ideas, head to my blog Scarehaircare, scroll down the right side to the links and look for 14 Days of Valentines to see what I (and friends) have done in previous years.

PS. If you do this, post your ideas. I might want to adopt one or two of them for next year.

A Little Cuisine: Shrimp and Grits

This is an easy dinner, something beyond the usual, and around here it's called comfort food. This is not the usual cream-laden version. I like serving this with a green salad with fruit (think spinach with pear/apple/pomegranate and a light vinaigrette). I changed the ingredients somewhat to fit my family's tastes. If you are a vegetarian who eats fish, omit bacon and sub vegetable broth for a vegetarian version. Try subbing polenta for the grits.

Shrimp and Grits
adapted from Southern Living

Servings: 6
2 slices bacon

1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/4 Cup flour
2 Cups sliced mushrooms
2 teaspoons canola oil
1/2 Cup chopped green onion
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Cup low sodium chicken broth
2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice

For Grits:

1 14 oz can low sodium chicken broth
1 Cup skim milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Cup uncooked quick-cooking grits (find in the oatmeal section of your grocery)
3/4 Cup shredded extra sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 Cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Cook bacon in cast iron pan until crisp. Remove bacon, drain on paper towels, and crumble. Reserve 1 teaspoon of bacon drippings in pan.

Peel shrimp; devein if necessary. Sprinkle shrimp with salt and pepper; dredge in flour.

Saute mushrooms in hot drippings with oil in pan 5 minutes or until tender. Add green onions and saute 2 minutes. Add shrimp and garlic, saute 2 minutes or until shrimp are lightly browned. stir in broth and lemon juice and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring to deglaze bottom of skillet. Spoon shrimp mixture over Cheese grits, sprinkle with crumbled bacon and serve.

For Cheese Grits: Bring 3 first ingredients plus 1 1/3 Cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Gradually whisk in grits. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes or until thickened. Stir in cheeses and pepper and serve.

A Little Health... Personal Music Players and Hearing Loss

How many of you received new iPods or MP3 players for the holidays? How many of you use these on a daily basis? Ever wonder if your listening habits affect your hearing? Read on. Here are a few excerpts taken from Noise and Hearing Loss: A Review by Eileen Daniel, DEd.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reports that approximately 30 million Americans are exposed to daily noise levels that will likely lead to hearing loss.

NIOSH defines hazardous noise as sound that exceeds 85 dB (decibels) over a typical 8 hour day.

Listeners using portable music players can expose themselves to the same level of loudness in 15 minutes of music at 100 dB that an industrial worker gets in an 8-hour day at 85 dB.

In a study of over 700 teens (who were typically exposed to sounds exceeding 87 dB), approximately 60% did not consider the noise to be too loud. Of those individuals who did not perceive the music as too loud, 71% suffered from tinnitus and 11% had hearing loss following attendance at a music event.

How often are you or your family plugged into your iPods and MP3 players? How loud have you cranked up the volume? Here is the simple truth: 1 in 5 teenagers have hearing loss due to personal music players. This number rose from 1 in 8 teens in 2006. Audiologists joke that they call iPods "job security". We are about to have a generation who has more hearing loss than their parents or grandparents.

You can buy ear buds that limit volume to 85 dB. iPod does have customized earbuds - the better the fit on your buds, the more outside noise it blocks out and the less dB you need to hear your favorite tunes. You can also program your iPods to not go over 85 dB. FYI: halfway on your iPod volume control is 90 dB. Turn that volume a little to the left and give your ears a break.

Listen To Your Buds is an educational site for kids to learn more about listening safety.

Here is a rap for teens called Turn It To The Left. Research has proven that if children and teens are educated about hearing loss, they will take more care to prevent it.

For adults, a quick hearing assessement quiz at BetterHearing.org. This can help you determine if it would be a good idea to call an audiologist for a hearing screening. By the way, most audiologists will do a basic hearing screening for free.

A Little Cuisine - New Years Day Supper

News Years Day at my house has specific food traditions. From my southern Georgia grandmother, the tradition is black eyed peas for good luck and collard greens for prosperity. For me its just an opportunity to whip up some traditional Southern food. This is great for New Years day or any time. Here are some recipes to get you started. Hoppin' John recipe from She Wears Many Hats. Just like my recipe except her pictures are better than mine. Also, I use the leftover ham in my freezer from Christmas. Sundays at Moosewood has a fabulous vegetarian version of this. I like the toppings they suggest and use those along with my meat version, too. Be sure to pass around Tabasco at the table.

A simple winter fruit salad. I like to use the best fruit I can find at the grocery. Usually it contains most or all of these fruits along with a simple syrup. Pomegranates are a must. Isn't the color of this salad gorgeous? Make leftovers as it's great over yogurt and granola for breakfast the next morning.

Collard Greens from Paula Deen. Don't 'dis them til' you try them. Or, here is a recipe for Vegetarian Southen Style Collard Greens. Be brave and count this as towards your resolution to try new veggies in 2011.

Not pictured but essential at my house: Scarehaircare's Cheese Biscuit (yes, my nickname is Scarehaircare....I'll tell you later.) Whisk together 2 cups flour, 1 Tablespoon baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, and 1 teaspoon salt. Use your fingers to smash 6 Tablespoons butter into the flour mixture (or pulse butter and flour mix in your cuisinart until butter is size of peas). Add 1 cup of shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese (I've been known to up that amount) and then stir in 1 cup of buttermilk until barely mixed (do not over mix). Either drop onto cookie sheet or roll and cut with a biscuit cutter and place on cookie sheet. Bake at 425 degrees for 14-18 minutes. Serve warm.

For dessert (and new to me this year) is this Frozen Key Lime
Mousse Pie. You have to admit, this sounds divine.

There you have it, my traditional Southern New Years Day supper. Do you have New Years food traditions?

A Little Cuisine - How I got my kids to try kale (aka Dijon Chicken Stew with Potatoes and Kale)

Chicken Stew.

The concept seemed relatively safe for a recipe to try on my family. But chicken stew with kale? Would they try kale?

I showed my kids the recipe in 2006 when my Cooking Light issue came in the mail. Leafy green veggies are not popular at this house. But they were willing to try. We shopped for the ingredients together. We chopped the ingredients together. I subbed Yukon potatoes and used only chicken breasts because that is what I already had on hand. Left out the wine in favor of more chicken broth. The kids banged away at the food chopper to mince the garlic. I showed them how to swirl the slices of leek in a big bowl of cold water to make sure all the sand was out. Firstborn taught Secondborn how to use measuring cups and spoons. Everyone tore the ribs off the kale and tore up the leaves.

The kids were in the kitchen with me from beginning to end. We talked about our individual days, what books were currently being read, and plans for the weekend. The Love Magnet set the table with the help of Thirdborn. The only person who had to be called to the table was Mr. Wonderful.

My kids ate kale. That bears repeating from the rooftops: MY KIDS ATE KALE! Being involved for the entire process of putting a meal together gave them a sense of being investors in the meal. Everyone pointed out their contributions to Mr. Wonderful : "Dad, I added the spices.", "I cooked on the stove!", "I tore up the kale, that's a new vegetable.", "Hey, I tore up the kale, too!".

They liked the Dijon Chicken Stew with Potatoes and Kale enough to ask for it to be put on regular rotation at our house. Click on the link and let me introduce you to a regular comfort-food recipe made at my house in the fall.

A Little Cuisine - homemade holiday treats for your neighbors

It's that time of year when I panic as I think "What am I going to give the neighbors?!" Since I've gone back to school, my Decembers are more about Finals Week than baking. So, for the past few years, I've hunted online every holiday for easy holiday treats. Here is what I am looking at this year:

Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies from Recipe Girl. What's not to like? Cookie layer with chocolate and peppermint has to be a winner. It looks easy enough that I am going to let my 14 year old wannabe chef loose in my kitchen. (As long as he cleans up afterwards). He'll be thrilled to have the bragging rights that he made these for our neighbors.

Christmas Crack aka Christmas Toffee Crackers from Smitten Kitchen. My neighbor used to make this every year. Every year the goodies were hidden in my room by me. Let the kids eat something else. Yes, I feel guilt every time I call it Crack, but ohmyheavens it is ADDICTING! Huge bonus: it's super easy to make.

Aren't these absolutely cute? Candy Cane Marshmallows from the Martha Stewart website. BTW, The current issue of Martha Stewart Living has the cutest salt dough ornaments with instructions to make your own. It's on my to-do list.

A Little Gift Idea... Photo Books

(book photo from Blurb website)

I used to scrapbook. I was a minimalist scrapbooker. Get it matted, journal and done. No cutesy scrapbook pages for me...I didn't have time. Now I really don't have time to scrapbook at all. My sis-in-love tuned me into photo books. She originally did one of her blog for the year. Then she made the most darling one of her 9 year old son pulling funny faces. Each page was a different face with accompanying "happy face", "surprised face", "smell-something-bad face", etc. It was a gift for his little sister who was at the perfect age to love picture books.

I recently completed a "year in review" for my grandmother. She lives clear across the country. She doesn't need another sweater or trinket. Her favorite things are pictures. Well, she will receive 30 pages worth! Each page was journaled with where/who/what/why. Some were running shots of face expressions that were priceless. From start to finish it took me less than two hours to put together. It turned out so well that we ordered more for my husband's parents and mine as Christmas gifts.

Blurb is my choice, although other places like Snapfish, Wallgreens, Costco Photo, and Flickr also have their own. Prices for Blurb start at $12.95 for a small square book. I like to use the standard landscape books starting at $19.95. It's incredibly easy to use: you download their free software, plug in your photos, and send it off for printing. There are tutorials so you will have all the knowledge you need to create a fabulous book. If you want to ship it by ground, you need to order by December 12th. If you procrastinate, you still can ship it next day air as long as you order by December 19th. FYI: order before December 10th and GET FREE FLAT RATE SHIPPING! Woot-woot! Use code FESTIVE when you order in the USA. I would like to say I arranged that fab deal for you, but actually it came in my email three days after I ordered mine. Sad for me, great for you.

Photo journals, family cookbooks, storybooks with your kids dressed up as the characters, even your own family version of "The Night Before Christmas"....seriously, whatever theme you invent will be wonderful.

A Little Cuisine... Holiday Food Traditions #1: Gingerbread

Food traditions abound at our house. Smells and tastes combined with family activities just seem to make them more celebratory. When we decorate the tree, I always pop in a pan of Gingerbread to bake. The spicy-sweet smell permeates the house. When the tree is done, we gather round for gingerbread topped with bananas and whipped cream. Our advent calendar is a stack a books: One Christmas book for every night until Christmas. I read the books by the light of the tree while the kids snuggle in quilts.

Christmas tree light, sleepy kids in quilts, and the smell of gingerbread.

Sounds perfect doesn't it?

Lion House Gingerbread

from Lion House Classics cookbook (2004)

1/2 Cup sugar

1/2 Cup butter

1 egg, beaten

1 Cup molasses

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1/2 Cups flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 Cup very hot water

Bananas and whipped cream

Cream butter and sugar well. Add egg and molasses; beat well. Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture. Add hot water and beat until smooth. (Batter will be very thin.)

Pour into well-greased 9x13 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until cake tests done. Serve warm or cold with sliced bananas and whipped cream.