what B eats.

the question of what my kids eat gets asked often. 

as in quite a bit. 

its cool, I am not sure how to answer that doesn't give a false sense of "perfection". 

Perfect we are NOT. 

Adapted & Expanded we are.

They all have had every vegetable, squash, fruit, pasta, protein, strange & unusual thing we have. 

why? 

because then you have kids that realize food is suppose to taste & be real. 

case in point.

pizza.

easy.

we all love pizza. 

this particular night we picked up a take & bake

not my favorite but it did the job for kiddos

and I made steamed broccoli

{which they love}

and had celery leftover from snacks....

B had a piece of cheese pizza

a small pile of salad 

a mound of broccoli

and celery with dip

this is what his plate looked like after dinner

He'd eaten most of his greens & left the cheese pizza

which he does like BTW.

little salad left

little broccoli left

small splinter of celery left

glass of milk gone. 

see, don't be jumpin into that false boat

they do NOT eat everything. 

BUT

we do offer and keep offering and have always offered everything. 

4 love love love green beans. 

1 does not

1 love love love peas

4 do not.

Do I still cook green beans & peas

yeah, I love em!

Its just meant as an encouragement for you to not give up and keep trying all things. You never know. And for their sake give them the pleasure of eating real tasty fresh colorful foods.

Tyler Florence Store-Mill Valley

So excited to celebrate & congratulate good friends

and a good book.

OH and I get to do a little shopping in one of my favorite stores ever....

new book 

Tyler Florence 

Family Dinners

can't wait

don't know what to make for dinner? inspire yourself.

Does this not inspire you? It does me!

 This is my kind of grocery shopping...

And how can I not be both inspired & crazy about food when this is how I get to grocery shop?!

 So I had to get things for dinner...but only knew I had chicken defrosted. What to go with it? 

Don't those tomatoes just scream-eat me! Make me the center of your sandwich! 

A vegetable often forgotten- cauliflower. In our house, it is a favorite! For whatever reason, they all like broccoli & cauliflower. WhY? Not sure but look at the size of it! And it literally was just picked. I had to buy it. I think for a lot of people, cauliflower is a accompanyment, it goes along with _____. But I use it for something very much close to my heart, mash potatoes.

so fresh & colorful. Thats what they say, eat lots of different colors. Yes, sir!

This is my basket. There is garlic onion parsley leek cauliflower & a very large leek! Oh and lemons because you always need a fresh lemon handy & gorgeous yellow zucchini. 

That was all the inspiration I needed. 

so. 

this is a family favorite. I make cauliflower into "mashed potato" substitution. 

NOTHING is wrong with mashed potatoes, but they are not vegetable in my book.

They are starch. 

and literally my favorite thing on a plate, but for my mommy nutrition mode, this is just a yum. 

seriously.

Start with cauliflower & leek. Chop up leek into smaller florets but no need to be tiny, you just want them close to the same size so they cook evenly in the pot. 

And clean & slice up the white & light green part of a leek. 

Add them to a pot you would boil potatoes in & cover with water. 

Cook until very soft but not disintegrating into the water. Pour off the water & put back on the stove to get rid of any excess moisture, this step is important. 

Then, add the soft cauliflower & leek mixture to your food processor with blade attachment. 

Puree. Add some butter & milk til starts to look like those familiar tator....and a generous amount of salt & little cracked pepper. Taste. Season again if needed. 

Then I use this as a side dish (oh, but its all vegetable!!)

and did I mention no carb too?

Are those the cutest chubby fingers?

That's my little helper, he LOVES to chop. 

And sits perched on the counter every time Chef or I am cooking. 

Tonight he chopped both the zuc & the parsley.

He's enough lovin' to keep me cookin'

The ended meal wasn't photographed (sorry)

but the Chef made chicken cacciatore with what we had gotten at the Farm stand. And it went perfect with the Cauliflower puree. 

Needless to say, we can't grocery shop like this all year, so find a stop with local veg & let that decide what's for dinner.

 and dessert.

Hello.

This tomato had me at Hello. 

I mean, truly how could anyone resist such color!?

That's my half engulfed tomato on bagel after I had forgotten to snap a picture before biting into it. 

All I can say is thank God for heirlooms. 

Hello.

inspired.

This picture saved the day....

How you ask can that save the day...well, I needed inspiration. My devoted chef had a French Wine Dinner planned & I knew in the midst of a full day in the Kitchen-he'd have no time to tend to the table.

I on the other hand, had a full day too but looked at my fun party books. Nada. Looked at my fav party blogs. Nada.

Looked through my fav french cookbook which happends to be Ina Garten's (simply because it is simple).

The picture always makes me smile. It is so Frenchy French & colorful...IDEA!

Why not use that as a "French Dinner Centerpiece"

and that's just what I did....

Took white butcher paper down the center

Placed several cake pedastals down the center to give it height.

Then set it with new yellow & white kitchen towels as napkins.

Hap-hazard-ly placed lots of wine glasses strewn down the middle as well, after all it was a bring your own wine dinner & more bottles open, more glasses shared the better.

Then I took branches off my olive trees & placed them in sparse spots. Took small souffle looking ramkins filled with kosher salt. And simple french votives placed in rows of 3 throughout.

And of course a couple long white plates with bagettes & butter.

The color- came from .49 bunches of radishes placed on top of the pedastals. Lovely, and french without Eiffel Towers & Poodles.

Voila!

A few notes in French

And we had a fantastic dinner party! Then of course along with My Devoted Chef introducing the first course, he explained my table. Which then lead everyone to EAT my table! Ha!

They all asked...but then the radishes were a big hit!! Who knew...

Zucchini Beignets with Roast Fennel and Olive Tepenade

Second Course: Chef descriptor

Frisee, Lardons and 1 hour egg with Grain Mustard Vinaigrette

Loup De Mer A La Provencale

Steak Frite with Sauce Bernaise

Damage done all for the French....Oi'

friends & new fans signing the Chef wall of love...

he loves RED.

starting off...

This was breakfast this morning. Oh how I adore breakfast with the crunch factor of arugula mesclun mix. If you haven't tried it, sounds too wierd to have salad, give it a try! Too much breakfast these days is carb centered-I go for flavor centered! It went down like this (thanks in part to Trader Joe's)

A pita bread circle cut in half

3 egg whites

small handful of their smoked grated cheese blend

stir softly & DO NOT over cook the eggs. The cheese makes it look "wet" still, its not.

Then salt & pepper

and slide the eggs into your half pitas

Top with handful of desired mesclun mix.

Delightful & delicious.