What’s Going on Today: Up earlier, sun is brighter, playground more active – everything is better in springtime. Off to the farmer’s market to pick up fresh veggies and all of my favorites from Ronnybrook Farm.
Naptime Goals: Make big batch of Pancake Mix for pancake breakfast on Saturday.
Tonight’s Menu: Leftover Browned Butter Asparagus Risotto. Leftover Easter candy dessert.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: The bigger the stack of pancakes, the happier the kid.

Tonight there are delicious leftovers in the fridge for dinner so this afternoon I am going to use naptime to stock up on my pantry basics. There many times I do this throughout the year like when I make large batches of pesto, Apricot Jam, Meatballs or Tomato Sauce. It makes so much sense to make these delicious basics in bulk, that way I can always have them on hand instead of making them from scratch every time I need them. Furthermore, I enjoy making them, I am always excited to set aside a naptime or two each month to replenish my supplies.

Today I am making a fresh batch of homemade pancake mix. I know that there are a lot of Bisquick devotees out there, but I am not one of them. I prefer this homemade version to anything store-bought – plus it is much less expensive. I got the idea to add malt powder from my brother, the infamous Uncle Will. He spent a summer working in the kitchen at the Otesaga Hotel and had a chance to tap the Chef for many of his secrets. The key, he told Will, to delicious Belgian waffles and sweet pancakes is malt powder. We took his word for it, tried it in our parent’s kitchen and, wouldn’t you know it, Chef was right! The malt powder gives the pancakes a nice texture and slightly sweetened flavor, erasing any trace of flour or baking soda on the palate.

These days I make my pancake mix in a big batch and keep it in a glass jar with a scoop. This way we have it on hand anytime we need it. Some weekdays, when I have slept especially well, I do a pancake breakfast with my daughter. But, admittedly, I mostly do them on the weekends. The beauty of this pancake mix is that it keeps for several weeks so you can easily whip up a stack anytime you want.

I often take the traditional route when serving pancakes, opting for real butter and delicious homemade maple syrup. But, when I want to change it up I add a dash of almond extract and some lemon zest to the batter to give it lemon almond flavor. Recently I even topped a stack with creamy homemade ricotta and some fresh berries – it was delicious! Any way you like to eat them is fine with me, just make sure the maple syrup is real – not imitation. Also, I think pancakes are best eaten when everyone is still in their jammies.

Homemade Pancake Mix

4 c.	unbleached all-purpose flour
½ c.	malt powder (like Carnation or Horlick’s)
1 t.	cinnamon (optional)
3 T.	baking powder
2 t.	baking soda
2 T.	sugar
1 ½ t.	Kosher salt

1. Mix all ingredients in a big bowl with a whisk. Store in an airtight container until ready to use.

Homemade Pancakes

1 c.	pancake mix (above)
1	egg
1 c.	whole or 2% milk
1 T.	unsalted butter

1. On a skillet or wide, shallow sauce pan heat the butter over medium heat and swirl so that it covers the bottom of the pan.
2. Ladle the 1/3 c. of the batter into the pan and let it warm until bubble starts to show on the surface. Flip quickly with a thin spatula and allow to cook on the other side until golden brown. Serve hot.

The key to this recipe is a malt powder. If you don’t add it your mix may seem a little bland and basic. But, no matter how you make it, be sure to have fun dressing up the pancakes once their made. My favorite toppings are sliced fruits, maple syrup, fruit syrup and sweet cheeses like ricotta or mascarpone.

Make the pancake mix takes all of 5 minutes! Making the batter and enjoying the pancakes takes about another 10 minutes.

My daughter adores pancakes, especially when they are cut up in little triangles that she can dip into a ramekin of warm syrup! My husband likes these too, often served with a side of bacon.

• Family Breakfast, Homemade Gifts & Bake Sales
• Malted Milk Powder, Maple Syrup

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What Going on Today: Spring fever! Outside all morning, quick stop for tomatoes and organic rotisserie chicken before heading home for naptime.
Naptime Goals: Make Tamra Davis’ Ranchero Sauce and prepare Chicken Enchiladas for dinner. Make fresh batch of Mimi’s Tex-Mex Guacamole.
Tonight’s Menu: Chicken Enchiladas with Ranchero Sauce, Mimi’s Tex-Mex Gaucamole, Spanish Rice, White Wine.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: I don’t know who is more excited about spring, me or my daughter!

What is it about the warm weather that makes me want to run for the border? No, not the gross fast-food border, the yummy Tex-Mex border. I didn’t grow up eating a lot of Mexican food, we only ate it when we traveled to Mexico City to visit my cousins. I really developed a taste for it when I moved to New York. There aren’t a ton of great Mexican food places here, but enough to satisfy my curiosity and excite my palate.

I’ve recently become obsessed with the Tamra Davis Cooking Show and her cookbook, Make Me Something Good to Eat. Tamra really knows her stuff and is even becoming our stateside Jamie Oliver with her great initiative, Five For Kids, teaching cooking and healthy eating habits in NYC’s public schools. Since Tamra is from L.A. she knows her Mexican food backwards and forwards and, I am thrilled to say, devotes an entire chapter to it in her cookbook.

With the arrival of spring I’ve been craving lighter, spicier food. Over the past two weeks I’ve tucked away all of my heavy soup and casserole recipes, opting to cook with light, fresh spring flavors. And Mexican food, the way I make it, is exactly that. I don’t laden it down with heavy oily cheese and sour cream, instead I use fresh corn tortillas, light, spicy tomato sauce and fresh seasonings. When I made this yesterday my daughter and I stopped at Las Palomas, the awesome Mexican grocery store in my neighborhood, to pick up chilis and tortillas. (I could have bought the whole store that place is so great.) It’s not quite tomato season yet, but I was still able to find some beauties at my local grocery store which were perfect for the sauce. Then, to save myself time, I picked up an organic rotisserie chicken at Whole Foods to shred for the enchilada filling.

Enchiladas are a great dish to prepare during naptime. Yesterday I simply made the sauce, shredded the chicken and prepared a casserole dish full of the assembled tortillas. Then I left it, covered in the fridge, until I was ready to bake it later that evening. I also decided to change up our green portion of the meal and whipped up a naptime batch of Mimi’s Tex-Mex Guacamole, my first of the season. It is great for dipping the enchiladas in, I prefer it over sour cream.

When dinner time came around I baked the enchiladas, prepared the rice and our meal was served. It was a great Mexican feast that everyone was able to enjoy. My daughter opted out of the guacamole but was game for the basic chicken enchilada. My husband devoured his plate, as I did mine. The meal was a delicious and Tamra’s sauce recipe is a real treasure. Fresh, spicy and light, it really made the enchiladas tastier then ever before – the perfect meal for any foodie family. We especially liked that we were able to eat our meal while the sun was still out and the birds chirping at 6:30pm. Spring really has arrived.

Chicken Enchiladas with Tamra’s Ranchero Sauce

sauce recipe adapted from Make Me Something Good to Eat by Tamra Davis

2-3 lb.	organic rotisserie chicken
1	pack small corn tortillas
1	batch Tamra’s Ranchero Sauce
2 c.	Grated Monterey Jack and Cheddar Cheese mix

Tamra’s Ranchero Sauce

5	medium tomatoes
2	garlic cloves
½	yellow onion, sliced
2	red chilis
½ t.	oregano
½ t.	Kosher salt
1 T.	powdered vegetable stock

To make Sauce:
1. In a large 4 quart sauce pan bring 4 cups of water to a boil. Add the tomatoes and the garlic and cook for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, in a separate skillet heat 1 t. of olive oil and saute the onions until soft. In the boiling water the tomato skins should start to peel off on their own. After 20 minutes remove the tomatoes and strip them of their skins.
2. Place the peeled tomatoes, garlic cloves, softened onions, chilies, salt, vegetable stock and oregano in a blender with about ½ c. of the cooking water. Blend well. Taste it with a spoon and add more salt or chilies as needed.
3. Pour sauce back into the sauce pan and cook for another 15-20 minutes on a low simmer, it will thicken up slightly and can be used right away, or stored for up to 3 days in the fridge in a sealed container.

To Assemble Enchiladas:
1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Brush the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish lightly with olive oil.
2. Carve the rotisserie chicken and shred the meat with the tines of a fork until the strips are small enough to be wrapped in a tortilla.
3. Lay a tortilla on the counter, place a small pile of meat on it, then drizzle with a Tablespoon of Ranchero sauce and sprinkle with cheese. Roll up the tortilla and place it, opening side down, in the baking dish. Repeat until baking dish is totally full. This usually makes about 14 enchiladas when I make it.
4. Pour 1 ½ c. of Ranchero Sauce over the enchiladas and sprinkle with remaining shredded cheese.  If making ahead, at this point the enchiladas can be covered with plastic and placed in the fridge until dinner time.
5. Bake at 350ºF for 35 minutes, or until top is bubbly. Serve hot.

I like to make our enchiladas with chicken, but you could also make them with shredded beef if preferred. They would also be good stuffed with more vegetables like peppers or spanish rice. I usually serve rice on the side.

Preparing the sauces takes about 20 minutes. Preparing the enchiladas takes about 20 minutes. Baking time is 45 minutes.

Enchiladas are a great meal for both adults and children, these got rave reviews all around. Any leftover cheese and tortillas can be used to make quesadillas the next day for lunch.

• Main Courses
• Cheese, Chicken, Tomatoes

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What’s Going on Today: Visiting a friend in upstate New York, major arts and crafts projects with kids!
Naptime Goals: Relaxing with good friends while the kids nap, making cookie dough to prepare for decorating Linzer cookies.
Tonight’s Menu: Baked Chicken, Creamy Polenta, Carrot Souffle, Easter Linzer cookies.
Parenting Lesson of the Day: Sleepovers are so much fun, no matter how old you get!

This year we won’t have a big Easter celebration since we’ll just have returned from traveling, but that hasn’t deterred us from undertaking a few holiday related projects this month. When we were visiting our friends in upstate New York last week the other Mom and I decided it would be fun to bake some cookies with the girls. Ever the fans of baking projects – any chance to eat cookie dough (!) – the girls completely agreed.

Since they both still nap in the afternoon it was easy for us to set up the project. We simply prepared the dough in mid-afternoon and cut out the shapes with the cookie cutters. Then, we set out some fun sprinkles and let them go to town decorating when they woke up. You should have seen the mess on the kitchen floor! After the cookies had baked and cooled they finishing them by spreading the jam on – rather sloppily – and placing the cut-out cookie on top.

To play up the Easter theme we used a mini bunny cookie cutter instead of the usual smaller circle. It was a cute way to give our favorite jam cookies a holiday twist. Needless to say, holding the girls back from eating more than one before dinner was quite tough. However, in typical kid fashion, the cookies were the perfect incentive to get them to clean their plates!

Best wishes to everyone for a fun, family holiday this weekend!

Linzer Cookies for Easter

adapted from Barefoot Contessa

Confectioners’ sugar or Sprinkles, for dusting

¾ lb	. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 c.	granulated sugar
1 t.	good quality vanilla extract
3 ½ c.	all-purpose flour
1 t.	lemon zest (use Meyer if possible)
½ t.	Kosher salt
¾ c.	Raspberry preserves or any homemade jam

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or Silpat.
2. Sift together flour and salt in a bowl and set aside.
3. In a mix cream the butter and sugar until totally combined. Then, add the vanilla and lemon zest, mix again. With the mixer on low, add in the flour/salt mixture until the dough comes together. Do not overbeat. Wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Place the dough on a floured surface and roll out until ¼ inch thick. Cut out rounds in a 3 inch round cookie cutter. With ½ of the rounds, cut out a smaller shape – like an easter bunny or similar. Use extra dough to form a few more cookies. Place all cookies on the cookies sheets and bake for 20-25 minutes.
5. Allow cookies to cool to room temperature. Then, spread raspberry preserves on the bottom cookie and place the cut-out cookie on top. Dust the top of cookies with confectioners’ sugar.

Instead of confectioners’ sugar the kids love decorating with sprinkles, feel free to do the same. Also, instead of lemon zest you could use orange zest, and feel free to use another flavored jam if you prefer.

Making the dough takes about 10 minutes, then baking and assembling the cookies takes around 30 minutes (or longer with kids!)

Jam sandwich cookies are fantastic for families or serving at more formal teas. I think I might try my homemade Apricot Jam in these this summer.

• Bread & Desserts, Freezer-Friendly
• Lemon

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