What’s Going on Today: Catching up after the weekend in Boston! Back to work on the book.

Naptime Goals: Unload groceries, set up the slow-cooker, ignore it until dinner time!

Tonight’s Menu: Slow-Cooker Short Ribs Pronvencale, Egg Noodles and Salad.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: A little time away is good for everyone.

Last weekend my husband and I spent the first weekend without our daughter since she was born. We went to Boston while she stayed, happily, with her grandparents. We missed her a lot, but I think the time alone was most sane thing we’ve done in a long while. We really needed a break from our routine. We ate what we wanted when we wanted, went to movies, explored Boston (travel series to come soon) and even took some time to do pretty much nothing. There was no schedule, no extra noise, just peace and quiet with each other. Of course, we were happy to have our reunion on Monday. I was thrilled to give my little bug a big hug and kiss and listen to all of her stories about time with Nana.

When we arrived home late Monday night the house was clean and oddly peaceful, even when we had rolled our bags upstairs and deposited laundry all over the bedrooms. It seemed we had managed to bring our aura of calm happiness back home with us and I didn’t want to spoil it too quickly by snapping into my usual Type-A Mom mode. So, instead of writing up several shopping lists and embarking on a mega-grocery trip that evening, I spent 15 minutes at the store buying just enough to get us by for a few days. A bigger grocery trip could wait.

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

Today’s Powernap Situation: Too many Clementines, what to do?

The only problem with Clementines is that there are so many in each bag. I mean, really, I don’t need 3 dozen fruits for three people. However, my daughter loves Clementines so I buy the big bag anyway and force my husband to take some to work while I gulp down equal amounts with every meal. I found this strategy of eating them in mass quantities is the best way to guarantee none will have a chance to rot and be thrown out. I hate wasting good food. I’ve baked with Clementines before but find that recipes usually only call for two or three of them. Not enough to make a significant dent in my bowl. Plus, it means adding more sweets to my day, not necessarily the healthiest way to enjoy fruit.

Last week I was staring at a near full bowl of Clemmies (my daughter’s name for them) knowing we were leaving on a trip in less than 48 hours. I wondered, could I slice them in half, sprinkle them with sugar and broil them like I did with oranges and grapefruits for a quick nutritious dessert? Would their juices caramelize enough that I could use some to make a delicious caramelized citrus vinaigrette?

This is the 10th installment of my Tales from the Trenches Series. An ongoing series where friends and readers share their stories and recipes about the great food they fit into family life. We all have tips and tricks to share with each other: when we cook, what we cook and how we cook the delicious food we love to eat. If you are interested in contributing a story and recipe please feel free to contact me. Today my friend Gina is sharing her New Year’s Resolution and how it has affected her cooking style in the New Year. Gina and I immediately connected over the point that she never, ever sacrifices cooking delicious food just because she has such a busy family life. There is always a way to fit it in, and this is how she does it!

In the spirit of full disclosure, I have something to confess: I am to cookbooks what Imelda Marcos is to shoes.  I own WAY too many.  It’s true: I have rarely met a cookbook I didn’t like, and my rather vast collection is threatening to take over my house and force my family to find alternative living arrangements.   And while I cook and bake constantly, it seemed that I owned an awful lot of books with great recipes that had never seen the light of day.  In order to justify owning so many cookbooks, I made a New Year’s resolution this year to get them off the bookshelves and start using them on a weekly basis.  While the blog, book and movie “Julie and Julia” has inspired a growing number of food blogs devoted to cooking from one book from start to finish, I chose instead to select recipes from a wide variety of books and hopefully remind myself why I bought the book in the first place.

Here I’m sharing a new favorite recipe for braised short ribs from “Urban Italian” by Andrew Carmellini, a fantastic book with wonderful stories and recipes by one of New York’s most talented chefs.  Braises are great for this time of year and perfect for starting early in the day as they usually require a few hours of advance cooking before they’re ready to serve.  And while my two children are admittedly a few years beyond the napping stage, I still use the afternoon hours to get a head start on dinner since my side job as family chauffeur usually interferes with any last minute dinner preparations.

What’s Going on Today: Shoveling, sledding, laundry, more shoveling.

Naptime Goals: Peel garlic cloves, cut up the chicken, write Babble columns.

Tonight’s Menu: Mistral’s Chicken, creamy polenta, arugula salad.

Parenting Lesson of the Day: Pulling them in the sled can be quite a workout!

There is something about snowstorms that sends me running for my dutch oven. It is like the cold weather triggers some deep seeded need for rich, homey food that is piping hot and packed with flavor. Luckily, when this happened during the snowstorm in Connecticut last weekend I had a roaster chicken and my camera at the ready. As the flakes fell on Friday night visions of tender roast chicken and porridge-like polenta danced in my head. A meal that was hearty, but not heavy; flavorful, but not overwhelmingly so.

This is the latest installment of my Powernap column. The series where I share quick, easy food that can be made for all kinds of situations. Powernaps are short and sweet, and so are these recipes. These are the things I make in a jiffy when I need a quick snack, am in the mood for a recipe experiment, or simply need to clean out the pantry.

Today’s Powernap: The quick and easy cookies I like to serve at the JMcLaughlin Cafe

I’ve been catering the JMcLaughlin Westport Cafe for almost two months now and I want to share one of the cookie recipes I’m making this month. They are just SO good that it would be a crime to not mention them. You all know how much I love Mexican Chocolate Cake and Mexican Hot Chocolate so you can just imagine how I swoon over these cookies. Sweet, spicy and very chocolaty, they hit all the right notes for a rich winter cookie. I’ve often make the dough during naptime and bake them after my daughter goes to bed or before she wakes up in the morning. Then I deliver them to the store by 9am. Be sure to swing by if you want a taste. Or, just print the recipe and enjoy them at home!

This is the 9th installment of my Tales from the Trenches Series. An ongoing series where friends and readers share their stories and recipes about the great food they fit into family life. We all have tips and tricks to share with each other: when we cook, what we cook and how we cook the delicious food we love to eat. If you are interested in contributing a story and recipe please feel free to contact me. Today my friend Lily is sharing a recipe for a favorite meal she and her husband share after their daughter goes to bed. Lily and I have known each other since high school and these days she is busy mother, wife and doctoral student in New York.

I have the great fortune of having a husband who loves to cook.  Most nights he makes dinner after we put our 17 month-old daughter to bed.  However, as our daughter gets older, I’m realizing that at some point we will have to start eating dinner as a family.  That’s the way I was raised and I have so many fond and funny memories of family dinners from my childhood.  Because my husband usually doesn’t get home from work until 7:00, I am now, for the first time, facing the prospect of making dinner for the whole family by myself.  Over the last few months, I’ve given it a try a few times just to see what works, and one night I almost accidentally came up with what turned out to be an amazingly simple and really delicious pasta sauce, inspired by puttanesca sauce.  It was invented out of necessity and the ingredients I had on hand, but has become a favorite.  It can be made in less than 30 minutes, and stored in the fridge (or freezer) until dinner time.  It’s made with fresh tomatoes but involves no peeling or seeding.  I love that because it’s all fresh ingredients, you can use as many organic ingredients as you can get your hands on.  And my foodie husband can’t get enough of it.  I hope you enjoy it.