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: Make a delicious, decadent breakfast for my daughter and husband with my snazzy new waffle maker!

This week I am all about my new heart shaped waffle maker. Can you tell? If you want a waffle maker like this be sure to stop by this post on my Products Review page to enter to win one! After you’ve done that come back and we can talk waffles. Chocolate Malt Waffles to be specific. Today’s Powernap is brought to your courtesy of my sweet tooth. Sure, I love poached eggs on toast for breakfast, too, but why not go hog wild for Valentine’s Day! Who wouldn’t love to wake up to a stack of waffles with thin slices of strawberries and whipped cream. I know I would!

This is the latest 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 Melinda is sharing a great recipe for Tetrazzini she makes for her family. And, speaking of family, I’d like to congratulate my friend Cheryl Tan on the publication of her family food memoir, “A Tiger in the Kitchen.” Today a group of bloggers are celebrating Cheryl’s book and I am thrilled to be included.

Melinda Nelson is the editor of Minneapolis-St.Paul Home magazine and the mother of India, age 13, and Peter, age 16. Given the demands of work, school, snowboarding, skiing and other sports, Melinda loves simple but satisfying entrees that can be made ahead on weekends, refrigerated or frozen and heated on busy weekday evenings. Tetrazzini, a baked pasta dish made with cooked, chopped meat, spaghetti noodles, and a savory white sauce, is a favorite of Melinda’s family and friends.

According to San Francisco legend, the recipe was created at the Palace Hotel by a chef named Ernest Arbogast for Luisa Tetrazzini, an Italian opera singer who lived, Eloise-style, at the hotel for many years. “The original version was extremely decadent, with heavy cream, sautéed mushrooms and sliced almonds, but I prefer a slightly lighter version, made with milk and without mushrooms or nuts,” Melinda says. “You can also find recipes for Tetrazzini that call for canned cream of chicken soup and bouillon, but I’ll never be that short of time!”

A romantic Valentine’s Day breakfast? Did you read that right? Yes, you did! Come on over to my Product Reviews page to check out a great Valentine’s Day giveaway going on this week! Oh, and there are some great recipes, too. Read Full Post…

What’s Going on Today: Manic Monday, pre-school spring social auction meeting, gym, groceries, weekend laundry!

Naptime Goals: Make dumplings, assemble soup in slow-cooker and brainstorm for school fundraiser ideas.

Tonight’s Menu: Sausage & Spinach Soup with Cornmeal Dumplings, cheese toast.

More Great Slow-Cooker Recipes from Project Sam: Spicy Sausage Slow-Cooker Lasagna, Slow-Cooker Short Ribs Pronvencale.

The snowbank at the end of our driveway stands one foot higher than my SUV. I have been known to exaggerate from time to time, but I can assure you that is not the case here. If we get one more flake of snow before this stuff melts I am buying a one-way ticket south, as in Mexico-south, and kissing away shovels forever. You’ll know I’ve made good on this threat when I start writing about the naptime margaritas I make in my beach shack while my daughter naps in a hammock strung up between palm trees! I think after I’m finished writing this I might research affordable plane tickets. However, until my tropical beach dwelling fantasy comes true, you can still find me here, in snowy Connecticut, digging my daughter out of snow piles and slow-cooking up a storm.

This week I decided to work on a hot soup recipe for Project Sam. I was inspired to make it after reading the January Bon Appetit issue about winter greens. Unfortunately, the winter greens required for the recipe managed to elude me at the store, so I used baby spinach instead. The rest of the ingredients were basic and easy to find and the resulting meal was just the balm I needed to soothe my frazzled and frozen nerves.

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: I needed a cake to showcase the flavor of Meyer lemons for my lemon-loving parents.

My parents came to visit last week and we had a blast together. I loved showing them around our new town and watching them enjoy their granddaughter. You should have seen her face when they surprised her at school pick-up! Cooking-wise I had some fun, too.  During the course of their visit I gave them a preview of a few book recipes and treated them to some flavors they can’t get locally in Cooperstown. For example, my Mom can’t find Meyer lemons in upstate New York so I had baked her this Meyer lemon cake. It was inspired by my friend Merry’s cake recipe, though I tweaked the flavorings and used my favorite Fiori de Sicilia from King Arthur Flour in lieu of several other extracts. It was the perfect treat for snowy winter visit. This spring when they come back I’ll take them to our farmer’s market and we’ll bake with something with fresh strawberries!