awesome kids stuff in L.A.

As I join the ranks of SAHMs and find myself scrambling for stuff to do I think I'm gonna keep a running post of the interesting places we're going (mostly on the Westside) in case anyone's looking for inspiration...

Best places to go in the rain:
Petersen Automotive Museum, 3rd floor for kids
Noah's Ark at the Skirball Cultural Center
Bowling at Bay Shore Lanes in Santa Monica
(The Santa Monica aquarium beneath the Pier doesn't make the cut since it's tiny, cute, but tiny. And won't waste more than 20 mins for a kid Ben's age.)

Fun, free way to kill a couple of hours: The observatory deck at the Santa Monica Airport. They let you get within spitting distance of the planes. Definitely best for slightly older kids who won't freak at the noise.

Best place to get non-lame and affordable toddler clothes:
Zara on the Third St. Promenade

Best farmer's market for pony rides and celebrity sightings:
Sundays on Main Street in Santa Monica. (And if you must know, Tobey Maguire & fam, Dermot Mulroney & fam and Natasha McElhone, which was a tragic sighting since we saw her there the same day her husband died in London.)
I'm adding the Brentwood Country Mart to the list because Alyson Hannigan and her child were there recently checking out the Sunday petting zoo/pony rides!

Best old-timey neighborhood ice cream place that will remind you of your childhood:
Sweet Rose Creamery at the Brentwood Country Mart

Best trick-or-treating neighborhoods:
24th - 26th Street in Brentwood, north of Montana
The canals in Venice

Best park/playground you'd never find without knowing it was there: Aidan's Place on Sepulveda just south of Wilshire (hidden behind the Westwood Tennis Center).

(Originally posted October 14th, 2010)

spaghetti tacos...it's come to this?!

The NY Times just ran a story on spaghetti tacos as a trend among kids in the States. Literally, pasta sandwiched between a taco shell. It started on some tween show called iCarly and caught on to the point that parents and kids across the country are making them. My immediate reaction is, "I will NEVER make a spaghetti taco." It just sounds gross. But judging by all the parenting vows I've made and broken since B. was born (that kid can play me like a fiddle in the kitchen--who am I kidding, basically anywhere) I have a horrible feeling spaghetti tacos or whatever is trendy 10 years from now will be inevitable. Blergh.

yummy apple muffins!

Another rainy day meant we had to stay home but it gave me the chance to make these apple muffins (originally from Bon Appetit). They're so good and so easy compared to other muffin recipes. I even let B. help and make a huge mess--since I'm working to get over the whole Martha Stewart perfection thing before I give the kid a complex :)

Apple Muffins
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus a pinch of whatever else you've got in the pantry: allspice, ginger or nutmeg)
1 peeled and grated apple

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Put liners in muffin cups. Whisk together butter, brown sugar, milk, egg and vanilla until well mixed. Measure out the dry ingredients and stir gently with the milk mixture. Fold in the grated apple. Divide batter between the muffin cups (makes about 10-12) and bake for about 20-25 minutes.

all this time on my hands

Things I meant to make this week but ran out of time while caring for an 18-month-old boy and juggling a freelance career: beet salad, stuffed zucchini, roasted carrots, chicken kabobs, tzaziki, apple muffins and something with the seven bunches of fresh herbs that are currently wilting in my vegetable crisper.

But since it's raining today, and I have no idea what to do for fun in L.A. when you can't go outdoors, we'll probably end up making apple muffins after B. wakes up from his nap. Stay tuned...

eat yer veggies!

Week 2 of being at home (I have some notes saved from last week that I'll be posting soon) and it's been mostly snot and Baby Einstein DVDs. We're all sick and had to skip the art and music classes I signed up for last week. With that in mind I made a tomato sauce last night with a ton of hidden vegetables for extra nutrients. B.'s been really picky and since I want him to keep eating (and not throw a fit and get all blubbery) I've been a real pushover lately. Poor boy doesn't realize the tough love in store once he gets better. Anyway, I grated one carrot, one zucchini and one eggplant into a pan with garlic, one chopped roasted red pepper and a 16 oz box of Pomi tomatoes and then pureed with a hand blender once everything had melted together over medium heat and tossed with macaroni and ricotta. That's five vegetables at once. Mommy FTW!

avoiding starbucks

I am not a morning person (or really an evening person either...but whatever) but when I can summon the energy I push B. in his blue car (still in pajamas, of course) to our local Starbucks for some liquid strength. Except our Starbucks happens to be the same coffee shop that caters to all the Google, Yahoo and MTV hipsters who work down the street. This is gonna sound crazy but there's something about standing there in my sweats with a snotty kid and being judged by a bunch of 20-something tech heads that just makes me want to run the other way. When I'm pulled together I have no problem with it but there's just something so pathetic about standing there in pajama pants, an oversized sweatshirt, clunky shoes and unbrushed hair--I think I'd swear off motherhood myself if I could see my own reflection. The natural solution would be to get up earlier and actually get dressed for the occasion but since that's NEVER gonna happen I just walk an extra few blocks to the slacker Starbucks in the opposite direction. Which makes me one of the most resourceful lazy people I know.

uh-oh, brat at the store

Am I making a huge mistake? B. would happen to choose the day before I quit to act like a real terrible 2-year-old toddler. He thought it was the funniest thing to smack my face in the middle of the grocery store and there was only so mad I could get in front of the Whole Foods produce guy. And it really just hit me (no pun intended) that we’re going into the terrible twos...just in time for me to be home with him. And it won’t be somebody else’s problem, it’s gonna be mine, all mine. Bleh. Suspecting the timing of this might sucks. Should I have waited until he turned three? LOL. Joking, sort of.

freedom just around the corner

There's none of the usual anxiety I feel on the weekends, like I should be prepping for the week ahead and I'm worried about being behind because I’ve spent the weekend playing with B. and going to the farmer’s market. I’m sitting with him longer, playing silly games and not rushing to divide my time between him and the laptop. I bought four different kinds of herbs this morning at the farmer’s market: parsley, dill, sage and basil, and assume I’ll be able to use all of them at some point within the next week…as opposed to stocking the fridge with prepared meals. It’s corny but it’s my waiting to exhale moment. Not spending the weekend searching for material to cover Monday is like being told some big test is no longer happening--a big fricking relief.

better meals just days away

I quit my job this month. And just in time. I haven't made anything--not even applesauce--for weeks. (Ok, I have kept up the Saturday morning pancake tradition but that's because I can't think of anything else better to do at 6 a.m. on a weekend.) B. has lived on a diet of quesadillas, pasta with plain tomato sauce and prepared chicken breasts with canned sweet potato puree for longer than I like to admit. Bleh. I can't wait to get back into the kitchen once I'm home full time (September 7th is the magic day). The only thing I'm worried about at this point is having zero budget to buy fun stuff at Whole Foods. Mommy + no job = very broke family. So making good food cheap will be my new goal starting in two weeks. Oh and blogging more often :)

beets really aren't that bad

I put so much effort into feeding B. a healthy, balanced diet that I've really felt the need to step it up myself, get healthy and set a better example. Which fits in with this great Mark Bittman article about making family meals a priority. To boil it down, don't say you're too busy to cook and then settle in to watch an hour of TV says Bittman. (Busted!) Just make the time. Which brings us to these beets. I've been meaning to experiment with more veggies, including some golden yellow beets I found at the farmer's market. I roasted them up to make a nice grown-up salad and, bonus, B. was perfectly happy to eat chopped up beets (which is way more adventurous than I was at his age, or even six months ago!).

Roasted Beets with Orange Vinaigrette and Goats Cheese
6 beets with stems cut off but skin on
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 ounces fresh goat cheese
1/2 orange
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the beets (skin on) in a baking dish, drizzle with two tablespoons of olive oil and cover well with aluminum foil. Roast for about 40 minutes or until the beets are tender. Once the beets have cooled, the skin peels off easily. Cut the beets into chunky slices and arrange on a serving platter. Zest and juice the orange and whisk together with the leftover tablespoon of olive oil. Drizzle the beets with the orange vinaigrette. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and top with crumbled goats cheese.

*This is a modified recipe from New Flavors for Vegetables