Family & Home

Although I spend a lot of my time thinking and writing about good food, I'm pretty inconsistent when it comes to what I actually do. When my (then) three-year-old boy went on a calcium strike, for example, I caved in after about four minutes and made him chocolate milk. When my daughter pouted instead of getting dressed for school, I offered a piece of candy as motivation to speed things up. When I picked the kids up from school, I'd bring lollipops and crackers. When I had a rough day at work, I'd reward myself with a piece of ice cream pie.

I'm writing about these things in the past tense because I'm committed to change. Summer's coming, and my strategy of doling out treats in order to keep people happy needs to change. It will change.

Sugar is enjoying a resurgence in popularity after years of being vilified for empty calories and its role in things like tooth decay, obesity and diabetes. As the negative effects of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have become better known, sugar's profile has risen. Cane sugar, as opposed to cheaper beet sugar, has especially benefited from HFCS's bad press; it is actually being touted as a healthful ingredient. Yet cane and beet sugars are highly processed, refined and provide no nutritional value. Other, less refined, sweeteners have some benefits that sugar doesn't. Yet nearly all of them raise blood sugar, and have little nutritive value. So why bother?

I think most people associate the term “kid-friendly” with bright colors. A kid-friendly party would have a clown in a neon costume. A kid-friendly park would have some kind of large climbing apparatus painted in blinding primary colors.

To me, however, kid-friendly is the color white. As in a white flag.  As in “I surrender.” The most kid-friendly item in our house is, of course, the TV; when a kid is in front of it watching a show with say, a bright purple dinosaur, it’s a reminder of the fact that I’ve simply given up for half an hour.

I begin with a confession. I’m a mother and I don’t like Mother’s Day. There. I said it.

I know I'm not the only one. Admit it. You, too, think Mother's Day is another contrived holiday, a la Valentines’ Day, that pressures normally reasonable people to (a) buy silly, impersonal cards, (b) send pesticide-ridden flowers, (c) take their loved ones to crowded restaurants at odd times of the day because all the reservations at normal meal times (like before 10:00 p.m.) have been overbooked for six weeks.

Or (d) do something really outrageous, like make mom eat breakfast in bed.

Don't get me wrong. I love the original intent of breakfast in bed, but the right setting with the right company is crucial to its success. (Imagine, if you will, a romantic, lakeside inn; a bed pilled high with pillows, down comforters, and sheets I will never have to wash; and a passionate, pleasing and playful BFWB. You get the picture?)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I hate it when I invent something that’s already been invented. Maybe I’m not very original, or maybe I’m just a classic Johnnie-come-lately, but I seem to have a penchant for coming up with the best best BEST ideas only to be smacked down by the cool unforgiving hand of Google. I won’t get into the specifics of my past inventions, because I’m afraid I’ll start getting a reputation around here, but this last one, the invention that I invented specifically for you... well, we’re just going to have to sit down and talk about this because it really is good, and just because someone else invented it first is no reason to deprive you of my genius.

Over the last two months, ABC aired Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a six-episode reality series documenting the English chef's mission to improve school food in Huntington, West Virginia. (The preview episode was the subject for one of my previous posts for Simple, Good and Tasty.) Was it a success?

Friends, the time has come. We laughed. We cried. (Okay, mostly we cried.) We shared great stories and strong feelings. We ate lunch with our kids and lived to tell engaging stories about the terrific lunch ladies (and cook managers) in our schools; our country's restrictions, policies, and prices; and how much ranch dressing you can put on a piece of pizza.

Well before its connection to Easter, the humble egg has long been a symbol of spring and renewal in various cultures and religions. Now that Easter is over, it is re-emerging from beneath the bright dyes and artificial chocolate shells to display its true colors as a healthy, hearty food.

From bad to better

Asparagus makes me smile. For starters, being one of the first vegetables to show up after a long, dark winter, asparagus is the courageous harbinger of spring – more so than the robin, who I’ve seen pecking around in the snow with nary a clue as to just how many weeks away spring really is. And although I’ve never eaten a robin, something tells me it isn't nearly as tasty as fresh asparagus.

Wow, wow, wow! What terrific photos you sent! What great stories you told! The school lunch challenge that began just over a month ago with an open letter to our children apologizing for the current state of school lunch ends right here, right now. Many of you have done the hard part: you've eaten lunch with your kids, taken photos, and sent them to us (so have we, by the way). You've done this in the name of research, in the name of love, and in the hopes of winning valuable prizes from great companies.