Summer Produce Secrets
food

Summer Produce Secrets

When you grow up on a farm you absorb things about food without realizing it, and simply take it for granted that everyone shares the same basic knowledge you do.  This post grew out of a surprising conversation I had with some young people who had no idea how to buy produce.  This isn’t a comprehensive guide, but more of a tip sheet to skim over before you buy. Apples: should be firm and crisp, and you shouldn’t be put […]

Pickled Chopped Salad
food

Pickled Chopped Salad

I love a salad that feels like a meal, but isn’t so full of heavy ingredients that it defeats the point of eating a salad.  Salads served in fast food chains often have this problem; it takes extreme editing of the empty calories before digging in.  My older daughter refers to this as ‘food surgery,’ and she meticulously picks out anything she considers unhealthy (or that she simply doesn’t like).  There’s nothing to edit from this salad. The recipe for […]

Birthday Games and Activities
formalities

Birthday Games and Activities

I firmly believe that if Einstein had studied the passage of time at kids’ birthday parties, he would have solved the mystery of the time-space continuum, because time never passes more slowly than at your kids’ birthday parties.  You think you’ve assembled a nice mix of games and activities to pass the time, the young guests arrive, and fifteen minutes into the party you realize they’re on the last game and there’s another hour and a half to fill until […]

Birthday Mocktails
food

Birthday Mocktails

Special drinks always give a party a little extra festivity, whether your guests are adults or children. Here are some delicious non-alcoholic drinks that would be tasty additions to either kind of summer party. The ginger-orange juice is not only colorful and peppy, it’s the best thing to drink if you have a summer cold. (Ginger is such an efficacious food; you can almost feel it sliding down the gullet and immediately putting things right.) A mango lassi is more […]