The chances are if you have school-age children, you’ve already done more than your fair share of bake sales.

Me? I love a good bake sale and after several tours of duty, now consider myself a veteran.

I’ve learned through experience that the golden oldies are the true crowd pleasers: usually anything with chocolate, brownies or chocolate covered pretzel sticks, all go down a storm. While I personally love an organic sea-salt and lavender cookie, I appreciate that they’re not guaranteed to make the top 10 list.

Anywho, here’s a great recipe that may not be the healthiest, but is still a good way to use up leftover Halloween candy you might have.

If you don’t have Snickers, then Twix or Almond Joy are good alternatives.

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Like many, I LOVE a good bolognese sauce (or ragù alla bolognese as it is called in Italia), but because it takes a loooooong time to let those rich flavors develop and mellow, its rarely something I will tackle mid-week. We’re all short of time when getting those weekday dinners on the table and I’m someone who doesn’t like cutting corners, so I often reserve bolognese for Saturday or Sunday, hence this recipe being called Weekend Rigatoni Bolognese!

In our house, a good bolognese dish is relished by all and is served with the kids’ favorite pasta shapes—something that seems to vary week by week: one week it is bow-ties, the next it’s wheels and then out of the blue comes a request for spirals or plain old spaghetti! I’m sure I’m not alone in the great pasta roulette wheel of life… This week, the pasta of choice was Rigatoni.

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My kids are always excited about taco night: the simple act of getting stuck in at the table and preparing their own meal makes them feel big and important.

Years ago I would have used a packet of taco seasoning but these days I make my own. It is guaranteed to transform an average piece of protein (minced beef, chicken, fish, tofu, pork — whatever floats your boat) into a tasty Tex-Mex taco.

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This year, Easter just crept right up on me.

I’ll admit, that with school visits for next year in full swing, it completely escaped my attention. Look, I know what you’re thinking, but don’t judge: the date changes every year! What chance has a girl got?

Distractions aside, it dawned on me to this morning that I needed to rustle up some Easter baskets for my girls and being in the boondocks two hours north of Baristaville, I ended up doing a 60-mile round-trip and getting them from a gas station. Again, don’t judge…

Then, it hit me I needed some desserts for an Easter lunch that we had been invited to. Easter Lunch!?! The clue was in the title—I have no excuse for that—either way I needed to make something fast with store-cupboard ingredients and these recipes saved me.

These two choc-tastic offerings are unbelievably easy and quick: The “cheat’s chocolate cake” has just a handful of ingredients and the chocolate nest eggs are so easy your kids could make them. Even if you don’t celebrate Easter these are great desserts to have in your repertoire.

First off here’s the easiest chocolate cake recipe ever – Chocolate Nutella Cake aka Cheat’s Chocolate Cake

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Pamela Wright, instructor at the Adult School of Montclair

The idea of this column is to inspire people to make home-cooked dinners. Truth is, sometimes we all need the inspiration to try something different and increase our repertoire. I know how easy it is to get stuck in a rut of my tried and trusted family-pleasers: fish pie, lasagna, meatballs, stir-fry etc. So, in a effort to broaden my horizons, I decided to go back to school and learn something new.

Principally, that meant me overcoming one of my deepest culinary dreads: my fear of the failed dumpling. I love eating dumplings, but nightmarish visions of soggy, mushy messes has meant I have never tried cooking them.

School was to be my inspiration. As a distraction to the elementary school tours that have dominated my past week or so, I went to the High School and enrolled in the Dumplings and Dips course at the Adult of School of Montclair.

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 It is hard to come up with an enticing family meal with a hungry horde clamoring at the kitchen door. Success often lies in a little preplanning. As Joe Frazier once said, “you have to do the roadwork or they’ll find you out under the big bright lights.” And whereas feeding your family shouldn’t feel like heavyweight championship boxing, you can kinda see where he was coming from. Sure, there are those evenings where you pull off an amazing stir-fry at the drop of a hat, but most things need a bit of thought in advance or your little monsters will go for the knock-out.

Before you throw in the towel, this is a simple dish made simpler with just a little bit of pre-planning. It is the pastry that takes time so the crust can either be made in advance or you could use a shop-bought pre-made one. Continue Reading

Technically not for dinner as such but these flapjacks, or as you Americans call them, Granola Bars, definitely make a great after-school snack or lunchbox treat.

These tasty bars are a great and easy alternative to some of the more suspect bars you may find on shelf in the grocery stores. You know, the ones that claim to be healthy but on close examination of the label contain more unpronounceable ingredients than you’d really expect or hope for.

The good thing about this recipe is that you can play with it to make your own (or your little one’s) signature bar. You can make it healthier by reducing the amount of sugar, using honey instead of syrup, adding more nuts and seeds. Or you can make it more decadent by adding chocolate chips or even a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder.

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As short months go, February always seems to drag on much longer than its allotted 28 days.

Granted, this year, they’ve managed to sneak in an extra day but to these sun-seeking bones, it feels like they sneaked in an extra 30. Mild winter or not, I’m getting bored with root vegetables and find myself longing for plump, red Jersey tomatoes. February’s not even over yet and I’ve served squash at least a dozen different ways: soup, roasted in salads, mashed, fried, medium rare, sandwiches, poached, pickled etc… My patience is wearing thin of hearty this and rich that. I’m craving lighter, sharper flavors and textures.

So, here’s a really simple dinner recipe that you can make in no time at all and suddenly find yourself miles away from the mid-winter blues. The orange adds a un-wintery citrus burst to this dish and roasting the Brussels sprouts gives them a different take, texture and flavor. This dish is perfect for weekday nights when you need to please a hungry crowd.

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Hearty, earthy and rich: Ooh là là.

This week, I thought I’d offer a brief diversion from cooking kids food for kids. It is Valentine’s week and therefore an opportunity to cook something rich and warm for the grown-up love of your life, after your beloved offspring have been tucked up in bed.

If the question is “What’s for dinner?”, the answer is “Romance”…

Without sounding like Scrooge at Christmas, I’ve never been one for going out for an overpriced and over-busy dinner on Valentine’s Day. To me it is like New Year’s Eve: too many people forcing themselves to have “fun.”  I just can’t bear seeing a restaurant full of tables for two: I find it eery, all those silent couples.

Instead, I much prefer to stay home, open a bottle of red wine and make something deliciously voluptuous: a dish to seduce the senses… and perhaps more…

So to that end, I’m delighted to share this delicious dish with you: beef in red wine sauce, or, as our sensuous French cousins call it, Boeuf Bourgignon. Hearty, earthy and rich: Ooh là là.

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Here’s a great crowd-pleaser for Super Bowl Sunday. Fellow Barista Kids writer, Stacey Gill, was telling me about this amazingly easy pulled pork dish her husband makes. You just slow cook the pork in root beer until it falls apart into a delicious, melting pile of tender shreds. The root beer makes it both sweet and tangy, you would swear it has been smoked. Her mouthwatering description meant I just had to try making it which I did for my daughters’ cowgirl party last week.

So here’s my take on Stacey’s husband’s recipe: Continue Reading