Love, Love, Love

Having a child has reinvigorated my own excitement about holidays --- even Valentine's Day. Benjamin is my ultimate valentine, and it was fun celebrating with him.

Last Sunday, we all congregated at my parents' house to celebrate my dad's birthday and eat a heart-shaped, half-coconut cake my mom made for Valentine's Day. (My crazy siblings don't like coconut. Weirdos.) After the sugar kicked in, Benjamin and my niece Maia ran around pretending to be cheetahs, while the rest of us carried on and cheered and clapped when my younger niece, Vera, said the word "purple" for the first time.

Before the party, Benjamin painted his own valentines for his cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. The one on the bottom right is my favorite. It looks like Mr. Peanut holding a giant spoon.

Although I didn't have the chance to decorate and be as crafty as I wanted, I did make these chocolate pretzel buttons with Hershey's Hugs and Valentine's Day–colored M&Ms. So easy, and totally addictive.

These were a Pinterest find, and they could not have been easier. I lined a baking sheet with parchment paper. On square pretzel bites, place one Hug (or Kiss --- I like the stripes on the Hugs). I think there were about 80 Hugs in one regular-sized bag, so prepared to make quite a few. Bake them in a 200-degree oven for 4 to 5 minutes, until the chocolate gets shiny and just starts to melt. Pull them out of the oven, and gently place one M&M in the middle, pushing down ever so slightly. I let them rest for about 15 minutes and then I wrapped the entire baking sheet with foil and stuck it in the fridge to cool.

One thing I wish I would've done and only thought to do after it was too late was to drag a toothpick through the melty stripes to make zigzags. I'll save that for next time.

Scott and I are having our grown-up date on Friday night. (We going here. Can. Not. Wait.) Last night, we took Benjamin to a Japanese place for dinner so he could try hibachi for the first time. The big flames scared him, and he burst into tears right away. Oops. It didn't bode well for the rest of dinner, but he got into after a while and loved all the chopping, flipping and squirting of sake into his parents' mouths. (We liked that part, too.) Normally, I would not be into all the theatrics of a hibachi place, but with a kid, it's pretty fun. Dinner and a show!

He scarfed down his dinner and then proclaimed on the way home: "I don't like fire and I also don't like fire hydrants, but I do like fire trucks and ambulances and police cars."

Alrighty. Glad we cleared that up.

Smitten Food: Pasta With Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpeas & Ricotta

The original recipe for this pasta comes from Martha Stewart's Everyday Food (and then was reposted on Serious Eats). What I love most about this dish are the roasted chickpeas, which take on a totally different (and far superior) texture and flavor than the standard ones you find on salad bars. Chickpeas (of course also known as garbanzo beans) are a great pantry staple, particularly if you want to whip up your own hummus.

I've never been a big fan of cauliflower, but this roasted stuff is really growing on me, and I think it's really delicious in this recipe. (But I still think raw cauliflower is grody.)

Anyway, I had to go to a meeting right after dinner on Monday, so I needed to make something that was fairly quick. I'm trying to take the Meatless Monday movement to heart, so I thought this recipe would be a good one when I stumbled across it.

Benjamin was a grump and a half on Monday evening when I was cooking, and I tried as best as I could to have him help me cook. Naturally, all he wanted to do was pick up the chef's knife, so I made a little station for him on the floor with a baking sheet and lots of measuring cups, spoons and random, non-stabby kitchen items. My kid's a smart cookie, though, and figured out in no time that the cups and spoons were totally lame compared to the big, shiny knife Mommy was using.

This did not set the stage for an easy, mellow family dinner, no sir-ee. But in the end, we all left the table fed and unharmed, and I got to my meeting on time without a big chunk of parsley stuck in my teeth. Success!

I was skeptical about the original recipe's use of croutons, so I omitted them (I didn't have crusty bread anyway, and I rarely go to the grocery store for just one ingredient).

The original recipe also didn't include the lemon juice, fresh oregano or Parmesan. I added them because I had them, and because the dish just needed something. I used more than just the couple tiny pinches of salt and ground pepper the original recipe called for, as well. I used whole-grain shells, which aren't specified in the EF version.

I, of course, didn't follow the instructions correctly and just plopped all the ricotta into the serving bowl and mixed it up, rather than spooning delicate little dollops on each of our bowls. I don't have time for dollops.

So here's my version. It's pretty close to the Everyday Food version, but not exactly the same.

Pasta With Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpeas & Ricotta

1/4 cup olive oil

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

1 15-ounce can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), drained and rinsed

1 pound pasta, preferably shells (I used whole-grain)

kosher salt and fresh-ground pepper

fresh parsley and fresh oregano, chopped

lemon juice from about 1/2 a lemon

1/2 cup fresh ricotta

grated Parmesan (if desired)

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. On a baking sheet, toss cauliflower and chickpeas with half of the olive oil, kosher salt and pepper. Roast in a single layer, turning once during cooking, for about 30-35 minutes, or until chickpeas are golden and a bit crunchy and cauliflower starts to turn brown.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook pasta to package directions. Reserve some of the pasta water and then drain.

Return pasta to the pot or transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the cauliflower, chickpeas and the rest of the olive oil. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir. Add parsley, oregano, lemon juice and ricotta, and stir to combine. Add some of the pasta water to create a creamier consistency.

Fill bowls with pasta and add a sprinkling of freshly grated Parmesan to the top of each.

Smitten Food: Baked Oatmeal With Fruit

I adore oatmeal, in any shape or form, and so does my son. But he and my niece LOVE my mom's baked oatmeal, so I decided to start making it at home. I've adapted it just a tad. You can use pretty much any fruit you like, though I think the blueberries are really key. I use organic frozen blueberries, which tend to be smaller than the regular ones, so the amounts can be adjusted according to your taste. I use frozen mango because I tend to have that on hand for smoothies, but peaches are great, too. Just be sure to keep the fruit frozen so that it doesn't get too mushy and watery while baking.

You'll love it! Make it this weekend!

Baked Oatmeal With Fruit

3 cups quick-cooking oats (not instant)

1 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 cup milk

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3/4 cup apple, peeled and diced

2/3 cup frozen blueberries

1/3 cup frozen mango or peaches

cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine oats, brown sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl. In a separate large bowl, combine eggs, milk, butter and vanilla. Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing to combine. Add the fruit to the oatmeal mixture. Coat an 8-inch square baking dish with cooking spray. Pour the oatmeal into the baking dish, and bake uncovered for about 35 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a bit crispy on the edges.

Cut into squares (they fall apart pretty easily, as seen above), and serve with a splash of milk over each square, if desired.

Yield: 9-12 squares

Smitten Cocktail: The Oh Snap!

If you like ginger, then you will love this drink. SNAP's claim to fame is that it tastes just like Pennsylvania Dutch gingersnap cookies — and it does.

That's not all. First, it's organic, if that sort of thing matters to you in your libations. And it's made from real stuff! Besides the obvious ginger, the other ingredients are blackstrap molasses, vanilla, rooibos tea, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon and cloves … which are basically the same ingredients I used to make the gingerbread cookies from my last post. (No butter in SNAP, though, thankfully.)

And it's from Philly! Hooray for local booze!

Pennsylvania is not known for progressive liquor laws, so I was excited to see my local spirits shop had SNAP in stock. (Thank goodness for our proximity to Philadelphia, or we'd never get this stuff.) Within seconds of spotting the bottle on the shelf of the liquor store, I decided that the first drink I made with this stuff I would call the Oh Snap!, regardless of what I put in it or how I drank it. There was a handy little recipe book that came attached to the neck of the bottle, and, as it turns out, in it was a drink with 1 oz. SNAP, 1 oz. spiced rum and ginger beer called — you guessed it. I don't care. I'm still calling it the Oh Snap! (with exclamation point), even if I'm not as clever as I think I am.

I had ginger beer on hand, but I didn't feel like adding rum. I poured in 2 oz. of SNAP, added the ginger beer, and voila — a drink that's easy, yummy AND fun to say!

I'm going to try it in a "martini" next (in quotes because the only thing martini about it will be the glass). I'll rim the glass with brown sugar and then mix SNAP with vanilla vodka.