My daughters are 20 months apart in age. When they were babies, people would take one look at the hollowed-out shells that once housed our functioning selves and say It’s tough now, but you’ll be so grateful later when they play together. I thought these people were lying just to make me feel better. We were so in the thicket of “now” that we couldn’t imagine a “later.” I could not fathom these helpless little things entertaining each other, or a time when we would trade in defensive parenting — hovering, watching, reacting — for active parenting. Nor could I imagine a time when they’d actually sit down to a real meal with us. The sitting part stymied me, as did the “real meal” part. Their plates held not so much dinner as a poor man’s tapas selection: cubes of raw red peppers, microscopic pieces of chicken or shrimp, a little bowl of noodles. But I turned a corner the day I decided to marry two of those foods to make one: Angel Hair with Shrimp. It’s so simple it seems almost stupid, but it worked as a perfect inaugural family dinner because the shrimp and pasta mix together without fully integrating. So if it flops, you can always send the ingredients back to their separate corners. And if it works, the kids get a real meal, and you get a glimpse of your future.

Angel Hair with Shrimp

In a medium pot, cook angel hair as directed on package. Drain and toss with olive oil in the colander to prevent noodles from sticking. Return the pot to the stovetop and turn heat to medium. Add more olive oil, one chopped shallot (or 1/2 onion), one clove of garlic (minced), a few red pepper flakes (optional), salt and pepper, and cook about one minute, nestling garlic amidst the onions to prevent it from burning. Push to the side, turn up heat slightly, and add 3/4 pound of cleaned shrimp. Cook about 1 1/2 minutes on one side, then when you flip them over, pull in the onions and toss until everything is cooked through. Squeeze a little lemon on the shrimp, then add the angel hair, tossing to combine. Add a handful of chopped parsley, unless you think it will render prospects of consumption null and void.

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I was thinking of adding a new category on the right over there called “Meals That Are Impossible To Photograph Because My Daughter Can’t Help But Eat The Subject.” Because don’t you think it’s saying something about the deliciousness of a meal when I have to instruct my poor, hungry, 8-year-old model “Stop eating your dinner!” as she mauls what’s in front of her — in this case a fried fish sandwich with sweet potato chips — before I even have the chance to finish shooting it? She just couldn’t help herself. So I never got to capture a close-up, which means you’ll have to trust me that this crispy flounder sandwich has potential to convert even the staunchest fish-anthrope. My kids like them with tartar sauce, but don’t be afraid to use ketchup if you think it might increase your chances of success.

Pan-Fried Fish Sandwiches
We made these with flounder, but it works with other mild white fish like sole, tilapia, or hake.

Set up dredging station for fish: one plate of flour, one plate of one whisked egg, one plate of bread crumbs(preferably panko or Kelloggs Corn Flake crumbs) seasoned with salt and pepper. Add olive oil to a skillet that’s been set over medium-high heat. Dredge fish filets (about ¾ pound that have been trimmed with a knife or kitchen scissors to sandwich-size pieces) first in flour, then in egg, then in bread crumbs. Fry about 2 minutes a side until crust is crispy and fish is cooked through. Serve on whole wheat buns with tartarsauce (or ketchup) and sweet potato fries (I love Trader Joe’s frozen brand) or sweet potato chips (recipe below). (more…)

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Last week I forced myself to put together an iPhoto album from my massive file of summer vacation pictures. I try to do this once a season and enlist the girls help with caption-writing — the final product could rival a John Irving novel for how many exclamation points they make me use – and usually this is all I need to do to feel like I’ve sufficiently locked away the memories for safekeeping. But this time, I added a new album to the mix. It’s a collection of our “car quizzes” (above) which we’ve relied on as road trip boredom busters for the past few years. The quizzes are exactly as they sound: an assortment of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, or true or false questions about wherever we’re headed or returning from. My initial goal for the 828-mile trip back from South Carolina was to write a straightforward list of 100 things we did on vacation, but the girls, who have a sixth sense for dutiful, linear, decidedly un-fun games, of course refused, instead begging for quiz after quiz after quiz after quiz. It wasn’t until I got home and looked through all the questions that I realized I had a keepsake that was every bit as revealing as a boring old list.

The quizzes reminded me of so many moments that have already been pushed aside to make mental space for less lovely thoughts, such as Don’t Forget to Call the Oral Surgeon. Like the fishing trip (above) where the girls reeled in some sea trout (below). It was so fresh that all Andy had to do to make it memorable was add a little olive oil, salt, pepper and lemon before grilling to perfection.

Needless to say, more than a few questions end up being about food and dinner.

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I love sharing these kinds of recipes with parents. Doesn’t it look like we cooked up two completely different meals: one for the grown-ups (left) and one for the kids (right)? We didn’t at all. The astute eye will notice that everything you see on the right makes up the meal on the left. It just took a little think-work for Andy to strategically reserve a few pre-approved components from the chopping board before they were tossed into the pot with the steamed deal-breakers, I mean Little Necks.

Spaghetti and Clams
This is so easy and so amazingly delicious. It takes 20 minutes. Twenty minutes!!! If you think your kids will like it without any editing, just pretend the green instructions below don’t exist.

Make spaghetti according to package directions, setting aside plain pasta tossed with olive oil or butter on the kids plates if that’s the way it has to be. In a large stock pot or Dutch Oven set over medium heat, saute 1 chopped shallot, 1 minced garlic clove, a few shakes of red pepper flakes and some freshly ground pepper in olive oil. (Not necessary to salt — the clams are naturally briny.) Add about a dozen and a half fresh clams, a 1/2 cup white wine, and a small bunch of whatever fresh herbs (chopped) you have lying around. (Andy used parsley and basil.) When the clams steam open, add a handful of chopped tomatoes (any shape or color, setting some aside on the kids’ plates if you’d like), some corn off the cob (again, setting some aside) and cook another two or three minutes. Discard any clams that haven’t opened, then toss the whole thing with pasta, making sure to scoop lots of the broth into the bowl. Serve with crusty bread for sopping.

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Greetings from South Carolina! I know…Grits!…I’m so predictable. So New-Yorker-trying-to-be-a-Southerner! Well, yes. The thing is — you should know this about me — I’m so helplessly impressionable. Remember about eight years ago when brown was the new black? Or I should say, when brown paired with any other color — pink, green, light blue — was the new black? Those combinations were all I wore for an entire year. When my friend Jim was cooking for me while dancing to Graham Parker’s “Hold Back the Night,” I cooked and danced to that song in my own kitchen for my next three dinner parties. And so whenever I cross the Mason-Dixon line, which I do at least a few times a year, it is absolutely a non-negotiable requirement for me to make grits. And I don’t feel as spineless as I usually do about it because I think this particular brand of impresionable-ness falls under the very forgiving category of “When in Rome.”

It seriously never occurs to me to eat grits any other time the rest of the year, even though there is in fact a shrimp and grits recipe in Time for Dinner, and even though the girls (and Andy) have been coming to South Carolina their entire lives — Phoebe’s first trip was when she was 3 months old; Abby’s when she was 6 weeks. Tonight, we tossed in some sweet, plump shrimp (the shrimp down here deserves a different shellfish category altogether, btw) some fresh summer vegetables and had ourselves a Lowcountry Lovefest. (more…)

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My NPR app has become something of a lifeline to the real world for me this summer. You see, since I no longer have my 8:43 commuter train to Manhattan, I no longer have my dedicated reading time for my New York Times. I know what you’re thinking — now that I’m working from home don’t I have big, fat, wide swaths of time available to leisurely read the paper cover to cover? (Or pageview to pageview?) Well, yes. I guess. But therein lies the problem. For whatever reason, in my life, Large Wide Swaths of Time seem to be the arch nemesis of Dedicated Time, and unless there is a ritual attached to something like reading, it becomes an effort. When it becomes an effort, it doesn’t happen. One of my School Year’s Resolutions is to figure all this out, but in the meantime, I have my NPR app. Lately I’ve been downloading a few programs to my playlist (usually some combo of “All Things Considered,” “Fresh Air”, and “Morning Edition”) and listening to them while I go running. Not only does it make me feel a little more up to date — it makes the run go faster. (Not to be misread as “It makes the runner go faster.”) (more…)

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When the girls were in their princess phases, I fought it. Sort of. The way I justified the merchandise that seemed to multiply by the minute was by saying that I would allow other people to buy the Belles and the Ariels for them, but I wouldn’t bring the dolls home for them myself. Fast forward not so long after to me, collapsed on bathroom floor, one hour into toilet-training session: “If you can do this, we will beeline for the Disney store and buy you one hundred Happily Ever After Princess Glamour 8-Piece Playsets.” Like all the other times I naively set rules for myself as a parent before I actually knew what I was up against (insert Disney marketing budget here) I eventually surrendered. And in fact, as I write this, I’m not even sure why it was so important to me to ban something from the house that made my children that happy.

Plus! The byproduct of all that manipulative marketing seemed to have been a total, unconditional, confounding obsession with the color pink. And that meant that when we put a piece of salmon in front of our then 3- and 5-year-olds, they liked it before they even tried it. And they still do, even though they have traded in Cinderella for Ramona, Junie B, Amelia, and Lionel Messi.

PS: Free Time for Dinner cookbook to the person who can tell me where the post’s title comes from…

Pink Princess Salmon Salad
The basic technique here is not that different from the salmon salad I wrote up in the winter. But the ingredients (and the quality of ingredients, hooray for summer!) definitely are.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Put a large platter or baking dish next to stovetop. Put a medium pot of water on the stove and bring to a boil. While you wait, prepare your vegetables: chop ends off green beans, peel the husks of corn, trim asparagus, peel potatoes, chop tomatoes and cucumbers etc.

Cook Vegetables: Add vegetables in shifts to boiling water, removing each one with a slotted spoon when they are done cooking (beans: 3 minutes; asparagus: 4 minutes; corn: 7 minutes). Place each in its own row on your platter. While boiling happens, peel and chop cukes, tomatoes, any vegetable you have in the fridge and lay each in a row on the platter.

Prepare Salmon: Sprinkle a 1 1/4-pound salmon filet with salt and pepper. Roast in a foil-lined baking dish in preheated oven for 15 minutes.When it’s done (since you’re going to chop it all up you can chop right into middle of the filet and see if it’s at desired doneness) flake it with a fork and make a row of it on your platter.

Have the kids pick what they want from the platter on the table before you mix everything together and toss with a basic vinaigrette like this: 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon sugar or a squeeze of honey, 1/2 teaspoon salt, a twist of freshly ground pepper, Chopped herbs (chives, parsley, dill, thyme, whatever!) 1/2 cup good olive oil.

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For a good long stretch, when the girls were little, Finding Nemo was in the DVD 24/7 and quickly became the Annie Hall of my 30s — it seemed as though I couldn’t go a day without quoting Marlin the Clownfish or Bruce the Great White, who belly-belted the titular line of this post (you recognized it, right?) before attempting to gobble up Marlin and the lovably loopy Dory. It’s nearly impossible for me to watch a Pixar movie (particularly Nemo, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles) without asking myself at the end What am I doing with my life? And why can’t I be John Lasseter?

In the meantime I can be content with the fact that Pixar and Nemo and Co launched an underwater obsession with Phoebe that still lasts to this day. She’s been to a half dozen aquariums up and down the Atlantic coast and once even emptied her piggy bank to donate to a favorite, the South Carolina Aquarium. “Please use this money to help take care of your sharks,” she wrote to the director. The letter she received back, acknowledging the $30 donation for tax purposes, still hangs on her bulletin board.

For now, though, all her love for sea life seems to be translating to consumption as opposed to conservation — give her time…she’s seen Wall-E once and was only six. One of her favorite activities is going to a seafood market and picking out a new kind of fish to try. Last weekend, while we were staying at my sister’s beach house, we went to her idea of Disneyland: A Long Island seafood purveyor who might as well have reeled in the catch right to our shopping bag, it was so fresh. (That view of the bay up there is the store’s “backyard.”) With a little encouragement to go local — easy at a place like this — Phoebe pointed at the soft-shell crabs and two dozen lovely little Little Necks, which she and Andy cleaned and prepared together back at the house. (more…)

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I had the pleasure of interviewing Ted Lee last week — he’s the co-author of the James Beard Award-winning book The Lee Bros Southern Cookbook (what they call in the trade a “category killer”) and most recently, Simple, Fresh, Southern, which is their entry into the “Everyday” category of cookbooks. (A favorite category of mine as you might imagine.) I asked Ted what I should cook from the book to prepare for our conversation and his reply sent me sprinting into the kitchen.

“Jenny, I see the weather in the NY-metro region is going to be thunderstorm-y and steamy this weekend, so go with the cold salads–Soybean and Cherry Tomato, Gingered Beets with Field Peas and Lemon, Easy Ambrosia, Cabbage Salad with Lime and Roasted Peanuts, Carrot and Turnip Slaw with Dill (sub equal qty carrots for turnips if desired). For entrees, do something quick in the broiler, like Gran’s Flank Steak or Crispy-Skin Salmon with Buttermilk Mint Sauce. And the Jersey strawberries should be slammin now: Strawberries with Port Syrup and Sour Cream. But if there are ripe Jersey peaches in yet (doubt it…) do the Cornmeal Drop-Biscuit cobbler, worth heating up the kitchen for!”

Is there any question that the guy knows how to get people excited about cooking? I instantly started plotting summer parties around each dish he mentioned. And for (more…)

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Now, granted this might be hard because it involves some knowledge of my cookbook shelves pre-June 10, 2010. But the game is this: Can anyone guess what new cookbook has been added to my kitchen library? I’ll give you a hint. It’s wedged in between Ruth Reichl and Marcella Hazan, a few doors down from Martha Stewart and Bugialli and Bittman, underneath Julia Child and Mario Batali and Jim Lahey…? Give up?

It’s Time for Dinner, the cookbook I co-authored with Pilar Guzman and Alanna Stang while we were all still at Cookie. Although the book doesn’t officially publish until September, I received a real-life, I-can-hold-it-in-my-hands advance copy by FedEx this morning and it’s hard not to be Abby-ish and imagine myself (and my cowriters) on the same shelf as my food heroes. But the thing is — there I am. There we are. Next to Marcella Hazan!

I would love nothing more than to show you every single page in the 272-page playbook, but I’m going to restrain myself and just deliver some good news to all those former Cookie readers who have written to me telling me how much they miss the “So You Have A…” column. There is an entire chapter of SYHAs in the cookbook — 20 ingredients, 3 meal options for each, which means 60 total recipes. (Sixty recipes in just one chapter, btw.) For those of you new to SYHA, the column was one of Cookie‘s most popular pages. It charted recipes visually and the choose-your-own-adventure strategy (“head this way if you have pork; that way if you have pasta”)  is tailor-made for parents who come in the door at 6:30, see a big bunch of swiss chard (or sausage or frozen peas or miso paste) in the fridge and need quick inspiration for how they can turn it into dinner.  As addicted as I am to my digital recipe generating these days, seeing the flowcharted recipes spread across two pages reminded me how impossible it is to replicate the feeling of opening a book (see? It lies flat!) and getting inspired by lush photographs (thank you, Marcus Nilsson) and clean design (thank you, Number 17). Ok, I’m done now with the shameless self-promotion. Thanks for listening.

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I feel like I owe you guys an apology. I’m sure when you read last week that this was Grill Week on Dinner: A Love Story, that you were picturing sizzling ribeyes, creamy slaws, fatty ribs — Not a bunch of healthy lean meats and omega-3-rich fish. (It’s only Thursday, and it’s only May, so don’t worry, there’s still plenty of time to redeem myself.) But I would like to remind everyone that this is precisely why I’m so happy that the Weber is open for business again  – because grilling makes it is so easy to impart deep, rich flavors without relying on a whole lot of fat.

This salmon brushed with candy-like hoisin sauce, will become your go-to fish dish of summer 2010. But the real learning here is the potatoes. Buy them fresh and buy them little, wrap them in foil with a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, then put them on the grill grate for 30 minutes. (Listen to them  – if they sound really sizzly, check to make sure they’re not burning.) When they’re cooked, dump them into a bowl, smash with a fork, just so enough so the flesh bursts out of their skin, pour a little more olive oil on top, a squeeze of lemon, whatever chopped fresh herbs you’ve got (we used mint) and a dollop of sour cream or creme fraiche. (There, that’s not so healthy, right?) We had baby bell peppers and super fresh asparagus leftover from Monday night’s chicken-asparagus-potato-salad menu so we threw those on the grill to round out the plate.

Simple and Sweet BBQ Salmon
Anyone got a kid obsessed with the color pink? Make sure you point out that this fish fits right into the plan — that’s how we convinced Abby to embrace salmon when she was about 3 or 4.

Marinate a 1-pound piece of wild salmon in olive oil and 1-2 tablespoons soy sauce for about 30 minutes.

In separate bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce and the juice from one lime. Set aside.

Grill salmon about 3 to 4 minutes per side. Brush with the hoisin-lime sauce and grill, flesh-side down, for another 3 minutes. Serve.

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No, not fish tacos with roasted marshmallows, though I have a feeling that wouldn’t be too hard a sell on the kids. But before I even get to this simple, fresh, crowd-pleaser, I want to say something about the corn in these tacos, or more generally, about cooking with local, seasonal ingredients.

My good friend and neighbor (and fabulous home cook) logged on to my website last Friday. The photo, which of course you all remember, showed a few ears of corn on the grill. This was his comment:

Corn? In May?

And here is the second-by-second playback of the ruminating that took place in my brain over the course of the next minute. Why am I even bothering to do this website? I am a complete fraud. What kind of food expert would eat corn in May? What kind of food person would have that corn-filled May photo be the one to announce grilling season for all her readers? [Pause. Lightbulb flickers somewhere in darkness of cerebrum.] I know what kind of food person. The kind of food person who has children. A mom food person who knows that a kernel of corn on her six-year-old’s plate is culinary gold. The kind of mom food person who knows what a difference it makes to always have something on the plate that her children feel comfortable with.

But I didn’t tell him all that. Because he certainly wasn’t saying it to make me feel bad. (He had apparently mistaken me for an emotionally secure person.) This is what I replied:

If my kids eat it, it’s always in season!

OK listen, you won’t find anyone happier than me when farmer’s market season rolls around. Our local market opens June 5, and that day that has been marked on my mental calendar (real estate that not many events are capable of securing these days) for months now because it means a guaranteed 1-mile family walk (including the dog) to the market every Saturday. It means reconnecting with people in the community I (more…)

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…And, perhaps even more exciting, we also finally have an amazon link where you can pre-order our Time for Dinner cookbook. OK…how cool is that cover? I can call my own number here because I had absolutely nothing to do with it. Lia Ronnen at Melcher Media and Bonnie Siegler at Number 17 are the creative forces behind the design — as well as the 75 other cover tries that I am convinced, if decoupaged into shelf-liner, could make someone somewhere a million bucks. (Thanks, guys.)

In honor of this milestone, I’m giving you a recipe (tweaked a bit) that comes from one of my favorite chapters of the book. The chapter is a “starter kit” on feeding the baby called “What’s in it for me?”  where we show how to prepare basic fresh baby purees (avocado, sweet potato, bananas, etc.), then give instructions for how to take those purees and use them as the base for grown-up dishes. (So an avocado mash turns into taco topping, a peach puree is stirred into a Harry’s-style Bellini, you get the idea.) When we batted around ideas for grown-up-izing baby’s pureed sweet potato, Alanna, who wrote the section, suggested mixing in a miso butter with scallions. Apparently people knew about this combination? I did not, but let me just tell you, it’s a revelation — a revelation that my kids have come to like more than a plain sweet potato.

Sweet Potatoes with Miso Butter and Scallions (adapted from Time For Dinner)

2 whole sweet potatoes or yams
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons miso (white)
2 tablespoons chives or chopped scallions

Roast whole sweet potatoes at 450°F for 40 minutes. While they are roasting, mix together remaining ingredients. When potatoes are ready, slit them in half lengthwise, scoop out some flesh for the baby and mash with a fork.  Top the rest with miso butter. (For Abby, I scooped the flesh out of the skin and tossed it for her in a special bowl. Seemed to do the trick.)

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If you’re going to have a site devoted to family dinner, you gotta walk the walk, right? So when I asked Jenny where she wanted to eat for her birthday dinner last week, I should have known what the answer would be: home. I huddled with the kids and asked for some help: what should we make? The only requirement was that it be something everybody in the house eats, and it couldn’t be chicken or pizza. Phoebe wanted steak, Abby didn’t. (“It’s not fair!” she claimed. “Phoebe always gets steak!”) Abby, aiming high, suggested something called macaroni and cheese, but Phoebe doesn’t eat pasta. (“Too slimy,” she said.) So we settled on salmon. The question was, how to make this feel more festive than your normal Thursday night dinner? We needed some good sides. We wanted to make something we’d never made before. I had an idea.

Momofuku Brussels Sprouts

We might not have been going out to a restaurant for a dinner, but what if we had one of our most favoritest restaurant dishes at home? We don’t get out too much these days — i.e., ever — but we did manage a meal at David Chang’s Momofuku about six months ago, and Jenny still talked about his brussels sprouts. They were crazily flavorful, charred to a crunch, salty, cilantro-y, and… didn’t they have, like, Rice Krispies sprinkled on top? I wondered if they were hard to make. Turns out, they’re not. (And because we had a good-looking head of cauliflower in the refrigerator, I decided to use that, too.) When Abby found out that her vegetables on this night would include fried Rice Krispies — not to mention sugar — she shifted, like that, from ambivalent skeptic to unblinking believer.

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Here is the very definition of a Nice Problem: A healthy dinner that cooks too quickly, allowing for no time to savor a glass of wine while one prepares it. I’m not kidding. This spicy shrimp (adapted over the years from an old Cooking Light recipe) takes about 10 minutes from start to finish — and closer to five if you have the spices mixed already. Phoebe requests the dish often, so we periodically prepare a stash of the smokey paprika rub to have it ready to go — the spice mixture even gets its own special jar painted with her name. Of course, in the eyes of the little sister, there is no more flagrant example of condiment injustice, so we painted a jar for her, too and filled it with McCormick’s California Garlic Powder.

I only had regular Nan toasts to serve with the shrimp, but you can find whole wheat at most supermarkets.

Spicy Shrimp with Cilantro and Lime

Below are the spice amounts to sprinkle over one shrimp dinner for four. Triple or quadruple if you want to make a stash to have on hand for the next time.

Phoebe’s Spice
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon curry powder
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
pinch cinnamon

1. Mix together the above spices. Sprinkle over 1  1/4 pounds of peeled shrimp.

2. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add shrimp to pan — try to get the spiced side down — and saute 5 minutes until done, adding more spice as they flip around and cook.

3. Toast a few pieces of Nan (such as Kontos brand) and serve with cooked shrimp, a spoonful of plain yogurt, chopped cilantro, sliced almonds and a squeeze of lime.

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I laid down a few rules for myself before I started this website. No using that word that starts with “food” and ends in “i-e.” No going into detail about things like the interplay between quince paste and aged gouda. No fetishizing. No buying into the whole two-week ramp frenzy that takes over farmers markets and f–dies this time of year. (Aren’t there more important things to get excited about, like, for instance my daughter’s 15-second solo in the 2nd Grade Songfest last week? I’m sorry. I’m sorry. No bragging should probably also be a rule. I’m sorry! I’m sorry!)

But the thing is, I do happen to love those wild, earthy, oniony ramps — mostly because, like daffodils and magnolia trees, they are one of those first fleeting signifiers of spring. And probably also because I don’t actually have to personally partake in the frenzy. The frenzy — how’s this for lucky? — comes to me! Every year, my friend Yolanda (that’s her kick-ass family travel blog, Travels with Clara, over there in my blogroll) shows up on my doorstep or in my office carrying a bouquet of them like a prom date with a corsage. This year, she met me on a busy corner of Soho just to hand me my share of the ramp bounty that is her Catskills backyard. So what am I supposed to do…not get excited? I didn’t. Honest. I just sauteed the things in olive oil, fried some fish, and played it cool.

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I realize there is a whole segment of the American population that is going to be instantly turned off by the title of this post. Seafood and cheese — that’s just…wrong. But this recipe might just change your mind, as it did for me the first time my friend Melissa made it for us about a decade ago. Melissa, co-author of  The New Brooklyn Cookbook, was one of my first kitchen heroes — one of those friends who would serve me something that I would then pass off as my own to the next dozen dinner guests I cooked it for. (Oh, this? Just something I came across…hmm where was it???) We’ve served it to bosses and in-laws, neighbors and siblings. And, of course, to our children — even when it meant cleaning the sauce off a few pieces of shrimp before serving.

Greek-Style Scampi

To make: Preheat oven to 425°F. Saute two minced garlic clove in olive oil in an ovenproof skillet set over medium heat. Add one 28-ounce can of tomatoes (drained, very important), and stir, breaking up tomatoes. Cook for about 10 minutes. Nestle in a pound of shrimp and cook until shrimp starts to turn pink all over, about 3 minutes. Sprinkle two-ish handfuls of feta on top and bake in your preheated oven for about five minutes until cheese is melty. Remove from oven, add chopped parsley and the juice of  half a lemon. Add salt and pepper to taste.

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It didn’t take us long to figure out that, when it comes to rolling out a new product at the family table, so much depends upon the marketing campaign. I doubt our kids would have gone within a mile of cauliflower had we not first introduced it to them as “white broccoli.” They wouldn’t have sniffed brussels sprouts had we not sold them relentlessly as “baby lettuces.” Same goes for baked beans (“sweet beans”), bell peppers (“rainbow peppers”), dried cranberries (“red raisins”), and on and on. It’s the oldest trick in advertising and that’s not by accident.

Our latest venture in rebranding involved the kind of intimidating-sounding fish en papillote, which is just a fancy way of saying fish steamed in parchment paper. Neither description had a chance of flying with our kids. So we came up with something a little more intriguing. (Notice I did not say misleading.) Fish Presents, is what we decided on. Tonight we’re having fish presents! “Presents?” they asked. I gave them no further information.

The best thing about this meal is that you can chop everything ahead of time and then have the kids help you assemble and “wrap” the presents. So I sliced up 1 lemon and 1/2 a medium red onion, nice and thin, and 1 cup of shitake mushrooms. I boiled about 10 baby bok choy in salted water for two minutes, strained, and set aside. I poured 1/4 cup of olive oil into a small bowl and added a few red pepper flakes. Then the kids grabbed their stools, and we started the assembly line. Here’s how it goes:

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