Gourmet Fast Food: Linguine with Lump Crab Meat, Asparagus & Avocado

Making a nice meal doesn’t always have to take a long time. This linguine recipe with lump crab meat, asparagus and avocado lets you create a meal in the time it takes to boil pasta. Now that’s what I call fast food.

Recipe featured on White Rock Lake Weekly

Till our next Happy Meal!

Marshmallow Molecule Cake Topper

Happy Birthday Pikelet! Oh how quickly you’ve grown. In the last couple of weeks, my sweet baby started kindergarten, lost his first tooth and is showing signs of a budding scientist. My mini Einstein wanted to have a Molecule party at The Lab in Lakewood, no cake, just brownies (Sugar Bowl Bakery Petite Brownies available at Costco) with a DIY marshmallow molecule cake topper.

Lazy Weekend Family Buffet Lunch

The spread

We all love to eat different things in our family. Pikelet, my five year old is more adventurous and three year old Lollo often needs coaxing to try something new. That’s why our lazy weekend buffet lunches are a favorite in the household. It is a presentation of all our favorite items and a few new ones in case someone wants to try something new.

Texas Daily Harvest Milk from Urban Acres

Urban Acres

Milk is milk to me. If I’m passing a pharmacy I won’t think twice about popping in for a gallon rather than driving elsewhere for the organic stuff (foodies please don’t balk!). Sure I think that organic milk tastes better than conventional but it’s not enough for me to go the extra mile – literally. That is until last weekend when fate gave me a chance encounter with Texas Daily Harvest Milk at Urban Acres in Oak Cliff.

‘Royal’ Meringue Mousse with lychees & summer berries

We didn’t get our royal invite but IttyBittyFoodies are celebrating the Royal Wedding of Prince William & Kate Middleton all the same with our own Royal No Bake Meringue Mousse.  Pikelet my 5 yr old made up this surprisingly elegant Lychee Meringue Mousse recipe for the Princess Bride who dressed in an elegant Alexander McQueen gown. It’s his first recipe and the results are light, airy and naturally sweet, just like the Royal nuptials.

Freshest Easter Eggs

Look what the Easter bunny left us!

It’s Easter and Pikelet & Lollo have eggs on their minds. Not the chocolate variety but the regular hen laid sort. Just take a gander at these farm fresh beauties from Frognot Farms. The darling dozen come in different sizes and in sweet hues of pale green, blue, brown, spotty and crisp white (look at my header!). The children are so charmed by their appearance, they cannot wait to eat them. Looks like we’ll be having Easter eggs all year long!

Honey Girl Kitchen

 

Just pack the hamper, wine and Pelligrino!

Spring is the start of picnic season and Honey Girl Kitchen is offering home-made organic picnic dinners to go! Think fresh ‘Fanciwiches’ made with Jimmy’s mortadella stuffed in a Mexican baguette and layered with smoked mozzarella and all the fixings or cool ‘Fancisides’ like jicama and cucumber salad or a simple caprese. The kid’s ‘Fanci Tiny Pants’ menu feature turkey wraps, cute little onigiri rice balls or organic PB&J sandwiches all served with a watermelon slice on a stick. Desserts are home-made brownies or Honey Crew Granola.

Mortadella on Bollilo

To top it all, Honey Girl Kitchen has thoughtfully coordinated pick up for these picnic dinners during the Spring, Summer and Fall Concert Series at The Dallas Arboretum from April 19 to October 27.

IttyBittyFoodies sabotaged on Babble.com Top 100 Food Mom’s Blog list

It has come to my attention that someone has put a fake name Cheryl Colett (with just one ‘L’ in the last name) and linked it to a fake R rated site in the Babble.com Top 100 Mom Food Blogs for 2011. Thank you to a kind person who wrote to tell me about this. I don’t pretend to understand why someone did this, I’m upset that someone would go through those lengths over a blog nomination. What happened to fair game and common decency?  The worse thing is that people have voted thinking it was my site. If you have voted, can you please check that you voted for Cheryl CoLLett (with two ‘L’s in the last name). The right listing has a description of IttyBittyFoodies in it. Here’s Babble’s link. I’m sorry for the inconvenience and if you have forwarded my previous post, please let others know.

Have a good night.

Babble.com Top 100 Mom Food Blogs 2011 – VOTE for IttyBittyFoodies

I’m gushing a little. Maybe not as much as Sally Field in her famous Oscar “You like me” acceptance speech in the 1984 for her role as Norma Rae. I haven’t won anything but I am excited to announce that IttyBittyFoodies is in Babble’s nomination list for Top 100 Mom Food Blogs for 2011.

So please ‘LIKE’ me and vote by clicking on the link here. Just click on view ALPHABETICALLY and search for CHERYL COLLETT of IttyBittyFoodies.

Thank you for supporting IttyBittyFoodies and please share the site using the buttons below with likeminded & very cool (like you) parents.

Tom Fleming’s Crossroads Diner

View from the waiting room

The Confession - I’m going to come right out and say it, we have not fallen in love with Crossroads Diner’s cinnamon buns. Ok now that it’s off my chest, more about it later. It is noon on a Saturday and there are at least 10 tables infront of us. Ugh it’s a 30-45 minute wait. Thank goodness there are children’s books to keep Pikelet & Lollo occupied in the waiting area. If spotting chef Abraham Salum of Salum and the gorgeous new Komali waiting patiently like the rest of us pedestrians is any indication of what’s to come, then wait we shall. 

And the winner of the Artizone Bolsa Giveaway is…

Winner of the Bolsa Artizone dinner

Congratulations to

Chocolate Secrets

There are many delicious secrets to discover within this little Highland Park chocolaterie. It’s not just any chocolate shop, it’s a boutique. The handcrafted chocolates made by Kate Graver (formerly of Nobu and Stephan Pyles) are positively inspiring. Resembling rich jewels, pretty flowers and colorful buttons, each one is transformed, molded and then carefully airbrushed to perfection. She even makes little chocolate stilettos and handbags my friend T. calls “Jimmy Chocs”. There’s a wine bar with jazz on weekends and a tiny little creperie.

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother – Itty Bitty Foodies Style

No doubt we’ve all heard of Amy Chua’s new parenting memoir “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” . When I first read her article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” on the Wall Street Journal, I thought it was a satirical piece and kept waiting for the punchline. I read in horror the part about her daughter, Lulu (age 7) when she couldn’t play “The Little White Donkey” and Chua writes, “We worked right through dinner into the night, and I wouldn’t let Lulu get up, not for water, not even to go to the bathroom”. (Watch a video of a different 7 year old girl here playing it. Note - it’s not an easy piece). I felt polarized over the article and judging by the 7000+ comments posted on the article, I’m not the only one.

Feelings of outrage are easily understandable. I would never call my children, ‘garbage’ nor will I force my children to those extremities  (no dinner? no bathrooms breaks over a piece of music? That’s not me). But it was being sympathetic to Chua that conflicted me the most.

Royal China Dallas Restaurant

You may wonder why we chose Royal China as the venue for a celebratory meal on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Tucked on the corner of Preston and Royal, Royal China’s customers are predominantly non-Asian dining on the ubiquitous American Chinese favorites like orange chicken or beef and broccoli. Even the children’s menu features nuggets and rice.  But Royal China surprisingly has some of the most authentic Chinese dishes in Dallas and the answer lies in the hands of Zhang Xue Liang, Royal China’s noodle chef and his crew of dumpling makers.

Gong Xi Fa Cai – Happy Chinese New Year!

新年快樂

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR OF THE GOLDEN RABBIT

JOY, PEACE, HEALTH AND PROSPERITY

It is the first day of the Lunar New Year. Although it is commonly known as Chinese New Year, many other countries with significant Chinese populations such as Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia also partake in the festivities.  According to custom, the new year starts on the first day of the month in the traditional Chinese lunar calendar and ends with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day.

Maple & Motor – Burgers and Beer

First rule upon entering this gas station turned insanely popular burger joint – line up and order before sitting down. Do not try (or even think about) poaching a seat beforehand. And just like how Mother Nature has a way of moving things along, by the time you order and pay, there’ll be a table free for you. The same applies to the parking lot. Pick up trucks and luxury vehicles alike wait patiently for a spot. And the turnover is quick. Maple & Motor’s ’greased stained tribute to low class cool’ has garnered quite a cult following here in the BigD. No wonder DMagazine honored it with it’s Best Burger accolade 2010. It’s personable owner, Jack Perkins wanders round greeting regulars by name and shaking hands with patrons like old friends.

Perrfection in a burger!

Ok. Now to the burger.

The ‘No Thank You Bite’

 We’ve all been there, trying to coax/bribe/threaten our kids to eat their meals while they squirm about and turn into artful dodgers. Sometimes we resort to theatrics and put on our best British accents and talk like Charlie from the Charlie and Lola series by Lauren Child. In the book, “I will never not ever eat a tomato“, Lola flat out refuses to eat all sorts of food and clever big brother Charlie tells a funny stories and rebrands them with exciting names

A fair dinkum Aussie Meat Pie here in the US

Australia Day is coming up January 26th and we often have a little hankering of something from our home. We celebrate Australia Day much like what Americans do for Independence Day – it’s a public holiday so we spend it with our family, have a bbq in the backyard, watch the sports (yes it’s universal) and then watch the fireworks. But since it’s cold in the US in January, we’re opting for winter food – a good old fashioned Aussie meatpie , made with minced beef and gravy, topped with a dollop of tomato sauce (aka ketchup here in the US).

Aussie Meat Pie

My favorite Australian pie shop is Australian Bakery Cafe.

Home baked goodness – Little Aprons Bakery

The morning begins with a waft of cinnamon and butter curling through the air as I walk down the stairs.  The table set with our usual breakfast fruit, two fiddly, giggling boys and the source of the home baked aroma - a plate of warm cinnamon buns. Home made cinnamon buns are wonderful for leisurely weekend mornings and for those who don’t bake, it’s comforting to know that we can call on Little Aprons Bakery.

Happy New Year – My Two Year Old Eats Octopus

Happy New Year! As I sat to write down my New Year’s (Foodie) Resolutions, I stumbled across one of my favorite blogs My Two Year Old Eats Octopus byNancy Tringali Piho and thought I would pass on her pearls of wisdom. And my personal New Year’s resolution? … to simplify. I wish you all wonderful things for 2011.

Thank you for reading! Till our next happy meal!