Central Market at Preston Royal – First look!

New Central Market opens

Central Market throws open it’s doors today! The Preston Royal locale (previously housed by Borders) marks the opening of Central Market’s ninth store. IttyBittyFoodies had a media sneak peak yesterday at some of the innovations and offerings customers can look forward like the new selection of New York Deli-style dishes and baked goods. Think artisanal boiled and then baked bagels onsite and new bialys and New York City based Charlito’s cocina artisan salumi.There’ll be a full service custom sandwich bar with a “Build Your Own” sandwich option as well as a menu of chef created sandwiches.

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.

iCOOLer – lunch bag

Lollo packing his lunch in the iCOOLer

There was an article recently in the Dallas Morning News that 9 out of 10 lunches are stored at unsafe temperatures and they are putting our kids in danger of food borne illnesses. What luck when we received an iCOOLer in the mail. This week being the first week back at school, I thought I would put it to the test.

Lemley’s at Dallas Farmers Market

Tonight's dessert after a day of painting paper boats

Many of us associate Lemley’s at the Dallas Farmers Market with sweet summer peaches but I’ve always found all his produce just stellar. The last month Pikelet & Lollo have had asked me repeatedly to drive downtown for Lemley’s canteloupes. The sweet aroma will envelop you before you even cut one open. And oh the heavenly pink coral flesh that await at first bite – juicy, sweet, luscious…

IttyBittyFoodies celebrates 1 year

Lollo & Pikelet

Happy Birthday IttyBittyFoodies! It’s time to have a Birthday Month Celebration! A year ago, I didn’t know if I could write again after taking a hiatus from writing when Lollo was born. Well here we are on our 60th post and nominated for Babble’s Top 100 Mom Food Blogs (please vote here under Cheryl Collett), named one of Dallas Best Blogs on Wherelocalseat.com and was featured on TinyDallas under Moms We Love.

Pikelet is about to turn 6 and Lollo is now 3.

IttyBittyFoodies & Tiny Dallas

IttyBittyFoodies has a new gal pal named Tiny Dallas. She’s that resourceful friend you turn to when you’re looking for an awesome activity for the kids whether it’s DIY, galleries, performances, music or travel. She makes great suggestions for restaurants, cool toys, great shops and artsy finds. How? Because the people behind Tiny Dallas are

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.

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.

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.

Belly full of whale cakes – easy salmon cakes with green beans & bacon

Pikelet & Lollo eat salmon cakes because of the book “Big Blue Whale” by Nicola Davies. They call them ‘whale cakes’ and eat loads because thought of having stinky ‘whale’ breath is an attractive trait when you are five and three years old.

“When it breathes out, it makes a great misty puff as high as a house. This is the whale’s blow, and you can see it from far away. You can hear it, too – a great PROOUFF. And if you are close enough, you can smell it, as the whale’s breath is stale and fishy.”

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.

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

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!

My 2 year old cooks duck

Here is the easiest New Year’s Eve dinner party recipe - slow roasted duck legs with only 2 minutes of prep time. It’s so simple that my two year old Lollo actually makes it sans putting it in and taking it out of the oven of course. We like the Maple Leaf Farms brand which feature a meatier duck leg quarter but most duck legs will work with this recipe. The results are a wonderfully crisp skin wrapped over moist tender meat that’s almost like a confit. We use green peppercorns for its delicate taste especially for the kids and for the holidays we recommend you splurge and get some pink peppercorns too!  The kids love participating and are supremely proud that they cook duck regularly. This recipe is dedicated to my non-cook friend B.

Holiday Party Idea – Tom Colicchio’s braised short ribs

Stunning results!

So done with turkey? Then try celebrity Chef Tom Colicchio’s (of Craft restaurant at the W Hotel in Victory Park) braised short ribs recipe. The results from this succulent fall-off-the-bone recipe is guranteed to garner ’oohs and aahs’ at the dinner table even from the most discerning itty bitty guest.