Now that I have officially started grad school I am much busier with my academics and classes and have less time for domestic chores around the house. Paul and I had a discussion with the kids and  told them everyone has to pitch in. From now on they have to do their own laundry, which they agreed to do (as long as I do the sorting). Since I have classes a few nights a week, the kids will need to cook a few dinners. The latter they are very excited about doing.  Our routine is that we decide together on a recipe, which I leave out on the kitchen counter along with all the ingredients.  While I am in my office on-line with one of my classes, they cook dinner. So far so good. Last night Eva made Pasta Puttanesca and it was delicious. She was very proud of herself. Sophia did the dishes. It is her turn to make dinner on Thursday. She plans to make quiche. Here is the link for the Pasta Puttanesca  recipe if you would like to try it. Some of the  ingredients she used were  products from Coeur d’Olives, my friend Les’ company that I am doing some marketing for right now.

To know me well is to know that I love cake. My family used to joke that all the early photos of me were of me licking icing off my fingers.  Perhaps that is because the only time my parents took photos was on birthdays. Still, cake and I have had a long love affair.

I recently discovered this great blog called  Piece of Cake Decorating. They offer custom made cakes as well as directions on how to make your own. My favorite is the slumber party cake, a variation of which I have made for my own kids. Check it out. Great fun.

On the last night of our trip fantastic, after a day spent at The Ocean City water park (and no, I did not pee in the pool) we had a feast of corn on the cob, grilled vegetables and the star attraction– hard shelled crabs. Maryland blue claw crabs are to the mid-Atlantic states what wild salmon is to Alaska and grits are to the South. They can be flown in, but there is nothing quite like stopping by a road side fish stand and picking them out of a bushel while they are still alive and kicking. The next best thing is catching them yourself which we often did on our summer camping trips on the east coast.

As with everything else on this trip, I wanted to share this experience with my children and I have to say they did not recoil in disgust as I feared they might.  First I taught them how to hold a live crab so that it would not bite them. (I consider this one of my special talents and part of my charm.) Then my brother-in-law, who did the cooking, showed them how to steam them in a large pot filled with some water, beer and Old Bay seasoning. The sauce was later poured over pasta and enjoyed along with the crabs. The final lesson was showing them how to break open the crabs to get the meat out. This they found to be a fun, albeit, messy challenge. And they loved the crabs. It was a perfect sendoff to a perfect trip.

I have been asked by Stoneyfield to review their Yobaby yogurt. Up until now, every product or Foodie review I have done has been on products of people that I know or have a personal connection to. And I only review things that I like. Often times I am approached by marketers and PR people asking me to plug their line or service; like The American Dental Association who asked me to write about the importance of early dental hygiene. As much as this may be a gripping topic for you, it would bore me to tears.  So I passed on that one.

When I got a pleasant email from Stonyfield’s marketing person and I remembered that my ex-husband’s ex-college roommate was their VP of Something,  I figured I would give them a try since I have always enjoyed all of their other products. I bought a couple of six packs and tried them with the kids. We tasted the apple, blueberry, banana and peach. They were all delicious in a way a baby would love–very smooth and creamy and mild tasting without that tart, sour taste some yogurts have. Mark commented that he liked how there weren’t any chunks of fruit in it. If I had babies,  I would definitely feed them Yobaby yogurt.

My good friend Les Cooper, owner of Coeur d’ Olives,  lives in Carmel, CA  and makes the best plain and infused olive oils I have ever tasted. I am not biased just because he is my friend. I met Les about 7 years ago when I first started my pressed flower glassware business. We met at  a promotional event at one of our stores and hit it off. Since I decorated olive oil bottles with pressed flowers and he made fantastic olive oils we decided to partner and sell our products together. For years we shared booths at festivals and sold side by side at the farmer’s market. When I sold my glassware business I carried Les’ products in my food repping business. I  still sell  for him occasionally, conduct product demonstrations and am always coming up with new uses and recipes for his diverse line of oils, balsamics, rubs, tapenades and spreads. I used his habanero infused oil to make  a Manhattan clam chowder and entered it in the Santa Cruz Clam Chowder cook-off and I won. I also make habanero brownies and  cookies. Recipes for these are included with purchase.  I tell customers that using Les’s oils and vinegars makes creative cooking easier. Pour his basil walnut dipping oil on pasta and get instant pesto. Use his aged balsamics to marinate chicken,  fish and vegetables  for a gourmet flair.

Last  Friday night Paul and I had dinner with some clients (clients who are fast becoming friends) at a really cool restaurant in Santa Monica called Wilshire — a very cool, hip, happening L.A. eatery. It was kind of loud and rowdy when we first walked in, but we had a private room which was very special. There were six of us; three couples. We really enjoyed the intimate setting, the wonderful food, the eclectic decor and each other’s company. Paul had the seared scallops and I had the lemongrass risotto. Very, very good. We dined for hours. The service was attentive without being solicitous, which made for a relaxing and enjoyable evening.

I’m adding a new category to my blog called FOODIES REVIEW. As you may have guessed by now, I am a Foodie. In fact, I used to have a food repping business called, guess what? Foodies. These aren’t necessarily reviews per se, but plugs for products and restaurants that I absolutely LOVE. The first product line I want to present to you is from my friend Robert Lambert. He makes the most amazing marmalades, chocolate sauces and preserved fruit! When I repped his line every store I showed it to bought it. People who didn’t like marmalade loved his. He picks all the fruit himself and makes everything by hand. Inspiration for his products came from a family farm in northern Wisconsin, where his grandmother Florrie began cooking at 13 in the logging camps of the early 1900’s. Extensive preserving by mother and grandmother was a fond childhood memory. When these memories met the ingredients of his adopted California home–wine, grapes, citrus fruit and ginger-–-his product line was born. Robert is pictured here receiving his award from Jacques Pepin for his cherries in merlot syrup.