Debbie Koenig
Blog Post List
March 15, 2013
Recently my son's class celebrated the 100th day of school. (Don’t ask me why this is suddenly something to celebrate, but boy was he excited.) The kids all did 100-related projects—mine made a poster with 100 ninjas—and in preparation for the day's festivities the first-grade teachers sent home a note: “In honor of the 100th Day of School our class will be making a 100th Day Snack Mix. They will be counting out 10 each of 10 snacks, totaling 100 snacks. We are asking if each family can contribute one item from the list below…” Fine. That’s a nice idea, don’t you think? But check out the list...
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October 25, 2012
I don’t know about you, but I find Halloween to be a particularly challenging holiday. It’s not a gauntlet to run through, like Hanukkah and Christmas—that I can prepare for, with lower-calorie adaptations and proven strategies. It’s not a solidly defined period, like Passover. It’s not a giant feast like Thanksgiving, where if I overindulge I know it’s over and can move on quickly. No, Halloween is one of those death-by-1000-finger-cuts situations. Temptations present themselves again and again, in unexpected places, for most of October. It used to be that, as long as I was freelancing from...
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October 27, 2010
I’m a big believer in authenticity. My husband and I (and now our son) will trek far and wide for a real taste of a particular kind of food, from New Jersey (and Connecticut) hot dogs to New England donuts to the fresh mozzarella made by the 90something Italian lady around the corner. But frankly, when it comes to getting dinner on the table, authenticity is usually the last thing on my mind. My concerns are twofold: First, what kind of kitchen triage must I perform just to get dinner on the table; and second, am I making something flavorful and healthy and satisfying? If I can accomplish...
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October 20, 2010
Recently I was testing recipes for the galactagogues chapter of Parents Need to Eat Too . I see you scratching your head—either you were never a nursing mom with supply problems, or you’ve blissfully erased that episode from your memory. A galactagogue is something that stimulates or promotes the production of breastmilk—if you’re unlucky enough (as I was) to have a body that doesn’t produce adequate milk to sustain your baby, a galactagogue may be the answer. During the first seven weeks of my son's life, as I tried and failed and tried again to nail down what’s supposed to be a simple,...
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September 30, 2010
Sometimes, even a healthy food isn’t so healthy. Take, for example, the package of bison hot dogs I received recently for review . Bison, I know, is an incredibly healthy meat, especially when compared to beef: it’s lower in calories, fat, and cholesterol. So surely hot dogs made from bison would be similarly impressive, right?* Eh, not so much. As a Lifetime Member of Weight Watchers, I read Nutrition Facts Statements habitually—I don’t remember the last time I ate something without checking to see what was in it. So of course, before I cooked a bison dog for my son, I read the label. What I...
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September 22, 2010
When my son was born, one of the more appropriate gifts we received was C Is for Cooking , a Sesame Street cookbook intended for parents and children to use together. Way back then, it seemed impossible to imagine that this tiny infant would ever be big enough to eat real food, never mind cook . But soon enough there he was in his high chair, learning to handle avocado, apple, smashed sweet potatoes, and the like. Skinny little fellow that he was (and still is), he never seemed to want to eat all that much. Our little action man had places to go, things to do. Didn’t take long for us to...
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September 1, 2010
Regular readers of my food blog know that my almost-four-year-old has been blessed with a, let’s say, discerning palate. (And by “discerning,” I mean that his list of Won’t Eats is approximately 638 times as long as the list of Will Eats.) This has been going on for close to two years now: I cook something new and exciting and delicious, and Harry refuses to taste it. I’ve stopped letting him see my disappointment (at least I think I have), because I’ve learned that the more I show him how important this is to me, the more likely he is to assert what little control he has. I make dinner for...
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August 24, 2010
In my last post , I wrote about how, for a frazzled, time-pressed new (or not-so-new) mom, having a pantry stocked with well-chosen ingredients can make the difference between a healthy, homemade—but still easy—dinner and another night of takeout. Today, let’s talk cold. As in, the fridge and freezer. Yes, things go bad in the fridge. When my son was a newborn, I threw out so much squishy, stinky, slimy, weeks-old produce it made me cry. (Granted, just about anything made me cry in my super-hormonal postpartum days.) But there are some standard items that should last long enough for you to...
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August 19, 2010
A few times a year, I teach a cooking class for new moms . At the beginning of each new session, once coffee is poured and babies settled, I ask the group what they hope to get out of the class. The answers usually fall into one of three categories, even though each woman’s situation is unique. A brand-new mom might love to cook, but hasn’t yet figured out ways to actually do it with an infant constantly attached to her body. A mom of two or more might want help with time management—no surprise there. And moms who are less comfortable in the kitchen want simple, healthy stuff that doesn’t...
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August 12, 2010
Once you see this, hit the kitchen. When my son was a newborn, I struggled to figure out how to feed myself and my husband—breastmilk and formula took care of our boy. Stephen and I ate far too many meals of takeout or fried egg sandwiches, while junior guzzled eight meals a day. Finally, once he settled down into a napping routine, I figured out how to get back in the kitchen without falling asleep in the soup pot: Nap-Time Cooking. The idea’s pretty simple. Once the wee’un dozes off, you hit the kitchen for 10 to 15 minutes of prep. Then you nap. Next time the kid conks out, you do the...
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