"Look out! It's TORTILLA SKULL!" she told us.

We've never been big on not playing with food—within reason. Throwing it? Making intentional messes? No way. But a little thing like this? I can deal. Everyone needs a little levity.

Switching gears completely: Can I tell you how sweet things are right at this moment?

I'm sitting on our bed, listening to the rain outside (rain! in the South! the grass may yet survive!) as Baby A and The Wonderful Husband finish the second book in the My Father's Dragon series. (It's awesome for early chapter-book readers...or listeners.)

Our next baby is tumbling around inside me, managing somehow to thump me hard in the back on my left and poke out on my right side at the same time. At just twenty-one weeks along, it has already been a big mover and shaker for quite some time; TWH jokes that he or she is going to roundhouse its way out of the womb.

I'm in the last stages of a big chunk of freelance work—an annual report for an institute within a major university nearby—and the deadlines have kept me from posting here much over the past week or two. I'm looking forward to finishing. Think it will be the last big project I take on before the baby arrives around the first of July. (And that, THAT, will be the big project for at least three or four months afterwards. That and the quest for sleep.)

TWH and Baby A have finished the book now and are talking about it. There's a map inside the cover, and she's telling him which islands are which. I know from reading the earlier chapters that she has them wrong, but what does it matter? TWH lets it go. Sunday night, when we started this book, Baby A nuzzled down into my side and turned to me with an unmatched look of excitement on her face. I recognized it and something inside my chest went all warm: She was incredibly excited to be on the verge of starting a new book.

I'm so grateful she feels that, too. We do get lucky and pass on some of the good stuff, don't we?

Posted by QSMama at 08:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Let's start with this: the sheer size of the recall:

The amount of beef—143 million pounds—is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States.

Then let's add in the fact that a big chunk of the recalled meat went to vulnerable populations (not that all Americans shouldn't expect food safety regulations be followed):

About 37 million pounds of the recalled meat went to school lunch programs and other federal nutrition programs since October 2006, said Ron Vogel of the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service.

Next, let's think about the real dangers posed by this event. I'm a layperson and all, but I know that downer cows are more likely to carry the prions that cause mad cow disease, which can cause Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. That's when people get the same symptoms as mad cows. And die, always. And it can take many years for the symptoms to show up. By that time, who can say whether this incident was the cause?

Another more immediate danger is e. Coli contamination. Poisoning shouldn't happen if the meat is cooked properly. But why should we have to worry more about it? Why isn't our food safety system (ahem, HELLO, USDA) monitoring these things more closely? Can I hereby request that my tax dollars that are currently going to shoot the daylights out of Iraq be diverted to keeping our own food safer? 'Cause it's pretty clear we don't have enough supervision on the ground here.

If my family and I were vegetarian, I'd be very happy there was no chance we'd eaten this beef. But we're not. And I don't think I could be.

So, again, I'm renewing my commitment to buying our meats from small farms that care for their animals well, feed them right, and practice clean, humane slaughter. (I know. It's not humane. But there it is.) I'll also buy meats from the Niman Ranch Cooperative, which I know holds its farmers to strict standards. I won't buy from the "naturally raised" brands in the larger retailers because the guidelines for that label are fuzzy. I don't trust them.

Still I can't rule out the occasional burger out somewhere. I can't help digging the burgers at Five Guys and at a little burger stand up the street. But I think we'll limit those to once a month or so.

PunditMom covers the topic well on the DC Metro Moms blog.

I'd love to see more of the major restaurant chains address food safety. Jack in the Box and In-n-Out have stepped up. Where's everyone else? Hello, McDonald's? Burger King? Large companies can do so much to reassure the public and change safety policy for the better.

Where are you, Forces for Good? How much prodding do you need to make sure (or at least to reassure us that you're making sure) our food is safe and our animals are treated right?

So, readers, how has this news affected your thinking? Not at all? A lot? Let me know.

Posted by QSMama at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

May I present to you...

da da da DA da DA DA!...

Valentine's cookies that were three years in the making!

This batch didn't really take three years. They just represent three years' worth of trying. Since Baby A was born more than three years ago, I've tried to make iced cookies for some holiday, ANY holiday. But I'd always be too busy—getting ready, cleaning the house, managing a stupid workload, packing up to drive somewhere. Today, though, it happened.

It wasn't too hard; I used this easy recipe for no-chill sugar cookies, and Baby A was able to stick with me for much of the pouring and mixing. She even rolled a few balls of dough for the cookie sheets, although they weren't too ball-shaped. ("Look, it's a cookie snake!" she told me. Snakes are a current obsession, in a good way.)

Once the cookies were out of the oven, she even sprinkled on some sprinkles, when she wasn't sprinkling them straight into her mouth. (There must be a gene for that.) But she also had to work in a number of laps around the house, as well as a re-creation of the "It's a Hard-Knock Life" scene from the Annie movie.

That's okay. We did it. And even though these cookies couldn't ever grace a magazine page, I now feel like the most bada$$ combination of Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray you evah seen. Mom goal #187.3: check.

And to little E. in Alexandria: these cookie pictures go out to you. See, Baby A wanted so, so badly to send you some of her Valentine's cookies. It took a lot of gentle explaining that the cookies could not travel through the mail, that they'd break into tiny pieces as they made their way up there. So know that your buddy wanted to send you a gift on this Valentine's Day.

Posted by QSMama at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

This is the right way to enjoy a burger:

Nice going, Baby A. By contrast, this is the wrong way.

Can you believe that story?

Posted by QSMama at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Fast Casual magazine did a big news release last week about its quiz relating personality traits to Mexican food preferences.

Dude! I did it first! But I included all kinds of fast food.

Find out what kind of fast food you are. For realz.

Let me know whether or not you agree with your results....

Posted by QSMama at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's amazing how many kid-development milestones just kind of happen on their own. Just when you're despairing, thinking you'll be changing diapers (or throwing away unsalvageable underwear) forever, they start using the toilet. Just when you think they'll be packing tubes of Little Bear toddler toothpaste for college, they learn to spit.

And just when you think your child won't ever lighten your day with some bathroom humor, you get a song like this: "I went some at school, and some at the Y, yeah,/ Poopy poopy, poopy, poopitypoopitypoopity POOP!" (copyright 2008, Baby A, just in case you were thinking of pirating that one).

Aaaaaaaanyway, seems it goes the same way with expanding their palates, too. Here's one writer, over at the lovely Babble site, who's taking that whole process in stride.

And that's cool. All things in time, right?

Posted by QSMama at 05:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Kelby at Kids Cuisine has a good reminder about how much little kids like to dip and eat their meals. It's an easy, fun way to get good stuff into them. (Unless, of course, your kid is Baby A, who is among the 0.5 percent of kids who don't care to dip.)

So why haven't restaurant chains caught on to this notion? Imagine how well a dipping-inspired meal would do on kids' meal menus. Parents would snap it up, service would be easy, and these things have a pretty decent fridge or shelf life. Yes, McDonald's offers Apple Dippers (pictured above), but they're caramel. That's dessert. Why not expand upon the idea? Take your yogurt sauce, or the hummus or peanut butter that's already on your menu, serve with carrot sticks or graham cracker sticks, and voila: toddler meal.

Hello? Menu R&D departments at restaurant chains? Here's a hint from the real world that could revolutionize your kids' menus.

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In the one and a half years I've been doing this blog, I've grown numb to the offers of the hundreds of spam comments I get each day.

Now, my advertising contract with the fabulous BlogHer precludes me from laying out the specifics of these offers. But let's just say that if, at THIS VERY MOMENT, I wished to engage in a game of naked online poker in which my opponents were an assortment of fake personal body parts of women and recently-become-women of a variety of races—and simultaneously broadcast that game on a webcam to thousands of enthusiastic viewers—these robo-commenters would be happy to show me how. INSTANTLY. And I could probably win, like, $50,000, too, and have guaranteed income for life.

You should see how quickly I can (1) select all, (2) hit delete on that Junk Comments page.

But yesterday one robo-comment finally threw me for a loop.

The promise? "Flush caffeine from your body, instantly!"

Why? Why?? Why would I waste that perfectly good $3.35 latte?

That was the craziest thing I've ever seen. Just plain nasty. The very thought!

Posted by QSMama at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This guy I dated a long time ago was an amazing cook. I learned much of what I know about cooking and wines from him and his mother. As my mom will tell you, I couldn't be bothered with learning to cook when I was growing up.

But whenever I was away for days at at time—on a business trip, say—this guy's place would be piled up with KFC buckets and pizza boxes. What in the world?

Fast-forward to today: When The Wonderful Husband is out of town (which, thankfully, is much less now thanks to a new job), fast food isn't what I want. If we've been having a good day and she deserves it, I'll take Baby A on a "date" to a yummy local pizza place. "I'm having some Mommy time!," she'll tell everyone in sight.

But most days, after twelve straight hours dealing with Hurricane A, I prefer to feed her an early dinner and put her to bed so I can relish a little time to myself.

It's then that I cook the things that TWH doesn't like so much, dishes with Asian themes like curry and fish sauce and fresh cilantro, with tons of veggies and maybe some tofu. You can't beat a big bowl of curried noodles, especially when you're free to eat it on the sofa with full possession of the remote control and several episodes of "The Daily Show" on the DVR.

Case in point: the dinner pictured above, consisting of lo mein noodles, broccoli, scallions, finely diced sweet potato, and a home-made red curry coconut sauce with plenty of cilantro and lime juice. I wished for a little tofu or beef to add to it, but veggies were all I had on hand. Oh my GOSH it rocked. It was hard to stuff my face with it while laughing at Jon Stewart and crew, but somehow I managed.

So, no empty KFC buckets rattling around The Bungalow. Sadly, there are no curry leftovers, either.

How about you? What do you like to eat when it's all up to you? Do you reach for fast food, or would you rather cook?

Posted by QSMama at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

Last week, Baby A was "helping" me shop at Trader Joes, meaning each time I turned to focus on something she loaded up the cart with whatever caught her eye—in this case, almond biscotti, a huge package of trail mix, and a pound of French roast coffee.

As if, child. That's about the last thing she needs.

The one contribution of hers I kept in the cart was a paper bag overfilled with smallish but gorgeous red apples. But it was sort of against my better judgment because the handwritten sign above them touted how they were "treated with minimal spray"!

Now, I'm not always careful to get organic apples. Sometimes surviving the shopping experience becomes more important than making sure each item is as carefully selected as you'd wish. Know what I mean?

But somehow having the "spray," however "minimal" it might be, pointed out so plainly, as an incentive to buy, turned me off. Visions of containers of Roundup with little spray nozzles filled my head, with the nozzles pointed straight at my child. It's probably silly, I know. I wash and peel apples for Baby A (also against my better judgment) so there's little chance this one instance of "minimal spray" would get to her.

But. Still.

Then tonight I noticed that McDonald's recently sent its moms panel on a tour of one of its apple growers and processors. Take a look at their journals and video—it's pretty interesting. Of course, there's nothing negative. You wouldn't expect it. But it's a fascinating look into (1) the power the Mom Demographic wields today and (2) just how much McDonald's can influence its producers. Let's put it this way: If McDonald's suddenly came out and said it would buy only organic apples from now on, a big fraction of U.S. apple production would shift to organic.

What's your take? Let me know.

And while we're at it, here's a hypothetical: If you knew McDonald's offered organic apples, would you be more likely to buy your kids the McDonald's Apple Dipper snacks or side dish?

I would.

Oh, the minimally sprayed apples? They're crispy, sweet, and delicious. But I think we'll buy our next batch from the local farmer's market, where I can ask the grower how they're grown. We get some awesome Pink Lady apples around here.

Posted by QSMama at 08:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today is the Great Virtual Breast Fest, sponosed by the League of Maternal Justice. All too often, restaurant managers (not to mention other guests!) have been part of the backlash against moms who get the need to feed while they're in a public place. Case in point: this recent incident at a Kentucky Applebee's.

The restaurant said it would keep blankets on hand? Are you kidding me? As soon as babies are a few months old, they yank the blanket off of their faces. Any parent knows that. And, really, why the blanket? Would you like to eat with one on your head? Can I put blankets over the heads of adults who chew with their mouthhs open? Or cackle at the table? 'Cause those things offend me.

The way I see it, kids have to eat, too, even the youngest among us. And though I doubt any mom *plans* to have to breastfeed her baby at a restaurant—I certainly didn't—sometimes things just happen that way, and better a contented baby than a screaming one any time.

That's life. Everyone needs to deal with it. I definitely fall into the If-you-don't-like-it-don't-look-so-hard camp. It's extremely hard to actually see anything private unless you stare really, really hard. So don't.

Because Baby A weaned almost a year ago, I can't participate in the nurse-in. But to celebrate the cause, I've gone back through saved email messages to find some nursing memories. Wow, these make me sentimental. Who would have guessed something so mundane as Feed the Baby would have so many emotional aspects?

Here's an early one, written to my brother and sister-in-law, when Baby A was just about three months old:

Continue reading "No Blanket Necessary! Virtual Nurse-In at Quick Serve Kids" »

Posted by QSMama at 02:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

See the orange lanterns in this picture? That's the bar at the coffeeshop nearest our house. It offers caffeinated beverages, interesting people, and a speedy wireless, making it one of my favorite places on earth. For a part-time WAHM who doesn't much like to WAH, it's an oasis. An oasis with lattes and pastries, which beats the kind with water and dates any day.

Baby A was ready for preschool early, so we stopped by this coffeeshop to share a toasted English muffin with cream cheese and drinks—milk for her, a double latte for me—before parting ways for the morning. She stayed in her seat for a while, but soon wandered a few steps away to the barstools, hooked her foot into one, and started pulling herself up to the seat.

I was close enough to catch her in case of a wholesale backwards tip-over. But she's climbed up many times before, so I just sat, watching. You know when your kid first tells you, "Go stand over there and watch! I can do the monkey bars all by myself!" And you have to swallow hard and let her, even though you're not sure how well things will go once those little hands weaken and lose their grip? It was one of those moments. (And there are so many, aren't there? Please, SOMEONE, comment to say "Just wait until she asks for the car keys!")

Seated in the chair next to the one she was scaling was the father of an eight-year-old girl. He's quiet, a transplant from San Francisco who rides a skateboard. We first spoke with when our daughters played together the one morning it snowed last winter. They were so sweet to indulge a toddler who was starstruck that a "big girl" would teach her to make snowballs.

To his left on another barstool was the father of a three-year-old girl who is just a few weeks younger than Baby A. He's a part-time barista at this place and full-time high school band drum line consultant. He's also a great artist and a master of fine arts, to boot, whose works are hanging in the shop's gallery right now.

And walking behind Baby A at that moment, on his way to the sugar and cream counter, was a third dad. He and his girlfriend or ex-wife, I'm not sure which, share custody of a gorgeous two-year-old with black curls to her shoulders. He was alone this morning.

So A. hoisted the top half of her body onto the chair, her feet pedaling briefly in the air as she worked her knees up to the seat. The barstool made a tiny screech. And at that moment each of those three dads threw out an arm to guard her. Three hands were suddenly in the air at her back, just in case.

The scene lasted two seconds, but the picture of it will stay in my mind for a long time. She was fine, of course, my surefooted little climber, and I had to fight the impulse to apologize to those guys, or thank them, or something needless like that. They were just doing what came naturally, and that's what was so awesome. They turned back to their coffees, Baby A sat down properly, and that was that.

To me it's all proof that it really does take a village to raise a child. Or, as our friends who own another local coffeeshop like to say, it takes a coffeeshop to raise a child.

Posted by QSMama at 05:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Use this tool to find out which restaurants have kids-eat-free nights and when.

Confession: I know our locally owned Fresh Mex chain feeds kids for free every Monday night. I just can't manage to remember to go there that night.

Can someone make a site that sends this info directly to my iCal, then automatically sends me email reminders?

Posted by QSMama at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I love my daughter deeply. Don't get me wrong. But our constant time together was making both of us a little loco. Baby A isn't one of those kids who play alone, nor is she content to sit down with a puzzle or some crayons. Like, EVER. Believe me, I've tried to help her learn to enjoy focused, quiet activities. She's not having it.

No, she's into elaborate make-believe scenes, requiring tons of dressing up (we're talking layers), long-spun storylines, and the construction of props—horse-drawn carriages, palaces, doctor's offices, you name it—using furniture and accessories from all around the house. Of course, all of these stories require additional characters, namely me and TWH if he's home, and extensive dialog. She is a creator, a collaborator. It's how she rolls.

And of course I love it. She awes me. But, good lord, it wears me out, if only from finding new ways to gently say no to my latest role in the latest story. There are things a mom's got to get done during the day.

So when the first days of school rolled around last week, I was a bit relieved—and I think she was, too. Her new preschool teaches through dance, chorus, drama, and art, and with all those props and plenty of kids and teachers into the same things she is, Baby A is very happy there:

** Excited? You think? **

Yes, those are sparkly silver slippers. She wears either those or soccer cleats every day. At least I'm saving money. Right?

** Check the upraised hand: "C'mon! Follow me!" **

Schoolday bonus: going to lunch afterwards with her friends and their mom. We hit a Brueggers for bagels, cream cheese, and delicious fruit cups, with grapes and balls of watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew. My sandwich didn't work out so well—chicken salad just doesn't stay between bagel slices. (Be warned.) But for a mom-and-kids afterschool adventure, it was yummy, easy, and a great experience.

The table tents will never be the same, though. Sorry, Brueggers.

** "I am Table Tent Monster!" **

How's your first week of back-to-school been? Anyone else secretly relieved, too?

Posted by QSMama at 06:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Baby A does pretty well in restaurants most of the time. I won't promise quietude, or lack of motion, because that never happens (unless she's sleeping, and that doesn't happen much, either). But she can usually manage to keep her little hurricane of activity going within the horizontal and vertical space of her chair, or—even better for us—her allotted space in the booth. She never stops talking and laughing, but she rarely shouts these days.

Yet, the usual things restaurants offer to keep kids quiet don't work for Baby A. I'm sure there are many kids who will sit and color with crayons. Mine is not one of them, even at three years old. Seems it's just not tactile enough for her. We read the little placemat cartoon-y things to her, but that takes, what, less than a minute, and it's over.

This post at Foodmomiac mentions one great solution: a small ball of pizza dough, handed out at their local pizza place. We had a similar experience at a nearby Fresh Mex place, part of a small chain that makes tortillas fresh to order. The cooks there handed A. a little ball of tortilla dough, and it was miraculous. She stayed in the booth and worked it and worked it until our food was ready, and even while we ate she took little breaks to smoosh the dough another time.

Of course, it looked like a disgusting ball of fuzz and crumbs before long, and she tried to take a bite once (looking all the while at me like, is this okay? Cause I know it isn't and I'm seeing if you're going to react...).

A simple ball of dough does it for us, and costs the restaurant very little. Or, I'm thinking, if we know it won't harm the table at the place we're going, maybe we could even pack one of those mini-cans of Play-Doh. What are other solutions that help keep your kids seated until the food comes?

Posted by QSMama at 10:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How convenient it is, two years later to the day, not to think about it.

We've had a nice morning of errand-running, playground-going, and farmer's market-visiting, including a shared peanut butter and honey sandwich for lunch (prepared by Whole Foods, the market sponsor) and locally made ice cream. It's beautiful here—meaning it's not 101 degrees outside, finally—so it's all too easy not to remember the tragedy of Katrina.

For a quick-serve tie-in, and to learn from Louisiana natives just how short the recovery efforts after Katrina and Rita are falling, please take a few minutes to read this. It affects you: your grocery and restaurant bills, the source of your foods, the well-being of your fellow citizens, the lessons learned (or not) for the place you live.

Baby A was tiny when Katrina happened, so it was the parents' problems that got to me the most. The worst was watching the parents with small children and babies, sitting, helplessly, in the sun while their children cried at their feet and in their arms. I remember

Continue reading "Katrina Continues to Swirl" »

Posted by QSMama at 04:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Each day lately I look forward to the sliver of time between when I stop working, around 11 P.M., and can no longer stay awake, around, oh, midnight.

It's the only time I have for reading, which has finally, FINALLY, re-entered my life after a nearly year of pregnancy insomnia (all right, getting up all night to pee) followed by three years with a child who has deep disregard for anyone's need for sleep, including her own. It took thirty-eight months, but at last Baby A has started sleeping for long stretches, even (gasp!) all night long. That kind of sleep deprivation? It's enough to make you collapse into bed once the work and housework are done. Or cry. Or both. Reading? Not so much an option for eyes that can't stay open.

What a treat, then, what a LUXURY to crawl into our lovely bed, nestle down, tune in to the song of the katydids and crickets and cicadas outside, and open Barbara Kingsolver's memoir Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life. She and her family moved to a farm in the Virginia mountains and agreed to eat only locally raised foods for a year, excepting only a tiny handful of ingredients, such as flour, which they couldn't source. They raised poultry, grew a variety of vegetables, and shopped nearby farmer's markets for nearly everything the family consumed. Kingsolver journals that year with an easy, humorous tone. Her husband, a college professor, contributes short pieces throughout, and her older daughter Camille, a student at Duke (YEAH!), writes essays and recipes to close each chapter.

Kingsolver's got me thinking...

Continue reading "I'm Gobbling Up This Book" »

Posted by QSMama at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

We took A. to hear some jazz outdoors last evening, then took her to "that piggy store," meaning the The Q Shack, for dinner. Rude as it might be, I slipped next door to snag a burger from Five Guys—something I've been craving for weeks. Little Burger (meaning one patty) with fried onions, lettuce, pickles, ketchup, mustard, and—this is the key part—fresh jalapenos.

Uh HUH.

While I was waiting (only a few minutes, I might add, not bad for a fresh-cooked burger), I noticed a whiteboard with a hand-written note:

"Today's potatoes come from [something, I forget] Ridge, Idaho."

Nice touch, I thought. Today's consumers are more and more concerned about buying locally, for many good reasons. And when you can't buy local, a quick note like that one at least makes you feel like the ingredients were local to SOMEplace, even if it wasn't close to you—like it came from real farmers and real dirt.

What a brilliant, and inexpensive, marketing move. For the cost of a white board and a minute's time, it gives customers the feeling their food came from a place, not a black box, and that's a feeling all chain restaurants would do well to foster. Parents care, more and more.

Is your family trying to buy more local ingredients? Would you like to see more locally sourced ingredients in the restaurants where you take your family?

Before you comment, check out the amazing simplicity of the Five Guys menu. THIS is why it works:

Posted by QSMama at 10:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Maybe it's the warm memories I have from visits to San Francisco. Or maybe it's the warmth spreading through me fron this early-Friday-afternoon Tanqueray and tonic and Trader Joe's Blackberry Crush blend I'm sipping up.

But this story got me, and even though it's not restaurant related, I'm posting about it. And don't ever tell me today's Quicksies aren't as thoughtful as any other generation. All that "it was better in my day" booshiznit...I'm not having it.

A fifth-grade class at Mangum Elementary in Durham, North Carolina, led the way with fundraising to send the school's 71-year-old custodian and his wife on a trip to San Francisco. Mr. Venable, pictured above, said his lifelong dream had been to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and thanks to those fifth-graders, along with faculty, other students, and local churches, his dream is coming true right now.

What a great note to end a hard week on. This is the best kind of Friday Fun I can think of.

[Shout-out to Wade: How much for the bridge?]
[Picture via WRAL-TV]

Posted by QSMama at 05:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Whoa, horrible dining experience related by a blogger at the San Francisco Chronicle. And they they left the Burger King bags on the table? How would you have reacted, if at all?

Closest we've come to this is getting Chick-fil-A for Baby A and burgers from Five Guys for us, then eating outside at a cafe table between the two restaurants. Do you ever take other kinds of food along for your kids? On my Parenting Scale of Things, that is overindulgent. How about you?

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Ooooh, the butterflies. I think my heart actually skipped a beat. Two of our friends—a couple, actually—both got iPhones last night, and I got to play with one this morning.

In the wake of all the hype, I half-expected something to go wrong. It sounded too good to be true. Surely the buble would burst. But? The iPhone did everything the commercials promised. It really is amazing—sleek, light, so very fast, and capable.

A Boston Herald reviewer says:

For it's not just cool; this phone is important, in the same way that Apple's first Macintosh computer was important. The Mac showed us a better way to interact with computers, and forced the entire industry to follow its lead. Here we go again. (Read full review.)

I had the same feeling, and after playing with one, for ever so short a time, I can say: It's true. It's all true. And all over again, I'm all giddy for the beauty and vision that Apple manages to attach to everyday tech tools.

This from a kid who was raised on MS-DOS and PCs. My dad had the foresight to insist that I learn to

Continue reading "I Think I'm in Love...with the iPhone" »

Posted by QSMama at 04:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I posted a while back about how the FDA decided not to require that growers/packers label cloned meat as such.

Here's my take: Ick. And ick. The FDA says the government can't tell the difference between meat from cloned animals and meat that came about in the, uh, regular way. Yo, FDA, here's a hint: THE CLONED MEAT CAME FROM CLONED ANIMALS. THAT ARE CLONES. We don't know enough yet. From what I understand, clones still tend to be sicklier and die earlier than their—um—parents? I'm not ready to guess what's going on at an atomic level.

And I sure don't want to feed my daughter cloned meat.

Turns out I am far from alone. The Food Marketing Institute found in a recent survey that U.S. consumers are highly uncomfortable with food from cloned animals (scroll down). Here's the highlight:

Looking at the potential future of food, consumers are not yet comfortable with eating products from cloned livestock. Six in 10 (61 percent) are not comfortable, including 31 percent who are "not at all comfortable." If such products are sold commercially, more than eight in 10 consumers (84 percent) believe cloned foods should be labeled as such. In fact, six in 10 hold this view "strongly."

Too bad the government is not listening to average Americans. How's about a little transparency, at least in the things we feed our families?

Posted by QSMama at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Question: How many of you read the BabyCenter site pretty much weekly while you were pregnant and the first few months after the baby came along? Yep, I did, from the due-date calculator to the nursing and first-foods advice and developmental milestones lists. (Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems Baby Center was one of the first comprehensive parenting web sites, and one of the first to feature popular parenting blogs.)

Then Baby A started crawling, and "Lord, what is she into NOW?" became much more pressing than "Wonder what developmental stage is next?"

So yesterday I found this intriguing BabyCenter page of parents' comments on families and fast food. There was one especially good tip:

We've also found that if you ask nicely, most places will put your order in the special box with a toy, and the kids are really happy then!

That's a good one. Have you ever tried it? What other good tips have you come across lately? Comment and share.

Posted by QSMama at 08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

And by that I mean environmentally friendly cleaners, equipment, and supplies.

Each year the National Restaurant Association holds a huge show in Chicago for restaurants and hotel companies. The most recent show featured plenty of new green-focused exhibitors, multiple green education sessions, and a well-attended special demonstration of new environmentally friendly products and ideas.

Cleaners so safe the demonstrator squirts them straight into his mouth? Furnishings made from recycled materials? High-voulme composting methods? Sounds great to me—anything to keep this place in better shape for our Quicksies and their kids. Here's hoping the interest at the show carries over into actual orders.

[Photo thanks to the National Restaurant Association's show news site, at the link above.]

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A friend—okay, a barista at my favorite coffee shop, and anyone who serves me espresso is a friend—passed along a great article from the New York Times. It's called "Don't Point That Menu at My Child, Please," linked here.

Please read the article (even if you have to register) rather than accept my little summary. It's worth it. But...basically the writer decries the fact that restaurants everywhere, along with grocery stores, approach our kids with the expectation they'd rather eat the usual kid's menu of chicken fingers, mac and cheese, cheese pizza, grilled cheese (pattern here?), and fries, rather than smaller versions of what's on the regular menu:

"In short, I came to the realization that America is in the grips of a nefarious chicken-finger pandemic, in which a blandly tasty foodstuff has somehow become the de facto official nibble of our young. [...] It pains me that many children now grow up eating little besides golden-brown logs of kid food, especially in a time when the quality, variety and availability of good ingredients is better than ever."

Righteous.

Now I'd like to offer some hints on avoiding the usual kid's menu, even in the fast-food or casual dining setting. 'Cause sometimes you just want something different for your kids—you know?

• Try the unusual fruit bowls for kids at California Pizza Kitchen. Then share some of your own, grown-up pizza with your child. Presto: yummy, solid lunch for cheap.

• Visit Chipotle, where there is no kid's menu, and share a Burrito Bol and some of their unstoppable guacamole and chips with your kids. Again: yummy, nutritious, cheap. In the picture above, Baby A is proudly making her own "baby burrito" at Chipotle, spreading guacamole (ours) on a plain tortilla (hers). It cost, like, 50 cents.

• Go to Wendy's or McDonald's and get one of their premium salads—the ones with diced chicken, pecans, and fresh fruit, like mandarin oranges. Give some of the toppings to your kids, even the really young ones. Baby A loved those things when she was just over a year old. Add a fruit and granola parfait and it's an inexpensive, healthy meal.

• Try smaller versions of regular menu items, like the Bambino Burgers at Good Times or the simple taco at a place like Taco Bell or Del Taco. They're ideal for the three-to-ten age range.

• Go to a Thai, Chinese, or Japanese quick-serve place, like Pei Wei or Panda Express, and make a small plate for your child from yours, with rice or noodles, meat or tofu, and veggies. We've been doing this with Baby A for, gosh, two years now. And she just turned three.

In short, think about how you can adapt the regular menu items for your kids. The choices areout there. You'll do the kids a favor by expanding their taste horizons, and probably save $3 to $4 per meal, too. And who needs the little toys, unless it's something really special your child just has to have? (When there's a "Wonder Pets" or "Little Einsteins" meal, I'm afraid we'll have to get one. No one is immune, right?)

And, restaurants? Get ahead of the curve on changing kids' meals. I think you'll find plenty of support.

Posted by QSMama at 08:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Just found this Family Matters site and an interesting podcast on managing kids' behavior in restaurants. I'm getting ready to listen to the podcast—listen here if you're feeling the need to regulate the kiddos in restaurants. Here's a summary:

Kids in restaurants? Should they stay or should they go? It's a topic that generates a lot of heat from diners. Caroline and Jacquie talk with Cleveland Plain Dealer food and restaurants editor Joe Crea. He offers some suggestions on what parents can do and what restaurants can do to include children and make it a pleasant and rewarding experience for all parties.

Based on our experience at Chipotle at lunch today, I'm willing to visit the topic myself. Yes, we took four trips outside to stop Baby A's whining, bossing, and loud conniving.

Used to be that everyone expected some unruly kid behavior at fast-food restaurants. Today, though? Quick-serves are installing carpeting, padded seats, cool sound systems, even televisions. The bar has been raised a little, and, well, it's never too early to talk about respecting others and the meal table.

Remember, you can listen to Quick Serve Kids podcasts here. Sheesh, it's time to do a new one....

Posted by QSMama at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Have you noticed? Cool design is everywhere. You can't even shop cheap without running across great design, smart marketing, and one designer name after another.

We're used to it now. We expect it. And quick-serve menus are keeping right up with our heightened expectations. I was struck by this comment in a Quiznos news release a day ago:

"Baja Chicken really captures the mood of summer with a smoked flavor that conjures up the experience of a weekend at the grill," said Chef Zach Calkins, Quiznos director of culinary development. "Specifically, the flavors in the Baja Chicken's two sauces, the Smokey Baja and the mild chipotle mayo, have been aligned to work together to create a complex first layer of flavor. What really makes this sandwich pop, though, is the cilantro which takes the place of lettuce, bringing a fresh bright flavor to the final layer of the sandwich."

"Aligned?" "Complex?" "Pop?" Our little Quicksies are never going to know "twoallbeefpattiesspecialsauce etc. etc." It's going to be fresher ingredients and complex flavor profiles, even if it comes between two buns at a $3 price point.

Have you noticed this change?

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I can't believe you're three.

Trying really hard to turn me into a toad:

More pics...

Posted by QSMama at 06:32 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

How cool would it be if your mom owned an ice-cream franchise?

First-time business owners Ann Kelly and Nicole Reinhart bought into a Dippin' Dots franchise in Tampa and opened a few weeks ago. With three children of her own, Kelly says she knows what kinds of products kids look for. "Dippin' Dots is an interesting and fun way to serve up ice cream," she says, "and my children and I have loved the little round dots since the first time we tried them. My kids were hooked instantly and will always choose Dippin' Dots Ice Cream over conventional ice cream any day."

Not me. The one time I tried Dippin' Dots, they were too cold and got all stuck on my tongue. It hurt. Give me the real stuff, preferably with chocolate gemmies, any day. Still, the ten-year-old in me says these kids have it made.

Posted by QSMama at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Spotted in the news this morning that VeriFone has released a new version of self-ordering stations. The iOrder Food Service Kiosk, pictured here, is a self-service station designed especially for quick-serve restaurant (QSR) and convenience store food service operations.

The kiosk trend has been around for more than ten years, but it's been slower-moving than many people anticipated—at least, than the kiosk developers anticipated, anyway. The idea is that customers feel more of a sense of control over the ordering experience, and that fewer mistakes might be made if you eliminate that communications gulf between customer and order-taker.

I once saw kiosks in action at a Sheetz convenience store in North Carolina. I thought the experience was okay, but I didn't have Baby A with me. Had I been trying to control her, it might have been harder to follow the directions. And one elderly woman who ordered after me was clearly uncomfortable with the kiosk experience.

What do you think—Would self-ordering be easier for you? What about when you've got kids in tow? Or would you prefer to have the help of a human being? Comment and let me know.

Posted by QSMama at 07:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

A friend who's a vegetarian recently emailed me about Burger King's move to improve animal welfare. "This sort of move," she wrote, "would prompt me to choose BK over other fast food joints for road trip fare..."

Increasingly, parents and families are paying attention to corporate social responsibility and letting those impressions shape their spending decisions. Is your family among them? If so, you're certainly not alone.

Technomic, Inc., a respected restaurant consulting and research company, recently studied which restaurant companies consumers think are most socially responsible. And guess what? Four of the top five companies consumers named are quick-serves.

The chains consumers view as being most socially responsible are McDonald’s, Chick-fil-A, Subway, Starbucks, and Applebee’s. (Well, okay, Starbucks might send me a nastygram for lumping them into quick service. But they are competing with quick-serves in many areas. So, Starbucks, no nastygrams, please. Oh, and I love your M&M snickerdoodles.)

Looking at U.S. consumer attitudes toward corporate social responsibility in foodservice, Technomic found that restaurant users rated health insurance coverage, living wages, and animal welfare as their top three concerns, when asked to select among fourteen different issues.

Technomic found that, in general, consumers believe restaurant chains could do more to address their high priority social issues.

“Corporate social responsibility is becoming increasingly important for consumers in general and restaurant users specifically,” said Bob Goldin, executive vice president of Technomic, when the report was released. “The foodservice industry should identify and proactively address those social issues most important to their customer base. There is big payback for companies that are able to connect with consumers in this way and major downside risk for those fail to do so.” (Emphasis mine.)

Do you talk with your kids about how companies can give back to society? Does your family tend to shop or eat with companies you think are more socially responsible? Comment and tell us about it. The corporations are reading. :)

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Thanks to The Wonderful Husband's recent retail therapy, we have a fancy new digital cable system that lets us record programs automatically. So, like any decent parents would, we immediately filled the hard drive with children's programs—the gentle new "Curious George" on PBS, plenty of Sesame Street, and the one Disney show I like (really like): "Little Einsteins."

Trouble is, "Little Einsteins" comes on the Disney Channel, and there are commercials—or, as I'm sure Disney would prefer me to call them, "corporate mentions." This morning, I let her watch a new "Little Einsteins," and the introductory montage included a spot with the Chuck E Cheese mascot playing basketball with kids and encouraging exercise...because "it's not only fun, it's healthy, too!," or something to that effect.

That message, of course, is lost on a two-year-old. Her thinking went more like, "Chuck E Cheese! I went to a birthday party there a few months ago. There was pizza and candy and cake and games! I want to go again!" Which then became all she talked about for the next five minutes, until Leo and the rest of the Little Einsteins crew headed to Rocket and her mind moved on.

This annoyance isn't limited to Disney. Even PBS, sadly, has corporate mentions—again, Chuck E Cheese, for our local PBS channel. I hate that.

So what's to do?

Last month Elaine Kolish, pictured here, became director of the Council of Better Business Bureau's Children's Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative. She will monitor and enforce the pledges made last November by 11 major food advertisers to devote half their advertising aimed at kids to the promotion of healthy diet and fitness choices.

Those advertisers include quick-serve companies and suppliers like McDonald's, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Cadbury Schweppes, Campbell Soup, General Mills, Hershey, Kellogg, Kraft, Masterfoods, and Unilever.
All have pledged to reduce their use of licensed characters, product placement, and advertising in schools, and to follow the existing guidelines of the BBB's Children's Advertising Review Unit.

As this interview makes clear, though, the pledges are just that right now. Kolish will spend this spring and summer encouraging those advertisers to put some teeth in those promises. Here's an exceprt:

"[...] We're planning on announcing pledges between May and August this year. I'm not saying everything's going to be implemented between May and August—the pledges are supposed to explain how the company is going to meet the principles they signed onto last fall, to devote at least 50% of their advertising aimed directly at children 12-and-under to healthier diet choices and healthier lifestyles.

That all sounds good—really good, and best of luck to you, Elaine—but I keep thinking back to that Chuck E Cheese spot from this morning: just the mention of the name is annoying enough.

What's your take? Do you mind when your kids are exposed to advertising? Do you intentionally shield them from it? Or do you take it all in stride? Comment and let me know.

Posted by QSMama at 07:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Take a look at just one day's worth of quick-serve coupons. Our mailbox was literally overflowing. Note that the square Burger King in the lower-right corner one is not one page, but a whole booklet of money-off goodies.

A couple of observations:

* Note the number of quick-serve chains promoting breakfast. This is THE battleground right now among chains. Seems we Americans are creatures of habit when it comes to breakfast. All of the major chains want to make sure you build your morning routine around them.

The Burger Kings, McDonald's, and Wendy's of the world have watched Starbucks (and, to an extent, Dunkin Donuts) and developed major, major envy.

* Also note the number of pizza offers. This coupon-cornucopia arrived on the Thursday before Final Four Weekend, and we live in the heart of Tobacco Road basketball country. (Go, Duke! Go ACC!) That tells you something about targeted marketing.

So, does your mailbox fill up with ads and coupons like this? Have you ever redeemed one?

Posted by QSMama at 07:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Today the National Restaurant Association launches the new Healthy Dining web site, which is aimed at helping Americans make healthier restaurant choices. If you watch daytime TV or read a newspaper, you're sure to hear about it because there's a big PR campaign kicking off.

All in all, this is good news. In fact, it's sorta what Quick Serve Kids is doing, in a very niche way. But I want to state something that the body behind Healthy Dining isn't making too clear: Healthy Dining is a paid directory. Restaurants pay a fee to be listed and receive a list of benefits in return, including online links and printable coupons, window decals, and a certificate to hang on the wall. It's sort of like having the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for your restaurant's he