Fruit Salad with Vanilla-Lime Dressing

School's out, summer is in full swing and the KC kitchen staff is more eager than ever to get to work.

I, on the other hand, am readjusting to the amped up summer house volume and the sheer exhaustion of fielding ceaseless requests to paint, set up the sprinkler, help practice piano, go to the park, walk to the library, recall the Spanish word for prairie (pradera, by the way), host a spelling bee, make popsicles, make worksheets, make popcorn, make playdough, put on a puppet show, demonstrate a proper cartwheel, and the dreaded...can we plug in the glue gun?

With the day spiraling into hot glue territory, it's time to act. Fast. So what's quick, simple, can be made from stuff you already have sitting on your kitchen counter and irresistibly enticing to a swarm of sunscreen-slathered, half-dressed ragamuffins armed with a glue gun?

Fruit freaking salad, baby.

Fruit Salad with Vanilla-Lime Dressing
inspired by The Pioneer Woman

For the dressing

1 cup granulated sugar
2 limes, zest and juice
1 cup water
1 & 1/2 tsp good vanilla extract (or the caviar of one fresh vanilla bean)

For the salad

1/2 medium peeled, pineapple, cored and chopped into chunks
1/2 small cantaloupe, rind removed, seeded and chopped into chunks
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 cups grapes, halved
1/2 pint blueberries
1/2 pint raspberries
1 handful fresh mint leaves

To make the dressing, combine the sugar, lime zest, juice, water and vanilla in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil, stirring until all of the sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool.

You'll be relieved to know that preparing a fruit salad requires no advanced training. Wash, peel, core, and slice fruit as necessary and put it all in a bowl. Use whatever fruit you have. Enlist your glue gun-wielding kitchen staff and go to it.

Pour the cooled dressing over the top of the fruit and toss everything together gently. Or if your staff has a case of the pickies, leave the dressing on the side and use it as a dip instead. Garnish the whole beautiful mess with mint leaves.

Don't forget to destroy the glue gun while their slurping the last of the juice from their bowls.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Pears with Balsamic Drizzle

I admit it. This one's just for me. And for you, of course. Pull up a chair.

My kids won't tolerate anything orange and mushy. There's no meat here and sweet potatoes don't rank high in Mufasa's diabetes-fighting, low-carb diet. But, sometimes we need to do a little something for ourselves, yes?

Consider this. You're cooking for a group and needed to accommodate various food allergies and sensitivities. Simple roasted vegetables are a safe bet. Roasted sweet potatoes with pears and balsamic vinegar are not only super tasty and make the house smell like pie, but are also free of the top 8 allergens (peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, dairy, wheat, soy, fish, and shellfish) and gluten-free too!

And no pressure but one of these really seems to help the process along. Ignore the Jack Daniels glass. He's not invited to this party.

Fill a rocks glass with ice. Pour in an ounce of bourbon, an ounce of fresh lemon juice, top with good ginger beer (here's my fave) and garnish with a lemon wedge. Do it! Do it! Just saying. All it needs is a snappy name. Suggestions?

Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Pears with Balsamic Drizzle

2 or 3 sweet potatoes
2 large firm pears (I used Bartletts but the choice is yours. Cored, halved Seckels would be lovely)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Good quality, aged syrupy balsamic vinegar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Scrub the sweet potatoes and slice them into wedges about 1 & 1/2-inches thick leaving the skin intact. Put them on a sheet pan. Douse with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast about 20 minutes until they're starting to soften but not yet done.

While the potatoes roast, core, stem, and slice the pears into wedges about 1-inch thick. Add the pears to the sheet pan with the potatoes. Drizzle on the remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil and toss the pears and sweet potatoes gently. Return to the oven for 10-15 minutes more until the sweet potatoes are done and the pears are tender. Remove from the oven and cool slightly. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Season with more salt and pepper and serve warm.

Easy Baked Cinnamon Apple Chips

My chip fixation continues.

I know what a process it can be to make exciting, tasty, remotely nutritious party food for one kid with food allergies, but with an entire classroom of allergies to contend with, it can be next to impossible. Just try to come up with a safe, healthful "treat" that a bunch of 6-year-olds with candy and costumes on the brain will actually want to eat. I don't want to pull a muscle patting myself on the back but I contend these baked apple chips do the trick.

I made these for Looly's first grade class Halloween party a couple of weeks ago. The kids took them down and came back for more, which considering we were less than 3 hours away from official trick-or-treating time, was freaking amazing.

Better yet these are so easy to make they're really more of a non-recipe. In fact, it didn't even occur to me to post them here until a few adults at Looly's party were stunned that I had made them, automatically assuming that I must have used a food dehydrator or some other obscure gadget. No, friends. Assuming you have an apple, a mandoline, and an oven at your disposal, the process is embarrassingly simple. 

Baked Cinnamon Apple Chips

4 apples, sliced thin on a mandoline, or if your knife skills are that good, have at it that way.*
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper. Place the apple slices in a single layer on the parchment-lined baking sheets. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon and sugar.
2. Bake for about 2 hours, turning apples over after the first hour. After 2 hours, turn the oven off but leave the apples to continue to crisp up until the oven is cool.

*Leave the skin and core intact. It's just prettier that way. Choose any apple variety you like just keep in mind that the juicier the apple the longer it will take to dry out. For reference, I used Granny Smiths and Honey Crisps.

There you have it - allergy-friendly, kid-approved, healthful, seasonally appropriate baked cinnamon apple chips. They'll keep for several days in an airtight container, but my advice is make them on the day of your shindig. Your house will smell amazing and everyone will assume you're a domestic goddess. Save your leftovers for lunchboxes!

Rainbow Agua Fresca Fiesta

It's summertime. Around here that means Mama School. Nope, no highbrow philosophy class for me, rather, the kiddos and I are exploring a few special topics we all wish we had more time for during the school year. And guess who gets to play teacher. Uh-huh.

This summer, Mama School is offering our ever popular cooking course, along with piano/music, reading with special emphasis on poetry, weather cycles, and Spanish.

The kids know several Spanish words, but I've been trying to encourage them to string more phrases together and most importantly, to make an attempt to talk to people using the Spanish they know. What better scenario to practice our basic greetings and introductions than a pretend party with chips and guacamole and a few fancy drinks to clink? Agua Fresca time.

With an abundance of fruit in the house, we each chose our own fruit flavor. Here's the rundown:

Looly: Pineapple
Bean: Strawberry
Roo: Watermelon
Amy: Honeydew with basil-infused simple syrup from mojitos the other night

In retrospect, the whole flavor choice thing led to a lot of blending and rinsing when we could have been practicing Spanish greetings. But we embraced the moment, adding fruit names and colors to our lesson for the day. I find that's one of the coolest things about working with kids in the kitchen. No matter what we make it inevitably ties into all sorts of additional learning. Fractions, measuring, vocabulary, music (can you really cook without it?), poetry (Amelia Mixed the Mustard by A E Housman, for instance), you name it.

So anyway, we chopped la piña, blended las fresas, juiced la sandía, and...

"Hola. Me llamo Roo y me gusta la agua fresca de sandía."

Agua Fresca Rainbow

2 cups fruit of your choice, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped (We made several batches using watermelon, pineapple, honeydew, and strawberry but you could expand your own rainbow with mango, cantaloupe, cucumber, guava, passion fruit, etc.)
1 cup cold water
2 tbsp. sugar
Juice of 1 lime

Puree the fruit in a blender or with an immersion blender. Pass through a strainer or other fine sieve to remove pulp. Combine strained puree, water, sugar, and lime juice in a small pitcher. Stir until sugar dissolves and serve over ice.

Each batch will make about 2 servings. If you want the full rainbow effect, make a few different batches using a variety of fruits in complimentary colors.

Watermelon Feta Salad

Looly and Roo love feta cheese. All three of the KC kids slurp watermelon like it's going out of style. Frankly I don't have much in my arsenal better than this to get them to eat an actual salad.

But as far as fruit and feta go, Mufasa is a skeptic. The rosé helps. And the fact that I use mint from his herb garden. Mint has a habit of taking over that thing.

The recipe couldn't be simpler. Just focus on the freshest, highest quality ingredients you can find. I know you've heard it a million times but it really counts here. No joke.

Watermelon Feta Salad*
(adapted from Barefoot Contessa)

4 cups baby salad greens, rinsed and dried (arugula would be peppery and tasty, but it's a bit strong for my kids, so I went with mixed greens instead)
1 cup chopped mint
2 cups watermelon, cubed
8 ounces feta cheese, cubed
juice of 1 lemon
juice of 1 orange
1 shallot, minced
1 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil

1. Place salad greens, mint, watermelon, and feta in a large bowl.
2. To make the vinaigrette, combine citrus juices, shallot, honey, salt, and pepper. Whisk well. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking continuously. Pour over salad mixture and toss to coat. Serve immediately, outside on the porch.

*This, like many of my favorites, can be served deconstructed for the most persnickety diners, aka my children. Watermelon. Feta. Greens. Orange slices. 'Nuff said.