Thank you, Food Network

I think I may have found the secret to getting my kids to eat dinner without any arguing: TV tie-ins.

You see, modern parenting advice tells us that TV is bad for kids, but I think it really depends on what you watch. On Sunday night, the boys watched The Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown with me. This is the show where home cooks get to compete with other home cooks using their own recipes and the winner not only gets $25,000, but also gets to have their recipe "interpreted" for the TGI Friday's menu...I think that's an honor if you're a home cook and not a snobby chef who would prefer to pretend chain restaurants don't exist. 

So the theme this week was burgers and the burgers looked mighty good. Inspired, I decided to make my own special burgers for dinner last night. I'm calling them "Chive Turkey (burgers)" and all they consist of is ground turkey stuffed with chive cream cheese. 

They were a hit. Since I prefaced the meal with a "we're having fancy burgers like the ones on Ultimate Recipe Showdown," Owen, who has always refused burgers in the past, dove right in without any complaints about having never tried it before (a first, let me tell you) and Aidan cleaned his plate! This is a breakthrough for sure. 

This can only mean more Food Network for me and more happy meals (not to be confused with Happy Meals™) for my family. Win-win. 

Sweet Stuff

Everywhere I look, I see recipes for new holiday treats. I might as well just start eating butter by the pound. (Ironically, I injured my back yesterday helping my husband carry the treadmill up the stairs because I insisted that I was going to start using it immediately...yep, right after I can stand upright again.)

One of my favorites is still my recipe for cracker toffee, which is essentially just saltines, chocolate chips, lots o' butter and some brown sugar (it is now up to you to assemble those ingredients just right), but my eye has been wandering to peppermint bark, fancy pink macaroons and even The Amateur Gourmet's stupidly simple recommendation of peanut butter Ritz crackers dipped in white chocolate. Yum!

Will my imaginary treadmilling counteract the effects of all this sweet goodness? I think we all know the answer to that. 

The new staple in our diet

I was cursing Ann Hodgman last month for her falsely-advertised "Best Macaroni 'n' Cheese" -- the one my kids wouldn't even eat -- but I decided to give her another chance when I saw her recipe for Sweet Potato Biscuits in this month's Wondertime magazine. I'm a sucker for all things sweet potato.

First of all, let's take a moment to celebrate the fact that I made biscuits from scratch. It wasn't hard, but doesn't it sound hard? It sounded hard to me. But it wasn't! And I think the whole affair only took about 45 minutes (including baking). 

Okay, now we can celebrate the most important part: They were really good. So good that Owen, our little skeptic, the one who has to psych himself up to take a bite of anything new, ate FIVE of them. No, he didn't like the chili I served with them, but he couldn't get enough of the biscuits. As all of you out there with picky eaters know, this is quite a find. And sweet potatoes are good for you!

Highly recommended. This recipe gets 6 thumbs up over here.