Chicago —
Antonia Lofaso’s got your back.
The “Top Chef” alumna, along with putting in long restaurant hours, is also a single mom. She knows all about struggling to get a healthful meal on the table for her daughter, Xea, despite that French Culinary Institute degree, her years of experience and the skill under pressure she exhibited in two seasons of the Bravo TV cooking competition show.
Lofaso shares that understanding and her strategies in “The Busy Mom’s Cookbook: 100 Quick, Delicious, Home-cooked Meals” (Avery, $28). A welcome departure from the chefy, restaurant-driven efforts of many “Top Chef” competitors, Lofaso’s book offers doable recipes that children will like.
And, in an important focus that reflects her own relationship with her daughter, she adds tips on how to bring the children into the kitchen — allowing parents to spend more time with the children and teaching self-sufficiency.
Her variation on baked apples is an example of that. The children, with supervision, especially when using the oven, can do most of the recipe themselves. Younger ones will need help with coring the apples, Lofaso writes.
The dessert provides another lesson. Lofaso writes that her mother used to make the apples to teach the children that a dessert can be fairly healthy and “just as delicious as cookies or cake.”
ROASTED ROME APPLES WITH CINNAMON, CARDAMOM
Prep: 10 minutes
Cook: 1 1/2 hours
Makes: 4 servings
Notes: In this recipe from “The Busy Mom’s Cookbook,” Antonia Lofaso calls for Rome Beauties, a late-season apple; we had good results with Pink Lady and Braeburn.
Ingredients:
4 Rome Beauty apples, cored
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon each: ground cardamom, ground cloves, salt
4 cinnamon sticks
2 cups water
Ice cream
Directions:
1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Set the apples in a small oven-safe glass baking dish.
2. Mix the sugar, nutmeg, cardamom, cloves and salt in a small bowl. Holding the apples one at a time over the baking dish, rub the dry mix on the inside and outside of each. Allow the excess mixture to fall into the dish.
3. Place 1 cinnamon stick in the center of each apple. Pour the water into the baking dish; cover the dish with foil.
4. Bake, 11/2 hours. When the tops of the apples begin to split, they’re done. Let cool. Serve with your favorite ice cream.
Nutrition information:
Per serving: 196 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 51 g carbohydrates, 0 g protein, 147 mg sodium, 5 g fiber.
Features
‘Top Chef’ Antonia Lofaso shares meal strategies
- Features
-
-
Facebook's organ donor status sends registrations soaring
Facebook's addition of a way for its users to tell people their organ-donor status helped boost the number of people who registered as donors 21-fold in one day.
-
White House, NASA want help hunting asteroids
The White House and NASA on Tuesday will ask the public for help finding asteroids that potentially could slam into the Earth with catastrophic consequences.
-
Is it really possible to not know you're pregnant until the birth?
Trish Staine had just finished running 10 miles while training for a half-marathon when she started going into labor. The mother of three said she hadn't gained any weight or felt any fetal movement in the months before and had no idea she was pregnant. Is it possible for a woman not to know she's pregnant before she starts giving birth?
-
VIDEO: Rapper steps on American flag
Lil Wayne sparked a controversy when he stepped on an American flag during the filming of his new music video, but the rapper later said it was a mistake and unintentional.
-
VIDEO: Britney Spears' sons to make acting debut
Britney Spears recorded a new song for the "The Smurfs 2," and her sons Sean Preston and Jayden will make a cameo in the music video.
-
Expert panel will tackle gardening issues
Every community garden in Oklahoma serves as a reminder of what people can do if they come together to work towards a single purpose and goal.
That’s one reason the Oklahoma County Master Gardeners are offering a “Community Gardening” workshop from 1-3 p.m. July 9. -
Pope, archbishop of Canterbury meet
The neophyte holders of two of Christendom’s most venerable posts met for the first time Friday and spoke of fostering unity and understanding between their sometimes rival branches of the faith.
-
OCU Hebrew students to study Dead Sea scrolls
Students in a Biblical Hebrew class at Oklahoma City University will get a chance to study one of the Dead Sea Scrolls during the fall 2013 semester.
-
Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever remains a real threat
Q: My dog Candy died last year from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Is this that common in Oklahoma and how can I be sure neither one of my other dogs get it?
A: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever (RMSF) is a disease that can affect any of our pets as well as us. It is caused by the bacterium Rickettsia rickettsii and is transmitted by a variety of ticks. Three ticks can be found in Oklahoma that carry it. They include the Lone Star Tick, The Gulf Coast Tick (more common in the southeast U.S.) and the American Dog Tick. -
VET Q&A: Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever remains a real threat
Q: My dog Candy died last year from Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Is this that common in Oklahoma and how can I be sure neither one of my other dogs get it?
- More Features Headlines
-
