Give Your Kids Reindeer Food

No, I’m not suggesting you feed your children grass and lichens. One of the room parents at my son’s school made up the following recipe for each of the kids at their holiday party. Given my last name (Rudolph), it’s surprising I’d never heard of this before; I’m guessing it’s not that unusual. Still, it’s a fun little item you can give to your kids for Christmas, if you’re observing it.

Mix 1/4 cup plain, dry oatmeal (regular or instant) with about 1/2 tsp each red and green decorative sugar crystals.

My son’s room parent added this note to the bag:

On Christmas Eve,
Sprinkle this magic reindeer food
On your lawn.
The magic glitter
Sparkling in the moonlight
And the smell of oats
Will help guide
Rudolph to your house!

Anyone have any other traditions for feeding Santa and his team? (Me? I’d go multi-culti and leave him some latkes.)

What’s Cooking?

It’s Thanksgiving week once again, which means it’s time for me to be whipping up a batch of my family-famous Cranbanero Sauce. Not for the faint of palate. (Recipe after the jump, along with a milder one.)

What are you cooking and/or looking forward to eating for the holiday? Read the rest of this post »

Cat Cora On How to Get Kids to Eat Well

Karman at After Ellen has just published a long interview with Iron Chef and lesbian mom Cat Cora. Cora has just launched a new restaurant, Kouzzina, at Disney World in Florida, and is about to start another season of Iron Chef America. Karman asks her the obvious question: “How are you juggling having two new babies [and two other young children] in the house, competing on Iron Chef, and launching a very high profile new restaurant?”

Go read the interview for her answer. I will, however, quote her response to Karman’s question about how to teach kids good eating habits:

My theory is that you have to start with the parents and kids TOGETHER. The parents are the ones who shop for food, cook the food and feed the kids. They are the ones who decide whether or not to drive through that drive thru for fast food. So, educating them along with teaching the kids is key.

Hear, hear.

We’ve been blessed with a non-picky eater, but I admit it’s hard at times, especially when traveling, to stick with healthy food. I commend any restaurant that takes the audacious step of putting vegetables on a kids’ menu. And don’t even get me started on our local school cafeteria. Endless cycles of chicken nuggets, hamburgers, and Domino’s pizza, with an occasional “breakfast for lunch” of French toast. Our son gets lunch there once in a while, but I usually pack his food. (Not that we don’t have some of the above at home every so often, too; we just don’t do perpetual loops of it.)

Where/when do you find it hardest to eat healthy with your kids?

Details on Ben and Jerry’s “Hubby Hubby” Promotion

A followup to my post yesterday about Ben and Jerry’s renaming “Chubby Hubby” to “Hubby Hubby” in honor of the start of marriage equality in Vermont:

The ice cream maker has partnered with Freedom to Marry in order to raise awareness of the importance of marriage equality and to show its support. They will serve “Hubby Hubby” sundaes in Vermont Scoop Shops throughout the month of September.

From the press release: Read the rest of this post »

Ben and Jerry’s to Serve “Hubby Hubby” This Month

In honor of the first legal marriages of same-sex couples in Vermont, Burlington-based Ben and Jerry’s will rename its “Chubby Hubby” flavor to “Hubby Hubby” for the month, reports the AP, via the Rutland Herald.

I had a similar idea when Vermont first approved marriage equality, but clearly I wasn’t the only one.

No details yet about what form this renaming will take—if we’ll see actual package changes (get your collectible edition now!) or if they’ll just change the flavor-name signs in their shops in the Green Mountain State or around the country. Any Vermonters out there with the inside scoop?

Ben and Jerry’s has long been a supporter of LGBT rights, and it’s nice to see them marking the occasion, however they do it. I might just have to celebrate and buy myself a pint.

Two Pregnant Lesbians Walk Into a Kitchen . . .

Life & Style magazine is featuring a story about Iron Chef Cat Cora and her partner Jennifer Cora, complete with the cutest photo of the two of them simultaneously pregnant. (Jennifer in fact gave birth to the couple’s third son last week.)

I haven’t read the whole article myself (not all of it is online), but After Ellen reports that they discuss the ups and downs of dual pregnancy hormones, food cravings, and sharing maternity clothes.

Now if only mainstream magazines would stop using the phrase “longtime partner.” Or start using the phrases “longtime husband” and “longtime wife” when referring to opposite-sex couples. Oh, wait. Life & Style is an entertainment magazine. There aren’t that many longtime opposite-sex couples in the entertainment industry. Sigh.

The Taste of Victory

Just so you know I meant it:

I did indeed make a maple cornbread to celebrate the two great states of Vermont and Iowa. (Click link for recipe.)

And it was delicious.

Cat and Jennifer Cora Welcome Third Son

In what seems like a propitious week, Iron Chef Cat Cora’s wife Jennifer gave birth to the couple’s third son last Saturday, After Ellen reports. Cat Cora is also pregnant, and due in July.

After Ellen also notes that Chef Cora will be opening a restaurant in Disney World this fall. I’m kind of bummed it will be after my own family’s planned trip there. Let’s hope the state of Florida realizes what lesbian moms are bringing to its economy.

Congratulations to their growing family!

Iron Chef Cat Cora Has a Bun in the Oven

Iron chef and lesbian mom Cat Cora is four-and-a-half months pregnant! She and her partner Jennifer already have two sons and Jennifer is also pregnant and due in April. The couple isn’t wasting any time expanding their family. (Cora is 41, which may explain the rush.)

PR Newswire gives us the details:

The Cora’s [sic] share a unique family story in which both women have carried the other’s biological child. Cat’s pregnancy is a result of in-vitro fertilization with Jennifer’s embryo. The couple’s sons, ages 5 years and 23 months, were both carried by Jennifer. She was artificially inseminated for her first pregnancy, but the second she carried to term using Cat’s embryo. In Jennifer’s current pregnancy, both women’s embryos were implanted, so the biological mother is unknown. They do not to plan to conduct DNA testing to determine the baby’s biological mother.

Each of the couple’s children was conceived through insemination or in-vitro with the same anonymous sperm donor, making the children biological brothers.

Hmm. I have to question that “unique family story” part, though. Any readers who have done the same thing, please raise your hands (or leave a comment). Helen and I did half of it, with her carrying my egg. (We’re old enough now that we’re not going to try for another.) If you want to read about how we did it, I’ve described it in detail in Injections, Eggs, and Attorneys: How We Conceived.

Still, Cora’s celebrity is good for the visibility of LGBT parents. I particularly like that the couple announced they don’t know and don’t care which of them is the biological mother of the child Jennifer is carrying. All that matters is that the children will be well loved. Chances are they’ll be well fed, too.

Best wishes to the rapidly growing family.

(Thanks, Lez Get Real.)

What Ben and Jerry’s Flavor Means Equality?

Vermont may soon enact marriage equality, according to television station WCAX.

When I think of Vermont, I think of two things first: maple syrup and Ben and Jerry’s.

The question then arises: If you were to suggest a new flavor for Ben and Jerry’s to celebrate equality in their state, what would it be? I’m thinking “Rainbow Sorbet,” but I’m sure you all have other ideas for the company that has flavors like “Imagine Whirled Peace.” (Maybe a variation on an old one: “Chubby Hubby and Hubby”?)

Leave a comment. It’s Friday. Have fun.