Michelle Maisto

Emerson started daycare last week, which has likely been more...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 10:32:55 -0400

Emerson started daycare last week, which has likely been more devastating for me and her Babah than for the little lady herself. Wanting something extra-yummy to put in her lunch box — yes, she is 19 months old and I now need to pack a lunch box — I baked up a version of the amaranth date-nut banana bread I wrote about in December.

A teeny grain, amaranth offers the most protein you can get in a non-animal product, plus offers a nice crunch. But the recipe above also makes a rather dense loaf. To lighten it, and insure it didn’t travel back home with her, I added an extra egg, which rather amazingly did the trick. I made muffins and mini muffins and both were spongy and moist. Because I though it would complement the hot-weather dates and bananas, I also added about 2 tablespoons of shredded, unsweetened organic coconut, which was all that was left in the bag I had.

I also had a block a cream cheese in the fridge, which I didn’t want to spoil but generally have little use for, so I thought I’d make some cream cheese icing. I’d never made it before and had no idea 2 cups of confectioner’s sugar would be called for. Normally this is where I’d reach for the agave or honey, but I was out of both. After a moment of lip chewing, my eye landed on a way-overripe banana in the fruit bowl — the perfect sweetness and flavor to boot.

The icing wound up being roughly half a package of creamcheese, about 2TB of butter, half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, about 1/2 cup of confection’s sugar and half a black-on-the-outside-by-fine-though-mushy-on-the-inside banana. Blended with a handmixer, it came out the perfect consistency.

Emerson ravaged nearly two plain, large muffins after her morning nap. Later, when I gave her an iced mini muffin, she licked off every molecule of icing, put down the muffin and looked for her next victim. Point taken. Don’t mess with a good thing.

Bread dolls, using the recipe from the Tommie de Paola book...

Sun, 01 Apr 2012 10:59:55 -0400

Bread dolls, using the recipe from the Tommie de Paola book Watch Out for the Chicken Feet in Your Soup, were an Easter tradition when I was a girl. The dolls, more like swaddled babies, had a colored Easter egg for a face and braided dough for their little bodies.

I think I may instead make Easter Ricotta Pie, or pizza di ricotta — as my mother calls it — a tradition with my own daughter, if only because I’m a ricotta fiend and it’s on my top-five list of favorite breakfast treats. There’s still a fun factor — Emmy can someday get creative with the lattice crust, if she likes. Plus, it solves the problem of whether those darn babies can stay on the counter (for a nice soft dough) or if their little egg faces mean they have to live in the dark of the fridge.

Should anyone need extra convincing to follow my lead, I suspect this beautiful ricotta pie photo, by Katie at The Parsley Thief blog, should do the trick. (Thanks again, Katie!)

There’s a recipe and more pie ideas on my Sweet Pea blog, here. xo!

Adrienne Rich, 1929-2012

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:07:20 -0400

II
I wake up in your bed. I know I have been dreaming.
Much earlier, the alarm broke us from each other,
you’ve been at your desk for hours. I know what I dreamed:
our friend the poet comes into my room
where I’ve been writing for days,
drafts, carbons, poems are scattered everywhere,
and I want to show her one poem
which is the poem of my life. But I hesitate,
and wake. You’ve kissed my hair
to wake me. I dreamed you were a poem,
I say, a poem I wanted to show someone…
and I laugh and fall dreaming again
of the desire to show you to everyone I love,
to move openly together
in the pull of gravity, which is not simple,
which carries the feathered grass a long way down the upbreathing air.

—Adrienne Rich, from Twenty-One Love Poems. Rest in peace, AR. May the next world wrap you in love.

There’s a neat distinction in Mandarin, between food and...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:06:05 -0500

There’s a neat distinction in Mandarin, between food and drink, when saying something tastes good. If it’s food, you say hau hau tzuh. (Literally, good, good eat.) When it’s a drink that’s delicious, it’s hau hau huh (good good drink).

This green tea ice cream, handmade specially for a dinner party by my lovely and talented friend Mina? Mmmm. Hau hau tzuh!

*Italicized bold words are totally phonetic and made up by me.

Harmonica, kouqin. (Sounds like, koe-cheen, with an...

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:50:00 -0500

[Flash 10 is required to watch video.]

Harmonica, kouqin. (Sounds like, koe-cheen, with an ever-so-subtle n).

Emerson, her koe-cheen, a subway platform and a cuter outfit than longjohns? We’re thinking this kid has potential to be our household’s highest earner.

Today’s featured word: putao, grapes. Because what’s...

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 10:41:21 -0500

Today’s featured word: putao, grapes. Because what’s a picnic without them — and a passed-out tuzi (sounds like toodzuh), rabbit?

The husband’s sesame-paste-filled tang yuan — glutinous...

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:56:58 -0500

The husband’s sesame-paste-filled tang yuan — glutinous rice balls — from our Chinese New Year post-dinner festivities. There were of course also tangerines, noodles and dumplings (recipe here). There are more in the freezer, in anyone still needs a tang yuan fix, friends…

"What may be the biggest boost to language-learning ability in children is the extra blood flow and..."

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 09:44:27 -0500

“What may be the biggest boost to language-learning ability in children is the extra blood flow and metabolic activity in their brains. Their brains are working twice as hard as adults’. The level of glucose they use rises until age two and then stays twice as high as adults’ until around age nine. Babies’ brains are working in overdrive to make new connections between neurons. It is through those connections that they learn the sounds and words, and then compute the grammar of what we are saying.”

- “Raising a Bilingual Child,” by Barbara Zurer Pearson, Ph.D.

Just posted my first-ever slideshow to my Forbes Sweet Pea blog,...

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:28:59 -0500

Just posted my first-ever slideshow to my Forbes Sweet Pea blog, on making dumplings for Chinese New Year. Dear God am I starving now.

This is a two-year old article that I nearly lost track of — I...

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:13:20 -0500

This is a two-year old article that I nearly lost track of — I just re-found the link! — despite thinking about it so often. It was in the Jan. 2010 issue of “Manhattan” magazine and written by Darrell Hartman, but it’s the photo shoot I think about. Not so much because it was my only one ever but because it was so much fun. The incredibly sweet and patient Gregg Delman came over on a rainy Saturday afternoon, and while I slouched and slumped and froze in various awkward poses, he somehow took lovely photographs.

What a good sport Rich was, too, acting as the foil in this shot — he even changed out of jeans into his pajama bottoms for it.

Maybe another reason I think about this day it is that Emerson was a little seed in my belly, and I didn’t yet know it.

I’ve been asked to give a reading in Williamsburg, the...

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 15:07:00 -0500

I’ve been asked to give a reading in Williamsburg, the Brooklyn neighborhood that “Gastronomy” takes place in. I couldn’t feel more honored or delighted! (Details coming soon.) Which part to read, though? Any suggestions?

Sheep,Yang. Goat, Shan-yang. Pig, Zhu. I’ve got horse and...

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0500

Sheep,Yang. Goat, Shan-yang. Pig, Zhu.

I’ve got horse and cow and dog and cat down, but sheep and goat and pig remain elusive, so I wanted to write them down here, in hopes that they’ll stick.

Saying the sounds to Emmy, I realized how close the sheep and goat sounds are — I maybe bleet a shorter “baaah” for the goat, but basically they’re the same as far as I know — so it’s interesting that “goat” in Mandarin translates to “mountain sheep.” Having never given them much thought, I guess I didn’t realize how closely related they are, beyond each being sources of delicious cheese.

You can hear the Google Translate woman — who has a very Beijing accent — say goathere. Her pronunciation is very shh — shan-yang Though Rich’s pronunciation (and so the pronunciation in our house) is more san-yang.

Now, for a nice joke involving a yang, a san-yang and a zhu…

You’re right! Duì de! (Sounds like: duay-duh); I bought...

Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

You’re right! Duì de! (Sounds like: duay-duh);

I bought a “First 100 Words Bright Baby” book, less for Emmy than for me to see which beginning words I’m missing. We keep it on her high chair, and while she eats we’ll flip through it, her pointing at things she knows she knows, or me asking her where things are and her very insistently stabbing at each box with her little index finger. Airplane, car, sippy cup, baby, chair, ball, flower, apple, cheese — she nails everything I know how to ask her for. The animals even come with sounds — she pants for the dog, the monkey gets an “oo oo!” and the cow and cat get a little stuck “mmm…”

Maybe because she’s learning two languages, she’s less verbal than a lot of kids her age, so the game is particularly satisfying for me — she may not be saying the words, but at least I know she understands what they are, both in English and Mandarin.

Each time she points to the right photo, I gush: Duay-duh! You’re right! Or sometimes the simpler duay — right! (She’s comically serious while she’s pointing, but will sometimes crack a smile at my congratulations.)

Currently, her vocab extends to hi (which she says 1,000 times a day) and bye and mama and babah (what we call Rich instead of dad). Beyond that, she’ll throw out a word or phrase once and never repeat it again (at the airport, when I went to get coffee, she said to Rich, “Mama tzai-nar?” Where’s mama?). Or she’ll say something and one kind of has to squint one’s ears to realize it. Or maybe I do especially, more naturally straining for English words. (A little while after I learned munn (door), I realized she’d been saying this when I’d hand her my keys (they jingle, she likes holding them) half a block before reaching our front door. She and Rich apparently have a game in which he points out windows and doors.)

One morning, I was in bed listening to the two of them playing in the living room and Rich said, “Duay-duh!” Which, after a beat, Emmy repeated perfectly.

I jumped out of bed. “Did you hear that? She said it! Duay-duh! What does that mean?”

“Right.”

“Oh. How do you say left?”

“No, like, ‘You’re right.’”

“Ah…”

Since that day, she’s never said it again. But it’s in my cache now. And surely also in hers.

ps: I love that pissed-off duckling. Maybe he thinks they’re suggesting the blue ball is his?

"“Based on my assessment of the scientific literature and the current policy framework in the..."

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:58:16 -0500

“

“Based on my assessment of the scientific literature and the current policy framework in the United States to regulate genetically engineered fish, we cannot yet conclude that the introduction of the first genetically engineered animal for human consumption – the AquAdvantage® farmed salmon – is safe for the environment.

…What is at stake is no less than the future of fish, natural ecosystems, and our seafood supply. The issue is much larger than this single application from one private company. The critical question is whether society as a whole would be better off or worse from having this product on the market. A more comprehensive analysis of the risks and benefits to our seafood supply, our current seafood industry, affected stakeholders, and natural ecosystems is desperately needed.”

”

- Dr. George H. Leonard, Aquaculture Program Director, Ocean Conservancy, in his written testimony submitted to the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries, and Coast Guard for its hearing, “The Environmental Risks of Genetically Engineered Fish.”

Bus, gōnggòng qìchē. (Sounds...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Bus, gōnggòng qìchē. (Sounds like: goong-goong-cheetz-uh.)

Unlike bird, which is the short-and-sweet nyoh, bus gets replaced with a mouthful —goong-goong-cheetz-uh — knocking it from the list of words I expect to be among my daughter’s firsts, despite the fact that she points out every one she sees. Did I mention there’s a bus stop outside our front door?

If I had a dollar for every goong-goong-cheetz-uh we greet and wave away from behind our opaque first-floor windows, it would begin to seem possible that I might pay off my student loans in time for my 1-year-old to start college.

But I digress.

I’m learning Mandarin alongside Emmy in a completely conversational way. Basically, Rich introduces a new word when we come across it, and then I try keeping it inside my little grab bag of words. They slip out with extraordinary ease.

Last night we bought a Christmas tree and brought up the boxes of ornaments, and so when Emmy entered the living room this morning there was not only a decorated Christmas tree but a a jingle bell on the front door handle. Amazingly, she was much more interested in banging and ringing the bell than she was in investigating the tree. (Are trees passé, since she sees them in the park?) When Rich woke up, we learned that bell is liing — think ling, with a little roller-coaster dip in the middle. By the time we pack the ornaments back up, God help me if liing isn’t securely in the bag. (Pun not intended, but why not.)

I’ve been thinking about the other languages I’ve tried to learn from “conversational” lessons. An Italian tape taught me to greet friends and ask the price of a yellow skirt in the window. And thanks to a French tape I used to listen to while sitting in Los Angeles traffic, my brain has retained, all these years later, just please, thank-you, elevator and “The lamp is broken.” La lampe est cassée.

Maybe if I were learning Mandarin on my own I’d be able to say, “Waiter, the check, please.” But since I’m learning it alongside a 1-year-old, the Mandarin in my odd little grab bag instead consists of:

How are you?
It’s time to eat!
Would you like to drink water?
Monkey.
Frog.
Bird.
Cow.
What does the ___ say?
Apple
Blueberry
Strawberry
Wash hands.
Bus
Airplane
Ball
Tree
Book
Dog
Cat
Hair
Head
Legs
Feet
Toes
Hands
Fingers
Nose
Ears
Belly
Butt
Where is it?
There it is!
Socks
Shoes
Where did it go?
Don’t eat that!
Dirty!
Come here.
Take a bath.
Wait.
Be careful.
Sweet little treasure.
I love you.

Bird, niǎo. (Sounds like, nyow.) Like dog (goh) and book...

Sat, 10 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0500

Bird, niǎo. (Sounds like, nyow.)

Like dog (goh) and book (sue), bird exchanges one short, simple sound for another:nyow.

It was a word I grasped quickly and used easily until I learned cow — nyoh — and suddenly my brain wanted to mix up the two. It’s a very humbling thing to realize, a beat too late, that one has pointed to the sky and told a toddler, “Look! A cow!”

I’ve since started thinking of nyoh more like nyohhhhh, with a drawn-out o at the end, mentally linking it to a cow’s moooo. Which actually works. Most of the time.

On Forbes today I interview the super-sweet Nicky Moona, of My...

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:00:00 -0500

Salt to taste

On Forbes today I interview the super-sweet Nicky Moona, of My Yoga Kitchen and include her Green Beans and Coconut recipe — highly recommended for the Thanksgiving table. On Saturday, at a Midtown Williams-Sonoma, she demonstrated how to make four low-fat, huge flavor Thanksgiving sides. While the beans were great, it’s the mashed potatoes I can’t get out of my head.

Basically, she boiled and mashed a few potatoes and set them aside. Then, in a skillet, she heated about a tablespoon of canola oil and added mustard seeds. When they popped (which means they’re cooked) she added 3 whole curry leaves and a small green chili, cut in half lengthwise. After letting them cook for a minute, she added the potatoes to the pan, gave them a good stir, then added salt, turmeric, chili powder and coriander powder. When the whole thing was well mixed and warmed through, she topped it with a flourish of chopped cilantro. Totally heaven. The potatoes’ blandness and texture were perfect foils for the spices and the heat of that chili. I can’t wait to make this.

You know what’s not super easy? A) Photographing a...

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:23:54 -0500

You know what’s not super easy? A) Photographing a seriously delicious and healthy tofu shake in a terribly lit kitchen, B) Photographing a seriously delicious shake while a toddler grabs at your pants, shakes with all her might, and grunts and makes a face that says, “Dear God, woman! Stop photographing that f-ing shake and f-ing feed it to me already!” C) All of the above.

"If it makes good sense to cut down on sugars and their principal sources — soft drinks, juice..."

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 14:59:00 -0500

“If it makes good sense to cut down on sugars and their principal sources — soft drinks, juice drinks, cookies, cakes, candy, and ice cream — shouldn’t the government say so? Until recently it did say so, but the price of good advice and common sense proved too high in the face of industry pressures. In “Food Politics,” I recounted an episode from the Starr Report to illustrate the extraordinary access of the sugar industry to officials at the highest levels of government. On a federal holiday, said the report, a Florida sugar producer (whose companies just happened to have contributed more than $1 million to the election campaigns of both Democrat and Republican parties) had no trouble getting a telephone call through to President Bill Clinton while he was otherwise occupied with the White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Sugar industry contributions to political parties and election campaign funds help to explain why federal dietary advice about sugar intake is such a sensitive topic.”

- Marion Nestle offered some thoughts on feeding sugar to kids in today’s Sweet Pea blog. The above quote is from her very excellent 2006 book, “What to Eat,” in which she leaves no grocery store aisle unexamined.

Last night I made Tamra Davis’ sweet potato pie, from the...

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:14:09 -0500

Last night I made Tamra Davis’ sweet potato pie, from the recipe on the second page of this blog post. A very adamant Emerson, sitting in her high chair, was “helping” me, so I mixed it in a bowl instead of blending it in the food processor until it was completely smooth. Still, it’s incredibly delicious, and a good serving of vegetables and protein in the morning. “Tell yourself you’re eating like a Beastie Boy,” I told Rich, as he happily accepted this slice after snapping the photo.