When Laurel started using a locker at school, I was immediately transported back to the days where I'd gaze lovingly at magazine cutouts in my locker between periods. Included were the likes of Michael J. Fox, Rob Lowe, and Duran Duran (and yes, I had coordinated pieces of flair for all of these artists on my denim jacket). Subsequently, I was feeling rather nostalgic when I heard that Duran Duran is playing at the Wang Theatre in Boston on October 28. Reps for the show kindly offered me tickets but I wanted to pass them along to one of you awesome readers, so read on to learn how to enter to win! Meanwhile, now I can't get Hungry Like the Wolf out of my head.

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
Congrats to winner Junelle!
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Rules:

Simply e-mail contests@bostonmamas.com with "Duran Duran" in the subject.

Entry period closes at midnight EST, Tuesday, October 18, 2010.

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*One lucky winner will win a pair of tickets to Duran Duran, October 28, 8pm at the Wang Theatre in Boston. Sweet!

A few weeks ago, the little angel and I found ourselves watching television in a hotel room in Topeka, Kansas. It was some chef show in which the pastry chefs had to recreate the edible forest in Willy Wonka for the original cast. 

And yes, at one point when I was watching it I did ask myself seriously?

In general, I don't like competitive reality television shows. I don't really enjoy public critiquing of any sort. I don't know why I'm a writer. But this show particularly bothered me because one woman who worked extra hard on -- well, should we say the group projects of the edible forest perhaps neglected her own stuff a little, you know, for the good of the whole. And since I'm not a reality TV afficionado or reviewer, I don't remember exactly what the judges said. But it went something like this: You should've been thinking of yourself more.

Basically, she contributed to the forest in general expecting to get credit for that and didn't really focus on her own dishes. And they sucked. I don't remember what they were, but the general consensus was that they were horrible, and when it came time for judgment day, the judges were all, you know, maybe focus on you a little more. Off with your head.

Okay, so I don't even remember if she was the one who got voted off. Beside the point.

The point is I thought to myself, well, that's pretty harsh. And it got me to thinking about the world of work and the world of writing and whether or not it's true that you should pretty much eschew the community for the sake of your own projects. Truly, there is a balance, but is it as bad as all that? Should we all be pitching each other aside in the hopes we'll make our own star shine brighter?

Perhaps we should if we are pastry chefs. See how much I learned?

But in general, I think that's a pretty shit philosophy. Right? RIGHT?

In my ongoing quest to find protein-rich vegetarian meals for kids, I picked up a package of Harmony Valley vegetarian hamburger mix at Whole Foods and knocked together a batch of vegetarian chili yesterday for a gathering with friends. Though I've always found the make-vegetarian-food-look-like-meat thing a little odd, now I get it. Especially when you need help transitioning someone from non-vegetarian to vegetarian eating. This chili was a huge hit -- Laurel loved it and the grown up guests were clamoring too. Here's the how-to:
Ingredients:

1 package Harmony Valley vegetarian hamburger mix

Olive oil

1 small onion, diced

1 large can (28 ounce) diced tomato

1 can black beans

1 can pinto beans

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 bell pepper, chopped

1 small zucchini, cubed pieces

2 ears of corn, steamed and kernels shaved off

Shredded cheese + tortilla chips (optional)

1. Prepare Harmony Valley mix per instructions (so easy...just add water and let stand for 15 minutes). In a large pot, heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add onion and stir for a few minutes. Add the prepared Harmony Valley mix and stir, breaking up chunks.

2. To keep the mix from sticking, add canned tomatoes, black beans, and pinto beans -- including the liquid from the beans. Stir in the chili powder, cumin, and salt. (After all the ingredients are added, taste and adjust. I went mild on the spices because Laurel doesn't like things too spicy.)

3. Toss in the bell pepper, zucchini, and corn. Obviously, you can sub in whatever veggies you want but this collection made for a nice color contrast. Stir until ingredients are blended and veggies are heated through. Then turn off the heat to avoid overcooking the veggies (I like veggies to still have crunch to them). Serve chili with shredded cheese and tortilla chips if you like.

And that's it! Super easy, loaded with protein and fiber, and kids will enjoy too. Yay!

Image credit: Harmony Valley. They have lots of recipes if you need inspiration, but basically, use the vegetarian hamburger mix as you would ground meat. I will definitely be using this again for vegetarian tacos and lasagna.

Gardening Note to Self Number 425: Do not use too much mulch.

Last spring I had one of those "if a little is good, a lot is BETTER!" moments when figuring out how much mulch to buy for my flower beds. I ended up with a lot left over. The intelligent thing to do would've been store it for later. But no, I just went ahead and put it down anyway.

Beloved took one look at it and said, "That is way too much mulch."

And I completely ignored him.

Fast-forward to last week. I started noticing mushrooms. And the sort of huge black flies that come up from the maws of Hell to announce the sequel to Ghostbusters. And a ... stench. Of rotting things.

Yesterday, I removed all that mulch. I have blisters and aching muscles and the woods behind my neighbor's house are filled with a four-foot pile of half-fermented mulch, mushrooms and one-eighth of my immortal soul.

But it is gone. Lesson learned! I WILL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN.

We're hosting friends today so I'm just popping in quickly to share some fun event ideas for this week, spanning Hispanic culture, green living, babywearing, fossils, a shopping extravaganza, opera for kids, and a lovely event for bookworms young and old. Have a great Monday and to my friends northward, Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

Image credit: JFK Library & Museum

Today, Stacey Sao of Boston Central kindly shares a guest post including a fantastic roundup of activities for the holiday weekend:

Happy October! This massive event roundup should help everyone get into the autumn groove. There is much to cover so I'll just get to it! On the fall festival scene, there'll be lots to see and do at the Annual Cranberry Harvest Celebration in Wareham. If pumpkins are more your thing, you can pick out this year's pumpkin at Pumpkin Day at Bourne Farm in Falmouth. In Providence, families are invited to see thousands of nifty jack-o-lanterns at the Jack-o-Lantern Spectacular at Roger Williams Zoo. It's also the final week to visit the Topsfield Fair.
If you're heading up to New Hampshire to get a sneak peek at the foliage, you can swing by the Pumpkin Festival at Charmingfare Farm in Candia, the Warner Fall Foliage Festival, or the Milford Pumpkin Festival featuring the famous Punkin' Chunkin' Air Cannon.

For Columbus Day weekend, take advantage of the extra day off at the MFA's Annual Fall Open House with free admission and special activities to enjoy. In addition, The Fenway Alliance: Opening Our Doors Day 2011 will be granting free access to 22 other cultural gems in the Fenway Alliance. View the entire list of venues that will be welcoming visitors at no charge this Columbus Day. Additionally, you can celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month at the JFK Library & Museum with a festive Mariachi Band Performance with Veronica Robles free of charge.

For those who love a quest: Partake in a fun, outdoor Columbus Day Scavenger Hunt at Gore Place in Waltham. Or, if you dig archaeology, check out the AIA-Museum of Science Archaeology Fair at the Museum of Science for lots of interactive exhibits. If you are on the hunt for a great deal, swing by Family Swap Day in Somerville with a bag of gently-used clothing, toys, games & costumes, then fill up a bag full of new-to-you consignment treasures to take home. Recycle and rejoice! Finally, if a new pet is what you seek, trek on up to the New England Reptile Expo. You'll find reptiles, invertebrates, and amphibians galore!

On the music and theatre scene, The King & I is playing at the North Shore Music Theater. This show is a real crowd pleaser with lots of singing, dancing, and an amazing set. At the Regent Theatre in Arlington, SteveSongs (aka Mr. Steve from PBSkids) is back in town for a fun new CD Release Concert. And on the literary front, the Wellesley Players will be performing Little Women, the Musical.

Lastly, the food truck craze that's been sweeping the nation will be hitting Metrowest in Framingham on Sunday. Enjoy your favorite foods to the tunes of live music at the WBLX Monster Food Truck Festival at Shoppers World.

For lots more family-friendly event choices this month and all year long, visit BostonCentral.com.

Image credit: Arvind Balaraman / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"The leaves are starting to fall, Mommy."

"Yes. That front tree will go first. It won't take long. It usually loses all its leaves a day or two after they start to drop. Then the three in the back take a lot longer."

"Maybe that's the mommy tree, showing her babies it's okay to drop their leaves: Just relax and let go."

I thought of all the layers to what she'd said, what leaves provide to a tree, what faith a tree would have to have the first time it dropped its leaves if trees have souls.

Stunned into silence, I watched the leaves flutter to the ground.

In May, I wrote about Laurel encouraging us to start up vegetarian week every month. Since that time, she's increasingly gone off meat and this summer decided to become a vegetarian. We're not a huge meat eating family to start with, but I know that being a vegetarian has challenged her at times, particularly when she's thought about tuna melts, moussaka, and my chicken tenders. And it's not quite as simple as just putting a salad in front of her, because even though Laurel consumes a lot more veggies than she used to, veggies are more of an accompaniment than the main attraction for her. And some easy options -- such as falafel and hummus -- haven't been received favorably.
We've told Laurel not to be hard on herself; that if she wants to be vegetarian, that's great, but that if she adjusts her plan and eats meat once a week (or whatever) she's still doing something amazing. But she's holding fast. So we're trying to support her and come up with new food ideas. At the moment, here are her favorites:

Cheese pizza

Mac and cheese

Quesadillas -- usually bean + cheese as the base and then we add bits of corn, avocado, etc.

Pan seared tofu

Vegetable tempura (not all deep fried veggies are enjoyed equally though)

Eggs, any style

Vegetarian sushi

Spinach pie

And that's pretty much it. So I turned to the fine folks on Twitter and Facebook this week and there were so many great responses -- thank you! I was going to reorder and categorize the feedback, but there was a lot of overlap in the respones and I wanted to credit appropriately, so I just left responses intact. I did sort the responses into three broad categories:

Recipe Inspiration

From @StarryBrook: "check out Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. Fabulous ideas like stuffed tomatoes, lentil soup, etc. Big hit!"

Incorporating Instant/Pre-Made Products

From @MinkyMoo: "We make tacos, lasagna, stroganoff, just about anything [out of Morningstar veggie burgers or crumbles]."

From Kristy: "My oldest is recently turned vegetarian. She loves veggie burgers. And I make lots of pasta with veggies in it. And for quick food, she likes lean pockets and Amy's organic frozen meals."

From Rebecca: "We are a family of vegetarians! Proteins at every meal: Gardein plant-based tenders, veggie burgers, black beans, hummus as a side, eggs (omelets for dinner sometimes), soy crumble burritos with cheese, etc."

From Michael: "‎'Meat' items by Boca and Morning Star are popular with my step-daughter but my wife swears by Quorn products. And the beef strips by Trader Joe's are perfect for fajitas (chicken strips aren't bad either).

From Amber: "Frittata is always a hit, and mine loves marinated or fried tofu. For quick lunches, Morningstar products have saved my butt on a few occasions!"

From Bill: "Lentils; split pea soup; fake meats from morningstar, quorn, and gardein; pastas; burritos; cheese toast; soy nut butter and jelly."

Other Vegetarian Meal/Snack Ideas:

From @devarim: "I often make mild (not bland) dals and serve w/ plain yogurt, rice & complementary Indian vegetable dish."

From @SeastarsSeaside: "sweet potato, black bean enchiladas! Yum!"

From @Laurenmissesyou: ""[We're] vegan! Posted about it on my blog recently. S particularly loves avocado rolls, sweet potato, pasta with peas and carrots, beans rice and guacamole, tofu, and spinach."

From @threehautemamas: "burritos, beans & rice, & hummus platters (veg/pitas/cheese/etc)."

From @mamajoan: "my kids are vegetarian...they eat tofu, grilled cheese, quesadillas, umm and a LOT of pasta ;)"

From Kim: "Hummus & pita, black bean soup, eggplant parm, quesadillas..."

From Erin: "Stuffed portabellos, veggie stir-fry w jasmine rice."

From Lila: "Bean/rice burritos are easy and yummy. Augusta eats hummus with a spoon. We make quesadillas in the microwave. Stir-fries are always good if you can get your kid to eat them. And chili with TVP is also terrific."

From Asha: "Edamame. And my kids love tofu. Buy firm or extra firm, cut into small cubes, saute with oil till brown and crisp, and a few splashes of soy sauce near the end. Then keep it in the fridge to throw into rice, pasta, stir fry. Also, refried beans."

From Christy: "My kids aren't vegetarians, but I do a big pot of vegetarian chili in the winter (with beans). We eat it with tortilla chips, and use it to make quesadillas and burritos with rice. I make enough to freeze portions of it as well."

From Aimee: "Obvious, but valuable - veggie burgers, tofurkey dogs, omlettes, quiche, endless pasta options, risotto, baked potatoes loaded with cheese and veggies, nachos, quesadillas, grilled cheese and tomato soup....the list goes on!"

From Liz: "Black bean burgers, stir fry, and broccoli cakes are popular in our house!"

From Michele: "My child refuses to eat meat because he does not like it. He eats more in the style of tapas. A little of this a little of that. Most meals include a pasta(plain), a fruit, tomatoes, yogurt, and sometimes a granola bar of some kind. We give a carnation instant breakfast drink once a day at least to guarantee protein."

From Suzanne: "Black bean chili made with red/green peppers, tomatos, corn; broccoli and mushroom quiche (renamed broccoli pie which gets them to scarf it down); quinoa stuffed roasted peppers.

From Kate: "Lots of avocado!"

From Jocelyn: "We do veggie chili a lot in our house, although we are not veggies (I don't eat red meat). My 2year old cannot get enough of it when I make it. We also do 5 bean hoppin John."

From Cynthia: "Abe loves miso soup with tofu. Also roasted brussels sprouts (mainly because the cute 5-year-old down the street loves them, but hey, whatever works...)."

From Mamma's Cooking: "definitely veggie chilli. Someone mentioned Kale pesto to me recently. I haven't tried yet though."

From Karen: "I'm not a vegetarian but some suggestions: hummus with pita chips, lasagna with spinach and cabbage, veggie burgers, veggie sausage, cheese quesadillas, cheesy grits, Amy's organic meals, miso soup with tofu, refried beans, lentil soup, eggplant parmesan, pintos and cornbread (good southern food), smoothies with spinach and protein powder, cheesy potatoes, stuffed potatoes, curried pasta with cauliflower and chickpeas, Mexican dip (refried beans, salsa, cheese, onions, etc), fruit and yogurt parfaits, zucchini or pumpkin muffins."

Thanks so much everyone! I'm making my grocery list now! Meanwhile, if you have additional ideas to share, feel free to do so in the comments below.

Image credit: Michelle Meiklejohn / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Oh my goodness, I'm still on a high from the awesome that was Pivot Boston last night! It was a huge amount of work putting together this two hour event but it was so gratifying! We sold out, our waitlist was overflowing, the positive energy was buzzing like crazy, people were asking about another event (I do, in fact, have an idea for a second Pivot...), and there were just so many incredible attendees, spanning a wide range of ages, interests, and backgrounds. Having made a big career pivot myself, it was moving to see so many people seeking passion in life. Yay!
Now, it goes without saying that this event couldn't have happened without help. This was a volunteer effort; a passion project by me and my co-hosts Morra, Whitney, and Roxanna. Our amazing assistant Kaitlyn and a couple of other fine helpers were invaluable. And then there are our sponsors. I wanted to take a moment to call them out. Because they are awesome and also took a gamble and supported us on this first-ever venture.

Thank you to:

Hubspot, Sam Adams, Peapod, and Sweet Cupcakes for providing refreshments.

TaskRabbit, for providing rabbits to help get the refreshments and goodie bags to our event, and also for helping us with registration.

Caroline Cook Photography, for being our event photographer. I can't wait to see the event photo album!

Lands' End for the beautiful totes that served as the goodie bag base.

Dancing Deer, Lift Lab, Posh Peacock, AmLactin, Dr. Loretta, Wiley, Leslie Graff, Goodies, Jabra, Adora, and Mom.com for the wonderful goodie bag contributions.

And finally to Peapod (groceries!), Taza Chocolate (chocolate!), Stella & Dot (baubles!), Leslie Graff (fine art!), and Caroline Cook Photography (smashing new headshots for 10 women!) for the amazing door prizes.

And of course I was honored to be a speaker and was truly inspired to hear about the pivots made by Heather Coughlin, Karen Rubin, Roxanna Sarmiento, Leslie Graff, and Whitney Johnson -- who, by the way, was amazing in facilitating networking after the close of the program.

Seriously, I'm still on a high from this event. Just go check out the #PivotBoston hashtag and you'll see why. Meanwhile, I wanted to keep the Pivot Boston love going. I have an extra goodie bag from last night and want to give it away to one of you fabulous readers. See below to enter to win (also, for another chance to win, hop on over to Roxanna's site)!

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
Congrats to winner Kate!
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Rules:

Simply leave a comment below about this fantastic giveaway. If you're so inclined I'd love to hear about what your pivot would be if you could drop what you are doing right now and pursue your passion!

US entrants welcome to enter.

One comment per person (please do not leave comments from multiple e-mail addresses). Anonymous or SPAM-like comments will be removed. Note that your e-mail address will not be published or shared! Leaving just your first name or first name + initial in the name field is perfectly fine.

Entry period closes at midnight EST, Thursday, October 6, 2011.

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*One lucky winner (selected using Random.org) will receive a Pivot Boston goodie tote including all of the aforementioned fabulousness.