Whether you’re hosting, guesting, or just hanging out this holiday season, here are 10 apps to make your holly a bit more jolly, put more figgy in your pudding, and make you shine like a Food Network STAR!

Cooking

1. How to Cook Everything App

If you are a fan of  New York Times columnist Mark Bittman’s popular How to Cook Everything (and really… who isn’t?!), then you will love this app of the same name. Offering a comprehensive database of 2,000 recipes and 400 how-to illustrations– searchable by ingredients, cooking techniques and flavors. It will literally teach you how to cook…  Everything.

Cost: This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad, and is available in the App Store for $9.99.

While you’re there, checkout the companion app, Vegetarian How to Cook Everything . Also available for $9.99, this is hailed as “the ultimate one-stop vegetarian cookbook”.

2. All Recipes- Your Kitchen Inspirations 

While Allrecipes.com, creator of the “Your Kitchen Inspirations” app, doesn’t exactly have a reputation of a glossy magazine filled with tablescapes and gourmet delights styled just so, it does pretty well for itself. Exceedingly well, in fact.

Last week, this app surpassed over 10 million downloads, making it the #1 most downloaded food app and the appeal is clear.

Every recipe found on this site (and in the app) has been crowd-sourced, tested, and reviewed. With thousands of recipes shared by foodies, professionals, and kitchen hacks alike, you are guaranteed to discover a lot of favorites that suit your tastes, budget, and schedule. Case in point: recipes range from gourmet to kid-friendly and  budget to “use leftovers”

Cost: The free version of this app allows you to access thousands of member-tested recipes on your iPad. For $4.99, the Pro version upgrade allows you to browse by ethnicity/specialty, save your favorites to an online “recipe box” that syncs with your AllRecipes.com account, store and print your shopping list, and make edits to recipes to make them your own.

 3. Kitchen Calculator PRO

I cooked my first Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners while living in the UK, so all of the recipes I used are still in the original metric measurements. The conversions were simple enough to figure out when I had to do them everyday (translating my American cookbooks into British measurements) while abroad. I’ve since become out of practice, which is where Kitchen Calculator PRO is truly a time saver!

You enter your source measurement, and the app converts it into whatever equivalent you need, including units of temperature, distance, and cooking times.  It even allows you to store conversions that you use most often so you don’t have to keep entering the same things over and over.

Another great feature of this app is its ability to scale recipes up (or down) to change the number of servings, should your quiet party of four suddenly turn into a buffet for twelve.

Cost: This app is designed for both iPhone and iPad, and is available in the App Store for $3.99.

Shopping

4. ZipList

Meal planning, recipe keeper, couponing, and grocery list app in one, ZipList is “shopping made simple”.

This app makes it possible to “clip” recipes from around the web and transfer the needed ingredients to your shopping list. It also provides you coupons for the items you plan to purchase.

A handy barcode scanner lets you add items from your pantry and refrigerator to your shopping list as your run out. Not only is this convenient and easy, it also helps ensure that you remember to get the low-sodium tomato soup instead of regular tomato soup, for example.

This app works across platform, which means you can add items to the list anywhere you are, online or through the mobile app. Then, you can give your spouse or other family members access to the list on their smartphone so there’s no excuse for “forgetting to pick up milk” on the way home.

 Cost: Available in both App Store and Android Market versions for FREE.

5. Grocery IQ

If you’re looking for an app that’s all about the coupons, then look no further than Grocery IQ.  Developed by Coupons.com, this app keeps printable and store deals at your fingertips, which you can “clip” then email and print for later use.

You can create lists by adding items one by one or scanning the barcodes, then sort items by store and even by aisle. There are preset categories and specific brands already programmed into this app, but you can make changes as you see fit.

This app also works cross-platform, so you can share lists on the Web, on a tablet, or between different smartphones. Never be caught without your list at your fingertips again!

 Cost: Available in both App Store and Android Market  for FREE.

Fresh, Local Food

6. Locavore 

Locavore is a location-based app that pinpoints farms and farmers’ markets nearest you, so you can find the freshest, in-season, local food– direct from the growers.

Celebrated by the slow food movement, this app provides details about the farms and farmers’ markets and where to read more about them. It even serves up basic information on each fruit or vegetable along with simple recipes and serving suggestions and lets your “share” what you ate through Facebook.

 Cost: Available in both App Store and Android Market for FREE.

7. Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch 

Seafood Watch is a program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium that is working to restore our ocean’s diverse ecosystem from decades of overfishing and overpollution. Part of this program is the “Sustainable Seafood Guide”, designed to help people make informed choices when selling and consuming fish.

This helpful app offers best choices, “healthy alternatives”, and local, up-to-date guides of restaurants and stores where you’ve and others have found ocean-friendly seafood.

Cost: Available in both App Store and Android Market  for FREE.

8. True Food

The True Food Shopping App was created by the  Center for Food Safety to help shoppers to quickly and easily identify foods made with ingredients from genetically modified organisms (GMO).

While the US government does not require GMO foods be labeled as such, there have been warnings from scientists that these foods may not be safe for diets or the environment. This app is a handy tool that educates consumers on this important issue and helps you choose safe brands as you shop.

Cost: Available in the App Store and Android Market for FREE.

Entertaining 

 9. Pair It 

For anyone else who is completely clueless about wine pairings beyond “I like wine. Let’s drink wine.”, this is the app for you!  Very simply, the Pair It app allows you to browse by either wine or food, then presents you with a suitable matches.

This is particularly handy when presented with a restaurant wine list or deciding want to serve to your dinner guests.

Cost: Available in the App Store and Android for $4.99

10. the Bar 

For the hostess with the mostess, theBar App serves up hundreds of cocktail recipes with detailed instructions and pictures.

In certain states, you can search nearby stores for everything you need to be the bartender. Locate the newest bars, pubs, or clubs in town. Try out the app’s Mobile Sommelier to learn about great wines and delicious food pairings.

Cost: Available in the App Store for FREE.

With Thanksgiving less than a week away, have you made your menu plans yet?

I love cooking and I’m brilliant at it! So of course I have… 

Umm… Correction. I love to eat. I’m a competent cook, but mostly, I’m a kitchen hack. So when Whole Foods offered a sample pre-cooked turkey dinner and all of the sides for a pre-Thanksgiving trial run, I was eager for the opportunity!

The Menu

We were sent an organic pre-cooked Diestel turkey- prepped, seasoned, and ready to pop in the oven. It took a little over an hour and half on 350 degrees to continue roasting the bird. It was a vast improvement over the four hours it took to roast my very first Thanksgiving turkey while living in London, but that a whole OTHER story…

The sides included: a surprisingly delicious field roast stuffed en croûte (a vegan option!), stuffed acorn squash, a spicy posole soup,  a savory mix of glazed sweet potatoes and figs, and a creamy, delicious broccoli cheddar potato gratin. 

With the exception of the  field roast stuffed en croûte, the side dishes arrived in oven-ready trays and took an additional 20 minutes from fridge to table. So simple!!!

The field roast stuffed en croûte took 45 minutes to bake at a higher temp and was, by far, my children’s favorite dish.

Rich grain meat seasoned with toasted hazelnuts and rosemary stuffed with sausage-style mixture of field roast cranberries, apples, and crystallized ginger wrapped in an en croûte vegan puff pastry.

With Whole Food’s Holiday Menu, I was able to get an impressive Thanksgiving dinner to my table…  on a busy school night… in just under two hours.

My secret to “homemade” pie

I have a well-established history of burning pies. Just ask my friend, Valerie (@DomesticValerie ) from Suburban Bites who so lovingly made me a flaky, buttery peach pie to bake at home over the summer…

All I had to do was put it in the oven for a set amount of time. Let’s just say, it’s so sad that we’ve never spoken about it again. (Nor, has she made me another pie…) This is my burn-proof method of making a perfect Thanksgiving pie…

A Perfect Pumpkin Pie from Whole Foods

The Finishing Touch

Don’t forget to grab a bottle of wine and holiday flowers to complete your holiday table!

Pacific Rim Riesling 

Good moms cook from scratch, but smart moms outsource.

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Whole Foods Market has a variety of delicious food and pre-cooked menu options to make entertaining this Holiday Season a breeze! There are plenty of new items from goose, vegan and super healthy to traditional favorites.  If you’re in the Bay Area, check out Whole Food Market’s Regional Twitter Handle, @WFMNorCal and Microsite, Holiday Worth Sharing.

Follow them on Twitter and tag #WholeForTheHolidays for a chance to a win a turkey dinner!  There will be one winner a week.

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Disclosure: Whole Food Market provide my family and I with a lovely Thanksgiving dinner to get a flavor of the new offering from their 2011 Holiday Menu, which we thoroughly enjoyed! I was not otherwise compensated. The thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are my own and do not reflect those of Whole Foods Market.

Friday night, I wept through the final season opening for Friday Night Lights– partly because it makes me homesick for Texas and partly because this show is SO VERY GOOD!

Saturday night, I baked a pecan pie from scratch. Naturally.

The recipe came from Real Simple’s November issue and sure enough, it was super simple to make. It was my first attempt at making a pie and, if I may say so myself, it also turned out SO VERY GOOD!

I may have to do this again next Friday night, because nothing cures homesickness like PIE… so long as you pronounce it pa-KHAN.

All parents have the highest of aspirations for their children.

Doctor, teacher, President of the United States… but the next Kobayashi?

If fate were decided by talent and talent was determined at the age of eight months, then my daughter definitely has a shot at winning international titles in competitive eating.

She greedily gobbles up all of her dinner, grabs a whole chicken leg from mine, and will still eye her big brother’s plate for more…  and she doesn’t even have teeth yet!

Barely over 50th percentile at her last check-up, she’s doing her best to catch up one chubby fistful of Cheerios at a time. Honestly, I don’t even know where she puts it in her tiny little frame!

It’s been tough to keep up with her demands, which is why I was thrilled to be given a chance to write about Annabel Karmel’s Top 100 Baby Purees and Top 100 Finger Foods for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog.

Getting my daughter to try new and adventurous tastes is clearly NOT an issue for me. My biggest problem is knowing what I can feed her… As in, what’s “allowed”?

You’d think I would know all that already, having had an older child and all. Except that my son never had home-made baby food.

Yeah. I’m sure this will somehow play into a future  laundry list of how I loved one child more than the other blah, blah, blah… Homemade baby food or not, he will always have three years and four months of blissful “only child”-hood on his little sister.  So there!

In the throes of new motherhood (and for a short while, working motherhood), I felt like I had enough on my plate.  The last thing I wanted was to spend my Sunday afternoons pureeing vegetables and neatly portioning them out into ice cube trays.

This is not to say that I would have been opposed to the idea. After all, I was pretty strict about which types of jarred foods he ate. And, once upon a simpler time, I did enjoy cooking. Making my own baby food wouldn’t have been such a leap.

However, an allergy scare early on turned me off the idea entirely. A stern reprimand from our pediatrician made me paranoid about trying anything “different” or “new”. So I stuck with what was considered tried and true. (read: safe and boring)

Knowing what I know now, I wish I had at least tried to make Fillet of Fish with Orange Sauce or Tomato Cauliflower and Carrot with Basil for my son. I’m sure he would have loved it as much as his sister did when I served it to her for lunch today. Having hand selected and prepped the ingredients myself, I get much more satisfaction from knowing exactly what goes into my kids’ food.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that I used store-bought baby foods because they were convenient and made my life easier. Scout certainly hasn’t suffered because of it. He’s bright, happy, healthy, and not shy about demanding a hummus-broccoli sandwich instead chicken nuggets. (NOW, Mommy!)

I’m more ashamed to admit that I didn’t trust my own instincts when it came to knowing what’s best for my kid.

Disclosure: I received  free copies Annabel Karmel’s Top 100 Baby Purees and Top 100 Finger Foods to taste test on my kids and write about for the Silicon Valley Moms Blog. The opinions are my own. You can purchase your copies of Top 100 Finger Foods and Top 100 Baby Purees by Annabel Karmel here.

This past Saturday, I was having a late night nosh with new friends when the conversation turned to…

What else? Brunch. In particular, favorite places to brunch. It’s one of the first things I like to know about people when I meet them.

Hello. How are you? What’s your name? Where’s your favorite place to have brunch?

Brunch is, by far, one of my most favorite things in the whole world. I love it better than Christmas. (So you can only imagine how I feel about Christmas brunch!)

The following morning I woke up with a craving for a latte and a warm, fluffy chocolate croissant, but there was no time for that. We had to get the kids ready for church and out the door.

All through Mass, my mind kept wandering back to spinach eggs benedict, roasted potatoes, coffee…

I was so looking forward to when I’d get to sit and relax at my favorite brunch spot, where someone else would be doing the cooking and the schlepping.

Unfortunately, Scout woke up that same morning with a craving for chaos.

He did just fine at Mass, but the second we stepped into the cafe, he resumed his reign of terror- running away, banging on the display cases, screeching as loud as human ears can take…

We coaxed him several times to (please) stop, which he clearly took as a dare. Fed up and knowing exactly where this was going, I stormed out of the restaurant before we could be seated. “We’re leaving,” I announced to Mr. D and the kids.

“But I’m soooooo hungry. Why won’t you feed me? Please. Please. Please. I’ll be good.” he cried and begged as  Mr. D carried him to the car amidst the curious gawks and sympathetic looks of strangers.

Mr. D pitched me his “It’s-up-to-you” look and at that moment, I wanted so much to cave– to just say, “Oh okay. Let’s go back in, but only if you *promise* to be good”.

If only it were that easy. Instead I found myself at one of those pivotal parenting moments when there is no turning back. I had to stick to my guns or risk forever losing any mommy cred…

(i.e. teaching him that you can be a total punk, but if you whine and beg and invoke enough sympathy among strangers, you get your way.)

So we went home, stopping at a produce stand along to way to pick up apples and broccoli, which are a poor, poor substitute when what you really want (all you really wanted) was a warm, fluffy chocolate croissant.

All of my life, I’ve been told that parenthood equals sacrifice. So when I became a mom, I willingly gave up the huge things: My career. My social life. My flat (enough) tummy. Sleep.

I thought I could at least hold on to the little things such as ENJOYING A FREAKING PASTRY.

*What? Has that not become a thing yet? Well, it should! Also a children’s book, by the way.