Putting parsley everywhere

Last night, I dished out my version of spaghetti carbon-Ava Benedict eggs (see what I did there? Hahaha). I have a kid who adores bacon and eggs, but it was dinner time, so I had to put in the carbs. I restrained from putting white wine, which got me worried that the flavor wouldn’t amount to anything but cream and creamy bacon.

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Luckily, before cooking I passed by the market and my favorite legume vendor gave me several bunches of parsley FOR FREE. Parsley is very cheap to grow and it lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge. So after sautéing some shallots, crushed garlic, and green chili in extra virgin olive oil, I poured in the cream for a good simmer. When that bubbled up I tossed in an inordinate, overflowing hand of chopped parsley and let it simmer again to have the herb sink in.

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The result was a vibrant, textured sauce with an herby bite that my kid adored. Parsley is of the celery family, and its nutritional benefits are legion --- all your basic vitamins with some iron and folate. It goes well with salads, has aesthetic value as a garnish, and kicks up any number of meat, chicken, and lamb dishes as a copious ingredient of a marinade.

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So anytime I’m feeling up to a simple dish, my go-to flavoring is parsley. And with lots of garlic it’s even trippier.

I string casual Ava Benedict recipes in my blogs. These are for homemade dishes that kids enjoy and working moms find easy to make. Look for the recipes here.

REPOST: My pick for mom of the year: Yahoo CEO Marissa Meyer

Marissa Meyer is the newly appointed Yahoo CEO who surprised cynics last year that she's expecting a child. Woman power was unfazed, though, and she gamely took on the task to turn the beleaguered search engine around after having had a stellar career at Google. Her impressive profile from Forbes.com follows.

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Google's 20th employee stunned the tech world in July when she announced she was leaving the search behemoth to become the new CEO of Yahoo!. Mayer said that she "had an amazing time at Google," but that ultimately "it was a reasonably easy decision" to take the top job at Yahoo!. In her new role she intends to leverage Yahoo!'s strong franchises in email, finance and sports. The 37-year-old, self-described "geek" joined Google in 1999 shortly after achieving a computer science masters from Stanford University. She is one of the youngest women on our list and joined her first corporate board in 2012: Walmart. Mayer says she has "long been a customer and admirer of the company." On the same day she announced the move to Yahoo!, Mayer made another announcement to the press: she's expecting her first child this fall.

Part of the Ava Benedict philosophy is to laud moms who have worked hard while contributing to the economy. Check out this Facebook page for my thoughts about motherhood.