Hello Mom, How Do I Make Stir-Fry?

New parents get so excited about those first-year milestones: rolling over, sitting up, taking that wobbly first step. Those memorable moments are often recorded in baby books or on camera.

I will have to dig out that dusty baby book to mark an important date in my daughter's journey to adulthood. She called me last night from her on-campus apartment, asking for cooking advice. (Awww.) She was having a bunch of friends over and was making a stir fry. That was the plan anyway.

She enlisted her buddies to chop veggies and got on the phone with her cooking advisor to get the scoop on how to try those raw ingredients into something tasty. First of all, high fives for going for the gusto in the produce department. While shopping at a co-op that specializes in local and organic veggies, Claire picked up baby bok choy, broccoli, red bell peppers, onions and a sweet potato.

I advised her to stir-fry in stages, cooking the ingredients separately before tossing them all together at the end with seasonings. It took me forever to get to that technique, but it makes for a much crunchier stir-fry if you do not overcrowd the pan.

Now, there was the sticking point. In my quest to help stock her kitchen, we did not include a wok. So she was making this dish in a Lodge Dutch Oven. Not ideal, but it did the trick. Before even hearing a report on how it all worked out, I ordered her a wok. Because even a beginning cook needs to have the right tools. Scratch that. Make that especially a beginning cook needs the right tools.

-- Leslie Kelly