Babies love books (pictures to look at, pages to flip through, corners to nibble). And babies love the beach (water to splash in, sand to dig in, sand to nibble…blecccch!). But poor babies – until now they’ve been denied the pleasure of a good beach read, since children’s books have a hard time standing up to sand and water (not to mention babies’ mouths).

Problem solved: INDESTRUCTIBLES – bright picture books that are printed on tear-proof, drool-proof, totally washable material – stand up to the beach the same way they stand up to babies’ sticky hands and curious mouths.

Deanna Niles McConnell, is the baby/toddler gear expert at Hawaii’s Examiner.com, and a mom whose geographic location means a lot of personal experience with babies on the beach. She praises INDESTRUCTIBLES as beach-bag favorites: “The pages are completely waterproof and can be wiped clean–beach sand falls off and water repels away.” Of course, palm trees and saltwater are not required: the books hold up just as well at the neighborhood pool, or in the backyard (no need to worry about that sprinkler).

My nephews Haldan and Quinn like these books for the lively pictures – 2-year-old Haldan likes to describe the scenes; Quinn, 6 months, prefers just to suck on the pages – and the fact that their dad will pack them for the beach when other books have to be left at home. Once they get to the beach, there’s no scolding about keeping them out of the sand: Haldan can even build a sandy barnyard for the chickens he finds in Wiggle! March! Now that’s getting into a book!

Click here for all of the books in the Indestructibles series

There’s no power like a kid’s imagination (just ask a parent who’s trying to interrupt a game of pretend to get a child to come to the dinner table or brush her teeth!). And when that imagination is channeled into creative problem-solving, magic can happen. Look at the results of a brief session with a third-grade Brownie troop, a copy of Suzy Becker’s write-in journal for kids, The Kids Make It Better Book, and the promise that no idea is too silly or outrageous:

What should we do about all the garbage? Elise, age 9, suggests: “Make a litter machine that can find who littered just by the litter…and make them sit in a garbage can all day.”

How would you fix a broken heart? Avery, age 8, says: “I’d make them swallow love glue.”

What would you do to help countries stop fighting and get along? 8-year old Zoe’s idea: “Astronauts should build a reunion place in outer space big enough for everyone in the entire world, and we could work everything out.”

Will a kid’s imaginative answer to a bad economy really be useful in solving the problem? Maybe not. But is it useful to ask them to think of ideas? You bet! A kid who’s encouraged to think about the world’s problems, and to dream up creative ways to make the world better, has a good chance of growing up to be a person who dreams big and makes a difference. And based on the kids I saw thinking, and dreaming, and solving, I think the future’s looking pretty bright indeed.

The new self-sufficiency movement has inspired people to can fruits and vegetables like old-fashioned homesteaders. Even my local warehouse club was selling Mason jars this summer – a true sign of a movement gone mainstream.

But this trend hasn’t spoken to me. While I like to cook, the notion of boiling a pot of glass jars on a hot August day (which is always when the veggies are ripe) makes me want to leave the kitchen and head to the air-conditioned movie theater instead.

And yet, Pickled Carrots called to me like little orange sirens from the pages of Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home, the New York Times bestselling cookbook by the chef at The French Laundry. Despite its upscale restaurant origins, the book is all about home cooking, and includes a whole section of surprisingly unfussy recipes for jarred delicacies like sweet onion tapenade, fennel mustard, and fig and balsamic jam (which Keller uses to stuff a pork loin). And a platterful of bright and spicy vegetable pickles – carrots, cauliflower, green beans, and more.

What’s the appeal of Keller’s homemade pickled vegetables? First of all, there are about four ingredients in each of these recipes, and most of them are already in my kitchen cupboard. Second, there is no mention of boiling jars or fitting on those scary lids when they are blazing hot. (Instead, Keller asks you to stick the finished product in the fridge, and eat it up within a month – that I can do.) Third, these pickles are gorgeous to look at: jewel-toned carrots, tiny champagne grapes in curry…looking at the pictures in the book is like window-shopping at the ultimate gourmet store.

It never really occurred to me I could make pickles (let alone out of carrots). But it turns out I can, with remarkably little fuss. In approximately 28 minutes on a Sunday afternoon, start to finish, I made a collection of stunningly pretty Pickled Carrots – a yield large enough to serve with a cheese plate over Thanksgiving weekend and still have a couple jars left in the fridge to go along with sandwiches for the next week or two. (Like I said, eating within one month is not going to be a challenge.)

The most time-consuming part of this recipe was peeling the carrots. After cutting them into sticks, all I had to do was heat up some curry powder, and add Keller’s incredibly easy pickling liquid (good vinegar + water + sugar, stirred together in a measuring cup) and the carrots. After two minutes of simmering  – truly, two – I was standing those little carrot spears up in some jars and pouring the liquid over them. And trying not to burn my fingers by sampling too many while they were still hot. They are delicious – enough heat from the jalapeno to keep things interesting, and a bold flavor that doesn’t shout “curry.” And they are gorgeous to behold: bright orange and crisp after such a short time on the heat, and sparkling in their glass jars.

The sight of those jars of Pickled Carrots in my refrigerator makes me feel like a new-fangled, gourmet Laura Ingalls Wilder. This self-sufficiency thing, it turns out, can make one feel very smug indeed.

Page Edmunds, associate publisher at Workman Publishing, lives with her family near New York City. She is currently reading Spooner, by Pete Dexter (which is so brilliantly funny she’s been reading whole paragraphs aloud to her husband) and cooking from What Can I Bring? Cookbook (banana bread) and Barefoot Contessa at Home (butternut squash soup).

Thanksgiving is the ultimate potluck dinner for my family. My aunt and uncle host three generations for the long weekend, and the number gathered around the table varies from 12 to around 20 over the course of three or four days. My clever Aunt Joan has figured out a good system for feeding this crowd for several days running: she makes a casserole for Wednesday-night dinner and she takes care of the Thanksgiving turkey; all other cooking tasks are delegated to the houseguests.

Her hosting example has taught us all how to be a Good Houseguest. The rules are easy: make your bed, take yourself out for a walk now and then (even better, take a few of the assembled small children with you), don’t wait to be waited on – whether for breakfast or cocktails –  and do not forget to ask “what can I bring?”

Here’s what I bring: Anne Byrn’s Cranberry Tart from (the aptly named) What Can I Bring? Cookbook. And here’s why:

• It can be made a few days ahead. There’s no crust, so nothing gets soggy. This makes for ideal leftovers, too – though there rarely are many to spare.
• It’s portable. The filling firms up as it bakes, so nothing sloshes around in the back of the car while we battle holiday traffic.
• It’s seasonal. Fresh cranberries just shout “Thanksgiving.”
• It looks so pretty. Those bright red cranberries liven up one’s dessert plate next to pumpkin, pecan and apple pies. (My other aunt’s and cousins’ pies are all delicious, but let’s face it – rather brown.)
• It’s simple. Did I mention no crust? Did you understand this means no rolling, and no lattice-making? And other than the cranberries (which I usually grab when they first appear at the grocery store, and stow in my freezer til baking day), the other ingredients are already in my fridge or pantry.
• It’s requested. Last year’s Cranberry Tart was so delicious, everyone asked me to bring it again this year!

Anne Byrn is known around here as “The Cake Mix Doctor” – and her newest book, The Cake Mix Doctor Returns, is a current New York Times bestseller. She’s a wizard with a box of cake mix – a pinch of that, a bit of this, and it becomes an extraordinary and truly homemade dessert. But she’s just as brilliant at cooking and baking from scratch; her food is exactly what I like to eat – fresh, homey and delicious – and the recipes in What Can I Bring? are all smartly designed to be toted with you.

Even if you haven’t been asked to bring dessert for Thanksgiving (in which case your host or hostess should learn a few tricks from Aunt Joan), these recipes will enliven any potluck you attend this season.

Try the Big Green Salad with Orange, Avocado and Red Wine Vinaigrette, which adds a little tropical fiesta to any mid-winter dinner, and is a perfect foil for the beef bourgignon or other hearty fare your host is likely serving. (The addition of parmesan cheese to the vinaigrette is brilliant and unexpected. And it’s now a trick I use all the time. Thank you, Anne!)

Or tell your weekend hostess you’ll bring a big pan of Chicken Enchiladas to serve for the Saturday-after-Thanksgiving lunch. Anne’s sauce is salsa- and broth-based, so it’s not too creamy (a nice break after holiday food indulgence) and the bright Mexican flavors are a welcome change of pace after a few days of turkey sandwiches and leftover mashed potatoes. Like most of the recipes in this very smart book, the Enchiladas can be made ahead and left in the fridge for a day, or the freezer for longer. This means you can do the work at home and just put the pan in your hostess’ oven before lunch – providing her with both a meal and a mess-free kitchen, gifts she will really appreciate after doing endless dishes for what feels like days on end.

Check out the chapter called “It’s a Gift” for thrifty and delicious food gifts– all of which are great choices to bring your holiday hostess. If you brought me a pretty jar of Vidalia Onion Marmalade, I’d pour it over cream cheese, open up some crackers, and skip fussing over appetizers on Friday night after the Big Feast. If you brought me a Sour Cream Cinnamon Streusel Loaf, I’d leave it out for my guests’ breakfast and sneak back to bed with my coffee (hey, the hostess deserves a holiday weekend too). If you brought me a tin of Anne’s Sweet and Spicy Pecans, I’d probably hide them in the cupboard so I could eat them all myself while watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” a couple weeks later… but I’d definitely invite you back for Thanksgiving next year.

Click here for the Cranberry Tart recipe