Nicholas gives us a noble use for leftover sweet potatoes, a kid-friendly baking project, and a better turkey sandwich.

It's a lunchbox cocktail party for Walker and Addie this week, with crudités, cheese, and olives all ready for the snacking. Here's Amanda with the specifics:

I believe in the occasional snacky lunch. For this one I packed soppressata, Castelvetrano olives, Red Leicester cheese, ricotta salata, and purple carrots. To go with, whole wheat bread, a British cheese cracker, and roasted pumpkin seeds.

(No Grüner Veltliner for this set, but we wouldn't pass on a glass to accompany this meal!)

Here's a lunch we'd happily turn to any day of the week: roasted chicken salad with celery, Dijon, mayo, and tarragon (says Amanda, "chicken and tarragon are besties").

The tiny spoons are just right for 6-year-old hands piling salad on the slices of whole grain bread, and chocolate spice cookies make for a perfect dessert.

A last-minute weeknight pork shoulder (yes, it's true), with a broth to get your family through the winter.

There's no doubt about it: Sandy's here. Which means the kids are home from school, and you want to keep them entertained -- and fed.

Here's Amanda with the latest from Brooklyn's most well-fed first graders -- those tomatoes totally do look like fish scales:

Bacon, lettuce, and semi-green tomatoes, sliced super thin so they lay on the bread like scales on a fish. (I made one big sandwich and split it in two for the kids.) Our nanny made apple pie with Walker and Addie; thought they should take their creation to school.

The many ways sweet potatoes will keep the kids (and you) well-fed.

Today's peek into Amanda's kids' lunch shows a decidedly sophisticated deconstructed salad of roasted chicken, arugula, and baby radishes with mustardy mayonnaise on the side. Cheese crackers provide similarly fancified crunch, and apples from the Hesser-Friend family CSA share are a perfect ending to a fall meal.