Reporter on the scene

Not that I don’t trust the man in the orange shirt with the interesting mustache or the Courier Journal reporter, but I’m pleased to bring you a second-hand review of the Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger from a trusted source. While I seriously question Christian’s choice of lettuce and tomato as toppings, I can personally vouch for his good taste, particularly in tv shows and women (hi Liz!).

Not quite live from the Kentucky State Fair. Sir, how was your Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger?
“Meh.”

Do you care to elaborate?
“I thought a combination that bizarre would be incredibly good or incredibly gross. It was neither. It was just okay.”

You heard it here first, folks.

Festival Food

Festival food conjures up images of fried candy bars, funnel cakes and meat on a stick. This year at the Kentucky State Fair there’s a new festival food on the scene and apparently it’s all the rage. Behold the Krispy Kreme Cheeseburger. If you have a very strong stomach, you should watch this video of Courier Journal reporter, Chris Quay, trying one for the very first time. I love how in his article he refers to the combination of grease from the burger and glaze from the donut as “glease.” Webster’s Dictionary, take note. I’m not going to lie, the gentleman with the orange shirt and the interesting mustache makes me a little bit homesick.

Our neighborhood holds its annual Decatur BBQ, Blues and Bluegrass Festival every August. Fortunately, the festival food at Decatur events is marvelously different than that of the Kentucky State Fair. Good music, good food, good people, and all within walking distance of our house. Our friend’s band, Roxie Watson, took to the stage at 5pm and rocked the house, as usual.

While I like barbecue as much as the next person, it just doesn’t appeal to me when it’s so blazing hot outside. August in Georgia sort of feels like you’re in one of those barbecue smokers and I start feeling empathy for the little pigs. Give me a Chicago winter over this heat any day, but I digress. Thankfully, Badda Bing! didn’t forget about the vegetarians, or in my case, the flexitarians. Owner and Chef Michael Condon offered up one of the tastiest, lightest, fluffiest veggie burgers I’ve ever had.

It was like a gift all wrapped up in silver paper especially for me. Look closely between the burger and the spinach and you’ll find a fried green tomato surprise! Now I’m a whole grain kind of a girl, but sometimes white bread is so good it’s worth every gram of carbs. It gets even better, my friends. Badda Bing was also selling FRUIT SOUP!! I’ve always said somebody needs to open up a smoothie stand at festivals, but this was even better.

It was SO refreshing on a hot, summer day. No one fruit dominated another, so I couldn’t even pinpoint what was in it. Cantaloupe, maybe peaches, oranges, lime, and basil. That’s my guess. I tried making a fruit soup once, but it didn’t go over very well. It too had cantaloupe as its base, but then I ruined it with too much carrot juice and ginger. Lilly didn’t approve. I don’t hold a grudge, but I didn’t share this soup with her either.

She didn’t notice because she was already fixated on getting one of these:

A chocolate sea salt popsicle, handcrafted by the King of Pops.

and a Watermelon Mojito popsicle for the boy. 

They didn’t even check his I.D.

Congee

I first read about Congee in an incredibly informative cookbook by Chef John Ash entitled Cooking One on One: Private Lessons in Simple, Contemporary Food From a Master Teacher. Congee, or jook, is a rice porridge commonly served for breakfast in many Asian countries. It’s known to have a restorative quality and is believed by many to be a great remedy for a hangover. While the only late nights I’ve had in the past eight years involved nursing babies and sleep training toddlers, I have found that congee has a theraputic quality and is easy on the stomach.

To make congee, simmer 3/4 cup of long grain white rice with 9 cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. Simmer over medium low heat with the lid partially on for 1-1.5 hours. Stir often, breaking down the grains until they have a smooth consistency.

While we Americans like our breakfast sweet, congee is usually served with savory toppings. Some eat it with pork or fish, but I enjoy a vegetarian version topped with Kim Chi, seaweed, peanuts, grated carrots, fried shallots, garlic and soy sauce. While eating white rice morning, noon, and night wouldn’t be the best thing for your blood sugar, this dish is very economical and could be eaten for days on a shoestring budget.

$8.34

That’s how little I paid for these fresh fruits and veggies at the Dekalb Farmer’s Market. The organic golden beet was the priciest item at $2.60, so if you’re not passionate about biennial Eurasian plants, the rest of the items pictured would only cost you $5.74. Please don’t check my math, but do consider how much a cappuccino costs, or worse, a sad little Happy Meal. For about the same price I purchased an organic Fuji apple, a Minneolos orange (which is a cross between a tangerine and a grapefruit), an artichoke, a turnip, 1 organic zucchini, 5 radishes, a bunch of arugula, a golden beet, and a lemon. Even if you haven’t a clue what to do with these items, don’t they make a beautiful centerpiece? It makes a lot more sense to buy fruits and veggies than a vase full of cut flowers that are only going to last 3 days. They’d make a much better gift too, especially for a food nerd like me.

I bought these goodies as a prop for Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool’s Art Auction Jubilee, to which I donated a week of free food coaching. I literally chased the poor winner down, blocking her exit, to ensure she didn’t leave the bounty behind. I really wanted to introduce her to my good friend, the golden beet.

If you’re still wondering what on earth you would do with the above mentioned treasures, here are some tips. Arugula makes a fabulous, peppery-tasting salad and I’d peel and section that orange and put it right on top. A little lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, pepper would make a yummy dressing and goat cheese would be a lovely addition. If you’re not in the mood for a salad or your arugula is wilted and doesn’t come back to life after washing it, just saute it with a little garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper. Peel and chop both the golden beet and the turnip, remove the outer layer of the fennel bulb, chop it into similar sized chunks, and roast them in a pan with olive oil, garlic, herbs and/or vinegar at 400 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Eat the roasted veggies plain or use them in a salad, on a pizza, or in a sandwich. Don’t be afraid of the artichoke – it won’t hurt you. Steam it, roast it, boil it, you can even microwave it. Ocean Mist Farms has a good video on preparing the artichoke. Radishes can be used in your salad, of course, but I prefer them sliced thinly and served with a little bit of butter on whole grain toast. The zucchini could be sauted, but tastes even better grilled, just try not to overcook it or you’ll make my friend, Manashi, gag. I also like raw zucchini and raw shredded beets in my salads. That leaves the Fuji apple, and I’m not going to insult your intelligence and tell you how to eat an apple (with peanut butter).

Chai Tea party

It's been incredibly dreary outside this week, so I tried to cheer myself up by having a tea party with my son. I simmered fennel seeds, sliced ginger, a cinnamon stick, a bay leaf, whole cloves, white peppercorns, and cardamom seeds in 3 cups of water for about 10 minutes. Then I turned off the heat, added 2 English Breakfast tea bags, 2 teaspoons of honey and let it steep another 10 minutes.

 Add 1 1/2 cups of milk

and voila, a delightful pot of chai tea!

My daughter would have dressed up like she was dining at the Ritz.

My son? Jelly on the sleeve and filthy hands.

He lapped up the tea like a dog.

honorary Indian

I have two words for you people:

Chaat Masala.

How have I lived 36 years on this planet,

had 3 Indian friends - I'm so worldly, I know,

(One happens to be a midwestern girl whose hubby is Indian, but still)
and somehow missed out on the wonder that is Chaat Masala?

SOMEBODY has been holding out on me!

Manashi?

Malavika?

Jenny?

I have Garam Masala in my cupboard,

asafoetida,

mango powder,

black mustard seeds,

but nobody told me about chaat masala!?

A couple of weeks ago Manashi's mom made this unbelievably tasty cucumber dish for us

and I dreamt about it for days.

 I called Manashi in NYC and she walked me through the Indian grocery store here in Georgia
where I bought my very own box.

It cost $1.

Sprinkle it on cucumbers with a little lemon juice and salt.

You can thank the Mukherjee family later.

Here we go round the mulberry bush

(from May 2010)


Until a week ago, that nursery rhyme was the only thing I knew about mulberries. Then our friend, Jonathan, posted ‘mulberries’ as his facebook status. Just ‘mulberries’. He later commented that he was trying to work but all he could think about was foraging for mulberries. He and his wife, Lesley, live in Nashville so I assumed their neighborhood was flooded and that they couldn’t get to a grocery store. Nope, they’re just that cool.

Then Alan informed me that there’s a huge mulberry tree in the field behind our house.

So he carried a bucket down the hill and brought these lovely little berries home.

“What are you going to DO with them?,” I asked. “Are you SURE they’re mulberries? 100% sure? How do you know?” He looked at me like I was the crazy one.

I’ve mentioned that my mountain man has some mad baking skills, but I was terrified to try this suspicious little piece of pie. The crunchy-granola girl in me admires the simple living, back to the land movement and thinks growing and canning your own food sounds swell. I mean, how much more local can you get than these mulberries? But the city girl in me got online, started googling pictures of mulberry trees, and researching the possible side effects from consuming its fruit. I whispered to Lilly, “Let’s wait until tomorrow and make sure Daddy hasn’t poisoned himself before we eat a slice.”

Why was I so afraid of the mulberries? The same reason other people are afraid to eat collard greens, kale, swiss chard, or fennel. We’re terrified of the unfamiliar, but it’s the familiar that’s REALLY scary: double D-sized chicken breasts, antibiotic-laden beef washed in ammonia and chlorine to remove E. coli, fake food filled with ingredients you can’t pronounce let alone recognize. So why was I afraid of eating berries growing on a tree behind my house? Because they weren’t labeled and I didn’t have to pay for them – as if that ensures safety. It’s laughable, I know! The point is, as a society, we’re so completely disconnected from our food. We have dandelion greens and mulberries growing all over the city and hungry people who have no clue that they’re edible. I did eventually try a piece of pie and my exact words were, “This is SO good, I don’t care if it makes me sick.” Lilly woke up the next morning and said, “Daddy didn’t poison himself, so can I eat a slice of pie now?”

Separate, separate, separate

That’s my secret for making one dinner that usually sometimes pleases both the tall and short people in my home. ‘Separate, separate, separate’ is an especially important technique for children of the preschool variety. They want power and they want it now. Food is the only thing in their little lives that they have any control over. As much as you’d like to get your screwdriver and your plumber’s helper, open their mouths and shove it in, that didn’t work for Mr. Parker in A Christmas Story and it won’t work for you.

My six year old will eat raw spinach dipped in salad dressing and she’ll devour a container of strawberries in minutes, but try combining those three items and she recoils in horror. I not only physically separate every item on the plate, I also reserve items while I’m cooking before I RUIN them with too much flavor. The other night I made one of my favorite spring dishes, Seared Tofu with Spicy Black Beans and Mango Salsa, which I discovered years ago in Peter Berley’s cookbook Fresh Food Fast. This is how the dish looks when Alan and I eat it.

For my picky little munchkins, I reserved some of the mango salsa before I added jalapeno and cilantro to it. I also separated the food on their plates like this.

Lilly informed me that next time I make this dish, the tomato is not invited to her mango play date. I meant to reserve some black beans before I RUINED them with ginger, cumin, and garlic, but I forgot. Do you see where this is going? Lilly didn’t seem to mind the beans, but this was Jonathan’s reaction:

It gets even better!

Separate, separate, separate!
Separate the food, but don’t cook a separate meal; unless, of course, you want to. If you have endless money, time, and patience, then go for it. Just keep in mind that “kid-friendly food” is a marketing gimmick, one that didn’t exist 100 years ago.

Don’t feel too rejected when the ungrateful boogers refuse the meal you so lovingly prepared for them. You sometimes have to offer a dish twenty or thirty times before a child starts to like it; an annoying fact, but true. My daughter was a really good eater when she was little. She later went through picky stages and turned up her nose at meals she once loved. On the bright side, she’s eating things today that she refused to touch just last year. If I didn’t give her the opportunity to try a variety of foods, how would her taste buds ever develop and mature? Don’t get too worked up about the food they reject. Just laugh at their full-body shudders, try to refrain from lecturing them about starving children in Africa, and celebrate small victories. We’re all in this thing together.

Play with your food

from February 2011

As you can see, it took me over a month to recover from snow week. It was THAT bad. This past week has more than made up for it though. My daughter had a week long ‘winter break’ from school and it’s been 70 degrees and sunny EVERY SINGLE DAY! When we weren’t outside playing, we were in the kitchen playing with our food. It’s amazing how much more likely kids are to eat dishes that are presented in unique and fun ways. They’re even MORE likely to try food they’ve had a hand in preparing. Case in point: potato mice.

Sure, the kids may have eaten a plain old baked potato, but they’re still talking about these 3 days later. We got the recipe from this Mom and Me Cookbook, by Annabel Karmel and they were really tasty. You remove the inside of the potatoes, mash them with butter, milk and cheese, and then fill the potatoes back up with the mashed potato mixture. You then add more shredded cheese on top and broil the potatoes a few minutes until golden brown. My daughter had a blast giving the mice eyes, whiskers, ears, a nose and a tail. They were so cute, she didn’t want to eat them (but she eventually did).

From the same cookbook, we also made this recipe for Avocado Frog Dip.

We took rolled up turkey, the frog dip, warm pita bread strips, and a plate full of raw veggies outside and had a picnic on our porch. Now THAT’S fun, simple food!

Slow Food

Le Creuset, I love you so!! I found this 5.5 qt Le Creuset Dutch Oven the week before my birthday at Tuesday Morning for only $150. ONLY? I know, it sounds like a ridiculous amount of money, but these French Ovens usually cost $230 (on sale) and I’ve been pining for one for years. What makes these pots so highly coveted? After all, a cast iron skillet only costs about $20. These lovelies have two layers of enamel on top of the cast iron, which is a BREEZE to clean up, and is ideal for slow-cooking just about anything. Soup, stew, chili, you name it. No more burning the mirepoix at the bottom of my stock pot! You can brown a chicken in the dutch oven and then stick the entire pot in the oven to roast. They come with a 99 year warranty, so I fully expect to will it to my favorite grandchild. All this and they’re beautiful to look at too.

Over the weekend, we roasted this free-range, organic chicken using this recipe aptly titled the,”Best Roasted Chicken in the freaking world. Period.” I then made chicken stock with the remains.

Beans and rice, rice and beans

I made a huge pot of Cuban Black Beans on Wednesday and I CANNOT GET ENOUGH! I soaked 1 pound of dried black beans ($1.49) in water for about 8 hours, drained the beans and then simmered them in fresh water with half an onion and half a green pepper for 2-3 hours. I chopped the remaining onion and pepper, which I then sauteed in bacon grease for 15 minutes or so. I also made a garlic paste by smashing 7 garlic cloves together with a pinch of sea salt. When the beans were tender, I added the sauteed green peppers, onions, bacon grease, and garlic paste to the pot, along with the juice of 1 lime. I also added a pinch of salt, oregano, cumin, and a tablespoon or two of red wine vinegar. I served the beans with rice, avocado, salsa, sour cream, shredded cheese, and pickled jalapenos. The second night, we made whole wheat burritos out of the leftovers. Today, I had more rice and beans for lunch and I look forward to devouring the rest tomorrow. Seriously good, seriously cheap, and the kids liked it!

Taste a little of the summer

“Taste a little of the summer, taste a little of the summer, my grandma put it all in jars.” That’s a line from a Greg Brown song, Canned Goods, one of my all-time favorites. My grandma used to can the vegetables my grandfather grew in his garden. My husband is a volunteer at Sugar Creek Garden twice a week and has brought home quite a bounty of summer veggies. Cucumbers and tomatoes and okra, oh my!

 I’ve never canned, but should probably learn how. I really don’t cook much over the summer. All I seem to crave is watermelon and peaches. In fact, I could be a raw foodist from June-August if I didn’t have kids and a husband to feed. Wait a minute, raw foodists don’t eat ice cream, do they? Never mind.

Last night, I did cook my favorite braised cabbage recipe and prepared some mac & cheese from a box (gasp). I also tried out this new okra recipe, which was SO easy and deeeeeelicious! Tonight, I have no idea what I’m going to cook. I might cook the same Caponata recipe I made over the weekend so I can use up the eggplant Alan brought home from the garden. I’ll probably buy some bread to spread the caponata on, though last week we just put it on top of nachos, along with some Lemon Feta Dip and hummus. The Decatur Farmer’s Market is this afternoon and Pearson Farm will be selling the last of their Georgia peaches. I’m not sure what else we’ll eat. Maybe ice cream? Let’s see, that’s a veggie, a fruit, a carb, and dairy. Sounds good to me. I can just hear my mom asking, “What about PROTEIN?”

School started back yesterday, which is why I have a moment to blog. The boy is napping (don’t be jealous, he woke up at 5:40 a.m.) and the girl is enjoying the heck out of her first week of school. Who doesn’t love the start of the school year? Brand new school supplies, back-to-school clothes, and classmates. Imagine the possibilities.

We had a lovely summer break and spent lots of time at Lake Chatuge.

Alan picked these wild blackberries while we were there.

Grandma Ashe baked a blackberry cobbler, which I’ll surely dream about all winter.

We hired goats and sheep to eat invasive vegetation behind our church, which was a sight to behold. They ate kudzu and poison ivy like it was chocolate. The company is called EweniversallyGreen and the owner, Brian Cash, can be reached at 678-595-0147.

We must have paid the animals 2 dozen visits while they were there working.
We were sad to see them go.

A foodie with bum taste buds

Thankfully, my family has so far managed to avoid the rapidly spreading swine flu. Taking the kids to get their H1N1 vaccine was a hoot, let me tell you. I damaged my rotator cuff trying to physically restrain my five-year-old. She's freakishly strong, and I either need to start working out for next year's encore or I'll have to hire a bouncer.

We did recently have a house guest, one that wasn't invited and stayed entirely too long. It all started when Jonathan was teething (or so I thought). He was incredibly ornery, drooling like a camel, and barely touching his food. Days later, little bumps appeared around his mouth, a result of the drooling, I assumed. Then, Lillian started complaining about her tongue hurting. She thought she had bitten it, but the pain grew worse, as did the whining. I finally checked her tongue and this is what I found:

BLISTERS!!!!! My tongue started to hurt just looking at them. No, wait, my tongue had blisters on it too!!!! I'm never sharing food with these germy kids again. While we never developed the characteristic blisters on our hands and feet, we were diagnosed with an enterovirus, much like hand, foot, and mouth disease. Since Jonathan is the youngest and hasn't had much exposure to enteroviruses, he had the most severe symptoms. Lil was more tired and crabby than usual, but she felt alright otherwise. Adults have been exposed to many of these viruses, so their symptoms are generally mild. Often times, we show no symptoms at all. I just had a very sore tongue.

What was even worse than listening to Lilly whine that her tongue was going to fall off, was that food tasted like moldy drywall and coffee like pond water laced with furniture polish. Even after the blisters disappeared, I was left with a metallic taste in my mouth for days. I didn't cook for a week. The only meal that brought me any pleasure at all was soba noodles in a miso broth with sauted carrots, zucchini, and red peppers.

My tendency toward hypochondria led me to google 'taste loss' and I read all sorts of tragic tales about poor souls with permanently damaged taste buds. Thankfully, my taste buds are happy and healthy once again. Last night, I baked homemade bread and made cabbage with white bean soup.
QUIZ: What's better than the aroma of freshly baked bread and soup simmering on the stove? ANSWER: Tasting it.

Grilled vegetable salad with sweet poppyseed dressing

This recipe was OUT OF THIS WORLD!! I forgot how sweet and delicious grilled vegetables can be, especially eggplant and fresh corn. I found this scrumptious recipe on author Cynthia Lair's website Cookus Interruptus. She wrote a wonderful cookbook entitled Feeding the Whole Family, which gives smart tips on feeding your entire family the same dish, even babies as young as 6 months old. I DREAM about her yummy Emerald City Salad and have yet to be disappointed by one of her recipes. I highly recommend her Fried Brown Rice, Edamame Tofu Salad, Lemon Tahini Sauce, Rosemary Red Soup, Asian Noodle Salad, and French Lentils with sage. The only change I made to this recipe was adding grilled corn and serving it with smoked salmon. It was so fabulous!

What's in your fridge?

I just got home from the Farmer's Market and am mourning the loss of the bounty of summer. Don't get me wrong, I look forward to root vegetables and soup, but will miss the endless supply of melons and mangoes. The good news is, my beloved comice pear will make her return in a couple of months. Also, the leaves are about to change and sweaters will soon come out of the closet. Woo hoo!!

This is what's on the menu this week at our house.
Monday: Grilled vegetable salad with smoked salmon. Tuesday: Roasted brussels sprouts, bison, mushrooms & onions with raw alfredo sauce & PBu, inspired by Heather Eats Almond Butter. Wednesday: Edamame tofu salad with sesame chili dressing. Thursday: Raw zucchini noodles, basil, carrots, tomatoes & alfredo sauce and sweet potato french fries. Friday: We usually eat out on fridays, but Alan has to work, so I'll probably make whole wheat breakfast wraps with eggs, salsa, cheese, and organic italian sausage. Saturday: Vegetable chickpea curry with brown rice, with raita yogurt sauce.

Yes, I cleaned my fridge first and here's what's in it:

top shelf - mustard, pickles, ghee, jerk chicken spice, apple butter, white miso, green curry, walnuts, peanuts, brazil nuts, cashews, almonds, raspberries.

2nd shelf - chock full o nuts coffee, 1/2 & 1/2, Banilla yogurt, plain yogurt, yogurt tubes, salsa, sour cream, cottage cheese, almond milk,

middle shelf - eggs, saflower oil, yo baby yogurt, applesauce, organic green grapes, pineapple, marinara, left-over black bean zucchini quesadilla mixture, tiramisu.

cheese drawer - tofu, smoked salmon, dates, feta cheese, whole grain wraps.

shelf - spinach, bison, organic italian sausages.

produce drawers - carrots, potato, corn, eggplant, okra, cucumber, basil, boston lettuce, red pepper, yellow squash, zucchini, mushrooms, portobellas, dill, brussels sprouts, lemons, cilantro, sugar snap peas, sweet potatoes, broccoli, minneolos, apples, limes, ginger.

other treats from the F. Mkt - plums, peaches, bananas, kiwi, chickpeas, onions, soba noodles, dark chocolate, date coconut rolls, edamame, frozen peaches, poppy seeds, cherry tomatoes.

What's in YOUR fridge? What are YOU eating this week? What's your new favorite food discovery?

For the love of peanut butter

I have a hard time keeping the fridge stocked with peanut butter. I've had a passion for nut butters for as long as I can remember. My husband, Alan, often makes "poor man's dessert," which is a mixture of peanut butter and maple syrup or honey. Apples cut into little boats with peanut butter on top was a breakfast staple growing up, and I still eat almond butter with pink lady apples at least 3 times a week. I sometimes add a scoop to my green smoothies and always put some on my oatmeal.

As a child, I couldn't understand why my mom kept our peanut butter in the fridge while other families kept theirs on a shelf and enjoyed it at room temperature. Their peanut butter didn't have oil floating on the top, thanks to hydrogenated fats. My mom knew about hydrogenated fats before hydrogenated fats were uncool. We were also the only family I knew who ate whole grain bread. I don't mean soft wheat bread from the grocery store, I'm talking grainy, brown, frozen bread full of seeds. Thanks to whole grain bread and natural peanut butter, my brother says his lunch was never stolen in middle school.

I've been reading a lot of food blogs lately and kept hearing about PBu. It's a delicious concoction invented by Emily at Curly Top. It's so good there are no words to describe it, so I won't even try. Just buy yourself some natural peanut butter and plain almond milk and mix them together. Emily recommends 1 cup of pb and 2 cups of almond milk, but I like mine a little thicker. Try 1 cup of peanut butter mixed with 1 cup of almond milk and then thin it out if you'd like it thinner. You have to stir, stir, stir for a long time, until the two become one. If you're allergic to peanuts, try it with almond butter. I don't think it needs any sweetener, but add some if you'd like. Cinnamon works well too. You can use PBu on anything - oat bran, toast, salad, ice cream, you name it! It's heavenly!! It's much lower in fat than straight peanut butter, but it tastes just as decadent.

The blog I keep returning to again and again is Heather Eats Almond Butter. In fact, Heather was the first person I noticed using PBu in her recipes. She lost over 100 pounds ten years ago eating a healthy diet. She's beautiful and witty and has learned over the years which foods make her body happy. She and her husband created a recipe they call Marinutta, which is a combination of marinara sauce, peanut butter, and ground flax seeds. AMAZING! We ate ours with some roasted brussels sprouts, ground bison, carrots, onions, and mushrooms. Heather eats hers on broccoli.

Man, I love food. Like Julia Child, I'd rather go food shopping than dress shopping any day.

Jonathan's first green smoothie

Jonathan thoroughly enjoyed his first green smoothie, which I made with an orange, green grapes, pear, kale, and a banana. Check out that green mustache! It does a mama's heart good.

Homemade baby food

Making baby food is simple, inexpensive, and tastes SO much better than the store-bought variety. The best book on the subject is Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. It's the kind of book you'll use for years, long after your child is chowing down on choking hazards. I still depend on one jar of Earth's Best baby food for lunch, but Jonathan's breakfast usually revolves around whole milk yogurt and his dinner around Super Baby Porridge. There are many things you can add to these dishes depending on your baby's age, such as pureed fruits, vegetables, tofu, hard boiled egg yolk, wheat germ, vitamin drops, etc. Super Baby Porridge, which the hallmark of the Super Baby Food diet, is made by boiling ground whole grains and legumes for 10 minutes. The porridge in the picture will last 3 days and was made with brown rice, millet, oatmeal, and lentils. The frozen, organic, sweet potato puree pictured is incredibly tasty and only takes a minute to defrost in the microwave. I try to keep fresh seasonal fruit on hand and puree it in my Tribest Personal Blender as needed.

Something from nothing

I didn't have a plan for dinner Saturday night, but I threw a few things together and wound up with a dish that tasted better than any take-out. OK, I'm not really that creative, so I followed a recipe from Cynthia Lair's website, Cookus Interruptus. If you haven't read Cynthia's book, Feeding the Whole Family, you must do so NOW. Her Emerald City Salad one of my all-time favorite dishes. I just happened to have all the ingredients for her Fried Rice recipe and Lemon Tahini Sauce. Together they were absolutely scrumptious on top of a mound of spinach. The Fried Rice is made with brown rice, currants, cashews, cumin, coriander, cayenne pepper, ghee (or butter), frozen peas and green onions. Instead of store-bought tahini, which I didn't have, I toasted some sesame seeds and pureed them with olive oil, which is all tahini is. Who knew?

Mmmmmm, swoop swap

Yesterday I participated in my first soup swap, or "swoop swap," as my daughter kept referring to it. Six moms from Lillian's school each made a huge batch of homemade, vegetarian soup, enough to fill five 32 oz. containers. I made a Red Rosemary soup with beets and lentils, which has become a staple in our household. Check out the delicious bounty I came home with after swapping soup: vegetarian chili, two-bean soup, fava beans and rice soup, roasted tomatoes (which can be used as a pasta sauce or a soup), and green velvet soup. Yummo! I doubt any of us spent over $15 on our soup and we each got five or six main dishes out of it. Anybody up for a casserole swap?