Ready For Supper

What's in my Fridge?

2008-09-10T19:11:00-07:00

Since this blog is about cooking and especially about cooking for/with my family and with my friends and clients, I'm going to start some regular features. Today I'm introducing "What's in my Fridge" really I mean what's for dinner?
The goods: I have ground beef, kale, carrots, Feta, goat cheese, pizza dough, little sweet grape tomatoes, arugula, cucumbers, cauliflower, eggs, lemons, limes, mushrooms, bananas, grapes, chicken breasts, whole wheat bread, fresh parsley and cilantro.

The givens: in my pantry I keep these staples pretty much always: flour (whole wheat, AP, Semolina), Rice (basmati, brown, jasmine), quinoa, garbanzo beans (usually in cans), canned or frozen (when I still have last year's haul left over in the freezer)tomatoes, garlic, onions, shallots, potatoes (waxy most often), lots of spices, sugar, olive oil, baking soda and powder, peanut butter, coconut milk, butter, canola oil, vinegar, tomato paste, black beans, while beans, pasta (at least one tube, some size spaghetti, and something orzo-like), walnuts, almonds, dried apricots, raisins, coco powder, chocolate (chips and maybe a bar), salt, tea (green, oolong, black). Cold staples: eggs, milk, half & half, tofu, vanilla yogurt, plain yogurt, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, corn tortillas, jam, yeast, mayo, ketchup, mustard (yellow & Dijon).

We had a great dinner! We made Greek spiced burger patties (beef with oregano, corander, cumin and a bit of cinnamon), fresh made pita (from the pizza dough), greek salad (cukes, tomatoes, feta and parsley dressed with olive oil and lemon juice), yogurt salad (plain yogurt with grated cucumber, garlic lemon and parsley) and oven fried potatoes (because the kids had been asking for them). My 5 year old twins cut up the cucumbers, mixed the salad and rolled out the pita. They are really getting in to helping cook these day which makes for fun in the kitchen.

Next night I made a fritatta from the leftover burgers, and sauted kale - topped with goat cheese, more pita (kids favorite easy bread) and fresh salsa with the rest of the tomatoes and cilantro. Two great easy dinners for about 15 dollars. My oldest dayghter even surprised me by loving the kale frittata (the twins complained about the green stuff).

What we don't eat.

2008-09-05T21:56:00-07:00

I went back to compost duty today. The kids are really getting the hang of it. They want to help - I had quite a crowd of 7 year old with latex gloves helping their friends sort trash. It's fun and they are proud of what a good job the school is doing reducing what they throw away. Still, even though the wasted food all goes to be composted and therefore to good use...ham sandwiches and burgers are expensive fertilizer. I am blown away by the amount of food we throw away. I see kids (not just a few) throwing away whole sandwiches, entire hot lunches, fruit....I spent a fair amount of time today negotiating with 5 year-olds about saving their leftovers to eat later. The kindergartners eat at 10:30. My kids, for example, had a good breakfast at 7:30 so I'm not entirely surprised that they are not too hungry at "lunchtime". School schedules sometime defy logic. The cafeteria made food - mostly prepackaged "wholesome" imitations of fast food (bean and cheese nachos, burgers, whole wheat corn dogs?!) - are a little gross in my estimation. It reminds me of the food you might buy at a gas station and many kids toss it. I don't know how to change that because budgets are incredibly tight for food at school. I'm volunteering for a PTA committee that will focus on that challenge so we'll see. But the group of kids who are tossing really nice lunches that some tired parent made probably in a rush that morning, made me sad. I have no answers today. Just a lot more thinking to do about how to talk to kids about the value of their food. How to make nutritious lunches that will get eaten. Congratulations again to Glenview Elementary for teaching kids about compost and about how to make a difference in their world by doing the right thing everyday.

Perfect Dinner

2008-09-04T13:03:55-07:00

Last night we had the perfect dinner. Nothing fancy actually. My oldest daughter's favorite (actually her second favorite - she love spaghetti best of all) - tuna casserole plus beet greens left over from the beets we had the other day and cucumbers (because the kids don't love beet greens). I love having everybody around the table at supper time. The kids did a great job setting the table and only fought a little about who got to sit where. But what made it perfect was what happened after we finished eating. My oldest wanted a story. She ran downstairs to get the book we are reading at bedtime -The Wayside School is Falling Down and we sat around the table reading and laughing almost until bedtime. It was so much fun that we read some more in the living room after the kids teeth were brushed and everyone was ready for bed.

Slow Food

2008-09-01T11:09:00-07:00

I got lucky this weekend. I got a ticket to the Slow Food Nation Taste Pavilion. It was an amazing event I'll be thinking about for a long time. The food and drink was amazing. I could write all day about (and may over the course of the next few weeks). But it left me with lots of questions too. I started RFS with a lot of the values in mind that pervade the slow food movement. I believe that food is about community, nutrition, pleasure - in the preparation as well as the eating. As I walked around the event I was struck by the distance I felt from the act of preparing food and sharing it. I ate beautiful food - pickled cabbage, seafood, salami, bread; tasted and tried coffees, wine, beer and liquor; I got to talk to only a few producers. The process of making the food was mostly invisible. I didn't expect workshops on cheese making or charcuterie...but I hoped to get to spend a little time - talking to the people who made and loved this beautiful food. I stood in line to get my tastes (the lines were well organized and rarely too long - the sample sizes were perfect - so you felt like there was plenty to really try but no waste). I wanted to go back after I ate it. I wanted to say wow! that was perfect...because it inevitably was). I wanted to enjoy the food with the people who loved it enough to make so perfect. So much of cooking and eating is about that to me. Sharing a flavor and an experience whether of a flawless sausage made by a master or a spaghetti dinner in my kitchen builds up bonds between people while building our bodies. I would love to go back to the Slow Food Nation event if it is here again next year. I will bring a posse to sit and share very bite. There is so much more to say about the "slow food movement" and this event in particular. I'll be coming back to it over and over I think.

Composting with kindergartners

2008-08-28T21:47:13-07:00

Today I got to go to my kids elementary school to be the "trash monitor". Actually it's the lunch monitor but I think of it proudly as the trash monitor because the job is to teach the kids how to sort their trash. Glenview Elementary school is an excellent elementary school in the Oakland district. We feel lucky to have our kids at such a great school. Last year the PTA got together with the school staff to start a recycling and composting program in the lunchroom at the school. With the start of this school year, it's time to teach the new kids and remind the kids who have been at the school how to use the system. I spent this morning (little kids eat lunch early) helping 5 year-olds figure out what is trash, what is compost and what can be recycled. Most of the kids are getting into it. The take their time and really consider what to do. I hope it follows them home and helps them understand that they can make a contribution to how their family lives in the world. It was also great to see so many little kids who had a handle on these concepts. Kids with lunch boxes that look like my kids boxes. Full of reusable containers and foods that didn't come in individual packages. Kids who knew what to take home to reuse; who made almost no waste. Although I did have to confront a major personal composting dilemma...is a Twinkie really compostable if in fact it will never degrade? does it make a difference if you take off the plastic wrapper? Oh well. My girls seemed to like seeing me there. It was fun to get to see them all big and in kindergarten.

Up and Running

2008-07-21T16:05:38-07:00

Today I got the blog online. You can see the results. I began this business doing in home baking and cooking instruction. I've put together a bunch and strategies and recipes to people to bake for themselves and their families. For the past 6 months or so I've been weaning my family (3 kids and my wife) off of store bought baked goods. We eat really well. We have fresh bread almost every night in some form and pastries when we want them. I have a set up that lets me come home in the evening and get bread on the table for dinner. It's not rocket science. Just planning and the will to bake and eat lots of bread. You can do it too. If you want. In this blog I'll talk about life with this crazy obsession and how the business and the family are growing as we try to end our addiction to orowheat, support our addiction to homemade Beignets, make good crusty bread in lots of different ways, make lousy and weird food experiments (and some great ones too).