Hungry Beans

Back in October

2008-08-18T08:05:00.002-06:00

Life is a bit crazy right now--have to plow through some deadlines. Looking forward to coming back in earnest in October!

$100?

2008-07-25T17:40:00.002-06:00

Could you feed your family for $100?

Our grocery bill hovered between $75 and $100 until this spring. But that doesn't include lunches for the kids or my husband during the week. And I eat leftovers for lunch about half the time and buy my lunch the other half. Then food prices went c.r.a.z.y. and we were looking at twice that sometimes. Twice! For seven dinners and oatmeal.

When our CSA share has started up, the bill went back down below $100, but that's not counting a great deal of veggies we've already paid for.

Maybe I'll start tracking grocery bills, along with the menu.

Turkey pesto burgers

2008-07-23T20:34:00.003-06:00

This is barely a recipe

1.25 lb ground turkey (that's the way Jenny-O packs it)
2-4 tablespoons pesto (or whatever you've got in the fridge)

Mix together lightly. Pockets of pesto are okay. Make six to eight thin patties, indenting the middles a bit, and place them on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake at 400 degrees, about 12 minutes. (You can press on the centers to tell when their done.) Reheat on a hot frying pan.

Why a rimmed baking sheet? Because, depending on how you made your pesto, a lot of oil could come out of your burgers.

50.5 meals: Some observations

2008-07-23T20:30:00.002-06:00

Because I'm apparently in a list-making mood:

1. Man, we eat an awful lot of chicken and turkey.

2. Sandwiches, unless they're pressed in the waffle iron, don't seem to go over well.

3. Neither do soups. The Big Bean and I love pho, but that's far from a quick weeknight dinner, unless we get takeout. I love cold beet soup. The husband likes it. The kids think I'm trying to put something over on them. Maybe I am.

4. I usually cook way too much for dinner--too many dishes, too much of each. In truth, the kids fill up on lunch and snacks at school and the husband and I eat lunches that are plenty big. I need to get back to single dishes and to thinking of the evening meal as supper, something to tide us over until breakfast.

5. But I like having lots of little dishes on the table, so that may never happen.

6. And I like leftovers, because that's what I eat for lunch and what I'll probably start packing for the kids in the fall. So scratch all that.

Museum-worthy

2008-07-22T07:20:00.005-06:00

From photofunia.com. Via the inimitable Angry Chicken. I think everyone on the web is doing this very thing this morning.

What's on the menu this week

2008-07-20T14:06:00.002-06:00

Saturday: Dinner with friends
Sunday brunch: Baked eggs, bacon, crostata, fruit
Sunday dinner: Big salad, salami, cheese, beet soup, rye bread
Monday: Just me and the kids: Freezer fun!
Tuesday: School carnival rescheduled
Wednesday: Quinoa salad, turkey burgers in lettuce wraps
Thursday: Sesame soba noodles with broccoli
Friday: Mac and cheese, veggies, challah

50.5, part V!

2008-07-18T14:17:00.003-06:00

Phew! It wasn't easy getting to 50. Maybe we don't actually eat 50 easy, tasty things. I actually think about a dozen of these are in heavy rotation for us.

40. Tortilla roll-ups
Just like those cheesy hors d'oeuvres. You'll need a spread (cream cheese, salsa, Laughing Cow, whatever), some shaved or chopped veggies, some protein. Let the kids do the work.

41. Spring rolls
Sounds complicated. Is not. You need spring roll wrappers. Some patience. A willingness to let go of perfectionism. Oh, and some combination of the following: rice noodles, shaved vegetables, thinly cut protein of choice. Soy or hoisin for dipping. Kids think they're magic.

42. BLTs
Have you ever turned down a BLT? Turkey bacon can be good, too.

43. Persian rice
This is not quick. But I must include it because it is one of our absolute favorite meals. Because we are not Persian, we usually eat this with turkey meatballs (the cumin and coriander kind), feta cheese, greens, and lots of plain yogurt.

44. Edamame
This is for when I'm not hungry. Kids love to pop edamame out of their pods. Plus: protein and veggie in one. Maybe some rice and carrot sticks on the side.

45. Chicken and biscuits
There are slow ways to do this and their are quick ways. The quick way involves leftover chicken and vegetables, a light white sauce (add sherry), and your favorite biscuit recipe or phyllo dough.

46. Turkey tetrazzini
Not so quick. So good. I'll post the recipe sometime.

47. Falafel in pita
I--gasp!--use a mix for this. (I also have a potato-based Indian-spiced veggie burger recipe. You can keep the mix in the fridge for a couple of days and fry them as you need them. But my kids don't like them. And they're not quick. So they don't qualify.)

48. Roast turkey breast
Roast it on Sunday night. Slice it for dinner Monday and Tuesday. Serve with cranberry sauce all year round.

49. Squash lasagna
No one in my family actually likes this. But I am convinced it is a good recipe nonetheless: Stir a pint of ricotta into a pint or so of pureed cooked squash (there's the problem for me, right there). Layer this mixture with parcooked lasagna noodles and grated parmesan. Bake until bubbly.

50. Risotto
Clean out the fridge. Call it "special rice," if you must. If I were better at frying things, I would make arancini with the leftovers.

50.5 Cold cereal. Because when the going gets tough, the tough aren't too proud to break out the Cheerios.

50.5 dinners, part 4!

2008-07-17T12:11:00.000-06:00

21. Sausage-white beans-hearty greens
Classic. Fry your sausage, stir in your chard or your kale, put the lid on, maybe add a splash of liquid, stir in your can of beans. Heat through. Serve tossed with spaghetti, on top of polenta, on top of corn bread, on it's own, as a soup...

22. Waffle-iron grilled cheese
Sandwich bread + grated cheese + waffle iron. Add some mustard or pesto for the grown-ups.

23. Big, hearty salad. Let the kids starve
Sometimes we just want to eat what we want to eat.

24. Grilled steak and a table full of crudite
Cook the steak outside (I like flank steak, marinated in soy for however long you happen to have). Chop the veggies inside. Done.

25. Grilled pesto chicken breasts
Keep these in the freezer: Pulse oil, basil, garlic, and salt in the food processor. Toss it in a freezer bag with some chicken breasts. Thaw and grill. (Tips: pound or butterfly the chicken breasts so they're even. Spread them out in the bag before you put it in the freezer, so they're easier to separate.)

26. French toast
Yep. Breakfast for dinner again, kids.

27. Butterflied chicken
Take a whole chicken, cut out the backbone. Whack it until it lies flat. Grill or roast at high heat. Way faster than a regular whole chicken.

28. Pasta with potatoes and green stuff
Chopped potatoes go in cold water, boil for 5-10 minutes, add pasta, boil some more until done. Throw in green stuff (spinach, arugula, frozen peas) right at the end. Drain, toss with parmesan.

29. Pasta with fresh tomatoes
Cook pasta. Chop tomatoes. Mix. Get fancy with basil, nice olive oil, fresh mozzarella, whatever.

30. Sausage and tomato risotto
A little more complicated. If you know how to make a risotto, do that but replace the broth with crushed canned tomatoes in their juice thinned with water or broth.

50.5 dinners, part 3!

2008-07-16T12:44:00.000-06:00

21. Sausage-white beans-hearty greens
Classic. Fry your sausage, stir in your chard or your kale, put the lid on, maybe add a splash of liquid, stir in your can of beans. Heat through. Serve tossed with spaghetti, on top of polenta, on top of corn bread, on it's own, as a soup...

22. Waffle-iron grilled cheese
Sandwich bread + grated cheese + waffle iron. Add some mustard or pesto for the grown-ups.

23. Big, hearty salad. Let the kids starve
Sometimes we just want to eat what we want to eat.

24. Grilled steak and a table full of crudite
Cook the steak outside (I like flank steak, marinated in soy for however long you happen to have). Chop the veggies inside. Done.

25. Grilled pesto chicken breasts
Keep these in the freezer: Pulse oil, basil, garlic, and salt in the food processor. Toss it in a freezer bag with some chicken breasts. Thaw and grill. (Tips: pound or butterfly the chicken breasts so they're even. Spread them out in the bag before you put it in the freezer, so they're easier to separate.)

26. French toast
Yep. Breakfast for dinner again, kids.

27. Butterflied chicken
Take a whole chicken, cut out the backbone. Whack it until it lies flat. Grill or roast at high heat. Way faster than a regular whole chicken.

28. Pasta with potatoes and green stuff
Chopped potatoes go in cold water, boil for 5-10 minutes, add pasta, boil some more until done. Throw in green stuff (spinach, arugula, frozen peas) right at the end. Drain, toss with parmesan.

29. Pasta with fresh tomatoes
Cook pasta. Chop tomatoes. Mix. Get fancy with basil, nice olive oil, fresh mozzarella, whatever.

30. Sausage and tomato risotto
A little more complicated. If you know how to make a risotto, do that, but replace the broth with crushed canned tomatoes in their juice, thinned with water or broth.

50.5 Quick Family Dinners

2008-07-15T08:07:00.002-06:00

This is fun. Today I bring you items 11-20 on my list of 50.5 Quick Family Dinners You'll Love, Your Kids Will Love and You Wouldn't Be Embarrassed to Admit in a Man-on-the-Street Interview (cf: Dino Nuggets)... or something like that.

11. Spaghetti a la Marcella
1 28 oz. can of tomatoes (nothing but tomatoes in there) + 1/3 stick of butter + 1/2 onion (not chopped). Simmer for 45 minutes. Pull the onion out. Toss with whole wheat spaghetti. (Marcella is Marcella Hazan, Italian cooking maven.)

12. Pasta and stuff
You need some meat stuff, some vegetable stuff, some liquid stuff, and some pasta. Brown the meat stuff if it's raw (wait until the end if it's cooked), brown the vegetable stuff, but don't over cook, add the liquid (broth, canned tomatoes), simmer about five minutes. Stir in just-under-al-dente pasta, cook a little more. Got some parmesan? Add that.

13. Chicken sausages
Tasty, relatively healthy, quick. Serve 'em in buns, wrapped in lettuce, wrapped in tortillas, sitting on a pile of polenta, or naked as the day they were born.

14. Green spaghetti
Take whatever oddball green stuff you need to use up (We get fennel tops, garlic scapes, and pea shoots in our CSA box. These you have to boil for about 5 minutes.) or some non-oddball green stuff like arugula or basil (no cooking necessary). Throw it in the food processor with oil, salt, and parmesan for a quick and dirty pesto. Toss with spaghetti or whatever pasta you've got.

15. Homemade pizza
This is so much easier than it sounds. Make the dough the night before--takes five minutes, I'll post the recipe some time--take it out of the fridge and preheat the oven as soon as you get home. Voila.

16. Pizza on a baguette
Ooops. Forgot to make the pizza dough the night before.

17. Chicken paillards
Thin meat cooks fast. Pound out chicken breasts with a skillet. Season and cook on a grill pan for a couple of minutes. Makes great sandwiches.

18. Lazy spaghetti carbonara
Put water for pasta on. While the pasta boils, fry some bacon. No bacon? Then cut up hot dogs. As soon as the pasta is done, scoop out a cup of pasta water, drain it, toss it in the hot pan with the bacon, crack an egg in there (fast, fast, fast!) and stir. Top with lots of parmesan.

19. Lazy mac-and-cheese
Pasta + white sauce + cheese = on the plate in 15 minutes.

20. Papa's chili
I don't actually know how he does this. It involves a can of vegetarian chili, a can of beans, and a third can. There's no shame in that.

Revelation

2008-07-14T15:33:00.001-06:00

I just remembered we have leftover steak for dinner. This is making my afternoon so much better.

It turns out we did have dinner at home last night, so: grilled flank steak with make-do chimichurri sauce in pitas, Big Salad with hakurei turnips, grilled pineapple, cherries. And I can have a complete reprise of the meal tonight, if I so choose. And I think I just might.

Make-do chimichurri sauce

Toss in the food processor:
three big handfuls of arugula
two big handful garlic scapes, roughly chopped
one big handful roughly chopped scallions
salt
pepper

While the processor runs, pour in a thin stream of:
good olive oil
fresh lemon juice

(Why is this a make-do sauce? Because garlic scapes and arugula were in the CSA box, and parsley and garlic were not.)

Big Bean: Thumbs down
Little Bean: Are you kidding?
Mama and Papa: Who cares what the Beans think? Yum.

50.5 quick family dinners you'll love, your kids will love, and you wouldn't be embarrassed to admit in a surprise interview (cf: dino nuggets)

2008-07-14T08:32:00.002-06:00

Phew. That's a long name. We could just say 50.5 Quick Family Dinners. Why 50.5? Because, while I'm inspired by Mark Bittman's 101 lists, I knew I could never make it all the way to 101. So I decided halfway was good enough. Today, I give you 1-10.

1. Bibimbap
Or, your own version of this Korean classic: rice topped with cooked spinach or any other vegetables, a fried egg, and the ketchup of the Asian world--Hoisin sauce

2. Sicilian vinegar chicken
This is from Nigella Lawson: soften a whole mess of onions in a big pot, pile on chicken thighs, then more or less equal parts vinegar, white wine, and chicken broth. Simmer veeeerrry low for 40 minutes.

3. Chicken tenders
Bread 'em and bake 'em, couldn't be easier.

4. Roasted chicken legs
If you think of it, put them in buttermilk overnight. If you don't, oh well, bake them at about 400 degrees for about 45 minutes.

5. Lettuce cups
Ground meat + fish sauce (not too much, in my house) + lime + salt + cilantro, serve it wrapped up in lettuce. You can also stir in rice noodles.

6. Taco night!
Taco night! always has an exclamation point in my house. Do it right, with cumin- and chili-seasoned ground meat, or take just about anything in your fridge--leftover chicken tenders, leftover thighs, sausages, hot dogs, stew... we call that:

7. Wrap up the leftovers
Anything can be wrapped up in tortillas. Anything.

8. Pancakes and breakfast sausage
I say it's a treat for the kids, but we know who's looking forward to Breakfast night! most.

9. Turkey mini-burgers
Why are they more fun when they're smaller? They just are. The trick is finding mini-buns.

10. Turkey meatballs
Cumin and coriander are the tricks to tasty turkey. That's a trick from Romanian carnegila.

Further embarrassment -- warranted?

2008-07-13T08:50:00.003-06:00

I last updated the "This weeks' menu" feature in the sidebar exactly a year ago. How do I know it was exactly one year ago? The menus are almost identical:

2007

Saturday: Birthday party
Sunday: Fish, grilled zucchini, lemon sherbet
Monday: Chicken fingers, cole slaw
Tuesday: Cheesy pasta
Wednesday: Fennel pasta
Thursday: School carnival
Friday: Taco night!

2008

Saturday: Birthday party
Sunday: Dinner with friends
Monday: Just me and the kids: hot dogs, zucchini cheese soup?
Tuesday: Chard, sausage, and white beans on polenta
Wednesday: Garlic scape pasta
Thursday: School carnival
Friday: Shabbat: pizza

So both menus are for the third week in July--our friend M's birthday, the school carnival, and zucchini in the CSA box. In fact, originally I was going to grill this year's zucchini on Sunday, with some flank steak, until we got the invitation to eat with friends.

Pasta with pesto--fennel or garlic scape is a pretty typical CSA meal for us. And B must have been traveling this week in 2007, just like in 2008, because Monday and Tuesday look an awful lot like "just me and the kids meals." Also, our shabbat dinner rotations haven't changed much: still lots of taco night and pizza.

So, embarrassed I've decided to jump back in and keep this updated after a year? Embarrassed I'm still feeding my family exactly the same way? Nah. No time for that.

Embarrassment

2008-07-11T11:59:00.002-06:00

I was never a Little House fan--not the TV series, not the books. But, living where I do, I had absorbed a bit of the Laura Ingalls Wilder background. Or thought I had.

Apparently, when restless Pa moved the family to Walnut Grove, they did not move to California.

Everybody's talking about this

2007-10-12T08:10:00.001-06:00

Picky eaters? They get it from you

I'll weigh in: Yeah, they get it from you in more than one way. That pickiness might be genetic, but you know what's not? Cooking a different meal for every member of the family and changing your international flights because your kid likes rice. That's all you.

I get such a kick out of the NYT coverage of families and parenting. What a strange little world these stories create, where the kids are everything and the hapless parents are seen saying things like, "You know that $5,000 vacation in Prague? We just had no choice but to turn it into a $10,000 vacation in Spain." I know it's not reality, but I like to laugh at it all the same.

For the record, my kids are picky. And I don't give a damn. My job ends when I put dinner on the table. Someday they'll eat those vegetables I keep putting in front of them. They may be 25, but it will happen someday.

Brilliant

2007-10-11T08:01:00.000-06:00

I am totally stealing this idea.

What recipes will I include? I think pancakes, waffles, pizza dough, granola, rye bread, two-hour baguettes, stir-fry sauce...

What would be on your go-to, use-it-all-the-time, hate-to-look-it-up list?

That cat in that hat

2007-10-09T20:59:00.000-06:00

I spent far more time than I should have this evening trying to pipe a ricotta mixture into fat little rigatoni. I gave up after a dozen or so, but that was 11 too many. Why? Because I'm desperately trying to interest the Big Bean in cooking and cooking with me. She talks a good game, but when it comes down to actual mixing and measuring, she's always got better things to do.

So we borrowed three kids' cookbooks from the library and I told her she could pick any recipe, any one at all without eggs, and we would make it this week. What does she pick? She pores over the Japanese cookbook, the international cookbook, and the Green Eggs & Ham cookbook and what does she zero in on? Cat in the Hat macaroni and cheese. Because we don't eat enough mac and cheese around here.

But I promised. So, hopped-up m&c it is.

But, this evening, who's there standing on the chair next to me in his sweet, sweet apron, desperate to mix and measure and help and declaring himself my "pastry chef" [meaning "sous chef"]? Well, it's certainly not the Big Bean. And who declared in her uberpolite way, after tasting just one bite, "This is not for me, Mama." Yep. It was Herself.

I'm too lazy to type up the actual recipe, but it goes something like this:

Mash up a tub of ricotta with grated parmesan, minced shallots, and minced parsley.
Boil some rigatoni.
Pipe the former into the latter (hah!)
Make a white sauce
Mix the stuffed (hah!) rigatoni with the sauce, sprinkle with bread crumbs and broil.

Big Bean: Thumbs down
Little Bean [aka Little Mr. Me Too]: Thumbs down

BRATz

2007-10-01T12:06:00.000-06:00

That's bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast. That's what "feeding the hungry beans" has meant around our house lately. Little Bean is on week three of a nasty bout of, eh, you know. I'm so sick of it I don't even want to type the word.

But he has been granted a reprieve from this prison diet. Our pediatrician said, essentially, "It's clearly not working so cut the poor kid a break." She recommended one of those schmancy, highly advertised live-culture yogurts instead. And, darned if we aren't seeing a tiny bit of progress on the um... you know... front.

After 4.5 years on the parenting front lines, I'm pretty inured to the disgusting stuff. I've just had it up to here with this round.

When I was brave

2007-09-27T12:39:00.000-06:00

When I was 22, I stood on top of a sand dune in Lithuania and said aloud, "The world belongs to 22-year-olds." I was wearing my only pair of shoes, the only ones I needed. I had friends. I had a train ticket and enough money leftover from a fellowship to cover gritty hostels for a while. I had a job in a new city. No apartment, but a roommate. No health insurance, but a parental safety net. All the freedom in the world -- literally the world -- and almost no responsibility.

I was brave. That was the year, or the next, that I knit myself a dress. I wasn't an accomplished knitter. I didn't have a pattern. I had never done lacework. I didn't know, in fact, that I was doing lacework. But I had a stitch dictionary, a lot of time spent on trains and buses, and a need for a dress to wear to a wedding in France with an English boy I had just kissed. So I made a dress. I finished it a few hours before the early-morning taxi pulled up to take me to the airport.

That was also the year I founded a magazine. With someone else's money, of course, but my own and a friend's sweat and tears. (No blood, although I did grind a bone in my foot into powder while pounding the streets in wooden clogs. Thank god for parents willing to pay for surgery in the American-run hospital.)

I still have the dress. It doesn't fit anymore, but that's not why I get nostalgic when I take it out. I would no more knit a lace dress without a pattern today than I would found a magazine.

I can't pinpoint when bravery -- or foolhardiness - lost out to caution. But there were seeds of it even then. Stories I didn't write, jobs I never believed I would be qualified for, paths I thought were already closed to me. I was learning to sell myself short, but I didn't yet know what I couldn't do.

That sounds maudlin. And I'm not. I wouldn't go back to being 22. I'm just glad I acknowledge how good it was at the time.

What does this have to do with feeding my kids? No idea. Where did all the nostalgia come from? I'm pretty sure I know: Yesterday at the Y I forgot my towel and had to dry off with my shirt. Ah! Good hostel-y times.

An inconvenient truth

2007-09-27T08:07:00.000-06:00

I uncovered a deeply perpetrated fraud last night: convenience foods.

We were headed home after work, a car full of chattering preschoolers (two of them and their chatter fill up the car). Dinner was to be chicken cacciatore, but I hadn't cut up the chicken yet. I'm really not good at cutting up chickens. A friend was coming over for dinner, so I couldn't resort to our usual can't-face-cooking fall-back: cereal and yogurt. So I thought, "Hey, I'll swing by the grocery store and pick up something to throw in the oven. Yeah! People do that all the time. That's what that deli counter is for. And the freezer case. It'll be great."

"Swing by" -- that was my first mistake. Nobody swings by the grocery store with two tired, hungry kids at 5:30 in the evening. We escaped with a poorly chosen lasagna, a greasy potato dish, and a salad about half an hour and way too much money later. Turns out the lasagna wanted 45 minutes in the oven (I should have guessed that). Heck, I could have cut up that chicken and made the dang cacciatore in 45 minutes. So I followed the microwave directions, breaking my no-heating-plastics rule and turning the cheese into a hardened, plasticky mass. The potatoes went into the oven, where the grease separated out into great, globby pools. Dinner was on the table 15 precious minutes after it normally is.

The Little Bean had a breakdown and had to be tossed into bed early.

The Big Bean's verdict: "These potatoes are great, Mama!"

Thanks, kiddo.

And the boobs bring me back

2007-09-25T07:26:00.000-06:00

What brings me out of blogging hybernation? Boobs. Specifically the lactating kind and the babies who love them -- to the exclusion of all else. Mom-101 has a refusenik and went looking for advice. Which she got -- heaping frozen bags of useless breastmilk of it. Not that I have any experience of it. And each piece of that advice, like all the advice we got, contradicts another sage piece of advice that worked for somebody else.

Kids these days

2007-07-25T14:19:00.000-06:00

Seven Sins of dining out with kids - Slashfood

You'd think the French Laundry were overrun with unruly brats, the way some people love to rant on and on about how their dining experiences have been ruined by the contemporary scourge of kids in restaurants.

Perspective, please.

I've lost count of the number of places this argument has been hashed and rehashed.

This was a memorable discussion, however, from a slightly different point of view.

Life is risky

2007-07-23T12:31:00.000-06:00

How I ate while pregnant -- megnut.com

So reasonable! And no less than I would expect from the very reasonable Meg Hourihan (thanks to whom we now have blogger -- thanks, Meg!).

It wasn't hard for me to avoid sushi, rare meat, or raw dairy while pregnant. They're not part of my regular diet and, yeah, it's only nine months.

My risk-aversion, however, was truly tested when it came to coffee and alcohol. I went cold turkey with my first, giving up my daily caffeine from the moment that line turned pink. And, holy mother of all caffeine headaches, I have never been in so much pain in my life. Scratch that. I had never been in so much pain in my life. Then the baby came.

With the second, I did some research, I did some math, and I figured -- you know what? -- One cup of coffee a day and the occasional glass of wine in the later trimesters weren't going to hurt anyone, my precious fetus included.

So glad I did.

Sour tooth

2007-07-17T19:32:00.000-06:00

I'm not saying I don't like sweets. I'm a fiend for baked goods and tend to crave an M&M or two right after lunch. But my favorite flavors are sours -- like the fresh acid of lemons and the yeasty warm sourness of buttermilk.

I also love ice cream. So, voila: Lemon buttermilk sorbet

Easiest frozen dessert you'll ever make. And egg-free.

Big Bean: thumbs up
Little Bean: hearty thumbs up

At least they comped our tickets

2007-07-15T20:40:00.000-06:00

No Ratatouille for me. I did get to see the first ten minutes or so. And then a little voice piped up from beside me: "I'm ready to take a little break out in the lobby, like you said we could."

So we sat in the lobby, eating popcorn and listening for what sounded like a pretty exciting sequence to end before we gave it another try. We sat back down just as Remy found his way into Gusteau's kitchen. The poor rat gets stepped on, nearly drowned, nearly baked with a chicken, nearly burned under a gas stove -- totally harmless and fun from an adult's point of view, but too intense and scary and fast-moving for my delicate Big Bean. This time the little voice came from the vicinity of my sternum, where her face was buried.

Apparently four-and-a-half is a little too young for Pixar.

Too bad. I was hoping my aspiring pastry chef would be inspired. I had talked it up by comparing it to The Mice of Bistrot des Sept Freres, which she loves.

And no ratatouille for me: No eggplant or tomatoes in The Box yet. But we did get our first zucchini this week. Time for me to upload the last few weeks' photos, no?

We did get the first basil and I know green beans must be on their way. You know what that means: Soupe au pistou!

This week's menu

2007-07-14T07:49:00.000-06:00

We've got a bunch of evening obligations again this week.

Saturday: A friend's birthday party
Sunday: Fish night! Probably halibut prepared a la Marcella, with grilled zucchini and fennel
Monday: Cheez-it chicken fingers (no laughing: It's from Gourmet)
Tuesday: (Babysitter) Cheesy pasta, with all that leftover cheese sauce I threw in the freezer
Wednesday: Fennel pasta
Thursday: School carnival
Friday: Taco night!

NYT celebrates Super Mom

2007-07-14T06:45:00.000-06:00

She works! She cooks dinner! She only gets takeout one night a week!

I'm sure the blogosphere has already pilloried this woman for her weekly takeout and 2,000-word article on one of the most basic aspects of parenting. (Freelance writers out there are also counting those words with dollar signs.)

But heck, that's what countless bloggers themselves are covering, and in even more painfully intimate detail. And, as the TLC can attest: We relish the details of ordinary people's lives.

Her advice boils down to good stuff:
1. Plan meals weekly.
2. Know some quick (far less than 30-minute) weeknight meals.
3. Assemble-your-own is good; short-order cook is bad.
4. Relax and enjoy takeout -- or cereal, or pasta with store-bought sauce, or whatever your deepest culinary sin -- every once in a while. From what I hear, once-a-week takeout is unheard-of restraint in New York City.

And, I need one more colon: Why did it take me until Saturday to see Wednesday's article? Oh, yeah. I had to actually work hard this week. Thank goodness for those Fourth of July leftovers that got us through the early part of the week and the freezer that got us through the end.

Lunch box lust

2007-07-12T06:23:00.000-06:00

For the better part of four years I've said a silent prayer of thanks nearly every day that our daycare provides all lunches and snacks for the kids. So, except for those bottles of breastmilk -- pumped, bottled, frozen, thawed, packed in a cooler bag and rejected -- I've never had to pack a lunch. I've never had to try to figure out how hungry a toddler will be at noon and how to sate her. I've never had to figure out how to keep fresh food cool and safe without a fridge. I've never had to track ingredients for a third set of meals in a week.

And I thought that was great. Until now.

Look at this: tasty, adorable, self-contained!

This is a little too cutesy for me, and, really, how much time do these people have on their hands?

Can you believe people make a hobby out of this?

Can you believe I'm getting tempted myself? Thirteen months until kindergarten lunches...

My inner Bree

2007-07-10T06:05:00.000-06:00

I've only seen a couple of episodes of Desperate Housewives. My taste in bad television runs more toward examinations of the quotidien lives of very short people and families with 16 kids.

But I do remember one scene: Bree is coldly serving her miserable family something like beef Wellington or pheasant under glass. Husband, daughter, son are all seated around a formal table with candles and china and linen. One of them whines, "Mom, why can't we ever eat real food, like pizza?"

I never set the table with linens and china. I never cook pheasant. In fact, I often stick to one-dish meals. But, deep down, I know that sometimes my desire to put a "real" meal in front of my family is more about me -- and more about Bree -- than it is about my kids.

(The kids who are now done with their waffles and ready to get dressed, so that's all for now.)

Summer sweets

2007-07-07T13:06:00.000-06:00

I think I made ice cream at least once a week last summer. This summer, the old glaciere is gathering dust on the refrigerator, where it's been since September. (Bigger kitchen anyone? Yes, me, please!) Dieting? Me? No. Have I finally realized that, as a 60s-sh woman whispered to me in the check-out aisle at Jo-Ann's, "Sugar is poison." Again, certainly not this family. (You don't want to get me started on the real poisons -- chemical crap that ... oh, wait, I seem to be getting started.)

The answer: Jell-O. And popsicles. These cool fruity treats seem to have usurped ice cream's place in my heart. Fruit starting to head south in the fridge or on the counter? Into the blender with it. Sometimes I don't even give the bruises a chance to show. We've made strawberry Jell-O (gelatin, technically, I suppose, or jelly as Nigella would say, since no brand-name products are involved), peach Jell-O, strawberry/peach Jell-O, orange Jell-O (twice, since the first batch turned out inedibly bitter. Who's the fool who put the pith and seeds in the blender?), and a grape Jell-O so subtly and elegantly flavored that it makes the brand-name stuff look like RuPaul. (No blender involved there: Simmer and strain.)

We stocked up on popsicle molds at IKEA and got some fun star-shaped ones. The blueberry-lime recipe Gourmet published a year ago is my absolute favorite, but I've also made an awful lot of watermelon/kiwi/whatever's-on-hand versions. And for our 4th of July gathering, I filled the freezer with these. Think chocolate needs a lot of butterfat to be intense? So wrong. My only quibble is that the raspberry layers froze much harder than the chocolate layers, and that made unmolding and eating a little tricky.

But my petite glaciere is calling to me... once we've finished the last of the popsicles, it will be time to dust it off.

Since Epicurious seems to have misplaced the sublime ice pops recipe, here it is:

Blueberry-lime ice pops

3 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (not thawed)
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup fresh lime juice

Simmer blueberries, sugar, and water, stirring occasionally until the berries burst, 3 to 5 minutes. Puree with lime juice until smooth. Poor into molds and freeze. Voila!

Toast or tuna

2007-07-03T07:16:00.000-06:00

The beans ate buttered toast for dinner. Classic sickroom fare. Two cases of strep in our house, two sickly Beans, who manage to be chipper and demanding even in their slightly fevered state. I remember when a just-barely-sick baby was all melty and cuddly and even a motherly joy to hold.

So, a big hunk of seared pink fish was on the menu, but the grown-ups couldn't face something so... meaty. So we tried chopping it up and searing it quickly, then eating it in lettuce cups with a tamari dipping sauce. Not exactly the best way to showcase the tuna, but the hot little bites in the cold lettuce was just what we needed. (But, really, what I think we wanted was the toast.)

Some things learned while feeding the beans last week

2007-07-02T06:05:00.001-06:00

1. Kohlrabi is "even better than carrots!" (Phew! It was getting mighty lonely eating that box of veggies all by ourselves.)

2. The surface area of a pound of gemelli is roughly half that of a pound of elbow macaroni. How do I know that? The half batch of cheese sauce now in my freezer, left over from the mac and cheese.

3. A single speck of green will ruin -- ruin! -- the Little Bean's enjoyment of his favorite food, meatballs. It will cause him to instruct me to "take da veggie out!" and lead to stupid, pigheaded arguments like, "No, if you don't like it, you take it out." "No, you!" "No, you." And so on.

4. Nothing tastes better than a picnic at the park on Friday afternoon, menu be damned.

Mmm, cream!

2007-06-26T06:12:00.000-06:00

I wish I had given more thought to doing it right when I went through my misbegotten vegetarian phase in my teens. In fact, I knew quite a lot of 19-year-old cheese-and-cream vegetarians.

A trip abroad to a country that regards vegetarianism nearly the same way it does homosexuality brought meat back into my diet, but we still cook mostly chicken, turkey, and fish at home. My husband doesn't seem to digest red meat well (and so doesn't like it) so it's a special treat I'll order for myself when we go out.

Someday I'll pull out my old copy of the original Vegetarian Epicure. It's a meat-free, saturated fat-laden retro beauty.

Hobbits

2007-06-25T05:59:00.000-06:00

Without fail, the first thing the Beans want upon opening their eyes every morning is breakfast. The Little Bean sticks his arms up out of the crib and whispers hopefully, "Breakfast? Breakfast!" The Big Bean pads from bed to toilet to kitchen and stands there in the doorway rubbing her face until I suggest that perhaps she might like some breakfast? Then, like the surly preteen she'll someday be, she turns silently to the cupboard where we keep the cereals in Bean-y reach.

They are delightfully inconsistent in their morning choices. Some days they want cereal, some pancakes, some waffles, others oatmeal. And I'm happy to play short-order cook, if only to celebrate the triumph of my genes over my husband's compulsively consistent ones.

We keep a stash of waffles and pancakes in the freezer (I use the recipes from The New Best Recipe) and granola on hand, as well as a cereal aisle's worth of Kashi, Grape-Nuts, Weetabix, Cheerios... I sometimes wonder why I buy any other groceries.

This weekend, to replenish the stash, we made flower pancakes:

I picked up this fun silicone mold at Crate and Barrel:
Very popular with my girly-girl Big Bean.

They should wake up any moment now, clamoring for breakfast. And after putting away a pancake each, they'll head off to school where they'll sit right down for a Hobbit-y second breakfast with their classmates. Then they'll run around a bit and be ready for snack less than two hours later.

This week's menu

2007-06-24T07:08:00.000-06:00

We won't be eating together as a family very much this week, so we're keeping things very simple.

Saturday: Butterflied chicken with pesto on the grill, salad
Sunday: At the Big Bean's request: "saucy spaghetti." Don't tell Martha or Mario: I bought a jar.
Monday: Thai ground turkey on a spinach salad. The recipe is for ground beef, but we're not big red meat eaters
Tuesday: French fries, hamburgers, and, if I'm lucky, fried walleye at an outdoor concert
Wednesday: Quesadillas (Papa Bean is cooking)
Thursday: Turkey burgers and whatever's in The Box, Week 4
Friday: Mac and cheese, also at the Big Bean's request. Her little friend is sleeping over
Also to make: Rye bread, turkey and broccoli bake from here, for a family at our synagogue

The Box! Week 3

2007-06-23T19:31:00.001-06:00

You know what I'm not? A photographer.

But documenting the week's haul photographically is already fun. See, looks like the same pile of green stuff as last week, right? Except, hey, what are those curly things over there? And, could that really be three massive kohlrabi? And look at that: the year's first and possibly only bag of sugar snap peas.

This week: red and butter leaf lettuce, radishes, kohlrabi, sugar snap peas, garlic scapes (the curly things -- you cut them off the tops of the radish to encourage fat, healthy bulbs), spinach, broccoli, and... I must be forgetting something. I've mislaid the newsletter and I'm too lazy to get up and open the fridge.

The Beans love these.

So much that I remember a tantrum the Big Bean threw at the farmer's market last year, when I told her she could pick anything she wanted. She chose "peas peek out of the pod," but, alas, it was late July. That's a hard lesson in seasonal eating right there.

Yep, still not a photographer.

Low on the cooking mojo

2007-06-20T20:46:00.000-06:00

Sometimes I just don't have it. The cooking mojo, that is. Everything feels like it's in the wrong place, in the wrong order. I can't focus long enough to keep the garlic from burning. In our house, this lack of mojo is likely to coincide with screams for help in removing one's socks and replacing them on one's hands. (Tonight, for example.)

The only reason I didn't 86 the whole exercise and pull out the cereal boxes was that a friend was coming for dinner. Come to think of it, he might have enjoyed Cheerios.

But, in the end: whole wheat linguine with chicken wild rice sausage from here, cannellini beans, and spinach. We also made short order of a loaf of our favorite rye bread (The Beans gobble this down, and not just because I butter it for them. Well, at least I don't think that's why.) and plenty of strawberry rhubarb sauce on vanilla ice cream (thanks, friend).

Unnatural! Unnatural, I say!

2007-06-18T20:02:00.000-06:00

BBC NEWS | Health | Pureed baby food is 'unnatural'

When I stop to think about it, my negative reaction to this story comes almost entirely from the shrill word "unnatural."

What Gill Rapley, from Unicef, describes is pretty much the way we fed both the beans, thanks mostly to the Big Bean's immovable personality. She wanted nothing to do with anything but breastmilk-straight-from-the-source until she was seven and a half months old. (Why do I insist on including that last half month? Why not round up or down? Because when you're a working parent and your baby is a world-class refusenik, every last day sticks in your memory.) By that time, when she caught on to solid foods, she could move them into her own mouth pretty efficiently. So we let her. The second one -- who thought bottles were the bomb -- got the same treatment.

Still, I bristle. Why make parenting a minefield? We parents get it every which way, from the rice-milk-in-the-bottle-from birth fools to the breastfeeding-toddlers-exclusively fools. Maybe "unnatural" isn't a word we need to hear.

This week's menu

2007-06-16T20:20:00.000-06:00

Saturday: We came home from our bucolic ramble hungry and without groceries. So strawberries with a side of grilled cheese for everyone!
Sunday: Taco night! Always gets an exclamation point at our house. Don't know why. These will be ground turkey tacos with tortillas and salsa verde from our favorite Mexican market. Thought of doing fish tacos. Then thought about all that deep frying in this hot muggy weather.
Monday: Papa Bean will be out of town, so the little beans will enjoy leftover tacos while Mama Bean gets an avocado/buttermilk soup treat. This will be my favorite night of the week.
Tuesday: We've got a babysitter. So I'll make some pizzas for her to cook.
Wednesday: Have to use up those collards, so we'll rely on the classic white bean/sausage/hearty green combination.
Thursday: I've got an evening meeting. Papa Bean will man the kitchen. Pasta, probably.
Friday: Butterflied chicken on the grill. A spicy rub?

I also need to restock the freezer with challah, pancakes, waffles, pizza dough, and rye bread. I may rethink that given the weather.

Farm day

2007-06-16T19:51:00.000-06:00

My city kids know what cheese is made out of. And if you ask them where milk comes from, they'll tell you, "Cows." But they have only the vaguest idea how those two things work. Come to think of it, so do I. But we live in a richly agricultural state and can be at the source of the milk and the cheese within a 45-minute drive of our city home.

So we packed the kids into the car this morning as soon as the demands for pancakes (Big Bean) and waffles (Little Bean) slowed to a trickle. We promised them two things: strawberries and sheep.

We got the former:

And we got a glimpse of the latter, at Shepherd's Way Farms. We also got a nice tour from farmer and cheesemaker Jodi Ohlsen Read, who graciously made time for us just before setting off for eight hours of youth soccer in the muggy June air. And my ulterior motive for the trip became apparent: right-from-the-source Big Woods Blue, Shepherd's Hope, and friesago.

That fresh country air and all that running around did them in. After a dinner that looked more or less just like this:

they practically begged for bedtime. I thought the rest of those strawberries would be destined for something terribly grown-up, like this or this. But, not tonight. This city kid is pooped, too.

The Box! Week 2

2007-06-14T19:58:00.001-06:00

It's Thursday, that means veggies! This week, we've got arugula, collards, lettuce, scallions, pea shoots, radishes, spinach, and turnips. You can see it's been hot here, with the little sunburned edges on the radish tops. But our skilled farmer has protected the other delicate greens.

Only two heads of lettuce and one has already been gobbled up with tonight's dinner. Half the radishes and turnips have already been turned into some quick sweet pickles (thanks to our farmer for the inspiration!). The turnips are something else: a Japanese variety called hakurei. You can pick one up and chomp into it like an apple -- it's sweet and crisp and very juicy inside. In the past I've grated them and tossed that with a vinaigrette. Here's what I did tonight instead.

Quick radish and turnip pickles

12 or so radishes and Japanese turnips
1/2 cup vinegar
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon mustard seed
1/2 teaspoon peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon whole allspice
1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 bay leaf

Quarter radishes and turnips through the poles. Place in a jar or glass bowl with a lid. In a non-reactive saucepan, heat remaining ingredients to a simmer, stirring until sugar dissolves. Let cool slightly. Pour mixture over radishes and turnips, making sure they're all covered. Let cool a little more, cover and refrigerate. They'll keep in the fridge for a week.

---
No specific plans for the collards yet. Probably the classic Italian kale (for that's what collards are)/sausage/white bean combination. Maybe with some whole wheat spaghetti.

The pea shoots are destined for pesto again. I think they're just too tough and stringy to eat any other way. It keeps its beautiful, bright green color and springy flavor.

The Box! Week I

2007-06-13T20:03:00.000-06:00

Our first CSA veggies arrived last week. A big, beautiful, intimidating box of early summer greens. This is our fourth year with the farm, but the first year we'll be attempting to eat it all on our own. Now, on Day 7 of Box I, I'm pretty proud of our efforts. I'll eat the last of the salad greens for lunch tomorrow and throw a serving's worth of pea shoot pesto into the freezer for later.

The smaller beans, it has to be said, are not much help on our quest to eat The Box, although they both clamored for lettuce on their plates. Didn't actually eat it, of course.

This is our farmer's recipe, linked above, but he's got it in a pdf, so I'll paraphrase here.

Pea shoot pesto

1 big bunch pea shoots, coarsely chopped
2-4 olive cloves (or green garlic, in the spring)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup toasted pine nuts (walnuts are nice, too)
1/2 cup grated parmesan
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil

Put everything but the olive oil in the food processor, start it up, and start pouring the oil in until it makes a thin paste. Toss with pasta or smear on bruschetta.

Big Bean: Thumbs down
Little Bean: Thumbs down
Too garlicky for them!

(Want your own CSA farmshare next year? Find one here.)

Pappa al who?

2007-06-12T06:00:00.000-06:00

I don't cut sandwiches into cute shapes for my kids. I don't build log cabins out of carrots. I don't call things by cutesy names to get them to eat things. (Calling broccoli "trees" may be fun, but has it ever reformed a true veggie-hater?)

But, when the Big Bean asked what was for dinner the other night, I stumbled a bit. "It's, uh, um, pizza soup." Pappa al pomodoro, a great way to use up stale bread and get an instant hit of summer. But what the Big Bean wanted to know was what would it taste like. Minus the cheese, it tastes like pizza soup.

No basil from our farmer yet, no decent tomatoes to speak of in our part of the world, but I did have an unloved baguette on the counter. I softened it up in a warm oven, spritzing it with water, and welcomed the first hot days of summer.

Big Bean: Thumbs up
Little Bean: Thumbs down

So, here it is, pizza soup, adapted from this month's Gourmet for our family of 2 + 2(.5) eaters.

1 large onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup olive oil
1 28 oz. can whole Italian tomatoes (no tomatoes for us, yet!)
1.5 cups water (plus more as needed)
1 cup fresh basil, chopped
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 day-old loaf of white bread, cubed (I used a baguette and left some crust on. Gourmet calls for Italian country bread and removes the crust.)

(I say the food processor is okay for that onion, don't know what Ruth Reichl says.) Place oil, onion, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large heavy saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until onions are very soft and beginning to brown, about 30 minutes. (Don't rush this! You don't want crispy onion bits in there.)
Add tomatoes, water, basil, garlic, and remaining salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until mixture thickens. Break up tomatoes with your spoon. Taste for seasoning and add bread. Simmer, stirring occasionally, breaking up the bread, until it has absorbed most of the liquid. You'll have a thick mixture. Add water to thin it down, if you want. Serve sprinkled with basil and drizzled with olive oil.

Predictable in my indignation

2007-01-28T08:30:00.000-06:00

These Kids Never Say ‘Yech!’ - New York Times
Terrific. One more way to feel inadequate: My kids don't eat squid.
(I bet all over America people are thinking the same thing, muttering it across the breakfast table or typing it into their blogs. I bet that's reason number one why the NYT keeps reporters on the Rarefied Air beat.)