Iceberg to Arugula

Hmmm…..Kandy Korn, Ambrosia, Cotton Candy, Honey Treat, Sugar Buns and Sugar Pearl. 

I’m not making dessert plans, I’m planning a summer vegetable garden and these are the names of some of the corn varieties available. I notice lots of sugary sweet sounding vegetable names….makes me wonder what’s next….Festering Cavity Bell Peppers? Diabetic Coma Beets?

Supersweet varieties of corn have been around since the 1950’s when they were developed by the University of Illinois. However, it’s only really been since the 1980’s they’ve been gaining in popularity…. which is about when as a country our obesity rates began to skyrocket. Coincidence??? I’m not sure, though it has been readily observed that the American tastebud is much more primed for pure sugar these days. Perhaps this has carried over to veggies???

My question is: is this a bad thing? Does it really matter that some veggies are extra sweet?

Two thoughts come to my mind:

1. There are boatloads of evidence that show that folks who eat lots of fruits and vegetables tend to live healthier and longer lives. Quite a bit of this evidence comes from epidemiological studies. (Meaning that researchers follow a whole bunch of people, look at their lifestyle and dietary habits and then look for differences between the folks who got sick and those who didn’t). However, there is still quite a bit of investigation into the “whys”. If you follow health news at all, you likely have heard stories about naturally occurring chemicals in food (phytochemicals) that appear to contribute to better health. Some examples include resveratrol found in grapes and red wine and curcurmin in turmeric.

That said, there’s still quite a bit of investigation needed in this area. It seems plausible to me that the more naturally occurring variety we have in our fruits and veggies, the more access we will have to a wider variety of phytochemicals. Conversely, if we’re all eating the same variety of carrot (because it’s the best selling and the sweetest) over and over again, what are we missing out on from other varieties of carrots? Science is still trying to answer that question… stay tuned.

2. Science aside, I frequently wonder about what fruits and vegetables tasted like before mega-mile food transportation was the norm and people ate locally not because it was the cool thing to do, but because it was necessary. I listen to my father in law muse dreamily about the “Summer Transparent” apples that used to grow on a neighbors tree more than a generation ago. (When I Google “Summer Transparent Apple” I get nothing) My own father goes respectfully reverent when talking about his grandfather’s fruit trees. Somewhere in his 60-something year old body is a boy who loved nothing better than to trawl those treetops in search of the perfect plum. European immigrants, my great grandparents grew their own heirloom varieties of fruit: peaches, plums, apricots.  I read MFK Fisher and wonder what the fruit emitting “opulent fragrance on the screened porch”* must have tasted like in her early 1900’s childhood. Better? More authentic?

For those reasons and because I like to challenge myself to be a more adventurous eater, I crave more diversity in fruits and veggies than what the grocery store offers. The Farmer’s Market is an awesome resource which I use frequently, but this year, I’m trying an experiment: I’m planting all heirloom vegetables in my garden.

I really want to know what certain vegetables actually taste like, not the hybridized-for-maximum-growth-and-sweetness variety, but the old timers, the heirlooms. In his fabulous book Blithe Tomato, author/farmer Mike Madison talks about his own experiment in growing heirloom grapes for his market customers. He laments that the ubiquitous big seedless flame grapes, available in the summer months are “crunchy sugar water” with little actual grape flavor. Unfortunately, they didn’t sell all that well despite the outstanding flavor. He reasons that was because of the seeds (no one wants seeds!!! They’re bothersome) and also perhaps the flavor, not sweet enough, too complex, too much work to eat.

I’m ready to work a bit harder for my food. I can’t help but think a healthier life just may be ahead. Stay tuned.

If you want to grow heirlooms here are some resources:

• Heirloom Seeds
• Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Seed Savers Exchange
• Victory Seeds
• Heirloom Acres Seeds

*From “The Measure of My Powers” by MFK Fisher. An essay which can be found in her book The Gastronomical Me

On any given day I can pratter on endlessly about certain foods: gelato that makes my taste buds pirouette in anticipation, stinky cheeses that stop just short of making me wince or plump, sweet blackberries just plucked from creek fed beds on a hot day.

Today? It’s lentils.

Lentils you say?? Aren’t those a bit uhm….boring in comparison? Allow me to backpedal a bit. I like beans and we eat them fairly frequently in our house in soups, dips and stews. Most of the time, I use the canned varieties for the sake of speed in pulling a meal together. However, I do find that beans cooked from the dried (or fresh) state tend to have better flavor and texture than the canned ones. However, dried beans need to be soaked for a time before using and even the quick soak method can be longer than I want to wait when I’m making dinner on a busy weeknight. (Though if you do happen to have the time check out the dry bean cooking tips over at Kitchen Therapy).

The lentil has something great going for it that beans don’t: they are the Speedy Petes of the legume world. From a nutrition standpoint, much like beans, lentils have a lot going for them. They’re loaded with folic acid and fiber (trust me, your heart LOVES that!)

There are several varieties of lentils, some of which are pictured above (red, French Green and brown). Like beans, lentils themselves have have a very mild flavor. The magic happens when they are cooked with other ingredients, they take on the flavors of the rest of the dish. Since they are small and lens shaped, they also contribute welcome texture to many dishes and in true speedy fashion, there is no soaking required. Just add them during the cooking process as you would pasta and cook until tender. Before using lentils, spread them out on a white dish towel or plate and remove any non-lentil interlopers such as tiny stones or other grains.

During the winter months, I like to keep my freezer stocked with hearty soups and stews to help get dinner on the table quickly during the week. This Lentil Soup is generally camping out somewhere near my Ben and Jerry’s stash. I like to serve this as a dinner entree with fresh fruit or salad and a really good loaf of bread with garlic spiked butter.

Lentil Soup

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 large yellow onion, chopped

2 carrots, trimmed, peeled and sliced

2 ribs celery, trimmed and sliced

2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced

2 1/2 cups crushed tomatoes

2 tsp dried thyme

1 cup dry lentils (any kind will work)

4 cups low sodium beef or vegetable stock

1 smoked ham hock (optional)

1 tbsp Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

1. In a large soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat and add onions, carrots, celery, garlic and thyme. Cover pot. Stir occasionally and if vegetables begin to turn brown, stir and reduce heat to medium-low.

2. When vegetables are tender, add tomatoes, stock, lentils and ham hock (if using)

3. Stir soup and turn heat up to high until soup is boiling, then reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30-40 minutes.

4. Remove soup from heat and extract the ham hock if using. Cut as much meat from the ham hock as possible, cut into bite sized pieces and add back to the soup.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir in Balsamic vinegar.

Makes about 8 cups. Freezes well (use within 3 months).

I love to write about food, hence the blog. I also love reading the words of truly talented food writers. “Truly talented” in my opinion means going beyond recipes: I crave the works of writers who make me see, smell, feel and taste the food just with their words. This is the type of writer I aspire to be. 

Truly good food writing celebrates food not only as art, but as something that is worthy of eating mindfully (that is, paying attention to each bite with deep enjoyment). Generally this level of food writing focuses on higher quality foods. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not referring to only foofy foods like Foie Gras and Caviar. I’m also referring to foods that are thoughtfully prepared or harvested- the lustily perfumed peach left on the tree until perfectly ripe, a buttery roasted chicken or even a moist, tender herbaceous meatloaf.

Think about it, it’s much more likely that such talented prose would be applied to a thoughtfully prepared dish than to a Big Mac. Not to pick on the Big Mac or McDonald’s for that matter, but fast food is so ubiquitous in our culture that to write an essay extolling whatever virtues the “two all beef patties” might have would frankly be sort of comical. It could be done…. but why?  Do you typically eat a fast food burger slowly and thoughtfully dissecting the flavor and texture of each bite? Or do you cram it down your gullet as fast as you can because that’s what you eat everyday and (OMG) you only have a 30 minute lunch break?

Some of my favorite food writers include Madhur Jaffrey and Ruth Reichl (who can make me drool over sea urchin even though this is something I’d never normally consider eating.)  

Over at Dianne Jacob’s Blog “Will Write For Food”, she offered a 150-word food writing challenge to her readers entitled How Sensuous Can You Be? 

Here’s my entry:

Horizontal shards of heat rose from the road as the brutal sun mercilessly bleached everything the color of sand. Parched and exhausted, I slipped inside the cool thick stucco walls seduced by the perfume of warmed olive oil and herbs.

A young waiter appeared as I strained to adjust to the dim interior. He offered cool wine and dark sultry comeliness. The wine, lusty and sanguineous swirled seductively in my glass yielding tendrils of deep black cherry, caressing my nose. Raising the glass, I allowed the liquid to languidly bathe my tongue.

Unable to understand the language of the menu, I merely pointed. Soon, plump, chewy twists of pasta arrived at my table bathed in a pool of steaming brodo. The pasta resisted slightly at first, but then yielded its soft, buttery cargo and there it was… the very definition of al dente!

Pasta, for me, was never the same.

This entry recounts an experience I had in Italy a few years ago at a little hole in the wall family restaurant just outside the walls of the Vatican. The tortellini dish was very humble, but triggered a deeply visceral wow moment for me. The food we eat permeates our bodies and ultimately is assimilated to become part of us. Frankly, other than sex, I cannot think of anything more deeply intimate. Great food writing honors that.

How sensual can you be? If you love good food writing, give Dianne’s contest a try. Deadline is Jan 16th.

Okay, so who wants to eat a meal at a table full of Registered Dietitians?

Anyone?  Hello????

(Crickets chirping off in the distance)

If you read my last post, oh so long ago (yeah, I know, my New Year’s resolution is to try to get back to posting weekly), I had a recipe for Vanilla Custard French Toast with Butter Pecan Syrup. I had many comments from friends, family and readers about how this looked good but complained because it was not “healthy” or “Dietitian-y” enough.

So that got me thinking: those of you who are not RD’s. What do you suppose it is we dietitians eat?

I was speaking recently with some RD colleagues of mine about how many of the culinary and “foodie” glitterati (including Julia Child, Michael Pollan and Alice Waters) have expressed subtle to overt distain for dietitians at one time or another. 

At it’s most basic, the job of an RD is to help foster optimal health via advising the public or other healthcare professionals on consumption of nutrients. That said, consulting with an RD is the best way to help you eat better. However, the unspoken pervasive misconception is that healthy eating means you must sacrifice flavor and enjoyment of your food. It’s the “if it tastes good, it’s not good for you” mentality. Dietitians are guilty by association.

This line of thinking has always really bugged me as I happen to be both a flagrant foodie and Registered Dietitian. So today I’m going to toss my two cents into the stock pot.

Years ago when I was a hospital dietitian, I would eat lunch with the rest of the RD’s in my department. Usually the group of us would take up most of one cafeteria table with maybe 1-2 chairs left over. On occasion, someone from another department might join us though this was very rare. This did not go unnoticed by the group of us as we speculated the thoughts of our fellow colleagues in the lunch room:

1. They were afraid that their lunches were not healthy enough and would not measure up….because of course as RD’s we MUST be eating boiled tofu balls and wheat grass right????

2. Good luck trying to find a salt shaker on THAT table!

3. The fear that we would be heartlessly callous, criticize and berate the unfortunate guest’s lunch choices: “OMG…. what a crappy lunch, do you even have a clue that you are not even REMOTELY meeting your needs for Molybdenum???? Fool!!!”

What were we really eating? Foods just like everyone else, pizza, spaghetti, sandwiches, salads and soup and on occasion (gasp!) cookies or ice cream!

So, can I speak for all RD’s here? Of course not, but the majority of the ones I know (and I know quite a few!) eat very normal healthy diets.*  Typically these RD’s:

1. DON’T eat the same amount of calories everyday. To be frank, that’s just not natural.

2. Don’t obsess about the fact that they ate a calorie laden meal. They enjoy it wholeheartedly the way it was intended to be enjoyed and move on. As an aside, I happen to love ice cream and my husband is well aware that I occasionally have a torrid affair going on with not one man but two….Ben and Jerry.** 

3. They know how to prepare simple tasty meals and prepare meals at home more often than they buy them. Check out Cooking Healthy Across America by the American Dietetic Association Food and Culinary Professionals Practice group for ideas.

4. Find delicious and inventive ways to work fruit, vegetables, whole grains and beans into their diets.

5. Realize that the best “diet” is the one you can comfortably live with for the rest of your life.

A good dietitian can help you walk the line of balance and eat not out of fear but out of abundance and variety. Want to eat better but don’t know where to start? Find one of us here today.

*When I use the term “diet” here I am not referring to weight loss. Diet is simply a term referring to the typical way one eats.

**Nope, didn’t get paid for saying that.

OK, so at one point I was toying with the idea of writing a cookbook with this name. But my husband in all his wisdom made me rethink that. Awwwww….

This time of year, many of us are making plans and preparations for the holiday season, all culminating in one perfect morning of celebration. But what if I told you you could have perfect mornings of celebration all year round? Let me introduce you to the Sunday morning brunch.

In my humble opinion, Sunday morning is the perfect part of the weekend. It lies in between Saturday, which if you did it right, allowed you to shake off enough of the workweek to really relax and before the “oh-man-I-gotta-start-getting-ready-for-next-week” dance.

As opposed to other meals of the day where preparing scratch dishes may be more daunting for those with limited kitchen skills, breakfast foods are pretty straightforward. The ease of preparation makes it easy for all members of the family (even children) to take part. The key here is to keep in mind that the group preparation is as important as the meal itself. It’s an unfussy, gather around the dining room table time to set the tone for the rest of the day.

Take the time to mindfully enjoy more decadent foods you may not normally eat, that’s part of what makes it a celebration!

Leave the TV off and play some music everyone can agree on. On Sundays, we generally stick to light classical music. Or check out www.pandora.com to create your own breakfast celebration radio station for free.

Start with some fresh seasonal fruit. This time of year, citrus fruits, pomegranates and persimmons make frequent appearances at my table.

Add waffles, scrambled eggs, pancakes or my recipes below and pots of coffee, tea or hot cocoa and you’re good to go!  

Vanilla Custard French Toast with Butter Pecan Syrup

4 slices thick white or sweet French bread

1/3c. Half and Half

1/3 c. Heavy cream

2 1/2 tbsp sugar

4 eggs

1 whole vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

1/4 tsp salt

Butter- to grease pan

• Add all ingredients except bread to bowl and whisk together.
• Heat a nonstick pan greased with 1/2 tsp butter over medium high heat.
• Add one slice bread at a time to the egg bath and flip to coat both sides. Soak at least 5 seconds per side. The longer the bread soaks, the longer it will take to cook but it will be more custard-like.
• Add soaked bread to hot pan and cook until golden brown on each side. Reduce heat to medium if needed to avoid burning.
• Add more butter to pan as needed.
• Serve immediately with 2-4 tbsp Butter Pecan Syrup.

Makes 4 servings

Butter Pecan Syrup

1/3c. raw shelled pecans

1-2 tbsp salted butter

1/2-3/4c. pure maple syrup

• Heat oven to 375 degrees.
• Place pecans on cookie sheet and place in oven. Bake about 10 minutes or until browned and fragrant.
• Meanwhile, place butter and syrup in a small saucepan over medium low heat until butter is melted and then hold warm.
• Remove pecans from oven, let cool, chop coarsely and add to the butter and syrup.

Skillet Potatoes and Onions with Thyme

This is a very simple recipe with only 4 ingredients not including salt and pepper.

6-8 small to medium new potatoes, scrub, (no need to peel), slice lengthwise and then slice each half into 1/4 inch slices.

1 medium yellow onion, chopped into 1 inch chunks

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

• Add oil to a nonstick pan and heat over medium high heat until hot and fragrant.
• Add remaining ingredients to pan and stir to arrange onions and potatoes in a flat layer in the pan to allow for browning.

• Stir every few minutes to allow as many potato pieces as possible some time against the hot pan to brown. (You’re not going to get all of them and that’s ok.)
• Continue cooking and stirring until potatoes and onions are fork tender. That is, there is no resistance or crunchiness when pierced by a fork. Be patient, this process takes a while, about 10-15 minutes. Adjust heat up (high) or down (medium) as needed to keep the sizzle and avoid burning. If you want your potatoes browned more or the onions sweeter and caramelized, feel free to continue cooking.
• Serve immediately.

Vanilla Custard French Toast with Butter Pecan Syrup and Skillet Potatoes and Onions with Thyme

Do you remember the Super Bowl commercial a year or two ago that featured a dowdy woman being hotly pursued by legions of men that found her somehow irresistible despite her “monobrow” and perma-wedgie? How did she get all the male attention?

She dabbed cashews behind her ears. 

Now, I have to say, I’m sure this doesn’t work. Because if you’re craving masculine attention, the thing you really need to dab behind your ears is….wait for it….

Pumpkin pie.

Mind you, I have absolutely no scientific evidence to back me up on this.  However, I remain convinced that there’s something hardwired on the Y chromosome that renders men helpless in the face of this silky pumpkin, ginger, cinnamon and clove cocktail. 

That said, we have just entered the time of year when I start getting questions from random folks in my life about how to make a pumpkin pie using an actual pumpkin rather than the canned stuff.

The question that begs to be asked is: Is it worth it to go to the trouble of cutting up the unwieldy orange orb and wade through lots of ooky pumpkin innards in order to get my pie fix?

Yep.

I do think that solid pack canned pumpkin has quite a bit going for it, so I’m not dissing the can. Consider the following:

• Solid pack pumpkin usually is a one ingredient item, meaning no artificial colors, flavors or stabilizers have been added.
• Pumpkin is loaded with beta carotene, your body converts this to Vitamin A which it uses to help bolster your immune system. Great for this time of year when most of us are playing dodge ball with cold and flu viruses. 
• Overall pumpkin is low in calories and fat.
• Opening a can is faster.

However, nutrition aside, from a culinary standpoint using fresh rather than canned pumpkin frequently just tastes better. Not to mention that in many circles, it will also qualify you for bragging rights. (“What?!?! You used a real pumpkin to make this pie! Wow! You rock!”)

First, start with the right pumpkin. The large pumpkins used for carving Jack O Lanterns at Halloween will NOT work. The flesh contains too much water and not enough sugar, generally pies made with these pumpkins are bland and don’t have a good texture.

Look for pumpkins that are intended for cooking. Most of the time they are called “sugar”, “pie” or “cheese” pumpkins. The one I used for these pictures was called a “Sugarpie”. Usually they are about the size of a medium cantaloupe and weigh about 4-5 pounds. In the photo below, you can see the Sugarpie pumpkin is significantly smaller than the Jack ‘O Lantern variety.

Wash the pumpkin prior to cutting and with a very sturdy, sharp and heavy knife, cut the pumpkin in half and remove the seeds and stringy interior.

You will find that pie pumpkins frequently have A LOT of seeds relative to their size. One 4 pound pumpkin should provide about 1 cup of slick, plump seeds. Be sure to reserve the seeds for a healthy roasted snack:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Rinse seeds and place on lightly greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with coarse kosher salt and roast 20-25 minutes or until golden brown.  

Check out Jessica Levinson’s post at Nutritioulicious on pumpkin seed nutrition.

Cut the pumpkin in 8 wedges (leave skin on) and place 1 cut side down on a cooling rack positioned over a low rimmed sheet pan. This helps ensure even roasting and catches any water that may be released which would impede the roasting process.

Roast about 40-45 minutes at 375 degrees or until pumpkin is fork tender, that is, if you pierce the flesh with a fork, there is little resistance. Let wedges cool until they can be handled comfortably by hand.

Pull skin off wedges, this is fairly easy to do by hand when the pumpkin is roasted. Remove any hard parts such as the stem, etc.

Cut into 1 inch chunks and place in food processor. Pulse and add water sparingly (no more than about 1/3 cup if you’re going to use this for a pie or custard) to work pumpkin into a smooth puree.

Be patient, fresh pumpkin stubbornly takes a while to puree well.

You will find that the fresh pumpkin will be lighter in color than what you may be used to out of the can. Here’s a color comparison:

Fresh puree is on top, canned puree on the bottom. Despite the color difference, pies made with the fresh puree have the same color as those made with the canned puree.

The flavor and smell of the fresh puree is delicate and complex making for a much more sophisticated end product. In comparison, the canned product looks “curdled” with a more one dimensional aggressive “yammy” scent. I’d never really noticed that until I started roasting my own pumpkins. Despite the more pronounced scent of the canned pumpkin, pies made with fresh pumpkin generally are more flavorful.   

One 4 pound pumpkin should yield about 3 cups puree.

Pumpkin Pie

Makes one 9 inch pie

1 1/2 cup fresh pureed pumpkin

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups evaporated whole milk

1/2 tbsp cornstarch

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground cloves

1 recipe for basic pie dough to make 1 shell for a 9 inch pie or use the equivalent in premade dough.

· Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

· Line pie plate with dough

· Mix remaining ingredients and stir until combined.

· Pour pumpkin mixture into prepared pie plate.

· Place pie in oven on lower rack of oven and bake for 15 minutes. Then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 45 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the pie comes out clean. Jiggle the pie, it should wiggle a bit.

Allow to cool and serve garnished with whipped cream as desired.

For some additional fabulous non-pie pumpkin creations check out these recipes from some of my blogger friends:

Tram’s Pumpkin Walnut Muffins at Nutrition to Kitchen

Linda’s Pumpkin Custard at Kitchen Therapy

Marsha’s Pumpkin Stew at A Weight Lifted

Have a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

With all due respect and thanks to MFK Fisher……..what do you think of oysters?

Do you consider them food…..or not?

When I was a culinary student, I took a course in Gastronomy. One day on entering class, I encountered a photo projected on a very large screen that was fairly disturbing. The picture was of a Southeast Asian woman happily gnawing on the leg of a (freakin’ HUGE) black spider. Spats of shocked discussion pulsed throughout the room where we spent the lecture time discussing food fears and taboos. For many of us, it’s uncomfortable to eat outside our established food boundaries. Frequently anything that falls outside those boundaries we simply don’t consider food.

We tried three unfamiliar items and were not told what they were. The object was to evaluate the food item solely on flavor, aroma and texture and develop an opinion about it. For the most part it went well, the first item was Tamarind Candy, the second was sort of a dried, pressed fish jerky with added sesame seeds. I had no problem with either of these and actually rather liked the tamarind. However the appearance of the third item, well, frankly made me want to hurl. It reminded me of being in eighth grade biology class and looking under a microscope for the first time at a paramecium. In fact, it looked like a whole cupful of gelatinous paramecia eying me and daring me to drink them. The rest of the class was having difficulty with this item (which was Asian Basil Seed Soda) as well and the tasting went sort of like this (just imagine these kids are all wearing Chef’s whites and you’ll get the idea):

I think food fears actually have little to do with the actual flavor or gastronomic experience of a food. Rather they rest in our perception of what it is (brain, liver, insect, paramecium looking thingy).

So what does your personal “taboo” list look like?

Some personal examples: 

Goat cheese: yeah, I know, I know, it’s really gourmet has a very distinctive pungency and nice texture….but goats just kinda weird me out, you know?

Tongue: I just can’t get over the fact that I’m tasting something that at one time would have been capable of tasting me back.

And, yes, oysters. I mean, let’s face it: to the uninitiated, eating a raw oyster is kind of like trying to hork down a lumpy wad of snot.

As a Registered Dietitian, the thing I wonder about is if it is indeed possible to improve the quality of the diet by confronting these fears. There’s quite a bit of research that indicates that the more varied the diet the healthier it tends to be. Most of us tend to eat roughly the same types of foods day in and day out. Don’t believe me? Try keeping a food journal for 1 week and write down everything you eat and drink. More often than not, you will see some sort of pattern emerge that is more or less typical of what you eat the majority of the time.

As a fervent foodie, the thing I wonder about is what potential gastronomic delights I am missing out on because I can’t disengage my brain at the table.

In his book The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten talks about how he had to get over his most persistent food dislikes in order to do his job as a food critic for The New York Times. He is my hero for that, because it shows that it is possible to set aside what you personally think of a food in order to evaluate it objectively.

With this goal in mind, I found that in time, I was able to taste goat cheese and appreciate its exquisite silky texture and the musky gaminess it adds to a dish. And once I was able to get past the texture, I REALLY was able to taste and experience the brisk, cold freshness of the ocean in an oyster. Mind you, I still don’t go out of my way to eat these things, but in the event I am presented with them I am less likely to bolt for the door.

As I have said in previous posts, I think that challenging and maturing your palate is a great way to become a better eater. It helps you focus on your food, eat slower and frequently eat less as a result. If you are confronting a food fear, my advice is to go to a really good restaurant where the chef knows how to correctly treat the item. So if I had the luxury, I would have Eric Ripert prepare oysters for me. However, since I don’t have that luxury, I will seek out fresh tiny briny Olympia oysters when I visit Seattle.

However, having said all this, I must confess that even the best chef in Asia would not be enough to get me to happily gnaw on a spider!

I’m a busy person, so I don’t always have as much time as I’d like to cook. To help fill in the gaps, I always have some preprepared items on hand to help me pull together quick meals on busy weekday evenings.  

However, there are some things that no matter how hard I try, I cannot find a premade substitute that will float my boat. When that happens, I just carve out the time to make the item in question myself. One of those items that I’m just weirdly picky about?

Croutons.

Yep, you read me right…. croutons…dried out bread nuggets.

I have yet to find a bagged crouton that doesn’t shatter into a million dry powdery pieces leaving me with a mouthful of sawdust nuanced with “natural and artificial flavors.”

Mouthwatering eh?? 

So…I make my own deeply tanned, oil crisped beauties to use on soups or salads, or on their own as a party snack.

My basic recipe is open to lots of variation….. so have fun and add flavors you like. Essentially it involves tossing 1-2 day old bread with flavor infused oil and dressing with cheese, herbs or whatever else makes you smile.

When selecting bread, be sure to get a good quality loaf of “artisan style” thick crusty bread with an open chewy interior. Avoid fine textured or soft loaves or you’ll end up with sawdust mouth.

Though croutons typically start as a way to salvage day old bread, I sometimes use fresh (shhhhhh) and dry it out in the oven.

Lightly grease a cookie sheet and preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the whole loaf into cubes of desired size. I usually do 1 inch cubes or less. You should have about 4-6 cups of cubes. Place in a bowl.

In a small saucepan add 1/2 to 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil. Place over low heat until warm. Add finely chopped fresh herbs or crumbled dry ones (rosemary, thyme, marjoram and oregano work particularly well). While the oil continues to warm, the flavors of the herbs will release and permeate the oil (it’s kind of like steeping tea). I generally let the oil infuse for at least 30 minutes.

I like garlic in my croutons and if I want to add it this is where I do it. Early on, I tried various ways of getting garlic in and it just never ended well. So I found adding 1-2 coarsely chopped cloves to the warmed olive oil works pretty well. But word of caution here, overcooked or burnt garlic is pretty gnarly stuff, so make sure your oil is not so hot that the garlic browns.

So to sum up: Don’t ever burn garlic….ever….it’s bad….really.

Once the oil is adequately infused, drizzle it over the bread cubes and toss until bread is mildly to moderately coated. Place bread cubes on the greased cookie sheet in a single layer. I like to finish with a grating of fresh cheese. It bakes onto the croutons, but also onto the pan which makes the flavor deeper and more pronounced. In itself, this can add something great to the final dish.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes, pull pan out of the oven and flip croutons over with a spatula for even browning. (The pan side of the croutons is where the browning occurs.) You can continue baking until the croutons are totally crisp (another 20 minutes) or take them out when the outside is crisp but the inside is still tender and chewy (another 10 minutes or so).

I like to use the tender chewy ones in salads to get a sort of Panzanella effect.

Keep in an airtight container. For best flavor, plan to use them up within a week…..if they last that long.

Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly.                                          

MFK Fisher

So how much time do you spend eating dinner?

A recent dinner at my house went something like this:

Participants: Myself, my husband, our 4 year old son and assorted cats milling about.

Husband: focused on his plate and making a range of mmmmm sounds.

Son: Chattering something about Dora the Explorer and a tennis racket….(not real sure where he’s going with this).

Me: “So how was everyone’s day?”

Husband: “OK”

Son: “I don’t like this”

Me: “Of course you like it, you ate this last week.”

Son: (Making faces at his veggie frittata, stabbing at it suspiciously) “I don’t like it. It has red things in it.”

And….

A scant 15 minutes later everyone is gone from the dining room except me, staring over the picked over remains of a once proud table full of food.

As a family, we’ve decided to make it a priority to eat at least one meal per day together. The point is to talk and get to know each other better, develop stronger bonds and encourage healthy eating habits.  While the snippet of conversation above shows we did indeed have a family dinner together, I’m not so sure our mission has been accomplished.

As a result, I’ve spent some time lately pondering the difference between eating and dining.

Eating is simply putting food in your mouth, chewing and swallowing. The type of food is of little concern. Eating may be done alone, in groups, in a car or just about anywhere else you can shove something in your mouth and begin the digestive process. Very simply, eating is necessary for survival. Period.

Dining, on the other hand, is what MFK Fisher is referring to in the quote above. Dining suggests more of an event in which eating is elevated from a necessary biological process to an entire pleasurable experience that involves many, if not all the senses. The nourishment of dining goes well beyond the food that’s on the table. It comes from the connection, communication and understanding of those sharing in the meal. I also think that when you dine, the food becomes more important because you are more aware of what you are eating……..and, yes, even humble meatloaf can be the star of the show if you set the stage correctly.

Here are some strategies we have tried with great success. Our mealtimes are much more fulfilling now and quite honestly….fun!!!

Step One- Preparation:

1. Pick a day of the week to plan your weekly menu as a family. Post the menu in the kitchen, this way, everyone has ownership and interest in the process…which enhances conversation. Use old family recipes or pull out the cookbooks or check out the internet for ideas. I like Simply Recipes for easy family friendly ideas.
2. If possible, have the entire family participate in preparing and cleaning up after the meal. This helps increase family socialization time while preventing the burden of work from landing on one (Mom) person. It also makes clean up go faster (yay!!)

Step Two- Set the Stage:

1. If the TV is on, turn it off, some low neutral music (Smooth Jazz, Light Classical) is ok.
2. Ban cell phones and other electrical devices from the table.
3. Turn off the ringer to your telephone (you can turn it back on later!)
4. Try dimming the lights a bit and setting out some candles, it doesn’t take much time and it helps the meal feel more like an event.

Step Three- Dine!

1. If dinner conversation beyond “How was your day?” doesn’t come easy, here are some resources: 

• We have had good luck with the Family Time Fun Beginner Dinner Games because they encourage interaction. Check them out at www.ftfgames.com. I find my son is not so anxious to bolt from the table if we pull out the “Dinner Card” game.
• For older kids, I like  The Book of Questions By Gregory Stock, PhD. It invites lingering thought and discussion at the table, and allows you to get a better feel for how your family members think. There are also kids versions in this genre including KidChat: 222 Creative Questions to Spark Conversations by Bret Nicholaus.
• A blog posts from What’s Cooking and Liz on Food with some really great suggestions.
• Because we have a little one, sometimes we just invent silly games such as one person starting by saying a word such as “boat” and then we go around and everyone has to come up with a word that rhymes. (moat, goat, vote….). Use your imagination and don’t be afraid to be goofy.

One of the things I’ve found myself saying to my son over his 4 years when I’ve tried to get him to eat something is. “You should try it because I made it with extra Mommy love.” Sappy? Maybe, but I do mean it. I love to cook but I also love feeding and nourishing those I love. Dining is an extension of that intimate familial love and caring.

Slow down….stop….talk…..dine……and love.

I love roasting vegetables, there is really no better way in my opinion to coax full bodied and well developed flavor out of even the most humble veggies than to roast them. If you happen to be in the Sacramento area on October 24th, consider taking my class at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. Click on this link here for more information.

For those of you who will be nowhere near Sacramento on that date, here is the basic technique:

1. Select veggies of choice, some that are non fussy and work well include beets, carrots, parsnip, winter squashes, carrots, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes and new potatoes.

Roasted red and golden beets: A bowlful of edible jewels

2. Removing the peels of some veggies such as carrots, parsnips and potatoes is entirely up to you as they are edible. Others such as the winter squashes, beets and garlic should be removed after roasting. When roasting garlic, be sure to to slice off the upper 1/4 of the bulb BEFORE roasting so that it’s easier to remove the roasted garlic pulp by squeezing the base of the head. If you try cutting after roasting, you’ll end up with a big mess. (ahhh….personal experience speaking here)

3. Though it’s not necessary, I like to foil wrap beets and garlic prior to roasting. Simply, trim the vegetable as needed, foil wrap tightly and place in the oven using the time and temperatures listed below. You may drizzle with a bit of olive oil prior to wrapping if you like the added flavor.

Trimmed and seasoned beets ready for roasting.

4. When roasting other veggies, make sure pieces are cut roughly the same size. Place in a roasting pan and toss with some olive oil to coat all the pieces lightly. Sprinkle with kosher or sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I’m also partial to sprinkling with some dried thyme as I like the added savory element it adds. Be sure to select a roasting pan large enough that the vegetables can be arranged in a single layer. This helps ensure they all get evenly roasted. Roast at 400 degrees for about an hour or until the pieces are fork tender (stick your fork in, the vegetables should give a slight resistance, but you should not have to struggle to get the fork in.) The pieces should also be nicely browned on the surface.

5. The resulting vegetables can be eaten on their own or used in soups, casseroles and sandwiches. I like to use roasted onions as an accompaniment to roasted meats such as chicken or beef. Roasted garlic spread on good European style bread is so good I sometimes think I could live on that alone for the rest of my days.

Roasted Red Potatoes

4 medium red potatoes, scrubbed and cut into 1 inch pieces

2 medium yellow onions, quartered

1-2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra as needed.

2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried rosemary

2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan

2 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped

1 tsp kosher salt  

1 tsp freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Place all ingredients into a bowl and toss together until everything is coated in oil. It’s ok if the onion sections separate.

3. Spread potatoes and onions out evenly onto a lightly greased baking sheet and roast for 40-45 minutes or until browned and tender. Halfway through roasting, use a spatula to turn potato pieces over for even browning.

4. Remove potatoes from oven and place in serving dish. Sprinkle with grated cheese, fresh herbs, a drizzle of olive oil and additional salt and pepper as needed. Toss gently and serve immediately alongside eggs or roasted meats or vegetables.