Hunger

I spend a great deal of my professional life talking about psychological trauma and childhood maltreatment and the impact this has on brain development, learning and mental health.  I often quote the statistic that, in the United States, by the time a young person turns 18, 1 out of 6 boys and 1 out of 4 girls will have been the recipient of unwanted sexual contact.  That’s sobering.

What is also sobering and what is another kind of developmental trauma is hunger.  I grew up thinking that famines happened in faraway places like Africa, not really aware that people go hungry right here in the U.S.  In fact, the sobering statistic is 1 out of 5 children (that’s 16 million) struggle with hunger.  I’ll say it again, one out of five.  Whoa.

Moreover, millions of Americans who participate in the nation’s food stamp program are limited to an average of $3 to $4 per person each day to supplement their food budget.  Additionally, the government subsidizes products like soy beans, wheat and corn instead of fresh produce so the most affordable food is often the unhealthiest.

Let’s break that down a bit more, shall we?  I have a family of four.  That would mean, at the most, we’d have $16 a day for our food budget.  A day.  All three meals.  Let me tell you, $16 wouldn’t even buy us enough fresh vegetables to last one meal, let alone three.

Can you imagine?

This is not ok.  I’ve written before about my anger over how expensive fresh food is.  Now, there’s another bit of media bringing it to the forefront.  Click below.

A Place at the Table.

What can we do?  Well, for starters, we can contact our politicians.  Click here to take 30 seconds to send a letter to congress about this issue.  See the movie.  Talk about it with friends.  Volunteer at your local food bank. Give to your local food pantry.  Educate yourself.

If you’re looking for a budget friendly recipe, here you go.  It’s from the January/February 2013 issue of Vegetarian Times.  I’ve made it quite often and it’s delicious.  I never really thought before about how expensive or inexpensive it might be but when I was at the grocery store the other day, I took a few shots to try to figure it out.

Spaghetti with Bok Choy, Poached Egg and Romano Cheese

Ingredients

1 Tablespoon Olive Oil

8 cups of thinly sliced bok choy (about 1 lb) (I’ve used baby bok choy as well)

1 red bell pepper, thinly sliced

pinch of red pepper flakes

5 cloves of garlic, minced (5 teaspoons)

1 cup vegetable or chicken broth

4 large eggs

1/2 lb whole wheat spaghetti

2 oz grated romano cheese

Directions

First, go shopping for your ingredients.  As I was doing this, I realized just how little $16 is when you’re looking at fresh food. 

Almost $13 down and that’s not including the rest of the ingredients!  On the other hand, These would make multiple meals.  Still, not really enough money, that $16.

So, once you’ve shopped, gather all your ingredients, boil some water so you can cook your pasta and get to chopping.  Oh, and cook your pasta.

Chop your bok choy and pepper.  Mince your garlic.  In a large saute pan, heat the oil and then add the bok choy, pepper and pepper flakes.  Saute over medium heat for about 8 minutes or until the veggies look golden.

Add the garlic and then the broth.  Let it simmer over medium-low heat for about 3 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Poach your eggs.  I have a special pan for this.  I inherited it from my grandmother.

Eggs go in the top part, water goes underneath and the eggs gently poach.

Drain your pasta and add it into the skillet with the veggies.

Toss it together and then dish it out into bowls.  Should make about four servings.

Place the poached egg on top.

Sprinkle with cheese and dig in….

Kiss Me, I’m (1/4) Irish!

Living in Boston means that St Patrick’s Day is a true holiday. There’s the parade in Southie, the green beer everywhere and the long standing tradition of corned beef and cabbage. I’ve heard, though I am not sure it is true, that there are more celebrating the day here than in Ireland itself.

In my younger, before children days, I’d go my favorite Irish bar, conveniently located a block from where I lived at the time. The Hippo and I spent many an afternoon there, talking with Mike, the older Irish bartender, who would tell us we were too pretty to put up with crappy guys or that we were too cute to stay single for long. St. Patrick’s day there was like any other day but more crowded and more green.

Now that I have two kids, three jobs, two pets and assorted other responsibilities, my bar days are pretty much over.  I am ok with this, as I never really took to green beer anyway.  I’ll be spending the day of the parade at the ballet (talk about a 180!).  Tonight, however, I celebrated through food, making corned beef and my own version of colcannon.  I share it with you in case you, too, have moved past your green beer days.

Corned Beef and Colcannon, 1/4 Irish style

Corned Beef

1 first cut brisket (I use the Wellshire Farms one) with the seasoning packet

Enough water to cover

1/2 cup brown (or dijon but brown is better) mustard

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup water

Directions:

Throw the corned beef along with the seasoning into a slow cooker. Cover with hot water so that the meat is submerged by about an inch.  Cook on high for 8 hours.  Take it out and put it on a sheet or broiler pan.  Let it start to cool a bit and heat your oven to 350.  In a small saucepan, combine the mustard, water and sugar.  Cook over medium high heat for about five minutes, so that it starts to reduce a bit.

Brush some over the top of your meat and put the meat in the oven.  Cook for about half an hour, basting every five to ten minutes.  Take the meat out and let it rest for about five to ten minutes before slicing.

Colcannon (sort of)

Ingredients

4 potatoes, peeled and sliced into even pieces

1 stick of butter (yes, I said a stick)

2-3 tablespoons sour cream or plain greek yogurt

1/2 onion, chopped

3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped

several handfuls of fresh spinach, washed and dried

Directions

Place potatoes into a saucepan and cover with water.  Add a generous amount of salt.  Boil over high heat until potatoes are soft.  Drain and add the potatoes back to the pot.  Mash them.

In a skillet over medium heat, melt the butter.  Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft, taking care not to let the garlic burn.  Add the spinach and mix until it wilts.  Dump the whole thing in with the potatoes and mix well with a large spoon.  You may need to add a bit of milk or more butter or sour cream/greek yogurt to get the texture you like.

We also made brownies, at the toddler’s request.  They were great- fudgy and sweet and just the right amount of crunch on the top. We used this recipe.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Don’t forget to wear green and be safe!!

 

My Newest Love

Whew, it’s March already.  That means that by the end of the month we will have celebrated my oldest’s 3rd birthday and we’ll have had Passover a few days after that party.  February blew by so quickly, I can’t really get my head around March.

In February, we went out to the Pacific Northwest to visit my cousin and her boys.  It was fantastic, but short.  The best part, of course, was seeing them and the second best part was the food (naturally).  We ate well, as we always do, feasting on salmon and greens.  They also introduced me to a restaurant that, if it were in my town, I would be visiting every single night.  Really.  I am considering a trip back, just to eat there.

I give you Din Tai Fung Dumpling House.

  For those of you in the know, I need not say more.

For those of you (like me) who don’t/didn’t know, let me tell you.  We went at lunchtime and there was a wait.  Which was fine, because we had entertainment.  When we walked in, we were greeted by this little dumpling guy.

Then, we were able to watch the chefs make the dumplings.

Just as the kids started to get restless, we were shown to our table.  At which there were four, kid size settings.

Drinks were quickly brought, also in kid sized cups, with the friendly dumpling guy on them.

I left the ordering up to my cousin and her husband and I wasn’t disappointed.  It works somewhat like a sushi or dim sum set up– you check off what you want and as it is delivered to your table, the servers stamp or check off what’s been brought.

We started with a cucumber that my cousin’s husband (effectively my brother in law) remembered from his childhood as something his grandmother made.  It was fresh, crunchy, sweet and salty.

Next came hot and sour soup.

Green beans.

And dumplings.  Oh, the dumplings.  Shrimp, chicken, pork…..  soup dumplings, steamed dumplings…  I was in heaven.

There was fried rice and noodles, too.  I wasn’t fast enough to get a photo of the noodles.

Oh, people, I can’t tell you how good this was.  It is beyond words.  Even the baby loved it.  Like, really loved it.

We’re all going to be dreaming about this place until we can get back there.  I’m going to be in search for a similar place here in my geographical area…  I’ll keep you posted.

Chag Semach!

Chag Semach!  It’s Purim or what I think of as the Jewish Halloween.  When my husband asked me what the story was, I will confess that I had to go look it up.  I could only remember a few key words… Queen Esther, Hayman, gallows, the annihilation of the Jews (again) and a three pointed hat.  Click here   for a better explanation.

The upshot of it is that we spent Saturday making Hamantaschen, the traditional Purim cookie.  I used the recipe posted on one of my favorite Jewish websites, Kveller.com.  No photos as I made it but I did get one of the finished product.  We made strawberry, apricot and (untraditional) chocolate.  I wanted to make the poppy (mohn) filling but it was too complicated.  Maybe next year.

 

Copy Constant

One of my favorite people in the world writes one of my favorite food blogs in the world, The Hungry Hippo.  Her resolution for 2013 is to make more of the recipes from the cookbooks she owns.  These are cookbooks I love and I will sit for hours and browse them when I visit her (I can do this because she’s the one playing with my kids while I do).  She posted this recipe a few weeks ago (from a Parisian cookbook, no less!) and I could not wait to try it.

Broccoli and Cauliflower Gratin

Ingredients:
2 cups of broccoli
2 cups of cauliflower
2 Tablespoons butter
2 Tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of flour
1 1/3 cups milk (I used whole)
2 egg yolks
2/3 cup cheese (according to the Hippo, the recipe called for gruyere, she used 1/3 C cheddar, 1/3 C parm and I used what I had in my fridge.  I think it was jack and cheddar, maybe?) plus some extra for sprinkling
about 1/4 cup bread crumbs (I used panko)
salt and pepper
sprinkle of nutmeg (I skipped this)

Directions

Wash and chop your veggies into same size florets.

Put some water on to boil and once it has come to a rolling boil, add the florets.  Cook them for 1-2 minutes.  Take them out immediately- you don’t want them to get mushy, just slightly less crisp.  Set them aside and work on the sauce.  Melt the butter in a saucepan.  When it has melted, add the flour and whisk together, letting it cook for a minute to get the raw flour taste out.  Slowly whisk in the milk and let it thicken. Take your pan off the heat and add the egg yolks one at a time, whisking while you do.  Try to avoid making scrambled eggs in your sauce.  Add the cheese, again, whisking while you do so that it will melt evenly.  Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg (if using).

I used ham in mine, even though the Hippo did not.  I cubed a ham steak.

Then I added it to a hot frying pan to brown and crisp it over medium high heat.

Butter a casserole dish and add your veggies.

Sprinkle the ham around to fill in the spaces.

Pour your sauce over this.

Mix your breadcrumbs with some of the cheese and sprinkle on top.

Bake at 400 until the top is golden brown and it’s heated through and bubbly, about 30 minutes.

This could be a side dish but with the added meat, it can also be a lovely main dish.  The egg yolks add a silkiness to the sauce that isn’t there in a basic white sauce.

It was good for a cold night.

First Birthday Cake

So, we were going to have a big first birthday party for our son but then Nemo (if anyone can offer an explanation as to why they named this storm after a loveable clownfish, I’d be up for hearing it) happened.  It was a lot of snow with a lot of clean-up and not a lot of places to put the snow. We ended up not having the party but G. and I made the cake for M. anyway.  It’s important to have a first birthday cake, complete with party hats, even if the party goers are your mother, father and sister.

I used the recipe I wrote about here, which is the same one I used for my daughter’s first birthday.  It’s a great cake and the story involves my grandmother, a cookbook author and several email exchanges.  I even got the frosting right this time!

(See the two little finger marks over there on the right side?  That was G., “checking” the frosting for me.)
Now, that’s how you eat cake.

 

Go To Foods

As you can see, it’s harder for me to post these days.  Work is so busy and both kids have hit strange sleeping phases which pretty much eat up my whole evenings.  This too shall pass.

The direct result of this is that I end up cooking the same old standbys for dinner.  I’m not so creative in my cooking when I have exactly an hour from when I set foot in the house to when my kids will begin to melt-down without eating.  Especially when that hour is also time for keeping the almostthisclosetowalking baby off the stairs, out of the dog’s dishes and off of his sister’s hair (he has a hair fetish.  I have no idea why.  If he can pull hair he is the happiest child alive and he will go to great lengths (ha!) to reach any available hair).

My most recent go-to food is from a blog called Brave Tart.  It is written by a CIA trained pastry chef, Stella Parks, who lives in Kentucky and has her own restaurant.  Her desserts have won awards and she has a number of posts about re-creating those processed desserts of our childhoods- fruit roll ups, keebler fudge strips and nutter butters, to name a few.  She also has this dish which is so, so good.  I’ve made it about ten times in the last two months.  It’s quick, easy, healthy and delicious.  I could not recommended it more.

Oyakodon (as written by Brave Tart)

Ingredients

1 large onion

2 Tablespoons of oil (Brave Tart says to use a neutral flavored oil, I like sesame or peanut)

2 Tablespoons of sugar

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 1/2 cups chicken stock or broth (you could use vegetable or beef)

4 eggs

2-4 cups rice, cooked and hot (I use Jasmine)

Optional:

1 cup shredded (cooked) chicken or meat (this time around, I had none)

1-2 cups of vegetables (I used sugar snap peas and spinach because that’s what I had)

Directions

Peel and slice your onion.  Heat the oil on medium heat and let the onion get slightly golden- should take about 15 minutes.

Wash and slice up your vegetables.

Once your onions are golden (not browned), add your vegetables.  I didn’t add the spinach right away because it would have gotten too wilt-y.

Once your vegetables are tender, add the sugar, soy sauce, and broth.  You can add the meat here as well if you’re using it.

Let this cook over medium heat for a few minutes.  I added my spinach at this point.

Let this cook until the spinach is wilty.

In a separate bowl, crack your eggs and whisk them together.  Pour them into your pan along the side and let them sit for about a  minute.  You can then start to scramble them into the broth.

Meanwhile, cook your rice.  I do it in my rice cooker.  I’ve also used day-old rice as well, heated up, and that’s been fine too.  Put some into a bowl.

With a slotted spoon, fish out the meat and vegetables and spoon them over the rice.  Pour the broth down the side of the bowl (in order to maintain the most clumpiness as possible).

It may not be that pretty but oh, it is just so delicious.  I may even make it tonight.

Starting Off Healthy

New year, new resolutions.  What are yours?

Over the years I’ve learned to pare down my long list of “This year I’ll….” because with as many jobs, kids and responsibilities I have, that’s just setting myself up for failure.  Instead, I will often resolve to slow down, appreciate what I have (and stop wanting things I don’t), laugh more, love more and be more patient with everyone and everything around me.

This year, I’m adding losing weight (an oldie but goodie).  After having two kids in three years, my body is definitely not what it once was, nor should it be.  However, I’m getting back into working out (maybe next year’s resolution will be to complete another sprint triathlon) and would like to make sure my diet is in line with that.  Less cookies and cakes, more veggies and fresh fruit.  No big drastic changes, just enough to feel more healthy.

A good start is this soup.  It was made for me by my athletic, powerful, strong, loving and amazingly healthy friend when I was visiting her last weekend.  It’s super easy and absolutely delicious.  I’ll give you the guidelines here and share with you her secret spice which makes a big difference, I promise.

Whatever your resolutions, I hope that this new year brings you peace, joy, laughter, love and, as always, delicious food.

Healthy Soup

Ingredients

4-8 cups chicken broth or stock (easy tip:  it’s ok to used boxed broth if you don’t have any homemade.  No guilt here.)

2 carrots, peeled and chopped (easy tip:  use frozen carrots mixed with peas)

1/2 c-1 c peas (easy tip: use frozen)

1-2 c chopped cooked chicken (easy tip: use a store cooked chicken)

1 c green beans, washed and trimmed (i.e. ends cut off) and cut into bite size pieces

1/2-1 onion

pinch or two of rosemary

pinch or two of fennel seeds

1-2 cups cooked pasta (cook and store it separately from the soup or it will get extremely mushy)

1-2 handfuls fresh washed spinach leaves (I prefer baby spinach)

Any other veggie you have hanging around that you need to use up.

Directions:

Wash, peel and chop all your veggies.  Heat the broth and add the onions, carrots, chicken, and spices.  Let this simmer for about 15 minutes and then add the peas and green beans.  Cook until the green beans are tender.

To serve, place the raw spinach leaves in a bowl. Add desire amount of pasta.  Ladle soup over it all and sit down to a big steaming bowl of healthy.  Mmmmm.

[To counteract the healthy, we made sure to eat bad for you food on New Year's Eve, which culminated in a stop at JP Licks.  So worth it.]

Comfort

Over the last week or so I’ve been craving comfort food.  For me, that means things like mashed potatoes, stews, soups and sugar.  Lots of sugar.  More on that later.

To be comforting, I made the Braised Short Ribs from Dinner: A Love Story, my new favorite cookbook and website.  They were delicious and may make it into the comfort food rotation.I also did my holiday baking.  That fulfilled the sugar needs.  This year rather than making for individuals, I made for groups.  That is, I brought cookies of all kinds to the guidance department meeting, biscuits and scones to the elementary team meeting and cookies and bars to the front office.  I tried Ina Garten’s Chocolate Chunk Blondies which were so. good.

I also made Walnut Snowball Cookies.  Which were also full of buttery, sugary goodness.

All in all, it was a week of comfort food.  I am now on vacation so will try to get a few more posts up- a tip on pomegranates and a yeast-free pizza dough.

Until then, I hope you are enjoying your holiday season.

Puddle of Cookie

This year for Thanksgiving we had a bit of shake-up, the end result of which was that we a) had Chinese take-out, which was delightful and b) I made a few desserts.  One of which was a gluten-free cookie, taken from The Hippo’s Blog.  I will tell you that I think her cookies were probably better since I had to make a few substitutions due to a lack of proper ingredients (I’m just saying, maybe someone had a few drinks the night before Thanksgiving so that she couldn’t drive to the store and mistakenly assumed that it would be open on Thanksgiving day.  It wasn’t.).

Nonetheless, they were good.  I totally recommend making them if you can.  They’re both chewy and crispy at the same time.  I made mine slightly too large so that they didn’t cook through the whole way and some of the centers got left on the silpat.  So make yours smaller.

Puddle Cookie (mostly the Hippo’s recipe, found here)

Ingredients

3 cups confectioners sugar

2/3 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)

2 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and chopped (I actually used about 2 cups of slivered almonds and 1/2 a cup of pecans)

1/2 cup egg whites (about three large eggs)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon instant coffee or espresso powder

Directions

Preheat your oven to 350.  Line a sheet pan with silpat or parchment paper.  Don’t skip this part, trust me.

Toast the nuts either in the oven or in a pan.  Pay attention because if you can smell them, they’re about to burn.  I toasted mine in the oven at 350 for about 5 or 6 minutes.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl.  It seems like a lot of sugar (it is) but it will sort of melt down as you add the liquid of the egg whites.

Mix well and add the egg whites.  It will get really sticky but mix well anyway.

Drop by small spoonfuls (less than a tablespoon) onto the parchment or silpat.  Place about six to a sheet- they will spread a bit when baking.  Bake for about ten minutes.  You should remove them when they look dry and crackly.  If you take them out too early, they will be wet in the middle and won’t come off the cookie sheet in a whole cookie. Let them cool on the sheet for a few minutes before you move them to a rack to cool.