Good Real Food

For the recipe archive - I haven’t made these yet, but saw the recipe and knew that I wanted to save it somewhere I’d remember.  Thanks to Toast for the recipe.

Also, Lindy, of the Toast blog is having a make your own take out/what do you take for lunch and what do you take it in challenge of sorts - check it out and submit your entries.  If you’re a writer here, please share it here along with a note to Lindy.

Anyway, here’s the sesame noodle recipe.  This looks so good, I may have to dump one of the planned meals of the week in favor of these noodles:
1 1b chinese egg noodles, best if fresh noodles
2 Tbsps sesame oil
3 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsps rice vinegar
2 Tbsps sesame paste-Chinese or other toasted sesame kind
1 Tbsp smooth commercial style peanut butter
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 tspa minced garlic
2 tsps chili garlic paste
matchsticks of peeled cucumber
chopped roasted peanuts.

Cook noodles in boiling water until just south of chewy. Drain. Whisk together everything but cukes and peanuts. Pour sauce over noodles and toss very thoroughly. Let cool. Garnish with cukes and peanuts- and a few scallions wouldn’t hurt.
Adapted from NYTimes.

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some of you may have noticed here and there in my recipes and writing a predisposition to organic and local foods.  Organic and local are two things that to me make food “good” and “real.”

And as it turns out, eating local and organic may just save your life.

In news that is woefully under-reported, the pet food that was adulterated with melamine - the food that killed all those dogs and cats that you may have read about - remember that story?  Well, there’s a darn good chance that the contaminated food made its way into the human food system through animal feed.

According to a Reuters report, on April 24th, 2007, the FDA said:

humans may have consumed food containing a chemical linked to a recall of pet foods and livestock feed

Scary stuff, right?  The Horsesass.org blog makes the point well in a post titled “Melamine: it tastes just like chicken“:

It is time for the Food and Drug Administration and the media covering it to stop pretending that our nation’s massive pet food recall only concerns our pets, for the more we learn about common food industry practices, the breadth and scope of melamine contamination, and the lack of adequate regulatory safeguards, the more it becomes apparent that our entire food supply isn’t nearly as safe as the average consumer assumes it to be.

All of which just adds more impetus to make sure that we know where our food is coming from.  Eating locally is a great way to do that because you can form relationships with your food suppliers and, at least in the case of meat, ask things like “what do you feed your chickes/pigs/cattle?”  or “where do you get your animal feed from?”  And if you don’t like the answers you receive, you can go elsewhere or ask your local meat supplier to consider using feed that is likely to be uncontaminated.

Or, you could just go vegetarian or vegan and rule out a lot of the problem altogether.

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I must admit that D came up with this on the fly using what we had in the house to create a quick weeknight dinner for himself. I made it myself later that night and it was yummy. It made me want to check out other recipes using wilted greens as I am a fan of wilted spinach salads as well. I found these others to be interesting.

This meal is simple. Cook the store-bought frozen dumplings following the directions on the package. Throw in a handfull of mixed greens and some frozen peas along with a sprinkle of sesame oil and soy sauce. Turn off the heat, toss together and eat!

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I know what I’m making this weekend:

Taking Back a Childhood Favorite - New York Times
OF all the reasons to visit my friends with small children, grilled cheese sandwiches may be the best.

Sure, I treasure the toddler rituals of dumping everything out of Aunty Melissa’s purse, watching out the window for passing trucks “Look Elliot Garbage truck”, and playing dress up and hide-and-go-seek. But just as much, I love lunchtime, when almost every mother I know asks, “Who wants grilled cheese?” The loudest voice in the yes chorus is unfailingly mine.

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I rolled into town at 6:00 am after sitting on a plane from SFO all night.

Red-eye flights are. . . interesting.  And exhausting.  Still, it was good to be home and back in my kitchen.

The in-laws were coming over for dinner and we were all craving something vaguely healthy.  I in particular was craving a massive dose of leafy green veggies, so kale was at the top of my list.

The dish I came up with surprised us all - its got a wonderful mix of spicy, sweet and earthy flavors, and if you’re not averse to eating veggies that have been cooked with meat, you can maintain an illusion of being vaguely vegetarian too!

Here are the details:

Continue Reading »

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I found this recipe in a vegan cookbook I picked up during my days working for a book distributor. It is put out by the wonderful Canadian publishing house Arsenal Pulp Press who publish quite a few vegan cookbooks. This recipe is from Vive le Vegan by Dreena Burton, also the author of Everyday Vegan. In addition to the great sweets recipes, she has a whole section in the back on feeding your vegan baby and toddler, complete with a food introduction schedule with foods for each stage of your child’s development.

What you need:

• 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp unrefined sugar
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1/3 cup + 1-2 tbsp natural organic peanut butter
• 1/2 cup pure (and local !) maple syrup
• 1/4 tsp blackstrap molasses
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp canola oil

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a bowl, sift togther flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Add the sugar and the salt and stir until well combined. In a separate bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients and stir until well combined. Add the wet mixture to the dry and stir together. Place large spoonfuls of the batter on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and press with the tines of a fork to flatten gently. Bake for 11 minutes, until just golden. Remove to a plate to cool.

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I had been thinking about trying Arif’s recipe for home made pita for about a week but wanted to make some sides to serve with them to make it a meal. On my way home from work one day I stopped at the new Midtown Global Market in Minneapolis and picked up a few things at the Holy Land Grocery and Deli.

Here I found bulgar wheat to make tabouli, some dry garbanzo beans, a huge block of feta, and an intriguing smelling spice mix they had there ready made. The pitas were as promised…easy and sooo good. They went very well both for dinner and for lunch the next day with the sides I put together inspired by my trip to the market. (P.S. I used the upside down side of a cookie sheet to cook them and it worked just fine.)

Tabouli Salad

What you need:

• 1 cup dry bulgar wheat
• 11/2 cups boiling water
• 11/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 cup or the juice of one large lemon
• 2 crushed fresh garlic cloves
• 1 bunch fresh chopped parsley
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• fresh black pepper
• 1 yellow tomato
• 1/2 chopped red bell pepper
• 1/2 cubed avacado

1. Combine bulgar, boiling water, salt and garlic in a bowl. Cover and let stand 15-20 minutes.

2. Add all the other ingredients and mix thouroughly. You can eat it at once, but it gets better after a few hours in the fridge.

Garbanzo Stew

What you need:

• 2 tbsp of the Holy Land Spice mix crushed (or a self made combo of bay leaf, garlic, ginger, cardamon, cumin, tumric, salt and pepper)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 cups cooked garbanzo beans (or one can)
• 4 whole ripe red tomatoes (or one can)

1. Cook the spices in the olive oil until they smell good(2-3 minutes), add the chopped onion and stir on low heat for 10 minutes.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes and cover, cooking on medium-low heat for ten minutes.

3. Add garbanzo beans, cover again and cook for an additional 15-20 minutes.

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