Lunch from the Garden

Sink full of freshness: spinach, lettuce, chard, peas, strawberries.

The best part of "edible landscaping" is doing the munching. There is nothing like picking your lunch! Truly, I have a garden to entice my kids to try new things....and it works, if you're patient. Besides, if something doesn't taste good, spit it on the ground! Mulch!

"Leaves and carrots," she calls it, with homemade ranch dressing.

Mine is sauteed with garlic, butter, and olive oil. Tastes like spring!

Get Your Greens In!

For Christmas, I received a copy of "What Chefs Feed Their Kids" and immediately found a fun food game that our family loves. One of the chefs played a game with her children called "open your mouth and close your eyes and I will give you a big surprise!"  My kids love playing this game and have tried lots of new foods because it's so fun. I begin by closing my eyes and letting one of them give me a bite and I try to guess what they gave me; then it's my turn. It's most fun when there are a mix of new/familiar foods on the table, or where foods can be arranged to make tasty bites (like tacos or stir fry).

The recipe I'll share here is adapted from the Greens Puree in the book. I suppose this would be a fine baby food, if you are into making your own (I was not -- we just fed bites from what we had for dinner). It's also suggested as a nice addition to soups or sauces. I had other plans for it: smoothies! 

Green smoothies hit the spot!

I love to add greens to smoothies, but I also like my smoothies really smooth, not grainy or lumpy. Since I have still not fulfilled my Vitamix lust (those things are pricey!), I have not been able to add kale or other "toughish" greens to my smoothies, just spinach occasionally.

The recipe calls for a mix of kale, collard greens, basil and spinach with 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil, same amount of water, and 1 tsp salt. Steam greens on low heat for 15-20 minutes (till things are soft and wilted), then add herbs till wilted. Puree in blender; thin with water, stock, etc. 

Steamed Greens, ready to puree

I had a lot of kale and a tiny bit of spinach. We had a very warm February down South and that was not terribly helpful for the spinach in the area. I also didn't have basil yet, but I did have parsely and lemon thyme, so I used that. My bright green puree went straight into the freezer!

Greens Ice Cubes for smoothies

This is a great base for smoothies! We have added it to all kinds, but if you mix the green with berries or other red/blue colors, the final smoothie is tasty, but a very unappetizing brownish hue. For "green smoothies" we add peaches, banana, pineapple and yogurt or water. I've found if I save fruit in the freezer and use that instead of ice cubes, then I can thin the smoothies with water instead of juice and not worry about watering down the flavor.

Have you missed me?

Some people who read this blog who know me in "real life" and ask about it. Some people who read this blog know me only through some online message boards, etc. Some people who read this blog just stumbled upon it somehow.

So my my next post is for those who have found and enjoy this for whatever reason. What should my next post be about? I am opening voting, but feel free to add any requests, based on a conversation we've had recently or a previous post where I've mentioned following up or getting back to something. Post a comment with your vote or suggestion and my next entry will be on the topic that gets the most responses.

1. Greens puree/greens smoothie & review of my wonderful Christmas-present-from-my-kickass-mother-in-law cookbook, What Chefs Feed Their Kids

2. Asian-esque meal planning for busy weeknights using leftovers creatively (kid-friendly dining, vegetarian meal night options)

3. Artisan bread: make beautiful, bakery-quality homemade bread for dinner in an hour or less (no kneading!)

I look forward to all responses! Thanks for reading.

This Tennessee gal loves her Volunteers (plants that is...)

Go Big Orange! Scarlet Nantes - beautiful and delicious

Lettuces: Bunte Forellenschluss (my favorite), Winter Density and Grandpa Admire's.

I love peas in the pod.

Sunflower and the bean stalk, inspired by The Three Sisters.
Now how will I ever pick the beans?

Again, I have squash in the flowerbeds. (Did you know that was my inaugural post on this blog?) All of these are volunteer though; they just came up on their own. Beautiful, isn't it? That large broccoli plant is gone now, replaced with marigolds, moss roses and sweet alyssum (also volunteer). I'm amazed at what comes back each year and also at how perfectly one crop fades into the next. As the squashes sputter out in a few months, the moss roses and alyssum will explode into mounds of color that last into fall. I can pick up other flowers here and there on sale to fill in any bare spots. 

I say these are "squash," because that's what I planted in that area last year, but this one is looking much more melon-like to me. With volunteers, you are thankful for whatever you get because it's more than you expected. Not unlike my alma mater's football team, now that I think of it....

Bag o' Bacon

Frozen bacon roll, ready for easy dicing.

A little bacon goes a long way. One piece, diced up and sautéed with garlic and onion adds a smoky saltiness to your tomato soup. With garlic, ginger and a bit of soy, it makes bok choy fabulous. Key here being "one piece." Bacon is best in moderation and it's certainly not sold that way.

My sister-in-law mentioned freezing bacon and I thought it was a great idea. I pictured myself freezing already-cooked slices, ready for crumbling into a salad or adding to pizza, pasta, greens, etc. If you're going to fry bacon, you might as well do it all at once, right? Besides, I do save bacon grease in a jar to make cornbread or to add to oil on the rare occasions I fry something.

The problem with frying a whole pound of bacon in our house is that it never makes it to the freezer. Inevitably pieces get snagged right away by the whole family; part goes to the the dinner; the remaining amount is usually deemed "too small to freeze" and used for breakfast burritos and BLTs the next day. This rather defeats the moderation theme, doesn't it?

After bringing up this dilemma with my sister-in-law, she recommended freezing it raw. Yes, it does seem like this would have occurred to me on my own, but it did not. I just rolled each piece like you see above and put them on a cookie sheet in the freezer overnight. The next day, the already-frozen rolls went into a plastic bag to be used 1-2 at a time. 

Unexpected bonus? it is really easy to dice or chop the frozen roll. This also means less hands-on time overall and, most importantly, makes it easy to only take out a single piece instead of trying futilely to resist the savory delight of hot, crispy bacon. 

Full-on American Food

When I was a kid, I heard someone explain how a hot dog was the perfect illustration of a quintessentially American food. You've got a sausage from Vienna, bread from the Midwest and condiments from across the globe. I liked the idea of food illustrating our melting pot, but really can't we offer up something better than a hot dog? If you say McDonalds I am now plugging my ears and running away screaming. I find it sad that most of the rest of the world thinks golden arches and Coca-Cola when they think of "American Food."

What is Real American Food? It's basically "peasant food." Real American Food is simple, fresh and easy to prepare. The thing that makes Real American Food unique is the surprising blend of flavors from around the globe.  I've worked in restaurants with some truly talented chefs. I've watched amazing chefs on television. They all say the same thing: get the freshest ingredients you can and cook it simply and you'll always have amazing food. I think it finally sank in when I started cooking with Alice Waters' The Art of Simple Food.

Tonight's dinner is Real American Food: Pork Chops with russet and sweet potatoes and Swiss chard. The pork, sweet potatoes and chard are all from a local farm with Avalon Acres. The russets came from Costco. Easy, breezy, simple meal.

Pork Chops with Potatoes and Greens
Season pork as early in the day as you can, but at least 30 minutes prior to cooking. I made up a rub with sea salt, pepper, chipotle powder, garlic powder, onion powder and a bit of brown sugar. You can season it the night before or in the morning and pull out of the fridge while you prep/cook other things. It needs some time to come to room temperature to cook evenly.

Slice potatoes and season lightly with salt and pepper. Brown in about 1/2 TBSP olive oil in skillet (they will not be fully cooked). Add chopped or sliced onions and garlic if you like. Remove from pan and add a bit of vegetable oil or bacon grease (just about a scant teaspoon or so). Brown pork chops on both sides. Add a cup or so of chicken or vegetable stock and scrape up the browned bits. Add back in the potatoes, cover and lower heat. Allow to simmer for about a half hour until the pork is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. Wash and roughly chop greens and add to pot; cook until tender (mine took about 5 more minutes).

I served this with homemade bread and some brown basmati rice since my children are hit-or-miss with eating potatoes. It's not fancy, but it sure is tasty.

Consider the dandelions

So there I sat one night, sucked totally into some mindless show in TV.  I was totally drawn into this amazingly lovely shot of a girl, about to blow the white, puffy dandelion..  A Perfect Childhood Moment.  Inhale and.....

And then....
Then it ended abruptly, with her father running out (ineffectively, I might add) to try to stop her from enjoying that moment, so that his perfect, green-blade grass would not be destroyed with.....(oh hold your horses)...flowers. You can see the slo-mo "glory shot" of him yelling "noooooooooo."

Well, I was bothered by the whole concept of that commercial.

My kids love dandelions. They love to pick them.  They love to blow them. And they love to eat them (well, that varies, but they do eat them more than I would imagine).  If you had a country gramma, you must know that you can eat them in a pinch.  I've never done it, but I like knowing that I can.  They are incredibly nutritious. So there!  But mostly, they like to pick them and/or blow them.  I've always loved this myself.  The dandelion has adapted itself really beautifully for things we like to do.

Dandelions are one of the first flowers to sprout in the spring and they are so very welcome.  They are heralds of growth. They pop out with the daffodils and provide In-Your-Face evidence that Our Earth keeps on keeping on.  Then, when you're distracted by the other bulbs or flowering trees other things you might want to plant, they can grow big and green and cover the ground if there's nothing else there.  But really those dandelions would rather to just chill out and let the clover have its day -- to hide down there and meditate under the fragrant flowers and soft leaves (and the honeybees)...and the occasional lawn mower..  The word "weed" is very subjective, truly.  It just means "a plant that grows well in a place I don't like it."

So think about letting the dandelions grow.