sprinklefingers

School lunch

Sat, 26 May 2012 10:39:31 -0400

As I’ve mentioned, I’m developing the school lunch program for my kid’s elementary school. At first I thought waking up an hour earlier and going to sleep an hour later (in order to carve time out to work on the project) wouldn’t be a big deal. I’m writing to you now, clutching a cup of strong coffee, to tell you I was wrong. So wrong.

The first thing to slip was the waking up an hour earlier. As it is, I get up at about 4:45am each day. What kind of crazy person am I to think that I could go to bed at 11pm, wake up at 3:45am, squeeze in some exercise and THEN have something sensible (and school food related) come out of my brain? I can’t even think of the words to describe how crazy that is. Other than the word crazy, of course.

But all of this extra work has been really great for me creatively. Having more to do forces me use my time more efficiently. While writing the school food plan I also designed the bakery’s summer menu, developed five new flavors of ice cream (one involves smoked sugar and I love it so much I fear a near narcotic-like addiction coming on,) my French has improved by leaps and bounds AND I’ve had time to read Jonah Lehrer’s Imagine. So, I’m feeling pretty good.

But, really, what’s kept me going is how excited I am to get the school food plan up and running. Right now the detailed plan is with the school board waiting for approval. I’ve asked for a few things that I know will be difficult.

For example, recess before lunch. A great deal of research has been done to support the notion that kids who have had recess before lunch are more focused and deliberate when it comes to eating. This sounds great - until you factor in the fact that scheduling a school day isn’t a piece of cake and flipping recess for lunch for all students could be nearly impossible. But even with those odds I still asked for it. Fingers crossed.

Read up on recess before lunch for yourself here. And here. And here.

Yes, I’ll keep you posted on this school food adventure. Not to worry…

In my spare time I write school food policies. #almostdone...

Fri, 25 May 2012 10:15:51 -0400

In my spare time I write school food policies. #almostdone #bestschoolfood (Taken with instagram)

Like, no duh.

Thu, 17 May 2012 12:40:00 -0400

click on story to go to full article…

Reading list

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:46:10 -0400

Fantastic/terrific/amazing/great piece discussing Thomas Keller and Andoni Luis Aduriz’s take on the whole ‘local’ movement.

——-

“What restaurant isn’t farm to table?” Mr. Keller asked. “I think about quality, not geography.”

——-

Quick pickled beets

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:39:28 -0400

I’m in a beet green phase. For a while I was in a spinach phase, then a collard phase. My kale phase is everlasting, of course, but spinach and collards have taken a back seat to beet greens.

It used to be that I’d buy a bunch of beets and then stress out about what to do with the greens. They’d always end up cleaned, chopped and then frozen - I’d pull them out when making soups and mix them in.

But now I almost always want beet greens but don’t have a plan for the actual beets. The greens would be cut into ribbons and then cooked in a pan with a bit of olive oil, garlic and lemon and then piled on a plate and topped with a poached farm egg (you should try this!) I also like beet greens raw - chopped and tossed with a bit of olive oil and lemon juice - sprinkled with salt - then left to sit and wilt a bit. Zesty, tangy and a little bit sour (do this then mix the greens with garbanzo beans - a perfect lunch!) I also really like beet greens on a turkey burger - I cook the greens in a pan with a bit of canola oil and red pepper flakes then I pile them on the burger (note: no one else in my house will eat them like this, I am a lone supporter of the turkey and beet greens burger. Sad.)

With an overabundance of beets around - and no time to truly pickle and preserve them - I’ve been making quick pickled beets. Once quickly pickled I store them in the fridge. We put them on salads, eat them as a side, put them on sandwiches. A tasty solution to my beet green problem/addiction.

Quick Pickled Beets
Note: A mandoline makes slicing the beets into thin rounds very easy. You could use a multi-sided box grater or a sharp knife to do the job, but a mandoline is really the perfect tool.

You need:

one bunch of beets (golden or red) with greens attached (see above for ideas on what to do with the (so delicious) greens.)
3/4 cup unseasoned rice wine vinegar
3 T dark brown sugar
1/2 t salt

Make it:

Slice the beets so thin that you can nearly see through them - using a mandoline will make this easier.
Combine the vinegar, brown sugar and salt.
Layer the beet slices in a glass bowl and then pour the liquid over top.
Press down on the beets to make sure they are completely submerged in the vinegar.
Cover the bowl and allow to sit for around 30 minutes.
Eat some now or refrigerate until you want them/need them/must have them.

Here’s a jar of my quick pickled beets:

The Science of Imitation Milk

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:24:29 -0400

This is kind of fun. And a little funny.

Don’t get me wrong, I pour soy milk on my cereal and enjoy an occasional soy steamer, but usually I drink the stuff that comes from cows.

The Got Milk? people seem to be aiming to wipe out claims that alternative milks (or, imitation milks as they call them) are better for you by highlighting their incredibly long lists of ingredients (when compared to milk that comes from a cow.)

So, they’ve set up an ‘experiment’ where you can put together all of the ingredients that make up an imitation milk. Oh, and one of the actors is turned into a bunny.

Click below to check it out for yourself:

Cherries & pistachios

Mon, 14 May 2012 13:19:46 -0400

It’s Sunday.
I’m stealing a few moments before the house wakes up - sitting on the deck with

NEVERMIND.

I started this post yesterday. As soon as I even mentioned that I was taking a moment to sit down, the kid woke up and was calling my name. Fitting that it was Mother’s Day, I guess.

I had a lovely day that involved a bit of cooking, a glorious picnic and about 10 minutes of doing nothing. That 10 minutes is more than I normally get in an entire week (unless you count driving to work as an act of relaxation,) so it felt really quite lovely.

On top of all that, I received this week a delivery of ice cream from (in my opinion) the best ice cream shoppe on the planet (shout-out to my homeland of OHIO!), Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. After a dinner of kale pesto, shitake mushroom and aged provolone pizza I had a scoop of White House Cherry. It’s a white chocolate, cherry and pistachio ice cream that punched me in the gut with it’s deliciousness. And it also made me miss my dad.

He was an extremely particular guy. He also had a short temper. In addition to this, he was almost never not working. But, of course, these are not the things I hold dear when I think of him. Instead, I hold on to the tastes and flavors he adored. The music that drove him. The rituals that sustained him. And the strength he gave me.

Cherries, pistachios and white chocolate were some of his favorite flavors. The guy was seriously nuts for cherries. There is no question where I get my tendencies to over-do it when I’ve honed in on a taste I love (someday, if you’re ~~lucky~~ unlucky, I’ll tell you about a trip to Pike Place Market and the three pounds of Rainier cherries I purchased and subsequently ate on the drive home. Not pretty.)

This ice cream from Jeni’s reached out and grabbed me because it tasted so good, yes. But more than that, it brought my dad front and center - it nearly smacked me in the face with memories of him. And not just any memories, but the ones that are the happiest.

All that from a little scoop of ice cream.

Magic.

Projects & experiments

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:29:02 -0400

My just-turned-five-year-old is in preschool three days a week for just a few hours each day. Of course, this limited time at “school” doesn’t stop us from being inundated with take-home projects, sewing detail, classroom obligations and more. Don’t get me wrong - I generally love getting involved - I mean, it’s a complete crack-up to see preschool kids in action…it’s just that I don’t necessarily think asking them to prepare a science project to present to their classmates is very fair.

First of all, I love my kid to pieces, but he can’t read. He also can’t work at the kitchen counter without a stool or even google something himself. He can’t use the stove unattended, he sometimes can’t even zip up his own pants. Hell, he sometimes pees all over the bathroom floor when using the toilet. Yet he’s going to present a science project to his school friends all by himself. This I gotta see.

Of course at first mention of ‘science project’ he envisioned beakers and flasks and bunsen burners and goggles and lab coats (he loves anything that requires a special outfit.) It was tough to break it to him that we would need to tone it down a bit. From there he started asking questions about creating a volcano. I got out of that one by explaining that one of the requirements (!!!) of the project was that he had to be able to teach his classmates how to do it - and who wants a volcano exploding over and over and over again (he said he wouldn’t mind, but then I reminded him I wouldn’t be there to clean anything up and he quickly saw me as extremely smart and very correct. Good boy.)

So, after going through a list of potential projects (one including lighting a candle and then putting it out with a candle snuffer) we finally settled on a water glass xylophone. A line of glasses each filled with different volumes of water. He can pour water. He can explain how differing amounts of water make a different sound. He can play a tune for his classmates and then teach them how to do the same. Sure, it’s a lot more like a music lesson than a science lesson…but he is, after all, just five.

I found this blog post at the Guardian UK’s site this morning: a dad, much more ambitious than I, takes different types of mass produced chocolate bars and attempts to make them better. What a project! (Please do not tell my kid - it took a lot of convincing to get him to agree to the water glass xylophone!)

whatsupstairs: Is it safe to say that this trend is...

Wed, 09 May 2012 23:04:30 -0400

whatsupstairs:

Is it safe to say that this trend is troubling?

Hurts my heart. Thanks for posting, whatsupstairs!

Artisan this & artisan that.

Wed, 02 May 2012 18:16:26 -0400

Too good to keep to myself:

[Click to go to the article.]

Bittman on School Breakfast

Wed, 02 May 2012 18:09:51 -0400

A must read!
From Mark Bittman’s New York Times blog…

[click on the text to visit the post online.]

Of the two edges of the sword of America’s malnutrition — hunger and obesity — the latter is by far the more prevalent and deadly. In New York City perhaps 2 percent of children have “very low food security,” which might mean vitamin deficiencies, a day without food, a loss of weight, a month of being hungry[2]. Meanwhile, 40 percent of New York’s public school students are overweight or obese, and 2,000 New Yorkers die each year from obesity or overweight-related conditions. All of those deaths are preventable.

No one should belittle even a little hunger, but this why-do-we-even-have-to-talk-about-it comparison of it and obesity is germane because the city’s Health Department recently suspended expansion of the Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) program, which serves free breakfast in the classrooms of 381 of 1,750 public schools. The program is ostensibly meant to ensure that hungry kids start the day with something to eat.

But the school system already offers every kid, all 1.1 million of them, regardless of income, the opportunity to have free breakfast in the school cafeteria. BIC simply puts that breakfast on every kid’s desk.

The Health Department reined in BIC after finding that roughly 20 percent of all kids might be eating two breakfasts: one before arriving at school and another at their desks, adding on average about 90 unneeded calories to their daily intake. Linda Gibbs, deputy mayor for Health and Human Services, explained that the city wants to make “sure that that no child goes hungry and that every child has access to a healthy breakfast,” but at the same time “wants to be cautious that our good intentions don’t inadvertently exacerbate the obesity issue,” noting the 40 percent figure cited above.

Kids & diabetes.

Tue, 01 May 2012 15:18:00 -0400

From yesterday’s New York Times:

As obesity rates in children have climbed, so has the incidence of Type 2 diabetes, and a new study adds another worry: the disease progresses more rapidly in children than in adults and is harder to treat…

…Type 2 is thought to be brought on by obesity and inactivity in people who have a genetic predisposition to develop the disease when they gain weight. And they may also have an inborn tendency to put on weight. The pancreas still makes insulin, though not enough, and the body does not use insulin properly — a condition called insulin resistance. High blood pressure and cholesterol often come with the disease. Initial treatments include dietary changes, exercise and oral medicines, but many people eventually need insulin…

…poorly controlled diabetes significantly increases the risk of heart disease, eye problems, nerve damage, amputations and kidney failure. The longer a person has the disease, the greater the risk. So in theory, people who develop diabetes as children may suffer its complications much earlier in life than previous generations who became diabetic as adults.

Deep breath.

That’s awful news. Just awful. Here’s to feeding kids right. Right?

Brit take on an American classic

Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:31:00 -0400

And today wraps up our week in Hawaii. After a brief play in the ocean this morning we’ll be boarding a plane bound for Oregon. And tomorrow I get to go to work!

I’m so excited.

You see, it’s been a week since I’ve scaled ingredients, mixed a dough or chopped chocolate. I miss it. So much. Sure, vacation is nice. But there’s only so much “relaxing” I can take. I’m like a toddler who needs a definite routine in order to thrive - vacations being void of routine - aren’t exactly my style. My husband swears this is one of my biggest flaws. I swear it’s one of my special talents. But we can agree to disagree.

Anyways, I was thrilled to see in the Guardian this morning a post about chocolate chip cookies. It made me miss my pastry station a bit less - and got me even more excited to be headed into work tomorrow.

Dear Felicity Cloake breaks down the ingredients for perfect (read: American) chocolate chip cookies. Everything from types of sugar to hardness of flour is examined. It’s the perfect read if you’ve ever wondered why chocolate chippers come out flat and crispy while others are puffed and cakey.

Enjoy!

[click on the image to go to the story.]

School lunch

Sun, 29 Apr 2012 12:53:00 -0400

My (hilarious, loving, amazing, quirky, faux French-speaking) kid will be entering kindergarten in the fall. In a stroke of luck (or an act of God, depending upon your point of view,) he lotteried in to a brand new (!) French immersion public charter school here in Portland.

I told you about it before - and also mentioned that I’d be helping to formulate the school food program. And now, a few weeks later, I’m heading up the entire school food committee. Whoa.

I don’t usually enter in to anything half-assed, and this school food thing is no exception. So I’ve turned to my library of books concerning feeding children and I’m feeling quite inspired.

The most recent book I’ve read on the subject is French Kids Eat Everything by Karen Le Billion. While it doesn’t exactly apply to formulating a school food program for an American school, it did make a few points that have really stuck with me. The first? French kids don’t eat between meals. Think of the mountains of junk food this eliminates: “granola” bars filled with tablespoons of sugar, goldfish crackers, yogurt in a tube, processed cheese in a plastic tray.

The second point: at French schools the children are only offered water to drink. In fact, vending machines are completely, flat-out banned at all French schools.

The third point (and this has become a mantra for me): Le Billion suggests saying the following phrase to your kids, you don’t have to like it, but you do have to taste it. This has worked wonders for me. With this simple (and somewhat magical) phrase, I’ve got my kid eating bowls of broccoli and piles of lettuce. He tries a bite knowing it’s just a taste - then he realizes he likes it. It literally works like a charm.

French Kids Eat Everything basically explains that the idea that you have to feed kids kid food is completely false. Agreed.

And now I’m reading Lunch Wars - a not-so-light hearted look at school food. After reading the first chapter which covered GMO’s and food additives I thought I might cry my eyes out. I avoid any processed food containing ingredients I don’t recognize as real food, so I’ve never really looked at lists of ingredient names and exactly what they are doing to our kids. Reading up on it really opened my eyes and the information gained scares the you-know-what out of me.

The best piece of information I’ve gained so far - especially where my own food shopping is involved - is how to read PLU labels on produce. I had NO IDEA that you can tell if something has been genetically modified by it’s PLU number. Take a look:

Organic produce has a 5 digit PLU number that begins with the number 9.
Conventional produce has a 4 digit PLU number that begins with the number 4.
Genetically modified (GMO) produce has a 5 digit PLU number that begins with the number 8.

I find this information so useful that I took a snapshot of it on my cell phone and saved it to my home screen. Now while shopping, if I need a refresher, I can pull up the information in an instant.

I know I’ve only scratched the surface of school food - but I’m happy to have you readers along for the journey. And if anyone out there has something they’d like to add to the conversation, I’d be happy to hear it! Got something to say about school food?

From the essay ‘Rented-House Cookery’ in...

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:31:00 -0400

From the essay ‘Rented-House Cookery’ in Colwin’s More Home Cooking:

There is something liberating about cooking in a rented house. Suddenly your daily props are gone, and you are in unfamiliar territory. Terrifying as this sometimes is, it is always good for you. Cooking in the summer is like nothing else, and cooking in the summer in a rented house is rather like taking off your winter underwear and putting on a flimsy pinafore. You feel light and strange, and interesting things occur to you.

Family time

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:11:00 -0400

My (extremely trusty) psychologist always tells me that the longest a mixed group of people can last when, say, vacationing in the same house, is 72 hours. Right at the 72 hour mark someone is sure to break. He prescribes long, solitary walks to keep this dreaded 72 hour curse at bay. Or, in my case, an hour-long run followed by 40 minutes of paddleboarding.

I’ve been doing a lot of running this week, and I hate running.

Just a day or so ago I posted about cooking for family while on vacation, and I’m still hoping my in laws never figure out how to find my blog. (If you know them, please don’t explain it. Thank you.) And the following story is too good to keep in, so here’s hoping they continue to think that computers and the internet are just a passing fad.

When we arrived in Hawaii I made a menu and a plan for a week of eating. I cruised the beach towns (in a sweet rented minivan, mind you) looking for produce. I pinned said menu to the fridge so that everyone could see what would be for dinner each night of our stay. And aside from the (literally) 45 comments concerning how much food we had in the fridge and the (again, literally) 56 comments about the drudgery of cooking, the public menu thing worked out well.

Until last night.

The menu very clearly stated:
Grilled tofu
Whole wheat noodles with peanut sauce
Ronnie’s orange broccoli
Oahu oranges & melon
Local milk chocolate squares

It was early afternoon when my father in law grabbed the keys to the minivan and announced he had to go in to town for something. As he drove away it dawned on me how many times I saw him standing in front of the fridge that morning staring at the menu.

He returned not too long after with a steak and a bag of frozen french fries.

Now, I’d be lying if I said that this didn’t bother me. It bothered me a whole hell of a lot for about 11 minutes. But then I let it go. While I’d eat grilled tofu and broccoli any day of the week in any amount you’d feed it to me, I know some people don’t feel the same. Especially if you are in your mid-sixties, enjoy Larry McMurtry novels, and were raised by a family of elk hunters in Bend, Oregon.

So, I continued with my plan to grill tofu and enjoy it happily with a heap of broccoli.

I prepared the broccoli using a stir fry recipe from my friend Ronnie Fein. (She posted it on her blog this week.) Only, being in a vacation house we don’t really have a frying pan large enough for a big batch of stir fry, so I ended up roasting the broccoli until tender and then tossing it with Ronnie’s orange/garlic/ginger sauce. But more on that later…

When dinner time rolled around and we were all seated at the table on the lanai - the smell of grilled steak in the air - everyone but my father in law had piles of tofu, peanutty noodles and broccoli on their plates - including his 5 year old grandson. He looked at his pile of frozen fries and said, “I can’t believe I have these on my plate. Would you mind passing the noodles? And I guess I’d better try that broccoli.”

He took one bite of the broccoli and explained that he had never had it prepared any other way but boiled and that this version of broccoli was a revelation. And then he asked for seconds.

A small victory, but a victory for sure.

—-

Ronnie’s Beach House Broccoli

Follow Ronnie’s recipe only make the following adjustments:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Prepare the broccoli and toss it in a bit of canola oil and salt on a sheet tray. Roast for just a few minutes until bright green and crunchy. Transfer to a mixing bowl.

Heat a bit of canola oil in a small frying pan and add the green onion, garlic, ginger, chili pepper and orange peel. Sweat until tender then add the orange juice and let reduce. Once the sauce has reduced, remove it from the heat and let it cool slightly then toss with the broccoli. Finish with the sesame oil.

I served the broccoli cold because we’re in a warm climate, but it would be equally as delicious served hot.

—-

In case you’re curious, we have a Mexican feast on the menu for tonight. Mushroom tacos. Fingers crossed everyone will eat them!

Full speed ahead: I’ve been officially charged with...

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 12:14:00 -0400

Full speed ahead: I’ve been officially charged with heading up the school food program. Huge (but completely thrilling) undertaking.

Hawaii Food-0

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 21:56:00 -0400

Aloha from the tropical isle of Oahu.

We are on a week-long family vacation. A Christmas gift from my in-laws. All of us (including said in-laws) crammed into a traditional Hawaiian bungalow on a stretch of beach called Lanikai. Google it. No, wait. I’ll do it for you.

Yes, things could be worse. I know.

The thing I hate about vacation (aside from the fact that I’m paler than pale and can only spend time in the sun in 4 minute increments) is that you can’t take your kitchen with you. Sure, lots of folks are excited to get away - to do less laundry and cook fewer meals…but not me. Not cooking actually makes me itchy. The thought of eating every meal out for a week makes my insides feel funny (in more ways than one.) Cooking isn’t what I have to do - it’s what I want to do.

Which is why I’m thankful for this sweet little bungalow and it’s 1950’s kitchen. It’s not much (and the knives will barely cut a slice of sandwich bread,) but it’s a place to cook and that makes me happy.

Now, neither my mother in law or my father in law or my husband understand this. None of the three enjoy cooking. But let me tell you something - for having no interest in cooking the three of them sure are obsessed with food. It’s almost all I’ve heard about since we’ve been here. They walk into the kitchen and open the fridge and say, “Sure is a lot of food in here!” or “My god we’d better start eating!” Or (better yet and for the 15th time) “I’m just sorry you have to do the cooking.” Or (even better, especially since I’ve said multiple times that I want to cook and that I’m not simply saying that,) “Oh, gosh, Jami. You’re in the kitchen cooking again. I’m sorry.” And yesterday when I came home from the market I heard this: “Wow. You sure bought a lot of food!” And that’s when I lost it.

I’ll admit I’m a tad dehydrated. I know spending a lot of time in the sun makes me a little irritable. But still, it surprised even me when I started in on my poor father in law. The words came spewing out of my mouth before I could stop myself. Of course now it’s all a blur, but I know I yelled a bunch of stuff about the amount of food it takes to cook meals for five people for a week and how they might be used to packaged and frozen everything but that’s not how I eat and if I’m in charge of the kitchen they need to let me be in charge and stop f&*king commenting on whether or not I had to buy olive oil at the f&*king market! For the love of you-know-who!

Okay, there. Now I feel better.

Anyways, I’m on vacation in Hawaii and I’m doing the cooking. End of story. Or, kind of…

…There’s a Whole Foods in the next town over. I went there yesterday. I was excited to discover all sorts of local produce - sniff the pineapples and grab bunches and bunches of apple bananas. I was smacked in the (sunburned) face with disappointment. Damn you Whole Foods for making your brands so cheap so that the local stuff seems so much more expensive. Russet potatoes grown in Oregon and packaged under the 365 Whole Foods brand were two dollars a pound less expensive than the russets that were Oahu grown. Coffee grown in Hawaii was THIRTEEN DOLLARS more expensive per pound than the 365 brand. Locally made granola overflowing with mango and ginger was (this is crazy) EIGHT DOLLARS more per pound than the Whole Foods stuff.

Of course I know that food is expensive in Hawaii. I’m not an idiot. But my Whole Foods experience really threw me for a loop. So much so that I (thank you Mr. Jobs) pulled out my iphone and searched for the local farmer’s markets. Found one. Went there. Bought Oahu potatoes and crispy little cucumbers. Molokai apple bananas. Kona coffee. Maui pineapples. And once again all was right with my world.

The only thing better than being happy in the kitchen cooking a delicious meal is being happy in the kitchen cooking a delicious meal while sipping a concoction I have been calling a Cool Breezer (I blame this name squarely on the bright sunshine. It really throws me for a loop.)

Here’s how you can make two Cool Breezers of your own:

You need:

1 juicy lime
6 chunks fresh Maui pineapple
half of a thin-skinned very firm cucumber
sparkling mineral water

Make the breezer:

Cut the lime in half and squeeze one half of the juice into one tall glass and the other half of the juice into another tall glass.
Add three pineapple chunks to one glass and the remaining three to the other glass.
Slice the cucumber paper thin and add half the slices to one glass and the remaining slices to the other glass.
Grab a spoon and crush the pineapple and the cucumber into the lime juice.
Add ice and then fill the glass with the sparkling mineral water.
Enjoy your cool breezer while waiting for the charcoal to be ready on the Weber and while waiting for your Oahu russet potato oven fries to finish roasting.

Oahu Russet Potato Oven Fries
Serves 4

In my experience Oahu russets are rather small little guys. To feed four over-eaters and one kid I needed 10 potatoes.

You need:

10 small russet potatoes
kosher salt
canola oil

Make the oven fries:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Cut the potatoes into thick wedges. With the smaller russets one potato yielded 4 wedges, so you may end up with more.
Place the wedges on a rimmed baking sheet and drizzle 4 tablespoons of canola oil over top then salt liberally.
Using your hands, mix the wedges to coat with the oil and salt.
Slide the baking sheet into the oven and enjoy a few sips of your Cool Breezer.
After 25 minutes check on your potatoes. Use a heat-proof spatula to move them around on the tray a bit. Close the oven door and reduce the heat to 375 and bake for about 10 more minutes or until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork. Sip your Cool Breezer.
Turn the broiler on and let the potatoes sit under the broiler for mere seconds until their skin is nice and crispy and they’ve started to really brown in a few spots. Broiling will make you hot, so now’d be a good time to finish your Cool Breezer.

And, finally, I have to give a shout out to my new favorite fruit: the apple banana. I don’t think one has truly lived until they have tasted this extraordinary fruit that looks like a banana but tastes like a strawberry-apple-banana smoothie. No fooling. Apple bananas, I love you and will miss you so much next week in my morning granola.

Hawaii in pictures:

First, the Cool Breezer.

Next, Oahu Oven Fries.

My beloved apple bananas:

And, finally, the view I have out the dining room window (of course we don’t eat indoors! That’s what the lanai is for!)

Reading List

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 10:30:55 -0400

Happy Saturday!
In a rare turn of events it’s supposed to be sunny here in good ol’ PDX today. I for one will believe it when I see it because my ‘hood is currently shrouded in thick fog. Hey, Portland! It’s spring! Let the sun shine already!

Here’s a reading list for you. I loved every word…

Hilarious yet filling account of artisanal foods coming out of Brooklyn (or is that Long Island City?)

An inspiring account of the #3 chef in the (whole wide) world. Yes, El Bulli is involved.

My mothering instincts hate this (flu season is NOT over!), my (original) Willy Wonka obsessed self L O V E S this: lickable wallpaper!

And, finally, a piece highlighting Joan (the amazing) of Joan’s on 3rd in LA. My favorite quote: She can tell by looking who among the staff has arranged the cupcakes, cookies, muffins and scones that sit on tiered cake stands in the bakery case. A lady truly after my own heart.

Toasty Oats

Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:21:20 -0400

I have a granola addiction.

I love to make it. I love to eat it. At work we’re currently serving up three delicious types: peanut butter & jelly, blueberry & orange and nutty maple. I love all three of them equally and would eat them for every meal of the day if I could.

Problem is, they aren’t (probably) the best thing to eat for every meal of the day. They contain butter. And loads of nuts. Sure there’s fruit involved, but I’m no fool. I know all about granola and it’s ability to pretend to be hippie diet food while really being packed with more fat and calories than an Oregon Sea Salted Caramel Brownie*. Okay, maybe not. But you get the picture.

The other thing I’m addicted to is yogurt. Not long ago I told you about my honey problem. Well, people, yogurt is my new honey. Even if I have six very fine tubs of yogurt at home, I’ll still buy more if I go to the market. It’s like I’m building a bomb shelter and I plan to sustain my family on plain greek-style yogurt until the coast is clear. Or until we run out of yogurt - something that, by the looks of my fridge, would take a while.

Of course (you knew this was coming) I especially love granola + yogurt = together (forever.) As breakfast. As a snack. As lunch. As another snack. Thank god I’m not one of those dairy intolerant (or do they call it sensitive these days?) ~~weirdos~~ people!

The (other) problem is, I’m trying to watch what I eat (ugh) - since my decision to stop drinking so much damn half & half my body underwent a miraculous change and I magically shed twenty pounds. This is excellent news not only because I lost twenty pounds but also because I hate shopping for pants. With that chunk of weight missing from my body I can fit into all my old pants again. And none of them are elastic waisted or made of lycra!

In order to steer clear of pants shopping, I’m doing my best to keep that extra twenty off. This means only one cookie a day instead of six. It means eating less brioche. And it also means limiting my granola intake. Boo hoo.

To get my fix I’ve been adding a sprinkle of toasty oats to my beloved yogurt each morning. While not perfect, and no way near as delicious, it’s a decent substitute. And aligns perfectly with my plan to avoid pants shopping.

By the way, isn’t pants the funniest word? Cracks me up.

Toasted Oats
Makes 1/3 cup

You need:

1/3 c thick cut rolled oats
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 t canola oil

Toast the oats:

Preheat an uncoated frying pan over medium.
In a small bowl combine the oats, cinnamon and oil until all traces of the oil disappear.
Slide the oats into the pan and cook, stirring frequently, until you can smell toasty oats and the bits are beginning to take on some color.
Let cool and use them as you’d like.

For a larger batch of toasty oats, increase the amount of oats to 2 cups. The cinnamon would bump up to 1 1/2 teaspoons and the oil would go to 1 tablespoon. Combine as described above then spread out on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake in a 300 degree oven until toasted - about 10 minutes or until the oats take on the golden hue of your choosing.

Watch that your oats don’t scorch. Speaking from experience, they can go from perfectly golden to kinda burnt very quickly.

And now! Photos!

*Yes, this is a treat on my bakery menu. Yes, the sea salt is actually from Oregon. Yes, there’s a post coming soon all about it!