Every Journey Begins with One Step – Orzo with Everything

Posted by Tricia in salad and tagged with eliminating processed foods, orzo, pine nuts, radicchio, Real Food, salad July 18, 2013

A wise woman (Jen Hatmaker), recently wrote, “We don’t think our way into a new life; we live our way into a new kind of thinking.” I read that today while getting a pedicure (yes, the planets all aligned, babies slept, toddlers napped, older children read, and the Hubs was working from home, so I grabbed my purse and made a dash for it, before anyone could “need” anything else).

Now the wise author’s reference was to a story about our hearts and where we store our treasures. Some of you may be familiar with that one – wink. But I found myself thinking about how much that saying applies to what we eat. What if we rephrased it this way – – – we don’t think our way into new eating habits; we eat our way into new thoughts about food. Make sense? It totally rings true to me.

If you had told me even 2 years ago that I would be eating flexitarian (mainly vegetarian with a little meat thrown in here and there, because who can live without bacon???), avoiding processed foods,making my own bread, and growing our own little backyard garden, I would have looked at you with that weird scrunched up mouth and one raised eyebrow look. You know, the look accompanied by “Whaaaaaaaat?” But we started, eating differently bit by bit. First the no read meat. Then the no chicken. Then the slight avoidance of processed foods. Then the major avoidance of processed foods, and so on. And here we are. I now steer the boat known as my kitchen in a totally different way because I have totally NEW THOUGHTS about food.

When I started this blog, one of the only things I knew I DIDN’T want to do was to be prescriptive. Just because something works for me and my family doesn’t mean it’s something that will work for everyone else. But I have had a lot of people ask me how they can transition to eating more real foods and eliminating the processed stuff. So here’s the short list, folks. Some simple steps that I took and that might help you too.

1) Go through the effort of cleaning out what you already have in your kitchen. Eliminate the processed stuff and give yourself a clean slate. If you go through the time, effort, and expense of getting rid of the foods you don’t want to eat, it will be that much harder to justify buying more of it.

2) Get a clear idea of what it is you DO want to eat. Real Food is food that is as close to its natural state as possible. It’s not produced in a factory or engineered in a lab. The sad truth is that 70% of the “food” available for sale at your grocery store isn’t really food at all. So in order to eat real food, you’re probably going to have to shop differently. Probably the best definition of real food that I have come across is right here.

3) Decide to shop differently. First of all, if you are going to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, you will more than likely need to shop more frequently. This way of shopping is pretty standard for most Europeans. They have bi-weekly markets (like our farmers’ markets) in most towns and villages and so stock up on fresh produce twice a week. Decide to do the same. Choose two days (Wednesday and Saturday, for example) when you will shop for fresh produce. Make a plan to have one fresh fruit and one vegetable with every meal you consume. That leads us nicely into suggestion #4.

4) Take a piece of paper and a pencil, yes, I said a piece of paper and a pencil, and make a 5 day meal plan. No don’t faint. Stick with me now. It’s not as hard as it sounds. For Monday through Friday, decide on a protein you will eat, a vegetable you will eat, and a fruit you will eat at each meal. You can also throw in whole grains if you’re feeling ambitious. Now take that paper and walk over to your refrigerator and stick it on the front.

5) Try it. If you purge (1), understand (2), plan (3), and shop (4), the only thing you have left to do is give it a try. What do you have to lose? I have found that this is totally an incremental transition. It’s not like going cold turkey overnight. You will slip back into some old habits, but hopefully you will acquire more new ones. Me, for example, I have made a lot of progress in the area of meals. On-the-go snacks? Not so much. So while I aspire to become that mom who makes her own fruit leather, for now I still throw the occasional baggie of goldfish in my purse on my way out the door. I’m a work in progress.

I bet that if you were to give these five steps a try for just one week, you could start the incremental process of eating differently. If it’s something you think you may try, I would love to hear about your experience. In the meantime, let’s talk salads . . . specifically a little orzo number that has been in my repertoire for years.

Super simple, I started by cooking up about a cup and a half of orzo (rice shaped pasta). After I had drained it, I added to it some sun dried tomatoes, kalamata olives, olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

I let that sit until it was completely cooled. Then I added in one head of chopped radicchio and a big bunch of basil.

In a dry skillet, I toasted some pine nuts.

I tossed the pine nuts, along with some freshly grated parmesan and minced garlic into the orzo.

I gave that all a good stir and called it a wrap – not that kind of wrap, silly! I like to let this one sit in the fridge for a few hours before serving because I just find that it allows the flavors to blend better.

Here’s the complete recipe for Orzo with Everything.

Oh, and if you decide to try a baby step toward eating real food, good luck to you. I would love to hear about your journey.

Homegrown Right in Our Own Backyard – Spicy Black Bean Cakes

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with backyard garden, beans, black beans, Michael Pollan, sweet potato July 12, 2013

It’s no secret that I am totally intrigued by Michael Pollan and his musings on food. Many of his complex thoughts are boiled down in the 12 Commandments for Serious Eaters. One of the things he mentions in commandment 10 is that everyone should grow at least some of their own food at some point.

When I was a kid, my parents put in a sizable garden EVERY year. Tomatoes, zucchini, green beans, corn, carrots, peas, cukes and probably a lot more stuff that I just don’t remember. I do remember exactly what my mom did throughout the summer and especially as days started getting shorter and summer drew to a close. She “put up” all the veggies. She froze the corn, beans & peas. She made her own tomato sauce, tomato paste, & ketchup. She let cucumbers sit in crocks and made the most tasty pickles. As a kid this all just slipped by me as a part of summer. Now as a grown up (on most good days, anyway), and with the current state of food and eating in our country and culture, I find this all absolutely amazing. I wish I had paid more attention to the spices that went into the crock for pickles, how the jars were sterilized, what she added to the tomatoes to make that ketchup (the ketchup that I whined incessantly about asking why we couldn’t just eat Heinz like everyone else!).

This past spring the family got bit by the gardening bug. Big Little One and Medium Little One attended a gardening workshop for kids where they learned about planting a “Three Sisters Garden” – corn, beans & squash. They came home with little seed packets (one kernel of corn, one squash seed, and one bean seed). I decided we should take a leap of faith and go for it.

Determined to not pay $100 at Home Depot for a box garden (can you say highway robbery?), I got creative. I ended up “borrowing” a little wooden crate deal from behind the local supermarket. I’m pretty sure they were done using it, so I may just borrow it indefinitely. It was the perfect size and so into the fresh new soil went the corn, beans and squash accompanied by some tomatoes, carrots, radishes, pumpkins, basil, and lettuce.

Just like that, our already cramped, postage stamp-sized SoCal backyard had a garden! The troops were amazed. I think the Hubs was too. There weren’t many gardens being tended in Paris when he was a kid growing up.

Even more amazing? The stuff actually grew! (with the exception of the lettuce whose refusal to flourish we chose to attribute to “bad seeds”)

Now I’m sure you hearty midwestern stock are just shaking your heads and chuckling about now. But for my little born and bred SoCal girls, this has been the highpoint of their summer! Especially the Medium Little One who has been out in the yard in her PJs every morning without fail, watering “her” (yes, we have territory issues) garden. She just about squealed when we ate “her” corn, tomatoes, squash and green beans all in the same meal!

So thank you, Michael Pollan, for reminding me to grow some of our own food and for stirring up memories of the gardens of my childhood.

We have now cleared two more flower beds and added to our veggie patches. Don’t worry, I’m on the straight and narrow with the borrowing thing and paid for 2 more box gardens fair and square from Tuesday Morning. In the current anticipated crop lineup: green bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, eggplant, 2 more tomato plants, & zucchini.

We enjoyed our very own own tomatoes the other night as an accompaniment to these great Spicy Black Bean Cakes.

I kicked things off by grating a sweet potato in the food processor.

In a skillet, I heated some oil and then sauteed a few scallions. I added in some cumin, some garlic and a finely diced jalapeno. I moved that little mixture to a bowl and then rinsed and drained 2 cans of black beans. I added the beans to the scallion mixture and then mashed them coarsely with a potato masher – leaving some of the beans in tact for a nice texture. I seasoned with some salt and pepper at this point.

Next, I added in the grated sweet potato, an egg, and some fresh bread crumbs.

I formed about 8 equal sized balls from my mixture and then flattened them into patties. I placed the patties on a baking sheet brushed with oil.

I broiled the patties in the oven for about 10 minutes. Then I gave them a flip and broiled another couple of minutes on the other side.

I mixed up some lime jalapeno sour cream to go with the bean cakes. Just a little bit of lime juice and some diced jalapeno mixed with the sour cream gave things the perfect amount of kick.

I roasted our home grown tomatoes with some olive oil and balsamic and served the tomatoes and bean cakes with a little green salad. Quick. Easy. Healthy. Done.

Here’s the complete recipe for Spicy Black Bean Cakes , adapted from Martha’s Great Food Fast cookbook.

9 Simple Ingredients – Curried Zucchini Soup . . . oh, and a Skillet Peach Cobbler

Posted by Tricia in soup and tagged with cobbler, curry, dessert, peach, peach cobbler, peaches, soup, zucchini, zucchini soup July 10, 2013

Just in case that last post had you reeling from ingredient and preparation overload, here’s a simple little number to balance it out. And yes, we’re sticking with the curry theme.

I’m an experimenter by nature. In the kitchen that means that I rarely do repeats. But this soup was so tasty that it will definitely be making regular appearances at the table.

On a separate note, this week was unofficially “peach week” at our house. One friend stopped by bearing a whole bag of delicious little peaches. The following morning, we awoke to another bag of peachiness left on our front doorstep by another friend. Well, when that many peaches just show up unsolicited, you really have no other option but to make cobbler. I wasn’t too happy with my first attempt – a pretty traditional recipe that got good reviews on Epicurious. Not to be defeated, or to sell the peaches short of their full potential, I tried again. This time with a Skillet Peach Cobbler. Winner, winner, cobbler dinner! The clan was unanimously very much in favor of my quest for cobbler perfection. After all, why wouldn’t they be? They got peach cobbler for dessert two nights in a row!

So first for the soup and then I’ll let you in on the cobbler.

The greatest thing about this soup is that I literally threw it together in 20 minutes. I started by chopping a whole onion.

I heated some oil and sauteed the onion, and then threw in some garlic and curry powder. I then added 3 medium zucchini and a russet potato along with 4 cups of water. I brought it all to a boil, then reduced the heat and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

I left everything just sit on the stove at this point while the Hubs was off collecting children. When everyone was accounted for and whining for dinner, I brought the soup back to a simmer and then pureed it in the blender until it was smooth. I then added in a half a cup of half and half. Done! (BTW, the original recipe I was working from had no mention of half and half. But I looked at the soup and the soup looked back at me and we just both knew some half and half was needed. BUT . . . if you are looking to cut calories, fat or dairy, just skip that step and I won’t think any less of you.)

Oh, and please don’t judge me based on the ice cubes in my rosé wine – so gauche, I know. But the Hubs brought the bottle home after collecting kids and we didn’t have time for a proper chilling.

Now on to the cobbler . . .

I’ll spare you the explanation and let you imagine it through this photo collage. I think a big part of its deliciousness came from the fact that it was a skillet cobbler. I essentially melted a half a stick of butter in the skillet before adding the batter and then scattering the peaches over that. The peach preserves, blobbed about around the fresh peaches, also gave this dessert a great flavor. And if you’re going to go through the effort of making this little number, don’t skimp on the preserves. Bite the bullet and buy the good stuff. I personally love this St. Dalfour brand pictured in the collage.

I just need to point out the pudgy 4 year old hand stirring the batter. She was my sous-chef for “Peach Cobbler Take II”. Oh and I guess I should also add this photo for your entertainment. The peach peeling was slow going given that the ratio went something like this. One half for the bowl, one half for the Wee One. Good thing we had so many peaches!

Want the complete recipes? Here they are.

Curried Zucchini Soup, adapted from Martha’s Great Food Fast cookbook

Skillet Peach Cobbler, from Epicurious

Vacation & the Elimination of Excess – Curried Couscous with Roasted Vegetables, Peach Chutney & Cilantro Yogurt

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with 7, couscous, curry, hume lake, Jen Hatmaker, roasted vegetables, vacation July 9, 2013

I’m back after a blissful week of vacation up at Hume Lake. The eating wasn’t so “real”, but seriously I don’t care. It was an entire week of no cooking and that’s a welcome change once a year.

There were, however, plenty of other real experiences. Completing the High Adventure Ropes Course (I have done it once and I sure hope my kiddos remember this moment because I have virtually no intention of ever doing it again), shooting a 3 pointer with a pinecone and playing peek-a-boo with an unsuspecting adult during the parent scavenger hunt (in other words, the kiddos came up with all the things to do/find during the hunt), playing some weird version of flag football without any flags, and off- roading in Suzuki Samurais and getting COVERED in dust – just to name a few.

This is our third year enjoying Hume Lake. It is the total vacation for us. This year we even roped friends into joining us. I think they loved it as much as we do, and may make it an annual deal as well.

I think I might have mentioned before that our vacation week fell during my “clothing fast” that I did as part of my book club which is studying Jen Hatmaker’s book, 7 – An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess. For the first time in my entire life, I packed for our 8 day vacation in . . . . drumroll, please . . . my kid’s school backpack! Unheard of in my world of meticulous forethought and uber-preparation. But hey, I was only packing 7 items of clothing (I did decide that bathing suit didn’t count, so I guess that technically means I packed 8 items). I had all the encouragers tell me how freeing it would be to not have to worry about clothes and clothing choices. Nice try, folks, but nope. This was a stressful endeavor for me. First of all, do you know how dirty a person can get in one day at Hume Lake? And second of all, I have a 4 year old and an almost 2 year old. I’m lucky if I make it past breakfast without spit, snot, food, or some other unidentified substance smeared on me. By the third time of wearing black running shorts and and turquoise t-shirt (aka, outfit number 1) I was downright gross. But I persevered and held the course. I’m still processing the stress associated with this “experiment” and may let you know later if I figure any of that whole deal out.

The one (possibly only) thing I do know from this foray into clothing minimalism was that it made packing a whole lot easier. When you are packing up a tribe of 7 for a week away, there’s just a lot of “stuff” involved. Eliminating MY stuff really lightened the load. Even though the preparation can be exhausting, this week away is always so worth it. Kind of like this little recipe for Curried Couscous with Roasted Vegetables, Peach Chutney & Cilantro Yogurt (say that 3 times fast). It’s a little heavy on the preparation time because it contains a lot of “stuff”, but the result is so worth it.

I started by knocking out the yogurt sauce. You just throw some cilantro, lime juice and coarse salt into the food processor.

You puree all of that goodness and then mix in some sour cream and plain yogurt. Phew. Step one, completed.

Veggie preparation is next. I cubed some eggplant and summer squash (you could also use zucchini). I then place each veggie on two separate baking sheets sprayed with cooking spray. Then I tossed with a little olive oil and salt and pepper. I roasted the eggplant for about 50 minutes and the squash for about 25 minutes (thus the reason for 2 separate baking sheets).

While the veggies were roasting, I charred a bell pepper over the grill and then placed in a paper bag for about 10 minutes, I then removed the skin and chopped it into bite-sized pieces.

I also prepared the couscous. In this time around, I combined regular couscous and Israeli couscous just because I had a little of the latter and wanted to finish it off. The mixture gave a nice texture variation. I sauteed a little onion, added some curry powder and then did the basic couscous prep.

I chopped up some cashews and was finished with all the prep work.

Finally, I fluffed the couscous, tossed in the roasted veggies and bell pepper, mixed in the cashews and some currants. I was a slacker and decided I just didn’t have it in me to make the peach chutney. I went with Major Grey’s Mango Chutney and served with the Cilantro Yogurt Sauce as well. A flavor explosion well worth all the steps involved in the recipe.

Here’s the complete Curried Couscous with Roasted Veggie & Cilantro Yogurt Sauce Recipe.

Vacation Bible School is NO Vacation – Black Bean Tortilla Pie

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with black bean, black bean tortilla pie, black beans, mexican dinner, tortilla, tortilla pie June 26, 2013

I am literally limping to the finish line, folks. Current score: Vacation Bible School, 3 – Me, 0! I basically did it for the Little Little One. You see, in the land of VBS, if you want your pre-schooler to attend, then you are required to volunteer. And what self respecting 4 year old is going to let her sisters traipse off to a week of fun without putting up a protest and wanting to attend also. So I caved and filled out the volunteer form.

With just a click of the mouse, off it went and I was committed. The first reply I got had me assigned to the kitchen. “Cool,” I thought, “I’ll be bagging pretzels and washing grapes. Not a bad gig.” Well, that apple cart was soon upset when I got another e-mail telling me that they would be putting me in the craft tent after all. The craft tent!

After just three days in the craft tent, let me tell you – – – it’s grueling work! Day 1 = Modge Podge. Day 2= beaded crosses Day 3= beaded crosses. And guess what I have to look forward to tomorrow . . . more beaded crosses. See days 2 – 5 work on a rotational schedule. The kids move to a different station each day, but it’s like I’m stuck in the beaded cross version of Groundhog Day. I know it sounds silly, but directing the beading of 45 crosses a morning with no chance to sit down from 8:30 – 12:30 is kicking my butt. On day 2 I was suggesting different patterns for the beading of the crosses and marveling at each child’s unique talent and abilities expressed through their positioning of the beads. Tomorrow, I think if any child even starts to diddle around with an idiotic pattern which takes 28 times longer than just slappin’ those beads on that cross, that I just take may have to personally remove the kid from the craft tent.

As I figure it, I either have a special place in heaven for having led the beading of so many crosses, or . . . this little blog post (really a result of extreme fatigue and nothing more), has just swiped that special place right out of my reach. So as my VBS enthusiasm has declined as the week has progressed, so too has the family fare at the dinner table. We kicked off Monday with a great little Almond, Lemon & Basil Crusted Salmon. Yesterday we had a favorite go-to of Black Bean Tortilla Pie. Tonight, I chucked some Trader Joe’s frozen mini tacos in the oven and then tossed paper plates around the table frisbee style. If you were lucky enough to catch a plate then you could serve yourself a taco. So I figure before we sink any further, I had better get my post for the week up. Who knows, if I wait any longer, you might get the “recipe” for how to microwave a hotdog!

So this Black Bean Tortilla Pie is a great, easy meal. The added bonus is that you probably have everything you need to make it in your pantry and fridge right now.

I started things off by sautéeing up a little onion and jalapeno pepper along with some garlic and cumin.

I rinsed and drained a couple cans of black beans, and then added those, along with a 12 oz. bottle of beer, to the skillet with the onion mixture.

I brought that mixture to a boil and then reduced the heat and let simmer until almost all of the liquid had evaporated. I stirred in a package of frozen corn and some scallions. Then I removed the skillet from the heat and seasoned with some salt and pepper.

In a spring form pan, I fit 1 – 2 whole wheat tortillas into the bottom. You may have to trim the 2nd tortilla down so that you have one even layer of tortilla covering the pan bottom. On top of that, I spooned a quarter of the bean mixture and then some cheddar cheese. I repeated this same layering another three times, and finished things off with a double dose of cheddar.

I baked the pie in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes. I unmolded the pie from the springform pan and sprinklde with more scallions for garnish. I like to serve with fresh salsa, sour cream, tortilla chips and rice.

Here is the complete recipe for Black Bean Tortilla Pie.

Stuck on Summer Simple – Watermelon, Tomato, Basil & Feta Salad

Posted by Tricia in salad and tagged with basil, feta, Recipe, salad, tomato, watermelon June 23, 2013

I’m simply stuck on simple. No other words for it.

This past weekend I was on a mission for short preparation and refreshing results. Maybe it’s because my weekend consisted of six (yes, 6) water polo games and a swim meet. Guess you could say I’m water logged.

Oh, and genius me, decided to join the book club with the gals studying Jen Hatmaker’s book, 7. Her first chapter is about food. In her actual “experiment”, she decided on only seven foods to nourish her body (and soul) for an entire month. Our book club is covering her seven areas of excess (food, clothing, media, spending, possessions, waste, & stress) at the rate of one per week. I decided that choosing seven foods for a week wouldn’t be that tough for me. Instead, I decided to GIVE UP seven things for this week. One of those things was Eating Out. Now I don’t know about you, but a 6 water polo game 1 swim meet kind of weekend screams CHIIIIIIIIIPOTLE. But no, my brilliant book club experiment had me planning and preparing meals as I was dashing out the door with towels and tents and lego bins in tow. My little brood is just lucky they didn’t end up with sunscreen in place of sour cream on this weekend’s consumables.

So amidst all the water sport chaos, I did manage to pull off a very simple salad that I think is worth sharing. I had half of a small water melon left that I needed to finish off. I cut it into bite-sized cubes and then tossed with some halved cherry tomatoes. I dressed that watermelon tomato mixture with a little dressing made out of simple olive oil and red wine vinegar. I lined a platter with chopped romaine and then mounded the tomato-watermelon mixture on top. I finished things off with feta cheese, slivered almonds, and fresh chopped basil. So easy.

Hope you all had a relaxing weekend. Next week on my 7 agenda is clothing. Fortunately, we’ll be leaving on vacation. Let’s just say that 7 articles of clothing is going to make the packing very light!

Want to check out some other watermelon salad ideas?

Watermelon, Feta and Mint Summer Salad (lemonylily.wordpress.com)
Weekend Recipe: Watermelon-Feta-Corn Salad (kcet.org)
#PositiveSpin: Watermelon (beingrecycled.com)

Summer Simplicity – Buffalo Salmon Sliders

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses and tagged with blue cheese, buffalo sauce, salmon, salmon sliders, sliders June 21, 2013

So often, less is really more. Overused, of course, but oh so true.

As we come into our 3rd week of summer vacation, I have had to stop and remind myself of “less”. We have done two weeks of biology camp, had numerous play and pool dates, have gone to the beach, etc. These were all enjoyable and enriching things. No doubt. But when I look closely at my small troop, it’s pretty undeniable that just hanging out around the house (doing less) can get some pretty big grins, let loose some pretty awesome imaginations, and can lead to amazingly incredible problem solving (result in more).

This premise is most definitely the case in cooking. I have always made the distinction between cooking and assembling. But every once in a while I stumble onto a recipe for assembling something that is just a killer taste combination. That was exactly the deal with these Buffalo Salmon Sliders. Love, love love buffalo sauce – salmon is our protein of choice – and blue cheese? Well, there are very few things, in my opinion, that aren’t made better with blue cheese. So let the assembly begin.

Just took the salmon and cut into small pieces the size of my slider buns.

Poured some buffalo sauce over the salmon. This jarred brand, Ashanti, is pretty decent – 7 ingredients and the only GMO offender is Xanthan Gum, but hey, it’s summer and I’m relaxing and contemplating simplicity. If you don’t want to go the jarred route, here’s a great recipe for homemade.

I sliced up some avocado and tore up some lettuce leaves for serving. And of course, crumbled up some blue cheese.

I tossed the buffalo coated salmon onto the grill, and cooked for about 5 minutes total. Onto the slider buns went the salmon, the lettuce, avocado, blue cheese and a drizzle more buffalo sauce. I served these up with some grated carrots, raisins and vinaigrette and some braised brussels sprouts.

So simple. So good. So summer!

The Sugar Abyss, Culture & Taste – Moroccan Tagine

Posted by Tricia in Uncategorized June 19, 2013

This past week, I was looking back over previous posts. I started asking myself whether I was still “on target” with blogging about REAL food or had I really digressed and started rambling about how much I love to cook and eat. I did a little self refresher on what I was even calling REAL food. Here’s what I came up with:

foods that are a product of nature rather than industry (no foodlike substances, if you will)
mainly fruits and veggies
whole grains
dairy ( in its pure, unprocessed, unsweetened form – read, no fru-fru yogurts or whacky cheese deals)
fish or shellfish (not that poultry and meat can’t be real, but it’s just that I’ve chosen to tend more in the vegetarian direction)

As a way of checking myself, I browsed through past recipes and decided that I would tag each REAL food recipe with this little icon, if in fact, it fit my REAL parameters.

What I found was that we do a pretty good job keeping things real around the dinner table. At dessert time, not so much. And boy, does this girl like her desserts. If I’m not making a dessert pretty regularly, I’m sure to be keeping my freezer stocked with ice cream. As I contemplated the overall food scheme in our house, it seemed really obvious that we had met the enemy and the enemy was sugar! Breakfasts are overall good for us, lunches are usually modified versions of our dinners, and dinners – well, you’ve got a blog’s-eye view into those right here. But the desserts, the “treats”, and the yum-yums are waaaaaaayyyyyyy out of line with our “real”ity. So what to do?

I started perusing some other real food blogs (a great link right here, if you’re interested) and checking out their take on sugar. I admit my inclination was to declare war on the sweet stuff, announce it to the troops here in the house, and then drill out our rules and strategy around the dinner table (for those that don’t know me personally, I’m just that kind of Mom, fortunately or unfortunately – you can make the call). I checked out the Sugar Control Detox Program. I started looking into healthy alternatives to sugar. I was on a hunt to make sense of things. But the more I explored, the more confusing things got. One site recommended agave as a sugar substitute. Then another outed the agave and claimed that it was worse than high fructose corn syrup.

Finally, in the midst of all this reeling over the question of sugar, I returned to the center of my overarching food philosophy. I am as much about the experience of food and the pleasure of eating as the nutritional value of what we consume. I believe eating is a beautiful pillar of culture. When I gather my family around our table, I am reminding them of who we are and what our traditions are. When I set the table with a table cloth (even though the last thing I need is another thing to wash amidst my mountains of laundry) and a proper place setting, and we take our time to eat, I am reminding them of the place food fills in our heritage and home. Remember – thanks to the Hubs, we are half French around here. We are half wine sippin’, cheese eatin’, paté spreadin’, chocolate lovin’ beret wearers. And historically, our French half, with all of their indulgences, don’t struggle with obesity like our American counterpart, don’t have comparable heart disease statistics, don’t sweat their cholesterol levels like us, and on and on goes the list.

So I have decided to not wage my war on sugar – not yet anyway. Of course I’ll remain vigilant about not <purchasing> products high in sugar content. But I’ll embrace our “Frenchness” and continue allegiance to taste, smell, and texture over calories, fat, and carbs. I’ll keep baking my own desserts, in moderation, and we’ll keep sipping our wine and eating our fruit. We will change the ice cream habit. It was getting out of hand anyway. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes. And as we keep trying to keep things real, I’ll share more recipes with you, like this one for Moroccan Tagine.

Here’s the entire starting line up:

As with so many of our real recipes, it’s about chopping, chopping, and more chopping. So off we went with the red pepper and zucchini. Followed by the onion, potatoes, carrots, eggplant, garlic, mushrooms, and parsley.

I sauteed up the onion and garlic a bit and then added in a cinnamon stick. I added in all the other veggies except for the mushrooms which I sauteed in a separate pan. I added some cumin and coriander to the mixture of vegetables and then sauteed a little longer.

In the food processor I made my own tomato puree. I added that along with the garbanzo beans and a little sugar (no, it wasn’t maple syrup, it wasn’t honey, it wasn’t agave, it was straight up, good old, white sugar) to the mixture.

I added the mushrooms in as well, and then covered it all and let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

I made some Israeli couscous to accompany the tagine and served it up. Pretty simple, relatively quick, and quite flavorful.

Interested in the recipe for Moroccan Tagine? You can get it here.

You may also want to check out the site Veggie Zest where I first found this wonderful recipe.

Celebrating 20 – Fig & Prosciutto Salad

Posted by Tricia in salad and tagged with 20th birthday, fig, fig salad, figs, salad June 15, 2013

The Big One turned 20 this past week and we celebrated on Friday. She invited the boyfriend and the best friend to join in the festivities. We decided to do dinner at home and, don’t faint , she chose SALMON. If you don’t know the story behind the salmon, you can get up to speed on my post A Conversion Experience. She left the cake choice up to me, and I decided to add in a little first course that I had been dying to try (more on that in a bit).

Big One and I decided on a Super Hero theme together, and we also thought it would be fun to do a video scavenger hunt. Then she was kicked out of the planning process because we all know there’s nothing sweeter in life than a good dose of surprise.

The sisters got to work on costumes for the event. I decided that we could kill many super hero stones with the purchase of one 5-pack of Justice League boys’ undies. We ended up with a Super Man, a Green Lantern, and a Flash. The Wee One even got her own Super Man outfit.

One morning over breakfast, we brainstormed the list of items for the video scavenger hunt. The sisters could barely contain themselves. Secret keeping from the Big One turned out to be so tough. Here’s what the final list looked like:

Ice cream cone unicorn – order a McDonald’s ice cream cone and then promptly stick it to your forehead
Get a policeman to handcuff you
Get 3 strangers to Sing & dance to the YMCA with you in front of Ralph’s
Hug 3 strangers in line at the Habit
Hang upside down on the monkey bars and sing the National Anthem
Go to the fire station, get a fireman, show him STOP, DROP , and ROLL Bonus: Get him to do it with you! (25)
Go through the Wendy’ s Drive Thru in a shopping cart and buy a Frosty
Dress up in the bunny costume, go to Ralphs, and buy carrots
Try to buy a pack of gum at the gas station and pay with Euros
Lie down and pretend to sleep at the entrance of a public area for 3 minutes
Ask for food from someone’ s plate at a restaurant
Go to the Tae Kwon Do studio and start following the class

Last up in the party preparations were decorations. The sisters had fun with super hero drawings, signs, and various other decorative doo-dads.

When the evening of the party finally arrived, dinner was devoured in what seemed like seconds. I would like to think it was that the food was fab, but the real reason was more likely that everyone couldn’t wait for the main event of the evening -the video scavenger hunt – to begin. We broke into 2 teams of 3 and off they went. In an hour, they were back. We plugged the cameras into the TV and watched some hysterical footage and listened to stories that I’m sure will become family lore. The best one being that the Hubs got the chief of the fire station to announce over the PA a call to all men on duty to report to the front of the firehouse, up went the huge roll up door to the station, and then as 7 fireman looked on, the Hubs and his fireman companion proceeded to Stop, Drop & Roll in style!

We feasted on birthday cake. The kids all loved it, but I can’t say it’s one I would make again. A S’More Cheesecake. I’ll opt for real s’mores around a camp fire any day.

Big One’s boyfriend is editing up all of the video footage. Maybe sometime soon, I’ll be able to post a link to our evening of craziness. Until then, I’ll have to just share with you my secret foodie highpoint of the event. Remember . . . that little first course I mentioned earlier? Meet Fig & Prosciutto Salad. Let’s just say I made it again today I am so in love with it. It screams summer, is super simple, and beautiful to boot.

The dressing consists of just olive oil, honey, and a little lemon juice (I used lime juice since I didn’t have a lemon on hand. Toss it all in a jar and shake well.

Quarter you figs without cutting all the way through and place them on your platter. Tear pieces of prosciutto and scatter around the figs. Then add in some fresh basil leaves.

Drizzle the dressing over and serve. I guarantee you’ll hesitate before digging in. It’s so simply beautiful that it demands admiration before consumption.

So Happy Birthday to the Big One! I loved every moment of the celebration and my new personal summer hero is the fig one.

Here’s the full Fig & Prosciutto Salad Recipe which I adapted from Simple Provisions.

To Pin or Not to Pin – Herbed Summer Squash & Potato Torte

Posted by Tricia in Main Courses, Uncategorized and tagged with potato, potatoes, Recipe, summer squash, torte June 14, 2013

Pinterest. It’s like a train wreck sometimes. I want to look away. I know I should look away. I know there are a million better ways that I could be spending my time. But I just continue to stare and stare. I have even been known to load all of the “popular” pins, sit there and scroll all the way to the bottom, and then press refresh and load a whole new batch of “popular”. What a time suck.

We all say it. Right? But why, oh why, do we continue to come back? I guess it’s the new suburban-safe addiction. And then I justify my addiction. I tell myself that at least I no longer browse the “popular” pins. At least I don’t pin ridiculous sayings like other people do. At least I don’t “follow” anyone (if I did, I know i would never escape the machine). At least now I only USE for recipes and homeschool ideas. “Justify, justify, little brain. You are wasting as much time and energy as everyone else and you know it.”

So some day, I may just go cold turkey from my “habit”. Some day, I may return to my mother’s era and actually open a cook book or start clipping clever ideas from Ladies Home Journal. How retro would that be? Maybe some day I’ll put my money where my mouth is, and monitor my own “screen time” like I monitor my kids. How funny would that be? The system I use with them is that they earn Mom Dollars and Dad Bucks for all examples of good behavior. They then can cash in 5 of those earned singles for 20 minutes of ipad or computer. Maybe I could start paying myself for each load of laundry done. Each meal cooked. Each trip to the market. Each time I refrain from gossip. Each time I clean a bathroom. Each time I give the Hubs some lovin’. Each time I’m a good listener. Wonder how that would work out for me?

Well, until I decide to really go off the grid (which I fantasize about regularly), I’ll continue to just justify and take my hits of Pinterest when I can. I’ll continue to not follow anyone, and I’ll continue to to fill up my “Yum” and “School” boards. And from time to time, I’ll share a killer find -like this recipe for Herbed Summer Squash & Potato Torte- with you all.

As with so many of these veggie recipes, I kicked things off with a little chopping. On the block were the summer squash and the potatoes.

Then I mixed up a little breading which consisted of some scallions, freshly grated parmesan, flour, fresh thyme, and salt & pepper.

I took a large, oven-proof skillet, buttered the bottom and up the sides a bit, and then placed a layer of potatoes in concentric circles over the bottom.

A layer of summer squash went on top of the potato layer, again in concentric circles and again just slightly overlapping. I drizzled a touch of olive oil over and then added a layer of the breading mixture. I repeated that sequence with one more layer of potatoes, another layer of squash, a tad more oil, and a final layer of the breading. I pressed down the final assembly with a spatula to assure everything was well compacted.

I covered the skillet with foil, and into the oven it went at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Then I removed the foil and baked another 25 minutes until everything was nice and brown.

I sprinkled some additional fresh scallions over as a garnish and served with roasted green beans and steamed cauliflower.

For such simple ingredients, the final product was quite flavorful. It was the breading (I know I have been calling it that, but it doesn’t have even a hint of bread product in it), that really made this dish.

So thank you, Pinterest. I’ll continue to loathe you, but we both know I’ll come crawling back again and again with all my lame excuses in tow. That is, until I buy that ranch somewhere in the middle of nowhere and swear off all technological indulgences for good.

Here’s the complete recipe for Herbed Summer Squash & Potato Torte.

And hats off to the Smitten Kitchen for making your way onto Pinterest so that I could find this delightful recipe.

In the mood for more summer squash? Try these . . .

Grilled Shrimp and Summer Squash (williams-sonoma.com)

Summer Squash, Sausage, and Potato Quiche (spoonful.com)