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An image from a past tea at my home (summer time requires lemonade too!)
I attended a tea yesterday for a fellow grad student’s birthday at a local tea house. It was a lovely lovely afternoon– child free, women only, lots of talking and tea drinking. I usually go to tea for my birthday, but somehow this year it hasn’t happened, so it was nice to revisit that wonderful afternoon ritual for another’s birthday.
The ambiance of the tea house was very nice, and the service impeccable, but the food, honestly, was disappointing (then again, perhaps I am never satisfied with anything less than homemade). My auntie has schooled me in throwing our own very satisfying teas over the years (I was lucky enough to have her throw my baby showers and my wedding shower teas) and so it is very very hard to meet my expectations for tea food. Thinking on that on the way home, I thought I might share a couple of my favorite tea party recipes (I’ll post them at the end).
One of my favorite sandwich recipes that is a little outside the norm is Cucumber and Roquefort Cheese Sandwiches from a book titled Afternoon Tea Serenade (These are the top sandwich in the 1st picture). The original recipe was collected from The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco, which I can say from personal experience, does one of the best afternoon teas in the San Francisco area– truly worth doing if you are in the area and feel so inclined (my other favorite tea place in the San Francisco is Lovejoy’s– less refined, more eclectic, but delicious food and welcoming environment).
The thing that was missing from today’s tea experience was a hot scone. To me the scone is the anchor of a good tea, and the quality of the scone speaks to the quality of the tea. No scone? It is just luncheon with hot tea. I have made a variety of scones, but my favorite are a quick and easy biscuit-like Orange-Cherry Scone. This recipe came to me from my Auntie, but she told me it was originally from The Honor Mansion B & B in Healdsburg (a stone’s throw from where I live). I like these as much for their flavor, as for their ease– particularly because they can be prepped and placed in the fridge, then popped in the oven when your guests arrive, so that you may serve hot scones!
And last, a tea is really not a tea with out a little sweetness. The highlight of all the teas my auntie has thrown are her Chocolate Dipped Shortbread. She varies the shape of the cookie cutter to fit the theme of the tea, so for my sister’s baby shower which had a little prince theme for my nephew, she made little crowns. She has done these in dark chocolate, but in the last few years she has moved to white chocolate and they are as delicious as ever.
With these recipes, a couple egg salad sandwiches (try these with a little curry powder in them), and perhaps some fresh fruit and a pound cake or box of chocolates you are ready to serve tea. The only thing left is to ask, “One lump or two.”
Ritz Cucumber Sandwiches (My simplified version)
10 slices Tea Sandwich Bread (you can use cocktail bread or any other thinly sliced bread– I think Orowheat makes some thin sliced– or just your favorite bread. These are open faced so the thinness is not as important is with some breads– you do want to make sure it is sturdy enough to stand up to spreading, some breads will tear.
2 small cucumbers, peeled and cut into thin slices (or one English cucumber peeled and sliced) You can trim the cucumbers to the size of your bread and slice lengthwise, or just slice as you normally would.
8 oz Roguefort cheese
8 oz cream cheese at room temp
4 TBSP butter at room temp
1/4 cup walnuts, toasted (you can of course use the nut of your choice, pecans would probably substitute well)
Blend cheeses and butter together in blender or food processor until smooth. Spread a layer over each piece of bread (toast your bread if you like before hand). Place overlapping slices of cucumber on the toast. Trim off bread crusts (absolutely required for a tea sandwich– crusts are unsightly at the tea table), and cut into triangles. Sprinkle with toasted walnuts. Serve.
Orange-Cherry (or Cranberry) Scones
6 Tbsp cold butter
2 cups flour
2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 Tbsp finely grated orange rind
3/4 cup dried cherries ( I chop them into smaller pieces when them come whole– you can also substitute dried cranberries, etc)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 cup milk
Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease baking sheet. In a large bowl, cut butter into flour, sugar, baking powder and salt until misture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in orange rind and dried cherries. Add egg and milk; mix until mixture clings together and forms soft dough.
Turn dough onto lightly floured surface and knead gently about 15 times. Divide dough into fourths and pat into squares about 1/2 inch thick. Cut each square diagonally twice to form 4 triangles. Place on baking sheet. (The scones can also be frozen after being cut, or place on sheet and refrigerate covered overnight).
Bake abt 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm with butter, lemon curd, jam, or Devonshire cream.
Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Hearts
2 cups unsalted butter at room temp
1 cup sugar
1 tsp almond extract (or vanilla)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup finely chopped almonds (or pecans)
2 oz white chocolate, chopped
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
4 tsp shortening
Preheat oven to 325. In a large mixer bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add extract and dash salt; beat well. Add flour, beat just until well mixed. Stire in nuts. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Cut with cutter. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes (cookies should not brown). Cool on rack.
Cook and stir white chocolate and/or semi-sweet chocolate and 2 tsp shortening over low heat (in seperate pans if doing both) until melted, stirring frequently. Dip half of each cookie into a chocolate mixture, or half and half. Let stand until chocolate is set.
For my Grandmother’s 80th birthday we all wanted to make it special for her. In the divying up of food duties somehow I ended up with the charge of baking a chocolate dessert to go with a the summer fruit shortcakes my auntie was making, and the black bottom cheese cake my cousin was making. Somewhere along the line, it was decided that the chocolate dessert also needed to be a cake. I found myself then seeking a chocolate cake recipe that would be special in every way. I’ve made many a chocolate cake, chocolate being the favorite of most of the family (except one cousin who inexplicably prefers vanilla in cake and ice cream– I fear she has received some recessive genes), but I wanted this cake to rise above the others in honor of Grandma and her special love of chocolate. Now if I could of made a cake from See’s candy that would of been ideal. I also thought of making her the cake that she always makes for our birthdays when we are visiting, a strawberry cake with chocolate ganache frosting, but decided to try something new instead. I’ve made a few times the Devil’s Food White-Out Cake from Dorie’s Baking book (I make just the cake part and frost with chocolate frosting), and always as a standby you can’t beat the Hershey’s cake recipe from their tin, but this time I wanted something a little different. So I hauled out my Tartine cookbook.
Now while I have had good luck with everything I’ve baked from their cookbook, I always feel a little anxiety everytime I contemplate baking from this book because of my experience not with their recipes, but at their actual bakery. I live in a very rich “foodie” area and it is only about an hour from my house to this bakery. About two years ago I decided we should take advantage of this great eating area we live in (as much as our budget will allow) and we made a day trip to the city, culminating in a visit to Tartine Bakery in the afternoon. All was going well as we parked, and proceeded to a nearby upscale grocery to grab some sandwiches before getting the chocolate cake and cookies that were swimming in my imagination. After lunch we got in line at the bakery and started looking at our choices. It all looked so good, but I especially had been wanting to try their chocolate cake I had read about. When I reached the counter I found that I could only buy the cake whole as they had run out of pieces. I was crestfallen, but decided to be adventurous and try a passionfruit cake (a flavor I had never had). We settled down outside at a sidewalk table, the kids happy with their cookies and hot chocolate, and I cut my first bite of cake. I had waited all day to make it here and my expectations were very high. I took my first mouthful and discovered I do not like passionfruit. In the midst of my dissappointment I looked up and saw our car being attached to a tow truck. What ensued was far from what we had imagined as our last stop for the day! We had to grab a taxi and track our van down at the impound lot and a couple bedraggled hours later finally loaded ourselves in the van for the now very long sounding hour drive home.
My associations with Tartine are now fraught with anxiety and disaapointement, but I decided to forge through these and give their chocolate cake a try for Grandma.
The baking went better than the visit, but I did, for some unknown reason, turn the oven to 325 instead of 350. This resulted in a longer baking time for the cake and, I think, in a much dryer cake than I was expecting. The flavor though was very nice. This cake also has a carmel filling and ganache throughout. It is exceptionally rich; a true chocolate lovers delight. In the future I would double the caramel filing amount– no one could tell there was caramel in it.
Since my first visit to Tartine I have been back, but I have yet to try their version of this cake. Although my second visit was not quite as dramatic, I have come to the conclusion that perhaps sometimes the best way to visit a famous eating place may indeed be through their cookbook. Hence my very large (and always growing) cookbook collection, and very infrequent day trips.
Please ignore my lumpy crust. I usually stick to baking for this reason.
About a year or so ago, I began getting the magazine Vegetarian Times. I am alternately unimpressed and inspired by this magazine. Not sure if I just haven’t had the time for it, haven’t been interested in cooking, or if I’ve just become over saturated with cooking and recipes after a lifetime of reading Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, and my always growing cookbook collection. But this month was an inspriation month. I tried (sort of) a recipe from the pages of their latest copy, September 2008– Heirloom Tomato & Sweet Corn Pizzas.
Make that pizza, singular. The other dough I made into a regular cheese with red sauce for the children, wanting to hog all the tomatoes (from our garden) and corn (from our CSA) to myself (and my husband too, I do share–sometimes). Their recipe uses a store bought pizza dough (thank you Trader Joe’s), a garlic pistou and then a bit of cheese and veggies. Right off I knew I wouldn’t be following this one faithfully when I glanced over the instructions for the pistou and read “Wrap garlic in foil. Bake 40 minutes…” That wasn’t happening.
My kids were due home from soccer in 30 minutes and I needed to have dinner on the table shortly after that– I did not have 40 minutes + pizza baking time tonight. Knowing I was compromising the flavor, I decided to skip that step and use fresh garlic instead, but a little less of it.
Second bump came when I realized I’d forgotten to buy the cheese they called for (Cotija or feta)– did I mention I always end up going to the store more than once? I decided to ignore that too and use a bit of mozzarella I had in the freezer that I’d pulled out for the kids pizza already.
What resulted after these changes (and a couple more) was a delicious pizza, even more appreciated for it’s lack of resemblance to one of our 5 or 6 standard dinners. But the flavor did seem suscipsiously familiar… Then I remembered one of my favorite summertime salads from The Jimtown Store Cookbook: Cherry Tomato, mozzarella, & corn salad with basil. Sound familiar? It was as though this salad had been dumped on a pizza dough and warmed. What a wonderful thing!
Here is the pizza recipe (ammended) as well as an abbreviated version of the salad.
Heirloom Tomato & Sweet Corn Pizzas
ammended from Vegetarian Times
prepared garlic-herb pizza dough
garlic pistou my way:
4-10 heads of garlic (depending on size), minced or pressed
1/2 cup pine nuts
2 glugs olive oil
10 leaves fresh oregano
zest of half a lemon
3 handfuls of grated mozzarella (frozen straight from the freezer works fine)
fresh corn kernals from 1 ear of corn
assorted sliced tomatoes from your garden, csa, or nearest store–enough to fill your pizza
6 sliced/chopped basil leaves
other veggies you have on hand? I added sliced summer squash and sliced onion from our CSA
Preheat oven to 400 or possibly 450. Place pizza stone in, if you have one to heat. Whirl pistou ingredients in a small cuisinart or in a blender into a paste. Shape pizza crust to your liking, or to the best of your ability (mine is very poor, but always edible). Sprinkle cornmeal on a wooden cutting board if using a pizza stone, or on a pizza pan. place pizza dough on corn meal and adjust shape and crust. Spread pistou. Scatter corn kernals (and other veggies you want to cook– my squash and onions went on now) about. I also wanted some of the tomato cooked so I added about 6 slices now. Sprinkle with as much cheese as you deem appropriate. Slide onto hot pizza stone or place pizza pan in oven. Bake for 15- 25 minutes. Remove from oven. Top with the rest of the sliced tomatoes and then sprinkle basil on top. MMMMM!
Cherry Tomato, Mozzarella, & Corn Salad with Basil
Adapted from The Jimtown Store Cookbook
8 oz marinated bocconcini (small fresh mozzarella balls) (the original recipe has you marinate them yourself, but I usually can find them already marninated in spices and oil and save myself that step for the extra 50 cents)
1 basket small cherry tomatoes (yellow, red or orange, pear shaped or round)
Corn kernals cut from 2 medium ears
About 12 basil leaves that have been chiffonaded
Mix it all together. Serve room temperature. You may want to add some pepper, salt and lemon juice or zest to taste. Perhaps even some pepper flakes.
In my jumbled vault of memories, I have a few, of myself and my sister, as little girls, freckled, sunburned, braids or pig-tails swinging, helping to make home made ice cream. I am quite sure that these memories have quantified, for it seems now that we did it many times; most likely it was exactly twice. No matter, I have that memory and it is lovely. What I do know is that the ice creams in question were churned on my grandmother’s patio, and as the ice cream maker was older than ourselves, it needed us to sit on it to keep it stable while someone turned the crank. This ice cream making was far from a solitary affair, but rather needed most all my large family to help get it from cream to ice cream. There was rock salt to be located, carried, poured. Bases to be mixed. And lots and lots of cranking to be done.
But oh, oh, oh! the flavor! Two stand out in my mind. One was a peppermint ice cream, made in part, from candy canes saved from Christmas and the other was fresh strawberry. It is hard to go back to store bought.
Well imagine how I felt now, these taste memories floating in my mind, when I saw that ice cream was up for Tuesdays with Dorie this week, and then remembered that I had, uncharacteristically, given away our ice cream maker just one month ago. [You can find the recipe for the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream at Culinary Curiousity] I have been trying to turn over a new leaf, work against my patterns of saving every possible thing for every possible situation, and relinquished my ice cream maker to the Goodwill pile. It is true it had gathered dust. In fact, it had been living in my garage for the last couple years. When it was new and sparkly it got lots of use. But then our children were born and 9 years after receiving it for our wedding I think it had stood idle for at least the last 4. So into the pile it went.
At first I thought I would just take the alternate choice and make a recipe TWD had already done, but knew it wouldn’t be the same. So then I checked out the links on making ice cream with out a maker. I was committed to doing that. Even though it would of taken hours of attention. I really would of done it. But thank goodness for neighbors. Especially for Angie. I was going on and on about TWD and my ice cream maker deficiency when she offered hers up- bowl already frozen and ready to go.
So ingredients gathered (why I can never do this in one trip to the store, I don’t know), ice cream maker borrowed, and book before me I got to work. Quick work it was too. In about 5 minutes the ice cream was ready to chill before churning. Then after cleaning up the kitchen from dinner I popped it into the maker. 20 minutes later, into the freezer. Not quite the 12 person, all afternoon experience of my childhood! Since it doesn’t use a custard type base it is very quick, but it does taste distinctly different from the ice cream flavor I was imagining.
My son described the flavor as he licked the churning blade (plastic, no worries!) as follows: “This tastes like frozen yogurt! It’s not ice cream.” He did still lick every last drop, except for the large blob that dripped on his chest (although he might of gotten that one too, but I wasn’t looking). But he is right. This ice cream tastes quite similar to the Stonyfield yogurt tubes I buy my kids sometimes, that we then freeze for an afternoon treat. But while it tastes more like frozen yogurt than the ice cream of my childhood, it was delish nonetheless.
Tomorrow I will return Angie’s ice cream maker. And, of course I will bring her a taste! I have to if I ever want to try that very tempting Honey-Peach Ice Cream on the very next page! Perhaps that can get me closer to recapturing that childhood decadence.
Sticky buns! Who doesn’t love ‘em? Even I, very selective in the sweet breakfast foods I love (I’m not a donut in the morning kind of gal), love them! So…. having successfully baked the basic bread recipe from Artisan Baking (who by the way have their own site) I thought I should give their sticky buns made with challah bread a whirl.
They actually write their recipe to be made with either the brioche or the challah, but when I was mixing up the dough I only had enough eggs to make the challah, so challah it was. It really did mix up in minutes, then I left it on my counter while I wandered off to check email and read for a bit. Unfortunately, I had mixed this up rather late in the evening, and I found my self dozing off before the 2 hour rest time was up. Fortunately, even though I stuck it in the fridge after about an hour, maybe 90 minutes, it finished rising and doing its thing in my fridge! My kind of dough. I need a little forgiveness and flexibility in my live now and again.
Major drawback to this recipe–time. After your dough is ready (it can be used directly after the 2 hour rest period, or the next day, or the next… until 5 days later [and then, if you really can't get to it, you can freeze it]) it still takes approximately 2 hours before the sticky buns are ready to eat. That put a cramp in my plan to make these for breakfast for the kids, because, of course, when they wake up they want to eat within a half hour- tops– and I was not waking up 2 hours before them just to serve them hot sticky buns. I love them, but I also love my sleep. So a couple days later I relinquished my dream of sticky buns and tea with my children in the morning, and revised it into, sticky buns and tea after lunch.
Please don't count my pecans!
Why the two hours? After you make up the sugar coating for the bottom of the pan and sprinkle precisely 30 pecan halves (who is going to count that out? I did two handfuls of pecan pieces with no adverse affects–more forgiveness and flexibility), roll your dough out (to what size rectangle, by the way, was not noted and slightly irked my perfectionist side– it’s subtle but it does exist) and sprinkle the sugary, nutty goodness into it, and then roll and cut it into the rolls, the buns must still sit for 1 hour in the pan. Then they bake for about 40 minutes (mine took about 45). If I was an early riser and was puttering around the house anyway, this wouldn’t matter much, because the hands on time is not long (rolling the dough etc took about 15 minutes), but with two kids those type of mornings are few and far between. However, I could see a recipe like this being used quite nicely, on say, Christmas morning.
Whatever my reservations about this recipe, it was delicious, and well worth the hours of wait time. Yummy, scrummy sugary goodness, all washed down with a cold glass of milk— for lunch. But don’t tell my kids– I’m making them wait until after.
As a grade schooler I had a friend whose house I loved to visit. Not only did she not have a little sister, she had a great victorian dollhouse (which as these things go, she never wanted to play with as much as I did, or perhaps I just never could say how much I wanted to play with it). In addition to these perks when coming for a playdate, each time we walked into the house after school (so it seems to me now), there was a loaf of banana bread waiting for us to snack on. My mom baked a lot (late at night after my sis and I were in bed), but her main vice was chocolate chip cookies, so this banana bread was a treat for me (we didn’t get many of those cookies anyway, but rather ususally just saw the evidence in the morning).
When I read that this weeks Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was a banana bread I was leary. I love a basic banana bread, and even have a favorite banana muffin recipe, but chocolate banana bread has never appealed to me particularly. But one of the reasons I thought doing this baking group would be fun, was trying recipes I would normally skip over. And so the baking began!
Why do my bananas look that way? Frozen reserves.
Fresh Nutmeg! One of my small delights!
After pulling my frozen bananas from the freezer to defrost (This, by the way, is one of my great discoveries as an adult! That I could actually freeze my ripe (or overripe) bananas in the skin and all and use later has greatly enhanced my happiness with ripening bananas on my counter. I especially love using the frozen bananas in fruit smoothies as it eliminates the need for ice.) I got busy on this recipe. A little nutmeg grating, chocolate melting, and soon it was ready for the pan. This “loaf” is actaully a marble banana cake and I did, as usual, find the marbalizing part a bit of a chore. I am not convinced that a marble cake’s flavor makes up for the extra minutes spent mixing up the chocolate batter and carefully alternating batter and then swirling. But I’m a simple girl and like to move as quickly and effienciently as I can in the kitchen most days.
However, I have to say, the cake is pretty good. I am not converted (or convinced the marbling was worth it!) though, and while my kids and I are munching our way through this loaf, next time I’ll probably fall back on my original banana bread or my favorite fancy one from Cooking Light magazine years ago: Jamaican Banana Bread.
The recipe for the Black & White Banana Loaf is posted at A Year In The Kitchen.
Broken in!
I had been reading the buzz around a new book on baking bread. It had cropped up a couple times in my blog readings, and so– intrigued– I requested a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day from our local library. Of course, I was a little behind the curve, and was placed in line behind many others–aproximately 25 others, which, with only 4 copies in our county, could take months to get through before my turn. This has happened before. Often by the time it is my turn I’ve forgotten I’ve even requested– not as terrible as it sounds– kind of like a suprise, a gift, when you least expect it.
But as it turns out I didn’t have to wait months. I arrived home one day to a package on my doorstep. I hadn’t ordered anything. But yes! It was for me. My friend had sent me a copy for my birthday just weeks after requesting it. A gift indeed!
Before I had a chance to try out the book, I got a chance on my vacation to see the recipes in action while visiting said friend. They were delicious! Now back at home it was my turn in the kitchen. Well, at least for 5 minuntes.
My dough just after mixing it.
It is in fact a very straightforward process and as quick and easy as it is described, although it does have some equipment requirements that seem slightly daunting. I found though that my pizza stone worked well for the baking (they show a large baking stone), and a wooden cutting board stood in for the required pizza peel that I don’t have (nor have the budget for this month). I had a tupperware large enough for the dough storage, and as it did seem to have a good seal (not recommended), I merely left one corner cracked.
A finished loaf!
Verdict? The process was easy. The bread delicious. In fact, the two initial loaves I baked have disappeared, but luckily we have more dough in the fridge. I started with their first recipe, a boule, but I’m anxious to give some of the whole wheat recipes a whirl, as that is what we eat more of.
I found one blog posting at Alexandra Cooks that does a nice job of breaking down the cost benefits of baking bread this way. Perhaps with my bread savings I can start saving for the pizza peel!
mmmmm!
Photo from my vacation!
We are home again! And while when I am here too long I can only think about traveling, when I am away too long, I can only think about home. Our full trip was almost two weeks and it was nice to come home, check on my garden (still growing), my to do list (still growing), and think of fun summer things to do in our area where my bed is (blackberry picking is high on our list this week). I was also anxious to get back to my posting here. We came back a bit too late to get my TWD up today (check tomorrow– I did get all the ingredients today and they await me in the morning) but not too late to get up another post about baking with children– one of my favorite topics.
My Baking Boy a couple years back
In my last post about Baking with Children I mentioned one of my favorite cookbooks for children, the well-known classic, Pretend Soup. And my favorite recipe in that book? Popovers. Hands down one of the most satisfying baking you can do with young children. I’ve made this recipe now multiple times not only with my children, but in their preschool classrooms where it never fails to be a hit.
The great thing about this recipe is that it is broken in to steps making even the prep work managable for the kids. The children get to “paint” the muffin tins with the melter butter, and just as Katzen promises, some children “love” this and will do this for quite a while, making for some very buttered tins!
The format of the cookbook is a bit lengthy with grown-up hints, the recipe itself, and then simplified pictorial directions for the children to follow. I can’t obviously recreate that here, so I will do my best to give enhanced directions. The best bet is to check out the book itself, at the library or at a bookstore.
Popovers
adapted from Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen & Ann Henderson
best eaten slightly warm, with jam
This recipe will work in a toaster oven and in mini muffin tins.
Ingredients:
2 TBSP butter, melted (to “paint” with)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
Preheat oven to 375. Have the children paint the insides of the muffin cups with the melted butter (you may need more than the 2 TBSP depending on how much they enjoy this part– don’t rush them! Focusing on the process instead of the product is very important for young children)
When they are ready, break the eggs into the mixing bowl (try my trick for the small bowl for each or Katzen’s listed “break them on the bottom of a big bowl and let the egg run out into the bowl”). Once you have all the shells out of the egg, add the milk and beat well. Add flour and salt and whisk until blended.
Pour the batter into the muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. You can put the batter in a small pyrex measure cup to let the children help fill them on their own. Bake for 30 minutes without opening the oven (if using mini muffins it will be less– you will need to watch them, but this is part of the fun of popovers!)
Remove from pan and prick with a fork to let steam escape (truth be told I don’t think I usually remove them from the muffin pans– lazy, I guess). Katzen suggests having your child wear an oven mitt when they prick the muffins to protect them from the steam.
Eat one. And another. Add a little jam to the next. Maybe time for a glass of milk, or a mug of tea. Now one more.
Now get them young'uns in the kitchen!
I love baking. I love sharing things I love with my children. Not too far a leap to loving baking with my children. One recent afternoon my son had a friend over and we headed to the kitchen to do those things I love. My son loves chocolate. That lead us to this recipe from Linda Collister’s, Cooking with Kids for Double Chocolate Muffins. The recipe was from her aptly named section in the book, “baking afternoon”.
I got the boys suited up into aprons and away we went, mixing, stirring, cracking… and of course spilling. We made it through with only the barest of messes (one egg did miss the bowl completely but a quick swipe, a new egg, and we were back in business. 30 minutes later- cooling muffins. The interesting thing is that I think they enjoyed the process of baking more than those muffins. By the time they had come out of the oven they were onto another activity— but momma enjoyed them!
Here are a few tips when baking with children. The thing to always keep in mind is that baking with children will be a little bit messy. But there are some things you can do to minimize the mess and mishaps.
1. Have them crack eggs in a small separate bowl so if shell goes in with it all is not lost! I picked up this little trick from one of my favorite children’s cookbooks, Pretend Soup by Mollie Katzen and Ann Henderson.
2. Use nice large bowls. It helps when they pour in too quickly (slosh), too much at one time (large puff of flour in the air), or stir with the might of mighty mouse (flinging unincorporated flour or, even better, bits of batter, throughout the kitchen). It doesn’t solve the mess, but it does minimize it.
3. Read through the recipe before you invite them in the kitchen. Make sure you have all the ingredients and prepare what you can. 
3a. Be sure that if you are baking with more than one child that the recipe has more than one egg to crack. This is the highlight of baking for most children. You can also check to see if there might be a compensating step, but cracking the egg is hard to beat. To ensure equal egg breaking consider making scrambled eggs after or instead. All will be happy.
4. Choose a recipe that will be done today. Preferable within an hour. Patience is not common in children, especially when it comes to eating dessert.
Happy Baking with your children!
This is my first week doing TWD and I am very excited. I’ve had Dorie Greenspan’s Baking cookbook up on my shelf for over a year now and have baked some out of it, but as with many of my cookbooks in the last year, it has not been put through the paces as much as I would have liked. I have found two great birthday cake batters in there (Devil’s Food White-out Cake [pg 247]- a chocolate chip cake- and Perfect Party Cake [pf 250]- a lightly lemon flavored white cake with a stupendous crumb) but beyond that ventured very little. When I stumbled upon TWD one night last week while blog surfing– jumping from one baking blog to another through links– I was delighted. Accountability- that’s what I needed to explore her book more; so I signed myself up.
At least 2 weeks out of every four I must make the chosen recipe from her cookbook and then post my experience, reaction, etc here. So here is week one for me. My next posting will be not be for one or two weeks as I will be out of town.
So lets get down to the pudding…..(you can find the recipe here)
I’ve made chocolate pudding from scratch before from Barefoot Contessa’s cookbook, Parties! (I’ve found a recipe link here for that version) and with success. I am always delighted with the result, and with anything chocolate, the better quality chocolate you use the better your result. So this time I pulled out the bittersweet Valrohna bars which I tuck up in my baking cabinet for just such times.
After weighing out my five ounces I thought I should do this recipe right and prep all my ingredients (measured and all) before I got started. This is not my usual method, but I was multitasking with cobbler in the oven, and one child still awake making periodic visits to the kitchen for one more tuck in.
A few characteristic flubs (broken yolk while separating eggs [dump, start again], too much sugar in the milk [dump start again], too much milk in the milk [scoop out with a measuring cup because I was tired of dumping out]) and I got down to business. Of course that wasn’t the end of my mishaps– while taking my bubbling cobblers out of the oven the milk boiled and overflowed the pan, flooding my burner. Milk was fine but I was a 1/4 cup short now– that would be the 1/4 cup that was now filling my burner plates. No problem, pour off finished milk, boil 1/4 cup more with a sprinkle of sugar– Good as New!
Over all I found the back and forth between pan and food processor a bit tiring, but I think that is because where I plug my cuisinart in is not very handy to the stove, so I couldn’t, say, pulse AND watch the milk (of course we all know this isn’t why the milk overflowed, but it could have been). But I understand the reasoning– my arm was not exhausted after whipping up this pudding. When I’ve made some puddings and pastry creams (which are similar to pudding, and which this same cookbook has a great recipe for (Dark Chocolate Cream page 25 
the amount of whisking needed is downright frightening and I end up with flared up tendonitis in my forearms. Ina Garten’s recipe uses a similar technique but she utilizes the kitchenaid mixer instead of a cuisinart– perhaps that could be used here as well– but in either case I appreciate the modern shortcut.
Yes. I licked that Cuisinart bowl clean while my finished little puddings were chilling. And just for the record– I prefer the film on my pudding so I did not cover it. I love breaking through that film to the smooth depths.
The end product? Superb. Very Chocolately. Ultra Chocolately. I might almost substitute a wee bit of semi-sweet for some of the bittersweet chocolate (I used Valrohna 70% bittersweet). The richness is a nice way to savour it slowly. The six little cups (by the way I have to give credit to La Tartine Gourmande for the inspiration to use these little yogurt glasses that had been kicking around my kitchen for a while– too cute to recycle) that it made have lasted a few days as 1/2 of each is enough for each sitting.
I will be tabbing this recipe for future revisiting, but hopefully won’t flood my stovetop next time with sticky sweetened milk.
First off I really must warn you– this is not a typical southern recipe. This is more of the Northern California 70’s pseduo-hippy mom recipe. The actual description should be Honey-Whole Wheat-Peach Cobbler– but it’s what I grew up on so I knew no differently and love it best. This is something that my mom made but I’m not sure where she got the recipe from. My dad did a lot of the cooking when I was a kid- dinners, packing our lunches, making breakfast– but my mom usually did the baking. In the summer we could count on peach cobbler at least a few times, and when the blackberries were ripe and someone had headed down the block to the empty fields where they grew to pick a bowl full, we would get a blackberry peach cobbler—mmmmm.
I loved to eat this warm with melting vanilla ice cream (always Haagen-Daaz of course), but even more so for breakfast the next day (it usually didn’t last much longer than that). A sweet breakfast was special treat in our house of whole grain cereal or oatmeal sweetened with raisins and milk only; cold peach cobbler with a large glass of cold milk was mighty fine!
So it being summer and all and organic peaches being on sale this week I thought I really should make this before I had to wait another year, because even though you can use frozen peaches there is something about using fresh. I made two smaller ones tonight, one for a potluck, and one for breakfast tomorrow! It’ll be a nice change from my yogurt and granola and my kids will be thrilled.
Honey (Whole Wheat) Peach Cobbler
3 lbs peachers, peeled, pitter and sliced or 2 1 lb pkgs unsweetend frozen peach slices, partially defrosted
3 TBSP lemon juice
1/2 cup honey
2 TBSP cornstarch mixed with 2 TBSP water
2 TBSP butter
1 recipe whole wheat and honey topping (see below)
Preheat oven to 400 place the peaches in a shallow 3 qt baking dish. Stir in the lemon juice, honey, and cornstarch mixture. Dot with pieces of the butter. Prepare topping and drop by spoonfuls onto fruit mixture, leaving space in between– it will spread a bit and some gaps are desirable to see the peaches peeking through. Bake for 30 to 35 minues or until topping is well browned. Serve warm or cool, with vanilla ice cream or milk, morning or night.
Topping:
1 1/4 cups whole wheat flour (tonight I used 3/4 cups whole wheat & 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup cold butter
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
In a bowl, stir together whole wheat flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, and nutmeg. With a pastry blender, cut in cold butter or margarine until well blended. Stir together milk and honey; add to bowl, stirring until combined.
Note: If you want to make a blackberry/peach cobbler substitute some of the peaches for blackberries. Simple and delish!
I mentioned in my previous post that I’d come across some recipes to use up any buttermilk I might have in my fridge. I tend to buy a carton for a recipe and then never use the rest of it– not sure why really, but thought I should add a few buttermilk dedicated recipes to my repertoire— you know… just in case. I had just the buttermilk in my fridge. I had bought it for a gluten-free cornbread mix I had made for a visiting friend of my daughters and it was languishing in the back of my fridge. Fortunately, it lasts a while, and I was able to find the buttermilk cookie recipe (by chance of course, because I had forgotten the carton was even in there as usual) before the date on the carton.
So today was my buttermilk cookie day. All went well. No glitches, cursing or even burnt trays. I really had no idea what to expect and I was pleased with them. The batter had the consistency of some cake batters I had made, and indeed they are little cake cookies. I would have liked the lemon flavor stronger myself, but I try to not mess with a recipe the first time with it. My son tried them and deemed them “sour”. This description does match up with ezrapoundcake’s description as “tangy” so his acute sense of taste has been noted for furture tasting needs.
We now have a cookie jar full. The true test will be how long it stays full. I could very well have turned languishing buttermilk into languishing cookies. We will see.
Well, I’ve done it. I made those muffins mentioned on Sunday and we finished off the last of them today. My final verdict– good, but a bit too sweet. I added sunflower seeds and raisins to them and that helped, but considering that I don’t normally have buttermilk around my house, I’m not sure this is a recipe I will make again (unless of course I have some buttermilk to use up, but I’ve found a couple other contending recipes including this one for buttermilk cookies from a newly discovered blog, ezrapoundcake.com). Instead I will probably stick to my old standby healthy muffin recipe, but try some new variations with granola, wheat bran and the sunflower seeds. Here is the basic recipe that I normally make (with any of my changes/preferences noted) originally from The Vegetarian Family Cookbook by Nava Atlas.
Basic Muffins
2 cups w.w. pastry flour
2 Tbs wheat germ or ground flaxseeds
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup natural granulated sugar
1 cup vanilla yogurt, soy yogurt or applesauce ( I use applesauce)
2 Tbs safflower oil (any vegetable oil seems to work fine)
1/3 cup low-fat milk, rice milk, or soy milk, or as needed (I use milk because that is what is in our house, but if your vegan this would be an easy recipe to convert)
Additional optional ingredients that I normally add:
1 cup raisins
cinnamon
1 smashed banana
1. preheat oven to 350 & prepare muffin cups with liners or oil
2. combine dry ingredients, including sugar
3. make a well in the center of dry and pour in wet ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined.
4. Stir in any additions and pour into tins.
5. Bake for 20-25 min or until knife comes clean.
Now having made the Family Fun recipe I’ll probably add sunflower seeds to the batter, top with granola, and experiment with substituting part of the flour for wheat bran, perhaps 3/4 of a cup.
Today was a day of little accomplished except enjoying summer. We swam, visited family and ate ice cream– twice. While I didn’t get much of anything done this afternoon, I did find time to see a few things I’d like to do this week.
First up is trying these banana crunch muffins from an issue of FamilyFun that I received last Fall but have just been able to crack open now. Hopefully for my son can munch on these on the way to his 1/2 day soccer camp this week. This recipe appealed to me as it didn’t have tons of sugar and did have whole wheat flour & bran. I’ve been making a poppyseed banana muffin for the last 2 years from one of my favorite cookbooks, Once Upon a Tart, but this one looks promising.
Next I’m hoping to try this cute little bag from Martha Stewart’s website for one of my daughter’s first sewing projects. Looks fairly straight forward, but will be a satisfying end result for her– I hope. It is something she can use right away, but we won’t get a chance to take a crack at it until next weekend as she is going to her first summer day camp this week.
All this thinking about actually doing things has made me quite tired. I think I’ll call it a day.
But he did! In fact he had about 10 more Fried Potatoes. They were terribly addictive but the taste wasn’t the only thing to be celebrated. We used the oregano from our CSA box (!) and tried a new recipe from a new addition to my cookbook library.
We joined a CSA late last summer, but have noted that some ingredients (ones we don’t typically buy) tend to not get used up before they go bad. I decided since I have a bit more time this summer to make an effort to try some new recipes and use up our CSA goodies. Although I’ve given up on recipes for turnips (I’ve decided to admit I don’t like them) for other ingredients we get in our box I hit my cookbook indexes, especially trying out some of my newer additions, such as Mediterranean Harvest by Martha Rose Shulman that joined the shelf sometime during last semester only to collect dust until now.
I wasn’t doing much (ok…. ANY) cooking last semester as my schedule had me gone 3 nights a week, and doing homework the other nights, but I’ve had grand plans for this summer. I have in fact done quite well, making a blackberry-apple crisp and chocolate cookies from Nigella’s latest, and searching out this recipe for today to use our oregano. But did I make this one? No. I have been busy reorganizing closets and my sewing area. While I created a royal mess throughout the house emptying closets and making givaway piles, my husband did the cooking tonight. But I should get some credit for planning the meal, right?
Here is the recipe, slightly amended from Shulman’s cookbook. We had it with greens (I spritzed mine with balsamic and sprinkled feta on top), and tri-tip. But these were the star tonight.
FRIED POTATOES WITH TOMATOES AND OREGANO
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 medium potatoes, preferably Yukon golds, scurbbed, peeled if desired, and cut into thin wedges or 1/4 x 1/2 x 2-inch sticks
Salt and freshly ground peper
1 1/2 tsp. fresh oregano
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 can (14 oz) chopped tomatoes, with juice
1. Heat oil in a wide nonstick skillet (we used our large cast iron) over med-high heat and add half the potatoes. Cook, turning, until nicey browned and cooked through, about 10 min. Season with salt, pepper, and 1/2 tsp of the oregano. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a serving dish or platter, leaving the oil in the pan. Cook the remaining potatoes, season them, and transfer to the serving dish.
2. Pour off all but 1 Tbsp. of the oil and add the garlic to the skillet. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minutes. Add the tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, and remaining oregano, and cook until the tomatoes thicken and smell fragrant, 5 to 10 min. Taste and adjust seasonings. Either pour the tomato sauce directly over potates, or use as a dip.
Note: You can make ahead of time and reheat potatoes in oven (350 for 15 min) or microwave if you desire. Sauce would be equally good hot or cold.
It is fall! Well, almost. But the apples are starting to come in and to me that signals fall. Each year since before I had kids I have been making apple butter in the fall. After the first slightly scary leap-of-faith canning with my friend Sarah it has become a ritual. She had the equipment (large black pot you could fit a child into) and had seen it done. I had nothing but came anyway. We followed the directions and amazingly we got 3 cases of delicious spicy chunky apple butter (that link goes to my favorite apple butter- I double it and usually up the spices) for our labors and gifted it away at Christmas time.
I’ve learn to go it alone since then and have added to my equipment. Somehow I inherited (or stole, but I can’t remember and she never asked for it back) her great canning pot. I’ve since gotten a few tools I feel are essential. Top of the list? Jar grabbers- for avoiding nasty steam burns when taking your hot jars out of the sterilizing bath and when putting them back in for the “hot water bath” after they are filled. I’ve tried dishtowels and tongs– usually out of desparation because the jar grabbers have gone missing in the garage or other– but they really are essential to pain-free canning.
Since the “old days” of peeling 3 bags of apples by hand with a paring knife I’ve also upgraded to an apple-peeler-corer. I have the Pampered Chef version (which I coveted for 2 years and 4 pampered chef parties before I felt wealthy or justified enough to spring for it) and it works wonderfully clamped on my butcher block island. The true bonus of this contraption is that the kids love it too. Wait, actually that can sometimes be a drawback as they will run like wild things, whooping and laughing with glee when they see it and not let me alone until they get do turn the crank for at least 3 apples each. But delays in productivity aside, it is a great kids-in-the-kitchen tool. I have seen them used at my son’s preschool- each child allotted one apple only to their dismay- to make joint apple sauce, or they just enjoy the great long strip of apple slice it makes for a snack.
But my canning days aren’t here quite yet. Usually I prep my apples and then freeze them until a calmer October day seems right. It is too hectic this time of year-back to school-last minute vacations- sunshine and warmth to enjoy. It is also often too warm. Canning necessitates being in the kitchen with a huge pot of boiling water for quite a while– great swathes of steam enveloping your face and hot jars lining your counters like a marching band in formation. So I save the warm cinnamon smells of cooking apples and spices for the cooler months, BUT before Christmas. That is always my true deadline, because I absolutely love giving these little jars out every year.
So last week I bought my box of Gravenstein apples. They have a short season so you have to act fast. By the time I found time to peel and prep them though, they had already gotten a little too soft to use my handy-dandy apple peelin’ contraption on them, so this bunch I did have to peel by hand. Surprisingly I found that when you are not in a mad dash to peel 3 bags of apples, but rather just a half a box (we ate the other half!) the hand peeling is relaxing. There is a welcome rhythm in guiding the knife around and around, sliding under the slightly tough skin and pulling it through the apple flesh. My children splashed in our little pool in some late summer heat and I smelled apples and thought ahead to fall with it’s brisk mornings and orange afternoons.
These apples won’t actually go into the apple butter. They’re for apple pies. My apple butter apples will probably come from an acquaintance’s over-loaded tree for free- and I won’t care what kind they are because I’ve find all kinds make great apple butter. But Gravensteins are built for pie and so I get them ready now. This is a trick I learned from Sarah again (who in turn had stolen it from her Grandma. As my neighbor said, “the Grandmas have all the tricks”). I sugar and cinnamon/nutmeg them and into the freezer they go in usable amounts (quart freezer bags). When the desire hits for warm home-made apple pie I run to the store for a pre-made crust (Trader Joe’s makes a really nice “natural” one) and toss in the frozen apples and bake.
Easy as pie.
I just wanted to post quickly about two firsts this week- ok three.
The first I am so excited, and I dare say, proud about. My very first grown in my garden hollyhock is blooming! And it was worth the wait. I actually must admit I did not grow these from seed but purchased them as small plants at a local hardware store. The fact that I didn’t plant them from seed is probably a good thing since my zinnia seeds did not come up this year; doubly disturbing because those are the type of seeds a child is supposed to be able to grow! [Just in case you're interested in gardening with children here is another cool link that doesn't mention zinnias (maybe with good reason!) but looks like an excellent resource for gardening with kids. I'll have to post another time about my experiences gardening with kids; hit and miss as is the norm with all my gardening!]
Ok, to come fully clean, I actually planted 3 or 4 of these starters and only one is blooming but I’m calling that as SUCCESS! It is shaped like an umbrella handle, goes straight down and then hooks to the left- I’m guessing the sun exposure directly over the plant wasn’t suffiecient and I’m more then willing to overlook such faults. To me, like my children, it is gorgeous and perfect! And such a wonderful color! Unlike my dahlias, which disappointed me greatly as out of the many many (many many many) I planted ONLY the white ones bloomed, this hollyhock is studpendous. I guess I should quickly explain why the white dahlias were not met with such rave reviews– I had bought the white ones mainly to offset the other colors, but as the other colors did not bloom it is a little blah…. Ah well.
Before I gush on too long about my hollyhock, I’ll move on to my other first. We are joining a CSA! I wrote briefly about this in my first or second post, inspired and reminded by another bloggers post and promptly emailed a local farm about joining theirs. I was initially a bit dissappointed as their CSA is actually so popular there is a waiting list!!! I guess that speaks volumes about the area I live in- which I will take as a good thing- but I was still a little let down. Meanwhile I joined their waiting list and expected a 3-4 month wait until either someone decided to drop out of the CSA or they expanded their plantings. But!!! (of course there is a but, otherwise why would I spend all this time writing about it!) An email!!!
They have an opening on the day I requested and I’ve repsonded that yes, yes we’d like it! So, hopefully starting next week- but I really have no particulars- we will begin picking up our year-round CSA veggies bin. There is also a fruit and/or bread option you can add. I had no idea there would be so many choices to make, but excited about the possiblities and yummy local organic produce we will be having from now on. The nicest thing is that the farm where I will be picking up is not too far from my children’s school so I will probably bring them with me after I pick them up and give them a little exposure to the rich agricultural world of our county.
Last first. (Love how that sounds.)
I finished teaching my first class as a grad student. I’d like to say it went fabulously, but… it went great! I didn’t connect as much as I would have liked to with the students but part of that is my personality and I’m just going to have to work with that. I did however stay fairly organized, on task and impart what I wanted the first day. Second day? No idea! I’ve got a “plan” but really need to look at it. And then there’s the issue of whether or not they will read their assignment. And what do I do about it if they don’t? And so on….. But for today I am feeling good. Glad I’m past the first day with only a couple minor clumsy mishaps in front of the students (rather good for me) and home with out tears (not so surprising since i”m not really a crier, but wouldn’t it have been terrible if I was in tears then?).
I guess today I’m just reveling in all the firsts I can still experience 30 odd years into life! So many experiences, oppurtunities, and plants out there to try. I don’t always feel this way but today I am in awe of all my options. Oh- and ready for a nap.
Summer for us is OFFICIALLY winding down. Today I start my first day of grad school-OFFICIALLY. I’ve been prepping for the last week, at various trainings, and working on my curriculm for the composition class I’ll be teaching, but TODAY IS THE DAY! I teach my first class this morning and my own coursework begins tomorrow. So summer is officially and completely over— except for this Friday!! Friday will be the true last day of summer fun for my kids and I– but I haven’t figured out what do to yet!
Last Friday, feeling the end of summer blues, and after a morning of volunteering in my son’s preschool classroom helping his teacher get ready for the new year, and then two hours of errands, I treated the kiddies to dipped Foster Freeze cones! We had to eat them fast and furious because the heat was back and they were drip, drip, dripping! Ahhh, but the semi -hard- starting -to- melt- eggshell- thin -chocolate shell, with little droplets of vanilla ice cream sweating from within! We had to eat fast, to keep up with the heat’s work- honestly that wasn’t really a problem.
Those cones for me are a quinessential summer treat. As a child my sister and I ONLY got a Foster’s Freeze cone on drives to our family camping destination (or at least that’s how I remember it and I’m stickin’ to my story!) As we headed north from our home town the dirt got redder, and the heat more stifling, especially in our unconditioned car. About an hour into our winding trip, our legs sticking to the vinyl seats, our heads against the back window to let the rush of air from the open front windows unstick our hair from our foreheads, we would see the Foster’s Freeze sign with relief. As children who did not routinely get to stop for fast food, let alone a soft serve cone, this was a moment to be savored. The hardest decision was trying to decide: chocolate, vanilla, or half & half! Either way we were happy “campers” after that armed with our sticky, yummy oozing dipped cones and a lap full of napkins!
My mom originally introduced us to their messy loveliness, and for that I will always love her from the bottom of my chocolate obsessed heart!
The kids and I are really revving up for school. We’ve previewed their classrooms, went shopping for school supplies and it’s time to start planning lunches and snacks. This has me thinking about what I really started thinking about last year- zero waste lunches.
In my many little “green living” things I do, this is one that I think will carry over in many ways to other people and their habits. First of all my children. As they get used to reusing their containers, lunch bag, water bottle, etc, instead of consuming and tossing the “remnants” into the garbage it will become second nature for them to do so. I’m hoping it will become strange for them to grab a juice box instead of pouring a cup of juice. I hope they will also make an impact on the children around them by making it more normal to not have the juicebox, prepackaged cracker snack and so on. Modeling behavior is very important at all ages, but especially at the younger ones.
If you are not familiar with the concept of a zero waste lunch check out this site or this one for general ideas and information. Or Google the term- trust me you’ll get tons of sites. I’ve done only part of the things I need to do so far to move in the direction of zero waste, but it is a journey.
First off, last year I made them cloth lunchbags that can be washed (shown above in the “ian-only” fashion of around the neck). I lined mine with nylon for easy wiping out and used a thermal layer to help keep in the cold as well, but neither step is necessary. I got the basic idea from this about.com article, but there’s another easier (unlined) idea at this site using oilcloth. Mine held up all last school year and are entering their second year. Thea (my first grader) is a bit peeved at not getting a new one, but it was a good conversation starter on why we don’t need to or should buy a new lunch bag every year. Or a backpack with rollers–no matter how much she wants one! Reuse, wear out!
I also got Thea a thermos last year and Ian and myself ones for this year (the style I got them are actually termed food jars). That will be used for soup in the winter and anything else I can think of to put in there. Double bonus- less waste and wholesome, nutrious and WARM lunches for my kiddos (and me at school)! Last year also marked the purchase of aluminum water bottles for both kids to eliminate the plastic water bottle problem. I was bothered by them because of leaching and germs (especially in the reuse of them) and mass quantities of recycling we would have. Now this summer I have seen multiple articles on the plastic consumption fueled by these. So a good switch all around! I had previously bought myself one a couple years ago at Target but they don’t seem to carry them anymore. I have seen them at REI and Whole Foods (I think they carry the cute but a little pricey Sigg brand), but we found some “cute” ones at Border’s that coordinate with their cutsy stationary (which we did not however purchase). You can also search them at Amazon and come up with too many choices.
Regarding packaging food for the lunch bags I had to make some changes. I’ve always used wax bags (since I was a child and my father who excels in zero waste living in general set the example– see I told you modeling worked) because they are biodegradable. Problem is they break down so easily that if your food is too “wet” it will make a hole in the bag by lunch time- which can be messy. I use to use the wax for “dry” foods (crackers and p.b.& J.) and ziplocs for the wet, but last year I got some smaller plastic containers, including one I really liked that is square that can hold a sandwich or has 4 little compartments you can add so it can hold say 1/2 a sandwich and some cherry tomatoes and crackers. I also used the teeny tiny ones for dipping sauce, small veggie and fruit cuts, yogurt and so one. Of course the plastic leaching thing is always a concern, but I couldn’t find anything else- of course I’ve found the stainless steel ones now courtesy of angry chicken’s blog (but you can read my delimina on that on my previous post on green living).
This year I’m making at least 3 additions to last years changes.
1. I purchased some juice box substitutes (albeit plastic ones). I had previously still used juice boxs in additon to the water bottles, but this year I will fill the reusable “juice boxes” from a large jug. Apparently juice boxes use excessive packaging (like everything else!).
2. I am going to cut down on other excessive packaging handy snacks like cheese sticks and yogurt tubes and perhaps even granola bars. While they make my mornings a lot faster they do create a lot of trash (hence all the wrapping/droppings in my van).
3. I have always tried to send a cloth napkin with my children (when I remember) but this year I’m improving on that. Inspired by one a fellow preschool mom, Carolina, made her daughter last year I ‘m going to make them a rolled placemat that will have slots for their reusable silverware (as needed) and a pocket for their cloth napkin. I’m hoping this will make it even more fun for them to use the cloth napkin and eliminate some germ contact (although I’m not really a germ-phobe).
One last note is that a good place to get ideas on zero waste lunches is this blog- veganlunchbox. Even though her focus is on vegan lunches, there are many good ideas to be “stolen” or used as inspiration.
As long as you leave no evidence behind.
I have been thinking, well overthinking (as I tend to do) about green living. About even as I try to make good choices and changes in my house, I’m really not doing as much as I’d like to think. What got me thinking about this was a post by angry chicken about some alternative sources and products for traditional plastic storage containers, sippy cups, plates, etc.
Having children is just not conducive to being as green as you can. The idea is to reduce your footprint- your impact on the earth and resources; having kids is an impact in and of itself so it is hard to escape from that point on. You start with the piles of diapers (even the green choices such as cloth and biodegradable have their impact on water use) and we continue on to the mountains of paper children must use to express their creativity, write their name, write term papers….. But we try. We do what we can.
Here is what really got me thinking though. I saw a link on angry chicken’s blog to stainless steel lunchbox containers. “Perfect!” I thought, a good consumer through and through. This could replace the plastic containers I use in my kids lunches (in my attempt at zero waste lunches[more on that in a later post]) and yet free my conscious from the plastic containments they might be absorbing through their food. I was all ready to order off line, add them to my shopping basket and check out, righteousness in hand.
Then I started to think about a conversation my friend Sarah and I had on travelers who purchase airline offsets to ease their conscience about the global impact of their flight. They are freed from feeling guilty and can actually instead feel righteous. Those travelers are still impacting the planet, their just paying for the right to do so. I could say the same about my purchase. First off my old plastics- where are they going? Into the landfills? To the Goodwill for someone else to use? They don’t just disappear when my new “eco” replacements arrive. Secondly, how do those shiny new containers get here? via plane? or truck? So much for my reduced impact.
Now I haven’t gone all through this thinking to just beat myself up about all the “green” choices I make everyday; but I certainly need to think about them. Even if I do end up ordering those containers like I think I will. Because honestly their just darn cute.
After finally deciding that my children were old enough this year to give a little attention to a vegetable garden I spent a few cold winter nights last year poring over seed catalogs while bundled under my down comforter. My two favorite catalogs that I ended up ordering from this year were: Nichols Garden Nursery and Le Jardin du Gourmet. Le Jardin was especially fun because they have “sampler” packets you can order for only 35 cents each which have enough seeds for a postage stamp garden like mine but allowed me to order to my hearts content without breaking the bank (because those seeds do add up quickly, let me tell you). We constructed new boxes out front (the only place we get any decent amount of sun) and I ordered and started seeds last spring. And now it is all growing and ripening!
This is what I’m growing in my garden this year: Tomatoes- Stupice, Currant, Yellow Pear, Marmade; Cucumbers: Lemon and Vert Petit de Paris; Marvel of Venice Pole Bean; Summer Squash: White Scallop and Ronde de Nice; Queensland Blue Pumpkins; Melons: Charentais, Crane, Moon and Stars Watermelon; Herbs: Basil, Parsley, Sage, Mint, Thyme; Bell Peppers (can’t remember which ones- purple I think). The only thing that hasn’t “fruited” are the bell peppers (flowers though- could be promising) and the melon plants (again, flowers only). But otherwise much better success then I expected. The cucumbers have not done so well, but they got so over shadowed by the squash and tomato plants it’s really not a wonder.
The other day I picked the first heirloom slicing tomato. The currant (a cherry type) and the stupice (a small salad tomatos) had already been coming in slowly, but they were nothing compared to that one (Marmade I believe). This one oozed flavor (and seeds and juice all over my counter!). Acidic and full of flavor- biting but sweet. Slice, eat. Slice, eat. Gone. I ate the whole thing. Did not share it.
Tonight, Ian and I picked some more. They are all coming ripe at once. We filled 2 times over the the metal strainer I’d brought out front with us. Tomatoes, some beans, and a hiding lemon cucumber. I also found 4 lonely strawberries still good for eating, but those barely made it inside. We shared some tomatoes with our neighbors and then came back and found some more. Ian ate some and was so happy that he could just eat them when he wanted- no strings attached. I picked and hunted through the overgrown plants smelling their sweet scent. The smell of sun and summer. (A smell that lingers- sticks in your hair, so that later your husband will comment on it as you lie in his arms talking.) The garden is a bit neglected as we’ve been in and out of town so much in the last month, but the tomatoes don’t seem to have minded!
Since we ate an early dinner around 4 o’clock, I made the kids an evening snack of scrambled eggs and tomatoes. “More, can I have more tomatoes?”, they asked. Between the three of us we gobbled up 8 or so of the stupice. “Mmmm.,” Thea hummed as she ate. “Are these ‘home’ tomatoes, Momma?” she asked.
Yes indeed. Home tomatoes.
As I found myself utterly with “blog”fright at the prospective of writing my first entry I have to admit that I looked to my current favorite blog and part of my inspiration for starting my own- SouleMama. She is discussing their membership in a CSA, which is very timely as my husband and I have discussed joining one two times just in this last week. So (inspired by her once again) I’ve done a web search for our own local CSA and emailed for information- Finally! And so EASY!
CSAs- or Community Supported Agriculture- is something that I’ve been reading about for about 2 years or more as a way to stay more connected not only to the local economy and community, but to the seasons. Since I will receive what is in season, I-and in my case importantly my two children- will hopefully have a stronger connection to the seasons in which we eat. In today’s supermarket world where produce is flown in from around the world (New Zealand, Australia, Mexico, etc) every season is every season and you can forget how good an orange can taste from the bottom of your stocking on a cold, iced over Christmas morning; or how a watermelon- cold from the fridge or warmed and fragrant from sitting on the picnic table before being cut open and shared- can be so good that you gnaw on the pale rind, enjoying the slightly bitter taste after eating all the sweet flesh and spitting the black seeds across the grass in a contest with your sister.
So while summer is drawing to an end and I am starting to crave the soups of the fall and winter, I am hoping that perhaps this CSA will connect me even further, through my cooking and eating, to those seasonal differences that make up our years, and consequently our lives.