Apt. 11D

Jonah's Lunch Box

Every night, Steve makes sandwiches for the boys and himself. In the morning, I assemble all the pieces and put them in a lunch box with an ice pack. Steve's sandwiches are so good, that Jonah has been known to sell the second half of his sandwich to a classmate. (Yes, those are artisanal pickles from the local farmers' market. God, I HATE being predictable.) 

Cookin' With Hotdogs

Last week, I called up my buddy, Suze, while I was making dinner. As we chatted about the news of the day, I described my dinner plans. I was making a quiche with leftovers and random vegetables in the fridge. I sliced up a leftover hotdog and fried them up a bit. I chopped up leftover broccolli. Then, I sauteed some mushrooms with butter and thyme. It all went into the quiche. 

I've made other masterpieces like this before. I might be most proud of the chicken fajitas, where the chicken marinated in Lemon-Lime Gaterade. A little sweet, but it worked. 

Suze was horrified that I was mixing fancy cooking, ie quiche, with common cooking, ie the hotdog. It turned out just fine, thank you very much. But that meal sparked a whole discussion about horrific things you can do with hotdogs. 

Suze found a recipe for Hawaiian Hot Dog Surpise. The author notes that it would be great for a Christmas Dinner. Hotdogs, pineapples, brown sugar, baked beans. All in a slow cooker. Mmmmm. 

Question of the Day: What's the scariest recipe that you've found on the Internet or that you've whipped up yourself. 

After the Flood

The media is too concerned about Conrad Murray and the latest femme fatale killer to bother talking about the impact of Hurricane Irene on upstate New York. Our CSA farmer lost everything. Everything. And CSAs aren't typically covered by flood insurance, because insurance covers large crops not small, multi-varietal crops. 

Check out this video on Grist. 

Why We Eat Big Macs

In yesterday's Week in Review, Mark Bittman responds to fast food defenders, who claim that people go to McDonald's because it is much cheaper than a home cooked meal. Bittman lines up a roasted chicken dinner with McDonald's for four and finds that the chicken dinner is cheaper, as well as more nutritious. McDonald's costs $27.89 and the chicken dinner costs $13.78.

I think Bittman misses the point here. People go to McDonald's, because it isn't that much more expensive than making a chicken dinner, and it is much, much easier. 

The past six months were insanely busy, and where we did we end up at least once a week? At the Wendy's drive through. Other nights it was Boston Market or the local pizza joint or the Greek takeout. In the height of the insanity, I cooked only once a week.

Bittman dismisses the ease of fast food too quickly. He says that people have time to watch an hour of TV every night, so they have time to go to the supermarket and cook dinner. Well, not really. To make a meal that everyone will eat, it requires planning, organizing, food shopping, food sorting, cooking, cleaning up. Doing all that after putting in a 12 hour day is gruesome. A fast food meal can be ordered and eaten in 20 minutes or less. 

To really jump start the food revolution, we either need to revamp our lifestyles (No more evenings with triple activities for the kids. Less homework. Less time at the office.) or we need better choices at the fast food restaurants. Better choices at fast food restaurants seems like a more realistic option.

Honestly, the salads at Wendy's and the unsweetened iced tea aren't bad. In my upper class suburb, I can split a Greek salad with Steve for $8 or get a plate of spaghetti and meatballs at the Italian pizza joint for $5. The problem is that these options are only available to those in the Upper West Side or the wealthy suburbs. Let's subsidize healthy fast food, so it can be more available everywhere. 

CSA Cooking

Every Tuesday, I get my haul from our friendly CSA farmer (Hi Lisa!),  and I start planning the menu for the week based on what's in my basket. 

With the scallions, carrots, and potatoes, I'm going to make a variation of my potato-leek soup. It will be sharper than the leek version, but we'll adjust. Here's a Real Simple recipe for scallion-potato soup.

We've been getting a lot of radishes this summer, so I've been making cabbage, carrot, and radish coleslaw. My neighbor Britta taught me a cole slaw short cut - mix Brianna's Poppy Seed Dressing with the vegetables. 

After watching Mark Bittman make a nice pasta with greens, I think I might do something similar with what I have available. I made a great pasta over the winter by starting off with slivers of fried garlic, which Bittman does does, and then adding sausage, white wine, and blanched broccoli rabe. 

I fear that I've been watching too much Master Chef this summer. 

Sun Worshippers, Rejoice!

According to Lifehacker, new studies show that we aren't getting enough Vitamin D, due to sun block. One scientist said, "We are the first society of cave people," he lamented to me in 2010. "In the development process of creating the skin, nature never dreamed that we'd deliberately avoid the Sun so thoroughly."

Without Vitamin D, we can develop terrible diseases. Tumors can spread quicker. There are even a few that say that it can lead to autism (but I'm not at all convinced). 

Still, I think the main finding of the research - we are Vitamin D deficient - is a serious concern. Go outside and garden for twenty minutes today. If I can't get a bad sunburn in 20 minutes, then you're all fine. 

Scallions, Part 2

We're just getting around to making plans for vacation, because with the house on the market, we had no idea whether we were going to have the time or the money to go away. Looks like we're not moving yet, so we're scrambling to make vacation plans. Beach or mountain? Drive or plane? One place or many? Fancy or low key? As I frantically googled and shouted out ideas to Steve, we talked about our memories of summer vacations as kids.

For me, summer vacations mean the Jersey shore and the morning stroll to the local bakery for donuts. And sunburns. That vague pain on a burn on top of my feet. It's hard being a redhead. 

In addition to a blistering sunburn, summer is also the season of cold, side dishes. One of my favorites is the bean and corn salad. 

 
Here's my Bean, Corn, and Sunburn Salad:

2 cans of black beans, rinsed

1 bag of frozen corn (I like the kind that steams in the bag)

fresh cilantro

scallions

1 tsp of cumin (or more)

salt and pepper

red wine vinegar and oil (Last year, I used balsamic vinegar, but I think I like the red wine better. It wakes up the veggies.) 

Take it or leave it: jalapenos, red or green peppers, avocado, cayenne pepper, cherry tomatoes

The New Dinner Plate

The old food pyramid was too confusing, so Michelle Obama has introduced the Dinner Plate concept.

What do you think? 

Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know that vegetables and fruits are good for them? I doubt that this new graphic will stop people from buying that Big Mac and instead encourage them to make their own plate of organically grown lettuce and kale. People need to know how to cook, they need access to supermarkets, they need time to cook, they need to eat enough salads to get used to the taste, they need good lunches at schools, they need enough money to make better food choices, and they need enough free time to plan a good meal. 

Scallions, Part 1

Last week, I picked up three bunches of scallions from my CSA. They're beautiful. Huge and crunchy without that bite that you get from supermarket scallions.

What can you do with scallions? Of course, they are great stir fried with chicken and broccoli, but what else? This weekend, I tried out Mark Bittman's bulgogi recipe. 

Scallions, garlic, sesame oil, soy sauce, and honey in the cuisinart. 

Like my ajos jar? Best thing to store garlic.

I suggest a nice beer when you're cooking bulgogi. 



After you finish pulsing the ingredients, you get a pungent paste. One sniff burns the hairs out of your nose. Another beer at this point. 

I jarred it up and took it my mom's. My folks just came back from France and they had a lovely barbecue in their backyard to celebrate the June birthdays.

I enlisted the help of Cousin Jeff on the grill. Jeff, who has very strong views on bulgogi, said that he marinates the meat all night. I thought it was too pungent to marinate for too long. I cut up some skirt steak and let it sit in the goop for a couple of hours. Jeff also said that he grates up an asian pear and throws it in his bulgogi mix. Show off! 

 

 Yum. 

OK, I totally failed as a food blogger, because I forgot to take the money shot - a final, close up of the food on a nice plate. Well, it was good. Really. 

Waitz

Grete Waitz passed away yesterday. 

She was one of my inspirations in high school. Very sad.