Get 'em while you can!

I hate discussing controversial topics and am pretty tight-lipped when it comes to politics.... Hahhaha.. That's a big ol' fat lie. My beloved husband and I spend a better part of each day discussing politics. I really didn't want to delve into politics on my blog though. Funny thing,  politics have a tendency to divide people.

I am about to break my own rule. Kinda.

Last week Mayor Bloomberg proposed a ban on sugary drinks over 16 ounces to help curb obesity. I think it's flat out crazy. There's a couple of reasons I think Mayor Bloomberg is overstepping his mayoral boundaries.

I wondered how the Mayor could do this without the approval of the city council. Well, the good news is that he can't do it without the approval of the Board of Health. The bad news? Every member of the board of health was appointed by the Mayor. Sigh.

I really don't think it's the governments job to tell it's citizens what they can and cannot eat or drink. And I most certainly don't think it's the governments job to BAN items that are still legal. It's a very slippery slope. No one will argue sugary drinks are good for you. They aren't. There is absolutely NO nutritional value at all in Pepsi, or Dr. Pepper. It's crap, pure and simple.  But what's next? A ban on white bread. (that would just put me over the damn edge. I know whole grain is the thing to eat, but a turkey sandwich on white bread with tons of mayo and salt. It's heaven on a plate). No more potato chips? Oreos? You can only have 1 scoop of ice cream on your cone?

What really irritates the hell out of me is the hypocrisy. Super sized soda's are verboten, but huge diet sodas are ok. Really?  There's no sugar or high fructose corn syrup, so it must be good for you.

Super sweet coffee drinks are also safe from Bloomberg's ban. Why? They contain dairy. So a 72 ounce mocha latte frappa crappa cino is a-okay.

And last, but not least, you know those enormous big gulps at the 7-11??  Nope, not on the banned list. Yes they are full of sugar and dyes and other crap and contain not a drop of dairy. So, why aren't they banned? Well, big gulps and other similar drinks sold by convenience stores fall under the grocery story pervue  and therefore are safe from the ban.

Even Bloomberg himself states a very big problem with this ban,  “Your argument, I guess, could be that it’s a little less convenient to have to carry two 16-ounce drinks to your seat in the movie theater rather than one 32 ounce,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a sarcastic tone. “I don’t think you can make the case that we’re taking things away.”

Not only could you buy 2 sodas, more and more restaurants will start offering free refills, effectively sidestepping the ban. 

The money needed to enforce this ridiculous ban is far better spent on education. But that doesn't get your name in the papers or money into your re-election coffers. Not that Bloomberg needs the campaign cash. I suppose he's just well intentioned, but misguided. I don't really believe that, but for the sake of keeping things civil, I'm going with it.

Now, please excuse me while I got make myself a turkey club sandwich on white bread and extra mayo while I still can.

A Weekend in Foodie Hell

I spent the weekend with my oldest daughter at a girl scout camp. We learned to tie knots. Learned tons of new girl scout songs. Met an amazing dad from Platsburgh, New York. He's a single dad of two kids. President of his kids' PTA, his son's boy scout leader and his daughter's girl scout leader. I was so impressed with this man, who was so dedicated to his kids he would not only be a girl scout leader, he'd attend a  "me and my gal" leader training over 100 miles from his home.
Besides meeting great people, we froze our asses off. It got down to 34 degrees at night. We were tent camping. 'Nuff said.
But for all the fun I had, I was in foodie hell. Now, I didn't expect to eat like Wolfgang Puck was my personal chef for the weekend. I'm just calling  a spade a spade. 

The english muffin pizzas weren't terrible. We dressed 'em up with some pepperoni. The chicken noodle soup, on the other hand, was plain awful. It was generic condensed chicken noodle soup.  To save on dishes, we heated up a pot of water on the small propane stove. Ladled water into our mess kit mugs and then spooned some of the gloppy chicken noodle soup into the less than hot water. The result was pretty inedible. I knew the soup wasn't going to be great, but I was hoping for something warm in my belly. It was neither great, nor warm.

The food went downhill from there. As a snack the girls made trail mix. It included, fruit loops, cookie crisp cereal, peanuts, m&m's, raisins, dried pineapple, and cheerios. How I longed for my granola.

Dinner was foil packet dinners. I've been making a version of these since I was a kid camping with my parents. What are foil packet dinners, you ask? Well, in it's simplest form, it is food, meat, starch, and veg, cooked in an aluminum foil pocket over hot coals. This is not a new method of cooking. And it can be a terrific way to make dinner, not just when camping, but anytime. It works especially well on a charcoal or gas grill. It's also easy clean-up. No dishes to wash. Unfortunately at Girl Scout camp, it consisted of  a choice of chicken breast cut into tiny pieces, "steak" (I have no clue what cut of beef this was), frozen hash browns, diced red and green pepper (Yay- a fresh veg!), canned corn, pre-shredded carrots, bottled Teriyaki sauce, or italian dressing.

You place your selected food items onto the center of a large piece of heavy duty foil, douse with a sauce of your choosing. Wrap the foil tightly so all the edges are folded and sealed.  Then you place your pocket onto the hot coals of a campfire.We were told it should take about 30 minutes to cook. I knew that after 30 minutes, the contents of the packet would be charred to a cinder. I removed ours from the coals after 20 minutes.

The result was predictably bad. The bottoms were blackened, the meat was beyond tough, the veggies were mushy and the whole thing tasted of bad Teriyaki sauce. But it was warm and I ate every last morsel.

But the worst was yet to come. Worse than even the scrambled egg cooked in a zip-lock bag in a pot of boiling water, which was pretty gross. Worse than the Entenmann's cheese danish. Worse than the powdered Hi-C fruit punch we had to drink.

The worst was the "Cherry and Apple Cobbler". I just debated which words to put it quotes, because there was no real cherry or apples to be found and it most certainly wasn't a cobbler. So, I just put the whole darn thing in quotes.

Here are the ingredients for the cobblers. We made two. "cherry" and "apple".
2 boxes-yellow cake mix
1 can cherry and 1 can apple pie filling
2 sticks of butter

Directions:
In a large cast iron dutch oven, lined with aluminum foil, put the pie filling of your choice. Next add the dry cake mix. Place a stick of butter on top of the whole thing. Place the lid onto the dutch oven. Make sure to have a nice tight fit. Place the dutch oven on the hot coals. Place some of the coals onto the top of the dutch oven. Cook for about 45 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

I am not a fan of any part of this, save the butter. But being the great girl scout leader I am, I grabbed myself a spoon and cup and dished myself a generous helping of the apple cobbler. How bad could it be? Oh, it was bad. Bad, bad, bad. I swallowed the first bite and that was all I could do. The cloying, artificial taste of the canned fruit filling coated my mouth so I have no idea what the "cobbler" part tasted like. I pawned off the rest to a nearby girl scout.

The food wasn't all bad. We did make "brown bears". Baked refrigerator biscuits, rolled in hot melted butter and then tossed in cinnamon sugar. They were pretty good. N proclaimed them the best thing she ate all weekend. And I agree.

I feel a bit guilty writing all this. Like I'm breaking some secret girl scout code. And I realize  how incredibly snobby I must seem. The food wasn't meant to be phenomenal. I get that. We were being taught how to use different outdoor cooking methods. I just couldn't help but wonder how I could make each thing we had better. A lot better. It was kind of like some nightmare version of Top Chef.  N and I had a great weekend, but when it came to the camp cuisine, I was more than happy to pack my knives and go. 

Like Mother Like Daughter

I talk to my kids all the time about eating food that's good for our body. So, it wasn't much of a surprise when our middle daughter, J, told us about a writing project for her first grade class. She wrote a persuasive letter to the school district's food service director asking him to make the lunches at her school healthier. While other children were writing home to persuade their parents to get them puppies and kittens, J, with some encouragement from her teacher, took a different route. Which is not surprising. J is bold and courageous.

What was a surprise was hearing about the food service director, not only writing her back, but visiting her classroom to discuss some changes in the school lunches.  More whole grains, and fresh fruits and veggies. Less processed "meat". And some healthier options at the snack bar.

While I'm not a huge fan of the school lunches, I do allow my girls to buy lunch once a week. And I don't really limit what they can get. French toast sticks and sausage patties? Go for it. Mozzarella cheese sticks? Fine by me. Macaroni and cheese? Chow down.

No, it's not healthy. Yes, it's processed garbage.  My kids eat good, healthy meals most of the time, what can 1 crap meal a week do? And they love it. They look forward to the days they buy lunch. And to be very honest. I look forward to those days too. It means I don't have to pack them a lunch. It's like a little break for me!

After hearing from J,  about meeting with the food service director, I emailed him to thank him for writing back to my daughter and visiting her school. I also told him of my interest in teaching kids to eat healthy. Later that same day, I received a lovely email back. He explained some of the changes he had already made in the school lunch program. Last year he replaced many of the fried snack items with lower-fat baked products. He made more of the rolls, breads and pizza crusts from whole grains. He even had an article published on Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution website.  

Are the lunches as healthy as they could be? No, there is still plenty of room for improvement. I'd love to see our district using more local produce. I'd love to see them using whole grain pasta.  But I feel encouraged. I believe there is a dedication on the part of our district to improve the quality of the school's foods. And with kids like J pushing for healthier options, the future looks a whole lot brighter for school food.

The Lighter Side of Cream of Broccoli Soup

Here's another chapter in my story of what to eat for lunch. Today I was craving something spicy. I also needed to eat something light. I ate way too much of everything this weekend. Not only did we celebrate Easter. My youngest turned 3 on Saturday. My body didn't need any more cream and butter. Or chocolate, or frosting, or ravioli, or tomato cream sauce, or ham, or hot potato casserole, or, well you get the picture.

So, I found a few small heads of broccoli in the fridge. I decided to make a quick cream of broccoli soup. Without the cream and with lots of  crushed red pepper.

This soup took me 30 minutes from start to finish. Super quick and it was just what I wanted. It felt good putting something healthy into my body and it was perfectly spicy.

No real recipe for this one either. Just a very simple method.

Dice a small onion. I had one of those HUGE spanish onions. The ones the size of a baby's head. I used half. So, dice it up. It doesn't have to be pretty, you are going to puree the soup anyway.

Mince a few garlic cloves. I used 3 pretty good size cloves. Add more or less depending on your tastes. Please don't use garlic powder. Blech... buy some real, honest to goodness heads of garlic. Oh and that stuff in a jar is gross too. Use the real thing. Please.

Cut the broccoli into florets.  Make sure you also chop up the stems of the broccoli too! How much broccoli? I would say about 1 lb or so.

Saute the onions in some coconut oil or olive oil. Add some crushed red pepper flakes. How much depends on how spicy you want your soup. I just kinda sprinkled some in. Leave them out, if you don't like spicy stuff.  When the onions are soft, about 4 or 5 minutes on medium heat, add the garlic.  Saute only until the you smell that fabulous aroma.

Now add the broccoli  and 1 quart (4 cups) of chicken or veggie stock. I use Kitchen Basics, but Rachel Ray makes a decent chicken stock as well. Bring this to a boil and cook until the broccoli is tender. The smaller the florets, the faster this will cook.

Now blend it. You can use a blender, or an immersion blender. Like this one.  I love my immersion blender.

After blending it, I added about 1/2 cup whole milk. I wanted to make this a bit creamy, but didn't want to add cream. You can add milk or cream, half and half, or just leave it the way it is. How indulgent do you want to be?

Season with a bit of salt and freshly ground black pepper. I also added some freshly grated nutmeg. It really adds a nice depth of flavor. The kind of thing that makes people say, "hmmm... that's really good. What's in it?".

That's it. Serve it hot with some freshly baked bread. (Check out my post on no-kneed bread.) Or  a nice salad.

This soup is perfect for early spring in Upstate NY. It's supposed to be cold  and rainy most of the week. Make a pot and your family will thank you. Or they will start crying because they hate broccoli. Oh wait. Maybe that's just my 3 kids. Never mind.

I hope you enjoy the soup. I did!

No-kneed Bread

It's been almost two years since I've purchased bread on a regular basis. Yes, I make my own. No, I don't own a bread machine. I use my kitchen aid to mix and knead and then I let it rise on my counter and then bake it. The bread doesn't last long. But that's a good thing. It means my family eats it all very quickly.

It is time consuming though. The actual dough making and kneading only take about 15 minutes or so. But the dough must rise for about 2 hours the first time and then typically needs (not kneads) another rise before being baked. The second rise is shorter, but we're still talking a few hours. Really? Who has time for that? Well, sometimes, on the weekends I do, but most of the time, not so much.

And then I found a method that has changed my life. And it will change yours too! There are lots of different names for this method and many cookbooks for this kind of bread. Most often it's referred to as no-knead bread.

And as the name implies, this method of making bread requires absolutely no kneading. Which is great, but the even better part of this is that you throw the dough into the fridge. In my case, you then pray it doesn't freeze. Then when you are ready, you pull out the dough, cut off a chunk. Give it a brief rise on your counter. Only 30- 40 minutes. And then you bake it for about 30 minutes.

What this means, is that after you get home from work, you can have freshly baked bread in about 1 hr. That is really, pretty amazing.

The very, best part. Yes, better than not having to knead (I don't mind the kneading actually. Believe it or not, I enjoy it. It makes me feel connected to my food.) Better than not having to wait hours while the dough rises. That I can totally do without. The most wonderful part of the bread is the taste. Goodness Gracious Me! And the longer it hangs out in your fridge, the better it tastes. Well, within reason. Can't really keep the bread dough longer than a couple of weeks. However if you wait a week or so, the bread has a real sourdough flavor!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 c. warm water

1 ½ tbsp dry active yeast (instant yeast is ok too)

1 ½ tbsp kosher salt

6 ½ c flour (I usually do 4 c white AP flour and 2 ½ white whole wheat flour)

Directions:

Ok. This can't get any easier.

Put all ingredients in to your mixer. Mix until it's a wet gloppy mess. Only about 30 seconds to a minute. Dump the dough into a large plastic container that you've sprayed greased with olive oil or butter. I find spraying it with oil works the best. I have one of those cool oil misters. You can put whatever kind of oil in it you want. Much more economical than buying Pam. 

Now rest the lid of the container on top, but don't fit it on tight. And let it hang our on your counter for a couple of hours. Do it on a weekend. Or after work. It takes minutes to mix together and then let it rise on your counter while you eat dinner or take your kids to piano/soccer/baseball/hockey practice. After a couple of hours put the whole thing in the fridge. It can stay our for up to 5 hours without harming the dough, so if you are running late. No worries. The dough will be fine.

It's hard to see in the picture, but I use this container only for my bread dough, so I've cut some wholes into the lid. It lets gas escape while it's in the fridge. If you don't want poke holes into your beloved Tupperware, just make sure the lid isn't on tight. It'll be fine.

That's it. Then when you're ready for some fresh baked bread, take out the container. Sprinkle a small section about ¼ to ⅓ of the dough and cut the dough. Then form it into a ball. This takes a bit of practice, but basically you are going to stretch the dough to form a ball. Place it on a pizza peel sprinkled with a bit of flour. Not let it rise for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes turn the oven on to 450 degrees. Place a pizza stone into the oven on the middle rack. On the lower rack, place an empty broiler pan . This is for water which will help give the bread a nice crispy artisan crust.

Dust the top of the dough with flour. Don't be shy. Give it a good dusting. Like the snow we didn't have in upstate NY this year. With a serrated bread knife, slash a ¼ inch cross or several parallel slashes. The flour will allow the knife to slash the dough without sticking.

When the oven is up to temperature, slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Also add ½ cup of water to the broiler pan and quickly close the oven door.

If you don't have a pizza stone, you can use a sheet pan turned upside down in the oven. And if you don't' have a pizza peel, you can use a piece of parchment. Then just slide the parchment and bread into the oven. The crust wont be quite so crisp, but it will still be amazing. Trust me!

Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until the bread is nice and brown.

Now, here's the hard part and one that I've never quite been able to do. Wait. You should really wait about 30 minutes to slice into the bread. It's virtually impossible to wait, though. The smell of the bread will entice you to slice into it right away and spread with some butter.

This process sounds complicated. But it's not. I promise. Try it. Now the one thing I haven't been able to do with this dough is make sandwich bread. I've tried, but it just doesn't work for me. I have another recipe for bread. I'll share that soon!

Now, you can cut off smaller pieces of dough and make rolls. Or, add some chopped fresh herbs to the ingredients before mixing it. Fresh thyme and rosemary would be amazing.

Many people ask why I bother making my own bread. It's pretty simple. Go to the grocery store and read the ingredients on the bags of sandwich bread. Usually sugar is one of the first ingredients. Or high fructose corn syrup. And the list of preservatives is both lengthy and unpronounceable. I don't want to eat it, nor do I want to feed it to my family. I like being able to control the ingredients.

And let me ask you this, is there anything better than freshly baked bread warm right from the oven?

My Lunch

Just a quick post to show you all how I really cook. Unless I'm baking, I really don't like using recipes. They sorta get in my way. I prefer to add a little of this and a pinch of that.

For lunch I made a shrimp and asparagus salad on a bed of arugula.

Here's how I made it.

Remember you wont see any amounts. 

I grabbed a handful of cold cooked shrimp, (I'd cooked it earlier in the day. I like roasting it with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper and old bay seasoning in a 400 degree oven for a few minutes. Just until the shrimp is cooked through) and cold cooked asparagus. This was leftover from dinner the night before.

I wanted a simple dressing on it. Nothing heavy or gloppy. I chose to go with a bit of fresh squeezed lemon juice and a drizzle of olive oil. I added a bit of Dijon mustard as well.
 
I put this salad over some peppery arugula.  Looking back it would have been even better with some radishes for a little crunch. Oh well, next time.

It was delicious. It was clean and simple.

This is my kind of food and this is how I like to cook.

The Weekend That Shouldn't Have Been

Several months ago, Mike and I purchased a great Groupon deal. Don't know about Groupon? Check it out here. It was a two night stay at the Rhinecliff Hotel in Rhinebeck, NY. It was kinda funny, because the Rhinecliff was a well known, crappy, hole in the wall bar when we were in high school. Yes, Mike and I went to high school together. When I say bar, I really mean, dive.

So apparently, in the few short years since high school (ha ha ha), the building was purchased and renovated into a beautiful hotel. It sits right on the Hudson river, only 2 miles from historic Rhinebeck NY. And only 10 minutes from Red Hook, the town Mike and I grew up in.

To say we were looking forward to this weekend does not begin to describe it. We had not had a weekend away, without the kids in years. As a matter of fact we never got away for our 10^th anniversary because we decided to have another baby instead.

My parents happily offered to take the three kids, so Mike and I could enjoy a weekend at the Rhinecliff. And we began to count down the days.

Our saga began Thursday night. Jilly woke up at 10 pm throwing up. Right then, I started to question whether our weekend, which was actually Sunday-Tuesday, was actually going to happen. She was only sick once. And seemed much better the next day. A fluke, perhaps. Or something she ate? I called my friend Jean, a physician, begging her to tell me that it wasn't the start of some terrible stomach flu that would ravage the entire family. In the back of my mind, as much as I didn't' want everyone to get sick, I wanted to go away! She told me it could be just a one time thing. But she didn't' sound terribly convincing.

And for good reason. Sure enough, the next night, Friday night, (only about 36 hours from when we were hoping to leave) Audrey, our almost 3 year old, woke up vomiting. This was NOT a one time deal. She was sick most of the night. I ended up sleeping on her floor.  It was a LONG night.

This is when the depression set in. We weren't going away, were we? It wasn't fair. I Needed this weekend away. Our kids have been healthy all winter, why now?

Audrey was better the next day, but we now knew it wasn't food poisoning. It was the stomach flu. Who, we wondered, would be next? Everyone was fine all day Saturday and Saturday night came and went without incident. Maybe that was it.

I talked to my parents and they said they would still take the kids. They knew how much we'd been looking forward to this time away. And how much we needed it for our sanity. So, on Sunday morning, with everyone healthy and happy, we packed bags and the car and headed south.

After visiting with my parents and having a little lunch, Mike and I kissed our girls goodbye and headed to the hotel. The Rhinecliff Hotel is gorgeous. We settled quickly into our spacious room. Mike flopped onto the King size bed and I immediately filled the jacuzzi tub and slid into the piping hot water enjoying the silence.

My first inkling that something wasn't right came about ½ hour later. I felt slightly nauseous, but attributed to the hot bath and the fact that I hadn't eaten much. My appetite was gone and had been for days, but I figured it was just the psychosomatic effects of the kids being sick. We never made it to dinner. Within the hour, I was sick. Really sick. It was not a good night.

The next day I was able to get out of bed, but couldn't enjoy the full complimentary breakfast the hotel offers it's guests. The breakfast menu looked great. Or would have, had I not been wanting to crawl back into bed. I managed to drink a little tea and eat a bit of fresh fruit. Mike tells me the pancakes with fruit compote were delicious. After breakfast I began to feel a bit better. Actually, I rallied rather well. We drove to Rhinebeck and wandered around the shops. Many had changed since we'd last been there, over 8 years ago, but comfortingly many were still the same. We met an old friend for lunch and it was wonderful to catch up.

We spent more time back at the hotel, so I could rest. Mike and I did enjoy spending time talking without being constantly interrupted or having to settle an argument between our older two girls, or helping the youngest in the bathroom.

I spoke with my mom several times throughout the day. The kids were having a blast, as I knew they would. The weather was perfect and they spent most of the day outside painting rocks.

Mike and I went to dinner at our favorite sushi place and I was able to eat a couple a pieces of sushi and it was delicious. Sadly, I was back in the hotel and in bed by 9 pm. Some romantic weekend, huh?

But I went to bed looking forward to our final morning at the hotel. Maybe enjoying a long bath and then having a wonderful breakfast. I remember seeing eggs Benedict on the menu that I couldn't wait to try.

The next morning I woke to my cell phone ringing at 7:00 am. It was my mom. She and my dad had been sick all night and needed us to come and get the kids right away.

Ugh.

So, our weekend ended the way it began.

I had huge ideas about the way I would blog about our weekend. Review the hotel. Review the restaurants. And I can't really do any of that. Not properly anyway.

So, now I'm left feeling frustrated at the world. I don't ask for much. All I really wanted was a weekend away with my husband. And I guess I did get one. I just would have preferred one with less agonizing stomach pains and vomit.

Oh, and that brings me to Guilt. The horrible guilt I feel for bringing the sick children to my parents, only to infect them.  I feel terribly about that. I'm so sorry mom and dad. Really, Really, Sorry.

But, in the end, my family is now healthy and happy (sorta), and there will be other weekends. Maybe in another 13 years.