Try This: Broccoli Cheddar Soup

When I was growing up in Montana, a special treat for the family was to go "into town" and eat lunch in a restaurant called Jacob's. I always ordered the ham and cheese croissant with a cup of broccoli cheddar soup. The restaurant had celebrity names for each different soup and sandwich combination. I wish I could remember what this one was called. Anyway, here's my take on that hearty soup. It makes 4 servings but I recommend making it for yourself and eating the leftovers over several blustery days.

2 tablespoons butter
1 small yellow onion, minced
2 tablespoons flour
4 cups organic chicken broth
3 cups fresh broccoli, finely chopped
1/2 cup cream
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a Dutch oven. Add onion and cook until softened, 5 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over this and cook for 1 minute, stirring. Slowly add the broth, scraping up any browned bits on the bottom. Bring to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

Add the broccoli to the soup and simmer until tender, 7 -10 minutes. Transfer the soup to a blender and puree 1 minute. If you prefer no chunks of broccoli, puree it a bit longer.

Pour the soup back into the pot and stir in the cream. Carefully bring the soup to a simmer, then remove the pot from the heat. Stir in the cheese until it is incorporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Try This: Angel Hair with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Serves 1 person so sick of Mac n' Cheese she could spit. But wouldn't.

¼ lb angel hair pasta

minced garlic, to taste

1 ripe Roma tomato, or whatever kind you have on hand

1 tablespoon high quality olive oil

1- 2 basil leaves, chiffonade

grated Parmesan cheese

Sea salt

Slice the tomato horizontally into ¼ inch slabs, then dice the slabs. Place diced tomatoes in a strainer and rinse away seeds and slime. Heat the olive oil in a small skillet. Meanwhile, bring water to a boil for the pasta. Add some salt and the pasta. Sauté the garlic and drained tomatoes in the olive oil until just softened. The skin will start to peel back slightly. Salt to taste. Turn off the heat and set aside. Strain the pasta, being careful not to let it slip through the holes of your strainer. A wire mesh strainer works well here. Place the pasta in your serving bowl, then top with the tomato “sauce”. Sprinkle with basil and Parmesan cheese.

Try This: Cranberry Mango Smoothis

When I am feeling a little sluggish in the morning, I get out my blender and throw this delicious smoothie together. It's adapted from the recipe for Superfood Smoothie from Martha Stewart's website. It gives you great energy.

2 tablespoons soy milk or cow milk
2 tablespoons orange juice
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/2 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
2 big spoonfuls mango sorbet
1 tablespoon honey
2-4 ice cubes

Put all ingredients int he blender and and blend until smooth. Serve immediately.

Try This: Mushroom and Gruyere Scramble

Here's a new weekly entry-- a quick recipe to try, just for you, the one who loves to eat new things all the time, but has to make the same things over and over for the rest of the family. This week, a savory breakfast dish.

Mushroom and Gruyere Scramble (serves 1)

3-4 white mushrooms
1 - 2 tsp olive oil
pinch Mexican oregano
2 jumbo eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup shredded smoked Gruyere

Heat the olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and saute until golden brown on all sides, 4 -6 minutes.
Add oregano and wait 30 seconds. The fragrance will be lovely. Add the eggs and stir until cooked through, about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat. Add the cheese and stir to combine. Wait a minute for the cheese to melt before transferring to a plate. Salt and pepper to taste.

I recommend making this daily until you run out of ingredients.

Tacos with home-made flour tortillas

Tacos are just about one of the easiest meals to prepare. My family also loves them. So that's why we make them about once a week. This week I decided to change things up a bit and make our own tortillas from scratch. I found a recipe online then tweaked it slightly. It added about an hour to the prep time, but it was fun to do with the kids. Plus they loved the taste of them!

For the tortillas:

2 cups white flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tsp ground flax seed
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 cup warm water

In the bowl of an electric mixer, with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and flax seed. In a 1 cup measuring cup, combine the water and oil. With mixer on low, slowly add the water mixture to the flour mixture. Once mixed well, switch the paddle for the dough hook and knead for 4 -5 minutes. Cover with damp cloth and let rest for 20 minutes.

Pinch off golf ball sized sections of dough and roll them into balls. You will have 8 - 10 balls of dough. Place on cookie sheet and cover with a damp cloth. Let rest for 10 minutes.

Heat a cast iron or non-stick pan to medium-high heat. Working with one ball at a time, roll out the dough on a floured work surface. Roll it as thin as it will go. It will puff and thicken in the pan, so don't worry if it looks too thin. Your tortillas should be between 6 and 7 inches in diameter.

Place the tortilla on the dry, hot pan and cook for 30 seconds. Flip and cook for 30 seconds more. Place cooked tortilla inside a dry towel on a plate. Repeat with remaining dough balls. Place the plate of covered tortillas in a warm oven while you make the rest of the meal.

For the tacos:

Brown one pound beef in a skillet over medium heat. Add 2 teaspoons taco seasoning while it is cooking. Or make your own seasoning. Mine usually has some combination of the following:

cumin
garlic powder
chili powder
salt
Mexican oregano
pepper

Place beef in warmed bowl and put in oven while you make the rest of the condiments and sides. Make rice or beans, or both. (We like to spread a little of this bean dip on the tortillas before we start filling them. It helps everything stay put.). Chop up some lettuce and tomatoes and put them in a bowl. Put some shredded cheese in a bowl. Put out some salsa, taco sauce, and sour cream. Put everything on the table and ask everyone to dig in!

Growing My Own

What I didn't mention in the last post, but which you've probably already heard about, is that having kids help grown their own food is supposed make them more interested in eating it. I tried that this year at what's called a p-patch in Seattle. For $34 we rented a 10' x 10' plot on which we could try to grow anything we wanted.

Back in April the kids and I went to the garden store and picked out seeds. They wanted to grow watermelons and flowers, as well as carrots and pumpkins. We planted everything and weeded regularly. The hardest part was teaching them to watch where they step. They couldn't really tell the seedlings from weeds and tended to walk on everything.

They really enjoyed the harvesting part. They dug up potatoes, pulled green beans, shelled peas, and husked corn. But they still wouldn't eat the potatoes or green beans or zucchini. The volume of food we were able to grow was impressive to them, though. Here is what we got out of our little plot:

5 cups shelled peas
4 small onions
5 medium onions
3 bunches scallions
20 medium carrots
3 large carrots
7 zucchinis
2 small pumpkins
1 large pumpkin
14 small potatoes
12 medium potatoes
3 large potatoes
6 small bunches thyme
3 small bunches basil
2 heads red romaine lettuce
3 small handfuls baby greens
3 ears corn
5 lbs green beans
4 small tomatoes
2 medium tomatoes

The p-patch where we garden is the oldest one in the city. It was converted from a farm and its soil has been cultivated for organic gardening for decades. I wouldn't expect this much food from such a small space anywhere else. I feel very lucky that my family and I got to garden there this year. I hope we get to again next year. In the meantimes, feel free to e-mail me with questions about how to start your own garden. You don't even need to have a yard or p-patch to grow food. There are also some good books out there on making kid-friendly gardens. (None of which I consulted! Urg! Wish I had them back in April!)

Solutions for Picky Kids

As any foodie will tell you, picky eaters drive us crazy. We can't understand why anyone wouldn't love this food or that dish. For the foodie parents, we have the additional frustration of feeling responsible for the health and lifetime eating habits of these picky eaters. It's a lot of pressure. So when I read this article in Wondertime, it really helped put my mind at ease.

First, I learned that children have about 30 percent more taste buds than adults. I started imagining a spicy or salty dish tasting 30 percent stronger. I would probably be spitting it out too. Then it made sense that plain cereal, pasta and rice, to my kids, had a lot of flavor. Now when I make curry chicken with this canned sauce, I put some of it in a strainer and lightly rinse it before serving it to the kids. Now my daughter says, "Curry chicken? Yum!"

Next the article explains that, going back to our caveman days, a child's survival as they became more mobile depended on them not putting poisonous plants in their mouths. Most poisonous substances taste bitter, so kids have a natural aversion to bitter foods. And since most green foods are bitter, kids will avoid green foods from about age 2 to 5.

Finally, the texture problem was mentioned. Some kids are extremely sensitive to texture, so even if they like the taste of the food, they won't eat it. Just knowing that my son hates sticky foods right now helps me understand his disdain for an otherwise tasty dish.

So, here are my three ideas for coping with picky eaters:

1. Find out their favorite meals, and make them all at least once a week.

My daughter Cora likes chicken and rice, pizza, and make-your-own tacos. My son Jody loves fish sticks and quesadillas. By making sure they get regular meals they like, dinner becomes something to look forward to. Then when I do throw something out there that they're not sure about, they are more likely to try it. We just had this soup and my daughter loved it!

2. Don't force them to eat anything they don't like.

Having a taste of something, what my daughter's preschool teacher called "a tasting adventure", is great, but being forced to eat food that tastes bad to them creates control issues and anxiety. The better example of seeing you eat and enjoy your food is going to get them to try things in the long run. This is going to be really hard because it literally takes years for them to learn to like some foods. They may have to taste it 10 or 20 times before they like it. Or, as is the case with me and artichokes, they may just never like it.

3. Let kids serve themselves.

Although I hate the idea of making extra washing up by transferring food to serving dishes, it really is important to give them the choice of what to put on their plate. Just yesterday I put a dish of steamed broccoli on the table and my daughter took a huge portion. If I had served up her plate for her I probably would have just given her a tiny bit. (And by the way, the hidden message behind the tiny portion--this food is yucky!)

So there you have it. My two -- er, three cents about how to deal with picky eaters. Like anything else with kids, they are going to choose when and how they do this, so you might as well sit back and (try to) enjoy the ride.

Home-made English Muffin Breakfast Sandwich

I'll admit it, I'm a complete sucker for the Starbucks English muffin sandwiches. My favorite is the sausage, egg, and cheese. The other day after forking out God knows how much money for one, I wondered if I could make it myself. After all, it was junk food, really, and Michael Pollan says we can eat as much junk food as we want as long as we make it from scratch.

So I went through my cookbooks and found a recipe for English muffins in Bread Machine Magic. They called for malt vinegar. Not being Canadian I had none on hand. After a quick look at my online grocery delivery service (also not Canadian) I realized I'd have to head to the store. The next day I possessed not only malt vinegar but also the ingredients for the home-made sausage patties. Several days later I finally got on my hands and knees and retrieved my electric skillet from the back of the cupboard.

The muffins were so fun to make! After you make the dough you cut out the muffins with a cookie cutter and just pop them into the electric griddle. They puff up and turn golden brown, just like the real thing. How cute! I made about a dozen and good thing I did because the kids kept stealing them off the cooling rack to eat them.

The sausage smelled great with lovely fresh sage and thyme, but I wondered if the kids would eat it with actual visible green stuff in it (they didn't). Next time I will make them stand there and watch while I pour the maple syrup into the bowl. See? Sweet stuff! You like that!

I didn't have time to put the whole thing together that day so I hid the muffins and stuffed the cooked sausages in the fridge. The next morning I cooked the eggs, sliced the cheese, and toasted the muffins. I set them out and the children (big surprise) refused to eat them. Mine was every bit as good as Starbucks': sweet, salty, cheesy, meaty, and extremely satisfying. It took nine days to make, so it had better be. Will I go back to the evil empire to buy their sandwich again? You bet. But not quite yet.

Pink Beans and Little Turds

This spell of cool late-summer weather has given me a chance to do some warm-kitchen cooking. I just don't feel like cooking when it's 85 in my house, you know? So anyway, yesterday I started off with roasting a chicken. Nothing fancy, just a little s and p and some olive oil. While that sputtered away in the oven I started on a "Rough and Ready Turnip Potage", as Deborah Madison calls it. Only she could name it that! It is really just leek and potato soup with turnips, but much more delightful than that sounds. It made an nice cozy dinner and was so easy I even had time to prepare and freeze a chard pie. Some chard had sprouted up in my garden plot so I felt I had to use it. That will be a comfort some other cool evening.
Today I had only one potty-training boy to look after so while he practiced listening to his body's signals I made a zucchini ricotta galette. Only herself at Smitten Kitchen could find a way to put three cheeses, butter, and sour cream in one dish. Amazing and unforgettable, with a killer presentation. Here again I'm using foods I grew: zucchini and basil. To go alongside I shredded the leftover chicken from last night and placed it on a bed of (garden-fresh) lettuce. It looked a little lonely so I chopped up some red pepper and had the boy shell some pink beans. They are so fresh and tender you can eat them without cooking! With a little sour cream and chive dressing it looked fantastic.
At dinnertime I placed it in front of my husband, sliced him a big piece of galette, and watched as... he made no comment at all. The kids had chicken and cheese quesadilla and were busy complaining about how I dared to put CHICKEN in their sacred quesadillas when I realized-- no one has ever modeled the appropriate response to "here's your food" for them. I turned to hubby and said sweetly, "Will you show the kids how to act when someone sets a plate of food in front of them?" He thought I was referring to the fact that they had picked up some pink beans and were putting them on their eyes. Easy mistake. I tried again. "When someone sets a plate of food in front of you, you say 'That looks great. Thanks very much.'" Everyone continued eating (or, not eating) and I went back to my own dinner, a little sullen. The salad and galette were excellent anyway.
I was just digging into my second piece when my boy suddenly looked at his bottom, got down from the table and went to sit on the toilet. He soon proudly showed me the deposits he had made. It wasn't the triumph I was hoping for today, but it was the one we got. And that's something.

Looking Forward

Well, it's spring and I'm feeling more hopeful. The kids still won't even TRY mashed potatoes or biscuits or any number of delicious foods, but they are enjoying planting things. On Tuesday we planted zucchini, romaine lettuce, and thyme. And Sunday I planted some strawberry starts in my Topsy Turvy Upside Down Strawberry Planter (as seen on TV). The starts look happy, reaching toward the perpetually cloudy sky.My peas plants that sprouted in the windowsill last month are doing great outside on the deck. I'm going to train them onto the railing so they can just go crazy. Maybe in a couple months I will be able to make some of these:Pea and Potato Cakes, from Simply Organic.
The kids probably won't eat them, but it won't stop me from making them again. They were like delicious little clouds (with cheese and onions in them).