Eating
So the quinoa craze. Everyone and their mother eats it. Do many of us like it? Let’s be honest. It’s like kale. Though my girlfriend Katie includes an amazing kale recipe on her beautiful food blog —> hoppppp on it like a bunny rabbit. Back to quinoa. AA hates it. Loathes it. SuperBoy is four now and smart enough to not like it either. SweetPea, well you know, she’s a great eater so everything gets shoveled in eventually. The trick to feeding my family quinoa? RED quinoa. Don’t ask why this somehow tastes better?? Well apparently it does. Here’s my quinoa: Green bell peppers, sausage, cheese, black beans, walnuts, red quinoa, lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, done. {Take a weekend away from your big children and go to your family home in Wisconsin. Use your mom’s dreamy stove.} Drain the beans (or if you work from dried beans do whatever that is . . . errrrr . . . canned beans over here). Chop the cheddar. I love Prairie Breeze. Chop the bell peppers. Green. From the garden. Dole out the walnuts. Unsalted. Raw. Cook the quino with a 2/1 ratio either with water or chicken stock. I always use chicken stock and throw in a tablespoon of butter for flavor while cooking. Bring to boil, dial down to low, simmer until cooked–it will taste cooked or crunchy. Cooked is not crunchy. Usually 15-20 minutes. Chop up your sausage & cook it in a cast iron skillet (increases…
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Have you been sick off & on all spring? And now into summer time / disease time with the “crud”? That nasty harping respiratory thing. Here’s your solution, compliments of my sweet sister Molly whose company Brooklyn Herborium is just marvelous. Can one ever rave about one’s wonderful family enough? One cannot. After having a serious infection that landed me BACK in the maternity ward at the hospital we just birthed at, two weeks later, the entire family is now slewn (slayed?) with a cold. A nasty one. Looks like I’m going to be making some of this! Follow her instructions: Materials 6 quarts of water Elderberries Dried Ginger (or ginger powder) Directions Combine in a large pot, cover, and bring to a boil. Take care not to over boil as it can damage plant material. Lower heat, uncover and simmer for about 3 hours. For a Daily Elixir: Reduce by 1/2 and strain For Medicinal Strength: Reduce by 1/4 and strain Remove from heat (We don’t want to cook the honey) and add Honey (4-8 oz depending upon how sweet you want it to be). Usage Take Elderberry Syrup in small doses between meals. When feeling the start of a cold, take a shot glass at a time as needed. Combines wonderfully with Lemon & Ginger Tea and Garlic Honey to bolster the immune system and avoid contracting the cold! Buy it from her here!
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SweetPea checked out the blueberry bushes Dada & her Godfather planted. They’re looking nice–so are the raspberries & strawberries. But indoors, it’s the Wild West. We’ve been planning the garden since it was subzero. We is a term I use loosely. You know who actually does all the gardening work around here, inside and out. Yup, Mr. AA. He’s our gardener in residence. Literally. There are five large cookie sheets/trays/something of that kind all around the house, anywhere they can get the maximum light possible. Sometimes he’s put them on my desk, near my preccccccious computer. Sometimes they’re in the bathroom at night under the kid’s light that stays on for SuperBoy to make his way to the potty, and then that same tray is whisked to the bench that’s living on the front stair landing in front of floor-to-ceiling windows. These things creep and crawl and grow like heck. The cat also tries to eat them. I’m all about the plants, honestly, but do grow weary of watching them grown toward nothing as the ground is barely unfrozen around here, it snowed today, and the chance of getting them into the ground before the baby shows up in basically nil. Somehow, if only I could put away all the winter clothing, get the garden going, and write my fiction novella about being a Catholic-work-at-home-mom-of-X^10-children, I’d be so profoundly satisfied. Nesting. It’s a burden and joy. I do feel sorta surrounded. And watched. It’s a little weird. Anyway, the garden!…
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Okay, or I’m working on it. A few girlfriends who are experts in the field of fermentation gave a presentation to a larger group that I hosted the other weekend. I was a mere bystander (taster?) of the goodness and have vowed now to eat only things that are fermented. I jest. Well, actually, one of the presenters does practically this and I swear she & her kids are so super healthy! Moral is: get over your fear of bacteria and get on the fermenting bandwagon. Molly laughed at me when I said what I was hosting, You, Nell? You hate sauerkraut and the like. Her hurled accusations are true! But, in my defense, I did learn to love kombucha tea in law school under the tutelage of dear Ukrainian family friends. So I was half way there years ago. The ladies focused their presentation on the history, science, & whys, and then demonstrated a little for us. Everyone walked away with their own fermenting jar of green beans, and a full belly of flavor filled kimchi. If you want to start checking all this out, go to the bible of it: Nourishing Traditions. My BFF Sarah gave it to me years ago and after paging through and earnestly deciding to cook liver constantly, I gave up years back. Sarah, I’m trying again! Sprouting your grains, fermenting your veggies, all of these are excellent for your health and how we used to eat for centuries. This isn’t a fad diet. This…
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Pioneer Woman Broccoli Cheese Soup. Recipe here. Mods below: I didn’t have half-and-half so just whole milk all the way (as that’s all we drink these days anyway). I also shredded our favorite Vermont cheddar for the three cups–Costco special. That’s it. Vitamix that bad boy up and ENJOY! Smitten Kitchen Classic Cobb Salad Recipe here. Some modifications below. I didn’t use blue cheese because I hate it. Feta all the way, baby. Also, why peel the tomatoes (too much work) when they are fresh from the garden and so crunchy? ENJOY and serve again and again and again. Molly’s Chicken Parm We’ve established my sister Molly and her husband Aron are the best in the kitchen. This is their easy chicken parm recipe served with freshly made french dressing over butter lettuce. Prep your chicken pieces (breast, thigh, wing) and then dip in bowl 1, 2, and 3. Bowl 1: 1/2 cup freshly grated parm or pecorino, 1/2 cup italian breadcrumbs, 2 sprigs parsley chopped; Bowl 2: 2 eggs beaten; Bowl 3: 1/2 cup flour, salt & pepper. Place in a very hot skillet with butter & olive oil (Roman style) and flip after about 4 mins on each side or when the crust is nice and golden. Arrange in a baking dish in the oven (or a cookie sheet, whatevs) at 300 for about 10 mins until cooked through. Don’t disturb that crust if you don’t have to. Serve over red leaf lettuce, or butter lettuce, chopped with…
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I ran a post a few weeks (months?) ago with some family friendly recipes. It went over well so here are a few more that I’ve been trying out lately. Oh, yes, and there was that baking post too for the hungry mama heart. The most trying part for me about new recipes is that one can easily spend loads of time in the kitchen and have nothing but a bunch of dirty dish towels and dishes to show for it. And probably the entire time was spent snacking on chocolate chips because you were so h-angry whilst cooking. I mean, I would never do that, but some of you might snake a handful or two out of the freezer. We’ve been traveling, entertaining guests, helping friends move, gearing up for a big vendor show next weekend for my & my Whole Parenting Goods, and trying to relax. Focusing very strictly on relaxing. Relax, dammit. Instead, two nights in a row, SuperBoy has crept into our bedroom while we are downstairs, after he should have fallen asleep in his own bedroom, and tucked himself in our bed. Literally. Under the sheets & blanket, even with his little man doll Charlie Dixie in tow. It’s hysterical and hysteria-inducing. Go to sleep in your own bed, you tyrant!!! So AA carries his lifefilled sack of potatoes into his own bed and sneaks out of the room, hoping the wood floors don’t creak him away. Back to food. 1) Easy Chicken Noodle Soup.…
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