Fair Food

In spite of all the noise I make about organic, unprocessed, healthy food, I have a serious weakness for Street Fair food. I could eat funnel cake until I barf; and I think a fair without Italian Sausage is no kind of fair at all.

We visited the Greater Lauraville Fair today. C has been really off and on with her napping, and while a day with two kids and no nap is REALLY long, I am excited about not having to return home halfway through the day anymore. Some of my favorite people live in and around Lauraville, a neighborhood in Northeast Baltimore, and one of J's current obsessions lives there, so off we went.

C enjoyed the lemon sticks, J ate his weight in Kettle Korn, and I, of course, had an Italian Sausage with peppers and onions.

In fact, one of the reasons I am so hyper-controlling about food at my house is because I know I can't control it everywhere else. And I'm ok with that. If I know my family is eating well 75% of the time, I think we are doing pretty well. A drive through McDonald's ice cream now and then, or some nuggets at the zoo, or funnel cake, isn't the end of the world when it's not an everyday thing. And I am NEVER one to turn down food offered to me. I love anything I don't have to cook.

I try very, very hard to stay away from corn syrup, too (not just HFCS, but all corn syrup) for the same reasons we have restrictions on TV. No, it is not going to kill us if a little sneaks in. But it just isn't NECESSARY. Why chose the less healthy option if there's a better one out there?

I also totally get that I am part of the privileged middle class who can afford to choose organic most of the time; who has access to several well-stocked grocery stores, and not just a selection of fast food places and the over-priced corner store and their one moldy apple. I also know that I have the benefit of time to prepare food, which not everyone has. But I think we are all just trying to do the best we can with the resources and knowledge that we have. And today, that meant sausage and popcorn for lunch. And dinner.

Thanks for reading,
-Anne

Manners

We don't go out to eat much. Between my husband's schedule, the diet restrictions, and the fact that almost anything I like to eat I can cook faster and better than in a restaurant, there's not a lot of motivation to head to a restaurant.

We live in a neighborhood with plenty of food choices. Lots of bar food, some Asian and Asian-inspired, and of course plenty of seafood. We could eat out every night for a month and not go to the same place twice.

But the main reason we don't go out is the nightmare my children become when seated (and I use that word lightly) in a restaurant. Just thinking about what it might be like makes me tired.

The 2 year old just wants to run at top speed in circles and zig zags all the time, everywhere she goes. She's also fond of physically pushing her brother all over the place, crashing them both into things. The six-year-old is patient enough, but he's got a 20 minute limit at a restaurant until he really wants to get up and walk around, or climb under the table. Add hunger and overstimulation to the list, and I don't really know why ANYONE goes out to eat with kids.

I feel like I'm missing some important piece of knowledge about how to make my kids sit down and be still for an hour and a half that every other parent knows. I know a few families who go out with their kids all the time, and the kids sit there and doodle and eat for like, 30 minutes straight. If my kids are at the table at home for ten minutes, I consider that a successful meal.

It's not even a case of the kids not being able to sit still, at least the older one. Today, he kept himself entertained with a maze book and a microscope outside his sister's music class for an hour, quiet as a mouse. He pays attention quite well in his classes and co-ops, so that's not a problem for us either.

At home, we eat dinner as a family whenever we are all there. Even when H is gone, I sit down and eat with the kids, so we have that "family dinner" experience almost every night. We do all the right things, like keeping the TV off, using real napkins and real dishes, have polite conversation, don't allow toys at the table, and generally enjoy each others company. But it's still really QUICK. We aren't in a hurry, but we all sort of eat and then move on. The kids take their own dishes to the counter and we move on to the next thing.

The set-up of the house contributes to this, I think. It's all one room downstairs, so if you want to go draw or read after dinner, we're all still together, chatting and playing. No one is scurrying off to the bedroom and hiding. No one is left alone to clean up.

I know someday I'd like to go out to dinner, all of us. But I'm not sure how to make the leap from the seven-minute dinner to a leisurely long meal with appetizers and entrees and desserts. And someone else doing the cooking and cleaning up. If you have a kid who can sit for a long time at the table, what's your secret?

Thanks for reading,
Anne

PortSchooling

We're homeschoolers. Not the strict school-at-home type, not the completely unschooling type, but somewhere in between, like almost every other homeschooler I know.

Today has been an excellent example of how it works for us.

We woke fairly early, at 6:30 instead of the usual 8am. The weather forecast was set to AMAZING. A little cool, a little breezy, everyone in pants and sleeves.

After walking the dog, and returning her home, J, C and I went to the coffee shop where the kids shared a gluten-free muffin and I had a gigantic coffee. J said, "It's such a nice day, can we walk around our neighborhood?" The extreme heat and humidity of this summer had really put a damper on our favorite activity, and he was clearly excited to be outside without being miserable.

He asked to go see the "Fred Head," the giant hollow head of Frederick Douglas, on display outside of the Frederick Douglas Issac Meyers Maritime Park and Museum on the opposite end of the Point. On the way there, he asked, "Who was Frederick Douglas anyway?" So we talked about slavery, both historic and modern, about racism, and about how important it was to stand up for human rights.

The Maritime Park also has a shipbuilding shop, and we took a peek. We'd been inside a few years ago, but it's not toddler-friendly, so we'll go back when it's just the two of us sometime.

When went back home, kitted up with water and snacks, and went to Irvine Nature Center . The displays there are great for all ages, and the grounds are just beautiful. We built a fairy house, talked about snakes, and took lots of pictures in the woods, like of the PigTree above.

After lunch, J will go to a yoga class he attends twice a week at a local private school, and then we'll come home, and maybe throw in a worksheet for fun. Or not, considering C had a ten minute nap in the car and will probably be a screaming hellion by the time 5pm rolls around.

Not every day is as wonderful as this one, but if I had to say what a perfect day was for us, this would be it.

Thanks for reading,
Anne

Pizza -sort of

Alright, this is the second time I've tried a mix from this company that has turned into paste, not dough. I wonder what I'm doing wrong?
I made blueberry pie for Father's day, and instead of rolling out the pastry dough, it was so sticky that I had to sort of mash little chunks into the pie plate until it was all covered. It came out too thick, and even though we ate some, I don't think I'll be going that route again.

Tonight we tried the pizza/ french bread mix. I let in rise in the oven, following my neighbor's instructions of lots of pans of water and low heat. It is super hard to get anything to rise in my house at all, and I was pleased how well this worked. But when I took it out to put on the pan, it was all sticky again. I managed to mush out slightly larger discs, and pat them down, by covering my hands in rice flower. I put olive oil on the pan and Borsari seasoning on the prepared dough, whch was bland, bland, bland.
I used the Cabernet marinara my son likes on his pasta, made by Muir Glen. I use them because they're one of the very few companies I've found who have an organic sauce with no soybean oil. Then I only had Mexican mix shredded cheese, and no mozzarella in the house, so I added Parmesan to the cheese to Italian it up.

We were all starved, so we ate most of it, but again, the dough was just too thick. Thank goodness a good sauce and tons of cheese can cover for a dough fail.

I'll keep looking for a GF dough that feels like dough. My favorite part of making pizza with the kids is kneading, and there's none of that with this kind.

Not just beets

I love beets.

I love the way they feel, heavy and dull in my hands. Their dirty skin, all lumpy and coarse and hairy. I especially love how my hands stain when I peel them after they've roasted.

Beet-stained hands make my think of my mother-in-law, and the ease with which she cooks everything so well. I think before her, I hadn't ever eaten beets that weren't from a can, and I'd had no idea how good they could be. On top of just the cooking, her hands are always busy. Preparing food, working with the children, moving the family business forward, creating amazing works of art, and generally keeping everything flowing smoothly in her life and everyone else's around her.

I remember when I first started to ask her about food, she'd start her descriptions with, "Oh, it's so easy!" Then she'd rattle off the recipe, from memory, complete with quantities and cooking times and temps and variations. I'd get lost after the second step and grab a pen. Then I'd ask her to repeat it very slowly so I could write it down. Then I'd still have to call her when I was in the middle of things and get clarifications about what certain terms meant, like braising, or what a rolling boil actually meant.

A few years ago, I had a friend ask me about something I was cooking, and I started off by saying, "Oh, it's so easy!". Then I rattled off a fifteen-step recipe while my friend's eyes glazed over. That moment, I understood something about cooking, and maybe even more than that. You just have to do the thing you need to do. Eventually, everything will just be so easy if you do it long enough.

Without my mother-in-law, I wouldn't even know how much I liked beets. Or parsnips, or lamb, or whatever that magic salad dressing is that she makes. I'm grateful for what she's taught her son, what she's taught my son and daughter, and what she's taught me.

Taco Truck

Obviously, I don't cook EVERY meal, but I do try and make good decisions about where we get our take-out.

Around the corner from J's gymnastics is a Taco truck that I absolutely love. Peek through the window and you can see the fistfulls of fresh cilantro, the limes, and best of all, the stockpile of Coca Cola, Fanta and other carbonated beverages made with actual SUGAR and not corn syrup. They're imported from Mexico, where the government doesn't dump huge subsidies on corn, so they have no need to make up ways to shove corn in everything. They also come in glass bottles, which are biodegradable, and are only 355ml (12 ounces), so you're not guzzling a gigantic tub of Coke.

I usually only stop by for the soda, but James said he wanted tamales for lunch, and since he's so picky, of COURSE I said yes. We got two pork and two chicken. They were both delicious, although the kids thought the pork was a little too spicy.

And then for dinner we had crabs. Better eat them while they're still around.

Thanks for reading,
Anne

How To Cook

I've been talking about this off and on with a few friends lately, so I thought I'd share some of it here.

I didn't grow up in a home where food was important, other than just trying to have enough. Powdered milk and government cheese, and that awful black-and-white "Value Checked" box of cornflakes were standard. Fruit was so precious that it was ingrained in me to only eat one piece a day, a habit which I only broke about a year ago.
Although I'm sure I had favorite foods, I only recall eating as being a massive inconvenience. Mealtimes were stressful, and I don't remember eating many things I actually liked, much less looked forward to. It was mostly a problem of resources, but overall, I didn't really have a positive experience with food.

I didn't cook much more than pasta until I was in my early 20's. I think the first thing I baked was chocolate chip cookies, from the recipe on the Nestles package, and I was surprised at how much better they were than any packaged cookies I'd had. From there I branched off into pies and cakes. I'd always bring desserts to potlucks, telling people that while a chicken dish might be delicious, EVERYONE remembers cheesecake.

I didn't start seriously cooking until my son was a toddler. Being responsible for his nutrition really inspired me to cook more, and better foods. I read books about food, watched TV shows about it, and talked to people who cooked a lot. I learned to listen to my body and how it felt after eating certain foods, and not surprisingly, I preferred fruits, veggies and sea creatures to cheese, red meat, and bread.

So I started cooking. I made lots of dishes, lots of mistakes, and kept cooking. Just like with so many other things, if I just kept at it, it got easier.

One of the most common obstacles people have to cooking is time. I share Anthony Bourdain's aversion to the Rachael Ray style of cooking. I think he said something like, if you're buying chopped up onions, you're not cooking.
Oh wait, here it is...

"We KNOW she can’t cook. She shrewdly tells us so. So…what is she selling us? Really? She’s selling us satisfaction, the smug reassurance that mediocrity is quite enough. She’s a friendly, familiar face who appears regularly on our screens to tell us that “Even your dumb, lazy ass can cook this!” Wallowing in your own crapulence on your Cheeto-littered couch you watch her and think, “Hell…I could do that. I ain’t gonna…but I could–if I wanted! Now where’s my damn jug a Diet Pepsi?” Where the saintly Julia Child sought to raise expectations, to enlighten us, make us better–teach us–and in fact, did, Rachael uses her strange and terrible powers to narcotize her public with her hypnotic mantra of Yummo and Evoo and Sammys. “You’re doing just fine. You don’t even have to chop an onion–you can buy it already chopped. Aspire to nothing…Just sit there. Have another Triscuit..Sleep…sleep…” "

From a guest blog post on Michael Ruhlman's blog from Feb 8, 2007.
http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/02/guest_blogging_.html

I think if buying chopped up onions gets you in the kitchen instead of passing out the Lunchables, then that's great, but don't STAY there. You're only going to get better at it by doing it. That's kind of my mantra. For everything.

A meal that used to take me 2 hours to get on the table now only takes about 30 minutes. Practice, practice, and more practice is the way to go.

Start with a good, basic cookbook. I'm partial to Joy of Cooking, because it teaches you about the food, and uses ingredients and kitchen tools you probably already have.

Just keep cooking.

And thanks for reading.

Oh, I also like what Bourdain said about Paula Dean in the same blog post, mostly for the John Waters reference.