The Kids Are Home, Hide the Veggies!

Image via Wikipedia

Time for a mid-week rant.

NPR did a story about what a great idea it is to get kids to eat vegetables at school by adding vegetable puree to the school lunch cheese sauce at lunch time.  There’s a whole movement, including cookbooks, on how to get your child to eat vegetables by hiding them in brownies, cakes, cheese sauces, etc.  I can’t even begin to express how much I loathe this entire idea. It’s faulty from it’s toes to it’s nose, it’s destructive, and it’s just stupid.

What, exactly, does this teach children about healthy eating? Nothing. They don’t learn to make appropriate food choices, they don’t learn to like healthy food. In fact, they don’t even learn what “healthy food” actually is, because as far as they’re concerned, they’re not eating it. It does teach them, however, that they don’t have to ever eat anything green. It teaches them that yes, “healthy” foods must taste crappy or why would we have to hide them? It also teaches them that they are correct when they assume they should get everything they want, that they should be catered to.

Here’s a radical thought: don’t hide children’s vegetables. Instead, let’s serve them well-cooked, healthy vegetables and then, like adults, make sure they eat them.

This is going to get really controversial, and it’s not going to be sugar coated. I am tired of all the namby-pamby advice about how to get kids to eat well. It’s not that complicated.

-Be a parent. We need to stop pandering to children. Parents get to control your child’s diet, the child does not.  Do parents let kids control the finances simply because they want to? Do parents let kids skip school because “they don’t like it?” So why in the world do they let their children control their food. Look, kids are NOT going to starve themselves to death because they’re not fed their three favorite foods every night. They CAN go to bed without dinner and not wake up emaciated and ready to die, no matter how big a fit they throw to the contrary. No one should starve their child, obviously, but unless a child has an emotional or intellectual disability, they aren’t going to starve to death because they are only presented with healthy options for dinner every night.

-Children are smart, and will manipulate you if you let them. Most of the kids who are “picky eaters” have learned that if they say “I don’t like this food,” someone will get up and make them a favorite food instead.  They have adults trained. This is a great racket, right?  This has got to stop. It’s not appropriate parenting, and it’s not doing the child any favors in the long run.

-There is a difference in “don’t like” and “not favorite.” Everyone has things they don’t like. Most people have 3-5 general things they don’t like. A child who *only* likes 3-5 thing and “doesn’t like” everything else knows how to get what they want.  Most of the time, when a child says they don’t like something, what they actually mean is they prefer something else. Time for a valuable life lesson: Too Darn Bad. We Don’t Always Get What We Want In Life.

-Kids learn to like what they’re fed. As I’ve said a thousand times, children in India are not born liking curry, children in Japan do not come from the womb craving udon,  and kids from Louisiana aren’t genetically predisposed to loving jambalaya. Children like their ethnic/cultural cuisine because it’s what they’re fed when young (and, if a child of one ethnicity/culture is adopted as a baby someone from another culture, that child does not grow up craving it’s birth-parents home cooking). A child isn’t going to learn to like legumes if they never eat them.

-Kids eat what their parents eat. Simple as that.  Just like smoking or drinking, parents need to look at what they’re eating in front of their children.

There are other things, such as it’s been proven that children who help grow and cook vegetables are far more likely to choose to eat them. Or, that children who are taught to cook tend to eat a wider variety of healthy foods. But, the main point is this: Children are children. They do not get to make the decision on whether or not they eat their vegetables. That is what parents are for. Hiding healthy food in “unhealthy” food teaches children bad eating habits, poor decision making skills, and that they don’t have to do anything they’d rather not do.

2/3 of the children in the US are obese. Most of these children will grow up to be obese adults, with all the health issues and concerns that go along with that.  This problem will not be solved by hiding vegetables in cheese sauce.

Related Articles

• 5 ways to get your kids to eat their veggies (sfgate.com)
• Kerry Trueman: Let’s Ask Marion Nestle: Is Stealth The Way To Healthy Eating for Kids? (huffingtonpost.com)
• 5 Simple Ways to Get Your Kids to Eat Vegetables (thehappyhousewife.com)
• Children’s Veggie Intake Doubles with Education, Role-Modelling and Popeye (diet-blog.com)

Morningland Diary–Fight For Your Food Rights.

If you care about food rights and haven’t read about this, you need to. This is an outrageous violation of due process, and a blatant attempt by the FDA to  crack down on raw foods.

Was Hillendale Farms, who produced *millions* of contaminated eggs that sickened thousands of people, asked to destroy it’s chickens, or it’s undistributed eggs? No.

Have *any* of the conventional, large, corporate dairies had to destroy all their remaining product when their milk or cheese made someone sick? No.

Yet this farm-run dairy, with no reports of illness or contamination in it’s 30 year history, is being told to do exactly that, with no reliable evidence of contamination, improper testing procedures, and no due process. This impacts not just the farm, but also the people who rely on them for employment.

Please read their story and pass it along. If you can, please contribute to their legal fund.

Related Articles

• FDA Orders Morningland Dairy to Destroy 50,000 Pounds of Raw Cheese (eatdrinkbetter.com)
• Morningland Dairy recalls cheese over Listeria and Staphylococcus risk (walletpop.com)
• We’ve got Regulatory Authority! Get Used to It (barbaradiamond.blogspot.com)
• Criminalizing Nature’s Most Perfect Food: FDA’s war on private food contracts (radyananda.wordpress.com)
• Morningland Dairy Stops Cheese Production After Listeria Fears (nowpublic.com)
• Morningland Dairy Recalls Raw-Milk Cheese Sold in 48 States (organicauthority.com)
• Almost 69,000 Pounds of Cheese Recalled Over Possible Contamination (aolhealth.com)

Macaroni & Cheese..with Wine?

Absolutely. I was shocked, too, but when some friends and I hit Hickory Hill winery on a recent wine tour that is exactly what their Country Red screamed out: “Drink me with some really good mac & cheese!” So, we bought a bottle, and at the very first ripe opportunity I busted out a mac & cheese recipe recommended by both the owner of the winery and the friends who’d accompanied us on the tour.

It all starts out simple enough, with some cheese and noodles.

It ends up all goey and yummy like this:

I had to make some changes from Jaime Olliver’s recipe. I couldn’t find any decent fontina, let alone marscapone, and I needed to add some protein to it for The Boys.

• 1lb 2oz good-quality macaroni
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• a knob of butter
• a small bunch of fresh marjoram or oregano, leaves picked (I used dried oregano, because I had it on hand)

• 3½oz Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, plus extra for grating
• 3½oz grated sharp cheddar

• 3½oz Muenster
• 3½oz cream cheese
• ¼ of a nutmeg

• 1/2 lb. smoked sausage, diced small

•  1/2 med. red pepper, small
An additional bit grated cheddar (or fresh mozzarella) and Parmesan cheeses reserved.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. On stove top, cook the macaroni, and drain, reserving 1/2 c. of cooking water. In pan, heat butter and herbs until herbs are crispy. Add macaroni and all cheeses except the reserved grated cheddar, and several tablespoons of the starch water. Stir until creamy. Stir in sausage and pepper. Pour macaroni into a lightly greased casserole, and sprinkle grated cheddar over top, then Parmesan. Put in oven, uncovered, for 10 minutes until cheese on top is bubbly. Serve warm, with a red wine, and enjoy!

Related Articles

• Who invented macaroni and cheese? (holykaw.alltop.com)

It’s Personal!

I love these personal frittatas. Farm fresh eggs, local greens and tomatoes,  fresh milk, and grated Parmesan. They’re also incredibly impressive coming out of the oven, and don’t take much to prepare to perfection. Did I mention they freeze well? What’s not to love?

There’s no set recipe, and I change them up a lot depending on the ingredients I have to hand and the seasons; but, the basics are:

-A small, personal tart pan

-Baking spray

-2 farm fresh eggs

-2-3 tbs. fresh milk, cream, or sour cream.

-Salt, pepper, ground mustard, cayenne. Other spices, like thyme, basil, oregano, etc. can also be added to compliment your fillings.

- Fillings of your choice. Meats should be cooked.

-2 tbs. hard cheese, finely grated (I like Parmesan or Sharp Cheddar)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray pan liberally with baking spray and place pan on cookie sheet,  then spoon in about 4 tbs. filling ingredients. In separate bowl, beat together eggs, cream, and a pinch of each spice with a whisk. Stir in all but 1 tsp. of your cheese, and pour into tart pan. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top of egg mixture, and place tart pan (still on the cookie tray) into oven. Bake for 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted into center. Allow to cool completely in tart pan, then gently run a butter knife around the edge of the frittata and remove from pan.

You’re likely to be seeing more “individual” foods here, as Thadd’s back in school and needs things he can toss into a cooler and I have clients that need something they can carry to work easily. If you’ve got favorite “individual” foods, share with us! Or, if there’s something you’d like to see, just ask and I’ll see what I can do!

The Market This Week

Fun stuff we got at the Charlottesville Market today: (aside from all our usual yummy veggies and meats from various farmers):

-Garlic from Roundabout. We were so happy to see Meagan from Roundabout back at the market, since they’d been absent for the beginning of the season. There is nothing, and I meant nothing, like Roundabout Garlic. It’ll ruin you for any other garlic. We got 2 lbs. We’ll be getting much, much more for storage over the next year. You should do the same. They also have wonderful heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos (which we also got), and more. Stop by, and tell Meagan hello!

-Sgt. Pepper’s Berry Balsamic Band marmalade from Mass a’Peel. This stuff is fabulous, as are all the varieties we tried today.  It’ll go with a lot of things: chicken, cheese (which we’re pairing it with later this week–more on that below), bread and butter, and probably a few other things I’m neglecting to mention. But what we’re really excited about pairing it with are the scones Thadd’s just decided to bake. Yum.

-Matcha latte and matcha cookies from Blue Forest Bakery.  This is a wonderful, local bakery specializing in Japanese breads like anpan. Recently, they added the wonderful cookies, and the latte was really refreshing.

-Caramont “The Old Green Mountain Round” goat cheese. If you’ve not had it, you should try it. It’s amazing. Actually, all their cheeses are beautifully crafted.

-Night Sky Farm’s 4-pack of chevre. This is another great farmstead dairy & cheese maker. We love their peppered chevre. We love everything else, too, but the peppered chevre has a special place in my stomach…er, heart.

The produce was great this week. Tomatoes are coming in, as is corn, squash (patty pan, yellow, zucchini, etc.), greens, potatoes, herbs like basil and dill. All told, it was a great day at the market.

Growing Power, Day 2

So, after no sleep and a meal I’d loosely term “breakfast” (hey, it’s a hotel, I realize I can’t expect too much), I trundled off to Growing Power for Day 2. I missed the morning at the farm because Anne, Cherlynn (I hope I am spelling that correctly), and I had to get to the kitchen and get started.

This is Cherlynn, helping out with kitchen prep before class. She works in nutrition education, and will be doing a mozzarella cheesemaking class with youth next month; so, she wanted to come early and get in on the boring pre-cheese action of kitchen prep and ripening the milk. She was a huge help, and it was also a great chance to get to know another chef who is as passionate about food as I am.

Sunday turned out to be the day of culinary experts and foodies in the cheese class. We had three chefs besides me, and all were inspiring, creative, and energetic. You see one of them above,  a man simply dubbed “Chef” by everyone I talked to, stirring a very, very large pot of very, very hot whey (did I mention he spent most of the day making us all hungry by elucidating on things like how he makes his savory cheesecake?). Because we had all this incredible whey from both cheese classes, and a bit of extra milk, and because my classes ran on-time as scheduled, I added ricotta making to Sunday’s itinerary.  What you see above is the whey and additional milk being heated to 200F before precipitating the ricotta curd with vinegar. What you see below is how you work on the fly with what you have instead of what you think you need.

The lovely blond woman hiding in the corner on the left is Anne, one of my two designated staff helpers for the weekend. She was amazing, from start to finish, and I really hope I get to work with her again.

Aside from the wonderful staff and students you see in the photo above, though, what you should be noticing is the cloth that is lining the (huge) colander. Is it cheesecloth? No. Why isn’t it cheesecloth? Because I hadn’t thought for one second we’d have time, milk, or reasonable facilities (or, for that matter, enough interest) to make ricotta. I was wrong on all counts, so I needed to come up with something fast. T-shirts to the rescue (thanks to the GP staff for running out and picking these up!). We washed them, then cut them and used them to strain the curds. They weren’t a perfect solution for many reasons, and we did lose some ricotta into the whey; but, it was a pretty darn good last-minute substitute.

I said there were three chefs, and above you see the remaining one as he pressed the whey gently out of the ricotta, and salts it for eating. The class came up with some additional seasoning ideas (including “Chef’s” brilliant addition of Lawry’s!), and it was probably the dreamiest batch of ricotta I’ve ever made. Seriously, we considered just hiding it and meeting up later to eat it on some crackers with a side of beer.

In the end, though, we did have enough left to take back to GP for some of the folks there to sample, too, despite the rabid sampling you see above.

This is the whole Sunday class, minus Amanda (who is taking the photo, but who appears to be stealing some cheese from the colander in the front of the photo above). Yep, that’s me with no sleep, not enough food, sweaty and steamed.

All in all, it went pretty well, and they’re hoping to have me back in June. We’ve got a kink or two to get worked out before then (primarily if we can use this kitchen again), but I’ll keep you updated.

As for the rest of the workshop, I didn’t get to do a whole lot of it, which is kind of what I expected since I was teaching. I got a chance to have a short chat with Will about future cheese possibilities and work-arounds, and I hope to see some of that come to fruition as Growing Power continues to grow. I met a slew of amazing people, some of which I hope to feature here in the coming weeks, and learned a lot about the ideas people have for urban and sustainable agriculture across the country. Some of it’s pretty damn impressive, and almost all of it is creative and out-of-the-box in a way that is very inspiring.

I did get to take the tour, and I got to play with the goats. They are so cute I almost just slept in their pen instead of going back to my hotel:

But, I didn’t. Instead, I helped pack up the tent and tables, then went out for a margarita with some of the staff and some of the attendees. Then it was home early-ish, because I had more work to do and an early wake-up.

I also owe a huge, overwhelming thanks to Ryan, without whom I am pretty sure this whole thing would never have happened, and to Anne, who also fits into the category of misson critical for this workshop (both GP staff members). Thanks to Amanda for all her help and enthusiasm, as well, and to Will for giving me the opportunities.

Ready, Set, Cheese

I am safely tucked away in my hotel after a rather long and arduous afternoon of almost-missed flights, booking faux-pas, and general lack of food. Having remedied the latter issue, I called Ann at Growing Power, and she and I went to inventory the kitchen we’ll be using for the  cheese classes. We also stopped by Growing Power very briefly to check in with Ryan, the fella who’s been procuring all the supplies and helping orchestrate this.

Growing Power is busy today, so no tour; but, we did verify that all the supplies we need are ready to go. Ann took me to the kitchen, and while it’s small, I should be able to make it work for what we’ll be doing. Tomorrow starts bright and early at the crack of…um….well, 8Am as it turns out.  I don’t really consider this the crack of much of anything, but I am not going to complain about getting to sleep in a bit and take part in my hotel’s free breakfast. Thadd packed me some of our good coffee and there’s a coffee maker in the room, so I should be all set.

And, that’s about it so far.  Turns out the hotel has a pool and hot tub that isn’t listed on their website, and which I won’t be using because I didn’t bring a swimsuit (because, as mentioned, it wasn’t on their website). Bit bummed about that. It’s 4:00PM here, and I’ve got pretty much nothing to do at this point aside from spend a few minutes working up a timetable for the classes that takes into account the kitchen.

Hopefully, I’ll have time to do a post when I get back tomorrow, but it may be Sunday night before I get to it. I think tomorrow is going to run long and late.  Wish me luck.

The Big Announcement

The airline ticket is in my hot little hands, so I feel pretty safe making the annoucement:

I’ve been invited to teach by Will Allen at Growing Power, Inc May 15th & 16th. I’ll be teaching introductory cheese making with fresh goat’s milk for their “From the Ground Up” workshop series. This is their first-ever cheese class, and I am honored to have been invited to teach it.

I met Will at the recent Growing Power workshop at Lynchburg Grows, and had the chance to talk with him briefly about the food we provided and what went into making it happen. Will, a former basketball player turned farmer, and his foundation were recently awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, which is a Big Deal.  This nationally (internationally, actually, as it seems there’s been reports on his work in several countries–thanks google!) recognized non-profit’s stated miss is: “supporting people from diverse backgrounds, and the environments in which they live, by helping to provide equal access to healthy, high-quality, safe and affordable food for people in all communities.  Growing Power implements this mission by providing hands-on training, on-the-ground demonstration, outreach and technical assistance through the development of Community Food Systems that help people grow, process, market and distribute food in a sustainable manner.”

This is pretty exciting for me. A paid teaching opportunity here is wonderful, and I will definitely be blogging it. I’m hoping to possibly even do a podcast, so stay tuned!

Featured!

One of my holiday recipes is being featured on AC’s Food & Wine page!

Holiday Cheese Tortes, by Shawn Sisson.  This is the same recipe I donated to the Bike Stop event earlier this year. I am excited!

The Recipes You’vee Been Waiting For!

I’ve gotten several requests for recipes of late. Some of my recipes, such as my Shape It Up Meatloaf:

I can’t really give out for proprietary reasons. I can, however, give out the recipes for these that everyone’s been asking for since I donated them to Ladie’s Night Out:

Above: Pesto Farmer’s Cheese Torte (mini). Below: Butterscotch Pecan Gorgonzola Torte.

They’re more suggestions than recipes, and both start the same way:

In whatever size & shape bowl works best for you, lay plastic wrap to cover inside. Make sure you push it gently into all the corners, and that there is enough left on all sides to cover the bottom of the cheese mold. Spray lightly with olive oil cooking spray.

Pesto Torte:

(I used farmer’s cheese because I was donating this and goat cheese was too expensive, but I recommend goat cheese. )

Combine cream cheese and enough pesto to color a light green. Mix & set aside. Press goat cheese into plastic covered mold, using slightly wetted hands or plastic gloves. Use enough cheese to fill about 1/3 of the mold, and press firmly to pack cheese into mold corners.  Layer in enough pesto cream cheese to fill up the next 1/3 of the mold, again pressing gently to make sure it reaches all the corners and has no air bubbles. Finish filling with the goat cheese, again pressing mixture in firmly. Fold plastic over the bottom of the mold tightly, and set in refrigerator for 1 hour. Remove mold from refrierator, and unwrap the bottom of the mold. Make sure your plastic is out of the way, and invert mold gently on plate. If necessary, gently tug one corner of the plastic to encourage cheese onto plate.

I bought pesto, because frankly at this time a year it was too expensive to buy that much basil. Roast pine nuts gently in a dry pan for several minutes, turning frequently, until they are toasted. Spread pesto on top of mold, then cover with pine nuts. Top with either pepperdew peppers (above), or with roasted tomatoes or garlic. Serve chilled.

Butterscotch Pecan Gorgonzola Torte

In a heavy-bottomed pan, combine:  dried figs or apple slices, dried cranberries, butterscotch syrup to coat, and pineapple juice to thin enough to not burn. Heat on low until fruit plumps. Add enough corn starch, mixed with pineapple juice, to thicken and heat until thickened. Add roasted pecan (roast first if necessary) and stir. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

(I used gorgonzola because it was relatively cheap, but I’d actually recommend a blue stilton for this recipe if cost is less of an issue). Mix blue cheese with farmer’s cheese in whatever ratio you prefer (I did about 1/3 lb gorgonzola to 1 lb. farmer’s). Press into mold as described above for pesto mold, filling entire mold with cheese. Refrigerate for one hour. Release from mold onto plate, and scoop generous amounts of topping onto cheese. Stud cheese, if desired, with roasted walnuts or pecans for extra presentation.

And, that’s it! They’re really simple and delightful appetizers, with fun and unique presentations. Stores like Wegmans’ sell these for a mint, but you can make them much more cheaply in just a few minutes at home. Enjoy!