I Was Exhausted and Stressed Out and I Made a Pizza

You should too.

Since I last blogged, there have been a few nights of Panda Express or whatever, which I’m not going to even apologize for, because after swim class then rushing to dance class then getting home late with two strung out kids, even the simple act of putting broccoli beef on a plate is almost beyond my capabilities.

But the real stress in the last few weeks has the home move we are trying to accomplish. We put our house on the market in the hopes of moving closer to our work, and lucky us, we found a buyer! Buy I went from “yay, we’re moving” to “OMG we’re homeless in a month” in about a nanosecond, and spent a full week feeling like I might vomit. Today, things are somewhat more stable. We have a really good, really exciting plan. It could all come crashing down at any second, of course, and I will not be getting comfortable at any point between now and May 20th. But beyond all my reasonable expectations, it’s starting to look like May 21 will be an awesome day. I can’t wait to share it.

On to the food.

Cauliflower puree is just the best stuff on earth, and with a lovely CSA cauliflower in the box this week, I was inspired to use it as a pizza sauce. But I could eat this stuff with a spoon. Every day. I’m just looking for an excuse to make it again, because YUM.

• 1 pizza dough
• 1 small head cauliflower
• 1/4 (or slightly more) cream
• 5 slices prosciutto
• 1 medium onion
• arugula

Cut cauliflower into florets then steam until meltingly tender. I did this for about 35 minutes. Add it to a food processor with cream, salt, and pepper, and process until smooth. Depending on the size of your cauliflower, you may want to add more cream. The goal is to make a nice thick pizza sauce.

Slice, then saute onions in a bit of butter until they are soft and sweet, about 10 minutes. Chop the prosciutto. Assemble the pizza, leaving off the arugula. Bake 18 minutes at 425 (or whatever your favorite method is), top with arugula and serve.

 

Avocado Pound Cake

Oh, hai. I have a blog!

It’s not like I haven’t been cooking lately. I have. But most of it hasn’t worked out perfectly, or has been a repeat of something else I posted some time back, or I just haven’t really had the time to document it. So.

In kid news, Nell decided to build “leprechaun traps” out of crap from our recycling bin. And at first I thought it was all adorable and creative, but then I panicked because I realized that I had no idea what I was supposed to do with these traps. So I turned to the trusty internet and polled my friends to see what information I was missing about the new St. Patrick’s Day traditions. Turns out that I could do anything from dying the toilet water green, to dying the milk green, to leaving candy coins in the traps, to overturning all the chairs and pillows and messing up the books, to leaving green tempra paint footprints all over the house.

Excuse me for a minute while I get all grumpy-old-man-ish about this, but back when I was a kid, I honestly never even knew it was St. Patrick’s day until some other kid on the bus pinched me for not wearing green. THIS is my memory of the day. Not candy, or dye, or mischief, but being pinched by other little kids repeatedly because nobody in my family observed St. Patty’s, and apparently school rules are suspended for one glorious green day per year.

30 years and one internet later, and instead of the day for state-sanctioned physical abuse, St. Patty’s Day has become the time to WHIMSY ALL THE THINGS.

I’m not a mom, I’m a glorified monthly party planner.

OK, on to the food already.

Long-time readers of my blog and immediate family members will recall that I am no stranger to putting vegetables in baked goods. And I had two avocados to rescue from the compost bin, so when this popped up in my reader as the recipe of the day, I decided to make it.

The cake was good. The avocado flavor is so subtle as to be almost imperceptible. Kids like it OK, but it begs the question, “why bother?” Pound cake is not rich enough all by itself? Too lazy to make a decent guac? I think it works well as a rescue strategy if you have avocados that are right on the edge, as I did, and we are enjoying it today at snack time. But if you want to impress guests at an actual desert, you will have to serve it topped with more avocado or some salted caramel sauce or something that offers a bit more depth.

(Can you fry cilantro or is it too tender? If you could fry, it would be kind of genius with this recipe. Or, idk, maybe cilantro/lime ice cream on the side? There are so many things I would experiment with if I had more time…)

Here’s the part where I just totally (probably illegally) copy the recipe from Epicurious:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups granulated sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons ripe mashed avocados
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup buttermilk

Place a rack in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two 9×5-inch loaf pans and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add avocado and beat for another 2 minutes. Stop mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating on medium speed for 1 minute after each addition. Stop the mixer and scrape down to make sure everything is thoroughly mixed. Beat in vanilla.

With the mixer on low speed, add half of the flour mixture. Beat until just incorporated. Add the buttermilk and the remaining flour mixture. Beat until just incorporated. Remove bowl from the stand mixer, and finish incorporating the batter with a spatula.

Divide the batter between the pans and bake on alternating racks for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, rotate racks and bake for another 15 to 25 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 20 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Cake will last, well wrapped, at room temperature for up to 4 days.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com:80/recipes/food/views/Avocado-Pound-Cake-395113#ixzz1qY1lrWdv

Salmon with Deliciousness

As part of my CSA, there’s this program where one of the farmers will go into the schools and teach the kids about nutrition and vegetables. The woman who teaches the in-school program is very very good at her job, and she somehow manages to get kids to eat things like chard and kale smoothies and roasted beets without making retching noises or referring to their portion as a “thank you bite.” I feel like I need her at my house twice daily, because Eleanor is on a full-on food rejection campaign.

This CSA program reminds me a bit of when Nell was three and was afraid of the pool and nothing Sam or I could do would encourage her to jump in, or put her face in the water or anything. So we signed her up for swim lessons, and suddenly jumping in the pool was the most fun thing ever. It’s amazing what strangers can get your kids to do.

(It occurs to me that I may have just written the best argument against home-schooling ever. And I wasn’t even trying.)

OK, but seriously, we have two meals a day at home, and I am not totally sure how to break this pattern? As a Feldenkrais practitioner, I am used to the idea that the locus of the issue is not the place where you actually feel the pain. Basically, if your knee hurts, it’s time to look at your hip or your ankle and see what is going on there that is contributing to the pain because at least seven times out of ten the origin of the problem is not where you feel it. So I was already thinking that the food-rejection was really about something else – autonomy, control maybe? I wasn’t sure. I brought it up to a girlfriend last night, and she said that she thought it was about not getting enough sleep. We currently get 10.5 hours per night, but she thought getting 11 might solve it. In physical terms it’s like saying that your knee hurts because you are breathing wrong. I never would have gotten there on my own. But I’m willing to give it a try. Because this is miserable.

All this is prelude to the OMG WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T LIKE SALMON LAST WEEK IT WAS YOUR FAVORITE thing that happened when I served this meal. Let’s see if 11 hours/night helps clear that nonsense up.

• 8 oz cream
• 1/4 C stock
• 2 lemons
• 8 oz bowtie pasta
• 2 C chopped arugula
• 1 C frozen peas
• Salmon filets for 4

Rub a little EVOO and salt and pepper on salmon and cook on grill.

Cook pasta according to package directions.

In a small saucepan, mix cream and stock, the zest of one lemon, and the juice of 1.5 lemons. Season with  salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Let simmer 10 minutes.

When pasta is done cooking, return it to the pan with the peas, arugula and juice of the remaining 1/2 lemon. Make sure everything is warm, but don’t spend time re-cooking the pasta. Add half the cream mix to the pasta.

To serve, put a piece of salmon on each plate with a couple spoonfulls of the cream mix over top. Serve pasta on the side. Devour it because it is crazy good news.

Don’t Try This At Home

Every so often I’ll be in the middle of cooking something that I thought would be good blog content and I’ll realize that I have made so many left turns during the process that there is no way that anyone could ever recreate what I had just done.

The most delicious, totally un-recreatable recipe I have ever made. It was eggroll filling, made up of half my freezer and crisper.

My labyrinthine recipes this week were inspired by the more than 4 lbs of dried lima beans that we have gotten from the CSA. Honestly, I don’t even know when we got them, I’m not sure what the best way is to prepare them, and I feel a bit lost when trying to work out how my family might actually enjoy them. So I soaked and then peeled and then cooked and then pureed a pound of them and tried a few things out.

1. Lima Beans as addition to Pasta Sauce

Here, I used a cup of dried, soaked, peeled, cooked, then pureed lima beans, but if that sounds like too much work to you (which, of course it does!), just substitute a can of canellini beans for the limas. Besides the insane lima prep, this actually comes together fast enough for a weeknight meal.

• 1 14 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 C pureed limas or 1 can cannellini
• 1/2 C white wine or vermouth
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2.5 uncooked chicken sausage links
• 1/4 c cream
• 8 oz orichette (or similar) pasta
• 1/2 slice bread, grated
• 1/4 C parm, grated
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400. Prepare pasta according to package directions.

Remove sausage from casings and crumble into a large pan. Cook over medium high heat, stirring occasionally until cooked through. Meanwhile blend beans and tomato sauce in a food processor until smooth. Remove sausage to a separate dish, and pour the fat out of the pan. Return the pan to the heat and add garlic. Cook one minute. Add wine or vermouth, scraping the brown bits off the bottom of the pan. Stir in tomato mix and cream. Add sausage back in to the mix, and season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, mix bread crumbs, parm and a little more salt and pepper.

Mix pasta and sauce together well then add the mix to a 9×9 baking dish. Top with the breadcrumb mix and bake for 10 minutes, or until the top is melty and a little brown.

2. Lima Cakes

Probably your kids are better eaters than mine? Mine can be a bit challenging, so I look for recipes that can be made super bland for the kids and then spiced up for the adults. This fits the bill. These cakes were really neutral tasting. Adults had theirs with some pesto over top. Kids had theirs with ranch. Weirdly, it all worked. This is a variation on mashed potato cakes that has at least a little more nutrition going for it, and the kids don’t seem to hate it any worse, which isn’t saying much…

• 2 C pureed lima, or 2 cans white beans, pureed
• 1 egg
• 5 – 6 Tbs corn starch
• Salt and pepper
• Panko

(Arguably, the panko is not really necessary here. I wanted a bit more crunch, but it got a little lost in the mix. Still, I’d do it again. If I wasn’t trying to get kids to eat it, these would have had garlic, grated onion, and some green in them.)

Mix mashed beans with egg, cornstarch and salt and pepper. On a separate plate, mix some panko with salt and pepper. Form the beans into patties and then dredge in the panko. Cook them on a non-stick surface for about 3 – 5 minutes per side. I flatten mine as they are cooking on the second side to ensure that they stick together well. Serve immediately. Makes 8 cakes.

Good Exercise Blogs

Some time ago, I promised to write up a quick post on the fitness blogs that I like. As I mentioned, my Google reader is filling up more with health and exercise blogs and less with style blogs. I guess this is me realizing that while I will never be especially stylish, there’s at least an outside chance that I can be fit.

I eat to be healthy, I workout to be healthy, and I have a super low tolerance for orthorexia. So I tend to look for blogs that are written by people who aren’t afraid to admit that they drink occasionally or maybe eat pork rinds. I also want blogs that are informative, inspiring, and compellingly written. And written by women. Here’s my short list:

Happy Fit Mama: I’ve mentioned Angela here before. She really knows her way around exercise physiology, and is worth checking out. I have made some modifications/additions to my workout routines based on her posts, and they were all for the better.

Eat, Drink and be Meiri: Honestly, Rose is pretty intense. Half the time, I’m not even sure that the blog is in English because I don’t totally understand all her exercises. That said, she is super inspiring. She works out hard and lets us know that it’s not all rainbows and confetti. I’d totally do pull-ups with her if I ever met her.

Eat, Drink, and Run: When people talk about someone being a natural runner, Shelby is who they are talking about. She makes it seem easy. Her alcohol reviews are also fun. But it was this very well-written post that got her added to my Google reader.

Rose Runner: Smart, fast, inspiring. What more do you need? I especially like that she posts her opinion openly. It makes her blog really fun to read.

Ready, Set, Feast: Kelsey has great energy, and she is entertaining and fun to interact with on-line. (Also, she hosts killer giveaways, which are always fun.) I’m looking forward to seeing how her marathon goes.

I hope you enjoy these ladies as much as I do!

Frisee and Leek Pizza

The CSA frisee was a bit of a challenge. A whole head is about 20 times as much as we need for our weekly salad intake, so I knew that I would need to get creative. Fortunately, you can cook it down. It stays pretty bitter when cooked, so I mixed it with leeks and strong cheese for a reasonably healthy pizza.

• Pizza crust
• 2 leeks, white and light green parts sliced, then soaked to remove grit
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• pinch of red pepper flakes
• 5 loose C chopped frisee
• 2 Tbs water
• 1/2 C blue cheese, crumbled
• handfull pine nuts

In a large pan, cook the leeks in some EVOO over medium heat until they soften and turn slightly brown. Add garlic and cook one minute more. Add frisee, red pepper flakes, and water, and cover the pan. Cook 5 – 10 minutes or until frisee is soft. Uncover the frisee mix and boil off any remaining water. Top pizza crust with leek mix, then cheese, then pine nuts. Season with salt and pepper and cook the pizza in yoru most favorite way. We like ours grilled. Yum.

The Death of Special

At the risk of turning into a mommy blogger (man I hate that term), I’m offering yet another observational post on childhood. Sorry, but this is one that I have to get off my chest.

Every ten days, Elanor’s class has a “Zero the Hero” celebration. This involves a parent bringing in a special treat, then they all do their little zero the hero math lesson and eat the treat. Treats include donuts, krispe treats, and cookies. Nobody has so far dared to bring in fruit for zero the hero day.

The Kindergarten Halloween party took all day and consisted of making crafts and eating junk pasted to other junk using frosting as glue. For Thanksgiving they did a little feast (along with a jog-a-thon, thank goodness). There was a Christmas party (with dradles thrown in for good measure, of course) that looked a lot like the Halloween party but with different colors of frosting. They have had a special blow-out 100 days of school celebration, followed one day later by the Valentine’s party (read: more junk food and crafts).

Additionally, each child has the opportunity to be “star of the week.”

This is at least 15 special events in only 6 months of school. I feel like I’m witnessing the death of special.

Honestly, Eleanor can’t even enjoy it all. This is not to say that she doesn’t like it. She does. But she also has developed a threshold for enjoyment that is shockingly high for a 6-year-old. It’s hard to appreciate anything when everything is totally awesome ALL THE TIME.

Oh, a gorilla. Whatever. Do I get any cookies?

Meanwhile, Sam was at Nell’s school recently to help the kids plant in their garden. (How sweet!) Afterwards, he learned from the teacher that “this was a particularly rowdy group.” Now I would never claim to know the first thing about classroom management, but I’ve done a bunch of reading about nutrition. And I can’t help but wonder if all the parties and whatnot aren’t just making the teacher’s job harder? I mean, I’ve never heard of a class that got rowdier after going sugar-free. And last time I checked, krispe treats were not critical to effectively learning math.

The irony here is that Eleanor is going to a very good school that we actually tried to get her into. A friend of mine has a daughter that just started in a school very close to where I work. It’s a good school, not a charter or a magnet or anything, and her daughter’s teacher does not do parties at all. My friend said, “At first I thought it was a little sad for the kids, but now that I am seeing it in action, I totally appreciate it.” Indeed. Sign me up for that, please. Because it would be really awesome if I, as the mom, got to occasionally do special things with Eleanor that she saw as truly special.