Thoughts on Food

March Madness.
Basketball?
Well not for me. March madness means spring is here. The urgency of the garden is calling.

March madness is really about gardening, yes folks, gardening.
Most of the rain is over, the days are longer and warmer and I just feel it.  Don’t you?
I want fresh greens and herbs.  So off to the garden we go.
Soon we will be in the Wesley garden; cleaning, planning and planting.
The planting will include peppers, tomatoes ( I have organic heirloom seeds),
and all kinds of herbs . . . especially basil.  Our kids love basil!
Summer corn, pumpkins for October, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash.

Jessica Gottlieb is a Wesley mom and writer. She recently interviewed me for the Celsias
web site. Jessica was great, Check it out.
http://www.celsias.com/2007/11/22/our-green-school-part-i/

I get asked this question a lot.  The answer is mostly I don’t know.  I know, not the answer you expected.  I write the hot lunch menus monthly and for the most part it is an easy proposition but truthfully, it can be difficult.  I always have to balance what the kids want to eat with what we as parents want them to eat.  If they don’t like it, no matter how great it is, they won’t touch the stuff.  What I am finding is that although Pizza and tacos are still the favorite, salmon and broccoli are good sellers.  I would have never guessed that one.

As we start the new year, I am thinking about my own family and how we can bring more vegetables into our diets. We are good on the whole with fruits.  Dried mango from Trader Joe’s is Sydney’s new favorite, but we can always use a few more veggies.  I love to shop
at farmers’ markets on the weekend.  It is inspirational to see and smell the vast array of vegetables, herbs and fruits.  We usually make a big pot of soup with whatever is found at 
the market. Cook, eat, freeze, heat and eat. My kind of food.

Farmers Market Winter Vegetable Stew

3 cups hard winter vegetables…..yams, potatos, acorn squash, carrot…..or any ones that you like.
1/2 onion chopped small
1 cup soft vegetable……zucchini, green beans, peas….again, any ones that you like.
1 cup canned crushed tomato
2 cups chicken stock, vegetable stock or water.
salt & pepper to taste
1-3 cloves crushed garlic depending on taste
2 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons fresh chopped flat parsley
1/2 teaspoon thyme

In a large stock pot over med heat add oil and onions cook till just soft.
add hard vegetables, salt & papper, garlic,thyme, tomatoes and stock.
Cover, turn up heat till boiling then turn down to low and simmer for 45 min…till veggies are done.
add soft vegetables and cook for 15 more minutes.
add chopped parsley
check seasoning

You can also add any can of beans that you like just wash then thoroughly before adding

We like to add a little grated Swiss cheese to the bowlful.
Yum!

It’s finally “after the hoildays”. Don’t get me wrong I love them but they sure take a lot out of you.
It’s funny but holiday time takes a lot out of the garden too. We have been in the garden this last week and
it is a little over grown, a little frozen in spots and looking just plain old worn out. The garden seems to always look this way
in the waning moments of December. We have pulled, cleaned and replanted some winter veggies. The broccoli are starting to bud
and lettuce is just right for picking. January in the kitchen is going to be fun and filled with fresh made soups and roasted winter vegetables.

Peace to all in the New Year.

How’s that for a statement. This one came from my ever adventurous 12 year old eater. She has always been a great eater and I have
never heard those words come out of her mounth before. So here I was faced with the challange……What to do, I did what all great mothers do
I laughed. I laughed hard. I couldn’t fathom how my wonderful daughter could not want to eat my pork and christmas lima bean stew/cassoulet
made in my favorite orange pot for dinner. My MIL (mother in law) was coming over for dinner and I couldn’t be happier
with the menu; the stew, homemade biscuits, maybe a baked acorn squash with butter and nutmeg, salad and dessert. WOW.
What a great meal…..and she said, “uck.” So I laughed and told her then, don’t eat it. But that’s whats for dinner. Eat it or starve.
When i was growing up we had dinner every night. The money to buy the food as well as the time to cook it was hard to come by.
We never said uck. We never said we wouldn’t eat it. My mother put dinner on the table every night. sometimes it was your favorite
sometimes not but it was always hot, fresh and homemade. We were to appreciate the effort of working for the money to buy it,
the shopping involved and cooking. I didn’t know all this at the time, I knew that dinner was at 6 and we needed to be there to eat.
This was what was for dinner. If you wanted something else, well, you needed to wait for tomorrow when there might be something else.
Anything else was disrespectful. How true. So, I laughed and told her oh well this is what is for dinner tonight. Eat or don’t that is your choice
but, this is all that will be availble tonight.
Repect. comes in all forms.

Pork and Christmas lima bean stew.

In a large pot with a lid, heat till smoking, add cut up pork loin and turn till all sides are brown.
Salt and pepper the pork .
Add one sliced onion, 4 sliced carrots, thyme and rosemary (dried or fresh)
Add one cup white wine (anything you would like to drink that day)
Add 1 cup of limas dried……limas, you can use any kind of dried beans I found these limas at the farmers market and they are very creamy when cooked.
Add 2 cups water, stir.
Bring to a rollng boil then turn down very low and simmer for 2 hours.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Yummy.
Freeze leftovers for the next week.

Hello all from the kitchen.
The start of the new school year is underway. Our new hot lunch program
has gotten off to a wonderful start. The first day we served spaghetti and homemade meatballs,
pesto pasta and fresh broccoli. We couldn’t believe how fast the broccoli
went. I later heard from students and parents how well everyone liked it!
Again, it just goes to show that if you put out
good, well prepared, fresh veggies kids will eat them.

Hi I am Syd and here’s what I have to say……..

I have to say, that it is pretty cool that I get to see my mom at school.
When she worked at her other kitchen I didn’t get to see her as much,
Everyone at school keeps on coming up to me to tell me how great the food is. I think a lot of people
think hot lunch is great!
The garden is really turning out well! All of the
plants are shooting up beautifully. I mean the swiss chards are massive.
I also think it is pretty cool that we get to help out in the kitchen after school.
I get to talk to my friends and work at the same time!

Until next time when I serve up some info.

What a great day! Planting! We had a wonderful turnout for the Wesley garden’s official planting, and we now have, corn, tomatoes, zucchini, pumpkins, watermelon, beans, onions, two colors of eggplant, carrots, beets and a vast array of herbs. It will be a delight to cook with these fresh, clean, foods.

I came across a 1922 pamphlet published by Lucy Gillett, where she discussed children’s diets. Here’s some advise from the author that found of interest, hope you do too. “The child is the adult of tomorrow. The kind of food a child has today determines to a considerable extent the fitness of the future citizen. Those who direct the feeding of the child have a responsibility, which cannot be overlooked. Good food habits should start today. Tomorrow may be too late.” Relevent in 1922, Relevant in 2007!

Check your emails and look on the web site for September’s hot lunch menus. As I write this we are working on getting the kitchen ready and can’t wait to start cooking in September.

Hello to everyone from the garden! Summer is in full bloom and full of heat and sunshine and the planting of the first ever official Wesley garden. Today we tilled up the old dirt and added organic compost, and we’re getting ready to plant next week. We‘re guessing that we’ll have close to a _ acre when we are done. Stay tuned till next week when we start to plant. ‘till next time.