Foodie Books

It's been quiet on the foodie front friends. I suppose we've been on a bit of a hiatus -- pretty much "post our berry crumble video and bolt."

It wasn't intentional, really. I suppose matters of food have just been a bit on the back-burner. We've been cooking and eating (of course), but it's been awfully basic fare. Our current rotation consists of grilled chicken or steak, the feta roasted potatoes, roasted cauliflower, sauteed green beans, quiche, spaghetti and the occasional grilled Gouda with tomatoes and artichoke hearts. (That was the "exotic" night.)

There's no long-winded explanation...it's just been hot, and we've been busy, and, well I've been a slacker. Case in point -- I made chocolate chip cookies for Audrey's class from pre-made dough (Central Market has the best) and bought her birthday cake.

Bad I know.

We have, on the other hand, been reading lots of books about food. I've been pouring through Jenny's genius Time for Dinner like I actually plan to cook something, and Millie is obsessed with My Foodie ABC. (Audrey's favorite book at three was First Book of Sushi, so it's fitting really).

It's good stuff...she cracks up over the xuxu every single time.

Every time.

In Print Part II -- Kid's Cookbooks

images via edible

A while back I collaborated with my friend, photographer Richard Adams, on a piece about kid's cookbooks for the Dallas & Ft. Worth edition of Edible magazine. I am a huge fan of Edible, as it focuses on local, sustainable food and the art direction and photography is beautiful, so I was honored to be asked to contribute...

+ Audrey loved being in the photo shoot ;-)

You can click on the image above if you want to read the piece.

On Broccoli and Books...

In matters of food I often underestimate the girls.

I often immediately assume I'll have to cajole, beg or bribe them to eat something healthy when, more often than not, it's what they really want. A recent example occurred just last night when Bryan and Audrey were outside grilling steaks, and I was in the kitchen tossing some steamed broccoli with a little butter and sea salt. Millie was hungry, or in her words, staaarrrvvving (my kids are nothing if not dramatic, no idea where they get that from), and we were still a good 15 minutes from sitting down at the table.

My first instinct was to offer up a few pretzels, but out of desperation (and proximity) I instead handed her a broccoli spear. She happily popped it into her mouth...and then another, and another, until she had eaten half the bowl.

I need to give those girlies more credit, no?

In other exciting news (yes, I'm the type of person that thinks a kid devouring broccoli is exciting...), my friend Lisa Greene just released her fantastic book, Processed Kids, A Real Mom’s Guide to Raising Natural Kids in a Processed World.

Prompted by her son's food allergies, specifically to High Fructose Corn Syrup, Lisa took a deep dive into food research and the impact of processed foods on health and behavior. She distilled all of her learnings into Processed Kids, which is full of information, guidance and easy recipes.

It is definitely worth a read!

p.s. Lisa is that genius behind the killer goat cheese polenta...I'm just saying.

Eating On The Cheap...

I'm totally addicted to W. Hoddington Carter’s Extreme Frugality series on gourmet.com. I woke up at 5:30 this morning and read every. single. one. I think that detox is giving me super human energy... Seriously.

Carter's focus isn't on organic or local food, rather his goal is to feed his family of six good food, while spending as little money as possible. Their progress has been fascinating (and funny.) It's a must read.

Happy weekend...only three more days before I reunite with cheese!

Cornbread Breakfast

There are two indisputable facts about Audrey:

1. The child loves cornbread… Adores. It. (She would eat a half a dozen cornbread muffins slathered in butter in one sitting if I let her.)
   
2. Getting her to eat breakfast before school is akin to say, getting her to play in a bathtub full of snakes. She won’t. And then she heads to school and (according to her teacher) is grumpy right up until the mid-morning snack.

So (and I have no idea why I didn’t think of this before) last night I suggested that we make a loaf of homemade cornbread together so she could enjoy her favorite food for breakfast. And lo and behold it worked! We had a blast making this super simple recipe from Fanny at Chez Panisse, (which I highly, highly recommend for any budding foodie…) and she woke up this morning immediately asking for (demanding) a thick slice topped with butter. I had a slice too but slathered mine with some local strawberry rhubarb jam…

It was seriously good!

Cornbread adapted from Fanny at Chez Panisse:

• ¾ cups of organic cornmeal
• 1 cup of organic all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon of organic sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• ¾ teaspoon salt
• 1 organic, free-range egg
• 1 cup organic milk (whole or 2%)
• ¼ cup melted butter

Heat the oven to 425

Mix the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Make a well (a hole) in the middle and add the egg and milk. Gently stir the dry things into the egg and milk until it is all mixed and smooth. Stir in the melted butter

Pour the butter into a buttered loaf pan and bake about 20 minutes until browned on top.