Whining & Dining

We are everywhere...

It's the dog days of summer but Eshun and I are cropping up in media all over town.  Check out our interview with Malcolm Jolley on the informative food site www.gremolata.com. I wrote a story for September's Chatelaine on being a fourth generation foodie and the stress of cooking one of my grandmother's legendary recipes.  And if you are stressed (we know, and a little bit relieved too) about going back to school we have some tips on menu planning on www.aol.ca. Click the links in the press coverage section...

Plain and Simple

We entertained another family at the cottage last weekend whose list of dietary dos and don't are almost as long as my arm - and unlike most families I know the restrictions are all due to the parents' eating habits, including allergies, religious and health restrictions and basic pickiness (cilantro I get, but potatoes?!). I consider it something of a professional challenge to come up with meals we can all sit down and eat together. 

One night's dinner was a lovely vegetarian feast of stuffed baby eggplants, risotto and salad which I knew was unlikely to thrill the 5 children around the table, so I added talapia to the menu purely for their benefit.  I'd actually forgotten the fish until dinner was almost on the table, so I quickly cut it into pieces, coated it in a combination of mayonnaise and dijon mustard, dredged it in a mixture of flour and cornmeal and pan-fried it.  It was almost shocking how much the kids enjoyed the fish - I mean really, our friends' 6 year old told me it was better than candy (ok, he's definately been brainwashed) and M. ate a whole filet all by himself.  I didn't even get to taste it, but I'm sure I would have found it bland since salt was the only real seasoning, and yet... the kids loved it.  A good lesson for me. 

So now I'm going to work backwards and adapt something the kids like for the grown-ups for a change -instead of the other way around.  I figure a little sauce of brown butter, capers, lemon and parsley poured over top of the boring fish would make the adults happy too... recipe to come in our next book (once we figure out what that's going to be!).

Cottage Eating

Just got back from the cottage where as far as food goes there is a natural tension: I don’t want to cook and yet I want all food to be delicious (honestly, my whole life is like that but at home I have air conditioning which makes being in the kitchen a little better).  I also have that BBQ problem, I can’t seem to pull off a BBQ’d meal  all by myself. I always burn everything. I have suspicion it has to do with trying to watch the grill and also make all the side dishes and set the table, and get the kids drinks all at the same time. While the BBQ master (you can guess who that is) has one task only: grilling. Though, to be fair he may also watch the kids if they are in the back yard with him but if they want something they are in my territory.

So meals at the cottage have to be easy. 

I quadrupled the dry ingredients in the pancake recipe from Whining and Dining and took it up as a mix.  It really is worth it making your own. I urge you to try it. And delicious with some maple syrup heated up with a handful of wild blueberries.

I have to come clean here and admit that my kids ate Dino Egg Oatmeal everyday (sometimes for snack too). It has become the tradition that I buy it only for the cottage (for the uninitiated it is instant oatmeal with dino eggs that “hatch”, which is marketing code for crunchy bits of candy in the cereal. Though, Z. admitted that it didn’t taste that good, but the eggs made it worth it.

I bring most of my meat with me, and I get the butcher to vacuum seal it.  Vacuum sealing your meat will prolong its freshness by at least 5 days, maybe even a week. It’s free and worth it!  I love getting pre-marinated flat chickens (our friends call it roadkill chicken) in the vacuum seal.  Great for the BBQ (but only when the husband is up).

One day we stopped at the local farm near our cottage road to get corn.  The farmer and his little grand-daughter were there so the kids got to see the chickens (truly free range they ran wild everywhere and chased T. all over!), sheep . goats and the kittens that were just one day old.  Of couse, we were the city folk in our big SUV traipsing all over the farm, I felt like I was in an after-school special. But we did get fresh corn and fresh eggs (with real egg taste and a crimson yolk-- delicious!). And that was dinner. Well, that’s not completely true we stopped in town and had ice cream first.  A reversi dinner, everyone’s happy.

But a trip to the farmer''s market the next day confirmed for me the idea (fantasy?) that when the kids watch me interact with the farmers and hear us talk about where the food comes from, how the weather affects it, and what it means to be organic they are learning important lessons about food. They do seem to really enjoy the fresh fruit and vegggies that they pick out from market (as well as the homebaked treats) and are starting to understand the importance of eating things in season. I hope they are learning to respect the food and the people who grow it.

I’m off to make the Healthier Chocolate Chip cookie (from you guessed it, Whining and Dining) batter which I will store in the fridge until it is cooler and I can turn the oven on.