November 23, 2005
Thanksgiving is HERE!
Thanksgiving is only one day away! This will be the first year my husband and I are hosting the festive event at our home. We will be cooking the whole Thanksgiving meal and inviting all of our friends and family to dine with us. This will be a Thanksgiving to remember!
On the menu: Turkey, green bean casserole, cheesy carrot casserole, broccoli/cauliflower salad, garlic mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, pecan pie, apple pie cocktail. All of these foods are enough to make my mouth water just writing about them. Many of these foods I only have one time a year, on Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is the one day out of the year when it is not just acceptable, but mandatory to stuff yourself silly. No other holiday is absolutely centered around good food and family to enjoy it with.
Left-overs are another treat of Thanksgiving. It is the gift that keeps on giving. No family in America makes just enough food for their families to dine for one meal. No! Everyone makes enough food to feed an entire army for a week on Thanksgiving. On no other holiday is it acceptable to eat turkey and stuffing for breakfast for a week after the big day. Ahh, America, we love you!
November 04, 2005
Pizza Validation
Pizza: My favorite food! There are several types of pizza: New York style, Chicago style, deep dish, thin crust, etc. I love them all! We always hear about pizza being categorized as junk food. I am here to tell you that it is not junk! Well, at least it’s not junk food when I crave it. I will explain to you my validation for chowing down on Pizza every other Friday night.
Pizza satisfies all four food groups: protein, grain, dairy, fruit/vegetables. The protein section is obvious. Pepperoni makes the pizza more healthy right? As a matter of fact, I bet if I got a meat lover’s pizza, that would be extra healthy because it has more protein!
Grain is the next food group. Well, obviously, the crust is full of grain. Wait, that probably means that thick crust pizza is better for my health! I’ll have to keep that in mind.
Dairy is so important to our bodies. It makes our bones stronger. The Cheese that covers pizza doesn’t clog our arteries, it makes our bone stronger! I guess I’ll get extra cheese next time I’m at Pizza Hut to satisfy the dairy food group.
The fruit and vegetables category is also fulfilled on a pizza. Not only can you get veggie toppings like onions or peppers, but the pizza sauce alone satisfies the category. Tomato sauce is one of the healthiest foods we can eat.
Ok, so if I get this straight, that means the next time I order pizza I should get a thick crust, meat lover’s pizza, with extra cheese. Sounds good to me! And for you?
Posted by Kay Dee at 02:17 PM | Comments (0)November 03, 2005
Creating Food Memories
Ahh, I love the fall! When the leaves begin to turn colors and fall to the ground, I am reminded of why I love this season. Autumn means that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. Both holidays give me a warm feeling inside. I love the memories I have of my family gathering around the Thanksgiving table, or decorating Christmas cookies. I just hope my daughter has the same wonderful memories when she grows up.
When I think of the holidays, the number one element that comes to mind is food. Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas each have distinct and separate taste bud memories for me.
Halloween: Halloween is a “holiday” that, in our house, centered around pumpkins. We would carve our pumpkins and then my mother would make pumpkin bars out of the leftovers and we would roast the seeds. Anything you could make out of pumpkin, my mother would make. This Halloween, I began a similar tradition with my daughter. She is still a baby, but it made me feel good when we roasted the pumpkin seeds in the oven. Someday I hope she will enjoy the time as I do.
Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving is a holiday that is CENTERED around food! We would make everything from fruit salads, carrot casserole, green bean casserole, pecan pie, candied yams, etc. We had a small immediate family, but that never meant we had a limited selection of foods. I bet we would eat a reheated Thanksgiving meal for a week and a half after the actual holiday had passed.
Christmas: Ah, I love the Christmas holiday. Every year my mother would take every Friday in November and December off work to bake. We would make Chocolate covered pretzels, the world’s best fudge, and every kind of cookie imaginable. My favorite memory was the Friday when we would sit around the kitchen table decorating Christmas cookies. Each cookie outdid the one before it. The sugar cookies were never a favorite in our house, but they were sure fun to decorate!
Last year I bought a Christmas cookbook. I plan on starting a tradition with my daughter. Each year she can pick absolutely any recipe out of the book and we will bake it together. It will be our special mother-daughter time. I cannot wait.
October 28, 2005
Baby with a Sweet Tooth
Mmmmm! Nummy! Yes, those of you with children have all uttered those mindless noises. I just went through an hour of baby talking, Mmmming, and baby congratulations. My five month old is learning how to eat solid foods!
My daughter had obviously never tasted any of these foods before we introduced them to her: cereal, applesauce, bananas, sweet potatoes. We started out by following the books to the last word. They told us to introduce the veggies and cereal to her before we introduced any sweet foods. They told us never to mix cereal with fruits or yogurt because that would just train the baby to only like sweet foods. They also told us to introduce one food at a time. This all sounded perfect.
Well, we miserably failed! She acted like the sweet potatoes made her gag and she spit out the cereal. Two days of those two foods and we were ready to try something else. Against the advice of the baby book, we gave her bananas to try. Boy did she love those! Next we tried applesauce. Another success!
After a few days of successful fruit eating we decided to try to add a veggie to her diet. Nope, she again refused. Not only did we originally have a baby who was inclined to only eat sweets, but we reinforced that desire by only feeding her sweets. She has taken after her father and I. I guess when she gets old we’ll have to hide the cookies from her.
October 24, 2005
Boo-licious Halloween Body Part Treats
Halloween is so much fun around our house. We love to attend Halloween parties and we love to host them. For anyone with children, Halloween can be one of the most exciting days of the year. On what other day can they slop make-up on their faces, tell awful jokes, and get lots of candy from neighbors? A timeless staple in any haunted house or at any Halloween party is the edible body parts table.
Here I have made a list of all my favorite creepy treats. I suggest putting them in bowls and covering them with a towel. Then I would put labels of what body part they are and have people walk down the line feeling each of the bowls’ contents. Happy Halloween!
Eyeballs: whole peeled grapes
Witch’s hair: spaghetti squash strings
A vampire’s vomit: Chunky salsa
Bat ears: dried apricots
Bloody Vampire bat heart: hardboiled egg in unsolidified Jell-O
Cat claws: sunflower seeds
Brains: cooked, mushy eggplant
Use these fun treats/body parts to spice up your next Halloween get-together. You could even give trick-or-treaters a little scare.
Posted by Kay Dee at 03:24 AM | Comments (0)October 18, 2005
Food: The American Ideology
It is constantly said by weight loss experts that in order to lose weight we need to stop emotionally eating. This includes using food as a way of celebrating, mourning, or comforting. It also means that our social activities should not revolve around food. Is this possible?
In a perfect world we would get together with our friends and family just to talk. There would be no catalyst or eating event. We would just sit around and enjoy each other’s company. However, we Americans absolutely love food. No social gathering is complete without a snack or an entire meal. Even bible study groups will designate a person to bring treats.
It is also unrealistic to expect Americans to eliminate food from celebrations. Honestly, if someone didn’t take me out for my birthday I would be VERY DISAPPOINTED!! Maybe a better alternative to eliminating the food celebrations is to better monitor food intake. I would rather celebrate a big promotion by going out to eat and eating smaller portions, than staying at home without a food celebration. It’s in our blood. We love food and there is nothing anyone can do about it!
October 14, 2005
Cereal: It isn’t Just for Breakfast Anymore
How many ways can you think of eating a bowl of cereal? My guess is that you came up with two answers. I am going to show you some simple and creative ways to eat your cereal for every meal of the day.
Almost every household has a box of cereal. The most popular brands are Cheerios, Raison Bran, Rice Crispies, Captain Crunch, etc. Most people eat these cereals in a bowl with some milk. However, there are many other ways to enjoy this delicious treat.
My favorite way to enjoy non-sugar cereal is with a half cup of yogurt and some fruit. Many people mix granola with yogurt and fruit, but granola has a lot of calories and fat. If you make your fruit mix with Cheerios or Kashi, you have a low fat, high fiber alternative.
Another way to eat cereal is by making desserts. One of America’s favorite treats is the Rice Crispy Bar. You can also make Special K bars or Fruit Loop and marshmallow bars. My favorite dessert is mixing Rice Crispies with chocolate pudding. It makes a crunchy, chocolaty treat.
You can also make cereal a part of your supper. A healthy way to bake chicken is by breading the chicken with crushed cornflakes. This creates a beautiful, golden crust that tastes delicious when mixed with butter and baked for 45 minutes.
If you have extra cereal laying around the house, don’t forget that it can be used for every meal of the day.
September 17, 2005
French Fries the way they were meant to be
What is it with the ketchup? I have never really been a fan. Thankfully, there are a few diners that keep my hopes alive and serve their fries with the INTENDED condiment - mayonnaise. Yes mayonnaise.
It is a well known fact Sunny Jim, that authentic truck and cart fries were, and in some spots still are served with home-made mayo. Not that vinegar tasting store-bought crap - the REAL DEAL. You can tell the difference pretty easy: If the mayo beside your fries is white, you have problems. REAL mayo is almost yellow.
To make authentically delicious french fries, first peel and cut potatoes into your desired thickness (1 cm. square is ideal for cooking), or else leave them peeled but clean them well and cut them up. Can anyone say New York Fries?
Bring a good quantity of oil (enough to cover the fries when they’re cooking) to a temperature of about 160 degrees. Drop a handful of fries into the oil (cook only a handful at a time) and cook them from 5 to 8 minutes until they are cooked but not crisp. Put the fries on absorbent kitchen paper and let them cool down for about half an hour. Bring the oil to a temperature of about 190 degrees and put the fries back into the oil for a final two minutes. This allows the fries to get crispy on the outside and cooked perfectly on the inside.
Serve these up with some mayonnaise and enjoy what you have likely been missing.
Posted by at 07:19 AM | Comments (0)September 12, 2005
Back to school blues
The first week of school is over and already I hear parents worrying about what they're going to do to keep school lunches interesting and healthy for their kids all year.
It's important because lunches provide the fuel that keep kids going all afternoon and the nutrition that will help keep their brains working at their max. It's important to encourage your kids to eat a good lunch whether it's one that comes from home or one that they will buy in the school cafeteria (which I am not a fan of)
A healthy lunch should include foods from all the food groups -- dairy (yogurt, milk, cheese, soy beverages, pudding); vegetables and fruit (fresh fruit, cut-up raw vegetables, vegetable or fruit juice, vegetable soup, a vegetable wrap); meat and alternates (meat, fish, chicken, cheese, eggs, soy products); grains (whole wheat bread, roll or bagel, whole wheat muffin, flour tortilla, pasta, cereal, rice). You can get all four food groups with a sandwich, fruit and low- fat cheese strings or a turkey wrap, vegetable soup and a yogurt drink.
Get your kids involved in planning meals that they will enjoy. If they continually bring home their lunch uneaten, ask why. Were there foods they didn't like? What are their friends at school eating? Let them help you make up weekly menus, shopping lists and even help you do the shopping. If there is time, let them help make part or all of their lunches.
A few good investments for lunches would be a wide mouth thermos for soups or hot meals and ice packs or insulated boxes or bags to actually keep cold foods cold, especially at this time of year. Frozen juice boxes also make good ice packs.
If your child wants the same lunch over and over, don't worry. As long as it's nutritious, variety is not that important.
If your child is interested, create variety by using different breads for sandwiches - regular or mini pitas, english muffins, flour tortillas or whole wheat, oatmeal or rye bread. Include low fat granola bars or trail mix as a snack for recess instead of the standard cookies, chips and the like.
Send a pasta salad made with multi-colour or fun-shaped noodles or cut up bite-sized raw vegetables, such as baby carrots, celery, cherry tomatoes, red pepper strips, broccoli and cauliflower - send them with a small container of low fat dip. Try the individual fruit cups as a change from fresh fruit. Low fat yogurt or yogurt tubes make a good dessert or snack.
Posted by at 07:27 AM | Comments (0)August 31, 2005
Beneath Diamond Head
Im standing next to the open windows, feeling the tropical breeze on my skin, in a high-class restaurant on the beach below Diamond Head. Its been a long time since Ive dined in such expensive surroundings. Im talking with a Director of Photography; someone Ive respected and admired from a distance. We are becoming acquainted, talking alone for the first time. We chat about the house in Canada he loves and about the poetry scene in Venice, California I miss. My eyes wander the landscape of the now empty-save-for-the-few-remaining-employees eating and counting tips at the vacant bar. My party of five is closing the place down. The other half huddles together a few feet away as the midnight hour ushers in an impromptu location scout for a hit television show. My thoughts wander to Darfur where people are starving and women wander outside the refugee camps to fetch water and are raped by ten or twelve men while no one does anything. Where in Niger, right now, 25,000 to 30,000 children under the age of 5 are at risk of starvation. I think about the thin slices of chicken drenched in a truffle oil sauce that had been placed before me. The couple of bites I stole from my other friends chocolate souffl covered with a thick white cream. The large slice of rare filet mignon left untouched on his porcelain plate. About the food in my full belly. The opulence of the place. The abundance of food. The starvation and civil wars on the other side of the world. And I wonder, Whats the meaning of my presence in this fancy French restaurant on the shores of Waikiki where I laughed with my husband and new friends at the table replete.
Hopefully, it means something.
August 28, 2005
Fair Fare
Only hours after returning from the fair, the “didjas” began rolling in. “Didja have mini doughnuts? Didja have Sweet Martha’s cookies? Didja have roasted corn?” No, no and no. But I did get to watch a girl’s face when my brother asked her if the beer-battered cheese curds she’d just given us were “the fat-free ones.”
What one does eat at the Minnesota State Fair is a big deal—it’s so personal. Some people don’t even notice that anything else goes on inside the gates; the Fair is for food. Can’t blame them for being a little single-minded after they’ve spent the long winter months languishing in the snow and suffering through fitful nights, dreaming of what new delicacies will be offered next year. Those are the folks sporting elastic waistbands, the ones who know the importance of pacing, the ones in line at 8am for the day’s first Pronto Pup.
Others don’t go to the fair because of the food. It’s true that one has to be in a certain frame of mind to enjoy the experience. Think of it as a bovine dining experience; plodding along with the crowd, occasionally stopping, standing around, and then moving on again—but always chewing. Some gag at the thought of an artery-clogging deep-fried Twinkie. I tried one. Still here. Some scoff at fair food’s sloppy presentation. These are most likely the people who usually enjoy delicate morsels balanced in a tower on a vast plate, finished with an ounce of sauce painted into a little Monet. One would think they’d appreciate vendors’ similar abilities to fashion bananas foster or spaghetti and meatballs so it can be served on a stick. And who’s to say one can’t attempt similar sauce feats with a paper plate and a gallon pump of ketchup? Well, maybe they’ve never tried.
Though unable to pack in all the exciting foodstuffs I wanted to try this year, I made a solid effort and left the great MN get-together as greasy, sticky and full as one should be. Alas, mere hours later, my stomach is growls for more. I brewed a gallon of decaf mint green tea to drink out of a paper cup. Then I’ll stab a slice of whole wheat toast onto a little bamboo skewer. Toast on a stick. Best to shift back to normal life slowly; but it’s never too early to start dreaming about next year.
August 20, 2005
Crazy
I would have been annoyed with me. Anyone who takes five minutes to agonize over a menu offering less than ten options probably deserves a crusty look from the soul behind the counter. The sandy-haired man waited in silence; if this were a showdown in an old film, he'd be the cowboy who got to wear the white hat. He recorded my order when I gave it, and coolly gave us the table marker. I slunk out to the patio and plopped into a black metal chair.
Guilt absolved with the wash of a lion head fountain and the scents from potted herbs, and I forgave my faux pas. I asked my companion, “Do you ever feel like you’re just a little bit crazy?” She gave me a look and said, yeah sometimes she does when she gets really busy. The server brought out a foamy mug of cappuccino, placed it in front of her, and left us to talk.
But I didn’t mean crazy like busy. I meant when you’re walking alone, and the thoughts rush so fast that you can’t hang on to one long enough to finish it. Like reading ingredients, picturing and mixing them in your mind, and then tasting the way they’d meld. But while one image is still there, the taste on your tongue, the grainy or slippery or chewy texture between your teeth, you shift your eyes and there’s another one. And you have to start all over.
That’s the kind of crazy I was talking about.
After a few minutes, the man returned. He had a little smile on his face. He looked at me and said in a rush, “I can’t even believe how good this looks,” while setting down the plate with near reverence. I looked at it and said, “Oh my god, you’re right.” My eyes fixed on the white ceramic dish in front of me, and then all three of us were staring at the bright red and deep orange heirloom tomatoes, wedged next to fat white mozzarella discs. Perfect cucumber slices rested nearby, a punch of green. Light olive oil clung to each piece, and pepper flecks blanketed it all, shaken with a staccato hand.
He smiled, looking steadily at me and said, “Enjoy.” Then he turned and went back inside behind the counter, and waited to take another order.
