a feast for the eyes

I met Carol Lambert in person last summer at the South Anchorage Farmers’ Market. But I already knew of her through her beautiful oil paintings—many of which feature fresh Alaskan produce. She buys her produce at the farmers’ market, paints it, then eats it! When she’s not at her day job, she likes to do a painting a day! You can see her other small paintings on her gorgeous blog, Carol Lambert Artworks. Her paintings are so beautiful, and I especially love the fruits and vegetables. Check out her radishes and strawberries! I wouldn’t call myself an art collector, but come on! Talk about right up my alley…

Last week Carol told me that she was going to paint one of our Rise & Shine Bakery loaves! And even more exciting, she’d paint it during her First Friday stint at Charlie’s Club 25 in downtown Anchorage. She spends the whole day painting there, chatting with people who come to see her artwork. I’d been wanting to visit her, and the prospect of watching our fruited almond loaf being immortalized in oils was an irresistible draw! So even though it was fifteen degrees below zero yesterday, we bundled up for the outing.

I’ll admit, I’d been eyeing the pomegranate painting on her blog for a while now. Since Carol is a customer of our brand-new venture, the Glacier Valley Farm CSA program, I asked her if this particular pomegranate came from our CSA box—and it did! Well, I just couldn’t help myself. I bought the painting, and it’s even prettier in real life. I love it!

Carol’s going to bring the painting over on Sunday, and it’ll be fun to decide where to hang it! But there’s just one little problem… I had assumed I’d want to buy the painting of our bread, and it looked gorgeous even before it was completely finished! But now I’ve blown my Christmas allowance on the pomegranate. Maybe I’ll have to start a new tradition of buying artwork to celebrate Martin Luther King Day.

collard greens and a happy new year!!

Eating black-eyed peas and collards on New Year’s Day is supposed to bring prosperity in the coming year. I’ve read that collards are supposed to symbolize greenbacks, and I guess black-eyed peas represent coins? Even if you’re not superstitious, in today’s financial climate, it’s probably wise to eat collards… I can think of several concrete ways that collards can boost your budget.

1. As vegetables go, collards are pretty darn cheap—so if you eat plenty of them, you’ll end up saving money! There’s some extra greenbacks!

2. We’re always reading about the health benefits of eating green vegetables—especially those in the Brassica family, like collards, broccoli, kale, and cabbage.  A quick search of the web turned up a trove of health reasons to eat collards; they help prevent cancer, soak up nasty free radicals and eliminate toxic compounds, provide calcium for bone strength, and contribute folate and vitamin B6 for our blood vessels. So you’ll be saving all kinds of money by not going to the doctor’s office! Sheesh, collards are way cheaper than a triple bypass! 

3. And you know what? If you cook collards right, they taste great! I always parboil my collards in salted water to remove some of the bitterness, which makes them a lot more tender and delicious. (Some of my friends claim this is removing the nutrients, too—but if I didn’t parboil them, I wouldn’t eat them. So I think washing a few nutrients down the drain is worth the trade-off.) If you’re at home eating yummy collards, you’re not spending money at a restaurant!

4. Even though collards are traditional Southern fare, they grow very well in northern climates, too. Here in Alaska our farmers grow bountiful crops of them in the summer, so processing and freezing them for the winter can really save you a bundle. You can watch my YouTube video, linked below, on how to process collards, and be ready for next summer. Then you can buy loads of collards from your local farmer for a song!

This delicious Indian recipe is definitely not the traditional Southern braised collard greens to go with Hoppin’ John, but I love it! The original recipe (from Madhur Jaffrey’s World-of-the-East Vegetarian Cooking) called for spinach, but collards are so much more satisfying and sturdy. (Don’t you hate how spinach cooks down to a tenth of its original bulk?) Plus, as mentioned above, collards are way less expensive! Try this recipe, and you’ll be reaping all those benefits of collards—financial and otherwise—all year long! 

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If I post a healthy and delicious recipe that I did, in fact eat this week (several times, actually—it was a big batch), will that earn a few credits to counter the demerits I’ve collected eating all manner of holiday-themed treats (read: chocolate) and incredibly rich food (dang, I just can NOT resist that egg nog) these last few weeks? As my friend Meggan mused in her blog about a package of bacon, sometimes you just need to finish off those pesky ingredients. Then they won’t tempt you further.

Which maybe works in a normal month? I mean, depending on how many cartons of ice cream or tins of home-made cookies or half-eaten boxes of chocolate truffles you usually have hanging around the house. I know myself better than to stock my cabinets with those items on a regular basis. Anyway. Does the following summary look familiar to anyone?

Dec 20:  I love egg nog. Especially with fresh-ground nutmeg sprinkled on. Especially after already eating tea and gingerbread men for dessert. Because, you know, it’s just a beverage. And anyway, no point in leaving just this little bit of egg nog in the carton. Might as well just finish it off. Whoops! Sorry, Dan… did you want some of that?

Dec 21: [To self with best of intentions.] “Oh good, eating this second bowl of vanilla ice cream will finish off that pesky carton and then it won’t be tempting me any more!” [Sprinkles ice cream with fresh-ground nutmeg to see if it will therefore taste more like egg nog. It does, kind of. Because what is egg nog other than not-yet-frozen ice cream, anyway? Helpful tip: one time we put a half-gallon of egg nog in an ice cream maker and guess what? It turned into ice cream!]

Dec 22: [Receives a package of delicious homemade nut candy from Margo, a beautiful Harry & David basket-o-goodies from Uncle Al, and there is still part of a loaf of cranberry bread in the drawer from Alice yesterday. Not to mention the box of Frangos from Rosemary and Allan, yum, mint chocolately chocolate.] “What to finish off NEXT?”

Dec 23: Just baked how many hundreds of dark chocolate and cherry bread for bakery customers? And the fruited almond, too… [must… not… eat… entire… loaf...]

Looking ahead:
Dec 24… This is NOT the day to adopt a new slimming regimen. I’ll try not to make myself sick eating too many helpings of Martha’s fantastic desserts. That’s about the best I can hope for.

Dec 25… This day is especially wonderful… I’m likely to get some of Claire’s spectacular homemade egg nog!

Dec 26: Time enough to turn over a new leaf. Or, just get back to the old, non-holiday leaf. Just as soon as I finish off all these leftover goodies!! 

So anyway, back to the lentil recipe. You’re going to love it. Eat it, love the flavor, and feel extra-virtuous for being so healthy. Then you can eat a big ol’ dessert of holiday treats afterwards. 

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Run, run as fast as you can!

I love to take Meredith on long walks. I’ve been training her to be a good little hiker ever since she was two years old… I’d bring a good book, the baby stroller, and let her dawdle and wander her way the whole mile and a half to the park. I’d read a chapter (and not hassle her to hurry up) while she stopped every few yards to strip the seeds off dandelions with gusty puffs, amass stockpiles of rosehips, swozzle around in mud puddles, or scrutinize insect maneuverings. After she exhausted the delights of the swings, the slide, and the rocking motorcycle at the playground, I’d push her home in the stroller. Now, at four, she can easily walk both ways—and with a little encouragement, she can run a lot of it!

To facilitate speedy journeys to and fro, I have a few tricks in my hip pocket. The most effective one is when I tell the story of the Gingerbread Man. Nothing motivates Meredith like “Run, run, as fast as you can! You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man!” Finally, it’s December, and it’s time to bake some of our own galloping goodies! We kept a sharp eye on our gingerbread men to make sure none of them ran away… and any likely-looking escapees got their legs eaten off!

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cooking with kids

This time of year, we all have so many traditional sweet treats to make—for our friends, family, and ourselves! I remember making lots of special holiday cookies with my mom when I was little. Some that come to mind are the spritz butter cookies that I loved to squirt out of the press in green wreath shapes and decorate with red hot candies, the krumkake that we made in a special waffle iron and then rolled around a wooden cone, and the peppermint-flavored dough that we rolled into pink and white snakes and then twisted into candy-cane shapes. For a few years, my mom even made rosette cookies, with the heavy iron molds she dipped into the cookie batter and then deep-fried in her electric wok. Remember those? Dusted with powdered sugar, they left a grease slick on the roof of my mouth… With all those fond memories, plus plenty more of my own favorite cookie recipes, it’s pretty easy to think of holiday treats and cookies to make with my four-year-old, Meredith. I’m sure it’s the same for you.

But why do we only think about including our kids when we’re making treats and sweet things? I didn’t learn how to cook until I went to college—my mom didn’t think to include us kids when making dinner—I think she just wanted to get dinner on the table, and didn’t need us underfoot. So in the interest of teaching Meredith to cook healthy, delicious meals (not just desserts), I try to include her in all sorts of cooking projects. She’s not always quite as interested in making a salad as making treats like graham crackers (eating raw dough is one of her favorite hobbies), but there is almost always a fun part in even the most ordinary meal. If I’m not rushing to finish lunch or dinner, I’ll ask if she’s interested in helping. And usually she is—for a little while, anyway!

My greatest inspiration for Meredith-inclusive cookery is my friend Cate, who writes a fabulous blog about cooking with kids: Tribeca Yummy Mummy. She is all about including our kids in cooking real food—using real, raw ingredients, and making meals and FOOD, not just treats. Thank you, Cate, for encouraging us to raise our expectations of what we assume our kids are interested in, and are capable of doing in the kitchen!

For this salad, Meredith chopped up the pears for the dressing with a table knife, helped measure the rest of the dressing ingredients into the blender jar, and then picked pomegranate seeds. (Oh, and then she helped eat it!)

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eating with your eyes

It’s a cliché, but true… if something looks pretty on the plate, it’s more appetizing and appealing to the palate! I’m never one for constructing elaborate garnishes; carving radish rosettes or deep-frying sage leaves has never been my forte. But I do love to serve vibrantly-colored and contrasting dishes together! This has two benefits: the plate looks lovely and the meal is packed with nutrients! A classic combination is orange vegetables with dark greens, as shown here… and I can’t ever seem to get enough of this pairing in the wintertime. When I’m planning a meal, I try and imagine what color the dish will be, and then think about what foods would provide good contrast.

This is one of my favorite suppers (not to mention great lunch leftovers), and it couldn’t be simpler… You really don’t need anything else! The slow-roasted caramelized sweet potatoes go so nicely with the savory broccoli. You can use my parsley pesto recipe, or just use pesto from the store.

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It snowed ALL NIGHT last night here in Anchorage! We got about a foot of snow, and it’s STILL SNOWING!!  Until a few days ago, I’d been cross-country skiing on the Hillside trails, and due to our meager snow cover, I’d quickly made a pair of rock skis out of my best pair of skis.  (They are six years old, though…) *sigh* I know what will be on my Christmas list this year! Anyway, according to my brother, Ben (the manager of Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking), it’s high time I updated my gear from the Pleistocene era. He says that I should try the latest technology… skinnier tips, less shaping in the middle (or is that wider tips and more shaping in the middle?). 

So after a leisurely Sunday breakfast (Meredith helped her dad make pancakes), Dan and I discussed the day. We decided that I would have the first ski shift. (We trade off with Meredith when we both want to ski solo.) He and Meredith would plow the driveway and our road up to the top of the hill, then I would scoot out in our little front-wheel-drive Jetta station wagon and zip over to Hillside for a slow and lovely trample around the trails. I got dressed and set off, my windshield wipers flailing at the thick clouds of snowflakes already obscuring Dan’s plow swath. My trusty little Jetta made it up the hill—and in fact, although none of the roads were plowed except for Dan’s handiwork, I made it the three miles to the trailhead at the high school. At which point, my little car plowed uphill into the huge berm of snow across the entrance to the parking lot and got firmly stuck. Whoops! I tried backing out, into the relatively clear main road, but I was completely high-centered! While my Jetta has great traction, it doesn’t have very high clearance. So I spent the next half hour on my belly, wishing I’d brought a shovel, burrowing packed snow out from under my car with my gloved hands. I managed to back the car out in stages, foot by foot.  When I was about four feet from the road, two nice guys from the nearby sledding hill walked over and shoved me the rest of the way out. Thank you!!

I anxiously drove right home, luckily without incident, passing several cars embedded in their own snowdrifts, and zipped back into the garage. SAFE! Dan and Meredith, by this time making a snowman, were surprised to see me home so soon, but I soon re-emerged from the house with my gear. I popped my skis on, strapped on my poles, and skied off up the driveway! I had a gorgeous slog/ski on the bike trail through my neighborhood, and all the way back to the Hillside trails, where I did a short loop and then trudged my slow and snowy way back!

Here’s what I ate for lunch when I got home! It’s the perfect warming meal for a snowy day.

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What’s the most important consideration on Thanksgiving Day?  I mean aside from the attention to what we’re thankful for, counting our blessings, and all that… Once our contributions to the feast have been duly baked, sautéed, roasted, and steamed, it’s time to make the single-most important decision that will make or break your Thanksgiving dinner. What will you wear?

I used to advocate for elastic waistbands. An elastic waist on your pants or skirt ensures that no matter how many wonderful, home-made, once-a-year fabulously traditional savory and sweet delights you consume, you will still fit in your garment (no need to unbutton or unzip). However, the elastic band has an unfortunate tendency to become rather tighter as the evening proceeds; an unwelcome reminder that perhaps you have overindulged. 

Much better to adopt my latest paradigm: no waist at all! (See photos, below, of Meredith and I, dressed in our waist-less best for the festivities!) Meeting the no-waist criterion is probably the easiest for the younger set—how I wish I could find some of Meredith’s getups in my size—but still, with a little persistence, I’m sure you can find something that won’t look too frumpy, but will be extremely comfortable for your holiday gastronomic adventures. What I’ve found is that these sorts of dresses aren’t ever terribly unfashionable, because they were never fashionable to begin with. Perfect! And our dear friends, the Nelson’s, family friends since I was a small child, would certainly never bring up the fact that I wear this same dress, year after year.  Hopefully your crowd is equally forgiving!

This probably won’t help you men out there. The best I can recommend is that you wear your pants with the roomiest waistband. But don’t wear a belt—buy yourself a pair of suspenders! My husband, Dan, tried to think of a waistless item in his wardrobe, and the best he could come up with was his rubber overall rainpants with the built-in suspenders. I might have humored him, but they are florescent orange.

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This salad is wonderful with any kind of Mexican dinner, but it’s perfect alongside the enchiladas filled with braised greens and garlic-roasted potatoes. Fresh and crunchy, it makes a perfect contrast to the rich flavors and soft textures of the enchiladas. Of course I used Alaskan cabbage!

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Alaskan enchiladas?

Alaskan enchiladas? Does that sound like an oxymoron? Well, ever since our friends Arthur and Michelle made us enchiladas a few weeks ago, I’ve had a terrible craving for MORE enchiladas. Their enchiladas were filled with spiced Alaskan ground buffalo and yummy homemade refried black beans—they were fantastic! While I didn’t have any buffalo, I figured that the bounty of Alaska would provide enough for more than one enchilada variation! Determined to feed my enchilada hankering, I rummaged around in my pantry and scrutinized my favorite cookbooks for inspiration. Ziploc bags of sliced and par-boiled collard greens line one section of my chest freezer, and I’ve got boxes full of potatoes and onions in the garage. I even have some Alaskan cheese that we use for our Alaskan cheese & roasted garlic bread! I came across several good recipes, including some for homemade enchilada sauce (one of my requirements).  This recipe is a hybrid of many of these recipes, but the filing is most directly inspired by one in Veganomicon, and the sauce is a variation on one from Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook.

Our friends Chuck and Laurie came over with their kids to share these enchiladas. Since I’d made all the components ahead of time, I chatted happily with Laurie while I rolled the enchiladas. Meanwhile, the kids were busy rehearsing a new musical play, complete with capes, crowns, swords and buried treasure. (The dads hid upstairs, playing guitar until dinnertime). At dinner, we managed to devour quite a few, washed down with pints of locally-brewed Midnight Sun beer.  YUM!

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