Kids' Picks

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Happy Meal

“You’re kidding, right?” was the response from Max when I yelled upstairs for him to come down for his happy meal. We’re not that kind of McFamily, so this is my version of a happy meal.

Make a roast beef and provolone on toasted whole wheat, easy on the mayo. Then throw in a handful of mixed salad for crunch, and arrange a happy pattern of their favorite vegies and fruits. The bonus today was a leftover citrus bar on each plate. It sure made them happy that it was lunch time.

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Very Veggie Stir Fry

Stir fry with asparagus, green beans, chard, broccoli and cauliflower.

After eating pancakes for dinner last night our bodies were screaming out for some vegetables.

Here’s a very simple method for a quick stir fry:

  1. Marinate the raw, cut up chicken in some soy sauce and garlic and/or minced ginger for as much time as you can before cooking.
  2. Cook the chicken and marinade in a little oil along with a handful of chopped green onions, until cooked through, then take it all out of the pan and put it aside in a bowl while you cook the vegetables.
  3. Add a little more oil to the pan, cook the vegies in order of how much cooking time each requires.
  4. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and let them steam for a minute or two.
  5. When they’re cooked how you like them, put the chicken back in the pan, sprinkle on a bit more soy sauce and another handful of green onions. Add some red pepper flakes if you want it spicy.
  6. Heat through and serve with some sticky rice.
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Citrus Bars

Fresh lemon juice and orange juice concentrate make these especially moist and fruity. The pastry is as short as they come; very flaky. Their only real short-coming is that they aren’t chocolate.

Citrus Bars

Cut together, or pulse in a food processor, then press into a 9 x 13 pan:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 cup butter

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat together:

  • 1-3/4 cups sugar
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 4 Tbs. orange juice concentrate
  • 1 tsp. lemon peel
  • 1 tsp. orange peel

Then add to that:

  • 1/4 cup plus 1 Tbs. flour
  • 1/2 tsp. baking powder

Blend well, and pour into hot crust. Bake for an additional 25 minutes.

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Strawberry Short(pan)Cakes

With a nod to my Swedish friends, we had pancakes for dinner tonight, topped with vanilla yogurt and heaped with strawberries.

I follow the 1-1-1 recipe for making up pancake batter, as follows:

  • 1 cup milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1 Tbs. oil
  • 1 Tbs. sugar

From there it’s great to improvise. Tonight I used 1/2 whole wheat flour and also poured in some wheat germ. In place of 1/2 of the milk I substituted some yogurt. So even though it’s pancakes for dinner, it’s pretty healthy!

Another great variation is to add a whole grated apple and some cinnamon.

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20 Minute Pasta Sauce

Thick and chunky pasta sauce over tortellini, served with garlic bread and fresh green beans.

Wednesday is our busiest day of the week, which is why it’s pasta night. Boil some noodles, open a jar and dinner is done. I planned on tortellini, but didn’t realize that I was out of sauce until the water was boiling, so I mixed one up in less than 20 minutes. It was delicious.

20 Minute Pasta Sauce

  • 1 28 oz can of diced tomatoes (I used Trader Joe’s Organic Tomatoes, Diced in Tomato Juice, and they were exceptionally sweet.)
  • 2 cans tomato paste
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 2 large cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. basil

Keep in mind that I never measure when I throw these things together. The fun is in imagining the flavor, adding something, tasting and adding until you like it.  When I was done I wrote down approximately what I put in the sauce.

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Ruth’s Square Cookies and The Blue Bowl

These cookies, pictured below, are from my mother’s recipe entitled “Square Cookies.” (Next fall I’ll show you her cherry cake recipe which is made using plums.)

But maybe your brain prefers this next photograph, made from the same recipe:

Also called Brown Sugar Cookies, the only difference between these two versions is in the shape of the cookie and the size of the pecan pieces.

Before the age of electronics, when I was bored, I would sit on the floor of my mother’s kitchen with my back against the refrigerator and wait for a job. My first job, when I was probably three or four, was to grind nuts into the blue bowl. The blue bowl is the smallest of the colorful Pyrex nesting bowls, made in the 1950’s. My sister and I have a secret love affair with these bowls. We’re always on the look out for them. Recently, I purchased an entire set at a flea market! They are packaged carefully away in our garage, waiting for the time when my 13 year-old daughter has her own kitchen. I used to run the bowls in the dishwasher until I noticed that their luster had faded, so I gave those away and purchased a like-new set on e-bay. On the advice of my sister, these are hand-wash only.

Today I gave my son Joe the job of filling the blue bowl with chopped pecans for Grandpa’s favorite cookies, square cookies. Since Grandpa doesn’t like that many nuts I made him some of the round ones.

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Brownies 3 ways at once

I took brownies to my dentist appointment last week. Before I handed them to the receptionist I asked, “Is it in poor taste to bring brownies to the staff in a dental office?” Before I could finish my question, she answered with a stone-faced, “No, it’s not.”

I like taking brownies places. People get really excited at the mention of the word. I think it’s a great way to make friends.

This is a triple recipe — standard fare in my kitchen. I make it in an 11 x 17 pan.

  • 3 sticks butter
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1-1/2 cups cocoa
  • 1 Tbs. vanilla

Mix, pour into greased pan, top with chips or nuts or berries (if using berries make sure they are at room temperature, and dry). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Cut when cool, if you can wait that long. If you cut them small you can get 88 brownies.

 

Here’s the math for a single recipe. Bake in an 8″ x 8″ pan:

  • 1 sticks butter
  • 1 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cups cocoa
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
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Lamb Patties in Bacon with Dill Sauce

My mother-in-law and I recently bought half of a lamb from the University of Illinois meat science lab. The lab opens a meat counter three days a week, selling fresh cuts of the livestock they “harvest.” This is what a half lamb looks like:

Dorothy loves lamb the way some people love good chocolate, and she swears she would enjoy it three times a day.  She called me last night, excited to share a recipe she found in her old edition of the Better Homes and Garden cook book. I could hear her mouth watering over the phone, as she told me about the lamb patties wrapped in bacon. I made it tonight, and much to my surprise even my kids enjoyed it.

I served it with mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and a mixed green salad with home-made Caesar dressing.

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Easy Japanese Dinner — Gyoza (potstickers)

 

Mr. Sugiyama, the former Miss Gordon, Mr. Walker, Mrs. Sugiyama, Sept. 2, 1990, Glencoe, Illinois.

 

Mrs. Sugiyama, my karate teacher’s wife, taught me  Japanese cooking in 1989. I went to their house every Friday morning to help Mr. Sugiyama paste up his new karate book, 25 Shotokan Kata. This was in the dark ages when we used a waxer to coat the backs of the pages and an x-acto knife to trim the edges. After I arrived at 10:00, we would have some tea, and then Sensei and I would get to work on the pages, while gossiping about the people in the dojo. “Gordon-san,” he would ask me, “How do you think of Miss Fallon? Who would be a good match for her?” And so we would talk about good match-ups for all of his students. At around 11:00 it was time for a break, and my cooking lesson with Mrs. Sugiyama began. I would go into the kitchen where she taught me the art of stuffing and hand crimping the little dumplings, and frying-then-steaming the little pot-stickers or gyoza. She used fresh pork and cabbage, seasoned with green onions. They were lovely. I remember how to make them, and every couple of years I will go to the small effort, but the easiest way to capture that crunchy, chewy dumpling experience is to head to your nearest Asian grocery store, and buy a bag of the frozen. That’s what I’m doing tomorrow. I’ll post a picture after I fry them up. Go out tomorrow and buy a bag — you can get vegetarian ones as well — and we can enjoy them together (virtually). Also, pick up some soy sauce, rice vinegar and some chili oil so we can make the dipping sauce.

My most memorable gossip session with  Sensei Sugiyama was when I asked him what he thought about Mr. Walker. “As a boyfriend, Gordon-san?”

“Yes, Sensei.”

“I can not recommend him. There is a certain sharpness in his eyes.”

While I respected Mr. Sugiyama, thankfully I did not follow his advice, and 20 years later Mr. Walker and I are still enjoying gyoza together. And, I should add, that when Mr. Walker announced our engagement right in the middle of a karate class, Sensei ran over to him and gave him a big bear hug.

 

Prepared, frozen gyoza. For the sauce mix 1 part soy sauce with 1/2 part rice vinegar and just a few drops of chili oil. Adjust to taste.

 

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Very-Veggie Pasta with Cheese

DSCN0380pretty pasta w vegies sm

Don’t  buy boxed macaroni and cheese. Instead, make this from scratch in 30 minutes. It’s kid friendly and they get all of their vegetables right in the dish. This is one of the few dishes that all three of my children love, and even their pickiest of friends have asked for seconds.

  • 4 cups chopped vegetables
  • 1/4 onion, finely chopped
  • 4 Tbs. butter
  • 4 Tbs. flour
  • 2 cups milk (you can use soy milk)
  • 3 cups grated cheese (Use what you works for your crowd: – Kids like cheddar or cheddar-jack blend.  – Mix in some Swiss or goat cheese to suit your taste. – Tonight I used Havarti and cheedar.)
  • 1 large, fresh tomato, chopped.
  • about 1 pound of mixed pasta
  • 1 tsp. basil
  • salt and pepper

1. Get your water boiling.

2. Start the sauce:

  • Cut up the vegetables into little pieces. I like to use broccoli and/or zucchini, and mushrooms. I’ve also used thinly sliced kohlrabi, very thinly sliced carrots, cauliflower or chopped spinach. Use your favorites.
  • Saute the vegetables along with the onion in the butter until the vegetable are slightly soft. They’ll cook a bit more after you add in the milk and cheese.
  • Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir it around. It will be a little pasty.
  • Slowly add the milk, a little at a time.
  • Mix in the cheese and let it melt, and add the tomatoes.
  • Season with salt, pepper and basil.

Keep this over the lowest possible heat while you boil the pasta.

  • Pick 2 or 3 different kinds of pasta shapes (bow ties, rotini, etc.). One of them should be a long shape like spaghetti or linguine, which you’re going to break into about 3″ segments before boiling. That way all of the pasta pieces will be of similar size. Boil them all in the same pot of water, taking note of cooking times and adding them one type at a time with the longest-cooking pasta going into the pot first.

Get out your biggest serving bowl, and pour the sauce over the pasta.

 

I’m thrilled to announce that The Plate is My Canvas is now available as a book, and includes many recipes from this blog.
— The Plate is My Canvas: Recipes and Stories from My Family’s Interfaith Kitchen, 222 pages.

I’ve also published two books that are excerpts from “The Plate.”
—For just the Passover recipes, most of which are included in the “The Plate,” Essential Passover from Scratch: Recipes and Stories from My Mother’s Kitchen, 72 pages.
—For the very best of my baked goods—cookies, bread, coffee cakes, etc., You Can’t Have Dry Coffee: Papa’s Excuse to Have a Nosh And Nana’s Perfect Pastries, 86 pages.

These projects started as this food blog! From there emerged the iNosh iPad app (no longer available), and now the books. My goal in making printed copies of The Plate is My Canvas was to pass down my family’s traditions to my children, and I presented them each with the big volume in December of 2018. It’s taken a while, but now the books are available to others.