A Tasty Tribute to Sheila Lukins

I was filled with great sadness upon reading that Sheila Lukins had passed away this week. She was 66, and had been diagnosed with brain cancer just 3 months ago.




Lukins' most famous cookbook, the best-selling and hugely influential Silver Palate Cookbook, sits prominently on my bookshelf, an original edition "borrowed" from my mom. Its pages are dog-eared and worn; hand-written notes from the early 80's fill the margins.



Tonight, a few friends will gather at my house for dinner and to watch Top Chef. I've been contemplating what to make... and now, having read Lukins' obituary, it seems only too obvious.



The always delicious and timelessly classic chicken marbella.


Fortunately, Lukins' recipes are forgiving and adaptable, as I'll have to make some changes. I won't have time to marinate it overnight, which is a marbella essential. And, since it's nearly noon and I haven't gone grocery shopping, I certainly won't have time to follow my mom's notes from 1983: "better warmed over next day. Very good at room temperature." (And speaking of mom's notes, I wonder if prunes will still be 32 cents... as she has fastidiously penciled-in.) no doubt, when my oven is set to 400 degrees for an hour in this smoke-filled Los Angeles heat, I'll certainly wonder why I didn't fire up the grill instead.

But, as we sit down to watch America's future culinary leaders compete for the title of Top Chef, I really can't think of any better way to honor such an influential cook who transformed America's palate during the last three decades. A scrumptious bite of moist chicken, salty olives, and sweet, melt-in-your mouth prunes is the tastiest tribute I can image.

Extreme Pantry Makeover

Once again, Mark Bittman hit a home run with his article in yesterday's New York Times. The champion of minimalism in the kitchen, the father of "less is more", Bittman gives the kitchen a clean and healthy makeover for 2009. With his "hot" or "not" list, Mark is officially the Joan Rivers of the pantry.

And he's right. There is a lot of room for improvement in the American pantry. On his "out" list: That green shaker of "cheese". The overly processed "bread" crumbs. Minute rice and Aunt Jemima. Out. Out. And out. For quick and satisfying meals, Bittman promotes using frozen veggies, homemade dressings, hunks of bacon, quality nuts, and dried fruits. I'm proud to report these are ingredients that shine in most of my family's weeknight dinners.

But what about the canned beans and organic boxed chicken stock he suggests we do away with...except, he notes, in emergencies. These two ingredients caused much controversy among the 250+ reader comments that were posted of the NYT site. While I do soak dried beans overnight (easy, yes) and cook-up batches of stock with leftover veggies and chicken, the ready-to-go pantry staples are shortcuts I -- and many excellent family cooks -- have come to rely on. (note photo!) They taste good, provide comparable nutrients, and require little more effort than lifting them from the grocery store shelf into your shopping cart.

Forget earthquakes. Forget terrorist strikes. As far as I'm concerned, when you've got a hungry 7-year old exhausted from a soccer game, or a growing teenage boy scrounging for a snack, you've got yourself the very emergency Mr. Bittman must be talking about! Indeed, a well stocked pantry or fridge can be the source of culinary inspiration. But it can also be a solution to a busy weeknight -- a source of nutritious staples (alongside the frozen peas Bittman touts) that you know, undoubtedly, will be there. Regardless of whether you soaked any beans last night, froze any vegetable broth, or stopped at the greengrocer for fresh-picked peas.

And speaking of quick dinners and canned beans, why not try the "Crispy Black Bean Tacos with Feta and Cabbage Slaw" that appeared in Bon Appetit's column, "Fast, Easy, Fresh" this month. In fact, it's a perfect recipe to start your New Year's Resolution of cooking with your family one night each week. Thanks to the canned organic black beans, my carnivorous husband really loved helping make this quick, tasty, and meatless taco.

You can cook up the recipe here.

(photo courtesy epicurious.com)

Nadda Frittata: a culinary road map for leftovers

I'm not quite sure what it was I made for dinner the night before we left for Christmas vacation. In the past, clean-out-the-fridge night, as my family knows it, usually features pasta or pizza dough on the main stage. But not this night. No, this particular night I very much wanted our 1-dish supper to be something egg-straordinary. To use up some leftover potatoes, a piece of pork, some languishing spinach, I was craving the creamy, rich, protein-dense platform of eggs. The problem, however, was the discovery --- half-way through my creative cookery, and with a successfully emptied fridge --- that we had just 3 eggs. Thus, dinner was not quite quiche, certainly no tart, and only vaguely frittata-esque. It was, however, amazingly and surprisingly, delicious.

I told the story -- and offered the "recipe" -- to my friend Beth. She's a fine cook, when cooking means following clearly defined steps and utilizing explicitly listed ingredients. (Which, you will soon see, neither of which my recipe provides.) "WHATever did you do? Go to the store for more eggs? Get take-out?" wondered Beth. She was horrified by the idea of cooking without a recipe, of cooking without all the integral ingredients pre-accounted for in a grocery cart days beforehand, and most of all, of beginning to cook without -gasp- having any idea what the outcome might be. Truth be told, I rarely follow recipes. And while I don't always know exactly what I'm making when I enter the kitchen, I usually have a pretty good idea by the time a pan is heated. But this "Nadda Frittata" as my family dubbed it, was truly a case of some destiny-deprived leftovers quickly tossed together in a desperate attempt for reincarnation. Until that is, it was presented on a plate. And eaten. Every. Last. Bite.

While I don't recommended cooking by the seat of your apron every night, I think we all have a lot to learn from such renegade methods. Discovery. Trial and error. Mistakes from which to learn. Curiosity. Surprises. Risks. These are the kind of experiences we encourage our children to have when they are at school, when they are making friends, when they are finding themselves in the real world. Yet so often parents describe their own kitchen experiences with precisely the kind of anxiety we don't want our children to confront. Stressed. Ruined. Boring. Same-old, same-old. Fear of failure. Lack of trust. Self-consciousness.

Sure, I could have gone to the corner store and gotten a dozen eggs. Or decided that spinach, pork, a mere 3 eggs, heavy cream, cheese, and potatoes might not exactly comprise a family dinner. In fact, I could have given up all together and picked up for the phone and dialed Thai take-out.

But I believe in kitchen adventures. Like any adventure, there are good times and bad, twists and turns, unknowns and uncertains. But the spirit of the adventure is what cooking -- and eating -- is all about. A while back in Food and Wine, famed chef and cookbook author Daniel Patterson wondered, "Do recipes make you a better cook?" Though I read the article nearly 3 years ago, his metaphor of recipes as culinary road maps still resonantes with me daily, and I implore you to read the article in its entirety.

"Good cooks rely on recipes – to a point… [they] make mistakes all the time. They take wrong turns and end up in strange places. Their attention sharpens as they try to figure out where they are and how they got there. Eventually they either reach their original destination, or discover that wherever they stumbled into is really the best place to be. Sometimes it’s important to get lost…. The journey is what a recipe is all about."

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Anyhow, on this particular journey, I got lucky. The nadda frittata was light, airy, comforting, and delicious. So delicious, in fact, I suggest you try it the next time you're faced with some stray leftovers and a little need for culinary adventure.

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Nadda Frittata
Of course, in attempts to clean out our entire fridge, these are the ingredients I used. I'm sure the next time I make nadda frittata a whole new set of ingredients will fill our plates. So please use this recipe as a culinary road map and adjust for your fridge's leftovers. One further note: the airy but rich flavor of this recipe no doubt came from the heavy cream. I would have probably used milk -- had we any -- but can say the addition of cream was worth every calorie and certainly worth keeping.

1. 2. 3.

In a non-stick skillet over medium heat, saute a few cups of fresh baby spinach with a little olive oil. Remove as it begins to wilt and set aside. Heat leftover (pre-cooked) potatoes and onions in pan. Top with sauteed spinach. Add additional leftovers, such as sliced pork tenderloin. Meanwhile, in a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs, some heavy cream, a dash of nutmeg, and season with salt and pepper. Pour egg mixture over pan mixture. Top with cheese. I honestly can't remember what I used. Mozzarella maybe? Get in frittata mode: stir lightly with a spatula until the eggs begin to set on top. Transfer pan to broiler... in full disclosure I think mine just went into a very hot oven. When eggs are just still fluffy and just set, and the top is ever so lightly browned, remove from oven. Slice and serve straight away.

This nadda frittata would sure be good with some peasant bread, or a cup of tomato soup. Or even, if you're lucky, a salad of crisp greens. But assuming you enter this kitchen adventure on leftover night, as I did, you'll be perfectly content letting nadda frittata fly solo on your plate.

"Point, Blast, and... Cook!?"

Here's a perfect case of "just because it's organic, doesn't mean I want to eat it."

In a recent dedicated email, Daily Candy recommended the next time my kids offer to help make breakfast, I "get [my] brood involved sans hassle with Organic Batter Blaster Pancake and Waffle Mix."

I'm usually pretty favorable towards the products and services Daily Candy recommends. But just because this pancake batter is organic, doesn't mean I can endorse a food product whose marketing slogan is "just point, blast, and cook!"

The promotional video really says it all: "for years and years, people have made pancakes and waffles the same old-fashioned way. With milk, eggs, flour, mixing bowls, measuring cups, and all that mess..."

WAIT just a minute! Since when weren't pancakes made with milk, eggs, and flour? Isn't that what makes a pancake a pancake? Sure, our grocery stores are filled with fake foods -- non-dairy cheese. Meatless hamburger patties -- but I'm a pretty big proponent of the "real thing". (Sorry soy.)

I'll admit, it does look like fun to squirt the CO2 cartridge. And it's true that the potential for mess is non-existent. In fact, the simple ingredients probably taste better than other store-bought pancake mixes. But if a child asks to help make breakfast, chances are they want to break the eggs. They're eager to show off some math skills and measure 1/3 cup flour. And they're literally starving to whisk it all together until it's smooth. So what if you have to wipe a little flour off the counter. That is precisely what cooking's all about!

Thanks Organic Batter Blaster, but I'll save my pointing and blasting for other things. Like paintball, perhaps.

Mark Bittman's Everyday Pancakes

(nb. I chose this recipe because he writes, "pancakes are made from a simple, forgiving batter...everyday pancake batter whips up in no time and can be stored in the fridge for a couple of days..." Preservative-free, it sounds like a better Batter Blaster to me.)

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2-2 cups milk

2 tbsp melted butter, + more un-melted butter for pan

mix-ins (frozen blueberries, ripe bananas, chocolate chips, etc)

And, you guessed it, REAL maple syrup. (Even organic Aunt Jemima belongs with the Batter Blaster.)

Heat non-stick griddle or skillet over medium heat. Mix together dry ingredients. Beat eggs into 1 1/2 cups milk. Stir in melted butter. Combine dry ingredients with milk mixture. Mix gently until flour is just moistened, adding more milk if batter seems too thick. Add desired mix-ins. Place a little butter on the skillet, and when it foams add a spoonful of pancake batter. Cook about 2-4 minutes each side, flipping when small bubbles appear in the center of the pancakes. Serve warm with syrup.

Same ol' Veggies + Fun New Twist = "More Cabbage, Please!"

Some may call the combination of tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded lettuce, sprouts, and carrots a salad. But paired with a bagel in Kitchen Kid's after-school enrichment "Books for Cooks" class, it's aptly called a Brown Bear Bagel Face. (Even if these bears look more like a team of crazy bearded clowns with whiskers.)

After an animated reading of We're Going on a Bear Hunt, this class of kindergartners got right to work adding cabbage eyebrows, egg yolk eyeballs, and shredded carrot beards to their sprouted whole wheat bagels. The 5-year olds loved being so creative with these unlikely art supplies.

Better yet, they loved eating them. Every. last. bite. Even a mom told me, "I never knew bagels with vegetables could taste so good." This was the perfect after-school snack for these budding young chefs, who discovered red peppers really are sweet, and how kids can be real chefs 'chopping' them up with tiny craft scissors. The bagel's complex carbs boosted their energy level, and the kids were well on their way to eating enough fruits and veggies to meet the recommended 5-a day.
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But don't worry, kids don't need to create artistic masterpieces every time you want them to eat their vegetables. It only takes one delicious Bagel Face for them to discover how tasty and crunchy veggies can be. The next time, your kids might be plenty content eating them straight from their plate...

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Recipe: Brown Bear Bagel Faces

1 whole wheat bagel, halved

2 tbsp cream cheese

1 hard-boiled egg, sliced or crumbled

Assorted crunchy, tasty, and nutritious vegetables, (chopped into appropriately-sized facial features) such as: shredded carrots, sprouts, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper, purple cabbage, and black olives

and for when you don't feel like chocolate...

...try fruit popsicles, or Mexican paletas.

Or as Mark Bittman writes, "Mexican summer on a stick".

Try his tasty combinations for these refreshing icy pops, like berry and lime, banana, and pineapple.

Summer's Candy Bar

I'm hardly against kids eating sweets. Nor do I think chocolate should be relegated to their annual birthday bash. But candy bars, filled with trans fats and other unrecognizable ingredients, are an unsatisfying source of nutrition-less calories.


In a Kitchen Kid Cooking Class this week, I watched 5 kids descend on their just-made creations of chocolate covered strawberries and chocolate-dipped bananas like seagulls flocking to a bag of chips left unattended at the beach.


Now this recipe is hardly complicated, and I'm most definitely not the first to make it. But the act of melting 6 ounces of pure, dark chocolate (no additives, no big words) gave these budding chefs such genuine and unequivocal joy, made me really question the appeal of a Twix. Not to mention the process in and of itself brought almost as much pleasure as the tasty treat (albeit rich in vitamin C and yes, those antioxidants hiding in dark chocolate).


Sure, it would be great if every kid reached for fresh fruit sans the chocolate. And many do. But adding just a touch of something as forbidden as pure chocolate, and watching the kids lick it from their fingers and their lips, surely makes a case for chocolate covered strawberries, and frozen banana pops, being Summer's Best Candy Bar.


Recipe:
Melt 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Indulge by dipping 1 pint of strawberries and Popsicle clad bananas. If you crave a more sophisticated taste, stir chocolate into 6 ounces of near-simmering heavy cream. Even a 3 year old can do it: watch Mark Bittman's Mini Minimalist make this simple ganache.

Dinnertime Challenges for Mom, Top Chef Style

Is it just me, or was the elimination challenge on Bravo's Top Chef last night hardly, well, a challenge? The task: cook a nutritious, simple, and kid-friendly dinner that American families would be happy to re-create. Oh, and spend $10 or less. If this seems an impossible feat, as Chef Andrew quipped, it's worth noting these astounding figures reported in Chef Tom Colicchio's blog: 10% of Americans rely on food stamps. Food stamps allocate just $1/meal per person. That means cooking a simple, nutritious, and kid-friendly dinner for your family of 4 for just $4. And the cost of food continues to rise...

Anyhow, it seems this 'challenge' -- or should I call it a 'regularly nightly task' for most American moms -- really stumped these talented chef-testants. So I've decided to critique each of the chefs so they'll be ready when they have hungry kids of their own.

Mark: I agree with the judges on this one. Your sweet curry entree lacked essential carbs and protein. Gail was right, sweet potatoes are a great source of vitamins, but a dinner of "just vegetables" doesn't work on the family table. How about mashed sweet potatoes with turkey burgers?

Dale: Good thinking. Pre-cooked sausages are a quick, inexpensive staple in the family kitchen. But your kids may find brats and cabbage to be the 'worst'. How about smoked chicken and apple sausage instead? Or an Italian turkey sausage kabob with sauteed red peppers and broccoli, with a side of brown rice?

Spike: Few kids get excited about olives and capers. But pasta with red sauce will always be a quick, inexpensive, and nutritious family meal. Jessica Seinfeld's been known to sneak some unique vegetables in there, too. I loved your idea for carrot soup -- I wish more American moms knew how easy and rewarding it is to make homemade soup.

Nikki, Richard, Stephanie, and Lisa: Lots of roasted chicken. Definitely a healthy, delicious way to feed a family. Think outside the BSB (boneless, skinless breast): it's a lot cheaper to buy whole chicken, thighs, or even bone-in breast. I liked Nikki's easy clean up plan and wished more chefs had considered using just 1 pan. Richard did a nice job introducing hot pink beets. Kids love the sweet taste and bright color when they are roasted. But left whole the texture is intimidating. Try running the beets through a food processor and toss with pasta and cheese. Though Stephanie's dish was deservedly on the bottom, whole wheat couscous is a great, quick kid-friendly grain. Mixed with some leftover chicken, chickpeas, and snow peas, it's one fast dinner.

Andrew: I loved this take on a 'kid classic': chicken parm. Your salad of fennel, orange, and apple was sweet and full of vitamin C. But Spike, no dad in his right mind would dare serve it on top of the chicken!

Antonia: How fitting that you, the single mom, knew how to "stir-fry" up a healthy, tasty, inexpensive kid-favorite. It's no surprise that this includes whole wheat pasta, chicken, and sweet veggies like bokchoy and edamame. I'm sure your daughter is proud!

I applaud Top Chef for inviting kids into the kitchen to help put dinner on the table: note to viewers, try this at home! And I know moms across the nation smiled in victory last night, confident their "Wednesday night chicken" or "surprise pasta bake" would have earned gushing praise from the Judges Table in this "challenge".

30 Meals in 30 Days

Cookie Magazine's online community really is "all that's best for your family." From baby strollers to beauty tips and exercise to entertaining, it's a one-stop, content-rich source for all things family. Though I am easily distracted by the "Do-Everything-Better Guides" (who wouldn't be lured by such a claim?) I of course visit the site for creative new ideas in the kitchen.

A must-read for any mom in the "What's For Dinner???" or "Feed My Family.. NOW!" slump, is Jenny Rosenstrach's article 30 Meals in 30 Days, where: "A mother of two sets out to expand her kids' palates, break out of a rut, and ultimately rediscover a small part of her old self."

My favorite part of the article is the week-by-week analysis and links for each new recipe. Rosenstrach offers helpful tips for advanced preparation, heads-up on the number of dirty dishes, viable substitutions for picky-eaters, and provides her family's report-card style rating.

If you're family's been gorging on grilled cheese, instead of Growing Up Gourmet, this is one article to read before your next trip to the store.

No Bones About It

Having dinner with my 27-year old friend the other night reminded me of one of my biggest (and silliest) 'food fears' as a child: chicken bones. My friend hesitated to order the roasted chicken, asking our waiter if it would be 'on the bone'. While I was hardly a picky eater as a child (fond of sushi and caviar by 5), I was quite picky when it came to eating chicken on the bone. Thankfully, I've come to realize just how much better chicken actually tastes when it is on the bone.

In two of my recent kids' cooking classes, we have roasted bone-in chicken breasts. Rib bones intact, the meat has been roasted with cherry tomatoes and thyme, or lemon and rosemary. The pan sauce is rich and flavorful; the meat moist and tender. This chicken was no match for it's boneless, skinless brother. Having hesitantly confronted the bone in the kitchen and tasted the results at the table, both groups of children readily admitted bone-in chicken simply yields a more complex and delicious meal. And discovered they had no problems working around the bone.

Aside from the far superior taste of chicken on the bone, my family came up with a list of other benefits last night at dinner, over you guessed it, roasted chicken.

1. It's quick. Okay, well, a 4 lb bird will take about 1 1/2 hours to roast, but it is sure quick to prepare. I was lamenting the fact I'd be roasting such a behemoth after a long day at work. But I mixed up an herb, lemon, and mustard marinade, smoothed it on my chicken, and halved some potatoes, onions and carrots to go in the roasting pan, all in less than 10 minutes. With a side of spinach sauteed in 30 seconds when the bird came out of the oven, I spent less time actually making this dinner than I would have seasoning and sauteing 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts and some sides.

2. It's cheaper. Much cheaper. Last night's whole chicken was $1.59/lb for a free-range, organic, grass-fed bird. The boneless, skinless version would sell for nearly five times that amount.


3. It's healthier. Well, I can't promise more vitamins and minerals, but it certainly has seen less commercial processing equipment than the pre-packaged chicken tenders.

4. It feeds a family. With leftovers -- chicken sandwiches... chicken soup....chicken salad....


5. It's an age-old tradition. Roasting a whole chicken has been a culinary adventure since... no joke, the Babylonian times. Your grandma would be proud.


6. Your house will be filled with wonderful aromas that will make you feel like Julia Child.

So next time you're family is in the "chicken-rut", grab a whole bird and give it a roast.

Hey, It's Pizza Night! (Or How to Clean Out the Fridge)

A few slices of prosciutto... a handful of aging mushrooms... some leftover grilled zucchini... last night's rotisserie chicken... cherry tomatoes... pesto... pasta sauce... feta...

What's calling to you from your fridge, begging to be eaten instead of wasted and thrown away?

If you think your kids won't get excited for pizza unless it's covered in grease and hails from a take-out box, think again. In our house, pizza night is nearly once a week and rarely planned. Instead, it's a quick solution for using up leftover veggies, meats, cheeses, and sauces. With a side of arugula tossed with parmesan and pepper, it's a perfect and delicious dinner. I usually have fresh pizza dough in the fridge or freezer -- Trader Joe's can't be beat -- just be sure to defrost it in the morning. If you don't have dough on hand, whole wheat pita bread and flour tortillas make even quicker pizzas when you're in a pinch.

The secret to such kid-friendly leftovers? 1) Melted cheese is always sure to please. (Mozzarella and fontina melt fabulously. 2) Your kids release their inner Iron Chef; your home is transformed into Kitchen Stadium. Have the kids help roll the dough for individual pies. Take out the topping options and let them get creative!

Be the super-mom tonight and serve pizza. Don't worry; your clean-out-the-fridge secret is safe with me.

Me-Oh-MY Minestrone

This quick minestrone is a perfect Saturday afternoon kitchen adventure. Even the youngest chefs can exercise ownership and make choices about what they are eating -- a very powerful concept indeed!

On the stove, heat 4 cups of chicken or vegetable broth with a can of diced tomatoes. Season with herbs like rosemary or oregano, if desired. On the counter, place heaping bowls of delicious "toppings" like frozen corn, kidney beans, alphabet pasta or orzo, shredded carrots, green peas, tofu cubes, spinach leaves, and Parmesan cheese. Invite your tot-chef to top their bowl of broth with the yummy vegetables. Children will help themselves to their favorites, and may even be motivated to try something new. With a little encouragement, I've seen the most hesitant bean-eater be enthusiastic about stirring in at least 1 bean! Top with a little Parmesan and a touch of olive oil to make the soup sophisticated enough for mom and dad. Make floating “croutons” by cutting-out fun shapes of whole-grain bread with cookie cutters. Brush the bread with olive oil and bake until crispy.

Your kids will love this simple cooking adventure, perfect for a winter's day. You’ll love knowing their bellies are full of healthy nutrients. And the whole family will love spending time together in the kitchen!