Full Belly Farm. Those three little words make my stomach rumble.  When I saw some of their beautiful golden potatoes the other day, I brought some home, even though I wasn’t sure how I would use them.  The new issue of Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food Magazine was in the kitchen, and my daughter pointed out a recipe for Simple Potato Gnocchi and suggested that we could make them together over the weekend. Ah-ha – problem solved!

My daughter doesn’t like lumpy potatoes and I wondered how I would get my cooked potatoes smooth enough for this recipe.  It called for a “ricer” which I didn’t have in my cooking arsenal – but luckily, my 89 year old grandmother had one that she didn’t use any more.  No wonder – it was fairly difficult to squeeze, even for my daughter and my middle-aged-self.  But it was well worth the muscle we put into it because the potatoes were smooth as a… well, you get the idea.

It was the perfect time to dust off the 50 mm camera lens (that I bought over 6 months ago but have been too intimidated to use) and give it a go.  It was well worth the effort – the gnocchi was delicious and the shots came out better than I had expected.

Simple Potato Gnocchi
Adapted from Everyday Food Magazine, September 2010

2.5 pounds russet potatoes, peeled
coarse salt
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
2 teaspoons salt
1 large egg, lightly beaten

1. In a large pot, bring the potatoes to a boil in salted water. (I cut mine in quarters first to reduce cooking time.)
2. Cook until potatoes are tender.
3. Lightly dust two parchment-lined rimmed baking sheets with flour and set aside.
4. Drain potatoes and immediately pass them through a ricer onto a work surface.  Cool completely.
5. Sprinkle potatoes with flour and salt. Top with the egg.
6. Work the flour and egg into the dough with clean hands.
7. Knead the dough until smooth, but not elastic, dusting with flour if it becomes too sticky.
8. Divide the dough into 8 portions.
9. Roll each portion into a rope, 1/2 inch wide and 24 inches long.
10. Cut each rope into 1/2 inch pieces.
11. If you want to make them pretty, roll each piece of dough against the back of the tines of a fork to make ridges.
12. Put the uncooked gnocchi onto your prepared baking sheets.
13. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  In batches, add a few handfuls gnocchi and cook until they have floated to the surface (about 2 minutes).
14. With a wire-mesh spider or slotted spoon, transfer gnocchi to a sauce (we used home-made pesto).
15. You can freeze raw gnocchi on baking sheets until firm. Transfer to freezer bags and store for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature on parchment lined sheets for 30 minutes before boiling.

Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year!  Just like last year, you can count on me for updates on San Rafael’s efforts towards school lunch reform.  We’ll also chat about other food issues facing our students, including the largely ignored wellness policy at our schools.  As usual, I am all for transparency, and will openly share our challenges and success stories in the hope that we can inspire you to help your community make improvements of your own.  Tuck in your napkin and get ready to dive in…

New Walk-In Freezer

Construction Update:  Just like any major construction project, our district’s Central Kitchen Renovation isn’t finished on time.  Once they opened the 70 year-old walls, they discovered dry rot and mold, which took longer to repair than anticipated.  Thanks to the crummy economy, our renovation qualified for federal stimulus grant money, which was used to cover the costs of the new walk-in refrigerator and freezer.

Out with the old

The central kitchen is on the San Rafael High School campus and serves all of the K-12 schools in our school district.  Even though the project isn’t finished, they are open for business, serving simpler fare until the renovation is done.  It’s time for the style-conscious students to step forward – they will be involved in the purchasing decisions for the new digs.  Say goodbye to the old institutional-style tables and hello to bar-height tables and other contemporary furniture that will make the space more inviting.  An improved environment will encourage more students to stay on campus for meals.  (I suggested that another draw to the cafeteria could be performances by  student bands and stand-up comics!)

Other exciting news about our food service program:

• Hot Cheetos are gone from the middle school snack bars
• Say goodbye to chocolate milk!  (everywhere but the high school)
• The breakfast menu’s new items include: Organic Stonyfield Farms yogurt and carrot-zucchini bread
• No more prepared foods wrapped individually in plastic!  Hurray for bulk purchasing (it is cheaper and has less packaging!)

The salad bars have been delivered!  Every elementary school in our district, including Venetia Valley, a K-8 school, will be offering a salad / veggie bar as part of their reimbursable hot lunch program.  Starting mid-September, all of the students will be taken on a tour of the salad bars and will be invited to taste some of the fixin’s that will be available.  The trays will be filled with a combination of commodity items and fresh, seasonal, organic produce from our new vendor, Veritable Vegetable.  They have a sleek design with sneeze guards that lift up for easy loading.  Although our custodian mistook ours for a tanning bed, the whole staff is excited for our new addition, and several of them are looking forward to the day when they can participate in our lunch program instead of brown bagging it from home.

Hot Topic:  The School Wellness Policies in our schools are not being enforced, yet we are working so hard behind the scenes to bring our students healthier foods.  The students are getting mixed messages between what they are taught, the foods that are served as part of the lunch program, and the treats that are offered as incentives, rewards and at parties.  Although there is a suggested list of birthday party treats, parents frequently ignore it and opt for their child’s favorite foods.  Some parents have good intentions, but others have a blatant disregard for the rules.  One parent at our school even went so far as to bring a chocolate fountain for their child’s birthday celebration last year.   Each of our elementary schools needs to discuss these issues NOW, while people are still enthusiastic for a great school year:

1. Parents bringing in unhealthy treats for parties and birthdays
2. Teachers handing out processed foods as incentives and rewards
3. School endorsed ice cream parties as incentives for class participation or performance

More discussion on this topic to come…

Exciting Opportunity:  Interested in working in your school to teach the kids about nutrition?  Check out this fantastic two-day training that provides tools to support an increase of fruits and vegetables on school campuses through fun, interactive and skill-building activities.  If you are in Northern California, the training is on December 8 and 9 at the Marin County Office of Education.  For other California locations and to register, visit: http://www.healthyschoolenvironment.org/workshop-registration

Check out these other posts that document our school lunch reform efforts:

• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/05/07/san-rafael-school-lunch-reform-real-change-is-happening/
• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/04/14/school-lunch-reform-central-kitchen-renovation/
• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/03/27/school-lunch-reform-2nd-meeting/
• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/03/05/san-rafael-school-district-task-force-on-school-lunch-1/
• http://whatscookingblog.com/2010/02/11/changing-school-lunches-its-not-an-option/

I love today’s story from Laura at the Spiced Life.  Her trepidation is something we can all relate to and I am so grateful for her honesty!

When I first spoke with Michelle about doing a guest post on her fabulous blog about cooking with my kids, I automatically assumed I’d be baking.  My kids are still pretty young (3 ½ and 5) which can really limit how much help they are when cooking—especially for an all-too-frequently impatient mom like me.  Measuring baking ingredients and stirring?  Sure!  Chopping veggies and stirring at a stove?  I’m not ready for that!  But as I discovered in the meal, the key to cooking with your kids is thinking outside the box.  The little tasks that you do in 2 minutes and don’t seem exciting (like sorting herbs, for example) are really exciting to a preschooler.

My mom had recently cleaned out her freezer and gave me a whole bunch of Gulf shrimp caught and immediately frozen last fall when my uncle from Louisiana came to visit.  My girls love shrimp—the only catch?  It needed to be peeled.  A-ha!  Something they could do!  Throw in helping me cut fresh herbs from the garden and this was the perfect family cooking meal.

First we went out to my herb garden, Alex, the 5 year old, carrying her scissors and Sammy carrying a bowl.  The original recipe I was working from (another reason I am not easy to cook with is because I am always fiddling with the recipe as I cook) called for mint and lemon, so I thought maybe we could play with spearmint, lime thyme and lime basil—all of which are so prolific that I knew I could relax about Alex snipping at them.

Back in the house we first set about sorting the herbs.  I wanted the thyme separate from the basil and mint since it benefits from longer cooking, and additionally the thyme had flowered, so the flowering stems needed to be separated from the stems with just leaves.  After we did that, Alex was almost gleeful pulling the thyme leaves off of their stems.

Next we pulled out the thawed shrimp.  I confess it was my first time peeling shrimp, and I won’t lie, it really icked me out.  I did my best to hide this reaction from my girls—because I do think it is important to know where our food comes from—and I think I did an ok job because Alex really got into it.  Sammy, however, who is bug phobic in her day to day life, was not buying it.  I think she touched one shrimp head and declared she was not touching another one. So Alex and I peeled the shrimp alone, twisting off their heads, pulling off their legs, and peeling off their shells.

At this point, the girls did the dishes and I took over the majority of the work.  In our new house, most dishes can be put away below counter level, and so the girls have learned early on that to make dinner happen, dishes must be cleaned.  Another way in which I involve the kids in my cooking is I talk to them about what I am doing.  I have done it since they were babies, explaining various steps, spicing decisions, etc.  Alex especially was extremely excited for this meal and asked to watch it cooking more than once.  It did not disappoint.

Citrus & Herb Shrimp with Tomatoes, Peas & Goat Cheese

Adapted from Cooking Light

1 T extra virgin olive oil
6-8 garlic cloves, minced
2 lbs shrimp

10 oz frozen green peas
3/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
1/3 cup white wine

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
3 large tomatoes, fresh picked and ripe, diced

1 T minced fresh lime thyme

1/3 cup chopped fresh lime basil

2 T chopped fresh spearmint leaves
crumbled goat cheese

angel hair pasta for serving

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the garlic and sauté 1 minute or until browned and fragrant. Add the tomatoes with a pinch of salt and the thyme and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the wine and green onions and cook for another 2 minutes.  Add the shrimp and cook for 5 minutes or until it is mostly pink.  Add the peas and cook until the peas are heated through and the shrimp is pink—do not overcook the shrimp.  Turn off the heat and mix in the lemon juice, lime basil, spearmint leaves and salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with crumbled goat cheese and serve over angel hair pasta.

Does your child have a story they’d like to share about an experience with food or in the kitchen?  How about you?  My readers love to see how parents interact with their children in the kitchen.  The more stories we can share about cooking with kids, the more likely it is that other people will try it, too.  I post these stories every Monday and would love to share yours!

Leave it to my friend Melissa from Little Locavores to call it like it is.  We were together on the White House lawn at the launch of Michelle Obama’s Chefs Move to Schools campaign, and were two of the only people who expressed concerns over the sustainability of the program.  She was a little more critical than I was …okay, a lot more critical.  My point is that while she is honest, she is also constructive.

Recently, the Let’s Move campaign launched a new arm of the plan called Let’s Cook, with the intention of helping families across America select healthy recipes to cook for their families.  Chefs would share menu plans, and families could print the recipes and share them with their friends.  But as Melissa points out, these recipes are too time consuming and expensive for the average family to prepare.

Because I am a busy, working mom, she invited me to share a realistic and affordable week-long menu plan for families that would also be kid friendly.

Here goes.  This is my take on meal planning for families…

It’s nearly impossible to ignore the fact that our nation is growing, in population size, of course, but also in girth.  The obesity epidemic has hit unprecedented highs and weight related diseases are hitting our children at younger ages than ever before.  In an effort to get a grip on their health, many families are returning to the kitchen, where they can more easily control their portion sizes and the ingredients that go into their meals.  Instead of eating out, which may be faster and easier, try some of these affordable kid-friendly recipes.  These meals give a new meaning to fast food, and all of them are excellent to cook with your kids.

Baked Chicken and Onions

Serving Size: 8

Recommended Side Dishes: Serve with steamed rice and sautéed green beans

Ingredients:

2 onions, very thinly sliced
3.5 lbs. chicken, parted into 8 pieces
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon pepper, ground

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Place 2 thinly sliced onions and chicken in a 9×13 baking dish or roasting pan.
3. Drizzle with 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil.
4. Season with 2 teaspoons of kosher salt and 1/2 teaspoon of ground pepper.  Toss to coat.
5. Arrange chicken, skin sides up, on top of onions.
6. Sprinkle with 1 Tablespoon paprika.
7. Bake, tossing onions and basting chicken occasionally, until juices run clear when chicken is pierced with the tip of a sharp knife, 35-40 minutes.  Serve hot.

Save the bones and 1 ½ cups of cooked chicken (for tomorrow’s recipe)

Put the bones in a pot, along with a quartered onion, 3 cut up carrots and 3 stalks of celery.  Cover with water and simmer to make chicken broth, which you can use in the Tortilla Soup, below.

Cooking With Kids:

• Preheat the oven
• Put onions in baking dish
• Toss chicken with olive oil. Wash hands.
• Sprinkle the chicken with paprika.

Tortilla Soup

Serving Size: 4

Recommended Side Dishes: Serve with a green salad and heated corn tortillas

Ingredients:

1 small onion, chopped (1/2 cup)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken
1 ripe medium avocado
1/2 cup Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (1 cup)
Chopped fresh cilantro
1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

1. Crumble tortilla chips and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook onion in oil 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Add garlic; cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring frequently, until vegetables are crisp-tender.
4. Measure and stir in broth, tomatoes and salt. Heat to boiling.
5. Reduce heat; cover and simmer 15 minutes.
6. Shred leftover chicken with two forks, pulled in opposite directions.
7. Add chicken; heat until hot.
8. To serve, add tortilla chip pieces to individual serving bowls and ladle in soup.
9. Top with avocado and cheese; garnish with remaining tortilla strips and cilantro.
10. Serve with lime wedges.

Cooking With Kids:

• Crumble tortilla chips
• Peel the paper skin from the garlic
• Measure broth
• Empty the tomatoes into the pot
• Shred chicken with forks or clean fingers
• Top the soup bowls with crumbled chips

Keep reading →

My kids joined me today as I did a cooking demonstration at a health fair in San Francisco, sponsored by Senator Leland Yee. While my daughter helped me prep some of the vegetables, my son ran around with the Flip video camera, catching some of the action.  I did my best to edit the video he shot to spare you the need for Dramamine!  He’s only 8, and I didn’t offer him any suggestions on what to film – so under the circumstances, I think he did a great job.

Here is the official version of the recipe that we cooked today.  I simplified it for the audience because we were limited on time…much like what happens at home, at the end of a long day!

Summertime Veggie Pasta
————————————————————–
Recipe By: Michelle Stern, Owner of What’s Cooking
Serving Size: 6

Ingredients:
1 onion, thinly sliced
3 carrots
2 medium zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 yellow bell pepper
1 red bell pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tablespoon dried Italian herbs or herbes de Provence
1 lb. shell shaped pasta
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup Parmesan, grated

Directions:

1. Wash all of the vegetables.
2. Use a vegetable peeler to slice the squash and carrots into ribbons.
3. Use a knife to cut the bell peppers into thin slices
4. Meanwhile, cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until al dente, tender but still firm to the bite, about 8 minutes.
5. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
6. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add some olive oil to the pan.
7. Saute the onions until soft but not browned.
8. Add the other veggies and saute until they are the texture your family enjoys.
9. Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl.
10. Toss with the cherry tomatoes, herbs, and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten.
11. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste.
12. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

As a parent, it is so easy to be rushed. It starts first thing in the morning if you’re anything like I am; brushing teeth, packing lunches, dressing multiple people, combing through snarls… by the time I get to dinner, I really just want to order take-out or have it delivered.

I can’t do that though. I must be financially responsible and eating restaurant food would blow through my grocery budget much too quickly. My mom always had a great meal on the table every night of the week and sometimes more than one time per day, so I try to at least make a home-cooked meal happen at dinnertime.

My four-year-old has been “helping” since she was two. Now that she is four, helping truly is helping for the most part, though I may not like the speed in which the help is always delivered. It’s so much easier for me to just throw together tried and true recipes that I’ve been making for a decade or more practically with my tired mom eyes closed. Because I want my daughter to learn confidence in the kitchen, I’ve found the best way to teach her is to try a new recipe that we can learn to make together.

Having to read a new recipe forces me to slow down, gather all of my ingredients and plan. As much as I think I’ve let my kid have a lot of experiences near the stovetop, new recipes allow for new ingredients and more surprises or exclamations. Tonight’s were, “I didn’t know corn has hair!” as she shucked corn for the first time while sitting on the kitchen stool over the garbage can. The look on her face was like she had struck gold. I had an extra ear of fresh farmers’ market white corn specifically to let her try it. “Corn has milk and it tastes sooo good!” She didn’t take bites off the cob as I do. She sucked the juice she called milk, so excited to try something new.

On nights we cook together, we share so many special moments. The “yums” and “MMMs” are more plentiful at the dinner table when we mutually understand the effort and time put into our meal. Even bed time is more fun. At tuck-in time, I always thank my daughter for a wonderful supper. Some nights, she spouts off a thank you first. When she was three, it most often was something like, “Thank you for letting me help with dinner.” Nowadays, she tells me, “Thank you for helping me make dinner.” How’s that for confidence?

Do you have a story about cooking with your kids that you would like to share? It can be a success story, or it can be about a recipe that flopped or left a mess on the floor.  Our readers love hearing about kids in the kitchen, and these stories inspire them to cook with their kids. Thank you!

On a recent farmer’s market tour with my students, we talked to a woman from the Strauss Family Creamery.  Here, she tells us about one of the unique ways that their farm is sustainable.  Instead of methane being released into the atmosphere as pollution, they use it for power!  Check it out:

I’d love to hear about one of the sustainable things that your family does to help the environment.  Do you recycle, compost, or grow your own food? Please share your story.  You can even send a photo – I might feature it on the What’s Cooking Blog!