I should start by thanking the wonderful crew that came to help at our booth, What’s Cooking at the Toddler Cafe. Thanks Maria, Jessica and Drew!!!! I hope that your pay of Boon Snack Balls and Dried Cherries was enough to show our gratitude!

While our children were cooking on the Pretend Food Show set with celebrity chef, Joey Altman, we were slammed with nearly 1500 visitors, all of whom were eager to learn how to recycle and make healthy snacks! It was such fun, especially when our own kids dropped by to visit us (with freshly squeezed lavender lemonaide, Indian Food, Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Chocolate lollipops with pop rocks buried inside!).

We rekindled our relationship with Lisa Barnes of Petit Appetit and Mike and Olivier, the owners of Kitchen on Fire, a cooking school in Berkeley. It was also a joy to cook with the son (4 times!) of Charles, the executive director of Slide Ranch, a non-profit teaching farm on the coast near San Francisco. He has invited me to be a guest chef in his new outdoor kitchen this fall!

Here are a few images, taken by Dave Wong, to wet your taste buds for next year!

BUT, there appears to be trouble. I decided to follow up with the hospital so that I could get some exact information about where people should mail their finished place mats. The person I spoke to this time, was concerned about the safety risks that our project might pose for their patients. Since then, I have spoken with several more hospital staff (getting a few mixed messages along the way), and this evening we got our verdict.

We can NOT send in our place mats and expect them to be delivered to the patients with their meals. In fact, the people in the “quality department” have determined that they are so worried about germs that they are no longer going to allow cards from the public to be delivered to patients, either. Oh my - imagine the guilt I am feeling. Here I am, just trying to build community and cheer up some children who could use a smile…and now they are changing hospital policies! I am sure that they have had some issues in the past that have compromised the health of the children, and are now acting in their best interest…but it is hard not to feel like my efforts didn’t cause trouble.

My main contact there now is very sad about this development and is planning to speak with me again next week to see if we can come up with a compromise. She loves what we are doing and loves how it would make her patients feel. For now, anyway, we need to put down our markers and stickers, and wait until we can do this project safely. It IS for the kids, after all.

We have some great ones in the works, such as an entire 8-12 week series devoted to Recipes from Books and Movies. Each week, we will focus on recipes that relate to a particular book or movie. Within that theme, we will be cooking healthy and seasonal foods from all over the world.

I am currently working on a series with an Animal Theme and could use your help. The class series will probably be called something like: It’s a Zoo Out There or My Kitchen Is Full of Animals. (Any other catchy ideas would be appreciated, of course!). In the series, we will make some treats for animals but we mostly want to focus on foods that our students and their families can enjoy.

But where I could REALLY use your help is to find recipes for real food that have animals in the name. We have a few good ones already:

• Hush Puppies
• Scrambled Egg Nests
• Tiger Prawns
• Chocolate “Moose”
• Goose-pacho (get it?)
• Skunk Cabbage Slaw
• Chicken Little
• Pigs in a Blanket (although we will modify this so that it is healthier - perhaps with puff pastry and chicken apple sausage)

While we will occasionally make sweet treats in class, I prefer to keep our classes healthy and focused on seasonal produce.

Send in any GREAT Themes for a series of cooking classes, Animal Themes and Animal Named Recipe Ideas (with explanations to clarify, if necessary) and be entered into a contest to win a reusable Boon Snack Ball. Be sure to let us know if you think of other Class Themes that you think our students would enjoy. Entries will be reviewed on July 30.

Thanks for your help!

On the day that we posted our first Recipe For Action, our blog got more hits than ever. Even though I heard from only a few of you, I am getting some great feedback about this project.

In case you didn’t see the original post, here is a summary of the project in a nut-shell. We are working with our kids and their friends to decorate place mats to send to children in our local children’s hospital. It is just one small way that we can build community during mealtime.

So often, children who are going through chemotherapy, for example, have little appetite and could use any encouragement that they can get to make it through the process in one piece. Time for us to step in and share some love at meal time!

I wanted to share some of your great ideas for making this project even better:

• Laminate your place mats before sending them to the hospital. This will make them easy to clean, and they can be reused or displayed as a colorful piece of art work.
• Don’t forget - the place mat has two sides! Write your personal message on one side, and do something fun, colorful and interactive on the other side.
• Here are some fun ideas: paste on comics from the Sunday Newspaper; make a collage of pretty pictures; paste on blank sudoku, crossword or word-search puzzles; include dot-to-dot puzzles; stickers, stickers and more stickers!
• Remember - since these will be laminated, the children can wipe a puzzle clean and can do it again!
• Good message ideas include: Feel Better, Happy Birthday, We Are Thinking of You, Here is a Hug!

So far, Paige and Joyce have decided to organize a playdate with 10 of their friends to make place mats. Jen and Claire will be doing some collage place mats, using pictures torn out of an old Snow White book. And Jacie is working on some place mats with her children and their friends this summer.

What about you? I can’t wait to hear what you are doing! Please let us know and send us pictures of your finished products!

If you like the idea, paste our Recipe for Action image into your blog and share the idea with your readers! Together, we can build community during mealtime and cheer up kids who can certainly use a smile!

We sat on hay bales, piled high in the back of the feed store, and listened to Michael talk about his latest book, In Defense of Food. He neatly summarized what the book was about in the first few minutes of the talk. He started by explaining the importance for people to understand that “there can be no healthy people without a healthy diet. And there can be no healthy diet without a healthy agricultural system.” He reminded us that the health of our food is directly connected to the health of the soil in which it is grown.

There is a misconception about health and healthy eating in America. Similar to the French Paradox (the irony that French people indulge in lengthy, rich meals and drink ample amounts of red wine and yet have very little incidence of heart disease), there is also an American Paradox. Americans are “the champs” of diabetes, heart disease and obesity, yet we are the nation most obsessed with healthy eating. How can this be?

He boils it down into a single term: Nutritionism. Nutritionism is based on 4 concepts (or common misconceptions).

1. Nutrients are the important component of food. Food is simply a delivery system for nutrients, and food is simply a sum of its parts.
2. If nutrients are a key to our health and are invisible to the naked eye, we must need experts to tell us what we should eat. He compared this concept to religion, which often relies on the priesthood to offer leadership and guidance.
3. The food world is divided into Good and Evil. Currently, the “communism of nutrition” is composed of saturated and trans fats. The current “blessed nutrient” is Omega-3 Fatty Acids.
4. And finally, the whole point of eating is Health. What we eat either ruins our health or contributes to it. (Never mind about the joys of delicious foods and sense of community that we feel from cooking and eating together.)

He pleas for us to throw out the ideology of Nutritionism, and consider that food IS more than the sum of its parts. The science of nutrition is currently as advanced as surgery was in the 1650’s - and might not be something that we should participate in quite yet. It seems that wherever the Western Diet appears (complete with processed foods such as refined oils, carbs and grains), disease follows. Contrast that with traditional diets, composed of REAL FOODS where diseases like diabetes hardly ever exist. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to consider that the best way to avoid the pitfalls of our western diet is simply to get off of it.

So, what are you supposed to eat if you can’t rely on what the “experts” are telling you? Michael first suggests you ask your mother or grandmother, the person who might provide some traditional examples of Real Food.

• He doesn’t recommend eating anything that your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.
• Does it contain high fructose corn syrup? This is a huge sign that you are eating something highly processed.
• Can you pronounce the majority of the ingredients?
• Does it include traditional ingredients that you would expect from such a product? (For example, does your sour cream contain cream? Does your mayonnaise contain eggs and oil? Does your butter contain milk or cream? etc…)
• Are you buying foods from the perimeter of your market, where they can easily be replenished, when they start to rot or expire? He points out that the items in the center of the grocery store lasts forever and that you should never buy food that is “incapable of eventually rotting” (such as the twinkie that has been sitting on his desk for the past 2 years).

In summary, Pollan reminds us that how we eat and where we shop are just as important to what we eat. Food is a created by a set of relationships between the ecosystem, people and the food chain. He advises us to Vote with Your Fork and purchase and consume foods that are grown and harvested in an environmentally sustainable way. For now, ignore the misconceptions of nutritionism and Eat (real) food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Your body and our planet will thank you.

I called the Children’s Hospital in Oakland, and the director of food services told me about that joy that their patients express when they receive cards from other children.

Because I teach cooking classes to children, we spend a lot of our time learning about how to build community through food, cooking and eating together. Why not blend the caring and creative act of art with the nourishing act of eating?

What would brighten up a sick child’s day more than eating a meal served on a beautiful Get Well or Happy Birthday placemat made by another child. Yes, some kids are in the hospital for their birthdays… Why not make it a little better, if we can?

We challenge you to decorate and design placemats for sick kids in your community…and encourage others to do the same.

• Post our Recipe for Action image (at the top of this post) and our simple instructions on your blog.
• Let us know you will be joining us.
• Placemats should be 10 inches high by 14 inches wide. You can either make your own from blank butcher or construction paper, or you can purchase simple colored ones at any restaurant supply store.
• Your placemat should express a special message, such as “We are thinking of you”, “We hope you feel better”, “You are in our thoughts,”  or “Happy Birthday”.  (One director at the hospital suggested that we avoid phrases like “Get Well”…sadly, some kids at the hospital will not get well.)
• Decorate your placemat with your beautiful art work. (My kids drew birthday cakes with candles on their birthday mats, and drew balloons with their get well ones.)
• Say who your place mat is from(first names only, please), and include your age. Feel free to write a little note or say something else about yourself, too.
• PLEASE take a photo of your placemats and send them to us. We can’t wait to see your work and will be sharing our favorites at the end of July.
• And then send your placemats to your local children’s hospital…of course!

This is an ideal activity for family members of all ages to do together. Or try it with the kids who come to play this summer. But most of all, feel good that you are doing something positive with your children that you can all be proud of. The recipients will appreciate it!

The love of food reaches all ages and teens today are continually expanding their culinary knowledge – from cooking classes to kids’ cookbooks. “Top Chef Junior,” which will be based on the Emmy-nominated hit culinary series “Top Chef,” is an eight episode series where teens (ages 13 to 16) will compete to see if they have what it takes to become a junior “Top Chef.”

As a cooking teacher for kids of all ages, I can honestly say that very few children would seem to be able to perform under the types of pressure that the adults in Top Chef are subjected to.  I, personally, would crumble with the intensity of criticism and competition that the former adult contestants faced.  I truly hope that the “teach and test” aspect of the show comes to fruition - This way, the show could be like an intense culinary academy with fun, challenging and rigorous testing.  Plenty of children love to cook, and with supportive parents, are encouraged to participate in the kitchen.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the culinary skills of these contestants-to-be would blow many cooks out of the water!

To date, there are no real cooking shows for kids out there.  Pretty soon, our friend Michael’s show, DOOF, will appear on PBS.  My kids, ages 6 and 8, can’t wait for it to come out.  Perhaps Top Chef Junior will be edgy and exciting enough to capture and hold the attention of older kids and teens who thirst for age appropriate culinary inspiration and guidance.  I, for one, will be sure to tune in and check it out.  If given the chance, I bet my kids will be joining me!

Although these wonderful new pasta shapes are targeted towards families, I am confident that anyone who tries them will love them. Families will enjoy Barilla’s partnership with Scholastic, who teaches them how to make some Mealtime Magic with these little gems. Don’t miss their virtual story book and printable pasta-related activities and recipes, of course.

My children loved the Mini Wheels the best, perhaps because the shape was so novel to them. Although I try to shake things up a bit in the kitchen, I must have missed over the larger variety of this shape in the past. Try these Barilla Piccolini with any of your favorite pasta recipes. We recommend this one, using Barilla Mini Farfalle.

Pasta Primavera

Don’t be overwhelmed when you see all of the vegetables that you will need to prepare for this recipe. If you are looking for a shortcut, feel free to use some of the prepared produce in the salad bar of your local grocery store. The rainbow of colors in this dish are a sure sign of the large quantity of antioxidants within.

3 carrots, peeled and cut into thin strips
2 medium zucchini or 1 large zucchini, cut into thin strips
2 yellow squash, cut into thin strips
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1 red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
1/4 cup olive oil
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbs dried Italian herbs
1 lb Barilla Mini Farfalle (bowtie pasta)
15 cherry tomatoes, halved
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
2. On a large heavy baking sheet, toss all of the vegetables with the oil, salt, pepper, and dried herbs to coat.
3. Transfer half of the vegetable mixture to another heavy large baking sheet and arrange evenly over the baking sheets.
4. Bake until the carrots are tender and the vegetables begin to brown, stirring after the first 10 minutes, about 20 minutes total.
5. 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. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
6. Toss the pasta with the vegetable mixtures in a large bowl to combine.
7. Toss with the cherry tomatoes and enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten.
8. Season the pasta with salt and pepper, to taste.
9. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and serve immediately.

Servings: 6

CALL THE KIDS:

• Measure the olive oil, salt and herbs.
• Grate the parmesan.
• Count out the correct number of tomatoes.
• Sort the sliced vegetables and put on baking sheet.
• Sprinkle the prepared vegetables with olive oil, herbs and salt.
• Toss the cooked pasta with the roasted vegetables and parmesan cheese

Three Twins has 70 certified organic flavors ice cream, uses high-quality and health conscious ingredients and all of the bowls, spoons, cups and napkins in the store are 100% compostable.

To bring the store to life, Group 41 Inc. (www.group41inc.com), a stylish, boutique architecture and design firm based in San Francisco, was assigned to create a “green” and “eco-friendly” design to complement the organic sweets being sold.

Working with the limited, 415 square foot space, Joel Karr, Founder and Principal of Group 41, incorporated not only the retail and display features, but keenly fit in an ice-cream production facility which was compactly designed into the tiny back-of-house space.

Environmentally friendly materials were a must and the message was visually conveyed with a color palette centered on green tonal themes.

Beautiful details such as 3Form “eco-resin” panels were backlit so that they appeared to glow from within and sustainable materials such as bamboo plywood panels were used for the build-out. Vintage 1950s chrome refrigerator doors were used as unique menu boards, conveying not only the nostalgia of ice cream making, but the timely idea of re-use.

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Speaking personally - we have been to their flagship store many (many, many) times and are eager to return almost as soon as we depart.  Neal, the founder of Three Twins, is creative and energetic, often creating new and interesting flavor combinations.  Some work beautifully, others, like Noodle Kugel, not so much…  Regardless, if you are ever in the SF Bay Area (Terra Linda or Napa, in particular), it would behoove you and your family to give this shop a try.  It will be hard to pry yourself away!