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Just Say No (to Being a Short-Order Cook)

Last month the editors at New York Family Magazine asked me to participate in a project for their January issue. A few of their writers were enlisting experts to help them achieve a New Year’s Resolution. My job was to take the drama out of dinner for writer Michelle Levine, a Long Island mother of two.

Before we met, Michelle and I spoke on the phone about her dinnertime challenges. She told me that many nights she ends up preparing several different dishes for her family of four, since virtually no one likes the same things. She explained that she struggles with planning menus ahead of time, and that because mealtime could be disorganized she often resorts to frozen foods. The good news was that the family ate dinner together every night – a huge step in the right direction. We scheduled a time to meet in person, cook some recipes, and talk about strategies to make mealtime less fraught and more fun.

I drove out to Michelle’s home on a Saturday morning. The whole family was very welcoming, and Michelle and I chatted in her sunny kitchen. I talked her through the recipes we would be preparing and gave her my suggestions for making dinnertime run more smoothly:

1. Set aside a half-hour each weekend to plan at least four nights of dinners. Make a grocery list at the same time.
2. If menu-planning every weekend seems unrealistic, plan three weeks of dinners and just alternate them.
3. Explain to the kids that from now on the whole family is going to eat the same meal at dinner, and try to find dishes that everyone will at least tolerate. Have something on the table that you know everyone will eat – be it bread or fruit – in addition to the main meal so no one has to leave the table hungry.
4. Try to make dinner less tense. It should be enjoyable and not a battle. To that end don’t force the kids to try anything. A healthy, tasty dinner is on the table, ideally incorporating something everyone likes. Knowing that this is the last meal of the day, each family member can make his/her own choices about what they want to eat.
5. To avoid processed foods, have pre-made meals available in the freezer to defrost when you get stuck for dinner. Soups, stews, and baked pasta dishes are excellent freezer candidates.
6. Keep a well-stocked pantry and freezer to enable you to put together healthful, last-minute meals.

Michelle and I also talked about “deconstructing dinner”. For example, instead of serving a tossed salad, offer lettuce, carrots, broccoli, and dressing in separate bowls. Letting each family member design his or her own dish will help picky eaters feel comfortable with the meal.

After our chat we prepared three recipes: turkey chili, spiced sweet potato fries, and cauliflower macaroni and cheese. Soon enough Michelle’s husband and daughter were in the kitchen with us, helping and tasting. The recipes were a hit, and I really enjoyed meeting the whole family. Michelle’s piece (read it here) turned out great, and I’m hopeful that some of the strategies we discussed improved the family's dinners!

Three Recipes for the New Year

Scary fact: the average American watches 35 hours a week of TV. Exciting fact: if the average American traded in just five hours (or less!) of TV a week he/she could cook up healthy, delicious meals for the whole family.

In this column Mark Bittman offers three great recipes for experienced and novice cooks alike. Is one of your New Year's resolutions to cook more? Start here.

Edible Internet

Still looking for a last minute holiday gift? Check out my friend Audrey's brand-new blog: Edible Internet. She tracks down the best food finds online, and her first post focuses on holiday gift ideas. I am coveting the digital recipe reader from Neiman Marcus, and all of the Jacques Torres goodies look pretty darn appealing too.

The Final Menu

We had a lovely small Thanksgiving yesterday. I think I have a bit of a food hangover. Three glasses of cava early in the meal probably didn't help.

Overall I was really pleased with how all of the "new to me" dishes turned out. This is what we ate (and will be eating for the next few days):

- Turkey breast roulade stuffed with fig, cranberry, and sausage stuffing
- Stuffing! Pretty much agreed upon to be the best part of the meal. So good.
- Gravy
- Pureed sweet potatoes with a bit of brown butter, maple syrup, and toasted pecans
- Braised brussels sprouts with pecorino
- Potato rolls
- Cumin-scented carrots
- Clementine and cinnamon scented cranberry sauce (delicious gift from a good friend)
- And, of course, pumpkin pie

As planned, every recipe I prepared was new to me... except the cumin-scented carrots. I make those a lot, they are super-easy and I knew they would add a little kick to the meal.

I was so happy with the turkey breast roulade and stuffing. It fell apart slightly as I was slicing, but the meat was juicy and the stuffing was delicious.

How was your Thanksgiving meal?

Nigella Reminds Us You Don’t Need to Be an Expert to Cook

Thanks to The Food Section I ran across this interesting Eater.com interview with Nigella Lawson, the buxom British cookbook writer and television host. I’ve been a fan of Nigella since I first bought How to Be a Domestic Goddess many years ago. I think she’s a terrific writer – her voice is so clear and distinctive. I can hear her talking as I read her words. Like her, I am a big proponent of getting people into the kitchen, and I’m also of the loosey-goosey, tailor-it-to-your-tastes school of cooking.

This was a somewhat serious interview about food, cooking, and class, and while I didn’t agree with everything Nigella said, I did find it thought-provoking. A few of the most interesting bits:

“There is something disenfranchising in making people feel they need a qualification or a great level of expertise before they are allowed in the kitchen.”

“In the Victorian age the peasants just ate local and in season and the aristocracy spent fortunes building greenhouses and growing pineapples. It was a class issue. It was about the elite. Now suddenly because of supermarkets and air travel, the masses — if you want to talk in class terms — can get out of season produce. So what do the elite do? They say If it is not seasonal, if it is not local, it isn't good.”

“For me cooking is an act of independence. I don't feel entirely comfortable handing over the means of sustenance and survival to someone else. It's empowering.”

Click here to read the whole interview.

My Thanksgiving Mission

Show me someone who loves to cook and I’ll show you someone who loves Thanksgiving. (Right? Tell me if you are an exception.) For people who feel happily at home in the kitchen, there is nothing like having a whole day dedicated to food. The once-a-year opportunity to plan, execute, and, of course, eat this amazing meal is reason enough to celebrate.

And I haven’t made Thanksgiving dinner in three years! Last year Dave and I were in Paris.





The year before we were in Montreal with Dave’s family.

So this year I should have been raring to go. But strangely, I was feeling uninspired. I knew it was just going to be the three of us, so that was probably part of the Thanksgiving blah feeling. It’s not nearly as much fun to cook a feast for three people as it is for 6, or 8, or 10. (Beyond a dozen, it’s not as much fun either!) I toyed with the idea of suggesting we go away for the long weekend, or, gasp!, even eat Thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant.

Then I hit upon a solution, a plan to put the culinary fun back in my Thanksgiving. The mission: to make all new dishes for Thanksgiving this year. No family favorites, no classics that I have been making for years and my mom making for decades before that. Each year I page through my favorite food magazines looking at all their mouth-watering Thanksgiving recipes knowing that I won’t ever cook any of them because I’ll be making (delicious) sausage-cornbread stuffing, maple-roasted sweet potatoes, and the rest of the reliable repertoire.

Since we’re not having guests this is the perfect year to experiment. No one beside my family will witness a flub, and neither Dave nor Rosa has a blog yet ;).

So I’m scouting around, trying to decide what to make. I’ve settled on the Roasted Turkey Roulade from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.

It’s a whole turkey breast, boned, butterflied, and stuffed with sausage, cranberries, and figs among other tasty things. I think I will make one of Dorie Greenspan’s pumpkin pies, and I have my eye on a Brussels sprouts recipe from Martha Stewart’s test kitchen blog.

I’ll make the rest of my recipe decisions this week, probably. And I’m excited! Maybe one of the new dishes will supplant one of my classics. We’ll see…

Zucchini Bread Season

This is the time of year when I get out the mixing bowls, turn on the oven and make batch after batch of zucchini bread. We eat the tender, cinnamon-sweet loaves for breakfast on the weekends, or I freeze them or give them away. Sometimes I bake the batter in muffin tins, but most often in small loaf pans.

The zucchini bread was one of my mom’s specialties when I was a kid, and I’ve probably made it every late summer since college. In the last few years I’ve tweaked the recipe, cutting back on the sugar and oil, and substituting whole wheat flour for part of the white flour. But after an earlier batch this summer I realized that I’d gone too far. The bread was too heavy. So I added back in the oil and found a perfect balance I think.

Recently I also remembered another zucchini bread my mom used to make – a savory, white bread. She’d lost the recipe over the years, and finally this summer I tried to make something similar. I used a Joy of Cooking recipe as a jumping off point, and turned my loaf into a flavorful, Parmesan-flecked bread. It’s crunchy on top and tender in the middle, perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. (I think it would be especially yummy with tomato soup.) New York Family Magazine posted the recipe on its site on a round-up of brunch recipes.

Here is the well-tuned recipe for the sweeter bread.

Zucchini Bread

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 cups grated zucchini (use the large holes on a box grater)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease the loaf pan(s) or muffin tin with a bit of canola oil.
2. In a large bowl whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, and cinnamon.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together the eggs, canola oil, sugar, and vanilla.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the flour mixture and stir until almost incorporated. Add the zucchini and mix until the ingredients are just combined. Do not overmix or the bread will be tough.
5. Transfer the dough to the baking pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs clinging to it. Begin checking the muffins at 25 minutes, the small loaves at 40 minutes, and the large loaf at 50 minutes.
6. Cool in the pan(s) for five minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

Yield: 12 muffins, 1 large loaf, or 3 small loaves

Bittersweet Summer

I am usually the type of cook (and the type of person) who welcomes the change of seasons. I relish returning to crisp apples and creamy butternut squash after a long hot summer and, of course, the first strawberries of summer raise my spirits sky high.

But this summer I find myself holding on for dear life. I cannot get enough of the tomatoes, peaches, and corn, not to mention the plums, golden summer squash, and tender baby potatoes. A little olive oil, basil, and salt make nearly everything taste divine. And, aside from the food, I love the sunshine. I love not wearing socks. And even when it’s too darn hot I think ahead to the cold February alternative, and I’m happy.

Sadly, my desire to keep summer here is having little effect (surprise!). Strawberries are already long gone. A sign at the farmer’s market on Saturday warned that it was likely the last week for blueberries. We’ll be able to enjoy tomatoes, sweet corn, and peaches for a few more weeks, and then it will be onward to apples, pears, and Brussels sprouts. C'est la vie.

Maybe my reluctance to welcome fall this year has to do with the fact that we had a particularly cold winter last year. Maybe it’s because my daughter is starting pre-school and the change of seasons are magnified when there’s a growing girl in the house and everything seems a little bittersweet. Or maybe I just need to move to LA where the seasons can pass unnoticed.

Whatever the reason, I am cooking like crazy these days -- in that easy breezy style that only summer allows -- and with an eye toward winter. Saturday I whipped up some tomato salsa in the food processor and froze half of it in small containers to be defrosted for tacos and rice and beans. And, on the not easy breezy front, I made a large batch of killer ratatouille from Francis Lam’s recipe on Salon.com. This weekend I will make zucchini bread and tomato chutney, both destined for the freezer. If I can’t stop winter from coming, at least I'll still be able to taste some summer sunshine come January.

If you’re looking for simple recipes that make the most of summer’s bounty, check out these recipes for chilled soups that I developed for iVillage. My favorite is the ginger-beet, although they’re all pretty good if I do say so myself. The green gazpacho, in particular, freezes well and would be a welcome reminder of summer this winter.

What's on the menu for Father's Day?

I love cooking for Father’s Day (or any holiday really). It gives me an excuse to pull out at least some of the stops and make a special meal. Luckily for me, my husband likes almost everything so I have a lot of options when I want to make something I know he’ll love.

In past years I’ve gone the traditional route and cooked big, brawny steaks. While that’s usually a hit, this year we overdosed a bit on steak as I was developing five new steak recipes for iVillage. Our overdose is to your benefit, though. Any of these recipes would be great for Father’s Day (or any day). My favorites are the hoisin steak wraps, the strip steaks with tomato salsa, and the steak and arugula salad.

Still, we’ve eaten enough steak over the past few weeks as I tweaked those recipes. So, this year I’m going to prepare a traditional seafood paella for Father's Day. Thanks to my friend Sarah at paellapans.com I have a real paella pan to use!

And while it’s hard for me not to make a fruit dessert in summer, I’m going to bake the chocolate hazelnut cake from Nigella Lawson’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. The cake consists of ground-up hazelnuts, bittersweet chocolate and an entire jar of Nutella, one of my husband’s favorite things. Whenever we have it in the house I catch him standing at the pantry with the jar and a spoon in his hand.

Photos to come after the big meal tomorrow, and I’d love to hear about your Father’s Day celebrations too.

Spring Stinks (the fruit, that is)

Fruit, even more so than vegetables, I try to eat seasonally and locally as much as possible for one simple reason: it tastes so much better.

Since we are a family that likes fruit, each spring I face a similar conundrum. Long before March, apples and pears have become mealy and tasteless. The height of winter citrus season is over, and strawberries won’t grace my local farmer’s market until June bringing with them the promise of a summer full of berries and stone fruit… that leads to fall’s bounty of apples and pears. But for now – March, April, and May – I’m stuck.

So this time of year I tend to fall back on a couple of strategies that aren’t perfect. First off, we eat more dried fruit, which I love, especially dates, figs, cherries, and apricots.

Secondly, I spring for the imports: grapes, kiwi, mango, and pineapple. They’re bright-tasting and keep color on my daughter’s plate. I know there are many reasons not to eat fruit from abroad, food miles being chief among them, but as I said my solutions aren’t perfect.

This year, I’ve added a third arrow to my quiver: frozen fruit, which has the benefit of being picked and frozen at the height of ripeness, so at least it tastes pretty good. And while nothing will taste as sublime as a local, summer strawberry, in the fruit doldrums of spring a frozen one isn’t half-bad.

Kitchen Influences

Who influenced you in the kitchen? Growing up, my mother made our kitchen warm and accessible. She never discouraged me from trying a new recipe or baking, provided I cleaned up afterwards, of course. My friend, writer Dina Cheney, inspired me to go to culinary school. Her infectious enthusiasm for cooking and her ability to cook without recipes made me excited to learn as much about food as I could. My husband influenced me too. His desire for good, home-cooked food most nights led me to develop a similar palate.

I recently wrote about one of my biggest influences in the kitchen, my mother-in-law, Iolanda. Born and raised in Italy Iolanda is an exceptional cook. From her I learned how satisfying cooking for your family can be, as well as numerous helpful tricks and new flavor combinations. In this piece on iVillage I remember the days when we first met and I really couldn’t cook at all. I was so intimidated by her culinary abilities and almost afraid to help for fear she would see just how inexperienced I was.

Click here to read the story.

Today when I visit her, I am usually perched by her side in the kitchen with my notebook in hand, helping out here and there but mostly watching and recording her every move.

Wasted

When I cook my trash can fills up quickly. I try to buy fruits and vegetables that don’t come wrapped in plastic, but it's not always possible. And, of course it’s difficult to avoid Styrofoam and cellophane wrapped meat and chicken. Cans, boxes that once contained broth, milk cartons, and mustard jars all go into the recycling bin. But still, when I think about food packaging my knee-jerk reaction is less – and preferably none – is better.

So I was surprised to read a defense of food packaging in the New York Times Freakonomics blog today: “In addition to protecting food from its microbial surroundings, packaging significantly prolongs shelf life, which in turn improves the chances of the food actually being eaten.”

And that’s where things take an even more interesting turn:

“[W]hen it comes to saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, our behavior in the kitchen far outweighs the environmental impact of whatever packaging happens to surround the product. Consumers toss out vastly more pounds of food than we do packaging—about six times as much. One study estimates that U.S. consumers throw out about half the food they buy. In Great Britain, the Waste and Resource Action Programme (funny enough, WRAP) claims that the energy saved from not wasting food at home would be the equivalent of removing ‘1 out of every 5 cars off the road.’”

That’s pretty powerful stuff (even if the stats are somewhat exaggerated, as some comments claimed). I work hard not to waste food, saving even dribs and drabs of various dishes to incorporate into other dishes – a half-cup of sautéed spinach to put on a pizza, three sundried tomatoes to chop up for a frittata, the ends of onions for chicken stock. There is nothing more satisfying than cleaning out the fridge, making good use of forlorn leftovers. It makes me feel thrifty – an underrated, and in my life, rarely felt, quality.

But even though I'm wasting less food in the kitchen, I know I can do better. Fresh herbs are one of the trickiest foods to make good use of since the bunches are usually larger than I require. When I have extra basil, mint, or parsley I'll make a batch of pesto to freeze. But, rosemary, thyme, and sage? Hm, I'm still thinking about that.

When Cooking Became Optional

A few weeks ago I picked up the book Something From the Oven. Written by Laura Shapiro, the book chronicles the evolution of American home cooking in the 1950s as more and more convenience foods found their way into American kitchens. As Shapiro notes, post-World War II, “the food industry found itself confronted with the most daunting challenge in its history: to create a peacetime market for wartime foods.” It was an uphill battle, because most of the frozen and canned food, frankly, didn’t taste that great. (And some of the things the marketers attempted to sell – frozen coffee, dehydrated wine – never caught on.)

Convincing American women to purchase these products was also a challenge because, at the time, many women felt that using convenience food was cheating, taking the easy way out, and that part of their responsibility as a wife and a mother was preparing food from scratch for their families. As the decade progressed packaged foods made their way into more and more kitchens as advertisements and women’s magazines persuaded women that they weren’t shirking their duties by opening a can of soup. One of the ways food writers convinced women to use convenience foods was by encouraging them to “glamorize” the food to make it more sophisticated. Examples included flambéing canned peas in sherry, and concocting recipes like Gourmet Crab: canned crabmeat, frozen spinach, cream of mushroom soup, and Cheez Whiz.

What strikes me the most about this era in American cooking is that it’s the period when, for the average family, cooking became optional. For some people, women in particular, that was probably liberating. But, I think it’s clear that, as a country, we followed the food industry too blindly and too far. One of my favorite passages from Something from the Oven comes near the end:

“By now the steady accumulation of packaged grease, salt, and artificial flavors in the American diet [from packaged foods] constitutes a genuine threat to health and culture. Back at the turn of the twentieth century, we began the long process of turning over to the food industry many of the decisions about what we eat, in the name of habit or convenience or taste. Today our staggering rates of obesity and diabetes are testimony to the faith we put in corporations to feed us well. But the food industry is a business, not a parent; it doesn’t care what we eat as long as we’re wiling to pay for it. Although some people think of cooking as a choice now, no more necessary to learn than sewing or shoemaking, that perspective holds up poorly when we gaze around a mall or an airport at Americans en masse. Home cooking these days has far more than sentimental value; it’s a survival skill.”

My sense is that today people are starting to make their way back to the kitchen. Maybe they don’t cook from scratch every day, or they’re following the “semi-homemade” strategy, but I do think there’s a hunger to take our appetites into our own hands, to take responsibility once again for what we eat.

--

A couple of odds and ends:

If you haven’t seen it, check out my piece on iVillage about convincing my daughter to eat spinach.

Did you know Coolio had a cookbook? For a big laugh just read this page. I was quoted commenting on the celebrity cookbook trend in The National, an Abu Dhabi paper.

Do You Have Any Parmigiano?

That was the question my three-year-old daughter asked the mom of one of her classmates at his birthday party on Saturday. The boy’s mom asked Rosa if she wanted some cheese, referring to the cubed cheddar nearby, and Rosa asked, “Do you have any Parmigiano?” The mom reported this conversation to me, laughing. She knows that food is a big deal at our house, and she wasn’t altogether surprised to hear those words coming out of Rosa’s mouth.

When I heard, I was both proud and embarrassed. It was a complicated emotional reaction. I thought it was adorable that my little girl would ask for Parmigiano – using the real Italian name, no less! But I was also embarrassed. I didn’t want the other mother to think we were food snobs (even though maybe I am), or have her think that I was overly proud of Rosa for her food precocity.

I want Rosa to be choosy about what she eats, but not picky or snobby. So, I guess the happy ending to this story is that upon learning there was no Parmigiano available, Rosa happily ate the cheddar.

A Stress-free Thanksgiving

I love planning big meals like Thanksgiving dinner. I make spreadsheets for my grocery shopping and detailed prep timelines for the week before and day of. Organization excites me! And, otherwise, I know I'll never get the shopping list right, and the odds of all the dishes making it to the table at the same time are very slim.

I'm introducing a new class to share my tips, tricks, and shortcuts for pulling off a delicious, and less-stress, holiday meal. The 3-hour workshop is held in my clients' kitchens, so cooks can practice in their own space with their own equipment.

Together we will:

* Plan the menu - from family classics to new favorites
* Decide what to make and what to buy (and from where)
* Put together a comprehensive shopping list
* Pinpoint dishes that can be made ahead of the big day
* Create a detailed preparation timeline
* Practice the dishes that are particularly challenging to you, be it the turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, or pumpkin pie

Thanksgiving is right around the corner! For more details send me an email at jenna@rosaberry.com.

Vegetable Ambassador

By now, it must be only a cliché that people dislike Brussels sprouts. Most people know that these miniature green cabbages are one of fall’s most delicious vegetables. They realize that the reason Brussels sprouts get a bad rap is because too many generations of cooks boiled them to death, turning the sprouts into smelly mush. But sautéed or roasted these beauties are addictive, a delicious truth that has finally made its way into the mainstream. Right?

Well, based on the reactions of numerous passersby at the Tribeca Greenmarket today who were offered samples of my delicious Brussels sprouts I would sadly say no. Yes there were a few wonderful folks who proclaimed their love for Brussels sprouts, but most of their fellow shoppers were openly skeptical.

This particular Greenmarket draws an interesting mix of people – mostly office workers and moms/nannies with strollers. Unlike my neighborhood market, this one isn’t set apart from foot traffic. Instead, it occupies part of the sidewalk for an entire block, so a lot of people walking through aren’t necessarily interested in the Greenmarket per se; they’re just trying to get from Duane St. to Chambers St.

As the Greenmarket’s demo chef I consider myself an ambassador of sorts, someone who can introduce delicious vegetables to eaters, and encourage them to prepare the veggies themselves. I pushed hard on the Brussels sprouts today, cajoling people to try samples, and I think this simple recipe won a few converts.

EASIEST AND BEST BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Brussels sprouts often get a bad rap, but when cooked properly they are a savory, addictive fall and winter vegetable.

Ingredients: 2 TB butter
1 TB minced shallot
4 cups thinly sliced Brussels sprouts
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup water
pepper

1. Heat the butter in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted and the foam subsides add the shallot and cook for about a minute.
2. Add the Brussels sprouts and salt to the pan. Stir and continue to cook until the sprouts are bright green, about two minutes.
3. Add the water to the pan, cover and cook for three minutes. Test for tenderness; if sprouts are nearly tender uncover pan and continue to cook until remaining water evaporates, about two minutes. (If sprouts aren’t yet tender cover and continue to cook for another couple minutes.)
4. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Yield: 4 servings

Happy Moms

This morning I worked with four terrific women on the Upper West Side who wanted to expand their kid-friendly, yet adult-appealing, dinner repertoire. One of the moms, Lauren Slayton, is a nutritionist who has her own company, Foodtrainers, and her own blog. Click here for her review of our class. We prepared spinach-basil pesto, turkey-herb meatballs, ham and white bean soup, and a few other dishes.

One of my favorite recipes is for the spinach-basil pesto. Pesto is a favorite in our household, on pasta, chicken, or even fish. While basil is traditional, pesto can be made with other leafy herbs, and this summer I decided to incorporate some baby spinach as well. The experiment succeeded, and spinach-basil pesto has become one of my favorite teaching recipes. It tastes great, and moms (including me) love that it's a vehicle for getting spinach into our kids! The pesto is also exceedingly simple to make and can be stored in the freezer for up to three months. I like to freeze small amounts in ice cube trays to defrost at a moment’s notice.

SPINACH-BASIL PESTO

Ingredients: 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 cups moderately packed baby spinach leaves
2 cups moderately packed basil leaves
1 small garlic clove, roughly chopped
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup grated parmigiano cheese

1. Pour the olive oil into a blender or food processor. Add the spinach, basil, garlic, nuts, and salt. Blend until smooth.
2. Add the parmigiano cheese and blend until combined.
3. Check seasoning. Add more salt if necessary.

Yield: scant one-cup

Rosaberry on the Newsstand!

I am very happy to share Rosaberry’s latest press. I was featured in the August issue of Time Out New York Kids magazine offering strategies to busy parents who want to learn to cook fresher, healthier meals for their kids. Pick up the issue at the newsstand or click here to see the article. There's even a picture!

Cooking (or not) in America

Obviously I am a big believer in cooking from scratch, and I am always saddened (and amazed) when I read about how little Americans cook these days. When I saw Michael Pollan's cover story in this week's New York Times Magazine -- with the tagline "No One Cooks Here Anymore" -- I dove right in. Pollan, the author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma and In Defense of Food, a slim volume that is one of my favorite food books (so practical and persuasive!), uses the release of the upcoming movie featuring the life of Julia Child as a springboard for the piece. He contrasts Julia's empowering cooking shows with most of today's cooking shows, which are actually more about eating than cooking. People could watch Julia's shows and feel like they could take a crack at preparing beef bourguignon or an apple tart. Julia actually enjoyed cooking and inspired others to enjoy it. Pollan notes that today's cooking shows are either about getting dinner on the table as quickly as you can with as few ingredients as possible (think Rachael Ray), or they're pure theater, like Iron Chef America.

As someone familiar with the economics of the television business I understand why Food Network airs what it does, and, really, today's food shows are just one result of the larger cultural shift away from cooking.

One of the biggest reasons for that shift is the rise of industrialized food, primarily introduced to consumers after WWII. Companies had the technology to make these foods (frozen dinners, cake mixes) and looked for ways to sell them to us. And after decades of marketing, Americans now accept cans of condensed soup, bottled salad dressing, frozen chicken nuggets, processed cheese, and brownie mix as real food, when they're really just products designed to make corporations as much money as possible. To make these processed foods taste decent, the manufacturers laden them with sugar, salt, and fat.

This is one of the reasons that Pollan argues that the decline of cooking from scratch in America is responsible for all sorts of ills, chiefly among them the rise of obesity.

I highly encourage everyone to read the full article. Click here. But here are some of my favorite quotes:

-- "Child was less interested in making it [cooking] fast and easy than making it right, because cooking for her was so much more than a means to a meal. It was a gratifying, even ennobling sort of work, engaging both the mind and the muscles." This is one of my favorite parts about cooking. It is literally the only sort of labor or craft that I can competently perform. I cannot fix anything. I cannot sew. I cannot draw well. I cannot bead pretty necklaces (like my mom can!). Like most people in my generation who do most of their work in front of computers or at service jobs, I cannot produce anything worthwhile. Except for food. I can put together a pie crust, shape a loaf of bread, transform a raw piece of meat into something healthy and delicious.

-- "Currently the most popular meal in America, as both lunch and dinner, is a sandwich; the No. 1 accompanying beverage is a soda." Sigh.

-- "People think nothing of buying frozen peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches for their children's lunchboxes." Really?? How long does it take to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Why are people throwing away their money?

-- "A 2003 study by a group of Harvard economists led by David Cutler found that the rise of food preparation outside the home could explain most of the increase in obesity in America."

-- "Cutler and his colleagues also surveyed cooking patterns across several cultures and found that obesity rates are inversely correlated with the amount of time spent on food preparation."

For the article Pollan spoke with a food marketing expert who was very pessimistic about the idea that Americans would ever go back to cooking their own food from scratch. Pollan asked him how Americans "might begin to undo the damage that the modern diet of industrially prepared food has done to our health." The marketer replied: "Easy. You want Americans to eat less? I have the diet for you. It's short, and it's simple. Here's my diet plan: Cook it yourself. That's it. Eat anything you want - just as long as you're willing to cook it yourself." Amen brother.

Pollan argues for home cooking not only to stem the tide of obesity, but under the premise that cooking is deeply ingrained in the human beings (one of the reasons so many people watch cooking shows these days even if they don't cook). Cooking and eating together is central to what makes us human.

What's on my menu tonight? Pasta with homemade pesto sauce and cherry tomatoes from the Farmer's Market and spicy Italian sausages. It will take me about a half-hour to prepare, and Dave, Rosa, and I will sit around the table for another half-hour eating, talking, and appreciating our good-tasting food. We will leave the table feeling satiated but not stuffed and ready to enjoy the rest of our evening.