Kids Dish

Two days ago I started my second batch of the no-knead bread.

Based on suggestions that it would rise better in a smaller vessel I baked it in my smaller cast iron dutch oven instead of my enormous, Le Creuset enameled oven. But even baked in my smaller dutch oven it came out sort of flat. It never seemed to rise. After two hours I moved it upstairs to above the wood stove, hoping the heat would give it some incentive, but after a four hour second rise it never even came close.

Last night it spread out. It definitely expanded and took up more space than it did after being shaped, but never puffed up like it should. I started to troubleshoot. Was the yeast active? I mixed a bit with water and sugar and it started to bubble almost immediately? Was it the wrong kind of yeast? According to the original recipe, no, but according to a follow-up article in the NYT, active dry yeast is fine. Did it stay flat because my house is too cold? My house temperature is between 59-60 degrees most of the time, not the recommended 70 degrees, but the follow-up article does suggest that any temperature is fine. I even added more yeast this time in the hopes that it would make a difference.

The only difference between this attempt and the last failed attempt was that the bread, flat as it was, tasted amazing and had a bread like texture instead of being dense and hard like a rock. It’s seriously delicious. It may be flat as a pancake, but at 11 pm, when I finally took it out of the oven after letting it “rise” for an additional 2 hours, we had to stop ourselves from eating the whole thing right then and there.

I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Based on the videos there’s nothing wrong with my technique. I have no problems making yeast breads ordinarily, but this one just seems to elude me. Give it a shot and let me know how you make out.

Getting back to a few things from last week, the bread recipe was a disaster. It did not rise. Maybe my yeast was dead? Maybe my kitchen was too cold? Perhaps I just screwed up the very simple recipe somehow? I will try again because I’m a glutton for punishment. I’ll let you know if round two is any better.

As for the Arroz Con Pollo, it was great. I ended up throwing in a ham steak from my freezer instead of the chorizo sausage and it worked out really well. Honestly, I don’t particularly care for ham. I don’t mind most pork products, but ham just tastes kind of gross to me. In this recipe I didn’t mind it, and Sam who’s still not much of a meat eater ate it too.

Arroz Con Pollo

*Check the instructions on the rice package for the proportions of liquid to rice. They can range from 1:1 to 2:1. If your rice calls for 2 cups of water for every cup of rice, then for this recipe, use 4 cups of stock for 2 cups of rice.

Remove from heat and let stand, covered, 5 minutes.

I like baking bread but I’m definitely not a purist. I know that in order to be good at baking bread I should be familiar with the various stages of dough and gluten by touch, but I just don’t have the patience. I love the smell of freshly baked bread and I love the yeasty smell while I wait for it to rise, but I don’t find the act of kneading particularly therapeutic so I use my Kitchenaid mixer instead.

The problem with using the mixer (and the food processor which is even more frightening and dangerous) is that Sam alternately loves it and is afraid of it. He wants to turn it on and off and on and off and on and off then runs from it if it’s turned on too quickly. I don’t want him to get too comfortable with it, because the dangers and mess potential far outweigh the benefits.

Sure I could stick to quick breads like biscuits, but what’s the fun in that. Instead I’m going to give no-knead bread a shot. A recipe published not too long ago in the New York Times claims to produce a perfect loaf of bread with no kneading. The secret is a long, overnight rise. According to the NYT, what makes the “process revolutionary is the resulting combination of great crumb, lightness, incredible flavor — long fermentation gives you that — and an enviable, crackling crust, the feature of bread that most frequently separates the amateurs from the pros.�

Sounds good to me. I don’t have the right size cast iron dutch oven required for baking but I’m going to give the recipe a go anyway. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

I don’t get a ton of comments here so when I wasn’t getting any I didn’t think much of it. But then at Nursing Your Kids, my other 451 Press site where I tend to get at least a comment or two a week I realized I wasn’t getting any either.

I checked my spam filter and every legitimate comment was stuck with comments from “people” named Halo and Neo encouraging me to pierce delicate parts of my anatomy. My eyes began to bleed after the third page of spam comments so I gave up trying to rescue comments from the abyss and just deleted everything. Then I checked the spam filter here. It was much, much worse. The spambots attacking me over at this site all seem to have real names and tell me what a great job I’m doing with this site. Apparently I should keep up the good work. Guten Tag! It’s totally out of control. I last emptied the spam filter less than 24 hours ago, and in that time period I got more than 300 spam comments. So I apologize if I’ve deleted any comments anyone may have left. I just can’t sort through them quickly enough. In fact, since I started writing this post just a few minutes ago, Rosina May has left two comments telling me she’s impressed and that I should “keep it on the road.”

So if you leave a comment and it doesn’t appear on the site, please send me an email (click on contact) and I’ll try and pick it out of the great spam abyss.

The night before last we had Spinach and Ginger Fried Rice along with some leftover Roasted Carrot Soup for dinner so last night I decided we (well, I) needed a little extra protein. Bob never remembered to take chicken out of the freezer in the garage and all we have in the kitchen freezer is ground beef. I know this recipe is completely inauthentic, but rather than make my standby hamburgers, meatloaf, meatballs or sloppy Joes I figured I’d give Shepherd’s Pie a shot. I’ve only ever made and eaten it with vegetarian meat substitutes, never meat, so last night’s attempt was a first. It turned out pretty good and I got it on the table in under an hour.

My Inauthentic Shepherd’s Pie

1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb ground beef or lamb ( you can use turkey or meat substitute, but you’ll probably need to adjust the seasonings)
1 1/2 lbs potatoes, quartered (I used 2 baking potatoes)
1/2 stick butter
1/4 cup milk
3/4 cup stock or broth (beef stock preferably, but I used chicken)
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp minced fresh rosemary
1 tbsp minced fresh thyme
Couple of handfuls of frozen peas
11 oz can corn, rinsed and drained
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Boil the potatoes in salted water until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, and mash with butter then milk. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet. Cook onion, carrot and celery until softened, about five minutes. Add the meat and cook until browned, stirring frequently to break up the meat, about five to ten minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about a minute. Stir in the flour and cook about a minute more, Add the stock, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and cook until absorbed, about five minutes.

Spread the meat mixture in the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Top with corn and peas. Spread the mashed potatoes over the meat and vegetables. Cook for about 20 minutes, until potatoes are browned.

From the Holiday Insights website:

When: Always December 18th

But, Bake Cookies day is for EVERYONE!

I love baking cookies. Well, I love baking most cookies. I cannot, no matter what recipe I use and what approach I use, bake pretty chocolate chip cookies. I can make delicious chocolate chip cookies, but time after time they’re ugly. They always look lovely when I open the oven door, but as soon as they hit the air of the kitchen they begin to spread and flatten, leaving pockmarked crepes with bulbous chocolate chip lumps. Not pretty. Tasty, but not pretty. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I’ve experimented with the temperature of the butter, I’ve used the stand mixer, a hand mixer and my hands to mix. I’ve tried the recipe on the chip bag and the recipes in three different cookbooks. I’ve put them on the cookie sheet in rounded tablespoons and teaspoons wondering if it was the size of the uncooked dough that was the problem. I bought new baking soda. I let them cool on the tray and I’ve let them cool on parchment and I’ve let them cool on the racks. No matter what I do make them pretty. So I quit.

Instead I bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Delicious and higher in fiber than regular cookies. My new recipe of choice? Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan cookies. They’re the perfect cookie- crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. A bit of orange zest adds some unexpected flavor. The cookies are addictive and store well though three dozen cookies of these cookies don’t last long.

Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, and Pecan Cookies
from Epicurious

Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a large cookie sheet with parchment or a Silpat (rubber nonstick baking mat). Using an electric mixer, beat the butter in a bowl until light and fluffy. Add both sugars, salt, and vanilla, and beat until well mixed, about 3 minutes. Stir in eggs, one at a time. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove in a separate bowl. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter with the mixer on low speed. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the second half. Stir in the oats, pecans, orange zest, and chocolate chips. Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar or other airtight container.

I used less orange zest than the recipe called for the first time based on a recommendation from Smitten Kitchen (the photo was borrowed from Smitten Kitchen too since her photography is far superior to mine) and the full amount the second time I baked these. Everyone who ate them loved them both ways. I was surprised that no one mentioned the orange, especially after reading some of the reviews on epicurious.

I use ginger in recipes pretty regularly because I love its hot, tangy flavor. I use it primarily in Asian dishes like rice and stir fries and paired with carrots. But ginger, both in its sweeter ground form and fresh is a deliciously subtle addition to many baked goods.

With Christmas coming I know many people are in the middle of holiday baking. Here are two recipes for Ginger Cookies, one using fresh ginger and one using ground and crystallized. Because the dough in both recipes has to be refrigerated these are great to make ahead. You can freeze the dough and thaw in the refrigerator to use or refrigerate for up to three days before baking. Both recipes also store well so you can bake ahead and serve a few days later.

I know that the following recipe is for cookies, not health food, but if your little one likes ginger cookies and needs iron you can use blackstrap molasses. Just add an extra tablespoon or two of sugar.

Fresh Ginger Cookies

Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and then roll them in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake until edges start to brown, about 15 minutes. Centers will be slightly soft. Let stand on cookie sheets 1 minute and remove to racks to cool completely.

For the Ginger Spice cookies you can substitute butter for some or all of the shortening. I’d recommend half and half, especially now that they make and sell trans-fat free shortening, but using all butter works too. I love crystallized ginger and the little ginger bits add a lot of sweet, spicy taste to these cookies, but if you’re not a fan you can omit it and add a bit more of the ground ginger.

Ginger Spice Cookies
2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
1/2 cup vegetable shortening, room temperature
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses

Here’s a third recipe from the Elementary Chef.

This is in no way groundbreaking research but yet another study, this time published in Pediatrics, says that the way to raise children who like fruits and vegetables is to eat them yourself while pregnant and nursing to pass on the preference.

Repeated exposure to fruits and vegetables in infancy is key, said study senior author Julie Mennella, a biopsychologist and member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia. “They need to taste them to learn to like them.”

Mennella’s advice: “Eat the fruits and vegetables you enjoy while you are pregnant and lactating, because your baby is going to be learning about those foods. Whether you are breast-feeding or formula-feeding, once you start introducing a food, make sure you offer your baby opportunities to eat fruits and vegetables. They need to taste them to learn to like them.”

From my limited personal experience I have to say this is true. Sam loves fruits and veggies and won’t touch cows milk, a beverage I’m won’t drink either unless disguised by espresso and sugar. Yesterday the freak picked all of the broccoli off of his, ate it, and left the pizza itself untouched. He did ignore all of the tomatoes though. He’s a chip off of the old block.

(I’m double posting this at Nursing Your Kids)

Despite the fact that I’m still talking about it (I promise, I’m done with the turkey clip art now!), it’s been almost a week since Thanksgiving and it’s time to get rid of the last of the turkey and vegetables. My favorite way to use up the leftovers is in a pot pie. If you’re short on time there are plenty of shortcuts and if you’re feeling gourmet you can jazz it up as much as you want. The basic recipe calls for throwing leftover turkey, carrots, green beans, and whatever veggies you have into a premade pie crust with leftover gravy. You can also use frozen or canned mixed veggies if you don’t have fresh. More advanced recipes use puff pastry or homemade biscuit dough.

I’ll give you the recipe I used last night and offer some links to other leftover pot pie recipes at the end. I didn’t have as much gravy leftover as I usually do and was completely out of chicken stock to make more so I used a can of cream soup. It would have been better without the soup, so use stock to make your own gravy or use leftover gravy if you have it. The soup did make it easier than making stock all over again.

Leftover Pot Pie

*If you’re using a store bought frozen pie crust 30-40 minutes in a 350 degree oven should be fine. Just bake until bubbly and golden brown.

Cooking with the Single Guy has a recipe that calls for puff pastry. I adore puff pastry and will be sure to try this next time I make a pot pie.

This recipe uses spinach, ham and cream of chicken soup

I know that this recipe is for chicken pot pie, but it calls for a biscuit topping so I thought I’d throw it in for the biscuit lovers.

This recipe uses chicken bouillon and milk instead of a pre-made gravy.

The CSA is winding down for the season. There are only two weeks left after today. It’s the end of October but you wouldn’t know it from the variety of peppers still available on the order form. The order for next week is the first order in months that doesn’t have some sort of tomato on it. Here’s what was in this week’s box.

1 lb of green snap beans
2 large sweet potatoes
1 bunch Lacinato (dinosaur) kale
5 mixed sweet peppers
2 heads of broccoli
1 bunch Fuyo Shumi (baby Pac Choi)
1 bunch Swiss chard
2 8 oz bags salad greens mix

This week was a fruit share week and the bag had 8 or 9 each of apples and pears and a quart of apple cider.

I still have more potatoes from the last few weeks than I know what to do with and at least 8 large sweet potatoes. I still have a bunch of chard from last week, five or six beets, some turnips I may as well just compost, and half a bag of mixed salad greens. I’m probably forgetting something, but at least with the garden I don’t have to feel too badly if some veggies go to waste.

Last night I roasted a head of cauliflower. Tonight I’m going to use the two bunches of chard in a gratin with gouda and panko breadcrumbs. I’m also going to cook some potatoes, at least a pound of them, but I haven’t quite decided whether to roast them along with a chicken I’m brining or if I should mash them with buttermilk I’ve got leftover from Bob’s birthday cake.

I posted a bit about bento meals months ago, when I wrote about Vegan Lunchbox. I love everything that the mom at Vegan Lunchbox does, only I’m not vegan. I love eating vegetarian meals and I definitely don’t eat meat every day, but I have no interest whatsoever in cutting all animal products from my and Sam’s diet. Then I found something in between.

I seriously just spent more than an hour staring in awe at the Kid Eats group pool on Flickr. Holy Popsicle sticks, Batman, most of those lunches are unreal. What I like about the meals pictured in the Flickr pool is that there’s a total variety. Some moms are vegan and others are vegetarian, but there are just as many moms who pack their kids bologna sandwiches. You’ll see meals where everything’s homemade and healthy and meals that are almost entirely prepackaged. Some of the moms who seem to pack mostly prepackaged stuff use mostly organic, sugar-free, low-sodium snacks. Others pack all cheese-its and m&ms.

What the meals in the pool have in common is that all of the mothers have put some effort into making their kids lunches into something special that their kids will actually eat.

Here are a couple of Halloween-themed meals.

The first is a creepy Halloween lunch with ramen noodle guts, hot dog worms, ketchup blood, sweet potato and maple jack-o-lanterns with some candy on the side. The original photo page can be found here. This mom’s other lunches are awesome.

This preschoolers lunch looks like a great time to eat. It has mini carrots, apples with almond sliver teeth, Shrek cheese-its, jello jigglers with Halloween sprinkles, Halloween candy, fruity cheerios, witches brooms made from pretzel sticks and fringed fruit roll-ups, and peanut butter and fluff sandwiches on wheat cut into pumpkins. The original photo page is here. Again, the mom makes awesome lunches.

I’m sure I won’t say this in a couple of years when I have to, but right now I’m really looking forward to making Sam’s lunches. Since I already make Bob’s lunch every day I may have to invest in a couple of bento boxes now.

Jamie Oliver’s school dinners campaign (which I wrote about here)isn’t going so well according to new reports. The number of students eating school meals has dropped drastically, as mothers sneak chips through the fence so their kids don’t go hungry eating freshly prepared vegetables.

Ofsted inspectors report a failure in marketing the campaign to kids and parents alike and a rise in prices that may be putting off some families. The quality of food in schools has improved across the board, especially in schools with on site kitchens. But dining halls are still rowdy and poorly designed and children eligible for free meals feel stigmatized, a sentiment that’s the same on both sides of the Atlantic. I often had students eat a bag of chips for lunch because they were too embarrassed to eat one of the “freebies.” Cashless swipe card systems can help with this.

The chief inspector of schools, Christine Gilbert, said: “Schools that had the most impact in encouraging healthy choices were those which gave a priority to this as part of their day-to-day work. They encourage pupil involvement in designing school menus, for example, and worked hard to make their families understand the importance of healthy schools.”

Some other problems the Ofsted Inspectors discuss in their report are that younger children in some of the schools don’t know how to use a knife and fork and had difficulty actually eating the meals. At a secondary school counselors had to be brought in because older girls with substance abuse problems were skipping meals to lose weight. Other kids complained that the portions were too small and they were still hungry.

I hope that schools take the report seriously and change their approach to school dinners. Involving parents and children alike in menu planning and giving families input about the program will help increase the numbers of students eating the meals.

Children’s minister Kevin Brennan said: “We are in this for the long-term. Cutting childhood obesity and unhealthy eating needs the backing of every local authority, school, teacher and parent in England.

I was at a friend’s wedding this weekend and saw, Dave, an old friend I haven’t seen or spoken to in more than 10 years. We were seated at the same table and when the salads came around he asked the waiter if the dressing contained any peanut products. I’d forgotten that Dave was allergic to peanuts. He’d had a reaction once when we were together but it wasn’t a severe one so it didn’t really stick out in my memory. But he was the only person I knew with a peanut allergy until recently, when it seems like the rate of food allergies has more than doubled.

Remembering Dave’s love for conspiracy theories I asked Dave if he knew anyone else with a peanut allergy when he was a kid, knowing he’d probably launch into an elaborate speech about the rise in peanut allergies and his theories about what causes them. And he did.

His theory? Genetically modified foods. He says that because the peanut is a hardy crop scientists have taken peanut genes and spliced them into others. The result is an abundance of the proteins in peanuts in a variety of unlikely foods. The proteins in allergenic foods are what cause the allergy. Since so many of the foods we eat contain peanut genes without actually containing peanuts, exposure to the allergens has increased exponentially, increasing the number of babies who eventually develop allergies.

I don’t know anything about Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) so I can’t really give an educated opinion about Dave’s conspiracy theory. But I do know that I prefer to buy foods grown using organic methods from local farms and many (though certainly not all) of the packaged foods I buy claim to include no genetically modified ingredients.

eat local, genetically modified organisms, genetically modified foods, causes of food allergies

Two weeks ago I wrote about a possible ban on infant cough medicines. Now it’s voluntarily gone into effect.

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Oct. 11 — Major makers of over-the-counter infant cough and cold medicines announced today that they were voluntarily withdrawing their products from the market for fear that they could be misused by parents.
The voluntary withdrawal affects only products labeled for “infants,� not those for use in children 2 and older. And some small companies may continue selling the products.

Despite this recommendation, makers continued to sell cough and cold products labeled for infants.

This is no great loss as there was really no proof that these medicines were effective. Don’t panic if you’ve given your child a correct dose, as the voluntary recall is because of problems resulting from incorrect dosing, but the side effects (poor sleep, agitation) may not be worth the effort.

Here’s the full list of the withdrawn products.

Manufactured by the McNeil Consumer Healthcare unit of Johnson & Johnson:
Concentrated Infants’ Tylenol Drops Plus Cold
Concentrated Infants’ Tylenol Drops Plus Cold & Cough
Pediacare Infant Drops Decongestant (PSE)
Pediacare Infant Drops Decongestant & Cough (PSE)
Pediacare Infant Dropper Decongestant (PE)
Pediacare Infant Dropper Long-Acting Cough
Pediacare Infant Dropper Decongestant & Cough (PE)
Manufactured by Novartis:
Triaminic Infant & Toddler Thin Strips Decongestant
Triaminic Infant & Toddler Thin Strips Decongestant Plus Cough
Manufactured by the Medtech Products unit of Prestige Brands Holdings:
Little Colds Decongestant Plus Cough
Little Colds Multi-Symptom Cold Formula
Manufactured by Wyeth:
Dimetapp Decongestant Infant Drops
Dimetapp Decongestant Plus Cough Infant Drops
Robitussin Infant Cough DM Drops

infant cough medicine, recall

I’m lucky to have a child with no known allergies. Aside from some nasty, citrus and strawberry induced diaper rashes when he was about nine months old, Sam’s been reaction free. Many parents aren’t so lucky. My cousin’s daughter has a variety of allergies to peanuts, legumes, soy, and probably a few other things I can’t remember. A friend’s son is allergic to eggs. Some of these allergies are just sensitivities that the child may eventually grow out of, but for other kids allergies are serious and sometimes lethal.

I worked in a middle school where a number of children had severe peanut allergies. Peanut products were banned from classrooms, as were products that share equipment with peanut products. Students weren’t allowed to bring food in for class parties unless they were prepackaged snacks with clearly labeled allergen information. The cafeteria allowed peanut products, but had two peanut-free lunch tables where children with allergies ate their lunches brought from home.

The school took all reasonable precautions and asked that children with allergies bring their own lunches so as not to run the risk of allergic reactions. The school also prohibited peanutty snacks in all classrooms going so far as to send home a list of all appropriate snacks. The school gave students with allergies a lunch space specifically for them. Here’s where the debate comes in.

I’ve heard stories of parents telling other parents they’re endangering their children’s lives by allowing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the playground. I’ve recently read a blog where an entire neighborhood received a letter requesting that no one, yes no one, hand out any candy that may be a potential peanut threat on Halloween. Rather than simply monitoring the treats her children select, this parent is trying to get every house in the neighborhood to accommodate the minority with allergies. I don’t want to downplay her concerns. Peanut allergies are very real and can be fatal. But I don’t see parents of children allergic to bee sting requesting their entire neighborhood stop planting flowers.

I don’t know what the answer is. My instincts are that parents need to teach their children what’s okay to eat and monitor them closely until they’re old enough to monitor themselves. The children I knew with diabetes grew into adults who knew how to manage their disease because they learned to self-monitor. Not because their schools banned sugary snacks. I think that schools should be expected to take precautions, but I don’t think it’s appropriate to ban peanut products entirely because of a few allergic kids. Plenty of children are allergic to soy, dairy, eggs, fruit, carpet, dust and mold. We can’t expect schools to accommodate every possible scenario. Or can we? What do you think?