lunch box love (part one)

September 12, 2011September 18, 2017 ~ jama ~ 10 Comments

cornelius lunch box 500 — What’s in Cornelius’s lunch box?

For many kids, the best time of the school day is opening their lunch boxes to see what delicious treats are inside.

Will they find their favorite PB&J, baked chicken drumsticks, or a special bento? I can remember having only one lunch box as a child — it was a red and black plaid tin, and I might have taken it to school fewer than six times. I was enamored with the prospect of soup in the thermos, a baloney sandwich, Fritos, and a Hostess cupcake. But after facing a smashed or soggy sandwich once or twice (my mom insisted on including an apple), I went back to cafeteria food.

These days, I’m envious of kids who take their lunches in insulated totes and bags, or whose food is lovingly packed in divided plastic containers (there’s a whole new world of lunch box fashion going on). Sandwiches remain a traditional favorite, but in this day and age of smoothies, wraps, and rice balls, all it takes is thinking outside the box just a little to make lunch more varied, interesting and fun.

For some great ideas, check out MY LUNCH BOX, a cool selection of 50 recipes created by Hilary Shevlin Karmilowicz. They’re packed in a spiffy recipe box illustrated by Rebecca Bradley, and feature Mains, Sides and Treats. Mix and match recipes from each category for a healthy, balanced mid-day meal, or pick any one of them to supplement things you usually pack.

If you want to stick with sandwiches, consider reinventing them — what about a Cheesy Pleasy Pocket, Chillin’ Chicken Caesar Wrap, or a Banutty (peanut butter between two slices of homemade banana bread)? Choose a quick quesadilla, make sure your dogs are dapper, fill up on frittata after hamming around. Not into sandwiches? Go for soup or salad: Chicken Noodle in a snap, Chow-Down Chicken Chili, Pizza Pasta Salad. My favorite? Alphabet Soup (Ms. Karmilowicz is a wise woman). And for those days when you’re short on time or energy, there are some no-recipe suggestions, which require only two or three ingredients and a few minutes to pull together.

What about the sides? Choose from veggie dips to muffins to pinwheels to more salads to eggs to fruity cheese kabobs. Then top everything off with a healthy treat: yogurt fondue, granola bars, smoothies, and carrot cupcakes, to name a few. As with the Mains, you’ll find no-recipe ideas for Treats and Sides.

Each cheerfully illustrated recipe card will inspire budding foodies to experiment in the kitchen (steps requiring adult supervision are clearly marked). Extra recipe cards, colorful stickers and tips for keeping foods hot or cold round out the collection. Great for encouraging parent-child participation, likely to make lunch the most anticipated meal of the day. There’s something to be said for appealing presentation, lots to be said for family bonding and the satisfaction of mastering new skills. Kids seem to especially love something they’ve made themselves — what better way to engage, excite and nourish!

MY LUNCH BOX: 50 Recipes for Kids to Take to School
by Hilary Shevlin Karmilowicz
illustrated by Rebecca Bradley
published by Chronicle Books, 2009
Recommended for ages 9-12, 146 pp.

LET’S EAT!

♥ In Lunch Box Love, Part Two, kids learn about where their food comes from. Tune in next Monday!

♥ Related post: My Darling, My Bento

———————————————————————————

peeking into tina davis’s look and cook

August 17, 2011November 30, 2017 ~ jama ~ 11 Comments

The second I spotted this cookbook on the Laughing Elephant website a few years ago, I knew I had to have it.

I’m a sucker for vintage illustrations and culinary ephemera, and this wonderful collection of 50+ classic recipes is chock full of charming old cookbook clippings from the 1900’s to the 1960’s.

Aside from its obvious appeal to nostalgia buffs like me, it’s a great kid-friendly first cookbook containing almost every standard comfort food dish you can think of: meat loaf, mac and cheese, spaghetti and meatballs, gingerbread men, griddle cakes, waffles, biscuits, chocolate pudding, apple pie, and scalloped potatoes. And what about soup, you ask (please do)?

Well, the Soup Section begins with this adorable illo from The School Lunch (Postum Company, 1928),

and there are recipes for Split Pea, Vegetable, Cream of Tomato and Chicken Noodle Soup. Nothing you haven’t seen before, but we’re talking about all-time classics, remember? And if you’re a budding child chef, working in the kitchen with a grown-up, you’d probably want to make something familiar and satisfying.

I like how the book begins with illustrated tables of cooking tools, explains how to measure ingredients, and then offers some all-important safety tips. The book is very sturdy, spiral bound with thick grease-proof pages (lays flat), and will definitely stand up to repeated use. There’s even a diagram showing the proper way to set a table and blank pages for recording favorite recipes. Definitely makes a nice gift for young foodies and cookbook collectors of all ages.

Thought you might like to read Tina Davis’s lovely intro, “The Best Meal I Ever Ate”:

The best meal I ever ate is one I ate often. It was made by my mother for my school lunch. Most days, I had the same lunch as my classmates, but sometimes my mother would put a hot dog in my thermos, cover it with boiling water, and screw the cap on tight. She spread mustard on a hot dog bun, wrapped it in waxed paper, and put everything in my lunch box. At lunchtime, I opened the thermos, took out the amazingly hot hot dog, and put it on the bun. I was always the envy of everyone around me. Other times she made my sandwiches on pieces of frozen bread so that by the time I ate them, the bread had thawed and was very soft. But these sandwiches weren’t nearly as good or amazing as the hot dog.

Doesn’t that make you just want to hug yourself and eat a grilled cheese sandwich with a bowl of tomato soup — after you’ve eaten a hot dog or two or three?☺

LOOK AND COOK: A Cookbook for Children
by Tina Davis
published by Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2004
Ages 8+, 160 pages
*All recipes kid tested; has received very positive customer reviews

Better get two, just in case ☺. . .

**Really like that big bowl and spoon, yes I do.

friday feast: noshing with maya angelou

June 10, 2011November 2, 2017 ~ jama ~ 1 Comment

This week I’ve been dipping into Maya Angelou’s latest cookbook,
Great Food, All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart (Random House, 2010).

Inspired by her recent weight loss (35 pounds), the book features her favorite time-tested recipes and personal anecdotes. Her guiding philosophy is to frequently eat small portions of really tasty, savory food throughout the day, rather than obsess over counting calories or seeking “diet recipes.”

In the section entitled, “Cooking Vegetarian with Courage I,” she includes a satirical poem she wrote back in 1983, a kind of “self defense” prompted by a visit to Ye Olde Health Food Diner in Los Angeles. Although basically carnivorous, one day she craved broccoli and steamed rice. After placing her order, she took out a pack of cigarettes and was surprised when the waitress immediately chastized her for being a smoker.

She looked around at the pale, pitiful customers in the diner and asked the waitress whether they were newcomers, hoping to “get better.” The waitress assured her they were vegetarians who had been eating there for years, to which Maya replied, “Don’t ever tell anyone that these people have been coming here for years, and are still looking no better than they do now.”

THE HEALTH-FOOD DINER
by Maya Angelou

No sprouted wheat and soya shoots
And Brussels in a cake,
Carrot straw and spinach raw,
(Today, I need a steak).

Not thick brown rice and rice pilau
Or mushrooms creamed on toast,
Turnips mashed and parsnips hashed,
(I’m dreaming of a roast).

Health-food folks around the world
Are thinned by anxious zeal,
They look for help in seafood kelp
(I count on breaded veal).

No smoking signs, raw mustard greens,
Zucchini by the ton,
Uncooked kale and bodies frail
Are sure to make me run

Loins of pork and chicken thighs
And standing rib, so prime,
Pork chops brown and fresh ground round
(I crave them all the time).

Irish stews and boiled corned beef
and hot dogs by the scores,
or any place that saves a space
For smoking carnivores.

Maya’s poem made me smile and remember a time when health-conscious eaters were called “nuts,” vegetarianism was viewed as a hippie fad, and much of what you could find in a health food store was inedible. Happily, things have changed; Maya hasn’t smoked in over 20 years and is “enchanted with vegetables.” As am I. But I still crave a good burger or plate of ribs every now and then . . .

Here’s Maya’s recipe for cornbread, sure to please vegetarians as well as carnivores. She suggests cutting a piece in half horizontally, inserting a slice of Monterey Jack or Swiss cheese, then heating it in a toaster oven for breakfast. Nice change from cereal!

ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT CORN BREAD
(makes 9 squares)

3 T butter
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1-1/2 cups white cornmeal
2 T sugar
1 tsp salt
1 T baking powder
1-1/2 cups plus 2 T milk
1 egg, well beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Melt the butter in an 8-inch square pan.

2. Sift together the flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large bowl.

3. Stir in 1 cup plus 2 T of the milk and the egg, mixing only enough to dampen the cornmeal mixture.

4. Pour the batter into the pan. Pour the remaining 1/2 cup milk over the batter and stir.

5. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until the top is golden and a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

*Adapted from Great Food All Day Long: Cook Splendidly, Eat Smart by Maya Angelou (Random House, 2010)
—————————————————————-

♥ Anastasia Suen is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Picture Book of the Day. Take her a piece of cornbread. Secret password: Seaweed.

**Note: Food photos in this post are not from Maya’s book.

friendly day soup recipe

February 22, 2011October 23, 2017 ~ jama ~ 2 Comments

“Let’s go and see everybody,” said Pooh. “Because when you have been walking in the wind for miles, and you suddenly go into somebody’s house, and he says, ‘Hallo, Pooh, you’re just in time for a little smackerel of something,’ and you are, then it’s what I call a Friendly Day.” ~ A.A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner

Hallo, my windblown, winter-weary but eternally good-looking friends! Are you out of hibernation yet?

Just in case you’re in dire need of a little smackerel of something, I’ve cooked up a special batch of Pea-Bean Alphabet Soup, with a recipe from the new and revised Winnie-the-Pooh Cookbook (Dutton, 2010).

Is anyone familiar with older editions of this cookbook — one with recipes by Katie Stewart (Methuen, 1971) and the other with Virginia Ellison’s recipes (Dutton, 1969)? I have not seen Ellison’s older edition, and wondered whether the Pea-Bean Alphabet Soup recipe was in it, or if it was newly added this time around. Years ago, I purchased the Katie Stewart edition in London; looks like different culinary writers were used for the British and American versions. Cool, but a little confusing, since both books have the exact same cover.

In any case, the new Pooh Cookbook, just released in October 2010, is quite lovely, as it contains full color illustrations from Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, as well as the eight original pen-and-ink drawings by Ernest H. Shephard commissioned by Dutton in 1966. Like its predecessors, the new cookbook is sprinkled throughout with excerpts from both Pooh books and features approximately 60 tasty recipes, all guaranteed to feel yummy in your tummy: Breakfasts, Smackerels, Elevenses & Teas, Provisions for Picnics & Expotitions, Lunches & Suppers, Desserts & Party Recipes, Winter Delights and Honey Sauces.

My Katie Stewart cookbook contains things like Chocolate Rock Cakes, Honey and Raisin Scones, Cottleston Pie, Bread and Butter Pudding and Watercress Sandwiches, etc., but it doesn’t have any soups! So I was tickled pink to find three soups in Ellison’s new book: Tomato, Corn and Shrimp Chowder, and the aforementioned Alphabet Soup, which got my full attention right away. ☺

I cheated a little on the recipe, making it in the crock pot rather than simmering it on the stove, so my finished product probably wasn’t as thick as the stove version. But that’s the beauty of soup — it’s hard to ruin, allows for all kinds of experimentation and variation in ingredients, and always hits the spot. The resident bears had fun adding the alphabet pasta and spelling out the characters’ names. Hope you’ll try this hearty soup sometime; while it’s cooking you can read a Pooh story, and once you’ve had some soup, you’ll be all set, tiddely-pom and tra-la-la, rum-tum-tiddle-um-tum.

PEA-BEAN ALPHABET SOUP
(makes approx. 10 servings)

3 T each of dried beans, such as red, Great Northern, garbanzos, pintos, or black for a total of 15 tablespoons
5 T lentils
4 T split peas, green or yellow
2 quarts water
2 beef bones, marrow or shank, with a little meat on them
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 cups canned tomatoes
6 sprigs parsley, chopped fine, leaves and stems
1/2 cup alphabet noodles
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Cover the beans and peas in water and soak for 3 hours or longer.

2. Drain and rinse with fresh water.

3. In a pot with a tight-fitting lid, cover the beans, peas, and lentils with 2 quarts of water and add the meat bones, onion, and parsley. Bring to a boil.

4. Add the tomatoes, and simmer until the peas disappear and the beans are tender, about 2 hours.

5. During the last 10 minutes of simmering, add the alphabet noodles.

6. Put in plenty of P’s for Pooh and Piglet and the initials or letters of your own name.

7. Remove the bones and any meat that has cooked free of them. Dice the meat and return to the soup.

——————————————————

“Do you know what this is?”
“No,” said Piglet.
“It’s an A.”
“Oh,” said Piglet.
“Not O, A,” said Eeyore severely. “Can’t you hear, or do you think you have more education than Christopher Robin?” ~ The House at Pooh Corner

Oh! My favorite recipe in the whole book is, “A Recipe for Getting Thin.” You’ll have to get the book to see for yourself, says the newly thin soup maker. ☺

♥ my darling, my bento ♥

December 20, 2010November 29, 2017 ~ jama ~ 3 Comments

When the going gets tough, the tough get BENTO!

Seriously. No matter where I am or what I’m doing, just hearing the word, “bento,” makes me happy. It’s childhood, Hawai’i, and the most ono-licious comfort food all lovingly packed in the perfect box.

Who can resist those perfect size portions of rice (or maybe musubi with ume), chicken katsu, beef teriyaki, nishime, and kamaboko? There is something so very reassuring and personal about a little meal just for one, its ingredients carefully chosen for their complementary tastes, textures, and colors.

Continue reading →