Thanksgiving, Turkey Bento

Today I made the twins a special lunch for their last daycare day before the American Thanksgiving. This bento is inspired by this upcoming holiday. At the bottom of the box there is an Almond Butter and Pumpkin Butter sandwich shaped like a turkey. The eye of the turkey was created with a small dot of frosting. This turkey sits on a bed of apple cinnamon rice cakes and some string cheese. Up in the left corner is some corn, legendarily the food shared by the "Indians" and Pilgrims at the first Thanksgiving. Above the corn is some turkey meat. On the right is a small orange called a "cutie" with a small french fry to look like a pumpkin.

Happy Holiday!

The Carnegie Gorgefest, A Family Tradition

Daughter and Son in Law of Food Went to New York. For us, one of The City's greatest point of interest is the food.

For our fist meal in Manhattan we went to the Carnegie Deli. The Carnegie has long been legend in our Family. Father of Food tells one of his first trip to the restaurant, which sums up what makes this place extraordinary.

When Father of Food first sat down to a table at the Carnegie, he asked the waitress for a Bowl of Soup and a Corned Beef Sandwich. The waitress looks at him and says dryly "Pick One." My father, not a small man, rather a somewhat hefty fellow at the time, a man that could ironically wear the name "Tiny," says "What am I, a kid? Bring me the soup and the sandwich." She did, and he was sorry. Try as he might, he did not finish that soup and sandwich because one soup and sandwich at the Carnegie could feed a hungry family.

Husband of Food and I kept this tale in mind when ordering our lunch. We were hungry so we settled on a Corned Beef Reuben and a side of Fries, for the two of us. Here is the Reuben. The plate is tilted a bit in this shot, so it is difficult to see just how big it is, but you get the idea, right?

We almost made it through the whole sandwich; I struggled to eat about a third of it, but I was not sorry. Now had I ordered the soup...

Apologies

Apologies dear Family of Food Readers. We are lax in posting this week due to travel, illness, and the general craziness of late November in America preparing for the Thanksgiving Holiday.

Even the bentos have gotten really simple. Today's boxes had green beans, hard boiled eggs, small clementine oranges, string cheese, tomatoes, and bunny graham crackers. No pictures.

Please bear with me and hopefully this weekend I will have a chance to post some of more entries from the past couple of weeks.

5000 Years of Culinary Tradition

Pardon my dirty stovetop, but is this not the most ingenious thing you've ever seen?

Father of Food bought a traditional iron wok some time in the early 1970s, which I've had and kept seasoned for the past fifteen, twenty years or so, and for all these years, we've gotten along just fine with the simple metal ring that supports the wok over the fire. But at our new apartment, the ring just doesn't work. If I set the ring on the metal grate and the wok on top, it's just a little too precariously balanced, and if I dispense with the ring, it's even more unstable. This can be pretty disconcerting when you've got a wok full of oil at the smoke point and a toddler running around. If I put the wok on the ring directly on the stovetop without the grate, as I've done with some other rangetops, the wok is too close to the flame and isn't centered properly.



So today I was at one of our local Chinese markets, and for a mere six dollars, I found this heavy iron grate for supporting a wok that replaces the regular grate. That's the regular grate on the back burner, and the wok grate on the front burner. The wok is much more stable on this thing than it ever was on the metal ring, and it's just the right distance from the flame.

Translating the Family of Food

Hello All! I am so excited to announce the addition of the Google Gadget Translate My Page to this website. It will translate our blog into a number of languages. If you are reading this blog in a language other than English, please tell me if it makes sense to you by leaving comments in the comments section at the end of the post. I hope this gadget brings many international readers to The Family of Food.

Happy Reading and Happy Eating!

The Very Hungry Bento Box

This week's Bento Challenge theme was "Bookworm". The point of the contest was to design bentos that celebrated books we love. Since this bento was for my twins (yes, I made two), I picked one of their favorites, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle.
Spoiler Alert*
In the book a hungry caterpillar eats clean through all sorts of food until he wraps himself in a cocoon eventually turning into a beautiful butterfly.

I tried to find many of the foods that are featured in the book as caterpillar hole boring material, a strawberry, a pear, cheese, a sausage, an apple, and finally, a leaf. The best part of making this lunch was putting holes in everything. I used a straw from one of my kid's sippy cups for this. The caterpillar is made of a string cheese wrapped in thin sliced roast beef and baby greens. Green bean slices made up the caterpillar eyes.

VOTE

On this very important day, election day, I urge you to VOTE! Could you possibly be still undecided? Well if you really need a reason to pick, maybe food can sway you one way or the other. There was a Good Morning America Story in March about the major Presidential Candidate's favorite recipes. Apparently Barack Obama makes a Tasty Chili and John McCain makes Ribs with a Dry Rub. McCain's recipe is simple, made with red meat, and is made on a grill. Obama's is more complex, gives more choice of different kinds of meat, and includes toppings. You can decide which is the most tempting to you.

Personally, I like Chili! Father of Food, well, I'm sure he's going for the Ribs.

Here are the recipes from that GMA story (link to it here) reprinted for your convienence:

Obama Family Chili Recipe
1 large onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
Several cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound ground turkey or beef
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
¼ teaspoon ground oregano
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
¼ teaspoon ground basil
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
1 can red kidney beans

Saute onions, green pepper and garlic in olive oil until soft.
Add ground meat and brown.
Combine spices together into a mixture, then add to ground meat.
Add red wine vinegar.
Add tomatoes and let simmer, until tomatoes cook down.
Add kidney beans and cook for a few more minutes.

Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream.




McCain's Ribs

Dry Rub:
1/3 part Garlic Powder
1/3 part Salt
1/3 part Pepper
3 lemons

Turn the grill down to low temperature.

Mix together garlic powder, salt and pepper. Then cover both sides of the ribs with that.

Grill ribs, bone side down, for 90 percent of the time. It will take about an hour to an hour and a half. Squeeze the lemon on it frequently, because that makes it taste a lot better.