Thank You For This Gift

Today an extremely generous neighbor, and fabulous photographer, Diana Lundin,  shared a bounty of fruits and vegetables that she had on hand for a photo shoot.  She kindly shared this gift with me and some other lucky neighbors as she could not use the perishables all herself and she did not want such great food to go to waste.  Here is something special she did with real produce before, check out How to Make a Red Heart.

I hope it is OK to reveal that the wonderful fruits and vegetables came from Melissa's Produce http://www.melissas.com/. I tell you this because this produce was incredible, both in quality and in variety.  There was honeydew, okra, pixie tangerines, chili peppers, baby bok choy, persian cucumbers, spaghetti squash, swiss chard, habanero peppers, yams, mint, chinese long beans, fresh dill, chives, apples, cumquats, ugli fruit, apricots, cabbage, carrots, rutebega, kale, green onions, rutabaga, and so much more!

I was given a variety of these organic delights for my family of food.
Eager to try the fresh ingredients, I quickly formed a dinner around what was in the selection.

The kids had a small taste of the apricot while I prepared the meal. 

Our entire meal came from this practical cornucopia with the exception of the marinara sauce for the spaghetti squash, not pictured.  That came from a party where we won treats for an Oscar related contest, so it was in fact, another gift. 

Our main dish was spaghetti squash cooked by roasting in the oven for 1 hour after piercing the skin with a fork a few times.  When it is done, you scoop out the seeds and then scoop out the strings of squash.  That's it, that is all you have to do.  Spaghetti squash is the secretly easy - special effects wow moment - of food.  This particular squash was big and delicious. The bowl pictured here is from only half of the squash and we even had a bit left over.

 

Next came the Ugli Fruit and the cumquats.  None of us had ever had Ugli Fruit before.  It peels easily like a large "Cutie" and tastes like a combination of citrus.  There was a tough fibrous bit that none of us ate, but the juice was incredible.  My daughter said it was her favorite fruit in the world and was greatly disappointed that we only had one.

The cumquats were tart and tangy and all were enjoyed.

These Kale chips were made with the most beautiful Kale I have ever seen.  Usually I get the Trader Joe's Kale in a bag, but this stuff was a whole different creature.  I selected 5 large leaves, washed them, dried them, sprayed them with olive oil, and seasoned them with 21 Season Salute from TJ's and a bit of salt.  I was very happy with the outcome.  It was crunchy, healthy, tasty, and let's face it, soooo LA.

Lastly, we had the honey dew.  Again, I only served half of it like the squash, because it was so big.  This honeydew was heavy on both the honey and the dew.  It was incredibly sweet and so juicy, had I had a glass under it while I opened it, I could have made myself a honeydew cocktail.

Look closer.  Doesn't it look great?

My daughter had to be reminded to try some of the other food as she was so in love with the honeydew.  She was not wrong, it may have been the best honeydew I have ever had.

It turned out to be a vegan feast, chock full of fabulous flavors, satisfying in every way.  I do not believe it could be healthier.  If I were counting Weight Watchers Points this meal may have counted up to zero.  Does marinara sauce have points?  What fortune!

In short, Diana is terrific for thinking of her neighbors and not letting this treasure go to waste,
Melissa's is terrific for hiring Diana and providing amazing excellent quality natural food, and G-d is terrific for putting my family in the position to receive this abundance.  I thank you all for this gift.

Stickers you can EAT! Food Fun.

 

At the Studio City Farmer's Market this weekend, I discovered My Fruity Faces.  My Fruity Faces are fun edible stickers for food.  They are natural, slightly sweet stickers that are OK to eat and dissolve in your mouth.

Adam Gerber, Partner and Kidxecutive showed us these edible stickers.  They are designed to make fruits and vegetables more fun for kids to eat.  When I suggested they would make great cupcake toppers, Adam stopped me and pointed out that their mission was to encourage healthy eating and to help fight childhood obesity.  He then gave my kids a couple of stickers on a cucumber slice.  They ate it up (so to speak!)

You can find My Fruity Faces at http://www.myfruityfaces.com/

Can I Bake a Cherry Pie?

Sister in Law of Food invited me to a BBQ and asked me to bring along a dessert. I have never made a cherry pie before, but I had about two pounds of lovely fresh cherries and it seemed like a classically good summertime treat.

I broke out several cookbooks to search for a simple answer to my question, "Can I bake a cherry pie?" My choice was easy, I picked Amy Sedaris's
I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence , a highly entertaining and surprisingly effective cookbook by the star of Strangers with Candy.

"Antonia's Cherry Pie" was the name of the recipe, and making the pastry dough was a snap in my kitchen aid. The filling was quite simple as well, except for the pitting of the fresh cherries. Starting with a paring knife, I struggled roughly pitting a few, by cutting them in half and removing the stone as cleanly as I could. It took a lot of time to do this and I figured there must be an easier way. I ended up watching many youtube videos on the subject and came upon this little gem.



I used a new paperclip, washed for safety, and found this method highly superior to the knife. It still took about half an hour to pit the two pounds of cherries, but if you don't own a cherry pitter like the Leifheit Cherry Stoner, the paperclip will work fine. One tip, if you have them, try a few different sizes of paperclips on your cherry until you get the one that's comfortable to work with, but that won't split the cherry.

I used youtube to learn more about crimping and latticing the crust. Unfortunately, I saw the crimping video after I laid out the bottom crust. I had not left enough dough around the edges for good crimping, but I adjusted as much as I could with what was there. It was not so pretty a pie, but in the end, I was thrilled with how it came out.

When I tasted it, I realized, this was the first fresh cherry pie I had ever tasted. All of the cherry pies I have ever eaten, at restaurants, from the grocery store, from the freezer... they all use canned or frozen cherries. Fresh Bing Cherries so far surpass frozen or canned cherries, it is like eating a completely different food. Furthermore, I noticed as I ate the pie, the more whole and complete the cherry was, the better it tasted. The whole cherries would pop in the mouth releasing the juices in a delicious rush. The buttery lattice crust with raw sugar sprinkling was the perfect accompaniment to the darker sweetness of the fresh cherries. All of the hard work pitting the cherries as cleanly as possible turned out to be well worth it.

So to answer the question, I can bake a cherry pie, as long as I have a paperclip handy.

What does Grandson of Food eat?

Okay, okay, Father of Food and Family of Food, I’ll write for the ‘blog, but only if I can include pictures. I like to make pictures, and I like to make food, so maybe I’ll make my own little food photo diary within the Family of Food ‘blog.

“What does Grandson of Food eat at the age of one year?”--you may wonder. I thought this would be an easy way into this ‘blog thing. Fortunately he’s not hard to cook for. He likes the same kinds of simple, fresh foods that we like. Sometimes he eats organic baby food from a jar, as long as it isn’t something trying to be more than it is while being blander than what it’s trying to be. One night we were having pasta and a tomato sauce with a friend, so we offered him some baby food pasta, and he was quickly bored with it. We added a little sauce from our pasta, though, and he ate it right up, so within reason, we don’t worry about “too spicy” anymore.

For breakfast he sometimes has yogurt or we make him pureed fruit like pears or applesauce. He doesn’t like apples that are too tart, but he loves aromatic apples, like Ida Reds or Galas. One night when he was upset and crying, I just gave him an apple to hold, and he was so happy. He would have bit into it, if he had more teeth. I just quarter them and steam them in a pot with a little water for about 10-20 minutes peels, cores, stems and all. The peels give the fruit a little more flavor and a reddish color. Then I put them through this KitchenAid fruit and vegetable strainer that purees the fruit and separates out the stems, seeds, and peels, and that’s it. Nothing could be simpler.

Once I brought Grandson of Food along to watch me make the applesauce, but he was afraid of the cylinder of waste peels and stems coming out the end of the strainer cone, so for now he doesn’t watch.

You could do it without the fancy stand mixer attachment, just using a food mill or a potato ricer, but the KitchenAid saves the tasks of peeling and coring by separating the waste. For larger quantities, they also offer a bigger food tray that slides over the grinder attachment to make things even easier.