can you say yum?
i made these up for dad’s birthday. the theory goes the olives get infused with the vermouth and fresh rosemary so that all you have to do is plop one into gin or vodka for an instant martini. i’d say that was a happy birthday, shaken not stirred.
ok i know it’s not a real bento box but each morning when i make it i like to think it is my own version of a bento box. it might seem ironic that the lunch lady brings her lunch but can you blame me? i know what we make and where it comes from and the only thing i have deemed eatable is making my own veggie sub. so each morning i make my greek bento box: pine nut roasted humus, olives with feta and some multi-grain crackers. the first day i took it i knew those ladies would say “what is that?!” and i’m proud to say at least one at the table knew what humus was and had eaten it. ruth when she was in the military was at a potluck and a middle eastern guy brought humus. she made everyone try it to be polite and low and behold she wound up liking it!
opa!
or in less fancy terms pasta with cream sauce and broccoli.
the draper cake
how could we not do a mad men themed dinner in honor of the 5th season kicking off?! we no longer have downton abbey to obsess over, so our sunday nights need some sort of fictional drama. do you want to know what i think every time i watch an episode…….”i need to be more like roger sterling” any way here is how our mad men night progressed…………………
cocktail hour of old fashions
shockingly dad had to look this recipe up, seems so un-art farris of him
dad created the menu of popular 60s food including chicken cordon bleu, caesar salad, and mom’s contribution of some lipton’s rice and of course we cut into that draper cake. my creation of a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting.
now that's dinner
for the last couple of months i have been pairing my books i’m reading with themed appropriate music. yes i am that much of a dork. it started in knox when i was reading harry potter at a Scottish bar, aka my own little leaky cauldron. then the hobbit was paired with the chieftains, a 17th century pirate book with mozart, a book about paris and john singer sargent to edith piaf and now a 19th century biography on the most influential woman in the middle east, gertrude bell paired with a pandora station of african/middle eastern music.
all i can say is this has made me crave curry, curry, lamb, curry, hummus, and more curry. for meatless monday i made some curried quinoa that had craisins and almonds in it and topped it with a couple of poached eggs. along with some milk and honey bread, which is actually an ancient middle eastern dish. (don’t ask where i got it because there is a long food story behind that as well) yum to the taste buds!
RECIPE: milk & honey bread
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
3 Tbspn honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
olive oil
*mash honey, feta, & salt with a fork, gradually add in flour till a dough forms. knead dough until smooth. cover and leave dough at room temp for 20 minutes. divide dough into 12 portions, roll each portion until 3 inches in diameter. lightly oil pan with olive oil, over medium heat. cook dough patties until golden brown, about 1 minute per side.
now that's dinner
for the last couple of months i have been pairing my books i’m reading with themed appropriate music. yes i am that much of a dork. it started in knox when i was reading harry potter at a Scottish bar, aka my own little leaky cauldron. then the hobbit was paired with the chieftains, a 17th century pirate book with mozart, a book about paris and john singer sargent to edith piaf and now a 19th century biography on the most influential woman in the middle east, gertrude bell paired with a pandora station of african/middle eastern music.
all i can say is this has made me crave curry, curry, lamb, curry, hummus, and more curry. for meatless monday i made some curried quinoa that had craisins and almonds in it and topped it with a couple of poached eggs. along with some milk and honey bread, which is actually an ancient middle eastern dish. (don’t ask where i got it because there is a long food story behind that as well) yum to the taste buds!
RECIPE: milk & honey bread
4 oz feta cheese, crumbled
3 Tbspn honey
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup flour
olive oil
*mash honey, feta, & salt with a fork, gradually add in flour till a dough forms. knead dough until smooth. cover and leave dough at room temp for 20 minutes. divide dough into 12 portions, roll each portion until 3 inches in diameter. lightly oil pan with olive oil, over medium heat. cook dough patties until golden brown, about 1 minute per side.
this 70 degree weather has made my taste buds start to think summer is here. for meatless monday i whipped up one of my favorite summer dishes guacamole salad along with some morning star vegetarian buffalo wings and i also couldn’t pass up on some of my whole-wheat beer bread. let summer begin!!!
RECIPE: Guacamole Salad
ING:
1 pinte grape tomatoes, halved
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 can black beans, drained
1/2 cup red onion, chopped
2 jalapeno peppers, minced
1/2 tsp grated lime zest
1/4 cup lime juice (2 lime)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2-3 avocados pitted, peeled and diced
* whisk together oil, lime juice, and seasonings, mix all ingredients together, toss with dressing.
i will say dad cooked a fabulous dinner of steak, baked potatoes, broccoli and of course cole slaw but the only pick of this truly yummy meal i got was…….
now that's a steak
why because while dad was cooking up a storm, mom and i became heavily distracted by the 1960s “raunchy” comedy “lover come back.” a classic doris day pic of her refusing to give it up till she’s got a ring on her finger plot. something about doris day really irks me perhaps it was the fact she sang songs like “how much is that doggie in the window” or her i’m a tease but too whole-some to know what a tease is characters. but i will give her this, paired up with the oh so gay rock hudson, these comedies are highly cleaver and i’m sure quite scandalous for the era. even dad wanted to know the out come as we sat down to eat.
shopping in bulk starts to make cooking a little bit more creative. eyeing my giant mound of oranges from sam’s club i began wondering what else i could do with them. well first of a old fashion/whiskey sour-esque drink of sorts.
that just makes the cookin process a little bit better
and then came the concept for an olive oil based pasta sauce that included lots of freshly squeezed orange juice and some grated orange zest. pressed garlic, onions, tomatoes, green olives, and kidney beans all sauté up in olive oil, spices and lots and lots of citrus. tossed the final sauce up in some whole-wheat angel hair pasta sprinkled some feta and i must admit some greatness was had. those sweet oranges balanced out the bitter saltiness of the olives and garlic perfectly!
it was probably too much whiskey but i believe the shear romantic appeal of it was just to strong, yet when i was plotting my move back to springfield a job that i applied for was to be a lunch lady. more specifically the technical term is nutrition services representative, boooyhah! did you know that this field is actually having a hiring crisis thanks to mrs obama and jamie olivier who are demanding kids actually know what the hell an apple is.
i dreamed of partaking in this food revolution in the classroom, bonding with the grandmas in the kitchen and living one of my passions…feeding people. springfield has suddenly gone gun-ho. by the end of this school year all elementary and middle school students will be offered a free breakfast delivered to them in the classroom and elementary schools get 2 snacks of fruits or veggies a day. i proudly claimed my 2 hairnets and was ready for the challenge. yes i knew i would probably be repulsed by what is deemed food in the government subsidized world “if you pick low-fat Doritos, they count as your vegetable! (made of corn)”, but what i was not expecting to feel is absolutely defeated.
i am a girl who declares “bring it on!” i will climb shelves, rather than ask for help for getting a high item, i specifically bought a pink helmet so when i pass boys on my fixed gear bike they know its a girl who just sped by, and one of my proudest moments in a professional kitchen was being called an “arrogant bitch.” so what is so defeating about being a lunch lady?
the logistic impossibility of assembling 645 breakfasts in 30 minutes, delivering 100 catering chests in 5 minutes to 3 floors without the use of an elevator, hauling catering racks through parking lots in rain, wind, etc. and having them overturn on the uneven terrain, returning 15 minutes later to pick up all leftover food and then dumping 60% of your work into the trash, whole classrooms won’t have a single kid eat a breakfast, and then starting the process all over again for the next day. i’m the youngest in the kitchen, the majority of the women are at least 30-40 years older. everyday one of them looks at me and says “this is going to kill me” and what i hate to admit back to them is that some days i feel the exact same way. although this is the most physical and emotionally challenging thing i have ever done, i am trying damn hard to figure out how to make it my bitch.
Hearty Eaters 