Al Dente

Forecasting A Few Food Trends For 2012

While poring over a recent post on the James Beard Foundation Web site predicting which foods will be hot/hot/hot in the coming year, I couldn't help wondering what these pronouncements were based on. Was it a kind of chicken-or-the-egg scenerio?

Does a dish or a culinary technique become big because it's riding some imaginary wave of popularity? Or does the simple act of forecasting spark rising interest in authentic Thai food, smaller portion size and foods enriched with animal blood? (three of the trends coming in 2012, according to this report.) Who cares? It's good fun and I'm going to take a crack at calling a few, too. Most of mine are based on wishful thinking, but I did rightly predict last year that macarons would have their moment in the spotlight. 

1. Curative cocktails. With the shocking embrace of coconut water as the "it" beverage of 2011, I'm hoping to see bartenders take heed and go real retro with some of their concoctions. Because, if you know your liquid history, you'll know that the original drinks were meant to be tonics. I'm not imagining a wheatgrass and rye on the rocks, but something delicious that has some "healthy" ingredients to balance out the booze.

2. The rise of Southern-style layer cakes. While cupcakes and pies are still going strong, it seems only logical that restaurants pastry departments would want to give a fresh twist on the homey discs of cake spread with creamy frosting. Yes, Red Velvet's leading the charge, but here's hoping we'll also see more caramel and coconut layer cakes in the near future. Layer cakes shouldn't just be reserved for birthdays!

3. Better kid's meals at restaurants. Why must pint-sized diners be saddled with limited options like grilled cheese and plain pasta? I'm sure most picky kids don't want to stray from that time-honored formula, but these small customers deserve a little more respect and some cleverly cooked veggies.

Hello Mom, How Do I Make Stir-Fry?

New parents get so excited about those first-year milestones: rolling over, sitting up, taking that wobbly first step. Those memorable moments are often recorded in baby books or on camera.

I will have to dig out that dusty baby book to mark an important date in my daughter's journey to adulthood. She called me last night from her on-campus apartment, asking for cooking advice. (Awww.) She was having a bunch of friends over and was making a stir fry. That was the plan anyway.

She enlisted her buddies to chop veggies and got on the phone with her cooking advisor to get the scoop on how to try those raw ingredients into something tasty. First of all, high fives for going for the gusto in the produce department. While shopping at a co-op that specializes in local and organic veggies, Claire picked up baby bok choy, broccoli, red bell peppers, onions and a sweet potato.

I advised her to stir-fry in stages, cooking the ingredients separately before tossing them all together at the end with seasonings. It took me forever to get to that technique, but it makes for a much crunchier stir-fry if you do not overcrowd the pan.

Now, there was the sticking point. In my quest to help stock her kitchen, we did not include a wok. So she was making this dish in a Lodge Dutch Oven. Not ideal, but it did the trick. Before even hearing a report on how it all worked out, I ordered her a wok. Because even a beginning cook needs to have the right tools. Scratch that. Make that especially a beginning cook needs the right tools.

-- Leslie Kelly

Quesadillas And Nachos Are Fresh, Hot, Healthy, Easy Go-To Meals for Kids

The first post I ever wrote on here was about tacos and how the old greasy recipe from my childhood days has been transformed by many into ones choc full 'o veggies and healthy stuff. We are still rocking that taco recipe once a week because my kids love them and because leftovers provide lunches for a couple days. I've even used it for wining and dining other families, creating a big fixins bar with sides of rice and beans, as well as fresh guacamole and salsa. All kids love to build their own. I urge you try it. Made with ground turkey, they're comparatively lighter and so flavorful.

But I digress. I'm here to talk about the quesadillas and nachos made from the taco leftovers. Trying to create another round of tacos from the leftovers will bring you up short. But you can get several quesadillas or platters of nachos out of what's left, especially if you double the original taco recipe. Quesadillas brown quickly in a hot skillet and are easy to pack for school lunches, work lunches, or pic-nics. I swear, I haven't yet met a kid who wouldn't eat my taco quesadillas. Even two or three hours out of the pan.

Taco Quesadillas: They're easy to make. Just spread some taco meat mixture over a tortilla. I use whole wheat tortillas just to kick it up a notch and get a whole grain into the mouths of my babes. Grate or thinly slice the cheese of your choice over the meat mixture. Spoon on a little salsa if you like, but not too much, because you don't want the quesadillas to be wet and limp. They should be thin and crisp on the outside. To that end, don't spoon too much of anything into them. If they're too thick, they won't hold together and they'll be a mess in kids' hands. So keep the filling light. Top with another tortilla and pop it into a hot oiled skillet. Flip it when the bottom is browned and brown the other side. If they're too thick, they won't flip easily because everything will slop out the sides. BUT, if some cheese does melt out the side and brown on the pan, it makes an extra yummy crunchy bite. I purposely squish some cheese out to create some burnt cheese edge. Mmmmmm.

Slide the quesadilla out of the pan, cool, and cut into wedges. Spread guacamole on it to serve as a "glue" for holding shredded lettuce on top. This way, the lettuce won't roll off when you pick up a wedge. Dip it into salsa or eat it straight. Dice up some jalapenos or whatever your pleasure. The basic quesadilla with meat and cheese satisfies kids, but it's so easy to start with a basic and dress it up for adults.

Microwave Taco Nachos: Spread tortilla chips in a single layer over a microwave-safe plate. Drop bits of leftover taco meat mixture around over the chips. Grate the cheese of your choice on top, and spoon dollops of salsa on top of that. Microwave for 30 seconds and check the cheese. If it's melty to your satisfaction, then eat. Otherwise, microwave it in 30-second increments till it's like you like it. Use basics for kids, or add jalapenos, onions, beans, sour cream or whatever you like for the adults.

* Note to yourselves on tortilla chips: The best ones on Earth are Juanita's. Which you can get delivered to your door via Amazon Fresh. Coincidentally, Juanita's are also the least expensive. I originally bought them for that reason, but have never looked back because they are so good. And whenever I serve them, people ALWAYS compliment them. "Mmmm. These are better than restaurant ones."

--Sweet B

Salad Dippers! (Exclamation Point Must Be Included)

I'm back! Remember me? No? Why not? My posts were so mind-blowingly good that I earned an international fan base, with folks on every continent making their own "Beet Week" T-shirts in my honor, with my recipe and photos of beet pancakes on the back. (If I recall correctly, one reader politely intoned, "Why do these pancakes look like bloody hamburgers?" But my personal-time all favorite was the response to my recipe for chili with beets: "I thought you guys are supposed to be knowlegable. Damn.")

Anyway, that's me. After all this time. No more "knowlegable" but with a third son in tow. His older brothers, Squashcake and Squishpie, are calling him Sugar Bun. Yep, three boys. Can you do a rapid calculation of the number of boxes of cereal to be eaten at each breakfast when they're teens? I can. When it comes to groceries, I'm not ignoring the early warning signs for Lite Wallet Syndrome.

But for now, they're just little boys, 5, 3, and 6 months. So most of the time I can manage to create enough food to portion out to them, though I see real changes in that fact already beginning. The older one comes home from kindergarten famished and eats like a machine until I cut him off an hour before dinner. This is the kid of mine who will eat just about anything you'd think he wouldn't and nothing you'd think he would. No cheese, no ham, but please can I eat all the skins you peeled off the fruit that my younger brother won't eat? He's like that. And his very most favorite thing to eat is a salad with smoked salmon in it. Now you ought to see the faces the younger one can pull when offered salad. No. Can. Do. Salad.

BUT

I found out the 3-year-old will eat "Salad Dippers." See, it's all in the name my friends. And this is supported by real science. What happened was, I had too paltry a number of ingredients for a bona fide salad one evening, so I decided to set out some nice Romaine leaves, a few carrots sliced wee, and the last remnant of a red pepper. I put it all onto a plate in three separate piles and set it in the middle of the table. My big piece de resistance was to set out a tiny container for salad dressing at each setting. When the inevitable whine, "What's for dinnerrrrrrrrrrr" came, I thought quick. "Pasta, meatballs, and... SALAD DIPPERS!" Well this created a stir, let me tell you. Hands were flying, things were getting dipped. We made "Tiny Veggie Wraps" and "Lettuce Burritos," putting the pepper and carrot slivers onto Romaine canoes and floating them in our own dressing. Suddenly, the 5-year-old hollered "He ate a carrot!" and pointed at his brother. I just about fell out. He did eat that carrot. And several more, too. Plus, now he likes EVERYTHING dipped in ranch dressing.

I swear, it's so corny I just about can't stand it. Why does a thing like that work? It shouldn't. Why couldn't I just call it what the fancy French do--cru d'ete? Frankly, I think it's because little boys like verbs. Anyway. Try it out. Might work at your house.

--Sweet B

Baking Kids Love and Halloween Meringues

Good books on cooking with kids are hard to find, and it's even more uncommon to see a "serious" chef take one on. I was so pleased to see pastry chef Cindy Mushet, who won acclaim with last year's Art and Soul of Baking, follow that book up with Baking Kids Love. Written with the kid-input of Mushet's daughter Bella, it's a fun, colorful, approachable--but real--guide. Instead of the usual genre mainstays of arranging fruit in smiley faces or hiding vegetables in brownies, this one brings kids into the real world of the kitchen. They proof yeast, they melt chocolate, they roll out pie crust. It's just the sort of book I wanted to use with my own 7-year-old, so when I heard Cindy and 11-year-old Bella were coming to Seattle on tour, I asked "Baking with kids? Can they bake with my kid?" 

That's how they wound up in my kitchen, pastry bags in hand, making Halloween-style "meringue crispies" with my boy. The treats were meringue cookies stretched out into the shapes of "rattling bones and fingers," decorated with almond fingernails and melted-chocolate rings. My son is a veteran of one-bowl mixes like chocolate chip cookies and banana breads (both of which have a place in the book), but I hadn't ever given him more complicated projects. I was afraid that if he failed, he'd lose some of the pleasure he takes in baking. 

Mushet kept such fears in mind for the book, thinking hard about what to include so that kids (and, not incidentally, parents) could find kitchen success. Butter cakes did not make the cut, for instance, because not every modern-day parent knows how to gauge when the butter and sugar are properly creamed. Instead, there's the pretty "chocolate celebration cake" on the book's cover, which uses oil. Mushet also knows, though, that kids can rise to the expectations of adults; she's seen even 5-year-olds safely wielding knives and whipping up goodies. "Because I believed it, they could do it," she said.

The book started out with the recipes that Cindy and Bella loved to make together, then Bella proved a good sounding board for which gaps to fill and which recipes to leave out. Which recipes did Bella say to chuck? "Whole wheat bread". Sure, she likes it, but "Do I love it?" No. Instead, the book has pretzels and pizza dough, cinnamon rolls and monkey bread.

Baking is such a science, with success riding so much on correct measurements, I had to ask whether it was risky to put the recipes in the imprecise hands of children. Mushet noted that the book stresses the importance of measuring properly and following directions. And she shared this tip from when Bella was very young: She let her youngster measure out each ingredient, but had already pre-measured the precise amounts herself in advance. The correctly filled spoons and cups were the ones that went into the mixing bowl.

And our own baking experiment, with my boy? It was a delight. Cindy showed him how to separate eggs, and he proceeded on his own without a single speck of yolk going into the whites. "You're a natural!" she told him. Bella showed him how to judge the stiffness of the whipped whites, then how to pipe them into scary bones and fingers. He needed no directions on the sprinkled sugars and other decorations -- or, of course, on the eating. He's now the designated meringue chef in the family. We're both brimming with pride. 

Here's the recipe:

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders

I still remember listening to Daniel Pinkwater introduce The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders to Scott Simon on NPR's Weekend Edition some seven years ago. My whole family was hooked.

Jack Prelutsky's poems are delightful, and Petra Mathers illustrations are charming. So many of Prelutsky's poems feature food, it's hard for a foodie to choose a favorite, but here's one of them. 

Peanut Peg and Peanut Pete

Peanut Peg and Peanut Pete,
on a bright Atlanta street,
call in voices loud and clear,
"Peanuts! Get your peanuts here!"

"Peanut cookies, peanut cakes,
peanut butter, peanut shakes,
peanut ices, peanut pies,
peanut sauce, and peanut fries!"

All day long they gaily sell
peanuts still inside the shell,
peanuts salty, peanuts sweet-
Peanut Peg and Peanut Pete.

The Frogs Wore Red Suspenders, Jack Prelutsky, Tien Wah Press, 2002

--Tracy Schneider

The Bake Shop Ghost: A Sweet Book for Kids

My friend Carolyn gave The Bake Shop Ghost to my daughter, but I know Carolyn had me in mind. I love reading about food. And who could resist this description of the sweets made by the best baker in town, Miss Cora Lee Merriweather?

Few looked up from the glass-fronted cases filled with fluffy meringue pies, glistening fruit tarts, flaky strudels, and, most of all, cakes. Layer cakes, sheet cakes, cakes with glazes, cakes with fillings, cakes with frosting finer than Irish lace, chocolate cakes, white cakes, tiny petits fours and towering wedding cakes.

When Cora Lee Merriweather dies, she refuses to leave the bake shop, and her ghost scares off all the new buyers, until Annie Washington, a pastry chef fresh off a cruise ship, arrives. But how Annie and Cora Lee make peace is a delicious tale. And at the very end of the book, author Jacqueline K. Ogburn shares her family's favorite recipe for chocolate layer cake.

The Bake Shop Ghost, Jacqueline K. Ogburn, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005

--Tracy Schneider

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World arrived in the mail for my daughter several years ago, a gift from our foodie friends Zachary and Clark. It was a treat she and I both could share, a tale of food and travel, two of my favorite subjects.

This charming book tells the story of a little girl who decides to make an apple pie. But when she finds the grocery store closed, she does what any enterprising young girl would, packs a suitcase and travels the world to gather the ingredients herself.

She begins her journey at harvest time on a farm in Italy where she gathers semolina wheat. Then she's off to five other countries before she returns home to bake that pie.

While the pie is cooling, the little girl invites friends over to share in the treat. She stops at the grocery store one more time for some vanilla ice to serve with the pie, only to find that the store is closed, still! What will this spunky little girl do? You'll have to find out for yourself.

Enchanting watercolor illustrations accompany the text and fill the pages with sights from this wonderful adventure. Two maps offer an easy-to-understand guide of the voyage, and for those eager for some DIY fun, both a recipe for apple pie and instructions for an apple-tasting party are included.

How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, Marjorie Priceman, Alfred A. Knopf, 1994

--Tracy Schneider

These Ugly Vegetables Make a Mighty Fine Soup

My mother loved grocery shopping. She knew everyone at the grocery store and delighted in any new fruits or vegetables that came through the produce department.

Even in an era where canned goods and frozen foods took center stage, when iceberg was practically the only game in town, my mother was buying escarole and bok choy. I still remember being the first kid in the neighborhood to have eaten kiwi.

So it was in lovely tribute to my mother that her good friend Lois, a few years back, gave my daughter The Ugly Vegetables, (Charlesbridge Publishing, 1999) a picture book by Grace Lin, who, coincidentally, grew up in the same small Upstate New York town as I.

The Ugly Vegetables is the story of a little girl who helps her mother plant a garden. The girl is disappointed that her plot is different from the others on the block and yields ugly vegetables, while up and down the street the neighborhood gardens are filled with beautiful flowers.

But her disappointment disappears the day her mother harvests those "ugly" vegetables and turns them into a delicious soup that brings the whole neighborhood to her door.

All our neighbors were standing at the door holding flowers.

"We noticed you were cooking." Mr. Fitzgerald laughed as held out his flowers. "And we thought maybe you might be interested in a trade!"

W laughed too, and my mother gave them each their own bowl of her special soup.

A recipe for Ugly Vegetable Soup, made with Chinese vegetables such as sheau hwang gua (Chinese cucumber) is included at the end of the book, so you can enjoy a bowl of it too.

--Tracy Schneider

Back to School with Bake Sale Tidbits

Now that school has started, pencils are being sharpened and administrative budgets are being crunched more than ever. Creative fundraising is on everyone's mind, and bake sales are always a hit with adults and kids alike. So, I thought it would be worth reviewing some basics and launching the discussion. 

Admittedly, I haven’t spearheaded many bake sales over the years, but I have contributed cookies and am always looking for sturdy portable kid-friendly treats.  Here are some of my tips for baking popular bake sale goodies:

• Use your tried and true recipes, and whenever possible include brain-friendly ingredients, such as apples, wheat germ, and oatmeal.
• Select recipes that use affordable ingredients. There's no need for expensive chocolate!
• Try to find recipes that use  basic sensible pans,  such as a 9- by 13-pan or an 8-inch square.
• Avoid allergens such as peanuts.
• Target sturdy bars, cookies, and muffins instead of dainty pastries that will sag under pressure.
• Once baked, post a FHB (Family Hold Back) sign. Otherwise you risk losing the product and profit.
• Check out the Bake Sale Sensations section of Hershey’s website.

Have you hosted a Bake Sale and what sold best?

Photo by Melissa A. Trainer

--Melissa A. Trainer