This Week’s Menu
A Love Story
We went out last night. Saw that movie, The Artist. The wife loved it; I thought it silly. But it did make me want to tell a story. May I? I Googled “recipe books” and got 249 million responses—one more example of the overwhelming complexity of nutrition. Nosing around I came across three characters, who I must introduce before the story telling begins:
Jennifer Reese is a Marin County mom, writer, and teacher of cooking. During a period of unemployment, to save money, she tried her hand at making things at home you usually buy. This led to her 2011 book, Make Bread, Buy Butter. You get the point—baking bread is worth the effort but churning your own butter is too much hassle. Actually, we’ve been working through such decisions on this blog, like the benefit of making your own breakfast cereal.
Thomas Keller has a world-class restaurant (three Michelin stars) in the Napa Valley called The French Laundry (the building originally contained a laundry operated by a French family). The French Laundry may be the best restaurant in the U.S.; everything is very, very special. Besides being a celebrity chef, Keller writes cookbooks for really fancy food.
Ree Drummond lives on a ranch, a big ranch, lots of cattle and horses, in Oklahoma. She calls herself the accidental country girl, but she loves all the ranch stuff, and writes a popular blog, The Pioneer Woman. She also writes cookbooks about ranch food. Basic food, nothing fancy.
So now the story. Ms Reese, the Marin County mom, writes an article for Slate magazine where she prepares two meals for her family. The first time she uses Keller’s fancy cookbook; it was a lot of work, took three days. The second time she uses Drummond’s basic pioneer cookbook; much easier. We’re talking about smoked paprika vs Lawry’s seasoned salt. Same meal each time—fried chicken, salad, biscuits, and pineapple upside-down cake for dessert—cooked two ways, fancy and basic.
The outcome? Though Keller’s fancy food tasted better, the family preferred the Pioneer Woman’s down-home basic grub. This is a Marin County family, mind you. When a family gathers around the dinner table in a daily ritual as old as time, as Reese put it, “good enough is good enough.”
There’s an important lesson here. What makes food good is the love that mom cooks into it. Home cooking puts the love in food. Straining to make it fancier can get in the way of mom’s river of love. Bottom line: Cook healthy food, keep it simple, and don’t forget the love.
This Week’s Menu
Our pantry dictated this week’s menu: Beside leftover bean, lentil and ham soup, I bought broccoli, cauliflower, green onions and cabbage from the Farmers’ Market. The beautiful wife picked up a pineapple that was ripening.
Monday
- Skip’s Chicken Pineapple Stir-fry (see recipe in prior post).
- Long grain whole rice.
Tuesday
- Cauliflower with cheese sauce.
- Broccoli salad.
- Roasted sweet potato fries.
Wednesday
- Bean, lentil, and ham soup (fortunately, we had soup left over from last week).
- Cornbread.
Thursday
- Crab salad
- Leftover cornbread.
Friday
- We don’t plan Friday dinners. Last week we ate out, Mexican. This week one of Clare’s friends brought over enchiladas. So we made a simple salad and enjoyed.
Please comment: The adventure this week was learning to cook stir-fry. Next week we have a cabbage so maybe we’ll feature a coleslaw recipe. Does anyone have one to share? Any menu requests or suggestions?
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 10:26PM | by Skip Hellewell | 16 Comments | Share Article | Email Article
Reader Comments (16)
We used a basic recipe on Martha Stewart's website for a cabbage we got recently.. You wedge the cabbage, brush it with evoo and sprinkle salt and pepper, and roast it in the oven for about 30 minutes. It was surprisingly simple but incredibly delicious. My five year old, who will only eat carrots and cucumbers actually ate a decent helping.
This is the salad my family expects every time I bring home a head of cabbage.
Cabbage Crunch Salad
1 head cabbage finely shredded
4 green onions chopped, tops included
2 pkgs. chicken flavored ramen noodles, well broken
1/2 C. sunflower seeds
Dressing
1/2 C. Canola oil
4 T. sugar
6 T. vinegar
2 t. salt
1 t. pepper
1 packet ramen flavoring
Break noodles and put into large bowl. Chop cabbage and onions and add to noodles. Combine dressing ingedients in bottle and shake well until sugar dissolves. Pour over salad, toss well and refidgerate over night or at least 6 hours. Add sunflower seeds just before serving and toss. Serves many.
This is a great side or veggie dish, and with the addition of 2 cubed chicken breasts, makes a hearty meal.
PS. We are hosting a Women's Conference here in Albuquerque next Sat. and using your blog as the basis for a 'Making Healthy Meal Changes' class. Thanks so much!
Jennifer also writes a very fun blog, tipsybaker.com, where she writes of her adventures of cooking through her humongous cookbook collection.
On that blog she highlighted a Heather Swanson recipe for cabbage, potatoes, and white beans that was delicious.
As to cole slaw--my favorite is blue cheese cole slaw but I am a blue cheese fanatic so that's not a big stretch for me. It's also not the healthiest! But it's good.
I am a big fan of your blog, but this post caught me by surprise. I know you were recapping Jennifer's article, but Ree Drummond's recipes are FAR from healthy. Lots of processed foods as ingredients, very few "whole" foods at all. I would not consider her to be an example of eating healthy nor a promoter of nutritious food.
Oh! Thank you, Skip, for reminding me to keep it simple, and, most importantly, to add the LOVE. I think it's the secret ingredient I've been forgetting.
Most of the stuff I see on The Pioneer Woman strikes me as special occasion food. Lots of frying, cream, butter, cheese. It is simple and straight forward but often, wowza calorie explosion. She also does some healthier things too like salads. But I think her personality is delightful so I keep reading her blog.
As far as the cabbage, I hate mayo so I prefer coleslaw with a vinaigrette dressing. Have any recipes for that?
Anna and Liene, totally agree with you that Drummond, though a charming character, hasn't caught on to healthy eating. Partly true for Chef Keller also. Even more, it's remarkably uncommon to find a food blog that really gets healthy cuisine. For that matter, nearly all cookbooks don't get it either. Recently did an analysis of a well known cookbook and found a small fraction of recipes to be healthy. So bad nutrition is common to our culture. We really have a big job in front of us. We're very grateful for the small minority who do get it. Best to you.
Here's my mother-in-laws mayo free coleslaw recipe. It's fabulous!
http://ncbrownfamilyblog.blogspot.com/2011/05/fresh-friday-coleslaw.html
The best way to eat it is with some simple baked white fish, sprinkled with lime juice, wrapped in a fresh tortilla with a little coleslaw and cilantro vinaigrette.
I love the comparison. I think keeping it simple in most aspects of life is good advice. I have found my family eats the simpler meals better too.
Good menu.
I think cabbage is really yummy chopped fresh and stuffed inside fish tacos.
Lemonade coleslaw from my mother's sister-in-law's colleague's wife...
Shred 1 purple cabbage, add a carrot if you'd like more color.
Mix with dressing: mayo, lemon juice, sugar
Sooooo yummy! You can go as heavy or as light on the mayo or sugar as you'd like.
I really enjoy your blog but have not commented before. I just made the discovery that I could use leftover coleslaw in a stir fry or fried rice. Sounds strange, but it works for me as I usually end up throwing away uneaten coleslaw.
Because of Bountiful Baskets we've been learning about brussel sprouts. Anyone have good recipes for that? The other day my husband sauteed them in butter with some garlic. The trick was to cook them slowly. That was the best yet. I'll be trying another recipe tonight.
I know that this is a bit off topic, but as I was planning out my weekly menu for next week and considering shopping, my husband and I got into a discussion and I immediately thought of this blog and wondered what opinions others may have.
My 2 stepchildren have been eating gluten free for a couple of years now. Their mother took them in for a blood test after some stomach aches and other symptoms, and though neither test was completely conclusive, she put them on a gluten free diet to err on the side of caution. My husband and I have honored that in the interest of keeping the kids as healthy as possible, thus the kids are eating gluten free in both homes. I have also experienced similar symptoms and noticed some changes when I eat gluten free. So, in our home, we generally eat gluten free.
My husband is not exactly on board as far as this gluten free diet goes. His feeling is that the WoW specifies eating wheat (among other grains), the church mass produces wheat to send out all over the world to feed people (among other grains) and he feels that with prayer and faith, it would be something that a person could overcome. We have both seen many illnesses cured and sicknesses overcome with faith and prayer, so why not Celiac Disease? He also feels that putting so much emphasis on what we're eating (whether it be learning about a new diet, eating gluten free, organic food, local produce, whatever "trend" it may be) can just become a distraction from our true purpose on Earth. I am somewhat torn on the subject. I agree that if I were to spend the majority of my time researching food, it would be a distraction. That isn't the case now, but when the kids were beginning the gluten free diet I spent a lot of time learning about it and reading about it, so-I can see his point with that. But, I also feel that as a mother, it is my duty to learn what is healthy for our bodies and teach my children healthy eating habits. My husband feels that people should just use common sense ("We all know too much sugar is bad for us, we all know we should be eating more veggies") and not be concerned with the details, that our bodies will be blessed if we will just spend more time in prayer, or fasting or scripture study. I just wondered if anyone else had thoughts about this.
Lisa, I don't know if you will see this post, but I just came across this thread. Did you come to a conclusion about this dilemma? I am having a similar one and wondered if you had received any earthly or spiritual guidance on it. Thanks - Rachel