My kid ate coleslaw – COLESLAW

It’s a really strage word isn’t it? COLESLAW.
Is that even how you spell it? God it looks weird. Doesn’t it look weird?

Huh.

We belonged to a CSA this summer. Next to the tent where we pick up our veggies, they set up a little food table to show us how to make yummy things out of our yummy, likely too expensive, organic, local veggies!

We stopped and on offer were radish sandwiches and coleslaw. I laughed maniacally in my head when the super nice food lady sweetly asked my children if they would like to try some. To my surprise they said yes. To my utter surprise they both like the radish sandwiches. My son, who won’t eat any normal kid foods like chicken nuggets, grilled cheees, or pasta. None of it. That son? He LOVED the coleslaw. Really?! Coleslaw?

Now it wasn’t your normal supermarket coleslaw. It wasn’t mayo based. It was an olive oil/lemon/dill concoction. Who knew? My husband and I don’t like regular coleslaw either. We all ate this for dinner. Enjoy!

Quantities are at your own discretion. For a dinner side dish I used

1/2 Napa cabbage chopped
1 medium Kholrabi julienned

Special Sauce (that’s what the boy calls it and now so do we)
Juice of two lemons
1/2 cup Olive Oli
2 cloves garlic
Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tbsp fresh Dill chopped






I use carrot when I don’t have kholrabi or in addition to when I’m feeling crazy.

I use oregano or basil and put it on pasta – he will eat PASTA if there is special sauce on it!

Special Sauce FTW!

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World Food Day

Today is World Food Day.

When you sit down to eat every day, do you think about how the meal you’re eating is the product of a complex, and broken, global food system? This World Food Day, Oxfam America is teaming up with a host of allies across the US and around the globe. We have a simple yet compelling idea—to host a World Food Day dinner on October 16th or sometime this month that fosters a conversation about where your food comes from, who cultivates it, and how you can take personal actions that will make the food system more just and sustainable.

~ Oxfam America website

Now we’re not hosting a hoity toity dinner party. We’re sitting down as a family and talking about our food. We do a fair amount of that anyway, but this night it will be all about the GROW Method in honor of World Food Day.

I have three kids under 6. I feel like I can still make sense of the 5 steps of the Grow Method so that they can understand and start our family moving even faster in a direction that makes our food system more sustainable. Even if that means just our own family food system to start. It starts at home.

Today we start with the first principle. Reducing waste. Tonight at dinner I’ll talk to them about how I either make enough food that I know will be eaten, or make more on purpose for leftovers. We eat what we’re given and don’t leave food on the plate simply because. I also try to use all of the parts of the food I’m cooking limting the amount of waste. What I don’t use gets composted and given back to the earth. We don’t go to restaurants often with our little terrors, but when we do we always take the leftovers home.

Here’s a super informative slideshow on the GROW Method:

 

Here’s a handy guide for your family to help you have a great discussion at dinner. Or maybe at your hoity toity dinner party. Go on – I dare you. PLEASE talk about the Grow Method at your next dinner party. It starts with you, and me, talking about it and then doing it. One billion people shouldn’t go to bed hungry. Do something.
This post (and my sharing on social media) was inspired by my participation in a compensated program initiated by Women Online/The Mission List to raise awareness about Oxfam America’s GROW Method. All commentary and opinions are, of course, my own.

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An UNREAL party

Unfortunately, well actually fortunately, not the kind of “unreal” party I had in my 20’s. Not like “Dude that part was unreal.” No, not like that at all. This was an Unreal party with some lady bloggers drinking wine.

With candy.

Lots of candy.


Unreal is a new candy company trying to prove that you can Unjunk your candy. They make candy without GMO’s, artificial preservatives, hydrogenated oils or fats, high fructose corn syrup or artificial flavors or colors. They use real cane sugar, real milk, and more cacao than the leading brands.

They taste great! The favorite at the party was the Unreal 5 aka: The Milky Way. And therein lies part of the problem that we all saw for Unreal going forward. The Names.

All of my guests were calling the candy by their couterparts’ names. M & M, Snickers etc. No one ever said “Hey I really love that Unreal 77.” They said they liked the Reese’s. I don’t know how you fix that or work around it, but I do know that the best place to start is with a candy that tastes as good or better than the original, without all the junk.

I think that Unreal is on it’s way.

 

Unreal


You can buy Unreal at a bunch of places lie CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens and soon at Target and many more places.

 

This post (and my sharing on social media) was inspired by my participation in a compensated program by Unreal. All commentary and opinions are, of course, my own.

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A groovy CSA kinda love.

Three years ago we talked about joining a CSA. Last year I researched a whole bunch of them. This year we finally joined one.

My kids have eaten kale, cabbage, kohlrabi, radishes, and tomatoes. Stuff they’ve never eaten before.  My husband and I have enjoyed fresh, tasty, local food, every week of the summer. We couldn’t be happier. We are really looking forward to the rest of the season.

We made a little movie to show them how much we love them. And if it sways you to join a CSA, well, my work here is done.

 

 

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Eating on the farm. Radish Sandwiches.

My family and I recently joined a CSA. It’s lovely. We go to the farm to get our vegetables, pick some of our own, and basically help my children understand that THIS is where food comes from.

To help those of us that are kale impaired they often have someone there with some samples of simple recipes. I walked by the table with the coleslaw and radish sandwich samples to see what our bounty was. Partly because I don’t like either coleslaw or radishes and partly because I was eager to see what else there was.

The kids, they lingered. I started to gather our veggies keeping them in the corner of my eye. They came over to ask me if they could have some of the little sandwiches. The clincher here was that they were made on baguettes. My kids could live on fruit, cheese, and baguettes – they are quite continental. Sure go ahead.

They ate four.

Each.

Did I mention already that they had radishes on them? Of course, of course, it’s in the title of the post. You know. But seriously, RADISHES!

So naturally, as you do when your kid likes something that they’ve never had before, I ran to the store to get bread. We had them for dinner as an appetizer.

I called my mother to tell her all about THE RADISHES and she says, “That’s so funny. Your Dad always tells that story about the radish sandwiches.”

What story about radish sandwiches?

“OMG are you kidding me? You know the story!” And she tells me the story calling my father to the phone at the same time time to tell me the same story she just told me. Of course I remember it now. It was recounted to me on many occasions.

When my Dad was a boy he worked on a farm. I heard this story many times during my childhood, especially when I didn’t want to do my chores.

“When I was your age I was working on a farm! Working. I’m asking you to pick up your room for God’s sake.” It was much louder than you’re reading it right there, but you get the idea. He worked when he was a kid. He used to tell us about how when they took a break from the fields his mother would give them radish sandwiches. Basically Italian bread and radishes, but when you call it a radish sandwich it just sounds better.

To make it sound even better I think I’m going to call it… Ravenello Panino.






Simple. Yummy. Nana approved.
Buon appetito.

Oh and that cole slaw I said I didn’t like? That, my friends, will be our next recipe. YUM!
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Chef Ming Tsai at Macy’s Boston

 

“Macy’s Culinary Council And KitchenAid are hitting the road to cook with some of the hottest chefs across the country. Together, they’ll combine their culinary talents and prepare some of their signature dishes using locally sourced ingredients.”

Last week I got to go to Macy’s Downtown Boston and meet Ming Tsai. Chef Tsai is a part of the Macy’s Culinary Council. He is best known locally as the owner and executive chef at Blue Ginger in Wellesley and nationally as the host and executive producer of the Emmy-nominated public television cooking show Simply Ming, currently in its ninth season.

This is my first attempt at being a food blogger! Food is going to big part of the new blog, but I was feeling a bit out of my element so I brought along a legit foodie blogger, Umommy. She was so nice to accompany me, copy of his new book in hand to be signed (I told you she was legit).

Chef Tsai was much funnier than I expected, admittedly I have never watched his show. I did see him on Top Chef but didn’t remember the non stop one liners :-) He made us two dishes. The first was shrimp, mango and local herb Summer rolls. I didn’t try because I do NOT love shrimp. Sharon tried it and said it was amazing. The next was a Rice Noodle Salad and wok stir fry vegetables that was super yum.  All the while he was telling us stories and giving us tips. I learned how to peel and cut ginger, how to cook crispy tofu, and how to use tongs to squeeze a lime.

That last one blew my mind, serioulsy, he’s a freakin’ genius.

 

 Macy’s, the largest retail brand of Macy’s, Inc., delivers fashion and affordable luxury to customers at more than 800 locations in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. Macy’s stores and macys.com offer distinctive assortments including the most desired family of exclusive and fashion brands for him, her and home.  Macy’s Culinary Council is a national culinary authority comprising some of the nation’s leading culinary masters. Launched in 2003, MCC’s team of distinguished chefs serves to inspire the way Macy’s customers shop, cook and eat at home. The chefs are both ambassadors and instructors, providing expert culinary advice and leading cooking demonstrations at Macy’s stores, with the aim of teaching customers how to cook and shop like a master chef.

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