Better Late than Never, or How I Return to the Dormant Food Blog

I’m a month late and a dollar short, but it seems, somehow, important to note that I started this blog a full ten years ago. Yes, I haven’t posted here in more than three years, but, I have continued to write and occasionally post on my website, Healthier Kitchen, in the interim. 

It seems like a milestone and an opportunity for a little reflection. Having trained as a lawyer first, and having begun some food related work and training in the aughts, 2009 represents when I first saw myself as a someone working in food. Not quite professional at first, as I never monetized my blog, but when I look back at my posts, I have to give myself a little credit that I was very much ahead of the curve on the “healthier” trend and my posts about food policy still make sense today. 

Part of me feels frustrated that in ten years, I still haven’t found a way to properly make a living from my passion about healthier eating and food policy, but I continue to teach and write and advocate in as many ways as I can. I’m proud of the volunteer work that I do with Crossroads Community Food Networkand the Montgomery County Food Council, and feel that I’m helping my local community in some small way. I keep learning more about the food system, both on the local and national level, and I keep trying to stretch and acquire new skills outside my comfort zone.

Perhaps the dissatisfaction I feel is that I had high hopes of turning what I was doing into a permanent position with an organization working in this space. That has proven to be depressingly hard to do, whether because of a lack of an appropriate degree, my age, or just a general failure for my skill set to match up well with an existing organization. I keep trying though, and networking, and freelancing in the meantime.

The freelance life agrees with me on many levels: I like the flexibility in schedule, I like the variety of different tasks and issues I work on, and I enjoy having time to continue to experiment with my own recipe development. However, I miss working as part of a team, which is one of the best parts about volunteering with not-for-profits.  It keeps me working with others who are also passionate about helping others and improving our local food system. 

In the near future, I plan to write about a new book, Pressure Cooker, which has nothing to do with the Instant Pot and everything to do with how hard it is to make dinner every evening. I have a lot of thoughts, have engaged with one of the authors online, and hope to pull my ideas together soon.

If anyone is still reading this blog (truly, I have no idea if the email notices are still active at this point), please let me know what you’d like to hear, and what you think I could be writing about that would be helpful in feeding yourself and your loved ones. 

And, please weigh in on headnotes above recipes, communal cooking ideas, and if you think that the idea of people cooking at home is passed its expiration date. I look forward to continued conversations on all these issues.

In the meantime, if you're so inclined, head over to the Jewish Food Experience and you can see my most recent piece for them about a favorite family dish for Passover...and some feelings. 

Stepping Away

As any of you know who've actually read my blog from the beginning, I've sometimes been erratic in my posting schedule. I'd have a really inspired stretch where I had so much to share and then a fallow period in which I was either too busy to actually jot down what I was cooking or simply had nothing new to tell you.

That last part was always something I grappled with, as posting only when the spirit strikes doesn't make for much blog traction. I participated in a webinar last week, in which Molly Wizenberg of Orangette blog was one of the participants. She said something that resonated for me, which was that she doesn't blog often any more, but that when she does, she wants to really give her readers something, or it's not worth taking their time. I guess in my own small way, I've tried to do that too. There's so much out there, recipes, food photos, opinions, that if you bother to come here for a few minutes I want you to gain something, maybe a recipe that you can use at home, some food for thought about healthier eating, our food system or hunger, maybe some support.

In order to best do this in the near future, I'll mostly be on Instagram (see link at right) with some ideas, as well as on my Healthier Kitchen Facebook page (please like if you haven't already!), and my website: www.healthier.kitchen.  Things will be a bit abridged, but hopefully still helpful. This blog remains online right here, with its index to recipes at right, so please continue to make use of it! I might also post here now and then, to share a really wonderful recipe or something truly important in the food world. And, I'll still be available for private and group cooking classes and coaching.

But, as of now, I am officially a part-time "lead chef" in a wonderful little program called Young Chefs, which provides after school cooking classes in some middle schools in Montgomery County. Young Chefs works as a provider for Excel Beyond the Bell, a public private partnership which provides after hours meals and enriching courses for youth in schools that exceed a certain percentage of students receiving free and reduced rate meals, at no cost to families.

I volunteered with this program last winter and spring and am now stepping up to a new role. This summer, I've taken a good bit of youth development training in preparation, and have been gathering supplies, recipes, and ideas. I'd love to hear any of your ideas and recipes for 11 - 14 year olds!

The training was thought provoking, hearkening back to Ted and Maddy's wonderful Lowell School days, where child centered and empowerment were not just words but were mindfully woven into every aspect of the environment. I hope I can bring just a shade of that to my classes.

Dessert!

I know I'm not much for providing dessert recipes. I figure there are many sources for that. But lately, we've been experimenting with a few "healthier" ideas that I thought I'd share with you.

The first is from Elizabeth at Sienna Wellness and is an approximation of a crumble. Elizabeth calls it Raw Peach Blackberry Cobbler. It was perfect both for dessert and for breakfast the next morning with yogurt. To me, it approximates the feel of a cobbler without all the butter and sugar (just a little maple syrup sweetener). To you, it might be a bowl of fruit with a little topping, but either way, it works! Right now, when peaches are drippy fresh and exploding, this is amazing. In fall, I could see doing this with apples and cranberries or persimmons.

Yesterday, Maddy tried out the Sweet Potato Brownies from Deliciously Ella. These are also gluten free and vegan but, I have to admit, less appealing for me than for her. She loves chocolate and a healthier approximation of a brownie is more interesting to her. She, on the other hand, disdains potato chips, so, to each her own.

I found these good, but tasting more of date and sweet potato than brownie. I think I'd add in some dark chocolate chips so that there is more chocolate flavor. The texture is nice and gooey, fudgy, so that parts works really well.

photo: Madeleine Bazil

Sugar Redux

Last year, around the time the movie Fed Up was released, I wrote about sugar in our diets. After talking to someone yesterday, whom I haven't seen in many, many years and who had a heart attack not long ago, about diet and health, and sugar, I went back to those posts and reread them. They are still relevant so I thought it might be a good time to link back to them.

Just last week the Washington Post editorial board both applauded the FDA's recent outlawing of artificial trans fat, and suggested that a sugar tax could further help turn around the unhealthy eating habits of many Americans.

If you'd like to read my thoughts about sugar in our diets, click here and here.

Mussels for An Easy Summertime Dinner

There was a piece in yesterday’s New York Times Opinion section by Paul Greenberg who wrote American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood. In it, he suggests that eating eating farmed oysters and mussels is both good for us and the environment. According to Greenberg, mussels filter gallons of water which helps fish and because mussels are filled with Omega-3’s (like tuna and salmon), eating them helps us. 

But the main reasons to eat mussels are that they taste great, are relatively inexpensive as seafood goes, and couldn’t be easier to prepare. I had made some mussels the night before reading Greenberg’s piece just because the omnivorous portion of the family loves them and on a hot summer day, it’s a great meal that doesn’t heat up the kitchen and goes well with a summery glass of dry rose.  

This is barely even a recipe. I bought three pounds of mussels which could serve 4 as an entree with some side dishes with a little heft, or six as an appetizer, but which Paul and I polished off alone with just a little broccoli steamed alongside and a piece of really good bread.

I washed the mussels in a couple of changes of cool water and checked to see if any had wiry “beards” which needed to be pulled off. With farmed mussels, few have beards and even if you do find some, they are little. Fresh, live mussels should all close up in the cool water. Discard the ones that don't. This batch did give off some dirt and sand, so I rinsed them well. 

After that, the absolutely easiest method, is to saute a half an onion, or a large shallot, or even a few sliced spring onions (which is what I used this time) in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil in a pan or pot large enough to hold the mussels as well, over medium heat for a few minutes and then add a minced clove or two of garlic and about a pinch of salt and a quarter teaspoon hot pepper (I like Aleppo). After about another two minutes, raise the heat and add about 1 cup of white or rose wine and let it gently boil for a few minutes to burn off the alcohol. Add in the cleaned mussels, lower the heat back to medium, make sure the liquid is still bubbling a little, cover the pot and let the liquid steam the mussels for about 10 minutes. 

If you want to get fancier you could add some celery in with the onion, or some diced tomatoes with the garlic. Herbs are always a great addition, and a few tablespoons of cream could go in once the alcohol in the wine has burned off. But these are just flourishes that while lovely, are not necessary if you want to keep things simple. 

I steamed some broccoli alongside, but you could easily throw it in the same pot with the mussels during the last five minutes or so of the cooking. Just keep the pieces of broccoli on the large size so they're easy to fish out when serving. 

Check inside the pot after about 10 minutes and make sure the shells have opened and that the mussels have plumped and solidified. At this point, if they have opened, toss the ones that stayed sealed tight. 

To serve, use a slotted spoon to place some of the mussels (and broccoli if you’ve cooked it all together) in individual bowls, then, when you can get at the broth and vegetables at the bottom, ladle some over each bowl. I reserved a little of the thinly sliced tops of the spring onion to toss on top before serving. Parsley would also work well here. 

Serve with great bread for dipping in the sauce.