That Sam I am..... Do we like Green Eggs and Ham?

I love watching Paula Deen's cooking shows. She makes great looking food and she's always very entertaining to watch. I have never made any of her recipes though. I think it's the "start off with 2 sticks of butter" that deters me. A few weeks ago though she was cooking with some children. I can't remember if they were neice and nephew - or grandchildren. Either way...

She decided to make a fun breakfast which included green eggs and ham. I had thought about making green eggs and ham before with the kids. But, I would have added both blue and yellow food colouring. Paula pointed out the obviouis. That the eggs already had yellow in them - so all you had to do was add blue and watch them change colour!

Well, that was common sense. Although, I find out for me anyway, common sense is only common sense after someone's pointed it out to me.

Both kids really got into mixing up the eggs and watching them turn green. It was a great way to get them both involved. Unfortunately when they were done, Jacob thought that in fact he does not like Green Eggs and (no) ham. Jenna gobbled them up. I ate them and they tasted like normal eggs, but visually it was kind of weird to eat green eggs.

Cooking with her....

Thanksgiving has come and gone. I am up at 6:30am on Black Friday glad that I am not compelled to go shopping with the masses and am instead watching Tinkerbell with her.

My little girl cooked her heart out yesterday (and the day before for that matter). She has taken this cooking thing very seriously lately and decided that this year - at the age of 5 - that Thanksgiving was going to be her thing.

Wednesday night we made buns. Now, buns are pretty common in our house - but these were extra special, yummy buns. The kind with milk, butter and sugar. The kind we can only have a couple of times a year. Making them from scratch, and without a microwave, meant a lot of pots going on the stove making sure the milk and butter were the right temperature. We even went the extra step and painted egg on the top of the buns before they went into the oven (by "we" I mean Jenna with a bit of my supervising).

And, OH MY, they were good!

Tuesday I had made a loaf of French bread and let it sit out for the day. We cut it up and using her Grandma's recipe turned it into stuffing to sit on the counter over night to be ready to stick in the bird.

She was so excited by her bun success she woke up Thanksgiving morning ready to make the meal!

We started the day making pastry dough. The last time I did this was when I was in Brownies and had to make a pie for my cooking badge. For whatever reason I chose cherry pie which was kind of a scaring experience (pitting too many cherries). But, I've bought many pie shells here and all of them were a disappointment - we decided to make our own. It actually was not all that hard - except for the part that was - hard that is. I put the ball of dough in the fridge to get hard - the recipe said to put it in a Ziploc bag which was pure genius. The idea is that then you can take it out of the fridge and roll it out in the bag - thereby not making a huge mess and having it all fall apart. I guess I was not fully awake as I pressed down on the dough with the same firmness I would have used for bread dough. My marble rolling pin came crashing down on my middle finger and as I was holding it up (!) I taught the poor kids some very un-thankful words. Sigh....

Brad stepped in and saved the day by rolling it out. The bag worked really well. Jenna whipped together Tim's pie recipe and poured it into the pie plate. Alvero taught her how to crack eggs (on the counter) and she's by far the best egg cracker in the house.

I have learned so much about really enjoying cooking from Jenna. If you had asked me if I would have cooked a Thanksgiving meal that was lead by a 5 year old I would have never believed it. It brings so much joy to the kitchen. And brings the whole family together!

It was nice too because we used recipes from home - which helped us miss them less.

A biscotti kind of day

I started off with the intention of making apple crisp in the slowcooker. I have some excellent apples that I bought at Whole Foods that are from Vermont. While I would rather go apple picking not only for the experience but to support our local apple farmers I have discovered two disappointing things here. One, it is very, very expensive to go apple picking here. Two, the apples south of Vermont do not taste nearly as good. I think the best apples I have ever eaten come from either Quebec or Vermont. I wonder if it's the cold?


When we lived in Quebec, my favourite fall experience was going to Arthur's Orchard near the small southern town of Rockburn. Not only did we get to pick awesome apples (for a great price), but they had a small cafe where they sold homemade pies, chili, split pea soup (oh how I miss French split pea soup). It was quite the experience.


Anyway, back to my point. I have some good apples in the fruit bowl. However the picky eaters here (myself included) have decided that each one has a small bruise somewhere. They've been sitting on the counter making sad apple faces at me for a couple of days wanting me to do something with them. Today I remembered that I used to make the best apple crisp in the slow cooker. Again, this was in Quebec, so I also had a steady supply of maple sugar (mmmmmmm) and I used that along with the brown sugar.


I stared at the apples, and really, truly was ready to start working on them. But, then the part of my brain that is ruled by chocolate took over and demanded biscotti.

Jenna and I pounded out a batch of biscotti. Double chocolate, walnut biscotti to be specific.












And then because I somehow gave birth to a boy who does not like chocolate - I made homemade kettle korn popcorn.

Now, I must get back to cooking healthy again before none of my clothes fit!

The "F" word...

I have to admit, I am a reality TV addict. I also love watching food TV. So, when you put the two together I am one happy girl.

But, I'm starting to have issues with Gordon Ramsay.

I used to watch Kitchen Nightmares, I have watched Master Chef and two seasons of Hell's Kitchen. I liked watching the chefs improve in Master Chef, I liked it when the restaurants turned around in Kitchen Nightmares. I even found the swears and temper tantrums in Hell's Kitchen funny (mostly) in the last season (the first one I watched).

This season of Hell's Kitchen though is bothering me. I have watched every week so far, but each week I am getting more disturbed. I am at the point where I think I may quit watching. But, first I want to have my say about Gordon Ramsay and his antics.

Only 2 weeks into this season aside from using the *f* word more times than I can count and yelling at them to "pi$$ off" all the time - he called one of the chefs - Raj - a "fat ass". This seemed to me to be not only a personal attack but a completely unnecessary one. I remember thinking about this for a while after watching this episode and wondering why it was ok - not only for Gordon Ramsay to say that, but for the network to air that. Perhaps they feel it is ok to have someone be attacked because of their size, but not race, color, religion?

Last week Vinny from Queens got it from Gordon Ramsay. Vinny had the audacity to put out old risotto and was told by chef Ramsay to "shut your fat East Coast mouth you little f*#k".

What?

To make it worse (or I suppose better for TV ratings) it was the 100th service in Hell's Kitchen and family night. So, the restaurant was filled with kids. Not just other people's children, but Gordon Ramsay's own children!

What did he say to his kids? "Listen closely while daddy swears at the people working for him. Maybe some day you can grow up to be just like me!"

I was left after this episode wondering why these contestants put up with this. I get that being a great chef is their dream. I get that Gordon Ramsay is a great chef and he's giving them the opportunity to run a great restaurant and that opportunities like that are very few and far between. But at the cost of your self respect?

I put myself in a similar position when I was younger and would have given anything to keep my riding career going. I had a trainer who was terrible to me. He used to yell at me all the time - swear at me - often punch me in the arm *hard*. I kept with it for a while because I was showing and doing well, and teaching a lot of lessons and making pretty good money. Finally the cost was no longer worth the pay out. I wish I had left it sooner, but I get why some people would put up with it.

Either that or they are all actors and could care less.

The thing is - Gordon Ramsay is not an actor. Or rather, even if he is acting, he's still known as Gordon Ramsay - real person. Could you imagine if Jamie Oliver spoke to someone like that? I'd fall over backwards.

I have watched other shows where I could tell Gordon Ramsay really loves food and loves finding where it comes from. From him I have learned the importance of "respecting the ingredient". I think I could learn a lot from him.

But, as of now I'm kind of disgusted by him. It's hard to learn from someone you don't respect.

It tastes like chicken....

I have heard that phrase often.

Question: "What does it taste like?"

Answer: "It tastes like chicken."

I have heard this used to describe rabbit, frog legs, turtle, snake and probably some other meats that are not coming to me.

As an aside, the only one of the meats listed I have actually tried is frog legs - they kind of did taste like chicken. I tried them once when we were living in Quebec, and they seemed to be in the grocery store all the time. I probably won't have them again after watching my cousin make his frog legs do the can can across the table at The Grizzly House on one of our Christmas trips home. The image was a bit more than I needed - hilarious though!

So, why do we use this phrase to describe something that one would think would not be similar at all? I mean - why on earth would a snake and a chicken taste the same? I did some searching around on the internet and what I surmised was that it is used because of the bland taste of chicken.

Chicken has a bland taste? I guess I had not really thought about it before. I have issues with chicken. I have strong, serious issues with the way most chickens are raised. I actually went for a few years where I refused to buy/eat chicken at all. I try now and buy all my chicken and turkey from the Ekonk Turkey Hill Farm, although I believe soon my dairy farm Baldwin Brook Farm will be selling their chickens for meat (we now get our eggs from them - I love not only the way they taste, but that I get to see how the chickens live).

Almost a year ago I bought an 8lb chicken from the Turkey farm and put it in the freezer to save for a feast. Well, we went to friends for Thanksgiving and then home for Christmas and we never seemed to have the big feast we were planning. Sunday we pulled it out of the freezer and popped it into the oven. We did absolutely nothing to it besides add a bit of water and turn the oven on.

It was amazing. If you asked me what it tasted like, I would not be able to use the phrase "it tastes like chicken" and have you understand it. Sadly, that is exactly what it did. It tasted like chicken. It had a taste - and a good one at that. It also became an awesome broth that I will now freeze and use for some great winter soups.

An 8lb free range chicken. A chicken that ran around outside and lived. It probably tasted because those muscles actually got developed, giving the meat some taste? Or that it ate something besides corn? Or that it saw the sun? Any way I look at it, it made a heck of a good meal.

The price value also was pretty impressive. It was $30 for the 8lb chicken. My family of 4 could probably get at least 5 meals from that, plus I have enough chicken broth for probably 3 of the vat sized soups I make (each soup would probably have 20 mug size servings).

It does not taste like chicken!

Whole Foods

I had misunderstood the Whole Foods Salad bar. I thought it was only schools that were very close to a Whole Food's store would be eligible. It turns out any school within a 50 mile radius could apply. I need to figure out how to apply for Frenchtown and Eldridge! Barring Jamie Oliver being there, this is the next best thing!

I think back to my childhood. Chef Boy-ar-dee (?) was a special treat. I have to say I grew up thinking I didn't' like ravioli because it was so nasty. I don't remember having chicken nuggets, we did have fish sticks though. Again only once in a while as special. Well, I thought it was special. In hindsight it was probably mom being tired and pulling them out of the freezer. It is A LOT of work to make food every day. Thank goodness I am obsessed with food. I am either eating, thinking about what I just ate, or planning my next meal.

I also count my blessings that I can open the fridge or pantry or freezer and find food. We take that for granted sometimes!

And while I'm there - what will we have for supper tonight? Last night Brad made awesome sushi. How do you top that? We are almost out of our Montreal Bagels. What will we have for breakfast? It must be time for a road trip.....

And... they're back at it! School that is...

After a long, hot, fun summer - the kids are back at school. Grade 4 and Kindergarten. I swore I was going to be the mom at the bus stop with a bottle of champagne when they were both finally in school. Instead, I was the embarassing mom sitting on the curb sobbing into my lap. My daughter - with all the innocent wisdom of a 5 year old - told me "Mom, I have to go to school - it's my time." And - you know what? - she's right!

So, it's back to trying to figure out school lunches. It's a constant challange for me to figure this out. My goal for this year is to expand what they're eating for lunch. All of us need to be more adventurous.

Speaking of adventurous, we took the kids out for Indian food a week or so ago. They had never had it, and I had only had it one time before. We went to Rasoi in Pawtucket. We were accompained by a man from Brad's work who was here from India. He said it was the closest to the food he would get at home. Something he emphasized (which I loved) was that all the food was made fresh. Sad that that should be such a big deal. He guided us through the menu and I was so proud of the kids. They tried everything. I knew there were some things they didn't like - and I was equally proud that they didn't make horrible faces and complain loudly. They just swallowed quickly and then said "no thank-you" to more. But they tried it. It made me realize I need to make them try more new things at home too.

On another note, one of my all time favorite places to shop is Whole Foods. I liken it to being in a Disney movie with the birds chirping around me and deer running circles in glee. Now I have even more reason to love them as they are starting a project to put salad bars in schools. If there was a Whole Foods salad bar in my kids school I would be there as often as I could to join them for lunch! What an awesome idea! I hope it's a success.

Have a happy Tuesday!

Cooking with my kids

I am lucky because both of my kids like to cook with me. When I am chilled and relaxed I always try to encourage it. My problem occurs when I either feel that there is some sort of time crunch (sometimes a place to go, sometimes I just want to get it done with and move on to the next thing). When I am relaxed and thinking about it, I realize there's really no where I need to go so badly that I need to be stressed and either telling them "next time" they can cook with me - or rushing them along so none of us enjoy it.

Maybe at breakfast there's a time crunch - but really, neither kid is fully hatched out by breakfast time so there's not a lot of offers. I don't "work" (by that I mean, I work really, really hard - but I am a stay at home mom so there's no going to the office etc), so it's not like I have to be somewhere by a certain time. Does it matter if it takes us 5, 10, 40 minutes longer to do something if we've all done it together?

Although I have not blogged about food much this summer, we sure have done our fair share of eating it. Much of this I will blog about as things slow down in the fall. We had a summer full of house guests, beaching, going to the pool and having a great time in the sun. One of the people who visited us was Alvero from Anis et Marjolaine in St. Lazare, Quebec where we lived for 2 years. Aside from having a lot of fun with him and Ashley, we ate wonderful food and learned a lot about food and cooking while we were at it. It was a great treat for Brad and I, but one thing that really stuck with me was a morning when Alvero made us the best omelettes. Eggs with sauteed shallots and spinach added, then some goat cheese to finish it off. He made (as Jenna would say) puny omelettes, so you got a good whack of flavour in every bite.

Jenna was very interested in what Alvero was doing. What struck me as so great was how he just stopped what he was doing and got her to bring over a chair and taught her how to do everything he was doing. Didn't DO it for her, taught her how to do it. She learned how to crack eggs on the counter and now thinks that's the best thing in the world! (her boring mommy cracks them on the side of a bowl).

(ps. notice my poor dog hoping so badly something will drop for her :-) )

That stuck with me - then the past couple of days the weather has been kind of gross (rainy for the first time in forever - can't complain too much) and I have started watching Emirl Green on TV. I honestly didn't like Emirl too much before - I found the BAM! stuff too loud. But Emirl Green is great. He's a very quiet, nice guy on this show. He's either out in gardens or cooking in Whole Foods and showing people how to work with organic, whole, natural foods. One of his shows, he went through Whole Foods and walked up to kids and asked them if they cooked with their parents and what they cooked. I thought to myself - man, I hope that my kids remember cooking with me as being a fun time.

Sunday we were hanging around the house and I decided it was a good day to have pizza for lunch. I made the pizza dough by myself because the kids were off doing something else. But, they helped me roll the dough out, then put all their own toppings on. They enjoyed this meal more than most pizza days I think because they were so involved in their food.

They loved their pizza and we froze some and they have been eating it since!

Sandwich in a can? Really?

Yes, it seems to be true. As if squeeze cheese wasn't bad enough - or for that matter the Lunchables - now kids can have a sandwich in a can. Or, if you will, a Candwich. Seriously check it out. Granted, the product seems to have been put on the shelf for a while (and that's probably OK since it seems to have an extremely long shelf life), but there are still plans to have it out and for sale soon. Hopefully in time for school (insert sarcasm here).

I was horrified enough a few years ago when I discovered that you could buy frozen, pre-made grilled cheese sandwiches. Aren't they supposed to be hot? Wouldn't it be about as much work to take that processed, frozen sandwich out of the freezer and heat it up as it would be to slice some cheese, put it on bread and stick it in the toaster oven? I don't get it.

If companies are making this "food" there's obviously a market for it. That makes me sad. I'm pretty sure I can put peanut butter and jam on 2 slices of bread quite well myself if that's what I'm giving my kid for lunch.

Food in a can??? What do you think?

A sad state: Could Tiny Rhode Island Become a School Lunch Model?

Could Tiny Rhode Island Become a School Lunch Model?

I found this blog as I was searching for opinions / solutions to our school lunch issue. Needless to say I found it nothing less than shocking. So, the pictures I posted yesterday reflect the new, exciting nutrition standards that Rhode Island put in place in 2009? And, if that's the case, how bad was the food before?

I think I will contact the person who wrote this blog and try and find out some more information about how to find out if this was actually implemented. I wonder how things went so wrong.

THIS is precisely why we so desperately need a Food Revolution

My son's third grade class is having a poetry tea this Friday. Parents were to sign up to bring some sort of snack or drink. It's my boy's birthday that day, so I volunteered to bring cupcakes. I got back a letter from the class mom saying that cupcakes would not pass the state's nutritional guidelines. Once I thought about that, I was completely on board. Cupcakes are fun for a birthday, but more appropriate as an after dinner treat with our family. I decided to make mini pizzas. And by make, I meant make the dough, make a sauce, put on real cheese etc. I was told as long as the portions were small it should be OK.

Another option given was to bring veggies and dip. But, it was emphasized it had to be low fat dip. The more I research, the less I am a fan of many low fat things. They put so much more sugar in low fat options to try and make it taste good (check out your yogurt sometime!). I have found a good low fat yogurt ranch dressing that I use at home though, so I will bring that. It didn't seem to be worth the trouble to home make something that would be rejected at the door.

Not too long after this, the class mother had to send out a mass email to the parents saying there were issues with the menu choices we had made. Someone had volunteered to make banana bread. This could not guarantee the serving size, so mini muffins was suggested (which is acceptable), or it was recommended they just pick up some from the store. Having read many of the ingredients in store bought food, I have a really hard time believing that store bought banana bread with all it's preservatives could possibly be a healthier choice -serving size or not!

Chai tea and hot chocolate had been another offer by a parent. This was not going to work either. It was suggested they either stick with 100% fruit juice (fine), or one of the approved dairy products. Since there's as much sugar in a flavored milk as there is in a soda, I fail to see how one that was pre-made and store bought could be a healthier choice? I make hot cocoa for my daughter all the time. With REAL cocoa and just a pinch of sugar. She loves it.

Quiche was also going to be an issue. It should pass the guidelines as long as it was cut into small slices. Kids are only allowed 1.5 oz of cheese and 1 hard boiled egg per serving.

I found this very frustrating. I felt like there was much more concern with the size of the servings than with the quality of the food. I limit sugar, but my kids have pretty much free range on healthy food when they are hungry - with a big emphasis on fruits and vegetables. I try and keep the fruit bowl full on the counter, and keep a plate of fresh veggies out as well so they can grab something quickly if they are hungry.

Today I went to my son's school to have lunch with him and something inside me went SNAP when I saw what the kids were eating.

This I *believe* is 2 pancakes, an "egg", some sort of hash brown? (I looked and looked at the hash brown thing-y and could never make heads or tails of it - scary) and some sort of syrup. Not maple syrup I can be pretty darn sure. At least this kid chose white milk

This is pizza, again that weird hash brown thing-y, some sort of dipping sauce (that I am pretty sure is just ketchup), yogurt and chocolate milk - that says itself that it is udderly hilarious. If it wasn't so sad, it would be udderly hilarious that they serve this to our children.

After all the guidelines we had to follow to have out tea - this is what our kids are eating in school? Seriously???? I find it sickening!

I wandered over to the "kitchen" in the cafeteria, and it was pretty much like a scene from early days of Jamie Oliver's show. There were big trays of reheated food - I can only assume it came frozen. Aside from the unrecognizable hash brown thing-y I also found the "egg" weird. How hard is it to make an egg? But, this looked like no egg I have ever made. And, I know what eggs look like. I drive to a farm and get them the day they are picked out of the chicken coup. You know, at the same time I pick up my milk the day it was milked out of the cow... Amazingly, it's food that looks like food, and I can trace it to it's source.

I wish I had taken a picture of the cafeteria serving it's "food", but by the time I got there, most of the food had been sold. Which means our children ate this "food" and then were expected to go back to their classrooms and think. How can their brains and bodies grow properly with this as their nutrition?

When I was substitute teaching I started noticing the kids who had behavior issues in the morning. It didn't take me too long to notice the pattern. These same kids would pull out their lunch - a bag of chips and a coke - and chow down. No wonder they had behavior issues! How can you think with that as fuel? There was a HUGE corelation between what the kids ate and how they behaved.

Let's face it people, it's time we do something about this. I am writing to the school to make a complaint and then the superintendent after that. This MUST change!

Friendly's - not so Friendly in my opinion

I am sitting having my morning coffee, watching the news. There was just a piece on the obesity crisis in America and how there need to be stricter guidelines to fight this crisis. Actually, as I write this they are doing another piece on the preservatives in our store bought food and how deadly it is for our bodies. Once again they are informing watchers how unhealthy high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated fats are for us. It is so difficult to buy anything here that does not have one of those two ingredients. Even ketchup and cranberry sauce in regular stores contain these ingredients. Information to me that is obvious, but when I read the ingredients in many things in the store, it is very scary what is being sold out there. Thank goodness I have Whole Foods to shop at.
The other day I was watching TV and actually sat and watched a series of commercials (generally I try and watch recorded shows so I don't have to waste even more time on these advertisements). On came a commercial for a local restaurant - Friendly's. I have never eaten there, but they are a burger joint kind of place - salads and other things too. Here is a picture of their newest burger they are advertising:



It's called the Ultimate Cheeseburger Melt, and ultimate it is. Yes, you are looking at the picture properly. There are TWO grilled cheese sandwiches, with a big hamburger stuck in the middle of it.
I had to look up the nutritional information for this baby.
Total Calories 1500
Fat Calories 870
Total Fat (g) 97
Saturated Fat (g) 38
Cholesterol (mg) 180
Sodium (mg) 2090
Total Carbohydrates(g) 101
Dietary Fiber (g) 9
Sugar (g) 4
Protein (g) 54

Considering I need between 1800 - 2000 calories a day - how can this EVER be a good choice? I mean, apart from the fact that it looks vile, and I find it an overwhelming amount of food! But, I can only assume that because it is on the menu that people are ordering it.
And then we wonder why there is an obesity crisis? Seriously?
Not that I can really afford to eat out anyway (but the cost of eating out is a discussion for another day), but this makes me never want to eat out again! I mean, not only is it obscenely high in calories, but it does not even look like it could be tasty.
Blech!

I am still really proud that my son has banned himself from school food. All it took was one time watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and it changed the way he looked at food. Way to go Jacob (my "little" baby who will be turning 9 on Friday...)

Biscotti

A month or so ago I bought a wonderful cookbook while visiting Boston. It's called The North End Italian Cookbook and so far every recipe I have made has been quite the success.

Although I try and deny it, I have a nasty sweet tooth. I have managed to curb it a bit, and have trained myself (mostly) to portion control. But, every day around 1:00 pm I have the need for a cup of tea and something sweet. I was buying organic chocolate bars and portioning off little pieces. But, I really am trying to make more of my own food. So, when I came across the recipe for Chocolate Walnut Biscotti, I knew I had to give this a try.

Before my sister returned home we spent an afternoon making Biscotti. We made a batch of ginger Biscotti, and a batch of cinnamon toast Biscotti. It took us a bit to figure out how to properly cut the Biscotti for the final trip to the oven, and decided we needed to try and make it thinner. The pieces that I made for the Chocolate Walnut Biscotti were about perfect. I made the loaves narrower and longer so the pieces ended up being smaller. See, I can all myself a piece - but if you give me a bigger piece I'll eat that!

We took the Biscotti over to a friend's house for dinner that night (along with some Ricotta Cookies I made from the same recipe book). They were delicious - but as with all Biscotti, they got better as they aged. It's been a week and they're delightful. Such a great, easy treat. I am going to expand my repertoire and try some different flavors. It has greatly enhanced my 1:00 pm tea drinking ritual.

... And now I have to change my life

Jacob's words have stuck with me. I told Jacob there was nothing I could do to change the food situation in his school. I felt because I'm not Jamie Oliver and don't have his fame and the TV cameras behind me I could not have the impact he has had. Jacob wanted to know why. Out of the mouths of babes...

Last night we were out and we were talking about Jamie Oliver. It was mentioned by another parent that they could not give their kids at home food of the nutritional value and quality that the schools give their kids. Really??? French Toast with Wonder Bread (not sure what the bread is, but it's white and has no nutritional value) covered with corn syrup instead of maple syrup? Or, nachos with processed fake cheese melted on top? What are people eating?

I am going to Jacob's school this week to have lunch with him some day. I want to see exactly what is being served in his school. The good thing is he does not want to eat food served at school anymore. The problem I've noticed this week - being vacation week - is he has not made the relation that all processed food is bad for him. He would live on Coke and crap pizza if he could. I have to make him realize that all that food is bad for him.

Why has it become ok for us to eat this way? How do I change it? I wish Jamie would come to EG and get people here fired up. I am tired of being the "weird wacky" mom who drives to CT to get milk and buys meat direct from the farmer. That should be normal.

It Changed My Life Mom...

I have been a "Naked Chef" fan since the "Naked Chef" days. I loved watching Jamie Oliver get excited about cooking his food for his friends. Years went by, we moved to Quebec and I noticed all of my friends had Jamie Oliver books lining their cookbook shelves. I used to sit at my friend Ginny's kitchen table and look through his books. What I really liked was that the recipes are like stories. It was not
1. Do blah, blah
2. do blah, blah
and so on.

Recipes start with a story about how he first tasted this dish, or thought of it, and then would go on to describe to you how to make it. Like there was someone standing next to you telling you how to do it. In my opinion, anyone who tells you to measure olive oil by the "glug" is awesome.

This renewed my interest in Jamie Oliver and I googled him and found his website. This was when I found that he was changing school lunches in schools in England. I was so happy he was doing that, and I so wondered how I could do the same. Jacob was in preschool at the time and so I had control over what he was eating, but school time was rapidly approaching and I was concerned about what they were feeding in the schools. At this time also, I was on weight watchers and lost about 50 pounds and really started taking interest in eating as much local, organic good food as I could. This was pretty easy in Quebec where people take eating good food seriously. Not a lot of quantity, but quality was a must.

Time goes on and we move to Rhode Island. I really like Rhode Island, but I have found that food wise there is (in general, not everywhere) a lot more emphasis on quantity not quality. Ads on tv for lots of restauraunts show how much you get for your dollar value, not how good the food is.

I love to cook, but the house we lived in when we first moved here had a terrible kitchen and I was not doing as much cooking as I used to. We have sinced moved again and I have an awesome kitchen and I'm doing so much more cooking. I bake our bread, and make as many meals as I can from scratch.

One area I have been struggling with with Jacob is school lunches. The lunches here are terrible. Nachos, French toast, chicken nuggets. No nutritional value, processed foods. I was in the school at 10:30 one morning and there was nothing going on in the kitchen. If they were doing anything besides reheating food, they should have been cooking lunch!

Jacob's friends buy lunch. Do they buy every day? I don't know. According to Jacob they do - but it's more in the argument - Mom, everyone buys lunch. I want to too. So, I was letting him buy one day a week. And then I would get lazy and let him buy other days becausee we didn't have lunch stuff, or I just didn't feel like it, or Jacob wanted to buy.

I was so excited when I saw the Food Revolution coming to TV. Jacob and I (and Brad and Jenna too) watched it as a family. Jacob watched Jamie Oliver have the truck back up and dump out all the fat that goes through the school, and watched him grind up a whole chicken to make chicken nuggets. Jacob looked at me and Brad and said "I am never buying lunch at school again". And he has stuck to it. One time he forgot his lunch at home and he bought and was very upset about it. I told him next time just call me and I'll bring your lunch and he was so grateful. He seriously does not want to eat school food again.

We were at the dinner table the other day and Jacob (who is only 8) said "That show changed my life. Now I really look at the food I eat". It was one of the proudest moments of my life.

I work hard to try and have the kids (and Brad and I) appreciate our food. I drive 45 minutes each way to CT to a dairy farm to buy raw milk. From these people we bought half a pig which was raised on their farm, we buy eggs from their chickens who Jenna and I go and watch run around outside!! We bought part of a side of beef from a local RI farmer - one time we went to the butcher and participated in that, and this last time we went to the farm to pick it up and we got to see how the cows live. I try so hard to have us all know where our food comes from.

I was really sad to see this Friday is the last episode of the Food Revolution. I don't think the Food Revolution has really started yet. I am starting my own food revolution!!!