COOKBOOK FROM CHILDREN

 All you parents, here is a cookbook put together by Michelle Obama and others with the winning recipes submitted. Over 1,200 recipes were submitted and these are the winners. It's interesting to look at and might help you with inspiring your children.

http://www.letsmove.gov/sites/letsmove.gov/files/pdfs/healthy-lunch-challenge-cookbook.pdf

I would have a children's cooking class if I had a space to do so. We could make some of these recipes. If anyone wants to donate their kitchen for an afternoon, call Cooking on the River and we will see what we can do.

SUMMER OR AUTUMN CAPONATA

 

Caponata is more familiar as a dish made with eggplant. Here eggplant is used instead of the eggplant  try substituting butternut squash in the autumn. Using different seasonal vegetables keeps the tastebuds awake and surprised. This is simply a mouth-watering vegetable medley soaked in flavor. Taste at the finish to get the right balance of sweet and sour. Good as a starter with a crusty bread, or as a side dish.

2  red onions, peeled, quartered and sliced

½ - 3⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 can tomato puree or peeled and seeded whole tomatoes

1⁄2 cup dry red wine

1⁄2 cup sugar

2 butternut squash, or 2 eggplants, ½-1 inch cubes

3/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1 head celery, stalks separated and peeled, large dice

1⁄2 pound pitted green olives

1-2 tablespoons capers, preferably the salted capers, well rinsed

1⁄2 cup parsley, chopped

1⁄4-1/2 cup pine nuts

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Saute, quartered and sliced onion in olive oil in a large thick bottomed saucepan. Add the tomatoes or tomato puree, wine and sugar. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, and stir occasionally.

Peel, seed and dice the squash or eggplant.  I left the peel on the eggplant.

Stir the vinegar into the saucepan, stir and scrape up from the bottom of the pan.

Add the eggplant or squash. Season with salt and pepper.  Stir to coat the squash with the sauce.

Blanch the diced celery (it is really important to peel the celery) in boiling water then drain and dip into ice water. Add to the mixture. 
Simmer for about 30 minutes or until the squash is fork tender. The eggplant should be soft and silky and cooked through.

Chop the olives, or just break them up with with your fingers. Stir in the capers, parsley, olives, and pine nuts for final five minutes. Taste and correct the seasoning. Add more vinegar or sugar if necessary. If you taste this immediately after it is made the vinegar will be the top note, if you let it rest for a day or two it will smooth out and loose it's bite.

 

Let the mixture sit and cool off the stove. This Caponata is better the next day. 
Remove from the saucepan and place in a jar or covered serving containers.

Serve room temperature with an additional flurry of salt and pepper, a drizzle of very good 
quality extra virgin olive oil, maybe some torn and tossed genoa basil leaves and several 
slices of crusty bread.

EGGPLANT CAPONATA

JULIA CHILD'S 100th BIRTH DAY

In honor of Julia Child's birth day here is a menu for an Informal Dinner from her cookbook, Julia Child & Company:

Beautiful ingredients prepared with loving care but little effort: this simple menu is an example of the wisdom and sane good taste of civilized cookery.

Menu

Asparagus Tips in Puff Pastry, Lemon butter Sauce

Casserole Roast of Veal with Carrots and Celery Hearts

Wok Saute of Grated Zucchini and Fresh Spinach

Floating Island

Suggested wines

A light white wine with the first course, like a Chablis, Chardonnay, or dry Riesling

A red Bordeaux or Cabernet Sauvignon with the veal

A Champagne or sparkling white wine with the dessert

Bon appetit!

SERVICES AND RATES

Listed below are current general pricing guidelines that include the initial consultation, menu planning, grocery shopping, meal preparation, clean up, and reheating instructions.
    
With a continuing service agreement, take $50 off of each category.

Meals include an entree and a side dish. Add-ons $15 per item.

Five Meals / Four Servings	$325 plus the cost of groceries
Five Meals / Three Servings	$300 plus the cost of groceries
Five Meals / Two Servings	$275 plus the cost of groceries
Four Meals / Four Servings	$300 plus the cost of groceries
Four Meals / Three Servings	$275 plus the cost of groceries
Four Meals / Two Servings	$250 plus the cost of groceries
Three Meals / Four Servings	$275 plus the cost of groceries
Three Meals / Three Servings	$250 plus the cost of groceries
Three Meals / Two Servings	$225 plus the cost of groceries

Cooking Classes in your home kitchen and Dinner Parties from 2 to 12 people are available.

FUNNY RANT

Give this a read and laugh a bit:
http://www.nwedible.com/2012/08/tragedy-healthy-eater.html

HOME BISTRO

Fresh vegetables in the fridge. A couple of pieces of fish. A Romesco sauce made a few days ago. All these ingredients made quick work for a simple and nutritious dinner at home last night.

Here is what I did:

STEAMED VEGETABLES WITH CAPERS AND OLIVE OIL

Take the carrots and yellow summer squash and cut them in irregular shapes on an angle. Pop into a pan with a little water and steam briefly. Put into a bowl, add some rinsed capers, a coating of good extra-virgin olive oil (the kind you have saved for a condiment and not for cooking), and some dried calendula petals (optional), and flaked salt.

SAUTEED EGGPLANT AND ONION

For the eggplant: Take two thin Japanese eggplants, an onion - white in this case. Saute the sliced onion in some olive oil. These onions came with their green parts attached and I saved them. They look like gigantic scallions. I sliced up some of the green parts too. After the onion was sufficiently sauteed with a bit of browning I added the diagonally sliced eggplant to saute down to a soft and velvety consistency. Then I added the juice of 1 orange and a splash of vinegar...you can use what you like...in this case Ume Plum vinegar, and some flaked salt. Toss well.

PAN FRIED ARCTIC CHAR

The fish was rinsed and dried off, sauteed in the olive oil with some flaked salt on top. I added the Romesco sauce (recipe for that on another day) and a dab of coconut butter...that's what the white blob in the picture is... also, a squeeze of lime.

ARCTIC CHAR WITH ROMESCO SAUCE AND COCONUT BUTTER