Cappuccino at the Milan Airport

After trying my best to sleep on the long flight from NY, I knew I’d need some caffeine for the last leg of the trip to Rome.  I stopped on my way to my connecting flight at the  Milan airport for a quick cappuccino.

Unlike every other airport I’ve been to before, this coffee was not “to go”. It was served in a ceramic cup. Like all the Italians at the coffee bar, I stood at the bar, sipped my cappuccino. Slowly. What a treat that cappuccino was. When you stop moving your feet and stay in one place, you actually really appreciate your drink.

Most Americans drink their jumbo coffee drinks in paper or plastic cups. Fast. Often in motion while walking or driving somewhere. How different it can be to stay in one place, just for a few minutes and actually be with your coffee. This cup was smaller than the “tall” size at my local Starbucks and oh so much more satisfying than any cappuccino I’ve had to drink at home.

While sipping my drink, I watched the staff collect the empty ceramic cups and load their super speedy wash machines. There were no over flowing garbage bins filled with paper cups. Less trees destroyed to make paper cups that are used just once. This system has got to be better for the environment.

I’m looking forward to more cappuccinos in the days ahead.

My Picky Eater E-book

I recently became involved in an interesting online conversation about the word “picky eater”  with some mommy bloggers.  Christina Le Beau who has a blog,  SpoonFed. wrote a recent post that makes the argument that labeling kids becomes a crutch for parents and sets up a self-fulfilling prophecy. Plus it minimizes the very real food issues that some kids do have (allergies, sensory issues, etc.).

I’ve always felt that language is really important. I’ve written loads about how the food industry runs the show by controlling the language. I believe strongly that labels are for jars, not people.

It’s probably not a good idea to label a child as a picky eater. I’ve had more than my share of both personal and professional experience with kids of all ages who are not adventurous when it comes to food. I’ve written a great little E-Book called Winning the Picky Eater War……maybe I need to look at changing that title.

Let’s talk personal here. I’m the mom of three amazing and beautiful daughters, ages 20, 18 and 13. The two older gals could almost be considered Foodies. They love to eat, they love to cook.  But my 13 year old continues to give me a run for the money. While I’ve declared victory from time to time and she does eat way more veggies than she used to, I would still classify her on the picky side.

Sadly, compared to other kids her age, she IS more adventurous than many. That is the really scary piece that my mommy blogger friends might not realize. Picky eating behaviors, or whatever we should be calling it, are now extending beyond the toddler years into the tween, teen and even college age. My older daughters tell me stories of the peers who eat nothing but junk. Imagine a 20 year old ordering pasta with butter, how crazy is that?  What do you call that? Picky? Dare I say “stupid”?  What these kids are missing out on is huge. There is a whole wide world out there filled with amazing, delicious food.

This is one of the reasons she is accompanying me and my husband to Italy this week. There aren’t any chicken nuggets in Italy, right? She’ll experience a wonderful “slow” food culture first hand. We’re even going to take a full day cooking class in Florence.

In addition to the art, the history and the language, I hope my daughter finds herself inspired to expand her palate while on this trip.  Stay tuned for more photos and recipes. My plane leaves in less than an hour!

Ciao!

Carlo Petrini

Once upon a time in the late 1980′s a man named Carlo Petrini organized a bold and powerful campaign against McDonalds.  The fast food chain was planning to open a branch of the golden arches near the Spanish steps in Rome. Carlo and his pals brandished bowls of penne past as weapons of protest and the Slow Food movement was born. He issued a manifesto which was a response to fast food, fast life, non sustainable farming and the erosion of local communities.

Today, Slow Food, is an international organization that is active in over 150 countries. Here in the US, Slow Food has over 200 chapters, I am a proud co-leader of the Westchester/Lower Hudson Valley Chapter of Slow Food.  This weekend, I had the fortunate opportunity to her Carlo Petrini speak at NYC’s new hub of delicious food, EATALY.

Here’s a taste of what Carlo spoke about.

Its very important to increase the dialog between science and traditional knowledge. I am reminded of  this often by my clients who have gotten lost in “nutritionism” and health claims and find themselves utterly confused when it comes to what to eat. Traditional food and culture has as much to teach us as high tech science does, perhaps even more.

Politics from grass roots movements move slow like a snail but go on and on. Small things bring great changes. This is part of what I try to impart to school food advocates who contact me through the Better School Food website. By taking a stand, we shift the culture of food in a school. And yes, the pace may feel snail like at times, but it makes a huge difference in the long run.

Carlo said that the two foundations of Slow Food are:

#1 Affective Intelligence this is intelligence that comes from the heart. Because we are a heart centered organization, many people feel compelled to get involved and volunteer. Being involved with Slow Food is a delicious form of activism, everyone loves to connect over a meal.

#2 Austere Anarchy I personally love the word anarchy which can be defined as a utopian society of individuals who enjoy complete freedom without government.  What Carlo said was we have the freedom to do anything. Slow Food chapters can do what they like. You can visit the Slow Food USA website to see the wide variety of events happening all across the country.

After Carlo talked, we ate. And ate. Amazing bread from Wild Hive Farms drenched in olive oil. Fresh mozzerella, crisp salad with pickled carrots and beets, varieties of fresh pasta, wood oven fired pizza, and of course, wine.  No one was counting carbs, that is not on the Slow Food agenda. Everyone was talking about farmers, Italy and the upcoming Terra Madre 2010 event instead.

This was a wonderful sneak preview of the adventure that I’ll be embarking on later this week as I leave for Italy en route to Terra Madre 2010: a world wide meeting of farmers, artisan food producers, educators and food activists.

Ciao for now!

Tonight, I attended a screening of this film that highlights the dark side of our over-achieving communities.  I live in a highly competitive town where kids are under played and over scheduled. Most are tutored and just about everyone is on some sort of travel team for sports- regular ol’ AYSO soccer is just not good enough!  High school is one big race to the “best” college, parents cough up mega bucks for SAT classes, college advisers and community service opportunities that will make their kid look good on applications. Kids take multiple AP courses and have no scheduled lunch period so they can squeeze it all in. The movie portrayed my community very accurately with success being defined by what college you go to along with an overemphasis on making money. Two of my daughters have been through this high stress high school and I’m just not certain I can muster up enough energy to put my third one through this gauntlet. Stop the merry go round, I want to get off!

The message in this movie is less homework and more family dinners. It will take some swimming upstream and there is no easy fix. How to get off this treadmill and raise a happy, motivated and creative human being? How do we re-define success and make happiness as important a metric as math scores?

This is one reason I’m taking my daughter out of school for a week long illegal absence and bringing her with me and my husband for Italy.  I hope she’ll learn more in 5 days visiting Rome and Florence than she will in 5 days of middle school.

Why would I take my kid out of school to go to Italy in the middle of October?  I have a good excuse! I was selected by Slow Food USA to be a  US delegate to this year’s Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy. Terra Madre is an international conference of over 7,000 food producers, cooks, educators and activists. Every four years, network delegates come together to discus global food sustainability issues.  My hubby, who is a whiz at playing the frequent flyer game, came up with two free round trip tix for himself and my daughter  so we decided she could play hookey and come with us on an Italian adventure.

If you have kids in school, even if they’re only in elementary school, this movie is worth your time. Hopefully you can set up a screening in your school district and have a meaningful community wide conversation afterward.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

The weather has turned chilly, fall is finally here. Last night, after  my hubby grilled up a beer can chicken on the grill, I knew it was time to start making soup. Good soup starts with a good stock.  The best stock is made from real ingredients. My secret weapon for making outrageously easy and delicious stock is my slow cooker.

Two important ingredients in my stock are apple cider vinegar and sea vegetables. The vinegar helps to pull calcium out of the bones.  I add sea veggies for additional trace elements and  minerals. I use a blend of sea veggies from See Sells Seaweed who harvests seaweed off the coast of Maine.

Slow Cooker Chicken Stock

Ingredients:

carcass of roasted chicken

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

1 onion cut into quarters, skin included

1 carrot, coarsely chopped

a spoonful of sea vegetables (i.e. kombu or  wakame)

fresh filtered water

Load up the Slow Cooker, turn it on low, let it do it’s job over night.

Want more super easy, super delicious Slow Cooking recipes? I created a short and sweet cookbooklet that is filled with some of my most favorite slow cooker recipes.  In keeping with the slow theme, its not an instant download E-book, its a small simple booklet that I sent to you via snail mail (aka the US Postal Service). You can order it on my website by visiting my products page, click HERE for more info

Yummy Yummy Black Beans

This year, my eldest daughter is cooking her own meals at college. No more school food for her! She and I have made a deal. I’ll send her recipes if she’ll do some fancy food styling and take some photos. Between the two of us, we should have a pretty decent cookbook within a few months.

Today, she was craving some Tex-Mex and went and bought some black beans.  Since she’s on a limited budget, she quickly realized that dried beans are way cheaper than the canned version. Hopefully she’ll remember to rinse them well after soaking so she and her fellow eaters don’t get too gassy.  Here’s the simple, easy and delicious recipe she’ll be cooking tonight. I hope to have photos and more details of her bean adventure soon!

Black Bean Burritos

1 cup of cooked rice (white or brown)
2 cups of cooked black beans
fresh greens

1 onion
1 clove chopped garlic

1/2 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 cup of chipotle salsa (any salsa will do)

1 cup guacamole
Tortillas

1.  Sauté the onion and garlic in small amount of olive oil.

2.  Add the spices and beans and cook for 5-10 minutes.

3.  Place bean onion mixture in a bowl, alongside the rice, salsa and guacamole.

4.  Wrap up in a tortilla and enjoy.

Note: you can also add left over chicken, vegetables or whatever else you may have on hand to the bean mixture.

Black beans are a type of kidney bean.  They are an excellent protein source. According to Chinese medicine, they help to strengthen the kidneys and adrenals. Beans actually help to lower cholesterol levels; they are also an excellent for anyone with blood sugar imbalances or diabetes.

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen! It was so hot yesterday, I had to get out of my kitchen. So I fired up the grill and whipped up one of my favorite salads on the deck for dinner. I had some skinless, boneless chicken thighs marinating in some teriyaki sauce, so I tossed that on the grill. Chicken thighs are moist and flavorful and so much cheaper than dry, tasteless boneless chicken breasts. As a novice griller, I can easily grill them over low heat without overcooking them.

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 lb. Napa cabbage, cut crosswise into 1/3 inch wide strips

½ lb. snow peas or sugar snap peas

3 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken

½ cup scallions chopped

½ cup fresh cilantro

½ cup dry roasted unsalted peanuts or toasted sliced almonds

For the Dressing:

¼ cup soy sauce

¼ cup fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

¼ cup olive oil

1. Combine snow peas with chopped Napa cabbage, chopped cilantro, shredded chicken, scallions and nuts
2. Whisk together soy sauce, lemon juice, maple syrup, vinegar in a small bowl, then add sesame oil and olive oil in a slow stream, whisking until dressing is combined well.
3. Toss salad with the dressing.

* You might want to add dressing to individual salads. This way the leftover salad will keep better.

I was fortunate to have a bright sunny week at the beach last week. I unplugged as best as I could and caught up on some reading. Thanks to a speed reading course I took freshman year in college, I’m a voracious reader. After spending much of my summer in a camp garden, my reading list these days are focused more on growing food. Here are two of my favorites.

My Empire of Dirt by Manny Howard was a rollicking adventure story about a backyard garden that went a little too far. Based on the NY Magazine article from 2007, this book will have you wincing and chuckling about homegrown food.

This book, along with Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle and Novella Carpenter’s Farm City is another example of how the food movement is morphing from farmer’s markets and backyard veggie gardens into something more substantial.

I would love to get some bees and chicken going in my backyard. Fresh eggs and local honey would be great.  With the latest egg recall of a half a billion eggs, I have to believe more people are going to re-think their supermarket egg habit. 95% of eggs in the US come from industrial egg operations of 75,000 or more hens. Talk about too big to fail, or just plain too big! Smaller and closer to home is definitely better when it comes to food. A couple of hens would easily keep my family in enough eggs for most of the year.

Next read on the beach was a book about school gardens. I thought it might be dry reading but I was pleasantly surprised.How to Grow A School Garden: A Complete Guide for Parents and Teachers was the kind of book that really got me jazzed. If you are one of those parents who are trying to make a positive impact in your child’s school, this is the book you want to read. Its also the book you want to buy for your child’s teacher. This book demonstrates all the good reasons why every school should have a garden and walks you through the steps to get one going.

As Josh Viertel, President of Slow Food USA says,

I want to live in a world where there are more school gardens than McDonalds has franchises.

This book will help you to shift that ratio of fast food to slow food in your school district.

I have a grand opportunity tomorrow. NY Congresswoman Rep. Nita Lowey has invited me to a discussion on childhood obesity with Dr. Thomas Frieden, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Frieden was the NYC Health commissioner from 2002 to 2009. This guy  was the driving force behind some significant health policies in NYC, namely the workplace smoking ban, the trans fat ban and the implementation of  public calorie counts in places like Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts.

I could go on and on about how both the trans fat ban and calorie counts didn’t end up being all that effective in improving the food environments of NYC, but I’m not gonna go there. Dr. Frieden deserves kudos for putting these bold food policies in place and going up against the NRA (National Restaurant Association) and other food industry lobbyists such as the Center for Consumer Freedom.

So far, our approach to the exploding obesity epidemic has done next to nothing to improve eating habits of Americans. Its time to think outside of the box.What would be the right words to say to the head of the CDC that would inspire him to take this approach?

My goal is to share my vision of school food reform with the good doc. School food reform is not about building a better chicken nugget or pumping up the pizza with whole wheat crust and low fat cheese.  Like calorie counts, these strategies do nothing to change the poor eating behaviors of America’s kids.

What we must do is raise the Food IQ and transform the culture of food in each and every school district in the USA. How could the CDC go about doing that?  They would be smart to hire me as a consultant. My four point plan includes proven strategies that will increase veggie consumption and lead to more informed eaters.

• Vegetable gardens in every school complete with composting projects

When kids grow food, picky eating behavior decreases and respect for real food increases. Composting of vegetable scraps is a great science project that reduces waste disposal costs, improves the environment and provides a nutrient rich soil amendment for those gardens.

• Food based film series open to the entire community

There are many excellent movies that can help to build Food IQ in an entertaining and informative way. These films will get people talking about the many food based issues that we are facing.

• Cooking classes

Research from Harvard shows that those who cook food tend to be more healthier than those who don’t. This trend crosses all socioeconomic lines. We’ve got to get our kids off the couch and into the kitchen! Require them to be able to prepare 10 meals from scratch as a requirement for graduation.

• Integration of food based education into core curriculum

Food can be seamlessly integrated into history/social studies, science, math and english. Learning about misleading food labeling claims which could easily become part of a unit on critical thinking skills- something all kids and grown ups could use more of.

One way to get this good stuff going into schools across the country would be the Food Corps, think Peace Corps but with food. FoodCorps members will build Farm to School supply chains, expand food system and nutrition education programs, and build and tend school food gardens.

The CDC can also look to the 200+ Slow Food chapters  across the country who are involved with Slow Food in Schools projects. This nationwide network of community based food education projects range from school gardens to cooking classes, to farm to school initiatives.  With CDC support, both the Food Corps and Slow Food in Schools can be the paradigm shift that turns this health crisis around better than any new, improved chicken nugget ever could!

Harvest from the Ballibay Garden

This will be the second summer that I’ll be journeying out to the mountains of Northeastern Pennsylvania to work at Camp Ballibay, a magical summer camp with exceptional camp food. Last year, I spent much of my time in the kitchen, breakfast was my special focus. Many of you followed along on Facebook as I posted photos and recipes from the kitchen. Our garden was small, but we harvested loads of greens, radishes, peas and beans with the occasional head of red cabbage.  We even had some fun and created a hummus video which has become an Internet sensation, posted on nationally recognized  Fooducate and Slow Food USA blogs.

This year, we’ve got a fabulous new crew in the kitchen who will be bringing the food to a new level of deliciousness. Co-executive Chef Holly Mendenhall has her own catering business in Brooklyn, Unfussy Food. Many others in the kitchen bring lots of experience in health supportive foods.  Campers will be well nourished for sure!

This summer, my job description is even more adventurous. I’ll be in charge of the garden which has doubled in size since last year.  We’ll be creating food and garden activities for campers to deepen the relationship between growing food and enjoying it in the dining hall. This vision of food based education which is both fun and delicious is in complete alignment with my work with Better School Food and with Slow Food.

Personally, I’m thrilled because I know my youngest daughter Mikey will have a blast singing, dancing, acting and eating great food. Most importantly I can rest assured she won’t be in a toxic food environment like she is when in school. Crazy as it is, Mikey taught me so much about picky eating  that I was able to write a picky eater e-book with what I learned. Last year, the food environment at Ballibay helped her to expand her palate more than I ever could have done at home. She’s excited to go back for more “Balli-food”!

Professionally, I’m even more thrilled to have the opportunity to have a job doing what I love to do: growing food & cooking with kids. We’ll be developing a food based curriculum that will serve as a foundation for years to come.

I leave for camp early next week and will work to blog about my adventures there at least once a week. You can learn more about Camp Ballibay by visiting their website. Stay tuned for more details about my “Balli-venture”.