Lowly cabbage goes glamorous: Cooking from box, garden, market

Spring is late this year, but everyone still has heavy, wide-eyed piles of one of the original, most thoroughly lowly, peasant foods: the cabbage. I can't believe it took me so long to discover the cabbage. I always treated the bulbous lady so badly, pushing her red fronds aside in college salad bars; eschewing the smarmy cups of coleslaw for her mushy cousin, potatoes and gravy; recoiling in horror from sauerkraut. I hate cabbage, I thought.

Oh me. You were so, so wrong. Or perhaps you were right; that cabbage wasn't loved, not the way my cabbage is now. The first farmer's market of the season I spent the better part of $10 on cabbage, and it's a good bet it will be all eaten within two weeks, and I haven't even made kim chi.

The first, best, most wonderful way to enjoy cabbage is a recipe I adapted from The Paley's Place Cookbook. Trust Vitaly Paley, with his Russian heritage and his local, seasonal mien, to deliver cabbage in its sweetest, truest form. I like savoy cabbage or red cabbage for this; the big heavy pale green heads don't turn as jammy, although sometimes I mix some green in with the red for a play of textures. Here is the recipe for honey-braised cabbage; it also calls for a little bacon fat (or olive oil), an onion and an apple, some vinegar and honey. I serve it with everything; with corned beef or sausages, spooned into lentil or potato soup, heaped into a bowl of pasta, mixed with leftover potatoes and grated beets and lots of fresh garlic for a surprisingly perky fried potato cake. It kind of disappears into soups, even as it adds sweetness, so it's great for kids (yes! mine have now eaten cabbage, and liked it!).

The one in which we start cooking from the box (and garden)

It's time.

Today is the first day of the Portland Farmer's Market for the 2009 season, and chatting with other urbanMamas I discover that lots of you are expecting your first box of food from a CSA sometime in the next several weeks. And there are questions, mostly, what do I do with this? This weird knobby vegetable (if it's huge, it's celeriac; if it's tiny, it's a Jerusalem artichoke; both should be peeled and can be diced and used in soups or gratins); these four heads of cabbage (one for braising, one to chop and put in soups, two for kim chi, of course!); this enormous quantity of kale (rinse well, chop roughly, and put in a large cast iron or stainless steel pot, with several cloves of whacked garlic, a glug of oil or butter or bacon fat, and some salt, cook, stirring often, over medium heat until almost crispy, put in everything or serve alone).

But let me start over. I am here to help you with your quest to cook more vegetables (and the occasional fruit) and figure out what to do with what seems like way too much of something. Also, it would be good if your children ate some, too. Each week (or thereabouts) when I come home from the market I'll write a post about something that's in season and link to some recipes I love, and present a few for you. If you've just received a CSA box or a gardening neighbor's gift, or harvested a bumper crop, of some particular vegetable, leave a comment and I'll try to come up with some great (and easy) ideas. And hopefully I'll have a few sentences of gardening too.

This week, I'm getting a second round of peas planted outside, and a few kinds of onion seed; a bed of lettuce; and hopefully some carrots and potatoes, too. I'll start tomatoes, jalapenos, celery and artichokes inside -- this year I've promised myself I'll use a flourescent light to help them germinate, we'll see if it works out! What are you planting, harvesting, buying, and eating this week? I need to make some of the aforementioned kim chi, so I'll be picking up an extra cabbage or two at the farmer's market, a jar of jalapenos, some carrots, and some collard raab. I love that stuff.

Mama, can I have a snack?

The hour is hovering bedtime, and it's already been a long day.  I can't wait for the kids to slumber, so I can get a little down time of my own.  In the mayhem of it all - dinner, bath, reading, and music - they always seem to ask, "Mama, can I have a snack?" right after I ask them to brush their teeth.

Growing up, every meal experience was an opportunity to bond and share quality time, snacks included.  I had a "midnight" snack at 9pm almost every night with my brothers and parents.  Chat and munch, chat and munch.  Sometimes, we had more conversation over snack than we did over dinner.  We have been big fruit & cheese lovers, so maybe we shared fruit or a slice of cheese and crackers.  And, a drink.  Formerly milk or water, now I may have some wine with my snack of berries.

To this day, I am a *horrible* nighttime snacker.  I think my midline is starting to tell me to reconsider my ways.  Nostalgia or hunger, I often give into the requests for the 7pm snack.  Milk and a cookie, fine.  Water and some pita chips, ok.  A bowl of cereal, sure.  I know, I know - it's horrible.

I can't be the only snacking culprit out there.  Am I dooming my kids for bad habits for years to come?  Like I am now a culprit of snacking?  I swear it's all the running and biking around makes me so ravenous at the 9pm hour!

Turning Over a New Year's Leaf: Snacks

New year, new resolutions? An urbanMama needs your suggestions on healthy but yummy snack ideas.  She writes:

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions, exactly, but I do want to make 2009 a year of healthier eating in our family. Does anyone have either websites or resources to recommend re: healthy kid/family eating, or specific suggestions of healthy snack favorites? Our kids are in the 6-8 year old range.

[Photo courtesy cafemama.com]

Veggies: how much do they eat in a day?

The American Heart Association recommends, among other things, that children eat...

a variety of fruits and vegetables daily, while limiting juice intake. Each meal should contain at least 1 fruit or vegetable. Children’s recommended fruit intake ranges from 1 cup/day, between ages 1 and 3, to 2 cups for a 14–18-year-old boy. Recommended vegetable intake ranges from ¾ cup a day at age one to 3 cups for a 14–18-year-old boy.

In our household, that's a whole lotta veggie.  We're curious to know: how much in fruit & vegetables do your kids really consume? 

Need help getting fruits veggies into their food?  Check out some great suggestions and offer more up here.

Sustainable living on a budget: Am I inspired yet?

Monique Dupre was, as everyone seems to agree, not what we expected. She's too lovely, too pulled-together, too funny, too American. (For the record, she is married to a Frenchman, grew up near Astoria, and now lives in Vancouver, Wash.) I half-expect her to start her insanely popular 'Sustainable Living on a Budget' workshop with a little ledger for us to add up our errant spending and lots of judgment, but that's entirely not what she does.

She starts by saying that she just wants to inspire us, reminds us that inspire means "in the spirit," and that we don't have to do everything, just start where we are. And begins to talk about where she is.

It's at once devilishly inspiring (I will admit to having called Comcast to cut off my cable the next day, and removed the TV from the living room, although it was only minorly influenced by Monique) and crushingly overwhelming. Monique, through lots of hard work, much ability to be present and inquisitive, and the oh-so-useful French husband questioning all that is America, has created a life that is truly my dream. She gets all her food locally and organically, creating healthy and whole-foods-y meals for each and every bite her family eats. She leaves her home each morning with a clean kitchen and a small pile of laundry. Her children want nothing for Christmas because they have everything they need. Her eldest daughter can recognize fennel plants when they're an inch tall. She loves fennel!

Trick or Treat: Limiting Candy Consumption

Halloween can be so much fun for kids, but dealing with the aftermath can be a headache.  Kecia wants to know how you handle the Halloween sugar overload?

I would love advice and suggestions regarding Halloween candy. My son is three years old and we love the idea of dressing up and trick-or-treating. I’m actually fine with my son having a piece of candy (or two). I don’t want a bucket full of candy sitting around our house for weeks. I don’t want him eating a piece (or two) of candy day after day. Last year, I explained that when Halloween is over his candy goes away. It worked well, but he was only 2 ½. What do you do? Is there actually a place that we can bring his candy (college campus, meals-on-wheels, etc.)? Please share your suggestions.