Savoring the Snow

As I sit and write this post, I am looking out at a gently blanketed landscape and the snow flakes are dancing like butterflies.  Today has a meloncholic feel to it, the forests always go quiet when it snows and so do the roads as we, like the animals, huddle down.  Maybe we are not as far removed from primal instincts as we think.

I also feel a particular appreciation for the snow today as this might be one of the last gentle dustings we get this year, and then no more until next year when we hope and pray our Christmas will be a white one!  What lies around the corner is long days starting with early mornings, farmers have already been planning the growing season and taking stock of their 'to do' lists, taking trips out to the green house or the barn with a combination of anticipation for how much needs to be accomplished and excitment to get underway. 

Knowing Spring is on our door step and she brings all her craziness and energy with her, I think today is the perfect day to putter around inside and wear your slippers or just your socks all day and appreciate one of the last quiet days we will have this year.  And, as promised, in celebration of the snowy day, I have included a recipe for some cookies.  A sweet friend, Ashley, baked these last week (using organic ingredients) to share and they were DELICIOUS!  It is Martha Stewart's recipe, Ashley added cranberries and I loved them so much I ate more than my share and didn't regret a thing!  They are absolutely worth a quick trip to the store for any ingredients you don't have!

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• Coarse salt
• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 cup finely grated zucchini
• 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
• 8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Beat 1 stick butter and the sugars until pale and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla.
2. Beat flour mixture into butter mixture. Mix in zucchini, oats, and walnuts. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
3. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop (about 2 tablespoons), drop dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake until edges are golden, about 17 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
4. Beat together remaining 1/2 stick butter, the cream cheese, and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread 1 heaping tablespoon filling onto the flat side of 1 cookie, and sandwich with another cookie. Repeat with remaining filling and cookies.

A New Place to Eat

I had the occasion to travel on the Red Line into Boston the other day.  While clutching a railing for support in the swaying cart, I zoned out and let my mind wander as I people-watched because, let's be honest, the Red Line may not be pleasant but it is fascinating!  Occasionally when I have these moments I think 'if I was an alien who was beamed down for the first time into this exact moment - what would I think?'  And then I glance around like I am seeing the scene for the first time.  I would assume subways are where people sleep, read, sit, look unhappy, eat, stand . . . wait, did I just say eat?  Eeew. 

Then my wandering brain really kicked into gear, thinking about our relationship with food and how low down on the list of day to day priorities it is that we have started to 'squeeze it in'.  You see people eating in cars all the time too.  Instant oats, breakfast bars and shakes, grab-and-go snacks and lunches, hot pockets, pop tarts, sandwich wraps, take-it-with-you-soup-cup and we haven't even gotten to drive-thrus yet.  Which begs to be asked:  Are we too busy to eat?  Is the car, subway, bus and train the new dining room table? 

Why do we do this to ourselves?  At what point did we say 'strawberry pancakes in the form of a pop tart on the subway - what a great idea!  It will save me at least 15 minutes over a bowl of granola and yogurt!'

Seriously!?  Is eating an unsatisfying meal while hurtling through the bowels of Boston the best we can do? Then it made me think back to a show I caught on TV where a woman was packing dinner into Tupperware so her three children could eat in the car on the way to their piano lesson, baseball practice and dance recital respectively.  Does anybody else out there think we are losing the plot? 

I think we owe it to ourselves to treat ourselves better, to take a moment and think of what we are giving up in exchange for those precious minutes: good healthy food, some face-to-face conversation, or some 'me' time, a few minutes to reflect on what our day will bring or did bring.  Do we really accomplish anything in those sacraficial minutes anyway?  To quote an age old and over-used verse:

To everything there is a season,
and a time to every purpose,
A time to be born, and a time to die,
A time to plant, and a time to harvest,
A time to weep, a time to laugh . . . .

Well, surely there is a time in between all that to eat too?

Surviving Sleet

Here we are again, are you ready to celebrate another storm in New England with me?  Ready to break out the baking pans and punctuate these days with some delicious decadence?  Are you, like me, determined to embrace the gifts of today regardless of how much snow there is to shovel?  And since there has been A LOT of snow to shovel, I feel the need to put the calories back in my body lest I wither away to nothingness and we can't have that, can we? 

It just so happens that conveniently - I love it when this happens - my calorie craving has coincided with a cheesecake craving!  And not just any cheese cake - I want a BAKED cheesecake!  What good is a cold day of wintry mix if you aren't going to at least turn the oven on?  So, this is my special choice for this little winter storm:

Philadelphia Double-Chocolate Cheesecake

Ingredients:

24 OREO Cookies, crushed (about 2 cups)

1/4 cup  (1/2 stick) butter or margarine, melted

4 pkg (8 oz each) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened

1 cup  sugar

2 tbsp flour

1 tsp  vanilla

2 tbsp (heaped) cocoa

1/2 cup blueberries

Method:

• Heat oven to 325ºF.
• Mix crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9-inch foil-lined pan. Bake 10 min.
• Beat cream cheese, sugar, flour cocoa and vanilla with mixer until well blended.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing on low speed after each just until blended. Pour over crust.
• Bake 45 min. or until center is almost set. Cool completely. Refrigerate 4 hours. Use foil to lift cheesecake from pan. Top with berries.

Enjoy!  A few more snow storms accompanied with decadent ideas and we may just have turned this winter around, don't you think?

Surviving Snowflakes!

Do you remember the conversation your mom had with you when you were little and the kids at school were being mean?  The one where she says 'don't worry honey, don't let them get to you - if they don't get the reaction they want, they will soon get bored and find somebody else to pick on' . . .

Well, that is how I feel about the snow.  It is being mean, and it is picking on me . . . us!  I mean, REALLY!  One storm is romantic, two is still somewhat fun, but one a week is losing its charm.  I have enough snowy photos for ten years worth of Christmas cards - and we built a snowman bigger than us - look:

Yes, my daughter is actually sitting on 'his lap' and those are russet potatoes for eyes - not sure where his rainbow carrot nose is at this point but there you are.  I know others out there agree, that we are kinda out of snow-day ideas.

Back to my point, I think I am going to take my mom's sage advice and refuse to give the mean snow the reaction it is looking for.  Instead, I am going to celebrate these days because after all, taking some down time is not the worse thing to do and I have been told that shovelling your drive burns 1500 calories which makes me feel even more justified in suggesting that we do something decadent, indulgent and delicious with our afternoon.  I am suggesting BAKED PEARS!  With a dollop of Marscapone cheese: 

Ingredients:

• 4 D'Anjou pears
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup water
• Dash of salt
• Dash of ginger (or cinnamon)
• 1 1/2 tsp grated lemon rind

Method:

1. Heat oven to 325 deg F (slow to moderate)
2. Wash the pears and cut a think slice from the blossom end (don't you love that term, I think all bottoms should be called 'the blossom end') - this is so they will stand easily - leave the stems on
3. Place pears upright in baking dish
4. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour over pears
5. Bake uncovered for about 1 1/2 hours, or until pears are tender.  Baste syrup over pears occasionally while cooking
6. Enjoy!

Maybe, just maybe, if we punctuate these storms with a little celebration, the snow will get bored and go pick on somebody else.  It's worth a try . . .



Don't Play With Your Food!

I had a candid conversation with another working mom the other day about meal times and menu choices and children.  I have one child, who will eat anything you put in front of her, except mushrooms.  And if she hasn't seen it before, she eats first and asks questions later.  She gobbles down soups, stews, anything roasted, and even prefers vegetables to fruit, which is unusual I think.  Then I have a boy who has a hundred questions before he will even pierce the suspicious item with a fork, doesn't like anything of color and usually responds with 'do I HAVE to?’   

Of course, he has a hard life because he seldom gets his pick of menu choices, and 'so-and-so' from school is so lucky because he gets DINOSAUR chicken and SMILEY face potatoes!  This gives me pause to consider the correlation between food and entertainment - which have gone hand in hand for centuries, after all what is a feast without a court jester?  Dancing?  Live Music?  Even to this day, many other cultures seem to manage this combination beautifully, they embrace the day with a slow breakfast and lunch is a laid back affair in which bread is broken and conversations are the table centerpiece.  Good quality, fresh food, well made or simply and casually combined is appreciated - even expected. 

Most families I know barely have time to defrost something let alone actually make it from scratch, and a languid lunch with some wine and conversation is about as foreign to us as France.  So what are we doing wrong?  Our lives are busy, mine is too as a working mom, and although I have blamed 'the world we live in' or 'this day and age' with a frustrated sigh, it doesn't end there.  Food corporations have taken advantage by playing on our time constraints with campaigns around making meals fun AND quick.  Enter dinosaur chicken.  So it comes to pass that with each trip to the grocery store, we have given up ground in 'savoring supper' while walking down the path to convenient and well-marketed.   The paradox here is that at the end of the day, we don't have more time on our hands, we are still discontent, and the food we eat is no longer all that good for us (made with profit as a goal, not nutrition).

Perhaps it's time that we as a nation stop being lured by 'fun and quick' - being entertained by food is a grossly inadequate placebo for a culture of casual, simple meals and appreciation for the taste of freshness and quality. 

Let's find away to kick 'fun food' out the door, and bring food pleasure back instead!