With a few extra minutes on my hands before Henry (2) wakes up and Esther (5) is dropped off from school by our carpool, I decided to reinvigorate my blog with the meals I manage to cook for my family during any given week.
I was inspired by all the times my students ask what I made for dinner last night, hoping to glean some insight into what I cook when I'm not teaching. I start most of my classes asking this of my students. It feels good to recount your tales in the kitchen, to look back and see the foods you've prepared.
But what really motivates this blog is to create a "real" cookbook of ideas for my students who are looking to make meals for themselves and need just a little bit of fresh inspiration each day to break out of the tired mold of their go-to dishes.
Here goes.
November 3: Day after the disastrous Election Day.
DINNER: Plantation brown rice from South Carolina, courtesy of my co-instructor John Scoff. Dried butter beans, simmered to creaminess with a ham hock, rosemary sprig, and sliced onion. A heap of greens (kohlrabi tops, beet greens, Swiss chard, and collards)--a last ditch effort to cook down the ridiculous amount of greens I had accumulated from my last 2 weeks of my CSA. Sauteed garlic and sliced onions in olive oil, added smoked paprika for 1 minute, added the greens on top, then poured over chicken broth and a tablespoon of sherry vinegar. Crushed down a lid on top--so many greens!--and let them braise down for 20 minutes. Served it all with copious amounts of hot sauce.
KID FACTOR: Both my kids don't "like" beans this week, so they got a browned hot dogs in their place, and the smoked paprika made the greens so "weird" that my daughter and son opted for nori straight from the package instead. At least its green. Sometimes I get so frustrated having to modify my cooking to suit their tastes, that is feel liberating to just cook the foods I love and let them eat packaged products for the night. Sad but true.
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