horrible commercial

The more this commercial comes on the more I don't like it. It's the one with the fish sticks where the little girl is talking negatively to her mother about the minced fish in her fish sticks.

I know that the little girl is cute and that the commercial is, at first glance, intended to be humorous. So what bothers me about it? Several things really. There's the attitude of the child, the shocked expression of the mother and the mother then soothingly capitulating to the child by offering her the brand being advertised. Finally the little girl chortling about how flaky her new fish fillet is.

I've been reading "Born to Buy" by Juliet Schor. In it she talks about the vast majority of food purchases being driven by children. How the manufacturers are deliberately pushing the idea of stupid parents, promoting the idea that the children need to be in charge, and spending enormous amounts of money on psychologically marketing to the children. This commercial embodies everything that the book is talking about.

As a Nutrition Educator I also look at the fact that this is a really unhealthy product. According to information I found online (since I can't bring myself to buy a box just to have the ingredients and nutrition facts) one serving has 250 calories with a fat content of 15 grams and a very high sodium content of 350 mg plus sugar -- who eats sugar with fish? The ingredients list has pollack, enriched flour breading mixed with hydrogenated oils, TBHQ, MSG and other chemical ingredients. If you want to feed your child fish buy fresh cold water fish for them; it's far healthier and will provide more essential fatty acids to help their development. If they insist on breaded fish you can bread it yourself at home without all the chemicals and make a far healthier version.

If they eat over-processed, junky fish they'll have a harder time learning to eat healthful, whole food style fish. Do your kids a favor and buy them the real thing.

quail eggs

For dinner tonight I sauted onion and red peppers with diced baked potato (leftover from baked potato bar the other night) and cilantro, salt and pepper. I topped it with fried eggs for Steve and fried quail eggs for me.

I went to the Asian market a few days ago; while there I saw an absolutely enormous refrigerated case full of very pretty, speckled quail eggs. Having never tasted them before but heard folks say how fabulous they were I decided to get them (Steve did not want to try them). Quite frankly I'm not sure what the hullabaloo is all about. My suspicion is that the attraction to quail eggs is for the novelty value. To be truthful I'm not sure if it's because I don't have a very sophisticated palate or because there really isn't a huge difference, but I did not taste a significant difference in the eggs. The only difference I noticed was that the yolk on the quail eggs had a creamier mouthfeel to me than chicken eggs do. So aside from the novelty value of a bite-sized egg it's certainly not something I think I'll do again.

Nutritionally the protein value is the same (comparing 1 ounce, 28 grams, of raw egg each) except that quail eggs have twice as much cholesterol. However quail eggs also have more riboflavin and a tiny bit more choline, B12, and folate as well as zinc, phosphate and iron.

As always, it comes down to the willingness to be adventurous, to try new things. While I don't think I will buy quail eggs again I'm glad that I had the opportunity to try them.

photo courtesy of K. Suzuki | commons.wikimedia.org

no-knead mesquite bread

Those inventive folks over at Craftzine.com have come up with a new twist on the, by now, ubiquitous no-knead bread. Laura, one of the Editorial Assistants, found my post about mesquite flour and emailed me to let me know about this really fun article on how to harvest and process mesquite to make the flour. It includes a recipe for No-Knead Mesquite Bread which they said I could share with all of you. Living here in Texas I know we have mesquite, but there isn't any in my area. I'm going to have to learn to identify it though so that if I find any in my travels I can harvest the pods.

No Knead Mesquite Bread Recipe

3 cups white flour
3 tbls mesquite flour
½ tsp yeast
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ cups of water

Mix dry ingredients in a bowl
Add water and mix
Stir with fork (mix will be sticky)
Cover in a bowl, let sit overnight
Place bread dough on cutting board covered with towel for 2 hours
In metal bowl bake in sun oven @ 350 for 1 hour

photo courtesy of: Wendy Tremayne

almond delights

My friend Cindi, who also grinds her own flour, has been experimenting with different kinds of cookies. Her kids have been in love with my Sunshine Cookies since they were first introduced to them when Cindi took one of my classes a couple of years ago. Looking to expand their cookie repertoire a little she's been playing around with different, healthier, combinations of ingredients. I think this one is a keeper since she writes, "My son who doesn't really like cookies, except for your sunshine cookies, ate about 4 of them in one sitting." She notes that these cookies come out very moist like a marzipan cookie.

This is her first "official" Cindi recipe and I'm just thrilled that she's allowing me to share it with you here. These sound absolutely fabulous and I can't wait to make up a batch of almond flour and try them.

Cindi's Almond Delights
2 cups almond flour
3/4 cups evap. cane juice crystals
3/4 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1 egg

blend softened butter for a minute or two
add all the other ingredients and mix well
roll into balls and press with a fork
bake at 300 degrees for about 25-30 minutes; cookies will not brown
to decorate, top with sliced almonds or drizzled or dip in dark chocolate

Enjoy!

delicious looking photo - Cindi H.

strawberry-colada scones

Having leftover fresh ground flour from the ricotta pancakes I decided to make some scones. Scones are great. Not as dense as muffins, the right size for a snack and, like muffins, very pliable to modification. Rummaging around the pantry and fridge revealed some strawberry yogurt and the last little bit of shredded coconut so strawberry-colada became the flavor of the day. Unfortunately I did not have any fresh or dried strawberries which I think would have made these scones even better; the currants worked well but the scones were a little light in the strawberry flavor. In the future I'll make sure to have strawberries available the next time I want to bake these.

In the past when I have made scone recipes using fresh ground flour I find that sometimes they are more dense than I'd like. Wanting to make sure these were light more fluffy I separated the egg. If you are using a whole grain flour you may want to do the same.

Strawberry-Colada Scones

1 C. oat flour

1 C. brown rice flour

1/3 C. evaporated cane juice crystals

2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

generous pinch of sea salt

1 C. strawberry yogurt

1 egg separated

1/4 C. coconut oil melted

1/2 C. currants

1/2 C. shredded coconut

preheat oven to 400

beat egg whites until peak forms, set aside

mix together egg yolk, coconut oil and yogurt until fully blended

in a separate bowl mix together flour, cane juice crystals, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

add dry mixture to yogurt mixture until just moistened

gently fold in currants and shredded coconut

gently fold in egg whites

drop by tablespoons onto a greased baking sheet

bake 15 minutes or until golden brown

let cool 2 minutes on baking sheet before transferring to rack

Enjoy!

ricotta pancakes with honey glazed plums

Cooking and baking is always an adventure. Inspiration is all around you if you are open to it. There's no real explanation for why or how ideas come together but I can honestly say that frequently it's a matter of "oh gosh there's X in the fridge and I better use it up." Then I make something using that ingredient. Most of the time I make tried and true recipes, either my own or those from trusted cookbooks. Sometimes the inspiration is something I ate elsewhere that I really liked and have been given the recipe. Other times the recipes find me but I somehow can't help playing with them a little bit.

Such is the case with today's breakfast. The inspiration was a click-through twitter post that brought me to Almost Bourdain's (AB's) blog, which I just discovered and like a lot. He credits his inspiration for this recipe to Bill Granger, I credit my inspiration to him. It's kind of neat how that works, we're all connected by this idea of ricotta in pancakes but we each put a slightly different twist to it; all of them, I'm sure, very delicious.

My changes came about because I am trying to work more with gluten free recipes lately. These are for a few people I know who are faced with gluten sensitivity. It's also, as always, inspired by what I have on hand. AB's version calls for bananas and honeycomb. I didn't have enough bananas but did have plums. Didn't have any honeycomb either (and I miss my friends from CT who used to supply me with it) but I did have honey. Together with some breakfast sausage this made a great meal and is definitely on the repeat again list. I hope you like it too.

Ricotta Pancakes with Honey Glazed Plums

For pancakes:

1 1/3 C. ricotta cheese

3/4 C. buttermilk (for a little tang to offset the honey glazed plums)

4 eggs separated

1/2 C. fresh ground oat flour

1/2 C. fresh ground brown rice flour

1 t. baking powder

1 t. vanilla

pinch salt

beat egg whites until peaks form, set aside

mix ricotta, egg yolks, vanilla, and buttermilk together until well blended

mix together flours, baking powder and salt

gently add flours into ricotta mixture

gently fold egg whites into mixture until just blended

drop by 1/4 C. measure into medium hot, greased pan

after 2 minutes flip to cook other side

For honey-glazed plums:

2 plums

2 T. honey

1/2 t. cinnamon

2 t. butter

cut plums into bite sized pieces

toss with honey and cinnamon

in a medium-hot pan melt butter

add plum mixture and stir until plums begin to soften just a little (about 7 minutes)

serve pancakes with plums on top

Honestly these were fabulous. I would even consider serving them as a dessert by making the pancakes smaller and putting a dollop of creme fraiche on top with a dusting of cinnamon.

green goddess dressing

I recently posted on Facebook about a meal that included homemade Green Goddess Salad Dressing. When I was a kid we always had Green Goddess in the house, I think it was my father's favorite dressing. Creamy and a little tangy it was great.

Somehow when I got older I never had it in the house. Then I had kids and, like most kids I know, they had an instant love affair with creamy ranch. That and vinaigrette became the house standards. Oh sure, every now and then we'd get wild and throw in French Catalina or a Thousand Island, but most of the time we stuck with our good old standby dressings.

I recently had an excess of parsley; not wanting to freeze it, since frozen tiny packets of herbs tend to get lost in my freezer, I was casting around for an idea when I remembered this dressing. Paging through my favorite cook book of all times, the 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking, I found a recipe on page 364. I made a few changes based on ingredient availability and personal taste (I do not like anchovies). This is my modified version:

Green Goddess Dressing
1 C. mayonnaise
1 minced clove garlic
1/4 C. minced green onions
1/2 C. minced parsley (the original recipe calls for 1/4 C. but I like it with more parsley)
1 T. lime juice (it's supposed to be lemon but I was out)
1 T. tarragon vinegar
1/2 t. salt
ground black pepper
1/2 C. yogurt (this is supposed to be sour cream but I was also out of that)

Blend it all together and put in the fridge until ready to use. This makes almost a pint however ,in addition to a salad dressing it also makes a delicious dressing for wrap sandwiches.