Winter Food Market

I don't know about you but a trip to a fresh foods market (of any size) inspires me to create new dishes probably more than any new recipe I could possibly stumble upon does. Here, in the greater Kalamazoo area we are blessed to have a fresh foods market this winter and spring that is open through April 28, 2012. A friend of ours owns the building at 1156 S. Burdick Street in Kalamazoo which plays host to the the Kalamazoo Foods Market. Our WHOLE family (yes even the Twinkies who in a crowded environment like that are harder to chase than water bugs in August) made the maiden voyage to the wonderful market.  Yes, my two men braved it along with us 4 girls (the fourth girl being my 17 year old daughter who I have not introduced in the blog yet - we shall call her Annika, as in Sorenstam - which she hates but it fits!) and it was so much fun!  Well, for me maybe more than anyone else as I also ended up being deluged with goodies from the Victorian Bakery and chocolatier across the street in addition to 5 bags of fresh veggie "gold" for the kitchen!  I felt indulged to be able to look at the wonderful array of items at the market and not have little hands to protect the vendor's wares from as my strong men dutifully occupied Thing 1 and Thing 2! At this market you can find specialty chocolates, coffees, meats, fish (ok, well it's not the singing fish market in Seattle or anything but the fish looked nice and it is caught in Michigan waters) as well as an assortment of several other wonderful vendors. Can't wait to get all my little cloth bags and head back for a second time to peruse the wonderful variety at the market - minus busy little hands!

I think the highlight for me, though, was the fresh produce that occupied - no, it ILLUMINATED - the entire center ring of the room with GORGEOUS, colorful, FRESH local green house grown veggies! The sweetest people helped us as we purchased a nice variety of things and two new items I have never cooked with.  We bought pale beets (the color of sweet potatoes) and LEEKS. I have always wanted to cook with leeks and the plant family that they come from (the allium family - relatives are garlic, onion, chives, scallions) are so good for the body and are powerful detoxifiers.   They stimulate the body to produce glutathione - and at the risk of getting too technical - I will summarize to say that it helps fight free radicals in the body and is key in helping the liver do it's job well. So for that reason alone (and some awesome new potatoes to cook with) I decided to have a try at a recipe I have had my eye on but I knew would need some tweeking for flavor and fullness of body without adding too much fat.  So I worked hard last weekend and figured a little sumpin out to share with y'all.  You can eat this COLD or HOT! So I share my result: my take on yummy potato leek soup which I served with some tasty garnish, crusty bread and a side salad. Hope you can get your hands on some good fresh ingredients at a market near YOU to try this recipe with! Enjoy!


Also a note on washing leeks (KEY!!!): leeks can be very dirty and are best cleaned after they've been trimmed and cut. Soak in cool water (I used a white bowl to best see dirt), lift leeks out and replace water and repeat until no grit remains in the bowl. You may need to still trim some layers superficially as some areas may have embedded grit. Drain on paper towel.

Tasty Potato Leek Soup

Serves: 4         Prep time: 15 minutes     Total time: 45 minutes
Equipment: Large saucepan,  stove or burner, blender

6 medium leeks (about 2.5 lbs), whites only, halved and thinly sliced scrosswise
2 cans of reduced sodium chicken broth (or 3.5 cups homemade chicken broth)
2 baking potatoes (8 ounces each), peeled and diced
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
3/4 cup lowfat milk
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
2 tbsp butter or margarine
2 tbsp flour
Garnish: 1 finely diced roma tomato, 1/4 finely chopped chives or green onion, 2 tbsp crumbled bacon (turkey is fine), extra salt and pepper to taste.

In large saucepan, combine leeks, potato, 2 cups water, and 1 tsp salt. Bring to boil, reduce heat to medium low and let simmer until the vegies are very tender 20-25 minutes.

Working in batches, puree the soup in blender transferring it to a clean bowl with a spout as you work. (To avoid splattering as you blend, fill the blender only halfway and allow heat to escape by blending with the opening on the blender lid open and covering with a double layer dish towel to avoid burning your hand).
If eating chilled, simply whisk in the milk and parmesan cheese until well blended.  Place soup in refrigerator at least two hours and then serve with garnish. Can be stored in fridge up to 2 days.

For WARM, thicker soup: When complete blending place pan back on burner over medium high heat. Melt 2 tbsp butter or margarine in pan. Add 2 tbsp flour and mix into paste. Slowly pour entire batch of pureed soup back into pan and whisk to ensure there are no lumps from the butter/flour mixture (or roux) as you go. Then, add milk and  parmesan cheese. Constantly stir until mixture begins to bubble and thicken slightly (be careful to avoid  burning or scalding!) and then let it cook one minute longer. This is intended to be a lightly thickened soup so we can appreciate the leeks.  Serve immediately with garnish and bread! ENJOY!!!

"LAYERS"

Growing up a latch key kid in a quiet suburb of Detroit, MI as an only child of two full-time working parents, I had plans for my life that have now turned out to be SO far from what God intended that I have to chuckle with Him sometimes - actually A LOT! For generations the strong German women in my maternal family have worked as seamstresses in many a field (caskets, draperies, clothing, autos - you name it - they have sewn in it , on it, around it - you get the picture). I naturally learned to love sewing and received my first REAL sewing machine at the age of 7.  For years as a teen I remember raiding my mother's layers and layers of 70's leftover fabric stash to create "unique" - hmm, yes, that's what we'll call them - articles of clothing to put proof to the fact that I was going to one day be a FAMOUS clothing designer.  I had ample time to perfect my craft as there was not much to do after school in a house by yourself (and, fortunately for my parents, I was MOSTLY a pretty good kid).  Embarking on a college education as a clothing and textiles major and ending up as a Registered Dietitian some years later is a long and twisted route that I shall refrain from boring you with.  BUT that original passion to create with fabric still burns within me - some day I WILL finish the many projects that lay incomplete and missing me terribly. My desire to create easily  translates to food and I'm good with that!  We gotta eat and I have to cook anyway so why not throw down in the kitchen while I'm at it, eh?  In spite of her busy work schedule, my mother also liked to cook and always made what I considered great food. I still use many of her basic recipes that she dutifully handed to me after I married my prince charming (lovingly referred to as "Prince" for blog purposes) and her recipes are faves of everyone (except David but that's that other story for another, humiliating day...). Over the years as my experience working in foodservice and my cooking repertoire matured I came to realize that really good and full bodied food creations, like Ogres, have LAYERS.  Catch that, Shrek fans?  Anyway - by following the steps of some great chefs I have worked with over the years in even my simplest of dishes....I came to realize that food can be so very much tastier, satisfying and EVEN popular with slightly finicky children - I know, right?!

So I thought I would share a few of my "layering" tips for some of our family's staple dishes that may be something similar that you prepare in your own home. I hope a tip or two can translate to foods you prepare and may help you enhance your meal enjoyment with little fuss! Let's start with SALT.  Many people avoid salt for a number of reasons, which I respect, and some of us could enjoy better tasting food by just using a little bit in our cooking preparations.   In baking, the substance salt (NaCl) is required for it's chemical influence on the equation, or recipe, and it's quality outcome so you really can't avoid using it. Did you also know that salt BIOCHEMICALLY helps your taste receptors to work better? Now, I am not advising to go overboard with your little shaker BUT don't avoid it either as it plays a natural role in helping your body taste the OTHER flavors in a  given food. So, when making dishes that require multiple aspects of cooking, take spaghetti sauce for example, go ahead and lightly salt (and pepper) the ground meat that you are cooking even though you will be adding sauce to it. AND, speaking to spaghetti sauce - if you use prepared sauce for ease of preparation like I do - you can make it taste richer and deeper by adding  2 - 3 tsps (or cubes) of beef base (per jar or can of sauce) as it is cooking.  This tip is BY FAR MY BEST AND FAVORITE TRICK IN MY "BOOK."  I do spend good money on beef, chicken and vegetable bases as I feel there is a huge flavor difference and they tend to have less non-natural ingredients than less expensive bases/cubes.  When making home made guacamole and salsa, which I pretty much do on a  weekly basis as quesadillas are a regular and easy menu option for kids on the go, I food process fresh cilantro (split the bunch between the two recipes) in with the ingredients as it adds an authentic and fresh ingredient that often is NOT used in guac and salsa (why I will never know - I think it is pretty much a food sin!).  My last tip - if you can make a bechamel (basic white) sauce you can also easily translate that into quick, easy and lo-cal version of alfredo sauce by first using skim milk (be sure to stir constantly so it does not burn as it is thickening) and adding 1/4-1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese (per 4-5 cups of prepared bechamel) to it as it is is cooking out. Fresh parm always tastes better but the regular old pre-grated works great too! Yumm-O!!! Hope you try it!

In the interest of keeping this shorter (than yesterday, which I'm not sure I did), I will stop with the tips...maybe I will share a tip of the week or day or something down the road. Feel free to leave a comment on any of the tips if you use them, like them, hate them or think I should not share anymore! LOL!  I must now leave, friends, to address the LAYERS (more like mountains) of clean (woohoo) laundry that is incessantly calling out to me! Have a JOY filled day and thanks for reading!

white bread

The oldest contributor to the dog hair phenomenon here at the "Ranch" is 5 year old Toby, pictured to the left.  He is actually not a pure Golden Retriever - not that there's anything wrong with that, well maybe in this house there is...but I shall not digress. Toby's appearance (minus the obvious springer spaniel markings on his gorgeous face) is pretty much the same as the other dogs so we just lump him into their breed for ease of explanation. A total injustice to the rest of my Golden canine crew but we just go with it.  Toby was a rescue from Kalamazoo Animal Rescue and we were lucky enough to get him young, right about when this photo was taken of his precious, innocent, sweet little puppy face.  Toby can boast of many things not the least of which is owning a reputation as the "Psycho Dog from you-Know-Where." Let's just say he does not warm up to new canine guests very quickly and is prone to bipolar episodes when his petting space is infringed upon (I know, as a canine trainer I really should be able to get a handle on this - I have GOT to make more time to focus my inner "Cesar" on his issues). Needless to say, PDFYKW will not be considered for pet therapy work anytime soon.  My 14 year old son, for blog purposes we will call him David (as in Beckham - I can dream for a soccer star, right?), decided to try 4H a couple summers back and PDFYKW was going to be his project for agility training in the local 4H dog club.  Giving you some background to this, that crazy dog can jump ANY height of baby gate - yes the 48 inchers too - and clear it without even a skim to the top edge with his lithe little paws and land in the tiniest of spaces. A feat that would surely grant him a judge's score of 10 should there be gate jumping in the next round of Doggy Olympics. Well, 4H didn't work out so well as his psychotic breaks with other dogs and his tendency to chew out of his tether really did not win us any popularity contests at the club meetings (and meeting nights conflicted with other things...).  PDFYKW is now left to solely perform his agility feats for new people who come to visit the ranch and he is able to show off for them.   In a slightly creepy development we also discovered PDFYKW can open door handles like those icky valossel rapturs do in "Jurassic Park."  Thank goodness for Safety First door handle covers - keeps him out of trouble and the Twinkies in in the house!  


BUT, perhaps PDFYKW's ABSOLUTE greatest skill is his insanely accurate ability to know the presence of his white bread (yes, i said WHITE BREAD and in any form) and the possibility that it has been taken out of the bread drawer to be consumed by his humans. Yes, friends, the minute the drawer containing all things baked comes open ~ PDFYKW could be in AFRICA ~ and he would jump the kitchen gate (beautifully, I might add) and be staring you down for the possibility of handouts.  A dog's sense of smell is incredibly sensitive but this is a WHOLE DIFFERENT, and slightly disturbing, deal.  If that drawer opens and you take wheat bread out or wheat hamburger buns or any other baked item, PDFYKW will totally ignore what's happening in the kitchen. It used to really astound me he could be so intuitive. But then I had an epiphany! Dogs learn HABITS and learn by ASSOCIATION...the ONLY person who uses white bread in our home (a whole topic for another day - on ALL levels!!) is DAVID!!! So when David goes to the kitchen - PDFYKW knows exactly what is coming out of that drawer! It took me along time to realize he did not possess some inner white bread monitor or sixth sense solely devoted to white flour laden baked goods...he had simply developed a way, as dogs do, to figure out how to solidify a steady source of his FAVORITE treat! Most disturbing...why WHITE BREAD? Seriously.

You may ask WHY is she sharing about her neurotic dog, her white-bread-only-eating son and the insanity that surrounds her home? Well, because I promised my mother's AMAZING Banana Bread recipe and I'm lovingly passing it to you totally intact, "undietitianified" (not sure that is a word but it's true so I will use it) BUT OH SO TASTY!!! It is much like white bread - alot of calories that have little benefit for your body other than your taste "bugs" and your comfort button.  But that simple combination of sugar, oil, and white flour plus bananas (David prefers his with chocolate chips, even better, eh?) is so yummy I HAD  to share it for you to try the best recipe EVER for Banana Bread! Not everyone likes bananas and if you are one of those people, I am deeply saddened - another recipe may fit your taste "bugs" down the road on this here blog.  I promise healthier recipes to come and I will learn to share recipes more efficiently on this blog!  (I am playing around with how to add the recipe best so if this posts without the recipe linked I will add it later - sorry!). ENJOY (and let me know if you like the bread if you try the recipe)!

Welcome to the JUNGLE!

So, I know the name of this blog is kinda crazy (slightly unappealing and yet intriguing?) but it reflects my life's key ingredients in a nutshell! I have little to no experience in blog development/writing so this blog will morph as I move along, I suppose, and hopefully get a bit more sophisticated! I have had the inkling to start writing a blog for some time now and as I move along in my posts, I hope that it will be worth the effort - for those of you who follow it and for myself!

To address the multifaceted title...we have four amazing canine pals in our home that you will get to know as we move along, thus the "dog hair." The picture by my profile is Sophie, our 3 year old golden retriever.  We have an active home with 4 amazing children. Our ten year old identical twins have a genetic form of severe uncontrolled epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. They require feeding tubes to provide their extensive medicine regimen and most of the medicines require crushing (yes, I run a modern day apothecary right in my own home - impressive, huh?). We tend to have residual "medicine dust" hanging around!  With our many family activities and my own (selfish - yes, I will admit it) interests - I still maintain a fierce determination that we will all eat a tasty, somewhat healthy meal in the evenings. This meal always seems to be dictated by a varied activity schedule often making early dinner eaters out of us in order to "get dinner to the table on time."  I love to cook and have (proudly?!?!) made many a meal for all sorts of friends who have had babies, surgeries, or any life altering event. However, as my home dog population has increased over the years, the potential for contamination from excessive Golden Retriever hair - in spite of my best cleaning efforts - has forced me to subdue my meal volunteer efforts!  So I look forward to sharing some of my time tested, dietitian-modified-but-still-tasty recipes with you for busy people on the go.

With that slight introduction I will end my first post not really knowing how effective it was so - please provide feedback! Tomorrow- when the twins (Twinkies, as they are oft referred to) are back in school - I look forward to sharing a great banana bread recipe with you - straight from my mother's kitchen and with photos! Until next time...