No more rice....Quinoa Sushi!

I got this message the other day, and considering we eat rice at least once a week it was very disturbing:

Consumer Reports latest food safety investigation has found troubling levels of arsenic in virtually every rice product we tested – from brown rice to baby cereal, even Rice Krispies. And much higher arsenic levels in people who had just consumed rice. Concerned? So are we. Especially since our nation strictly limits arsenic in drinking water but sets no limits on arsenic in most food and drinks – despite the EPA's stance that no level of exposure to the carcinogenic form of arsenic is 'safe.' It definitely turns me off rice, but one of my "go to" lunches for the kids is veggie sushi. I find it almost as easy as making a peanut butter sandwich, just roll up rice and carrot/cucumber in some seaweed, done! And I thought I was feeding them such a healthy lunch, I was so disappointed to not have this option. Then I remembered this recipe I saw on a blog called "my new roots". Its quinoa sushi! It looks beautiful and I am so going to try it! I thought I'd share.... http://mynewroots.blogspot.com/2012/03/quinoa-spring-sushi-diy-quick-pickled.html

Fig-i-licious

As a child I remember seeing figs alone without their warm newton bed as the most impossible idea of anything I would want to eat.  The seediness of the fig-newton, (somewhat like a cheap hotel) couched cozily in the pillow of the cake was always a perfect package -- but alone -- naked -- brown shrunken looking wrinkly dried on a ring or... raw, green cut it open looking not done yet.. no thank you, where's my cookie?

I remember hearing stories how my grandfather hailing from Athens used to play hookie with his brothers and have fig fights at the Acropolis. . . unless wrapped in a "newton" I couldn't imagine that figs had any better use than shot put practice for the Olympics.

Last year, amazingly, a friend brought green figs from her tree in Echo Park to my house as dessert offering for our meal-- I thought to myself -- how long before these ripen and what will I do then? 

Amazingly, after dinner was over - we cut the green figs in half - laid them on a platter with walnuts and some candied pecans.  Amidst a smattering of goat cheese and grapes she squeezed honey right over the top!  Transformed to the clouds of Mount Olympus my Greek ancestors must've been smiling down.  I was trying to see if I could squeeze all the elements in one bite and then found myself pairing the parts -- a fig and a walnut -- a fig and a piece of goat cheese -- could it be? Just a fig with honey and there I was -- lapping up the sweet sticky figs with no honey at all... Hoopa!

The Courtship of Andrew’s Father

The Courtship of Andrew’s Father

Preserving Strawberries- and not by making preserves! ~mimi b.

Nothing dampens the strawberry spirit more than getting those fragrant green baskets home with visions of jams, fresh tarts and strawberry shortcakes, only to discover vague white tips the next morning that rapidly turn into gushy, red, heart shaped blobs attracting fruit flies on your counter.

While honey may attract more bees than vinegar, it is vinegar that will send those fruit flies packing!  Just wash your berries (it's supposed to work for all berries) in a mixture of 1 part vinegar (I used apple cider) to 10 parts water, then drain very well.

Yes, I know, we've always been told NOT to wash our berries until ready to use to prevent from getting soggy.  But just this once, laugh in the face of conventional wisdom and you will be smiling for over a week at the site of your plump, red beauties!

Let us know how this berry good technique worked for you.

Strawberries aka "Heart-seed berries"

Did you pick up a flat of strawberries at the school Renaissance Festival and now you don't know what you'll do with them? Well after I give you some wonderful facts about them, you might wish you'd bought some more. 

Strawberries are a great source of Vitamin C, folic acid and fiber. Just 8 strawberries provide 160% of the vitamin C you need for a whole day!

So what to do with all of those strawberries that you brought home?  

Here are a couple of ideas:
- On your breakfast cereal, yogurt, or oatmeal
- In your salad
- Strawberry shortcake, on your ice cream
- In pancakes, french toast, waffles, etc.

My husband pulled out and dusted off our juicer.  From 2 pints of strawberries he made a delicious 8 oz glass of nectar. 

OK what about those you won't use right away?

Our school principal told me he's making jam.  Yummy!  But if that sounds too ambitious there are so many reasons to cut off the tops and freeze them.  Throw them into your blender for smoothies, add to strong tea for a fruitier quality,  tons of desert ideas but for the grown ups -- summers coming -- margaritas anyone?  Add them to your champagne or white wine.  

As you may know, our children at Wonderland had a From The Ground Up class all about our little red friend the strawberry.  Here are some fun facts they learned.

• The small "seeds" on the outside of a strawberry are the real fruits.   In fact, each strawberry has about 200 “seeds.”  The red, fleshy part of the strawberry--the part that everyone likes to eat so much--is actually the engorged end of the stem that is called the receptacle.   Therefore true botanists don’t consider strawberries a real “berry” as true berries, such as blueberries and cranberries, have seeds inside.  
• California is the only state in the Union that grows strawberries outdoor all year round. In fact, California is responsible for 80% of America’s strawberry crop.
• Native American Indians called strawberries "heart-seed berries" and pounded them into their traditional corn-meal bread. Discovering the great taste of the Native Americans bread, colonists decided to create their own version, which became an American favorite that we all know and love ... Strawberry Shortcake.
• The English and French also found strawberries used the beautiful heart-shaped berries to landscape their gardens. In fourteenth-century France, Charles V ordered twelve hundred strawberry plants to be grown in the Royal Gardens of the Louvre.

 

I recently read that if you save those orange peels and leave them to soak in vinegar for a few weeks, you will end up with a lovely smelling household cleaner. I am trying it, will let you know what happens! Has anyone else tried this?

Beating My Fear of Beets

As parents we tell our kids, "Try it, you may find that you like it." But secretly I’ve held onto some of my “yucks” without trying again.

Growing up – I thought beets just came in rings from a can. No wonder I didn’t like them and in restaurants they seem to bleed all over my iceberg…not my favorite lettuce, I might add. It was from my childhood “yucks” that it took me a long time to get over the realization that those beets totally undermined the taste and nutritional value of freshly grown organic beets. Turns out they’re bloodiness is symbolic of the fact that they’re extremely good for fighting heart and blood diseases. So I went around asking my beet loving friends how they handle.

Our school principal and esteemed foodie blogger told me that the easy way to roast beets is to wash them and wrap them in aluminum foil with just a few drops of water in a hot oven for about 45 minutes. Then the skin will sluff off and sprinkle with favorite vinegar and some salt. He said you can use it over the next few days.

My friend Sara doesn’t even wash them. She steams them on the stove for about 45 minutes. I tried it and lo and behold the skin DOES sluff right off. I  then cut it up with some heirloom tomatoes, sprinkled a little feta and balsamic and had an amazing salad. I found that the tang really offset the earthy flavor of the beet. Another friend of mine suggested that next time I add mandarin oranges or tangerine slices. I went online and it looks like someone came up with a great recipe with arugula, for crying out loud, YUM!

That sounded so good that I shaved a raw beet and threw it into the blender with all fruit I could find in the fridge. In went oranges, pears, strawberries, kiwi and frozen banana and the kids were sucking it down without any awareness of the root vegetable they turned their noses up at a few days earlier. Turns out the New York Times had a recipe for that all along. Hmmm, next time I might add granola.

When I think of my beet "yucks" I think of my brown bread upbringing and of the neighbors on the fifth floor of the New York apartment building where I grew up,  Seems like they always had borscht on the stove. The variety can range from one of eastern Europe to the other from beef shank to cabbage to dollops of sour cream. Hot borscht/ cold borscht/ day old borscht/ new borscht -- I managed to always say I had to be home for dinner when that family invited me to stay.   

But maybe I’ll find a pro to make it for me so I can have GOOD borscht and see if I can learn to distinguish it from the eastern European variations that scared me off as a kid. Similarly if you peruse online there are quite a few appetizing beet soup recipes but I like asking friends for their tried and true recipes best.    Got any to share?