Recently in home & food Category

I wasn't planning to make an elaborate lunch today for myself, Rob and our friend Emily, but the fresh produce in our refrigerator was inspiring. Here's the menu:

• Hard-boiled eggs from Heritage Acres in Carson City, Michigan
• Mom's blueberry coffee cake made with fresh blueberries from the farmer's market
• Spiced apples with currants and toasted walnuts, sweetened with maple syrup
• Pomegranate green iced sun tea with lime

It was a delightful summer meal, eaten outside to enjoy today's cooler weather. Hearing the neighbor kids singing as they played over the fence was a perfect dessert.

Inspired by Rob's family tradition of having pizza on Sunday nights and the artisan pizzas of nearby Nantucket Baking Co., Rob and I have decided to go above and beyond frozen pizza to craft our own works of edible art on Sunday evenings. Before describing the two we've made so far, I should mention our Nantucket favorites. Kissing Da Silva has a curry creme sauce with green peppers, chicken, onions, mozzarella and red grapes. The Cultured Brute, Rob's favorite hands-down, has spinach, gorgonzola, mozarella, artichoke hearts and bacon. Our first creation began with word that there was a baker at the farmer's market a couple of blocks from our house who had amazing pizza crusts for $3. They are, indeed amazing. Here are the ingredients from our first pizza a couple of weeks ago:

• Bova Bakery Italian Herb crust
• Red sauce
• Artichoke hearts
• Pickled Garlic that a friend brought back for us from Gilroy, CA, garlic capital of the world
• Monterrey Jack cheese
• Red currants

You can see the Nantucket influence, although we don't usually eat meat at home, so our pizzas will primarily be vegetarian delights. For the one we made tonight, we had access to much more produce from the farmer's market, as well as our CSA share, which started last week. This one included:

• Bova Bakery Green Pepper/Tomato/Onion Focaccio
• Garlic butter bechamel sauce (recipe below)
• Farmer's market green pepper, asparagus and yellow squash sauteed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar
• Fresh tomatoes
• Dill cheese from the farmer's market
• Scallions and spinach from our CSA share

We'll have to work on names that are half as creative as Nantucket. Here is a photo of the latest creation:

In addition to the Rev. Farris' baker's dozen of top rules for parenting, I've come across some good ideas for parenting lately that I thought I'd record here mostly so I can remember them, but also for any others who are interested.

Our co-worker Jacque shared some gut-bustingly hilarious stories last week about trying to maintain a household (with teen-agers) that goes against the flow in certain ways. I'd like to talk with her more about specifics, but two things she mentioned that she and her husband do are:

• Dry clothes on a clothesline outdoors when the weather is nice.


• Take a month off from TV in the summer.

...of course, this is provided we would have television in our house. And a clothesline seems like such a simple thing, but it's really emblematic of frugality, connection with nature, conservation, patience and intentionality. Jacque's kids say, "Mom! Why can't we just throw our clothes in the drier?!" And there's a good answer--ultimately related to holiness.

Also, one of our students has been sharing with me how much she learned when her parents asked her to "earn her keep" last summer by preparing one meal a week for the family. Not only did she come to appreciate her parents' efforts to put a freshly prepared hot meal on the table every night in spite of full-time jobs, she also gained practical experience, learned to think outside of herself on the days she would have just had a bowl of cereal for dinner, and realized a developing appreciation for the significance of food beyond nutrition.