Classic Basil Pesto

If your herb pots runneth over with a bumper crop of fresh basil, and you’ve already exhausted your appetite for Caprese Salad, there is only one thing left to do. Make pesto! Lucky for you, making pesto is a snap as long as you have access to tons of basil and a blender (or food processor). This version from Bon Appetit is a classic, rounding out the sharp bite of basil and fresh garlic with mellow pine nuts and parmesan. (Just promise me you won’t buy the powdered kind in the green can – we need to have some standards for this!)

The trick to keeping the vibrant green color is to protect the pesto from exposure to the air. Easier said than done? Not really. Once the pesto is ready to store, pour some olive oil over the top which will seal it from the air before you cover it. That should help it stay bright green instead of turning black.

If you have enough basil to make a double or triple batch of pesto, you can easily freeze the leftovers for use later. Simply spray a plastic ice cube tray with cooking spray and fill each cube with a spoonful of pesto. Freeze until solid and then transfer the pesto cubes to a heavy duty freezer zip top bag. Remove as much air as possible from the bag before sealing and then place in the freezer. In January when you’re craving a taste of summer, you can take out as many cubes as you need and savor some summer pesto! Brilliant.

 

Classic Pesto

Adapted from Bon Appetit August 2004

 

Yield: Makes about 1 cup

 

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup olive oil

1/3 cup pine nuts (or walnuts if you prefer)

2 garlic cloves

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt

 

Directions:

1. Combine basil, olive oil, pine nuts, and garlic in a blender or food processor. Blend until paste forms. Stop frequently to push down basil with a spatula.

2. Add cheese and salt and blend until smooth.

(This can be made one day in advance. Top with olive oil to preserve color, cover tightly, and chill.)

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A Fresh Take on the Children’s Menu

as originally published in Cincy Chic

If you’ve spent any time at all dining out with a person under the age of ten, you can probably recite a children’s menu from memory. I’ve rarely seen one that strays too far from the formula pictured here.

It’s boring! But even worse than that, it’s not very healthy. Where are the fruits and vegetables? Where are the whole grains?  Our kids deserve better. So why don’t restaurants simply offer tiny portions of the foods on their regular menu for their youngest patrons?

If you’re thinking to yourself, “It’s because kids won’t eat the food on the regular menu and they will eat those foods,” then I have a question for you. At what point did we decide that there are “Grown Up Foods” and “Kid Foods”? It wasn’t always that way! Back on the farm, Ma and Pa were not heating up chicken nuggets and hot dogs for the kids while they roasted a chicken and made a salad for themselves! Our attachment to “Kid Food” is the result of years of marketing efforts by food manufacturers and restaurant owners, and it has far-reaching consequences. We’re raising a generation of picky eaters.

When babies first start to eat table food, they need to develop their palate to accommodate new flavors and textures. They are instinctively drawn to sweet and salty foods, just like adults are. And the more of those flavors they get, the more they want. So, well-intentioned parents start feeding their babies foods they’ve been taught are kid-friendly (largely by exposure to those children’s menus) and soon their kids are hooked.

Mom and Dad may be sitting down to a meal of salmon and asparagus and wild rice, but serving Junior an entirely separate dinner that they know he likes. It’s easier than fighting with him about trying something new. But the longer this goes on, the more difficult it is to expand the child’s palate and before long you have a picky eater on your hands.

What if instead of this approach, the child were offered the same foods Mom and Dad ate from the very beginning? Doing so would change everything. Children who are exposed to a wide range of flavors and textures early on have a better chance of eating a varied diet that will optimize their nutrition, and they grow up being more willing to try new foods throughout their lives.

So what’s a mother to do? At home, try offering a baby just beginning to eat table food small portions (pureed or mashed up with a fork or cut into small bits) of whatever you are eating*. She won’t reject it as “Grown Up Food” because it will be all that she knows. When you go to a restaurant, skim a little from your meal onto a bread plate to feed the little guys. The portion is probably too big for the adult meal anyhow! For older children, consider splitting an entrée between two of them or ordering them each their own adult meal, taking home the leftovers.

If your children have established some bad eating habits that they need to break, I’d suggest you slowly start to make changes. Add a new food onto their plate each day, leaving at least one of their old favorites in place so they don’t go into emotional withdrawal! For example, serve a small portion of mac and cheese, but add a few bites of chicken and some broccoli along with it, encouraging them to try everything on their plate. At a restaurant, invite them to try what you’ve ordered in addition to what they’ve ordered. Over time, as they learn to appreciate these new flavors and textures, they’ll start asking to try new things!

Let’s re-imagine the Children’s Menu and give our kids the chance to learn to appreciate a broad range of healthy foods. Have patience with them (and with yourself!) through any difficult dinners along the way – it will be worth it in the end when you can all sit down and enjoy a meal together.

 

*paying attention to your pediatrician’s guidelines about when to introduce various foods, of course

 

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Watermelon Salsa

In June 1998 I ran my first marathon. My best friend and I hopped on a flight to San Diego after training for 3 months with the Atlanta chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. The training was rigorous. The race was the inaugural Rock n Roll marathon which has since become infamous for a number of reasons. 1) It was hot. Reeeeeeally hot. 2) It started late, complicating the heat issue and also causing ridiculous lines for the bathrooms at the start. 3) They ran out of water at the first several water stops because more runners than usual took water at the early stops due to the late start. Not an auspicious beginning, eh? Actually, as a first time marathoner none of it mattered much to me. I was on a high from the first step to the last and had a terrific race. Yet after the race, after burning thousands of calories and able to justify ANY indulgence,  I oddly wanted only one thing. Watermelon. Thank God for room service! To this day, it seems when I’m really hot (and probably a little dehydrated as well), I crave watermelon! It’s the perfect food for a summer day – hydrating, naturally sweet, and cold. Yum.

Then, last summer, when I’d just had a baby and  was melting in July heat, my friend Kathleen brought dinner for our family. The main course was grilled chicken with watermelon salsa and it was amazing! I loved the contrast of this cool and crunchy salsa against the savory chicken. It took watermelon to another level altogether. Kathleen graciously shared the recipe with me so that I could share it with you.

Don’t have any marathons or babies in your immediate future? Me neither. But I do plan to make this salsa…often…this summer. I hope you will too.

 

Watermelon Salsa

 

Ingredients:

2 cups (1/2-inch) cubed, seeded watermelon

1 cup (1/2-inch) peeled, ripe mango

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 tbsp finely chopped seeded jalapeno (If the seeds touch your hands, wash them immediately before touching your eyes!)

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

 

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir gently to combine.

2. Serve over grilled chicken.

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