Home Grown Nutrition

I am lucky to have so many wonderful Mom folk  in my life.  I would like to say Happy Mother’s Day to you all by sharing a few thoughts and memories of some of my favorite Moms.

My Mom in law – who makes Sunday dinner for the whole family every week, rain, shine, hail or screaming stomping grandchild. Thank you for truly welcoming me into your family and giving me the gift of family traditions.

My sister (poo-pooh!) – who has more grace and patience as a single mom than I can conjure even on my best day. Thank you so much for always being the wild card, bravely putting yourself out there and not apologizing for it, diverting attention from me while I screw up quietly in the corner.

My best friends Toni and Mandi – One who nursed her 3 month old baby while helping me get ready to be married, and one who flew across the country for a girls weekend and ended up watching her baby take his first steps on her ipad (Lil’ Turkey!).  Thanks for always being there even from so far away.

My Grandma – who homesteaded in Alaska in the 1950s, feeding her family of seven creatively with, apparently, only foraged mushrooms, spam, rhubarb and the occasional potato.  Yikes! Thank you for telling me the infamous “pregnant teenager who was going to have to strap a baby to her back and scrub floors” story about 100 times. I’m pretty sure that’s the reason I waited until I was 34 to have a baby. Thank you.

And finally my mama – who I vividly remember waking me up in the middle of the night so that I could meet my brand new baby sister, even though I was 3 years old and probably didn’t go back to sleep that night. Thank you for being my mom and also my friend.

Since I am dedicating this post to my mama – I wanted to share a simple recipe for a picnic at the beach with your mom(s).  My mama has always loved the beach at Golden Gardens, so I always think of her when I am there. My daughter likes to look at pictures of beaches in her storybooks and shout “BEACH! I go to BEACH!”  So I thought she might enjoy a picnic at the beach with her mama.  A word of advice: when suggesting a beach picnic to a 2 year old, you should be fully prepared to depart to the beach immediately, or be subjected to the aforementioned shouting continuously until it is time to depart.

In this picture we are enjoying our beach picnic.  At 9:30am.  In Seattle, May is not a warm month. Nevertheless, we enjoyed ourselves for a full 10 minutes before decamping to the nearby playground.  Here is our simple picnic menu.

Spring Picnic at the Beach

*Peanut butter and jelly tea sandwiches for kiddies (Adams pb and strawberry jelly all the way)

*Triple cream brie and breakfast radish tea sandwiches for moms

*Mandarin oranges (separated into one pile “with seeds” and one “no seeds”)

*More breakfast radishes

*Roasted almonds and dried cherries

Spread blanket, place food on tray, fend off seagulls and crows by wearing shiny metallic ribbons in your hair.  Do not, I repeat, NOT, try to fend them off by throwing food at them. You will be sorry. Enjoy your picnic!

I love dinner.  And I like to cook, so you would think that dinnertime in my house would be a happy time.  Tasty food, a glass of wine, witty banter – what’s not to like?  Here’s what – a tiny person who wants to sabbotage dinner.  That would be my sassy 2 year old who would gladly subsist solely on wee crackers shaped like animals, and thinks dinner is an evil plot to make her sit still in a chair and watch her parents try to have a conversation about something other than bodily functions.  The sabbotage begins while dinner is being made.  It goes something like this…

Scene: my kitchen. Potatoes are boiling, oven is heating, I am taking sausage from fridge and preparing to wash asparagus.

little goose: “Mommy mommy! I want to play frow up!”

acacia: “You want to play what?”

little goose: “Make my dollies frow up mommy!”

acacia: “You want me to make your dollies throw up?”

little goose: “YEAH!!!”

acacia: ” Eeewww.” sigh “Ok.”

5 minutes later, back in the kitchen washing asparagus. Asparagus goes in oven, potatoes are mashed, pan is heating for sausages.

little goose: “Mommy mommy! I want a snack.”

acacia: “No snacks, It’s almost time for dinner.”

little goose: “I want something else!”

acacia: “I didn’t even tell you what’s for dinner yet.”

little goose: “I don’t like dinner! I WANT SOMETHING ELSE!”

acacia: “But we’re having sausages for dinner!”

little goose: “I want sausage now. I want to play dollhouse. I want to watch strawberry shortcake. Uh-oh, I pooping.”

5 minutes later, back in the kitchen opening bottle of wine so it can “breathe”… Pouring glass of wine. Drinking wine.  Sausages in pan, asparagus out of oven, table almost set.

little goose: “Daddy’s home!”

acacia: “Hi, how was your day? Did you get the mail? Sausages for dinner. Let’s wash little goose’s hands!”

RJ (daddy): “Good. Yep. Yum sausages! Let’s wash your hands little goose!”

little goose: running away and giggling “NO, hee-hee! I hiding!”

RJ: sigh “Is that wine?”

We did finally have dinner that night, and little goose ate 3 bites of sausage, before declaring “I’m done” and (by the way mommy) “I don’t like dinner.”  So yes, its a tough audience, but I still love dinner. 

Here is my current favorite dish – its a great side at dinner, or one dish lunch.  Its pretty adaptable – use your favorite seasonal vegetable(s) with the potatoes.  My favorite is purple sprouting broccoli, which no one sells so you pretty much have to grow it yourself.  If you’d like to have this dish with purple sprouting – start some seeds now, plant them out in a month or so, and voila – next March you’ll have some purple sprouting broccoli!  In the meantime try it with regular broccoli, asparagus, zucchini, kale - you get the idea.

Potato Salad with Parsley-Mint Pesto (makes about 4-6 servings)

1.5 – 2 lbs Yukon gold or red potatoes – cut in about 1″ pieces

Olive oil

Kosher or sea salt

3 Cups Seasonal vegetable (broccoli, radish, asparagus, etc.) – cut bite size

1/2 Cup Roasted almonds (plus some for garnish)

2 Cups Parsley

3/4 Cup Mint leaves

1 Large Garlic clove

1/4 Cup parmesan chunks

1/4 Cup water

2 tsp Cider vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 Tb Capers – drained and roughly chopped

1 Tb minced shallot

3 Hard boiled eggs (put in COLD water, boil, turn off heat, wait 10 min.)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Put potatoes on a large rimmed sheet pan and toss with 1 Tb olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt. Roast for 15 minutes.  Meanwhile, toss your chosen vegetable with 1 Tb olive oil and 1/4 tsp salt.  After 15 minutes, toss the vegetable mix into the potatoes and continue to roast 5-10 minutes, until veggies get some golden crispy edges.

For the pesto: combine the parsley, mint, garlic, parmesan, 1/2 cup roasted almonds and 1/4 tsp salt in food processor.  Pulse to chop everything up into small chunks.  Add 1/2 Cup olive oil and process to a chunky paste.  Add 1/4 Cup water and process just to combine. 

In a medium bowl combine 1/2 Cup of the pesto with the vinegar, dijon, capers and shallot.  Chop the hard boiled eggs and add to the bowl with the dressing.  Add the hot vegetables and toss.  Taste and season as you like with salt, pepper, more pesto, etc. and garnish with additional chopped almonds.  Eat this warm, room temp or cold. YUM.

NOTE: Save remaining pesto in fridge for up to a week, or freeze for later. Its great in vinaigrettes, spread on crusty bread, or tossed with hot pasta too.