Sometimes a Sandwich is Just a Sandwich

My daughter is getting kind of sloppy with her food. She makes messes of her meals now. On purpose. I'm all in favor of creativity and everything, but sometimes a sandwich is just a sandwich. Up till now she has been a very, very neat eater. She is careful, wipes her hands and mouth, and rarely spills crumbs. If she came close to making the slightest mistake (such as missing her mouth with the spoon) her dad would have a spike in his blood pressure. We used to argue a little bit about it, because I didn't want her to feel afraid to make mistakes. Ever. Ever in life. And often I would smile that knowing little smile to myself because I clean the table, and his spot is often messier than hers.

So I've been pretty loose about food rules. But there is a time and a place to play with your food, and it's not all the time. And it's starting to bug me. Take the sandwich example. As requested by my beloved daughter, I made her a sandwich. I love sandwiches. They are like architecture sometimes. And every bite can be different. I love that. Anyway, she promptly took the sandwich apart, tore the bread into pieces, and arranged the other ingredients on her plate as she saw fit. And I could just tell she was going to sit there and move it all around for about 6 minutes, and then say, "I'm done!"

Well, I just couldn't have this. I built that sandwich with my own two hands! I think the thing that makes me the most angry in this household is when I lovingly and sometimes laboriously prepare food for the other people who live here, and then they don't appreciate it. It makes me burn. I think there is a chapter in the "How to Make Your Wife Really Pissed Off" manual for men that addresses this tactic head on. "After your wife makes your favorite meal (but more healthy, because she cares about you so much), serves it at the time when you are ready for it, and then sits down with you to listen to your mind-numbing work stories, then you should go grab the barbecue flavored chips, because that is just what this meal needs." And that, my fellow man, is how you piss off your wife.

I'm not naming names, I'm just saying, that happened to someone I know.

Food issues, food issues. There are countless things going on in my head when I attempt to write about food. Food is symbolic of so many cultural and psychological things. It has an immense amount of meaning, every thing that you put in your mouth. Think about it. But you just came her to see pictures of Ariel & the cake.

As long as your still here, slogging through my "brain traffic," as MamaLucy's blog is titled, I will continue with my literary tidings.

I spend much of my brain power thinking about what, when, and where to feed my child. She is hungry almost all of the time. This is a good thing. Food makes her grow, and it's my job to provide. These are the things modern moms think about: hormones, pesticides, herbicides, bacteria, factory farming, price, high fructose corn syrup, whole grains, how to get to the store, frequency & quality of bowel movements, water intake, hand washing, and how to get them to eat vegetables. To name a few.

Yesterday Ariel and I had a wonderfully blissful morning, the kind of morning mothers dream about before we are mothers. I was elated, and so when she asked for cake at 10:00 AM, I said, "Sure! Why not?"

This morning at 10:00 AM she asked for ice cream.

ME: "No, we can't have ice cream for breakfast."

ARIEL: "Why not?"

ME: ?????... I read somewhere that people in China sometimes have ice cream for breakfast. Why not? "Um... because we have to eat other healthy food first. I'll tell you what: if you eat some broccoli for breakfast, then you can have ice cream." Of course she will forget all about this ridiculous promise.

A half hour later, Ariel is asking for broccoli. She eats broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, and red bell peppers. Plain and just par-boiled. I am astounded, having forgotten about my earlier promise.

ARIEL: "I want ice cream."

Weather Conundrums, and Guilty Pleasures

It is a typical spring day in Minnesota: I have changed clothes three times already, to accommodate the weather changes. I will probably change again when the sun goes down.

It was cool and rainy in the morning, and the kids are sick so I wanted to make a big pot of soup. But the weather forecasters are telling us it will be 90 in about 5 hours. A big pot of hot soup would be a waste. What to make? Vichyssoise! Potato soup is one of my favorites because it can be eaten hot or cold. The baby can it plain, and I can spice mine up with hot sauce and a drizzle of olive oil (note my artistry in photo above). Also note my culinary artistry with fresh spring herbs from my garden: savory, tarragon, and chive blossom. Mmmm....

Also today I am in the process of making red velvet cake, using this recipe. It is inspirational, I tell you. I just found out that you can make cakes just for fun! Who knew?

Well, actually, I do have a guilty little reason for making this cake. My daughter got a fever this week and I didn't take her to the doctor because I wasn't really very worried. But she stayed sick, so I finally took her in and she has strep throat. So I felt really bad for not taking this more seriously, and I bought her presents, and now I am making a cake. I think that makes up for being somewhat negligent, don't you?

Mu Shu Pork Report

The more I learn about Chinese cooking, the less I know. Except that I KNOW when my Chinese cooking is BAD. According to the best Chinese cooks, American Chinese food is "gloopy and gloppy." Yes, yes, it is. And in that tradition, I made some very gloopy and gloppy mu shu pork.

Texture is extremely important in Chinese food. It must be balanced, and it must be equal in flavor to the experience of eating. How food FEELS in your mouth is very much a part of the success of a dish.

I have not mastered this.

Not that I really need to MASTER it. But, I mean, now that I know what I know, I can't help but seriously criticize my Chinese cooking.

It is very discouraging. Some things should just be saved for the experts.

Like, when I had to decide whether or not to immunize my child. I read a book about it and got seriously freaked out. I decided that her pediatrician (also a friend of the family's) had the authority to decide, and I will just go along with it. I am not a pediatrician.

However, really good Chinese food is very, very difficult to find in a restaurant in the U.S. I have only had it at The Golden Buddha, in Capitola, California. Eating there with groups of friends sharing dishes, I had to stop being a vegetarian, just so I could experience all the wonders of meat dishes (my friends would roll their eyes at me when I said I wouldn't share a meat dish -- sometimes I would rather have friends than ethics). The mu shu at Golden Buddha was unforgettable. I would link you to their website, but as I have said before, restaurant websites are terrible.

P.S. No picture of gloopy, gloppy mu shu. I am sparing you the grossness of bad food photography.

Success again! I made another tortilla de patata with mushrooms and asparagus. Not as uniform in shape or texture, but still a very nice one-dish meal for dinner. I love tortilla de patata! You really should try it.

What to do with all the dill in my garden? I saw a recipe on New Scand Cook that was one of Julia Child's when she lived in Norway. I tried it out with frozen tilapia from CostCo, and it worked wonderfully. If you are not brave about raw fish, this is not for you. It took a lot of guts to eat it, but it was delicious!

Cured Fish -- a type of Gravlax:

Cut fish however you like, I like chunks as in ceviche.
Toss with equal parts sugar and salt, and dried dill. Drizzle a few drops of rice wine over it, to get the curing started.
Marinade for 30 minutes.
Add LOTS of fresh dill.
Eat with crackers or just a fork!

I tried a similar thing with already-cured smoked salmon (lox) and it was not so good. Lox really needs no additions.

Tonight I am going to try mu shu pork for the first time. Good Luck, Jocinda!

P.S. I don't know how to post photos in the right order.

The Great Thing and The Neat Thing

News! I made Tortilla de Patata alla Carmen de las Casas, and it was great! The family devoured it (i.e. no leftovers). I was really surprised at how easy it was for me to flip the tortilla. Success!

In other news, I have been reading a lot about cooking and family. Hungry Monkey is particularly interesting. The great thing is that there is so much out there on the Internet to eat up (no pun intended). And the neat thing is that there are a lot of people out there who share the same values as me, as us. I mean, there's a lot to celebrate about humanity.

For example, Orangette reports on how happy she is to have her grandma's recipe box. I can totally relate to that. She goes on to describe the notes grandma kept, dated notes listing the menus she served at specific dinner parties, and who attended. To me, this is a truly fantastic treasure. And it's cool to know there are others out there who share this love of the little things, the little records that people keep of their day-to-day lives.

In even more news (well, not really news, but just something to share), Ariel and I made cookies today, and as the forgetful woman that I am I forgot to push up her sleeves when she packed the brown sugar, and I forgot to grease the cookie sheet.

Yesterday, I got out of the shower and forgot if I washed my hair. I love being me!

Creative Gruel, plus Restaurant Web Sites!

I have continued to experiment with rice cooked in water. I have made a variety of broths and ingredients for white rice porridge. Deviating from the simple is usually a mistake. I have not tried brown rice (I just think, yuck!) I WILL try Wild rice one of these days. I tried purple rice, which used to be available at the United Noodle. It made a gruel that was delicious, but just kept puffing up and getting bigger and bigger. Too much too eat.

I first had purple rice at Nokomis Restaurant on the North Shore. It was paired with a lake fish in coconut milk. It was so great, that every bite I took, I just relaxed and went, "Ahhh...." I was amazed and delighted. Have you ever been to a restaurant and had a dish that you never forgot? Like, you were just sent to Heaven for a little while and never wanted to leave? Nokomis gave that experience to me. Not only was my food fantabulous, but so was the atmosphere. It was low-lit, and calm, with diners who were vacationing on or around Lake Superior.

I tried to recreate that dish at home, with some success. I wish the chef would publish the recipe. Their website was no help.

Lately, I have been looking at restaurant web sites. Mostly because I want to find good places to eat. Since I don't get to go out to eat very often, and I LOVE to go out to eat, I want to find the places that are going to satisfy me the most. I don't want to do a restaurant review blog, but I'm starting to think there might be a need for a blog that compares restaurant web sites with the actual restaurant.

First of all, what browser are these web sites created with? I know I need reader glasses, but seriously! I have to push Command + about 4 times just so I can read them. And why is it hard to find menus on some sites, and reservations on others?

Plus, as a mom, I have to find out if this place is kid-friendly. PLEASE, people, just state that up-front.

Lastly, the photos on restaurant web sites are always so elegant. And then it turns out the place is just like a diner or food hall.

Oh, well, what do I expect? This is America.

Oh, BTW, I just watched the documentary movies "Corn King" and "Food, Inc." It's no wonder my Grandpa got out of farming.