The Smart Bird

Recipe For A Perfect Evening

First, cook yourself some tortellini with eggplant and peppers (recipe here).  Enjoy with a fine Riesling, and finish with a dessert of fresh raspberries and a mini zucchini muffin made by your neighbor's daughter, using fresh zucchini grown by your other neighbor.

Second, go outside to watch the sunset with your daughter.

Third, follow your daughter around as she plays in the dirt and tries to climb walls (remind her that she just ate a lovely dinner of rice, carrots and chicken, and doesn't really need to eat gravel from the driveway).

Last, after your daughter goes to bed, watch Lone Star with your husband.  When it's over, have a short-ish discussion in which you both try to remember what actually happened at the Alamo.  "Davey Crockett was there, right?"  "I think everybody died."  "I went there, a long time ago."  "Cool!  I want to go!"



And there you have it.  The perfect almost-fall evening.

The Greekness

When the weather gets hot, cold salads frequently become essential staple items in our evening meals.  This was a Greek salad I made recently.  The recipe comes from one of my favorite (and most-used) cookbooks: Real Simple - Meals Made Easy.  The recipes are easy, quick and always delicious.  If you're looking for a good "everyday" cookbook, I really recommend this one.

This was my first attempt at the Greek Salad, and I was very happy with the results.  The key, I think, is to serve the salad on a large platter so it looks nice and you can enjoy the variety of colors and textures before - and while - everybody serves themselves.  This salad has everything you would want: tomatoes, dolmades, cucumbers, feta, olives, pepperoncinis - all finished with a drizzle of chopped basil in a lemon juice and olive oil blend.  I added a little rice and a small bit of salmon for protein.  Yum!

Waste Not, Want Not

 
Did you see this article in the New York Times last week?  I just discovered it myself, and it addresses something we've been working on for awhile now: reducing the food that is thrown out (wasted) in our household.  At some point we realized that it was just ridiculous, and embarrassing, to be throwing out food that we had let languish in the fridge until it was no longer edible.  Either because we forgot about it, or didn't "feel" like eating it that night, or whatever.  I'm sure you all have been there at one time or another.  It seems almost a given in the food-rich environment in which most of us live. 

If you find the topic interesting, you might like this blog, WastedFood.com.  And if you're reeeally into it, why not join the Food Waste group on Flickr, where you can post pictures of...erm...wasted food?  (At the moment, it appears there is only one member.  But don't let that stop you).  (Update: I got an email from Jonathan.  They're up to 14 members as of 5/28/08.  Way to go!)  Here's a sample:


In the meantime, here's what we've done in our house.  Over the past couple of years, we've implemented the following steps, and they've made a big difference:

• No more massive, we're-set-for-the-next-two-weeks! grocery outings (a habit I have to admit I got into in Tokyo, where food shopping was a bit of a deal.  You either lugged a bunch of bags home in a taxi (expensive) or had it delivered (free).  But either way it was just easier to do big shoppings a few times a month);
• Writing the date it was opened on certain items that are used intermittently, which means it becomes too easy to forget if they're fresh or not, which in turn means they ultimately wind up being thrown out by default after one or two uses (big jars of spaghetti sauce, mayonnaise, salad dressing, cereal).  Keep that red Sharpie handy!;
• Only buying 2 or 3 days worth of fresh fruit and vegetables at a time, so there is no huge backlog we have to get to but inevitable never do;
• Keeping fruit out of the fridge and in a bowl in the center of the kitchen table so we know what we have, and we eat it before it spoils;
• Buying nifty storage containers, so we're motivated to use them.
• Never buying a loaf of bread until the last loaf of bread has been completely eaten.  And, by association, only buying those little hoagie-size loaves of French bread (if they're available, which often they're not) when we need French bread to complete a meal.  No more buying the full size loaves that you can only eat a piece or two of before the proverbial midnight, when the rest of it turns into a loaf of French cement.
• Ironically, in one area, I've found that making more actually leads to less waste.  When we prepare rice, it's in a rice cooker (natch).  So I found that if I tried to make exactly enough for one meal, I'd always overshoot by just a little.  The result was that I'd have too little rice to save, but enough that throwing it out felt wasteful.  So instead, now I make more rice each time, in the neighborhood of 1 to 2 cups total (after cooking).  This leaves enough leftover that it is worth saving.  We reheat it and use it in another meal, where it gets finished off (I know this is probably sacrilegious to those who live in rice-based cultures (Japan), where freshness is held at a premium.  But I'll address these sorts of bad-Westerner habits of mine in another post I intend to write, scheduled to be called Bad Gaijin).

With just these changes, I'm proud to say we now almost never throw away uneaten or rotten food.  Of course we can't be perfect, and things escape our notice from time to time (like that shriveled half an onion in a soggy baggie I threw out yesterday).  But all in all I think we're doing good.  Really, awareness is the first step.  As usual.

No Recipe Required

This is one of our favorite dishes.  If you keep a little jar of artichoke hearts on hand, which I try to remember always to do, then this meal basically makes itself.  Here's what you do:

    1.  Sautè a couple of chicken breasts in a little bit of olive oil.
    2.  After the chicken is lightly browned on the outside, but not completely cooked on the inside, add 2 chopped tomatoes, 3 or 4 spoonfuls of a good pasta sauce (I'm currently in love with this one, by Seeds of Change), a spoonful or so of chopped black olives, and a small jar of artichoke hearts (I like to chop the artichoke hearts a little bit smaller than they come out of the jar).  If you like, add a dash of the marinade the artichoke hearts come in, for a bit more oil and tangy flavor.
    3.  Cover and simmer for 15 minutes or so.
    4.  While that is simmering, prepare some egg noodles according to package directions.

    5. Spoon the chicken and sauce on a little bed of noodles, and voilà!  A delicious Mediterranean-style dinner, with almost no effort.  Yum.
    6.  Oh, and don't forget to have some fresh blackberries for dessert!

*If you're a vegetarian, you could easily make this with no meat.  It would be delicious with either tofu or tempeh, or just add more artichoke hearts to give the sauce its "meaty-ness."