Cooking for der kinder

The Z'ster isn't crazy about hot spices, so we've had to tone down just about everything we make. When it comes to southwest fare, he loves sweet peppers, corn, posole, and beans, but he just can't handle chilis right yet.

And because I'm a Bear of Very Little Brain, it took me a while to figure out the very simple solution to this situation: leave the spice out of the main dish and put it in the sauce, salsa, or sides.

Here's an easy example: start with the Modern Fiesta here at Bon Appetit

Modern Fiesta

and make these easy modifications

Chili-Corn Custard Squares with out the Chili

2 tablespoons EVOO plus more for sauteing veggies
1 cup chopped onion
1 diced sweet pepper (red, orange, or yellow)
Butter or non-stick spray to prep pan
1/4 cup King Arthur whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
2 X 1/3 cup shredded cheese (Mexican blend, queso fresca, or something like that)
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup canned creamed corn (one can makes two batches, so save the rest in Mason jar)

Heat just enough EVOO to coat a heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add finely chopped onion and sweet pepper and sauté until soft and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Allow to cool, because you're going to add to the egg mixture, and you don't want the veggies to pre-cook the batter.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 8x8x2-inch metal baking pan, or spray with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt in small bowl. Whisk egg, 1/3 cup cheese blend, 1/2 cup sour cream, creamed corn, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large bowl. Add flour mixture; stir to blend. Stir in onions and peppers. Transfer batter to prepared pan. Sprinkle remaining 1/3 cup cheese blend over.
Bake until puffed and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Cool completely. DO AHEAD Custard squares can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

Topping: For the kids, they just get a splat of sour cream. For those wanting some spice, mix 1/2 cup of sour cream with a Tbs of diced chilis, or a dash of Tobasco Chipotle sauce, and a squirt of lime juice. The tiniest dash of cumin is also cool, and maybe a dash of Mexican oregano.

Cut into 1-inch squares. Place on platter. Top each square with dollop of sour cream, then small spoonful of salsa. Again, for Z, he got a no-spice tomato salsa, and we got a hotter mix on ours.

Summer squash rice with pepitas, black beans with chorizo, and corn bread with chili.

Rice with Summer Squash and Sweet Peppers

This wasn't hot to start with , so we didn't modify it much. Just added some mild chorizo from the Boulder Sausage Company.

2 TBS EVOO
1 small onion, finely chopped
Optional: one link of chorizo, casing removed and crumbled
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 yellow zucchini, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
1 green zucchini, same
1 1/2 cups long-grain rice, with a dash of salt and pepper
3 cups chicken broth (low-sodium is best because then you can liberally sea-salt it)
3 tablespoons roasted pepitas
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
A squirt of lime juice

Heat oil in heavy large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute about 2 minutes. Add bell pepper and saute another 2 minutes, and then add the summer squash, and cook 2 more minutes. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring frequently, until the sausage is browned.
Add the rice and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom of the pan. Add the broth, turn up the heat to high, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until rice is tender, 18 to 20 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in pumpkin seeds, cilantro, and a squirt of lime juice.

Summer squash rice with pepitas.

Black Beans

The Z-Man isn't crazy about spicy beans or even borracho, so instead of putting a lot of prep into this dish, we just cooked some crumbled chorizo in a stock pot, then added some onion and garlic and sauteed the mix for a few minutes. Then added a can of black beans and simmered the whole thing until dinner was ready. All of the spice then went into the salsa and sour cream topping (same as above, in the corn-chili custard square recipe).

Soft Tacos
This doesn't sound very southwest, but Z. likes the citrusy flavor on the chicken, and it works just fine. Marinate chicken breasts for 1-6 hours in a four-to-one mixture of lemon juice and olive oil, with minced garlic and sea salt. Then grill the chicken per your grill and slice into thin slivers. Add some chopped tomatoes, grilled veggies, and a bit of the rice and sour cream mix from above.

For Z, he gets a quesadilla instead of a soft taco, because he can hold it better. Lots of cheese keeps it together, and a couple of minutes on the George Foreman and it's ready to go.


If your family doesn't have a spice problem, check out the originals here:
Bon Appetit's Modern Fiesta

Weekly Highlights

Here's a quick wrap-up of some highlights in the news this week.

1. Sabores Sin Fronteras, Flavors Without Borders.

The Sonoran Hotdog Crosses The Border

Was just thinking about my dad's comments about the suddenly ubiquitous chipotle pepper, and heard this on the radio about recipes moving back and forth across the border.

Americans' view of the U.S.-Mexico border is pretty narrow these days — basically, drugs and illegal immigrants.

Of course, there's more than that if you live there. There's the area's tasty food — Baja California fish tacos, Tex-Mex fajitas and the newest cross-border concoction: The Sonoran Hot Dog.


2. There's no problem getting enough sun in the summer time, right? Not so fast.

Soaking up more of the sunshine vitamin for improved performance, at VeloNews.

As you continue to train and race for the remainder of the season, learning about your vitamin D status and focusing on your vitamin D intake from food and supplements might actually improve your performance. While there is limited data on vitamin D status in athletes , (let alone cyclists), some experts believe that poor vitamin D status can often be a problem among athletes, and affect your overall health and ability to train.

3. No tomatoes for your pizza? Then how about blueberries?

The Weirdest Pizza I’ve Ever Made, at Bitten.

When Kerri sent me this picture, right, I said “but was it good?” She said “terrific.” I said, “send it.” It’s gorgeous and bizarre, and it qualifies as “pizza,” but … check it out. —MB

4. Are your kids getting enough water? Or, are they drinking too much crap?

Phys Ed: Are Sports Drinks Actually Good for Kids?

No one suggests that, outside of fields or courts, sports drinks are wise. “These are not health foods,” Clark says. “They’re fancy sugar water. You see kids having them with their pizza at lunch. That’s not a good idea.” Sports drinks have been linked with obesity and tooth decay. They’re also expensive. Finally, consider nagging, an underutilized means of improving young athletes’ hydration status. When the kids at the sports camps were asked why they didn’t drink more often, one of their most common responses was, “I forgot.”

5. Simple fitness test: how long can you hold your breath?

Measuring Fitness and Health: Part 1, Breathing, by Dr. Phil Maffetone

Breath-Holding Time is a simple test that measures the overall function of the diaphragm. It’s simple to perform. Take a deep breath and see how long you can hold it. This test is best performed while standing and with an empty stomach. Anyone in good health should be able to hold the breath for at least 50 seconds. If you can’t, it may indicate some functional problem, as discussed below.

6. Summer salad dressing: Cilantro and Green Chili. Mix, enjoy, repeat.

Cookie Time

The boy wanted to make some cookies to take to the folks at his day care center, so he fired up the mixer and went to work.

Now, I'm sure a lot of folks probably don't consider an electric mixer to be a power tool. But in the mind of a 16 month old, apparently it sounds just like a train, a bulldozer, or a motorcycle. He spent the next couple of hours running around making circular motions with his arms and going "vrrrrmmmm, vrrrrroooommmm" like he was still mixing cookie dough. Same sound he makes when he pushes a tractor or rides his scooter.

Anyway, we usually use the recipe from the New York Time's ultimate cookie project.

But we were out of pastry flour. So we mixed it up like this:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1.25 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp kosher salt
2.5 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup baker's sugar
2 Tbs molasses
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
half a bag of chocolate chips, plus a couple more shakes
about a cup of walnuts, finely chopped
sea salt


Follow the directions in the link above.
Two keys:
1) Let the dough rest for a full day before baking the cookies. That lets the liquid ingredients soak into the flour and sugar.
2) Add the tiniest pinch of sea salt to the balled dough right before you put it in the oven.

Michael Pollan in the Times

From this Sunday's New York Times Magazine:

Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch
by Michael Pollan

An interesting look at the relationship between cooking and eating.

Read it now, discussion to follow.

Father and Son

They say the apple does fall far from the tree. Then again, whenever someone isn’t like Mom or Dad, they always say that the factor in question tends to skip a generation. So I guess there’s a saying for everything.

The other day my dad told me that he thought it was interesting that he had made it some sixty-odd years on this planet without ever seeing a chipotle pepper, and now he can’t turn around without bumping into one. You can get chipotle in sauces at McDonalds, in Kraft mayonnaise, and in every brand of salsa on the grocery store shelf. And you don’t have to live in the southwest to find it any more. It’s everywhere.

To my dad, this is an unwelcomed change. It’s a sign that the world is changing too quickly. If someone wants to seek out a foreign new flavor, he should have to seek it out. Stumbling onto it is fine, but having it thrust is our faces is something else. Call it progress, but at some level it’s a sign that the old ways are just that, the old ways, on their way out, being replaced at a rate that some of us are not quite ready for.

And it’s not like my dad is a white bread, steak and potatoes type. Granted, you can count the great Irish culinary contributions to society on one hand, but my dad did live in New Orleans for the better part of two decades. And those folks will mix just about anything together and call it something I can’t pronounce. So it’s not that the chipotle itself is too weird for him; he’s just not crazy about the intrusion of a regional flavor into places where it shouldn’t be, like the center aisles of the grocery store and generic fast food restaurants.

When he told me that he was about sick of having chipotle sauces shoved in his face, he might as well have been speaking Martian and trying to explain string theory to me. For starters, it seems to be the free market at work. There must be a demand for it, or it wouldn’t be there. And while there may be a marginal at best societal benefit to increased Scoville-awareness, I have trouble understanding a down side to people from other here sharing a bite to eat with people over there. And if they can’t share an actual sit-down meal, then sharing the techniques are the next best thing.

Where my dad sees the old, familiar ways being crowded out, I only see the continual process of refining and refining and refining that which we have. I can whip up a tray of blackberry cobbler, but that doesn’t mean I’m replacing my great-grandmother’s chocolate chip cookies, which will always be the gold standard for desserts. I’m not so sure culture is a zero net game. The addition of X doesn’t mean that Y must decrease by the same amount.

But it is interesting that father and son are wired so differently. My dad wants to be able to walk into the grocery store and see everything he expects in the place where it should be. I want to walk in there and get surprised by something I’ve never heard of before, which I will then look up to see where it came from and what one does with it.

This week the Rocky Ford melons hit the stands. And the other day the Greasy Skillet made a cucumber aqua fresca, something I would never have considered making because I like plain old water. Cantaloupe, because of it's high water content, makes a wicked easy beverage that's a lot better for you than Tang or Kool-ade or that carbonated battery acid that's so popular with the kids.

Melon Fresco: Blend all and serve over ice
1 Cantaloupe melon
1/2 cup cold water or one cup of ice
2 Tbs Lime juice
1 Tbs sugar

Or try melon in your next salsa. Any recipe will do. Just keep the melon to about 1/4 or less of the total volume of salsa, and don't blend the melon in a food processor or blender — cut it into small chunks with a knife, or you'll get spicy melon soup. The simplest starting point is like this:

about half a cantaloupe
1/4 cup onion, chopped medium-fine
a handful of chopped fresh cilantro
1-2 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs fresh lime juice
1/2 - 2 jalapeños, finely chopped

Add other peppers, garlic, tomatoes, tomatillos as you see fit.

Don't fear the chipotle, or the melon, or anything else, for that matter.

How they eat at le Tour

Two looks at the kitchens of Boulder's Garmin pro cycling team and Armstrong's Astana team.


Chef Duffy of Team Astana:




And Chef Sean Fowler of Team Garmin.

Five-Star Tour Cuisine for Guys Who Eat and Ride.

Audio Slideshow here.

Grey Skies

The first clap of thunder sounded in the distance, and Z. looked at me with a concern on his face, concern that has no business on a 16 month old's face, and said "Uh, oh ..." When he heard the next boom, he ran to me and said "Up, up," and then grabbed me around the neck.

And then I took him to the window and we watched the rain come down, more like an east coast hurricane than a mid-west thunderstorm. Driving sheets that you can see moving across the field, wind blowing it this way and that. Dull roars punctuated with loud slaps as the rain shifts, hitting the roof, then the east windows, then the front door on the west side of house. But after a few minutes, his fear subsided and he was pointing at what he saw, trying to figure out the words to ask me what was going on.

It's been the fourth wetting summer in Colorado history, which is a good thing for the sweet Olathe corn but not so good for clearing the cobwebs from ones head. Especially when there's a lot weighing ones head down.

So Mr Sun, if you're listening, how about a return engagement sometime soon?

Cookie Time

The boy wanted to make some cookies to take to the folks at his day care center, so he fired up the mixer and went to work.

Now, I'm sure a lot of folks probably don't consider an electric mixer to be a power tool. But in the mind of a 16 month old, apparently it sounds just like a train, a bulldozer, or a motorcycle. He spent the next couple of hours running around making circular motions with his arms and going "vrrrrmmmm, vrrrrroooommmm" like he was still mixing cookie dough. Same sound he makes when he pushes a tractor or rides his scooter.

Anyway, we usually use the recipe from the New York Time's ultimate cookie project.

But we were out of pastry flour. So we mixed it up like this:

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup bread flour
1.25 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder
1.5 tsp kosher salt
2.5 sticks butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup baker's sugar
2 Tbs molasses
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
half a bag of chocolate chips, plus a couple more shakes
about a cup of walnuts, finely chopped
sea salt


Follow the directions in the link above.
Two keys:
1) Let the dough rest for a full day before baking the cookies. That lets the liquid ingredients soak into the flour and sugar.
2) Add the tiniest pinch of sea salt to the balled dough right before you put it in the oven.

Georgia is the "peachtree" state?

Everyone knows the best peaches are grown on Colorado's western slope. There's something about the high altitude sun.

(The whole state nickname thing always cracks me up. Georgia produces around 40 tons of peaches per year, while their neighbor South Carolina produces around 60 tons. So Georgia isn't even the biggest peach producer in the SEC. California produces more than the rest of the country put together, but there isn't enough room on a license plate to list all of the things they lead in.)

Local peaches are just starting to hit the outer aisles of our grocery stores. And there's no reason to we wary of the early shippers. Peaches ripen according to their position on the tree, with the outermost fruit ripening first and the innermost last.

We picked up some Palisade peaches this week and they were just about perfect.

Try any of these once the fresh crop shows up at your grocery store:

A French sweet-and-sour sauce for meat.

Peach Salsa

Peaches and Chicken

Good News for Kitchens All Across the Front Range and High Plains

Good news from Hatch, New Mexico:

Green chile harvest expected to be strong.

(Hat tip to Mad Dog Media Arf Force and Whirled Hindquarters.)