Teach Your Children Well

And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by . . .

~ Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

We went grocery shopping together just before Christmas. She likes to help independently so we both took hold of our own shopping carriage and pushed them toward the entrance. 

Upon entering, brightly colored flowers on our left tempted me, seemingly in tiny melodious voices, to pick a few bunches for the dinner table. Pretty, but I already had freshly cut holly from the yard at home. To our right, a display case with assorted colorful pre-cut fruit, seemingly boasting their juicy flavors, tempted her to make hasty choices. 

My daughter loves fruit. With eyes wide open, she reached for a package.  

"Wait. Let's see what's available in the produce section which will save us money," I advised her. Yes, it's more work but can be fun when you prepare the produce together at home.

After pushing my carriage around the bustling produce section a bit and now near the greens, I suddenly felt overwhelmed. Perhaps the past few weeks of the holiday season were wearing on me. I looked at my daughter and said, "I just don't feel like cooking. I'm so tired." Without hesitating and with outstretched arms, she said, 

"Mom, look at all the beautiful colors! Look at all the fresh food! 

You don't need to cook - just put fresh food out and

we'll eat like we live on an exotic island." 

When I asked if she was serious, she said, "Yes".

I smiled.  

I felt pretty proud of my daughter at that moment and perked up. Confident she'd choose organic, our norm ever since she was diagnosed with FSGS Syndrome four years ago, we split up and shopped away. It wasn't the time to "preach" about making local choices, sustainability, carbon foot print, and all things related. That time will come (although she's been to plenty of farmers' markets and farms with me to already know a lot).

Baby steps.  

 *   *   *

The above pastel drawing was made by my daughter in elementary school

and hangs on a wall in our kitchen.

I love how the deep red apple in the center

looks like a heart.

Simple Homemade Soup On A Cold and Quiet December Night

A simple chicken and vegetable soup was all we needed tonight. Warm and comforting to all!

Simmer leftover chicken and some vegetables, your choice, in enough water to cover. Add a little salt and pepper. Simmer about 30 minutes until vegetables are tender. Remove chicken and cut up/shred it. Chop vegetables. Return to stock. Add some baby spinach, herbs. For herbs, I like to use parsley and tarragon in chicken soup. Cook just a few minutes until tender.

 

Fresh Cranberry Corn Salsa And Raw Cranberry Apple Salsa

One year ago this month I started my blog and one of the recipes I featured in December was a festive cranberry corn salsa that I used to make mostly from canned goods. That's not such a bad thing, especially if you're short on time. But since I like to control the sodium and freshness of the ingredients I use I decided to make it from fresh ingredients. The salsa tastes great either way though.

Fresh Cranberry Corn Salsa 

RECIPE:

Make a basic cranberry sauce of your choice

The rest:

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro, if you are not fond of cilantro, substitute with fresh parsley

1 Anaheim pepper, or 1/2-3/4 cup, diced

1/3 cup diced red onion

1 cup corn, preferably from frozen bag

About 1 tablespoon honey or sugar, or both to reduce tartness

I started with a basic cranberry sauce.

The heat you want in the salsa is up to you. I chose mild heat from an Anaheim pepper, which is the first pepper on the left below. The middle pepper is a Cubanelle and is mild with no heat and would be a good substitute if Anaheims aren't available. The dark green pepper on the right is a Poblano with stronger heat and usually needs to be roasted to reduce the heat.

I sliced open the pepper, scrapped out the seeds and membranes, sliced into strips, then diced them.

Next, I diced one quarter of a medium red onion.

Total amount of Anaheim pepper and red onion is about 1/2-3/4 cup pepper (or one Anaheim) and about 1/3 cup red onion. And total amount of chopped fresh cilantro is about 1/4 cup.

Mix it all into the cranberry sauce along with one cup of corn. I used frozen organic corn, again to avoid cans (does not need to be thawed).

I let the salsa sit for about 30 minutes to build flavor. After tasting, I thought it was a little tart so I added more honey/sugar. Please buy local honey or know your source - there have been reports of possible tainted honey. 

Fresh and delicious!

Another option for the Cranberry Corn Salsa: the Anaheim peppers can be roasted (to be more like canned chopped chili peppers), see below, like I did to make the salsa with leftover Thanksgiving cranberry sauce. This will make them taste sweeter but also more work! It also requires more peppers to make the salsa. Either way, the salsa ends up tasting the same. If you want to roast the peppers, I used four Anaheim peppers for that recipe.

Mostly organic and local. 

Good Food and Friends!

Food brings people together. We all know that. But it wasn't long ago that because of food I went on an extraordinary adventure where I met a wonderful person.

We met through the web world shortly after we started our food blogs. Through the comments we'd leave, we felt a connection. We started cautiously learning more about each other through emails. After some time, we exchanged phone numbers but neither of us called right away. It took a few days. Then it happened. During that first phone call, we were so excited and we couldn't stop talking! We often talked about meeting some day. Then, before long, we made actual plans to meet in person. Putting my fear of flying aside, I flew to Texas with my daughter and we all just had the best time!

We meet!

Then I met Linda's girls.

Fresh honey was always around.

The rest of my visit, I couldn't stop photographing the beautiful scenery.

We went shopping and
I bought cowgirl boots for my daughter and me.

And we were ready for the Mesquite Rodeo, our first.

Which put me in the mood to buy this new cookbook.

We ate well.

Enjoyed fresh peaches from Ham's Orchard.

Enjoyed shopping at a local market.

Snacked on Linda's delicious fresh black eye pea salsa,
and her refreshing Girly Gazpacho.

Delicious also was my first smokey Texas barbecue.

My first chicken fried steak was a treat . . .

. . . at the All Good Cafe . . .

. . . with colorful origami birds fluttering about the ceiling.

A great way to end my visit.

Yes, it was all good and still is.

I hope you visit Linda at The Orange Bee soon. She has a beautiful blog with great food, photos, and fascinating information about raising bees.