Let Them Use Knives

Recently I was somewhere (can't remember) and another adult was about to hold back the privilege of letting my kids use a sharp knife.

"I think we're past that," I remarked.

And as you see, it's true.


Corn pancakes with black bean salad, fresh salsa, and sour cream— compliments of my 11- and 13-year-old daughters :)



You can find the recipe in Williams Sonoma Vegetarian. Well, maybe not, since the only link I could find appears to be a different edition.



Or you could just make cornmeal pancakes with...

1 1/4 cups flour (use whole wheat pastry flour, if you need a healthier version)
1/2 cup corn meal
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 TB fresh lime juice
1 1/2 cups milk
3 TB oil
2 eggs
fresh ground pepper


And add to the batter...

2 cups of corn
6 spring onions
1/4 cup (or to taste) jalapenos from a jar, or fresh
2 cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper

For the salsa (which you will grab 1/4 cup of later and add to two drained cans of black beans, along with 1/2 tsp cumin, olive oil, red wine vinegar and salt and pepper for the black bean salad), you can use:

1 1/2 cups diced tomatoes
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 jalapeno (from the jar, or fresh)
2 TB fresh lime juice
5 TB cilantro
salt and freshly ground pepper
olive oil (a few good pours)

And if you are up for an adventure, you could let your kids make the meal. Why not let them use knives? :)

In reading The Spirit of Food this weekend, I was struck by the final words of Karen Baldwin's essay. She says, "Stephen has a stirring memory (pun intended) of me cooking one day, entirely absorbed in my medium. All of my senses were engaged—the sight of food browning, the sound as its moisture content changed, the smelling, tasting, and touching of the food. This day he heard me muse quietly, unconsciously perhaps, yet oh so rightly, 'When I cook, it is worship.'"

Yes, then, why not let our children use knives...

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We're reading The Spirit of Food together at TheHighCalling.org. Join us?

Girls, Guns and Twain (plus biscuits)

I recently started a "dinner club" that includes my girls and the girl next door. So here's their first shot at making dinner all by themselves. Chips and salsa (okay, they didn't make that part), biscuits, chuckwagon beans, broccoli and garlic, peach pie.

And if you couldn't tell, it was Western themed. I read some excerpts from Mark Twain's book Roughin' It and they were in hysterics. Their favorite quotes:

• from a story about a gun called an 'Allen'... "If she didn't get what she went after, she would fetch something else. And so she did. She went after a deuce of spades nailed against a tree, once, and fetched a mule standing about thirty yards to the left of it."

• from a story about their ride in the stagecoach: "Every time we avalanched from one end of the stage to the other, the unabridged dictionary would come too; and every time it came it damaged somebody. On trip it 'barked' the secretary's elbow; the next trip it hurt me in the stomach, and the third it tilted Bemis's nose up till he could look down his nostrils— he said. The pistols and coin soon settled to the bottom, but the pipes, pipe stems, tobacco, and canteens clattered and floundered after the dictionary every time it made an assault on us, and aided and abetted the book by spilling tobacco in our eyes, and water down our backs....Still, all things considered, it was a very comfortable night."

Who knew... girls would like guns and Twain? (But everybody likes biscuits.)


Chuckwagon Beans

Mix all and bake about 45 minutes or until thick, at 400 degrees...

• 1 medium onion, chopped (the only thing the girls refused to do!)
• 2 large cans pinto beans (25-28 oz), drained
• 1 cup water
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 sausage substitute, sliced into rounds (we like "Field Roast: Grain Meat Co.", Mexican Chipotle... hot & spicy!)


Whole Wheat Biscuits

Sift together...

• 2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 TB baking powder


Cut in until crumbly...

• 1/2 cup room temperature butter


Add and mix with fingers until dough holds together...

• 1 cup buttermilk (or yogurt)


Roll dough to about 1/2 inch thick. Cut circles with cookie cutter or mouth of a small cup. Bake at 400 degrees, about 12 minutes.

Dinner Club photo by L.L. Barkat.

Sweet as Pie

Blueberries. Sweet on my tongue. Nectarines. Just a touch of tartness. Pie crust. Buttery, crumbly. Breakfast, yes. No, I don't usually eat pie in the morning.

This pie is the first from my older daughter's hands. And it is good.

Growing, she is. Sweet, this is, even as it softly pierces my heart with a little sorrow because it signals a childhood just now beginning to recede.

Still, this may be the best darn blueberry pie I've ever eaten. Certainly that I've ever eaten for breakfast. Knowing that it is from her hands too... well, this is sweet as pie.


(Note: the little cookie-like thing in the center of the pie is Sonia's creation, using some leftover dough. Filled with a slice of nectarine and chocolate chips.)


Sara's Blueberry Pie

CRUST:

• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (we ground ours fresh from soft-wheat berries)
• 1 stick salted butter
• bit of water, as needed

Work butter into flour with fingers until crumbly. Add water as needed, one TB at a time, to make moist enough to form a ball. Roll out on well-floured surface. Don't worry if the crust falls apart when you put it in the plate. Sara just pieced hers together and remolded it. Still delicious, I assure you.

Make little slits in the bottom of the crust with the tip of a knife and pre-cook the crust at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Then fill with...


BLUEBERRY FILLING:

• 2 bags Cascadian Farm organic frozen blueberries (or equivalent fresh)
• a little less than 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• few pinches salt
• a little less than 1/2 cup raw cane sugar
• a few pours of orange juice
• 2 generous TB organic cornstarch

Heat all on low until it begins to thicken. Pour into pre-cooked pie crust. Garnish with sliced nectarines and leftover crust strips. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Eat. For dessert, or breakfast. : )

Blueberry Pie photo, by L.L. Barkat.