Stay at Stove Dad

We Interrupt This Illness to Recap the Slow-Cooker Virtual Cooking Class

When I was at the doctor’s office on Thursday, he told me that the time to watch for fever is between 5 and 8 p.m., as that’s when it is typically the highest. I was relieved to learn this, because at 1 p.m. yesterday I was set to co-host The Motherhood’s web-based “Slow Cooker Game Day Recipes with George Duran” virtual cooking class. 

The class was fascinating, and I learned more than I expected. Duran demonstrated how to make Fiesta Chicken with Rice and Beans. I couldn’t believe how easy it was. The recipe, which came from Ready, Set, Eat, seemed mainly to consist of opening cans of things and throwing it the slow cooker, turning it on, and then coming back in seven or so hours. Duran even recommended doing it the night before it would be eaten, and sleeping while it cooked. It sounded good to me.

But using canned goods unsettled me just a bit. Sure, I use some canned things (peeled plum tomatoes, sardines, pumpkin), but I try to limit the amount of canned goods for two reasons. One is an unholy fear of processed foods and BPA, and the other is some kind of deeper psychological issue that associates reward with work—maybe it’s some kind of Catholic-guilt thing, but if I’m not chopping vegetables, stirring sauces, and otherwise sweating in the kitchen, I’m not really cooking.

Another suggestion unsettled me too: The first thing Duran suggested doing was to spray the inside of the slow cooker with PAM, to make the cleanup easy. I never use PAM, and my processed-foods paranoia—as well as my gut reaction—told me that it's a terrible idea to spray any chemical onto the food I'm eating.

Then, I looked up what PAM actually is. From what I can tell, it’s little more than canola oil, and I was wrong in thinking it would be bad for me. So I learned something I didn’t expect: that my attitudes might be holding me back a little (see, also, the guilt thing, above).

The rest of my co-hosts on the show had thoughtful, practical questions about using the slow cooker to feed their families. If you want to find out how to keep everything you make in one from tasting like stew (the trick is to sear the meats first), or how to cook seafood in one (throw the shrimp in after the dish is done), check out The Motherhood’s nifty summary. 

The Ups and Downs of Cooking

Cooking for a family can be a topsy-turvy affair. Sometimes things go horribly wrong, and I’m not talking about about spilled milk here. I’m talking something worse. Over the weekend, a certain someone, who might have been so proud of the roasted red peppers he made, brought to tears a certain daughter (who shall remain nameless, in hopes of protecting the innocent). All he wanted was for her to try it. Was that wrong? What about the "eating the rainbow philosophy" for raising healthy children? And don’t get me started on the whole “if they make it with you they’ll want to eat it with you” approach. She practically held the pepper in the flame when I was cooking it. Sheesh.

But there are also high points, such as this morning, when another daughter came trotting out of her bedroom and said “Yummy oatcakes,” as soon as she smelled the aroma from the kitchen. I knew then why it was I get up at 6 a.m. to get breakfast started. Whew.

New Year's Money Saving Tip: Buy Wine by the Case

I don’t make New Year’s resolutions, but I’m always looking for ways to improve my behavior. Also to save money. In recent years, I switched from a credit card that gave me airline miles when I used it, to one that gives me cash back. After I became a father, I simply wasn’t travelling much. Cash, on the other hand, speaks for itself.

Recently, I read a new book, “The Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things With Money," by Carl Richards, and it is full of sage advice, and great drawings. Richards makes a number of good suggestions, and if you’re looking for a book to help get your financial bearings in the New Year, it’s a good place to start.

I have my own bit of financial advice: If you’re looking to save money on wine, buy it by the case. Most stores will offer ten to fifteen-percent off when you do this. I also find it handy to have a few extra bottles of wine to have on hand, in case I need one for a hostess gift or to bring to a family gathering. And if you're not sure what bottles to buy, find a trusted store and ask the staff for suggestions. You probably won't go wrong.

What money saving ideas do you have around the kitchen? If you have ways of economizing, I'd like to hear them.

Post-Holiday Insanity

I've been catching up after the holidays, and it's been a bit more difficult to manage than I anticipated. I'll be back posting next week, and in the meantime I leave you with a humorous piece by a friend, about working off holiday excesses, “The Holidays Are Over, And Now to Everest (By Cross Trainer)!," by Paul Greenberg.

Jan. 2: The indulgences of the winter feasts are at an end, and I have arrived at Everest Base Camp along with my Life Fitness Elliptical Cross Trainer.

My Sherpa guide, Dorjee, joined by his extended clan, gaze in wonder as I mount the apparatus and bring the instrument panel to life. Dorjee points at the "calories burned" meter, which reads a dismal "zero," and shakes his head. Laughter.

Jan. 5: The Himalayan village is atwitter with my activities as I acclimatize, first with care-free "Foothills," then more strenuous "Rockies," and finally... To read more, click here.

Farm Bill? Grocery Bill? Where to Turn?

I run this blog and talk constantly with other dads (and moms) about feeding their families. I put together a book, “Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers Who Cook for Their Families,” which hit the New York Times best-seller list. So some folks might think of me as something of an expert. But there are times when I’m as lost as a wet canine in the produce aisle. For example, I should know about the Farm Bill, that bundle of legislation that affects just about every edible thing on store shelves everywhere. But I don’t.

However, I do know where to learn more: Parent Earth, a new-media company and foundation dedicated to educating parents about healthy food. Part of what they do is informing people about the things our government does, and how that effects what we eat. Here’s a short clip with information about their new program, "Parents Stand Up for Food":

 

Happy Thanksgiving: A How To Guide

As you gather today to break bread, it seems like a good time to reflect on the purpose of the holiday. We have many things to be grateful for in this country, but it's not always easy to express and experience the feeling of thankfulness. John Tierney's article in Tuesday's Science Times offered some tips:

Start with “gratitude lite.” That’s the term used by Robert A. Emmons, of the University of California, Davis, for the technique used in his pioneering experiments he conducted along with Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami. They instructed people to keep a journal listing five things for which they felt grateful, like a friend’s generosity, something they’d learned, a sunset they’d enjoyed.

The gratitude journal was brief — just one sentence for each of the five things — and done only once a week, but after two months there were significant effects. Compared with a control group, the people keeping the gratitude journal were more optimistic and felt happier. They reported fewer physical problems and spent more time working out.

Further benefits were observed in a study of polio survivors and other people with neuromuscular problems. The ones who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling happier and more optimistic than those in a control group, and these reports were corroborated by observations from their spouses. These grateful people also fell asleep more quickly at night, slept longer and woke up feeling more refreshed.

“If you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep,” Dr. Emmons advises in “Thanks!” his book on gratitude research.... Once you’ve learned to count your blessings, Dr. Emmons says, you can think bigger.

“As a culture, we have lost a deep sense of gratefulness about the freedoms we enjoy, a lack of gratitude toward those who lost their lives in the fight for freedom, a lack of gratitude for all the material advantages we have,” he says. “The focus of Thanksgiving should be a reflection of how our lives have been made so much more comfortable by the sacrifices of those who have come before us.”

 The full article can be found here. Enjoy your turkey, and let me know what you feel grateful for.

 

Progressive Dinners for Progress?

I’m busy with a freelance drawing project, and work on it has cut into my time to blog. Nonetheless, I continue to think about the Progressive Dinner I went to on Saturday, and as I wait for recipes for the sangria, gruyere fondue, and Thai chicken soup that I so enjoyed, I want to share another aspect of the meal that I found appealing.

The night gave me a chance to meet many interesting people. There was a couple, who when they were in their twenties, left NYC to open a Thai restaurant in a nightclub in Mexico City; a guy who made his own wine and built the very house he was hosting in; a handyman who worked from home; a teacher of special needs children; and many others.

I liked spending time with folks who I might not have ordinarily had dinner with. We are at a very challenging time in our country right now, and a recent Niall Ferguson article in Newsweek, "America's 'Oh Sh*t!' Moment," points to one of the causes—people on the right don’t talk to people on the left. In order to fix things in our country, though, both sides will have to start listening to each other.

Do you think a progressive dinner pulling together people from across the political spectrum would be of any benefit? I tend to think it might—we all have to eat, after all.

And don't forget about the "Man with a Pan" giveaway. Write me with your Progressive Dinner stories, and if you haven't yet eaten at a Progressive Dinner, write me with a story about talking to someone with a different point of view over dinner. If I hear a good one, I'll throw that into the running for the giveaway at the end of the week.

Progressive Diner and "Man with a Pan" Giveaway

When I was in my twenties, before marriage and before kids, I thought it would be great fun to gather a bunch of friends for a dinner out, and have the appetizer at one restaurant, the main course at another, and the dessert at yet a third.  I thought it was a brilliant idea and I commended myself on my originality. Yet, as it so happens with one's youthful ideas, I never acted on it, and it wasn’t all that original.

There is name for this kind of activity. It is called a progressive dinner, and I participated in one for the first time over the weekend. It was organized as a fundraiser for our local school, and it was more fun than I could have imagined.

We started off with cocktails at one couple’s apartment where picture windows framed New York Harbor and homemade sangria and gruyère fondue were served. I’ll never forget those views, nor the mouthwatering scent of the simmering gruyère. After the appetizers, we went on another home, where we sipped lemongrass infused vodka, listened to gamelon recordings, and ate an amazing Thai dinner. Most of the cooking that night seemed to have been done by dads, and I was very impressed. I'll get some recipes and post them here during the week.

In the meantime, I'd like to hear if you have ever been a part of a progressive dinner. Write a comment or shoot me an email, and tell me your story. At the end of the week, I'll give the author of  the most interesting tale a copy of my book, "Man with a Pan: Culinary Adventures of Fathers who Cook for their Families." Bonus points for recipes.

Does Going Off Dairy Help with a Cold or Cough?

My post the other day that mentioned taking Nina and Pinta off of dairy because they had coughs confused one of my readers. In responding to her, I wondered where I got this idea, and whether or not it is true that going off dairy helps with a cold or a cough.

Santa Maria believes that dairy consumption increases congestion, and an old football coach once claimed the same thing (I know that football coaches aren't necessarily authorities on this subject, but he also said, while fitting me for a helmet, that my head was shaped like a watermelon, and I hate to admit that he was right).

On the other hand, a short article in the New York Times from last year testing this hypothesis came to the opposite conclusion. "There may be a link between milk and phlegm in some people, but for now it is only hypothetical," it stated.

But, Tara Parker-Pope's Well column linking to that article is full of countless comments from people who make the same claim as Santa Maria, and who have found a direct link. 

I think Santa Maria is right, and I'd like to hear about your experiences. Have you found that dairy increases congestion?

Blue Moon Bash

Nina and Pinta have developed chest colds, and their hacking coughs woke us repeatedly on Saturday night. To help them get better, we eliminated dairy from their diets, and on Sunday morning this meant no yogurt (Pinta's usual breakfast) and no cheese (on Nina's eggs). I tried to feed them chicken breasts for breakfast. I knew it would be a hard sell, so I rendered a bit of bacon fat, sliced the breasts wafer thin, and fried them until they were crispy. I presented it as chicken bacon, and it didn't fool anyone. Nina ate a bit, but I was forced to finished the rest. Later, we had dinner with old friends, who were visiting from England. I whipped up frikadeller, from "The Family Dinner," and a variation on my mushroom risotto. I'll be blogging about those later this week, as soon as I get some sleep.

In the meantime, I wanted to follow up on an earlier post. In writing about World Food Day and the idea of knowing the farmer who supplies your dinner, I mentioned the farms in upstate New York that suffered terribly when Hurricane Irene swung through the region recently. My friends at Blue Moon Fish are organizing a benefit to help two of those farmers, Ray Bradley, of Bradley Farm, and Kira Kinney, of Evolutionary Organics. Information on their benefit wasn't available back when I wrote my first post, but things are falling into place now. On Nov. 6, there'll be eight bands, one dance company, and "Alex's awesome clam chowder, lots of food from local farmers and restaurants, and a fab raffle," at Southpaw, 125 Fifth Avenue Brooklyn. Try and make it out if you can. Full Details are here.