Food. Healthy. Diets. Eating. Cooking. Sustainable. Local. All big buzz words for 2010. I have dozens of blog posts ruminating in my head that cover all of these topics - attempts to clarify all of this Food Confusion and help people get back on track. But today, I am going to talk about popcorn.

Twice yesterday, I encountered the tell-tale smell of microwave popcorn. And it got me thinking about how people are trying to eat healthier - but struggle with finding the time to prepare food from scratch. I’m particularly passionate about popcorn - love the stuff. When I make it, I prepare it on the stove in a pot with some oil - “old-fashioned” style. It takes me approximately 5-6 minutes. The only ingredients I use are: popcorn kernels, oil, and kosher salt.

Microwave popcorn, on the other hand, takes roughly 3 minutes to “cook.” It contains all kinds of processed ingredients including: Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Salt, Natural Flavors, Annatto For Coloring, Soy Lecithin and/or Palm Oil and Freshness Preserved With Tbhq and Citric Acid. (It’s pretty cool that you can read the nutrition labels on packages via Amazon.com). In 2007, they discovered a chemical in microwave popcorn that causes lung problems.

We certainly like things to be instantaneous! Even if it means saving us just a few minutes. It never ceases to make me laugh when I take pictures of my nieces and nephews on my digital camera and they immediately say, “Let me see it!” We are so spoiled by technology now that we often forget that it’s the things that take a little time that we usually savor the most in life.

Last summer, I made popcorn for my Healthcorps students who are in their early 20’s. They were drooling over it. You would have thought I made them a gourmet 5-course meal - because most of them had never had it before! It not only tastes much better but it’s MUCH cheaper and it’s made with “real” ingredients our bodies recognize and know how to digest.

We can keep buying “100-calorie packs” and trying to go that route which, clearly hasn’t worked well for us over the past 20 years. Or, we can face the fact that our bodies want to consume food grown naturally - not engineered in a laboratory. Mother Nature’s food. If we cut out the chemicals, we will notice a lot of positive changes in our health including our energy levels, our skin, our weight, our moods and so on. This is especially important for kids - chemicals in processed foods are linked to all kinds of health, weight, and behavioral problems in children. Michael Pollan just discussed how crucial it is to eat “real” foods with Oprah last week.

I realize that it’s not easy to eat completely chemical-free these days. All we can do is keep making small differences in our diet - take baby steps toward a “cleaner” way of eating. Since processed foods are everywhere, we need to take every chance we can to reach for “real” foods - and save the “instant meals” for road trips and weekday evenings when everyone is exhausted.

Preparing a meal from scratch doesn’t take as long as you’d think. A UCLA study found that those making meals from scratch spent almost the same amount of time preparing dinner than those making a meal from partially-prepared, “convenient” foods. While developing recipes for my cookbook, I discovered that making (gourmet) macaroni and cheese from scratch takes roughly the same amount of time as it does to prepare it from a box.

So, next time you’re looking for a snack - instead of pulling out the chips or packaged foods, pull out a bag of popcorn kernels.

JULIE’S HOMEMADE POPCORN
One of my chef friends drizzles truffle oil over popcorn for a decadent snack. You can add all kinds of ingredients and spices: nutritional yeast, parmesan, cinammon sugar, or chili powder. This recipe yields a pretty big batch because I like to eat it the next day or put it in snack bags to take to work.

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I’m into grapeseed lately)
3/4 - 1 cup popcorn kernels (Organic, if possible)
Kosher salt to taste (Kosher or sea salt always trump table salt)

In a Dutch oven (or 8 quart pan), heat oil on medium to high heat. When it starts to shimmer (after a few minutes), add a popcorn kernel. When the oil starts to sizzle around the kernel, add the rest of the kernels. (I use a full cup in a Dutch oven which overflows a little when it’s fully popped.) Cover with tightly fitted lid.

Jiggle the pan just a little bit while the kernels start to heat up (you might need to use hot pads to hold the pan). When they all start to pop at once, jiggle the pan with more force so that the bottom pieces don’t burn. As soon as the popping sound starts to slow down, lower heat, jiggle for another minute or so and pull it off the heat. Salt and enjoy.

For more information on how chemicals in food can affect health, especially with regards to children, check out Robyn O’Brien’s new book, The Unhealthy Truth.

Some people call it procrastination - I prefer the phrase, “working well under pressure.”

Still need a few gifts? Forget the bath salts and striped ties. Buy the gift that keeps on giving — giving you delicious meals that is! Cooking classes, kitchen tools and cookbooks won’t end up on a dusty shelf in the garage. They will help the entire family save money by not eating out and help everyone become healthier - and maybe even lose some weight. They also work as gifts for both genders and every age group.

Another advantage is that you can spend as little or as much as you want. Little kitchen gadgets work well for stocking stuffers and large electrical appliances means you only have to buy one present. The key is to make sure you are spending your money on worthwhile items because there are a lot of random tools on the market now.

Macy’s is having some amazing sales on kitchen equipment - it’s worth looking through the paper for coupons.

Kitchen Equipment

Here are some of the more expensive tools:
Cuisinart Food Processor - I like the 11 or 12 cup but there are other great options.

Kitchen Aid Mixer - Make sure you get the kind with the tilting head!

Chef’s knife - I recommend a Wusthof 8″ or check out Japanese knives as well. (Don’t bother with a knife set - all you need are 3 knives: a quality chef’s knife, a paring knife and a serrated knife.)

Medium-priced items:

Immersion Blender - I recommend Braun but this Cuisinart looks good too. (Try to spend at least $40 or more, otherwise the motor is weak and it takes forever to blend your soup or smoothie.)

Cookware - I like All-Clad pans and Le Creuset even though they are pricey - and also iron pans. Limit how much teflon/non-stick you use (I own only one omelet pan and one skillet and try to use stainless steel or iron pans as much as possible - iron will become nonstick if you properly season the pans).

Less expensive tools:

I’m not into a lot of gadgets so I only recommend items I really think are useful. Here are some inexpensive tools that could be combined for one big present or used for stocking stuffers. Williams-Sonoma has a great selection of small tools and they do some beautiful gift wrapping - for FREE.

Tongs, U-shaped peeler, strainer/colander, microplane zester (for peeling citrus skin and grating), steamer basket, manual juicer, salad spinner (to wash greens and fresh herbs), oven thermometer (since most ovens are not super accurate), pastry brush (the nylon or silicone ones last the longest), wooden spoon, slotted spoon, off-set spatulas, mandoline, grilling or baking tools, measuring bowls and cups, cutting board, or salt and pepper grinders.

Cooking Classes

Some classes in your area may be very reasonably priced. If you want to splurge, you could hire a private teacher to teach classes in the home. You can search online for cooking classes or chef instructors in your area.

Cookbooks

For those of you looking for a less expensive version of the private cooking teacher, I highly recommend purchasing cookbooks that offer lots of kitchen advice in additition to recipes.

Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making you a Better Cook by Jamie Oliver

The Competent Cook by Lauren Braun Costello

How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

How to Cook Everything Vegetarian by Mark Bittman

Julia’s Kitchen Wisdom: Essential Techniques and Recipes from a Lifetime of Cooking by Julia Child

The Americas Test Kitchen Family Cookbook by Daniel J. Van Ackere

Martha Stewart’s Cooking School: Lessons and Recipes for the Home Cook by Matha Stewart

Fast Food My Way by Jacques Pepin

The New Basics Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins

Betty Crocker Cookbook: Everything You Need to Know to Cook Today, New Tenth Edition

Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition

For the gourmands who like learning about random food facts, check out The Deluxe Food Lover’s Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst and Ron Herbst  or Harold McGee’s On Food in Cooking.

I’m headed to the Hazon Food Conference in Monterey, CA next week where I will be teaching several sessions, so stay tuned for my next blog post in a couple of weeks. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

I just got back from the annual Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC) conference which took place in Des Moines, Iowa, or as some call it, “the belly of the beast.” Iowa grows the majority this country’s food but, strangely, Iowans import 80% of the food that lands on their dinner table.  Doesn’t make sense, right?

This is the crux of what’s happened to our food system - our farmers are super efficient at growing food but can’t use their crops of corn and soy to feed their own families. I’ve been reading about these issue for years - but let me tell you, reading about it and standing in a farmer’s field next to hogs are two entirely different experiences. My field trip entitled, “Farmers Tell It Like It is,” which took us on a tour of Iowa farms, was extremely enlightening.

A chasm has been growing between writers like Michael Pollan and farmers who work in the field. I have to admit that I didn’t quite understand why the farmers are so angry with Michael Pollan. But as I listened to Jerry Peckumn, a farmer, stand in his fields explaining how difficult it would be to shift from large, conventional farming to small, organic farming, I realized how complicated it really is. And this is the interesting part: Jerry is into eco-friendly farming practices - he raises what are essentially free-range, organic cattle. Yet, he has concluded that it just isn’t economically feasible to switch over to a more sustainable way of farming. He said he’d be more likely to try it if he had more data but he couldn’t find it. Currently, our government gives farmers only one real option: grow conventional soy, corn or wheat - or go broke. Check out this video of one of the farmer’s we visited, George Naylor, describe why big farms keep getting bigger. (This picture is from a conventional farm - you can see how huge the equipment is.)

Farmers are SMART. They can do something that most of us can’t: grow enough food to feed others. Second, they have an incredible grasp of food politics and the complicated legislation that goes along with crop subsidies. And third, they have mastered the intricate, ecological connection between land, animals, and water - I had to ask Jerry several times to explain why simply planting prairie grass improved a host of environmental problems.  And this was just in the first 2 hours of the field trip!

I could wax on about all of the issues that farmers are facing right now - but I will let someone with more expertise do that for me. Jill Richardson, who I had the pleasure of meeting while on the Farmer Field trip, writes the blog, La Vida Locavore and covers all of these topics and more. I bought one of her books, Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It, right there on the bus. (And please note, that I still think that Michael Pollan’s work is brilliant - it’s important that we see both sides of the issue.)

The best part of the whole day, of course, was being fed a home cooked meal by Chris Henning, one of our lovely tour guides, at the Wilbeck farm, aptly named Farmhouse Life. We sat down to a mouthwatering meal made from local foods: Corn Bread, Beef and Vegetables, Black Beans and Corn Salad, Jack’s Favorite Biscuits, Grandma’s Rye Bread and my all-time favorite dish, Squash Casserole - which was divine.

We then visited a dairy farm, Picket Fence Creamery where Jill Burkhart and her husband sell dairy products and other locally produced food items at their country store. I found it amazing that as her customers walked away with their food, she called out to them by name. What a concept that we have lost in this country: knowing the people who grow and prepare our food by name.

The Burkharts served us each a huge piece of homemade apple pie and their homemade ice cream. (YUM.) Ordinarily, I can’t eat ice cream - it causes me tummy problems. But the Picket Fence Creamery ice cream? I was just fine. This is something that I’m going to continue to investigate: the fact that much of our food intolerances and other health problems may not be linked to the actual food but how it was grown, produced and prepared.

The rest of the conference was incredibly informative and I met some extremely dynamic people who are doing everything that they can to make sure that the food you put on your table is of the highest quality possible.

In the mean time, I will leave you with some wonderful insight from a cookbook I bought at the Burkhart’s country store, Grandma’s Recipes - Recipes from the 20’s, 30’s and 40’s. Here is advice from Grandma Horst and Grandma Hoover:

“There is one important point to remember: Do not feed a child too many cakes and cookies, so that plain foods are slighted.”

You tell it like it is, Grandma!

[THANK YOUS to the Greene County folks who coordinated our tour: Chris Henning, Jerry Peckumn, George Naylor, Chris & Kevin Wilbeck]

I’ve been working too much lately - so much that when I stop working, my brain just shuts off and I have to wait several minutes for it to reboot. One way to give my brain a serious rest is to turn off the real computer, hide the blackberry, and get outside where I can cook over an open fire.

This past weekend, I went camping. Camping was one of the top 5 reasons (after being near family, of course) why I moved back to the Northwest after living in New York City.  After living without a car for nearly 8 years, I realize that it’s not easy for a lot of people to spend time in the outdoors. However, it takes just a little creativity to find ways to prepare a meal outside (anyone that’s ventured through Prospect Park in Brooklyn on the weekend can attest to this).

Whether it means having a picnic at a nearby park, barbecuing in the backyard or backpacking in the wilderness - I think it’s human nature to crave a meal by a fire, surrounded by friends and family. I mentioned the concept in my “Can Cooking Make You Happier?” post and it was reinforced this past weekend while we sat around the campfire, laughing, eating and decompressing.

The importance of eating together as a family has been getting a lot of press lately. With hectic weekday schedules, it can be a challenge to get the whole family together, let alone coordinate with friends and extended family. But with summer finally here and families looking for inexpensive dining options, I can’t find a more relaxing and fun way to get together than to eat a meal outside underneath the stars.

While camping this past weekend, I saw a couple of boys, clearly city kids, having a blast racing tiny cars down a hill over and over again. I asked them if they were having more fun than if they were at home watching TV and they both looked up with huge smiles on their faces and said, “YEAH!”

Outside, sitting with the trees, I found it was much easier to “shut down” the part of my brain that worries about work, bills, projects, etc. And after we ate, I didn’t have the compulsion to turn on the TV or check my computer and blackberry. Instead, we all sat around and talked about nothing of any real importance. The only important thing going on was hanging out with each other and watching the fire cackle.

And of course, the best part of the evening was eating the food we prepared on open fire! Earthy, strong flavors never tasted so good.

So, here’s to cooking outside.  Here are some Campfire Cooking ideas (for mostly car camping):

MARINADES: I called my friend, Elana, expert camping cook, for some ideas and she said they usually bring marinated beef or chicken in a ziploc bag to throw right on top of the grill. They serve the meal along with some Farmer’s Market vegetables and guacamole and chips.

WRAPPED FOOD: Try baked potatoes, portobello mushrooms, or corn wrapped in foil and thrown right into the fire. I love grilled corn - it has such a great flavor versus the usual boiling option but it’s easy to burn so keep it to the side of the flame or throw it on top of the grill to prevent serious damage. Be sure to bring tongs or some other tool to maneuver the hot food.

ON A STICK: The easy route? Hotdogs. The more gourmet, healthy option? Meat and vegetable kebabs. Cut the meat and vegetables at home and marinate them in a ziploc - keep them separate so that vegetarians can make their own meat-free kebabs. If you are able to properly wash your hands, skewer them there at the site and then grill. Also, a few years ago I discovered how tasty grilled bananas on-a-stick with melted chocolate taste together. Or try grilling pineapple (or other fruits) and serving as is - delicious all by itself. And of course, s’mores are a camping necessity!

PAN ON THE GRILL: Bring along a large skillet - preferably iron, since it’s heavy enough to not be destroyed by the hot flames and will cook food evenly. You can cook pretty much anything you’d cook at home - but note how much more flavorful it tastes. Elana loves to make fajitas for dinner and then in the morning, prepares breakfast burritos. She scrambles eggs in the pan and then wraps them in tortillas with cheese and tops it with guacamole. That way, they have enough sustenance to go hiking all day with only a light lunch on the trail.

HAPPY TRAILS!

For more ideas, check out the Campfire Dude.

I’m far from being the first person to write about Amanda Hesser’s New York Times op-Ed article that gave Michelle Obama a hard time for not promoting cooking. Lettuce Eat Kale wrote a thoughtful post about it and ended the entry asking a valid question: how important is it that the First Couple cook meals for their children? Gastropoda and Eat Me Daily were a little more direct and dished it right back to Hesser, pointing out that there are plenty of people cooking on TV already and that it’s a bit of a throwback to suggest that the First Lady spend time in the kitchen.

I admit, as a cooking teacher, my first instinct upon reading Hesser’s piece was that I was glad that someone brought up the importance of cooking, which is a natural partner of gardening but often gets lost in the discussion. However, after a lively online conversation with two colleagues, Lauren Slayton, (nutritionist and owner of Foodtrainers) and Sarah Abrams (chef and cooking teacher), we all decided that Hesser’s message could have been more tactful and offered more realistic, positive suggestions for Michelle Obama and others who don’t like to cook.

Everyone’s reactions were very understandable - it’s easy to feel protective of Michelle Obama and the incredible work she has done by promoting organic, local, and seasonal food by starting a garden AND having local elementary kids work on it. It’s easy for someone like Amanda Hesser, or even myself, who love cooking so much that we made a career out of it to point fingers, but what if cooking does NOT make you happy? How important is it for parents to provide home cooked meals for their children if they can still find a way to feed them well?

With childhood obesity on the rise – is it really the job of our First Lady to provide a retro role model? Perhaps the USDA and the Child Nutrition Reauthorization Act that’s up for re-signing this year could shoulder some of the responsibility. Maybe there could be more funding for schools to have gardens and kids to learn how to cook at school - instead of continuously slashing education budgets and keeping vending machines and junk foods in schools. I would hope that some other people and agencies within our government besides Michelle Obama could take this on.

When all is said and done, I think we are very lucky to have her on “our side.” She has legitimized the work of many of my colleagues by simply planting a pesticide-free garden. For someone who doesn’t like to cook, she has done a phenomenal job of promoting healthy living by her regular workouts and making a point of feeding her children nutritious foods. If parents are able to find a way to provide healthy meals for their children, with or without a White House staff, that should be enough.

So, for those parents who like being in the kitchen the same way I like to clean bathtubs, here are some tips on how to keep your families healthy without turning on the stove:

Sign Your Kids Up for Cooking Classes. If it’s economically feasible for your family, find cooking classes that focus on dishes with healthy ingredients (not just muffins and cookies) which can be a great way to expose kids to the world of cooking and nutritious foods without actually doing it with them. (I couldn’t help putting this suggestion first!)

Create Your Own Cooking Class, for Free. Find a family member or another parent who likes to cook and have cooking play dates.

Take Your Kids to the Farmer’s Market. Explore the market together and allow each child to buy a new fruit or vegetable and if they can read, have them find a recipe online that doesn’t entail much preparation like fruit salad. They can prepare the food while you supervise - this pays off as they get older and can cook full meals for you…

Explore New Cuisines while Eating Out. When eating in restaurants, forgo the kiddie menus and encourage your kids to try new dishes with unique and nutritious ingredients off of the main menu.

Keep it Raw. My mom always kept sliced fruit and vegetables on the lowest shelf in the fridge making it easy for us to nibble on melon, strawberries, carrots and celery after school. A lot of produce can be safely cut with a butter knife, so have the kids help out.

Hire a Chef. I know this isn’t possible for many families, especially these days, but perhaps there is a culinary student who will take a reduced fee or a college student in the area who could cook in exchange for housing or meals. I have a friend who offers a low rent to a grad student who, in return, helps prepare dinner and take care of her son. In times like this, there are lots of barter scenarios that are a win-win for everyone!

You can also view this post on Sustainable Table’s blog!

A few years ago, I was chatting with my Uncle Raymond, the youngest brother of my Papoo Albert (my grandpa) about how they ate as kids. He told me that the family of 9 ate vegetarian meals during the week and saved a meat meal for the Jewish Sabbath on Friday night. I was shocked! People in MY family eating mostly vegetarian? They are HUGE  meat-lovers.

My uncle went on to explain that in the 1920’s and 1930’s, large families could not afford to eat animal protein during the week. They ate vegetables and beans on weekdays and saved up for a decadent meat meal on Friday nights.

Since we are talking about meat and it’s a hot topic, I will disclose my stand on it. I’m frequently asked, “Is meat bad?” And my answer is always the same: “No food is bad. It’s the quality, the source, and the amount of it.” I remind my students that people used to hunt their own meat which burned up a lot of calories and the animals were very lean from running in the wild. And each animal had to last as long as possible in case another hunt wasn’t possible, so 12 oz steaks were not a typical dinner.

I think it’s pretty clear that all of us, including the planet, would be better off eating less meat. However, eating vegetarian “style” can be hard for some people to swallow. Instead of thinking of it as restrictive, consider it as an opportunity to explore new ingredients, dishes, and cuisines. This picture is of the bulk bins at PCC Natural Markets. I realize that not everyone has access to stores like this but I wanted to emphasize how many different ingredients there are to try out and how inexpensive they are (since we keep hearing how health food is so pricey  - which is the case for some items but not all). Bhutanese red rice, Thai sticky rice, French lentils, fava beans, beans you’ve never heard of (just try typing “beans” into the search box at 101 Cookbooks), nuts, and seeds - all packed with fiber and nutrients but costing only $1-3 per pound. Save money and stay trim? Can’t beat that.

For more on this topic, check out Meatless Mondays. Or try out Seattleite, Michael Natkin’s gourmet vegetarian recipes at Herbivoracious. Cheap Healthy Good is also a good resource. I love the cookbooks, Seductions of Rice by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, who traveled all over the world collecting exotic rice recipes and my friend, Myra Kornfeld’s book, The Healthy Hedonist - she has GREAT recipes.

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Last week I was at my cousin Sonya’s house. Her husband, Etan and I created this recipe for veggie burgers using cheap, healthy ingredients that we found in the pantry. I know it’s not the same as a juicy burger for you meat-lovers but I like to think that these patties are something my great-grandmother would have cooked for her family.

Straight from the Pantry Veggie Burgers

Matzoh meal can be found in most major supermarkets – it’s a great binder but you can use breadcrumbs too. And feel free to use whatever you already have in the house – use any beans, nuts, seeds or spices – make sure you use roughly the same amounts as this recipe. The entire dish costs around $10 (plus cheese), will serve 4 people for dinner and still leave you with enough leftovers for lunch.

1 small onion, finely diced
¼ teaspoon each of the following: cumin seeds, mustard seeds, celery seeds, ground ginger, ground mustard
1-2 garlic cloves, minced (or crushed garlic from a jar to save time)
1 small sweet potato, finely diced
¾ cup almonds
¼ cup sunflower seeds
1 15 oz can garbonzo beans
1 15 oz can kidney beans
2-3 tablespoons matzoh meal (or breadcrumbs)
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
Optional: havarti cheese and mini hamburger buns

In a medium skillet, sauté onion on low heat for 10-15 minutes (the longer you cook them, the sweeter tney become). Add spices to onions and cook for about 3 minutes. Add garlic and sweet potato and cook for 20 more minutes or until sweet potato is very tender. (If you’re short on time, combine ½ teaspoon of water with diced sweet potato in a glass dish with a lid and microwave for about 5 minutes and then add to onions).

Meanwhile, grind the almonds and sunflower seeds in a food processor (or use an inexpensive coffee grinder but use a “clean” one that’s only for nuts/seeds/spices because the coffee flavor is too strong.) Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash garbonzo beans and kidney beans with a fork. Add ground almond and seeds and stir well. Stir in 2 tablespoons of matzoh meal, onions and sweet potatoes.  The texture should be soft and form into a patty easily. You may need to add more matzoh meal if it’s not binding well. Make around 16 or so patties – keep them small and thin so that they cook through easily.

In a large skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté patties until golden – about 5 minutes and flip over. Add more oil if necessary. Melt cheese on top and serve with or without buns with a salad and vegetable side dish.

Preparation time: 40 minutes to 1 hour
Yields 16-18 patties
Recipe by Julie Negrin and Etan Basseri © 2009