My friend, Kiley, dropped off a big bag of root vegetables that she had inadvertently stockpiled - weeks of CSA overflow. There were turnips and rutabagas and watermelon radishes and a long bumpy piece of horseradish, but I didn't know that when I opened the bag. Apart from the horseradish, they all looked like turnips.
Over the summer when Desmond's swim teacher asked him what his favorite food was, he answered, "Indian food."
I'm not sure if that is entirely true or if that was simply all he could recall eating.
Cookbook author, Anupy Singla is completely responsible for my recent obsession with Indian cooking and my five-year-old's worldly palate. She's an Indian American Mom and former reporter who so, so successfully translates complex Indian flavors to the time constraints of the home cook without dumbing down the dishes one bit. Her recipes are realistic and super flavorful.
I love a good sandwich, and this is my current favorite. You chop up a small handful of fresh basil and smash it into a ripe avocado with a little lemon juice, salt, and peper, and some walnut parm if you have it. You thickly smear that on some excellent toast and top it with drippy slices of summer tomato and maybe another sprinkling of salt and pepper. And you've got a meal. It was breakfast on Monday before taking the dudes to swim lessons and lunch on Tuesday with a side of cold melon. I think you could even stick an ear of corn next to it and call it dinner - perfect for the sweltering days of ripe tomatoes.
Avocado Basil Sandwich Spread makes: a scant cup or enough to generously spread on 4 sandwiches takes: less than 5 minutes
Another bowl of green. Under normal circumstances I would not have immediately followed the (secretly spinach hued) pistachio pudding with a creamy bowl of broccoli soup, but it's St. Patrick's Day on Saturday and my festive food plans this year are for green novelties. Hey look how festive! It's green! Oh and hey I just so happen to want you to eat more green stuff. In response to my holiday food plan, my neighbor declared, "Everything's less fun with Mom!"
I'm proud of this recipe. It's both hearty and light and tart and sweet. It's got warm toasted walnuts and cold creamy avocado and sweet bites of orange that ooze their juices all over the slivered onion and vinegar and brown sugar to make a zesty dressing right in the bottom of the bowl. Married with a tangle of the thinnest ribbons of deep dark collard leaves, a little drizzle of olive oil, and a pinch of salt, you have the perfect winter salad. It's both what you are supposed to be eating and what you want to eat. I love it when that happens.
Also, you should know, I made this for Paul and me, just not thinking that shredded raw collard greens would be a kid thing, but Desmond totally dug it. We had to share. Two-year-old Felix on the other hand, no, but that kid won't eat anything these days. He's terribly two. He's definitely going through that whole exerting his independence thing. While many of his choices (no greens, lemon lollipop for breakfast, arched-back limp-limbed freak-outs) are frustrating, others are totally cute like insisting on wearing his brother's size 5 astronaut costume to school or belting out Baby Beluga when you least expect it. Salty and sweet that one is too.