Family & Home

Welcome the Holiday Season with Christmas Empanadas

This is the time of year that finds most people elbow-deep in sugar, butter, vanilla and sprinkles, baking sheet after sheet of Christmas cookies. Me? Not so much. Not that anything would surprise you at this point, but I find myself elbow-deep in something of a more savory nature. Olives, cumin, egg, and ... you guessed it: beef. This is the time of year I make empanadas. Christmas empanadas. OK, maybe it doesn’t have quite the alliterative ring to it that Christmas cookies does, but I don’t think anyone is in a position to quibble with a Christmas empanada.

Read more »

Micaela Preston Helps Keep it Simple and Green for the Holidays

Although it's a year old now, I find myself returning to Micaela Preston's excellent book, Practically Green, on a regular basis. Subtitled "Your Guide to Ecofriendly Decision-Making," Practically Green is a small, handy, good-looking book intended to make it easy to be green (sorry Kermit, couldn't resist). The book doesn't pretend to be a comprehensive guide to green living, local food, recycling, or anything else. It's not political or didactic; it doesn't preach or make me feel bad about what I'm not doing better. Practically Green includes broad, easy-to-follow sections (Eating, Living, Cleaning, etc.), with loads of specifics suggestions for things to buy and make. 

Read more »

Getting to Know the Minneapolis Public Schools Food Service Department, Part Two: Small Changes, Big Improvements

When I ask Nicole Barron and Irfan Chaudhry from the Minneapolis Public Schools Food Service Department how parents can help support their efforts to improve the food in Minneapolis Public Schools, the frustration in their voices is obvious. "Be patient," they tell me, "and get the facts before jumping to conclusions. Be open to being wrong in your assumptions, and try to see the change that's happening."

Read more »

Happy Thanksgiving - Eat, Drink, and Don’t Worry

Thanksgiving, and the holidays in general, can be a daunting time for those who are watching their waistlines. With so many food-focused festivities taking place bam bam bam, sheer terror strikes many a heart. Yet terror is antithetical to what the holidays are about and that terror can do way more harm than pumpkin pie lovingly crafted with butter crust and topped with real whipped cream.

‘Tis true, most of us eat more on Thanksgiving than we do on a typical day, but this doesn’t mean you’re going to gain weight. According to Dr. Andrew Weil, world renowned leader and pioneer in the field of integrative medicine, “Fortunately, the idea that Americans put on between five and 10 pounds over the holiday season is more myth than reality. A National Institutes of Health study published in 2000 showed that the average holiday weight gain is just over one pound.”

Going Rogue

Read more »

Impossibly Delicious Pumpkin Desserts for Thanksgiving

Pumpkins and other squash have been accumulating in my house since early October, so with Thanksgiving approaching, I decided to put them to the use they were intended for: delicious baked goods.

The first recipe below is so easy a child could make it (all right, maybe not a small child) -- I've been making it since I was in middle school, when I found a fast, easy pumpkin-pie recipe that didn't even bother with a crust (which I viewed as an annoying impediment to the pumpkin custard filling). I've been making it ever since.

Back then, I made the pie with canned ingredients. Nowadays the process is a little more involved, but a lot more tasty. A few years back I decided to experiment. I roasted a pumpkin from the Eastside Food Co-op and made my usual pie recipe. I expected it to be less good than one made with canned pumpkin. Turns out I was wrong. I'll never go back.

Read more »

Getting to Know the Minneapolis Public Schools Food Service Department, Part One: the Overwhelming Need for Good Food

"Sorry I'm late," Nicole Barron, Food Services Accounting and Business Services Manager for Minneapolis Public Schools tells me. "There was a baby food recall, and I had to run over to Target to see what they had left and make sure it got over to the schools."

"Baby food?" I ask jokingly, cluelessly. "Is that for my kids?"

"I don't think so," Nicole answers, "it's for high school kids who have babies and need to feed them during the day."

The depths of my lack of understanding are only starting to become clear. Students with babies? We're just barely scratching the surface.

Read more »

What's So Bad About Ice Cream For Breakfast?

One morning last week, after getting my kids on the school bus, I returned to my computer and posted this quick note to Twitter and Facebook:

just when you think you've seen everything, a 3rd grader shows up at the bus stop eating an ice cream cone for breakfast

Read more »

Secrets and Confessions of an Argentine Carnivore

For someone with a bacon mustache in her bio picture, I realize I have written precious little about meat here in these Simple, Good, and Tasty pages. My swooning and waxing poetic about squash, asparagus, garlic scapes, rhubarb, blueberries, apples and tomatoes (oh, sweet tomatoes) may lead you to believe that I am a feeble carnivore indeed. It just goes to show how eating with the seasons, along with myriad benefits lauded every day here at Simple, Good, and Tasty, has the added perk of increasing one's consumption of fruits and vegetables. To pay attention to what is most ripe and fresh at the farmers market inevitably gets my wheels turning and inspires me to figure out ways to cook and eat those beautiful foods.

Read more »

Support Fair Trade Month with Halloween Treats that are Easy to Stomach

For us at Simple, Good, and Tasty, Halloween turns out to be a little bit problematic.

Most of the reasons for this are pretty obvious: most candy isn't local, isn't healthy, and isn't fair trade. Last year's post about fair trade chocolate and reverse trick-or-treating elicited strong response from readers who wanted to enjoy their treats without feeling guilty about it.

Read more »

Your CSA Box: A Mark Bittman Double Header

My last CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box of the year from Foxtail Farm was both a festival of fall and a chock full of vitamins: garlic, bok choi, broccoli, turnips, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, winter squash, peppers, Brussels sprouts, and onions.

Read more »
Syndicate content