St. Martin

Yesterday was my first “make-a-mess-with-construction-paper-and-glue-to-create-something-that-your-kid-is-supposed-to-have-made” experience. Greta happily set and reset her Playmobile table while I toiled away on her “project”. All part of a brand new holiday for us, St. Martin’s Day, involving (home made) lanterns, parades with lanterns, singing, and bonfires. Greta’s kita had a party with all of the above AND grilled sausages. It was nice to see her zipping around with her (home made) lantern, so happy.

True to the hearty constitution we have noticed here, it was super cold, the parade involved quite a long walk, and the bonfire was huge. Really huge. Small kids were tumbling all around it, their parents just yanking them back by a sweatshirt hood every once in a while.

Some new recipes as well, mostly from Jamie Oliver and The Wednesday Chef blog, both of whom are doing me right with this winter vegetable thing:

Eggplant Parmesan. I have never been able to cook eggplant, and this was outstanding, simple, and not overly cheesy. We were shocked.

Brilliant, easy, fail-proof way to cook broccoli (Heston Blumenthal’s way, apparently), especially if you are SO sick of steamed broccoli.

I used all sorts of vegetables on two different nights to make this super good winter vegetable coleslaw.

Sweet potato and red lentil soup with mint. No further explanation needed.

Yet another really good Jamie Oliver winter vegetable beef stew. This one with butternut squash even.

Root vegetables

It has been almost 2 months and I am still confused about food in the super markets, what I actually purchase and put in my fridge, and how to work my stove/oven. I spent the first month trying to recreate our weekly menus from San Francisco, failing miserably, making myself miserably dissapointed. Now in the second month, I have taken a step back to look at what is actually available. And what is available, abundantly, are all sorts of root vegetables. Those I have some familiarity with (carrots), those I have chosen not to be familiar with (rutabagas), and those I have never heard of (celeriac). I realized I needed to get over my apprehensions when I saw that Simone’s “mixed vegetable” baby food that she adores contains both celeriac and fennel. With my new open mind, in an attempt to embrace these cold weather dirt growers, I found a few recipes that are kind of good. Other non-root vegetable recipes in the same general seasonal category also included:

Delia Smith’s Slow Cooked Root Vegetable Soup

Jamie Oliver’s Carrot and Cilantro Salad

Yam Curry

Lebanese Lentil-And-Rice Pilaf

Jamie Oliver’s Bean and Beef Stew