beans, beans and more beans!

So tonight I was catching up on Huffington Post Food section. They have a great article about beans, and I thought it would help supplement my "pasta fazoole" post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-goldwyn/the-zen-of-beans_b_836472.html

enjoy!!

Nutella, I got your back!

As a kid, I always had the “weird” lunch.  Whether being random cured meat on funny bread to the infamous Nutella sandwiches (“Why are you eating chocolate for lunch?!).  I’m reminded of these wonderful food memories, because this being Lent, Friday school lunches usually consisted of Nutella sandwiches (or “fish-thing” – this one’s for KA and TA!).  I grew up with Nutella, instead of the more American peanut butter and jelly.   My mom didn’t even realize what type of “jelly” in said sandwiches had until a play date requested grape, and all we had was strawberry!  Nonetheless, I was and I’m still a fan of Nutella sandwiches over pb&j any day! 

Ferrero campaigned State-side that Nutella was a nutritious breakfast sandwich.  I was so pleased to watch these commercials! For years, I’ve told my friends how great Nutella was, and yes, I had some converts, mostly those who traveled to Europe for some extended period, but I still had some naysayers.  In Italy and most of Europe, combining chocolate with breakfast is normal.  Then came along a mom in California who decided to throw a lawsuit at Nutella, and she’s arguing how a company could portray Nutella as “nutritious and healthy.” To her, I say, look at back of the peanut butter and jelly jars; the calorie count, fat, and protein are no different than a Nutella sandwich.  So lady, if you’re throwing Nutella under the bus, make sure that pb&j follow too!

Pasta Fazoole!

It’s a standard on every American-Italian dinner.  Tonight, I made Pasta e Fagioli, a traditional dish that historically was a peasant dish.  It’s becoming in fashion to have “meat-less” dish during the week, so this is a great, hearty recipe to try out. 

The star of this dish is the cranberry bean, also known as borlotti bean.  These beans are red, tan, and brown speckled.  When cooked, they turn a dark brown color, but are pale yellow in the center.  They have a creamy consistency and are a great substitute for meat because they are so high in iron.  In the summer, you can find these beans fresh, and you need to shell them from their pods, but in the winter months, you can have find these beans dried. 

Recipe

½ lb dried beans (boil in 2 qts water for 5 minutes and then soak for about 2 hrs to rehydrate and then removed excess water)

¼ lb green beans, cut

2 medium size potatoes diced

3 large carrots diced

2 large celery stalks diced

½ onion

3 large garlic cloves

1 bullion cube

¼ tsp red pepper or

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp black pepper

3 bay leaves

4 tbsp olive oil

2 qts water or enough to cover all ingredients

½ cup dried Ditalini pasta, boil and cook 

Saute carrots, celery, onion, and garlic in oil with salt and pepper, until onions begin to become translucent.  Add green beans, potatoes, and cranberry beans.  Add water and bay leaves and bring to a boil.  Once at a boil, bring down to a simmer and cook for 11/2 hrs.

Cook the Ditalini pasta, and add it to your soup, stir and serve! 

Note: I cook the pasta separate, because I want to ensure that it cooks evenly and that the beans are fully cooked. 

It’s all about the meat and potatoes!

Isn’t it wonderful when someone cooks you a meal? Tonight, Brian made me a terrific and complete dinner: steak, spiced Yukon Gold potatoes, and steamed peapods with a glass of his homemade honey-coriander wheat beer! Ahhh!

But having a meal with someone, which is made by another, is essentially saying, "I trust you that you're feeding me good food, and I will not become sick after this!" I started to think about the phrase, “meat and potatoes.” An expression that isn’t really used much lately but holds a lot of weight.  The phrase was first written in 1949 in SJ Perelman novel, Listen to the Mocking Bird (“It’s the meat-and-potatoes appeal—the old pull at the heartstrings—that’ll put us over at the box office”). 

Perelman was best known for his short, humorous pieces in The New Yorker, and apparently, this work is very different than the somber song with the same title.  Nonetheless, this idiomatic phrase has become part of our vernacular to mean the essential or fundamental. So, the essential part of any relationship is trust, and my meal of meat and potatoes is a symbol of trust.

Our language is full of food phrase. Like sometimes you have to take things with a grain of salt and avoid walking on eggshells.  Then, you won’t worry about crying over spilled milk! For a full list check out these links: http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_idioms/id-f.php3 and http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Words-and-Their-Stories-Food-Expressions-Part-Three-116811763.html

potato-broccoli rabe pizza review

Friday night, I made the potato-broccoli rabe pizza featured on food52. I’ve recently discovered this food blog.  It’s chock full of really unique recipes.  Check out the link for this pizza: http://www.food52.com/recipes/2611_broccoli_rabe_potato_and_rosemary_pizza. 

Overall, I thought the pizza was good.  Still, for a Friday night meal, it was a lot of work, and by the end of preparing the toppings, baking, and cleaning I would have been easily pleased with a pie from Allegro’s Pizza!  

If you’re crunched for time, there’s always pre-made dough you can purchases.  I usually have Pillsbury Pizza Crust on hand.  It’s a great staple, because it keeps for a few weeks, and if you have tomato sauce, you’ll have pizza within a ½ hr!  The pizza crust is sold like Pillsbury’s crescent rolls in that recognizable blue cylinder.  Simply, crack the tube and unwind the dough.  Just be warned, since the dough is already rolled out in a rectangle, be careful not to break the shape.  I also hear Trader Joe’s pizza dough is good too.  Either way, next time I make this recipe, I might reach for the pre-made dough.  This will at least save me from cleaning a billion bowls and my food processor! 

Food Documentaries

I’ve caught up on a lot of food documentaries, and this entry will be devoted to those I recommend. 

Botany of Desire (2009). I really enjoyed this documentary.  It’s based on Michael Pollan’s novel with the same name.  He narrates the evolution, history and future of four plants/crops: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes.  With the help of biologists and historians, he dives into how these plants have evolved with humans.  He also probes into the problem of monocultures, only growing one variety of a particular plant.  With the advent of GMO, genetically modified organism, he highlights the problem of these plants, and how they can affect our future.  

To further delve into GMOs, check out The Future of Food (2004).  A few years older, this film explains what GMOs are and the problems they can create.   It’s a documentary of the little guy (the farmers) versus the machine (our government and biotech companies).  I was quite angry to see how our government is in bed with these companies, and the choices that we make can change the future of our food. 

On the flip side of GMOs, there are several documentaries that highlight our nation’s farmer’s markets.  To Market to Buy a Fat Pig (2007) is a PBS film that travels coast to coast showcasing local farmers and their communities.  I’m particularly partial, because one of the markets is Lancaster, PA’s Central Market, and this is a must go to stop when in Lancaster County.  The narrators try to find a “fat pig” to purchase, it’s a running joke that’s somewhat lost in the film, but it’s still a decent documentary, and it also gave me a few ideas for future road trips!

A different type of documentary is Pressure Cooker (2008).  Unlike most of the reality TV shows that film in high schools, this features the lives of several Philadelphia high school students that participate in a culinary arts class their senior year.  With the help of their teacher, these students participate in a citywide cooking competition in hopes to gain college scholarships.  It’s an aspiring movie, and I highly recommend it.

So now that you have a few movies to put on your queue, let me know what you think about my picks!