. Plus, the extra flavors make a new vegetable more familiar for my kids who are accustomed to fresh herbs and garlic.
As for the green bean vs. haricot vert choice, I'm partial to the elegant haricot vert (I like my asparagus on the slender side as well) but will buy any beautiful green bean. It amazes me how frequently markets put out sorry looking green beans. Haricots verts are quite versatile - fine on their own, but also good as an addition. They're especially great mixed in with thin spaghetti; they're such great team players they practically wind around your fork.
Trim bottoms off green beans, rinse and set aside.
Heat oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chili flakes and garlic and saute briefly. Add grean beans and saute 1-2 minutes. Add parsley and cashews and continue to saute until cooked to your liking. Add kosher salt to taste and serve.
Horses that don't like to be rode.
I have several recipes that don't like to be made; you'll never see them here. On the other end of the spectrum are recipes that make everything easy for the cook. This is one of those - a recipe my daughters can nearly handle on their own. The cookie dough recipe was written for one of those spritz or press cookie thingies. I have come to detest the cookie press (I seem to lack the requisite flick-of-the-wrist gene) but was happy to take my sister's recommendation of simply rolling out the dough and forming cookies with traditional cutters.
Even better, this dough doesn't require any resting time in the fridge, like a sugar or butter cookie dough does. You just mix, roll, bake and decorate. My kids appreciate the quick turnaround time between deciding to make cookies and eating the finished product. With either almond extract or a zested lemon or orange, they are tasty, too.
Add egg and beat until combined. Add milk and extracts or zest and mix well.
Sift together flour and baking powder. Add slowly to butter mixture and mix to combine.
Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Using a rolling pin, gently roll dough to desired thickness (I like them on the thicker side, about 3-4mm high) and form using cookie cutters. Dough can be re-rolled once or twice, but after that it gets too tough and should be tossed.
Bake on parchment lined baking sheets for 12-15 minutes, or until lightly browned. Or, top with a fine dusting of sanding sugar before baking.
Cool to room temperature, then frost and decorate.
There are several times where I've pushed the envelope on truthiness in reporting the food on my children's plates. Unless I'm serving up homemade pizza or pasta or another favorite meal of theirs they come to the table with polite apprehension, at best, or, more commonly, like arrant skeptics. Their policy on food is Disgusting until Proven Edible.
I haven't been able to stomach lying to them about what they're eating like one pediatrician advised. My oldest is a virtual vegetarian which the good doctor considered unacceptable. More acceptable was that I find ways to sneak meat into her diet, which was not something I was willing, ethically or physically, to do. For all the hoopla over the Jessica Seinfeld book, the one thing I couldn't escape was that to keep foods from being detected by picky eaters there would have to be so little of that food present in the meal that the child couldn't possibly get the food's essential nutrients. For the amount of time spent steaming and pureeing, there's little nutritional benefit.
I'd prefer my kids get to know their veggies, and to develop an understanding of what they're putting in their mouths, whether it's a chopped salad, low fat brownies or baked cheese curls. Similarly, adults are well-advised to read labels and be more aware of the contents of our food choices.
This salad is the only item I've tricked them into eating by not telling them it was spinach. I just called it Baby Greens, as in "I made that baby greens salad you both like," while smirking to myself. They'd been eating it happily for several years before two things happened. First, I slipped and said, "Pass the spina-...err, baby greens." Then, they started reading the produce packages in the fridge. It was only a matter of time. Luckily, they really do love the salad, so there was no backlash.
What foods do you trick your children in enjoying?
This dressing takes its inspiration from the Garlic-Parmesan dressing in Pizza, Pasta, Panini. It's a spicy one, due to the garlic.
Balance flavors with more oil or vinegar to taste. Toss with 4-6 ounces baby spinach and serve.
Those ubiquitous bags of baby spinach make for convenience food that’s hard to beat.
I was still digesting the NYT report that Hillary Rodham Clinton has been watching envoys poach her turf ("And Now Let the Jockeying Begin" published January 31, 2009) when today's news about President Obama serving Oatmeal Raisin Cookies hit the wire ("Obama Woos G.O.P. With Attention, and Cookies"). I tried in vain to locate the early 1990s image of Hillary serving cookies in the Clinton White House. It was a calculated photo-op meant to soften remarks she made about her career (along the lines of, "I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies,") which caused people who stayed home and baked cookies to take umbrage - or caused people whose life's work centers on getting other people fired up, to stir up some umbrage.
I stay home and bake cookies, partly because of my career in the sweet kitchen and partly because I'm at home with kids and kids, in addition to liking stickers, like cookies. I was in college during Cookiegate. I didn't take - or couldn't be persuaded to take - any offense. Isn't the beauty of our freedom, opportunity, equality and, let's face it, wealth, that we can find our own balance of cookies and careers?
It remains to be seen if HRC will be well-regarded in her new position. It was always going to be tricky for Hillary in the Obama White House, especially with all the other sharp elbows in the room. I don't dispute the glass ceiling but I don't see gender as a limiting factor in the career arc of the Secretary of State. It's more personal than that (I would have said, "It's her character, stupid," if Carville merited quoting). Obama is green and finding his footing, and his cookies might be just as calculated as Hillary's. *HAH! Who am I kidding?!? The Roadrunner supercomputer is less calculating than the Clintons!* The critical difference: Obama makes handing out cookies look good.
In a mixer, beat butter on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes. Add sugars and cream together for 3-5 minutes, or until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well between additions, scraping sides and bottom of bowl as necessary. Add vanilla and mix in.
Sift or whisk together dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon). Add to mixer and combine on a low speed, scraping bottom of the bowl at least once. Add oats and combine on low speed. Add raisins or chocolate chips and mix until just combined.
Drop by measured spoonfuls onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes in a preheated 350 oven. Or, wrap the dough in plastic wrap and bake individual cookies as desire. Unless you're serving a roomful of politicos, you don't need to bake all the cookies at once - just bake off as many as you will serve and refrigerate the rest for another day.
Adding a layer of cinnamon sugar to a plain butter cake is an easy way to make eating cake in the morning slightly more acceptable (let's not even consider that doing this adds MORE sugar to the cake). I would caution you not to start many mornings this way. Instead, tuck it away in your cookbook for mornings when you find yourself entertaining. Guests tend to appreciate being greeted with a slice of freshly baked coffeecake more than, say, an egg white omelet.
Even though this cake requires an hour to bake, once baked it's ready to go. Also, it sits nicely overnight so you can always make it after dinner one evening to serve the following morning.
Add the dry ingredients to the butter/eggs alternately with the liquid. (Scoop in about half the dry and mix on low speed until nearly incorporated, then pour in half the liquid, mixing in the same.) Repeat. Finish mixing by hand with a large spatula, carefully scraping up from the bottom of the mixing bowl and not over mixing.
Pour half the remaining batter on top and top with another 2 T cinnamon sugar. Pour the remaining batter on top, smooth to cover all the cinnamon sugar and bake about 50 minutes or until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and passes the toothpick test.
OPTIONAL: Toward the end of baking, prepare glaze (see recipe below). When cake is done baking, let it sit for about 10 minutes in the pan. Invert it onto a plate and pierce it all over with a long skewer. Pour the hot glaze slowly over the top, allowing it to saturate the cake.
Keeps well, loosely covered at room temperature, for 3-4 days.