Man cannot live by bread alone..

..however, there are periods in my sons' lives when I think that is precisely what they have done.

When my children were little, I followed the advice of many nutritionists and didn't turn myself into a short-order cook. I served them whatever their parents were eating, but always had bread on the table, so that, even if they turned their noses up at the main dish, they could fill up on bread and would not starve (or, more realistically, whine inconsolably about being hungry at bedtime). It worked - they are all three still sitting down for dinner with us each night. And we still have bread on the table, although now, it is often because my sons have insatiable appetites; even though they usually eat plenty of the main dish, satisfying those huge appetites needs bread as well.

I have long been a fan of bread machines, and this recipe is what I use mine for the most. I am also often asked to bring this to pot-lucks, and usually have to prevent my kids from eating it all in the car on the way. You need a breadmaker which has a dough only setting, but if you have one of those, this may become it's new raison d'etre.

Breadmaker Foccacia
(makes a 1lb loaf)

3/4 cup warm water
1 TBSP olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 1/4 cups AP flour
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp yeast

1. Add ingredients to breadmaker in order show above.
2. Set breadmaker to dough only setting (i.e. no baking).
3. When breadmaker has finished, remove dough and put it onto a round pizza baking tray which you have sprinkled liberally with AP flour.
4. Use your fingers to poke down the dough and flatten it into a rough circle about 1" thick. Doesn't matter if it looks bumpy.
5. Brush with olive oil all over the top.

6.Sprinkle with dried/fresh herbs (I like basil, oregano and thyme), and then with parmesan*
7. Leave dough to rise in a warm room. Within an hour, it should have doubled at least in thickness.

8. Bake at 400 F until golden brown (usually takes 10-15 minutes).

I really wish you could smell this.... it's dribble-inducing.

*You can top the focaccia with whatever you like. I've tried sliced olives, roasted peppers, different cheeses. It's all good.

Some like it HOT...

...and some (including those with children) like their spicy food to be spicy-flavorful, rather than spicy-burn-the-skin-off-your-palate. I am one of the latter. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a good curry, and if it says 'medium' on the menu, then that's fine too. However, you won't find me ordering a vindaloo.

I also like to cook curry, and the following recipe is a good example. I recently discovered Judith Finlayson, and have since bought four of her books. I'm in love, I guess. Great recipes, lots of slow cooker ones, which makes me happy. There is nothing like being able to prepare a dinner when no one else is around, leave it bubbling away all day, and then just quickly finish it, whilst attempting to get youngest son to do his homework, negotiate who is picking up oldest son, and help daughter find the ballet tights she simply threw across her room last week, and now expects to immediately locate, all the while wondering why husband is late...

One tip - the squash in this recipe gets very soft, and disintegrates a little into the sauce. If this doesn't sound like something you will like, then I would add the squash later. I actually kind of like my squash to be 'squashy', as it thickens the sauce and renders the entire dish even more comforting. To each their own.

Mixed Vegetable Coconut Curry
(from Judith Finlayson's The Vegetarian Slow Cooker)
serves 6

1 TBSP vegetable oil
3 cups cubed peeled carrots
2 onions, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 TBSP minced gingerroot
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 bayleaf
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes with juice
4 cups peeled cubed winter squash (I used one whole butternut squash)
1 cup coconut milk
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
1 long green chile pepper, seeded and minced

1. In skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add carrots, onions and celery and cook until softened. Add garlic, ginger, cumin, coriander, salt, pepper, turmeric and bayleaf and cook stirring for 1 minute more. Add tomatoes with their juice and bring to boil. Transfer to stoneware.
2. Stir in squash.

3. Cover and cook on low for 6 hours (or high for 3 hours). Add coconut milk, bell pepper and chile pepper and stir well. Cover and cook on high for 15 minutes, until peppers are tender.
3. Serve in bowls over brown rice.

Just what ARE legumes?

Having grown up in Europe, legumes for me are just vegetables en francais, so I've always been a bit confused as to why Americans call lentils and other pulses 'legumes'. Oh OK, I admit, I kind of thought that perhaps it was one of those occasions when the Americans made an assumption, got it wrong and stuck with it anyway (if you want an example, English toffee is NOT at all like English toffee, and while we're at it, calling many American beers 'beer' is doing the word a disservice).

I should probably stop now, lest British cooks get a reputation for not only inept, but also rude (Gordon Ramsey is doing us no favors on that score!)

Thanks to Google, and my British ability to fully admit it when I get something incorrect, I can reliably inform you that you Americans are not wrong after all. Legumes are apparently the seeds found inside the pods that hang from certain plants. They can be mature, giving us dried seeds like lentils, or immature, e.g. peas, which are simply legumes which are harvested before they mature on the plant. And if you are trying to get your 5 or 9 servings of fruits or vegetables (or whatever today's recommendation is), then having a serving of pulses (about 3 TBSP) counts as one serving. Plus they are high in protein, fiber and folates. Yay!

Thing is, they've got to taste good for the Farrars to buy in en masse. Tonight's dinner at the leguminous Farrar house is a good example of how lentils can indeed be delicious. This is a great one for a cold winter's night (why, last night it dipped below 50 degrees here in California. Brrrrrr.. ;-)

Crockpot Lentil and Sausage Stew

1 cup dry lentils
1 cup fully cooked sausages, cut into chunks (I use Aidell's chicken ones)
1 cup roughly chopped carrots
1 cup roughly chopped parsnips
1 cup chopped celery
1 cup chopped onion
4 cups vegetable stock
salt and pepper
1 TBSP cumin
2 tsp dried oregano
1 bag kale

1. Load up the crockpot with all the ingredients except for the kale.
2. Cook on low for 6 hours.
3. Add kale and cook for a further 20-30 mins (depending on how thick the kale stems are) until kale is tender. At this point I taste it and often add some more cumin, as we love cumin in our family.

Serve steaming in bowls, with bread to 'mop it up'.

"COOKIES!!! UMM-NUM-NUM-NUM-NUM!!!"

Ah yes, cookie monster. A guy after my own heart.

As I said when I started this blog, those allergic, or fundamentally opposed, to sugar will have to look away from time to time. This is one of those times. Go on, leave the room. We'll wait....... However, those who either choose, or have to, live gluten-free, may want to continue reading. (Unless of course you are both sugar and gluten-free, in which case we, quite possibly, should not be friends.)

I owe this recipe to the back of the rolled oats packet from Trader Joe's. I love the addition of sunflower seeds, an underused ingredient in my book.

This is a lesson in 'Don't-believe-everything-you-read-about-not-messing-with-baking-recipes-because-it's-a-science' - the odd tweak is fine: I didn't have enough peanut butter, so only used about 2/3 cup, and added a 1/3 cup of cocoa-almond butter to make up the difference. It made the cookies even more chocolately. Not exactly a problem, in my opinion!

Gluten-Free Oatmeal Cookie Recipe
(Makes about 40 2.5" diameter cookies)

1/4 cup unsalted butter
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup brown sugar
6 oz chocolate chips
2 eggs
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (I used the roasted ones)
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup peanut butter (or see above for substitution)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Combine sugars and butter and beat until creamy.
3. Add eggs, vanilla and baking soda and mix well.
4. Add peanut butter and mix well.
5. Stir in oats, chocolate chips and seeds.
6. Use a scoop (I used a medium sized ice cream scoop) to drop mounds of dough on a lightly sprayed baking sheet (space apart as they do spread).
7. Bake for 12 minutes until lightly brown around edges.
8. Cool on tray for a few minutes before removing to a cooling rack.

Like the man said, "COOKIES!!! UMM-NUM-NUM-NUM-NUM!!!"

Let me tell you a little secret....

...I can get my kids to eat most vegetables.

Don't hate me.
It wasn't always this way.
And there are vegetables that they still won't even consider. Brussel Sprouts are the work of the devil, apparently. But I have discovered a really simple way to make them eat some of the veggies that they previously turned their noses up at.

No, I don't hide them in brownies, or blend them into smoothies. That kind of subterfuge always seemed a little extreme to me, and vaguely distasteful.

Here is the secret - citrus. If I squeeze a lemon over a pan of sauteed kale, or a pot of boiled green beans, those humble veggies miraculously become delicious, and disappear off plates without the necessity of bribery with the promise of dessert.

Bored with simply squeezing lemons everywhere, I searched on Whole Foods' recipe app for a new way of cooking asparagus and found the following recipe. I tweaked it a little, roasting the asparagus instead of steaming it, as they suggest.

I would love to tell you it was a complete success, but youngest son apparently still greets asparagus with an upturned nose. Sigh. However, in my book, two out of three kids is not bad, and make this definitely worth adding to the repertoire of recipes to repeat.

Asparagus with Ginger-Orange Vinaigrette

1 TBSP grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp grated orange peel
2 TBSP fresh orange juice
2 tsp white wine vinegar
1/4 tsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper
3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
1 lb asparagus, tough ends snapped off

1. Put asparagus in baking tin and spray with olive oil spray.
2. Roast at 375 degrees for 10-15 minutes (depending on your preference and the thickness of the stalks).
3. Whisk together all other ingredients to make dressing.
4. Pour over asparagus and toss.

Fiber, protein, calcium and iron? Oh my!

You know you love something when you start ordering it in bulk from Amazon (and it isn't just to make sure that Prime membership pays off). That is where we are with regard to quinoa.

This is a grain about which there has been a LOT of buzz. The so-called 'Quinoa Sisters', Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming, who wrote "Quinoa: The Everyday Superfood", gush that
"Quinoa can promote weight loss, building muscle, alleviate migraine headaches, help diabetes, promote cardiovascular health and prevent hardening of the arteries. It has also been linked to helping prevent breast cancer, childhood asthma, gallstones and acts as a super antioxidant."

(Wow. If only it could lead to world peace)

Although it isn't technically a grain, since the quinoa plant is not a member of the grass family, it is high in dietary fiber, like wholegrains, and also high in protein, calcium, iron and magnesium. It is also gluten-free.

Just as importantly, when it comes to my sanity and satisfying my family's ever-growing appetites, both my husband and kids seem to love it, and whatever left-overs there are, are very popular additions to lunchboxes the following day. I have also taken this recipe to many pot-lucks and always return home with a bowl that looks to have been licked clean.

I am sure this will not be the only quinoa recipe I end up posting up here, but this is the first quinoa dish I made, and one that I go back to again and again. It is my own invention, apart from the dressing, for which I thank the inimitable Linda McCartney. If you hate it, blame me and me alone, since Linda is sadly no longer with us. The ingredients are variable depending on what I remembered to put on the shopping list - my only stipulation is that it looks pretty, and that is not hard to achieve with quinoa.

Lemony Quinoa Salad
(Makes enough to feed a hungry family, with lunchbox leftovers)

2 cups uncooked quinoa (I like the red quinoa, as shown in the picture above)
3 cups water
1 large yellow bell pepper, diced
1 pint red grape tomatoes, halved or quartered
1 small jar of green Spanish pimento-stuffed olives, quartered
1 cup chopped Italian parsley
1 15 oz can of low sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
grated zest of 1 lemon

Dressing:
2 TBSP fresh lemon juice
2 TBSP white wine vinegar
2 tsp wholegrain mustard
5 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground salt and pepper

1. Put quinoa in a pan with the water and bring to the boil on high heat. As soon as it boils, cover and turn heat down the low. Cook for 20 minutes by which time water should have evaporated and the quinoa grains will have 'popped open' which reveals the germ of the kernel (the little white lines you can see around the grains in the photo below)

2. Let the quinoa cool to room temperature, and then toss with the remaining salad ingredients.
3. Stir in the dressing - note that this dressing recipe makes a LOT of dressing. You probably won't need all of it, but it is delicious on spinach as a side :-)

Farro for the Farrars

I have recently been making an effort to get a wider variety of grains into our diet. According to webmd, "A diet rich in whole grains may help fight your belly bulge while lowering the risk of heart disease". I therefore anticipate looking like Gisele Bundchen and living to the ripe old age of 150.

I found a recipe online for a farro salad (originally printed in Cooking Light), and tweaked it a little for my taste. This is what I came up with. I haven't tried it out on the four fussier members of the family yet, but it tastes pretty yummy to me! And the dog was sniffing around very hopefully as I made it (then again, he thinks dead birds and slugs are tasty, so he might not be the best judge of haute cuisine!)

Farrar Farro Salad (say that fast without spitting, go on, I dare you...)

1 1/2 cups of semipearled farro
4 1/2 TBSP sherry vinegar
3 TBSP olive oil
3 tsp dijon mustard
3/4 tsp ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 TBSP olive oil
1 cup diced red onion
1 cup diced orange bell pepper
1 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. Cook farro in 4 cups of boiling water for 23 minutes with the lid on.
2. Drain farro in a sieve and leave to cool to room temperature in a large bowl.
3. Whisk together the sherry vinegar, olive oil, mustard, black pepper and garlic until combined.
4. Saute onion and bell pepper in remaining olive oil over a medium heat until softened and lightly browned.
5. Add onion mixture and whisked dressing to farro and toss to combine.
6. Fold in feta.
7. Serve at room temperature.

Let's Eat!

I guess it was only a matter of time, and here I am, dipping my toe in the blogosphere.

I am a keen cook and baker, and it has long been frustrating to me that the British have such a bad reputation in the culinary department. This is just my small attempt to correct that injustice, and show the world (well, a few of you anyway) that in fact, we Brits can, and do, cook.

True enough, I am not a classically trained chef, but I do feed my family, which is a feat in itself, given the amount they eat, and the odd (and usually temporary, thank goodness) aversions and cravings they have. Neither are my efforts in the kitchen always successful - I may, for example, never again try to make a pavlova, since failing 5 times seems enough to conclude that meringues created in my kitchen should remain portion-sized.

As for my cooking style, I believe in trying to make sure my family eats healthily. and that they eat a variety of different foods. We don't subscribe wholesale to any particular foodie 'club' - we are not vegetarian or vegan, but eat a lot of vegetarian dishes. Hopefully that means we get the health benefits, and don't have to give up bacon. And I don't believe anything is off-limits. Without carbs, there have been periods when my sons in particular would have starved, and sugar is not the devil in my kitchen. Moderation is good.

One of my biggest joys is trying new recipes, tweaking them, and sharing them. This is my forum for doing so. So friends, let's eat!