That’s
Home Cookin’!
By Kelly Kingsland, deli manager, from the March 2000 Newsletter
One night while eating dinner a few months back, it dawned on me how differently I ate at home from what I cook to sell in the Co-op deli. After making cream soups, meat sandwiches, pasta salads, and buttery tarts, I usually go home, boil some rice or other grain and make a green salad that I dress with flax oil and rice vinegar and top with Sharon’s sesame-dulse-nettle sprinkles (recipe follows).
While we share recipes from our deli repertoire each month, I’ve begun to have a fascination with what deli cooks eat at home and why there are such differences between those items and what we find sells from the case. I know the answer to a certain degree. Folks buying deli food are looking for something special, while when we are cooking at home we are merely feeding our bodies. On the other hand, I feel a certain responsibility to share alternative ways of both eating and cooking. So, this month rather than the deli recipes, I’ve asked each cook to share a recipe or comment about what they eat at home. I’ve humbly thought that this might be interesting to you all who I know eat at home sometimes.
Erika
Cunningham:
When I have time to eat, I eat potatoes, garlic and onions. Don’t get me wrong, I have many variations on potatoes, garlic, and onions, but as a base, that’s it. It’s what I grow at home, and what I store over the winter, so I eat that. O.K., I confess, I eat other things as well. In fact over the last two years I have changed my diet dramatically, from a mostly carbohydrate/cheese diet (remember the ‘80’s? pasta, pasta, pasta) to a more fiber and veggie-based diet. I try to eat as many dark green veggies as I can stuff in my gullet, with Braggs Liquid Aminos as a chaser. I do eat meat, although I try to eat only wild meat if I can help it, or sometimes I’ll go for the organic.
I eat a lot of popcorn, covered in brewers yeast and liquid aminos (hippie style). In fact, it’s a major sustainer of energy for me. My diet is a little like everyone’s I’m sure. When I’m very good, I’m very, very, good. When I’m very bad, I’m horrid.
Just kidding-it's not really horrid. Lots of breads, peanut butters, pastas, and fried stuff: quick foods, as time is a major player in my life. I drink mainly water as a beverage, although I won’t turn down a good margarita on the rocks.
I’m looking forward to summer when I can grow most of my food again. That’s why I like my job as a cook in the deli. We have the freedom to choose the most incredible of ingredients to play with to make some great foods. While the fare I prepare here at the Co-op is vastly more rich and complicated than anything I make at home, I think it's great food, and I love it when you guys like it!
Emily "Sugar" Loeb:
About two years ago, I realized that my coffee addiction had less to do with caffeine and more to with the fact that I liked to drink hot beverages. While I enjoyed tea, I never found it to be fully satisfying; it was not enough of a "drink". Thankfully, last summer a friend of mine introduced me to Inka. Made of barley, beet root, chicory, and rye, this is a drink that is thick. You can add milk and sugar to it and call it an Americano, have Josh froth it into a tasty latte, or not add a thing and drink it black. Inka has satisfied my desire of having a thick, hot beverage to drink, and I have successfully avoided the caffeine addiction. Even though I serve coffee every day, I keep as far away from the stuff as possible, unless I’m on a road trip, of course.
Amy Richard:
Weekdays are way too busy for cooking much at home, so my favorite things are our Sunday breakfast and weekend dinners. My husband Joe makes delicious sourdough waffles every weekend and I'd love to give you the recipe but he'll have to write his own article about all the intricacies of perfecting your sourdough starter.
So that leaves me with our weekend dinner which ideally gives us leftovers for the beginning of another busy week. With one of us vegetarian and one not, we tend to compromise with semi-traditional meals using soy meat substitutes. While that surely sounds disgusting, many of these products are really good and contain little fat, no cholesterol and lots of protein. After not eating meat for 10 years, I don't really think of these products as meat substitutes but rather as new and different flavored and textured ways to eat soybeans. Tofu can get rather tedious.
This weekend its going to be "chicken" pot pie with lots of veggies and Veat gourmet bites. I don't have a recipe for this but it works to take your favorite traditional recipe and play around with it, substituting and adding and, of course, tasting until it suits you. Remember the Co-op also sells vegetarian chicken stock, which comes in handy for lots of things. Enjoy your home cooking and be brave, try out the TVP, or the soylami, or the Veat. Vegetarian cooking doesn't have to be all mushy white squares of tofu.
Kelly Kingsland:
Both of my recipes have come to me through my friend Sharron Sullivan. While I only eat the greens when they are in season, I eat the sprinkles daily in one form or another. They’re good on popcorn, salad, on cooked grains or topping soup.
Sharron’s Sprinkles:
Equal parts of sesame seeds, dulse, and nettle leaf (all organic, of course)
Begin by toasting the sesame seeds in a frying pan. No oil, medium heat. Once the seeds are nearly brown add the dulse and nettles. Toast together for a few more moments till they begin to emit the most delicious smell. Remove from heat and cool. I make large batches of this every few weeks, and store them in a jar.
Sharrons’ Greens
A good sized bunch of Dandilion greens
1 part oil, 2 parts Vinegar, 1 part water.
Lots of minced Garlic
Dry mustard to taste
Salt and pepper
Blanch the greens and add the vingerette mixture.
Marinate for a while.
Eat these up. They’re very strong in all ways. I love them!
Heidi Heffernan
Truthfully, I don’t really make desserts at home. If we have dessert, it’s usually something frozen like ice cream or sorbet, something that can be safely hidden away in the freezer ‘til the wee one is asleep. I do occasionally make Hikers. This is my favorite combination of fruit/seeds/nuts. Try different mixes but keep the basic proportions the same.
Heidi’s Hikers
Lightly coat a 13 by 9" pan with pan spray
Melt in a heavy bottomed, even heating saucepan, until bubbly:
2 c. Brown rice syrup
1 c. Almond Butter
Mix in a large bowl:
3 ½ c. Crispy Brown Rice cereal
1 ½ c. regular Oats
¾ c. Sesame Seeds
¾ c. Sunflower Seeds
½ c. Cashews
½ c. chopper Pecans
1 c. dried Cherries
1 c. Raisins
1 c. Craisins
Mix dry stuff into hot bubbly stuff. Spread into a cake pan. Let set up in fridge 15 min. or more. Cut into chunks.
So there you have it. I hope these offerings are as interesting to you as they are to me!
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