My Week in Food

The theme for My Week in Food seemed to be learning new skills in the kitchen. Here’s a little peek, snapped with my iphone:

Determined to teach the kids a few essentials before they leave the nest, I showed Isabelle how to make the simplest tomato sauce. Not bad for a first timer (the added link of spicy Italian sausage from the Avedano’s meat market didn’t hurt).

I also taught a group of 4th graders how to make Russian Tea Cakes: Five tins worth, which we’ll be hauling on an overnight field trip. Amazing what small people can do when you have their undivided attention.

Small people, including my nine-year-old who proved that years of indoctrination about homemade school lunches is paying off. I had nothing to do with lunch on this day.

I may just get her to enter this lunch box contest in Cooking Light. The best, healthiest entrants score cash and  may be featured in the pages of the magazine. Did anyone say college fund? Go Virginia.

As for myself, I was pretty focused on breakfast, including this post-workout spoon smoothie:  blend 1/2 frozen banana, 1/3 cup milk (whatever kind you like), 1/4 cup vanilla yogurt, 1/3 cup fresh or frozen mixed berries, 2 teaspoons chia seeds. Add a crown of granola or crunchy cereal

And this morning bliss: Overnight Steel Cut Oats topped with chopped apricots and strawberries, toasted almonds, milk, maple syrup.  Had to do a command performance the very next day.

If we are going to talk about learning, I’m wondering where the talented Emma Christensen learned to make homemade rootbeer, kombucha, and other drinkable delectables. I spied her lovely new cookbook, True Brews, this week in Bernal Heights’ charming Heartfelt.
I learned something new too this week: how to make this vegetable frittata from Heidi Swanson’s Supernatural Everyday. Mine was pretty. Hers was prettier.

What did you learn this Week in Food?