I completely agree with him.  Feeding my family is one of my main responsibilities as a parent and the food that I give them should always be the best possible.

How do we give our families the best possible food?  By making it ourselves, from scratch, using wholesome, nourishing seasonal ingredients.

And how do we help our children learn how to enjoy cooking and eating good, real food?  By making it and eating it together!  Smith points out that “It’s the whole point of cooking, to come together as a family and share.”

Family Meals*  is a beautiful celebration of family cooking, with wonderful photography and a wide diversity of snacks, meals, make-aheads, tips, and tricks.  The recipes are straight-forward and easy to follow.  They use ingredients that are typically found in a well-stocked pantry or fridge.  There is no use of processed foods, unless you count the “Just-Add-Water Noodle Jar” which uses instant ramen noodles but tosses the mysterious flavor packet, replacing it with a ton of real food!

Although it’s the recipes that make up the bulk of the book, what sets it apart from other cookbooks is the focus on family inclusion and tips for parents who want to set a standard for real food in their homes.  One of my favorite tips came from the “Easy Snacks” section: Make a snack shelf in your fridge where your kids can look when they’re hungry and find the “Snack of the Day.”  Fill this spot with healthy munchibles like carrot sticks and other fresh fruits and veggies.  It’s a great idea and my family should incorporate it soon since our young assistant can now open the fridge!

Another great tip is this: “Go beyond the farmers’ market and meet a farmer.  Support local so your kids can meet and get to know real people making real food.”  This is one reason why we’ve joined a CSA this year, and we couldn’t be happier!  Our young assistants go to the pickup with us and see our farmer and her team and all the wonderful food set out for all of us CSA members.  There is a clear presentation for our kids that food is not made at the store, but grown by real people!

Right, youngest assistant?  Real food is grown by real people!

After reading through the tips and cooking tricks I spent a quiet evening (Madame and the boys were gone) reading through most of the cookbook. I ended up writing down 22 recipes I wanted to try.  You know, it’s just a starting place….  I narrowed that down to one that I would share here on the blog.  The recipe is Barley Kale Tabbouleh and it stood out to me mainly because of its use of two ingredients that are very local, barley and kale!

I actually made the recipe twice, one time following it to the letter and another time with some substitutions and tweaks.  Both turned out great but I preferred the original recipe to my version which substituted cracked wheat berries for the barley.  It turns out that the wheat berries became too gelatinous, causing the whole salad to be overly creamy.  So I am glad to report that the original recipe is tested and turns out very well according to its instructions!

Enjoy this salad as a side to a good summer barbecue or as a simple yet filling lunch by itself.  Feel free to play around with the ingredients and ratios but start with the original first, it’s awesome!

My Final Thoughts

This cookbook is going to be center stage for the next good while in our kitchen.  I’m giving the book a  4/5 and that is because I would like to see more plant-based rather than animal-based meals.  We live in a time when family cooking should be emphasizing sustainability and increasingly that should mean more meatless meals.  The cookbook does contain a good number of vegetarian meals and sides, but meal plays a big role in several sections.  Other than that it is a great cookbook and I recommend it for any family wanting to cook more together!

*Disclaimer: Penguin Random House Canada provided me with an advance copy of the book to review.  The thoughts are all my own.  Well, except for the quotes. 

One thing I always loved about The Band, of which Robbie Robertson was an integral—and Canadian—part, was the way they took traditional sounds, styles, and instruments and used them in non-traditional ways.

Likewise, what I like about kohlrabi is that it is a very traditional vegetable, but one that might need some updating in its uses (um, “what uses?” you might be wondering).  Kohlrabi happens to be German for cabbage  (kohl) and turnip (rabi), and this is essentially what it is, a cabbage-turnip-veggie-thingy.  It tastes pretty much like that too so its uses are anywhere you’d use one or the other of those.

(Image of kohlrabi from allotments.ie)

I decided to take it in another direction, much the way that Robertson helped Bob Dylan take his music electric in 1965.  Okay, that was an absurd comparison, and I’m not even the first to put kohlrabi on a pizza, Kristin from Farm Fresh Feasts did it with kohlrabi from her CSA over a year ago, which partly gave me the inspiration for this pizza!

So it turns out I’m not quite a Robbie Robertson… but I’d like to think that this pizza, which I’m referring to as Kohlrabi Robertson, is something along the lines of what he is all about, bridging the gap between the traditional and the modern.  And in this case that’s using a very traditional European vegetable to make a modern pizza.

This pizza then crossed borders from a Europe to East Asia with the addition of bok choy to the base and as a topping.  Unsure of what to use a couple heads of bok choy that were getting a bit yellow and wilty I threw them in a pesto along with some kale from the garden.  After all, it was Week of Greens and I had to finish on a strong green note.

To compare this pizza—or myself—one more time to the great musician who crossed genres and helped contribute to the formation of the types of music known as Americana, Roots Rock, and Country Rock, this pizza crosses genres and blends cultures.  Oh man, this is so ridiculous, I should just stop here, but for some reason I keep reaching for comparisons.  Time to be honest, the main reason this pizza is called Kohlrabi Robertson is because the name just floated into my head while making it and I like puns.  But I really do love The Band and Robbie Robertson so I’m happy to name this pizza after him!

Oh, and I should mention that, most importantly, after all this blabbing about genres, cultures, and musical greats, this pizza was delicious.  I also have to say that kohlrabi is a new favorite veggie for me, and I think I’ll eat it in more formats than just as a pizza topping!

Cabbage moths have happily found themselves a nice place to lay their eggs—the kale, which is technically a type of cabbage.  From those eggs emerge very hungry caterpillars who happily gorge themselves on the kale!  But I want to happily gorge myself on the kale!

Now, some people might think “well, there’s enough for all of us, I’ll let the little guys stay.”  Sadly that rarely ends well.  As they grow they eat more and more, leaving skeletonized leaves and poop, followed by exponential amounts of offspring who return to do the same!  The same goes for other bugs, like the squash vine borers I was dealing with last summer…

Luckily it’s easy to either remove them and put them far from your plants, or just squish them, or throw ’em in a pail of soapy water.  And then you can keep on eating all the delicious leafy goodness!  Next week I will reflect on my week of greens and list all the ways I ate them.

(Above) Look closely to find signs of who has been here… little poops.

(Above) Look really close for a tiny egg.

(Above: green onion, kale, and spinach from garden, tatsoi from CSA)

I don’t really mind since I tend to love salad and greens.  However, at some point you run out of things to do with them and start wanting something else to cook.

This week I’m home alone because Madame and the assistants went to visit her family.  In the original plan I was also going to go but then I went and got a job and it didn’t seem appropriate to ask for a week off two weeks after starting.  As it’s a bit lonely I have given myself a few things to work on for the week.

One thing I decided to work on was the greens!  I decided to eat greens with every meal for a week.  I’m calling it Week of Greens.If you’re in a CSA you should try it too, what else are you going to do with a all those greens?  Maybe, if all goes well, it will turn into summer of greens!  Or I just might hit the wall and declare an early end to the week.  We’ll see…. Hopefully I’m alive and well when my family returns.

Here’s how the week began, with a breakfast of greens with one egg and no ham.  I wanted to include ham and call it “Greens, egg, and ham” but didn’t have ham.  Anyways, it was a delicious breakfast.  Instead of ham I added a few thin slices of potatoes fried in a bit of ghee.  I topped the dish with some Ontario greenhouse tomatoes and had a nice side of local strawberries that Madame and the assistants picked last week.

When I posted in my meal plan that I was going to make spanakopita, our friend Amaryah suggested that I try Chard Utopia which is basically the same thing but made with… Swiss Chard instead of spinach (the recipe is Amaryah’s contribution to the wonderful cookbook Simply in Season!).  I changed my plans which was good because I didn’t have enough spinach anyways.  However, the day to make the dish came and I didn’t have enough chard either!  So I took some liberties with the recipe and the title and came up with Spring Greenakopia!

Spring Greenakopia – Chard Utopia (Spanakopita) with Mixed Spring Greens

Ingredients:

• 2 cups onion, minced
• 1 tsp. basil
• 1 tsp. oregano
• Dash of salt
• 1 Tbs. oil
• Lots of spring greens (2+ pounds swiss chard, dandelion greens, mustard greens, spinach, kale, arugula, etc), finely chopped
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbs. flour
• 2 cups feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 cup cottage cheese (you can substitute ricotta)
• Ground pepper
• 1 package phyllo dough (puff pastry), thawed
• Oil for brushing the phyllo

Heat oil in a very large frying pan or pot and fry the onion with the herbs for 5 minutes. Add the chopped greens and cook until wilted, stirring, about 5-8 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and flour, cook for 2-3 minutes, remove from heat and add the cheeses and ground pepper.

Preheat the oven to 375.  Lightly oil a 9×13-inch pan and place a piece of phyllo dough in the pan.  If your phyllo is large you can cut it in half to fit the pan.  Lightly oil the top of the dough and layer 7 more sheets on top of the first, brushing each lightly with oil. 

Spoon half of the greens filling into the pan, spreading it out evenly.  Cover with another 8 layers of phyllo, brushing each lightly with oil.  Add the second half of the filling and top once more with 5-8 more sheets of phyllo.  Tuck any loose edges into the pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until it turns golden and crispy on top.

• Spinach (1/4lb)
• Kale (1/4lb)
• Pea shoots
• Potatoes
• Asparagus
• Carrots

(left from previous shopping)

• Mushrooms
• Sweet potatoes
• Parsnips
• 8 eggs

(in Garden)

• Lots of greens – mustard, lettuce, spinach, kale

The meal plan is as follows (note that we will be gone this weekend):

The Kale Slaw made a great addition to this meal and was very easy to make.  Our recipe is inspired by one from Farmburger in Atlanta.  We never did ask them how they made theirs, but we like ours lots!

Finally, finish out the meal with some fresh-baked bread and a side of hummus if you like.  I’ve been baking 100% whole grain breads lately, with lots of help from Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads which is a wonderful book.  It’s easy to make a 100% local bread with his recipes too which I’ve been very happy about (well, I guess it’s more like 98% local since the yeast and salt are not local… accept for the sourdoughs).

Mushroom-Leek Frittata

• 1 Tb. oil
• 3-4 leeks, chopped
• ½ lb. mushrooms, sliced
• 5-6 eggs, whisked with a splash of milk
• ½ c. cheese, shredded
• Pepper

Begin by heating the oil and frying the chopped leeks and sliced mushrooms in a cast iron pan for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, mix the eggs, splash of milk, ground pepper, and shredded cheese.

When the leeks and mushrooms seem to have softened, add  the egg and milk mixture and cover the pan with a lid.  Let the frittata cook until it has set, or firmed up.

Then transfer it to the oven and broil it until it is nicely golden.  Serve as soon as you like the color!  (I enjoyed topping my leftovers the next day with a good spicy salsa, but that’s just me).

Kale Slaw

• 5-10 medium kale leaves, chopped
• 1 carrot, shredded
• ¼ c. cranberries (these aren’t local but at least are from Ontario!!)  
• ¼ c. (candied) pecans/walnuts/almonds or sunflower seeds (optional)

• 2 Tb. olive oil
• 1 Tb. balsamic vinegar
• 2 Tb. mayonnaise (this is what holds everything together – an emulsifier)
• 1 Tb. lemon juice
• 1 Tb. honey
• Salt and Pepper

Begin by preparing a steamer—I use a bamboo steamer set over a frying pan with a half-inch of water in it.  Heat over medium heat.  Chop the kale into ribbons, about 2 inches long and ½ inch wide.  Steam them for about 5 minutes, long enough for them to turn a wonderful green color and soften without becoming limp and dead looking.  If your kale is really young and you like the taste fresh then you can do without steaming, I use an early Red Russian Kale from my garden this way.  While steaming the kale, shred the carrots.  If you like to sweeten this dish which I sometimes do then candy the nuts.  To do this add the nuts to a frying pan with 1 Tb. butter, 1 Tb. sugar (or honey, but it makes it stickier), a splash of water, and a dash of salt.  Fry, stirring occasionally, until the nuts darken.  It’s a fine line between getting them crispy and burning them so this takes a few tries maybe to get it just the way you like. 

Mix the kale and carrots together and toss with the dressing, reserving some if you like your salad a bit lighter.  Top with the cranberries and nuts or sunflower seeds (which in the version pictured I didn’t do).

100% Whole Wheat Bread

And the bread…. Well, long story short, I would recommend getting Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads.  But in the meantime you could also just try this recipe from the book.  On that blog the bread is cooked in a bread loaf pan while mine is baked more free-form.  Either way, it’s the same recipe with different shapes.

*Update: You can also try our 2:2:2 simple whole grain bread recipe or our go-to sourdough recipe.