Cleaning the Fridge

     Cleaning the fridge is usually not a pleasant task--ugly sights, disgusting smells, and new forms of life evolving in last month's zucchini casserole.
     But it doesn't have to be this way.  With a little organization and a little time devoted to fridge management each day, your refrigerator will practically clean itself.
     Here are a few tips:

1.  Don't save everything.  I know it's painful to throw leftovers away--we all wish there was a way to get our excess food to the hungry people of this world--but saving that half-cup of carrot soup, which you know you will eventually throw away, isn't going to help anyone.
     Unless you're absolutely sure you're going to use an item later, throw it away now, rather than taking the time to put it in a plastic container that will have to be washed when you do dispose of the item.  And don't even think about saving that half-can of evaporated milk.  Get rid of it now!

Stop saving everything!

2.  Bag it.  If you do decide to save an item, put it in a Ziploc-style bag.  That way, if you end up using it, you simply throw the plastic bag away, and if you end up tossing it in the garbage, you also throw the plastic bag away.  It's easier than washing a plastic container.  Use this method for liquids, too--soups and sauces store perfectly well in plastic bags.

Use plastic bags--rather than containers--to store leftovers.

3.  Freeze it.  If you decide to save an item, but you don't plan to use it within the next three or four days, freeze it.  That way it will still be good by the time you actually do use it.

Freeze items you don't plan to use within the next few days.

4.  Mark it.  Keep a marker handy and put the date and contents of everything you save on the container or plastic bag.  You don't need fancy stickers for this--just write the information on masking tape and stick it to the item.  (Some brands of plastic bags have a labeling area included.)  Marking items makes it easy to know--at a later date--which ones are still good, and which ones need to be thrown out.   Be especially sure to date lunch meat--it's often hard to guess whether or not it's still fresh.

4.  Go on "Fridge Patrol" each morning.   Take five minutes after breakfast to take inventory of what's in your refrigerator.  Are those avocados ready for guacamole?  Are they so ripe you should make it today?  What about that cottage cheese?  Is it close to its expiration date?  Would that leftover pizza work for today's lunch?  If you do this, you will not only avoid wasting food, but you'll get some good menu ideas, as well.

Take inventory of the contents of your fridge every morning.

5.  Have a leftover shelf.  Clear an area of your fridge and use it exclusively for leftovers and odds and ends (small amounts of tomato sauce, bits of cheese, etc.) that need to be used fairly soon.  That way, you won't end up finding the candied yams from last Thanksgiving stuck behind the bottle of grapefruit juice that no one ever drinks.

6.  Mark old produce for cooking use only.  If you have a bag of baby carrots that are too limp to eat raw, put them in a plastic bag marked "for soup" and put it on the leftover shelf.  For fruit that's past it's prime, stick it in a baggie and mark it "for smoothies" or "for baking."  That way, these items won't be taking up precious space in your produce drawer, and you'll know you need to use them within the next few days.

7.  Make omelettes.  Omelettes are a great way to use up bits and pieces of old produce and other items you have in the fridge.  Mushrooms on their last leg?  Throw them in the frying pan.  Tomatoes too soft to eat raw?  Mix them into the omelette.  Most vegetables work well in omelettes, including broccoli, asparagus, peppers, and zucchini.  You can also throw in olives or cheese that you're about to throw away.

Omelettes are a tasty way to use leftover vegetables, cheese, and olives.

How to Talk to Kids, Part I

     Parents are flooded with advice.  Neighbors are full of it, bookstores are loaded with it, TV shows and Internet sites are teeming with it.  But is any of it any good?

     I thought not, until the therapist who was attempting to treat my four-year-old’s tantrums recommended How to Talk so Kids Will Listen & Listen so Kids Will Talk (Quill, 1982), by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish (fabermazlish.com).

     Unlike many so-called “parenting experts,” who have never had children themselves, the authors of this book developed their theories as they were raising their children.  They’ve even and gone back and revised the book as times—and their ideas—have changed.

     While I don’t agree with everything in the book, I found a few “nuggets” that I think are especially worthwhile.  These are a few things the authors suggest:

1.        Children need to have their feelings accepted and respected.   When children talk, listen quietly and attentively rather than immediately launching into censure or advice.  Acknowledge kids’ feelings with words like “Oh,” “mmmm…,” or “I see.”  Then give the feelings a name:  “That sounds frustrating!”  Finally, give the child his or her wishes in fantasy.  “I wish I could make the banana ripe for you right now!”

Turning green bananas yellow:  give kids their wishes in fantasy.

2.        Use alternatives to punishment.   Punishment doesn’t work—use the following instead:  express strong disapproval of an action; state your expectations; show the child how to make amends; or allow the child to experience the consequences of misbehavior.

     For instance, if Johnny breaks Mrs. Smith’s window with a baseball, your first impulse might be to ground him for a month.  But what does making him stay home for a month have to do with the broken window?  Instead, you can remind Johnny that you have told him umpteen times NOT to play baseball in the front yard, and that breaking windows is unacceptable.
     You can also tell Johnny that from now on, you expect him to play baseball either in the back yard or in the park.  Finally, you can encourage Johnny to apologize to Mrs. Smith, and tell him the price of the window repair will come out of his allowance for as many months as that may take.

     Better than grounding?  I think so, and Johnny will probably think so, too.

Broken windows:  rather than punish, teach kids to deal with the consequences.

3.  Allow children to help solve problems.  When a child’s behavior is causing a problem, ask the child how he/she feels about the problem, and explain how you feel about it.  Next, brainstorm together to find a mutually agreeable solution.  Write down all ideas—however crazy—without evaluating them.  Finally, decide together which proposal to adopt. 

Solve problems together by making lists of proposals.

     Now, this last item strikes me as a good idea, but I’m going to have to put it in practice a few times before I become a believer.  I’m not sure my kids will take the procedure seriously enough to offer any valid solutions—but I could be wrong.  I hope so.

     I’ll have more ideas from the book in my next blog entry.

Clutter Control

     One of the biggest chores a stay-at-home dad faces is picking up clutter.  Shoes, backpacks, books, brushes, crayons, coats, jackets, toys—it seems like a never-ending battle to try to find a place for everything and to keep everything in its place.

     Here are a few things I’ve learned on the topic of clutter control:

1.      Pick up clutter daily.  That way it won’t get so bad that you give up on it.  I like to do my clutter control in the mornings so the house is orderly for the rest of the day.  I guess I could do it at night before I go to bed, but I’m usually so tired at that point that mornings are a better option for me.

Clutter:  if your house looks this this, you've waited too long.

2.      Use a clutter basket.  I used to put clutter away as I picked it up, but this meant dozens of trips across the house to the same places.  I’d pick up Andy’s shoes, for instance, take them to his room, then find a baseball bat two minutes later and have to trek back to his room.  Now I carry around a laundry basket and pick up all the clutter before I start to put it away.

The amazing clutter basket.

3.      Take clean-up breaks.  If you have young children, who like to play with lots of different toys at once, take a break every hour or so and have them help you tidy things up.  If they’ve tired of the Lincoln Logs, put them away.  If the Play-Doh is starting to get hard, but it back in the plastic containers.  I’ve found that kids actually enjoy doing this.  Once the toy room or family room is tidied up, they have a “clean slate” to mess up again.  And you don’t end up having to put away every toy they own when play time is over.

Clean-up breaks take you from this...

...to this.

4.      Organize kids’ rooms so they know where things go.  Kids can get overwhelmed with clutter the same way dads do.  And if they don’t know where to put things, it doesn’t do much good to tell them to pick things up. 

          A couple of weeks ago, I asked Andy to clean up and organize his closet.  To my surprise, he actually got excited about the challenge and dug right in.  He ended up throwing away a ton of things he no longer wanted, which left more space for everything else, and when he was finished, the closet looked like a well organized display at a department store:  baseball hats stacked neatly, all the clothes on hangers, toys carefully lined up on shelves. 

          Now that there’s a place for everything, it’s easy for him (and me—okay, it’s usually me, but he really was responsible for the closet organization) to put things in their place.

The Latest Nutrition Guidelines:MyPlate

       If you went to elementary school in the 70s, like I did, you learned there were four food groups:  dairy, meat, fruits and vegetables (lumped together), and grains.  In fourth grade, I remember having to write down everything I ate for a week, and reporting it, each day, aloud, in class.  The exercise was supposed to teach us to eat foods from each of the four groups at every meal, and it worked:  still, today, when planning meals, I think about the four food groups.

     Well, nutrition guidance, you’ve come a long way, baby.  The four food groups have been out for decades, replaced by food pyramids, which have now been replaced by a system called MyPlate (choosemyplate.gov).

Make your plate look like MyPlate.

     The system was designed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (the same folks who brought us the food pyramid), and while the concept is simple, the application is a bit more tricky.  You’ll want to visit the Web site, but these are the main points:

1. Instead of thinking in terms of food groups or a food pyramid, picture a plate.   For each meal, one-half of this plate should be covered in fruits and vegetables, one-fourth should be covered in whole grains, and the final fourth should be covered in foods rich in protein.  A small circle at the top of the plate (think of a glass) represents dairy, which should also be present at each meal. 






Fruits and vegetables:  each plays a role in good nutrition.



2. All fruits and vegetables are not created equal.  While half what you eat at each meal should be fruits and vegetables, you can’t eat half a plate of watermelon for every meal, day after day, and expect to be healthy.  You need variety. 

          MyPlate divides vegetables into five groups:  dark green ( such as broccoli, romaine, spinach); starchy (includes potatoes, corn, and, surprisingly, green peas); red/orange (think carrots, pumpkin, squash, sweet potatoes, red peppers, tomatoes); beans/peas (all types of beans and peas except green peas); and others (asparagus, avocados, zucchini, onions, beets, cauliflower, mushrooms, green peppers).  

          MyPlate does not divide fruits into groups, but it does recommend a variety of fruits in order to get the right amounts of necessary nutrients.

Each member of the family needs different amounts of essential nutrients.

3. All bodies do not need the same amounts of the same foods.  On the MyPlate Web site, you’ll find the amounts that each person in your family should be eating from each of the five groups (vegetables, fruits, grains, protein, and dairy) each day.  You will also find the proper amount that each person should be eating from each vegetable subgroup each week.





A proper diet can prevent cancer, high blood pressure, and other diseases.



4. Proper eating will promote health and ward off disease.   According to the Web site, eating according to MyPlate standards will help you avoid cancer, kidney stones, bone loss, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, constipation, diverticulosis (infection caused from food trapped in the intestinal lining), heart attack, stroke, obesity, and Type II diabetes.  

     After I finished reading these guidelines, I couldn’t help but realize they almost exactly described the diet of my Grandmother Williams, who lived to be one hundred and four (she passed away a year ago). 

     At Grandma’s Thanksgiving dinners, we would sometimes chuckle at the variety of vegetables on the table:   string beans, corn, yams, potatoes, carrot sticks, celery sticks, beets, peas.  There would also usually be what she called “mustard pickles,” which were pieces of cauliflower, carrots, green peppers, and onions marinated in a mustard vinaigrette.  Our plates were at least half-full of vegetables at these events, if not three-fourths full. 

     And the vegetable array was not just for Thanksgiving:  it was also included at other formal meals, like Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day.  Even when Grandma dined alone (or with just one or two of us), there were always vegetables.  In the summer there were sliced tomatoes, cucumbers in vinegar, new potatoes, corn on the cob—all from her garden.  In the winter, she would used canned and frozen vegetables. 

     Grandma also followed the other guidelines from MyPlate (before they existed):  lots of fruit, much of which she bottled from her own trees; a moderate amount of meat; a lot of dairy products; and a lot of whole grains (oatmeal, whole wheat), although she wasn’t so fanatic that she’d never touch white bread.  Grandma was moderate in everything.

     Now, she did eat a lot of chocolate—and she used quite a bit of cream in her pies and other desserts (MyPlate wouldn’t exactly sanction these activities)—but when you’re out mowing your lawn at age 90, you can have some cream and chocolate.

     Grandma was quite healthy up until she died, at home, in her own bed.  She did have arthritis and macular degeneration, which left her nearly blind for the last decade of her life (sadly, she didn’t catch this soon enough, or it probably could have been cured—get those yearly eye exams!), but she had no heart problems, no cholesterol issues, no diabetes, no cancer.  She never had weight issues in her life—she was always slender, in-shape, and active.

     Thanks, Grandma, for your great example.  I hope I live to be a hundred and four.

Grilled Vegetables

My last cooking post was on men who make bread, which needed some explaining.  But today’s topic—grilling—needs no prefatory remarks.  Everyone knows dudes grill.  That’s just what we do.

But do real men grill vegetables?  Yes, they do.  It’s just as macho to grill a mushroom as it is a burger, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Here’s an easy summer recipe that works well for an outdoor lunch or supper.  Serve the vegetables with a rustic loaf of bread, two or three cheeses, and individual raspberry tarts.  The veggies are so good, you and your kids won’t even realize it’s a meatless meal. 

Where's the beef?  No one will care.

Grilled Vegetables

vegetables (you decide the quantity your family will eat):

asparagus spears

green peppers

red peppers

zucchini

Portobello mushrooms

vinaigrette (this recipe serves 6—adjust according to family size):

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup fresh lemon juice (that means you must squeeze a lemon or two—don’t buy the bottled stuff)

½  cup balsamic vinegar (raspberry works well)

sea salt

1 teaspoon Mediterranean seasoning blend

1 teaspoon season salt

Wash asparagus spears and bend bottoms of stalks until they snap (discard the lower pieces).

Rinse peppers, zucchini and mushrooms and cut into long, thin slices.

Combine vinegar, lemon juice, Mediterranean seasoning and season salt in medium bowl.  Whisk in olive oil.  Taste.  Adjust seasoning.

Place vegetables in vinaigrette and allow to marinate at least two hours.

Heat grill to medium high.

Place vegetables on grill.  Turn after one minute.  Remove after one more minute.  Place in large serving dish and cover with remaining marinade.  Sprinkle with sea salt. 

Enjoy!

Serve grilled vegetables with rustic bread, cheeses, and individual raspberry tarts.

Kids and Sunscreen

     Do you have to tackle your kids to get sunscreen on them?
     I used to, but it's a little easier now.
     Here are some techniques I've used to get my kids to put on the SPF:
     1.  Use sunscreen stick on kids' faces.  The thing my kids absolutely HATE is getting sunscreen in their eyes or mouths.  If you use the sticks, you can pretty well avoid this.  If they're old enough, let them apply the stick themselves.  They like that, because they feel like they're in control.  (You can touch it up a bit afterwards if necessary.)

My kids will put this on their faces without a fight.

     2.  Let kids choose the sunscreen to use on the rest of their bodies.  I used to grab whatever type of sunscreen happened to be sitting around (as long as it was at least 50 SPF), and my kids always had some complaint about it:  it was itchy, it stung, it was too greasy, etc.  Now I have a wide array of choices and let them pick their poison.  My kids usually prefer the spray-on stuff, but we've put that on hold because of health concerns about it in the news.  (Hopefully those will turn out to be unfounded.)  At any rate, if you let the kids choose from a variety of sunscreen options, they feel like they're part of the process, and they're more likely to let you apply it.

Have an arsenal of different sunscreens at the ready.
(I don't necessarily endorse any of these particular products.)

     3.  Explain that sunscreen prevents sagging and aging of skin.  Pick a person who is severely wrinkled--preferably a person who your kids see frequently--and tell the kids that unless they use sunscreen, their skin will someday look the same.  I'm not usually into scare tactics, but this is the truth, and when the kids understand it, they're more willing to cooperate.
          If you don't know anyone with sun-damaged skin, show your kids these pictures:

French actress Brigitte Bardot pre-sun damage.

Brigitte Bardot post-sun damage.

     4.  Explain that sunscreen prevents skin cancer.  Pick a person who has had skin cancer--once again, preferably someone close to the kids--and explain that if the kids don't use sunscreen, they could end up in the same situation.   Explain that if skin cancer is not detected early, it can spread quickly and kill its victims quickly.  I remind my kids about the father of a friend of mine, who liked to be outdoors without a shirt, but refused to use sunscreen.  After years of doing this, he was eventually diagnosed with melanoma and died three months later.

Skin cancer isn't pretty:  a malignant melanoma.  

Real Men Make Bread

Real men do make bread.

     When I was in law school, a female friend of mine--a liberal Northeasterner who was pro-gay marriage, pro-choice,  and pro-everything that would seem to obliterate the difference between women and men--mentioned that a guy she liked had invited her over to eat some bread he had made.
     "Bread?" she said.  "I mean, it's fine that he likes to cook, but baking bread?  That's a little weird."
     Well, I found it a little weird that she found it weird for men to make bread, since she was fine with women playing professional football, women working on auto assembly lines, and women serving in combat zones in the military.
     Why can't a dude bake a loaf of bread?

The masculine art of making bread.

     Weird or not, I assure you that some very real, macho men do make bread.  My wife's grandfather--a man's man of Sicilian descent who eventually settled in Guatemala--ran a bakery for many years, and all of the workers who made the bread (including his son, my father-in-law) were men.  And when I worked as a prep cook at a very expensive French restaurant, the baker was also a man--a very large, rugged man named Hal with several tattoos.  You have to be pretty buff to throw 50-pound sacks of flour around the way Hal did.

This guy reminds me of Hal the baker--except that Hal was bigger and buffer.

     But as final proof that real men make bread, the wife of an auto mechanic I know--who wouldn't be able to get in touch with his feminine side if his life depended on it--once revealed to me, sotto voce, that her husband made the best bread in the world, but he had forbidden her to tell anyone about it.

Roman men baked bread:  why are today's men squeamish about it?

     Why are some men embarrassed to have it known that they make bread?  Why are some women turned off by men who bake bread?  Those are questions for future doctoral dissertations, but could it be that when they think of making bread, they have a vision of Betty Crocker, dressed in a red gingham apron, taking hot loaves out of the oven as her tired hubby walks in the door?

If this is your vision of making bread, think again.

     If you have that vision, replace it with a realistic one--one of a hot, sweaty commercial bakery that has more in common with a steel plant than with Martha Stewart's kitchen.

Commercial bakery:  more locker room than ladylike.

     For some great bread--and a fun family activity--try the following recipe, which came from my Grandma Williams (c = cup, T = tablespoon)  My kids like to mix the ingredients, play with the dough, and form it into loaves.  (Oh, yeah, and they like to eat it.)
     Although it's called French bread, this recipe produces nothing like the true French baguettes that scrape the skin off the top of your mouth as you try to chew through them.  No, this bread is "American-style" French, like the soft squishy loaves you get at grocery store bakeries.

Your bread will turn out more like this...

...than this.

Grandma Williams' French Bread

1 c warm water
2 T yeast
1 1/2 c warm water
3 T sugar
1 T salt
1/3 c canola oil
6 c flour
   
Dissolve yeast in 1 c warm water.

Combine 1 1/2 c water, sugar, salt, and oil in large bowl.  Stir until sugar and salt have dissolved.  Add yeast mixture and stir.

Add flour all at once.  Stir until soft dough forms.  Dough should not stick to your hands.  If it does, add flour--one T at a time--until it doesn't.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and place in microwave (don't turn it on--the microwave is just a warm, draft-free place for dough to rise).  Allow dough to sit 10  minutes; then cut through it several times with butcher knife.  Return dough to microwave and allow to rest another 10 minutes.  Cut with butcher knife again.  Repeat process 4 more times.

Remove dough from microwave and punch down.  Then turn onto floured board (that means you sprinkle some flour on a cutting board so the dough won't stick).  Cut dough into four pieces.  Take one piece and pound flat with hands on cutting board.  Roll up like jelly roll and place on cookie sheet coated with non-stick spray.  Repeat procedure for remaining pieces of dough.

Optional:  brush tops of loaves with beaten egg white (this gives more of a crust).

Slash top of each loaf diagonally--about 1/4 inch deep--in four places.

Bake 20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Eat while hot!