Thunderstorm Orzo Salad

These two love the rain. The more lightening and thunder, the better.

 This one...not so much. 

When the sky gets dark and the rumbles start, Bean tends to look like this. Pathetic, I know. At least it's not bed time. That's the worst. Well, it's the worst right after the fingers in her ears all-out screaming attacks that occur every time we get a middle of the night storm.

Bean requires more than a little distraction to cope with the booms. Like, a whole lot of boiling, chopping, stirring, whisking, pouring kind of distraction. Come on, Bean. Let's go make a salad while these guys look for worms.

Thunderstorm Orzo Salad
inspired by Cooking Light

1 cup orzo or other small pasta
2 cups baby spinach, chopped
1/2 medium red onion, chopped
1/2 cup pitted, chopped kalamata olives
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
1 cup feta cheese, crumbled (divided)
1/4 cup red wine vinaigrette (recipe below)
salt and pepper to taste

Cook the pasta according to package instructions. Drain and rinse in cold water. Combine the cold pasta, spinach, onion, olives, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, and 3/4 cup of the feta cheese in a large bowl. Pour the red wine vinaigrette over the top and toss gently. Season with salt and pepper. Serve with remaining feta sprinkled on top. 

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp agave (or honey, or granulated sugar)
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (or more to taste, I prefer a vinegary vinaigrette)

Combine the vinegar, mustard, agave, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add the oil in a slow, steady stream whisking all the while until you have a thick, tasty dressing. Serve on the orzo salad above or crisp baby greens.

The worm hunters back in time for dinner.

Mexican Kale Salad

It's CSA box season for Angelic Organics shareholders and our farmers' market is in full swing so all restraint has gone straight out the window. Three different varieties of crisp lettuces in addition to arugula and spinach, fresh herbs, broccoli, beets, turnips, radishes, scallions, kale and flats of ripe strawberries have taken over the kitchen, not to mention the peas and tomatoes that are starting to roll in from our own little garden plot. And we're just getting the season started!

This is obviously cause for celebration. Where we live, when it comes to fresh local produce, we get it while we can. Winters are rough. Thank goodness there's no season for chocolate or March would be completely unbearable around here. For now though, we're wallowing like a bunch of baby rabbits in nature's bounty.

But where are we going to put all of this gorgeous organic produce?

Main refrigerator compartment? Door? Crisper drawer? Dark, cool corner of the basement? What's the best place to store those luscious lettuces? For a quick crash course, check out this Freshness IQ Challenge put together by the food storage gurus at Wolf and Sub-Zero. As an added bonus, they'll donate a dollar to FoodCorps for every completed quiz.

So how'd you do? I know enough not to ruin juicy summer tomatoes by putting them in the fridge but I admit to storing fresh fish in the main fridge compartment all these years. Who knew?

Now that we have proper storage out of the way, it's time to put the good stuff to work make something awesome like perhaps...a little Mexican Kale Salad?

This is summer for lunch. Or dinner. Or breakfast for that matter. Starting the day off with a salad is a great way to meet your produce quota and helps ensure all those leafy greens get used. Forget Wheaties. Breakfast salad is where it's at. If you're a traditionalist and need a little more breakfast in your breakfast, try slicing a hard boiled egg on top.

Earthy ribbons of deep green kale play so well alongside buttery avocado, salty Cotija, kicky radishes, and crunchy pepitas but it's the lime that really got the kids. Looly, surprise surprise, picked out the avocado, but all three of the 7-and-unders in this house ate this kale salad. By choice. There was no cajoling. No bargaining. They actually dumped kale salad on top of plain pasta to make their own creation - Mexican Kale Pasta Salad, then had seconds. Those are my kids!

Mexican Kale Salad

For the dressing

1&1/2 tbsp sunflower oil (or canola, olive or grapeseed oil)
1 lime, juice and zest
1 tsp agave
1/4 tsp kosher salt
pinch freshly ground black pepper

For the salad

1 bunch kale, sliced into thin ribbons
1 avocado, cubed
4 medium radishes, thinly sliced
1/2 cup Cotija cheese, crumbled
1/4 cup pepitas

To make the dressing combine the oil, lime juice and zest, agave, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk to combine.

In a large bowl, combine the salad ingredients. Pour the dressing over the top and toss gently. Let sit at room temperature for 15-30 minutes. Toss it again and serve. Garnish with more pepitas, a sprinkle of Cotija, and lime wedges.

Beet Hummus

They're baaaaaaack.

Beets. Pretty little suckers, I'll give you that. But it's their deep dirt earthy flavor I'm still struggling with. Still that doesn't keep them out of our CSA box every week.

Last summer we made them into beet chips with a side of curried yogurt dip and they were good. Really, addictively, shockingly good and I have to admit, I kind of loved them. So maybe, perhaps I don't hate beets as much as I think I do. In an effort to push my own culinary boundaries as much as I push the KC kids' and in penance for the cruel avocado trick I played on Looly last week: Beet hummus.

At least it's purple. That's something. Now, the original recipe did not call for garbanzo beans but I felt I had to include them both to warrant the "hummus" title as well as to convince myself that there was plenty of stuff in there that I like. I know. I can be very grown-up sometimes.

Once the beets are cooked, this hummus comes together so fast. I literally threw it together in the 5 minutes it took the kiddos to rescue their bikes and sidewalk chalk from the backyard before a thunderstorm was scheduled to roll through. By the first rumble, we were crunching naan chips with this lovely bowl of vibrant purple dip.

And guess what? It was good. Seriously good. The beets add a faint sweetness to the garlicky, lemony, creamy hummus with absolutely no dirt flavor to speak of. The cumin and tahini give the whole medley a satisfying warm nuttiness making it the perfect compliment for crisp mild vegetables or salty chips. And the color, well, you cannot beat that color. So, beets, perhaps there's something between us after all.

Beet Hummus
adapted from Simply Recipes

1/2 pound beets
1 cup canned garbanzo beans, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp tahini
zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 clove garlic
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

Cut the greens off the beets and reserve them for another recipe or discard. Scrub the beets in cold water. Place them in a medium pot with and inch or two of water. Bring the pot to a boil then reduce heat and simmer until the beets are tender when pierced with a fork (about 30 minutes). Remove the beets from the cooking liquid and let cool slightly. Once their cool enough to handle, it should be fairly easy to pinch the skins off with your fingers. If you don't want purple hands, where gloves. Discard the skins.

Place the cooked, peeled beets in a food processor. Add the remaining ingredients and puree until smooth, thick and creamy. Serve with toasted pita bread, sliced vegetables, or naan crisps.

Fruit Salad with Vanilla-Lime Dressing

School's out, summer is in full swing and the KC kitchen staff is more eager than ever to get to work.

I, on the other hand, am readjusting to the amped up summer house volume and the sheer exhaustion of fielding ceaseless requests to paint, set up the sprinkler, help practice piano, go to the park, walk to the library, recall the Spanish word for prairie (pradera, by the way), host a spelling bee, make popsicles, make worksheets, make popcorn, make playdough, put on a puppet show, demonstrate a proper cartwheel, and the dreaded...can we plug in the glue gun?

With the day spiraling into hot glue territory, it's time to act. Fast. So what's quick, simple, can be made from stuff you already have sitting on your kitchen counter and irresistibly enticing to a swarm of sunscreen-slathered, half-dressed ragamuffins armed with a glue gun?

Fruit freaking salad, baby.

Fruit Salad with Vanilla-Lime Dressing
inspired by The Pioneer Woman

For the dressing

1 cup granulated sugar
2 limes, zest and juice
1 cup water
1 & 1/2 tsp good vanilla extract (or the caviar of one fresh vanilla bean)

For the salad

1/2 medium peeled, pineapple, cored and chopped into chunks
1/2 small cantaloupe, rind removed, seeded and chopped into chunks
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
2 cups grapes, halved
1/2 pint blueberries
1/2 pint raspberries
1 handful fresh mint leaves

To make the dressing, combine the sugar, lime zest, juice, water and vanilla in a small saucepan. Bring it to a boil, stirring until all of the sugar is dissolved. Reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until it starts to thicken. Remove from heat and let cool.

You'll be relieved to know that preparing a fruit salad requires no advanced training. Wash, peel, core, and slice fruit as necessary and put it all in a bowl. Use whatever fruit you have. Enlist your glue gun-wielding kitchen staff and go to it.

Pour the cooled dressing over the top of the fruit and toss everything together gently. Or if your staff has a case of the pickies, leave the dressing on the side and use it as a dip instead. Garnish the whole beautiful mess with mint leaves.

Don't forget to destroy the glue gun while their slurping the last of the juice from their bowls.

Green Pea Pasta with Feta

Last spring I introduced the KC kids to the idea of green pasta with Nut-Free Kale Pesto. Here's another healthy, veggie-packed green pasta sauce that comes together quickly for an easy week night supper. This time we're pairing fresh sweet peas, dill, and briny feta because, well, feta with spring vegetables is freaking delicious, that's why. 

Green Pea Pasta with Feta
adapted from Fine Cooking

1 pound green peas (fresh or frozen)
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup sugar snap peas, trimmed, strings removed, and sliced on the diagonal
12 ounces short pasta, any shape
4-6 ounces feta cheese

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Add the green peas and cook 2-4 minutes until crisp tender. Use a slotted spoon to remove the peas from the water and set aside.

Return the pot to a boil and cook pasta according to package instructions. Reserve the cooking water.

Meanwhile, transfer all but 1 cup of the green peas to a blender. Add the olive oil, almost all of the dill (reserve a little for garnish), salt, pepper, and lemon juice and puree until smooth, adding the reserved cooking water from the pasta until you reach your desired consistency.

Drain the pasta and toss with the green pea sauce. Add the remaining whole green peas, sliced snap peas and feta, toss again. Garnish with lemon wedges and remaining dill. Dinner is served!

Strawberry Sparkle Juice

Amidst my cookbook habit and penchant for Pinterest recipes, sometimes I need to take a step back and remember what this blog is all about. Food is always on my brain. I love trying out new recipes and sharing old family favorites here on Kid Cultivation. I get all worked up over taking a truly decent food photograph. But really, truly, when it all comes down to it, the reason this blog exists is because of three inquisitive, discerning, droll little beings, none more than 4 feet tall.

Bean received this sweet cookbook for her birthday last month. And it is a cute book, conveniently partitioned into age-based sections with varying degrees of recipe complexity and likelihood of flesh wounds and third degree burns. She was immediately drawn to a cheery pink fruity beverage and wanted to make it. Now.

And here's the ugly truth. I didn't want to make it. 

All it involved was hulling and crushing strawberries to a pulp, pouring in some orange juice, a splash of seltzer and stirring. Any reasonable and not otherwise occupied parent, I'm sure, would have succumbed immediately to the sweet request which came complete with a please and a smile. But it was the witching hour...homework to be done, laundry to be folded, dinner to be made, piano to be practiced, lunchboxes to be unpacked, washed, and repacked. I didn't feel like splattering strawberry juice all over the counters.

But I did. I fought my very grown-up (and totally not fun) urge to pull out the blender and whip it up in 20 seconds for her and instead pulled out the bowls, measuring cups and potato masher. And of course she loved every second of it. Sometimes practical and efficient are not the words of the day. Sometimes we just need to make a mess. Thanks for the reminder, Bean.

Hulling some berries

Strawberry Sparkle Juice
adapted from Cook School

2 cups fresh, ripe strawberries
1 cup orange juice
1 cup seltzer (or plain water for the bubble-averse)

Rinse the berries and place in a large bowl. Use a potato masher to grind them to a pulp.

Use a sieve to strain the strawberry juice into a pitcher or second bowl.

 Pour in the orange juice and seltzer (or water). Stir gently and pour into glasses. Drink her down!

Once I got over myself, Bean's project turned out to be the perfect after school activity. I mean, just check out Roo's enthusiasm.

Forget two thumbs up, that's two arms and two legs up!! They were so excited and pleased with themselves for doing it all on their own. Totally worth the 15 minutes of mashing and washing dishes.

Go ahead. Make the mess. Your kids will thank you.

Radishes in Brown Butter with Lemon

Radishes are so pretty. The vibrant purplish pink really works to their advantage with my pink and purple-loving crew.

The KC kids generally prefer their radishes crisp, raw and thinly sliced and I admit, that's not a half bad way to enjoy them. But beyond salads and the crudite platter, here's a simple, delicious way to showcase radishes in all their springy pink and purple glory.

Radishes in Brown Butter with Lemon
adapted slightly from Cooking Light

2 bunches radishes, including greens
1 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp fresh lemon zest
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp black pepper

Trim the greens from the radishes, leaving about one inch of stem attached to the bulb. Halve the smaller radishes. Quarter larger ones. Wash the greens and spin dry in a salad spinner. Roughly chop the greens.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Add radishes (not the greens!) and simmer until crisp tender...about 3 or 4 minutes. Drain and dry the radishes on a towel.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan or skillet over medium-high heat. Add the radishes and saute for a few minutes until the butter starts to brown. Add the lemon juice, zest, salt, and sugar and cook one minute more. Remove the pan from heat. Stir in the radish greens and plenty of black pepper.

Sugar Snap Slaw with Miso Dressing

Sugar snap peas are having a moment. Everywhere I look someone is slicing, dicing, or chomping on crisp emerald sugar snaps. Some of us are even mixing a few into spicy black rice salad!

The KC kiddos love sugar snaps but let's talk cabbage for a moment. I often lament Looly's late emergence picky eating. The girl who once happily gummed avocados, artichoke hearts, salmon, and sirloin now subsists primarily on waffles, bread, and berries. But friends, at least we still have cabbage.

For whatever reason, Looly adores raw cabbage. Green, purple, it doesn't matter. Her enthusiasm is infectious to the point that Bean and Roo now complain if I miss their plates with a few crispy strips of coveted "slaw" too. I cannot complain about that.

For all their love of cabbage, the 6-and-unders here have zero in salad dressing. It doesn't matter. Let them munch their raw sugar snaps and cabbage ribbons. As usual, I set aside a deconstructed version of slaw for them - really just fresh cabbage, slices of sugar snap peas, and a few radishes, which they (perhaps oddly) also seem to enjoy. That means more yummy dressing for me. More for you. 

Sugar Snap Slaw with Miso Dressing
adapted from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

For the dressing

1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh miso (mild yellow or white)* plus more to taste
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp honey
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp sunflower or grapeseed oil

Throw all of the dressing ingredients in a blender and mix until you have a thick, creamy, delicious puree. Alternatively, place all the ingredients in medium cylindrical container (like those that often come with an immersion blender) and whip to perfection with a handheld blender.

* Find fresh miso in the refrigerated section of most well-stocked grocery stores

For the Salad

1/2 pound sugar snap peas, washed and sliced on a diagonal**
1/2 pound cabbage, thinly sliced
4-6 radishes, cut into matchsticks
3-4 scallions, thinly sliced
3 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (you can toast your own or buy them already toasted, like I did)

Toss all of the salad ingredients together, reserving 1 tbsp sesame seeds. Pour your desired amount of dressing over the top and toss everything together. Top with the remaining 1 tbsp sesame seeds.

You will likely have more dressing than you'll need for the slaw. Keep the extra in the fridge and it will last several days. It makes a super tasty dip for just about any crunchy veg you can think of...carrots, radishes, cucumbers, peppers, green beans, baby corn, kale chips, you name it.

**In her cookbook, Deb Perelman says to blanch the sugar snaps, but I don't find it necessary. They're lovely and delicious raw or blanched so my philosophy is, why add a step? If you prefer your veggies more tender, go ahead and blanch the peas for a couple of minutes before slicing. I skip it.

St. Patrick's Day Green Smoothie

Just in time for Saint Patrick's Day, here's one of my favorite green smoothies that even Looly will drink. Just don't expect her to say she likes it.

Spinach, ginger, coconut water...I know what you're thinking because I thought exactly the same thing. There's no way my kids are going to drink this without money changing hands. But don't let the abundance of healthy stuff dissuade you. There's pineapple too - lots of sweet, tropical pineapple and don't forget the green factor, especially with St. Paddy's Day just around the bend. Never miss an opportunity.

It's so fast and so easy, you've really nothing to lose even if they turn up their noses at first, which is precisely what Looly did. So I pulled out the big guns - fancy straws. Gets them every time.

Bean was sold at first sip. Roo, as usual, said he loved it, drank an ounce and was full for hours. Looly, on the other hand, claimed it to be the most excruciating beverage experience of her life, then proceeded to drink her entire glass. And mine. This morning she asked when we could make green smoothies again. She is a 6 and a half. 13 is looking dicey from here.

St. Patrick's Day Green Smoothies
serves 2 (or 1 adult and 3 kiddos)

8 ounces coconut water (sub regular H2O if you don't have coconut water)
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
2 big handfuls of baby spinach (about 2 cups)
1 tbsp honey (optional)

Pour the coconut water into a blender. Add the ginger and blend until frothy. Add everything else - pineapple, spinach, and a touch of honey if you like, and blend again until smooth. Serve in tall glasses, garnish with lemon wedges and the fanciest straws you can find.

Bottoms up.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!