Super Food Dinner
I didn’t plan this dinner on purpose. Really. I don’t try to make uber healthy food. It’s just that I like vegetables and once in a while I figure it’s worth throwing some fish on the plate. The girls like fish, especially salmon, and probably a lot more than Joe and I do. Joe and I can like it when I prepare it with this tasty Asian marinade. But when I’m sitting around planning my meals for the week, I never once have a strong craving for fish or salmon. I don’t sit there and say, wow, I could sure use a good piece of strong oily fish. Nope. But it’s good for us and just look at that lovely color. It almost makes it look appetizing.
When the girls game into the kitchen, I got plenty of uhmmm sounds from them when they saw the salmon on the counter. Joe made a few uhmmm sounds when he tasted it with the marinade. Me, I’d trade my salmon for the swiss chard and sweet potato any day. Louisa, she would have gladly made the trade if given the option, which she wasn’t. Because in order to be a super food dinner, you need to eat all the food, not just pick and choose your favorites. Therefore, I cleaned my plate, as did Joe, and Annie. As for Louisa, I’ll leave that one to your imagination.
Oh Honey!
I’ve become a big fan of local honey. It actually started a long time ago when I worked with a man who kept his own beehives and brought me a jar of his honey. The bees dined on blueberry bushes, so this honey was a revelation. Before then I had no idea that there was anything but Golden Blossom clover honey, which I enjoyed in a cup of tea, with lemon, when I had a cold as my mom prescribed. While I was growing up, an indulgent lunch would be a bread and butter sandwich with Golden Blossom honey spread over it – I still don’t understand how my kids can’t like that one! But that was pretty much it for me and honey.
After that blueberry discovery, I didn’t really find any interesting honey for a long time. And then, as I began to visit farmer’s markets and farm stands, I began to see displays with local honey. And on closer inspection I discovered there was honey cultivated from other single source plants, and they all tasted different. The floral notes were distinctively different between the varieties and I’d usually pick up a jar to have a special flavor to add to my pantry and my morning oatmeal.
Skip ahead to last spring. I began to read that a homeopathic solution for seasonal allergies was local, unprocessed honey. Eating a spoonful of local honey a day could have the same affect as going weekly for allergy shots, since our bodies build up resistance to local pollens in response to the pollen in the honey. The key to this treatment is that the honey has not been heated and processed, which would kill the beneficial pollens, antioxidants, vitamins and amino acids. I started to take my daily spoonful of local honey picked up at my local Whole Foods, and I barely noticed any spring allergies.
Yesterday I visited the Sunday farmer’s market in the parking lot of my Whole Foods and found a beekeeper selling a wide variety of honeys and beeswax products crafted by his wife. After tasting about 6 varieties, I was ready to choose the cranberry. But as we started to chat, he reminded me that the best honey for allergies is the wildflower since the bees feed on all of the local plants in my region. Sold!
Finally, I learned another use for honey last week that I picked up on the Facebook page of one of our local farms. They mentioned that honey is a great treatment for healing burns. Slathering honey on a burn will help to prevent infections and help the skin to heal with minimal scarring. Yesterday’s beekeeper told me the reason was that there is a natural hydrogen peroxide in the honey, perfect for combating infectious bacteria. Whatever. Now I know how to deal with my constant burn mishaps while cooking.
Oh, and did I ever tell you that honey is great in desserts? If not, just check out this post about my aunt’s honeycakes!
So Fire Me; I Need More of This Spice
Last night I cooked one of my less than stellar dinners. These pork kebabs had potential with a nice Greek marinade, yogurt dressing, and good Greek salad. Unfortunately, we were running late for dinner, and I was rushing around so much that I neglected the kebabs on the grill and they were overcooked. I should have known better because this wasn’t the first time I’ve overcooked kebabs. Do you have any recipes that you chronically mess up?
Advice for the Day….Eat More Turmeric, I Know that I Should
I know that sometime recently I was discussing with someone the fact that turmeric is a really healthy spice. Sadly, I can’t remember the who or where, so when I just read this refresher on the spice, I thought it was worth sharing. Turmeric is the spice that gives curry its deep yellow color, but we Americans find it in our yellow mustard. Its anti-inflammatory properties help medical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel conditions such as Crohn’s disease, and possibly Alzheimer’s disease – the reason I appear to need a little more mustard in my diet. This superstar spice also gives promise in recent studies with mice to have potential as an anti-cancer agent. The only warning I have about this spice is to be careful when you use it because it will stain clothing. A small price to pay for all of its potential.