A Little Less Parental Guilt
Not as Bad as I Thought
If you’re a parent like me, it seems that every day presents a few more reasons to feel guilty about the things we haven’t done right by our kids.
Louisa, “Mom, where’s my basketball shirt?”
Me, “Did you look in your drawer?”
Louisa, “It’s not there.”
Me, “Check the pile of clothes in the laundry room.”
Louisa, “It’s there. I need it in a half an hour for my game.”
Me, “Shake it out.”
As you can see, not exactly the model of perfect parenting. That’s why I was so happy to catch a news bit today about the value of whole grain white bread. Let me explain.
As any health conscious parent knows, we’re supposed to feed our kids whole grain bread. But, mine have never taken much of a liking to whole wheat or multigrain bread, and when that’s the only type of sandwich bread in the house, we can have a lunchbox situation. Meaning, nobody wants lunch, and the bread dries out and/or turns moldy. If the bread isn’t soft, as is usually the case with the organic sandwich breads after a day, Joe isn’t particularly fond of it either. And true confessions, I don’t like whole wheat or multigrain sandwich bread either. The flavor is too strong for the filling. That’s why I had given up buying anything other than oatmeal bread which, although it sounds healthy, isn’t that much better than white bread.
Then over the past year I discovered something called “whole grain white”. It looks like white bread, and stays soft as long as the oatmeal bread. It seemed like a win-win for health vs. taste and texture. But I’ve still been feeling kind of guilty, assuming that it’s just a better version of white bread, but not as good as that whole grain stuff. Until today. Today I read in a Q&A health column, authored by the famous Dr. Oz from Oprah, that whole grain white bread is as good as the whole grain or wheat sandwich bread.
Score one for the Mom.
So What’s Wrong with Broccoli Rabe?
Who Can Resist All of this Green Goodness?
Every time I cook broccoli rabe, (aka broccoli raab, and rapini) I get a reaction like there’s poison on the plate for dinner. Oh no, broccoli rabe. Ewww, broccoli rabe. Do I have to have the broccoli rabe?
Just look at how beautiful the fresh green leaves are. They need very little to turn them into a perfect side dish other than some olive oil, sea salt, sometimes chopped garlic, and a little water or broth. You cook them until they’re tender, preferably before they lose their vibrant green color. That’s it.
Broccoli Rabe is non-fat, low-cal, and high in vitamins A and C. They also possess those phytochemicals that are prized for their cancer fighting properties.
You can serve broccoli rabe as a side dish. Or you can toss it with pasta, typically orechiette. Add some Italian sausage, and/or grated parmesan cheese. There’s a comfort food dinner if I’ve ever met one.
Sure, you need to be comfortable with bitter flavors to enjoy the vegetable. But broccoli rabe can be mellowed with the appropriate preparation. Plus, what’s wrong with a little bitter flavors here and there? Must we always feed our sweet tooth?
Therefore, in response to my own question, there’s nothing wrong with broccoli rabe, everything good with it, and I’m going to continue serving it, like or not.
Whoopie!
Photo copyright Sur La Table.
I don’t think I ever tried a whoopie pie until I was an adult. Either they were unavailable in New York, or maybe my family never purchased them because we had too many good Italian desserts to enjoy. Now that I’ve tried them, I find they’re appealing in a Hostess cupcake sort of way. There’s a layering of textures and sweet flavors. You can pull it apart and lick off the cream or bite through the layers at once with the cream squishing out the sides.
Deconstruct, reconstruct, there are fun possibilities in the whoopie pie, kind of like a Mallomar cookie. Did you ever have one of those? Nabisco Mallomars are somewhat unique in the processed cookie world because they’re a seasonal product, only available in the winter. You get a cookie base, topped with a marshmallow and coated with chocolate. Now that I think about it, they must be Nabisco’s answer to the s’more. Duh. I suppose that was obvious to anyone who had camped as a kid, but s’mores are another sweet I never tried until I was an adult. But I digress. I loved to deconstruct Mallomars by cracking the chocolate coating, peeling it off the marshmallow, eating the marshmallow, and finally dunking the cookie base in milk. Pretty elaborate for a small cookie, don’t you think? It’s a good thing because it saved me from consuming too many at one sitting.
So back to whoopie pies. The gourmet kitchen store, Sur La Table, just sent out an email today announcing a new Wilton product they’re offering – a baking pan for creating whoopie pies. Doesn’t the photo above make them irresistible? Even if it weren’t for the other reasons I just gave, this photo convinces me that I need to get a whoopie pie pan so that I can make this everyman’s treat in my own kitchen. How about you? Are you hearing the same Siren call as me?