Thursday, May 27, 2010

Kids and Food - Keep It Fun and Fresh


Wednesday afternoons at Le Cordon Bleu were always my favorite days when I was a student there. That's because Wednesday was kids day. In Paris, kids under a certain age get Wednesday afternoon off from school. Every Wednesday, a parade of peppy kids would bounce through the hallowed halls of LCB to cook, stir, and get their hands into food - real food, not the processed kind.

I loved watching the chefs working with them through the glass of my "pratique" kitchen. Everyone was always having a great time and I got such a thrill out of seeing children understand the joy of cooking, and consequently the joy of eating. They were developing a respect for food that will likely last them a life time, and, in a way that some might consider ironic, not a single one of these kids was overweight.

I don't think it's ironic at all. In my mind, introducing kids to different types of fresh foods and to hands-on food preparation is one of the biggest keys in preventing rampant over-eating. That's because, in this way, many good things naturally happen. Kids develop a palate and desire for fresh vegetables and a well-balanced diet, cooking for them is fun, and food is not a foe or an enemy that has to be analyzed and dissected. They learn that food and cooking is a pleasure, and like all pleasures, it should be balanced and not abused.

That's why I was absolutely thrilled to join Louis Yuhasz and a group of ten children participating in his Louie's Kids organization last week in preparing a healthy cooking class/dinner. The non-profit, Charleston-based group is dedicated to helping obese kids lose weight through diet, education, exercise, and more. Louis gathered his biggest weight-loss winners last week to celebrate their victory at a glamorous (generously donated) beach house on Isle of Palms, to play and run on the beach, and to cook and eat with me and my assistant, Sharon.

Watching the kids views on foods evolve through the 40-minute cooking class was fascinating. One girl stated an emphatic "I hate squash!" when I told her we would be working with spaghetti squash to go with the fresh tomato sauce that was also on the menu. I heard a few sighs when the kids saw the whole wheat pasta, too. But, as soon as we got underway and everyone got involved either in chopping or talking and asking questions, imaginative doors started opening and the excitement mounted as we started plating the food. By the end, everyone was talking so excitedly and loudly that I couldn't hear myself talk.

Out went the pasta (two types - wheat and rice), squash, a green salad with a fresh orange vinaigrette, garlic butter and bread, and fruit salad tossed with honey and lemon over Greek yogurt. The best part for a chef like me was to see that the kids were ecstatic about the food. The oldest, a high school student named John, exclaimed, "Miss Holly that's the BEST salad I've ever had. When I'm rich and famous I want you to be my personal chef."

That was great enough, but to have several others tell me they were going to cook these dishes at home, was the best. I left that house feeling as joyful as I did watching kids cook at LCB, maybe even more so. And, guess what, everyone sampled the squash. Not just because Louis encouraged them to do so, but because they wanted to.

www.louieskids.org
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10 comments:

Unknown said...

So Holly -you did not do yourself justice. This was one of the most amazing food experiences these kids have ever had. You cast a spell on them and every ONE of them loved you, Sharon, the food especially but your sincerity and compassion I think is what really sold them. You are a HERO to me and to these kids -they'll never forget this experience and neither will I.
Thank you!
Now everyone who's a fan -go get tickets to Big Chef Little Chef June 17 Lowndes Grove Plantation, Charleston, SC 6:30-9 www.louieskids.org for info and tickets!
Love & light Holly!
Louis

May 27, 2010 at 11:30 AM
About Holly Herrick said...

It's a night I'll never forget either, Louis. They cast a spell on me and reminded me how refreshing children's perspectives can be. Great kids and a great cause with a great leader!

May 28, 2010 at 8:11 AM
淑芬 said...
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May 31, 2010 at 11:00 PM
Steph said...

Holly, what a wonderful post. Great writing, and I can just see you getting excited about the children getting excited ... thanks for keeping us posted on what you are up to!

June 3, 2010 at 7:10 AM
About Holly Herrick said...

Thanks, Steph!!!

June 4, 2010 at 11:22 AM
NedaD承蓁 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
June 5, 2010 at 12:14 PM
ElwoodK_Rank佳玲 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
June 9, 2010 at 1:20 AM
The Cassina Group said...

It's great to see you shaping the palettes of our future for natural and fresh flavors over processed and pre-packaged. How exciting!

June 15, 2010 at 7:16 AM
About Holly Herrick said...

Thank you, Cassina Group. I believe in everything that Louis and his kids are doing. That's why I stand behind them. Thanks for standing behind them, too!

June 15, 2010 at 4:16 PM
淑慧 said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
June 16, 2010 at 12:52 AM

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Culinary Cost-Cutting 101

Coupon Crazy

When I was a little girl, I marveled while watching my Great Aunt Frances sitting at her linoleum-topped kitchen table, cutting coupons from the daily newspaper in the tiny Kansas town she lived in until she was nearly 100 years old.

It seemed like such a waste of energy in order to save a few pennies on, what I thought, were probably things she wouldn't normally buy anyway. But, I was naive. She, a thrifty survivor of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, had her coupon system down pat and it's probably one of the reasons she made it through a long life of hard times, many of them spent alone.

The latest bout of monetary unpleasantness, however, has created a market for New Age couponing systems. The internet now has a number of hot coupon sites (I like couponmom.com) which provide free, brand-name coupons and more if you select to register as a member. They're just a click, a printer, and five minutes away. In addition, many grocery stores' websites offer lists of daily specials. And, here's the kicker. Many provide selections from the kind of items you usually purchase, anyway. That was it for me. The last straw supporting my long-standing anti-coupon mindset finally broke its resistant back.

Harris Teeter's online specials shopping list became this list-hater's new best friend. I dipped into it with reckless abandon. With a little practice and increasing knowledge, I'm slowly forming my own semi-profitable coupon system. By combining the free manufacturer's coupons from sites like couponmom.com with a daily special shopping list constructed from Harris Teeter's web site (harristeeter.com) , my handy VIC card, and an extra dose of concentration at the grocery store, I have scored some serious savings.

The best yet happened last week. Granted, it was a big sales day at the downtown Teeter. The store was offering buy one get one, two or even three, all over the place on big ticket items like beef, coffee and wine. Since I'm expecting company in a couple weeks, I decided to stock up on these and other staples. The net result was a whopping $67 total savings. In essence, I bought three weeks-worth of groceries for less than I usually spend in one week!

My heart raced with anticipation as I watched the basket cave with the weight of my cache and the numbers creeping slowly higher on the cash register. Then, as the cashier started calculating in the selected coupons, the numbers amazingly started going down. It was like getting on the scale after a week of gorging Haagen-Dazs only to find you'd lost five pounds. I was beaming. She was beaming and said, "You did good today!"


Admittedly, a follow-up trip to replenish the fresh vegetable drawer just one week later only yielded $10 in savings, but next time I'll do better. I'm on a coupon-crazed mission. Intelligent use of coupons and smart shopping add up to saving a lot more than pennies. And, I'm not in Kansas anymore.

One Plucky Chicken, Four Marvelous Meals

With grocery costs rocketing to the stratosphere, it’s imperative to save wherever you can at the supermarket without eliminating taste. In addition to reaching for reduced daily specials, what you buy and how you put it to use in your kitchen can happily translate to huge savings with bodacious bite.

In this era of grocery gouging, chicken can become your new best friend for just pennies per four ounce serving when paired with practical pantry staples like pasta and veggies. Low in fat, high in protein and exceptionally versatile, chicken marries equally well with the exotic (think truffles or saffron) to the humble (think roasted potatoes and rosemary).

For these reasons, it’s a regular menu guest at my house, where I pride myself on transforming a single, four pound chicken (preferably organic and purchased at a reduced rate) into four fabulous feasts for a group of four. That’s sixteen meals, folks! A four pound chicken runs anywhere from $6-$10 (depending on where and how you shop), throw in a little change for ingredients to flesh it out into a meal (4X), and you’re looking at less than $20. A night out for a family of four at any fast food favorite will set you back the same amount or more faster than you can say “heart attack”.

Gotcha? Let me tell you how it’s done!

Meal #1: This is the launching pad for the meal plan event(s) – a whole roasted chicken. Since it’s going to be transformed several times, keep the seasoning simple – ground pepper, a nice crust of coarse salt and a rub down with olive oil. Roast at 425 until done (about 20 minutes per pound) and top it with a few love pats of butter to sink deeply into the bird. Allow the roasted chicken to rest and re-absorb its juices. Cut the both legs and thighs away from the chicken (reserving warm). Cut the breasts away from the rib cage, cool and store in your refrigerator for later use. Serve both legs and both thighs with steamed vegetables and roasted potatoes for a satisfying, nutritional meal. Go ahead and prepare a pan gravy with a little roux, white wine, chicken stock, Dijon mustard and fresh tarragon to dress things up, but hold on to the carcass!

Meal #2: Start this after the roast chicken dinner to prepare for tomorrow’s old-fashioned and DELICIOUS chicken noodle soup. With a sturdy chef’s knife, cut up the reserved carcass remnants – the rib cage and spine – into four or five coarse chunks and put them in a two quart soup pot with a quartered onion, carrot, celery stalk and a clove or two of garlic to make an impromptu stock. Add a few peppercorns, a bay leaf and fresh thyme for added flavor. Bring it up to a boil, reduce to a slow simmer over low heat and forget about it for three to four hours. Allow to cool and refrigerate, covered, overnight.
About thirty minutes before you’re slotted to serve dinner, skim off any accumulated fat off the top of the stock, strain it, discarding all solids except any bits of chicken flesh. Finely chop an onion, carrot and celery stalk and sauté them in the same pot with a tablespoon of olive oil until softened. Season, return the strained stock to the pan and bring up to a boil. Add reserved chicken and about ¼ pound of dried pasta (flat noodles, spaghetti, linguini – your choice) and cook until tender. Serve with a drizzle of fresh herbs (parsley, tarragon, or thyme will do) and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. A small, fresh salad and warm baguette make this a meal.

Meal #3: Chicken Salad Deluxe! This is where you can really have fun with chicken’s flavor/texture marriage versatility. Cut one of the reserved breasts into chunky, ½” cubes and toss in a bowl with coarsely chopped dried cranberries (or another dried fruit like figs or currants), coarsely chopped roasted almonds, fresh herbs, a dollop of Dijon, a dash of mayo and vinegar, salt and pepper and you’ve got a meal in minutes over a bed of greens. Other flavors that work in tandem with chicken include curry, paprika, cinnamon and almost any fresh herb imaginable. Make this your own!

Meal #4: Chicken Sandwiches Supreme! Again, versatility and imagination set the stage for show-stopping chicken sandwiches prepared with freshly roasted chicken breast. Go for the best quality bread you can find, from baguette to whole grain, and fill it with thinly cut slices of the remaining breast and toppings. One sliced breast will handily complete four sandwiches. Zip up mayo with fresh basil and Dijon mustard for a fresh, personalized sauce, top with a slice of red onion and crisp romaine. Go whole hog and add a few pieces of browned bacon and a slice of avocado if the mood moves.

Chicken never tasted so good for so little.