Petites merveilles de la nature

Following on my first post of the year around food waste (should be easy to find since I have not been able to post much in the first part of this year - work and family kept me really busy), I wanted to write about a campaign that a French supermarket chain, Intermarché,  launched to convince French consumers that ugly fruits and vegetables are not necessary bad to eat. To the contrary! The campaign was called "Les fruits et légumes moches" - an English version can be found here. 

What first stroke me the first time I came to the US in 1994 was the fact that apples were so perfect and so shiny in US supermarkets. "Standardization" has been the key driver of the food industry over the last decades. It's easier to ship; it's easier to store and display... and consumers tend to associate "good-looking" with "good taste" - hereby contributing to increased waste either at the production site or at the distribution.

Thanks to the positive results of this campaign Intermarché started offering ugly veggies and fruits in all its supermarkets ;other chains have jumped on the bandwagon, including in the UK and Canada.
While I don't know any US supermarket chain implementing such a campaign these days, I know that for us who are lucky to have access to farmers' markets for a few weeks every year, this is a place where ugly fruits & veggies are king! At the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia, one of the local cooperative was selling not only not-so-great looking produces but also had a box for older, slighly bruised apples at 50% off. These apples were just as tasty and wonderful for apple sauce! With an open mind and little bit of imagination, we should be able to use all these ugly fruits and vegetables....

Above is an example of a potato I received in our CSA box a few weeks ago and a carrott my brother-in-law purchased near Paris this past Winter. Petites merveilles de la nature... Délicieuses petites merveilles de la nature!

Pledging to reduce food waste in 2015....

We just came back from a wonderful trip to Canada where we spent a week with my husband's uncle and cousins. We love going there for the company but also because we fully disconnect from our daily activities in the US (it's really the only time when William does not check his emails more than once a day, c'est pour dire!)

William's uncle owns what-used-to-be a Christmas Tree farm in the Western end of the Quebec Province - 3 hours from Montreal but only less than an hour from Ottawa where William's uncle and his cousins live.

We spend our days snow shoes hiking, toboggoning, skidooing, admiring beaver dams, or what nature has to offer (like this heart spotted by our son) but also just relaxing by the fire or in front of a good movie if the temperatures drop too low for us to go out (- 25C (or -13F ) being our it's-too-cold threshold; anything warmer is a "get-out!")

The farm is on a remote road, about 10km from the main road... so we bring a week full of food (or we have to rely on hunting to survive!)... William's cousins have it all figure out - planning meals ahead of time - but always bringing more food than necessary just in case a big snow storm makes it impossible to get back on the road. At the end of the week, it's up to creativity to assemble meals from the leftovers and what has yet to be cooked before it goes bad. On top of our list was une soupe de légumes that used mushrooms, celery, tomatoes, onions, garlic with leftovers sauteed root vegetables. Served with crème fraiche, cheese and garlic bread it made a perfect Winter meal!

Talking about food waste, we all pledged to make it our 2015 collective goal to reduce the amount of food that we waste in our households and talked about ways to go about this....
A report summary from the Economic Research Service issued by the USDA in February 2014 reported that in the United States, 31 percent—or 133 billion pounds—of the 430 billion pounds of the avail-able food supply at the retail and consumer levels in 2010 went uneaten. The top three food groups in terms of share of total value of food loss were meat, poultry, and fish, vegetables,  and dairy products.

Planning and creativity will be the top two skills to work on to reduce our food waste in the coming weeks and months. It will also save you money! So why not commit?!
Making a "soupe aux legumes" at the end of the week is one way to get started! Another one is to plan meals for the week ahead and shopping with a list! Facile, non?

Excellente Année à tous!

 

 

Food Day is Oct. 24th

No, no, I am not going to turn this blog into a reminder calendar of food-related events (even though it seems that October is the Month of so-worth mentioning causes, at least in the US!)
Yes, I am still committed to cooking healthy food for our family. I do cook from scratch everyday but need more time and staging to post new recipes on the blog. For instance, I served Roti de Porc aux Pruneaux et aux Pommes for lunch today. I also made Panna Cotta and Pear and Hazelnut Tartes for 15 people for a dinner on Friday evening...

We just came back from the farmers' market with cabbage, cauliflower, kale, fresh greens and Russian potatoes... enough to get us going for the week if I can find good recipes to turn these vegetables into tasty vegetable dishes for this week. At the farmers' market, we ran into Steve, one of the sous-chef of Le Bec Fin. For those of you who don't know Le Bec Fin, it is one of the most famous (and expensive) restaurants in Philadelphia that used to belong to George Perrier who made it an icon of upscale French culinary experience. George Perrier sold it and the new management (former California French Laundry people) took up on the challenge to attract new (read: younger) food lovers who have other more affordable options in the city. I have never been to Le Bec Fin and my current financial budget does not allow the $150 8-course dinner menu (more on the fact that I don't like chef's tasting menus in another post!) However, I do appreciate the fact that the chef and his sous are trying to source locally-grown organic food and are shopping right at the local farmers' market (and no, I did not get anything from this restaurant for writing about them here today.)
For those of you interested, they are hosting a special dinner on Wednesday evening as part of the Food Day event.  The Food Day even is organized around the country to promote real health local food.
For those of you who live to far away, try to find an event close to you... or just commit to eat real on that day. Now if you can combine real and only vegetarian food on that day, you would score even higher! Bon Appetit!

October is Vegatarian Awareness Month

September is over... and I did not get to post during that month. For once I will blame it on my dear husband who takes the pictures of the food I make (I cook, I stage, he captures with his professional camera.) For some strange annoying reasons, he managed to delete 4 sets of pictures of food I had planned to post in the past and coming weeks: caponata, chocolate mousse, babaganoush and another fun one to make with children. Oh well, we will have to wait until I get to cook something new in the coming weeks!! I have to say that since school started and with it our daily busy routine, I have not cooked anything really new. I do cook everything from scratch for most meals but nothing worth publishing on this blog...  So, not having any recipes in store will compel me to make something new...

One thing that my husband noticed in our diet is how more vegetarians we have become in the past year... Part of it started for health reasons. In 6 months of healthy mostly-vegetarian/pescatarian eating, he managed to get his cholesterol levels back into the normal range (whereas he wanted to prove me and his physician than his diet had NOTHING to do with his cholesterol level!!)... and mine have never been as good as since I cut meat from my diet more than a year ago.
Are we vegetarians? No. My husband and children eat chicken and the meat of their choice on the rare occasions when we go out.  We all eat the occasional fish and seafood (how could I give up sushis???), hence the term pescatarian  The rest of the time, we eat mostly vegetarian.
October being the Vegetarian Awareness month, I could only advise you to go vegetarian for at least a day a week. You might be apprehensive of being "food-deprived" but if you have the chance to eat a healthy meal made of beans & veggies, you won't. It is also the opportunity to go out of your comfort zone and order something different in a restaurant or to purchase a variety of beans or vegetables you have never tried before (kohlrabi, anyone?). This is fun! There is nothing worse than eating the same things over and over again. I know. I get no pleasure of preparing the meals; I know that I will get the "encore ça!") from my children and husband... so trying something different is the way to go to make everybody happy! If you want other good reasons, you can read this article from the Huffington Post. If you want recipes, there are plenty in this blog already! Bon Appétit!

Food in Pouches? Attention! Danger!

For those of you who had the chance to go to France and maybe enter a French supermarket or witness

school dismissal at 4.30pm,  you might have noticed the little pouches children were sucking in in no time. Pompotes, as they are known in France from the Materne brand that launched them in 1998, have been ubiquitous in France for the last 10 years: most supermarkets carry their store-brand products or other competitive products. They were launched by the Materne company as a brand expansion for their applesauce products. Needless to say that it is a very successful product as most parents have adopted it as THE easy-no-mess-healthy part of their children goûter or pique-nique. To give you an example of how many French purchase them, they are available by boxes of 24 pouches!!

I was so used to seeing them and, yes, occasionally eating one when traveling in France, that they were on the list of the bare necessities people had to carry from France to the US when visiting us to give to my children (along with Cote d'Or Chocolat Noir, Crème de marron, Sirop Teisseire and Bonne-Maman cookies and Demake-Up cotton.)

You can imagine how happy I was to see them appear on the shelves of US supermarkets under the name GoGosqueeZ a few years ago (no, I did not get any samples from Materne to advertize on this website). Needless to say that they are now, as with most French families I know (and the American families that adopted them from the French), part of my children's daily after-school goûter. I order them on Amazon.com in the subscribe & save program so as to minimize costs and make sure that I have enough in inventory for a few-weeks supply! (I don't know if they are sold at CostCo or Sam"s Club but if they are, let me know!) 

More insterestingly, I have followed the non-stop increased offering of additional food available in pouches in the US. Especially babygood: not just the $2 organic fruit-pouch positioned next to the GoGosqueeZ (which, I have to say, had to give up shelving space to fit all these new individually-sold products (read: higher margin for the supermarket).).. but really the mixed-vegetables-plus-grains-and-fruits pouches you can now purchase in lieu of the glass jar (or worse, in lieu of a home-made purée.)

Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against prepared babyfood: I did purchase babyfood jars to complement the home-made meals I was preparing or to take on the road with us...

What I am worried about is the new trend taking shape around me where I see young children sipping on a pouch of vegetables+grains+fruit pouch instead of sitting at a table with their parents/caretakers. Sure, we all have our emergency-I-have-to-leave-now moments where pouches are a good alternative to a less healthy take-out alternative.... but these are to remain occasional. There are parents (read the recent article in the New York Times) who have given up on eating with their children  and are feeding their children food in pouches frequently (children are not stupid: they like the packaging, if not the content! More fun and easier than having to use one's fingers or, worse, a spoon!).  I don't buy the "it fosters independance", désolée... Those of you who used them know well that it does take a little bit of supervision to help a child master the fact that the pouch has to be in her mouth before she starts to squeeze it! (applesauce on t-shirts, anyone???). More seriously, I am a firm believer that taking the time to feed young children by sitting with them, talking to them as they eat their meal, is key to helping them develop good eating habits and table manners! Letting them go around the house with a pouch of spinach and quinoa is aka snacking all day (and a call for a nice green spot on the carpet!)

Where is the structure that a few meals taken, as family, at a table/high-chair provide? Where are the new flavors and textures picked directly in a grown-up's plate? 

So yes, I am the first one advocating the apple sauce pouches as a snack for my children but, had they been available in sweet pea-carots flavor, a few years ago, I would not have bought them (not to mention the fact that they are $$$). So yes to practicality but no to regular meal-replacement. Eating together with your children is key. And yes, unfortunately, like most things with children, the later you start emphazing it, the harder it would be to be accepted... Bonne chance!

The Cumulative Effect of Summer...

Although French people get more vacations days than Americans (the minimum is 5 weeks with most employees having up to 7 or 8 (ouch, I know!)), French people's "Summers" do not stretch from Memorial Day (last Monday in May) to Labor Day (first Monday in Sept.)!

French Summer really coincides with the French school calendar: that is from the first week of July to the third week of August.  My friends are therefore shocked to read that our children are already off school and won't go back until after Labor Day. (That's about 12 weeks of time-off! How could it possibly be manageable for working parents who, if lucky, get 4 weeks off? The American dilemna!)

Although French Summers are "shorter" than American ones, you would not believe so if you were to read French women's magazines that get women ready for their beach vacation as soon as Spring shows up! As Summer gets closer, most magazines start highlighting the "dangers" of Summer time when it comes to keeping a healthy diet. Next to the obviously beneficial seasonal fruits and salads, lay the traditional apéritifs (read: alcohol, chips, and other munchies), daily icecreams, gauffre ou crêpes au Nutella sur la plage, in addition to regular BBQs or outings to restaurants (pizzeria being a favorite!).

I had never thought about it as a "danger" to our children's diet until one of my husband's cousin related how sending her children off to spend time with their relatives (grand-parents, great aunt, etc.) for an extended period of time became an issue one Summer. Her children were to spend two weeks with their grand-parents in the South of France, then another week with a great-aunt and then another week with other relatives. Grand-parents wanting to indulge on their grand-children started feeding them icecream or waffle or crêpes everyday in addition to taking them out for a pizza or fast-food. Same with the other sets of relatives. As she related it, "it would not kill my children to eat that diet; it would not have affected their diet too much if it had happened for one week or two. The problem was that it lasted for 4 weeks. When I got them back, even though they got some excercise during their vacation, they had put on weight!" She felt bad but the following year she explained to her relatives, that they would have to watch what they feed her children because the cumulative effect was an issue.

Our children just left for France last Wednesday! We are lucky that they are able to spend time with their grand-parents and aunts/uncles in France before my husband and I go over and spend some time off with them (they will go to camps in the US when we return.) Do I worry about their diet? No. Do I worry about the cumulative effect? Hmmm....

As I keep saying, you and your children can have everything as long as it is with moderation (in size and frequency!).. Bon Appetit!

http://whatareyoufeedingyourkidsthesedays.blogspot.com/2010/08/strawberry-frozen-yogurt.html

What's in your double-shot-caramel Latte?

No matter how many years I have lived in the US, one thing I still don't master are the choices of coffee-drinks that Starbucks, and to a lesser extent other coffee shops, have to offer. You could write a whole decision tree to order the simplest drink like a Latte: 1) Choose your size: tall, grande, venti (why "tall" means "small" still does not make sense to me!!) 2) Choose the level of cafeine you want (single, double, decaf, caf, tea) 3) Choose the milk you want (non fat, lowfat, whole, soy) 4) Choose any other customization (with syrup, with extra foam, etc...)...!!!

I admit that I do go to Starbucks (I even have the app to pay on my iPhone - pathetic??).  I'd rather go to an independent-better-tasting coffee place but I have to say that for the sake of convenience, it's easier for me to go to the Starbucks underneath my work building. AND also, truth is that the people at the Starbucks I go to ARE so nice (well trained?) that they know me by  name (yes, I know, it's maybe because I go TOO often!!)... but hey, they are also among the few people who can spell my first name correctly, "trema" included(!!)... and I can't state it otherwise, it's a really nice way to start a work day!! 

That said, no matter how often I go (a few times a week), I still can't understand half of the orders people place. It actually amuses me to realize that no matter how many choices the menu already offers, people manage to get yet another alternative that's NOT on the menu. Unbelievable!! 

I remember reading a NY Times financial article regarding how people, especially College graduates, would be better off financially if they were to bring their own cup of coffee (or drink the one offered at work) instead of spending $$ it at a Starbucks-or-the-likes. Yet, as another financial advisor would comment, you have to treat yourself with something but that's IF and only IF you manage to save in the first place...   

Beyond the price (you pay more for a Grande Latte than for a gallon of organic milk!!), as explained in this Daily Mail article, what people should really pay attention to are the calories they indulge on when they order a Venti Caramel Brule Latte (460 calories with whole milk) or worse, the Eggnog Latte (620 calories in its largest serving with whole milk)! Imagine: more than a hamburger??? And that's not counting the calories of any food ordered with the drink!! 

That's why, when I go, I stick to my regular coffee drinks (nonfat decaf Latte or decaf Soy Latte depending on the days if you care to know) because sitting in an office all day won't make me burn the extra load of calories of the new drinks Starbucks is launching. And besides, I am not big on sugar anyway so every syrup, no matter how "skinny", taste too sweet to me!  And the few times I take my children, I make sure to order one hot chocolate (no whipped cream) and ask for it to be divided in two cups (not on the menu but they'll do it if you ask!) It has worked well for us because what I realize is what my kids really enjoy is to drink out of the cup and lid and to carry their drink outside! That makes them feel like grown-ups! Funny, isn't it? As usual, read the label and enjoy with moderation!

The French love their MacDo! Si, si, hélas!

We just came back from having Phở  (a Vietnamese soup with meat/seafood (but when seafood, then it's not called a Phở)) for lunch and as we were slurping through our rice noodles and broth, we realized that it was cheaper (and healthier !) to have a large bowl of Pho (served with bean sprouts, Thai basil, onions, chilis, etc) than having a Cheeseburger & Fries at a local MacDo. 

That reminded me about a post I read a few days ago. Although it is in French and most of you might not understand it (sorry), I thought it was worse sharing with you. The first picture (above) shows the density of MacDo in the US. The second one (right) is the same but for France. Worse to read (at least to me) is that there are actually more MacDo restaurants in France than in the US (1,77 fast-food restaurants per 1 000 km² in France, against 1,3 in the US). Sure enough, the US being so much bigger than France (Texas alone is 1 1/4 times bigger than France), as the first picture showed, there are places in the West of the US where density is scarce. It would have therefore been more accurate to compare a part of the US that would look more like France as a whole... Anyhow, that does not explain why the Pays de la Gastronomie loves their hamburgers so much!  

And yet, a few years ago, as France was embracing a national-wide awareness campaign about bad eating habits, MacDo, that was pointed at, launched their own campaign. The basic message was that Eating at MacDo once a week was OK. I thought it was really clever because they were targeting two populations 1) The people who come often : for them they were warning them that it would be best for them not to come more than once a week 2) The people who never go to MacDo, hinting at them that they could come to MacDo once a week and be OK...   You could also understand it this way:  the food you eat at MacDo is not bad, it's your eating habits that might be!!   Sure enough the Menu is slightly healthier in a French MacDo than in an American one (they even sell Organic fruit juices or Organic yogurts!!)... and sure enough, going there once a week assuming that all other meals are healthy and that the person exercises regularly (!!!), it would not be la fin du monde.. And yes, for most people, it's an affordable lunch-or-dining option, which, on top of that, is extremely children-friendly!!

That's not enough to make me go though (our lunch experience today with two young kids was just as pleasant!)... I just wished there were more places to get a Phở instead! Bon Appétit!

Scale it (up or down) but scale it, please!

My brother and his family were visiting over the Summer and one of the questions he asked us was if, after so many years in the US, there were still things that shocked/surprised us... or whether we were so used to our environment that we did not even pay attention anymore.
We got use to the big cars, gallons of milk,  having pharmacies that look more like a supermarket than a pharmacy, people eating all the time.... but here are the answers I gave him:
1) The status of the infrastructure. We live in the wealthiest country in the world... and yet when I look at the status of the bridges, when I zigzag through the Center City streets to avoid foot-deep potholes, when I see all those shredded tires on the highways, I am still shocked.
2) The ramping obesity of the population, especially among young adults and children...
3) Everybody seems to have a lawyer (and a therapist?)... to the point that part of our life is defined by what I call the "fear-of-lawsuit", which in some way limits creativity, spontaneity and research.
4) The fact that millions of Americans still lack proper access to healthcare.
5) The fact that some streets in the suburb don't have a sidewalk for people to walk on...
6) On a more funny, albeit tricky, note, the fact that it's the only country that does not use the metric system (except in scientific settings). Think about it, even the Canadians and the Australians have adopted part of it... After so many years in the US, I still can't picture out a set amount of square feet, or worse, cubic feet. The first time I sat foot on a scale in the US, I had a 1/10th of second of scare because all of a sudden I felt really heavy!!
This system is so unpractical that bypass tools were invented to simplify it: nobody knows what size a queen/king size bed is in inches and very few people know how much a cup of flour weighs... The only time Americans use (most of them without realizing it) the metric system is when they go skying. "180 skis" actually mean that the skis are 1.80m tall...

All that to say that I was REALLY happy to read an article about digital scales in the New York times the other day (disclosure: the picture of the scale on this post comes from the article)...
While I would not be able to comment on the different brands displayed in the article, the additional comment I will make is that I love to have my children use our cooking scale and start experimenting with weighing different things (I don't like it that much when everything they weigh end up on the floor!!)  For bigger kids (and adults!!) it's obviously great for calculus... So don't be intimidated; you'll see that, like with most things in life, you'll get used to it. "Most things".. I am not sure I'll be able to still get used to all my points above!
Scale it! If not for you, do it for your children...

Harvard Healthy Plate

There was once a Food Pyramid, then came My plate... together with the "you have to eat at least 5 servings of fruits or vegetable servings a day"... and all of that did not really make any sense to me (how big is a serving (I know, I know it's defined but it's really hard to remember, no?) I knew what the underlying recommendations were... but when it came to implement them on a daily basis, then I was a little bit confused. The new My Plate that the U.S Department of Agriculture came up with a few months ago was supposed to make things easier for people to understand. While I it was a little bit less confusing than the Pyramid, it did not give people a simple way to improve their diet. White buns and hot dogs and fries would qualify on My Plate while we all know that this would not qualify as as "healthy meal" by dieticians' objective eyes!!

I came across the new Harvard Healthy Plate the other day and I thought that I would share it with you because I think that it is a really good illustration of how we should all try to eat (and no I have not received it from Harvard to publish on this blog). At least, I believe that Harvard is honnest when it says that their Healthy Plate has not been influenced by lobbying groups from the food industry or agriculture policy (hmm why am I thinking about corn subventions?)...

The way I use it is to visualize how much of what I serve to my children (and to myself). My only problem is that being French, we tend to serve dishes in sequences (yes, that would be the three-or-four-course meal)... so it's not easy for me to visualize the proportion of the different types of food I serve and their relative "volume". Maybe I should go back to the cafeteria trays we used back when I was in junior high and high-school???

My advice to steadily serve meals that fit on that Harvard Healthy plate?
1) Incremental changes like, for example, increasing the amount of legumes (lentils, chickpeas, etc.) you serve along with whole grain food (bread, cereals, pasta, rice, etc.)...
2) Put this new Healthy Plate on your fridge
3) Carry a small print with you when you go grocery shopping, especially if you have not planned your meals (!)... this picture will give you ideas of what to purchase....
4) Talk about it with your children... this is a good way to get them acquire a good healthy diet! And it will give you a good excuse to limit sugar-loaded juices and to offer yet another serving of kale!!
5) Keep faith that your children will indeed enjoy Kale with wholegrain rice one day (I am still working on that one!!).
6) Enjoy your meals!
Bon Appetit!!


PS: You can read more about the Healthy Plate on the Harvard Health website.

Article: "Family Meals Help Cut Risk of Childhood Obesity"

If you are not convinced of my eating-by-example theory, here is a good article that should convince you that eating with your children is a great long-term investment.

Family Meals Help Cut Risk of Childhood Obesity

Study Shows Family Mealtimes Have a Healthy Effect on Children’s Nutrition  By Jennifer Warner

Do we do it at home? Not enough in our family since my children go to bed earlier than when my husband comes home (and I try to eat with my husband)... However, when my children are having dinner, I make sure to be sitting next to them at the table/in the kitchen and talking about their day... We have our routine questions (who was the capitaine (line leader), who counted, whom did they sit next to at lunch, what did their friends eat, what did I do during my day (hmmm, try to explain that you put together a Powerpoint presentation to find potential investors for a new molecule!!). It's part of our family sharing and it's a nice way to wind down to...
A friend of mine and I were actually talking about this this morning. He was telling me that, like most working parents, he and his wife did not spend much time with their children on weekdays. He and his wife are able to sit together for dinner most nights during the week... but they were trying to adapt their morning routine so as to make breakfast another family meal. That would be ideal! BUT I can't see how that could be feasible in our family on weekdays (just because it takes so much time to my husband to get ready!!). One thing we do and never miss though is our Friday evening aperitifs, but I am not sure it would qualify as a healthy meal spent together!!
Do you manage to eat dinner with your family most days? What are your favorite discussions?

Keep on trying sharing meals with your family!! It's worth it for all of you!

Food Inc. ... What do we do now?

I recently watched Food Inc (merci Netflix!!) , the documentary made by Robert Kenner...and while I had watched other documentaties along the same lines (Supersize Me or Fast Food Nation), and while I am aware of the power of large agro-business and distributors companies in this country, I have to say that it made me think even more on how to best feed my family.
My conclusion is that it's a "quadrature du cercle" unless you are either wealthy enough (but we are talking REALLY wealthy) to be able to eat LOCAL ORGANIC food ALL YEAR ROUND... ! Since I can't, what do we do?

As I like to tell my daughter when she has a hard time making a decision as to whether she wants honey or jam on her tartine (and boy, that drives me crazy!!) , we process by elimination...
First, we eliminate processed food as much as possible, especially GMO products. In our family, the only processed food we eat these days are frozen dumplings, fresh cut ham, yogurts, apple sauce pouches, a few cookies, jam, and a few sauces (chutney, BBQ sauce, tomato sauce, etc.). I have started to use dry beans more (I buy them in bulk) instead of the canned ones. I find that once you have cooked dry beans, you can freeze them. This saves me time and enables me to have some "on hand". Besides, it's cheaper by the pound and has less sodium...
Then we try to go for organic when "affordable"; it is my experience that sometimes organic produces and products are not THAT much more expensive that conventional ones. Forget organic raspberries in the middle of winter... but for instance organic pears (on sale) this morning at Wholefoods were not more expensive than conventional ones at the Reading Terminal Market where we also shop.  And when there is a bargain on some organic products, especially the ones we eat a lot, I stock. This comparaison-shopping requires time though...
The hard question to answer is:  is it better to purchase organic pears that come from Argentina or conventional ones that come from California?  If prices are equivalent, no matter the carbon foot-print, I purchase the organic ones. Why? Because the lack of pesticides in organic products is not only better for me and the environment, it's also better for the people who work in the fields... and that's worth it!
When it comes to meat and fish, I purchase less so that we can afford the better quality products (organic or grass-fed or free-range.)  It has worked fine with us for the last few months...Even my meat-eater husband feels OK with our semi-vegetarian diet (he just does not want to say that he feels better!!)
When organic products are just not within the reach of my wallet, I try to buy "local".
And if none of the above options are available, I either go for frozen products or I make exceptions. And  I do make a lot of exceptions. I figure that if 50% of the time, I am able to purchase either organic or local foods, then it's OK for me to purchase conventional products, even if they come from the other side of the world. And I think that even if it were 10% of the time, it would still matter. No need (who can afford it in the first place) to be radical... just a few changes will do everybody good! Especially in the longer term.. and that's what matters to me... being able to raise healthy kids and leaving them with a better place...
What's for dinner tonight? A salade composée made with (conventional, from California) wild rice, organic fennel, (conventional, from Florida) cherry tomatoes, fresh organic dill, and toasted (conventional, from California) almonds.  Bon Appétit!

Greek-Style thick Yogurt

As I already wrote, we eat yogurt everyday in our family,  twice a day sometimes. Les yaourts (and dairy-based desserts) are a big part of the French diet. Whenever I go back to France, I love going to the dairy section of any supermarkets. I love looking at the new offerings, the new packaging and generally go back home with more yogurts that I can have! It's just heaven to me!

I am lucky that we can find good yogurts in Philadelphia. We mostly purchase plain yogurt in large containers since we eat it all very quickly... or I make my own yogurts!  A big lover of thicker yogurt (that resembles what we call Fromage Blanc in France), I was happy to try the so-called Greek style yogurts when they came out. Unfortunately, Greek yogurt is not cheap; I therefore don't purchase it often.

On March 17th, Mark Bittman talked about making your own Greek yogurt at home in his weekly column. I had thought about some before but it took his column for me to experiment. I purchased our regular 2-pound-container of Organic Plain yogurt and a milk/nut bag from the Nature Store next to us. I poured the yogurt in the sack, put the sack in a colander, put the colander over a large bowl and put everything in the fridge for 4 hours. So much water came out in that lapse-time. I was really amazed....  Sure enough, the end-result is thick! And delicious! Very close to Fromage Blanc so we all loved it and ate it all with Muscovado sugar. Un vrai régal!

The process is not difficult. The time it takes to make it is fine : you can make it during the week-end and have plenty for the week. However, I was wondering whether it's really worth it. You see, you lose between 50 and 60% of the initial weight depending on how long you let the water drain. If you purchase a plain Organic yogurt container at $3.50 (for 2 pounds or 907 gr), then, assuming that you only lose 50% of the initial weight, your home-made Greek yogurt ends up costing you $7/lb (but cheaper than the Greek yogurts available around, no?).  Then, since you don't have cream added to the end-result yogurt, it still healthier (calorie-speaking) than commercial "Greek yogurt" that use both milk and cream (I know, that's why it tastes so good!). My only advice is for you to find a really good plain yogurt (or low fat) and then try it once. If you like the end-result of your home-made thick Greek-like yogurt, then make some when you have a few minutes to invest in your diet! And keep the commercially available Greek yogurts for special occasions. Bon Appétit!

The Fridge is off-limits...

And so are the cupboards and the food left on the countertop in our kitchen if you are a child, a pre-teen or a teenager and don't ask for permission.  So don't even think about helping yourself, especially if I am not around, especially if you had been offered food less than three hours ago, especially if you are going to have lunch/dinner in less than one hour.  But, obviously, if you ask for permission, I'll give you something! Enfin peut-être, depending on your excuse!


As I have watched my children (and some of their friends!!) helping themselves in our kitchen, I have come to set strict rules about what acceptable and what's not for my children (and their friends), in our kitchen.  If they start opening the fridge, I ask them to close it and to ask me for permission to pick up something from it. If I think that it's OK for them to do it, I let them do it and remind them that they have to ask.  When I cook and they are in the kitchen, I ask them to take things out to help me. When my kids pull something out of the fridge, I can see that they are really proud of it, feeling like grown-ups : you see, grown-ups open the fridge a lot (have you ever tried to count?) Don't get me wrong, I put my bad cop hat, not because I don't want my children to be independent and happy when they fixed themselves something: I actually LOVE to watch them gain confidence when they butter and spread jam on their toasts in the morning. I just think that I am avoiding unnecessary snacking habits and teaching them what I consider basic règles de vie. I also hope that by being used to asking for food/drink politely (s'il-te/vous-plait, merci), they won't open the fridge at someone's else place either (what a dreadful thought!!)

Letting children open the fridge without asking for permission is not something French people do a lot. I have never seen my friends' children or my nephews/nieces do it ;  I never open the fridge at my French friends' place unless I have been granted the authorization and it took a a while to feel comfortable opening my in-laws' fridge without asking for permission!! But then again, I don't want to generalize. And if I remember well, there were times, at my parents' place, when my brothers would dive for the chocolate mousse desserts without really asking my mother whether it was OK or not... but they were in their teen-age years and coming back from a long day at school or from playing sports. Not because they were bored or hungry because they had not eaten a proper lunch. It also happened that my mother was not home when we came home from school, which meant that we could fix ourselves our snack. And yes, back then, we'll have more than what my mother would have authorized had she been home. Normal, non?

I think that if you teach your children, early enough, that the fridge, the cupboards and any in-between-meals food is off-limits unless they ask for permission, they'll remember and develop better habits as they grow older. At least, that's what I hope. Time will tell for my own family. For the time being, I'll keep my bad cop hat handy!

My 10 favorite American Food

Over the last 15 years, I have lived for about 10 years in the US (sounds crazy, right?)... that's about 3650 days or 7300 meals (excluding breakfasts ;snacks are not, by definition, meals). Some of these meals were home-made (i.e., my daily cooking and most likely not typical American food); some of them (a lot!) were Asian meals at restaurants or with my Asian friends in California, so I'm not counting them either....
I would not be able to tell you where and when I ate my ten favorite American food for the first time... but I can tell you that they have had an impact on my multi-cultural eating habits!

Here are the 10 American things I miss the most when I go back to France because yes, not matter how strange it can seem, I do miss a few things, food-wise, from the US! Who knows, maybe ten years down the road, I'll have had the opportunity to try something else that would make it to my top 10. What would it be?

Here is the list in no particular order... I'm just happy to live in the US to be able to eat them (almost) whenever I want:

1. Poppyseed bagels : toasted with Lox, capers, black pepper, lemon juice and, if available, alfalfa sprouts.... but I don't like them plain! It is also a Top 10 favorite of my children and husband.
2. Fresh sweet Corn on the cob with lots of real butter, salt, and pepper.
   
3. Clam chowder for the cold and rainy days.
4. Candied Pecans on any baby spinach salad or just like that; warm preferably
   
5. Coleslaw, I now make it myself because I don't go out that much any more and I can control the dressing...
6. A hamburger but I'm not talking Double Arch kind-of-burger. I mean a real grilled juicy one, made to order. 
   
7. Crab cakes : any day, any meal. I ate the best crab cakes ever in San Francisco. I was having a business lunch with a senior manager from our office. I just wished I had better company to share that crab cake! Never found a better one since. Still looking. Still hoping...
8. Pumpkin Cake (not pie), best ever eaten in Canada (but that's OK, no?) at my husband's cousin's in-laws about 6 years ago. I'm still trying to get the recipe.
   
9. Carrot Muffins: hard to find but really good in the morning.... still looking for the perfect recipe. Anyone?
   
10. Corn bread, preferable with real corn kernels inside and Parmesan cheese (but is that the American version?)

School lunch : France vs. US

A year ago, when my daughter started pre-school in a French private school, we asked about the "lunch option" offered in the school (the school has a contract with the company that provides lunch to the county public schools.) As some of you might know, all schools in France (public or private, big or small, rural or urban) offer a lunch option: la cantine. There is 2-hour lunch break in pre-school and elementary school (from 11.30 am until 1.30pm approximately). Some parents take their children out of school to feed them lunch at home; others opt for the cantine. I grew up eating à la cantine and since my days back in the cantine, I can tell you that the quality improved tremendously. What children eat today in French cantines would sound gourmet food for Americans. It's always a three-(if not four)-course meal that includes everything easy French cuisine can offer: boeuf bourguignon, fish fillets with ratatouille, lentilles and sausages, with fresh vegetables and fruits, the occasional desserts, etc, etc. Yes, children eat pizza and French fries... but not frequently (and way less frequently than I remember it). In short, the meals are balanced,  healthy and affordable.

Read More

Now Available, Printable Versions of Recipes

The more I cook, the more I look for recipes on the web, the more I get frustrated because most of them are not printable. When I want to make a recipe (that is not printable, that is), I jolt down the ingredients on any (really, any) piece of paper available and then I use it in the kitchen... but most of the time, I come back to my computer to look for additional directions I did not write in the first place. Evidemment!

If I like what I am cooking (le plus souvent) and if I make modifications (très souvent), I write it on this tiny piece of paper...and I leave them behind me until I am able to find the time (presque jamais) to write them in draft mode on my computer. Only I can remember what the few scribbles on the tiny sheet of newspaper are for... and yes, I do admit that if it has been too long, I don't even remember what I made with 3 cups of flour, 2 cups of milk and 1 teaspoon of Vanilla Extract (sounds yummy, though, n'est-ce-pas?).

Anyway, having a printable version of recipes would not mean that I would not leave my pieces of paper behind... but at least, we'll all remember what they are for. Sure, it would not save trees but it would save my computer (and the path between the kitchen and the computer) from being covered with flour, butter, chocolate, or tomato sauce!! And since my guess is that most of you do the same, all our computers would be better off with a printable version of the recipes. Besides, with printable versions, you won't have any lame excuse not to cook! So, just to make you cook more and avoid computer accidents, most recipes are now printable!... You are welcome! Please, just bear with me as I steadily modify all of them. It will get done eventually! Bonne cuisine!

Organic Milk vs. Non-organic Milk?

At my daughter's one-year well check-up, the pediatrician advised me to strop feeding her formula and to switch to whole milk instead. I had not put any thoughts into it until she told me that. You see, in France, you don't switch children from formula to whole milk immediately. You have another in-between milk that is made for children age 1 to 3 years old : le lait de croissance (or growth milk). Pediatricians in France do not condemn giving whole milk to children one-year and older; they just advise to make really sure that children have a balanced diet to guarantee the proper intake of proteins, vitamins and oligo-elements.   Lait de croissance makes it easier on families since it solves that problem. Yet, as usual, you have to accept to pay the price for that : lait de croissance retails at higher price than regular milk (about 2 euros/litre for lait de croissance vs. 1 euro/litre for regular milk and 1.8 euro/litre for organic milk*). Is lait de croissance a brilliant marketing idea or are there scientific explanations. Here is what I found...and how I dealt without lait de Croissance in the US.

Read More