Nowheymama is Not Lisa Kudrow

While the rest of you have been getting Fit on your Wiis, I've been trying out my own Nintendo Personal Trainer. Personal Trainer: Cooking for the Nintendo DS, that is. I'm sure Santa put it in my stocking thinking it would be a nice project for Katherine and me. And it is--it's been fun to find recipes using the world map, to talk about geography and the foods of different countries. But it makes me nervous to have her DS in the kitchen with us while we're measuring and stirring and cooking and spilling, and the game isn't intuitive for me yet, so I have to keep back-clicking, like, twenty times after each step. Luckily, K. chose Apple Crumble for our first recipe, which is probably the easiest one out of all of them. Whew.

Nowheymama is not Catherine Newman, Either

Have you been reading Catherine Newman's food column on Wondertime? It is excellent. It's not just a good read; she has a gift for writing recipes that use what you have in your fridge at the exact moment you are reading. Recently, she posted recipes for Dinner Beans and Corn Chowder. We have two similar recipes in our repertoire, so I thought I'd share them just for fun.

Black Beans and Corn from my friend Beth

1 can black beans
an equal amount of frozen corn kernels
1 jar of salsa

Mix together and heat.

Serve:

• over rice
• with chips
• as a side dish
• with chicken

Sometimes Beth puts chicken breasts in the mixture and poaches them in the oven and then serves it all over rice. If you use a mild salsa to make it kid friendly, you might want to serve it with some hot sauce for the adults.

Corn Chowder adapted from Guerrilla Cooking : The Survival Manual for People Who Don't Like to Cook or Don't Have Time to Cook by Mel Walsh

1 cup water
1 cup plain soymilk
1 pound frozen hash brown shreds (about 4 cups)
17 ounce can of creamed corn
1/2 cup onions, green or white, chopped
4 slices of Canadian bacon, or bacon, or leftover Christmas ham, chopped
salt and white pepper*

Put the water and milk in a large saucepan and heat just to a boil. Meanwhile, chop the onions and bacon/ham and open the creamed corn. When the water/soymilk mixture comes to a boil, add the potatoes, breaking up any large chunks. Stir for a minute, then add the rest of the ingredients and stir. Cover and simmer for about eight minutes.

* You can use black pepper, but it sure is visible floating around in the pale broth.

Ratatouille

Hey, kids! This is just like what they eat in the movie! Now EAT YOUR VEGETABLES.

Ratatouille (adapted from the well-known cookbook, How I Feed My Family on $16 a Week, published in 1975)

1 small eggplant
4 small zucchini
1/4 cup olive oil
1 onion, chopped
3 tomatoes, cut into eighths
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 teaspoons parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Peel (optional) and cube eggplant and zucchini and cook for 10 minutes in boiling water. Drain. In a large frying pan, heat the oil and cook the onion until it is golden brown.
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for about twenty minutes over low heat, until tender.

This recipe freezes well.

What Do April Snowstorms Bring?

"'Snow in April is abominable," said Anne. 'Like a slap in the face when you expected a kiss.'"
--Anne of Ingleside, L.M. Montgomery

I made mashed turnips last night, using a recipe from The Little House Cookbook. I oversold it, as parents are wont to do with a new vegetable. "Look! It's just like what Laura and Almanzo ate when they were little!"

After twelve rounds of "But what does it taaaaste like?", K. tried a bite, all the while making a noise like a cat coughing up a hairball. She swallowed the turnip molecules with a gallon of water, smiled weakly, and said, "It tastes sweet."

Hope you enjoy it just as much, if not more.

Mashed Turnips, adapted from The Little House Cookbook

1 1/2 lbs. turnips
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons soy margarine
salt and pepper

Wash and peel the turnips. Cut them in half lengthwise and then crosswise into thin slices, cutting across the grain. Simmer the slices and the water in a covered saucepan for thirty minutes. Uncover and let the remaining water cook off for a few minutes. Add the margarine, salt, and pepper, and mash with a potato masher.