Gelato - Lucky For Me I Don't Live in Italy!

On occasion I write on another blog, Bytes of Food, where the writers talk about is "all things food".  My latest blog there is about the Santa Monica Farmers Market, one of my favorite places to hang out.  Since it is summer and I am feeling lazy, this is going to be a short blog.  I would suggest you read that entry for the background.

Ice cream is a favorite food for everyone in my family.  When I think about what I would NEED on a deserted island, ice cream would definitely be up there.  I sometimes think I could eat it 3 meals a day.  And I know how unhealthy that would be.  So one of the ways I make sure that ice cream is not continuously in my house is that I do not buy it.  The way I satisfy my craving for it is that when I really want it I make it from scratch.  I can assure you that minimizes how often I eat it.

I prefer gelato to ice cream.  The difference is that gelato is made from eggs and whole milk, not light cream.  It has 5-7% fat (by law for something to carry the label ice cream it must have at least 10% fat).  Because it is churned at a slower speed it gets less air in it and is more dense.  It is also is served slighter warmer.  My favorite flavor is crema.  Most Americans think of it as vanilla, but it isn't.  It is more delicate, and I have never seen it in the grocery stores.   The only way to enjoy it in the United States is to make it yourself.  So here is a recipe for it.  You can serve it with the fruit recipe that is in my blog in Bytes of Food. 

Crema (or custard) Gelato

2 1/4 cups whole milk
6 egg yolks
2/3 c. heavy cream
pinch of salt

Combine milk and salt in medium saucepan and heat slowly until bubbles form around the edges.  Take off heat. 
Blend the sugar and egg yolks until very thick and smooth.  Add the hot milk gradually, and then put mixture into the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the mixture thickens.  Remove from heat and put in a bowl of ice water and stir for 2 minutes until cool.  Cover and refrigerate until chilled.
Beat the cream until soft beaks form.  Add to custard mixture.  Put into your ice cream maker.
Makes 1 1/2 quarts.

IMPORTANT NOTES
1. Since no flavoring is added, the fresher the ingredients the better this will taste.
2. I like using free-range chicken eggs.  The yolks are usually more yellow which gives the gelato a color with more depth.
3. Patience is the key word.  If you don't take your time stirring you will overcook the eggs.  If that happens, just strain your mixture to get out the egg lumps.
4. If you want to add to this, you can mix in pieces of fresh fruits or candies after it is made.  If you put it in while making the ice cream, they tend to freeze.

And now I am off to the kitchen to make gelato.............

AS USUAL, THE KIDS PREFER MOM'S!



Fitz, the "fruit guy"



Not only did Ashna try out the food, but one of her friends participated.  I'm always one to encourage kids to to put their "two cents" in, so even though it is summer, I asked Sydney to give her opinion by writing an essay.  Here  is what she had to say.   

                                                                                      

Easy Fruity Recipes

With the new summer heat, refreshing fruit is beginning to make its way to the top of our snacking list. Since sweet, fresh fruit is now in season, making summer specialties like fruit salad, frulatti, and banana frappes are easy-to-make summer treats. I had a chance to critique different versions of each of these recipes.



"B"                     "A"



First I tried two different bowls of fruit salad and was told to evaluate all aspects of both. I tried “Bowl A” first. Even before scooping up a generous serving, I noticed that the fruit was bright, and seems artfully cut and arranged. However, upon eating the fruit, I found that it was slightly mushy and not as brightly flavored as the colors made it seem. When I tried the “Bowl B”, I was instantly gratified with a fresh, sweet burst of flavor from firmer, juicier fruit than found in the “Bowl A”. However, the fruit of the “Bowl B” was less carefully presented than its counterpart; it seemed to be thrown in haphazardly, and the fruit was cut into uneven chunks. Upon careful examination of the pros and cons of each fruit salad, I found that I liked the “Bowl B” better. Although presentation is important for any dish, flavor is the critical tipping point for any taste testing. Before going into this tasting, I didn’t think that the two fruit salads would be any different; after all, it was the same fruit for both! But I surprised myself by noticing distinct differences between the two.

Now, everybody has had fruit salad before, but have you ever heard of a frulatto? No? Well, neither had I, before this. But I was glad that I got to try it. I tried various frulatti with different types of dairy product. We started out with two frulatti made with milk—one with nonfat and one with whole. Both frulatti made with milk had a slightly gritty texture from the ice and the fruit. The frulatto with skim milk was more watery and not very rich, while the one with whole milk was more full-bodied, but still not creamy and smooth. I then tried frulatti made with yogurt. All of these frulatti were smooth and thicker than the ones made with milk. I first tried one made with a plain, slightly sour yogurt, which was much creamier and smooth than the ones made with milk, but the tang of the yogurt did not go well with the sweetness of the fruit. Next, I tried one made with vanilla yogurt. This one was my favorite frulatto at this point in the tasting. It was rich creamy and smooth, and was sweeter than the one made with plain yogurt. Because I complained about the tanginess of the plain yogurt and praised the sweetness of the vanilla yogurt, I then tried one more; the final frulatto we tried had plain yogurt, and extra sugar added in. This was my favorite of all of the frulatti: it didn’t have the vanilla flavor to distract from the flavor of the fruit; it was rich, smooth, and creamy; and the intense flavor of the fruit was enhanced by the creamy sweetness of the yogurt.

Finally I got to try the banana frappes. My reviews of the different versions were very similar to the ones of the frulatti. The frappes made with milk were thinner and less full bodied than the ones made with yogurt. They were not as smooth, especially the one made with nonfat milk, which seemed slightly chunky and not well-incorporated. The sourness of the plain yogurt did not go well with the banana, much like the frulatti. However, the vanilla flavor of the vanilla yogurt complimented the banana rather than detract from it. It was sweet, creamy, and smooth, with lots of fruit flavor. My favorite frappe was the one made with vanilla yogurt.

Dr. Vicki Again. 

So there you have it.  For you parents out there who are letting fast food joints and restaurants intimidate you from cooking for your kids, GET BACK IN THE KITCHEN!!  You don't have to spend a lot of time or money.  The more time I spend with Carla and her family, the less time I'M going to spend in the kitchen.  (Except when my daughter comes home.  I know she prefers my fancy cooking, because her Mom Knows Best!)

PS  A special thanks to Ashna and Sydney for taking the time to eat and then write up their incredible (with no editing by me) reviews.  And a thanks to Marlborough School.  This is where these girls will be entering 10th grade in the fall and learned to write so beautifully and where my daughter graduated from a few years ago and also got a wonderful education.



Quiche Review

I decided to have Carla's middle school-aged daughter, who is thinking about a career as a food critic, be the judge of our quiches.  She did not know whose was whose.  Since she does go to school and that is her first priority, the tasting and notes were done the day of the baking, but the actual writing was done later.  Here is her review.  (In both pictures the quiche on the left is A and the quiche on the right is B)

Top Quiche!
            Food—there are no words to describe how I feel about it. I lead a very busy life and always look forward to enjoying a nice meal at home. It’s common knowledge in my home that when I’m not doing homework I’m watching Food Network or the Cooking Channel. I was given an interesting opportunity to evaluate two slices of quiche, made using the same recipe, prepared in different ways. The main ingredients included spinach, onion, and mild cheddar cheese. I was asked to compare and contrast the two slices of quiche.  My real life opportunity to be a Top Chef judge!
I blindly tasted each slice, not knowing the differences between them. As I observed the two quiches, I was taken aback by their inviting and welcoming features. They were both beautifully baked and presented nicely on the plate. However, Quiche “A” appeared like it would be tastier than Quiche “B” because it looked more moist and creamier. I watched as the cheese slowly melted out and I was eager to try it. Quiche B looked a bit crispier and didn’t have as much of an inviting appearance. I sunk my fork into Quiche A first. It had a comforting, fresh aroma. As I tasted the quiche it was quite delicious, I must say; however, I felt that it was a bit too mushy. It left a creamy residue in my mouth that was a little too much for my liking. Immediately after I ate the bite of Quiche A, I was excited to try Quiche B because the creaminess of Quiche A made me want to try something crisper. This slice had a bit more crunch when I cut into it than Quiche A did, and although I don’t think of “crunchy” when I think of a quiche, I was intrigued by this characteristic. I sniffed the bite of quiche on my fork, and the ingredients smelled quite fresh -- more so than Quiche A. I took a bite and I sensed an uncharted combination of flavors I hadn’t ever tried before. The ingredients tasted fresher than the other one. Although, it tasted a little crunchier, I found it refreshing and it did not leave my mouth with a creamy residue. It was love at first bite! I slowly enjoyed Quiche B, thinking of nothing other than the delightful flavors and texture. Before I knew it, the crumbs of the perfectly cooked crust were the only remnants of the quiche on my plate.
Although Quiche A was a mighty contender to Quiche B, I felt the flavors in Quiche B were more prominent and resonated freshness. Overall, I felt that both quiches were lovely, but it all came down to the texture and the distinction between flavors. Since I enjoyed both of the slices, I feel lucky to have been asked to participate in this momentous test!  I was later told that Quiche B was made with frozen spinach and ordinary onions (not the special ones from the Farmer’s Market). I was surprised that I chose it over the one with fresh spinach and sweet onions. But I was happy to know that it’s a recipe that I could easily follow myself.

There were some differences in technique as the reviewer alluded to which I will now elaborate on. Since Carla and I were making dinner for our families I changed my quiche to cater to my family's tastes.  I used fresh, spring onions which have a sweeter, milder taste.  I also used fresh, baby spinach which also is less bitter.  As you can see by the slices, quiche A (my quiche) has less spinach and the onion is more finely chopped.  I also took greater care to mix in the cheddar cheese.  Carla has hers layered on top, giving it the less creamy, more crunch to it.  Clearly, technique changes the outcome.

This whole "project" brings up some interesting, and important points for all parents.

1.  Children prefer what they are used to.

This is extremely interesting and shows what an important influence you have on what your children eat.  You can tell from the review that the flavors in our quiches were different.  And in a previous post (Nana's Vegetable Soup), the kids again preferred what they were used to, not what would be considered the more sophisticated, gourmet-type cooking.  Luckily, I have a thick skin, or about now I would be questioning my cooking skills.
2.  The sooner you introduce your child to varied and healthy foods, the better and more nutritious their diet will be. (When my daughter was 3 we ordered her an appetizer of mussels for her dinner.  The waiter was amazed as she worked her way through the whole thing.  But she had been eating them since she was little and it was (and is) one of her favorite foods.)
3.  Get the kids in the kitchen.
4.  Cooking is more fun when done with others.  Carla said she enjoyed our afternoon together and would like to do it again.  As she reads this she will now find out I have decided to make this an on-going project of the blog entitled "COOKING WITH CARLA".

We'll try to do this once a month, Julia Child style.  For those of you who remember her PBS cooking show, she had a REAL reality TV show and would record everything; including mistakes. We will describe what happens to real people who don't cook, so that you can see what happens and see that everything can (usually) still be edible.  Maybe we can even get our judge back.  (Although at the rate I'm going, I may get kicked off the blog!)

Quiche for the Over-Extended Parent

I think that quiche is a quick, easy, nutritious meal that everyone can make.  I also think it takes no more time to make than going to a take-out place and waiting for them to make your food.  (Every time we go to a "quick" Chinese place, or order a pizza, we always have to wait.)  But I also realize that since I cook all the time, what I think is easy, may not be so for some one else.  I also know that many times I will make a recipe that takes me twice as long as what the recipe calls for.

So, I want to introduce you to Carla (her real name).  Carla is my friend.  She is a typical working mother of  today.  She helps run a small business, has two daughters for whom she chauffeurs around to their various activities, and helps take care of her extended family which includes her step-daughter and grandson as well as her husband's mother.   Rarely does she cook and cooking is not one of her many fine skills.  And I can tell you, she has NOTHING in her refrigerator or her pantry.  When she broke her foot I went to her house to make her some lunch.  It was not easy, and I can whip up something out of practically nothing.  (But it is hard to make something out of nothing.)    So if she can do this, anyone can.

Here is the recipe that I provided her.  We then went to the grocery store.  She prefers Whole Foods, just like in Top Chef.  I did not limit her time; however I did time her.  She got the ingredients and did her general food shopping in 30 minutes with no list.  (That gives you an idea of how much food there is in her house.  I spend an hour each week at the Farmer's Market alone.)

It took her an hour to assemble this.  (It took me 15-20 minutes.)  But she thinks that the next time she does it it will take her less time.  We made 4 quiches and fed 2 families for under $30!  My quiches are enough for 2 dinners, or 1 dinner and a few lunches or breakfast.

If you look at the time and think about it as 2 dinners, then even for Carla, it was efficient because it came out to 30 minutes per dinner.  Check out the next blog for pictures and our guest blogger who will be critiquing blindly the 2 vegetarian quiches.


Basic Recipe for QUICHE  (Read the recipe completely before starting.)

1.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees

2.  Assemble all your ingredients.  (see details below)
     a.  Frozen pie crust -  you find frozen, deep dish pie crust in the freezer section of grocery store where the frozen pies are (comes in package of two).  Check to make sure you get ones that are not broken in pieces.
     b.  Filling 
     c.  Any additions you chose to do
 
3.  Pre bake pie crust
Prick frozen pie crust all over with a fork about one inch apart.  Tightly mold the tin foil over pie crust .  Cook in preheated  450 degree  in lower-middle oven for 8 minutes. 

4.  Start making the filling until the timer goes off.

5.  When the timer goes off, take off tin foil.  Prick bottom again, particularly any bubbles..  If anything has sunk, push it up.  (use spatula if too hot for fingers.)  Bake another 3 minutes without the foil until just beginning to change color.  Take out of oven to cool down as you are doing the rest.

6.  FILLING for one pie crust (double to use both pie crusts)
5 large eggs
Add half and half or whole milk to make 2 cups
1/8 tsp of nutmeg and pepper
Beat with a fork or a whisk

ADDITIONS (choose one, or make up your own)
1.  Traditional quiche Lorraine - 6 slices of bacon cooked crisp
2.  Optional - 3 ozs coarsely grated Swiss or Gruyere cheese to your Quiche Lorraine
3.  Cheese - Whatever flavors you like - add about 3/4 - 1 cup
4.  Fish - Add 1/4 c. smoked (very flavorful) or 3/4 cup mild cooked fish with 1 tsp fresh parsley or dill
5.  Vegetarian - take whatever leftover vegetables you have in the refrigerator, saute 3/4 cup in butter (melt some butter in a pan and heat the vegetables in them)
6.  Frozen vegetables quiche - buy  a package of frozen vegetables.  Defrost in microwave.  Saute 1/2 chopped onion then add microwaved 1 cup of  vegetables.  You can also throw in cheese if you want. (1/2 cup)
7.  Ethnic Quiche - Use flavors and spices that are typical for a particular cuisine that you like.
    for example "Chile rellenos" quiche - 1-2 chiles (poblano or anaheim) and 1 cup jack cheese

 HOW TO ASSEMBLE
Take cooled crust.  Put "additions" in bottom of crust.  Add egg/cream mixture.  Put in oven.  Cook in 375 degree oven for 40 minutes until puffed up and brown.  Serve with french bread and packaged salad.

Bon Appetit!

CHOCOLATE!

-

When we were growing up in the 50's and 60's we were taught there were four food groups.  My husband maintains to this day that all the experts were wrong and that there are actually 5 food groups -  dairy, grains, fruits and veggies, proteins and CHOCOLATE!  Some recent studies are backing him up.

As a pediatrician I routinely advise others on how to feed their children.  I also know that my advice is just that:  advice.  Some of it is followed, and some of it is not.  When it comes to raising my own child, however, I feel strongly that my opinion should not be dismissed out of hand and there needs to be some discussion if my food "rules" are not going to be followed.

For many years, the pediatric party line was not to give a baby foods that were likely to cause allergies until after their first birthday; and more recently if you had a highly allergic child you should avoid the most allergic ones until the age of two.  Chocolate was one of those foods to avoid only until one year of age.  Allergies are rampant on both sides of the family.  Because of this, I did not want chocolate given to my daughter before the age of 1.  I do not think of it as a necessary food group.  At my daughter's first birthday I found out that she had been eating chocolate since 6 months of age.  My husband thought that chocolate chips made a "perfect" finger food.  I was not happy.

 In Dec, 2010, the recommendations about allergy foods changed.  Chocolate, as well as all fruits and vegetables, are no longer listed as allergy foods  to avoid.  And there seems to be no benefit to avoiding any allergy foods past 6 months of age.  One of my basic food beliefs has been challenged.  But I've looked at the studies, and they are good.  I am used to reading the literature and learning new things but rarely do I have to change my whole way of looking at a subject.  That is what has happened with my advice on allergy foods.  It is always difficult to change what one has done for years and recommend something different.   Yet, I always try to put it in perspective by thinking about leeches and how doctors of yesteryear would be amazed if they so how I practiced medicine.  So I now have to eat crow and state that there was no harm done that my daughter got chocolate from an early age.  I still, however, do not believe that chocolate is a basic food group and that babies should use it as a finger food!

There are some interesting studies about chocolate as a health food.  First thing to remember is that chocolate is made from the seeds of the fruit of the cacao tree.  Gram for gram, the antioxidant content of cacao bean powder is higher than acai, blueberry or cranberry powder.  Thus, it can be classified as a "super fruit".  It looks like a daily consumption of a small amount (1 oz) of dark chocolate decreases the risk of inflammation which is associated with many diseases, including heart disease.  It also decreases high blood pressure as well as helps insulin resistance in pre-diabetics.   It improves mood (no great surprise there), but also helps mental processing during sustained intellectual effort.  I particularly like that last finding.  To make standardized testing something that my daughter would look forward to (!), we would always give her dark (her preference) chocolate bars to have during the breaks between tests.  We felt that they gave her a "boost" of energy and helped her concentrate.  I loved finding a study that supported our unscientific beliefs.

There can be too much of a good thing.  And this can happen with chocolate.  As Easter approaches, a holiday that places an undue commercial emphasis on chocolate, it is everything else that is added to the dark chocolate that takes away its label as a health food and gets it into the unhealthy column.  There are many things that you can do with chocolate to keep it in the good column.  Eat small amounts.  Make sure it is dark.  Drink it as cocoa without the excess sugar.  And here is a recipe:

                                CHOCOLATE-COVERED
                                     STRAWBERRIES

Ingredients:  strawberries, molding chocolate.
Melt chocolate over double boiler.  Dip strawberries.  Let dry on parchment paper (or waxed paper).  Eat.

One of the most elegant and easy desserts to make.  I use 70% dark chocolate.   If you are going to any functions you can bring these and actually feel virtuous!

Nana's Vegetable Soup

   We have comfort foods - those foods  we want to eat to feel better.  They often are the foods we had when we were young and our parents (usually our mothers) gave us.  This often means there is a strong cultural element to a comfort food.  Also, as humans are programmed to prefer sweets (breast milk is incredibly sweet) it is not too surprising that many comfort foods are often sweets.

When I was an intern in pediatrics I often worked for 40 days in a row, and was up for 36 hours every 4 days.  Some of those nights I would feel VERY sorry for myself and found myself reaching back to my childhood for a favorite comfort food.  Since I worked on a pediatric ward, we kept snacks that kids would like.  Many a night around 3 AM I would find myself raiding the kitchen for whole milk (which I had stopped drinking years ago) and graham crackers.  I would break up the crackers, pour the milk over them, eat them like cereal and go back to work, feeling energized.  (The adult wards had coffee and saltines; definitely not comfort foods in my book.)

Another huge category of comfort foods for me is soups, which is healthier and the comfort food category I passed on to my daughter; the one I would recommend over graham crackers and milk for your children.  Whenever it is raining, as it has been in LA, I start to want to make and eat soup.  My first choice is chicken soup.  (I found out as a married woman that my chicken soup isn't really chicken soup, but that is a story for another blog.)  But all my mother's grand kids love her vegetable soup so I decided to make minestrone this weekend.

I don't remember my mother making vegetable soup for me as child.  But for some reason, every time one of her grand kids comes over, she got into the habit of making them vegetable soup.  So they all see Nana's Vegetable Soup as a special treat.  Since my mother is Milanese by birth, I assumed she made a minestrone.  When my daughter was in elementary school I decided to make a minestrone soup, something I hadn't made before.  I went to the Farmer's Market, got fresh vegetables and served it for dinner that night.  I was informed it was not as good as Nana's.

 For years I bugged my mom to give me her recipe.  I finally got it and it is below.   I have also included mine.  I (of course!) think my is far superior.  It is also a lot more work.  All the grandchildren think hers is the better of the two.  My suggestion would be to start giving your infants hers from an early age instead of mine.  It's easy to make, good for them and a great comfort food for them to continue to want to eat, and make,  when they are adults.  However, the picture above is my recipe which is what we had this weekend.

                                                      NANA'S VEGETABLE SOUP
Put the following ingredients in a pot:
1 cup raw rice
1 can small, white beans
1 package frozen broccoli and cauliflower
1/2 package frozen green beans
1 package frozen carrots and peas
!/2 head of cabbage sliced
2 diced zucchini
1 cubed potato
                                                      1 stalk of celery, sliced
                                                      1 tomato, diced

Add 2 quart cans of chicken broth, 1 quart can of beef broth.  Cook for about 1 hour and serve.  If there is any left over, you can put it in the freezer where the frozen foods were.


MY MINESTRONE
(It takes about 1 hour to prepare and then 3-4 hours to cook with occasional stirring.)  I make a huge pot and then freeze the extra so this recipe makes about 2 gallons.
Add the following ingredients.  I add them in the order listed; as the one I added is cooking, I  prepare the next one.  It saves time.

Coat the bottom of your largest soup pot with olive oil and add 2 tbsp butter to it.  Add:
2 thinly sliced onions
1 leek, white part only (if available)
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup diced carrots
1 parsnip (if available)
1/2 cup diced green beans
1 bunch bok choy sliced thin (if available)
3 zucchini, sliced
2 lbs waxy potatoes, diced (liked red potatoes or Yukon)
3 tomatoes
1 cabbage (savoy or Napa)
1 cup peas
1 cup cannellini (white) beans

You can add or subtract vegetables as you like.   The amounts are all approximations.   I only use fresh vegetables available at the Farmers Market.  Because you cook it for so long, the flavors blend together.  There are a few things that are important.  You do need some form of cabbage and potatoes. It gives the soup substance.  And I recommend beans and/or rice which then makes it a meal.  You can use canned beans which you add towards the end, or if you can remember, soak them the night before and cook with the soup.   If the vegetable has a strong taste, use if sparingly.

Add chicken pieces, beef soup bones, salt to taste (start with 1 tbsp) and cover with water.  If you have the rind of a piece of Parmesan cheese, throw it in now.
Cook for 3-4 hours.  You can serve it the day it is made, but it tastes even better the next day.

Experimental Eating

As I started to become more serious about cooking, I wondered why humans tried some of the ingredients that they did.  Was it hunger?  Was it fortuitous?  I mean really, who in their right mind would follow a pig who is grubbing through the dirt for truffles and take something that smells that musky and pungent from that pig and put it in his mouth?  Well, now that I have been both a pediatrician and a mother I no longer wonder - we eat what we do because of toddlers.
What got me thinking about this, again, is the recent posting of a friend of mine on Facebook.  His child decided to eat not one, but SIX laxative strips.
Over the years, I'm not sure if I have had more phone calls from parents because their children have eaten something inappropriate or because they refuse to eat at all.  I have never been able to figure out why this is so. But I know that in the picture above the last thing thing most toddlers would eat is the broccoli.  (I think the first thing would be a toss-up between the pills and the rocks in the dirt, but that is not an experiment I will try.)
Can parents take advantage of their children's natural curiosity to put odd things in their mouths to get them to try different foods?  I'm not sure.  I have noticed that they do tend to try things that are bland,  like dirt and paper, and usually spit out "spicy" leaves that they find in the garden.  For some reason they prefer their non-food items to be muted in color.  (I base these observations on the calls I get from parents about what their children have eaten.)
One of the things I used to do with my daughter and her friend Mollie is to let them experiment in the kitchen, with close supervision.  They would invent their own concoctions of edible items taken from all drawers and shelves.  Of course, because my daughter was raised with the  understanding that she always had to take "one bite", she insisted that I try everything she made: "Just take one bite, Mama!" she ordered.  Lucky for all of us, this is before the two of them could write, so none of their recipes were kept for posterity.  (I will say her cooking skills today are great and Mollie is no slouch in the kitchen either.)
Can you take advantage of children's love of non-food products?  Again, I'm not sure.  But I do know that I am not a believer in the recent fad of "hiding" foods found in a number of cookbooks on how to get kids to eat.  My reasoning is:  1)  I don't have time to cook a separate dish for each family member  2)  It is important to learn about different tastes and textures  3)  Most importantly, my job as a parent is to teach my child how to eat properly and hiding food is a cop-out.
Which is not to say that I do not take into consideration different likes and palates.  My daughter hates asparagus.  I love them. I did make my daughter take "one bite" multiple times when she was young because I cook them frequently.  But I was finally convinced that she really does not like them and because she eats so many other vegetables when I make them for me I am willing to make something else for her.  And then we are both happy.

Here is a recipe that I've found that most ages, including toddlers eat.  It is easy to make.  It is not spicy, not identifiable as a specific food to a toddler and is versatile.  You can eat it hot or cold.  You can send it in a lunch.  You can bring it to a potluck.  And you can change some of the herbs depending on your family's preference.  Your toddler may even choose it over rocks and other non-foods!.

ZUCCHINI PIE

Ingredients
4 c. grated zucchini
4 large eggs, slightly beaten (or 7 egg whites or 5 oz of egg whites)
1 c. Bisquick
1/2 c. grated parmesan cheese
1 small onion chopped
1/2 c. oil (preferably olive)
1/4 cup fresh herbs (parsley or cilantro) or 2 tbsp fresh basil or rosemary (stronger flavors)

Mix together in a bowl.
Grease a 9x9 inch pan.  Put in pan.  Cook in 375 degree oven until brown (about 50 min.)

Serve hot, warm, cool or the next day!  I hope you try it and your family and friends enjoy it as much as the many people I've given this to, both already made, and as a recipe.

Does Baby Gaga Ruin a Child's Love of Vegetables?

We are programmed to prefer sweets and fats. However, there are ways to get children to like vegetables. Common knowledge states that you should start babies on vegetables first because if you start them on the sweeter fruits they will never like or at least prefer their vegetables. That never made sense to me. Anyone who has ever tasted breast milk knows that breast milk is incredibly sweet. (If you haven't tasted breast milk you can now go to Convent Garden, London and get a Baby Gaga ice cream cone which is breast milk, vanilla and lemon zest.) So a breastfed baby essentially starts out life drinking warm, melted ice cream. Then I noticed that most of the Asian babies in my practice preferred vegetables over fruits and the Caucasian babies preferred fruits over vegetables and it made NO difference which order the foods were started. So I thought, maybe, there was a genetic preference for taste.

Well, it turns out I was wrong. (At least no one has found a gene to get us to prefer vegetables over fruits.) What has been shown though, is what a mother eats during her pregnancy and while she is breast feeding makes a difference in the acceptance of certain foods by the infant. Certain aromatic chemicals found in vegetables can get into the amniotic fluid and breast milk. And what I was noticing was that the Asian mothers of my patients loved and ate their veggies and their children were accepting those flavors when those foods were introduced. My Caucasian babies were eating the diets that their mothers had been eating - more fruits and less vegetables, which is a typical American diet.

That does not mean all is lost. I have tasted most formulas and to my adult palate formula tastes disgusting, and yet look how many babies take it willingly. And how many babies do you know love to increase their roughage with eating paper and dirt? So we know babies are willing to try many things. The trick is to get them to keep eating those things. Babies taste buds develop with time, and developmentally babies put things in their mouths between ages 6-12 months. This is the perfect time to introduce foods that have the complex flavors you find in vegetables. If your baby rejects it the first time you offer it, don't despair. Just because a baby rejects something does not mean they truly dislike it. You have to try it about 20 times before you should accept that this is a food they do not like. Taste and preference develop with time.


Roasted vegetables are foods that lend themselves to something you can cook for the whole family and experiment with different tastes. You also take advantage of the roasting process which caramelizes the vegetables. As the name "caramel" implies, there will be a natural sweetness that occurs as result of this process. You can make a lot at one time so that you have enough for more than one meal and you can puree the extra to make baby food.

ROASTED VEGETABLES (Pick your family's favorites and throw in some new ones each time you do it.

Preheat to 425 degrees.
Start with the root vegetables. Put oil (I prefer olive oil for taste and nutrition) and garlic cloves in the bottom of the pan
Put unpeeled beets in foil by themselves (they are messy)
Add vegetables to pan in oven as you finish peeling and cutting them
Peel the beets and slice.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

You can serve them separately or throw them all in one bowl (which is what I do.)

Carrots (if you buy the baby ones, you don't have to peel them)
Buy and scrub baby potatoes or peel and cut waxy potatoes (not russets)
Turnips
Parsnips
Sunchokes
Small onions (like pearl onions)
Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower

Add "summer vegetables" (these days you can often find them year round)
Asparagus
Eggplants
Summer squash
String beans

Cook the root vegetables 30-45 mins until brown and soft when stuck with a knife and the summer vegetables 10-25 mins until slightly brown (if you do not have root vegetables you can increase the heat to 450 degrees.)


The next day you can either reheat in the microwave, or serve as a cold salad with your favorite dressing.