Aging in Action UWS . . . . . . . . Upper West Side Focus

Now You're Cooking! - Eating Around the Table

Eating Around the Table

By Jane Weston Wilson

This is a lot of what we’re doing this week, around our own table and each others tables, as we celebrate Passover and Easter. There’s lots of bustling, to use an old-fashioned word, around getting it all together. Extra leaves for the table so there’s room for everyone? “They’re in the back closet, honey.” The napkins and table cloths? "Look in the cedar chest." The box of cookie cutters is way in the back on the third shelf of the kitchen cabinet. "I’m sure I saved the bunny rabbit."

Last time I heard this calling back and forth was at my niece's Rona’s when her four girls were running around finding things. Now my grand nieces have youngsters of their own to carry on the traditions we celebrate, coloring hard boiled eggs and an Easter egg hunt. A big family lunch after church services.

The special recipes prepared for Passover tell their own story. The questions and answers of why is this night unlike any other teaches youngsters about themselves, telling them who they are. Then on to sharing around the table passing around stories and passing around food, delicious food, back and forth across the table.

Author Joan Nathan in her cookbook, The Children’s Jewish Holiday Kitchen, says: “The kitchen is a terrific class room for children every year but Holiday cooking provides a terrific opportunity not to be missed.”

This is surely and happily true, but we can also encourage youngsters to cook by cooking with them on a regular basis, and even more important, when they are old enough, to learn how to cook themselves.

I know of classes at community centers and at “Y’s” given by one of my catering friends for 4-year-olds.  Never too young I say to start them on their way to learning and enjoying  to cook lovely tasting fresh foods, which they often first learn about at our local green markets.

And check out our tulips at the West Side Community Garden, entrances on 89th and 90th between Columbus and Amsterdam. They are about a third of the way up now and in a couple of weeks all 13,000 of them will be in full bloom.

Keep reading for festive and kid-friendly activities for Passover and Easter.

Now You're Cooking! - The Irish Land

The Irish Land
By Jane Weston Wilson

“No sorrow ever held a crocus back and dawn comes down the starry track.”

Here they are - purple, pink, white, slender, strong yet delicate in gardens, tree pits, and containers. What a joy!

Another harbinger of spring is last week's St.Patrick’s Day, where we all go green and crossing Fifth Avenue from the west side is almost impossible. I can attest to that myself.

Yesterday when I was shopping at my neighborhood D’Agostino’s on 91st and Columbus, as I was checking out the cheese section I noticed on sale, “100% natural Kerry Gold  Dubliner” cheese. Holding that square of cheese in my hand, I was instantly transported to a small house in Galway.

"Welcome to the West," Marie said, holding out her hand. My friend and I had come motoring from Dublin across the land of lavender mountains, gently rolling hills with sheep grazing, small towns and villages, and rain, steady rain.” "The rain is warmer today,” goes an Irish saying.

Here we were at tea time, invited to table. Lamb stew bubbling on a small stove, the table set for four, her young son holding a new kitty. We broke bread and enjoyed conversation long into the night.

In Ireland, I am told there are 300 poets and they all know each other. In Galway there is a famous family-run book store which opened in 1940. Kenny’s Bookstore and Art Gallery where many of these poets often come to read their poetry.

What Ireland has not until recently been known for, is it’s cuisine. This is indeed changing. But there is no need to put down a simple lamb stew or a small lamb roast with roasted new potatoes.  Keep reading for wonderful lamb recipes from the Land of the Irish.

Now You're Cooking! - Why I Love Cookbooks

Why I Love Cookbooks
By Jane Weston Wilson

I was having lunch with two friends today, Linda and Eileen, at Bella Luna restaurant on 88th and Columbus; good Italian food, very good prices, and 20 years history of maintaining quality and good service. Upper West Side focus readers may know it as well.

I was talking about ideas for my next blog post, and I said to Linda,” Do you know More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen by Laurie Colwin?” “Yes, its one of my most favorite books.” "Mine too," and Eileen agreed.

Her absolute love of cooking and wanting to share it, shines on every page, funny, informative, caring, anyone could fall in love with cooking reading it.

Her first chapter is Why I Love Cookbooks, where she says.

“Cookbooks hit you where you live you want comfort you want security you want food…cookbooks say to the person if you will read me you will be able to do this for yourself and others.”

Like Laurie Colwin, I have found cookbooks to be my most boon companions. Many people love mysteries, or travel adventures by their bedside, my bedside table is sky high with cookbooks. They achieve both: the mystery and the alchemy of cooking where a few ingredients can be transformed into a glorious chocolate cake and the adventure of traveling around the world. Almost every country shares its ethnic pride in cookbooks. What is it like to live there? What are the ingredients that make great national dishes?

In both her books, Home Cooking and More Home Cooking, she writes short chapters: Beans, Butter, Lemons and Limes; The Beet goes on. Desserts that Quiver. Each one a delight.

As is the case of writers who write about food, Laurie Colwin has written wonderful novels, her recipes are often written within the narrative.

I have chosen two: Wonderful Lentil Soup, just the ticket for these still wintry days of snow, sleet and wind and Rosemary Walnuts.

Both books are in paper back, and available at Amazon via the links below:

Home Cooking: A Writer in the Kitchen (Vintage Contemporaries)

More Home Cooking: A Writer Returns to the Kitchen

If you have a favorite cookbook you absolutely love, please share it.

And keep reading for the recipes below.

Now You're Cooking! - Looking After Our Hearts

Looking After Our Hearts
By Jane Weston Wilson

As I was pulling up my chair to the computer this morning to write my column, the phone rang and my friend Kathy said she had just come back from her three-times-a-week walk with the Bloomingdale Aging-in-Place walking group.

“Today? With a 24 hour blizzard alert?” I said. “Yes," she replied, "we met at 7:30am and the snow was coming down lightly then, it was glorious. I feel so invigorated.”  What a timely report on the benefits of exercise.

The whole month of February on our national health care calendar is dedicated to how to protect our hearts -- and exercise and a healthy diet are the mainstays to achieve this.

But what about those heart shaped boxes of chocolate that have been beckoning us for weeks to celebrate Valentine's Day, should we resist the temptation to indulge? Won’t we blow our good intentions for a healthy diet? Go for it! In fact, the best way to splurge is to choose the finest chocolates, the ones with the most cocoa content; they are less expensive to our health and our pocket books, because they are more satisfying. I think it’s another example of less is more.

We can also do ourselves a favor by buying our chocolates from Fair Trade stores. Here, we have a healthier choice of chocolates, and we are also supporting a community of local growers.

As to the rest of February dedicated to heart healthy activities, let’s instead make it for the rest of our lives.

Getting into the rhythm and the pleasure of coming together around exercise and coming together not only for celebrations, but very simple meals makes ensuring our heart health less arduous.

In fact, it’s the loving thing to do.

Keep reading for a heart-healthy recipe for delicious Fruit and Nut Bark.

Now You're Cooking! - Prepare Ahead Session! Meals for the Week.

Prepare Ahead Session! Meals for the Week.

By Jane Weston Wilson

So often in these columns I exhort readers to shop together and cook together.

But what has brought it home to me recently is a number of friends asking if I would do some cooking with them. To which I answer, I would love to.

When I was writing my lifestyle cookbook, Eating Well Cookbook, When You Just Can’t Eat the Way You Used To, I had the opportunity to interview people in different parts of the country. In Seattle, Edana Evans, who raised four kids as a single parent said "When you’re alone you tend to put yourself on ignore.” I believe most people do this, I mean, Why bother when it’s only me?

I interviewed my friends Ann and John Erwin in Westwood, California. Ann and I had gone to high school together. Ann said “now we enjoy cooking our simple dinners together where before I was in the kitchen whipping up roasts and loaves and school lunches every day while John was at work.”

What has changed for all of us is there is no need for structure or ritual around shopping and cooking when we no longer have a family or workplace structure.

But it is my strong belief that in order to create the possibility of living at the peak of our powers at this life stage, the simple act of shopping and cooking, especially when we do it together, gives order and beauty and balance to our lives.

Let me share how it can be done easily.

Because I come from the world of catering, my way of cooking is not each day, but just a couple or three times a week.

Shopping at different markets, and we have so many choices on the Upper West Side, from the large ones like like Fairway for everything, to neighborhood ones like Mani’s on Columbus and 94th for great attention to our needs as well as great jazz as we shop.

The shopping sessions can also include ready-made foods. A baked organic chicken, to make a big soup, a lovely chicken salad, a pesto or tapanade to perk up a soup, toss in scrambled eggs or mix into a pasta. Sounds expensive, right? But it’s really a lot cheaper than take-out two or three times a week.

A cooking session should take about two-and-a-half hours. Try to schedule this twice a month. Pull out and share favorite recipes for entrees, side dishes, snacks and desserts. Then shop together and cook together.

The chores of cooking, rinsing, chopping, combining casseroles and soups on top of the stove, baking some entree in the oven, whirling some spreads in the blender, cutting up fresh fruit, don’t seem like such a chore when not done alone. Time will fly by and even better, so much time in the kitchen will be saved by preparing ahead.

Try it and share how it worked, will you?

For a wonderful Chicken Chili recipe and more cooking ideas, keep reading.

Now You're Cooking! - A Mouthful of Holidays

A Mouthful of Holidays
By Jane Weston Wilson

With all the Holidays we’ve enjoyed in December, which includes New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day ahead, we’re talking about lots and lots of food. What we make and take, what others make, buy and bring for family dinners, potlucks, all kinds of reasons to get together.

This brings up the question “what do we do with the leftovers?”  My editor, Anna Sandler, asked for some ideas. No matter what size refrigerator or freezer, (mine happens to be the very small apartment size) it takes good organization to use the space wisely.

First, making full use of the space means getting rid of that freezer unidentified small wrapped packets that have been wintering and summering there. In side shelves of the refrigerator lose almost empty salad dressings or anything else that has not been used in the last three months.

Now that many of us are singles and couples again we may have to remind ourselves that it makes more sense to put away foods of any kind in smaller serving portions. When it comes to baked goods, don’t shove the whole cake, or pie in.  Half a pie cut in thirds, a quarter of a cake, four slices of bread, rather than the whole loaf.

As for the more perishable left overs, think of your freezer as a turn-over unit not a storage vault. Most meats, chicken, and fish, which have already been cooked, should not remain in the freezer for longer than two or three weeks.

Again, store them in portion sizes that fit the way you want to enjoy them. In soup, in a casserole, as part of an entrée salad or a sandwich.

Vegetables freeze nicely for the most part, but some do not.  Potatoes for example lose their texture and their flavor.

Ideally it would be nice to use a whole lot of different kinds of leftovers all at once. How about Paella, as an entree salad? Good any time, but the holidays offer the possibility of leftover turkey, ham, maybe some shrimp and many colorful vegetables to make a bountiful “Just before Midnight New Year’s Eve” buffet dish. You can make it ahead of time, too.

Keep reading for a Paella recipe you're sure to enjoy.

Now You're Cooking! - Lasting Gifts That Make A Difference

Lasting Gifts That Make A Difference

By Jane Weston Wilson

In this season of giving, what better gift could we give the youngsters in our lives than something that would make them feel they are taking an active part in making the world a better place, not just this season, but everyday?

How would we do it? What would it be? I believe we need to capture their imagination in the way the Pied Piper did.

I have two Pied Pipers in mind.

Jane Goodall, whose whole adult life has been dedicated to first studying and then saving the Chimpanzees, started Roots and Shoots when in 1991, sixteen local teenagers met with Dr. Goodall on her back porch in Daar es Salaam in Tanzania. They wanted to discuss pollution in their city, the deforestation in the mountains and the future of wild animals. The organization has since blossomed into tens of thousands of members in 100 countries, encouraging youth driven projects.

By going to their website www.rootsandshoots.org they can learn how to participate in actions they themselves can develop, and can learn how other youngsters, aided by resources and guidance provided by Roots and Shoots leaders and staff.

Michael Pollan in his recently published Young Readers Edition of the Omnivores Dilemma, The Omnivore's Dilemma for Kids: The Secrets Behind What You Eat is sharing with youngsters the part they can play in making a healthier world.

How does he say they can do it? He explains that as omnivores we can eat anything, plants, meat, mushrooms, but the dilemma is how we know what to eat. He believes that it’s going to involve kids learning more about their food choices and exercising personal responsibility. And he tells them the story not only through words, but maps and drawings that inform youngsters enticing them to figure it out for themselves

He poses a challenge:

“Vote with your forks and you don’t have to wait until you are 18 to vote, you can do it three times a day with every delicious bite.”

He helps them see the difference in raising animals humanely on small farms by introducing them to a farmer who visions a different food chain in America, one that is devoted to the health of the land and of the animals, and of us, in every step. He tells them they can be a part of that vision.

We Westsiders get to share the vision too, as we have gotten to know our farmers through the many greenmarkets in our community who farm in the tri-state area.

We support them with every bite we take of their vegetables, fruits and humanely raised animals.

This holiday season let’s all celebrate our farmers by cooking together and finding ways to cook for others in our community.

What a difference it will make!

Keep reading for a great Mexican Fiesta dish for the holidays.

Now You're Cooking! - Dining in Golden Windows

Dining in Golden Windows

By Jane Weston Wilson

One morning last week on one of the early NPR talk shows, they wanted listeners to answer the question of the day "What distracts you?" Among the many responses one woman sighed and said "I'm on my Blackberry all the time and all of a sudden the day is gone."
 
Moving onto my philosophical readings at breakfast in my Tao For Everyday I read, "Life's pulse is gaged in the hollows, the intervals between events," and goes on to describe "contented families dining in golden windows."
 
Golden windows for those of us who are singles and couples again are defining family anew. For me as a single person, it is enjoying at least one meal a day with a friend as often as I can. It doesn't matter what part of the day, a second breakfast after exercise, a lunch in our community garden, tea at four or a light supper, potluck style. In our 24/7 cycle where there always seems the pull to hurry on to something else; talk on the cell phone to someone else and eating on the way to somewhere or else at our computer, it gives order and beauty to the day; a time to rest "in the hollows."

Now that the Greenmarkets are in full start up, grab a friend, a neighbor or family member and shop together at the greenmarkets for fresh produce. Even better, cook together at each others houses. Time saving and good conversation while you are doing the cutting and chopping and the results turning out delicious dishes to tuck into our refrigerators.
 
Last Sunday at the Greenmarket asparagus and strawberries were featured. Asparagus standing tall, green and delicate purple with just the very ends needing to be snapped off, ready to broil, steam, bake or make into a soup.

Strawberries are a couple of dollars more than those that look like they have been blown up by a bicycle tire pump and then shipped 3,000 miles to our supermarkets. Instead, these radiant little jewels, perfuming the air, are just picked that morning.

Or if you are really lucky, wild strawberries abound in community garden plots to simply be plucked and eaten out of hand. They happily proliferate and come back every year.

Keep reading for recipes for Strawberries and Spinach Salad and Fruit and Blueberry Cobbler.  Mmmm! 

Now You're Cooking - Fish Three Times a Week? Maybe.

Fish Three times a week? Maybe.

 

By Jane Weston Wilson

 

So many proponents in the health field suggest having fish as many as three times a week as part of our plan for longevity. Of all the protein choices from animal sources, fish is what could be called protein light. It gives us what is most important: omega-3s, highly unsaturated fatty acids as opposed to the saturated fat we find in the rest of the animal kingdom. The ones that offer the most omega-3s abound in cold northern waters. Sardines, herring and salmon are good choices. I have friends who start the morning with a hearty sardine sandwich. Enjoy it any time of day with a light spreading of mustard and a crunch of lettuce. Herring is a favorite anytime, as an appetizer or first course.
 
Salmon finds a place from breakfast to dinner, folded into an omelet, flaked into a hot or cold pasta dish, or made into a loaf with the same kinds of ingredients used for meat and turkey loaves. My favorite way to use salmon is as an appetizer. Gravlax is a Scandinavian specialty that cures the salmon so it has a refreshing clean clear taste and is not oily, like smoked salmon.

 

When we make other fish choices, we are alerted to avoid fish in peril. Orange roughy, cod, scrod, among many. I prefer fish from regional waters not shipped from Asia or South America.
 
There's no doubt about it - fish is expensive, and my solution both for health and cost reasons is to make it a part of entrees that include vegetables or grains. The other day while having coffee with my aqua exercise group they were touting using steamer bags for the microwave as a meal in a package. Barbara said, "Sometimes I marinate the fish (or skinned chicken breast) first and then add garlic, any vegetables on hand, broccoli, carrots, string beans, whatever, I follow the instructions for the time, around 12 to 15 minutes, and there is my dinner."

I have always liked the French version en papiote where you place the fish, vegetables, and fresh herbs on parchment paper, wrap it up and bake it, take it right from the oven, put it on your plate, cut it open with a flourish, and as the fragrant steam tickles your nose... you're ready for your first forkful.

 

Keep reading for the recipes for Gravlax and Fish en Papiote.

Now You're Cooking! - Passover and Easter Celebrations

Passover and Easter Celebrations

 

By Jane Weston Wilson 
  

In one of our West Side Community Garden newsletters I remember the line, "Lenten Roses are in bloom, winter is banished!" Seeds and bulbs planted in late fall had to endure a very hard winter, and now in perfect timing, grape hyacinth, daisies, and daffodils are pushing themselves up all over the West Side as we celebrate Passover and Easter.

Not only in our temples and churches are questions asked as we explore and renew our faith, but in simple rituals around the table among family and friends. 

In our kitchens there are the favorite dishes to be made for Passover, some likely from recipes handed down for Honey Cake and Coconut Macaroons. For Easter celebrations eggs play a special part. Lots of hard boiled eggs to color together and then find many hiding paces for the Easter Egg Hunt. After the hunt, a family and friends brunch. I've chosen a recipe I think will please all ages, Green and White Pasta Salad with fresh asparagus, snow peas and Parmesan cheese. Early spring vegetables of bright green shades and lots of crunch nestled in pasta shells. Delicious. Spring roasts may also have a place on our tables and for sure, there will be baskets of bunnies and Easter Eggs to gobble-up probably even before dessert time.

Keep reading for wonderful spring recipes.