Week 9 Pass it On: Lentil and Spinach Soup

Make sure enter my giveaway for an awesome food package of  Vancouver British Columbian treats Here!

This past week has been a bit gray, not quite rainy and not quite warm so I was inspired to make a soup from the Food Revolution's chapter Simple Soups. For those who are not familiar with the pass it on premises. I am making one recipe (sometimes two if it is a matching veg) from Jamie's Food Revolution. A cook book that focusses on delicious recipes that anyone from the the novice to the  experienced home cook can make! The aim is to get more people cooking at home, eating better and learning about food. At the beginning of the book Jamie Oliver challenges his readers to make one recipe from each chapter and then pass it on. So I am passing it on to my food community. Enjoy, make & share!

I really enjoyed this soup, but I enjoyed it more the next day. The flavours had time to meld together and become more complex. Either immediately or later this is a warm hearty soup for less than stellar days. It also makes good use of staples and and fresh in season veggies (all you CSA people, who get a good share of spinach this one is for you).

Lentil and Spinach Soup

• 2 carrots, peeled & diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 2 medium onions, peeled & roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled & sliced
• 1 3/4 quarts stock, chicken or veg (2 litres)
• olive oil
• thumb size piece of ginger, peeled & finely chopped
• 1/2-1 fresh chile to taste, seeds removed & sliced
• 10 cherry tomatoes, cored & halved
• 2 cups red lentils (or another variety that prefer, but you may have to adjust cooking times)
• 7 cups fresh spinach, torn of large
• 1 whole lemon, juiced plus more to serve (not in Oliver's recipe but trust me!)
• 1 cup natural yoghurt

Get the first four ingredients ready, then in a separate pot bring your stock to a boil, keeping hot, set aside.

In a lage sauce pan on medium heat, warm approximately 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add carrot, celery, onions & garlic, cook with lid slightly skewed for about 10 mins or until the veg is soft but still holding together.

Meanwhile get ginger, chile and tomatoes ready.

Add boiling broth, lentils (I used whole red lentils that doubled my cooking time), ginger and chile to the sauce pan with the veg. Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Cook with the lid on until the lentils are done.

Add the spinach cook for another 30 seconds. Season with salt & pepper and the juice of one lemon.

You can either serve it as is or use an immersion blender to make it smoother. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt, freshly diced chile and a wedge of lemon.

Serves 6-8 (as if, I will be eating it for weeks)

Pass it on to your friends and families.... and if you blog about it link it to my blog!

(hmm- not getting my link to work, check back for it)

photos by me.

Week 7 Pass it On! Sweet Things.

We had a BBQ the other night, the first of the year... Even though we have had mild temperatures all winter and spring long it  hasn't exactly translated into glorious warm weather yet. It has been a tease, warm cloudy drizzly days and cool clear ones, not quite sitting outside weather. We have had a bit of turn around this week, clear weather, warmer temperatures and a visit from a friend... To honour that I made a dessert for this weeks pass it on from Jamie's chapter Sweet Things.

I had high hopes for this dessert, just like the weather all spring long it just didn't quite do what I expected. I would not say it was a flop completely but I will say that it didn't stand up to my expectations literally. It was a kinda a runny gooey mess that tasted fabulous!

Help! let us out!

Here is the recipe for this weeks pass it on, remember to try it, blog about it, pass it on to your family and friends and link it to my blog to if you do... Maybe you will have luck than me (but I have some helpful hints to ensure that you do)!

Each step took minutes to make, but there was a longer setting time between each, something to account for, making it a great recipe for a party. You can make the crust, do other things, you can make the filling do other things and when you have an extra minute make the topping! The total active time was about half an hour, minimum resting/setting time 2 hrs but more if you have the time.

Vanilla Cheesecake With a (Rasp)Berry Topping

(I used Strawberries, Adapted From Jamie's Food Revolution)

• 13 Tbsp, butter divided, plus extra for greasing
• 1 cup rolled oats (not instant)
• 2 cups graham crackers crumbs
• 1 vanilla bean or  1 tsp extract
• 3 X 8 oz bars of cream cheese
• 3/4 cup super fine (berry) sugar
• 1 lemon, zest & juice
• 1 orange, zest
• 1 1/4 cups heavy cream

Berry Topping

• 1/2 cup super fine (berry) sugar
• 4 cups raspberries or other fruit, (roughly chopped)

A couple of important notes that I will start off right away, in my quest to do most things natural and local etc, etc and so on I used an organic cream cheese from a local producer, this cheese was too soft! And or the recipe called for too much cream, I have not figured out which. Also my local Whole Foods did not have graham cracker crumbs, or even regular crackers. The choices where store brand graham bears or gluten free crackers. As none of us eating had any specific allergies I opted for the bears. As for the berries I used Strawberries to keep things relatively affordable, california strawberries are coming north by the truck load as we have no local berries right now!

First things first if you were unable to find graham cracker crumbs, make them yourself by bashing, rolling or smashing them. It was slightly theraputic crushing the little bear crackers.

The base- Grease a 9 in springform pan with butter. Put a sauce pan on medium low heat and toast the rolled oats until they are darker in colour, turn down heat to (a bear) low, add your butter and cracker crumbs, stir until everything is mixed and butter is melted. Remove from heat, spoon the mixture into the base of the springform pan, pat down to create a level packed base and let cool for an hour in the refrigerator.

The Filling- I used a teaspoon of vanilla extract so I skipped this step but, cut your vanilla bean open length wise, scrape your knife along the inside to remove the seeds and put them in the bowl with your cream cheese, sugar, lemon zest, juice and orange zest and combine. In a separate bowl whip the cream until soft peaks form. Gently fold half of the cream into the cream cheese mixture and then the other half. Once it all blended spoon over the base and let set for an hour (or more)

For the topping, macerate your berries along with the sugar, hands are best. The Strawberries I roughly chopped them first put them in a bowl dumped the sugar over top and then  squished them through my hands.

To serve, remove the cheesecake from the springform pan by gently running a blade along the inside to loosen the cheese away from the pan. Open the pan and put it on a serving platter. Spread the berry mixture over top or spoon over individual servings.

My friends and family LOVED the flavour of this cheesecake even though I was disappointed in the outcome. My cheese was too soft making the thing too soft and it was kinda a flop... a big flop... I am still cleaning the melted cheese from the patio table.

photos by me.

Remember if you pass this recipe on or if you have another that you want to share just add your link below.

Week 5, already? Jamie's Food Revolution: Pass it on.

I think I am going to cheat (yes I know they are my rules, but I am not a rule follower) and present two recipes (well maybe three but one is related to the original recipe as stated by me on my facebook page... you follow me on facebook right?) for week 5 of pass it on.


Just a refresher: How it works is that each week I will be cooking one recipe from each chapter and passing it on to my friends, family and community (that is you). We started it off with Family Roast Dinners then  Quick Pasta for my sister inlaw, Classic Fish, because it is easy and we eat a lot of it around here and then Homely ground Beef, strictly because this chapter scared me. Now we are on to Quick-cooking Meat & Fish and as a bonus Lovin' Salads.

My babies have been sick this week and I honestly didn't know if I was going to get a recipe done, but I wanted to carry on. It had to be quick and easy, something I could do during nap time and in between all the other stuff I have fallen behind on. This is what I chose:

 Fish Baked in a Foil Parcel with Green Beans and Pesto 

The first part is two recipes in one:

• 2 handfuls of green beans (and peas in the pod*)
• 2 lemons
• 2 x 7 ounce chunky fillets, scaled and deboned of firm fish. Jamie calls for salmon but it is halibut season and local!
• 2 heaped tbsp of pesto (recipe #2)
• olive oil, salt & pepper.

If you are like me and forgot that you can buy pesto conveniently pre-made at the store to save time, you must make it yourself using all the fresh basil from your garden.

Chopped Pesto

• 1 clove of garlic
• lg bunch of basil, leaves & a few smaller stalks
• sm handful almonds or pine nuts
• lg handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
• extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 lemon
• sea salt & freshly ground pepper

Start mincing garlic, add the the leaves, a couple of stalks, nuts and continue chopping. Put into a bowl, add parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil and salt & pepper! Viola, tragedy adverted and now onto the rest of the recipe.

Tot's version.

Clean the green beans by chopping of the vine end, place on one yard of tin foil folded over to make two layers, place a fillet of fish over top, smear on some pesto, drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice and salt & pepper, fold foil over to close, seal on top and at both ends.

Just before dinner time preheat oven to 400f bake for 15-20 on a baking sheet, check 5 mins before you think fish is done. Let stand for a minute more  before opening up! Done.

To serve, put each packet on a plate open up slowly to allow steam to release, have a couple pieces of grilled bread a slice of lemon and a salad on the side. 

Part 2:

Jam Jar Yoghurt Dressing

I think I will throw a salad recipe in every now and a then, I don't think that Lovin' Salads needs it very own week.

Get a jam jar, put 1/3 cup of natural yoghurt, 2 tbsp of wine vinegar, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt and pepper and shake it up.

* I put peas in my tots packets along with a small amount of green beans. I wanted to include something familiar for them that they enjoy and will not complain about eating. Peas are always a big hit.

Adapted from Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution.

My Fish cost my $25 (fresh halibut- it is in season!), maybe a bit much for what is essentially three servings (tots share a serving and a bit), but the beans about $3, pesto broke down to about $3 of ingredients and everything else was done with what I had at home. We are looking at about $32 for 3-4 servings or $8 a person. Time wise was faster than packing up the tots, getting in a car, picking up daddy from work and going "out" for dinner - Faster still if I had not made my own pesto- 5 mins, 2 mins to make the dressing (that is being generous), about 5 minutes to assemble packages and 21 mins to bake. While dinner was baking, I cleaned all of my cooking dishes (very little), grilled some bread, made a salad and set the table.

There you have it, fast, inexpensive and successful.

Just add your link to the list where it says you are next!

photos by me.

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Kitchen Witch Inspiring meals for family Sanity.

As it is friday and  the theme of the day is following, I am playing along with Housewife Bliss's Blog Hop. I had considered writing a whole other post and sharing another blissful meal, but I already have the perfect Friday night meal here.  What better way then to spend the night with your family around a warm hearth baking pizza and sharing a meal made with love. Top it off with a nice bottle of wine and set the tots in front a movie and just bask in the glow of family.... plus mummy and daddy may be allowed to have an entire conversation with out being interrupted.

In the meantime I will keep my children in the nest! OK it is not a nest but we were at the park the other day and some had built this fascinating structure from fallen twigs!

Housewife Bliss has many many more tips on all things domestic and diva!

http://housewifebliss.blogspot.com/

photos by me, image from housewife bliss!

Upping the Ratio of Veg on the Plate.

There has been a lot of eating of less than stellar foods at our house. You know the days where you are running, running, running, and suddenly it seems easier to feed the tots crackers (starch), cheese (protein & fat) and olives (veg) for dinner, until it is 3 am and one of them has an upset tummy.

Easy Grilled Salad

So easy that there isn't much of a recipe.

• small bunch of asparagus, snap bottoms off and leave whole.
• carrots, peel, cut length wise, so that they are long and flat, and cut into three equal pieces.*
• bell peppers, cut in half, rib, seed and smaller strips if needed, so that they sit flat.*
• half a head of curly green lettuce, torn.
• lemon
• olive oil, 
• salt & pepper
• ricotta or feta crumbled.

Heat a grill pan or BBQ, toss vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper. Starting with the carrots because they take the longest add them to the grill pan and turning as they brown. Move them the cooler part of the pan and add asparagus and peppers. Turn them as they brown.

Meanwhile clean and shred your lettuce into a shallow bowl or large plate.

Remove the grilled vegetables from the pan, toss with lemon rind, then coarsely chop. 

Put roasted vegetables over top the torn lettuce drizzle with olive oil, and fresh squeezed lemon juice, crumble cheese and lightly salt & pepper and serve.

* basically you want your veg big enough that it won't fall through the slats of a grated grill but will cook evenly and fast.

photos by me.

Not leaving the house!

OK, I may have gone to the neighbour's to "borrow" a bottle of wine.

My husband had to go on a work retreat, leaving me home alone with the tots to feed and entertain them. Entertainment was planting stuff in the garden, but feeding them was another issue. I didn't want to get in the car and go to the store just to buy a few missing ingredients for dinner. That would have meant dressing them up (they have taken to wearing their pijamas all day everyday), brushing teeth, hair and washing the morning's peanut butter and jam off their faces. Instead I turned my attention to what I did have. 

In the freezer I had some chopped veg that I had been saving to make stock and in the fridge a bag of organic sweet bell peppers, (just like me) beginning to show their age. So I pulled the veg out of the freezer dumped some water on them, added a couple bay leaves, salt & pepper, fresh celery (it too was showing its age), some fresh parsley and simmered away! With the peppers, I washed them fired up the BBQ. And slowly roasted them! 


hot n'sweaty

 all fired up and ready to go
 basking in the glory
 a party in a bowl

A roasted Red Pepper kinda day Soup

• 6 capsicum peppers, wash and leave whole
• 1 med onion roughly chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium carrots, diced and chopped
• 2 medium stalks of celery, sliced an chopped
• salt & pepper
• 1/4 cup red wine
• 1 28oz can whole peeled tomatoes with liquid
• 6 cups stock, chicken or vegetable (preferably home made).
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• balsamic vinegar reduction & olive oil to drizzle (optional but really good)
• grated parmesan cheese

First I made my veggie stock and roasted my peppers. 

To roast the the peppers I grilled them on a medium BBQ, turning and rotating until black and brown on all sides. Set them in a bowl, covered with cling wrap and set aside to steam. Meanwhile chop and prepare the remaining ingredients. After 15-30 minutes (or as long as it takes to get other stuff done), slit the peppers, removing the seeds and ribs, peel the skin and roughly sliced. Set aside.

Heat the stock and keep warm.

In a stock pot heat the oil at a medium heat, add the onions and garlic and sweat with the lid on until tender and translucent. Add carrot and celery again sweat with the lid on until just barely soft. The goal is not to brown them, but some of the smaller bits may get some colour. Salt, add roasted peppers, stir and heat through, add red wine and scrape any bits that may have stuck to the bottom. Add tomatoes and liquid stir and bring to a boil. 

Add in warm stock and return to the boil, once at a boil turn down and simmer for 30 mins or until everything is falling apart and the tomatoes are breaking up. Cool down and transfer to a blender or use an immersion blender and combine until smooth. Return to heat. Add in Balsamic vinegar and taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper if needed.

To serve Drizzle with the fancy shmancy olive oil and reduced balsamic vinegar... as I did for the adult version or for the kids version microplane parmesan cheese on top! Or just do it all, slip and slurp crusty bread and have a fresh cucumber salad!

While I was taking my photos my daughter insisted I take on of her fork!

                                     Kid version!








photos by me...

Pass it On:Week three.

There has been some debate and a lot of articles over the merit of celebrity chefs driving a healthy food movement,  I am not talking about the George Forman grill or celebrity endorsements for Weight Watchers, I am talking about real food, real diet and a real change.

The current subject is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution and his TV show of the same same name. Oliver goes into and critiques a middle America's elementary school, the town's population, how they eat and how they feed their children. His premise is to teach the town's population to cook good meals, starting off with the school's lunch programme and then going into private homes. Of course the TV show is a little more than that- I have not seen it yet (I don't have cable TV and unless it comes out on DVD or itunes - I may miss it completely). But the idea is a simple one even with all of its critiques, (Oliver is not from the US, he is using big food as a sponsor, he's a celebrity, the chosen medium is television, etc, etc...) teach people to cook one good meal and have them pass it on.

And then I asked myself, inspired by someone else taking action, what can I do? I can pass it on, by being an example to my children, helping friends and inspiring others. My efforts feel small compared to Jamie Oliver's glitzy reality TV show but why not try?

For the past three weeks I have been cooking one recipe from each chapter of his book. I have chosen each recipe based on either what is in my fridge, or on suggestions or this week what I honestly think my family will eat. I have young children and I want them to be exposed to many different types foods and flavours but still have recognizable components. I involve them in the shopping, preparation and if time and safely allows, the cooking. This I feel prepares them for unexpected presentations and slightly different flavour combinations. This weeks selection is slightly unorthodox for the north American palate but hey, again it is simple, fast and flavourful.

ps- I am not happy with the photographs but for the sake of illustration they have been included.

Kedgeree

a meal for breakfast or dinner.*

• coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
• 1 1/4 cups basmati rice.
• 3/4 lb white fish fillets for poaching, look for thick firm cuts (most fish mongers will debone and skin for you).
• 4 large eggs, free range or organic are best.
• 2 bay leaves (fresh or dried) small bunch of cilantro, and one fresh red pepper (I used a sweet variety)
• 1 medium onion, halved and peeled.
• 2 lemons
• olive oil
• 2 tbsp of a favourite curry paste.
• 1/4 lb smoked fish such as trout, salmon, or whitefish, skinned removed.
• handful of fresh or frozen peas.
• natural yoghurt to serve.

To prepare: I like to rinse my rice and soak it before use. Bring two pots of salted water to the boil, one for your rice and one for the poaching, add the bay leaves to the poaching water. Meanwhile remove the leaves from the cilantro and save, roughly chop the stalks, finely slice the pepper if using, cut the onion in half and thinly slice. Cut one of the lemons in half.

Procede with cooking your rice as per your favourite method. I set the timer  for 15 minutes for my rice, added the fillets and the eggs to the other pot and cooked for 7 minutes. Remove your fish with a slotted spoon, it will flake (remove any skin and or bones if necessary). Chill your eggs in cold water.** Set aside.

In a large pan heat olive oil over medium and cook your onion, cilantro stalks, peppers and curry paste for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Finish cooking your rice, flake the smoked fish, peel and quarter the hardboiled eggs. 

Add the cooked rice, both types of fish and the frozen peas, to the curry paste mixture and combine. Turn down to a low heat, squeeze both halves of the lemon over the mixture, season with salt and pepper, stir once again top with quartered hardboiled eggs and cover with a lid.

Set your table with the yoghurt and quarter the remaining lemon. Serve in individual plates, sprinkle with the reserved cilantro leaves, yoghurt on the side and a generous squeeze of lemon juice.

Honestly do not know how much this dish cost, most of the components are from the pantry. The fish was the most expensive thing, costing about $11 for the fillets and smoked salmon. Again start to finish took about 42 minutes. Jamie Olivers says that this recipe serves 4, try 6-8. We have lots of leftovers, that I've already gotten into for breakfast and again for lunch.

*Kedgeree. A disputed dish of origin.

** Chilling your eggs immediately after they are cooked helps suction the membranes to the shells and peel easier.

photos sheepishly by me.

Please pass this recipe on, and  if you blog about it share your link with me. Click the red writing below to add your link.

A response

My response to Ragu inspired by this post: Hey what's for dinner Mom?: Dear Jamie Oliver, . I think this is a great blog and I respect all of her opinions as she adds valuable discourse to a hot topic in the food the community.

And now for a little silliness to lighten the mood.

Spaghetti by Shel Silverstein

Spaghetti, spaghetti, all over the place,

Up to my elbows-up to my face,

Over the carpet and under the chairs,

Filling the bathtub and covering the desk,

Making the sofa a mad mushy mess.

The party is ruined, I'm terribly worried,

The guests have all left (unless they're all buried).

I told them, "Bring presents." I said, "Throw confetti."

I guess they heard wrong

'Cause they all threw spaghetti.

Here is a link for the best and easiest pasta sauce I know: http://tomatotots.blogspot.com/2009/11/another-simple-tomato-sauce-for-pasta.html.

Pass it On:Week One

A couple of days ago I bought Jamie Oliver's new book Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover how to cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals. Maybe I am just a sucker for his accent and charming smile because I don't think of myself as someone that needs to rediscover cooking and by comparison I know cooking at home is a lot cheaper than going out. I have oodles of books already about simple & delicious some of them being his, so why add another book to collection? Because of what he says. I saw his TED acceptance speech and was overwhelmed by his passion and sentiments. I know many of us in the food blogging community echo his beliefs and also want to do something about the state of food in our own communities. I joined his pledge, but who would I pass it on to? I decided to pass it on to this community, the one that has been inspiring me to cook better meals and be more active with my own family.  So each week I will cook one of his recipes from the Food Revolution book and pass it on to the each of you. I would appreciate that you take this recipe, make it yourselves and blog about it in your own words and then link it back to my site each week. The idea is to see how many people we can get to pass on each recipe to a larger global community.

Because I had a whole chicken in my fridge the first recipe was a no brainer.

Perfect Roast Chicken 

• 1 chicken ( 3- 3 1/2 lbs) Jamie suggests that you use the best bird you can find ie, organic free range etc- A happy bird makes a better tasting meal.
• 2 medium carrots roughly cut
• 2 stalks celery roughly cut
• 2 medium  onions
• 1-2 garlic bulbs
• salt & fresh ground pepper (what a day for me to run out of pepper corns, had to use the reserve)
• 1 bunch of fresh herbs such as thyme or rosemary
• 1 lemon

A Consistently Good Gravy

• vegetable trivet
• 1 heaping teaspoon of all purpose flour
• 1 cup of wine, sherry or vermouth
• 4 cups stock or water
• salt & pepper

This recipe should be called "easy peasy roasted chook". The hardest part was making the gravy.

Take the bird out of the refrigerator, Jamie recommends that the chicken has half an hour to come to room temperature before it goes in the oven. I made the mistake of getting the chicken out of the fridge the same time as the rest of my vegetables... Preheat oven to 475F and get your vegetables.  Dust of any dirt and remove any excess skins from the onion and garlic but other than that no need to rinse or clean. Roughly chop all the vegetables and lightly crush the garlic. Put the the vegetables in the roasting pan or dutch oven, drizzle with olive oil, salt and toss. Jamie calls this the vegetable trivet.... (ah now it makes sense).

Rinse and pat dry the chicken (I found other chefs recommended this, so you can skip this step if you want). Prick the lemon all over and microwave (if you don't have a microwave skip) for 30 seconds to soften it up. Stuff the cavity with the lemon and the herbs. Drizzle the chicken with more olive oil, and massage with seasonings and place it on top of the vegetable trivet.

At this point it took longer for my oven to come to temperature and my bird to hangout for half an hour. So I waited and calculated that my chicken cost me $13.50 for nearly three and a half pounds, my vegetables cost a couple of dollars and I was going to feed the family for about $4 a head if all four of us ate it. Truth be told I am vegetarian that loves to cook all things! 

Put the roast in the oven and turn down to 400F- if you are making roasted vegetables prepare then now. I did but did not follow the recipe %100 so I am not including it here. 

Bake for an 1hr 20 minutes, basting occasionally. Then remove from oven, cover with tinfoil and prepare gravy.

For gravy, tilt pan with vegetable trivet and remove as much fat as you can (Jamie says %90 but really who can tell?). Put pan on a medium high heat on the stove and add flour making a slurry of vegetables. Then mash all the veg and slurry as much as you can. Add the wine, stir and remove bits from the bottom of the pan. Then add stock or water. Once all stirred and mashed together drain through a fine mesh colander. Return gravy to stove, bring to a boil and simmer to ideal consistency, about 10 mins. Taste for seasoning and adjust or if you are like me and you use veggie stock because you are ill prepared, add a knob of butter- fat carries flavour.

To serve, carve your roast remove the wings and reserve for another use or you can rip them off when resting your roast and break them up to use in the gravy. Remove the the legs and cut down the breast bone removing each breast and then pick away at the extra meat.

I started cooking at 4pm and wanted dinner on the table at 5:30 and I was nearly on that mark. I made roasted chicken, some baked veg, a marinated grilled bread salad (I needed something) and gravy in an hour forty-five minutes. This was/is a very successful meal and I am happy to pass it on.

ps... just incase you noticed I roasted this particular chook upside down... what can I say? But my husband did exclaim it was the moistest breast (meat) he has ever had...

photos by me.

Please leave a comment & a link to your site describing this recipe! Wednesday night before I post the next recipe I will blog a recap of those that participated, Cheers.

I Apologize

I spent hours working on my post to bring you my Pass it on recipe and it got eaten by well... the jaws of technology. It is almost dinner time and all of the housework I was avoiding by writing my post needs to get done before the tots get up from their nap. With that I will leave you with a light snack and the promise of the full course tomorrow.

My sincerest apologizes.

Jamie's Food Revolution.

There has been a lot of talk about Jamie Oliver's latest project : Revolutionizing how American's eat one meal at a time. At first I was skeptical, Oliver has a bit of a pompous reputation, he talks the talk but does he walk the walk or does he flit about on his tiny scooter?

Most of got to know him as the ultra cool young bloke on The Naked Chef and through his first couple of best seller books. I for one bought them. My husband I were newly back to North America, setting up  our own home and starting our love affair with food. We couldn't afford to eat out at the places we wanted to so we turned to home cooking and Jamie's approach meshed with our style. As the years progressed he transformed himself from fun loving guy with a Smeg refrigerator to a hard-nosed mentor to 15 troubled students learning to cook.  We started to see his philosophy about food emerge and as it grew so did his persona. He continued to show us his fun side as well as the passionate driven entrepreneur.

All the while he had a plan, in addition to growing his empire, books, tv shows, blog, magazine, etc he was was starting a movement. He convinced the British Parliament to inject millions of pounds into the school lunch programme, his school/restaurant has churned out graduate after graduate of unlikely cooks and he started to teach people to cook for themselves at home with the theory if you could teach one person one recipe they could pass it on.

In Jamie's Words from his newest book Jamie's Food Revolution: Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals.

"I need you to get personally involved in pass it on by pledging to learn just one recipe from each chapter of the book. Master these in your own home first, and then pass it on by teaching at least two people (preferably four) how to cook them too...Then, most importantly, you need to get your  [friends] to promise that they'll pass it on to more people and then get those people to pass it on and on and on.... It's easy"

I took this pledge, but instead of one person, two people/four I decided to share it on my blog one day a week for the next 14 weeks*, one recipe from each chapter of Food Revolution. I am hoping that if you take the pledge with me that you will pass it on, to your friends. I would like to start a link up of each other's blogs and comments about this experience (anybody have any ideas on how to do that let me know).

I am not going to do the recipes in any particular order and I will post the first one tomorrow... I already have a recipe picked out that I am familiar with!

Right then, lets get cooking.



*excluding vacation time, I have to go sit on the beach and drink Mai Tais in Mexico with the fam.

photos by me... watching my own empire grow,
image from jamieoliver.com.