Mothership Meals and Satellite Saucers: no knead bread

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Bread Bonanza

My friend Mirem directed me to this blog about frugal living. The family is living within its means -- what a concept! -- and therefore having to be creative to feed themselves. One strategy is to bake all their bread.

In college I went through a bread-making obsession, but haven't done much since then. Even when the no-knead recipes started circulating, I wasn't tempted. But suddenly... I'm intrigued.

A few weeks ago I started attempting to make all the bread our family eats. We have lots of toast in the morning, and most of us eat sandwiches. So, potentially it could be a lot of money we save, right? Especially after our savings have paid off the three loaf pans I went out and bought as soon as the whole idea occurred to me... Okay, so I don't know how much money we'll actually save, but I do like the simplicity of the ingredients.

This is what I'm doing: three batches at a time. I can set up my daughter next to me, with a bowl, a cup measure and a bunch of flour options, and let her make a mixture while I do the other two.

Following Mark Bittman's recipe, it's basically 3 cups of flour, 1-1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp yeast, and 1-1/2 cups of water. You mix, let sit for four hours, then put into a loaf pan and let rise another hour. Bake for 45 minutes. So quick! So easy! So far we've used mixtures of whole wheat flour, white whole wheat flour, corn meal, ground walnuts and, for sandwich bread, some unbleached white flour. Next week I'm going to try grinding up some steel cut oats and adding those in.

The recipe is so easy. I can't believe how forgiving bread is, if you're willing to eat dense old-school hippie loaves, anyway, which we are. Why have we been kneading bread all these centuries? Schmucks!

These are loaves that would make the writers of that old school hippie cookbook Laurel's Kitchen proud. Somehow, my kids are loving them. Okay, it helps that my daughter has been putting Nocciolata (an organic type of Nutella) on hers. But my son has been right there with me, eating goat cheese-and-arugula sandwiches, and asking for turkey, pickle, and mayo sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch. And my husband and are both obsessed with the Sarabeth's Blood Orange Marmalade I got at Citarella last week.

Here's what we took to the park yesterday: nocciolata sandwiches, gruyere and arugula, radish and butter, turkey-pickle-mayo.

The Mothership Method

(Or, how to sit down for dinner with your family without completely losing your mind)

It would be great if kids AND parents wanted boiled chicken and baby carrots every night for dinner. But, too bad, we picky parents want spicy, exotic, fun foods, and our kids want, well, sorta lame foods.
Here's the solution: break it down. Serve the dish deconstructed, and let everyone put their own dish together at the table. Sort of like tapas, or smorgasbord, or tacos. Or how in some parts of China you get a bowl of rice, and everything else is in the middle of the table and you take what you want for your own little bowl of rice. That way everyone gets to eat what they want, parents don't have to nag their kids, and kids get to feels some ownership over their meals. Plus, kids get exposed to the look and taste of the foods you hope they will one day love. But it's not just tacos. You'll be amazed at what can be served with the Mothership Method.

Ten Tips to Get Through Dinner Without Having A Nervous Breakdown

1. Accept That Kids Are Picky. No need to freak out on your cooking ability, or look at your kids like there is something wrong with them. It's called "neo-phobia", and it's just how they are, especially from ages 3-6.

2. Serve Meals Broken Down. Even grown-up meals like coconut curry or linguine with clams can be served in their elements, making them more appealing to kids. Grown ups can assemble their own jumble of deliciousness at their own plate while kids take on the pared-down elements.

3. Push if it Works, But Don't Nag If It Doesn't. Some kids are okay with being expected to taste everything on their plate. Others aren't. I think it's okay to push kids -- but not if you're turning dinner into a battlefield.

4. Suggest a Smell. Smelling a new food is easier than tasting it, and can sometimes provide a kid with the information needed to take that scary first bite. But don't confine smelling to new foods. Smell favorites, too, and help them develop their sense of smell by making a game out of it.

5. Don't Ask "Do You Like It?" Instead, try, "What does this remind you of?" or, "Would your cousins like this?" or, "Does this taste salty or sweet?". Asking if they like it or not gives kids too much power and ends the conversation. Besides, we don't care if they like it! We just want them to keep tasting it until it is familiar.

6. Don't Get Frustrated. Imagine being in Taiwan, or Nairobi, or Rome for the first time. Would you eat everything on the local menu? New foods are scary and gross. Our kids need time to learn about the foods that we eat.

7. No SubstitutionsThis is family dinner, not a diner. You, in all your wisdom, have provided foods that are healthy and delicious and appropriate for your children. There is something on the table for them to eat. Period.

8. No Snacks Before Dinner. This can be the hardest with our hectic schedules and hungry kids. But children who come to the table hungry are more likely to eat than cause trouble.

9. Put Peer Pressure To Your Advantage. School children are more likely to accept new foods if the alpha girls in their group accept them. Swap healthy food ideas on playdates.

10. Involve Your Kids In Cooking, Shopping, and Gardening. The more experience kids have handling and preparing a variety of foods, the more likely they are to eventually accept the foods. (But don't get upset if they help you make a complicated wonderful meal, and then refuse to eat it.)