Lynn Fredericks's Blog, page 3

Turn your vacation into a kids' cooking camp

Since returning to Europe from Brooklyn 2 years ago, we started a new summer tradition to spend two weeks with my two kids together with their four French cousins in Saint Malo, a beautiful town on the cost of Brittany, France, where their grandfather lives. For part of that time, I am by myself in charge of the kids, three of them in their mid teens. The idea was for them to go to a day sailing camp and spend time together. 

The first year, the children had a great time. I didn’t. Meals were the culprit. Cooking from scratch by myself was a lot of work that went totally unappreciated.  The kids were too busy playing. Cleaning up was a battle if I expected them to help.  After each meal, they magically disappeared. Who to ask to clear the table? Clean the kitchen?  If I caught one and asked for help the eternal question came out: 'why me? What about the others?‘  In the end, it was I who did it.

The transformation occurred the second summer, when I organized a cooking camp for dinners.

To my surprise, we all bonded and enjoyed every minute of our time together  for our last two summers.  We laughed a lot and enjoyed delicious food (better than I expected!) and future family chefs were born. 

THE SECRET? Writing rules, assigning roles and expecting each child to bring their favorite recipes. Dinners were planned in advance, each child took responsibility for their own recipes, and I shifted my energy to make sure the kids were enjoying themselves. What a difference! The rewards far outweighed the couple of hours I invested in advance planning.  Not to mention late dinners (kids cook slowly), and some raucous cooking sessions with loud music!

Benefits far outweighed any inconveniences

As we share in our book, food has a special meaning when it is shared, appreciated and valued. When kids cook they quickly learn to appreciate their home-cooked meals. Kids were empowered by the experience, and got a feeling of accomplishment.  They now know where meals come from and that they can cook them. Additionally:

The kids were exposed to wider range of foods. To my children’s surprise, their cousins chose to cook some of their least favorite vegetables. I made sure my kids were the sous-chefs of those recipes to expose them to those foods. I loved how they were watching their cousins eat those vegetables with so much gusto.
They became adventurous to try new foods because their peers cooked them. 
Children begin to appreciate a clean, organized kitchen (when they are the ones mopping the floor, they´ll complain if you step on it with dirty shoes!)
Cooking reveals previously-undetected skills in children!  Who knew Sofia would lead many dinners during the following year, or that David would ever be willing to chop onions?         

Top winning strategies for my successful summer cooking camp

Writing a plan for the whole week, with assigned roles for each kid.  To my surprise there was no need for negotiation. Once written and agreed upon it was sacred. Note: if you leave anything off accidentally, you´ll have to do it.  Note to self: I forgot to assign who empties the dishwasher. Result: too much whining about it – I did it!
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 (I did not help cooking but was there at all times giving advice and encouraging.) 

Daily celebrity Chef ‘star’ designation, taking turns: I did this by filming them. Using my smart phone, I recorded snippets of them prepping, cooking and cleaning. Suddenly, when they were in front of the camera,  they wanted to do their best job even if it was dancing and being silly.
Bringing my iPod and player in the kitchen: Listening to their favorite music made them happy to do even the most tedious tasks: chopping onions, washing pots and cleaning. Amazing!
Taking the kids food shopping on day one: Each child was assigned the ingredients from their recipe to find in the market, plus we assigned other foods for breakfast, etc.
Implementing everything the first day: The learning curve to establish and then keep them on task takes a lot of effort. The first day, there were a couple kids who ‘escaped’ to the TV; reinforcing assigned cleaning made me unpopular that night, but it made all the difference to keep everything on track.

And what about the menu?

Risotto, tomate farsi (tomatoes filled with ground meat), ratatouille with chicken au citron, pizza made from scratch topped with sautéed mushrooms, onions and zucchini, pasta with spinach and more. I have to admit that our French cousins impressed me with their adult palate. They do eat almost everything as Karen Le Billon claims. Can't wait to next summer and to next menu!!

Teen Battle Chefs take on Thai recipe concepts

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Every summer, FamilyCook offers an opportunity for a couple dozen inner city teenagers to have a part-time paid job teaching others to cook healthy meals.  Through Teen Battle Chef, these students learned to cook in their high schools and were nominated for our Summer Leadership Brigade by their TBC instructors from our partner organizations such as HealthCorps. 

 

I developed Teen Battle Chef 10 years ago to inspire teenagers to find their path to a healthier lifestyle. Through our innovative formula employing time limits and weekly competitions, teens develop a preference to prepare their own snacks and meals using fresh ingredients. Seeing this transformation, we then took the program to the next level by exploring the teens’ capacity to influence their families and friends. With that success, the program’s scope now includes internships and job opportunities for these youths to teach others in their community.

 

We match them to such jobs as teaching younger children to cook and conducting cooking demos in farmers markets, among other roles. Each Tuesday, the whole group meets at a central location for a mentoring session or field trip. This week, we took them into new territory with Thai cuisine!  One of our dietetic interns is Thai and was excited to participate be our authenticity guide for our cooking session.  The TBC Alumni Mentors, who organized and co-facilitated the three- hour session, were thrilled at the results!

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Surprising

On the menu were three delicious Thai recipes:  Green Papaya Salad; Lettuce Leaf Wrap Appetizers, and Sticky Rice with Coconut and Mango.  According to our Teen Battle Chef Alumni Mentors (who just a few months back were learning to be TBCs in their own high schools), they were most surprised by the TBC students’ willingness to try all the unusual ingredients, such as dried shrimp which were, according to Mentor Liz Cordero, ‘pretty shrimpy and salty’ tasting.  TBC Mentor Joel Allette was surprised that tutoring the kids on deveining shrimp moved along so speedily and successfully.

 

Hilarious

Apparently some of the ‘newness’ for the teens resulted at times in downright hilarity.  When pressed to give examples, they unanimously agreed upon the moment when TBC Cheyanne reacted to the lettuce leaf wraps, which had chili rounds, pickled garlic, ginger, herbs, coconut, peanuts etc. inside.  They laughed uncontrollably as they described how she was so shocked by the chili spice that hit her palate first, she ‘tried to suck in all the air in the room’ to compensate for the spices. Equally funny, they shared, was the reaction to the opening of the jar of shrimp paste which, Joel assured me, made the entire room smell like Flatbush, Brooklyn on a 100 degree day.  

 

Gratifying

Of course the entire experience of working with youth (even if you’re one of our Mentors, one of which is still a high school student, albeit a very accomplished one) is chock full of proud and satisfying moments.  Dante Mena our amazing musician chef, shared with me that his most gratifying moment was when the students tasted their Thai creations and ‘begged for 2nds, 3rds, and even 4ths!”  For Liz, she most appreciated seeing them ‘eat something totally foreign’ and expect to like it!

 

Teaching Moments:

Beyond the introduction of new recipes teaming with fresh ingredients, the other purpose of the day was to demonstrate how most culture’s recipes are concepts. Once mastered, they can be altered with new seasonal ingredients. This is a very important part of how we teach cooking in FamilyCook programs and it is also described step by step in our book.  According to the TBC mentors, adding some blueberries to the traditional sticky rice and mango was a big hit, as were adding zucchini and radishes to the Thai papaya salad!  Our Thai intern underscored this lesson as she described how her grandmother made these same dishes with her signature touch.

 

Photos:  Courtesy David Bartolomi

Practice savvy seasonal shopping & save money

When we were wading through reams of material to share in our book, we knew that tips on shopping smart would be essential. It took us a long time figure out cost effective strategies for our own families and translate them into steps for our educational programs!  

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Everyone wants the highest quality food for the best price! 

We have shared our secrets and strategies on how to prioritize where to shop and what quality to look for among different food categories (dairy, meat, fish, produce etc.).  Of course when it comes to produce, shopping by season is key and trying to shop local and support local agriculture brings many benefits.

Still, some people argue that fruits and vegetables are very expensive and even unaffordable. But we have found that cooking at home with fresh ingredients, adding more plant-based  proteins result in VERY affordable meals.

So we were thrilled with the release of this new report from the Center for Science in the Public Interest.  The report demonstrates that buying fresh produce can be even more economical than packaged and fast foods! It supports the shopping strategies we laid out in our book. Check out the study and learn more! 

About the Book

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Get Your Family Eating Right
by Lynn Fredericks & Mercedes Sanchez
Fair Winds Press 2013

Book Release Date: August 2013

American families are struggling to provide a healthy diet in their own homes. To blame is a society that stopped supporting family meals cooked at home from scratch. Working harder and longer hours is rewarded, over-scheduling children is encouraged. Mealtimes are outsourced to corporations and chefs, leaving parents on a constant search for a five-minute healthy recipe before succumbing to take out, fast food or a packaged solution. Our children are rushed through school lunch in less than 15 minutes. Who can appreciate and value food in such a society?

To resolve this we need everyone – society as a whole – to shift their values around home cooking.  Just as valuing where your food comes from has taken hold in our culture, so too, should cooking it ourselves. Our book, Get Your Family Eating Right, supports and inspires parents to make this values shift, and then provides the tools to accomplish it. We don’t pretend it’s super easy, but we do break it down into 30 steps so it’s not intimidating. The recipe concepts make it possible to quickly prepare a meal based on what parents have on hand, eliminating the need to always have to shop for ‘special’ ingredients.  Parents are even encouraged to use some of the tricks of food marketers to entice their children to eat healthy food.

This book reflects our experiences as mothers who have overcome our own family food challenges, and as creators of the successful nutrition education programs here at FamilyCook Productions. These programs have impacted more than 100,000 families around the world. In our nearly 2 decades of experience working with parents and children, teaching nutrition through cooking to all ages, we conduct ongoing research to understand what drives success.  Our results continually demonstrate that focusing on values first, and cooking skills and recipes second, is key.

In this blog, we complement the strategies offered in our book with the real experiences of our own friends, families and the youth in our programs who use these strategies successfully. Such inspiration will make it irresistible for you to take the plunge!

 

Buy the Book at the Following Retailers:

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Emma's Quesadilla

Let your kids try their hand at modifying a recipe…

When my sons were little, my English neighbor Michelle was also a single mom. We often cooked and shared meals together, forming our own hybrid family to help us cope and make meals festive and memorable! Years later, Michelle, now remarried, is back in London. This summer when I visited, our book intrigued her daughter Emma.  As she leafed through, one recipe in particular caught her eye: Fig and Goat Cheese Quesadilla. She made it twice, trying out different delicious possibilities.

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Improvise when you can’t find all the ingredients

Emma is 9 years old and loves goat’s cheese and lots of things most kids would turn up their noses to.  She can also be picky, so when I could not find the fig jam for our recipe, I thought of the berries she loves and settled on black current.  I honestly didn’t know how she’d react to this change, but she wasn’t concerned. She loved crumbling the cheese and was surprised that we did not oil the skillet. When the moment of truth came, and she had cut it into 8 even triangles, she smiled very contentedly – she loved it.

Consider the season when making variations!

Some days later we were planning dinner with her parents, grandmother and cousin.  Emma wanted to make an ‘appetizer’ of the quesadilla.  By this time some fig jam was found and she also bought fresh, local figs at the market with her mom.  When it came time to prepare the quesadillas, Emma was now in full command. She discovered the perfect balance of jam and cheese, and knew exactly how browned she wanted it as she gently lifted the quesadilla with a spatula and peaked underneath to check for the color. She was proud that I photographed her making the final one – I think her self-confidence and pride shows through in these photos!  Well done, Emma!

Turn food explorations into a taste test with children

I was in London this summer visiting my close friends, meeting with my English publisher, and looking for things that were new and different. My plan was to purchase things to bring back to Emma, my English friend’s 9-year-old daughter, so we could taste and rate them together!

Wherever I go, discovering new food markets and neighborhoods are always high on my ‘to do’ list. When in London, I met with my Les Dames d’Escoffier colleague Valentina Harris, from our London Chapter, and she encouraged me to check out Old Spitalfields Market in the East End. I realized I was headed somewhere interesting by the stylish (Ted Baker) and edgy (men’s waxing) shops along the walk from the subway. Then I arrived to an impressive, airy and lively market with tables of food and artisan vendors. Along the periphery were brick and mortar food shops. The mixture of clothing and accessory artisans to food was very dynamic, and the actual stores and restaurants all had café seating out in the market as well as inside. There was a LOT to explore; I found myself circling the market a few times, each time discovering something different and intriguing. But what would be fun to try with Emma?

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English cheese with very intense flavors...

I could not resist Androuet cheese shop, a highly acclaimed establishment renowned in Paris for over a century. Two sons in the youngest generation of the family came to London and have carried on the family tradition of offering selections from small producers who specialize in raw milk cheeses, over 80 seasonal selections. To supplement their French offerings, the young owners have partnered with Paxton & Whitfield for quality English producers. The owner, Alex, was terrific in assisting me on their local selections, and I settled on a cow’s milk Smoked Poacher cheese from Lincolnshire and a raw sheep’s milk cheese called Berkswell from the West Midlands.

Artisan breads – so difficult to choose...

With my cheese purchase completed, I was looking for a worthy companion for them. I didn’t have to go very far to spot a vendor table with a vast array of artisan bread. Levain Bakery bakes 100% sourdough breads in a wood-fired oven. They use the finest quality stone-ground flours and their sourdough starter uses rye flour. I have lots of rye sourdough bread options that I like in New York, but have not found that many multi-grain breads that really taste great, so I chose that to pair with the cheese. I thought that for our taste test, Emma would like a bread with a subtler flavor that wouldn’t overpower the cheeses.

Taste testing with young Emma

When it was time to taste the cheeses, Emma (who really loves cheese in general) got out the cheese board and starting arranging them as I cut up the bread. Emma considers it her role to set up the cheese board after dinner to see if her family might like some cheese after dinner. She loves the arranging and ceremony of it and the fact that her mother lets this be her ‘job’. But for this occasion, Emma and I were going to have our special taste test first and then share with the others. As much as she likes cheese, she was hesitant when I said one of the types were smoked. We agreed that since there were only two to taste, we could each decide which one to try first. I went for the smoked and she went first for the Berkswell. In the end, I really preferred the deep smoky flavor of the Smoked Poacher and she liked theBerkswell, the texture was a bit creamier. This cheese tasting was really fun and she loved the fact that I was sincerely interested in her opinion!

In our book and our school program we offer lots of taste tests as just one way to empower children to explore new flavors; they take the lead and because it’s a tasting, they know it’s ‘on the table’ to not like something!

Introduce children to the food culture everywhere you go…

My friend Anita’s kids know what’s cooking in Paris! She planned their trip to include visits to the fantastic open markets of this magical city interspersed with the more typical sights.  Before leaving New York, she read about the famous marché at Ave. President Wilson where hundreds of people, mostly Parisians, prefer to buy their groceries rather than in a supermarket.  But you don’t have to visit a world city, like Paris, to make your destination an opportunity to introduce the foods and flavors of a city or town to your children.  Just make an effort to include local food culture as part of your travel experience, so your kids associate fresh ingredients with the pleasurable experience of cultural discovery. This is key to ensure an open attitude about new and healthy foods for life.

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Parisians flock to the marché - for lunch!

Parisians break for lunch between 12 to 2 PM.  When we arrived just after 12, many people were already waiting in line for fresh, hand-made Lebanese pizzas with zahatar (aromatic herbs from the Middle East similar to thyme and oregano).  We found hand-made artisanal products and various types of meat and chicken on the grill. In additional to seasonal produce, an array of Artisanal breads of every shape and size were on display, perfect for pairing with a wide variety of cheese from across France.  

 

Ask the farmer and the regulars for their food and cooking secrets

We let our kids choose the foods they wanted to try. Their favorites were the summer fruits: apricots, figs, and cherries. I could not resist the white asparagus as Anita had never tried them before, and the season was nearly over.  A cute, elderly French woman shared with us her secret to prepare them:  she recommends using only the tips and serve them with a delicious mustard. When you go to the most touristic places or restaurants you meet tourists. The real Paris is here, at the marché. One meets French mothers, old women, workers and executives all mingled with the same purpose, good fresh food.

 

 The Parisian marchés are not saturated with tourists - yet!  So, take advantage!