Comforting Dishes From The Times Pantry

 Comfort food is going to be big this season. We're going to need dishes that soothe and help our troubled souls and minds. Luckily the New York Times has gathered some of the best recipes from  From The Pantry, a series of recipes that helped home chefs during the pandemic. Sadly, it's ending its' run soon yet home chefs can enjoy the many recipes it still offers.

Melissa Clark curated these in today's New York Times food section. She offers the highlights of it and what the recipes can do.  They're confident and flexible along with being versatile to stretch to two or even three meals.They represent the best of pantry cooking, which done right can help you adapt your favorite recipes to what's in the pantry. Ms. Clark also shows how to get past all those panic bought beans and boxes of pasta and create comforting meals for the entire family to enjoy. She starts with the recipe for baked polenta. This is the perfect dish for fall and for a weekend supper. It starts with corn kernels,whether canned, frozen or right off the cob sizzled in a pan with butter. Polenta grains are added. Then throw in anything you want, Alliums like shallots or scalions, greens, like kale . You could add some cheese like feta ,blue or Parmesan. She suggests my favorite, adding eggs along with a lot of freshly ground pepper and sea salt. Another pantry dish is the famed Irish dish colcannon. She up the flavor with crispy fried leeks and add some sliced garlic cloves. Cabbage or kale is traditional but you can use broccoli rabe too. Add milk or vegetable broth and lots of butter for a truly creamy taste.

Comfort meals got us and are still getting us through this pandemic. There are recipes for tuna casserole and roasted chicken. Ms. Clark's take on the tuna casserole?  Zing it up with garlic and white wine! There's also a pinch of red pepper flakes for heat. You can use tuna in water but use the one in olive oil for a richer flavor.It'll be mashed into white beans , giving the dish a chunky texture. It's topped with Gruyere, according to the original recipe by Diana Henry, a British based food writer. her recipe was a Breton  tuna and white bean gratin. Ms. Clark gives it an American spin by adding potato chips to the topping. Roasted chicken is another dish that's not only comforting but versatile too. The bones can be used for stock while leftovers can be turned into chicken salad for lunchtime sandwiches. The stock though is the best. It's just taking the bones, and  cooking them with aromatics such as ginger or onions , carrots or herb stems. Cover with cold water and simmer for two to three hours. How does she end these meals? With a comforting dessert, the classic chocolate cake made with mayo! This is a rich cake anyway, made with Dutch cocoa and chocolate chips. The liquid used is hot coffee although you can use tea too. Vanilla can be used but so can bourbon or brandy if you don't have the first. Ms. Clark recommends just dusting it with confectioner's sugar although you can add a cream cheese frosting or chocolate glaze for more decadence.

There's nothing like comfort food,especially during these crazy times. Make what you want. Then enjoy these good for the soul, good for the mind dishes.

Food Issues For A New Administration

Tonight America gets a new leader. This January whoever wins will face a lot of issues, some of them regarding how we Americans eat. There's also  the question of eating healthy and promoting good habits. After all, an unhealthy US is a sad US, not a vibrant one.

One of the issues is who's going to continue First Lady Michelle Obama's Eat Hhealthy/ Let's Move  campaign ? This was a brilliant program, that taught our kids to eat right. She made it cool to eat carrots and spinach and say no to a steady diet of fries and sodas. Thanks to her even the youngest  Americans became savvy when it came to shopping and cooking. Mrs. Obama  even got kids interested in gardening and the importance of growing your own produce. Hopefully, she 'll be allowed to continue this program or some form of it will exist with the next First Spouse. another hope is that her vegetable garden be kept so more school kids can benefit from it. Here's another hope for whoever takes over - try to maintain healthy eating habits. Not only is the US watching  but the world is too.It doesn't look too good when our president is scarfing down cheeseburgers and maybe a bit too much red wine or even harder stuff (although the job is demanding one - but think herbal teas with a lot of valerian). Keep the White House Chef, Sam Kass. He's an excellent chef ho worked with the First Lady in creating the first major garden since Eleanor Roosevelt's Victory Garden.

Then there's the question of those GMOs, those genetically modified organisms that have slowly taking over our groceries. They started out in the Eighties with simple experimentaton wth tomatoes. Scientists and armers then started on the quest for sweeter, seedlesss and hardier hybrids. However more and more fruits and veggies are turning into these pieces of Frankenproduce. Even cows that produce milk have been more or less genetically engineered thanks to RGBH or recombinant bovine growth hormone. This has to stop before the meat industry gets involved . Right now there is a ban  but who knows when they'll cave nd start injecting cows, chickens and even farmed salmon with hormones and chemicals.Our next president should also look into the powerful sugar and beef lobbies.Despite all of our current First Lady's warnings and push for healthy eating , we still have sugary drinks along with endless arrays of candies and snack cakes. The beef  lobby is as powerful as the NRA  and is still pushing a diet of red meat on Americans. We can have pushbacks and protests along with changing our lifestyles.Yet , if it's there and we have a craving we will go for that hamburger or ribs.More and more has to be done to imprive our diets.

Our new president  will have a lot to deal with in January. Yet there's are eating and food issues too, that need to be addressed. America has to be fed nutritious food to thrive and survive . It's just that simple.

Farm Fresh Vacation

It's Thursday and that means a dissection of one of the New York Times' Food section 's articles. the one that really caught my eye was an article about farm vacations. This is where you pay to live in a tent for a week and do farm chores and pick veggies and fruits. This would be an interesting vacation for me, considering most of mine are usually down in Atlantic City by a pool with a pina colada in hand.

The article, written by Kim Severson, tells of his and his family's week spent at a farm in upstate New York. here he and his partner and child got too pick vegetables and feed chickens.This is a wonderful experience for anyone, especially children . A farm vacation can not only teach about basics but also about global warming and the part agriculture can play in getting the planet green again. Another plus is that each tent (yes you stay in a tent but ieach also has its' own toilet facilities) does come with a wood burning stove where vacationers can make meals with fresh picked produce. Some farms offer goat cheese and tomatoes along with eggs for homemade pizzas and omelets. It is a good way of getting back to our farming roots and appreciating the land.


Agritourism , as it's formally called, can also be in the autumn too. There are farms in Vermont where tourists can not only enjoy the beautful fall foliage but also tap maple syrup and handle livestock. Some farms offer grape harvesting and taking care of smaller barn animals like the farm's cats. There's also apple and pumpkin picking along with some other usual chores. America isn't the only place to offer agritourism. Italy's lush Tuscany has vacation farms where visitors can pick peaches and strawberries in the summer and truffle hunt during autumn's early days.

If you're looking for a different vacation , one with fresh food , then go try a farm vacation. Being out in the fresh air and eating just picked veggies and fruits will do you and your family a world of good. Despite the vacation's starkness, there is a kind of luxury in agritourism.