The Comforts of Home + {Penne with Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Cream}

We were away from home visiting family in Michigan for almost a week leading up to Memorial Day. I always forget how exhausting it can be to parent on location. Maybe it's just the inflexible, hormonal pregnant lady talking, but it's hard. We have wonderful families who love us and do everything they can to help out and make sure we're happy. And we always have a great time! But by the end of a longer trip, I am just aching to sleep in my own bed, walk out onto my own street, and settle back into my own routines.



A basic and foundational part of the way I live out my vocation is the ability (and responsibility!) to feed my family three delicious, nutritious meals a day. Away from my natural habitat, or otherwise deprived of this basic task, I sometimes feel like a castaway.



When I have to forage in a foreign fridge for my sustenance and my family's, it's amazing how quickly I realize that my idea of "staples" is not the same as anyone else's. Please don't misunderstand me: I don't mean to judge other people's choices. I would never expect someone else to have a fridge stocked just like mine would be. People prioritize differently, have different preferences and needs, and buy their food accordingly. But anyone knows that opening someone else's fridge can feel like walking on a strange planet. We have the industrial food revolution to thank for this dizzying variety of possible food choices, and sometimes I wonder if we would be better off without quite so many. But I digress.

Here are some of our family's basic everyday necessities:

Coffee
Half and half (for my coffee)
Butter
Bacon
Eggs
Whole milk
Plain, full-fat yogurt
Honey and/or maple syrup
Olive oil
Onions
Garlic
Lemons
Pasta
Cheese

The fresh fruits and vegetables change from month to month as the seasons change, but we almost always have those things on hand on any given day, and we use them up quickly. What things would you add? What does your list look like?



I'm so glad that the season of deciding what to eat based on what's at the market is back. It is infinitely more fun for me to cook this way, not to mention much more fun to eat. Here's an easy dish I made for friends a couple of weeks ago, based on what I could get at the market that weekend.



Penne with Mushrooms, Asparagus, and Cream

1 pound penne
2 bunches asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1.5-inch pieces
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 yellow onion, chopped
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 package chicken sausages, split in half and sliced
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup cream
1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
zest of one lemon

Cook the penne in boiling, well-salted water. About a minute before the pasta is done, toss in the chopped asparagus. Drain and set aside, saving a bit of the starchy pasta water in case the sauce needs thinning.

In a wide, shallow saucepan or skillet, heat the oil and butter over medium heat. Add the onions and mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and taking on an attractive brown color, about 10 minutes. Season with salt, pepper, and thyme. Add the sausages and cook about 5-6 minutes, until nicely browned on the sides.

Add the wine and scrape up all the delicious cooked-on goodies from the bottom of the pan. Cook until reduced slightly, 3-4 minutes. Add the cream and cheese, and stir to combine well. Stir in the hot pasta and asparagus, adding a splash of pasta water if the sauce seems too thick. Cook for a minute or two, tossing well to allow the sauce to thoroughly coat the pasta. Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon zest.

Serve with a simple green salad and crusty bread.

Slow-Roasted Wild Salmon

I've been reading Nina Planck's Real Food: What to Eat and Why a little before bed each night for the past couple of weeks. It's making me feel really good about making food decisions that are extremely, ridiculously pleasant. Like whole, pastured, non-homogenized (when I can find it) dairy, which tastes so, so much better than its non- or low-fat counterparts. Or grass-fed beef, which is naturally lean, tastes amazing, and is chock-full of healthy cholesterol. Or pastured eggs, with their bright orange, protein- and omega-3-rich yolks.



Then there's wild salmon, the chapter I'm currently reading. I'm beginning to believe that wild salmon is the answer to all modern health issues. People who eat salmon once a week are at a decreased risk of heart attack, stroke, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure, and high triglycerides in the blood. Omega-3s help to regulate blood sugar and suppress insulin resistance. It's been well-documented and publicized that DHA, a type of omega-3 fatty acid found in high concentrations in salmon, is vital for fetal and infant development, but why? Our brains are made of about 60% fat, and the most important type of fat is - you guessed it - DHA! DHA consumption has been linked to higher IQ and brain function, and to a decreased risk of neural and spinal birth defects.

Ever heard of pregnancy brain? I'm starting to wonder how much of that little-understood, anecdotal symptom of pregnancy could be solved by a couple more servings of fish each week. Developing babies take the nutrients they need from their mothers, whether or not said mothers are conscious of the nutrients they consume. Since our bodies don't produce DHA, but store a lot of it in our brains, maybe those little fetuses are taking mom's brain in order to make their own! If you're pregnant and feeling strangely forgetful, or you'd like to reduce your risk of cardiovascular health issues and type-2 diabetes, make some salmon for dinner tonight!





Slow Roasted Salmon

adapted from Bon Appetit

Seek out wild salmon when you're shopping. Farmed salmon is higher in mercury, less sustainable, and much lower in omega-3s. It's also fed dye so that it looks like salmon. The flavor and texture of wild salmon are vastly superior.

2 six-ounce center-cut fillets wild salmon
3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
assorted fresh herbs, about a cup total (I used thyme, basil, and parsley - dill or rosemary would be great!)
salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Coat the bottom of a baking sheet with a couple tablespoons of the oil, and arrange the herbs in two piles, about the size of the salmon fillets. Lay the salmon skin-side down over the herbs, drizzle with another tablespoon oil, and season lightly with kosher salt. Bake about 25 minutes, until the salmon is just tender - a knife will slide easily into the flesh. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Serving suggestions: A bed of arugula and a chopped up tomato with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of salt and pepper was perfect alongside this salmon when it came out of the oven. It would also be great with sauteed new potatoes and asparagus. I have a piece leftover in my fridge, and I plan to make a sandwich out of it on ciabatta, with lemon-dill-caper mayo and more arugula. Delicious!

Bye-bye, pyramid!

Yesterday, the First Lady unveiled this new image, along with a detailed new set of guidelines and suggestions for healthy eating and nutrition.  I'm not that excited that this is what $2 million in research and marketing looks like, but it's a step in the right direction.

Remember the old food guide pyramid that was released in 1992? 

There are so many, many things wrong with this picture.  For instance, grain is represented as much, much more important than fruits and vegetables.  Not great, but simple.

It was replaced by this ridiculously confusing and complicated pyramid in 2005:

What a mess!  The way it's set up is somewhat misleading, placing too much emphasis on grains again.  If you go to the trouble of clicking on each section and reading the recommended daily amounts of each of these groups, here's what you find:

We need more dairy products than vegetables?  Really?

MyPlate is better.  It gives a great emphasis on fruits and vegetables, which is fantastic.  The "protein" section is a little confusing, since whole grains and vegetables also provide protein, but I get it - it leaves it up to you to choose meat, beans, tofu... whatever.  This is definitely an improvement.  I guess I am just generally annoyed by the weight we place on government recommendations like these.  Take, for example, the low-fat craze.  Following a recommendation to reduce fat intake, people started eating drastically more carbohydrates and sugar, which contributed to widespread obesity and obesity-related diseases like diabetes.  Also, there has been some concern that the people who come up with the guidelines are not immune to the influence of big food lobbies.

It seems like every study that comes out shows some proof that eating this or avoiding that will make or break your health, nutrition, and weight.  The question is: why do we keep trusting these studies?  They have proven time and time again that nutrition is an inexact science. 

Let's keep it simple.  Let's follow rules and guidelines that have been passed down through tradition and arrived at by common sense rather than nutrition science.  Let's eat a whole lot more plants.  Instead of coming up with complex graphics to explain food, let's teach kids where their food comes from, what's in season, and how to cook!  Our diet and exercise should bring us joy and pleasure, not anxiety and pain.  Let's let go of all the science and have a little bit more fun. 

What do you think about the new graphic and guidelines?