Local Eats!

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

June 10, 2009

This last weekend I went down to Tulsa to visit family. One of the highlights when I go down is the farmers market. Cherry Street Farmers Market is a fantastic adventure in fresh food. We walked up the stairs to the little parking area where all the stands are set up; the place was already busy and it was not even 8:00 AM yet. We walked between two stalls to get to the main walk way and turned left. Oh my goodness, there it was the most beautiful site to behold, fresh, colorful veggies, piles and piles of them.
This first stand was from Three Springs Farm, a 5 acre farm that two people run and maintain and grow the best produce. They had the biggest and tightest bunches of red leaf lettuce I have ever laid my eyes on. They were huge, and looked good enough to display on your table as a center piece. White small sweet turnips, brilliant orange carrots, and multi-colored Swiss chard were all laid out. White and red baby potatoes, spinach, basil and tons more that I could not even get to because of the current crowds. I just stared and thought this is only the first stall, how are we going to eat all of this? I bought lettuce, Swiss chard, turnips, carrots and then tore myself away. I had more places to conquer.

We walked around and purchased vegetables till we could carry no more food. It all looked so yummy and fresh. I was already planning on how to fix everything. I should have bought two of those heads of lettuce!!!!

I made wilted lettuce salad out of the gorgeous leaf lettuce, I will be roasting the carrots and white turnips, I left the bok choy and rapini at my moms, lucky her. Our Markets are open here at home, but we are behind the Cherry Street Market in growing season. Plus we have had way to much rain and that has slowed everything down. So this was like a little glimmer of hope that fresh food would soon be had in our little corner of the world.

Tales from the Lunch Lady

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

May 27, 2009

I am the manger of a school lunch program. We are part of the NLSP or the National Lunch School Program and we receive government reimbursement for our lunches. It is the only way we can stay in business. I have been doing this for 9 years now. I started not knowing a thing and I have read and self taught as much as I can. I have learned a lot (imagine a dry sponge soaking up water) and am still learning. I can say though that I love my job and I am doing my best to change my little corner of the world.

When I came on board I had grandiose ideas about home cooking for the students. It took me exactly one day to realize that it was not going to happen. The prior lunch service consisted of a daily al carte menu with hamburgers, pizza, cheesy bread sticks, and fries. Students could purchase cheesy bread sticks with a 2 oz cup of spaghetti sauce and call it lunch! I was shocked. I ended the entire al carte menu. Then I looked at the menu and was disgusted. It consisted of the bottom of the barrel food, nasty chicken nuggets that were dark meat only, hamburgers that were paper thin, all canned vegetables and fruits. Nothing fresh, salad was only iceberg lettuce, hot dogs were 100% meat, what kind of meat we never knew (also had 19 gram of fat per 2 ounce dog), and deep fried anything.
Pizza was available, but it was the bottom of the line kind that had no real cheese even. The numbers of students eating were dismal, maybe 90 a day with a little higher numbers on pizza day.

I took the next 5 months and learned all I could about what kind of food was out there. I raised the price of the lunches and started looking at the type of food being served. I didn’t change the basic menu, but I did use better food. The numbers starting going up, we were averaging 200 a day! Then I looked into the NSLP and applied and started learning about what they considered a balance lunch. It was a starting point. With the extra monies available to me I started bringing in fresh vegetables, fresh fruit, white meat chicken nuggets, better hamburgers, whole wheat bread. After 9 years I can say that with the help of the NSLP and the dreaded SMI review (a government process to see what you are serving such as fat, fiber, vitamins), I learned how to serve great food at a decent price and am now averaging 275 per day in participation from students.

We serve fresh fruit (example: apples-red, green, and yellow, oranges, bananas, strawberries, kiwi, plums and pears) each day. All of our salads are now made with shredded romaine; iceberg is used only on taco day. All of our beef lunches are made from 100% beef that is already cooked and drained so there is very little fat remaining in the meat. Our hot dogs are a 100% turkey with a fat content of 9 grams instead of 19. We use 51% whole wheat rolls, and we are looking at more fiber breads. We are moving into making more of the lunches from scratch. We make our own Mac & cheese and it is a low fat version the kids love! We are bringing back chicken on the bone, and whole meat chicken breast. Yes the cost is a bit more up front, but so is the cost of losing this generation of students to obesity and diabetes.

As the lunch lady I take my job very seriously. This next school year we are looking at even more changes. We have a salad bar line that is available to a certain group of our students; they pick from shredded romaine, spinach or field greens. I served soybeans and blue berries and they were gobbled up. I hunted out low fat meats; we put black beans, kidney beans and chick peas on the line. Students and adults ate them up. Whole grain breads, whole fruits and lots of fresh cut raw veggies, all eaten with relish. It has taken me 4 years to get the students to eat the fresh food, but each year the consumption goes up. We are changing the taste buds of our students!

This next year I will be doing library time with the younger students (k-3) and we will be doing mini cooking sessions. They will learn how to read a recipe with mom and dad, make a simple healthy snack. I just purchased 4 new kid cookbooks for our library. I will teach the students how to use these new books and how much fun they can be. I am hoping to have a cooking class with the older students as well. I just keep plugging along.

So my encouragement to parents is keep trying. Realize that it will take time and some effort to retrain our children to eat better. Of course it would help if we ate better. So lead by example, draw your line in the sand, and stand firm. Change will come in time.

My trip to Pasta Cabonara

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

May 26, 2009

My mom came up for the weekend. My darling hubby was at a local track meet, the kids were home, but enjoying the first evening of summer break. I wanted to fix something simple but different. I did not want to eat cereal for dinner, again....
So I found a recipe for Pasta Carbonara. “Okay,” I said to mom, “let’s give this a try”.

I put the whole wheat pasta on to boil; I mixed three eggs together and placed them in one of my fancy new prep bowls that I forgot I had. My mom chopped and fried up the bacon. I chopped up a Vidalia onion to add to the bacon grease after the bacon is finished, garlic follows. Next I minced some fresh flat leaf parsley, love this stuff smells so fresh and green. Next I have shaved parm ready. Kosher salt and fresh cracked pepper, are ready.

Carefully I drain the hot pasta and return it to the pot. Quickly stir in the eggs and 1/2 cup of half & half. Stir, stir, stir till the eggs are cooked and combined with the cream. Throw in all the remaining stuff. Stir some more, add a bit of saved pasta water to loosen the mixture up a bit. It smells so good and it took about 5 minutes to mix it all together. I plate the pasta and add more fresh chopped parsley and shaved parm. My mom and I sit at the breakfast nook table to eat. It is good! It is really good! My mom asks me how many times I have made this, and I let her know this is my first time ever. We go back for seconds and the pot is empty! My kids snuck in and ate it!!!
A good recipe, good ingredients and dinner is enjoyed by all!

My Kichen Aid Work Horse

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

May 15, 2009

About 15 years ago I bought my first and only free standing KitchenAid Mixer. It has been my best friend ever sense. Our family had just moved from Arizona back to Kansas, after being gone for two years. We had three small children and my husband was going back to teaching. Money was very very tight. In other words, we had none! We were strapped while living in Arizona and things were not going to be any better here in Kansas. So I was continuing my cooking from scratch for everything. But I needed help!!!!!

I saw this mixer at our local Outlet Mall. With money from my birthday and Christmas, my husband, three kids and I went there and bought it. A white, 6 qt. bowl KitchenAid Mixer for $221.00. I was so proud! I went home and made bread, and gallons of cookie dough. Over the next several years I used my mixer ruthlessly. It mixed, whipped, stirred, whirled and beat everything I could throw at it. I would make 8-10 double batches of bread, one right after the other. I would make dozens of cookies, three layer cakes and even meat loaf. It would travel with me to catering dates, buckled up in its own seat belt. I washed it, dried it and loved it.

When I entered the work force full time, I didn’t make bread or goodies nearly as often. The mixer was placed in the back pantry and there it lived a quiet life for a couple of years. I dusted it, and might pull it out to make a double batch of chocolate chip cookies, but back to the pantry it would go.

After nine years of working outside the home, I have gotten a much better handle on juggling work, being a mom, and wife. LOL!!! Yeah, what ever….I have learned that no matter what I will never have it together. So enter my KitchenAid mixer again. I still don’t use it as much as I did when I was at home full time; but use it I do.

My KitchenAid mixer is one of those items I would not be without. It has saved me so much work and helped to produce wonderful meals. The biggest thrill for me is watching my 15 year old daughter creating yummy things from the mixer. She loves baking and that white KitchenAid now lives on the counter. It excites me that I am passing on a love of cooking to the next generation; passing on a tradition if you will. I already know what I am getting her for her wedding gift, way in the future of course!

Ode to the Tomato

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

April 23, 2009

I wrote this for my own newsletter I send out on the back side of our school lunch menu. I am the lunch lady and take feeding four students a day very seriously. Enjoy.

One the best things in the world is eating a tomato fresh picked from the garden while it is still warm from the sun. One way I prepare such a slice of heaven is to cut thick slices of it, and then eat it on homemade bread with a slice of real mozzarella and sprinkled with coarse salt and fresh black pepper. Oh, and I slip in a leaf of fresh basil that I have just plucked from the kitchen garden. This is a bit of heaven….but I have to wait until July for this luxury. If you don’t like tomatoes or have never had the opportunity to taste one picked fresh from the plant, you have missed one of God’s miracles. And no, I am not exaggerating.

So with this picture in my mind’s eye, Kent and I are planning our garden this year. And it is going to be a good sized plot. We are growing everything from seed; tomatoes, peppers, squash, herbs, radishes, turnips, Swiss chard, beets, carrots, and leaf lettuce. We plan to plant two successive crops of everything so that we have fresh veggies even past the end of the growing season. We are also planting an early variety tomato so that by the Fourth of July we can do the Happy Dance.

We are also planning to hit the Farmers’ Market on the west side of town on a regular basis. Asparagus will be coming in hard and fast for a while, and boy do I love the stuff! Grilled Romaine lettuce will also be on the menu (only I will soak the heads in salt water to remove the little green worms! Aaaggghhh!) I also love exploring other parts of our state to see what they have available. So, there is a trip planned for the Winfield Farmers Market, since that is only 30 minutes away from us. Someone there has grass fed beef for sale, so we shall see what we can make use of.

Our goal in this adventure is to raise our own food, put it up for the season, and cut our food bill. We also want to eat healthier and have more control over what we eat. Also our kids will be involved with the planting, weeding, maintaining, picking and preparing our new food source. My expectation for this is realistic. I know there is a learning curve...but this is not our first garden. However, it is our first big attempt since Ethan was a baby. It’s almost time to get the sunscreen out, put on the knee pads, gloves, and bug spray; back yard be warned - we are coming!!

Heres a Site to Behold

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

April 15, 2009

The sun is just turning the night sky a lighter color of dark. Soon little wisps of pink and orange will start to move across the sky. Guess what I am doing? Carry out flats of tomato plants. I don’t move so well in the morning, it takes me a while to remember I have legs, and when I do I also remember they hurt this early. I have a bad knee that really just wants to retire. It is 6:00 A.M. and we have to move 400+ tomato and pepper plants out of the living room out to the mini green houses. This has been one of the coldest Aprils we have had in some time; to cold to leave the little plants outside over night. We were to tired last night to hump them up the stairs again......so into the living room they went; on the floor, the couches, and the coffee table. We then had to close the double French doors and put our dinning room table up against it so that P.D., our 15 lb cat, could not chew the leaves off of the peppers. He doesn’t like the tomatoes, just the peppers.

I am the first one up every morning. I came down stairs and started carry flats of plants. Remember how everything hurts? Bending over is nigh impossible. So I do the best this old body can do. I start and just keep going. Soon my oldest daughter helps (and she has the foresight to lock the three cats up in her room), and we carry out more flats. Then Darling Hubby comes down and out we all three go. This had to have been a sight three people running back and forth carrying plants and getting them inside the mini green house in the back yard.

Oh did I mention we live next to a three story apartment building filled with elderly people who all get up before dawn and watch our place to see what “crazy thing are they doing now”? We entertain our neighbors well!

Spring Fever Indeed

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

April 14, 2009

It has hit, today! No clouds whipping through the sky, no wind tearing your hair out by the root, and no rain drowning you. The sun is high, the air is warm and the breeze is light. We have to go out and enjoy a day like this. When I get home from work and grocery shopping, my hubby and son will have moved all 432 tomato and pepper plants outside into the handmade mini green houses. There the plants will heat up to 80 degrees and bask in the joy of the sun.

I will sit outside and soak up as much vitamin D as I can. I will watch the red cardinals flying around making ready their nest. The young cardinals are trying to lure mates to their tree. We have 4-6 different red couples for this spring. My cat will stretch out in the sun light hoping that this will last just a bit longer before the real heat starts up.

The sky is so blue after the hard rain; it got all that nasty smoke from the burning prairie. Where the grass burning happened, the new grass will shoot up quickly and very green. The entire growing season is kicking off.

I love spring and I am so glad it is finally here!

The Control Freak!

From Rachael Warrington — Blog by Rachael Warrington

April 6, 2009

Ask anyone around me and they will tell you I am a control freak. I don’t like to let things just happen. I plan and execute. Usually this works out just fine, but I have had to learn when to pull back and not steamroll those around me.
I truly believe that there is an element of control freak in all of us. Some just bury it deep, others ignore it, and some use it as a club to control others around them. But being a control freak can have it pluses. Gardening is a big plus for the control freak. How about controlling our food source? How about controlling how much chemicals we ingest? How about controlling our impact on the environment? How about taking control of our lives and choosing to be responsible?

I choose to take control of my environment. I can create a compost pile, recycle items from the trash, plant healthy food. I choose to raise said food with out a bunch of man-made, cost ineffective, fertilizer, sprays, or excess water. I choose to raise my food with the entire family involved (and yes my three teenage kids are kicking and screaming as they come along; oh well).

We have started a family project; it is called The Garden. If, as a family member, you choose not to work in the garden then you get to work in the house. If you choose to do neither, you get kitty litter duty! So far we have had no problems.

We are raising our plants from seeds, so our bedroom is literally filled with hundreds of plants. We are now starting to overflow into my son’s bedroom (remember the kitty litter; that means kitties, and they like to chew plants, any kind of plants. So said plants need to be in rooms that kitties can not get into. Hence our bedroom and son’s bedroom.).
We have both heirloom and hybrid varieties. Each kind of plant brings something different to the table. We are growing the regular items, tomatoes, peppers, squash, potatoes etc...next year we will try some more different things.

The back yard has been turned into a full sized garden with raised beds. Spinach, lettuce and Swiss chard have been planted. Beets are coming up. I won’t have to worry about them being contaminated from someone’s feedlot, or manure pile. I can control what I have and how it is grown. My tomatoes will be safe, my peppers will taste great, and I will make killer pico-de-gallo! All from our own garden. I want the control back! I am a control freak and proud of it!