Eating like an Immigrant, Part II: Ethnic Stores

Another step in Pittsburgh was realizing that the little ethnic stores scattered all over the city (but especially in the Strip District) had fabulous, exotic and inexpensive ingredients. Many times, it’s working-class people who are shopping at these stores, and it keeps prices reasonable. For example, getting cumin or curry powder from the local Indian store totally beat out anything I could find at the grocery store (the spices at the grocery store were at least 5x-10x more expensive than what I would find at ethnic stores), and it was so fresh tasting.

In one area of Atlanta, apparently there is a large Ethiopian population, and sometimes we’ll get injera (like an enormous sourdough buckwheat pancake), and then I’ll make some stews to go with it. And there’s a lot of overlap between countries with spices, for example, cumin and coriander are used in Hispanic, Indian, and Middle-Eastern dishes. We’ve found a place where we can get Thai curry paste for about $1.50 for a cup of it (which makes dozens of meals).

So, your challenge is to go to an ethnic store and check out the ingredients–I focused on the spices here, I know, but look at the vegetables and herbs, check out the meats, try to see what the backbone of the food culture is. Is it rice based? Noodle? Are there interesting ingredients you’d like to try out? Do you see any similarities between the kinds of foods you’re seeing here and other foods that you’re familiar with? And please leave a comment if you do this, I would love to hear about your experiences.

Recipes

*Shwarma is a fun, Middle-Eastern spiced variation on gyros.
*I’ve made a few Thai curries using the inexpensive pastes, here’s one of them, Thai chicken, vegetable, and pineapple curry
*Here’s our Ethiopian feast that we paired with the injera from the tiny, family-run food store, with links to some recipes for Ethiopian food (I found them to pretty adaptable to what I had on hand, more on that later–next time I’ll make it, I’ll blog about some of the streamlining I did)

Cross-posted from In Search of Lost Time.

MbG Giveaway! Seeds Family Worship

Have you heard about Seeds Family Worship?   It’s a ministry that provides God’s word set to music that is catchy and fun.  You can listen online to see for yourself.  When we received a set in the mail, I chose a verse that addressed an issue one of my children was struggling with: anxiety.  She loved the song and has been singing it with frequency, and I know she has even mentioned it when she was worried about something.  For that alone, I’m thankful to Seeds.

We have a full set of CDs to giveaway to one lucky mom.  Enter by leaving a comment on this post with your email address in the appropriate field (it won’t show) by Friday at 3 p.m. EST.  If you’d like to share the contest via twitter, facebook, your blog, etc. you can earn one extra entry, just leave a second comment telling where you spread the word.

When I announce the winner, I’ll also have a coupon code for everyone else to use to order their own copies, too.   Seeds wants their music to spread and ingeniously package each CD with a second copy to give to a friend, which I think is an awesome idea.

Best of luck to you!

Eating like an Immigrant, Part I: Out of this Kitchen

This is something that I’ve been thinking about for a long time (and been meaning to blog about for quite awhile). It’s sort of become a whole philosophy of food for me, especially through participating in the My Kitchen, My World challenges every couple of weeks. We just watched a really cool PBS series entitled The Meaning of Food, which illustrated how food helps to preserve and pass on identity (I’ll talk more of that in a later post), which sort of pushed me to go ahead and do this series. And I also know many people are trying to find creative ways to eat for less money in this economy, so maybe this could be helpful. I’ll try to include a recipe or food suggestion with each post

So, let me start out with a cookbook that I read a few years back that I think was the yeast that started fomenting these ideas in my head.

Out of this Kitchen: A History of the Ethnic Groups and Their Foods in the Steel Valley

It started when I was in Pittsburgh and one of my professors gave me a cookbook that his ethnomusicologist-turned-regional-historian wife had worked on, featuring recipes, oral histories, and newspaper clippings over the past century from the different ethnic groups who came to work in the steel mills in the Pittsburgh area.

Each immigrant group–Lithuanian, Slovakian, Italian, etc.–has navigated its own path to adapt and preserve its own native foodways to the new land and new economy. It wasn’t so much about Authenticity (like you would find in some gourmet cookbook that calls for rare and expensive ingredients so that you make it exactly right), but about adaptation–preserving a heritage within a new culture, and using your little bit of money to feed your family (probably large and/or extended).

Tim’s own family heritage is Slovokian, so it was fun reading over the foods and culture that the Slovokians brought to Western PA. My mom’s side of the family, too, has Eastern European influences, mainly Polish from my mom’s side. So reading through this cookbook brought me in touch with the immigrant history of my own family’s past. Tim’s great-grandparents (on both sides), and my great-grandparents (on my mom’s side) immigrated over from the same side of the world.

This article has several links to recipes in the cookbook.

Here’s my own Not Authentic take on pierogis, sort of continuing with the adaptation theme.

Cross-posted from In Search of Lost Time.

Because Food Blogging is Fun

After dreaming and dreaming about it, we finally signed up for a CSA share.* I’d like to say I’m excited about supporting local agriculture (and I am! that’s very close to my heart, actually), but I think I was a tad more excited about being presented with a box of food that I can cook with but that I didn’t have to exert the brain power to actually choose. It’s really hard for me to feel inspired when I look at a blank piece of paper that says “Menus for the Week.” I cringe every week. I never do it. My brain is totally dysfunctional lately in terms of food planning. I’ve bought magazines, surfed the internet, read through old cookbooks, desperately trying to find that little bit of inspiration. Totally stymied. So I will freely admit, I was looking toward the advent of the CSA box with messianic proportions. Save me from the ennui!

Today I went to pick up our first box. Beautiful!!! Green!!! GREEN!!!!!! I brought it home and opened it. Reveled in it. Smelled the herbs which actually had scent and flavor! I held a head of green leaf lettuce that was like a foot in diameter. I wouldn’t have known it was spinach if they hadn’t said so. So robust! Hubby came into the kitchen and witnessed my madness, “So, you geeking out?” Yea, pretty much.

I mean, look at these beautiful radishes.

All of a sudden I can think of a few meals to make. (Well, something besides pizza, taco salad, and spaghetti.) My buddy Joanna is going to be blogging about her CSA box and what she’s making with it. I think it will be cool to do, too. Since the stuff we get comes at its season, it’ll be interesting to see how roughly the same ingredients we’ll be getting changes throughout the spring and summer. And Joanna has some pretty cool food blogging anyway.

So here’s my first contribution, which is actually, recently, becoming a quick favorite meal in our family. I love it for it’s speediness and versatility.

Boil some pasta (I use penne).
In a pan saute some onions and garlic (like one small onion and 1-2 garlic cloves)
Add some meat or white beans or chickpeas or lentils (versatility: vegetarian options)
Add some herbs (basil, rosemary, cilantro all good choices; tonight I used cilantro from teh box)
Add some lemon juice, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper (to taste) (if I have an actual lemon on hand, I grate some zest, too).
Add some tomatoes (crushed, diced, or sundried–I prefer the sundried tomatoes that come in a paste in a jar)
If the mixture is a little dry, add some of the pasta water before draining.
Drain the pasta and toss the noodles in the pan (leaving some out for your very picky kid who doesn’t like sauces).
Add fresh spinach and toss until it becomes wilted.
Serve with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

From the box: cilantro, spinach, and our side salad of spring greens.

*CSA=community supported agriculture. it works by buying a share in a local, organic farm, and every week during season, you get a box of whatever produce is in season.

Cross-posted at asteroidb612

Keeping the Sabbath Wholly

Before I was married and a mother, keeping the sabbath was easy. I read Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva Dawn to remind myself why I need to press on towards making my Sundays the way they ought to be, even in the midst of all of my busyness.

I really appreciated Keeping the Sabbath Wholly. Dawn works her way through four elements of sabbath keeping: ceasing, resting, embracing and feasting. As Christians, when we cease, we don’t just run away from everyday life, we assert that the things that drive our everyday lives don’t have ultimate authority over us. We mustn’t just take a nap or avoid exerting ourselves, we have to let our rest extend from the physical to the emotional and the intellectual so that it can renew our whole beings. By our ceasing and resting, we have room to embrace the values that we ought: intentionality, the Christian community, our callings, time instead of space, people instead of things and giving instead of requiring. And then, after the ceasing, resting and embracing, our feasting is that much sweeter.

Dawn makes sabbath keeping to her readers more than just a sound theological practice, but something that is inherently necessary for them to be all that God made them to be, and remarkably, does all of that without making the book one big guilt trip. “Sabbath keeping is not a dry duty or an oppressive obligation. It is a delight, a feasting on that which is eternal rather than a scrambling after the ephemeral success, the amassed wealth, the ceaseless activities, the elegant refinement that Americans think will grant them permanent happiness. Instead of trying to create our own security, we worship the one who is our security.”

I enjoyed Keeping the Sabbath Wholly a great deal and it was a wonderful reminder of truths that I used to know for myself but have lost along the way. My only major objections to it lie in Dawn’s practical application. She puts far too much emphasis on Jewish traditions of Sabbath keeping, which are extra-biblical. I do not think that lighting candles or saying the Kiddush and Havdalah are wrong. But her emphasis on them in her own practice might make readers feel that is the right way to keep the sabbath and there is certainly freedom to take or leave those practices. Personally, we are adapting prayers from the Christian tradition that fulfill the same purposes for our family. Overall, it’s an excellent book that I have and would recommend highly.

Cross-posted at This Classical Life

Coping with Disappointment

Do you remember any of the disappointments that you experienced in childhood? I know we all had them, times when some promised treat never materialized, a parent failed to follow-through on a promise, something important to you but not so important to others was put aside or forgotten…

As a parent, I try not to promise too much, to guard against too much anticipation from my “I can’t WAIT until Christmas it is too long!” daughter. But sometimes she knows of events ahead of time, such as when an invitation arrives for her to a little friend’s “Monster Truck Birthday Party.” I dutifully note it on my calendar, and do plan to take her…

But then I get busy and forget to look at my calendar… funny how that happens, right? And plan a family gathering for family members who are shortly moving far, far away, that is where my focus is. The day goes by in a blur, another family friend arrives and invites 5 year old Charlotte for a sleep-over and Charlotte is elated and immediately packing, ready to rush home with her for a night of fun and movies that Mommy might not let her see (which I know will largely be ignored because she will be too busy playing and chatting). In the rush and excitement, the Monster Truck party is forgotten…

Until I remember the next day. “Oh NO!” I exclaim to my husband, my stomach turning over, because I know how very, very disappointed she will be. She LOVES parties, and it was for a favorite friend she doesn’t see often. I fret, not sure whether to break the news as soon as I can or keep silent, waiting for it to occur to her to ask me about it, since though sometimes her sense of time is accurate other times she seems to float along in her own world unaware of Important Days until reminded by someone. I mentally braced myself against what I anticipated would be tidal wave of disappointment when she remembered… because I too remember missing the party of my best friend when I was her age. Driving with my parents somewhere, an aimless drive to me because I didn’t know where we were going, a soft exclamation by my mother and muttered comment to my father, which I of course heard, “Oh no, Beth was supposed to go to Amy’s birthday party this afternoon!” The tears and begging on my part, couldn’t I just go late, just to say hi! The calm explanations from my parents, the lingering sadness and disappointment on my part… oh, I knew just how Charlotte would feel.

Today was the day that she remembered. “Mommy, did we miss the Monster Truck party?” My explanation, which immediately seemed to anger her. “You shouldn’t have family parties when I have my friend’s birthday parties! I didn’t want to be at that party anyway!” Tears and upset give way to insults, “I wish you weren’t my parents!” implying other parents would not have forgotten the much anticipated Monster Truck party. I quickly drew a line… “It’s OK to be mad and sad that you missed the party… I feel sad too! But it’s not OK to insult your family and say mean things about us just because we forgot. I’m very sorry, sweetie…”

Amazingly, the tidal wave of disappointment was smaller than I expected. Obviously upset, she stopped her angry words and thought for a while. “How about we have a birthday party playdate with him? Maybe with cupcakes?” It would be a good idea to do a playdate… I could pick up some grocery store cupcakes, I thought.

“Maybe I’ll talk to his mommy about it…” No promises, though I’m aware that to her that is probably as good as a yes.

I decided that a special mommy-daughter outing would be fun. Not to necessarily make up for the missed party, but sometimes I feel that I don’t get to spend enough time just with Charlotte. She’s fun to take places, generally cooperative and always chatty. I propose a breakfast at Starbucks and heading to the local Farmer’s Market together. Her eyes light up, and I’m rewarded with a big hug.

All is not forgotten, but I know that she’s coping with her disappointment… it’s Ok to feel sad, and I know that she can handle it. A hard life lesson but I know that she will be better for it. And I have a feeling that she might start keeping her own social calendar soon, too, help out her absent-minded mama!

Cross-posted at In the Thicket

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