A new web series starring cooking kids is the subject of my latest Character Approved Blog post. And some last-minute holiday gift ideas from the king of the procrastinators.
Our girls were introduced to the kitchen early. I remember Marion sitting on the kitchen floor with them when they were toddlers, mixing bowls and measuring cups spread out around them. The girls would spoon, stir, mix and measure ingredients that would become a gingerbread or cake or some other delicious baked treat.
Lately, getting kids cooking is being seen as a powerful tool for teaching good eating habits. And as the epidemic of childhood obesity and its attendant health risks continue unabated, those good eating habits are more important than ever.
One of the latest efforts is also one of the most entertaining. It’s a web series and website called Kids Who Love to Cook. The stars of the series and site are, as the name says, kids who love to cook. Seven of them. They teach real cooking on the videos with real ingredients. And they take viewers to markets, dairies, cheesemakers and other places to explain how food gets to our kitchens and plates.
If you’ve got kids—or nieces and nephews—you’d like to get cooking, check out Kids Who Love to Cook. You can see a sample video and find out more about the web series on my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.
Last-minute gift ideas for food lovers
Okay, I’m not the desperate guy shopping at Walgreens because it’s the only place open after 6pm Christmas Eve, but I’m close. Witness the timing of this list. I meant to post it November 30, right after Black Friday. Failing that, I had every intention of posting it last Wednesday. And yet here I am, 11 days from Christmas and six days from the first night of Hanukkah, posting a quick smash-and-grab list of gift ideas. Some might call it a short list—I prefer the term well curated. I would promise to do better next year, but I think we can all see how that will play out. So here goes. Don’t let me catch you in Walgreens on the 24th.
Plenty: Vibrant Recipes from London’s Ottolenghi. This is a vegetarian cookbook for your non-vegetarian friends. The author, Israeli-born, London-based chef Yotam Ottolenghi, isn’t a vegetarian, but he brings bright flavors, inventive approaches and Middle Eastern flair to each recipe. We’ve had this book out of the library three times now. I’m thinking one of us should perhaps get it for the other. With photos for each of the 120 recipes, Plenty is visually as vibrant as the food.
Barnyard Tea Towel Set. Crafts and artisans are enjoying a moment, and we’re enjoying the fruits of their labors. We saw these beautiful tea towels at a recent craft fair in Chicago. The work of Kin Ship Press in Louisville, Kentucky, the 100% cotton flour sack towels are screenprinted with soy-based inks. You’ll find the machine washable towels and other gift ideas on Kin Ship’s Etsy Shop.
2012 New York Food Calendar. This calendar isn’t just good looking—it does good too. Proceeds from calendar sales benefit the French Culinary Institute’s scholarship fund. The New York City-based culinary school has trained a who’s who of star chefs—David Chang, Wylie Dufresne, Julieta Ballasteros and Josh Skenes, to name a few. The calendar features photos—and recipes—of dishes from 12 of New York’s top restaurants. You can buy the calendar here.
Bone Appétit Dessert Plates. Kansas City, Missouri-based foldedpigs calls its plates, bowls, mugs and assorted serving pieces “repurposed restaurant ware.” You’ll call them wonderfully twisted. The dishwasher- and microwave-safe china features screenprinted, overglazed skeletons, brains (along with the phrase “zombies love brains”), hearts, cockroaches and more. Find them at the foldedpigs Esty Shop.
Life, on the Line: A Chef’s Story of Chasing Greatness, Facing Death, and Redefining the Way We Eat. This has been a great year for chef memoirs. First, Gabrielle Hamilton laid out her unlikely path to the professional kitchen in her best-selling Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef. And now Chicago chef and molecular gastronomy pioneer Grant Achatz tells his story, from cooking eggs in his parents’ restaurant when he was just seven or eight to successfully battling stage IV tongue cancer while running Alinea, named Best Restaurant in America by Gourmet magazine. Life, on the Line is an intimate portrait of a complicated perfectionist driven by his love of food.
Feeding America. One in seven Americans now receive food stamps. Food pantries around the country are stretched thinner than ever before. This holiday season, be sure to remember your local food banks, with donations of cash, food or your time. If you’re not sure where to help in your community, the Feeding America website can direct you to local organizations.
Eames Chair Coasters. These clear acrylic coasters are the perfect mash-up of cocktails, Mad Men and the love of all things mid-century. They depict four classic chairs by the legendary husband-and-wife design team of Charles and Ray Eames—the 1948 LaChaise, the 1946 Molded Plywood Chair with Metal Legs, the 1956 Lounge Chair with Ottoman and the 1951 Wire Side Chair. With rubber feet, they’ll keep glass rings off your Noguchi coffee table—or your IKEA Lack table, for that matter. You’ll find them on the MoMA website, also cool.
Remote Area Medical. Okay, this gift idea isn’t about food. But it’s about health, and that’s one important aspect of food that we cover here. In 1985, Stan Brock created Remote Area Medical to bring free health care to third world countries. RAM flies volunteer doctors, nurses, technicians and veterinarians into remote regions to treat hundreds of patients a day under some of the worst conditions. In 1992, Brock began bringing those services to underserved, uninsured Americans. Whether his teams fly into remote rural areas or urban centers like Los Angeles, they routinely face thousands of people in need of care. We try to give something to Remote Area Medical every year. We hope you will too.
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