Fast Food

We hear a lot about fast food these days. It's unhealthy. Portions are huge. Fast food places even have (gasp!) TOYS for kids (Hey, guess what - grocery stores have toys for kids and even have products that promote with toys.  Do we sue the grocery stores, too????)

Oh, I know that we don't need to be eating fast food everyday.  But I'm not totally against fast food places. Especially having lived in a country, when our four kids were young, where there weren't any kid-friendly, fast food places to stop at when we were making long trips. On a long trip, dragging four tired little kids into a "regular" restaurant to wait on their meals, is no picnic .... which is what we usually did - picnic (because it was also quite costly to eat in that "regular" restaurant with four kids).  And having a picnic in the car  when it's pouring rain outside is no picnic, either. There were many times back then when I wished we'd come upon an honest-to-goodness fast food place. ( Now this country has plenty of fast food places.... ours and theirs. And they are always full.)

However, the fast food place is not my topic here.  Fast food is.  Homemade fast food.  Did you know that you can make fast food at home often FASTER than you can get it at the fast food places?  And, you can make perfectly healthy fast food at home. AND you can serve totally "normal" portions of your fast food at home. Oh.....and get this:  you can actually serve your homemade, healthy, small-portions of fast food at home WITH the toy of your choice, if you so desire.  And no one can sue you for doing so, either (not yet, anyway)!  :)

"Fast food" took over my thinking the other night when I was tired and aching, and didn't feel up to doing a lot of cooking, even though I love to cook. Going out to eat somewhere didn't appeal to me. Just too tired.  So was my husband.  Hence, the "fast food" thoughts - only I wasn't thinking of the hamburger-french-fries kind of fast food.  I was thinking of the "what's-in-my-kitchen-to-fix-quickly-and-easily" kind of homemade fast food.

So I peeked in the pantry to see what lurked there. Onions caught my eye.  Opened up the fridge to check it out and saw those pretty little yellow summer squash.  Cucumbers. Couple of left-over pieces of steak. Some fresh okra.

Hmmmmmmm, let's see. My mind told me to grab those veggies and that left-over meat and get busy "fast fooding".  So I did.

Getting out my great old cast iron skillet, I put in a little olive oil and heated it.  Peeled an onion and sliced it into the skillet. Took several of those little squash and sliced them into the skillet with the onions (the squash were already washed). Stirred everything.  Cut the ends off the also-already-washed-okra and sliced them into the onions and squash. Stirred.  And the cucumbers?  Didn't you know that you can cook cucumbers?  I peeled a couple of them and sliced THEM into the mixture.  Stirred again. Mmmmmm.  Was already smelling good.  Added some salt and pepper, lots of garlic powder and a sprinkling of Herbes de Provence spice.  REALLY smelling good at that point. And almost done. Those veggies cook quickly; only a matter of a few minutes until they were done to my liking (which isn't mushy). Then I took the kitchen shears and snipped up those two pieces of left-over steak - right into the skillet full of veggies. Stirred around a bit until the meat was good and hot and, voila, my fast food supper was done - quickly.  Less than thirty minutes; probably about twenty minutes or so. Just before serving I stirred in a little green salsa. Oh, and I also sprinkled some grated parmesan cheese on top.  My husband and I both loved it.

So, you see, you CAN fix fast food right at home.  This version, and many other versions.  Be creative.  I often fix a mixture like this and serve it over rice or some sort of pasta.  Sometimes I add slices of green and/or red bell pepper, jalapeno pepper, celery, leeks, potato - just any veggie you have and happen to like. Often, too, I will add chopped-up fresh tomatoes (hard to come by this summer in drought-plagued Kansas) or a can of crushed or even whole tomatoes.  Add meat. Or not. Any left-over meat: hamburger, steak, sausage, chicken, left-over hot dogs, etc.  Add any kind of spices/herbs you and your family love. Add some cheese as it cooks, then sprinkle some on top. This is such a versatile "fast food" that you are sure to come up with SOME kind of combination that you and your family will enjoy.  I often cook up a huge pot of rice (usually brown rice) and let it cool, then divide it up into quart-size freezer bags to have on hand for a fast food meal.  You don't even have to thaw it; just put it into the mixture and stir around until the rice has thawed and separated into the rest of the food. I also do this (cooking a big batch) with pasta.

The point is: homemade fast food IS fast. And good. And can be healthy. And can be served in the right portion sizes to your family. This is only one example of a really tasty homemade fast food dish; there are so many others.  So - if you have worked all day outside of your home and come home dead tired, or if you have worked all day inside of your home and are already home dead tired - don't despair.  You can still enjoy a homemade meal that doesn't take up a lot more of your time and energy.

You will enjoy it. So will your family.

Do fast food!

Memorable Meals

In one of my pastor-husband's sermons he mentioned "memorable meals" we've shared in various countries. "Various countries" because, though we've relocated back to the states, we lived about sixteen years in France as missionaries.  During those years we were fortunate to have had contacts with people of many nationalities in France, as well as by traveling to other countries from France.  

In his sermon my husband was pointing out the closeness  between people when they sit down together at the table for a meal.  Food is shared.  More importantly, communication is shared.  People tend to relax and get to know each other around the table.

We found this to be true wherever we went.  Accepting an invitation to sit at the table and share a meal with someone, no matter how simple or how luxurious the meal, was often the key to communication between us - to understanding, to becoming friends.  Many barriers were done away with, in our travels, when we agreed to sit down at the table with strangers, as well as friends.

If we accepted their invitation, sat at their table and ate their food (or invited someone to our table), then they were more apt to believe we were truly interested in getting to know them. They believed we really did care.  And we did.

What did we eat, you might ask?  Does it really matter?  Is it not the fact that we DID eat that matters?  We happily sat at the poorest of tables, as well as at a few of the wealthier tables, sharing not only the food but, even more, their lives...their hopes, dreams, sorrows, joys.

"Yes, yes", you say impatiently, "but what did you eat?"

"So much", I will answer, "and so little".

French cooks, for the most part, live up to their reputation.  From the five-to-six-course Sunday afternoon dinners to the afternoon cups of tea and coffee and slices of "gateaux" (cakes).  Delicious. How nice it was to enjoy some of their meals.

We were fortunate, too, to have had contacts with many of the immigrants in France - and delighted to get acquainted over their different ethnic foods.

Kimchi and gingsing tea with our Korean friends ... couscous and mint tea at our Algerian, Moroccon and Tunisian friends' apartments (with slight variations from each country).  Tiny, sweetened cream cheese dumplings with Polish friends ... coffee and kougelhopf  and madeleines with French friends ... parsley, lemon and couscous salad at a Lebanese friend's.  Diversity, for sure!

During the worst drought ever in Mali, Africa (at that time, anyway), when food was so scarce people were dying by the multitudes every day, we sat on the sand floor of a small hut.  Forming balls of hot rice with our fingers, out of a large common bowl, we dipped the rice balls into the other communal bowl of hot sauce.  We didn't want to eat what little food they had.  They insisted.  We did eat.  They were sharing not only their bit of food with strangers, but their lives.  Their culture.  We made new friends.  We communicated.

Right after the Romanian revolution we sat at a poor farmer's table, humbly and gratefully swallowing the cabbage soup and cabbage rolls (which were delicious).  The family stood around the table watching silently as we ate (their custom).  We were the well-fed westerners eating at the table of the almost-starved. They were so proud to have us at their table. We could not refuse.  We ate.  And our bodies, our souls, were filled with much more than cabbage soup.

Such meals are etched in our minds forever; and the people in our hearts.

Now, back in America, we see many changes in family life and meals.  Much of American "table life", we've seen, consists of restaurants and fast-food places.  Too many of us live life at such a fast pace that we've lost the importance of  "memorable meals", of shared tables ... the importance to our children, to ourselves, to extended family, to friends and to foreign visitors.  Might this not be a factor in so many youth being lost to gangs, drugs, other crimes?  Could the loss of much of their family togetherness - sitting down together at the table and eating a real meal together, sharing their lives with each other - could this be, perhaps, a huge factor in our children heading in wrong directions?  All kids deserve good memories of some home-cooked meals and sitting around the table with their families, eating and talking - communicating with each other.  Loving each other.

 I don't need to travel far to find someone, besides my own family,  to share meals with at our table.  I just need to take the time to do so.  To reach out. To want to get to know someone more intimately...to make a new friend.

As a Christian, what better way to share the Gospel of Christ, to show His love for everyone, then by inviting someone to sit at my table and share our food?  When someone sees that I am honestly wanting to get to know him or her, to listen, to show interest - then that person is more apt to listen to me; to hear about and discuss the Gospel.

So ... there are many reasons for sharing meals.  For me to accept to eat with another.  For me to invite another to sit at our table, whether I can serve a full-course meal or simply a cup of water and a shiny apple, I store up many "memorable meal" memories.  I get to know someone else; and someone else comes to know me better.  I show the love of God by sharing.

Romans 12:13 (the Bible) tells us:

"Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."

And, in I Peter 4:9 (the Bible) we see:

  "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling."

We don't need to be wealthy to do this.  As it says in Proverbs 15:17 (the Bible):

"Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fatted calf with hatred."

Want to make some memorable meals?



 

The Valentine Supper

Our Valentine Day supper table

Though Valentine's Day has come and gone, I hope everyone continues handing out the love.  I love cooking and decorating; hence, our Valentine Day supper table.  Simple, but pretty.  Hubby and grandson both seemed to appreciate the effort.  I enjoyed doing it.  Doing the simplest of things for those you love brings a warmth within your own heart.  They love it. You love it.  Another of those "win, win" situations.  :)

Though Grandson, Christian, received a "bought" gift (a Hex Bug), his Papou (my husband, John) received a baked gift.  A heart-shaped banana cake. Of course, Papou had to share it with us, too; but he didn't seem to mind. Besides the pretty rose-bud corsage my husband bought me, he also gave me a reproduction tin sign.  Okay, I know some of you may not understand  a tin sign as a Valentine's Day gift.  However, I like "rustic, old, antique, unusual".  I also like "new" mixed with "old", though I sometimes have to argue with my husband about that.  So I love the sign, which advertises "cream separators" and shows the various kinds of cows that make the cream! The only problem is where to put it - this house doesn't have much space for wall-hanging, and what there is is pretty much taken up.  I did, though, manage to hang it today - I switched it with something else, and moved the "something else" (grandson's framed pastel tennis shoe he did in art class) to a space on the living room wall.  It works. Both tin sign and pastel shoe look happy.  I am happy, too.

My tin sign Valentine gift

Grandson, Christian's, pastel tennis shoes

 

 

 

 

Now ... if you have a Valentine supper, it stands to reason that you must have some Valentine Supper food.  Since I love cooking, we had food.  :)  Our menu: green salad with homemade ranch dressing ... fish baked in a cream sauce ... a mixture of rice,cabbage,onions,dried cranberries and pecans ...homemade biscuits with homemade apple butter ... banana cake and peach herbal tea. Have to say it was good.

My spur-of-the-moment recipe

The rice and cabbage mixture was one of those spur-of-the-moment recipes. You know, look and see what you've got and put it together to see what it comes out to be.  Well, it turned out to "be" SO good.  Really.  Try it, you'll see.  It's a "save and do it again" recipe - sometimes I can't "save" a made-up recipe because I don't remember what I put in it, if I don't write it down.  This one, though, I will remember without writing down.  It's quite easy to do and to remember. I'll just tell you what I put in it ... maybe someone of you has already used the same ingredients to do the same thing!

Sandy's Spur of the Moment Rice and Cabbage ..... I used red and green cabbage, since I had a half a head of each ....I heated a little olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet, dropped in about a half an onion, chopped, used a paring knife to cut the cabbage into shreds into the skillet, added a little salt and black pepper, to taste, along with a lot more garlic powder (love it!) - stir-fried it all a few minutes, then threw in a handful or so of dried cranberries and chopped pecans.  Stir-fried another couple of minutes, then added the cooked rice (left over from another meal), maybe two cups, stirring some more to mix in the rice and let it get good and hot.  That's it.  Simple. Fairly quick. And really good.

The "Love You" gift cake

I hesitate to put up a photo of the dessert/gift banana cake.  Well ... why not!?  The cake was good; the decorative writing was not.  I'm a novice at writing on cakes, but had bought one of those frosting cans with the decorating tips on them to use; so I gave it a try.  Can't say I love the taste of that frosting either.  Ick!  But ... you can at least make out the words, right??????   Hubby loved it; that's what counts.

Until NEXT Valentine's Day ...................................................................................................................

If the Squash Bugs Missed Them ...

We haven't had much luck with our garden squash this year.  The squash bugs didn't spare us.  Come to think of it, they didn't last year either. :(  Some of our friends have had the same problem - but there are SOME friends who have had success.  And, thanks to their generosity, we have been "kept in squash" this summer.  Yellow squash.  I like other kinds, too.  But YELLOW squash is my favorite.

I have tried various recipes for the squash, but have to say that my absolute favorite way to eat yellow squash is probably the simplest way of preparing it.  We enjoyed it again for supper this evening: slice small yellow squash into a skillet with a little olive oil (I also love using bacon drippings), some chopped fresh garlic, chopped onion, salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste.  Stir-fry for three to five minutes and, presto!, it is ready to eat.  Enjoy!

Of course, there are any number of ways to "ad lib" this recipe.  Sometimes I throw in some fresh, chopped basil - or sage - or thyme ... or all three!  It's great with some good  crispy country bacon chopped into it. And, if the bacon idea grabs you, you'll probably also love some slices of good ham ( I LOVE country-smoked ham) to go along with the squash.  Then, there's always any kind of cheese to sprinkle in ... maybe a little cream ... etc.  Use your imagination.  Don't be afraid to experiment.  For me, part of the fun of cooking, is the "creativity" of it ... sometimes I follow a recipe completely; but LOTS of times (maybe most) I'm not afraid to stray off on my own.  A little of this; a little of that.  Have to say that there have been few times that something's turned out really bad (but don't ask my husband about the sweet-and-sour rabbit when we were young marrieds and only had a can of pineapple and a jar of home-canned rabbit from a friend in the cupboard.............).

Eat REAL food - including squash-bugless yellow squash - and  enjoy REAL taste.  :)