getting is just right

We’ve been reading a lot of classic old stories around our house lately. Rapunzel. Hansel and Gretel. Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I can really relate to Goldilocks—I like things to be just right. But it can sometimes seem hard to get there. Especially when you’re trying to get it all right in so many places at once. You hit a home run at work, but drive your toddler to tears; as soon as you’ve managed to convince said toddler that you are the funniest, most wonderful mamma in all the earth, you go and piss your husband right off.    

No one ever said family life was easy. But sometimes you get it just right.

Saturday was one of those kinds of days. We didn’t win the lottery, or accomplish much, really, but it was a nearly perfect day. In the morning, while Greta played in her toy kitchen, I made this baked oatmeal that had been calling to me for days. Delicious. Next, we pulled out the easel and paints, made a few dozen messes and changed our clothes at least twice--always a sign of fun being had. We laid on our bellies on a quilt in the sun eating our first ice cream cones of the season and making up silly songs.  We dug in the yard, planting a few things, pulled up some others. And just before we were about to call it quits for the day, we discovered a patch of wild onions in the back corner of the yard that we’d long overlooked. Jackpot. It was just the thing my random collection of dinner ingredients (black bass, two young eggplant, organic kumquats, the season’s first radishes) would need.

By 6 PM we were all covered head to toe in dirt, winded from moving soil and mulch and one tiny, energetic girl through the day. Everyone was suddenly starving, and needed fed, fast. That, my friends, is when you put your broiler and grill pan to work. Drizzle fat fillets of black bass with sea salt, freshly cracked pepper, and olive oil, then pop them in the oven to broil, while the same mixture (salt, pepper, olive oil) dresses thin slices of small, firm eggplant for cooking on the grill pan. It is the ultimate, ten-minute dinner. (If you happen to have some homemade green goddess dressing on hand in the fridge –thank you Real Simple test kitchen—even better. If not, see the recipe, below).

As it all came together on the plate, I started to have that buzzy, motivated feeling you get when you just came up with something really good. András poured us each our favorite Belgian beer, and we gathered at the table. And just when started to pick up our forks, Greta, sitting in her usual spot between us, reached for our hands and said, “Mamma, the prayer!” Oh yes, the prayer. She bowed her head and started, “dear Lord, thank you so much for everything. We’re grateful for our family. We’re grateful for … (something we couldn’t quite make out) and ice cream. Now eat. The end.”

This—parenting—trying to build a life that makes your child joyful, curious, and grateful—is working. And, after weeks of admittedly so-so I'm-too-tired-to-cook dinners, this dinner was working too. In fact it was just exactly right.

I’m not suggesting you go rooting around your backyard for wild onions. Or that you need kumquats or Belgian beer or ice cream cones on a quilt in the sunshine to make life feel swell (though all of the above are great places to start). Sometimes, though, you need a little inspiration—something that speaks to your soul. A bubble bath. A tickle fest with your toddler. Pizza and pink champagne with a good friend. Thirty minutes in the kitchen with a recipe you’ve been jonesing to try. A whole day with no plans or obligations, at all. And a really good dinner that takes almost no time at all to make, and leaves hardly a dirty dish behind.

That night, Greta actually went to bed without a fight. And though we were utterly, deliciously exhausted, András indulged me with a fire on what have been be our last cool night for a long while. I fell asleep to sounds of freshly split wood popping and crackling, my soul content. For one long, ordinary day, everything feels just right. 

~

*I was thinking about all this, and writing this post about our family dinner, when I read that my friend and fellow author, Shauna James Ahern was hosting a Family Dinner party online in honor of the launch of her new, beautiful book, Gluten-Free Girl Every Day. The opening lines of the book read like a glimpse into her lovely, loving and welcoming family life. Shauna, Danny and Lucy, this one's for you: our Saturday dinner, which just so happens to be naturally gluten-free. *


Roasted Black Bass with Radish, Green Onion and Citrus

serves 4

4 6-oz fillets black bass
2 tablespoons olive oil, plus for serving
coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 radishes, sliced
6 wild onions or small scallions
4 kumquats or 1 to 2 small pixies or clementines, thinly sliced

Preheat your broiler to high, on the convection broil setting if available. Drizzle the fish with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Spread out on a baking sheet and broil until golden brown and the fish is just cooked through, 6 to 10 minutes (depending on the thickness of your fish and the heat of your broiler), adding your onions to the pan in the last 2 minutes of cooking. Serve warm, topped with the radish, scallions and citrus. Drizzle with additional olive oil. 

~

Grilled Eggplant with Green Goddess Dressing and Pistachios 

serves 4

2 medium eggplant, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons olive oil
coarse sea salt and freshly ground pepper
1/3 cup loosely packed parsley 
1/4 cup chopped chives
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)
1 small clove garlic
1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
1/3 cup mayonnaise
Handful pistachios, roughly chopped

Preheat the grill or grill pan to medium-high. Drizzle or brush both sides of the eggplant with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Grill until charred and just tender, 3 to 4 minutes per side. 

Meanwhile, combine the parsley, chives, lemon juice and zest, anchovy paste, garlic, Greek yogurt, and mayonnaise in a blender or food processor and pulse until smooth. 

Serve the eggplant topped with a bit of green goddess and pistachios. 

a taste of helsinki + salmon soup

I’d like to think we are the type of family to throw their baby in the backpack and just travel—drive around France or hike to the Himalayas. We are, in spirit, but most of our trips are destinations to see family—mine in Chicago or California, or András' in Hungary. So, when booking our flights to Hungary this summer presented us with the opportunity for an 18-hour layover in Helsinki, we jumped on it. We’ll skip the car seat and travel light, umbrella stroller only, we decided, explore the city on foot and have one celebrated Nordic meal.

We arrived easily in Helsinki, but our luggage, stroller and all, got unintentionally sent all the way through to JFK. So, we’ll travel really light, I thought, casually.  I had diapers and PJ's for Greta in the backpack, and we had the nearly warm enough clothes on our back. All European hotels have feather duvets, so we'll be warm at night. Plus, to our utter delight, a rosy Finnish steward at the gate kindly lent us one of the dozens of umbrella strollers that never met their destination. Kitos. (Thanks).

I thought our choice of hotel was quite smart—affordable, chic and cozy (to say the least—Greta’s crib abutted our bed, though, per usual when we’re away from home, she slept with us anyway) but our timing in terms of feasting was poor. Inside the hotel, while Greta and András napped off our flight, I luxuriated over the online menus of three or four alluring eateries I’d researched (Grotesk, Rafla, Olo). But at the end of every query for a table, I got the same response— closed for the month of July.

The maître d’ confirmed. Most small restaurants with the kind of new-Nordic cuisine I sought closed in July for summer holiday. But there was Salve, a sailor’s retreat built when “ships were of wood and men of iron,” right on the water in walking distance from the hotel.  Sure, tourists go there, he said when I asked if it was a local spot, but their salmon soup is legendary among the locals first and foremost.

We borrowed two oversized umbrellas, wrapped Greta in András’ coat and marched the 8 blocks to the pier where we found the restaurant brimming with families, mostly Finns, round faces and shades of blond around every table, celebrating one occasion or another. It was jammed packed.

“Reservation Madame?” a flustered server asked, after we’d been standing there ten minutes. “We’re fully booked tonight.”

“Oh, no. But we’re just two and a baby.” I said in the same breath. “She can sit on our laps. We’ll eat fast. And we’re flexible. We can sit anywhere. Anywhere except outside in the rain.”

He seemed to sense my determination (was it that obvious?), so he promised he’d try and find us a tiny table somewhere. I turned to András—“no worries, it’s just a short wait.”

When you have a hungry baby and a grumpy husband, and it’s pouring down rain outside, most women don’t insist on waiting on the mercy of strangers for a bowl of salmon soup. But in times like these, I tend to error on optimism.

After chasing Greta around every table, befriending the bar maid for nibbles of pomme frites and making our presence known to the sole English-speaking server via smiles and nods each time he passed us, increasingly flush, we were seated.  Plates were stacked before us with instructions to head immediately to the salad bar, included in every meal, and load up on shredded beets bathed in cold crème and dill. 

And then came the salmon soup, served in pedestal bowls with stacks of rye bread. Simple. Flawless. Nourishing. And easy to repeat, I decided, at home with a little my own flair (using arctic char, tri-color baby potatoes and cherry tomatoes from the market)—my reward for patience, if you can call it that—a Nordic night right here in NYC.  

 ~

Salmon Soup

Serves 4

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

1 large yellow onion, thinly sliced

1 pound tri-color potatoes, halved

3 cups filtered water

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

1 pound arctic char or wild salmon, skinned, in bite-sized pieces

1 handful tomatoes yellow cherry tomatoes, halved, or 1 beefsteak tomato, chopped

1 1/2 cups 2 % milk

1/4 cup fresh chopped dill

Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and light brown in some parts, about 4 minutes. Add the potato, water, salt and dill stems; bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are fork tender, 15 to 20 minutes.  

Toss together the tomatoes with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of your best olive oil and set aside.

Reduce the heat to low and add the milk to warm through. Add the arctic char. Stir once and turn off the heat immediately to let the fish just cook through. Add the dill and stir.  Divide between soup bowls and spoon the seasoned tomatoes over each of each bowl, drizzling a little of the oil in each bowl. Serve warm with bread.

And, if you find yourself in Helsinki, here’s where to go:

Salve Restaurant

Hietalahdenranta 11

00180 Helsinki

All Photos © Sarah Copeland 2012

something super for supper.....

photos by Romulo Yanes for Health Magazine

I have a lot to tell you about, but first, I'm having a portfolio day, filing back over all the work I did in the last year, and trying to put it all in once place. Very often I'm moving from one story or project to the next, and I too often forget to tell you all about it all. Plus, I was raised not to toot my own horn. But I'm super passionate about helping people find their way to good health, and there's no more delicious way I know to do it then through cooking with flavor and nutrient-loaded ingredients like sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, grapefruit, salmon, brown rice, spinach, walnuts, avocado and....

Oh dear me, I'm getting carried away. But what I'm trying to say is, this story, this batch of 7 Supermeals for 7 Days that I developed for Health Magazine is one I really think deserves a spot on your fridge--or wherever it is you post the recipes you plan to cook this week. These recipes are easy, incredibly satisfying and full of flavor. And, they're loaded with the kinds of ingredients (some might call them super foods) that deserve a full-time place at your table. 

Give them a try. The gorgeous images were shot by Romulo Yanes, the modest and uber-talented photographer behind the luxe images at Gourmet magazine for so many years. His work always captures all the texture and taste of a very good meal. 

Click the links of the recipe titles below for the full recipes. And if Wednesday is market day in your world,  quick, make your list and scoot on over for fresh poblanos, kale, spinach, sweet potatoes and arugula....all in season now. 

~

7 Supermeals in 7 Days

Grapefruit and Avocado Salad with Seared Salmon

Poached Chicken Salad with Shaved Brussels Sprouts

Spaghetti with Wilted Greens and Walnut-Parsley Pesto

Barley-Stuffed Poblanos

Grass fed Beef Burgers with Mushrooms and Radicchio

Brown Rice Bowl with Turkey

Sweet Potato and Spinach Quesadillas