Simpsons Foodie Episode and Making Food Fun

Posted on by Ryan

The Simpsons Foodie Episode: The Food Wife

simpsons foodie episode - Spinning CookThe Simpsons foodie episode aired last night called “The Food Wife,” and it was a doozy. Marge, Bart, and Lisa start a food blog, providing ample opportunity for jabs at food personalities, food obsession, and blogging in general.

But the storyline went way beyond food – it dealt with how families struggle to have fun together. At the outset Homer was “Fun dad! Fun dad!” which left responsible Marge feeling invisible, until she became adventurous and started the “Three Mouthketeers” blog with the kids. After that Homer couldn’t compete with “Fun mom!” and their joint project of exploration and rising fame.

Making Food Fun For Kids

What stuck in my mind is the concept of fun and food. We want our kids to eat right, but it should be fun for them, to preserve their healthy attitude towards food as much as we preserve their health. To me this means that I limit the pinch-your-nose-and-clean-your-plate forcefulness. To an extent we need to be firm and require them to try some new things and extra healthy things despite protests, but not to the point that food itself fundamentally becomes negative.

Are you finding this balance with your own kids? How do you know when you’ve crossed the line one way or the other? And what have you done to liven up food in general (my 11/11/11 post was fun but that date doesn’t come around often).

Let me know in the comments, as you enjoy my favorite quotes from the episode below, or view it, now available here (from hulu):

Favorite Quotes

Homer (dramatic voice): This Saturday, from the dad who brought you cemetery paintball, and go-carts on real roads, comes the greatest activity yet… Bart and Lisa: VIDEO GAME CONVENTION!

Marge: You kids have had a big day. Head up for a bath while I deflate your toys. Bart: Save us, Fun Dad!

Marge (at Ethiopian restaurant): Holy casserole-y! That’s good gloop! Bart: I wish *I* lived in Ethiopia! Lisa: Exotic, Vegetarian, I can mention it in a college essay…Mom, this is amazing!

Springfield Foodies: (gasp) They have prepared her a dish from the non-translated page!?!

Springfield Foodies: *We* discovered Korean barbecue in this town. Lisa: Uh, before the Koreans?

Homer: Marge, the kids are acting ethnic! Marge: Relax Homer, have some leftover Galalalalalalalalah.

Welcome to El Chemistri. Please place these mints in your mouth, and when your table is ready, they will vibrate.

Homer: I don’t eat anything new unless I’ve eaten it before. Why drive across town to savor a bowl of mystery mush, when there’s [sic] four different Krusty Burgers we can see from our house?

Homer: Here’s my favorite restaurant, La Fridge. It’s open 24 hours a day and there’s no dress code.

Lisa: What kind of American man doesn’t want to explore global food culture? Bart: And then brag about it on the internet!

Bart blogs: An ostrich burger with buffalo mozzarella? It’s like a zoo exploded in my mouth!

Marge blogs: I used to feel guilty about eating veal, but now I just think of it as the baby corn of the beef world.

And now, Pork Chops 100 Ways.

Marge: How come they never call me fun mom? Homer: A family is like a team! And on every team you have the slam-dunking megastar (points to self), and the referee! Marge: It’s not fair! Moms want to be fun, but we’re stuck with all the “mom stuff!” Homer: OK, ok, how about this. Next week, you take the kids on a Saturday Surprise Dad Day.

Bart: Come on dad, be a foodie. You’re already a fatty and a drunkie.

Homer: Actually I’ve come around on hipsters. It takes a lot of guts to all wear the same hat.

Ooh, triple-spicy barbecued stingray stuffed with pig organs!

Empire State of Mind Rap: I’ll be frank like Bruni, ruthless like Reichl, wily like Dufresne, rhyme about radicchio, criticize Colicchio…

We can’t leave now, we haven’t had the root vegetables cooked in the perfect vacuum of outer space! They say you can’t even *understand* parsnips until you’ve had Zero-G parsnips.

I’m food bad boy Tony Bourdain. I’ll go anywhere and eat anything, as long as I’m paid in emeralds, and my hotel has a bidet that shoots warm champagne.

Lisa: People are loving our list of Springfield’s 99 top Afghan restaurants! Bart: I feel bad for all those places that didn’t make the cut.

Your dessert is in this doggie bag woven from the silk of a blueberry-fed spider.

Homer: Reality check. All the food in those (food blog) pictures, is poop by now. Minds blown. You’re welcome.

Homer: Marge, this isn’t a food restaurant, it’s a meth restaurant. A meth-taurant! Aah!

Wow mom, that was awesome. We ate mad-scientist food, and broke up a meth lab in the same day. Fun mom! Fun mom!

Episode 5 Cameos

Not a complete list, who’s missing?

Anthony Bourdain, Gordon Ramsay, Mario Batali, Swedish Chef, Julia Child, Wolfgang Puck, Colonel Sanders, Guy Fieri, Paul Prudhomme, Wylie Dufresne, Ruth Reichl, Frank Bruni, Tom Colicchio, José Andrés, Tim Heidecker, Eric Wareheim

Simpsons Episode Links

You may also enjoy:
Interview with Simpsons Executive Producer Matt Selman on Grub Street

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Posted in Family, Food Articles, Fun, Kid Friendly, Philosophies

Cooking With Numbers: Celebrate 11/11/11 With Food

Posted on by Ryan
Pancakes in 11

Serve up a “prime” breakfast on 11-11-11 (cornmeal pancakes)

Tomorrow is a double holiday, a big one. Veterans Day is important enough, but add in “11/11/11” and we have something that doesn’t come around every year. The amount of significance you place on tomorrow’s numeric “holiday” may depend on how much you relate to the character of Sheldon Cooper on the Big Bang Theory.  As you may know from my first ever post I am in fact a fan of math, and how it sometimes applies to food.

Regardless of how you feel about six numeral uno’s in the date, you must admit that: (x) it only happens once a century, and (y) kids may think it’s fun, and it may create a family memory and/or teach something about math.

Cooking With Numbers

So how about livening up the menu with a truckload of elevens and ones. Here are some ideas for cooking with numbers. I’d love it if you’ll tell me in the comments your own plans and ideas (ask your kids too), and which are your favorite.

  • pancake strips
  • carrot sticks
  • celery sticks
  • my pan-seared green beans recipe
  • pretzel sticks
  • pizza bread sticks
  • string cheese (which can make infinite 1’s)
  • french fries
  • sweet potato fries
  • “prime” rib (11 is prime)
  •  julienned (matchstick-cut) vegetables, would be great as a coleslaw
  • anything with toothpicks
  • hot dogs
  • sausages
  • biscuits cut into strips or with a number 1-shaped cookie cutter
  • cookie bars in strips
  • sugar cookies with a 1-shaped cookie cutter
  • anything in the quantity of eleven
  • anything on skewers, like chicken satay or shish kebab
  • any of the above, at 11 o’clock (meal known as elevenses)
  • any of the above, at 11:11

Thank you to my friends who helped me brainstorm, and to those who post below. And please thank a veteran. More than one, actually – how about 11?

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Posted in Family, Food Articles, Fun, Kid Friendly

Pumpkin Spice Waffles

Posted on by Ryan — 14 Comments ↓
Waffles on plate
Eating Waffle

Enjoy Pumpkin Spice Waffles immediately. With a smile. In your pajamas.

Pumpkin Spice Waffles

 

Was it the weather, anticipation of Thanksgiving pie, or Starbucks? Something inspired me to open up a can of pumpkin one morning.

First, my 3-step plan for great waffles:

1. Keep waffles crispy

Serve them straight out of the waffle iron, break them up and pass them around, or lean two halves against one another.

2. Keep waffles crispy

Use very little butter and serve “toppings” like berry compote or whipped cream on the side.

3. Keep waffles crispy

Try using a steak knife to cut up your waffles while eating. Clean cuts make for great bites, where a butter knife smashes down the edges. Using a steak knife for waffles isn’t ridiculous, it only sounds ridiculous.

Measuring ROI (Return on Ingestion)

Folding in Egg Whites

Be sure to stop beating the egg whites while they are still moist, which will allow them to fold into the batter easily and evenly.

You see, it’s been scientifically proven that soggy waffles have the same number of calories as crispy waffles, so if you’re going to indulge in a starchy treat like this, make it super satisfying and protect the crunch.

If you want to take them up a notch, serve with toasted pecans and nutmeg-dusted whipped cream on the side. Grown-ups can mix some bourbon with your syrup. You’re welcome.

Happy fall, everyone.

Recipe: Pumpkin Spice Waffles

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs, separated
  • 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ginger
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

  1. Beat the egg whites with the Cream of Tartar at high speed just until stiff peaks form. Stop while they are still moist, do not over-beat. Set aside.
  2. Mix together whole wheat pastry flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and salt.
  3. In a separate bowl, combine milk, water, pumpkin puree, vegetable oil, vanilla, and the 2 egg yolks.
  4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined, scraping the sides to ensure no dry clumps remain. Gently fold in the egg whites using a rubber spatula.
  5. Pour the batter into a pre-heated waffle iron and cook until crispy and just cooked through, about 3-1/2 minutes, a little longer than regular waffles. Serve immediately with butter and maple syrup.
Waffles on plate

Standing waffles up immediately after cooking will protect against steam-induced sogginess.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)Cooking time: 25 minute(s)

Diet type: Vegetarian

Number of servings (yield): 4

Culinary tradition: USA (Southern)

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Posted in Breakfast, Kid Friendly, Recipes

Why Don’t We Eat Fruits and Veggies?

Posted on by Ryan — 5 Comments ↓

A poll I came across in USA Today asked 1300 adults “why we don’t fill half our plates with fruits and vegetables,” per the new MyPlate recommendations. Reasons listed are:

  • They are too expensive (30%)
  • They don’t pair well with some meals (27%)
  • Half a plateful is too much (21%)
  • They aren’t always served (21%)
Girl Disliking Salad

Do you ever feel like this? Copyright 2010 Aldo Murillo

While I do fear government overlords, I actually love the new “plate” model, which is a huge improvement over the food pyramid. Because the only actual pyramid shape I find in our kitchen is what happens when the dirty dishes creep towards the ceiling on a week when I’m watching too much baseball. Visualizing the amount of space on a plate, now that kind of  works.

So the survey here poses a great question, and I’m glad they asked. But there are *major* answers missing. Are these really the only big reasons people don’t eat enough fruit and vegetables? I know you can think of more, and I don’t want to bias or ruin it by filling in the blanks myself. Feel free to rant a little if you want, get it all out, it’s therapeudic. Because there are many reasons why this is a challenge.

It’s like Family Feud really, which by the way is occasionally awesome as this 2 minute video proves. So, Internet family…what are the reasons you, kids, or people in general, don’t eat 50% fruits and veggies?

Posted in Food Articles, Philosophies, Raw Food, Uncategorized

Juicy Posts 1: Jumping Into Juice

Posted on by Ryan

Last week, in need of an immediate health boost (long story) we finally got into juicing as we’ve been planning for awhile. Why?

Vegetables are good

Obviously. Let’s shift the balance. Fruit too.

Raw is good

Juicer Spinning

Spinning Carrots in Juicer, copyright Spinning Cook

Sometimes the best cooking is no cooking at all. Keeping foods uncooked preserves nutrients, especially enzymes which are completely destroyed by heat.

One criticism is that juiced fruits and veggies are not as healthy as the same foods kept whole. But the point is that we don’t typically munch on whole raw vegetables, and when we cook them they’re not what they used to be, so it’s not a fair comparison. Without a doubt fresh juice beats pasteurized (read: cooked) store-bought juice. Sorry, Welch’s.

Easy is good

Throwing a scrubbed carrot, rinsed greens, or a quartered apple down the chute is about as easy as it gets. The only hang-up is clean-up, which isn’t as bad as you’d think despite the thousands of parts you have to take apart.

Journeying

I’m planning to run a series of short posts here. Since I’m brand new to juice please excuse the mess, the puddles on the counter, the splatter on the ceiling, as we figure it out. But some of you have been juicing for years (kudos), and you have your favorite machines and recipes, maybe even high-end blenders that pulverize anything unfortunate enough to fall in there.

Do you juice? Why or why not?

Posted in Food Articles, Philosophies, Raw Food

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