At Home...Dad?

"I've made it no secret throughout the pages of this book that I live for carbs, cheese, and basil. So basically, I think Italy would really like me. No, wait, I would really like Italy." – Tieghan Gerard, Half-Baked Harvest










The Middle Eastern Foil-Packet Fish is a great way to introduce a new cast of ingredients to the weeknight meal selection. The recipe calls for two leeks (including both the white and green parts), halved lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick. Leeks aren't necessarily everyone's favorite just cut – they are pungent and hold a very powerful onion essence, but the beauty of this potency is that once cooked in the foil in among the other ingredients, they become a wonderful backdrop aroma, infuse everything else with its flavor, and can, if needed, be easily picked out. When foiling, it truly doesn't matter whether the amount follows the recipe to the ounce or not. Four slices of leeks per packet will definitely be noticed more than...none. Other ingredients that show up as potentially zingy newcomers are chickpeas (1 can), green olives, halved (put in exactly the number that will be edible to each eater. I never really expected kids to necessarily dive straight into the olives placed in any dish. (I've made a wonderful Mediterranean salad for many years, calling for 20 olives cut in half, as an example. They usually get picked out). There will a few strips of lemon zest, and eventually fresh parsley, fresh mint, and pinches of coriander and paprika, all of a flavor cluster from standard middle eastern, plus carrots and of course the white fish, this time asking for cod fillets. All of this can be adjusted to suit interests in the foil. I would go heavy on the carrots – who doesn't love cooked carrots? Paired by a cod is a wonderful compliment, and if eaters were particularly picky, it might be these two, plus the chickpeas, that might have the best chance of winning them over.

Preheat oven at 450. 12-inch sheets seem to the usual size for foil packets – it allows for the dividing of all the ingredients into something like 1-servings per, with enough along the outsides to use for wrapping. Don't forget a drizzle or two of olive oil onto the foil, and the recipe mentions a few splashes of water also to create a steaming juice. Divide leeks, carrots, chickpeas and olives among the foil sheets and mound in the center; season with salt and pepper; top each with lemon zest. Season the fish with salt and pepper on both sides; place the fillet on top of the mound. Bring the edges of the foil together and fold to seal, leaving room to circulate. Let these sit in the oven for 15-20 minutes. My experience has been that most foiling is as safe a process as it comes. We can just about picture the cooking process as the vegetables create a flavor steam that then begins to rise and cook the cod, imparting the flavors, and partially escaping the package. Meanwhile, the herbs create a sauce that will be drizzled over the top once the packet is opened and prepared to serve. It's hard to know who will and who won't enjoy the pungent combination of mint, coriander and paprika, but it seems that parsley is always the safest of all of these, primarily a textural and decorative add-on. I have served the foil packet directly on the plate and I have tried to scoop the contents onto a plate; for me it has always depended on how much liquid is left on the bottom. Obviously, if a goal is to save the broth, then keeping the packet seems best. If it is really the fish and carrots, for example, that are the goal for the meal, then the liquid can be set aside. The sky is the limit for foil packs. The technique could just as easily show itself handy for pescatarian and vegan and certainly vegetarian. Unlike any one-pot stovetop skillet techniques, you don't have the one-sided primary heat of the pan to contend with. There are similar qualities to a tagine, but a difference there is that the tagine is purposefully a multi-portion stewing container. The foil packet is a steamer but allows for flexibility in how you add and disperse the ingredients. In a restaurant, it seems total uniformity in presenting any given entree is critical; at home, we know, through trial and more trial, who will be most likely to set aside the chickpeas.

At Home...Dad?

"When my youngest brother, Red, was in Kindergarten, I was in seventh grade and would get home from school before he did. On Fridays, I liked to surprise him with fresh-baked treats. I would be sure to get the Betty Crocker wild blueberry muffin mix with blueberries that came in a can. I swore that's what made the muffins so good." – Tieghan Gerard, from Half-Baked Harvest








Foiled Again


The weeknight cook tries so many different dishes and techniques that it literally becomes impossible to sift back through the years and remember them all. If all five in the family stay relatively quiet and intent on whatever the dish, then that one gets one 'memory point' and is filed as a repeatable. If there is general discontent, a stabbing around at the recipe, and some talk of wishful thinking that maybe next time 'just make it a little less gourmet,' then that one might get filed as a 'forget it point.'  Since the very beginning, I have always filed as a 'memory point' the simple art of foiling. I had always used one specific recipe from an old and non descript cookbook for chicken, zuchini and tomato foiling recipe that, one way or another, always turned out well and was successful. The tecnique of foiling for weeknight dinners, I would think, could easily fill out its own cookbook. I wonder if there is much of anything that you couldn't wrap in foil, let simmer in the oven until either the vegetables, the meat, or both, soften and share their flavors? Thinking of foiling in this way is very cool because it is a great way to skip a day at the grocery store, and rely on what you find in the refrigerator. If there were two chicken breasts left, a pinch of pesto left in the little bottle, say, a few raisins, and four slices of mozzerella, that would make a good meal. Take all of the veg you have and slice it up uniformly, slip in one garlic per packet, maybe a bit of vegetable broth, and then pour this, fully cooked, over butter noodles? The foil packet holds flavor in, it traps moisture, it circulates heat efficiently, and nearly always protects the ingredients (that is to say that a bit of accidental over cooking doesn't necessarily ruin a foil packet. It's very hard to go wrong with tagine cooking, one pot skillet cooking, or anything in the dutch, but what about the foil?

At Home...Dad?

"When my mom was pregnant with me, with three crazy little boys in tow, my parents made a deal that Dad could go play handball after work every day if he'd take care of dinner when he got home...You see, Dad's usual hour of arrival home wasn't until seven thirty or eight, and that was on a good night." – Tieghan Gerard, from Half-Baked Harvest:Recipes from My Barn in the Mountains








Foiled Again

1

Some of my favorite food blogs have many similarities to Gerard's wonderful set-up, as she describes how she initially self-volunteered into the role as a major contributor to nightly family cooking. Like she says, her dad had been designated cook, but the problem was he got home late and Tieghen not always so fondly remembers eating weeknight meals at 9:00! She finally had enough and decided to take the cooking reigns (or partial reigns, still helping dad), and it was then that her cooking passion and eventual career was launched. Let's face it, it really doesn't matter whether it was mom, dad, grandma, or some other caregiver who did the inspiring – the important part is trying to work out the family meal, even learning to cook on your own when necessary when young. As with many other things in our lives, we often end up doing things that we learned when we were kids. Gerard's cookbook is

really a beautiful homage to a place (Colorado high ground barn) and to a passion for cooking for others. She goes on in her introduction, "The number one reason I love cooking is the reactions I see on people's faces when they take that first bite of a delicious dish. My favorite thing ever is watching someone's eyes roll back and then open wide into an 'oh my gosh, this is heaven,' look."

2

I take much inspiration from this book and the set-up that Tieghan talks about. As I look up at that tongue-in-cheek picture of that previous generation dad, tie and apron firmly in place, with two kids in the background bemoaning the fact that what comes from this cooking experiment might not be quite up to standards, I realize there is a lot of packed humor in this. That we still, no doubt, know many many men in families who claim that the kitchen, unlike, say, the grill outside, is not their first home, not their language. But in reality we can't help but wonder if there aren't a few more domestically astute men out there in the world today than once was? Certainly food and chef culture has sprung exponentially forward in the past 20 years – at the very least we certainly see an abundance of men in the kitchen through Netflix, Food Channel, Cooking Channel, etc. It might be downright fun to install in the new kitchen a few more spotlights on at home cooking men, just to see if things have become a little more comfortable.

3

My blog idea is to try to enter into this mix, so to speak. I had been designated home cook for 20 years for a family of five, three daughters, now each on their own food journeys, and I can only hope with some similar passions as Tieghan has mentioned. As a writing instructor over the years, or working in small family business, I managed to get home well before that 7 or 8 time frame; in fact I had one of the greatest priveleges in the world – working mostly from home, I was able to flick through tons of cookbooks over the years, dog ear great magazine recipes (the Food Network Magazine section Weeknight Dinners is honestly stellar; Bon Appetit recipes always an adventure), plan a meal, head the store, see the girls of various buses, scoot them along on homework, and then dive into that night's entertainment, the meal. Although my audience has most definitely changed, and sometimes I cook only for one, depending, I look back at 20 years in the kitchen and can only hope that my own tongue-in-cheek vintage poster shows happier kids in the background, although wouldn't necessarily hold my breath.

4

At Home...Dad? then is an adventure in cooking if nothing else. I have no quarrels whatsoever with talking about food as primarily a mode of nutritional transaction: get the best family food plan cookbook, get the plant-based menu, maybe follow a pescatarian diet, whatever it might be, I have tried it and you know what, the key is whether it is good, edible, and yes, nutritious food. But sometimes we also need to call something what it really is, even beyond the minerals. Cooking is downright fun. It is an edible art form. Some folks buy paints and start brushing across a blank canvas. Another starts with an open white laptop screen ready for writing. Another works wood. Let's not forget that cooking is absolutely an art, with many varying raw materials at your disposal, each with their own nuanced characteristics. Once the recipe has been started, and the internal timer has begun, there is that slight pressure that builds and you know that the dish just has to come out right. If it does, if it has, we will eventually receive the highest praise we need, what Tieghan calls that 'oh my gosh' moment. If a plate is empty by the end, the adventure has been worthwhile.

A Miracle of Birches
and Other Songs

"When I was beginning to read I imagined
that bridges had something to do with birds..." – Merwin, from "Echoing Light"











On the Horizon Thanks


for an entire year after there was only
one image that loomed over me from the holiday that year
it was not of the granite tables of chipped black
or the sets of matching dishes the turkey
or the green beans that lingered there shining
in the slow roasting pot nor the people as it should be
but it was later on that night across the street
one lot left yet unbuilt upon jagged and still by original pines
that did not have Christmas lights on them
mere apparitions that added such bold strokes of dark green
mixed in as with a brush the billows of a deep frost
that had entered the valley above the golf course links
and like something of the supernatural took over
for the rest of the night the neighborhood houses
the lawns still furry early winter before the pure white
of a first snow had grasped its thousand strongholds
and for once there were no sounds for what comes
first we notice never makes sound but is that what is
and I felt at home for once in that day and gave thanks
and the horizon understood without asking
sending out its abundance by the cold song of river