Archive for the ‘Cooking With Eve’ Category

Connecting Gardening and Food, and Fighting Hunger

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

Tom stirring tomato sauce for ziti

Womanswork hosted another evening meal at The Lunch Box in Poughkeepsie last week. On a typical evening The Lunch Box serves 150 people who need a hot meal. They also serve lunch on week days but this has expanded to include dinners whenever they can get volunteers like us to do it. The numbers of people in need of services like this have been growing here in Dutchess County, NY, like everywhere else. 

Nora Madonick, a new friend in town, has volunteered to help us whenever we do these evenings. She recommends that we recruit others to help us in the future and that we split the responsibilities of cooking the meal.  I agree!  I wanted to see what it felt like to cook for such a big group and now I know!

There is a strong connection between gardening and food, and Womanswork has made a commitment as a company to help fight hunger, starting locally. We will keep building our network of friends who want to volunteer with us so we can continue to volunteer at The Lunch Box.  We are more than a garden glove company.

Time allowing, there is a dynamic group called The Poughkeepsie Food Project, that I want us to get involved with also.  PFP has a community garden and farmers market, and has programs aimed at teaching the value of “growing your own” to teens and others. They make large food contributions to people in need as well. Tom and I spent a recent Saturday brainstorming with them on ideas for the coming season.

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Judith Jones by Eve Winslow

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Last week I had the greatest pleasure of seeing Judith Jones speak about her philosophy of food and eating, and her new book “The Pleasures of Cooking for One.” 

The Pleasures of Cooking for One

The Pleasures of Cooking for One

Judith Jones is the senior editor and vice president at Knopf.  She was responsible for publishing “The Diary of Anne Frank” and Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.  In her talk she spoke of her early years in France and the marvelous meals she would have at little corner bistros.  She now lives in Vermont where she raises her own cattle, eats local and enjoys the pleasures of cooking for herself.

Reading her books and hearing her speak I feel like she is someone I could be friends with.  I felt the same way when I read Julia Child’s “My Life in France”.  She has this lovely humor, but also her ideas on food and the way we eat are the same as mine.  I believe, as she does, that the best food is always fresh, local and organic. We also share the belief that there is always time to make a good supper instead of a prepared frozen meal. When talking of instant meals she asked the audience something like “So your instant meal saves you time you say? Well what do you need all that extra time for anyway, another tv show?”  It’s so true! Her book is not so much a cookbook but more of a way of looking at the way you shop and prepare meals. 

Most of her meal ideas are pretty quick. Except for some Sunday afternoon stews and such they all look to take 20 minutes or so. The book works with using leftovers– enjoying pork tenderloin one night and then the next using the leftovers to create a ginger pork stir fry for example. She, like Jacques Pepin, also suggests putting things like the tops of leeks or scraps of veggies in the freezer for the next time you make stock, so as not to waste anything.

We all know the importance of eating local, eating organic, and we know the politics of food, but Judith Jones is there to remind us of the pleasures of food.  The act of being in the kitchen, enjoying the scent of garlic sizzling in olive oil, your glass of wine and music, and enjoying the process as well as the meal.

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Posted in Books We Like, Cooking With Eve | 2 Comments »

Hubbard Squash Soup Recipe by Eve Winslow

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
The Alien Pod
The Alien Pod–Before it becomes soup

I finally used the Hubbard squash that Mary-Lynn (in charge of Womanswork shipping and receiving) gave me from her garden.  I made Hubbard squash soup!

Soup should be a comforting thing to make, and there is always room for substitutions and experimentation.  This recipe would still be delicious if you substituted carrots or pumpkin for squash. Onion is obviously an important base flavor, so if you are out, use a leek or even some shallots. 

 Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of skinned and cubed Hubbard squash (or any yummy squash really..)
  • 1 or 2 onions or white parts of 2 leeks
  • 2 carrots (or more-  they make the soup sweet!)
Eve cutting the Hubbard Squash for soup

Eve cutting the Hubbard Squash in her Vermont kitchen

  • brown sugar
  • mace
  • nutmeg
  • cayenne
  • homemade or store bought chicken (or veg) stock
  • butter
  • half and half
  • creme fraiche
  • chopped fresh herbs- use your personal favorites: parsley, chives, or even basil or sage!

 Hubbard Squash Soup:

  • Skin and cube a few cups of Hubbard (or Butternut) squash.  Toss with a good glug of olive oil to coat, and put onto a baking sheet.  Spread the squash out so they are not too cramped.  Sprinkle about a tablespoon of brown sugar, a pinch of salt and cracked pepper on top, and then roast in the oven at about 375 until golden brown and soft.  If they get pretty dark in spots, that’s ok, it just adds more dimension to the soup, which is the point of roasting! 
  • In a large heavy bottomed pot saute a couple of onions or leeks, and a couple of carrots until the onions are translucent but not browned. 
  • Add a pinch of mace, a pinch of cayenne (or more if you are bold!), and a pinch of nutmeg.  If you are particularly fond of one of these spices feel free to add more pinches.  Other spices that would taste nice are: allspice, cardamom, and ginger (fresh or ground).
  • Toss the squash from the oven into the pot and mush around to break up the pieces a little bit. 
  • Now you add your stock. I would just put in about 2-3 cups to start off.  Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes or so.
  • You can either take the soup off the heat, let it cool a little, and then puree it in batches in the food processor..OR use an immersion hand held blender, which is my FAVORITE kitchen tool besides my knife. 
  • Puree the soup to your liking. If it is too thick add more stock. 
  • Swirl in a couple of tablespoons of good butter and salt and pepper to taste.  A swirl of cream or half and half never made anything taste too bad either!
  • Serve in a warmed bowl with a dollop of creme fraiche and some chopped herbs.
The finished soup with a dollop of creme fraiche

The finished soup with a dollop of creme fraiche

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Posted in Cooking With Eve | 5 Comments »