The Naptime Chef

The Pollan Family Table: The Best Recipes and Wisdom for Delicious, Healthy Family Meals is perfectly named. It is not one of those books that offers a mere page or two of advice before diving into unusual recipes. Oh, no. It is more like a cookbook with a lot of wisdom and practical, delicious recipes thrown in. When I first cracked the book I was unsure of what to expect. Would brother Michael’s introduction be a diatribe about America’s tragic food policy? Would all the recipes be strictly diet/low-fat/no flavor? Thankfully, I quickly found the book was exactly the opposite, and so much more.

It turns out that not only is the Pollan family a close-knit family of home cooks. They are also a family of eaters. By that I mean, it is clear they love food, and they love to eat it together. Nobody I know would or could offer up these smart and thorough recipes and tips if they didn’t. Once I came to this realization I knew I was in for a real treat.

The first third of the book is devoted to all sorts of practical advice on how to keep your kitchen running efficiently, and its inhabitants healthy. While I have pages of advice I’ve written over the years, I always love to see how others approach their kitchens. The Pollans have a treasure trove of good advice and I definitely made a few notes! The rest of the book is recipes. The chapters are smartly divided into the major family food groups starting with Poultry and ending with dessert.  Within each chapter the recipes come with ample descriptive headnotes and detailed instructions. It is easy to see how each dish fits onto the family table.

I was lucky enough to interview the fantastic Pollan women about their book and here is our conversation:

1) Right off the bat one of my favorite things about this book is the chapter organization. You really hit on the main “family food groups” so to speak. How did you come up with the idea to present the book this way? And thank you for the wide variety of chicken dishes – always a family favorite!

First of all, our families love chicken too! We know first hand how hard it can be to put meals on the table. We organized The Pollan Family Table in a way that we thought would make it easier for people to plan their meals. For instance if you want to prepare “ chicken with a salad” for dinner— the reader can go to the chicken chapter and choose a chicken dish and then flip through the salad chapter and pick out a salad. It was important to us that our cookbook make preparing family meals as easy and as uncomplicated as possible!

2) I bet there were a lot of opinions about the recipes that were tested for this book. How did you decide on the final cut? They all look amazing!

The fact that our book was written by four authors one might think it was difficult to decide what would make the “final cut”. I think because we all grew up in the same household with our mother, Corky, cooking for us and exposing us to all of the same foods, our tastes are extremely similar. We pretty much agreed on everything.

3) Since Valentine’s Day is around the corner, could you share your perfect menu for a romantic family meal at home? I love making our Valentine’s Day dinner after the kids are asleep!

We would love to! We would start the meal with our Mixed Lettuce Salad with Three Vinegars, next, the Citrus-Roasted Chicken with Grand Marnier and for dessert, Aquinnah and Schuyler’s Chocolate Cream Pie with Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust. This menu is sure to warm the heart. It would be our perfect Valentine’s Day dinner!

4) This book is so chock full of practical advice and recipes. I have to believe there is more where it came from. What is next for the (very busy) Pollan family?!

We would love to write another cookbook. We have some truly wonderful holiday recipes—it would be exciting to put them in a book. In the meantime, we enjoy cooking together and are constantly thinking of new recipes and ideas and bouncing them off one another.

This book really, truly is one of those must-haves you’ll keep around in your kitchen for years to come. Even now I find something new every single time I open it. It is clearly written by a family which is what fills it with warmth that spills out of the pages and into your kitchen. If there is one book you need to start out the new year, this is it!

To enter to win a copy of The Pollan Family Table:

1) Leave a comment sharing a favorite family dish you look forward to sharing with your relatives each year.

2) Follow Kelsey Banfield on Facebook.

3) Contest runs from Monday February 2nd through Monday February 9th. Winner will be announced in the February 13th newsletter. Good luck!

All images above © The Pollan Family Table. Used with permission.

This time of year I always get in the mood to freshen up my house. Until we re-do the kitchen I’m not making any major changes, but little things like new tea towels and new rugs can give it a boost. Here are some of my favorites lately:

Well, duh. (via Emma Bridgewater)

Yup! (via Emily McDowell)

So pretty for a seaside home. (via Food52 Provisions)

So cheerful! (via Pomegranate Inc.)

I love these geometric patterns. (via Fine Little Day Shop)

If you read my newsletter last week you’ll know that I was taken down by the stomach flu and didn’t have the ability to type a sentence, let alone cook a speck of food. Luckily, that time is now behind me (seriously, thank god, because I never want to feel that awful again), and I’ve resumed naptime cooking and nourishing to the best of my ability. Over the weekend we had our first Nor’easter of the season which meant it was time for the slow cooker! And, given my recent recovery, I was excited to make something hearty and comforting for my crew.

Last year I was gifted some pretty copper pots by various family members. I love cooking with copper and could never afford to buy a set myself so it was a real treat! The pots themselves are heavier than my favorite stainless steel workhorses, but they conduct heat more evenly and are perfect for warming soups and stews. They even make my kitchen look a little fancier, like a French kitchen! Someday I hope to have a little copper collection that I can hang from the ceiling or on a pegboard like Julia Child. In the mean time, though, I need to the care for the pots I have to make sure they last a lifetime. So! Here is what I’ve learned so far about caring for copper:

Easy regular cleaning – Salt & Lemon:

My favorite easy natural cleaning solution is to cut a lemon in half, sprinkle a generous dose of kosher salt on top, and scrub the outside of the pot. This will instantly lift away grime by acting as a mild acidic abrasive. It doesn’t damage the pot at all and makes the whole kitchen smell heavenly.

Shining up – Vinegar:

When I want to wash off hand prints or marks from water droplets or sauces I use a rag dipped in white vinegar. It polishes the copper right up and makes it look shiny and new. Vinegar is also a good natural way to clean the inside of your pan. Pour about 1-inch worth of vinegar into the pan (doesn’t matter if the lining is tin or stainless steel), and simmer for about 10 minutes. Then rinse out with water and a sponge. This will lift any grime off the bottom of the pan and get the bottom nice and clean.

Extreme Discoloration: Wright’s Copper Cleaner

Sometimes extreme discoloration happens if you hit the pan with a lot of high heat over a long period of time. Or, if you give it a nick or a dent by accident. It is no big deal. Just use the copper cleaner according to directions and it will all come off. If it doesn’t clear up entirely don’t worry, a little patina on the pan is pretty and adds character!

The benefit of having in-law’s in Florida is that they regularly send citrus. Not just any citrus, the real deal Florida fresh citrus. We eat it non-stop, especially during snowstorms, to keep our spirits up. I also use it all the time for baking and cooking. Over the weekend I used one of our last grapefruits to make these sweet little shortbread cookies. I loved how the tangy grapefruit played with the dark chocolate, giving it the flavor of a dark chocolate covered orange peel. These simple cookies are the perfect sweet nibble to chase away the winter blues. Remember people, only 50 days left until spring!

Over the weekend we celebrated my son’s second birthday. I can’t quite believe time has flown so quickly. I remember when he was born so clearly it honestly feels like yesterday. We’ve transitioned from burp clothes and midnight feedings, to diggers and trampoline play dates in just minutes. Though he still has pretty apathetic about having an actual birthday there is no way I’d let the day pass without a delicious cake to celebrate. I let my daughter choose a cake she would love and asked her to help me style it for her baby brother.

In the winter I freeze my herbs from the garden and bring whatever plants I can inside for the winter. This year my Meyer Lemon tree is wintering in our dining room along with this beautiful rosemary plant. Not all herbs tolerate being dragged from inside to outside for season after season, but rosemary is one of the few that can withstand the change. I love that it is so easy to care for and makes the whole house smell incredible whenever I pinch a few leaves. It also means we’ve got beautiful fragrant rosemary to cook with year-round! Here are a few tips for caring for your rosemary plant indoors:

Water: Rosemary likes to stay moist, but not saturated, all the time. Stick your finger 1-inch down into the dirt. If it is dry water it until the water comes through the bottom of the pot.

Sunlight: I’ve positioned our plant directly in front of a sunny window and it is so happy. Rosemary is a Mediteranean plant so it likes at least 6 hours of sun per day if you can manage it. The sunlight doesn’t have to be direct, but any kind of a sunny, airy room is ideal. An atrium is best.

In case of white: If the leaves and tips of the plant begin to turn white my mother has taught me to wrap the pot in plastic wrap so the dirt is covered and place the whole plant in the shower. Let is sit under a gently lukewarm shower for about 5 minutes so it gets thoroughly soaked. This should wash away any white mildew or mites. Repeat as necessary.

Clippings: With plenty of light and water in a warm house rosemary will continue to grow all winter long. Keep it trimmed and shaped by cutting off the green shoots every few weeks. They can be used for cooking. This will keep the plant from getting to lanky and unruly. It will also help it fill out and get bushy in the middle. Santa shopped at Food52 Provisions this year and brought me a gorgeous pair of Japanese garden scissors for this task, but any sharp pair of scissors will do.

With healthy rosemary indoors all winter you can use it for cooking, adding to tea, adding to champagne (crazy, but it is delicious!), and freshening up your house. If you harvest a lot that you want to save for later you can always freeze it!