beans & greens soup

This is one of those fabulously simple made-up recipes that's worth passing along, especially if tomorrow ends up being a rainy day. There's nothing more comforting than a bowl of homemade soup on a rainy day, don't you think? Originally inspired by Kelley, the project manager of one of my favorite local non-profits (who also happens to be a great home cook), this is my version of "kale-white bean soup". I made a double batch last week and shared it with a few special people that could use a night of comforting food. It was a hit.

Beans & Greens Soup

(8 servings)

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large onions, diced
6-8 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup pancetta, chopped
1 bag Trader Joe's Southern Greens blend (found in the produce section)*
5 (14.5 oz.) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
2 (32 oz.) boxes veggie broth

* this is a pre-cut, pre-washed combination of mustard, turnip, collard and spinach...you could make your own 5 cup combination of hearty leafy greens like kale instead but I love that I can save a little time by just popping this greens mixture right into the pot...


In a blender, combine two cans of cannellini beans and one (32 oz.) box of broth. Pulse until smooth. Set aside. (This is what is going to thicken the soup.)

In a soup pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, pancetta and garlic and saute 5 minutes. Add the greens and saute another few minutes. Then add the broth, cannellini beans, and the pureed beans (that you just blended). Cover the pot and cook over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes, or until greens are wilted and tender. Serve warm with crusty bread and a hunk of good cheese. Freezes beautifully too.

easiest "sausage" dip ever

For those looking for a super simple, creamy, guy-pleasing appetizer for tonight's big game, here's a go-to dip of mine. Originally brought to a book club couples gathering by my friend, Lynne, I now make this all the time because it's so easy and everyone loves it. My version is vegetarian, but most carnivores who try it have no idea. You could, of course, make it with good old Jimmy Dean....but I don't know, I am kind of skeeved out by real sausage. So, here's my take:

"Sausage" Dip

1 onion, diced
1 tube of Gimme Lean Soy "Sausage" or Soy Chorizo*
1 brick of cream cheese (regular, low-fat or non-fat, your choice)
1 jar of salsa (mild, medium, spicy, chipotle, your choice)

In a large fry pan, saute the onion and soy sausage in a bit on olive oil, breaking up the sausage into small chunks. Once the onion and sausage and softened and lightly browned, add the cream cheese and salsa. Stir over medium heat until everything melts together into creamy deliciousness.

*both types of soy sausage are found in the produce section of most markets

Can be made ahead and stored in the fridge. Serve room temp, or warm, with tortilla or corn chips.

I made a big batch of it last night for a charity paddle party I was catering. That version for a large crowd was made with: 2 yellow onions, 1 tube each of Gimme Lean + Soy Chorizo, 2 jars of Trader Joe's Chipotle Salsa, 1 brick of fat free cream cheese and 1 brick of regular cream cheese.

follow-up to black bean cake recipe

There's a meatless meal idea conversation going on over on the Facebook page, and a recipe that I recently proposed to one friend was the Black & Pinto Bean Cakes when asked for a cheese-less idea that isn't spicy. I thought it might be helpful to share a few more photos of the prep of that recipe, in case any of you might be giving it a whirl tomorrow as a "Meatless Monday" option.

The reason I like this recipe, when cooking for varying tastes, is that it's a healthy base from which kids and adults can then customize their toppings. When I make these, I put out a "topping bar" of: sour cream, a mild and spicy salsa, chopped cherry tomatoes, chopped avocado, corn, shredded cheese, jalapenos, etc.

Here's the original recipe again:

Black & Pinto Bean Cakes

1 onion, diced
olive oil
two 15-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
one 15-ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 tub crumbled Feta**
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder (optional, omit if you want them more mild)**
2 eggs
1 cup whole wheat breadcrumbs (maybe a little more)

Even if you're modifying the ingredients, the first two steps are always the same: preheat oven to 350 degrees and saute the onion in a bit of olive oil, until tender, and set aside to cool.

Then my recipe tells you to mash the beans coarsely. I find using a potato masher works best for this part.

This is where you want to get in terms of texture. Some beans are left whole and some are smashed into more of a paste. But if your family prefers a smoother texture, then keep on mashing!

Next you'll incorporate the rest of the ingredients into the mashed beans. I do this with my hands so I can really tell that things are mixed together.

My friend had asked for a meatless meal without cheese, that wasn't spicy so, here's how I'd go about modifying the original Black & Pinto Bean Cake recipe:

Because I am leaving the Feta out, I'll add a hearty pinch of Kosher salt so I still get the saltiness the Feta gives the cakes. My kids like cumin, so I'd leave that in. But in lieu of chili powder, I would add some or all of the following to bump up the flavor in a non-spicy way:

• lemon zest
• fresh cilantro or 1-2 cubes of Dorot frozen cilantro
• minced garlic or 1-2 cubes of Dorot frozen garlic
• or I could go for more of an Indian flavor and add mild curry powder...

As you can see, these bean cakes are really a blank palate that you can flavor to, as you wish. As soon as you've added your choice of spices and herbs, you shape bean mixture into 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick patties and place them on a cookie sheet that's been lightly sprayed or rubbed with olive oil. Then bake the cakes at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until warmed through and a little crispy on the outside, carefully flipping the cakes after 10 minutes.

You can also freeze uncooked black & pinto bean cakes for a later dinner. I layered them in a tupperware between sheets of parchment. The day we were going to have them I thawed them in the fridge and then baked them as instructed. Had I baked them from frozen, I would have just doubled the cook time, flipping them after 20 minutes instead.

Extra cooked black & pinto bean cakes can be stored in the fridge, and simply heated in the microwave. They lose their crisp outer edge, but are still tasty.

When death is an aphrodisiac

Feeling frisky?

What effect do thoughts of death have on a typical person's desire for sex? The short answer is that it depends. Armed with insight from terror management theory and attachment theory, Gurit Birnbaum and her colleagues have made a start unpicking the detail of when and for whom death is an aphrodisiac.

Research on terror management theory has shown that people respond to mortality reminders by bolstering their own cultural view, derogating opposing views, and shoring up their self-esteem. By this account, the effect of death on libidinous desire will depend on the meaning that sex has for a person.

An initial study with 36 women and 40 men in Israel found that thinking about death led the men, but not the women, to say that they'd be more likely (compared with controls who thought about a dentist visit) to take part in a casual, one-night stand with a person they'd met at a pick-up bar. Perhaps, the researchers reasoned, this is because cultural norms dictate that 'sexual conquests' can be a self-esteem boost for men, but less so for women.

A follow-up was similar to the first except the 163 Californian participants were asked to imagine a potential one-night in a more romantic context, after a candle-lit dinner and engaging conversation. In this case, thoughts of death led both men and women to say that they'd be more likely than controls to go ahead with the one-night stand, thus showing how a subtle change in sexual symbolism can alter the relationship between morbid thoughts and sexual desire.

This idea was supported in a third study with 89 men and women who were primed with thoughts of death before considering their willingness to have either physical, hedonistic sex with a long-term partner or romantic, loving sex. This time, thoughts of death, compared with thoughts of a dental visit, increased participants' desire for loving, romantic sex, but not purely physical sex. In fact, there was a slight trend for participants to be put off this latter kind of sex, perhaps because morbid thoughts make some people want to escape their animal nature, not be reminded of it.

Lastly, Birnbaum's team explored the role of attachment style in all this, leading to some complex results. This time, morbid thoughts increased most people's overall sexual desire, unless they had an anxious attachment style (characterised by clingy behaviour driven by self-doubt). For these anxious types, when morbid thoughts did lead to sexual desire it was for reasons of relationship insecurity - i.e. to have sex with a partner as a way to cement the relationship. By contrast, for participants with an avoidant attachment style (characterised by emotional distance and self-reliance) morbid thoughts led to increased desire for sex that would bolster self-estem. For men with an avoidant attachment style, this meant a desire for casual sex.

Taken together the research paints a complex picture in which the effect of death-related thoughts on people's libido depends on the meaning that sex has for them. In turn this meaning is shaped by cultural norms and a person's attachment style. 'Although the present research is an important step toward shedding light on the dual potential of sex for both joy and distress,' the researchers said, 'more research is needed to elucidate its contextual determinants and the psychological mechanisms regulating its expression.'
_________________________________

BIRNBAUM, G., HIRSCHBERGER, G., and GOLDENBERG, J. (2011). Desire in the face of death: Terror management, attachment, and sexual motivation. Personal Relationships DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-6811.2010.01298.x

where did that package end up?

To say that we're buried would be an understatement. But, I am raising two little Northeasterners who relish the weather and still find joy no matter how messy it gets. So yesterday I mustered up enthusiasm and went out into the icy stuff to build a snow fort with them this sixth snow day of 2011. And not just any snow fort. This was an igloo. Anyway, sometime during the shoveling, packing and scraping the Fed-Ex guys pulled up.

Fast forward to after slip sliding in, drying off, hot baths, cozy PJs and a warm dinner...

"Hey, does anyone know what happened to that package?!"

"I think it's in our igloo mom!"

Super.

But I must say, it was worth trekking back out for the package. A company called Berkshire Grain offered to send me samples (yes, for free...one of the perks of this blog!). I like free stuff as much as the next busy mom but told them I would only write about their product if my kids-- and I-- genuinely liked it. Lucky for them, the granola was a total hit!

They sent two kinds: Cinnamon Toast and Cranberry-Pumpkin Seed. I snuck a taste last night and found it totally different than this granola or this granola that I make. I am sort of partial to my homemade stuff, but the reality is that I get around to making granola about every 6 months, so having a good store bought option is a bonus.

We were up bright and early and the boys had fun making up a scoring system... and yes, my little one was very concerned that no one taint-- or take-- his granola during the taste test.

The favorite was unanimous: Cranberry-Pumpkin Seed, earning a capital "G" for VERY good. (Neither one was as keen on the Cinnamon Toast one, which is interesting since they both like cinnamon?) Anyway, we've enjoyed the granola throughout the day as a snack and depending upon how long my "5 o'clock mommy playdate" over at the neighbor's goes, I just might serve up some yogurt-granola parfaits for dinner. Actually, that sounds really good. That's definitely going to be the plan.

Bribing kids to eat their greens really does work

Try bribing him with a sticker

Some experts have warned that bribing children to eat healthy foods can be counter-productive, undermining their intrinsic motivation and actually increasing disliking. Lucy Cooke and colleagues have found no evidence for this in their new large-scale investigation of the issue. They conclude that rewards could be an effective way for parents to improve their children's diet. '...rewarding children for tasting an initially disliked food produced sustained increases in acceptance, with no negative effects on liking,' they said.

Over four hundred four- to six-year-olds tasted six vegetables, rated them for taste and then ranked them in order of liking. Whichever was their fourth-ranked choice became their target vegetable. Twelve times over the next two weeks, most of these children were presented with a small sample of their target vegetable and encouraged to eat it. Some of them were encouraged with the reward of a sticker, others with the reward of verbal praise, while the remainder received no reward (a mere exposure condition). A minority of the children formed a control group and didn't go through an intervention of any kind.

After the two-week period, all the intervention children showed equal increases in their liking of their target vegetable compared with the control children. However, when given the chance to eat as much of it as they wanted (knowing there was no chance of reward), the kids who had previously earned stickers chose to eat more than the kids who'd just been repeatedly exposed to the vegetable without reward.

At one- and three-month follow-up, the intervention children's increased liking of their target vegetable was sustained regardless of the specific condition they'd been in. However, in terms of increased consumption (when given the opportunity to eat their target vegetable, knowing no reward would be forthcoming), only the sticker and verbal praise children showed sustained increases.

So, how come previous studies have claimed that bribery can undermine children's intrinsic motivation, actually leading to increases in disliking of foods? Cooke and her colleagues think this may be because past lab studies have often targeted foods that children already rather liked. Consistent with this explanation, it's notable that past community studies that reported the successful use of rewards targeted unpopular vegetables just as this study did.

An important detail of the current study is that verbal praise was almost as effective as tangible reward. 'Social reward might be particularly valuable in the home,' the researchers said, 'because it may help parents avoid being accused of unfairness in offering incentives to a fussy child but not to the child's siblings.'
_________________________________

Cooke, L., Chambers, L., Anez, E., Croker, H., Boniface, D., Yeomans, M., and Wardle, J. (2011). Eating for Pleasure or Profit: The Effect of Incentives on Children's Enjoyment of Vegetables. Psychological Science DOI: 10.1177/0956797610394662

what the heck was that?

There's some incredible irony that Feedburner just sent out an old post from when I was feeling like Super Mom to everyone who subscribes to this blog. I have no idea why it did that, but I do have to laugh at the computer gremlin's choice of posts to randomly send out. Seriously? I mean we moms in the Northeast are barely making it through this latest snow day...