Entries from January 2010
More Cash for School Food Needed, Says Head of Farm-to-School
January 31st, 2010 · 1 Comment · food news, kids
Does President Obama’s proposed freeze on discretionary spending include federal meal programs for schools? Debra Eschmeyer, head of the National Farm-to-School Network, says now is not the time to shrink from improving the quality of school food, not when children are caught up in an obesity epidemic, not when the U.S. is spending $1 million [...]
Tags: farm to school·school food·Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen
Daughter Goes on Food Strike, Uses Allowance to Order Thai
January 30th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Ethnic, kids
Have I mentioned that our daughter is a picky eater?
Complicating matters, she is also a Capricorn, which makes her stubborn by nature, according to my wife. We have certainly tired of the nightly arguments over what’s for dinner. It seems no matter what we do it’s never quite right.
This morning our 10-year-old–who wished for nothing more [...]
Tags: parenting
Kids Pass Knife Certification, Make Soup
January 30th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Tales, kids
Well, it’s finally happened. The kids in the food appreciation classes I teach at a private elementary school here in the District of Columbia have graduated (the older ones, at least) from plastic knives to real knives.
The only reason this hadn’t happened sooner was my failure to deliver on promises I’d been making for, oh, the [...]
Tags: chicken·food appreciation·kitchen techniques·soup·stocks·vegetables
We’re in the News
January 29th, 2010 · 1 Comment · food news
Washington City Paper’s “Young and Hungry” column this week spills some ink in defense of our recent series, “Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen.”
“Y&H isn’t quite sure how he missed this, but former Washington Post reporter Ed Bruske recently spent a week in the kitchen at H.D. Cooke Elementary School in Adams Morgan. where his daughter [...]
Tags: about us·District of Columbia·farmer's markets·Food Blogs·plastic·Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen
Washington Chorus Miracle Update
January 28th, 2010 · No Comments · Blog
Some of you may remember our Kennedy Center adventure back in December when we were hit with a huge snowstorm here in the nation’s capitol. I had tickets for the Washington Chorus’ annual Chistmas sing-along and wasn’t about to miss it. Well, even though most of D.C. had come to a standstill, the show at [...]
Tags: holidays
Better School Food: Can We Get There from Here?
January 27th, 2010 · 2 Comments · kids
If you’ve been reading my series of posts about the food served at H.D. Cooke Elementary School here in the District of Columbia, you may be as perplexed as I am about how we might do better. Lots of people–including some school food service directors–wonder if it’s really possible to serve fresher, healthier food in public schools.
I don’t [...]
Tags: school food
Saturated Fat Vindicated?
January 27th, 2010 · 2 Comments · food news
We don’t harbor any prejudices against fat. In fact, we respect fat as an essential macro-nutrient, along with protein. On a low-carb, high-fat and protein diet, I’ve lost a ton of weight and improved my health dramatically by every standard measure. What’s important is not how much fat you eat, but what kind of fat.
We try [...]
Tags: fat·Food Blogs·heart disease
Breaking News: Washington Times Puts Screws to D.C. School Food Provider
January 26th, 2010 · 3 Comments · Tales, food news
By some sort of crazy coincidence, a reporter for the Washington Times newspaper was investigating Chartwells, the contracted food provider for D.C. Public Schools, at the same time that I was spending a week in a school kitchen discovering just how bad our school food is. Last week I published a six-part series under the [...]
Tags: Chartwells·District of Columbia·kids·school food·Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen
We’re a Hit at Grist
January 26th, 2010 · 2 Comments · Blog
Posts from our recent series Tales from a D.C. School Kitchen, detailing how food is prepared at our local elementary school here in the nation’s capitol, currently occupy two of the top five spots as “most viewed” articles at Grist, the online environmental magazine.
We’re just behind Michelle Obama’s vow to take on childhood obesity, Robert [...]
We are engaging the concerns of a hungry planet--slowly--right here in our kitchen garden in the District of Columbia, about a mile from the White House.
