My family just returned from visiting my brother Lincoln and his wife Caren in Vancouver Island, Canada.  It turns out that the island has a wonderful  food culture with lots of gardening, farmer’s markets and interesting restaurants.  The combination of its geographic isolation and great weather means that V.I. is a hotbed for locally grown food.  My brother and sister-in-law shop at the farmer’s market weekly and cook fabulous and healthy meals. 

Lincoln and Caren had a twinkle in their eye when they asked us if we wanted them to make us their ultra-healthy breakfast cereal, so we were a little wary.  Never ones to cower from a food challenge, we took them up on their offer on the condition that we could watch them make it so we would know what we were going to eat.  We were stunned by the concoction…let alone that they call it “breakfast”! It was only a very distant relation of our usual morning meal of  whole wheat bagels and coffee . 

At about 10 at night, they proceeded to prepare the next morning’s cereal (they make it the night before so the flavors have time to meld). 

Here’s what went into each of our bowls:  rolled oats, gluten free cereal, freshly ground flax seed, hemp seed, hemp protein powder, goji berries, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, raisins, dried apricots, a prune, cocoa nibs, tumeric, ginger and cinnamon (out of mercy, they spared us the hot chili powder they sometimes add).  They topped it all off with some hemp milk (we didn’t even know that hemps had udders!) and water. 

In the morning, they put each bowl in the microwave to get the cereal hot, then topped it off with a big handful of frozen blueberries and some walnuts and almonds.  They stuff didn’t look or smell very appealing–it had a sickly green tinge from the hemp powder, smelled alarmingly similar to the grains we feed Celia’s mice, and had the consistency of grade A glop.  But, after we added a little maple syrup for sweetness and overcame our healthy dose of skepticism we had to admit that it wasn’t bad.  Not necessarily something we’d like to eat every morning, but it sure felt like a healthy — and filling — way to begin the day. 

Ironically, after we finished our breakfast we walked to the farmer’s market where we savored some fresh and hot mini donuts.  (Now those really hit the spot!).

With the lure of fresh baked goods, luscious fruit, chocolate and the occasional adorable puppy, my kids usually don’t need to much more incentive to come with me to the farmer’s market (or the “farmer”, as they used to call it.)  Nonetheless, I love this creative scavenger hunt that Michelle Stern of the fabulous What’s Cooking Blog ( http://whatscookingblog.com/) put together for parents, teachers or camp counselors to do with kids when they visit the farm markets.  Let me know how your kids score on the hunt!   

“Before school starts, gather your kids and take them to the farmer’s market.  They will love to taste the fresh and seasonal produce.  They might also enjoy a little detective work…

Farmer’s Market Scavenger Hunt

1. Find a yellow fruit or vegetable.  What is it?
2. Find a purple food with an interesting shape.  What is it?
3. Find a red food that is bigger than your fist.  What is it?
4. Find a green food that you have not tasted before.  What is it?
5. Taste an organic strawberry and one that conventionally grown (not organic).  Compare the flavor.  Which one tastes better?
6. Find something that grows on a vine:
7. Find something that grows underground:
8. Find something that grows on a tree:
9. Ask 3 people if a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable.
10. What are two examples of a “stone fruit?”
11. Taste them and say which one you liked better.
12. Ask 3 vendors what time they woke up this morning…
    …and how long it took them to get here (time or distance)
13. Find two stands that sell peaches.  How do their prices compare?  (For older kids: List 3 reasons why might one be more expensive than the other?)

Courtesy of Michelle Stern, http://whatscookingblog.com/

Though it has nothing to do with family dinners, I just have to share this delightful letter to the tooth fairy written by my friend Kristin O’Keefe.  You’ll probably want to share it with all of the parents you know so all of our TFs can be on “the same page” for our kids:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/08/AR2009020802064.html?referrer=emailarticlepg

I’ve been dying to see Julie & Julia, the movie based on Julie Powell’s book and blog by the same name, and Julia Child’s autobiography, “My Life in France”, since I first heard it was being made into a movie.  Tonight I had a chance to see it with my friend Esther. 

The movie does a wonderful job of interweaving the stories of both women as they build their love of food into new careers for themselves.  I don’t envy Amy Adams for having to be cast opposite Meryl Streep (nor Julie Powell for all of the comparison’s her year of writing and cooking will draw to the groundbreaking career of Ms. Child), but she did an admirable job of playing an angst ridden, somewhat self-absorbed young woman who finds direction in her life by cooking all of the recipes in “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” in the course of a year.   Meryl Streep managed to bring the inimitable Julia Child to life complete with all of her great humor, enthusiasm and gawkiness. 

Having read both books on which the movie was based, I suffered the inevitable disappointment one feels after watching a movie based on a book he or she has read, as so many crucial events in the books had to be eliminated to make a streamlined movie that one can watch between dinner and bedtime.  I particularly missed the humor in Julia Powell’s kitchen and food foraging antics that kept me laughing throughout much of her book, though the movie did have many comical moments.  But anyone who enjoys Julia Child, Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, blogging, or rich French food  will likely find the movie delightful.