Lunch Box Chronicles: Day One-Hundred-One (The Good Egg Rocks!)

 We have been so busy growing Spelt Right that we have little time to make creative foods with our own meals.  Thank goodness for class act restaurants like the Pepper Club/Good Egg...and good friends like Mary.  Each time I drop off bagels, Mary and I have a nice chat about the workings of business...the joys, the challenges...you know the scoop.   We also sometimes discuss JUST FOOD.  On one trip, Mary and I were discussing ways to serve our wonderful Spelt Right Rosemary Focaccia with a Good Egg Special Breakfast.  Mary came up with the perfect combination:

Pepperclub/Good Egg Cafe Special: Scrambled eggs with red onion and Romesco (roasted red pepper, garlic, almond and smoked paprika and olive oil) AND a split and toasted SPELT RIGHT Focaccia! 

More focaccia will be delivered on Wednesday.....Special to start again on Thursday.... 


Picture to follow......in the meantime, here is a link to the Pepper Club/Good Egg Cafe

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Ninety-Seven (Harvest Soup, Spelt Right Focaccia Crisps, Farmers' Market Bliss)

We got all these wonderful veggies from Alewives Brook Farm at the Scarborough Farmers' Market (Sundays June through October), Scarborough, Maine.

3-4 carrots
2 onions
2 potatoes
1/2 pound green beans (they are so green and sweet from Alewives Brook Farm)
2-3 medium zuchinni
3-4 cloves of garlic (we are garlic fiends)
1/3 cup (thereabouts) extra virgin olive oil
3 TBL butter
3 cups of water
1 can organic tomatoes
salt to taste (we use sea salt)
dried basil to taste
dried dill to taste
pepper to taste
1 can rinsed and drained cannellini beans (optional)

Chop all vegetables in small pieces and place in separate bowls.  In large stainless steel soup pot, warm EVOO and butter, add finely chopped onions, saute until limp, add finely chopped garlic (or mash garlic with salt with mortar and pestle and add).  Add carrots, saute for 5 minutes, add potatoes, saute 5 minutes.  Add green beans, saute for 5 minutes.  Add zucchini, saute for 3 minutes,  Stir in cabbage, saute for 3 minutes.  Add water and liquid from tomatoes.  Chop tomatoes coarsely.  Add to pot.  Stir in salt, pepper and other spices to taste.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to low.  Simmer covered, stirring occasionally for 1 to 1 and 1/2 hours.   If desired, add cannellini beans.  Cook for 30-40 minute longer until soup is thick.

This recipe is designed to be to your taste.  You may wish to splash in some white wine while it is cooking.  Salt, pepper and spices to taste.

We served this with the MOST YUMMY Spelt Right focaccia made into crisps.  (Sliced, with olive oil, baked at 450).

ENJOY.....Also, get the kids involved with making this one.  It is a labor of love, but worth it.

In large

Lunch Box Chronicles: Day Fifty-Two (Olivia's Mezze of Perfection)

Ever since giving birth to Emma 18 years ago, I have had a nagging sense that neither kid nor career received the kind of attention either deserved.  Having Emma 2 weeks after graduating from law school and 6 weeks before the bar exam might have been a contributing factor to the pull.  Do you think? The balancing act began.   Now, it is 18 years later, and Emma is on her way to college, but her 8 year old clone, Olivia, reminds me that the balancing act continues.   After going AWOL from my law career about a year ago (not sure this is permanent), I experience as much or perhaps more balancing with the building of the Spelt Right business as I did practicing law, but somehow, the "business" is so much more palpable (or should I say palatable) and inclusive of the kids, especially at dinner time.   "Hey, kids, who is doing the Lunch Box Chronicle tonight?  Mom, needs help, and you all have to help at the bakery tomorrow."   Perhaps, a form of homeschooling in its own right.  A usually bored Olivia perks up, "I know, I will do a mezze plate!!"  She scrambled to the fridge and started digging in.  A half an hour later, a work of art emerged.

Here is her poem (aka recipe), entitled "THE MEZZE OF PERFECTION!" and a photo of the work of art. "If you like mezze plates, listen to me.  It has crackers, focaccia, olives, peaches and oranges too!! It's a plate with tons of yummy food! Yum. Yum. Whoo Hoo!"

Thank you, Olivia!  Vote from mom?  Two Thumbs up.