It all started with a rare absence of work on a Saturday morning. Free time is a dilemma for me. I couldn’t decide if I should shop Bed Bath & Beyond (Always keep the discount coupons in the car!), Sur La Table – www.surlatable.com - (A gift card to use.), Surfas, Chef’s Paradise in Culver City, CA - www.surfas.com - (Where I pretend I’m a real, working chef.), the Pico Santa Monica Farmer’s Market (It takes me back to my Michigan-ladies-who-lunch-roots. I once created an afternoon repast that began with salad in glass bowl lined terra cotta flower pots, garnished with nasturtiums and marigolds.), get a pedicure (Long over due!) or just go home and do paper work.
 

On my way to the car wash (Why can’t you get a pedi while they detail your car?), I tuned in to Melinda Lee’s Food News on KNX 1070 AM. A listener requested a recipe for Pasta Puttanesca to serve to vegetarians. Interesting as this recipe calls for anchovy fillets rendering it non-vegetarian. Melinda gave a quick kitchen traditional version from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins (Workman) saying it would be ok to omit the anchovies. (Sheila’s U.S.A Cookbook is also a must have!)

Car cleaned and not being able to decide how to further amuse myself, I went home to search for a chicken soup recipe to use in my February newsletter. While doing so, I discovered a recipe for Penne Puttanesca in The Stinking Cookbook (The Layman’s Guide to Garlic Eating, Drinking and Stinking) by Jerry Dal Bozzo (Celestial Arts), scanned it and sent it off to Melinda. A week later, I received an e-mail from her producer informing me my contribution would be part of their Super Bowl food show and could I give them my mailing address as Melinda wanted to send me a token of her appreciation. (Read both recipes at www.melindalee.com, search archives.)

I received a lovely note from Melinda and the highly reviewed, Kitchen of Light New Scandinavian Cooking with Andreas Viestad (Artisan/Workman, 2003). A propos as the health benefits of fatty fish like Mackerel and Salmon continue to be in the news. Find vegetable dishes equally appealing, not to mention a bounty of simple desserts. There’s even a chapter on spirits with variations on snaps, one in particular, reminiscient of Limoncello. Skal! 

Keep pounds off  with these cues from chef, Jan Birnbaum of Epic Roasthouse in San Francisco www.epicroasthousesf.com, “a project he created with restaurateur Pat Kuleto”. At around 200 pounds, Birnbaum shed “almost half his body weight” through diet and exercise. Diners at Epic have “healthy options” usually not available at a steak-house. “Indeed Birnbaum prefers a hot oven to a fryer! ‘Roasting is one of the most healthful ways to cook,’ he says. ‘You don’t need to drop something in trans-fats to make it crispy.’” (1) Chef Birnbaum’s “healthy habits”: 

• “On planning: ‘In the morning, the first thing I do in the kitchen is set out a tray of vegetables and fruit. That way I have healthy things to eat in front of me all day long.’”

• “On staff meals: ‘We serve several small staff meals every day. We don’t serve leftovers, either; we plan the meals out on a calendar. I’m trying to create a healthy lifestyle for my cooks.’” 

• “On workouts: ‘I will skip almost anything, but I will not miss my workout - that’s my first priority, even in the throes of opening a restaurant. I have to walk by my gym three or four times a day, which makes it easy to stop in.’” (1) 

Find Birnbaum’s health conscious recipes – Herb-Crusted Pork Roast with Ginger-Fig Compote, Oven Fries with Roasted Garlic, Chicory and Endive salad with Spiced Pistachios – in the November issue of Food & Wine magazine. 

(1) How a Slimmed-Down Chef Stays Thin by Nick Fauchald, Food & Wine, November, 2007 www.food&wine.com