Barbara Seelig Brown
Chef, Cookbook Author
Barbara Seelig Brown demonstrates her Stress Free Cooking approach with this month’s featured recipes, accomplished with less fuss than it takes to set a table. “While I am happiest when cooking,” explained Barbara, “that does not mean that one needs to get bogged down in the tedium of preparation to assemble a tasty dish. It always takes far less time to eat a meal than to prepare it; my focus is to shorten that gap so that there is maximum pleasure for the home cook as well as those being served.”
Barbara’s Classic Italian Panzanella Salad and Fresh Herb & Garlic Cornish Hens make for a complete, healthy meal that can be prepared in less than hour. Panzanella Salad is a classic recipe that Barbara enjoyed while traveling through Italy. “Each cook usually adds a bit of originality to this dish, but the main ingredients of tomatoes, bread, basil and olive oil remain the same.” Placing the herbs under the skin of the bird in her grilled Cornish game hens is a neat little trick that is the secret to this deliciously simple recipe.
As a culinary educator, Barbara is amazed by how many people she meets in their twenties and thirties who have never used a kitchen to make anything except coffee, and that only if there is no Starbucks close by. “These are adults who were raised on fast food by parents who thought they were just too busy to cook. But cooking doesn’t have to take hours and I am convinced that coming together as a family has been missing from our modern culture ever since the TV Dinner and the TO GO window came along.”
"There are many delicious meals that are healthy, fun, easy to fix and can also teach children (and their parents) some cooking basics that will stay with them their whole lives. My love of cooking stems from my Mom allowing me to help with the family dinner meal, which I should add was a mandatory nightly event. Getting children to eat healthy foods might be a whole lot easier if they are involved in the planning and making of the meal. That preparation can be simple and stress free, especially by ordering one of my books or videos," she said with a smile.
In fact, both of the featured recipes Barbara contributed to this article could be done with the help of young sous-chefs. For the very young, not old enough to handle a knife yet, there is basil and bread to tear up into pieces, ingredients to be measured and added, herbs to be blended, salt and pepper to grind, and a child’s small hands are perfect for salad tossing. For the older child who can be trusted to use a knife with care, lessons in the difference between chopping, dicing and slicing abound.
“The kitchen can be a fun place for kids and a chance for the family to work as a unit,” said Barbara. “I know that having a sit down dinner every night of the week is impractical these days, so try designating one night a week, the same night, as Family Dinner Night. This discipline can build a tradition that your children will thank you for in years to come.” Barbara urges parents to try the following meal suggestions:
Pizza Assembly: Everyone makes an individual-sized pizza and chooses toppings to suit their tastes. Start the easy way with pre-cooked pizza shells; but eventually you can graduate into either fresh dough from a local pizzeria or try the fun of making the dough from scratch! Provide a minimal amount of fattening meats and cheeses. Make available toppings like pineapple and colorful fresh veggies that can be cut into shapes to make funny faces on the pies for younger children.
Salad Bar: Let the kids choose, prepare and set up all of the ingredients, including tearing the lettuce leaves, crumbling hard-boiled eggs, slicing tomatoes and radishes, grating carrots, etc. Children can even decide on, and mix up, a selection of salad dressings. Your children don’t eat salad, you say? Then ask them to make a salad for you and watch them not be able to resist their own creations!
Twice Baked Potatoes: Again, provide very little fattening cheeses, and several kinds of potatoes like russet, purple or yellow. Make bacon bits, cut up chives, mix non-fat sour cream with food coloring for younger kids and other interesting toppings that they can choose for themselves.
For those on the eastern seaboard, you can catch one of Barbara’s classes or regular radio and television appearances by accessing the schedules on her website, www.stressfreecooking.com. The site is also the place to purchase her entertaining books and tapes that will demonstrate the best path to stress free cooking, which could include inviting the whole family to join you in the kitchen regularly!
