Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli (French Fridays with Dorie)

I'm going to admit it up front.  I don't really like broccoli.  In fact, I remember including this fact in a letter to our first president Bush - my best friend and I were lacking on world policy specifics to discuss with him, but we'd heard he didn't care for the green veggie much either.  It's one of those things any decent adult is supposed to like, right?  Sunshine, ironic political comments, doing your taxes early, getting regular exercise and.....broccoli.  They're good for you, a sign of sophistication, satisfying and wholesome.  So now you know, I'll eat it, but you can't make me like it.

Apparently though, this is a recessive gene and everyone else likes it in my house.  So, we made the Garlicky Crumb-Coated Broccoli and you know what?  I still wasn't crazy about it.  (you thought I was going to say I liked it after all, didn't you??)

But it was okay.  And the kids loved it, so it's a keeper. 

The recipe in Around My French Table says to steam the broccoli first, then toss it with butter, garlic, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.  Our first alternation was to microwave the broccoli, instead of steaming it.  I don't get it - if you have access to a microwave, I say go for it!  There's no waiting for water to boil (and we all know how long that can take!) - no steamer basket to clean, plus pot and pan., and the nutrient loss is less than steaming.

So we microwaved.

The second alteration was the butter.  I simply cannot bring myself to use 1/2 stick of butter for two stalks of broccoli.  French women might not get fat, but I sure can!  So I used a pat of butter (less than a TB) and olive oil. 

Mixing oil and butter is a tried and true french approach to cooking (and Italian, for that matter) - it stretches the butter flavor without stretching your pants, and it raises the smoke point of the butter - so it doesn't burn as easily.  No brainer.

Once the butter/oil mixture was warmed, we added minced garlic, breadcrumbs and seasoning (including lemon zest), toasted the bread crumbs and added the broccoli. 

It looked great and, as I said, everyone else thought it was fantastique!

Welcome to 2011!

Hard to believe, but yes, here we are in 2011.  When I say two-thousand-eleven it sounds very....futuristic.  And yet we're just recovering from another year's worth of holiday visits, parties and fun, housekeeping, exercise, resolutions and not-enough-sleep.

I had a quick reminder this weekend that in spite of the normalcy, time does indeed slip by.  We recovered from our holiday travels and parties (more about that later!) and on Sunday, after a morning outing, I passed the most recent issue of Cooking Light to my daughter in the back seat and let her choose a menu for dinner.  She spent about 10 minutes flipping through the pages and selected "a side dish - carrots- and a dinner."  We made glazed carrots and a linguini with soft-boiled eggs, breadcrumbs and walnuts. 

I asked her why she chose those particular dishes and she said "because I like carrots.  And this one," pointing at the pasta with a halved egg, yolks shining brightly, "because it seemed like something we would want to eat on this kind of day."  It was chilly, grey, overcast and I have to agree that a sunny egg in a pasta nest did seem...well, cozy.

We pulled into the grocery store parking lot.  She read me the ingredient list while I made the shopping list.  My daughter is not an avid "fake...I mean fiction" reader, but she handles a recipe pretty well.  We shopped, we went home, we played and eventually, we cooked.

This is when it felt like a new year to me.

She took the carrots on herself, peeling and chopping before I was done pulling other ingredients from the cupboard.  She stirred the saute pan, counting the minutes, and added spices and other ingredients without hesitation.  She peeled the soft-boiled eggs and nesteled them in the plates.  Her brother manned the pasta pot.

My son remarked on my daughter's cooking later, while we were eating "she's already way ahead of me."  And she is. 

It feels good to know that they're learning something useful, something of substance, when we make dinner.

I hope 2011 holds the promise of some more meals and adventures together.  For you too.