46 — Wednesday, April 8, 1992 ~ North Shore News Down with food fads, expand your horizons! EVERY TIME I sit down to write this column, I’m grate- ful that instead of taking the dietetics cureer option when | was at the UBC School of Home Economics, | chose teaching. Don’t misunderstand — after a number of years I got damn sick of trying to keep kids from pitching the baking soda into the flour bin and other cheery little prac- tical jokes. 1 walked out of my fast teaching job vowing ‘never again.’’ But, as a food columnist, if "'d been overdosed on nutrition, I'd never have survived. Every year brings a new dietetic seven-day wonder. Every year also brings a plate of grilled crow that the exponents of last year's hullabaloo have to eat — un- salted. My theory on food is quite simple. Those who get into trou- ble are food faddists. They have a list of 100 things that they ‘‘won’t eat.”’ Their diets are limited to what they either learned to eat at Mom’s (meat*°and potatoes) or what they were told not to eat (Johnny, lay offa the Cokes and Hershey Bars — I°lf whale on you if | catch you!). I’H swear that if a person eats a large enough variety of fonds, one will balance the other and no harm is done. lf you're raising kids and you feed them a steady diet of four or five menus (all served with peas and carrots), that’s what the kids will learn to think of as food. If I had to eat that, I’d rely on Cokes and Hershey Bars, too. I get so tired of food fads! Dammit, oat bran is good stuff but it won't get you turning hand- stands at 80. I'll tell you what it did to me — after an assignment from another publication to work up a set of.oat bran recipes, | got so addicted to the muffins that I ate them morning, noon, night and in between. I gained 12 pounds of “healthy’’ fat. And I didn’t even butter the things! So expand your food margins. Don’t head for the frozen peas and carrots but try all the other vegetables — spinach, broccoli, squash, beets and greens — you know, all those funny fresh ones. Make a habit of serving a dif- ferent vegetable every day. Do the same with meat/fish/ poultry. Eat fish every day? You might, according to the scare tabloids, end up with fatal mercu- ry poisoning. Chicken — want to hear the tatest freak-out on steroids (antibiotics, salmonella — take your pick)? As for red meat, if k.d. fang didn’t. get to you, read the latest on pig farming. Slaughterhouses make you sleep well. Any beverage is bad — our water, coffee (de-caf’s worse), tea, orange juice (mind those sprays). Bread (white has chemi- cals, bran gave Irish kids rickets) is unsafe. If you make your own, read about rodent droppings in the flour. Who said, ‘“‘Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean someone isn’t out to get you ’’? Do yourself a favor — eat. I tried two chicken recipes this week. The first was quite awful and Brian suggested that as a public service | should keep it to myself, This is the second — it passed with flying colors. Broiled Dijon Chicken (fur 2) 2 half chicken breasts, skinned and de-boned 1 clove garlic, crushed % cup olive oil 1 tablespoen Dijon mustard cracked! pepper Tr. is pound the breasts to a relatively cqual thickness —- aim -**. Rix the remaining ingre- dients and marinate the chicken overnight. Pam spray a clean barbecue grill — this sticks if you s3arbara NicCreadie BUDGET BEATERS don’t. Heat it very hot. Shake the breasts and lay on hot grill. They will flare up but don’t get excited. Peek underneath — if lightly brown, flip. They will flare again. Do the same — peck. Pull the meat off the barbecue with tongs and roll in the marinade. Return to grill and do it all again. Mine took about two minutes a side, divided. I roasted two medium red potatoes on the grill while it was heating. Even if you turn them often, they blacken a bit. Delicious! 1 did a bit of broccoli crisp-tender in my microwave and topped it with crisp bacon bits (real — also microwaved). Brian requested beets, too, but alas, I was out of them. We love smoked cod. In fact, Stong’s had a special so I picked up a pound of it. It’s on the menu tonight. If you’ve never tried it, maybe you should. I do not like Safeway’s smoked cod. Save-On's is adequate but Stong's is superb. Allow 6 ounces per serving (addicts like us want more). I used to fiddle around with the cod, soaking it in milk and baking it in the oven, dotted with butter. To hell with that nonsense! To cook, simply place the cod in about an inch of cold water, in- a pot with a lid. Bring to a brisk boil, lower the heat and time it five minutes. Test with a fork — if the thickest part flakes, you’re done. We are old Scots with this stuff — serve with lots of mashed potatoes and creamed corn. Creamed spinach is good, too. Cook extra of both cod and potatoes and then you can make: Codfish Cakes 1 cup leftover smoked cod 1% cups leftover mashed potatoes 2 tablespoons grated onion 1 egg salt and pepper — easy on the salt if the fish is salty vil for frying (note: traditionally, these were fried in unsalted butter, right out of the shed) Break up the cod, removing bones — there are usually quite a few but they’re big and easily removed. Combine cod with potatoes and onions. Beat the egg a bit and add. Form the mixture into flat cakes —- about 2’? x “%" — makes 5-6. Fry until golden on both sides. Season. I love one of these for breakfast — egg (scrambled) and toast is optional. For dinner, try serving with broccoli or spinach in a cream sauce — or a cheese sauce. I'm really into simplicity this week but ! must listen to what my husband tells me. if he tikes something, others will too. Last week, | bought a chunk of corned beef at Stong's. They do a fine job of that, too. | put it in the oven at 250°F — in a covered fry- ing pan with an inch of water. J left it there for four hours. We had huge sandwiches, on Venice Bakery rye bread, liberally seasoned with Dijon mustard. Next day, we were going away for the weekend. I made up a parcel of the same sandwiches plus some garlic dills. They went into our little cooler along with two bottles of Molson’s new de- alcoholized beer. We didn’t even stop the van for lunch but mun- ched as we drove. There was a bit of corned beef left in the fridge when we returned home. It made some more sandwiches. I figure that I made eight big sandwiches with $5 worth of cor- ned beef. Not bad. This may sound a bit unusual, but Brian asked me to figure out the cost of a deli egg sandwich, made on expensive wholegrain bread. He gets delicious ones delivered to his office fer $3. My tally worked out at 41¢, discoun- ting the costs of salt and pepper. Is there a message here that we ail should be hearing? Of course, eggs are bad for you, the whole grain bread could cause rickets, the mayo is loaded with cholesterol and the salt is scary. What's in the pepper? Give me a break! Shouldnt _ your little blessing know about _ life’s big one? The best thing she can learn about the big world she’s discovering around her, is the wonder of discovering its Creator. After all, isn’t that how we discover ourselves? Show your spirit. Come back to church. The Anglican Church For more information call 684-6306 | or outside Vancouver 1-800-665-1105 NORTH SHORE ANGLICAN CHURCHES ST. FRANCIS-INTHE-WOOD 4773 South Piccadilly Rd. 922-3531 ST. AGNES $30 East 12th Street Ss ST. CATHERINES 1058 Ridgewood Drive 987-0432 985-0666 ST. CLEMENTS 3400 Institute 988-4418 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST 220 West 8th Servet 986-1151 ST. SIMONS 1384 Deep Cove Road 929-5350 ST. CHRISTOPHER'S 1088 Inglewood Ave. ST. MARTINS 195 East Windsor ST. RICHARDS 1398 West 15th Street ST. STEPHEN’S B85-22nd St 922-5323 985-5919 9870314 ff ne: