Food Processing

We're lazy. We all are. The TV remote overtly reminds us of our slothfulness; if we had a remote that would work just as well with food, we'd use it. Enter the mega food processing companies and fast food chains. It's just good business to give the people what they want. Why is McDonalds (noun--death on a plate) so wildly popular? Because Mickey D's gives the people what they want: ready-to-eat jumbo doses of fat and sugar.



Food processing is about making the product appealing to the senses and shelf-life.The one ingredient foods in the produce section don't last very long, and many take a little work to make them look and taste appealing to the average person. Raw broccoli shoots, anyone? How about Chicken Broccoli Florentine? Now we're talking! But which will it be? Gathering all the required ingredients and then spending an hour slaving in the kitchen, or picking up a frozen package that you take home and nuke? It's hardly a fair contest.

Our own food processing plant consists of a well-stocked kitchen and a child labor force eager to make yummy food and have fun. They make messes, to be sure. And they break things. Especially our daughter Rebreaka. That girl has single-handedly taken out more glassware (and other glass items: we now know that a new windshield costs $289) than all the other children combined. But even accounting for the collateral damage, our little food processors are starting to be useful. They can crank out home-made pizza, tacos, and a variety of salads. Elisabeth has mastered the art of home made croutons atop a fantastic Caesar Salad.

With the children learning the basic tools and getting the idea that the best food processing happens at home, we are ready to discover what tasty things we can concoct from the edges of the store. We all love salad. We make a big bowl of it nearly every night for dinner. Each of us eats a whole plateful before moving on to the main course. The romaine salad with tomatoes and peppers is a standard, garnished with some small cubes of cheese. We don't do iceberg lettuce, because it's one of the 'white foods'--"The whiter the food, the sooner you're dead!" (more on this later). In the summer when fresh veggies are bursting out all over, we make a salad of sliced tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions, with a Greek dressing. It goes fast.

Our current favorite of the salad genre is Orzo Salad. We can feed the whole family for $11.50 with one large bowl. It varies according to what we have on hand, but here's the recipe for this crowd pleaser:
 
Mediterranean Orzo Salad

1 lb orzo, dry

Mediterranean Orzo Salad

6 tbsp olive oil, divided
3/4 to 1 cup of pitted kalamata olives, each olive cut in half
3/4 to 1 cup of feta cheese, crumbled
10 basil leaves, thinly sliced
1/4 to 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
3 tbsp of lemon juice (fresh)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp of pepper

Cook orzo in salted water according to package directions. Drain and place on a cookie sheet. Drizzle with 2 tbsp of olive oil, toss, spread out and let cool. Toss the olives and the rest (next 6 items) of the ingredients in a large bowl. Add cooled orzo and 2 to 4 tbsp of remaining olive oil and toss again.