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It’s all a matter of context…

Kathie Auton — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:23:50 GMT

So, I’ve been out for my two research meals as an undercover eater (or something), one of around 50 parents doing this for the Soil Association’s Out to Lunch campaign. Two very different meals, I should say. Some highs, some lows and a whole lot of food... for thought. A few weeks ago I wrote about the whole eating-out-with-kids game. The Soil Association were recruiting volunteers for their research into what’s on offer in restaurants for our kids. The team of volunteers are now duly recruited and are out there in restaurants with their kids, answering the 13 salient questions and trying to subtlety write things down with coming across all Jay Rayner about it.

Organic sausage rolls

Kathie Auton — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:40:08 GMT

It’s time for a picnic. Now, I don’t want any arguments here. It IS time for a picnic. No muttering about chilly weather and still needing a woolly hat, Easter is gone and it’s not far off May. We need to toughen up and get picnicking. You might want to take a blanket and you’ll definitely need a flask of tea, but don’t let the reluctant weather make you a reluctant picnicker. It’s all about what you take to eat. Okay, a limp sandwich might not make you feel the pull of the great outdoors. But how about a sausage roll? A really good, satisfying, delicious sausage roll.

Eating out with kids

Kathie Auton — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 14:21:19 GMT

I like eating out with my kids. Well, mostly I do. The time when Alex surreptitiously puked on the table at Yo Sushi wasn’t a highlight. Nothing to do with their food I hasten to add, both my kids adore ‘The Moving Food Place’, it’s just that sushi doesn’t sit well on top of a stomach bug... We don’t eat out all the time, because even cheap eating out is expensive, but we have classed it as something ‘important’ and something we are going to spend money on sometimes. There are several justifications, sorry – reasons for this, which leads me on to the question: Why do we eat out with the kids?

The magic number

Kathie Auton — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 09:21:51 GMT

There are very few things as magically alchemical as the creation of pancakes. The extraordinary metamorphosis of flour, eggs and milk into something so delicious. The truest and simplest example of the amazing transformative power of cooking. Pancakes are so good. So good, in fact, that I fully understand the religious link. For many people, Shrove Tuesday is a religious day that marks the beginning of lent, but in my household it’s just Pancake Day and is a celebration of the sheer cunningness of cooking.

In the can

Kathie Auton — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 16:21:24 GMT

I was already getting these recipes down on paper when the mackerel news hit the headlines last week. In case you missed it, the gist is that mackerel, even dear old reliable mackerel, are no longer sustainable. But fear not. Sardines still are. Phew. A recent post of mine for was all about how frozen sustainable fish is the friend of the family cook. But if even a spot of digging around in the freezer is feeling taxing after all the busyness of the festive period and you don’t want to get your hands cold, perhaps I could suggest a ferret around in the tin cupboard instead? Yes, it’s 2013 and tinned fish is the new frozen fish.

Get cooking and stop chucking

Kathie Auton — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:56:03 GMT

Half of all food thrown away - that's the news story I woke up to this morning. And yesterday I was reading about children no longer being taught to cook. Children cooking and using up food: two things that obsess my thoughts daily. I want to get on my soapbox today. I want to say 'get cooking and stop chucking', but these are hardly problems that will be solved by foot stamping and opining.

Something fishy

Kathie Auton — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 14:24:37 GMT

I was already toying with writing a few simple fish recipes when I read a piece in The Guardian by George Monbiot – it’s a very interesting read and raises several important issues about buying fish. From my perspective, as someone who wants to feed my family well, fish can be a scaly issue. Mr Monbiot is right, a lot of fish recipes you see in newspapers and magazines use ingredients that I either don’t have hanging around or can’t really afford, and that’s before I’ve even considered the sustainability question.

Organic mince

Kathie Auton — Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:03:53 GMT

Oh how I love mince! Fine, it might not be the sexiest way to eat meat. It may not have the finesse of a nice piece of Dexter fillet or the chunky gravitas of a lamb shank, but it is homely, comforting, reliably tasty and cheap. And its cheapness is a good reason to strongly consider buying organic. There are many grades of mince you can buy (and I’m not talking about fat content here, I’ll get on to that), from good quality organic to economy mince.

Spreading the love in the new (school) year

Kathie Auton — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 14:24:12 GMT

September is here and we might feel justified this year in finally giving up on the summer and embracing the new (school) year. Unlike the chilly, dark and bleak new year in January, the September new year is a more fruitful affair. Both in the sense of a new beginning for children starting school or moving up a year and in the sense that the new season's Bramleys are here, Victoria plums are putting in an appearance and, whilst the Discoveries may be all but over, we have months of apply joy to look forward to. So for me, we should light the fireworks and make the resolutions in September not January, but perhaps that’s just the teacher in me.

What rhymes with chicken?

Kathie Auton — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:32:06 GMT

My last post was about talking to children about where their veg comes from. About trying to persuade them that eating the greenstuff is a joy, not something to be endured, and about allowing kids to learn about food from a very early age. My city kids, never more than ½ mile from the nearest coffee shop, have a very different life to my own, slightly muddy upbringing in the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Vegucation

Kathie Auton — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 09:23:45 GMT

I’m raising city kids. It cannot be denied. They do not have cows and horses popping their heads over the back fence like I did. And this does mean I have less ready opportunities for food education moments. For me these were things like: my dad ALWAYS saying ‘mint sauce’ at fields of lambs, my parents visiting, and naming, our Christmas Turkey and having a chest freezer in the garage so we could fit half a sheep in it. Okay, these were not subtle nuggets of education, but they did mean I grew up knowing where my food came from (usually a few miles up the road). I need to create my own opportunities with my city kids.

Organic baby food

Kathie Auton — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 15:25:29 GMT

Whilst I probably can’t tell you in scientific detail what makes an organic carrot better than a non-organic one, I can tell you that it seems super-obvious which one you’d rather feed to a baby. I would think most parents would feel a strong instinct to introduce the very best and purest food to these teeny little digestive systems. And organic does feel like the best, even if I can’t tell you all the detailed reasons why and can only make vague noises about pesticides, chemicals and higher nutritional levels. The Soil Association can explain it better here, although I think their headline ‘no nasties’ pretty much sums it up.

Organic eggs

Kathie Auton — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 09:29:44 GMT

The best Easter Egg you can buy this year? Why, the mighty Organic Egg! And I’m not talking about single-estate, fairly-traded, 70% cocoa-solids chocolate (although feel free to send one of these beauties my way), but just a simple, wonderful organic egg. Yes, you probably already buy free-range, but let your eye wander a few centimetres across the supermarket shelf and you will move a long, long way in terms of goodness...

The Sunday roast

Kathie Auton — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 12:41:37 GMT

We used to be pretty organic-y, before we dropped two children and one salary. Nowadays our household is still all about enjoying our food, but we're not slavishly organic. It would be easy to put this down to simply not having as much cash, but there's more to it than that. I used to love my veg box, but more because my local greengrocer's was an easy trundle down the hill and a big, sweaty, pram marathon up it. And it's not like we've ditched everything organic. Like a lot of people we buy organic yogurt, eggs and often milk without really thinking about about it being organic. And when you think about it, that's a hell of an achievement for the organic movement, that there are organic brands that are the norm and probably find their way into the least organic households.