One of these days, I will have the presence of mind to actually photograph the dish once I’ve cooked it. But in the meantime, I have borrowed this image, beautifully shot by Mark Weinberg, from Food52.

I have been in a bit of a food rut for the past few months… My energy seems to dry up right before I begin the long meandering path down the road of meal planning and grocery shopping. I have resolved to try to break out of it, despite still feeling terribly lazy. I am also not currently super motivated because I am spending the vast majority of my time alone with my 6 year old who would be happy to eat avocado risotto every day of her life, with a steak thrown in every now and then for good measure.

My cookbooks are back in Brooklyn with my husband, who doesn’t need them, so I am taking a very modern approach and turning to a few websites for guidance. Luckily, there is no shortage of recipes online. Right now, I find myself drawn to Dinner, a Love Story (almost more for reading pleasure than cooking, though she always has great ideas), Food52 (for it’s lovely photography, huge inventory and everyday cooking section) and the new, still in beta, NY Times Cooking site (which is state of the art, full of videos and informative how-to’s and will probably become everybody’s go-to once it “officially” launches.)

Last night’s dinner comes from Food52, which I must say has always done me right, and a quick and easy Soy Sauce-y, Peanut-y, Tofu over rice. Lots of soy sauce makes pretty much everything palatable to my daughter, and the hardest thing about the dish is locating Shaoxing wine, which I did not manage to do out here on the east end of Long Island. I used a dry sherry, which is evidently the western-style sub, but I plan on getting some of that exotic sounding brew when next I find myself in civilization. I feel like this meal (which ended in plate licking, by the way) is going to join the others on the heavy rotation list.

Here’s how to make it:

Serves 4, generously, which is good because you’re going to want leftovers.

The Tofu Part

2 blocks of tofu, extra firm or firm
2 onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fresh ginger, minced
3/4 cups unsalted peanuts, whole or halved, roasted or raw (depending on personal taste and what they have at the store)
Cooking oil

The Sauce Part

3/4 cups soy sauce
2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 tablespoon molasses (I used agave here because I didn’t have molasses)
A touch of lemon or lime
1/2 teaspoon roasted sesame oil

If you have time, press the tofu. (Place it under a weighted cutting board for a half-hour, letting the liquid run off or get absorbed by paper towels.) Dry it off. Then slice it into small cubes, in the 1/2-1-inch range.
In a wok or a large frying pan, heat a tablespoon of the oil on medium-high. Then add the onion and saute, stirring occasionally, until golden brown. Scrape it out of the pan and reserve for later.
While the onion is browning, stir together the sauce ingredients. Taste. It should be sweet and salty and a little bitter, too. Adjust until the flavors are aligned to your taste. You might want more molasses or more Shaoxing wine; you might need a squeeze or two of lemon or lime for more acidity.
When the onion is done, add a couple tablespoons of oil to the wok or pan and increase the heat to high. Add the tofu and immediately toss it with the hot oil. Then leave it alone. Let it sit for a few minutes, longer than seems wise. Once the tofu begins to brown, stir it to brown the remaining sides. It should take around ten minutes total. A minute before it is done, add the ginger and briefly saute it. Then spread the browned onions and peanuts on top and add the sauce. Gently stir, so that everything soaks in the sauce, and let the liquid reduce for a few minutes. Reduce until the sauce is as thin or thick as you like. Then turn off the heat, drizzle the sesame oil on top, and serve.

A practically guilt free candy to slip to your kids (or yourself) in an emergency. Which we all experience at one point or another…

Ok so we’ve been to the ice cream parlor. But sometimes we are in the car, or on the train, or at the bank desperately trying to keep the kids’ eyes off of the pot of those solid pieces of blue high fructose corn syrup disguised as lollipops. And for those times, I give you St Claire’s Organics’ Lemon Tarts.

Yes, they are slightly sweetened, but more by the molasses than by the organic cane sugar. And at least it’s just straight up sugar, like what’s in homemade cookies, and not syrup, like what’s in marshmallows and snickers bars. And they are tiny, but full of that sweet/tart dichotomous flavor, so a little goes a long way.

In my next life, I’m coming back as a No-Sugar-No-Screen-Media style parent (hopefully with a trust fund and a driver too, while I’m fantasizing.) I have read about how sugar is essentially poison and how TV before age 2 can really impede brain development. And I’ve already thrown out the plastic food storage containers and the non-glass water bottles, so I’m already half way there, right?

But in my current reality, I am choosing my battles, going for moderation rather than extinction, and hoping for the best. Every once in awhile, my kid gets some kind of candy. I have decided that watching old Wonder Woman episodes and sharing the occasional sweet with my daughter is too much fun to pass up completely. And if that makes me some kind of selfish parent, then so be it.

Children’s cookbook author Christine Ripault, back in the day, just casually stirring up a few things for the kids.

It’s quite obvious, isn’t it? Because I would get to dress like above pictured french author Christine Ripault, and feed my kids things like malted milk and carrot juice for breakfast and Wheatena soup with swiss cheese for dinner. Or supper, as it’s referred to in her book.

I can’t remember now exactly why I bought a copy of Ripault’s out-of-print-yet-still-available classic book Children’s Gastronomique, but I did, and I have loved it continually ever since. As the book hails from the pre-everything-is-processed days of the 1960′s, the food is wholesome, but not at all precious. Boiling and chopping up some lettuce leaves and adding this to cream of wheat is something I would never have thought up on my own, nor would I have found it in any of my Alice Waters-esque slow food style cookbooks, which I love, by the way. But boy did my daughter love this dish back in the day when she was just starting to eat solid food.

And there are some simple but also delicious recipes from major Parisian kitchens… The chef at Maxim’s, for example, recommends this Brill Fillet Au Court-Bouillon in which you prepare a court-bouillon (basically a vegetable broth with vinegar and some herbs), then use it to poach a fish fillet in a covered pan till it’s done, toss a bit of salt and pepper on and finally serve it up with butter and lemon juice.

Delicious!

Sure, we’ve learned a thing or two about nutrition since then, and for one thing might now trade in some of the white bread for whole grain, but the essence is still there. Plus it’s just so great to absorb how nonchalant the french are when it comes to just about anything. Very refreshing, especially if you are, like I was, an over researched, slightly anxious, secretly insecure new mother.

But at the end of the day, as long as I just show up to cook dinner in outfits like my girl Christine’s, I’ll win any kind of parenting contest hands down!

Here’s my copy of the renowned book, a bit beat up but all the better for the wear, if you ask me. Published way back in 1968. Still available on Alibris and eBay.