Jake's Fourth Family Food Feature

 

Jake just returned from East Lansing, Michigan, where he attended a week long Club Manager training. He brought us all Michigan State gear, perfect for me, since I was a Richfield Spartan (although not a very enthusiastic one) and my favorite color is green. Upon his return, Jake accompanied us on another trip to the MN Zoo. Maya would go every day if she could. Then, last night, he and Dave went to the Rush concert. He reported that, as usual, it was a predominantly male, white and nerdy, 40-year old-crowd, Geddy attempted to dance, and the music was good. I think Rush concerts are about the only place where men have to wait in line for the bathroom and women don't.

 

The kids are doing well. Maya started gymnastics. First grade is good. Every day, she makes lists of birds and animals, reads about them, looks them up on the computer and draws them. Dylan's playing fall ball. He has games Sept. 29, Oct. 6th, 13th and 14th, if you want to attend. Anna helped a lot while Jake was gone, getting kids off to school and taking our psychotic dogs to the dog park. Her classes are interesting. And she asked me to go to Bob Dylan with her in November. How could I refuse? Kayla's added working out to her 6 day work week plus school regime. She was just sleeping on the couch behind me, but she must have slumped downstairs.  

 

 

 

September article by Jake:

 

Welcome to fall y’all!  I want to thank my staff as well as staff in other departments for a great summer.  We all know that Lafayette Club is a destination spot for all things, especially during the summer months.  The summer of 2012 was one of the busiest in my memory.  Thank you so much for the hard work, diligence, patience, inspiration, creativity and “digging in” to get it all accomplished.  Also, many thanks to the membership for the opportunity to be part of a special place to so many.

I have an admission to make.  I have left something out.  In my past articles I recounted my memories of food, eating and gathering with my family.  There’s a big chunk missing.  My mom.  I only have one page to try and get down 18 years of praise, gratitude and humility.  From about the age of four to the age of 13, my mom raised five kids on her own.  She worked three part-time jobs, year round, to make ends meet.  She was a substitute teacher, she did administrative work for a business person, and she taught piano lessons.  At the time, we kids always felt like we were getting the raw end of the deal.  No sugary breakfast cereal, we never went out to eat (except for birthdays) and we had to eat homemade bread.

Homemade bread in our house was not from a bread maker.  The process usually began on Saturday mornings around 5:00 a.m. (at least that’s what it felt like).  Mom ground her own wheat to make the flour to make the bread.  The grinder was in the basement in the laundry room, next to the room that I shared with my two brothers.  Have you ever ground wheat?  If you haven’t, understand that a helicopter could land in your yard and you wouldn’t hear it.  Sometimes I think she ground the wheat out of parental spite toward a child.  If so, touché, Mom.  The dough was usually proofing on the counter by early afternoon, punched down, re-proofed, formed, baked and cooling by late afternoon.  That was bread for the week.  Looking back, the bread was fantastic.

The wheat that we had in the house (two 30 gallon drums) was also used for breakfast cereal a couple of times a week during the winter.  The night before, the whole wheat would go in the crock pot with water to be slow-cooked.  No kid wakes up and says, “Ooh, yay, whole wheat cereal!”  But once you got some half and half and some brown sugar in the mix, it was pretty dang good.  I still do this from time to time with my kids and get the same reaction out of them.  Hot, whole wheat cereal must be timeless.

My cousin Maureen and her family live a couple miles away and had a huge garden from which we would get bushels and bushels of sweet corn.  We’d spend an afternoon, shucking, boiling, cutting, bagging and freezing.  The best part of freezing corn is eating the “planks” of corn cut from the cob when it’s still hot.  Bags and bags and bags were laid up for the year.  We always had good corn.  We would also pick apples and can applesauce, cooked apples and make apple pies.  One afternoon, Aunt Dorothy came over and we made 30 apple pies.  The dough was made from scratch (using lard instead of butter or Crisco).  We kids had the task of peeling, coring and cutting the apples.  Our hands we purple with “apple rust” when we finished.  Once the pies were done, 15 of them were distributed about the neighborhood to families, friends and even people we didn’t know too well. 

About once a month, Mom would garner the energy on a Sunday night to fix up a treat.  In the summer, it tended to be what we called “scones”.  I think it was a recipe from my grandma who’s Scottish.  Basically it’s dough that you cut into smallish pieces and fry in oil.  Once out of the oil, dab dry with paper towels and roll in sugar.  The only issue with this process was that when we’d find out that Ma was making scones, we’d go tell the neighbor kids.  Pretty soon, there were 10-15 bikes laying down in the yard and a bunch of kids waiting for scones.  We’d sit on the steps with our napkin and blazing hot scones and chow.  It wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening in the summer.

 

Thanks, Mom.

 

 

Anyone want a free couch with a litter box full of rain water on top?

 

This couch has been sitting in our neighbor's yard for a few months. It started out facing forward, complete with cushions, looking pretty good, with a FREE sign. That night it rained. I figured they'd move the couch, but no. By and by it rained again, the cushions disappeared, and they turned the couch around. Eventually, the couch became faded and torn and more rain fell. I have sort of been counting and I believe rain has fallen on it seven times.

 

Yesterday, the neighbors placed this new FREE sign upon the couch, tucked into what appears to be a litter box. Last night, we got more rain. The Dead End sign is just bonus. This has brought me as much enjoyment as the Sign Spotting books. Maybe I should make them an offer.

 

Back to school

School's off to a good start for all of us. Since Maya started 1st grade and is in school full days now, Jake has been able to get much of his work done during the school day and has been home an unprecedented 4 nights this week. It's awesome! He's been taking the dogs and kids to the dog park each night. Luna (not yet 6 months old) is the large one in the foreground.

 

We switched Maya from Spanish to English, since the former seemed to be causing unnecessary stress for her. She has adjusted very well to full days. Dylan looped up from 4th grade to 5th with the same teacher and he's doing great. Here they are waiting for the bus on the 1st day of school.

 

Anna's got 5 classes at Normandale, 2 of which are online. The other 3 just meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so she has time to work at Byerly's and study.

 

Kayla's taking 2 classes at Hennepin Tech. and working full time. She's relishing her employee of the month parking spot.
 

 

Kayla and Sam at a Japanese friend's party.

 

My favorite pic from Kayla's hour long stream of Pinterest pictures:

 

Here is Jake's next installment, his 3rd club newsletter article:

Excerpts from the mind and memory of a chef (3rd installation):

In the past two issues of the Inkling, I have recounted various memories I have had as a child with respect to family, food & eating.  I have briefly expressed what stuck in my mind from my childhood as I was exposed to the importance of being with family and how our meals have a great impact on how as adults, we have the great opportunity and responsibility to do the same for the next generation.

For those that don’t know, I have two step-daughters ages 19 and 17 and I have been a part of their lives since the beginning.  I also have a 10-year old son and a six-year old daughter.  My wife and I met while working at the old Copperstein restaurant on County Road 19 in Tonka Bay (many of you may recall that spot).  As I have progressed through the culinary world and my wife has moved on to her career, meal times at home can be quite hectic.  With four kids, likes and dislikes vary greatly.  If I am home making dinner, it is very possible that I am making three or four different meals.  Each kid has their favorites.

Exposing the kids to new and different things has always been a challenge.  They love my pot roast, pork ribs and risotto.  One kid doesn’t like to eat fresh fruit, but I’m a stickler for a balanced diet.  He gets fresh squeezed juice in the mornings.  I’ll throw carrots, apples, grapes, a wad of pineapple, a few strawberries and Cara Cara oranges into the juice extractor and he’ll chug ten ounces.  The little girl will eat broccoli like no one’s business.  This year, she’s helping tend to broccoli plants and she can’t wait to eat the broccoli she’s helped cultivate.  She also helps pick our strawberries (which she will eat) and tomatoes (which she will not eat but is more than happy to harvest). The older girls love when I make bacon.  I know just how they like it and I always hold some back because they’ll eat all of it if no one’s watching.  We have all enjoyed picking wild raspberries and strawberries along the North Shore and having little else for a snack.

Our favorite family meal takes place in the spring, summer and fall.  I pull the grill out into the driveway.  We set up a couple of tables and pull out our collapsible lawn chairs.  The boy and I usually go to the store for our very important ingredients.  Depending on the time of year, some of the ingredients come from the garden.  The prep work begins.  I dice onions, puree garlic, cut olives (nice ones), shave some celery, peel some orange zest, pick rosemary, oregano & chives (chop ‘em up) and get some banana peppers out of the garden.  We buy a nice, crusty sourdough loaf and slice it thick.  I drizzle it with a little olive oil and dust it with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper.  I’ll grill the bread just before the meal is ready to serve.  In a pot on the grill, I start with the olive oil, garlic & onions.  Heat that up and start adding the other ingredients in order of cook time.  My son wants to do all the work (I just instruct him with the how’s and when’s).  At the very end, we dump in the cleaned mussels, a splash of white wine and put the cover on the pot.  We fire the bread, get everyone outside and once the mussels pop, we’re set to go.  I pour the mussels and vegetable mix into a large bowl in the center of the table.  We put a big ladle in it and the self-service commences.  We put plastic buckets on the ground for mussel shell disposal.  The bread we dip in olive oil or soak up the amazing mussel broth.  There’s a lot of finger licking (wouldn’t want to waste the flavor on a napkin) and laughing and the click of mussel shells hitting the buckets.  We finish the event by walking the dogs while the meal settles.

This is my favorite meal and I hope that my kids pass this one on.

See you at the Club,

Jake



Jake's cheese plate for his mom's book group. In his next article, he reminisces about his mom's cooking...