It’s official, fall is in the air. Frosty nights means a toasty fireplace and hot chocolate steaming in mismatched mugs amid Patrick’s cries for more “whoopcream.”
Fall is also the time to yank out the old stock pot as I did the other day. Filling her up with hunks of salt and peppered stew beef sautéed in sizzling olive oil, sweet onions, crushed garlic and celery. Next was the gnarled green beans that reminded me of witch’s fingers and Halloween not too far off in the distance. Chopped carrots and Yukons, torpedo-sized zucchini from the garden and corn simmering the day away in chicken stock.
By the time the kids get home, ravenous, the house smells like Vegetable Beef soup aromatherapy and they’re grateful for a hearty meal.
I love heaping piles of pineapples naturally sweet as Jolly Rancher candy, Hierloom navels quartered, strawberries, and thinly sliced Pink Ladies alongside cheeses, dried fruit, and spreads. I love feeding family and friends good food.
I love cooking with my kids and going on our “food experiments” to find ingredients for a recipe.
So the image of the Renton food bank being near empty as I read in the Renton Reporter a few weeks ago got me going.
Last spring our family hosted three garden beds in our yard for the Just Garden Project. I had visions of donating truck loads of fresh produce to the Renton Food Bank. But the garden was a bust (except for the peas and zucchini). All I can say is the rain ate my homework.
The kids and I are working on another project to help the hungry. A “Cooking with Kids Cookbook.”
In fact, my Vegetable Beef soup recipe will be featured alongside recipes contributed by Chef Tom Douglas and Mario Batali with a portion of the proceeds to benefit the food bank.
But a book takes time and the Renton Rotary Salvation Army Food Bank needs food now. I pondered ideas about what we could do to help as Amelia and I were in the kitchen making Jitter Juice. A recipe sent home by her second- grade teacher, Mrs. Thoresen, on the first day of school.
The recipe:
• Seven-Up
• Passion Orange Juice (find in your grocers freezer)
• Rainbow Sherbet
Amelia and I sat there smiling at each other across the table, slurping up floating balls of fizzy ice cream like two soda jerks. They tasted just like the ones I made in elementary school.
But the image of that food bank photo with the empty shelves kept replaying in my mind’s eye.
The fact was I needed to do something and I needed to do it now. Something tangible. Something real. help another family make their own vegetable beef soup recipe. But what did I have to offer? With four kids like most people these days our family doesn’t have a lot of cans to spare.
A lot of good ideas come when I walk or ride my bike. On one such walk I was inspired. And without thinking any more about “big” ideas, I wrote a very small idea to my neighbors.
Hi everyone,
September is the national “Let’s Move” month to end childhood obesity. The kids and I will be walking around the neighborhood everyday.
The Renton Food Bank is dismally low . . . we want to help. If you have any canned goods you’d like to add to our pile this week let me know and we’d be overjoyed to pick them up on one of our walks! Make one big donation, get some great exercise and help feed the hungry in our community.
Thank you very much!
Carolyn Ossorio
Like mashed potatoes and gravy, these two ideas were meant to go together and judging by the response my neighbors agreed.
The next day on my walk my ruddy cheeks lifted with satisfaction, hope soared as I saw a green grocery bag perched on a weathered rattan and metal garden chair like a beacon of hope in the afternoon light. My neighbor, Robin, had stuffed the bag with noodles, chicken broth, quinoa, green and garbanzo beans, coconut milk. In a flowing cursive on a lined, yellow note that said “For Carolyn and Crew.”
“We’re going to take the food to the food bank!” Patrick proclaimed firmly, as we walked toward home.
“Yes, Patrick.” I said. “We’re going to take the food to the food bank.”
Cooking and food brings people together and is meant to be shared — whether it’s on the table or as a neighborhood working together to help feed people.
I love suggestions! If you know of people or places in Renton that surprise, delight and inspire the community, drop me a line at carolyn@pippimamma.com. Also follow Carolyn on her blog, www.pippimamma.com.
