So, Thanksgiving has come and gone and now you are left with the aftermath.

The pounds of turkey and mashed potatoes, the cranberry sauce, the stuffing and the tighter feeling around your middle when you put on your pants.

While you know how to solve the latter issues, the real trick is what to do with all of those leftovers: Time for a pantry raid!

If you have been following Walla Walla Table since the beginning of the year and taking good notes you should have a well-stocked larder. One of the first things I reach for after the holidays is some serious comfort food, and for me that means Mexican.

Enchiladas are a favorite in my family. We love them, the kids love them and they are a fantastic way to use up leftovers. If you are not into making your own tortillas, good ones can be found in stores. You should have your ranchero sauce ready to go in your freezer, so this is a no brainer. Heat your sauce, dip the tortillas in for 20 to 30 seconds, add your turkey – cheese is optional – roll them up and place into a baking dish, cover with remaining sauce and cheese if desired, and bake for 20 minutes at 350. Voila! Dinner.

If you are feeling a bit adventurous, you can always add some of your stuffing into the center with the turkey. Feel free to add some ranchero sauce to your potatoes as well.

Turkey omelets are a bit passé for me, but if that is your thing, why not. What I REALLY like is Eggs Franklin (named for Ben Franklin, who wanted the national bird to be the turkey instead of the bald eagle). Basically it’s Eggs Benedict with turkey instead of Canadian bacon.

As for those leftover mashers, use them to make simple potato pancakes with a sour cream cranberry sauce instead of the traditional apple sauce (see recipe). For the sauce whole or mostly whole berry cranberry sauce or relish works best. I make mine with orange so there is already a good sour note to it. Add 2 to 3 tablespoons of sour cream and stir. I like to add a little fresh ground pepper to mine.

Stuffing seems to be the one single item at my house that is never in short supply. Usually there is more left than we know what to do with.

Stuffing is basically a savory bread pudding, if you can look at it objectively. So make it so. To your stuffing you can add a savory custard and bake the whole shebang and serve with a sauce such as demi glace or a good reduction. You can even thin out your gravy and make a nice sauce as well. Consider adding some of the cranberry into this to add a nice sweet/acidic component.

Another option – and I realize it is nothing too adventurous – is to make Shepherd’s pie. Instead of lamb or the Americanized version using beef, just use up your turkey instead. You already have the mashers and probably some stock and gravy as well, so go for it. The kids love it and it keeps well and is easy to microwave the next day.

One of my other favorites is Hot Browns, made famous in the 1920s and most notably in Kentucky, where it originates. It started as late- night bar food meant to fill the belly and induce the “food coma” and help soak up the alcohol (ever wondered how Prohibition got started?) Basically it’s toast, turkey, Mornay sauce and bacon and tomato all served hot from the broiler (see recipe).

Cheers!

Mornay sauce

• 1 stick butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk, heated
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Nutmeg, freshly grated (optional)
• About 1 cup of cheese, Gruyere, Parmesan Reggiano or something tasty.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium flame. Add the flour and cook about 1 minute, stirring constantly until pale yellow and frothy, Do not allow the roux to brown. Slowly whisk in milk and continue to whisk until the sauce thickens and comes to a boil, about 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to a simmer and season with the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Allow to simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. This is now called a béchamel sauce, and is one of the most basic and versatile of the mother sauces. Stir in the cheese and whisk until melted. If the sauce seems too thick, thin with a little milk. You now have a Mornay sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning accordingly. You may want to experiment with cheeses – a sharp cheddar can be fun, and so can adding a few different cheeses to make a more complex flavor.

Hot browns

While there are many different variations, this is pretty standard and includes some of my embellishments.

Toast. I like thick Texas style toast or good crusty baguette or batard for mine

Mornay sauce (see separate recipe).

Tomatoes, sliced or wedges. I like mine sliced thick, broiled and served alongside.

Bacon, several slices, thick and crispy. 2 slices per serving (or more if you are feeling particularly crazy, it is the holidays)

Turkey, sliced thin or shredded and a good amount.

Arrange bread on a baking sheet, brush with butter and toast in oven until lightly brown and slightly crisp. Add turkey and warm for a few minutes in the oven just to heat the turkey. Remove from sheet pan to plate, two pieces per. Add sauce garnish with bacon slice and tomatoes.

Potato pancakes

• Mashed potatoes
• 2 to 6 tablespoons of flour
• Cream
• Butter

Add about 1 tablespoon of flour to every two cups of mashed potatoes. In a saucepan heat cream to just warm and add ½ cup at a time to potatoes until you have a thick batter. If batter is too thin, add more flour or more potatoes. Heat butter to bubbling in a large non-stick skillet over medium flame. Add batter about 4 to 6 ounces at a time, just like pancake batter. Let brown on one side before turning. Cook through on opposite side and plate. Serve with apple sauce or cranberry sauce.

Earlier this month I attended a talk on food awareness by Chantal Valentine, a Whitman College graduate who authored “The Baby Cuisine Cookbook” and has launched a “preschool food revolution” in the San Francisco Bay Area in response to the food served in her child’s school.

Seeing a need for a healthy change in their community, she and husband Shane, were speaking at Whitman to share their knowledge and bring about awareness and change to the processed food trend aimed at children. With the extreme rise of obesity and Type-2 diabetes, and the realization that our poor food habits are the cause, people in increasing numbers in the United States are starting to take action. The Valentines are among those on the frontline of a growing movement.

For the first time in history, children born in the year 2000 and after are forecast to have a shorter life span then their parents. These kids have a 1-in-3 chance of contracting Type-2 diabetes, something that is avoidable with healthy food choices.

In Berkeley, Calif., chef Alice Waters started an “Edible Schoolyard” to teach kids about growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce. For over 16 years, the project has inspired students to try new foods, exposed them to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, and giving them life skills, including the ability to make healthy food choices and work cooperatively.

Michelle Obama joined the movement by planting an organic garden at he White House and starting the “Let’s Move!” campaign to combat childhood obesity. Believing manufacturers should be held accountable for the food they produce, she was quoted as telling the Grocery Manufacturers Association, “We need you to entirely rethink the products you’re offering, the information you provide about these products, and how you market those products to our children.”

Jamie Oliver overhauled the school lunch system in his native England and brought his passion to America to try to do the same with our nation’s school lunch program. Finding it a little more complicated that he first imagined, he is still making strides, bringing attention to the problems of processed junk foods, organizing a ban on sugar-filled flavored milk and a starting a mobile teaching kitchen for students across the Los Angeles School District. He encourages families to prepare and eat more meals at home together, starting with just once more a week.

In the Seattle-area, Cynthia Lair has begun training school cooks on ways to incorporate more fresh vegetables and whole grains in their meal plans with a program called “Discover. Cook. Nourish.” As a first step, it attempts to affect the beliefs of the individual school food service worker. With topics such as whole grain cookery, how to balance meals, how to shop for best quality and hands-on cooking lessons, the program works to get these cooks excited about better health through good food. Developing a passion for feeding themselves and their families better, they will in turn make healthy choices for their schools when given the opportunity.

Why use grant money to change a school cook’s family dinner plate?

“Starting with the individual is exactly where change begins,” Lair responded in a media report when asked that question. “Each parent, each child, each school food service worker has to desire similar changes if school lunch food is going to improve. If we don’t shift the consciousness of the school food service worker, then who would you start with?”

“Two Angry Moms” is a movie filmmaker Amy Kalafa and Susan Rubin made after experiencing the poor state of school lunches in their children’s schools. Kalafa has also written “Lunch Wars,” a book to arm readers with tools to help bring change within their own school systems.

Today the average American spends about 27 minutes a day on food preparation and another four minutes cleaning up. That’s less than half the time spent 30 years ago – and less than half the time it takes to watch a single episode of “Top Chef.” This indicates that many Americans are spending considerably more time watching cooking on television than they are actually cooking themselves.

The food revolution can start with each and every one of us.

Shane Valentine suggests starting with the “non-negotiables,” the food rules you set up in your home -such as no soda or high-fructose corn syrup, and sitting down for a family meal at least once a week.

Start where you are and build slowly. Pack a lunch one more day each week. Start a garden or cooking class. Eat lunch with your child at school and encourage other children to take a serving of fruit and vegetables from the salad bar. Share a meal with a friend or co-worker. Involve others, model healthy eating habits, and have fun!

As food issues author Michael Pollan writes: “Food is invisible no longer and, in light of the mounting costs we’ve incurred by ignoring it, it is likely to demand much more of our attention in the future, as eaters, parents, and citizens.”

The best part about Thanksgiving is the turkey.

The worst part of Thanksgiving? The turkey.

It’s either dry and overcooked, or it’s spot on. The unfortunate thing is you never know what you are going to get, unless you have some know-how.

When I was a kid my mother did all of the major holidays, and she was really good at it. She would wake up at the crack of dawn and start cooking by 7 or 8 am. No joke. The turkey would cook all day. Most years it was really good, a few times we needed extra gravy … if you know what I mean.

When the time came for me to cook the turkey one year, I could not imagine myself standing in the kitchen all day long. So, like everything else I have ever done, I figured out a better way with this week’s recipe.

Cheers.

No-fuss perfect holiday bird

Here is what you are going to need, in no particular order:

• 2 half sheet pans, commonly called baking sheets.
• Roasting pan, about 2 inches deep, preferably with a rack.
• Paper towels
• Salt (kosher)
• Pepper (fresh ground — do this in an old coffee grinder and set aside in a pinch bowl)
• Ground sage, thyme, bay leaves, garlic powder
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Trifecta (onion, carrots, celery — rough chop on all, about 1 cup of each)
• Chicken stock
• Dry white wine (semillon or chardonnay)
• Flour
• Foil, whisk, wooden spoon, immersion blender, and most importantly a probe thermometer, preferably with a digital read out. Trust me this is THE most useful splurge you will ever make on things for your kitchen.

Rinse your bird in cold water inside and out. Remove giblets and “things” (yucky bits that are actually quite useful) and set aside in fridge to use later in stock for gravy. Set bird on one sheet pan and dry thoroughly, inside and out, with paper towels, changing frequently. Transfer to sheet the second sheet pan 2. Set your oven to 400-degrees F. Rub your bird down with olive oil on the outside. Season with salt and pepper liberally (see it’s not a bad word), inside and out, making sure to season the cavity. Once your oven is hot, transfer your turkey to the roasting pan rack; this will make it easier to remove later on. Insert your thermometer probe into the thickest part of the breast, being sure NOT to touch the bone. Set the temperature alarm for 161 degrees F. Make sure the probe wire is easily accessible so that you can plug it into the base. After about 15 to 20 minutes cover the entire breast only with foil to prevent it becoming overdone. Your turkey should reach optimal temperature in 2 to 3 hours, depending on the size of your bird. Don’t try to baste it; don’t try to fuss with it. Don’t even open the oven door to check on it, unless you smell burning. If you feel that it is cooking too fast and you want more time, reduce your oven temp to 350 degrees F. It’s that easy. Really. Just set the alarm and sit back and catch up on your beauty rest.

In a stock pot over medium flame heat some olive oil add your giblets and “things.” Brown evenly. Add your trifecta and brown, developing a nice color by not stirring too much. Add one clove of crushed garlic and two bay leaves. Add stock and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 30 minutes, at which point you may discard all of your solid matter leaving only a good rich stock. Remove from heat and let sit covered.

Once your temperature probe alarm in the bird reaches 161 degrees F., remove turkey from oven, then from the roasting pan and onto a platter or one of your cleaned sheet pans. Cover the entire thing with foil, being sure not to remove the probe thermometer. Let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes. In the roasting pan is all that great juice, fat and fond, which we are going to use right now to make gravy.

Remove the drippings from the roasting pan, especially the fat, into a 2- to 5-quart sauce pan, leaving any stuck on bits and solid matter. Begin heating stock over medium flame and, once simmering, lower to lowest setting and put a lid on it. Over a medium flame heat fat and juices and add about 2 tablespoons of flour, stirring with a wooden spoon to incorporate. Switch to your whisk and continue to stir flour with fat until all the lumps are gone, to make a roux. If there are still browned bits, not black, stuck on the roasting pan, deglaze with about 1 cup of wine and a wooden spoon. Reduce this by about a third to half and set aside. Once the roux is blonde and devoid of lumps (it should look like wet sand at first, then liquid and glossy) begin adding your deglaze from the roasting pan. Do this slowly so it won’t bubble up on you and possibly burn your skin. Once incorporated into roux, whisk to remove any lumps and lower flame to low/medium low. Begin adding stock. Once your gravy is at the correct consistency add sage, thyme, salt and pepper to taste. If it is too salty add stock and or wine or even a pinch of sugar. If it needs some acidity add wine. If gravy still is lumpy, use your immersion blender carefully to remove the lumps. If that fails run the whole thing through a fine chinoise (conical strainer) to remove the lumps.

At this point you are ready to go. Remove the probe and carve your bird carefully. By the way, it will not need the gravy — that’s for your mashed potatoes.

In our ongoing discussion of where your food is coming from, I hope to provide some insight and “education,” as much as I hate to call it that. The goal is to dispel myths and rumors about the food you buy, in hopes of create better informed consumers who can make smart decisions about what foods are best for themselves and their families.

Myth 1: You should only buy organic

While organic is good, it is not the end all, be all. Some foods labeled “organic” as opposed to 100 percent organic, can contain up to 5 percent non-organic ingredients, such as fish oils, sausage casings from conventionally raised animals, saccharides and even colorings. So is it really “organic”? No

Foods grown organically can also be raised with pesticides, even though that is completely against what “organic” is all about. There are three levels of pest management that are allowable and the first two must be unsuccessful in order to be able to use the third level of pesticides (even synthetic ones). But it still raises the question: Is it actually free from pesticides? No.

There is no conclusive proof organic foods are “better” for you than non organics. If they are not free of pesticides, additives and biological hazards that we have seen recently with “conventional” foods, it is difficult to say that they are “better.”

However, if those foods are raised in the spirit of the “organic” ideal and truly free from pesticides, additives and other issues, then, yes, they would be.

The issue is whether you trust government to regulate this with your best interests in mind. If you cannot trust them with health care, I think you have your answer.

For more information about what “organic” means, visit bit.ly/sxag3k.

Myth 2: You should only buy local food

In a perfect world this would be a great way to go, but in reality it does not make good sense for you or your family. The nutritional diversity of the foods available is one of the best things that has happened to the human race.

Ask yourself this: Are you prepared to give up any of the following foods — bananas, pineapples, mangos, citrus, chocolate?

If you answered no to any, you will see might point quickly. Since we do not and cannot effectively grow any of those items here, it makes sense to be able to import them without serious guilt.

On the other hand, if you are buying potatoes, blueberries and onions from Texas, Chile, or elsewhere then you should be wearing your hair shirt for the next year. We grow all of those things here and we do it really well, too.

When in season you should always buy close to home as possible — forget, for the moment, the serious issues of carbon footprints and global — because what you get will have a more nutritional wallop.

Think about this way: A fruit, after it is picked, will continue to ripen up to a certain point. A vegetable will begin to rot as soon as it is picked. So while fruits will increase their sugar content they will not gain any more nutrients and a vegetable will begin to lose its nutritional value, albeit slowly, once picked. So, if you want to maximize the nutritional content of your food and get more “bang for your buck,” eating closer to home makes more sense whenever possible.

But remember to not sacrifice good nutritional variety just for the sake of “reducing your carbon footprint.” A banana shipped from Central America is a great source of potassium, one of the single most important minerals your body needs for so many things, including, your heart, lungs, brain and bowels.

While a potato is a great source of potassium as well, and grown in abundance in the Pacific Northwest, you cannot and should not live on potatoes. The body needs a very high level of activity to process that amount of carbohydrates efficiently.

It is much better to vary your diet with a wide variety of foods. Michael Pollan, who authored “The Omnivore’s Dilemma,” said it best: “Eat food. Mostly plants. Not too much.”

As we head deeper into fall and then to winter the amount of locally grown foods will diminish. But there is a wide variety of great foods available to you now.

If you have access to locally grown fruits and berries consider doing some freezing and or canning. Whole berries are easy to freeze. Apples and pears can be canned sliced or whole and even pureed and frozen.

Citrus from California is coming in now and one of my favorite things to do is make fresh squeezed juice and freeze it in quart sized containers.

Great for breakfast and great for having around the kitchen in spring or summer when it is being trucked in from South America and Australia. You can buy whole flats of citrus from your supermarket or local grocer, just ask.

For some creative recipes this week, check thegrocersbag.blogspot.com. We’ll even have tips on how to select the best vegetables and how to check fruit ripeness.

Cheers.

The closing of October marks the end of the Walla Walla Farmers’ Market for the year, so I made sure to attend the last Saturday market. It was a picture perfect autumn morning — brightly colored leaves, azure-blue sky and everyone dressed in warm hats and puffy jackets.

Off in the corner of the market, an old white truck had its tailgate down. Inside were beautiful giant green cabbages, larger than I had ever seen before. Alongside them lay gorgeous purple cauliflower, just as big and stunning.

“Better get some before they’re all gone!” Amiee, the market manager, told me.

I don’t know if you’ve ever actually cut up a cabbage and realized how a little bit goes a long way, but a standard grocery store cabbage in our house can last us a few weeks worth of soup, coleslaw and sauteing. And this guy, at least three times the size of a normal cabbage?! Well, I’d better have a plan for it before buying.

Then it came to me: I’ll make a batch of kimchi! Maybe some sauerkraut too!

Sure, a person can go out an buy jars of kimchi or sauerkraut, but a little lesson about the benefits of fermented vegetables will make you understand the difference between homemade and store-bought.

Before traditional canning methods, people in earlier times would preserve vegetables through the process of lacto-fermentation. Lacto-fermentation happens when the starches and sugars in vegetables and fruit convert to lactic acid with the help of a friendly bacteria called lactobacilli. They are found on the surface of all living things but they are especially prolific on the leaves and roots of plants growing in or near the ground.

The lactic acid they produce not only preserves vegetables and fruit perfectly, but also promotes the growth of healthy flora in the intestines. Kind of like yogurt. The proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented vegetables enhances their digestibility and increases vitamin levels, as well as producing helpful enzymes and antibiotic substances.

Lacto-fermentation is a craft that does not work well in industrialized manufacturing. Results are not always uniform or predictable. So mass manufacturing uses vinegar rather than a natural brining process, making a more acidic product that is not good in large quantities. Then they pasteurize it, killing off all the lactic-acid producing bacteria and robbing consumers of the beneficial effect on digestion and health.

Cultures around the world understand the importance of lacto-fermented fruits and vegetables and have made it a staple in their traditional diets. In Europe, the principle lacto-fermentated food is sauerkraut. In Russia and Poland one finds pickled green tomatoes, peppers and lettuces. In Korea, clay pots full of kimchi line kitchen terraces, as it the most common side dish of the country. In Japan, no meal is complete without a portion of pickled vegetable, be it radish, cucumber, turnip or carrot.

People in India traditionally ferment fruit with spices to make chutneys. Indonesians eat tempeh, a soy product, and in Africa people enjoy a porridge of fermented millet.

Even here in America, we have many types of relish — corn relish, cucumber relish, watermelon rind —all of which were no doubt originally lacto-fermentated products.

Scientists are mystified by the proliferation of new viruses and pathogens today. Even with today’s extreme sanitary practices, we have increase in intestinal parasites and maladies. Could it be that abandoning the ancient practice of lacto-fermentation and insistence in pasteurizing everything has compromised the health of our intestinal flora and made us vulnerable to a variety of pathogenic microorganisms?

Maybe. If so, a return to traditional ways of lacto-fermentation cannot hurt and might even be an answer. Give it a go and reap the benefits of a happy tummy.

If you aren’t as adventurous or just don’t have time or interest in making your own lacto-fermentated foods, there is hope. A local gentleman, Vince Booth is making lacto-fermented pickles, sauerkraut, and kimchi. His Booth’s Brine Co. products are available at Blue Valley Meats.

Or you can try including more active cultured dairy products into your diet. Yogurts, kefir, and raw milk all have active cultures and include similar benefits as those found in lacto-fermentated foods. Just make sure to read your labels to verify it says “active cultures”.

Lacto-fermented kimchi

• 1 roughly chopped head of napa cabbage
• 1 thinly sliced daikon
• 6 thinly sliced carrots

Add them to a large pot of salty water (brine). Let them sit, covered for a day.

After a day, removed the vegetables from the brine. Taste to test saltiness. If it’s too salty, rinse.

Then, puree together:

• 1 good size chunk of ginger
• 6 garlic cloves
• 1 bunch of green onion
• 1/4 cup red chili flakes
• 3 tablespoons whey (optional)
• A few squirts of fish sauce

Add this paste to the drained veggies and incorporate fully. Pack into sterilized mason jars and press down until the juices came to the top. Try to keep all vegetables under the brine. Cover with a plastic locking bag, press down, and place a smaller jar on top of the plastic inside the vegetable container. Fill the smaller jar with water to weigh down the vegetables. Let sit for a week, checking on them occasionally to change the water and pack the vegetables down a little more. At the end of the week, lid them and put in fridge. It will keep for many months.

As we move into fall the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting colder. Admit it, what you really want is something to warm the body and soul without having to spend hours sitting watching and stirring pots and pans, right?

This week we bring you one of our favorite family recipes that is sure to excite even if the name does not.

This is a great meal that you can get a lot of mileage out of all week long and with very little effort.

It’s called pot roast. Yes, pot roast. Plain and simple.

It is one of the classic American dishes you either love or hate. Most of those I’ve had in my life have been rather blah, unfortunately.

But once I learned how to cook and do it properly, things seemed to change for the pot roast.

Gone were the dry chewy bits of meat and that rather bland sauce (aka “gravy”) and the monotone taste of everything in the pot.

Now it is different. Now the meat is properly cooked. Moist and tender. Easily pulled apart with nothing more than a fork.

Vegetables are cooked lightly and retain their individual identity while still bringing some other great flavors to the party.

And the gravy is the best part, full of flavor without being greasy or bland. We’ll walk you through all of the steps this week, but read it fully BEFORE you attempt to cook it so that you are familiar with all of the steps and necessary equipment.

Cheers.

Classic Pot Roast

Here is what you are going to need:

• Large enameled pot or cast iron dutch oven, or equivalent large cast iron skillet at least 2 inches deep.
• Large roasting pan (preferably NOT a non-stick) at least 3 inches deep.
• A large inexpensive cut of meat, such as a blade or chuck roast, at least 2 pounds and boned out. Now if you are crafty enough to remember, ask your butcher to bone out your roast and wrap the bones to use to make stock.
• A really good whisk or even better an immersion/hand blender

For the roast:

• 1 cup or so of extra virgin olive oil.
• 2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 2 pieces of star anise
• 2 onions, rough cut
• 2-6 large garlic cloves, mashed with the flat of your knife.
• ½ to 1 pound of cremini mushrooms, washed, stems trimmed, caps quartered
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of flour for gravy
• 1 pound of pearl onions, blanched to remove outer skin, leave ends, trim root shoots
• 2 carrots, peeled and rough cut
• 3 stalks of celery washed and rough cut.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 cups of dry, red wine
• ½ to 1 quart of beef stock, hot
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped flat-leaf parsley, or green onions (optional) for garnish

Set your skillet or pot over medium-high flame and rub your roast with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Salt and pepper evenly. Ensure pan is really hot before putting in the roast to brown or it will just steam. Brown roast evenly on both sides, turning only once. It should take about 3 to 5 minutes per side to brown. Remove roast from pan, add onion, carrots, celery and brown. Once vegetables are browned add garlic, cook for 3 minutes and deglaze with wine, reducing the amount of liquid by half. Heat your oven to 350 F. Place meat in a roasting pan. Once your skillet or pot sauce has reduced by half, strain into roasting pan with meat. Add ground allspice, star anise, stock. The carrots, onion, garlic and celery have done their job; thank them and send them to the composter. Slip your roast into your now-heated oven and set timer for 30 minutes, then cover the whole deal with foil and cook for 1½ hours. Remove from oven, flip roast and add mushrooms, pearl onions, recover and cook for 30 more minutes.

Remove from oven and let meat rest on a plate or baking sheet covered for 10 minutes. While meat is resting make gravy. With a slotted or perforated spoon remove onions and mushrooms. Add flour to pan and with a whisk or wooden spoon, mix with pan sauce. Remove to a smaller 2- to 5-quart sauce pan, being sure to get all of the fond from the roasting pan, and set over medium flame. If your flour begins to clump, remove lumps with whisk or hand blender. If that doesn’t remove lumps, put the gravy in a blender and blend until smooth. Once smooth, warm to desired consistency knowing that flour thickens at a boil. (And if you want it thicker, let it boil). Add salt, pepper or whatever else it needs. Cut meat serve with gravy, mushrooms and pearl onions. We enjoy this at home with mashed potatoes, rice, noodles even risotto.

The roast can be made a day in advance. To reheat, add about a cup of stock into a large sauce pan and add gravy. Once hot, add meat and cover at a simmer for 10 to 15 minutes to heat through. Garnish with parsley or green onions. It’s easy to reheat in the microwave for quick meals during the week.

Now that summer is officially over, it’s time to celebrate fall and all of its wonderful seasonal foods. Days are cooling down and nights require an extra blanket on the bed. Time for hearty winter squash, fresh orchard fruits like warm apple treats and crisp delicious pears.

Today I stocked up on a variety of winter squash, from the deep orange -red kuri to the smooth, creamy butternut, from the yellow and green striped delicata to the required sugar pie pumpkin. Each has a different use in our house and is perfect for its own individual recipe.

The red kuri is wonderful cut in half, baked until tender and scooped out for use in pancakes, cookies or other sweet, savory treats. The butternut is easy to peel and chop for use in soup, risotto, pan fried, or just roasted in the oven with a little olive oil, salt and pepper.

The delicata has a thin skin and does not require peeling, making it a wonderful dish cut in half moons, tossed with oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and baked until tender.

Sugar pie is a standard in most American households, as it makes a perfect pumpkin pie. But lesser known are its uses in pumpkin flan, cut in half, filled and baked with a savory custard, or cut into wedges and roasted with herbs.

Another fall favorite in our house are Northwest apples and pears. We love them fresh, eaten straight-away in lunches or cut up as an afternoon snack. Or if we have a little extra time on our hands, we love to cut up apples, add a little water, boil, and blend to make our own homemade applesauce.

Today we made a batch with the kids at the Walla Walla YMCA after-school program and they couldn’t seem to get enough! So easy, so healthy, so delicious. And nothing more than fresh apples and a little water.

For a special treat, we like to slice apples, saute them with a little butter, honey and cinnamon, pour into a pie pan and cover with either pie crust or a streusel, and bake. Your house will smell amazing and no one can resist homemade apple pie.

If you want to go for something a little different, try baked apples or pears. Start with an under-ripe fruit, hollow the center, and fill with a combination of cinnamon, sugar, butter, your favorite nut and raisins, if you like. Add about a half cup of water or apple juice for every apple/pear and bake until tender. Mmmm!

If you have kids at home, don’t forget to include them in cooking. They love to help in the kitchen with any task you feel comfortable offering them. With the little ones, age 2-4, pull up a chair and let them stand high and stir the bowl or wash the produce. Ages 5-6 can help with rolling dough, peeling fruit or measuring out ingredients. For kids 7 and older, they can work along with a parent or caregiver and help out with much of the tasks in the kitchen.

Involve kids of any age with deciding on recipes by browsing cookbooks or searching the Internet. With any search, it helps to have an idea of what you are looking for and main ingredient in mind, so not to overwhelm you or the child.

Fall is a beautiful time of year, with the vivid colored leaves changing and falling to the ground. I look forward to pulling out the sweaters and long pants and bundling up for the cooler weather. The foods of the season match the mood with their warming hearty nature. The highlight of my day is sitting down to dinner with my family over a warm, nourishing soup or stew, crusty bread, and maybe even a sweet orchard fruit treat.

Farm dinners? I hadn’t heard about them either, until about a year ago. And it was one of the reasons that brought me to Walla Walla. To tell the story right, I have to start at the beginning, with a Bacon Affair.

While living in Los Angeles, a friend told me about an underground dinner she recently attended, all dishes themed around bacon. She described it as a foodie rave party, where there were a limited number of tickets, in a secret location that changed with every event, and no one knew where until the last minute.

I had to know more, so I did some research and contacted the woman running the event. Tickets were $75 per person, so attending was not realistic for my husband and me. So I offered to help out in the kitchen in exchange for being a part of the event and learn more.

The event was beautiful, the food fancy and delicious, and the guests and I enjoyed every minute of it. I loved the idea of the dinner, a big long communal table with beautifully plated food in a location outside the formal restaurant. But I felt something was missing, a connection to the food being enjoyed.

Sometime later that year, I heard about farm dinners being hosted around the country. They are like underground dinners, but rather than being in a warehouse somewhere in the city they are hosted on a farm, using fresh ingredients directly from the farm itself. This was the part I felt was missing, and I had to experience it myself.

Looking deeper into the farm dinner world I came across Outstanding in the Field, an organization that puts on farm dinners around the country and elsewhere in the world. I signed up to help out at the Rio Gozo farm in Ojai, Calif., about two hours from my home in LA.

Arriving around noon that day, I knew I was in for a special treat. The farm was like a postcard, sun shining down on green flowering fields, surrounded by lush rolling hills.

We set up tables adjacent to the fields, under shady trees. The tables were clothed in white linens and sparking glassware was set. Just beyond, chefs began preparing the meal from produce recently picked from the fields in the foreground. Simple kale greens were transformed into a vibrant ribbon salad with peppers and carrots. Fennel wafted in the air, as the chef simply chopped the bulb into a luscious mixed salad.

Then I noticed the chef pause from his chopping and head toward the garden. I watched him in awe as he literally picked himself more fennel. At that moment I knew this was where I belonged and what I wanted to do. I wanted to be that chef and put on farm dinners.

Farm dinners may be a new trend and something of a novelty to city folks who typically dine out at restaurants, but I think there is something quite beautiful and intelligent about it. To me, it’s about honoring the work done on a farm and appreciating the food grown there.

So much food these days is processed beyond what we would even recognize as a whole food, with no comparison to its original form. We ship food across the world, to be consumed months after it’s picked. Having a farm dinner, the food is harvested and enjoyed on the same day, in the same location. It gives diners a chance to appreciate the growers and taste the efforts of their labor in its most natural form, with little creative tweaks by a trained chef. And like my original underground dinner, it’s in a non-traditional location — in the beauty of a verdant natural environment instead of a barren warehouse.

Two weekends ago I put on my own farm dinner, at West End Farm on Wallula Road. It was a intimate event, with a small crowd of farmers, local artisans, chefs, friends and family — just the way I had envisioned it. The food was good, the wine plentiful. But the thing that pleased me the most was the community spirit at the table. Here, in one place, were many of the amazing people of Walla Walla, sharing a meal and conversation together.

More than just honoring the local farmers who grew the food, we were honoring the family that baked the bread, vintners who produced our wines, the rancher who raised our meat, the chefs who produce amazing dishes, and community members who believe in and support our local food system.

My journey that started in a Los Angeles warehouse searching for a community food scene has brought me home to Washington, to find a food community better than I could have ever dreamed. I have found my place and a beautiful connection I hadn’t known existed. I’m so glad to have stumbled upon Walla Walla. Thank you for everything you do and are.

Melissa Davis, a local chef with a bachelor’s degree in nutrition, specializes in natural foods. She can be reached at jadenluna@gmail.com. More of her writing is at www.melissadavisfood.wordpress.com.

After reading the last installment of the Walla Walla Table, a friend commented that she loved the article but now felt guilty about what she had been doing for her kid’s school lunches. This is always my fear, that someone will feel that I am calling them out on things. Well, I kind of am, but in a positive way (I hope). I promise to not raise problems that I do not have a solution to, if you promise to not take things too seriously. It’s just food, people.

I promised some better suggestions for your kid’s lunch, so here we go with several recipes that will allow you to create better choices and save yourself time and frustration in coming weeks.

First question: Does it have to be a sandwich? Sandwiches are very popular lunch items as you can usually eat them on the go with no utensils required. And that means there are no utensils for kids to lose. Isn’t that why we are afraid of giving our kids utensils? Then again, giving kids a bit more responsibility — like making them responsible for bringing eating utensils back home — can open up a wider array of lunches you can send them off to school with. Go to the second hand store and let them pick out a knife, fork and spoon, and make them pay for it. Their money, they will tend to be more responsible. If they lose a utensil, they get to buy another one with THEIR money again. Trust me, a few purchases will solve any forgetful child’s issues. ‘Nuff said.

We all get in that rut of not knowing what to make for our kids’ lunch, but usually the answer is so easy that it is too obvious. Leftovers. You don’t have to do what you did last night, but leftovers are a great way to get your kids to eat a better variety of foods than just sandwiches. And just to be clear a “wrap” is just a sandwich by another name. Soups, stews, pastas, salads and even proteins are great the next day, assuming proper storage and handling at the home kitchen. More on this another time.

Last go-round I gave you the simple vinaigrette recipe. Great on veggies, meats and salads. And even on couscous, a simple wheat pasta that is usually steamed or boiled and common in North Africa. It is a pasta, so note it has a good amount of carbs in it, but you can mix a bit with the vinaigrette and serve it cold like a salad, and it’s great with garden cherry tomatoes.

If your kids will eat the vinaigrette then you are golden. There are many different riffs you can use that on and embellish and improve upon as you wish.

For an Asian flavor, add sesame oil and Chinese black vinegar in place of olive oil and wine vinegar. This is great on a simple salad of grated carrots, thinly sliced mushrooms and cucumber. Add toasted sesame seeds and you have something very fun that almost any kid will eat.

Or take a boiled piece of chicken, let it cool, slice thin and toss it in the vinaigrette. Serve with some fresh sliced tomatoes from the garden while we still have them. Better yet, toss the tomatoes first, and the tomato water that collects in the bowl will add to the flavor, then toss the boiled chicken with that.

When you have to make sandwiches, don’t be afraid to reach into the “way back” machine for some great classics. I made my daughter egg salad one day, and when she asked what she was getting for lunch I heard the “eww gross” and “I don’t want that.” (Yes, it happens to me, too.) But when she got home she asked if she could have egg salad again tomorrow.

If you have a “Fancy Nancy” fan, how about high tea sandwiches? A little cream cheese and cucumber slices fancy things up a bit, frilly toothpicks and all. In this case, playing with your food is acceptable. But again, moderation and variation is the key, diversity is a good thing.

Fruit is a great one to experiment with. Fresh pineapple, mangoes, kiwi. We had a babysitter who’d never eaten kiwi until I offered it to her. Said it was one of the best things she ever ate. Papaya, guava when you can find them. There are many different kinds of apples and pears coming on right now, too.

There are many places to buy local ingredients, many straight from producers listed at wallawallafarmmap.com . For eggs there is Andy’s Market, Salumiere Cesario, and local co-op programs. For Asian ingredients, most supermarkets carry some but the Asia Oriental Store on Isaacs Avenue has a good selection of hard to find items. Good bread made by human hands is readily available at John’s Wheatland Bakery and the Walla Walla Bread Co. Pickles and relish made from locally raised cucumbers and naturally fermented can be obtained at Salumiere Cesario, I hear they have good peanut butter, too. …

Don’t be afraid to try something new. If you don’t, your kids won’t either.

Cheers.

Classic Egg Salad

• 6 hard boiled eggs
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 1 to 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon of pickle relish (sour or “dill,” not sweet)
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Put fresh eggs in pot with cold water, bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 10 to 20 minutes. Remove to an ice water bath and let cool. Chop and mashed with a fork. In a bowl combine all ingredients and mix together thoroughly, taste. Adjust seasoning if necessary. To this you can add celery or whatever else you fancy, just no sugar please.

Couscous

• About 2 quarts of chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 medium onion, diced
• Couscous. I prefer the hand rolled to the machine cut you find at supermarkets

In a stock pot heat 2 to 3 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil medium/high heat, add onion (you should hear the sizzle). Sauté onion until translucent. Add stock and bring to a boil, covered. Once a good boil is achieved, reduce to simmer and add couscous in a stream through your fist until you have added about 2 cups worth, whisking the whole time. Reduce heat to low and cover, stirring occasionally until couscous has soaked up the stock. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Great with dinner hot, or let cool, add vinaigrette and serve as a cold pasta salad. Garnish with whimsy.

Tea Sandwiches

• Good bread (do not settle for the squishy soft, over-processed, mass-produced stuff), sliced, crusts removed if you must.
• Cream cheese or, even better, fresh goat cheese.
• Cucumber, English or common, peeled and thinly sliced. (Tip: split lengthwise and cut rather than trying to keep it from rolling while slicing.)
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Dry the bread a bit by toasting it gently in the oven or toaster on the lowest setting. Bring cheese to near room temperature and blend together with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil to soften. If the bread is soft and the cheese is cold you ain’t gonna have no fancy sandwiches, just a big mess. Spread toasted bread with cheese and layer on cucumber slices. Season with salt and pepper. Feel free to cut into cute shapes and such. This recipe can be adapted to many things, including blanched asparagus and prosciutto, or quick blanched green beans and prosciutto — whatever your little ones will eat, just be creative and get them to taste it, too.

Stepping outside this morning, ready to walk the kids to school, I felt a chill in the air and had to run back inside to get a jacket.

The first day of fall is right around the corner, and with it comes cooler weather and a new season of produce. Every year at this time, I begin to look forward to the new crop of apples, winter squash and pears.

Cold weather makes me crave warm soups and hearty dishes, something I wouldn’t have dreamed of in the peak of summer heat.

But there is a bittersweetness to the change: I will miss the summer produce, sweet and delicious from the heat of the sun.

Walking through the community garden, I see tomato plants as tall as I am, so full the cages can no longer manage the weight of the juicy bounty. More than enough for the gardeners, some overripe tomatoes fall to the ground.

In my garden bed, I have more crookneck squash than I know what to do with. I can’t seem to give it away; most everyone else is swimming in squash.

But I don’t want to take my harvest for granted and let it rot on the garden floor. I want to enjoy my produce past the sunny days of summer into and through the cold gray days of winter.

So this year, I’m looking at stocking my pantry with canning jars of my summer overabundance. Pickled green beans, zucchini salsa, chow chow, bread and butter pickles, antipasto relish and canned tomatoes are among items I hope to make.

With the thoughts of a stocked pantry, I feel ready to accept the fall produce with open arms. Apples -crisp, juicy and delicious – perfect for an anytime snack, packed in the kids’ lunch or baked into a pie.

If you pay much attention to apple season, you will notice that at a certain point during the year the only apples available are coming from far away countries like Chile and New Zealand. It just doesn’t make sense to me to buy apples at that time of the year, when they are being shipped so far. If we’re patient for a bit longer we can have locally grown apples, without the dirty carbon footprint of shipping across the world. Hence our excitement when fall apple season rolls around.

Not only apples, but autumn yields squash, pears, grapes, figs, pomegranates, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and cauliflower. Mother nature really knows what she’s doing as these wonderful produce items are all very warming and hearty, perfect for those chilly evenings. Baked, filled, sauteed or roasted to pull the sweetness out of them, fall vegetables make a lovely addition to the seasonal dinner table.

This week, I will pull out our summer garden to replace it with a fall/winter garden. I will harvest the last of the tomatoes, summer squash, cucumbers and potatoes, and replacing them with foods that flourish in the cooler fall months: winter squash, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, kale, kohlrabi and carrots.

The carrots, kale, chard and maybe kohlrabi will winter over well and can last us through the freezing months. Lucky to have a space to grow our own produce, it connects me to the seasons even more, getting my hands dirty and clueing me into what grows when.

The change of season is an important road marker along our path through the year. It becomes something predictable, something that we can look forward year after year and remind us of years past. Each year I meet it with melancholy, for the good times coming to an end as well as anticipation for what is soon to come.

Consider canning some of the remaining summer produce, planting your own fall garden, or maybe freezing some summer fruit. In dreary January, you’ll be happy you did.

Canned Zucchini Salsa

• 5 cups zucchini, peeled & shredded
• 2 onions, chopped
• 1 green peppers, chopped
• 1 red pepper, chopped
• 1/8 cup pickling salt
• 1/2 tablespoon pickling salt
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard
• 1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 1/2 cups chopped ripe tomatoes

The day before, combine zucchini, onions, green pepper, red pepper and the salt in a large bowl. Mix together, cover and let stand overnight.

The next day, rinse, drain well and put into a large pot. Add mustard, garlic, vinegar, brown sugar, pepper flakes, salt, pepper and tomatoes.

Bring to a boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

Pour into sterilized jar and seal.

Water bath jars for 15 minutes if they have not sealed properly

Now that the kids are back in class, so are school lunches.

If you are a parent who makes your child’s lunch, bravo to you. And if you are a parent who wants to ensure your child eats a well-rounded meal with actual hot foods and pays for school lunches, bravo to you, too.

But there are a few things you should know about what it is that your kids are actually eating.

School lunches might as well be fast food, and for all intents and purposes, they are. It’s not the fault of the kitchen workers in our schools. It’s our fault, collectively, for allowing someone else to manage what our kids eat. Institutionalized, highly processed chicken nuggets, hot dogs and hamburgers, corn dogs, nachos and flavored milk with the much needed added sugar are the norm. And if you think that what you are putting into your kid’s “homemade” lunch is any better, think again.

Most of your supermarket “deli” meats or cold cuts are full of nitrites, corn sweeteners and freakishly high levels of sodium and fats, even beyond what is common in cured meats. See our blog www.thegrocersbag.blogspot.com for more info and ingredients on items you buy.

A typical lunch at my kid’s elementary school in Walla Walla has between 800 and 1,000 calories. Twenty percent of that is from fats, and not necessarily “good” fats. Sodium levels are more than 200 percent of recommended daily value in one meal, and if your kid also eats breakfast at school, watch out.

There is plenty of information out there if you want to do the research. The choices are yours to make. I’m here to offer ways to help you ensure your kids are getting proper nutrition and something tasty to eat during the school day.

So what can you do make lunches that are both nutritionally sound and actually eaten? Ask your children what they would want; you’ll probably be surprised by the answers. Then, take their “not so good” answers (chocolate cake, cookies, french fries) and drop those into the once- or twice-a-month category. Then look at things they suggested that make sense and use those: carrots, fruit and foods that are nutritionally dense but without the extra sugar, fat and salt. Finally, plan your kids’ lunches in a way that makes sense following some simple rules:

• Fill their tanks in the morning, not at night. Body metabolism regulates how much “fuel” is used up during the day. Those with a faster metabolism require more fuel (think gas guzzler engine) to get through the day than those with a slower metabolism (think fuel efficient engine). If a person gets 40 percent of his or her calories in the morning, 40 percent at lunch and 20 percent at dinner, the body will begin to regulate itself better (and you might actually see some weight loss, adults). Remember after dinner your biggest activity is sleeping for the next six to eight hours.
• Carbohydrates are complex sugar molecules the body breaks down into usable sugars for muscle fuel. Too many carbs can lead to a buildup of blood sugars or in the body — stored as fat — and can also cause insulin production to falter and possibly lead to diabetes. Carbohydrates combined with fats is the double whammy; think french fries, great once in a while but disastrous on a regular basis.
• Condiments should be used sparingly. They alter perception of flavors and add sugar, fat and salt in large quantities. Ketchup is high in sugar. Ranch dressing is heavy with fat. Salt, obviously, is mostly sodium.
• Remember that institutional foods rely on adding fat and salt to compensate for lack of flavor. Processed lunch meats should be treated like cookies and such, once or twice a month. Don’t assume that just because the package says “Turkey” that it was raised or processed in a way that would make you want to eat it. Smoked products have higher levels of carcinogens than non-smoked products. Skip the lunchables and boxed drinks.

So what’s left?

The best solution is to have a good menu plan set up. I know, it’s extra work, but here are examples:

• Monday — Cold steak sandwich from Sunday night’s steak. Garden fresh tomatoes or good cherry tomatoes. Fresh fruit. Carrots or celery with or without peanut butter.
• Tuesday — Cold pasta is a great lunch option, or it can be kept hot for hours if you have a thermos. Small salad with some quick vinaigrette on the side.
• Wednesday — Give them something they like, like a peanut butter and jelly or bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Include some veggies like carrots or celery, and something fun like popcorn, homemade, not microwave.
• Thursday — Again go with something from the leftovers drawer. Hot or cold it breaks up the monotony of sandwiches. Include something unusual like kiwi or mango as a treat.
• Friday — Knowing chances of having fast food is going to increase on the weekend, plan accordingly. Great day to add more veggies (cucumbers, bell peppers) and other foods (hummus, couscous) into the diet, even things like cheese, but not the overprocessed kinds.

Some things to avoid: Anything labeled “low fat” is an indicator the manufacturer might be trying to get one over on you. Also be wary of “Sugar Free”; chances are the items contain things worse than sugar to compensate for sweetness or flavor. Read the labels, and do the research. Knowledge is your best weapon.

Cheers.

Simple vinaigrette for salads and veggies

• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Juice of 2 or so lemons
• Salt and pepper

Wisk all ingredients together and taste for balance of flavors. Have you kid taste it, too; if they don’t like it they won’t eat it.

Chicken salad

• About 5 pounds of chicken thighs, on the bone, with skin.
• Mayonnaise, making your own is the best but there are good ones on super market shelves.
• Dijon mustard.
• 1 Apple, preferably Pink Lady or a suitably tart variety, diced (1/16-inch cube brunoise is best)
• 1 Walla Walla Sweet Onion, diced like apple
• 4 stalks of celery, diced as above
• Apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• Garlic powder
• Salt and pepper to taste

Boil chicken with bones and skin in a large stock pot with 2 tbsp. of garlic powder for about one hour until chicken is falling off the bone. Remove chicken, cool, then  shred into small pieces, saving skin and bones separately to use this again in your next stock (see note).  Combine chicken with 2 tbsp. mayo, 1 tsp Dijon, apples, onion and celery. In a small mixing bowl add sugar to vinegar and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Taste, if too sweet add vinegar, if too acidic add a bit more sugar. Add this 1 tbsp. at a time to chicken, tasting until flavor is where you want it. Makes a large portion of salad and will keep for several days to a week.

Note: Reserve stock broth and add bones and skin to make soup later. Just roast bones at 200 F until lightly browned, or brown them on the stove top in your stock pot with the skins.