Spring Salad

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

My friend, Chef Tal Ronnen, inspired this spring salad. He’s the guy who cooks for power vegans from Hollywood to Washington, D.C. He just opened his first L.A. restaurant called Crossroads.

Crossroads is an awe-inspired restaurant because it’s vegan … but not the hippie vegan fare composed of sprouts and garbanzo beans. Crossroads food and flavors stand up to any fine dining restaurant in Los Angeles, but without the butter and cream.

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Turning the Soil

Enter to win a collection of food items from France, selected by Sandy, along with Around my French Table cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. To enter the sweepstakes, go to http://bit.ly/YGrDyy. Follow Sandy in France on Twitter to keep updated on new goodies for the prize package.

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Another year, another planting. It feels good to turn winter’s settled soil and plant spring seedlings for a summer harvest. Turning the soil mixes the nutrients and readies the ground for planting. For the boys and us, planting teaches the importance of sustainability and regenerating our mind, body and spirit.

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Spaghetti Primavera

Enter to win a collection of food items from France, selected by Sandy, along with Around my French Table cookbook by Dorie Greenspan. To enter the sweepstakes, go to http://bit.ly/YGrDyy. Follow Sandy in France on Twitter to keep updated on new goodies for the prize package.

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Primavera means spring, and spring has officially sprung. It’s time to enjoy longer days, warmer temperatures and the beautiful spring produce in our markets.

In our house, we try our best to cook with the season’s crops, so when it comes to spaghetti, we make Bolognese in the winter, chilled pasta with roasted corn and chicken in the summer, and caramelized butternut squash with sage and hazelnuts in the fall.

So Primavera is the hit this spring and much lighter than its winter cousin. We use a fruity olive oil, tomato puree – because fresh tomatoes aren’t quite in season yet – and loads of green veggies.

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Noodle Pillows

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

We’ve just returned from Japan full of noodles. The boys ate noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner and even took a ramen noodle cooking class.

And so I started getting sentimental about my noodle pillow past at The China Moon Café where I was the chef de cuisine … a very stylish Chinese restaurant before Chinese food was stylish, owned by Barbara Tropp, who was dubbed the Julia Child of the Chinese kitchen. BT, who has since passed away, was a dear friend and mentor. I still ask BT for advice on all flavors Asian.

The kitchen was in the basement at the bottom of a very steep and narrow staircase that BT painted bright red. One evening I was making noodle pillows downstairs while BT was having dinner with Jacques Pépin upstairs.

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Moroccan Meatballs

By Andrew Hunter
For The Family Table, a blog for busy families

Meatballs are made for boys and maybe for girls, too, but in our house boys rule the roost, except for Marilyn, of course, who’s really in charge. In addition to being an accomplished maker of spaghetti and meatballs, she experiments with a variety of seasonings, sauces and meat blends.

It’s always fun to watch Ben and Nick when Marilyn announces that dinner is meatballs; their faces light up, they typically yelp with joy a few times and Nick often breaks into a dance, or lately, does a break dance. Meatballs are also a fun interactive family dinner because the boys roll the meat mixture into balls and other odd shapes.

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