lisa
About lisa
Lisa is the author of the award-winning memoir, A Double Life: Discovering Motherhood, which was an National Book Critics Circle Top-10 Independent Press Pick for 2011. With Caroline, she's the co-founder of Learning to Eat and co-editor of The Cassoulet Saved our Marriage: True Tales of Food, Family, and How We Learn to Eat. She holds an MA in creative writing, a PhD in English and has taught literature and creative writing widely, most recently in the MFA Program at the University of San Francisco.
Posts by Lisa Harper:
Tahoe Salmon Tacos
My contribution to dinner in the mountains was a twist on one of our family favorites: grilled salmon tacos. It was inspired by bags of fresh chips and fresh corn tortillas that were in the cabin, a pile of limes, and a bag of shredded cabbage. We had sour cream, and plenty of mayonnaise and cumin for the baja sauce.
We never use salmon for tacos, but I made the drive to Overland Meat Company and bought the fish most recently brought in, which that day proved to be some beautiful looking salmon tail. If you’re ever on the South Shore of Lake Tahoe, this is the place to go for beautiful, freshly butchered meant and impeccable fish. Normally I would have balked at using it in tacos, but I had eaten some recently that were surprisingly good. I bought 2 lbs, and we had a simple, delicious dinner. They were, in fact, some of the best fish tacos I’ve made, but I attribute that to the quality of the wild salmon and not so much anything fancy I did with it. Here is the recipe that served 5 adults and 4 children, with no leftovers:
Grilled Salmon Tacos
serves 7-8 adults or 5 adults + children
- 2 lbs wild salmon filets
- 2 lemons
- 2 limes
- white wine
- olive oil
- salt
- cumin
- Marinate the salmon in a ziplock bag with the juice of 1 1/2-2 lemons, 2 limes, a splash (about 1/4 cup) wine, a good sprinkling of salt, about 2 T cumin, and olive oil to cover the fish. 30 minutes will do, but you can leave it longer for more flavor. I generally marinate from after lunch to dinner.
- Grill salmon, skin side down, over medium high heat until cooked through.
- Let cook slightly, peel strips of salmon off the skin, cut into chunks if you prefer, and serve with:
- warm corn or flour tortillas (your preference)
- shredded green cabbage
- red salsa
- cream sauce (equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream, lime and cumin to taste)
- refried black beans
- shredded cheese
- cherry tomato salad dressed with salt, olive oil & lime
Tahoe
We are spending a few beyond perfect summer days in Lake Tahoe with my husband’s aunt and uncle, his cousin and wife, their kids, and 2 other families. Five families, 17 people, 9 kids ranging in age from 18 months to 9. The lake is glorious, the weather perfect, and the kids are in free-range kid heaven. The cabin is on the lake and every meal is eaten outside on long picnic tables, including breakfast. It doesn’t get much better than coffee and cherry cobbler by the morning fire pit.
The cabin has been in the family for generations, and we are the newcomers. But one of the best things up here (& there are so many, including a giant trampoline on the lake, and inner tubing,and bike trails, and 3 great dogs) is the meals. And they have the feeding a crowd out of a tiny kitchen down to a truly impressive system. Lots of grilling, lots of bulk purchases, plenty of fruit and chips, and nuts, and coolers full of drinks for everyone all day long. We’ve had grilled tritip and garlic bread, grilled chicken, lots of salads, grilled asparagus, burgers and dogs–the supplies they organized are truly impressive. Add that to the fact that Kory’s cousin’s wife is starting a catering business and is a whiz at organizing and scaling up, and makes the best bbq sauce I’ve ever had and a mean batch of carnitas (which sadly we missed), among other things. And did I mention that one of the families owns a winery?
It’s not fancy, but it is all delicious, and easy enough when everyone pitches in..and that’s the most surprising thing for me. Because while I can cook well for a dozen or so, for a holiday, doing it every meal, every day is a truly great skill. I am learning a lot. And enjoying the company immensely. They have managed to make feeding a crowd a stress free endeavor. Which is something I would do well to remember when we head back to civilization.
Hungry Monkey: Book Review
Recently I had the opportunity to review Matthew Amster-Burton’s, Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater (Mariner Books, 2010) for Literary Mama. The book is a good read, often funny, and worthwhile even if you read just a few isolated chapters. What Amster-Burton does best is inspire without preaching. Michael Pollan he is not. Instead, he’s got boundless curiousity about what and how to feed young children, an ecumenical approach to what constitutes family food, and a kind of everything-in-moderation approach, which is in tune with the spirit of our blog. I can testify that this book was singlehandedly responsble fo upping our consumption of bacon by about 300%, including some with a memorable dinner of waffles. If you’re in a rut, or just starting out feeding your family, it’s a good place to start. The book proceeds from a interesting question:
What happens when a food writer becomes the primary caregiver for his infant daughter? More to the point, what does this parent — who has wide-ranging expertise in culinary traditions and sourcing ingredients, has the time (and inclination) to cook, and has a boundless, embracing appetite — have to teach the rest of us ordinary folk about feeding our families? Quite a lot, it turns out. Hungry Monkey is the result of Amster-Burton’s quest to feed his first child adventurously. It’s an engaging, often inspiring read for anyone, but especially for those parents looking to haul themselves out of a family food rut — which, I think, includes almost all of us at one time or another.
Click over to read the full review on Literary Mama…
More Mini Meals
The pace of life has not abated here, and like a lot of you, I’m still not finding a whole lot of time to cook a leisurely dinner. I’ve had to innovate a lot in order to have some variety. It helps that the markets are full of lots of fresh produce, which needs very little to adorn it or get it ready for the table.
Recently, I needed something fast to cook in between soccer practice and the school performance, and while I love pre-cooked sausages, the kids love mini pre-cooked sausages even more. I built the meal around these, which were ready in the convection oven in 10 minutes.
I put out a tray of mustards, mini rolls, mini carrots, cherry tomatoes, & shelling peas.
Dessert was a no-brainer.
