COOKING FOR WHEN YOU HAVE BRACES

My 9-year-old daughter Greta got braces this year. If you’ve ever had braces, you can relate to the soreness they can bring, especially at first. It kicked off an idea for a swiftly abandoned but well intentioned cookbook called COOKING FOR WHEN YOU HAVE BRACES.

OLD FASHIONED POTATO SOUP 

This is a soup that’s the old fashioned kind with little diced potatoes rather than kind of a mashed potato soup. 

1. Get a big pot 
2. Here are the vegetables. 1 onion, 2 celery ribs, 2 carrots, Chop them up. 1 pepper, diced. 3 potatoes, peeled and roughly diced. 
3. Start to cook the vegetables in butter. Add in two or three firm shakes of Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute (my secret! – or use your own favorite herbs/spices. An “italian” seasoning mix plus some more peppery stuff would about equal to it.) 
4. Put in some big pinches of kosher salt that you can pinch with your fingers
5. Let cook another minute, then add 3 TABLESPOONS FLOUR. Cook one more minute, stirring it around. 
6. Add 4 cups chicken stock. Scrape up the fond (the little stuck bits) from the bottom of the pot. Bring to boil, then medium to low heat for about 15 minutes until the vegetables are tender but not overcooked. 
7. You can have some bread with it!
   

Here’s one we call GRETA’S SOUP (but she only likes it some of the time). Chop up vegetables you like. Peel and chop 1 or 2 sweet potatoes, too. Cook in some sort of fat until tender, adding in cumin, paprika, and whatever you like in your chili. Add in chipotle in adobo or adobo sauce to taste. Add in 2 cans of black beans. There you go!

Greta says: EAT BANANAS! They are easy to eat with braces. Maybe some macaroni and cheese. No popcorn is allowed.