Tips and Advice - Raising Foodie Kids

With the entertaining season upon us, I have been busy trying out new finger food recipes. I am trying my darndest to stay away from the cheese platter or antipasto tray that I normally serve up. And last year I over did it on the baked brie. At one point last Christmas, someone who had been to multiple parties with me asked, "Oh, is this your signature dish?" when she saw me yet again unveil a platter of baked brie with bread and apple slices. I wasn't sure if she was being earnest or snarky. In any case, I am hell bent on not serving baked brie one single time this holiday season. Come January 1 all bets are off. When our dear friends came over to sit fireside outside over the weekend. We served up wine and a platter of dips and various accoutrements. I made the baba ghanouj that I wrote about here. I also whipped up a cannellini bean dip. I made a lovely colorful tray of wheat crackers, pitted black olives (for the kids...plus, the pits are so unsightly), carrot sticks, and radishes to accessorize the otherwise beige palate of my dips.

Cannellini Bean Dip

1 can cannellini beans
1 clove of garlic
teaspoon or so of fresh chopped rosemary
drizzle of olive oil

Put beans, garlic, and rosemary in a food processor. Drizzle in some olive oil and pulse. Repeat until desired creamy consistency. I, of course, used my Ninja Kitchen, which made this dish a breeze. Serve in a dish with sprig of fresh rosemary as garnish. This was superb for lunch the next day with crisp steamed green beans to dip.



Now here's my favorite part. I served everything in some amazing serving ware and dinner ware I got to review for Foodie Mama (yes, disclosure police, this means I got it for free). I am so in love with this stuff that I must have bored my guests talking on and on about how super cool it is (they were the next best audience after I held court with my husband and children when I opened up the package). It was like grown up show n' tell and I was the only one who brought anything. My sons oohed and aahed, absorbing the lesson as best as their 6 and 4 year old selves could. Are you ready for my new secret weapon?

VerTerra

It's a whole line of serving and dinner ware made entirely from...wait for it...fallen palm leaves! No glue or toxins or lacquers. Just palm leaves, steam, pressure, and heat. Leaves and water, folks. I'm just waiting to see my sons try this at home with the oak and pear tree leaves peppering our lawn right now. The company, as I would suspect, uses fair wage labor and a sustainable production method. The stuff is flat out beautiful in an earthy (duh) and sophisticated simplicity. VerTerra looks like a grainy bamboo or wood finish. I'd use it for a backyard barbecue with neighbors or at the chicest of cocktail parties.

The plates, bowls, and trays come in a variety of sizes. I found myself looking for what to serve based on what I could put in the dishes of various sizes I got. Everything is 100% biodegradeable and compostable (returning to the earth in just 2 months!). Note that they are not recyclable, but recycling takes more energy than composting. It's all disposable, but I admittedly hung on to the ones that held dry ingredients (like crackers). The whole line has been UV sterilized and passes all kinds of testing for both health/safety and environmental standards. The press materials use words like "anaerobic plate count" and "phytosanitation." I'm the only Indian in the world who's bad at math and science but I bet all that stuff is more important than it is impressive.

As for the cost, about 5 bucks for 6 appetizer size plates (6 inch plates). But the cost of eating responsibly cannot be empirically calculated. I flat out love VerTerra.

My healthy party dip coupled with environmentally responsible serving ware is truly guilt free eating at its finest!