In Defense of the Lunch Lady-7/20/09

I was a teacher for 13 years before taking time off to be a full-time mom. As a busy teacher, there was many a day when I forgot to make a lunch to bring to work and ended up sampling the school cafeteria fare. I've got to tell you something. All jokes aside, the cafeteria staff at a large public school have a challenging and often unappreciated job. Cooking for over a thousand children and loads of adults like me who didn't bring lunch is no easy task. Cooking all this on an extremely limited budget and with little room for creativity is even harder. If you are not familiar with the typical school food service system, there is a certain percentage of their food that is government surplus and menus must be created months in advance. There are a required number of fruits and vegetables that must be served at each meal and the drink is milk unless a child shows documentation of a milk allergy.
I had the privilege of working with a number of women who were extremely dedicated to their job. They were all very professional about their job and did their best to make meals that were both appetizing and healthy. They cared not only about the quality of the food they served but about the kids to whom that food was served. Because of the confidential nature of the Free and Reduced Lunch Program, they often knew more about the financial struggles of many families in the community. Lunch ladies may be the brunt of jokes in popular culture but I hope I'm doing my part to change that.
What brought on this treatise about school cafeterias? Today I stole an idea straight from the school menu, breakfast for lunch. I made the Fresh Corn Pancakes on page 46 of this month's Gourmet. These pancakes had actual corn kernels in them but they puffed up just like a regular pancake. Both Eyrleigh and I liked the pancakes but the extra work is not something I'm likely to do in the early morning.
For dinner, I made the "Sail On Home" menu. This was a pretty simple menu, by Gourmet standards, with only 5 recipes. The menu began with Toasted Corn Crisps, a basic cornmeal cracker that Eyrleigh just loved. These light little crackers were designed to go with the Chilled and Dilled Avgolemono Soup. I am not usually a fan of cold soups but this was a creamy, lightly flavored, satisfying variation. Aside from burning myself with hot soup flying out of the blender, this soup was easy to make. (Remember my earlier issues in this blog with blenders!) The other nice thing was the fact that I didn't have to time making it to make sure it was hot.
The main dish in this menu was Roasted Black Sea Bass with Tomato and Olive Salad. I only found skinless sea bass fillets. At $13 a fillet, I was happy that the cook time given was perfect. The tomato and olive salad was also excellent and a good compliment to the fish. The side dish of Rice with Fennel and Golden Raisins was Eyrleigh's favorite. I liked it but am a little over the love affair with fennel. I don't always find the anise flavor a good match, I think it's been a bit overused in Gourmet recently.
The menu called for a semifreddo with apricots but because of time, I paired the menu with Nectarines with Ricotta-Vanilla Cream and Pine-Nut Brittle on page 7. This was a very pretty dessert and the creamy ricotta paired well with the sweet-tart nectarines. The only thing I didn't like was the slightly gritty texture of the ricotta.

Fresh Corn Pancakes-C

Toasted Corn Crisps-C

Chilled and Dilled Avoglemono Soup-A-

Roasted Black Sea Bass with Tomato and Olive Salad-A

Rice with Fennel and Golden Raisins-B-

Nectarines with Ricotta-Vanilla Cream and Pine-Nut Brittle-B