"schoollunches" news and stories

• Chef David Rocco takes on the scourge known as school lunches.
• Yum: merging food and booze, like Wine-Soaked Potato Salad, or the featured recipe: Pumpkin and Coconut Mousse with Candied Ginger.
• Cape Vessey aims to turn the goat cheese naysayers into fans.
• Chef Michael Smith's Lentils with Local Apples.
• Can you crush addiction with wine making? San Patrignano -- a winery in Italy -- thinks so.
• Jean-Georges Vongerichten hits Vancouver.
  

Did you know that this week is National School Lunch Week? Oh yes, Serious Eats posts that The Healthy School Lunch Campaign has decided that this is the week to praise and give love to the world of school lunches.

To me, that means Adam Sandler's "Lunchlady Land," which you can see above. While the lunch ladies of my youth didn't quite look like Chris Farley, they DID have similar 'dos and uniforms.

This week is also meant to bring awareness to the food that gets consumed, but no matter how important healthy food is, I feel a wave at nostalgia for the lunches that made me love those terrible, moist squares of pizza, huge piles of PB&J, and gave me a neverending love of sweet peas smushed into mashed potatoes. Share your cafeteria (and lunch lady!) memories in the comments!

• Portland area schools are embracing good nutrition and locally grown foods by planting gardens, teaching kids to grow veggies and enlisting the help of experts.
  
• Empowering kids to pack their own lunches is great, but here are a few safety tips to keep in mind before letting them loose in the kitchen.
• Katherine Miller is taking one of her extra roosters to the livestock exchange, in the hopes that he'll find a new home.
• The FoodDay enlists the cookbook reviewing help of several kids and an experienced grandma.
• Fingerling potatoes are great for steaming and roasting, and have thin skin that are packed with nutrients.
• Kathleen Bauer reports from the Hillsboro Farmers Market.
• Looking for a new way to dress up your dinnertime chicken? How about Yogurt-Marinated Chicken Cutlets!
• Need a cheaper source for free-dried foods (the kind that backpackers take trekking with them)? The FoodDay has done the research for you.
• This week, the Market Basket is all about soup. You'll find a Brunswick Soup Pot, a spoon and fork napkin holder and Gumbo Filé powder.
• Speaking of soups, how about taking this recipe for Tomato, Egg and Bread Bouillabaisse for a test drive.
• Here's a wine bargain for you - second label or declassified wines.
• Jacques Pepin whips up a gnocchi dish that is speedy and gorgeously rich.

• School lunches look a whole lot different from the easy PB & J sandwich of our childhoods.
  
• While you're packing lunch for your kids, why not make one for yourself as well! Bringing your lunch saves money and keeps you healthier.
• Rick Nichols writes about the Dead Guys Wine Society, a local club that tastes fine wines.
• In the Market Basket this week, we've got hot chocolate sticks, frozen lasagna and Green & Black's new chocolate.
• Dianna Marder ponders the possibilities moose meat.
• This week, the Rush Hour Gourmet is cooking up Mexican-Asian Tostadas.

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• Tips on packing healthy lunches for your kids.
• A new restaurant row is popping up in a neighborhood of Baltimore.
• Rob Kasper light-heartedly complains about the crowds and prices at his local farmers markets.
• Punch up morning meals with tangy orange marmalade.
• A corrected Grape Crisp recipe, as the one printed a few weeks ago had the wrong amount of melted butter.
  
• Buy the family packs of meat at the grocery store for good value and quick meals.

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