BEST LUNCH BOX EVER - COOKBOOK

By Humaira

Katie Sullivan Morford, the co-founder of this blog just released her first book,  Best Lunch Box Ever, published by Chronicle Books.  Besides being an excellent writer, Katie is a certified nutritionist.  Her book is packed with healthy, easy and delicious lunch box ideas.  Best Lunch Box Ever is beautifully designed with gorgeous photos and easy to follow layout.  It is so easy that I gave a copy to my 13-year old daughter who is the chief lunch maker at our house.

One of my favorite recipes is the Perfect Date on page 60.  It has six simple ingredients: whole-wheat lavash, whipped cream, dates, celery and baby spinach.  As Katie suggests, most of her recipes are sophisticated enough for an adult’s lunch box too.

Best Lunch Box Ever_The Perfect Date

The Perfect Date, recipe on page 60

Three years ago Katie followed her bliss and went back to writing about how to nurture healthy eating in children.  Although I miss working with her on Afghan Culture Unveiled, I am very proud of her accomplishments.  She has a very popular food blog, she was tapped to write this book more interestingly, she develops recipes and cooking videos on back-to-school meals for Pottery Barn Kids.  I am thrilled to share this conversation with Katie Sullivan Morford followed by a recipe she chose from her new book.

Humaira Ghilzai of Afghan Culture Unveiled interviews

Katie Sullivan Morford, author of Best Lunch Box Ever:

Humaira:  Tell us what you have been doing since you stopped blogging with Afghan Culture Unveiled?

Katie: I started a blog called Mom's Kitchen Handbook, which brings together my interest in food with my expertise as a registered dietitian and my experience as a mother of three. I write about food and family with the goal of inspiring parents with easy recipes and practical advice on feeding their kids.

Humaira: Afghan Culture Unveiled is read by people in India, Latin America, Europe and of course the US.  What are three top things parents around the world can do to give their children the most nutritious meals?

Katie:

1.  Number one is to eat together as a family as much as possible. Kids who eat with their families tend to eat healthier and overall be happier and more successful in school than kids who don't.

2. Eat whole foods with less reliance on packaged goods. Beans, legumes, fruits, vegetables, grains, yogurt, eggs, and so on, should be the foundation of our diets, not what's inside of a box with 30 ingredients.

3. Teach your children to cook. It will increase their interest in eating good food and give them the tools to nourish themselves once they're grown. I imagine that families in many parts of the world do a much better job of these three things than we do here in the States. 

Humaira:  Were any of your recipes in Best Lunch Box Ever influenced by your experience with Afghan food?

Katie: There is a lot of yogurt in the book, which is something I really got hooked on when I was focused on Afghan cooking. I also use flatbread in a number of recipes such as pita and lavash, which is very much a part of Afghan cuisine. 

Humaira: Do you still make Afghan food? If yes, what are your family's favorite dishes?

Katie: I really crave Afghan food and I do continue to cook it at home. My favorite remains

but I probably cook Sabzi more than anything else. I love to make a big batch of that and

have it for lunches with, of course, yogurt and flat bread.

Best Lunch Box Ever_Teriyaki Fried Rice

TERIYAKI Fried Rice from Best Lunch Box Ever Book

WARM AND NOURISHING, this

panfried rice is a brown-bag favorite. The dish starts with a couple of

scrambled eggs to which rice, edamame, and seasonings are added. If you happen

to be making eggs for breakfast, it’s just a few extra steps to make this

savory lunch dish. Naturally, brown rice is more nutritious than white.

Leftover farro or barley make tasty substitutions.

MAKES 2 TO 3 SERVINGS

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

2 eggs, lightly beaten

2 green onions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced

1 1/2 cups leftover cooked rice

1/2 cup cooked shelled edamame

1 tablespoon teriyaki

sauce

1. In a medium skillet, heat the

2. sesame oil over medium heat. Add the eggs and scramble until just cooked. Add

3. the green onions, cooked rice, edamame, and teriyaki sauce, and cook, stirring

4. often, until everything is warmed through, about 2 minutes.

1. Divide the fried rice between two

2. or three thermoses.

MAKE-AHEAD NOTES: can be

made a day ahead and stored in the refrigerator. In the morning before school,

warm up and pack into the thermoses.

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.

AFGHAN STORY: A FORT OF NINE TOWERS

By Humaira

Just when the market is flooded with books written about Afghanistan then a new and interesting book appears on the scene.  This summer it happens to be A Fort of Nine Towers, written by an Afghan author, Qais Akbar Omar who mastered English by watching television and reading books while running his carpet factory in Kabul.

The Afghan diaspora is full of amazing, heartbreaking and tragic stories.  When I picked up A Fort of Nine Towers it was with an element of jadedness.  Qais starts his memoir in 1992, just when the Mujahideen take over Kabul and he walks us through his family’s ten-year struggle to leave  war-ravaged Afghanistan for the safety of another country. He shares his family's astonishing and harrowing adventures with grace, frankness and resilience, which kept me turning the pages late into the night. 

At times, after several unbelievably horrific scenes I put the book down thinking I couldn't go on reading.  After a day of reprieve, I reminded myself that the characters in the book are real people and the author has personally endured these horrors.  If he survived these experiences then I can continue on, which I am glad I did.

Qais is a brave and poignant storyteller who takes us on a journey that should not be missed.  If you have an ungrateful teenager on your hands get them copy of A Fort of Nine Towers.  I guarantee that their view of life will change for the better after reading this book. Qais has been on a multi-city book tour with many speaking engagements. I am pleased that he took the time to answer my questions which I hope will help you get to know this remarkable young man.

Humaira Ghilzai of Afghan Cultured Unveiled interviews Afghan author, Qais Akbar Omar

Humaira:  Did you collaborate with your family members in order to remember the vivid details of your family's adventures?

Qais: Yes, of course.  I was not intending to publish A FORT OF NINE TOWERS.  It all started when 9/11 happened, and foreigners from all over the world poured into Afghanistan.   They often asked me questions about what it was like to live during the years of civil war and the Taliban.  When I talked about the past -- the things we have gone through -- I stopped having nightmares that haunted me in my sleep and left me shattered for days.   But I could not find enough people to tell my stories and ease the pain on my soul.  Some foreign friends suggested that I should write them down. Once I tried to write them in Dari, but I could not do it.  I have a lot of sentimental attachment to Dari.  

In 2006, I tried to write it in English.  It was not so hard. I used English language as a tool, a language that I do not have a lot in common with. In the translation process in my head, the level of anguish decreases, which makes it easier for me to write about these things in English. I wrote the whole book in two months, during which I hardly walked out of the house.  My mother often came to my bedroom at two or three in the morning, sat on the edge of my bed while I could not stop the tears rolling out of my eyes.  She often asked me what I was writing about.  I would tell her. Then she would remind me of a sweet moment.  All the beautiful and happy parts are her contribution to A FORT OF NINE TOWERS.  She helped me a great deal.

Humaira: In A Fort of Nine Towers you have a little bit of a sibling rivalry with your older sister. How does she feel about your portrayal of her in your book?

Qais: She is an architect with a handsome son, and she is my best friend.  We had our fights as kids, like kids everywhere.  She often teased me and still does whenever she has her chance. I told her about what I have written about her before A FORT OF NINE TOWERS getting published.  She laughed and told me I was silly, and then she gave me a big kiss on my forehead.  Even though she is less than two years older than me, but she is like a second mother to me, and my best friend in the world.

Humaira: Would you be able to shed light on how the lives of Afghan Kochis have been affected by 34 years of war in Afghanistan?  

Qais: Not very much.  They still have the same culture, customs, family values, and their code of Pushtoonwali (a code of conducted practiced by some Afghan Pashtun tribes), which are respect, honor and hospitality.  The only thing that has changed about them, is, that they don't travel as much as they used to. Mines all over Afghanistan limited that for them.  I hope one day we get rid of the mines all over Afghanistan, so they can walk back on the footsteps of their ancestors again.  

Humaira: Where is your family's carpet shop in Kabul? Do you have some tips on how someone like me can pick a good carpet?

Qais: My family carpet shop is in Kabul's, Shar-e-now district.  As

for the tips, here are three things to consider:

1. See the back of the

2. carpet for the knot density. The higher the density of knots, the

3. better.

4. Vegetable

5. dyes. The colors are softer and can go with everything; the

6. color of sofa, curtains, and walls.

7. Bargain to a point to

8. make the carpet-seller sweat.

(Note: Qais couldn’t disclose the exact location of his family’s carpet shop due to safety precautions.)

Humaira: What are your favorite Afghan dishes?  

Qais: Lamb kebab of course.  Qabili palau, sabzi and naan.  But most of all, I love the delicious Afghan fruits such as, pomegranate, apple, apricot, cherry, melon and watermelon.  You can't find the taste of Afghan fruits anywhere in the world. 

Humaira: Do you cook Afghan food?

Qais: Yes, I can, but I don't like my cooking.  I have five sisters, who learned how to cook from our mother.  They are the best cooks. So, I have very high expectation of myself when I cook.   My cooking never tastes as good as my mother's and sisters'.  So, I eat a lot outside since I came to the US.  I miss home meals a lot.  If you are as a good cook as my mother or one of my sisters, maybe you can cook me some Afghan food when I come to your city, San Francisco.

(Note: Of course I agreed to make Qais an Afghan meal if he comes to San Francisco but I am sure I am not as good a cook as his mother.)

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.

AFGHAN COOKING: IN FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE

By Humaira

This blog gets an honorable mention in the July issue of  Foreign Policy Magazine. Anna Badkhen writes an engaging article, Recipe for Living : Add Rice. Stir., about how rice is a staple in over half the countries in the world.  

Anna is also the author of a delightful new book, The World Is a Carpet, chronicling her journey in a tiny village in Northern Afghanistan for four seasons, which is how long it takes a woman in that village to make a carpet.

Except where otherwise noted, all content on this blog is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license.