Linda Hafner - Simple, Fresh & Healthy: A Collection of Seasonal Recipes

Simple, Fresh & Healthy

A Collection of Seasonal Recipesby Linda Hafner
of Chuck Hafners Farmers Marketwith Denise Owen Harrigan
Photography by James Scherzi
Design by Holly Boice Scherzi Copyright 2010 by Linda Hafner
Photographs Copyright 2010 by Jim Scherzi FIRST EDITION All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hafner, Linda.
Simple, fresh & healthy / Linda Hafner.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8253-0557-3 (alk. paper)
1. Cooking (Vegetables) 2.

Cooking (Fruit) I. Title. II. Title: Simple, fresh, and healthy.
TX801.H24 2011
641.65--dc22 2010031945 For inquiries about volume orders, please contact: Beaufort Books
27 West 20th Street, Suite 1102
New York, NY 10011
sales@beaufortbooks.com Published in the United States by Beaufort Books
www.beaufortbooks.com Distributed by Midpoint Trade Books
www.midpointtrade.com Cover and book design by Holly Boice Scherzi Printed in China. This book is dedicated to my family:My husband, Chuck, for his love and support for the last 40 years.My three children, Jess, Ryan, and Taryn, who have brought more joy into my life
than I ever imagined possible.To my Mom for inspiring my love of cooking fresh, simple, delicious food.
(I still strive to cook as well as you do, Mom.)To my Dad, who told me I could learn to do whatever I wanted to do.To the Hafner and Gelsomin families I am blessed to have you all in my life.Finally, to my first grandchild, Patrick, may you thrive and grow strong
eating Simple, Fresh, and Healthy food!

I want to thank Jim and Holly for believing in my book concept right from the start and for making it a reality. I especially thank Jim for keeping me calm and Holly, for being the essence of calm.

And thank you, Katelyn for keeping thousands of photo files in meticulous order.I want to thank Denny for listening to me talk about my cooking philosophy and for so beautifully translating my ideas into words. My daughters both think youve captured me to a T.To Jess, Ryan, and Taryn, who encouraged me for years to write a cookbook. Thank you, thank you I finally did it!Thanks also to my sister, Janet, for her advice and for testing recipes. And thanks to my sister Ann (who is also a dietician) and to my brothers, George and Tom, for our endless, and always inspiring, conversations about food and recipes.Many, many thanks to my cousin Maria for analyzing the recipes with so much care and precision.To Sam Tassone, thanks for allowing us to photograph your beautiful crops on your picture-perfect farm.A big thank you to all of our employees for all of their enthusiasm for this book.And to all my special friends you know who you are thank you for always being there.

Linda and Chuck Hafner As a Registered Dietitian, I have spent my career encouraging people to eat healthfully. In my early days, I studied the work of Ancel Keys and his Seven Countries Study. His research proved that the Mediterranean diet was the healthiest on earth.

More than 50 years later we now know you dont have to live in the Mediterranean to reap the benefits. Eating a diet that includes whole grains, fish, beans, nuts, seeds, fresh herbs, extra virgin olive oil, and locally grown produce at the peak of ripeness is the key. I always marveled at the European way of eating in the seasons, and filling the plate with an abundance of fruits and vegetables. This concept is gaining favor in the United States, but many Americans struggle to make it a reality. Lindas book is a testament to healthy, natural eating. She has taken tried and true family recipes that are not only delectably delicious but easy to prepare.

This book will capture your senses with its brilliant photography and please your palate with the simple fresh taste of food from the earth. As she takes you through the seasons on this culinary adventure, you will realize how great healthy eating makes you feel. The key to good health is not found on some tropical island or far away hilltop, but is literally right in your back yard. Linda Quinn, MS, RD, CDNDistinguished Dietitian of the Year, New York State Dietetic Association, Spokesperson for New York Apple Association ( www.nyapplecountry.com ), Writer, Columnist and TV Dietitian.

By Linda Hafner Growing up in my mothers buzzing beehive of a kitchen, I could never have imagined that a kitchen could be silent or that cooking could become an endangered art. The kitchen is the heart of the home. Home cooking is the core of family life, not to mention the foundation of good health.

What could be more obvious? In retrospect, I was nave about how rapidly life can change. By the time our first child was born in 1975, I was seeing signs of a culture shift. At the farm stand, we gradually stopped selling produce by the bushel as customers lost interest in pickling and canning. More women, many of them wives and mothers, were entering the workforce. Computers became increasingly common, and then indispensable. But instead of simplifying life, computers seemed to quicken its pace.

We had more to accomplish and less time in which to do it. Even our children seemed pressured. Instead of playing in the yard after school, they had music and gymnastics lessons, swim meets and soccer practice. Instead of playing ball in the park down the street, they played across town (if not out-of-town). Parents who were fortunate enough to be home with their kids were most likely to be on the road, chauffeuring them to lessons and games. While our economy grew and our children grew more accomplished this hectic new lifestyle took its toll, especially in the American kitchen.

We became a nation on the run, and in our race to do it all, the once-essential (and enjoyable) art of cooking seemed to slip away. In its place came a parade of modern meal options, with no connection to our kitchens: fast food, take-out food, microwave dinners, and pizza delivered to our doorstep. My own family was by no means immune to these changes. I always worked in our growing family business beside my husband, Chuck. But I was fortunate to control my own schedule, so I was usually home after school. Even though our childrens schedules sometimes made me dizzy, I was known in the neighborhood as the mother who always had something cooking.

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