This week two major forces launched programs tackling our country’s disturbing trend of childhood obesity: First Lady Michelle Obama and British food personality, Jamie Oliver.

Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move

Newsweek‘s March 22 cover featured the First Lady with an apple and the title “Feed Your Children Well: My Fight Against Childhood Obesity.” In the magazine she writes a personal essay about her new program: Let’s Move. Her nationwide campaign has a single goal: to solve the problem of childhood obesity in a generation, so that children born today can reach adulthood at a healthy weight.

The First Lady says the solution to childhood obesity rests not with a bill from Congress or an executive order from her husband, but “instead, it’s about what all of us can do to help our kids (and grandkids) lead active, healthy lives.” Her program has four key components:

• Help parents make healthier choices for their families.
• Provide healthier food in our schools.
• Help our children to be more physically active.
• Make healthy affordable food available in every part of our country.

Mrs. Obama hopes that this national initiative will eliminate “food deserts” in this country and take families out of isolation.

Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution

This series debuted this week on ABC television. After Oliver’s successful 2005 campaign, called “Feed me Better,” to move British schoolchildren towards eating healthy foods and cutting junk food, the British government pledged to address the issue. Now he’s focusing his efforts on the town of Huntington, West Virginia, which was recently designated the unhealthiest town in America.

Nowhere was this “food desert” more apparent than in the first grade classroom of a Huntington, West Virginia elementary school. Oliver brought in a basket of fresh vegetables and asked the first graders to name each one as he held them up. Beginning with a cluster of bright red tomatoes and ending with a potato, not one child could name any of the vegetables. For me, it was both shocking and heartbreaking to see these beautiful children unaware of something that my family and I take for granted as basic knowledge.

My two granddaughters recently harvested their first crop of broccoli and chard from their vegetable garden. When my daughter prepared it for dinner that night, the seven-year old said: “That’s the best broccoli I’ve ever tasted!” My granddaughters have learned to enjoy vegetables from their mother, who learned it from me, and I learned it from my mother. I remember spending weekends with my grandmother and watching her lovingly prepare artichokes for our dinner. To this day artichokes are one of my favorite foods. Jamie Oliver didn’t bring an artichoke to the Huntington first graders, but if he had, I’m certain the children would not have been able to identify it.

It’s going to be a huge challenge to turn this country’s eating habits around. I applaud the First Lady and Jamie Oliver for tackling this vital issue. They both want to help families make manageable changes that fit with their schedules, their budgets, and their needs and tastes. They’ve also targeted schools and grocery stores to better serve communities that don’t have access to fresh foods.

It’s about time we’re making this a national issue and bringing it to everyone’s attention. We’re all responsible for helping America get healthy again. As Mrs. Obama says, it’s our move..

I’m getting ready to make our traditional St. Paddy’s Day dinner and thought I’d share the recipe. My friend, Brendan, who’s a great cook, sent me the recipe from The Frugal Gourmet. I make this “Irish Boiled Dinner” on St. Patrick’s Day, then we have one night of leftovers and a brunch of corned beef hash.

Jeff Smith was the author of a dozen best-selling cookbooks and the host of The Frugal Gourmet, a popular American cooking show that aired on PBS from 1983 to 1997. Smith died in 2004 of natural causes.

Irish Boiled Dinner Recipe

3 1/2 lb. corned beef brisket

2 12-oz bottles lager beer

2 cups water or to cover

2 bay leaves

10 black peppercorns

1/2 cup chopped parsley

2 tsp. salt

2 tbs. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

2 cups chopped and rinsed leeks (white part only)

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and sliced

3/4 lb. carrots, cut up

3/4 lb. red potatoes

1 lb. turnips, peeled and quartered

2 lbs. green cabbage

In an 8-10 quart stove top covered casserole add beef, water, beer, bay, pepper, parsley and salt. Heat the oil in a frying pan and saute the garlic, leeks, and onions for a few minutes. Add to the pot. Cover and simmer gently for 3 1/2 hours or until tender (about one hour per pound.) In the last 25 minutes of cooking, add the carrots and potatoes. In the last 15 minutes add the turnips and cabbage.

Serves 4

Serve with Irish Soda Bread, a good ale, and some sweet hot mustard.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

If you’re looking for a sure-fire, easy to fix dessert for your holiday parties, this Cranberry Pie recipe is foolproof.

I love anything with cranberries in it. That sweet-tart flavor of cranberries is pure bliss in cakes, crisps, cookies, even granola. I always buy a few extra bags of fresh cranberries during the holiday season and freeze them for later in the year. They’ll keep their flavor for a year. Of course, I make my own cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving.

A few years ago I went to a potluck celebration and was lucky enough to snag a piece of this incredible cranberry pie before it disappeared. The woman who brought it was gracious enough to share the recipe. It has the texture of a shortbread and when you bite into a whole fresh cranberry, you get a burst of that tart berry flavor. I’ve seen several variations of this recipe but I’ve perfected this one to the flavor and texture I like best. Every time I bring it to a party, people ask for the recipe. You can whip it up in about five minutes and it looks beautiful on a buffet table.

Cranberry Pie Recipe

2 cups fresh cranberries
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
10 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup each sugar and flour
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 egg, beaten
pinch of salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wash cranberries and drain them well. Pour them into a 10-inch pie pan. (Don’t chop them up or the pie will be soggy.) Sprinkle the berries with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon and toss them around so they’re evenly coated.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix the batter (it will be thick) and spread it over the cranberries so they’re covered to the edge.

Bake 45 minutes until golden brown. I like mine slightly browned so I cook it the full amount or a little longer.