School Lunches

I never really minded the first day of school. I didn’t enjoy the return to the daily grind of learning but some part of me didn’t mind it either. Returning to school meant an opportunity to reinvent oneself, especially in high school. Summer was clearly enough time to become sophisticated and chic, maybe slightly Goth and dark, especially in the summer between one’s tenth grade and the repeat of that tenth grade.
Truly, that’s digressing. I was thinking of school lunches. At Point Beach Grammar school in Milford, Connecticut, brown bag lunches were full of glorious things like Olive Loaf sandwiches on Wonder bread and Twinkies. Those sandwiches were made with store bought mayonnaise and wrap in zip locked baggies. I really longed for those lunches, even craved them, never realizing that we, the DuCharme children had such chic and sophisticated lunches. My son who recently spent a summer working behind a deli counter asked me “Olive loaf, what the hell is up with that?”
We had crudités cut up and wrapped like a Christmas cracker in waxed paper, individual packets of salt and pepper, chunks of cheese, hunks of homemade sprouted wheat bread and occasional homemade oatmeal cookies. When there was a classic sandwich it was with homemade mayonnaise and grainy pommery mustard. The kind that comes with a waxed seal over the cork top. I remember once a cream cheese and olive sandwich…..secretly…this was awesome. But on the whole I never ever appreciated these lunches that my Mom and Dad put together with so much love and care. I wanted those square hot lunch pizzas that the kids who bought lunches got. I wanted the nasty ice cream sandwich that some kids with a dime in their pocket could buy. We bought our milk, six cents, two coins safely tucked into a mini yellow envelope that was always in plenty supply at our house for some reason. Now, at 45, I would do backflips (I’m watching the Olympics) to have a brown bag like that presented to me at lunchtime. A classic case of we didn’t know how good we had it.
Now I send my own daughter off to school for her senior year in high school. She has confidence and self esteem to spare. She knows who she is and is fine with it. Claire packs her own lunch each morning because she maintains that a lunch at Shawnee Mission East High School gives her a “tummy ache” for the rest of the day. She resents the mandatory “No drinks with real sugar because sugar is the source of evil” rule because she feels her right to not risk a case of cancer by eating sugar substitute is violated. She packs a smart nutritious lunch and is sure to put a protein bar in the side of her backpack in case her concentration wanes mid morning. She is a smart girl; we call her “the smart one” (look, Ma, a semi-colon, I know how you love those). I like to sneak in occasional piece of chocolate wrapped in a post-it with a silly Mommy type note on it so she know I’m thinking of her. Just like I am sure my parents were thinking of us when they packed our culinary fashion forward lunches for us.

The return of school also means the return of fall which also means “fall food”. Something that makes me happy. Something that makes me feel like the circle of life is intact. Something that makes me want to slice and dice and get going a big pot of soup.

Lentil and Butternut Squash Soup
(as inspired by the Jerusalem Café in KC, Mo)

1 tablespoon Olive oil
1 tablespoon Butter
1 medium Onion, diced
1 large potato diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
About 2 cups butternut squash, diced
1 cup lentils (yellow ones would be cool but I could find were brown ones)
1 32 ounce box of chicken broth
1 teaspoon of curry
1 teaspoon cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
Light sour cream and toasted pita chips for garnish

Sautee first 6 ingredients until onions are slightly translucent
Add chicken broth, lentils, and spices, bring to a boil and turn down to low. Simmer, covered, for about an hour. Puree with immersion blender (or cool and do in batches in regular blender). Thin with water if soup is to thick for your taste, correct seasoning, warm back up and serve with dollop of sour cream in middle and pita chips on side.