Happy Yule!

Busy day, wasn't it?
Here are a couple of pictures showing part of the bounty:




the cookies








The kids (the brunch is there, too)

Happy Yule to All!

As promised, I made the mushroom galette for Solstice dinner (courtesy of Nicole and her wonderful mother). Oh my. It was so good. Even the crust turned out well, and that's always hit or miss for me. I baked it on my pizza stone, and it was flaky and olive-oily and light. It blended perfectly with the earthy mushrooms and spinach and guyere cheese.

It will be a regular addtion to my menus, methinks. Such a lovely thing to do with mushrooms.

Tonight is Christmas Eve, the special night my husband and I share together. I have a light dinner all ready (it's wrapped and stuffed in our stockings - except for the champagne, which is in the fridge), We'll light a fire (I hope) and have our meal, then we'll take our champagne to the living room and open our gifts to each other. It's always a fun and magical time.

In our next house, I hope we have one room that we can have both fireplace AND Yule tree together. That will make it perfect.

Tomorrow my kids come over and we have brunch-that-lasts-all-day. Baked ham, beef brisket, oat scones, peanutbutter coffeecake, scrambled eggs, country-fried potatoes with roasted peppers and onions...

Eggnog, mimosas, tea... and of course all those cookies and cakes. We'll open presents with them and play lots of games. In good years, we always take a long walk, but this year, a slow recovery from surgery means it's not a good idea. And there are no dogs to walk with us, either.

But we have two pregnant couples this year, although only one will be here for Yule. And the best news of all: my stepson is home from Iraq, safely with his family in Honolulu. Life is good, and I know we're lucky.

So Merry whatever holiday you celebrate, and Happy New Year, too! On to 2009!

Baking Bread

I love bread, and making my own is still a big thrill. I try to do it as often as possible. I like knowing exactly what's in my bread, and I like knowing there are just a few ingredients there. I don't mind kneading, either.

My ongoing problem with bread is getting the loaf to rise to the right height. My bread always ends up just a few inches high. Considering that our bread is used mostly for sandwiches, this is a drawback.

I can't say that this method has solved that problem, but I found a great idea in a recent copy of Mother Earth News. The idea is to make a big batch of dough and let it sit in the frig until you're ready to tear off a chunk and bake it. The dough doesn't require kneading, and it keeps for at least a couple of weeks. I made the whole wheat version and I'm sold. This is great bread!

I'm experimenting with pan sizes and the amount of dough to use. The second loaf I made rose a bit higher than the first, but I used more dough. Next time I'll use more dough and a smaller pan. I really want a 6 inch high sandwich loaf!

Holiday Cooking

My Kitchen Aid is getting a workout as I fill the counters with rum cakes, bourbon balls, and cookies. I love to bake, and although I've reached an age when one cookie has to be enough (well, one cookie a day), I still have to fill the urge. So the goodies become gifts to friends and kids, which is just plain, simple fun.

Of course, my friends are doing the same thing, so I still end up with a decent supply of forbidden goods. I'm the master of freezing and eating a small amount at a time.

I'm planning a winter solstice feast for the 21st - just my husband and me. If the goddess will be merciful, it won't be a Spare the Air Day, so we can have a fire. Wouldn't it be sad if our overpopulation and pollution prevents us from celebrating the lengthening of days with firelight? If it does, I'll light a few candles and be content.

But the feast: I'm making Nicole Spiridakis' Mushroom and Spinach Galette, which recipe you will find here, on NPR. Nicole's version sounds wonderful, but I'm following her Mom's advice and adding Gruyere cheese to mine.

I will also cook up a kale salad: just saute some shallots and minced jalapeno in olive oil, add torn kale leaves and toss until the leaves wilt. Add a little salt and you've got a bright green and slightly spicy addition to the meal.

I think the galette calls for a Zinfandel or maybe even a Cab.

Dessert will be Viennese Crescents, a cookie from my childhood that I simply adore. Nicole has that recipe on her blog, but I'll add it here, too. These are perfect representations of the crescent moon.

Viennese Crescents

1 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 cup ground (unblanched) almonds
1 teaspoon vanilla
Confectioner's sugar

Preheat oven to 300 F. Cream the butter and then add the sugar, flour, almonds, and vanilla. Mix well.

Shape with fingers in crescents about 3 inches by 1 inch and 1/2 inch thick. Roll in confectioner’s sugar.

Place on cookie sheets. Bake 35 minutes. Cool. Roll in sugar again.

They store best in an airtight container with an inch or so of confectioner's sugar in the bottom.

Makes 36.

Yes - my friends will find some of these in their gift baskets, too.

Turkey Pot Pie with Pumpkin Biscuit Topping

We had this last night, as another way to use Thanksgiving leftovers.

I had the turkey broth, with loads of meat, already cooked and frozen. I used one jar of it, with some added water, carrots, onions, and peas. I mixed in a little cornstarch to thicken it.

Very simple. Classic taste.

It was the pumpkin biscuits that took it over the edge.

They were butternut-squash biscuits actually, using some squash leftover and also in the freezer. Here's the recipe:

2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1 cup squash (I think I had a little more than that)
Milk to consistency

Mix the dry ingredients, cut in the butter until mixture resembles cornmeal. Add the squash and mix, adding milk as needed to make the dough pliable.

Knead for a few strokes, pat out and cut into biscuits.

For regular biscuits, you can bake these on a greased cookie sheet at 400 for about 15 minutes.

I placed them on top of the turkey filling, which I'd poured into a greased baking pan. I baked the whole thing, uncovered, at 400 for about 25 minutes,until the buscuits were golden brown.

This was simply delicious. We have enough for two more meals!

Using aioli

Anybody know if aioli can be frozen?

I just made a batch of this delicious sauce, but good grief. We'll never use it up. I'm thinking of freezing it in tablespoon-sized batches, so I can use it as needed.

Can't hurt. I'll have to throw it out anyway, but this gives me a chance to save it.

Back for the Holidays

I've missed a couple of months of entries and I feel quite bad about that. I've been distracted by an illness in the family, which has taken a lot of my time and attention. But things are slowly on the mend and I'm going to try and be back.

Yes, I did cook for Thanksgiving. We had ten people all together. Usually, we do a potluck, but this year, for one reason or another, I elected (and was elected) to do all the cooking, except for the appetizer and dessert.

I'm out of practice cooking turkeys. It was a fumble - not quite done at the time it should have been. I cooked it for five hours! But there you have it. It was necessary to toss the thing in the microwave and maybe not cut to close too the bone.

What a mess. But it tasted great and the rest of the meal turned out fine: Sweet Potato Casserole, Cornbread Stuffing (that wasn't stuffed into the turkey), Mashed Potatoes, gravy, cranberry relish, and a yummy salad with greens, cranberries, toasted pecans, apples, and a cranberry-pinot dressing.

Yum. And did that carcass make a great broth when I cooked it the next day!

The next day, all the kids came over and I made stuffed pizzas - one sausage/mushroom, and one pesto/cheese. That one was the big winner and I must make it again!

We had cookies and ice cream and blueberry pie for dessert. Lots of wine. Due to my husband's illness, my son had gallantly pulled all our Chrismtas decorations out of the garage and set up our tree. So the kids helped decorate it after dinner. That's the earliest I've had it up, but what a great help it all was! Thanks kids!

The turkey soup I made was a big hit a few days later. I used the broth and meat from the carcass and added extra carrots and celery and broccoli (including the leaves). I didn't have potatoes, so I made a batch of spaetzle to simmer in the pot as noodles. Great soup!

So the food juggling continues. I'm still trying hard to not let anything go to waste. I even put the leftover whipped cream in little mounds and froze them. These are great for a quick dessert.

I won't promise to post everyday, but I will promise to try. I haven't been working, either and probably won't start up again until the new year. So this is a strange time for me, but I expect things to return to some form of normal.

Soon!

The Use of Lard

I found some good news to write about: lard is making a comeback.

Here's a link:

I've got a jar of rendered lard in my refrigerator. It really does make flaky pie crusts and crisp, clean fried potatoes.

Did you know it's healthier than butter?

Lard from a free-range pig - NOT a feedlot pig! - has less saturated fat than butter and it has omega-3's. In other words, not only is it not as bad as you thought it was, it actually provides needed nutrients.

Our hate-affair with lard can be traced to the industrialization of food. As our great-parents let industrial centers take charge of their food, the quality dropped precipitously. Not just the taste, either. These were the days of "The Jungle" and no regulation, leading to heaps of abuse - of both animal and human worker.

So when shortening was invented, and hyped as the latest, most sophisticated, "scientific" food, people flocked to it. Lard was dropped like a hot potato (a dry one).

But some people have caught on. We now know that shortening is a slow killer, while lard provides nutrients. And remember, in the interest of moderation, we shouldn't be eating gallons of any fat. It should be a small part of our diet.

To me, it's a no-brainer.

I haven't cooked with shortening for over 20 years, but neither did I cook with lard. For a long time, I used margarine and butter; for the last several years, I've just used butter. But since my CSA provided a slab of pig fat, with instructions on how to render it in to lard, I've been adding it to things.

It's all part of my desire to live more sustainably. To learn to use all of an animal that can be used - though yes, I'm still leery of the head. I've had beef tongue, but that's the extent of that experiment. (It's not bad, actually.)

We need to approach food industry claims with cautious thoughtfulness and a modicum of disbelief. In fact, I recommend a huge amount of disbelief and researching all the claims. I'm a scientist and I trust the scientific method. But I don't trust people with a stake in the results.

And remember that most claims are nothing more than the marketing department doing their job.

And go find some lard from a free-range pig and make a pie.

White House Lawn Sale

This goofy idea is sponsored by Kitchen Gardeners. The idea is to donate funds and send a message to the next president that we want a kitchen garden in OUR White House lawn!

Click on the link to the left if you want to donate. I'm sorry the gadget doesn't all show up. Don't know how to fix that!

Eating Out

This is what my kitchen looks like.

I haven't cooked all week, and let me tell you, that's a weird feeling.

One or two more days methinks. Then I'll post a FINISHED picture!

Farm to Fork

The Local Harvest newsletter had a piece about this article in the New York Times, talking about the need for the government to establish a detailed tracking system for food. The Times editorial was written a couple of weeks ago at the height of the tomato scare. The author is pushing for this program, saying it's a good idea and the government needs to declare an emergency and get it set up immediately.

It's a lousy idea. It's worse than lousy. It's stupid.

The answer is not more consolidation, more paperwork, or RFID tags and barcodes on everything. The answer is decentralization. The answer is small community farms that feed the people around them. Most of the food in a grocery store is grown on large (huge!), monoculture farms, with fertilizer and pesticides and herbicides. The animals live in feedlots, are strictly confined, are fed corn (no matter what kind of animal they are) and are left to stand in their own feces until finally hauled away for slaughter. The food is shipped all over the country to central warehouses and processing plants where it is mixed with food from everywhere else, and from there to the kitchens of huge food conglomerates. It's prepped and processed and packaged and shipped again to supermarkets all over the country. Then to your kitchen.

By the time you get it, it's nearly impossible to know exactly what you have or where it came from. This is why misguided people are agitating for a strict tracking system. As if that will solve the problem.

I buy my meat from a CSA that is supplied by the ranches just over the hill. I buy my vegetables from a farm about forty miles from here. I buy milk from a local dairy that bottles it themselves without sending it to a central factory in Nebraska, someplace. If we get sick, it will be a simple matter to trace the problem.

No, I don't get everything from local producers. I know that's impossible. Humans have always traded for the things they need, but can't produce themselves. That will never end and I'm not suggesting it should. But our food system is a ridiculous example of carrying trade to the extreme. We need to rig a wrecking ball and tear it down.

A tracking system will fall heaviest on the small farmer, and be one more nail in the coffin for the hard-working people who are trying to grow healthy food for a local market. As usual, the conglomerates will just hire someone to take care of the paperwork and raise prices to cover the cost. The small farmer will go out of business because he can't afford to file all that paperwork or buy the electronic IDs to put in the food. It's all unnecessary for him - he can tell you in ten minutes where his product goes because he's supplying local restaurants and residents. There's no reason for a federal agency to track his food.

Farm to Fork is a terrible idea. It won't keep thousands of people from getting sick. We need to stop shipping our food to central plants and mixing it with food from everywhere else. If people get sick, the illness will stay localized and the source can be traced quickly.

Why is this so hard for people to understand?

How to Eat Local and Make it Work

Eating local is for the rich, but what about the rest of us?

If we want to eat fresh, locally-grown food, we need one of two things: a lot of time, or a lot of money to pay someone else for their time.

Because, let's face it: the reason processed foods are so popular is because they are cheap and fast.

Granted, they aren't as cheap as they used to be, and I've always maintained that it's possible to eat much more cheaply by buying the ingredients and making it yourself. As long as you buy what's in season and aren't trying to get the strawberries from Chili in January.

The article cited above is in the New York Times today, and tells us about people who can afford to pay someone to not just cook their food (hello Personal Chefs), but also to plant a garden for them and do all the work of maintaining it.

See, that's what I need. Not because I don't have time, but just because I can't seem to get the hang of making food grow.

But I can't afford to pay someone. And processing food takes time.

I spent a while this morning doing it again. I had five cucumbers from the CSA and what am I going to do with them? It's just me and my husband. I suppose I could use one cucumber a day on a salad for us, but really - we just don't eat that much. So I made cucumber soup. One jar in the frig for consumption this week, the other in the freezer for later.

Then there were those 3 big ears of corn from CSA. Darn - I was going to cook those last week, but I forgot about them. And back to my first dilemna, it's just the two of us. We can't eat 3 ears of corn at one sitting.

So I cut the corn off and froze it. Now I have a bag of corn I can toss into a soup or salad whenever I'm ready.

A week or two ago, I made yogurt, waffles, and carrot soup. Last night, I chopped up several of the red onions from the CSA and made onion soup. I steamed the pretty purple carrots and froze them for another meal. And don't forget all the plum things (preserves, sauce, pies...) I've been making and canning and freezing lately.

This is what is takes to buy food from our local farmers. Time and effort. I love doing it and I would do it even if I was working a full-time job. But most people don't feel that way about it. So they keep eating the cheap, convenient, lousy processed food.

We need co-ops. I'm giving this a lot of thought and I'm going to come up with a business plan. Sure, I can add it to my services as a Personal Chef. I'll be available to work for a group of people who want someone to process their food. But the real winning idea is for people to do it themselves.

Form co-ops and share the tasks. It could be done in several different ways - people working all week could have weekend work days where each member commits to work an hour or two. They could do it in shifts until all the food is processed, then everyone takes home their share. Or have a few people do it all one week, and different people do it all the next week. Whatever will work for that group.

I think it's essential that we come up with a way to do this. We cannot survive if we stay dependent on the Food Industry. I'll keep working on the idea and I'll write more about it as it develops. Once I have a plan in place, I want to get the word out. I'd love to help coordinate these groups. Give people ideas on how to do it, and pitch in and help, too.

Because eating local, organic food is NOT just for the rich. It's for all of us.

Diet Plans

What are your reasons for losing weight? What diet plan do you use?

These excellent questions have been raised by our local newspaper Diet Club sponsor, Joan Morris.

My reasons for wanting to lose weight run the gamut - I want to be healthy, live a long time, and look good while I'm doing it. I want clothes to fit. I want to not look seven months pregnant. I'm not sure I can decide which of those reasons carry the most weight (hah!), so I just let them all be my motivation. I've noticed a slight increase in things like blood pressure and cholesterol as my weight goes up, and I definitely want to keep those under control. My family has a history of heart disease, too. So I have to watch it.

I've been steadily gaining weight since I was 30, after a lifetime of skinniness. I weighed 95 pounds after the birth of my fourth child. It's taken over twenty years for me to truly understand that I can't eat the same amount of food that I could back in my breastfeeding days.
My problem is not eating "right." I'm the Earth momma you talked about (just not rail-thin), and I love fresh vegetables and whole grains. It's been about eight years since I revamped my diet in a major way by turning to fresh, organic food, more fish, less red meat and more vegetables. My husband and I both lost about twenty pounds when we did that. It was a lifestyle change and we still eat that way.

But all the weight didn't magically disappear, and it's come back more than once, and then some. With the advent of menopause, my weight has shot up and nothing seems to help. Hence, my second epiphany and another major lifestyle change: I must eat less.

A lot less, as it turns out. I'm still feeling my way on this, but I'm trying to cut my calories by at least a third. This isn't a "diet," this is probably forever, like giving up Burger King. My metabolism has slowed drastically, and my food intake needs to follow.

Do I follow a diet plan? No, because I refuse to eat processed food, especially things like artificial sweeteners, "lowfat" anything, or the latest snack with hoodia, or something. I don't eat snacks and I don't drink sodas. Basically, I refuse to eat what I call "laboratory food." I make all my own food from organic ingredients, bought from local producers, as much as possible. Just this morning, I made some yogurt from raw milk, a batch of granola, and a stack of waffles for the freezer. Eggos will never be in our house, but we'll never have the Weight Watchers version, either.

I like having control over what goes into my food. But the drawback is, that it's nearly impossible to keep track of calories, fat, and carbs. All the tables and databases I've found concentrate on processed food. None of them have information on flaxseed meal or amaranth grains. And even if I can find the information, I have to list every ingredient and do the math myself. Thank goodness for Excel.

But it's a hassle. After several years, I have a general idea of the nutritional value of my food, so I just don't bother anymore. My current meal plan follows my own hunger and blood sugar needs, based on years of observation. It's something like this:

A good breakfast of ½ cup of yogurt, ½ cup granola, and fresh fruit, with green tea = around 400 calories.

No lunch, if possible. Sometimes I'm lucky and not very hungry. If I have to eat something, then I try to have a salad or soup. But I try to keep daytime eating to under 300 calories.
Dinner has been the biggest change: my husband gets home around 7:00, so that's when we eat. I was having lots of problems with GERD and nighttime gas. It turns out that 7:00 is just too late for me to be eating. So I eat around 4 or 5, usually leftovers from the night before. When my husband gets home, I sit with him and have a glass of wine. On days that he is not working, we eat around 4:00. But whatever I do, dinner is a tiny amount of food. I aim for around 250 calories, but no more than 400, and that includes the wine (or beer or whatever).

If you added that up, you got 1100 calories. "Not enough to live on," I can hear you say. "You can't meet your nutritional requirements on that!"

I know, but it leaves me room to cheat. Because any meal plan I follow may as well include wiggle room. I'm going to do it, so I may as allow for it. A smidgeon of dessert, once in a while. Dinner out (where I eat a little and take the rest home, but the calories are still humongous). Lunch with my friends (never hungry for dinner on those days). Or it lets me add extra protein to the salad at lunch, or have a slice of truly yummy, excellent cheese. Or, goddess help me, I might have some bread. I love bread.

I do exercise, too, so I'm not depending on diet alone to solve the weight problem. If I can maintain this eating style--and it's fresh, Real Food, which gives me the highest benefit of nutrition from what I eat--then I will slowly lose the weight. Hopefully, I'll keep it off. But I recognize this is a permanent change I must make. No dieting for six months and going back to old habits. I'm just getting older, and I'll never be the lean, mean, calorie-burning machine I was in my twenties.

It means I think about food differently. I'm a chef, so I have a true love affair with food. I don't want that to end. Sometimes, I feel bitter - when did food become the enemy? But mostly, I try to truly appreciate what I CAN eat. Every meal is special, because I get to eat it. Guilt is not allowed. Just good health, good food, good company. And hopefully, long life.

The Evolution of Gastronomy

Cute video, by Roger Doiron. Really short.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkloPHbJJHc

Cooking Days

Yesterday was catch-up cookday. I had already simmered a batch of plums from our tree. The tree on the side of the yard was just loaded with the little cherry plums and I'd picked two huge bagfuls. The simmered batch was in the frig, waiting for me to have some time to finish processing it.

I poured them into pot and added a couple of cups of sugar and let it boil. I added another cup of sugar later and tons of cornstarch. But I've learned something about plums. They are nothing but juice once they're cooked. I was hoping to use this batch to make a couple of pies, but nothing I did got it thick enough. The meat of the plum completely disintegrates. Eventually, I poured it through a strainer to separate out the juice. I think what's left will make a decent pie. But what do I do with all that juice? It's got cornstarch in it, so it can't be used for syrup or a liqueur. I have in mind making a few batches of plum sauce, the kind that's used in Chinese food.

I used my new kitchenaid for the first time and made some dough for pie shells. I haven't tried to roll them out yet. Maybe I'll do that today. But I don't expect to make the pies, right now. I'm waiting until next week when Francisco and Cahlil are here. They can help us eat it. I'll have to make some ice cream, too.

I also used up the two batches of mint that I had. I minced them up and combined it with mustard and yogurt to make a sauce. It will be good on sandwiches and maybe with some meat. I still have lamb chops in the freezer. I'll do the best I can with it - mint is so hard to use.

Then I shredded a batch of carrots and made soup, which we used for dinner. So good. I could eat bowls and bowls of that stuff. The batch of purple carrots I steamed whole and put in the freezer. I'll use them with dinner next week.

I think that's all I cooked yesterday. On Friday, I made a batch of pesto with all that basil from the CSA. I was going to coat the halibut with it and broil it for dinner, but we ended with Naomi and John over, so instead I made it into a cream sauce with pasta and poached the halibut in the sauce. It went further that way and it was really good.

Canning Day

Yesterday, I decided to relieve our cherry-plum trees of some of their burden. The branches were almost touching the ground, so heavily laden were they with fruit. I picked about a third of what I could reach from just one tree. The picture below is about half of what I picked.

There's enough there for about 8 small jars of preserves. I know, because I already cooked the other half and they are cooling on my counter, now:

We've never really figured out what these fruits are. They're about the size of cherries, but they definitely look like plums, inside and out. It's not a cherry pit, either - nope, it's a plum. But little ones. So we just call them cherry-plums and let it go at that.

This was my first experience using pectin. I have an extra jar that I didn't have space to boil, so when it cools, I'll have a chance to check out my attempt. I do have to say though, that the jam tastes good!

Cooking Day for Me

This morning, in a cooking frenzy, I chopped, steamed, and roasted my way through all the veggies in my frig. I cut up all the carrots (3 bunches), one to add to tonight's lamb stew, one (the pretty purple ones) were steamed whole to serve as a side dish one night, and the third was chopped and sauteed with the Napa cabbage.

I roasted the young garlic, and dug out the Cuisinart to shred my block of parmesan and make pesto. Yum! The pesto inspired me to take a rib-eye steak from the freezer to thaw. I'll coat it with the pesto and broil it. Maybe tomorrow night.

So now that I've accomplished all that (and tossed the refuse onto the compost pile), I'm all set to get the rest of day accomplished. Including this entry!

Dinner Plans

I have some masa, so I think I'll make sopes and serve them with some of the leftover meat from the other day. I wish it were dinner time, now.

I'm going out of town for a couple of days, so I need to have meals ready for my husband. That should be easy - we have lots of leftovers. Sometimes, he ends up just having an apple or something, but that's his choice. I always try to leave him a good meal.

Today is a CSA day, so I have to remember to pick up my box. I am behind once again. I need to use up the peas from last week.

I need to make granola, too. I've got enough for one more breakfast, which will be tomorrow. Should also check on the waffle situation. I haven't been eating them, so I don't know how many are left.

I do have plenty of yogurt. I'm not always able to find raw milk, so when it's there, I buy half a gallon and make a double batch. For a while, I tried to "be good" and make yougurt using nonfat milk. Ech. I mean it's okay, but nowhere near the creamy, yummy goodness of the real thing. I find I'm much more satisfied after eating half a cup of my Real Yogurt, than I am eating an entire cup of the nonfat stuff. I need that fat charge in the morning and there's no use pretending I can do without it. I just end up eating more food to make up for it and still don't lose weight. Might even gain some!

Successful experiment

My experiment in the crockpot went pretty well, yesterday. I had a package of meat in the freezer labeled "soup bones" and I had thawed it out to use in making the meat sauce for the lasagna. But upon unwrapping it, I discovered it was one bone with LOTS of meat around it. The kind that would need a few hours to cook, and I didn't have that much time.

So I saved it for the crockpot. Before leaving yesterday, I sliced up some onions, carrots, and cabbage, and added them to the pot, along with some green chilies, jalapenos, the meat, white vinegar, beef broth, some cumin, and salt and pepper.

Oh yeah. This was good. I served it simply, with some corn chips and a nice salad. It would be good on sopas or in tacos, too. There's plenty left; I'm sure I'll do something like that.

Today will just be leftovers, I think. I've got some lamb curry that needs to be used up. I'm getting hungry now - need some lunch!

Diets and good food

Cooking has been rushed lately and my meals are also falling victim to my intense desire to lose a little weight. I won't "go on a diet," meaning I'm not going jump on someone's bandwagon and eliminate carbs or eat only tomato soup, or anything like that. I already eat a nutritious and varied diet, I just need to eat LESS of it.

That's really hard for me to do. But I'm working at it. And yes, I'm trying to exercise more. "Trying" being the operative word, there.

But Saturday, I made a yummy chicken meal by crushing some homemade croutons and breading the chicken with them. I browned the chicken on the stove, then transferred it to the oven to finish cooking. Mmmmm, tender and juicy. I only ate a small amount, along with a substantial helping of salad.

Then followed it up with a tiny bit of ricotta ice cream over a bite of brownie, garnished with a sliced strawberry and a few blueberries.

You see my problem.

Yesterday was my grandson's birthday and I made a lunch of lasagna (meat sauce with sliced zucchini and chopped beet greens layered with the ricotta cheese and noodles). We also had a big salad and lemon meringue pie for dessert.

This was a great meal and I had just one serving of lasagna. No dinner later, I just had a slice of whole grain bread with some hummus. That was pretty good, too.

Today I have an experiment in the crock pot, because I'm spending the day shopping for a wedding dress with my youngest daughter. That should be fun!

I've Been Challenged!

My daughter, Mary, has issued a challenge in response to my entry in April on "Feeding Our Families": she's going to try and start a food co-op in San Diego if I work on one in Pleasant Hill.

If anyone can do it, Mary can. I hope I can, too!

Mary already has a step in the door, since she and her husband have a weekly "shared meal" with their friends. This is what's missing in American life - friends and family getting together to share the planning, preparation, eating, and cleaning up, of a meal! Not just the women, either! The guys do just as much as the women!

Me? Nada. I'd have to start at the beginning, like advertising for people who'd like to share. That seems a little iffy. I need the co-op part of the co-op! I'm keeping my eyes and ears open. This is an idea whose time has come and I suspect the people are out there, waiting.

Chicken Dinner

Such a yummy dinner, last night. I thawed the whole chicken from the CSA, cut off its head and feet and proceeded to cut the thing in appropriate pieces. This is not something I do very often, but it didn't go too badly. I used the back and neck to make more broth for the freezer.

The rest I soaked in buttermilk, then dredged in a mixture of crushed cornflakes, coconut, and salt. I baked it at 400 for about 30 or 40 minutes, until it was crispy and cooked through. Served it with a homemade sweet-and-sour sauce (which runs circles around that sickly red stuff they serve in Chinese restaurants), and some steamed bok choy tossed in Mirin wine.

Oh, that chicken was good! The meat was tender and juicy, the crust was crusty, nutty and sweet. The whole thing was perfect with banana daiquiris. Sort of a tropical meal, even though the weather is cooling off.

Blueberries!

The bushes I planted 4 or 5 years ago have produced berries for the first time! I'm really stoked about this - I love blueberries, but they are so expensive. I planted 4 bushes and have been waiting patiently to see if they would produce.

This picture is of the biggest plant. Two others also have a few berries growing. One has no berries, although it had a few flowers this year. Still, it looks healthy and I think it will grow some eventually. There are not a lot of berries yet, but that's okay. It'll happen.

I've picked a few and they taste great. This morning, I put them on my cereal. What a lovely feeling.

Long Weekend

Memorial Day is coming up and we've had the weather for it. It's been hot!

But, the Bay Area being what it is, it has already begun to cool off. Still, I think we'll have some pleasant weather for parades and cook-outs.

No cook-outs for me this year, though. This weekend (Friday through Monday) I'm feeding my science fiction addiction and attending BayCon, the SF convention in Santa Clara. I'm workshopping my book, looking for feedback from people in the Industry.

What's that? You're concerned that food will be a challenge at the convention?

Boy, are you ever right about that!

I could take my lunch. The problem is, meals at these things tend to be great opportunities for networking, or just plain socializing. What's an aspiring writer to do?

Eat lots of salad, I guess. And try to pretend it doesn't bother me if the ingredients were grown in South America or China, using lots of chemicals. I will do my best. I plan on researching the hotel and finding out if they have any Real Food on the premises. It is the Bay Area. I have hope.

This Saturday, however, we are deserting the convention for the A's. This will be my first baseball game of the season and I can't wait! Excitement is tempered, sadly, by the horrid report in last week's paper about the state of the food facilities at the coliseum. I'm not sure I'll be able to enjoy my hot link and beer.

Things like that make me want to take over all the food production and make sure it's clean. There really is no excuse for poor sanitation.

So I have a strange and exciting weekend coming up, one where food is strictly a side issue. But for me, it's always important, and I'll be on the lookout for the Best Food I can find.

Holidays and Cookbooks

I did have a post last week, but Blogger ate it and I didn't have the energy to write it again. In fact, I've learned my lesson: write all posts in Word first, then copy into the blog. Anything to reduce stress!

Whatever that entry was about is long gone from my mind, so I'll start with something new. I got a new cookbook for Mother's Day!

It's nearly impossible to give me a cookbook as a gift and not make me happy. This one is Food to Live By and it's put out by Myra Goodman of Earthbound Farms.

First of all, the pictures are fantastic. Not just the food - there are wonderful pictures of the farm in Carmel, including cute little kids on field trips discovering that food grows in the dirt! The cookbook was very popular with everyone gathered at my house yesterday. My daughters had to look through it page by page. In fact, I just got of glimpse of it - I didn't get to sit down with it until everyone went home!

Obviously, I haven't tried any recipes yet. But they all look wonderful - lots of salads of course, but also a chapter on meats and one on pasta and another on vegetables, and dessert, too! There's also an entire chapter on raspberries, which made me want to run right out and plant a few bushes. I may do that, anyway!

So what did we do for Mother's Day? I like to cook - you knew that - but it's often a problem for my daughters, who like to cook, too. Since, as Mom, I'm not supposed to do anything, I was told they'd bring the ingredients and we could all cook things together! I thought that was a great solution, because I love sharing the kitchen with my kids and grandkids.

It was hectic and crowded. Lots of "excuse me, I need to get in that drawer" kind of thing, but we all had fun.

I made the Cheeseboard Collective's wonderful oat scones and had them ready early, so people could munch while they worked. While Lydia made a gorgeous fruit salad (we put the grandkids to work washing and slicing strawberries), Gloria and I made the Cheeseboard's Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins. Gloria zested and juiced the lemon and mixed it with the sugar, yogurt, and cream, while I mixed the dry ingredients.

When all that was done, Lydia made Strawberry Bellini's. This took a lot of attention from everyone, since my ancient blender decided to go on the blink, and we tried to figure out what was wrong. We ended up using the immersion blender. I love those things, but they aren't great for large batches.

But it all worked and they got the strawberries pureed and strained and mixed with cold prosecco and poured into wine glasses. Oh, they were good!

Cahlil, the almost-12-year-old, whipped up some cream for the salad and then made scrambled eggs - he's got the food bug, too! I fried up some bacon and brunch was ready.

A great time. I sent the leftovers home with the kids, saving two oat scones for Rick and I. I forgot to send the leftover whipped cream with the kids, so I'm going to make little "nests" on a baking sheet and freeze them. They'll be great for future desserts!

Spring cooking

Ah, fava beans. Aren't they great?

We had some last night, just mashed like they were potatoes, with a smidge of butter, cream, and salt. I served them as a side with pork roast and a salad.

Now frankly, I think the best way to have them is pureed with garlic and salt and served on crostini, but I didn't have any. Crostini, that is. I have no bread in the house at all, which puts me in a mild sort of panic. But we're heading out of town for a couple of days and I don't have time to make more. I'll get to it on Sunday, I promise.

I've been busier than usual, so cooking has been reduced to using the leftovers stored in my freezer, although I am still getting the CSA veggies every week and that gets me in front of the stove once in while. Hence, the fava bean fun.

Oh, and the peas! I love peas, always have. I remember chasing them around my plate as a child, making sure I got every last sweet morsel. My CSA is very generous with peas and I find, these days, my favorite way to eat them is raw, on a salad. Crunchy and sweet!

We also got the World's Best Strawberries in the box last week. They don't get any more perfect than those were, although I'm hoping for more that will be just as good. I made a sweet sauce with the last bit of my raw whole milk, a touch of stevia, and some cornstarch. Just mixed it together and microwaved it until it was slightly thick. I served the sauce with the sliced strawberries and a few amaretti cookies. A wonderful, light dessert!

Feeding our Families

As people with full schedules and limited budgets, how do we get everything done? I'm at a reasonable point in life: my kids are grown and out on their own, and it's just me and my husband. He works full-time, I'd like to work that much, but my business is not that busy.

Even so, we have very little free time. People with jobs and kids - whoa. You people are busy!

I remember. I raised 5 children as a single parent, and I went to college and worked full-time while I was doing it. Let's just say I was a bit more - ahem - organized, in those days. And my house wasn't real clean.

I knew a lot less about food back then, but I still knew it was important to cook my own food as much as possible and to use whole grains and limit the soda (my kids hated that!). I refused to buy sweet cereal for my kids. It was reserved for a birthday treat. Five times a year, the birthday kid could pick any cereal they wanted for all of them to eat. It was always a lot of fun to watch them hit the cereal aisle on those days!

I got up at 5:30 and read the newspaper and cooked a homemade breakfast for my kids. And for me, too - breakfast is still my favorite meal of the day. I loved waking them up and watching them sit down to a hot breakfast. I also packed lunches for them - in those days, I didn't know better and we used a lot of Little Debbie snacks. I wouldn't go near that stuff, anymore!

I cooked dinner every night and I was a master at the fast, homemade meal. Of course, we were quite poor too, so we had our share of Top Ramen, which I tried to supplement with leftover meat or frozen vegetables.

All of this is to say that I understand what families are going through. So when I preach about eating whole grains and buying local, organic produce and NEVER using processed foods, yeah, yeah, yeah...

I know what I'm asking you to do. I know it's not easy.

But I also know it's possible.

I have an idea and I'd like some input from women about it. It involves a community kitchen.

The idea is that a group of people - neighbors, co-workers, PTA, whatever - forms a co-op, of sorts. The co-op plans menus, shops for ingredients, and cooks the meals. Members can pick up their prepared meals to take home, or they could eat at the kitchen and enjoy a little social interaction.

This could be done in member's homes and the homes could rotate, so no member is stuck with all the work. Or, the co-op could rent a commercial kitchen for the purpose.

This could be carried a step further and members could grow their own vegetables, too. The co-op could buy from area farmers and ranchers, so members would have the best food available, for a much cheaper price.

There is a kitchen doing something like this in Berkeley: Three Stone Hearth. I buy from them sometimes, and I love what they are doing. I don't know how big the co-ops would have to be to make it viable, but it would be great to have hundreds of these in communities across the country. Small is better, really - so no one is tempted to industrialize the food.

So there it is. Any comments?

The Cost of Food

The shock and awe over food prices continues. It's been in the paper practically every day for the last week.

First, they tell us food is costing more. Then they give us the usual tips on how to save money, which really only work if you have a job and a car.

I don't know why all this bothers me so much. Part of it is the nagging thought in the back of my head that Americans pay less for their food than any other country in the world. We pay less for gas too, but even liberals are complaining these days about the cost of that.

It's all relative, of course. Who cares how much they pay in France or Japan or the Congo? What matters is how much I paid a year ago and how much I'm paying now! But even with that criterian, I have to ask "why is it bothering us?"

May I suggest (meekly and humbly) that it bothers us because we have no control over it?

If you have $10 to spend on anything you want, and what you really want is a new CD of that hot new (whatever - I'm clueless, here) but CDs cost $20, what are you going to do?

You don't buy a CD. You either put the money away until you have enough to buy it, or you get something else. But you can't do that with food. You have to eat. Right?

Well, yeah.

For myself, I ask a couple of questions.

1. Do I really need to eat as much as I do? For me, this is an honest question and the answer is an unqualified "No." I can buy less food because it wouldn't hurt at all for me to cut back. How many of us is this true for?

2. Can I eat less meat? Here again, I realize I can cut back. Meat is expensive. We don't need it twice a day or even once a day. Try going for 3 times a week, tops. And don't be afraid of cheaper cuts of meat. Do you have crock pot? Throw it in there and let it simmer all day. That meat will be tender and delicious by dinnertime.

3. How much am I spending on processed food? The stuff in boxes and cans that's frozen or vacuum sealed. Okay, for me, this is a really, really small amount of money. I just don't buy much of this stuff. Maybe a few cans of diced tomatoes and tomato paste. Some condiments. Occasionally, a bag or two of frozen vegetables. Sometimes I'll buy a can of beans or broth to have in the pantry, but I try not to do that, either.

I've started cooking up a batch of beans and freezing it by the cupful. If I need beans for something, I can grab these from the freezer. Same with broth, although I'm not as consistent about this. I get whole chickens from my CSA once in a while, and I usually roast it. But I'll simmer up the leftover pieces like the back and the wings and any bones and then I'll freeze that, too, usually by the cupful. It's harder to make my own beef broth, so usually I'll buy that if I need it. I'll make vegetable broth when I'm overwhelmed with veggies from the CSA.

I know it can be frustrating for a lot of women with jobs and kids and husbands, to hear about this kind of thing. If you couldn't tear open the cardboard box and throw the container in the microwave for dinner, your family would never eat.

And folks, THAT is a societal problem. We've lost something important with our busy lives and long commutes. One of the results of this is a loss of control. We've turned over responsibility for our food to an Industry, and we are paying for it. With money: with higher prices we can do nothing about; with our health: by eating cheap, unsafe food loaded with salt, sugar, corn syrup, and perservatives; and with our environment: with monoculture and feedlots and collapsing bee colonies.

I know you can't do it all. You need conveniences. But we seriously need to find a better way and I'd really love to hear suggestions. My own ideas are so radical, they'd never get out the door.

Our Meat

There was such a great article in the Times yesterday, that I was almost sorry I had to work and couldn't write about it immediately. Let me make up for that now.

"Meet Your Meat" was the name of the article and the reporter, Jenny Slafkosky, didn't pull any punches. Kudos to her. While a goodly portion of the article was in defense of carnivorism, she also used a lot of space talking about the dangers of eating meat and putting the blame right where it belongs: at the feet of our food industry and Big Ag.

Humans have always eaten meat and for most of our history, we haven't eaten an awful lot of it. For most people, meat was an occasional and lucky thing, enough to make the brain grow and intelligence to evolve, but not so much that we got fat and clogged arteries. A bit more regular meat in our early diets might have been a good thing, health-wise, but what we had was generally enough.

When meat came along, our ancestors used every bit of it. No animal died to provide just a T-bone steak and filet mignon.

We all know what it's like now. Our country is dotted with feedlots filled with sick and distressed animals, shot up with antibiotics and growth hormone, fed corn and muck and the meat of their own kind, until they are big enough to slaughter. Only the "good" cuts of meat are sold to consumers, the rest is ground up to be fed back to other animals.

Animals that don't eat meat. Animals with digestive systems that evolved to eat grass.

For once, a reporter is very clear on all this and clear on its connection to the way we shop and what we eat and the state of our health. Clear on environmental damage done when rivers of feces from the feedlots flow into our rivers or seep into our groundwater supply or nearby crops.

She doesn't shy away from telling us that our generations-long diet of convenience food has separated us from the food we eat and that we are poorer people because of it.

To me, the issue is not whether humans should eat meat or not. We evolved to eat meat, most of us still do, and I don't see the point in apologizing for it. We should eat a lot less than we do. And we should absolutely be aware of what we are doing and do it thoughtfully. We should insist our animals are raised in kindness, eating the food they evolved to eat. We should insist they are slaughtered with care, as much as possible without fear. We should use the whole animal.

I'll admit, I balk at the idea of eating brains. I've had heart, tongue, liver and while they aren't my favorite, I suppose I could have them once in a while. I guess my preference is to find something else we can use them for, like the Inuits use seal oil for their lamps (although they also eat it). I don't know what to suggest, but it's worth thinking about.

Eating less meat would really go a long way toward solving some of this problem. Recent recalls of meat have been in the millions of pounds range. Millions of pounds. And that's just what was recalled. How much meat to we need to slaughter in this country? To me, this is an incredible number.

I think it's all done just because our meat is in the hands of factory farmers. I'm sure there's a point where the market is saturated, but it seems that the more they slaughter, the more we buy. I'd be interested to know how much is thrown away in this country. If thousands of pounds of meat spoils because it wasn't purchased, how do the factory farmers account for it? And does the government (meaning you and I, the taxpayers) subsidize them for it? How accountable do they have to be for every pound of meat they raise and slaughter?

The immediate solution is the same old litany you hear every time: buy local, buy sustainable. Look for a CSA that delivers meat from local ranchers who raise their animals in the pasture. Find a farmer's market that has a meat vendor. Find out which ranchers in your area raise sustainable meat and sell it to the markets. Don't buy Tyson chicken or ConAgra meat or any of the junk in the pretty plastic packages at Safeway.

Be aware.

Food, corn, and money

There's talk about food prices, these days.

They've gone up a bit, haven't they?

I hear some blame is being placed on the ethanol bandwagon and I have no doubt this is a cause. Corporate-owned farmers will plant what will bring in the most money and screw the rest of the planet. This is why some California farmers are selling their water at exorbitant prices instead of growing crops.

But don't let me go there. It's not good for my blood pressure.

So why is the price of corn (the base crop for ethanol) making ALL the food prices go up? If you said, "because corn is in nearly everything we eat" you get a prize!

If you eat processed foods, meaning nearly anything you buy from a store like Safeway, Ralph's, or Wal-mart, you are eating corn. And if you think this is healthy - it's not.

The only way to avoid so much corn, is to buy grass-fed meat, organic, free-range eggs, organic, local produce, organic grains, and do all your own cooking.

If you buy a can of something, it's more than likely got corn in it. It's possible, I suppose, that the organic version of beans or tomatoes or chicken broth, won't have corn in it. But the regular stuff will. Even your milk will give you corn, because that's what they stuff into the cow's feed. So you need to buy organic milk from cows that eat grass.

I almost laughed this morning when I read the article in the Contra Costa Times about food prices. The industry is using corn as an excuse! These are the same people who will never, under normal circumstances, admit that corn is in everything they make. But now they are forced to confess, because people are demanding to know why food is getting so expensive.

Yes, I know. The Real Food has always been more expensive, which is why so many people don't eat it. So now, the Fake Food is catching up with Real Food in price. Real Food doesn't need to raise its price because nothing has changed.

Now which one are you going to eat?

Easy plans

After a night with almost no sleep, I'm running on fumes. So I'm doing what I tell my customers to do: I'm pulling out one of my prepared meals from the freezer and nuking it.

I've got lamb coming up. I'll steam some broccoli since I have a frig full of CSA veggies. That will be about it, folks. My body is begging for rest.

Quick Dinners

Did I tell you about the Italian pork chops?

This is an example of super-easy, super-fast cooking. Moms and Dads can get this meal on the table in 15 minutes.

Break an egg into a bowl and beat it up with a bit of milk. In another bowl mix up some bread crumbs and Italian seasoning.

Heat a skillet on medium-high with a tablespoon or two of olive oil. Dip your pork chops in the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Cook them in the oil for about 2 or 3 minutes on each side (depending on the thickness of the chops).

Serve with a salad and some steamed peas or whatever is in season. I don't think you need a starch, since you have breadcrumbs on the meat, but if you have hungry teenagers, you can serve some warmed whole-grain bread. This will keep you in the 15 minute range.

Oh yeah. Good for chicken, too.

But you know what's really good? Preserved lemons.

I made up a batch of these a few months ago, and oh-my-goodness, they are good! Last night, I found this recipe on Cooking Light. What a marvelous taste sensation! The sweet, salt, tart flavor was a delight. And only a few ingredients!

I ran out of time while preparing this dish, so I left the skillet on the stove and poured the sauce over the chicken and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. The sauce boiled down to a thick, syrupy goodness and delicately coated the chicken breasts. I used boneless, skinless breasts, so there was no need to strain the sauce.

The flavor is just amazing when cooking with these lemons. I recommend keeping a jar in your refrigerator for use any time!

Local Food for Institutions

Now THIS is what it's all about!

A farm co-op: Grown Locally

Fish

Since we're always looking for ways to improve our health, my husband and I have taken to eating more fish. I try to buy from the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch list, which tells me what fish are in season and are environmentally safe. That's the easy part.

Preparing fish takes more thought. But there are so many options: baking, broiling, grilling, frying, poaching... How about a fish soup? Or paella? It's not so much figuring out what to do, as it is choosing what to do!

But the other night, I outdid myself. It was the kind of meal that makes me want to lick my fingers, and no - I'm not going to tell you if I did that, or not.

We had some mahi-mahi fillets and I dipped them in breadcrumbs and coconut, then pan-fried it in a little oil. I made a yummy sweet-and-sour sauce to pour over the fillets, cooked up a batch of spinach and served it all with a salad.

Mmmm. Coconut. And sweet-and-sour. What a treat it all was.

I picked the sweet-and-sour sauce from About.com and it can be found here.

My Late St. Patrick's Day

Being part Irish, but not Catholic, St. Patrick's Day is purely for fun around here. But since I was working the on the Day Itself, I had to put off any celebration for a week. THEN we had a party.

Not a rowdy party. We're not that young. But we had four friends over and I cooked dinner and we listened to Irish music and had a good time. That's what it's about, isn't it?

Here's a side issue that I face everytime we have people over:

I've taken to setting up appetizers on a card table in the living room. It's the only way I can think of to get people to go in there. Otherwise, I swear that every party I have would take place just in the kitchen. With a small table and four chairs, we end up with a lot of people standing around. I don't know why this happens, but it does. It must have something to do with the layout of the house or the furniture. It's a straight shot from the front door to the kitchen, but you have to go left around a banister and left again between a table and the sofa to get into the living room. The way the furniture is arranged makes the living room kind of closed off. Maybe people feel trapped.

But I like the card table idea: for this party, I put on a nice spring tablecloth, some green and white flowers, and my Celtic Cookbook propped up behind all the food. I located several books about Ireland and spread them around the living room, so people could glance through them if they wanted. I had a tray of steamed asparagus and cut jicama surrounding a dip of goat cheese and chives. Another tray held crostini's with a bean spread. This was really colorful and quite good. The recipe is below.

I also put out a block of Irish Cheddar and made cocktails of Guinness and champagne (a Black Velvet). This all made for a nice time to sit around and catch up with our friends and their latest adventures.

Dinner was corned beef and cabbage, and I say "why not?" Maybe we're all peasant stock, but we loved it. The brisket was from a grass-fed cow and so tender it felt just like butter. The cabbage was from my CSA farm and so were the potatoes I threw in there. A few organic carrots rounded out the dish.

I also made that delicious Soda Bread - a crusty, brown loaf of tender wheat and buttermilk, with butter melting on each slice. Dessert was simple: sliced strawberries with whipped cream sweetened with Stevia. We served everything with a fruity Zin or a Sauvignon Blanc.

It was all wonderful.

So the holiday was done in style, with friends and love. It didn't matter at all, that it was a week late.

Bean Crostini (modified from Cooking Light):

1 bunch Kale or other greens (I used Swiss chard since that's what I had from the CSA)
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 medium onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1 can cannellini beans, drained and washed
3 small tomatoes (plum works best), seeded and chopped
Salt and pepper
Baguette slices, toasted

Wash and chop the greens. Cook in 3 cups boiling water for 6 minutes. Drain, reserving one cup of liquid.

Sautee the onion, garlic, and oregano in the olive oil for 5 minutes, then add the beans, tomatoes, and reserved liquid. Cook for 3 minutes, and mash with a potato masher until beans are crushed, but not puréed. Add the greens and stir well. Let simmer until most of the liquid is gone.

Add salt and pepper to taste. Spread on toasted baguette slices and serve.

Spring Work

I can tell that Spring is going to make demands. I hope I never give the impression that I think eating local, in-season food is easy. It doesn't have to be hard, but it does take some planning. And some time of actual doing.

Every week, when I get that CSA box of produce, I have to process it. This happens on Wednesday evening, and must be done, even if I've been cooking all day and just got home. Now, it's not an impossible job. But at the very least, I have to bag everything up and refrigerate it, or store it in the appropriate basket on the counter. If I'm exhausted, this is as far as I get.

If possible, I try to start using things right away. One or two vegetables can be used for dinner. Fruit can be prepped for breakfasts. If I have time, I like to make a quiche using the spring onions and greens that are in most boxes. I can package the quiche in individual servings and heat one up for a quick breakfast. If there are radishes or cucumbers that can be used for salads, I like to wash and chop them, so they are ready to toss into a salad (or in that quiche!). This all helps to make sure we actually eat the veggies, rather than tossing them our compost pile.

Spring is also planting time and I'm busy with that, too. I've got some seedlings growing and I'm adding compost to the garden bed to prep it. And as the seedlings get to the harvest stage (see how hopeful I am?) then I'll need to make sure I eat or preserve them all, so THEY don't end up on the compost.

I'm also on the lookout for fresh, local eggs. At this point, I just haven't found a consistent source. Yeah, I'd love to have my own chickens, but it's not in the cards for now. Maybe someday.

Have you had the asparagus, yet? It's here and it's wonderful. Grab it while it's in season!

Baking Days

Today, I made scones.

Oat scones. With whole wheat flour, of course.

Oh my goodness, they were good.

I used the recipe from my new "Cheeseboard Colllective Works", that fabulous cookbook from Cheeseboard Collective with actual recipes for their amazing scones and pizzas.

The scones I made today were for a client. I may have to make some for me.

I also got to make two loaves of Rosemary-Olive Bread.

Most clients must watch they eat, and they don't ask for baked goods. I can't eat them much, either.

So it's a real treat to have a client who wants this stuff.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I really am half Irish, and on this day, when all the world lays claim to Irish blood, we can all celebrate some part of Ireland's gifts to world.

I celebrate the mysticism, the incredible, lush land, the words, the songs, and the food.

I know that Irish cooking is usually considered up there with British cooking, when it comes to bland and boring. But even at their worst, both cultures have given us something we can feel good about, whether it's Yorkshire pudding from Britain, or Lamb Stew from Ireland.

And if you're really in doubt, go buy "Celtic Folklore Cooking" by Joanne Asala. Those people knew their land and the rivers and their ocean, and they used them all in delicious and inventive cooking.

Modern Ireland has been neck-and-neck with the rest of the world in embracing "Real Food." Some of the best chefs in the world live there and they've returned to the roots of Celtic food: Ireland's rivers and the ocean provide a diverse array of fish and seaweed, her green hills provide the best beef and lamb, the creamiest butter and yogurt, and even in that rocky soil, the Irish farmer has coaxed many vegetables besides potatoes.

So quaff a beer, find a unique Irish dish to have for dinner, put on some Irish music (no, not the unicorn song - find some real stuff), and wear green.

Here's to Ireland: blessings be!

Running behind

People are finding "Meals by Marlene" and I'm quite happy about that! Welcome to all my new clients and almost-clients! I hope your dinners and breakfasts add happiness to your days!

This means that I'm busier than ever, and with my new writing "career" demanding that I sit down occasionally and write, darn it - well, I'm spinning in circles, right now! I hope everyone will be patient with me.

I've often wished the Earth spun a little more slowly and gave us longer days. Spring is one of the worst times for this, because while the days are getting longer, they still aren't long enough.

On a typical non-cook day, I get five minutes with the newspaper in the morning, ten minutes in the garden, 30 minutes to exercise (which I haven't done yet, today), blog entries, responding to other people's blog entries, paperwork for upcoming cook days, networking meetings, updating my website (yes, I hear you calling for attention, I hear you!), bookkeeping, working with the board of my professional businesswomen's group, and I haven't even started working on the writing side of things.

I'm having a blast. But with all the kids grown up and gone, and college finished, and no full-time job for four years - I've forgotten how to be organized. You can say I've gotten lazy, but I might raise an eyebrow at that. I think I'm disorganized. I know how to fix that and I'm working on it.

But it would sure help to have a few more hours everyday.

The World Outside

Let's see: in recent news, we have drugs in our water, raw milk dairies under attack, a drastic upcoming year for salmon fishing, and farmers cutting down trees because they don't have the water to give them. While other farmers are deliberately plowing under fields and selling water at exorbinant prices - water they received at a huge discount from the state.

So what am I going to talk about?

My garden. Because today, I am excited about my garden.

Mind you, my garden is a wishful thought more than anything else, but I have one, and every year, I try again to actually grow something. I started a compost a year or two ago, and yesterday, as I was turning it -

I saw worms.

Lots of worms. I had been thinking of ordering worms through the mail, so that I'd have plenty of these earth-turners and compost-builders in my pile. But I never got around to it and now, they are here.

I turned the pile gently and made sure as many as possible were safely tucked inside. I figured the rest would find their way over on their own.

Good times.

Yesterday, too, I got up on my step stool and watered the seeds I planted in little cartons and have sitting on top of my refrigerator.

And I saw little green shoots.

You have no idea how amazing this is to me. Plants just don't grow for me, but several of my seeds - sown with bated breath and daring hope - are actually beginning to sprout. I wait with anxious anticipation to see what happens next.

Gaia has her work cut out for her in my yard. I hope she's pulling for me.

The Almost Point or Musings about Leaves

Have you noticed the flowers? The buds on the trees and, oh-my-goodness, the weeds? The ground is waking up and stretching. Even here, in our so-mild Bay Area winters, the soil needs to rub the sleep from its eyes and send tentative tendrils up to check the weather.

We are at the Almost Point.

The Almost Point catches me unawares every Spring, when the last of the winter crops are begging to be eaten, but the first of Spring's goodies are not quite ready.

Almost.

Soon, we'll have asparagus again. Soon, the berries will make an appearance and we'll have rainbows of red and blue and yellow to choose from. I've seen artichokes in the store but didn't have time to see if they were locally grown. But the fava beans are there, too and the greens along with them.

Spring is Almost here. So much food to eat and preserve. So little time.

I had a fun new experience last week, when my CSA box came with a beautiful, sweet cauliflower wrapped in a blanket of its own leaves.

Having grown up in suburban America, I didn't know cauliflowers had so many leaves. Large, elegant leaves that wrap around the vegetable. And I was suspicious.

Can they be eaten? I wondered. I bet they can.

They can.

I steamed with a batch of bok choy that needed to be used, along with a spring onion and sprinkle of soy sauce. Oh yes. Very good.

Why - grocery stores of America - why have you wasted years of our lives peeling off and throwing away these marvelous sources of greenness? Why have you taken your newly-naked, shivering cauliflower and wrapped it in plastic before placing in on the shelf?

At least two generations of Americans have grown up thinking this is what cauliflower looked like. We've grown obese and malnourished, while you've been throwing away our nutritious food.

We never had a chance.

I'm so glad it's Almost Spring. I'm not going to let a single plant get away from me this year. If we don't eat it within a few days, it gets cooked and put away for the future. Or dried. Or canned. Or frozen.

Leaves and all.

Can you find local produce?

Who prevents us from buying fresh, local fruits and vegetables?

Did you guess the government? Move to the head of the class!

Jack Hedin tells us what happens to small organic farmers who try to expand in order to meet demand. Add to this, the massive transfer of land so that corn can be grown for ethanol, and you'll see how hard it will be in some areas for people to find local food.

Since I live in California, which is not a big grain-grower, I have lots of fresh produce to choose from. But Jack is right about the supermarkets. Except for Whole Foods, none of the big chains have local produce.

And Jack points out that California's Big Ag is one of the culprits in this problem - our mono-culture corporate growers want to have all the sales. And they want government to protect them from the small fry.

Is that hypocrisy I smell from these "free-market" types?

This isn't the way to run a country, folks. Or an economy. Leave the small farmer alone and let him grow for the local people.

Unethical business

Another recent newspaper article caught my attention. This one is about California berry growers who are unhappy with new restrictions on pesticides. It has to do with the air pollution caused by spraying the fumigant. The pollution violates the Clean Air Act.

The growers say they'll have to stop growing strawberries if the regulations take effect. Only strawberries, evidently, make enough money to make it worth it for them to grow anything. No strawberries - no nothing, is what they are saying. They'll let the land lie fallow.

Hallelujah. Let it lie fallow. Let the soil recover from pesticide poisoning and then grow something organically. Something that nurtures the soil and the air and is safe for people to eat.

Honestly, conventional strawberries are one the worst fruits you can eat, when it comes to the amount of pesticides passed on to the consumer. It never ceases to astonish me that these things sell at all.

Why are people still buying them? Why doesn't everybody ignore the conventionally grown berries and buy the organic ones?

But you know what really gets my goat? It's the attitude of business. Particularly, of the farmers who grow these conventional crops, but also of business in general. Because this attitude is everywhere.

It's the idea that I, as a business owner (of any kind of business) have the right to produce my product for the cheapest rate I can. That I have the right to destroy rivers, soil, air, to poison people (as long as it can't be "proven"), to cause erosion, to wipe out species of fish or birds or animals or plants, to hire illegal immigrants and pay them starvation wages, to do anything I can get away with, for as long as I can get away with it.

As long as I can make a profit.

I can hear your eyes rolling. But look, I'm a business owner. I have nothing against making a profit. And you know, I could make a better profit if I covered the cost of my clients' groceries and went to the cheapest grocery store on the block and bought old, marked-down meat, produce, and canned goods loaded with perservatives. I could easily charge my clients enough to cover the cost of these groceries twice over.

Great bottom line!

But it's not honest. It's not ethical. I feel strongly enough about it to run my own business in an ethical way. And I feel that every single business, everywhere, should be run in such a way. No corners cut. No cheap ingredients.

You know, back when the processed food industry was in its infancy, food processors used "fillers" such as sawdust, plaster of Paris, and chalk, strychnine, copper chloride, arsenic...

Really and truly. And it wasn't China. It was us.

All in the name of increasing profits.

Conventional growing methods, using fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides and mono-culture are just another example. With far-reaching consequences because we are killing the soil and poisoning the water.

This isn't the way to run a business. Yet we allow our entire economy to rest on it, and ridicule the people who call for ethical behavior.

Is this really the way we should live?

Cynicism about Diversity

As I was reading about the seed banks, the nasty corner of my brain began a taunt against those who think mono-culture is a good thing. One of the problems created by Big Ag and our commercialized food industry, is that it's created a reduction in seed diversity.

Nature creates hundreds, maybe even thousands, of varieties within a particular species. Before industrialization got hold of corn, for example, it grew in wild proliferation throughout the Americas. Now we're down to just a few varieties, grown in great plots of land that cover thousands of acres. It's all the same kind of corn and we all eat it. We eat it in practically everything, due to the proliferation of corn syrup. Cheap and filling.

Monsanto and its ilk would love to make this situation even worse. They like nothing better than creating a specific seed and getting a patent on it, then selling it, year after year, to farmers who then have to buy the special fertilizer to make it grow. And they sue the bejesus out of farmers whose fields are contaminated by these wind-blown seeds, accusing them of "stealing" the seeds.

When these are the farmers who went out of their way to NOT buy the damn things because they wanted to grow Real Food!

Oh, don't get me started.

Where did my point go?

Ah, there it is: I am bitterly amused to see us, on one hand, establishing special, "safe" places to store our seeds, when on the other hand, we're voluntarily wiping out the same seeds and handing our lives over to Big Ag.

Don't we get it? We need these seeds. We need diversity. One single insect, one single bacteria or mold or virus, can wipe out entire food sources because we've let the food industry whittle our crops down to one or two varieties. Mono-culture brings the same danger. We shouldn't grow acres and acres of Just One Thing because we lose the protection that is built-in when there are many different plants in the same area. Or the protection that comes from rotating crops.

We should fight it everywhere we see it. One of the best ways to fight it is to not buy it. Refuse to buy produce grown on a farm that uses mono-culture, fertilizers and pesticides. Insist on organic, sustainably grown food. That includes fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs, fish... whatever you eat, it should be grown honestly and sustainably. It should benefit the planet and be there for your grandchildren.

As much as possible, grow your own. Preserve your own by canning, drying, freezing... whatever you can do.

We need to think about our food. We need to insist that we have control over it and refuse to support wasteful practices and policies, whether they are implemented by government or by corporations.

Keep it local. Keep it diverse. Support organizations like Seedsavers.org or Slow Food in their attempts to protect our plant heritage. Let nature do what nature does best: create new and diverse things to eat.

Saving Seeds

No, not saving seeds as in reserving from your crop so you can plant next year. That's good to do, too.

This is saving seeds in the doomsday-apocolypse-kind-of-way. I didn't know we did this. That's "we" as in the human race. Yep, this is a joint effort, world-wide. There are "seed banks" scattered around the planet, where the seeds for our food are safely stored in case of disaster.

Cool, isn't it?

The reason I heard about it is that a new seed bank has just opoened in Norway: the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built deep in the permafrost in a remote Arctic mountain. It can withstand earthquakes, storms, and nuclear attacks.

You know, in case there are any survivors of said nuclear attack and they want to eat. Of course, we have to hope that someone with the keys to the place also survives, but that's another issue...

There are other seed banks, not all in great places and some have been destroyed (such as one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan - guess who might have, indirectly, had something to do with that?). A bank in the Phillipines was flooded after a typhoon.

So it's important where these are built. Having worked on the Yucca Mountain Project - our feeble attempt to find some place to bury nuclear waste - I have a good idea of hard it is to find these places. There are so many factors to consider.

But the idea is great. The seeds will be safe and people can withdraw them as needed (no, it's not necessary to wait for the nuclear attack). Any country in the world can deposit seeds for no cost.

It's funded by the Global Crop Diversity Trust, founded by U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and Biodiversity International.

Now for the cynicism: we need to make sure Monsanto doesn't have any ownership in this thing. They'll patent all the seeds and indenture future generations who need to make withdrawals.

Tomorrow, I'll get more cynical and talk a little about the "diversity" side of this issue.

Harvesting All Around

Here's a neat idea:

How often do you go for a walk and notice fruit lying around on the sidewalk? People have lots of fruit trees but let so much of it go to waste. I've always felt somewhat guilty about it, but I always "steal" a few lemons that are on the ground of a certain house I pass on my walk. Now someone has turned it into a business.

Natasha Boissier and a group of friends have started harvesting trees in Berkeley. She provides the equipment and the workers and they'll come to your house and clear your trees. The food is donated to homeless shelters, school districts, and food kitchens.

This is a great community service. I'm jealous because I've thought of doing something similar, but I didn't know how to start. I'd like to go a step further and be able to process the fruit, too. If it can't be used, then make it into a sauce or pie filling or something that can be canned and sit on someone's shelf for a while. That would be useful to a family, too!

We need these trees in our cities. It's so essential to have this food growing right in front of us. But we need to be aware of it and not let it go to waste. So if you're in the BayArea and have a tree or two or three, call North Berkeley Harvest at 510-812-3369.

And if you're interested in preserving some of that fruit for yourself, give me a call. We'll work something out!

The Magic of Cooking Seasonally

In our ultra-modern, high-speed life, we have become used to driving to the local grocery store for whatever food we feel like having. With the Food Industry in charge of what we eat, the calendar never even enters the equation.

But one of the most important ways to think about food, is to think seasonally and locally. Before we go the store, before we even plan our meals, our first question should be, “What is growing, right now, within 100 miles of where I live? What about 50 miles?” The answer to that question not only tells us what we can buy for dinner (or breakfast or lunch), but it will also supply the exact nutrients our bodies need for the season of the year.

Because this is the way I live and work, the first thing I loved about Beth Brown’s new cookbook, From a Witch’s Kitchen, is that she has categorized the recipes by season.

Don’t give me categories of Meat, Salads, Desserts, etc. If, as is happening in my area now, the trees are beginning to pop out in buds and I’ve just taken off my sweater because the sun is warming me nicely, I go searching for Spring recipes, like Pea Salad with Radishes and Feta Cheese (p. 37) or Penne with Asparagus Pesto (p. 42).

Asparagus pesto? Can I come for dinner?

If I’m still in winter’s grip and the thick sweaters and socks never leave my body as I write my book, I want a hearty Black Bean, Rice, and Chipotle Stew (p. 16) simmering on the stove, and maybe some mulled wine to sip as I read by the fire.

Our bodies, after millions of years of evolution on this planet, are attuned to the seasons and we crave the food that’s growing right outside. From a Witch’s Kitchen shows us how to do this and it sets us free to experience the magic of the kitchen and a sense of place.

As Beth says, “Celebrating the Earth and her cycle of life is a tradition rooted deep in all of us – now get into your kitchen and bring a celebration to every plate!”

Using Food

Chocolate is on my mind because I've been hired to bake some goodies for an Event. Chocolate goodies. Oh please, make me work for a living.

I made more waffles this morning for our freezer stash and I need to cook the butternut squash. I also need to make a sauce out of the oranges. Both of these things were in last week's CSA box. Today is pick up for the next one. The green vegetables always go fast, but the roots not so. And I think I've mentioned how Not Big I am on fruit.

I've always been this way. Except for berries and some tropical things, I prefer my fruit to be sauced. So apples, pears, oranges - all the old standbys get put in a pan and cooked. Sometimes, I'll can them, so they keep on the shelf for a while. Otherwise, I freeze them in smallish batches and pull them out as needed. I eat some everyday, usually at breakfast, but that's about it. I like to use them with meat entrees, too. Dried fruit is good for that, too.

Even bananas I prefer in a smoothie or something. I won't eat raw pineapple at all - it always has to be cooked. But I really do like it when it's cooked. Especially upside down in a cake...

I think I'll throw the squash in the oven and have some for lunch. I'll freeze the rest for soup or something later.

It all gets used!

More leftovers

I've just returned from a restful and exhausting vacation (those are the best kind!) and I'm back to figuring out What's for Dinner. I have so many frozen homemade meals in my freezer, the hardest part is just making the decision.

It's time for fish, so I took out the scallops/mushrooms-in-a-cream-sauce dish and I'm letting it thaw. I have some broccoli rabe from the CSA and that will go quite nicely. Easy to do.

I baked the leeks last night, sprinkled with breadcrumbs, olive oil, and salt and pepper. I also sauteed some leftover broccoli with a bit of tomato, basil, and rosemary. These were served next to a grilled NY steak from a local rancher who lets his cows feed in the pasture. Quite a yummy meal.

Remember that cabbage I needed to use? It was terrific mixed with last week's chard, a can of tomatoes, sliced onions, garlic, oregano and the leftover cooked ground beef that was in the freezer. It made so much, we'll get two more meals out of it. What an easy dish to make, too!

Tomorrow is another CSA pick-up day and none too soon. I've managed to use everything up, except for the butternut squash. Those fresh veggies have been wonderful.

Here We Go Again

Another beef recall.

When - when - are we going to stop this food industry madness? When will we go back to being responsible for our own food?

Oh never, I know. Not really for our own food, as in all the time, the only one responsible for planting, growing, harvesting, feeding, preserving, preparing, and anything else-ing, that we need to do for all our food. But we've got to break it down into smaller groups. Into regions, at least. None of this one-company-produces-billions-of-pounds-of-meat that go all around the country. And to the rest of the world, too.

What - don't they have cows in Asia?

Dude. I know they do.

Why do we continue to buy bags of loose greens when we know they've come from a warehouse that got lettuce from all over the country and piled them all together in a big bunch and stuffed them into bags?

When we know that if just one small batch of lettuce from one tiny farm anywhere in the country had a problem with their lettuce (say a minor e-coli bacteria-type problem) then every bit of the lettuce mixed with it and put in those bags, now has the same problem.

Why do we continue to buy it? Excuse me - why do you continue to buy it? 'Cause I can promise you, I don't.

Not even the organic stuff. I'll buy my own separate little head of lettuce and wash and tear it myself.

Sure I could still get sick, if I happen to buy the lettuce from the one tiny farm with a problem. But you won't. And neither will ten thousand other people around the country.

Put Big Ag out of business. Run - quickly - to your nearest CSA or Farmer's Market and buy all your food from them. Find CSAs that give you produce, meat, eggs, even milk. You'll probably need to join several to get everything that way. If you have to shop at a grocery store, shop at one that buys from local ranchers and farmers and buy the food that comes from the local source. Don't buy the food that comes from China or from the slaughtershouse six states away.

Do what you can. Just do it.

Leftovers and Veggies

I've been looking for recipes to use up my CSA veggie box. We're going to be gone for a few days and I want to be sure everything gets used. Must not waste the fresh veggies!

The cabbage has been here a week, so today is its day. I'm going to simmer it in tomatoes with some leftover cooked ground beef, along with garlic and basil. A sprinkle of parmesan should go nicely with that. I have some chard that has also been around a while. Hmmm. Do you think I can add the chard to the cabbage and beef? I bet it works!

When we get back, I'll bake the leeks in a bit of cheese sauce and we'll see if I can resist adding a breadcrumb/butter topping. Just a sprinkle? Please?

That leaves lots of bok choy, more chard, and a butternut squash. I have a marvelous recipe for Hot 'n Sour Soup that will use the bok choy and the chard, as well as the some of the leftover chicken and chicken broth in my freezer. That sounds like a winner.

Butternut squash needs no excuse. I might just bake it and eat it for lunch!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!

PCB in our Food

The CC Times had an article today about cleaning up the bay. For years, there has been a warning in place to severely limit eating fish taken from the San Francisco Bay. All the usual committees and investigations and political discussions have been going on and at last, a plan has been sent to a state board for consideration. Amid all the usual protests from industry, which does not want to pay for cleaning up the bay.

This kind of thing has always thrown me for a loop. In the first place, what industry, for whatever reason, has the right to pollute a source of food for a people? Where did they get this right? Why has government turned a blind eye and let them do this? How is it possible that people don’t see a problem with this?

PCB was banned almost 30 years ago. Go us. We did something right. But the damage from PCB did not fade into the sunset. It seeped into our soil and into our air and into our water. And it doesn’t go away for a long, long time.

So we are told to eat no more than two meals a month of fish from our bay. Pregnant women and children are limited to one meal a month.

But this is our food source. We should have access to all the edible species in our food source, with sensible conservation our only restriction.

Here’s the jaw-dropping paragraph:

“A coalition of business and industrial groups argued that rather than requiring costly cleanups, the water board should focus more on warning anglers not to eat too much fish.”

What!? How? How did we get to this? What is wrong with these people?

“Just don’t eat?” That’s your solution? Every person in that coalition should lose their business to a more responsible adult and THEY should have to live in such a way that most of their food comes from the bay.

How completely arrogant and irresponsible they are. I’m furious. We should all be furious.

Family dinners II

The hectic weekend is behind us and I can concentrate on getting caught up: filing, bookkeeping, writing, menu planning. Very slowly, my desk is becoming visible. At least, parts of it are.

Grandkids staying over always means more food than we usually eat and this weekend was no exception. I started with that lovely roast on Friday night, with the blue potatoes and white beets and celery and onion. I steamed the beet tops, too and I assure you, there was not one word of complaint from those 11 and 12 year old boys. They ate everything in sight and I had to finish filling them up with pumpkin ice cream layered with chocolate sauce and nuts.

Why yes, I did have some, too. Thank you for asking.

Friday night was sleepless and disturbing for Rick and I, because our 14 year Australian Shepherd had several coughing spells throughout the night. AND, my shoulder was killing me, probably from the yard work I'd done earlier. Around five a.m., we finally doped the dog and me, and we all got some sleep. The result of all this is that I slept late and awoke to find Rick halfway through cooking the pancakes. Tea was ready, and he poured me a cup while I threw some bacon on the griddle and started chopping up the leftover potatoes for sauteeing.

So that was our breakfast, along with lots of good butter and real maple syrup. The pancakes were amazingly fluffy and light. The bacon was turkey, which I consider cheating, but I had only a few slices of the Real Stuff, so I didn't get it out. I don't care for turkey bacon, so I had just 1 piece, but I made up for it by pouring maple syrup on my potatoes.

I love that.

Since breakfast was late and big, we all ate oranges for lunch and then went out for an early dinner. We let the kids choose, which is how we ended up at Chevy's and rest assured, there was not one healthy thing about the meal, except maybe for the black beans. I know. I should have had a salad, but I didn't want to. I get like that sometimes.

Things got worse on Sunday, when I made biscuits for breakfast, along with scrambled eggs, the rest of the potatoes and a few slices of bacon chopped up with the potatoes. I don't mean to honk my own horn, but the biscuits were GOOD. I used my low-gluten mix with a little sugar and baking powder, butter, and raw milk. I had three. I know better. But I had three. With butter and honey. I put organic blueberry preserves on one.

You can imagine that by now, I'm desperate. We were taking walks - a long one on Saturday and a slightly less long one on Sunday, but nothing even close to the calories I was consuming. Around 2:00, we all seemed peckish, so I made us each a large salad with lots of CSA greens, some olives, scarlet turnips, tuna fish and homemade croutons. Better. Not great. But better.

No dinner was needed. But we did have a martini.