Food for thought

We all have to eat. We all know that fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains are best for us. But not everyone can afford them. Or can they?

We can all have fresh food if we work hard and share. Fresh fruits & veggies do not have to be the sole purview of the rich and upper middle class.

I’ll be the first to admit that I am not too poor. If it weren’t for the boy’s steady job, though, I certainly would be. Money has been tight this month as I’m working reduced hours at the museum and my consulting job hasn’t started yet. And, of course, there were presents that had to be bought. Luckily, I come from a tradition of women who keep the pantry well-stocked. When you’ve got canned and dried goods in abundance, it’s easy to buy just a few fresh fruits and vegetables and maybe some cheap cuts of meat.

I’ve been making a lot of soups lately, and soup bones (smoked ham hocks, smoked turkey legs, beef neck bones) are pretty darn cheap (ranging from $1.50-$3 per package) and can make a whole heckuva lot of soup. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – buying seasonally helps, too. As does not being an overly picky eater.

The reason why I’m writing about this is that the more I read about the sustainable food movement, the more I notice and realize what a positive impact gardens and farms are having on poor, underprivileged, and often overlooked or even demonized members of society. Gardens, even small ones, can make the difference between eating and not eating. Gardens and farms and being outdoors working with the soil can help calm and heal and ground people on the edge, regardless of their age, sex, race, or social station.

First, I read about prison farms. Yes, prison farms. Reading this article on Grist and listening to this podcast about the closure of Canadian prison farms was both sad and heartening. These farms employ low-risk inmates and provide food (and sometimes meat and dairy products) for the prison. Then I found this article on prison farms donating fresh produce to local food pantries.

Then there’s this article from the NY Times about New Jersey veterans who started a vegetable garden at their VA and use gardening as therapy. The produce they grow is used for other VA patients and in the VA cafe. And here, from the Christian Science Monitor, is an article about a college program that teaches the unemployed how to garden and provide fresh food for themselves.

This shows me what a positive impact access to fresh food, the outdoors, and food security can do for all people.

Sustainable agriculture is a “trend” that I don’t think is going to go away any time soon. Particularly in a bad economy that probably isn’t going to get better any time soon. And a “trend” that deals with something as pure and honest as fresh, homegrown food? Why, that’s something everyone can (or should) get on board with.

People talk a lot about movements that won’t stick unless they start from the ground-up. As Grist describes on its look back on the decade, ten years ago the local and organic food movement was in the hands of an elite (and wealthy) few. But today? The movement has moved down the food chain, having the most strength with the poor, the lower-middle class, the young, and those on the margins of society. Thanks to CSAs, community gardens, farmers’ markets, small grocery stores buying from local farmers, rooftop gardens, hobby farmers, and even the White House (not to mention ordinary back yards), more and more people are getting involved in gardening and farming for their own food.

As a young person myself (and not a particularly wealthy one), I too have been wanting to garden. But I also feel the pain of impossibly busy working people who can’t ever seem to find the time. But as the college gardening program article states, a well-planned and planted garden takes only about an hour of work per week during the growing season, with a little more during the harvest season. Being in an apartment with no balcony and little window space makes even container gardening hard for me. My one basil plant is still spindly and sickly looking with small leaves. I think I’m better off leaving most of the watering and sunshine to mother nature. : ) But that will have to wait until we find a place with a yard, I’m afraid. Especially since there are no community gardens nearby. Luckily, I live in an area full of orchards, farm markets, and grocery stores that buy local.

The one benefit of this resurgence in gardening and farming is going to have an unexpected benefit, I think. Yes, people will connect with the soil and understand where their food comes from and eat more vegetables and have access to fresh food and feel pride in growing things. But farming and gardening take planning. You have to plan when and what to plant and where to plant it. If you are serious about having food nearly year-round, you have to stagger your plantings and put up hoop houses in the fall and plant for the spring and start seeds and seedlings in the spring and know when your first and last frost dates are. There’s integrated pest management and knowing what plants need how much compost and what kind (acid or basic? loam, sand, or clay soil?) and what plants need how much water. There’s crop rotation and soil management (the non-chemical kind) and planning at least a year ahead.

The benefit of this? Understanding that some things are complex and that they take long-range planning.  That some problems take complex, integrated solutions. That patience, research, risk, hard work, and investment are necessary for any worthy endeavor. That if you take the time and do real work, you’ll get something truly amazing. And delicious!

We’ve still got a long way to go. Legislation still almost exclusively supports big agribusiness and large-scale factory farming. Subsidies are not available for sustainable ag. Economy of scale is still the main driving force behind the vast majority of all businesses. And economy of scale does not support small, localized production. Small local and regional processing plants are increasingly going under or being bought out by larger ones. School lunch programs still operate with minimal funds and are forced to use the unsellable leavings of big meat and ag companies to feed our nation’s children. The food industry roots of obesity are ignored in the newest healthcare bill and obesity is still stigmatized as the sole fault of the obese, instead of looking at the real origins of modern obesity.

There’s still a lot to work on, but that’s not a cause for pessimism, cynicism, and despair. We’ve come a long way, despite the hardships of the past few years. The years to come are going to be hard too, but will hopefully get better. After all, fresh fruit and veggies always make things better! : )

So in the spirit of Christmas and a new year, don’t get discouraged – have hope, real hope, that the future can hold good things. Happy Holidays, happy cooking, and happy eating!

Wintery meal for two

I made dinner. It was delicious. I’ve been “eating down the cupboards” recently. I picked up a bag of Ida Red apples from Adam’s recently (delicious variety if you ever get to try it – not the most crisp of apples, but definitely up there for intense flavor!), had plenty of onions on hand, had some fresh green beans that needed eating, half a batch of biscuit dough in the fridge, and two left in a pack of six kielbasa sausages.

So, I made apples ‘n’ onions with sausages, green beans, and biscuits with honey butter! It was delicious. See?

That, by the way, is the only enameled cast-iron pan that I own, and I love it! It is brown and white and from the 1970s and from Norway! Mom gave it to me before my move. Here’s more deliciousness…

And here’s what was for dinner yesterday:

Barbecue chicken with collard greens! I cheated and used bottled sauce and frozen collards, but it still turned out quite lovely! I’m dutifully trying to take more pictures to live up to other photo/cooking blogs out there. : )

Did I mention I made rice pudding?

Mmmm… apple cinnamon arborio rice pudding! So delicious. The boy dove in as soon as he got home. He didn’t even wait until after dinner! Lol…

I’ve also been trying to make smaller portions of dinner lately. So far, it’s been working out pretty well! I still make too much soup, but I’ve been cutting it down a bit. So I’m proud of myself. I’m also proud of myself for trying to creative in eating what we have. So far, I think I’ve been doing pretty well. It’s nice to have a little extra room in the fridge! I still have leftovers, but they’re the kind of leftovers that can be consumed in one meal or incorporated into another meal, instead of having days and days of meals out of one pot of soup or skillet of rice & beans. I just have to keep reminding myself that there are just two of us!

You know what else I’ve discovered? When you use a smaller pan/pot, you make less food! Shocking revelation, I know, but it’s not something I’d really ever thought about before.

Anywho, off to do a little necessity shopping at Target. And try to avoid spending any more money than absolutely necessary.

Arborio Rice Pudding – three ways

Y’know, I’ve never actually made risotto with my arborio rice. Probably because I just don’t have chicken stock laying around to be absorbed into the rice like you’re supposed to do. But I have discovered that arborio rice makes an amazing rice pudding.

I love rice pudding. It’s pretty much in my blood. I’ve been eating the cold, creamy Swedish kind with raspberries since I was young. And apparently my first taste of rommegrot (Norwegian cream porridge – heavy cream, butter, and flour, served with cinnamon and sugar) was at two months. I don’t know what it is, but hot or cold, the creamy sauce with tender rice, cinnamon, and raisins is just delicious.

I don’t know where I found the proportions, but here are three recipes for your enjoyment.

Classic Rice Pudding:

1 cup arborio rice
5 cups milk (whole, skim, 2% or even cream)
1/4 cup sugar
one cinnamon stick
1/4 cup raisins (optional)

Mix all ingredients and let soak one hour. Cook over low heat (simmering) until rice is creamy and tender. Serves 4-6.

Apple Cinnamon Rice Pudding:

1 cup arborio rice
5 cups milk (whole, skim, 2% or even cream)
1/4 cup brown sugar
one cinnamon stick
1/4 cup raisins
1 apple (I used Ida Red) peeled and chopped
ground cinnamon to taste

Mix all ingredients and let soak one hour. Cook over low heat (simmering) until rice is creamy and tender. You could also add toasted walnuts or pecans or substitute maple syrup for the brown sugar. Serves 4-6.

Fruited Rice Pudding:

1 cup arborio rice
5 cups milk (whole, skim, 2% or even cream)
1/4 cup sugar
one cinnamon stick
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
1/4 cup dried currants
1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

Mix all ingredients and let soak one hour. Cook over low heat (simmering) until rice is creamy and tender. You could also substitute or add dried chopped figs, ground ginger, dried cranberries, dried cherries, etc. Serves 4-6.

Delicious! I have some cooking on the stovetop right now. Can’t wait until it’s done! I may even post pictures later! : )

Tonight? Kielbasa with apples, onions, and either cabbage or green beans. With biscuits and honey butter. *Nom*

Now if only the boy would come home so I could get cooking!

Southern for a day

I don’t know when my love affair with down-home Southern food began, but I’m pretty hooked right now. Maybe it’s the cultural obsession with greens and bacon. Maybe it’s the fluffy biscuits and dense cornbread. Maybe it’s the way Southerners dress up their veggies with so much butter and cheese and cream that you can’t help but crave them. Did I mention pecan pie, peaches, oranges, collard greens, slow-cooked beans, and barbecue sauces of all stripes? Yeah, Southern food is kind of awesome. It’s the one place left in the U.S. where cooking food slow is not really fashionable, but is definitely in the blood.

Tonight I’m making collard greens, sweet potato and pecan casserole, and barbecue chicken breasts for dinner. If I were really ambitious, I’d make corn bread, too, but I’m not. So maybe I’ll just make some cheating drop biscuits.

The past few days have been full of cooking triumphs and failures. I made a grapefruit curd the other day that not only didn’t really taste all that great (too sweet with a bitter edge – not nearly enough tartness!), it ended up breaking (as in curdling) because I cooked it for too long. I made soft orange vanilla cookies that were a triumph, though the orange glaze gave me trouble to begin with (mainly, I made WAY too much of it!), it turned out pretty good in the end. I made a stir-fry with sausage, sugar snap peas, broccoli, carrots, and oranges in a sesame/soy/orange/brown sugar/garlic sauce that was actually really delicious over fluffy brown rice. The other night I made rice pudding out of arborio (a.k.a. risotto) rice, golden raisins, dried currants, chopped dried apricots, finely chopped almonds, and a helluva lot of milk. It was amazing. Last night I made split pea soup that I thought was going to be awful, but was actually quite delicious. No salt needed, due to the smoked ham hock I used in it. I even made a spice packet (cinnamon sticks, clementine orange peel, whole cloves, brown sugar, and ground nutmeg) for hot cider at a historic site event this weekend. It made amazing hot cider that is even more amazing (if possible) leftover and cold and thick from the fridge.

What I haven’t been doing lately is much baking. Just the orange cookies. I want to try my hand at so many others, but can’t bring myself to. I have no idea why.

But back to cooking. My favorite cuisines are possibly Italian and Southern. I love Mexican and Asian foods (mainly fake, takeout Chinese and mild Thai), but I don’t particularly enjoy seafood or a good deal of hot spices. Italian is perhaps the easiest for me, particularly cucina povera, because of the emphasis on vegetables, beans, and pasta. Southern food also places a pretty large emphasis on the importance of vegetables. And pork. Who doesn’t love pork? Well, some people, I guess, but come on! It’s delicious! Alas, the boy doesn’t often share the sentiment, but I don’t go for pork chops, per se. Not only are they ridiculously easy to overcook, they are almost always tough and dry (a.k.a. overcooked). I’ve never tried my hand at them, but ham, pork loin, and bacon are so good, why would you even want to? I think it’s the salty juiciness and the melting fat. Beef doesn’t have that. Chicken does, but it’s easy to get sick of chicken.

Again, I digress. I don’t know what the point of this update was, except to profess my love of down-home Southern food. So, I’m off to attempt to whip up some drop biscuits and start the chicken. Happy almost-holidays!

Time for Christmas!

Yesterday was Santa Lucia’s Day, which in the Scandinavian countries means a celebration of light, complete parades at dawn and 6 am breakfasts of saffron buns and coffee or hot chocolate. I didn’t celebrate it, mostly because I was at the boy’s parents and had laundry to do, but also because I’m away from the people I’ve always celebrated those traditions with.  I didn’t think I would miss the Scandinavian culture I was so immersed in back home, but the thought of not celebrating Tjuegondedag Knut on January 13th, complete with music (played by me on fiddle and Ron the accordionist, mostly), singing and dancing, and the best damn split pea soup ever, not to mention oodles of old lady-baked Scandinavian Christmas goodies. I missed Santa Lucia’s Day, too, in the beautiful church with the great acoustics and all the little girls and boys dressed up in white robes with tinsel crowns and electric candles (girls) and paper and tinfoil star wands and hats (boys) and the young girl who gets chosen to be Lucia (usually the oldest girl who shows up – I got usurped in my glory as the youngest Lucia ever at the tender age of 13 by an even more tender 9 year old a few years ago during a snow storm) dressed in the white dress (not a choir robe like the others), crown of electric lights and fake greens, and the wide red ribbon sash. It’s a pretty little ceremony and of course, there’s always good food afterwards.

And I miss it! I didn’t think I would. It’s a little strange, being so disconnected from back home this year. I wish I could carry on the tradition here in my new home, but I don’t know enough people yet, and they just don’t share my Scandinavian background. So, I’m trying to make new traditions.

We have a fake tree now, but this week the boy and I are going to buy Christmas greens (and maybe a little floral foam and floral tape) to fill some lovely vintage glass containers/vases I’ve got. I love the smell of cedar and pine, but when you’ve got carpeting and no real vacuum cleaner (just a carpet sweeper) pine needles everywhere would be a real nightmare!

I’m going to buy some oranges when we go grocery shopping tonight. I need at least one pomander (I’ve already got whole cloves) and I’d like to make some candied orange peel. I’d like to get some grapefruit, too, and try my hand at grapefruit curd (since lemon curd was so darn easy!). I bought a few vanilla beans (read: 2 – those buggers are expensive!) at the coop up north, so I want to try and make pastry cream, but won’t until I have something to fill it with! I also got a few whole spices – cinnamon sticks, star anise, black peppercorns, rosehips – that I might simmer into a hot drink, or make flavored olive oil for the boy to dip bread in (he swears he could live off of french bread and pepper olive oil).

Today I am going to bake cranberry upside down cake. I found it on Kitchen Illiterate’s blog. She adapted it from Dorie Greenspan, who’s cookbook on baking I find I really must have! Lovely stuff, over there, at Kitchen Illiterate. Unpretentious, but unusual flavors.

I was supposed to work today, but icy roads, hills, front wheel drive, and being blocked out of your only non-hilly exit by another car prevented that. Luckily, I have very flexible hours, as the museum is closed for the season. Hopefully things will be less icy tomorrow. I think they will, it’s getting pretty melty out.

So, baking, Christmas greens, what else is a new tradition? Well, I’d like to have a Christmas party, which I may very well be hosting on Saturday, and possibly Sunday as well! Another tradition is cleaning. I’ve been cleaning my buns off (I wish) to “get my house in order.” This is why I like having guests – they force you to clean your house! The kitchen and bathroom are now nearly spotless and just require a bit of reorganizing. The bedroom and living room still need a bit of work, but I’m confident that by the time Saturday rolls around, all will be finished! I’m even going to force myself to get up and showered early every day that I don’t work this week.

A lot of people like to clean in the spring, but I kind of like cleaning around Christmas and the solstice. There’s always a lot going on around Christmas and making your house pretty for the festivities makes cleaning seem like less of a chore. Besides, as a student, spring was always the busiest time of year! No way did I want to mope around cleaning baseboards. It also helps having a small place. Despite it’s lack of storage, which makes keeping things picked up and put away a job in and of itself, it’s nice to have only three rooms and a bathroom to clean. I definitely do not want a huge house when we finally get one.

Okay, so, coniferous greens, baking, pomanders, cleaning, I think I’ll add paper snowflakes to that list, that’s always a fun (if slightly messy) project, regardless of how old or young you are. If I have time later in the week, I’m also going to try my hand at a few cookies. It helps to have a clean kitchen when you want to bake or cook – it motivates you! Of course, then you have to clean up afterwards, which is no fun, but still. I’m learning slowly but surely that cleaning everyday in small doses keeps the bigger jobs not so big. But, I have to admit, there is something seriously satisfying in making something messy and dirty clean and neat.

I think I am turning into a ’50s housewife. Well, let me rephrase that, a drug-free, depression-free, socially and politically liberated ’50s housewife. Who’s not desperately miserable, but instead blissfully happy. Well, mostly. *grin*

And now, m’dears, I think the butter might actually be at room temperature. Time to get baking!

Lethargy? Or just other things to do?

I have been sadly neglectful of this blog of late. Yes, I’ve been cooking. Yes, I’ve even been taking pictures! But the updates? They do not come. I thought I would be blogging oodles more now that I’m down to 10 hours/week at work, but instead, I find myself sleeping in, knitting, vegging on the couch, and yes, cleaning like a madwoman.

October and November were seriously busy months for me, and the apartment has been just as seriously neglected. Starting on Wednesday, I began what will probably turn into a two-week effort to clean and thoroughly organize the whole apartment. Now, our apartment is not large. It’s not itty-bitty like some Manhattan digs, but it’s definitely not spacious and we have little to no storage space. Did I mention the walls are plaster so you can’t hang shelves (or pretty much anything else for that matter?) and that the kitchen only has two overhead cupboards and that they are half sized? And only three under-the-counter cupboards? (Not including under-sink storage). And the only counter space (about 2′x1.5′) being taken up by the microwave? Yeah. Space is at a premium everywhere. We’ve invested so far in one giant stainless steel shelf to go in our storage hallway (between the living room and bathroom, there is a recessed area where this shelf fit just perfectly) that has been our saving grace. As has the skinny, but towering stainless steel shelf in the kitchen. A highboy, bedside dresser, and shoe shelf (yes, I’m addicted, but it’s pretty well under control), and two nice under-bed storage boxes (complete with nifty wheels!) have been purchased in the last few months. As have some 3M hooks that I have since lost. And I cleaned one of our very wide windowsills to store our overflow books. But the storage battle continues.

The kitchen is the worst of it. I definitely need some hooks and a magnetic knife rack for utensils and more pots & pans. I’m already hanging several skillets, potholders, a box grater, and my cutting boards on the cleverly provided hooks of the stainless steel tower. But I need more! Also, I need hooks for handbags, scarves, and belts. ‘Cause I have a lot of all three. And maybe some itsy bitsy hooks for necklaces. Because my jewelry box (not large to begin with) is kind of overflowing.

Part of the reason why all these storage issues got put off is because we just didn’t have the money to fix them all at once. But another reason was that we weren’t planning on staying in this apartment for long. Alas, the market for rental cottages is competitive around here, and our apartment is just so dirt cheap, that we’re staying for the foreseeable future, lack of storage, parking, and all. *sigh* So my dream cottage is on hold.

It’s nice to live in a clean house, though. I’m not the biggest fan of cleaning, not because of the actual act of cleaning itself, but mainly because I am lazy or would rather be doing other things. But I find that if I force myself to get started, it’s usually not so bad, and can actually be kind of fun. Case in point? Dishes. I hate doing them until I actually force myself to do them. Then I kinda like it. Working for a year at the pastry shop, which was filled with doing dishes, cleaning, and other mindless tasks like folding pastry boxes, interspersed with rushes of customers and crabby old ladies who drank all the house coffee, I learned that I actually kind of like mindless tasks. I wouldn’t want to do them all day, but compared with tasks where you actually have to think, they are quite relaxing and freeing. You can let your hands do all the work and have time to yourself to think about whatever you want or to not think at all. It’s nice.

So yes, if you’re wondering where I’ve been, this has been it. Work, school, more work, and hanging out with the boy took precedence over blogging, I’m afraid. On Wednesday night we went tree hunting and hit three Targets before finally finding the fake tree we wanted (the first two Targets were sold out of it! Popular tree, I guess…). Last night we set it up (only 4.5 ft tall! But 6 ft sitting on the milk crate we put it on to fit presents under it) and I decorated it with silver and blue glass ornaments I picked up from IKEA last year after Christmas for super cheap. We decided it needed a star topper, so we headed to the local grocery store/everything store that had a nice Christmas section and discovered that everything was half off! So we got a neat white star and some blueish LED mini star lights and now it looks even better! I will post a picture or two once the rest of the living room is clean. : ) Right now our pathetic 4-year old poinsettia and scraggly looking basil are shedding all over the windowsill in the back. *rolls eyes at self* The cleaning is never done!

*sigh* The boy will be home soon, so I’ve got to go finish packing. We’re going upstate to his parents’ so I can get snow tires put on my car, as the current ones are pretty sucky in the snow. Thanks, Bank of Mom & Dad!

At any rate, just wanted to update and hopefully someday soon I’ll get back in the groove of posting about food.

Post-Thanksgiving Thoughts

Hello all. I finally have time to update this! I have made quite a bit of food in the last few weeks, but nothing for Thanksgiving, alas. The boy and I drove the 11 hours to Ohio to visit my mom’s family (but no Mom & Dad, unfortunately, they were having Thanksgiving with my other grandparents back home) and had a lovely Thanksgiving Day and a productive (and kind of expensive), but not stressful Black Friday. We drove home on Saturday to avoid the traffic and stopped in Pennsylvania to visit friends and their adorable little boy and have lunch at a great diner that had amazing pie. I had coconut cream and the slice was like a quarter of a pie. Ginormous. I was unable to finish it and felt a little sick afterwards, especially since it was topped with meringue, not whipped cream. Ooof.

Thanksgiving dinner was lovely. Grandma made deliciously moist and fatty turkey with oven-baked stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, corn, and sweet potato casserole, in addition to her amazing bread-maker bread (sooooo good!), raw cranberry relish, and apple and pumpkin pie. The sweet potato casserole was a revelation. She baked the sweet potatoes, then peeled and mashed them smooth with sugar, egg, and a little spice, then put it in a casserole dish and topped it with brown sugar and chopped walnuts. It was so smooth and sweet, it tasted like pie! I had some with little turkey sandwiches for dinner.

Friday night we had leftovers at my aunt’s house and she made broccoli cheese rice casserole that was also amazing. *nom*

Now that we are home, things are slowing down a little finally. This week is my last week of class and I’m down to 10 hours/week at work. Which kind of sucks, but is kind of nice. I start my consulting work in January (which will be 30 hours a week or so, so it will even out) and class starts again January 20th. I’m only signed up for one class so far, but I think I’m going to try and make my consulting job my internship and maybe take one more class, depending on what my parents’ insurance company says, anyway! The parents have also offered (well, Mom demanded, actually) to help pay for school, which is nice and a big load off my shoulders but also makes me wonder, am I ever going to be able to take care of myself? Lol…

It’s a dark and rainy day today and it’s put me in a contemplative mood. I always get contemplative in late autumn and into winter. It’s nice to slow down and not have the stress of giant papers for school looming overhead. That’s one thing I think our urbanized society is missing that was present in rural and agricultural societies: down time in the winter. All the cold and darkness makes you want to just hole up and sleep late and read and conserve energy and cook and do craft projects. Which, if we were living on a mid-19th century farm, is what we’d be doing! Well, except for the sleeping late part. The animals need feeding, after all!

I didn’t get much time to think about thankfulness during Thanksgiving. I was too busy with school and packing for our trip and getting up at 5:30 am and driving 11 hours in heavy traffic and rain and then doing Christmas shopping and trying to avoid the crowds (which we did ably by going to places like Home Depot, Sears Home & Hardware, Lowe’s, and Bass Pro Shops). But now I have time to think. And here’s what I’m thankful for:

1. The boy. : ) He’s the love of my life, he makes home a home, and I can’t imagine living without him. Did I mention that he’s funny and interesting and incredibly easy to talk to and get along with? I’m thankful that I’m able to just be with him every day.
2. A roof over my head and the ability to put food on the table, even if we have to save up for things like bookshelves and other furniture.
3. Friends and family. Especially family, for taking care of me and paying for things I’m too poor to pay for myself. And friends, old and new, for being awesome and fun.
4. The opportunity to go to graduate school in a field I love.
5. Having a job in the field and opportunities to expand my experiential horizons, even if the pay is kind of crappy and there are no benefits.
6. Fresh food. I love fresh, whole fruits & veggies and am very lucky to live in an area where not only are they readily available, but are also local and often organic and usually pretty cheap.
7. Good kitchen tools. They are slowly being amassed. I still don’t have enough enameled cast iron, though.
8. Creativity. It’s the only reason why I can cook.
9. Books. Cookbooks, fiction, hell, even textbooks. They are lovely. But I have too many of them. Would you like some? Please ask.
10. Pretty things and things that make me feel pretty.
11. Self-control. This is the stuff that makes me do my homework, clean (occasionally), and not buy cute shoes and clothes that I not only probably can’t afford, but don’t have room for.
12. Vintage/antique stuff. Not only can it often be cheaper, it’s usually better quality and prettier than new stuff. Plus, hello? Reuse!
13. And lastly, Facebook. Yes, Facebook. Because lord knows I never call anyone and it’s my only way to keep in touch (however tenuously) with far-flung friends and family.

There. How’s that for a list? Not too long, not too short. Half serious, half irreverent. Just like me.

And now, my dears, it is that time of the day in which I must start rustling up dinner, putting away washed dishes, and maybe, just maybe, washing the dirty ones before the boy comes home. I hope you all had lovely Thanksgivings. Tomorrow I’m off from work, so I think I will write about my Thanksgiving-inspired food goals/recipe list. Because we all need one. : )

My ideal Thanksgiving feast

The boy and I are going to Ohio to visit my grandparents and all my aunts, uncles, and cousins for Thanksgiving. So I won’t be cooking. But since Thanksgiving is such a great food holiday, I thought I’d give my thoughts and list some recipes for my ideal Thanksgiving feast.

Thanksgiving is a strange holiday, food-wise. It is both comfortingly traditional and yet strangely unlike what most Americans normally eat during the rest of the year. It is a time of coming together with family and friends, of cooking special dishes and family recipes. And it is not generally a time of trying new things.

My ideal Thanksgiving would be with family and friends, a huge gathering, yet intimate. Someplace with long wooden tables and plenty of seating and a fireplace and big paned windows looking to the frosty air outside. I’d use the good dishes, but I think the special brown turkey patterned plates and amber glassware are a little overkill. And the food? Oh! The food!

Until this year, I will have spent nearly all of my Thanksgivings at my paternal grandparents’ (excepting the last two years). Aunt Karen would make amazing twice-baked mashed potatoes with plenty of cream cheese and butter. Grandma would make pumpkin AND pecan pie (she hilariously thought that pecan pie was a tradition in my mom’s family when she and my dad first got married, it’s not, but I love it anyway!) in addition to buttery rolls and homemade bread. Grandpa would roast/grill/fry the turkey (depending on the year). Alas, there were also canned yams baked with marshmallows on top, green bean casserole made with canned green beans and cream of mushroom soup, “sea foam” salad (lime jello, canned pears, and cool whip all whipped together and set in a nice mold), stovetop stuffing (but baked in the turkey cavity) and cranberry sauce out of a can. So here are some old favorites and some new takes on traditional dishes:

Aunt Karen’s Mashed Potatoes – Peeled & boiled potatoes whipped with cream cheese, butter, and salt, then transfered to a baking dish, topped with more butter, and baked until the top is golden brown. Amazingly dense and creamy and delicious. Definitely no butter needed!

Vanessa’s Dinner Rolls – I totally stole this recipe from her and made these rolls last Thanksgiving (which was at my parents’ house). They are the boy’s absolute favorite.

Cranberry Pomegranate Salad – I invented this recipe last Thanksgiving. I used two bags of whole fresh cranberries, one apple, two navel oranges, some ground ginger, and brown sugar simmered all together until the cranberries burst. Then, when it was cooled, I added the pomegranate seeds from one whole pomegranate. The pectin in the apple (which you can’t taste, btw) thickens the sauce/salad up a bit, the orange adds a little acid, and the pomegranates add a fresh sweetness. Still tastes like cranberries, but better!

Here’s the recipe if you really need it:

2 bags (2 lbs) whole fresh cranberries washed and sorted
1 apple, finely chopped (skin on!)
2 navel oranges, peeled and roughly chopped (if you wanted extra orange flavor, you could zest them and add that, too!)
1/2 cup brown sugar (or to taste)
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (or to taste)
1 large pomegranate, peeled and seeds washed and sorted (if you peel and remove seeds into a bowl of cold water, the bad seeds and white pith will float and the good seeds will sink!)

Cook cranberries, apple, and oranges with a few tablespoons of water to start cooking process until cranberries have burst and the sauce is thick. Add sugar and ginger to taste. Remove from heat and cool. When room temperature, mix in pomegranate seeds. Chill and serve!

Grandma Ruby’s Buttered Turkey – She basically rubs it in and out with butter and salt. So tender, so juicy, SO GOOD!

Mustard Green Beans – I don’t love green bean salad, but I love fresh green beans, so I’d steam those then toss them in a dijon mustard/olive oil/white wine vinegar sauce while still hot. Yum!

Here’s my ratio/recipe for the vinaigrette:

3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon prepared dijon mustard
salt & pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together until smooth and emulsified. Pour over hot green beans and toss to coat.

Grandma Eunice’s Pecan Pie – She’s not Southern, but for some reason this is always my favorite pie. Maybe it’s the pecans she sometimes gets from her sister in California!

Sonja’s German Apple Pie - Essentially a slab pie. Haven’t tried it yet, but it looks amazing! (Alas, I don’t know Sonja, just that her recipe looks really good!)

Pumpkin Pie – Recipe on the back of the Libbey’s can plus Joy the Baker’s no-roll pie crust = amazing!

Mom’s Pecan Maple Sweet Potatoes – Forget marshmallows, my mom just peels and cuts the sweet potatoes up into chunks, then tosses in maple syrup and chopped pecans and bakes. So good!

Vanessa’s Stuffing – She uses real torn bread, apples, onions, and sage. I don’t even like stuffing and I couldn’t stop eating this stuff!

I don’t think I’m forgetting anything, am I? Relish tray, of course (olives, pickles, etc.), that’s a tradition in my family. Oooh! Maybe some corn or cornbread? Other than that (yes, there are three pies in that list), I think that’s it!

What do you think? Am I missing anything? How do you do Thanksgiving?

Why I could never live in a major metropolitan area.

The boy and I went down to NYC today to visit the newly-commissioned USS New York, which is a brand new, state-of-the-art naval warship that used something like 70 tons of steel from the World Trade Center in the construction of its hull. We also stopped by the Intrepid Sea, Air, & Space Museum, which was a big disappointment, considering we paid $20 apiece to get in (well, I got in for $18 because I had my college ID on me). At any rate, while I love the public transportation available (MTA Metro North Rail from up north down to NYC and subway once there) and the little, locally owned and operated shops that line the streets, and the museums every mile or so, I hate almost everything else about NYC.

Yep. Today it was amazingly warm outside (high of near 70) and not a cloud in the sky. Anywhere but NYC and the metro area would have been beautiful. Alas, the pretty blue sky was marred by a blurry bar of brown haze on the horizon, obscuring distant skyscrapers. And the air felt dirty (and was, as I discovered in the shower a couple hours ago) and the heat was too hot for autumn. It felt wrong. And the NOISE, my lord the noise! I mean, I grew up not too far from one of the busiest roads in Fargo where it crossed I-94. Not exactly the quietest place ever. But I have sensitive ears and all the honking, yelling, traffic noise, train/subway noise, was seriously getting to me. It was SO LOUD!

There were a lot of people at the USS New York, not as many as I expected, but still definitely a crush. And I’ve discovered that I get anxious and uncomfortable around large crowds of people. Not so much that I have a panic attack or anything, but enough that I skipped seeing some cool stuff, just to get away from the crowds and into the open air. Ironically, we toured a diesel submarine at the Intrepid and I was not claustrophobic there, but I was when surrounded by people.

So, clearly, I am a country girl (or at least a medium-sized town girl) at heart. I like clean air, trees and grass and wildflowers/weeds, gardens, farms, and wildlife (even if the local wildlife consists of nothing more than squirrels and rabbits and birds – better than just pigeons and seagulls!). I crave sunshine and fresh-smelling air and clear skies and unpolluted waters. I like space – which is what I get for being raised on the prairie, I guess – and lots of it. I can breathe better when I’m alone in the woods or on a mountain or out on the prairie. I don’t feel so boxed in. I can relax better, unfettered and un-anxious and un-crowded in the quiet.

In a previous post I talked about the historical transition America made from a predominantly rural to a predominantly urban/suburban population. And how with that transition, formerly venerated yeomen farmers became hicks, and formerly unhealthy and amoral cities became paragons of learning and virtue (sort of). Now, I can appreciate New York City for it’s buildings, it’s cultural diversity, it’s museums, and it’s history. But most New Yorkers don’t even do that, and they live there! I just honestly don’t understand how people can live so jammed together in such tiny spaces with no greenery (although by the pier we did see a lot of outdoor potted plants, and there were fenced-in ginko trees and such) and no privacy and no space.

*sigh* It’s a good thing I decided not to go to NYU. Yes, a very good thing. Because as much as I love Metro North, that train ride can be a little hellish. Especially when the traincar you’re riding back home on after a long, exhausting day on your feet, is somehow 90 degrees inside and the windows don’t open and there appears to be no air conditioning – none that works, anyway. So yes, I would not want to do that everyday and the people who do are absolutely nuts. Almost as crazy as the people who choose to drive in NYC and don’t get paid to do it. Crazies, I tell you!

And now, after a long and very tiring day, I think it is time for me to go to bed.

The great thing about eating seasonally

I hit the grocery store today, meaning just to pick up a loaf of french bread to have with leftover turkey & veg soup, and then I walked into the produce section. Adam’s is a very dangerous place for me. The entrance leads directly into the produce section, and boy do they have produce! And at such great prices! Adam’s is a pretty small chain (only 3 stores and all in the Hudson River Valley), so they can easily buy from small and medium-sized farms. Right now, local apples are $0.79/lb, local pears are $0.99/lb, and lots of local veggies are equally cheap.

And when I saw the Adam’s own Applefest sausage? For $1.22? With the Empire apples I had at home, onions, and a small very green cabbage I bought for $0.40/lb, I had dinner all planned! So I boiled the sausage in water and apple cider, added sliced apples and half a medium yellow onion sliced thin. I also steamed/briefly boiled half of the cabbage, then mixed in a couple tablespoons of butter and garnished with salt and pepper.

I’m waiting for the boy to get home before we eat, but I tried some of the sausage and it was delicious! And the whole meal cost, what $3, tops? And it’s 75% fruits & veggies! If we want to (and I suspect we might), we could dig into the $2 loaf of fresh french bread I bought, too. Which would bring the grand total up to $5 to feed two people with leftovers. This is the nice thing about cooking at home. And cooking seasonally.

Anyway, just thought I’d update and encourage everyone to check out their local farmer’s market/grocery store for some seasonal, local produce and get cooking!

UPDATE: It was delicious! The cabbage was amazing! I boiled it very briefly, just until tender, but still slightly crunchy and seasoned with butter and a little pepper & salt, it came out slightly sweet and even a little nutty. It was unexpectedly good. The sausage, apples, and onions were also good. I was afraid they would be a little too sweet, but they weren’t. I highly suggest trying this!