Improvements

Our house is nearly 60 years old, and if I may say so myself, it's never looked better. Of course, we've put a lot of work into it, and we still have a long list of improvements we need to make, and an even longer list of routine maintenance to be completed. I wonder whether we will ever be able to say our house is "done". However, I intend to do everything in my power to ensure our house improves with age.

I fully intend the same for myself as well, but a month after my 35th birthday, I realized my plans for self improvement were failing. My personal structure needed more than spackle and caulk - a complete overhaul was in order. But where to start?

Fortunately, my friend Amy wrote a post that jumpstarted my personal renovation. Here's an excerpt that hit me over the head like a 2x4 stud:

"Health is our birthright. How different people experience health is up to them. It is not our birthright to gain two pounds a year for the rest of our lives, manage our stress and fatigue with caffeine and alcohol, and reach for a prescription when we experience discomfort or pain. But many of us have determined, to varying degrees, that that is our right. (I'm not exempt here. Did you see how big my coffee mug was this morning?). By virtue of failing to grasp our birthright, we have, in essence, stepped up to a plate where we are never asked to swing. When I am feeling less than vibrant in my health and life, it is ultimately because I am failing to take responsibility for some part of my life. I am choosing to squander sleep in favor of reading, or (fill in the blank.. drink too much, eat too much sugar, not watch my words with my children), you get the idea."

Until I read these words, I had never considered my own birthright. The term "birthright" was a phrase that had nothing to do with me, just an antiquated word I'd read in the Old Testament, right alongside "begat". I'd never given much thought to my inherent rights, never considered "health" a right to which I was entitled from birth.

Instead, I focused on and feared the opposite of health; my inheritance:

High blood pressure

High cholesterol

Arthritis

Breast cancer

Fear of wearing a sleeveless blouse in public

Type 2 Diabetes

Hips and knees in need of replacement

Multiple chins

A portion of the kitchen dedicated to prescription bottles

Hell no! This is not what I wish to inherit, nor pass on to my children. Fortunately, I firmly believe that I have a certain degree of control over my health, and that I don't have to accept what I consider avoidable afflictions. While I can't dismantle and reassemble my genetic makeup, I can grasp my birthright, step up to the plate, and swing for my health.

So seven weeks ago, I did just that. I stopped eating all grains and refined sugar, I stopped drinking alcohol on a regular basis, I stopped making excuses when it came to exercise, and lo and behold,

I lost 11 pounds. I rediscovered my waist, my biceps, and strength I didn't know I possessed. I feel more alive than I have ever felt. My extra chin has started to shrink, and my muscles shout, "move, move, move!" from the moment I wake up. The shorts that were in the giveaway pile because they were too tight are now falling off of me. If I may say so myself, I've never looked better. And I'm certainly not "done". I'm just getting started.

I can't say it's been easy, but it has been simple. Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. Diet and exercise. But I'd like to replace those two words to reflect my experience: Home cooking and housework. I've thoroughly enjoyed discovering and creating a variety of new recipes using vegetables and meat (with the occasional egg, fruit, and nut). As for exercise, I haven't joined a gym or bought any fitness apparatus. Instead, I've found opportunities in and around my house to workout: push-ups, crunches, and challenging yoga positions on the area rug; pull ups on a tree limb; hauling wheelbarrows full of dirt and rocks from one part of the yard to another; squats and frog jumps around the perimeter of the house; a full routine of arm exercises using a digging bar; jump roping on the back patio; walking and running around our neighborhood. Simple and free. Much like my birthright.

While I'm tempted to start a new blog called "Better with Bacon", and write about nothing but the Paleo diet and Crossfit exercise, I'm going to just squeeze in tips and recipes here and there between my regular (or irregular) posts, beginning with a paleo friendly breakfast recipe to start your day off right. This frittata was inspired by one of my favorite recipes from Better Homes and Gardens for an oven pancake with sausage and pears. It's so delicious, I don't even miss the pancake part.

Sausage, Apple and Onion Frittata

1 small sweet onion, cut into slivers

1 apple, chopped

2 links of chicken apple sausage, cut into bite sized pieces

4 eggs

Splash of milk (optional)

Pat of butter (or ghee, olive or coconut oil)

Melt butter or oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add onion and saute until onion just begins to caramelize. Add sausage and apple, stirring occasionally until hot. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs and milk, then pour egg mixture over the sausage, apples and onions. Cook on medium low heat until egg sets on the bottom and edge of the pan. Transfer to oven and broil until the egg sets on top. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

Tamales 101

Disclaimer: To my knowledge, I do not have a drop of Hispanic blood in my body, and therefore I have absolutely no authority when it comes to making tamales. I have very little experience making tamales - I've only made them four times, and I just started making them this year. However, I've had plenty of experience eating tamales, and I've been called a "hot tamale" once or twice. I've recently come to the decision that I am meant to make tamales.

Warning: I tend to get wordy when I start talking about food, so settle in. I'll get to the recipe eventually.

I've wanted to make tamales for 15 years now. During my second semester of college, I took a speech class, and one of our required speeches was a how-to demonstration. I dressed in khaki pants, a denim shirt and an apron and showed the class how to make paper. I haven't really changed much in the past 15 years.

A fellow classmate put together an overhead presentation (obviously before PowerPoint became mainstream) to demonstrate how she and her family made tamales. Since that day I've wanted to make tamales. I really don't know why it took me so long to finally make them.

When my parents came up to visit New Years weekend so my dad could make his first batch of homebrew with George, I decided that my mom and I would make tamales. You know, it wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I enjoyed the process so much that I made another batch the following day.

The first time, I followed these directions. They were delicious, but in typical fashion, I tweaked the recipe a bit for subsequent batches, and I liked the tamales even more.

Tamales are certainly not fast food. If you make meat tamales, it's best to slow cook the meat. For pork tamales, I put a pork roast and a can of fire roasted tomatoes in the crockpot and cooked it on low overnight. The corn husks need to be soaked for two hours (though the tamale recipe in my Chevy's cookbook said 20 minutes, so maybe this step can be expedited). Once the tamales are assembled, they steam for 2 hours (once again, the Chevy's cookbook said 20 minutes, but I think two hours is better). If you want tamales for dinner, I'd suggest getting started early in the day. Once the tamales are cooking, you'll be free to enjoy your afternoon knowing that dinner is taken care of.

Here's my recipe for vegetarian tamales:

2 dozen corn husks, soaked in water for two hours

Filling for tamales:

1 onion, diced

4-5 cloves of garlic, minced

5 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 cup frozen (or fresh) corn

1 can diced green chilies

1/2 a jar of roasted red peppers, diced

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 1/2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon dried oregano

salt to taste

In a medium sized pot, heat a little oil over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until onions just start to turn golden on the edges. Add the rest of the ingredients and just enough water to cover. Bring to boil, then reduce to a simmer until potatoes are soft. Drain and reserve cooking liquid for masa.

Masa ingredients:

2 pounds (about half a bag) Masa corn flour (Maseca is the brand I use)

2 tablespoons paprika

2 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons garlic powder

1 1/2 tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon coriander seed

1 cup vegetable oil

Cooking liquid from filling

Warm water as needed

(Confession: the original recipe I read called for cumin seed, but my brain read "coriander seed", which I happened to have. I saved the seeds when my cilantro bolted last summer, and I think the coriander seeds made a fine addition to the recipe. Feel free to use cumin seeds if you have them, or omit the seeds if you prefer. I just really enjoy taking a bite and getting the explosion of flavor concentrated in each seed).



Mix first six ingredients in a large bowl. Add the oil and the reserved liquid from the filling. Mix thoroughly, adding warm water as needed, until the mixture has the consistency of peanut butter. Don't be afraid to use your hands to mix the masa.

Now you're ready to assemble the tamales. Separate the soaked corn husks and inspect for bugs (yes, it happens and it's completely normal).

With the smaller tip of the corn husk pointing towards you, take about 1/4 cup of the masa and spread it on the corn husk, leaving about two inches clear on the bottom and on the right side of the husk. I prefer to prepare a stack of the husks, then fill and roll the tamales, but proceed as you like. Once again, feel free to use your hands to spread the masa.

Scoop a heaping tablespoon of the filling and spread it down the left side of the masa, about 1/2 inch from the edge. Fold the left edge of the corn husk over to the right edge of the masa, fold the bottom of the husk up, then the right side of the husk over to the left and around the tamale. (My mom and I watched this video several times to figure out how to fold the tamales.)

Place tamales in a large steaming pot, with enough water in the bottom to steam the tamales without getting them wet. I use my large stock pot with the pasta insert. If you don't have a steaming pot, my friend Maya suggests placing chopsticks across the bottom of a pot and placing tamales on top of the chopsticks to elevate them from the steaming water. Cover and steam for two hours.



Steamed tamales can be cooled and frozen, if you can resist eating them all at once. Buen provecho!

The Daily Bite

I tried and failed in the year 2008 to take and post a picture every day. I didn't even bother in 2009. Well here we are, ten days into 2010, and while I'm not going to officially commit myself to a picture a day for the year, I have in fact taken a picture every day of the year so far.

My focus is food, or anything related to what we put in our mouth every day. Food is one thing we all have in common. We all eat every day, more than once if we're fortunate. I hope to document what goes into our mouths this year, share recipes, and have a place to go to jog my memory when I don't know what to cook. The collection will be over on Flickr as a set: The Daily Bite.

Here are the first ten bites of the year:















Sorry, this one's kind of gross. But she let me pull out her tooth, and I love pulling teeth. The loss of this molar certainly affected her bite.



OK, so I'm giving myself some freedom with this project. While this is a picture of an inedible branch, it's a sign that in about five to six months, we're going to have cherries. I can't wait to take pictures of those!





Two beer related shots in ten days. Don't be surprised if you see a lot of beer in The Daily Bite set. We bite a lot of beer around here.

And that's the news from A Foothill Home Companion, "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average", and if I might add Mr. Keillor, all the food is photographed.

A Treat

I was talking food with my gluten-free friend Amy the other day and mentioned a mini gluten free pumpkin pie recipe I had written down on a scrap of paper - and couldn't find anywhere. I'm notorious for writing down recipes and notes on scraps of paper (backs of receipts, used envelopes , margins of fliers or whatever I can find near the computer) and misplacing them (usually in the trash). But then I found an open notebook among our homeschooling stuff, and there was the recipe I had been looking for.

It's a combination of several different recipes I found while googling recipes for gluten free pumpkin pie and almond meal pie crust. The kids and I thought it was just right for the pumpkin pie treat we craved, though my husband still prefers the old fashioned version. Well, you can't please them all, but I hope this little treat pleases you if you're in the market for gluten free (and milk free) mini pumpkin pies with almond meal crust.



Mini Gluten Free Pumpkin Pies

Crust:
3/4 cup rice flour blend (or your choice of gluten free flour blend)
3/4 cup almond meal
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
pinch of salt
1 stick cold butter
1 egg

Mix dry ingredients. Add butter and mix until crumbly. Add egg and mix until egg is incorporated. Divide dough into twelve balls. In greased muffin pans, gently press dough to form little cups. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes.

Filling:
1 16-ounce can pumpkin puree (or two cups pumpkin puree)
2/3 cup sugar
2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
3 slightly beaten eggs
2/3 cup rice milk

Blend all ingredients and divide among 12 pie crusts. Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes, or until crust is golden brown and pumpkin filling is set.

Serve warm. Enjoy!

Inspired

Remember how I wasn't feeling very bloggy yesterday? Well, maybe I'm still not quite feeling bloggy, but I am feeling quite inspired.

We just got back from seeing Julie & Julia. My parents went to see it over the weekend, and my mom said that she came right home from the movie and put on her pearls.



So I did the same. An apron and pearls. Just like Julia. To be quite honest, I've never tried any of Julia Child's recipes. I don't claim to be a lover of French food. But I just got down my dusty copy of The French Chef Cookbook from the shelf over the kitchen sink, and I plan to try a few new recipes. I might have to go out and buy some paper towels, just so I can properly dry my meat for ideal browning. Don't laugh Dad.

Did you see the movie? I'm curious how bloggers feel about the portrayal of blogging in the movie. This is the first movie I've seen about a fellow blogger. I was touched by the concept that the act of blogging is very private and egocentric, but at the same time it is public and communal. Quite the paradox. And of course I loved how real Julie seemed as a blogger - anxious for comments, considerate of her audience, dreaming of a book deal.

Yes, I was moved. Moved to tears in fact. I might have cried at least a dozen times during the movie, much to the dismay of my daughter. I was moved by the friendships, the marital relationships, the food, the ginormous mortar and pestle, the enormous amount of work, spirit and love that both Julie & Julia poured into their projects.

Our menu tonight is far from French. We're having grilled steak, marinated in soy sauce, lime juice, garlic, a little brown sugar and cilantro, served with homemade spring rolls. Have you ever made spring rolls using those thin sheets of rice? Truly amazing. Totally time consuming. Simply delicious. Bon appetit.

Pish, Posh, Applesauce

I have done zero food preservation this summer. In summers past, I've made apricot and cherry jam, and put bags and bags of berries in the freezer. In summer's past, apricots and cherries have fallen from our neighbor's trees and into our laps, but not so this summer. Free fruit has been harder to come by. In summers past, my kids have begged to go berry picking, but we only made it out once or twice this summer, and the berries didn't make it past our bellies.

The other day when our neighbor offered some not so pretty apples, I remembered the advice from a lady at the farmer's market about letting apples get not so pretty before baking, and I decided to make some applesauce.



I made a small batch in the crock pot, just peeled and chopped apples, a little bit of brown sugar and cinnamon, cooked on low for the afternoon. Boy did the house smell good. I let the sauce cool a bit, then spooned it into an ice cube tray to freeze small portions of applesauce, just the right size for adding to a bowl of oatmeal. Oatmeal sweetened with applesauce is one of my favorite breakfasts.

Maybe September and October will offer more opportunities to preserve food. Pickled green beans, pumpkin butter, more applesauce, definitely some dried herbs. And maybe next summer our neighbor's will experience a bumper crop of fruit and we'll restock our pantry with jam.

Pop Secret

I grew up with air-popped popcorn and microwave popcorn. It wasn't until about two years ago that I discovered the joy of stove top popcorn. But this year I learned a few secrets from a friend that has greatly improved our popcorn experience.

1) Coconut oil makes the best popcorn.

2) To ensure that your oil is the right temperature for popping corn, put three kernels of corn in the bottom of the pot with your oil and wait until they pop, then add the rest of the kernels.

Our popcorn has never tasted better - big, light and fluffy kernels! A little bit of salt, a little bit of browned butter, a whole lot of good.

If you're in the mood for something a little sweeter, try our caramel corn recipe, adapted from Carol Fenster's recipe from 1000 Gluten Free Recipes (our version has less fat and sugar and is faster to make).



Caramel Corn

1/2 cup popcorn kernels
2 tablespoons coconut oil
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup corn or rice syrup
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Pop the popcorn kernels in the coconut oil. Transfer to large bowl.

In small saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Add brown sugar, syrup and salt and stir until sugar is dissolved. Bring the mixture to a boil and let boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Turn off heat and add the vanilla and baking soda. Caramel will become foamy. Pour the caramel over the popcorn and stir well to coat.

We've been known to eat caramel corn until our tummies ache. Enjoy!

Picked

With the help of the awesome random number generator, we've got a winner of the wrist pincushion.




Cassandra of Dandelion Bones!

Thank you for all your lovely comments - it was truly a pleasure to read about the Billy Vance's in your lives. In fact, my mom and I were chatting on the phone about some of the comments the other day. We both loved Rhea's comment about humans being like hens, our mouths like beaks. Having watched a lot of people and a lot of hens, I concur.

When I pulled the carrot seen above, I couldn't help but think of the comment from ... : "if you let the baby stand up like that he'll be bull-legged".

I stumbled upon some beautiful ribbon the other day and plan to make several more wrist pincushions. I haven't done the whole Etsy thing for a while, but I'm considering setting up a little shop with a few handmade items. We'll see how much I can accomplish this weekend.

I found a great post from MooMama (thanks to her comment on yesterday's paper crane post) about 100 Fun, Frugal Things To Do With The Kids. So many great ideas! I was inspired to do something new, fun and frugal with the three girls at my house today.



We made maple sugar. Avery has been asking me for weeks to buy maple sugar from the spice lady at the farmer's market, but with cherries, berries and stone fruits in season, I'm hesitant to blow a chunk of my budget on a small jar of maple sugar. But with a surprisingly small amount of maple syrup, we were able to make our own jar of maple sugar while having fun in the kitchen with friends.





I'm sure this activity will be remembered long after we run out of maple sugar.

I have many more fun and frugal summer activities to share with you next week. I plan on starting a new list on the sidebar of all the fun things we do, complete with links to the instructions when available.

I wish you all a safe, fun (and hopefully frugal) holiday weekend!

One Good (Gluten Free) Loaf

One of the first thoughts that went through my head when I learned I had a sensitivity to gluten was: bread.



It wasn't that I was going to miss eating it, but rather making it. I love making bread. Sifting the dry ingredients, making a well for the liquids, kneading the dough, setting it in a warm place to rise. Nothing says home like a bowl of dough, covered with a vintage tea towel, rising on the hearth. And the smell....ah the smell of making bread, from beginning to end. Particularly the end. I remember many a night when we would fall asleep to the smell of freshly baked bread. Sweet, yeasty dreams.

Nothing makes me feel more like a can-do woman than making bread (or turning a sock heel). So I did what any bread loving, gluten sensitive woman would do - I got to work concocting a gluten free bread. Here's the recipe, inspired by these two recipes:



Rice Flour Bread

2 1/2 cups rice flour blend (follow link to Carol Fenster's rice flour blend recipe)
2 T sugar
2 T rice milk powder*
1 T xanthan gum
1 T dry active yeast
1 t salt
3 egg whites
3 egg yolks
2 T melted butter
1 t apple cider vinegar
1 cup very warm water*

*you may use 1 cup warm milk in place of water and rice milk powder

In mixing bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Transfer egg whites to a small bowl. Add egg yolks, butter, vinegar and warm water to mixing bowl and blend. Sift dry ingredients together (rice flour blend, sugar, rice milk powder, xanthan gum, yeast and salt). Add dry ingredients to mixing bowl and beat for three minutes. Fold beaten egg whites into dough and stir just until incorporated.

Spread mixture in a greased loaf pan, cover with towel (vintage if possible), and set in a warm place to rise for an hour. Heat oven to 375 and cook bread for one hour. Take bread out of oven and let sit for about ten minutes before removing the bread from the pan. Allow bread to cool before cutting (if you can wait that long).

I slice the bread into thin pieces and store in a covered container in the refrigerator. The loaf usually lasts for several days. It makes wonderful toast.



I'd like to thank all the gluten free bread lovers who came before me and made my gluten free breakfast possible.

Local Bounty

I imagine I was quite the sight riding my bike home from the farmer's market the other day. My backpack was bulging with 7 pounds of oranges and 3 pounds of apples. The basket attached to the front of my bike was overflowing with flowering kale and carrot tops. I couldn't have been happier.

In the book The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan refers to a theory regarding the brain from Steven Pinker's book, How the Mind Works:

"...evolution has endowed the human brain with two (formerly) unrelated faculties: its superior problem-solving abilities and an internal system of chemical rewards, such that when a person does something especially useful or heroic the brain is washed in chemicals that make it feel good."

Well, my great brain has just figured out an easy, inexpensive and legal way to get high: riding my bike to the farmer's market and coming home with a load of fresh, local food. It is an act both useful and heroic.



I get no kick from champagne.
Mere alcohol doesn't thrill me at all.
But I get a kick out of you.

Yes, I get a serious kick from all these locally grown goodies. The cabbage was divine - I never knew cabbage could be so sweet. So sweet, in fact, that a small piece left on a plate next to the sink was covered with ants when I went to do the dishes. The fifty cents worth of whole walnuts I brought home provided quite the entertainment for Aidan, and a tasty snack for me. The kale that has started to flower will be a lovely addition to my green smoothies this week. And the sweet potatoes? I think they will become fries, served alongside a pot of red beans and rice.

This week at the market I discussed time travel with an organic farmer, learned how to select an orange (go for the oranges that are heavy relative to their size), smelled a jar of freshly ground garam masala, and passed up the first of the asparagus to come to market this year - at five dollars per pound, it was slightly out of my budget.

Speaking of my budget, I think I'm going to shave a little from our grocery store budget and boost our farmer's market allotment by ten dollars. Stefani's comment on my last farmer's market post really struck a chord with me:

"I just feel like with times so tight, I want to hand my money to real people, you know?"

Yes, I know. I get a kick out of handing my money over to the real people who grow my real food. And I can't wait to see what I bring home next Saturday - hopefully my bounty will include some asparagus. It would look so pretty sticking out of my bike basket.

Be A Local Hero

Our local farmer's market association has a slogan: Be a local hero. Buy Placer-grown.



It's quite an empowering message. I believe in spending money as local as possible, and living near an agricultural community means I can buy a lot of food that has been grown locally. I've mentioned before how much I love our farmer's market, but I find that I run hot and cold on going every Saturday. With our new and improved way of eating, I'm hoping to make the farmer's market a regular habit.



I realized last year while strolling the aisles of a craft fair that one of the reasons I run cold on the farmer's market is the same reason I'm not a big fan of craft fairs - it's a very intimate experience. When shopping at a craft fair or farmer's market, you are dealing directly with the supplier of the product. So when I choose not to buy something from a particular stand, I almost feel that I'm rejecting the supplier of the product. I'm sure I'm reading way too much into this exchange; I'm prone to over thinking. I just can't help it that I feel bad when I don't buy samosas from the friendly lady at the Indian food stand.

But I'm ready to move to the next level with the farmer's market. I'm making a commitment to go every Saturday. Armed with my cloth shopping bags and a twenty dollar bill (because that's my budget), I'm going to be a local hero. I'm also going to photograph what I bring home, because really the produce is so pretty that I can't help but take a picture. Here's my loot from the last two Saturdays.





Not pictured is the meat I bought from a local rancher (which happens to be a little out of my budget, but he's willing to barter on occasion for homebrew). After making my purchase last Saturday and getting tips on cooking beef stock from bones, the rancher gave me a hug. Yes, shopping at the farmer's market can be a very intimate experience. The rancher and I now have a standing date.

One more local tip (for my local friends): I highly recommend Lundberg rice pasta. We had spaghetti for dinner last night and I must have said "thank goodness" about ten times while eating. I was nervous about rice pasta, having had a not so good experience in the past, but I could hardly tell the difference between Lundberg rice spaghetti and traditional spaghetti noodles. It's local too - Lundberg Family Farms is less than 70 miles away. This local hero is going to stock up today while it's on sale at Raley's.

Where The Journey Begins

First of all, let me say that I'm very excited that so many of you are interested in my latest food journey. I think it will be tremendously helpful and encouraging to share my discoveries and hear more about your food journeys.

To help me sort out and map out our itinerary, I think I'll embark on this journey like a journalist, using the good, old, "who, what, why, when, where, how" approach. Let's start with where.



Where I spend most of my day, right here in the kitchen. I spend hours every day in this very spot. My kitchen island is food central.



This is where I prepare our meals and snacks and where I eat most of my meals (standing up). This is where I search for new recipes and try new recipes.
This is where I converse with family and friends, often about food. Chances are, if you've been to my house you've spent a majority of your visit in this very spot.

While I don't consider myself a foodie, I'm very much into food. I believe in communicating love and warmth through the food I make. I believe food is much more than nourishment for the body. Cooking is a form of expression. Eating is a wonderful way to connect with others. Food is one of the few things each and every human being has in common.

My food journey began long ago. When I was in my early teens, my grandparents were diagnosed with hypertension and high blood pressure and started taking some serious medications and altering their diet. I became acutely aware of sodium and have been ever since. Throughout my childhood, the women in my life did Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Atkins, The Zone - you name the diet, I know someone who has tried it.

In college I took several nutrition classes (I was a nursing major) and started altering recipes to reduce fat. When I had children, the reality that I was solely responsible for their nutrition hit me hard. I started reading labels very carefully, cooking nearly every meal from scratch, and talking to other moms about feeding our families. Over the years we've eliminated many things from our diet: hydrogenated fats, artificial flavors and colors, high fructose corn syrup, nitrates, artificial sweeteners.

I buy organic often, but not always. We only eat local, in season fruits - which can get a little boring this time of year. Thank goodness we have local kiwis to give us a break from apples and oranges. Most of our vegetables are local and in season, but I do love the convenience of frozen veggies. We only eat meat 2-3 times per month, and we buy our meat from a local rancher at the farmer's market. Our eggs come from friends who have free range chickens; but soon they'll come from our own chickens. I shop at five different stores and the farmer's market. I bake all of our bread and baked goods, often adding a little milled flax seed, substituting apple sauce for oil and butter, using half whole wheat flour and half unbleached flour.

I'd like to say we eat well and have a healthy diet, but sometimes we "cheat". I've been known to drink soda on a bad day; the kids love Slurpee's now and then. My kids also eat more candy than they should - I'm a sucker, and the rest of our family delights in giving our children sweets. Some of the foods we love (specifically cereals and snack foods) contain ingredients that I know we shouldn't eat. I don't want to make rules against certain foods, but I want to educate myself and my family so we can make better choices. I want us to know why we say yes to some food and no to other food, and I want us to feel good about these choices. I want us to know where our food comes from and how it gets to our plate. I hope our journey leads us to a better understanding and appreciation for the role food has in our world, our lives and our bodies.

This just about covers where I come from, where I am and where I'm going in this latest food journey. But where am I getting information and where am I shopping?

Here are a few links I've been studying:

Organic Consumers Organization
Environmental Working Group
Weston Price Foundation
Institute for Responsible Technology

This is a lot of information to chew on, so I suggest small bites. My favorite new resource is the Non-GMO shopping guide found at the Institute for Responsible Technology. This guide has helped tremendously as I've trolled the aisles of several different grocery stores. Thankfully some of the brands we love are Non-GMO, such as Tillamook, Envirokids, Annie's, Organic Valley and Jelly Belly. Here's where I've been shopping: Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, our local natural food store, and even the local, major chain grocery store - I just make sure to read the labels carefully. And of course the farmer's market. We're very fortunate to have a year round farmer's market every Saturday morning.

Phew! Have I lost you yet? It might be a few days before I share the next leg of our journey. I'm still digesting it all myself. Feel free to share more about your food journeys. We can all caravan together and share travel tips. Happy trails to you, until we meet again.

Pumpkin Spice Bagel Recipe

Pumpkin Spice Bagels (Makes 8)

1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons water
3 cups flour (I use 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups unbleached flour)
4 T brown sugar
2 T pumpkin butter
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons pumpkin spice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 1/2 teaspoons yeast

Place ingredients in bread machine and run on dough cycle. Divide dough into 8 equal balls, shape into bagel. While bagels rise, bring a pot of water with 1 tablespoon sugar to a rapid boil. Working in small batches (2-3 bagels at a time), boil bagels 30 seconds on each side. With a slotted spoon, transfer bagels to a baking sheet covered in cornmeal. *Use a baking stone or pizza stone if you have one - my bagels kept sticking to the metal baking sheet*

Bake at 400 degrees for approximately 15 minutes.

We just can't get enough of these bagels. George and I eat them with cream cheese and pumpkin butter, while the kids prefer theirs smothered in Nutella (they'll eat anything smothered in Nutella).

I also can't get enough of Molly Irwin's new blog and flickr group, One Good Loaf. Check it out if you haven't already. Molly and other One Good Loaf contributors have inspired me to try new things with flour and yeast. This is the perfect time of year to bake bread, such a natural way to warm up the house, the belly and the soul. The act of making bread really stimulates all the senses.

Happy kneading, shaping and baking friends! Don't forget to take pictures of your culinary creations and submit them to the One Good Loaf photo pool.

I'm making Turkey Cookies' Creamy Balsamic Tomato Soup and pumpkin shaped biscuits inspired by Molly Irwin for dinner. We'll be eating blood shot eyes for dessert.

Life is delicious. Wishing you all a savory weekend.

Lemon Dill Dressing

You are going to thank me for this recipe, but the thanks really goes to my aunt who found this recipe in a magazine ages ago and turned it into a family favorite. My aunt serves this dressing in a salad composed of lettuce, tri-color pasta, cubes of monterey jack cheese, marinated artichoke hearts and red onions. I have simplified the salad dramatically and serve it on homegrown lettuce. I am a simple salad kind of girl.



My kids prefer the dressing on rainbow pasta. I add chopped broccoli to the boiling pasta during the last three minutes of cook time, then rinse the pasta and broccoli in cold water and let it cool down before tossing it with the dressing.



Lemon Dill Dressing

1/4 to 1/2 cup olive oil
zest and juice of one lemon
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dill
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese

Mix all ingredients. For best results, make ahead of time and refrigerate for a few hours to allow flavors to meld.



One of my favorite things about making this dressing is using my two favorite kitchen tools. Pampered Chef makes the best garlic press, hands down; and no kitchen is complete without a Microplane, or four (two fine grater, one coarse grater, one ribbon grater). I can zest the lemon and grate the cheese with one single tool.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. Perhaps it will become one of your family's favorites too!

Remains of the Day

Our compost bowl and our trash can are opposing barometers for the way we are living. When the compost bowl fills up each day, I know we are shopping and eating the way we should (unless of course the bowl is half full with coffee grounds). Conversely, if the trash can is full, I know we are creating too much waste and not living sustainably. I pride myself on the weeks when the garbage can is nearly empty. Such was not the case this week after cleaning out several closets and throwing away broken toys and other non-recyclables. I can just imagine our garbage sitting at the dump, not rotting away but just taking up space and doing no good.

The fact that our compost bowl filled up several times over this week makes me feel a little better. Not only does our compost bin create usable soil, it also generates food.



We relocated these sprouting potatoes to the garden and we're looking forward to eating our "garbage" sometime this summer. Our compostable garbage has also been an inspiration as of late. I find myself taking pictures of food remnants while making dinner. For some reason the ingredients that don't make it to our plates are much more interesting to me than the finished product fit for consumption.







For this reason, I've created a Flickr group entitled "Remains of the Day" in hopes that you too will be inspired to take pictures of your kitchen waste and share them with the rest of us so we can be inspired by your "garbage". Think of it as documenting the journey rather than the destination. The shells that held the eggs of the pancakes you made for breakfast, the stems that supported the broccoli you steamed for lunch, the skin that protected the potato you mashed for dinner; they are all part of the journey of food to it's destination: you. I can't wait to see the remains of your day.

Start This Bread Tonight

Unless you read the comments on my posts, you probably missed the recipe my brother-in-law Mark shared a few weeks ago for Lemon Rosemary Bread. This was my first attempt at no-knead bread, and I am a convert to the process.







The process is slow, but the work is minimal and easy. It's akin to baking beans from scratch; if you rinse and soak the beans the night before, all you have to do the next day is boil and simmer. Time does the work for you.

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. active dry yeast
1 3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp. chopped lemon zest
Cornmeal as needed

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine the flour, yeast, salt, rosemary and zest. Add 1 5/8 cups water and stir until blended; the dough will be shaggy and very sticky. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest at warm room temperature (about 70°F) until the surface is dotted with bubbles, 12 to 18 hours.

Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface. Sprinkle the dough with a little flour and fold the dough over onto itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest for 15 minutes.

Using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the work surface or your fingers, gently and quickly shape the dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel, preferably a flour sack towel (not terry cloth), with cornmeal. Put the dough, seam side down, on the towel and dust with more flour or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise until the dough is more than double in size and does not readily spring back when poked with a finger, about 2 hours.

At least 30 minutes before the dough is ready, put a 2 3/4-quart cast-iron pot in the oven and preheat the oven to 450°F. Carefully remove the pot from the oven. Slide your hand under the towel and turn the dough over, seam side up, into the pot; it may look like a mess, but that is OK. Shake the pan once or twice if the dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes.

Cover with the lid and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking until the loaf is browned, 15 to 30 minutes more. Transfer the pot to a wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes. Using oven mitts, turn the pot on its side and gently turn the bread; it will release easily.

Makes one 1 1/2-lb. loaf.

Adapted from Sullivan Street Bakery (New York City) and Mark Bittman, "The Secret of Great Bread: Let Time Do the Work," The New York Times, Nov. 8, 2006.

Omit the lemon and rosemary (if you dare), and you will have this bread. Read this article for a good explanation of why no knead bread needs no kneading. I will definitely make this bread again and again, and maybe even experiment with different flavors and seasonings. I believe a loaf of cracked pepper and asiago bread is in our future. Thank you Mark for the recipe!

April Fools Gold

A little Before and After, which happens to be very timely as it is April Fools Day, and just yesterday we took a trip to Empire Mine, a former gold mine in Grass Valley.







The grounds are beautiful, the architecture amazing, but the mine itself gave me chills.



The deepest mine is 8000 feet below the surface.



The highlight of the trip for me was the 1958 filmstrip about the history of gold mining in California. I know California wouldn't be what it is without the discovery of gold, and that the little town I call home wouldn't be on the map if it weren't for gold, but I had never realized until watching the filmstrip that gold is a relatively useless metal. It is only valuable because humans have placed value on it. Many lives have been consumed by and lost in the pursuit of gold; even the devastation of the "New World", all for the pursuit of the mother lode. It made me wonder, what if people placed value on the things I consider valuable - peace, family, freedom, to name a few - what kind of world would this be? And if we continue to pursue material wealth where are we headed?



The funny thing is, not ten minutes after I took the above picture on the Quarry Trail, I saw a lone gold prospector heading up from the river; I even thought to myself perhaps I should try my hand at gold panning. After all, it is going for over $1000 an ounce these days. You can take the girl out of the gold country, but you can't take the gold country out of the girl.

On a different note, Avery had been planning an April Fools Day treat for several weeks, and as soon as she woke up this morning we started cooking. She couldn't wait to wake George up so we could have "pizza" for breakfast.



If you guessed pepperoni and green peppers, guess again. The dough is pie crust, the sauce is strawberry jelly, the cheese is coconut (dyed with yellow food coloring), the pepperoni is a fruit roll-up carefully cut into circles, and the peppers are gum drops. It was actually quite tasty and possibly the most fun treat we have made together. We then proceeded to make "kick-me" signs to attach to each other's backs. Fun, foolish times - better than gold.