school lunch

 During my week of nothing, my kids bought lunch far more than usual. We usually limit buying to once a week, and for the past two weeks they've bought probably 3 times a week.

When I was little, we got hot lunch on Friday. It was usually Pizza Hut or something equally healthy. If you forgot to bring your lunch any other day, you got a PB&J and milk. The kids school offers hot lunch everyday. It's your typical school lunch menu - with attempts at being healthier (salads, fruit etc . . .) but I'm pretty sure it's not the fruit that's enticing the kids to buy. A favorite is the popcorn chicken which I am fairly certain is not popcorn and likely not chicken.

So, why in the world do I go through the trouble and expense of buying local grassfed meats, of spending an insane amount of time preparing scratch meals . . . and then send my kids to school with 2 bucks to buy whatever over processed food-like product is being served on the lunch line that day?

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Well, because it's easy. It's made even easier by the fact that I don't have to send them with real, actual dollars. I can go online and add money from my bank account to their lunch account. Yup - they have pin numbers and can buy lunch without ever holding the money.

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Which means, that my 7 year old has been buying breakfast every morning at school. After having breakfast at home. We always joked he was like a hobbit - having more than one breakfast is not unusual for him, he often has first breakfast and second breakfast. Sometimes there is a third breakfast.

Anyway, having money on a card, instead of in your hand - means that my 7 year old has no concept of buying lunch. Or breakfast. So when I checked his account the other day, wondering where in the world 20 bucks went to already - I found that it went a dollar a day to breakfast, 1.75 to lunch on more days than normal and 65 cents to ice cream. Even on the days I take the time and care to pack a balanced healthy lunch - guess what else he's eating? Ice cream. Awesome.

Even better, while cleaning out my 12 year olds lunch bag, I've noticed he's coming home with cookie wrappers and doritio wrappers. And it's not on his lunch account. Which means he's trading or just getting these treats from other kids. Well, that's just awesome too.

But back to why they even have money on their accounts in the first place. It started with them being able to buy on my early Wednesdays - every other Wednesday I have to leave for work right after they get on the bus. It was easier to not have to deal with packing a lunch (since I'm not home till 9:30 the night before) and it was a treat for them.

But. Then sometimes I'm lazy. I mean, I'm just having a really hard time doing the morning thing. I get home from work at 9:30, I'm usually asleep by 11. Then I drag myself out of bed at 6:30. I need way more sleep I think. I wish I could be a morning person, but I'm just not. Not yet.

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And sure, I could pack the lunches the night before. You know, when I get home from a 10 hour day at 9:30 pm, but remember the part where I said I was lazy. Yeah. I just don't want to pack lunches when I walk in the door. And my husband can do them, and does but remember where I also said I've turned into a control freak? He doesn't pack lunches as good as I do. Clearly my lunches are fantastic, since my kids never want to buy lunch and never trade with their friends and . . . oh wait.


So what's a busy some-what health conscious mom to do?

I've seen the bento boxes and they are awesome and clever  . . .

 well, that's one way to get them to eat!

and so not me. I can barely slap together some peanut butter and some bread!


A typical lunch is:

PB&J or crackers and cheese and pepperoni, or leftover chili or soup in a thermos.
Carrots and ranch or apples and PB or salad and dressing
homemade cookies or chips
mozzarella stick or yogurt
water

I wouldn't want to eat that everyday either, it's freaking boring. I need help! I've looked and looked for lunch ideas, but am still having a hard time. Share with me lunch ideas! I'd love some make ahead/freezer sort of things for the mornings I'm feeling lazy.

We all know how great I am with goals I set, but I'm going to try some new lunch ideas and report back here every week or two. I can't be the only parent with lunch troubles!

Adventures in Cheesemaking: Cream Cheese

I've been eating (and therefore buying) a lot of cream cheese lately. A super duper lot.

A few weeks ago I ordered the mesophilic  starter from New England Cheesemaking Supply so I could try my hand at cream cheese.

The recipe appears fool proof. Riki the cheesemaking queen says so. Over at Chickens in the Road it's declared "so easy a child could make it".

I figured it would be a breeze, and it no time I'd be whipping up my own cream cheese on a weekly basis. So I went and got myself some nice local, organic half and half and prepared to make some of what would no doubt be the most heavenly tasting cream cheese ever.

I was puttering around the kitchen, making some mozzarella and once that was finished began work on the cream cheese. It was 9 pm (oops) the cheese is supposed to set for 12 hours, which is fine, but I have to be to work at 7. Ok, so I'd just run home on lunch ( giving it 15 hours to set) and I'd hang it then. Only I got home and what was supposed to be a thick yogurt like curd was still pretty much just cream (with a layer of curd on top). Of course, being in a rush I didn't notice this until I had poured it into the colander lined with cheesecloth. Shoot. Hoping I didn't destroy it, I poured it back into the original bowl, gave it a stir, covered it and went back to work.

I spent some time popping around the internet, looking for someone who had similar troubles. Nope. All I could find was more talk about how easy it was to make. Hmph. About 6pm that night (so 21 hours later!) I decided to just go with what I had and hang it. It was definitely thicker, but I still think it may not have been quite right. Also, my house was at a pretty consistent 72 degrees for most of this time, so I don't think the temperature affected the setting.

I hung the cheese for about 15 hours and when it came out of the cheesecloth it had a frosting type texture.

A few hours in the fridge left it a pretty standard cream cheese texture, maybe slightly thicker.

I did all this last Thursday into Friday. I still haven't eaten it. It's good for two weeks, and I'm thinking I'll just make something with it. The taste (I did try it) is ok. But not heavenly. I'm not sure how to describe it. Kind of like a slightly tangy butter? I'm going to give it another shot, but I'm going to use the cheap store brand (not ultra-pasteurized though, thank you Wegmans!) half and half instead of the pricey local organic (delicious!) half and half. I'll report back on how well it goes next time.

Maybe I'll have my kids make it.

SAD

SAD. The Standard American Diet.

Highly processed foods, refined flours, refined sugars, fast foods, rancid oils.  

I've talked before about my journey with food and cooking. Yet for all the strides I've made, our diet still closely resembled a SAD diet. I think maybe it's just so ingrained in many of us, that we don't even notice it. I certainly didn't. At first glance my families diet seemed slightly above average. Local and organic foods, plenty of vegetables and fruits. Grains. And more grains. And refined flours and sugars. Oops.

I'm not a nutritionist (though I plan on going to school for just that in the next year or so) and this obviously is not a medical blog, so take anything I say here with a grain of salt (or pat of butter) - it's all purely my opinion and nothing more.

At the early part of the last century, American cookbooks were much different than what they are today. In some ways, cookbooks and recipes and meals are better today - we have a wide array of ingredients available to work with, we have appliances to make cooking quicker and easier. In other ways, those old cookbooks might have been better. For the most part they concentrate on whole ingredients. You'll rarely see recipes (receipts) calling for a can of this or a bag of that (well, I guess they didn't have freezers either!). They used lard and whole, real fats. Ingredients were often basic - probably because many things were still bought from a local farm or grown in their backyards. During the war, sugar in recipes was low due to the rationing.

I firmly believe that whole, real foods are superior to processed foods. And since last summer - that thinking has spread to include whole milk, lard, full fat cheeses. For as long as I've been moving towards a whole foods diet, I was still buying low-fat products. Why? Well, because I was trying to  lose weight, and doesn't the USDA say that a low-fat, low-cal diet is the way to go?

My first clue was (or should have been) my experiences last summer. I spent months getting up at 5am to go running before work. Dieted. Blah, blah, blah. Lost nothing. Not one little inch. At the end of the summer I started buying whole fat milks (because that's what was available at our farmers market). I stopped dieting, and I stopped running because we were moving and I was working overtime. That month, without trying, I lost 10 pounds. Yet, that barely clicked with me until a couple months ago.

I won't go on too long about my weight, because - frankly, it's boring and no one cares. But. Remember my whiny blog from last month, and how I wasn't going to weigh myself? Lies (not intentional, really!). I did weigh myself. And I did keep thinking about it. Because the next week I started atkins. Gasp! If you're like I was, you're shaking your head and muttering about how that's the stupidest diet ever. And maybe it is.

Here's what happened. One morning I was grumpy and feeling fat. So I was going to sign back up for weight watchers online.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. " Albert Einstein

Only, I remembered a friend mentioning her success on atkins. And this friend is pretty smart and like me loves good food and good wine. So, on a whim I checked out the atkins website. What's this? They gave tons and tons of information, for free?! Weight Watchers is between 45-60 dollars for a 3 month online subscription. Well, hell. For free, I'd read about it.

And guess what? It made sense. Really, it did. Especially to me. For 7 years I've been bouncing around with calorie restriction and low fat diets, and where am I? Um, still not thin. I was surprised at the whole foods emphasis. And the truth is, I do eat  a lot of processed carbs. It's not unusual for a typical day to consist of something like toast or granola for breakfast, a wrap for lunch and a pasta and bread for dinner. I'd have fruits and veggies through out the day of course, but still. That's a lot of bread and starch. Also, we loooove potatoes, and we easily ate those 4 or 5 nights a week. What? They're good! And cheap!

So anyway, I've been doing this thing for about 10 weeks now. I've lost 12 lbs. 8 of those pounds came of in the first 2 weeks. So I'm not losing fast. Admittedly, I followed the diet perfectly the first 2 weeks, and the last few weeks not as well. I've waaaay over indulged in wine on the weekends and I had popcorn last night (which I'm not "supposed" to have yet). I don't care about losing slow though. All I care about is that I'm losing. And more importantly - I feel good. I do. I don't know how to explain it, really. I just feel better. When the kids make a comment about how I'm "not supposed" to have this or that, I remind them that I can, I'm just choosing not to. I'm still cooking breads and potatoes and things for the family, though slightly less than before. I don't think these things are evil (they are delicious), I just think we eat too many. Especially me!

Now, realistically, I'm not going to stay off bread and sugar forever. I mean, it took me 5 years to make the perfect loaf of bread. I will eat that again. And I know, I know, that's the downfall right? Whatever.

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What I'm doing is no longer Atkins, it's more Atkins-inspired. The one thing I didn't like was all the mock this, fake that, splenda based foods. I'm ok with trying new things. Like cauliflower pizza crust or sporadic use of xylitol and stevia. But I'm not into constantly re-creating things that I'm not  supposed to be :ahem: choosing not to eat. I mean, why not embrace the whole, real foods that are part of the way I'm choosing to eat?

What I'm doing is just being more mindful of processed carbs and sugar. For now, I'm staying away from even whole wheat flour and experimenting with things like almond and oat flour. Eventually wheat and grains will come back - as treats. Homemade waffles with the family once a month? Sure! And with sugar, I've cut it out almost completely (which is surprisingly hard - it's in everything!) But I'll indulge from time to time, like in homemade ice cream. And I'm sure I'll be adding in honey and maple syrup soon, in small quantities.

It just makes sense to me. I'm not a farmer (though I wish I was). I sit at a desk most of the day. I simply don't need those carbohydrates.

Anyway. So that's where I am and that's what I've been doing. And I guess I'm sharing because, well, I don't know. Because if I start posting recipes with almond flour you'll know why. And I guess because I've been so astounded at how effortless it's been to drop a few pounds, and how amazing I feel eating this way.

You don't have to do it all.

I was joking with my husband about writing a how to guide for real food for real people after a friend of mine suggested a I write a book. I can't write. I used to write, a lot. But I'm, like, word stupid now. Really, I am. I've forgotten all basic rules of writing since college. When I write, it's how I talk. I blabber.

As I was telling my husband (who thinks a book is a great idea, but I think that's just 'cause he's sick of me talking his ear off about food) I don't know that I could write a book. I mean, aside from the writing/blabbering thing, almost all the information I know - I learned somewhere else. And I mean, who am I anyway? Just some girl who's still learning herself, you know? Just some girl who less than a decade ago thought McDonalds was a perfectly acceptable lunch for her toddler.

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I've mentioned before that my transition started out of need, not desire. I had to cut costs. In fact, I remember the year this transition started. I was in my kitchen one night, packing lunch for the next day for my then 5 year old. My baby was just months old. An old friend of my husbands had come by and brought a friend of hers. While packing his lunch I mentioned that we needed more Hi-C fruit juice boxes. And the friend of the friend went on a little tirade about how when she had kids she was never going to feed them that garbage and blah, blah, blah. I was so ticked off. How dare she come into my house and put down my choices?! Just wait till she had kids and had to balance everything, sooner or later she'd turn to juice boxes. Well, her approach was wrong. The way she came across, was insulting. It's because of her, that even though I get preachy, I try not to get snotty. Little did I know then, in a couple years time I'd be scorning those little juice boxes as well.

That 5 year old that I was packing lunch for is now almost 12. His lunches are still far from perfect. I'm still learning. But he hasn't had a juice box in years. The boys use reusable water bottles.

You don't need to start big. You don't have to do it all. As Star commented yesterday:

"I think people get caught up in changing everything at once,and they don't think, "Well, ok, this is what I can do now, this is what I can work on." It's much more daunting to make real change when you want it all at once. But that's not always feasible"

That is so true. And that's one of the "chapters" my husband said I should have in my "book" (haha). You don't have to do it all. You don't. Maybe someday you'll want to, maybe you won't. But what you have to look at is what you can do now.

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Can you stop putting juice boxes in your child's lunch? I bought reusable water bottles at Wegmans for 2 dollars a piece. They're rubbermaid or something (plastic-y) so still not perfect - but affordable. How much is a 10 pack of juice-boxes? At least 2 dollars. You're not saving money there. A 12 pack of pint size water bottles? $2.50 and they're clogging landfills. We've managed to reduce our trash by a huge amount, and my children are drinking more water and less sugar. That was easy right? A one time, 4 dollar investment. 

When I first started going to our regional market again, it wasn't because I had an interest in local foods. I had an interest in saving money. It was over the course of that first year that my interest turned to nutrition and local foods and food culture etc . . . but it certainly did not start that way. I had been going to the market for about 6 months when I decided to venture out and try one of the local, grass-fed meat vendors. I thought the prices were high. I though there was no way I could afford it. So I started small. Some eggs (3 dollars a dozen) and some ground beef ($3.50  a pound). Over time I began to adjust our menu's to eat seasonally, to eat less meat (though we're eating plenty of it now!) so that I could afford those meats. This change did not come all at once. I'd say it's been maybe 3 years since I started visiting our local market regularly, and it's only been in the last year that most of our food has started coming from there (varying on season of course).

You don't have to do it all.

I'm still learning. I'm still growing. I've been learning to make my own cheese. I make my own wine. You may never be interested in those things. And that is okay.

I've only recently started to cut out white flour and white sugar. I've only very recently begun to look at soaking grains. I've (repeatedly!) admitted that my kids eat chips and other snack foods. I can't do it all. I can't do everything I want to and do it the way I want to. Part of learning to make the change to real food, is learning when and what to let go of. You do what you can and move on.

Any change you make towards real and local food is going to benefit you and your family.

I think there are several bloggers participating in something called One Small Change. That's sort of what I'm talking about (and if anyone could link me to the origins, I'd be grateful). You don't need to get overwhelmed. You don't need to go spend your whole paycheck at Whole Foods. Honestly, I'm so used to shopping locally, I don't know if I would like a Whole Foods (we don't even have one near us). 

What is one thing you can do, today, this week, this month to make a change? Can you cut out juice boxes? Can you buy only local grass-fed beef? Can you check local harvest - find a farm or market and go there, even if you don't buy anything?

When I first started on my real food journey - I had no idea that's where I was going. You may already be light-years ahead of where I was. Check out my recommended reading tab for some great books on this topic. Not included there are the two books that I started with. They aren't so much real food as just scratch/budget food. I haven't used these books in years, and they've been in and out of my book donation pile so many times I've lost count. I think I'll keep them though. They were a great starting point for a clueless 23 year old who had never cooked anything that didn't come in a wrapper.

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Those books were Miserly Meals and Not Just Beans. If you're on a tight budget and just getting started in transitioning from processed foods, I definitely recommend those books to get started.

 I'm thinking about doing regular posts over the next month or so on real food for real people. I hope you guys will join in, posting on your own blogs, or in the comments here!

the real problem(s) with real food

Is that it's not accessible to everyone. That's a huge problem. In a recent post, Sheila commented:

I have to take a a 45 minutes Subway ride to the nearest Farmers market. We have are lucky enough to have a TJs nearby but its still a 35 minute bus ride in the opposite direction. And it took us a long time to start doing the bus ride thing because it did sound a bit overwhelming to hop on bus with four million other people and 10 bags of groceries, but it has been the best decision we have ever made. I really wish would have done it sooner.

My city is making small strides to alleviate that. They set up small farmers markets in bad areas of the city (and I mean small - 3 or 4 vendors) but it's a start. Our regional market is located just outside the city, and most vendors accept food stamps. There is a downtown market once a week - still takes a bit of time to get to if you have no car, but runs along the main bus route.

I know some areas of my city, and in many other cities - even having a grocery store that sells fresh food is a problem. Many areas only have corner convenience stores that sell pre-packaged and bagged processed foods. And even those are charged premium prices.

Another problem is that many people don't see anything wrong with  processed foods. I'm not militant, I'm talking in general. Some people get all up in arms when I put down processed foods - I mentioned in my rant-ish post that it's not unusual to find a bag of chips in our pantry or white flour or even a box of mac and cheese on occasion. But there are problems with processed and pre-packaged foods, even beyond the health/nutrition problems:

" Three generations of us have managed to walk this earth without understanding the fundamentals of food production - when to plant seeds, when certain foods are locally in season, how to put up garden produce, what cows, pigs, sheep and chickens eat, how they are slaughtered and processed or the labor that food production entails. 

When we are unaware of these things, we are also blithely unaware of the industrialized food systems destruction of our land and resources, of it's abuses of human labor, of it's propensity to poison our land, water and bodies with toxic chemicals, of it's rapid consumption of our dwindling petroleum resources. 

We are simply unaware of how our food is produced. We have such little understanding about t, that we are willing accomplices in horrendous, environmentally destructive food waste. According to Timothy Jones, a University of Arizona anthropologist, 40% of the food grown in the United States is lost or thrown away. Upon studying household waste streams, Jones discovered that 14% of our trash was perfectly good food, unspoiled and in it's original packaging. Since very few people have the time to keeping their own gardens and/or inclination to compost, all but 2% of their wasted food ends up in landfills, where it produces methane, a majoe source of greenhouse gases. Our inability to produce and process our own food also results in Americans spending one of every eleven food dollars on packaging."

-Shannon Hayes

In Shannon Hayes's book Radical Homemakers she talks about how we've gotten trapped in this consumer culture/processed food culture. And I was nodding my head the whole time. I've been planning on writing a post on Ms. Hayes for a while, and will soon! But basically, she says that we're in this cycle of working to pay for what we need, because we're not home to create/grow/tend to what we need - because we're working. I'm looking forward to the day that I can work only part-time and stay home and garden and cook and clean and etc . . . Being home to do those things will enrich our lives in more ways than one.


So. We don't have real food, because it's not accessible. Sometimes because we don't have grocers/markets that provide it. Sometimes because we are unwilling/unable to grow it ourselves.


Or maybe we just don't know how. Maybe we don't know why, or where to begin?

Do you live in a city with few fresh food options?

This is a great article, with some real life ideas on how to make a change. Transforming food deserts doesn’t always require government or corporate intervention.  Some of the best transformations result from individuals or grassroots organizations getting involved.

What about starting a community garden?

Do you have a balcony or patio? There are tons of resources. Check out The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-sufficient Living in the Heart of the City (Process Self-reliance Series) or one of the many sites dedicated to apartment gardening, like: Easy Balcony Gardening.

No balcony? Try Window Farming



There really are so many ways to get involved in knowing where your food comes from. There's a revolution brewing, and it's becoming easier than ever to make these changes in your life.

It does, doesn't it? Maybe now even more than ever.

I'm kind of a snob.

I am.

I believe in eating from scratch. I believe in buying local. Organic when necessary (and it's not always).

I've mentioned before that this has been a long, evolving road for me. A journey that began just about 7 years ago.

We don't always eat healthy. Our meals are not always the perfect picture of nutrition. When I make bread, it's white flour bread. We have homemade pizza nights often. It's not unusual to have chips in our pantry.

I try to follow a 90/10 rule at home. If you eat well 90% of the time, I won't worry about the other 10%. Especially when I have a semi-resistant husband and two children who have all sorts of outside influences on their diets and 'wants'. You drink water and milk at home, and I won't start twitching when you grab a soda at Nana's house. It's a treat. You eat vegetables with lunch and dinner and I won't hyperventilate over your cereal in the morning (which is mostly limited to bran and oat cereals anyway, but they're still nutritional jokes).

I've been re-evaluating my own diet. Too many processed carbs. Too much sugar.

I'll be the first to admit that at home, scratch cooking isn't always healthy. But I will always maintain that it's way, way better than what you'll buy in the store, processed.

Anyway. I get annoyed, borderline angry  even, when I read articles or hear people say that healthy eating cost too much. That buying fresh foods is not affordable or realistic. I have to laugh at some of the meal plans people put together when they are doing foodstamp experiments and trying to eat healthy. Part of what bothers me - is then that notion gets passed down and around and it's just taken as fact that it's just not possible for people on small budgets. That healthy eating is for the rich.

Look. I know it takes practice. It's taken me 7 years to get where I am, and I'm still learning. I know it takes dedication. But I am sick.to.death. of people saying it can't be done. Yes, it can.

We survive, every month, on a below poverty level - foodstamp level type budget. Our budget varies between about 250-400 a month for a family of 4 (with a 6'4 husband and 2 growing young boys). And following my 90/10 rule, I'd say 90% of what we buy is local and/or organic and non-processed.

Now, I understand that I'm pretty lucky. We have several great grocery stores. Before we moved they were within 10 minutes of each other and my home, now it's about a 20-30 minute one way drive (and yes, I'm fortunate to have a car to drive there). I also realize I am very lucky to have a fantastic year round farmers market, with plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, local/organic/grass-fed meats and dairy. I realize how fortunate I am, and that in some areas buying healthy is more expensive and harder to obtain.

But I still believe it can be done. And I'll tell you all about it until you want to hit me. I can get preachy. But it's because I'm so damn passionate about it. I don't mean to preach, I mean to be helpful and encouraging. No one, ever should have to settle for sub-standard food. No matter what their income level is.

Now, if you're just not interested in changing - you just don't care about these things - then that's fine. What pisses  me off, is when people laugh at the notion of  living this kind of lifestyle (as unreasonable). Or insist it can't be done. Or when they say they can't. Because they can.

And here's where I become a snob:

"I don't have time". Make time. That's an excuse and a poor one at that. I work 10-12 hour days. I'm not even home for dinner 4 nights a week. Yet almost every single night, I have a home-cooked meal on the table for my family. Get a slow-cooker. Make ahead. Use your freezer properly. If you have time to use the computer, watch tv, take your kids to 5 different sports/classes - you have time to cook from scratch. You just don't want to. Because you aren't willing to give up something else to make the time for it.

"It's too expensive" If you're buying organic junk food, maybe. How much is a bag of potato chips? 2.50? How much is a bag of potatoes? I can get them on sale (non-organic) for 1.99 for 5 lbs. Organic might cost 4.99 for 5 lbs. I wonder how many chips you can make from 5 lbs of potatoes? Probably a lot more than what you buy off the shelf.  Shannon Hayes (who I'll be posting on later this week) addresses the expense argument in her new book "The Farmer and the Grill". I may pay slightly more for the meat I buy at the farmers market, but I know that my food dollars are being used wisely. They are supporting local economy. They are refusing to buy from factory farms and big corporations, they say "I don't support these practices". The meats I buy are healthier. They are naturally leaner and contain more vitamins than conventional meat. Yeah, I think they are worth the extra cost. My family is worth the extra couple of dollars. If you find it to be too much - adjust your diet. Eat less meat. Simple.

So, yeah. I'm a snob. I can't stand the excuses people make to defend their unwillingness to invest in their health and their families health and well-being.

If you don't have a good grocery store near by, start petitioning for one. Get your neighborhood involved, make it known you want and need a store in your area.  Don't have a local farmers market? Are you sure? Check out Local Harvest to see what's available in your area. Even check Craigslist. Still no luck? Start a community garden. Or if you have even the tiniest backyard or balcony, start your own garden.

Start small. You don't need to overhaul your diet and your habits overnight. Start by buying off the dirty dozen. Start by buying one product local/organic. I started with ground beef only, since it was so cheap. Now 95% of the meat I buy is from a local farmer. What about local/organic eggs? An extra dollar a week.

Not used to cooking from scratch? Again, start small. Make meatballs. Make extra and put some in your freezer. You don't need to start off making cheese your first week cooking from scratch (or hell - ever!).

Don't have time? Look into Once-a-Month cooking, or big batch cooking. I've never had a lot of luck with this, but it works for a lot of people. You spend one day making and freezing your meals for a month (or week, or 2 weeks). Or, when you do cook - just make extra and throw it in your freezer for the nights the kids have sports and your home late from work. You don't have to rely on take-out, just your own freezer or fridge.

There are so many ways, so many resources, so much information out there. I simply can't stand hearing "I can't", "I don't have time", "It's too expensive". What I'm really hearing is: "I won't".

“Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it.”

                                                                                                  ~James Arthur Baldwin

30 Days to a Food Revolution

ame across this just now - and it's starting today! 30 Days to a Food Revolution

I've been making quite a few changes to my diet over the last few weeks, and actually stumbled across that site while researching other things.

I know I'll be paying attention and following along, and wanted to share here too!

adventures in cheese making: mozzarella

I read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle about 2 years ago, and in the book Barbara Kingsolver discusses making cheese at home. Never before had it occurred to me that was possible. Not only did she say it was possible, but she said it wasn't hard. What? How? Really?

For two years I've wanted to order the 30 minute mozzarella kit from New England Cheese Supply. The cost isn't obscene. 60 dollars, but it was enough for me to look at it, and then not buy it several times a year.

A few weeks ago, I finally did. This past weekend was Round One in Adventures in Cheese making:

I followed the 30 minute mozzarella recipe

I've had a killer head cold all weekend and can barely taste a thing so I can't fairly report on taste, but my youngest (my oldest wasn't home this weekend) had several helpings of the pizza we made with it. He loved it.

First, find some local milk. Or at least some milk that is NOT ultra pasteurized. It won't work. For those locally, Wegmans organic milk is not ultra pasteurized. The only people selling milk at the market now are the Fingerlakes Farm people. In the spring and summer, I'll probably try it using milk from Wake Robin Farm - if you're on facebook check out their fan page. How could I not want to buy from this farm?!

Anyway. So you've got the milk.

And if you bought the 30 minute mozzarella kit, you also have everything else you need to make cheese. Oh, except a stainless steel pot. Get yourself one of those. I used Kevins giant beer stainless pot. It's huge but worked fine.

Dissolve 1/4 tab rennet into 1/4 cup cool water, set aside.

Dissolve 1.5 tsp citric acid into 1 cup cool water and add to the milk in your stainless steel pot. Heat your milk while stirring to 90 degrees using a dairy thermometer (its included in the kit).

Remove the pot from the burner and add the dissolved rennet. Cover with a lid and let sit for 5 minutes. Check the curd, it should be starting to firm/set and will be the texture of custard. If it's not ready, let sit another 5-10 minutes. I let mine go another 6-7 minutes. When curd is set and separate from whey, cut into small cubes.

Place the pot back on stove and heat to 105, stirring slowly. This will only take a minute or two. Take off the burner and continue stirring slowly until cheese begins to firm and connect. About 2-5 minutes.

Here, I dumped the whey through a cheesecloth in a colander over a bowl. The website shows taking the curds out with a slotted spoon. Yeah, that makes more sense actually, so do that. Once the curd is separated from the whey (the leftover liquid) drain off the curd as best as you can without pushing into the curd, you don't want to dry it, just drain it.

You're going to have a ton of whey. I froze it for later use. I just have to find uses! I know you can use it in breads and it's supposedly good for a treat for kitties. I'll post some whey recipes at some point, I'm sure.

Microwave for about 1 minute, drain. Knead and reheat for about 30 seconds. Repeat until curd is 135 degrees (the temperature it needs to be to stretch properly).

Then stretch, stretch stretch. I probably should have stretched more, but it still formed nicely.

Now you can form it and make it pretty (mine is more deformed than pretty - I need practice!!) - then plunge in ice water to hold the shape and stop it from getting grainy.


Ta-da! You have mozzarella! Now eat it. Nom. Or wrap it in plastic wrap for up to two weeks. I wrapped ours to use on pizzas that night. I also found if I put it in the freezer for a few minutes, it shredded better for pizza.

I don't have pictures of the mozzarella. Ok, I do, but it looks like mozzarella crap. So here's a picture of it cooked up and melted on homemade pizza instead

I plan on sticking with mozzarella for several weeks, before moving on to some of the other tempting recipes in the book. I'll be keeping you updated!



Edited to fix all of the typos I spotted. I need to proof read more. I'm going to blame it on my cold, k?

rendering lard.

Sounds pleasant right?

It actually was. I was intrigued and thrilled when I saw pork leaf fat for sale at the farmers market last week. Coincidentally, just a day or two before while reading through one of my new books, I saw a section on how to render lard. So of course, I bought some.

My first attempt went ok. It was easy enough, but I wasn't quite sure what I was doing and think I cooked it too high or too long or something. Apparently that's not a terrible thing, it just means that it will have a more smoky or meaty flavor and it's better in things like Mexican cooking and savory dishes instead of pastries. I got about 3 jelly jars out of that batch.

Yesterday I bought two more packages of pork fat (in total all three packages cost me $2.60) I cooked up one more package (and left one in the freezer) and this batch came out perfect. Snowy white and creamy.

So. How do you render lard?

Find some pork leaf fat. Preferably from a farmer you know and trust! Leaf lard is the highest quality fat, next is fat back. From what I've been told both are ok for rendering your own lard, but you'll get a better quality with the pork leaf fat. It's not like it's expensive either.

 

 

There are two methods, one is stove top and one is in the oven. I used the stove top method.

First, cut your fat into small pieces. I learned that it's easier to cut if it's still a little frozen. My first batch wasn't and I ended up with larger pieces which may have been why it didn't melt down as well and browned. The second time I left it slightly frozen which made it cut better, so I could cut it smaller and I did get a much better finish.

Put the fat into a saucepan and add 1/3-1/2 cup of water depending on how much fat you have. This stops the fat from sticking to the bottom and burning/browning.

 

first batch

Stir every 10 minutes or so to keep it from sticking. You're supposed to eventually hear a loud crackling/popping with a spatter of hot lard when it's just about done and from that point you can keep cooking it down to end up with a smoky lard, or strain it then for a white lard. The first time I tried it I never got that noise. I pulled it when it started smoking (yeah). I strained it through a cheesecloth in a strainer into a bowl, then poured it into jars from there.

 

I forgot to take a picture of the first batch of lard after it solidified. This is what it looks like at first. This was the first batch and you can see how it's sort of an amber color.

The second batch was a much lighter color. 

 

 It looks even darker than it was too. It was a very, very light yellow. I guess when you pull it early enough, it's clear like water.

The second time there was a definite sputter/crackling and spatter of grease. I happened to be stirring it and got hit. Yum, melted fat. I pulled it right after and strained and jarred it. I got about 3 and half jars this time. From what I understand they'll keep in the fridge 2 months and in the freezer for at least a year (some things I've read say they stay indefinitely)

There was definitely a difference in the coloring of the lard. So one is labeled for savories and the other is labeled for pastries.

 

 second batch, finished lard.

You're also supposed to get cracklings, which is I guess the crisped pieces of skin/fat? I've heard they are delicious. I'll probably never know, I don't know if I'm that adventurous! Some information I read says that those will "sink" when the lard is ready. I have no idea what that means.

I may try the oven method next time, I think you're supposed to get more lard out of the fat that way. I'll keep you updated! I'll also be keeping you updated on the recipes I try out with it.

I'm really probably way too excited about pig fat!


Edited to add: I was reading through blogs I follow this morning, and great minds and all - Suzanne McMinn over at Chickens in the Road posted yesterday about rendering lard! Check out her method (crock pot) and her very detailed, very good instructions!

how i love you.

I have a confession. I am not a good mother. Ok, I'm not a bad mom. It just doesn't come naturally to me. It's only been in the last few years I've started enjoying being a mom. I mean, I never not enjoyed it - but I never really embraced it. I just did it. I didn't savor it or treasure it, not the way I do now. Not the way I feel now. I was so damn young. And I just didn't know. I didn't have a lot of models on mothering or parenting. I was just trying to get by. Just trying to not lose myself, not screw my kids up and still enjoy life. The older I get the more mothering feels more natural to me. Maybe because I've been a mother longer. Maybe because I'm finally growing up.

I don't regret, not for one second, having my children when I did. But I wish I knew more then. I wish I realized then how very, very quickly it all goes by.

Sometimes now, I feel the urge - this crazy need - to make up for lost time. To compensate for those years I wasn't fully immersed in being their mom. For the years I was too young to know better. Or in school. But I can't, because I'm still not there all the time. I work, full time. I have to. Not in the way that some parents have to - but because I am the only income. Right now, there is not another choice for us. And my kids feel it. My youngest says things like "we don't see you that often". And they don't, because I work till 9 at night. I've done this for almost 5 years now. It breaks my heart, every day.

Sometimes I wonder what I am passing on to my children? What will they remember of home? Of me? Will they remember me always being gone? Or will those memories shape themselves differently over time, like mine of my father? I've talked about this before. But it's a thought that bothers me.

I know I've said before that I can't force memories or force traditions, but that's exactly what I try to do sometimes. I think that's why making food from scratch is so important to me. Underneath everything else, the food politics, the nutrition, the cost the real reason - the most important reason (for me) is that is how I say I love you.

I tell my kids and husband I love them, all the time. I am not stingy with saying I love you. I don't think you can ever say it too much, it should never be held on to or hidden.


But it's not enough to say it. They need to see it, to feel it. And sometimes I don't know how to do that. I read to the kids, that's easy for me. I love books, I love reading. It's easy to share. We go hiking, another easy one. I am not good at getting down and playing though, or chasing around the yard. I have to make conscious efforts to do that. I wish I didn't. I wish it was just how I was. But it's not. Sometimes I actually scold myself, in my head "put down the (book, dishes, laundry, computer etc . . .) and go PLAY with your kids".

I don't think my kids or husband realize it andI didn't realize it until recently, but I show them I love them with food. Not with over feeding them. Not with sweets. Not with showering them with their favorite foods or urging second and third helpings.

But every Saturday when I go to the farmers market. That's me saying I love you. Even when they complain about the vegetables I bring home or lament that they want fast food. Every carton of milk, every head of broccoli, every package of meat, that's my love wrapped in those carefully picked purchases.

Every meal that's left in the crock pot for their dinner while I work and eat leftovers at my desk - that's me saying I love you. I may not be there to eat at the dinner table, but I'm with you. I thought of you, I prepared this food for you.

I may not be home most nights for dinner, but I am there every Friday night over homemade pizza and wings. We don't order out, because that pizza is my I love you. I can't do that with a box of someone elses pizza. My love is wrapped up in that homemade dough, hand shredded cheese and stove simmered sauce.

Years from now, they might not remember how I lacked in playing legos when they were pre-schoolers. Maybe they won't remember (at least not harshly) how I wasn't there after school or for dinner for years. But maybe they'll remember the smell of the crock pot simmering, of homemade sauce. Maybe they'll remember what bread looks like rising on the counter and opening a jar of home preserved peach jam in February. That almost every single night, even when I wasn't there - they had a home cooked meal. They'll remember that I loved them.

I want chickens.

I don't know what I'd do with them. I imagine they'd cluck about nicely in my backyard eating pesky bugs and being cute and chickeny.

I'd just like them for eggs. I mean, I'd like them for meat too - but I am the squeamishiest person ever. Couldn't slaughter them. But eggs - I could gather eggs.

I've heard they aren't anymore work than cats. I don't believe it. First of all - my low maintenance cat is pretty high maintenance. She's picky. And snooty. And poops where she pleases.

And wouldn't I need a coop? And feed? And a vet/medicine/regular sort of care? And probably a fence to keep the other animals out. And warmers in the winter, yes? I mean, really - does it equal out to cheaper than 3 dollars a dozen?

I have a lot more reading/researching before I decide if I actually want chickens. The old Italian guy across the street has chickens (and goats and cows and sheep and peacocks) maybe he'll let me visit his chickens sometimes. You know, to see if I like them as much as I think I do.

 

aaawwwww, chickens!

flicker 

Learning.

 I have so many thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head the last few days. Food. Family. Traditions. Heritage. I really want to share a few of them here, but every time I try it's just too much. So I guess I should take it in pieces. And the best place to start is usually the beginning, yes?

My first year of cooking from scratch was born from necessity. I was young. We were young. Even with my (now) husband and I both working, it was often difficult to make ends meet. We were working opposite shifts to avoid sending our youngest child to daycare. I'm not against daycare. My oldest went to an amazing in home daycare for several years. But I didn't have the choice then, as a single mom. With my youngest born into and raised by a two parent family, we did have choices - though they often came with sacrifice. So for years, we worked opposite shifts, seeing each other maybe an hour a day. It was a hard couple of years.

2000

When my (now) husband was laid off and I got a permanent position where I had been temping, we took that opportunity for him to go back to school.

Our first year living together, my idea of home cooking was adding chicken to a frozen meal. Perhaps a jar of sauce with spaghetti and purchased frozen garlic bread.
 

I didn't grow up in a home where recipes and memories were passed down. I don't know if I would have had interest if they were, back then. My mother cooked often when I was little, but as I got older she became ill. My father worked long hours and as a result we relied on convenience and fast food a lot. 

So, when it was time for me to start cooking for a family, that's what I turned to because it's what I knew. As we all know, convenience food is expensive, so when it came time to trim costs one of the first places I looked was my grocery budget. At the time we were spending around 100-150 a week on groceries. Initially, I cared only about cutting costs without paying a lot of attention to nutrition. It worked, I cut our bill at our lowest to 40 dollars a week. That's a huge amount of savings. But it didn't take very long before my focus turned to nutrition. The more I cooked with recipes, the more I took interest in fresh ingredients. With two growing young boys, I began to make sure what I was making was not only affordable, but nutritionally sound.

2004

This was about when I began my years long love/hate relationship with making bread. It was supposedly so easy. And so cheap. And so much more nutritious. Only it wasn't easy, not for me.

From there my interest in food and nutrition was shaped again. I started paying more attention to how my food was produced, where it was grown, if it was in season. I read everything I could about these topics. Whole foods, Real foods. Slow food. Local food.

I'm still learning, still growing, still exploring. I'm pretty passionate about food. About food culture. About a food revolution. 

For the past few years, we've been making attempts at growing some of our food. It's not easy, since we've had to grow mostly in pots and we have a very, very short growing season here.

This year we have land. We have a place to plant and stay and put down roots, literally. We're going to take it slow. I don't know much about gardening. I don't want to get in over my head. Plus, now we have to worry about wildlife. This year will be an experiment in our soil, our surroundings. We'll stick with what we know. Lettuce, peppers, tomatoes.

We plan on this being our forever home, or at least our very, very long time home. So we have many years to learn and expand and grow here.

Our house was built in the mid 1800's. It's been gutted and remodeled and the only (sadly) original parts are the balloon structure and the root cellar. I really want to take advantage of our cellar for food storage. I have several thrifted books on the topic and that's one of my goals for next year. I don't know much about it, besides the very basics. I'm so excited to move into that direction. I'm really drawn to the idea of being self sustaining and I think it would be interesting to see how well we could fare relying on food we grow/preserve.

My husband has been resistant in my food evolution. He likes the idea growing food. He likes that I cook from scratch. But he's a very traditional meat and potatoes guy and it's not always easy to get him on board. He's reluctant to try new things, as are the kids.

And that's a topic for another day - getting a reluctant husband and children involved and interested in a family food revolution.

Food Revolution.

I've been saying for years we need a food revolution. And it's been happening. Slowly. Quietly. There have been mostly murmurs, a few shouts.

And now, here, is a Food Revolution shoved right in our faces (which are, of course, right in front of the TV)




I don't much about the show other than what I've seen here. It looks interesting. At the worst, it gets people thinking. America desperately needs a wake-up call. I don't know if we have time for a slow, quiet revolution. Maybe this will help?
You can sign an online (I know) petition here for better school lunches

Homemade Poptarts

I first saw the idea for this over at this site. I kept it saved on my tumblr to remember to try it one day. Then I forgot, and remembered and forgot. So the idea has been bouncing around for several months. Then, while making Grandmother Bread I saw another recipe for it. So decided to try it with what I had on hand.

I had frozen pie dough from a killer sale I couldn't pass up a couple months ago. Too bad I don't like the dough. I didn't like it as a pie, and I didn't like it with these either. It was Pillsbury, and I've never tried pre-made dough like that before. It wasn't terrible, but it tasted heavy, dense, oily and well, not homemade. It just wasn't right.

I also used up the last of my blueberry jam to make one batch, and made another with brown sugar and cinnamon. Aside from the dough being not quite right these were simple, easy and the kids loved them. I'd love to try freezing some to have on hand for a quick snack. I think with homemade crust (and of course homemade jam) these would be awesome.

Mine don't quite look like pop-tarts. More like jam pastries I guess, but they tasted pretty good.

I used the recipe over at Chickens in the Road and I think next time I'm going to follow the steps at the first site I posted. It's a pretty easy, basic idea but each site had a slightly different way of trying it. And definitely homemade crust next time.

Grandmother Bread

 Edit: I recently realized that the wrong pictures were on this post. I can no longer locate the correct pictures. They seem to have disappeared from my computer and from Picasa and my blogger account. In the meantime, I've taken down the wrong pictures, and will hopefully be able to put the right ones back up soon. If you happen to notice any other posts askew, please contact me. My e-mail address is located under the where you may find me tab at the top of the page. Thanks!

For years I tried to make homemade bread. I tried and tried and tried. And it never worked. My loaves always came out flat and heavy. After about 3 years I caved and got a bread machine. I used that until last year, when I came across the 5 minute bread. I haven't used my bread machine since.

The 5 minute bread was great for dinner loafs and for pizza crust. It was not so great for sandwich loaves, and just ok for cinnamon rolls and things. And, the fact that I still hadn't successfully made a kneaded loaf really nagged at me.

For a while I've been reading Chickens in the Road. Suzanne has a post on Grandmother Bread, and I've been eying it and shying away from it for months now. After all, I can't make yeast/kneaded bread. I just can't. I've tried and tried and tried.

Well, I tried one more time. The other day I mixed up my weekly batch of 5 minute bread - and decided to go ahead and give Grandmother Bread a try.

The recipe is very similar to the 5 minute bread recipe. It didn't look scary.

So, I started. I kneaded it (the best I know how)

I left it to rise (in my pretty cold kitchen)

Punched it down, kneaded it again, and set it to rise in the pans (a little unevenly, dough wise - oops!)

And baked it.

And waited.

And peeked through the window.

And

ta-da!

(ok, the pictures a little blurry - I think I had olive oil on the camera lense!)

YAY!

Ok, so not quite perfect. But the best I've ever made!

And, the best part is, it's good! Like really, really good! And easy! It's a little bit denser than store bought, but I think that's my kneading, which will get better with time.

My family is pretty picky about their bread. I love whole grain breads, they don't. And even though I can often find sandwich bread without HFCS, there's still always a long list of ingredients. I can't pretend this bread is full of healthy stuff - it's white bread after all. But it's homemade. And to me, that's pretty exciting!

I have the smaller loaf in the freezer as an experiment to see how well it freezes. I know, the point of homemade bread is to have it fresh - but I work some long hours, so if I can have fresh and frozen I'll be super happy.

So seriously, if you've ever had problems with homemade bread like I have - give this recipe a try. It's so easy and so wonderful.

Adventures in Canning - Peach Jam (and more!)

So I picked up a box of peaches from the farmers market this week, I'll probably grab more next Saturday since I've already used almost all 15 lbs on peach jam and peach cobbler (which I haven't tasted yet - but doesn't look picture pretty)

Peach Jam
Recipe found at recipezaar.com


5 lbs peaches (wash, peel, pit and chop - about 10 cups worth)
3 teaspoons lemon juice
5 cups sugar

Place all ingredients in a large glass bowl and let stand for 1 hour.

Transfer to a large stainless or enamel pot. (make sure all the sugar gets scooped out the bottom - I missed some and added it in partway through boiling)

Bring to a full boil - stir often and then constantly as it gets closer to gel point about 25-30 minutes.

Remove and skim off foam (I didn't. I forgot. Oops)

Ladle into clean hot jars leaving 1/4 inch head space.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes.



Evan said it was ok. Colin spit it out. I love it. Of course these are the same kids that didn't like the blueberry jam, but came home raving about it on their sandwiches on the 1st day of school!





and from peach jam came Peach/Mango Iced Tea

I boiled the peaches for about a minute each to get the skins off - which left me with a peach (slightly flavored) water. So I boiled that back up and poured it over a few Mango-Peach Tea bags I had - added a dash of sugar, put it in the fridge and ended up with some tasty Iced Tea!

Since we've moved onto well water, I've become more aware of our water usage and re-use as much as I can. I used rainwater for the hot water bath for canning, and then when it cooled used it to water the plants.


But - back to speaking of Blueberry Jam - I owe some recipes!

Blueberry Jam
From Home Made in the Kitchen

2 pints blueberries
4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest

Combine blueberries and sugar in non reactive dutch oven (I used a big ol' pot on the burner) Mash about 2/3 of the berries to release their juices, leaving the remaining fruit whole. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring with a wooden spoon to dissolve the sugar completely. Reduce heat to maintain a constant low boil and cook for 15 minutes, gently scrape the sides and bottom of the pot every 5 minutes or so with a wooden spoon so incorporate any sugar crystals into the mixture. At the last moment, stir in lemon juice and zest.

Sterilize 4 1/2 pint jars. Process in a hot water bath for 15 minutes.


The recipe says it yields 4 1/2 pint jars. I got almost 3. I sealed 2 and put the almost full one in the fridge.

I'll make this one again, my kids loved it - and they're increasingly picky.




Cherry Vodka
From Home Made in the Kitchen

I wish I had discovered how much I love sour cherries before the very end of the season! At least I know for next year!

About 21/3 - 23/4 cup pitted sour cherries
1 cup sugar
2 cups vodka

Put the cherries into a one quart mason jar and cover with the sugar. Seal the jar and shake several times until cherries are well coated with sugar.
Add vodka, reseal and shake a few more times to mix. Set aside in a cool, dark place for 4 weeks (I stored ours in the fridge, because it was sooooo hot and humid here).
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a 4 cup glass measuring cup. If desired transfer to a decanter.
Ready to drink immediately and good for 2-3 months.


I'm drinking the sour cherry vodka with some Sprite as I type this. It's been just about 4 weeks since I made it and this is my first taste. It's really good and I'm thinking it should work with things like blueberries and raspberries too, yeah? It's good - this one's a keeper for sure. mmmmmm.



This weekend: Ribs and clearing out some woods behind the house

Next week: Fall slowcooking begins!

Tell me, how does your garden grow?

Currently, we have everything in pots. Because of the move in August, we didn't put anything in the ground. So this way we can pick up and bring our harvest with us!

Oh, but I am already dreaming of next year (and the year after and after and after!) when we really put down roots. The notes and sketches are starting!


This year we've got roma tomatoes for canning, brandywine for slicing. Pickling cukes. Scallions. Bell Peppers. Broccoli. Lettuce. Parsley, basil, oregano, chives. Jalapenos. And some more that will be surprises since the lables washed away (oops!) and I don't remember what is where! And we have it all in containers.

Who says you need lots of land to grow your own food?!