Delicious Potager

Dark Days Challenge: Valentine Sweets

2012-02-08T10:21:00.001-05:00

This year, the Dark Days Challenge is throwing in some extra challenges for fun. Some might think it too difficult on top of already coming up w/ a Dark Days meal, but personally, I love it. This week's extra challenge was to make a Valentine's Day sweet according to the Dark Days guidelines we all set for ourselves at the beginning of the challenge.

The first step was figuring out what to make. I have tons of frozen berries and canned fruit, so I could have made a fruit or berry pie or muffins or pastry easily, but I didn't want this to be too easy, so I decided I would scratch anything with fruit or berries. Chocolate and cocoa are tricky ingredients for Dark Days since there is lots of uncertainty surrounding human rights issues and how these items are produced. So anything with chocolate or cocoa was out, too. This seriously limited my options, but that is part of the challenge.

I settled on blondies. Flour? check. Butter? Check. Organic unrefined sugar? Check.

I also happened to have bought some black walnuts from the Monroe Farm Market last month. Not because I had plans to make anything with them, but just because I love black walnuts. Or, I should say, I love to eat stuff with black walnuts in them. I quickly realized I don't love all aspects of black walnuts. When I bought them, the Hubs laughed and said I had been taken on that purchase. He couldn't believe I actually paid money for UNSHELLED black walnuts. He said last year was a banner year for them, and he could have collected the amount I bought (a half gallon) in under an hour when they were freshly fallen late last fall.

Sunday, I planned to make my blondies, so I went out to the garage, found some gloves (recommended by the Hubs), put down some newspaper on the floor, found a hammer and went to crackin'. Two hours later, I was halfway through the half gallon bag. And I had about a cup and a half of nut pieces. W.T.F. would be appropriate here...

So, there's still a half a bag of black walnuts in my garage waiting to be shelled, and I ran out of time to make them on Sunday evening.

It was hard to find a recipe for blondies that didn't call for some type of chips, either chocolate, white chocolate or butterscotch. I was afraid to use a recipe calling for them and just omit them since the recipes I found called for A LOT of them, like a cup and a half. I was afraid omitting that much of an ingredient would affect the baking and the finished product would be too dry. I found this recipe at Smitten Kitchen. The title alone, "Blondies, infinitely adaptable" put me at ease. And especially when I scrolled down and saw that a suggested adaptation would be adding bourbon. Sold!

Let me just say that when I mixed this up, I couldn't help sneak a taste of the batter. And. It. Was. Scary. Like AMAZING. I swear, I never thought of combining black walnuts and bourbon, but it was genius. Smokey, oakey, deep and complex goodness. I was so excited to try the finished product.

But I think all the bourbon cooked out. You didn't get much of the bourbon taste at all, much to my dissappointment. I am not giving up on this combination, and I need to figure out how to keep more of that flavor in these blondies. They were still pretty good though. Good enough for me to eat three of them last night when they came out of the oven.

Here is the recipe, adapted from Smitten Kitchen. I dubbed them "hillbilly" blondies because of the bourbon and black walnuts. I always imagine black walnuts are the "country cousin" of the more refined English walnuts...

"Hillbilly" Blondies

8 Tb (1 stick) butter, melted

1 cup packed brown sugar (I used turbinado)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla

pinch of salt

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup black walnuts

1/4 cup bourbon

Butter an 8 x 8 pan. Prehead oven to 350. Mix melted butter with brown sugar and beat until smooth. Beat in the egg and then vanilla and bourbon. Add salt and baking powder and stir in flour. Pour into buttered pan and bake 25 minutes, or until set in the middle.

The butter was Organic Valley Pasture Butter. The sugar was Mate Factor Organic Mascavo sugar. The egg was from Cozy Hollow Farm and the black walnuts were from Indian Creek Farm, both via the Monroe Farm Market. The vanilla was the real deal, not the stuff you can get at the grocery store for 99 cents. (BTW, I highly recommend investing the money and buying the real deal. Don't waste your time or money on the artificial stuff). The bourbon was Jim Beam. The distillery is 219 miles from my house, happily, so it's within my Dark Days rules.

If you ever happen to be passing through northern Kentucky, I highly recommend stopping at one of the bourbon distilleries. Travelling along the Bluegrass Parkway is a lovely trip in itself, but stopping at a distillery is the cherry on top. Two summers ago, I attened a national conference in Louisville for work, and let me tell ya, Kentucky is PROUD of their bourbon. There was a bourbon tasting one evening, and at ever other social event scheduled in conjunction with the conference bourbon was the featured drink. I enjoyed myself so much (and developed a new appreciation for bourbon) that I took my mom back last summer. We toured Woodford Reserve Distillery, and I'll never forget the smell of the bourbon aging in their barrelhouses. If I could bottle that smell, I'd wear it as perfume.

Dark Days Challenge Week 10: Italian Sausages with Red Onion Gravy

2012-01-30T20:54:00.000-05:00

Who doesn't love sausages?

Especially when they're from a local farm that sells meat pasture-raised pigs. It's hard to tell they're sausages in this picture because of the creamy, tangy red onion gravy hiding them. Mama like these.

I made the potatoes and the Hubs made the sausages. The potatoes are from Preston County, and have a little bit of olive oil, kosher salt and dried thyme on them. The sausages are from Sandy Creek Farm in Ravenswood, WV. The onions weren't local, but were organic. The gravy was made from a little bit of flour from Reeds Mill Flours in Monroe County, the sausage grease, of course, and some turkey stock from my Thanksgiving Tom, which came from Almost Heaven Farm in Monroe County.

Dinner was that easy. And this recipe's a keeper.

Dark Days Challenge Week 9: 11th-hour breakfast and dinner

2012-01-30T20:45:00.002-05:00

I was super-busy at work last week. The last few weeks of February and the first few weeks of March are the busiest of the year at my job. If last week was any indication of how things will go from here on out, it's going to be a long couple months.

All week, I just didn't have time to put a proper dinner on the table. But Sunday rolled around and I had all day long to do absolutely nothing. And it was delicious! I stayed in my PJs until noon and read the Sunday paper and drank coffee and watched tv with the Hubs.

I knew I was running out of time for making a Dark Days meal, so I made an effort to put something together for breakfast on Sunday morning. I made tomato gravy, which is something I make from time to time, and I used it for a Dark Days meal last year.

But this time, to make sure it was truly SOLE, I "tried" to make my own biscuits. I hate to admit it, but I usually serve the frozen Pilsbury Grands since they are exponentially better than mine. But I recently read that they have some obscene amount of trans fat in them. So I'm not buying anymore.

My biscuits weren't too bad for covering with gravy. But they weren't pretty, and they didn't really rise that much. I know my lack of biscuit making prowess is an embarrassment to West Virginia women across the state, but I'm gonna get it eventually. That and gnocchi. And homemade cheese. Three things that I just can't make. I think I need a new recipe. The one I use out of my Betty Crocker Bridal Edition is too wet, once mixed up.

If you've never had tomato gravy, don't delay any longer. It. Is. The. Bomb. Here is the link to the recipe when I used it as a Dark Days meal last year. For the gravy, I used bacon from Sandy Creek Farm in Ravenswood, WV, flour from Reeds Mill Flours in Monroe County, tomatoes that I canned last summer that were bought from Crihfield Farms in Jackson County, and milk from Homestead Creamery in Wirtz, VA. It also had some sugar in it that was Florida Crystals Organic Cane Sugar. The biscuits had flour, milk, baking powder, and shortening in them. The shortening was just plain ol' Crisco.

When dinner time rolled around, since it was Sunday, we made fettucini alfredo. I like to do something a little decadent and hearty when we make dinner on the weekends. It's the weekend afterall. Time to enjoy your meals and be a little more leisurely than through the week.

But this wasn't any fettucini alfredo, it was "True Fettucini Alfredo" from my Spendid Table How to Eat Supper cookbook. It was so good. The Hubs clocked us. Once the plates were put on the table, they were clean in 7 minutes. I'm not even kidding.

As we were eating, I realized, I could count this as a Dark Days meal, too. The pasta is homemade from flour from Reeds Mill Flours, with an egg from Cozy Hollow Farm in Monroe County. The sauce was so simple. It was a few tablespoons of butter that was Organic Valley Pasture Butter, half and half from Homestead Creamery and a little bit of shredded parmesean cheese. I can't remember what brand it was, but it was an artisan label. It was so creamy with a little saltiness from the cheese. It was probably the best fettucini alfredo I've ever had. That's not saying much though. The ubiquitous restaurant menu offering is always a little subpar. Although, the Hubs said it was the best because "it was made with love." Har har har.

Join in the Effort for Free Advertising for Healthy Snacks

2012-01-25T11:36:00.003-05:00

Big food corporations spend $10 to 15 BILLION annually marketing ~~junk food to kids~~ their products.

The USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotions, the agency responsible for marketing MyPlate.gov, had a total annual budget of $6.5 million in 2010.

As one of their marketing iniatives, MyPlate.gov held a video contest to promote healthy snacks that would fall in line with the recommendations to make half your plate fruits and veggies. The plan was to use the video throughout the next couple years as a commercial of sorts for healthy snacks. But, with funding running out, it looks like this could turn into one of those great ideas that never really comes to fruition.

So, I thought it would be a great idea to get the commercial some "air time" for free via social media. I just "liked" it on my facebook account, and I tweeted it, too. I would encourage everyone to do the same. It's quick and easy, and the more people who see the ad, the better.
Below is the winning video:

Here is the story in which I first read about the video.

And here's the homepage for the video contest, where you can "like" the video on facebook and tweet it directly. It only takes a few seconds of your time.

Dark Days Challenge One-Pot Challenge: Borscht

2012-01-20T22:39:00.002-05:00

Here's a disclaimer: I've never made borscht before. Nor, have I ever eaten borscht before tonight. But, what I made was actually pretty good.

Somehow, I stumbled on this show one day. It's been called the Russian "Jersey Shore." Sometimes reality tv can be so delicious and addicting. And then, I decided I needed to try to make borscht.

Borscht is a stew with beets as the star ingredient. For the record, I don't like beets that well. But, after my curiosity was piqued, I had to soldier on and make it. According to wikipedia, it grew from the scraps of cellared and winter vegetables. One of the reasons I love it now. The people who made it were feeding their families something very delicious from something that would otherwise be thrown out. Its common not just in Russian, but throughout Eastern Europe, with each country putting its own spin on the recipe.

I found a basic recipe. Since I've never made it or had it before, I figured it was best to stay simple. And this one was crazy-easy.

Classic Russian Borscht

1 cup cabbage, chopped
2 cups potatoes, diced
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
3 Tb butter
salt and pepper
2 quarts venison stock
1 1/2 cups pureed tomatoes
1/2 cup of juice from canned beets
1 cups of pickled beets, chopped roughly
1 Tbsp cider vinegar
dill and sour cream for serving

In a large pot, melt butter and lightly saute cabbage, potatoes, carrots and onions until vegetables begin to get tender, approximately 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add stock, tomatoes and beet juice. Adjust seasoning. Cover and simmer over low heat until vegetables are soft, approximately 15-20 minutes. Add the chopped beets and vinegar. Taste for seasoning. Simmer a few more minutes. Remove from heat. Serve immediately and garnish with a dollup of sour cream and sprinkle with dried dill.

I added a Tb of butter/flour roux at the end to give it just a little body. It would have been great with a big hunk of crusty rustic bread. And, for someone who isn't crazy about beets, it was actually pretty good. The beet flavor wasn't overpowering. It was hearty and slightly tart from the vinegar and pickled beets. That worked really well since the stock was so rich. I would definitely make it again.

The cabbage and carrots were organic, but not local. The potatoes, were from Preston County, WV. The tomatoes were what I canned last summer, bought from Crihfield Farms at the Capitol Market. The venison stock was from bones from a deer Jeremy killed this fall. Someone canned the beets and gave them to us, although neither Jeremy or me can remember who it was. The sour cream was natural sour cream from Kroger.
The recipe called for beef stock, but in addition to the recipe itself, making venison stock was an experiment, too. A few months ago, I read about making stock by roasting venison bones on Susy's blog. I am CONSTANTLY telling the Hubs that I want to figure out how to throw away less of the deer he kills in the fall. Seems like such a waste to throw away the rest of the deer after you cut out the hams and tenderloin. He brought home the hams, and after we cut the bones away and put the meat in the freezer, I threw the ham bones in a baking pan with some water and salt and pepper. I roasted it for about an hour at 300 degrees. Then, I put them in the freezer for about 3 weeks, although this isn't necessary. I just didn't have time to do anything with them then. So, last night, I got them out and put them in my crockpot for 24 hours. With a BUNCH of seasonings. I was afraid the stock would taste like deer meat, so I went heavy on the seasoning. But when it was done, it was mellow and surprisingly rich. Venison is so lean, but I was shocked how much fat came out in this stock. A lot. But fat is flavor, so I rolled with it. The crockpot is my favorite way to make stock since you can keep the temperature steady so easily and there's no need to really check it so often if its in the crockpot. I heard on Martha Stewart Radio on Sirius recently that the low setting on a crockpot is actually around 180 degrees, and high is around 300. So, when I make stock in the crockpot, I put some bones and water or maybe a splash of white wine on low for 24 hours with some seasonings. If the liquid is getting low, I add more water. The only problem is, my crockpot only makes about 2 quarts of stock when you put a bunch of bones in it. My mom bought a big countertop roaster this fall for Thanksgiving, and I'm thinking of trying a batch in it so I can get more.

Dark Days Challenge Week 8: Roasted Chicken and Shallots

2012-01-20T13:30:00.001-05:00

I was so hungry last night that I started eating before I remembered to take a picture for my Dark Days post.

So here's a picture of my half-eaten dinner. But I did pretty it up a bit with Instagram effects.

I made Roasted Chicken with Shallots from Martha Stewart Living. I made this recipe a long time ago when the Hubs and I lived in the townhouse we rented when first got married before we bought our house. I don't know why that detail sticks out to me, but it does. I wasn't crazy about that townhouse at the time. It was TINY. And everything in it was dated. The oven was so old. But looking back on it now, it was a very happy time in our lives. The landlord let me paint the whole place as long as the colors I chose weren't obnoxious, and I fixed the place up quite a bit. And, we'd just gotten married, so I had lots of wedding gifts to "set up house" with. That was a lot of fun.

I remember this recipe being crazy good when I made it before. I believe I made it when my sister- and brother-in-law came over for dinner one evening. They used to live near us in a slightly larger rented townhouse before they had children and we've take turns making dinner for the four of us.

But, I guess that's the thing about really good food. The memories it can trigger always are so vivid.

I made this roasted chicken with chicken legs and thighs from Almost Heaven Farm that I bought at the Monroe Farm Market. The Shallots weren't local, but they were Melissa's brand organic. The butter was pasture butter by Organic Valley. I made mashed potatoes with the chicken. The potatoes were from the half bushel I bought earlier in the winter from a farmer I know from Preston County, WV. I used a bit of pasture butter in them with some half and half from Homestead Creamery in Wirtz, VA, and the secret ingredient to my mashed potatoes: a tbsp of sour cream, which was Kroger Brand Natural Sour Cream.

Yesterday was pick-up day for Monroe Farm Market orders. I stopped by the pick-up location on my way home from work to get my order. I always enjoy talking to the people who help with the pick-up. There is a super-nice guy that is a volunteer from here in town that has an amazing mind for detail. He couldn't remember my first name, but he remembered where I was from and where I worked just from snipets of converstation over the past six months since I've been picking up my orders at that location. And they haven't had a pick up since before Christmas. Also, two ladies who are farmers were helping put together the orders. One was a beef farmer and the other a produce farmer. At any rate, the lady who checked outr up before me inadvertantly grabbed the butternut squash I ordered that was on the counter as my order was being assembled. As they were completing my order, we realized that the lady ahead of me must've grabbed the squash with her stuff. I wasn't too phased by it though, no big deal. They refunded the cost of the squash off my order and I was on my way. However, this morning, just as I was leaving for work, there was a knock at my front door. It was the lady who grows the produce with my butternut squash. The lady who paid ahead of me must've brought it back, and before heading back to their farms this morning, they brought it by my house. I thought that was so nice! It shows you what kind of people farmers really are.

Grrr! Blogger!

2012-01-19T11:12:00.001-05:00

I can't reply to comments. My apologies to the few of you who have left comments.

Everytime I go to the comment form, the screen locks up. And it's only on those posts that already have a comment on them. On those posts with no comment, I have no problems. Does anyone know what is going on?

I have heard for a while that Wordpress is EXPONENTIALLY better than Blogger, but I've been happy with using blogger. I do like reading blogs better on Wordpress. The layouts seem more reader-friendly. But there's nothing wrong with Blogger's layouts either. I looked into switching to Wordpress one time, but I read somewhere about the difficulty of getting all of the content transferred over. I'm not that html/webpage-creating savy to begin with. That seemed a little daunting for me. But maybe it's time? Unless there's an easy fix.

If you have knowledge, please leave a comment, but don't be offended if I don't respond...

Eating by the numbers

2012-01-16T21:42:00.000-05:00

The Hubs and I have state employee health insurance, and once a year, we have the opportunity to have some bloodwork done as part of an annual wellness screening.
Before the holidays, I got my numbers back, and as it turns out, I'm healthier than I was last year, and then I was healthier than I was two years ago. Yay!

Jeremy had his screening last week, and he gets the prize for the most dramatic improvement. Last year, his blood pressure was super-high. Like, the lady taking it said she'd wait 20 minutes and take it again because she figured it was just high from having blood drawn. Well, she waited and took it again and decided to go with the first reading since it was better than the second. She said he might need to see a doctor about going on medication if it didn't improve soon. This year, though, it's normal. High-normal, but nonetheless, it's below the cut off for high blood pressure.

The kicker is that we're eating more bacon grease and milk fat than we ever have. Yes, you heard me right. I love me some bacon grease, and I'm not shy about using it. And I switched to pastured (pasture-raised, no to be confused with Pasteurized) full fat dairy, save for milk, and there I switched to 2%. I even buy half and half for my coffee now instead of non-dairy creamer. And I exclusively use real butter from grass-fed cows.

So, how's it possible that we're getting healthier, from year to year, as opposed to unhealthier?

I'm asking myself the same thing. But I just finished reading Nina Planck's book Real Food: What to Eat and Why, I'm thinking that my body could be responding to the real food I'm eating and an absence of processed food in my diet.

It's been about three years since I became what I call a "conscientious eater." I TRY to eat according to the seasons, locally and sustainably for the most part. It's a lifestyle change. I read Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle, which was my watershed moment. Then, I watched the movie "Food, Inc." and it changed my life forever.

First, I should tell you what my diet was like before three years ago. I wasn't hooked on twinkies or fast food or anything crazy like that. I was pretty health-conscious, but I think I just had it all wrong. I grew up in the Eighties, and rode the low fat and fat free wave through my teen years. My senior year of high school, my typical lunch was a diet coke and a snack-size bag of low fat animal crackers.

My mom is a nurse, and she cooked healthy meals, which we ate as a family at the dinner table just about every night. But back then, the conventional wisdom was to avoid saturated fat. Red meat was bad, and butter was pure evil. We did have sweet treats from time to time, but junkfood wasn't something that was a mainstay in our kitchen. My parents drank diet pop, and my mom didn't buy "the kids" regular pop. I started drinking diet pop when I was a kid since that is what was around the house.

When I moved out to go to college and started shopping for myself, my grocery cart looked a lot like what I had been eating all my life: skim milk, low-fat cheeses, frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts, canned soups and frozen "lean cuisines", and diet pop. I rarely bought red meat or full-fat dairy and never real butter. I opted for turkey bacon, turkey sausage and ground turkey burger, because I thought it was a healthier option than the real products. I also used egg beaters instead of real eggs.

After I read more and more about food policy and really took an interest in where my food comes from, I slowly started switching over. I stopped buying meat at the grocery store and started buying from the farmers market. I stopped buying processed "convenience" food at the grocery store, and started coming up with ways to make as much of my food as I can by myself. Of course I enjoy cooking, so I see it as kind of a fun challenge. I've made my own pasta, bread, granola, baked goods, and waffles. I grow plenty of vegetables in my tiny backyard garden for the two of us. I prefer my own salad dressings and sauces to the bottled varieties. The one thing I haven't been able to master is cheese (and I've tried a number of times... It turns into great ricotta cheese, I just can't get the curds to really set up).

The biggest hurdle in my diet has been breaking my diet pop habbit. It's been a little over a year, and it hasn't been easy. That's not to say that I don't have a diet pop occassionally. I do, but the thing of it is now that I don't drink them regularly, is that they just don't taste right to me. I tried to cut out artificial sweeteners (calorie free and the caloric kind) altogether, and I think it has helped me become healthier. I feel better than I used to, anyway. Even if I'm not skinnier, feeling better is good enough.

Now, The Happiness Diet, a book that came out in December, is making some buzz. It's in the same vein as Nina Planck's earlier book: eat red meat and full fat dairy, as long as they're pasture-raised. The benefits of pasture-raised animal protein far outweigh any negative effects of saturated animal fat. And now, more evidence is coming out that the flawed nutrition advice of the 1980s, such as opting for low fat dairy, basing our diets on grains, and avoiding red meat is making us more unhealthy.

Just the other day, I was having a conversation with someone who was telling me that processed food is proabably causing cancer. I agreed, and I realized that the message of the food revolution IS getting out there. Regardless, I'm gonna continue to enjoy my juicy hamburgers, bacon and butter that comes from animals raised on green grass. It tastes better than that crap you buy at the grocery store, and apparently, it's making me healthier, too.

Dark Days Challenge Week 7: Asian Fusion

2012-01-12T22:23:00.000-05:00

This is one of those really good dinners when you don't exactly follow the recipe and you just sorta wing it, and it is surprisingly delicious. Probably better than if I would have actually followed the recipe.

Said recipe is from one of my favorite cookbooks, Simply In Season. Here's how I changed it up:

Asian Fusion Venison Broccoli Pasta (serves 2)
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp of sugar (I used Florida Crystals Pure Cane Sugar)
about 1 inch of ginger root, minced
a few shakes of red pepper flakes
1 tsp of cornstarch

Mix together in a bowl and set aside.

About 1 pound of venison tenderloin sliced.
1 Tb canola oil

Tenderize and salt and pepper both sides of tenderloin. Heat oil in a wok and saute venison until its browned, 4 or 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

4 oz of fresh linguini
2 cups of fresh broccoli florets
2 tsp of sesame oil

Bring some water to a boil in a big pot. Add broccoli florets and pasta. Boil until pasta floats to the top (about 3 minutes) and drain well. Add sesame oil to hot pasta. Add pasta to to wok with soy sauce mixture. Reheat until sauce thickens and serve immediately. Garnish with sesame seeds if you like.

I'm making this again. Very soon. I wondered how it would be with steamed rice. But then it wouldn't be Asian fusion, I guess...

This was my Dark Days offering for the week. The main components of the dish: pasta, venison, and broccoli were all SOLE, in addition to sugar and garlic in the sauce.

I usually keep a few batches of frozen pasta dough on hand, but I was out, so I made this pasta tonight. It's much easier to work with when its frozen, actually. I think the freezing process must dry it out a bit, because when it's really fresh like tonight it tears to easily when you're rolling it out, and it's very delicate. I used flour from Reeds Mill Flours and eggs from Cozy Hollow Farm, both in Monroe County, WV. The color of the pasta was absolutely beautiful using some of those super-yellow yolks from pasture-raised chickens.

The venison was the last package from the ones Jeremy killed in 2010, so we really needed to eat it sooner rather than later. The garlic is some of what my mom grew last summer. The broccoli wasn't local, but it was organic. I haven't been able to get any local broccoli. The sugar was organic Florida Crystals Pure Cane sugar.

I am always on the lookout for recipes that call for venison. While you can substitute it for beef in most recipes, the taste is slightly different than conventional beef. Although, I am noticing the taste of venison less and less, though, as we mostly eat grass-fed beef now. There are several recipes in Simply In Season that call for venison specifically. I especially love the recipe for venison meatballs in that cookbook, which I have a link to on the recipe index on this blog. Venison is so lean and high in iron and other essential nutrients, so I love to cook with it. That, and it's generally free for us in a sense, because Jeremy is a hunter. This was a really healthy dinner, according to my LoseIt! app, at 504 calories per serving.

Dark Days Challenge Week 6: Pork Spare Ribs

2012-01-05T23:14:00.000-05:00

Tonight I made pork spare ribs and baked potatoes for dinner and it was wonderful!

I've never made pork spare ribs before. But that's the nice thing about eating locally and seaonally. You eat what's available. And what was available, meat-wise, at the Monroe Market was pork spare ribs. On special. And I love a bargain. Even at the farmers market.

I'm no pork expert, but I'm learning. Spare ribs are different from ribs that you get at a BBQ joint. Those are baby back ribs. Spare ribs are from lower on the pig's rib cage and on the belly side, near where bacon comes from, hence the higher fat content. Baby back ribs are from higher in the rib cage and on the back, as the name indicates. Both need very different cooking techniques. I wasn't aware of this when I bought them, and I imagined your typical BBQ rib joint kinda meal when I bought them. But I "bing-ed" (as opposed to "googled", not that I overate...) a recipe for spare ribs and found a handful that had ingredients that I had on hand sourced SOLE. We picked one by Michael Symon, and it was awesome. I, well, Jeremy and I, made them the same way we make beef short ribs, by searing them off first, then putting them in the oven for a couple hours on a slow braise. They were falling off the bone delicious.

I made them with a baked potato from Preston County and we called it done. The ribs were from Little Brown Cow Farm via the Monroe Farm Market. The ribs had a variety of spices on them with onions, which were from Spangler's Greenhouse, also via the Monroe Farm Market, and the ONLY non-SOLE thing in them that wasn't part of my exceptions were 2 Tb of tomato paste. I have some tomatoes canned, which I probably could have used in place of those, but it was just easier to open a can from my pantry that has been there who know's how long. I don't keep tomato paste stocked, but I must've bought it for something and not needed it a while back. It's been there since at least last summer. The potatoes had Kroger-brand natural sour cream and Organic Valley Pasture butter on them.

I notice that several of the pork items are still on "special" on the Monroe Farm Market website, so who knows what I'll order this month. I might learn a new dish--again.

Eating cabbage on New Year's Day

2012-01-03T22:22:00.000-05:00

Based on my Facebook feed, a lot of you were eating cabbage and pork on New Year's Day. And writing about it.

It wasn't a tradition we regularly engaged in growing up, but the past few years, either my mom or I have made reuben loaves for New Year's Day. Of course, these are an interpretation of the sandwich, the reuben, which is traditionally corned beef, sauerkraut, swiss cheese and dressing on slices of rye or pumpernickle.

I've never been a huge fan of kraut, but I love reubens and my mom's recipe for reuben loaf, so it was a natural choice for getting that cabbage into a meal on New Year's Day.

My mom has been making this recipe for as long as I can remember. My dad used to be a wrestling coach for the junior high a long time ago. He took the team to a wrestling match and the host school had some refreshments for the teams after the match, and a lady had made these. He loved them and asked her for the recipe. She sent it to him, and my mom has been making it ever since.

2 Loaves of frozen bread dough
1/4 cup of Thousand Island Dressing
1-7 oz. can of corned beef
1/4 lb of swiss cheese (slices)
1-8 oz. can of sauerkraut
1 egg white, beaten
poppy seeds for garnish

Follow the directions to thaw the dough and let it rise. Roll it out to 14 by 10 inches. Spread dressing down the center of each and top with beef, cheese and sauerkraut. Fold the sides of the dough over the top. Cover dough with plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray or a damp towel and let rest for 15 minutes. Brush with egg white and top with poppy seeds if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. These can either be baked on a cookie sheet or in loaf pans.

These are probably, better than a reuben. Sometimes there's too much meat or too much kraut on a reuben, and they usually fall apart before you've eating them, making them really messy to eat. I don't promise that these aren't messy, but at least you could eat them with a fork if you wanted. And they are so good left over. Reheat them in the microwave, and the cheese gets all gooey and the meat gets all greasy again and the bread gets chewy. So tasty.

So, you must've heard that, in addition to just eating cabbage on New Year's Day, that you also place a silver dollar in the boiled cabbage. One year, I baked quarters in the reuben loaves since I couldn't find any silver dollars. That was kinda gross actually.

However, eating cabbage on New Year's Day is thought to bring specifically prosperity in the new year, because the cabbage leaves represent paper money. There are a number of food customs for New Year's Day, all with the same idea. In the South, eating black eyed peas is thought to bring good luck, and is served with greens, instead of cabbage, representing money. The Dutch believe eating doughnuts bring good luck on New Year's Day, as the shape, a ring, represents a cycle starting over, or a year coming full-circle.

I'll have to remember that one for next year.

Dark Days Challenge Week 5: Luscious chicken marsala, polenta and kale

2011-12-30T21:20:00.000-05:00

I think this week was my best meal yet. I made chicken marsala with polenta, and I had some kale languishing in the fridge, so I made a skillet of it before it goes bad. So, so tasty!

Almost the whole meal was from the Monroe Farm Market. The Chicken was from Almost Heaven Farm, the onions were from Spangler's Greenhouse, and I canned the tomatoes last summer. I bought them from Crihfield Farms in Jackson County. Of course, the marsala wine wasn't local. The polenta was made from cornmeal from Reeds Mill Flours in Monroe County, a little bit of 2% milk from Homestead Creamery, and some parmesean (not local). The recipe is from Martha Stewart Dinner at Home. This cookbook is all about weeknight dinners. And, it's organized by season, which always scores points with me. If you subscribe to Martha Stewart Living, many of the meals are the same as the cards you get in every issue for dinner in an hour. It's the same concept.

The kale was from Cozy Hollow Farm via the Monroe Farm Market. I sauted with with some chunky garlic that my mom grew last summer, a couple shakes of red pepper flakes and some turkey stock from my Thanksgiving Tom. I also added a spoonful of bacon grease I save from the bacon I get from Sandy Creek Farm in Ravenswood, WV.

The chicken marsala was so creamy and luscious, and the kale was deliciously bitter and rich from the bacon grease, and had a little bit of bite from the red pepper flakes. I've made these recipes before, but tonight they were just so much better. Gold star!

I never cooked with kale before until this fall. I'm totally hooked. I LOVE it! And it's so good for you. The recipe I use is so simple. It's from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper cookbook, which is my all-time favorite. I don't know how much longer the farmer's market will have kale, but I hope it's for at least a few more weeks.

Dark Days Challenge Extra Credit: Christmas Dinner

2011-12-27T15:23:00.001-05:00

Jeremy and I had no fewer than 4 meals commemorating the Christmas holiday through the end of last week and the weekend. Needless to say, I'm all "pie-ed" out. And, I still have a fridge full of leftovers, almost all of which are no where near healthy. Ham, mashed potatoes, baked beans, pie, pie and more pie, and cake and cookies... I feel like I could benefit from one of those Beyonce cleanse diets.

I supposed I should be grateful that we have enough to eat, because I know that many families did not this holiday season. At any rate, without even planning it, I realized as I was making Christmas dinner at my house for my dad and brother, that I was making a Dark Days meal. That's what's so nice about doing this for a few years, you just grow accustomed to eating this way, and you do it without thinking.

I made a fresh ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, gravy and rolls. My dad and his wife brought a dessert and so did my brother and his girlfriend. It was quite a spread and everyone got their bellies full on a delicious SOLE dinner.

The ham was from Little Brown Cow Farm via the Monroe Farm Market. It had a glaze made from orange-infused local honey, Makers Mark, and some peach jam I canned from local peaches last summer. The potatoes were from Larry Williams (I mentioned him in my last post--he is a farmer in the northern part of the state that I see from time to time through my job). They were made with 2% milk from Homestead Creamery, Organic Valley pasture butter, and some Kroger brand all-natural sour cream. The beans were grown by by father in law and canned by my mother in law. I put some bacon grease on them from bacon I bought from Sandy Creek Farms in Ravenswood, WV. The rolls were made from local flour from Reeds Mill Flours in Monroe County. I even used my newly-bought fancy Florida Crystals sugar in the rolls so they could be 100% SOLE.

I've never had fresh ham (that I know of) before. It was a challenge. You have to bake it long enough to get it up to the proper temperature, unlike a cured or pre-cooked ham. And, it wasn't smoked, so I needed to flavor it. I soaked it in a brine of kosher salt and brown sugar for a day before I baked it. Then, I found a recipe for a simple bourbon glaze that called for honey and orange marmalade. I'll definitely try this again. My house smelled AMAZING while it was baking. I probably overcooked the ham, but I was trying to get it up to 165 degrees. I couldn't have gotten by with a little less oven time, but it was still delicious.

Dark Days Challenge Week 4: Turkey Dumplins

2011-12-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

When you mention chicken and dumplins (and BTW, I will refer to them as "dumplins" from here on out, as opposed to "dumplings" because I like to say it like that...It's so very Southern), most people I know get starry eyed and a goofy grin across their face as they remember back to their childhood and the mother of all comfort food. Chicken and dumplins are usually a special treat that only comes around a few times a year and reserved for Sunday dinners at grandma's.
When I was putting turkey leftover from my Thanksgiving Tom in the freezer a few weeks ago, I knew I wanted to make turkey dumplins with it. It would be a perfect dinner on a cold winter day.

Only problem was I've never made turkey, or even chicken, dumplins before. I couldn't even tell ya where to start. I consulted my mom who makes great chicken dumplins, but she said she never really liked hers, and that they didn't even compare to my granny's. So her directions were something like "well, get your stock hot and add a little flour to it to thicken it then drop your dough in" and that was about it.

So, the Hubs and I got ready to make dinner tonight, and I wanted to call my mom to get a few last pointers on how to make the dough and such. But she didn't answer, so we tried my mother-in-law. She didn't have an exact recipe either, just get some flour and mix an egg and a little bit of milk in it for the dough and drop it in the boiling stock.

I'm starting to figure out that there is not a written recipe for chicken (or turkey) and dumplins out there anywhere. It's one of those things that the best batches are made by adding a little of this and a pinch of that until you know it's right. Those are the best meals. And, incidently, the hardest to replicate.

So. When I master the recipe, I promise to put a written version on this blog. Promise. But, my first attempt wasn't what you'd call mastery. It wasn't bad either, though.

Not too shabby for our first attempt. They were so tasty and satisfying. The dumplins were a little chewy. I don't know if we cooked them too long or added too much flour to the dough, but we'll have to tweak it for next time. I've got three more containers of turkey in the freezer, so there will be a next time very soon. Who doesn't love dumplins?

Dark Days Challenge Week 3: Lamb chops and roasted potatoes

2011-12-12T21:18:00.000-05:00

Jeremy and I tried our hands at grilled lamb chops tonight. It was a team effort because I made the rub and he grilled them. And they turned out perfect. We recently had them at some friends' house, and they were crazy good, so when I saw them listed on the Monroe Farm Market's website, I grabbed them. They were pretty simple, just some salt, pepper, rosemary and garlic. I think the thin layer of fat on the outside of them is what makes the dish, though. It just kinda melts and crisps into this salty garlicky crust that is juicy underneath.

I made some roasted potatoes with garlic and rosemary to follow the flavors of the chops for the side dish.

Juicy little lamp lollipops. I am SOOOO making these again soon.

The lamb chops were from Indian Creek Farm in Monroe County, via the Monroe Market. The potatoes were from Preston County, in the northern part of West Virginia, and probably just under the 250 mile boundary. But I personally know the farmer who grew them, and he was coming to Charleston anyway, so I had him bring me some. What I didn't realize was how many potatoes really are in a bushel. That's a lot of potatoes, but I'm glad. They store well and they are really good.
Both lamb chops and potatoes had olive oil with kosher salt, pepper, garlic powder and rosemary on them. The rosemary was right from my backard.

Winter salads

2011-12-10T15:54:00.001-05:00

I detest iceberg lettuce in a salad. Why bother with it? No flavor and no nutrients.

Jeremy and I eat a lot of salad. I've found lettuce to be one of the easiest things to grow in my backyard. I grow black seeded simpson and a mesclun mix. And if we don't get enough out of my backyard, organic field greens and assorted salad toppings are always on my grocery list.

I love winter salads--or, I suppose I should say late fall/early spring salads. There IS, afterall, about a two month stretch here that you can't even coax some some radishes. But, I felt like I was taunting Old Man Winter yesterday when I was picking carrots, radishes and lettuce from my cold frames. We have had a warm and wet fall. This time last year, the temps were solidly in the 20s and 30s. Last weekend, I think it was 70 and sunny.

I always make salads this time of year with lettuce and cool weather crops from my backyard. Add some toasted pumpkin seeds and some local goat cheese, and you've got a perfect lunch. I like some simple balsamic vinegar and olive oil for dressing. And I love to add a few drops of toasted seasame oil to it. If I have them, I'll chop up an apple to mix in as well. But I didn't today. So nice and crisp and refreshing, especially when the weather outside is chilly and dreary.

Dark Days Challenge Week 2: Butternut Squash Carbonara

2011-12-08T11:51:00.001-05:00

I'll admit, this Dark Days meal didn't take much thought. The recipe is in my regular fall and winter rotation. But for good reason. It's freakin' delicious.

I've featured this recipe before on my blog. I got it from this guy's blog, which I really love. His recipes are so straight forward and unpretentious. And just plain good.

The recipe calls for butternut squash, but I had a big bag of pumpkin from last year in the freezer that needs used. The pumpkin was from one of three that my boss gave me from a volunteer vine he had. The pasta was made from flour from Reed's Mill Flour, and eggs from Breezy Knoll Farm, both in Monroe County, WV. I used half and half in the sauce instead of heavy cream from Homestead Creamery in Wirtz, VA. The sauce also had bacon from Sandy Creek Farms in Ravenswood, WV, and two eggs from Cozy Hollow Farm in Monroe County. I generally buy from Breezy Knoll Farm, since I've come to know that farmer, but the last time I ordered, they were sold out, so I bought from another farm. And now, I might switch to Cozy Hollow permanently because their eggs are better. The yolks are so deep orange. That means they're really good for you, too. Absolutely beautiful!

The sauce also had some grated parmesean cheese in it that was not local, but came from Kroger's. It was Stella brand. I can't find any information about it other than their website, so I'm guessing it's not made from cows free from rBST. Booo. Also in the dish was garlic that my mom grew and organic, but not local fresh sage.

Such a hearty winter meal. You just can't beat carbonara.

What the Pho?

2011-12-07T09:53:00.001-05:00

Last night I made pho. I should mention that I've never had pho before. So I don't know what it should taste like. But this was pretty good.

Of course, it was good. It was a recipe in my current favorite cookbook, The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. I've mentioned before how much I love this cookbook. It's geared toward weeknight dinners. All the recipes are quick and easy, but from scratch and kicked up a notch. It totally trust these women. I'll be surprised if one day I cook something from this book that is not amazing.

So what is pho? Well, it's Vietnamese noodle soup. And it's pronounced "Fuh", which was a source for a string of sophomoric jokes between the Hubs and I.

"What are you making for dinner?"
"Fuh."
"Hehehe. What the fuh is that?"
"Asian noodle soup. Fuh, I can't beleive you put this much ginger in it."
"What the fuh is this? Fish sauce? It stinks."
"I know. But I don't give a fuh. I'm starving. I'll eat anything."

It sorta went down hill from there. I'll spare you.

But anyway, back to the pho. It's a soup made with rice noodles and either chicken or beef. It is served with condiments such as hot peppers, herbs and bean sprouts on the side, so the person eating it can add as much as they wish. It seems like I always see Anthony Bourdain eating it when he travels to Southeast Asia. (This is not the clip I have in my mind, but it's pretty similar.) My pho had a little bit of steak (the end cut off the ribeye I ate Sunday). The recipe said to slice it very thinly and place it in the bowl raw. I froze the piece of steak for about 30 minutes so it would be easy to slice into very thin pieces.

When you spoon the boiling broth of the soup over the steak, it cooks the steak. The hubs was skeptical. But after he saw my steak cooked to a safe doneness, he tried his. I didn't have rice noodles, but I did have soba noodles. The recipe said to simmer the broth for about 20 minutes, so I just cooked the noodles in the broth as it simmered. The broth was made by broiling some onions, garlic and fresh ginger, all sliced thin, and cloves for about 5 minutes until they began to turn black on the edges. Scrape all that into a pot with about 2 1/2 quarts of stock and simmer for about 20 minutes. I used 1 quart plus 1 pint of turkey stock and 1 cup of shrimp stock.

I put too many sliced jalepenos in mine. It was way too hot, and I ended up picking them out. I also picked out a little of the ginger, as it seemed to be too overpowering if you got just a piece of ginger in a single bite. All mixed together it was okay in there. Also, I didn't fish out the cloves before serving and I should have. The hubs and I both bit into one and it was pretty nasty. But other than that, it was delicious and hearty and filling. It's a recipe I'll try again.

The 5th Annual Dark Days Challenge is underway!

2011-11-30T11:34:00.001-05:00

This week is the beginning of the 5th Annual Dark Days Challenge!

What exactly IS the Dark Days Challenge, you may be wondering.

It's a group of fabulous and talented bloggers who have banded together to cook and eat one meal per week that is completely sustainable, organic, local and ethical (known as "SOLE" in locavore speak) and then write about it. This goal is easy enough when the farmers markets and backyard gardens are overflowing with fresh veggies and fruits through the summer and early autumn, but it's a real challenge to do it through the winter.

The challenge will run from November 27th through March 31st. We'll have to rely on hardy winter vegetables and our freezers and larders to meet the challenge. However, along the way, I'm hoping to gain some recipes and ideas from other "Dark Day-ers" around the country. It's super-fun. Take my word for it.

Typically, "local" is defined as a 100-mile radius. However, the closest sustainable commerical dairy that I have access to is about 248 miles away, so I have defined local as a 250-mile radius in the past. Also, the Dark Days Challenge (as well as the Eat Local Challenge) allows for obvious exceptions such as salt, spices and oil, since it's hard to cook a meal without those, and for most of the country, those items cannot be sourced locally.

If you would like to play along, we'd love to have you! Sign up here, but hurry, as the first week of the challenge has already started. If you don't have a blog, no worries. You can leave a comment on the weekly wrap-ups of all the entries describing your Dark Days meal. The wrap-ups will be hosted by Not Dabbling in Normal on a weekly basis. Also, if you are a Facebooker, you can "like" Not Dabbling in Normal and post pics and blurbs of your meals on its Facebook page.

So. Down to the nitty gritty...

I mentioned that my definition of local is food sourced within 250 miles. I have made exceptions for oils, vinegars and spices.

Last night, I made Roasted Butternut Chowder with Apples and Bacon from the Food Matters Cookbook by Mark Bittman. It. Was. Heavenly. But, in my opinion, when you add bacon, onions and garlic to ANYTHING, it improves it dramatically.

The butternut squash is from Spangler's Greenhouse, and the apples are from Morgan Orchard, both in Monroe County. The onion was from Kroger's but it was organic (I have some local onions, but I was trying to use up the older ones first). The bacon was from Sandy Creek Farm in Ravenswood, WV. The garlic was grown by my mom. The turkey stock was made from my Thanksgiving Tom, which I bought from Almost Heaven Farm in Monroe County, along with some vegetable scraps I keep in the freezer for making stock. I'm not sure where they might have been from, but I'm confident they were at least organic, if not local. I also added a little bit of 2% milk to the soup to make it creamier. The milk is from Homestead Creamery in Wirtz, VA, which thankfully, my local Kroger's carries.

I got most of the ingredients for the soup from the Monroe Farm Market, which delivers twice monthly Charleston. The set-up is actually genius. The MFM has website where customers place their orders online, and the orders are delivered to a handful of locations twice monthly (every week in the summer). Farmers work with the market manager to have their items listed on the website with quantities available a couple days before ordering is open. The website pretty much works in real-time, so when something is sold out, it's just sold out. I have been a member of the MFM for three years, and am absolutely delighted with it. There is a yearly membership fee of $80, but the MFM experimented with having a $5 delivery surcharge vs an annual membership fee, and I think this is clearly the best way to do it. I would encourage anyone in the Charleston or Beckley areas to look into joining. It's totally worth it.

I also had a handful of kale leftover from the big bunch I bought a couple weeks ago, so I made it for dinner, too. It was from Spangler's Greenhouse, and I added a little bit of garlic, olive oil, red pepper flakes and bacon grease to it. The bacon grease is from bacon I bought from Sandy Creek Farm. It's so nice to have fresh greens this time of year. Especially with bacon grease on them. Yum.

Here is the recipe, slightly modified by me.

Roasted Butternut Chowder with Apples and Bacon, from The Food Matters Cookbook

1 butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds) peeled, seeded and cut into chunks
1 large onion, chopped
2 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
4 slices of bacon, cut into pieces
2 Tb minced garlic
salt and pepper
3 Tb olive oil
1 Tb chopped fresh sage or 1 tsp dried (I forgot to add this)
1/2 cup of dry white wine
4 cups of vegetable or chicken stock
1/2 to 3/4 cup of milk or cream

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread squash, onion, apples and bacon in a roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Roast, stirring once or twice, until squash, onion and apples are tender (about 35-45 minutes). Add mixture to a large pot (including any juices), and add white wine and sage. Puree with an imersion blender (I left mine a little chunky). Place on medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add milk, stir and serve.

Turkey Week wrap-up

2011-11-29T13:05:00.001-05:00

Last week kicked off the busiest time of the year for the kitchens of home cooks and bakers. And eaters. Thanksgiving, arguably the biggest foodie holiday of the year, slipped by without me doing a post. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the food I was making or eating over the holiday, so all you're gonna be left with is a stream of consciousness and musings from last week.

The Christmas Creep
In modern life, many of the customs and observances of the holidays as we know them have evolved into a commercial passing. A money-making opportunity for every industry down to diapers. Yes, diapers. I saw a newspaper insert for a drugstore or grocery store advertising disposable diapers printed with big red bows and holly motifs. I wish I were kidding.

Thanksgiving, for a long time, was a holiday with little commercial meddling, save for Butterball and Eagle brand evaporated milk. But now, a new term has been coined to refer to the ever-earlier Christmas shopping season: the "Christmas creep." And this year, somehow, the Thanksgiving dinner, which is essentially what this holiday had become from a very solemn rememberance of the hardships of life as a colony and the charity of Native Americans, has now been reduced even further as just a day to ramp up to Christmas shopping sales beginning at 10 pm.

I'm not bitter. I swear.

My pasture-raised Thanksgiving turkey
The past couple years, I've bought the turkey for the Thanksgiving dinner with my brother and my mom. A couple months back, I ordered an 18-pound turkey from Almost Heaven Farm in Monroe County, via the Monroe Farm Market. Perhaps I should not have gone for such a big bird, but all that turkey meat that I still have left will make good dumplings and soup later this winter. Especially, in planning for the Dark Days Challenge. The turkey was pasture-raised, and not treated with hormones or antibiotics. However, it was not a heritage breed. I have been able to find a heritage turkey in West Virginia (or anywhere nearby) since White Oak Ridge Farms went out of business a few years ago. At least this guy was well taken care of and allowed to engage in some turkey instincts like pecking for bugs and stuff in the grass.

Pumpkin recipes and canned vs. fresh pumpkin
For dessert, I was going to make the pumpkin mousse recipe from the November issue of Martha Stewart Living, but I realized too late in the game that I didn't have any unflavored gelatin. So, this beautiful pumpkin that I grew, will go into the recipe for the Starbuck's pumpkin scones. I made these a few weeks ago, and I think I ate all of them but one. They haunt me. And they were so easy to make. I didn't make the glaze, but they were good without it, or with a little bit of apple butter, actually.

Everyone's got an opinion on whether canned or real pumpkin is better for recipes. I haven't used canned pumpkin puree in years. Simply because I haven't had to. I haven't bought a pumpkin for at least 4 years because people have given me pumpkins and I finally got one to grow this year. My boss had 3 grow from a volunteer vine last year that he brought me. And my mother-in-law buys a bunch every year to do some fall decor in her yard. After halloween, she gave me all hers a few years ago. And I figure why waste them? It's just cheaper to make your own pumpkin puree. And besides, I love roasted pumpkin seeds.

Christmas baking

Last week, I was picking up a bottle of wine from the Capitol Market for another Thanksgiving Dinner, and I happened to catch Cafe Cupcakes open. It recently set up shop in the Capitol Market, and I had read a really nice write up in the paper about it. Also, the owner and baker is a friend of a friend, and I've had her cakes before. I HAD to try a cupcake, despite the fact that I was in between the two Thanksgiving Dinners I was attending last Sunday. Especially since they had red velvet, aka "Dorothy's Ruby Red Slippers." They were made of the darkest red velvet cake I have ever seen and copious amounts of cream cheese incing with edible silver beads and red glitter on them. And, they were unbelievable!

After eating Dorothy's Ruby Red Slipper, I've decided I'm going to make some red velvet cupcakes to take to my in-laws' Christmas gathering this year. I made so many two years ago, and last year I didn't make them at all. The recipe I used before is this Paula Deen recipe, and it's good, but not good like Cafe Cupcakes's. The cake isn't as dark red, which I really liked about Cafe Cupcakes's. And the Paula Deen cupcakes leach grease through the wrappers, which is kinda gross. They leave a greasy spot in my cupcake courier or when you put them out on a platter. I need a new recipe, and I might have to do some test runs to find it. (Oh, darn...)

The Dark Days Challenge is Back!

2011-11-10T16:28:00.001-05:00

Hurray! It's back again!

Image credit: (Not) So Urban Hennery

That's right, kids! The Dark Days Challenge is back for a 5th year.

What is the Dark Days Challenge, you ask? It's a pledge to cook one 100% local meal a week, or at the very least, "SOLE". During the dark days of winter... hence the name. Eating local is easy in the summer, but in the winter, when you're left with what food you've put up or what plants can tolerate the weather, it's a true challenge.

Here's a link that explains the challenge better than I can. This is also where you sign up to join in.

After you cook your local meal, write about it on your blog and send the link to these lovely folks: Not Dabbling in Normal. They'll do a recap of all the posts on their blog so you can see what other people are cooking and get some wonderful ideas. Plus, who doesn't love to see their own name and blog referenced out there on the world wide web?

The rules are sorta similar to the Eat Local Challenge, if you're familiar. "Local" is a 100 mile radius. Or a 150 mile radius. Or, a 250 mile radius in my case, since there is a family-owned dairy that produced the milk I buy 248 miles away. Just define what you consider local at the beginning of the challenge, and stick to it. Also, there are exceptions for certain items we take for granted in our daily lives that we just couldn't do with out, i.e. oil, sugar or spices. Just define what will be your exceptions at the beginning when you start and stick to those, too. Remember, it's supposed to be a challenge. And it's fun to come up with dishes based on what you have available. Trust me!

If you don't have a blog, no worries. Just cook right along with us and enjoy reading about what we're cooking. The challenge runs from November 27th to March 31st. The weekly deadlines for submitting your meal for the round-ups will be posted soon. There is also a Google group for the Challenge and someone is working on a hashtag for twitter.

I hope you all will join me. I can't wait to see what you will be making!

Making (and eating) Chicago Style Deep Dish Pizza

2011-11-09T11:50:00.000-05:00

I might have mentioned how much I love Chicago here before. I love the culture, the shopping, the sights, the views, and mostly the food. I think Chicago is the forgotten foodie city or something. Everyone always thinks of New York City or even Las Vegas, or maybe even Napa Valley, when they think of food destinations in the Lower 48, but they're overlooking one important place: the home of Italian Beefs, Red Hot dogs, and most famously, deep dish pizza.

There's one thing I love almost as much as I love eating my way through Chicago, and that's making homemade pizza. Seriously, I'll never go back to pre-made crust again (I can't say I'll never eat a frozen pizza again, cause they do serve a certain purpose of getting a hot meal in front of you fast... and I might have one in the freezer.) But homemade is SOOO much better.

For a long time, I had a fear of using yeast or making anything that had to rise. What if I messed it up? But I pizza dough was a good place to start learning the mysteries of leavening. It's flat anyway, so if it doesn't rise properly, it's easy to conceal it a bit.

I have been making my homemade pizzas for a while as thin crust pizzas, and they are pretty good. But after I was in Chicago last summer, and I think I might have also saw something on the Food Network or Travel Channel about Chicago-style deep dish pizza, I knew I had to give these a try. My first attempt wasn't bad, but it was a thin crust dough in a deep dish pan. Good, but not authentic.

There is a difference in the type of dough, actually. Chicago style has a bit of cornmeal in the mix, whereas thin crust (New York style, if you will) does not. But, as far as the dough goes, there's not much else that's different. I found a deep dish pizza dough recipe online. This one is pretty close to the one I actually use.

Making dough is exponentially easier with a stand mixer and a dough hook. It provides the "elbow grease" in kneading.

The hardest part about making homemade pizza is that you have to plan ahead a little bit and allow 1-2 hours for the dough to rise. I am terrible at waiting for dough to rise, and I tried my hardest to let it rise more than an hour, but I just couldn't.

Chicago style deep dish pizza is put together kinda reverse from thin crust. You put the meat and cheese in the bottom first before the rest of the toppings. I had half a zucchini leftover from somethign else and some carmelized onions. I actually sauteed the zucchini in the grease left from browing the Italian sausage so they would soak up some of that flavor. Then I topped the pizza with pieces of fresh mozzarella. On manager's special--Woot! Woot!

I added the sauce, which was a little bit of leftover arrabiata sauce I had in the freezer. Then I shredded some fresh parm over the top. You can't have too much cheese.

The finished product--mmmmmm. So yummy. Now, if I only had a Goose Island 312 to wash it down with... Too bad they don't sell those down here.

SOLE on SNAP Day 31

2011-11-01T11:42:00.000-04:00

This is the last day, and at least budget-wise, I reached my goal. I think I did pretty decent at eating a balanced, healthy diet, too. I have done better at times over the past year, for sure, but I think I mostly got all my nutrients and met the recommendations of MyPlate.gov.

BREAKFAST:
I had a hard boiled egg. I wasn't really hungry because of the all the Chinese I ate Sunday night. Jeremy didn't eat anything either.
LUNCH:
I had the end of the Butternut Squash and Bowtie pasta I made last week. It was so awesome, even leftover 3 or 4 days. Jeremy had a big salad that I grew, some BBQ almonds, some swiss cheese, a diet green tea, a greek yogurt and the rest of some pork rinds that he bought last Friday.
SNACKS:
I had a greek yogurt, a small piece of swiss cheese and an apple. I also had a no sugar added hot cocoa after lunch. When I got home, I also had two of the little dried out cakes you get from the Chinese place complementary with your take out.
DINNER:
We made Connie's Zucchini Casserole for dinner and the Big Sweet and Sour Tomato Salad from the How to Eat Supper cookbook. I hate to admit that I have questioned the recipes from this book, but I should always trust Ms. Kasper. I don't think there's a bad recipe (or even a mediocre recipe) in this cookbook. We each had a glass of the Cold Trail Ale from the growlers we brougth back from Mountain State Brewing Company.
EXERCISE:
We both went to the YMCA to work out. I did 20 minutes of elliptical and 20 minutes on the stationary bike. Jeremy walked on the treadmill for 45 minutes. I burnt 345 calories.

STATS: Gold star for me today!!!
Calories 1,471 (1,816 total less 345 exercise)
Fat 64.2 g
Sat Fat 24.2 g
Cholesterol 347.2 mg
Sodium 1,200.2 mg
Carbs 195.4 g
Fiber 14.8 g (def could have done better here)
Sugars 65 g
Protien 55.7 g

I didn't meet the MyPlate.gov recommendations today on protein and fruit. I don't eat a lot of fruit, I've noticed, since I started looking over the MyPlate report on LoseIt! It's not in season now, except apples. I eat what's in season. I'm eating apples and frozen blueberries. Maybe I should make more of an effort? I also didn't get the recommended servings of protein, but there's too sides to every coin. It was Monday, and I did go Meatless for Monday. On purpose.

Stay tuned for a recap of the whole project post.

SOLE on SNAP Days 28 through 30. No diary but a foodie road trip.

2011-11-01T11:25:00.003-04:00

I didn't track much of what I ate over the weekend because we were out and about. Nonetheless, here's my recap.

Friday, October 28th
BREAKFAST:
I had a half a cup of old fashioned oats with about 3 Tb of half and half, a few walnuts, frozen blueberries and about 1 tsp of honey. I also made both Jeremy and I a cup of coffee, mine with half and half from Homestead Creamery, and his with Coffeemate Natural Bliss creamer.
LUNCH:
I had leftover Bowtie Pasta with Butternut Squash and Kale from dinner two nights ago. I was just as amazing leftover. Jeremy had lunch out with some coworkers at McDonalds because one of them had a hankerin' for a McRib. Gross.
SNACKS:
I had a small apple and two peeps that I brought into work to share. When I went to the Halloween party monday night, someone gave me a package of peeps. I'm not crazy about them, so I figured I'd spread the love. I also had another small apple and a stick of Sargento snack cheese. Before I left for Princeton, I had a handful of BBQ almonds and a Fiber One 90 calorie bar.
DINNER:
I had to go to Princeton to an event for a community group I belong to. I was going with a group from Charleston, and we were leaving pretty much as soon as I got off work. There was a reception after the event, that was pot luck. It was typical fare for potluck receptions, I suppose: finger sandwiches, meatballs, veggie and fruit tray and cake. Jeremy went bow hunting in Clay County, and went to his parents for dinner. He had chilli.
EXERCISE:
None.

I didn't put anything I had at dinner in my LoseIt! App, so I didn't include my stats here since they were incomplete.

Saturday, October 29th
We decided to take a road trip to Thomas on Saturday. We had a hankering for some Hellbender Burritos and some Moutain State Brewing Co. beer. A long way to drive for a craving, but we had no plans and we absolutely love visiting that part of the state.

I had "The Admiral" and Jeremy had the "Hellbender" with shrimp. This is a great place for vegetarians because all the burritos can be made with seitan substituted for the meat. And they also have several vegetarian offerings on th menu. We got there right before the start of the WVU game, and the place was filling up fast. Jeremy's burrito looked awesome, but I'm not a big fan of buffalo sauce, so I didn't try it. He said it was off the meat rack. They also have on tap beer from the Mountain State Brewing Co., which is just up the road. We had a couple of their IPAs while we watched the game and ate our burritos.

This burrito was ginormous.

After we finished our food and beers, we left and headed a few miles away for Moutain State Brewing Co. to get our growlers filled up. They also had the game on, so we watched the rest of the first half there. They had a seasonal pumpkin ale on tap, and I tasted it. The girl behind the bar said a lot of people had been mixing it with the Miner's Daughter Oatmeal Stout, which is one of their permanent offerings. It was pretty bangin. But since it was a limited offering, they wouldn't sell it in a growler and they didn't have it at their other locations. I felt pretty lucky to have gotten to try it. We got growlers filled with the IPA, their Amber Ale and Cold Trail Ale. I can't decide which is my favorite of the four permanent offerings. Unlike some other micro breweries, they only have 4 beers. But they do all 4 REALLY well. I think I might be partial to Cold Trail Ale, which is saying a lotl, since I am a dark stout and porter kinda girl. Cold Trail Ale is a Belgian oat and wheat beer. It's good in summer especially, but also good in winter, as I discovered. There was about 3 or 4 inches of snow on the ground in Davis/Thomas.

At halftime, we headed for Morgantown to stay with my BFF through Preston County. It's not too far, distance-wise, but the road is curvy, so it was a nice roadtrip drive. It was absolutely beautiful, too, with all the snow.

Sunday, October 30th
Sunday morning, er, afternoon-ish, Erinn made us a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and pumpkin muffins and saw us off. When we got back to Charleston, we called in to our favorite Chinese place, Main Kwong, and got take out for dinner. Because this is a food blog, I should note that I reached a milestone on Sunday when I picked up my Chinese food. The lady who owns Main Kwong called me by name when I came through the door, "Ms. Jones." For those of you in Charleston, you'll appreciate the signifigance. She notoriously knows most of her customers' names. And hundreds of people eat here. It's like the best place to get Chinese in Charleston. I had been waiting for her to address me by name when I walked in, so I was stoked. Of course, this probably means that I order from there way too much.

SOLE on SNAP Day 27 and a convo with a farmer

2011-10-28T13:54:00.000-04:00

I heart the Farmers Market. Naturally. I heart farmers, and that's where farmers are. Especially farmers like John Crihfield.

I had some time to kill yesterday evening after work. I had somewhere I needed to be at 5:15. Not enough time to run home, and too much time to just leave work and sit around for 30 minutes. I decided to stop at the Capitol Market to see if they still had apples, because I want to can some soon. I could kill an afternoon walking around the farmer's market. Especially on days like that because it wasn't busy at all, and I got the chance to chat up the farmer at the stand I usually buy from.

He's like you picture a farmer, I think. White hair, trucker hat, leathery skin, soft spoken.

I was looking over the apples, and he asked if I needed help. "How much longer will you have apples?"

"Monday is our last day." They lease space from the Capitol Market, a non-profit, quasi governmental organization. And their leases end on October 31st. Period. He told me he has hundreds of bushels of tomatoes still on plants that he won't be able to sell. I asked if he had a farm stand at his farm that he could sell them from. No, he was going to Florida at the end of next week. He would most likely just donate them to Manna Meal, the local soup kitchen, or let them rot on the vine, he said nonchalantly. He already donated hundreds of bushels of green beans and corn to Manna Meal. I'm sure they appreciate the generosity of farmers like him. He said he had another load of beans that he wasn't planning on picking. He planted the tomatoes at the end of July for late tomatoes. Only, they were a little too late. I asked he sold to Kroger or anything like that, and he said he did once. In 1949. He got something like 15 cents per bushel of green beans back then. But he said now there's too much paperwork involved. You have to fill out paperwork saying how many times you spray pesticide, and what kinds of pesticide, and it just wasn't worth it. (Alarm bells going off in my head actually as he's saying this...) He actually sold just about all the other vendors at the Capitol Market green beans to sell. I didn't realize that farmers had arrangements like this. He said sometimes a customer will look at his green beans or corn, and then to the booth right beside him and buy green beans that he sold that farmer, and he just chuckles.

I can't beleive the Capitol Market has an end date of October 31st for the leases, though. Especially if the weather cooperates. The outdoor space they occupy will be empty for at least 3 weeks, since the Christmas tree vendors don't come in and set up until the week of Thanksgiving. Why not let the vegetable farmers stay?

We talked about what kinds of vegetables he grew. He grows a hybrid called a Volunteer green bean. When I asked him why, he said it's because they taste better. He said he bought the apples directly from the orchard. It was Shanholtz Orchard in Romney, WV. He said he didn't sell anything but West Virginia apples because they are the best.

I had to go, but I could have stayed a chatted with him for an hour. I told him about my blog. That I write about gardening and eating, but he seemed pretty unimpressed. I'm not sure he knew what a blog was, actually...

Well, Mr. Crihfield, if you're reading (or anyone on your staff), thanks and keep up the good work. I left with two irrestible purple Cherokee tomatoes and a zucchini.

BREAKFAST:
I had a 1/2 cup of oats with 1/3 cup of frozen blueberries from my mom's bushes. I had a splash of half and half in my oatmeal and 1 Tb of honey. I had a cup of coffee and half and half in it, also. Jeremy didn't eat breakfast, but had a cup of coffee with creamer.

LUNCH:
We celebrated two coworkers' birthdays that fell on the 26th and 27th by going out for Mexican food at one of our favorite joints. I had half an order of vegetarian fajitas with refried beans, lettuce, pico de gallo and guacamole and corn tortillas. I also had some of the obligitory chips and salsa before our food arrived, but I measured out 12 chips on a napkin and just ate those to help me keep my calories in check. I also had a medium margarita. Bad, Jennelle! But it was so good. Jeremy had two leftover deer BBQs with slaw on whole wheat buns, some BBQ almonds, a stick of Sargento snack cheese, a Fiber One 90 calorie bar and some tortilla chips and humus.

SNACKS:
I had a cup of coffee at work with French vanilla creamer.

DINNER:
A completely SOLE meal: I made chicken marsala with polenta. The chicken was pastured chicken from Almost Heaven Farm via the Monroe Market. The polenta was made from cornmeal from Reed's Mill Flours, some chopped fresh organic sage, and a pat of butter from Organic Valley made from pastured cows. The marsala sauce had a tomato was leftover from the box I bought to can at the beginning of the month and from John Crihfield's younger brother, Ron Crihfield's farm (the elder Crihfield didn't have canning tomatoes the day I went to buy them). It also had an organic, but not local, onion. The recipe also called for chicken stock, and I used some of what I made from the bones/carcas when we had the drunken chicken earlier this month. The only non-SOLE things in this were the marsala wine, a little bit of olive oil, kosher salt, pepper and some dried thyme. I cut up one of the Cherokee Purple tomatoes to have with dinner. I don't recall ever having eaten one raw before, if at all, but I was disappointed with the taste. I don't know why, but I thought it would be super sweet. Only it wasn't. At all. These tomatoes would actually be good to cook with since they have such a tangy, unsweet taste, but they wouldn't be very pretty in a sauce or something. I also cut a couple pieces off the huge pineapple tomato that I took off my tomato plants when I tore them down for the winter.

EXERCISE: I burnt 345 calories (which still wasn't enough) at the gym doing 20 minutes of elliptical and 20 minutes of stationary bike at a moderate pace.

STATS
Calories 2,542 (2,887 less 345 from exercise)
Fat 90 g
Sat Fat 38.7 g
Cholesterol 264.3 mg
Sodium 3,534 mg
Carbs 362 g
Fiber 43.2 g
Sugar 144.4 g
Protein 88.5 g

The myplate report on my LoseIt! app says I didn't meet my fruit or vegetables quota for the day, but oddly enough, has the vegetarian fajitas listed under protein sources. I'm not sure why.

SOLE on SNAP Day 26: Navigating the "work lunch away from work"

2011-10-27T14:42:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, some of my coworkers and I went to an Indian buffett for lunch. This seemed like a situation that could be fraught with disaster. The good news is that many Indian dishes are vegetarian, which helps with the calories and helps out those of us that are trying to eat SOLE. Eating vegetarian isn't simply SOLE on its own, but you score a bunch of "ethical" points here. I did a quick consultation with Eat This Not That for an Indian restaurant, and I was on my way. If you're unsure eating out, which I am for Indian food, as I am not totally familiar with what is in all the dishes, this is a great way to get some guidelines before you eat out.

BREAKFAST:
I had a cup of instant oatmeal at work since I was running way behind yesterday morning. I bought it and brought it in. I also had a cup of coffee with some french vanilla creamer. Jeremy had two blueberry muffins I made last weekend.

I should mention, I suppose, as it is day 26, that we have a sorta "community" drawer of food at work. We have a pretty good system, and we all replenish it from time to time without being asked. Sometimes my boss will contribute $50 or so and send someone on a grocery run for the drawer. It has stuff like snack crackers, oatmeal, bread, peanut butter, and chips in it, because sometimes it is hard to get downstairs to get lunch from the cafeteria or sometimes you didn't pack anything. Things can get pretty hectic around here from time to time, and we always have some snacks on hand. Anything in this drawer is fair game for anyone in the office. And we all eat out of it, and restock it, pretty frequently.

LUNCH:
I went with my coworkers to the Indian buffett. I had some basmati rice, vegetable korma, saag paneer, channa masala, and some chicken tikki masala sauce (I picked around the chicken) with some naan bread. I also had a small greek salad on the side with some humus. I also had a tandoori chicken thigh. It is probably the healthiest thing on the menu. It was more calories that I usually eat, but wasn't terrible. Jeremy had a peanut butter and black raspberry jam sandwich, stick of Sargent snack cheese, chips, fiber one 90 calorie bar, and a Kroger-brand diet green tea.

SNACKS:
I tried to eat one of the blueberry muffins I made last weekend, but it was terrible. I should note that Jeremy has been eating them for 3 days. I asked him why he didn't say something, and he said he was "trying to be a team player" which I thought was hysterical, and that he just wanted to hurry up and get rid of them. I think it was the muffin pan that I used at my mom's. These muffins tasted metallic. We also made some mini muffins, which I had, and they didn't taste like this. Makes me wonder what kinds of heavy metals we were ingesting every time that muffin pan is used. Gross.

DINNER:
Jeremy made deer BBQs for dinner. I had slaw left over from the fried fish last week. He put the BBQ meat on the jalepeno tortillas I bought at the beginning of the month and made them into wraps. They were really good. The deer meat was from a deer he killed and canned by his mom last December. I made us a baked potato. His parents brought back a huge box of russet potatoes and sweet potatoes from Amish country a couple weeks ago, and they gave use a handful of each. When I say they gave us and handful, I mean they gave us like 5 of each. But these are no ordinary potatoes. Jeremy and I shared one, and it would have been like two large potatoes. They are football-sized. We had some natural sour cream on the potatoes, and jeremy had a little bit of shredded cheddar.

EXERCISE: None

STATS:
Calories 2,086
Fat 52.9 g
Sat Fat 14.4 g
Cholesterol 186.7 mg
Sodium 2,342.9 mg
Carbs 288.2 g
Fiber 26.4 g
Sugars 49.8 g
Protein 107.7 g

SOLE on SNAP Day 25: My observance of Food Day

2011-10-26T14:07:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was food day. No, I didn't forget, I just didn't get a chance to celebrate it. It looks like it would have been fun to take part in some of the observances.

http://www.magazines.com/blog/food-day-pushes-eat-local-movement-and-more-with-events-nationwide

New York City had a big sit down lunch at Times Square with foodies, food writers and celebrity chefs breaking bread together. I would have liked to have had a bite of that lunch. Since I didn't eat any meat, and ate very sustainably today, I'm going to say that I celebrated Food Day on Tuesday, October 25th instead of Monday. My lunch and dinner were noticeably void of processed food and were pretty much SOLE. I think that really embraces the concept of Food Day. I should be trying to eat like this more often. It was so delicious. More delicious and satisfying, actually, than would have been a lunch dinner that had processed food as a part of it or was not SOLE.

BREAKFAST:

I had 1 cup of Cheerios with 1/4 cup of 2% milk and a hard boiled egg. I did make myself a cup of coffee with Natural Bliss creamer this morning, too. I needed an extra lil' sumthin to get me going. Jeremy had a coupon for a free breakfast sandwich at McDonalds. He got a McGridle with a sweet tea... breakfast of champions.

LUNCH:

I had (the end, finally) leftover cream of tomato soup and a salad that I grew with homemade buttermilk ranch. I also had a handful of Garden of Eatin' blue corn chips from a bag I brought into work to share. Jeremy had a sandwich made from the leftover fried trout, buttermilk ranch and lettuce, a stick of Sargento sharp cheddar snack cheese, a chobani yogurt.

DINNER:

Sweet Roasted Butternut Squash and Greens over Bowtie Pasta from my How to Eat Supper cookbook. Another homerun recipe. I haven't found anything in this cookbook yet that we don't LOVE. I chopped everything, and the Hubs pretty much did everything else. I substituted Red Russian Kale for the curly endive the recipe called for, which came from Cozy Hollow Farm, via the Monroe Farm Market. I also substituted dried basil for the fresh, and shredded parmesean for the asiago, both from Krogers, along with the bowtie pasta. The squash came from Spangler's Greenhouse via MFM. The half and half is Homestead Creamery. The sage was fresh and organic, and also from Krogers. This meal pretty much hit all the tastes, salty, sweet and bitter, except no sour, unless you took a drink of the Pinot Grigio that we had with it. This dinner was so hearty and tasty, you wouldn't even miss the meat.

After dinner, Jeremy said he felt like he was getting a cold and should drink some orange juice. I told him the kale probably had more vitamin c in it than orange juice does without all that sugar, and he looked at me like I was crazy. He said he would have bought 100% orange juice so it didn't have all that sugar in it. According to wikipedia, 3.5 oz. of kale has 41 mg of vitamin c, which is 41% of your daily recommended amount. However, Tropicana 100% orange juice has 130% of the daily recommended amount in a 6 oz. glass. So, maybe it does have more vitamin c, but at 110 calories for that tiny 6 oz. serving still sounds like you're better off to go with the kale. The ingredients say 100% pure orange juice, but for the calories to be that high, I'm skeptical there's not some sugar hiding in there.

SNACKS:

I had a Fage greek yogrut, small apple and a stick of Sargento snack cheese. I also had a chocolate covered strawberry and apple wedge from a coworker's birthday Edible Arrangement. I had a cup of coffee with dry non-dairy creamer in the morning, and small cup with hazelnut flavored creamer in the afternoon. I also had a Fiber One 90 calorie bar before walking. I had one more glass of white wine after dinner.

EXERCISE:

Jeremy and I walked at G.W. High School for 35 minutes at about a 4 mph pace. That burnt 186 calories.

STATS

Calories 2.038 (2,224 les 186)

Fat 67.5 g

Sat Fat 13.1 g

Cholesterol 260.1 mg

Sodium 1,671.1 mg (HOORAY!)

Carbs 267.3 g

Fiber 44.7 g

Sugars 85.5 g

Protein 59.2 g

This was a really good day. Would have been even better had I not had those two glasses of wine. But that wine was much enjoyed (and in moderation) with dinner and after, and that's what eating should be all about. I'm pretty happy with my stats, now, if I can just keep up the pace.

I did have to get half and half from the store, which was 2.89 plus a 2.00 deposit for the glass bottle. With tax the half and half was 2.98. This brings my total food budget for the month up to $310.99, still well under the $367 in SNAP benefits we would recieve.

SOLE on SNAP Day 24

2011-10-25T16:06:00.003-04:00

I mentioned that I was reflecting on my project now that I'm in the homestretch. I'm going to make a better effort to stay in my calorie budget. That means more exercise and less noshing on junk food mostly at work. Discipline! I'm putting all my chips on the table. Oh, and I need to eat more fruit.

BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of Cheerios with about 1/3 cup of 2% milk and a hard boiled egg. We had a coupon for a free oatmeal from McDonalds that expired next Monday, which Jeremy used today.
LUNCH:
I had another serving of the cream of tomato soup I made last week and a salad with the homemade buttermilk ranch. Jeremy had a fried trout sandwich, a Fiber One 90 bar, a Chobani vanilla greek yogurt, a Sargento cheddar cheese stick, the rest of the guacamole and some baked tostitos, and a bottle of Kroger brand diet green tea.
DINNER:
I had a can of Progresso vegetable soup because I had a meeting to go in the evening and didn't have time to cook. I also had a "pocketbook sandwich" made from 1 slice of whole wheat bread, natural PB and some blackberry jam I canned. Besides, Jeremy had a "guy's night " scheduled for wings and beer at BW3 with my dad and brother.
SNACKS:
I had a Chobani greek vanilla yogurt, a small apple from Morgan Orchard via the Monroe Farm Market, and a stick of Sargento snack cheese. I also had a Nature Valley Granola Thin. When I got home, I was super hungry, so I had some baked tostitos. I did really well all day until my meeting. I knew they'd have food, and I suppose I did okay dodging some of the more egregious caloric offenders. I had a small cup of punch, a scoop of Chinese chicken salad (pretty healthy), a tiny scoop of pasta salad that looked like it had Italian dressing on it, a 1" piece of peanut butter fudge and a brownie with marshmallow topping.
EXERCISE:
None

STATS
Calories 2/216
Fat 69.4 g
Sat Fat 15.2 g
Cholesterol 255.4 mg
Sodium 3.549.1 mg
Carbs 337.8 g
Fiber 32.7 g
Sugar 135.1 g
Protein 65.2 g

Now, what was it I was saying about this discipline, thing? Baby steps, I guess.

SOLE on SNAP: Days 22 & 23

2011-10-24T12:02:00.000-04:00

Ah, the weekend. Why do they go by in the blink of an eye? I've scattered in a handful of pics that depict how my weekend went, even if it did go by way too quickly.

I'm in the home stretch of SOLE on SNAP; I am in the last week. I've been doing some reflecting on the project and it's coming to an end. There are definitely some things I wish I'd done differently, and some things I am really proud of.

First, I wish I could have devoted more time to the project. I can now appreciate thoughtful substantive blogs by people who hold down full time jobs. Where do they find the time to do it? I really don't like to even turn on the computer when I come home from work since I sit in front of one all day. I would have liked to include more entries with outside stories in them like news bits about eating healthy on a budget. But somedays it was all I could do to post my food diary and stats without including any other content.

Secondly, I wish I would have more diligent in my eating and exercising this month. I was just telling my mom yesterday that since I started this project, I don't think I came in under my calorie budget more than a handful of times, let alone hit all the marks on the myplate.gov recommendations. It wasn't that I couldn't do it, I don't think. I absolutely believe that I could have met the challenge of this project with more effort. But then again, that would translate into more planning, thought, and of course, time. See above.

And, finally, one other observation. The timing sucks, though. I was playing around on my LoseIt! account online last week and discovered there is a myplate.gov tracker feature that shows you on a day-by-day basis if you're meeting the recommendations. How awesome is that?! I just wish I would have discovered it before the last week of the project.

Saturday, October 22nd
BREAKFAST:
I made a big breakfast for us. We each had 2 eggs sunny side up, 2 pieces of bacon and a piece of toast with some homemade carrot cake jam I made last year. I had two cups of coffee with creamer and Jeremy had 1 cup.

Not the best pic, but just look at the color of that yolk! Farm eggs rock! They are tastier and healthier.
LUNCH:
For lunch, we both had leftover Chinese from the night before.

DINNER:
I went shopping with my momma Saturday evening and she treated me to dinner at the new Panera Bread at the mall. I had the "You Pick Two" combo. I had a greek salad and the Natural Steak Chili. The good and bad thing, I suppose, about this dinner was that we got there withing 30 minutes of closing. So we got full salads for the price of the half on the "You Pick Two" combos, but they didn't have much left to pick from. I had my heart set on their black bean soup, but they were out. The chili was pretty good, though, but salty. Jeremy was hunting near his sister and brother-in-law's house, and his mom came by Saturday evening and brought him some meatloaf leftovers.

SNACKS:
I had some tortilla chips and humus and some saltines and natural peanut butter.

EXERCISE:
I was SO busy Saturday at my house. I did a ton of yardwork and started cleaning my house, but didn't get finished. I burnt a TON of calories, while getting stuff done around the house, which I totally love! My LoseIt! app says I burnt 698 calories, and I believe it, cause I was beat Saturday night.

Tearing out my tomato plants. I hate to see them go.

Lettuce and radishes in the raised beds. Hopefully my growing season lasts several more weeks. I have "cold frame" lids for these to protect them from the frost and cold temps, although both of these crops are best suited for cooler weather.

STATS:

Calories 1,426 (2,124 less 698 exercise)

Fat 119.7 g

Sat Fat 21.3 g

Cholesterol 487.6 mg

Sodium 5,297.3 mg

Carbs 182.2 g

Fiber 22.4 g

Sugars 54.7 g

Protein 87.5 g

Sunday, October 23rd

BREAKFAST:

I had old-fashioned oatmeal with a handful of last year's blueberries from my mom, a few walnuts, a splash of 2% milk and a tsp of turbinado sugar. Jeremy had frozen waffles, natural peanut butter and 100% pure maple syrup (worth the money...). We both had a cup of coffee and Natural Bliss creamer.

LUNCH:

I had a sandwich made from Thursday night's leftover fried trout and a salad. The sandwich was BANGIN'! I am also trying to finish up that buttermilk I accidently bought, so I also made some homemade buttermilk ranch dressing for the salad. It's a bit too thick. I probably should add some more buttermilk to thin it out. I got the recipe from my Betty Crocker Cookbook Bridal Edition. I also had some leftover guacamole from last week and some Baked Tostitos. Also, the salad was 100% grown by me!!! Makes it taste even better. Jeremy went golfing with my brother and dad, and they stopped at Burger King for lunch.

Isn't that salad absolutely beautiful? It tasted pretty awesome, too.

DINNER:

We had KFC at Jeremy's mom and dad's house. Not the healthiest dinner, so I'm glad I got in some exercise and had eaten relatively well throughout the day.

SNACKS:

I had a Gold Peak Sweetened Tea. They use sugar. I try not to eat any artificial sweeteners, but I'm not sure which is the lesser evil: sugar or artificial sweeteners??? At my mom's we baked blueberry muffins, and I had a few mini muffins. We also made South of the Border stuffed peppers and stuffed tomatoes. I had half a stuffed tomato and a couple of the small stuffed peppers.

EXERCISE:

I tried to finish up the house cleaning that I didn't get done on Saturday, but I still didn't get done. I also took a 45-minute walk with my mom at her house. It was such a beautiful day. I burnt 326 calories.

STATS:

Calories 2,070 (2,396 less 326 exercise)

Fat 95.1 g

Sat Fat 19.9 g

Cholesterol 198.8 mg

Sodium 3,756.2 mg

Carbs 280.4 g

Fiber 30.7 g

Sugar 112.6 g

Protein 117.2 g

Now, I did try to get the myplate.gov report saved as an image that I could post on this blog, but I couldn't get it to work out. However, Sunday appears to be the first day that I can see that I did hit all the recommendations on myplate.gov, according to LoseIt!

SOLE on SNAP Day 21

2011-10-22T10:11:00.001-04:00

I ordered from the Monroe Farm Market Monday, and I picked it up yesterday. It was hopefully the final spending on groceries for this month. I spent $25.19, which brings my total for the month to $308.01.

I bought 1 dozen eggs from Breezy Knoll Farm (3.25), 1 3-lb bag of Jonamac apples from Morgan Orchard (4.64), 1 small butternut squash from Spangler's Greenhouse (3.00), a 5-oz. bag of Russian Red Kale from Byrnside Branch Farm (3.00), and 4 4-oz. filets of fresh rainbow trout from Wilson Mill Farm (11.30).

BREAKFAST:
I had 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats with about 1/4 cup of frozen blueberries (from my mom's last summer), 2 Tb of chopped walnuts, a splash of milk and 1 tsp of turbinado sugar. Jeremy had a cup of coffee with creamer and a Kashi TLC bar. He also bought a latte from Sheetz, which he said was really good.
LUNCH:
I had a cup of the cream of tomato soup I've been eating on all week and a salad. I also made a piece of Italian bread with herbs, olive oil and shaved parm that we have here at my office. Jeremy ate out. I think at Sheetz.
DINNER:
Jeremy was hankering for Chinese food all week. I already had it once this week for lunch, but you don't have to twist my arm too hard to get me to go for it twice in one week. Good thing I went to the gym... I had the same thing I had the other day for lunch, Broccoli with Garlic Sauce over white rice and a hot and sour soup.
EXERCISE:
20 minutes of elliptical and 20 minutes of stationary bike burns 345 calories.

STATS:
Calories 1,912 (2,257 less 345 from exercise)
Fat 92.5 g
Sat Fat 18.3 g
Cholesterol 109.6 mg
Sodium 6,039.4 mg
Carbs 256 g
Fiber 20.5 g
Sugars 90.2 g
Protein 99.5 g

SOLE on SNAP Day 20: Classic fried fish for dinner

2011-10-21T14:43:00.000-04:00

Oh, how I heart the Monroe Farm Market.

I ordered some fresh rainbow trout filets from Wilson Mill Farm. I just learned by adding that link that they are Certified Naturally Grown producer. Score! Apparently, it is the "Grassroots Alternative to the USDA's National Organic Program meant primarily for small farmers distributing through local channels..." I'd already decided after eating the fish last night that I'll be buying more of it soon, but the cerfication makes it even better.

I see why they call it rainbow trout now. These pictures don't do it justice, but it was so pretty!

I soaked it in buttermilk. The whole reason I made fried fish was because of that buttermilk and that I recently watched an episode of The Best Thing I Ever Ate in HD with Sunny Anderson talking about Southern fried catfish. Talk about food porn... At the beginning of the month, when I made my big grocery run, I accidently bought buttermilk instead of half and half. They have the same color cap. I didn't wanna waste it, so I've been sneaking it into things. Like polenta. It wasn't that great in polenta. Too sour. But it was heavenly with some cornmeal on this fish.

What else goes with fried fish than fries? Because I was frying the fish, I wanted to bake the fries. Minimize the calories, you know. I used this recipe from a blog I love. One caveat, though. I had to bake them about 30 minutes before they even began to get crispy though. The recipe says 10-15 minutes. I've tried oven fries with cornstarch, too. Apparently, if you dust them in it with the oil, they will dry up the water and get crispy in the oven, but I don't recall that yielding any crispier of a fry either.

BREAKFAST:

I had a cup of Cheerios with a tsp of turbinado sugar and about 1/3 cup of milk, and a hard boiled egg. Jeremy had a Kashi TLC bar and cup of coffee with creamer.

LUNCH:

My office ordered Chinese today. There's really no "safe bet" when you're trying to order healthy Chinese food. Even Eat This Not That wasn't really helpful. So, after scanning the data on my LoseIt app for PF Chang's menu, I was able to pick the least onerous lunch on the local Chinese joint's menu. I had the lunch combo, which is a smaller portion, but includes a soup. I had a hot and sour soup and broccoli with garlic sauce on steamed white rice. Although it was more calories that I would normally eat for lunch, it wasn't a diet sabotager. However, the sodium on this meal is what's going to be killer. I packed a PB&J on wheat for Jeremy with a Fage greek yogurt, a stick of string cheese, some BBQ almonds and the rest of the pepperjack Tostitos. I also packed a random bottle of water we had in the fridge (I never buy bottled water... it's basically free when it comes out of the tap.) and a Crystal Light raspberry green tea flavor packet to put in the water.

DINNER: Fried trout, oven fries and cole slaw. The fries aren't in this picture because they weren't done yet.

I mentioned the fish was from Wilson Mill Farm. The cornmeal is from Reed's Mill in Monroe County. The canola oil is from Kroger and the buttermilk was from Homestead Creamery in Wirtz, VA. Jeremy actually fried the fish, and he put some spices in the cornmeal. I bought a bag of pre-cut broccoli slaw mix because I had a coupon for it. I always use the recipe for coleslaw in my Betty Crocker Bridal Edition Cookbook. It's a good comprehensive source to have for basic recipes and techniques, because you do need those from time to time. And the slaw recipe is really good, too, BTW. It had Kroger brand natural sour cream and Kraft Light Miracle Whip (the only kind of salad dressing I'm allow to buy as per the hubs...) as the two main ingredients, with a little bit of sugar, mustard and spices. The fries were made from Private Selection organic potatoes with canola oil and a little kosher salt on them.

EXERCISE:

None (insert sad smiley face here...)

STATS:

While this dinner was fabulous, the calories were a little high. Surprisingly, the potatoes were the culprit.

Calories 2,366

Fat 99.2 g

Sat Fat 16.3 g

Cholesterol 417.1 mg

Sodium 5,744.7 mg

Carbs 242.3 g

Fiber 28 g

Sugars 57.1 g

Protein 125.8 g

SOLE on SNAP: Day 19

2011-10-19T20:37:00.001-04:00

And How to Eat Supper continues to deliver hit after hit. Seriously, go buy this cookbook if you are interested in cooking REALLY good food from scratch on a weeknight in under an hour. Who wouldn't be into that? Look, it's even on sale!!!

BREAKFAST:
I had 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats with a handful of frozen blueberries, about 1 Tb of honey, and a generous splash of 2% milk, with a cup of coffee and a Tb of natural vanilla creamer. Jeremy had a Kashi TLC bar and a cup of coffee with creamer.
LUNCH:
Jeremy and I went to the new Firehouse Subs to check it out. I had a medium veggie sub on wheat with Sun Chips. Highly recommended! Jeremy had the Engineer and Funyons. I heart Funyons, BTW. This restaurant is great, too. It had a big mural painted on the wall of firemen dressed in mountaineer buckskin suits helping a coal miner away from a fire coming from a coal mine. Not totally realistic, but pretty cool.
DINNER:

Chicken caccitoria from How to Eat Supper. I also made polenta, and added a dab of buttermilk and butter to make it creamy. The chicken was from Almost Heaven Farm in Monroe County that I bought back a month or so ago. The cornmeal was from Reed's Mill Flour in Monroe County also. Its amazing because it's open pollinated corn, and the mill is one of the oldest continually operated mills in the country. The garlic is from my mom and the tomatoes are from Jackson County. The was a splash of white wine on the chicken, and organic red onion and Private Selection salami.

I've had chicken caccitore before, but it wasn't like this. It was like shredded chicken in spaghetti. But according to wikipedia, that's not the traditional way to make it. Food for thought, literally!
SNACKS: I had a Kashi TLC bar, 2 saltines and 2 Tb of natural peanutbutter.
EXERCISE:
I went to the gym and did some CAR-DIO! (It it like Oprah. It sounds more fun...) I burnt 384 calories

STATS
Calories 1,779 (2,163 less 384 calories from exercise)
Fat 113.4 g
Sat Fat 28.8 g
Cholesterol 190.7 mg
Sodium 2,850 mg (YAY!!!!)
Carbs 211 g
Fiber 23.8 g
Sugars 60.4 g
Protein 85 g

SOLE on SNAP: Day 18 Pesto Risotto for dinner

2011-10-19T19:56:00.002-04:00

There's something quite magical about risotto. Maybe you don't think about risotto much, but I can assure you that when you have it made right, your life will never be the same.

The first time I had it was actually when I made it the first time. So I didn't have anything to compare it to. I got an Italian cookbook for Christmas from my aunt when I was in college. I cooked my way through that cookbook, and buttery mushroom risotto was a step along the way. When you put that much butter and cheese in something, it's just not possible for it to be bad.

The risotto I had been making was good, but not even in the same league as some of the risottos I've had in restaurants. The most memorable might be the seafood risotto I got at some little mom and pop Italian restaurant in Boston's North End. It was so simple and straight forward. But it was aaamaaaayyzing! With a crisp glass of pinot gris it was the perfect dinner.

Really good risotto is made by someone who has patience. Perhaps that's why mine doesn't quite rise to the level of the Italian mama's that I had in Boston. If you're patient with it, the arborio rice will release its starches in the most sublime way. And from a little bit of butter, stock and a handful of rice, you get something so seemingly fancy. But its a humble peasant dish, actually.

BREAKFAST:I had 1 cup of Cheerios with 1 tsp of turbinado sugar and 1/3 cup of milk. Jeremy had a Kashi TLC bar.
We each had a cup of coffee with about 1 Tb natural vanilla creamer.
LUNCH:
I had more of the cream of tomato soup and a salad. I also had a piece of toasted Italian bread with a little bit of shaved parmesean and some olive oil on it that my gracious coworker brought in. Jeremy had a salad and a Michaelina's Lean Gourmet microwave meal.
DINNER:
I made Quintessential Pesto Risotto from How to Eat Supper. I wish it was on the website, but it is not. You'll have to buy the book. It was AWESOME.

SNACKS:
I had a piece and half of "breakfast bread" that a coworker made and brought in. (We sure do know how to eat at my office...) In the afternoon, I had a cup of no sugar added hot cocoa, a stick of string cheese and a small apple. I also had a handful of Garden of Eatin' blue corn chips, that I took into the office to share. When I got home I had a Kashi TLC bar.
EXERCISE:
It was the last pretty day for a while, so I did a bunch of yardwork that needed done before the winter. Sadly, I put my beds to bed... haha. I pulled up all the plants in my garden except the radishes and salad greens. I also raked up the ground in the bare spots in the yard and planted grass seed, fertillized, and covered it with hay. It was a pretty good workout.

STATS:
Calories 1,885 (2,155 less 270 exercise)
Fat 92.3 g
Sat Fat 27.9 g
Cholesterol 126.6 mg
Sodium 4,571 mg
Carbs 268.5 g
Fiber 34.7 g
Sugar 71.7 g
Protein 70.3 g

SOLE on SNAP: Day 17

2011-10-18T21:19:00.004-04:00

I know a guy who was doing a "public humiliation" diet. Every morning he'd weigh himself and tweet it. I guess if you feel like you have to be accountable to cyberspace, you'd be more apt to mind your p's and q's. I don't know if it's working for him or not, but that concept definitely hasn't worked for me.

BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of cheerios with 1 tsp of turbinado sugar and 1/3 cup of 2% milk. Jeremy had a sausage biscuit from McDonalds and a sweet tea.
LUNCH:
I had a bowl of cream of tomato soup and a salad. The soup was a variation recipe from the tomato soup recipe in How to Eat Supper. It's pretty good, but not as good as the original recipe. Jeremy had a salad and I made him a wrap with guacamole, chopped sweet pepper from my garden, shredded cheddar and lettuce in it. He also had a bottle of diet green tea.
DINNER:
I made chicken nachos. I love nachos. I'm kinda an aficionado. These are exceedingly good for them to be healthy. I'm not even kidding. Here's the recipe.
SNACKS:
I had a couple cups of coffee and non-dairy creamer, greek yogurt, 1 oz. of Lay's kettle chips that someone opened at work, and in the afternoon a cup of no sugar added hot cocoa, small apple and and stick of string cheese. Jeremy had a greek yogurt, a stick of string cheese and some BBQ almonds.
EXERCISE:
None

Here's where the train ran off the tracks. I had a meeting last night for a community group I'm in. We usually have refreshments. I usually don't eat much, if any, but I did at this meeting. I had two mini red velvet cupcakes (one of my favorites) and about 5 ritz crackers with a few slices of pepper jack and about 2 Tb of cheese ball. But the calories definitely added up...

STATS:
Calories 2,568
Fat 105 g
Sat Fat 36.1 g (Thank you, cheese...)
Cholesterol 154 mg
Sodium 4,347 mg
Carbs 315.3 g
Fiber 51.4 g
Sugars 115.7 g
Protein 112.4 g

SOLE on SNAP: Mid-month grocery run

2011-10-17T16:23:00.000-04:00

I went to the store today to grab what I needed for the rest of the month and a few extra items. I got A LOT of stuff that wasn't on my list simply because the price was right. I did pretty well. I spent $117.24. Here's what I bought:

Kroger old fashioned oats (3.45), Crisco canola oil (3.24), Imagine organic butternut squash soup (2.49), Kroger natural peanut butter (2.16), jalepeno cilantro tortillas (1.79), FiberOne chewy bars (1.70), Kroger sugar (2.30), Private Selection reduced fat blue cheese crumbles (2.39), Private Selection organic slaw veggies (1.59), 2 Starbucks 11 oz coffee (5.99 each), Dunkin' Donuts 11 oz. whole bean coffee (5.99), Kroger tomato paste (.79), 7 .5 pound packages of Organic Valley Pasture Butter (1.64 each CLOSE OUT--Woot woot!), Kroger bagged salad (2.10), Greenworks laundry detergent 32 load (4.89), 2 pkg Kroger shredded sharp cheddar (2.69 each), 3 Progresso Soups (.93 each), Amy's cheese pizza (2.99), Wanchai Ferry Skillet Meal (4.74), Method Countertop Spray (2.69), 2 Nestle Natural Bliss Creamer (1.84 each), Charmin 12 pk (5.99), Kroger cumin (3.89), Kroger whole wheat hamburger buns (1.49), Garden of Eatin' tortilla chips (1.99), Big K diet green tea 12 pk (2.75), Bounty paper towels 8 pk (5.99).

I did also buy cat litter and cat food, which would not be elgible for SNAP benefits, so the total for SNAP is $104.39. I put all the butter in the freezer. I had some pretty killer coupons, too.

My SOLE on SNAP grocery budget toal is $282.82, leaving me $84.18 to spend for the month. I'm not planning to go back to the grocery store the rest of the month, but I will most likely order some food from the Monroe Farm Market and Sandy Creek Farms next week. However, I don't expect it to exceed this budget, or even come close for that matter.

SOLE on SNAP: Days 14-16

2011-10-17T16:20:00.004-04:00

Friday, October 14th
BREAKFAST:
I had a Kashi TLC bar and a hard boiled egg, and a cup of coffee with natural vanilla creamer.
LUNCH:
I had a bunch of tortilla chips and salsa, and coconut water and a diet coke. Jeremy went to Applebee's with my brother for lunch. He had a club sandwich and some beers.
DINNER:
I was at my mom's house, and I made dinner for us. She had a mini ham thawed, so I bake it with some honey on it. I was going to have salad with it, but the salad she bought was a little passed it's prime, and I think not worth picking through to find edible pieces. I made potato and leek soup for dinner also. She had minor outpatient surgery, and was told to eat liquids only, so I thought it would be something she would like. Jeremy had leftover chili with saltines and cheddar cheese.
SNACKS:
I had a handful of BBQ almonds and a cup of coffee with cream. When I got home, Jeremy and I each had a beer while we were watching tv and I had another handful of tortilla chips.
EXERCISE:
I walked on my mom's treadmill for 20 minutes and ran 10 minutes, to burn

I mentioned that I went to my mom's, and I did stop at the Kroger with the good "manager's specials" to pick up some stuff to make dinner at her house. I spent $31.24, but I got A LOT of stuff. I cleaned out the managers specials. Again.

1 quart of Homestead creamery chocolate milk (1.49), 1 pound sliced mushrooms (1.49), 1 pound block of Kroger swiss cheese (3.02), 4 Chobani greek yogurts (.65 each), 16 oz. jar of Private Selection arribita pasta sauce (1.99), 3 lbs of organic potatoes, 3 organic leeks, 1 bottle of water (.50), Santina's tortilla chips (2.00), bag of Kroger salad mix (1.49), Private Selection organic bagged broccoli and califlower (1.49), saltines (.99), a bag of Baked Tostitos
I'm sure there was more, but I can't remember and I don't have my reciept. You get the gist.

Saturday, October 15th
BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch with about 1/3 cup of 2% milk and a hard boiled egg. I also had a cup of coffee and about 1 Tb of Natural Bliss creamer. I don't know what Jeremy had, if anything.
LUNCH:
We both had leftover chili with crackers and shredded cheddar.
DINNER:
I didn't even log this dinner in. We ate out at Vandalia Grille, and it would have been hard to do. We split an order of smoked wings and a basket of sweet potato fries. Jeremy got the Aloha burger, which looked amazing. I got the mushroom and andouille pizza, which was pretty good, but not the best thing I've had there. We each had a beer. I had a gift certificate from Restaurant.com, so dinner was super-affordable.
SNACKS:
I had two small pepperoni rolls from the bake sale at the Junior League fundraiser event I was working at Saturday morning. Also, Saturday evening was a friends surprise birthday party, and I had a piece of cake and a beer at the party.

Sunday, October 16th
BREAKFAST:
I had 1/2 cup of old fashioned oatmeal with a little bit of 2% milk, a handful of frozen blueberries and a Tb of honey. Also, I had two cups of coffee with 1 Tb natural bliss creamer in each cup. Jeremy didn't eat breakfast, but did have a cup of coffee with creamer.
LUNCH:
We shared an Amy's Kitchen cheese pizza, I had about 1.25 ounces of tortilla chips and 3 Tb of humus.
DINNER:
I made venison meatballs with fettucini and arrabiata sauce. The sauce was a jar that I picked up on manager's special. I also had a glass of shiraz.
SNACKS:
I had 3 saltines with 2 Tb of natural peanut butter. Jeremy had some chips and salsa and some diet coke.

I had to include some pics of the fresh pasta I made on my super-fancy pasta drying rack--a cardboard wrapping paper tube on some twine. It does the job and stores in a cabinet easily. The first couple times I ate it, I wasn't a fan of fresh pasta. It took my some time to get the hang of making it, and now I'd take it any day over grocery store dried pasta. I've found that it freezes very well, and actually, you'll get better results if the pasta is frozen and thawed. It's 100 times easier to roll out and cut. I think it must get a littled dried out from the freezing and thawing, even though I package it in 2 serving portions in a Food Saver baggie. I hang it up to dry until I get it all cut since it cooks in less than 5 minutes. You want to put it all in at EXACTLY the same time, or you risk having too done/under done pasta.

EXERCISE: It was a beautiful day, and I walked at a pretty brisk pace for 45 minutes on the track at George Washington High School. I burnt 239 calories, according to my LoseIt app.

SOLE on SNAP: Day 13

2011-10-15T15:40:00.003-04:00

I heart The Splendid Table. Espcially, the cookbook, How to Eat Supper. It's like the concept behind Rachel Ray's 30 Minute Meals, but kicked up a notch. Like 30 minute meals for food snobs. I haven't made many recipes in it, but the ones I have made have been unbelievably delicious. And fast. And easy. I made the 21st Century Mac and Cheese for dinner, and it did not disappoint.

BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of Cheerios and 1/3 cup 2% milk. Jeremy had two toaster strudels and a cup of coffee. Jeremy had toaster strudels.
LUNCH:
I had some taco soup that a coworker brought in to share with the office, and some cheetos. Jeremy's lunch was provided at an event he was working at.
DINNER:
21st Century Mac and Cheese from How to Eat Supper. I halved the recipe. It only took about 20 minutes at the most to assemble, and you bake it about 25 minutes longer. Sadly, this is the only picture I got. Hehehe. It had red pepper flakes and a finely diced red onion, which gave it a bit of an adult edge and a kick. It would be perfect for a cold winter day. I'm definitely going to keep it in the rotation.

SNACKS: I had a greek yogurt and two cups of coffee with powdered creamer in the morning. In the afternoon, I had a small apple and a stick of string cheese. I also had some peanut M&Ms. Seriously, I cannot wait until Halloween is over... And about 3 glasses of red wine and some cheese.

STATS:
Calories: 2,420
Fat: 88.2 g
Sat Fat 35.2 g
Cholesterol 451.5 mg
Sodium 3,425.1 mg
Carbs 249.4 g
Fiber 30.4 g
Sugar 79.6 g
Protein 81.6 g

SOLE on SNAP: Day 12

2011-10-13T10:11:00.001-04:00

I'm doing a little better each day to get back on track. Sometimes it takes baby steps, I guess.

BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of Cheerios with about 1/3 cup of 2% milk. I saw Jeremy getting some money out of his loose change bottle, so I'm guessing he got a biscuit or something on his way to work.
LUNCH:
I didn't pack a lunch for me, so I had to rely on the cafeteria at work, which is a risky move... But I was pleasantly surprised with the baked potato bar. I had a large baked potato with vegetarian chili on it, a little bit of shredded cheddar, and some fresh brocoli and mushrooms from the salad bar. It was pretty filling, and it was only $2.65. Jeremy had leftover wings from BW3 and a salad I packed for him.
DINNER:
We made chili in the crockpot for dinner since I had a meeting and was going to be late getting home. I had one bowl of chili with some saltines. Jeremy had two bowls and also put shredded cheese in his.
SNACKS:
I had coffee with non-dairy dry creamer at work. I also had a greek yogurt, a small apple and a stick of string cheese. Then, the wheels fell off the bus and I had a bunch of chocolate Halloween candy someone brought into the office in the afternoon. I had a Kashi TLC granola bar before my meeting to hold me over until dinner, and I also had a handful of tortilla chips after I ate my chili for dinner because I was still hungry.

STATS:
Calories 2,151
Fat 47.9 g
Sat Fat 19.4 g
Cholesterol 73.5 mg
Sodium 2,570 mg
Carbs 329 g
Fiber 53.3 g
Sugar 108.3 g
Protein 89 g

Not too shabby on the fiber.. I'm sure the beans in the chili on my baked potato and for dinner helped.

Still haven't been back to the store, so my budget is holding steady. I will need to go and grab a few things this weekend for upcoming meals and to get some more stuff like yogurt for lunches.

SOLE on SNAP: Day 11

2011-10-12T16:26:00.003-04:00

I seriously need to turn it around. I'm not eating that healthily/SOLE, which was the whole point of my challenge. The holidays are right around the corner, too, so I need to buckle down on the calories especially.

Speaking of holidays, I pre-ordered my Thanksgiving turkey last week from the Monroe Farm Market. An 18-pounder from Almost Heaven Farm. It's a broad-breasted white, which is not a heritage breed. In fact, its the same breed that you would buy if you bought a Butterball at the grocery store. But it's a pasture raised turkey that has been eating a natural diet of bugs and grubs from the ground instead of scientifically mixed feed designed to get it to grow even more grotesquely fast and large. That's a plus. I bought a heritage turkey a few years ago, but the producer has since gone out of business. It's a shame because I also bought some bacon and sausage from them. It was the best bacon I've bought that is from pasture-raised pigs. Those people knew what they were doing.

BREAKFAST:
I had a packet of instant apple cinnamon oatmeal at work with coffee and dry non-dairy creamer.
LUNCH:
I had a salad with some leftover drunken chicken on it, and some Garden of Eatin' tortilla chips that someone brought into work. Jeremy also had a salad with leftover chicken and some greek yogurt.
DINNER:
We went to BW3's. I had nine wings of various sauces and two Magic Hat #9 beers. I don't know how many Jeremy had, but we ordered 30 wings and brought some home. He also had Magic Hat beer.
SNACKS:
I had some plain greek yogurt and leftover peaches from breakfast weekend before last. I'm probably pushing it with those, but they didn't smell or taste bad. I also had a piece of string cheese and a small apple. Jeremy also had a Kashi TLC bar and a piece of string cheese.
EXERCISE:
I couldn't sleep, so I got up and went to the gym. Yay! But I was soooo tired in the afternoon. At least I got a workout in, though.

STATS: This is going to be scary because of dinner...
Calories 3,072
Fat 98.8 g
Sat Fat 23.4 g
Cholesterol 300.2 mg
Sodium 9,727 mg (HOLY SHIT)
Carbs 301.2 g
Fiber 18.1 g
Sugars 172.4 g
Protein 110.1 g

SOLE on SNAP: Days 8, 9 and 10 Columbus Day weekend

2011-10-11T15:14:00.001-04:00

It was a long weekend. Those are always nice.

On weekends, though, I am generally over my calorie budget. Not a good habit.

Saturday, October 8th

BREAKFAST:
I had 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats, about 1/3 a cup of leftover non-fat dry milk, 1 tsp of turbinado sugar and coffee with natural vanilla creamer. Jeremy had toaster strudels.
LUNCH:
We had the rest of the leftover marinated tuna on foccacia from dinner on Thursday night.
DINNER:
I had a Bertolli Skillet Meal for Two... for one. Yep, I ate the whole thing. It was Shrimp Penne, which is the one lowest in fat. Jeremy had to work on Saturday evening at the Pumpkin Festival, so he got dinner there. I think he had hotdogs from the Lions Club's booth.
SNACKS:
I got really hungry before lunch and I ate about 6 buckeyes that weren't even that good. Wish I'd saved those calories. Not worth it. I also had 1 ounce of Tostitos tortilla chips and about 1/4 cup of humus. And I drank two glasses of red wine while watching tv after Jeremy got home.
EXERCISE:
I did go to the gym Saturday evening (Yay). It was deserted. Which was kinda nice, having the place to myself. I did my usual 40 minute cardio routine. I need to mix it up, but honestly, it's just easy to do the same thing over and over. I also cleaned house pretty agressively, which burns a lot of calories.
STATS:
Calories 1,757 (2,301 total less 544 from exercise)
Fat 77.2g
Sat Fat 14.3g
Sodium 1,789.1 mg (I hardly doubt this is right...)
Carbs 148.3g
Fiber A measly 10.6g
Sugars 49.5g (damn buckeys)
Protein 45.2g

Sunday, October 9th
BREAKFAST:
I got up and made breakfast this morning. One of my favorites, tomato gravy. It. Was. Delicious.

I made this with bacon pieces and fresh tomatoes. I think it's better with canned tomatoes though because they are skinned, and they break up easier. This were still pretty awesome, though. We had it with four frozen Pilsbury biscuits. I also used the last of the dry milk I had mixed up from an earlier recipe.

LUNCH:

We went to visit our respective folks, and I didn't have much for lunch at my mom's. I had some peanut butter and crackers, while I was cooking dinner at her house. Jeremy dropped me off and went onto his parent's house. His mom made meatloaf, rolls, and squash casserole. I had some of the leftovers. They were great.

DINNER:

I made jerk chicken, salmon filets, stuffed sweet peppers and grilled hot peppers at my mom's for me, her and my brother. I contributed some of the ingredients for the topping for the salmon--an 8 oz. can of pineapple and jalepenos. I also contributed a tomato to chop up and put in the stuffed peppers.

EXERCISE:

I did some other chores around the house for my mom like planting bulbs and spreading compost over a flower bed. Burning calories = winning.

STATS

Calories 2,154 (2,432 total less 278 from exercise)

Fat 110.9g

Sat Fat 27.2g

Cholesterol 165.7mg

Sodium 4,065 mg

Carbs 156.8g

Fiber 19g

Sugars 37.1g

Protein 94.3g

Monday, October 10th

BREAKFAST:

I had 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch and about 1/3 cup of 2% milk, with 2 cups of coffee and 2 Tb of natural vanilla creamer. Jeremy slept through breakfast.

LUNCH:

We had grilled cheese sandwiches made from 2 slices each of whole wheat bread, 1 Tb REAL butter (from pasture-raised cows), 1 slice of horseradish cheddar cheese and some pickled tomatoes I made a few weeks ago. I just threw it together, and it was amazing. I need to remember this combo. I got the cheese on "Manager's Special", and it doesn't expire until December. I don't know why it was marked down.

DINNER:

The Hubs cooked dinner--Yay! Drunken chicken with a spice rub, grilled potatoes with blue cheese crumbles. Nothing like coming home to dinner on the table.

SNACKS:

I had a few bites of some of the leftovers Jeremy brought home from his mom and dad's. I had a Junior League meeting, and I didn't eat dinner before I went. So I ate 4 brownies at the meeting. Yeah.

EXERCISE:

We worked outside in the yard from around 1 to 4 pm. My favorite workout. It's nice to get stuff done and get a workout in. I have been wanting to dig up a flower bed in the front of our house that we haven't used since we moved in much, and haul the stone around to the back and expand a flower bed I have now. All that diggin and haulin of stone burnt a shit ton of calories.

STATS:

Calories 2,669

Fat 107.5g

Sat Fat 33.4g

Cholesterol 351.8mg

Sodium 2,558 mg

Carbs 265.5 g

Fiber 25.8 g

Protein 92.4 g

You know, I probably should mention that I take Metamucil every day. It's getting my fiber up. That's one of the most important nutriets for long-term health, I think. One that the study should have emphasized more than potassium.

Now that I'm back to work, hopefully I can get back on track and stay under my calorie budget.

SOLE on SNAP: Day 7

2011-10-11T13:14:00.000-04:00

I stopped at the grocery store yesterday evening for four measly items. And I was hungry. BIG mistake.

I spent $32.91, which isn't bad, considering I got 4 or 5 bags of food. I needed milk, sugar, taco seasoning and sour cream. I had a dentist appointment after work, so I stopped at the Kroger near there. It's smaller than my regular Kroger and doesn't have the selection of organic produce that mine does. But this Kroger has more "manager's special"s than mine does. Call me crazy, but I love getting a good manager's special. Meaning, almost expired and marked down for quick sale. I got a container of field greens ($1.59), fresh broccoli (.99), Lighthouse blue cheese dressing (1.49), 2 greek yogurts (.89 each), and matches (10 small boxes for .59!!!) on manger's special. I bought stuff I knew we'd eat quickly. I also bought 5 avocados, cilantro, 1 lemon, 1 pint of grape tomatoes, club crackers (for an event coming up I need to bring food to), Tostitos, 2 more greek yogurts, and a bottle of water. The bottle of water and bag of Tostitos were for the drive home. Like I said, I wrecked my calorie count yesterday, and that is also Reason #372 why you're not supposed to go grocery shopping when you're hungry...

BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch and 1/3 cup of 2% milk for breakfast. Jeremy had the 2 biscuits that were leftover from last weekend and honey.
LUNCH:
I had a big salad made from what I bought at the store last night with blue cheese crumbles and sliced almonds, plus radishes and a bell pepper that I grew. I also had 2 pieces of Italian bread with dipping oil and parmesan that we have a work.
DINNER: Bar food night at the Jones's!!! 2 lbs of pasture-raised chicken wings from Almost Heaven Farm via the Monroe Farm Market. We used my brother's trick for sauce: 1 cup of Sweet Baby Ray's (the BEST BBQ sauce. Period.) Honey Chipoltle and mixed in some Frank's Hot Sauce. We also made potato skins with potatos from my father-in-law's garden, crumbled bacon from pasture-raised pigs at Sandy Creek Farms, shredded cheddar cheese and Kroger brand natural sour cream. (Different from regular kroger brand sour cream. Look at the ingredients. This one has three.)
SNACKS: I had a hard boiled egg and a plain greek yogurt with left over peaches from the big breakfast last weekend. I also had a small apple and piece of string cheese.

SOLE on SNAP: Day 6

2011-10-07T14:02:00.000-04:00

So, what does the University of Washington study say we should be getting in a day, as far as nutrients?
Potassium: 3,500 miligrams
Fiber: 25 grams
Vitamin D: 10 micrograms
Calcium: 1000 miligrams

Although, not mentioned in the study, the fitness calculator I use, Lose It!, says I should have 1,701 calories per day. The recommendations are individualized based on your goals and caloric requirements. Sodium is another nutrient I pay particular attention to. The American Heart Association advises that adults should not exceed 2,300 miligrams of sodium daily.

I have the Lose It! app on my iphone, and I've found it HUGELY successful in making me aware how much I was eating. I think I have a better idea about portion sizes now, and how many calories are in certain foods. I've been using it for about 2 years, and I actually weigh less right now that I did two years ago by a few pounds. Of course, everyone goes up and down from time to time (holidays...). It's not for everyone, but it has certainly helped me.

BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of Cheerios with 1/3 cup of 2% milk and 1 tsp of turbinado sugar (raw sugar, basically). Jeremy didn't eat breakfast.
LUNCH:
I cleaned out the fridge for my lunch. I sauted 2 patty pan squash that REALLY needed to be eaten or they were going to go bad with a red bell pepper. I grew the red bell pepper and my father in law gave me the squash. I added 1 tb minced garlic and a splash of white wine, then I added half a jar of spaghetti sauce leftover from last week. Also, a coworker brought in a loaf of Italian bread, and I had a couple pieces of that with some olive oil for dipping. Jeremy had a Michaelina's frozen entree, and some trail mix.
DINNER: This is what I had for dinner. It. Was. Amazing.

Marinated tuna on foccacia. It's a take on a a Martha Stewart recipe, but I had to improvise. Charleston Bread Company, where I buy specialty bread, didn't have any baguettes yesterday, so I took one of their salt and pepper foccacia loafs. I think it actually turned out better.

The one downer about this dish is that it isn't SOLE. Sure, the lemon and onion were organic, and the bread was from a local bakery, but the star of the dish, the tuna is pretty much the opposite of SOLE, and I just now realized it. Last month, I bought this canned chunk light tuna for something else I was making and had some leftover. I just looked it up on Seafood Watch, and the site says to "Avoid" chunk light canned tuna. Damn. I have the Seafood Watch app on my phone, so there's no reason I should have bought it. Actually, canned albacore tuna is a "Best Choice" and that's what I should have bought. Lesson learned...

SNACKS: I had a Fage greek yogurt, a small apple and some string cheese. I also had a cup of coffee with powdered creamer at work. Jeremy had a greek yogurt, some BBQ flavored almonds and string cheese. I had quite a bit of Tostitos tortilla chips, which wrecked my calorie count for the day, too.
EXERCISE: No exercise today. Sigh.

STATS:
Calories 2,152
Fat 114.3g
Sat Fat 21.2g
Cholesterol 48.2g
Sodium 3,416mg (HOLY SHIT)
Carbs 227.5g
Fiber 38.1g
Sugars 79.8g
Protein 71.1g
Potassium 2,387 mg (way lower than usual)

SOLE on SNAP: Day 5 Back on Track

2011-10-06T14:38:00.000-04:00

Finally, I am back on my regular routine after a long weekend with a flurry of activity, and I promise to start including nutritional information for the "healthy eating" part of this project.

BREAKFAST:
The short ribs were still in my belly from last night, so I had a cup of coffee and creamer for breakfast. Jeremy had 2 toaster strudels and coffee/creamer.
LUNCH:
We both had salad with grape tomatoes, mushrooms (leftover from last night), craisins (free in a box of Smart Start I bought last month), blue cheese crumbles, sliced almonds and salad dressing. I also had the rest of the fingerling potatoes. I had water and Jeremy had a bottle of Big-K brand diet green tea.
DINNER:
Hamburger Helper with ground venison. Not my proudest effort of SOLE on SNAP, but at least the ground venison is SOLE.
SNACKS:
We both had a Chobani yogurt and a Sargento cheese snack. I had an apple, and Jeremy also had some BBQ-flavored whole almonds. When I got home from work, I had a Kashi TLC bar because I was super hungry. I also had a stout beer (leftover from the short ribs) while we watched our tv shows. Jeremy had a couple Miller Lights.
EXERCISE:
I decided to forego the gym because the weather was BEAUTIFUL. I figured I'd go to GW High School and walk at the track, but instead I worked in the yard cleaning up brush from the bushes we just cut out beside our house. (400 calories for 1.5 hours of work)

MY STATS:
Calories 2,052 (less 400 for the exercise = 1,651)
Fat 44.4 g
Sat Fat 7.8
Cholesterol 27.8 mg
Sodium 2,994.1 mg (yikes)
Carbs 251.7 g
Fiber 22 g
Sugars 91.3 g
Protein 128.2 g
Potassium at least 2,399 (however, potassium is not listed on the nutrition facts for the hamburger helper or TLC bar. University of Washington, if it's so important why isn't it listed??? And how can we be sure we're getting enough if it's not listed???)

I should also mention that we stopped at the grocery store yesterday to buy those mushrooms. They were organic and they were $1.49 plus tax on "manager's special" aka marked down for quick sale. No problema for us. And, on Monday, I bought a bushel of tomatoes to can and a Long Island Cheese winter squash at the Capitol Market. I spent $16.48. That brings my food total for the month to $114.28.

I have realized that I need to do a listing of what I had on hand before I went to the store this month. Otherwise, how would you know that I'm really sticking to my not spending more han $367 per month for the project? I realize I'm already a few days in, but I'm gonna do that. I'll post an inventory of what I had before I started the project to keep myself honest.

SOLE on SNAP: Day 4 and "Pssst. How to be sexy, men."

2011-10-05T14:17:00.000-04:00

Did you know that I was tweeting with The Pioneer Woman last night? Of course, when I say "tweeting" I mean, I tweeted her and she responded. But still!!!! The Pioneer Woman responded to my tweet! Deep breath, Jennelle.

I just love her blog. And her tv show. For the record, I was a follower of her blog before the tv show came out. She is so witty, that Pioneer Woman! Anyway, last night I watched Saturday's show that I recorded. And as I'm watching it, I tweet to her "@thepioneerwoman I love your show... Especially when your husband is on it. Damn girl, he is a gorgeous man." I know, I know. It's shameless, but it's hard to beat a man in jeans that fit just right and cowboy boots. Oh yeah, and who cooks, too. She responded "Aww, thanks Jennelle. I kinda like the guy." Well, I'll just say I can see why.

Which got me thinkin. About men who cook, that is. As it turned out, my husband cooked for me last night, too. And it was wonderful. What is it about men who cook for their women? When are the rest of them (mine and The Pioneer Woman's excluded) going to figure out that the way to a woman's heart is also through her stomach???

Today was a state holiday: election day. But that's a whole other story. At any rate, the Hubs and I had the day off. We went to lunch with friends who recently moved away, who were doing business in Charleston today. It was great to see them and catch up.

BREAKFAST:
I had 1 cup of Kashi Go Lean Crunch with skim milk. Jeremy didn't eat anything. We both had coffee and creamer.

LUNCH: We went to O'Skee's in St. Albans for lunch. I'd never been there before, but Jeremy eats there with his co-workers occassionally. I mentioned we were meeting some peeps for lunch. I hardly ever order a burger at a restaurant, but this place is known for them, so I figured "when in Rome..." I ordered the blue cheese burger with fries. The burger was exceptional. The menu described it as a 6 oz. angus beef patty with blue cheese crumbes, bacon banana peppers and buffalo mayo. It was pretty delicious--better than average for a restaurant. We waited 45 minutes to order, because they were out of beef and the delivery guy was supposed to be there around 1:30 p.m. The fries were steak fries. Jeremy had the Cowboy burger and fries, which was two patties with bacon and jalepenos on it. He said it was pretty good, but hot.

DINNER: We had one of our favorite meals for dinner, stout braised short ribs. I know I've written about them at lenght here. They won me a cook-off at my office, and we served them for Christmas dinner with my dad last year. They are a crowd favorite and easy, too. We've ordered short ribs at restaurants before, and we agree that this recipe is the BEST. Jeremy pretty much cooked the whole meal. I made the rub and put it on the short ribs and peeled carrots. That was it.

2 pounds of grass-fed beef short ribs

Two and a half hours later. Hello, lover...

With the short ribs, Jeremy made some fingerling potatoes that I had bought a LONG time ago for something else. So long ago, in fact, they had a few bad spots in them we had to cut around. He sliced them in half and boiled them until almost tender, then heated some olive oil in a skillet and put the potatoes cut-side down in it to give them a little crisp. He threw in judicious amounts of garlic, fresh parsely, a little tiny bit of white wine, mushrooms and salt and pepper, and let the whole thing cook about 10 minutes longer.

I sat down to dinner and took one bite, and I swear the world stopped turning for a split second and everything was silent. It was that good. Jeremy pretty much owns this recipe for short ribs. Add a pint of stout and it's a perfect fall meal. It was mostly local/organic, too. The short ribs were from Sandy Creek Farm in Ravenswood, The leeks and potatoes were organic, but not local. The tomatoes were from Crihfield Farms in Jackson County. The beef stock was homemade from last year. I omitted the celery yesterday. My mom grew the garlic. The parsely was from a co-worker's garden, and I grew the carrots. The stout was Sierra Nevada, from Chico, California, I believe, and definitely not local.

I'm serious, if you've never tried short ribs, get some! This is the time of year when farmers are butchering beef, so get it fresh now. What I made was the last package of beef that I bought last year, so I needed to make it soon. Braising is perfect for this cut of meat, because it just kinda melts into this loveliness in the oven over the low and slow heat. And braising is practically fool-proof. The hardest part of this recipe is smelling it while it cooks in the oven.

I love it when my love cooks for me. I certainly don't mind KP duty after a meal like this.

Hey, guys out there! Take it from a woman. If you want to score big points with your lady, cook her dinner sometime. Find a recipe and master it. It doesn't have to be a difficult fancy recipe. Just own it. There's nothing sexier than a man confidently cooking in the kitchen (grilling something on the grill doesn't count).

SOLE on SNAP: Day 3

2011-10-04T00:10:00.001-04:00

Today, I stayed home playing hookie. Tomorrow is a state holiday, as it is election day, so I have a nice 4 day weekend. I did not keep track of my calories today, as I promised myself I would do for this project. Sigh... I need to take this more seriously, but tomorrow, I know I most likely track my calories either because we are meeting some friends for lunch.

BREAKFAST: I had 1/2 cup of old fashioned oats with a tsp of turbinado sugar, a handful of blueberries (frozen from last summer) and about 1/3 cup of milk. I had 2 cups of coffee with creamer.
LUNCH: I ate my leftovers from my Mexican meal yesterday at Mi Patron. I ordred vegetarian fajitas, and I swear, I think they were better leftover than they were fresh. I didn't have any tortilla shells left, but I had threw some tortilla chips in the doggie bag. I grabbed a few tortilla chips from a bag I had open here at home to go with them.

DINNER: I made Plumped Ginger Caramel Shrimp for dinner from The Splendid Table's How to Eat Supper. I LOVE THAT COOKBOOK. It is all geared toward weeknight dinners and it is normal recipes dialed up a notch. Tonight was no exception. It was quick and really effin good. I had a bag of Key West shrimp in the freezer. I think this was a recipe I had planned for last month, so I bought everything I needed for it last month. Not fair, for the project, I know, I know. But I guarantee you, there will be menus I don't get to this month that get pushed back to next month. I just always happens. As a matter of fact, there already has been. I didn't make the salmon I planned for last Friday.

For the ginger caramel shrimp, I used garlic from my mom. She grows monster garlic and gives me a lot of what she grows. I really like it because the cloves are huge and very mild. You can use a lot and it isn't overpowering. I also used ginger, which I bought last month. I served it with brown rice, which I had in the pantry.

SOLE on SNAP: Days 1 and 2

2011-10-03T23:53:00.000-04:00

We were busy over the weekend. I knew I wasn't going to be cooking dinner because of our plans. The whole eating HEALHTY on a budget may have been lost over the weekend. But this weekend wasn't our normal routine, so I'm getting back on track through the week.
Saturday:
BREAKFAST: I got up and fixed a big breakfast, which I don't do often. I made each of us an egg over-easy. I also cut up 5 small new potatoes for fried potatoes. Jeremy's dad gave us the potatoes from his garden last summer. I made 4 frozen Pillsbury biscuits. Yes, they are better than the one's I make from scratch. I have two open bags in the freezer, and I notice they were "Best By July 2011"... Yeah, we don't eat those that often. I also made some peaches like you'd make country apples for breakfast. I canned peaches last summer, and I was actually going to throw these out if I didn't use them soon. I added a Tb of butter to them and 2 tsp of turbinado sugar.

Everything was stuff I had on hand, with exception of the eggs. Last month, when I was at the grocery store, I found organic butter made from pastured cows on close out a half a pound for $1.61. You bet your sweet ass I bought all that Krogers had on the shelf. Butter freezes well. So, I had plenty of butter. If I only need a little bit of sugar for something, I use turbinado sugar. It's unprocessed. If I need more than half a cup for something like baking, I use plain ole refined white sugar. I buy the turbinado in bulk from Amazon dot com. I don't remember buying the biscuits, but it must've been a while back since they were outdated. The peaches were given to me by my mom's friend Melody who has a farm. I canned several pints last summer, and this was the last pint.

We both had coffee and creamer with our breakfast. We have a Keurig coffeemaker. I buy the k-cups from amazon.com. It's the cheapest place I've found, but the price has gone up a bit the last couple times I've ordered, I've noticed. Still, it's a little luxury that is kinda impractical. But we like it and have money in our grocery budget for it. I get it for around 55 cents per cup, and I only drink it on the weekends. Jeremy drinks it occassionally through the week.

LUNCH: We had leftovers from dinner. I had a leftover squash fritter and caprese. Jeremy had a leftover piece of pizza and caprese.

DINNER: We went to a wedding of some friends, and there was a full meal. It was delish. Actually, the reception was at the same place we had our reception. Some of the guests were also at our wedding and we reminisced. Can you believe we've been married five years?!? The bride and groom had a table set up with several types of candy and cute little baggies and ties for the favors. Yeah, I ate more candy in one sitting than I have in a LONG time. I know, I know, you're supposed to take it with you, but I started picking at it at the reception, and it was like a heroin addict with the candy corn. I just. Couldn't. Stop.

Jeremy's mom's birthday was Saturday, and everyone's schedule worked out so that we took here out to eat on Sunday. We drove up to pick up my in-laws Sunday morning, and they had breakfast ready. Biscuits with fried squirrel and squirrel gravy. It's squirrel season now, and Jeremy's uncle (who works with his dad) killed a couple and gave them to his dad. I haven't had squirrel since I was really little. My Pawpaw Ramsey loved to squirrel hunt, and I don't think I've had any since he died more than 20 years ago. It was nice to remember him by that. I always tell Jeremy that I wish he could've met him. They could have told huntin' stories.

My niece is a cheerleader for the peewee football team, and she had a game Saturday afternoon in Summersville. We watched her cheer at the game, and shopped around Summersville a little before taking my mother-in-law to Mi Patron Mexican restaurant for a late lunch/dinner. We didn't eat anything else.

Defense! Defense! Push 'em back!

She's adorable. Also, she's four. Seems like yesterday she was born...

SOLE on SNAP: The day before day 1

2011-10-03T22:59:00.000-04:00

I went to the grocery store. It was my "big" trip for the month. My month of eating healthy and SOLE on a food stamps (SNAP) budget. I spent $109. SNAP wouldn't cover some of it. I'll deduct that off. Here's what I bought:

cat litter 5.89 (not eligible with SNAP)
cat food 8.89 (again, not eligible with SNAP)
Bertolli Shrimp Penne Skillet Meal 5.99
Kroger black olives 1.28
Magic Hat IPA 6 pack 7.99 (not eligible for SNAP)
Freschetta Simply Inspired Pizza 4.99
Kroger spicy vegetable juice 2.29
2 bottles of Kroger salad dressing 2.50 (1.25 each)
Kroger kidney beans .75
Kroger kidney beans .75
Starbucks coffee (for my office) 7.99
3 boxes of Hamburger Helper 4.83 (1.61 each)
Homestead Creamery Half and Half 2.49
+ a deposit for the glass bottle 2.00
Kroger Neufatchel Cheese 1.34
Athenos Humus (large) 4.49
Kroger bow-tie pasta 1.11
Sun Luck Hoisin Sauce 2.89
Kroger Value red pepper flakes 1.00
4 Fage yogurts 4.00 (1.00 each)
8 Chobani yogurts 8.00 (1.00 each)
organic red onions 3.49
organic white onions 3.49
Private Selection horseradish cheddar cheese slices 2.19 (manager's special)
Private Selection organic fresh sage 1.99
Private Selection organic spring mix 3.42
Private Selection Genoa Salami 4.99
organic lemon .46
Private Selection organic grape tomatoes 3.49
Kroger 100% whole wheat bread 1.19
2 boxes of Pilbury Toaster Strudels 3.98 (1.99 each)
Coffeemate Natural Bliss coffee creamer 2.59

I had coupons for: 1.25 off the Bertolli Skillet meal; 1.50 off the Freschetta Pizza; 1.50 off the Coffeemate creamer; .75 off the humus; 1.50 off the Starbucks; .55 off the salami; and .75 off 3 Hamburger Helpers.

Subtract $24.13 for items that would not be covered by SNAP, plus tax of 6%, and that brings my total to $85.13. I'm not sure if SNAP would cover the $2 deposit I paid on the milk bottle, but I didn't include it in the items substracted.

I also spent $11.14 on Thursday at the Monroe Farm Market for 2 dozen eggs and a 3-lb bag of apples. So, for the month, that makes my total spent on groceries $96.27 so far.

Some of the items I bought, I'm not very proud of. When I was checking out, I was noticing how much processed food I bought. The Hubs was with me, and he requested the Toaster Strudels for breakfast, and also the IPA. I fell into the coupon trap for the Hamburger Helper, frozen pizza and Bertolli Skillet meal. They were really cheap with coupons. Which is exactly the opposite of what I should be doing for this project.

Not to start backpeddaling, but we don't eat those things on a regular basis. The last time I bought 3 Hamburger Helpers with a coupon, it took us 6 months to eat them all. Anyway, I am going to try to keep these purchases on my mind this month, and avoid eating them this month, if possible. I did put Hamburger Helper on my menu for the month though. I was thinking that we need to use the rest of last year's ground deer meat before hunting season comes in again this year, and we eat it in Hamburger Helper. Maybe that mitigates some of the bad part of Hamburger Helper. However, it still is RIDICULOUSLY high in sodium and full of chemical artificial colors and flavors, as is most processed food.

Also, on the topic of processed food, I have been a little wary of bottled salad dressing. I started keeping a food diary about 2 years ago, mostly to loose weight, which was incredibly enlightening. It tracks your daily nutrients (which will come into play for the project, but more on that later), and I couldn't figure out how I was getting 4.500 mg of sodium (!!!!) some days. I do eat a MOSTLY whole food diet, afterall. Well, it turned out the culprit was the bottled salad dressing that I was eating on my salad just about everyday for lunch! I do look at labels when I am buying salad dressing now, and get the one that is lower in calories and fat AND sodium now. At home, I like to make my own salad dressing by just whisking some good EVOO and balsamic vinegar together, but at work, that's not as practical. Especially since I do count my calories. I don't know what they put in the stuff, but the store-bought bottled dressing is at least 2/3 the calories of the same amount of EVOO and balsamic. I have been reluctant to eat the homemade more because every calorie counts when you only have 1,700 for a day. A 50-calorie difference between the two is a big deal for me.

SOLE on SNAP: No easy answers

2011-09-30T11:16:00.000-04:00

The more I research for the SOLE on SNAP project, the more I am realizing this is an issue that has many layers of complexity.

This article just created like 10 more questions in my head, that I don't have the answers to.
http://www.grist.org/list/2011-09-27-people-know-how-to-eat-better-they-just-cant-afford-it

Frankly, I don't think anyone has the answers to this issue.

One thing that is becomming clear to me is that the solution to the problem most likely won't be the same from place to place. Sure, it's easy for me to visualize how I can eat for a month on $367. No sweat. But I have a car. A grocery store is less than 3 miles from my house. The farmer's market I buy a lot of food from conveniently delivers my weekly order to a church parking lot that I pass on my way home from work. Less than 2 miles from where I work, and less than 3 miles from my home is another farmer's market, that I frequent.

What about the people who live in a "food desert?" What if there isn't a farmer's market nearby? Or what if there isn't a grocery store nearby or near public transportation? The deck is stacked against you. That's what.

I'm going to try to keep these factors in mind as I get through the month of October. Hopefully, I come out the other side gaining some perspective and maybe teaching some of you along the way that there is hope.

Not to get all fluffly on you, but this is a public health issue. I see it in my work when I read about healthcare costs as they relate to state budgets. To me, the reasons why this is so important are right there in black and white (and most recently red) numbers. The food revolution is gaining some momentum, but it's still early in the battle. The food revolution needs to address and overcome the criticisms (some legitimate, some natsamuch) to continue to move forward.

Sometimes I get so sad when I see these criticisms reported in the media and on social media. Everyone has a right to voice their opinions. And many people are reluctant to embrace changes. Especially when it comes to food. Food might be something that you don't give much of a sideways thought to, but people have very deep emotions about their food. It's something that every human needs to survive. Which is why these issues seem to polarize people so starkly. I just hope that one day, we all look back on this time as much healthier adults raising healthy children in a thriving economy, and realize it was a tough path, but worth every step.

SOLE on SNAP: Some background reading.

2011-09-29T16:11:00.000-04:00

source: Myplate.gov

I mentioned in my first SOLE on SNAP post, that I had had enough when I read about a new study that found that meeting the recommendations of Myplate.gov would be more expensive. For the past couple years, I just get disappointed when I hear people say the food revolution is elitist. Or that eating healthy is just too expensive. Such statements conjure up images of an urbanite trolling around town in a Range Rover to the specialty butcher shop to get some grass fed organic lamb meat for a bazillion dollars per pound. From where I sit, that just isn't accurate.

I was doing some searches about the topic of eating healthier being more expensive. I think those are the exact words I used in the search, and I got a ton of hits.

This one is just fraught with contractions in its message:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44013462/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/
First, the headline proclaims "Healthy eating adds $380 to yearly grocery bill"!!!! (Exclamations are mine...) However, buried down at the bottom, the article does talk about the nutrient that will cost this $380 to bring up to the recommendations is potassium. And that the cost is likely so high because people assume the only way to get more potassium is to eat a lot of fruits and veggies. This is true. Fruits and veggies are extremely high in potassium, and just about everyone could benefit from adding more fuits and veggies to their diet. The article does point out that there could be more cost effective ways to get potassium in one's diet, but doesn't mention what those sources might be.

I have one for ya. Coffee.

When I got the idea to do this project after I read about the study, I started tracking my own potassium intake. I was surprised to find out that two cups of coffee, which is what I drink on an average day, has 261 grams. This is like eating half a piece of fruit. Apparently the government's guidelines recommend hitting 3,500 grams of potassium every day. This is no doubt a challenge for some. But my point is that there are some unexpected ways to get potassium. I'm not advocating drinking a whole pot of coffee just to hit the 3,500, but you don't need to be eating fruit salad at every meal either. If you load up on one kind of food just to get a specific nutrient, you'll be lacking in another. The idea is to eat a balanced diet that gives you adequate amounts of all the necessary nutriets.

And, what risk does a potassium deficiency pose anyway? It's not like a huge crisis you are hearing about on the news: The Great American Potassium Deficiency. I suspect its not terribly threatening, or more food would be fortified with potassium, like so many other nutrients. Bing tells me that more often than not, there are no symptoms. A potassium deficiency can contribute to high blood pressure, however, but so can stress and excessive sodium. Also, symptoms can include cramps, constipation, fatigue and irritability. In most cases, these aren't life threatening.

My search for news articles about the study seems to give me hits of the same AP story over and over again, which ran on August 4, 2011. However, the topic goes back a few years.

Here is a story from 2008 that points out that eating healthier is more expensive than eating junk food.
http://cyndi-a.suite101.com/eating-healthy-is-expensive-a49494

Here is a story from 2007, that cites a University of Washington study that tracked the prices of food and found that healthy food is more expensive than junk food:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/a-high-price-for-healthy-food/

The point I'm trying to drive home here is that, yes, SOME healthy food is more expensive than junk food. I am not even quantifing the hidden costs or indirect costs (I'll get into that some other time) of health care costs associated with a poor diet and environmental costs associated with the commercial production of subsidy crops that eventually become most junk food products. I'm talking straight price verses price. But I speculate that the flaw in the studies is that they are simply looking at the prices of these foods in the grocery store at any given time.

Sure, if you go to the grocery store in August and compare the cost of fresh asparagus (flown from Argentina) and a package of snack cakes ounce for ounce, obviously, the asparagus is going to be substantially more. But what if you went to a farmers market in September and bought a box of bushel cucumbers for $5 (like I did) and compared it to the cost of a bag of chips ounce for ounce? I think there's no question the cucumbers are cheaper and you get A LOT more traction out of those than you do a bag of chips. If you eat a suggested serving size of the chips everyday, how long does that bag of chips last? A week, maybe? But you could eat a fresh cucumber every day for a week as a snack instead, and STILL have more than enough left over to make a batch of pickles, that would last you months. You could literally eat on those cucumbers for the next six months.

Project update: I came up with a name and a little intro into the planning process.

2011-09-28T11:28:00.000-04:00

Oh, SNAP!

I couldn't resist.

I mentioned earlier this week that I cooked up a project for this blog. The Hubs and I were going to eat on what would be the amount of SNAP benefits for two adults for the entire month of October.

I knew I needed a catchy name. But I'm not good at thinking up those sorts of things. That's my disclaimer. It's kinda cheesy: "SOLE on SNAP."

I'm a big fan of acronyms, you know. SOLE is jargon for "Sustainably, Organic, Local, Ethical." Those are food principles I try to live by. I don't always adhere to them perfectly, but I certainly strive to. Of course, SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as "food stamps."

So now that I have a name, I wanted to talk a little bit about how I'm preparing for the project.

I started out by doing what I do every month. And, let me just say, I know I'm a little type A when it comes to this. But this is just what I do.

I go grocery shopping on or about the 28th of every month. Why? Well, because my credit card billing cycle starts over on that day. To be honest, my credit card is usually on "lock down" for about the last week of the billing cycle. It is what it is.

About a week before I go grocery shopping, I start thinking about what I'd like to make for dinner next month. I take inventory of what I have in the freezer/pantry/larder that I can use. I flip through some of my favorite cookbooks to see what strikes my fancy. And I think about what's in season at the farmer's market. I make a list of about 20 or 22 dinners, based on all this inventory, cookbook perusing, and cravings. I've been doing this for more than a year, and I've determined I only need between 20 and 24 dinners for the entire month, based upon our eating schedule.

As I make a list of the dinners I want to make, I also make a store list, adding things that are in the recipes that I will need to buy. And of course, adding the things that I buy on a regular basis like yogurt and lunch stuff.

After I have my list, I print off a blank calendar from outlook. I look at my schedule for the month, and mark off the days I already know I won't cook. Then, I fill in the dates with the dinners. I try to make it varied, i.e. not having fish twice in one week, etc. I also take into account evenings that I have meetings or if I expect to be working late, and try to schedule crock pot dinners or something that I know Jeremy won't mind cooking. The final product looks something like this.

I leave a few days open for spur of the moment meals and things like that. We do eat dinner out about once a week, and we usually visit either both or one set of parents on the weekend, and we'll have dinner at their house.

Now, I'm ready to shop. I do try to make one big shopping trip per month. I know that I'll need to go back, hopefully only one more time in the month to get things like milk and a few odds and ends. If I have something on my list for a meal late in the month that is perishable, I'll usually hold that off until the second run to the grocery store. I also order from the Monroe Farm Market, which delivers every other Thursday. I usually get eggs once per month, and maybe some meat or vegetables, depending on what's offered by the market. I also have my "Delicious Potager", from which I get some vegetables and herbs too. (It's still going strong, by the way. I planted arugula Monday, and yesterday I picked some peppers and radishes.)

I would say the whole process of flipping through cookbooks, making a list of menus, making a store list and filling out the calendar takes 3 or 4 hours. But I don't do it all in one sitting. In the evenings when I sit down to watch tv with Jeremy, I might grab a couple cookbooks and flip through them. Or sometimes when I'm eating breakfast, I am thinking about what I'll make for dinner and adding menus to the list. The hardest part is filling out the calendar, because I have to think about "are we eating too much red meat this week? are we going to get burnt out on meatless meals this month?" and I have to take into account my busy schedule. (Seriously, I need to drop some committments... Junior League, Eastern Star, serving on the session at church... It's getting out of hand.)

I can get my shopping done in an hour or less, and I try to go on Sunday afternoon, or an evening through the week, if that is when the 28th falls. One thing that saves a huge amount of time at the grocery store is making a good list. I am pretty familiar with my grocery store, and after I get my store list done based on the menus, I make a new store list, with the items listed in the order I come to them in the store. Like I said. I'm type A. I also write down if I have a coupon for the item. I do coupon, but I'm not an "Extreme Couponer."

So, I know this post is already REALLY long, and probably boring, but there are a few loose ends I need to tie up for the project.

I'm still not really sure how to count the stuff I already have in the freezer/pantry/larder. We have quite a bit of chicken in the freezer, as late summer is the time of year to butcher chickens. I bought a lot of it from the farmer's market in July and August, when it was available. I'm still mulling that one over, and I'll figure something out.

And I'd still like to talk to someone who has formerly received or is currently receiving SNAP benefits, just to ask some general questions and get some perspective. I WILL NOT use any names on this blog. I think that the project would have a little more credibility if I could get that perspective from someone. At any rate, I'm moving forward. And excited to get this thing started.

A project.

2011-09-26T16:08:00.001-04:00

I've come up with an idea for a project on this blog. It's a "challenge", similar to the ones I've done before.

For the month of October, Jeremy and I are going to eat on what would be the amount of SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as "food stamps") benefits for two adults.

I get so tired of hearing that eating sustainably/healthy/locally/all the above is too expensive for lower and middle income families. Or that the food revolution is elitist. It's just not, from my perspective. As a matter of fact, I've spent less at the grocery store on average monthly than I did two years ago before I really started eating conscientiously.

I've said it once, and I'll say it again. It's not more expensive to eat sustainably/locally/healthier, but it does take more time and planning.

Last month, I read something that was the straw that broke the camel's back.

WebMD reported a recent study that in order to meet the new recommendations of the new Myplate.gov, Americans would have to pony up 10% more of their food budget. Here's the link: http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20110804/study-healthy-eating-costs-more.

If you read the story closely, those who "spent the least on food, and average of $6.77 a day, were also the furthest from the goverment's daily guidelines of 3.500 milligrams of potassium, 25 grams of daily fiber, 10 micrograms of vitamin D, and 1,000 milligrams of calcium. On average, they were getting around 2.391 milligrams of potassium, 16 grams of fiber, 5 micrograms of vitamin D, and 854 milligrams of calcium."

Now, call me crazy, but I think those numbers aren't too shabby, if we're looking at the big picture. While it would be great if people were getting more fiber, arguably the immediate goal of the Myplate.gov was awareness. This is how much and what you SHOULD be eating at every meal. I think it was universally agreed upon that the former USDA dietary guidelines were hopelessly confusing.

A Bing search for words similar to those in the title of the study reveals at least a half a dozen more similar stories.

In case you're wondering, for a household of two adults, SNAP benefits would total $367 per month. When I told Jeremy this, his response was "Jesus! We'll eat like kings next month!" That pretty much sums it up. My average grocery haul for the month (including farmers market) averages around $300 to $325.

So, I'm going on about my business as usual. And I'm going to eat healthy and write about it. And about how much it costs and things like that. For your reading pleasure.

There are a few kinks I am trying to iron out as of yet. For instance, do I include things I have in my pantry/freezer in the budget, and how do I assign them a value? Especially if they were free, i.e. from my personal vegetable garden or if its deer meat Jeremy killed last winter? And, I need a catchy title for the challenge. Any ideas? I'm not really sure about all that yet, but the clock starts on Oct. 1st. Stay tuned.

The apple (or pear/tomato/blueberry) doesn't fall far from the tree.

2011-09-19T15:02:00.000-04:00

I might have mentioned on here before that I have fond memories of canning tomatoes with my mom when I was little.

(Truth be told, and I'm sure my mom would agree, that a more accurate account of canning tomatoes with her when I was little sounded something like this: "It's hot. I'm bored. This is stupid. How much longer do I have to help? When can I go outside?" Funny how time makes things more nostalgic...)

At any rate, I was at her house on Saturday, and we were making sweet pickles. I had to make several trips to the basement to get canning supplies or odds and ends that were needed during the process. At some point, it all hit home. "Wow," I thought, "I wish my larder looked like this."

She's got tomatoes, pears, hot pepper jelly, apple sauce, blueberry jam and chutney, salsa, pickles, and weiners and peppers.

She's a old pro (but not really old, right, Mom? haha) when it comes to canning. I have a pretty good grasp on hot water canning, but pressure canning still makes me nervous, even after taking a class the local extension offered. Last weekend, we canned hot weiners and peppers in the pressure canner. I kept asking questions and second guessing myself, so I'm glad she was there to give me a refresher. She used to always do these in a hot water bath, but after taking the extension class, decided she really should be pressure canning them because of the meat. She's pressure canned two batches and had a handful of quarts not seal because they run over in the pressure canner--something she never had trouble with when she used the water bath. So, she's decided to go back to her tried and true ways of doing those. Sometimes the new way of doing things has it's drawbacks, I guess.

I'm so glad that my mom taught me to can. I really enjoy doing it, actually. It makes eating local whole foods so much easier and economical, and it allows you to stretch what's in season now through the winter. And, it makes me feel a connection to the past. On the top shelves of my mom's larder (and I should have gotten a picture) are several half gallon jars, which are almost impossible to find now. Along with those half gallon jars are a few jars of canned goods that my granny canned when she was alive. Of course, they aren't any good to eat now, but It's just nice to see something like that now that I'm carrying on the tradition.

After all, one of Michael Pollan's food rules is to "Eat like your granny." I truly do.

Move over Emeril. Michael Mina is in the house.

2011-09-14T15:20:00.000-04:00

So, the Hubs and I just got back from a little jaunt to Vegas. It's our most favorite place to visit, and boy did we have a good time. Probably too good a time. But what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right?

Except for the pics of this piece of fabulous animal flesh. My apologies to the vegetarians.

Forgive the picture quality, it was an iPhone in a dimly lit restaurant. But it could be the best steak I've ever eaten.

Before we went, I picked up a couple gift certificates from Restaurant.com to use. Mandalay Bay has a lot of their restaurants listed, and I got one for StripSteak.

You might have heard that Vegas is a new food mecca. All the celebrity chefs are opening restaurants there, and all the one's I've visited have not dissapointed. So, when we go to Vegas, the Hubs and I always joke that we put more planning into where we're going to eat than anything else. I did lots and lots of research on Yelp before deciding on this one.

The thing on the yelp reviews that caught my attention was the "amuse bouche" of duck fat fries. I put "amuse bouche" in parenthesis because (according to the official definition on wikipedia) its traditionally a single bite. And these were a pretty hefty portion for FREE. Yes, free. Like the basket of bread some places bring you before your meal. StripSteak brings you a tray of duck fat fries. That's how they roll. There were 3 cups of fries with different seasonings and three dipping sauces. We couldn't pick a favorite between the black truffle oil-sprinkled fries with black truffle oil aioli or the parsley fries with the ginger ketchup. Both were mind-blowingly good. (Hello--I could totally make ginger ketchup, I think. I need to try.)

We also ordered some drinks. I had a dry red and Jeremy had Fat Tire IPA, I think, while waiting for the rest of the order. I'm kinda a traditionalist when it comes to ordering steak at a restaurant. Probably 99% of the time, I get a wedge salad and creamed spinach with my steak, which I almost always order NY Strip and medium rare. I don't deviate. So this time, I did get a wedge salad, with was fabulous, as far as wedge salads go, but fellow yelpers reported StripSteak's bacon creamed spinach as "meh." I got goat cheese artichoke hearts instead, and they were very good, but I would probably say they were nothing special above goat cheese and artichoke hearts. Jeremy got as his side the truffle mac and cheese. Yelpers proclaimed this as the best thing on the menu, and it definitely was in the running. It. Was. Unbelievable. I wanted to swim in it. Seriously. It was all white cheese, I'm not really sure what kind. But I did detect finely shredded parmesean on top. Which was fabulous with the nuttiness of the truffles. If you ever go there, do not bother getting any other side. And, the a la carte sides are quite generous. One would have easily been enough to share for two.

On to the steaks. Our waitress told us that the steaks were poached in butter for a bit before being grilled. What? I'm sorry. I don't think I heard you right. Poached in butter??? These steaks were so juicy and I'm guessing the butter helped with the ever slightest brown crust on the outside of the steak while the inside was heavenly. I just hate to guess my saturated fat intake for the meal. But hey, it's vacation, right? They didn't have a NY Strip, but they did have a Kansas City Strip. I can't find any discernable difference between the two online or otherwise. Maybe it just depends what coast you're on when you order it... I don't know how a more done steak would have fared with the butter poaching. I presume it would have helped a well-done (shudder) steak remain more juicy and tender. But the Hubs and I both got our medium rare.

Previously, while on our honeymoon in Vegas a few years back, I thought I'd had my best meal in my life at Emeril's Delmonico Steakhouse. The honeymoon is a happy blur, but the memory that petite filet with blue crab hollandise risotto will always remain with me. I'm afraid, though, that I might have topped that meal with this one though. It was so delicious I would even consider going back there sometime, which I am usually against. There are just too many great restaurants in Vegas to repeat one. This one could be worth it, though.

One of about 101 ways to enjoy fresh tomatoes

2011-08-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

It never occurred to me that yellow tomatoes were for more than just eating fresh. They're just so darn good fresh with a little salt on them. Why would you eat them any other way?

Okay, now that I am legitimately salivating at the thought of a big fresh Stripey or Pineapple tomato right now... Have you ever thought about using yellow tomatoes in some of the ways you'd use red ones?

Heidi Swanson, over at 101 Cookbooks, has. She has a simple recipe for Golden Tomato Sauce. And this sauce is bangin'.

I made it last night with some penne. I figured it would hold the sauce better. I literally made the sauce start to finish while I was waiting on the pasta to cook. That's how quick and easy it is.

I think yellow tomatoes have a much more mellow flavor than red ones. I'm positive there's some scientific reason, but I'm not sure what it is. I've always heard they are lower in acid, and I'm sure that affects the taste. The red pepper flakes add a nice subtle bite that pairs so well with the mellow tomatoey goodness. The only thing I did different in this recipe was add about a tablespoon of roux (1 tb extra virgin olive oil plus enough flour to make a loose paste) near the end of the cooking to thicken it and give it some body. Not as healthy as Heidi's, but soooooo yummy.

I love that blog, by the way. The recipes are so simple and straight forward. This is totally my food philosophy, and is the way food should be when using fresh ingredients. Some of my favorite dishes I've ever made have less than five ingredients. There's no need to fuss with deliciousness by adding a bunch of stuff to it.

Just another way to enjoy fresh tomatoes while they're in season. I'll be making this again before they're gone.

My Pretties

2011-08-22T15:03:00.001-04:00

I get it. I am a canning geek.

I realized it when I got excited about buying these:

These are Weck canning jars. They are made by a German company, and until recently, were exceptionally hard to find in the United States. (They're still hard to find, just not exceptionally hard to find.)

Although they make for a fun and novel way to can, the reason I bought them is because I am constantly looking for ways to further reduce my exposure to nasty chemicals. I was horrified to read that traditional two-piece lids for canning, such as those most commonly made by Ball and Kerr are coated on the underside with BPA. Yikes! And here I was trying to be a conscientious eater by putting up locally-grown fruit and veg for the winter.

After reading about that, I immediately began to search out a better way to can. Without chemicals. I found these jars, and not only are they bpa-free, they are really pretty, too. I ordered some and gave them a try this past Sunday afternoon.

My pretties: Freshly canned tomatoes cooling

Here's a close up with the "tongue" pointing down.

Here's the take-away.

PROS:

Like I said, they are pretty and bpa-free. Big plus for that.
They are of course, reuseable, like traditional jars. (The only recommendation is that each time you can, you use new gaskets. Although, some sites on the internet suggest that you can reuse the gaskets. The cost of a new set of gaskets is comparable to a box of tradtional lids.)

CONS:

I could only fit 5 of this shape (tulip) and size (1 liter) in my canner. I prepared 6. So now, the extra jar is in my fridge waiting to be used in the very near future.
I am paranoid about canning safety (Thank you, WVU Extension service for scaring the hell out of me when it comes to canning safety). I was a little worried with this batch, mostly because canning this way was new to me. Because the lids are glass, you don't get the familiar "ping" as they seal. Instead you need to look for the gasket's "tongue" pointing down slightly, and do the pick-up test, where you very carefully pick up the jar by the lid to see if it sealed. Also, they are slightly larger than a quart (33.8 ounces), so I presume you have to account for a slightly longer canning time to ensure the jars reach the correct temperature.
Not as easily found. I can get Ball brand jars at my local grocery store, I had to order these online.

To open these jars, I'm told you just pull on the tab until the seal is broken. I guess I'll have to wait and see how that works.

While I don't plan on rushing out to replace all my jars at once, I'll slowly phase more of these in as I get new jars. I'll just make sure I can fit more than 5 in a canner at one time. There are a number of shapes and sizes to choose from. I mostly can pints, anyway, because that is what we use. I ordered these from Kaufmann Mercantile's website. You get free shipping on orders of $25 or more, and you get $7 off your first order if you sign up for their email.

Also, here is a link to a great how-to for canning with Weck jars. It's not terribly different from canning with tradtional two-piece lids, but there are a few caveats, and this article explains it better than I could ever hope to, including how to tell if you have a good seal.

Sweet, sweet summertime.

2011-08-15T15:34:00.000-04:00

After many long months of dreaming about, planning, preparing, babying, and whispering to my vegetable garden, the time is finally here. Tomatoes, that high-priestest of summer bounty, are at full-tilt.

It's a shame, really. I have been wishing away all these summer days until I picked that first tomato. And now that I can fully appreciate summer with all my senses, it's almost over. I still have many, many more green ones on the plants, but I am steadily picking the ripe ones these days. I was away for a work conference last week, and almost couldn't wait to get home to see what was ready to pick.

Here's what I picked Friday evening:

There's nothing quite as satisfying as a fresh-picked tomato. Especially one that you lovingly started from seed back in the first week of March. There were several roma and cherry tomatoes, three cucumbers (one of which was HUGE and probably was on the vine too long), and I picked all my swiss chard and carrots. The carrots are Danver's Half Long.

Switching gears a bit, Saturday for dinner, I made this, which was AMAZING.

These are Eye of the Goat beans from Rancho Gordo in Napa, California. When I was in California last year, we stopped by this place after I'd read about it. It is a shop that specializes in heirloom beans. Can you imagine? A shop dedicated to heirloom beans? You read it hear first. This place is worth a gander. We bought up a bunch when we were in California, and this spring I ordered some from the website. My mom LOVES their quinoa. It's funny how I can detect subtle differences in the different varieties of beans that I've tried from this store. I made these very simply by putting them in a crock pot with half a diced onion and three pieces of bacon. Then I just barely covered them with water and added about 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock. That is it. When they're finished, I put about 1 teaspoon of salt and some pepper in.

And, I've decided I make pretty damn good cornbread. Not to brag, but I'm a rock star when it comes to cornbread. Biscuits? Notsamuch. In my opinion, there are just a couple secrets to making rock star cornbread. 1) A really good iron skillet, that you 2) put a dab of canola oil in and put in the oven to pre-heat while you mix up the cornbread, which 3) you should be using really good quality cornmeal for. I get my cornmeal from Reed's Mill Flours in Monroe County. It's stone-ground by a grist mill. And it's made from open-pollinated corn. Open-pollinated corn, people! I don't expect anyone to be as excited about this as I am, but let me tell you this cornmeal is special. That is all you need to know. (I couldn't find a wiki article for open pollinated corn, so if you must know more about this special cornmeal, it is made from corn seeds that are heirloom, non-hybrid, and rely on birds and insects for pollination. Corn is naturally difficult to pollinate because of a number of factors, including it's structure, how it's typically grown, etc. And open-pollinated corn is also susceptible to insects and fungi. Basically, these corn plants have beat substantial odds to produce actual corn. There. Just in case you're ever on jeopardy or something...)

Anywho... I really needed to use that swiss chard up soon, so to go with my amazing humble beans and cornbread dinner on Saturday, I made wilted swiss chard. I adapted this recipe from Marthastewart.com, which was super easy.

Bacon and Garlic Wilted Swiss Chard
(who doesn't love bacon and garlic and anything)

1 small bunch of swiss chard (about 2 dozen medium-sized pieces)
1 piece of bacon
2 cloves garlic
1 - 2 tsp bacon grease
1 Tb water

Chop the bacon into tiny pieces and throw into a skillet on medium heat. Cook for a few minutes until fat begins to render and bacon begins to get translucent. Thinly slice the two garlic cloves, a 'la razor blade in "Goodfellas." But you don't have to actually use a razor blade. I knife will work fine, just slice it very thinly. That's what I did. Add the garlic to the skillet. Saute garlic until it begins to smell amazing and turns golden, stirring frequently. Remove the bacon and garlic from the skillet and set aside. Add the rest of the bacon grease and turn skillet to medium low heat. Remove the stalks from the leaves of the swiss chard and chop them into bite size pieces. Add to skillet and cover while you chop the leaves into 1 inch strips. Check the stalks to see if they are getting soft, and saute a couple more minutes if they need to soften. Add the leaves and stir to coat with the bacon grease. Turn the heat to low, add about 1 Tb water and cover. Cook until leaves are, well, wilted. About 3 to 5 minutes. Add the bacon and garlic back to the skillet and stir to mix.

Look what I picked!

2011-08-04T16:10:00.001-04:00

Heirlooms!

From left to right, Striata d' Italia, Golden Marconi Pepper, Marketmore 76 Cucumber, Anaheim Pepper, and Patty Pan (scallop squash). You'll notice my golden marconi ain't golden. It had a bad spot in it, so I figured it was best to pick it under ripe and cut around the bad spot rather than loose the whole pepper...

A little bit of Chicago: Italian Beef.

2011-07-26T14:18:00.001-04:00

Italian beef could mean a lot of things, I suppose. But after traveling to Chicago last summer, Italian beef, to me can only mean one thing... tender beef roast on a hoagie roll topped with giardiniera and dipped in au jus.

Chicago is one of my favorite food cities. Of course, it's known for deep dish pizza, but that is only scratching the surface. Chicago food is food that you might be generally familiar with, but Chicagoians have a way of doing them with a twist that makes them unique. Take the pizza for example. If you're a pizza purist, deep dish pizza dough in Chicago is made with cornmeal. Also, the cheese and other toppings are put on the bottom, and topped with the sauce. Hot dogs are typically "drug through the garden" in Chicago, which means a red hot-style dog topped with tomato wedges, dill pickle spears, onions and celery salt. And, Chicago is home to the brewery of my all-time favorite beer, Goose Island 312.

photo credit: Bing Images

I got my Italian beef at Luke's Italian Beef on West Jackson Boulevard, near the Sears Tower. I was nervous when I got to the counter because I didn't want to order it wrong and offend the gruff-looking salty old dude behind the counter. He looked like he took serving these sandwiches seriously. You can order them with just beef, beef and giardiniera, dipped or not dipped. I went for the full Chicago experience, and got mine with the giardiniera and dipped. It was messy but delicious. You have to eat them quickly because once the beef and giardiniera are loaded on the sandwich, the whole sandwich is dipped in the au jus, and they will fall apart if left uneated for very long. The bread is chewy and almost crispy in the first couple bites, and almost mush at the very last few bites, but still delicious.

Having never had Italian beef before, I didn't have anything to compare it to. But now, having done a quick survey of Yelp and Frommer's, I realize the undisputed King of Italian Beef in Chicago is Al's Beef. I think Luke's runs a close second, though, so it wasn't like I missed the boat altogether. Next time I go to Chicago, I'm trying Al's Beef.

To satisfy a craving for Italian Beef in the meantime, I decided to make my own. It started with giardiniera. Giardiniera is basically pickled vegetables, typically celery, onions, carrots, and peppers. Having all these vegetables on hand, I made 4 pints a couple weeks ago when I was canning jam. It was super-easy. I used both a sweet bell pepper and a few banana peppers, so it wasn't too hot.

The next step is the beef. The recipe I used has several tips and some history of the sandwich, which is pretty neat. I used bottom round roast, since I knew I was going to make mine in the crockpot. Rather than putting a rub on the meat and searing the meat off before braising, I just added the spices for the rub in the crockpot and put the meat in raw. I might have gotten a better result if I'd followed those directions, but mine was still pretty darn good. Here's how I made it, adapted from the Amazing Ribs website.

Chicago-Style Italian Beef
(Makes 8 sandwiches)

1 2-lb. bottom round roast
1 cup of red wine
2 cups of beef stock
water
1 Tb. black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
1 Tb. dried minced onions
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
8 6-in. hoagie rolls
giardiniera

In a crockpot, add red wine, beef stock and all spices. Add beef roast and fill crockpot with water until beef is covered. Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 8-9 hours. When done, remove beef from juices onto a cutting board, let cool slightly and cut into chunks (I realize authentic Italian beefs have shaved meat, but you gotta work with what ya got... I don't have a deli slicer). Place hoagie rolls under broiler for a few minutes until the bread has a slight toast. Place each toasted roll on a piece of parchment paper big enough to wrap around the sandwich. Divide beef evenly between the rolls and top with giardiniera. Dip the entire sandwich in the juice and wrap with parchement paper. Serve immediately.

West Virginia's Slow Food Groud Zero

2011-07-01T15:06:00.000-04:00

Ever hear of SLOW FOOD?

Slow food is a global grass roots movement that is the direct opposite of "fast food." It's all about eating locally, sustainably, and consequently, more healthily. Not just in restaurants, but at home, too. Slow Food USA is made up of chapters around the country that seek to promote farmers markets and local producers, and help consumers find locally sourced food.

The first chapter is currently being organized in West Virginia by Richwood Grill, in Morgantown. (Here's the link to their Yelp page. Their website is currently down, but they do have a Facebook page.) Richwood Grill is one of the rare jewels here in the Mountain State that is serving locally sustainably sourced food and proud of it!

I ate at Richwood Grill for the first time back in the winter. A couple weeks ago, I was back in Morgantown, and hankerin' to see what their offerings would be with lots of fresh food just coming in season. It did not dissapoint.

To sweeten the deal, Richwood Grill is on Restaurant.com. I had a $25 gift certificate to burn, so I didn't hold back when I saw the menu. Also, I was with my best friend and her husband, and we have an understanding to taste a little of what everyone orders to get a little more sampling of what is on the menu.

We started out with some appetizers. Erinn got the blue crab escobeche with grilled pineapple, red pepper, coconut milk and aji rocoto. It was delish. Very refreshing and light--which is what an appetizer should be. I got the grilled watermelon in a habanero brine. It was really good, but really unexpected.

I guess when I hear the word "watermelon" my mind associates that with an icy cold fruit for the height of summer. This was warm. Duh, Jennelle, it is GRILLED. But my mind just didn't want to make the connection. And it wasn't sweet, really, because of the habanero brine. It wasn't hot, either, just a very salty with a slightly sweet taste. I was drinking Great Lakes Holy Moses White Ale, which went with it perfectly--a happy accident.

Our entrees came out, and Erinn ordered the Mon Valley Farms Pasture Raised Steak-of-the-Day. It looked like a bone-in ribeye, and it was delicious. The reason she ordered it was because it came with red pepper butter, and I could see why, after I tried it. So, so good.

Mike ordered the fish. I'm not sure if it was the WV trout with wasabi remoulade, that is on the menu, but it was the best dish at the table. The last time we ate there, back in January, Mike ordered the tofu dish, which turned out to be the best dish at the table that night. I would have never ordered the tofu, myself, since I am at an establishment that serves locally and sustainably raised animal protein--I can indulge guiltlessly. But the tofu was pretty freakin' awesome. I might ask him to order for me next time we go since he seems to be hitting all winners on the menu...

I had the Gardener Farms Pork Loin with Red Miso Curry, which was also very good. I don't think there is anything on the menu that would dissapoint me, actually. I'm slowing coming around to liking curry. I think it was a bad experience with it when I was a freshman in college that led to my longstanding and adamant dislike of it, but I'm wading into the curry-eating pool slowly. This sauce was perfect, maybe because it wasn't all curry. The red miso certainly tempered the curry taste, which was a perfect compliment to the pork loin, which by the way, was HUGE.

If I'm eating somewhere that serves sustainable meat, I almost always go for the pork. It's not that I like pork better than say beef or chicken, but as far as industrial/conventional meat goes, it's probably the worst of the three. Do yourself a favor and don't (or do) Google images of CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation) pork. It's horrendous.

At any rate, the folks at Richwood Grill have been trying to start up a West Virginia chapter of Slow Food, because those principles are important to them as restaurant owners. "Slow food unites the pleasure of food with responsibility, sustainability and harmony with nature," was the attitude of the movement's founder, Carlo Petrini. And, after all, as most recently demonstrated by the Richwood Grill, slow food just tastes better. I just wish more farm to table restaurants would catch on here in West Virginia.

It was hard to beat the ambience of eating a fabulous meal on the patio at Richwood Grill with this sweeping view of South Park--at least until the rain forced us inside to finish our meal.

But while it lasted, it was such a nice evening of good food, good drinks and good company.

Delicious Potager in Full Bloom

2011-06-30T16:32:00.000-04:00

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Delicious Potager so far this summer. It looks great. Everything is really green and has lots of blooms. But, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop, though. I can't remember a time when things didn't look generally dissappointing at this point in the growing season. There's a quote about gardening that I can't find right now that embodies the basic principle that no matter how much work you put into your garden, you still be frustrated with it's output. Or something like that. At any rate, the quote certainly resonated with me (but not enough to cause me to remember it exactly).

But looking at my garden at this point, in all it's greeness and anticipation of what will soon be growing (hopefully), I am reminded how much you really get out of it--besides fresh food. You burn an obscene amount of calories spending 30 mintues weeding your garden. It really is great exercise; one I don't have to "talk myself into doing" like the eliptical machine... And, it's so peaceful just to go out and piddle around in a garden.

Over the past couple years, since we did some landscaping to the backyard, I've been building up a flower bed along both sides of the patio. Not only does it have flowers, but it's also where I have my herbs planted. My favorite thing about the beds is that I haven't bought a single plant. Everything growing there was given to me from someone else's garden. Two of the happiest surprises were plants that a co-worker gave me last summer. It was right about this time last year when she gave them to me--not the greatest time to transplant, but they survived. Since I transplanted them from a very mature overgrown bed beside her house in the middle of the summer last year, I had no idea what they'd look like when they started blooming. But they are fantastic!

Here is echinacea that she gave me growing right in the corner of one of the beds. My dad made the sign for me for as a Christmas gift last year. The small plaque in the center of the sign says "Grow, Damnit!" That pretty much sums it up.

The other plant she gave me, and there were actually two of these, is bee balm, which is absolutely gorgeous. These pictures do not do them justice! They can be pink, red or purple, and I had no idea what colors these plants were until about two weeks ago. Both are bright purple. Both bee balm and echinacea are more than just pretty flowers. They have medicinal purposes, which I think is really cool. Maybe one of these days when I get inspired, I'll figure out how to harvest them for tea.

Here's a shot of my actual garden plot. I really wanted to expand the plot in the ground this spring, but we had one of the wettest springs on record. My little tiller won't chew up the yard to make it bigger, so I need to rent a big tiller to do that. I even tried to pull up some of the moss growing below the garden by hand to see if I could get it started enough to go over it with my little tiller, but this turned out to be harder than I thought. We need to do something about the moss, though. The Hubs doesn't seem to mind it. "It doesn't grow, so I don't have to mow it..." is his philosophy, but I think it looks trashy.

Since we never got enough dry weather to till up more garden, the Hubs actually made me another raised bed, which has worked out wonderfully. I might add another next spring, actually. I had two small ones already, which I made to fit some old windows I bought at ReStore, to make into cold frames. They have lettuce, carrots and radishes planted in them now. I've had lettuce growing in them since November! Talk about an extended growing season. There were times this spring when we had so much lettuce, we couldn't keep up with it. But it has slowed down with the hotter weather. It's still producing enough for the two of us though.

Here's a shot of the lettuce beds. It's mostly black seeded simpson, with some mesclun mix. The carrots should be ready in a few weeks. One of the beds has potting soil and compost, and the other has a potting soil-compost-sand mixture, for the carrots.

On the most established side of the garden plot, I have all cucurbits, which are all plants in the squash/cuccumber family. I have two hills of summer squash. One is regular yellow crookneck and one is Striata d' Italia, a cousin of the zucchini. It's an old heirloom variety of seed that I ordered from Baker Creek Seeds. I can't remember which hill is which, but they are both full of blooms. I'll have to wait until I get some squash to tell them apart. I also have marketmore cucumbers, a hill of jack o lanters (I think that's what they are... can't remember exactly), and a hill of cantelopes. Did you know cantelopes are also in the cucurbit family? I've never tried to grow them before, so we'll see how they turn out.

In my new bigger raised bed, I have two roma tomato plants, a golden bell pepper plant, an anaheim pepper plant and a hill of patty pans. My father-in-law loves patty pans, and is a big gardener himself. He bought the seeds and gave me some to try. Some of the seeds were for yellow and some were for the white variety. The plants in this raised bed are really growing, probably because of the new potting soil and compost I mixed in. I have french marigolds planted throughout this bed. I bought them after a deer snacked on the vegetable plants. I also planted regular marigolds around the garden plot to keep the critters away. I don't know if it's been working, or the deer just hasn't been back. So far, no more damage, though.

On the other half of the garden plot, I have beans and swiss chard. This is the second planting of beans, so they're a bit behind. My granny always said you should have fresh beans by the Fourth of July. Well, not this year. The deer ate the first batch, and ate some of this one, too. I'm not expecting much out of these plants. They are Kentucky wonder. The swiss chard is bright lights. I LOVE swiss chard. The Hubs.. not so much.

I've got several pots around the backyard, also, and even two Topsy Turvies. One has a cherry tomato plant in it, the other has several peppers, all of which I started from seed. They are golden marconi, chocolate bell, and California wonder. I've also got three pots on the patio with tomatoes in them, but they aren't looking too hot. Its probably because the soil in those pots I've used for the past few years. I did add some compost this spring, but not much. And I potted the plants in potting soil in a cow pot, but I guess it just needs a little more. I have one each, Mountain Princess, pineapple tomato, and pink ponderosa. I started all of the tomatoes from seed this year, and all of the peppers, save the ones in my bed with the patty pans.

In a few weeks, I should be getting the first vegeables. Fingers crossed...

Summer + Frozen Treats = Love

2011-06-29T11:17:00.000-04:00

This past month, I've been making an effort to clear out the freezer. It's actually right before THAT time of year. And by "that" time of year, I mean, the time of year when I start getting bombarded by fresh produce... Not that I'm complaining. No, ma'am. I love it.

I had a quart of blackberries from last year, that I needed to use, since this year's berries will be ripe approximately next weekend. I've got the date circled on my calendar. Can't wait.

Anywho. Berries. Frozen berries are great in baking, for making jams and mixed into stuff. Not so great for eating plain. They get a little mushy.

Enter this fine gadget.

This fine gadget is actually this:

... which my brother bought me last Christmas. I love it. When I mentioned that I'd like to have one, I envisioned lots and lots of sorbet and frozen goodness made from fresh seasonal fruit. Or frozen fruit you need to use before you fill your freezer up again. Either way.

It was so delicious. Bangin'. Grown woman licking her bowl. Good.

It comes with a recipe booklet with directions to make basic ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet and frozen custard. But the real fun is playing around and being creative. The flavor combinations are endless. I kept some of the tough "meat" of a whole pineapple I bought a while back in the freezer. I don't have enough to make a full-on pineapple frozen treat, but perhaps something flavored with pineapple. Peach pineapple ginger sorbet, perhaps? This blackberry sorbet actually has a little mint steeped in the simple syrup. It's subtle and DELICIOUS.

The great thing about having your own ice cream machine is that you can control the ingredients. I'm not aware of any ice cream at the grocery store that is rBGH-free and all-natural (besides Ben and Jerry's perhaps??). The first time I made ice cream, I used milk and cream from Homestead Creamery that is free of antibiotics and hormones (not to mention delicious), REAL vanilla extract and turbinado sugar. The result was a twist on classic vanilla ice cream with just a touch of the brown sugar flavor.

There were only a couple draw backs to DIY-ing your own frozen treats. The main thing is that you have to plan ahead a bit. It takes a couple cups of cream to make the ice cream, so you have to make sure you have that much on hand. I didn't try to substitute skim milk, since I don't think that would make a very good end product. And, once you make the liquid mixture, regardless of whether you are making sorbet or ice cream, you need to refrigerate it for a few hours. The base to the ice cream machine needs to be fully frozen before you use it, also. I've been storing mine in the freezer, but it does take up a bit of room. Once the process in the ice cream machine is done, the consistency is kinda like soft serve, so you could eat it right away, or you can finish it off in the freezer for an hour or two. The other thing that was a bit tedious about making the sorbet, was straining out all the seeds from the blackberries once you crush them and cook them down a bit. I have a teeny-tiny mesh strainer, so it took forever. But, I'll just use a bigger strainer or jelly bag next time I make berry sorbet. I need to buy both of those things anyway.

In the end, I think it's worth it to make your own. No weird chemical preservatives or ingredients that are hard to spell. I enjoy thinking up new flavors, and and I almost couldn't wait for it to fully freeze to taste it. I plan on putting this ice cream maker on full tilt now that fresh fruit is coming in season here. And I know I'll always have something to do with the frozen fruit once it comes time to start cleaning out the freezer.

A post about steaks.

2011-06-07T16:05:00.000-04:00

I found some pics I took a few weeks ago, but failed to blog about the subject. Since they were of noteworthy food that I made, I figured it wouldn't hurt to post them a few weeks late.

The hubs and I have a date night just about every week. Sometimes we go out, sometimes we stay home and chef it up. This is a pic from our date night a few weeks ago; one that we stayed in. The menu was classic steakhouse: wedge salad, sirloin steaks, creamed spinach and a bottle of merlot.

Although this dinner seems super fancy and upscale, it was surprising easy to make. The creamed spinach was probably the hardest part, and it consisted of sauteing some onions, adding some frozen spinach and melting some boursin and parmesean cheese together. The steaks were from Swift Level Farm via Monroe Farm Market, and were very simply marinated in extra virgin olive oil, syrah and garlic, with some salt and pepper. I used to never marinate steaks because I'm a steak purist and I didn't want anything to interfere with the steaky flavor. (Don't even get me started on A1 sauce or anything else to top steaks with for that matter.). But, out of caution, one of the first times I grilled grass-fed steaks, I did marinate them based on the ratio I learned on The Worst Cooks In America: 1 part oil plus 1 part acid and add an aromatic. It's that simple. You really don't need to buy fancy marinades they sell at the grocery store, unless you just wanna try something different (and you like processed chemicals...) Everything you need is most likely in your kitchen cabinet already. Extra virgin olive oil is a good choice for steaks that won't be cooked long (me likey rare meat). But if you're going to grill or pan fry something (chicken or perhaps certain pork cuts) for a longer period of time at high heat, you'll want to use an oil that can stand up to the heat better such as canola. You don't get the subtle flavors of EVOO, but you meat will remain juicy and well lubricated, i.e. not sticking. Also, ABSOLUTELY vital is letting your steak rest after it's done grilling for a few minutes. I used to be a skeptic, and think that was just something food snobs said. But try it once, if you don't already do it. The difference is amazing.

Here's another fact to file under my affection for steaks. I'll. Never. Go. Back. To. Conventional. Steaks. When I say "conventional" I mean CAFO beef. Industrial beef. Corn-fed beef. Grocery store beef. And all the above. The main reason is not that "conventional" beef is unsustainable, environmentally damaging, and void of all the tenets of animal husbandry, although those are all true and important to me. It's the TASTE. It's a cliche to say it's the way beef was meant to taste, but it really was the way beef was meant to taste. It tastes and smells so beefy. Like the smell and taste of beef on steroids. (but literally it's quite the opposite). It tastes like a steak, soaked in beef stock, topped with shaved beef, covered in beef gravy, with a little beef on the side.

This was one of my more favorite date nights recently. I really enjoy cooking and staying in for date night, probably more than I do going out, especially if Jeremy helps me in the kitchen. Correction, if I'm helping him in the kitchen. We he cooks for us, it's mostly him running the show and I'm the sous chef. Maybe that's why I enjoy these date nights so well...

But, they also reminded me of two memorable steakhouse dinners we shared in the past year. Last fall, we ate at The Flame Steakhouse in the El Cortez Casino in downtown Las Vegas. Going to this place is like going back in time to 1966 Las Vegas. It is straight up old school. The food was very good actually. Don't be fooled by the tacky appearance of El Cortez. If you're looking for a taste of Vegas in it's heyday, this is about as authentic as it gets--probably because this place hasn't changed much since then. To round out the experience at El Cortez, don't pass up the $3 craps table and 2 for 1 martinis at the bar. Good times.

Back in April, we also ate at La Bonne Vie when we stayed at Mountaineer Racetrack in the Northern Panhandle. The food here is AWESOME. But bring your wallet for sure. Our tab was around $150 (we had a gift card) but worth every cent. At both places, I had a filet. That's what I always get at steakhouses. Filets are always around 4 to 6 ounces, and a very lean cut of meat, so it's probably the least diet-wrecking cut, compared to the other steakhouse standards: ribeye, sirloin, strip and porterhouse. I've seen porterhouses up around 28 ouces. This is insanity. I love steak, but in moderation.

Going out to get a great steak is so nice from time to time, but I stand by the thought that home cookin' is the best any day of the week. Cheaper, too. We are looking at getting a half a cow this fall, when it comes time to ... well, send that beef to it's maker. So, there'll be much more steak-eatin' for date night around our house. (and short ribs, and fajitas, and burgers...) We just bought a shiny new deep freezer that begging to have her shelves filled with fresh beef. Problem is, we need to find someone to take the other half of a cow. They don't sell them by the half apparently. Any takers? Seriously.

Something's already snacking on my garden.

2011-06-01T14:43:00.000-04:00

Just yesterday, I was bragging about how much my beans were loving the weather we've been having.

Then, I went to check on my garden yesterday evening. Something ate almost all of my bean plants down to a stem, DANGIT!

I'm not sure if it was a deer or a rabbit. Nothing else was touched. Our neighbor has a couple apple trees, so deer in our yard have never been a problem. But, he recently cut one down and pruned the other way back (I have no idea why???). And, I don't think there are really apples on it yet.

Last year, it was hornworms. This year, deer? It's probably only a matter of time before the rest of my garden ends up a giant salad bar for the local critters. At any rate, I'm going to see if I can find some bean starts tomorrow. And a flat of marigolds.

Grocery shopping, couponing and becoming a millionaire.

2011-05-20T13:27:00.000-04:00

For some reason, I've stumbled onto two completely different articles in the last two days about how to become a millionaire. I like to think someone is trying to give me a sign. Hmmm. Maybe I will be millionaire some day. All I need to do is follow the steps. Which, according to one article, means socking away something crazy like $2,400 a month. Riiiiight.

At any rate, about once every six months, something triggers me to re-examine my budget, bills, spending, etc, to see if I can come up with any more spending money. I love spending money. This is why I'll actually probably never be a millionaire.

Anyway, these millionaire aspirations of mine, combined with TLC's new show Extreme Couponing, have got me thinking about grocery shopping. Oh, by the way... I. LOVE. THAT. SHOW.

Here's a secret: I love grocery shopping.

There. I said it. I really do. It's like a game. Try to get out of the store with the most stuff for the least amount of money. That, and the fact that I just I love food. I love shopping for it, and I especially love eating it. I know exactly how those people feel when they say they get a rush from grocery shopping with coupons. I do, too. Although, my couponing habit is no where near Extreme Couponing.

One thing that struck me about the show (and I have noticed over the past couple years) is that generally, coupons are for processed foods. There is rarely a coupon for fresh produce. But there are a blue million coupons out there for Gogurt. (Yuck. Who eats that stuff, anyway???) And, on the show, I noticed one lady had A WHOLE GROCERY CART OF TEXAS TOAST. She was getting it all free or something crazy like that, but I can count on one hand the times I've eaten Texas Toast in the past two years.

The point is, it's so easy for me to get caught up in couponing and the promos at the grocery store. And, I get discouraged when only have $20 worth of coupons for a $100 grocery order, especially when I see these people on tv get $800 worth of groceries for $4 or something. And one lady paid off her house and bought a new Jeep with money she saved on groceries with coupons. Those are the things that really get my attention.

Is couponing the path to prosperity?

If it is, and it's paved with processed food, I'm not sure it's worth it.

I thought I'd snap a picture of my grocery cart the last time I went shopping.

I'm not proud of the pepperoni (for pasta salad for a cookout I'm going to) or the frozen pizza (I fell victim to a store promo--buy 10 selected items get $5 off), but the 4 bags of salad and produce score me points, right? I did have coupons for the bags of salad (and I can't believe I bought bagged salad when my garden is overflowing with fresh lettuce, but they were less than $1 with the coupons and on sale) but the rest of the produce? No coupons and not even on sale. But I buy it because it's healthy and I like to cook with and eat fresh food.

Even though they don't print coupons around here for fresh bananas or mushrooms, there are ways to reduce the amount of money you spend on healthy food.

First, frozen fruits and veggies are a decent alternative to fresh versions. They are about the same nutritionally. And you might actually find coupons for frozen veggies. Just make sure you're buying plain frozen veggies. Birds Eye and Green Giant have some frozen veggie products that come with sauce on them that is astoundingly high in sodium. You can make your own with a little effort that has a fraction of the sodium.

Second, buy fresh produce in season locally. Pound for pound, the fresh produce sold at the farmer's market is generlly cheaper than in the grocery store. This is a no brainer. The produce is fresher, since it hasn't been picked unripe and shipped hundreds (sometimes thousands) of miles. And, you're supporting your local economy.

The third thing you can do, which probably involves the most work, is to grow your own. I've found it's ridiculously easy to grow lettuce. Seriously, you sprinkle the seeds on top of the dirt and about two weeks later, you come back and pick it. That is all. Even if you didn't have a lot of space you can grow a tomato plant in a pot on a porch easily. The next logical step is to put up what you grow (or if someone "gifts" you a pile of squash/tomatoes/peppers). Canning is easy once you get the hang of it, or if you don't have the equipment, freezing is even easier. I didn't have to buy tomatoes until a month or so ago because I was using what I canned last year. Now, I just have to try to can more next year, so I don't have to buy any at all...

So, maybe I'll never make it to being a millionaire through couponing, but I still am really proud of myself when I don't spend that much on food, AND I'm eating healthy and delicious. I just need hope for a winning lottery ticket, I guess.

Cinco de Mayo for 800 calories. For real.

2011-05-06T10:59:00.000-04:00

So, yesterday was Cinco de Mayo. I love Cinco de Mayo. Actually, I love any occassion that celebrates the customes (read: FOOD) of a particular culture. I make Irish stew on St. Patrick's Day every year, for example. And tomorrow, I'm making a southern style pecan pie and mint juleps for the 137th Running of the Roses, like I do every year.

But this year on Cinco de Mayo, I am in the middle of a big-time two-week crack down on calories. Like living on 1,740 a day kinda crack down. It SUCKS. We're getting a Jones family portrait taken next weekend, and I'm not sure if it's finalized, but we might all be wearing khakis for the picture. Well, I own a pair of khakis and a khaki skirt--both of which I look like a sausage in, so hence the crack down. But that's another story.

So what's a guacamole-obsessed girl to do while staying within 1,740 calories?

Answer: Healthy Chicken Nachos

Serves 2

39 Baked Tostitos scoops (that's how many covered the pizza pan I made them on)
1/2 grilled skinless breast of chicken, shredded
1 cup canned black beans, drained
1/2 cup shredded taco cheese
lettuce
4 Tb. regular sour cream
1/2 cup salsa

Spread chips on a pizza pan. Put a little chicken on each chip. Top with a little of the beans on each chip (it came out to about a half a tsp on each chip). Sprinkle cheese on top and broil about 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and cover with chopped lettuce. Serve with sour cream and salsa on the side.
495 calories per serving

Jeremy and I actually agreed that these nachos were better than the usual way I make them with refried beans and venison. They were tastier. So, if I have chicken handy, I'll definitely opt for this recipe when I make nachos from now on.

I also made quite possible the best batch of guacamole I've ever made. Here's my tried and true recipe, adapted from Tyler Florence's Eat This Book.

Better Than Store-bought Guac

5 ripe avocados
juice of 2 limes
1/2 red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic (or tsp minced garlic)
1 big handful of chopped cilantro
1 tsp kosher salt

Halve and pit the avocados and scoop the flesh into a big mixing bowl. Add all other ingredients and mash together until mixed and a chunky consistency. Taste and adjust salt or lime juice as needed. If not serving immediately, place a piece of plastic wrap right onto the mixture to keep air from touching it. (avocados will brown quickly like apples do, once cut).

I've found the best thing to use to mash the ingredients together is a pastry blender. Don't have one? Try a potato masher, or a even a dinner fork.

1/2 cup of guacamole has 228 calories (it's also really high in fat, but it's healthy fat--omega 3's, just eat it in moderation) + 10 Tostitos Baked Scoops with 80 calories = 308 calories.

The guac, chips and nachos come in at 803 calories total. Not too shabby compared to standard Mexican fare with all the cheese/grease/meat. And, it was a pretty hearty-sized dinner. The hardest part is passing up the obligatory margarita... 170 calories, if you're wondering. I checked.

On eating less meat.

2011-05-04T16:22:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I read about a the documentary, Forks Over Knives. A couple years ago, Food, Inc. rocked my world, so I was immediately curious about another food documentary.

Forks Over Knives, however, takes more of a health approach than that of an overall food policy approach. The "knives" the title are referring to are scalpels, i.e. as in heart disease and related illnesses.

Here's the trailer:

It's pretty gripping, I think. At any rate, Dr. Oz did a show about the movie last week, and had some of the folks from the movie on his show. While I didn't agree with everything they said, they do make pretty good points.

That, and the fact that I picked up from the library, Mark Bittman's new cookbook The Food Matters Cookbook, have had me thinking about how much meat I eat recently.

Please don't take this as me endorsing becoming a vegan, or even a vegetarian. It's a personal choice, and I like steak and bacon as much as the next person. But, for those interested in health and living well into old age, I think it's worth entertaining the idea of cutting back.

Afterall, it appears we have plenty of meat everyday to spare. In the introduction to Mark Bittman's cookbook, he states that Americans eat on average 200 pounds of meat each year--twice the global average.

All this, of course, is much easier said than done. Especially, in a place like rural West Virginia. And, especially in the winter, since I'm trying to eat seasonally now. There just isn't much by the way of vegetables and fruits in the winter.

The guy Dr. Oz had on his show had a some pretty restrictive eating guidelines. In addition to avoiding processed foods (duh!) and conventional meat, he said to stay away from oil (because it's also a processed food, even the cardiologists' favorite, extra virgin olive oil) and to avoid fish (because it wasn't nearly as healthy for you as we've been led to believe). Even Dr. Oz was raising his eyebrows about those two things. But both he and Bittman tout the humble bean as being the logical replacement for meat, as well as unrefined grains such as steel-cut oats and quinoa.

All this has gotten me thinking about how much meat I eat regularly, and if I could make some healthy changes without feeling too short-changed. Recently, Jeremy and I have waded into the quinoa pool and are liking it! My mom got a recipe last year for a quinoa salad that she has mastered, I think, and I've made it a couple times that hasn't turned out too bad. It's actually a seed from a grass native to South America, and is one of the only, if not the only, non-animal souce of all the essential amino acids. I'm trying to add beans into meals more now, too. Problem is Jeremy isn't too keen on beans because they seem to mess with his gut. (In different ways than they mess with a normal persons gut...) So, it's tricky. I try to make sure they aren't the "star" of the meal, and that there are lots of other components like vegetables, grains and even meat mixed in with beans when we have them.

The good news about all this healthy scaled-back meat consumption is that it's spring and all sorts of vegetables are popping up at the farmers' markets. That will be the case for about the next 7 months, so it should help with the creativity in planning meals with either less or no meat.

Here's one of my favorite early spring vegetarian healthy meals from The Junior League of Boston's cookbook (as modified by me):

Spinach Pesto Linguini
Serves 2

4 oz. fresh spinach
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup grated fresh parmesean
2 cloves of garlic (or more to taste)
1 tsp dried basil
a handful of grape tomatoes, halved
4 oz. fresh pasta

Soak fresh spinach in warm water for 10 minutes. Drain well. Add spinach, parmesean, garlic and oil to a food processor and pulse until mixed and pesto consistency. Cook pasta until al dente (about 3 minutes for fresh--can substitute dried pasta). Add pesto to hot pasta with grape tomatoes. Stir well and serve immediately.

So tasty and fresh and springy. I didn't really miss meat and I felt good about eating it. It was healthy and I got the spinach from the Spanglers Greenhouse via the Monroe Farm Market. Extra credit points!

Don't worry about me getting too comfortable with going meatless. I'm planning on eating pork bbq this weekend...

Morels are for more than fryin'

2011-04-21T15:53:00.002-04:00

It's that time of year when Appalachian delicacies start popping up on the hillsides around here, after a good rain and the sun comes out. The past couple years, since I've been eating more locally, after a long, dark winter of sweet potatoes and winter squash, I really look forward to having something fresh to put on the plate.

I had my one bite of ramps for the season. And it's just as well. I tasted that one bite for the next three hours.

I was more excited about the annual appearance of morels. I was listening to Martha Stewart Radio a few days ago, and there was a piece on recipes with spring produce, including morels. I hadn't thought about doing much with them besides frying them, to be honest. They are just so freakin' good breaded and pan fried.

I am hoping there is a "patch" starting in our back yard. Last year, we had two big ones around the base of the poplar tree, which we didn't pick. What's the use of two mushrooms? This year, we found SIX big ones. I'm hoping it triples every year. Eighteen mushrooms that size is a pretty good mess for fryin'.

So, I had six good size mushrooms. Hmmmm. Ravioli, anyone?

I chopped up the mushrooms and mixed them with some ricotta, an egg, garlic and parmesean cheese.

My mom bought me a raviloi cutter for Christmas. It made them look like Chef Boyarde. Kinda. I still haven't mastered making my ravioli "pretty" after a handful of times making it from scratch. The cutter helps substantially, though.

Even if it wasn't pretty, it sure was tasty. I had an opened jar of spaghetti sauce my mom and I canned last summer in the fridge. Perfect. The good news is that I made WAY too much filling, so I put the rest in the freezer for lasagna or stuffed shells sometime in the near future.

In the upper right corner, there is some sausage on the plate. I can't post this pic without giving a shout out to Carmine Pagliaro, who made it. He is the dad of my coworker, Melanie, who keeps us eating all the Italian goodies her family makes. I'm not even kidding by saying that we've been spoiled since she started working with us. Fontinella cheese, hot peppers, olives, pizzelles, Italian bread, and my favorite, dried sausage.

"Goodbye joe, me gotta go, me oh-a-my-o..."

2011-04-11T22:21:00.001-04:00

"Jambalaya, crawfish pie, file gumbo!"

One of my favorite dishes to make at home. Actually, Jeremy usually makes it better than I do. It's one of those few dishes that he rocks. No matter who makes it, it's "guuude". (Say that with a twang... makes it more authentic for jambalaya.)

I've made it a number of ways over the years, but the way I like it best is just the way I make it below. I've made quick and "low-fat" versions, which just ain't right. And I've made the pre-boxed mixes that you just add meat to. This version may not be true to traditional recipe, if you're a jambalaya purist. But this isn't TOO far off, I think.

Jennelle's Jambalaya

1 small or 1/2 a large yellow onion, diced
4 ribs of celery (about 1-ish cup), diced
1 medium green bell pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 Tbs olive oil
1/2 pound chorizo sausage links, cut into 1/2 inch piecees (andouille sausage is preferred, but chorizo or hot Italian sausage may be substituted)
2 cups diced tomatoes
1 1/3 cup of shrimp stock
3/4 cup of white rice
1/2 pound of U.S. WILD CAUGHT GULF shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tbs paprika
hot sauce to taste
file for garnish (more on this below)

Add oil to a large skillet and turn on heat to medium high. When oil is hot (after 30 seconds or so), add onion, celery and pepper. This is called "the Trinity" or miropaux in cajun cookin'. For good reason. EVERY cajun dish starts with the Trinity. Period. Add the garlic after the veg have softened a bit. Stir all well and cook about 2 minutes until all softened and smell amazing. I usually throw black pepper and salt on at this point. But it's not necessary. Add sausage to skillet and stir until sausage has begun to brown. Add tomatoes, shrimp stock and rice. Season with thyme, cayenne and paprika. Bring mixture to a boil, lower heat and cover, stirring occassionally to prevent rice from sticking. Cook 10 to 15 minutes until liquid is absorbed and rice is tender. Add shrimp. Let simmer about 2 more minutes, stirring constantly, until shrimp is done. You can tell when the deveining cuts down their backs begin to roll back. DO NOT OVERCOOK SHRIMP. It becomes tough and chewy, and should be a cardinal sin. Add hot sauce to taste. Spoon into bowls and top with file. Makes 2 large servings if you're me, but probably 3 normal person servings.

A few notes...

Now, about the file (Fee-lay... I don't know how to add that fancy little accent mark over the "e"). File is easy to come by, but you probably wouldn't realize it. Not at Kroger or Wal-Mart, either. It's in your back yard, most likely, or along the road. File is dried sassafras leaves. That is it. It is used as a table condiment in canjun and creole cookin'. Mostly, it is a thickening agent, which is why you should NEVER add it to the pot while the dish is cooking. It becomes stringy. Added at the table and stirred in just before eating, and it lends a creaminess to already hearty simple peasant food. Making your own file powder is easy. Pick several sassafras leaves off the trees right before they begin to change colors, in the fall, usually around the last week of September. They say to pick the leaves during a full moon to make the best file. Bundle them with some string and hang them in a cool dry place to dry out. After about 3 weeks, you can make the file powder. Carefully cut, with a really sharp knife, the stem out of the middle of the leaf, and any large veins out. I've heard the stems are toxic, but who really knows... I'm not taking any chances. I put the pieces of dried leaves in a food processor, and ground them up. To get an even finer powder, pound the ground up pieces down further with a mortar and pestle. Here's a link to a blog about making your own file powder that I found. It really is that easy.

Also, jambalaya almost always contains chicken, too. But I didn't have any. Like I said, I might stray a little from the traditional dish. One thing I don't waiver on anymore is using U.S. wild caught Gulf shrimp. It's a little more expensive, but worth it. Most of the other shrimp sold at the grocery store is from China and East Asia. I've written about this before here. Seafood is required to have the country of origin on the label, and according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch, Asian shrimp should be avoided because the fishing methods use have such a high percentage of bycatch. Sometimes up to 75%. That means for every 100 pounds of sea life pulled up in these shrimpers' nets, only 25 pounds can be kept, and the other 75 pounds must be tossed over the edge. Not only is it terribly inefficient, but it is significantly detimental to the ocean environment and the fisheries, because the fish tossed back over the edge is largely already dead or dying. U.S. regulations require U.S. shrimpers to use better and more advanced nets that do not pick up as much bycatch. And, let's face it. Gulf shrimpers could use a little boost these days as they are still struggling to overcome both the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina.

You can play around with the recipe and put your own spin on it. I think Jeremy puts a little bit of beer in his jambalaya, but I wouldn't swear to it. Anyway, whoever makes it at my house takes me back to the Cresent City.

Guess what I picked today?

2011-03-19T21:03:00.002-04:00

This is some black seeded simpson lettuce I planted around Thanksgiving. I figured I could get one last harvest for the year in my cold frame, but shortly after I planted it, it got really cold for about three weeks straight and I assumed whatever might have started to grow was surely dead. I didn't think much about it all winter long, but a few weeks ago, I noticed from my window that it looked like there was something GREEN in my cold frame! Sure 'nuff. I actually thought it might be really bitter, having survived a deep freeze and having been planted since late November, but it was actually really good.

A year of food life: 2010

2011-03-16T10:54:00.002-04:00

Food I grew, cooked and ate in 2010.

DARK DAYS CHALLENGE: Weeks 11 and 12

2011-03-06T12:36:00.002-05:00

I've been super busy at work the past couple weeks, but the Hubs and I have made and effort to chef it up on on the weekend when we can take a leisurely pace and enjoy the preparing and eating.

Last Saturday, we made one of his favorite dishes, apricot chicken. It wasn't local enough for a Dark Days meal, but the chicken was from Almost Heaven Farm in Monroe County.

Sunday, we made one of my favorite winter dishes, butternut squash carbonara. I got the recipe from Closet Cooking last year, and it's made its way into my regular rotation.

I think this was the best batch of this I've ever made. Here's the recipe link from last year's Dark Days Challenge when I made the dish the first time.

The pasta was made with flour from Reed's Mill Flours and eggs from Breezy Knoll Farm, both in Monroe County. The pasta sauce had cream from Homestead Creamer in Wirtz, VA, egg from Breezy Knoll Farm, parmesean from the grocery store, bacon from a pig Jeremy's uncle had butchered in Clay County, and butternut squash from Crithfield Farm in Jackson County. I actually bought the squash back in the fall when they were in season and have kept it in my garage. They keep very well. The beer is actually Vandalia Ale by Mountaineer Brewing Company in Martinsburg, WV.

Last night, we made one of our favorite winter recipes we've found this year: stout-braised short ribs. Jeremy actually made the short ribs and I made mashed potatoes and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. We invited my brother to come and eat with us since his girlfriend was out of town this weekend, so I whipped up some apple crisp since we were having company.

The apples were some my mom had canned a while back and needed to be used. I added oats from the grocery store, flour from Reed's Mill, cinnamon, nutmeg and butter. I actually made the vanilla ice cream--no lie. My brother actually got me an ice cream machine I'd asked for at Christmas, and I was ashamed I hadn't used it yet. I finally got around to it last night, and I was so easy! I made vanilla, but now I think I'm ready to start branching out and experimenting. I can't wait till this summer, actually, when fruit is in season, so I can make all kinds of sorbet.

The short ribs came from Swift Level Farm in Monroe County, made with organic carrots, leeks and onions from the grocery store. I added a jar of tomatoes I canned last year, some homemade chicken stock and a bottle of Guiness. The mashed potatoes were made from potatoes from Spangler's Greenhouse in Monroe County, cream and milk from Homestead Creamery and a little bit of all-natural sour cream and some butter from the grocery store.

I was going through the pictures on my phone from the past few weeks to upload onto my computer, and I forgot about this meal: Deep dish pizza.

It's true. Most of the pics on my phone are of food I've eaten. Anyway, I didn't do a blog entry about it, but it was fairly local, and man, was it GOOD.

I was craving some deep dish pizza a couple weeks ago. I was thinking about our trip to Chicago this summer, and decided to find a crust recipe. You can't use a regular pizza crust recipe if you want to be authentic, because Chicago deep dish pizza crust contains cornmeal. I found a recipe on Foodnetwork.com that turned out nicely. The pizza had sausage from that same pig from Jeremy's uncle, frozen bell peppers and spaghetti sauce from the grocery store, organic onions and smoked mozzarella that was on "manager's special" because it was getting ready to expire. Score. The smoked mozzarella made the whole dish because it was something a little extra snd different that you could taste. Delicious!

Also, I am so excited, because yesterday ... I started tomato and pepper seeds!!!

DARK DAYS Week 10: Valentine's DAY

2011-02-14T21:11:00.002-05:00

Well, the hubs and I decided to celebrate Valentine's Day on Saturday, and we did, officially. But, Valentine's Day really was today, and neither one of us had to work late (an rare occurrece this time of year), AND I had some steaks, that I just so happened to put in the fridge to thaw...

So, I supposed we got to celebrate it again, or maybe it was by design. At any rate, this Valentine's Day was definitely a caloric one of us. Today was another "local-ish" meal.

The steaks were sirloin steaks from Swift Level Farm, via the Monroe Farm Market in Monroe County. The potatoes are from Spangler's Greenhouse via Monroe Farm Market, the sour cream is not SOLE, but at least it's all natural (as in 3 ingredients... all of which I can pronounce), the butter is not SOLE either. The bread is from my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book, but didn't really turn out as good as I'd hoped. At any rate, it is made from flour from Reed's Mill Flours in Monroe County and yeast from the grocery store. The dough is too wet, and I think I might just throw it out and start all over.

Look, my steak is red... for Valentine's Day! It tasted like a steak should taste. I put a little Montreal Steak rub on them, and that was it.So juicy and rich.

It paired nicely with the glass of boxed Franzia I drank with it. Sunset blush, no less. I can't complain, though. It was pink, for Valentine's, and it was a gift from a good friend. It and a box of garlic spam. No kidding.

I'm not sure what about me says I like garlic spam and Franzia, but I was grateful nonetheless. I like my wine. I don't discriminate if it's in a box.

Dark Days Challenge Week 9: Valentine's Weekend!!!

2011-02-13T22:07:00.003-05:00

The hubs and I aren't much on restaurant reservations, flowers and jewelry when it comes to Valentine's Day. A few years ago, we ran across a recipe that we've made every year since for Valentine's Day. Now it's a tradition.

Aptly named Rachel Ray's You Won't Be Single for Long Vodka Cream Pasta, it seems super-elegant, but it's actually pretty easy. And delicious. Unfortunately, we gobbled it up before I had a chance to snap pics.

Here's the low down...
Fettucini pasta: all-purpose stone ground white flour from Reed's Mill Flours in Second Creek, WV; egg from Breezy Knoll Farm in Monroe County, water and salt.
Vodka cream sauce: extra virgin olive oil, Land O'Lakes butter, minced garlic, shallots, Ketel One Vodka (all not SOLE), chicken stock made from wing tips leftover from Almost Heaven Farm in Monroe County, tomatoes I canned last summer, heavy cream from Homestead Creamery in Wirtz, VA.

For dessert, as goes our tradition, I made cream brulee.

And, just like the pasta, I didn't even get a pic before we ate them. I suppose it would've ruined the mood if I'd stopped our romantic Valentine's dinner to snap some pics. Cream brulee is so easy. Four ingredients: cream from Homestead Creamery, eggs fro Breezy Knoll Farm, organic raw sugar and REAL vanilla extract. Not the $1.29 chemical crap...

I'll bet you didn't know you'd get a two-fer Dark Days in one post? Yes, the Valentine celebration continued in my kitchen Sunday morning. Waffles with blueberry mint sauce and whipped cream. All. From. Scratch. I swear, I think it made them taste better. I did get a pic of these.

The waffles are the recipe that came with my Kitchenaid mixer. The blueberry mint syrup is some I canned last summer. And did you know that you can make whipped cream from ... well, cream? I've made it before from whipping cream, but I didn't have any . So, I asked "Bing." Sure enough.

The flour is Reed' Mill all purpose stone ground white flour, the eggs are Breezy Knoll Farm eggs, and the milk is from Homestead Creamery. The sugar is organic raw sugar. The butter is not SOLE.

The blueberry syrup is made from mint from my backyard, blueberries from my Mom's home, and sugar. I added cornstarch to thicken it this morning. (You can't can it with the cornstarch.)

Here's how I made the whipped cream:

1 cup heavy cream

1 Tb organic raw sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Add the sugar and vanilla to the cream in a bowl. With a mixer, beat the cream on low, gradually building up the speed as the mixture thickens, until your mixer is wide-open. Now, this part is tricky--knowing when to stop. Beat it too long and it will seperate, and you're on your way to making butter. Don't beat it enough, and it won't hold it's shape. The directions I found online today said to beat it until the surface is no longer shiny. And err on the side of not beating it long enough.

The USDA's new dietary guidelines

2011-02-01T13:42:00.001-05:00

Is anyone else as excited as I am that the USDA unveiled new dietary guidelines yesterday???

Here's the link to them.

No? Well, I was really excited, because they seem to be moving in the right direction. Basically, it says to drink more water, less pop. Enjoy your food, but eat less of it. Also, reduce sodium and fat. And half of your plate should be fruits and veggies.

When I told Jeremy about it, he said "Duh!" Well, it's just not that simple. We all know that was good advice, but I was so surprised because the USDA has historically been supportive of Big Ag. Like Tyson, Cargill and Monsanto. That's why these guidelines are so astounding. They are saying we need to eat less of the products made by Big Ag.

Now, if we could only make the foods they say we should be eating more affordable and accessible...

Secondly...

Guess what I ordered from the Monroe Farm Market yesterday. Smoked Trout! I am so excited to try it.