Back to reality

My oh my, a lot has happened in the last couple days. First of all, I started my summer classes on Monday, launching me back into the real world where I have more to worry about than just food and blogging. Additionally, I am happy to report that I will also be starting a new part-time job next week at Georgetown University! Although it will add 20 more hours of work to my schedule, I am committed to my new life of homemade and unprocessed food. I think the key will be making larger quantities of food on the days I have free time so that I won’t have to work as hard to come up with meals on the days that I’m particularly busy.

The second exciting event of the last few days was a trip to a Virginia farm with a couple friends, one of whom has a share in this particular farm. It may sound trite, but actually seeing how the food was grown along with all of the planning and labor that is involved in making a small family farm successful really made me appreciate the produce I’ve been eating these last few weeks. Not to mention we got some freshly picked salad greens, eggs right out of the chicken coop, seedlings for my home garden, and saw a beautiful peacock hanging out on top of a greenhouse!

Finally, my cooking skills continue to improve and my confidence in the kitchen is growing. I made a batch of whole wheat pasta all by myself (although Kevin was only a few feet away in the living room answering my questions), which I combined with onion, asparagus, and rainbow chard in a creamy white wine sauce.

Also, I made a super easy flatbread from a recipe provided by my lovely Leah: combine 1 cup flour (I used whole wheat), 2/3 cup milk, 2 eggs, pinch of salt and your favorite seasoning (I chopped up fresh rosemary); cook at 400 degrees for 20 minutes; take out of oven, add toppings, return to oven until toppings are hot and cheese is melted.

The week in review

I made it: 1 week down, 51 to go. Every day I’m excited to sample the local foods in my kitchen, learn new cooking techniques and truly understand the origins of everything I consume. Yesterday, I had a good friend over for lunch and hit a major milestone in my adult life: I had enough food in my kitchen to make an entire meal without going to the grocery store. It may not seem like a big deal to some, but for me it means that I’m graduating into adulthood and indicates that I’m cooking at home more than eating out.

Our lunch consisted of a salad with fresh red and green lettuce, tomato, onion, toasted almond slivers, crumbled goat cheese and homemade strawberry vinaigrette. The dressing was made with about a cup of whole fresh strawberries, apple vinegar, olive oil and a bit of honey all mixed with an immersion blender (add olive oil last until you get your desired taste and consistency; ours was on the creamy side). Followed by homemade pasta (flour, eggs and vegetable oil) with diced onion, rainbow chard, tomato, and shredded chicken in a white wine and butter sauce. Almost everything was fresh and local, but it was all delicious.

When I started this challenge, my intention was to meticulously record what I spend, unfortunately that hasn’t exactly worked out as well as planned. However, I can tell you that I spent approximately $200 on all of my groceries for the last seven days. That may seem high, but consider this: I was eating out at least 5 meals out a week, spending an average of $15 each meal; plus $3-5 a day for coffee and bottled water; plus about one $40 trip to the grocery store a week – totaling around $150 – so this week’s total really wasn’t that much more.

Furthermore, I just bought a book about cheese making (which was one of the most expensive local purchases made this week); when I start that endeavor my grocery bill should noticeably decrease. This leaves free range meat and eggs as the most expensive items that I must purchase from a farmer’s market. Hopefully, by growing some of my own vegetables, baking bread and making cheese, I will mitigate the cost of meat and eggs. Only time will tell, but I’m ready for the ride!

Ben & Jerry's Revenge

For those of you who aren’t familiar with my “ground rules”, one of them is that I will not buy anything from a store that has more than four ingredients (to clarify, I’m not opposed to making something myself with 4+ ingredients). Therefore basic items like bread, salad dressing, ice cream, etc. must be homemade by me. Now I don’t want to lead you to believe that I eat a TON of ice cream, but I partake in a fair amount of Ben & Jerry’s (Super New York Fudge Chunk is my favorite followed closely by Strawberry Cheesecake). So perhaps the fact that my mint custard didn't freeze properly in the ice cream machine is some sort of retaliation by Ben and/or Jerry’s to my bold step away from their Vermonty goodness?

I realize that may be a pretty far-fetched scenario; but what is true is that something went awry with my ice cream making last night. I put the chilled custard into the frozen ice cream maker and let it churn… And churn and churn and churn. After nearly an hour in the machine (it’s supposed to take about 40 minutes) the custard was still runny. Kevin tried to thicken it by reheating the custard and adding another egg yolk, but after churning it again this morning nothing changed. I think we need a new recipe… Ben & Jerry: 1; Amanda & Kevin: 0

On the plus side, I put what I had into the freezer and it actually froze quite well; the consistency isn’t exactly correct (it’s a little bit icy) but it tastes really good. And that’s not the only tasty culinary outcome of the day, dinner was delicious: a turnip puree, grilled asparagus, and grilled lamb chops marinated in fresh mint, white wine, lemon juice and honey (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Lemon-Honey-Lamb-Skewers/Detail.aspxx). The recipe is for lamb kabobs, but I just used the marinade portion and it was great. As a side note, we only marinated the chops for 3 hours because the lemon juice started to cook them.

For dessert? A loaf of chocolate strawberry bread that is amazing warm topped with butter. Find the perfect recipe at http://sweetpeaskitchen.com/ (scroll down, its past the lemon whoopee pie recipe).

Save the egg whites

Today was step two of the ice cream making process: making the custard, letting it cool and then putting it into the ice cream maker (where it is now, stay tuned for pictures tomorrow) You can find the recipe at http://www.davidlebovitz.com/2010/05/mint-chip-ice-cream-recipe-chocolate, among other ingredients it calls for 5 egg yolks. Which brought up an interesting topic between Kevin and I: if you can’t taste the ingredient, does it have to be local, organic, etc.? In terms of taste, we both agree that the eggs I bought at the farmer’s market are much better than what we’ve had in the past. However, it comes at a price: free-range eggs from a local farm cost twice as much as those in the grocery store that come from all across the country from chickens who are packed in hen houses like sardines and rarely if ever see daylight.

Kevin’s point is, if we’re just using the eggs as a thickening agent and can’t taste them, is it really necessary to spend more money? One could add: why go out of your way to find a farmer’s market when “Giant Supermarket USA” is right down the street and will sell all the same things plus fruits and vegetables that are out of season in your area for a cheaper price? While I understand this point or view (acutely as I am the one who typically buys the eggs), my choice to purchase eggs from a local farmer is about more than just taste (although that’s a major component). It’s about supporting local farming families who are trying to keep their farms and families afloat in a culture where low prices seem to be more important than taste, sustainability, or another’s well-being. I guess that’s why I’m doing this year-long challenge, to prove to myself that choosing to support local and sustainable business is feasible and also to begin to really appreciate fresh, ripe foods. In the end we both understand the other’s position and ultimately decided that the most important thing is not to waste anything. So, as you might have guessed, there are five egg whites chilling out in my fridge waiting to be made into a healthy fresh omelet tomorrow morning. Also, I just realized today that the greens attached to my farmer’s market turnips are turnip greens (it was a blonde moment, please forgive me). They were a little wilted, but I threw them in a pan with olive oil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and they tasted pretty darn good.

Nothing will be wasted in this household.

Cheese sauce saves the day

After yesterday’s “fowl up”, I was a little nervous to step back into the kitchen today and at a loss as to what to make for dinner. Lunch was easy: a great big salad full of veggies from the farmer’s market and chicken from last night. However, I had no clear idea of what to make for dinner; my farmer’s market haul is starting to get a little low and I’m not super experienced in the kitchen. So I spent a little bit of time googling, looked through my fridge and pantry and tried to channel my mother’s inventiveness (no matter what we had on hand, she always managed to make something work).

Finally, I found a basic cheese sauce recipe that called for butter (check), flour (check), heavy cream (check) and havarti (nope, but I do have Mountaineer, an “alpine-style cow’s milk cheese” from a dairy in Virginia – that will work). I used the last of my store bought pasta, asparagus, bacon and chicken breast to make a pretty yummy pasta dish. Paired with a glass of chenin blanc (I thought it was from VA, but just realized it’s from California… Oops – I invoke the drinking exception) it was quite tasty.

I also got started on some homemade mint chocolate chip ice cream. A good friend was kind enough to let me borrow her ice cream maker, so I started the process by heating up some heavy cream, whole milk and sugar with a big bunch of fresh mint from our yard. I’m letting it sit in the fridge until tomorrow to really infuse it with mint flavor. Looks good so far, I’m pretty excited!!

Roast chicken and bird s#*t

The main event of the day was my attempt to roast the whole chicken I purchased at the farmer’s market. Overall, it went pretty well although I was a little nervous about cooking it thoroughly. I ended up taking the temp three times until it got to the recommended165 degrees and still had to throw the leg I ate in the microwave before eating it... Kevin is recooking the remaining pieces as we speak (I also had trouble trying to break it down, so I gave up and let him do it this evening). I think I will do a couple things differently next time: first, buy a smaller chicken (this one was 4.5 lbs, I think I’ll go with 2.5 to 3lbs next time) to speed up the cooking process; and second, increase the oven temp by about 50 degrees. Although I had trouble with the temp, the flavor was really good so I included the preparation below.

Also, the carrots I cut up didn’t quite cook properly; I think that’s because they were old and getting a little dry. Typically I would have put more veggies under the chicken (probably a mirepoix which is a combination of carrots, celery and onions), but I only had carrots on hand from before I started this challenge so I went with them and their lack of quality and freshness was clear.

Kevin’s Roast Chicken

Start with a brine the night before you plan on cooking the chicken:
Fill a pot large enough to fit your chicken about halfway with water, add salt (about 1 cup), and 5 whole cloves.
Bring to a boil and turn off heat.
Be sure you cool the water down before placing the chicken in the pot (otherwise it will begin to cook), we added ice cubes until the brine was cool.
Let sit overnight, but dump out brine first thing in the morning.

Chicken Prep:
Stuff with a handful of thyme, oregano, rosemary and one lemon or lime cut into quarters.
Coat skin with olive oil and light salt and pepper.

Cook to appropriate temp.

If you’ve read this far then you get the gratification of hearing the chicken s#*t portion of the title. While the chicken was cooking I went outside to read and enjoy the sunshine. I cleaned off the table and chair and practically skipped with glee into the house to grab a book and some strawberry rhubarb crisp. I got back outside and sat down without a second thought, directly onto a fresh pile of bird poo. Apparently they were protesting my new found interest in cooking their feathered friend.

For the record, I’m not above eating a pigeon.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crumble

Its day 2 and my confidence continues to grow; I successfully made a strawberry rhubarb crumble and homemade whipped cream. I think I burned enough calories whipping the cream by hand to justify all the sugary goodness of the crumble. The recipe for the crumble can be found at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Rhubarb-Strawberry-Crunch/Detail.aspx. I only had about 2 ½ cups of strawberries and even less rhubarb, so I made mine in an 8x8 baking dish and it worked quite well. It’s a little bit juicy when you cut into it, but I think it tastes great. The rhubarb is especially nice because its tanginess cuts the sweetness of the strawberries and crumble topping perfectly. As for the whipped cream, I just used 1 cup organic heavy cream and then added in a tablespoon of powdered sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract just before the peaks began to form.

Overall I’m finding it fairly easy to stick to eating local organic food and I haven’t purchased anything with more than four ingredients. Since the point of this whole experiment is to use what is close by, I have been using the non-organic/local ingredients that were already in my kitchen including pasta, bacon and raisin bran. Here is an outline of my meals yesterday and today (the asterisk indicates an item already in my pantry and the “o” is for things that are organic but NOT local):

Day 1

Breakfast: 3 scrambled eggs with green onion and tomato, homemade bread, strawberries, coffee(o) with half & half(o)
Lunch: whole wheat pasta* with bacon*, rainbow chard, tomatoes and parmesan*
Snack: 1 slice homemade bread with peanut butter* and strawberry jam*
Dinner: leftover lunch pasta
After dinner: several glasses of chardonnay which led to my abuse of the restaurant exception because I was hungry and sitting in Kevin’s restaurant waiting for him to finish his shift. I couldn’t drive home to get food, so I ate some Rueben eggrolls and spring rolls.

Day 2

Breakfast: raisin bran* and milk(o), coffee(o) with half & half(o)
Lunch: homemade bread sandwich with melted cheese from Mountaineer Meadow (a dairy in VA), lettuce, tomato and cucumber; salad with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and goat cheese from MD and balsamic vinaigrette*
Snack: strawberry rhubarb crumble with whipped cream!!

Also, I bought:
organic powdered sugar – 3.99
organic toasted oats – 2.89
organic heavy whipping cream – 3.19
cow cheese from VA – 12.39
goat cheese from MD – 13.99

With a .10 bag credit and tax my total was: $37.26

Ready, Set, Go... to the Farmer's Market

I CAN BAKE BREAD!!! Look, there’s the evidence: three beautiful, edible loaves of honey wheat bread; and it tastes really good! After one false start (I used all purpose flour instead of bread flour and although I’m sure it would’ve been fine, I really wanted this first batch to be true to the recipe before I start adding or changing things), and about three hours of kneading, rising, punching and baking, I took my first ever bun out of the oven. (Find the recipe at http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/simple-whole-wheat-bread/Detail.aspx)

It was a good confidence boost going into day 1 of my process-less food challenge. I channeled my grandma Bonnie, who was an excellent cook, to help me along the way. I wore her circa 1960’s apron and kept her marble rolling pin on hand for moral support (as it turns out that you don’t need a rolling pin for bread making). Leah also came over for dinner and provided some much needed encouragement.

Now, to the matter at hand: today is challenge day 1. The farmer’s market was plentiful to say the least, if not a little overwhelming. I tried to get things that I know are in peak season, like rainbow chard and lettuce; however, I saw some items that confused me as well, mainly apples. Aren’t those is season during the fall? It made me question the farm they came from, so I looked up their website and it looks like they grow a lot of plants in greenhouses. I think that might be why they get things like apples and cucumbers so early? Anyhow, I got a lot of great stuff, but for more money than I would normally spend at the grocery store. Hopefully it will last me nearly the whole week. I’m worried that I made a rookie mistake and got too many fresh veggies at one time; I don’t want any of them to go bad. Stay tuned for an update on spoilage later this week.

In the interest of full disclosure, I spent about $100 today and I’ve listed everything I got at the market below. Unfortunately, I forgot to write down how much each item costs but I promise to be more diligent on the next trip.

Farmer’s Market Haul:
Rainbow chard
Turnips
Head of lettuce (not sure what kind, there wasn’t a sign)
Green onions
5 vine ripened tomatoes
2 mini English cucumbers
4 stalks of rhubarb
Crate of strawberries
Asparagus
Dozen eggs
1 whole chicken
3 lamb chops

Crying over shriveled cilantro

My goodness, it has been a crazy 24 hours! The first thing I have to share is completely unrelated to food, weight, organics or anything else of import really, but I can’t keep it to myself. During our red-eye flight back to DC Kevin and I had the, uh, pleasure (read: extreme sarcasm) of sitting behind the smartest hippie in the world. All I have to say is thank God it was an overnight flight, otherwise we would have been forced to listen to him prattle on and on to the woman sitting next to him and every female flight attendant on board for the full 5 1/2 hours. Purely for posterity’s sake, we took a picture of his awesome hairdo to share with the world. It might not be completely clear, but you are looking at a mullet with dread locks. I started calling it a drullet (dreads + mullet), but it just doesn’t have the right ring to it. Suggestions are welcome.

Back to the matter at hand: my poor shriveled cilantro. Right before leaving for Oregon I planted several herbs and left strict instructions that they not be killed in my absence. Unfortunately, I didn’t count on Kevin joining me for the last four days of my trip, so this is what I came home to. I’m already a nervous gardener: the day I planted the herbs it was raining and I must have moved them from outside to inside and back again 3 times; so this doesn’t exactly boost my confidence. Between you and me, I think if this little guy (and his friend parsley over to the left) doesn’t perk up by Monday I’m just going to get a new one and start over. Despite my nervousness, I will also be planting the vegetable garden this week, prayers and/or good vibes are welcome.

Since returning home I’ve taken my first trip to My Organic Market, or MOM’s, to grab a few items and prepare to bake my first loaves of bread this evening. The gravity of my decision to live a less processed food life is beginning to sink in. Not only does EVERYTHING have more than four ingredients, but the prices are notably higher. A half gallon of organic milk from PA (the closest that I could find to VA at this store) was $3.49, that’s pretty close to what I was paying for a full gallon of non-organic mass produced milk before. But my resolve is not shaken, I made a commitment and I intend to stay the course for the next 366 days.

OK, I’ve done what I’m good at for the day (spending money), now time to venture into uncharted territory… I will not burn the bread, I will not burn the bread, I will not burn the bread…

Baseline

So I made it, two weeks and two deaths later, I’m on my way home; time to focus on the road ahead. With Barbara Kingsglover as my guide and the support of my wonderful mother (my boyfriend Kevin is still on the fence, mostly about the blogging portion; he is not “into” social media – that’s right, he’s one of those people without a Facebook account) I am about to venture into uncharted territory: the kitchen.

Anyone who knows me will tell you that I am no Martha Stewart, more a Marie Callender of the microwaveable variety. So the thought of baking bread and canning is daunting to say the least, but I’m mentally preparing and googling like it is my job. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this before, but I set my official challenge start date as this Saturday, May 7, 2011 because that will be my first trip to the local farmer’s market.

I think that it is important to establish some sort of baseline as well to measure my change and (hopefully) success. But since I’m not comfortable sharing my weight with the world (although I’m pretty sure the world isn’t reading this there’s a slight chance that it’s more than just Aunt Brenda and Kaleena – who I LOVE for following me- so I’m going to keep my lips shut), I’ll share my current eating habits. Today is fairly representative of a normal day for me:

-Breakfast: 2 cups of coffee with half & half, bowl of raisin bran with 1% milk
-Lunch: Turkey and white cheddar sandwich on ciabatta bun from a cafe, half a large bag of pretzel M & M’s, red Gatorade
-Dinner: Roasted chicken leg and breast, green beans, ¼ corn on the cob, salad with vinaigrette, 2 microbrews
-Airport: 2 20 oz. microbrews, shot if patron (it is Cinco de Mayo after all) and bread and fondue… probably more to come… (to eat, not dirnk!!)

Ground Rules

Every challenge needs some ground rules, so after careful consideration I’ve come up with some guidelines for this year-long journey:

1. I will not buy food from a grocery store that has more than four ingredients (which is how I am defining “processed food”).
2. I will buy as many items as possible from Virginia and Maryland.
3. I will know where all of my food comes from and will make every effort to buy “fair trade” items (like coffee, tea and chocolate) when I have to buy something that can’t be produced locally.
4. I will not burn down the house.

Of course for every rule, there is an exception and this is no different. I will not give up eating out from time-to-time; trying new restaurants is something that my boyfriend and I really enjoy doing when we both have a day off. Also, I will not be actively seeking out alcohol that is locally produced. I will make a good faith effort to buy beer from local breweries, but I will not refrain from drinking if I can’t find any or it is ridiculously expensive.

On that note, I will also do my best keep track of what I’m spending. I’m hoping that over the course of the year we will see that there isn’t a big price difference between my current diet and this new one. Although my spending at first will probably seem high, I’m planning on doing a lot of drying and canning that I hope will provide me with food during the winter and balance out that initial expense.

Life and Death

Have you ever wished that someone was dead? No, I’m not talking about a certain leader of a well-known terrorist organization; although considering recent events I would imagine that is the first thought that pops into many people’s head when posed with this question. So let me rephrase: have you ever wished that someone you loved dearly would die? It’s a bizarre statement to make and perhaps even more surreal to read it as I type, but I must answer in the affirmative; watching a loved one suffer is horrible.

The last week has been a whirlwind of emotion and surprise. I knew my trip back home to Oregon would not be the usual fun vacation I’m accustomed to, but I don’t think I realized the degree of loss and sadness I would ultimately experience. I boarded a plane at Regan National Airport last Saturday, near my current residence in Alexandria, VA to return home to visit my Uncle Bill who was admitted to a hospice the day before. In a surprising and upsetting turn of events, his twin brother (my Uncle Jim) died in his home sometime the following day on Easter Sunday. Maybe it was some weird cosmic twin connection, but needless to say it has been a rollercoaster week.

I don’t mean to be a “Debbie Downer”, but I think it’s important to bring up this week’s events because they have prompted a major lifestyle change as well as this (narcissistic?) jump into the blogosphere. I don’t know how your family mourns, but I can tell you that we mourn through food. Eating familiar comfort foods somehow makes life seem a little better and eases the pain. Perhaps this because it’s extremely difficult to cry while shoving gooey homemade lasagna into your mouth, or blow a runny nose while simultaneously blowing piping hot chicken soup. Whatever the reason, for me food is a method of coping and based on my current figure, I’ve been dealing with a lot this year.

With that said, and inspiration from Barbara Kingsglover’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I’ve decided to attempt to alter my relationship with food. Mainly I’d like to break up with processed foods and begin a serious relationship with locally grown organic fruits, vegetables and meats. As a chronic dieter, I know that restricting what I eat will only lead to late night binging and inevitable defeat, so the goal of this project is not to lose weight (although I’d be lying to say I don’t want that to happen as a result of this experiment), but rather to eat a healthier more well-rounded diet that consists of foods whose origins are known to me. More specific rules to follow... Here goes nothing!