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

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…

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!