To Thine Own Self, Be Food

The New Path

2012-03-09T08:44:00.000-08:00

So mote it be.

I suppose things are not quite set in stone, and can change any moment...but there's no harm in making an announcement, I reckon?

No major life happenings notwithstanding, I am enrolling in the local community college in the fall - I have been accepted to the Culinary Arts program.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

What does this mean now? My own restaurant or bakery? Working with Anne Burrell? Being on a Food Network television? Using my school knowledge and degree to plan fabulous meals at home?

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Thankfully, out of those I've told of my college plans, nobody has asked what I plan to do once I graduate. I have no idea anyway right now...and that's way too far down the road anyway. All I know right now is that school is the first step into the wide unknown.

Take a look at this first term:

- Computer Essentials
- Safety/Sanitation
- Food Service Technology
- Culinary Skills Lab
- Food Service Lab I
- Math Principles

Not terribly exciting, but then check these later courses out:

- Cold Food Principles
- Stocks, Soups, Sauces (I hope to roux, do you?)
- Basic AND Advanced Baking
- Culinary Nutrition
- Shellfish, Poultry, Meats
- International Cuisine (Lab and Excursion)

Yeah. I'm pretty excited. But scared. And nervous.

I've Got Recipes In Unorthodox Places

2012-03-01T18:58:00.002-08:00

(To the tune of Garth Brooks's "I've Got Friends in Low Places")

...where the chocolate chips drown and the pumpkin chases...

my blues away...

I've had incredible luck with desserts in the last two days. And no, the recipes have not come from fancy cookbooks endorsed by any Food Network personality.

Recipe #1: Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Location: the side of a box of Oat Wise cereal

Oat Wise cereal? It's likely you've never heard of Oat Wise cereal...but you probably have heard of its more popular counterpart - Life Cereal. Who would have thought an amazing recipe for cookies lie on the side of an little known store-brand breakfast cereal? Huh. Well, as the late Davy Jones might have said..."I'm a believer..."

2/3 c. sugar (or substitute)
1/3 c. brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. (or stick) butter, softened
1/3 c. peanut butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups Oat Wise (or Life) cereal
1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Beat sugars, butter, and peanut butters until creamy. Beat egg and vanilla in well. Combine flour and baking soda and add to butter mixture. Mix well. Add cereal and chips, mix well. Drop by level teaspoon (I use a cookie scoop) onto cookie sheet 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake 9 to 10 minutes until light golden brown. Let stand a few minutes for placing on racks to cool.

I apologize for having no photos of the cookies...but honestly, I was so dang excited at how well they turned out and how well they tasted, I forgot about the camera.

Recipe #2 : Pumpkin Crunch Dessert
Location: the top of a styrofoam box of Country Daybreak farm fresh eggs

1 box yellow cake mix
1 15 oz. pureed pumpkin
1 12 oz. can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1 1/2 c. sugar (or substitute)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c. chopped pecans
1 c. butter, melted
Cool Whip, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9 x 13 baking pan.

Combine pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl or mixer. Pour into greased pan. Sprinkle dry cake mix evenly over pumpkin mixture and top with pecans. Drizzle melted butter over pecans. Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden brown. Cool fully and top with whipped cream, if desired.

Disclaimer: Neither of these recipes are on the heart- and waist-healthy side. Everything in moderation...moderation is key. You make three dozens cookies, eat one or two and take the rest to friends or a meeting or such. Same with the pumpkin dessert (going to my college kids tomorrow before they take their midterm). Without a doubt, there are healthier substitutions out there, and it's wholly possible to end up with a delicious, less-guilty product.

My advice: when you see a recipe in a most unlikely place (store-brand cereal, off-brand carton of eggs)...try it. You might have the next heirloom cookie recipe on your hands.

On the Shores of the Aegean...

2012-02-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

Last night, my mom, a friend, and her mom traveled to the local community college for a night of healthy cuisine. The theme: the Mediterranean. Oh yeah...

In a nutshell, here's the key: red wine + olive oil + spices + garlic.

After finally locating the actual classroom and registering and standing around for a few minutes, we were soon divvied up in half. First up - a red wine vinaigrette (red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic, mustard). All the ingredients were measured out and prepped for us, so we just whisked it all together before tasting it on some salad greens.

Delicious, but a little disillusioning as we saw the student chefs referencing a recipe from EatingWell.com. We weren't eating some kind of fancy homebrew, but yet, if we wanted to duplicate the dressing, we knew where to get the recipe.

Then, it was onto the chicken curry (chicken, oil, rice, chicken broth, coriander, curry, cayenne). We stood with our saute pans at the stovetop while students ladled ingredients in for us. Again, a little unexpected as none of the students informed us why we were using the spices, what each spice contributed to the dish, etc.

All chicken curry was collected in a big metal pan for further cooking in the oven. And we were off to the red wine risotto (italian rice, red wine, beef broth). In general, risotto is good, but it takes a while to cook. The instructors added broth to our pans for us, often without telling why or what the point was. I think we maybe stirred the rice in our pans for a half-hour maybe? After that, we at least got to eat it right away, and it was savory-yummy.

At this point, it's a little after seven (class started at six), and we now had several minutes to loiter in the hallway waiting for the other half to finish their two pasta dishes.

The student instructors here did not refer to recipes, but thankfully, it was pretty simple: throw some vegetables in a saute pan, drizzle olive oil, splash white wine, cook until tenderish. Toss it all together with some egg noodles. We did a red bell pepper and sweet potato pasta (shredded sweet potatoes! must remember this!). We ended the evening with a pan-seared breaded chicken breast, topped with another pasta-sauteed vegetable-white wine combination. That last entree was delicious...the wine taste was very evident, which might put off some, but not me!

It was about quarter after nine before we'd packed up all of our to-go-home food and began the half-hour trip home. While we enjoyed the class, we all agreed that some parts of the evening could have used improvement. The downtime, the lack of "instruction" were all negatives. One of the ladies suggested that since many of the recipes were from a website, next time we could pool our $25 a piece and buy food ourselves to cook at someone's house.

And...we could DRINK the wine while we douse our food with it! Win-win situation!

Huzzah! Food and Drink!

2012-02-19T17:31:00.000-08:00

Our family stepped back through the portals of time tonight to...The Middle Ages.

Sort of.

Spencer has just finished his 12-week study on the medieval time period, and one of his final projects was to plan and help prepare an era-appropriate "feast". A few days' of research produced recipes for a soup/stew dish called 'pottage' and Caraway Rye bread (courtesy of www.medievalplus.com and www.allrecipes.com)

A simple repast for a family of peasants.

Pottage is a soup that containing mostly vegetables (and whatever other substantial foodstuffs were available.) Spencer and I chucked twelve cups of water, powdered chicken broth and a bag of dried split peas in with chopped carrots, onion, celery, and potatoes (the last two weren't on the recipe, but they were shriveling in my crisper, so...into the pot they went). The pottage then boiled down for a hour and a half before I took out (and added back in) six cups for puree, for thickness. In the end, here's what we got:

Looks a lot like split-pea soup, yes?

The cooking down turns everything in a homogeneous slop...but then again, presentation and taste weren't exactly the headliners for medieval fare.

While the pottage is more of a Western European food, Caraway Rye bread is more Eastern Europe. I was surprised by how simple it is: rye flour, all-purpose flour, olive oil, brown sugar, water, yeast. Mix, knead for ten minutes, let it rise for 90 minutes, punch and roll it out. Shape it into two round dough balls and let rise another 30 minutes before baking for 25 minutes at 375.

And what you get is:

After this meal, Spencer explained the rules to two popular games called Fox and Geese and Nine Men's Morris.

Medieval food? Medieval games? Win-win situation tonight!

More on "Extra Virginity"

2012-02-10T18:04:00.001-08:00

I am actually embarrassed to write this, because I am terrible at writing book reviews. I don't take any notes as I read (and I should), and so really, by the time I finish the book (and depending on how long it took), I'm not giving a very, good accurate review.

So now that I've destroyed my credibility, watch me go!

A month or so ago, I was listening to an NPR program called "The Splendid Table", and the fascinating topic of discussion was 'Green Soup'. Naturally, I was impelled to look the soup recipe up online, and found it to be very complicated. But what caught my interest right next to the recipe was an interview with Tom Mueller, the author of the book "Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil".

It's a book. A book about food. Well, you know me, I'm in. So I bought it for my Kindle.

Olives and olive oil are old. We all know that. They've been around since ancient Greek times. The author tells an interesting tale of its history, interwoven with stories from Old World olive growers. Olive oil was once extremely revered, used in Olympic Games, religious sacraments, and even for personal grooming rituals. But it was also very versatile, having many, many uses besides food.

However, as industry changed, so did the scruples.

Olive oil growers, shippers, and producers learned over the last several centuries that extra-virgin (read: the first press juice, aka the best) olive oil could be diluted/adulterated with cheaper oils (e.g. pomace, cottonseed). And really, only the conscientious, true connoisseurs know when it's really EVOO...which meant a lot of hardworking, everyday people were getting swindled. Also, throw in some ineffective government regulations and corrupt customs officials, and fake olive oil goes beyond the borders of the Mediterranean.

Along with huge corporation monopolies and the corruption that goes with it, Americans (who are beginning to love olive oil) are suffering from the little to no governmental regulation for olive oil growers/producers, and that means the likelihood that we're consuming fake olive oil is very, very high. However, a few dedicated Europeans and Americans and Australians are trying to change that. And that's the hopeful note this book ends on.

As for me, key points/revelations:

1. I want to eat more extra-virgin olive oil. But, more than likely, anything I buy at a grocery store will be lampante (lamp oil).

2. I want to go to Italy.

3. I want to go to the place mentioned in the previous post.

4. People need to stop trying to cheat us. A lot.

Book Review, In a Nutshell

2012-02-08T19:41:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I just finished reading this book:

And now, I want to visit this place in Southern California: The Olive Press

Perhaps tomorrow I'll elaborate.

Recipe Nirvana

2012-02-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

It's one of my goals to know a recipe so inside and out that I could do it without ever referring to the stained index card I'd scribbled the directions on. Alas, there is nothing I make so frequently that I *could* prepare it without a recipe.

Until now.

I've gotten into a bit of a groove now with the new semester and new schedule. Tuesday and Thursday are my days off, and thus, they are my bread-baking days. Remember that I'd begun my sourdough starter in August, and thus, I've been in the habit since August (six months!). For many of those months, I was using a recipe out of a book I'd borrowed from the library. Can't say I really cared for it, but I hadn't found anything better...

until I came across the Rustic Sourdough bread recipe at the King Arthur Flour website (www.kingarthurflour.com). And yes, indeed, I'd struck gold. And you can find that recipe here.

And yes, just last week, I reached recipe memorization. I've made the KAF bread so often now, I've committed the recipe to memory. The recipe itself is a two-loaf batch, and my new Breville mixer was having a tough time with all that dough...but, I resolved that dilemma by mixing it in batches of two. Solved!

Here's another little fun thing I discovered, just this week: by adding a teaspoon of allspice to one of the doughs, I'd made a delicious "sweet" bread perfect for French toast. I'd like to try some chicken bouillon next for a savory loaf.

A New Way of Food Spending Leads to (Sort of) Complicated Thoughts Processes

2012-01-22T10:43:00.000-08:00

Since the beginning of January, my husband and I have instituted a new way of spending money on food.

We pay cash.

A Mason jar sit atop our bedroom dresser; it contains ones, fives, tens, and twenties. Anytime we run to the grocery store or to a restaurant for a meal, we use only cash from the jar. Let me tell you, when there's a limited amount of greenage, you really rethink your choices.

"We're having barbequed chicken sandwiches tonight...hmmm, should I shell out $2 bucks for a package of hamburger buns? Or shall I thaw out a loaf of homemade sourdough bread in my freezer for the sandwiches (and make another loaf later) instead?"

It's an easy choice, don't you think? How about this one?

"Should I buy the prepeeled and precut baby carrots for snacking or the cheaper bagged carrots, which I will have to peel and cut myself?"

Yeah, it's a no-brainer to me, too. I'll take what's behind door number two.

But, as always, there's a fine line to walk. In the case of the carrots, I'd rather not pay more for the convenience of prepeeled and cut vegetable...choosing instead to do it myself.

However, many other aisles of the grocery store contain items that forfeit taste and nutrition for price. Too many for my level of comfort...that's why I now bake my own bread. I did not want bread that contained high fructose corn syrup or other artificial, processed ingredients...but I chafed at paying over $3 a loaf for it. Especially when, for right around $2, there's a nice-sized loaf of sturdy (albeit highly processed) sandwich bread readily available. Economically speaking, it would have been better to purchase the store brand "wheat" bread for the six people in my family.

But, psychologically, mentally, ethically, morally? The homemade bread is the way to go. I know what goes in it...about five ingredients, really, and I can pronounce them all.

Other choices I make require similar arduous thought: I have all the ingredients to make chocolate chip cookies...except chocolate chips. But, how badly do I *really* want to spend at least $2 on choc chips?? While my family will enjoy the end result, the bathroom scale will eventually reflect that I too enjoyed them more than I ought to have. Which leaves me feeling guilty and in the end, I SHOULD HAVE JUST NOT MADE THEM!

Yeah, sometimes, the food purchase choices are easy-peasy...and sometimes they are quite complex and usually end up with my own self-castigation. But, this is good, right? A little scolding now and then is relished by the wisest men.

Oh Reuben!

2012-01-10T19:27:00.000-08:00

First, a silent moment of thanks to the person (it's disputed - either a guy in Omaha or a guy in New York) who decided to combine the flavors of corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing...and then named it after himself.

And...let's also send up a second wave of appreciation for the person who thought to make it into a pizza.

I happened to have a phenomenal Reuben at Stein's Market & Deli in New Orleans recently, and within two days of my arrival home, a recipe for 'Reuben Pizza' was in my gmail inbox from www.allrecipes.com.

Fate? Coincidence? I didn't ponder that question very long. I simply decided I must make that pizza...

And what a simple process.

A basic pizza has: pizza crust, tomato sauce, variety of toppings (indefinite), and mozzarella cheese. A Reuben pizza makes the following substitutions: Thousand Island dressing = tomato sauce, corned beef or pastrami AND canned sauerkraut = indefinite variety of toppings, Swiss cheese = mozzarella.

Assemble as such: dressing, beef, sauerkraut, cheese. Easy-breezy-peasy. Looks like this:


Can you detect all the layers of awesomeness here?

My apologies for not taking an picture straight out of the oven, but honestly, my husband, my daughter, and myself were verily frothing at the mouth with ravenous hunger. I could barely cut it without being overtaken by starving hordes.

Now, I make my pizza crust dough in the bread machine, which I think makes a significant difference in final product, but the highlight is the Reuben taste, which will come through no matter what kind of dough you use.

I won't vouch for healthy calories here...I mean, after all, full-fat salad dressing, corned beef, Swiss cheese? Yeah. But, by the time everything's piled on, it's a hearty, substantial pie. One piece, really, will be enough.

Or at least it should be.

Reuben in moderation, folks. That's what I'm saying.

Cash In Hand Makes a Difference (US Gov't - Take Note)

2012-01-08T19:44:00.000-08:00

Two grocery shopping excursions into the month of January have already provided fruit for reflection.

Per one of our January resolutions, we withdrew cash from the ATM machine about seven days ago...with the sole purpose of using it for groceries and eating out.

The idea behind this experiment is if we limit ourselves to a fixed amount of money for food every month, maybe we'll be forced to analyze or reorganize our eating habits...for the betterment of our waistlines and pocketbooks.

And let me tell you, when you only take $100 to the local supermarket exclusively for food purchase, you do start reevaluating your habits.

A disclaimer first: due to deals I'd taken advantage of in November and December, not to mention trips to Costco, our freezer is set right now in the meat department. Thus, it's possible my numbers for the next month will be skewed, since high meat costs won't be part of my bill.

First of all, I pay much more attention to prices and deals and coupons. Naturally, right? Also, where I spend my money is much more crucial. It's been a few years since I've purchased boxed or prepared meals, etc, but I look now for more bang for the buck. A bag of lentils proves much more versatile and costworthy than a tube of hamburger. (Just last week I tried lentil burgers on the whole crew - and yes, we knew we weren't eating meat...but hey, everyone ate theirs!)

My list now tends to contain mostly fresh produce and dairy, and that is what I mostly stick to. Just this morning I skipped about six aisles in the middle of the store...and did what nutritionists, doctors, food gurus, et al. refer to "shopping the perimeter".

In the end, I procured most of the items to prepare the following meals for dinner this week:

Crockpot Hamburger-Veg Soup
Reuben Pizza (You *know* I'm excited for this one)
Pork Roast
Lasagna
BBQ Chicken Sandwiches
Cobb Salad

Remember, I'm feeding five people in addition to myself...and my total bill today was around $57. I anticipate another trip later this week to pick up some blue cheese crumbles and green peppers...but that's it. And that's good for me.

So I got to thinking (which I do sometimes, but not much around the holidays), suppose the government followed this same principle?

Suppose government officials only spent cash they actually had in their hands? If they shopped the perimeter, what things/agencies/positions wouldn't make it into the shopping cart?

*author pause for audience reflection*

You see, that's what "Be Food" is all about! Food, and everything related to it, is a giant metaphor for me...for life. It's how I make sense of the world! It's how I solve problems!

huzzah!

Fun With Tomato Juice

2012-01-02T19:09:00.000-08:00

This blog entry has quite a backstory, but I'll sum it up quickly.

In making the mega-batch of Red Sauce, I drained roughly 32 oz of juice from a large can of diced tomatoes. "Waste not, want not", so I froze the leftover liquid, to be used at a later time.

That time was today. My original thought was to concoct a chili or similar, but then...I had ideas!

Searching online, I found a recipe for Tomato-Basil soup at www.allrecipes.com. With slight modifications (I had no crushed tomatoes or fresh basil) to the soup, today's lunch was soup and grilled cheese sandwiches. Raves all around, and I guess now I can say goodbye to Campbell's Tomato Soup.

Thank you - allrecipes.com!

That left me with another 20 or so ounces of remaining tomato juice, and I was hankering to do something crazy with it. And what would be on the other end of the tomato usage spectrum, if innocent, comforting tomato soup is on the another?

The Bloody Mary, of course! Bloody Maries make me think of my mom...not in an alcoholic, Mommie Dearest-type way...in an one-adult-enjoying-a-drink-with-another-adult type way. So, another search online turned up a recipe for "Kick Ass Bloody Mary"...and I was sold. The result? Very, very good. Spicy. Tomato-ey. Definitely a keeper...not to mention, cheaper than anything I'd find in a bar or buy in a store.

Pic courtesy of www.formerchef.com

Huzzah to lycopene goodness!

A Photo Narrative: New Orleans Food

2011-12-31T06:30:00.000-08:00

New Orleans' Donut - the Beignet. Powdered sugary goodness.


A very unflattering picture of my son eating a fried gator Po-Boy.

The New Orleans trifecta: jambalaya, red beans and rice, and shrimp etouffee

Smothered crabcakes

Brent's pleasant surprise: a muffaletta

My new passion: The Reuben

And yeah, a culinary tour of New Orleans isn't complete without a seafood dish of some kind!

I Love the Library, I Love the Kitchen

2011-12-17T19:55:00.000-08:00

For your viewing pleasure, a photo narrative...

But first - context. God Bless Andrew Carnegie and his public library idea. I often forget what a veritable treasure trove my public library is, especially in regards to cookbooks. Supposedly, my husband is a fan of beets...although I've seen him eat them, oh, a half a dozen times. In FIFTEEN years. Anyway...

I've been quite prejudiced against the blood-red root veg, and I think it comes from my dishwashing days (as a young teen) at my aunt and uncle's restaurant. Cold pickled beet juice combined with cottage cheese residue congealed into a bright pink mess on salad plates I was to scrape clean? Did people actually eat that? Disgusting! And I harbored that bias for a long time...

But, if there's any conviction that we here at "Be Food" (and by 'we', I mean me) try to adhere to, it's that life is about learning and letting go. So - let's roast some beets!

Mind over matter, is my motto. Generally, pickling is not a preferred method of food preparation for me, but roasting - hey! - totally different matter, mind you.

This cookbook here had a recipe for Herb-Roasted Root Vegetables. Serendipitous, no? I found beets and parsnips at the grocery store, and cubed them with the more familiar potatoes and carrots. Tossed with rosemary, olive oil, salt and pepper, the roasting then commenced.

A word to the wise, though. When the recipe tells you to stop partway through and shake or stir the food in the pans, you should do that. Otherwise, the vegs burn a little...and that might repulse some folk. But us? We don't turn our noses up at a little thing like charcoal.

Discovery? I found that I can stomach beets this way, roasted and seasoned. My husband is happy.

The beets tonight accompanied a Roasted Chicken dish. The planets must have been in total alignment because the meat was tender and juicy and flavorful - as you can see by taking a look at Mr. Cooked Chicken here. He's dead and roasted, and thus, incapable of covering himself. I apologize for his immodesty.

Book #2 from the library was this tome right here. The kid on the cover looks nothing like my seven-year-old, but who cares? Elliot picked out the "Black and White Chocolate Pudding Cake" for our dessert tonight. And well....

The recipe claims this cake is a "cross between a brownie and chocolate pudding". And that, my friends, is pretty darned astute.

This hot, chocolatey mess was very, very good over vanilla ice cream.

The final experiment on the culinary docket tonight was a shot-in-the-dark from this book:

For me, a cookbook gets my Seal of Approval when I can pronounce most of the ingredients in any given recipe, and I can easily find said ingredients in my small southeastern Iowa town.

And, a double plus for recipes that are easy-peasy because I happen to have -on hand- the ingredients to make it right then and there. As was the case with the Gingerbread Loaf recipe in this book.

Not a bad lookin' loaf, is it? Pretty tasty, too, I would add. Not for eating with ham and cheese or bologna sandwiches, but I'm thinking I might test this loaf out on the family tomorrow in the form of French Toast.

A productive, wonderfully exhausting day in the kitchen. I must now conserve my strength, as next week I tackle that juggernaut known as holiday baking.

The Army Marches On!

2011-12-04T19:52:00.000-08:00

First of all - welcome back to To Thine Own Self, Be Food! It has been over three weeks since my last post. That whole pesky novel-writing thing, you know...

Second of all, check this out:

This is the dividing and conquering of 50 pounds of bread flour, purchased from the local Costco (ConAgra Harvest). At $15 a bag, it's quite a deal.
However, being a King Arthur brand user, it's disconcerting to discover that Costco's flour is bleached and enriched...and so comes down to the age-old question: cost over nutrition?

I will keep you posted on how my loaves turn out.

Third, we were running low on butter earlier this week, and my daughter (10) announced that she wanted to make butter. So, I sent her and her father off in the direction of the Google. Thirty minutes later, we had homemade butter (the shakingshakingshaking of heavy cream). But, my oldest son became enamored of it (as did many others in the house), and I think it now shall become a staple in the Nelson fridge.

Homemade bread? Why not homemade butter? Pioneers out on the prairie, we are!

Culinary Successes...But Shortcuts

2011-11-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

During the month of November, when I'm trying to crank out a 50,000+ novel for NaNoWriMo, my definition of 'culinary success' is different than that of the rest of the year.

A culinary success in November meets three criteria:

1. Is a meal at home.
2. Is from scratch (i.e. not from box)
3. Has a degree of "maturity" (i.e. not cold cut sandwiches and chips)

As you can see, I'm not so worried about nutritional value/ingredients. It's the tradeoff.

I'd like to report two successes this week. Both come from the Food & Family magazine, put out by Kraft about every quarter. I love that magazine, and have collected many recipes from it, many of which have been thoroughly enjoyed by my family. The two this week are no exception.

First, we were asked to bring a side dish to the end-of-year cross country awards banquet. I dithered, and finally settled on Slow-Cooker Scalloped Potatoes. The recipe was straightforward, and the only thing I added was a considerable dollop of Chive and Onion cream cheese. My mandoline allowed me to get the potatoes very thin, and after about three hours, a golden-brown crust bubbled up along the sides of my crockpot. The recipe serves 12, and I brought the container home after the banquet...completely empty.

My husband, who was able to snare a last spoonful, said they were delish. The recipe was simple and the results were great. Anytime I'm looking for an easy sidedish and to get rid of some potatoes, I'll keep this little gem in mind.

Next is Easy Fettuccine Alfredo. My ten-year-old daughter loves this type of pasta, but we don't have it too often because a.) it can be laden with those nefarious calories, and b.) most recipes I've seen call for heavy cream...which is just not a staple at my house. Perhaps someday, I will morph into Julia Child, or some other such French-loving chef, and it will. However, this recipe substitutes cream cheese for the heavy cream. And it worked out well. I finished the tub of Chive and Onion, and I thought the final result was unique.

So yes, I relied heavily upon cream cheese this week, which can be a dangerous, highly processed product. But...I don't care. This month, anyway.

2011-10-31T20:02:00.000-07:00

Still baking bread. Yeehaw!

Soccer season wraps up this week. That means LEISURELY meals AT HOME.

But...this is what I'll be up to for the month of November. See my post at Wish You Were Here.

See you on the other side.

Spaghetti Square Pie

2011-10-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

About a week ago, my youngest son and I are visiting the local drug/craft store. He asks me if I will purchase this:

Elliot's Request

At first, I said 'no'...because it cost $19 dollars. But then, I came to my senses...remembering WHO I was, WHAT blog I wrote, and WHAT my responsibility is to my readers.

So, yes, I splurged. Because, honestly, when your SON asks for a COOKBOOK...what else do you do?

Tonight's dinner? Page 38 - Easy-as-Pie-Spaghetti-Bake...now known as Spaghetti Pie.

An interesting twist on your typical spaghetti and meat sauce, the before-baking product looks somewhat like this:

The meat/bread crumb mixture forms the pie's "shell", while the cooked spag/egg mixture makes the "filling". Spaghetti sauce and mozzarella top the concoction!

Here, later on tonight, I'll post the final judgment.

Later on: the consensus regarding the above dinner was very positive. Seasoned breadcrumbs gave the shell a different savor. In many ways, though, it tasted much like standard ol' Spaghetti and Meat Sauce. However, the presentation was fun - the longer the dish sits, the easier it sits up like a piece of cake. All in all, thumbs up from everyone at the table.

Don't Stop (Re)Readin'

2011-10-18T19:39:00.000-07:00

Sing above blog title to the chorus tune of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"

I am slowly, surely making my way back here. Life is slowing down a little, and we have eaten three consecutive dinners here in the house. So, yay for small victories!

But, I admit, I feel a little rusty in the kitchen. For tonight's Tater Tot casserole, I forgot to mix the cooked hamburger into the soup/cheese/green bean mixture. As I'd already spooned the soup mixture into the pan, I didn't want to rescoop it to add the meat. So...I layered the tots on top of the meat on top of the soup.

Not gourmet. I know. But, where the dish lacked in aesthetics, it made up for in taste. A 9 x 13" pan would have been nearly demolished had I not rescued a spoonful for my husband's lunch tomorrow.

Cheers!

Back In The Saddle Again

2011-10-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

It has been two weeks since my last post. About food! Egad!

Well, I'm back with a vengeance. For now.

Yes, life is still busy and there are days that we aren't eating until eight o'clock at night, but I'm managing to make miracles in the kitchen. My sourdough is going strong still and my loaves are getting prettier and prettier and tastier and tastier every day...or at least, every time I bake bread.

But, I've had two consecutive days of culinary awesomeness. By awesomeness, I don't mean Food Network awesomeness, I just mean homemade-from-scratch, not restaurant, awesomeness.

Last night was a Nacho Cheese Taco bake that was an absolute hit with the kids. Tacos in casserole form? Heck yes.

Tonight, though, pulled pork sandwiches in the crockpot and Butternut Squash Soup. The squash soup thing was kind of on a whim...and I just made it up!!

*Two squash, cut up and boiled about ten minutes (until fairly soft). Then, pureed in food processor.
*Chicken broth, garlic salt, a block of cream cheese - heated and melted. Pureed squash added and stirred in, along with thyme, pepper, and chili powder.
*Mixture heated through and then repureed. This was my personal preference - I dig the creamy texture.

In the end, you get this:

And it was enjoyed by all. Even the kids, whom I wondered about. Welcome fall!

On The Hamster Wheel

2011-09-19T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's busy here at Chez Nelson these days. Although my bread baking has stabilized, I am very grateful for my bread machine. In addition to normal daily bread consumption, Jaycob, our foreign exchange student, usually consumes four pieces of toast in the morning. Consequently, the loaves go fast.

However, I am rising to the challenge (heh, pun intended) and keeping up with the demand. I have made friends with my sourdough starter and it bubbles lovingly in a glass jar in the fridge.

I wish other aspects of my domestic matrix were as glorious. Grocery spending has gone up, not wholly surprising considering there's another mouth to feed. I have not been as fastidious on deal/bargain/coupon combining as of late (read, four months). Because we often have children at various activities from 3:30 - 6:00 or 5:30 - 7:00, my menus have been rather uninspired and repetitive - or at least I think they are.

But, it is what it is. Much of this jam-packed schedule is a result of not saying 'no'...or at least, not saying 'slow down'.

And so, I know I'll jinx myself for saying it, but the end of October can't come soon enough. Then, the madcap mayhem will cease...abruptly. And my cookbooks, gadgets, and appliances will rejoice!

Quite Possibly, The Prettiest Loaf of Bread in the World

2011-08-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

Oh yes, I've had my sourdough growing pains, many of which I've discussed in disturbing length here. The last couple of loaves were okay, but nothing to write home about. But tonight, I believe I've reached the first level of bread Nirvana:

And, like Shakespeare wrote, tis an ill cook indeed that does not lick his fingers, so Brent and I sawed off a slice. And it tasted very, very good. Very.

And so, after this loaf (maybe I'm at five now?), here's what I've gleaned:

1. Generally, a teaspoon and a half of salt is too much....but one teaspoon is too little.
2. The recipe I'm using calls for too much water.
3. As much as I'd like to serve whole wheat bread to my kids, using WW flour in the dough (even a little bit) is not suiting my taste and texture preferences right now.
4. The top must be scored like in the pic above. Otherwise, there's cracking on the sides.
5. 25 minutes is the right amount of baking time.

I'm thinking about forming my own band. The name? The Grateful Bread. Yar yar yar. Life is good.

Keepin' My Eyes On The Rise

2011-08-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Tonight, I am not so completely exhausted...so I will talk about food.

August is nearly gone, and I have decided to reinstate breakfast cereal here at Chez Nelson next month. Not that it was terribly difficult to provide non-BC morning meals for my kids, but with an extra person living here with us now and this chaotic schedule upon us, I feel the pressing need to keep breakfasts as simple and self-sufficient as possible.

I did prepare one last batch of homemade granola to tide us over till September, though. I don't think I'll stop making granola - it's so good!

The breadmaking, on the other hand, is becoming more and more a nonnegotiable thing. As in, I don't think I'll ever be able, in good conscious, to buy a loaf of store-bought bread again. I've got a system worked out too: about two or three times a week, I do a loaf of sourdough and a loaf of bread machine white. The loaf of white goes into the freezer (stockpile in case of Armageddon), and the sourdough stays on the counter for daily consumption. A loaf goes PDQ...and that's why I'm stockpiling...I have two teenageish boys in the house now. Yea, verily are they voracious...

Tonight, I tried my hand at making Bulgogi, a Korean meat dish. I used the recipe at this gem of a website I found called Easy Korean Food. This morning, I processed the soy sauce, pears, apple, garlic and oil and then marinated some sirloin steaks...all day long (instead of overnight). Brent threw them on the grill (as opposed to frying them) and we had sweet potato fries and a bag of Trader Joe's Harvest Grains Blend.

The best part of the evening's meal for me? Doing our usual going-around-the-table-and-sharing-the-best-part-of-the-day. Because Jaycob, our FES from South Korea said it was "dinner," because he was very hungry and because "of the delicious food".

Huzzah!

Sourdough Blues

2011-08-21T19:50:00.000-07:00

Well, I never!

My foray into self-sufficient bread baking has seemed marked by tragedy from the get go.

1. The first starter I tried went liquidy and bad on me.

2. I used the second starter to make one loaf. The recipe I was referencing said bake for an hour. The ensuing product was NFL-football material.

3. I "fed" the starter, then proceeded to knock the jar over, spilling most of the contents across my kitchen counters. There was hardly any starter left, but I added the flour and water "refeed" anyway.

4. Loaf #2 baked for only 45 minutes, but it was still too long.

5. Loaf #2 resulted in a bland (though edible) loaf of bread.

6. Starter is completely gone (after just two loaves of bread). My proportions must have off.

7. I start another starter (#3).

That brings me to today. I contacted Capt HD for the proper oven temp and time information and then proceed to turn out a beautifully textured, nicely tasting loaf of sourdough bread. The starter was fed (measurements from yet another source) and allowed to foam. It has been placed in my refrig, loosely covered.

Hopefully, this whole bread baking thing will not suck anymore.

Sourdough Starter, Take Two

2011-08-14T19:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I've worked up the guts to try this again. My reference this time was the book, Ultimate Bread.

Things seemed to go better this morning. I dissolved the yeast in the water, I added flour, and I stirred.

I did not have excessive bubblage. No overflow. No sticky cleanup.

A Minnesotan friend of mine told me I needed to stir the starter a couple of times a day, which I did. So far, so good.

We'll see what tomorrow brings.

My kids are a fan of the bread machine white bread, and so it's time to stockpile. I know white is not as good as wheat, but MY white bread is not full of the crap that Wonder Bread is....so there.

By the way, on a totally different topic, my 12-year-old son has started his own blog here at blogspot. It is essentially a chronicle of his year as a first-year homeschooler. School begins tomorrow for him (a full week earlier than his sister and brother).

Ah! The Beginning of the Bounty!

2011-08-07T19:47:00.000-07:00

One great thing (in addition to others) about Brent getting his Master's degree way back in May is that he recommandeered the planting of the garden. When it was just me, it was tomatoes, green peppers, and one token jalapeno plant.

This year, though, Brent planted tomatoes, green peppers, and...lettuce, oregano, peas, green beans, potatoes, and radishes. I know, the guy went crazy!

The lettuce grew fine, but we weren't vigilant about cutting it. The peas and green beans didn't do well, and the oregano was bunny food. However, we enjoyed radishes earlier in the summer, and lovely meal of red potatoes just last month. Green peppers have trickled in, also, in pairs.

Elliot visited the garden yesterday to harvest tomatoes, and he brought in a half-dozen palm-sized pretties. Today, though, Spencer went out and brought in a full bowl of ripe-and-ready tomatoes. The question now is, what to do with them? I was in not in the mood to cook them down and can them, so I went with what I did have energy for...dicing and freezing them.

Personally, I love diced tomatoes...I use them often in stews, chilies, and pasta dishes. Versatile!

Here's the before (kinda) picture. The yellow bowl is everything Spencer brought in today, and the orange bowl was half-full from Elliot's haul.

Dicing the whole batch took me about an hour and a half. Fortunately, I enjoy it. When all was said and done, this is what I got.

Kinda looks funny when it's all laid out like this. Doesn't look like a whole lot...especially considering how long it took. :)

Oh, and in other food news, I did a quick loaf of plain white bread in the machine today ("This might be the best bread I've ever had, Mom," says the 12-year-old.) My freezer now holds a loaf of Light Rye and a loaf of White. Whee!

I chucked the sourdough started, because after that initial bubbling over on Day One, it never recovered. Liquidy and runny and not foamy. Will try again later on this week.

Obese Sourdough Starter

2011-08-05T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today, I created (or attempted to) my own sourdough starter. I considered capturing my own wild yeast, but in the end, opted for the yeast-flour-water concoction. Perhaps someday....

So, at about 8:30, I mixed two cups of water, two cups of flour and one tablespoon of yeast. When I got home after nine holes of golf, this is what was on my kitchen counter.

Yeah, a yeast volcano. A sticky, pasty mess. No worries. I cleaned it up and moved it to a bigger Mason jar. Good times. We'll see what happens on Sunday.

Tonight, we ran out of the last of the store-bought bread. So I pulled out the Light Rye I'd done two days ago. Another loaf of the same is baking the bread machine right now. Life is good.

Our Daily Bread

2011-08-04T20:39:00.000-07:00

While it is true that man cannot live by bread alone, this girl is going to attempt to live without premade, presliced bread for the next a lot of weeks.

Now, this is kind of a big deal. We eat bread pretty handily around here. The kids make sandwiches for lunch, have toast in the morning, etc. etc.

So - this means, I will now be baking my own bread. Finally! you are thinking, this lady is finally with the program. This is the commitment I am going to attempt to make: three (maybe four) times a week, I will make a loaf of something yeasty in my bread machine. Then, I will wrap it, freezer bag it, and place it in my deep freeze. Some folks stockpile ammunition, I shall stockpile bread loaves.

I read Martha's post about sourdough bread here, and was inspired to do it for myself. In the last month, I've had conversations with two people who bake their own sourdough bread, and if that isn't enough of a message from the universe, I don't know what is. So, tomorrow, I'll begin the process of capturing my own sourdough. Yay! Fun!

Oh, and the breakfast thing?! Tomorrow will be Morning Five, and things are going well. Nobody has asked about Cheerios or Lucky Charms at all. I've been asked to make pancakes once and the husband made omelets this morning. Otherwise, they've gotten their own toast, yogurt, and eggs.

Ba-da-ba-ba-baa...I'm lovin' it.

Tomorrow!

2011-07-31T19:41:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the beginning of August. August 1st. For me, it's hard to think of August in any other way besides The Month In Which I Start Working Again.

This year, however, August will be a little different.

As far as this blog goes, August is No-Breakfast Cereal Month here at Chez Nelson. We've been without the ubiquitous grain product for about a week and a half now...so it's not like we're going cold turkey. This morning's grocery cart did not look much different than any other week: another dozen eggs, an extra muskmelon, a few more cartons of yogurt...

I did not do any make-ahead dishes in preparation for this month...so, for this first week, it looks like toast, scrambled/poached eggs, pancakes, yogurt, and fruit will headline the morning meal.

Have a great week!

Looking Ahead to August

2011-07-22T23:45:00.000-07:00

So.

It's been awhile.

How have you all been?

Is it sad that I am looking forward, in a small way, to the beginning of the school year? That always seems to mark the start of routine, of focus.

For example, this week. Last weekend, my two sons (12 and 6) picked the recipes for the family dinners for the week. I did the shopping. So far, so good. We had delicious meatball subs on Monday and amazing chicken pot pie on Tuesday. I did the prep work, and Brent finished up with the cooking.

Then, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we dined out. Even though we had a menu. Neither my husband or I felt like cooking. Neither of us had willpower, either. Bad, bad, bad, bad.

Oh well. Right? I am already looking ahead to August. This family seems to eat best when it's faced with some kind of challenge. It is probably time for the No-Restaurant Challenge. I wouldn't mind trying the Homemade-Bread-For-An-Extended-Period-of-Time Challenge someday. Here's one I brought up to my family:

Going-Without-Boxed-Breakfast-Cereal (for a month).

See, cereal is primarily me being a lazy mom. It's surpassingly easier for my children to get their own breakfast, leaving me time for...whatever it is that I might do in the morning. I recently came across a blog HERE, which referenced me to the Weston A. Price Foundation website. And there's where you can read all about the complicated process grain goes through to become a cereal. Ultimately, cereal is not a food, it is a food product.

Okay, take all this in whatever way you want...I mean, after all, this info comes from a dot.com. A quick cursory dip into some academic databases I have access to don't turn up much to corroborate the opinions on the Nourished Kitchen blog. And I don't believe breakfast cereal is the devil incarnate. But...I did purchase a box of Bran Flakes in the last month. Just Bran Flakes. No dried fruit, no sugar-coat, no frills. Third ingredient on the list: sugar. Why? Fiber is good for me, so I purchase a product I *think* will be high in fiber...and in fact, has been recommended to me as such. But, I've also read dozens of stories about the health dangers of sugar. I've come to terms with the fact that sugar consumption is unavoidable. I eat an apple or a serving of peas, I'm going to eat some kind of sugar. But, it's a naturally-occurring sugar. What naturally occurring sugar is there in bran? Why is it added to Bran Flakes?

You see the quandary I face. And, of course, remember, this is supposed to be a "healthy" cereal.

All this information spurred me to ask my family if they would give up breakfast cereals for a month. The response was lukewarm, as I suspected it would be. Keep in mind, the sugariest cereal I purchase for the home is Honey Nut Cheerios. But, as we discussed the idea more, my children were able to generate dozens of cereal substitutes: fruit, oatmeal, eggs, yogurt, bacon, etc. From there, we get into egg and sausage bakes, pancakes/waffles, French toast, breakfast burritos, homemade granola, etc.

I do suspect that soon I will be posting about an all-breakfast preparation weekend! There will be double or triple batching and freezing, I foresee.

Lentil Soup For Husbands

2011-07-08T11:20:00.000-07:00

Let's play a word association game. I'll give you a word, and you give me the first thing that comes into your mind.

Lentil. Barbra Streisand. Exotic. Split pea soup. Legume. New York.

If any of these are familiar to you, then we share the same thought process. Again, a lentil is a foodstuff I did not eat, ever, as I was growing up (I know, I know, story of my life). Lentils were weird, little, pea-like things that people from New York ate. And Barbra Streisand? Oh, I know, "Yentl". A movie she was in; rhymes with lentil.

Lentils, I've discovered are a super-duper nutritional powerhouse. In fact, check it out here.

So, last night's dinner: Lentil Soup. The recipe indicated that it would require two hours of cooking time, and because I would be out running errands around the time it would need to be started, I left this task in the hands of my trusty, but nervous husband-chef.

As with most recipes, prepwork makes the actual cooking process go much faster.

In the blue Tupperware at left is: 1 cup sorted and rinsed lentils, 1 stalk celery and 1/2 medium onion (both chopped), and 1 cup of cubed ham.

In the metal dish is garlic powder, salt, pepper, and one bay leaf.

In the Pyrex measuring bowl is five cups of water.

Directions are simple: heat the water (via microwave), pour it into the stockpot, add the seasonings, and ham/lentil mix. Simmer for two hours.

The husband still had me write the instructions down. Which I did because I love the guy so much.
It all turned out good, because I came home to a home full of great smells. And a final product that tasted a lot like bean-and-ham soup. Rolls and fruit rounded out this very simple, healthy, and delicious meal.

Artichoke, You're No Joke

2011-07-04T18:58:00.000-07:00

2011 has been a year of new vegetable experimentation: turnips, asparagus, avocados, etc. But artichokes, they're nothing new. I've had them before. In Spinach-Artichoke Dip. At TGIFridays.

Which I've decided - DOES NOT COUNT.

So, here's this week's vegetable project: the artichoke. As you know, they look like this when you buy them in the produce section of the grocery store:

Here are the two major things I learned: if you cut up the artichoke and don't dip it in lemon juice, it will turn brown quickly. Kind of like my children in the summertime. And, these guys are a pain to cut up, and I think next time, I'll go with frozen (if I can find it).

So, I began my project by hacking (and I mean hacking) the stems off. Then, I lopped off the top inch or so. Then, I plucked off all the tough outer leaves. Finally, I was ready to hack the bereft fruit in half...

And that, right there, gives this vegetable its name: that hairy, fuzzy little bit right there when you cut it open. The choke. Such a weird name, really. It's inedible too, so why is it even a part of the vegetable's name?

Anyhow, from here, I quartered it and tossed the pieces into my rice cooker, which happens to have a steaming component to it as well. After twenty-five minutes, I threw the steamed bits into a skillet with some sauteed mushrooms and green onions (random veg I found in the crisper).

I threw these vegetables (with some minced garlic) together in the skillet (with some garlic-infused olive oil, because olive oil makes the world go round) for another five or so minutes, while I boiled up some rotini pasta. When the pasta was al dente, I tossed the artichoke/mushroom/onion mess in with it.

The finished product: Sauteed Artichoke-Mushroom Pasta

And this is what we ate for supper the other night. With some cut-up fruit and bread. A little Parmesan on top. The kids' plates were clean, my plate was clean, Brent's plate was clean...I think that's a pretty good indicator that we will be making this again.

I feel as if I am gaining confidence in the kitchen...because guess what? I totally made this recipe up in my mind!! No cookbook! Whee!

Hail, Kale!

2011-06-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

If there's one thing I've learned during the writing of this blog, it's that I've lived a very sheltered life, culinarily and nutritionally speaking.

Kale is another vegetable I never had growing up. It's the weird, really curly stuff I'd see in the vicinity of the cabbage and spinach (vegetables I didn't have very often as a child, either). I never really knew if it was a stiff kind of parsley or romaine lettuce.

And for years (even into my thirties, I freely and ashamedly admit), I confused kale and kelp. That's an ignorant landlubber for ya. At any rate, I was never impelled to pick up a bunch of kale for any reason...which is too bad, because it's REALLY good for you and versatile and stuff.

Until now (not being impelled to pick up kale, that is). First, though, let me explain how it came about:

1. Husband receives an iPad for his birthday (this last February).
2. Tech-savvy husband uploads a bunch of free, fun apps onto iPad (including the infernal "Angry Birds").
3. Husband lets wife play with new iPad, but not before he uploads a free app from Epicurious.com, just because he knows she loves cooking and preparing and reading about food.
4. Wife has blast looking up, and trying, new recipes including a turnip gratin, roasted asparagus, etc. A whole new world of vegetable dishes opens up before her eyes.
5. Wife finds a neat-looking, super-easy recipe for Tuscan Kale Chips. She files it in her recipe box for later referral.
6. Wife takes a full-time substitute teaching job and is kind of absent from the kitchen for about three months. Tuscan Kale Chips are on backburner.
7. About a week and a half ago, daughter is watching random TV cooking show in which one of the items being prepared is Kale Chips! She raves to her mom (me) about how cool they look and easy they seem. She does not know of the recipe stored in her mom's Epicurious recipe box. Mom realizes the universe is speaking to her and that it is time to make Kale Chips.

Here's the recipe here: (Tuscan) Kale Chips. The kale I used is of the curly variety, not Tuscan; thus, I really cannot refer to these as Tuscan Kale Chips.

The only problem? I salted the leaves too much before putting them in...otherwise, I really, really, really liked them, as did everyone else, except Kirby (who, ironically, was the impetus for making them in the first place). And speaking of...

Lower Arm Workout

2011-06-17T20:28:00.000-07:00

Now, I know you read this entry's title, and you wonder what you've stumbled onto. A food-turned-exercise-blog?? What craziness is that?

Rest assured, I am still me and you are still you. This is still a blog about food.

A few days ago, I used one avocado and one tomato for those California Chicken sandwiches. Today, I decided to make guacamole with the remaining avocadoes and tomato. It's a pretty easy process, actually:

Two avocadoes, One tomato, Chopped onion, Lime juice, Salt and pepper and Hot sauce (optional...well, not for me, but for you).

Now, here's what I did: I processed everything in my food processor, until it all looked like this...

I think the final product is too runny, and so next time I will cut back on the lime juice, and I will also hand mash the avocadoes and hand-mince the tomatoes and onions.

As if this wasn't bad enough, one of my avocadoes was extremely underripe. If I knew then what I know now, I would have chucked one in a paper bag with the tomato and let nature take its course. Underripe avocadoes lead to wrist hyperextension when doing Lower Arm Exercise #1, which is the Twist and Pit. To do this exercise, twist each half of the avo in the opposite direction (after you've sliced it). If the avo is ripe, the two halves will separate easily...if not, then the chef runs the risk of major injury in the form of carpal tunnel. Then, remove the brown pit thingy.

This batch here is still serviceable, taste-wise. Nevertheless, this gal has learned her lesson. Ripe avocadoes make or break the guacamole. How do you know if it's ripe? The darker, the riper...but you gotta feel them to know for sure. If the flesh inside yields a little to a gentle squeeze, you should be good. When you peel it later, the skin will practically fall away from the pulp.

Onto Lower Arm Exercise #2: The Grate

A good friend (whose blog you'll find here) was mentioning Parmesan Chips in a Glycemic Index discussion we were having recently. Well, I like Parmesan and I like chips...and that's all I needed. Another simple recipe, really:

Although it's not shown here, I also added garlic powder...for that little extra something-something. However, I think I will leave it out next time, because Parmesan has a strong flavor anyway.

I shredded the cheese wedge with the box grater...during the two minutes it took, I developed some serious forearm muscle. In one arm. I look a bit lopsided now, but next time I will grate with my left arm and even things up.

I mixed the cheese with the powder and sprinkled the entire mess on a cookie sheet lined with the parchment paper. Then, I baked it all at 350 for about six minutes. When the edges start going brownish, it's done.

Again, let me tell you what I did, what went wrong, and how I might fix it for next time.

I removed the sheet from the hot pan and placed on a wire rack to cool. Then, I left my house for about an hour. I returned and cut the sheet of cooked cheese in chip-like forms. They were chewy...very tasty, yes, but not crunchy like I was expecting chips to be. And that, friends, was the only real fail. So, next time, I may try to spread the cheese out even thinner than I did...and I may try to remove the cheese mass from the parchment paper sooner so that it doesn't remain in contact with the natural oil cooked out of the cheese (which may have contributed to the chewiness). And, finally, I will probably not leave my house at all next time, so that I monitor the product better. But - I will definitely be trying it again. Any hard cheese is viable here as well.


In the end, you get a product that looks like this and tastes great!

So, in short, both recipe attempts today left a little to be desired...however, I believe I know how to do it differently for next time. Don't be surprised, with all the forearm workout I'll be getting, if you don't see me on the cover of Muscle & Fitness sometime soon.

Simple Summer Bill of Fare

2011-06-16T19:56:00.000-07:00


This is Fish. He is a mahi-mahi.


Asparagus

Olive Oil


Salt & Pepper

Grill

=
Happy families and happy stomachs!

Jumping On The Avocado Bandwagon

2011-06-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

So, here's a fun thing. Go to google.com and type in 'avocados' - you'll get 37 million hits. It's got its own wikipedia entry (although, who doesn't, besides me?), .org website, festival, not to mention millions of recipes. So, yeah, avocados are a pretty big deal.

Well, put me on the list of recent admirers!

There were no avocados in my house as a youngster. I don't remember trying one in college. I might have had two or three children before the urge to do so took over. In fact, the general opinion about avocados seemed negative because of the fat content. But that was before the discovery of the benefits (or neutrality, at the very least) of the high percentage of monounsaturated fats, the fact that it contains more potassium than a banana, and a high fiber content.

Thus, avocados should be enjoyed...but like everything else, in moderation.

For example, at my house tonight. My plan was to have plain ol' precooked grilled chicken breasts (on sale at Walmart this week); I was hoping for a bolt of divine inspiration on how to prepare them. Then, I saw my daily email from www.allrecipes.com. California Chicken. I was intrigued, and sure enough, with minor modifications, I, too, could enjoy the Recipe of the Day. And this was the eventual product:

Yes, real cheese does get shiny like that when it's being baked. Of course, I could have left it off entirely. I baked the breasts for ten minutes, then topped them with a slice of tomato and two small avocado slices before laying the cheese atop.

I had mine without a bun, but everyone else in the family chose to eat it as a sandwich. And all plates were clean.

Go, Avocado!

Alaska: Big Coastlines, Big Waistlines

2011-06-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here's a tip for any of you thinking about visiting The Last Frontier:

Do not underestimate driving times. There is no such thing as a fifteen-minute drive from town to town. That distance is measured in hours.

Some of you good folks out there have the intestinal fortitude to go a good four or five hours without a stop of any kind. Not true for yours truly. I have a small bladder and a penchant for Diet Coke. Also, I was traveling with five kids. It stands to reason that we were going to stop quite a bit.

Mistake #1: Consuming either Diet Coke or coffee most of the time I was in AK. It's been proven that caffeine stimulates appetite...so I would drink, then I would want to eat. Bad.

Mistake #2: Relying on gas station food more often than I should have. Because I was imbibing ridiculous amounts of caffeine, I was eating...I've already said that. But...what I was eating? Crap. Junk. High-carb stuff. I was making bad choices, for sure. I do remember a stop in Healy where I purchased a string cheese stick, a hard boiled egg, and beef jerky - that might have been the healthiest I ate during all the driving.

When it came to regularly scheduled meals, I did fine. Sort of. Probably too much fat and protein, truth be known. But better than refined and processed, right? Maybe.

Anyway, now I'm home. Both my husband and I stepped on the bathroom scale after an eleven-day hiatus...and it is definitely time to get back on track! For whatever reason, I did not partake in my usual morning cup of coffee, nor did I consume any Diet Coke until well into the afternoon. But guess what? From eight o'clock a.m., when I ate my oatmeal, to noonish when I ate lunch with the kids, I felt no hunger whatsoever...no raving desire to consume food. I must try the experiment again tomorrow.

So, the prodigal daughter returns to her kitchen. I'm probably going to start back up reading my Julia Child; however, I've got a new project brewing (besides the no-storebought bread challenge), and it involves the Glycemic Index.

Happy week all!

Alaskan Cuisine

2011-06-06T20:47:00.001-07:00

I have been a visitor of the state of Alaska for about four days now, and I have not sampled the local cuisine yet.

I'm not sure Alaska has a local cuisine, actually. So far, it's been pizza, grilled chicken, chicken patties, Wendy's, red velvet cake...

Tomorrow, though, tomorrow, I think will be different. We will be attending an Alaskan Salmon Bake! More details then.

A One-Day Challenge

2011-06-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Even though I had three weeks, I did not fulfill my freezer-cleaning-out Challenge. However, that is in the past. Today brings a new challenge.

I have one day to clear out a significant portion of my refrigerator, which contains these items:

Dozen eggs
Four cups spaghetti sauce
Oranges
Head (and a bag of prewashed) lettuce
Six cups thawed chili
One bag unpeeled carrots
Half of a loaf of bread
Half container cottage cheese
Five hot dogs
Leftover Tater Tot casserole
A gallon of milk
Half a package of hamburger buns
A partially-used package of diced ham
Lunchmeat

The menu today stands as thus:
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs and ham

Lunch: Leftover TT casserole for kids, chili and salad for us

Dinner: Hot dogs, spaghetti

Snacks: Cottage cheese

My primary concerns are the spaghetti sauce and the milk. Looks like it's calcium overload today!

We are very likely doing a big breakfast before we get on the road tomorrow, so I've decided to pack the following for snacks and "lunch" along the way: oranges, sandwiches, and carrots.

Corking good plan, yes?

May 27 - Grocery Bills - End of the Month

2011-05-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

I'm back! Well, relatively speaking. In three days, I will leaving for ten days as I vacation to Alaska with my entire family. However, I will try to jam-pack the next three days with some culinary goodness for all my readers.

Let's see. School is now out, and I have not quite caught the cooking bug like I thought I might. I attribute this to a general lack of ambition; with the impending trip, I am in "scavenge" mode...getting creative with the contents of my freezer and pantry items.

In addition to the Memorial Day holiday, this weekend marks the last grocery shopping trip for this month...and you know what that means, end-of-month totals!!

But, first, the weekly pie chart.

First of all, we did go camping this holiday weekend, and because of that, certain categories tend to be inflated, such as "Snacks" and "Beverages". The meat purchased this week was only cold cuts, which will provide lunch for my children who are now home for the summer.

For future reference, I will refrain from buying cheese from the meat counter guys. A pound of colby longhorn ran five dollars...maybe this is par for the course?? Dairy products just seem so darn expensive - my 16 oz. tub of Fage yogurt was nearly five dollars! Of course, my feminine health is very important to me, so I will probably keep shelling out the beaucoup dolares for the yeast-killing stuff.

Here's the exciting news: for the second month in a row, my grocery bill has fallen under $400...this time by $46 dollars. And, my family is still eating well! They are not starving! They are not malnutritioned!

And finally, check out this last bit of data. My husband (Mr. Meticulous) keeps track of all our bills in a red 3-subject notebook, including our grocery expenditures. This last fall, we decided to place all grocery purchases on my ATM card, where I would easily be able to keep track of amounts. In the beginning, we just wanted a baseline for purchase amounts, but then we began to notice that grocery costs was an area that really could use trimming...especially after February (December was the worst, I know, but sometimes with the holiday season, one can be a bit more forgiving)!

The middle of March is really when I started actively seeking to reduce monthly grocery totals - coupons, sales, stockpiling, etc., all added to the significant decrease in March, April, and May's totals.

To be honest, I think I've found the magical number for our family right now - $400 per month. Yes, $350 was doable, but $400 would give me a bit more leeway with creativity at mealtime. Remember, I am still reading Julia Child and will be trying more of her recipes this summer.

June should prove to be interesting. Not only will I need to replenish my depleted freezer and pantry stores once I return from Alaska, but also devise clever ways to keep costs low now that I have another meal to provide for my three children during the summer. I think one way might be to double-batch casseroles - leftovers for the kiddos the next day!

Omelettes: Adequate, But Not Mastered

2011-05-22T06:24:00.000-07:00

I said I would post about my omelette experience, and I hate to let down my dear readers, so here goes.

I don't remember my mom making them much when I was a child, and when she did, it seemed an arduous process. She would lift one edge of the mass of coagulated eggs and tilt the pan, letting the uncooked mess spill underneath. Then, she'd manage to tuck it nicely into a half-moon shape on the plate. But, like I said, I don't remember her making them often...I mostly associate omelettes with restaurant breakfasts.

For all my many kitchen successes, the omelette has been the one epic failure in my culinary repertoire. In the recent half-decade, I can remember four separate attempts at omelette-making, and all resulted in my throwing in the towel and just scrambling them in frustration.

Enter Julia Child. I decided it was time to conquer my fear of omelettes.

I read the passage in her cookbook about omelette-making, reread it again, and still didn't quite have the grasp I needed to pull it off. I am a visual learner, you see, and the pictures just weren't doing it for me.

Enter www.youtube.com and Julia Child Makes Omelettes. A quick search pulled up a six-minute video of Julia making omelettes, and that provided the visual I needed. I watched it three times before I felt the confidence to proceed.

First, I assembled my army, as seen here. Eggs and butter are the essentials, obviously. Ham and cheese are the extras. Oh, and the empty bottle of Tassel Ridge wine in the background? Not part of the list of ingredients!

After heating the small 7-inch pan, I melted a pat of butter, letting it foam. The heat is important...the butter pretty much needs to sizzle and melt on contact. When the foam subsided, I poured in my two eggs (beaten). Eggs cook rather quickly, and after five or so seconds, mine looked like the above. Right around here is when I swirled my pan in a circular motion several times over the heat to distribute the uncooked eggs.

Then came the tricky part. Per Julia's instructions, I tilted the pan up and jerked it back towards me...several times, trying to get the mostly cooked egg mass to roll down towards the far lip of the pan. THIS REQUIRES PRACTICE. My husband was watching me attempt to roll the omelette, but he did not respond as I shrieked at him, "It's not rolling! What do I do?"

Eventually, the thing kind of flopped over, so I transferred the product to the plate. A sprinkle with parsley and omelette #1 was done. And it didn't taste too bad, either!

By this time, my children were clamoring for one, so I made three "filled" omelettes. The first one turned out okay, but #2 and #3 experienced some falling-apartage...but nothing a little rearranging on the plate and a sprinkle of parsley didn't fix.

Long story short, I am *not* the master of omelettes...but it is not as daunting as I once thought it was. I let go of the notion that omelettes must be a perfect half-moon shape and instead embraced the messy, eclectic rolls I turned out four times. My husband was amazed at the terribly short cooking time (thirty seconds, tops), and there was nary a clean plate after breakfast this morning. As you can see in the above photo, all children appear to be satisfied.

You can have your oeuf and eat it too!

Groceries - May 20 - Rapture

2011-05-21T07:04:00.000-07:00

This Week's Spending: $44.18 Total Grocery Expenditures for May: $267.16

Heather's Tip of the Week: Grocery shop on a Friday night when you are:
a.) very tired
b.) full from a great dinner
c.) towing the entire family

I guarantee if you do these things, your grocery shopping trip will be short, thus, relatively inexpensive. Why? Because you want to get things done so you can go home and take a hot bath, watch 'Glee', and read your copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" before you collapse from exhaustion around ten o'clock. You won't waste time deliberating over whether or not to buy lunchmeat this week...you just won't.

Spending-wise, though, May is shaping up to be a pretty sweet month. I really, really don't regret that forty dollars' worth of hamburger I spent earlier this month, because it's paying itself forward now.

Again, dairy and produce account for nearly a third of the total - which I think is good. Eggs were not on sale this week and neither was cottage cheese ($2.79 for the cheap store brand at HyVee?!). I would have to say that Dairy was definitely the No-Bang-for-the-Buck category this week. Two containers of cottage cheese and two dozen eggs for nearly ten dollars?! Perhaps it is a sign of the impending Rapture...

The Beverage category consists of a bottle of wine - a local (Indianola-local) winery on sale for $8. That was my husband's idea.

Yeah, and I suppose I've got to do something about that bread category. $1.34 a loaf is not terrible, until I recall that I can make my own for much, much, much cheaper. Perhaps it is time to take a year-long No Store-Bought Bread Challenge? Who dares me?

The last week of school is now upon us, and I wonder how that will affect my grocery tab. I theorize spending will increase somewhat with home lunches now being added into the fare, not to mention snacks, etc. Also, after we get back from Alaska, our stores will be fairly depleted, so it will be time to rebuild.

Oeufs and Ends

2011-05-20T19:21:00.000-07:00

First off, let me just say that not even one week into the three-week No Restaurant Challenge, this family folded. Like a fragile house of cards in a gentle breeze. I've cooked decent meals all week long, and tonight I felt like being catered to...and I felt like a steak. So, I got it, and I enjoyed it, and I'm not going to feel bad about it. At all.

Moving on. Last weekend, I had the pleasure of watching the movie Julie & Julia. Amy Adams plays Julie Powell, a 30ish something who seeks to find meaning in life by cooking her way through Julia's cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". The parallel storyline is of Child's trials and tribulations in the 1950s.

Anyway, enjoying food and cooking myself, I took a great deal of interest in this movie. In fact, I was impelled to purchase the paperback version of Child's cookbook at the bookstore recently. I have been content to read it over the last few days, and I am finding it very enjoyable. This cookbook has a sense of humor (suggesting eight-year-olds can make Hollandaise in the blender).

So far, I am through Soups (which seem very delicious and doable), Sauces (v. daunting), and Eggs (of great interest). I am a fan of eggs, but I've never really been terribly creative about cooking with them. I know how to fry them, poach them, scramble them, and bake them...and that is about it. About four times in my life I have been compelled to try making an omelette...and I have failed every time.

However, I have determined that this is the weekend that I conquer the omelette. I will document the epic battle in another post.

Also, I am itching to try making pie crust a la Julia Child. I never have before, but according to my mom, my grandmother made excellent pies, so maybe I have the magic as well. Julia's Boeuf Bourguignon recipe also looms on the horizon, but I may have to wait until school is out and I have all my faculties about me before I attempt it.

In other food-related news, in addition to the ten-cent cottage cheese cookbook, I also picked up a cheap beef pamphlet-type cookbook (courtesy of the makers of A1 steak sauce, circa 1990). The recipe for meatloaf was pretty darn amazing:

2 lbs. ground beef
1/2 c. A1 (natch)
1 c. bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/2 c. of minced green pepper and onion each (which I actually did not have, thus, I used a 1/2 c. of dried tomato and pesto seasoning...close enough, right?)

After shaping into a football-looking thing, I placed the meatwad in a baking dish (not a loaf pan) and spread a thin coat of steak sauce on top. After baking it for an hour at 350 degrees, our family of five nearly obliterated the entire thing (but not before I procured two lunch servings for Brent and I). Man, it was really good. Then again, our family likes meatloaf in general...and so, can there ever be a *bad* meatloaf?

Finally, rounding out this random spew of food-related topics, I woke up this morning earlier than usual...to the banging of cupboard doors. My twelve-year-old son was in the midst of making himself scrambled eggs...and doing it with much aplomb and success. Then, some thirty minutes later, my ten-year-old daughter proceeded to make scrambled eggs for her little brother, and then a serving of "Taco Eggs" for herself (a sprinkle of taco seasoning added to egg mixture before cooking). No smoke alarms, no exclamations of "Uh Oh", no discarded burnt eggs in the garbage...

With the exception of the early-morning kitchen racket, I am love, love, loving that my children are comfortable (and able) enough in the kitchen to make themselves an easy, good breakfast without any supervision.

I think I will pat myself on the back as well...

Groceries This Week and The Three-Week Challenge!

2011-05-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Now, this is what I'd like my pie charts to look like every week:

Somehow, I just can't get around buying condiments! That's been a slice in my chart the last several weeks...this week, it was jelly for my kids' lunchtime PB & Js.

The snacks slice is a bit bigger than I'd like, but I took advantage of the 2/$4 deal on graham crackers (got some frozen homemade cream cheese frosting I need to use up - hence, improviso s'mores!). Also, Ritz crackers to substitute in for the "Lunchables" my daughter wanted to buy for her soccer games on Saturday.

But, fresh produce at nearly a quarter of spending? Yes, that's awesome. My cart was laden with watermelon, apples, oranges, and muskmelon. YUM! The significantly smaller 'Meat' slice is due to a small purchase of lunchmeat for weekly wraps and sandwiches.

I am pleased with the variety of spending, as well as the low receipt total this week.

Spending This Week: $60.86 - Total Expenditures: $222.98

Onto to the really fun stuff. Less than three week remain until our family departs for the great state of Alaska for several days. I have been issued a challenge by my husband:

"Let's try to eat down as much of our freezer and pantry as we can before then." Also, he included this corollary: "No restaurants until Alaska."

If you go back through my October archives here, you'll read about our month-long-plus adventures of no-restaurant eating. It was no problem then, and I anticipate the same now - it's only three weeks, for goodness' sake.

So anyway, Mr. Nelson, the game is afoot. The challenge is on.

Also, let me briefly, here at the end of things, express my sheer, utter pride at my daughter. I prepared a carrot cake this afternoon that was a complete EPIC FAIL (double amount of sugar *sigh*). It was to be our dessert for this evening's meal. Kirby proceeds to inform me that she can make cupcakes in her Sunbeam cupcake oven for our dessert. She then does it! Mostly by herself. I only had to help work the mixer and fill the muffin cups. It was glorious! I love watching her move around the kitchen, knowing where everything is, feeling comfortable in it, etc. *sigh*

My Cookbook Inventory

2011-05-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

Not that this is terribly surprising, but I am a cookbook collector. Of course, I've had to exercise enormous restraints when it comes to cookbook purchases, because I am also the antithesis of a packrat...and if I'm not using something, I'm quite likely to give it away or pitch it.

But, I found this little gem at a garage sale today that I could hardly pass up. It definitely appealed to the kitschy in me.

Pub. Date: 1950

Yes, indeed. That does read "Creative Cooking for Cottage Cheese". My husband expressed his amazement to me that such a cookbook could exist. Fabulous recipes include: Blushing Pink Chip Dip, Cottage Cheese Straws, Up North Salmon Supper, Pinwheel Meat Roll, Spinach Pudding, Frozen Fruit Cheese Salad, Cottage Tuna Mousse, and Peach Snowballs.

I know, right!? Good thing our family loves cottage cheese - because we'll be trying some of these dandies on the dinner table this summer.

This puts me in mind to inventory all my cookbooks. And why not do it for you? I'll take things slow, I promise.

Pub. Date: 1958

Continuing on this nostalgic 1950's-era thread I've seemed to begin, here's another throwback I own. -------------------------->
Oh yes, the ubiquitous Better Homes and Gardens Special Publications.

This tome is devoted to salads...not the lettuce-laden concoctions we know today, but recipes that instead include: Cranberry-Tokay Salad, Melon Polka-dot Mold, Fruited Ribbon Loaf, Pineapple in Emerald Wreath, Peppy Beet Salad, Perfection Salad, Cheese-Aspic Peaks...and MANY MORE!

Pub. Date: 1978

Hark, the 1970's! A time when many, many women were working outside the home, earning their own money, exercising their Constitutional rights, etc, etc. Too bad the cookbook industry hadn't quite caught up with the Feminist Movement. To be equal, this next cookbook should have marketed towards American People, as opposed to American Woman. I suppose it's terribly ironic then, that I rely totally on this cookbook for a really good Creamed Sausage Gravy recipe. Of particular note is a AWFULLY graphic picture of the Barbecued Short Ribs recipe...I am reminded of a gory horror movie scene. To this book's credit, most of the recipes are comprised of ingredients I've heard of and happen to have in my stores. You can't say that about many cookbooks today.

Pub. Date: 1976

To round out the "Kitsch" collection, let's bring things up to modern times. And no cookbook evokes that nostalgic sense of cutting-edge technology than this little guy right here ------------------->
Why pay scads of money for a trip to Mount Everest or the Australian outback or Delaware when you can have an adventure in your very own kitchen?? That's the angle Montgomery Ward was going for, I guess. This comprehensive cookbook contains a confusing Table of Contents - in alphabetical order. That explains why after browsing "Appetizers", "Beverages", "Breads/Sandwiches", "Cereal/Rice/Pasta", and "Cheese and Eggs", I am all of a sudden thrust into "Defrosting and Reheating".

This cookbook is a bit more liberal with the ingredient list (one recipe for "Avocado Voisin" consisting of eighteen items leads me to three questions: 1.) what is a voisin? and 2.) why are salt and white pepper listed twice? and 3.) what exactly does chef mean when s/he says 'few grains of salt and white pepper'?) Of particular interest is the "Cheese and Eggs" section - since I'd like to cut back on cereal spending, maybe I'll need to consult this section for breakfast ideas.

And that's all I've got for the Nostalgic Section. Hope you enjoyed it.

P.S. - This is just a small sample of my library. Just you wait.

Grocery Update - May 8th

2011-05-13T21:17:00.000-07:00

Can't believe I almost forgot this!

This Week's Spending: $93.32. Total Expenditures: $162.12.

Fareway had an excellent sale on ground beef ($1.99/lb); however, the package came in ten-pound logs. So, I bought two. I figured with warm weather around the way, we'd be grilling a lot more. Hence, burgers. Twenty pounds of hamburger ran me at about $40...nearly half of my week's expenditures.

Everything else is evenly distributed. Aberrations include: Propel 6-packs and Little Debbie Chocolate Chip Cakes (both on sale for 2/$5). Turns out we were in charge of snacks for my son's soccer team this week - so, we went cheap and nutritious (one of those anyway).

Shockers (but not really) include: a bottle of A1 steak sauce (medium size) at $2.49...and that was with a $1 off coupon! Also, Kraft grated Parmesan cheese - $3.19! Egad! I must find alternatives. I suspect I could probably make my own steak sauce...the cheese may require more thought.

We leave for a ten-day jaunt to Alaska in about three weeks, and so I have been informed by my husband that he would like to clean out as much of the freezer and pantry as possible in the twenty-one days to come. I welcome this creative culinary challenge!

Note: I will edit this blog later with total and number amounts and other insights - I am currently without my receipts.

The Chili Armada

2011-05-08T16:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day out there to all past, present, and future moms...not to mention those of you with maternal-type inclinations.

Did I leave anybody out?

Today I did a smidge of housework. I also contemplated doing schoolwork, which I figured could wait until tomorrow.

Instead, I spent the morning in the kitchen (naturellement!) and the afternoon eating food and drinking wine at a Mother's Day brunch held at the local winery. I probably don't have to detail for you how *that* turned out. Food, wine, my mom...it was like Margarita Garage Sales '09 all over again!

Anyway, more about the kitchen bit.

This week coming up is probably the busiest one of the spring. The hubs and I are in a community theater radio show that is happening on Friday night, so rehearsals all week long. Then, three kids in soccer means practice on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and game on Friday. However, this week, I am prepared! By that, I mean:

1. Four pounds of premade sloppy joes.

2. A ginormous Paula Deen stockpot full of chili (finished up canned mushrooms and black beans - yay!)

3. Usage of the wilting spinach baby leaves in a super-batch of Spinach-Tortellini soup - for lunch this week.

There is absolutely no reason to eat out in a restaurant this week, not with a stockpile of sloppy joes, chili, and hotdogs. Check out my chili armada...

Yes, with this fleet, I shall battle hunger. And laziness.

Due the sparsity of red meat in this chili (mostly beans), it is likely we would drink the white table wine with this dish (top bottle), as opposed to the Beaujolais we would enjoy enjoy more with a grilled steak.

Grocery Shopping Calculations...Continued

2011-05-03T08:30:00.000-07:00

A new month, a new grocery budget.

I really have no goals or expectations for shopping this month...save one. Fifty dollars a week is not realistic right now (or at least, that's my take), so I am going for keeping the month's tally under $400. Fortunately, I was able to do just that (by the skin of my teeth) last month...the only reason being was that I did not grocery shop at all the last week in April - we lived off of what was already in the pantry, freezer, and refridgerator.

Total Expenditure for April's Groceries: $398.25

I should say that I am pledging to keep better track of my records, receipts, checkbook, etc. Then, perhaps I will have a more acccurate picture of my spending.

Anyhow, onto the next month.

Grocery Expenditures - May 1-8: $67.97 *Here is the graphic:

To be honest, this is what a normal, typical Nelson grocery shopping pie chart should look like. Fresh produce (fruit and veg), dairy, and meat take up nearly three-quarters of the spending, and that should be par for the course.

I am pleased with the variety this chart shows. Ketchup was on sale for .99 a bottle, so I won't need that for awhile. "Beverages" consisted of a two-liter of ginger ale I'll be using for a crockpot recipe later this week. I also took advantage of 2/$5 sale on boxes of Cheerios. So yeah, I do feel I shopped "by the sale" and found decent deals.

However, I think my love affair with string cheese is coming to an end. A 24 oz. package ran me $5.99 ($7.99 before coupon)...it's the main reason my dairy slice above is so beefed up. I won't delude myself anymore about forgoing lunchmeat, but string cheese, it's time to do without. For awhile. Perhaps I should check the prices at Costco.

Oh, May! You Make My Day!

2011-05-01T19:28:00.000-07:00

May 1st! It's May! Yay!

I think I am feeling so darned content today because I was able to spend time puttering in the kitchen.

I made a batch of hummus, pizza dough for tomorrow, pork and pineapple kabobs for the grill, brownies from scratch...

The best part, though, was my ten-year-old daughter Kirby asking (and then proceeding) to make cream cheese frosting for the brownies.

Hummus was a gem I discovered when we lived in Minnesota - sixish years ago. Since investing in a food processor, whipping up my own now is a breeze (not to mention cheaper). Chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic - all of which I usually have on hand. I did invest in a jar of tahini a couple of months ago (found at local grocery store), and I'm just now getting to the bottom third of the jar (after five-six batches of hummus). I prefer hummus to sour cream-based dips - I eat it with carrots, pretzels, and spread it on my lunchtime Flatout wraps.

Pizza dough was quick and effortless in my bread machine; great for a breakfast pizza recipe I came across. Breakfast for dinner tomorrow!

Then, the I-must-bake-something-itch took hold of me today and I had to scratch it. A quick flip through an elementary school cookbook turned up an easy recipe for brownies. The bake time was off, though, by about ten minutes...nevertheless, nice, moist, dense brownies appeared in front of me 30 minutes later. Now, because I can eat brownies perfectly well without frosting, to me, the bars were done. However, when my daughter asks if she can look through her cupcake magazine (a gift for her birthday back in March) for a frosting recipe, I sure won't say no.

Turns out we had all the ingredients on hand for a cream cheese recipe - thanks to a coupon and cream cheese sale I'd taken advantage of a couple of weeks ago. We made three times the frosting we needed for the brownies, so I was super-glad to read on the Internet that I could indeed freeze cream cheese frosting.

And this, my readers, was the star on tonight's bill of fare. What you are looking at is teriyaki pork, pineapple, and green pepper kabobs. While my daughter was making the frosting, my sons (12 and 6) were responsible for skewering the goods. They enjoyed this task immensely...I suppose as it involved sharp metal sticks, food in finger-friendly chunk sizes, and the thought of getting to "poke" things.

Now that May is here, kabobs and other such grill-friendly foods can take their righteous place on the dinner table.

Huzzah! May!

Full vs. Satisfied

2011-04-25T19:43:00.000-07:00

Because it is a skinny tome, and something easy to read before bedtime, my husband is perusing Michael Pollan's "Food Rules".

Here are the ones in particular tonight that he brought to my attention...meaning the point struck well-enough home with him that he was impelled to vocalize it.

#46. Stop eating before you are full.
#53. Serve a proper portion and don't go back for seconds.

Both rules get bandied about a lot these days. However, it's easier said than done, yes? I mean, if stopping before I got full was as easy as Pollan's wording seems to indicate, I would be doing it every day, every meal, right? Same with not going back for seconds.

But...as for rule #46, what is full? For most of us, full is that uncomfortable, undo-the-top-button-of-the-jeans feeling. Physically speaking, 'full' is certain. We know what full is.

Pollan suggests we stop eating before we get there. My husband seems to agree with Pollan, but readily admits his own difficulty in this area. Here's what Brent suggested to help facilitate rules #46 and #53:

Leave the main entree/high calorie dishes on the stovetop. If someone wants seconds, they physically have to get themselves up to get it.

Leave any vegetables and fruits on the table, where we can easily take seconds. Better to load up on green beans than sloppy joes, right?

Use a wait-time of three or so minutes before getting another helping (if the distance thing does not work). Use that time to engage in conversation, finish a glass of water, etc. to pass the time. Maybe by the end of it, the desire to eat more will have passed.

Preparing For The Final Week Of This Month

2011-04-24T19:30:00.000-07:00

First of all, there were no supermarket circulars or coupons in this week's paper, which reinforces my desire to steer clear of grocery stores this week. Remember, I only have $1.75 left to my $400 goal, and it is for emergencies only!

I do feel, with a great amount of certainty, that with the shopping and stocking I've been doing the last month, living off the contents of my pantry, freezer, and fridge is most definitely doable. Also, my birthday is this week, and I will spend one night this week (at least) having dinner bought for me by my adoring husband/children/friends/parents.

But, just in case, I've put some safety measures in place:

I prepared three pounds of Sloppy Joes today (thank you for the suggestion, Martha). I froze two and left one in the fridge. No excuse for not having some semblance of a meal on the table, no matter how tired I am.

Also, I updated my freezer/pantry inventories as well...and was pleasantly reminded of the 7 four-cup bags of homemade Red sauce I still have at my disposal. Makes me think it would be a great week for chili and spaghetti and Chicken Parmesan...

I wrote all these notes down on the little dry erase board magnetically attached to the fridge, so that I shan't forget this week's menu in the midst of all the chaos.

Have a great week, all!

Grocery Shopping - April 22: My Disease

2011-04-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

Total Spending This Week: $102.64. Total After Week Four: $398.25

I have a sickness. I am addicted to buying meat.

I tell myself every week that it's not a big deal and that I can stop at any time...but, I can't!

In my own pathetic defense, I will say that it was hard to pass up 10 boxes of Hormel Little Sizzlers sausage patties for a buck each. And, it was hard to pass up the 3-lb bags of frozen chicken breasts for $3.99. So, that accounted for about $18 dollars of the $27 I spent on meat this week. The rest of it was lunchmeat and smoked sausage (for which I had a coupon). One pound of deli-sliced turkey breast cost me $3.74 - too much money, and so I think it's time to take a lunchmeat hiatus.

I can't, with any shred of credibility, promise not to buy any meat products this last week in April But I will try.

Some things I'd like to point out as you gaze upon my pie chart.

One-third of the pie chart is devoted to dairy and eggs. Milk, as is expected, runs me about $3/gallon (bought = one). I've hit the eggs when I've had a coupon or when they're on sale (two 18-packs). Two small containers of Fage took up $1.98 (that was before I used my coupon).

But here's the thorn in my side - string cheese. I like it as a snack for myself and the kids - but, at over six bucks a package, the madness has to stop. Perhaps I should investigate making my own...or maybe I should comparison shop at Costco.

Fruit and Vegetables are non-negotiables; they're always going to be there. It's not like I can (or even want to) cut them out...anyway, I took advantage of Braeburns on sale (.69/lb) and bags of oranges (4lb bag/$2.99).

Stock up items this week? $4.77 on 150 oz. jugs of Purex laundry soap! Blue Bonnet packages of stick butter for 48 cents!

Any other insights here? Oh wait, yes. Condiments (ketchup), baking supplies (brown sugar), cleaning products (dish detergent and laundry soap), and paper products (paper towels and tp) are all categories that A.) will more than likely not be on the pie chart next week. And B.) consisted mostly of items that were either on sale or that I used a coupon for (or...in some cases, both!).

Those of you with a good memory and a head for math now realize that I have one dollar and seventy-five cents with which to spend on groceries next week (keeping under my aforementioned goal of $400/month).

Won't THAT be interesting?!

Oh Man - This is Crazy

2011-04-20T20:04:00.000-07:00

I have just set my alarm for 5:45 tomorrow morning.

So what, you may ask? For early-risers like everyone of my dad's generation and backwards, 5:45 is sleeping in...

Normally, I awake about 6:10 in the morning. Yes, that extra 25 minutes makes a difference. Tomorrow morning, though, will be different.

I am rising early to take advantage of One-Day sales at one of my local grocery stores! And here's what's even better - one of the items is on sale AND I just happen to have a coupon for it as well!

Wheeeee!

I must say, these days, it feels good to be excited about something. It kinda reminds me of last Sunday when my kids all raved about my homemade barbecue sauce.

My Week...No Idea What It May Mean

2011-04-18T20:54:00.000-07:00

Remember I'd finished reading Gary Taubes's "Why We Get Fat" over a week ago? Turns out that meat could be good and bread could be bad? Well, I needed more info. So, I skimmed Dr. Arthur Agatston's South Beach for some information and then I bookmarked Nutrition Data for handy reference.

And after all that, I still had no real idea of what exactly I should be eating. But, to do nothing still makes me part of the problem...

I finally decided to limit my carbohydrate intake to under 100 daily. Also, I wanted to steer clear of foods high on the glycemic index (high in sugars, even natural ones). Usually, foods high in carbs are high on the glycemic index...but then you get something like carrots, which are good for you, but high in carbs. Crazy...

Monday's weigh-in was 132.6 lbs. Breakfast was a bowl of oatmeal and a half cup of blueberries - 34g carbs. And just like that, one-third of my carbs were used up for the day. And, despite the stick-to-your-ribs reputation of oatmeal, I was hungry for a snack about three hours later at 10:00 a.m. (string cheese = 1g carbs). The rest of the day was low (mostly lunchmeat, cheese slices, and spinach). A small pastry from the local bakery and an apple ran me a combined 38g carbs. Day one = I came in at 100g carbohydrates on the nose. The oatmeal thing was disheartening; after all, I'd eaten the stuff every day for several years. But, in the name of science, I decided to forgo it for the duration.

Tuesday's breakfast was lighter, carb-wise (Fage yogurt, blueberries = 13g carbs), and again, I was ready for a snack around mid-morning (another stick of string cheese). One cup of sliced peaches at lunch time for 12g, but I didn't mind the splurge as it satisfied my craving for something sweet. One slice of whole wheat bread as an after-school snack set me back 14g, whereas a Flatout flatbread I ate later in the evening only cost me 8g. Day two = 80g carbohydrates.

Wednesday and Thursday, I decided to get crazy and change my breakfast to high protein. Two scrambled eggs cooked up with one large slice of deli ham and a 1/4 cup shredded cheese for breakfast - 4g carbs. An 8 oz cup of red grapefruit slices that accompanied this meal went for over double that amount (10g). Meat and cheese roll-ups for lunch were next to nothing carb-wise, so I felt okay about the 12g on the peaches-and-cottage-cheese combo. Day three total = 85g carbohydrates. Day four total = 81g carbs.

On Friday, I got a hankering to go out to a restaurant for breakfast, and so I ordered a nice sausage and cheese omelet, which I figured ran me 10g carbs. I was satisfied until lunch at 11:45 a.m. A foray into the nut-as-a-snack realm netted me 8g for 1 oz. of cashews, which seemed like a lot for so little...however, I ate these around 3:30 p,m., when I am at my weakest, hungriest self - and those nuts tied me over till dinner time. My dinner was a Jimmy John's Unwich - 2g carbs. Check out an unwich here. They are so good!

Saturday morning, I awoke and weighed in: 131.4. I'd lost over a pound in five days - and I was eating plenty of eggs, cheese, and meat. Some vegetables, a little fruit, a little nuts. But no grains. And, I'd only done some pretty light exercise (maybe a twenty-minute walk around the block daily). I didn't feel starved ever, and I didn't feel like I'd spent my entire week on a treadmill.

Of course, you'd need my bloodwork numbers before and after to really have the whole picture here. I mean, sure I'm eating low-carb, high-fat and I'm losing weight - but could I be increasing my risk for heart disease? Gary Taubes would tell me no. But who knows, really?

This past weekend, naturally, was a bit of a botch job. I stupidly made (and consequently ate) some chocolate chip cookies with my daughter on Saturday, and I also attended a baby shower, which just gave me some kind of license to eat sugary, high-carb crap. In the end, I indulged, but not in a terrible, gluttonous way. My weigh-in this morning after a week (kind of) with this eating style: 131.8 - only a half-pound up from Saturday's weigh-in and almost a pound down from the previous Monday.

Of course, I am eating less food, which may account for the loss...but am I eating less because I'm subconsciously depriving myself of food (the diet mentality) OR am I really not hungry for food because I'm satisfied by the high-fat foods I've been consuming? Huh. C'est conundrum. The research shall continue.

Grocery Shopping - April 15: The Realization

2011-04-16T05:30:00.000-07:00

My initial challenge was $50 a week, which I achieved easily that first week. Then, a trip to Costco in the second week set things back considerably. Now, in week three, I just haven't quite been able to bounce back to my fifty-buck limit. I have theories, and I realize they'll probably sound like excuses. :-)

1. We are in the second full week of spring activities. Between all three kids, there is soccer six days a week, not to mention board meetings for myself on Mondays, writing group on Tuesdays, and bowling league on Thursdays.

2. And, being sort of wiped out from my full-time sub job has left me pretty ineffective in the kitchen. The CrockPot is underused and my meal planning has gone awry.

3. As a result, it feels like many nights' dinners are slapdash, piecemeal affairs. Case in point, I had a half-pound of leftover ground turkey in the fridge on Tuesday...Kirby suggested she was in the mood for walking tacos. As I had no other real plans for the meat, walking tacos sounded good to me. However, a trip to the supermarket was in order - I needed tomatoes, olives, taco sauce, and Doritos. I was at the mercy of the prices at the moment. Poor planning on my part. I spent twelve dollars on about four items needed for just one meal.

Here is the Glorious Pie Chart O' Spending. I'll include my comments below.

Total Spending This Week: $102.64
Total After Week Three: $287.40

An aberration you'll notice this week is nearly a quarter of the expenditures went towards what I call "Junk Food". This is certainly NOT par for course - but it stems from two things: weakness on my part and more poor planning.

1. A soda for myself after a long day of work.

2. A pack of low-sugar fudge bars (4.39).

3. Two boxes of Little Debbies (3.00). Kirby informed me the day of that she needed to bring treats for her Girl Scout troop. *eye roll*

4. 12-pack of Doritos for the aforementioned walking tacos.

5. Four Lunchables bought as a spur of the moment meal, as my husband realized Thursday night we would all be running hither and thither with no chance to have a real dinner. I HATE buying Lunchables - for so many reasons that I am remembering right now.

So, yeah, it was the little things that just added up over the week. It is likely, though, you won't see this aberration again. At least, I sure hope not.

I can't complain much about the rest of it. I know I keep saying I'm going to stop buying meat - but 1 lb. chubs of ground beef (90%) were on sale for 2 for $7...which I guess comes out to $3.50/pound, which is maybe not that great of a deal at all, now that I think about it. Then, I also bought lunchmeat for the week - which always seems to add up no matter what. Three meat items + nearly another quarter of the spending = kinda ridiculous. I gotta stop...

Another almost-quarter devoted to fruits and vegetables (canned and frozen) - not going to say much about that.

Breakfast cereal, the bane of my existence. I bought four boxes, used two coupons, and still spent almost ten percent on what Willy Wonka called "those disgusting little pencil shavings". *sigh*

Two weeks in April left - must rally! My goal now is to put my super-duper resourceful pants on and come in under $350 for the entire month. Now that would actually be a feat I've never achieved - under $400 on groceries for a family of five!

Costco Analysis and Tips

2011-04-09T10:47:00.000-07:00

Briefly, here is my warehouse shopping biography.

Oh, about 7, 8, 9 years ago, we were Sam's Club members when we lived in Minnesota. Because we had little ones in diapers, that comprised most of our bill. We bought toilet paper, paper towels, etc., as well...however, we never paid much attention to price. Stupidly, we assumed if we were buying more, it was costing us less. Eventually we gave up the membership, because we were spending too much, and we were also preparing to move to Iowa.

The next several years passed in relative peace.

Sometime in October of last year, I got the warehouse bug again. Probably because I was tired of seeing Costco every time I went to a big-city shopping mall and probably because I'd picked up the book Fix, Freeze, Feast. Things had changed now, our diaper-clad children were now voracious eaters, and so it seemed like as good a time as any to join.

This time around though, things are different. I've not gone ape crazy, buying every cool thing I see. I've also done more with price checking and comparing. Let me tell you, there are good deals to be had at warehouses, but there are also an equal amount of items you're better off just buying at home.

While I'm not the warehouse shopping expert (yet), here's some comparisons from my most recent shopping trip (yesterday).

Many of these probably even out once I figure in gas and driving costs (Costco is about an hour from my home). So yeah, maybe I should buy my Fage at home...but, I cannot find the 35 oz container size anywhere around here. *That* is worth the trip. The pretzels, though, are subject to negotiation - if I come across them on sale around here, I'll buy the big bags and divvy them up myself.

However, items 3 through 6 are interesting. Sixteen ounces of baby spinach in a nice reusable plastic container at almost half the cost of Walmart's going rate!? Yes, please! Of course, if you dislike raw baby spinach leaves, you may not find this discount as exciting as I do. However, I stretch my salad lettuce with a couple of handfuls of spinach (not to mention a handful of good nutrients). I also use spinach in my wraps, soups, quiches, etc. So, yeah, a good deal for our family. The red grapefruit cups were on sale at Costco this week, and probably something I would not normally buy. But, I had one this morning, sprinkled with a bit of Truvia, and was quite pleased with the result. It's funny that despite the "sale price" of $1.00 at Walmart, I still got the better deal at Costco. The vanilla thing is just staggering. I do a fair amount of baking, and I don't think I will ever buy vanilla at the grocery store again. Ever. The olives were for my mom (she and my dad eat them like jackals) and again, a much, much better deal at Costco. In fact, the Walmart price I quote above was for the store brand (Great Value)...that was the absolute lowest cost.

Paper plates, though, I could also just suck up and buy here in town. Yeah, it's nice having 276 paper plates at my disposal, but honestly, I could buy three packages at 3.86 each, have 300 plates, and still spend less than I did at Costco. Ah, well, you live, you learn.

In the six months I've been a warehouse shopper, here's a couple of things I've learned:

1. Take any and all previous grocery receipts with you. Jot down quantities. Then you'll have something to compare as opposed to trying to remember how much toilet paper is.

2. Steer clear of the specialty foods (unless it's special occasion). Yes, the lobster ravioli looks pretty cool, but really, do you need it?

3. Be reasonable and be realistic. I almost splurged yesterday on avocados, but then I remembered that I don't use them much anyway, and honestly, they'd probably go bad at the bottom of my crisper.

Hopefully, this list grows.

Grocery Challenge - April 8: EPIC FAIL

2011-04-09T04:59:00.000-07:00

First off, I nearly went over my $50 budget by almost three times. Second off, I'm not going to apologize because I took advantage of some good deals. Besides, I do have three eaglets here at the nest to feed.

Total grocery expenditures this week = $139.46. Number of stores visited = 3.

On Thursday I made a quick stop at one of the local shops for .77 cans of fruit (peaches, cocktail). My primary thought here was to serve these goodies at dinner time, with my cottage cheese at lunch, or as an after-school snack. I also stocked up on cottage cheese, going for .99 a tub. Again, cottage cheese works well here as a dinner side dish - all kids like it. I froze one tub, thinking maybe to thaw it sometime for a lasagna. Packages of hot dogs were also going for .79 a package - hard to pass that up. Not that I'm a big wiener fan (well...), but with summer camping around the corner...

Then, today was our monthly trip to the Costco warehouse. It's hard to walk in there and keep the bill under fifty bucks, but I tried. I did about $85 dollars' worth of damage, and just $60 of that was food. Fruit was the major purchase here - a six-pound bag of Anjou pears for 5.99 (.99/lb). I purchased four pounds of pears on sale at Hy-Vee last week for .88 cents a pound...but they were gone within three days. I did not even get a one. I suspect, with twelve pounds of them now in my crisper, my odds increase greatly. Costco is the place where I buy the three-plus pound assortment of pretzels bags that my kids have as an after-school snack....however, at roughly $2.50 a pound, it's probably time to consider purchasing the giant bags of pretzels and bagging them in individual portions myself. My biggest zippity-doodah at Costco was a 16 oz. bottle of pure vanilla for $6.79 (.42 cents an oz)...when I checked prices later at Fareway, a 4 oz bottle ran me $7.29 ($1.82/oz)!! Highway robbery!

The last stop was at the other grocery store in town, Fareway, last night. The bill was higher than I'd anticipated, especially since I only needed a few items. Brent threw in two bottles of our favorite Moscato - but he said I could categorize it under "entertainment" instead of "food". Hahahaha. Also, I had a $4 off coupon for General Mills cereal - but again, cereal can just be so expensive, sometimes I wonder if I really am getting the great deal.

So, here's the breakdown:

Key Points:

1. I feel pretty good about a third of my spending this week being devoted to fruits and vegetables - I'm never usually going to regret that. If I'm lucky, the fresh fruit will last two weeks.

2. About a quarter of the spending (23%) was on items that aren't usually part of the weekly list: wine, yeast, vanilla (Wine and Baking Items).

3. True to my word, meat spending was way down. I took advantage of .99 packages of Little Sizzlers, the previously-mentioned hot dogs, and lunchmeat. I suspect this trend will continue, some major meat sale notwithstanding.

4. There's another quarter, though, that's kind of a thorn in my side - the processed food quarter (Cereal and Snacks). I paid about $28 dollars for refined and processed "grains" and air. Hmph. I suspect that is an area that will change in the weeks to come.

5. Why is string cheese so damn expensive?! Five dollars for a 24-pack? Well, I guess it does come to about .20 cents a piece...maybe that's not so bad....but string cheese is so little. Also, $5.79 of the dairy spending came from a 35-oz. container of Fage yogurt, the really thick Greek style stuff. It breaks down to .17 cents an ounce, and I simply can't find it in bigger containers anywhere.

So yeah - I waaaaay overshot my $50 this week. But still, $139 dollars on a week's worth of groceries is significantly less than what I've paid before.

We Overeat...Because We're Getting Fatter?

2011-04-06T05:42:00.000-07:00

Well, if that just doesn't flip conventional medical wisdom on its head, I don't know what will.

So I'm reading "Why We Get Fat" by Gary Taubes, right?

Chapter 9 is titled "Laws of Adiposity" - much of the first section discusses an experiment conducted by George Wade. After removing the ovaries from three sets of female lab rats, this is what he found:

1. The rats who were allowed to eat whatever, whenever gained weight and became obese.
2. The rats who were put on a strict post-surgery diet still gained weight and became obese.
3. The rats who were injected with estrogen and left to whatever eating pattern they chose did not grow obese.

Obviously, this experiment (with further explanation in the book) linked the presence of estrogen to weight loss/gain. Taubes goes on to say "estrogen influences an enzyme called lipoprotein lipase (LPL)". These enzymes pull fat into cells that express a need for it (91). When there is no estrogen, the LPLs go crazy, pulling fat into cells everywhere...then, the animal (in this case, the rat) wants to eat more and more because calories and fat are being snatched by the LPL (92). If the animal can't get the food it wants, the body compensates by slowing down: metabolism, expending energy, etc.

Laboratory rats is one thing, humans are another altogether. I'm paraphrasing Taubes here, but, we've all believed that overeating and underexercising have been the obesity culprit; maybe these lab rats are the key to understanding that obesity is not just a simple matter of eating less and moving more. Perhaps we need to get it through our heads that obesity is its own complex system and network of enzymes and partnerships that have nothing to do with being on the treadmill or eating a salad. He suggests that "when we pay attention to the regulation of our fat tissue, we arrive at an explanation for why we get fat and what to do about it (93)".

I must, of course, keep reading, but this is pretty intriguing stuff, yes?

If You're Not a Sloth, You're a Glutton. And Vice Versa.

2011-04-03T14:10:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'll admit (don't lose respect for me), I've stopped reading Gary Taubes's "Good Calories, Bad Calories". While it was a very impressive body of work, it was also very dense, hard to sift through, and just too darn scientific and data-based. That stuff is important to me, but I already accept the premise...I kept waiting for Taubes to give advice. And I waited...and waited...

However, this girl's got a Plan B. I picked up Taubes's "Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It", a recently-published text that I suspect he put out in response to readers like myself who just wanted a super-duper condensed version of GCBC and more tips and advice.

Thirty pages in, my expectation is met so far. Taubes has summarized rather handily the tomes of research that exist regarding obesity, etc...both positive and negative outcomes. Early on, it's clear that science, public health, government have made mistakes...ones they seem reluctant to fix.

Anyway, there are several older studies that indicate obesity was once a "disease of malnutrition" instead of overnutrition (29). Taubes then goes to explain that most doctors, parents, nutritionists, dietitians, consumers, etc. have believed in the calories in-calories out process (that we gain weight when we consume more cals than we burn). Thus, if one was obese, it was either because s/he was inactive or was an overeater (either s/he was a sloth (lazy) or a glutton). However, Taubes highlights study after study that indicates obesity had nothing to do with activity. After all, according to the conventional knowledge, poverty-level sharecroppers in 1950's South Carolina should have been thin (because they couldn't afford much food and worked physically demanding jobs)...but they weren't (26). An unusual number of those folks (and many others) were overweight.

Taubes suggests that we forget about labels (sloth or glutton?) and judgments (lazy or a pig?) and instead, consider that something is wrong with our food supply.

It doesn't seem like a wholly revolutionary idea, but essentially: stop worrying about how much we eat, and worry more about what we eat.

And that is what I am in the middle of trying to figure out. What should I eat? Who's right? The USDA (Meat & Beans are just a sliver on the current food pyramid)? Michael Pollan (Eat more. Mostly plants.)? Gary Taubes/Dr. Atkins/Arthur Agatston (Meat is good. Stay away from high-carb...even if it's a fruit or vegetable)?

The answers are out there. They have to be.

I'm No Top Chef

2011-04-02T06:12:00.000-07:00

But I'm pretty darned pleased with my Whole Wheat Buttermilk Pancakes this morning.

2 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 c. sugar

These I combined in a large bowl. Then I stirred in:

2 cups of buttermilk and a 1/2 tsp. of baking soda.

After that, I added and combined until just all dry ingredients were wet:

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 cups of flour (I s'pose it would be best to use all-purpose, but I used what I had, so I went with a cup of King Arthur Whole Wheat and a cup of rye flour. Crazy!)

Then it was griddle time!

Smiles and second helpings all around today!

Grocery Challenge - April 1

2011-04-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

Not since September when our family went off restaurant eating have I been faced with any kind of monetary-food challenge...so what better time than now?

I subscribe to a blog here that is mostly about being frugal. The author spends $25 a week on groceries for herself, her husband, and their teenage son. She reviews all mailings and coupons to get the best deals and stocks up whenever things are dirt-cheap.

So, why not this same challenge for me? I grant you, $25 a week with three growing kids might be an impossible stretch...I'm not looking to deprive anybody of valuable nutrients here. But...imposing a reasonable dollar amount might be kinda fun.

In preparation, I updated my pantry and freezer inventories. Upon doing this, I discovered that meat is one thing I will probably not need to purchase much of in the month to come - unless, of course, there's a great bargain to be had. It does appear, though, that frozen vegetables will make the grocery list this week. There is not much dairy I will need to purchase this week - milk consumption has tapered off a little since we've slowed down on cereal eating. Yogurt and cheese are adequate. Fruit is holding firm, which leaves me free to buy only what's on sale (pears, as it turns out, much to Brent's joy).

There was, I'll admit, a frugal pleasure in perusing the weekly circular for the grocery ads. I'll be shopping at Fareway this week, as opposed to Hy-Vee, simply because many of the items I need this week are on sale at the former.

Hopefully, my receipt here shortly will prove to be as satisfying as researching the shopping trip.

UPDATE: Two hours later...

I've put my expenditures for the week here into this nice little Excel pie chart. My total came to $45.30 (leaving me a total of $4.70 for any incidentals in the week to come). I know I said I wasn't going to buy much meat, but it was on sale, and since there wasn't much else I needed - I stocked up.

$22.25 - Chicken breasts and butterfly pork chops

And joy, frozen vegetables were on sale! Isn't it fortuitous that I needed them?
$5.94 - Six 16 oz bags of corn and peas & carrots

Yes, I took advantage of pears and onions being on sale. However, I "splurged" on cucumbers (.99 a piece) so that I could reuse the leftover pickle juice in the fridge. Also, I like cutting up carrots and celery for snacks during the week.

$10.86 - Fresh produce (pears, onions, carrots, celery, cucumbers, lettuce)

My dairy shopping wins the most bang-for-the-buck award - three items at .99 each.

$2.97 - Dairy (two dozen eggs and a pint of half and half)

Now, let me follow that up with the most ridiculous thing ever. As a real "splurge", I purchased a Diet Coke for myself and a Mountain Dew for my son, Spencer. You know, as an end-of-week treat. The two 20 oz. bottles of pop (with deposit) ran me $3.08...eleven cents more than the two dozen eggs and h&h! The eggs alone will provide four mornings' worth of breakfast (or more) for my family - and I paid more money for two beverages which will be gone by early evening.

Unbelievable, right?

Anyway, recap.

Week 1 Total: $45.30 (-$3.08 of utter stupidity)
Number of Reuseable Bags Filled: Three

Pizza Fit For A King

2011-03-30T18:57:00.000-07:00

You know, this whole-working-full-time-thing really puts a crimp in my kitchen doings. The armada of kitchen appliances on my counter serve as constant reminders of their disuse and neglect. I dream of happier days when I can spend quality time with them again...and not just on days that begin with a 'S'.

It's quite hard to determine which kitchen appliance is the most indispensable - I use them all often and they all seem equally important. However, right now, the bread machine is edging out the competition ever-so-slightly. Here's why: after about ten minutes of prep time, I am rewarded with a nice, warm, moisty-chewy loaf of bread...in a variety of flavors, colors, and textures. Yes, I have to wait a couple of hours, but that is A-OK! Also, I've had great luck with pretzel dough.

And now, I can add pizza dough to the list.

The recipe I used called for three cups of all-purpose flour. However, in my excitement and haste, I'd already dumped in a cup of King Arthur bread flour...meh. Oh well, I followed that up with two cups of King Arthur whole wheat flour. With the water, oil, and yeast in already, it was time to press the "Start" button and walk away. Which I did. After ninety minutes, I had me a nice little dough ball which I wrapped up and stored in the fridge.

Then, my ten-year-old daughter expressed a desire last night to be the chief food-preparer, so I let her have it. We unwrapped the chilled dough ball and let it get to room temperature before rolling it out and laying it in a jelly-roll pan. Then again, I walked away.

Kirby took it from there - she brushed on some garlic-infused olive oil, spread on two cups of our homemade Red Sauce, and then littered the crust with a variety of items, including mushrooms, olives, leftover diced chicken, and mozzarella. Then she baked it. Then we ate it. Then we died and went to pizza heaven.

When we descended from pizza heaven, I vowed to do pizza crust like this every time.

Meatless Monday

2011-03-28T19:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a great example of irony for you:

I spend about $70 on meat this past weekend in an effort to restock my deep freeze...then, I turn up my nose at said foodstuff for a Meatless Monday meal plan.

Madness.

Anyway, tonight was a late, late supper with kiddos arriving home from soccer about 7:30. On the bill of fare: "Red Beans and Rice", recipe courtesy of my new It cookbook "Not Just Beans".

While the brown rice cooked away in its rice cooker earlier, I threw together sauteed onions, two cans of kidney beans, two cans of diced tomatoes, garlic salt, basil, and oregano together in a skillet to simmer for about fifteen minutes. Then, I mixed the rice in at the very end of cooking.

Serving went a couple different ways: tortilla chips topped with the mixture, cheddar cheese, salsa, and sour cream made for an excellent, filling dinner for the kids and Brent. A large bowl of salad, topped with the rice and beans, cheese, salsa, and sour cream made for an excellent, fairly salubrious dinner for me.

Best part? Enough in the skillet afterwards to guarantee two days' worth of leftovers for Brent and I. Yes! Picture me doing joyful, happy somersaults of Olympic proportions.

For You, Brent

2011-03-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

I recently received a free cookbook titled "Not Just Beans" by Tawra Kellam. And you know me, cuckoo for cookbooks!

With any new cookbook I get, I like to spend about an hour just reading, looking, dreaming, and planning. "Not Just Beans" was no different. Then...action time.

I discovered a recipe for Beef Stroganoff using round steak - which I just happened to have in my freezer. That's what was for dinner last night - major raves from the male contingent of the family.

But today, in homage to my husband, I lovingly prepared - Blue Cheese Dressing.

The pungence of the dressing comes from this funky-looking dairy product here at left. You'll notice how UNnatural this food looks, and since it's a product I don't care for, I don't ever stock the dressing in my house.

This is much to my husband's chagrin, because he loves blue cheese dressing. Along with my mom, they both order it with relish on their salads whenever we dine out. Ick, but, you know, whatever.

I thought it would be a nice, wifey thing to make a salad dressing (that I detest) for my husband, who then would not always have to order it at a restaurant (where who knows what ingredients it contains). The recipe was v. simple (I actually "fourthed" the recipe - I mean, one-and-a-half quarts of BLUE CHEESE DRESSING?! There is only so far I'll go, folks):

1 cup mayo (I used light)
1/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup small-curd cottage cheese (I used 1% milkfat)
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp (or more) salt for taste
1/4 tsp Worchestershire sauce
3 oz. blue cheese crumbles

I processed everything except 1 oz of the crumbles until smooth, then I mixed in the last ounce for a bit o' chunkiness. I did add a couple dashes of pepper, because I dig that spice. Upon tasting, my husband claims it tastes pretty much the same as store-bought...although he would like it if I would add more blue cheese (I guess that's what he digs - yuck). So, I'll just throw the rest of the crumbles in the next time he uses it.

While making your own salad dressing is fun and empowering, it's only a complete victory if it's actually healthier and cheaper than buying a bottle of store-bought. Unfortunately, that is information I do not have for you right now. When I get a bit more time, I'll compile that data, and then we will truly see whether or not I do it again.

For you, Brent.

More on "Fat Head"

2011-03-22T18:54:00.000-07:00

The fog has cleared a little, but I still feel uncertain about my nutritional future. For years, I've been brainwashed into thinking that fat is bad, grains are good. Ancel Keys, a Minnesota cardiologist somehow got the AHA and the rest of America to buy into the premise that high-fat, meat-laden diets were causing heart disease rates to skyrocket. At his insistence, we all soon believed that low-fat was the way to go. We all stocked up on potatoes, pasta, rice and loaded them up with substances like margarine and fat-free sour cream. Then guys like Atkins and Agatston come along and tell some kinds of fat are better than other, and maybe we should eat real butter, use real cream, and eat some meat. In fact, lean cuts of meat as it turns out, maybe help fight fat better than anything else!

These, and other revelations, crop up in the movie "Fat Head". (For a Taoist's take on this movie, check out my friend's blog at A Taoist Journey to the Stars)

And so, here I am, feeling like I don't know what. My most recent trip to Costco netted me eight boxes of pasta and two bags of breakfast cereal - both of which I'd be doing a disservice to feed to my kids, according to the research behind "Fat Head"!

So. What the heck do I do now? While I'm trying to sift through Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories", I reach for a quick fix with my favorite food writer - Michael Pollan...and I remember some of his (and others') sage words from his "Food Rules", particularly:

1. Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food.
2. Avoid food products that make blatant health claims.
3. Stay out of the middle of the supermarket as much as possible.
4. If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't.
5. Eat your colors.
6. Eat sweet foods as you find them in nature.

While, yes, I've been turned on my nutritional little head, I am trying to find order out of chaos. And while I'm trying to do that, I found this little funny and decided to share it with you.

My World Has Been Rocked

2011-03-20T19:23:00.000-07:00

I'm always open to ideas and research that impel me to improve my life. I've been very lucky, especially in the area of food, to have come across several books and films that have changed me for the better. The short list includes:

Print:
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Ominvore's Dilemma and Food Rules by Michael Pollan
What to Eat by Marion Nestle

Film:
Super-Size Me
Food Inc.
King Corn

And now, I suspect I'll be able to add the film "Fat Head" to the list. This film essentially rebuts the premise of "Super-Size Me"; in this documentary, Tom Naughton sets out to demonstrate that eating fast-food for one month straight is not as detrimental as stated in "Super-Size Me". At the end of the month (in which he'd had mostly McDonald's), Tom Naughton actually lost twelve pounds and had better cholesterol numbers than before the experiment. Following on the tail of that shocker were some equally disturbing ones about grains, the USDA, fat, sugars, etc.

Watching that documentary has turned my culinary world upside down, so I am now reading Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories" (recommended by the same friend who suggested the Naughton film). Hopefully, that will begin to make sense of this upheaval and any ramifications that result.

I am reeling. I hope to post more later.

No More Casting Aspersions on Asparagus

2011-03-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

My favorite vegetable of the day is: Asparagus. And I owe this all to Ina Garten. You know Ina Garten, right? The Barefoot Contessa lady?

No? Well, now you do.

Here's the sad thing about asparagus. It's number two on the "Most Hated Vegetable List". Okay, I don't have hard data on that previous fact, but seriously, it suffers from serious reputation damage. And why? My guess is that, because asparagus preparation is SO key, many people foul it up, and wind up serving something that looks like a slimy green snake. No wonder. If this has happened to you (as in the case of my mom), then consider this:

1. Asparagus look cool. I mean, anyone can eat a tomato, potato, or lettuce - round vegetables are a dime a dozen. But a spear? With little nubby thingies on it? Boyohboy, sign me up!

2. Asparagus is a bang-for-your-buck vegetable. Low calorie, low sodium, and high in fiber and a whole host of vitamins and minerals. And it's versatile: steam it, roast it, pickle it, eat it raw, make cream of asparagus soup, ad nauseum...

There's other reasons, too...but I will leave you to your own research.

Anyway. About a week ago I purchased two decent-looking bunches of asparagus at the store. Today, I roasted them with this recipe I found at the Food Network website - Roasted Asparagus. I only made the following changes: 1.) Instead of EVOO, I used a garlic-infused olive oil. As a friend of mine so succinctly put it, you can never have enough garlic. 2.) I seasoned the oiled vegetables with sea salt and a freshly ground garlic pepper (found at local, small-town grocery store), because again, see Change #1. 3.) I sprinkled with Parmesan cheese upon removing from the oven.

I then roasted the two trimmed bunches on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for 20 minutes. Seriously, it was that easy. My children ate them - no complaints. My mom (self-proclaimed asparagus-hater...because of repressed childhood memories, I think) even tried one, and did not throw up, spit it out, or complain. Not that she would have done that anyway...but still.

Heavenly. Thank goodness the season of abundant asparagus will soon be upon us, because I will be trying this recipe again. And again. And again.

Kudos to Panera! Sort Of...

2011-03-18T14:22:00.000-07:00

According to Wikipedia, the quickish, cafe-style eatery Panera Bread has 1362 stores in 40 states. That means it's highly likely most of you have access...a word I use loosely; after all, I drive over an hour to the nearest one.

Anyway, for me, Panera Bread is the consummate love-hate relationship. It is the home of the Cinnamon Crunch Bagel - a baked good SO PERFECT that I might commit violent crimes just to possess it. However, calorie- and nutrition-wise, it's the AntiChrist (4.5 oz, 430 calories, 8g fat, 2g fiber, 29g sugar...but so, so, so delish).

You see my dilemma, no doubt. If I lived closer to a Panera, I would purchase a CCB more often...but if I purchased a CCB more often, my waistline would hate me. And I don't want that. Thus, I am very grateful to live a significant distance from a PB, where a CCB is not such a devilish temptation. I suppose I should just develop stronger willpower...ASAP.

Acroynms aside, my husband and I had lunch there recently and I was so, so, so happy to see: calorie counts immediately next to menu items on the reader board. Finally! An eating establishment willing to openly broadcast nutritional information! As if it had nothing to hide. Furthermore, it also lists calorie amounts for full- and half-portions. But...it does not include the calorie counts for the bag of potato chips Brent got with his turkey artichoke panini or the roll that came with my salad. You take the good, you take the bad...

I opted for a full-size Thai Chopped Chicken Salad (390 calories). As I chewed my greens and roasted edamame, I contemplated how other restaurants should follow Panera's example, because only recently have many chain restaurants been forthcoming about their nutritional data. In states like New York and California, government has had to put the smackdown on fast-food secrecy, forcing them to spill the saturated fat beans. Some restaurants still have managed to elude legislation - like Fuddrucker's, a burger place I absolutely love.

The beauty, though, of the Internet, is that somebody, somewhere has done their own independent research and managed to find out this information anyway. My recommendation for websites that provide nutritional data for many of America's chain eateries? Dotti's Weight Loss Zone. At least now I have the information to make a somewhat educated choice...and there's no delusion about the fat, salt, and insane calorie count behind something like Outback Steakhouse's Aussie Cheese Fries (30g, 524mg, 404 calories - that's just 1/3 of a small portion!)

But, back to Panera...while knowing the calorie amount is good, it's not the whole nutritional picture. My Thai chicken salad? 390 calories seemed pretty good for a decent-sized bowl of spicy goodness...until I looked it up online later and saw: 15g of fat, 5g of fiber, 13g of sugar, 34 g of protein.

Here's what those numbers mean: for this type of salad, the numbers for fiber and protein are par for the course (cashews, chicken, romaine lettuce). The 15g of fat might be a little startling (for a salad), but much of that is due to the crispy wonton strip topping and cashews and edamame. My advice? Leave off the strips, but keep the cashews and edamame; they may be a little high in fat, but they provide some other good stuff too. By far, the most alarming factoid here is the 13g of sugar. We don't normally equate salads with the sugar equivalency of certain brands of cereal, yogurt, and granola bars. The kicker? Seven grams of the 13 came from the Thai Chili Vinaigrette - over half! To the best of my culinary knowledge, vinaigrette SHOULD only consist of oil, vinegar, and spices. Where does sugar even enter the vinaigrette picture? If I knew then what I know now, I'd have asked for the dressing on the side.

While the restaurant industry is coming a long ways in informing their consumers, there is still a long way to go.

Hmmm...this puts me in mind to conduct a little experiment....more to come later.

Food TV

2011-03-17T08:54:00.000-07:00

My kids enjoy watching the Food Network. They also like the Game Show Channel.

I know, I know. I have pretty awesome kids.

Anyway, one show they like is "Chopped". The premise is a process of elimination - with one chef "winning". Four culinary neophytes are run through a food obstacle course of sorts. In Round One, the contestants are given three totally random and unrelated ingredients, with which they have to create a palatable and clever appetizers. And by random, I mean random...we're talking yucca, watermelon, and tortillas (there is also a "pantry" stocked with other basics).

Round Two is the entree. Round Three is the dessert. Each round, one contestant is eliminated or "chopped" from competition...and they go home feeling like a loser.

And these newbs are then given twenty minutes to complete. You can imagine the drama that ensues.

So far, I'm okay with the show. It's clever - seeing how inventive and clever these wannabe-Emerils can get. Also, working under pressure - I get it!

But, after every round, the dishes are paraded out for a panel of tasting judges, of whose credentials I'm skeptical of. Anyway...

The judges are honest and will inform each contestant of their dish's shortcomings. They also praise when it's due. And this is where things go south. The entire show is now about WHO FAILED THE LEAST. What do the judges expect when greenback chefs are given ridiculous ingredients and a constrained time limit? On top of that, bombard them (in front of each other) with criticism when they don't produce the most amazing thing ever?

I dunno - it just kinda epitomizes the direction our society is going. Distressing, really.

Also, the kids like to watch "Cupcake Wars". As if strife and conflict doesn't happen around the world everyday, now people war over cupcakes. Sheesh.

I'd abolish the TV from my house if I could - but I don't think I could get my husband to go for it.

A Meaningful Title...

2011-03-14T12:43:00.000-07:00

So, here I am. Newly arrived from another blog site. More illuminating thoughts to follow...

Food Pyramid Discussions

2011-02-19T08:43:00.000-08:00

You all remember this pictorial, right? Courtesy of the USDA...

Elliot, the six-year-old has been learning about this diagram in his health and PE class. This past Thursday we were talking about it, looking at it, labeling it, when I had a brainstorm. Suppose we, as a family, keep track of what we eat for the course of a day and track it on a blank copy of the current pyramid? Not altering too much what we eat or go terribly out of our way to fill the requirements, but just to see how we typically fare in getting our recommendations.

Huh. Talk about eating like food matters. When you stop to think about everything you put in your mouth and where you will plot it on the pyramid...all of a sudden, the purchase of a small bag of pretzel M&Ms becomes super-important and thought-provoking.

Because honestly, where would you put it? Does it really do anything for your body?

These are the questions we are asking ourselves today as we attempt this "experiment". The earlier dialogues are the by-products of the day's progress.

Holy Grains, Batman!

2011-02-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

We here at the Nelson Ranch are conducting an food experiment today, which I will discuss in a later post. But for starters...here's something rather stunning...

According to the new food pyramid, my children should consume 6 oz. of grains a day. Furthermore, one cup of Cheerios (any dry cereal, really) equals 1 oz. However, one cup of homemade granola (yours truly found a pretty phenomenal recipe last weekend) provides 2.5 oz. of grains.

Thus, the kiddos get more bang for the buck from the homemade stuff. This isn't shocking news for those of you who do a lot of your own stuff...but it kind of was for me. And then there's Brent, the poor guy, who should consume 9 oz. of grains a day! Won't he rethink what he eats for breakfast now!

Later...Lunchtime....

The kids finished up a bag of Totino's pizza rolls. I made a meat-cheese-and-veg wrap for Brent and I. Brent also consumed a serving of pizza rolls...even after he estimated the paltry numbers of veg/cheese/meat/grain amount in said pizza rolls.

Take a look at the comparison, will ya?

1 serving (six rolls) Pizza Rolls counts for:

1 oz. grains
1/8 c. veg
1/4 c. dairy
1/2 oz. meat
2 tsp oil (six tsp. recommended a day for kids and myself, eight for Brent).

Of course, pizza rolls are so processed that it's really hard to know the numbers - the ones above are rough estimations...generous ones at that, I think. It's no surprise that once the six pizza rolls were gone, my kids were still hungry...after all, there was nothing really of substance on their plates. We supplemented with a cup of milk and 1/2 cup of grapes.

On the other hand, I made myself and Brent a wrap - here's the breakdown:

One multigrain wrap: 2 oz. grains
Shredded lettuce, pico de gallo, and hummus: 1/2 c. veg
Hummus/Cheese: 1 tsp of oil
Cheese: 1/2 c. dairy
6 slices of deli turkey: 2 oz. meat and beans

I also added a banana as dessert, which counted for another cup of fruit.

I wish I had a nice little graphic or pie chart to illustrate the Tale of Two Lunches. It doesn't take a sentence diagrammer to understand that the wrap is much, much better for a human body than pizza rolls. Heck, everyone knows that. So, instead, consider these gems of insight:

1. By the time my daughter preheated the oven and cooked the pizza rolls, I'd gathered all the goods for my wraps, made them, ate them, and put away all the stuff I'd made them with. So much for "quick and convenient", eh?

2. My husband spent several minutes trying to decipher the list of pizza roll ingredients and ultimately came to this conclusion: the harder a food is to classify into one of the basic food groups, the worst is probably is for you. Brilliant, Brent.

3. One serving of pizza rolls(6) equals 210 calories, 10 grams of fat, 1 gram of fiber. My lunch equaled 320 calories, 13.5 grams of fat (mostly the cheese!), 9.5 grams of fiber. Because we're so worried about calories in this country, most people's first reaction to judge the wrap lunch as worse. More calories...more fat...more evil. But...look at how many MORE servings of grains/veg/dairy/meat I got in my lunch compared to my kids. Look at how much MORE fiber I got.

My kids ate mostly oil and fat for their lunch...not me, though. Remember, too, after my banana, I was totally full...however, they consumed ANOTHER serving of pizza rolls, and drank an extra glass of milk and finished the meal with grapes - only then did this sate their continuing hunger.

The nefarious bag of pizza rolls is now gone, and there will be no need to ever purchase them again. They serve absolutely no purpose.

Okay...I am now off to post about our family's food experiment - within which these comments have been made.

1 for 2 - Tofu

2011-01-26T08:40:00.000-08:00

My experiences with the foodstuff tofu can be summarized like this:

Okay, that is only mostly true. Tofu has been around a long, long time, and for the duration my life, tofu has been the "weird hippie food" that everyone thinks a lot about, but nobody really actually eats.

But, you know, I'm all about expanding horizons, so when we went to HuHot last month, I tried some with my stir-fry. It looked like this:

In addition to the off-putting taste that I can't even describe here, the texture was unusual...and not unusual in that weird-but-I-can-get-past-it way. Unusual in that Oh-God-I-may-die-this-is-so-gross-way.

But then, I rediscovered a long-lost gem of a cookbook on my shelves (12 Best Foods Cookbook by Dana Jacobi), and therein was a recipe for Pepper-Ranch dressing. It occurs to me that the time is very ripe for me to try my hand at homemade Ranch dressing...and a simple recipe sits right in front of me.

The key ingredient? Tofu. My culinary nemesis. Well, sort of. Can you really refer to it as a nemesis if you've had one icky passing experience with it in a Mongolian grill restaurant? I dunno, either.

Anyway, I buy the tofu (Lite, silken). Come home and do the following:

Chop one green onion.

Process onion, two teaspoons garlic, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and 1 tablespoon of rice vinegar in food processor. (Yes, I did just have rice vinegar sitting around in my pantry...doesn't everybody?)

Scrape down sides and add 9 ounces of the tofu, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tablespoon of garlic-infused oil (in lieu of canola). Salt to taste.

Pulse until super-smooth.

The result is something that does not heinously offend. The dressing is good, it is peppery, it is not tofu! This is excellent news!

I have just noticed on the next page of the cookbook a recipe for blue cheese dressing - I suppose that will be my next tofu try...in honor of my husband.

Pretzel Time!

2011-01-17T08:42:00.000-08:00

My new bread machine has a dough setting, and naturally, we had to try out the soft pretzel recipe.

Easy breezy peazy, really. In fact, making the dough was simple - Mr. Oster did it. The time-consuming part was actually rolling the dough out and twisting it. However, the final products were consumed most heartily by all family members, and even Elliot claimed,

"Mom, these taste exactly like the ones we get at the swimming pool!"

There are no higher accolades than that. Of course, what little Elliot doesn't know is that Mom's pretzels contain nothing but water, flour, a little salt and sugar, and yeast.

Enjoy the before and after pictures. Notice that we have not honed our pretzel-bending skills. Very rough, we are, indeed.

Honoring Hestia/Vesta

2011-01-10T08:42:00.000-08:00

For some time now, my culinary interests have leaned towards the following: homemade and healthy. I am only slightly ashamed of the recent investments I have made to promote those ideals. Late in the fall, I purchased a food processor, which I've always scoffed at as a useless device...until I realized I could use it to produce my own hummus, sweet potato/pumpkin puree, applesauce and mashed potatoes...and, because of its slicing/shredding capabilities, perfectly sliced mushrooms, cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, etc. I suspect I have only touched the tip of the iceberg potential with this appliance. Mid-December brought the purchase of a rice cooker...again, another appliance I once surveyed with sarcastic disdain, perhaps more than the processor. However, after all the readings I've been doing about the Asian diet, I realized I was ignorant about rice...then I realized that rice could actually fit rather well into the health groove our family was trying to carve out. I have since purchased and made risotto and arborio rice, and jasmine and basmati rice is on the bill of fare later in the month. With the steaming element, I have also been able to steam potatoes/green beans/fish/chicken in addition. In short, the rice is nice. And, finally, two days ago, I finally boarded the bread making machine train. We owned one many moons ago when they were quite en vogue; however, being an issue of bad timing, we found we did not use it as much as we thought. Knowing that the Mediterraneans and Asians honor grains, especially in the form of bread, revamped my thoughts about the great loaf. But, bread prices run the gamut at the supermarket. The store-brand will run nigh to $1.50...and there are about that many ingredients in it as well. Up the bread chain, prices go up, but ingredient lists do not go down. I was disappointed in the lack of bread choices that did NOT contain HCFS or similar...and the ones I did find without, I recoiled at the price. Solution? Make my own. While the notion of hand-kneading and baking my own loaves was seductive, the practicals of it left me a bit wanting. So, the Oster bread machine was lovingly brought home like an orphaned child. We’ve tried a Light Rye and White bread recipe, both of which have been immensely enjoyed by all members. Yes, the breads get drier faster that store-bought but that’s because of the lack of preservatives…kind of refreshing, really. My kitchen counter is becoming happily cluttered – thus, commence with Kitchen Goddess Training!

Revamp and Other Cultures' Diets

2010-12-16T08:39:00.000-08:00

So much for keeping record of my wine drinking.

This is a blog I definitely do not want to discontinue, but I am not as ambitious in recording my beverages as I originally thought I was. However, I am finding that I am passionate and interested in food (wine included), and so I've decided to use this blog to preserve my thoughts and insights about all things food - and that includes the great grape.

Ready?

Here's my latest mental meanderings:

My parents are coming to my house for Christmas Day dinner, and this year, my mom wanted to really do something different. I suggested doing a Mediterranean meal, and she was all for it. As I researched, I found (and it's really not new news to me) that Mediterraneans eat much differently than we do.

For example, this is our food pyramid, courtesy of the USDA:

At first glance, it seems to tell you so much...but then you realize it's telling you so little.

1. What does it mean to "go easy" on juices?
2. Choose foods low in "added sugar"? Like what?
3. 5.5 oz. of meat daily? How much is that?
4. Oil is the tiniest sliver of the pyramid.
5. What's up with new design anyway?

As a contrast, take a look at the Mediterranean diet food pyramid, courtesy of www.oldwayspt.org:

A couple of points of interest here:

1. No confusing oz. portions.
2. Red meat ONCE a MONTH!? (Sweets can be eaten more often than that!)
3. Olive oil - daily?!
4. The Western idea that meat should be the basis of every meal - not so in the Meditteranean.
5. No harping about serving sizes, cups, ounces, etc. The implied advice is MODERATION.

Mediterraneans generally have less chronic diseases, heart issues, and live a little longer. Whether that is attributable wholly to the food is unclear. All I know is this: I am dissatisfied with the Western diet...we depend too much on meat and processed foods.

Maybe in this case, it's best to do as the Romans do?

Education Makes The Man(icotti)

2010-10-17T08:13:00.000-07:00

First, a thing about our No-Restaurants experiment. This past weekend, we traveled with good friends to Kansas City to the Renaissance Fair. We made a pit stop at Gino's Italian Cuisine in Kearney, and I'm not exaggerating (much) when I say Brent and I both copiously salivated for days before the trip. It would be our first outing since the inception of NR. And really, the food was good...but I wouldn't say it was the most amazing meal of my life. And yes, both Brent and I spent some time on the toilet the next morning because of it. (Better on it than in it, I say)

So, end point, the experiment continues (although, it seems less of an experiment now and more of a lifestyle choice). The kids agreeably are on board with continuing, so now maybe the challenge is to see how long we can go before we cave into the pressure/desire to visit a local eatery.

Second, my obsession with purchasing food-related texts is nearly at a climax. I have not even finished with Marion Nestle, and yet, my latest purchase is Fix Freeze and Feast. Essentially, the book's recipes are doubled, tripled, quadrupled (and beyond), so that the reader can freeze several entrees in advance. The variety of recipes means I'm not stuck making a helluva lot of casseroles for the rest of my natural-born life.

As I learn more about the production of frozen foods (via Nestle), the more that making my own "frozen dinners" appeals to me. I can guarantee the pan of Pizza Casserole I froze Wednesday night does not contain Yellow No. 5 or Xanthan Gum. The 20 cups of Black Bean and Vegetable Chili I made today has probably most of a day's worth of vegetable requirement, as opposed to vegetable-sounding products one may find in a can of store-bought soup.

Some people stockpile arms and ammunition, I stockpile pans of manicotti. I suppose it is my cross to bear in this life.

Teach Me To Fish...

2010-10-13T08:14:00.000-07:00

I've been reading Marion Nestle's "What to Eat" lately, and let me tell you, it is quite a tome. Overwhelming, perhaps.

The more I read, the more I am convinced that

a. Food consumers are not stupid, but yes, ignorant.

b. The food industry is fraught with unscrupulousness.

c. Various concerns about public health and safety come in second place nearly every time to companies who have a lot of money and lobbyists.

d. All of the above.

I suppose you could look at it two ways: one, it's depressing to think how duped the American consumer has been for all these years...and yeah, an isolated tropical island free of politicians is looking pretty appealing right about now.

OR

Two, this is Enlightenment. This is evolution of the human species. Knowledge is power, and knowing is half the battle (via G.I. Joe). Now, we can start making good and right choices.

Me, I choose No. 2. Nestle's section on fish is rather extensive...at various points, it occurs to me a degree in Marine Biology or similar would be very useful. Anyhow, out of all the pescatological chaos, I came across this:

Seafood Watch

Depending on what part of the US you live, it lists fish that are okay to eat (safe, not overfished, etc). It also details seafood that is unsafe to eat. Good stuff! It folds up into a size that fits into your wallet and you can schlep it with you in supermarkets and restaurants. Double good!

I look forward to using it. Maybe you will too.

One Month Restaurant-Free

2010-10-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

On September 5, 2010, the Nelson family undertook the great task of withdrawing from all restaurant outings.

The final pronouncement: Not painful at all, and actually, worth continuing.

Oh sure, there were times we craved non-homemade-food. I mean, how can we physically not crave it when we live in such a processed-food-world? But mostly, suppressing the urge to indulge was easy (or at least, grew easier with time).

So, dear readers - let me give you the highlights.

1. I purchased a nice, new food processor, which has allowed me to make fresh salsa, mashed sweet potatoes, and broccoli pesto - just in the last week.

2. Slowly but surely, Brent and I keep dropping weight. I believe this can be attributed to smaller serving portions and the elimination of junky, processed foods from our pantry.

3. We have become more resourceful. Bags of lettuce or produce are no longer being thrown out because of spoilage - we are actually eating them before they go rotten. This in turn leads to smaller grocery bills (this I really can't confirm with hard evidence, it's more of a gut feeling).

4. Our children are more invested in the meals - because they help us prepare them now. Also, we are more creative when it comes to meals, and we are actually excited when a new recipe is up on the rotation.

5. Okay, yeah, part of me misses being catered to and served. I mean, eating every meal at home means I am somewhat a slave to my kitchen. Happily for me, though, it's a place I like to be!

6. Many of our (Brent and I) conversations are based around food. How we take it for granted, how we use it to solve our problems, what kind of role it plays in our lives, etc. This provides for good conversations.

7. Dinner times seem to be more relaxed these days, more chatty. I have no idea why that is.

8. Doing this project does require a bit more planning and forward-thinking. That could be stressful for families who are pretty busy. I mean, who really wants to spend time packing a cooler full of bologna sandwiches for a weekend soccer tournament when it would be easier to go to Subway?

9. Brent and I have begun to compile a list: "Foods We Will Eat More Of When Our Kids Leave The House" (currently: squash, sweet potatoes, tortellini soup, and salmon).

Ultimately, we (even the kids) have no real desire to eat out now. So, we are going to soldier on for another month.

However, I foresee a weekend in mid-October where a trip to an out-of-state Renaissance festival might necessitate a trip to an out-of-state Italian joint.

The Three-Week Mark

2010-09-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

Week Three of No Restaurants is rapidly approaching, and I honor that anniversary with a quick rundown of important happenings.

1. When it comes to literature I have read about food, there are three that form My Power Triad:

"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver
"Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
"Food Rules" by Michael Pollan

So, I have recently purchased a new book, which I think I have mentioned here already: "What to Eat" by Marion Nestle.

And now, the Power Triad shall become the Power Quad.

Page twelve is when I came across this tidbit: "Nearly half of the typical family's food budget goes for foods prepared and eaten outside the home, where businesses with motives having nothing to with health are in control of content and amounts."

<---- That was me when I read that. We were about a week or so into the OOR Experiment, and talk about vindication! Never had I felt so justified about this project we're doing as when I read that.

2. Here's something else I realized this week: restaurants are an insanely significant part of our lives. This past Thursday was a pretty good day, and because of that, I thought we should celebrate the benevolent nature of the universe. My very first automatic thought: Let's go out for dinner! After recognizing (rather quickly) that was not an option, I was at a loss for how to observe the occasion. Then, Brent and I embarked on a Date Night last night...and we chose to enjoy drinks at a local eatery and engage in some karoake. This destination was selected after a process similar to Thursday's...once dining out was ruled out, it was very difficult to decide on a date plan.

It occurs to me that eating out goes very hand-in-hand with celebration and good news and good times. Why is that? I don't know - so I guess that means it's time for research.

3. I turned my husband on today to the wonders of the discount grocery chain Aldi's. He very nearly salivated (openly!) at the choices of goods and their prices. Twenty-five cents for a can of tomato sauce! Fifty-seven cents for a can of french-cut green beans! A $1.25 for a box of Corn Chex! Egads!

All off-brand, of course. But who cares?

My favorite deal is the low price on the bags of frozen cooked shrimp and salmon fillets. We love seafood around here, and are grateful to be able to enjoy eating more of it. In fact, one of our new favorite dishes is penne pasta tossed with basil-infused olive oil and shrimp and topped with freshly grated Parmesan. It's simple, you know? Thus, the basis of its appeal! It sure beats the tired spaghetti sauce topper we've known forever.

On deck this week is salmon burgers, broccoli-pesto pasta, cheese ravioli, minestrone and oyster soup, and pork chops and sweet potatoes....

Definitely one delicious week ahead!

Nostalgic Crisis Averted

2010-09-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

Yesterday might have been, by far, the dark nadir of this whole desperate No Restaurants experience.

Ok, nah, scratch that. Not really...but a little.

Energy levels were running pretty low yesterday. Soccer practice, bowling league, and Opening Night were the key factors in this late-week exhaustion. Subway beckoned to us, ever so seductively...

But then I asked, what's in it for us? Sure, Subway is tasty food, but we could probably get that at home too, if we looked hard enough. It certainly wasn't going to be quicker than eating at home; not by the time we piled everyone (clad in various soccer or bowling or theater accoutrements) in the Sedona (this would probably be after several minutes of hassled shouting, “Hey, get your damn shoes on!”)

The point here is, there was no legitimate reason. So, why? In the town I live in, there are many chain restaurants and a few local joints – places I’ve eaten at several times. I wasn’t hankering for anything special. So, the question is, what exactly was I craving?

Here’s my answer: I crave feeling special. My family did not go out to eat very often when we were kids – very rarely, truly. But, I remember Pizza Hut more than any other meal my mom made…probably because it was the one time we were allowed to drink soda. It was the one time everyone behaved and was civil. It was the one time my mom was in a great mood (probably because she didn’t have to cook). It was a change of scenery; white earthenware plates, opaque plastic tumblers, bouncy vinyl booth seats.

I guess eating out brings back that for me – especially the change of scenery. Now that I’m older, I sometimes like being served (probably because I’m a slave to public education). However, it’s all fickle and fleeting. At some point, everything I wanted to escape at home will need to be addressed (laundry, dishes, checks for lunch money). I spend money on a reprieve from my everyday life (which I am not against), but what are my gains? Nothing monumental, really.

Anywho, back to the original story. Subway was out, instead we opted for another “Fend For Yourself” night, which always works out well; it clears the fridge and pantry. The kids ate roast beef sandwiches, cottage cheese, and applesauce, while Brent and I went for salads and chicken noodle soup. Everybody wins.

Opting Out of Restaurants (The Manifesto)

2010-09-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

One week has passed since the Great Resolution of 2010.

And how have we been doing?

Twenty-one meals have been consumed either here at home or with food taken from our home. No restaurant meals!

It hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. The kids have not complained, and Brent has been an oak, as well. Friday night was a bit of a weak moment, as I contemplated an end-of-the-week trip to the local sandwich shop (as a reward for completing the week, I guess??), but in the end, opted for a much more fun and interesting "Fend For Yourself" pantry scavenge at home.

Today was our first real challenge, as Kirby had a soccer game this afternoon in a town 20 minutes away. In the past, we probably would have headed straight from church to Subway (or similar) to grab something before we left town. Today, though, the kids packed their own lunches and drinks...to be eaten on the road. Nobody missed the turkey flatbread or meatball sub.

I'll admit, I've craved a Cheeseburger Chowder bread bowl or Garden Bagel sandwich over the last week. But I also know that once I scarf that food, the enjoyment will be gone. And I will have failed the challenge. So yeah, a little bit of guilt has helped me stay the course. But, I can't help feeling a little beatific when I think about what we're doing.

We've had a couple of people tell us "Good luck. I could never do that!" when we mention the experiment. And that makes me sad - how limited those people must feel? Their capacity for personal growth stunted when it comes to restaurants?

Because I haven't gotten around to it yet, I thought I'd quick-list the reasons we decided to live restaurant-free.

1. Costs - the two oldest don't want kids' meals anymore, and the prices are adding up quickly.

2. Stress - whether our kids would behave well in a restaurant on any given night was a crapshoot. Usually, I'd end up more stressed out because I was on constant misbehavior watch!

3. Pounds - portions served in eating establishments are larger than they should be and we couldn't help but finish everything on our plates (and maybe even the kids' plates too).

4. Traditions - food is an important part of our lives, whether we believe it or not, and what legacy was I handing down to my kids? ("My best childhood memories are of eating at Subway a lot; my mom only cooked once or twice a week!") Now, my hope is that when they think of me, they think of walking tacos and tater tot casserole.

5. Health - when I prepare every meal for my family, I control a lot. When my kids don't eat at McDonald's and I refuse to buy chicken nuggets at the grocery store, those infernal pieces of UnChicken reach their lips very, very infrequently.

6. Purpose - we could discern no substantial reason for going out to eat. It wasn't a special treat; it was habit - once or twice a week (maybe more). We went out because we were lazy, or didn't feel like eating spaghetti, or felt like we needed a break. We knew it was time to revolt when we'd get in the car to go out and the general attitude was "ho-hum" about where to eat. Why? Because we'd been everywhere in town! It was no longer special.

7. Creativity - without restaurant menus to ponder, I'd be free to consider new recipes like Spaghetti-Turkey Pie or Seafood Paella.

Pretty good reasons all, I think. And, naturally, we couldn't start the experiment without setting some parameters.

1. Breakfast, lunch, dinner were not to be purchased in a restaurant-type establishment.

2. However, drinks were exempt from this rule. I frequent a coffeehouse here in town, and I wanted to still be able to indulge in a Flavor Dujour every so often. The same could be said for trips to the local ice cream shop.

3. Any trips out of town require special planning and/or purchases...the goal is not to eat at restaurants AT ALL, regardless of ANY special circumstance that may arise.

4. The children would choose one meal a week for the family; this includes: helping to prepare and clean up.

5. Whenever possible, double servings of vegetables will be provided to help combat the "eight o'clock hungries".

There have been a myriad of positives to come from this: quality family meal times, children honing culinary skills, mama loving her kitchen, and weight loss (yours truly is down 2.5 pounds from last week). There is (and will be) more, I'm sure...but for now, we are feeling good for removing ourselves from the restaurant scene.

One Full Day Of Opting Out

2010-09-08T08:06:00.000-07:00

One day down, twenty-three days to go.

All quiet on the Nelson front...so far. I haven't heard any griping, pining, or salivating for a cheeseburger, quesadilla, or reuben.

Our first significant test comes this Saturday with kid soccer tournaments in a nearby town. We will most likely be done right around lunchtime - and previous tendencies would have been to hop on over to Subway. This time, though, Momma's thinking ahead and will be packing a cooler.

Nothing like sticking it to the Man on this lovely Wednesday morning.

Without Restaurants

2010-09-06T08:07:00.000-07:00

...of eating in restaurants, that is...

...just for month of September...

You know, kids, me and the mister aren't getting any younger. We've hit what I call the "mid-thirties paradox". I mean, finally, we're wise enough to understand just exactly what "good health" means, and we're also financially stable enough to invest in the whole grain/fruits and vegetables/exercise hullabaloo that "good health" commands.

But...it's our bodies that betray us.

Ol Mr. Metabolism ain't what he used to be...and consequently, every donut, peanut butter cookie, or handful of Lucky Charms conspicuously shows up on the scale in the morning. It doesn't matter how ascetic our diet is during the week...all that self-flagellating hard work is wiped out in one Fantasy Football Draft weekend of burgers and beer.

Depressing, yes. But there are two things I know for sure...

1. I'm loath to give up those Fantasy Football weekends. The same goes for chocolate and butter. Hell, that goes for food, in general.

2. I am unwilling to exercise two hours a day. Thirty minutes a day - that's about all I'm willing to go right now.

Whoever said moderation is the key was damn right (Ben Frankin, maybe?). Common sense tells me I can have chocolate and butter in moderate amounts and I can exercise in moderate amounts...and I can be healthy and happy.

As it turns out, the husband and I have certain triggers...certain things that completely send us off the diving board of Moderation into the swimming pool of Total and Utter Decadence. That's why you'll not find a crumb of Lucky Charms, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, etc. in my house. A handful here, a handful there added up to extra poundage and uber-tight jeans.

And now...the next to go...restaurants. Turns out it's a trigger...for both of us. I dunno, something about a Subway turkey flatbread or meatball on Italian that causes all food-decision-making sense to go bye-bye. And if it's chips and salsa at the local Mexican joint...well, it's off to hell in a carbohydrate-covered handbasket.

So...family experiment for the month of September...no restaurants. At all. No exceptions. Except...

Brent is going to a wedding in Illinois in September, and he'll have to eat at the reception. This doesn't count as a restaurant. Otherwise, we...

prepare food and eat it at home

and

pack food whenever we know we will not be near our house (i.e. upcoming soccer tourneys for a few fall Saturdays).

Corking good plan, yes? The children were certainly okay with it when we proposed it to them earlier tonight.

However...

I predict my husband will be the first one to crack under the pressure.

Lately

2010-07-16T08:35:00.000-07:00

The wine-drinking has been infrequent as of late; hence, no update for the last week and a half. However...

I found a decent Beaujolais at the local WalMart (!), and we tried it by itself. Not a glugging wine, for sure, I don't care what the literature says.

We've really been turned off by red wines in the past, honestly, I think because we tried the wrong one with a meal or just went too intense, who knows. The Beaujolais, we found, improved upon further tasting. It wasn't terribly off-putting, but it didn't change my life like some of the Rieslings we've had. So, in short...we will probably be trying a Beaujolais again.

Now, a week ago, I picked up a 2007 Selbach-Oster Kabinett Riesling at a Co-op food store. $24 a bottle, by far, the most I've spent on wine. German wine labeling/categorizing is kind of confusing. Basically, from what I understand, there are four categories of German wine, and within the top group (Pradikatswein), there are four sublevels. Well, Kabinett is the fourth sublevel of this top group. So...it's the worst of the best, I guess??

Anyway, it's a shame because this wine was REALLY good. I mean, excellent. I can tell I'm getting more wine-savvy, because I could smell the petrol (typical for Rieslings), and I could pick up the tart, fruity flavor (although separating them out into particular fruits was tricky). High in acidity, this one was medium-bodied and light and crisp.

In short, I really, really, really enjoyed it. Brent was ambivalent, especially when I told him it was $24! But, like I said before, it's a shame, because I don't think I'll be shelling out $24 too often for a bottle of wine.

*Sigh* Maybe I could put in on my Christmas list.

Must Find Decent Wine Shop

2010-07-06T08:36:00.000-07:00

Today, on a whim, I walk into one of two local booze shops we have here in town. Here is the conversation:

Clerk: Can I help you find something?
Me: Yeah, I'm looking for a Beaujolais.

PAUSE

Clerk: Uh.
Me: It's a red.
Clerk: How do you spell that?

PAUSE

Me: B-E-A-U-J-O-L-A-I-S
Clerk (Looking at a random label): No, I don't think we have that.

I didn't find at the grocery store, either. My next places will be the other liquor store and Walmart (cue doom music).

Anyway, yeah. I haven't gotten anywhere near through my Riesling phase, but I'm thinking Beaujolais might be a fun foray into red wines, not to mention a change of pace.

Anyone here have experience with the stuff?

German Riesling Wine

2010-07-05T08:37:00.000-07:00

So, anybody else here celebrate an American holiday with a German wine?

Or...is it just me? Happy Belated Fourth, Everyone!

Last night was a Polka Dot Riesling (Germany, Pfalz) with chili for dinner, and yes, I concur when the experts say R. goes with nearly any dish, especially spicy. How marvelous is it when one can enjoy wine with a simple bowl of chili?!

Sometimes, and I have especially noticed it with beer, food can completely ruins the taste of alcohol. Not with the PD! I was able to eat, sip, eat, sip, ad nauseum, without grimacing. That says a lot for the wine. I don't recall a high level of acidity, but enough to clear the palate for every bite I took.

But, I will say, I pay a lot more attention to my food and drink now that I've sort of taken up this food pairing stuff.

Now, the stunner. I finally cracked into the Monchhof Estate Rielsing, paired tonight with an Asian Beef Noodle recipe and WOW! Tantalizing acidic, bubbles on my tongue - and there's no carbonation! Fruity, light, fresh. Really, really good stuff. I may be tracking down other Robert Eymael wines - I think I'm a fan.

But, also, I happened to be finishing my wine as I ate some cantaloupe, and YUCK! The Riesling tasted heinous after I did that. Lesson learned!

Blame The Grapes

2010-06-28T08:33:00.000-07:00

So, did I have weird wine-related dreams last night!

It's all very sketchy, but I recall ordering some Riesling from some obscure place, and being on pins and needles waiting for it be delivered. Because of that (and other factors), I slept fitfully.

That's it.

On tap for tonight is a Washington state Riesling - Chateau Ste. Michelle and another German - Monchhof. The first one was right around ten dollars, and the German was right around fourteen bucks.

My goal is to try a more expensive Riesling, but the Monchhof was the top priced at the liquor store here in town. Surely, there's got to be some $30 Rieslings out there for me?

Also, I'm totally regretting finishing off the Schmitt-Sohne last night; it would have been very educational to test all three together.

The Little German Who Started It All

2010-06-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

My husband and I polished off a bottle of Schmitt-Sohne German Riesling tonight, and perhaps there was something in the grapes.

I mentioned the idea of a wine journal to him, and he seemed receptive (although, he did not offer to be the scribe, I noticed). But, then it occurred to me - why not blog? Then I can include pertinent info, reviews, impressions, etc. Not to mention, this might just be a great place to discuss books I'm reading, places I'm visiting, and people I'm talking to.

Ultimately, you all here are looking at two people who have little experience with wine...hopefully that will change.

So, join us, follow along, as we morph into sophisticated cosmopolitans!