eating locally – Peaceful Reader

Slow August Day in Fertile

{Cloth napkins-YES!}

We had an lovely vacation getaway in Northern Minnesota the past long week. It was spectacular and I have many stories to tell but on the way home, we stopped at an amazing restaurant, Cafe Mir, in the small town of Fertile, IA. Honestly, I’d never heard of Fertile before today. Now I’m a fan and I will be back. I was impressed that they have their own small public library.

My mom’s garden provides swiss chard to the chef and they use sustainable, local ingredients when possible. Not hard to do when you’re in Iowa; we have so much produce and organic farmers raising sustainable meat. While many restaurants are on this bandwagon not always is the food as amazing as the concept. Everything we ordered was delicious. There were 5 of us and we ordered a sauteed eggplant dish as a starter, and as meals, we had a pork and beef lasagna, a braised leg of lamb, Hrbek’s ribeye steak, and a wood-fired Margherita pizza for Groovy Girl. I had a “cornucopia salad for dinner, the lighter eater that I am, which is roasted sweet corn, feta, mixed hot and sweet peppers, cilantro, and lime. It was such a refreshing combination and a perfect amount. We had rhubarb pie for dessert and they make their own fresh bread as well.

{rhubarb pie}

The table was interesting with a lot of mismatched glasses, plates, and bowls giving it an authentic old farmhouse appeal. Also, they used real cotton napkins which just warmed my heart. I don’t know when I’m going to take the time to drive an hour and a half north to dine again at Cafe Mir but I know there are other treats on the menu I want to try. Road trip anyone…? I’m also curious to see what they will change seasonally.

{unassuming front of Cafe Mir}

After being on vacation I am realizing that my need for real food, homecooked, slow-cooked grub plus my natural inclination to eat small meals is often confounding to people. I just like to know where my food comes from and I’ve purposely spoiled myself. I like real greens not iceberg lettuce in a salad. Why bother? I’m not a meat eater and I prefer small batches of food compared to large platefuls. I’m not trying to be a pain; I just like what I like.

Happy Holidays!

Weekend festivities

It snowed last night which means for many children celebrating Christmas that Santa’s journey will be made much easier in his sled. My children are all older yet they appreciate snow a little more at this special time of year. I love the snow when I can stay inside, curled up in front of the fire with a very good book. Luckily I got most of my errands/shopping done yesterday.

I have a lot of cooking and baking to do today and I thought you might like some recipes. Heather and Tristan have been vegan for about a year now and that changes our holiday meal drastically. We are pretty healthy eaters leaning more toward vegetarian so it’s not like a cooking crisis but traditional meals like oyster stew and clam chowder on Christmas just won’t do. Instead will be having a carrot and potato soup with fresh homemade bread, a salad and homemade vegan brownies for dessert. It will be a simple meal sandwiched between two church services.

Tomorrow we are going to have a tofu/potato scramble, vegan cinnamon rolls and mimosas (luckily those are vegan naturally!) for breakfast after a few gifts have been opened. Later in the day we will sit down for a late supper of turkey lasagna (my husband begged for one non-vegan item), a a vegan roast (Heather and Tristan are bringing it), this amazing cauliflower dish from Jaime Oliver, mashed potatoes and vegan gravy, and a vegan berry pie. I’ve got my work cut out for me so I don’t know why I’m still standing around.

Happy holidays everyone for what you may celebrate may be different than I; I wish for you a happy and contented life as we move into a new year. Another year for Trump to mess things up giving us all the more reason to stand up and be heard.

Merry Christmas, Peace on Earth, and

JOY to the World.

Weekend Cooking; Recipes Galore

My new trick is searching for recipes on my Kindle while standing in my kitchen. Who knew this would be my new favorite thing? My only wish is that I could figure out how to put a pin-button on my kindle-there must be a way so if any of you smarties out there know how it’s done I would be pin-happy! It’s been a busy week and yet I’ve accomplished some good meals throughout-even some that everybody liked.

Last Sunday I cooked the last of our farm chickens from Shamrock Farms. We had a very traditional meal of roasted chicken, baked potatoes, and a salad. I love grabbing potatoes from our pantry in the basement. They arrived a few weeks ago as my mother dug the last of her potato piles up, tossed them in a box, dirt and all, and brought them to me. I have a hard time ever purchasing store bought potatoes after our supply runs out.

From the leftover chicken scraps I made this Chicken Alfredo which made the family absolutely swoon. They were mesmerized by the carbs and chicken combination as I don’t usually make this dish. It was far from the overly-drenched saucy thing I picture in my mind, the recipe was easy to follow, and it took me less than 30 minutes to make since the chicken was already cooked. I didn’t have fettucine noodles but I didn’t let that stop me and just substitution another pasta shape and I’m pretty sure my peeps didn’t even notice. Obviously not my photo then above either for those quick thinkers. On the side we had these delicious zucchini oven chips-which took longer to make than the pasta but were pretty worth it. It was our last zucchini from our very own garden also so we celebrated that.

My mom brought me venison steaks from well, a deer, my step-father shot with his manly bow and arrow last season. For a girl who’s been vegetarian her whole life this was a reach but you can’t get more local than his farm so I gave it a try. Other than some jerky he shared with us last year none of us had ever had venison before and yet it was a winner. I found this great marinade recipe and soaked the four steaks overnight. My mom gave me very specific instructions that I should cook them only 3 minutes on each side or they get too dried out and I didn’t listen. Or more accurately I didn’t believe her. I did 5 minutes but I think the marinade counter-balanced that a little bit because except for the smallest piece they were all moist and readily eaten up even by the ever-picky Groovy Girl. I only ate half of mine, choosing to focus on the leftover salad from Monday. If my mom chooses to share again I will take them because the family ate them up, especially Teenage Boy. I thought they were gamy tasting but then I’m happy with salad and potatoes.

Yesterday I used the chicken bones and made a delicious chicken noodle soup for dinner. I had my own recipe in my head and yet I have to admit I googled a recipe just to check if I was missing anything major and found this great post and Hyacinth’s recipe @ PW. I might go back to that recipe next time I want to make broth-I loved that she left the onion skins on! Bold move.

I also whipped these cookies up last Sunday night to serve at our Teacher Preview book fair event. I made these into stars with yellow frosting for the theme of Every Reader’s a Star! I wanted a super easy recipe that would not require two hours of refrigeration and this recipe rocked. Making Christmas cut-outs will be so much easier this season.

This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click to her site to find many other food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Food for Thought

I cooked routine, easy meals this week. Leftovers, pasta with some of my frozen-from-last-summer pesto, and hamburgers nourished us this week. Over the last few years our family meals have taken new direction. Change is good. I would say we’ve always been on the cusp of healthy eating but not over the edge. Many people consider us to be over-the-edge though.

I’ve eaten a vegetarian diet since I was a teenager. Teenage boy was raised vegetarian. (Except for Gpa Dean who kept taking him to McD for chicken nuggets on their manly Saturday wash the truck days!!) My husband, who spent time as a young boy in both Sierra Leone and Malaysia has a versatile palate and he’s a runner. He swayed easily with my vegetarian cooking. Every once in awhile he would come home with a package of ground turkey, shape patties, and serve them for dinner. I just ate the side dishes.

As Teenage Boy became well, a teenager, and more active he begged for meat. I’d read Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, where she talks about making responsible meat choices. Every foodie should read her book. After some local research I found a Gentleman Farmer who sells straight to the consumer for a reasonable price. Now I can purchase meat from him because he has the same ideas about animals that I do and I’ve introduced meat back in to our diet over the last three years. My veg friends are shocked and a little disgusted but I’ve enjoyed the journey. I like the idea of helping the farmer practice sustainable, healthy food production. It’s all about supply and demand.

We still eat vegetarian at home most of the time and when we venture out for food I always eat vegetarian. I want restaurants to think about what they serve and how whole groups of us are left out when only two veg menu items are offered, usually one of the items is a cheese quesadilla; not very healthy and I’m a cheese snob. Lucky for us we have a dairy that practices sustainable and wholesome farming where we can purchase hormone-free milk and local cheeses. Trust me there is plenty of eye-rolling going on at our table as I sweetly question wait staff on vegetarian eating options. Nachos with cheese SAUCE always riles me up and confuses the poor wait person.

Teenage Boy is now tackling our sugar habit. He is an athlete and has decided to cut out refined sugars. We don’t eat a ton of sugar at our house but I like to bake and Teenage Boy loves to have cookies or bars on hand to eat. He is super thin and needs multiple food choices throughout the day. We are soda free but the kids drink healthy-ish real juice. Cereals are another area where sugar is an issue but we do have a special way of serving cereal that deserves an entire post all its own. The search is on for baking recipes that use natural sweeteners other than refined sugar. I need to read more to understand my options. Obviously we all know sugar isn’t good for us but what kind of treats can I make that my kids will still think of as edible and not tree bark?

Sidebars:

1. I browsed through this book, Chloe’s Kitchen, online yesterday and am completely enticed. While we are not vegan I think this cookbook offers some great variations on everyday recipes. Why not throw it into our already jumbled randomness of food ideas? Has anybody experimented with this book?

2. I started watching The Future of Food on Netflix instant while Groovy Girl was in gymnastics class. I plan to finish watching today. Genetically modified foods scare me and we need to be wary of their existence on our grocery shelves. I discovered this list of food documentaries on Lettuce Eat Kale. I’ve watched a few of them (I highly recommend King Corn) but should probably watch all. I always feel disgusted and angry after watching but more involved as well. Sick but smarter…

3. I get this Rodale newsletter through email and found this must-read article about the over-used word, natural. It’s crazy that we’ve watched this word transformed from a positive into a meaningless word. Tragic. Someday I hope it will come back from the dark side. The bottom line is if you see the word natural on products-it’s not because food manufacturer’s have watered-down the meaning of the word-ON PURPOSE-to make more money.

With all that…
Stay positive.
What changes can you make if the future of food is important to you?

This post is connected to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click her link to see more food-related posts.

Weekend Cooking; Grow It, Cook It

Grow It, Cook It;
Simple Gardening Projects and Delicious Recipes

DK Publishing

Consulting Editor: Jill Bloomfield

2008

80 pages

This is one from my own collection; my mom gave it to Groovy Girl two years ago and we’ve made nothing from it in all that time. Shame on me! This summer that is going to change as G.G. is taking over the garden space in back and has very definite ideas about planting….and she has my mom in her back pocket. I thought I should highlight this book so we can challenge ourselves to use it more frequently.

It’s kind of amazing the wonderful books that already reside in my cookbook cupboard-yes, they reside in a cupboard or two and it makes them a little out of sight out of mind. I go to specific cookbooks for specific recipes and I need to learn to mingle a bit more in different books. I pulled this one out a few days ago and started reading. The first twelve pages give an excellent overview on gardening-everything from tools to making your own compost. The two pages on “pots and plots” gave me great ideas on using a variety of everyday items (like a laundry basket) that could be used for a planter.

There are two pages on “Kitchen know-how,” which includes an easy vocabulary list with pictures to match. The remaining pages are filled with how to grow a vegetable or fruit plant with a companion recipe; each spread takes about four pages. Bloomfield begins with tomato and most of the planting directions involve container gardening but could easily be translated to an actual garden plot.

Nestled in are big tips like “grow marigolds in the same pot as your tomato plant. These flowers can keep away aphids, which might otherwise infest your tomato plant. This is called companion gardening.” (19) I didn’t know this and it makes me want to run out and buy a few marigold plants as my tomato plants often suffer from buggy yuck! The tomato recipe follows eggplant growing directions and combines the two veggies in a Tomato and Eggplant Tower (23) Yay. Yum. Groovy Girl has an eggplant growing in the back garden. Recipes range from mini pumpkin pies, giant beanstalk stir-fry, mashed potato fishcakes, onion and leek soup, chocolate and mint mousse and lemonade ice-pops. All very yummy looking with eye-catching photographs.

My personal favorites are the Sunflowerpot loaves (aren’t they cute!) and Green leaf tarts (spinach). We didn’t plant any spinach this year but if I can find some at the Farmer’s Market today I may try to make these over the weekend. The sunflower link above will take you to google books where you can browse a few pages of this fabulous kid-friendly book.

Buy it from an indie bookstore here. Find Jill Bloomfield at her website…teachkidstocook.com.

I was up early this morning, waiting for my chicken man-doesn’t everyone have one? Tim Daley of Daley’s Shamrock Acres delivered 6 homegrown chickens to me and they are now in my freezer. For an ex-vegetarian who still thinks like a vegetarian it seems strange to get so excited about six beautiful chickens but I am. I can’t wait to slather them with herbs and a little butter and cook them up for my family.

Happy Cooking over the long holiday weekend! This post is linked to Beth Fish Reads Weekend Cooking meme. Click to her post to see what everyone else is cooking up! Anyone with a food-related post can play along.

Organic or Natural Food Debate-which is better?

Some of you may be able to answer this already, which is great. I know organic is better but have always struggled trying to explain it to people. I know that through the certification process the word “natural” become watered down as to what it means.

Today I was thumbing through Natural Awakenings, a free publication I picked up at Whole Foods, while in Little Rock. Inside I found an article entitled, “America’s Growing Food Revolution; An Insider’s Guide to Sustainable Choices” by Lisa Marshall. Skimming through the article I stopped when I read Maria Rodale’s name of the famous Rodale family. She writes: “If you do just one thing-make one conscious choice-that can change the world, go organic.” In the debate between local, organic and natural I’ve often heard it is better to buy local, then organic and when given no other choices, natural. I think when she is advocating organic is if people demand it, it could change revert farming to a more natural choice over the industrial farming that has become the norm. I agree with this idea completely.

The article goes on: “One 2009 survey by The Shelton Group found that out of 1,000 shoppers, 31 percent looked for the “natural” label while 11 percent looked for “organic” There is a giant misconception among consumers that somehow natural is the word that is regulated and organic is not. In fact, it is actually the other way around,” says CEO Suzanne Shelton. “Law mandates that U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) products labeled organic be free of pesticides, hormones and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and that animals be given access to the outdoors.” I believe this part to be true but I have heard that even some organic animals are raised in cages but outside. This is where I know, for me, it is important to know the farmer so I can ask questions about how their animals are raised.

The article then says: “By contrast, the Food and Drug Administration vaguely describes natural as, “Nothing artificial or synthetic has been included in, or has been added to a food that would not normally be expected to be in the food.” With the exception of meat, it is up to the manufacturer to define what natural really means. (In 2009, the USDA defined “naturally raised” meat as, …”raised entirely without growth promoters, antibiotics, and never been fed animal byproducts.” It says nothing about GMOs or humane animal treatment.”

It’s confusing for many (even my mom will say “I bought the good stuff-it says natural”) but for my family I need to know animals have been treated humanely-like animal living on farms, just like the farms of our childhood. This article makes the difference clear to me.

Other news: I’m in the process of making Chinoiseries’ quiche recipe I discovered while reading through Beth Fish Read’s Weekend Cooking posts. I couldn’t find puff pastry, even though I know it has to be there but decided to make my own crust instead. She based her quiche recipe on this Vegetarian Times one.

Holiday Traditions

Teenage Boy, Groovy Girl and two friends, after tree search.

We always get our tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving at a lovely tree farm, Kris Kringle’s, and they serve hot cider and have a fire in an outside pit. It makes for a lovely few hours and two years ago we invited another couple and their children to join us, so we’ve added to our celebration.

That is what I love the most about the holidays-it seems we make more time for friends and family. We are having friends over tomorrow night just because we ran into them recently at my husband’s play and decided we needed to get-together for dinner and before Christmas is really upon us. They are coming for dinner tonight and I’m making a chicken. If you’ve ever read my sidebar list it says I’m a vegetarian that eats locally-raised meat (Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver changed my mind) but not frequently. I met a farmer (through a friend) who raises chickens and other cute farm animals as well. He started doing it 10 years ago for just the same reason I didn’t eat meat-he didn’t trust what was happening to our corporate- produced meat sources. I’ve only been back to eating meat about a year now.

I digress-this post is supposed to be about food and friends-not cute farm animals, who might be friends also. My mother used to make this rosemary and goat cheese chicken so I searched around a little last night, looking for something similar and came up with a roast chicken recipe at Jamie Oliver’s website. He, like Kingsolver and Alice Waters, is making a difference in how people eat and I admire the work he’s doing with the British school lunch program. That would be my dream dinner party-cooking together with Barbara, Alice and Jaime! Thrilling!!

Tonight will have the roast chicken, mashed (home grown) potatoes, spinach and feta lasagna, brussell sprouts and a small salad. Half the group is vegetarian thus the reason for the lasagna which comes from this fabulous cookbook from The Grit, in Athens, Georgia. We’re starting off with champagne, with pomegranite seeds tossed in and will move on to a lovely bottle of red, which I haven’t purchased yet or I’d mention its name as well. Thinking about wine makes me think I should check my old version of The Wine Trials to find a perfect (and reasonable priced) wine!

Could I mention any more food links? Well, most definetely Yes!, but I’ll stop there. This is how things go at my house-inviting two people, one couple, for dinner has led me to all these dining spots, recipes and brought up all these whirlwind ideas.Like now my mind is thinking about a post debating hard copy cookbooks vs. online. My mind on food. Don’t ya just love the holidays!! Tonight will be filled with good conversation and good (hopefully) food and my mind will chill.

Happy eating and reading! Cheers.

p.s. last week’s Morrocon-Style Lentil and Chickpea soup was a huge hit with my family. We ate it simply, soup and fresh-baked bread. Yum.

***This food-related post is linked to Weekend Cooking hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Pop over there and read about Crescent Dragonwagon, a writer of children’s books and cookbooks, and her new Cornbread book. My husband might need this for a Christmas gift. He loves cornbread but makes it from a box. Hmmm.

Seriously, Have a Happy Saturday!