The CSA bag Arrived!

...and no zuchinni, and YES tomatoes!

Sure yellow tomatoes, and peaches and plums and lettuce and....


Anyway, when it was time to make dinner, this was inspiring, but not dinner.

A quick peek in the fridge revealed a hodgepodge:

Pre-cooked quinoa I had vacu-bagged and frozen (and thawed),
left over onion,
bacon drippings
and some left over hot-dog buns (bakery kind),

along with the arugula, cucumbers and tomatoes from the bag

- and throw in some garlic.

So far so good - except my son doesn't like the "smoosh"
of the seedy part of the tomato.  This melon baller to the rescue.

(Before I had a kid... suck it up kiddo.  Now that I'm doing the mom thing, if it'll get you to eat something I really like, I'll meet you half way.)

So instead of just throwing in the little yellow tomatoes whole, I sliced 'em in half, and scooped out the "smoosh."  It helped that the boy helped.

 (Trivia alert:  At one point chef's were trying to pass off this stuff as "tomato caviar"  And yet the French have a specific process for removing this as an undesirable part - along with the skin - concasse. Huh)

Back to dinner:

Saute the onion in a bit of the bacon drippings. Brown edges on the onions says I'm ready for...
About half of that arugula torn up and thrown in the pan, wilt it.

Shrapnel from the smashed bag of frozen broth.
The boy likes to bang them on the counter.

Turn down the heat and pour in the quinoa.
It was pretty dry, so I broke up a ziploc bag of frozen broth and tossed in a few pieces of broth-ice-shrapnel.
Cover with a lid, and let the liquid soak into the grains.

Now all it needs is a fork!

While that is warming away, chop  chop up the cumber into wedges, sprinkle with a little salt and sherry vinegar.

Toss the tomatoes into the warm quinoa & friends, move it to another bowl, because I ended up having to fry the bread in a little more of the bacon drippings.

The salad needed a little vinegar too, along with some pepper.  It needed a little salt, but we went with some parmesan instead because that was more fun.

A useable recipe follows in the next post...

Barely Food Related Detour

Why are so many Americans travelling abroad, "embarrassed to be American?" In all my travels, I freely confess to have gone through that phase too. And yet as I continue to take what amount to mini-trips abroad (to the Asian, South Asian (Indian) and Middle Eastern/North African markets) to get my freaky-freaky ingredients, I wonder at the wisdom of this approach.

By law, I, and the owner of a given store are most likely Equally American. When I go abroad why can't I be American too? Why can't MY version of "American" be proclaimed as loudly as the one, "I-am-embarrassed-about."

Why can't it be, "Why Yes, I am an American! I'm just embarrassed that the other version is too." After all we are admonished from grouping and prejudging members of other nations, religious groups, races, etc... why do we do this to ourselves?

And further... as embarrassing as some of the activities of other Americans are, doesn't the fact that they are known of and exist, Prove what an open society we have? Even the stuff we don't like about our country is out there for all to see. No society is ever neat and tidy, some are just presented that way. Anytime you look into the glory days of any past "perfection" anywhere or when, the white washed misery always seeps out. That, after all, is why these periods never last. And because it is often misery that forces change... that is why the transition is always so chaotic and painful.

So, next time I put my passport in my bag, no more of this trying to pass over that I am an American (Most non-Americans can tell anyway. To be honest, we DO have a way about us.) Be proud of what you are... including the seething mess left at home. It is our mess after all. And we have the power to change it. The Naive Hopefulness that marks us, has changed the world an awful lot.

We also have the power to enjoy Tamarind Lhassi with Cayenne and Caramelized Shallot Bengeit with a Jalapeno Remoulade. For I know of NO WHERE ELSE where we can crisscross cultures so thoroughly - or tastily.

My Taxi Driver's Views on Chicken

On my way to the airport in San Diego, I started to talk to my Taxi Driver (from near Nairobi, Kenya) about food.

"What," I asked, "is your favorite food?"

"Not this," he said, pointing at a soft drink cup from KFC (until recently known as Kentucky Fried Chicken). "I like fresh food, that sort of thing. What do you do to your chickens here?"

me..."Huh?"

"The chickens, they are injected, they are flabby, they have no taste."

me..."well, just like many Americans who don't get any exercise, we don't let our chickens exercise either."

"Huh!?"

me..."we keep them in little boxes and houses."

"So you make your animals lazy and fat. I guess that is what make Americans fat. I ate tasty, but scrawny chickens as a boy. Look at me. Not fat."

me..."Nope. I think you have a point. Our cows don't get any exercise either."

FDA Guidelines - or - Why we don't know what to eat.

Who at the FDA thinks making food guidelines MORE complicated is going to help people eat better?

They are updated every 5 years. They come with a multi-page press release. There are 41 key guidelines – only 23 of which most people have to worry about. But if you fall into a “special population” there are 18 more to wade through.

41! Forty-One!? Most people (including me) cannot easily name 41 of anything in a single category.

And the dietary guidelines are notably difficult to find. As I am browsing the MyPyramid.com website that is purportedly where one goes to learn about the US Government’s nutrition guidelines, I keep clicking on links that say 2005 Nutrition Guidelines. They only get me to pages that tell me things about the 2005 Nutrition Guidelines, but do not provide me access. If I were looking this up out of general curiosity, instead of to prove a point. I would give up by now.

Why am I digging for food guidelines? I think they are needlessly complicated – and I want to see them for sure. And yes they ARE.

The first set of guideline reads:

Consume a variety of nutrient-dense foods an beverages within and among the basic food groups while choosing foods that limit the intake of saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars, salt and alcohol.

Meet recommended intakes within energy needs by adopting a balanced eating pattern, such as the USDA food guide or the DASH Eating Plan.

Which leaves the average reader wondering things like: What is a “nutrient-dense” food? What do they mean by “within and among the basic food groups?” What are the basic food groups? Are there advanced ones?

Ahhh! What are saturated fats? Where are trans fats – why are they so bad? What’s the difference between added sugars and regular ones? Are other sugars OK? Are people adding alcohol to my food?

Recommended intakes? Who’s recommending? Intake? Like eating? An eating pattern? Can I just have lunch? Wait, the Eating Plan… what about an eating pattern? Which one is better?

These guidelines leave one with research to do, but not a clue about what to do at the next meal!

I need a snack to clear my head. I'm not sure if it will be good for me, but at this point, I don't care.

The Beginning - of this blog

I have a purpose.

I believe (and I KNOW this means I am suspect) it began with the contrast of "Tater-Tot Casserole" which I think was a mixture of tater tots, browned ground beef, frozen peas and cream of mushroom soup - and maybe cheese?, and Port Salut Cheese, crisp tart apples (granny smith? it was the late 70's - did they exist yet?) and whole wheat crackers. Both were dinner on different nights. One seemed like food to me, and one seemed like... ummmm, salty.

My mother, though she had a natural leaning toward the crackers, apples and cheese, felt that the "Tater-Tot Casserole" was the better dinner by some scale I did not yet recognize (I was under 10 at the time).

In my life I have had this weird struggle (I mean weird in the sense that it was not difficult, just odd and hard to pin down) between the concept of "food" and "meal." Many things that come with commercially available "meals" don't strike me as food. Sure they are fuel, they won't kill me - not even sorta speedily - but they are VERY far removed from what I think of as "food."

I think of "food" (I use quotes to notate a definition, *NOT* emphasis) as something made of parts I can identify. A salad is food, a Twinkie is not. A backyard barbecue burger made by friends is food, one from a Large Commercial Fast Food Concern is a "product," not food.

But things get fuzzy - I eat ketchup on both burgers. And pickles and mustard. Maybe even cheese. So why is one burger "food" and the other a "product?" For me it has always come down to the could-I-make-it factor. I can make a burger out of beef and spices (maybe even an egg?) but it is not consistent over tens-of-thousands of burgers, and not one that is SUPER DUPER freezer stable, with seaweed additives and the "grill seasoning."

And more to the point, is what I am eating... even if manufactured, is it MADE of food?

For the most part, I give over the making of ketchup, mustard, cheese, *most* pickles, bread *most of the time,* to the experts. But all of these things are made of... food. Flour, yeast, seeds, vinegar, vegetables, milk, water, salt... I'll even concede the generic "spices." These are all things I could get my hands on.

I COULD make them... I could also make duck confit with lavender gelee' and huckleberry gastric.... but I don't (choose to) have the time. But I could... if I wanted too.

And so, back to my purpose.

I want to teach people to:

a) eat meals made out of FOOD, even if they don't look like the 1950's version of a MEAL. I'll go for the 1750's version (OK, the "moderately-well-off" version. Starch, Veggies, Protein, and a little fat)

b) learn how to cook by taste and not recipes (all the time).

I KNOW this is not a skill most of us (Modern 21st Century Happy to have Running-Hot-Water People) have... so to ease people into it.

c) learn the essential basics.

Cook Greens! (leaves, green beans, asparagus and other green stuff).

Whole Starch. (grains, potatoes, plantains... and I'm a sucker for masa... OK any starch where you are able to figure out which plant is MAINLY responsible).

Tasty Protein... anyones' version.

And Fat With A Purpose - in association with it's original source (Olive, Cow, Pig [mmmmmmbacon] whatever, but no mystery, conglomerated non-saturated multi-source fat.)

And to that end...

The Fresh Start

Learn to cook Food.

For YOU

For you and your kid(s)

For something new.

I think about food all the time. I try to talk about it less. But if you choose to read this, you will hear about it.

Exercise WILL come up. Since (Thank... choose your Force-of-Choice...) we don't all do manual labor for a living, we must choose some and do some to stay healthy and shiny and fit.

But this is mainly about eating and being happy.

Ta!

Greta