ignorance = bliss. sweet delicious bliss

I’ve made a habit lately of putting some smoked salmon on a bagel in the morning, certainly not a new idea, but something that never occurred to me before (mmm, breakfast sushi!).

Another habit I’ve been consciously adopting this year, is buying as local as possible (natural, organic and seasonally too). I know food miles are the latest food “thing”, and with the current gas prices, it’s not likely to change soon. Rather than be strict to any set (or arbitrary) circle drawn around our house, I’m comparing addresses, and just going as local as possible - If outside New England isn’t an option. Besides, living smack dab in the middle of New England gets me pretty close to 100 miles or so anyhow. New York apples will trump Washington or Chile,… you get the idea. It’s a start….

Yesterday I popped into my parents local supermarket, and was pleased to see them touting produce from the farm literally right down the road, rather than across the equator. Someone’s paying attention! I also saw they had Wild Atlantic Salmon! - well Maine is sure closer to home than the Pacific Northwest.

One taste this morning and I knew I had a winner. Minimally processed, locally, with only natural ingredients. No preservatives. Great flavor, texture. I couldn’t wait to get home to get some more.

But lo - apparently Atlantic Salmon is an endangered species, and (righly so) is illegal to fish. - having been over fished. The Monterey Bay Aquarium offers us seafood watch - info on which species that are doing ok population wise, and which ones are threatened or endangered. It’s enough to give one pause, and wonder why stores and restaurants are able to sell them.

well, the company I’d so recently become a huge fan of has an extensive web site, with links to enough places to show us what they’re doing, where they’re doing it, and what the state of salmon in the wild really is. They seem to be operating on the up and up, so now I’m left wondering if Wild can be defined bureaucratically as farmed, if they are selling me fish from the other side of the Atlantic that isn’t endangered (and ultimately has no fewer miles under it’s fins) or am I missing something obvious?

To sum up impressions I’ve been given; (google them for yourself for further info, or if you think I’m mistaken)

• Re: Salmon (and virtually all animal products), Wild (free range) is better (healthier) than farmed.
• Organic/All natural products are better for you, as well as the planet/environment
• Fewer food miles = fresher food, less time from field to table, less gas (and carbon emissions)
• Endangered animals (while they might be tasty) are illegal to hunt, sell and eat.

Oh the road to hell is surely paved with good intentions… but now that I’ve done a little reading on my latest on the go breakfast, I can’t tell if I’m doing ok, or if I’m one of the customers knowingly cue up for a bit of Komodo Dragon in The Freshman!

But when the information is conflicting… What’s one to do? ARGHHHH!

It’s important to shop and by locally. Keeps the money in the community (or region). Keeps the mom and pop business thriving. Keeps us able to make a choice, rather than accept whatever the big boxes offer up. It’s similarly important to know where your food comes from. There’s a reason chef’s choose fresh, seasonal, all natural and organic ingredients. They grow their own food, or develop relationships with farmers and see how the food is grown and raised, and it makes a difference in quality and flavor. I don’t want a tomato that can survive a 2,000 mile trip without bruising, I want one who’s flavor makes me take pause.

Well, it would seem that I, in my haste (and surprise) at the grocery store, saw the various packages of Wild, Pacific, Atlantic, Nova, Coho and Sockeye salmon, and While I took home an All-natural Atlantic Salmon, it never claimed to be wild… So no confusion about rule breakers, or what I should and shouldn’t be buying… Now the issue is to decide which is more important, or less evil - food miles, or free range-ness.

Is farmed bad? I’m made to think it is, but what do I know? Information and arguments abound (and might conflict) However, the state of Alaska amended their constitution to actually outlaw Salmon farming.

Ok, so I can’t have my Atlantic Salmon “wild”, at least not today, maybe someday… but until then I’ve read that of the commercially availble Pacific varieties, Sockeye or Chinook are closest in taste and texture. - That would explain my lukewarm reception of the less fatty Coho.

Shouldn’t I be congratulating myself for driving past the Dunkin Donutses (of which there are literally dozens between home and my wifes office, 22 miles away) and making my own breakfast with real food, stuff without multiple kinds of sugar in it, and virtually nothing found in nature? I shouldn’t be tormenting myself with the individual and global consequences of what I put on my plate. Not if I’m eating and living healthier than I have been, right?

Wasn’t it so much easier when Mom did the grocery shopping, and we didn’t need to care about all the politics and ramifications of what we put on our plates? Oh, sweet bliss of ignorance… how we have outgrown thee.

 

Dark n’Stormy variations - Top 5

#1 Dark n’Stormy - Barritt’s Ginger Beer and Black Seal Rum.

If the fates should look unfavorably upon you, and you run out of Barritt’s Ginger Beer skip the advice of the bartenders on your Bermuda cruise, and instead of opting for Root Beer, Go instead for Coke or Pepsi (not diet) and have yourself a:
#2 Rum and Coke/Cuba Libre or a slightly weaker (but still quite intoxicating Black Seal and Coke (2 oz Rum, 6 Oz coke (instead of 4 oz in the former)

if you only have diet coke on hand, reach instead for the:

#3 Root Beer - Not exactly the recommended substitute, but a tasty drink in it’s own right. An all natural version would be great - Jones makes one with Sugar Cane! not HFCS
#4 A Ginger Gale (the Ginger Ale version of the classic made with Ginger Beer - not remotely the same drink, but otherwise made exactly the same way. Some variety here, whether you use one of the supermarket staples, or a spicier or smaller more “handcrafted” offering from the likes of Vernors, Blenheim, Reeds, Blue Sky or Boylan.

#5 If you only have diet soda (and I’ve become a diet soda drinker lately), drink it (the diet soda) straight, over ice or even with lime, but don’t add the rum. please. ;P

future tests (or things to do until I finally break down and crack open my last can of Barritt’s) Mountain Dew and a variety of flavors from “back home” Polar Beverage Company - Orange Dry, and others.

 

losing several inches in the new year by cooking more!

It’s the day after Christmas, and I’ve already started a little pre-season gardening! Aeroponic parsley, dill, basil, chives, mint, purple basil and cilantro. I’ve made my own “neverending” bottle of vanilla. Organic vanilla beans covered with vodka - steep for 4 weeks, then replenish the alcohol as it get used - another very cool Christmas food find (that I shared with my mom and sister). I’ve also rearranged the kitchen, purged a bit, and begun paring down some - gearing up for a more ruthless clean out.

A friend of mine has a fantastic, and large pantry, with more books than you’ll find in any cooking section of any bookstore. Seriously. But since food and writing is his bread and butter, it makes perfect sense - yet no less inspiring, and intimidating to behold.

What is almost equally intimidating (to me) is the few shelves of cookbooks I have, and the sad fact that most have hardly been cracked. Apparently I don’t NEED them - Thanks Web 2.0! Some were gifted, others were too good not to bring home, (I have more still on my Christmas list). Many have not set foot in the kitchen. This is about to change.

It’s a new season, and for me that is a renewed interest in cooking… but with January, (resolutions) right around the corner, it’s hard to get excited about restraint. Oh, I want to make soups and stews, all kinds of great seasonal dishes. Never did make all the cookies I wanted for Christmas, and the time is right to enjoy the beer I made this fall. But it is finally time (again) I got myself down (closer) to my fighting weight. One helpful push is a contest at work - I decided I’m going to win!

I’m proposing losing dozens of inches in the coming months - off the bookshelf. Last year I sold my back issues of Cooks Illustrated when I signed up for an online subscription. Now I’m taking this thinking to a new level - I’ll pick a book, seek out 3 recipes that interest me and cook them in a week or so. If I have three winners, I have a keeper (and the confidence to try more). If I don’t like em, then odds are the rest of the book isn’t exactly to my taste, and will pass it on, and move on to the next book.

The goal - a streamlined kitchen, and a much less cluttered house. A house full of only the things I love and need. Will new books come into the house? Surely. I’ll try to break them right in, and I’ll have a tougher litmus test before I begin to create new piles of clutter.

If you DON’T love them, set them free!

 

Saturnalia!

Christmas sure came up fast this year - just as fast as the snowfall. (More accumulation in one week than all of last winter). But unlike Christmasses past, with visits to grandparents the weekend before, back to work, Christmas Eve here, Christmas Day there, there and there.., and back to work in the morning (still hung-over from all the punch and cookies) we’ve got parties a plenty for the next four days straight. All Christmas all the time. And what’s better is no going from place to place on any given day, and plenty of time to sleep in to gear up for rounds two, three and four (as best as ones five-year-old will allow).

Maximum fun, family and food, minimum drive time.

May you (and not just your cup) runneth over with Christmas spirit!

 

51.9 weeks later - The end of the quest

(well - 52 weeks to the day) 

Bartender - 1 Dark n’ Stormy please!

on second thought… make it 36, to go.

Backstory?

 

A year of heirlooms

Heirloom tomato nirvana has recently befallen our local farms. Little did I know that one, a stones throw from my parents (if your a baseball playing giant that is) grew so many varieties! This week I filled up a bag, grabbing one of each of about half of the available offerings. Three of them different types of Brandywine, one a giant strawberry, others all red and pink, yellow and orange. I envisioned, not making all sorts of tomato dishes - salads, gratins,… - but rather canning this fresh bounty for the winter months, when summer, and the fresh tastes of it, became a distant memory.

Unlike my peach canning experience, (which started off the same way - peeling by blanching and an ice water bath) the tomatoes were a piece of cake to prep, compared to the mess of the munchkin sized peaches. An equally temperate day fit the bill for some late august canning - by bounty 6 pints of assorted tomato wedges.

My next mission, to head on back, and walk out of there with as much as I can carry Basketfulls of dozens and dozens of their fresh picked heirlooms - and to not buy an imported or unfresh imposter until I’m picking my own off the vine next year!

I won’t be canning all of them, In addition to putting down some fresh fruits and veggies for the winter, I’ll also be putting down lots of fresh soups as well as a Polenta Lasagna. I’ve recently stumbled onto some french recipes for ratatoille and a Tomato Squash gratin (almost a ratatouille) that will let me sample some fresh tomato dishes!

 

when life gives you peaches…

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.

When a customer shows his appreciation for a job well done, with a gallon sized bucket full of fresh picked, very local peaches (That’s right - a gallon. 5 pounds!) you break out the canning equipment (it was a cool day afterall) because there’s no way one could, would or will* eat all that fresh ripe, wonderful smelling summer bounty before it spoils, and you make a pint and a half of jam… (or perhaps technically preserves)

A pint and a half?

Did I do something wrong? Nope, just overestimated what I had. but WOW does it smell and taste great. *This is coming from someone who ate very little fruit, save apples and bananas growing up.

One recipe I found called for a little more than 1 pound of sugar per pound of peaches.

Skinned, pitted and a few spoiled ones tossed I ended up with a little more than 2 pounds. I guestimated about 1 pound of sugar (out of the 2 pound bag of organic evaporated cane juice) and a splash of apple juice in lieu of pectin. The box of Certo demands we keep a proper sugar to fruit to pectin ratio. The myriad of recipes online don’t much seem to care. I’m sure our grandmothers just used what they had, and so did I.

If I were to try this again, I’d cut back on the sugar even more, as this came out fairly sweet. I’ve made some great banana jam without added sugar, so I think it’ll work. Maybe I’m finally ready to eat the no sugar added applesauce, etc… I buy for my little one…. Nevertheless, this’ll go great mixed into a breakfast quick bread, or poured over chicken and baked or grilled.

I understand the temperatures are going to be in the 70’s for most of the week. The canning equip shall stay out, and I’ll be hitting the farmers market with a much LARGER bag in the coming days.

 

making the blog work for me?

Was thinking (as I often do) that keeping up multiple blogs is really cutting in on life, and the bits of it I’m chronicling. What to do, give it up? No, that would be too easy. Better I take this blog a step further and add an cookbook style, links page. More work, that’s always good for clearing the plate!

Well, adding the to-do list page turned out to be a good idea over on my woodworking site.

So, a bit more work perhaps, but It’ll keep down on the clutter, and hopefully keep me aware of the links I want to try, as well as a convenient place for all those recipes I want to revisit. (And finding, let alone remembering these, is a huge time waster)

So, I’ve posted, by no means an exhaustive list… more to come in time… gradually, as time allows (Good intentions. Which will most likely mean, frantic spurts stretched out over indeterminate time, or whenever the computers free.) You know what thy say about the road to Hell…

See something you like, give it a go. Have a suggestion for a rework, or something I just have to try (based on the tastes you see me gravitate towards) please comment away, and keep the good food and drink flowing!

 

we’re unfit… for human consumption

I heard a quick snippet on the radio (NPR)…

Good news for anyone living next door to cannibals,… a study was done, and apparently we (humans - specifically Americans - I gather) are unfit for human consuption (according to the federal guidelines).

I’m not surprised - looking at a cross section of the population, but what does that tell us about the food we’re eating? Worse than the garbage we’re giving to the pigs I’d wager.

 

Go roast, no make that steam, for eternity

Another food scandal in China - someone’s being a very naughy baozi

Shopping and eating locally - it’s a good thing, but scrounging for foodstuffs - and by foodstuffs, I mean dirty cardboard boxes - off the street is… (words fail me at how wrong this is).

“It fools the average person,” says the bun maker, whose face was not shown. “I don’t eat them myself.”

May karma take any and everyone intentionally profiting at the expense of the welfare of their fellow man, and give them their “just desserts”.

I decree an eternal diet - continuously munching cardboard boxes washed down with various chemicals and toxins… nothing better or worse than what’s been knowingly sold to his friends and neighbors.

…and I pray that the worlds Olympians brown bag it in 2008.