My goal is to update this blog at least once a week -- but between work, the novel, following the girls around while they sell Girl Scout cookies (what a brutally cold week it was to be trudging door-to-door), and then a little trip over the weekend to visit out-of-town friends, this week got away from me. But I have been taking pictures (mostly of food), which I intend to get off the camera and processed tomorrow. And hey! My last post was last Sunday, so really, I'm not that far off...
A quick double recommendation before I head to bed: The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food, both by Michael Pollan. Pollan has a nice writing style; he clearly has an agenda -- most of what our culture eats is not good for us or the environment -- but he doesn't come across as preachy or holier-than-thou. Rather, both books read as a real journey as he explores and learns about the history of Western food production and its current status, the growing organic and alternate-food movement, "nutritionism," and how and what to eat ("Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.").
I'm really into cooking and baking from scratch, vegetable gardening, and using high quality, organic ingredients, but -- and I'm sorry, this probably sounds pretentious but I'm tired and can't think of a better way to put it -- reading these books has even me taking a closer look at what we eat and where it comes from.
Anyway, they're good, thought-provoking reads. If you're into this sort of thing, they'll be right up your alley. If you're not, well, at the very least I think they'll have you looking at what you're eating a bit differently. Check 'em out.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Breakfast, and other things
This is one of my favorite breakfasts: an egg over hard, a slice of toast, and cheese. Yum.
One organic brown egg, courtesy of a cage-free hen.
Homemade bread, hormone-free cheese, and the aforementioned egg.
Much better than a McMuffin.
# # #
John in Tennessee would like to know where I live and what books I'm currently reading. Well, I live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, and it's currently wicked cold: -14°F the last time I checked. The cold is partially why I'm doing all these food pictures (it's a lot easier on the fingers and toes to stay inside and take pictures of food than go tromping around outside); the other reason is that at the moment everything's covered in snow and frozen and there's just not much outside that's interesting.
Currently, I'm reading Ahab's Wife by Sena Naslund and a biography of Elizabeth I, and rereading G.R.R. Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
C.R. in California wonders if I'm illustrating a cookbook, what with all these food shots I'm posting. Great idea! And if I ever had the opportunity to do something like that, I'd be thrilled. But no, as I said above, it's just weather related. =)
One organic brown egg, courtesy of a cage-free hen.
Homemade bread, hormone-free cheese, and the aforementioned egg.
Much better than a McMuffin.
# # #
John in Tennessee would like to know where I live and what books I'm currently reading. Well, I live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota, and it's currently wicked cold: -14°F the last time I checked. The cold is partially why I'm doing all these food pictures (it's a lot easier on the fingers and toes to stay inside and take pictures of food than go tromping around outside); the other reason is that at the moment everything's covered in snow and frozen and there's just not much outside that's interesting.
Currently, I'm reading Ahab's Wife by Sena Naslund and a biography of Elizabeth I, and rereading G.R.R. Martin's series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
C.R. in California wonders if I'm illustrating a cookbook, what with all these food shots I'm posting. Great idea! And if I ever had the opportunity to do something like that, I'd be thrilled. But no, as I said above, it's just weather related. =)
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Girl Scout cookie sales starts today...
Image taken without permission from http://www.girlscoutscv.org/
...and E. and M. are Girl Scouts, Brownies level! Our Brownies troop will be selling cookies through February 3rd. Cookies are $3.50 per box, and there are eight varieties to choose from. If you'd like to support the Girl Scouts by buying some cookies, leave a comment below or shoot me an email. (And as M. says, if you don't want to buy cookies for yourself, you can always get them to give as gifts.)
Tagalongs. Lemon cremes. Thin mints. Mmm.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Dinner, and lunch for third graders
Here's the follow-up to yesterday's post.
Oh, it was good.
Beef stew
And fresh-baked bread.
With butter.
(We'll have none of that margarine nonsense here.)
# # #
Switching gears (or meals) now...I have to post about the girls' lunches today, because for a long time my girls have tried to be picky eaters and what we packed for lunch this morning delighted me to no end. Now, I say "have tried to be picky eaters" because I'm a mean mother and do not pander to my children's dietary whims. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a believer in the clean plate club. Forcing someone to eat all of something she doesn't like -- or forcing someone to continue eating after she's full -- is messed up and a recipe (har har, pardon the pun) for future eating issues. But I won't cook a separate meal for them, I won't let them make and eat PB&J instead of what Pete and I are eating, and I insist that they at least try the "ewww" item(s) -- and really try, as in, three good-sized bites. I also make the "ewww" item(s) again -- and again, and again, and again, because tastes do change over time. I've also read that it can sometimes take at least 10 tries for a food to "take" with children. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but the girls are happily eating things now that they turned their little noses up at not so long ago. Take our dinner last night. For several years, the girls hated that beef stew. Now, they love it. In fact, when they walked in the door after school yesterday, they both exclaimed in unison, "Ooooh, something smells really good!"
It's the same thing with their lunches. Every since kindergarten, we've been packing lunches. (We don't do the school lunch the school serves, except as an occasional treat, as it's not very healthy stuff.) For a long time, there wasn't a lot of variety: organic PB&J on a homemade whole grain bread, carrots, some kind of fruit, milk. Deviations from that resulted in essentially untouched lunches and two hungry kids. But slowly, bit by bit, the lunches have been evolving...and now they're eating -- and liking! -- things that they wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot pole a few years ago.
Today, they're having:
- nuts (E. had cashews, M. had almonds) with dried blueberries and cranberries
- baby spinach with their favorite dressing (a cranberry, walnut, and gorgonzola combo)
- carrots
- and milk (not pictured).
Isn't that pretty little lunch!
We're not out of the woods yet, of course. They still turn up their noses at an awful lot of things, and anything new is regarded with deep suspicion. But it's lots better than it used to be, and that makes me happy.
And maybe someday we'll be able to go to the Indian -- or Mexican, or Thai -- restaurant without complaint and groans of, "This stinks." I can hope, anyway.
Oh, it was good.
Beef stew
And fresh-baked bread.
With butter.
(We'll have none of that margarine nonsense here.)
# # #
Switching gears (or meals) now...I have to post about the girls' lunches today, because for a long time my girls have tried to be picky eaters and what we packed for lunch this morning delighted me to no end. Now, I say "have tried to be picky eaters" because I'm a mean mother and do not pander to my children's dietary whims. Don't get me wrong. I'm not a believer in the clean plate club. Forcing someone to eat all of something she doesn't like -- or forcing someone to continue eating after she's full -- is messed up and a recipe (har har, pardon the pun) for future eating issues. But I won't cook a separate meal for them, I won't let them make and eat PB&J instead of what Pete and I are eating, and I insist that they at least try the "ewww" item(s) -- and really try, as in, three good-sized bites. I also make the "ewww" item(s) again -- and again, and again, and again, because tastes do change over time. I've also read that it can sometimes take at least 10 tries for a food to "take" with children. I have no idea whether that's true or not, but the girls are happily eating things now that they turned their little noses up at not so long ago. Take our dinner last night. For several years, the girls hated that beef stew. Now, they love it. In fact, when they walked in the door after school yesterday, they both exclaimed in unison, "Ooooh, something smells really good!"
It's the same thing with their lunches. Every since kindergarten, we've been packing lunches. (We don't do the school lunch the school serves, except as an occasional treat, as it's not very healthy stuff.) For a long time, there wasn't a lot of variety: organic PB&J on a homemade whole grain bread, carrots, some kind of fruit, milk. Deviations from that resulted in essentially untouched lunches and two hungry kids. But slowly, bit by bit, the lunches have been evolving...and now they're eating -- and liking! -- things that they wouldn't have touched with a ten-foot pole a few years ago.
Today, they're having:
- nuts (E. had cashews, M. had almonds) with dried blueberries and cranberries
- baby spinach with their favorite dressing (a cranberry, walnut, and gorgonzola combo)
- carrots
- and milk (not pictured).
Isn't that pretty little lunch!
We're not out of the woods yet, of course. They still turn up their noses at an awful lot of things, and anything new is regarded with deep suspicion. But it's lots better than it used to be, and that makes me happy.
And maybe someday we'll be able to go to the Indian -- or Mexican, or Thai -- restaurant without complaint and groans of, "This stinks." I can hope, anyway.
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Hey, good-looking, wha'chya got cooking?
I've got the day off today and had a hankering for beef stew. Guess what we're having for dinner tonight?
Potatoes and onions and carrots, oh my.
And some celery too.
Mince some carrot, onion, celery, and garlic (that last one's my personal addition to this recipe; love garlic, love it!) and sauté in olive oil.
Vegetarians and vegans, avert your eyes:
Here there be meat.
This is not a product endorsement, it's an organic endorsement. Because really, if you can afford to, why not?
Add thyme, sea salt, pepper, and one bay leaf.
Why yes, we do compost.
I've also got artisan bread baking (I bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as a Christmas present to myself, and I can't say enough good things about it). The house smells wonderful.
I'll put up the post-cooking and baking/ready for eating pictures in another entry.
And hello to John!
Potatoes and onions and carrots, oh my.
And some celery too.
Mince some carrot, onion, celery, and garlic (that last one's my personal addition to this recipe; love garlic, love it!) and sauté in olive oil.
Vegetarians and vegans, avert your eyes:
Here there be meat.
This is not a product endorsement, it's an organic endorsement. Because really, if you can afford to, why not?
Add thyme, sea salt, pepper, and one bay leaf.
Why yes, we do compost.
I've also got artisan bread baking (I bought Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day as a Christmas present to myself, and I can't say enough good things about it). The house smells wonderful.
I'll put up the post-cooking and baking/ready for eating pictures in another entry.
And hello to John!
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