Four-Grain Bread

This is a recipe on allrecipes.com submitted by John Reed.  It makes excellent sandwich bread and if I plan well enough in advance I try to set up the bread machine to have the toasty hot bread ready with dinner.  The aroma of hot baked bread in the house is always welcome!

Makes about 24 slices.

Ingredients:

  - 1 1/2 c water (70 to 80 degrees - warm tap water)

  - 1/2 c honey (unfiltered and local if you can find it)

  - 1 1/2 tsp salt

  - 2 c organic bread flour

  - 1 c organic whole wheat flour
  - 3/4 c organic rye flour
  - 3/4 c organic cornmeal
  - 2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast or one packet

In bread machine place all the dry ingredients, except for the salt, and mix with a fork so the different flours are evenly distributed.  Pour in the wet ingredients and start the machine on the basic bread setting with desired crust.  After the dough has started to mix add the salt - salt is an inhibitor to the yeast and the bread may not rise properly if salt and yeast are mixed together in the beginning.  If dough looks a little dry after mixing, add a tbsp or so of water.  Wait until machine has finished and enjoy!

- You definitely need a good bread knife when making homemade bread - it has a tendency to crumble or squish if you have a dull blade.

High fructose corn syrup - the great debate

Another consequence of the corn legislation in the 1970's - that started paying farmers by the bushel they produced - was that the farmers began producing more corn than America and other countries can ever consume (we give away massive amounts of our corn to impoverished nations).  With so much excess corn the industrial food companies started to engineer new ways to use the extremely cheap commodity and one of the worst products created was high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  Because of the high import tariffs on cane sugar, HFCS is a much cheaper sweetener, which means that industrial food companies can use it in much larger quantities than natural cane sugar and still make larger profits. 

Our bodies are designed to crave certain flavors: sweet, fat and salt.  These flavors are not abundant in nature.  Fruit is only sweet when it is at its ripest, fat is a rarity and is only consumed through eating meat and salt is even more rare.  The industrial food companies know that we crave these things and engineer their food to be as sweet, salty or fatty as possible so we will keep eating more and more of their product.  HFCS is a large component of the food addiction that the industrial food system creates.

It is not yet a scientific fact that HFCS reacts differently in our bodies than does natural cane sugar but studies are being done that show early signs of increased weight gain and in some cases HFCS is contaminated with mercury from the processing of the corn.  I know from personal experience that HFCS definitely contributed to my weight gain but it is unclear whether it was because I am now consuming less sucrose/fructose or because HFCS directly increased my weight gain.  I have not increased my exercise (I'm pretty sedentary) and have not lessened my calorie intake dramatically over the last 3 months but I have lost around 12 pounds and the same with my husband.  Since late January of 2011, James and I no longer consume any HFCS.  We buy the pure cane sugar mexican coke - I have a coke addiction like most midwesterners but have reduced my intake to one 12 oz. bottle every few days as a treat, James likes it with his whiskey. ;-)  We don't buy packaged processed bread - look at the bread label next time you buy sandwich bread and you would be amazed at the ingredients.  I have a hand-me-down bread machine and with only yeast, flour, honey, salt and water I get fresh toasty bread in about 3.5 hours.  Compare those 5 ingredients to the 40 or so ingredients in the grocery store bread whose main ingredient besides flour is HFCS.  I'm sure most people could find a cheap bread machine someone has in their garage or in a yard sale.  It is definitely worth having unless you are much more ambitious person than myself and can make bread the old fashioned way!

Another good rule of thumb is that if you see HFCS on the package of a food product, don't buy it!  HFCS is the number one indicator that a food is highly processed and it probably also contains stabilizers, preservatives and other empty calories.  Be careful though, industrial food companies are smart and have started labeling HFCS as "corn sugar."  There is currently a lawsuit brought by the cane sugar companies against the corn companies for false advertising.  The cane sugar advocates say the corn people are distorting the scientific facts and trying to fool people into thinking corn naturally produces sugar.

If a food label has an unpronounceable ingredient in it - don't buy it.  If it's not something you would cook with in your own kitchen why eat it from an industrial kitchen?

In Honor of the Fallen

It has been a few days since I last posted anything here but I have been otherwise occupied.  The town I grew up in and which is still called home to many of my family and friends was hit by an EF-5 tornado on Sunday May 22, 2011.  125 people have lost their lives so far in Joplin, Missouri and many are still missing.  It has been a heart-wrenching 5 days waiting to hear from my loved ones that were missing after the storm.  Thankfully all my dear ones are accounted for and unhurt but many of them have lost everything and it seems a silly time to be talking about healthy eating and organic farming. 

Times like this, however, have reminded us all the important things in life and how special are the people in our lives.  Which makes me ponder on what Americans have been putting into their bodies - those processed things that have been qualified as food for the last 50 years.  When so many lives can be taken away in a matter of minutes by an uncontrollable Mother Nature, why do we not do everything we can to keep our loved ones healthy and with us for as long as possible?  This is my plea that we do everything we can to keep our friends and family happy and healthy with things we can control (i.e. organic non-processed food, exercise, comfort and support) and to make each day a celebration of those people that we love and enjoy the time we have with them!

If you have not yet lent your physical or monetary efforts for the devastation in Joplin, Missouri, please consider doing so.  Pay it forward!

Wedge Salad with Green Goddess Dressing

This salad is amazingly refreshing and for the lovers of ranch dressing this one is for you!  The dressing is tangy and creamy with lots of fresh herbs.  I try to keep some of this dressing in the fridge at all times instead of eating store bought dressing which is usually full of preservatives, including MSG.

Serves: 6 (Dressing actually goes much further than 6 servings)

Ingredients:

  - 1 cup good mayonnaise (it should only have 3 ingredients!)

  - 1 cup chopped scallions, white and green parts

  - 1 cup chopped fresh basil

  - 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons)

  - 2 tsp chopped garlic (2 cloves, but I usually put 4)

  - 2 tsp anchovy paste (can be difficult to find but common in specialty food stores) optional, just add an extra tsp of salt in its place

  - 2 tsp kosher salt

  - 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

  - 1 cup sour cream (do not use less fat sour cream)

  - 3 heads bibb lettuce or other leafy green but not iceberg, cut into quarters

  - 2 to 3 tomatoes, sliced into wedges

  - 1 medium cucumber, sliced

Place mayo, scallions, basil, lemon juice, garlic, anchovy paste, salt and pepper in a blender and blend until smooth.  Add the sour cream and process just until blended.  Place the 3 salad components on plates and pour dressing over.  Refrigerate the remaining dressing - it should be good for at least a week.

Why spend the money on organic?!

The industrial agriculture system and farmers planting monoculturally (just planting corn or soy beans and not different variety of plants) is destroying our farm lands, making it impossible for farmers to survive financially without government subsidies and polluting our water with excess run-off chemicals from the fertilizers and insecticides.  The United States started subsidizing corn in the 1970's when the bottom dropped out of the corn market and farmers were going bankrupt.  In order for the farmers to survive, the government paid them for their corn and later started paying them to not plant corn to keep the price steady.  That piece of legislation has started the slippery slide into our unhealthy eating habits.

More and more farmers started to plant corn after this legislation because it was guaranteed they would get paid for their crop.   Furthermore, the chemical company Monsanto genetically modified corn seed to be "round-up resistant." Now a farmer can spray his fields with as much toxic chemicals as he desires to keep the weeds from growing and the corn will just grow taller.  Fortunately for Monsanto, the farmer who buys their seeds now has to buy their Round-up weedkiller, as well.  The shocking part of all this is that Monsanto actually had to inject the genetic structure of corn with anti-biotic resistant e-coli in order for the round-up resistant gene to be spliced into its gene sequence.  All this is common practice for the industrial corn industry.  We are consuming genetically modified corn made in a laboratory, sprayed with toxic chemicals and injected with E-coli bacteria.  Sounds like a healthy food to me!

After researching industrial farming practices, James and I decided that we would buy only local and organic.  Organic means that the crops are grown without chemical fertilizers or chemical weedkillers.  Most local farmers where we live have never used or have been banned from using genetically modified seeds (by local county laws).  Luckily for me, the Concord Farmers Market has almost all California Certified Organic Farmers (this is a much more strictly ruled certification that is better than the usual USDA organic certification which has huge holes in it).  Since the cost of our household food bill had recently increased due to our only buying grass-fed meats we decided to significantly increase the vegetables and fruits in our diet to keep the cost down.  We found a great local CSA (community supported agriculture) where we could pay a lump sum every 14 weeks and receive a large box of local organic produce once a week.  These fruits and vegetables are always at the peak of ripeness and at their most nutritional (plus we get pasteured eggs, 1 dozen a week for a minimal extra fee).  We pick up our box from a local drop-off location and every week its like getting a present - you never know whats going to be inside. This more than anything has really pushed me to try cooking new things!

I encourage everyone to do a little research into the food you are consuming, where it comes from and how it's grown. 

A typical box of produce from our CSA with Eatwell Farms: http://eatwell.com

A great article on farming subsides from the NYTimes, a little old but still relevant.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/opinion/04pollan.html?pagewanted=1

Guinness Braised Chuck Roast

Ever since James and I banned corn-fed beef and are now eating only grass-fed beef, we eat less red meat.  When we do eat beef, however, I like to celebrate it and make it special.  Yes, Guinness does break my rule of local and organic but I'm supporting Ireland and that's always a good cause!  This is a dish my family loves and it's easy to do with a busy schedule!

Serves: 6 (less if you have bigger portions)

Ingredients:

  - 4 lbs boneless grass-fed beef chuck roast, tied

  - 2 tsp salt

  - 3/4 tsp pepper

  - 2 tsp vegetable oil or olive oil

  - 2 lbs white organic onion, halved and thinly sliced

  - 2-6 garlic cloves (depending on your taste for garlic) finely chopped

  - 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

  - 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary

  - 12 oz. Guinness (buy in a can, not bottle - Guinness is the only beer that breaks the rule that it's better in a can.  Guinness places a plastic widget with nitrogen in their beer to give it that foamy head)
  - 1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 325.  Pat the beef dry with paper towels and rub it with 1 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper.  Heat the oil in a dutch oven over med (let the dutch oven get good and hot).  Brown the beef on all sides, approximately 4 minutes a side.  Remove the beef to a plate and set aside.  Add the onions to the pot and cook for 10 minutes or until tender.  Add the garlic, thyme, rosemary, and remaining salt and pepper.  Cook for 2 minutes.  Add the Guinness and water, bring to a boil.  Return the beef to the pot and place it in the oven, covered for 3 to 3.5 hours.  Turn the beef roast after 1 hour.  Let it rest, uncovered for 30 minutes.  Remove the roast to a platter, cut away the string and slice for serving.  Ladle the onion broth over the slices.  Enjoy!

The last straw . . . or better yet, the last kernel of corn

Because I was trying to cook so much at home to save money and it was summer, I spent a lot of time at the local farmer's market - only 2 blocks away from our new apartment.  We ate a lot of salads and I spent quite a bit of time blanching vegetables and packing them into our new deep freezer.  I was already starting to come to the local organic thing on my own but what really hooked me on eating all local and organic was the documentary Food, Inc.

Food, Inc had been on my netflix playlist for a while and I finally talked James into watching it one night.  We sat on our couch for the next hour and a half, horrified.  I had expected it to be a hippyish overly liberal documentary that I could take with a grain of salt and take what information from it I thought was valid for my life.  Boy was I wrong!  The documentary was very intelligently done with great expert commentary; it didn't focus on the humane treatment of animals so much as how the industrial food system has sucked all the nutrients out of the food we eat and replaced them with poisonous substances.  Corn-fed cows at industrial feed lots are fed corn to fatten them up - that's great for the meat sellers who can get more money for a heavier cow, horrible for the people eating the high in Omega-6's meat which can now possibly be contaminated with a deadly anti-biotic resistant strain of E-coli.

Cow's were never meant to eat corn, their stomachs were not made to process it.  Eventually the stomach's lining starts to disintegrate and the cow becomes sick and dies.  Industrial cow farmers have figured out that a cow can only survive for 160 days on corn before they become too ill.  This is exactly how long they are "fattened up" on a CAFO (concentrated animal feeding operation).  Not only can they not digest the corn, it sits in their stomach and develops anti-biotic resistant E-coli, which all animals have in their digestive system, but this is a mutant form and it is deadly to humans.  Some of that E-coli gets expelled in the cows waste - waste that was once used as a wonderful fertilizer but now has to be stored in huge pits on the CAFO because it is now toxic.  Remember that big spinach E-coli outbreak?  Some of this toxic waste runs off into our water supply, water that is used to grow our plants.

This was just one jarring reality that my husband and I learned about on Food, Inc.  The next day we found a grass-fed beef coop near our house and I ordered enough beef to feed James and I for the next several months.  Never again will we eat corn-fed beef by choice.  Grass-fed beef has great amounts of omega-3s and other healthful nutrients that actually help your body.  The old cliche "you are what you eat" should now be "you are what the food you eat, eats."  Yes, grass-fed beef is more expensive, for 30 pounds of meat including 20 steaks, 3 tied roasts, a brisket and 10 pounds of ground beef it was around 250 dollars.  I think it's money well spent if it means we spend less time and money at the doctor down the road, not to mention it tastes delicious!

Pho (Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup)

This dish was the first "off-the-wall" dish I ever made and it's so easy.  It helped me venture into other ethnic foods I had never tried making before.  This dish is meant to be eaten with chopsticks and by sipping the broth from the side of the bowl. It needs to be a large bowl - a normal American soup bowl won't cut it.

Serves: 3-4

Ingredients:

  - 2 tsp vegetable oil

  - 1 medium organic white onion, peeled and quartered

  - 1 2" piece of ginger, peeled and rough chop

  - 1 tsp of Five Spice Powder (easily found in spice area of grocery store)

  - 6 cups of beef broth (preferrably homemade)

  - 1 1/2 tbsp of Asian fish sauce, common now in ethnic foods in normal grocery stores

  - 1 1/2 tsp sugar

  - fresh ground black pepper

  - 1 package of rice noodles, I use the brand Maifun which are the best size and texture

  - 1 small white onion sliced very thin in rings

  -  8 oz of flank steak, very thinly sliced into bite size pieces (it's easiest to cut thin slices if the steak is placed in the freezer for 15-30 minutes before cutting)

Condiments:

  - Cilantro leaves

  - Mung bean sprouts

  - Chopped scallions white and green parts

  - Serrano chilis, thinly sliced with seeds

  - Lime cut into wedges

  - Sriracha chili sauce (aka rooster sauce)

  - Hoisin Sauce (found in ethnic aisle of grocer)

Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium. Allow the pot to get good and hot but not smoking with the oil.  Place the onion and ginger in the pot, be careful of the oil splattering.  Saute for 5 minutes until the onions are lightly browned.  Add the spice powder and stir for 30 seconds or until fragrant.  Pour in the broth and bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  While the broth is cooking place the noodles in a bowl of luke warm water to soak - Rice noodles are so delicate they rarely need to be boiled like semolina noodles.  Strain the broth removing the onion and ginger and place the broth back in the pot (you can also use a handled sifter to extract the onion and ginger since they are in large pieces). Throw the onion and ginger away or in your composter.  Add the fish sauce, sugar and black pepper to the broth and keep warm on low. 

In each serving bowl place equal parts of the noodles that have been drained (they should be fairly flexible by now), steak, rings of onion and serrano chili's if desired (the chili's can be added afterward and will not be as spicy later).  Bring the broth back up to a rolling boil and pour equal parts of the broth over each soup bowl - the broth is very hot and the meat thin so the meat will cook as the boiling broth covers it.

Each person can now add the cilantro, sriracha, hoisin sauce, scallions and lime as they prefer.  Grab your chopsticks and enjoy.

Journey to the left coast. . .

Fortunately for me and my waistline, James and I did not live in rural Maryland for very long.  We were only there 4 months until we packed up and headed west to our new home in California.  James had served his time at Arlington National Cemetery and was starting school in the fall to begin his degree in wine making and brewing.  I quit my job and was excited to begin our lives in a new place.

I may have implied in previous posts that my palate was exceptionally narrow but after living in Missouri, New Orleans, Italy, Phoenix and Washington DC my palate had become incredibly diverse.  So now that I was without work and trying to save money  by cooking at home in our new luxuriously sized California apartment (with equally luxuriously sized kitchen) I started to crave those things that I normally got in a restaurant and had no belief in my ability to make. 

The Vietnamese dish Pho (pronounced fu as in the first two letters of the really bad word) had become a staple of eating out for my husband and I.  One of our favorite restaurants in Arlington was Pho 75 which just served the same dish 75 different ways and after not eating it for several months I couldn't take it anymore.  I found a simple recipe in one of my sisters' magazines and immediately set out to try making my own version. 

This was the beginning of my confidence really building in my cooking - the Pho turned out perfect and tasted just like the restaurant!  I had satiated my craving and cooked something that was completely out of my comfort zone.  Needless to say I was pretty impressed with myself and vowed from then-on-out I would never be scared away from cooking anything.

Turkey Meatloaf

This recipe comes from Ina Garten as well - a lot of my early cooking is from her or inspired by her.  You will notice that my picture of the loaf are from pre-banning of processed food in my house.  Please don't take the picture below as my condoning the use of pre-packaged pasta or rice sides.  They have now been extricated from my diet!  The meatloaf is made with healthy turkey and full of flavor.  It's hard to tell the difference between turkey and beef versions.

Serves: 8-10 (I recommed cooking half the loaf in one sitting and the other half will stay in your freezer for 3 months or more.  If you want a lot of leftovers meatloaf is good on sandwiches hot and cold.)

Ingredients:

  - 3 cups chopped organic yellow onion (approximately 2 onions)

  - 2 tbsp olive oil

  - 2 tbsp kosher salt

  - 1 tbsp fresh thyme

  - 1/3 cup worcestshire

  - 3/4 cup chicken stock (homemade preferrably)

  - 1 1/2 tsp tomato paste

  - 5 lbs ground turkey

  - 1 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs

  - 3 extra large pastured eggs, beaten
  - 3/4 cup organic ketchup (free of high fructose corn syrup)

Preheat oven to 325.  In a saute pan on medium heat cook the onions, olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme, until the onions are translucent but not browned.  Approximately 15 minutes.  Add the worcestshire, stock and tomato paste and mix well.  Allow to cool to a temperature where you can handle it with your hands.  Combine the turkey, bread crumbs, eggs and onion mixture in a large mixing bowl - use your hands to mix and not a spoon, this will keep the mixture from getting too dense and allow it to be light and fluffy.  On a large ungreased baking sheet, shape the mixture into a loaf (can be made into individual loafs that kids find cool but you need to bake it just about 10 minutes less).  Spread the ketchup evenly over the top of the loaf and bake for 1 1/2 hours until internal temperature is 160 degrees (check with a meat thermometer from the side of the loaf.  To keep the loaf from cracking while baking place a caserole dish of hot water underneath the loaf to keep it moist.

Stuck in my industrial food ways. . .

Eventhough I had some successful adventures with cooking from scratch I was still in the mindset that it should be an every once-in-a-while thing.  I was shopping at the commissary on base (and we all know that they have the worst produce of any grocer on the planet) and an avid coupon clipper which meant that I was still buying frozen pizzas and frozen stir-fry and pasta meals because it was quick and cheap.  It was my opinion at the time that money should be spent on eating out not on food for the home.  Not to mention I did not have a dishwasher and the worst part about cooking for me is cleaning up - especially when you have a 10" x 10" sink to do it in!

 It wasn't until my husband and I moved to a rural house in Maryland, while we were trying to sell my DC apartment, did I really start cooking all the time.  The new house had a huge kitchen with lots of counter space and normal house sized appliances and most importantly a dishwasher - what a concept!  The other push to make me start cooking was that we were miles from any restaurant besides a drive-thru.  The commissary on base was no longer a convenient place to shop and there were a few specialty food stores in the area.  Even luckier for us we had a roommate that loved to hunt and we had a freezer full of venison!

We started grilling steaks almost every other night.  I cooked stews in the crock-pot and my husband made for me boiled artichoke hearts with lemon mayonnaise for dipping!  I was now cooking things that my husband was fairly impressed with but I was still falling back into midwestern habits.  Fried onion rings were a common side dish and lots of lipton pasta packets!  It was a small step in the right direction but I still had a ways to go.

Fast-food wasn't completely out of our diet yet either.  We both had about a 3 hour roundtrip commute every day and somedays that McDonald's drive-thru was just too tempting.  My husband who rode to base with our roommate would sometimes pick up fast-food on their way home.  I had moved away from my soccer team in the city and was sitting on my butt for 12 hours a day in a car and at my desk at work.  We were eating more at home than we were before but it was a diet with lots of meat, little vegetables and what vegetables there were were fried.  It's obvious what this was doing to my waistline and my fitness level, fortunately for James he was in the Army and was forced to stay in shape.  I learned to have greater sympathy for all the people in the rural areas of the country - this was how they had lived their entire life!  No wonder we are having a national health crisis! But I sooned learned its much easier than we think and actually cheaper to cook healthy and even more delicious food than we are used to.

Wild Mushroom Soup

This recipe comes mainly from Ina Garten but over the years I have tweaked a few things to make it even better! 

 

Serves: 5 to 6 (Great for leftovers!)

Ingredients:

  - 1/2 lb fresh shitake mushrooms

  - 1/2 lb fresh portobello mushrooms

  - 1/2 lb fresh cremini mushrooms

  - 1 tbsp good olive oil

  - 1/4 lb unsalted butter

  - 1 cup organic yellow onion (chopped)

  - 2 organic carrots chopped (leave skin on)

  - 1 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves

  - 2 medium to large organic leeks, chopped white and light green parts only

  - 1/4 cup all purpose flour

  - 1 cup of good dry white wine (if you wouldn't drink it don't use it in your cooking!)

  - 1 cup organic half-and-half

  - 1 cup organic heavy cream

  - 1 tsp minced fresh thyme leaves (you can substitute dry but use half the amount)

  - 1/2 cup of minced fresh flat-leaf parsley (aka Italian parsley)

Clean the mushrooms by wiping with a damp cloth (never rinse the mushrooms because they will soak up the water and become slimey)!  Take off the stems and place them aside - do not throw away.  Slice the mushroom caps in 1/4" pieces, larger if you like a chunkier soup. 

For the stock, heat the olive oil and 1 tbsp of the butter in a large pot (let the pot get good and hot before adding ingredients).  Add the mushroom stems, onion, carrot and sprig of thyme, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp of fresh ground pepper and cook over med-low for 10 - 15 minutes.  When the vegetables are soft add 6 cups of water and bring it to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes.  Strain the stock and reserve the liquid in a separate bowl.  There should be about 4 1/2 cups of stock if not add water.

In the same stock pot heat the remaining butter and add the chopped leeks.  Cook over low heat for 15-20 minutes, until the leeks begin to brown.  Add the mushroom caps and cook for 10 minutes, or until the caps have browned and become soft.  Add the flour and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly.  Add the white wine and stir for another minute scraping all the bits off the bottom of the pot.  Add the stock, minced thyme leaves, 1 1/2 tsp of salt, and 1 tsp of fresh ground pepper and bring to a boil (this process will boil off the alcohol in the wine for any who are worried about a strong alcohol taste).  Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add the half-and-half, cream, parsley and season to taste.  Heat the soup through but do not boil!  Serve hot with some minced parsely on top for garnish.

Comments about the ingredients:  Any wild mushrooms will suffice.  If you can't find the ones listed use all portobellos or all another type but never use white buttons!  White buttons have no flavor and not much nutritional value. 

Leeks are a wonderful vegetable and once you cook with them you'll want to keep using them.  They are very sandy so the best way to clean them is to chop off the dark green parts of the leaves and then slice the whole leak in half and rinse well!  Then chop them like you would a carrot.

When making the stock if you have leftover celery or turnips in the fridge feel free to put them in the stock!  This will only add flavor to your end product.

My first forays into "from scratch" cooking. . .

After having cooked for James a few of my "go-to" recipes, like lasagna and shepherd's pie, and still not getting the desired complimentary reaction I was looking for, I decided it was time to ask for some guidance.  Where else do I always go when I need help or answers with things but to books!  I had seen her show and actually made one of her appetizers a few months before so I thought that the Barefoot Contessa cookbook would be perfect for trying new foods and techniques.  James and I both perused through the book marvelling at all the fancy food and how great it looked.  Being the quintessential midwesterner that I was I went for what looked easiest right off the bat - the California BLT.  I soon realized that easier recipes are sometimes harder because you have so few ingredients to create a big impression.  The bacon, bakery bread, heirloom tomatoes, lettuce and avocados were all from Whole Foods and fresh as I could get them but I had made a rookie mistake!  Avocados weren't in season and had almost no flavor, the tomatoes weren't in season either and though they were better than usual grocery store tomatoes they were still not what I had hoped for.  I learned a valuable lesson my first foray into "from scratch" cooking - buy in season!

  It wasn't until I tried a recipe based around our favorite food that I really got excited about my new cooking adventure.  Ina has a recipe for wild mushroom soup, it has several simple ingredients and fortunately for me the 3 types of wild mushrooms are always in season (because they are grown inside year round).  The soup takes an hour or so to make and has a few steps but they are easy steps.  The first time I made this dish I spent more time in the kitchen making dinner than I ever had before but in the end I was rewarded with one of the most delicious things I had ever eaten - in a restaurant or at home!  This was a valuable lesson for me in my culinary experience - time and effort are almost always paid off in the end!

  This soup has now become a regular dish in my house and much requested by my husband and other family members.  Now that I have honed my chopping and prepping skills it no longer takes me as long to make the soup - it has become second nature to me in the kitchen.  As I said before, better and healthier food in the kitchen just takes practice!

Sausage and Mushroom Farfalle

This was one of the first dishes I created and made for James, my husband, that he really enjoyed.  It's inspired by my time spent in Italy and from my grandmother's chunky spaghetti sauce!

Serves: 6-8 (Good for leftovers)

Ingredients:

  - 1 lb Italian sausage in casing - spicy or mild, remove casing and cut into 1/2"

     pieces

  - 16 oz of cremini mushrooms, sliced (can substitue with other types of mushrooms)

  - 1 lb organic farfalle pasta or bow-tie pasta

  - 1 tbsp olive oil

  - 1 14.5oz can organic tomato sauce

  - 1 14.5oz can organic diced tomatoes

  - 1 large white organic onion, chopped

  - 6 cloves organic garlic, minced

  - 2 tbsp italian seasoning dried

  - 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

  - 1 tsp sugar

  - 1 tbsp salt

  - 1/2 tbsp ground black pepper

  - 1/4 cup of fresh basil, julienned

  - 1/4 cup of fresh flat leaf parsley, minced

 Heat a large sautee pan on medium with the olive oil (let the pan get good and hot) then place the onion and sausage in the pan until the sausage is browned, halfway through the browning place the mushrooms in the pan, about ten minutes total.  Pour in the sauce, diced tomatoes, dried herbs, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.  Bring to a simmer.  Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to boil and cook pasta to al-dente, approximately 2 minutes less than the package recommends.  Drain the pasta and place back in the pot.  Check the sauce for seasoning and then pour over the pasta and cook an additional 2-3 minutes until the pasta has absorbed some of the sauce.  Finish the pasta by adding the fresh basil and parsley.  Serve hot and with fresh parmesan cheese if desired.

Comments on the ingredients:  Pork is easier to find organic than some meats.  What you specifically want to look for is pork raised without hormones and without inoculations.  Whole Foods or other healthful supermarkets should have it on hand.   Farmers at your local farmer's markets may even sell pork and you can discuss with him/her how they raise their livestock. If you find it hard to find organic pork perhaps have a discussion with your local meat counter and show your interest in buying such a product.  If enough people demand that a thing be sold in their grocery store the more interest the store has in stocking it!

In the beginning. . .

It must be said that I was not raised in such a way to distrust the industrial food system, on the contrary, I have only lived in a world where the industrial food system has dominated every choice I ever made about food. I grew up in the midwest with fast food a-plenty and meat and potatoes on the menu almost every night. Occasionally there was an iceberg lettuce salad with lots of ranch dressing on the side with whatever canned vegetable was heated up to go with it. This may be a tad aggrandized - we did eat pasta and my mother had a few things that she cooked mainly from scratch that were wonderful - but on the whole we ate what I now know to be a horribly deficient and possible poisonous diet.  I don't blame my family or anyone in particular for this state of affairs - it was all we knew. I had two working parents that each had busy jobs and quick easy dinners were always welcomed and as a kid I thought it was pretty darn good. My mother and father deserve credit with instilling the nightly sit down dinner into my regimen and for this they should be applauded - too many families these days use their vehicles as the communal dining table.

You may be asking yourself why am I condemning such eating habits and what on earth do I propose to do differently.  Well my journey started very slowly and I did not come to these conclusions quickly or lightly. 

My journey actually began when I started to feel a tad affronted with my new husband who kept comparing me to his mother who was this masterful cook and always supplied her five growing children with wonderful and diverse homemade food every night (for further reference every time I mention "homemade" it is to mean from scratch with non-processed ingredients).  Eating the way I had, growing up, I was having a hard time with the criticism and I felt somewhat defensive of my midwestern lifestyle.   My husband and I also, at the time, lived in a studio apartment in Washington DC and my kitchen had a total two linear feet of counter top and a 20" oven - I wasn't really sure how he thought I could create culinary masterpieces in a 15 square foot kitchen!  But being the competitive person that I am I took it as my own personal challenge to cook things for my husband that he could eventually admit were at least equal to his mothers.  My eventual conclusion to all this was that it didn't take a ton of kitchen gadgets, space or previous experience to turn myself into a better cook.  What it did take was spending more on fresher and better ingredients and practice!

Aspirations for a successful food blog!

This blog has been created in order for me to inspire, inform and converse with other food lovers of the world.  If over the course of this blog's existence:  I inspire one person to get into their kitchen and cook a meal from scratch, if I inspire one person to plant a small patch of herbs or tomatoes, if I inform people of the attrocities that the industrial food companies have committed both knowingly and unknowingly; if I have a delightful conversation about food with another devotee; I will consider this a successful blog!