Fun at the farm. . .

So this post is going to be less about ways to eat and live better and more about how much fun I had last weekend at the farm where our CSA  box comes from.  Every year, as a thank you to being a farm member, Eatwell hosts two tomato saucing parties.  They invite whoever wants to come out to turn 1800 pounds of tomatoes (roma, heirloom, beefsteak, etc) into whatever wonderful concoctions you can dream up - for free.  All you have to bring is the propane stove, your utensils for cooking, chopping and blending and your jars - they supply the tomatoes, onions, peppers, basil, water and pressure canners as well as the spacious hoop houses with lots of tables.

The hoop houses where the canning is set up.

  This year was my first year and my sister Meredith came out with me to be my sous chef.  I wasn't really sure how much I would get canned but I was hopeful it would be a lot (I bought 48 quart jars which ended up being a little too ambitious). Meredith and I arrived at the farm 30 minutes early to make sure we had a prime spot, unloaded our turkey fryer, dual propane stove, two coolers, blender, pots, cutting boards and 2 five gallon propane tanks and got things hooked up and ready to go.  Within an hour of arriving, a wonderful concoction of freshly picked tomatoes was boiling away on our stove and the turkey fryer water was heating up ready to sterilize jars.

The sauce just after coming to a boil - the foam boils away after an hour or so and it reduces by about a 1/3 before it's ready for canning.

The recipes that I had spent hours looking for on the internet were the easiest and the most flavorful I  could find.  Making tomato sauce had previously been a little off-putting to me because it is so much work - boiling the tomatos, putting them in an ice bath, peeling the skin off, slicing, decoring, deseeding, draining and then boiling down before processing in jars.  I found a great recipe online that said to just wash your tomatoes, slice them in quarters, remove the stem and blend to a liquid consistancy then just boil it for 2.5 hours until it is at the thickness you want and then can for 25 minutes in a boiling water bath canner.  That was a lot less work in my opinion and the added bonus is that not peeling off the skins adds more nutrients to the sauce.  By blending it all up together the pulp, skins and seeds all become one texture and no one would no the difference unless you told them. 

Meredith blending up the tomatoes for the sauce.

  The long part of the process is waiting for it to boil down so while we had our first pot of tomato sauce boiling away we decided to prep the tomatoes and other ingredients for our bloody mary mix.  Unfortunately the recipe I found for bloody mary mix called for peeled, cored and deseeded tomatoes, so Mer and I promptly set in to blanching, cutting and peeling 60 tomatoes.  It was a messy repetitive job but it helped pass the time as we waited for things to cook.  Added to the tomatoes were onions, parsley, worcestshire, tabasco, serrano peppers, celery and carrots.  After all this cooks down for 45 minutes you blend it all up, return it to the pot, check for seasoning and spice, bring to a boil and can in a water bath canner for 40 minutes.  You can drink it with or without alcohol and my little taste test before canning told me it was going to be pretty darn good!

The first batch to come out of the canner.

  We cooked and canned from 10:30 am to about 9:30 pm.  We got 13 quart jars of sauce made and 11 jars of bloody mary mix, plus we made a great meat ragu to share with everyone that night at dinner.  Mer and I learned some valuable lessons that will only help us to be more efficient and organized next year.  We know that we definitely need at least one more pair of hands and an extra turkey fryer wouldn't hurt either.  Eventhough it was a lot of work, we found ourselves planning to do it again before the season is over - perhaps in Mer's backyard.  We would just need to find a cheap supplier of organic tomatoes in large quantities.  Perhaps I'll call Eatwell this week and see if I can get a few more crates of tomatoes and do some more canning this weekend.

  Once you start canning it quickly becomes an addiction!  I encourage everyone to try it out at least once - it makes for great presents at the holidays and what better way to preserve the fresh taste of summer all year round!

Lemon Fusilli Pasta

This is another great recipe from Ina Garten - it's fulfilling in that it cures your carb craving but uses great fresh ingredients like cherry tomatoes, which are especially wonderful this time of year. It's great served hot or room temperature!

Serves:  4 to 5

Ingredients:

  - 1 tbsp olive oil

  - 1 tbsp minced garlic (I usually double this)

  - 2 cups heavy whipping cream

  - 3 lemons (with good clean rinds)

  - 1 lb dried fusilli pasta

  - 1/2 lb baby arugula (or 2 bunches common arugula - the more arugula grows the more bitter it gets)

  - 1/2 cup freshly grated paremsan

  - 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

Heat the olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat, add the garlic, and cook for 60 seconds. Add the cream, the zest from 2 lemons, the juice of 2 lemons, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of pepper. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until it starts to thicken.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, add 1 tablespoon of salt and the pasta, and cook according to the directions on the package, about 12 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain the pasta in a colander and place it back into the pot. Immediately add the cream mixture and cook it over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, until most of the sauce has been absorbed in the pasta. Pour the hot pasta into a large bowl, add the arugula, Parmesan, and tomatoes. Toss well, season to taste, and serve hot

But I Don't Have Enough Time!

I know there are skeptics and naysayers out there in regards to my "localvore" way of eating and feeding my family because of the amount of time everyone thinks it takes.  The key to successful healthy eating is organization and planning.  For those of you with desk jobs or the usual 9-5 work day there is almost always a few minutes a day - whether it be a 15 minute coffee break or a few minutes on your lunch break where you can sit down and write up a menu for the coming week's meals.  I try to divide my list into each day with lunch and dinner listed (breakfast is usually the same every morning); I find it also very helpful to plan to cook a large casserole or pot of soup at least once a week so that it can be used for leftovers and that way I don't have to cook some of the nights.  If you're short on time during the work week but have an extra hour or two on the weekends when you're fixing dinner try to prep or make another of your meals ahead of time and freeze it or have it ready to be thrown together in a few minutes. When I'm preparing something in advance I try to double or triple the recipe and freeze the extra portions to stock up the freezer for those nights I'm in a pinch and don't feel like cooking.
  When grocery shopping, in order to make your trip the fastest possible, organize your shopping list into the appropriate food areas in your grocery store (i.e. produce, meat, dry goods, dairy, etc).  Think about the way you travel through the store and list the different categories in that order.  This little bit of organization ahead of time can save you lots of time from running back and forth across the store trying to find the last few items on your list.  To make your trip even faster, shop with another adult or teenager in your household and give them half the list!
  My previous blogposts mentioned going to farmer's markets on the weekends to stock up on produce and other local goods and you may be telling yourself "the hell with getting up early in the morning on the weekend to go produce shopping!"  There are some other great benefits other than just picking up some local fruit and veggies, however.  Many farmer's markets have ready made meals all prepackaged and ready for purchase like homemade pasta and pasta sauces, baked artisan breads with toppings baked in that are great for do-it-yourself pizzas and ready made desserts.  A lot of food vendors have set-up shop at their local farmer's market as well, so it's a good place to get breakfast and that takes one more meal off your list that you have to prepare.
  I find it very refreshing to get up and grab a cup of coffee or tea at the market, walk around with James and see what looks good, and take the dog out for a long walk.  Getting up and doing something on the weekend also helps me be more productive the rest of the day.  I find I get a lot more done when I get up and be productive right-off-the-bat versus lounging around the house with my cup of tea.  Farmer's markets are also a great place to take the kids - it gives them a place to run around, interact with people and learn about the different things that farmer's grow in their area as well as expand their food palette.
  Hopefully these tips help you out with your busy schedules and allow you to more easily prepare healthy meals for you and your family!  Bon appetite!

Pickled Garlic

This was my first venture into canning and it turned out pretty well - the inspiration came from a farm outside DC where they have an annual corn maze and farmer's market with lots of canned jelly's and veggies.  Great for a snack with drinks or as a garnish in savory drinks like bloody mary's!

Makes 3 pint jars.

Ingredients:
  - 14 heads of unblemished garlic (blanch in boiling water for 1 minute and then place in cold ice bath to easily peel the skins off without damaging the cloves)
  - 3 cups of 5% white vinegar
  - 2 tbsp pickling/kosher salt
  -  1 cup sugar
  - sliced spicy peppers (jalapeno, serrano, wax, etc.) optional

  Boil the garlic in vinegar, salt and sugar mixture for 1 minute then place the garlic in the 3 sterilized pint jars to 3/4" below the rim.  Pour the solution over the garlic to 1/2" below the rim and wipe rim clean.  Place hot lids and rings on top and boil in a water bath canner for 20 minutes.  Remove and let stand for 24 hours before moving.  If top lid is sucked down and does not "pop" then canning was successful and they should stay in a dark cupboard for over a year.  Enjoy!

Preserving summer's bounty. . .

It's that time of the year when more wonderful things are coming out of your garden, your local farmer's market or CSA than you could ever possibly eat!  The summer harvest is coming in with all kinds of peppers, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, corn, beans and fruit and they are in desperate need of saving before they go bad.  There are a few options on what someone can do to save the summer bounty for use in the more desolate months - some options are better than others in terms of nutrient value and flavor but all are a good idea.  Your four options are:  eat now, blanch and freeze, dehydrating or canning - in descending order of nutrient value!
  Since I don't have a yard or even many indoor vegetable plants, I spend a couple hours on my Saturday mornings (now that I'm working) at the San Ramon farmer's market.  It's about a 40 vendor market with a variety of meats, cheese, pasta, ice creams, food stalls and of course the fruit and vegetable vendors.  I'm always looking for whatever vegetables look best that week and what would be good to save for the winter, as well as whatever I need for dinner and lunches that week.  So far this year I've been on a bit of a canning spree and haven't saved much for the freezer (last year I did all freezing and only one type of canning - pickled garlic).  You may spend a bit more for food in the summer/fall months but stocking up on all this great produce means you eat better and cheaper in winter and early spring.
  Now a bit about each different kind of food saving.  Blanching and freezing is probably one of the easiest and least time consuming of the methods.  Most non-leafy greens can be frozen but the bacterial break down of the food needs to be stopped before freezing so the produce will last longer.  Bring a large pot of water to a boil, clean and prep your vegetables, whether it be green beans, corn, eggplant, broccoli, etc, then dunk them into boiling water for the allotted time (there are plenty of websites out there with suggested blanching times).  Immediately transfer the veggie to a cold ice bath to stop the cooking process.  I then take the veggies out to drain and dry on a towel or colander.  Once it is dry there are two ways to freeze - place on a sheet tray and stick in freezer so all pieces will freeze individually and not in one big chunk or immediately place in a ziploc or foodsaver bag (try to get as much air out as possible).
  If you have a deep freeze my suggestion is that you get a couple big plastic milk crates or file folder crates.  I freeze my food (pasta sauce, veggies, shredded cheeses, soups etc) flat in plastic bags so they can stand up-right in a file folder manner and i can just flip through the "files" and grab what I need (this is a good space saver method for small freezers as well).  Be sure to label contents and I label date of expiration instead of the date I froze it; that way I know when to throw it out!
  Canning on the other hand takes a little investment and some equipment - although you can find a lot of great used equipment on ebay or at local garage sales.  What you need:  large 20 qt or more stock pot for boiling cans, a basket (like what Ball sells to lower cans) or a basket stand that sits on the bottom of the pot so the glass doesn't touch the burner, funnel, measuring/stir stick, magnetic lid grabber, jar tongs, jelly/pint/quart canning jars with lids and rings, a great recipe and fresh fresh produce.  I won't go into the details of canning here because there are a lot of great websites with lots of detail but know that there are two processes and for beginners it's best to stick with acidic canning and not having to use an expensive pressure canner.  If a food is not acidic or being pickled in acid then you must use a pressure canner and I haven't ventured into this realm yet because it kind of intimidates me. ;-)  This was a great beginner investment for me and works well! http://www.freshpreservingstore.com/detail/TCL+1440010790
  The last method I will discuss is dehydrating.  I will tell the truth and say that I haven't yet done any dehydrating, I was waiting for the day when James brings home a deer and try my hand at jerky.  My brother-in-law is, however, a dehydrating king and loves it.  He's figured out the secret to crispy banana chips and apple chips as well as making great healthy fruit roll-ups for his kids!  I'll have to pick his brain sometime on exactly his secrets and share it with everyone else.
  I hope this blog gets your wheels turning and my best advice is to start preserving the food you love and the food you miss most in the winter months!  Happy preserving!

Everybody's Favorite Lasagna

So this is a recipe that has morphed a great deal from the original in Betty Crocker that my mother used to make all the time.  I started making this in college and at least once a month my roommates would demand that I make a huge batch of lasagna and then the 4 of us would have to consume the entire pan because our mini-fridge wouldn't hold the leftovers!  I get some flack for not using ricotta cheese in this recipe but the cheese mixture I use makes it gooey and moist.  Enjoy!

(Picture to come)

Serves:  6-8

Ingredients:
  - 2 tbsp olive oil
  - 1 pkg lasagna noodles
  - 1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
  - 1 1/2 14.5 oz cans tomato sauce
  - 1 diced white or yellow onion
  - 1 pkg button mushrooms sliced
  - 3-4 minced heads of garlic
  - 2+ tbsp italian seasoning
  - 1 lb mild or spicy italian sausage
  - 2 blocks of cream cheese
  - 1 lb package of shredded mozzarella (or fresh if you want to grade it yourself)
  - 1 large tub of 4% cottage cheese (can use 1  1/2 smaller tubs)

Take the cream cheese and cottage cheese out of the fridge and place in a warm area for the cream cheese to soften.  In a large saute pan add the olive oil and heat to a medium-high - add the sausage and onion and simmer until sausage is brown and onions translucent.  Add the garlic and mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are just tender.  Add the tomatoes (sauce and diced), the italian seasoning and 2 tsp of salt and 1 1/2 tsp pepper.  Simmer for 5-6 minutes and taste for seasoning - may need more italian seasoning.  Don't worry about getting the sauce too seasoned because it gets mixed with the noodles and cheese mixture which helps balance it out.
  Meanwhile heat a large pot of water to a boil and cook noodles as the box suggests - rinse the noodles in cold water to stop the cooking process and cool them off for easy handling.  Combine the softened cream cheese, cottage cheese and 3/4 of the bag of mozzarella - mix well.  Place a layer of noodles on the bottom of a large baking dish, ladle about half the sauce on top (enough to cover the noodles completely) and then spoon half of the cream cheese mixture on top of the sauce.  You may need to use your hands and a knife to evenly distribute the cheese.  Place another layer of noodles on top of the cheese and repeat the sauce and cheese steps again.  Place in an oven at 375 for about 30 to 45 minutes or until it is bubbly and starting to brown on top.  With 5 minutes left in baking sprinkle the last of the mozzarella on top and finish cooking.  Take lasagna out of oven and allow to cool at least 15 minutes for easier serving and to let it set up.

This lasagna freezes very well - just do all the steps except for the baking and cover the dish well and place in the freezer.  It can go straight from the freezer to the oven just extend the cooking time about 15 minutes.

This is also an easy recipe to double or triple so when you make one make several and store in freezer for those days you don't feel like cooking!

Waste not, want not

It's been said that Americans throw away almost 40% or more of all the food produced in this country.  After seeing what some grocery stores throw away just in "expired" produce I can believe that number is low.  At least some grocery stores have started to compost their expired products but more needs to be done to better plan for the consumer demands and we as consumers can do a lot more to change our eating and living styles to waste less. 
  I'm not talking about going out and becoming a freegan and dumpster diving for our food but I do applaud the freegan's tenacity.  A lot of our wastefulness has to do with attention to detail and having the frame of mind to think about things differently.  Not so long ago Americans who were too poor to afford the Filet Mignon cuts or even the rump roast ate the other parts of the animal that we now throw away by the millions of pounds.  A massive foodie revolution is occuring bringing back these "peasant" foods like tripe, tongue, oxtail, liver, heart and kidneys and it is delicious!  Imagine how many more people in this country we could feed if we could take away the stigma that people have acquired about eating these types of meats.  They are not bad for us, we're not poisoning ourselves by eating blood sausage (no worse than eating a rare cooked piece of meat) and most of the time the flavor is more rich and tasty than the choicest cuts of meat.  If we used more of the cow to feed more people we could also cut down on the environmental impact of massive feed lots.
  Now I don't recommend eating large portions of offal every night for dinner in lieu of a steak.  James and I consume any type of meat in reasonable portions and always less than the vegetables we eat in one meal.  Cooking with so many fresh vegetables, however, usually leaves me with a pile of cuttings, peels, and trimmings from prepping these veggies and I hate throwing them in the trash.  Composting is also an act that has acquired a big stigma for most Americans because it can be a stinky bug filled business.  With the rapid decline of our top soil and the massive amounts of waste we put in landfills every year it should be much higher on everyone's priority list.  Composting can even be done in a third story walk-up apartment with the new electric composters or even worm bins - the trick is educating people on the balance between vegetable material and brown material such as wood chips, coffee grounds or natural paper.  As long as a balance is kept there is no stench or bug growth.
  Throwing out more than one large kitchen trash bag a week also starts to weigh on my conscience.  Luckily for me in California we have mandatory recycling laws and separate recycling trucks that come around (other parts of the country have similar programs).  I always keep at least 5 brown paper bags (reused from Whole Foods or other grocery stores) sitting around the trash can for paper goods, non CRV plastic/glass/aluminum, a CRV plastic, CRV glass and a CRV aluminum.  California Redemption Value (CRV) is a program that California has that allows you to turn in bottles to a recycler for a cash refund - 5 to 10 cents a bottle.  Yes, sometimes the kitchen can start to look a little like a recycling center but for those of you that have garages or storage rooms those are great places to put your recycling areas.  The clutter of the recycling is less unnerving to my OCD brain than throwing all that away into a landfill - especially when I can make some money from it!
  There are many other ways I always try to be less wasteful all of which help my healthy figure, my electric bill and the planet.  My challenge here is to see how you can think of ways to be less wasteful and to get your family involved as well.  Kids can be doubly influenced by saying they are helping the planet and by giving them any money you save to their piggy banks!

World's Best Chicken Stock

This is the main reason I bought a very large and sturdy 12 quart pot.  This recipe is very easy and stock will stay in your freezer for 6 months or more.  By making your own stock you cut out the horrible MSG (now known to be given to lab rats to make them gain lots of weight!) and massive amounts of salt used in store brands. 

Ingredients:

  - 2 (5 lb) roasting chickens (innards removed but neck used)

  - 2 large yellow onions quartered and unpeeled

  - 6 carrots unpeeled and halved

  - 4 stalks celery cut into big chunks with leaves attached

  - 4 parsnips unpeeled and cut in half

  - 20 sprigs fresh parsley (flat leaf)

  - 15 sprigs thyme

  - 20 sprigs dill

  - 1 head of garlic unpeeled and cut in half sideways

  - 2 tbsp kosher salt

  - 2 tsp whole black peppercorns

Add all ingredients to your stock pot and cover with water leaving about an inch above the ingredients but with room for it to simmer without boiling over.  Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer for 4 hours.  Skim any foam that rises to the top - this comes from the skins on the garlic and onions.  Strain out the solids and discard everything but the chicken.  (This can be a messy and painful process with such a heavy pot and hot liquids - I sometimes let things cool before trying to handle this step or use a handled sieve to fish out solids before trying to lift the whole thing.)  Separate the liquid into freezer containers if not using right away.  When it has frozen the fat will have risen to the top and should be easily removed.

Side note:  I got the main body of this recipe from Barefoot Contessa but she throws away all that expensive chicken meat afterwards.  If you take the extra time to separate the chicken from the solids and remove it from the bones and skin it makes awesome pot pies, enchilada meat and in anything else you would use shredded chicken meat. It also freezes well!

This recipe is an excellent way to get your house smelling delicious as well!

They make it so difficult. . .

  After a recent trip back to my parent's home in the Midwest I realized how impossible the industrial food companies have made it to make good healthy eating decisions, without considerable effort.  I was unwilling to part ways, for even 9 days, with my no preservative, no HFCS, no GMO, no industrially produced foods diet.  So in order to continue my eating habits I had to have my parents drive me to the Whole Foods in Tulsa after they picked me up from the airport.  I know there are a lot of Whole Foods haters out there because of the high costs of their products but after reading my previous blog entries we can consider the extra expense a given for healthy eating.  My mother was having a good time at Whole Foods - checking out the herbal medicine section and all the different cheeses and dairy products.  Dad on the other hand was having a very hard time justifying the prices to himself. 
  For those of you that have watched the documentary Food, Inc., there is one very frustrating scene to me and that is the segment on the minority family that tries to buy dinner in a grocery store for the same price as they would through a drive-thru.  The two daughters have a dollar a piece to spend and the youngest asks for some pears but can only buy two and the mother tells her that they are too expensive and it won't fill her up.  This whole dialogue is idiotic to me because when you buy all the raw ingredients to cook a dinner it is almost always cheaper than drive-thru, even when purchasing organic and non-processed ingredients.
  I know that most American families are strapped for time and don't always have the patience to cook full meals every night but it just takes planning.  Lots of people have been asking me how I am going to continue cooking my great food when I start working 40 hours a week plus commuting.  A great deal of what I make doesn't take that much time and I spend a few hours on Sunday planning out the weeks menu, writing a very detailed grocery list (sending myself or hubby to Whole Foods to purchase said items) and prepping anything in advance that can be prepped.  I make a big squeeze bottle of homemade dressing that lasts all week, salads become a main veggie side because I don't have to cook it, steaks on the stove, pre-made shepherd's pie/lasagna/enchiladas/soups that were stored in the freezer for those nights I just don't feel like it, get heated in the oven or on the stove.  I always have tubs of chicken/seafood/beef stock in the freezer for whipping up a quick flavorful soup.  And I always request help after dinner is done cleaning up.
  For those people unfortunate to not live close to a really great farmer's market, Whole Foods store or don't know anyone that raises their own pasture raised cattle and chickens then my biggest advice is to start a garden.  While I was home I noticed that it was impossible to find a bunch of basil in any grocery store which seems so absurd to me.  Basil is one of the easiest plants to grow - it likes humidity and lots of sun and loves to be cut and bugs don't seem too attracted to it.  So do yourself a favor and start a small garden or window box with herbs to start and see where it goes from there.  Just don't use any chemical fertilizer (that includes miracle-gro and osmocote) and don't spray it with insecticide (even organic ones).  Happy planting!