Well, here we are, eight years to the day since the dawn of our Brave New World. I remember like it was yesterday - how the patriotic response was to go out and buy an SUV, buy new furniture, fill up your gas tank as often as possible, spend money. Didn't matter if you had the money or not, just spend. The credit explosion led to the credit collapse and now here we are in an "economic crisis." You'd think we'd have learned about thrift and responsibility.
But no. According to Fox, frugal Americans are now the enemy, directly responsible for our slow recovery. It's still our patriotic duty to spend money we don't have and become ever more dependent on the corporate system. Meanwhile Congress is working hard to render us even more dependent on a larger, industrialized agricultural system with the tragically misnamed Food Safety Enhancement Act. (Read more here.) Even though the USDA has agreed that centralized, long-distance industral production is one of the greatest threats to food safety, this bill (which has already passed the House and is before the Senate as I type), would further centralize production and drive small farms out of business.
Worse yet, it doesn't differentiate between commercial and home production, so this "Administrator" to be determined would have the right to enter your own home kitchen or garden with no judicial oversight and hold you to the same standards as industrial food exporters. If that's not unconstitutional I don't know what is, but Con-Agra and Monsanto can afford to keep it away from the Supreme Court for long enough to drive small independent farmers out of business.
It should go without saying that any "Food Safety Enhancement Act" supported by Con-Agra and Monsanto is not going to be about food safety at all.
We know already that the proper response to economic crisis is to tighten our belts, and the proper response to a food safety crisis such as the current one is to take responsibility for our own food production. But Corporate America is working hard to make money by convincing us all that black is white. It began the full-force push eight years ago today and now it's poisoning not only our food, but our Constitutional rights and our way of life.
Contact your Senators today and tell them to vote against HR2749. Our lives depend on it.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Aww. I'm blushing!
What a nice suprise to wake up to! I was just sitting here sipping my coffee and making my usual morning rounds of the internet when I happened upon my own fried green tomatoes on Fab Frugal Food. I really enjoyed making those and sharing them with Anne when she was here a couple weeks ago, and so pleased that a mere gluten sensitivity led us to such serendipity. Chickpea flour really does make excellent fried green tomatoes, so much more flavorful and crisp than wheat flour. I'll be making them again for our housewarming party this weekend. Thanks for the shout-out, FFF!
I didn't finish all of my preservation agenda yesterday because we got sucked into the first three episodes of "Firefly," an excellent space-Western series from 2002 that we're only just now getting to. The good news is that we got at least ten pounds of grapes sorted and picked from the vines while we watched it. The bad news is that now I have to make even more grape jelly. Yesterday I made seven jars of it, all of which jelled perfectly. I've never made Concord grape jelly before. It's a very messy endeavor but a fascinating one! The juice starts out a bright fuschia color, and then - just as it starts to simmer - it suddenly turns into that dark purple jelly color all on its own. Trippy! I took pictures all along the process and will post about them later this evening.
I also roasted and pureed a sugar pumpkin and saved enough seeds to cover four plates. All the seeds are currently drying on top of the refrigerator and anyone who wants to plant a sweet pumpkin plant next year should let me know, because I have seeds aplenty. This many organic seeds would've cost us at least $50 from the store, possibly more; the pumpkin I collected them from cost $1 at the farmer's market.
Also yesterday I invented my own recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam, spiced with allspice and cinnamon and the slightest dash of cardamom (which goes beautifully with rhubarb). It turned out a bit thin and runny, despite the pectin I added, but it tastes good anyway and it's still usable as a jam. It might also be good on top of ice cream or drizzled over chocolate cake if I have any dessert functions to use it in the future. It made eight jelly jars' worth!
Tonight I'm going to try to finish that maple pumpkin butter, and juice the new batch of grapes so they can sit overnight for jellying tomorrow. I also received a small shipment of various peppers from my dad's pepper garden in Mississippi, which I hope to round out with my own anchos and turn into a balsamic chile chutney using Jamie Oliver's recipe. Meanwhile I still have two more boxes to unpack and I need to clean the house before our housewarming party on Saturday, and I have some writing and film projects requiring my attention. I really can't believe I used to suffer from boredom. Lately there are just not enough hours in the day.
I didn't finish all of my preservation agenda yesterday because we got sucked into the first three episodes of "Firefly," an excellent space-Western series from 2002 that we're only just now getting to. The good news is that we got at least ten pounds of grapes sorted and picked from the vines while we watched it. The bad news is that now I have to make even more grape jelly. Yesterday I made seven jars of it, all of which jelled perfectly. I've never made Concord grape jelly before. It's a very messy endeavor but a fascinating one! The juice starts out a bright fuschia color, and then - just as it starts to simmer - it suddenly turns into that dark purple jelly color all on its own. Trippy! I took pictures all along the process and will post about them later this evening.
I also roasted and pureed a sugar pumpkin and saved enough seeds to cover four plates. All the seeds are currently drying on top of the refrigerator and anyone who wants to plant a sweet pumpkin plant next year should let me know, because I have seeds aplenty. This many organic seeds would've cost us at least $50 from the store, possibly more; the pumpkin I collected them from cost $1 at the farmer's market.
Also yesterday I invented my own recipe for strawberry-rhubarb jam, spiced with allspice and cinnamon and the slightest dash of cardamom (which goes beautifully with rhubarb). It turned out a bit thin and runny, despite the pectin I added, but it tastes good anyway and it's still usable as a jam. It might also be good on top of ice cream or drizzled over chocolate cake if I have any dessert functions to use it in the future. It made eight jelly jars' worth!
Tonight I'm going to try to finish that maple pumpkin butter, and juice the new batch of grapes so they can sit overnight for jellying tomorrow. I also received a small shipment of various peppers from my dad's pepper garden in Mississippi, which I hope to round out with my own anchos and turn into a balsamic chile chutney using Jamie Oliver's recipe. Meanwhile I still have two more boxes to unpack and I need to clean the house before our housewarming party on Saturday, and I have some writing and film projects requiring my attention. I really can't believe I used to suffer from boredom. Lately there are just not enough hours in the day.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Self-Preservation, Another Round
The Oregon meal was excellent, if anyone was curious. I took video of some of the food preparation, and still need to get a couple more shots but I'll be uploading the video soon. It should be a cute little project.
Then last night I made this incredible peanut sauce over brown rice, sauteed spinach and chard, and cubed lemon-baked chicken. I really can't get over how good it is - we all but licked the bowl. Later tonight I'm braising collard and kohlrabi greens (with crockpot blackeye peas and creamed corn from scratch) and there's enough sauce left to drizzle over the greens... mmm, I'm already drooling.
Meanwhile I'm having another preservation day today. We harvested another pumpkin yesterday, so even though I already have 10 cups of pumpkin puree (five cans' worth) in my freezer, I've got two more pumpkins to process. I'm saving the seeds from the sweet one, and I'll also be saving seeds from my ancho chiles. I need to put a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes in the dehydrator for dried tomatoes later in the year - they won't be "sun-dried," but they'll taste just as good when I'm dying for tomatoes in the winter.
My canning agenda looks like this:
Maple Pumpkin Butter
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
Concord Grape Jelly
Salsa Verde
Lavender Jelly
Rosemary Jelly
And my freezer agenda looks like this:
Pumpkin Gnocchi
Pumpkin Puree
Diced Pumpkin (for chili and stew)
Pumpkin Seed Pesto
Better get cracking. I've got a long day.
Then last night I made this incredible peanut sauce over brown rice, sauteed spinach and chard, and cubed lemon-baked chicken. I really can't get over how good it is - we all but licked the bowl. Later tonight I'm braising collard and kohlrabi greens (with crockpot blackeye peas and creamed corn from scratch) and there's enough sauce left to drizzle over the greens... mmm, I'm already drooling.
Meanwhile I'm having another preservation day today. We harvested another pumpkin yesterday, so even though I already have 10 cups of pumpkin puree (five cans' worth) in my freezer, I've got two more pumpkins to process. I'm saving the seeds from the sweet one, and I'll also be saving seeds from my ancho chiles. I need to put a huge bowl of cherry tomatoes in the dehydrator for dried tomatoes later in the year - they won't be "sun-dried," but they'll taste just as good when I'm dying for tomatoes in the winter.
My canning agenda looks like this:
Maple Pumpkin Butter
Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam
Concord Grape Jelly
Salsa Verde
Lavender Jelly
Rosemary Jelly
And my freezer agenda looks like this:
Pumpkin Gnocchi
Pumpkin Puree
Diced Pumpkin (for chili and stew)
Pumpkin Seed Pesto
Better get cracking. I've got a long day.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Oregon: The Meal
Tonight, for reasons which I shall explain in another week or two, I'm making a special dinner to celebrate Oregon's local bounty. Sure, a cookout is probably more common for Labor Day, but it's still raining off and on, and the good late-summer/early-fall produce is in. Here's the menu...
Appetizer
Rogue River Bleu Cheese
White grapes from my own grape vines
Argyle Sparkling Wine from the Willamette Valley (pinot noir and chardonnay blend)
Dinner
Pumpkin Quiche
Homemade Sour Rye Beer Bread
Salad Greens topped with Dried Hood River Cherries, Hazelnuts, and Homemade Lemon-Dijon Vinaigrette
Local white wine TBD or Deschutes Beer
Dessert
Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chipotle-Hazelnut Praline Glaze
Fresh-Ground Decaf Coffee with Hazelnut Milk
The quiche will have a handmade savory crust with ground hazelnuts and nutmeg in it, and it'll feature eggs from my chickens and a pumpkin I harvested and pureed the other day (I got 12 cups of pumpkin puree from this one pumpkin and there are plenty more on the vine, argh). The sour rye starter has been fermenting for about two weeks now and it has a lovely beery smell, and we dried the cherries ourselves in July after our friend brought them back from a wedding she attended in the cherry orchard. The chocolate, okay, the chocolate came from Peru (a friend brought it back a couple of years ago and it's kept nicely in the fridge) but the hazelnuts and chipotles are local, as well as the flours and some other ingredients, and I'm in love with my Bundt pan so I'll take any excuse to use it.
I don't often do Gourmet Cuisine (however gourmet this is), so I'm excited for this one. I'm about to start the pie crust this morning and I'm still waiting for the chickens to give me one more egg for the quiche. Meanwhile Keith is hunting down that missing camera cable - this is one dinner we're definitely going to want pictures of!
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Autumn? Already?
Labor Day isn't until tomorrow, but it feels like autumn today. It rained all night last night (on the skylights over our bed, making the loveliest sound), and this morning we woke up to a chilly, windy, wet world. We went early to the farmer's market during a break in the rain; all the beautiful winter squashes were out, in every shape and color. We bought a sugar pumpkin (my own pumpkins aren't sweet and we want to save the seeds from a sweet one), as well as a butternut and two delicatas. We also got a few chayotes, which I've never heard of - I'm always excited when I discover a new veggie or fruit, and it just keeps happening these days.
In the fruit department we scored a great deal on the last (very ripe) strawberries, so I'll be canning some strawberry-rhubarb jam this week, and some sugar plums, which we'll probably just eat while their visions dance in our heads.
Lemon cucumbers were fifty cents a pound and I still have a huge bowl of my own cherry tomatoes in the fridge, so I'll be adding a sweet onion and making another cucumber salad today. But now that it's cold and windy and raining again, I think this will be the last one. It feels like the first of many rainy fall days that we'll spend just like this, me cooking and canning while Keith reads a book and we listen to the sound of the rain on the porch roof through an open window.
At least he got a chance to start on the grape harvest while I made lunch. Our own little seedless white wine grapes are ready for the picking - at least, the ones we haven't already devoured - but he started the harvest down the street, where an unoccupied home for sale has a long fence laden heavily with beautiful dark Concord grapes. He's gotten a huge basketful already and there's plenty more to pick! I'm definitely making jelly, and I'm looking to see what else I can do with all these grapes. Is there anyone out there who actually likes raisins?
In the fruit department we scored a great deal on the last (very ripe) strawberries, so I'll be canning some strawberry-rhubarb jam this week, and some sugar plums, which we'll probably just eat while their visions dance in our heads.
Lemon cucumbers were fifty cents a pound and I still have a huge bowl of my own cherry tomatoes in the fridge, so I'll be adding a sweet onion and making another cucumber salad today. But now that it's cold and windy and raining again, I think this will be the last one. It feels like the first of many rainy fall days that we'll spend just like this, me cooking and canning while Keith reads a book and we listen to the sound of the rain on the porch roof through an open window.
At least he got a chance to start on the grape harvest while I made lunch. Our own little seedless white wine grapes are ready for the picking - at least, the ones we haven't already devoured - but he started the harvest down the street, where an unoccupied home for sale has a long fence laden heavily with beautiful dark Concord grapes. He's gotten a huge basketful already and there's plenty more to pick! I'm definitely making jelly, and I'm looking to see what else I can do with all these grapes. Is there anyone out there who actually likes raisins?
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
National Chicken Month
Apparently yesterday was the beginning of National Chicken Month. This conceit of "the chicken industry" encourages retailers to promote sales of chicken meat and eggs by using the National Chicken Month logo, and also by providing recipes at the point of sale. Nowhere in the online literature could I find a reference to the health benefits of growing your own. I don't need to say that there wasn't a mention anywhere of the completely appalling conditions that factory chickens are subjected to, or any suggestion that they might be improved.
So I'm just going to celebrate National Chicken Month in my own way. Yesterday we had that amazing lunch of grass-fed, organic chicken from an actual farm, and meanwhile my own girls are loving life. Jane and Lana still aren't laying yet, but they've become a lot easier to get along with since their wings were clipped. Doris and Lucy are laying almost every day, and enjoying the times when we let them out to range all over the yard. It makes me ridiculously happy to see my hens with their big feathery bustles, happily scratching up the dirt for bugs and pecking at the grass. They go crazy for bruised peach slices, tomato skins, and other kitchen scraps. They even love cheese and their own eggshells. When I have a treat for them I only have to call, "Heeeere chickchickchick" and they run to me as fast as their funny legs will carry them.
Then I remember the chickens in the factory farm in Food, Inc. and my heart aches. The laying hen has the worst life of any animal in the factory system, worse even than the cows in CAFO's who stand knee-deep in their own waste eating food that makes them sick. It's no wonder their eggs taste terrible and have no nutritional value.
So forget about the industry's "National Chicken Month," and instead take this opportunity to seek out some real chicken, real eggs. Support the home growers and the small farms. They're near you, wherever you are, just an internet search away.
And in the meantime, enjoy this terrific video on backyard chickens from the Today Show!
So I'm just going to celebrate National Chicken Month in my own way. Yesterday we had that amazing lunch of grass-fed, organic chicken from an actual farm, and meanwhile my own girls are loving life. Jane and Lana still aren't laying yet, but they've become a lot easier to get along with since their wings were clipped. Doris and Lucy are laying almost every day, and enjoying the times when we let them out to range all over the yard. It makes me ridiculously happy to see my hens with their big feathery bustles, happily scratching up the dirt for bugs and pecking at the grass. They go crazy for bruised peach slices, tomato skins, and other kitchen scraps. They even love cheese and their own eggshells. When I have a treat for them I only have to call, "Heeeere chickchickchick" and they run to me as fast as their funny legs will carry them.
Then I remember the chickens in the factory farm in Food, Inc. and my heart aches. The laying hen has the worst life of any animal in the factory system, worse even than the cows in CAFO's who stand knee-deep in their own waste eating food that makes them sick. It's no wonder their eggs taste terrible and have no nutritional value.
So forget about the industry's "National Chicken Month," and instead take this opportunity to seek out some real chicken, real eggs. Support the home growers and the small farms. They're near you, wherever you are, just an internet search away.
And in the meantime, enjoy this terrific video on backyard chickens from the Today Show!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Mmmm, roast chicken (and no, it wasn't Jane).
Four words: Chicken Dinner For Lunch.
One word: Wow.
I've always wanted to learn the fine art of roasting a whole chicken, but I've never gotten it exactly right before today. I got a young, grassfed, free-range chicken a little while back and thawed it a few days ago with the idea of making a chicken dinner when Keith came home from L.A. He got in late and didn't want it on Sunday, and then yesterday I was busy, so today we thought what the hell - let's just have it for lunch. We like to have a bigger lunch and a lighter dinner anyway, for health reasons.
So, inspired by this recipe at Epicurious, I roasted that little chicken. Got the oven all nice and hot while I rinsed the chicken and patted it very dry with paper towels, and then sprinkled it thoroughly with fresh-ground pepper and black smoked sea salt. Stuffed the cavity with a few cloves of garlic and a sprig of rosemary, just cut from the yard. I roasted it that way, making sure to keep the oven tightly shut the whole time, and then when it was done (about 70 minutes), I pulled it out and moved the chicken to a plate. I stirred more fresh rosemary into the pan juices, along with a big spoonful of Dijon mustard, and basted the chicken with that while I let it rest. I basted it a few times while Keith grilled several ears of corn and then we filled our plates with chicken, grilled corn, and a nice little tomato-cucumber salad. We ate on the porch, and after lunch I picked a bunch of grapes from the vine and we shared the fresh grapes in the nice weather.
The rest of the chicken is ready for use in other meals over the rest of the week, and I just filled a gallon-size freezer bag with grilled corn freshly cut from the cob. Keith laughed that it was a lot of grilled corn. But in the winter, when I throw a handful of grilled corn kernels into a hearty beef stew to enjoy on a rainy night, I'll see that date on the freezer bag and remember this sunny late-summer day when Keith fired up the grill and we enjoyed this lovely meal on the porch. This is why I like food preservation, after all. "The day I put the can in my cart" just doesn't carry the same kinds of memories with it.
I deeply regret that I wasn't able to photograph this chicken. We're still unpacking, and someday I'll find my camera cable and this blog will have pictures again. One fine day...
One word: Wow.
I've always wanted to learn the fine art of roasting a whole chicken, but I've never gotten it exactly right before today. I got a young, grassfed, free-range chicken a little while back and thawed it a few days ago with the idea of making a chicken dinner when Keith came home from L.A. He got in late and didn't want it on Sunday, and then yesterday I was busy, so today we thought what the hell - let's just have it for lunch. We like to have a bigger lunch and a lighter dinner anyway, for health reasons.
So, inspired by this recipe at Epicurious, I roasted that little chicken. Got the oven all nice and hot while I rinsed the chicken and patted it very dry with paper towels, and then sprinkled it thoroughly with fresh-ground pepper and black smoked sea salt. Stuffed the cavity with a few cloves of garlic and a sprig of rosemary, just cut from the yard. I roasted it that way, making sure to keep the oven tightly shut the whole time, and then when it was done (about 70 minutes), I pulled it out and moved the chicken to a plate. I stirred more fresh rosemary into the pan juices, along with a big spoonful of Dijon mustard, and basted the chicken with that while I let it rest. I basted it a few times while Keith grilled several ears of corn and then we filled our plates with chicken, grilled corn, and a nice little tomato-cucumber salad. We ate on the porch, and after lunch I picked a bunch of grapes from the vine and we shared the fresh grapes in the nice weather.
The rest of the chicken is ready for use in other meals over the rest of the week, and I just filled a gallon-size freezer bag with grilled corn freshly cut from the cob. Keith laughed that it was a lot of grilled corn. But in the winter, when I throw a handful of grilled corn kernels into a hearty beef stew to enjoy on a rainy night, I'll see that date on the freezer bag and remember this sunny late-summer day when Keith fired up the grill and we enjoyed this lovely meal on the porch. This is why I like food preservation, after all. "The day I put the can in my cart" just doesn't carry the same kinds of memories with it.
I deeply regret that I wasn't able to photograph this chicken. We're still unpacking, and someday I'll find my camera cable and this blog will have pictures again. One fine day...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)