Live to Eat, Eat to Live

Tags

diet, garden, health, nutrition, vegetables, winter

It has been a while, dear garden blog friends, and so much has been happening. This summer has been a little nutty and rather busy and now its over, dead, gone and my lawn is strewn with brown decaying leaves. Ah, autumn and its beauty.

The garden, this year, has been productive in many ways, and less successful in others. For example, my irrigation system worked better than I could have imagined and took all the guesswork out of watering. I set up a timer, which was just supposed to last for the month I was traveling in July, but it was so darn handy I never took the thing off. Sure it has its flaws, like it leaked a bit and the water-encroachment caused it to reset every once in a while, but the time-savings and reduced stress while traveling was worth it. Another success was my insect management program this year. I inter-planted the crops in order to “trick” the bad bugs, and generously spread marigold seeds around the garden border, specifically to manage the fiendish Cabbage Moth and friends. I also opened the garden up to the 4700 wild birds in the yard. The moths were able to find the brassicas after a month of searching, but barely a kale leaf was sacrificed. I loved watching the robins and bluejays and sparrows and chickadees and warblers dive-bomb the bushy plants. Hell hath no fury like a hungry birdy.

What didn’t work so well this year? Well, I opened up the garden to the 4700 wild birds in the yard, and doing so, opened it up to other hungry critters. After a year of not seeing any deer on the property, they have returned, and they returned with empty bellies. Without the bird-tight netting, the garden offered a 24-hour Vegas-style buffet without the two-hour time limit. The deer, sight-unseen, feasted and left the garden in shambles in the course of one night in late August. It was official, the white (tailed) walkers were back, and winter was coming. Would you like to know the damage tally?

• Corn: gone
• Tomatoes: gone
• Swiss chard: gone
• Pole beans: interestingly, leaves were gone, but the beans remained.
• Winter squash: leaves gone, too early for fruit
• Peppers: gone
• Fall seedlings (cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, broccoli): trampled

What they didn’t take: kale, carrots, basil, fennel, eggplant, parsley. This leaves the score, Deer: 7, Me: devastated.

The only saving grace was the eggplant, which is needed to fulfill one of my New Years resolutions, to eat as much eggplant as possible. They left me the five plants untouched, undamaged, maybe because they know they are toxic, or maybe because they got too full on the tender greens. The tomatoes were hurtful. Seeing my four ready-for-the-picking, full-fruited, prized tomatoes gone in the course of one night was like being stabbed in the shoulder and thigh. It doesn’t kill you, but it is really f-ing painful.

I am not going to lie; it was hard to not be thoroughly angry at the deer. I put a lot of time and thought into that garden, and a lot of sweat and blood. No, that’s not a metaphor. There were a few times I bled into that garden. But, in the end, what was I going to do about it? The deer were doing what deer do: survive the Hunger Games that is their life. The truth is, their entire species has had a tough go at it in Wisconsin. Cronic Wasting Disease is no fun, and neither is the reintroduction of the gray wolf and the coyote. Seeing as how many deer starve to death in the winter, I have to meditate this away, and find acceptance. The garden will continue to grow, and they will continue to feast, and maybe we can find a happy medium.

Swiss Chard after the deer.

Leaf-stripped pole beans. Makes the bean picking easier.

In other news, after an embarrassingly unhealthy summer of travel eating, I am reaffirming my commitment to vegetablism. What is that you ask? Who knows, I just made it up. I love all things nutrition, and I love reading books on new diet fads, and trends. Can’t get enough! I mean, all fad diets are absolutely, completely ridiculous, but as a student of life-knowledge I want to know about them all. It is my personal belief that any “diet” that requires a person to take handfuls of vitamin supplements is just not cutting it. Neither is any diet that tries to mimic the diet of our Neanderthal ancestors. We all know that Neanderthals went extinct right?

I used to try these diets a lot in my twenties and the only change they caused was the onset of food-anxiety. I have accepted that I will never be the 120 lbs I was on my wedding day, but that’s okay because the papers were signed and half of CFOs money and property is mine whether I later go on to star on TLC’s 600-lb Life or not. I remind him of this routinely.

But in all seriousness, part of my love of gardening is that I have learned over my life that I feel best when my diet consists of mostly vegetables and fruits and other plant foods. I do love meat too, and would find it challenging (and a little sad) to be fully vegetarian. (Being vegan is not remotely possible because I live in Wisconsin, and if I don’t meat the minimum criteria of 250 lbs of cheese consumption a year I will lose my benefits card.) I don’t need to eat meat all the time, or even every day and I also think the American obsession with protein is a little wackadoo, when clearly the people that can afford to eat only bacon and steak are not the sub-group at risk of protein deficiency. But I digress…

I recently read the China Study by T. Colin Campbell and found its premise fascinating: all diets that are not vegan will give you cancer and kill you. Okay, maybe that’s a broad generalization, but I think that some of the info presented has merit. An animal-free diet was found to significantly reduce the risk of many cancers, heart disease and diabetes and other acquired health diseases. Now, because of the aforementioned Wisconsin benefit card, I will not shun all animal products quite yet. The study does provide me with some merit for my pro-vegetable lifestyle, and validation always feels good. If you were not aware, the China Study is the basis for the book and documentary Forks Over Knives, which advocates not using olive oil or drinking wine. To that I say, I don’t need to live forever.

Now that the garden is heading to its close for the year, keeping seasonal produce the foundation of my diet will get challenging, but for health and personal satisfaction its important to me. So, I am reaffirming my commitment to this semi-vegetarian vegetablism, right after I use up the 245 lbs of venison meat in the freezer.

My Month in Radishes

Tags

diet, garden, heirloom, homemade, nutrition, radish, recipes, spring, vegetables, whole food

Radishes. Ahhh, the spring radishes. What a delight! One of the first vegetables in the garden, seed-to-harvest in 30 days, this makes them great to interplant with any longer-season vegetables like squash. I did that, and by the end May had radishes,

 And radishes….

I have so many radishes, that even Jessica is all radished out.

This, from an animal that literally did a backflip when I first gave her a bowl of the greens. So…time to get creative.

What does one do with so many radishes? First, don’t toss away those greens! If you are, you are missing out on a really SUPER food. Radish greens, like beet greens and turnip greens, are not only edible, but packed with vitamins and minerals. Actually, the greens have more Vitamin C than the roots. They have some kick to them and are more in the flavor category of arugula than beet greens. If you like that, use wherever you would use arugula, but if you don’t like that, use like cooked spinach or chard. Or try these:

Radish Top Soup 

Sautee one cup chopped onion in 2 Tbsp butter, add 3-4 medium peeled, diced potatoes, cook for 5 minutes, add 3-4 cups chopped radish greens, cook 1 minute, add 4 cups chicken or vegetable stock, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes (until potato is cooked). You can add seasonings that you want, I used minced garlic, red pepper, black pepper, and salt. I also added a can of white beans for more protein. Once cooked, puree with an immersion blender. If you want a thinner soup or don’t like the consistency of a bean soup, you can leave out the white beans, and add cream to taste after blending. Great when served with bread to dip.

This soup is surprisingly tasty. CFO balked at it when I made it, but then mistakenly put the left over cold soup on his salad the next day instead of the avocado dressing I made, and said it was a fantastic salad dressing before realizing his mistake. It was both my proudest moment as a home cook, and my weirdest.

Radish Top Pesto 

Now we are talking! I love pesto. I mean, reeeaallllyy loove pesto. Its on the same level as Italian cured meats, olives and wine. The greatest hits. Pesto literally means ground or crushed, and, while traditionally refers to Genovese basil, garlic, pine nuts, Parmagiano-Reggiano and olive oil, can really be made with anything. I like to swap up the vegetable (try parsley, cilantro, artichokes, anything green, anything purple!), nuts (almonds, walnuts, peanuts, pistachios), and cheese (umm…just kidding don’t do this). I always have some form of pesto on hand in the freezer for those quick dinner nights. Pasta, pesto, boom. Its also a great way to preserve too much of a good thing.

For this pesto, I used 4 cups radish tops, 2 cloves garlic, 1/2 cup mixed almonds and pistachio kernels, and grind in a food processor. While processing, slowly stream in extra virgin olive oil until the mixture becomes smooth. It should be thick, but still have some movement to it. Add salt and pepper, and 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese, and briefly blend to mix. If the flavor is too bitter, you can add a splash of white wine vinegar or a pinch of sugar to mellow it out. Or more cheese. Can’t go wrong with more cheese. Top pasta, vegetables, pizza, spread on sandwiches, eat with a spoon. So good.

Now for those radishes. Raw radishes are divine, but you can also cook them. However, the absolute best way to eat radish roots, and this is proven by the French, is with butter and salt. I swear, you will no go back. But you might have to, because this way significantly increases your butter consumption. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Petit Radis au Beurre Sale (Breakfast Radishes with Salted Butter) 

Soften some butter, dip radishes into butter, sprinkle with sea salt. Enjoy! You will feel 85% more French after this experience.

For something more challenging:

Pickled Radishes 

I made these after a friend recommended them after I complained to her of not knowing what else to do with radishes. This recipe was simple enough: thinly slice about 2 cups of radishes and place in glass jar. I used a mandolin and nearly lost a finger, but I got very thin radishes. I recommend this method but strongly discourage texting and slicing. Mix 3/4 c white wine vinegar, 3/4 c water, 2 Tbsp salt, and 3 Tbsp honey, bring to a boil on the stove to dissolve the salt and sugar. Pour over radishes. Loosely top, let cool about 1 hour, then place in fridge. Full pickling will take about 1 day, and these babies should always be stored in the fridge, and eaten within a week. No one wants botulism.

Keep in mind when you open the jar, it will be pungent. I think these taste phenomenal, but unfortunately, CFO does not. I did learn through this radish ordeal that he hates anything pickled that is not a cucumber. So, not only do I have a bucketful of fresh radishes to eat, I also have a pint of pickled radishes.

Tonight, I will be trying out some roasted radishes, which will go along with salad as we enter the Month of Lettuces.

Happy fresh eating!

There are Healthy Eating Habits, and then there is Me, When No One is Watching

Tags

fruit, homemade, local foods, nutrition, recipes

This time of year is tough on the diet. I like to eat seasonally, but there is not much seasonality between February and April. Don’t get me wrong, winter is tough but I made a lot of great meals with inexpensive root vegetables and grains this year. I swear there are more ways to use a rutabaga than you think. But come February, it is slim pickings. For the last few months I have been doing a bang up job clearing out the freezer and pantry making breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, but this past month has required more pricey grocery shopping trips. This week, CFO is away on business, leaving me alone to make my own coffee in the morning (which is the WORST), and also making dinner for one (not as terrible as the coffee thing). I had this really grand idea of eating takeout every night because I never eat out by myself or get takeout because I am sodamnthrifty, but the idea sounded fascinating. I had it all planned out with specific restaurants and everything. Then of course, I realized that to do such plan would require me to drive to said restaurants to pick up food, and, well, a greater thrill took over. The thrill of the yard, followed by the thrill of the Netflix. I decided to scour the freezer for any remaining foods, so I could stay cozy at home.

As luck would have it, I found this freezer bag full of red gems.

 This is the last of the summer raspberries, frozen at their peak. And let me tell you, they are like some kind of ambrosia. I think they could impart immortality. The smell alone evokes that summery, happy, warm feeling and brings you right back to July. Ooooooo so good. This is divine. This is my dinner.

The nice part about being an adult is I can make really, really good eating decisions. Here is my favorite recipe for all the fruits, and it is enjoyable for breakfast, second breakfast, lunch, snacks, dinner, desserts, and fourth meals: Perfect Fruit Crisp.

Step 1: Gather your ingredients

Flour, brown sugar, lemon, spices, butter, oats, nuts, fruit, corn starch, a little salt) and preheat the oven to 425°F.

Step 2: Mix topping

For a two-person one-person serving, I usually do ¼ c flour, 2 tbsp brown sugar, 3 tbsp chopped nuts (I had slivered almonds on hand, no chopping needed!), a hearty dose of cinnamon (for fall fruits, nutmeg as well), a pinch of salt and mix well.

Melt about 3 Tbsp butter (not margarine, please!), and mix into the flour mix. A lot of crisps require you to “cut in” cold butter, but that is so much more work than I am willing to do.

 Once the butter is mixed, at it looks like soggy batter, stir in about ¼ to ½ cup of rolled oats. This is the key, to mix after the butter. The oats will clump up the whole mixture and you will get that crumbly, expected crisp topping. When I make this for CFO, I like to double the topping for him. For me, I like to double the fruit.

Step 3: Prep the fruit

You can use any fruit that bakes well. I have done this with apples, pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, cherries, strawberries, rhubarb, blueberries, blackberries, and any combination, but tonight, it’s all about the raspberries. I recommend about 1 cup of fruit per serving. For large fruits that require cutting, I recommend just chop and mix. I don’t bother with peeling if I don’t have to (extra fiber anyone?), but DO core and seed pomme fruits (apples and pears) and pit fruits (plums and peaches). 

You will need the juice of half of one lemon per serving, add about ½ tsp corn starch if using fresh fruit, 1 tsp corn starch if frozen, and if you want a little more sweetness, you can add 1 tsp sugar. That is optional and I won’t need it with these little ladies. Dissolve the cornstarch, and mix the berries with the lemon mixture.

Step 4: Assemble

Pour the berries into ramekins and top with oat crisp. You can also use a larger 8×8 baking dish, if you double or triple the recipe.

Step 5: Bake

Put into 425°F oven, and bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on if fresh fruit (less time) or frozen (more time).

Step 6: Enjoy

Ahhhh heavenly! One for dinner, and one for dessert. Topped with a scoop of ice cream or a hearty dollop of fresh whipped cream, this becomes a complete meal, nutritionally, and also vegetarian-friendly: fruit, nuts, oats, dairy, grain. All it is missing is the wine. Luckily, I have that in spades. Bon santé!

This is the look I get when I eat raspberries in front of her.

PERFECT FRUIT CRISP

Serves 2 (or 1, if you can get it alone)

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fruit, fresh or frozen
• juice of 1 lemon
• ½ tsp cornstarch (1 tsp if using frozen fruit)
• 1 tsp sugar, optional
• ¼ c flour
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar
• 3 Tbsp chopped nuts
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ tsp nutmeg
• Pinch of salt
• 3 Tbsp butter, melted
• ¼ c rolled oats

 Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 425°F
2. Mix flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg, salt and nuts in a small bowl. Add melted butter and mix until mixture is wet. Add oats until clumps form and it is incorporated. If needed, add more oats. Set aside.
3. Dissolve corn starch into lemon juice, add sugar if desired. Mix lemon juice into fruit to coat.
4. Divide fruit into 2 ramekins or individual baking dishes.
5. Set remekins on tray if desired, bake for 25 minutes (fresh fruit) to 35 minutes (frozen fruit).
6. Let cool for 10 minutes and serve.

Locavore, or Just Loca?

Tags

cost savings, diet, health, homemade, local foods, nutrition, sustainability

I often find myself in conversations talking about eating local, because I like the idea of my money supporting my economy. Sometimes I get those looks, you know the kind I am talking about. The kind of look that makes you feel like you just finished taping an episode of Portlandia…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8SjkDq2ZwI

Now don’t get me wrong, part of me does really care about Collin and how successful he feels his short life was, but let’s be honest, that is my own guilty feelings of conventional chicken farming projected onto my food. If Collin knew that 8 months from his birth he would be beheaded, plucked and boiled into Sunday dinner, I suspect his outlook on life would be grim regardless of how many cabbage worms he found in his 4 acre playground.

No, my version of being a “locavore” is less bleeding heart, and more fiscally responsible. Americans, it turns out, spend less on food than anywhere in the world. In the WORLD! According to a study from 2009, we spend on average 6% of our household expenditures on food. I suppose by comparison, CFO and I are out of bounds by spending about 15% of our expenditures on food. How dreadfully European of us. That, or we are ridiculously cheap in all other household expenditures. The odd part is, I am constantly battling our monthly food budget to see how I can lower it and cut waste. I think I do very well, for example, this week I spent $67.00 on groceries for two people and a rabbit child. That’s pretty damn good, even for American standards I think. So if we already spend less on food than anywhere in the world, why do I care about eating local? I will give you my top 5 reasons.

Local bounty crate at major chain grocery store. The farmer’s pictures are an added bonus.

Reason #1: Culinary Adventure

I love to cook. Love. To. Cook. I don’t know what I am doing in the kitchen half of the time, and have no actual training apart from experiencing home cooking as a child, but the appearance of food makes me giddy to an extent that CFO questions my normalcy. I shouldn’t even be allowed at farmer’s markets anymore because I get so overwhelmed by all the bright colors and produce choices that I get heart palpitations, need to breathe into a paper bag, and down a glass of orange juice so I can stay upright. And, my farmer’s market only has 12 vendors. My point is, when I try to stick to what is available locally, I get to try vegetables and fruits I may never have otherwise. Had I never purchased 2 lbs of tomatillos, I would never have experienced fresh salsa verde in the summer. And trust me, summer salsa verde, that’s the dream.

Reason #2: Smart Home Economics

I am lucky enough to live near food Paradise, an employee owned grocery chain that carries every possibly kind of food ever wanted needed or invented. Paradise also happens to have the best produce prices year round. Produce is a commodity item, which means the price fluctuates with the market, and why you see prices of green beans fall in the summer when there is high production and soar in the winter when they are shipped from Mexico, and then fall again when they get moldy sitting in those water spray bins. Many grocery chains are beginning to carry locally sourced produce in the summer to appease a demanding public, but if you are lucky to have your own Paradise, you may be able to find year-round local produce at rock bottom prices. For example, in February, celery root, parsnips, turnips, parsley root, and rutabagas are being stocked by the bin full and they make delightfully filling meals. And, at less than $1.00/lb for these, it’s a pretty cheap way to eat in the desolate months. Compare that to $3.99/lb for out-of-season asparagus. For me and CFO, not a tough call.

Reason #3: Local Economy Feeding

The Wikipedia definition of a locavore is one who only consumes food harvested within 100 miles from their home. That is fairly limiting, and I am not one to collect wild dandelion greens from the elementary school playground. But, I do make a point to purchase products that are grown and/or manufactured within Wisconsin and the mid-west when I am able and can afford to, because the money I pay goes back into my own local economy. More money to the producers, means more production, which means more jobs to fulfill the demand, and more people earning money to spend money. Yes, friends, this is how we can resuscitate a broken economy.

Reason #4: Diet Diversity

The sad reality is, commodity produce that we see at grocery stores are cultivars that have been specifically bred to withstand long transportation rides and bad conditions, and they are often harvested before they are ready, and artificially ripened during shipping. Think about all those green bananas from Argentina. The negative of this, is what we end up eating is a bland, nutritionally flat diet. You know who you are, if this sounds familiar: you eat a half chicken breast with 10 asparagus spears and a quarter cup of brown rice on Mondays. On Tuesdays you change it up with green beans and quinoa. The rest of the week is a similar remix. Sounds healthy, the problem is that it’s extremely limited on nutritional content. Yes, chicken breasts are good and yes, so are asparagus and green beans, but they do not have everything we need to sustain us. This is why so many doctors recommend multivitamins, because they know we don’t eat properly. By eating with the seasons, you are made to vary your diet because asparagus is not meant to grow in snow banks. By purchasing foods locally, you get the best seasonal produce available and the most nutritionally complete because it was harvested at its peak.

Reason #5: Self-Sufficiency

I want my food to be local and I don’t want to rely on horse pills to stay healthy. This, and home economics, is one of the big reasons why I grow vegetables and fruits. I also want to be able to feed myself, CFO and any future bambinos wholesome, good foods and not just corn, 175 ways. Many of the foods we now purchase from stores were once made exclusively at home by our mothers, or grandmothers, or great grandmothers, and we have lost some of those skills. I think if we care to, we can relearn them. I am not a housewife, I work full time, and travel every other week, and I have no time to do any of this because, you know, I have a very grueling Netflix watching schedule when I finally get home. It’s a struggle not to eat frozen pizza or take out some days. But I try to keep in perspective that I do these things for me and CFO. I know that I can make chicken stock, bread, fresh cheese and yogurt, ice cream and almond butter, and I can do it with less ingredients and less cost than anything I can purchase, even from my Paradise. This gives me more control in a world where we increasingly have less control. And that makes me feel good at the end of the day. No matter how many dishes are left to wash.

I encourage you all to go buy a locally grown rutabaga, and report back.

I only eat locally grown wheatgrass in my smoothies.

Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut, Sometimes You Feel Like Nut Butter

Tags

cost savings, homemade, nutrition

Last spring I was in the fortuitous position of having a completely available ready-to-plant 4 x 4 foot raised garden box in the front yard. CFO removed a rotted tree stump that had been cut down year’s prior. The box was supposed to be decorative. We had it, along with two other tree boxes and a retaining wall, rebuilt with stamped concrete retaining wall blocks the previous fall. But let’s just stop pretending: the most “decorative” I get with landscaping is buying daffodil bulbs. Those bulbs are still in the garage in a paper sack two years later (but I swear this spring is the season!).

So, of course I knew that I would be planting something edible and hopefully delicious. For the longest time I planned on planting an American hazelnut tree. I was so on-board with this, I imagined hazelnut tortes and hazelnut-cherry crisps and hazelnut butter and the most amazing hazelnut cake that was served to CFO and I for breakfast in Italy on our honeymoon. Breakfast cake is the most underappreciated and underutilized kind of breakfast. It should be a Sunday requirement.

Well, long story short, my hazelnut tree never transpired after a very terse but eye-opening comment from CFO: “what about the squirrel?” Crushing, deflating, devastating realization…what ABOUT the squirrel? The squirrel, our only squirrel, would find my hazelnut tree and devour every hazelnut he can stuff into his cheeks, invite friends over for a summer barbeque, meet a lady squirrel from across the street, fall in love, get married, move in across from the hazelnut tree, start a family, the kids grow up and head to squirrel college to learn to be hazelnut collectors, and the cycle would continue. The life of my hazelnut tree was already over before it began. I planted 16 asparagus crowns instead and now my hazelnuts are exclusively purchased.

On the subject of nuts, CFO is somewhat of a nut enthusiast. In fact, he eats almonds daily. He claims it’s for health benefits, in the same way I make the claim for drinking wine. I think we both have a point. I started making almond butter on a whim because CFO loves it on toast and it looked easy. As it turns out, it is. I have not gone back to buying conventional almond butter since, and CFO is one happy breakfaster in the mornings. One of the benefits of making your own is that you don’t have to break two wooden spoons trying to stir the oil back into the solids, because you put it straight away into the fridge to keep it from separating.

Thinking back to my hazelnut obsession, I thought, what about hazelnut butter? I mean, if Nutella has taught us anything, it’s that hazelnuts SHOULD be in butter form. Am I right?, or am I right? The funny thing is, you can’t exactly buy a jar of hazelnut butter off the grocery store shelf. At least, not the kind of hazelnut butter that I choose to bring home to the family. Nutella is the kind of nut butter spread that you can have a wild night out on the town and make exciting mistakes with, but its full of hydrogenated oil and added sugar and there just isn’t a future there. I need a nut butter that is pure: no added oils or sugars or salt, as much as possible. That’s the kind of nut butter you can introduce to the parents, and form a lasting stable relationship. The best price for unadulterated hazelnut butter I could find on amazon.com was $13.99 for a 16 oz. jar, plus shipping. At that price, I think I will stick to danger and questionable decision-making of processed spreads. Fortunately, my local food Paradise (aka massive employee-owned grocery store), has hazelnuts for $3.79 for 8 oz, or $7.58 per 16 oz. At that price, I think we have a winner.

For this recipe, you must must must have a large food processor. A blender will not work, and even with your food processor the motor will be working hard.

Dump the 16 oz of nuts into the bowl, fitted with a blade attachment. I happen to like the taste of raw nuts, but feel free to toast the nuts first in dry frying pan on the stovetop on low-medium heat or in the oven at 350°F for 10 minutes until browed. I recommend this step if you want to peel the nuts first (completely optional).

Begin by running the motor to grind the nuts into a fine powder.

Nope, don’t stop there.

Continue to grind until the nuts begin to clump. At this point we are almost 20 minutes in. But we are not done.

When the motor starts to whine (literally, mine whines), stop and break up the clumps. Keep going!

Now the bowl is really heating up. I mean it. It will start to feel hot to touch. Remove the vent and let some heat escape, but we aren’t done yet.

Now we are 40 minutes into the process. As you can see, the paste is showing some oil. Nut butter is a kind of colloidal suspension, and what we are going for is for the solid nut meat to be suspended in the nut oil. So with that in mind, keep that motor moving!

Hey look at that! Are we done? Nooo! Keep going, pay attention to the anger and heat from your food processor and give it a break when it needs it.

Finally, after about an hour, you will see a glossy, light concoction. Give it a taste, you should detect almost no gritty texture, but a smooth, buttery, distinctively hazelnutty flavor.

A-maz-ing and no hazelnut tree required! Just pour into a 16 oz glass jar, cap, and place into the fridge. Hazelnuts are mostly monounsaturated fats and so the butter will not solidify in the fridge like peanut butter and cashew butter, and will be immensely spreadable and it will not separate as long as you keep it in the cold.

For those of you with less exotic taste buds, almond butter (or peanut or any nut butter) is made in the same manner with significant cost savings. Non-oil or sugar-added almond butter can be purchased from the local Paradise for $10.29 for 16 oz. and the same amount of raw almonds can be purchased for $5.89. I think you get my point.

There is nothing about nut butter that interests me.

NUT BUTTER

Ingredients:

• 16 oz nuts of choice

Directions:

1. Put nuts into blade-fitted food processor
2. Process to fine grind
3. Keep processing, stopping to scrape bowl when nut paste clumps, continuing for 45- 60 minutes until oil surfaces and mixture resembles peanut butter consistency
4. Pour or scrape into glass jar, keep in refrigerator

You Stock Questions? I Stock Answers.

Tags

cost savings, nutrition, recipes, vegetables, winter

It is mid-January, and this is a garden blog. Lately I have been asking myself, who starts a garden blog in January!? When the earth surrounding you looks like the dark days of Narnia, there is not a whole lot to sow and grow. What is even in season in January, you ask? If you’re lucky enough to have a root cellar, maybe you have storage potatoes, turnips and rutabagas ready for cooking, or if you left a few carrots in the garden and you’re happy digging up the frozen tundra, I guess that’s seasonal. Up north, our much more tropical distant states graciously send oranges, pineapple and pomegranates to the arctic markets, but really, the only produce that is “in season” in southeast Wisconsin are what was frozen at the end of last summer. And at this point, all that’s left in my freezer is raspberries, blackberries, peas and a vast assortment of herbs. So what is a seasonal-minded home cook to do come January? First off, she is to calm down and buy some damn groceries. Second, she is to take advantage of the cold and make some rich, warm, silky chicken/turkey/beef/any-tasty-meat soup stock to fill with beans, grains, and root vegetables from the pantry. January is, after all, soup season. Now, I am not at food-hoarder level, but I am pretty much a certifiable food extreme cheapskate. While I do not (yet) collect scarps left on diner’s plates at restaurants, the more food I am not throwing away, the less I am paying at the grocery store to replace it. Of course, part of this is that I despise food waste. Food waste is kind of like a slap in the face of everyone that has ever gone a day without food. Additionally, most of our processed foods have chemical preservatives so they don’t readily break down in our landfills. Financially, food waste is a bummer. Ecologically, food waste is a super bummer. Vegetable gardening has not only improved the quality of my dinner table deliverables, but has expanded my view on food and food use. What does any of this have to do with soup? I give you The Ultimate Cheapskate (and delicious!) Chicken Stock. This is so simple and can cost almost no moolah if you make a few adjustments to your routine food preparation STEP 1: Gather your Equipment That’s it. Right there. A large pot. If you have a stockpot, even better. But I don’t and I make it work, albeit with some manhandling. STEP 2: Collect your Ingredients What is that bag of green stuff? That is two weeks worth of vegetable scraps that would otherwise be destined for the trash bin. This is KEY #1 to The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock. During the summer, most of my vegetable scraps go into Jessica’s dinner bowl or the compost bin, but by the winter, the compost is full and very slowly breaking down so I can’t dump the scraps as often as I need, so I simply keep a bag in the freezer and throw in anything that I think would flavor a stock. I usually stick to aromatics in the onion family, fresh herbs, dark greens, and roots like carrots, parsnips, turnips, etc. I avoid potatoes, which will add too much starch, and anything too flavorful like tomatoes, which can overpower the flavor. But, its really chef’s choice and every stock batch I make has a different profile. Its part of the fun! Let’s see, in the mystery freezer bag I have some leeks, ginger peel, green onion, fennel stalk, Swiss chard stems, and spinach. These are the parts that I didn’t use for fresh cooking, or got a little old or wilted in the fridge. Just pop them into the freezer bag. Nothing to waste. This might add 30 seconds on to each meal you prepare. Assuming you prepare on average 1 meal a day with fresh produce, over the course of a year that is 3 hours additional work. The pot I use is a 6-quart capacity. For that size, I will throw in about 3-4 handfuls, give or take, of veggies from the bag. Now, pay attention! These measurements are crucial and precision is key to successful stock. I could only use my mystery bag to flavor the stock, but there are some staples that I always have on hand and I like to throw into the pot. Carrot, celery and garlic make great stock and add some goodness as well. I chop one carrot, one rib of celery, and as much garlic as I want. You will see I don’t bother peeling the carrot. It’s all good stuff, just wash or scrub any scary dirt you see. When you peel carrots for food preparation, in fact, you can save the peels and throw them into the mystery freezer bag. No waste! For the garlic, peel and smash the cloves. I don’t bother chopping. The flavor will release in the pot. Add it all to the pot. Already I am getting hungry. If I were making vegetable stock, I would add way more vegetables. But I am making The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock. Now I will tell you about KEY #2: the chicken. If that looks like a frozen chicken carcass, you would be correct! Just like my waste vegetables, I save the shells of the animals I consume. My freezer looks like it belongs at a Hannibal Lector dinner party. I don’t compost meat because 1) it attracts raccoons and coyotes, and 2) its illegal in my city. So what we don’t eat, I freeze. This primarily consists of bones and organ meats. For example, Thanksgiving turkeys, rotisserie chickens, ham bones, beef bones, and bones of any non-human food animal (my freezer would not actually be useful at a Hannibal Lector dinner party). This also may add an additional 30 seconds to your meal cleanup. On average I collect the bones of my enemies…er…dinner once a month. That is 6 minutes over a year. Wow. The time commitment is really adding up. STEP #4: Fill the Pot with Water STEP #5: Bring to Boil, Cover, Simmer Now just fill that bad boy up with water, feel free to grind in some pepper, or other dried herbs you wish, bring to boiling, pop on a lid and set to low and simmer simmer simmer as long as you want. I recommend at least 6 hours for the flavoring components to thaw and for the good stuff to be pulled into the water. If you are fortunate enough to be at home during the day, or work at home, like me, you can start this in the morning, forget about it entirely, and emerge from work 10 hours later and the entire house smells like chicken noodle soup. My mouth is watering. For the majority of you who may have to leave your house everyday, this might be a weekend project, or you can do everything in a slow cooker on low. The total prep to get the pot going takes about 10 minutes. 10 minutes!!! I make stock about once a month in the winter, which where I live is 6 months, so that’s a total of 1 hour over a year’s time. Okay so I have a pot full of stock, chicken and vegetables, now what? Now, I must be honest. This next part is the most labor intensive of the entire process. You have a few options here to strain the solids from the liquid. My preferred method is to use a large measuring bowl and cheesecloth. STEP #6: Strain Stock I use a 12-cup measuring bowl with a pour spout, and cheesecloth that is approximately $1.50 for two yards at the grocery store and it lasts me the entire year. Just spread a cut piece of cheesecloth over the bowl, and verrrrryyy sllloowwwly pour the finished stock over the cheesecloth. If you pour too fast, the cheesecloth will collapse and won’t strain well. Next, just gather the edges of the cheesecloth to bundle the solids and remove. You can use a strainer to remove any large pieces that were missed. I mean look at that color! You will notice that the Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious!) Chicken Stock is deeper in color and more opaque than it’s commercially prepared fancy cousins. That is due to the inconsistency and variety of flavoring components. Also, did I mention that this version is completely fat-free? No? That’s because it is not. It is not even close to being fat-free, which is why you will see it is so. damn. tasty. The chicken fat, proteins collagen and gelatin, and bone minerals all melt into the liquid with the leached vitamins and minerals from the vegetables. Smooth. Silky. Flavorful. Full of goodness. You will see. STEP #7: Cool Stock Once the liquid is separated, it will be hot. You can let it rest at room temperature for an hour (at most two), and then just cover with plastic wrap, make a few slits to vent, and pop into your fridge. Your best bet is to cool it in a place with lots of air circulation. My fridge is perpetually empty because we eat everything that’s in there, so I always have room. You want to bring the temperature down to at least 100°F, or warm to touch, but not hot. The bowl should be cool. While it’s chilling out, take some time to prepare your freezer bags. This is KEY #3: Freeze the Stock. I do this with a bottle of wine. That’s not a requirement, per se, but…isn’t it? I use 1-quart freezer bags because they can easily hold 2 cups of liquid. For 12 cups of stock, that would be 6 bags. I label the bags with the name of the innards “chix stock,” the amount “2 c.,” and date it was made. This allows me to keep a first-in, first-out inventory in the freezer. But why can’t I just keep it all in the fridge? Because this is pure stuff and even with all that boiling, bacteria, yeast and mold that live in your kitchen (yes, they do) have instantly taken up residence in the stock. See, there are many benefits that preservatives provide. Increased shelf life is assuredly one of them. I have found that the stock stored in the fridge will stay fresh tasting for about 4-5 days at best. It could go longer, but you want to ensure you are re-cooking it (boiling) with all subsequent use. If you are planning to use it in the next few days, by all means don’t bother freezing. In fact, I usually keep 2 cups in the fridge to get me through the next few days. STEP #8: Freeze Stock Take your cooled stock out of the fridge. You may see a layer of oil collected at the top. If you cooled it long enough, you may see a hard layer solidify. You can scrape that of (if hardened) to remove some of the fat, or use a fat separating measuring cup. This style of measuring cup works because it is plugged at the spout and the spout feeds from the bottom of the cup. Pour 2 cups of stock into the measuring cup with the spout plugged, and then pour it off slowly into the bag (with the spout unplugged of course), stopping when the oil layer reaches the base of the spout. Carefully seal up the bags, pushing out as much air as you can without spilling. You will notice that if you lay the bags flat, they self-level as all liquids do. I like to lay the bags flat on a large tray, and pop the tray right into the freezer and let freeze overnight. This makes flat, easy to store, 2-cup chicken stock blocks. Now, you don’t have to use the freezer-bag method. Any freezer container would work. I highly recommend adapting to what best suits you and your stock usage requirements. So the last step takes the most time commitment. I would say, it’s a good 30-minute active process to prep the bags, pour and freeze. That amounts to an additional 3 hours annually, keeping with my 6-month stock-making schedule. So, how much time are we talking? Well let’s do the math:

• 3 hours to collect vegetable scraps
• 6 minutes to save meat and poultry bones
• 1 hour to prepare the stock
• 3 hours to freeze the stock

This brings us to a grand total time commitment of 7 hours and 6 minutes. That’s quite a lot, if it were in one day. But this is over the course of ONE YEAR. One year, friends. That sounds all well and good, but how much is this going to cost me? Oh I am sooo glad you asked! CFO talks about time-equity a lot and it usually goes something like, “blah blah blah, time, blah, blah, blah, money, blah blah blah, equity” and ends with him telling me that we cannot get a chicken coop. I think the point he is trying to make is that before I decide to take on a major project, I should assess the real value of the work involved. So here is my financial assessment of home stock making, per 12 cups (96 oz):

• Scrap Vegetable cost: $0      Saved from the trash bin
• Chicken bones: $0      Saved from the trash bin
• 1 Carrot, 1 celery, 5 garlic: $0.12      Estimate based on full purchase price
• Freezer bags: $0.67      Six bags at $0.11
• Water and electricity: $1.00      I completely made this up
• Gadgets and utensils: $0      Assumed these are owned (pot, tray, bowl, etc)
• Labor: $0      I determined that labor is negligible, because it actually takes me longer to grocery shop for said chicken stock.

TOTAL COST:   $1.79 Now compare this to commercially prepared chicken stock. I used Target.com to estimate the purchase price of two popular brands:

• Kitchen Basics Unsalted            $2.54 for 32 oz.
• Swanson Stock Unsalted            $2.69 for 26 oz.

To purchase 96 oz, it would take 3 containers of Kitchen Basics ($7.62) and 4 containers of Swanson’s ($10.76). My homemade version is 20-25% of the cost!! Additionally, using the estimate of 6 lots of homemade stock a year, that is an overall savings of $35.00-$54.00 annually. I like that, and at least now I can provide numbers to CFO when he asks why I have to fill our freezer with bagged bird carcasses. I don’t use that much chicken stock so this all seems pointless. Hey, to each his own. I actually use stock all the time. The possibilities are endless:

• Base for soups, stews, chilis as expected, either full strength or diluted to make broth
• Mix with cornstarch to thicken sauces with more flavor
• Deglaze a pan
• Replaces water when cooking grains (rice, bulghur, faro, quinoa, etc.)
• Dilute with water and use to steam vegetables
• Reheat until hot, drink during a cold/flu for vitamin-packed punch
• Poach fish and shellfish
• Use to make gravy and sauces for meat
• The best damn risotto you ever had

I use stock to replace water in most savory applications. Try it out, and you too will be hooked.

No Jessica! I need the carrot for the chicken stock!

RECIPE: The Ultimate Cheapskate (and Delicious) Chicken Stock Makes 12 cups Total active time: 40 minutes Total time: 7-10 hours Ingredients:

• 3-4 cups mixed vegetable scraps, roughly chopped (onions, leeks, dark leafy greens, etc)
• 1 carrot, roughly chopped
• 1 celery rib, roughly chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, smashed
• Bones and cartilage from 1 whole chicken
• 13 cups water
• 1 tsp ground pepper (optional)

Directions Add all ingredients to pot, cook on med-high to bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 6 hours. Remove from heat and strain to remove solids. Cool to below 100°F in refrigerator. Pour stock into freezer containers of choice and freeze until solid. Storage Frozen stock will taste best if used within 6 months, but can be stored frozen indefinitely. For stock stored in the refrigerator, use within 5 days.

Safety Testing Conducted on Rabbit

Tags

diet, health, nutrition, rabbit, vegetables, whole food

I had an “AH HA!” moment yesterday. It was one of those ah-ha moments where a lesson is reiterated, not learned, but reiterated and reinforced in that slap-in-the-face way. It all started 7.5 years ago on a farm in Sun Prairie, WI. The day was cool, crisp and I was lonely in my Madison studio apartment, and needed some companionship. Companionship of the fury, but silent kind [cue excuse to show adorable baby bunny photo].

Ooooohhhhhh look at that cute bundle of fur-baby! Jessica at 3 months old.

Ok ok ok…I’ll get to the story. Ms. Jessica Rabbit was adopted from that farm at 3 months old, and is now 7.5 year old. I have had her since she could fit into the palm of my hand. Now she fits into both of my hands, with some spillage. As a poor graduate student, I fed her foods that I could afford: carrots, parsley, and green beans. Turns out, that is rabbit gourmet. Her entire life she has eaten vegetables and hay, hay and vegetables, and not much else. Every once in a while I would run out of real food, and would give her pellets, to which she would ferociously inhale like it was her last meal and then literally throw her food bowl in disgust, and refuse to eat pellets for a good week. That is kind of how I feel after a McDonald’s value meal, when they used to Super Size it for $0.35 more.

Now that Jessica is, ahem, older she needs to see a doctor (vet) every year. And by needs to, I mean they won’t let me board her at the clinic when CFO and I travel if she doesn’t. So last night, I brought her around for her annual physical exam and she, as always, was a sassy feisty trooper. She takes after her mama. After many questions regarding her lifestyle, exercise, diet, sex life (she will live in a cage until she is 25 just like my future children), the vet came to this conclusion: she is the healthiest rabbit the clinic has ever seen. Did you get that?…EVER SEEN. I image that is among hundreds of rabbits…well…ok…at least 15. But still, that’s healthier than the young, spry rabbits. I was actually surprised because I am fairly ignorant of what ills may befall well aged rabbits. Turns out, according to the good doctor, rabbits age much like humans, and acquire a lot of old-age related health problems. The doctor’s conclusion was that a lifetime of fresh vegetables and minimal processed foods has kept Jessica’s health in peak shape. She even maintained a solid 4 lb healthy weight since her last check up a year ago, no gain or loss. I can’t  even maintain the same weight from one week to the next. Amazing, Jessica, amazing.

So here is some math, friends. The average female lifespan in the US is 81 years old. The average female rabbit lifespan in the US is 10 years old. That means that there are approximately 8 rabbit years for every human year, and Jessica is roughly 60 years old. I must say, she has barely aged a day. She takes after her mama in this as well. This is her diet:

• Carrots and tops
• Parsley
• Cilantro
• Green beans
• Basil
• Mint
• Radish tops
• Raspberries leaves
• Blackberries  leaves
• Broccoli
• Leafy greens
• Pea pods
• Corn husks
• Cherries, Apples, Pears, Berries (in moderation)
• And any number of fresh vegetables that I happen to have

This 60-year old rabbit model shows perfect health, which is considered

Long day of work. After this is over, another nap.

abnormal for her age, due solely to a diet of whole, minimally processed foods (trust me, she’s not bending over backwards to exercise). If we, humans, did the same, can you even imagine what 60 would be like?

The doctor used this metaphor: imagine a 20-year-old man eats nothing but wholesome, unprocessed foods, and another otherwise equivalent, 20-year-old man eats nothing but fast food low-nutrient garbage. At 20 years old, they will probably look the same and feel the same. But, fast forward 40 years, you can image the toll those diets will take? I mean…mind blown. Am I right? Ok, maybe not so shocking, but to see the effects of a long-term good diet in my sweet baby really opened my eyes to the actual, tangible effects of food on health. This is one of the major reasons I choose to grow my own. That, and it makes me feel god-like in my ability to both create and destroy life as I wish.

The Food Bible. Part encyclopedia, part cook book.

My favorite health-food reference is the nutrient tome, The World’s Healthiest Foods from George Mateljan. I got this in college when I first started becoming a whole-foods fan. It spoke to my special brand of scientific presentation and cheapness. It is literally the size of a college textbook at 880 pages, but 1/75 the cost. All of the content of this book is found for free at the non-profit website, www.whfoods.com. It has a plethora of information regarding nutrient content, cooking technique, recipes, selecting and storage, and Q&A about the foods. It’s not just vegetables and fruits, but also meats, dairy, seafood, nuts, seeds, grains, beans, etc. My one complaint is that they include “raisins” on the list and simultaneously ignore my letters and emails about the danger this poses. I am serious. If this keeps on, we run the risk of raisins masquerading as food when we all know they are poison.

I have used this reference primarily to decide what foods would benefit me and CFO nutritionally, and thus can plan a wholesome, nutritionally balanced garden and kitchen to achieve a healthy diet. Each food has a breakdown of nutrients by content, so you can easily find the best foods for, say, fighting a cold, or fighting the disease of turning 30. Whatever you need, there is a whole food for you, nutrients, and a complete reference list.

I know this post doesn’t cover too much gardening, but seriously folks, its -30 deg F windchill outside. Nothing is growing anytime soon. Stay warm and eat tasty vegetables every day, and lets come back to this in 40 years.

Don’t forget about healthy beverages. Eight cups of fluid a day.