Down with Kraft Dinner!!

Teaching myself to lift heavy stuff without dieing

2009-03-09T14:15:00.000-07:00

I'm basically brand-new to this weight lifting thing. I'd love to have a good trainer or coach helping me with this (and would REALLY love someday to find some regular CrossFit classes to attend, even though they scare me).

But I'm cash-poor at the moment - I can't really afford my reduced-fee Y membership and regular personal training also.

What I do have are:

common sense
a pretty good layman's understanding of anatomy
a wealth of information at my fingertips
the time to sift through that information

So, I've decided to stop hemming and hawing (and spending endless hours on the treadmill), and start 1) lifting with purpose and determination 2) challenging myself via interval training. I won't say that my plans are 100% solid, but they're beginning to coalesce.

I really want to keep things simple and functional as possible. This means doing challenging compound movements like squats and push-ups. Yeah, push-ups are challenging for me. I've never called on my upper body to do much hard work before. But I'm ready to start.

Today I'm sitting and feeling sore (the good kind) from yesterday's lifting. Tomorrow I'm going to do the same thing. I'm excited to get my tendons and ligaments primed, so that I can really start challenging myself in terms of weight.

Food and emotions

2009-03-07T08:23:00.000-08:00

I fell back into my previous way of eating for a few days, although I am back on track now. It's clear to me that my relationship with food is a little more emotional than it should be.

I have been reading up on emotional eating, and a lot of the advice advocates re-thinking food as a fuel rather than a friend. This is valid in a way, but not something that I really want to embrace. The thing is, I believe that food IS more than fuel. It's a sacred thing. I don't want to treat it like gasoline or electricity.

What I'd prefer is to focus on building positive emotional relationships with healthier foods (and to break up with ice cream!). To be honest, this is a lot easier in spring and summer when fresh, high-quality produce is abundant. I don't want to make too many excuses, but let's just say that I'm excited that winter is almost over.

A full week, and then...

2009-03-01T16:25:00.000-08:00

...I fell off the wagon. Chocolate, and chocolate ice cream. And unfortunately, I was not moderate about it.

In retrospect, I was playing with fire prior to this - binging on dairy more than I wanted to, eating out of boredom and not hunger.

I am back on track today. A little annoyed with myself, but not devastated. Given how attached I've been to sweet stuff, and given my unfamiliarity with willpower and food choices...this wasn't surprising. It was an instructive slip-up; I didn't feel very good yesterday or today. Today I ate well and exercised well, and I feel great.

So, here's what I've gleaned so far:

I can't have sweet foods in the house and expect not to eat them (for now).
Neither can I go to the grocery store in the evenings after work and expect not to pick up something undesirable and/or unhealthy (for now).
I get the bored munchies on days when I'm not physically active.
The bored munchies are a sign that I 1) need to get off the computer or 2) eat some more of the nutritious food I made for dinner.

Getting creative with breakfasts already. That hasn't been as difficult as I thought, but I am not rigid in my definition of breakfast food.

I've found that the amount of money I've been spending on food has increased a little bit. Not too terribly much, but I don't have the resources or space to be able to buy meat in bulk as I'd like to (one day I'll have a chest freezer!), so I spend more. I did pick up a used Crock Pot for $10 today! That should go quite a ways in allowing me to purchase cheaper cuts of meat.

Today is Day 5! and, Physical Activity

2009-02-24T08:28:00.001-08:00

Today is Day 5 of eating Primal . So far so good! I have been keeping track of my intake in FitDay just to make sure I get balanced nutrition and to ensure I stay honest regarding starchy tubers and fruit (I'm allowing myself to eat these things - just not going overboard). There are a couple of things that are kind of surprising to me:

I'm basically staying under 150 g. of carbs per day without even trying very hard. I'm sort of trying - I mean, I check the carb-protein-fat balance and am aware of it, so I'm trying a little. But it's just kind of happening. Neat!
I'm staying around or under 1500 calories daily, again, without really trying. In fact, it's kind of a challenge to eat MORE calories without eating butter straight or eating a ton of cheese or etc. I think this is because...
I'm not that hungry! I mean, I get hungry when it's time to eat, but I don't get that feeling of "oh, I could eat all night" that I usually get.
A huge portion of my calories are coming from fat (like, 50%). This doesn't really bother me - I like fat and I'm not afraid of it. But I guess some of the low-fat indoctrination crap has wormed its way into my psyche, 'cause that seems like a lot.

I'm pleased with how this is going. Not missing carby stuff itself much - just kind of missing the role it plays against proteins and such- sopping up juices and egg yolks mainly. But...seeing as I live alone, there's nothing to stop me from just licking the plate. :) Not a bad solution.

Anyhoo. Enough of that. Physical activity! I'm not brand-new to it, but I am kind of a newbie at deliberately planning my exercise. Right now, I'm just focusing on getting to the gym, getting moving, and challenging my muscles a bit. I'm doing cardio every day because it makes me feel good mood-wise, but nothing excessive - 30 min. daily, maximum. As for lifting heavy stuff, I've never done it before and I'm doing this alone - so I'm being cautious and starting small/unweighted. I've also had rotator cuff issues in the past, so rather than jumping into major upper body work, I'm working on posture and stabilizing the shoulder first.

So the physical activity I'm doing is not supa-primal yet, but it's a start. At least I am moving around again! I'm going to keep cautiously experimenting and see how my body responds.

Resurrection! and eating with new purpose

2009-02-21T11:49:00.001-08:00

Well, after over 2 years of dormancy, it's time to re-open this blog, albeit with a different focus. Strangely enough, the title still applies nicely!

I've decided to start blogging here on my experiments with primal/paleo eating and living. There a crapload of variations on this theme out there, and I've been reading up on them for over a year. The more I read and experience, the more primal/paleo eating and living makes sense to me.

One of the reasons I'm going to try it is that this way of eating is said to reduce systemic inflammation in the body. I have a couple of minor autoimmune issues that I've had all my life, and that haven't really responded to anything permanently. I want to see if primal living can help to address them. Also - I've done a few short-term experiments with cutting out sugar and high-carbohydrate foods. What I've found is that I feel better when I don't eat a ton of carbs. Better energy, no feelings of hypoglycemia, etc.

I also recently came to realize that I'm not getting any younger, have chosen a career with a lot of sedentary time built in, and am not magically going to get in shape by thinking about it. Basically, I need to be more proactive about taking care of myself, and I'd like to choose a plan that I can stick to indefinitely.

Enough introduction for now; I'll have a lot more to say later. The short version is that I've taken the plunge and am going to try and eat "primally" for the next 30 days. As I said, there are a lot of interpretations of this out there. For me, for now, this means:

no sugar (or honey or other sweeteners!)
no grains
no legumes
limited amounts of fruit and starchy vegetables
limited amounts of dairy etc.
meat, eggs, poultry, fish, LOTS of vegetables!, nuts, seeds, etc.

I'm still going to be concerned with finances, of course. Cutting out beans and rice and pasta makes this more challenging! However, I'm confident that with good planning, I can eat this way and still remain frugal.

In addition to this, I just joined the local Y (YAY!) and am going to start working on 1) training for a 5K and 2) developing some greater strength overall.

I began my eating plan yesterday. So far so good (even after standing next to a cartload of fresh-baked bread for several minutes at the Co-op this morning!).

Borscht, borscht, borscht, borscht...BORSCHT.

2006-10-29T10:29:00.000-08:00

What a fun word to type.

I don't ever remember having borscht as a kid - I guess because my family is from the German-Swiss Mennonite contingent 'stead of the Russian Mennonite contingent. Thank heavens I've discovered it now. But...what IS it?

There are many answers to this question. I asked the intrepid eGulleteers about this very dish 1 year ago when I was overrun with garden beets. They chimed in with many a recipe, and what amazed me then and now is the sheer number borscht variations that exist. Chunky, not-chunky, hot, cold, sweet, sweet 'n sour, sour, with potatoes, without potatoes, with lemon juice, with vinegar, with or without meat (which could be beef or chicken)...you get the idea. I used to think that beets were the unifying factor, until I was served a soup called "borscht" at the Breadbasket in Newton, KS that had...no beets at all.

So, I guess borscht is whatever you call borscht. But it probably has beets. At least, in my opinion, it should.

I found a really great recipe for a Ukranian-style borscht on, of all places, a website dedicated to New Orleans and Cajun cuisine and culture (I found it by Googling "chicken borscht"; it was the very first result). The recipe is actually the lyrics to a song by Peter Ostroushko, a musician I grew up listening to on A Prairie Home Companion. It's kind of a neat way to communicate a recipe, and it works 'cause borscht is one of those dishes that doesn't require careful measuring - just some chopping and whatever you've got.

I halved the original recipe, and that was PLENTY. Half the recipe, in my estimation, would feed 8 to 10 people really well - but it's worth making the whole thing if you REALLY like borscht or have a big crowd to feed (see the recipe link for a full-size batch). Also, from what I can tell, this freezes really well - I have about 4 pints of it sitting in the freezer to feed the next borscht-craving. It's really a heart-warming recipe - it sticks with you, and it just makes me feel good all over. Must be all those anthocyanidins.

Borscht a la Ostroushko (with modifications)
adapted from "B-O-R-S-C-H-T" by Peter Ostroushko

1.5-2 lbs. chicken parts w/ skin and bones (I used thighs 'cause I prefer dark meat)
Several large springs parsley
1 bay leaf
pepper
salt
1 onion
3 cloves garlic
1 14 oz. can tomatoes (or 2 c. fresh tomatoes)
1/2 T. dried dill
2 large beets
2 large potatoes
3 to 5 carrots
1/2 head cabbage (or 1-2 c. raw saurkraut if you like a more tart borscht)
sour cream (optional)
lemon juice or vinegar (optional)

1. Put the chicken in a large pot, and add 2 qt. water. Add the parsley, the bay leaf, about 1/2 t. salt, and a generous grinding of pepper.

2. Heat the water to a boil, then turn down to a simmer and let the meat cook about 45 min.

3. While the chicken is cooking, chop up the onion and the garlic, and saute them in olive oil or butter until brownish and clear.

4. Fish out the chicken, and put it on a plate in the fridge to cool. Also fish out the parsley springs. Put the browned onions and garlic into the pot, along with the tomatoes and their juice and the dill. Bring to a simmer again, and cook about 10 min.

5. While this is cooking, scrub the beets and chop them into big chunks, whatever size you like (no need to peel). Put them into the soup pot, and cook for about another 10 min.

6. While the beets are cooking, scrub and chop the potatoes and carrots into similar-sized chunks. Once the beets have been cooking 10 to 15 min., add the carrots and potatoes to the soup and cook for another 15.

7. While all the other vegetables are cooking, shred the cabbage, and add it to the soup. If you are using saurkraut, I would wait until the rest of the vegetables are tender, and then add it (along with any saurkraut juice). NOTE ON THE SAURKRAUT: I used some raw homemade saurkraut that was lying around. I would not try it with the canned or cooked stuff, as the texture is different, but maybe you like that kind of thing.

8. Once all the vegetables are cooked, take the chicken out of the fridge. Take off the skin and throw away the bones. Shred or chop up the meat, and add it to the soup. Don't cook it too much more (it's already cooked); just heat it up.

9. Taste, and add salt and pepper if it needs it. If you are not using saurkraut, you might want to try adding a few tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice (I like a little acid in my borscht). Or you might not; borscht is a very individual thing. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, alongside rye or pumpernickel bread with butter.

Serves: a small crowd! (probably 8-10 people)

Sausages and Grapes

2006-10-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Like Molly at Orangette, I must confess an inordinate and undying love of sausages. Perhaps it's my Mennonite heritage (we're famous for it, among other things); perhaps it's a Freudian thing (how embarassing). But whatever the cause, I love sausages, brown and crisp and bursting with juicy fatty goodness. Thank goodness I've never seen them being made (you all know that old axiom), but I doubt that even THAT spectacle could dissuade me from my sausage-loving. I will eat them in any form; on pizza, with sauerkraut, on a roll, in pasta, in slices, right from the fridge (assuming they're cooked) - I've yet to meet a sausage I didn't like (and my roommate tells me that even blood sausage [eep!] might be worth checking out).

We all know how well pork goes with fruit. The traditional accompaniment is apples, of course, or applesauce - but I've seen recipes for pork with peaches and pork with apricots, too. Something about the pig makes it particularly amenable to fruity sweetness. Well, it turns out that pork (at least, pork sausage) goes really well with grapes, too. I have made this recipe a few times, and it never fails to disappoint. It's wonderful with a side of mashed potatoes and some vinegary cooked greens. On top of that, it's dead easy.

Sausages and Grapes

adapted from Orangette, Matthew Amster-Burton, and Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything

2 hot sweet Italian sausages
1 T. olive oil
1/2 lb. grapes (more or less)
2 T. balsamic vinegar [optional]

1. Heat the oven to 475 degrees (or thereabouts).
2. Brown the sausages well on the stove for a few minutes.
3. Clean the grapes.
4. Put the olive oil in a square glass baking pan.
5. Toss the grapes with the olive oil.
6. Stick in the browned sausages.
7. Cook for 25 min., turning the sausages about halfway through.

This is where I stop, because I've found that I love the flavor of the roasted grapes, and I don't feel the need to go any further (additionally, I hate to dirty extra pans unnecessarily). But if you like, you can keep the sausages warm and put the grapes and vinegar in a saucepan. Cook at a lowish heat until the mixture gets syrupy or until it tastes right to you.

Serves 2

A year-long hiatus, and Ethiopian Lentil Bowl.

2006-10-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

I won't get into the reasons for my long break - suffice it to say, I've been busy! I'm now in graduate school, on my way to getting an MLIS degree and surviving on student loan funds. So far, I'm enjoying myself. I'd like to get back to publishing here on a regular basis, as well as keeping my librarian blog up to date. Please check it out if you have any interest or curiosity in my real-life adventures these days.

With that short re-introduction, I'd like to present you with a recipe that I just tested recently. It's from Simply in Season, the newest in a trio of cookbooks from Mennonite Herald Press. I've only owned the book for a few months (bought myself and my friend a copy from Bethel College's Kaufman Museum on my way through Kansas to New York), but so far, it's served me well. My only complaint is that the plastic binding is not nearly as satisfying as the metal version on the old More-with-Less cookbook.

However, the book's organization is attractive and inviting, and I've enjoyed every Simply in Season recipe I've tried so far. Including this one. It's described in the book as "not quite a soup, not quite a dahl", and I think that's right on the money. When I made it according to the recipe, it came out quite thick, but there's no reason it couldn't be thinned down a bit, if you want a soup. Alternately, you can make it as-is and serve with cooked rice or other grains.

As stated in the cookbook, this is NOT a recipe for those who are afraid of garlic. It should be noted, though, that the garlic flavor mellows as the stew cooks; this might make it less scary to the garlic-phobic. Don't, I repeat, do NOT cut down on the garlic, at least not for your first go-round; it's the source of much of this recipe's deliciousness. Also, be sure to use red lentils if you can find them (they are the source of this stew's attractive color). I'm confident that it could be made with other lentil varieties, or even split peas, but be warned that cooking times and water levels may require tweaking.

Ethiopian Lentil Bowl
(adapted from Simply in Season)

2 c. red lentils
2 large onions
1 head garlic
3 T. tomato paste
1/2 t. paprika
1 t. salt
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. pepper
generous pinch cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
3 c. water
1/4 c. lemon or lime juice
fresh parsley or cilantro for garnish

1. Cover the lentils with water; soak 30 min. and drain.

2. While the lentils are soaking, finely chop the onion and mash or press the garlic. Saute the onion and garlic in 3 T. oil until golden.

3. Mix tomato paste and paprika into the onion/garlic mixture. Add salt, ginger, pepper, cayenne pepper, and 1 1/2 c. water. Stir well, then add the rest of the water. Stir again, then cover and bring to a boil.

4. When the mixture boils, add the soaked lentils. Lower the heat to a simmer and cook until the lentils are soft, about 20-30 min. (add a little water if it starts to stick)

5. Once the lentils are soft, add the lemon or lime juice and stir. Serve hot, alongside rice or other grains, or alone. Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro.

Spammy comments, and Roasted Roots

2005-10-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

I don't often view my own blog (I think merely having one is more than enough navel-gazing for one person), so I was surprised to see so many comments on my last entry. "GREAT!" I thought. "Someone aside from my family actually found this place!"

Well, I'm pretty sure it was a bot of some kind, because he/she/it left 6 nearly identical comments. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed. However, I must admit that it's sort of flattering to get an invitation to submit material, even if it comes from automated software masquerading as a real person. It's certainly preferable to being sold something.

As for the roasted roots:

Mollie Katzen has built a reputation as a go-to vegetarian cookbook writer. From using her books, I can say that her successful recipe rate is about 50% (some are great, some are great ideas that need substantial tweaking, and some are frightening or simply boring).

I can also say that she often includes little tricks and tips (hardly actual recipes) that are awfully helpful, such as a list of lunchbox ideas, plenty of menu suggestions, or a guide to fritatta ingredient ratios. In her book Vegetable Heaven (which I've borrowed from the library so many times that the copy's pages bear the imprint of my messy cooking; I really should just get my own copy), she includes a true treasure: roasting instructions for almost any common or slightly uncommon vegetable.

Now, I can't say that I really grew up with roasted vegetables. Whether fresh or frozen, the green beans I ate as a child were always steamed and then coated with a small lump of butter substitute and some salt. I could criticize my parents for the butter substitute, but really, I AM grateful that I was rarely subjected to the mushy sorrow of canned vegetables. So I have to give them that.

However, I can only imagine how much MORE I would have been excited by vegetables if my parents had known about ROASTING.

Since roasting my first asparagus (I'm still working on this technique; the timing of roasted asparagus is tricky, as it must be modified in accordance with stalk thickness), I've learned that there is no vegetable (except perhaps the leafy greens family) that cannot be enjoyed through roasting. The technique has so much going for it:

1. it's non-fussy. You start heating the oven, clean and trim the vegetables, cut them into chunks if necessary/desired, put them on an oiled baking sheet, and pop them in the oven. And LEAVE THEM until they are done.
2. it's fantastically tasty. Almost everyone likes the taste of carmelized sugars and general browning. The edges crisp up; small bits stick to the pan; flavors are concentrated as the vegetables shrink and shrivel slightly.
3. it's versatile. You can add spices to the vegetables at the beginning, or not. You can add fresh herbs to the vegetables near the end of cooking, or not. You can serve roasted vegetables with any vinaigrette or dressing that appeals to you. They are even good with a simple sprinkling of salt.

The only drawback is that the oven is required, making roasting a bit uncomfortable in the summer time. But you have your grill for carmelized flavors in summer. And the oven heating the kitchen is a welcome event in the dark of winter.

This past Monday, I made a panful of lowly roasted onions and carrots. These are boring kitchen staples, usually a part of some other larger production. I cut them into large chunks (quartered the onions, 2 in. carrot chunks), rolled them around on an oiled baking sheet, and stuck them in a 375 oven for 30. min, during which time I made the rest of dinner. A delicious smell soon filled the room; I sprinkled a few tsp. of fresh thyme on the vegetables in their last 5 min. of cooking.

The carrots were quite good (a little woody; it's sad to go back to supermarket carrots after tasting your own fresh grown ones), but the onions - the ONIONS. I could have made a meal solely of the onions. They were sweet like candy, with textures ranging from soft and melting to crisp and slightly burnt-tasting. Heavenly. And cheap. I will be making this a staple of my winter dinners.

Oh blog, how I neglect thee.

2005-10-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

No recipes today, but I hope to have some new ones soon. Failing new recipe content, I thought I would provide a short update on my current food endeavors.

Mainly my reason for not posting much is that I've been more focused on not wasting food than on exploring new recipes. My eyes have been healthier than my stomach for a long time, and as a result, a lot of good produce has gone to waste, rotting away in my crisper drawer. I am working on streamlining and using what I have. I think it's working. I'm improving, anyhow. Fewer leftovers thrown away every week.

However, it hasn't made for great new recipes fit for sharing lately. I'm hoping to get there, and perhaps create some recipes of my own soon rather than simply proselytizing others' work. Not that I don't love Mark Bittman, but you should probably just go buy his books yourself. I think he's got a new one.

Cream of Roasted Bell Pepper Soup

2005-08-08T20:52:00.000-07:00

I've become enamored of "cream of blank" vegetable soups recently, thanks once again to the council of Mark Bittman, Minimalist. Possibly the simplest and most Minimalist of soups, aside from a clear beef or miso broth. It's a great way to take advantage of good produce - the best of these soups has one strong flavor, perfect and vegetal.

I used this recipe to create my own version this evening.

Cream of Roasted Bell Pepper Soup

About 2 lbs. red, orange, or yellow bell peppers
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
3-4 medium shallots, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 T. fresh thyme leaves
2 cups vegetable or chicken broth
1/2 cup half and half
2 t. red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

1. Roast the peppers: heat the oven to 500 degrees. Seed, wash, and halve the bell peppers. Put cut side down on a roasting pan in one layer. Roast in oven 30 min., shaking the pan every 5 to 10 minutes, until skins are blistered and black. Put peppers straight into a bowl and cover with a plate. Cool 15-20 min. Peel off the skins over a bowl, saving the good juice. DO NOT RINSE PEPPERS (the black stuff adds a nice smoky flavor to the finished dish).

2. Saute shallots, garlic, and thyme in the olive oil for 3 minutes. Add peppers and broth; bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer 20 min.

3. Puree in blender in two batches. Add half and half and vinegar, and add a little extra broth to thin, if desired. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish w/ basil or thyme leaves.

This is simple but absolutely great. Worth the effort to roast the peppers.

Pizza Crust Instead; Ice Cream (and garden update)

2005-06-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

It counts as bread, doesn't it? Peter Reinhart thinks so. I used the "Pizza Crust 1" recipe from Crust & Crumb.

The crust turned out well. The flavor was great - not floury or yeasty, just tasty. The texture - OK. It was more "bready" than I usually prefer, which is I guess not surprising considering the source of the recipe. I was hoping for a thinner and crisper crust.

In a nutshell, I would have to say that this crust doesn't quite merit the amount of time spent in pre-ferment and ferment. After two days of yeasts growing, I would like a pizza crust that makes me want to jump up and down. Two days is not worth a "pretty decent" crust.

So the search for a good pizza crust goes on.

Now, to ice creams, sherbets, and sorbets: I love ice cream. I have yet to meet a flavor I didn't like. Rum raisin, not wild about it, but I don't dislike it. While I love the wide variety of flavors available to me as a North American consumer, I recently began to feel that it was NOT ENOUGH. Sure, if I go to Dairy Queen, I can get ice cream containing whatever candy my little heart desires; and at least 20 flavors of Ben and Jerry's are available 24/7 courtesy of the Kroger Corporation. I can also get "homemade" ice creams from a selection of shops in our fair city.

BUT. Not enough. Not for me. If I think of a flavor, I want to be able to try it quickly and (relatively) cheaply - not buy a plane ticket to New York or Milan or wherever they're making designer gelato flavors these days. If I hear of chocolate-chipotle, or lavendar-honey, or cinnamon-basil, or dang it, BLUE CHEESE flavored ice cream, I'd like to taste it, not simply imagine it. And speaking of sorbets - why do supermarket sorbet flavors come in only lemon, raspberry, strawberry, mango...? Are these the only fruits available to us? Heavens no! Why can I not get tangerine, or peach, or nectarine, or plum, or honeydew, or watermelon, or...?

There was nothing for it but to buy my own Cuisinart ice cream maker. It ran me a bit less than $50, so it was a rather pricey appliance. I could've probably found a hand-cranked freezer for less, but when you figure in the cost of ice, the proper salt, and the total muscle power and effort needed - the savings didn't seem worth it. Remember, I want odd ice cream quickly! That's the whole point. And with the Cuisinart, I have that. It might not be worth $50 to you, but it is to me.

It's insanely easy to operate. Freeze the freezer bowl for 24 hours. Make your ice cream or sorbet recipe. Put the bowl in the machine. Turn it on. Pour in whatever recipe you made. Wait 25 minutes. EAT.

If you make a custard-style ice cream, the recipe can get involved - not difficult, but somewhat time-consuming. Sorbets, on the other hand, are faster than I ever could have believed. Here's a quick explanation (I'll edit this post and add the actual recipe tomorrow):

ANYFRUIT SORBET
Make sugar syrup (basically, dissolve a quantity of sugar in an equal quantity of water over heat; takes 10 minutes max); peel and cut up fruit; put fruit, sugar syrup, and a bit of lemon juice in the blender. Taste and balance sugar and lemon. Blend again. Pour into the freezer.

So far I have made mango-strawberry and honeydew-blueberry sorbets. Both were very good. They had different textures, which I am chalking up to the respective water contents of the different fruits. My next trick will be strawberry-balsamic vinegar sorbet, with the vinegar replacing lemon juice in the master recipe. I'll let you know how it goes.

As ice creams go, I have only made one so far: deep chocolate with Oreos. It was tasty, but not quite what I wanted. After all, Ben and Jerry's makes about a billion versions of chocolate ice cream containing tasty additions, and so does every other ice cream purveyor. And while my ice cream may be one day as good as theirs, why spend the time trying to perfect the ultimate chocolate when there are so many good possibilities to choose from?

However, this attempt was a great learning experience. I found out from this experiment that the quality of the cream you use really DOES affect the final flavor significantly. I've never particularly liked the taste of the cream sold at King Soopers - like most fatty dairy products, it picks up the flavor of its storage area, and when I buy it, it generally tastes equally of cream and grocery store cooler. This is obvious when you use it for whipped cream; although it's less obviously in ice cream, I could still taste it over the huge chocolate flavor. It made the ice cream taste "old" and "freezer-burned". I'm going to have to find a better source of cream if I want to make really great ice creams.

So my next ice cream experiment will involve a strange flavor of some kind. I just borrowed The Herbfarm Cookbook from the library, which contains a detailed explanation of how to infuse any herb in cream, and a master recipe for herbal ice creams. I'm most interested in a combination of fruit and herbal flavors. There are lots of ideas to choose from.

In short, if you are an ice cream freak (like me), a Cuisinart might be worth your while. If you are not a freak, it's probably going to sit unused.

Garden report: pole beans are up! I harvested french breakfast radishes last Friday and ate them with butter and salt. A great combination, and the radishes themselves were quite pretty - pink with white tips. Beets and carrots are going like gangbusters. I was going to plant cukes; I think I'll put in more tomatos and basil instead. The plan is to make a batch of sauce, as well as lots of pesto for freezing. I may have to rip up the dill to do this. Sort of sad, but not really; it's growing, but not very fast. Without cukes, I won't have much use for it anyhow.

I have really been remiss in posting (Farmer's Market and bread baking)

2005-05-27T11:43:00.000-07:00

My apologies. I've been busy with other sites and sort of ignored this one. Not like many of you noticed, though, right?

Two things of note to report:

1. I've made it a goal to visit the Fort Collins Farmer's Market once a week on Sundays. So far this goal has been very, very good to me. It's easy to spend a lot now because there's not much actual produce available. Thus I'm reduced to the ever-present specialty items. Don't worry, I'm limiting myself to two a week (until produce comes in, and then all bets are off). Purchases to date:

- a mixed bag of Hazel Dell mushrooms
- a chunk of Rustic Blue from Bingham Hill
- a big bag of organic lettuces from...well, I didn't get their name. Shoddy of me.
- pasta from Pappardelle's Pasta: 1 lb. tomato-cracked pepper linguini(?), 1 lb. spinach-garlic linguini(?). (honestly, I don't know if it's linguini or not. It's long and flat. The tomato is wider than the spinach)

Somewhat pricey for pasta (which is normally dirt cheap), but this last purchase has been by far my favorite. I haven't tried the tomato yet, but I made the spinach garlic this week (with some mushrooms and sundried tomatos thrown in). Let me tell you: it was SPECTACULAR. A huge improvement over Barilla. Tasty (it actually tasted like spinach and garlic; not just 'green'). And more importantly, the texture was fantastic. Supple, stretchy, yummy. And NOT ONLY THAT: the leftovers were quite good as well.

My biggest peeve with pasta is that recipes make a lot but I don't feel like eating the leftovers. They're usually just gummy (the strands stick together) and kind of gross. I've thrown away quite a bit of gummy pasta because I just couldn't bear to eat it. Part of my problem, yes, is making too much; I'm working at that. But gummy leftovers that are not fun to eat (and therefore are thrown out) kind of defeats the purpose of buying cheap pasta in the first place.

These leftovers were lovely. While not quite as fresh-tasting as they were when first made, the strands separated beautifully and reheated VERY WELL. I actually looked forward to eating the leftovers, and polished them off quite quickly.

So, I am a Pappardelle's Pasta convert. I aim to eat my way through their whole dried pasta product line by the end of the summer. If you check out their website, you'll see that this will take some doing. There were about 25 flavors (I'm estimating) available at the stand. I'm going to have to buy AT LEAST 2 a week to get through everything. No more buying whole pounds, though; 1/2 lbs. are quite enough. Furthermore, the stand had recipe suggestions for every flavor of pasta. I won't stick to these recipes religiously, but they'll give me ideas. However, this pasta is so good that I can just throw in whatever vegetables and cheese I want and it will be a tasty meal.

2. In other carb news: I am finally ready to start baking again. Yeah, great timing; it's almost summer! The weather here for the three day weekend promises to be mild and not too hot, so I'll be delving into Peter Reinhardt's Crust & Crumb (courtesy of the Fort Collins Public Library) for some rustic loaves. I would like to try two different types; I'm nost sure which yet. I need to make sure there's room in the freezer (or be prepared to give one away). If they are very beautiful, I'll enlist Ben Harshbarger to take a few pix with his fancy-schmancy digital cam so that I can share them with you.

Come to think of it, I'll need a decent cam for Guatemala. Not great, DECENT. Shouldn't cost me too much. I'd really like to post some pix of particularly nice-looking meals, the Farmer's Market, the process of cooking - this blog is so drab without visuals. Disposable point-and-shoot will never get me where I want to go - photography genius I am NOT.

Quick Garden Update

2005-05-04T08:47:00.000-07:00

Beets, carrots, radishes, and dill are all up!

Also, I've been vindicated on my burlap technique. Seems the couple in the plot next to me has had some trouble getting their seeds to sprout. They asked me where I learned about burlap, and where they could get some. So cool that a hunch turned out to be so right.

Pole beans get planted in the next week or two. Tomatos, peppers, herbs, etc. When? I really don't know. I'd like it to be soon, but I don't want them to freeze either. Maybe I need to invest in some hot caps...

Ricotta Cheese is Easy. (Orechiette, Arugula, and Ricotta Cheese Recipe)

2005-04-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

So easy I can't even believe it. Thanks, April issue of Cooking Light, for bringing this to my attention.

This past weekend, milk was on sale at King Soopers. I figured it was time to try my hand at making homemade ricotta cheese. Here's what's required for this process (yes, it's just this simple):

1 gallon 2% milk
5 c. low fat buttermilk
a bit of salt
a large pot (about 1.5 gallons or thereabouts)
a candy or meat thermometer w/ clip
a spoon (slotted)
a colander
some cheesecloth
some string

Here's how it works:
1. Pour the milk and buttermilk into the pot. Put in the thermometer (at least 2 in. below the surface)
2. Heat the mixture over medium heat. Stir every now and then.
3. Heat until the mixture reaches 170 degrees. This will take a long time. You might start to see clumps of curds forming before you reach this point. Stir every few minutes, gently. Don't panic.
4. When the mixture reaches 170, stop stirring but leave the heat on. Let the mixture hit 190 degrees, then take it off the heat.
5. Line the colander with 5 or so layers of cheesecloth, put it over a bowl, spoon the curds into it. Let drain about 5 minutes.
6. Gather up the edges of the cheesecloth, tie with string, and hang it up over the faucet so the whey will drip down into your sink. Drain the curds about 15 min.
7. Scrape the curds into the bowl; lightly salt; toss gently to mix. Cool to room temp., then store in the fridge.

Makes 3 cups

And it is DEFINITELY better cheese than one would get from the grocery store. Better texture (more creamy, less grainy), and better taste (more like cheese, less like refridgerator). I am going to check prices tonight, and see how it compares cost-wise. Unless milk is on sale, it might not be more cost-effective, but I'm thinking store-bought ricotta is pretty expensive (relatively) per cup...

I used my cheese to make a recipe accomanying the cheese article last night:

Orechiette w/ Arugula*, Ricotta, and Tomatos

1 lb. orechiette
1 c. ricotta cheese
1/2 c. Pecorino romano cheese, shredded
3 c. arugula, thinly sliced
1 T. olive oil
salt
pepper
fresh tomatos (for the top)

1. Cook the orechiette in boiling water.
2. While it's cooking, mix the ricotta, romano, and olive oil in a large bowl. Add a bit of salt and pepper.
3. When the pasta is done, reserve 1/4 c. up the cooking water and drain. Add the pasta and cooking water to the cheese; toss to coat.
4. Dump in the arugula, mix it up, add salt and pepper if desired.
5. Top with however many chopped fresh tomatos look good to you...

This dish was lightning fast, and with homemade ricotta, much more delicious than you would expect given the small number of ingredients. WOW is all I can say. We shall see if it reheats well. It was creamy and delicious. **Edited to say that this dish DOES reheat well. Usually reheated pasta gets sticky and gummy. This was not quite as good as it was fresh, but it was still quite good. I ate all the leftovers, something I seldom manage when I make too much pasta.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS!

Besides pasta, ricotta works as a dessert cheese. I may make another batch this weekend and try a cheesecake recipe! or just top it with some honey and berries. Yes, it's THAT GOOD. I am not a big fan of cottage cheese and fruit, but this stuff is delicious. I had to put it away right after it was cool, otherwise I would have eaten it all straight out of the bowl.

*A quick note on arugula:
It can be hard to find. I have to go to the natural foods supermarket to find it, and it's not always the best-looking green available. If you can't find arugula, you can substitute spinach, at least in this recipe. You can't do this in every recipe, though; arugula has a much more peppery flavor than spinach, so some recipes will not be as interesting without it. However, arugula is very easy to grow, and it shoots up quickly. I am trying it out in my windowboxes this summer; I'll let you know how it goes.

Radishes and Kitchen Scales

2005-04-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is a timely subject; the small seeds I planted last week have begun to sprout. I'll check on their progress again tonight.

The French eat them for breakfast (according to the title of the variety I planted last week, "French Breakfast"). I've always kind of liked them, but I've always thought of them as either part of a relish tray or sliced up in salads. And I only really had the round red kind, though I've also had daikon (which counts, barely).

I have discovered a better way to eat radishes; they are good in salads, etc., but they're not exactly amazing. Try this: butter and salt. Oh yes. Take a thin slice of good bread, butter, cover with thinly sliced radishes, salt, eat. It's much more delicious than it sounds. I'll have to find a real good German beer and have my own Oktoberfest once my own radishes are ready to eat...make that a Apfrilfest...

I've also learned that they can be braised just like any other root vegetable. I haven't tried this yet. But it seems intriguing. Again, to be tried when the radishes come up. I'm sure I'll have more than I know what to do with.

In other news, my lovely and generous roommate just bought me a digital kitchen scale for my belated birthday/Christmas present (in actuality, it was a 'happy tax return!' gift...). I'm thrilled. I've been wanting to bake serious bread for quite some time, but serious bakers use scales - flour is difficult to measure accurately by volume. There have been a lot of good recipes that I've just had to skip. Now, though, I am equipped; I can also make recipes from British and other European cookbooks! I plan to start a batch of ciabatta or something equally interesting this weekend.

Easter Dinner

2005-03-28T14:11:00.000-08:00

I am still recovering from the feast. I love it when my roommate gets more involved in food preparation. However, this means that the amount of food we prepare increases exponentially.

Here's what we had for Easter Dinner yesterday:

- ham. Plain ol' grocery store ham (6.3 pounds!) baked about 2 hours and basted with honey and mustard. Kinda salty, but that's all that seems to be available these days. I'll be making sandwiches (and omlettes, maybe?) with it all week. That's my favorite thing about big hunks of meat: the leftovers.

- green bean casserole. The standard: canned beans, mushroom soup, onions-in-a-can. That really IS all of the ingredients! I remember not liking this as a child, but it was good yesterday. Have my tastebuds matured or atrophied? Laura was in charge of this (Ben helped). I'm glad she insisted on it.

- asparagus. Nice fat spears this time. I have figured out the secret to good asparagus. Blanch in salted boiling water 90 seconds (less the skinnier the stalks get). Put immediately in ice water until cool. Reheat over low heat with a bit of butter or garlic-infused oil. Salt. EAT. They end up nicely green, and cooked but still toothsomely crunchy.

- bread. Thyme-foccacia from the store.

- deviled eggs. No special recipe: mustard, mayo, cayenne, a bit of salt. However, I have also figured out the secret to good hardboiled eggs. Cover with water, bring to a boil, take off heat and cover for 16 min. Cool immediately in cold water. Much less fiddly than trying to maintain a consistant simmer, and no chance at all of greenish overcooked yolks. These eggs are cooked, but slightly soft and very creamy. I can't remember where I got this method, but it's the one I'll use forever.

And for dessert:

- cherry Jell-o w/ fruit cocktail and Cool-Whip.

This is a VERY traditional Easter (or grandma-type) dinner. It was awfully satisfying, though. Sometimes it's nice to be sumptuous without being fancy-schmancy.

Cheese and wine.

2005-03-23T14:45:00.000-08:00

Inspired by a recent Lyonnaise foodblog at eGullet.com, I've been thinking a lot about cheese lately. MMMMMMMMM...cheese. Is there anything better? I used to think chocolate was better, but now I think not.

Here's my reasoning: even when you add things (milk, flavorings, fruit, etc.) to chocolate, it retains it's essential "chocolate-ness". Most people that like chocolate can handle it in most of it's forms, although they might prefer one to another. Maybe they don't like coconut, so they don't eat a Mounds bar - but their objection is to the coconut, not the chocolate itself.

Cheese, on the other hand, just has a much wider range of flavor, texture, etc. And therefore it is perfectly possible for someone to love one cheese and gag at the thought of another. Do you see the difference?

Plus, fermentation is just sooo cool.

What inspired me most about this foodblog written by the lady from Lyon was her cheese tasting plate. In France (and in higher brow establishments elsewhere), the cheese course is "dessert". She had close to 9 different cheeses arrayed on the plate (and such a pretty picture they made, too). I want a cheese-tasting plate like that! Perhaps 9 is a large number, but I would love to replace sweet desserts (which I rarely eat for dessert, but snarf down any time of day) with a pretty cheese plate. YUM.

Most hi-falutin' folks have wine with cheese. There are certain wines that go with certain cheeses, etc. I always despaired of trying much of this at home. I was not about to buy both multiple cheeses AND multiple wines, only to drink half of each bottle. And I had no idea how to put together a decent tasting.

Thankfully, the folks at igourmet.com have taken care of this for me. They sell cheese assortments (some under $20, some insanely expensive) of about 3-4 cheeses that go with a particular wine. SCORE! I am going to order the Riesling selection at some point - it was quite reasonably priced. Furthermore, Laura and I have found a great (fairly cheap) Riesling that we both really enjoy, and I'd love to have a "get happy and eat cheese" evening sometime in the near future.

I am so hungry right now, thinking of the hunk of Manchego I have sitting in the fridge at home. Is it wrong to make a meal of only cheese? If so, I don't want to be right...

Tuna Sandwiches w/o Mayo

2005-03-22T11:22:00.000-08:00

Being that it's spring, and that I'm trying to cut down on gratuitous fat - that is, fat that is not part of an amazing cheese or absolutely necessary to a dish - I was happy to find this recipe in Mark Bittman's "How to Cook Everything". I actually added some fat to it, because the tuna seemed a bit dry to me. But it was certainly less that I would have used if I had made my traditional (very mayo heavy) tuna salad sandwich. This also has a Mexican flavor, which I like.

Tuna W/O Mayo

Tuna Salad
2 6 oz. cans albacore tuna in water (you can use regular tuna, but it won't be near as good)
3 scallions, minced
1/2 c. minced cilantro leaves
hot sauce to taste
salt and pepper
a BIT (1 T.?) of olive oil

Etc.
lettuce
tomato
other sandwich fillings

Mix the salad ingredients together. Make sandwiches, or use wheat tortillas to make wraps.

This is really tasty, especially if you like tuna (which I do), and quite light.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS.

The Cook's Garden

2005-03-09T09:31:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since I've written here. Not that I haven't been cooking - I've been cooking a fair amount, but nothing worth sharing recently. Also, the majority of my planning energy has been focused on the garden. I finally got to pick out my little piece of ground last weekend. They gave me a sheet of graph paper...I'm thinking I'll need about six more sheets before I get the layout that I want. Definitely included in the garden: radishes, beets, carrots, peas, tomatos, nasturtiums (they are flowers w/ edible blooms and leaves, and they repel insects; these are a must for the organic garden). Possibles (I can't include them all, I don't think): eggplants, sweet peppers, cucumbers. I'll plant lettuces/greens as well, but since I do have some room at home and they did so well in boxes last year, I think I'll go with containers again this year too. It will be more convenient, when making a salad, to have the greens right outside the door.

I have, at least, worked out a schedule for planting. The garden will not be ready until early April, so that's when I'll start with the radishes. And maybe some salad greens close to home. I found out last Saturday that the garden's got SPRINKLERS, and they'll water twice a day. Oh my gosh. The actual gardening part of this might be easier than I thought. No need to water every single day. It feels like cheating, but I'm not complaining much.

One added challenge in planning is that I'm trying to plant companion herbs along with the vegetables as much as possible. For instance, carrots go with chives; basil goes with tomatos; etc. Apparently these herbs not only repel pests, but can make the vegetables grow better and tastier. Additionally, there are plants that DON'T like each other (such as cucumbers and sage). What's particularly interesting about these companion plants is that a lot of times, the companion herb is one you would actually use in cooking/eating the vegetable (esp. tomatos and basil). I don't know how this developed (and some resources seem contradictory), but it's kind of cool. Though a real PITA when it comes to planning.

Linguini Carbonara

2005-02-22T12:37:00.000-08:00

Cookbooks always seem to mention carbonara (or "coal miner's pasta) as a classic and well-known dish, but I had never had it before I made it for myself about a year ago. Since then, it's become one of my favorites. How can you not like a pasta dish, the main ingredients of which are bacon, eggs, and cheese? If this were not so full of saturated fat, it would be my everyday go-to pasta dish. (there is a version made with zucchini instead of bacon that's quite good but not the same)

To make carbonara:

1. Boil water for 1 lb. long pasta
2. Cut 1/4 lb. bacon into small pieces (use the best bacon you can find; NOT honey smoked, the flavors will not work that well!)
3. Cook the bacon in 1 T. olive oil until crisp; drain and set aside.
4. Cook pasta; while the pasta is cooking, beat 2 eggs and mix in 1/2 c. grated parmesan (NOT the stuff that comes in a green can, although good pre-shredded is acceptable).
5. Drain pasta; toss with egg/cheese mixture, and bacon. Add lots of black pepper, and more salt if it needs it (bacon and cheese are both pretty salty, so you shouldn't need much).
6. EAT

Very simple. Don't worry, the egg cooks enough because of the hot pasta that it won't give you salmonella.

I'm making this tonight! (along with some more cooked kale, so I can feel less decadent)

Laab, Larb, Lahb...(and summer rolls)

2005-02-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

This is the name of a Thai "meat salad" type dish. I was first introduced to the idea on eGullet, a web-based forum for all things food-related. They love laab-larb-lahb on eGullet - there is a whole discussion thread (many pages long) focused just on this one dish. After reading this passionate discussion, I ordered some lahb gai (chicken lahb) from Sri Thai (the restaurant just down the street) to see what all the fuss was about.

Lahb is delicious! The base is meat - chicken, beef, or pork - that's been ground or minced very finely, then cooked. The meat is then dressed with the usual Thai suspects (lime juice, fish sauce, hot chilis, a bit of sugar) and tossed with much cilantro, mint, and garlic. It's served on lettuce leaves (very pretty!) and alongside many fresh veggies, designed to cut some of the potent heat from the bird's eye chilis. I reccomend using cabbage leaves to scoop up this delicacy.

Anyhoo, as I really enjoyed Sri Thai's version of lahb, I decided I should make it at home. I used a recipe from Kasma Loha-Unchit's website. She has written two very good thorough books explaining Thai food (you can find them on her website). They are great books, and although they contain recipes, they also contain lots more information about ingredients, techniques, and culture - enough that I would call them more "books about Thai food" than mere cookbooks. Fun to read, too.

The lahb I made was ok. It was tasty, but I was not wild about it. The flavors seemed...muddled is all I can think of. Or maybe it was just not Sri Thai's lahb. From the eGullet thread, though, I have gathered that there is no hard and fast way to make this dish, and many individual preferences for how it should taste (not to mention many individual spellings! Gotta love transliteration). The key is the dressing, the "four flavors" (salty, hot, sour, sweet) and getting those balanced correctly. Kasma's recipe calls for the chef to use her own taste and adjust the flavors accordingly - I don't think I did that as well as I could have - I mean, I've just started to figure out how to salt things properly, and that's only one flavor!

Well, in any case, it was good - just not GREAT. I was surprised to find that I liked Sri Thai's version better - I'll have to order it again and see how I can improve my own version of lahb gai. You can bet I will be making this again. It's good on the protein, but there's little-to-no fat, lots of good-for-you seasonings (it's great if you've got a cold or congestion - you'll just sweat it right out), and encourages the consumption of many fresh vegetables. I just need a couple of good sharp Martin Yan-style cleavers to mince the meat next time...my dull knives take forever! I would buy ground meat, but it's usually fattier than I'd like for this dish, I think.

Now, summer rolls - these are SUMMER rolls, not egg rolls, and so they are not fried but enclosed in rice paper wraps. Good, and quick, now that I've learned some technique. We made the traditional Viet Namese summer rolls (carrot, pork, bean sprouts, etc.) to go with our lahb on Saturday. I couldn't believe it - they sell rice paper wraps at King Soopers! Amazing what you can buy at the corner grocery these days. Anyhow, summer rolls are quick eats if you have leftover fillings sitting around in your fridge. Otherwise, the prep takes a bit of time...slicing and grating, etc.

My favorite summer rolls were actually an experiment made the next day. I had a little bit of leftover pork, and also some leftover cooked kale and garlic. I thought, "hey, pork and greens are a trad. southern thing, aren't they?". Minced up the pork, drained the pot likker off the greens, soaked a rice paper wrap, and...VOY-LAH, as they say in the non-Francophone west, a delicious Asian Soul Food delicacy. It was even tastier than I had hoped!

"Tapas", and serenity from puttering in the kitchen

2005-02-14T10:09:00.000-08:00

Usually I try really hard to simplify meals - on weekdays, I don't have a lot of time or energy to cook dinner, so I only make a main and vegetable. However, this weekend, I really wanted to make several (somewhat) labor-intensive snacks (not quite tapas, but in that spirit) for a light Sunday dinner.

Here's what I made:

- Provencal marinated olives
- Duxelles on rye toast
- Roasted chickpeas w/ olive oil and lemon
- Dried figs with chevre, pecans, and honey

YUM to all of them! It was actually not all that labor-intensive, except for the duxelles.

PROVENCAL OLIVES
For one thing, I made the marinated olives a day ahead. I was really excited about these, as they helped me use up a can of green olives that had been sitting around in the cupboard a long time. I didn't particularly care for these olives - they were brined, but not very much, so they tasted flat and not very appealing. Turns out they were perfect for marinating! "Provencal" seasonings, as far as I can tell, involve fennel and citrus. These olives were marinated in balsamic vinegar, garlic, crushed fennel seeds, olive oil, pepper, and orange zest. I was skeptical when I tasted the marinade, but the olives turned out great! (sorry, can't remember exact quantities for the marinade; figure it out!!)

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS!!

DUXELLES ON RYE TOAST
Now, the duxelles (and the serenity): "duxelles" is a fancy name for sauteed mushrooms. However, in order to make true duxelles, you must mince the mushrooms. Since my knife skills are so lacking, it took me a long time to mince a pound of mushrooms! I was probably a lot neater about it than I needed to be. About halfway through, I was tempted to get sloppy, until I realized that I had nothing better to do but mince carefully. So, carefully mince I did. It was actually very zen and relaxing once I accepted how long it was taking. The duxelles turned out great, and I think I might make an omlette with them later - there is plenty left over. To make duxelles: mince a pound of mushrooms; put some butter or oil in a pan, sautee about 1/4 cup onions, scallions, or shallots for 5 min.; add the minced mushrooms. Cook until the mushrooms have given up their liquid, and then cook until that liquid is almost all evaporated. Season with salt and pepper, add chopped parsley if you like. Good on toast, stuffed in things, wherever!

I'm so glad I like mushrooms now.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS WEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLL.

ROASTED CHICKPEAS w/ OLIVE OIL AND LEMON
The roasted chickpeas didn't QUITE get crisp like the cookbook said they would, but they were tasty enough (and nutritious), so I'll likely try again and see if I can get a better result. They're easy to make : 2 c. cooked chickpeas, 1 T. minced garlic, 3 T. olive oil, salt and pepper. Heat the oven to 400; put the oil on a sheet pan; add the chickpeas, garlic, salt and pepper; move the chickpeas around so they're covered with oil and in one layer. Roast the chickpeas 15-20 min., shaking the pan every 5 or so. Cool, season w/ more salt, lemon, olive oil. Good, but I love chickpeas.

VERDICT: the jury's still out. I may need to refine my technique.

FIGS w/ CHEVRE, PECANS, and HONEY
This was dessert, and hardly counts as a recipe. I got the idea from Mollie Katzan, but I've seen it repeated in various forms elsewhere. Basically, take a dried fig and cut a slit in it; open up the slit; put in a nice chunk/dollop of chevre (that's goat cheese, but not a salty or strong-tasting goat cheese); nestle a pecan on top of the cheese (you can use walnuts or almonds too, there are no rules!!); drizzle with honey. If it sounds weird to you, well, it did to me too - and it's not weird at all, but DELICIOUS. And fairly nutritious for a dessert.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS!!!

"Tapas" are easy; and I love appetizers more than any other course, including dessert; they are so pretty looking, and you can eat them with your hands! I think I might make this "snacky" dinner a Sunday night tradition.

Weird Asian produce in my future?????

2005-02-10T14:13:00.000-08:00

I'm so pumped.

I remember complaining to Mom and Dad last month? week? about my lack of garden space and my longing for tomatos, among other things. It really WAS torture to get all these catalogues for heirloom seeds and not be able to think about planting a-one of 'em - or at least to have to limit myself to varieties that would do well in pots.

Well, that may all change very soon. I was poking around on the City of Fort Collins website and found out that the city DOES run a community garden. It's located down in the south end of town, which is a drawback, but otherwise it sounds perfect. $35 fee with a $15 deposit (to be refunded at the end of the season), and 150 square feet of organic garden space. They'll till it for me, and I get access to water supply and compost bins.

Really, it sounded TOO perfect. I was positive that all the slots had already been snapped up. Turns out it isn't true! I emailed the lady and she got right back to me - there are 8 slots left. EIGHT! But they will be filling up fast, so I'm going to get my application in as soon as I can.

I really cannot wait. I got this heirloom seed catalog that has SIX pages of melons, most of which I have never seen nor heard of before. And FOUR pages of tomatos divided by color. It's going to be hard not to overdo it. I need to go down to the site itself and see what I'm working with, so I can start thinking. Heck, I'm already thinking! I've got to find some way of starting seeds (I think) so that I can grow all this fabulous stuff I keep seeing pictures of. I don't have a greenhouse or growlights, so it will take some work. And I'd like to grow some flowers, too, along with the vegetables and herbs. Don't want to be too inundated with produce we won't use.

I'm so happy I could just burst. We won't be picking plots until Saturday the 5th. Too long to wait!!! I want to start planning my plot now!

Salmon, and thoughts on rare meat

2005-02-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

I'd never had wild salmon (I don't think) before Saturday, unless you count maybe a piece of sushi here and there. It costs twice as much as the farmed stuff, which gave me pause. On the other hand, the signs on all the farmed salmon saying "color added", and the sort of scuzzy taste of the farmed fish (it tastes sort of soapy to me), also gave me pause. So, since I was alone and free to stink up the apartment as I pleased, I decided to spring for some wild salmon. I got it from King Soopers - previously frozen, but I don't think it's salmon season and it looked better than the (more expensive) Wild Oats stuff.

Mark Bittman's The Minimalist Cooks Dinner had a good-looking recipe, "Roasted Salmon with Spicy Soy Oil". And yea, verrily, it was sublime. Wild salmon IS quite a bit better than the farmed stuff. No soapy taste, just fishy (naturally) pink goodness. The searing/roasting technique in the recipe was very easy - heat the oven to 500, heat my iron skillet on med. high, add a bit of oil, sear the fish for about a minute, then pop it in the oven for 6 minutes more.
Meanwhile, I sauteed some garlic and red pepper flakes in some grapeseed and sesame oils, then added some soy sauce. This got drizzled on the fish when it was done.

As I said, the searing/roasting technique worked wonderfully. I got salmon fillets cooked rare, but with crispy skin. As I was tucking into my slab of fish, I realized that I have really gotten to like rare meat. Maybe it was my conversion to sushi that did it, but now I like rare pork (don't worry, Mom and Dad, trichinosis is virtually non-existant in modern pigs), rare fish (it would have been a travesty to overcook that salmon!), and rare beef (mmmmmmm, bloody). In truth, it almost always tastes better than the well-done stuff. No longer do pink juices freak me out (although pink chicken still gives me the willies). Rare burgers are a little questionable; I have to really trust the quality of the place to get one.

It helps too, to realize that the bad bacteria lives on the surface of the meat, not in the interior. Therefore rare meat is fine health-wise (unless it's ground, then ya gotta be careful) - a good hard sear will kill all those little buggers on the outside and leave you pink tasty goodness inside.

Plus, it takes less time to get from fridge to table!

Contemplating the end of butter in my life?

2005-02-03T10:32:00.000-08:00

Okay, not really. I love butter. The fact is, though, that I love it maybe too much. And full-fat sour cream, and full-fat yogurt, et cetera et cetera. I am quietly appalled that my parents did not expose me to this (fully). I was able to at least get ahold of the stick stuff at G-ma's house, but it didn't taste particularly good to me, having laid out on the table all day...now, it amazes me that I ever lived without it.

As days get longer, though, I start to realize that the days of swimsuits and shorts are close at hand. And that I can't fit comfortably into many of my pairs of jeans. This saddens me. I'm not basing my self-worth on my weight, but I am cheap and don't want to buy new clothes. I don't feel like I need to hide my body, but at the same time, I'm not too keen on expressly showing it off anymore.

Two culprits here: butter fat. Sendentary job.

This is not the complete end of butter, but I need to cut back. Good-bye, full-fat Brown Cow everyday (sniff). Good-bye, mindless eating. Hello olive oil spritzer thingy. Hello six a.m. exercise (I hope and pray).

Man, I hate posts like these. I sound like every two-bit whiny dieter out there.

At least the Farmer's Market will be back in a few months and I will have exciting finds to talk about. I can't wait.

Asparagus and Rice Soup; Sage-Grilled Cheese

2005-01-31T10:41:00.000-08:00

I love cheese. I mean REAL cheese. The stuff that smells vaguely (or extremely, depending on the variety) funky and doesn't come in 8 oz. bricks, but in irregular hacked-up chunks. MMmmm. I'd never had fontina cheese before this weekend. I got the "Zuni Cafe Cookbook" from the library and it practically brought tears to my eyes, looking at all the decadent pictures and reading about how they add fresh figs to nearly EVERY course. I've got to move to California.

Anyhow, I got this recipe for grilled fontina cheese sandwiches with sage oil. The cheese was lovely! The sandwiches, pretty good - not enough sage flavor for me, as I like sage. Next time I'll fry the leaves and put them inside the sandwiches.

Sage/Fontina Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
1. heat 2-3 T. olive oil on med-low.
2. fry 20-30 fresh sage leaves (plus some black pepper) in the olive oil; 10 min. or so.
3. heat a skillet.
4. make grilled chese sandwiches (I would use good bread): brush the bread with the infused olive oil, then grill the sandwiches.

Zuni's version is more elegant, but also more "fiddly"; this is easier and acheives much the same delicious result.

The soup was pretty good too. Not AMAZING, but tasty and comforting. I might make a version, but next time I'll use bacon instead of pancetta. Pancetta was OK, but I wanted more flavor. Also will cut the asparagus into bigger pieces because...just because. Not bothering to post the recipe, it wasn't THAT great a soup.

Sauteed Catfish Recipe (and thoughts on greens)

2005-01-28T08:11:00.000-08:00

This was a tasty recipe. However, I realized after I was halfway through it, that the recipe called for FOUR tablespoons of butter and another tablespoon of oil. Granted, the result was a lemon-butter sauce, but I felt it was a bit "OVERKILL". Too much fat for not enough result, and besides, there was way too much sauce. I'll try cutting down on the fat next time.

Also, I forgot the capers; I'll try them next time. I need to see what the prices on catfish are like at Wild Oats; hopefully more affordable than wild salmon. The King Soopers fish counter is pretty scary (although the wild salmon in their case looked ok, not as expensive as WO).

Sauteed Fish Fillets (serves 2)

1/2-3/4 lb. fish fillets, 1/4 inch thick
4 T. butter
1 T. EVOO
2 T. lemon juice
flour for dredging
salt and pepper

Salt and pepper the fillets. Heat a skillet over med-high heat for 3-4 minutes. Put in 2 T. of butter and wait until it stops foaming. Dredge the fillets in flour; add the oil to the pan, then put in the fillets. Cook until golden on both sides, about 2.5-3 minutes a side. Pull the fillets out of the pan, turn off the heat, melt the extra butter then add the lemon juice (scrape the tasty brown bits off the bottom of the skillet). Wait 15 sec. then pour sauce over the fillets. EAT.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS.

I served the fillet on a bed of mixed greens. I will be using that trick quite a bit if I start making fish more often, especially with an accompanying sauce. The sauce provides light salad dressing, the greens provide crunch and well...vitamins. Plus it looks really pretty! I took pictures. I'm halfway through the disposable camera, so another few weeks of cooking and you should be able to see it...if I can figure out how to use Picasa and Hello.

The roasted cauliflower turned out just OK - I think the heat needs to be higher to get some real carmelization going. I think it has potential though, and cauliflower's pretty cheap compared to asparagus, etc. ...I'll be working to perfect the cauliflower recipe, and I'll let you know what I discover.

Sauteed catfish w/ capers; roasted cauliflower

2005-01-27T13:46:00.000-08:00

I'll be trying two new recipes tonight. The catfish is a Bittman recipe (HTCE) that seemed appealing. Plus it only makes 2 servings! My new kitchen resolution is to only make 2 servings worth of a recipe unless I've already made it and like it A LOT.

The cauliflower is a recipe that's been raved about on eGullet for a whole ten pages of topic. I figure it must be worth trying. I don't mind cauliflower, but I don't LOVE it. It's usually fairly cheap, I need more tasty vegetable recipes, etc. The recipe couldn't be easier (cut up, EVOO, s+p, ROAST), and people keep talking about how good it is. I'll let you know how it goes.

Preview: more 'bean burgers'; cabbage & noodles; lentils & rice

2005-01-18T13:46:00.000-08:00

This week's meals will be simple, as I've got other important stuff to do for the next two weeks. I'm especially looking forward to our slightly "Russian" meal tomorrow. This will consist of a braised cabbage with noodles dish, served with applesauce, rye bread, and more beets. The same bean burgers as last week, 'cause I've got some bread crumbs and parsley to use up. And lentils and rice because...well, because.

Really, because I'm trying to remain focused on legumes, grains, and vegetables when planning these meals. First of all, meat is just too damned expensive. Second, I don't like it quite enough to merit spending so much money on it. Third, it's not as good for me. I'm getting myself ready for Lent, I guess - Lent comes early this year. I'm going to give up meat (and probably alcohol) for sure during that time, and spend the last two weeks of it doing a 'cleanse'. Yeah, sounds all crazy and new age-y, I know. This isn't one of those insane 'lemon juice fast - enema' thingys, though; a relatively sane cleanse.

I'm trying really hard to cut back on sugar, too. This is not easy for me. I have been wanting dessert (ice cream, pudding, etc.) every evening for a week. I really do need a treat of some kind once in awhile. My new plan is to use Brown Cow Cream Top yogurt for this purpose. Sure, it's got sugar and saturated fat. But it's as tasty as ice cream! And more beneficial, in my mind.

What would REALLY be good for me is to give up Hellman's mayonaise. I can eat that stuff with a SPOON. Gross, I know. One thing at a time, Nikki.

Now, if I could just get myself to the GYM in the mornings. I still haven't managed that, but I feel guilty about it many times a day now, so it shouldn't be long...

Simple Bean Croquettes (w/ Yogurt-Tahini Sauce) and Lemony Tofu

2005-01-12T13:44:00.000-08:00

These are basically bean burgers. It's another Bittman recipe, and really turned out surprisingly well considering how simple it is.

BEAN CROQUETTES
First, take a 15 oz. can of beans - I used white beans (cannellini) because I like them, but I think you can try any kind of canned bean. Put about 2-3 T. of the bean liquid in your blender. Rinse off the beans and drain them, then put them in the blender as well. Blend until not quite pureed - the idea is to have some chunks left in there. I think you could do this using a potato masher too. I'll try that next time, it's slightly less messy.

Then add:
1/2 c. minced onion
1/4 c. minced parsley leaves
1/2 c. bread crumbs
1 egg
salt and pepper

Mix well. Pat the results into 4 burger-like patties and fry 'em up in about 1/8 inch of oil (I use grapeseed, but peanut oil works well for frying also). Bittman says only 5 min. a side at medium heat. I think the skillet should be hotter (med-hi) and you should cook them longer. Get them good and browned.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS (AND HOW!!!)
These were DELICIOUS. Way better than I expected. Kind of like latkes, but with protein instead of starch (okay, the crumbs are starchy; latkes with SOME protein). I served them with yogurt-tahini sauce from the Moosewood Collective Cookbook.

YOGURT-TAHINI SAUCE
1 c. plain yogurt
2 T. tahini
2 t. chopped fresh dill
2 cloves minced garlic
salt and pepper

Mix it all together and let it sit at least 15 min.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS.
This was also DELICIOUS and better the next day. I curse my sister (and Kate and Meg? I think they're responsible) for introducing me to Brown Cow Cream Top Yogurt. It really IS cream on top, folks. Now that I know what full-fat yogurt tastes like, I don't think I can ever go back to low-fat pectin-filled glop.

Served this with:
1. some beets roasted in the oven, which would have been fine except I was impatient and they were not cooked as nicely as they could have been. They will be better reheated, I think. Beets are especially good in vinaigrette.

2. this orange-onion-rosemary salad (another Bittman) which I'm really becoming fond of. Thin navel orange slices, about a T. fresh rosemary, and one small red onion, plus olive oil, salt, pepper. Sounds strange, maybe, but it's good. Not quite as good the next day, however.

I will definitely be making bean croquettes again. They work well as burgers, or just eaten alone...good with the sauce, but almost tasty enough to eat plain. Or you could use them as an alternative to hash browns or breakfast sausage. And you can add whatever spices you like to make them Indian, Asian, Mexican, etc, using whatever beans you think are appropriate. With canned beans, this takes about 20 minutes!!!!! The leftovers today were still tasty, though not as crispy.

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Tonight's meal (Wed): low key. Main dish will be lemony-rosemary baked tofu which I've made before (I just can't get enough rosemary, which is good because I have two monster plants in which I can barely make a dent). This recipe is from the Moosewood Collective as well. Couldn't be easier:

LEMONY-ROSEMARY BAKED TOFU
1/4 c. lemon juice
1 T. minced fresh rosemary
2 T. soy sauce
1-2 T.? olive oil
some pepper
1 lb. firm tofu

Heat oven to 400. Mix all ingredients except the tofu together. Cut the tofu in slices crossways (you'll have 4 thin slices as big across as the top of the tofu cake; I can't think of a better way to describe this). Pour half the marinade in an 8x8 or 9x9 baking pan. This pan should be glass; most other stuff will react with the lemon juice and taste NASTY. Put in the tofu; pour the rest of the marinade over. Bake 1 hour; turn over tofu slices at about 30 min.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS.
This is my favorite way to make tofu, though I haven't tried many other ways, I guess. It's easy to throw together, and is good cold in sandwiches. I like it so much that I rarely get around the the sandwiches, and prefer to eat is straight out of the fridge. Accompanying this will be leftover beets, leftover orange salad, sauteed zucchini, and maybe the asparagus left over from making Campbell rolls on Sunday. Man, what a healthful meal! I am not usually this good.

Sushi Success!! and rethinking the reason for this blog.

2005-01-11T13:24:00.000-08:00

After talking about this blog with Mom and Dad and re-reading some of it, I got pretty embarrassed about how pissy most of it sounded. Not that I don't ever get pissy, but I'm not a teenager anymore, and I feel like it's no longer couth of me to share all of my angst with the whole world. 1. that's what my journal is for 2. it's not really nice or productive of me to put all of my bitchy little thoughts out there for the whole world to see. Sure, it's a little embarrassing, but mostly I'd feel bad if someone read it and felt bad. I don't want to hurt anybody, and I don't think everybody on earth needs to read all about my boring personal feelings. Like I said, I already write those down in my journal for my own review - nobody else needs to see THAT.

So anyway, here's the new sanitized version of my blog. Less gratuitous swearing and complaining, more food!

Sushi rolls on Friday were a success, and very exciting. Laura and I were practically jumping up and down about how easy it was and how enjoyable. It's like a meal and a craft project rolled into one! We then made some Campbell rolls (smoked salmon, cream cheese, and asparagus) on Sunday night. They were pretty dang good, but I think we're sushi-ed out for awhile. Until next month, anyhow; we'd like to make it a regular thing.

The baked oatmeal got thrown out. I was using thick-rolled oats (which is all I had in the house) and the whole top inch didn't get cooked very well - basically tasted like raw oats w/ cinnamon. The recipe seemed ok though, not too sweet. Maybe I'll try it again this weekend.

2005-01-07T12:13:00.000-08:00

Blurry yet cheery.

Week's Meals: Black Beans and Rice; Linguini "Prima-nara"; Sushi

2005-01-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

Tuesday: BASIC SKILLET BLACK BEANS + BROWN RICE (w/ fixin's)

Exciting, no? Still, the beans turned out quite comforting, even though I made a dumb mistake with them. I used the "basic skillet bean" recipe in the Moosewood Collective Cookbook. I used orange juice as the liquid, so far so good. But this didn't have enough flavor for me, so I opened up a jar of Pace picante sauce and... SHOOK it over the pan.

The result was 3/4 of the jar in the beans; I dug out as much as I could, but the beans were beyond soupy. Ended up pouring out quite a bit of the liquid. However, the beans are more flavorful than they were with just OJ. Next time I try this, I'll do half salsa/half OJ. Beans and rice can be pretty boring, but I find them tasty, especially with a little dollop of sour cream or a sprinkling of cheese. And they're relatively healthful, if I can be judicious with the dairy toppings and the tortilla chips.

Also, please note: fiber is very important, since colon cancer is such a nasty way to go. This dish gives you plenty.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS.

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Wednesday: LEFTOVERS

Black beans. A lot of tortilla chips. Mission Tortilla Strips are GREAT.

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Thursday: LINGUINI "PRIMA-NARA"

I made linguini "carbonara" with zucchini and an onion instead of bacon (plus some mint). This is a Bittman recipe that I'll definitely come back to. I'd like to call it "prima-nara"; that is, you get the spring-y taste of veggies with the zucchini and mint, but it's still creamy and cheesy (which is comforting on a frickin' cold winter's night). Oh, and a spinach salad with feta, red pepper, and olives.

VERDICT: THIS RECIPE WORKS (VERY WELL!!!).

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Weekend Preview: CALIFORNIA ROLLS, BEER, MAYHEM (and maybe, pictures?); BAKED OATMEAL; MORE MEAL PLANNING

I've got all the stuff for California rolls already (I think; it might require yet another run to King Soopers for sesame seeds, extra wasabi, more soy sauce, etc). Tonight's plan is to get some beer, eat a light dinner, then make some sushi rice and have a beer-and-sushi-rolling party. I'll take some pictures and maybe even post them someday! I hope it goes well. I loooooove sushi and can even get the ingredients (sushi-grad tuna, flying fish roe, etc.) to make it at home. The question is, can I roll with the big boys? We shall see...

I wish we had more counterspace...I'll just let Ben and Laura work on their sushi rolls together.

This weekend, I'll also try out a recipe for Baked Oatmeal that I got from RecipeSource. Baked oatmeal was the highlight of my church camp experience - almost coffee cake-like, but not too sweet and very delicious. This recipe claims to be from an old Mennonite cookbook, so I'm probably on the right track. If I don't care for it, I'm going to try tweaking it to get it right. I need more breakfast options. I've been having two eggs over-easy, toast, and grapefruit for awhile now and it's time for more ideas. Cold cereal just does not cut it when it's 2 degrees outside.

Shrimp are grosser than I remember.

2004-12-30T08:02:00.000-08:00

Maybe it was just these shrimp, or maybe it was the recipe. In any case, they did not sit well with me. And they were not all that tasty. Too much orange juice, or maybe the wrong kind of orange juice. Not enough salt? I don't know. There was not enough flavor (except for shrimpiness, which is actually kind of gross on its own; maybe it was thes shrimp; they taste 'off', in any case). I'm not buying a whole 1 1/2 pound ever again, and certainly not from Wild Oats. It's too expensive.

Plus they did not agree with me. I have felt somewhat nauseated ever since last night, and could only stand to eat half a grapefruit this morning. So maybe my tastes have changed and I don't care for shrimp. Or if I have them, they have to taste like something!

Thankfully, the Greek salad (arugula, sliced radishes, feta, and great olives from W.O. olive bar) was quite good. I still can't believe there was ever a time that I didn't like olives. I guess I never had any good ones. I still don't particularly care for those green briny Spanish salad olives, although they are o.k. in other dishes - those were the only ones Mom and Dad ever had around the house. Plain black ones are just 'blah' although again, they are good in things, on pizza, etc.

But man! Quality mixed Greek olives in oregano and good oil and such...geez! I could eat them all day, though I probably shouldn't.

Nausea is receeding somewhat - I drank a good half-quart of water. I wish I had some ginger tea, though, it is MAD effective at removing that slight nausea I so often get. Maybe dehydration was my main problem. I got a book out of the library the other day that claims that a great deal of chronic ailments (esp. digestive ones) are caused by dehydration. It's called "Your Body's Many Cries for Water" and is written by some guy with an insanely hard to spell Hindi last name. It's not Aryurvedic, a bit more scientific than that, but I bet there are parts of it that are bogus. Still, it's not like Western medicine is particularly successful in treating chronic ailments, so it's worth a shot. And anyway, who am I to criticize Aryurvedic medicine? I don't know very much about it. Plus it make sense that adequate water is important; something like 75% of adult humans are made of water.

In other news: I got new toothpaste yesterday. Colgate Total, because I've been taken in by the commercials. Plus some Citrus Listerine, also because ads are insidiously effective. Thankfully, both products also seem effective. Guess what? The citrus flavor IS actually less intense, which makes me more likely that I'll use it twice a day. Bitchin'! I actually woke up without an odd fuzz on my teeth, and my teeth even feel cleaner after eating without having brushed. Maybe it's my imagination. I would like to get my mouth in decent shape, because I need to schedule a dental appointment. I'm pretty sure I have a cavity that is giving me a toothache; it's getting a bit tough to ignore.

I feel really crappy about all of this navel-gazing, considering that thousands of people are dead in Asia right now. I should really donate some money, but there will be need for it for a long time as they rebuild and such, so maybe I'll wait.

First Post from Work.

2004-12-29T15:24:00.000-08:00

Tonight is my last night of freedom alone (Laura's not back until Friday, but I have band practice tomorrow). I'm going to make shrimp (which she dislikes) with rosemary and orange, and a Greek salad. High quality non-King Soopers shrimp, hopefully. Both are Bittman recipes from "HTCE". Probably have a St. Pauli Girl with dinner; bought this to go with last night's so-so Kung Po Chicken (courtesy of Hot Wok; the potstickers were great, tho!). Before I do that, I have to go to Wild Oats and King Soopers at the height of grocery-shopping time. I don't relish that, but then again, grocery shopping is one of my favorite things. Maybe not the actual shopping, but putting the bounty away in the fridge and cupboards - yeah, I like that.

Planned some advance meals as well. Puttanesca w/ Tuna tomorrow, and leftover salad. Coincidentally, I started reading the first Lemony Snicket book today...not quite Harry Potter, but entertaining. Puttanesca sauce (and a recipe for same) figures heavily in an early chapter. Leftovers and scraps on Friday (J.P.'s throwing a party, and there might be food, so I don't want to plan anything major). Then I'll make a real good luck New Year's Day feast on Saturday: hoppin' john, kale w/ double garlic, and cornbread. MMMMMMMMMMMMmmm.

Thinking about resolutions, but I think completely quitting cigs and cutting way back on everything else (including alcohol and butter - so sad) is good enough and I've already started that. Maybe actually using the gym membership...

I keep thinking about veganism someday, but I think I like fish and dairy products (and chicken skin! and spaghetti carbonara!) way too much for that. Plus I honestly don't feel the karmic effects of meat eating.