A field in Gettysburg

Yesterday morning, I got up a little late.  I considered not going to the farmer’s market since I still had some vegetables left over from the previous weekend.  But as I thought about it, I realized I could not go a week without quark, the creamy fresh cheese made from cultured buttermilk.  And so, I made the journey to the farmer’s market after all.  I ended up getting some sheep milk cheese, heavy cream, and berries in addition to the quark, so it was productive.   I’m preparing a post on quark.  It is something you can make at home, if you are so inclined.  In the meantime, here are a few links that I found interesting:  some local farms I love,  a coconut milk cooking contest, misconclusions drawn from studies, nutrient deficiencies,  supplies for preserving food, and why local food is awesome.  See below for all the links.

Valley Shepherd Creamery – This is where I got the sheep’s milk cheese from.    It was very tasty.  I don’t eat a lot of sheep’s milk cheese for some reason, sticking more with cow and goat.  But I should make regular stops at this farm’s stall to try the different sheep’s milk cheeses.  The sheep are grass fed, and they even offer some raw milk cheeses.  I see that they give farm tours, so I might try to go.  Their cheese can be purchased in the NYC/NJ area, but if you don’t live here, they do have an online store.

Hawthorn Valley Farm – I love this farm.  Someday I will figure out how I can go work there.  Grass fed cows, fermented foods, vegetables, they have it all.  If you are in the NY area, check them out.

Clean Your Plate – A cooking contest hosted by The Nourished Kitchen.  This month’s theme is coconut milk.  Submit your recipe by July 15th, or vote once she posts the entries!  Coconut milk is a wonderful ingredient, so this will be a great one to bookmark and make all of the recipes!

Warning: Bologna May Cause Cancer Headlines – There are a lot of studies out there that tell you eating meat is bad for you, fat is bad for you, etc.  Is that really true?  Here is a critical look at one such study.  Read it, and you will learn never to trust the headlines when someone tells you some new study shows X.  Instead, read into the study for more information.  How was the data collected?  What data did they look at, etc.  Here is another one debunking the Finnish Mental Hospital Trial.

ABC’s Big Meal Propaganda – A similar article, this one debunking a news report on ABC.  Here is a quick synopsis – A reporter eats 4 foods that are really bad for you – a deep fried appatizer, a hamburger, french fries, and one of those mega cookie ice cream desserts at popular restaurants.  Then a doctor gives her an exam and tells her how the food affected her, and she says how awful she feels after eating all that saturated fat.  What the report doesn’t tell you is all of the sugar and white flour in these foods.  That is what makes them so unhealthy!  Not the saturated fat.  Read the whole article the complete details.  Very interesting.  In general, that is what makes fast food unhealthy – the sugar (in the soda, in the bun) and the vegetable oils everything is fried in.  It isn’t the saturated fat that poses the biggest problem.

Supplies for Preserving Food – If you want to preserve your own food, here is some equipment you might want.  Look for them at garage sales. 

Are you Nutrient Starved? – I believe most of us aren’t getting enough proper nutrition.  Our lifestyle and diet just does not make it easy.  For example, vitamin D.  I work an office job and can’t go sunbathe for 30 minutes every day to get my requirement of sunlight for optimal vitamin D conversion.  And most people don’t eat enough dairy or eggs to make up for it.  The RDA only lists the bare minimum requirements of nutrients to prevent your body from getting deficiency related diseases, but less profound deficiencies can still affect you.  While I disagree with her assertion that answering “yes” to any of her list of symptoms means you have a deficiency, she still makes a good point that any of those things can mean you aren’t getting enough nutrients.  Here is another article on the RDA of vitamin D.

Why local food – A great post on why local food is so good for you and the community at large.

Healthy and unhealthy ingredients – What ingredients to avoid, and what you can substitute with.  A very helpful post for those of you just starting out on a more traditional, less processed foods way of life.

I think that is it for now.  That should keep you busy until I can regale you with tales of quark and lambs quarter.

zucchini bread

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays.

Today I picked up a CSA share for someone on vacation.  I was not prepared for the bounty of berries I was to receive!  2 pints of raspberries and 2 quarts of strawberries, plus other assorted vegetables and herbs.  I had been prepared to make a currant quick bread, and had prepped some wheat the night before (soaked it in yogurt and left it out 24 hours), but when I realized I could now make a raspberry currant pie, I had to switch gears and figure out something else to do with my soaked wheat.  I froze the raspberries and currants  so I could make a pie with them later this week.  The raspberries would not have lasted more than a day in the fridge, which is always the pity with raspberries.  So delicate that they must be used or frozen right away.

Since I’m getting a delivery of meat in 2 days, I figured I should use something from my freezer to help free up space.  Well, I did happen to have a little less than a cup of grated zucchini so I thought I’d make zucchini bread.  Besides, here in the northeast, the zucchini have arrived at the farmer’s markets, and soon we will be up to our ears in it!

Now, this isn’t a recipe that uses heaps of zucchinis.  It only uses about a cup of grated raw zucchini, or about 1/2 – 2/3 cups grated, blanched zucchini.   So this is a good recipe for when you have an odd zucchini.  Not enough for a meal, but you don’t want it to go to waste.  Of course, you could make multiple loaves and freeze them for later…

Soaking the flour overnight in yogurt is an essential step.  This neutralized the phytic acid present in the wheat.  Phytic acid is an anti nutrient found in nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains that can cheleate minerals from your body.  It can be neutralized by properly preparing these foods, such as soaking flour in yogurt.  The other reason the yogurt step is important for this zucchini bread is that it really helped to leaven the bread.  I would have used all soaked wheat in the recipe, but it would have thrown off the liquid to dry ingredient ratio.  Since I couldn’t soak all of the flour without making the batter too runny, I used sprouted wheat.  Sprouting will also destroy phytic acid.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did, fresh out of the oven.  Recipe below.

• 1/2 cup Whole Wheat Flour
• 1/2 cup Yogurt
• ~ 2/3 cup Shredded zucchini
• 2/3 cup Sucanat/Rapadura/Evaporated Cane Crystals
• 1/3 cup Melted coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
• 2 Eggs
• 1 1/2 Sprouted flour
• 1 teaspoon Baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 1/2 teaspoon Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon Baking powder
• 1/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup raisins

Combine 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour with the yogurt.  Mix well, cover with a towel, and set aside in a warm part of the room, away from drafts for 24 hours.

After the 24 hours have passed, in a separate bowl combine the zucchini, sugar, coconut oil, vanilla, and eggs.  Mix well.  Pour into the flour and yogurt mixture and add the sprouted flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, pecans and raisins.  Mix and then let it sit for 3 minutes or so while you butter a bread pan.

Bake in a 400 degree preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes up dry.  Cool on a wire rack before slicing.

Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp

I love making crisps; if I were to have a “signature dessert” it would be crisps.  I make them so much because they taste great with the fruit and brown sugar combination, crispy topping, and fruity bottom and they are so easy.  I’ve never really exactly followed a crisp recipe, but if I did, it would be the one in Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.  By the way, I highly recommend that cookbook.  It is filled with lots of great information, tons of inspiration, and everything uses real foods.  I’m not a vegetarian, but her cookbook can be used for side dishes, meatless main dishes (for those of you, who like me frequently have “Meatless Meals” or days), and everything tastes great.

Crisps are great all year round.  Any kind of fruit can be put inside to make them suitable for spring (rhubarb and strawberries, tada!) to fall and winter (apple crisp, anyone?).  This recipe will work for all seasons and all fruits with a little bit of know how – really juicy fruits will benefit from the addition of some sort of a starch such as flour or tapioca in the filling to help hold it together a little bit, and the sweeter the fruit, the less sugar you need.

Strawberry season is in full force here in the northeast.  Almost every stand at the farmer’s market has pints lined up, and more to replace the ones that are purchased.  Rhubarbs are still hanging on, as they will until the weather gets too hot for them in another month or so.  I never grew up eating strawberry and rhubarb in combination, but it seems it is a classic, so I made it into a crisp.

This post is submitted to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, Tasty Tuesday and Real Food Wednesday.

Here is how I make a Strawberry Rhubarb Crisp.  Here are the ingredients for a 7×11 in baking dish:

• Rhubarb (about 4-5 stalks)
• Strawberries (about half a pint)
• ~1/2 cup Unrefined sugar such as sucanat, rapadura, or evaporated cane juice
• 6 tablespoons Unsalted butter (grass fed)
• 3/4 cup Unrefined sugar (see above)
• 1 tablespoon Molasses
• 2/3 cup Sprouted flour
• 1/2 cup Rolled oats
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Strawberries and rhubarb in the pan

Now this is what I do.  I chop up enough strawberries and rhubarb to fill my baking pan (about half strawberries, half rhubarb.  If you use more strawberries, you will need to add a little starch to the strawberry rhubarb mix to prevent it from getting too soupy and less sugar since strawberries will provide more sweetness).  Right now I’m using a pyrex baking sheet about 7 in x 11 in.  That was about 1/2 a pint of (whole) strawberries and about 5 stalks of rhubarb.  I put them in the baking dish and sprinkled half a cup of sugar over the top and mixed it in well.  Then set it aside.  Remember, feel free to use less sugar if the fruit is sweet enough on its own, or if you like the tartness of the rhubarb.  I wouldn’t want to add more sugar unless you were using a bigger pan.  Trust me, a crisp is not as good when it is overly sweet.  Plus, sugar is something you should only eat in moderation.

Now for the crisp topping.  I like a LOT of topping.  You might like less.  Play with the amount you put on your crisp until you find something you like.  This makes enough to cover my 7×11 baking dish.

In a separate small bowl, combine the 3/4 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of molasses.  You can use a fork to cut them together really well.  Now, put that in a big bowl along with the oats, sprouted flour, butter (cut into smaller chunks), salt, nutmeg, and cinnamon.   Now – don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty!  Stir it up, mush it up using your hands.  Mix it until it is a crumbly texture.

Put that over the top of the strawberries and rhubarb, then bake in a preheated oven at 375 for about 45-60 minutes.

The crisp right before baking

A quick thanks to Nourished Kitchen for featuring me a few days ago.  What a lovely surprise!  She also reviewed 6 other great real food blogs, so take a look at her post and add the rest of those great blogs to your reading list.

I have a couple of recipes queued up to share with you, but I wanted to write a review of the movie Food, Inc. I saw it this weekend and was impressed.  The movie is about the industrialization of our food supply.  It is a topic I’m quite passionate about, and the topic that lead me to create this blog.  I thought the movie did a great job of summing up many of the reasons I have chosen to remove myself from the industrial food chain. I even learned some new things! Though it won’t affect my own eating habits (because I’m already off the industrial food chain), it has made me more steadfast in my beliefs, and it is an excellent tool to open the minds of people who may not be aware of all of these issues.

The movie presented the following theses:

• Factory farming is bad for the animals, bad for the environment, and ultimately bad for us as well.
• Foodborne illnesses have not gotten any easier to prevent in this industrialized system, and in fact, the industrialization and centralization of our food supply has made it even easier to contaminate.
• Some food processing plants treat workers poorly and often exploit the poorest people or immigrants (legal or not) with unsafe working conditions, low wages, etc.  The food they produce costs less at the grocery store as a result.
• We spend less on food than we used to, but at the same time  health care costs have ballooned.  Instead of spending so little on food (and eating the worst quality food – junk food laden with high fructose corn syrup and/or trans fats for example) and spending so much on heart medications, diabetes medications, etc, we should eat properly in the first place to make those medications unnecessary.
• A lot of corn and soy are GMO – Genetically Engineered Organisms.  They are built to withstand spraying of pesticides and herbicides.  Farmers cannot save seeds and are forever beholden to the seed corporation.  GMOs are generally bad.
• Farm subsidies currently benefit large monoculture farms (farms that produce one product, such as soy or corn).  This is why soy and corn are ingredients in almost everything, and why the unhealthiest food is frequently the cheapest.

I’m sure there are a few points I’m forgetting.  But there was hope at the end of this seemingly bleak tunnel.  One of them was in the form of Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm – one of my personal heroes.  He described his farming methods that honor the animal;s biology.  Food produced this way is easier on the land, safer to eat, and healthier to boot.  He has a beautiful reason for respecting the animals biology that goes beyond the impact to the environment or nutritional value of the meat :

A society that views its plants and animals from that manipulative, egocentric, mechanistic mindset will soon come to view its citizens in the same way.  How we respect and honor the least of these is how we respect and honor the greatest of these.

The other was a case study of Stonyfield Farm, the yogurt company.  The (former) owner explained how consumers buying his yogurt propelled him to success.  The company was bought out by another multi-national yogurt company as a result.  Even the dairy buyer for Wal-Mart explained that if people demand a higher quality or different quality product, Wal-Mart will deliver.

All of the topics had excellent supporting material.  And in some cases, the audience was left to drawn their own conclusion.  For example, while large industrial slaughterhouses were shown, so was the slaughter of chickens on Polyface Farm.  Sure, there were gasps from the audience.  Killing an animal can’t be described as pleasant.  But it was done quickly and cleanly.  It was presented for anyone to make their own opinion.  Same with the piece on Stonyfield Farm.  Many people would say that it is just a part of the industrial food chain as Cheetos.  But it presented the organic industrial food chain in a way that let the audience decide of this was completely acceptable, just as bad as any non-organic major food corporation, or somewhere in the middle.

The movie left me feeling more empowered, more knowledgeable, and more passionate than ever before.  The movie is in limited release right now, but it will be made more broad as the month goes on.  Keep a watch out and see it when it comes out.  In the meantime, this passage from the companion book sums it up best.  This portion written by the aforementioned Joel Salatin:

Perhaps the most empowering concept in any paradigm-challenging movement is simply opting out.  The opt-out strategy can humble the mightiest forces because it declares to one and all, “You do not control me.”

Go plant a garden.  Join a CSA or visit your farmer’s market on a regular basis.  Read my blog (and many many more) for great recipes using real food.  Many even feature great real food on a budget.  Write to your local or federal government representatives to have them change the way we subsidize farms so that real food is more affordable.

If you want to read more about the film, I’ve linked to various interviews, reviews, and articles below.

• Official movie website
• Washington Post interview with the director
• NPR on Food, Inc
• The New York Times on Food, Inc.
• Serious Eats on Food, Inc.
• One of my favorite blogs, Food Renegade, discusses the film
• The blog Cheap Healthy Good reviews the movie – and their own eating habits
• Edible Aria with a link to an NPR radio interview with the director

This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays, hosted by the fabulous Cheeseslave.  Check out her post for links to many more posts about real food, including great recipes.

Wild Pesto

There is just something exotic about eating something that was harvested from the wild.    On top of that, we know that wild food by definition cannot be genetically modified, nor can it have pesticides on it.  However, when eating wild game, fish caught from the ocean, or plants harvested from the wild, one must be sure that everything is taken in a sustainable manner.  If we over harvest, over fish, or over hunt, there will be nothing left for future generations.  Of course, much like sustainable farming, if we harvest food from the wild in a sustainable way, we are ensuring that it will be around for years to come.

One of my recent Farmer’s Market finds was wild arugula.  Wild arugula seems to have a smaller leaf than the cultivated arugula I’ve had, but the overall taste seems pretty much the same.   It just has that wild mystique.

I also got some ramps, which I’ve been working my way through.  Ramps are like wild leeks or green onions.  I find their flavor to be somewhere between a leek and garlic, so I’ve been using them in place of just about anything that calls for garlics, leeks, or onions.  They are wonderful, and edible from the bulb to the leaves.

A great way to put these together is in an arugula pesto.  An arugula pesto is very similar to the regular basil pesto, just with the distinctive peppery arugula bite.  It is wonderful on pastas, salads, or as a way to dress up some baked chicken.  It is an incredibly versatile ingredient, and it should last a good week or two in the fridge, or several months in the freezer (freeze in individual serving sizes for ease of defrosting – I like using ice cube trays).  Make a couple batches and keep them handy in the freezer.  It makes for an incredibly easy meal when you don’t feel like cooking.

Though I couldn’t get the pine nuts or the olive oil locally, I did go with a local cheese from a local artisan cheese maker as opposed to the traditional Parmesan.  The cheese I selected was their most aged cheese.  It was hard, grated easily, and had a flavor not dissimilar to Parmesan, but there also seemed to be a slight cheddar-y flavor as well.

If you don’t have arugula, well, just about any green leafy herb or green could be substituted – the traditional basil, parsley, etc.  You can mix different greens together for your own unique blend.  And if you don’t have the traditional pine nuts, go for walnuts, though most any other nuts could probably be used in place.  If you don’t have ramps, use garlic instead.  I tend to go light on garlic compared to many other people I know, so feel free to make your own adjustment there, as needed.

This recipe makes about 1 cup of pesto.

• 1/2 cup toasted pine nuts
• 4 cups fresh arugula, loosely packed
• 1/2 cup finely grated hard cheese, like Parmesan or your local equivalent
• 1 ramp (bulb and leaves)
• coarse salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

Toast the pine nuts.  I do this stove top.  Put them in a pan on med high heat, stirring frequently about 3-4 minutes or until the nuts turn golden brown and become aromatic.  It can also be done in the oven – spread them on a baking sheet and put them in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes or so.

Chop the ramps and grate the cheese.  Put pine nuts, arugula, cheese, ramps, and olive oil,  in a blender and blend until there are no lumps.  Since it is a lot of greens, you may need to pause the blender and stir it up a bit manually to make sure the greens on the top are pureed.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

It’s that simple.  Enjoy!  This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesdays.

Making Water Kefir

Everyone is talking about probiotics.  And with good reason!  Probiotics are good for us.  We depend on the beneficial microorganisms in our gut to help us digest food.  Popular name brand yogurt commercials tell us that yogurt helps regulate our digestive system and even is an important part of our immune system!  Healthy gut flora can prevent more dangerous strains of bacteria and viruses from multiplying and causing illness.  I’m sure you have all heard of yogurt as being probiotic.  Today I will discuss another one – water kefir.  Water kefir also serves other purposes – it contains vitamins and minerals, and since it tastes very similar to soda, it is a healthy way to satisfy your craving without all of the unhealthy ingredients of soda.

Water kefir is made by culturing water with water kefir grains – not grains like wheat or oats, but some sort of colony of beneficial bacteria and yeast that resemble small grains. There is also milk kefir (commonly just called kefir), which is made with similar grains put in milk.  I’ll discuss that at another time, but I wanted to mention them so you won’t be confused.

When you make water kefir, you get an effervescent drink that can be flavored with citrus, ginger, or vanilla, just like your favorite sodas. But instead of being full of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other nasty things, it is filled with probiotics. Soda that makes you healthier! The culture feeds off the sugar, so the resulting drink isn’t too sweet or sugary, and the process by which they do this creates carbonation. The benefits go beyond the probiotic benefits. The resulting drink is high in various minerals such as calcium and magnesium, B-vitamins and more.

The steps to make basic water kefir seem pretty easy:

1. Dissolve sugar into water.
2. Add kefir grains and whatever fruit for flavoring (certain fruits are typically used, others are best avoided. I will post more on this as I learn more and experiment more)
3. Let sit in room temperature for no more than 12-48 hours, depending on your preference.
4. Strain the grains, save your drink, and start again!

I’ve been trying to make water kefir unsuccessfully for a while, and I have finally learned a few tricks.  I’ve gotten quite a few delicious batches now!  I wanted to share with you my tips so you can learn from my mistakes as well as my successes.

• Don’t use filtered water. Water kefir grains like the little bits of minerals that are found in spring water and well water.
• Do make sure to use dechlorinated water. If your water is chlorinated (most municipal water), you can get rid of the chlorine with a few different methods:

1. Leave the water out in a bowl, uncovered overnight. Chlorine will evaporate. This is the best option if you have time.
2. If you need the water in a rush, you can boil it and then let it cool back down.
3. I’ve also been told that you can aerate it in a blender, though I’ve not tried this method.

• Heat the water up so that the sugar can fully dissolve in the water. Be sure to cool it back down to room temperature before adding the kefir grains.
• Do not use metal utensils. Use wooden spoons and a plastic strainer.
• Use evaporated cane juice crystals, rapadura, or sucanant. Or any similar less refined sugar. There are minerals in this unrefined sugar that the kefir grains need. Molasses may work, but I haven’t tried it. Regular refined sugar does not work well.
• Kefir grains can multiply.  Make sure you keep a ratio of 1/4 cup grains to 1 quart water to 1/4 cup sugar.

My process lately is to follow all of the above steps, let it sit out for 48 hours, then strain, add a few drops of either lemon juice or vanilla extract, bottle, and stick in the fridge.  When you add vanilla, you get a “Cream Soda” and when you add lemon juice you get something that tastes similar to a popular citrus flavored soda.  I can’t wait to experiment with more flavors!

If you think you’d like to give this a try, you need to acquire some water kefir grains.  I’ve ordered from Cultures for Health and have been very satisfied.  They also have a variety of other cultures you can order – milk kefir, yogurt, and sourdough to name a few.  You can also visit the Nourished Kitchen’s culture exchange to see if anyone is offering any grains.

Soda made from real foods, instead of overly processed, additive-laden beverages.  Sign me up!  This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesdays.

I'm a food renegade

This post is submitted to Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays.  Check it out for more great posts on the subject of real food.

Allow me to step away from my usual posts with recipes, techniques, or ingredients.  I’ve had a busy few evenings and haven’t had time to post about the lovely rhubarb buckle I made, or how I cooked my morels and fiddleheads.  I’ll try and touch on those things in upcoming posts.  But for now, this article from the New York Times caught my eye and I wanted to share it with you and share some thoughts on the topic of food safety and packaged/processed foods.

Food Companies Are Placing the Onus for Safety on Consumers

The article proposes a few solutions for making our food safer, such as “ingredient passports.”  It all seems so silly.  There has to be a better way.  Good thing there already is.

People who read this blog regularly know I know where my food comes from, and I don’t mean what processing plant.  I know the address of the farms, and in some cases, I’ve met the farmers.  I’m also planning to visit some farms soon.  This goes for the majority of my meat, eggs, dairy, fruits and vegetables.  Yes, I’ve been known to buy bananas and oranges, neither of which come from the Northeast.  And I do buy the occasional imported cheese or bag of frozen (organic) vegetables.  Of course, the vast majority of my spices, oils, grains and so forth do not come from nearby farms.  But by and large, I can cook a dinner and tell you exactly where the main ingredients came from.  And those that I did not purchase from local farms are still single ingredients with a minimum of processing.

So this article really isn’t relevant to me now, except to solidify my stance on not consuming industrially packaged foods, though it wasn’t too long ago and this article would have been a big eye opener for me.  About a year or two I was still consuming a lot of packaged foods.  Store bought cookies;  just add water, oil, and an egg cake mixes; freezer meals for those busy evenings when I didn’t want to cook.  When I joined my local CSA, a lot of that was put to an end by the economics of the situation.  I had produce that I had to eat or it would go bad and I would waste money.  A few packaged foods would still find their way into my diet, particularly those of the dessert variety.  But 5 months ago or so, I became determined to eliminate them completely.  I was catching colds and flus every few weeks, I was always tired and run down and I was spending a lot of money on food.  I haven’t looked back since.

A friend recently asked me if I miss eating junk food or indulging myself.  My answer: No way.  I don’t want to eat that way.  The food I eat now tastes so much better than anything I ever got out of a box, plus I get the satisfaction of having made it myself.  Combined with the health element, it seems preposterous that I’d ever go back to eating packaged foods again.

It isn’t just food safety, either.  Processed and packaged foods like cake mixes frequently contain dried milk products which contribute to heart disease.  Processed and packaged foods include more sugar or salt than is necessary, including highly processed forms of potentially genetically modified sugars such as High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Processed and packaged foods frequently include preservatives, unnatural colors and all manor of highly processed ingredients, not fit for human consumption.  Even organic processed foods can contain high amounts of sugar, and even organic cereals are made by extrusion, a process which damages the nutrients in the grains.  You can read more about the dangers of food processing at the Weston A. Price Foundation website.

I haven’t even touched on the sustainability factors, inhumane living conditions and other problems of industrially processed/packaged foods.

I simply have no reason to ever eat that way again.  It isn’t worth it to my health or the health of the earth and animals.  My own food that I cook tastes so much better, keeps me busy with a worthwhile activity, and makes me feel accomplished.  As far as convenience, I’m amazed at how many people ask me where I find the time.  It doesn’t take me much longer now than it did before.  I still have days I don’t want to cook, but now on those days, I just eat leftovers, make a quick salad or sandwich or eat cheese and crackers with a side of fruit or something.  I also usually keep some sort of fermented food such as kimchi, sourkraut, pickles or beets in the fridge, so I can use those to round out a meal.

How about you?  How have you eliminated processed foods?  Any tips to share, or trouble spots you are finding?

Radishes at the farmer's market

What do you do with a chicken breast to make it more exciting?  I thought about this last night and decided to make a cream sauce.  The end result was fantastic.  This cream sauce would probably work with fish and vegetables as well.  It is a pretty free form recipe.  Once you’ve made the roux to your liking, everything else is just included in quantities your taste buds see fit.

The roasted radishes are wonderful and extremely easy.  I always thought I didn’t like radishes.  I don’t like their spicy bite.  Then my uncle taught me to roast them.  Roasting them takes the bite away and leaves a sweetness behind.

Finally, I hate kitchen waste, always wanting to stretch my dollar and prevent usable things from ending up in the garbage.  The radishes came with green tops, so they must be eaten as well.  Radish greens, like radishes, have a bit of a bite that is diminished with longer cooking.  If you don’t have radish greens, other spicy greens like mustard could be used in this recipe.

Recipes for all 3 dishes below.

This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesday.

Chicken with Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4 small chicken breasts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 to 2 cups milk
• Tarragon
• Sage
• Thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 1 or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice

In a large frying pan, sear the chicken breasts on both sides.  Reduce heat, cover, and cook on med-low heat, checking and flipping occasionally, as needed, until done.

For the sauce, Melt the butter over medium heat.  When melted, add the flour and stir.  Then add the milk and whisk.  You’ll need to whisk a lot.  The sauce should thicken quickly.  You really can’t take your eyes off this for more than a few minutes.  Don’t let it boil.  Keep whisking.  When you have your desired consistency, add the tarragon, sage and thyme.  Then add salt and pepper to taste.  Just before serving, add a little lemon juice.

To help you time your meal, the sauce will only take 5-10 minutes.  Spoon the sauce over the chicken breast right before serving.  I put a generous portion of sauce on my chicken.

Roasted Radishes

Ingredients:

• Radishes
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Sesame seeds

Cut the radishes into quarters.  Toss with olive oil until coated.  Sprinkle salt and sesame seeds, and place into a baking dish.  To save on cleanup, I usually put the radishes in the baking dish and use that dish to toss with the olive oil. Roast at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.  Simple!

Braised Radish Greens

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch radish greens
• 1 tablespoon bacon grease
• A splash of water
• 3 tablespoons of reduced beef stock

Heat bacon grease in a good braising pot on medium heat until melted.  Add the greens and sautee.  Add a small spash of water and 3 tablespoons of reduced beef stock (glace).  Cover, reduce heat to low, and let it cook for 30 minutes (less for spicier greens, longer for milder greens).  When you have cooked it your desired length, take the lid off, raise the temperature to medium, and let the liquid cook off, while watching it and stiring often.

Cooking Purple Potatoes

It seemed that all at once, I had a number of ingredients that had to be cooked.

At the farmer’s market last week, I picked up a bunch of stinging nettles. The food blogs have been a-flurry about stinging nettles, so I wanted to see what that was all about. (It turns out, I love them.) I also picked up some purple potatoes because they were just so beautiful. And somehow, I found myself with about 3 dozen eggs, and a fridge with little room for them all! Finally, I still had about a quart of soured milk to use. I had to come up with something.

I trolled the food blogs until I found this on Cook Local. It seemed just about perfect, though I would need to make a few modifications. My final recipe left out the onions (because I don’t really like onions), and it added spinach, soured milk, cream, and cottage cheese. It came out wonderfully! The nettles give it a wonderful wild, herby flavor, and the spinach brings familiarity, almost a Florentine type flavor, especially when combined with the farm fresh cottage cheese.

It is a flexible dish, hearty enough for a dinner, but also suitable for a breakfast or brunch. There is a lot of room to play with this one – for a more breakfast style casserole, add bacon or sausage. Use a different kind of cheese instead of cottage. Don’t have nettles? This would also work with kale, chard or all spinach.

This post is submitted to Real Food Wednesday – wild crafted greens, heirloom potatoes, dairy the way our grandparents drank it – these are real foods.

Layering Nettles and Spinach on Purple Potatoes

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch of nettles
• Half a bunch of spinach
• 6 small purple potatoes
• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 6 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon of cream
• 1/3 cup soured milk (if you do not have raw, naturally soured milk, you can use yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, or turn fresh milk soured with a bit of vinegar or lemon juice)
• 3/4 cup cottage cheese
• Salt and Pepper

Boil the spinach and nettles until they are soft and turn a bright green. Try not to boil too long, just 3 minutes is about right. Chop them up finely and set aside. Slice the potatoes into thin slices. Melt the butter over medium heat and add the potatoes. Cook until they are nearly done. About 5-10 minutes. Preheat the over to 350 degrees. In a mixing boil, beat the eggs, then add the cream, milk, and cottage cheese. Arrange the cooked potatoes on the bottom of a baking dish. Top them with the chopped spinach and nettles. Then pour the egg mixture over the top. If you like, you can top with little dollops of cottage cheese. Sprinkle a little salt and pepper over the top, and then bake in the over at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until done.

Finished Gratin Right Out of the Oven

I'm a food renegade

It is a wonderfully satisfying trip to get food when you arrive and are greeted by the farmer who not only owns the farm that produces the butter and cheese and vegetables and meat and so forth, but he also works in the field and with his animals daily. You can ask him, “how are the animals doing?” and he will tell you. You can ask him how the grass is coming in. He helps you put your newly purchased food in the bags and thanks you for the purchase.

This is why these days about 90% of my meat, dairy, eggs, vegetables, and fruit comes from CSAs, co-ops, and farmer’s markets. I want to know how the animals are treated before the eggs or milk is collected, before the animals are slaughtered. I want to know what vegetables are fresh and in season. I want to know how they were grown. Meeting the farmer gives me that chance to find out. It also makes me feel safer – I can avoid the massive industrial foodchain that can easily become contaminated (peanuts, anyone? Or the latest warning, sprouts? Before that was tomatoes, peppers, and spinach, not to mention the regular e. coli and salmonella scares…). He is running a smaller farm, so it is easier for him to keep a good handle on quality control. Also, since he is producing less food, if there is an issue, it is likely to be small and since his number of customers is small, it is easily contained. On the rare chance I could get sick from something I ate, it will be easy for me to track down the source of it. I have absolutely no fear for the safety of the food I purchase from farmers. I cannot say the same about the industrial food I purchase.

It is about as real as it gets – having that direct personal connection to the farmer. The only way you could be closer to your food source is if you grew it yourself. Unfortunately, that isn’t an option for me at the moment, living in an apartment in NYC. So I’ll take shaking hands with the farmer instead.

Yes, I am a food renegade, and this post is part of Fight Back Fridays.  This post is also part of Food Roots because I like to know exactly where my food comes from.