Stand up for healthy food

OK, so I know it's a little cheesy to promote a television show/petition online, but I really find this an exciting movement, cheesy and star-studded though it may be.  Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution show is going to approach Congress about increasing funding for school lunches so that we can afford to provide children with fresh foods (they cost a lot more than processed atrocities).  Anyway, they want to take 1,000,000 signatures with them when they go.  It only takes a minute to sign online, and in my humble opinion, it's a worthy cause:

Sign the petition Jamie's Food Revolution USA Jamie Oliver

Granola Recipe . . . per request

Homemade Granola

(a recipe from Sarah)

I'm giving you the recipe for using 8 c of oats--otherwise my family goes through it too fast to make it worth the trouble.  If you want less, halve or quarter ingredients.

Granola

8 c oats
2 c flax
1 t salt
4/3 c coconut
4/3 c nuts
----------
1 c maple syrup (or honey)
3/4 c canola oil (I actually use olive oil or coconut oil/olive oil blend
1/8 c water
2 t cinnamin (or vanilla)

Preheat oven to 275 degrees.  Mix dry ingredients together.  Warm the wet ingredients on the stovetop until they thin.  Pour over the dry ingredients and use hands to squish oats together.  Spread out on baking sheets (preferably with slight raised sides).  Put in oven for 30 minutes.  Take out and stir.  Add 4/3 c raisins or craisins or other dried fruit.  Bake 15 more min. until golden. (I've gotten too lazy and just add the dried fruit when it's done baking.)

Enjoy!  Hope you like it!

Val, Mommy, Gardener . . . Super Sleuth?

So after reading the book I described below, I have been highly attuned to chemical pollution around us.  And when I watched the show "Food Revolution with Jamie Oliver," I was curious to see the connections between the health problems of the residents there and similar health problems with residents described in Slow Death by Rubber Duck that were caused by scary pollutants in the water supply.  So I researched online and found that this town is only two hours from the town described in the book, on the same river, and with its on branch of a Dupont plant in their area.  Coincidence?  Well, maybe, maybe not.  So I contacted the EWG (Environmental Working Group) about it and found someone really interested in my surmise who said she was going to look into it.  Super Sleuth strikes again!

Review of "Slow Death by Rubber Duck"

For those interested (even in a looking-through-fingers-covering-your-eyes kind of way) in avoiding some of the most harmful chemicals in household products all around us, this is a must read.  It isn't, however, a good book to read right before going to sleep at night.  I found it distinctly unhelpful for that purpose, because I'd lie awake in bed and think about the alarming statistics or historical account of the industry's development of products and their impact on the environment.

Since most people probably won't go running to the book store (or library, if you're cheap like me) to find out all about scary chemicals in products, I thought I'd summarize some of the most useful info from the book.  Initially I wrote seven, but had to come back and make it an even fourteen:

1.  If you want to check the possible health risks in personal care products (toothpaste, deodorant, lotion, gel, sunscreen, shampoo, etc.), a very thorough analysis of products is available at Environmental Working Group's website:

ewg.org

You click on their "skin deep" cosmetic resource in the bottom right corner, and then there's a task bar where you enter a product name and they give you an overall rating with an explanation of why and an analysis of the safety of each ingredient.  It's really helpful, I've found.

Castille soap works great as a body wash and as a shampoo, if you are interested in a cost-effective safe alternative to either of those products.  Shea butter is a great moisturizer.  And Purple Prairie makes an affordable sunscreen called "Purple Prairie Sun Stuff" that was the best product for the best price I could find after a lot of time (about 4 hours) on the EWG website and searches from sellers.  You can get it from them directly and get free shipping if you spend $40 (which isn't hard if you find someone(s) who want to go in and get a bottle, too) at the following web address:

http://www.purpleprairie.com/results.php?prod_group=SunScreen

2. Get chunk light instead of white tuna.  It's made from smaller fish and has way less mercury.

3.  Buy close fitting 100% cotton pjs--all the others, by law, are sprayed with hormone-distrupting flame retardants.

4.  Remember this rhyme to help avoid scary plastics:

"4, 5, 1, 2, all the rest are bad for you."

And don't buy tomato products in cans.  All cans, but especially tomatoes (to combat the acidity), are lined with BPA that leaches out into the product.  Never microwave plastic containers.

5.  Replace your BPA vinyl shower curtain with a recycled polyester one.

6.  Avoid nanoparticles (nano-silver, etc.) and triclosan as ingredients or anti-bacterial products (the only safe antibacterial products are alcohol-based).

7.  Switch from teflon anything to cast-iron or stainless-steel (teflon is a big one to avoid).

8.  Use a stainless steel water bottle.

9.  Don't spray pesticides on your lawn. (Or use an environmentally friendly company.)

10. Buy local and/or organic.

11. Use reusable bags for shopping.

12.  Buy electronics that are PBDE free.

13.  Avoid too much fat (that's where your body stores chemicals and toxins--and where animals' bodies have stored theirs).

14. Buy fragrance-free products (fragrance is pthalates) and "rubber" children's toys (also pthalates).

I highly recommend the book, but thought some people might rather get a short summary, so here you go.  Really implementing any individual change involves becoming a label-reader.  But if you read what all these chemicals are doing to us and especially our children, there's plenty of motivation to do so.  It also compels us to join any kind of combined efforts to pressure government into passing bans on dangerous chemicals.

Shea Butter, Anyone? For Hair Gel?

You can get it for a great price from: Empower Village
at
http://www.empowervillage.com/

Supplier of wholesale 100% Shea Butter. For those of you using it for body cream or to make hair gel out of it! :)   It's really great stuff!

Owen and I made some hair gel today (based on the alarming info I read about in a book I will go into later, Slow Death by Rubber Ducky), containing shea, aloe, and a little olive oil.  It worked for Owen, I haven't tried it yet.  Here's the recipe:

Shea Hair Gel:

4 oz shea (100%, if possible)
2 oz aloe (I squeezed it out of our plants, actually)
2 T olive oil or coconut oil

(source: http://naturalhairrules.blogspot.com/2009/08/shealoe.html)

You heat up the shea on the stove in a double boiler.  Then add the other ingredients.  It is liquid at first but cools to a really cool semi-soft texture.  And you could use it for body lotion if you wanted, too.

Guess What Survived the Winter?

When all that snow melted a few weeks ago, I was amazed to see arugula and kale that looked like it might still be alive and edible.  Closer investigation of the garden this week revealed carrots that are still crunchy-- and with green tops that have evidence of fresh growth.  I was out of salad toppings and went out to see if I could find any carrots big enough to eat.  I came in with the ones above.  That's arugula to the left of those little orange beauties.  I was amazed to discover that the arugula is young and in great shape, too.  And there's way more of it out there than I thought.  I think some of the plants that were looking wet and spindly are now thriving after all the sunshine we've had lately.  Needless to say, we had an impressive salad (considering it included local ingredients this early in the year).  And today I picked a bunch more carrots.

My next big discovery was that my surviving kale plants were not only in better shape but greater in number than I had realized.  There are a few squashed plants and broken off ones that give the impression that the kale bed is not in great shape.  But once I space out all of the healthy little plants and it gets warmer, we should be in great shape.  I bought seedlings of kale last summer and 10 plants fed us up until winter started.  This year I am starting with 22 seedlings (though I'll give some away), and two or three of my plants from last year (the full-grown ones--the ones I didn't strip of all leaves to put in pasta sauce) are still alive.  So it should be a kaleful summer. 

These pictures show some new growth on last year's marjoram and savory herb plants.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

I had no idea some of these things could live through the winter.  Isn't it unbelievable to start spring with some stuff in the garden already??!

 

Plus, I did plant some peas and raab and lettuce.  Come on spring!

Red Beet Eggs: A Pennsylvania Dutch Treasure

In case anyone wants ideas of what to do with their leftover painted boiled eggs this Easter . . .

a Lancaster favorite is red beet eggs (some refer to these as "pickled eggs" but I think we can all see how red beet eggs is a more exciting name).  :)

Use local eggs if possible!

My mom's recipe is as follows:

Red Beet Eggs

15 oz can red beets (or one or two beets boiled in a small amount of water)

1/3-1/2 c apple cider vinegar

2-3 T sugar

onion slices

salt to taste (~ 1 tsp)

1 tsp peppercorns

1/2 t whole cloves

~ 3 bay leaves

Heat the ingredients to dissolve the sugar.  You can dilute with a small amount of water to stretch the liquid.  Add 6-10 boiled peeled eggs and put in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.  They last for a while because the vinegar preserves them.

Enjoy!

PEA PLANTING TIME!

Now I obviously have no idea if this is true, but today my mom's neighbor told her:

"It's the fifth warm day of March in a row, today's the day to plant peas."

My mom told me this news this evening.

Coincidentally, I had planted my first round of peas today.  The ground was moist but not mucky and it was lovely outside.  The weeds and rocks were less than lovely, but you'll have this. 

Since I really have no idea what I'm doing and just realized, "Oh dear!  Peas are supposed to go in early!" I'm really quite reassured to know that this was the day my mom's neighbor felt peas should be planted.  It's nice to happen to align with someone's schedule.

Here's hoping he knows what he's talking about!

"Fast Food"

So if you are ever having one of those nights when you just can't handle to make any cooking effort (like I had tonight) . . . here's a great one to try:

Polenta with Veggie/Tomato Topping

Veggie Topping Part:
Chop up kale or broccoli or something green into small pieces.
Chop up onion and/or garlic (if you're not pregnant and either sounds appealing).
Saute both.
Add several whole tomatoes (if in season), or a large can of diced, or a bag of frozen (if you are a late summer storage nut).
Add a can (or some cooked from dry that you have in the fridge) of any kind of light/white beans.
Add some shredded chicken (I like to keep some frozen in ice cubes after I boil a whole chicken) or tuna (opt.).
Add a little wine or broth if you like.
Salt and season to taste.
This part should really take 30 min. or less--real time, not cooking show time.

Polenta Part:
Slice up a Trader Joe's tube of polenta into thin slices (no more than 1/2" thick).
Fry first side (about 4 min.) until bottom is golden.
Flip, then put a little mozzarella type cheese on the top sides that are already fried.
Fry second side, cheese should melt somewhat.
This part should take real time 10 min.

Serve topping on the polenta.  Yum.

Two Articles: One Thoughtfully Philosophical, One Hilarious

I thought this article was really interesting.  It dealt with the impossibility and undesirability of keeping the government "religion free:"

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/22/are-there-secular-reasons/

This was just a really hilarious article about ice dancing, which I have actually been watching this time:

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/21/sports/la-sp-olympics-erskine21-2010feb21

Root Veggie Roast

I was impressed with a roasted root vegetable dish at my new favorite restaurant (Farmacia, found during the last snow day and mentioned in a previous post), and I decided to guess how to replicate it--except I added a few more veggies.  Owen assures me that I did manage it quite well.  What I did is very easy and anyone who wants to can try it.

Roasted Root Veggies

white or red potatoes

turnips

red beets

carrots

sweet potatoes

Slice any or all of the above vegetables (I used all of them) into thin (1/4") slices.  You can then cut the larger circles into halves or quarters.  Put veggies into a casserole dish or a roasting pan.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Add a few drizzles of olive oil and stir veggies to evenly coat with oil.  Put on a lid or cover with foil.  Bake at 375° for about an hour.  Stir after every 20 min. or so to check.  Turnips were the last to get soft for me. Works great as a side with a roast or as a main dish with some lighter mains in addition.

Happy seasonal eating!

Apple Tuna Salad

An easy way to use up apples, for those of you with a seasonal stockpile like I now have again. 

Apple Tuna Salad

2 or 3 chopped up apples, small pieces
2 cans tuna
3 stalks celery, chopped
mayonnaise, to taste

I then put it on toast and melted cheese ontop in the oven.  It was really good.  And easy!

Back into the Local Foods

Today we drove to Plymouth Meeting to a farm called Maple Acres Farm (http://www.mapleacresfarmmarket.com/) to try once again to eat local seasonal foods.  They had apples, lots of them, and we bought about a bushel of mixed fuji and rome apples for $20 (which is at least good for Philadelphia).  Then we bought a 1/2 bushel of sweet potatoes for $10.  We also bought some turnips, redbeets, cauliflower, and broccoli.  Now I just have to figure out how to cook all that in appealing ways (turnips may be the challenge).  I would have bought some rutabagas and made myself cook those, too, but they were almost $3 a piece.  I doubt I could possibly cook them well enough to justify that price.  Anyway, now that the nausea has mostly passed, I feel some responsibility to live up to my environmental eating goals.  I'll let you know how we fare with all of these root veggies.  Hopefully I will also be able to report that I made and heat-sealed a whole bunch more applesauce.  :)

Hope you found me!

Hope the address change didn't throw anyone off to much--I've been meaning to change it for a while!  (Well, ever since multiple people told me they never check my blog because they can't remember the address!)

It's a Whale of a Taggie!

Well, I'm finished with my latest taggie, and I think it came out really cute!  :)  I stayed up late to finish it and I'm pretty grumpy today as a result . . . but, hey, all in the name of art, right?  I've been making taggies as baby gifts ever since they became Jessie's obsession, but lately I've tried (occasionally, usually because someone has a girl and I have boy colors--necessitating something to make it look less like a boy's blanket) to personalize it a little with a design.  Anyway, this might be my favorite so far.

Cooking the Perfect Steak

So, I know, this is not typically the place one would go to find helpful advice on preparing slabs of meat.  Generally slabs of meat at my house (grass-fed, preferably) are cut into small bits and stretched into many, non-meat heavy meals.  While looking for a "romantic Valentine dinner" last night, I happened upon advice for cooking the perfect steak.  And while I don't know if a big slab of beef is particularly romantic, per se, it sure results in an appreciative gleam in my hubby's eye (I guess the rarity of the experience is just so exciting for my would-be-extremely-carnivorous husband whose wife protects his arteries and heart with ample vegetables not exactly because it is his wish).  Anyway, a big slab of beef I decided it would be, and I decided to share the website where I found the very helpful instructions on perfect steak prep:

http://allrecipes.com/HowTo/How-to-Cook-Steak/Detail.aspx

For those who don't feel like actually reading the directions, I will summarize Julie Filips's advice as follows:

1. Preheat a cast-iron skillet (or oven-proof one) to 500 degrees in the oven.
2. Use hot pads to remove and put on burner, turn to high.
3. Put steak on dry skillet.
4. Fry both sides a few minutes.
5. Put back in oven a 3-5 minutes until desired doneness. 
6. Put under foil, and pour 1/2 c red wine in the skillet.  Reduce to 1/3 c while boiling.  Turn off heat and add 2 T butter.  Pour over meat.

I will say that the 3-5 minutes they give as a range puts it in a rarer category.  I did more like 12-15 for a medium-well steak (I know, I know, but I'm pregnant, and eating blood feels risky).  I served it with buttered pasta and sauted broccoli (the broccoli was good, I used a little olive oil and a little water and plently of salt so it was sort of steam/sauted).  The steak was good, though next time I'll do it medium. 

Next time will probably be quite a ways off.  I'm still not doing the big slab of meat thing regularly.
Happy Valentine's Day, Owen!

Snow Daze

So Owen and I finally got a weekend to ourselves . . . and we weren't about to let a silly blizzard stop us!  I picked Micah up early from school and drove the kids to Lancaster on Friday.  I came back and made it to the house by 2:30.

[Here I must add that only Grandma's quick thinking substitution of a turquoise skiing neck-warmer from the '80s kept me from having to drive right back to Lancaster with Jesse's blankie, "night night."  Here is a picture of him holding it in much warmer weather.  He generally does not sleep without it.  The only other time (other than last weekend) was last summer when we left it at home with the diapers in a bag in the middle of the floor when we left for the beach.  And then it was like that scene from Best in Show when the dog's owners freak out because they can't find "busy bee" and the dog is about to go on.  They think the dog is freaking out, but actually the dog appears unaffected while the owners go ballistic.  Once again, Jesse gracefully adapted because he didn't realize his mom would actually have brought it to him if he hadn't.]

Anyway, to get back to my account of our childless snow days . . .

It snowed 28.5 inches at Philadelphia airport (apparently the only place in Philly that measured it, since it was quoted each time measurements were listed).  And that meant that part of the snow day must be spent shoveling.  The shoveling was light and fluffy, however, and so not a big problem, especially if you were the one on sidewalk versus car-freeing duty.

After we shoveled and ate the seasonally appropriate tomato soup and grilled cheese I whipped up (against all of my intentions--the main point of the weekend for me was to get out of cooking anything), we set out for center city to join the ten other people braving the post-storm sidewalks. 

We got a rather filling, powder-based chai at a coffee shop that was open (Starbuck's was closed! How's that for unbelievable?); bought Owen an acceptable hat at an overpriced boutique (the hat is modelled in the first picture up at the top), because, hey, it was open, and you have to reward the people sitting there and getting 2 or 3 customers an hour; and then we went to Farmacia, my new favorite restaurant as of Saturday, which served local seasonal organic cuisine (this time of year: root vegetables, swiss chard, arugula, and the best smoked cheese from a local Amish purveyor--their word choice, not mine--I have ever tasted in my life).  Yum. 

We then tried walking to Barnes and Nobles on Broad Street (or Borders, to me they are too identical to bother telling apart), but after an 8 block walk in crappy boots, I was slightly annoyed to discover they were closed.  That night we fell asleep again around 10 and slept until almost 9 the next morning.  I definitely haven't slept that long since I was a young child (except for the night before, since we did go downtown for dinner Friday and walk all over the place that evening, too, but it doesn't make as good of a story because the snow didn't start until we left the restaurant).  

The weekend was lovely. 

Now we are snowed in again, but the blizzard is still raging and nasty.  And the kids are here, so that's a rather different experience.  A huge branch just fell off of our neighbor's tree with a loud crash right behind our kitchen window, pretty exciting.  Plus, lightening and thunder during a snowstorm is wild.  Stay warm! 

Davis Family Update . . .

OK, we're doing much better.  I just noticed my last post was a little dramatic.  I was getting a little discouraged because our colds were not improving and my throat hurt really bad so that it was really hard to sleep.  Anyway, my cold is mostly gone now, just a little cough left.  And Owen finally got an antibiotic for the sinus infection he developed.  So once Jesse gets rid of this cold (it's now hit all four of us, and poor Jesse was already fighting an old ear infection, so this was sad timing), we'll finally be rid of it.  This one.  Snow day reports to follow!  

Val is not better--for the record

I believe I led my readers to believe that I was starting to get better from my cold.  That must have been the night my throat pain started.  My throat pain from whatever in the world this is is as bad (or almost as bad, who can compare) as when I had mono in high school.  (That throat pain is the gold standard against which I measure all throat pain.)  Anyway, I feel the need to broadcast this unrealistic pain.  It is not strep, I got tested on Friday.  I wonder at what point self-pity will eclipse actual pain.  They're neck on neck at this point.

Spaghetti Sauce

A major challenge with this pregnancy is that I really can't eat or cook with garlic and onion at all.  The gorge rises in my throat even as I think about it as I type.  Anyway, even though my nausea is a lot better now (relatively speaking), I still cannot go near either one.  I came up with a pretty good spaghetti sauce which has opened up the world of spaghetti, lasagne, pizza, and ziti.  I doubt many of you will have cause to use it (I hope not, because having to avoid garlic and onion really limits your cooking), but you never know . . .

Garlic and Onion-free Spaghetti Sauce

Saute red pepper and mushrooms in olive oil (both should be chopped very small).  You can also add zucchini if you want to, just make sure it's chopped very fine.  (I normally start with the garlic and onion before this step if you want to use the really great recipe.)
Add several cans of diced tomatoes and tomato sauce* (according to taste, and according to how much you're trying to make and how big of a veggie pile you started with--I do a couple of each).
Add a bay leaf and basil and oregano, etc.
You can add a little red wine.
Simmer on low heat. 
Simple but tasty.  VERY helpful for those who have to avoid the aforementioned tasty ingredients.

*I actually use frozen or heat sealed versions from my fall stock-piling, but I'm working from the assumption that most aren't buying into all that labor-intensive winter prep.