where it's going

So why is this so important to me now? Several reasons.

First, I'm tired of feeling like a hypocrite--praising organic and natural living while buying the same old crap because it's cheap, or easy. I'm learning it doesn't have to be expensive. Last week at West Oaks Farm Market potatoes were $.49/lb. At the grocery store they were over $1/lb. So with some careful price-watching, it can actually be cheaper. And yes, there is more work involved cooking dinner every night. It's a challenge to cook things I've never tried before. But it's an adventure every time. Admit it, eating the same five things every week gets boring!

Second, as you can probably tell I have some very strongly held feelings about the right and wrong of things. I want to live my principles.

Third, I have a family. I have a husband fighting the negative effects of years of unhealthy eating, and a baby daughter that I want to raise right. I don't care if we have donuts for breakfast once in a while, but I believe it's important to teach kids good eating habits early on. I want us to be healthy together. I've seen people feed their babies good nutritious food but as soon as the child can eat what the grownups eat, it's all chicken nuggets and mac'n'cheese. I've seen what happened to my husband and how hard it is for him to break his old habits, how he struggles with his health--I don't want that for my child. And I want to help him too.

Fourth, it's fun. I love going to the farmers' market and being presented with a beautiful array of fresh goodies. I like talking to the person that grew my food. I like growing my own, even if it's just a few herbs to add to the pot.

Normally I don't do this kind of thing, but there's an Indigo Girls song that sums up how I feel. So I'll leave you, Internet-style, with song lyrics.

"Hammer And A Nail"

Clearing webs from the hovel
a blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I've been digging too deep, I always do.
I see my face on the surface
I look a lot like narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness
Standing on the edge of a drowning blue.
I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
Glare off the white hurts my eyes
Gotta get out of bed get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands, not just my head
I think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand in a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth if you want a rose.
I had a lot of good intentions
Sit around for fifty years and then collect a pension,
Started seeing the road to hell and just where it starts.
But my life is more than a vision
The sweetest part is acting after making a decision
I started seeing the whole as a sum of its parts.
My life is part of the global life
I'd found myself becoming more immobile
When I'd think a little girl in the world can't do anything.
A distant nation my community
A street person my responsibility
If I have a care in the world I have a gift to bring.

where this journey started

I grew up on a small farm. My mom was vegetarian, although my dad wasn't--we ate veg around the house and we could have meat when we went out, if we wanted. We ate lots of homegrown food: eggs from our chickens, veggies from the garden.

Some of my fondest childhood memories involve eating things I found around the farm--mulberries, serviceberries, cherries when the birds didn't get them. I dug up wild onions in the yard and Mom would put them in the spaghetti sauce. We fished in our neighbors' lake and fried the little fish in cornmeal for dinner.

I remember being fascinated by all the creatures that shared our land, whether domesticated or wild.

As I got older I began to explore the origins of food, and decided on vegetarianism for the sake of the animals. I had known chickens and pigs and cows, known their personalities and intelligence and quirks. I couldn't support the needless cruelty of factory farms. My mom and stepdad opened a farm market that later became a natural food store. I began to understand that our bodies are literally made of what we eat; what better reason to nourish ourselves with healthy food?

Mom also taught me an important lesson: healthy doesn't have to taste bad. She had (still has) some kind of magic in the kitchen. I remember so many thrown-together "stuff in a pot" dinners that were always delicious.

I was never expected to do more than take care of my responsibilities and not to get in trouble. My parents were willing to let me make my own choices and to support them wholeheartedly, and for that I am eternally thankful.

Returning to this lifestyle seems so natural to me. It's where my heart has always been.

summer ahoy!

You know what I love about summer? Cherries, and raspberries, and peaches, and OH GOD THE TOMATOES ARE HERE.

return to the world of the meaty.

Fourteen years of (admittedly imperfect) vegetarianism have passed. And yet, the meal itself was so uneventful I forgot to even write about it. Jason made bowtie pasta (farfalle? what are we, the Rockefellers?) with a garden veggie tomato sauce. I ate about a spoonful of ground beef.

Saturday night he made steak. And while it wasn't bad, I have come to a conclusion: I don't really like beef.

However, I have been craving roasted chicken. I read that it's easy to do in a crock-pot. Must find local chicken.

noodles and carbs

This one... I liked it but Jason was not too keen. It was gloopy but tasty. I used a prepared alfredo sauce, but for texture's sake I think a bechamel or cheese sauce would work better.

Lasagna Primavera

1 pkg lasagna noodles
1 cup shelled fresh peas
1 cup chopped asparagus
1 15 oz tub ricotta cheese
1 cup shredded mozzarella
1 egg, beaten
handful of chopped fresh parsley
pepper
2 to 2 1/2 cups bechamel or cheese sauce

Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Mix ricotta, egg, parsley, and a dash of pepper.

Ladle some sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 pan. Mix peas and asparagus with remaining sauce. Assemble the lasagna in layers: noodles alternating with sauce mixture and ricotta. Make sure the top layer is sauce and sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.

Bake at 425 for 40 minutes.

Or! Prepare two lasagnas: one 9x9 pan and one loaf pan. Wrap and freeze one for later.



In other news, a coworker has given me some starter for Amish Friendship Bread. This should be interesting.

love that man

Jason cooked last night. Along with the main course (chicken for him and veggie burger for me) we had roasted fingerling potatoes again and this creation, which was DELICIOUS.

Spring Saute

1 cup shelled fresh peas
bunch asparagus, trimmed and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
handful of green onions, finely chopped
butter
splash of wine (I think he used red, but white would be good too)

Melt butter in a large saucepan. Saute everything until asparagus is bright green and tender. Add the peas near the end--they barely need any cooking.

Lazy dinner

So money's been tight. Lately our strategy has been to go to the farmers' market first and base meals off what we find there, so we can then hit up the grocery store and buy the other stuff we need.

I think I'm not buying enough at the market. We shop on Friday and by Wednesday things are looking a little thin. I'm also trying to use up what we have already rather than buy a ton of new stuff. So, with that in mind, here's last night's recipe: cheap, filling, and relatively easy.

White Bean 'n' Green Soup

1 tbsp. olive oil
3 large garlic cloves, minced
½ onion, chopped
3 cups chopped greens: chard, kale, beet, turnip, collard...
½ cup diced carrots
4 cups veggie or chicken broth
½ lb dry white beans
one can diced tomatoes
bay leaf
1 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary, or whatever seasonings you want*
Salt and pepper to taste


Soak beans overnight in a large pot. In the morning, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until soft. Drain and rinse beans, cover with water, and simmer 1 ½ to 2 hours or until done. Drain beans and toss everything into the crock pot. Set to Low. Go to work. Come home, make some cornbread, and have dinner.

Or: throw in some browned ground beef and cooked pasta and tada, minestrone.

*I should probably mention, at our house Old Bay seasoning and Tabasco sauce go in everything.