I still cannot make a pretty pie. The filling is a mixture of strawberry jam (which I made), rhubarb sauce (which I made), local maple syrup and arrow root powder added as a thickner. The flour is also local - a wheat pastry flour that was a pain in the neck to use. I finally gave up and made a patchy pie as I couldn’t roll out the dough without it falling apart.
I read a very well written and beautiful post recently that really made me think. Of course one of the reasons I related to the post is because I’ve felt like Megan many a time. And I’ve been at the other end of the spectrum unable to see someone’s point of view.
For example, unlike some people I know, I don’t get angry at the thought that some people are registered to vote under a different part than my own. I don’t get angry based on their choices on who (whom??) they vote for. I don’t get angry that my local politicians are behaving in a manner that I’ve come to expect of politicians - I am not let down. Basically politics bores me to tears. I think its like that debate over the FICO credit score…we have to pretend we care so we can do a bunch of nonactions while doling out time and energy and money. I see it as a nonissue…not worth getting annoyed over. And its odd how I’ve wound up with this state of mind. I remember practically frothing at the mouth nine or so years ago after reading the latest from Molly Ivins or The Nation magazine. However, I do get angry when people abuse children and/or animals. I do get angry that so many people drive and own cars in such an incredibly walkable city such as Philadelphia. And I get really furious when people play crappy music and subject me to listen to this crappy music.
I get very, very upset when people I respect pooh pooh my attempts to get rid of plastic in my life. It is apparently a very extreme measure not worthy of pursuing. Another person I respect decided to use Roundup on their yard and grow vegetables in that same yard. How could I articulate my thoughts, concerns and responses in a manner that wouldn’t alienate these people? How do I ask people to conserve resources, money and be kind to the planet when their biggest concern is which politician is going to be the next president or how their job is sucking the life out of them or how they’re going to afford their next ski trip?
When my friends get upset at the latest atrocity committed, why am I not as outraged? Well…I do get upset which is why I really limit my exposure to all forms of…current media, but does this mean I don’t care? If there is one thing I know about myself, its this: if I keep up with every single tragedy that happens on a day to day basis, I will not be able to function in society. I will get so depressed that I will be unable to do anything: eat, sleep, work, etc. I wouldn’t like myself to be that unfunctional person, so I choose what I read and what I see (to a large degree).
So in a nutshell, the way I can deal with these concerns is by letting go of my attachment (Buddha was quite wise), and Megan summarized her feelings as follows:
My less-than-stellar performance showed me that if I really want to fulfill my mission, I have to grow. We all do. If we want to create something new, we have to let go of what we think we know. That beautiful, elegant future we dream of? It lies outside the borders of the easy and the familiar. It is a brand new place whose gates won’t swing open to us until we learn to see and create in brand new ways.ﾠ
The question is: Can we lay down everything we think we are sure of and travel to that unknown land together? Are we willing to try and fail and try again?ﾠ
Radishes are in season and I don’t think I’ve had them prior to yesterday. I’ve been introduced to so many new fruits and vegetables since I began eating locally…who knew eating local foods to be so adventurous?
Last night I made radish salad which was most excellent. The recipe is from Blooming Glen farm - a farm that is a regular at the farmers’ market I frequent.
The recipe is as follows:
1 bunch watermelon radishes or one medium daikon radish
2 tablespoons rice or balsamic vinegar (or a combination)
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, finely choppedWash and julienne radishes, or grate them. Mix together the rest of the ingredients and dress the radishes with the dressing. Save your radish tops for other uses.
I’m in a foul mood today. This is probably due to all the "news" I’ve been reading since yesterday. Warning: negativity and pointless pontification ahead.
There are many claims and even studies showing the correlation between educated women and delayed pregnancy. So I’ve been very curious on how much my education played a part in me not wanting to have children (although, after yesterday’s bus ride I don’t even want to be in the same vicinity as anyone under 20…but that’s a different story). I’ve had sex education classes twice: the first one was on the mating of frogs given in biology class when I was 13 and second one had to do with humans, taught when I was 15. The frog sex class was a snooze fest and has probably played a huge role in why I’ve never liked studying biology in an academic environment. The human sex-ed class was given under the watchful eye of a nun, who I thought looked like a cow (it was how she was depicted in my cartoons of her).
The sex-ed class taught me only one method of pregnancy prevention (in addition to abstinence), the rhythm method, also called the calender method. But I never relied on it because I couldn’t keep track of when it was safe for me to have sex: Is it before my period? After my period? During my period? I decided the safest method was just to avoid it altogether and thus escape the stigma associated with a teenage pregnancy. I was 19 when I discovered the pill and unless I am sterile, it was 100% effective.
Depending on the hour, I sometimes feel like a genius or a complete idiot. So one of my biggest fears regarding pregnancy was cash flow: how do I provide for the kid if the dad is a dud? How do I provide for the kid if the kid has developmental problems? Not having money or a reliable support network is one of the reasons I kept putting off my child rearing abilities. Did this decision come about because I am educated? Or because I am sensible and have the ability to think about the future? Are they related? From what I know, my gene pool isn’t particularly spectacular and there are plenty of over educated people in this world that are related to me and are missing some light bulbs. Does sitting in a classroom listening to some bore drone on and on put a hamper on one’s desire to mate without contraceptives? If someone has any papers to recommend that address these questions, I’ll be happy to read them.
I’ve known women who have had no formal education (can’t write their name in any language, nor have been told about contraceptives or the calendar method) and are attractive and self-confident and have chosen not to have kids. These women were/are working low paid service jobs. Did their decision to not have kids come about because of their common sense or because of education?
The reason I am having these thoughts is because when I read stories and see pictures of women and their kids starving in Africa or whereever…I wonder, didn’t they think before they decided to have sex and get pregnant? Its not like they were living luxurious lives before they encountered food shortages. What is with this drama of selling kids to ensure that they have food? Why didn’t they think before they got pregnant? Would sex-ed have helped?
My husband says that one reason some cultures might be resistant to sex-ed lessons could be because of previous problems arising from listening to…lets say Western Society. So there is some fear and/or doubt involved with it. And it might be hard to seperate fact from BS and one example I can think of is…listening to someone tell you to use condoms vs. listening to someone telling you not to buy cheap U.S. subsidized grain that is GMO laden. And I am sitting here with access too all sorts of reading material so I have no way of really understanding what some of these women are going though. Okay. But still…it really bothers me to see starving kids…if I were living amongst rampant malnutrition I would ensure that I have razor blades in certain holes so as to prevent unneccesary accidents. Or punch myself repeatedly if my belly started to bloat up. I have friends without kids who echo my sentiments, and ones with kids that think I am some sort of monster. I am incredibly money minded…so all my thoughts revolve around it. But I’m still wondering why aren’t these women thinking about the future at least for a little while. I wonder if consensual unprotected sex has stopped in areas right now where there is water shortages, food shortages or random violence. I guess I’ll know in nine months.
I’m currently reading Rubbish! The Archaeology of Garbage by William L. Rathje and Cullen Murphy. To claim that the book is compelling would be an understatement.
Yesterday evening I read the section on two U.S. food shortages, beef and sugar, that occured in 1973* and 1975. The garbologists found a very odd occurence resulting from the shortages…that more food was wasted during the shortages than before. An excerpt:
In the months after the beef shortage ended, the rate of beef waste (cooked and uncooked, but not counting fat or bone) amounted to about 3 percent of all the beef bought. During the months of the shortage, in contrast, the rate of waste was 9 percent. In other words, people wasted three times more beef when it was in short supply than they did when it was plentiful.
This conclusion seemed perverse, but the data, when checked, seemed solid. Eventually a Hypothesis was put forward to account for the odd behavior: the practice of crisis-buying. When confronted with the widespread and sometimes alarmist coverage of the beef shortage in the local and national media many people may have responded by buying up all the beef they could get their hands on, even if some of the cuts were unfamiliar. Of course, they didn’t necessarily know how to cook some of those cuts in an appetizing way. More important, they didn’t necessarily know how to store large amounts of meat for an extended period of time. The inevitable result in either case: greater waste.
The general proposition drawn from the findings about red meat — that wastage of a food increases when that food is scarce — was unexpected, but in the context it seemed reasonable. The reaction among nutrition educators and home economists when this result was reported, however, was somewhat muted, their criticism being that the hypothesis was probably not broadly applicable to a wide range of foods.
Fate smiled on the Garbage Project in the spring of 1975 by unleashing a sugar shortage. As the price of sugar and high-sugar products doubled, the wastage of those items in Tucson’s garbage tripled. Because Tucson is only sixty miles from the U.S. border with Mexico, where the price of sugar had remained stable, many Tucsonans stocked up with sugar that they bought south of the border. Mexican sugar, however, is not as highly processed as American sugar; it is browner, and it turns hard quickly. Before long, hard, brown bricks of Mexican sugar began appearing in the garbage. Some Tucsonans began buying Desserta and other unfamiliar products made from sugar substitutes, such as cyclamates; the reviews were plainly evident in the form of unconsumed discards.
Also prominent in the trash were items containing sugar that had crystallized during the course of long-term hoarding. In sum, the behavior of people in the midst of the sugar shortage corroborated the findings about red meat. The sugar shortage, more sharply than the beef shortage, also drew attention to the role that unfamiliarity with a food plays in the wasting of that food.
From the information garnered during the beef and sugar shortages the Garbage Project developed the First Principle of Food Waste: The more repetitive your diet — the more you eat the same things day after day — the less food you waste. In hindsight the First Principle seems simple and obvious. The waste in garbage from the standard sixteen-ounce and twenty-four-ounce loaves of sliced bread that every household buys regularly is virtually nonexistent — at most, crusts and ends; this is because common sandwich bread is used continually, meal after meal.
So I wonder how much rice is being wasted in the U.S. today. When I first heard about the big box stores limiting how much rice one could buy, my first thought was: since when did Americans start eating rice? I thought Americans ate flour: doughnuts, cookies, pasta, bread, cakes, etc. I thought rice was more of an Asian staple. I am also confused on whether there is actually a rice shortage…I thought the governmental mandates pushing for ethanol would increase the cost of corn. Is ethanol somehow affecting the price of rice? Are rice fields being cleared to make way for corn? I am slowly making my way through the WaPo’s series of articles on the "Global Food Crisis" and I have no way of knowing how much of this is just manufactured and how much of it is real. I imagine floods and other natural disasters do disrupt any food route…but I can’t figure out why this is global. Additionally I am not entirely sure my food bill has increased from previous years. I have more or less stopped going to any brick and mortar grocery store. My purchases at local food sources such as the farmers’ market have gone way up since last year. Currently the only things I am buying from a brick store are: coffee, nuts and some herbs like cilantro which is not in season yet. Other foods (like flour) not available at a farmer’s stand is being purchased in bulk from online vendors. The per pound cost of the organic flour we use is less than $1. The rice bags I buy are purchased from the Indian grocery store where the price was the same as it was a year ago. I’ve never been to a Costco so I don’t know if rice was something that was sold there previously. I’m very curious on finding out if food waste in the U.S. has gone down because of this "crisis"…because wasting food is wasting money.
In an attempt to bring no new plastic into the house this month, I decided to make sriracha sauce instead of buying it.
I had alot of dried red chillis sitting forgotten on a kitchen shelf and thought it would be the perfect way to get use it up. I first soaked the chillis in a solution of white vinegar and water for one week turning the chilli peppers over once a day to let it soak in the vinegar solution. Today I ground it all up in a blender along with salt, sugar and garlic. I added some water to make the sauce more spreadable. The recipe I used is based on the one here. I did a taste test with the last bit of store bought, plastic contained sriracha sauce and the sauce I made has a more intense flavor. Mine is much, much better.
Yesterday I stopped by the fair food stand and got lotso goodies: meyer lemon curds (so good that I want to consume the entire bottle), rhubarb jelly, rhubarb, chevre*, potatoes and apples. I’m going to make rhubarb sauce that was posted on the Healthy Cheap Cooking mailing list to serve on top of pancakes tomorrow morning. I’ll be getting some other veggies and greens tomorrow and next week at the other farmers’ markets that will be opening up.
BTW, I just could not eat the goat meat. Husband baked it with various spices and claimed it tasted like chicken.
* Now that I know what chevre is, thanks to the authors of Plenty, I’m always thinking of that David Cross routine: "chevre lover? chevre?"
I didn’t have rice and beans for lunch today. I had a salad. I had butter roasted asparagus (made this morning) served on top of raw spinach leaves. Dessert is an apple. Very filling.
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Here are my April 2008 Riot 4 Austerity numbers.
Gasoline: I am not tracking my public transit usage since I am well below the 90% guidelines. I use public transit to get to work and walk or ride my bike everywhere else. Also thought I’d mention that I rarely car pool. (the last time I was in a car was in January 2008)
Electricity: This is wind powered electricity so I get a payback per the 90% guidelines. My bill averages at around $60. The electricity hogs are the fridge and our desktop computers. I am hoping to purchase laptops in the next few months.
Gas: This dropped from March’s 91.25 even though I’ve been showering more often that usual.
Garbage: I forgot to track garbage output. It isn’t any more than usual. We now put out a few full grocery bags every two weeks (ever since I began composting, I haven’t purchased garbage bags…we are now in the phase where we pick up grocery bags from the street and use it for our garbage), so in a way we’ve reduced how much garbage we put out. Our recycling bin was alot more than usual however. I’ve been recycling our beer bottles. Our garbage usually contains the following: random bits of plastic I cannot recycle, stuff tossed in our backyard by our kind neighbors, other junk.
Water: After I posted my March riot numbers, Karina wondered how my water consumption was so low since each person is expected to drink at least 15 gallons per month (based on the 8 glasses per day rule). Well I responded that both husband and I drank most of our water while at work. But the question did get me thinking. I do use the wash water to flush the toilet and do shower infrequently…but it still is a bit low. My reasoning now is that there is some flaw in the Water Dept.’s billing system. And I am not going to be the one alerting them to the fact that they might be underbilling me. So everyone shush about my water habits.
Consumer Goods: It was the sandals I purchased. It an expensive pair. If I were an outside observer observing my spending patterns I’d think that I love to spend a helluva lot of money on stuff that is otherwise inexpensive. Well I’m going to be keep plugging away at keeping my moral and ethics and other feel-goody emotions intact.
Food: The percentages are based on how much I spend on the food as this way of measuring made more sense to me. The food numbers are a bit off since I didn’t breakdown the grocery bill in April. For some reason April was a very busy month and I didn’t noodle around in Quicken as much I wanted to. May is a new month however.
Not sure if I am inspiring people or not but….
I am participating in Green Bean’s "Be a bookworm" challenge this month. The first book I finished was "Plenty" by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon, creators of the 100 mile diet. Yes, I am reading more than one book for this challenge. After all, I am a bookworm.
I had heard about their project awhile back…probably during the course of their actual challenge (where they comitted to eat all their meals within a 100 mile radius of their home). But at the time, I was not ready to eat local. Like every new idea I first needed to let it percolate in my head for a while before I warmed up to the idea. At the time (in 2005-2006) I think I only purchased fruits from farmers’ markets and was busy trying to eat the cheapest food possible without any consideration for quality or nutrition or even taste. Obviously I am at the other end now…where I make alot of efforts toward purchasing as many items local as possible. Today I follow the locavore pledge:
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.
The book was interesting. I expected the book to be mainly about their trials and tribulations regarding finding local food sources (of which there were plenty), but…I was not expecting read about their co-habitation disputes or problems. I realize that all relationships have problems and issues that need to be dealt with, but its not a subject I am very interested in reading about. Every chapter in Plenty made me worry: are they going to split up? If they do, who gets the potatoes and canned jams?
I think Smith and Mackinnon have done alot in terms of getting people to eat local. I don’t remember restaurants in 2005 proudly claiming to offer locally grown ingredients on their menus. Even the local Acme has signs on how much of their produce is locally grown. Unfortunately they are conventional…not organic (with the number on the sticker beginning with a "9"). But its a start. Personally, I’ve extended my definition of local to 250 miles although most of my meals are often within a 100 mile radius. Afterall, I live in the breadbasket that is New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The idea of eating locally also touches on my little hot button: oil consumption and how to reduce it. Food is a necessity and if the sky is going to fall tomorrow I might have to get used to eating whatever is grown near me. And the 100 mile diet has really gotten me to embrace the idea of eating locally.
Going back to the book…I liked the fact that each chapter was written by either Smith or Mackinnon, I thought each of them had a unique point of view. I liked Mackinnon’s style of writing. It was more matter of fact and less on the neurotic meandering. Although if I had to recommend a book on eating local, I’d recommend Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. It has a more positive tone and many, many laugh out loud passages.
I think I’m going to try making soy sauce at home. I bought 30 lbs of GMO free soy beans a few months back. Making soy sauce will finish up some of the soy beans. Here is a howto with pictures!
I’ve been thinking alot about alot of things…
I’ve learned that I am an introvert and think that the world would be so much more wonderful if everyone just shut up and read books all the time. And then blogged about it.
I read alot about peak oil. I think alot of things would become very inconvenient if oil was more expensive. I think the drum machine might be a bit more expensive to operate if electricity cost as much as it does in Alaska right now. Maybe there wouldn’t be so much crappy music? Hit and runs would become nonexistant perhaps?
I think all serial killers had cars…I imagine its a bit difficult to be a serial killer if you have to walk over to your victim’s house. (I’m having these bizzare thoughts because I recently watched No Country for Old Men). How did Jack the Ripper get around?
I watched a russian music channel recently and every singer was female and a Britney clone. I wonder if they were pleased with their song and dance routine before it was released. I’d be embarassed to have such lame music attached to my name.
How do punk rockers manage to maintain their rage and bitch about "The Man" when they’re making all that money and signing on to big record labels?
If everyone cooked their own food from scratch, I wouldn’t have so many severely obese people trying to squeeze in to try to sit next to me on the bus.
The smell of fast food makes me nauseous.
I’ve signed up for these online survery programs that pay a few bucks here and there but I don’t get many offers since I am not a typical American: no car, no tv, no supermarket purchases, no tv dinner purchases, no random modern convenience. I mean, I make my own laundry detergent and have been doing so for a year now. If survey companies want to pay me to discuss the latest boook I checked out from the library or how I spend my evenings in candle light - I’d be a prime candidate. But that would probably put the PR industry out of business and the economy would tank and that would be terrible.
If Pats and Gino’s became environmentally aware of how much waste their business generated…would they buy sustainably raised beef? Would they serve fresh fruit juice in reusable glasses? Would Mr. Gino ride a bicycle to work?
Where are all those economists who used to go on and on and on about those supply demand curves? I think they need to talk a bit louder regarding the oil supply and demand. Maybe no one remembers their economics lessons because they, like me, thought economics was a snooze fest.
I checked out the Prospect Park Farmers’ Market when I was in NYC this past weekend. I was so impressed - it was huge! There was so much room to walk around and browse. I didn’t buy anything because that meant I would have had to haul the food all the way from NY on a 45 min subway ride + 1.5 hour bus ride and I was just too tired. Most of the produce and other products (maple syrup, yogurts) that were being sold at Prospect Park’s market was available at the Philly one, but I did notice the hydrophonically grown tomatoes. They were huge! And were $3.50/lb…about $0.44 less than the greenhouse grown ones currently available at Kauffman’s stand at Reading Terminal in Philly. I was a bit bothered by the amount of plastic packaging both in Prospect Park and at the Headhouse market in Philly…I was very conscious about the eco throwdown challenge.
When buying eggs at the market at $4.00/dozen I asked the woman if she would take the plastic containers back. She laughed said I could bring it if I wanted to but wasn’t necessary. Does this mean she will not use it? I was too nervous to ask. I am hoping to run into the guy we bought eggs from last year because he was always asking for his egg cartons back and I have 5 months worth of egg cartons sitting in our kitchen waiting to be reused.
I spent $100 at the market yesterday mainly buying meat. I’ve decided to eat meat again…last time I decided to go back to eating meat it was after I read Animal, Vegetable, Mineral. This time, I am in the midst of Plenty by Alisa Smith and J.B. Mackinnon. I got goat meat as well as beef. I have never eaten goat meat before and I wonder what it will taste like. My husband bought supplies to make beef pho.
Edit: I don’t recall any lousy music at the Prospect Park farmers’ market. But there was lousy music at the Headhouse that wasn’t just lousy…but also loud.
SFordinarygirl asked me to share a sample of what I eat as a vegan to stay full. I was so flattered that someone values my thoughts that I basked in that glory for awhile.
After I got done with the basking, I thought about providing a response. I tracked what I ate for a week and found that I am a very boring eater. Also my upbringing and associated culture has had a huge impact on my eating habits. This means that I’m Indian and eat alot of Indian food.
When I have a choice I eat vegan meals. If I am offered a meal that has no vegan options, I eat it. I typically eat 100% vegan (except for honey which isn’t considered vegan by some) on weekdays and eat vegetarian on weekends, meaning cheese. Sometimes I will try meat if its exceptional or served by friends at parties who don’t keep track of my latest food habit. My husband makes fantastic pizza, and we have access to a variety of really excellent cheese, so I eat pizza about once or twice a week. I don’t believe in serving sizes. I eat until I’m full. And I have a healthy BMI. I am not big on exercising either, but I walk about a mile every day and more on the weekends. I also ride my bicycle on the weekends and it varies from 4 to 50 miles depending on my mood and desire to explore. This doesn’t seem to be standard advice, but I only eat when I’m hungry. Additionally, I didn’t grow up eating the Standard American Diet so I’m not that crazy about it.
My husband and I eat meals that can best be classified as culinary confusion (or ethnic mashup). We draw inspiration from the following styles of cooking on a regular basis:
Chinese
Indian (the Asian variety)
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Mexican
Middle eastern region
I typically try out one new recipe every week. For example, recently I bought alot of rutabagas that was a steal and then came home and realized that I probably wouldn’t like rutabagas in the common way its prepared. So I decided to turn it into curry. I had it over rice, my husband had it over an emu egg that was made in the style of tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet). The emu egg was local.
I cannot cook without a recipe. I am just not imaginative in the kitchen…and I rely on Isa Chandra’s Vegan with a Vegence (VwaV), Linda Frazer’s Vegetarian Cooking, the internet and blogs for recipe ideas. Most of the recipes for VwaV are available online on someone’s blog. Pink Haired Girl has made most of the recipes in VwaV and taken pictures. Most recently I found the chickpea cutlets from Veganomicon to be incredibly filling. I served it with red wine roux and lemon roasted potatoes.
For breakfast I generally eat: granola, fruits, homemade cookies, pancakes, leftovers, scrambled tofu with bread, something Indian based like samosas or chappatis and curry, or a spicy noodle soup (noodles dunked in vegan hot & sour soup). My husband for some odd reason loves eating gazpacho for breakfast (he doesn’t make it into a soup, just cuts up the ingredients and lets it marinate in olive oil and lemon juice overnight).
For lunch I almost always eat a bean and rice dish. Last week I had white beans mixed with teriyaki sauce served over rice every day for lunch. If I’m tired of rice, I eat it mexican style: quesadillas for example. Or I eat rice with mixed veggies stir fried. I like dessert so I have some thing sweet afterward, its usually fruit or cookies when I’m at work. Or some sort of home made pie if I’m at home. Or ice cream (I like soy dream). Rice and beans is just easier to transport, so its what I have at work everyday.
Mid afternoon snack: whatever is available - nuts, fruits, cookies or lots of water if I’m unprepared.
Dinner: Sometimes I have a salad if I didn’t have a heavy lunch. I usually add nuts, fruits, fake meat like tofu or seitan (marinated in some sauce and baked ), and home made dressing. Most of the time I don’t eat dinner as my lunch is pretty filling.
Beverages: I drink beer in the evenings (which might explain some of my more incoherent comments online), or wine. I’ve been drinking black coffee with sugar in the mornings and water the rest of the day.–
Here is another thing that I have experienced but my friends haven’t. For the past eight years I thought I was a glutton…I just couldn’t stop thinking about food as I was constantly hungry. And it drove me mad. About two months ago I sat down to think about why I didn’t experience hunger pangs so frequently when I was growing up and thought about what had changed. My conclusion: I was on the birth control pill. I went off the pill about 2 months ago and promptly lost 10 lbs and quit having hunger pangs and thinking about food all the freakin’ time. I had a bowl of chilli for breakfast this morning and it was enough.
