New Year's resolution

New Years brings a time of reflection and a time of planning for the year to come. I normally don’t set New Year’s resolutions, but this year I am.

My resolution is, excluding necessities like toilet paper, food, and toothpaste, to buy nothing new. As many of you know, I have a book obsession, but unless I can find it used I am not buying it. Of course with EBay and Amazon this should be an easy task… but since I want a real challenge my secondary resolution is not to buy from EBay or Amazon.

Oh, this should be fun!

Dinner with the Sis

Had dinner at my sis' house this evening. Here is what she cooked.

Cream of mushroom soup made with the portabellas in last week's box and onions over steak baked in the oven. Baked potatoes, that she let me know took two hours to bake and were still firm (we differ on our potato baking philosophies - she pokes holes and I don't. My are always soft in the middle, but she has informed me that I am playing with fire because eventually one will explode). At any rate, she also made broccoli and cheese, hot rolls, and for dessert she pulled some peaches out of the freezer and slathered them with cream and sugar. YUM YUM YUM!!!

Alright Ms. Martha Stewart- you could have at least thrown some flour on yourself to make it seem like it was difficult to do all that cooking!

The Picture is from Thanksgiving last year, but shows my sister's classic "I'm taste testing something" grin!

Keith W. has a great idea for Romaine

Keith emailed me this recipe, and just had to share. Simple, and sounds delicious.

Cut the Romaine in half and then grill lightly on the grill or hot pan
Drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette dressing and sprinkle with blue cheese or feta cheese.

A Time of Reflecting:
You have heard it said before that great joy is not known without great sadness, and no more apparent is that to me than around the holidays.
When we were younger the happiest times were holidays, not for the presents, but for the joy. My father would get a little carried away with the decorations, putting Christmas ornaments on the curtains, and one year painting the dining room red for the season. When we went to Gran’s on Christmas Day he would say that if the bread (That I think my mother made) was good then he made it, and if it was bad then Clint (my oldest brother) made it. Both of which – wonderful cooks, or at the very least, adventurous.

One year I asked for a real baby for Christmas, and was convinced that Santa was capable of bringing whatever I really really wanted (as long as it didn’t cost too much). This was the year I learned there was no Santa, which I was only too happy to share this new found information with my friends, especially my dear friend Katerina. Oh the scandal!

After my father took his own life, my family went through some rather dark times, with my mother being left to care for 6 children. The holidays just weren’t the same without dad, and I remember her holding back the tears on the first Christmas without him, for which I think some of my mother’s friends pitched in together to buy our Christmas presents.

However, now we are grown and we (my siblings and I), as adults, have decided to make the holidays happy again. Our children laugh and play, and don’t get overloaded with presents, because we know what true happiness consists of - togetherness. Two years ago I finally got that baby I wanted for Christmas, when Fiona was born – Santa really does exist!!! When Scott and I moved backed to Missouri, Scott started going with me to Christmas Eve church service (only fair since I celebrate Hanukkah with him), and then we go to Katerina’s grandmother’s house (Katerina passed away in 2001), and she puts up a tree just for Fiona and I. Last year, we shed a few tears when reminiscing about Katerina, but Fiona started playing with a dancing Santa and we started smiling. Children really do make the holidays wonderful, and happiness is a choice. Joy has returned to Christmas, may you all share in it!

Jennifer P. Gives us a tear jerker!

My dad left when I was 11 years old. Up until then, we were just your average, tiny family. Mom worked part time, and we ate at home every single night. I remember a few meals as my favorites, raves about my mother's barbeque sauce, and occasional projects where mom would decide to can pickles or jelly ... but in general the meals were simple and forgettable. I never ate foods of different cultures - it was all meat and potatoes and the occasional bowl of spaghetti. After my dad left, my mom lost all interest in cooking. We ate out 5 or 6 days out of the week, knew the specials at the local restaurants by day, and there was discussion of mom turning the stove into a planter. My cousins and I joked that mom used the kitchen 2 days a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas, and honestly it wasn't a joke. But she did a bang-up job with a holiday meal, and though she's been gone for over 12 years, it isn't "right" unless I have "her" rolls, "her" stuffing, and "her" gravy.

As I grew into a (rather round) teenager, I decided that cooking was 'uncool' and 'too domestic' for me. I would be a career woman. I wouldn't do that "girly" stuff. I would find my passion. But then I met two drastically different woman, mom's of two of my teenage friends. Both women loved to cook, and for them, it was an art. It was a joy to eat their food, a priveledge to get to watch or help, and a true education into what cooking could be for a family and for myself. As an adult, I've discovered that the only passion that I hold is for my family. I AM that "too domestic" of people, and I'm terribly proud of it. I cook with flavor, I work to cook healthy food for my family to ensure that their bodies grow strong and well. I include my sons in my cooking to show them that cooking isn't done by girls, it's done by people who love to create.

Elevated Mac and Cheese from Roberta H.

Here is my food story. Roberta

We’re a family of campers and have enjoyed a lot of campfire cooking, but one outstanding meal looms large in our memories. We were enjoying (at times) a poorly equipped backpack trip in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in Southern Colorado. As I recall, it was about 20 years ago, we had three of our kids with us, the youngest about 7.
Another family, who had introduced us to car camping in that area, had 1 teenager with them.

The trek of 4 miles up to Comanche Lake was mostly very trying. It involved ankle-twisting rocks, a soggy marsh, trails worn to narrow trenches by horse feet, endless switchbacks which began to seem like an evil trick getting us nowhere, a field of shed sized boulders, and, incidentally, an altitude gain of 2,000 feet.

And we thought this was worth doing, why? Probably you have to be there to understand the draw of high mountain lakes, sub-Alpine tundra, and 40-mile vistas. Those of us helping the younger members of our group with their little packs took over 6 hours to get to the lake. Our legs and feet were like dead stumps. Our shoulders were numb. We couldn’t breathe in enough air, but we were there!

And it started to rain. Which means tents go up fast to get sleeping bags under cover… not much time to scout out nice level tent sites with a minimum of rocks. Into the tents to snack on whatever meal supplies we ended up with in our packs. Rain turned to sleet and then to hail. It rained for two hours. Finally with a little light left in the sky we came out of our tents to heat up some food.

At that time our only traveling camp stove was one little burner. We needed a fire to warm us up and to cook for 8 people. Finding wood was not easy… getting it to burn at that altitude was very difficult.
Took about an hour to get some cooking heat. Then, boiling water for macaroni? At that altitude it boils but it isn’t really hot. Took almost another hour. Kraft Mac and Cheese. Two shades softer than crunchy we declared it cooked and dumped in two cans of Hormel canned ham.

We served it up and everyone declared it the best meal they had ever eaten. Probably more superlatives than were ever heard at a smoldering, fizzling campfire! Back in Missouri in the not too distant future, the kids asked for that wonderful meal again. Alas, it wasn’t at all what we remembered. Don’t know what had happened to it, but the quality was definitely off.

One potato, two potato, hot potato- from Janel W

This is a lovely recipe I discovered by accident several years ago. . . great way to use some of the potatos too!!! : )

That is, IF you ever get tired of sweet potato fries!!!! NOT!!!!!!!!J

Mashed Potato Layer Bake

4 large white potato - peeled & cooked
3 large sweet potato - peeled & cooked
1 - 8 oz tub chive & onion cream cheese - divided 1/2's
1 - 8 oz tub sour cream - divided 1/2's
1/4- 1/2 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 - 1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Mash potatoes in separate bowls, adding in the cream cheese & sour cream - 4 oz in each bowl. Add the parmesan to the white taters and the cheddar to the orange taters. . . I tend to use more sour cream and cheeses . . . use less if you are a lesser cheeser.

Layer in a clear, 9x9 glass pan. . start with the white taters

Bake at 375, for about 15-20 min. . .sprinkle with a bit more of the cheeses and bake for 5 more minutes. . let sit a few minutes before feasting. . you'll burn your tongune!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to hear if you love this as much as we do!!!


J & gang

Jenn B. offers some Filipino family traditions

Aunt Lucy--just for you. Love,Jenn

Superfoods friend Lucinda asked the Organic and Local Food clients to send in a personal food story for Thanksgiving. We're in the midst of packing and prepping for travel, so my mind isn't working in full, narrative form, but I do have some really wonderful memories of family, food and all that makes gatherings wonderful and dear...

My family is Filipino, and never in all our years of celebrating the holidays with our culture's food did I wish for something other than what was available through family recipes. And what a community affair! There was a dining room table, but never enough room to seat everyone. The celebration of food took place upstairs, in the basement (near the early '88 karaoke machine), on the front porch, in the sunroom...the whole house filled with celeberatory energy.

Yes, the host/hostess of the gathering often supplied the dishes and main entree, but everyone always brought something--it was expected that Tita Tessie's Ginataang would make an appearance, as well as Tito Joey's special, no fat skimmed pancit. We had Lechón, Chicken Afritada, Atsara, Menudo, Cassava Cake, Biku, Ensaymada, Sinigang, Turrón, Bibingka...just to name a few. Someone, as a joke, would manage a can of cranberry sauce, which would sit on some unnoticed plate, quivering fearfully. In my mind, I would think, "Fear not, red, gelatinous goo, no one wants a taste of you!" Not when so much other Foodly Goodness could be had!While we keep our cultural food as a strong base to any gathering, the effects of diaspora are inevitable, and many other dishes did creep in and make their home on our community table. Bohemian Horns from my mom's friend, Adele (a nod to Granite City's large Eastern European population), Green Bean and Corn Casserole (one of the few foods made from canned vegetables that I would, dare I say, have seconds of?), that spinach salad with dried cranberries that initially attracted us That One Year We Dieted, all of Tita Debbie's different pasta experiments. (And somewhere in there, Black Forest Cake? Who made that? Why don't we see it anymore??)

Over the years, this community of Family began to include not only new food from other cultures, but new people bringing their own traditions, integrating into our lives, love--our very DNA (Nathan, Alina and Baby B!). For me, living on the other side of the state, the holiday celebrations vary from year to year. Different food, different locations, different people, a different order of animal (as I try to finish typing this with a kitty on my lap). I am so thankful for the foundation of food celebration instilled in me from childhood--I take it with me wherever I go, and have it with me with whomever we celebrate.

Casa Clark Thanksgiving Menu

As we come upon the Thanksgiving holidays I want to put a note about why this holiday is so special to me. First of all, who doesn’t love a holiday completely centered on giving thanks and coming together to eat? However, for me it is more than that. As many of you know, I spent many a years on the east coast away from my family. Being ever so consumed in my career and personal life I didn’t make it home for the holidays. Instead, I had friends over for a breakfast feast consisting of traditional Midwestern biscuits and gravy followed by a day of playing cards and an eventual evening meal. Now that I have discovered old roots are hard to pull, and found my way back to the Midwest- Thanksgiving is celebrated at my house. The torch has been passed to my generation from my lovely grandmother. My sister cooks the turkey, grandma still brings the noodles (I haven’t quite mastered the art of the noodles yet), and I cook the rest. Every year I look forward to hosting Thanksgiving, because it symbolizes my maturity into womanhood. There is something significant in the fact that my sister and I are now entrusted with the feast preparing. Although I will not pretend to be able to fill gran’s shoes, (it takes both my sister and I to prepare the meal) I am very grateful that I have been given the opportunity.

Here is what we are having this Thanksgiving- please email me for recipe information if interested!
Sugared walnuts
Cheese tray
Kitchen sink salad (salad with various fruits, nuts, and whatever else strikes me as good)
Turkey
Maple Glazed Ham with roasted chestnuts
Cranberry Sauce
Green Beans with bacon and onion
Trio of Roasted potatoes
candied sweet potatoes and apples
Steamed Carrots glazed with a tangerine sauce
Noodles
Wild rice, cranberry and sausage stuffing
Hot rolls made with a pear sourdough starter
Homemade blueberry wine (has been aging all summer)
Triple berry pie from Rayville
Custardy pumpkin pie
Lemon Pie
Black Walnut Pie
Freshly whipped cream

Meal Plan using 10/18/08

Sweet Potato, apple and chestnut pudding
Mash baked sweet potatoes, bake apples and cut into chunks, roast chestnuts peel and slice. Use two cups of mashed sweet potatoes, add 2 tablespoons melted butter, ¼ cup honey, and ¼ cup brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and touch of vanilla, whisk in 2 beaten eggs, ¾ cup heavy cream, and ¾ cup whole milk. Stir in chestnuts and apples. Bake at 375 until set (about 40-50 minutes)
Brown rice with pumpkin (pumpkin from 10/11 box)
Cook brown rice, bake pumpkin until tender but not too soft cut into chunks, add pumpkin, honey (or sorghum) , and salt to brown rice. Eat up!!!
Scalloped Turnips and baked Chicken
Bake the chicken (rub with olive oil and seasonings) boil or steam peeled turnips, and then make a thick sauce to poor over the turnips consisting of milk, butter, cheese (if you have it), and flour used to thicken on the stove.
Orzo (rice shaped pasta) with green beans and tomatoes
Cook orzo. Stir fry beans and tomatoes in butter or olive oil then add to orzo. Season as desired.
Peppers stuff with ground beef and goat cheese
Dip gutted peppers in boiling water to soften. Brown hamburger, and mix with goat cheese put into pepper and bake for 20 minutes.
Potato casserole with apples and sausage.
Make mashed potatoes, slice apple really thing, and cook sausage. Put a layer of mashed potatoes, then a layer of sausage, a layer of apples, a layer of sausage, and then mashed potatoes on top. Bake until it browns.
Okra Beignets
Wisk one egg and ¼ cup of heavy cream together set aside. Mix together ½ cup flour, ½ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper. Cut up okra and toss in flour with cooked rice (about half a cup), you can add cup onion and bell pepper if you want. Stir in egg mixture. Drop by the large spoonfuls into hot grease and fry until done.

Meal Plan using 10/11/08 Box

Sweet Potato pie
Boil or steam your potatoes and peel. Mush with ½ cup of melted butter; add ½ milk, and 2 eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg. If making this as a supper dish, leave out the sugar. If making this as a treat put a cup of sugar in it. Put into a pie crust (I make mine out of lard, Martha Stewart makes hers from butter, and I have heard of people making pie crusts in a dehydrator out of almond meal) At any rate, mix up the potato mixture and put in the unbaked pie crust, bake in the oven on 350 for about an hour. It will puff up as it cooks, and come back down as it cools.
Poutine
Make French fries or roasted potatoes out of the potatoes, put cheese curds on top and cover with brown gravy. Doesn’t taste the same unless you use cheese curds, which we get from Milton Creamery- but they sell at Green Acres as well.
Salad with tomatoes
Self explanatory. Add nuts if you want a little protein.
Chicken and roasted zucchini
Cook whole chicken marinated with rosemary and olive oil. Keep some leftovers for later meal. Cut up zucchini and roast in the oven with garlic and olive oil.
Chicken and Noodles
Boil your chicken broth and drop in noodles (See last week’s post to find out how to make egg noodles) When the noodles are done add the chicken.
Baked squash with apples
Cut the tops off and hollow the squash of seeds, add chopped up apples and bake until squash is tender. I add a bit of butter, cinnamon, and sugar as it is cooking.
Green beans with onions
Put green beans in crock pot with onion and a bit of water, add some salt, and bacon (optional) for flavor. Eat when it reaches your desired texture.

Meal plan using 10/04 box

The Clark’s menu for the week:
Savory Winter squash soup, bread and goat butter
Savory winter squash soup: bake squash in the oven until it starts to collapse, cut in half , remove seeds, and put pulp in blender with milk or chicken broth, rosemary and roasted garlic
Oven roasted eggplant and potatoes
Cut eggplant and potatoes brush with olive oil and sprinkle with seasonings bake on 350 turning once or twice until golden brown.
Roast and carrots
Put roast in crock pot with carrots, cover with water and cook until tender
Baked butternut squash, strawberries with homemade whipped cream and sprigs of lemon balm
Cut squash brush with butter and cinnamon or put upside down in a glass pan with a little bit of water, to make whipped cream you just beat cream until it becomes whipped cream.. feel free to add a little sugar.
30 minute mozzarella cheese and tomatoes over pasta
30 minute mozzarella recipe can be found at http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Mozzarella.pdf - please note that instead of citric acid I have been known to use a half a cup of vinegar.
Beef and homemade egg noodles
Take left over juice from roast and heat to a boil. Drop in noodles (1 egg, and about 1 cup of flour, a pinch of salt… rolled out very thin and cut into strips with an herb cutter (or a noodle cutter if you are lucky enough to have inherited one like I have). Cook until mixture thickens. Add left over roast.
Sweet potato fries, apple and walnut salad
Cut sweet potato into small strips, dust with olive oil and seasonings, bake until done, or fry.
Apple and walnut salad- thinly slice apples, add walnuts (other nuts work as well), make a honey and water mixture (1 part honey, 2 parts water) and drizzle over the top.

Food Impacts on Society as a Whole

For my first blog I would like to discuss the underlying impacts of food on society as a whole. If we take a closer look we will find that food is not just for physical nourishment, but is fundamental in the emotional, spiritual, religious, and economic aspects of our lives.

I can assure you that Ryan, my cousin and self proclaimed noodle expert, can’t remember what he was given for Christmas 2 years ago, but will be able to, in detail, discuss the quality of grandma’s noodles. Furthermore, when asked what the most tragic Christmas event in our family history is, you will be spared the trouble of hearing about what so and so said about such and such, but rather will be told about the year we had store bought rolls. Oh – the emotional letdown! This is because food can shape our thoughts, and emotions toward a particular event. You have heard this underlying theme many times- “don’t eat for emotional comfort, comfort food, eating for sadness, food as a crutch.” This is how food plays a part in our emotions, or rather - emotions can play a part in what foods we eat.

Spiritual- Think about it- the “original sin” is centered around food; the Last Supper has such a spiritual significance. Most religious holidays are centered around certain foods, or the abstaining thereof.

Economic – the cost of our food, which is rising, plays a important role in our country’s economy. Our society’s success is, or at least should be, marked by our ability to feed our less fortunate. If you take a look at struggling economies you will see at the root of the problem is starvation, and lack of quality food. This is a building block of a good economy. If you don’t eat, you can’t concentrate, and if you can’t concentrate you can’t be productive at your job that contributes to your economy.

Political- If we take a look at history, we will find many wars fought about food. Do we really think that big oil is the driving force of current wars? Maybe- but that oil is used in our cars to take us to work to make money to feed our family. That oil is used to fuel manufacturing plants that “manufacture” food, or in transportation vehicles that are used to move our food from far off lands to our local grocery stores. Every time there is a major change in our food thought, there is major political might used to stop or move forward with that thought. Take a look at what Wal- mart lobbyist have managed to do in lowering the standards of organic so they can import from places like China. Regulation is another form of politics that has shown its face in the food world- regulation of raw milk, mandating that all almonds in the United States be pasteurized, yet still allowing them to be labeled as “raw.”

So how can we make a difference? Well, you already are. When you create real food, from real ingredients, you allow your family to understand where a meal comes from, and can have a sense of accomplishment that can only come from food that wasn’t manufactured in a lab. By eating food grown in an organic way, you are eating food that has not been made by man, but rather man has been a steward of the land and plants, which produce it. By eating local, you help remove the need for political intervention. Meaning – there is no need for farm to table tracking at the grocery store- if you, as a consumer, take the time to get to know where your food comes from. I can tell you, who grew every piece of produce in our boxes. That is us, as consumers, being proactive without the need for big government. Eating local foods also reduces the need for oil; the average piece of produce at the grocery store travels 1500 miles to get to you. Local food in your produce box travels less than 200, with the majority of it coming from a 50 mile radius. Also, by ordering what we need on a weekly basis, we reduce waste. Think about all that food at the local grocery store that goes bad, how many hungry families could that feed? Do we really have a supply problem in the world of food, or do we have a logistical problem, of supply, demand, and waste?

I would love to hear thoughts and ideas on these issues.