May your day be filled with sunshine and large quantities of chocolate. :)
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Happy Egg Day!
Since we'll be out of town on Sunday, I thought I'd wish you all a Happy early Easter today.
May your day be filled with sunshine and large quantities of chocolate. :)
May your day be filled with sunshine and large quantities of chocolate. :)
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Headed down South, to the land of the pine
Ok, well I guess that south is somewhat relative in this instance. When you live in Washington State, pretty much everything is south.
The point that I'm trying to make, however, with my Old Crow-quoting title, is that I am psyched to be headed out to Tennessee in just a few days. The land of BBQ, twangy ballads and bourbon. Hello yes.
I get to gorge on grits & gravy, re-aquaint myself with my dear old friend, Mr. Daniels and I get to hang out with my super-cute nephews. I'd take this vacay over the beach any day.
My brother-in-law with his handsome lads, Eric & Ryan :)
The point that I'm trying to make, however, with my Old Crow-quoting title, is that I am psyched to be headed out to Tennessee in just a few days. The land of BBQ, twangy ballads and bourbon. Hello yes.
I get to gorge on grits & gravy, re-aquaint myself with my dear old friend, Mr. Daniels and I get to hang out with my super-cute nephews. I'd take this vacay over the beach any day.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
To Market, to market...
Today we took the kids on a little outing to Seattle. Being the foodie-geeks that we are, we naturally had to hit the Pike Place Market while we were there.
Did I bring a list of things that I needed to get? No. Am I ever that organized? No, not usually. So instead, I like to make a little game of my wigged-out, schizoid market shopping called Now what in the heck am I going to make out of all of these oddball things that I just HAD to have from the farmer's market? aka - my own personal version of Chopped.
Here's what I'm working with for this week-
Apple Pork Bratwurst, Nuremberg Sausage, Blueberry Vinegar, Wild Ramps, Fresh Morels, Blood Oranges, Red Pepper Jelly & Garlic Pepper Jelly (hubby's choice)
A few meals that immediately come to mind are:
*Breakfast-for-Dinner - Omelette of fresh eggs, sauteed ramps and apple-pork sausage
*Homemade Pizza with Morels & Sausage
*Spring Greens Salad with a blueberry/blood orange vinaigrette w/red pepper jelly glazed Wild Salmon.
I love the challenge of using new & unusual ingredients in my cooking, and I honestly can barely control myself at farmer's markets. Everything is so fresh, and handcrafted and a little bit weird - just my style. I'd have gone much crazier with the shopping were we not about to leave for a 9-day vacation, a week from today. That isn't to say that we didn't live it up a little. Olivia tried her first - and likely last - kumquat. I only wish that I'd had the camera out to capture the squeezy-pucker look on her face when she chomped into it. We also caught the requisite fish-throwing show and stopped at my husband's all-time favorite market shop, Uli's, where they sell, I kid you not, Bacon Sausage.
I think my watch started running backwards at this point. Not to be outdone by meats within meats, the produce also brazenly asserted itself.
I was seriously in food-geek heaven. Thank goodness that we only go to Seattle once a month, or we'd be broke and weigh 400 pounds each.
Did I bring a list of things that I needed to get? No. Am I ever that organized? No, not usually. So instead, I like to make a little game of my wigged-out, schizoid market shopping called Now what in the heck am I going to make out of all of these oddball things that I just HAD to have from the farmer's market? aka - my own personal version of Chopped.
Here's what I'm working with for this week-
Apple Pork Bratwurst, Nuremberg Sausage, Blueberry Vinegar, Wild Ramps, Fresh Morels, Blood Oranges, Red Pepper Jelly & Garlic Pepper Jelly (hubby's choice)
A few meals that immediately come to mind are:
*Breakfast-for-Dinner - Omelette of fresh eggs, sauteed ramps and apple-pork sausage
*Homemade Pizza with Morels & Sausage
*Spring Greens Salad with a blueberry/blood orange vinaigrette w/red pepper jelly glazed Wild Salmon.
I love the challenge of using new & unusual ingredients in my cooking, and I honestly can barely control myself at farmer's markets. Everything is so fresh, and handcrafted and a little bit weird - just my style. I'd have gone much crazier with the shopping were we not about to leave for a 9-day vacation, a week from today. That isn't to say that we didn't live it up a little. Olivia tried her first - and likely last - kumquat. I only wish that I'd had the camera out to capture the squeezy-pucker look on her face when she chomped into it. We also caught the requisite fish-throwing show and stopped at my husband's all-time favorite market shop, Uli's, where they sell, I kid you not, Bacon Sausage.
I think my watch started running backwards at this point. Not to be outdone by meats within meats, the produce also brazenly asserted itself.
I was seriously in food-geek heaven. Thank goodness that we only go to Seattle once a month, or we'd be broke and weigh 400 pounds each.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Jamie Oliver and the Ugly Truth
I watched the second episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution last night and... yikes. Have you tuned in?
The gist of the show is this - Chef Jamie Oliver has come to Huntington, West Virginia (the most unhealthy/fattest city in America, according to the Center for Disease Control) to change the way that people feed themselves and their families, with a particular focus on adding fresh foods to school lunch programs. Who could possibly have a problem with someone willing to get their kids excited about eating fresh, healthy foods? As it turns out, the very people who you'd expect to advocate for these kids - school principals, cooks, nutritionists and worst of all, their parents.
I was straight-up thunderstruck by how completely apathetic most of the adults in charge of nourishing these kids were. One cafeteria cook defended the quality of a pre-cooked, processed chicken nuggety-thing by pointing out that chicken was the number one ingredient. By what margin is it number one? And what about the other 20 four-syllable ingredients?!?
Even for a organicy-granola girl like me, this has been a wake up call. I don't feed my kids too much of anything that comes in a package or box, and they can recognize and name most fruits and veggies on site, unlike an entire classroom of kids on the show, who only understood what a tomato was after it was revealed that ketchup is actually made from tomatoes.
My husband shared my outrage and kept saying The kids in our neighborhood would know all of those veggies! And he's right. We are lucky to live in a time and place where nutrition, health, variety and simplicity are very much of value. Our daughters' school even has it's own gardens that the kids plant, maintain and harvest to eat themselves and share with the food bank. They know where food comes from and what it takes to make it happen. The same cannot (yet) be said for the kids of Huntington, West Virginia, nor could it have been said for many kids of my generation, growing up in the 70's and 80's.
I'll be the first to admit that I grew up eating the standard lower-middle class fare of the 1980's - pop tarts, frozen pizzas, twinkies, drive-thru burgers and orange soda. I also had a weight problem from an early age. It was the product of a perfect storm of hectic lifestyles, a shift in value away from farms and food to cities and status symbols, and vast, convincing misinformation campaigns by processed food manufacturers that assured our parents that sugar-laden, fatty, highly-processed breakfast cereals were the right way to start their kids' day because they contained 8 essential vitamins and minerals! Sure, it will keep you alive, but for how long?
Making people stop and think about what they are putting into their bodies, and more importantly, what they are teaching their kids to put in their bodies is what Jamie's Food Revolution is all about. Check it out and sign the petition, if you are so inclined. But most importantly, feed your family well. For starters, if you need a chemistry 102 textbook to decipher a food's ingredient list, don't eat it. ;)
The gist of the show is this - Chef Jamie Oliver has come to Huntington, West Virginia (the most unhealthy/fattest city in America, according to the Center for Disease Control) to change the way that people feed themselves and their families, with a particular focus on adding fresh foods to school lunch programs. Who could possibly have a problem with someone willing to get their kids excited about eating fresh, healthy foods? As it turns out, the very people who you'd expect to advocate for these kids - school principals, cooks, nutritionists and worst of all, their parents.
I was straight-up thunderstruck by how completely apathetic most of the adults in charge of nourishing these kids were. One cafeteria cook defended the quality of a pre-cooked, processed chicken nuggety-thing by pointing out that chicken was the number one ingredient. By what margin is it number one? And what about the other 20 four-syllable ingredients?!?
Even for a organicy-granola girl like me, this has been a wake up call. I don't feed my kids too much of anything that comes in a package or box, and they can recognize and name most fruits and veggies on site, unlike an entire classroom of kids on the show, who only understood what a tomato was after it was revealed that ketchup is actually made from tomatoes.
My husband shared my outrage and kept saying The kids in our neighborhood would know all of those veggies! And he's right. We are lucky to live in a time and place where nutrition, health, variety and simplicity are very much of value. Our daughters' school even has it's own gardens that the kids plant, maintain and harvest to eat themselves and share with the food bank. They know where food comes from and what it takes to make it happen. The same cannot (yet) be said for the kids of Huntington, West Virginia, nor could it have been said for many kids of my generation, growing up in the 70's and 80's.
I'll be the first to admit that I grew up eating the standard lower-middle class fare of the 1980's - pop tarts, frozen pizzas, twinkies, drive-thru burgers and orange soda. I also had a weight problem from an early age. It was the product of a perfect storm of hectic lifestyles, a shift in value away from farms and food to cities and status symbols, and vast, convincing misinformation campaigns by processed food manufacturers that assured our parents that sugar-laden, fatty, highly-processed breakfast cereals were the right way to start their kids' day because they contained 8 essential vitamins and minerals! Sure, it will keep you alive, but for how long?
Making people stop and think about what they are putting into their bodies, and more importantly, what they are teaching their kids to put in their bodies is what Jamie's Food Revolution is all about. Check it out and sign the petition, if you are so inclined. But most importantly, feed your family well. For starters, if you need a chemistry 102 textbook to decipher a food's ingredient list, don't eat it. ;)
Earth Hour
Earth Hour is set to take place at 8:30pm tonight, lasting for 1 hour. Over 126 countries are on board to participate in Earth hour, shutting down all non-essential electrical appliances and lights. Lest you think that you'll be the only one flicking the switch or unplugging, wikipedia has a partial list of world landmarks that will also be going dark for earth hour, including Big Ben, The Eiffel Tower and right here in my own back yard, the Space Needle.
Will your household be participating? What do you propose to do with your 60 minutes unplugged?
Will your household be participating? What do you propose to do with your 60 minutes unplugged?
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Calling all Cooks!
I know that I've been a wee bit needy lately; taking more than I've been giving in terms of advice or inspiration, and as much as I'd like to promise you that this is the last time that I will try to wrench feedback or advice out of you, my friends, we both know that there is zero chance of that being the case. At any rate, I need the help of you, my fellow foodies, moms and creative cooks to assist me in helping someone else.
As some of you might already know, my brother-in-law, Jim, just deployed (again) to Afghanistan, leaving his wonderful wife, Jen, back home in Tennessee with their two beautiful little boys, a very precocious 4-year-old, and a 3-month old sweet baby boy. In what has become a family vacation/mission of mercy, my husband, kids and I are flying out to Tennessee over spring break to give Jen a little breather after a month home alone with the boys. Job #1 is to kick Jen out and send her butt to the spa for a day, and get me some serious baby/toddler snuggle time with my nephews. Job #2 is to cook a big old mess of freezer dinners for Jen & her oldest to eat for the next month or so to give Jen a little break from cooking. And so I look to you. Do you have any kid-friendly, freezes-well, healthy freezer meal recipe ideas to share?
The only parameters here are that it can't include any seafood (fish are friends, not food, so says Jen), that it look and taste yummy once it's been thawed and reheated and that it be relatively healthful. You can leave your recipe in a comment, leave me a link or send me an email at pisceschick 99 @ gmail dot com. I appreciate you all so much and I can't wait to see what you've got for me!
P.S. - If you email me your address, I'll send y'all a postcard from Tennessee, and maybe bring back a goody or two for a giveaway offering. ;)
Jim, Jen, Me, Bill and the kiddos, last year at Disney World. P.P.S. - I've lost 70 pounds since then! :)
As some of you might already know, my brother-in-law, Jim, just deployed (again) to Afghanistan, leaving his wonderful wife, Jen, back home in Tennessee with their two beautiful little boys, a very precocious 4-year-old, and a 3-month old sweet baby boy. In what has become a family vacation/mission of mercy, my husband, kids and I are flying out to Tennessee over spring break to give Jen a little breather after a month home alone with the boys. Job #1 is to kick Jen out and send her butt to the spa for a day, and get me some serious baby/toddler snuggle time with my nephews. Job #2 is to cook a big old mess of freezer dinners for Jen & her oldest to eat for the next month or so to give Jen a little break from cooking. And so I look to you. Do you have any kid-friendly, freezes-well, healthy freezer meal recipe ideas to share?
The only parameters here are that it can't include any seafood (fish are friends, not food, so says Jen), that it look and taste yummy once it's been thawed and reheated and that it be relatively healthful. You can leave your recipe in a comment, leave me a link or send me an email at pisceschick 99 @ gmail dot com. I appreciate you all so much and I can't wait to see what you've got for me!
P.S. - If you email me your address, I'll send y'all a postcard from Tennessee, and maybe bring back a goody or two for a giveaway offering. ;)
Jim, Jen, Me, Bill and the kiddos, last year at Disney World. P.P.S. - I've lost 70 pounds since then! :)
Try, try again...
Be brutally honest people. Is this new background better or worse than my original lame white page? I'm notoriously indecisive so, HELP!
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