{once} more pertaining to food

As I sat typing along on Monday, I realized that I have so much more to say than I'd want to bore you with in one post.  So, two posts it is.  This works out quite well for me, actually, because it seems the only thing I've been taking pictures of recently is food - we'll need to work on that as I don't intend this to become a food blog.

A Brief History:

In November of 2009, I married my wonderful husband and returned to Illinois to make a home with him.  Throughout our courtship I believe the only thing I cooked for him was cinnamon pancakes from a box (gasp!).  He, on the other hand, made me many delicious and creative meals that were beautifully served to boot!  However, I was at home more often than he so it made sense for me to do the cooking.

 (Me at our first dinner in our new home: pan seared steak au poivre, risotto, and a spinach salad)

{Let me add: that might sound fancy but it was one of the only things I knew how to cook}

Now, I did know how to cook a little bit.  I helped my mom make dinner (mostly in the form of putting things in the oven and taking them out again at the right time) - I spent some time in the few months before my wedding preparing dinner for my parents ... with varied success.  This, however, did not go far in preparing me to make every meal we ate from my own grocery list from a budget.  About two weeks in, there were many tears shed over my feelings of inadequacy.

 (My reinvented childhood classic - Broccoli Chicken Casserole - this one sans Campbell)

Enter: the public library (I do so love libraries!).  It took until this time to realize that libraries have a cookbook section.  As I love reading, I would gather a stack as big as I could manage (think fingertips to chin here - did I mention I lived next door?), then read them cover to cover.  This could well have been just an education in how to make edible meals but the books that I was most drawn to also taught me something of how to cook, how to choose ingredients, how to think about food - and so I was drawn into a much larger discussion about food, where it comes from, how it's grown, how it works in the body, etc.  Be aware!  Books can change your world!  {For a list of some books that have changed my world, check out my Resources tab}.

So at this point, I still read many books about food and cooking and farming/gardening and I continue to learn and be inspired.  There is one book, though, that I would say takes things a bit farther than everyone else ... Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  You may have heard of her from a number of others in the blogging community, or you may have never heard of such a thing.  In any case, as the title suggests, Sally believes the most healthful food choices you can make are returning to the food traditions of our ancestors (an opinion echoed by almost every Slow Food-minded author I've read).

While I agree with much of Sally (and co-author Mary Enig)'s conclusions based on their research, that doesn't make them any easier to do.  She calls for things like soaking all whole grains/beans 8 - 24 hours before cooking, drinking raw milk, and lacto-fermenting almost all condiments.  For her reasoning, I would suggest you read the book.  These things take planning ahead, which I have learned to do much better, but still aren't easy.  So while I read the book originally last summer, we are still in the slow process of adjusting the way we eat to incorporate more of her methods (because, in general, I do think they are better for us).

(Irish soda bread with chicken liver pate, which wasn't actually very good, but we were trying to incorporate more organ meats into our diet.  Now, I just take Cod Liver Oil pills and recommend that method!)

(Tomorrow's breakfast of steel-cut oats and tonight's dinner of black beans soaking)

Right now I am working on making bread.  It seems like it should be so simple, but maintaining a sourdough starter is intimidating me and I would like to use only recipes that call for soaking whole wheat, of which there aren't many aside from Sally's.  I have a batch of yeast-ed bread soaking right now, so we'll see how that goes.  The other challenge I'm taking on is eliminating sugar from my/our diet.  It's way harder than I thought it would be!  I've replaced our sugar with honey and maple syrup so far but now have to figure out how to restrain myself when I'm offered sugared substances outside my home as I find my will-power lacking in those circumstances.  My new go-to for cravings is now eggs with melty, delicious cheese, pictured below!

Isn't food just beautiful?!  Sigh.  Not to mention that if you saute this palette, you get a delicious base to most soups and many sauces as well - like for this delicious, easy to throw together chicken soup!

You must either love food or love me to have made it to the end of this rather long post!  I'd love for you to share your thoughts below, or even questions, if you like. 

I'm thankful for food because it is tasty, nourishing and beautiful.
 
{My friend Katrina thinks so as well, over at Art & Table}

around the house

The Christmas decorations have come down and been stowed in their box until next year.  I kept some of the strings of lights up because I love the way that they glow.  At least until the end of winter, they make me feel a little warmer on dark nights.

Around the house we (well, mostly Grady) have been attempting to refinish the walls in our kitchen.  For whatever reason, perhaps because these walls are likely 100 years old, the plaster has some crazy ridges and grooves in it, which make for a rather unappealing surface to look at.  Inspired by Apartment Therapy, we're doing what we can to fix the 'bones' of our home.  Soon we'll be on to painting ... if I can ever pick out a color!

I've also been doing some cooking.  And last night was a first for both of us: duck.

We've eaten duck before but neither of us had cooked one.  I must say I was a little proud of myself for successfully cutting it up into pieces and cooking it rather well, although we could have used more guidance on seasoning.

Duck is on the menu because we're working on diversifying the types of meat that we eat - up next, organ meat.  The great thing about duck is that you can use every last scrap of it in the kitchen and I was guided in my work by this book I just picked up at the library - Forgotten Skills of Cooking by Darina Allen.  Why have I never heard of this woman?!  This book is amazing and has lots of pretty pictures and practical descriptions.  It tells you how to cook but also how to forage, how to keep chickens, how to culture dairy products and much more, all the while telling stories of life on a homestead in Ireland.  It's a beautiful thing.

So today, hopefully, I will be taking what we didn't eat last night and rendering the fat, making 'cracklings' out of the skin, and cooking up a broth using the carcass on which there is enough extra meat to make lunch out of, oh and maybe I will figure out something special for the liver ... we'll see.

I think it's important to use the whole animal as often as possible, not just because it's economical but because that animal died so we could eat and I'd like to honor that by making as much use out of its life as possible instead of just taking what I want and leaving the rest.  Thankfully, there is something delicious to be made out of every part!

dinner from a chef

After my most recent trip to the library, I came home with the usual pile of books that can be sorted into 'Food Books' and 'Baby Books.'  {Just to head-off anticipated questions, we're not trying to "start a family" right now ... although of course we are a family even without children but I think you get the meaning I'm getting at, no?}.

On the top of my 'Food Books' pile, was a little audio version of In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan.  I am probably one of the few who is very enthused with the local, clean food movement who has not read the book that preceded this one, The Omnivore's Dilemma.  While I plan to pick it up in the future, I also know plenty of the wrong that he writes about and am already convinced it's not a good thing. 

Enter: In Defense of Food.  This book was intended to be a follow-up to the Dilemma and offer some ideas of where we should go from the point of "lots of bad things are happening in the industrial food world."  Let me just say that I got this audio book simply to entertain me while I was knitting furiously and instead I listened intently and vowed multiple times during the listening to change my lifestyle and tell the whole world!  {When ideas strike me as true I get rather passionate :-)}.



I would beg you to please read this book (traveling for Christmas?  Take it with you!).  I'll try not to make it out to be the most awesome thing ever, but he draws many aspects of food and culture into his writing that I think strike at the core of what needs to change and why and he does so without sounding too much like a crazy "you must eat local, organic and not to is sinful" kind of person.  If you want to hear him give a sort of short summary of the book, watch this video.

All this to say, I became much more highly motivated to make good, real food and enjoy, even savor it!  Thankfully I had checked out another book to help in such a quest: Harvest to Heat.

The pictures are gorgeous - the stories of chefs and farmers are enchanting - the titles of the recipes make your mouth water {they are written by famous chefs, after all} - the foreword is written by Alice Waters.

My highly motivated, Saturday-morning-fresh self picked many of our meals for this week from this book - including last night's supper of "Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Braised Plums and Crumbly Blue Cheese."

Hours after commencing, we enjoyed the product of our (rather significant) labor.  A dish that could have been served  - albeit, not made by me - in some fancy locavore restaurant!    Delicious?  That wouldn't be the exact word I'd choose - an interesting taste experience - would be more like it.

More importantly, it was a meal that reminded me that it is worth it to spend hours cooking from scratch, using foods that are full of nourishment for both body and spirit.  I am by no means a gourmand, but I do enjoy putting effort into something that I can be proud of and that my little two person family can take pleasure in.

What have you been cooking these days?  Any delicious ideas to share?

on the book stack

Once again I have maxed out my library card with 5 books.  Actually, Canning and Preserving didn't come in until after I had checked out my 5 so I had to make the difficult choice of which one to return in exchange for it.  So then, let's start with -

Canning and Preserving with Ashley English.  I've heard so much about this book for quite a while now; I follow her blog and I did what I could to finally track down this copy of her book on canning.  It is quite a pretty book.  Most of the pages are taken up with explaining exactly how to can in a thorough, step-by-step way.  Of all of the reading I have done on canning, I'd say that this book has the best total-beginner friendly introduction to the whole process.  That said, I'd already gathered all of this information from reading so many other sources.  Her recipes are mostly the standard ones that you'd want to know at the beginning and then she has a few with a more creative flare.  If you have never canned before and want great instructions (with pictures!), this is the book for you.

While I'm at it, I'll let you know about the other preserving book I have at the moment - Well-Preserved by Eugenia Bone.  In contrast to Ashely's book, this one is mostly recipes and all of them are on the more unusual side.  This book also includes recipes that incorporate the preserves into a meal.  My husband and I were salivating just looking at the pictures.  Not only that, Eugenia provides recipes that would be difficult to find elsewhere such as how to can tuna, process marinated baby artichokes and cure bacon in your apartment (I'm so going to try this).  She also knows how to put the beginning canner at ease.  The book starts by addressing my greatest fears about canning.  She writes, "I think the reason more people don't can is ultimately that they're scare of botulism poisoning.  Understandable.  But if you educate yourself on the simple science underlying safe canning, it will put those fears in perspective and open the door to really cool cooking experiences."  She goes on to explain that science and then at the beginning of every recipe (all of which she has carefully tested), she explains why it is "safe" to process it the way that she calls for.  Very reassuring; I'm inspired!

The Vouge Knitting book is an encyclopedia of stitches to help me come up with my own designs.  Once you know how to construct a certain garment, you can make it your own by playing with different stitch patterns, which I plan on doing just as soon as I learn how to construct more types of garments.  In the mean time, I'll stick to embellishing socks, mittens, fingerless gloves, and scarfs.  Last-Minute Knitted Gifts by Joelle Hoverson is to help me with my long Christmas list!  I like her other book, More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, so I'm hopeful to find a few things that work in this one too.  We'll see!

I haven't read Slow Food yet, but the foreward is by Alice Waters so I anticipate good things.  I follow Slow Food USA on facebook and use their Chicago-specific website for some resources.  I'm all for the mission of Slow Food, so I'm excited to see what this book has to say.

plans for today ...

... out of doors today seems not so pleasant.

... this spot on the couch might be just right for accomplishing the day - add slippers and tea.

... finally got my hands on Ashley English's book!  I haven't even opened it yet, but I'm thrilled with anticipation.   Reading these preserving books at the end of fall might have been a bad idea, though, because it tempts me to just go to the grocery store and buy out of season just so I can try the recipes!  We'll see ...

... Christmas presents!!  Half-way done with present number one (out of ... sigh, 10?)  After this, I'm turning to Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.  If you'd like to know what it is that I'm knitting, you can check my projects page on Ravelry.

... there may need to be some baking today to warm up the house.

... packing for a good friend's wedding this weekend!!!

... dinner plans?  hmmn.  I'll think while I'm knitting.

on the book stack

Armed with a library card last week, I promptly checked out my maximum number of books, which you see pictured here.  Sadly, my local branch doesn't have many books on the shelves and the enormous library downtown (which is totally awesome!!) is so massive that it's difficult to browse the shelves.  They've also sorted their books according to the Library of Congress, which makes no sense to me and means that I have to travel between the 4th and 6th floors to find the books I'm looking for.  I'm sure I'll learn, but in the mean time, I actually had trouble finding 5 books that I wanted - a very strange problem for me.

Cider by Proulx and Nichols was quite a useful book.  I read it before we made our hard cider.  In some ways though, it offers way more detail than you actually want unless you're brewing cider for real - as in, multiple gallons.  The back part of the book also strictly warns you about the penalties of attempting to distill any kind of alcohol from cider and even stays that it's not trying to encourage it, but then goes on to tell you how apple jack and apple brandy are made.  I'm not particularly tempted, however;  $10,000 and up to 5 years in prison just doesn't seem worth it.

A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove - it looked interesting and I have not read it.  I will likely return it without reading it but I picked it up because it talks about the history of women and what their life was like in relation to the hearth.

Easy, Green Living by Renee Loux.  I read this cover to cover over a year ago now and would consider it my primary education in environmental and other types of toxins and pollutants.  She also lists quite a few resources and ideas to reduce your exposure to such things and to protect the environment.  I do believe that we are responsible for our impact on this world and this books helps explain how the choices you make will either help or harm.  I make better decisions now, I think.  I got it out this time though, to help me modify some of the suggestions in Home Comforts, which extols the virtues of chlorine bleach.  I'm still undecided what role bleach will play in our life but it will likely be just a very, very small one.

Small Batch Preserving by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard - I put this book to relatively good use just the other day.  Honestly, it wasn't quite the book I was looking for.  I was searching everywhere to get a hold of Ashley English's Homemade Living: Canning and Preserving, but the copy at my branch was checked out ... as were all 4 of the copies at Harold Washington (the big library) and they were also checked out at almost every other branch as well!  But I needed to get those apples into cans, so this is what I came up with.  Not bad.  Not as instructive as this beginner would have liked.

Another self-sufficiency book.  This book, Self-Sufficiency in the 21st Century, was clearly inspired by the same book that originally inspired me to start working in that direction - The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live It, by John Seymour.  I was actually trying to check this book out of the library, but when I got to the self it had apparently already been taken, so I took the above book instead.  It's cool and tells you how to make your own energy and grow wildlife refuges and build eco-houses partially underground.  But John Seymour's book does most of that as well - with pretty drawings.  I'd still say that if you're looking for a book that will inspire you to live more in touch with the land and do your best to move towards self-sufficiency, The Self-Sufficient Life is what you're looking for.

I realize that Home Comforts is not in the picture, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been reading it!  I'm maybe close to halfway through now.  Just the other day I was getting ready to do laundry and thought to just read the chapters on laundry before I start ... 2 hours later, I actually started sorting my laundry.  Although that's an absurd amount of reading for just laundry, it covered absolutely everything I'd want to know (except in relation to the environment, hence Easy, Green Living) and I believe that my clothes and such came out much cleaner this time around.  Now I feel that if or when we get new clothes, I will be able to make the look good and last for much longer.

on the book stack

As you can see, the books are not in stacks today, but boxes.  We're moving tomorrow which also means that there are no library books here either.  Yes, it is a rather sad day.  However, I have reserved just one book to keep with me through all the packing.  I have been sneaking reads from it as often as I can and it now sits on my bedside table.

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House.  I had a suspicion when I read page one last week that I would be hooked and it turned out to be true.  In this book, Cheryl Mendelson not only talks you through how to do everything you could ever need to do in order to keep your house well, she also examines the social and relational contexts that are so integral to the home, which are therefore integral to the concepts of keeping a home.  Being a philosophy professor, she will sometimes delve into the meaning of 'home' as well.  I thought that, once I got past the first chapter, the 837 (excluding notes) page book would be mostly charts and bullet points.  Nope.  Prose.  This book is totally packed from cover to cover and I love it.  Please allow me to share just a few quotes that will hopefully give you a flavor of the book.

There were also reasons outside my own home that gave impetus to the idea of a housekeeping book.  Over and over I found myself visiting homes where the predominant feeling was sepulchral, dusty, and deserted, or even hotel-like, as my own had once become.  Perhaps a book that tried to explain not only the hows but the whys and the meanings of housekeeping was something the world could use.

The sense of being at home is important to everyone's well-being ... When you are at home, you can let down your guard and take off your mask.  Home is the one place in the world where you are safe from feeling put down or out, unentitled, or unwanted. ... Coming home is your major restorative in life.

Her real secret was that she identified herself with her home. ... She lived her life not only through her own body but through the house as an extension of her body; part of her relation to those she loved was embodied in the physical medium of the home she made.

Above all, housekeeping must be intelligent so that it can be empathetic, for empathy is the form of intelligence that creates the feeling of home.

Good meals at home satisfy emotional hungers as real as hunger in the belly, and nothing else does so in the same way.  They promote affection and intimacy among those who share them.  Characteristic, familial styles of cooking and dining, foods that "taste like home," are central to each home's feelings of security and comfort and to its sense of itself as a unique and valuable place.  Cooking at home links your past and future and solidifies your sense of identity and place.  When a home gives up its hearth, which in the modern world is its kitchen, it gives up its focus.  (The word "focus" is Latin for "hearth.") And the people who live there lose theirs too.

I chose to share only some of her reflections on 'home' but there is much more that is practical in this book.  What order to wash dishes in, how to set a table, how to make coffee and so on.  Still, I haven't found it to be intimidating since she writes in such a way that is gracious to the many who never really learned how to keep house and she gives you plenty of space to learn by suggesting all of the things you could do and then highlighting the most important.

Her observations of society's affect on housekeeping - generation(s) of women feeling trapped at home, generation(s) of women often too preoccupied with work to learn to keep home, the idea that men don't keep home, advertising of modern conveniences - highlight the emotions and beliefs that are caught up in this seemingly simple task.  It is a breath of fresh air to acknowledge the depth to which we feel about our homes and how important they still are to our lives.  I believe that she truly writes to everyone who wishes to make a home for themselves and those they love, regardless of gender or age.  So far in my reading (just past 100 pages), I have been enlightened, challenged, and above all, inspired.

This is perhaps the best time to be thinking on these ideas for me, since I will be setting up a new home in just a few days.  Many things will stay the same as they have been, but hopefully some things will be improved and a few better habits formed.  But at the end of the day, my house will always feel like a home so long as it is filled with love.

on the book stack

Last week I shared my addiction to library books.  As the weather turns colder and I sit in my chair with a blanket for a little more time during the day, I start to pick up more books for cozy reading.  Perhaps, at least for the cold season, I will write one post each week on a book or two that I have been reading - maybe I will write only a little about many books I'm reading.  We shall see.  And it will be called "on the book stack" since I store books that I'm reading by piling them on top of each other.  We ran out of space on bookshelves a while ago in our house.

............................................................................................................

On the stack this week:

More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts, by Joelle Hoverson

Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders, Judith Durant, Ed.

Super Natural Every Day, by Heidi Swanson

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House, by Cheryl Mendelson


Shout out to Kate Faith for the last two, which are really the most exciting to me right now.

In fact, last first - Home Comforts.  Can't say much about it yet because I need to read it first ... but it's written by a Harvard Law School graduate/philosophy professor/novelist who grew up on a working farm in Greene County, PA and now lives in NYC (this info is taken from the back of the book).  She begins her book on keeping home in this way,

"I am a working woman with a secret life: I keep house.  An off-and-on lawyer and professor in public, in private I launder and clean, cook from the hip, and devote serious time and energy to a domestic routine not so different from the one that defined my grandmothers as 'housewives.'  ... Until now, I have almost entirely concealed this passion for domesticity.  No one meeting me for the first time would suspect that I squander my time knitting or my mental reserves remembering household facts such as the date when the carpets and mattresses were last rotated."

The back cover and one page in and I'm already excited to read the whole thing.

And speaking of keeping home, I have been eying Super Natural Every Day for a while, hoping for some help in the vegetarian cooking department.  Yesterday, we received a late wedding gift (ahem) from a dear friend containing this book!  She likely had ulterior motives to convert me from my meat eating but I accept the gift with enthusiasm all the same.  We eat very little meat in our house since we have constrained ourselves to eating only animals that have been raised on pasture, which makes great demands on our budget and hence, decreases the amount that we can eat.  My knowledge of making meals without meat has been significantly stretched these last few months and this cookbook will be a welcome addition to my vegetarian repertoire.

More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts is a library find that I have checked out at least 3 times now.  I have yet to make a project from the book, since my yarn stash is rather limited at the moment, but just the photos themselves are inspiration.  All of the projects look so soft and simple but not so simple that you would feel silly giving one as a gift.  There are patterns for all ages and interests and all different yarn weights as well.  My friends need to start having babies so I can make the adorable "easy baby cardigan" or the "pointy elf hat."  For now I will probably stick with the "family ribbed hats" for at least one person on the Christmas List.  As with many knitting books, the back section contains useful instructions for finishing projects and interpreting abbreviations (something I still need help with sometimes!) - but this books does it with pretty pictures.

The other knitting book, Sock Yarn One-Skein Wonders, is a compilation of patterns by many different knitters.  All of them are supposed to use only one skein of sock yarn, but all skeins are not created equal.  I had a hard time finding anything for my one skein that contained only 185 yards of yarn.  I believe I did find a pattern that will work, the details of which will remain a secret, by checking it by other knitters' experiences on ravelry.  Many of the patterns are quite clever though, so I look forward to a time when I will buy a skein with a specific project from this book in mind (probably one of the gorgeous shawls).

I'll let you know how the first two books turn out once I actually start reading and using them.  I'm always open to reading suggestions as well - send them my way!

My Name Is Courtney ...

... and I have an addiction.

I don't think I could even say that my addiction is to books, exactly, because I don't feel a strong desire to purchase books.  But give me a library card and I will return home with as many books as I can fit between my palms and chin.  Thankfully, we live next door to our library - as in, the library building connects to our building (we still have to go outside to get in though), so my trip isn't too far.  I read in genres, if that isn't apparent from the titles.  This happens because it's what I'm interested in, but it also happens because our library is so small that all of these genres are in the same aisle.  As I walk down the row with my head sideways looking for one type of book, I see another that catches my eye.  Before you know it, I have to force myself to leave - after having visited only one short aisle - or be stuck making two trips to my apartment for all of the books.

Have you read any of these books?  Have others you could recommend?  Want a review of what I've read?  What are you reading these days?

Thank you, dear country, for having free public libraries (and God for all the world and knowledge)!