It's "that" time of year again...

For the second year in a row, where my house smells overwhelmingly like tomatoes and my kitchen is stacked with bushels boxes! With help from my husband (read about the dangers of canning alone here), I've managed to "put up" two bushels of tomatoes in the form of sauce, and I've got to say, it's much yummier than last year! If you're like me and eccentric enough to take up the bizarre endeavour, then you probably want to check out the Bernardin website for the basic idea of canning and some recipes. I used their basic procedure for tomato sauce. You don't want to add any oils or fresh veggies since it alters the pH and apparently that can allow botulism to grow and potentially kill you and yours.

Last year, inspired by Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle book, I used her recipe for Family Secret Tomato Sauce. However, I didn't seed or peel. I admit, that haste does indeed make waste, and the sauce was too bitter. I also wasn't crazy about the hint of cinnamon and nutmeg and the huge amount of basil (Sorry Barbara!). This year, I bit the bullet and did the seeding. Much tastier! However, I did add (without measuring, just to taste...):

1/2 cup brown sugar
6 tbsp of garlic powder
2 tbsp of dried basil
2 tbsp of dried oregano
2 tbsp of ground pepper
2 tbsp of sea salt
(***don't forget 2 tbsp of lemon juice PER 1L jar to maintain acidity***)

Boiled down for about 2-3 hours to make a moderately thick sauce. Divine!

Tomorrow is the big day, TomatoFest 2011, my now annual canning party. We've got 5 women and 7 bushels of tomatoes. The plan is to make diced tomatoes and whole canned tomatoes. Hopefully we get it done before the wine takes effect!

Gardening Season in Review

I didn't post throughout the summer, but it doesn't mean that I my garden doesn't make me feel like a proud mama to some baby garlic! Here's the season in review:

This was April...starting from seed. The kids did some watering and planting. But they also upended a whole tray a week later. So much for my careful labeling of the different varieties!
The garden in June...garlic was up nice and early in the season and made it feel like a real garden as soon as the snow melted! Though they are smiling, I think I was more excited about the bean teepee than the kids were!

July filled things in a bit...lots of kale (the nasturtiums and marigolds seemed to help keep the aphids away this year), way too much chard to possibly eat, beans, peas, spinach, lettuce, cherry tomatoes, unusual "banana legs" tomatoes, cucumbers, purple peppers, jalapenos, beets, dill, a few carrots, a failed zucchini (who can KILL zucchini you ask?), and a nice round pumpkin!
The biggest hit of this year was the addition of my garlic patch. You can read back about the planting part from last October here, but really, all that matters is that the results were AWESOME and so easy. We ate the "scapes" in June...

...and harvested 60 heads at the end of July. It was the juciest, tastiest garlic I'd even tried! I ate some right away and was advised that it was starting to smell, then I used some of the garlic to make 2 bushels worth of dill pickles (not my best batch, but I'll leave that for another day), and the rest is hanging in my basement keeping the vampires away.
Other than garlic this *could* have been my favorite harvest. These are my shiitake mushrooms. Dead easy, and delicious if you don't forget about them in the oven when you're drying them. Ahem.


Finally, our pumpkin!

Festive Treats

Despite my (admittedly inconsistent) efforts to control junk food, my 6 year old daughter's dentist just informed us that she has 8 (yes, EIGHT) cavities. The shame!
Oh well, I can take most of the blame, but man, they eat a lot of sugar at school! Birthdays are complete with cupcakes (that's 20 days with cupcakes), the warm weather has involved at least 5 occasions that involved freezies, and I believe the ice cream truck handed out free ice cream on the last day of school.
So, when my daughter asked if I would send something in for an early celebration of her summertime birthday, I wondered what would be appropriately "healthy" yet not be thrown in the garbage. We decided on fruit kebabs, and somehow in a moment of weakness I allowed a fruit candy to top each one. This, admittedly, is a pretty poor plan from a cavity point of view, but hey, at least it involved fruit.
Next year no candy, they are pretty enough all on their own!

Shroom Harvest!

My first shiitake mushroom "flush".
It was stupidly easy, but not without ups and downs. When I first got my logs, they were longer than I expected. I tried to fit them in the bathtub for a soak, but it wasn't really a great plan. First off, they didn't quite fit. They also got my tub filled with bits of bark and other outdoorsy crap. Then there was the issue of actual bathing. So, the logs soaked for about 5 hours before I moved them outside under the sprinkler overnight. Eventually I did get a few mushrooms, maybe 6 or 7. I'm pretty sure raccoons realized that shiitakes are tasty, because they started scratching out any teeny mushroom cap that attempted to pop out. Defeated, I chalked it up in the loss column of my garden experiment. After a few weeks, I got my second wind and took the logs to my dad's place, cut them in half and gave them a less half assed soak - this time for a full 24 hours. A couple of weeks later just when I'd almost forgotten about my 'shrooms - TA DAAA!
Above is the first true harvest!

Since I use this blog to be positive, I won't get into the story where I put most of my harvest into the oven to dehydrate them - and then forgot about them. I now have a big bowl of what can only generously be called mushroom "crisps". But that does bring us to the best part of growing mushrooms, you only have to wait a few weeks for the next harvest!

Black Bean "Brownies" (Seriously!)

We don't eat alot of dessert, but every once in awhile, I get a sweet craving. I'm trying to avoid dairy and wheat right now (as an experiment to get rid of chronic sinusitis), so that cuts out ice cream and most baked goods. I stumbled across a black bean brownie recipe at Whole Foods, and was surprised how many good reviews they got - and how good the pictures looked. I figured it was worth a try. They are super-quick, especially if you have a blender or food processor.

Now in all honesty, I cannot say that these health-nut alternatives are seamless substitutions for the real thing. I think to call them brownies sets them up for failure. However, if you just think of them as a dessert that has some health potential, they're totally passable, even yummy. We don't usually eat many "real" brownies, so my kids didn't really have a frame of reference. They especially liked eating the batter before it was cooked. I had to snicker to myself a little seeing them literally lick drips of black beans off spoons and even try to shove their little heads into the bowl to get more. The finished product didn't meet quite the same enthusiasm from my son (always the pickiest one), but he had a few. My daughter liked them, and most importantly, I found them to be a great wheat free alternative.

I made some very minor modifications from the Whole Foods recipe. See below:

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed (I like Eden Organics, since their cans are BPA free- btw the Canadian Government has recently passed a regulation to phase out BPA in all cans over the next few years.)
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup cocoa
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecan-s (optional)

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Place the black beans, sugar, eggs, melted butter, cocoa, vanilla and salt in a blender (or food processor) and blend until smooth (use a spatula to push the stuff off the sides). Pour into an 8″x8″ pan that has been greased. Sprinkle chocolate chips and nuts on top (optional). Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until slightly puffed and set. Cool and cut. Eat!!!

Bite Sized Lentil Snacks

I've been looking for some creative vegetarian options lately. Mostly because we're running low on our organic meat supply and are due for a trip to the farm. It's also healthy and easy and cheap. I was searching for lentil recipes, since I've fallen out of the habit of soaking beans, and lentils don't need to be pre-soaked. I came across a recipe at Just Bento that I modified to include what I had on hand (sweet potatoes and peas). I served them as part of a "make believe" dinner (which means a whole bunch of stuff thrown together). I liked to dip my lentil bites into guacamole, my daughter dipped hers in ranch dressing, and my husband used his like falafel in a pita with lettuce and tomato. My son, however, didn't like them. No surprises there.
I brought the leftovers for my lunch for a couple of days and if nothing else, they were WAY yummier than anything the cafeteria serves up. I do highly recommend some sort of dip or else they can be a bit dry.

Snacker alert--they are great to have in the fridge and just pop one if you're feeling snacky for something savory and want to avoid the temptation of junkier items.

Lentil Bites
2 cups uncooked red lentils
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1 big onion or 2 small, chopped into teeny pieces
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
1/4 cup olive oil (or coconut oil works too)
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
1-2 tbsp tamari, soy sauce or Bragg's liquid
Salt and pepper
Sesame seeds or flax seeds (or a combination of both)
Optional additions - 1 small sweet potato (diced - I pre-cooked for a minute in the microwave), 1/2 c green peas, 1/2 c cauliflower (chopped into tiny pieces), pretty much anything goes here.

Rinse the lentils, and cook them (put them in a pot and cover them with about an extra inch of water). Cook for 15-20 mins. Skim the goo off the top. Drain off any excess water.

In the meantime, put the chopped onions, garlic, spices and olive oil in a frying pan with any of the optional added veggies. Fry until the onions are softened. Add the brown rice and tamari or soy sauce.

Mix everything together. If you're not deterred by the sloppy look (see above), you can just eat it right now. Or, if you're in the mood for something more tidy looking, let it cool. Once cool, scoop it out on a baking tray lined with parchment paper into golf ball sized dollops. You can flatten them or roll them or just leave them alone. Sprinkle with sesame seeds or flax seeds. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes or until the surface is a bit crispy.

Eat, freeze, or refrigerate, whatever works.

Coconut Convert

I hosted a "nutrition night" last night that included a fair bit of wine, but also heaps of accessible yet detailed information from Lauren at Ginger Roots. I was happy to hear that I was on the right track with my recent coconut conversion! Up until a few months ago, I thought coconut oil was a no-no because it's a saturated fat. Apparently, it's actually a pretty good bet for cooking because it's naturally saturated, (not "hydrogenated" artificially, leading to trans fats) so it remains stable when heated, and it's easily digested. I appreciated Lauren's hint that I can even use it as a moisturizer in a pinch.

My new addition to the weekly rotation uses coconut oil and coconut milk. A close cousin of this recipe arrived in our weekly organics box from Mama Earth Organics and after a few experiments, I ended up settling on something like what you'll find below. It's a got a hint of curry, and a tropical feeling much needed in this slushy month of March. Even though the curry powder has tumeric, I like to add a fair bit extra. The book Anti-Cancer makes an excellent case for tumeric as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent. Keep in mind that it is necessary to combine it with black pepper to get the full benefits.

Coconut Curried Rice and Veg
1 & 2/3 cups long-grain rice, rinsed and drained (brown rice is obviously healthier and not revolting in this recipe, but I'd be lying to not admit that it tastes the best with white jasmine)
1 sweet potato, peeled and cubed
½ cup shredded coconut
1 ¼ cups water
1 can chick peas (or use chicken if you're in the mood)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp coconut oil
several bunches of bok choy, chopped (any non-lettuce leafy green will work here)
1 can coconut milk
½ tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp curry powder
1 diced onion
1 tbsp tumeric
1 tsp ground black pepper

Mix rice, sweet potato, water, coconut milk, shredded coconut and salt. Boil, simmer until rice is fully cooked.

Meanwhile, mix chick peas (or cubed chicken pieces) with garlic, onion, soy sauce and curry powder, tumeric and pepper. Stir fry until cooked. Add in the bok choy for a few minutes. Toss with the rice (if you have picky eaters around, you can serve the coconut/sweet potato rice to the picky eaters first and then combine the curry mixture with the rice for everyone else).

Inspiration

I began this blog last year around this time. I managed 9 months of regular (OK, sporadic) blogging. Eventually I ran out of words. And out of interest I guess. But a few things have happened in the last few weeks that have got me typing again:
1) My seed catalogues arrived. As I browsed the "Thai Pink Egg" tomatoes, the "Bull's Blood" beets, and the "Tennis Ball" lettuce, I couldn't help but get excited at the prospect of starting the garden experiment all over again.
2) The world issues class I teach has begun it's exploration of the global food system. It's always a shocking unit for my students, particularly for the bright ones who have learned alot about digestion, enzymes and the Canada Food Guide, but not much about the political and social side of food. The best part of teaching is always to "see the lightbulb turn on" and we're just about at that point where I'm going to see alot of shining light! It's put me in wordy state of mind.
3) Our family started working with Lauren from GingerRoots Nutrition. Her blog has heaps of great recipe ideas and she is so full of energy and enthusiasm about food (and pretty much everything else) that it was contagious. We've had the good luck of sampling her lentil muffins, spicy salsa soup, coconut squash soup and a few other items. YUM.

Today I decided to try actually cooking Lauren's Spicy Salsa Soup recipe (it's a black bean soup with carrots, red pepper and onion) to see if it really was as easy-peasy as she claimed. Indeed it is - and only has to cook for 5-ish minutes! Now, it's not a pretty soup, it's brown...but with shake of salt on top, it was a major hit with my five year old. Who knew?

Giving thanks for the humble pumpkin

It's Thanksgiving Day, and of course I'm thankful for the usual things. To shake things up at bit, we all had to say one frivolous thing that we were thankful for. Today, after an amazing discovery, I've got to say pumpkin! The happy orange of a field of pumpkins always makes me smile, and what other food can be carved into a Halloween decoration? Best of all, you can eat it!

Today we took the kids to Cooper's CSA (CSA being Community Supported Agriculture where you buy shares in the farmers crop and get a weekly box of seasonal veggies, thus offering the farmer stability and the non-farmer seasonal, healthy food). It was a great day, and much less tacky and jam-packed than some of the "agri-tainment" closer to the city. Besides, it's Local Food Plus certified, and that gives me confidence in it's sustainability. Long story short, we ended up carting home a van-load of pumpkins because I discovered earlier in the weekend the amazing versatility of the pumpkin!

Why didn't anyone tell me before that it can taste so good? I know, pumpkin pie's okay...but that didn't seem very connected to an actual pumpkin. In my mind it was like the connection between dill pickles and dill pickle potato chips -a loose association at best. I now realize, thanks to a wine soaked Friday night tutorial from a pie-master friend, that you can make pumpkin pie from an actual pumpkin. Will wonders never cease? It got me thinking that if you can make pie from a real pumpkin, maybe you can make other things...which led me to this recipe for pumpkin bread. It is, to quote my mother-in-law, "to DIE for". It's similar to banana bread, only based on a local crop. You can substitute any type of squash, I tried a batch with butternut squash too- delish! Next step, pumpkin soup!

If interested, I played around with the recipe a bit, but this is more or less what I used:

1 1/2 cups flour (I used half white and half whole wheat)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup agave nectar (or just use 3/4 c of sugar and ignore the agave nectar)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup mashed up cooked pumpkin (apparently the little "pie pumpkins" are tastier...just cut it in half, bake it for about an hour at 350, discard seeds and mash up pulp)
1/3 cup olive oil
1/3 cup plain yogurt
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Mix wet ingredients, mix dry ingredients, mix it all together. Bake in a buttered loaf pan at 350 for 50-60 mins. Enjoy fresh or freeze for later!

Sauce Rage

A few weeks ago, I made salsa and tomato sauce. I did it late at night after my kids were in bed. Some evenings I started this ridiculous endeavour at 9:30 pm only to collape exhausted into bed at 1 am. Let me explain that I am on summer holidays and my husband is not. His alarm goes off at 6am and I have learned to sleep right through it. So when I got it in my head to start a canning binge on a Sunday night, my husband, while supportive in theory, was not particularly enthusiastic. So I did it myself.

The first day was fine. I made a test batch of tomato sauce. No problem. But that didn't even make a tiny dent in the massive pile of tomatoes in my kitchen. So I got to work on salsa, diced tomatoes, roasted tomatoes. Over the course of the week (one that also included taking the kids swimming, to the zoo, the beach, the library, and making 3 meals a day), the nighttime canning experiment began to get ugly. I began to vent in my head, I started to bang pots and pans around, I took to angrily elbowing my snoring husband when I crawled into bed late at night. I recall at one point being reduced to screeching something to the effect of "I'll remember that this is NOT YOUR FOOD and won't serve you ANY! Jackass!" when he made a comment about the mess in the kitchen not being his idea. Or something like that.

Turns out, I was suffering from Sauce Rage. Seems it stems from anger at the futility of spending countless hours to make something that you don't really need to make. And, for me, from some deeply instilled feminist voices in the back of my head.

After my first week of canning was done, and my mountain of tomatoes reduced to a mere molehill, I was able to think again. I was able to use real words to express what had been eating at me. And that was, "6 years of university and two degrees and here I am toiling for hours over a hot stove to make food for us that I could just buy at the store with the money I can earn in less than an hour of work?" Indeed, in all this waxing poetic about the joys of the "old ways", there is certainly a tense undercurrent of "there is a reason women wanted out of the kitchen". I still can't quite wrap my head around the gender politics of this endeavour, but I certainly found some food for thought (sorry) in an article by Peggy Orenstein, The Femivore's Dilemma. Despite the unfortunate title (femivore=one who eats women?), I found the article both inspiring and cautionary. It made me glad that I said " Next time, let's do this together so I don't feel like a harried hausfrau" and we agreed to use weekends instead of evenings. My next batch involved spousal assistance in peeling, seeding and chopping. It was kind of fun, and overall left me blissfully free of the dreaded Sauce Rage. Moral of the story, don't sauce alone. You'll want to kill someone.

Slow Roasted Tomatoes

My piles of tomatoes have been accumulating, and I've decided that the best, laziest, way to reduce the pile is to slow roast them. So easy.
Cut them in half, toss them in olive oil, salt, pepper. Sprinkle with chopped garlic if you want to (I do). Lay on parchment paper and roast at around 300F for 2 -3 hrs. Stick with 1.5 hours for cherry or grape tomatoes. They taste like sun-dried tomatoes, but jucier! Throw them in freezer bags or use them to make a sauce. No peeling, seeding, boiling required.
The only problem is that my husband had a bad episode of food poisoning years ago that he equates with sun-dried tomatoes (funny how he doesn't feel that way about the beer that was the more likely culprit) and won't eat them. More for me.

Grainstorm

Every time I bake cookies, I make the same variety. I don't even have a recipe anymore, I can make them from memory- my Grandma's famous "Cowboy Cookies". This week however, I mixed it up a bit and tried a yummy new concoction, with some help from Grainstorm.

My new food adventure has introduced me to alot of people doing amazing things, and the people at Grainstorm are no exception. As usual, I came across my new source for baking mixes by coincidence. I met Lark from Grainstorm while I was buying a train table for my son from her through Craigslist. She happened to live less than five minutes from me, and happened to have a van labeled "Grainstorm - fresh milled organic grains" (or something to that effect). I couldn't not ask about it, and of course we got to talking about "real" food. Turns out her business is organic baking mixes (muffins, cookies, pancakes) made from Ontario grown heritage grains like red fife and kamut. In the small world of local, organic grains, it turns out that Grainstorm buys their grains from Grassroots Organics, the same farmers who supply our weekly eggs and organic flour through Mama Earth.

This week I made the oatmeal cookies according to the basic recipe (add butter, oil, 2 eggs) and they were a big hit with me and my son (daughter and husband don't really eat cookies...yeah, weirdos). I took some cookies into work and they were given the universal thumbs up. I guess I should also admit that I ate the last 3 for breakfast before my son woke up yesterday. I didn't want to share...

If you're a reluctant baker, but want to eat some guilt-free but tasty cookies or muffins (or pancakes!), check out Grainstorm online or in store at various locations in Toronto.

Ode to Smoothies

Who doesn't love a good smoothie? I have a seasonal addiction that requires me to consume some sort of blender drink pretty much every day in spring and summer. I admit, some days it ends up being Kaluha, milk, and ice...but other days it's a touch more granola-ish than that.

I find my kids get excited for about the first two weeks of the smoothie season and then lose steam. However, I've found the cure to sustain smoothie enthusiasm. Popsicle molds. Feels like junk food, but isn't. Even better, I've started sneaking in veggies too - and they still beg for them.

While I think a recipe for smoothies is about as necessary as a recipe for a glass of water (my apologies to recipe hounds), here's a sample:

a banana
some strawberries (when organic ones go on sale, I stock up like a mad woman and freeze them for this purpose!)
some mango
enough fruit juice to lubricate the whole thing (orange in this case)
a few scoops of plain yogurt
a few ice cubes
a couple of carrots (blender will be happier if you slice them first) or a beet or both

Cheers!

Appliance Breakdown: The Mother of Invention

Our fridge kicked the bucket yesterday. The first sign was the curdling of 4 litres of ridiculously expensive organic milk. But it forced me to cook a meal using as many contents of the fridge as possible to prevent them from going rotten. What a surprise, it was our best veggie meal ever.

If you're looking for a stupidly quick, easy, and kick-ass vegetarian meal, try some variation of this:

1. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, add some beans. The equivalent amount of about 1 can I guess (I used a mix of organic turtle and kidney beans which I had soaked and cooked the previous day)
2. Add a whack of salsa. I used about a cup. (I've tried this with other salsas, but have got to say Garden Fresh - Jack's Medium was the best. I know it's at Loblaw's but not sure where else. I like hot stuff, but if you're sensitive to spice, you should definitely go with the Mild since the Medium has some kick)
3. Throw in some chopped green pepper and a bit of extra tomato (especially if you're trying to clean out your fridge!)
4. Cook it all for 5-10 mins. While it's cooking mash up an avocado (I just added in a bit more salsa to it for pretty much instant guacamole)
5. (Optional- slater tortillas with some cream cheese. Really, I probably would skip this step if my fridge wasn't broken, but it was extra tasty this way)
6. Put a scoop of the bean mixture, a scoop of guacamole, and some shredded cheddar into the tortilla.
   
7. Eat the big sloppy mess, grinning the whole time!
   

Next step, learn to make homemade salsa that exactly replicates Jack's medium, OR find the equivalent organic salsa.

Cheers!

Highjacked Organics

Batter Blaster is an aerosol can of pancake/waffle batter. Seriously, it exists and it's organic. I thought it was a joke, but apparently it's not. It's been profiled on Regis and Kelly and is apparently carried by Loblaws, Sobey's and Metro (though I've never actually seen it in real life). My husband forwarded me the website (www.batterblaster.com) when he stumbled across a magazine ad and thought it was just too funny to pass up. Unfortunately, alot of people must not get the joke. Over 3 million cans were sold in 2008. It's marketed to "make breakfast a blast", and as a healthy, mess-free breakfast. While the ingredients are organic, there is nothing natural about a food you spray from a can.

This is where things break down a bit in the whole organics industry. I've been weighing the arguments for and against corporate organics (lower cost, more marketing power, greater efficiency VS. circumventing the "spirit" of organic agriculture, redefining the rules of what is considered organic, and continuing to promote processed foods). Batter Blaster makes me wonder what organic food will look like in 5 years. And it makes me wonder why we ever bothered with organic waffles.

Our family has recently switched to making our own organic pancakes (without aerosols) and then freezing them to be heated up for quick breakfasts later in the week. It works and doesn't take much time. In fact, I'm quite sure it's less than if we sprayed them into the pan.

Road Trip Success

Okay, let it be said avoiding fast food while on a road trip with kids is a massive undertaking. That's why I'm tickled pink that I managed to do it. We used the facilities, but didn't succumb to the timbits and cheeseburgers. I packed a huge bag of healthy snacks on the way, and used my friend's kitchen to restock my supplies on the way home. My air popped popcorn bags were snubbed, but the orange slices were golden. Carrot sticks were actually crunched, almonds were popped. The only complaint I heard about food was from my 2 year old. Apparently he was disappointed in the lack of hummus. There was the issue of the "alligator" crackers I bought in a moment of weakness. They didn't wreck our roadtrip goal though - luckily they got spilled all over the floor of the van.

Of course, the kids promptly proceeded to turn their noses at most of the healthy food they were served for the rest of the weekend.

An aside: We had a great brunch, browse, and wander in Wakefield, Que. It's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area. Chelsea too has lots of little local food treasures if you're lucky enough to have someone tell you where to find them.

Making Connections

The blog led me on a rural adventure today. Allow me for a moment to illustrate the power of cyber space, and the smallness of the world:

Helen is my mother in law. She recently reconnected with Judi, a friend from elementary school. Helen forwarded a link to this blog to Judi who happens to have a neighbour who raises organic livestock. Judi invited me and the kids to her place to sample some "clean" breakfast meats, and offered to introduce me to her farmer friend, Scott. Turns out, Scott is a retired teacher, who (wait for it...) used to be my middle school art teacher. Okay, let me make it clear here, we don't all live down the street from each other. I don't live in a small town, nor have I ever. These connections are hundreds of kilometres and several decades apart. Often I think the world is small, and then some days it shrinks even more.

This bizarre series of connections led us to the hills of the Oak Ridges moraine today where we were spoiled with a delicious brunch complete with organic sausage and maple leaf shaped pancakes, a walk in a sugarbush to watch the sap flowing, a (re)introduction to my teacher/farmer, and an exhilarating moment for my son when he got to sit in a tractor. Scott gave me a full explanation of the life cycles of the animals he raises. He showed us around, invited to come back and take a hike with the cows. And I started to understand what people in the "food movement" mean when they say it makes a difference to really know who and where your food comes from.

What a day. Thanks to J for her incredible hospitality, and to Scott for his openness and for the work he does to provide people with good food. And to Helen for reading the blog and setting things in motion.

This one's a keeper

I do the weekday cooking, my husband does the weekends. I am very pleased to say that my husband, the diehard carnivore, is on board with our new semi-meatless regime. He's started soaking and cooking big batches of chickpeas for me to use throughout the week. And here's what he made us for lunch today.
Not sure the proportions, but chickpeas, chopped fresh beets, cucumber, carrot, tomato, walnuts, sprouts (homegrown!), and olive oil with balsamic vinegar.
He's a keeper. The salad is good too.

Another one bites the dust

It's only been a week since we got rid of most of our processed foods. It's been easier than I thought. Especially since one of my exemptions was pancake mix. Like waffles, these bready discs are a mainstay at our weekend breakfast table. We add flax seeds, blueberries, bananas...whatever we're in the mood for. But apparently we also, without thinking about it, have been adding corn flour, soybean oil, sodium aluminum silicate, dextrose, and dried egg white (which apparently contains the same sodium lauryl sulphate as my toothpaste).
So, today we learned how to make pancakes and threw out the mix. Of course, I was so excited about my pancakes, I forgot about Daylight Savings Time. Oops.

For others like me, who forgot it was possible to make pancakes without a mix, here's how:
1 1/2 c Whole wheat flour
1 tbsp sugar (organic cane sugar seemed to work)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 egg
2 c milk
2 tbsp oil

Mix wet ingredients in one bowl. Mix dry ingredients in another. Combine. Add any extras (blueberries, flax etc). Cook. Eat. I'm giving it a try to freeze a few extras and see if I can sub them in for the waffles. It will be a hard sell, but who knows.