henry & potatoes

this was taken one saturday morning when we share a pancake breakfast with drew and shannon. jana made some excellent home fries in the oven! i topped my pancakes with homemade apple sauce (free damaged apples from the co-op) and plum sauce i made on orcas island.
henry stole my seat as usual.

Scraps!

Let me introduce you to the game of Scraps.

Scraps was invented by my high school friends. Often we were broke but went out to the local burrito joint anyways. Someone always had 4 or 5 dollars, and there were always the free chips. If someone ordered food, another person could call "Scraps" on it, which meant, if there was anything left over, the Scrap-caller could eat it.

Guidelines for calling Scraps:

One may call Scraps on someone's meal (or part of a meal) at any point during the meal, such as:

• before the food has arrived ("dude, I'm going to call Scraps on your sandwich, I'm not very hungry")
• as the food is placed ("I call Scraps on that" or simply "SCRAPS!" loudly, while pointing)
• after the eater is finished ("Hey, can I have your Scraps?")

By calling Scraps, the caller is not guaranteed anything. If there is food left by the callee, that qualifies as Scraps. If the callee finishes their meal, then good for them, and tough luck for the caller.

At the point of the call, the callee may choose to simply share their meal. Like, if you call Scraps on someone's fries, then the callee may choose to give you a few fries. Or the caller may choose to take the more passive route and say "no, no, I will just take your Scraps if there are any."

One benefit that the callee should take into consideration is that, should there be Scraps, the caller is then responsible for the callee's dishes and clean up. Perhaps an added incentive for the lazy.

Other notes:

• More than one person can call scraps on a meal, but the 1st caller has priority ("I call Scraps on his/her Scraps!)
• Scraps have been called on an entire restaurant kitchen, though, this is not advised for the beginner scrap caller.
• It is considered bad form to throw away or place a dirty napkin on top of food on which Scraps have been called. Come on.
• At any point you can relinquish your call on Scraps (like if you were no longer hungry). Then the Scraps are up for grabs.
• One may call Scraps on any number of meals. Though be cautious of falling into "mooch" behavior (unless with close friends)
• If the callee chooses to take their scraps home or save them for later (yay!), then the caller is no longer guaranteed their scraps.

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Though the game of Scraps began, for me, as a way to eat the last bits of lettuce or grains of rice off of someone's Taco Dinner plate, it has evolved in to a fun and engaging way to prevent good food from going to waste. It's more appealing socially than saying "hey let me eat your leftovers" or grabbing plates at random and just saying "can I have this?"

It's too bad that in our society it's more acceptable to throw food away than it is to help a friend clean a plate. I blame it on germiphobes and the "lower class" idea of sharing. But whatever, screw that, I'm a successful human being. Maybe I just don't like seeing good nutrients go to waste.

At first when I introduced the game to my fellow corporate employees down in our cafeteria, I wondered if it'd catch on. But it caught on and spread through the whole department! New employees are briefed on the game during their very first lunch session. Co-workers have taken it into their personal lives and taught their friends how to play.

I couldn't be happier! Scraps for life!

chicharones

have you ever heard of chicharones?



i found out what they are, at least one version of them, when a package of them was left on the kitchen table for nearly a week. i ended up trying one and didn't find it to be one of my favorite pork products. but maybe i would appreciate this traditional food if it were prepared in a more traditional way, from high quality meat. or if i tried one right after it was cooked instead of six days later. they ended up in the trash.

Bread, Part 3

This time around we got a rye starter from our neighbor, Lev. To make this 3rd batch, davis ordered more hard winter wheat and a bag whole bag of rye. we ground and mixed equal parts rye and wheat and let the bread rise all day on Saturday. Saturday night I made it home mostly sober after Ben's birthday party (a delicious dinner at Leopold) in time to prepare the loaves for their next rising. We decided to split the risen blob in half; one half was mixed with soaked sunflower seeds and the other half was mixed with caraway seeds (which, when the bread was done, lent a really nice pumpernickel kind of scent to it... but I initially just noticed that it smelled of honey). Most of the bread would be going to my parents as a gift. I spent the next 45 minutes or so stirring both batches, adding flour and water until I felt the dough was large enough to fit in their cast-iron cooking vessels. It gets really tough near the end. I need to figure out a new stirring spoon, I got a good blister on my pinky finger. Or just build up a good callous and man up. Finally both batches were done, placed in their pans and covered. I put them in the oven for the night, a nice warm-ish place for them to rise again!

The next morning Davis helped me by baking them while I went out to Lula Cafe for Quite Strong's celebratory brunch... happy 1 year anniversary to us! After a huge brunch I came home and we set off for the suburbs, bread in tow.

We ate some of it at my mom's house with butter and strained yogurt and everyone loved it. I thought it turned out great and felt pretty happy about my 1st semi-independent foray into breadmaking!

primal cuts

this evening i went to the signing of the book Primal Cuts at the Butcher and Larder. there were not many people there and i got to chat for a while with the author, Marissa Guggiana. i knew hardly anything about her or her book when i arrived. a quick look through the book revealed the many recipes which could help guide me as i explore the preparation of meat. she told me there is a recipe for every part of each animal in this book!
through chatting with her i also found we had some similar experiences earlier in our lives relating to meat. she was vegan for a time and prescribed to the belief that meat consumption was flat out wrong, for many reasons. we both discovered the truth that it is industrial meat that is the problem, and that too much of value is lost when we forsake the traditions of holistic animal husbandry. i see now that our health and the health of our soils is at stake.
crop/pasture rotation can help us improve soils where they have already been depleted, while providing a continuous food source. sustainable pasture management is vital to maintaining the soils, which provide what we need to maintain our bodies. i am only just beginning to learn about these topics myself. by spreading this information, and sharing the vision of moving forward with holistic agricultural practices, i hope to benefit us all, including generations to come.

potato frittata

i baked some potatoes the last time i used the oven so i wasn't using it just for one loaf of bread.
that night i grated a couple of them up and covered them with whey and water in preparation for making hashed browns in the morning. instead of hashed browns i ended up making a potato frittata:

grate two medium, baked potatoes and add two tablespoons of whey, some sea salt, and water to cover. leave overnight (8hrs). drain in the morning and gently press out as much liquid as possible.
mix three eggs in a bowl with minced, green onion tops, spices, a little sea salt and some cheese if you like. combine with grated potato.
oil cast iron pan generously with heat on medium. pour in mixture, spread evenly, and cover for a few minutes, until the eggs set up well. flip (the tricky part!), sprinkle with some black pepper, and cook for another minute or two before removing from heat.

1st stock

when we got the meaty bones from the butcher and larder last week we had stock in mind. i immediately seared the big chunks of pork neck and started them simmering in the big, white pot. i added a little apple cider vinegar and let it simmer for about 24 hours. i then added bay leaf, thyme, and a dried hot pepper. after a couple hours i separated out the bones from the meat and added it back into the pot with tons of root vegetables. jana helped prep the veggies! i sauteed up onion, leek, and garlic and added it after the rest. the pot was brimming(wish i'd gotten a picture)! it made a most incredible thick, flavorful, dark red stew which we ate over the next several days.
i'm looking forward to the next stock we will make from those beef bones!

another round

the second round of sourdough bread was baked today. it came out well.
last night jana performed the second phase of grinding whole wheat berries into fine flour and combining it with the increased starter, sprouted sunflower seeds, salt, and water to make a thick batter. we put some 'quick oats' (given by the departed neighbors!) in the pan and then spread the batter carefully into it. this batch rose for about 10hrs! the batter could be more wet next time.

sourdough has arrived

the first (very flat) loaf of sourdough bread was made with the starter from Sharon yesterday. i couldn't wait so i went ahead without jana. also i was making a special dinner, baking other things like a squash, yam, salmon, and a pumpkin pie, so i wanted to cook the bread at the same time. it all went really well and we had a nice dinner. the bottle of plum mead i helped make last year was enjoyed. we got to share the celebration of the bread and sing happy birthday for jana with a few friends. the pie, a collaboration between jana and i, turned out to be very good without any sugar. just a little very sweet applesauce. jana 'whipped' the cream in a mason jar for her first time. she was so stoked she would have turned it to butter if i hadn't stopped her. we used three of the hazelnuts i harvested on orcas island as agitators and ate them after. quite mediocre. you can see the grain mill attachment on the kitchen aid mixer in one of these pictures.

voluntary re-use

today i sent in an application online to volunteer with the non-profit Resouce Center. jana informed me about them before i came out to Chicago and i felt sure i would get involved somehow during this visit. when i look at their site i see that they are doing the kind of work i really want to be involved in. no matter where i am, i want to be helping us transition to sustainable resource use. we are continuing to deplete and pollute our resources, most importantly our soils and water. it is possible to educate and empower everyone to choose a more holistic and healthy way of life.

i see great importance in the consumption choices i make every day. yesterday i went to a Whole Foods market to buy plain yogurt(grass-fed in the glass bottle) since the co-op was out of stock. i am reusing the bottles to make my own yogurt at home. i debated buying peanut butter since i usually eat it with bananas and both products are superfluous and wasteful of fuel for transportation in my case. but i went ahead and got some thinking, 'i'll enjoy it and this wide mouth jar will be useful'. i prefer the ADAM'S for their jars, but at this store it was not available and the best alternative was the 'Arrowhead Mills' in the big jar. i could see it was very popular as i grabbed the last one on the shelf. when i shop these days i am always trying not to buy anything in a package. if it is packaged i prefer the package to be easily re-usable. i'm moving more and more towards complete elimination of packaging. it becomes habitual behavior.

less compromises. each choice is important. there is a lot at stake.

travel food

i kept a record of what i ate during my train ride to Chicago. i met a few other passengers who had brought their own food with them, but i also saw a lot of folks eating the denatured foods provided in their excessive packaging. we were asked to only eat the food we brought in our 'accommodations' because of FDA regulations. i ate in the lounge car some of the time and nobody bothered me.

junk sandwiches

the last two days i made sandwiches. the main impetus for this was that we had been given some smoked ham by friends who moved out of the apartment below us. also i was given some grilled hot pepper by our neighbor across the hall. then we have a fridge crowded with condiments... and lastly, half a loaf of whole wheat bread sat patiently waiting in the freezer.
i've developed a good intuition for how to make best use of the food that is at hand. it was the time for sandwiches since all these factors were lining up. these were to be a practice in embracing what i am given, since many of the ingredients i would choose not to consume normally.



the second one i made was pretty much the same, but with the addition of avocado and the upgrade to 'stumbling goat' cheese instead of the hot pepper cheese.

i had a lot of fun making and consuming these sandwiches!

today i volunteered at the co-op and had a blast! i worked on receiving the produce order the whole time. i never worked in produce at the madison market, where i was employed for several years in seattle. it was fun to start with something new. i got to take home a bunch of free produce too! i carried home the 25# bag of oats i special ordered in my backpack with some other stuff and then carried another 25# of produce (extra perk of volunteering!) in two plastic bags on my handlebars! i felt really heavy and rode carefully. the staff at the co-op are all really nice folks and they played some fun music during my two hours. this co-op is jam packed, kinda crazy, but doing well with what they've got.

yesterday jana and i went by this butcher shop that just opened not too far from us. we got some beef bones (lots of cartilage) and pork neck for stock. i've got the pork on now and i think i'm going to make a potato/leek/root soup. the meat this shop sells comes from three local farms that provide some of the best quality meat around. i'm going to look into their practices more.

spicy squash soup

i made a spicy squash soup the other day that was a big hit with several people i shared it with.

-red curry squash
-beef stock
-onion
-fresh garlic
-one large, dried chili
-fresh ginger, whole coriander, whole cumin, ground brown mustard seed, lemon zest, salt & pepper
-bacon fat

first bite

what are we doing here?

roadkill anyone?