Christmas is here, bringing good cheer

Does Carol of the Bells make anyone else feel a little frazzled? I love love love the song (although I love most Christmas music, I know, I know), but it just has this suspenseful feeling to it that - along with the general rush of the season - reminds me of driving around for that last Christmas errand in the rain totally exhausted, or staying up until 1am baking and wrapping presents the night before I have to be up early to leave work early to drive to family. Maybe it's a sign that I'm crazy that I still like the song.

My holidays really tend to consist of the two holiday-related posts I've made:

Step 1: Plan and think about what to do. Do some of it, but mostly procrastinate and think about doing it. Think lots, mostly about how much time there is to do stuff.

Step 2: Oh crap it's Christmas. Do as much as humanly possible, and then some. Only think if it's about how to do less, or how to cram what has to be done into the time left.

Somehow Step 1 rolls really quickly into Step 2; there is no nice getting stuff done time in between. Anyways, Step 2 is most definitely here and I've started to cut stuff out. Like I said before, I'm doing all this for my own enjoyment, so I do have to stick to my guns and cut stuff when it's time to cut. If only I could do that at work, I'd have good cheer to spare.

One of those things that's getting cut lately is the glut of posts I have waiting in the back of my brain and the memory card in my camera. Things should quiet down just a bit after this week, but we have plans after the holidays, and some of them involve saying goodbye to the little apartment, so I make no promises. But there is pie coming eventually...

We're so frugal

Or not, since I'm Not Laura Ingalls.

But on another semantic note, I have a hard time kind of putting a term around the way I eat and live sometimes. It's sustainable, it's frugal, it's healthy, it's old fashioned, it's back-to-basics. These aren't all things that people automatically lump in together, and certainly something can be old fashioned without being sustainable, or sustainable without being frugal. Even sustainable without being healthy, but don't get me started.

So this little excerpt from Wise Bread: My Favorite Guides to Frugal Living Are Not Guides to Frugal Living was right up my alley. It's been quite the while since I reread the series; I might take another crack at them.

The Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Whaaa? A children's fictionalized autobiography? Well, I have gotten lots of frugal ideas from the Ingalls family. OK, many of them are not practical in our time since we have a different economy and diferent scarcities than they did. For example, Ma and Laura would tear their worn sheets down the middle, turn the edges toward the outside and sew them back together to get more use out of the cloth. Nowadays, manufactured cloth is cheap and sewing skill and time are dear, so most people wouldn't bother.

And yet. I guess what I get from reading and rereading the Little House Series is encouragement toward frugal, simple living in the form of reminders of how luxurious my life truly is, even if I give up a few little niceties. I especially love reading about the Ingalls' Christmas mornings, and how excited and grateful little girls could be over a couple sticks of candy and some hand-knit mittens. Puts into pretty stark contrast the expectations of the modern American child, and provides me with plenty of incentive to keep our own holidays simple and joyful while my kids are still young enough to follow my lead.

Butternut Squash with Leek Soup

I found my camera!!! I know you were all on the edge of your seats and praying daily for me. You can stop all that now. I left it at my mom's house taking pictures of my carved pumpkin. Not Michael Landon didn't feel like carving his own, which means it's still sitting on my porch waiting to be made into soup (or pie, he hopes).

Anyways, I did not find my camera before I made this soup. I'll post a picture next time I make it - it is neon orange. Very fun and festive. It's also pretty easy - the original recipe came from some random generic 30 minute meals cookbook I got ages ago. It normally takes me longer than that, but only because there's lots of chopping and peeling and I don't like to dirty 3 pots by cooking everything at the same time. I also make large batches because it keeps well for a good long while (although doesn't freeze great) and Not Michael Landon will inhale any left lying around.

He loves loves loves this soup, which is amazing considering his culinary tastes usually don't stray far from the meat and the potato, and a safe salad here and there. This is fairly gourmet sounding. Maybe it's the potato that endures it to him, it does mellow it out nicely. On top of all these benefits, this soup is ultra healthy and cheap. How can you go wrong?

Ingredients
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1" cubes
2 medium russet potato, or 4 new potatoes, chopped into 1" cubes (peeled if you really want, but it adds extra nutrients and it'll just be blended up anyways)
2 tbsp butter or olive oil
1 leek, sliced
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste

Directions
1. Roast the butternut squash seeds in the oven with a squirt of oil and a dash of salt to snack on while you're cooking. They're like pumpkin seeds but smaller and nuttier, with better texture.
2. Soften the squash and potatoes. I usually steam/boil them one after the other in the same pot (not the same water), but I've been meaning to try roasting the squash.
3. Meanwhile, soften the leeks in your choice of fat.
4. Toss the (drained) squash and potatoes in with the leeks, and add stock and milk. Don't worry about mashing or ricing because...
5. Blend it all up. I bought an immersion blender pretty much solely for this soup. It makes it eleventy billion times easier. But I've done it in batches in my regular blender too, and it works, it's just a little messier (be sure to use a towel as a lid instead of the hard plastic one, to avoid hot liquid explosions).
6. Serve with some yummy bread - I'll post my olive oil bread soon.

(Really) Homemade Lasagna

Yeah, the camera is still missing. This looked like lasagna.

It did take a good couple hours of my Sunday. Sundays are a great time for getting something in the fridge for leftovers all week. This turned into dinner on Tuesday when I came home sick, and lunch for both of us Wednesday through Friday. What else would I have done with that Sunday? We used to have a busy social calendar that ate up time and money, but we've cut back on that. I could have watched TV, but this lasagna tasted better than Real Housewives of Orange County, and it was better for me. A little football in the background, a lotta cooking in the kitchen, and plenty of snack breaks is just about my ideal weekend.

I started with Joy to get an idea of the layers - last time I didn't use enough pasta - but lasagna is one of those things that doesn't need much recipe.

Sauce

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 onion, diced
  
• garlic to taste, minced
• 1 large can peeled tomatoes
• 1 large can tomato puree (optional, keep reading)
• salt, pepper, and herbs (oregano, parsley, basil, whatever you like) to taste

Directions
I browned the ground beef in a large shallow skillet, then softened the onion and garlic in the fat. I pureed the tomatoes in the food processor - Not Michael Landon isn't a fan of chewing cooked tomatoes - and added them to the pan. Top off with the seasonings, cover, and simmer as long as you have, stirring occasionally. The longer the simmer the better, but until you're done with the rest of the dish is just fine.

Just make sure you keep an eye on the heat, especially if it's going a good while with all the rest there is to do. You wouldn't want to burn it, and have to add another can of tomato puree to thin it out, while trying to avoid scraping up the burned bits on the bottom into the sauce. But if that did happen, it wouldn't ruin anything. As long as the burned bits aren't in big clumps, the sweetness hides it well. Prairie food is about salvaging now and then. But I wouldn't know, 'cause I kept a good eye on my sauce.

Pasta
Here's where the really homemade begins. I would have used my home canned tomatoes for the sauce, but it still feels too early (hopefully that changes before next tomato season). I made the pasta fresh like I have before. I cut it all into lasagna noodles, just by hand. Each 1/4 batch into six noodles - once in half width wise and then into thirds longways. I used about 3/4 of the pasta for this dish, and dried the rest of it. It's all curled up, so I'll need to boil them when I use them, but I didn't boil the fresh pasta. While I let the pasta rest, before rolling it out, I made the cheese.

Ricotta
To keep the homemade goin', I made my own ricotta. I've made my own mozzarella before, but it is more work and more difficult, and the results aren't as polished, so I stuck to store bought this time. Ricotta is really insanely easy. This recipe is adapted from the New England Cheesemaking Supply Company, where I got my citric acid and dairy thermometer. The stages are fairly easy to recognize even without a thermometer. I didn't chill it at all, I just let it drain for a half hour while I was rolling the pasta, and then used it right away. I only used 1/2 gallon of milk, but I should have used double that. I'm not a giant ricotta fan, so I didn't mind, but this is yummy enough to turn me.

Ingredients

• 1 gal whole milk
• 2 tsp citric acid (there's also recipes with vinegar or buttermilk out there)

Directions

1. Use whole milk. The fresher the better. I get mine these days from Straus Family Creamery; it comes in bottles, which is so cute it makes it taste better.
   
2. Add 2 tsp of citric acid per gallon of liquid (dissolved in 1 cup cool water). Add 1/2 of this Citric Acid solution to the milk (save the rest of the citric acid). Stir briskly for 5-10 seconds.
3. Add 1 tsp salt.
4. Heat the milk slowly on low to med stirring well to prevent scorching.
5. At 165-170F watch for small flakes forming in the milk and the separation of small curds.
   If after a few minutes you do not see the flakes forming, add more of the Citric acid until they form (do this in small 1 Tbsp increments to avoid over acid milk). I didn't need to add anything here.
   
6. Continue heating to 190-195F then turn the heat off.
7. As the curds rise, use a perforated ladle to gently move them from the sides to the center of the pot. These clumps of curd will begin to consolidate floating on top of the liquid.
   Let the curds rest for 10-15 min.
   *** This is very important because this is the point where the final Ricotta quality is assured
8. Ladle the curds gently into draining forms (No cheese cloth should be needed if you were patient in the previous step). As a "draining form" I used cheese cloth over a mesh strainer. Let the curds drain for 15 min up to several hours.
   For a fresh light ricotta, drain it for a short while (until the free whey drainage slows) and chill to below 50F. For a rich, dense and buttery texture allow it to drain for an extended period of time (several hours). before chilling overnight
   Move to a refrigerator or cold room. Consume within 10 days.

Assembly

1. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9x13 baking dish.
   
2. Spread a thin layer of sauce on the bottom of the pan.
   
3. Top with pasta, slighly overlapping the pieces, then ricotta, shredded mozarella cheese (freeze it for at least 15 minutes to make grating easier), and sauce. Repeat these layers twice more.
   
4. Top with more sauce and plenty of mozzarella cheese. Add some parmesan too if you're feeling fancy.
   
5. At this point I covered the dish with foil and stuck it in the fridge. Bake within the next couple days at 350 degrees F for about 30 minutes, until bubbly. Then take off the foil for another 10-15 minutes until the top is nice and golden. After dinner when the plate is cool, stick it back in the fridge for leftovers. It's even better the next day.
   

I've been tagged!

Two posts in a day, I know, your head is spinning. But I have to do this before all the blogs on my reader are tagged :)

7 weird facts about myself. There are lots of weird things about me. I'm kind of weird. But in a loveable way.

1. When I was a kid, I thought there was a witch that lived in my closet. I was terrified that she would come and eat me up while I was sleeping, so I would hide myself under the covers until just my fingers were poking out. Then I would imagine that she had come out of the closet and was making a stew in a cauldron at the foot of my bed, and planning on adding my fingertips. This was silly enough to calm my fears enough to sleep.

2. My family dresses up for Easter like Halloween. We have a different theme every year. Because ham and pretty dresses are boring.

3. I cannot sleep with socks on. My feet don't sweat - it's a lovely and strong genetic trait my grandfather passed along. If I happen to get into bed with socks on, I will take them off with my toes, which Not Michael Landon finds endlessly odd.

4. I hate fans. I don't like the blowing. It dries out my contacts and just feels icky. I'll often sit on the couch in the middle of the summer with a blanket over my head so I can't feel the fan.

5. I'm kind of OCD about numbers and counting. I have to have things in even numbers or multiples of five, especially TV volume and deodorant swipes. Not Michael Landon also finds this entertaining, and finds ways to screw with me all the time.

6. I demanded my mother teach me to read at age 3. I walked into the bathroom while she was taking a bubble bath with my favorite book in hand (something about a weird fuzzy creature in a dungeon) and demanded she teach me. Right. Now.

7. I love Disneyland like a small child. I know I'm not supposed to, but it makes me happy deep inside. The image of me jumping up and down at the Disneyland entrance has been burned into my in-laws memory. They're being nice, but I think they're a little weirded out by it.

And now, the following can consider themselves tagged. A couple bloggers I "know" have already been tagged, so a couple of you probably don't have a clue who I am. Hi, I read your blog. I'm so glad I get to introduce myself by telling you how weird I am.

Cocina de doyle
Fashion Victims Unit at Iced Coco
Renee at Kitchen Table Scraps
The Judge at Martha Stewart Baking at Home
Ms MoneyPenny
Terri at T-rated
Dig Your Own Hole

Granola Bars

Confession: my camera has gone MIA. The picture I took with my iPhone was not blog worthy, but if you click on the recipe link below, mine look almost that good. The edges are more crumbly, but you get the idea. The last pictures I remember taking were in my house, so please send me good juju that I will find it soon.

Not Michael Landon is kind of obsessed with snacks, and they must have "substanance" (yes, spell check, I know this is not a word). This is very foreign to me, as someone who has been trying to loose weight since about seventh grade. Snacks are for curbing hunger, not providing energy. But what do I know.

These are yummy, and pretty easy. It's basically rice krispie treats, only with oat granola instead of rice krispies. They're also pretty big. I would recommend spreading it out in two pans if you've got them. They crumble a bit at the edges when cut.

First, we need granola.

Homemade Granola: modified from Martha, makes 8 cups. Her receipe makes 6 1/2, but the bars call for 8, which is why the quantities are screwy. If you like granola cereal, just ignore the +s and make a double batch.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp shredded coconut
• 5 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp toasted wheat germ
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp unsalted sunflower seeds
• 1 1/4 cup coarsely chopped almonds (Not Michael Landon hates almonds, so I used some cashews I had lurking in the pantry; I didn't quite have enough, so I added some more sunflower seeds and this next ingredient)
• 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp flax seed (my addition, it's good for you to boot - you're getting the idea this isn't like a baking recipe where everything has to be all precise, right?)
  
• 1 tablespoon + 1 tsp sesame seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon + a pinch ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon + a smaller pinch freshly ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp honey
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (golden) raisins

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment, and spread shredded coconut on top. Bake until toasted. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. (My wheat germ was untoasted, so I toasted that here too, on the same sheet. Watch carefully, neither takes long.)
2. Decrease oven temperature to 300 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment; set aside. In a large bowl, toss together oats, wheat germ, sunflower seeds, almonds, sesame seeds, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. In a small bowl, stir together honey and butter; pour over oat mixture. Stir well. Spread onto sheets. Bake until golden, about 25 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Break up granola; sprinkle with raisins and toasted coconut. Store in airtight container.

Now onto the bars. The granola is all gummy when it comes out of the oven, so wait for it to cool first. You probably don't need to break it up too much by hand, the dumping in and stirring will take care of some of it.

Peanut Butter Granola Bars: again, adapted from Martha, makes 16 sizeable squares

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, plus more for pan
• 10 1/2 ounces mini-marshmallows
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 8 cups Homemade Granola

Directions

1. Butter a 9-inch-square baking pan; set aside (I lined it with parchment paper instead). In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add marshmallows; stir until melted, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
2. Stir in peanut butter and granola until well combined (I stirred the peanut butter in first on its own; felt like it would mix throughout better that way). Transfer mixture to prepared pan. Dampen your hands, and press mixture into prepared pan, distributing mixture evenly. Set aside to cool. Invert pan, releasing bars. Cut into sixteen squares. Store in an airtight container up to 3 days.

I'm no food safety expert, but I always store stuff longer than directed, especially if it's not refrigerated or anything. I've had cookies that tasted fine weeks (months?) later, and I've never gotten sick. Well, only once, but I'm not certain that was my fault - I blame packaged lettuce.

Merry Christmas!

I love love love love Christmas. It's my favorite time of year by far. But when I said in my first post that I tend to take on too much - well, that kinda explodes at Christmas. I bake cookies, make a Christmas craft for 20, make my own Christmas cards, and make my own wrapping paper. On top of shopping for gifts, decorating my house to make it vomit Christmas, and attending five parties at a bare minimum (not including Christmas and Christmas Eve). Oh and I do still have to work during the month of December, which usually happens to be the busiest time of year. Also, I mostly do it all on my own, since Not Michael Landon usually has final exams late in December.

This year, we're hoping not to be in a little apartment anymore sometime soon, which could make it as crazy as the year I decided to get married in January.

The easiest way to tackle all this would be to do less. But I really like it all. So my first strategy is an attitude adjustment. I simply do not let myself get frustrated and worn out doing it all. I'm not doing it for anyone other than me, so if I'm not having a good time, there's no point. Usually a firm reminder that I'm doing this for fun does the trick, but theoretically I could stop. (I can stop anytime I want to... right?)

My second strategy is to start early. Which is the catalyst for such an annoying post title on November 18th. My Christmas card supplies are purchased and photos chosen, and almost all my Christmas cookie dough is in the freezer (one more half batch to go). I've gone through all my addresses and identified the ones I need to update. My goal is to be well on my way to done with the crafty stuff by Thanksgiving.

This kinda ties into my third strategy - planning. I have a memo booklet with lists for cards, cookies, crafts, gifts, and addresses for all, as well as what I've done the last several years to keep from repeating. I'm supposed to stick this in my purse so I can work on it whenever I have a chance, but I need to move it to my iPhone, probably via my Zenbe lists ap. I also drew up a week by week schedule for now through the holiday. It isn't set in stone or excessively detailed, but it lets me plan out when I need to start things, when I need to finish, and avoid having too much going on at once.

The weather is still so nice here it's hard to get into the mood, but it's all worth it in the end.

Here are the cookies I have sitting in my freezer, all courtesy Martha Stewart:

Gingerbread Snowflakes

These are so yummy and spicy and not overly sweet. There's something that just says Christmas about a cut-out cookie that you decorate, but I got kinda tired of plain old sugar. Martha wants you to make these giant snowflakes, but I just used the cutters I have - trees, snowflakes, and stockings. I cut them out, froze on a cookie sheet with parchment, and then transferred them to a plastic freezer bag.

Ingredients

• 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon finely ground pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• Royal Icing
• Fine sanding sugar, for sprinkling

Directions

1. Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. Cut into snowflakes with a 7- inch snowflake-shape cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.
4. Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.
5. Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip (such as Ateco #7). Pipe designs on snowflakes; immediately sprinkle with sanding sugar. Let stand 5 minutes; tap off excess sugar. Let icing set completely at room temperature, about 1 hour. Store cookies between layers of parchment in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.

Chocolate Crackles

We've made these in my family forever, although we call them crinkles. I think this recipe is a little better, but don't tell my mom. I rolled the dough into balls and froze on a cookie sheet and transferred to a plastic freezer bag. I'll roll them in the sugar before I bake them off. Cross your fingers the sugar sticks.

Ingredients

Makes about 4 dozen

• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 1/3 cups light-brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar, plus more for rolling

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Chop bittersweet chocolate into small bits, and melt over medium heat in a heat-proof bowl or the top of a double boiler set over a pan of simmering water. Set aside to cool. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt.
2. In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and light-brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat until well combined. Add melted chocolate. With mixer on low speed, alternate adding dry ingredients and milk until just combined. Divide the dough into quarters, wrap with plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours.
3. On a clean countertop, roll each portion of dough into a log approximately 16 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, using confectioners’ sugar to prevent sticking. Wrap logs in plastic wrap, and transfer to a baking sheet. Chill for 30 minutes. Cut each log into 1-inch pieces, and toss in confectioners’ sugar, a few at a time. Using your hands, roll the pieces into a ball shape. If any of the cocoa-colored dough is visible, roll dough in confectioners’ sugar again to coat completely. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on a Silpat-lined baking sheet. Bake until cookies have flattened and the sugar splits, 12 to15 minutes.
4. Transfer from oven to a wire rack to let cool completely. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Pine Nut Cookies
These are new for me, but the dough was pretty yummy and really simple even though I had to cut the egg in half to make it in two batches since I only have a small food processor. I couldn't get the pine nuts to stick very well, so I froze them w/o since they would just come off in the bag. Wish me luck that they stick better when I bake them off.

Ingredients

Makes about 3 dozen

• 2 cups pine nuts
• 1 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup almond paste
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Process 3/4 cup pine nuts, the sugar, almond paste, and vanilla in a food processor until fine crumbs form. Add egg; pulse to combine. Add flour, baking powder, and salt; process just until dough comes together.
2. Roll dough into 3/4-inch balls. Roll balls in remaining 11/4 cups pine nuts, gently pressing to coat. Space 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets.
3. Bake until cookies begin to turn golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets on wire racks.

Microwaveables

A general strategy I try to follow in all aspects of my life is simply to simplify. I don't blow dry my hair, I've canceled all my magazine subscriptions, and I clean most my house with only vinegar. With few exceptions, this saves my pocketbook, the environment, my health, and my sanity in one way or another. This is certainly true of microwaving non-microwaveable oatmeal and popcorn.

Oatmeal

Oatmeal is a fantastic breakfast. It's good for your cholesterol, it's filling, and with enough milk and fruit, it's a great balanced meal to start the day. It's also super easy and quick to prepare from almost nothing.

I am the world's least morning person and yet I roll out of bed every morning and feed Not Michael Landon, so I need things simple (I'm prone to temper tantrums when things don't go my way before coffee. I'm not kidding.). I have a drawer outfitted with all necessary oatmeal supplies and I cook both our bowls at the same time.

Instant non-instant oatmeal

Ingredients:
1/2 c rolled oats
1/2 c plus a splash water
Suggested flavorings and toppings, optional: cinnamon, brown sugar, maple sugar, honey, sliced fruit, berries, milk.

Directions:
1. In a cereal bowl, combine rolled oats and water (no mixing required, just give the bowl a little jiggle).
2. Microwave for 1:15.
3. Remove and stir - be careful, the bowl can be really hot.
4. Microwave for another 1:15.
5. Stir again and serve.

You can add flavorings whenever suits you. Try it out and see what you like best as there will be slight taste differences if you cook the flavorings with the oatmeal, especially with milk and fruit. Also experiment with the amount of water you add, cooking time, and serving size. Oatmeal consistency is a highly personal preference, so use this as a guide to see what works for you.

Cost comparison:
Premium instant: Quaker Hot Cereal Oatmeal, $0.47 per 1.5oz packet.
Store brand instant: Safeway brand Hot Cereal Oatmeal, $0.30 per 1.5oz packet.
Bulk non-instant: Safeway brand Hot Cereal Quick Oatmeal (42oz container), $0.13 per 1.5oz serving size.
Savings: up to $0.34/serving minus cost of flavorings
Additional benefits: your oatmeal won't be stuffed with fillers and artificial sweeteners and HFCS like the store-bought packets. Also, there's always oatmeal on hand if you get a hankerin' for oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

If you're still really sold on the ready-to-go packets (though adding a few flavorings is no big deal - it does not induce temper tantrums), you can dole out a serving of oatmeal and its flavorings into individual baggies beforehand. You have to like your sugars cooked with the oatmeal, and promise me you'll reuse the baggies.

Popcorn

On to the fun stuff. As long as you don't add too much fat, popcorn is a very healthful snack. 31 calories for a whole cup! And super filling - it's basically fiber and air.

Brownbag Popcorn
adapted from Instructables

Ingredients:
1/4 c loose popcorn kernels
canola oil spray, optional
salt, optional

Directions:
1. Take a brown paper bag, open the bag, and pour in your serving of loose kernels.
2. Fold over the flaps like the standard brown bag lunch at least three times, small folds are better.
3. Microwave until the popping slows to about once every 2-3 seconds. This is 2 minutes on my relatively new unit.
4. I flavor with a couple sprays of canola oil and a few pinches of salt. You can use other sprays, a little butter, or those flavor shakers. I tried Parmesan cheese once, which clumped into a ball, but it could probably work if you're careful.

Cost comparison:
Premium microwaveable: Orville Redenbachers Smart Pop Mini Bags, $0.50/bag
Store brand microwaveable: Safeway brand fun size microwaveable popcorn, $0.47/bag
Bulk: Safeway brand popcorn kernels, $0.09/serving, plus Safeway brand brown paper lunch bags, $0.02/bag
Savings: up to $0.40/serving
Additional benefits: no risk of popcorn lung

Blog Action Day: Poverty and Slow Food

Welcome to the second annual Blog Action Day. Today I'm joining with bagillions of other bloggers on the planet to bring focus to poverty. I feel like such an insider on my, like, fifth post.

Not Momma Ingalls (my mom) often chides me about the expense of our way of food. Being raised in a family of eight and then raising me on her own, getting the most food for the least money is bred deep in her blood. Sometimes I can see the unit price calculator behind her eyes if I look close.

It was bred in me too, of course. And then one day I was shopping at Target. Not Michael Landon wanted some granola bars. The Target brand was $1.50 cheaper than organic - almost half the price. As I stood in that aisle contemplating my choices, my desire for environmentally friendly food locked in a tug-o-war with my genetic need for frugality, some storage box thingy caught my eye. It was turqoise, it would look so cute in my living room, and it was only $14.99.

"Only $14.99". And here I am having a come-to-Jesus moment over $1.50 for granola bars. Since that day, our food budget has increased. But we're spending less. We eat out less, we stay home more, we buy less processed foods, and yes, we spend some more on meat and dairy. If I could live without ESPN, we'd cut cable. If we were really hurting, we could cut the cell phones and internet - between all these communications bills we could probably feed another family on top of ours.

As a percentage of the household budget, Americans are spending on food half of what we did in 1960, and half of what we are still spending is spent on food outside the home. So when someone says they don't eat local, organic food because they can't afford it, the first question should be what else are they spending money on?

But the dollar bill barriers to the slow food movement are much more complicated than all that. There are truly hungry people in the US and around the world who cannot afford rising grain prices, much less an heirloom tomato.

In the most recent Times Magazine, Michael Pollan writes a fantastic letter to our new president-elect (whoever he may be) about food policy. It sticks its fingers in all kinds of issues, including poverty. The long article is definitely worth a read when you have the time, but this excerpt relates directly to the topic at hand:

Farmer in Chief
By Michael Pollan

It will be argued that sun-food agriculture will generally yield less food than fossil-fuel agriculture. This is debatable. The key question you must be prepared to answer is simply this: Can the sort of sustainable agriculture you’re proposing feed the world?

There are a couple of ways to answer this question. The simplest and most honest answer is that we don’t know, because we haven’t tried. But in the same way we now need to learn how to run an industrial economy without cheap fossil fuel, we have no choice but to find out whether sustainable agriculture can produce enough food. The fact is, during the past century, our agricultural research has been directed toward the goal of maximizing production with the help of fossil fuel. There is no reason to think that bringing the same sort of resources to the development of more complex, sun-based agricultural systems wouldn’t produce comparable yields. Today’s organic farmers, operating for the most part without benefit of public investment in research, routinely achieve 80 to 100 percent of conventional yields in grain and, in drought years, frequently exceed conventional yields. (This is because organic soils better retain moisture.) Assuming no further improvement, could the world — with a population expected to peak at 10 billion — survive on these yields?

First, bear in mind that the average yield of world agriculture today is substantially lower than that of modern sustainable farming. According to a recent University of Michigan study, merely bringing international yields up to today’s organic levels could increase the world’s food supply by 50 percent.

The second point to bear in mind is that yield isn’t everything — and growing high-yield commodities is not quite the same thing as growing food. Much of what we’re growing today is not directly eaten as food but processed into low-quality calories of fat and sugar. As the world epidemic of diet-related chronic disease has demonstrated, the sheer quantity of calories that a food system produces improves health only up to a point, but after that, quality and diversity are probably more important. We can expect that a food system that produces somewhat less food but of a higher quality will produce healthier populations.

The final point to consider is that 40 percent of the world’s grain output today is fed to animals; 11 percent of the world’s corn and soybean crop is fed to cars and trucks, in the form of biofuels. Provided the developed world can cut its consumption of grain-based animal protein and ethanol, there should be plenty of food for everyone — however we choose to grow it.

In fact, well-designed polyculture systems, incorporating not just grains but vegetables and animals, can produce more food per acre than conventional monocultures, and food of a much higher nutritional value. But this kind of farming is complicated and needs many more hands on the land to make it work. Farming without fossil fuels — performing complex rotations of plants and animals and managing pests without petrochemicals — is labor intensive and takes more skill than merely “driving and spraying,” which is how corn-belt farmers describe what they do for a living.

To grow sufficient amounts of food using sunlight will require more people growing food — millions more. This suggests that sustainable agriculture will be easier to implement in the developing world, where large rural populations remain, than in the West, where they don’t. But what about here in America, where we have only about two million farmers left to feed a population of 300 million? And where farmland is being lost to development at the rate of 2,880 acres a day? Post-oil agriculture will need a lot more people engaged in food production — as farmers and probably also as gardeners.

The revival of farming in America, which of course draws on the abiding cultural power of our agrarian heritage, will pay many political and economic dividends. It will lead to robust economic renewal in the countryside. And it will generate tens of millions of new “green jobs,” which is precisely how we need to begin thinking of skilled solar farming: as a vital sector of the 21st-century post-fossil-fuel economy.

Here are some more articles from various sources on the subject of organic food and poverty:
Ten Reasons Why GE Foods Will Not Feed the World
Can organic farming feed the world?
Organic farming can 'feed the world'
THE MYTH: Industrial agriculture will feed the world.
GM-Free Organic Agriculture to Feed the World

Cockadoodledoo

I butchered my own chicken the other day. I didn't take pictures - I know you're disappointed. I normally buy Rosie organic chickens and have my butcher cut them up for me, because Not Michael Landon hates carving chickens and I'm not much good at it myself. But I have a strange aversion to asking people anything or for anything (I made it through my Bachelor's degree without attending a single office hour), and we've been buying lots of chicken lately, so this particular chicken I just couldn't bring myself to have them cut up.

Joy had fairly easy-to-follow instructions, starting with the wings, then the legs and thighs, and finally the back and breasts. It wasn't super pretty, but it wasn't hacked to heck either. I handled it mostly with a cheese knife and really only needed kitchen shears to cut through the ribs. The joints popped out quite easily.

When I was a kid, my mom would roast a whole young chicken all. the. time. She would coat the top of the breast in butter and garlic salt and it would come out all crispy and scrumptious. We would race each other to the oven when it was done to get to the crispy skin first. Not Michael Landon's family would barbeque chicken three or four nights a week in the summer. Chicken done the same way over and over can get boring, crispy skin and barbeque sauce notwithstanding. I grill it on our George Forman grill most the time. I can throw on thighs and legs for dinner that night, and throw on the breasts to keep as leftovers while we're eating.

Here are some things we like to do with leftover chicken, stay tuned for recipes:

• Chicken tacos with homemade salsa
• Chicken tortilla casserole (the sole casserole in my repetoire, a family favorite)
• "Kitchen sink" salad (as in, everything but the)
• Pasta with balsamic vinegrette and chicken
  

Fresh Pasta

I looooove pasta. Atkins never convinced me otherwise. I reject the idea that there's anything fundamentally wrong healthwise with a food that's been a part of so many cultures as long as pasta has. We usually eat it at least once a week. It cooks up quickly and makes lots of leftovers for lunches. It's also yummy without meat, which makes it more economical and better for the environment.

I actually don't have any major qualms with pasta from the grocery store. I can get organic whole wheat pasta from Trader Joe's for $0.99/lb. That's tough to beat, and I keep lots of different shapes in my pantry at all times. Italians don't have the same hang up that we Americans do about fresh vs. dried pasta. It's just different kinds, each with their own pros and cons.

I saw Jaime Oliver make fresh pasta and sauce from scratch on Food Network in 10 minutes flat and thought this was something I could tackle. Of course, it took me significantly longer than Jaime, but who really thought I was as awesome as him?

If you've been paying attention, you'll suspect I got the recipe from Joy, and you'd be right. It's insanely simple - 2 cups flour, 3 eggs. You can mix it in a food processor or stand mixer, but by hand is the traditional way. Just pile the flour, make a well in the center, and crack the eggs inside. The first time I tried this, I used my built-in cutting board and dripped floury egg onto the flour, but you're smarter than me, so you'll know to start out with a level surface. On try #2 I used our big wooden cutting board with the lip around the edge. That's right, I'm a college gradumate.

From here you just start mixing the flour in with the eggs bit by bit, being careful not to break the well. It starts out slow and precarious, but soon enough it gets viscous enough that it won't run off on you, and you can start pulling the sides of the well in too. Unless it's raining outside or you're in high altitude or something, don't mess with the ratios. It will look alternately too wet and too dry at various points. Just keep mixing and then kneading.

Kneading is fun; it's mindlessly monotonous and gets your frustrations out on flour instead of your husband. You know that great feeling when you turn your brain off and stare until your vision blurs? You can do that while kneading. The heat from your hands will loosen up the dough a bit so it gets more wet and can take on the rest of the flour floating around on your board. When it's all incorporated and homogeneous and your mental state is sufficient, you can quit.

After this comes "resting". It's supposed to redistribute the flavors, and probably helps the texture. Cut the dough ball in four pieces first and turn a bowl over on top of them on the counter to keep them moist. Joy recommends at least an hour.

Now we're ready to roll. If you're adventurous and have the space, you can do this with a rolling pin. There's also attachments for Kitchen Aid mixers that cost an arm and a leg (Joy approves the rollers, but sticks its nose up at extruders). I picked up a hand-crank pasta roller at Bed Bath and Beyond for $35.00. On first try I rolled it all the way to the thinnest setting. I'm not sure exactly what this setting is for, but yummy fettuccine isn't it. Number 3 (3rd thinnest of 7) worked perfectly. I roll the dough through three times on each setting, folding in half after each pass through. Keep the dough lightly floured; it doesn't seem like it needs it, but it will pull and shred eventually, and that's no fun. Keep the remaining dough balls under their bowl, and don't try to multitask during this step to keep the dough from drying out.

My roller has two cutters: one for fettuccine and one for spaghetti. Again here you can go low-tech: just fold the pasta in half loosely several times, and then cut into strips for a more rustic feel. The picture at top is my pasta drying on my $13 wooden drying rack. Once again, not a necessity, but it was cheap and it comes apart easily for storage. Drying for another hour or so is recommended by Joy. This recipe makes about two servings for us, so we dried the other half all the way overnight and put it in a plastic baggie in the pantry for later (careful - it's brittle).

Be sure to keep the lid on while boiling water to save time and energy. After drying for about an hour and a half, this pasta was cooked in about 4 minutes. I checked every 30 seconds - one minute, it's way faster than dried (the home-dried pasta also cooked quicker than store bought). A quick canned tomato sauce, and dinner is served.

So not nearly as quick as Jaime, mostly due to the hand-mixing, resting the dough, and drying. Since he didn't do any of these, I doubt their necessity. It's a rough day when I have to decide whether to follow Jaime or Joy, but pasta making isn't a bad way to spend a Sunday in between other tasks.

Fish en Papillote

I'm so fancy. ish.

I've been really trying to eat more fish lately. You know, health and all. Plus, it can be a sustainable part of your diet, as long as you follow guidelines like these provided by Monterey Bay Aquarium. Every time I'm there I pick up their latest Seafood Watch guide and keep it in my wallet so I know what to stay away from at the store. The problem with these guidelines is it's not as cut and dry as "this fish is good, this fish is bad". It's more like "this fish caught here, in this way, is usually good". This is where it comes in handy to get your fish from an actual person behind a counter, of whom you can ask questions. Of course, I'm unexplicably shy about things like that, but my market always notes the region as well as whether the fish is wild or farmed.

If you're not getting it by now, the fact that I'm imperfect is kind of the whole point of this blog, and here I've failed once again. I've been buying pacific red snapper because rockfish (its other name) was listed as "best" or "good" on my pocket guide. Now that I've gone and found the full list for my faithful reader(s?), it's looking more like "avoid". Whadya know, my blog teaches me things too.

Cooking fish is great, not because it tastes particularly wonderful, but because it's so quick. A thin fillet like snapper cooks through in no time flat. I usually throw it on the stove with some olive oil, salt and pepper, my standard for just about any food. This particular day, a coworker had given me some homegrown cherry tomatoes and they sounded really good with fish, but really moist fish. No dried out edges.

Martha Stewart is obsessed with cooking en papillote and seems to think this is a normal staple of cooking. I think she's insane, but it popped into my head as a way to keep the fish moist. In case you're not Martha, en papillote basically means baked in a pocket of parchment paper. I opened up Joy, 'cause this is just the kind of technique a reference like that is best at, and got crackin'.

Joy insists on lots of moisture inside the packet, so I added about a tablespoon each of butter and olive oil. There was lots and lots of liquid swimming around the fish once it was done, so I could probably cut back on this. Then I just diced up a quarter onion and some garlic and halved the cherry tomatoes, and threw them on top with s&p. Joy had me cut the parchment in a heart shape and fold it closed in a kinda funny overlap way. I have no idea why a circle wouldn't work, but I wasn't going to mess with Joy. The overlapping folds kept the pocket closed despite steam building up a bit inside. Parchment works better than foil because it keeps in just enough steam, but lets some out too.

Only 15 minutes in the toaster oven and all set. This was yummy, especially for fish. The name sounds so fancy, you'd never imagine a full dinner could be on the table in a half hour. Lest you think I've gone to the dark side, I served this with Annie's Mac & Cheese and some stir fried cauliflower (Yes, it's purple. CSA veggies come in some interesting colors).

Canning Tomatoes Part 2

Wherein the real work happens.

Lesson 1: Do not start processing on the same day as picking. I could have gone home, taken a long shower and napped all afternoon, but instead I processed tomatoes for the next 6 hours. And then came back the next day for another 4.

Really the most tedious part of this whole adventure was peeling. Not Michael Landon, who would be happy as a clam eating all fruits and vegetables right of the vine with no processing or cooking whatsoever, was curious as to why we were removing the skins. They're too filmy and tough; once the tomatoes are cooked down they just kinda float around and refuse to breakdown.

The method we used for peeling was to scald the tomatoes. We washed them well, spread them out in a single layer and poured boiling water over them all. Just wait for it to get cool enough to handle, and they mostly slide right off. They seem to peel best when good and warm, not too cool.

Canning is, essentially, an effort in outwitting bacteria. The whole idea is to put the most sterile food possible into the most sterile jar possible and then sterilize it. Tomatoes are a prime canning candidate because of their high acid content - which is rather inhospitable to bacteria. It's very important to maintain sterility at every point in the process as much as possible. The kind of bugs that multiply in canned food are not always detectable to the eye or nose once you break that seal months later.

Now, my mother tells me I'm a paranoid person, but everything I've read about canning stresses sterility and following instructions and recipes exactly. We used the instructions in Joy of Cooking's 75th Anniversary Edition, which follow USDA guidelines. What follows is a narrative of my process - NOT precise instructions to be tried at home. You need Joy of Cooking anyway, put it on your Christmas list.

So we made sure all discolored bits and cores were removed from the tomatoes and tossed them in a pot to boil. I started out this adventure with my sights on canned tomato sauce with a great recipe; by the time we had started peeling, I settled for crushed tomatoes and compromised by adding a basil leaf. My grandmother commented that she used to cold pack tomatoes, but since they boiled while we were peeling more, the additional time/effort was minimal. Knowing she never killed anyone gave me extra reassurance that we were maintaining sufficient safety.

The jars, lids, and rings we washed with warm soapy water and then scalded with boiling. A jar filling funnel would have been very useful, but a ladle worked okay too. The jars get really hot with the boiling tomatoes poured in, so a pot holder is essential, preferably plastic to help with spills. We topped the jars with two tablespoons of bottled lemon juice (more acid; bottled is required over fresh squeezed, since the acidity in individual lemons is variable) and a basil leaf. Poked a clean, skinny spatula in to let out any air, left about a half inch of space at the top, topped them with a lid and screwed the ring on just until resistance was met - too tight and it's hard to get them off afterward.

While everything else was going, we set my giant canning pot to boil half full (an excellent hand-me-down). Setting the jars on the rack was a bit tricky; I had to pull it out and stack them dry to see how they fit first. There are handles that you could presumably use to lift the whole rack in and out, but I had visions of 7 jars of tomatoes crashing to the floor and crying a lot. We topped off the pot with more boiling water to cover the jars well, and set them to boil for 45 minutes.

After that the jars just had to come out promptly and set still for 12-24 hours. Moving the rack and/or pot around full is definitely a two-person job; that sucker is heavy. And now they're sitting on the floor in a corner in my kitchen, the coolest, darkest space I could find.

So, you'll remember we set out on this time consuming and work-intensive journey for two reasons: cost and taste. We used approximately 45 lbs of tomatoes, purchased at $0.50/lb, and yielded 13 quart jars of crushed tomatoes. This is $1.73/qt, or $1.51 for 28 fl oz (the size of most large cans at the supermarket). It's actually nearly impossible to compare what we made to something available at the supermarket. The organic tomatoes come from large scale industrial farms; the quality tomatoes with minimal additives come all the way from Italy; local just doesn't have the scale to make it to a store shelf. So it makes it easy that nothing - nothing - available at Safeway comes close to this price.

The true cost to me is higher. Gas brings it to $2.55/28fl oz. I wasted peppers and basil that I meant to can and freeze since I was so burnt out with the tomatoes. But even then it's only starting to come close to the Cento tomatoes I usually buy. You'd have to add in mine and my mother's hourly wage to make this whole endeavor more expensive than store bought. And while it was a lot of work and time, and my mom keeps saying she'll say no the next time I have a hairbrained idea like this, it was sure more fun than my 9 to 5.

As for taste: the fresh tomato season is still in full swing, so I haven't cracked open any of those jars yet. I took one taste during processing and was impressed. San Marzanos are supposed to be the world's best sauce tomatoes, according to chefs. Stay tuned for the verdict.

Canning Tomatoes Part 1: U-Pick

Why would I want to can my own tomatoes? First, moving yourself off the industrial food complex is a rather expensive endeavor. Processed foods made from commodity corn are excessively cheap (thank you government subsidies), a luxury whole foods do not enjoy. So one of my methods for keeping costs down is to process as much of our food myself as possible. I've only found one brand of canned tomatoes (Cento) at my local supermarket with only tomatoes listed under ingredients. Seriously, you wouldn't think there could be that much else in "canned tomatoes", but take a look sometime. Anyways, this brand is at least $3 for a 28oz can.

But they do taste really good, which brings me to my second reason - taste. You know the difference between store bought tomatoes and homegrown tomatoes? I'm hoping the difference between store bought canned tomatoes and home canned tomatoes approaches that somewhat.

In order to tackle the first goal (cost), I needed cheap tomatoes. Local, organic tomatoes are tough to find for under $2/lb, so enter my local farm, which spurred this whole endeavor. We subscribe to a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), which supplies us with more veggies, and a bit of fruit, than we can usually consume from March to November. It's all locally and organically grown, for a little under $20 a week. Considering how much I spend at the farmer's market when I allow myself a trip, it's a great bargain.

This time of year they're a little overwhelmed with the tomato harvest, so they invite people out to the farm to pick their own at a reduced price ($0.50/lb). I recruited my mom, with the promise of a cupboard of tomatoes and an underestimate of the work involved, and we drove the half hour or so out to the middle of nowhere to pick tomatoes. By the way, I calculated the cost of gas and it was still far less expensive than the cheapest locally grown tomatoes I could find anywhere.

This was the first time I'd been out to the farm, and it was really fascinating just to be there. I can safely say it's probably the first time in my 26 years I've ever encountered the place my food starts out. I had a vague idea of the quantity of produce they... well, produce, but I was taken aback by the amount of land that translates to. The family were really nice, but down-to-earth no-nonsense type people. I got the feeling if I asked a question to the farmer about his crop, I might be there until next Tuesday still taking in the answer.

Picking your own produce is a rather quaint idea, but it doesn't feel particularly quaint while you're doing it. Don't get me wrong, I could use the free exercise, but when they say farm workers do backbreaking work, they're not kidding. Lots of up and down, lots of lugging crates of produce around, lots of sun, and no shade. We went on one of those hot Californian September days that take you by surprise, and we were way too far inland for the marine layer to cool us off.

After a couple hours, we had about 45 lbs of tomatoes (1/3 heirloom, 2/3 San Marzano), and we picked up some peppers and basil they had for sale also. We headed home, exhausted and dirty, for the real work to begin...

Yeah, I have a food blog too.

My husband, Not Michael Landon, hates blogs. He thinks people with worthwhile things to say are actually published.

And I'm not here to prove him wrong. I took high school journalism, but that's where my verbal prowess ends. My culinary skills aren't world class either. I'm probably not even unique in my quest to create old fashioned food for a modern family (scratch that, I know I'm not unique, given the trouble I had finding a blog name that wasn't taken).

So it's a good thing that my main purpose here is just to catalog my own adventures. Kinda like logging what you eat to loose weight, this is my way of keeping myself on track. If you find a solution that applies to your life, that's icing.

But exactly what is this track? I try to be a good hippie - do what's right for the environment and my own family's health. In terms of food, I try to accomplish this by eating locally, and processing as much of our food as I can myself. Of course, there are challenges too, and they're the regular ones: money, and time.

And who's on this track? I'm Not Laura Ingalls, a quarterlifer, working full time. I'm a crazy perfectionist with issues about tackling too much at once. I really do enjoy spending time on cooking and other domesticity, but it can bring stress when there's too much on my plate. Not Michael Landon is my husband of over two years. He works even more than I do, and he goes to school too, which means he helps out where he can, but where he can isn't much. He's a meat and potatoes kinda guy, but he continues to surprise me with his flexibility. Sometimes I test his limits. We live close to our families in the silicon valley, in a little bitty postage-stamp of an apartment.

And this is how we eat...