a lucky little duck

Our dining room is home to a bookshelf full of cookbooks.  I love them.  I used to have a bunch more, but after starting to worry that I might be hanging on to some hoarding tendencies I gave a couple to one of my sisters and the rest to charity.  I hope they found good homes with folks that will read them with as much love as I did.  I read recipes online too.  And I collect them from friends and family.  I have 2 three-ring binders on this shelf that are full of printed off recipes.

The funny thing is though – when I cook I rarely follow a recipe.  (I choose to view this as an endearing quirk instead of being a crazy cookbook squirrel.)  I use them as a basic structure – but most often I tweak and substitute and pretty much always triple the amount of garlic called for.  I’m trying to get better about writing my own recipes down – so that when I make a dish that is really nummy and Jimmi is all "Let’s have this again!" I’ll remember how I made it.  This is always a risk around here.  I recently created a soup that we both love – and last time I made it I started writing down what I did.  I forgot about it towards the end – so it peters off – but I’ve got enough down for me to make a pretty decent replica.

I also cook using real food.  (Usually.  You may recall the pre-dawn frozen tombstones from the last blog post.)  That’s a biggie in our house – the cooking with real food part – and I’m working on getting closer to my imagined cooking perfection.  It’s better for you, it’s better tasting, and it’s more fun.  It breaks my little cookbook-loving-heart every time I read a recipe that calls for a can of beans, some nonfat-fake-food item, or (gasp!) a package of cake mix.  It’s true.  I recently read a recipe for cornbread (yum!) that uses a box of yellow cake mix (yuck!) as the base.  Seriously?  Why would somebody do that?  It’s bewildering . . .

white, pinto & black - lined up and patiently waiting for a soakin' and cookin'

Making beans isn’t difficult.  The hardest part is planning in advance what you are going to make for dinner the next day so you can get them soaking.  (Okay, not too difficult, right?)  Nonfat and low-fat versions of foods have no flavor – so food engineers strip out the fat and then add in chemicals to make it taste like it would in its regular state.  (Gross!)  You’ll have tastier and healthier meals if you use real food as your ingredients, and not ‘food’ created in a lab.  Seriously.

   

I’m a lucky little duck in many ways – some of which are:   

Jason and some of his bees at the country apiary

Two of my best friends raise bees (one right here in my city, and one in the country part of this lovely state) and share their homespun honey with us.  

ohmygodyum!  In addition to eating it, I also use this honey to wash my face.  Have you done that?  It is the greatest!  So great that it might just be deserving of its own blog – so I’m not going to say anything more about it right now.  This honey also has amazing allergy-ass-kicking abilities that come in super handy for us in the spring and autumn!  I've been thinking about brewing some mead - and might be ready to give that a go come fall.

pretty pretty 'maters, all in a row

When I was whooping it up celebrating my birthday month in September, one of my amigas gave me a whole bushel of tomatoes that she canned.  (Or maybe not a bushel – I think that is actually an exact measurement – but lots and lots of jars, anyway.)  Not only is it loads of fun to squeeze the dickens out of them with your fingers when you are making a tomato sauce – they taste SO much better than a purchased jar of sauce could ever dream of tasting (oh, sad little jar of sauce!  You have your purpose – but nobody will ever love you as much as they love a handcrafted sauce.  I'm sorry, I know the truth can be a harsh reality.)

raw milk, butter, and kefir

I have a great source for raw milk, cream and butter.  Holy crow are they good.  And although I only need to drive to the farm about every couple months or so because the group all takes turns - it's a nice drive and last time I went there were horses wearing plaid jackets standing out in their field.  Do you have any idea how cute a horse is who is wearing a plaid jacket?  They are seriously cute!  In my state of glee at seeing them I almost drove off the road.  The dairy from this farm is out-of-this-world fantastic.  Milk has always kinda grossed me out – but I now get antsy and irritable when our stash is getting low. 

so many colors on the outside - and so orange on the inside

Farm fresh eggs – in a frequent supply.  I get them from my honey-n-tomatoes friend, and I can get them from the farm where I buy my raw dairy.  (I could also get a bunch of good meat from them - but I don't.   But I could.)  If neither one of those two sources have eggs, I buy them from Tangletown Gardens/Wise Acre Eatery.  They are an amazing garden center/restaurant in SW Minneapolis – and  nearly 90% of the food served at their restaurant (animal and vegetable) are sustainably grown/raised on their farm an hour out of the city.

If you haven't had the thrill of a farm fresh egg - I suggest you do whatever it takes to get your hands on some.   The yolks are orange, people.  Not pale yellow – but ORANGE!  (because they get to roam around and eat all manner of creepy-crawlies with their salads.  I wouldn’t like that diet, but I’m not a chicken.  Chickens love that crap.  They don’t like the ‘from hens fed a vegetarian diet’ that is written on so many grocery market egg cartons.  You force a chicken to go vegetarian and they’ll thank you with limp and sad eggs.)

spring buttercrunch lettuce growing on our farm

I grow food on our farm!  I mean, technically it's not really a farm.  It's our backyard - but I call it our farm because not only does it help ease my do-I-want-to-live-in-the-city-or-the-country conundrum, it’s just fun to say.  Wouldn’t you rather work on the farm then just weed the backyard?  I’m also learning how to can and preserve the harvest so that we can make the yumminess last longer.  (Thanks for the hands-on class in my kitchen, Sarah!)  We have 13 raised beds – with at least two more going in this spring.  In them we grow herbs and veggies - and last year we added hops.  They weren't productive enough this season to harvest and brew - but they should be by next season.  Which brings me to . . .

this growler and spattering of bottles all feel so empty inside. . .

I have friends who have perfected the art of the home brew.  For real – this is top-notch hooch!  And the brewing system in the basement of this home not very far from mine is a beautiful sight to behold.  Beautiful, I tell you.  While I don't use beer a ton *in* my cooking, it sure does make the already fun task of cooking even more of a thrill if you can be enjoying a cool brew while you chop and mince all that garlic.

The beauty of writing a blog is that I can write whatever I want to – it’s mine!  So this whole cooking with real food is something that is important to me.  I like cooking, and I look cooking with good food.  It might be a kick in the pants for you, and maybe not.  I won’t know how you feel unless we have a conversation about it.  Also – we all grow and change and develop (hopefully) into our more evolved selves.  It’s part of this life we have.  Who knows where my mind will be on all of this at some other point.  This is what I’m thinking about today.  And as easy as making a pot of beans is – like I mentioned above it only takes some advance planning – some days you just don’t have it.

So on Saturday – when I realized it was 11:oo and I was supposed to be making lunch for Ben (one of the guitarists for the Souls) (and unexpected lunch guest Sadie!) – I trotted down to the pantry to get some salsa and canned beans – because I didn’t think about it the night before.  Thank God for canned beans to come to the rescue when you want to make a pan of the house chilaquiles and haven’t planned more than an hour ahead. . .

4/5 of Jimmi and the Band of Souls
www.facebook.com/jimmiandthebandofsouls

Jimmi says that he thinks I am a good cook.  (But he doesn’t like to cook like I do, so really what else is he going to say?  He’s a smart guy – and wants to keep the vittles on the table.)  I say it’s hard to not make a meal taste good when you’ve got yummy building blocks to play with - and have amazing friends who like to share!  

So – what about you, reader of blog post #3?  Have you got any tips for me on brewing some mead?  Is a pan of chilaquiles one of your comfort foods too?  (Although no longer in season – this is a frequent guest to our Sunday football-watching afternoons.)  Have you never been mellow?

amateur plat du jour

It’s fun to get together and have something good to eat at least once a day.  That’s what human life is all about - enjoying things.  – Julia Child

Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food.  – Hippocrates


I love these two quotes and have them hanging in my kitchen.  I was thrilled when I came across the JC quote while flipping through a Room&Board catalog.  I tore it out and taped it up on the fridge – and wondered to myself if that after 40 years I might be turning into my Mom.  (Her fridge is always covered with photos and quotes and newspaper clippings.)  I think that Julia Child is about as lovable as they come, don’t you?  The Hippocrates quote came with much less self-realization - - one day I just decided that I could use the reminder, so I printed it off and hung it on a cupboard door.  I find it fascinating that Hippocrates is considered to be the father of western medicine – and is one of the first to argue that disease is caused by diet, lifestyle and environmental factors.  Don’t you think that’s fascinating?  The father of our western medical system arguing that a healthy – and real – diet is essential to our well-being.  So fascinating!  Has anybody reading this ever had their general practitioners tell you to eat full-fat yogurt and butter because they are better for you than their alternatives sitting next to them all pretty on the grocery store shelf?  Aren’t you wondering now, like I am, what that old Greek would have to say about the McDonald’s inside of Abbott Northwestern?  (though to be fair - it does say on the  hospital website that "this McDonald's also features a number of heart-healthy menu items."  Righhhhht.) 

Julia Child's kitchen, from the Smithsonian's
National Museum of American Hisory.
Taken on a June 2010 trip to Washington DC
with my Dad to visit my sister and niece.

It’s a combo of these two quotes that is really key for me, though.  You’ll feel better by choosing to eat better – and also, eating yummy food is fun!  What’s better than noshing on good eats with people you love?  Not much!

I am enamored with food culture.  I’m in love with the ideas people have created in regards to culture and religion dictating what they consume.  People across the globe breaking bread together are a beautiful thing.  I make a point to check out grocery stores and markets when I travel – either around these states or out of the country.  I find them captivating.  For years we had a small tin of ground mustard sitting in the kitchen that I brought home from a trip to Ireland.  We only brought back a few souvenirs, and it was my favorite.  Every time I saw it I would remember that little market in the south of Ireland and it made me happy.  We bought a ton of dried chili last time we were in New Mexico – and whenever I make enchiladas I am transported back to that amazing vacation we had with some of our really great friends.  One of my favorite memories from a different trip to Ireland revolves around a funny restaurant meal, and I realized this summer that a ton of my photos from Paris were of food in the outdoor markets.  It doesn’t matter where you are – but for me, laughing and sharing stories while eating together is what cooking tasty food is all about. 

It was Chinese New Year yesterday – and I was going to cook a dinner to honor that.  (but instead I made a butternut lasagna – and boy howdy was it good!)  I might still try to get to it this week (or at the very least see if I can sweet-talk a dinner invite out of Jim).  I’m going to mark up my calendar with all the holidays I can find that occur through out the year – and then do my own little Minnesotan version of honoring them through traditional meals.  Doesn’t that sound like fun?  And a little challenging, too – considering I don’t even cook a traditional Thanksgiving meal.  Our fridge is always chock-a-block full of leftovers because I never fail to end up cooking way more than Jimmi and I can eat.  So consider this an invitation to come join us for dinner sometime – either for what will be my take on a Chinese New Year dinner or a simple soup night. . .

. . .or you can come over at 3:00 in the morning when we get home and the car unloaded from a gig – and we are hungry and awake but tired and don’t want to deal with the mountain of leftovers - and decide to just pop a frozen Tombstone in the oven . . . (hey, no judging!)

And because I still have some room in my binders - - let me know a recipe you’re currently grooving on, okay?

Bon appétit!

- bert

happy as a clam

I want to be happy and live a happy life. I want to have fun. Nothing too novel there, right? Don’t we all? And while I think that some of it comes by way of our personalities (in general I’m a pretty happy person, and I know people that are just generally kind of cranky), it’s also something to continually work on.

Being happy isn’t always the easiest choice. Some days it’s difficult. Some days it’s really difficult.  But it’s my goal –  living a happy life – so I’m gonna just keep at it.

When I spend time around people who do nothing but complain, sigh, or are just all around glum chums - it sucks away my energy and leaves me with little more than an exhausted shell.  Because moods are contagious, you know?  So if you blast out your foul mood, it gets blasted all over me. And then I gotta spend my time fighting to get out from underneath it.  This gets tiring and old (and is not how I want to spend my time).   We all have bad days – and I’m not saying that you should pretend that you don’t.  I’m just suggesting that we don’t need to focus on every bad thing that happens.  Bad things happen.  Some days are shitty.  But good things happen too, right? As Ani DiFranco sings: Nobody likes their job. Nobody got enough sleep . . .  And as we say in our house:  Suck it up, Buttercup.

Anyway.  I was rambling on about how moods – like yawns - are contagious.  Good moods are too.  So let’s start a global epidemic of happiness! Who’s in?

Smile more.  Hug your friends.  Dance around your house and sing to your dog.  Eat tacos and laugh at the way you hold your head at just the right taco-eating angle.  Or not.  These are some things that make me happy.  You should do whatever it is that makes you happy.

I’m working on my list of happy things.  I’ve had one going since sometime in the 90’s (one I started with my friend Kate while we were at work.  Hi Kate!).  I haven’t added much to it the last few years – but I added a few things this last week.  It’s funny to go back and read some of the things that used to make me happy. (like Star Wars.  Really, 20 year old me?  Star Wars?)

I also have a list of things I don’t like.  Things like paper cuts and animal poachers and the word ‘slacks’.  But because I want to focus on what brings me joy, I intentionally keep this get-my-goat list much shorter than my happy list.

Tonight I’ve been doing some editing and working on layout and design -  because I’m getting ready to publish this Happy List as a book!  Did that sink in, person who might be reading this blog?  I’m publishing a book!  It will be a very small run.  Very, very small.  Like, only 1 copy, actually.  Because it’s my list and I don’t know why it would be of interest to anybody other than me.  But still!  I’m going to be a published author with my very own hardcover book with my name right there on the cover.  (and if I decide to pay a little more – I can even have my own ISBN!  Isn’t that awesome?  Having an ISBN?  I might go add that to my list right now.) 

I just did.  The last bullet point right now on my list is this:  ‘Publishing a book of your happy list – volume 1’.  Yea for me!

I’ve also committed to myself to try something new every day for this month.  It sounds like fun.  Will I make it the entire month?  Who knows?  And really, who cares?  I’ve already had more fun and it’s only the 4^th day of the month.

On the 1^st - I made a new dish for dinner.  I had made a pot of split pea soup (on my happy list – I love this soup!) and was trying to think of what dish I could make to go with it.  So I made a roasted carrot and beet salad.  It might have been better if I had looked up some other people’s recipes – but it turned out fine and it was all mine.  Fun!

On the 2^nd - I scouted out a new dog park and took Aoife out for some house-cramped-dog fun!  It’s been too cold to go for our walks.  The last few days she just runs out in to the backyard to take care of business and then she barks to come right back in.  Not good for an energetic girl like Aoife!  We like the park off of Franklin Ave a lot, but I thought a new park would be a good experience.  And not only is this one closer to our house, but it’s right across the street from beautiful Lakewood Cemetery.  The park is not nearly as pretty as the Franklin one – but it will be nice to have another one to choose from.  I love watching her run around all pell-mell! Fun!

On the 3^rd – I created a new gmail account and set up the bones of this blog. Scary.  A little intimidating.  But Fun!

On the 4^th – today – I’m writing my first ever blog entry.  I am now a blogger!  Fun!

What makes you happy?  What can you do to add more fun in your life?  Tell me – I’d love to hear it!

- bert