Modern, Local, Organic, Pictures, Pets – My adventure in life as a "modern" Bellingham Hippie.
I love jam, love it, LOVE IT! But I only like it the way my mom makes it. She used raspberries and pectin and sugar to make it when I was a child.
Unfortunately, I haven’t had a good jam in awhile and frankly, the only downside the Mom’s jam is the amount of sugar.
Visiting one of my favorite blogs today I found a recipe for“One minute, No-Cook Homemade Raspberry Jam” at Farmgirl Fare! Brilliant! There is no reason to “make up” for flavor, when the flavor is fabulous!
Thank you Farmgirl!
Brown eggs & Green Egg
Having grown up on a mini-farm, not for profit, but for survival, money saving and hobby farm, I have been spoiled horribly. I was used to good eggs, with lots of flavor and different colors. It wasn’t until I was a little older and on my own, when my parents didn’t have laying hens for a while, that I saw how different healthy eggs are from mass-produces eggs.
The first thing I notices was the brown eggs were more expensive, I’m still not sure why. The second thing I noticed was they all looked the same and were just the same size. They also didn’t crack the same way. Growing up I had a hard time cracking eggs without breaking the yoke, or splitting through the inner membrane. I have since learned that healthy hens lay thicker eggs – and ones with brighter yokes.
I also learned recently that the mass produces eggs for $2 a dozen are laid by hens that are packed into tiny cages, get no exercise, possibly no natural light, and die around the age 1 ½ years because they have spent their lives doing nothing but laying eggs, standing in a tiny cage with their fellow fowl, then their bones give out. OH MY GOSH! I had no idea. To be honest, chickens are rather dumb creatures but that doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to live happy, healthy lives scratching in a yard, eating bugs. (Yes, chickens are omnivores, they shouldn’t be fed veggie diets, but oh well, nothing is perfect.)
So for those of us whom care what happens to our food producers, one must choose Organic. There is some confusion for me about free range with eggs and fryer chickens. One of them has free range regulated and one does not. So in the end the safe bet is organic, locally grown eggs (or chicken), because these little feathered creatures are regulated. They are supposed to get to run around outside, be feed decent food, and be happy, fun loving, egg laying chickens. One more caution is make sure they are actually labeled USDA organic. The word organic is not stringently regulated right now. With that little stamp, the farmers must follow certain rules which safe guard both hen and us.
If you are looking to go truly local, if you live near, or in a rural area, get your own chickens or find someone whom wouldn’t mind sharing. It does cost money to become USDA organic certified and tiny farmers may not have the money for the cert. So support them if they seem to treat their fowl well. Chances are they will be cheaper that the $4-5 a dozen eggs in the grocery store.
Happy Egg Hunting!
Namaste Foods Vanilla Cake with Strawberries
The “Vanilla Cake Mix”
was our experiment today. I was a little nervous because the dry mix didn’t smell wonderful. However, once in batter form it smelled good and tasted good. (Yes, I know you aren’t suppose to eat raw eggs, but well I love batter.) Once cooking, it filled the apartment with lovely aromas of flour and vanilla. It was great, lighter in texture than I expected and not too sweet. Rick loves and said that all it needed was whipped cream. I liked it a lot as well. The only thing I would change is maybe add honey and vanilla extract to the batter. I would have added vanilla, but I couldn’t find my gluten free extract today.
So, though we have only tried 2 products, I like Namaste Foods . They seem to have good quality ingredients, and actually taste great!
Why you should think twice about indulging in this delectable sin
Over the last weekend Rick and I ran across some good things on-demand. We watched Walmart – The High Cost of Low Prices and a couple of episodes of Bill Nye about breakfast and dinner foods and their poor effects on our world.
One of the most shocking, that I had never heard about was chocolate and child/slave labor. Because of what I learned, I will no longer buy chocolate that is not labels “fair trade”.
Let’s cover a couple of basics: What is “fair trade”? Fair Trade USA defines it as having the following principals: fair price for the farmers, fair labor conditions (no child labor!), direct trade (gets rid of middlemen), democratic and transparent organizations (farmers and workers decide democratically how to use/invest revenues), community development, and environmentally sustainability. Sounds great! It is the way it should always be. Unfortunately, this is the exception not the norm.
Where does chocolate or cocoa come from? The biggest exporter is Cote d’Ivoire, a western African country riddled with poverty. Other countries export including Ghana and Papua New Guinea. Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) produces 43% of the world’s cocoa. Because of the poverty in this country and other surrounding countries, children often go looking for work so they may send home earnings to their families for survival. Sadly, in Mali, where many of these children are from, the children are tricked (or kidnapped) into traveling out of the area for promised “jobs” in Cote d’Ivoire and are sold into slavery. There they are sent to farms to grow cacao (sometimes cotton, coffee and other exports). They are give very little to eat and beaten if they do not work well enough. These boys vary in age between 9-16. These working children also can include the farmer’s own children. The farmer’s rarely receive fair compensation for the exports so they cannot pay tuition for their kids to go to school.
Why child labor, why poverty, why unsafe conditions? One reason is the price for cocoa is not stable but can fluctuate, and has been below the cost of production for many years (though it does seem to be on the rise). Poverty is a cycle often goes unbroken because the parents of the children cannot afford to send their children to school either for general education or for a vocation. Sometimes by sending their kids away, they are hoping that the children will learn a trade and be able to help by sending money home.
Many of the parents are forced to sell their kids hoping that the new situation would be better than the old.
Since most of these people are born into poverty it certainly cannot be their fault. They should not have children working from very young ages in but what is the solution?
Let’s remember that often with exporting there are the “middlemen”. How much money do they get? How can these people deal with farms that have slaves? How do we stabilize the cocoa price to keep it above the cost of production? What about the chocolate industry on our side? Did you know that Hersey’s and M&M/Mars control two thirds of the US chocolate candy market? Shouldn’t they take responsibility and buy only from fair trade farms? That would hurt their profits of $13 billion. Billion. I think they can spare a few more dollars. For many years they argued that is was not their problem. Then in 2001 after some unflattering media, they decided to change a little. They released their plans to eliminate the worst forms of child labor and slave labor in their industry. I’ll leave my sarcastic comments about large companies and media for another post.
Great! It is wonderful that they are trying to do some things, even if they were forced by bad media to do it. Should you buy that Hersey bar you love so much? Probably not. If you want to ensure that, you are buying slavery-free chocolate look for something labeled fair trade. While you are at it, go to your local food co-op. They probably carry it already and then you are supporting a local company whose end desire isn’t better stock options.
Now let’s think about where chocolate can be found. M&M’s of course. The winter treat hot cocoa. Cake, cookies, fudge, even cereal sometimes. All that chocolate (though to be fair much of it is highly diluted) comes from somewhere. Think of all those little arms swinging machetes to cut down the cacao pods for your Valentine or Easter present. What happens if a clumsy child has an accident with the machete? Do you think they are given drugs and their fingers sewn back on? How long do you think they can last if they are crippled? Do you think they have access to wheel chairs and soft blankets? All for that chocolate bunny or chocolate covered almond. How is the taste of child blood spilt for your pleasure? Creamy?
I feel tainted. I have chocolates in the pantry that I may not be able to eat. I know the damage is done with those – they have been made already, packaged and are far away from Africa. Can I eat them and enjoy it? Nope. It sickens me that we spoiled westernized fat asses know nothing about what is in our food or where it comes from, who handles it and even how old they are.
I cannot do anything about the chocolate in my cupboard, but I can do something about the chocolate I bring home. No more Dove seasoned with slaves sweat and tears.
Link and sources:
Chocolate and Slavery
The Chocolate Industry: Poverty Behind the Sweetness
U.S. Legislative Initiatives to Stop Abusive Child Labor
I listed the third link because I thought it was interesting. It was written by Senator Tom Harkin on Iowa. While I think it is wonderful that a senator is taking it upon himself to look beyond our boarders and the middle east, I question all politicians. It is highly suspicious that any man or woman would want to be in charge of making rules. However, they are sometimes the means to our own ends. They write the laws we ask them to (and sometimes ones that we don’t). More research is needed on my part about his plans and laws and others related. While it would be great to say that we should stop importing things tainted with slave labor – we must also consider the repercussions for those whom break the laws. It is pointless to have a law and it not provide a means to enforce it. Hersey’s and M&Ms/Mars will have no reason to stop importing tainted cocoa if they face no serious repercussions.
It seems, though not confirmed by tests as of yet, that Rick has a gluten allergy or sensitivity. On Valentine’s Day he had shredded wheat for breakfast and felt horrible all day long. After that, he refused to eat gluten, and has taken great pains to avoid it. And surprise, he feels much better. In fact, he says that he feels better than he has in three years.
Even if the tests come back without a definite ruling of “You are gluten intolerant, or have celiac’s ”, chances are he will continue to avoid it. That may happen because it has been two weeks since he has knowingly ingested gluten.
So the grocery list has changed just a little. Because of all the rules and regulation that exist in the food labeling world I have to learn some new things to watch out for. I have to double check simple things like spices because sometimes things like wheat protein or something like that is added. Ridiculous, irritating that there are some many things that are not as they appear. Why can we not just have spices without fillers?
Luckily, my mother has been doing the mostly “gluten-free” or GF thing for many years, far back beyond the days of finding Bob’s Red Mill products in many grocery stores. I’ve borrowed a book and will write a review once I am through. Luckily, in the last few years a lot of research has been done and many more gluten-free products have become available.
Check back in a few weeks as I update The Modern Hippywith wonderful recipes and stories about my new cooking ideas.
I have never made egg drop soup before, and actually never liked it at the restaurants. Rick on the other hand, loves it. The last time we made it, Rick was the one whom did it and I just watched. At the time, we were not eating totally healthy so we used the flavoring packet from Top Ramen. We will not be doing that ever again. Can you say MSG?
All the recipes that I looked up had chicken stock listed as the base, but I didn’t have chicken bones to make chicken stock and will not use anything else that I do not make. I looked up how to make veggie stock and made that. It was so much better than veggie stock that comes in a can. Of course, it gave the soup a different flavor and because of the half jalapeño I added to the stock, a little bite.
You will need the following:
• 4 cups of veggie or chicken stock
• 2 eggs
• Sea salt
• Green onions (I didn’t have any left after making the stock so there are not green onions.)
Bring the stock to a gentle boil, add the chopped onion, taste, add salt, taste. Gently whisk the two eggs in a separate bowl. This next part may require two people. Turn off the heat just before you add the eggs. Hold a fork around 8 inches above the stock and gently pour the eggs through the fork. Stir the stock as the egg is poured. It is supposed to slow down the flow and create the little ribbons. I did not get the perfect little swirly egg ribbons as you can see in the picture, not sure why. It does not affect the way it tastes in my opinion. And Rick really liked it. If you make this on occasion and have any tips feel free to let me know!
Since moving to Everett January 1, I have not been able to go to my favorite grocery store, Central Market as often. I go when I work and I do not work every day. Someone reminded me that there is a food co-op in north Everett, the Sno-Isle Food Co-op. Yes! It’s less than a mile from here. Today I went out, on Valentine’s Day for my “treat”. Though normally I hate grocery shopping, the aisles can be too small, the people rude. If I can browse a store that is full of alternative things without rushing, I’ll actually have fun and find cool things.
I did, must have taken 20 minutes and I walked out with five things, nutritional yeast, an oatmeal mix, castile soap, hazelnut milk and Flax4Life muffins. The muffins are what I will rave about. I have had them before. Today, I bought them for Rick and for me. Though we know nothing for certain, Rick may have a gluten allergy. We’ll know if he does have a certain, very uncomfortable allergy in about a week or more. This morning he had shredded wheat with almond milk and was feeling sick within an hour. Our deduction went a little like this. Yogurt, which he also had, does not make him feel ill. All the ingredients in the hazelnut milk he has had before without problems. The shredded wheat is the only thing that seems to bother him. Each time he has tried it he has felt poorly. It takes between 30 minutes and 2 hours for things to move from the stomach to the small intestine, which is where the problem would be if he had this certain problem. (Think, like celiac disease.)
He was so miserable he swore off wheat today. I felt bad for him because I know he may be forced to give up all sorts of yummy things. Though he doesn’t eat a lot of wheat, mostly artisan breads, gluten allergies cuts out more than just bread – some noodles, buns, cakes, muffins, and many cereals. As I was browsing today, I ran across the muffins I had enjoyed so much in the fall last year. I bought Tantalizing Cranberry and Orange muffins. They are gluten free and are actually healthy because of all the natural ingredients and one specific ingredient, flax that is very high in omega 3 fatty acids. These little bits of heaven are made in my favorite town, Bellingham, Washington. They have a cute little website, will ship to you, and are carried in many local stores and co-ops. Please check out Flax4Life. Baker Kasondra has family members whom have celiac disease. A simple over view of this disease is that it is an allergy to gluten, which kills the villi in the small intestine, which impedes absorption of nutrients, resulting in unhappy, unhealthy people. The fix for this disease is to quit eating gluten-containing foods. Read the About Us page for the full story.
I have tried the tantalizing cranberry & orange and the chunky chocolate chip. There are three other flavors, wild blueberry, faithful carrot raisin, and Hawaiian pineapple coconut. I can hardly wait to try them! It’s great for this “modern hippy” because I was supporting the local co-op and a local baker – thus great for the environment. These muffins have only traveled about 60 miles from Bellingham to Everett, versus many big brands that must travel many states to get here from their huge plants.
Oh and of course so far, Rick has no complaints, he thinks they are wonderful!
I’ve been on a no-red meat kick. Do in part to a serious decrease in funds, we have not been able to buy higher quality meats. I noticed the other day that the ones we started buying we making me feel ill. Just after I would finish eating I would feel like I had eaten a fast-food burger. So I quit trying to force the stuff and set out to the pantry looking for alternatives. I know beans and rice is the ultimate combo of veggie friendly foods for protein so I used up my canned beans and the rice I bought around the holidays. After about a day of no cheap meat, I felt a million times better.
I have started experimenting. I made this “stir fry” tonight. Using left over rice I sautéed it in olive oil and walnut oil. Spices of chili, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, coriander, oregano, chopped up roasted almonds, some broccoli, and an egg added after everything was finished cooking, I came up with a fantastic meal. I do not follow precise recipes so if you want to try it experiment, taste, have fun. Make sure though that you do not over cook whatever veggie you add. Over cooking foods diminished their nutritional value. Your end result will be a tasty delight of textures and tastes.
I will say that I am not advocating turning “veggie”. If you so choose to cut out all meats there is extra work involved in preparing a balanced meal. Protein is essential for a healthy body. Above all, whether or not you are a vegetarian, vegan or non-denominational fussy person like myself – listen to you body. If you feel sick after eating a food, don’t make yourself eat it again. Cravings are your body’s way of letting you know that the balance is lost.
Please also remember I am not a nutritionist but a passionate person whom tries to make food choices that I believe in, whether it be to cut out cheap meats or to eat organic-free range chicken or only fish. If you feel you are missing something, please find a reputable nutritionist whom will listen and respect your ideals/morals. They do exist and will be happy to help once you find them. Until next time – happy cooking!
Xiann
So here it is, the list of dog safe and unsafe foods.
• Meats cooked rare such as chicken, turkey, beef. But not salmon, pork, or lamb which due to parasites should be thoroughly cooked. ( A couple of the sites do not recommend feeding raw because of the slight chance that a dog will get salmonella poisoning. Though I wish to feed raw, I am not set up to do it at home, by hand, at the moment.) I am considering supplementing her diet with some raw from the feed store because if you get a good raw, it will contain bones and liver, which dogs need.
• Some veggies such as lettuce, carrots, green beans, potatoes, red and green bell peppers, and yams are safe. I do however have hesitations feeding dogs potatoes and yams due to what I have read about those foods raising blood sugar in people more than sugar. I will due more research.
• Some grains, but not in large quantities: rice, oats and whole grain breads that due not have sugar added.
Do not feed onions or garlic. Nor pits or seeds of apples, cherries, peaches or other such fruits as some of them contain cyanide. If you feed your dog any of theses fruits, be sure to core and pit them because they don’t know to avoid those things. No chocolate, or any form of caffeine. No nuts, especially macadamian nuts, and no nutmeg. An exception would be natural, no sugar added peanut butter. (That means no Jiff, but Adam’s Peanut butter would be okay.) No tomatoes or mushrooms. Nor animal fat or fried foods which are also high in fat, they are not good for us, so don’t give them to your dogs. No cooked bones because they can splinter and poke holes in the digestive track which is very dangerous. No raisins or grapes or uncooked eggs. Absolutely no xylitol, sugar or corn syrups. As a rule, you don’t have to sweeten a dogs food. However, honey and molasses is okay in very small quantities.
If you read something, you do not believe to be accurate, please let me know. I do not want to be providing inaccurate information. Also, because I wish to give my dog the safest foods, if I learn anything more I’ll make another post.
This weekend I made a lot of chicken. My goal was to roast a chicken – I had not done that yet – and to make chicken soup with those roasted chicken bones. The chicken soup was a hit. It was perfect.
First, before I made the roasted chicken soup I had to roast that chicken. I was not sure what a roasted chicken was supposed to look like. Google is the perfect place to look for recipes. I found a couple. Both gave the same basic directions. I added my own little alternatives.
You will need:
• 1 whole organic, free range chicken
• Butter
Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Rinse the chicken inside and out and pat dry with a towel or paper towel. This will make sure the skin is nice and golden brown and crispy. Place your dried chicken in an oven safe pan. I used a rectangular cake pan. You can separate the skin from the meat with a finger and slide in whatever spices you want. Since Rick can be sensitive to some spices I used only butter.
Tear off a piece of foil about the size of the chicken and just set in onto the bird. Do not curl it around the pan. Its only job is to keep the breast and skin from cooking faster than the rest of it and thus prevent it from burning. Place the pan in the oven and set the timer for about 30 minutes less that the total cooking time. I had a small chicken about 4lbs. The rule is 20 minutes for each pound of meat. Mine took about 1.5 hours.
Check with about 30 minutes left of total cooking time. I set my timer for one hour and then opened the oven to check it. Set it for 10-15 minutes longer and then upped the temperature to 450 degrees. This is supposed to crisp up the skin more. The chicken is done when it reaches around 170-180 degrees. Mine was at 175 degrees.
The result was one of the best chickens I have ever had. It was beautiful.
Please excuse the large slice in the chicken. I was almost going to serve myself a slice when I remembered to take a picture.
One last note: the directions I read said to let the chicken sit for 15-20 minutes to let the juices settle. I’m not sure if I did or not. I’m not ever sure why juices should be allowed to “settle”.
