Battle Parsnip

So as a fun way to try new veggies we decided to select at least one vegetable per month that we have

never had or never cooked and prepare it a few different ways to see if we like it. For our first vegetable we chose parsnips. It was random and an excellent choice for our first veggie battle. As it turns out this is an incredibly versatile root. I tried a piece of it raw and it has a sweetness to it that goes oh so well with savory flavorings.

We each decided to do three preparations then have a tasting. And of course we had Iron Chef on in the background for inspiration. It was a fun time.

Pictured to the right starting at the snowflake and going clockwise are 4 of our 6 preparations. Roasted parsnip and kale salad, curried parsnip stew, spicy parsnip and sweet potato soup and a surprising popular one the candied parsnips. Not pictured are the parsnip chips or "parchips" (haha) that had a spicy dip and the herby yogurt parsnips which were nothing short of amazing. The chips we ate before i could get a pic (yea, they were that good) and the herby 'snips were still cooking.

Here are the recipes that I did, I will put the full recipe down and note things that I omitted or added on my own:
Kale Salad with roasted parsnips (and cauliflower which I omitted)

1 cauliflower cut into florets (omitted)
2 parsnips cut on the bias and then cut into small pieces
3 T olive oil divided
1 lemon zest and juice (i just used lemon juice)
2 tsp kosher salt (i used a couple of sprinkles)
1 tsp black pepper (again just a couple of sprinkles)
4 rosemary sprigs
1 pinch red pepper flakes (omitted)
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 bunch kale, remove stems and ribs and cut or tear into small pieces

preheat oven to 425F.

1. In a large bowl, add cauliflower, parsnips, 1 1/2 T olive oil, lemon zest (i added lemon juice), 1 tsp salt (or a sprinkle) and 1/2 tsp pepper (or just a sprinkle), toss and combine all.
place veggies onto baking sheet, tuck rosemary sprigs among the vegetables, sprinkle with red pepper flakes and roast until the veggies turn brown around the edges (20-25 minutes). REDUCE oven temp to 325F and continue to roast until tender, about 15 more minutes. Remove baking sheet, discard rosemary sprigs.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 1 1/2T olive oil, the lemon juice, garlic, remaining salt and pepper. Add half of this mixture to a large bowl along with the kale. Use hands to mix together, the kale should turn a brighter green color. About 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the parsnips and cauliflower to the kale and then serve.

A couple of notes. I made this in a much smaller batch because we were only doing small tastings of each preparation so my parsnips cooked VERY fast, I'm talking about 10 minutes and they were completely done, I also cut them into smaller pieces which probably helped that. So keep an eye on them. I definitely think the recommended amount of salt and pepper is too high, I don't use that much salt in my food prep anyway so I just did a little bit to help bring out the flavors. I put the chopped garlic in to roast with the parsnips along with the rosemary and both burned, i think i will incorporate them into the vinaigrette mixture next time. Aside from that, i thought this was super flavorful, the lemon juice really made the kale pop and the tartness of the lemon next to the sweetness of the parsnips were perfect compliments to each other.

Candied parsnips

2 lb parsnips
1/4 C butter
salt to taste
1/2 C maple syrup

wash parsnips and cook in boiling water until tender. Cool, scrape, halve and remove cores. Melt butter in skillet, add parsnips and sprinkle lightly with salt. Add maple syrup. cook until browned slightly and glazed turning once.

My notes: I used my mandolin and sliced the parsnips very thin prior to boiling, i didn't bother with the cooling/scraping/halving and removing of cores. The rest i did and they turned out very nice. I also drizzled a little maple syrup on top once plated because I am absolutely in love with maple syrup. :)

Sweet potato and parsnip soup- this was not my strongest dish and i will go into why after the recipe.

3 medium sweet potatoes diced
3 large parsnips diced
2 medium carrots
3 stalks celery
3 cloves garlic
1 medium white onion, chopped
1-1.5L vegetable stock
1 T coriander
salt and pepper
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)

1. In a large saucepan, toss all the vegetables in the Olive Oil until slightly brown and softened.
2. After 5-10 minutes, add the Vegetable Stock and bring to the boil.
3. Add the roughly chopped Garlic cloves and Coriander and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Turn down the heat slightly and cover the saucepan. Leave vegetables to absorb the flavors and simmer for about 25 minutes.
5. Using a hand blender, blend the vegetables until a thick, smooth soup is formed (leave some chunks of vegetables if you prefer). If the consistency is too thick for your liking, simply add more stock or hot water.
6. Serve hot with a garnish of parsley and/or croutons. Serve some warm brown bread as an accompaniment. Enjoy!

For me this was not my favorite recipe because I didn't follow it very well first of all and secondly it was too sweet with both the sweet potatoes AND parsnips. I tried adding sriracha and old bay to make it somewhat savory but it just wasn't working out for me. I will try to make this one more time and will follow the recipe more closely to see how it turns out.

Regardless we had a really fun time hanging out together and making food (one of our favorite past times). I can't wait to see what our next vegetable is!

'till next time.....
~ e

The Fungus Among Us

My mushroom class was really neat yesterday. I belong to a nice little co-op that puts on these great classes all the time. They are inexpensive and I really enjoy them. Yesterday was no different. Yesterday was MUSHROOM DAY!!! haha.

I only started to eat mushrooms in the past few years, I like them but know virtually nothing about them except for they are very tasty and can be deadly if you do not know hot to properly identify them when foraging. I learned so much yesterday, I barely know where to begin!

Let's start with the basics, the study of mushrooms is called mycology which would make the person who studies them (an expert in the field) a mycologist. A very well known mycologist is Paul Stamets, he has written many books and has a line of mushroom supplements on the market. I am sure there are many well known mycologists, our class was just not long enough to go over all of them!

The part of the mushroom that we see, the part that is above ground is the fruit while the part that is below ground is called the mycelium. I found the mycelium fascinating, it was even mentioned in class that there are studies which indicate that the mycelium is the network in which plants can communicate over long distances (some myceliums grow to be very, very large). How cool is that? it's like the tin can and string theory for nature. I plan to learn more about this mycelium.

Other fun facts about mushrooms are:

• mushrooms are great filters and good for the environment
• because they can soak up toxins and clean the earth you must be conscious about where your mushrooms are being cultivated and harvested, they toxins that they soak up will be super concentrated within the mushroom (bad for eating)
• mushrooms work to stimulate our immune system to strengthen itself so that your own immune system can heal you (how cool is that!)
• to get the health benefits of medicinal mushrooms they must be cooked, the nutrients are stored in the cell walls, heat will release this so that our bodies can use it
• mushrooms are higher in protein than most other vegetables
• certain types of mushrooms can inhibit histamines, lower cholesterol and even help diabetics regulate their glucose
• there are studies going on which are indicating that certain mushrooms may be able to facilitate in cancer treatments.
• if mushrooms are dried in the sun they have the ability to soak up additional vitamin D just like our bodies can!
• mushrooms are beautiful, i saw pictures in some of the reference books that just blew my mind!

I learned about two mushrooms that i have never heard of. The reishi and the turkeytail mushrooms. I am more of a shitake girl myself but i definitely want to try different types now! These are just two out of probably hundreds or thousands that i do not know about, it looks like a whole new world is opening up to me here and I can't wait to explore it!

Below are some books that I learned about yesterday, i wanted to pass it along for anyone with an interest in learning more:

Myco Medicinals by: Paul Stamets
Mycelium Running by: Paul Stamets
Mushrooms for Medicine by: Greg Marley

fungi.com sells mushroom products and even growing kits

As I come up with recipes that incorporate these wonderful fungi's i will add them here for all to enjoy! If you have a great recipe that you want to share please let me know :)

Toodles
~CM

The lazurus blog - resurected once more

I love this little blog of mine, it's a snapshot of the journey I have been on over the past few years. It reminds me of the varying and different food lifestyles I have experimented with as well as other random non-food stuffs (though it's mostly about food because it's a minor obsession of mine).

2012 has been an interesting year for me. I have enjoyed it very much and feel that i have grown a lot in the different things i have experienced. I still manage property as my day job, no matter how many times I try to or think about walking away from this I have come to realize that I am what I am and I'm damn good at it too, so, I've decided to use my powers for good and continue to manage property while pursuing my other interests on the side. We still live in Burlington, VT and what a roller coaster THAT has been. There's a saying, don't judge a book by it's cover.....well in order to judge this book we would have had to known to pull the dust jacket off and look deeper. This place is not what it seems and I mean that in both good and bad ways, but that's a whole other blog post, haha!

SOOOOOOO....what HAVE I been doing lately, what little adventures have I gone on? Dan and I both discovered that we enjoy hiking very much and want to do more of it.....just not in the summer heat (yuck-o). I have also discovered the coupon lifestyle of Living Social and Groupon. it's super cool because it gives a chance to try new restaurants and other places that we may not have known about otherwise. I made a couple of new friends through work which is fun. I am such an introvert though that sometimes it's just overwhelming. It's a process, I will get used to it, I need to be more social so this will be all good stuff for me.

What am I learning these days? A couple of things actually. I recently signed up for an herbal home study course which is taught by the godmother of herbalism herself, Rosemary Gladstar. I am only on lesson two but I love her light and happy writing style, it feels more like i am reading a letter from a good friend than a school textbook. As I learn more I aim to write about what i have read as well as discuss my class "experiments" which I am very much looking forward to beginning.

I have also been taking little classes through my local food co-op. The series i have been most active with is called "preserving the harvest" it's exactly what it sounds like, preserving food the old fashioned way, through canning or fermenting etc. It's been really fun, i have met some nice people and it's a nice little social outing for me (again, which we know that I NEED!) haha. Today I will be learning about the medicinal properties of mushrooms, YAY!

Speaking of mushrooms, i have to go, i need to get ready for me class.

Tata for now
~CM

RAW mexican night (day 2)

Dan has gone completely off the reservation which is GREAT!

Last night he made Mexican and it was MMMM MMMM Good!

Now bear with me because his measurement system is more loosey goosey that I am used to so I have done my best to put measurements in but adjust as you see fit.

1/2 C walnuts
1/2 C sunflower seeds
1/4 C flax seeds
1tbsp chia seeds
2 tbsp sesame sees
3/4 C sundried tomatoes (these had been pre-soaked overnight)
Use the tomato juice  to hydrate all the seeds, it adds a ton of flavor.
herbs/spices to taste:
garlic powder
onion powder
cumin (be generous)
coriander
salt/pepper
tumeric
2 tbsp olive oil

hand chop all but tomatoes lightly, then mix in tomatoes and add in juice to cover. Add olive oil, let sit and re-fill liquid as necessary. Dan noted that it would be better to add in the seasoning at the end as they were all soaked up by the seeds expanding.

Cheeeeeeze
1/2 C finely chopped cashews
1/4 C +/- yogurt (more for creamier yogurt, also opt to use kefir instead)
squirt of lemon

get cashews to a small almost buttery consistency. Add yogurt to desired consistency and squirt lemon @ end.

Opt. add preferred herbs.

Mango Salsa
1 mango
1/2 shallot
fresh cilantro
5 grapes
1 carrot
cinnamon
salt/pepper
lime juice

chop/mix/eat- really that's it!

We spread all three over the flax seed crackers and completely enjoyed the meal.

Crunch on my friends
~CM

RAW day 1 after dinner

After dinner on day 1 we both went a little nuts and made a ton of extra food to be used for other meals. One item that was very successfully made was flax crackers! YAY! We finally made crackers!!!

Here is the super simple cracker recipe:
1/2 C flax seeds
2 tbsp chia seeds

mix and cover with water for 1.5 hours refilling water as necessary. You are looking for a sort of gooey consistency to occur. season to taste (the seasonings will get sucked up by the flax and chia). Spread out thinly on to one or 2 jellyrolls and dehydrate @ 135 F for 8 +/- hours.

Rumakis!
I have no idea what that means but they are yummy.
12 prunes
1/4 C unpasturized soy sauce
1/4 C raw apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp fresh chopped ginger
12 fresh water chestnuts

(opt) throw in a handful of raisins

soak all except chestnuts overnight. stuff prunes with chestnuts and eat.

Goji berry bars

1 C dried coconut
1/2 C almonds, soak, de-skin
1/2 C cashews, soak
1 Lg apple, chopped
1/4 C agave
1/2 C rasins
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C dried goji berries (soak)
1/2 C pepitas
dash cinnamon

Prep:
coarsely chop nuts, berries and seeds, set aside.
blend apple, agave, raisins and vanilla until smooth. Combine all together ad spread thickly onto mesh sheet, do not exceed 1/2", probably 1/4" is better for shorter dehydration time. Dehydrate @ 135F for +/- 24 hours (if closer to 1/4" thick can probably do more like 12 hours.
Cut into chunks and enjoy (which we totally did!)

RAW day 1

Dan has joined me on this raw journey making it more fun and interesting since I have someone to share it with. On Sunday we did some shopping for fresh fruits, veggies, herbs, spices, grains and nuts. While shopping was super fun (yes, I love the grocery store) "cooking" up new recipes was even more fun!

For dinner I just did a bunch of small plates so we could sample different recipes. Here is what I made, I will add the recipes at the end.
almond spread (it was supposed to seem like cheese, but really i didn't get it to the right consistency so let's just be real and call it what it is, DELICIOUS almond spread. This went quite well inside a fresh tomato.
We also had pizza rolls which were absolutely divine! And I discovered that I like zucchini, YAY new veggie to eat!!!
I made some "soup" for us, it was called avocado island consomme. Dan was a big fan of it but I thought the flavors were a little too strong. My beautiful avocados just kind of got lost in the mix, literally.

This meal was actually very filling, I did not finish everything and did not find myself snacking later that evening either. The things we are both enjoying about this diet is that we don't feel like we are giving up anything in order to eat this way. Unlike a vegan diet where it seemed like everything we did was wrong and we were constantly hungry and unsatisfied with our meals. This diet does not take foods out of our lives that we enjoy it just changes the method of preparation and perspective of what is really necessary.

Here are our recipes:
1 C almonds (soak for a few hours, remove skins)
2 tbsp lemon
1/2 C water
pinch salt
pinch garlic powder
pinch herbs de provence

Blend in food processor until tiny. I am sure that if you blend until smooth it will be more "cheezy"

Pizza Rolls
Spread:
1/2 C sundried tomatoes soaked (save water for later)
1 tbsp pesto
splash olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp tomato water
splash lemon juice

Pizza Roll:
thinly sliced zucchini

Mix all ingredients together for spread and chop in food processor. Spread on zucchini slices ad put in food dehydrator at 135 degrees F for minimum 1 hour. for crispier leave in longer.

Avocado Island Consomme
1 bunch celery
1-2 lemons or limes juiced
1/4 C EVOO
pinch celery salt
pinch garlic powder
1/2-1 shallot depending on potency
 
1 ripe avocado

Combine all but avocado in food processor until smooth. dice avocado and place into soup bowl. Pour consomme over the avocado and enjoy.

I adapted these recipes from the book "The raw food gourmet" by: Gabrielle Chavez.

RAW diet re-do

I am having a re-commitment ceremony with myself. I am re-committing to trying a raw diet. It's summer, Vermont has phenomenal fresh food resources and if I start slow and plan some of my meals in advance I feel like this will not be an exciting challenge as opposed to a stressful one.

This morning I was awake early so of course I started to cruise around the internet in search of local raw foodies. I found a bunch of really nice resources and I even found a meet-up group that gets together here in Burlington. As you know from previous posts I have two raw cookbooks and more kitchen appliances than are really necessary. I feel prepared to that end but am I really prepared? This is a huge lifestyle change, it's more than just giving up meat, cheese and other foods I have had an intense relationship with all my life. It's giving up the social aspect of dining out and not over thinking the menu, it's me becoming one of "those people" who have special dietary needs.

I am not making this choice because I am ill and need to make a change in order to save my own life, I am making this choice because I honestly believe that I will completely enjoy it. I want to be healthy and not feel tired, I want to look 30 when I am 60. I want to head off any potential illnesses before they can even present them selves to my body. I WANT TO BE HEALTHY DAMNIT!

I found a really nice grocery list online which I think will help guide me in getting the core foods I need in order to get started. I recognize almost all of them and am looking forward to the new items that I will be eating.

http://www.thebestofrawfood.com/vegan-shopping-list.html

The above link is a nice resource, it is where I found the grocery list.

http://www.rawfoodrecipes.com/

As you can guess a simple search will pull up a million raw diet web sites. Be sure to do proper research.

Below is a local link, she has classes that might be fun to check out too:

http://www.vt-fiddle.com/

Sunday's Smoothie

Today I started simple with a smoothie of my own creation.

1 C baby spinach
1/2 C plain greek yogurt (I prefer chobani)
1/2 C water (this smoothie very thick, i felt water was the best choice for me)
1/4 C blueberries
1 Bosc pear
1 Lemon

 I had extra so I put it into jelly jars so that i have smoothies for the next 2 mornings (no fuss, just smoothie).

Also did you know that lemons and limes promote balanced alkaline levels in the body? I learned that today ;)

Yours in good health
~CM

"Put 'em up!"

by: Sherri Brooks Vinton

Yeah....I said it, what are you gonna do about it??? J/K, I am referring to the canning term for when you put your canned food "up" into the pantry. Yes! I am learning the wonderful world of canning, it's amazing, fun and completely interesting too. I traded a soap making lesson for a canning lesson last summer with a woman who has been growing her veggies and canning them for many, many years. It was super fun and a skill that I have long wanted to possess.

So I have not graduated to very complicated canning, I am still floating about in the land of fruit jams but I have made some very tasty ones I must say. So far I have accomplished both cherry and blueberry jams and my most recent conquest was something called "monkey butter" which has bananas, pineapple and coconut in it.

By: Ball (the jar people)

If you have never canned but would like to learn, buy the Ball Blue book, it seems to be THE guide to have. I am not going to write about how to can, I am just a beginner myself and don't know all the answers but I have found great resources, some of them being real live people and not just the internet. The books are great, try to find a class or something so you can really see first hand how to sanitize everything properly and really learn the proper way to handle this. The book will possibly scare the be-jesus out of you which is why I recommend pairing it with a class.

Right now I am following recipes exactly as they are written to ensure that they are balanced and will seal properly. Thankfully there are a million great recipes out there so it's not too difficult!

One ingredient I decided to invest in was low or no sugar needed pectin. There are nice recipes inside the label which I found easy to follow and use. In fact my cherry and my blueberry recipes both came from this bottle.

This year I hope to dive into canning tomato sauces and salsas, I will report back with my experiences and thoughts on the process. As an aside, if you don't actually want to go through the whole preserving process you can always follow any of the recipes then refrigerate your item and eat it in a reasonable amount of time. I have done that too (because sometimes I just can't wait to try my creation!) Another fun thing to do is pickling I have pickled both green beans and carrots and really enjoyed them, they are bright and a great compliment to many dishes, or on their own.

The biggest problem i have at this moment is space, i just have no space for all my little experiments which is terrible! haha. I dream of having a big sexy bright and sunny kitchen and a pantry that will make others just drool!

Dreaming of a new kitchen....
~CM

Vinegar

As I have recently learned this is a very valuable household stable both for eating and using in other applications. I have long known that vinegar can neutralize powerful bases such as sodium hydroxide (aka Lye). And I have enjoyed it in various forms in recipes too. But it is apparently an amazing household cleaner (who knew?) I was cruising around on "Pintrest" and was looking for different vinegar infusion ideas (for my salad) and came across someone who was infusing orange peels into regular white vinegar and using it to clean the house. Lovely, it's a great idea, I have often worried about using commercial cleansers in the kitchen where we prepare our food but did not know what my alternatives were. It seems that I have found some.

First, I kind of created my own vinegar infusion for my salad tonight and am very pleased with it, i based it on a dressing i bought at the store which i really liked but thought it was ridiculously overpriced (seriously it was vinegar, oil, cherries and rosemary.....and it costs over $10). Here is how I made my infusion.

black cherry vinegar

Cherry and rosemary infused vinaigrette:

1/2 lb dark cherries, de-stemed, pitted and cut in half
1/4 c red wine vinegar
1tbsp dried rosemary

Put all in pot and let it simmer slow and low. The flavors will start to pop after about 1 hour. Remove form heat and puree with hand blender or in food processor. Put back on stove for about 30 minutes then pour into pretty bottle and refrigerate, I suspect that this will keep for a couple of months but it will probably be gobbled up before then. Eat and enjoy!


As for using vinegar as a home cleaning product, there are many different ways to mix it up. Do you want your windows to shine? Spray them down with vinegar and wipe them with black and white mews paper. Room odor got you down? Just set a bowl of vinegar in the room overnight. Did your kid "decorate" something of yours (like grandma's antique breakfront) with stickers? moisten with vinegar, let sit and gently peel away, repeat the process as necessary if the glue if being stubborn. SEE?!? Vinegar IS magical!!! And that's just what I found from a very brief google. If I asked my Gram she would probably have an extensive list of it's uses. 

Here's a great link to the wonderful world of distilled white vinegar, I just learned how to keep my egg shells from cracking while boiling them!
http://www.vinegartips.com/Scripts/pageViewSec.asp?id=5

Here's some information on balsamic vinegar.
http://whatscookingamerica.net/balsamic.htm

This site is also great, it has information on all kinds of vinegars.
http://www.foodsubs.com/Vinegars.html

I intend to get to know this ingredient better, it seems to be so versatile I would just be cheating myself if I did not. 

Until next time....
~CM

Gosh I have been BUSY!

Where has the time gone? Yes I have been busy and up to a ton as far as recipes and such go. I just reviewed my last post (from WAY back in September) and while I did not end up going raw for a month as I planned I did get that food dehydrator and those books. I think I will revisit the idea and try to integrate some new dishes into my life.

Aside from that I have been studying many, many new things and working them into my lifestyle which has been great. I took an online course in both essential oils and herbs, both I found fascinating and would love to learn more. I have my little eye on a couple of other classes in the same theme and am just saving my pennies so that I can sign up for them.

One of the great outcome of my herbs study is that I have learned to make some delicious and health beneficial herbal teas. There are many other methods of ingesting herbs for health benefits but I have not ventured into them yet. My herb shelf is so pretty, it's full of beautiful bright mason jars with some awesome dried flowers, roots and leaves in all different shades and textures. It brings me a sense of peace and a connection to the earth whenever I look at it.

I have learned a bit more about essential oils and their awesome powers. An essential oil is basically the heart of a plant, the plants essence. Many EO's have wonderful healing properties as well as being naturally anti-bacterial, anti-viral, anti-fungal and beyond. I have started to phase out my commercial cleaning products based on what I have learned, it seems like a much healthier choice and besides they have a much better scent!

Many of the soaps I make have essential oils in them I am now working to integrate EO's into other areas of my life.


And then, there's "Pintrest." Have you been there? Good lord that site is amazing and will completely suck any free time I thought I had right up! Click here to follow my awesome pins. I have found some amazing recipes and great gardening and home decor ideas too!

So this in addition to my full time job and making my soaps has kept me fairly busy, oh- and I will be taking a photography class starting next month, I am totally stoked about that! I even have a film SLR camera for it. I now right, FILM!?!

Stay tuned, I have about a million recipes and other such things to share with y'all.

'Til then
~CM

Let's go RAW for a month!!!

The other day a gourmet RAW foods cookbook caught my eye and so I started perusing the recipes. The dishes sounded fabulous and I was interested in knowing more. I have been doing a little online research about this whole raw foods phenomenon and am very interested in giving this type of diet a try for the next 30 days. A couple of years ago I went vegan for 30 days, it was a fun journey and I learned a lot about new foods and a new style of eating. While it is a lifestyle that is not suited to me, I was happy with the experiment and had some fun new recipes added to my repertoire. This time I am looking forward to a new food adventure and hope at the end to have developed some new and healthy eating habits. I have ordered a food dehydrator and two raw food cookbooks which should be delivered sometime in the next week or so but in the meantime I can get started without those items as there are a bunch of nice web sites with information and recipes which are easy enough to follow. I have read that it is helpful to be able to track calorie intake as well as nutritional information so that I can ensure that I am eating a balanced meal and getting enough calories each day so I have found some web sites which will allow me to input the ingredients and get the nutritional information, this is kind of neat to me.

Here are some simple rules I want to follow for the next 30 days, this may grow longer as I learn more:
I read on a blog about a Doctor who suggested an 80/10/10 ratio of intake, that would be 80% carbs (mostly fruit but minimum of 5% from green leafy veggies), 10% protein and 10% fat. I will be moderate with vegetable oils (olive, coconut, etc.) light on the salt but liberal with herbs and spices, light on sweeteners. I also plan to weigh my foods so that I can calculate the nutritional information as close as possible. I will keep a log here, hopefully a daily log, so that I can track this diet and see my strengths and weaknesses as well as pinpoint any potential mistakes that I make on this journey.

Tonight I started simple and made a quick and easy snack:
Peanut butter goo balls:
1 C crunchy peanut butter
1 C creamy peanut butter
1 C protein powder ( i have a vanilla flavored one that I used)
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 C oatmeal (not quick oats)
unsweetened shredded coconut to coat balls

Mix everything except the coconut together and roll out into about 1" balls. It will make about 30. Roll in the shredded coconut and refrigerate so that they firm up. Go here for the nutritional information.

So I am off to a good start with my little snack and looking forward to my new cookbooks too!

Here are some other useful links that I found and will be referring to throughout this experiment:

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2007/12/30-days-raw/
http://www.rawmazing.com/rawmazing-recipes/
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=1805341
http://www.calorieking.com/foods/search.php?keywords=apple&showresults=yes

Montreal

I have been MIA for awhile and with good reason, we have been exploring our new town and enjoying all it has to offer. We also recently went to Montreal and had an awesome time. It's a very international city with all sorts of neat people, we heard many languages spoken, especially french, which was really cool.

Montreal has a wonderful shopping district and some amazing restaurants too. The people we found to be really friendly so we met and spoke with many different folks. I think the most memorable meal we had was at a place called O.Noir, not that we could see our meal. This is a restaurant where the waitstaff is blind and the customers get to experience their meal in pitch blackness, it heightens your other senses and is truly something not to be missed. You can choose from a 2 or 3 course prix fix meal or the "surprise meal" which is what Dan opted to try. Another nice feature is that a portion of the proceeds go to foundations which help blind people find jobs.

So we made our reservation and were led into a pitch black dining room by our waitress, Sophie. She sat us down and helped us locate our water glasses and bread and butter. We were feeling bold so we ordered drinks too, because it's fun to get tipsy when you can't see a darn thing! Next I attempted to butter my bread, and butter it I did! ALOT of butter, it was delicious but very buttery because I couldn't determine how much I had scooped up.

Next up were our appetizers, I choose the watermelon, avocado salad with feta cheese, it was amazing. Such a wonderful culmination of flavors. I cheated and ate with my hands and was banking on the fact that no one could see me acting like such a barbarian. I actually recreated this dish a few days later when we got home, the only additional ingredient I added was some fresh mint. YUM! Dan's surprise appetizer was a scallop and pasta sauce dish, he said it tasted great and even correctly identified what it was which made him very happy.

Once finished we sat there in the darkness and chatted and drank our drinks, white wine for me (in case I spilled I didn't want to order red wine) and scotch for Dan. Sophie came around and collected our plates and then brought our main courses. I chose the lemon veal which had a side of potatoes and vegetable of the day. Dans surprise meal was veal marsala with the same sides. It was extraordinary, mine was light yet flavorful, Dan's was saucy with some great mushrooms on it. I have to say cutting veal in the dark is a real experience not to be missed. Also I learned the hard way that eating potatoes with your hands is not a good idea. I did eventually give up on the knife and just eat with my hands once more (shhhh, don't tell!) The potatoes were quite good and the veg of the day seemed to be red peppers, although I did eat a small piece of squash too so it's still a little up in the air.

Again we finished up and relaxed and chatted, it's amazing how hard our eyes were working to try to see through the pitch blackness, they were playing tricks on us. Sophie came around and whisked our dishes away once more and brought me my dessert (Dan skipped dessert and shared mine instead). I selected chocolate mousse cake......O...M...G! It was amazing!!! It was light yet heavy in flavor, it had different densities and textures to it and it was sticky so it stayed on my fork! We both thoroughly enjoyed it and although we shared there was no feeding each other so to avoid a random fork poking.

After that we sat and listened to those around us, we heard shuffling and knew that others who had finished before us were being led out to the dimly lit bar area and we waited our turn. It's a strange thing to feel so dependent on another person for something as simple as leaving a restaurant. Sophie was an amazing and patient waitress, she was very attentive and very available to make sure we were ok and having a nice time. We joked a little bit about food presentation, because really who would know if it looked nice or not? Regardless of the presentation the flavors, textures and just the experience in general made for an unforgettable evening.

There is one thing that I wonder about though, had this been the same exact meal in a restaurant where we could see the food would we have though it tasted as good?......I guess I will never know.

Till next time
~CM

Hello again from the great wild north

Our AWESOME Easter Dinner!

Well alright, not THAT wild.  But different and wonderful. We are still checking out our new digs and enjoying what we have found so far.  We are obsessed with our Co-Op and all it's awesome offerings, every time we bring something new home to try we are just blown away by how very good it is. Recently I randomly bought a cup of Libertè yogurt (coconut) and was beyond impressed by it!  It was thick and creamy like greek yogurt but without the tartness that I associate with yogurt in general.  It has 5 bacteria strains which is more than I have seen in any other yogurt and it also has REAL FRUIT in it......amazing.  So of course we bought more and I have been eating them like a crazy person.

We also bought "rainbow eggs" from Gopher Broke Farms (love the name) and yes the eggs were all different colors naturally.  I guess if there are all different colored chickens there should be different colored eggs too.  They are white, light green, tan, dark tan and speckled too, pretty neat, oh and the yokes are a deep yellow, almost orange, they are so fluffy and creamy it's just nuts! I was just on their site, it looks like we have a farm visit in our future to them, I have a hankering for a fresh chicken!

The infamous Rainbow Eggs

....and the creamy yolks....

I feel like our soap company will do quite well in this environment where people do out of their way to buy local and buy handmade or more natural options than the commercial options that are available. Can you believe that there is no Target in Vermont at all? Although I like target because it is easy, I support the idea of keeping big box stores out to protect small business owners, so GO VERMONT!

Well that's it from me, I hope everyone is well and happy.

'till later
~A very happy Country Mouse

Where are they now???

Bread and Butter Farms, Store

Well we made it!  We officially moved into our new place on April 1 and have only a few boxes left which are going out of my life and into storage this weekend.  This place is really neat, our neighbors are nice, they are college students but not loud and fun to talk to.  We can walk to the main area within minutes and also to the co-op (which we are now proud members of!) we can also walk to the lake which we did last weekend to watch an amazing sunset.

Everyone keeps asking about the weather here, it's great!  I hate heat so the slightly cooler temperatures are perfect for me.  NO it has not snowed since we've been here, we moved to Vermont, not the north pole for pete's sake!

We have even managed to make a couple of friends and have been spreading our soaps and business cards about town which has all been very well received.

Last weekend was pretty neat, we decided to skip the farmer's market and go straight to one of the farms.  It was pretty cool, only about 15 minutes from our place and they have a little farm store set up which runs on the honor system (how cool is that?)  We were able to buy fresh raw milk which came out of ol' Bessy just that morning, we also bought a fresh loaf of bread, farm fresh eggs and some meats which looked just divine.  Then we wrote down what we purchased and paid for it.....amazing concept the honor system.

The milk came in a glass jar, it was really neat.  I tried very unsuccessfully to make butter, it seems my homesteading skills are still lacking, but it was fun to try (frusterating......that's more the word i need here.)  The milk tasted quite good, the eggs were wonderful, the meat amazing and well who can beat FRESH BREAD? I also took some of the milk and made soap with it which I am very excited about, it seems like it will be quite bubbly due to the extra goodness (proteins and fats) in the milk.

It's just the most darling red barn!

The co-op is equally as interesting, it is called Onion River Co-Op (how cute it that?) the fruit and veggie section is SO colorful, it's like a big healthy rainbow, i just love it!  Then there is a "bulk foods" section.......you bag your own spices, teas, flours, honey's nut butters, oats.....you name it then place a twisty tie with the bin number on it so you can be charged appropriately.....it's amazing, I could stand there all day and daydream about the herbs and spices.  Aside from these two fun areas, there is a nice wine/beer section, big seafood and meat departments and of course a cheese/deli type department.  Oh and also an awesome prepared foods section, we have not indulged yet but we may.

Our last and newest discovery is a place called Chicken Charlie's, it is apparently one of the founder's of Ben and Jerry's favorite places and I think it may now be ours too.  We ordered from there on a whim and OMG it's unbelievable......only in VT can you order "fast food" (and they deliver) and it will be chicken that comes right off of a healthy farm.....and mac n cheese where the cheese also is fresh off the farm.  It was the most amazing delivery food i have ever had!  And just moving from NYC that's saying ALOT!  Oh and the gravy......the gravy was unforgettable.

Sunset over lake Champlain

Well we ave many more adventures to go on up here in our new town so stay tuned for the fun.:)

Take care
~CM

Classic home cooking

There is nothing better than home cooked comfort food.  Recently I went with some friends to a place called The Meatball Shop which is located in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  Along enjoying spending time with friends the food was awesome!  As the name suggests they make meatballs, but not just any meatballs, they make the BEST meatballs and sauces that are just divine. 

My friend opted for the classic dish which is four good sized beef "balls" with classic marinara sauce and a side of greens.  Her BF ordered the special which was, get this, RUEBEN style "balls" yes my friends, it was pork, corned beef and sauerkraut with Russian dressing on top, UNBELIEVABLE, I have to learn to make this dish.  As for me, the indecisive one, I went for the meatball sliders so I could sample different sauces and ball styles (gosh that sounds wrong....haha).  I ordered the spicy pork, chicken and classic balls along with the Parmesan cream sauce, pesto sauce and classic marinara sauce.  Now I don't have an absolute favorite but the spicy pork definitely stands out in my mind and on my pallet.  I had a side of creamy home made pollenta, quite nice but the meatballs were the star of this meal.

Since the place also makes their own ice cream and cookies we had to try them too, we split an espresso ice cream and chocolate cookie sammie, it was delightful but again I say it was really a meatball kind of meal.  

With this meal still fresh in my mind i decided to make a pot of sauce and some good down home classic meatballs.  I don't have a set recipe and like to switch things up here and there, the basic idea remains the same though.

Here is what i did for the sauce, whenever i have fresh ingredients I always opt for that:

Couple of cans of diced tomatoes (I use fresh when i have them on hand)
Small can tomato paste
Oregano
Parsley
Basil (I had fresh on hand so I minced and used that)
Garlic (don't be shy about this)
To cut the acidity you can add a carrot and pull it out when the cooking is done
Opt A. Splash of balsamic vinegar
Opt B. splash of red wine

Cook slow and low until the desired thickness and flavor is acquired.


Here is the basic meatball recipe I used.
1 lb. ground sirloin (90% lean)
1/2 C seasoned bread crumbs
oregano
parsley
basil (again fresh minced)
1-2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper to taste
this recipe also recommended onions but i took them out because they made the balls too lumpy.

Mix and ball the meat up.  Here's the twist that a lot of people are afraid to do and end up affecting the finished product.  Put the uncooked balls DIRECTLY INTO THE SAUCE!!!  It will not kill you, but browning those balls either stove top or in the oven first will kill the flavor of the balls.  The sauce gets hot like boiling water and will kill any possible bacteria that the meat may have.  Give it a try, you will notice such a delicious difference.

I have lots of ideas for other meatball recipes after being at the Meatball shop so stay tuned for more delicious ideas on this finest of comfort foods.

Ta ta
~CM

From city mouse to country mouse?

Church Street Market Place, Burlington, VT

So this little mousey family is moving out of Brooklyn in 2 days.  Where are we going you might be asking?  We are moving to the great wild north of Burlington Vermont.  We found a great place right on the main drag and also have the convenience of being in the middle of the countryside within minutes, completely a win win for us! 

I have decided that I do not like packing and hope to only have to do it once or twice more in my LIFETIME!  Our life is currently in shambles with boxes, furniture and crap strewn about, we are quickly running out of room to do even simple things like sit down and watch a little tele.  Two more days, just two more days and we are blowing this popsicle stand!  Good bye Brooklyn, good bye over abundance of dust, good bye to moving the car every day to avoid getting a ticket, good bye strange, unhappy and just plain crazy people.  Good bye to it all.

Do I regret moving here?  Not at all, this place has taught me many life lessons which I will always hold close to my heart.  While here I got engaged and married to the man of my dreams, I started a company which I am deeply passionate about and am enjoying watching it grow as if it were a child. I enhanced my current career and feel that I can take it even further with my new found perspective.  Outside of the working world I found a love for writing, cooking and farmers markets which I doubt I would have found elsewhere.  My husband has become an exceptional cook and inspires me to compete with him which is fun and stretches my creative abilities as well as my pallet. 

All in all it's been a fun ride, but I am ready to get off this roller coaster and enjoy life at a bit of a slower pace for while.  Burlington will be an exciting new adventure which will take me to new heights in life that I cannot wait to experience. 

Until next time my friends
~Country Mouse

The simple things in life

Hello out there!  I haven't posted here in awhile and wanted to say hi and post a little something fun.  This is in ANTICIPATION of warmer weather (thanks to that no good lying gofer).  I was sitting here looking at two very forlorn bananas and trying to decide what to do with them.  Then I remembered the healthy popsicles my mom used to make for us as kids. 

The simplest thing to do is remove the peel, cut the banana in half and place a popsicle stick into it, wrap in waxed paper and freeze!  That's it but they are so tasty on a hot day, they are sweet and still healthy, to this day a banana is still one of my favorite snacks to eat.

A couple of other variations would be frozen yogurt with mashed fruit.  Use regular yogurt cut your fruit of choice  and mix into the yogurt, place into small cups (I used dixie cups today) place a popsicle stick in and freeze.  Once it is ready you can peel the paper off and enjoy.  you can add additional ingredients like coconut, wheat germ or even grapenuts for texture which is something I really like to do.
< these are my yogurt pops :)

A third variation would be juice pops.  This is literally as simple as you would think, select juice, pour into small cups, cover with tin foil and insert popsicle stick.  Again, fruit can be added to your preferences.

You can also purchase little popsicle maker thingies like this one >
which is available at Ikea.

Another nice thing to do if you have fruit that may not survive for too many days is to pop the fruit into the freezer (especially berries) then use them to top your favorite yogurt snack or even those cute little pound cakes.  The berries will keep for a very long time (though not forever as I learned the hard way).  Oh and they are also great for smoothies and "adult" drinks ;)


Alright folks stay "cool"
~CM

Lie food

They look real enough.....

So as part of my new eating habits I am cutting back on meat.  I bought some meatless products to try thinking that if they taste good enough I can make them part of my normal rotation.  Last night I tried meatless buffalo wings, essentially it was tofu with hot sauce and I knew that going into it but thought - hey they look like wings, if they taste like wings this could end up being a boneless grand slam!

So I read the directions and started to make the wings, small problem is that our oven is still not working so I had to do it all stove top. The instructions stated, heat oil, add packet of hot sauce mixture.  Done, I let it heat nicely and sizzle a little and threw the "wings" in to....um.....cook?  I let them go slow and low to try to crispy them up.

When I took them off the heat and plated them they looked pretty much the same as when I put them in, chicken wing shaped tofu.  I took a bite......YUCK!  The tofu didn't suck in the hot sauce flavor as real wings would and I got way too much of that bland tofu taste.  Also the consistency was all wrong, if I am substituting meat for something like this I want to be genuinely happy with the decision and not feel like I have given up something great for something inferior.  With this meal, it was just not the case.  I was only able to eat one before I decided to stop torturing myself.

I have more meatless dishes to try, hopefully I will have better luck with them.

To the great wide meatless AND BEYOND!!!!!!

~CM

Coconut yogurt a success!

I tried the coconut milk yogurt this morning and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was AWESOME!!!!  I set the yogurt machine up to run for 10 hours but hubby accidentally unplugged it somewhere around the five hour mark and I did not catch it until way later.  I decided to just throw it into the fridge and see what it became.  Even with that hiccup it was creamy and had that yogurt tang that I love.  The shredded coconut that I added gave it great texture too, I will definitely be making this again!

As a re-cap here is the recipe i made:


Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk (lite or regular)
3 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp guar gum (thickener)
1tbsp yogurt starter or probiotic packet (since this is a half recipe and my probiotic packs are for larger batches I opted for the tbsp of yogurt starter)

Equipment:
SS Spoon
1-2 qt pot (for this batch 1 qt is fine)
Thermometer
Yogurt making machine or something comprible

Directions:
Sterilize everything (i boiled water in my teapot and poured it over the yogurt containers and other equipment.
Boil coconut milk to approx. 160 degrees F  stir regularly
turn off heat
Add shredded coconut and guar gum stir ALOT
Let cool down to about 110 degrees F before adding probiotic and stir again
Pour into yogurt containers and follow instructions for your machine, i am letting my yogurt "YO" for about 10 hours and will check on it then.

Again, 5 hours ended up being fine for this, I iwll try for longer next time to see what the difference is.

Happy yo-ing!


~CM

New year, new me?

The yogurt is "yo-ing"

Well like everyone else on the planet I am going to lose some weight in the new year.  It's more than that though, I intend to get back to some of my healthy eating habits that I so lazily have abandoned lately.  I have started a little three day cleanse, I thought that would kick off this new me quite nicely.  During these three days I will eat very light meals, veggie soups, lots of teas, water, etc. 

After that I will transition into what I hope will become pretty much my normal diet.  For now I am cutting out red meat and will eat chicken occasionally, getting my protein from other sources is not a problem as I love nuts and can tolerate soy and tofu in small amounts although I find it dreadfully boring.  I am also cutting my alcohol intake back to two days per week MAX.  I generally like to have a glass of wine with dinner or something but all that sugar is going right to my belly and I hate that.  For now I am completely cutting dairy out, with the exception of my love for cheese this is not an issue as I generally try to avoid dairy and all that crap that is in it.  The soybella machine will come in very handy in making my "milks" for coffee and other recipes.  I can cut back on bread but never really felt it was a problem for me, I think aiming to be aware of portion sizes would be more beneficial to me at this point.

Today started off with a bang and I am feeling very positive about these changes.  I had a cup of tea and 1/2 piece of peanut butter toast along with one cleanse pill oh and of course water!

As a late day snack I am making a nice light veggie broth.  In the pot I put water, a light sodium veggie cube, an onion and a ton of celery, maybe 5 pieces of so.  Then I added about 5 garlic cloves, paprika, oregano, salt and old bay seasoning.  It smells GREAT and is tasting quite nice.  Generally I would make soba noodles to have with this but since I am cleansing I am trying to do mainly a liquid diet for three days and will not add anything.

My next feat is my attempt at making coconut milk yogurt.  I found a site where the person was able to successfully make it so I am trying right now to do this.  My recipe differed from hers slightly because I love really thick creamy yogurt.

Ingredients:
1 can coconut milk (lite or regular)
3 tbsp unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tsp guar gum (thickener)
1tbsp yogurt starter or probiotic packet (since this is a half recipe and my probiotic packs are for larger batches I opted for the tbsp of yogurt starter)

Equipment:
SS Spoon
1-2 qt pot (for this batch 1 qt is fine)
Thermometer
Yogurt making machine or something comprible

Directions:
Sterilize everything (i boiled water in my teapot and poured it over the yogurt containers and other equipment.
Boil coconut milk to approx. 160 degrees F  stir regurarly
turn off heat
Add shredded coconut and guar gum stir ALOT
Let cool down to about 110 degrees F before adding probiotic and stir again
Pour into yogurt containers and follow instructions for your machine, i am letting my yogurt "YO" for about 10 hours and will check on it then.

Wish me luck!  I will update later.

~CM