Celebrating Ward’s Day

Liesl started working at Ward’s Aero more than four years ago.  Ward didn’t have dinner at our house until late this past summer, when we instituted “Ward’s Day.”

Ward’s not a planner, and impromptu cooking for guests isn’t a skill I’ve mastered. I need at least a day’s notice before I feel comfortable making dinner for anyone other than Liesl.

We tried to invite Ward for dinner several times, and it just didn’t work out.

But then I had an idea: Ward’s Day.

One day a week––we chose Wednesday––I plan a dinner, and make enough food that Ward can come if he wants to. If he doesn’t, Liesl and I have plenty of leftovers.

He’s been here twice since then, and might come tonight.

We’re having split pea soup with half-grain egg bread, and from-scratch lemon meringue pie for dessert.

It’s win-win-win all around. I get to practice cooking for guests, Ward gets a home-cooked meal he doesn’t have to make for himself, and we all get to spend time together. It’s an important step for Liesl and me, a way for two introverts to stitch together our social network.

What about you?  What practices help you improve the strength of your in-person social connections?

Half-Grain Egg Bread

Liesl is not a big fan of whole wheat.  I’ll eat almost anything (unfortunately), but she has a much more discriminating palate.  Her well-developed olfactory sense contributes to some of her dislikes–including whole wheat.

One trick that works is King Arthur Flour’s suggested addition of a small amount of orange juice–it neutralizes the taste of the tannins in the whole wheat.

Easier still is another offering from King Arthur–their White Whole Wheat Flour.   When Liesl was diagnosed with a barley allergy, I had to become a flour expert–which brands of wheat flour include barley, what stores stock those flours, how those flours work in various applications, etc.

Barley shows up in most bread flours.  I think it has something to do with gluten and/or browning.  I rotate between a few brands of all-purpose flour, but my favorite is the Organic Unbleached White Flour from Bob’s Red Mill.  Has to be organic–Bob’s regular white flour has barley in it.  But it’s hard to find.  I have the best luck at Natural Pantry in Anchorage, but even there it’s often out of stock.  All of the barley-free white flours are quite expensive–I think I paid about $6.99 for the last 5-pound bag I bought.

Enter King Arthur’s White Whole Wheat flour.  Not only is it barley-free, it’s less expensive, and a whole grain.  And–best of all–it doesn’t taste like whole grain.

Liesl’s favorite is the Egg Bread recipe from Bread Machine Magic.  I make the large recipe in my bread machine, set it on the “dough” setting, and divide the dough between two, one-pound loaf pans.  One goes in the freezer, and the other gets devoured pretty quickly.  Yesterday, though, I made one loaf of bread—and a pan of cinnamon rolls, which we enjoyed for breakfast this morning.

Here’s the adapted Egg Bread recipe:

Half Grain Egg Bread

• 1 cup milk
• 3 eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 cups all purpose white flour
• 2 cups King Arthur White Whole Wheat flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

I also add two heaping tablespoons of vital wheat gluten, since I’m not using bread flour.  And lately I’ve been warming the milk and butter together in the microwave before adding it to the breadmaker–thirty seconds or so.  It seems to make a nicer dough.  If you’re more organized than I am, you could simply let all the ingredients come up to room temperature, and I’m sure that would accomplish the same thing.

Happy baking!

 

 

What does “just-right” organic look like?

Yesterday I suspended my Full Circle Farm orders.  Full Circle Farm is an organic farm and produce delivery service, and for a long time I’ve been a big supporter of its business model.  FCF began as a traditional CSA, but it has morphed into hybrid model that bills itself as a “farmers’ market in a box.”

Here’s what I’ve liked about FCF:

• Most of the produce has been exceptionally delicious
• I get a wide variety of produce
• I like supporting a business that supplies quality organic produce to places like Nome and Kotzebue
• FCF’s swap-out options allow me to work around my partner’s allergy to lettuce
• Anything that keeps me out of the big box stores is good for my budget, and fits my shopping goals
• FCF’s customer service has been excellent; anytime I’ve had trouble with an item, I get a refund, or an extra item in the next delivery

That’s a lot to like.  I thought about using our “local” CSA box option, Glacier Valley Farm, but they don’t offer FCF’s flexibility, and almost every box content listing I’ve seen includes lettuce.  Also, during the long Alaskan 0ff-season, the produce is significantly less local.

There are people out there who don’t like Full Circle Farm because they think it’s too much like “Big Organic” (where sheer size begins to look a whole lot like conventional agriculture).   That’s not my problem.  I’m not a purist.  I believe in making the best choice for my partner and me, among the options available.

So why did I quit FCF?  Because I got tired of the one or two disappointments in every box.  First there was the aphid infestation in the cauliflower.  Then the sweet corn that was not sweet; picked while the kernels were immature, it tasted like field corn.  One whole batch of green beans tasted like twigs. Several times the avocados have gone from rock-hard to rotten without stopping at ripe.

The box of FCF fruits and veggies is expensive.  It bothers me to have to throw away something a farmer worked hard to produce, and we worked hard to purchase.

I also find that I miss the process of carefully selecting produce.  At a real farmers’ market–as opposed to a farmers’ market in a box–I would have a chance to smell the peaches, feel the plump firmness of the ears of corn, inspect the tomatoes for bruises.  Even at the grocery store I can approximate that process, even though the quality doesn’t measure up to what’s available at most farmers’ markets.

I don’t know what “just right” organic looks like.  So far, for me, it’s been a constant process of adjustment.  FCF for a while.  Arctic Organics CSA for two summers.  Then FCF again.

Now it’s a new season in my hunting and gathering.  I’ll have to push myself to look for more variety in the grocery store, and try to pay attention to which stores have the best quality produce.  Maybe I’ll start shopping more frequently at smaller stores like Natural Pantry and New Sagaya/City Market.

And that will have to be good enough, for now.

A Comment on “The Entrepreneurial Spirit”

UU Minister Amy Zucker Morgenstern wrote this lovely post today about low-key entrepreneurs in Mexico:  The entrepreneurial spirit « Sermons in Stones.

I wanted to reply to her post, but she and her comments section are on sabbatical, so this short post is my comment!

In her post she wrote about prohibitive regulation in California keeping micro-businesses from being feasible.   Here I want to share the good news from Michigan:  Gov. Granholm just signed legislation ensuring that “cottage food operations” with gross annual sales of less than $15,000 will be exempt from many of the state’s regulatory barriers.

Tangerines, Triscuits and Tigers

In his book, The Miracle of Mindfulness, Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh tells a story about eating a tangerine with his friend Jim.

We sat under a tree and….he began to talk about what we would be doing in the future.  Whenever we thought about a project that seemed attractive or inspiring, Jim became so immersed in it that he literally forgot about what he was doing in the present.  He popped a section of tangerine in his mouth and, before he had begun chewing it, had another slice ready to pop into his mouth again. All I had to say was, “You ought to eat the tangerine section you’ve already taken.” Jim was startled into realizing what he was doing.  It was as if he hadn’t been eating the tangerine at all.  If he had been eating anything, he was “eating” his future plans.

Last night I went to the weight loss group that meets at the Girdwood Clinic.  This was my second meeting with them, and each time I’ve struggled with not feeling like part of the group.  Unlike the other participants, I’m not on the Medifast plan.

The nurse practitioner who leads the group asked me how it was going, trying to have frequent but small amounts of food, without the support of the Medifast meal replacements.  I’m always a truth-teller in a group, and this time was no different.  I said, “It’s really, really hard.  I have a bit to eat, and then it feels like I should have a bit more, and more, and more, until I’m snacking all day long.”

They laughed–with me–and then someone said, “Yeah, I know what you mean.  I have a tablespoon of hummus and suddenly the box of Triscuits has disappeared.”  We laughed with her, recognizing ourselves, loving the witty way she had put words to our common experience.

As I thought about my downhill snacking slide, and listened to others share their struggles with a hunger that wasn’t really hunger, I thought about hungry ghosts. And the ghost I saw was a tiger.

It seemed to me that some of us had our tigers on a short leash, knuckles white with the strain.  Others of us (well, me, mostly) felt battered and bruised by the tiger romping off-leash through our eating habits.  But however we have chosen to deal with him, we all have a tiger, and he is not tame.

Some days it feels like my eating habits have deteriorated, not improved, since I decided I wanted to lose weight.  And they may have.  But I think what’s really happening is that I’m looking at them.  I’m looking at what I eat, and when I eat, and how I eat, and why I eat.

For the most part, what I eat is good.  I eat steel-cut oats, fresh fruits and vegetables, lots of nuts, less meat, etc.  I follow most of Michael Pollan’s Food Rules.

When I eat is a mix of good and less good.  I eat breakfast, and that’s good.  But then I munch all day long, feeding the tiger.  And at the end of the day, when my workaholic sweetie finally comes home, we have a big meal, sometimes as late as 10 p.m.

How I eat is a real problem.  I eat breakfast sitting on the couch with the computer on my lap, often with the TV on.  Sometimes I’m also glancing at a book.  I pay little attention as I eat throughout the day, and we eat dinner watching TV.

So why do I eat this way?  Why do I prefer to be distracted while I eat?  I say that I love food, but how can I say that when it’s almost painful for me to slow down and actually notice what I’m eating?  Clearly, food is serving some purpose other than sustenance or pleasure, and discovering that purpose will be the key to real change.

To tame a tiger, first you have to see him.  As I gather up my courage and turn to face the tiger, I am glad that I am not facing him alone.