This Borsch Took Over Six Months to Make

Our collection of vegetable scraps was taking over the freezer (it had been several months since I last made stock), and we had just received our first box of produce from our CSA, so it was time to make a soup.

Last night I made the vegetable stock from the veggies in the freezer (see my previous post on vegetable stock). I discarded some of the celery and the carrot peels, because they were looking pretty bad. I used salt, black peppercorns, and bay leaves.

Today I made the borsch. Of course there are a bazillion recipes for borsch. I checked with More-with-less, which has two borsch recipes (really, only two!?), and cooked some combination of the two. I started with the stock, a bit of vinegar and the beets. After that had cooked for a while I added tomato sauce, cabbage, potatoes, onions, onion stalks, beet greens, dill and a tea ball containing red pepper, black peppercorns and bay leaves.

The 7 Foods Experts Won't Eat

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/health/the-7-foods-experts-wont-eat-547963/

A really good list to pay attention to. Sounds just like everything Erinne's been telling me about these foods for a while now (except for the one about salmon).

The Myth of Complete Protein

Most people I know have heard of complete protein, that meat contains complete protein, and that those who do not eat meat must combine things (e.g. rice and beans) to get a complete protein. Lies!

The "complete protein" theory is a myth.

Of course you don't believe me. So do a Google search. Read the history of this erroneous theory, how it became accepted as truth. You will be quite surprised.

Recipes

I have started putting recipes and other food tips in a shared folder in my Google Documents. A public read-only interface is available here. I would like to give write access to as many people as possible so that they can contribute to the list.

Frickin' Awesome Barbecue Sauce

I copied and pasted from here: http://www.theveggietable.com/recipes/bbqsauce.html

Ingredients	2 T sesame oil 1 c onion, diced 4 T ketchup 3 T Dijon mustard 2 T soy sauce 3 cloves garlic, minced 2 t molasses ¼ c balsamic vinegar 1 t salt ½ t pepper
Directions	Heat the oil over medium heat, add onions, and sauté until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and cook, stirring frequently, for 30 minutes.

Stupid

Eight Ways In-Vitro Meat Will Change Our Lives

A quote from the article: ...a cheaper, healthier, "greener" protein...

As if we don't have this already!?

So, it's actually easier to spend a ton of effort and resources figuring out how to mass produce healthy, economical, green meat than to just convince people to consume other sources of protein?? This follows the trend of technological solutions to problems that should be solved with policy and changes in behavior. This is so stupid. Stupid. And it keeps happening.

It's stupid.

Vegetable Juice and Stock

We bought a juicer off craigslist today. $180 brand new, and we got it for $40. Erinne had carrot and apple. I had carrot, apple, beet, celery, and whatever else I could find. It's a centrifugal juicer, which isn't as efficient as the other kinds, so we had a lot of pulp leftover. I decided to learn how to make vegetable stock, and here's what I learned...

When you cut up a vegetable, there are always inedible parts that you throw away. Don't. Save them in the freezer to use for vegetable stock later. Celery leaves, the ends of carrots, onion peels, basically everything is useful (don't use potato peels, they make it starchy)! The ratios are not important. Cook everything for, I don't know, about an hour, then strain. I might not ever throw away vegetable scraps again!

EDIT: Ok, technically I will still be throwing away the scraps, but only after I've used them.

Delicious Chicken Fingers

Original source: this webpage

This is ridiculously easy to make. Here's all you need to know:

1. Combine beaten egg, honey, and mustard.
2. Crush corn flakes; add pepper.
3. Cut up chicken; dip in mixture; coat in corn flakes.
4. Bake 450 F for 12 minutes.

There's no point in listing any measurements. Do what feels right.

This would be good over rice or quinoa that is flavored with chicken or vegetable bullion (or something better).

Note the absence of butter and oil. Some brands of corn flakes (not Kellogg's) come without high fructose corn syrup. Just make sure you get some vegetables on the side.

Farmer's Market

Today Erinne and I went to the farmer's market with Ada. She is 22 days old today, and this was our biggest outing with her so far. We bought peaches, basil, garlic, prunes, tomatoes, and a half flat of berries.

I was absolutely stunned to find heirloom tomatoes for $1/lb. That is filthy cheap. We bought 2.5 pounds; we should have bought more.

Ada slept in the wrap for the first half of the trip. We were nervous about nursing Ada in public, but Erinne was able to find some steps to sit on and nurse discreetly.

On the way home, I dropped the box of berries and they spilled all over the sidewalk and dirt! We picked up most of them, abandoning a few of the blueberries.

Pesto

I had no idea pesto was so easy to make until I tried last week. It was so delicious that we decided to make it again today. We bought the basil and garlic from the farmer's market this morning. I bought 3 types of garlic from a stand that had about 10 varieties. For the pesto, I used some garlic that was advertised as being good raw and in salads. This garlic was strong; it burned under my fingernails when I scratched off some of the skin.

There's no "right" ratio of ingredients for pesto; you do what tastes good. Erinne and I like extra garlic. I look forward to experimenting with the ratio of garlic and basil.

Microwave Popcorn

Those bags of microwave popcorn are gross, especially the ones with artificial butter flavor. They're also not very cost effective.

But you don't need to buy those bags of microwaveable popcorn. Just put ordinary kernels in a brown paper bag, and microwave. It works very well! I like to season with butter, sea salt, and sometimes nutritional yeast.

EDIT: The seasonings go in after microwaving, and the bag is totally reusable.

Marinara Sauce

Use sea salt to grind oregano and basil in your hands. Add to sauce. Repeat every 10-15 minutes.

Sandwiches

My mom is not a fan of your typical sandwich. She feels that the ratios of price to nutrition and price to fullness are too high. But Erinne and I do not make typical sandwiches.

In the past I have made a number of large sandwiches with many ingredients. If I recall correctly, during grad school I earned a small reputation for this. But it was always so difficult to pile everything on without the sandwich falling apart.

I recently realized that there is one ingredient in the sandwich that does not really need to be there. An ingredient that wastes space and does not provide as much flavor as everything else.

Last week we went on a picnic with some friends. Everyone brought their own sandwiches. The vegetarians brought some sandwiches that looked very delicious. Last night I went to the grocery store to pick up some deli meat to make lunch to take to work. Nothing was on sale, and nothing looked particularly delicious. And then I realized that the meat is totally unnecessary!

Here are things we like on our sandwiches:

• Cream cheese
• Avocado (Philip only)
  
• Sprouts (alfalfa, bean)
• Nuts (pecans, walnuts)
• Marinated and grilled mushrooms
• Grilled red onion
• Peppers
• Eggplant (Erinne only)
• Spinach

Your typical lettuce is worthless on a sandwich. It takes up too much space and does not provide flavor. Darker, leafier greens are better, such as spinach or radish leaves.

We buy bread that is high in protein, and along with the cream cheese and nuts, this gives us as much protein as we would get from a meat sandwich. Plus we get lots of other nutrition that you would not get in a plain sandwich.

Russian Pancakes

This is all you need to know make some deliciousness:

• 1 egg, 1 cup flour, 1 cup milk.
• Use a large, shallow, greased skilet.
• Tilt the skillet to spread the batter around and keep it thin.
• Top it with every wonderful thing you can find
  

Tonight we topped our pancakes with strawberries, bananas, pecans, and maple and agave syrup. It was basically the best thing ever.

We have a 2.5-hour birthing class on Monday nights. We take the bus back halfway and walk or take the train the rest of the way, so we don't get home until around 9:30. On the bus ride home, we spent a while thinking about what we would like for dinner (basically trying to remember all the recipes we knew but hadn't made in a long time), when I remembered these so-called "russian pancakes" from More-With-Less. Stopped on the way home to grab some toppings, and by 10:00 we were stuffed and happy. Ada must have liked it, too, because she is doing jumping jacks.