A Clove a Day...

It's that time of year for sniffles and bugs and other not so fun things. We are blessed with good immune systems and seem to miss many of the bugs going around, but I like to sneak in as much extra help as possible.

Sometime in October I start quadrupling the amount of garlic in everything from soup to mashed potatoes to just roasting heads and spreading it on fresh bread. We all like garlic and no one seems to notice, but then again, we are all eating the garlic.

Do you all have any immune boosting tips for us other than healthy eating, lots of water and good sleep?

Also, any natural cold/flu remedies you'd like to share?

Grateful

For these...



I am feeling a bit guilty that I complained to MaryAlice about having to go outside in the pouring rain to pick this eggplant for our dinner. Now that the eggplant parmesan is cooking, I am enjoying the smell, and reveling in the joy of having grown our main course!

Berry Books

Red posted last week on her families berry picking adventure. The Incredible family did the same as well and we just finished making a batch of homemade blackberry jam this morning.

Like Red, I think great books are a must to go with most family activities!

Since many people enjoy berry picking over the 4th of July weekend, here are a few posts I ran across with some of our favorite berry books:

Strawberry books at Melissa Wiley's blog (at bottom of post)

Blueberry books at Dawn's blog (also at bottom of post).

One not mentioned: Jamberry by Bruce Degen.

Peanut Butter and Sunscreen

As I titled this post I laughed remembering writing an email to the builders in our pre-blog days titled "avocados and chicken pox" and Red wrote back how disappointed she was when discovered it was not about some obscure link between eating avocados and getting chicken pox.

So, on two unrelated notes:

I know Mary Alice has confessed a similar love of Costco's organic peanut butter. My question is this. How does one stir in the oil that separates out from natural peanut butter without making a complete mess?? Is is possible? Every time I open a new jar I approach it with renewed resolve to get it right and not make a mess on my counter and leave a coating of oil all over the outside of the jar.

And every time I fail. Miserably.

Does anyone have any tricks? If so, please be specific! Despite my tenure in the engineering department of an ivy league university I am perplexed beyond belief!!

And also, since we are at the beach this week (this is auto-posting) --this just a friendly reminder from Texas to throw out all your old, expired sunscreen and stock up on new stuff. We have had friends get severely burned because they used expired sunscreen. It still takes me 45 minutes to get the kids in coat/gloves/hats, but I can lather a kid in sunscreen in my sleep!

Marshmallow Test

This is hysterical. A marshmallow willpower test.

Back in the 1960s, a researcher learned a lot about willpower from studying hundreds of four-year-olds left alone in a room with a marshmallow or cookie...

The Columbia University studies, now known in collegiate circles as the "Marshmallow Tests," sought to find a common element among the children who could resist giving into the most primal test of willpower—a sweet treat, left on a table for them, with (supposedly) nobody watching. The tykes were told that they could have two of the marshmallows or cookies if they waited until the researcher came back in the room. Many of them, naturally, gave out within minutes, or even seconds, but some waited as long as 20 minutes until the adult returned.

I have no idea what my kids would do. Charlie has been sneaking Easter Candy since Easter Sunday. He hasn't yet figured out that the chocolate dripping down his face and his now empty Easter basket are huge clues that he has disobeyed mom's orders. I bet he would fail the test within seconds. Gianna is so obedient, I have a little more faith in her. She does have a HUGE sweet tooth, which could ultimately lead to her downfall. I'm guessing she might have the will-power if she respected the "researcher" or adult who told her to wait.

Apparently, in the study, the kids who showed will-power and resisted the tempting marshmallows used two techniques--distraction and different thinking.

Watch Mischel's video of the children in the marshmallow studies and you will see a familiar set of behaviors. There is kicking of tables, there is singing of songs, there is counting of numbers and twirling of hair and many other variations on this theme. What the children are doing, says Mischel, is distracting themselves. Distraction, says Mischel, is actually a perfectly respectable away of exerting willpower. You simply shift your attention away whenever temptation crops up.

The other technique involved re-focusing the mind on the long-term implications of the short-term indulgence. I'm not sure how they measured this, but a child who fears disappointing an authority figure would probably fall into this category.

I'm really curious as to how my children would do at this study. I'm also curious as to how B-Mama would perform. I've seen her with sweets, and it is a frightening sight!

h/t-- Mr. Red

Public Service Announcement

If you eat brown organic eggs, this is just a friendly reminder (mostly to myself) to BUY WHITE EGGS if you plan to dye some for Easter. I forgot last year.

Fr. Leo

Are you familiar with Grace Before Meals? Founded by Fr. Leo Patalinghug in 2003, Grace Before Meals is centered on one fundamental concept--creating and sharing a meal can strengthen families and relationships. The movement produced a book, a blog, a regular podcast, and even a pilot TV show endorsed by PBS. The show is still in the production phase, but it looks like it will be a wonderful family friendly show, with great recipes! I only had to watch him once to think Fr. Leo was awesome.

For those looking for another meatless option during lent, check out Fr. Leo's recipe for eggplant companata. Happy viewing!

Yet another reason to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup

Mercury.

Yup, it actually has mercury in it! Check out this Washington Post Article. A special thanks to Ellie and her new alternative cooking blog for the tip.

Diet and Exercise

Since I've already shared my rigorous exercise routine with you all, I thought I'd give you the complete picture. Doctors always advise the twofold strategy of diet and exercise. I've got both of them covered.*

My portion control strategy, especially during the holiday season: Jack-Jack, our resident gourmand (almost) two year old. He is constantly taking food off of my plate and anyone else's that is within reach for that matter.

Here he is waiting for crumbs by the dishwasher after Thanksgiving:

Here he is with two forks in his mouth, one of them Mommy's, of course:

And while everyone was distracted by the camera during Thanksgiving dinner, Jack-Jack (in the Princeton sweatshirt) leans over to take some food off of Mr. Incredible's plate.

In all honestly, I have trouble keeping weight on while lactating, and Red advised me to try paying attention to what I eat for a few days since I'm usually distracted by feeding toddlers. It is way less than I think, because I usually have a good deal of help with my meal.

You might not have a 2 year old human vacuum cleaner to help you with this diet. No problem...you can borrow mine. And then I'll go get something to eat. I'm hungry.

*It is not recommended that a nursing mother try to diet!

Egg Nog Help!

Anyone have a good recipe for homemade egg nog? I have a bit of an aversion to thick drinks, so I don't drink the stuff myself. Mr. Red, however, starts thinking about egg nog in October and one of his few cooking adventures involved an attempt at homemade egg nog. The taste was good, but it turned out very lumpy. He has requested tips and a new recipe. Your advice is most appreciated.

Beyond Organic

Last weekend was an intense educational experience for our family. We spent the weekend in western Pennsylvania visiting the sustainable “beyond organic” farm of an old law school friend.
The paths of lawyers and farmers usually only cross at an upscale, yuppie farmers market. Fortunately for us, we were blessed to have known our farmer friend before he became a farmer’s market supplier.

Farmer Dave was an old law school classmate of Mr. Red. Despite a stellar first year performance, Dave decided that law school wasn’t for him. Instead, Dave and his beautiful wife Mandy took a big risk - a risk many of us crunchy folks talk about taking, but few ever actually take. Dave and Mandy packed their bags, moved in with Mandy’s parents, and started working towards owning their own sustainable farm.

In the Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan spends some time on Joel Salatin’s Polyface Farm. At one point, Salatin lets Pollan know that part of the problem with modern farming is that all the A students have left the farms for higher paying prestigious jobs. Salatin laments that most of today’s farmers are C students. In his book, Pollan clearly illustrates that good, local, sustainable farming takes brains. And like Salatin, Farmer Dave has the brains.

So what happens when an A student goes back to the land for a living?

We arrived on Saturday afternoon to Dave’s home atop a scenic hill in the country. Dave built the house himself. It is designed to be tremendously energy efficient, and includes a row of windows on the south side of the house. These windows provide heat for their well-insulated home. Inside these windows Dave grows herbs and other plants.

In the field, Dave grows a variety of crops. But Dave focuses the bulk of his energy on raising organic chickens and turkeys. The chickens we saw were beautiful little creatures. My daughter Gianna went right into the chicken pen and picked up a chicken.

Dave moves the pens daily so that the chicken poop can fertilize different parts of the field for his crops. Dave also raises some egg-laying chickens. The turkeys are kept in a larger, fenced area but, like the chicken pens, Dave regularly moves the fencing. During our tour of the turkey pen we first met “our turkey.”

Before the visit, Dave joked that instead of just buying our Thanksgiving Turkey from him, Mr. Red should butcher our turkey. Mr. Red nervously agreed. Dave then took us and our Thanksgiving turkey (and five other turkeys) over to his butchering station (shown below).

It’s a clever open-air station very similar to the Polyface arrangement described in Omnivore’s Dilemma. I won’t describe it in detail, but it’s a very respectful and simple butchering process. Mr. Red made the fatal cut to the throat and I helped with the gutting. I’ve written before about organic living and the importance of being “close” to our food. This was a whole new level of closeness.

It was a really incredible experience to take such responsibility for one’s meat-eating. Mr. Red described it as a “spiritual experience.” We even blessed the bird. And bless him we should. He is a wonderful creature, made by God and worthy of respect. It’s wonderful to see a farmer whose work incorporates those values.

The butchering and cleanup took the rest of the daylight. The next day, we briefly visited the farm of Mandy’s parents (Farmer Dave’s in-laws). The kids fed their pigs, pet their beautiful horses, and jumped in the back of a pickup truck to watch the farm dog chase around a large herd of cattle. What more could a kid ask for?

Dave and his family are doing a great thing. Their farming not only uses the land, but nourishes it. The problems of factory farming may seem overwhelming, but to a little plot of land atop a hill in Western PA, Farmer Dave is making a difference.

So the next time your local, beyond organic farmer wants an extra dollar per pound for his meat, remember Farmer Dave, and remember that your extra dollar is going to support something more than just a tasty chicken.

Why you should read the Omnivore's Dilemma:

* I just finished, and I'd like to discuss with all our readers :-)

* The book is very informative, but not clinical. It is engaging and written to the layperson.

* You will increase your vocabulary by reading just one chapter. The author, Michael Pollan, is an amazing writer, and witty and funny. I have never laughed so hard at someone describing their experience eating a McDonald's meal.

* Pollan gives you a very clear picture of where the food on your dinner table is coming from. He studies various "food chains", starting with the industrial (your typical supermarket or restaurant), moving onto the industrial organic (e.g., Whole Foods), then onto the beyond organic local farm, and he finally finishes with the hunter-gatherer (it's fascinating to read about the hunting adventures of a nerdy Berkeley professor).

* Pollan is an extremely down-to-earth guy. He's not a vegetarian, or a self-righteous organic snob. He's just a smart guy who cares about food.

* The book is a good story in that it's biographical. Pollan talks about his own personal experiences in coming to grips with the origins of the foods he is eating.

* Pollan is not a liberal in the common sense of the word because he deeply appreciates the importance of culture, tradition, and custom. The lessons he draws from food can be applied to other important cultural norms.

*Where else can you read about a cosmopolitan professor, who, for the sake of understanding his subject, makes himself kill chickens and hunt wild boar?!?

* If you are reading this, you are probably a mom who has control over most of the food buying in your family, and therefore has a heightened responsibility to make informed food purchases (this is my way of making you feel guilty for not reading the book).

* My husband, Mr. Red, has become so inspired that he's considering killing our Thanksgiving Turkey with his own hands.

* If you are depressed after reading the book, he has written a more uplifting and solution-based sequel (so I've heard)--In Defense of Food. I'm on to that next. And don't just read the sequel, that's lame.

Caveats:

* Sometimes Pollan gets carried away giving way too many details about certain topics that I would consider peripheral. For example, I definitely learned way more than I ever wanted to about corn and fungi.

* The book is a bit redundant, and could be at least 50 pages shorter (it's a 400 page read).

* He's way too into theorizing about the evolutionary explanation for ALL natural phenomenon. I mean, sometimes things happen in nature and it just isn't necessary to theorize as to how that event is a part of natural selection.

If you have read it, or are considering reading it and have questions, let's chat!

Cow Appreciation Day

While this blog is not one to promote fast food, I thought this might be fun to pass along anyway.

If you dress like a cow and go to Chick-fil-a tomorrow (July 11) you will get a free meal. Chik-fil-a was the ONLY fast food I would eat until we found out that Dash has a peanut allergy and that Chik-fil-a fries in peanut oil. So now it's off limits for our family anyway. But for those who are always on the look out for a free meal, have fun getting dressed up!

Scratch Cooking to support Organic Living

Thanks, Red, for posting your salsa recipe. I also totally agree with your comment from the Organic Living post that we can save a lot of money and also improve nutrition by cooking alot from scratch.

I make my own salad dressings, I was raised on simple viniagrettes and so I tend to be shocked when I see the huge salad dressing aisle, I wonder who is buying all of this dressing!

I use a store bought cruet and I just use the oil and vinegar lines on it. I use either safflower or olive oil with either balsamic or Braggs apple cider vinegar, a spoonful of dijon mustard, some dried herbs and a little bit of honey or sugar. I make a big bottle about once a week and eat it all week. I have also recently started washing a whole head of lettuce at a time and keeping it in the salad spinner in the fridge -- I am more likely to have salad at lunch if the lettuce is ready to go.

I have learned from my husband to keep salads interesting by putting in lots of random stuff, so we often have nuts or seeds, fruit (apple, grapes, craisins or raisins), a mix of vegetables (red peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, etc) and or cheese on our salad. I don't really love expensive mesclun mixes, so I use either red or green leaf lettuce. You can theme it up, go Italian with roasted red peppers and mozzarella in your salad, add crumbled bleu cheese, walnuts, diced apples and raisins to feel like you are at a restaurant, etc.

Do you have simple things, like salad dressing or salsa, that you could buy but make yourself instead? We buy a whole wheat pancake mix, but I am thinking that I could just mix up bags of my own and keep them in the freezer, we do this with the dry ingredients for our bread already, so the kids can make the bread without having to measure (and spill) the flour.

Organic Living

Before I begin, I want to remind our new readers that I am a self-proclaimed granola, or “crunchy” mom. I realize that not everyone takes these issues as seriously as I do, and that’s ok. It is not my intent to be self-righteous in this post, but only to discuss some of my recent thoughts on organic living…

I recently returned from a trip to upstate/western NY, where I visited my sister and her family in their small rural town. My sister and her husband are real granolas, and they take the art of food preparation to a truly new level. At her home we were served fresh bread made from home soaked whole grains, butter that smelled like cheese from a local family farm, unpasteurized milk, and eggs with deep yellow/orange yolks—again from a local farm. We dined on whole wheat buttermilk pancakes, and my sister, with the help of a local cow, made the buttermilk! We topped off our visit with homemade vanilla ice cream made from fresh cream and sweetened with maple syrup.

When we left, I realized that my sister lives really “close” to her food. Other than herbs, she doesn’t grow the food herself (she lives on a small lot), but she knows who does, and as a result she is deeply aware of where her food comes from and how to best prepare it. Her food is natural, usually organic, and local.

We live in a small urban town and during the summer we try to buy most of our food from the local farmer’s market. The framer’s market is great because it gives the local farmers a direct to customer outlet for their foods. It allows small local family farms to not only survive, but to thrive. The farmers make more money selling directly to us, and we buy things cheaper than we could at the local supermarket. I love buying lettuce that was picked fresh in the morning, and I love talking to the farmer who picked it. I love knowing what fruits and veggies are in season in our area and waiting for the locally grown peaches, rather than buying peaches from Peru in the wintertime.

All of these things are part of what I would consider “organic living.” I use this term to mean living as a good steward of creation. Understanding where your food comes from, respecting the land it was grown on, or the cow that provided the meat, and generally treating creation and our bodies with respect.

Lately, buying organic is the newest fad in “nutritionism.” Just like the low-fat craze of the 80’s, the “organic” craze has come to mean buying anything with an organic label. The box of organic teddy grams is better than non-organic locally grown lettuce because it has the label “organic.” Organic lettuce grown in Honduras and shipped to the East Coast is better than lettuce grown on a local farm moving towards organic certification. Don’t think about the energy involved in shipping that lettuce from Honduras. Don’t think about how they actually make an organic teddy gram, the processing involved, or the trash and debris involved in the packaging. Organic teddy grams are just about as far from “organic” or close-to-nature as you can get, except maybe a bag of organic Doritos (is that possible?). But our label conscience society wants us to believe that those teddy grams are somehow good for us because they have the label organic.

I’m not trying to say that I don’t buy organic crackers or teddy grams, because I do. And I’m sure those organic teddy grams are better for your body than the regular teddy grams loaded with dyes and other harsh chemical additives and “spices.” What I’m saying is that organic living is really about moving away from these pre-packaged things, and moving toward locally grown and homemade products. It is about taking the time to prepare our own food, to understand our food, and to respect our environment and neighbors. It is about slowing down and making food preparation a part of our family life. Our culture is constantly pressuring us to go, go, go, and to buy, buy, buy, things that will make our life easier, and that usually means pre-prepared food products, and organic teddy grams. There will always be days when this cannot be avoided, but wouldn’t it be great if we could avoid it on most days. Like most things, I’m aiming for the 80/20 rule (achieve the ideal 80% of the time, don’t sweat it the other 20%).

If you’ve never considered this before, think about one practical way you can get more in touch with your food. This might mean making something from scratch that you normally buy pre-prepared (and this usually saves money.) If there is a local farmer’s market in your area, check it out. If not, maybe try to shop at a local store, you know the kind of store where they know your name after only 2 trips. If this isn’t possible, try to buy locally grown products at your grocery store and take a pass on those peaches from Honduras in January. And remember, as mothers, we are the main purchasers of food, so we really do have the power to change the way food is bought and sold in this country.

More scary, bad toxins...

This weekend, I noticed a friend using glass bottles to feed her baby. My brother's fiance has purchased an aluminum water bottle. It is really time to toss our sippy cups and beloved Nalgenes? If the New York Times says so, perhaps the BPA concerns have moved past crunchy extremism...

On Fish

B-mama brought up a great question about fish and mercury levels during pregnancy. Many pregnant women are nervous about fish and so they don't eat it during pregnancy, and many don't eat it at all, which is a huge shame because fish has so many beneficial omega fatty acids that are not found in other foods--fatty acids that are very beneficial for a developing baby--maybe better than mad-cow beef. Most health care providers give women a list of fish known to be high in mercury (large fish that live in the ocean for a long time). For mercury levels of various fish see this chart. Personally, I would avoid fish on the top of this list or have them no more than once per month during pregnancy and with small children. All other fish, especially those low in mercury, can be consumed regularly. Tilapia is a favorite in our house because it is relatively inexpensive and fairly tasty. I'd recommend buying fresh fish, not frozen, because I find that frozen fish can be mushy and taste, well...gross. We try to eat fish on Fridays. DH doesn't like fish very much, so eating fish for dinner on Fridays is a real sacrifice for him, but the kids love it. I think serving it regularly really helps them think it is "normal" to eat fish, and the texture seems easier for them to like and chew than meat.
**This picture is not meant to promote dolphin consumption

Closing the barn door after the cows have left..

I just finished reading Fast Food Nation, and the book was quite disturbing. One of the most upsetting parts--the gory details of the U.S. beef industry. And now we have the largest beef recall in American History. See story here:

Huge Beef recall stems from California plant

The beef industry regularly mistreats cattle and serves meat tainted with e-coli and other diseases. The entire system is set up with a drive for higher productivity, and higher profits, at the expense of safe food, safe working environments for workers, and animal rights. This beef recall is really telling and I find three things particularly disturbing about this article.

1st--this meat was served to school children, where the government has a policy to buy the cheapest--and often times unsafe--meat for our children. Low bid contracts, without concern for food safety--is a real problem of school lunch programs. As a mother I find this appalling.

2nd--regular workers and plant managers were fired as a result of the recall. Laying the blame on low level employees for abusing cattle and selling beef from sick cattle to our nations schoolchildren is really disturbing. At most of these slaughterhouses, policies as to how to handle sick cattle come down from the top, and I highly doubt some immigrant and likely illiterate workers made the decision to shuffle sick cattle along and sell the stuff. I'm also skeptical that such a decision was made by a plant manager--unless intense pressure for higher profits was put on him from the top of the company.

Finally, the most disturbing fact of the article--
"Officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs, but they believe most of the meat probably has already been eaten."
Great. And that is the problem with a system that uses recalls--rather than proper prior safety inspection of plants--to regulate the beef industry.