Iceberg to Arugula

Well, “they” say that you learn something new every day. So here’s my new thing for the day….AND it’s only 8 am so who knows what the rest of the day holds! So I was in the community garden this morning picking tomatoes, peppers and eggplant when I brushed against one of the large resident sunflowers. However, at this stage of the game, the sunflowers are no longer the happy perky shining beacons they were several weeks ago. They’re now heavy and pendulous….and blocking my way to the pepper patch. So I stop to take a closer look. The particular drooped flower head I am looking at has got to weigh at least 5 pounds and it looks like this:

Now I know sunflower seeds come from the flowers, so I scan the head, but I don’t see anything that resembles seeds, just yellowy-green flower buds and I surmise that this particular sunflower is not the type that produces the seeds we eat, but is rather more ornamental. But then I look a bit closer at another flower:

Hmmmm…… I notice something that could be seeds underneath the flower buds. So I start brushing the buds away and I get:

Wow! Definitely the coolest thing I’ve seen all day….but then again, I’m a major food dork……….

and finally:

After thinking about it, what struck me the most about this discovery is while sunflower seeds are so ubiquitous, I was fairly ignorant about the crop. I’m finding that if I take a food for granted, I’m more likely to overeat without thinking much about it. On the other hand, one of the things that makes me want to eat better is having an understanding of where my food comes from and how it was grown. It just makes me slow down and appreciate it more….. even more so if I grew it myself.

Want to eat better? Get thee to a garden! If you have space, let a trip to your local nursery inspire you. No space? Find a nearby CSA, Community Garden or Farm that you can buy food directly from or work as a volunteer. Search www.localharvest.org for an opportunity near you.

Last night I made a quick grocery stop on my way home and ran across a “No Stir” version of my favorite natural style peanut butter.

Blogworthy? I think so, and I’ll tell you why.

It says something about our food culture that such a product is even offered. Are we really too lazy to stir the oil back into our peanut butter? I’m as busy as anyone else, but I still have time to stir the darn peanut butter! 

I prefer natural peanut butter for a few reasons:

1) It’s not “sweet” (many brands of PB have some added sugar) I REALLY don’t like that.

2) It only has 1-2 ingredients- peanuts and salt (which means no where for pseudo-food additives to hide)

3) While it’s high in fat, it’s mostly the beneficial poly/monounsaturated variety…my heart really likes that.

4) It just tastes better…. one woman’s opinion, but hey it’s my blog, I can say whatever I want! :)

The trade off is that I need to stir the oil layer at the top evenly into the peanut paste below. It takes about 60 seconds and a bit of wristwork, but that’s cool, its part of the deal, I know that going in. In order to make this same product “No Stir”, unhealthy saturated fat needs to be added to keep the oil from separating out. So the way I see it, laziness is supporting unhealthiness here.

The point is, I am willing to do that bit of work for a food that I know is worth the while to me. Many times, working a bit harder for our food results in getting better quality meals (taste and nutrient quality). Let’s not be lazy with our food and let’s not accept unhealthy, unneeded ingredients have been added to cater to this laziness.

Come on….we CAN do better than this!

Every time I turn around these days, it seems there’s some new culinary competition show on the tube complete with trash talkin’ wannabe celebrity chefs. I’m not bashing these folks, because I think many of them are quite talented judging by the over the top creations they come up with. Many times it’s the really complicated, elaborate stuff that gets the ooohhhs and aahhhhhs as well as the judge’s approval. But too much of this makes it easy to forget how sublime simplicity can be.

Case in point: Earlier this week I attended a cooking class at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op. I’ll be teaching a course there this Fall so I was there to observe. One of the dishes prepared completely seduced my taste buds and I willfully surrendered.

Herbed Garlicky Tomatoes

3-4 Tbsp Olive oil

3 large garlic gloves, minced

4c. assorted small tomatoes (cherry, pear, grape, etc)

3/4 to 1c. assorted herbs, finely chopped ( basil, chives, parsley, etc.)

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until shimmery but not smoking.

2. Add garlic and cook until it’s just beginning to turn golden.

3. Add tomatoes and cook until they start to pop open and exude their juice. Continue cooking, stirring and tossing, until the majority have popped open.

The sauce will thicken some as the tomatoes open and the juices cook.

4. Remove pan from heat, add the herbs and toss gently.

5. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve over freshly cooked pasta.

Viva simplicity!!!

This is my version adapted from the original by Terese Hollander Esperas at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op Cooking School. Used with her permission. Thanks Terese!

Generally, I try to make it a life policy not to “hate” anything. So I’ll just say I strongly dislike the taste and overall quality of prechopped, bagged lettuce. However, as a frequently time crunched person, I do like the convenience aspect of the product. So once or twice a week (especially during the height of the lettuce season), I make my own fresher and crisper version in bulk and use it over a period of 3-4 days for multiple varieties quick meal salads. On this very mission a month or so ago, I went to my local Farmers Market and bought a huge head of Romaine from my lettuce guy. (I’ve looked around; he has the best stuff, so I’m pretty loyal.) Usually I go home and settle into the quiet, meditative task of processing the lettuce. Slicing off the bottom core, removing tattered outer leaves and heavy ribs, then rhythmically, chopping, washing and whirring the pieces around the salad spinner until they are slightly dewy crisp. Then I place the lettuce in a covered bowl or even large sealed baggies in the refrigerator until ready to use.

However, this particular day, something happened I’d never encountered before. I arrived home and was easing into my routine when I lopped off the bottom core of the lettuce……and literally a whole village of earwigs skittered out. En masse, they waggled their creepy pincher butts all over my counter, into my fruit bowl, sink and onto the floor. Essentially this left me shrieking like the emergency broadcast system to my husband who, like it or not, is the designated bug dispatcher in our house.

This hiccup was somewhat unsettling– and worse, I found it made me really ponder whether I should consider buying my lettuce from the grocery store. There is a lovely grocery store located pretty close to my home that carries beautifully prepped romaine hearts. They are pristine. Scrupulously clean, unblemished, perfectly colored and certainly free on anything possessing an exoskeleton.

So the question I was left with was: How do I want my lettuce? Beautiful, yet eerily Stepfordian or am I ok with ratty outer leaves, caked on mud and bug poop?

When I really thought about that question, the answer actually came pretty easy. I just had to rephrase it, because what I was really asking was: “What is most important to me about my food? Do I want the conventionally grown food that is beautiful but was likely harvested prior to peak ripeness and may have been grown with who knows what kind of chemical frappe? Do I want to pay the extra money for Certified Organic food that is supposed to be grown without chemicals but also may have been flown in from 5000 miles away? Or do I want to buy local from a farmer in my community that I can actually talk to as I trade some grimy sawbucks for a head of lettuce that might have a bunch of bugs in it?“ Ultimately, I’ve decided that local is most important to me. The truth is that many times the smaller family farms do use organic practices, but they just can’t afford the “Certified Organic” designation. (This may be just as well, this label is pretty fraught with politics…see Marion Nestle’s What To Eat for a fuller discussion on this.) In Lettuce Guy’s case, I know he grows organically because I simply ask him. (Though it’s also fairly obvious by the multilegged, be-pinchered immigrant tide that was awash over my butcher block.)

More basically, I enjoy the luxury of being able to talk directly with the person who grew my food. Unfortunately that’s something of a rarity in the food system we have in his country with so many layers between those who grow the food and those who sell it. By asking directly, I am more secure in knowing exactly what it is I am buying and how safe it is to eat.

So I guess in the end, as much as bugs in general give me the heebie jeebies, it’s sort of ironic that in this case, their presence ultimately gives me a huge source of comfort. Go figure!