Apologies and Rule 3

Tags

fitness, food rules, food science, health, michael pollan, rule 3

Guys I seriously apologize. I was hit out of left field with a couple things this week which just really set me off balance. There's no excuse for it. Life happens, and we all need to do the best we can in order to roll with the punches. In this case, the punches have been rolling me.

With that, off to Rule 3- avoid food products that no ordinary human would keep in the pantry. This is actually the "rule" which got me interested in this whole project in the first place. How many normal people would want to keep soy lecithin in the pantry? Odds are not too many. Yet this is an incredibly common ingredient. To the point where I found it in my shampoo!

Lecithin (besides being difficult to pronounce), is a collection of fat containing substances in a wide range of animal and plant foods. It was originally discovered back in the mid 1800's as a component of egg yolks. It's primary role is typically as a lubricant or as an emulsifying agent. For those of us who missed out on Home Ec, emulsification in food is the process of blending two typically unblendable liquids together. The classic example is blending oil and water. Using an egg yolk, you can blend oil together with vinegar to create mayonnaise. I recall doing this as a child with limited success. But I'm told that's how it works.

In the world of food science, adding soy based lecithin to a product can replace egg based emulsifiers. It also helps prevent things from sticking to other things. I noticed this in my non stick cooking spray first. Now, knowing what lecithin does, my first question is, "why do I need this in my cooking spray?" In and of itself, the spray which is oil based should not need any help. Unless there's something about the propellant they are using in the can which prevents it from mixing nicely with the oil. So that indicates to me that the propellant isn't just air. There's something else there. Which is not on my label.

I do not approve.

Now the last time I checked, none of my recipes call for soy lecithin. They call for eggs, butter, or other things along those lines. This is a product we've introduced to the pantry through the back end. 

General rule of thumb, if it ain't in my cookbook, odds are I do not need to add it to my food.

Further thoughts on great grandparent foods

Tags

fitness, food history, food rules, health, local food, michael pollan

Okay, so since yesterday's reading showed me that great gramma could have been eating products in the 1930s which today are not high on the list of must eat, I shifted gears. I decided to look at what a great grandmother in say, 1930s Italy would have been eating.

…

Somehow I don't think eating a plate full of pasta with bacon grease is quite what Pollan had in mind. News flash, in the 1920s and 30s, Europe had a serious case of the close to starvings. You've got major issues with food distribution, subsistence farming, and general lack of food. As an interesting observation, this is one of the things which helped Hitler and Mussolini in their respective climbs to power. They got trains running on time and moreover made sure people had food.

Since I've invoked Hitler, Godwin's Law is now in effect.

Jokes aside, it makes you stop and think. Food in the 1930s was not in abundant supply all over the world. Because Italy lacked appropriate distribution channels, food from the country could not make it to the cities. In order to get food from the country to the city you need a distribution network AND a way to keep the food edible.

As I'm discovering, even with modern refrigeration, fresh produce spoils more rapidly depending on when it's picked. It's not like refrigeration was a universal thing in the great gramma days. So if you didn't have local food production and distribution you either ate canned foods or manufactured foods, or you went hungry. Even if you had local food distribution, it didn't mean you had abundant food.

(Daily goal notes-Dinner at table done! Workout according to fit to curl (legs).)

Current Score

Tags

fitness, food rules, michael pollan, slow food, updates

Tonight has some time blocked out to actually play with Typepad and try to get better with the features. So I shall be light on witty content.

To update those keeping track, current score is Table 1, Clara 3. So I'm ahead for the week. Wednesday kicked my rear in the table department, but I got it back today with lunch! So ha!

I'm also trying to get some duckies in a row regarding a trip I get to take later this summer. I'm heading to Europe! I've got two weeks in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy with the maternal unit. Needless to say I'm seriously stoked and doing my, "please Mister Volcano Do Not Ash On Me" dance. 

This has been a stressful week for many folks. I know it's not always easy to stay focused and on target. The thing that sets winners apart from also rans is the ability to overcome adversity. Most of us can deal with a minor glitch in the day. It's harder to deal with something like a flood destroying your home. For those going through a rough spot, and those who will go through a rough spot (which would be all of us), some thoughts on dealing with adversity courtesy of my work blog. 

(volcano pics courtesy of my friend Terje, who was actually standing right next to the erupting volcano. Crazy lunatic he is.)

Gramma, were does buttermilk come from?

Tags

buttermilk, food rules, irish soda bread, michael pollan

So one of the food items which inspired this journey into the world of real food is buttermilk. Why buttermilk you ask? Because around Saint Patrick's Day I wanted to make traditional Irish Soda Bread. Said bread requires buttermilk.

Upon arriving at the grocery store, I discovered that buttermilk contained at least 4 things I couldn't identify or pronounce. That didn't include the bacterial cultures that give buttermilk it's characteristic tartness and acidity. Now for purposes of baking, the acid in the buttermilk (lactic acid to be precise), interacts with soda and creates bubbles which provide leavening or lift for bread. It's method which doesn't require the presence of yeast for bread making.  Good thing in various parts of the world.

Buttermilk doesn't have a precise definition. Originally buttermilk referred to the liquid left over from churning cream into butter. In more recent times, buttermilk refers to a product created by introducing a bacterial culture into milk in order to sour the milk. Interesting note is that this form of buttermilk was called "artificial buttermilk" back around the turn of the century.

Hmmm.

Now I have had a dickens of a time finding buttermilk that didn't set off my Food Rules alarms. Most versions I've found contain more than just cultures and milk. Several variants are low fat, others have seven or more ingredients not including the culture. So I've been using soured milk in my bread making. It's easy, you toss a spoon of vinegar into some whole milk, wait 10 minutes and voila!

So much to my delight last night, I discovered a friend of mine actually had genuine, honest to goodness buttermilk. She's been following my food journey and had decided to experiment with making butter from real cream. When I was over last night, she showed me her butter results and proceeded to ask me, "what do I do with this?", holding up a container of liquid.

My eyes must have lit up like the 4th of July. Score! Real buttermilk! No extra stuff. Totally for the win. After a minor bit of discussion, I threw together a batch of Irish soda bread. Very kindly she let me take a couple rolls home with me.

Now understand, I like the version  I've been making. But this was totally a night and day experience. Amazing flavor and tang, plus the benefit of being made pretty darned close to the way my several greats grandma Clara Wilhelmina could have made it. 

This bread, warm, with a little butter and a smidge of local honey is so good it just might be illegal. I love getting to eat my history and chemistry lessons.

This table thing is going to be an issue

Tags

fitness, food, food rules, michael pollan, mindset, rule 58

Yeah…so tables. Food Rule #58 is eat at a table.

I don't do tables. Unless I'm out with friends, or over at someone's house, I basically eat at my coffee table. This started years ago when I first moved back to DC. I was in a small studio apartment. I was on a tight budget and in a tight space. So I skipped purchasing a table and chairs and just used my coffee table. It's a perfectly nice Ikea table. It's nice and sturdy and has cubby holes in it for the cats to hide in.

Said table has basically been my dining room table since I got it. A couple years back, I concluded I needed to get a big kid table. I got a perfectly lovely pub style table and chairs. Does it get used? No. I use the coffee table. Generally with the laptop on it as I surf.

I don't like sitting at the table. It's quiet.I mean let's face it, I live alone and the cats aren't exactly brilliant conversationalists. Additionally, I've got long standing dining room table trauma from my youth. I ended up eating a heck of a lot of lunches alone in middle and high school, and dinner time in high school could be tense. The fall back option was eating dinner in front of the tv.

So given the high levels of aversion to eating at tables, I have good reason to work through the issue. Which I do not want to do. It's a classic case of knowing something is good for me and just not wanting to do it.

I've got spiffy, pretty plates which I never use because they are supposed to be used at the table. I got some awesome new placemats and napkins to coordinate with the table and walls. Still unused.

I'm getting set for dinner tonight and have this total eye roll going when I think of sitting at the table to eat. I keep thinking of it as an interruption, something designed to cost me time and effort. What time and effort? I have to take 5 minutes more to wash plates? I may have to actually slow down long enough to eat something and totally pay attention to it?

Tonight's looking like Clara vs the Dining Room Table. Anyone taking bets?

Clara’s Food Rules v.1

Tags

fitness, food rules, health, michael pollan, personal rules

Okay, so after several weeks of experiments I've worked out what my Food Rules are for the next stage of the project. 

1) 50% of every meal must contain locally sourced product. The goal is to have all produce and protein coming from local sources. Grains locally sourced is a bit harder right now.

2) 100% of animal protein will come from local sources. This includes milk and eggs, not cheese. 

3) 50% of cheese will be locally sourced.  Why only 50%? Cause I like my Seaside Cheddar dangit. 🙂

4) 50% of all meals will be eaten at the table. Huge problem for me. My table right now is used as a book repository. I eat 5-7 meals a day, some on the road. So eating every meal at the table is not going to happen. But I'm aiming to get breakfast, lunch and dinner at table.

5) Shift from diet soda to one full sugar soda per week.

6) Create 1 new dish per week. (Again, going to require me to push hard. I can easy eat the same thing over and over and over.)

It may not seem like much, but several parts are going to be hard for me. As I add things in, I plan on revising things and finding new ways to push.

Deadline for these rules to be in place- 12 weeks from today. Game on.

New Toys

Tags

cooking, curling, fitness, food rules, michael pollan

It's always fun having company, but the corresponding attempt to return to normal is always a bit of an adventure.

I've got a pile of new cooking toys courtesy of mom. Among the goodies we have a new stockpot, which comes with a spiffy strainer and steamer It's an 8 quart model, so I should be able to make just enough for me, not enough for an army. The really cool piece is my new All-Clad Stainless Cassoulet with Lid.I've been using cheap Ikea stanless steel pans since I moved out on my own. I figured it was time to upgrade. 

I also picked up a spiffy silicone basting brush, tongs, a silicone spatula, two AWESOME silicone pot holders, and a micrograter. I'm now outfitted to deal with a wide range of kitchen related fun and games. Serious shout out to the folks at Der Kuchen Laden in Fredricksburg, Texas. They did an wonderful job with suggestions. Thanks guys!

Of course, now I'm suffering from a case of not wanting to get the new toys dirty.

This means I keep cooking with the old pots and pans. Yeah I know, they need to go. 

Tomorrow I've got another morning of curling with the folks over at Lonestar Curling Club. I'm having an absolute blast.

So I think I can safely say I've got my own basic food rules down. I've figured out a system which seems to work, and looks like I can also live with it. Since it's the first of the month, I figure it makes sense to take the weekend to write em up and then set the next baseline. I'll also be getting some workout related goals set up. Time to get into some serious tracking.

Real Reasons Why Local Sourcing Can Be a Problem

Tags

drought, fish, food rules, local sourcing, michael pollan, oil spill, seafood

It's easy to lose sight of one reason we shifted away from locally sourced food in the first place. Nature does not generate consistent results when it comes to growing and temperatures. Drought like conditions have existed across large chunks of the country for the last few years. Without modern pest control and modern irrigation systems, we would start running into issues keeping people fed if we relied on local sourcing. Being able to truck food in from places that are not having growing issues helps keep food supply high. (For the moment we are going to ignore the corn/soybean surplus since that's another issue. I'm talking about straight up reliance on local food. Five years of drought can destroy production in an area and ruin farmers.

Now we can go back and forth on the whys and wherefores. The fact remains, you take out genetically modified crops, modern pest control, and modern chemical preservation techniques and things can get tricky. Don't believe it, check out Africa where many starve because they refuse to accept genetically modified foodstuffs.

Shifting back to the local food movement, I'm going to spend a good part of my summer wrestling with a food sourcing issue. This past weekend, an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico sank. It's now in the process of leaking oil out into the Gulf. For me, the Gulf falls into my "local sourcing" pile. I've got a big circle which includes Central Texas, and I ooch the Gulf in to that circle since it's my closest source for seafood. I've been looking for recipes that feature fish common to that area.

Now I've got an environmental disaster in my food backyard. As of today, the experts are saying that there shouldn't be an impact on the marine life so long as the oil slick doesn't hit land. I'm pretty sure that is not the case. I'm recalling information from previous oil spills which describes the impact on marine life. Saying there's no impact is a stretch.

So I'm looking at a bit of a conundrum. Do I go with local seafood to honor the intent and spirit of my challenge or do I shift to seafood sources which are safer? I've got the luxury of choice. There are many in the world who do not.

Once upon a time, there was no choice. If the harvest was bad, you starved. If there were diseases which wiped out the shellfish population, you had no shellfish. One of the benefits to non local food is not being a prisoner of this particular cycle.

Something to ponder and something I need to figure out before I start buying my gulf shrimp.

Mid Week Prep

Tags

fitness, food rules, michael pollan, prep, workouts

Doing some quick food prep for the end of the week. My mom is going to be in town (Hi Mom!), and I want to make sure that I've got some basic food in place. Nothing too fancy here.

Irish soda bread

Black beans, to be made into

Bison chili (With locally sourced bison of course).

Workout today was from Fit to Curl:

Chest
Pushups (15)
DB Swiss Ball Press (15)
DB Flyes (15)

Back
Pullovers
(15)
One Armed Row (15)
Bent over row (15)

2 circuits, 90
seconds rest between.

To go with the curling workouts, my curling broom showed up today. So now I can actually start pretending like I know what I'm doing!

Quest for Recovery

Tags

fitness, food rules, michael pollan, milk, recovery, workouts

So post workout recovery is a big deal in the health and fitness business these days. There's a wide range of products out there designed to speed nutrients back into a depleted body.

After a workout, your body is primed to use nutrients in an optimal manner. Think of it like stoking a fire. If you feed it quality kindling when it's just starting, you get a good hot burn going. If you just rely on the fuel you have there without kindling, it burns, but maybe not as hot. So getting good fuel in after the workout can really help your body burn fat, build new muscle, and generally look good.

The problem with all these spiffy products out there for post workout recovery? Not a one of them meets the Food Rules. Nutritional supplements of this type are almost all man made, modern products. Not a bad thing, but it does make it difficult when you are trying to play the Food Rules game. After all, part of the idea is that this is supposed to be challenging.

Tuesday's workout is generally a nasty one. I do stair intervals mixed in with wall throws. In other words, I run up and down a flight of stairs five times, then go and toss a medicine ball against a wall 20 times. Repeat. On the final series (also called a set) I finish the 20 throws and then keep throwing until I drop the ball. I've got to beat the number of extra throws from the week before. If I drop the ball, it's up and down the stairs one more time.

Who's the crazy trainer who came up with that? Err, yeah, moving right along here…

So last night was 35 stairs, 140 throws, then 32 bonus throws. Ow, ow, ow and ow. I was a veritable puddle of Clara goo post workout.

After a workout of that intensity, it's really uncomfortable to eat solid food. It's also 11 o'clock at night, which again is not a prime time to consume solid food for me. So I've been experimenting with milk. I've got my cool low heat pasteurized, no growth hormone and no homogenization moo cow juice. It's exceptionally tasty,and I regularly have to fight the cats off my glass. That never happens with the old milk. (Note to self, if your cats don't like the dairy product, might be an issue.)

It's worked okay the last couple weeks. Last night was a little different. It's starting to get hotter out. My core temperature was still a bit up. Milk and hot weather…let's just say it's no longer my preferred beverage. More critically, my stomach does not prefer it.

So I am again looking for something that will work after this late workout. Right now I'm stumped. The heat is only going to get worse as the summer goes on here in Austin.

Suggestions welcome.