Backyard Harvest

One of my favorite flavours is just-picked tomatoes, still warm from the sun. It's a childhood memory that's been reawakened now that we're growing our own once again. (Previous attempts at my old house were less than fruitful due to insufficient sun, but my present back yard is sunny and well drained.)


Homegrown food has become a luxury but I'm remembering how easy it is to add a few plants. The hard part is remembering to water them! Being able to wander outside, snacking on fresh warm miracles is one of life's treats that beats anything a restaurant has to offer. If you plant from seed, a whole backyard's worth of plants would probably cost less than one fancy restaurant meal. And you can eat in your pyjamas!

This year we had almost no rain for two months. The lavender, tomatoes, rosemary and sunflowers love it. They're abundantly productive, and the tomatoes are deliciously sweet. The alpine strawberries are even sweeter—little flavour bombs so strong you'd swear they were artificially flavour-boosted.

My carrots also came up in bunches, probably because I planted them too close (: Let's call it an experiment in plant sculpturing... yea, that's it. I'll invoke my creative license.

So here's to local food and my one-yard diet. I'll be outside snacking if anyone needs me.

I'm back baby!

Like the man says, I'm back. It's been about 21/2 years since my last post, but I want to talk about food again. Thing is, my attitude has changed.

Ironically, or perhaps predictably given my husband’s predilection for food, I am looking at food only as a fuel source these days. I had an excellent chance to experiment with this recently, when I stayed in a dorm while attending a residency program.

The kitchen there was basic; fridge, sink, microwave, kettle and toaster. They supplied cutlery and plates etc but no food. We were quite busy during the residency and I wanted to make sure to eat right, so I shopped for quick, nutritious, no-stove meals. For two weeks I ate simply, and only for hunger. I didn’t have time, or the inclination, to eat junk food. I often studied while eating, which made me eat very slowly because I was distracted. Looks the same but is the polar opposite to mindlessly shoveling mountains of garbage in your mouth while reading.

Thanks!

Today is International Appreciation Day. Not sure if such a day exists, but it does in my house. Much of my appreciation this morning is centered around food. Maybe it’s because I just came back from a run, but let’s be honest: I’m obsessed with food.

Thing I’m grateful for Number One – Onions

Especially sautéed onions. Life doesn’t get much better than the smell of onions cooking, and the taste of browned sweet onions. Maybe that’s part of the reason fancy restaurants are wasted on me – I’m so delighted with such simple tastes as sautéed onions that some sauces and reductions are over the top for me. I love simple.

Thing I’m grateful for Number Two – Homemade Soup

Some foods are so incredibly different between store-bought iterations and homemade, that it’s almost not worth buying the store-bought. I’ve discovered this holds true with soup and pasta. I’ve never made my own pasta; I got the good stuff the easy way – by being the manga-cake girlfriend of an Italian guy. I hadn’t had real pasta before then, so eating Mama’s homemade ravioli was a religious experience for me. Up to that point in my life the only pasta I’d had was dried spaghetti and Chef Boyardee.

Mushroom Burgers

Darn! I forgot to photograph them. I often do because they smell so good that we're always anxious to eat, then we get distracted with condimentization. (It is so a word)

We get those big mushrooms that are essentially overgrown button mushrooms, dab a bit of olive or grapeseed oil on, and broil them until juicy, about five or ten minutes.

Meanwhile, I sauteed half a large sweet onion. We ate our burgers in portuguese buns fresh from the local bakery. Sides included baby gherkins, calamata olives, raita, and a salad of celery apple carrot and roasted almonds.

What a great meal; easily digestible by our evening taekwondo workout, and pretty healthy.

Giving up cream

The day I never thought would happen has come to pass. My religious beliefs are not many, but definitely include cream in my coffee. Not milk, not whitener – cream. Give me cream or give me death! Or herbal tea.

A friend of mine once told of a promising romance that was brewing. Unfortunately she had to end it when she found out he took skim milk in his coffee. Milk in an emergency, but skim milk… well that’s just not the sort of man you’d consider as a father to your children. Clearly not of sound mind.

You may by now understand how important cream is to my coffee, and coffee is to me. So for me now to eschew cream in favour of soy milk – yes soy milk – may seem improbable.

Years ago a friend, recently arrived from Iran, told me that when he first got here he noticed that many people smelled of rotting milk. I had never considered that, but I started noticing it myself.

I like to experiment with foods to optimize my mind and body, so I read a lot about health and nutrition. Whenever an idea resonates with me, I try it to see if it works for my body.

I’ve read many articles about cow’s milk being less healthy than it was thought to be when I was growing up, so I decided to ingest less milk and milk products.

Cutting down on my milk consumption became rather easy. I drink a lot less cow’s milk than I did as a kid, although once in a while I still crave chocolate milk, straight from the carton. Ahh, a summertime treat.

Cheese is like candy for me, so I buy it only on occasion. I can eat a Costco-sized container of swiss cheese in two days, which, apart from being expensive doesn’t quite fit into my “all things in moderation” diet. And it kind of, ahem, slows the digestive process. A lot. Like, do that before a road trip and you can avoid gas station bathrooms between Connecticut and LA.

The only thing I couldn’t find a substitute for was cream in my coffee. Milk just doesn’t cut it. If milk’s all that’s available, I’d rather not have coffee, but given my commitment to caffeine addiction*, not a serious alternative. Tried those artificial whiteners but I don’t like foodstuffs that are made in a lab. It’s a prejudice, I know.

So finally I tried sweetened soy milk. It’s delicious! Soy milk’s density gives me that thick creaminess I seek, and it takes away the bitterness – mine and the coffee’s. Although I’ve never taken sugar in my coffee, the sweetness adds to the richness I crave.

So Jacquie, I hope we can still be friends. I promise to keep cream on hand when you’re in town. And I promise never to switch to non-fat….

(* I joke about my caffeine addiction but in seriousness, have recognized the effects of caffeine on my brain and body. I buy both caf and decaf beans. When I grind them, I mix the beans 1:2 so that I am drinking one-third caf. I drink two cups a day; three on weekends.)