Apt. 11D

Family

Cloves

Slow Cookin' Meats

(I've been cooking up a storm for the past two weeks. Tonight, we're grilling pork chops with a hoisin marinade. and tomorrow there's chicken cacciatore. I just typed up my pot roast recipe for my sister in law. Sorry, no pictures right now.) 

 

Slow Cookin’ Meats 

The Pot

 Yes, a Dutch oven is good, but you can achieve the same effect with a big roaster pan and layers of aluminum foil. That method works best if you’re cooking for a big hoard of relatives or wayward college buddies.

 The Meat

 Beef is the traditional favorite for a pot roast, but any kind of meat is fine.  You want to go with a cheap cut of beef, like a boneless chuck roast or a shoulder. I’ve also used beef ribs and lamb. I want to try sausage and chicken some time. I’ve also put different kinds of meat in the one pan. It all turns out the same – mushy and yummy.

 The garlic step. Cover the meat with generous amounts of salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Like really generous.  If you’re using the lamb, put slits in the meat and shove in a whole clove of garlic. Don’t be skimpy with the salt. This is not the time for a heart healthy meal.

 Put the roaster pan on the stove and heat it up using two burners. Add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Sear the meat on all sides. Put aside.

 The Vegetables

 Any good root vegetable will do. My favorite combo is leeks, onion, potato, carrots, and tomatoes.

 One bunch of leeks. Slice off the bottoms and the dark green part. Slice it length-wise several times. Put it in a strainer and rinse until all the dirt is gone.

 Three onions. Cut into four big chunks.

 Four or five potatoes. Cut into half. Or use little potatoes and don’t cut them up. You want big chunks, so that they don’t get too mushy when the meal is done.

 5 carrots. Cut into three finger slabs.

 Arrange the meat on the bed of leeks. Add the onions and potatoes and carrots around the meat.

 Tomatoes. Roughly cut up a can of whole tomatoes. Pour on top.

 Add more salt and pepper.

 Add 4 whole cloves of garlic, still in their skins. Garlic be good.

 Pro Tip - Make extra vegetables. Make more than you plan on eating and then freeze them in zip lock bags. Add it to soups and such. Pot roast veggies are awesome in lentil soup.

The Herbs and the Liquid

 Add sprigs of rosemary, thyme, or sage. Sometimes I use two of those, sometimes I use all of them.  A bay leave is also nice.

 Add about 1 cup of beef broth and about 1 cup of red wine.

 Cooking Time

  275 degrees for 3 hours. Or so. Cook it until the meat is flaky.  If it isn’t cooking fast enough for ‘ya, then bump the oven up to 300 or even 350. This isn’t rocket science.

 Fancy Stuff

 Pull out the meat. And cut it up roughly, so it’s all stringy and sitting in lots of the juice from the pan. Put the vegetables in a separate bowl.

 You have three important choices at this point. You could deglaze the pan with some wine and then add more roasting liquid. Reduce everything and then serve. Or you could first make a flour/water roux, add the pan liquids, and make a traditional gravy. Or you could just say screw it and eat it all up without the fancy gravy step. We do that a lot. 

 

Early Puberty In Boys

The New York Times reports that boys are starting puberty earlier than they did in the past. Some boys are starting as early as 9 years old. Earlier puberty in girls has already been noted by scientists, because puberty is more easy to notice in girls.

The article said that the early stages of puberty in boys is harder to pick up. The changes in voice actually come at the later stages of puberty. The early sign is when their testicles double in size. I can't wait to ask Jonah over dinner if he noticed whether or not his balls have doubled in size yet. I bet he'll love that. 

 

Insomnia

I've had terrible insomnia lately. This morning, I woke up at 4am. When I got up to go to the bathroom, Steve woke up. "Are you up again? Don't you look at your iPad. Just go back to sleep," he lectured me. So, I sat in bed for an hour trying to fall back asleep.

Instead of sleeping, all of things that make me neurotic during the day ran through my brain. I thought of very witty responses that I should make to certain people. I'm sure that they will feel very small indeed, when they hear my wise commentary on their faults. Too bad that I'll never say any of those things in real life. 

So at 5am, I gave up and put some clothes in the dryer, piled up the unread newspapers, put away the CSA vegetables that were left on the counter over night, and watched the morning news. 

Yesterday, I researched pillows and mattress covers. Maybe I would sleep better if we had better pillows. I dragged the kids to Macy's with me and bought a couple of new ones. Didn't help. All that research actually made me more neurotic, because I found out that I am supposed to be washing the pillows every three months. Dust Mites! Arg!

I'm resisting the urge to google "insomnia," because I suspect that my sleep problems are related to aging. And that will just add fuel to my early morning neuroses. 

My best friend during those wee hours is my twitterfeed. There's always somebody else awake. They pass on links to articles that distract me from dust mites and witty responses. 

Maybe I need less sleep than when I was younger. Maybe I can use that time to get more writing done and accomplish more. When I was charging around the house at 5am, I had enough energy for a two mile jog. Three hours later, I'm thinking about a nap. 

Life Expectancy Dips Among Less Educated White People. Insert Hillbilly Joke Here.

So why are less educated white people dying earlier than in the past? It's a mystery. Is it oxycontin and Mountain Dew? And why are Hispanics so healthy? 

Cooking Vegetables

I'm cooking up a ton of new things this summer. We're trying to make vegetables the star of the dinner with simple grilled meat and a small pile of boring carbs that will fill the kids' bellies. 

Last night, I made this ginger carrot soup. There are more complicated recipes out there for this soup, but simple is good, too. If you feel fancy, you could add a potato or yogurt to thicken up. More flavor can be added with curry powder, honey, thyme, orange juice, or bourbon. 

Instead of making meatballs with the standard pork-veal-beef combo, I went with turkeymeatballs. I didn't really need a recipe, but I tried out Giada's version of turkey meatballs. I thought grating the onion, instead of chopping it, made the meatballs a little watery. It needed more bread crumbs to pull it together. 

Eggplants are arriving in my CSA today. Eggplants are problematic, because Steve and I LOVE them and the kids won't touch them, so I'll be cooking two meals every night. Mark Bittman's grilling suggestions for eggplant are fantastic. 

Consuming Food

Food has been a large focus of our lives for the past couple of months. In fact, you could say that it has been consuming us.

After it became painfully obvious that we could no longer sustain some bad habits, we decided to make some changes. First, we cut back on take-out food -- pizza, chinese food, burgers. When I was working a lot and juggling after school schedules, we ate that stuff far too often. Now, we're trying to keep those choices for emergencies only.

Then we cut back on carbs - pasta, white rice, bread, couscous. Even potatoes. Steve and I are allowed a small scoop of whatever that I've made for the kids, but that's it. 

Without carbs, we're basically on a meat and vegetable diet. This means that you have to cook a lot more food to feel full. Luckily, I do have a lot of vegetables from our CSA. Lots of vegetables means much more time in the kitchen with cleaning and prep work. I need to make a lot more dishes, because nobody can eat a whole bowl of kale for dinner. One dish might be a tomato from the garden with salt, pepper, basil, olive oil, and a plop of goat cheese on top. Another dish might be a salad with roasted beets, spinach, lettuce, scallions, and bacon. Another dish might be roasted chicken. We're eating well, but I spend two hours in the kitchen every night. 

This weekend, I mistakenly watched a series of documentaries about the state of meat production in this country -- Food Inc., Frankensteer, and Forks Over Knives. So, now I'm officially freaked out about meat, too. This weekend, Steve and I decided to stop buying any meat from the regular grocery store and only buy the ethical meat at Whole Foods. Whole Foods rates their meat on their happiness before death quotient. A 1 rating means that the animals weren't raised in crates or cages. A 6 rating means they spent most of their lives in a spa. Ethical meat ain't cheap, so we're either going to have to cut back on burgers or eat less meat, too. 

It's hard to tell what the payoff from all this is. It's been too soon. Steve immediately lost 10 pounds. I lost a couple. We're shooting for long term benefits -- less junk in our bodies, good karma for the environment, all that. There is one clear short term benefit. Healthy, carefully crafted food just tastes better. 

Recipe: Garlic Kale Soup

The CSA veggies are here, so it's time to find 101 things to do with kale. One favorite around here is Garlic Kale Soup. 

Ingredients:

• Kale - one head, stem removed, diced
• CSA carrots that are too small and disheveled for other functions
• I had some celery in my fridge, so I used it. Not mandatory.
• Parsley
• Whatever onions and garlic forms that appear in your share. I had garlic scapes and green garlic that week, so I used it. 
• Parmesan cheese rind. Never, ever throw away your cheese rinds. 
• Salt, pepper, oregano
• Broth. 
• Little pasta shapes.
• Olive oil and butter.

 

Chop up the garlic scapes, carrots, green garlic, and celery. 

Saute with olive oil and butter. Add some salt to help the vegetable break down. 

While they are cooking, cut up the kale. The carrots and onions don't need to cook down. They just need a few minutes to bring out the flavor. 

Then add the broth and bring to a boil. I used Trader Joe's broth this night, because I had it in the cabinet. The week before I used homemade broth that I had in the freezer. Homemade broth is really the best. It's so awesome that I like it with just a few vegetables floating on top like life rafts. Trader Joe's broth is passable, but there are better brands of boxed broth. Wolfgang Puck's broth is much better. 

After it comes to a boil, add the other flavors - cheese rind, salt, pepper, and oregano. 

Lower heat and let cook for about 20 minutes.

When the kale and carrots are cooked, bring it back up to a boil and add a handful of pasta. 

Before serving, add a handful of fresh chopped parsley. 

 

Locavores Revenge

Lots of links about farming lately. 

Andrew Sullivan discusses a new book that says that local food is incompatible with urbanism. 

Small scale famers are creating a new business model. 

I'm Farming and I Grow It.