Thanksgiving and Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and you know what that means... FOOD! Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry! Delicious. This is the first year I'm both gluten-free and dairy free, so a few changes have to be made to the traditional family feast. Fortunately, my mom is gung ho about making sure I can eat. Today, I'm making vegan garlic mashed potatoes because my mom is completely baffled that one can make mashed potatoes without copious amounts of dairy. I went to the farmers market on Sunday to get 3 lbs of my favorite potato variety (German Butterballs - the only butterballs I'll be eating tomorrow, I'm happy to say) and a spicy garlic variety. Have I mentioned that I love living in a city with year-round farmers markets? Because I do.

Of course, with all the feasting going on, it's important not to lose focus and make sure you're getting healthy, sustainable food. Take Part has an article on 10 Tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving. If you haven't found one already, it's probably too late for a heritage turkey, but it's something to think about for next year.

Although it's so simple, I feel a little silly posting it, here's my recipe for vegan garlic mashed potatoes. Sorry for the lack of hard numbers - I've never measured anything when making it.

Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:
Potatoes, washed and chopped into smallish chunks - as much or as little as you want to make. I like the German butterball variety, but you can use any kind you want (I don't like yukon golds because they get really slimy)
Garlic - 1 - 2 bulbs. For a smaller amount of potatoes, use a smaller amount of garlic. Keep in mind that roasting it gives it a milder, sweeter flavor
Olive oil
rice milk, or your favorite milk substitute.
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
optional: herbs to taste - I love fresh minced rosemary, but use your imagination

Preheat oven to 350.

You can prep your garlic in 1 of 2 ways.

Method 1 - take all the cloves off the bulb and peel them
Method 2 (my preferred method because it's way easier) - chop the top of the bulb off, cutting off the top portions of the cloves

wrap the garlic in foil drizzled with olive oil (I like to use just enough to cover the garlic). Put in an oven safe dish (so the oil doesn't spill all over your oven) and bake for 30 minutes or until the cloves are tender and brown.

While the garlic is cooking, boil your potatoes until soft. I like to leave the skin on, but that's a matter of taste. If you are not using organic potatoes, you should always peel them because the skins soak up pesticides. The smaller you've cut the potatoes, the less time they will take to cook. I find that it usually takes 20 minutes.

Drain the potatoes and put in a mixing bowl. Add your roasted garlic (if you want some whole cloves of garlic, reserve some until the end). If you kept it in bulb form, you can squeeze the cloves out - but be careful - it can be really hot! I use a low tech potato masher because I like chunks. You can also use a ricer or egg beater, or even an immersion blender. Add some olive oil and mix. I probably use 1 1/2 Tbs per pound of potatoes, but it's really a matter of taste. Start adding your milk substitute and mix. The trick to getting a great texture is to not be afraid of adding more liquid. Add a bit at a time and mix until you get the desired consistency. I always end up using a lot more than I would have thought necessary. I like to add my seasoning while I'm adding the liquid, but you can probably add it at any point during the process.

I find that this recipe makes potatoes that are perfect and delicious on their own, but of course, you can add gravy, cranberry, and turkey.

Variety:
For an interesting variety that's also a complete protein, mix in cooked quinoa. It gives the potatoes a fun texture and a more complex flavor. I love using rosemary when I add quinoa.

Rosemary Garlic Roasted Veggies

I just signed up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and picked up my first box on Thursday. It's amazing. I have so much produce, I'm almost overwhelmed, but in a very very good way. I got a small bunch of baby chioggia beets (the kind that's beautifully striped red and white when you cut them open). One of my favorite foods ever is roasted beets, but there just weren't enough to satisfy me, so I decided to make a roasted root veggie medley.

I cut up a couple of carrots, a potato (I wish I knew what variety - I bought it from my school's garden sale and can't remember), a sweet onion, and the beets into bite size chunks. I tossed them in a bowl with garlic-infused olive oil, sea salt, a minced garlic clove, and minced rosemary from my garden. Then I put them on a foil-covered cookie sheet so that they were spread out as evenly as possible (I tried to make sure there was only one layer of veggies) and baked it for 35 minutes at 400 degrees.

Mmmm, it was so delicious. You can, of course, use different veggies, should you so desire. I've found that this recipe works best with other tubers because softer foods tend to overcook. They shrivel up, lose all their moisture, and become tough and unpleasant. Sweet potatoes, turnip, Jerusalem artichoke, and parsnips are all wonderful additions or substitutions. I also like to use purple potatoes to give it some extra color.

If using baby beets, I don't bother to peel them because the skin is tender and delicious (just make sure you wash them well), but I peel bigger beets before cooking.

Homemade Hummus

It's amazing how much time I've spent in the kitchen over the past week. I used to be the sort of person who only went to the kitchen to microwave things.

My acupuncturist told me just over a month ago that she thinks I have a gluten intolerance and needed to cut gluten out of my diet entirely. I gave myself a little time to binge on my favorite gluteny foods (and binge I did, oh my). Last Sunday, I officially started my gluten free diet. Due to my body's utter hatred of dairy, I have cut out all dairy as well - even in chocolate.

Fortunately, there are tons of gluten free (GF) resources out there, so I haven't really been hurting. The best thing about this change is that I have been forced to do more cooking than before. It's possible to get all sorts of pre-made GF foods, but they are usually absurdly expensive. Gluten has a nasty habit of sneaking into all sorts of things (like soy sauce), as does dairy, so it's important to make sure I know every single ingredient that goes into my food. The easiest way of doing that is for me to cook everything.

Hummus is a naturally GF food, and I'll be honest, I don't think they make it with gluten anywhere. Despite the fact that I could just go out to the store and pick up a tub of it, I decided to make my own. My favorite brand runs $5-6, so I figured it would be a fun experiment, and it would save me some money. It turned out amazingly well. In fact, I think it's the most delicious hummus I've ever tasted.

Hummus

1 c dried garbanzo beans (and 1 square Kombu)
1 Tbs tahini (see below for homemade tahini instructions)
1 clove garlic, chopped
lemon juice to taste
salt to taste
olive oil

Soak garbanzo beans overnight
drain beans and cover with fresh water, throw kombu into the pot
Bring to a boil
Reduce to a simmer, and simmer for 30 min - 2 hours until beans are soft
drain beans saving liquid
let cool
put in food processor with a small amount of olive oil, and all other ingredients, and blend
If the mixture is dry, add reserved liquid until it's as moist as you want
If you want a creamier mixture, add olive oil
Blend until desired texture

Seriously, it's super easy. You can add whatever add-ins you want.


Home Made Tahini

Sesame seeds
olive oil (1/4 cup per 1 cup of seeds)

Preheat oven to 350
Put seeds in oven safe container, and put in oven for 5-10 minutes. Mix frequently. Don't let them brown.
Let cool
Put in food processor with oil
Process until desired consistency. I like it to be pretty liquidy, so I processed the heck out of it.

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit...

Beans are wonderful and high in protein, which is great when you don't eat a lot of animal products. It's well known, however, that eating beans will make you bloated and gassy, and let's face it, that's no fun. Not only is it uncomfortable, it makes people less inclined to hang out with you when you're the person who's always farting.

Beans create gas because they contain sugars that our bodies can't break down and are too big to be absorbed in the small intestine. When they get to the large intestine, the bacteria that live there eat it up, creating gas in the process.

Fortunately, mother nature thinks of everything, and there is a 100% natural solution to dealing with the problem.

When you're cooking your beans (make sure you soak dry beans over night, or it will take forever for them to cook), add a 2 inch square of kombu (also spelled konbu). It's a seaweed that you can buy in dried form from natural food stores, Asian markets, or in the Asian food section of your grocery store (if it has one). It doesn't do a whole lot to the flavor of the beans, but it does break down the sugars into smaller, digestible chunks, leaving nothing for the bacteria to munch on. When you're through cooking, just remove the kombu, and you're good to go.

Does Your Doctor Eat Right?

My best friend sent me a link to this New York Times article about doctors who are trying to get the word out about eating well. The sad truth is that medical doctors don't get much, if any, education in nutrition, and many of them eat unhealthy diets.

My favorite quote from the article is, "Food is at the center of health and illness, he argues, and so doctors must make all aspects of it — growing, buying, cooking, eating — a mainstay of their medical educations, their personal lives and their practices."

I would argue that this is true of anyone in the medical profession - not just doctors. Most people in the US have absolutely no idea what they should be eating because we're not educated about it, and our culture encourages us to eat the worst possible food. We look to our health care providers to tell us what is healthy, and if they don't mention diet (which most of them won't), then it's easy to feel like whatever you're doing is fine.

If you're feeling completely overwhelmed about your diet and what you should be eating, I strongly recommend seeing a registered dietitian (RD) in your area. They are wonderful resources for all food-related issues, from obesity to food allergies, and a lot of insurance plans will cover a few visits.

Black Beans and Rice with Kale

I have a confession to make: I don't like leafy greens. When needed, I can choke down some spinach salad or other green, but I won't enjoy it. It's hard to admit this to people who are health conscious. My friends and classmates talk about greens like they're the second coming, and when I say I don't like them, they react like I've uttered the most heinous blasphemy. Unfortunately, greens are extremely good for you and are chock full of vitamins and minerals that your body needs. At times my body even craves them, even though my brain says, "ick." So what's a girl to do when she knows she needs to eat them, but she would really rather eat sawdust?

The answer is remarkably simple: disguise them. Mix them up with other food until you can't taste them any more.

The following recipe is one of my successful attempts to get greens into my diet without offending my poor overly-sensitive taste buds.

Black Beans and Rice with Kale:


2 cups rice uncooked (I like Jasmine for this recipe, but do whatever works for you)
water to cook rice
1 can black beans (or the equivalent in soaked black beans - normally I wouldn't use the canned stuff, but I had a can sitting in my pantry, and I decided to get rid of it)
1/2 large yellow onion chopped
1 clove garlic (or more if you're so inclined) minced
1/2 a bunch of kale (I used 5 or 6 large leaves)
salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
olive oil
approximately 1 tsp lime juice

Cook the rice according to the directions.
Steam the kale for a few minutes until bright green and wilted (my rice cooker has a steam tray, which I like using because all of the vitamins that would normally disappear into the water and get thrown out drip right into the rice)
Chop the cooked kale into small pieces
In a medium sized pot, saute garlic and onion until onion is clear
Add the kale to the pot and saute for a minute or so
Add the black beans (You can add the liquid in the can if so desired. It makes the dish a little mushier, which I like)
Add salt, pepper, cayenne, and lime juice and mix
Once the beans are hot and the mixture is seasoned to your liking, take off the heat and add to the rice.
Thoroughly mix
Enjoy.

Chocolate: The Good and the Bad

For my botany class this quarter, I had to do a research project on a plant of my choosing. Being a chocoholic, it seemed natural to go with Theobroma cacao, the chocolate plant - Theobroma translates to "food of the gods," and cacao is what the plant was called by Mesoamericans. The history of chocolate is fascinating* (the Aztecs used cacao beans as currency and valued it more than gold!), but I was much more interested in the health benefits.

The Good

Chocolate has all sorts of chemical constituents that make it a wonder food. All of the good stuff is found in larger quantities in dark chocolate than in milk chocolate, and it's found in even larger quantities in cocoa nibs (roasted cocoa beans that have been shelled but haven't had anything added to them).

-It is the best source for theobromine, a natural stimulant similar to caffeine (which chocolate also contains in small amounts) that has also been shown to be one of the best naturally occurring cough suppressants.

-It contains Phenylethylamine, a chemical that occurs naturally in humans that seems to be responsible for people falling in love, and it is present during orgasm. It can also relieve depression without any negative side effects.

- It has large quantites antioxidants, chemicals that help to prevent cancer.

- It contains anandamide, which has a role in short-term memory (I'm totally eating chocolate while cramming for exams from now on!) and is necessary for implantation of embryos.

- Tryptophan, an essential amino acid (which means it's not produced by the body so must be eaten), is found in chocolate. It is the rate-limiting factor in the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter important for relaxation. (It's the same chemical responsible for the food coma you get after eating a huge turkey dinner)

- It's a great source for magnesium, which assists in the absorption of calcium. It also turns out that magnesium deficiency makes PMS worse, so the chocolate cravings that women get are perfectly reasonable, and we should pay attention!

The Bad

Unfortunately, there is a dark side to chocolate. Most commercially produced chocolate is tainted with child slavery. The Ivory Coast is the largest producer of cocoa beans in the world, and slave trade in boys is rampant there. They are either kidnapped or sold for absurdly small amounts. They are forced to work under harsh conditions, are beaten regularly, and are only given enough food to survive. Because they are so inexpensive, they are viewed by the plantation owners as completely expendable. What makes this even more appalling is that chocolate manufacturers know that it's happening, but aren't doing anything to stop the problem. A common excuse is that because beans from plantations that use slave labor are mixed with beans from plantations that don't use slave labor, they can't determine whether what they're buying is slave-free or not. What they are really saying is that they don't want to make the effort and expense to ensure that they are buying beans from good plantations. Unfortunately, this includes all the manufacturers of the most popular candy in the US.

Fortunately, we do have options. Your best bet is to look for the Fair Trade symbol on your chocolate (you should do that for coffee, as well). Fair trade means that the plantations they are buying from guarantee their workers a living wage and decent working conditions. My personal favorite fair trade chocolate comes from Theo Chocolate, a local Seattle company. They are the only organic, fair trade bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the US. For more information on chocolate slavery, and for a great list of chocolate companies that produce slave free chocolate, check out http://vision.ucsd.edu/~kbranson/stopchocolateslavery/.

*A wonderful, well written, and beautiful book with tons of info on the history, and the preparation of chocolate is The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with recipes by Maricel E. Presilla

For more info on the chocolate in general, check out http://chocolate.org/

Summer Lovin'

On days like today, when it's 90 degrees and nothing is air conditioned (one of the downsides to living in Seattle is that if the weather goes below 40 or above 78, no one knows how to handle it), it's hard to remember why I love summer. I took a bite of a ripe, organic, locally farmed nectarine, and I then remembered. My first bite was like a religious experience. I said to my roommated, "Oh my god, nectarines are my favorite food in the world." He laughed because I've said that about every fruit when I tasted it for the first time this season - at least when they were local. I had a few nectarines from California earlier this summer, and while they were tasty, they had nothing on the intense, complex flavor of this one. Once again, local wins.

Organic Body Care Recipes - Review

When you look at the label of an average bath product, you'll see loads of chemicals which you probably can't pronounce, and the very innocent sounding ingredient, "Fragrance." I'm trying to avoid eating foods with ingredients that don't instantly evoke images of food in my head (like dextrin, polysorbate, and red 40, among many others) because it isn't good for my body. As Stephanie Tourles, the author of Organic Body Care Recipes points out in her introduction, we absorb both chemicals and nutrients through our skin as well as through our digestive system. By using products that are full of beneficial plant-based ingredients, we absorb the good and avoid the bad. There is a brief section in the book that talks about common chemicals in personal care products that are harmful. Through some research of my own, I have also learned that companies are not required to disclose information about what they put in fragrances. The article I linked to says,

"Fragrance secrecy is legal due to a giant loophole in the Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act of 1973, which requires companies to list cosmetics ingredients on the product labels but explicitly exempts fragrance. By taking advantage of this loophole, the cosmetics industry has kept the public in the dark about the ingredients in fragrance, even those that present potential health risks or build up in people’s bodies."

I don't know about you, but I prefer to know exactly what I'm putting into my body, whether it's through my skin or my mouth. Organic Body Care Recipes is a wonderful place to start. It's a comprehensive recipe book for personal care products, ranging from skin and hair care to aphrodisiacs. Tourles gives plenty of information about the health benefits of ingredients, what to look for when buying them, and what tools you need to create your own products. She also helps you to understand what kind of skin and hair you have and which recipes work for which types.

I have tried quite a few of the recipes in the book and have been thrilled with every one of them. Some of them are so simple and effective, you'll wonder why you ever paid for over-priced store-bought products at all. For example, her "Nighttime Eye Moisturizer" recipe is 1/4 teaspoon of oil (she lists several acceptable varieties - I use jojoba, but you could also use extra virgin olive oil). That's it! Just dab the oil around your eye area, and you're good to go. Of course, some of the recipes require more work, and some take a long time to prepare, but it's satisfying and fun to make your own products, especially when you know exactly what's in it and where everything came from.

Skagit River Ranch

One of my plans for the summer was to go out and visit as many local farms as I could. Unfortunately, my car's breaks went on the fritz while I was waiting on my financial aid check, so I decided that driving out to the country was a bad idea. Fortunately, my breaks are now fixed, and I was able to go out to Skagit River Ranch this afternoon. Skagit River Ranch is just outside of Sedro-Woolley, WA - about 80 miles north of Seattle. I have only ever heard good things about the farm, and they have a store that's open on Saturdays where you can buy their products - they have chicken, lamb, pork, and beef (and probably the occasional goat), eggs, and honey.

It was quite a pleasure to arrive on the farm and to find chickens everywhere. They were truly free range and went all over the place - including the parking lot. The sweet lady at the store told me that last winter, it snowed, and there were chickens jumping from car to car in order to avoid touching the freshly fallen snow (but don't worry, they could have gone to their warm chicken coop if they had so desired). I took pictures of the happy chickens, but they didn't turn out so well (my iPhone just doesn't take good photos), so instead, you get to see pictures of the chicks, and let's face it, chicks are way cuter than chickens.

I asked the lady if we could take a look around the farm, and she answered with an enthusiastic yes and suggested that we take a 1/2 mile walk to the river, which took us through parts of the farm, including the sheep and goat pens. There were lots of kids (baby goats - not human children), which were small enough to climb under the fence, and happily played all over the place.

We also got to see several horses, all of which were friendly and wanted either attention or treats. Since we didn't have treats, we petted their faces, and they followed us to the edge of their enclosure.

We didn't get a chance to check out the entire farm, but it was clear that it would have been fine for us to go anywhere. We saw some farmers who were very friendly, though hot (it was 90 degrees). It was lovely to see that the animals were living in really good conditions and looked pretty happy. I'm really looking forward to eating the eggs and ground beef I bought. Fortunately, they have stands at the University, Ballard, and West Seattle farmers' markets, so I don't have to take the 2 hour drive up to the farm to get their food, which I just know is going to be delicious.

Magic Ginger

I'm spending my summer learning all about Chinese herbs. A lot of them truly require that someone who knows what they're doing tell you what you should take and at what dosage. A few of them, however, are remarkably effective and easy to get a hold of.

So far, I'm most impressed with ginger. Most people know that ginger is good for an upset stomach. I recently learned that the most effective way of taking ginger is to make fresh ginger tea - slice up some ginger and pour boiling water over it. It's incredibly simple, and it's way less expensive than ginger ale or ginger snaps. Plus, it doesn't have anything else in it that could aggrivate your stomach, and it's pretty tasty. It's good for any type of nausea, including food poisoning and morning sickness.

What I didn't know about ginger is that if you feel like you're about to get a cold - tired, achy, congested, etc - you can drink a cup of ginger tea, and there's a good chance the cold will be stopped in its tracks. Unfortunately, it only works at the very beginning stages of the sickness, so once you feel truly sick, it's too late for ginger to be effective. I've already had a chance to try this remedy out, and it worked like a dream.

My professor told us that she has at least a pound of ginger in her kitchen at all times. I just keep a small amount in my freezer - frozen ginger is much easier to grate for cooking than room temperature ginger. If I recall correctly, the piece I currently have cost less than fifty cents.

Quinoa Salad

My blog seems to have become an impromptu recipe book. The simple fact is that I have been cooking more lately, and I get most of my recipes off the web. I have a lot of cookbooks, but it's so much faster to type "-insert name of dish I want to cook here- recipe" into google, and then go through the available options. I can go through 20 recipes in a few minutes, scanning to see which ones have ingredients that are in my kitchen, and which ones I can adapt to fit what I have. You see, I'm currently very very broke. I'm waiting for a financial aid check to come and rescue me from my lack of funds, but until then, I'm having to be creative with the food I already have.

Although I hate not having money, being forced to cook is kind of enjoyable. I have all sorts of dried goods in my pantry that have been waiting for me to take advantage of them. Yesterday, I made a delicious quinoa salad that took advantage of the meager fresh vegetables I still have. Because quinoa is a complete protien, I didn't have to worry about the fact that I can't afford animal products right now.

Looking online, I discovered that the trick to good quinoa is to soak it for 5 minutes and rinse it before cooking. This removes bitter tasting saponins (which can apparently be used as soap, which may come in handy if you're ever stuck in a cabin in the middle of nowhere with no soap but lots of quinoa). My box of quinoa said that I should use 2 cups of water for 1 cup of dry quinoa, but recipes online indicated that after you soak, you should use 1 1/2 cups of water. They were right. I used 1 1/2 cups, and it was perfect.

So here's the recipe I used. Obviously, you can use all sorts of different veggies, nuts, and dried fruits. This isn't the sort of recipe that you go out and buy ingredients for - it's the sort of recipe you throw whatever you have into.

Susie's Odds and Ends Quinoa Salad

Cook up 1 cup of quinoa after soaking and rinsing.
Once it's cooked, let chill in the refrigerator, or if you don't feel like waiting, you can eat it warm.

Sautee onions - I used three small spring Walla Walla sweet onions
chop up some scallions (I used 2)
thinly slice carrots - I used 1 1/2 small carrots, and I shredded the remaining half

You can, of course, prepare any other veggies you have. You can use them raw or sauteed or steamed, depending on what you have and what you feel like. I think bell peppers, cucumber, zucchini, kale, and even broccoli would be delicious additions.

Mix the veggies into the quinoa

Add a handful of dried fruit. I used cranberries, but you could use raisins, dates, cherries, apricots, or whatever you want.
Add a handful of nuts (you could toast them for extra yumminess). I used cashews, but really, anything would be good.
Add some toasted sesame seeds if you happen to have a jar of toasted sesame seeds sitting in your pantry.

If you have any sitting around, throw in some leftover chicken, pork, fish or tofu or other fake meat product (I suppose you could also add beef if you were so inclined)

Dressing:
1/4 cup olive oil
the juice from half a small lemon
salt and pepper to taste (I used a small amount of salt because I prepared the quinoa with salt, and the cashews were salted, and I used a TON of pepper)
Add any other herbs or spices you feel like using, or just keep it simple.

Mix the dressing into the quinoa, and voila! You have delicious, simple, healthy quinoa salad.

Vegan Soda Bread & Lammas

I'm on a baking kick right now. I'm finding that there isn't a day when baking doesn't sound like fun.

Today is Lammas, the Pagan festival celebrating the grain harvest. Traditionally, you're supposed to make a loaf of bread shaped like a man and eat it. It's representative of a human sacrifice to the gods asking for blessings and a boutiful harvest. I have never made a bread man, largely due to the fact that bread has always been extremely intimidating. This year I decided to make Irish soda bread.

Although I am not vegan, I am quite particular about the animal products I buy, and vegan recipes are often cheaper for me to make than ones with eggs and dairy. True soda bread is made with buttermilk, but it turns out that you can substitute any non-dairy milk with lemon juice or apple cider vinegar with a teaspoon of the acid for every cup of milk-substitute.

I found this recipe, and made it (it fails to mention in the recipe that it should be cooked at 425). I decided that it would be better with more sugar (based on absolutely nothing at all), so I used 3 tablespoons instead of 2. It's a little on the sweet side, so it's more like a dessert than I intended. I also discovered that they really weren't kidding when they said to add the liquid slowly. I added it a little bit at a time, and it rapidly went from dry and floury to too wet. Shaping the bread became very difficult at that point, so rather than a bread man, I made a bread blob. It ended up being a little too moist in the center - still tasty, but not perfect. My roommate's verdict was that it was like soggy biscotti, which didn't stop him from eating 2 pieces. I think the recipe has a lot of potential; I just need to not mess it up next time.

Almost Vegan Banana Bread

I've had bananas in my freezer for a while just waiting to be turned into banana bread. Today, I looked through dozens of banana bread recipes online for one that used honey and whole wheat, and that also didn't use eggs (I'm out and didn't feel like buying any). I found an excellent recipe that not only met my requirements, but it also didn't use dairy. It's a much healthier alternative to regular banana bread using only 3 tablespoons of oil instead of a stick of butter, and it tastes (in my opinion) just as good.

Because the recipe calls for honey, it's not technically vegan, although I know many vegans who still eat honey. To make it a truly vegan recipe, you could substitue agave nectar, or possibly even maple syrup.

Instead of walnuts, which I'm not a fan of, I used a 3oz bar of Theo 70% dark chocolate that I hammered until it broke up into small pieces. The chocolate was a delicious alternative, but next time I think I'll only use 3/4 of a bar. The banana was obscured somewhat by the chocolate. It might also be quite tasty with cacao nibs instead of chocolate.

Of course, everything I used was organic, and the chocolate, honey, and flour were all local. Overall, I'm quite happy with the results, and I'll definitely be making this recipe again.

Why GMOs (Genetically Modified Organisms) are a Bad Idea

An astounding amount of food produced in this country is now genetically modified - especially corn and soy products, which are used in almost all processed foods. The idea behind GMOs is to make food resistent to pesticides and diseases, while simultaneously promoting their growth. While this sounds like a good idea in theory, in practice, we don't actually know what the effects of GMOs on humans are - there haven't been adequate studies. Studies that have been done on rats and hampsters, however, have shown that animals fed diets high in GMOs had significant reproductive problems and growth retardation.

Not only are there very real potential health problems, we have no idea what the long term effects of GMOs on the planet are. Rapidly changing the genetic makeup of plants and animals will effect the ecosystem. Just think about how devastating the effects of introducing new species of plants and animals to stable ecosystems that have no way of dealing with the newcomers has been. Entire species have died out, as well as new ones taking over and becoming horrible pests.

One of the worst aspects of GMOs is that in the US it is not required that products are labeled as being genetically modified, so unless you are actively avoiding them and know what to look for, you are consuming GMOs all the time. An article in the Huffington Post lists the top 10 reasons why we should be labeling GMOs (click on the links in each picture to read more).

For a downloadable guide to non-GMO shopping, go here. The best way to keep yourself GMO free is to eat organic, non-processed foods, and to make sure that the animal products you eat haven't been fed GMOs.

Chicken Stock

I'm not particularly adventurous in the kitchen - mostly because cooking has always been somewhat intimidating to me. I am, however, making an active effort to cook more often. When you cook from scratch, you have complete control over what goes in your body, and it's the only way to guarantee that what you're eating comes from places that you're ok with.

Last night, I made chicken stock for the first time. I had eaten part of a roasted chicken from Whole Foods, and I didn't want the rest to go to waste. Now bear in mind that I don't have any of the appropriate equipment for making stock. A friend asked me if I had a stock pot, and I said, "What's that?" She looked at what I did have and suggested that I split the chicken in half and use my 2 largest pots to make the stock, so I did, which made it possible for me to make a reasonable amount.

I had no idea how foolishly simple it is to make chicken stock. Put the chicken carcus (skin and all) in the pot. Cover with cold water. Add vegetables, salt, pepper, and any herbs and spices you want, and then simmer for hours and hours. I took a trip to the farmers' market where I bought carrots, spring garlic, shallots, spring red onions, and spring Walla Walla sweet onions. (Only in Seattle are there spring onions at the end of July). The spring onions had the stems still attached, so those got thrown in the pot. I didn't use the Walla Wallas in the stock - just their stems. I want to eat the onions themselves because they are the tastiest onions in the universe. I bought cellery from the store - unfortunately, I went to QFC, which has the worst selection of produce in the world so they didn't have any organic available, but it's within walking distance of my apartment, and sometimes you have to make compromises. I also threw in some fresh rosemary from the garden.

Once I was done cooking the stock, I tasted the result, and other than not having enough salt, the stock was amazing. I added the necessary salt until it was to my liking (which is still pretty low soduim), strained the stock into gladware containers, and put them in the freezer.

I feel rediculously accomplished for having successfully made something that always intimidated me. Now that I know how simple it is, I'll be making it much more often.

In Which I Discuss my Garden (WARNING: if you don't care about the state of my garden, don't read this. You will be bored)

My garden looks like a jungle. My plants are all growing at rates that far exceed what I would have ever expected - especially since I haven't used any fertilizer yet beyond what was in the potting soil. Although everything is growing well, not everything has proven to be successful (due to user error, not because of the plants themselves). My broccoli, for example, produced a beautiful floret that was perfect for eating right when I went on vacation. My roommate, who watered the plants while I was gone, didn't cut it off, so it flowered. I also learned that 2 broccoli in the same pot doesn't work well. One of the plants grew to be enormous, while the other just stopped growing because the first was taking all the nutrients. Some of my herbs (my oregano, cilantro, and catnip) are producing flowers so quickly, I can't keep up with them. This is particularly bad for the cilantro, which when it flowers, stops produing the useful and tasty leaves that are used for seasoning. I got two varieties of lavender, one which hasn't flowered at all, and the other which turns out to have the wrong kind of flowers for harvesting. It's really pretty, but it's purely ornamental. My oregano got some sort of oregano disease. I separated it from the rest of the plants, and it hasn't spread to anything else, which is good.

On the other end of the spectrum are the plants that have done exactly what I wanted them to do. My strawberries gave off a nice amount of fruit. To be truly worthwhile, however, I think I would need twice as many plants as I had this year. My everbearing plants produced a small amount, while my June bearing variety had the highest yield - plus, they just tasted better. My sugar snap peas have given me enough peas for 2 small side dishes, and there's enough on the plants for one more. Once they start to bear fruit, they look horrible - the leaves all start to die as the plants give all of their energy and nutrients to the seeds. I planted a second round of peas - this time with about 2 1/2 times as many seeds as I used for the last batch. They're one of my favorite foods, and as far as I'm concerned I can never have too many sugar snap peas. My cherry tomatoes have far surpassed what I was expecting. My balcony gets partial shade, so I figured I'd be lucky if I got anything at all from the plant. It just keeps growing and growing and growing. The first cluster of tomatoes ripened on the vine - there were too few to make anything from, so I gave them to friends (I hate raw tomatoes, but love them in sauces). Currently, there are dozens of green tomatoes that all appeared at the same time, so they should ripen and provide plenty of fruit for cooking.

It's still too early to tell if my carrots and zucchini will be successful. The zucchini looks like something from the Jurassic era - huge leaves that just keep getting bigger and bigger. They haven't flowered yet, but I'm confident that I will soon have more zucchini than I know what to do with. Zucchini grows really well in this part of the world. My carrots are growing, and I think they will turn out well. I had to separate a few that were growing too close together (if you've ever tried to plant carrots, you know that the seads are absurdly tiny, and it's hard to avoid accidentally dropping a couple of seeds in the space where only one seed is supposed to go). I tried transplanting the carrots, but they don't seem to be doing well. I might just have to give those up as a lost cause and just be happy for the ones that made it.

Then there are the plants I bought from my school's plant sale (Bastyr has a wonderful medicinal herb garden, and they sell herbs and seeds whenever they are available). I decided on a mugwart plant - specifically the Chinese variety that is used for moxa, a calendula plant, and a valerian plant. All three are doing amazingly well. There are 3 baby mugwart shoots in the pot that were really unexpected since it hasn't flowered. The Calendula keeps on flowering, and the valerian is looking good. I need to research how to harvest valerian becuase the root is what's used for medicinal purposes.

Overall, I would say that my garden experiment has gone extremely well. At some point, I seem to have developed a green thumb. I managed to kill almost all of my plants last year, so the difference is impressive. Plus, it's a lot of fun.

Killing Ourselves with Speed

Here's a great article about the current trends in cooking. "It’s time to take a step backward when it comes to technology and get better acquainted with our ingredients."

I know I'm guilty of being lazy in the kitchen, but when I do cook, I make every effort to use fresh, organic, local ingredients, and it's amazing how much more delicious it is than getting something pre-made.

Fresh Flour

My whole life, I've never given much thought to flour. You just buy it at the store and put it into whatever you're cooking. I always thought it was basically idiot proof. Recently, I learned that the amount of gluten in the flour makes a huge difference in how it should be used. Bread flour should really be used for making bread, and cake flour should be used for making light fluffy baked goods. Still, all that information is basic mostly idiot-proof information that is readily available on the internet.

A stand at my local farmer's market has started selling fresh ground flour. I bought some after my friend E had tremendous success with it, even though it's more expensive than what you buy in the store. This is the sort of flour that requires a good sifting (or even two) before you use it to get the larger hulls out. It is worth every extra penny, and the extra work of sifting because holy crap, it makes the most delicious baked goods ever. Apparently, flour goes rancid after a few weeks if you don't freeze it. It doesn't taste bad, but it stops tasting amazing, and it becomes harder to digest. It also loses qi pretty quickly. The stuff available in the grocery store was probably several weeks (if not months) old before it even left the processing plant. What shows up at the store is perfectly functional, bland, uninteresting, difficult to digest, but easy to use flour.

When you use fresh flour, it turns a good recipe into a phenominal recipe. I made whole wheat bread in my bread maker - something I do on a regular basis. I used bread flour from a bag because I didn't have fresh bread flour. In place of my usual whole wheat flour, I used fresh flour. The recipe only calls for 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour, so I didn't think it would make that much difference, but I don't think I can ever go back to using regular flour again. I have also had the same success with pancakes and muffins. Having this flour makes me want to bake. I think I'm going to have to try making cookies with this stuff.

Canning

E and I made strawberry jam yesterday, and it's amazing.
Washington has a short window when the best strawberries in the universe are available, and we took advantage of that. We used local, organic, delicious strawberries, and local, organic honey to make the jam, which incidentally, was really simple. It's a little on the runny side, but otherwise, it's perfect. It makes me absurdly happy that I'll have local June strawberries available to eat all year. There is something very satisfying about canning, and I hope to do more jams this summer. I'm really looking forward to canning Ranier cherries when they're at the peak of their season. Yum.

Help Save the Ecology Program at my Nephew's School

The Pepsi Refresh Everything program is giving away money to some awesome programs. My nephew's school is in the running to get $25K to keep their ecology program running. They're currently 33rd place, but only the top 10 get money. If you help out and vote for this, you'll be supporting a public school in Chicago (the majority of the students are from minority and low-income families). This program is particularly relevant in light of the BP fiasco. Regardless of whether you want to plug the oil leak with BP executives or Sarah Palin, this is something that kids can benefit from for their entire lives. I know I wish I'd learned more about ecology as a kid.

The program has a heavy focus on gardening and teaching the kids how to eat well. They get hands on experience in the edible garden and get to eat the fruits of their labors. If they win, the money will go toward the salary of the teacher, putting up a greenhouse, and paying for gardening supplies.
So please, please, please vote for this program. (It's easy, just click the following link and hit the Vote button). Unless you request it, Pepsi won't send you any emails, so you don't have to worry about spam. refresheverything.com/watersecology

Please pass this to anyone you think might be willing to help.

Thank you so much!

I'm now blogging about my art (usually jewelry) at The Creative Commons, a blog created by a friend of mine as a place for people to post about their creative works and to hopefully get some inspiration and motivation. Check it out. My friends are fantastically talented artists, and I think the site it pretty awesome.

Raspberry Leaf Tea

I'm not a fan of pills. I think that they have their place, but people have a tendency to over-rely on them without thinking about the consequences of over use are. It's well-known that acetaminophen, for example, is absolutely brutal on the liver. For quite a while, I've been only using medicine when I absolutely needed it (e.g. pain that was so bad I could barely function). Last week in class, my professor had us do an energy exercise using western medicines, and it was staggering. We held a pill (any allopathic pill) in our hands, and felt its energy. I tried it with Tylenol, and it was staggering. Its energy was heavy, damp, and gross. I felt sluggish, and after about a minute of focusing on it, I started to feel sick to my stomach. My classmates had equally unpleasant experiences with the various pills they were working with. The other students who were doing the exercise with analgesics (aspirin, advil, and tylenol), felt the same things I did. We then did the same exercise using a medicinal herb, and it couldn't have been more different. The energy of the herb, astragalus, was clean, warming, and cleansing

Needless to say, after that, I haven't been too excited about taking medicine at all, and I'm on the lookout for alternative cures. My new favorite is raspberry leaf tea. It takes care of menstrual cramps like nothing I've ever tried before. It's not the most delicious tea ever - it tastes a little like artichoke, but its healing properties more than make up for the unexciting flavor.

In Which I Gush About My Education

I got my class schedule for summer quarter, and I'm insanely excited! The course load over the summer is very light, so I'm taking a couple of electives. One is Whole Foods Cooking, which is exactly what it sounds like - cooking with whole foods. The other elective I'm taking is a week long trip to a farm in eastern Washington. This is the course description:

This course is a one-week, on-site course at the Quillisascut Farm near Colville, WA. Students will experience the farm-to-table connection first hand. During the weeklong retreat, participants will milk goats, make cheese, help care for farm animals, transplant vegetables, and harvest produce from the gardens. Visits to neighboring organic farms and presentations about honeybees, grass-finished meats, composting, organic labeling standards, genetically modified foods and globalization round out the experience as students gain an understanding of the implications of buying local and with the seasons. Each day, students will work with a chef to prepare lunch and dinner using only ingredients from the garden and products from local farms. Dinner is a culmination of the day's work - a time to feast on the bounty of the farm, reflect on the discussions of the day, and build community around the table. Retreat participants will stay in the new farm school, with bunkhouse-style lodging, shared bathrooms and a professional kitchen.

I was worried that I wouldn't get to take the class because there is a cap of 13 people, but fortunately, I got in. It will be like summer camp for grownups!

My school isn't easy, and it isn't cheap, but because it's a school with many different degree programs (nautropathic medicine, nutrition, health psychology, herbalism, etc.), it's the only school in the world where I can get a degree in acupuncture, and where I can also take advantage of educational opportunities like this. Yes, I'll be in a world of debt in 3 years, but it will be worth it.

How to Fight a Cold Naturally

For a week and a half now, I've been dealing with a URI (upper respiratory infection, or in lay terms, a cold). The particular virus I have is a lingering one, and the cough could potentially last for weeks. Oy. So I've been doing my very best to deal with my symptoms. The more I learn about health and pathology, the more I realize that unless they become life threatining, the awful symptoms are the best way for our bodies to fight diseases. As unpleasant and irritating as they are, phlegm and mucous have their place, as do fevers. So what's a girl to do when she feels disgusting and wants relief but still wants to let her body do what it needs to do?

I don't have a great answer, but I have managed to get through this cold with minimal OTC medications. For the first time in my life, I managed without decongestant or analgesics. I found that using a neti pot twice a day with a solution of salt water kept my nasal passages unblocked, and sinus pressure to a minimum, which is nothing short of a miracle - especially since I'm prone to sinus infections. Unfortunately, my cough wasn't as easy to take care of. It had been waking me up every night, so I tried both an over the counter cough medicine (a drastic measure, as far as I'm concerned), which has worked very well for me in the past, and an herbal cough remedy perscribed to me by a naturopath. Neither of them seemed to have any effect, and I still wasn't sleeping through the night. The one thing I found that helped the most was a steam inhalation with a blend of eucaliptis, peppermint, and juniper essential oils (which also happens to be wonderful for the skin), and I'll be using that remedy any time I get sick in the future - it helps with the sinuses as well as the lungs. In addition, I took an herbal formula meant to boost the immune system, which may or may not have helped, but I'm pretty sure it didn't hurt. I'm still not feeling perfect, but I'm pretty happy with the results of my natural remedies.

Moderation

Over the past few weeks, I have decided that while eating local is a wonderful thing, and that I will do it as often as possible, I'm not going to be a complete locavore. The simple fact is that I love things like oranges, bananas, mangos, and avacados. Right now, California strawberries are ripe and delicious. When I walk through the produce aisle, I can't resist the smell of ripe strawberries. My new rule of thumb is that if something is available locally, I will always choose it over something from out of state. If it's not available locally, I will buy it if it is from California or Oregon, but not if it is from Florida (or other distant states over on the other side of the country). In the case of bananas, I won't buy them from further south than Mexico. In fact, the only reason I am willing to buy them from Mexico at all is that a portion of the profits from all of the organic bananas that Ballard Market (one of my local grocery stores) carries go to a charity that promotes sustainable agriculture and good working conditions in Mexico. I can get behind that.

I still strongly believe that it's necessary to support the local economy and buy organic, sustainable food. I just can't limit myself as much as I have been when the limits feel like punishment. I didn't get into this to feel bad, but to help my planet and my health. Of course, when local products are available, I'll eat those. I can't wait for local Rainier cherries (quite possibly the most delicious fruit on the planet), and local berries. But until the local produce is ripe and ready for consumption, I'll celebrate the wonderful produce that is available from a little further away.

How Does My Garden Grow?

My garden is growing a little bit at a time, and it makes me very happy. I have basil, oregano, cilantro, peppermint, catnip, lavender, rosemary, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries. I have also planted the seeds of zucchini, carrots, broccoli, and sugar snap peas. The peas have begun to sprout (which makes sense, since they were the first seeds I planted). Soon I will have to get some sort of support structure for them to climb up, unless I want my deck to be taken over by vines.

I'm quite amazed at how well the plants are doing given how little sun my deck gets, and especially given that it had been overcast for weeks. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they continue to do well, and that I will have a bountiful harvest this year.

Community Day

It is an annual tradition at my school to cancel classes one day in April for Community Day. Ostensibly it's a day when students, faculty, and staff come together to have fun. This year, they are having Rock Band, and volley ball, among other things. While I appreciate the idea of trying to create community at school, I have opted out of attending. I feel that I already have a strong group of friends among my classmates, and our friendships get stronger daily.

Instead of using up gas to drive 32 miles round trip, I am taking the day to nurture myself. I savored the opportunity to begin a book by my favorite author that I hadn't yet read. I sat in a patch of sunshine on the floor, with my Mico kitty in my lap, stroking his sun-warmed fur, and listening to him purr. I will work on my garden, which is doing remarkably well so far. I will clean my tub and clean out my refrigerator (not fun, but certainly necessary). I will go for a walk in Discovery Park when it gets warmer, enjoying the return of the sun after what seems like an eternity of rain. I will spend the evening with close friends, being nerds and playing D&D. And I will gleefully anticipate the arrival of Atropa Belladonna whom I will see tomorrow.

I can't think of a better way to spend my day, and I am filled with a sense of contentment.

Living Inside Hope

"...the very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. And the most you can do is live inside that hope. Not admire it from a distance but live right in it, under its roof. What I want is so simple I almost can't say it: elementary kindness. Enough to eat, enough to go around. The possibility that kids might one day grow up to be neither the destroyers nor the destroyed. That's about it. Right now I'm living in that hope, running down its hallway and touching the walls on both sides."

-Barbara Kingsolver from Animal Dreams


When I made the decision to become an acupuncturist, I honestly didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. When I knew it was right, I knew it was right; it came to me in a flash of inspiration from my Goddess, and I had no need to question it. I did come up with a list of reasons why I wanted to go into the field, mostly to placate my parental units rather than to make sense of it to myself. Chinese Medicine is my calling - no other word encompasses the full meaning of my experience. Job, career, vocation... these are all too small to describe how I can no longer see myself doing anything else. From the first day of school orientation until now, every day that I get to learn about Eastern medicine, every needle that I put into a classmate, every patient I see, my soul sings in ecstasy.

I used to think that in order to be happy with my life, I would have to do something epic and bold that would capture the attention of the planet and hopefully save Earth and humanity from all its trials. Naturally, I became discouraged. Talk about setting myself up to fail! Thankfully, I've recently had something of an epiphany. Not too long ago, I commented on a blog that, "The purpose of healing, in my opinion, is not to prolong life indefinitely, but to improve quality of life so that everyone has the chance to live up to their full potential." Imagine that. Imagine being able to truly help the people you meet, giving them the foundation and the tools they need to fulfill their divine purpose. It isn't change on a massive scale - it's not a cataclysmic flood that garners attention, awe, and fear, and leaves chaos in its wake. It's the expectation of spring, nurturing a seed into a sprout, encouraging a bud to blossom. It's bringing hope where there was despair and joy where there was pain. It's healing the world one person at a time and having faith that they will each make contributions of their own. It's living inside hope.

My First Clinic Shift

I had my first clinic observation shift this morning, and it was amazing. I had been thinking that it would profoundly suck to have to be at clinic by 8:45AM on Saturdays, but if today is any indication, it's not going to be a problem at all.

As an observer, or secondary, my job is to assist the primary (the student who is doing the intake and inserting the needles). My tasks today included changing the linens in the room, filling out the superbills (a form used for insurance billing), doing moxa, getting supplies for the room, and swabbing points with alcohol. While the tasks themselves weren't very exciting, getting to have contact with patients was fantastic. I truly wanted to help the patients with their problems, and it was wonderful being part of their healing process. Being in clinic today made it 100% clear that I'm going into the right profession.

Everything I've learned until today has been theory. Today, I got to see acupuncture in action, and I got to be part of figuring out a treatment plan for the patients (albeit a small one. I've only been at this for 6 months). My primary seems like he's going to be great to work with. He's very helpful and understanding of the fact that this is all new to me, he's open to things that I have to contribute, and he's got a good sense of humor. My supervisor (the licensed acupuncturist who, well... supervises us) also seems great, and I've only heard positive things about her.

Basically, I think that I would be content doing this all day every day. I know I'm extra enthusiastic because it's shiny and new, but frankly, today didn't feel like work.

Putting It Out There

The following is a post that I had written for another blog:

When CJ came to me a while ago and asked me to write a guest post about my religion for her blog, my initial reaction was that it was quite an honor. My next reaction was, "Oh no, what should I write????" I am Pagan and have been for almost 11 years. My religion has a bad reputation and is widely misunderstood, so having the opportunity to explain things is both exciting and daunting.

I'll start off by clearing up a few common misconceptions. Pagans do not worship Satan. Pagans do not eat babies. Pagans do not sacrifice people or animals. Pagans are not interested in converting you, your children, or anyone else to our religion. If you've seen the movie, "The Craft," then you've seen a perfect example of what we are not.

Talking about what Paganism is, well, that's a lot more challenging. Paganism is an umbrella term that covers a wide range of belief systems. At the core of all of them is the concept that God/Goddess/Deity/Universal Spirit (or whatever you want to call him/her/it/them) is imminent. Divinity is present in the earth and in all living and natural things. That means that god is within me, within you, within my cat, within the trees, within the soil, within butterflies, within spiders, within the food we eat, even within the mountains and stones. God is not to be found, however, in man-made creations such as plastic, vinyl, or polyester, etc. Because of this belief, you'll find that most Pagans have a very strong sense of environmentalism, social justice, and a reverence for life and nature.

From there, it branches into multitudes of sub-religions. Paganism is an non-illuminated religion; there are no holy texts or prophets. It's about your personal experience with the divine, so there are almost as many variations as there are Pagans. It's common to find Pagans who are polytheistic - ranging from as few as 2 deities to as many as thousands. Some believe in only one god or universal spirit, and some believe that all gods are facets of one overarching power. Most of us believe in reincarnation, and few, if any, of us believe in eternal damnation. Some believe that they are practicing truly ancient traditions that have been handed down from generation to generation, dating back to pre-Christian times. Others have done their best to reconstruct what they think was practiced in ancient times based on archaeological evidence and texts. Still others, myself included, think that we are worshipping ancient gods in a completely new way that is pertinent to modern life. Some of the more common Pagan traditions are Wicca, Druidism (or neo-Druidism), Asatru, Witchcraft, Shamanism, and Order of the Golden Dawn.

One of the most controversial practices common in Paganism is the use of magic. The word conjures images of wart-faced hags chanting evil things over a massive cauldron filled with vile substances like eye of newt and tongue of bat. The reality is much less dramatic, and much less scary. At its core, magic is putting your will into the universe in order to affect change. Many Pagans ask for their spells to be blessed by a deity or deities. In fact, prayer is one very potent form of magic. Making a wish and blowing out the candles on a birthday cake is another somewhat less potent form of magic. At its core, magic is not evil or good. It is a tool, and just as a chainsaw can be used constructively, it can also be used for nefarious purposes. Fortunately, Pagans have very strict ethical codes regarding magic. The most common rule boils down to: do what you want, as long as it doesn't harm anyone. This means that curses and hexes (spells intended to hurt someone), and even most love spells are forbidden. The most common spells are those of healing, good luck, and in today's economy, help finding a job. The second most common rule is that you may never cast a spell on someone or for someone without their knowledge and consent. Another is the "rule of three," which states that whatever you do comes back to you three times. It's basically karma - if you do something good, good things will happen to you, but if you do something bad, bad things happen to you. It's a very strong motivator to only cast benevolent spells!

Obviously, this post only touches on the smallest fraction of what Paganism is. www.witchvox.com is a great online resource for additional information if you're interested.

I Belong in a Field

I started reading Neil Gaiman's blog this morning. He's one of my favorite authors of all time, and his blog is wonderful to read. I was tickled pink when I read the post he wrote on my birthday. Halfway down the post he answers a letter from someone asking him about his garden. Part of his reply was, "...American Supermarket vegetables and fruit don't tend to taste like very much. They're grown for looks and for hardiness in transportation, I tend to think, not for taste." He also buys local. I think it's safe to say that a lot more people read his blog than mine, and it makes me happy that he put in a little plug for eating locally grown food.

On a related topic, lately I've been feeling more and more like I need to get out of the city and into the country. I have begun my small balcony garden, but I long to have my own land to sink my fingers into. Not only that, but I want to be able to look at the sky at night and see multitudes of stars. Last night, I went up to Anacortes for my friends' engagement party. Anacortes isn't my favorite town, but it's right near La Conner and Mount Vernon, two absolutely charming towns in Skagit Valley. There are probably many more adorable towns there as well. Skagit Valley is a fertile valley on the Skagit River in Western Washington. Multitudes of tulips and daffodils are grown there, and they have an annual tulip festival. I feel at home there, and it doesn't seem unreasonable that I could live in La Conner and have a practice in Mount Vernon. Of course, it doesn't have to be there. I need to explore more. I need to find the place that feels most like home. Home isn't, and has never been, Seattle. Don't get me wrong, Seattle is a great city, and I have come to love it. But it is a city. A single family home in a good neighborhood costs more than I could ever hope to make in a lifetime, and a home with land... well, that would require that I win the lottery or find a very rich sugar daddy to marry. I've never been a fan of suburbs, with the exception of places like in New England where the suburb is a town in its own right and not just a series of strip malls and tract housing.

I'm not entirely sure what happened to make me want to leave the city life for the small town life. A year or two ago, I would happily and loudly tell anyone who asked that I planned on living in cities for the rest of my life. I even said that Seattle is too small. Now... well, now I just want a quiet, simple life. I'd like to live close enough to the city for the occasional day trip, but the urban life isn't for me. A Strokes song sums up my feelings quite well: "I'm stuck in a city, but I belong in a field."

I'm not planning on moving anywhere for a while, and I probably won't even switch apartments until I'm done with school. But nature and small town living are calling my name. It's only a matter of time.

Generic Vs. Name Brand

I'm not a fan of popping pills. If I'm taking an analgesic it's because I hurt like hell and can't take the pain any longer. Yesterday, my back hurt so badly that I had to take something, or I felt like my spine was going to burst out my skin (bulging disks are so much fun. Really). Unfortunately, I couldn't find my trusty tylenol anywhere. I did find my roommate's generic Aleve, and since he had offered one to me previously, I didn't feel terribly guilty about taking one. I've taken Aleve before, and while I don't love it (it usually wreaks havoc on my stomach), I decided that any reduction of pain would be worth it.

I wasn't expecting that about half an hour after taking the medicine that I would become exceedingly drowsy (it was about 8:45PM - not exactly bed time). I got up to go to bed and staggered around like I had been drinking, unable to walk in a straight line. I also began talking to myself. Mostly I was just narrating what was happening. "I'm walking down the hall. I'm talking to myself. There's my cat, " etc. When I climbed into bed, I started singing nonsense. I remember singing tunelessly, "I am a monkey. I'm wearing a purple hat." My cat jumped into bed with me, and I thought that I had figured out the key to getting my cat to do what I wanted! I just had to sing that little ditty, and she was mine to command. Unsurprisingly, it didn't work. Then my left arm started to feel like it was moving through wet clay. I couldn't get it to do what I wanted it to do, but my right arm worked just fine. Eventually I drifted into a strange state of semi-consciousness. I was fully aware when my roommate came home, but I wasn't able to say hi. I finally fell asleep and woke up with a bit of a headache.

I've had this sort of reaction to medicine twice before - both were generic versions of OTC medicine that I have taken without any problems at all (and both were designed to treat very different ailments). Although I have taken plenty of generic pills without incident, it's clear that there is an inactive ingredient that is used in some generic pills that makes me lose my mind. The last time this happened was several years ago, so I don't have a list of ingredients to compare. I'll admit, though, I'm pretty wary of generic pills at the moment. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop buying ones I haven't had any problems with, but I'll certainly be exercising caution and probably spending a little more for peace of mind that if I take the medicine, I won't go insane.

Vegan Pesto

Tonight, my roommate and I made vegan pesto for dinner. I was a little skeptical. After all, parmesan cheese is one of the key ingredients in pesto. In fact, I hadn't been able to eat pesto in ages because I'm avoiding dairy.

I shouldn't have doubted. The recipe was simple, quick, and amazingly delicious. We roasted about 2 bulbs of garlic with olive oil and salt, and used that instead of the raw garlic. Due to an... incident (my roommate decided that toasted pine nuts would be delicious, and they would have been... if we hadn't left them in the toaster oven until they were charred. Oops), we only had about half the pine nuts called for, so we made up the difference with almonds. The combination was surprisingly delicious. The only thing I would do differently next time is to add a small amount of lemon juice. We ate the sauce on whole wheat spaghetti, and it was an awesome meal.

Happy Ostara

Two posts in one day? What is the world coming to??? I guess that's what happens when I am free from the burden of finals.

Today is Ostara, the spring equinox, the first day of spring. A lot of Easter traditions come from this Pagan holiday - specifically the eggs and the bunny, two potent fertility symbols. According to lore, Ostara is the day the Goddess and God get it on and conceive... the God (he gets reborn in nine months on the winter solstice). This is the perfect time for new endeavors, and of course, it's a great time for sex if you have someone special.

My original plan for the day was to go to the garden store, buy loads of gardening supplies and begin my experimental vegetable garden on my extremely small balcony that only gets partial sun. After all, today is all about growth and seeds becoming something new. Alas, my back decided it wanted none of that and has been killing me all day. I guess my little garden will have to wait until I am able to bend over again. I have been online for a good deal of the day perusing gardening websites and blogs, getting ideas and trying to figure out how best to use the very limited space I have. I wish my cat didn't like to eat plants so much, or I would try an indoor garden as well.

Tomorrow, I will be having dinner with my parents, and my mom is going to give me a bunch of pots that she and my dad aren't using. Hooray for free pots! Figuring out how not to spend more money than I have on this garden is just as much work as gardening will be.

Food Rules - Review

Yesterday, I picked up a copy of Food Rules by Michael Pollan. The book is exactly what its title implies - 64 rules about food to get you to eat better. It is a very quick read, and he summarizes all the rules as, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly Plants." He covers pretty much everything I've covered in my blog - eat whole foods rather than processed foods, eat animals that have eaten well, eat organic, and when possible, eat local, plus some other great suggestions.

The book is very accessible, and it's correct. If you follow the rules, you will have a much healthier diet than the average American, you will probably lose weight, and you will be less likely to succumb to all of the horrible diseases that are caused by the American diet (this statement was not approved by the FDA).

This morning, my roommate, who isn't nearly as excited about food and diet as I am, picked the book up off the coffee table and started reading it. He even told me, excitedly, that he had started following the rule, "Drink your food, chew your drink," which can be summarized as: eat and drink very slowly. At lunch today, I also followed that rule (while blatantly breaking a few of the other rules, but you have to start somewhere, right?), and I found that I ate about 2/3 of what I would normally eat.

The book lacks sources and data to back up its claims, though the author comes right out and says that he's not going to include them, but the data is out there if you look. On the plus side, the lack of scholarly language makes it much easier to read, so the average Joe can pick it up and start eating better immediately. On the negative side, the book is left wide open to criticism and ridicule from the corporations who don't want you to follow the rules in the book.

Overall, I give the book 4 out of 5 stars. It's definitely worth spending $11 and taking an hour of your time to read it.

Like I Needed Another Reason

Ew. Just... ew. There is something fundamentally wrong about food that doesn't go bad. Yet another reason not to eat McDonald's ever again.

The Coffee Party

I didn't start this blog to discuss politics - largely because it's a subject that invariably leads to me getting depressed, dejected, or angry, and I want my blog to have a positive message. Amazingly, I think that there just might be a way to stay positive and bring up politics.

I learned about the Coffee Party today. It's a grassroots organization created as a sort of response to the Tea Party. The idea is not to be radical leftists, but rather to be truly non-partisan (if that's even possible) and to bridge the gap between the left and right and to find common ground. The following quote from the group's founder, Annabel Park, in an article in the Washington Postsums it up nicely:

"We want to shift the paradigm from thinking of politics as a zero-sum game with two opposing sides. If one side loses, the other side wins. This is not a democracy. This is a misunderstanding of the tenets of democracy. Democracy is based on the notion of the common good. People should come together to go through a deliberation process to produce collective decisions that benefit the common good. As citizens, we need to find ways to, first, create a stronger sense of community and common good among Americans. And this is precisely why we believe that the rhetorical frameworks currently dominating our political process is not good for the country."

I hope I'm not jumping the gun, but based on what I've seen so far, it seems like the Coffee Party may be the first political organization that I can really get behind. I know I'm not alone in my frustration with the system. It seriously bothers me that our elected officials have a very strong tendency to disagree with the other party just for spite. I'm also not happy about how corporations are able to buy votes. The Coffee Party is trying to change that. I'm not sure how they plan to achieve this, and I don't know if I'm confident that they will be able to, but as long as the movement stays true to its current ideals, then I'm in.

I went to a meeting this afternoon. It wasn't publicized very well, and there were about a dozen people. We had an interesting discussion about what brought us there and what we think we can do to get the message out. The exciting thing was that the people there truly did represent both the right, the left, the middle, and the disenchanted with politics but hopeful that this movement might bring about positive change. It's not a bunch of radical liberals, but rather people genuinely interested in fixing the problems with our current political system.

Next Saturday is "National Coffee Party Day," and there will be meetings all across the country for interested people to get together and to share ideas. These meetings should be well attended, and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of it. If you're interested in finding a meeting in your area, go here.

Food, Inc - Review

I just watched the documentary "Food, Inc." The information in it wasn't news to me. Most of the information covered was in Michael Pollan's book "The Omnivore's Dilemma." It was, however, eye-opening because they showed limited footage of the conditions in which factory farmed animals live, as well as the terrible conditions for the workers.

The best thing about the film is that it is far more accessible to the average American than a book. I know that most people aren't as gung ho about reading as I am, and many people don't like much at all. "Food, Inc." was an hour and a half, and I think that everyone should watch it.

Most of us are completely ignorant about where our food comes from, yet food is the most fundamental building block for life. Unfortunately, the majority of food available comes from just a few giant corporations, and they are not interested in our health. They are interested in making a profit. It turns out that the FDA and the USDA tend to be on the side of the corporations rather than the farmers and the people. This is not OK.

At the end of the film, they said that every time you purchase food, you are voting. If you purchase organic, local, non GMO (genetically modified), sustainably grown and raised food, you encourage your supermarket to continue offering those products, and to offer more in the future. Yes, it costs more out of pocket to buy organic, but the rewards to your body, your community, and the planet are substantial.

I have found that it can be difficult to start dialogue with people about food. They don't want to hear it. There is a sense of security in doing what is familiar. If people learn the truth about the industries they support with their eating habits, it's uncomfortable, and let's face it, no one wants to be uncomfortable. Food, Inc. isn't a feel-good movie. It is painful to watch at moments, and I'm not ashamed to admit that parts of it made me cry. Even so, if I could, I would have everyone watch it. Hopefully, it will make viewers stop and think. Every time someone chooses organic - even if it's not all the time - it is a step in the right direction.

My Favorite Drug

The following post was a response to a question posed in a friend's blog. My friend is Mormon, and she asked about whether her readers (most of whom, presumably, are also Mormon) drink coffee, which is verboten in their religion. She also asked about how "evil" it really is.

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I am not Mormon, and I don't base my actions on the words of profits, though I do recognize that there is often a great deal of wisdom in what they said. Personal wisdom comes, in part, from understanding the reasons behind rules that we are given. Once we know the reason, we can choose for ourselves whether or not the rules are just and should be obeyed.

I am a caffeine addict. At the end of March I'll be one year "sober." I had to quit drinking all caffeine because of the havoc it wreaked on my stomach. I used to drink copious amounts of coffee, tea, and soda. I still crave it at times, and I have even had dreams of drinking Dr. Pepper.

That being said, caffeine simply isn't good for you. From a Chinese Medicine standpoint, caffeine is the equivalent of a credit card (where you're talking about qi/energy instead of money). It creates false energy, borrowing from resources that you don't have, leading to exhaustion. As caffeine use increases, it becomes harder and harder to stop because you have smaller and smaller quantities of your own natural resources to draw from. Ultimately, this will lead to health problems that can range from fatigue to much more serious conditions.

I had several signs that came from divine origin (a story for another day) that indicated quite clearly that I needed to stop drinking caffeine. I chose to ignore the signs, and my health took a nosedive. I didn't follow a directive from my Goddess, and that made me less faithful. That doesn't mean that I stopped having faith and belief. It doesn't mean that I didn't strive to do my Goddess's will in other aspects of my life. It simply means that I wasn't living up to my full potential as a religious person.

In life and in religion, there are big rules and small rules. The big rules tend to be easier to follow - don't kill people, don't steal things, etc. The little rules are easy to bend because the effects and the consequences aren't as noticeable, and it's easier to justify them. Murdering someone is wrong, plain and simple. Drinking coffee... wellll... that's just not as clear. I would go so far as to say that from a moral standpoint, it isn't wrong; it's just a bad idea.

The problem with ignoring small rules - especially when dealing with religion - is that it becomes easier to ignore other, bigger rules. I know that when I don't act on what the Goddess says in one area, a lot of other things tend to slip, and it takes a lot of effort to get back on track.

The other thing that I try to always keep in mind is that if the reasoning behind a rule is sound (which, if it's coming from a deity, it's pretty safe to assume that it will be), then following it will ultimately make your life easier. Yes, it sure is convenient to have a nice, hot, grande soy no-whip white mocha in the morning to wake you up, but in the long run, there will be consequences. If you're lucky, they won't be as serious as mine, but there are, of course, no guarantees. Coffee won't keep me from heaven, but it can make life miserable.

D'oh!

There is a Chinese Medicine technique called Moxabustion (or Moxa for short) where you burn the herb, mugwort, on or over acupuncture points to introduce heat into the body. I had never had moxa done to me, and there was part of me that doubted its efficacy.

In class yesterday, we learned how to moxa patients and practiced on each other. It was fun, we played with fire, and no one got burned. One of the points that we used (ST 36) is good for a great number of ailments. One of the things that it does is to increase production of HCl in the stomach. My stomach is already too acidic, so I knew that this particular point was one that I shouldn't have anything done to. Because we were using moxa, though, and the point is below the knee rather than over the stomach, I figured I'd be fine. The amount of mugwort used was miniscule, so how could it possibly have an effect?

I have now learned the very important lesson that just because I don't understand exactly why Chinese medicine works, doesn't mean that it isn't going to do exactly what the text books claim it will do. This system of medicine has been around for thousands of years and has been fine tuned and perfected. I spent all day yesterday being absolutely miserable because my stomach was producing huge amounts of acid, exactly as promised. Oops.

Indulgence

I have to admit that I'm starting to feel the difficulty of eating local. Starting this journey in the middle of winter without any preserved produce is wearing on me. I am soooooooo tired of apples and pears and carrots and potatoes (well... ok. I'm not actually tired of potatoes, yet, but I can tell that I soon will be). Even though it's spring here, it's way too early for new varieties to be ready to eat. Heck, not everything has even started budding yet.

In order to keep from going entirely insane, and because I was overwhelmed with an intense craving, I bought a gallon of Simply Orange Juice (with lots of pulp and no ingredients other than orange juice - not from concentrate). It's amazing how good oj tastes when you haven't had citrus in ages. My stomach isn't 100% on board with this because of the acidity, but the rest of my body is loving it.

As with any special diet, I think that the key to success is moderation. I refuse to feel guilty for indulging in something healthy that my body demanded. I need to remind myself that one of the most amazing things in modern America is that we can get fresh fruits and vegetables year round. We tend to take that for granted. When starting out on a new path, it is easy to demonize anything that isn't right in line with that path, but the truth is, there are pros and cons to everything. Do I think that eating local is beneficial to both the planet and me? Yep. Do I think that consuming something that had to travel 1000 miles from California is evil? Nope, but I'm not going to do it on a regular basis - only when the good outweighs the bad. In this case, my body's need for --insert nutrient that I wasn't getting enough of here-- trumped my desire to eat local.

Responsibility

One of my professors mentioned that she had read an article in National Geographic that said there are no more pristine bodies of water left on Earth. I couldn't find the article to confirm, but regardless of whether or not the claim is true, it's a terrifying thought. It may have been an exaggeration, but the fact is that humans are pretty damn good at polluting, and we have the capability to pollute everything, and we are not kind to our planet.

One of the basic principles of Chinese Medicine is the concept that humans are holistic. Nothing in our bodies exists in isolation, so when you treat a patient, you search for the cause of the problem rather than just treating the symptoms. This concept is well known to most people who seek alternative forms of medicine. What is less well known (at least I was quite pleasantly surprised when I learned) is that Chinese Medicine also views the body as not being separate from the environment. The simplest way to think about it is to look at how seasons affect our health. No one can deny that the flu is more prevalent in winter and allergies are more prevalent when plants are pollinating. If you delve deeper, it becomes obvious that poor air quality will lead to a wider prevalence of lung problems, and radiation leads to more instances of cancer. Five Element acupuncture takes things a step further and takes the taoist view that all living things are interconnected and, fundamentally, we are all One. My aforementioned professor pointed out that as the earth gets less and less clean, our bodies seem to reflect that. The example she used was food allergies. More and more people are showing signs of having severe food allergies that didn't make much of a dent in the population before. I remember when they could serve peanuts on airplanes without fear that someone allergic would keel over and die because they looked at a nut. Almost a quarter of my close friends now are "glutards" - people with some degree of sensitivity to gluten, a protein found in many common grains, but I had never even heard of the issue until a few years ago. What if the increase in allergies and sensitivities are reflections of the planet on our bodies? Of course, there are other factors, such as a growing awareness and acceptance in the scientific community of food allergies, but I can't dismiss the notion that the more we damage our environment, the more we damage ourselves. We're not just leaving a legacy of environmental degradation for future generations to take care of, we're actively hurting ourselves and the ones we love with our species-wide ennui. Of course, given that we constantly fill our bodies with food that directly harms us (I'm looking at you, McDonald's), I can't say that I expect this revelation to make any dent in the world.

...which brings me to another point. The problems facing us today are overwhelming - pollution, climate change, natural disasters, war, famine, drugs, gang violence, heart disease, equal rights, oil spills, national debt, reality television, and the list goes on. When I start to think too much about it, I get downright depressed. I'm not exactly in a position of power and influence, and I can't affect change in a meaningful way, and yes, I'll admit that sometimes I think I just shouldn't bother trying. It's so much easier to shut my eyes and pretend that they're not my problems. Don't I have enough to worry about paying bills and studying for my 8 classes? Unfortunately, I can't bury my head in the sand and expect that someone else will solve everything.

I recently attended a Unitarian Universalist service in which the minister talked about responsibility. He said that most people think of responsibility in relation to power. If you have the power to do something about a problem, it is your responsibility to do so. Unfortunately, that definition lets a lot of people off the hook. I don't have the power to fix climate change, so I don't need to do anything about it. The minister offered a new definition that boiled down to - if there is a problem, even if you don't have the power to fix it, you need to do what you can, knowing that your actions alone won't necessarily change things. If enough people follow that definition of responsibility, over time, things will improve. If no one follows it, then we're all royally fucked.

So I pick my battles and do little things here and there that won't change the world overnight. Most notably, I'm eating local and sustainable food, and I hope to bring positive change to people one at a time when I start practicing acupuncture. Every time I do something that I know is the right thing to do, it gives me motivation to do another thing. I know that I will never be perfect, and my actions are a drop in the bucket. It may take time, but with enough drops, we can eventually fill the bucket.

Festival of Lights

In the modern Pagan tradition, today is Imbolc, the festival of lights. It's one of the 8 major holidays that celebrate the turning of the wheel (a.k.a. the changes of the seasons). You may also know today by the names Candlemas (the Catholic version of the holiday), or Groundhog Day. February 2 falls roughly in the middle of the winter solstice and the spring equinox, which are supposedly the first day of winter and the first day of spring. It's kind of like hump day for winter. You've gotten through the first half. Hooray! So you light a bunch of candles to brighten up the gloom, and party like it's 1999 because dammit, you've survived so far, and it's good to have a reason to celebrate.

The reality is kind of different here in Seattle. Today, I went for a walk in Discovery Park. When I started my walk, it was about 52 degrees, sunny, and beautiful. I walked until after sunset, and the temperature had dropped a good bit, but I was still comfortable without a hat on. Leaves were just starting to come out on some of the trees, one particularly hearty plant had put out some flowers, and the pussy willows had fuzzy tips. There were robins, ducks, loons, and seagulls out and about, foraging for food. It's hard to get worked up about winter when, for all intents and purposes, it's over. Oh sure, it's possible we'll get another night or two where the temperature drops below freezing, and it's still a little too early to plant most seeds outside, but really, it's spring. To that I say, "Hooray! Winter is over!!!!!" I don't care if the groundhog sees his shadow, the fact is that it's just going to get warmer and greener and more wonderful every day, and that makes my heart happy. I've lit a candle - not to help stave off the remaining winter, but to honor the return of life and to celebrate new beginnings.

Mmm, Mozzarella

Yesterday, my friend E and I made mozzarella together. Making cheese sounded like it would be a challenging but fun activity. It was certainly fun, but it was soooooo easy. There were 4 ingredients: whole, pasteurized, organic milk, salt, citric acid, and rennet (the citric acid and rennet came in a cheese-making kit that E bought). The process took about half an hour for 3/4 lb. of cheese (about 2 balls approximately the size you would get at the grocery store). Aside from the fact that it's delicious, it's wonderful because I know exactly what went into it. There are no additives, and the milk came from a cow that was pastured and grass fed. I really want to try making other cheeses now. Apparently ricotta is even easier than mozzarella, which is hard to believe.

The recipe book had all sorts of yummy sounding recipes to use the whey in (cheese is made of curds, and a byproduct is a watery substance called whey) including pizza crust. I'm imagining eating pizza in the summer with homemade crust and cheese, and garden tomatoes, basil, and other vegetables. Mmmmmm. I'll admit that most of the vegetables would probably come from E's garden - she has a yard with plenty of space for a big garden and a passion that far exceeds mine for food (I will have planter boxes on my balcony), but I know she will share.