Musings

On Monday, I met a college friend, Chip, for lunch.  He lives in Arizona now, but was back east visiting his parents ("Why is everyone complaining about the weather?  This is nothing!").  We were supposed to meet at Pistachio Bar & Grille in Allentown at 11:30.  I got there a few minutes late, but knowing Chip, figured I'd be waiting a while.  So I hung outside waiting for him to show up.  Long story short, after a half-hour of bad cell phone connections, I figured out that he was sitting inside waiting for me.  Jeez.  Decent lunch there--he got some sort of chicken sandwich.  I got a Cuban Pressed Sandwich.  Fairly tasty.  A good place for a casual meal.  They have good hummus for an appetizer.

We walked around our alma mater, Muhlenberg, to see what's changed.  A lot has.  Someone's giving to them--they're not doing all that renovation on my $25 a year!

Boy, the fields must be celebrating with the rain we've been getting.  Pretty humid for us, but for the veggies, it's great.

Went to the Caboose Grille in Souderton yesterday with MB & Jake for lunch.  The menu was pretty nice--sandwiches, wraps, salads & burgers.  The food was fine--nothing exceptional, but good.  MB got a buffalo burger.  I got a special--turkey, sun-dried tomato, fresh mozzarella on a rosemary foccacia.  Jake got a burger & fries--nice size for a children's portion.  The restaurant is housed in an old train station and that gives a neat feel to the place.  It's one of those places that's good, but if they did a few little things food-wise, it would be very good. 

The other night I made a stir-fry with Jake's Chinese long beans.  Pretty much like regular green beans except they do taste a little different.  You can taste the difference more raw than when they're cooked.  I'd say they have a little more "herbal" taste to them as opposed to the "grassy" taste of a raw green bean.  They're pretty cool, though.  We've been eating a lot from our garden: squash (of course), eggplant, beans, broccoli.  A few grape tomatoes have ripened, but we're waiting for the loads of other tomatoes to do the same.  They're going to hit all at the same time.  There are a few watermelons growing bigger and bigger.  Peppers aren't doing so well this year for some reason.

Getting ready for my cooking demo at the Ottsville Farmers' Market on Friday from 3-7PM and the Plumsteadville Grange Farmers' Market on Saturday from 9AM-12PM.  I'll be cooking up some nice dishes using the great things offered by the vendors at the markets.  Stop in, say hi and try some samples!

I'll also be cooking at Blooming Glen Farm on Tuesday afternoon.  So if you're a member there and pick up your shares that day, check out some of the dishes I'll be making using the things you'll be taking home.

Surprise!

As you may know, part of our garden this year is a "Jacob Garden" where Jake is growing some of his favorites--mint, beans, broccoli, some flowers that he started at school, a cactus that he got from somewhere (I forget where).  Things are doing well, except the beans, which were climbing like crazy up the bunch of sticks that we set up for them.  But there weren't any beans on them...or so we thought.

Last night I was watering and noticed something hanging on the plant--sort of hidden in the leaves.  Then I realized what they were--beans.  But not just regular old green beans.  These were Chinese long beans (also known as yard-long beans, asparagus beans and snake beans among other things).  We had no idea that was the kind of beans we bought.  I had seen them used before, but never saw them "in person". 

As you can see from the pictures, they're really long (thus the name).  That's a regular sized yellow wax bean in the picture below for comparison.  They're used in much the same way that a green bean is used.  They're from Asia, so they're often used in stir-fry or fried slowly as a side dish.  They're also sometimes eaten raw.

They are incredibly nutritious, too.  According to the USDA, they are a good source of protein, vitamin A, thiamin, riboflavin, iron, phosphorus, and potassium, and a very good source for vitamin C, folate, magnesium, and manganese.  In fact, one serving gives you 31% of your recommended daily amount of vitamin C.  Pretty amazing.

Supposedly, they are vigorous climbers (which we have seen) and should be harvested daily because the beans grow so quickly.  Hmmm...I wonder what long bean/squash recipes I can come up with!

Picky, Picky

The other night, Jake threw a fit when we tried to have him taste some squash (yes, the squash again).  We usually don't force him to try things because he's usually very good with trying things--and once he tries something, he usually likes it.  For some reason, that night we really wanted him to try it and he really didn't want to.  It could be worse.

I know that even though Jake doesn't eat things like sauces (plain pasta is one of his favorite things), cheese and potatoes (I swear he's the only kid in America who doesn't like cheese & potatoes), he's far from being a picky eater.  He loves virtually every fruit and many veggies.  He's a huge carnivore and really enjoys fish--tilapia, salmon, tuna, etc. 

Picky eating in kids is kind of expected and accepted.  They'll grow out of it, right?  Well, according to a very interesting Wall Street Journal article, No Age Limit on Picky Eating, there are more adult picky eaters than you may think.

Jeremy M. Lange for the Wall Street Journal

Heather Hill says her sons, Andrew, 3, center, and Nicholas, 2,

are less fussy than she is about the foods they eat.

The article talks about new studies that pretty much label picky eating as an eating disorder.  But it isn't as easy to label as things such as anorexia and bulimia.

Unlike people with anorexia or bulimia, picky eaters don't seem to make food choices based on calorie content. They aren't necessarily skinny or obsessed with looking a certain way. Researchers don't know yet what drives the behavior, but they say textures and smell can account for a picky eater's limited diet. Some will only eat foods with one consistent texture or one taste, leading some medical experts to speculate that picky eaters have some obsessive-compulsive tendencies. Doctors worry that over the long term such eating habits could lead to nutritional deficiencies linked to health concerns, including bone and heart problems.

Picky eaters tend to gravitate to certain foods, including blander products that are often white or pale colored, like plain pasta or cheese pizza. For reasons that aren't clear, almost all adult picky eaters like French fries and often chicken fingers, health experts say.

The article profiles some people who are adult picky eaters.  Most find any way to avoid social eating situations, work lunches, etc.  They don't eat meals with their kids for fear that their pickiness will rub off on them.  One 29 year-old woman claims that she's only eaten about 10 different foods since she was 3 years old.  A support website, PickyEatingAdults.com has about 1400 members.

As someone who eats pretty much anything, it's hard for me to imagine eating only a few things over and over.  But apparently, for many, it's a way of life.  A way of life that often comes with stress, embarrassment and anxiety.  Luckily for those people, more is being learned about their situation and there are ways for them to get help and support.

Chocolate Zucchini Bread

In an effort to stem our seemingly never-ending squash overpopulation problem, Mary Beth made some really delicious Chocolate Zucchini Muffins the other day.  She got the recipe from my sister, Stef (not sure where she got it).  The recipe is for loaf bread, but MB made it into muffins with no change to the recipe except the baking time (see the recipe for that change).  She did use half all-purpose flour and half whole-wheat flour to make them a little more healthy.

CHOCOLATE ZUCCHINI BREAD

INGREDIENTS
2 c flour
3/4 c cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
3 eggs
2 c sugar
3/4 c vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 c grated zucchini
1 c chopped nuts (optional)
1 c chocolate chips

• Combine first 4 ingredients and set aside.
• Beat eggs; add sugar, oil & vanilla.  Mix well.
• Add flour mixture to egg mixture and mix well.
• Add zucchini, nuts (if using) and chips.  Once again, mix well.
• Pour into greased pans (makes 3 8x4 or 2 9x5 loaves or about 18-20 muffins)
• Bake 45-60 minutes for loaves, 20-25 minutes for muffins or until bread or muffins spring back when pressed with your finger.  Don't over bake or they'll dry out.  It's better to err on the side of underdone than overdone.

Pigging Out

Yesterday, MB, Jake & I went to Bushkill Falls for some hiking.  It's sort of hiking--mostly climbing wooden steps, but still nice.  We thought we might be crazy since the forecast high for Bushkill was 95, but in the woods it was much cooler and the falls, although not rushing as they probably usually are because we haven't had rain in what seems like 6 weeks, gave off a nice cool breeze.  (How 'bout that for a run-on sentence!)

Jake is quite the hiker.  After a brief "I can't walk any more" incident, he traipsed up and down all those steps.  A long way for those little legs to go in that heat.  He was a real sweatball, but he loves it.

When we got home, I grilled up some slices of stuffed tenderloin from Blooming Glen Pork as a quick dinner.  Have you ever had that?  Mmmm....pork tenderloin stuffed with sausage (we had country, but you can get sweet or hot Italian) and all covered in bacon.  Pork stuffed with pork wrapped in pork.  Oh yeah.  You may notice that we're once again eating squash--we're still overrun with them.  MB made some really tasty chocolate zucchini muffins, but that's for another time.

Down on the Farm, Part II

Back at the end of May, we planted our garden.  You may remember my previous post about it.  Well, not much more than a month later, things are looking pretty good!  In fact, it's the best our garden has done in a long time--maybe ever!

A mix of nice garden weather--hot and humid--and our using mushroom soil this year are the causes of our green success.  Already, we've picked more zucchini and squash than we can use--there are about 7 or 8 in our fridge and we've made muffins and fried & grilled squash.  Gotta be creative.  Our tomatoes aren't getting red yet, but they will.  We've had a nice dinner with our beans and there are eggplants, peppers and watermelons starting.  And there will be loads of ground cherries.  If I only knew what to do with them.  Hello, Google!

As you can see from the pictures, the plants are growing like gangbusters--almost growing too much.  The squash plants that ate Blooming Glen!  I'm worried that the plants in the middle won't get enough sun, but I'm sure they'll be OK.

Mary Beth deserves pretty much all of the credit for our gardening success.  She's the one who spent so much time pulling weeds and getting the beds ready.  The least I can do it make her some dinner.  Something with squash, perhaps.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Locavores are Thriving!

I have local food on the brain--from promoting and enjoying a successful screening of Fresh: The Movie to planning for my cooking demos at local farmers' markets to seeing roadside produce stands coming to life all over the place. 

As I've said before, I find it kind of funny that it's so trendy to eat like folks did 150 years ago.  But it's a good trend--one that benefits our health, our environment, our communities and our taste buds. 

It isn't just here in our area, the locavore trend is nation-wide, which bodes well for the future.  Changing the food culture in our country is something that has to happen if we are going to return to a healthy, sustainable way of producing the food we put in our bodies. 

An article in the Napa Valley Register On-line tells of author Janet Fletcher's new book, Eating Locally, A Cookbook Inspired by America's Farmers.  In researching the book, she visited 10 different CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) all over the country and found them thriving.  

CSAs not only give local farmers a way to earn much-needed income, but gives those who are members fresh, healthy produce that they probably would not otherwise get to enjoy.  There are heirloom vegetables that are too perishable to ship across the country like those in the grocery stores.  There are veggies like kohlrabi or collard greens that are new to many people.  And it just makes you feel better to know where your food is from, to talk to the farmer who grew it and to be confident about what you're putting in your mouth--and the mouths of your kids.

That's what buying local food is all about.  Food that's better for you, better for the community, better for our world and, best of all, better tasting.  Let's keep this trend going!