Until further notice...

Not that this will come as a shock to anyone, but I am suspending my writing indefinitely. We have been blessed with a child who does not need much sleep - Even the doctor confirmed that it seems he is one of the handful of kids that breaks the "normal" mold in this realm. That said, what few minutes I get to myself will not be spent blogging about the food adventure I am on, though I continue to draft posts in my head. Thanks for reading my few thoughts thus far. I hope to pick this back up on some future date when the timing is right.

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

Satisfying to even my skeptical and hyper-carnivorous husband! :) All you need is some good cornbread or a whole grain roll to complete the meal. The list of ingredients may look long, but don't be discouraged! This really is quite simple to make and so worth the effort!

Serves 6 people two bowls each...which is what I found to be what everyone wanted when I served this to guests.

Takes about an hour total to make.

Ingredients:

1 cup onion, chopped
1/2 cup carrot, diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
2 T. fresh ginger, minced
2 bay leaves
4 T. olive oil
3 cups sweet potato, cubed*
2 t. curry powder
1/2 dry white wine
2 cans chick peas, drained
10 cups chicken broth**
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2 cup brown lentils
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
salt to taste
plain yogurt or sour cream

*make these large cubes or the sweet potato will be mushy

** I am using up some soup base I have in the cupboard, but in the future I will try this with either vegetable stock or homemade chicken stock made from a happy chicken (well, at least happy till she was in my pot!). ;)

Directions:

In a soup pot saute onion, carrot, celery, ginger and bay leaves in oil over med-high heat till soft (8-10 min.). Add sweet potatoes and curry powder; saute 1 min.

Deglaze with wine and simmer till wine is almost evaporated. Stir in broth, tomatoes and lentils. Reduce heat to med. and simmer uncovered till lentils and sweet potatoes are tender (25-30 min.).

Off heat stir in half the cilantro, lemon juice and salt. Garnish each serving with a dollop of yogurt or sour cream and cilantro.

Enjoy! :)

First Shopping Trip

The first shopping trip post proud-of-my-plate resolution found me in our neighborhood health food store - The Turnip Truck. Previously my budget did not allow for me to do extensive shopping there, but now the quest to make it work begins...

Along with my bags of produce and my three month old, I walked away with two thoughts and a question:

First of all, I noticed that not all organic food is that much more expensive than non-organic. Celery, for example, was only ten to fifteen cents more than I would have paid at Kroger. It seems then that organic food isn't exorbitant if:

A) You buy mostly produce versus packaged products.
and
B) Said produce is in season.

I bought organic veggies including sweet potatoes, onions, fresh ginger and lettuce and none of it broke the bank.

What could break the bank is going wild in the dairy section. $4.00 for milk(!), $5.00 for cottage cheese(!!) and $6.00 for stick butter(!!!) means I won't only be cutting back on the meat I buy but the animal products as well.

Musing over the four sticks of butter in my bag that cost three times as much as I normally pay, I realized that my value of this product has likewise increased threefold and therefore my consumption of it will decrease in proportion. This means then that unless it is a very special occasion, I will forgo making those chocolate cookies that call for three(!) sticks of butter because this butter is now the gold currency of my kitchen. And that's a good thing, right? I mean, who needs anything with three sticks of butter in it anyway?!

Butter is one of those things that used to be treated like gold by everyone, but since it has been made so cheaply and readily available it has been devalued. I remember reading the Little House on The Prairie books when I was a kid and marveling over how hard they had to work to make things like butter.

So here's the second thought: Buying organic products will help me respect the effort it takes to create this kind of prepared food and will not only benefit the health of the animals it comes from, but my own body as well. (Because...the only way to turn when you've stepped away from meat and animal products is toward vegetables and grains, and who couldn't benefit from more of that heart healthy, all around great for you stuff?!)

Finally, I was excited to see "Local" labels calling attention to, you guessed it, locally grown or prepared food. The thing is though, none of the local items I looked at were organic. So the question is, which is the better choice: Local or Organic? I want to do some research and see what I can find out that might help me decide. But for now, I think I will buy whichever one is cheaper and remember that the point is I am thinking about where my food comes from and that either choice is certainly something to be proud of.

A Fork in my Culinary Road

Ignorance is not an option once the mist is blown away and the truth stands before you, naked and grotesque. I had heard rumors of sad chickens crammed on shelves in order to pop out egg after egg for my omelets and soufflés with not so much as a frolic in the sunshine on solid ground for a thank you. This idea of the unfulfilled farm animal often prompted me to splurge for the “cage-free,” “all-natural,” or “organic” animal products. But that was before I saw those unhappy creatures in the documentary Food, Inc. and realized that their circumstances present concerns far beyond some ideal of emotional contentment. Treated with no more respect than the nuts and bolts of the assembly line, these animals are perceived as hamburgers and bacon with skin rather than the dynamic, living, breathing and purposeful beings that God created them to be.

So now the question is, can I pick up a package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and not remember those hobbling birds whose underdeveloped bones cannot support their overdeveloped meat? Will a fancy steak still be refined cuisine to me when I remember the cow it came from standing ankle-deep in her own manure? All of my adult life I have delighted to slave over the stove for hours upon end experimenting with different recipes - a slave much more to the delight of eating than the necessity of a meal. But now I realize that food must be about more than taste or even calories and certainly convenience. I want to respect life and the planet, my body and my community and the future of my baby boy that I influence with every vote of my fork.

This then is the beginning of my food odyssey, a journey I embark on without knowing the exact route, but the destination of which I am certain - to be proud in every possible way I can of the food I eat and serve my family. To begin, I will adjust my diet so that I utilize only animal products from humanely treated livestock. I want to explore buying local and organic food, growing a kitchen garden and many other food related issues. As the mother of a 3 month old and on the budget of a middle-class, one-income family my mission has certain time and monetary limitations, so I am sure that creativity will be the key to success. My hope is that you will join me on the journey and will start giving more thought to the origin of that finger-lickin' fried chicken, that winter tomato or whatever your next bite may be.