The Sweet Side of Snow

I'm sure there are a million reasons that our neighbors think we are weird.  And most of those reasons are completely valid too.  Somewhere in that list is "they have this bowl out on their deck all winter".  We do.  I have a big bowl that I put out every winter in anticipation of snow.

Let me tell you why.  My kids love sweets.  I love sweets too.  I think it's a Dutch or a Swedish thing.  Or a human thing.  And somehow, treats that you can't get anytime you want are even sweeter.  So what does this have to do a a bowl of snow?  I use that bowl of snow to make some of our most appreciated winter goodies.

At the first sign of a snowflake in the air, my kids start getting giddy.  "Mama, do we have enough snow in the bowl yet?  Is it snow caramel time?"  Their eyes gleam.  Their little mouths start to salivate.  Their minds become a single track, leading to delicious sugary confections that only come on snowy days.

A Milk-based Rant

I'm a fan of don't ask don't tell, when it comes to the military's poilcy, because I believe that all people should have equal opportunities.  What can I say?  I'm a people lover.  Where I'm not a fan of this policy is when it comes to the food I eat and serve my family.  You see, I have this crazy notion that if I am eating 3 meals, plus a snack or two a day, putting things into my body, that those things affect my body.  And I'd like to control that.  But if things like additives and chemicals aren't included on the labels, how am I supposed to know that they are there?  Oh...I'm not supposed to question that?  Silly me.

I'm pretty even-keel, for the most part.  This morning, I am livid.  I'm livid over this petition to the FDA from two of the biggest dairy conglomerates to change the definition of "milk" to be able to include additives, including aspartame, in milk without noting that on the label.  It would merely become what is considered milk.  You can read the proposal yourself, and I'm not going to pick it apart too much here, but it infuriates me.

The Best Things You Probably Aren't Eating Yet: Jicama

My family eats weird food.  And we love it.  And it may even be good for us.  Variety is the spice of life, right?  So, with that in mind, I'm going to share some posts of foods that we love, and that you might not be eating...yet.  Hopefully it will inspire somebody to get out there and broaden their horizons.

I'm going to start with jicama.  You pronounce it "hick-a-ma", or at least, that's how I say it.  It's a total hit at my house, loved by all 5 of us.  Yes, even little Mr. Picky will chow down on jicama.  It often makes it's way into the girls' lunchboxes, and at the start of every school year, they get a big kick out of telling me about all the people (kids and adults both) who ask them, "What the heck is that?".  The trials and tribulations of being a foodie kid, I guess.

Frozen Assets

My freezer is legendary.  I've blogged about some of the treasures it contains, but even before this blog existed, that freezer had a following of its' own.  At one point, I was going to make it a Foursquare check-in and call it "Frostco".  My friend requested that I devote a post to my wonderful freezer.  It's out in the garage, a full standing freezer, and it is one of my most appreciated possessions.

I think a lot of people don't really use their freezers to their fullest potential.  I know I used to be scared of freezing stuff, and I thought that things that were frozen didn't taste as good.  Turns out, I was wrong.  You just have to know what you're doing.  My freezer and I don't have a perfect relationship.  Don't get me wrong.  It's horribly unorganized.  Nothing's really boxed, so it has to fit in where it can, and sometimes I end up with a 4-pound frozen chicken hitting me in the head while I'm getting frozen veggies out of the lower drawer.  And don't even get me started on the day last summer when the seal lost it's sealing power and I lost half of what was inside.  It felt like a small part of me died that day.  Maybe I get a little overly emotional about food.  But, for the most part, I love my freezer, and it's become pretty essential to my family's eating.  

OMG, WTF is a CSA?

If you hang around me for any length of time, you'll probably hear me mention my CSA.  And if you're following my crazy antics on this blog, you've probably seen we write about it.  And you've probably figured out that it is something related to vegetables, or farms, or at least food in some way.  But you might not know what, exactly, a CSA is.  So, let me fill you in...

The acronym CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Basically, people in the community buy a share of a farm, and in turn, receive a share of the harvest.  There are CSAs all over these days, and they can vary a lot.  Some include vegetables, fruits, some add meat, eggs, cheeses, preserves, or other local goods.  Some use several farms together and some come from a single farm.  For the single reason that it's the one I'm most familiar with, I'm going to use the CSA my family belongs to to explain it to you.

Piggin' Out

The other night, my kids were up in arms.  It was another crazy schedule of a day, and we only had about 40 minutes to make and eat dinner between activities.  Silly me, I had forgotten that I had told them they could have mac and cheese for our next quickie dinner.  So when they asked what we were having, and I said pork chops, the reaction was less than pleasant.  They must have inherited my "undying love for mac and cheese" gene.  Then, my oldest paused from the "But you said..."s and asked, "Are the pork chops from Amy's?".  I grinned, because I knew I had them now.  "Are there any other kind?"  Wink.  There was a split second of silence, and then, in unison..."Yay!  Amy's pork chops!!!"

If you haven't read me brag on her already, the Amy in question here is the owner of Amy's Organics, our local organic mobile farmers' market, and she carries some fantastic meat on her truck.  I've already written about the fish she carries.  The Berkshire pork chops, no doubt, are my family's favorite.  Amy gets her pork chops from Black Earth Meats, who believes in farming methods that are organic and humane, and they also are grass-fed.  Joel Salatin, a farming icon, likes to talk about respecting the "pigness of the pig", and to me, these chops are what that ideal tastes like.  They are a deep, rich pork flavor, and once we tasted them, any store-bought chops pale in comparison.

Ice Fest

This weekend, my family and I went to the Downers Grove Ice Fest.  It takes place the second weekend of February in downtown Downers Grove, and usually has a loving theme, since it falls close to Valentine's Day.  This year, it was "Love is in the Air!".  They have over 30 ice sculptures all around downtown, live demonstrations, a special movie showing at the Tivoli Theatre, and a lot of the shops run in-store promotions for the weekend.  We've been to it in years past, but the last couple of years, it just hasn't timed out with other obligations, so I was excited at getting to check it out again.

Weather around the Chicagoland area has been, well, unpredictable to say the least.  Outdoor festivals always have their challenges.  You would think that ice in February would not be a big problem, but this year, it was about 40 degrees out, and raining on and off.  We still braved a quick walk-about to check out some of the cool (pardon the pun) creations.  The sculptures were intricate and creative.  Some had other objects encased in the ice to add effects and color.  We stopped and watched the carvers works, using chainsaws and irons and chisels.  One of the demonstrators handed out baggies that contained a chunk of ice with a coin sealed in the middle of it to each of the kids.  Talk about a lesson in patience!

I think the pictures tell the story pretty well on their own.  If you're interested in this event, or others in Downers Grove, check out www.downtowndg.org.

Beet Haters Got to Hate

Confession time:  I hate beets.

You see, because I'm big on veggies, people assume that I love all of them.  And that's just not true.  I do like most of them, but some, especially the sweeter root veggies and squashes, take a lot of convincing for me.  I'm not big on earthy sweetness, I guess.  Beets have never been near the top of my list.  Honestly, they don't even make the list.

I always tell my kids not to say that they hate a vegetable.  I tell them that they may not like it in the way it was served, but they just have to find the way that they WILL like it.  And I use my arsenal of cooking techniques to convince them that it's true.  So far, it's worked pretty well for me.  None of them are big fans of steamed zucchini, but they love it shredded up and crisped in olive oil with a little salt and pepper, and they adore it in muffins.  So now, if you ask them, they will tell you that they like zucchini.  And if you give them something and tell them that it is zucchini, they will not have an adverse reaction to it.  As any parent of young children knows, that's the biggest part of the battle.

Summer Memories - Part One

So, on a typically dreary Chicagoland winter's day, or a weird one like today where it's raining and in the 40s, I can't help but think back on sunnier times.  Personally, I'm all about the in-betweens, and spring and fall are my favorite times of year, but I married a summer man, and I have grown to enjoy those hot, humid days as well.

We couldn't have asked for a nicer evening!

Now that the kids are getting a little older, we've been taking a yearly vacation up to my grandmother's cottage on Lake Michigan.  It's one of my favorite places, for many reasons.  We overlook the lake.  You can hear the waves crash all night.  Every other house you drive by sells firewood.  Our cell phones don't work there.  You get the picture.  It's just lovely.

This past year, we did something that I have never done in the almost 30 years that I've been going up to the cottage.  We went to a fish boil.  Now, I am a bit of a foodie freak.  I love food and the stories behind it.  I'm a huge advocate of local farms and food culture.  So, a fish boil might not sound exciting to everyone, but to me, it was a huge deal.  A dream of mine, you could say.  You see, a fish boil isn't just boiled fish.  In fact, the fish almost becomes a side note.  It's a gathering, seeped in tradition, an event.  And it's a perfect example of everything I love about local food.

When Dinner Goes Wrong

I have kind of a reputation around my 'hood, and not the kind you worry about getting in high school, or the kind you fight to earn in college.  People who know me know that I'm a big fan of cooking at home, family meals, from scratch.  I'm the crunchy mom in the group, the (gasp) "healthy" one whose kids like eating crazy things like sushi and lentils and fruits and veggies.  Or at least, that's how some people think of me.  I get the impression that because of this facade, they think that I am always super on top of things, especially in the kitchen.  And there are days, weeks even, that that may be the case.  But usually not.  But sometimes, there are days where I have a grand plan, and I remember to plan ahead enough to thaw stuff from the freezer and shop for any ingredients I might be short, and I have a wonderful recipe in mind to cook, and the stars align and angels sing, and I just know that this, THIS, is the perfect day to cook a warm, rich, soul-soothing beef stew!

And then the universe laughs, once again, at my silly need to control things, and I unwrap my roast to cut it into lovely chunks for stew, and it looks...like this:

Beautiful beef, right?  Grass-fed, gorgeous color, great marbling...and frozen solid.  As a rock.  My beef guy, John, has many talents as a farmer, and apparently one of those talents is wrapping the butcher paper around the cuts of meat so well that that meat is able to hold its' temperature forever.  On the early fall afternoons when we're driving our half steer worth of beef home and don't want it to thaw in the coolers on the 4 hour drive, that's great.  But for my dreams of beef stew tonight?  Not so great.  Crushing, in fact.

Chocolate on the Brain

So, today we went to the arboretum for a wonderfully delicious event: the annual Chocolate Expo and Market.  To me, it might as well be that scene from Willy Wonka where they run into the room where everything's edible and gorge until the greedy chubby kid falls in the chocolate river and spoils it for everyone, only before the river fiasco.  Bunches of local chocolatiers and vendors, with very high-quality artisan goods, and almost all of them have samples of all the products.  Sugar rush like none other.

This is, I believe, at least the third year that my family has made it there to this choco-rific event, and it did not disappoint!  Sample after sample of chocolates and caramels and other sweets, twisted and developed in ways that I usually only get to drool about while watching Food Network.  Get out your wiping cloths, and try not to lick the computer screen.

Rice Cooker Risotto

There is no hiding my love for risotto.  I'm pretty crazy about rice to begin with, and smothering that with cheese just makes it irresistible!  But the "risotto method" is a pain in the tush.  One pan for the risotto, a pot of hot liquid that you add little by little, stirring the whole time, until your arm wants to fall off and your 3 kids have probably mortally wounded each other in the other room because they know you're tethered to the stove...no thanks.  I love risotto, but I also love this thing called sanity.

But, back in the day, even before the kiddos came along, I came across a method of making risotto where the risotto doesn't constantly need attention like a screaming newborn.  So, I can have my risotto and my sanity too.  And, because I love it so much, I'm sharing it here with you!