What Can People Expect?

Well, our attempt to start the blog back in September hit a bit of a speed bump.  Our younger daughter, Laura, was staying with us for a time.  That was great, since she hadn't lived with us for about ten years.  Bonus points for our wonderful little granddaughter, Elena, being there too!  It was time for them to move:  Laura had taken a much better job out in Wisconsin.  On top of that, we'd both lost our parents in the last year, plus Gina's youngest sister, and an assortment of birthdays and anniversaries hit us one after the other.  Argh.  We just kind of hunkered down there for a little while.


We are ready to start blogging now, as we set about improving and simplifying our eating habits.  We don't belong to any single "camp" in the wide and confusing world of diets, so we'll be borrowing ideas from the Weston A. Price Foundation, the original Paleolithic Prescription, and a few others.  Gina and I find merit in discussion of how certain cultures are living and eating, from the islands of Crete and Okinawa, to the high valley of the Hunza, and others.  We'll explain more as we go along.  We're not dietitians, but we believe there is an over-reliance on specialists these days in many different fields.  We have a long way to go to get where we want to be.




I've been working on refining my cooking skills for several years now.  My only restaurant experience was a short, long-ago stint at a pizza parlor, and some moonlighting at Domino's as a delivery driver for a few months back in the early 90's.  Getting robbed put the kibosh on that!  Gina has decided she wants to really learn baking, pastry and candy making (not so healthy, that, but all things in moderation - even moderation!).  She may enroll in a school, but she's still debating that one.  There will be a lot of experiments to share as she goes along.




I'm not a huge maker of bread and desserts.  I am the proverbial chef/cook vs. Gina's baker, I guess.  Much of my food comes from Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, but I also make American, Mexican (Mexicali and Tex-Mex, much of it, as that is where we have lived), and other dishes.  We will provide variety.  As we anticipate moving to the Upper Midwest later to be closer to the kids and grandkids, I have some interest in exploring Northern European traditions.




I use a variety of pastes, spice mixes, and the like in cooking the more exotic cuisines.  In recent weeks I have made kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), kroueng (Cambodian paste of herbs and aromatics, similar to a Thai curry paste), a Southeast Asian chile paste of my own design, and a Shan chile paste (the Shan live along the border of Thailand and Burma, and their chile paste includes peanuts, sesame and fermented bean paste).  Others are going to be made soon, which I'll be sure to chronicle.




We will be covering some of the aspects of gardening and growing one's own food, while we also plan on spending more time at farmers' markets and purchasing free-range pork and beef from local farmers when we can.  The house we rent right now has multiple fruit trees (apple, pear, Asian pear, plum, sour cherry, quince, fig), nut trees (a huge walnut tree and some hazel nut trees, which the squirrels raid... !#%&^#@%) and berries (blueberries and blackberries).  This means we don't have a tremendous amount of full sun for other things.  We currently have pots of lemon grass, oregano, borage, galangal, kencur, krachai and zerumbet.  Those last four are all members of the ginger family, as well as a trio of jalapeno plants.




Lastly, we have just started blocking out a family cookbook that will share recipes from both of our families as well as our own favorites.  Gina's family and mine share surprisingly few recipes we consider distinctive, so we should have quite a variety to offer with this project. 




Please, come along with us on our journey to improve our family's food!  Always add at least a dash or sprinkle of love to everything you make!




Steven

Shopping for Chicken Soup...

Steven and I are on a journey to better health through better foods. One of our goals this month is to start making bone broths.  So, today we picked up the ingredients for our first foray into this new adventure.

I'm fighting to get over a stomach virus, so my husband wants to make an Indonesian chicken soup, using a broth made with chicken bones and some Chinese and Southeast Asian medicinals.  Some of the “special” ingredients include things like dried mushrooms, seaweed, and (dum dum duuuum...) chicken feet.  *giggling*

I call our son, Matthew, to check up on him, and he asks what we're doing. I tell him I am waiting for his Dad in the car, while he shops in the large Asian grocery store nearby. I hear an indrawn breath. He asks me another question, "Ummmm, what exactly is Dad buying in that market, Mom?"

I tell him, "Chicken feet and seaweed."

I hear a loud gusty sigh as he processes my answer. “What do you need chicken feed for? Great, Dad's on one of his weird cooking things again.”

“No, chicken feet.  F-E-E-T."

He shrieks, "WHAT!?!? CHICKEN FEET?!?!" In the background, I could hear our 16-month old granddaughter yelling “'Top! 'Top!”

I permit myself a cruel chuckle and answer, "Yep. Chicken feet."

He immediately begins ranting about his father and his weird food and the whale penis...*snert*

Innocently, I ask him "What. Don't you like chicken feet?"

Very seriously, he replies, “Of course I do. On CHICKENS!"....*giggling again*

I did finally get him to relax. I explained to him, while he was gagging, that it was just part of the broth; not something he had to actually eat. I have to be honest, though, the entire conversation gave me the giggles.

--Gina