Winter CSA Share 3

This weekend snow kept at bay for the new York City area. Which was good because everyone has been acting like the last snow was the Apocalypse. During the storm of December 26th, the Sanitation Department launched an undercover strike to protest recent layoffs (allegedly...), the mayor was gone on vacation and alternate side of the street parking was suspended for 5 business days! Yipes! So now any mention of a couple of inches of snow and the whole city has been going into a panic. Snow in the forecast has made commuter traffic light and bread disappear from the grocery store shelves. In short we have been acting like a bunch of Southerners. No disrespect intended. But come on people. Put on your waterproof boots and let's get to work already!

The forecast almost kept our farmer from being able to drive into the city Saturday morning to deliver out loot for our January delivery. But the snow petered out and went much further north than intended. At least I think. I don't follow the weather report so closely. The light snow prompted many rounds of the HILARIOUS joke (note the sarcasm) of DH who told Thing One maybe ten times "WOW!! It's really coming down out there!" When in actuality, only one or two flakes were twirling around in the streetlamp light that is visible from our East facing windows. But our CSA shares arrived!

And in the box was a netted bag of potatoes, a shopping bag with beets (Anyone want? really, I am not kidding. Email me if you want these beets. I work in Chelsea-I'll deliver! I might even consider shipping.), one delicata squash, a brown paper bag with four ears of popcorn-still on the cob, a couple pounds of carrots sporting little yellow sprouty tops, two medium onions, a hefty bag of nice apples, a plastic bag filled with greens like red lettuce and tat soi, and one baby red cabbage that has already been sliced for sauer-ing. DH ate all my sauerkraut, which I love!

Some highlights from our weekend in food?

* I was sick over the weekend, very sick. I was running a fever and went to bed at 8pm both Friday and Saturday night. I made another pot of that Potato and Collard Green Soup and it was the perfect amount of both nutrition and carbs. All I wanted to eat was really bad for me things like ice cream and white flour bagels. I resisted, but a facebook fan said the reason for the non-nutritious cravings was that those foods would likely release serotonin...interesting. And worth an investigation!

* I have stooped to a new low. Now I am an out and out liar. I made the kids smoothies this weekend and I not only put in pumpkin puree, I threw in a handful of kale. Yup, really curly hearty raw kale. I couldn't help it, I had to try it. They drank it. The kids had no complaints. They only finished about two thirds of it, but I figured that the kale probably filled them up alot too. It wasn't exactly like my other smoothies. This time I mixed together yogurt, fresh not frozen pumpkin puree, a frozen banana, a frozen pear, some vanilla and some rapadura and the kale. But--wasn't the smoothie GREEN? It sure was! But you know what my trick was? My smoothie cups are colored plastic. We have a blue one and an orange one. I gave the blue one to the baby because it still looked a little green, and he is not going to care. But Thing One had the orange cup and you couldn't tell what the original color could have been. Go on, get out there and get deceitful!!

* I also lied about the coconut flour pancakes being easily made grain free. Yeah, I tried that this weekend and I was eating a soft mush of pumpkin coconut flour mash. The pancakes were too soft to flip. I quickly added the wheat flour back to the recipe and adjusted for consistency. I have removed that preposterous gluten free assertion from the original recipe. I have considerably more respect for gluten free cooks now.

* My kids won't eat pot roast. What kid won't eat a slow simmered (grass fed) chuck roast? This is not a complicated meal. Apparently MY kids. Man. Sometimes I think my food is falling like pearls before swine. I keep telling myself, they'll be different in ten years...

* The CSA popcorn was still attached to the cob. Plus I had four ears from last month. I decided to de-cob it all Sunday night. It was SO hard to get off the cob. It hurt so much and then after a while it stopped hurting. I did the work during a particularly rousing episode of the Wonder Pets, you know the one where they visit the Statue of Liberty and one of the characters has a really embarrassing New York accent? Nobody here really talks like that. I finally got all the kernels off, except for the last cob which was too difficult. I left the last quarter of it's kernels on and just chucked it. I now have a blister on my right thumb!! The blister doesn't hurt too much, thankfully.

Happy Eating Folks!!

Leaves of Three?

Many folks remember the Poison Ivy/Oak warning as “Leaves of three, let them be.”  However, the real saying is “Leaflets three, let it be” because a poison ivy/oak leaf is a compound leaf that is divided into 3 leaflets.  I suppose it doesn’t really matter if you get into a patch of it, but you might like to learn the difference between simple leaves and compound leaves to help better identify other plants in the future.

Trillium decumbens

 

By the way, the picture above is Trillium decumbens, one of the “nice” plants with three true leaves.

Leaf identification can seem to be such a daunting task when you are standing in a forest, surrounded by many different trees and shrubs. You can see the differences – big, little, shiny, hairy, smooth edges, jagged edges – but it’s too much to take in all at once.  I find it easier to consider the differences on paper and then find examples to illustrate them - like a basic leaf identification primer.

First, separate the leaves into two types: Broadleaf Leaves and Needled Leaves.  This has nothing to do with leaves being evergreen, just the type of leaf.  You are probably quite familiar with Pine trees having “needles”; needles are a type of leaf.  Other leaves are considered to be “broadleaf” – leaves from plants like oaks, hickories, magnolias, and maples.  This post is only going to deal with broadleaf identification such as the Florida anise shown here.

Illicium floridanum, Florida anise

 

The next separation is to determine if the leaf is simple or compound.  This brings us back to Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron radicans, eastern poison ivy).  When you see the familiar look of 3 “leaves”, you are actually looking at one compound leaf that is divided into 3 leaflets.  This becomes more evident in the fall when the plant sheds it’s leaves; at that time the leaf sheds itself from the twig at the end of the petiole (the stalk that holds the leaf) which is below the 3 leaflets. As an example, here is a picture of a buckeye (Aesculus sp.) with 5 leaflets.

Buckeye, Aesculus sp.

 

If it were 5 leaves, each one would fall off, leaving the stalk in place.  The picture shows the leaflets separating, but more importantly you can also see the separation of the petiole from the twig itself and that is the key.  The whole structure falls away, revealing that it was a leaf holding those 5 leaflets.

You could also look more closely at the leaflets and see that there is no bud for next year’s growth next to them; that is because you are not looking at a true twig.  A twig has leaf buds: the bud can be found at the base of the petiole as shown in this picture of an oak (Quercus sp.). Notice that where the petiole meets the twig you can see the bud for next year’s leaf.

Oak, Quercus sp.

 

So, a compound leaf has many leaflets.  Some of the common plants with compound leaves are: Hickory (Carya sp), Walnut (Juglans sp), Pecan (Carya illinoinensis), Sumac (Rhus sp), Ash (Fraxinus sp), Elderberry (Sambucus sp), Buckeye (Aesculus sp), Poison Ivy (Toxicodendron sp.), Locust (Robinia sp), and Kentucky Coffeetree (Gymnocladus dioicus). 

Plants with simple leaves have a single leaf, but there is still a lot of variation.  Once you’ve determined that you have a plant with a single leaf, you will want to determine if the leaf is lobed and if it is toothed, two important distinguishing characteristics.

What is a “lobed” leaf?   The dictionary defines it as “a leaf having deeply indented margins”.  Another source compares it to “having fingers”.  Examples are often the best way to understand.  Examples include Sugar Maple, Red Oak, some of the Sassafras leaves (you may already know that Sassafras has both lobed and unlobed leaves), and this delightful Parsley Hawthorn (Crataegus marshallii) which I photographed this fall:

Crataegus marshallii

The spaces between the lobes are called “sinuses” and they can be very shallow or very deep - even on the same plant.  I find this especially true of Oaks.  One fall I picked up a variety of White Oak leaves (Quercus alba).  I was fascinated by the variation.  Here is a picture of the ones I collected showing the variation in shape and depth of sinus.

Quercus alba leaves

Even without lobing, a leaf can be identified by looking at the margins, that is, the edges.  Are the edges perfectly smooth?  Then they are considered to be “entire”.  Florida anise (Illicium floridanum) has such a leaf (see the earlier picture above).

If the edges are not perfectly smooth and they are not lobed, then consider if the leaf margin is toothed.

Terminology exists to describe toothed margins, some of the most common are: dentate, crenate, serrate, biserrate.  Suffice it to say that just knowing that a leaf is toothed may not get you very far without some other details.  American beech (Fagus grandifolia) is a very common tree in my area that has a toothed leaf.

American beech, Fagus grandifolia

Note that you can have a leaf that is both lobed and toothed – see the Mapleleaf viburnum (Viburnum acerifolium picture below).  For identification purposes, consider the pattern of the lobes first when researching it. 

Viburnum acerifolium

Of course the basic shape of the leaf is also very important. Again terminology exists to help define the shapes: lanceolate, oblong, obovate, ovate, oval, cordate are some of the most familiar ones, and you might have to consider more than one term - one tree that I was researching had the leaves described as "oblanceloate or oblong or obovate or oval".   But even with the shape determined, leaves can be similar, so you might also want to look at the base of the leaf (where it joins the petiole, or what many people consider the stem).  In certain areas where species overlap, two types of native deciduous magnolia can be quickly distinguished by that spot alone: Magnolia tripetala has an attenuate base while Magnolia macrophylla has an auriculate base.  Here are pictures of each from my own yard:

Magnolia tripetala

Magnolia macrophylla

I consider leaf shape and leaf arrangement (alternate vs. opposite) to be the basics of identification for most people.  From there you can take it further by examining the leaf for hairs, stipules and other characteristics.  Such details may be necessary to distinguish one species from another, but hopefully you can use the information here to at least get you to the right genus!

A good reference book for plant terminology is "Plant Identification Terminology - An Illustrated Glossary" by James G. Harris and Melinda Woolf Harris.

Environment: Printing Green

In the most recent issue of my newsletter, herbalYODA Says!, I mentioned that I have changed to Century Gothic font because it uses less ink when you print.  I also mentioned the use of GreenPrint, a service that helps save ink and paper.
Now it seems this idea is taking up steam with an article in the CBS MoneyWatch newsletter today.

Five Ways to Cut Costs in 2011

And in this article about saving on printing costs then mention that WWF has started promoting a way to not print at all using pdf files.

Why not make this one of the first savings changes you make in 2011...

Coconut Flour Pumpkin Pancakes

I am sooooo embarrassed that I have no pictures. I forgot to take pictures the morning I made the pancakes. Then the kids ate the leftovers. Now only one cold pancake sits half eaten with tiny teeth marks in it in my fridge. I could take a picture of it, but I didn't think it would do the recipe justice. So, You are all big kids. Use your imagination, just make sure your image includes steam and a pool of maple syrup on one side.

I usually wake up on Sunday mornings (my morning to sleep in) to a hot breakfast prepared by DH and the kids. It is awesome. But usually it is an explosion of wheat, like buttered toast or classic pancakes. Even though we use 100% whole wheat flour, I just kinda like breakfast to be wheat free....is that too much to ask? But I don't have the heart to tell DH that I want him to make something else. I mean I am sleeping in only to wake up to a hot breakfast. I am not going to bitch.

But last Sunday Morning I let DH sleep in. And I set out to prove to him just how little wheat I could use in my pancakes. Let me also be completely proud and tell you that after I looked at a couple of recipes online, I made this one up completely. I felt kinda.....powerful!

Coconut Flour Pumpkin Pancakes (with some whole wheat flour)

The Dry Ingredients:
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
Cinnamon and nutmeg and ground ginger to taste (I have no idea how much I added)

The Wet Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 cup of whole milk
1/4 cup of rapadura, whole cane sugar or any other sugar you have (funny how that qualifies as a wet ingredient, right?)

Get your griddle or pan started, I use that Cuisinart Griddler which is seriously worth every penny. I make paninis almost every weekend, they are ridiculous. Then in a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients together and in a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients together and beat the eggs. Yes, I know that sugar is not a wet ingredient, but beating with the eggs and milk will help it dissolve. Then add the wet ingredients to the dry bowl and bring it all together. The batter will be lumpy. Add some butter to the griddle and fry those suckers up.

They tasted a bit like pumpkin souffles, very tender and soft. The kids loved them. I felt like they were eating veggies for breakfast, and they were focused on the maple syrup. You know what? Their behavior was good all morning, no temper tantrums, no sugar crash. I am happy with this recipe because I know that my Things are getting what they need to be fully nourished. I also wanted to top the pancakes with pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds and chopped pecans. But I only had the sesame seeds, too bad.

Try these--they are really awesome!

Potato and Collard Green Soup

I like most soups, but not all. I particularly like creamy soups, doesn’t everyone? But I usually find the whole thing to be a pain in the ass. The recipes all make too much, and they have a ton of steps. Boo. I am so not into that.

I stopped buying potato chips a few months ago, as many of you know. I have tried to eliminate soybean and canola oils (except for that occasional fried something at a restaurant…I can’t help it!!! It is so hard!). I couldn’t find any chips fried consistently in healthy oils, so I just let them go. We will often have sandwiches on the weekends. But even though my kids do, I don’t like having carrot sticks with my paninis. So here is the new world’s greatest soup. It is stupid easy. It’s super quick, only about 20 minutes. And I added seasonal dark greens and didn’t lose my mind with the fat. The basic recipe can be altered 100 different ways. I made this whole thing just to include some heavy dark leafy greens in our day.

Potato and Collard Green Soup
4-5 cups of stock or plain ole’ water
1 ounce of bacon (no nitrates)
3 small/medium waxy potatoes, skins on (if you are using Idaho or Russetts, peel them)
I leek
1-2 cups of collard greens roughly chopped, or one HUGE leaf
¼ cup heavy cream
Don’t forget to sale and pepper to taste (you didn’t need me to tell you that)

In a pot, boil the bacon, potatoes, leek and greens in the stock or water. Boild until the potatoes are very soft, about 20 minutes. Blend the soup well. I used an immersion blender, so this is a one pot meal. When the soup is blended, add in the cream and blend it in. Serve it hot.

The variations are ENDLESS here. You could make the soup completely vegetarian by eliminating the bacon and stock. You could add more greens to make it ‘greenier’. You could substitute kale for collards. You could change out the leek for onions. You could eliminate the greens and make just a potato leek soup. Jeez, you could do anything here. It is awesome. And easy. And fast. And husband approved.

This post is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays

Another Reason Fast Food Makes You Sick & Fat

Fluoride in fast food wrappers - Exploring Indirect Sources of Human Exposure to Perfluoroalkyl Carboxylates (PFCAs): Evaluating Uptake, Elimination and Biotransformation of Polyfluoroalkyl Phosphate Esters (PAPs) in the Rat"

FAST-FOOD WRAPPERS ARE A SOURCE OF TOXIC CHEMICALS"
It now appears that dangerous chemicals line the wrappers of fast food.
PAPs (polyfluoroalkyl phosphate esters) are used as non-stick agents on the inside of fast-food wrappers, which are now found to make their way into the food contents. Once consumed they are metabolized into PFCAs (perfluorinated carboxylic acids) - dangerous chemicals which can cause cancer.
Scientists at Toronto Uni, Ontario, say the wrappers could be a major, and totally unexpected, source of these chemicals. They've found high concentrations of PFCAs in a number of popular fast foods.
The chemicals are used to make paper resistant to grease and include some burger and fries wrappers.
Until now scientists had assumed that the high concentrations of PFCAs found in most people's bodies came from such things as the fluoride used in non-stick cookware and stain-repellent furnishings etc.

Maybe I Should Clarify This High Fat Diet Thing...

Don't be fooled, I did all my back tracking on Monday. But I have been thinking alot about the 7 pounds I have gained, and about some books that I have been reading, which we'll talk about next week, and I decided that I needed to address the whole fat thing.

We are as a nation obsessed with fat. We are obsessed with fat on our plates, in our animals and in our own bodies. We have gotten to the point that fat is so frightening that our conception of female beauty is actually an underweight woman. And that is a travesty, both for my gender as well as the future of our culture. But there have been whole books written about that topic, and I don't have the strength to tackle it here. But Fat, I will deal with you now.

In the 80s, people became obsessed with fat. The first USDA food pyramid came out in the late 80s after a long time of categorizing food by the much more appropriate Basic 7 and later the more simplistic Basic 4. The first USDA food pyramid emphasized a low fat diet. Later that same decade then Surgeon General C. Everett Koop declared that Ice Cream should be considered as dangerous as cigarettes. He was sure that fatty diets were causing most of the country's heart disease. Here is a fascinating article from 2007 about dietary fat and nutrition. What is astounding to me is that obesity rates spiked drastically after about 1980, right around the time that fat became a demon and HFCS because a standard issue ingredient in processed foods.

In my November post about How I Beat the Sugar Monster, I talked about how I eat fat. I embrace fat. I am not afraid of fat. But I have taken special care to reduce the amount of overly processed fats I eat, like corn and soybean oil. And eating grass fed or pastured meat is important too, because those animals, overall, are healthier. So the animals fats I eat are cleaner too. I have even started to add fats to my daily diet, like coconut oil to my breakfast and more olive oil to my salads for lunch. Good right?

Absolutely. Except...I probably didn't need to add too much fat to my diet in the form of added fats. I drink whole milk, I eat whole yogurt, I have 2-3 avocados throughout the course of a week. I also eat a full array of meat and other animal products, like raw cheese. My diet is rich with healthy fats. But when I found out for sure that I had gained the weight, I started thinking about my energy levels. I have been feeling more sluggish recently. I have been favoring higher calorie foods recently. Maybe there is a connection.

As I pondered my 'situation' I thought about how I used to eat in the past. Even just a few years ago I saw fat as baaaaaaad for you. It was sure to make you fat. I never liked the low fat versions of anything because they were so processed and lousy tasting and full of chemicals that I didn't want to eat. My way of eating low fat was to eat foods that were naturally low in fat and to cook with relatively little added fat. And I did lose weight that way, because I was eating less. Recently since I have been eating more fat, I have noticed that my skin has looked better, plumper, brighter. I believe that is because my body is balanced overall. Healthy skin really does come from within.

But As the weather has cooled, I might have embraced fats too much. In the summer months raw veggies are all around us. The winter gives us harder veggies that must be peeled or boiled or roasted in order to be eaten. They are more time consuming. I have really wanted to remain true to the seasons. So I have eschewed imported tomatoes for pumpkins, trucked in green beans for turnips and high mileage corn for kale. But overall I have simply had more meals that didn't include fresh veggies. My breakfast of late would be just granola, no fruit. Whereas in the summer, berries would be so cheap and plentiful I would eat as much fruit as granola, making me fuller faster! The same thing has been happening at dinner. I have fewer seasonal veggie options that I can make quickly, so I am more apt to serve potatoes (or rice) with a meat, sans veg. Is anyone else going through this? There were even several weeks where my grocery store did not have organic broccoli and green beans, so I didn't even have a choice. All in all, the process has been more difficult, so I have been eating less fresh veggies. And all the while I have been pouring extra fat on my diet telling myself that it was important to my diet.

I have been pissed for a while by nutritionists that write articles on Yahoo or The Huffington Post and say that fat should be eaten in moderation because it can lead to the over consumption of calories. I mean, what kind of nonsense is that? Fat makes you full. I have never been so full as when I transitioned back to eating foods that had natural fat in them. But I am starting to understand the thinking. We should be eating foods that are rich in natural fats like whole milk and meat and avocados. And added fats will be added to cold salads and cooking. But...we don't need to lose our minds. Just as we cannot be afraid of fat itself, neither can we be afraid that we are not getting enough. I should not be adding more olive oil to my salad every day than I always did. Because I always added enough. Now that I know how important fat is, I don't really need MORE. My old diet was not fat deficient. I admit it. I was a bit like a kid that learned a new word and wanted to try it out in every sentence. I have gone a bit too far with fat. I gained 7 pounds (I am sure that Christmas office treats played a role in that too), so now I have a bit more respect for fat.

My whole 'thing' is about self discovery and pushing the limits. I am pleased that I did just that. I am pleased that I went too far and added too much fat to my diet because now I know the limit. I know that I will sensibly lose my 7 pounds and I won't have to buy a gym membership or hot pink leg warmers or some $600 laser-something at Bliss to work on my cellulite. I promise that in 2011 I will not lose my mind. I will add oils to my salads, but I won't drink from the bottle (I never actually did that). I will cook with coconut oil, but not spoon it like a supplement (I never actually did that either). I mean--I just don't need to, I know some people love doing just that. But I get enough through cooking. And when I am cooking, I will use enough butter or oil to make my food delicious, not overly greasy. Fat is good for you, but she is a bitch if you don't treat her right. Take it from me.