More Notes

On Iced Tea for Grown-Ups or Children: I still think this is a terrific, tasty drink, but I would look for straight herb teas if you are going to serve it to children in any quantity, as I found that even the decaffeinated tea had a fairly caffeine-y effect when I drank a whole pint glass.

On Agave Nectar: Sugar is sugar is sugar, or so I read in Eating Well magazine. A typical soda has the equivalent of NINE teaspoons of sugar in it, so unless you are putting three full tablespoons of agave syrup or any other sweetener in your tea, you are still better off than soda. The issues that were mentioned in the link I posted about opposition to agave nectar were about its "raw" status. Agave is only "raw" if it is not heated above 115 degrees. If you care about that sort of thing.

On The Book: I'm really enjoying it. Last night I found myself straining to keep my eyes open because I really wanted to know about dairy products vs. soy. (The October issue of Eating Well also has an article with charts comparing various types of milk and milk substitutes.)

On Things for Sale: I also have a white electric Kenmore dryer just sitting in my garage. Works great, relatively new looking. $100.

If You Think That Life Is A Vending Machine

When I was in my early 20s, I became a vegetarian. At first I did it for health reasons. I slowly cut back on red meat, to see how I would feel without it, then meat altogether. I was 20, so I felt fine. Possibly more energetic, though at the time I was a hyper college student, taking 12 units in school, working full time, and swimming on the swim team for hours each day. It would have been hard to feel more energetic. Of course, it could have been my popcorn and diet coke crash diets, too.

During that time I moved from meat-eating Modesto to the groovy veggie haven of Santa Cruz, and found it easier and easier to be a vegetarian. Being poor and fending for myself foodwise didn't hurt either. I'm not saying I ate great food. My roommate and I lived on $100 per month each for groceries. There was a whole lot of ramen going on. Ramen with frozen peas, ramen with frozen peas and corn, or just corn, or with an egg and some soy sauce, or with cabbage and fish flakes. Mac and cheese in vast quantities, also with variations of peas, corn, and/or salsa. And not the blue box mac and cheese, either, no, that would have been a couple of blocks too far upmarket. Think more like 25 cents a box.

I started identifying with the reasons other people were vegetarians. I didn't want to eat animals either. As someone who could simultaneously espouse the virtues of tofu AND sneer at oatmeal-complected whining vegans because I could still wear leather shoes, I felt superior.

I am having some fuzzy memories of eating large, meat-laden sandwiches, so I know I strayed from time to time. I considered myself a mostly vegetarian. When I was working in a deli, any sandwiches that didn't get picked up at the end of the night were fair game-- and free. Begging vegetarians can't be choosers. The rest of the time, it was Vegetarian Vegetable soup and leftover heels of bread in the toaster oven at home.

Have you ever heard Wolfgang Puck say "vegetable"? He says, "wegetubble". Mike and I laughed ourselves silly watching him cook a wegetarian meal on TV once because he repeated it so many times. But that's not what I got on this keyboard to write about.

I was a happy mostly-vegetarian. I was in step with the times and the local people. I was one of them, and I had access to great fresh veggie stuff at wonderful markets like New Leaf and Staff of Life. I'm remembering delicious whole-grain fig bars right now, and my mouth is watering.

Then I moved back to Modesto. Against my better judgement. I didn't know what else to do, I guess. I worked for a weird little wine bar close to the house I grew up in, about 20 years before I knew spit about wine, and I helped the chef (he of the famous Cobbler Dough) prepare each day's food. There was no actual kitchen, as I recall. I forget now how we actually made it all happen.

One day, I was peeling and deveining shrimp. As I handled each one, I started thinking about how each little shrimp had been swimming along in its little shrimp paradise, and wondering how they might have felt as they were scooped up and were frozen or cooked en masse. I started to cry. I don't know if I was crying because I felt for the shrimp, or if I felt for myself as a vegetarian in a strange land. I couldn't stop cleaning the shrimp, because it was my job, and it was what I was asked to do, and I needed the job, because I was stuck in Modesto and I couldn't get out. Like a shrimp...in a net. So I did what anyone else would do after I mopped myself up off the shell-strewn floor and put my time card in the slot. I went out for a hamburger. A fast food hamburger. A McDonald's Quarter Pounder. With cheese. And I ate it. And I liked it.

And why is that on my mind today? Because if you are against everything, you stand for nothing. When I reached the point when I was crying over spilled shrimp, being vegetarian wasn't me anymore. I don't want to become militant or didactic about my current healthy food trend, but I think I already have. I don't want to be the person at the party who rolls her eyes at the margarine and sneers, "I can't believe it's not butter. I mean, I can't believe it's not butter," under her breath. But I already did. It was rude. I thought it would be dryly funny, but it came out spoiled and bitchy and mean. My dining companion had the good grace to ignore me.

I want to embrace food, and people, and share time with people I like. They don't have to be great cooks. We don't have to eat artisinal, house-cured, homemade, virtuously organic, local anything. One of my favorite people made me a grilled cheese sandwich once, with white bread and those cellophane-wrapped cheese slices. She's not a foodie, and I like her anyway. I am still glad that organic food has become both trendy and good business, and that more people are taking the time to choose foods that are real and that do the least harm to the earth and to themselves.

I used to watch a lot of re-runs after school, and besides learning to do that thing that Ginger from Gilligan's Island could do with her nose, I also watched Barbara Billingsly wear aprons and pearls and provide a perfect life, complete with after-school pb-and-j's and home-cooked meals to a well-mannered family in a perfectly clean TV house. And that's what I thought I should aim for.

I began, like Martha Stewart, to think that all that perfect-ness was the only way to show you really cared, and that if you weren't making the effort, you were failing. So all of this virtue-collecting has snowballed to the point that I'm irritating myself a little bit, and I need to relax about it. Maybe have a Twinkie or something. Ok, not a Twinkie, that would be gross.

Futon

Behold, the fabulous futon, neither a bed nor a couch, and yet both. I no longer have enough room or enough overnight visitors to have this futon frame in my office full time, so I am offering it up to a good home to make room in the closet. It is in perfect condition, sturdy, pretty easy to assemble and easy to raise/lower from bed to sofa. It has always been a guest room bed, never a daily sleeper. (I think we paid $250-300 for the frame.)

With the futon, it is functional as a sofa, but it pretty dang hard as a bed. I recommend a foam cushion on top, unless you are trying to make sure your in-laws don't overstay their welcome. The futon is covered in plain black cotton canvas. Futon is optional.

Also available:
50's red formica table-- top in good condition, chrome legs are dinged and have rust spots. Great for crafts, baking or pasta making. Lots of good food made and eaten on this table. Here's a blurry old picture of it.

Notes

Virtual Book Club: feel free to post a comment about the book on any post, not just on the VBC one, if you'd like other readers to know your opinion. If you just want me to see it, you can of course email me directly.

Design Time Available: I have just wrapped up a big project and I'm available for design work again. I really prefer being busy to being bored, so if something comes your way that you think I might be remotely interested in, I'd love to know about it.

If you are dreaming of a tropical getaway, or a life far away from the life you currently lead, whether or not you are currently unencumbered by pets, children, or a job that doesn't happen to be portable, I think you might enjoy daydreaming about the opportunities offered in the Caretaker Gazette. It's a newsletter published bi-monthly by a couple in Texas.

The opportunities posted are for caretaker/property manager/house staff/etc. positions around the world. Since you have to subscribe, it's probably only practical to consider if you're really thinking about a life change, or have a house to swap. Horse folks are particularly in demand. Even though we are happily employed at the moment, it's always fun to wonder what it would be like to dog-sit in Surrey, U.K. for a month, then mind the kitty in a San Francisco apartment, before jetting to New Zealand to care for 6 reptiles and some cockatiels and swap the home sweet home for a villa in Tuscany to wrap it all up. Wouldn't that be a fun blog to read?

I told Mike that if I ever had to cash in his life insurance (if you know what I mean) that this is what I'd do. Own a tiny little home base somewhere and dog-sit around the world.

This Week in the Garden (And the Kitchen)

VBC

Ok, so I started with the book (What to Eat) dutifully reading the introduction. Then I spotted one of the cover subjects "Are Vitamin Supplements Safe?" Safe? Ack! I jumped up a few chapters and read that whew! it is ok to take a multivitamin supplement, but you probably don't need it-- it's better to get your vitamins from real food. But watch your super-supplements, especially single-vitamin mega-doses, of non-water-solubles, like vitamin E. Sometimes too much of a good thing is too much. As it turns out, there is a company that tests supplements (supported by consumer subscriptions, not by drug companies) to make sure that they have in them what they say they do, and don't have what they shouldn't. I've added the link consumerlab.com to my resources at right.

Then I saw this one: "Yogurt: Health Food or Dessert?" and I had to flip forward a chapter or two for that one. I don't think I eat a lot of dairy, but I do have one yogurt almost every morning during the week. Whew, again, as long as it's a low-fat, non-sweetened yogurt, I'm just getting the dairy plus some potential but unconfirmed benefits from the bacterial cultures. (Minuses: my yogurt comes from Greece, and it is not organic. ) But people, if you are feeding your kids Go-Gurt or Danimals because they will eat it and it's good for them, it looks like you might as well hand them a pint of Ben and Jerry's and a spoon with their Cheerios, because it's chock full of fat and sugar. Most yogurt is dairy dressed up, and like a Russian hooker, the more tarted up it is, the worse it is for your health. (Hey! I LOVE blogging after a glass of wine on a Sunday evening. I think it makes me more CReaTIVE.)

I like Marion's straightforward and pragmatic approach. Food should be pleasurable, not a headache. It should be good for you. When in doubt, consider the source, do your best, and don't worry too much about it. Eat less, move more, favor fruits and vegetables. It's really simpler than you think.

Summer Day

The More I See the Less I Know

this photo was on this website, but I'm sure they found it somewhere else

The other day, I asked my co-worker what her name would be if she could have a different name than the one she was given. She thought about it a little bit and said, "I have always liked the name Jolene." I asked her what her middle name would be, and while she was thinking, I said, "Jolene always reminds me of that Dolly Parton song, "Jolene, Jolene..." and started to sort of sing it. "Jolene Jolene?" she asked, as though that was the suggestion for first and middle-- which we found hilarious.

"And the last?" "Clooney." she said without hesitation.

It took me a second to figure out that she picked Clooney not because it sounded especially beautiful with Jolene Jolene (what wouldn't?), but because it would mean she was married to George. But "Jolene Jolene Clooney" is also hilarious. We cracked up every time we thought of it the rest of the afternoon.

The next day, she realized she had forgotten to ask me my choices.
I haven't thought about it in a long time, but I always envied plain, straightforward names that people could easily spell and pronounce. Like Jane.
And that's the end of the story.

Best regards,
Jane Jane Kiedis

PS- There is WAY too much color on this page now. Time to change palettes.

Just Because It Says Natural, Doesn't Mean It's Good For You

Or so say these folks about Agave Nectar. Hopefully Marion Nestle will address this in her book.

Recently Eaten

Green Beans, Yellow Beans, Shallots and Gypsy Peppers: stir-fried in olive oil, sprinkled with feta cheese and fresh herbs.

Greek Salad: Cucumber, red onion and tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano and feta

Corn, Green Beans and Fresh Black-Eyed Peas: simmered in butter

Frankengrape

Well, chardonnay is fermenting away in its tanks and barrels, and Pinot Gris is next on deck. Pinot Gris, which we all know as a white wine, is actually this color: not quite noir, not quite blanc. In fact, Pinot Gris is a naturally occurring mutation of Pinot Blanc, which is in the same family as Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Some vines will actually produce both white and rusty-colored clusters, so the incoming grapes look like this:


Luis snagged this cool cluster from a passing bin. None of us had ever seen the mutation express itself in a single cluster before. The colors actually spiral around each other. The most remarkable thing was the single grape that was both white and black. Cool!

This Week in the Garden

Drink Me

Iced Tea for Grown-ups or Children

Ingredients
8 Decaf Apricot or Peach teabags (Republic of Tea)
Boiling Water
Agave Syrup (aka Agave Nectar)
Soy Milk

Method
Pour boiling water over teabags in a metal or pyrex 1 qt container
Steep 10 minutes
Pour into refrigerator storage container
Add cold water to desired strength, chill
Sweeten with agave syrup
Add soy milk to taste
Yum

No caffeine, no high-fructose corn syrup (check your soy milk to see how it's sweetened), no high-fat dairy, tasty

Black Bean Green Beans

A tasty, easy preparation for fresh green beans. This is a variation on a recipe from Andrew Weil. The combination of black beans, green beans and garlic is supposed to be very good for you.

Black Bean Green Beans
(Or Green Beans with Black Bean Sauce)
Ingredients
1 lb green beans, trimmed and broken into 1 inch pieces
1 red "gypsy" pepper, halved, cleaned and cut into 1/4 inch strips
+/- 3 cloves garlic, diced
1/2 can black beans
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tblsp "Soy Vey" teriyaki with wasabi if you've got it
(OR 1 tsp soy + 1 tsp honey + 1 tsp toasted sesame oil if you don't)
1 tsp sriracha chili paste

Tools
Saute pan + lid
Knife and cutting board

Method
Saute garlic and pepper in oil until garlic has softened (but not browned)
Add black beans and their juice, heat until bubbling
Add green beans and remaining ingredients, stir
Cover, cook, stirring occasionally, until green beans are al dente
Adjust seasoning to your desired balance

Remember: Salt will intensify as the dish cools, so easy on the soy if you plan to eat these cold the next day as a salad, which, by the way, is delicious.