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10 Tips to Have the Best Holiday Ever

The Local Cook — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 11:26:23 +0000

Way back in August I had the idea of writing a seasonal e-book (you know, it’s what ALL the cool bloggers are doing). Or maybe a series of daily posts on the topic. Know what? Life happened. So then I thought, if I don’t have time to write it, you probably don’t have time to read it. So I’ve distilled my thoughts down to 10 simple tips – so you can have the best holiday ever.

And while I won’t be able to charge you $9.99 for the download, I hope you will enjoy it:

1. Forget about having the best holiday ever.

It will never live up to the expectations that you see on TV. Never. Not even if you hire Martha Stewart as your personal assistant. But that’s OK. Pick one ~~or two~~ things that are meaningful to you and your family. Focus on those. The rest can slide.

2. Remember that there really are starving kids in Africa.

I’ve seen them. My mom used to tell me to eat my dinner because “there are starving kids in Biafria.” I thought she was mispronouncing Africa. Turns out there really used to be a country called Biafria. Remembering that we have so much in a world where so many have so little, helps keep things in perspective. Incorporate family giving (of time, talent, or treasure) to a favorite charity sometime during the holidays.

3. Alcohol. Lots and lots of alcohol.

DH and I discovered this one year when it occurred to us that since neither of our families are against drinking (well, except one of my sisters who married a Baptist, but she doesn’t mind us drinking in front of them), why not bring a keg of his hard apple cider to the Christmas parties? It was a huge hit and took the edge off. Somehow we were able to not take certain unnamed family member’s snarkiness so personally.

4. Make a list. Then, make the real list.

You can find TONS of checklists throughout the internet. You can also just sit down and write out everything that you want to do. Then, laugh out loud, give yourself a reality check by assigning realistic times to those items, bearing in mind that everything takes twice as long as you think it will and that you have to allow for last minute parties that always come up. Then, cut it in half. Prioritize.

5. You can’t please everyone all the time.

A lot of stress around the holidays comes when you are trying to fit in too much family time on all the important days. One Christmas we found ourselves eating a dinner on Christmas Eve with DH’s Dad, huge lunch with my family on Christmas day, and then later that same day driving an hour to have yet another large dinner. In addition to gaining a few pounds, we gained a new perspective–this was nuts! So now we still have Christmas Eve with his Dad, but alternate Christmas Day with my family and his mom. The family that doesn’t “get” us on Christmas Day gets us on another day near Christmas. And that seems to work just fine. Yes there was pouting in the beginning, but we set our boundaries and stick to them.

6. Share the workload.

Potluck is a marvelous thing. In fact, I thought it was a normal way to split up the main meal until my husband was flabbergasted our first year together when I asked him what his mom would like me to bring for Thanksgiving dinner. Many hands make light work, and especially if you all live in the area, why not share the cooking? The host usually cooks the bird (for obvious reasons), but there’s no reason others can’t split up the side dishes.

7. Hire a cleaning service.

It might seem like a splurge, but chances are there are some people who could use the money a lot more than you could, and they just might be cleaning people. I have not done this yet, but every year I tell DH I’m going to. Suddenly he pitches in.

8. Respect different love languages.

If you’ve read about the 5 love languages, you know that everyone prefers to show and receive love in different ways. These include words of affirmation, touch, acts of service, gifts, and a couple more that I don’t remember at the moment. I discovered right away that while DH and I have gifts at the very bottom of our list, it is very high on my mother-in-law’s. So DH and I don’t exchange presents, and I try really hard to act appreciative when my mother-in-law insists on an entire day of shopping right before Christmas and then proceeds to get additional gifts because she loves to see a huge pile of presents under the tree. I try very hard not to talk about consumer culture and environmentalism.

9. Don’t overdo the decorations.

It leaves scars. When DH was growing up, they had a Christmas tree in every room of the house. To this day, he refuses to put one up and really doesn’t care if I decorate or not. So I usually put up a few small things and call it a day. If I had kids, it might be different, although my favorite tradition was decorating the tree with my parents. Even if my Dad wasn’t home from work yet, we would save out “his” special ornaments to place on the tree until he arrived. Our house never did look like the Griswold’s, and that was perfectly fine by me. If your neighbors go overboard, you can always mention that it’s much more environmentally friendly to not use so much electricity.

10. Let leftovers be leftovers.

There will be all sorts of posts the day after Thanksgiving about what to do with leftovers. Rather than clip recipes and try to think of how to disguise turkey one more way, why not give yourself a break and eat them as . . . leftovers. If you really want some easy ideas, check out this post from last year, “In Defense of Leftovers.” And if your family doesn’t want to eat them, remind them that there are starving children in Africa.

This post shared at Top 10 Tuesday, Works for Me Wednesday, Simple Lives Thursday, Things I Love Thursday

Recipes, Although Inspired, are Not the Bible (Or, how I had a revelation and skipped the pizza on CSA pickup night)

The Local Cook — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 22:59:42 +0000

So I was standing in line at CSA pickup tonight STARVING. For breakfast I had a half cup of granola and some raw milk. Lunch was a leftover piece of grilled KFC and about half a cup of leftover vegan chili from lunch out the other day. I’ve been eating crappy the past few days as I never did get around to meal planning and have had some late nights at work and whatnot. Pizza crossed my mind . . .

and not even good pizza. The $5 pizza from you know where. As I was picking up gorgeous chard, beets, lettuce . . . my body was craving good food. Real food. But I hadn’t meal planned. I really wished I knew how to cook. I mean, Anja (the CSA co-owner) could probably whip up an awesome lentil soup or chard something or other over rice with one hand tied behind her back. Real cooks have recipes in their heads, or don’t even need a recipe. Me, I’ve been at it a few years and I still can’t pull something out of nothing. Except . . .

Maybe it’s a time of month thing. Earlier this week I was craving chocolate. And bread. But now, I was craving something wholesome. So I drove home without stopping at the pizza place. I thought about what I wanted. Brown rice and Swiss chard. Yum. Maybe some black beans. I do love black beans. I Googled “black beans chard rice.” Soup? No. Oh wait, what’s this? Black Beans with Chard over Rice? I printed it out and got out my pen.

Rice? Check. I started the rice cooker. Only in the past year I realized I don’t need the pamphlet because there are markings on the rice cooker with the numbers 1, 2, 3, and if you put one “special” cup–the one that came with the rice cooker–in it you just fill the water to the line marked with the 1. And two for 2, and so on. Anyway, I needed to get that going so I set it.

Back to the recipe.

Let’s see, 1 onion, chopped. Nope, fresh out of onions. I did get some scallions at pickup tonight. Oh wait, I had some leek remnants left over from a few days ago. Into the frying pot it went with a splash of oil. Medium temp sounded good. I also chopped up the garlic cloves (the recipe called for 2. I used 3. They were frozen, the ones from Costco. But at least it was garlic. You really can’t go wrong with garlic and something onion-y, ya know?)

Let’s see, 1 tsp ground cumin. Yeah, a dash from the shaker will do. Why dirty a tsp?

I went back to the recipe and realized it called for half a bunch of cilantro. I had no cilantro. Fennel? Basil? No, that really doesn’t go with the whole Mexican-flavor thing going on. So I decided to add a chopped red pepper that I had received at pickup.

Bear in mind, I’m not really timing anything, just throwing stuff in the frying pan as I get it chopped, stirring as I add. I realized that things were starting to stick so I jumped ahead to the can Petite Tomatoes and 1 can Tomatoes and Chilies. Except that I had just picked up some gorgeous fresh tomatoes at the CSA so why not just use those? I chopped up three and tossed them in. The liquid soon made things not so sticky so I decided to go back and chop the chard stems, since I know those take longer to cook than other things. Tossed that in the frying pan (which was starting to smell really good by that point).

Then I drained and rinsed a can of black beans (the recipe said two but I only had one. And yes, I know I should be making beans from dried–I have a bag of dried black beans in my pantry but that was not going to do me any good when the hungry monster is calling). Added that to the pan. Then I chopped the rest of the bunch of chard. I added that to the pan and covered and lowered the heat to a simmer.

Then I did a load of laundry.

On my way back upstairs from the laundry room I gave the frying pan a stir, and it smelled HEAVENLY. The rice cooker hadn’t popped yet but I knew a good meal was coming soon. I added a few twists of freshly cracked salt and pepper. DH had left for brew club so it was just me. I decided to write about my experience because you know what? If I can do this, anyone can. Seriously.

No timer.

No measuring cups or spoons.

Only a loosely followed recipe (thanks HomeGrown organics, for having a blog) that I adjusted to what I had on hand.

And fresh ingredients.

And a wee bit of know-how.

(VERY wee).

The Verdict: I’m very glad I didn’t stop for pizza.

Top 10 Things I Buy at Costco

The Local Cook — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 07:36:06 +0000

For awhile my husband had a Sam’s Club membership through work. We hardly ever used it. Then I took a class with Chef Amy at our farm, and was introduced to a number of great items that you can buy at Costco. I have no idea if it saves us any money, but it sure is convenient. Here is what I usually stock up on:

Quinoa
Feta (I go through a ton of it in the summer, what with greens and pasta salads)
Organic 100% lemon juice (it comes in a large bottle)
Capers
Peeled garlic (yes, it’s cheating. But it’s better than the pre-minced)
Olives
Organic olive oil
Prosciutto
Dried mushrooms
Pine nuts

Do you have a membership? What do you recommend?

Note: Costco did not reimburse me in any way for this post, although if they offered I’d a taken it!

This post shared at Frugal Friday

On Gluten, Diets, and Opinions

The Local Cook — Fri, 06 May 2011 14:57:47 +0000

In case you’re wondering how my gluten-free experiment worked, I thought I’d provide an update.

I really didn’t notice any difference after a week, so I decided that I wouldn’t worry too much about it. However, since I am trying to limit myself to one starch a day, it’s not as though I am eating a lot of gluten anyway. Except when I go out. Which is another story altogether.

I have been sick all week with a bad head cold that’s been going around, so I haven’t been sticking very strictly to my avoiding sugar/alcohol/breads/caffeine as much as possible approach. But I still feel great, compared to how I was feeling back when I was drinking a pot of coffee a day.

Looking back over the past couple of months, I’m not sure how I got derailed. But I’m down a net of 10 pounds since January so that’s progress. Not as much as I’d prefer, but still progress.

One of the things I find funny is that everyone has their own advice when it comes to what other people eat. My friend Katie at Kitchen Stewardship posted about her grain-free experiment and some of the comments were downright rude. When I talked about trying to avoid gluten for a week, the reactions from people ranged from “of course you should avoid gluten – it’s horrible stuff that will kill you” to “why are you jumping on the latest weight loss fad when there are people with celiac disease who CAN’T eat gluten?”

And then there is the vegan vs. vegetarian vs. primal vs. real food vs. Atkins. All with reams of books, websites, and articles they’d like you to read.

As I near my two year blogaversary, I’ve been trying to figure out where exactly on the spectrum I fit. I’m not a typical food blogger. My photos aren’t that great and I don’t do the desserts that draw the big numbers. I’m not a pure Weston Pricie as I don’t soak my grains nor eat organ meat. I don’t have kids so I’m not a mommy blogger. My recipes aren’t particularly frugal. I don’t have any livestock so I’m not a homesteader. So who am I?

I think it comes down to vegetables. It’s why I started this blog, and even though I’ve taken a few detours, it’s why I want to continue. No matter what diet you espouse, there’s not much arguing that vegetables are good for you. I used to love that when I was on Weight Watchers – vegetables were zero points!

So as the garden gets planted, the farmer’s market starts, and the CSA season nears, I’m renewing my focus on vegetables and eating locally. I can’t wait to see what sprouts. Thank you for joining me.

10 Blogs I Read The Most

The Local Cook — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 14:43:42 +0000

I’ve always been a voracious reader. As a child our town’s librarian would keep all of my library cards to see how many I could fill. I love magazines. And, I have nearly 900 blogs in my Google Reader!

Recently I discovered a neat little “trends” tab that gives me statistics about my reading habits. It says that since October 11, 2009 I have read a total of 29,427items. From my 895 subscriptions, over the last 30 days I read 1,819 items,clicked 130 items, starred 15 items,shared 32 items, and emailed 0 items.

See that “Goodies from Google Reader” box on my sidebar? That’s where I try to remember to share some of my favorite items. I also thought it would be interesting to share the top 10 blogs that Google Reader says are the most read by me.

Check ‘em out!

What are YOUR favorite blogs?

This post linked to Top 10 Tuesday

Have Recipes Ruined Cooking?

The Local Cook — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 20:34:41 +0000

In a recent Huffington Post article, Linda Buzzell makes a case for “pattern recipes,” which basically means learning the basics of recipe and then varying things as one goes along.

On one hand, I agree that it’s much more freeing to be able to make up a recipe and wing it. For example, one of my favorite local weekend breakfasts is shown in the photo above: shredded potato, stir fried with chopped onion and a bit of oil, topped with farm fresh scrambled eggs, finished off with ketchup (totally NOT local, but I love it. Maybe next year I’ll make ketchup.)

I don’t want to write off recipes altogether, though. And not just because I have a huge cookbook collection. They are a great way to learn how to cook. One of the things I loved about cooking through Simply in Season was that it often gave substitution ideas, so after awhile you just sort of get used to substituting various kinds of onions, greens, chicken broth for white wine, etc. Now I’m much more comfortable making substitutions with just about any recipe – but I couldn’t have jumped right in not having cooked much. Maybe we could think of recipes as training wheels . . .

This post shared at Monday Mania, Kitchen Tip Tuesday, Gratituesday, Works for Me Wednesday

10 Favorite Holiday Appetizer Recipes

Dark Days Challenge Reflections

The Local Cook — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 21:46:06 +0000

I realized today that the deadline for the Dark Days Challenge is upon me and I never ended up posting my second Dark Days Meal. I posted the Peanut Soup with Cabbage and Chicken the other day, but never posted about my favorite local food meal – scrambled eggs and toast.

I have scrambled eggs and toast a lot when I’m busy in the evenings, especially if I don’t have time to make it for breakfast. Funny thing is, often when I go pick up my milk from the farm where I pick up eggs too I have a craving for it. Nothing better than brightly-yolked farm fresh eggs with a slice of homemade bread and butter. Unfortunately I rarely make my own butter because I use the raw cream for my coffee.

Problem is, scrambled eggs aren’t that interesting of a post – especially for a food blog. Neither are some of my other favorite ways to make local food in winter:

grill meat and then roast root vegetables for a side dish
throw meat and root vegetables in a crock pot and season with whatever falls out of the spice cabinet that day
and my latest discovery, pressure cooking meat in a pot and adding root vegetables

I have recently requested a lot of seasonal cookbooks from publishers hoping to expand my winter local food recipe base, but surprisingly there just aren’t many turnip and rutabaga recipes beyond mashed potatoes and other roots mashed with it.

Maybe that’s OK; eating local food doesn’t have to mean putting on a 5 star farm-to-table spread. I might just post some of my un-recipes in future Dark Days posts.

If you’d like to get inspired by other Dark Days recipes, check out the Urban Hennery

also shared with Kitchen Tip Tuesday

Like “Polar Express,” only with no dancing and you have to pay for the hot chocolate

The Local Cook — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 19:43:35 +0000

The last few days have been quite an adventure. I had to travel to Minneapolis for work, and since I work for a nonprofit we are always trying to keep costs down. I could not find a flight under $500, and a train ticket was under $200 and didn’t seem like it would take much longer than driving (which I didn’t want to do as I didn’t want to get stuck in a blizzard with a rental car), so I decided to book my trip with Amtrak.

Now, I have taken the train before from Grand Rapids to Chicago. It’s a very short trip and I’ve never had any problems. I wasn’t anticipating any problems, and was looking forward to being able to stretch out, not crammed in an airplane. Plus I wouldn’t have to strip or get groped and put my toothpaste in a baggie, so I was looking forward to it, even. As a bonus, it is more environmentally friendly to take a train than to drive or fly, so I was patting myself on the back for that one.

I boarded the train in Holland and thought it ironic that I was surrounded by Amish, since I had chosen to bring Living More with Less along to read on the way. Sure enough, there was a chapter on transportation, so I was feeling good about my decision.

I arrived in Chicago with a few hours to kill; rather than eat lunch at a greasy food court I headed just outside Union Station and set up camp at Caribou Coffee. Free Wi-Fi, great coffee, and a quiet environment. With no fear or trepidation I boarded the Empire Builder and was on my way west. Unfortunately, somewhere in the middle of Wisconsin, the train slowed and the lights went out. We were stopped dead on the tracks in the middle of nowhere. It was dark. It was getting cold.

“Folks,” the loudspeaker said, “we are without electricity and are experiencing technical difficulties. Please stay where you are and try not to use the toilets unless it’s an emergency.”

Thankful that I had just visited the lavatory, I settled down and made the best of it. An hour went by. I texted the woman who had volunteered to pick me up at the train station to let her know I’d be late. I had already felt badly about making her drive an hour to pick me up at 10:30; by the time all was said and done I ended up not getting in until 12:30.

She picked me up and we chatted on the way to the little down where I was going to be meeting with the outreach team of her church. Somehow organic food came up and I sensed her scorn of people who take the time to make their own bread and so I did not mention my food blog. The next day was delightful; I stayed with the pastor and his wife. As I was checking the Amtrak schedule to verify the train status, I realized it was delayed for five hours. FIVE HOURS. I told them the good news: That we would not have to arise at 4 AM for them to take me to the station. I held back the bad news: That the prospect of me catching the connection in Chicago was slim to none. Still, I held fast to the disclaimer at the top of the status screen: Trains may be able to make up time in between stops, resulting in an on-time arrival. I called customer service just in case, and they said I’d likely be put on a bus.

On the way I decided to splurge and get lunch in the dining car; I’d had enough of cold, soggy turkey sandwiches. It was then that I met Dave, as the staff directed passengers where to sit; if you were a party of one they paired you up with someone. Oh well, I thought, I’m not particularly in the mood for chit chat but I’ll make the best of things. It sounds like he takes the train once a year for an extended vacation. He had never been delayed this long. He was also fascinated by my job, and the travel that I do. Soon I had warmed to the idea of having to eat with a stranger, and I answered all his questions about what people were like in Africa, had I ever seen any snakes, and where was my favorite place to travel in the U.S.

“This would never happen on a plane,” I thought. And indeed it happened again a few hours later when we were given a free meal because of the delay – beef stew on white rice. I got to know another family that was sitting next to me at that dinner, and we talked about how they were the only ones on the train who were going to make their connection.

Along the way, to amuse myself, I had been checking in on FourSquare which updates my Twitter and FaceBook. Many of my friends thought I was crazy. ”Just get on a plane and be home in 3 hours,” they said.

I’m not going to lie; I had my weak moments; moments where I asked God why He was doing this to me when I just wanted to save my organization money and be green. But then I thought maybe I had prayed for patience somewhere along the way. Maybe He was telling me I need to slow down; to make room in my life for connecting with others.

“But does it have to be this way?” I asked, as I was later crammed in a minivan which took the passengers to Holland and Grand Rapids who had missed their connecting train, sitting next to a man who smelled like booze and an Amish family and another couple who had not bathed that morning apparently, which the woman may have noticed as she used some sort of strong-smelling hand cream which made the van smell like a dirty gym sock filled with potpourri.

Three hours later I breathed a sigh of relief as I bid adieu and headed out to my car, which had been sitting in lake effect snow for three days. Luckily there wasn’t more than a foot of snow on it, and I got quite a nice workout by brushing off the snow and scraping the windows.

“Will you take a train again?” I’ve been asked several times. I think so. Because life is an adventure, and this certainly was one!

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In Defense of Leftovers

The Local Cook — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 15:45:00 +0000

With all the articles and posts about what to do with leftovers, I have been wondering “why not just eat them?” Growing up, we had our main Thanksgiving dinner at 1 PM, then we played board games or card games at my Grandma’s until darkness fell and it was time to reheat the leftovers to enjoy the dinner all over again.

I mean sure, you can turn many things into soups, stews, or casseroles, but there’s something satisfying about nuking a plate of your favorites and reminiscing about the good times that were had.

And so, as a tribute to leftovers, I bring you an excerpt from The I Hate to Cook Book: 50th Anniversary Edition by Peg Bracken.

Some women can keep a leftover going like an eight-day clock. Their Sunday’s roast becomes Monday’s hash, which becomes Tuesday’s Stuffed Peppers, which eventually turn up as Tamale Pie, and so on, until it disappears or Daddy goes. These people will even warm up a stale cake and serve it with some sort of sauce, as some sort of pudding . . .

[Many cookbooks and articles] seem to consider everything a leftover, which you must do something with. For instance, cake. This is like telling you what to do with your leftover whisky. Cake isn’t a leftover. Cake is cake, and it is either eaten or it isn’t eaten; and if the family didn’t go for that Mocha Frosting, you give the rest of the cake to the neighbor or to the lady downstairs before it gets stale. (Maybe she’ll make something out of it, but you won’t have to eat it. Maybe she’ll even throw it away, but if so, you won’t know about it, so it won’t hurt. Like what happened to that twenty-second batch of nameless kittens you finally had to take to the city pound, there are some things you don’t exactly want to know.) And certainly you don’t want to let the cake get stale so you can make a Stale-Cake Pudding for the family. They’re the ones who left so much of it the first time, remember?

WHEN IN DOUBT, THROW IT OUT.

Just remember: if vegetables have been cooked twice, there aren’t enough vitamins left in them to dust a fiddle with. Furthermore, if your refrigerator is jam-packed with little jars, it will have to work too hard to keep things cold. Presently its arteries will harden, and you have to pay for a service call–the price of which would more than buy a lovely dinner out for you and your husband, with red-coated servitors and soft music.

Actually, the only soft of leftover you need to concern yourself with is meat. It takes more character than most of us have–even those of us who hate to cook–to throw out two of three pounds of cooked beef, lamb, pork, or turkey. So let us consider the meat problem. Before you do a thing with that great sullen chunk of protein, ask yourself a few questions:

Have you incorporated it into a dish of scalloped potatoes, with plenty of cheese on top?

Have you augmented it with a few slices of Swiss cheese from the deli and served it forth as Toasted Club Sandwich, in neat triangles surrounding a mound of coleslaw or fruit salad?

Have you re-presented it as an honest cold-cut platter, with deviled eggs in the middle, and ready-mix corn muffins on the side? It’s easy to forget the obvious.

and have you ground up a chunk of it with pickles and onions and celery and added some mayonnaise, as a spread for after-school sandwiches?

If you can truthfully answer yes to the foregoing, then, as the British say, you are for it. You are about to start cooking.

Happy Thanksgiving! And if you DO truly want to do something with those leftovers, I’m sure you will find many, many options. Just Google it

This post shared at Frugal Friday

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Kitchen Tip Tuesday: Guess that Squash!

The Local Cook — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 10:01:55 +0000

I’ll be the first to admit that beyond butternut and acorn squash, I am terrible when it comes to identifying the gorgeous winter squash that we get from our CSA! Lucky for me, I found a cheat sheet.

This pictorial guide from Provident Organic Farm provides visual identification, as well as storage and usage tips.

If that doesn’t have what you need, check out What’s Cooking America – they have a few not included in the other one.

Got squash? Here are some squash recipes you might enjoy!

If those aren’t enough, check out this post by my friend Katie over at Kitchen Stewardship (don’t forget to read the comments!).

So, what is YOUR favorite squash?

This post also linked to Frugal Tip Tuesday, Kitchen Tip Tuesdays