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Forget It, I’m Heading off in Search of Cheese

Amber on November 14, 2012 23 Comments

Yesterday I was feeling the effects of the colder, darker weather full force. I knew that I needed to do something to break out of my funk. After spending a little bit of time considering my options, the answer became obvious: cheese. And once I discovered that a local cheesemaker I’ve been meaning to visit has fresh curds for sale starting at 4:00pm on Tuesdays, I knew just where to go. So, after picking up Hannah from school I loaded up the kids and headed east in search of dairy delights.

When we arrived at our destination about 30 minutes later, the smell of cows was unmistakeable. As someone who grew up in dairy country, I took this as a positive sign. My grandfather used to refer to the aroma as “Matsqui Prairie aftershave”, and I knew it meant extremely fresh milk was being used in the cheese. I decided to leave the kids buckled up in the car for a minute as I snapped a couple of photos in the rain. I was so happy about the impending cheese that I didn’t even lose my temper when they started honking and I returned to the car to find Jacob in the driver’s seat and Hannah buckled in beside him.

Outside, there was country kitsch ornamentation on display, including antique milk separators. Of course, my children wanted to try using them. Luckily they didn’t break them. That I know of. I wasn’t really paying attention, because cheese.

When we walked in we were greeted and I said that I’d heard there would be fresh curds. The lovely lady helping me confirmed that there were fresh curds, and pointed at bags upon bags of them, in many flavours. But how to choose between plain, Greek, garlic and red pepper, chipotle, dill, and on and on? It was a very tall order, indeed. And beyond that, how to choose between all the different cheeses in their display case? I knew this was going to take a while, so I bought my kids gelato and sat them at a table to keep quiet. Miraculously that worked, and I was free to drool over the cheese and watch the cheesemakers at work in the back.

In the end I bought a cranberry quark, a garlic havarti, a smoked gouda, and two types of curds: plain and Greek. The curds were perfectly squeaky, which kept the kids entertained in the car on the way home. It really was win-win. I’m keeping the Greek curds for myself, though, to make a poutine with some kick. I would lay down my life for my kids, but I have to have something just for myself, you know? I choose cheese.

What are your sure-fire pick-me-ups when you’re having one of those days? And are you a cheese lover like me? Tell me all about it!

Filed Under: Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Food, Kids, Navel Gazing

E. coli, XL Foods, Meat Production and Human Health

Amber on October 11, 2012 6 Comments

Here in Canada, it feels like we’ve been talking about nothing but the XL Foods beef recall for weeks. If you’re not familiar with it, though, I’m going to give a brief synopsis. More than a month ago, E. coli was detected in beef from the XL Foods processing plant in Alberta, one of the three largest such plants in Canada. However, for a variety of reasons a full-scale recall was not immediately launched. Then people started getting sick, and not just from hamburger and sausage, which are usually associated with E. coli, but from whole cuts of beef. The plant was shut down temporarily, the recall just kept expanding, and the company didn’t respond as well as they should have to the situation.

I have read a number of books that discuss industrial meat production, including The Omnivore’s Dilemma and Fast Food Nation. What I learned in these books is that while E. coli is present in the guts of many mammals, including humans, not every strain is the same. The strain that can make people sick, and even cause death, is E. coli O157:H7. This is the strain that was found in beef from XL Foods. Research has found that this strain is far more common in grain-fed cows than grass-fed cows. In fact, it’s four times more common in grain-fed cows. And, at present, most beef cattle are fed corn, which is a grain. The Straight Dope says 90% of beef is grain-finished. This is because they gain weight faster, which means that it takes less time to prepare them for slaughter.

Another major factor in the spread of E. coli is cleanliness. This bacteria is present in the intestine, which means it’s also present in cow poop. One of the ways that we can reduce its spread is to ensure proper handling at the processing plant. In general, when meat is contaminated with E. coli it means that it’s come in contact with cow feces. Think of it like cross-contamination in your kitchen – you want to keep the salad away from the raw meat, so that your lettuce doesn’t come in contact with any nasty bacteria. In the same way, in a processing plant, they want to keep the parts of a cow that may be infected with E. coli away from the parts of a cow that you will be eating. When they don’t, then E. coli spreads. This is more likely to happen when you have a massive operation processing large number of cows at high speed.

I get my own beef from a rancher named Barrie Redl who comes to my farmers’ market. His cattle are completely grass-fed. They graze on the open range in the summer, they’re pastured in the fall and they’re fed hay in the winter. They are processed at a small plant, located near the ranch. I’ve been buying meat from the Redls for years. I remember when their granddaughter was born, they know my kids, and I have confidence in what I’m buying from them. While I know that I must still follow safe meat handling procedures, I also know that the likelihood of an E. coli outbreak from grass-fed beef processed in small batches is far lower. It’s true that I pay more, but in my mind it’s worth it because I know that the cows have been treated well. When they’re healthier, it’s healthier for me. And last weekend, in the midst of the news from XL Foods, they sold out quickly.

I won’t pretend that I only eat ethically-sourced, grass-fed beef. When I go out to restaurants, for instance, I have no idea where that beef is coming from. But in situations where I have direct control, I think it’s important to ask questions about what I’m buying. E. coli outbreaks, the use of pink slime, the inhumane treatment of animals and so on flourish because we’re not aware. These are not the images that businesses like XL Foods want us to have in our heads when we’re in the grocery store aisle. But once we know, we can make informed choices and vote with our dollars when we buy food. Maybe we’ll be eating less meat because it’s more expensive, but we’ll be able to feel good about what we do eat. This is good for us, it’s good for the animals we’re consuming, and it’s good for the planet.

Has the latest beef recall caused you to re-examine your own meat consumption? Would you be willing to pay more for meat if you knew that it was less likely to be contaminated with E. coli? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Filed Under: Enviro-Mama Tagged With: Enviro-Mama, Food, Politics

Trying Homemade (Soda) Pop and a Giveaway!

Amber on September 19, 2012 15 Comments

Sometime a couple of years ago my sister gifted me with a Soda Stream soda maker. I didn’t use it much, partly because I didn’t really know what to do with it, and partly because my kids both hate fizzy drinks. While the latter fact works out for me in that I don’t have to work to keep them away from pop, it also means that my plans to make fizzy orange juice as an exciting treat haven’t panned out.

Recently, however, I was offered the chance to review The Artisan Soda Workshop, a book that offers 70 recipes to help you make your own pop at home. Some of them are fountain classics, some of them are very exotic, and some are even alcoholic. Unlike store bought, all the recipes use natural ingredients like fruits, herbs, and actual sugar. Thinking that I would finally have a chance to figure out what to do with the Soda Stream, I seized the opportunity.

I have spent the past few weeks sampling six different soda recipes, so that I could give you a thorough review. Here’s what I tried:

Sparkling Rosemary Lemonade
Blackberry Lavender
Cream Soda
Concord Grape
Chocolate
Egg Cream

On the whole, the syrups were easy to make, and they kept well in my fridge. It takes a little bit of planning because you have to cook and cool them before you use them, but it’s something you can easily do in the afternoon to have pop with dinner. I also found that the homemade sodas were, by and large, less sweet than store-bought. This could be good or bad depending on your point of view, and you could always adjust the sugar to taste.

As for the sodas themselves, I was a big fan of the cream soda (so easy, so tasty), the blackberry lavender and the concord grape. I was sort of mixed on the sparkling rosemary lemonade, but once I added a little bit of gin it was quite delightful. As for the chocolate soda and the egg cream, which are quite similar, I was not a fan. However, this is really a matter of personal taste, and your mileage may vary, for sure.

I do enjoy sharing the love, as you know, so I thought I’d give you a chance to try making your own homemade soda. If you don’t have a Soda Stream, you can either see if my sister is willing to give you one too (unlikely) or you can just buy seltzer water to mix it up with. I’m giving away my copy of the book, as soon as I finish writing down a few of my favourite recipes. I’m also throwing in a copy of Mommy Mixology: A Cocktail for Every Calamity. You can find out more about that book by listening to my podcast with author Janet Frongillo.

If you’d like to win The Artisan Soda Workshop and Mommy Mixology, leave a comment on this post on or before September 30, 2012. I’ll draw a name at random and pop the books in the mail.

Filed Under: Making Things Tagged With: Bloggy McBloggerson, Books, Food, Giveaways

A Tale of the Internet and Tartar Sauce

Amber on August 22, 2012 8 Comments

mmm... lightly breaded and deep fried fish filets with tartar sauce

Photo credit: jefferyw on Flickr

There literally isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank my lucky stars for the invention of the internet. It saves my bacon all the time. In fact, it saved my bacon on Sunday night when I unexpectedly found myself searching for a tartar sauce recipe.

The situation was unexpected because I don’t like tartar sauce. I don’t like any kind of creamy dressing, actually. When I was a kid, the only kind of salad dressing in our house was Kraft Thousand Island. I’ve spoken to many of my peers, and they say the same thing. Apparently, Thousand Island was all the rage in the ’80s. My husband Jon still prefers Thousand Island above all others, but it was never my thing, even as a kid. I’ve always preferred a good vinaigrette. I have a thing for vinegar. As a child I used to drink it on the sly, in the same way my four-year-old son currently steals fingerfuls of butter when he thinks I’m not looking. I don’t do creamy, not even for ranch. It’s just not how I roll.

Getting back to my story, I had decided to make fish and chips for dinner, and we didn’t have any tartar sauce on hand. I do the grocery shopping, and since I don’t like tartar sauce it sometimes gets forgotten. I don’t refuse to buy it on principle or something, it just doesn’t cross my mind, in much the same way that it doesn’t cross my mind to buy liver. If we run out of tartar sauce and my husband forgets to put it on the list, it’s not going to make its way into my basket. Balsamic vinegar, on the other hand, that I remember. Sometimes I have to tell myself to stop buying it, in fact. Mmm, vinegar.

While the lack of tartar sauce was no skin off my teeth, for Jon the idea of eating fish and chips without a healthy dollop of the stuff is sort of sad. When we were discussing dinner he asked if we had any, and I said that I didn’t think so. He got all long in the face. Then it occurred to me that I’d heard something somewhere about being able to make your own tartar sauce pretty easily using mayo and relish. And so, I turned to my trusty friend the internet. It didn’t let me down. I found an easy tartar sauce recipe, and mixed up a batch. I tasted it, and found it overly creamy, but since I don’t like tartar sauce anyway I just shrugged.

I am happy to say that my husband did enjoy my tartar sauce. He gave compliments, and when I said that I didn’t like it he suggested I try some on my fish. Now, this is where I have to stop and ask why on earth people do this. I’m not singling out my husband here – the truth is I do this myself, on a regular basis, with my kids. Someone says they don’t like a food, and the first response they get in return is for me to wave that food in their face and suggest they try it. If my kid has never tried a food before, I’ll sometimes even go so far as to insist they take a few bites. And yet, even as I do it I know there is no way it’s going to work out. That kid who’s gagging at the sight of bok choi or peaches or whatever they’ve decided they don’t like today isn’t going to enjoy it when you literally shove it down their throat.

Apparently, the French have figured out how to overcome my children’s food objections. Their kids will eat anything. Probably even tartar sauce. They’re such show-offs, those kids. My own kids, on the other hand, have mastered the art of taking a microscopic bite just to show me. Then they make a gagging face and spit the food out while scraping their tongues to remove any lingering remnants. They especially love to do this in front of other people, just so that everyone knows what a stellar parent I really am. Also, how far I have fallen from my days as a new parent when I was all smug because my nine-month-old ate lentil soup. These days, I’m pretty sure the word ‘lentil’ would send my kids running for the hills.

Luckily, though, the dinner gods smiled on me this time. I made tartar sauce, and my husband liked it. My homemade gluten-free breading worked on the fish. My children ate their food with gusto. And once again, I was reminded that I am really very lucky to live in an age when I can turn to Google with all my questions. Sometimes, things just work out. I like those times. I just wish they happened a little more often.

How often does the internet save your bacon? And have you ever told someone you don’t like a food, only to be told you should try it? Do you do this to your kids, like I do to mine? I want to hear from you!

Filed Under: Kids and Parenting, Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Food, Kids, Navel Gazing, Parenting, Weak Attempts at Humour

Ice Cream: The Pinnacle of Food Preservation

Amber on July 12, 2012 6 Comments

I am far from a strict locavore, but I do a lot of local eating, especially at this time of year. In fact, doing more local eating is my One Green Thing for July. In my quest to reduce my food miles I grow a garden, I belong to a local CSA program, I shop at my farmers’ market and I eat seasonally. I also preserve the harvest when it comes in. Each year I freeze, can and dry food to eat all year long.

While I enjoy all of the foods that I preserve, there’s one item that trumps them all, and that’s ice cream. In my mind homemade ice cream using local milk, cream and fruit is the height of local eating. If you ignore the sugar, it’s pretty much a health food, packed full of fresh berries (antioxidants!) and dairy (calcium!). While strawberry ice cream is probably the most classic flavour involving fruit I’ve also made raspberry, cherry (tip: get a cherry pitter) and blackberry ice cream with great results.

To make my own homemade fruit ice cream I started with a generic strawberry ice cream recipe and tweaked it to suit my tastes. The result is an all-purpose formula that you can use with pretty much any kind of fruit. Once you’ve got it in your freezer it should last you for several months. So if you have a bumper crop of strawberries, make a couple of batches of ice cream and enjoy it all summer long. And if you need something to bring to a summer BBQ or pot luck, you can’t go wrong with a frozen dessert.

If you’d like to make your own ice cream this summer, I’m sharing my all-purpose recipe.

Amber’s All Purpose Fruit Ice Cream Recipe

* This recipe is always gluten-free!

Ingredients:
3 cups fruit
1 1/4 – 1 3/4 cups sugar, to taste (the more tart the fruit, the more sugar I use)
2 cups heavy cream
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon vanilla

Preparation:
Wash your fruit, and slice it if required (I don’t slice raspberries or blackberries, I do slice cherries and strawberries). Add the sugar and stir well, then let it sit for 20 minutes. This will draw out the juices, and allow the sugar to dissolve nicely. Once the fruit and sugar have had a chance to sit together and make friends, mash it or run it quickly through a blender or food processor. Add the milk, cream and vanilla, stir well, and freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Yield: Approximately 2 quarts of ice cream.

Do you preserve any food? What’s your favourite method?

I was inspired to write this post by Abbie of Farmer’s Daughter, who is hosting this month’s Green Moms Carnival on food independence. If you want lots of other ideas for local eating, visit her site on July 17.

Filed Under: Enviro-Mama, Making Things Tagged With: Enviro-Mama, Food, Gluten-Free, Recipes

One Green Thing: Eating Local

Amber on July 5, 2012 5 Comments

It’s Enviro-Mama Thursday here on Strocel.com, and today I’m getting in touch with my inner locavore. It’s my One Green Thing for July. But before I get into that, I want to update you on my One Green Thing for June, which was buying less stuff. So, how did I do? Not well at all, I’m afraid.

The plan was that I would not buy any new “stuff” during June. I gave myself some outs – food, medication, experiences (haircuts aren’t “stuff”) and birthday gifts for my kids’ friends. By the time the month was half over the wheels completely fell off the wagon with a trip to IKEA. We’d been toying with the idea of getting Hannah her own desk, to keep her artistic activities more contained. Jon decided he wanted to do that as a Father’s Day gift to himself, and I didn’t think that refusing on the grounds that I was trying to prove a point made sense. Of course, while we were there, we also picked up some other things – a new container to hold our large kitchen utensils, a couple of kitchen gadgets, and so on. Then I put the nail in the coffin on June 30 when I did a Target run during my long weekend in the US.

After my failure to not buy stuff in June, I’m committed to do something substantial for July, and with my CSA starting up and the farmers’ market in full swing, this seemed like the perfect time to do more local eating. I’ve decided to create and eat 10 local meals this month. I’ve set some ground rules about what is and isn’t allowed.

Local Food Ground Rules

Anything I buy at my farmers’ market is allowed.
Anything I get from my CSA is allowed.
Anything I grow myself is allowed.
Anything grown within 250km of my house is allowed.

I’m allowing myself some exceptions as I eat local. My exceptions are:

Cooking oil
Salt and pepper
Sugar
Vanilla

I think this is totally doable, especially at this time of year. I’ve already had one local meal (scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and fresh strawberries). I’ll keep track of what I’m eating, and fill you in next month.

Until then, I’d like to hear from you. Do you do any local eating? What non-local foods do you refuse to live without? What is your favourite place to source local food? I could use any tips you have to offer!

Filed Under: Enviro-Mama Tagged With: Enviro-Mama, Food, One Green Thing

Salmonberry Lessons

Amber on June 11, 2012 2 Comments

June means salmonberries here in the Pacific Northwest. Over the past week or so my kids and I have been eating every berry we can get our hot little hands on. They grow wild here, along roadsides and in forests. They seem to prefer a little bit of shade and lots of water, so the very best place to find them is alongside the creeks that wind their way through my suburban neighbourhood, carrying water down from the mountains and on to the river and, eventually, the sea.

Berries are my favourite food to forage for. They’re tasty and beautiful, like hidden gems that are there for the picking, if only you know where to look. Few things make me as excited as finding a good picking spot, where there are plenty of ripe berries just waiting for me. My time picking wild berries has taught me many things. Each berry carries its own lessons. The lessons of blackberries are hard-won, because of their prickly barbs that can ensnare you if you’re not careful. The lessons of salmonberries are different, but they are no less valuable. Today I’m thinking about those lessons.

A ripe yellow berry

What I’ve Learned from Salmonberries

Not every yellow berry is unripe – and not every yellow berry is ripe. To really enjoy the food you’re picking you need to learn what you’re looking for.
If you eat nothing but berries for 48 hours – as I did at summer camp once as a 12-year-old – you may learn to regret the extreme overindulgence.
Wild berries taste best when eaten in wild places. If you pick them and bring them home, they will be missing something.
Some of us do best out of the hot sun.
Not everyone enjoys every kind of berry (as the salmonberry’s detractors can attest to), but that doesn’t mean that you can’t appreciate their charms.
No berry tastes better than the one your child picks just for you.
Not every reward needs to be hard-fought, battling heat and thorns.
Some things are timeless, like these berries that people have been eating in this place since there have been people in this place.

What lessons have you learned while out picking berries?

Filed Under: Random Awesomeness Tagged With: Beautiful BC, Food, Navel Gazing