Mmm, Bacteria.

I made the best yogurt ever last night! I've made it before--even regularly for a while--but it has always come out more runny and liquidy store-bought yogurt. Last night, I solved the problem! I am so proud and totally convinced that I am the first and only brilliant person to think of this solution ever, so don't burst my bubble, ya'll.



So yogurt is incredibly easy to make. You start with some yogurt. Okay, that sounds stupid, but the point is, yogurt is self-replicating. Really, you could start with a bacterial culture that you order online and have shipped to you, but might as well just use a scoop of your plain yogurt--with LIVE cultures (read the label)--from the store. So get some of that.

While you're there, get some milk. Anything from skim to whole is fine (even cream will work). Pasteurized and raw milk both work, but ultra-pasteurized will not work (and you probably shouldn't be drinking that tasteless, nutritionless crap anyway).

Next find yourself a clean quart-sized container. I use a Mason jar. Pour a quart of milk in a double boiler and heat to about 180 degrees. If you have a kitchen thermometer, bully for you. I do not, so I just estimate--takes about 20 minutes, not quite boiling, but too hot to touch. You actually have to touch it to find out that it's too hot to touch. It's not rocket science. Or baking.

When you think your milk is hot enough, remove it from the heat and let it cool to about 110 degrees--comfortable to touch, but hotter than body temperature for the thermometerless among us.

To the cooled-down milk, add about a tablespoon of yogurt and stir.

Pour the mixture into your quart-sized container, cap it, and keep it warm for 8-12 hours, then refrigerate. Keeping it warm is the hardest part, but last night I discovered I could fill my slow-cooker with water and keep the jar in there overnight, set on "keep warm." This is how I got my yogurt to be so thick!

The slow-cooker is by far the best method I've tried, and I highly recommend it. If you don't have a slow-cooker and can't borrow one, you could put the jar in a cooler filled with hot water, but you'd have to keep adding water to keep it warm. Or you could wrap the jar in a towel and keep it on the stovetop if you have pilot light to keep it warm.


You can keep making new yogurt by taking a scoop from your old batch each time!

Pissing Off Vegetarians

Boyfriend's de facto sister-in-law is newly vegetarian, and I have to confess to trying to convert her back to omnivoriousness. I know this is like the root of all food justice evils, but hear me out.

Being anti-vegetarian is practically blasephemous, especially in the whole/local/organic foods community. But I kind of am. When I hear someone is vegetarian, my first question is, "why?" Some common answers are:

1. "I'm making a religious choice. My religious beliefs mandate it." I pretty much leave that alone. First, because I don't want to be in the habit of arguing beliefs and practices that are integral to a person's identity, and second, because a culture containing a religious mandate against meat-eating usually also contains a food culture (cuisine) that is healthy and full without meat.

2. "I'm making an ethical choice. Killing and eating animals violates my personal values. Animals have rights similar to human rights." I tend to leave this alone too, since I generally think it would be offensive to argue against it. However, I don't really think it is a particularly logical argument. Humans have clearly evolved as omnivores, and meat is part of our natural diet. This argument for vegetarianism seems to put humans and animals on the same level in terms rights, because humans, of course, are animals. It then demands that humans not act like animals by choosing to modify their natural diet.


And then the flimsiest two reasons:

3. "I'm making a healthy choice. Meat isn't good for me." This is just false. Meat is part of our natural diet; we've evolved to eat it for millions of years. It's true that most Americans eat more meat than necessary (it needn't be present at every meal and should certainly not be what meals are centered on). It's also true that meat that's raised in factory farms--with antibiotics, growth hormone, and animals ankle-deep in fecal matter--is not healthy. But the meat I eat comes from farmers I know personally who raise animals ethically, organically, and outside. And (considering its higher price) I only eat it a few times a week.

4. "I'm making an environmental choice. Meat-eating isn't sustainable, and it's harmful to the environment." That's certainly true of factory farming. And vegetarians who can't get meat anywhere but the supermarket are vegetarians I support. But there is a way to raise meat with consideration for the animals' wellbeing, their natural diet and habitat, and the effect of animal treatment on human consumers. If you can find local farmers raising animals like this, I urge you to support them.


There is no escaping the truth that all life subsists on other life. Frankly, it's not a truth I'd care to escape. It is a sacred cycle that should be treated with honor and gratitude. As such, I make an effort to know that my meat comes from someplace honorable, natural, and sustainable. Do you know where your tofu comes from?

Urban Homesteading

Merry over at Merry Merry Quite Contrary told me I didn't have to apologize for not posting in like 3 months. So I'm not. Suck it.

Someone gave me this awesome book called The Urban Homestead for Christmas this year. It is the most comprehensive guide to city self sufficiency I've found. It will definitely change the way I eat this year.

Boyfriend's mom and I are planning on expanding her garden this spring to take over her entire back yard. She was already planning on putting in raised beds, which this book advocates for small scale growing. I'm going to create indoor compost bins for both of us that utilize worms to get the most out of composting in a small space (ew, worms?! yep). I'll post step by step photo instructions on how to make them once I figure out where to get my worms.

I did some food preservation last summer and fall--mostly canning, some freezing. This book's authors are big supporters of fermentation and drying as means of preserving food. These methods are old, time-tested, and introduce our stomachs to lots of healthy bacterical friends (Bacteria and worms?! Disgusting!).

I happened to get a food dehydrator for Christmas as well, but I can't really use it until I have some fresh fruits and vegetables to put in it. I will, however, be making cheese, yogurt, and sourdough bread before winter's over. Look for updates on these projects! (In less than 3 months.)

Applesauce

Exchange at the farmers market last week:

Me: (picking through apples on display, filling two baskets with them)

Fruit Guy: I also have a different variety in the truck, which I'm only supposed to sell by the crate because they were picked a week ago, but I'll give you a few if you want.

Me: Well, how much is a crate?

Fruit Guy: $4

Me: For a whole crate?? (Regaining haggling composure, resetting poker face) Ahem, how much can you do for two baskets and a crate?

Fruit Guy: Eh, I'd take $6 for all of it.

Me: (Screw haggling!) OKAY! Sold!

Moral of the story: In upstate New York, in the fall, they are practically giving apples away.



So on Wednesday when I went to Boyfriend's mom's house with his two sisters for our weekly "Craft Night," I brought the crate of apples (and an extra bag full). We peeled and chopped all of them (and I almost sliced the top of my thumb off). Then we put them in a huge stock pot with about an inch of apple cider covering the bottom. We cooked them down a little, added a cup or so of brown sugar, cooked them down a little more, added cinnamon, nutmeg, and a few tablespoons of lemon juice, remembered to add a pinch of salt, and eventually...we had apple sauce!

Boyfriend's mom let it keep simmering on the stove after we left. The plan was to put it in jars for each of us, but I'm not sure whether she decided to go through the whole canning process and seal them. It will probably get eaten too quickly to be worth it.

Next week: grape juice!

Maple-Glazed Pork Loin, Green Beans, Roasted Potatoes

So Boyfriend bought pretty much an entire pig's ass the last time he went to the farmers market. (He really liked the "Meat Guy"). So we had to cook some serious pork this week.





I had Boyfriend trim most of the fat from the pork loin the night before last (which I should have left the kitchen for--my kitchen cleanliness anxiety combined with his propensity for messes is a bad combo).



The I put it in my slow cooker, covered it in salt, a LOT of pepper, a little chili pepper, and maple syrup. I threw in a couple cubes of frozen chicken stock for liquid and put a couple tablespoons of butter on top. Then I put the whole thing in the fridge overnight. In the morning, I took it out, set it to cook on low, and went to work.



When I got home, I washed and sliced up some red potatoes and one small red onion in little chunks. I put them in a baking dish and tossed them with a scoop of mayonnaise (not homemade, but it's not hard to make: look!), salt, pepper, rosemary, and a little dill. I roasted them at 375, watched the latest episode of Glee, then added a grated clove of garlic and turned it up to 400. After 10-15 more minutes they were done.



Meanwhile, just after I turned the oven temperature up, I got out some green beans I had frozen last week and sauteed them in a pan with a little olive oil, salt, and another grated clove of garlic.



While the beans were cooking, I put about 3-4 tablespoons of maple syrup in a small sauce pan with about a mouthful of apple cider (but, as Grandpa would say, don't measure it that way), black pepper, and a decent amount of chili pepper. Trust me on the maple and chili pepper thing. I set it on high and let it cook down into a kind of glaze (which took no time at all).



Finally, I dished everything up, spooned the glaze over top of the pork, and ate! Though I did pause to bring a serving of everything to Boyfriend at work before I even ate any. Because I am the Best. Girlfriend. Ever. I shall be lauded with praise and gifts and baubles of all kinds. Hmm.



Anyway, it was delicious.



Again, trust me on the maple and chili thing. If that's too daring for you, take a baby step with maple and black pepper--an excellent pairing on its own.

Hunger and Obesity

A friend pointed out this very thoughtful article, "The New Face of Poverty is Fat," in response to the post below. The author makes some really insightful points about class and real food.

Food Desert Awareness Week

Today's the last day of Food Desert Awareness Week. The National Center for Public Research defines a "food desert" as:

"A large geographic area with no or distant grocery stores. Often, food deserts have an imbalance of food choice, meaning more nearby fringe good such as fast food, convenience stores, and liquor stores."

It often goes unmentioned that today's ever-so-popular food movements--eat local, eat organic, eat whole food, eat fresh, not processed--are movements of privilege and require the freedoms of time, mobility, geographic location, and income that are only afforded to a certain socioeconomic class.

Could I eat the way I choose to eat now if I were a single parent? Maybe. If I were a single parent earning minimum wage? Probably not. If I were a single parent earning minimum wage, living in a city with no car and no grocery store within ten miles, having been raised by parents who did not cook meals from scratch or grow food in the back yard or ahve aplace to teach me how to pick out good vegetables? No effing way.

But that's the kind of scenario facing far too many people today. People in the public health arena (my own mother included) are desperately trying to convey the message that if you eat crappy, processed food, you will get chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, obesity, etc. Lower class populations suffer from these diseases at alarmingly higher percentages than anyone else. But if the only places you can access food are convenience stores and fast food restaurants, of course the food you eat will be crappy and processed.

We've cut the impoverished off from a healthy food supply and guaranteed that their socioeconomic status will limit their access to healthy food for generations. And I'm not exaggerating when I say, it is literally killing them.