Pile 'o (Homemade) Pretzels

Y-U-M.

Today's experimental make-your-own snack of the day is pretzels. I looked at quite a few recipes on the internet and went with this one, although I did tweak it a bit by adding some whole wheat flour to make it a little healthier. My recipe is below.

Mixing the dough and letting it rise was easy (in fact, my gf Kelly has a recipe for bread machine pretzels which would be even less work but I couldn't find her recipe this moring before making the pretzels). More challenging - or, really, time consuming - was rolling out the pretzels. I think my rolling technique needs some work. About half way through I decided to 1/2 the dough balls (at that point I had divided the dough into 12 balls so these were 1/2 of that). This helped a lot - smaller pretzels but much easier to roll out. I never achived the "pencil" width that the recipe called for but at least with less dough to roll it was easier to get the dough thinner.

Regardless, the end result was fantastically delish. My 2yo said "oooh, perfect" when she saw them come out of the oven.

I added butter and salt after the pretzels were cooked. I'd imagine they would taste even better if you added that before cooking them. However, I am planning on freezing most of these for future eating and I wasn't sure if they would freeze well with butter and salt already on them. Next time I make them I will try buttering before cooking and compare the results.

Here is my tweaked recipe:

(starting in a kitchen aid mixer)

• 1/4 ounce or 1 package active dry yeast, dissolved in:
• 1 1/2 cups warm (105-115F) water

Let dissolve for 5 minutes and then add:

• 2 tb brown sugar
• 1 tsp salt

Stir to dissolve. Next add the flour, slowly:

• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cup bread flour
• 2 cups all purpose flour

Remove from mixer and knead by hand for 8 minutes (really, I set a timer. It is important to knead for a long time and if I don't set the time I severly overestimate how long I have been kneading for). You can also use the bread hook attachment for your mixer and do this step in there. I just love to knead dough.

Put in an oiled bowl and cover with a moist towel. Place in a warm location (about 75F) for one hour, or until doubled in size. Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces. Roll...roll...roll...twist.

Now, this next step is important. Before placing on a greased cookie sheet or parchment paper did the pretzel in 2 tbs of baking soda dissolved in 2 cups of warm water. This allows the outside to brown nicely. Make sure there is not a lot of excess water on the pretzel and place on cookie sheet. Allow to rise another 15-20 minutes. Bake at 425 for 8 minutes. Add butter/salt/honey/cinnamon/whatever-your-heart-desires before or after baking. Enjoy!

Saturday Mornings

As a stay at home mom I find that my days are not very scheduled. The only day of the week that I have a steady commitment is on Saturday. Every single Saturday morning, without fail, I go to the Farmer's Market. I am really lucky to live in a place that has an awesome Farmer's Market year round. I often hear people complain that it is difficult to get locally grown produce in the middle of winter. But looking around at the market today I have to disagree. There was a large variety available and right now it is mid-February. Today, at the market, I saw: carrots, many varieties of winter squash, onions, potatoes, beets, celeriac, a wide variety of greens, dried beans, apples and pears (they have been in cold storage since last fall) amongst other things. I know that in another month the pickings will be slimmer but in two months or so the first of the years veggies will start showing up and then it is months of veggie bliss to look forward to.

It did make me think about what I would do if I didn't have the market so close to my house. Besides growing your own veggies and storing them you can look in the supermarket for locally grown produce. If you don't see any talk to the manager. Tell them you are interested in more local options. Additionally some CSAs have winter shares available - although they are usually just a box around Thanksgiving and another around Christmas. But still, that is better than nothing.

Another option is to grow your own veggies in the winter. Looking at the price of greens this morning ($7 for a 1/2 lb) I decided it would be worth my time to start growing my own greens. Lettuce and spinach are fairly easy to grow indoors in pots and they grow quickly. You can also continually harvest the outer leaves as needed, extending the production time of the plant. I have to look through my seeds and see what I have left over from last year but I am sure I have spinach and wouldn't be surprised to find lettuce. Plus, I'd imagine it is close to the time that you start to see seed packets available in stores. I will post pictures of my indoor greens growing endeavor as it happens.

If anyone has any tips about growing other vegetables indoors during the winter I would love to hear them.

The Sky Is Falling

Last night my husband forwarded me this article from MSNBC. It was an interesting read and I wanted to comment on some of the points in the article.

Arsenic in Chicken
The article, That Chicken Dinner Could Make You Sick, starts off discussing campylobacter, a bacteria commonly found in chicken that is responsible for making many people ill. The information was frightening but what really got me was this: "Conventionally raised birds may also contain arsenic, a known carcinogen. “About 70 percent of broiler chickens in the United States are fed arsenic at some point,” says David Wallinga, M.D., director of the Food and Health Program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP), a nonprofit think tank focusing on farming and food policy, in Minneapolis. Farmers add arsenic to chicken feed in order to fatten their flocks — birds go from hatchling to slaughter in only six weeks — and to give the birds their pinkish hue. And the practice is actually legal."

Arsenic? Really? Arsenic is poison. It can be deadly. According to the EPA: Non-cancer effects can include thickening and discoloration of the skin, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting; diarrhea; numbness in hands and feet; partial paralysis; and blindness. Arsenic has been linked to cancer of the bladder, lungs, skin, kidney, nasal passages, liver, and prostate. The article goes on to say "The average person ingests an estimated 8.1 micrograms of arsenic a day from chicken, according to a study from the USDA. And when you add that to the small amounts of arsenic you can be exposed to from other sources, such as drinking water, dust and arsenic-treated wood, a steady diet of chicken could quickly become risky."

It seems to me that you really need to weigh the benefit of eating this leaner meat with the potential health risks conventionally raised poultry poses.

The USDwho?
Chicken purchased at the store contains a plethora of dangerous bacteria, sprinkled with some poison and laced with antibiotics. All of these things can cause short and long term health risks for individuals and the population as a whole. So who is protecting us from these dangers? The USDA? Nope. Time and time again we are reading that while the USDA might be well intentioned they lack the authority to actually protect us. This situation is no different. The article details the pathetic steps that the USDA takes to protect us from bacteria contamination in poultry but sums up the USDAs role with this paragraph: "The USDA claims it has broad authority to enforce regulations and take action against rogue plants if necessary; but, in truth, it is limited in its ability to permanently shut down repeat offenders. In 1999, the USDA tried to close a Supreme Beef meat plant in Texas because its meat failed the USDA’s salmonella tests three times in 11 months. Supreme Beef sued the USDA, claiming that the meat could have arrived at the plant already tainted by salmonella, and the law applied only to sanitary conditions within the plant. A 2001 court decision agreed with Supreme Beef, in effect curtailing the USDA’s power to make good on its threats. Critics blame the Bush administration for not appealing the decision to the Supreme Court and a Republican-dominated Congress for caving to the meat lobby and refusing to support proposals to bolster the USDA’s authority." I say thanks, but no thanks.

Good News for Fast Food Eaters
The fact that I refuse to let my daughter eat any fast food (nor do I consume any) has been the source of much snickering and laughter amongst my friends. While my reasons for this are the subject of a different, future, post, for now I will let them have the last laugh. According to this article the fast food industry has taken laborious steps to safeguard their customers health by testing their meat hourly and standardizing the temperature to which they cook their meat. As well they should - financially, they have a lot to lose should there be an outbreak of food poisoning that is traced back to their restaurants. Too bad the government has no financial motivation to keep us healthy...

What can you do?
The place that I felt this article fell short was at the very end in suggesting ways the consumer could protect themselves. The two solutions they list - cooking your meat to a safe internal temperature and contacting your local representatives to make changes on a national level - are great but they missed the best option of all. Know your farmer. Buy locally raised produce from a small farm that adheres to "organic" principles (even if they are not certified organic) and feeds their family the same food that you will feed your family. We purchased all of our poultry (4 turkeys and 6 chickens for the year) from an awesome local farm, Windy Willow Farm. Farmer Gwen is a close friend of mine and she and her family are dedicated to farming in a safe, sustainable manner. The poultry (including the turkey we had for dinner last night) tastes awesome and we were able to visit the farm at any point last summer to see how our chickens and turkeys (and pigs and veggies) were being cared for.

I am lucky to have a good friend who is an awesome farmer but you don't need to be friends with a good farmer to get safe food. No matter where you live I guarantee that there is a small farmer raising good, safe food the old-fashioned way somewhere near your house. And trust me, this farmer wants your business. Your chicken might cost a little more per pound but think of all your could potentially be saving in future health care costs. A great source to find local farms is Local Harvest. Still can't find a local farm? Find your nearest farmer's market and contact them. They can direct you to a farmer you want to talk to. Turning a blind eye to your food sources is what has enabled our current state of affairs. Start visiting farms. Know where your food comes from. Next time invest in a farmer who cares about your health.

I invite everyone to share their favorite farms in the comments section. In addition to Windy Willow Farm, we are big fans of Homestead Farm and Sweet Tree Farm for our family's meat. Thank you to the farmers who are working hard to keep our families safe!

Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Growing up, I have fond memories of eating Pepperidge Farm Raisin Cinnamon Swirl Bread. It has always been a comfort food for me. A nice treat, especially yummy when toasted with butter. Not surprisingly my daughter also loves a slice of raisin bread in the morning. Recently my husband noted that the bread has HFCS in it. No! I guess I had never really checked the label of the bread since it had been such a staple in my life. Sure enough, he was right. 4th ingredient from the top (although, it was a bit challenging to figure out what number ingredient it was since the first ingredient, Unbromated unbleached enriched wheat flour, is followed up by a bracket containing all of its ingredients, nine in total). And thus began my search for a recipe to make my own cinnamon raisin bread.

When it comes to cooking and looking for recipes I try to keep two things in mind - 1) cook a lot and freeze the extras, and 2) find a recipe that has been reviewed and has high ratings. There is no reason to waste time, energy and food on a recipe that will not deliver. Therefore I was psyched to find Cinnamon Raisin Bread from Allrecipes.com, one of my favorite sources for recipes. From the get-go this recipe makes three loaves of bread, and with a rating of 4 1/2 stars and almost 300 reviews I knew this was the one to try.

I find that making bread in large quantities can be intimidating and it seems like it takes forever because it has to rise twice but, as I remembered today, for me kneading bread is amazingly therapeutic and two year olds love to play with dough. And of course it is always wonderful to smell bread in the oven baking.

In the end these loaves of bread turned out really nicely. I substituted 3 cups of whole wheat flour for the white flour to make the recipe healthier (next time I will try doing 4 cups) and I also omitted the butter at the very end. I sliced all three loaves when they cooled off and I am freezing two of them. The plan is to just take a slice from the freezer as needed and toast it. I will follow-up with this entry and let you know how well the bread freezes. And now I need to go freeze the remaining slices of Pepperidge Farm raisin bread to the birds.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

Ever since reading The Omnivore's Dilemma I have been trying to avoid high fructose corn syrup. This is really difficult to do. HFCS is in everything. Really, look in your fridge. I bet at least half of the products in there contain HFCS. I was so surprised to see that it was in many bread products (including bread crumbs!) as well as things like ketchup, salad dressing and cereal. Recent reports about mercury in HFCS have pushed me to a new level. Even very small amounts of mercury can be very harmful to children. You wouldn't believe all the toddler foods that have HFCS in them! Even I was surprised. So I have started to think of every snack that my daughter eats and find a recipe to make it from scratch. It is simply unacceptable for her to consume products that are potentially laced with mercury. And so irresponsible on the part of the companies manufacturing these products.

If you have any good recipes for the following items, let me know! As I cook up these snacks I will post the recipes I used and my thoughts about them. Here's what I will be cooking up: Granola bars, Fruit filled breakfast bars, Cinnamon Raisin Bread, Crackers, and Pretzels

Additionally, if you have a great snack (that freezes well) for kids, let me know!

Don't Feed Me Fodder

Welcome to my blog! Here you will find my thoughts about the current state of our food, and food supply. You will also learn about my attempts to feed my family as little conventionally produced food as possible.

Growing up we ate almost all of our food from the supermarket or local restaurants. I remember my grandmas both gardened but my parents did not. It wasn't until my freshman year of college that my roommate grew a tomato plant and I was instantly hooked. It amazed me that you could grow your own food right in your backyard (I mean, I *knew* you could do this but it just wasn't they way that I was raised). Each year I planted a larger and larger garden and became increasingly interested in different vegetable varieties and gardening methods. I learned to seek out locally grown food and became very interested in where our food comes from. That interest became something of an obsession when my daughter was born, in 2006. I was very concerned about the food that she ate and over the last two years I've increasingly attempted to grow and make more and more of the food that my family eats.

I know many of my friends see me as something of an extreamist. Maybe. But it is hard for me to feel or act differently when everytime I open the paper I read of more food recalls, increasing links between what we eat and poor health and the outrageous state of farms, farming and farm policy in our country.

This has become something dear to me and I hope my blog can help others see that it is not *that* difficult to make small food changes in your life that will make a big difference in the overall state of food affairs. Happy reading!