Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: Thawing My Frozen Heart

Have you ever had a personal winter? Where you went all cold and frozen inside, and it felt less like a normal winter, and more like your heart was embedded in permafrost? When my husband died, nearly 5 years ago, that is pretty much what's happened to me. Yes, as time passed, I've been able to go about my day, get through life, even have some fun. But the frozen part just stayed, and stayed. No thaw.

I started writing this blog back in 2011. That seems like another lifetime, and it was. When my life froze over, early in 2014.  A part of my heart and soul  was stolen by cancer at the end of February, in 2014.  My brave, sweet, and charmingly grumpy husband, Chuck, was taken from me and our family by a fast-spreading pancreatic cancer. I'm trying not to weep as I write, but am pretty well unsuccessful.

He was a picky eater; I've certainly made no bones about just HOW picky he was. Chuck's "no" list was much longer than his "yes" list. Strange partner for a food blogger. But he was my muse, my love, and my best friend who honestly, and often bravely tasted, and (usually) ate the recipes I've posted here. Offered astute suggestions for change or improvement, and sometimes told me to toss the whole mess. If I had to toss it, he unfailingly took me out for dinner. I tried to keep this blog going, I really did, since before his illness began, it had brought so much joy and delicious food to my extended Tribe. Then I just froze.

No apologies here, just an explanation of why I've not been writing. Grief and loss are strange creatures that come to live inside us, and when we think we have finally made peace with them, they bite us again with their tiny sharp teeth creating more pain. I think I froze hard so the little bastards couldn't keep sinking their teeth into my soft places.

So many things changed.  After a few of years rattling around in our big house, with my grand kitchen,  and big garden, I knew it was time to move. That house was about us, and the rest of it was going to have to be about me. I was thawing and I didn't even know it. I have a new home, with a new kitchen, not so grand but every bit as functional. And still a garden, but small, and equal in the pleasure it brings. I live in a townhouse in a condo community, that really is a community, with real neighbors in the true sense of the word. Even though it's early December, the thaw still is ongoing. Who knows, maybe something will even bloom. Judy 2.0

Way back when I started writing about food here, eliminating sugar and grain was so often my focus when creating delicious food that wouldn't make us fat and sick. Unfortunately, I tried to eat my grief away, and my sweet tooth got a firm grip. As my frozen heart began to thaw, I found there was a good 20 pounds more of me than there had been before Chuck got sick. My advice has always been, from my years of teaching diabetics (I'm not a registered dietitian) what to eat and how to cook, to limit carbohydrates. It was always easier, and a lot more successful than the traditional, low fat, reduced calorie programs that continue to have followers for years, even though they never lose all the weight or keep it off.

Still, the low carb approach had a few problems,  especially if you tried to align it with the low fat, low calorie song the sirens still sing. Low carb and low fat is tough, and isn't something most people can continue for life. So we were all still crashing onto the rocks.  Back in about 2008, I began to see bits and pieces appear in journals and sites about the ketogenic diet. It made therapeutic sense. I started telling clients to start adding more fat to their meals, good fat, that it would help them stay satisfied, and it did. But it never dawned on me to do what I was teaching diabetics to do, because I'm not diabetic. I'd tried several of the more popular low fat, low calorie plans after a few accidents, when inactivity cause some temporary weight gain, and they worked to a point, with a lot of deprivation and will power.

My big change came last spring. I'd been fooling with a 5 pound weight loss for months. Mostly, the weight just hung on. Since I moved, and had begun to feel settled in, I'd been reducing my carbs and calories, and had begun to lift weights.  My weight went up and down, up and down. And then a customer at work, when asked if she knew which sales person had helped her, she responded, "The chunky blond." That made something snap. Until I reached my 50s, I was always rather underweight. Menopause changed things up, and I was in the normal weight range, at least until my personal permafrost started. I'm somewhere just under 5'2" tall, and 20 pounds doesn't spread out as far as it does on someone tall. Chunky. Geez. Me, chunky!!!???

"Chunky" worked. I started reading, and reading more.  High Fat Low Carb (HFLC) or Keto seemed to be the way to go. I was going to give it a month. On traditional diets, like Weight Watchers, I'd never lost more than a couple or three pounds in the first month. I was generally lucky if I lost a whole half pound in a week, after that, tracking and going to bed hungry. So I  tweaked my already low carb diet significantly lower, and raised my fat intake. What could be bad about an eating plan that let me have a big steak and salad with blue cheese dressing, or a glass of wine with triple cream brie every day? I figured, as long as I didn't get heavier, and could keep up my jogging and weight training schedule, it would be fine. Really low cal diets leave me tired and grumpy. And while keto isn't high calorie, the fat is so satiating, you tend to eat fewer calories than you actually need.

It was near the end of June, and my pal Sharon was in Philly visiting from NOLA, and she, too, had defected from traditional weight loss plans and was attempting low carb, high fat. We discussed it over corned beef specials in the Reading Terminal Market, for gods sake. That was the last bread I've eaten, and now a little over 5 months later, I'm as lean as I was when I met Chuck. I lost 6 pounds that first month. Now I'm more than 20 pounds lighter, and in the best shape of my adult life. So all this is to tell you that most of the recipes here will be Keto/ LCHF friendly, not all, but most. Many will be Paleo friendly, too. Some also will just be traditional favorites, or damnably delicious, and while not adhering to any "way of eating" worth the splurge. It's a life, not scourge. I'll include some links below to sites I've found helpful on this journey, because it has been one lovely, strange trip so far.

So, I'm back, Tribe.  Leaner, and ...I'm nearly thawed.

The links I was telling you about:

This is the best for just getting started. It's simple,  from Eric Westman, MD,  from the Lifestyle Medicine Clinic at Duke University Medical Center and no malarkey:
https://www.dietdoctor.com/se/wp-content/2014/10/no_sugar_no_starch_diet.pdf

And if video is more your style, start with Ken Berry, MD-- he's also fun to watch!
https://youtu.be/xwKmVjSXTDk

About 10 pounds down, in July, and thawing...at Chanticleer Garden

Garden Report: Garlic Planting Day

Wow. Here it is, officially past the middle of October, and normal people are starting to think about Halloween, Thanksgiving, and the upcoming Winter holidays, and I am thinking about Spring. If I want to have garlic scapes and garlic bulbs to pull from the garden next Summer, then I need to get my garlic bulbs in the ground now, a few weeks before the ground begins freeze.

If I wasn't so lazy, and didn't use my phone to take the picture, you'd know I planted Red German  hardneck garlic that I bought from Territorial Seed Company at the end of the Summer. Put 80 cloves into the ground and with much hope, luck...and some weeding and fertilizer, I should have 80 nice, fat garlic bulbs next year. Has worked every year for the past 10. Some types of garlic need to be chilled in order to produce a bulb. Learned THAT lesson the hard way.

I planted using the square foot method, used my trusty dibble to make holes about 3" deep and dropped a clove (root end down) into each hole spaced about 5" apart. Covered the holes with soil, watered well, and when we get close to a frost (usually around Halloween), I'll mulch the garlic bed with a few inches of straw in case we have a really harsh winter here in the Philly 'burbs.

It does seem a little funny planting for Spring, since my peppers, chard and tomatoes are still producing, but I know in a couple of weeks, I'll have yanked out all the dead plants and will be dreaming again of Spring. After all, it's only 155 days away.

Garlic, ready to plant for Summer 2014!

Fee, Fie, Foe, Friday: The Summer Neighborhood is Back

For a few short months, each year, I feel like I'm part of a neighborhood. We all live here year round, that's for sure , but during the winter months we just give muffled, mittened waves at each other from our driveways. Too cold and dark to stop and chat when walking the dog. These long, light evenings, though, get everyone out with their dogs, or in their gardens.  Late spring and summer, this neighborhood is reborn. All good.

Luckily, all the dogs get along, and except for a few tangled leashes, and some joyful barking, even the dogs seem to be sharing news. Last night, first Hobbes and I ran into Denise and Buddy the Havanese outside of Bob's house, and then Bob came out to join us, followed by Caroline and Bacchus. The conversation runs from dog training, to good groomers to the houses for sale, and the fact that the prices are again rising. Who's passed away, who the new family is up the block, and how confused the trash pick up days are  this week. Who is digging out extra ferns and perennials, and who wants them. Lotta nothing-gossip. All good.

Saw Sue and Timmy the spaniel on the way back home, and old Dugan in his yard.  It's hot, and the mosquitoes are back, but the fireflies are about a week away or so unless it stays hot. Crickets are starting up, cicadas, too. Little clumps of folks are congregating by garden gates and on porches. Leashes and baby strollers. All good.

The Summer Neighborhood is Back. Long, light summer evenings for me, equals happy.

Happy Blue.

Cooked All Week and Nothing to Show for It but a Raised Bed

I warned you all this would be an odd week. Chuck had eye surgery that has forced him to face-plant himself for seven mortal days. Plus, complications from the general anesthesia that sent us to an emergency clinic and ANOTHER doctor. Lots of lost sleep and stress. Luckily, we got most of it under control by Friday, thanks to the huge help from Susan, and Merry and CC. Nonetheless I am pretty much pooped.

I've cooked every meal in, which is rare around here. Lots of blog-worthy dishes. I start taking pictures as I go, but by the time the food is ready to plate, there are eyedrops, pills or or a catheter to check, and swoosh I forget to shoot the final picture. All I wanted to do at that point was get it on a plate and get us all fed.

Funny thing, though. The weather has been glorious. I took some vacation time to deal with this planned operation, and the highlights have been the time spent walking Hobbes. It's peak Spring here, and cruising the neighborhood towed by a small dog on a leash has been a joy. While I can only go for a few minutes at a time, its a real gift since I am usually locked in a retail store at this time of year. Gave me garden-fever.

Since he patient is largely on the mend today, although still face-down, I assembled one of my two new raised bed gardens today. 18" deep.  Running in and out every 20 minutes or so to check on my patient, I managed to drill in 72 woods crews. Oy.  I'm planning a third, but they're a little pricy from kits (I'm not real skilled with tools) so I'll wait until later into Summer to order the third. Can't wait to get them filled and planted. I can taste the beans and tomatoes already!

My new 18" deep raised bed. Will fit a few more in soon.

Local & In Season circa 1921: Mrs. Scott's North American Seasonal Cook Book

I don't think Mrs. Scott was a movie star chef from her picture here.

I just read an interview with a local chef, and honestly, he seems to think he invented farm-to-table cooking, or seasonal, local cooking.  Not naming names here, but you probably have heard some famous chef preciously spouting how wonderful it all is. Well, I've got news for them: The hunter-gatherers invented it thousands of years ago. While it IS wonderful, and no doubt there are some creative new combinations, it's what good home cooks have been doing for a millennium at least.

What set me off on this is while rummaging around looking for my copy of Beard's "American Cookery", I happened on a copy of a cook book my mother got from my Dad's mom back in the 1940's. Published in 1921, "Mrs. Scott's North American Seasonal Cook Book" had everything in it a thrifty housewife would need to know to feed her family well. The book isn't in the best of shape; the pages are a little brown on the edges and there's a page missing from the front, but it proves that these guys didn't think up using what was in season and locally available. Not many people had refrigerators in 1921; iceboxes were the thing still for most. So stocking up with out of season fruit and vegetables wasn't even a consideration. No frozen vegetables, no Concord grapes in May. The Spring and Summer and Fall recipes are good and varied. Winter relying heavily on roots, grains and hard squashes is a little less appealing to our modern tastes; the menus seem heavy and stodgy.

Kinda dry compared to the latest offerings from today's TV  food people.

But here we are in late Spring,--- May into June meant blackberries, asparagus, spinach, strawberries, rhubarb, early peas, hard shell crabs, lamb and--whatever Mother Nature in her grand and infinite cycle has provided. The recipes in this old book are quaint. Simpler stews and soups, with far fewer seasonings than even the average American is used to now. Fruit puddings, uncommon foods like creamed scallions...which gives me an idea... but you get the picture. If you lived in Philadelphia, where this book was published, you traipsed down to the market and looked over what came in, possibly still by wagon, from New Jersey or from Lancaster County and planned your meals around that. We should be doing that now.

Everything old is new again. People are canning. Smoking bacon at home. Making bread.  It wasn't unusual 75 years ago for there to be a few chickens or a beehive in the backyard, or a rabbit hutch behind the garage. This old book is a good reminder that while we like to think we've reinvented the wheel, or at least discovered seasonal, local eating, our grannies really had it wired. Cook on! 

 

Little Flatbread Pizza with Asparagus, Egg, Cheese and Pepperoni

Asparagus, egg and pepperoni flatbread

In honor of the first asparagus from the garden, this is one of the best breakfasts, lunches or dinners that I can think of. I just had it for breakfast. As a gardening geek, As soon as the first chard, chive or asparagus pokes its head above ground, I’m running around telling everyone I know. Sad but true. I tend to celebrate Spring.

2012 has to be the earliest I can ever remember picking asparagus. Granted, there are only 4 stalks large enough to pick but there are a couple of hundred coming along later. There also appears to be a major crop of slugs, too. Yum.

Actually, I kinda lied about this being a recipe. It’s not really. It’s just a technique. I didn’t even have the correct ingredients, since this is much nicer with thick asparagus, so it makes a “dam” to keep the egg from sliding off the flatbread before it’s cooked. But this early in the asparagus season, I don’t get thick asparagus out of the bed.

A flatter type of flatbread, other than naan is actually a little better as naan tends to be too bumpy, and the egg tends to slide to one side or the other. But it’s what I had in the freezer and I am all about improvising with what’s available. If your flatbread is largish, two eggs work fine, and could really make two servings.

This has everything going for it. It’s crispy, a little spicy from the pepperoni, creamy from the cheese, fresh tasting from the asparagus and sauced by the egg yolk. Make yourself one for breakfast soon. Or whenever you get your hands on some good, thick, LOCAL asparagus. Celebrate Spring.

Little Flatbread Pizza with Asparagus, Egg, Cheese and Pepperoni

Note: if you don't have a baking stone, place the flatbread on a baking sheet before assembling, and keep it on the sheet to bake.

Preheat your oven with a baking stone, if you have one, in it to 450°F. You’ll need:

4 thick, crisp - cooked asparagus stalks

1 small flatbread

About 2 ounces of thinly sliced sharp cheese

2 thin slices of either sandwich pepperoni or salami

1 or 2 eggs

Coarse salt (I used Hawaiian Black salt because it’s pretty)

Layer the cheese thickly to hold the egg in place when it melts

Place the cheese thickly on the top of the flatbread. Arrange the asparagus on the top of the cheese in a square or rectangle so the asparagus will come in contact with the cheese when it melts to form a wall to keep in the egg. Place the pepperoni or salami in the center. Place the flatbread in the oven on a the stone for about 2 minutes until the cheese is melting, and carefully, with a wooden spoon, press down gently on the asparagus to be sure it’s stuck to the cheese. Break your egg(s) into the middle of the asparagus wall and bake another 4-6 minutes until the whites are cooked, and the yolk is done to your liking. Carefully remove from the oven with a big spatula, and sprinkle with the coarse salt. Serves 1 or 2.