What's Been on My Mind

What's been on my mind: in a word, FOOD! I had my wisdom teeth removed on Monday morning, and since then have been longing for my return to the world of solid food, crunchy food, and anything that involves excessive action on the part of my molars.

It hasn't been all bad; oatmeal with cinnamon and mashed bananas, pureed sweet potatoes and carrots, and gallons and gallons of pudding! But while I've had several hours a day to "enjoy" my spring break oral recovery, I've been thinking about all of the wonderful food I will be able to devour again very soon.

One relatively recent adoption to our kitchen has been our sourdough starter, aka "mother" (I want to come up with a more clever name for it, but creativity is lacking recently). Every morning, I add some whole wheat flour and water to it. Then, after it has absorbed a sufficient amount of yeast from the air, we take some of it and combine it with flour and other ingredients and bake a delicious sourdough loaf. It is so easy! This week, we are planning on making a few smaller loafs that will act as bread bowls for the tomato soup we just bough from Raikowski Farms at the winter farmer's market. I'm excited!

Another Pizza Post!

Friday night pizza just got even better! Yesterday, I decided that I would make my own dough from scratch. There was more than a slight chance of eating subpar pizza, but I didn't care. I was feeling adventurous, darn it, and I wanted to stop relying on pre-mixed doughs, dough from cans, and anything having to do with dough in boxes and/or lovable, obese dough boys. I googled "pizza dough recipes", clicked on the very first one, made a few adjustments, and watched my hope and anticipation rise along with the dough.

And rise it did. As you can see from the pictures below, the dough expanded like Charlize Theron preparing to be in the movie Monster. And it turned out really well! I had to ask Amanda several times while we were enjoying the pizza if she really liked it, because I have found that I genuinely enjoy things that I make for myself regardless of whether they are truly good or not. After several confirmations that, indeed, the pizza was one of the best we had made, I feel like I can declare this a success.

Friday Night Pizza Dough

1.5 tsp dry active yeast

1 cup warm water

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp salt

2.5 tsp white sugar

2 tsp basil

2 tsp oregano

1. Dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes.

2. Stir yeast mixture in with the rest of the ingredients. Cover and let rise. Preheat oven to 350 while you wait.

3. Roll out on pan, pizza stone, or whatever you are baking with. Top with pizza toppings and enjoy!

The All-American Meal

While trying to eat more healthfully and more sustainably, meals like burgers and fries seem to go by the wayside. Not purchasing factory-farmed meat and avoiding deep-fried genetically modified golden Freedom Fries can be an impediment in enjoying an occasional indulgence like this. However, with a few minor adjustments (and education), this meal is well within reach.

It is unbelievably easy to be apathetic about a concept such as how meat is produced. When I have tried to talk about those close to me about why I am striving to become a locavore and the topic of meat comes up, I have heard, "Oh, don't tell me! It's really gonna gross me out!!" on several occasions. Now, I'm not trying to be preachy and I feel that I am generally pretty unassuming in the presentation of my points. But I will take my opportunity now to step up on my soapbox and hopefully (when I actually have readers), I can educate some people about making appropriate food choices.

CAFO's, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, is likely where your meat comes from when you go to the supermarket and pick up a pound of ground chuck to grill some delicious burgers. These operations place tremendous stress on the animals, not only by forcing them into an intolerable living space, but by injecting them with growth hormones, dosing their feed with antibiotics, and forcing them to trudge around in an exorbitant amount of fecal matter. The videos that floated around the internet a few years back of people doing absurdly inhumane things in order to get animals to stand for long enough to slaughter them were not an isolated incident. This happens all over the country, and these animals are the origin of the meat you buy. Yum!

Purchasing local, free-range meat accomplishes several things. First, you are supporting local farmers who desperately need help in this era of enormous commercial farms. Second, you have more of a direct connect with the ecosystem than with commercial meat. Third, you can generally ensure that the animals were treated humanely during their life and are free of residues from antibiotics and pesticides when you actually eat them. The origin of the ground bison for my burger, pictured below, is a small farm just outside of Stevens Point. Amanda and I have passed by on our bikes before, and it is quite reassuring to know exactly where this meat came from.

In lieu of deep-fried french fries, I baked some thin slices of sweet potato until they were crispy and delicious.

If you want to read more about why you should avoid factory-farmed meat, I recommend Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, What to Eat by Marion Nestle, and Grub by Anna Lappe and Bryant Terry.