So I just saw that Google's doodle was done by Ina Garten today. I've strongly considered getting a TV solely for the purpose of watching Barefoot Contessa. I know favorite Food Network celebrities can trigger hot debate, but who doesn't want to live in the Hamptons in the middle of their kitchen garden, be best friends with a chocolatier and have their friends over for lunch on their yacht every day?
In one of the aforementioned times of inwardly debating the "TV for news and Food Network purposes" issue, I just googled Ina instead. (I'm pretty sure deep down if I didn't have a "real job" AND had a TV in the house I could very quickly own only mu-mu's, develop a serious potato chip habit and be sucked in to every daytime soap & telenovela that was on air). I ended up finding an interview with her about kitchen design. Dreaming of someday having a dream kitchen someday, I took copious notes while thinking what a genius Ina was. (I like saying "Ina" as if we actually know each other in real life. One can dream.) Now, I have no idea where those notes are, if they survived the move, but I do remember having a ton of "ah-ha!" moments. But when I've finally got my laptop back and am somewhere other than the middle of the country with sketchy at best internet service (but improved today by our fixed transformer box), I plan to re-watch the interview.
I have been thinking a lot lately about good, functional kitchen design both for the Southern Scratch kitchen as well as our home kitchen. The great thing about the interview was that Ina's advice works for both a commercial kitchen where baking and cooking are going on all the time or for the home cook who wants a streamlined space to get dinner out fast.
One of the most memorable thing she said was how she only uses stainless or white kitchen utensils and appliances. She noted that colorful spatulas and mixing bowls may look pretty but if you have twenty different colored items, it can make a working kitchen (i.e. when you're getting ready for a dinner party) look cluttered and messy. If you stick with one color (and you can find nearly everything in white or stainless), the room automatically looks "put together" even if you've got a floured work surface, pots on the stove, caserolles in the oven, the mixer going and guests walking in the door. Genius Ina. Just genius.
I try to remember that tip whenever I'm drawn to turquoise spatulas or pink handled whisks for the Southern Scratch kitchen to go all matchy with our Waste Not Paper labels. And while I did give in and register for lemongrass colored Fiesta for our everyday china, we got rid of any and all other plates, mugs, etc. so we still have a monochrome look in our home kitchen. (Which is really important since the eager home renovater I am took off all our kitchen cabinet doors the day we got back from our honeymoon and haven't made good progress on getting them back up or painted like I had planned...oh sigh.)
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you live in Washington, plan to come by the market Saturday morning between 8-till we sell out right behind the courthouse. We are going to have a good little selection of our best breakfast items for anyone that wants to get out of the house before the football games start or bring your kids by to come pick out a freshly made cinnamon roll! (We totally allow footie pajamas at the market).
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Another Reason Why I Love Reid and a Weight Loss Tip All in the Same.
I realized yesterday that Reid and I had been married a grand total of eight months on Saturday. So basically we know squat about being married. And really, we know squat about each other too. In that time though we have both learned to enjoy the little quirks each of us have that we didn't notice when we were all love-struck, thinking "let's get married and live out a John Prine song."
Today I had made up a bunch of brown butter pecan shortbread for gift box orders and like a good wife, saved some extra cookies for Reid. After I told him they were his, he took a little nibble then said "Oh wait, these need coffee." So we made a pot of fresh coffee (roasted less than a week ago from 1000 Faces in Athens) just so he could have the "perfect pairing" with the shortbread.
You would be right if you thought the above was a boring little anecdote. But what I loved was that Reid had the patience and appreciation to enjoy his shortbread to the fullest. As he was eating them, all nestled in his chair, he said again how great the two went together. (Our eyes met and this shared passion for really good food just made my little newlywed heart all a-flutter. Oh, what a sophisticated man I married, ripped blue jeans, threadbare t-shirt and discussing the nuances he could taste in non-overroasted coffee. Rwroarr...).
But on a more practical and less lovey-dovey note, the weight management/enjoying life without counting calories aspects were there too. How many people mindlessly eat store bought cookies? Or mindlessly eat even really good cookies without truly enjoying them? Reid wasn't "dieting" but he avoided eating five or six cookies standing up in the kitchen without mentally "registering" them and instead had two small ones sitting down with coffee which he ended up calling dinner because he had enjoyed it so much.
I think having a deep appreciation of food may be the cornerstone of maintaining a healthy weight and building a good relationship with food where it nourishes you physically, emotionally and mentally yet doesn't abuse your feelings, invade all your thoughts or harm your body. I am not a fan of any kind of diet advice during the holidays (or diets ever actually) but Thanksgiving is a great time to practice the art of savoring food for all it's worth. Not the "how much food can I get away with eating this year?" but "how amazing is this homemade butter crust?" Take the time to really taste your family's good food Thursday instead of just chewing your food.
And when it comes time for dessert, definitely make a fresh pot of coffee.
Today I had made up a bunch of brown butter pecan shortbread for gift box orders and like a good wife, saved some extra cookies for Reid. After I told him they were his, he took a little nibble then said "Oh wait, these need coffee." So we made a pot of fresh coffee (roasted less than a week ago from 1000 Faces in Athens) just so he could have the "perfect pairing" with the shortbread.
You would be right if you thought the above was a boring little anecdote. But what I loved was that Reid had the patience and appreciation to enjoy his shortbread to the fullest. As he was eating them, all nestled in his chair, he said again how great the two went together. (Our eyes met and this shared passion for really good food just made my little newlywed heart all a-flutter. Oh, what a sophisticated man I married, ripped blue jeans, threadbare t-shirt and discussing the nuances he could taste in non-overroasted coffee. Rwroarr...).
But on a more practical and less lovey-dovey note, the weight management/enjoying life without counting calories aspects were there too. How many people mindlessly eat store bought cookies? Or mindlessly eat even really good cookies without truly enjoying them? Reid wasn't "dieting" but he avoided eating five or six cookies standing up in the kitchen without mentally "registering" them and instead had two small ones sitting down with coffee which he ended up calling dinner because he had enjoyed it so much.
I think having a deep appreciation of food may be the cornerstone of maintaining a healthy weight and building a good relationship with food where it nourishes you physically, emotionally and mentally yet doesn't abuse your feelings, invade all your thoughts or harm your body. I am not a fan of any kind of diet advice during the holidays (or diets ever actually) but Thanksgiving is a great time to practice the art of savoring food for all it's worth. Not the "how much food can I get away with eating this year?" but "how amazing is this homemade butter crust?" Take the time to really taste your family's good food Thursday instead of just chewing your food.
And when it comes time for dessert, definitely make a fresh pot of coffee.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Country Heads to Town this Holiday Season! Delivery Dates & More!
It seems like just yesterday I was packing up all my Christmas decorations into big plastic totes and labeling them "X-Mas-->Reid's House." Soon after we got engaged and firmly settled on living in Washington after we were married (I did my fair amount of begging and scheming to try to get Reid to work at Roosevelt where I lived but Reid's farm outweighed my little cottage), I started to pre-move. I packed up everything I thought I could live without until the wedding (which you can live without most of the stuff you have apparently) and sent Reid back with boxes every time he came to visit. We still ended up with a massive moving truck a few weeks after the wedding so I'm glad I had started early even if it did mean I still have a lot of random boxes in the barn. (I did spend one last night in my cottage alone after the wedding curled up with my dog, Myra, indulging in Hulu episodes of 30 Rock and Ben & Jerry's knowing it would be the last night ever of living alone. Cherish it single friends. Marriage is awesome but so is not having anyone judge you when you're halfway down a pint without plans to stop too.)
Anyways, it is now the holiday season again. Since our hallway is the only fully painted room in our house, I'm considering setting it up as our sole holiday vignette. Maybe I'll even pull a chair or two in there and make Reid pretend we just live in a 4 x 12 cottage that is decorated to the hilt. Or as if we're celebrating the holiday in a Paris hotel room all romantic-ally. Or like we're struggling grad students living in a tiny dorm room together. (Sidenote to the Lipscomb University student dorm assistants present during the 2003 annual door decorating contest: You know that our "Christmas in Dixie" life size aluminum foil mobile home and clothesline decoration complete with original self portraits in our finest denim cut off skirts and genuine LU parking tickets was the best and Kaitlyn, Steph, Liz and I still kind of hold a grudge against you for awarding us a bag of pork rinds and case of RC cola instead of the $300 gift certificate the girl that decorated with a felt cut-out nativity scene got. And besides, everyone knows that only moon pies, not pork rinds, go with RC cola. That was poor taste all around ladies.)
So instead of making our house a winter wonderland, I am going to holiday up our Southern Scratch booth! (Oh and the pink (or is it lime green?) Christmas tree I'd never thought I'd get to put out again will be on full display). We have a lot of great things planned as well as a BIG change (we'll get to announce that hopefully in just a week or so when everything is final!!) so I've listed out a schedule for where to find us.
You can order by calling (706-505-0698 or 7442 in Washington (I love a town that is small enough where you only have to give the last 4 digits of your phone number because everyones starts the same way-in this case it's 706-678-7442); email at scratchbaking@gmail.com ; post/message on Facebook or visit us at the Farmer's Market Nov. 27th/Dec. 11th/Dec. 18th or Festival off Main in Thomson (Dec. 4th/5th)!
You can either order "off the menu" (Thanksgiving is posted already and Christmas will be by posted Friday) or call for custom items. If you live close you can also bring your serving dishes or platters for us to fill up with your order. (We won't even tell if you pretend you made it!).
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010:
-Dropping off side dishes, pies, rolls, and more in Washington, GA. Check out the menu here and order by tomorrow night (Monday, November 22nd).
Saturday, November 27th, 2010: Washington Farmer's Market
-We plan on setting up a booth at the market early Saturday morning located behind the courthouse. We will have cinnamon rolls, scones, chocolate croissants, Better Than's and plenty of coffee. We will be there around 8am until we sell out. You can reserve fresh cinnamon rolls, etc. for your family by calling (7442 in Washington or 706-505-0698). This is a perfect way to start off your Small Business Saturday, show your in-laws a little piece of Washington, or take back to the house before the games start!
Saturday, December 4th-Sunday, December 5th: Thomson, GA Festival Off Main
We are sooo excited about this event! We will have a booth on both shopping days, Saturday and Sunday. Our menu is focused around cakes (large and small), custom gift boxes and pans of breakfast items like our blue cheese green onion and grit scones and grass fed butter cinnamon rolls.
I am most looking forward to our gift boxes: We will have different sized & shaped boxes available along with a wide variety of individual serving treats (Better Than's, homemade caramel chocolate nut popcorn, truffles, brown butter shortbread just to name a few items). You pick your box, treats, and color ribbon to match. We package them up for you along with a menu card with treat names/ingredients either on the spot (for early gift giving) or shipped/delivered to you closer to Christmas. You will be able to give a completely custom gift to your friends and family based on what treats you think they'll love.
We will also have super cute gift certificates in their own fabulous packaging that will make great stocking stuffers.
Saturday, December 11th, 2010: Washington, GA Farmer's Market, OPEN LATE!
Even though it is cold the market will still be open! We are so lucky to have several Wilkes County farmer's with green houses so the vegetables are still coming. (Thomas MacFie even showed up with kiwi Saturday...we were all duly impressed). The downtown shops are adorable and with the Tour of Homes this is the perfect weekend to spend in Washington.
We plan to have our usual full assortment of breakfast items, treats, cakes and coffee along with the gift boxes & gift certificates mentioned above. We plan on getting there around 8:30 (or when the last pan of cinnamon rolls come out of the oven) and staying down there until 5pm/dark.
Saturday, December 18th, 2010: Washington, GA Farmer's Market
Our usual spread! If you are ordering teacher gifts or headed out of town early to visit family it is a great day to pick up your treats. We will be there around 8:30 until a little after noon. (Then I'll be headed over to Bee Southern, Cost Cutters, Petal Pushers (Christmas Shop) and Talk of the Town along with all of our other cute downtown shops for last minute holiday shopping!!)
Tuesday, December 14th and Tuesday, December 21st: Deliveries to Atlanta and Athens
We plan on making mid morning-afternoon deliveries to Atlanta and late afternoon/evening delivery to Athens. We will offer custom gift boxes, cakes, and breakfast treats as well as a holiday menu (to be posted soon!) for side dishes, appetizers, entrees, etc. made primarily from Georgia grown and organic ingredients. These delivery dates are right in time for teachers and end of the year corporate gifts!
Wednesday, December 15th and Wednesday, December 22nd: Deliveries to Thomson and Augusta
If you've ordered at Festival Off Main you can pick which day you would like your treats, gift boxes or holiday food delivered fresh! If you missed the festival you can still be able to order Southern Scratch goodies!
Thursday, December 16th and Thursday, December 23rd: Deliveries in Washington, GA
Our usual delivery day! We can do any time of day deliveries on the 16th and morning/early afternoon deliveries on the 23rd just in time for Christmas guests!
Friday, December 24th: Birmingham, AL Deliveries
We are thrilled to be able to do deliveries all the way back in my hometown! Perfect chance to have treats delivered to your door on Christmas Eve!
Saturday, December 25th-Wednesday, December 29th: Vacation
Reid and I plan to soak up time with our families and not lift a finger in the kitchen!
Thursday, December 30th-Friday, December 31st:
We will have New Year's appetizers and treats ready to be picked up or delivered in the Washington, Thomson, or Augusta area. Catering also available-book by Dec. 11th!
I still can't believe the holidays are finally here but we are so excited about being able to deliver to the awesome "city folk" we've met in Atlanta, Athens & Augusta in addition to our wonderful neighbors in Washington and more distant neighbors in Thomson!! Also just thrilled to be at the Festival Off Main and even make deliveries over in Alabama! Reid and I cannot say enough about how much fun we have had meeting all of you and how much you have enriched our lives! We are so thankful this year for so much!!
Anyways, it is now the holiday season again. Since our hallway is the only fully painted room in our house, I'm considering setting it up as our sole holiday vignette. Maybe I'll even pull a chair or two in there and make Reid pretend we just live in a 4 x 12 cottage that is decorated to the hilt. Or as if we're celebrating the holiday in a Paris hotel room all romantic-ally. Or like we're struggling grad students living in a tiny dorm room together. (Sidenote to the Lipscomb University student dorm assistants present during the 2003 annual door decorating contest: You know that our "Christmas in Dixie" life size aluminum foil mobile home and clothesline decoration complete with original self portraits in our finest denim cut off skirts and genuine LU parking tickets was the best and Kaitlyn, Steph, Liz and I still kind of hold a grudge against you for awarding us a bag of pork rinds and case of RC cola instead of the $300 gift certificate the girl that decorated with a felt cut-out nativity scene got. And besides, everyone knows that only moon pies, not pork rinds, go with RC cola. That was poor taste all around ladies.)
So instead of making our house a winter wonderland, I am going to holiday up our Southern Scratch booth! (Oh and the pink (or is it lime green?) Christmas tree I'd never thought I'd get to put out again will be on full display). We have a lot of great things planned as well as a BIG change (we'll get to announce that hopefully in just a week or so when everything is final!!) so I've listed out a schedule for where to find us.
You can order by calling (706-505-0698 or 7442 in Washington (I love a town that is small enough where you only have to give the last 4 digits of your phone number because everyones starts the same way-in this case it's 706-678-7442); email at scratchbaking@gmail.com ; post/message on Facebook or visit us at the Farmer's Market Nov. 27th/Dec. 11th/Dec. 18th or Festival off Main in Thomson (Dec. 4th/5th)!
You can either order "off the menu" (Thanksgiving is posted already and Christmas will be by posted Friday) or call for custom items. If you live close you can also bring your serving dishes or platters for us to fill up with your order. (We won't even tell if you pretend you made it!).
Wednesday, November 24th, 2010:
-Dropping off side dishes, pies, rolls, and more in Washington, GA. Check out the menu here and order by tomorrow night (Monday, November 22nd).
Saturday, November 27th, 2010: Washington Farmer's Market
-We plan on setting up a booth at the market early Saturday morning located behind the courthouse. We will have cinnamon rolls, scones, chocolate croissants, Better Than's and plenty of coffee. We will be there around 8am until we sell out. You can reserve fresh cinnamon rolls, etc. for your family by calling (7442 in Washington or 706-505-0698). This is a perfect way to start off your Small Business Saturday, show your in-laws a little piece of Washington, or take back to the house before the games start!
Saturday, December 4th-Sunday, December 5th: Thomson, GA Festival Off Main
We are sooo excited about this event! We will have a booth on both shopping days, Saturday and Sunday. Our menu is focused around cakes (large and small), custom gift boxes and pans of breakfast items like our blue cheese green onion and grit scones and grass fed butter cinnamon rolls.
I am most looking forward to our gift boxes: We will have different sized & shaped boxes available along with a wide variety of individual serving treats (Better Than's, homemade caramel chocolate nut popcorn, truffles, brown butter shortbread just to name a few items). You pick your box, treats, and color ribbon to match. We package them up for you along with a menu card with treat names/ingredients either on the spot (for early gift giving) or shipped/delivered to you closer to Christmas. You will be able to give a completely custom gift to your friends and family based on what treats you think they'll love.
We will also have super cute gift certificates in their own fabulous packaging that will make great stocking stuffers.
Saturday, December 11th, 2010: Washington, GA Farmer's Market, OPEN LATE!
Even though it is cold the market will still be open! We are so lucky to have several Wilkes County farmer's with green houses so the vegetables are still coming. (Thomas MacFie even showed up with kiwi Saturday...we were all duly impressed). The downtown shops are adorable and with the Tour of Homes this is the perfect weekend to spend in Washington.
We plan to have our usual full assortment of breakfast items, treats, cakes and coffee along with the gift boxes & gift certificates mentioned above. We plan on getting there around 8:30 (or when the last pan of cinnamon rolls come out of the oven) and staying down there until 5pm/dark.
Saturday, December 18th, 2010: Washington, GA Farmer's Market
Our usual spread! If you are ordering teacher gifts or headed out of town early to visit family it is a great day to pick up your treats. We will be there around 8:30 until a little after noon. (Then I'll be headed over to Bee Southern, Cost Cutters, Petal Pushers (Christmas Shop) and Talk of the Town along with all of our other cute downtown shops for last minute holiday shopping!!)
Tuesday, December 14th and Tuesday, December 21st: Deliveries to Atlanta and Athens
We plan on making mid morning-afternoon deliveries to Atlanta and late afternoon/evening delivery to Athens. We will offer custom gift boxes, cakes, and breakfast treats as well as a holiday menu (to be posted soon!) for side dishes, appetizers, entrees, etc. made primarily from Georgia grown and organic ingredients. These delivery dates are right in time for teachers and end of the year corporate gifts!
Wednesday, December 15th and Wednesday, December 22nd: Deliveries to Thomson and Augusta
If you've ordered at Festival Off Main you can pick which day you would like your treats, gift boxes or holiday food delivered fresh! If you missed the festival you can still be able to order Southern Scratch goodies!
Thursday, December 16th and Thursday, December 23rd: Deliveries in Washington, GA
Our usual delivery day! We can do any time of day deliveries on the 16th and morning/early afternoon deliveries on the 23rd just in time for Christmas guests!
Friday, December 24th: Birmingham, AL Deliveries
We are thrilled to be able to do deliveries all the way back in my hometown! Perfect chance to have treats delivered to your door on Christmas Eve!
Saturday, December 25th-Wednesday, December 29th: Vacation
Reid and I plan to soak up time with our families and not lift a finger in the kitchen!
Thursday, December 30th-Friday, December 31st:
We will have New Year's appetizers and treats ready to be picked up or delivered in the Washington, Thomson, or Augusta area. Catering also available-book by Dec. 11th!
I still can't believe the holidays are finally here but we are so excited about being able to deliver to the awesome "city folk" we've met in Atlanta, Athens & Augusta in addition to our wonderful neighbors in Washington and more distant neighbors in Thomson!! Also just thrilled to be at the Festival Off Main and even make deliveries over in Alabama! Reid and I cannot say enough about how much fun we have had meeting all of you and how much you have enriched our lives! We are so thankful this year for so much!!
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Boulder Farmer's Market & a 9 Volt Battery Taste Testing
Saturday morning Reid and I decided to walk down into the city after breakfast. The time change was great because we could feel like we were sleeping in but actually be awake pretty early. We bundled up and with a map headed down the mountain on foot. (I usually look like a bagwoman in cold weather so if you see me at the market Saturday don't be surprised if I have six coats on.) We didn't have anywhere we needed to be except to eventually find the Whole Foods and pick up grits and a few things we needed to make blue cheese scones. (Reid had a special request from the Colorado resident but Southern raised groom to fix him grits before his big day).
So on our walk, my doting husband stops at a massage place (not the shady kind) so he could find some aromatherapy lotion. (He definitely had the store employees convinced he made sure to rub my back for no less than two hours every day. Oh, people in Colorado must believe anything. Actually Reid was being really nice since we were on our second honeymoon in less than a year and all. I didn't even mind when later my back was on fire and I read the container that had "capsecin" listed as an active ingredient.) While we were there, we said we were just walking around town and they told us we had to go check out the Farmer's Market, especially since it was the last day it would be open for the season.
The market ended up being right behind the store and they let us out the back door to walk right to it. The first stand we came to had grass fed cheeses which were absolutely incredible. We knew we couldn't buy a ton of stuff because, obviously, you can't haul heads of cabbage no matter how pretty they are back in your luggage. Luckily we remembered that we had at least forty or more people we could possibly feed back up at the main lodge with the groom's family and friends. And since my favorite thing to do is feed people and I was staring at the biggest farmer's market I'd ever seen, I said we should do some kind of wine and cheese thing for everyone. Reid agreed and we set out trying to find everything we needed for our "menu."
There was everything from a non-GMO popcorn stand to at least five gluten free baked goods stands to several grass fed milk and cheese vendors. We picked up several types of cheese, baguette, sourdough, raisin walnut bread, radishes, cabbage (so sweet we just ate them raw), roasted poblano and anaheim peppers, artisan chocolates and of course apples. We also found freshly milled flour to use in the scones, locally roasted coffee and a bottle of artisan chai mix that had a little cayenne pepper in it for breakfast the next morning. The market also had a dedicated "food court" with a pizza stand to die for...homemade heirloom tomatoe sauce on a stove with fresh market vegetables and cheeses being used as pizza toppings on homemade dough.
I realized for us to be able to taste everything this market had to offer we would have to vacation here for a couple weeks every year. We then daydreamed walking back about planning all of our vacations around really great farmer's markets. Our poor children one day-we will have to let their grandparents take them to real vacation places and let them watch plenty of TV at other kid's houses so they aren't completely socially awkward.
About halfway through the market a little lady popped out from her booth and held out a bag of cocoa powdered chocolate covered almonds. I ate the little piece of heaven and the lady disappeared. Before we could turn around though a man popped up to us and told us we had to try his buttons. (What???) He walked over to a little cloth napkin and uncovered a bunch of tiny little flower buds which he called Szechuan buttons. Reid and I were slightly nervous but the man, who liked he may have lived another life as a Tibetan Monk dressed in a Northface coat was convincing. (He convinced Reid by saying it was like putting your tongue to a nine volt battery. Later I found out that was a perfectly acceptable method of testing a battery.)
He tore off a little piece of the flower bud (looked like a marigold) and gave it to each of us. We put it in our mouths and after a few seconds you could feel not only your palette being cleansed but also a kind of little jolt of energy...like the little flower shocked your mouth alive. We were both wide eyed at the feeling when the lady with the almonds popped back up again. She handed the bag to her husband (I'm assuming) who then gave us each other chocolate covered almond. He encouraged us to eat one so we could see what the button did to our tastebuds. I put the chocolate in my mouth and was overwhelmed with how intese the flavors were. I felt like I was at some high end weight loss center going through an exercise to help you become more aware of your food and had just had a major breakthrough. I thought, "So this is what chocolate could really taste like."
We bought several of the buttons and the man gave us two more so we could each keep one in our mouths. If you held the button in the side of your mouth and just bit it slightly before taste testing, the flavors would of course intensify. And perhaps this is why we could not stop buying food at the market. Everything we tasted of course was "the best ever" since we had a constant stream of palate cleansing battery voltage current.
We left the market with a bookbag and our hands full of our spoils and started to head back to the lodge. Someone on the street told us the Whole Foods had closed (later we found out it didn't and just took a car there instead) so we headed straight up the mountain. I felt like a true hunter/gatherer or any other kind of handy mountain woman type "hiking" the sidewalks back up the mountain, provisions for the crew in hand. (I especially felt like this because of the burning in my quads. I had forgotten the what goes down must go back up rule of physics on our breezy downhill journey).
Back at our little cabin we unloaded our finds and made veggie platters, cheese and apple platters and paired the different breads and cheeses along with some radish, grass fed butter and baguette bruchetta. We also broke the dark chocolate and sunflower butter chocolate cups. It was so much fun-I'd get a plate ready and Reid would run it over to the main lodge since we didn't have enough space in our cabin to get everything prepped at once.
Once we had finished we joined everyone with a glass of wine, talking about all the great things we found at the market. Later on, we shared some of our precious Szechuan buttons with a select few and conducted our own "chocolate button tastings." (Which of course was awarded a "street name" once we told our story of tasting it for the first time but possibly inappropriate to mention here.)
Monday afternoon one of the other guests and first people to try the button with us, a photographer from New York, was on our flight with us. We told him we had plenty of chocolate and button left. So mid-flight the three of us had another little tasting session with the chocolates we were given as wedding favors. (Unfortunately for Ken, he missed finishing off the last of the sourdough batard and the snowdrop goat's cheese brie with us before the flight attendants cleared the aisle. But very fortunately for Ken, he missed our pre-flight lunch at an airport steakhouse that served "mountain oysters." They tasted exactly like you think they would. Never again. That is not food.)
Tomorrow night I think we are going to have our last chocolate tasting with Reid's dad after dinner. He is always up for a good food experience and needs a good meal for taking care of our dogs for us (and letting us borrow his truck the past few weeks). I've already been looking online to see if I can order some more Szechuan buttons and make some kind of tiny cookies or a sorbet with them to cleanse our palettes and give us a little charge. Until then, we will just have to stick to batteries.
So on our walk, my doting husband stops at a massage place (not the shady kind) so he could find some aromatherapy lotion. (He definitely had the store employees convinced he made sure to rub my back for no less than two hours every day. Oh, people in Colorado must believe anything. Actually Reid was being really nice since we were on our second honeymoon in less than a year and all. I didn't even mind when later my back was on fire and I read the container that had "capsecin" listed as an active ingredient.) While we were there, we said we were just walking around town and they told us we had to go check out the Farmer's Market, especially since it was the last day it would be open for the season.
The market ended up being right behind the store and they let us out the back door to walk right to it. The first stand we came to had grass fed cheeses which were absolutely incredible. We knew we couldn't buy a ton of stuff because, obviously, you can't haul heads of cabbage no matter how pretty they are back in your luggage. Luckily we remembered that we had at least forty or more people we could possibly feed back up at the main lodge with the groom's family and friends. And since my favorite thing to do is feed people and I was staring at the biggest farmer's market I'd ever seen, I said we should do some kind of wine and cheese thing for everyone. Reid agreed and we set out trying to find everything we needed for our "menu."
There was everything from a non-GMO popcorn stand to at least five gluten free baked goods stands to several grass fed milk and cheese vendors. We picked up several types of cheese, baguette, sourdough, raisin walnut bread, radishes, cabbage (so sweet we just ate them raw), roasted poblano and anaheim peppers, artisan chocolates and of course apples. We also found freshly milled flour to use in the scones, locally roasted coffee and a bottle of artisan chai mix that had a little cayenne pepper in it for breakfast the next morning. The market also had a dedicated "food court" with a pizza stand to die for...homemade heirloom tomatoe sauce on a stove with fresh market vegetables and cheeses being used as pizza toppings on homemade dough.
I realized for us to be able to taste everything this market had to offer we would have to vacation here for a couple weeks every year. We then daydreamed walking back about planning all of our vacations around really great farmer's markets. Our poor children one day-we will have to let their grandparents take them to real vacation places and let them watch plenty of TV at other kid's houses so they aren't completely socially awkward.
About halfway through the market a little lady popped out from her booth and held out a bag of cocoa powdered chocolate covered almonds. I ate the little piece of heaven and the lady disappeared. Before we could turn around though a man popped up to us and told us we had to try his buttons. (What???) He walked over to a little cloth napkin and uncovered a bunch of tiny little flower buds which he called Szechuan buttons. Reid and I were slightly nervous but the man, who liked he may have lived another life as a Tibetan Monk dressed in a Northface coat was convincing. (He convinced Reid by saying it was like putting your tongue to a nine volt battery. Later I found out that was a perfectly acceptable method of testing a battery.)
He tore off a little piece of the flower bud (looked like a marigold) and gave it to each of us. We put it in our mouths and after a few seconds you could feel not only your palette being cleansed but also a kind of little jolt of energy...like the little flower shocked your mouth alive. We were both wide eyed at the feeling when the lady with the almonds popped back up again. She handed the bag to her husband (I'm assuming) who then gave us each other chocolate covered almond. He encouraged us to eat one so we could see what the button did to our tastebuds. I put the chocolate in my mouth and was overwhelmed with how intese the flavors were. I felt like I was at some high end weight loss center going through an exercise to help you become more aware of your food and had just had a major breakthrough. I thought, "So this is what chocolate could really taste like."
We bought several of the buttons and the man gave us two more so we could each keep one in our mouths. If you held the button in the side of your mouth and just bit it slightly before taste testing, the flavors would of course intensify. And perhaps this is why we could not stop buying food at the market. Everything we tasted of course was "the best ever" since we had a constant stream of palate cleansing battery voltage current.
We left the market with a bookbag and our hands full of our spoils and started to head back to the lodge. Someone on the street told us the Whole Foods had closed (later we found out it didn't and just took a car there instead) so we headed straight up the mountain. I felt like a true hunter/gatherer or any other kind of handy mountain woman type "hiking" the sidewalks back up the mountain, provisions for the crew in hand. (I especially felt like this because of the burning in my quads. I had forgotten the what goes down must go back up rule of physics on our breezy downhill journey).
Back at our little cabin we unloaded our finds and made veggie platters, cheese and apple platters and paired the different breads and cheeses along with some radish, grass fed butter and baguette bruchetta. We also broke the dark chocolate and sunflower butter chocolate cups. It was so much fun-I'd get a plate ready and Reid would run it over to the main lodge since we didn't have enough space in our cabin to get everything prepped at once.
Once we had finished we joined everyone with a glass of wine, talking about all the great things we found at the market. Later on, we shared some of our precious Szechuan buttons with a select few and conducted our own "chocolate button tastings." (Which of course was awarded a "street name" once we told our story of tasting it for the first time but possibly inappropriate to mention here.)
Monday afternoon one of the other guests and first people to try the button with us, a photographer from New York, was on our flight with us. We told him we had plenty of chocolate and button left. So mid-flight the three of us had another little tasting session with the chocolates we were given as wedding favors. (Unfortunately for Ken, he missed finishing off the last of the sourdough batard and the snowdrop goat's cheese brie with us before the flight attendants cleared the aisle. But very fortunately for Ken, he missed our pre-flight lunch at an airport steakhouse that served "mountain oysters." They tasted exactly like you think they would. Never again. That is not food.)
Tomorrow night I think we are going to have our last chocolate tasting with Reid's dad after dinner. He is always up for a good food experience and needs a good meal for taking care of our dogs for us (and letting us borrow his truck the past few weeks). I've already been looking online to see if I can order some more Szechuan buttons and make some kind of tiny cookies or a sorbet with them to cleanse our palettes and give us a little charge. Until then, we will just have to stick to batteries.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
No Pictures to Prove It, But We Had a Great Time.
The past few days, Reid and I have had one of the best weekends we've ever had together (in the entire 20 long months we've known each other). We flew out Friday morning to Boulder, CO to see one of Reid's closest friends from his highschool days at Riverside Military Academy get married to a gorgeous girl he has been in love with since he graduated from highschool. With the time change we still arrived at Chatauqua before noon. The wedding was on Sunday morning and we got back to Washington around 1am this morning. (Sidenote: If you work at a particularly popular coffee shop founded in Seattle off I-20 between Atlanta and Washington, please don't close at 10:30 when tired people driving home are counting on you to be open until 11:00 like the Garmin and your sign says. A cup of coffee would have meant a whole lot more to me than closing early would have meant to you last night, okay?)
At Chatauqua, we had rented one of the little cottages which were all in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The scenery was breathtaking. The people were incredible. The wedding was beautiful. The food was outstanding. I think this trip will be something Reid and I reminisce about when we're old. And I hope our memories stay sharp because we forgot to take any pictures.
That said, I'm really actually even more grateful now than I was before we left that my laptop had totally gone kaput on me. I brought my camera but forgot to use it except for a couple shots of some vegetables we found at a great Farmer's Market (I think food is the only thing I take pictures of anyway). We pretty much kept our phones on silent. And we didn't even have a TV in the room (which is really good for us because we don't have a TV at home and would have probably missed the wedding because we were too sucked into watching Friends reruns like little entertainment deprived junkies).
Basically, we had no choice but to be with only the people that were actually there in person.
Luckily we ended up amongst some really great people. We didn't really have anywhere we "had" to be except for dinner or the wedding (or the bachelorette party which I was thrilled to get to be a part of even though I had just met all of the girls including the bride who all turned out to be awesome, super fun, belly laughing with them even though you just met them type of girls). It was just four days in complete vacation mode. Not the camera-strapped-around-your-neck and check-the-next-attraction-off-your-list kind of vacation. The "let's just go on a walk and see where we end up" type of vacation along with a little "why not have a glass of wine with breakfast?" mixed in with a little dice playing, hiking on a snowy mountain, spontaneous wine and cheese parties and most adorable three year old little boy who could high kick and jazz hands to the Rockettes better than any 5'10" ballerina could ever dream of doing.
I think over the next few posts I'll talk about the amazing Tea House we had dinner at Friday night or my new fascination with Szechuan Buttons. I'll definitely have to include a post on the mother of the groom, who has to be the most superb hostess I have ever met in my life. And about fifty other things about why Reid and I think we should vacation in Boulder every year now. And how we really hope the couples who were dating at the wedding get married and invite us so we can hang out with all the same people again in one place...
Perfect wedding, perfect weekend. Congratulations Zach & Stacy!!
At Chatauqua, we had rented one of the little cottages which were all in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The scenery was breathtaking. The people were incredible. The wedding was beautiful. The food was outstanding. I think this trip will be something Reid and I reminisce about when we're old. And I hope our memories stay sharp because we forgot to take any pictures.
That said, I'm really actually even more grateful now than I was before we left that my laptop had totally gone kaput on me. I brought my camera but forgot to use it except for a couple shots of some vegetables we found at a great Farmer's Market (I think food is the only thing I take pictures of anyway). We pretty much kept our phones on silent. And we didn't even have a TV in the room (which is really good for us because we don't have a TV at home and would have probably missed the wedding because we were too sucked into watching Friends reruns like little entertainment deprived junkies).
Basically, we had no choice but to be with only the people that were actually there in person.
Luckily we ended up amongst some really great people. We didn't really have anywhere we "had" to be except for dinner or the wedding (or the bachelorette party which I was thrilled to get to be a part of even though I had just met all of the girls including the bride who all turned out to be awesome, super fun, belly laughing with them even though you just met them type of girls). It was just four days in complete vacation mode. Not the camera-strapped-around-your-neck and check-the-next-attraction-off-your-list kind of vacation. The "let's just go on a walk and see where we end up" type of vacation along with a little "why not have a glass of wine with breakfast?" mixed in with a little dice playing, hiking on a snowy mountain, spontaneous wine and cheese parties and most adorable three year old little boy who could high kick and jazz hands to the Rockettes better than any 5'10" ballerina could ever dream of doing.
I think over the next few posts I'll talk about the amazing Tea House we had dinner at Friday night or my new fascination with Szechuan Buttons. I'll definitely have to include a post on the mother of the groom, who has to be the most superb hostess I have ever met in my life. And about fifty other things about why Reid and I think we should vacation in Boulder every year now. And how we really hope the couples who were dating at the wedding get married and invite us so we can hang out with all the same people again in one place...
Perfect wedding, perfect weekend. Congratulations Zach & Stacy!!
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Don't Judge a Book by its' Fantastical Creature Content.
I definitely enjoy getting into a good book. It seems the past several years though, I've mainly been reading dietetics oriented books with a thick bibliography section or more how-to type things like How to Keep an Organized Home when you have a Disorganized Head (it was something like that.) But an amazing thing has happened in the past seven months and that thing is me becoming a housewife. And housewives that don't have kids yet get to do woman of leisure type things like read books all morning with really good coffee and dark chocolate biscotti while their husbands are at work. If they play it right and have a nice dinner on the table when husband comes home, husband usually doesn't ask too much what you did all day. So the book before last I read A Severe Mercy, by Sheldon Vanauken, which is by far the greatest romance novel ever written. It is not actually a romance novel but a non-fictional memoir. I promise it rivals "The Notebook" anyday. By a long shot. It is tear your heart out, sobbing on the pages, make you want to tell your husband he is the most wonderful person in the world and you are so grateful he goes to work all day while you read in your pajamas kind of good. Well that was several months ago...
Either wisely or unwisely, I gave myself a job as owner/employee/dishwasher/cook/marketing director/driver/financial advisor and errand girl of my own little business and now my days of not having to be anywhere are getting fewer and fewer. Which is great and exciting and good. But also kind of terrifying and rushed. So Monday, in a great moment of "seeing the silver lining of every situation," I realized that having my laptop down meant that on our trip this weekend I couldn't do any "work." We have a lot coming up with the holidays (we'll have exciting news to share in a few weeks here!!) and our trip can really be a great time to rest up before keeping the oven going full speed the next month or so.
Our friend is getting married at Chataqua in Boulder, Colorado so we booked a little cottage there for a long weekend. We've got an early morning flight and then of course I'm sure typical delays, etc. so I started looking for a good book to read. Reid and I briefly contemplated buying "dueling" books such as "Trickle Up Poverty" and "Dreams of My Father." (Or my new food processing book and "In Defense of Food.") I figured if I wanted to make my head spin though I'd at least read something useful like "Small Business for Dummies." I finally decided I just needed to find something for pure enjoyment. Not deep. Not useful. Just a good page-turner I could curl up with on the flight or surrounded by snow (thanking the good Lord I live in Georgia).
Luckily for me, a Washington, GA local just released her second novel and it is the perfect vacation book.
I feel I need to preface how I came around to reading her first book "The Unicorn Girl". In January of this year I was up in Washington visiting my future husband and town. We had coffee at The Fitzpatrick Hotel and I noticed there were novels on sale in the lobby titled "The Unicorn Girl." I (correctly) assumed they were written by a local author. I passed over them because a) I was busy planning a wedding and b) I'm not really into unicorns.
Months later, post wedding and early market, I noticed "The Unicorn Girl" on sale at one of the Washington Farmer's Market's vendors table. I assumed the vendor either knew the unicorn author or was the unicorn author, but I didn't ask to find out. Honestly I didn't really want to inquire when I really had no intention to buy a book about unicorns. I thought it may be weird and I didn't want to be put into a situation of not liking it and then avoiding whoever the author or author's friend was for the rest of my life so they wouldn't ask me if I liked it.
Months after that, I got to know Sandy, "the unicorn book vendor", and found out it was her daughter Melissa who was "the unicorn author." Even though Sandy was completely normal I still tried to avoid asking any questions about the unicorn book. I honestly did not think any book about a mythical creature would be anything I would be the least bit interested in. But finally last month, on a spur of the moment whim probably caused by lack of sleep, I bought the unicorn book. I felt kind of brave for doing it especially with the whole possible social awkward interactions it could cause.
But instead of not liking it I was absolutely captivated. I started the book Sunday afternoon and read it late until the night along with a package of our leftover "Better Than's" (cheese straws) from the market and a glass of wine. Then I stayed in my pajamas all morning and into the afternoon Monday reading it with coffee. I kept thinking "I'll stop at this chapter and get some laundry done" until I finally just decided I had to finish it before I could do anything else. It had been such a long time since I was that sucked into a novel that I literally couldn't put it down.
I think "officially" the book is targeted toward adolescents but I'm 26 and kind of really loved it. It is about this young girl growing up in a huge castle that becomes friends with a (nice) witch woman who had been best friends with the girls' deceased mother. A rival cousin is involved as well as a king, a prince, a (mean) witch stripped of her powers, a mysterious illness, and of course some unicorns. After the mysterious illness she runs away from her home and embarks on an epic journey to fulfill whatever her calling is that is associated with her illness. It is a book that has unicorns in it but I swear to you it is good, not weird.
What I really enjoyed is that I never felt like I should be "getting" the real meaning behind the characters and plot. It was just fun to read. On one hand Melissa's writing style is really straightforward. She doesn't make you do mazes in your head trying to figure out what she's saying or get you lost in a five page description of a tree which I loved. But on the other hand she has a fantastic ability to not reveal too much so that the plot really isn't predictable.
I think maybe she accomplishes this by really keeping the reader "in the moment." Reading it is like enjoying a really great dinner with friends where you are so happy just to be where you are but the conversation is still moving forward with building interest. (I feel like I'm reviewing a book for AP English writing this..."the reader.")
Instead of using fifty adjectives to describe an everyday object, she creates a new object. For instance she came up with this bag called a "Replenisher." The replenisher is an old tattered burlap sack that belongs to the good witch. It works by the person just thinking of what they want (like to eat, drink, etc.) and pulling it out of the bag to replenish themselves (get it?). The young girl takes it with her on her journey so throughout the novel you get to see what she eats. After the "repelenisher" was first introduced I thought, "If this is a fantasy novel it hit the nail on the head for a ton of people. I would totally fantasize about a bag that contained 10 year sharp cheddar and grapes and probably chocolate cake whenever you wanted it." (I told Melissa I could definitely tell a "foodie" wrote the book because the girl pulls out some pretty delicious meals for being stuck in a forest.)
But back to the book I'm taking on our trip out west. (I just checked and it is going to be 23 degrees tomorrow night. Oh how I love Georgia.) I saw on Facebook where Melissa had just gotten her shipment of her newest book in and thought, "Yes! This is perfect-no political downers, no business books about the hundreds of things I should probably be doing and nothing that is going to make me go into deep reflection on my life." And oh so luckily for me I was planning on being at the LeGette household (one of the most fabulous places on earth) early Tuesday morning to go with Sandy to that pickling/hypochloride class. Early Tuesday morning I was excited to get one of the first copies-signed by the author with "To Kathryn: May you make almond toffee. -M.L.LeGette" (I'll be interested to see if toffee is in the book or if is a Southern Scratch order in which case I'll have to find out how much she wants).
By the time I get back from Colorado I'll have finished "For the Kingdom" and then jump right back in to baking! I think Melissa is doing a booksigning at the Mary Willis Library (oldest public library in the state of Georgia I believe right here in Washington, GA!) December 9th from 3:30-5:30. Sandy will also have copies of it at her booth at the market (along with the now "not so weird" unicorn book). Don't be afraid of asking about it because Sandy is not weird and the book is really good I promise. I've already peeked at a few pages of this new one and I think it is going to be really good too.
Melissa said she is working on a third book so maybe we'll plan our next vacation around it's release date...
Hope everyone has a great weekend!! We (obviously) won't be at the market Saturday but will be back the morning of the 20th! There should be produce year round (possibly even tomatoes in December thanks to a wood heated green house) so you haven't missed it for the season. Next Thursday's meal (the 18th) is our last one for 2010 and then we will be doing 2 meals/week starting in January (a family friendly night on Tuesdays and the Weekday Gourmet on Thursdays).
Either wisely or unwisely, I gave myself a job as owner/employee/dishwasher/cook/marketing director/driver/financial advisor and errand girl of my own little business and now my days of not having to be anywhere are getting fewer and fewer. Which is great and exciting and good. But also kind of terrifying and rushed. So Monday, in a great moment of "seeing the silver lining of every situation," I realized that having my laptop down meant that on our trip this weekend I couldn't do any "work." We have a lot coming up with the holidays (we'll have exciting news to share in a few weeks here!!) and our trip can really be a great time to rest up before keeping the oven going full speed the next month or so.
Our friend is getting married at Chataqua in Boulder, Colorado so we booked a little cottage there for a long weekend. We've got an early morning flight and then of course I'm sure typical delays, etc. so I started looking for a good book to read. Reid and I briefly contemplated buying "dueling" books such as "Trickle Up Poverty" and "Dreams of My Father." (Or my new food processing book and "In Defense of Food.") I figured if I wanted to make my head spin though I'd at least read something useful like "Small Business for Dummies." I finally decided I just needed to find something for pure enjoyment. Not deep. Not useful. Just a good page-turner I could curl up with on the flight or surrounded by snow (thanking the good Lord I live in Georgia).
Luckily for me, a Washington, GA local just released her second novel and it is the perfect vacation book.
I feel I need to preface how I came around to reading her first book "The Unicorn Girl". In January of this year I was up in Washington visiting my future husband and town. We had coffee at The Fitzpatrick Hotel and I noticed there were novels on sale in the lobby titled "The Unicorn Girl." I (correctly) assumed they were written by a local author. I passed over them because a) I was busy planning a wedding and b) I'm not really into unicorns.
Months later, post wedding and early market, I noticed "The Unicorn Girl" on sale at one of the Washington Farmer's Market's vendors table. I assumed the vendor either knew the unicorn author or was the unicorn author, but I didn't ask to find out. Honestly I didn't really want to inquire when I really had no intention to buy a book about unicorns. I thought it may be weird and I didn't want to be put into a situation of not liking it and then avoiding whoever the author or author's friend was for the rest of my life so they wouldn't ask me if I liked it.
Months after that, I got to know Sandy, "the unicorn book vendor", and found out it was her daughter Melissa who was "the unicorn author." Even though Sandy was completely normal I still tried to avoid asking any questions about the unicorn book. I honestly did not think any book about a mythical creature would be anything I would be the least bit interested in. But finally last month, on a spur of the moment whim probably caused by lack of sleep, I bought the unicorn book. I felt kind of brave for doing it especially with the whole possible social awkward interactions it could cause.
But instead of not liking it I was absolutely captivated. I started the book Sunday afternoon and read it late until the night along with a package of our leftover "Better Than's" (cheese straws) from the market and a glass of wine. Then I stayed in my pajamas all morning and into the afternoon Monday reading it with coffee. I kept thinking "I'll stop at this chapter and get some laundry done" until I finally just decided I had to finish it before I could do anything else. It had been such a long time since I was that sucked into a novel that I literally couldn't put it down.
I think "officially" the book is targeted toward adolescents but I'm 26 and kind of really loved it. It is about this young girl growing up in a huge castle that becomes friends with a (nice) witch woman who had been best friends with the girls' deceased mother. A rival cousin is involved as well as a king, a prince, a (mean) witch stripped of her powers, a mysterious illness, and of course some unicorns. After the mysterious illness she runs away from her home and embarks on an epic journey to fulfill whatever her calling is that is associated with her illness. It is a book that has unicorns in it but I swear to you it is good, not weird.
What I really enjoyed is that I never felt like I should be "getting" the real meaning behind the characters and plot. It was just fun to read. On one hand Melissa's writing style is really straightforward. She doesn't make you do mazes in your head trying to figure out what she's saying or get you lost in a five page description of a tree which I loved. But on the other hand she has a fantastic ability to not reveal too much so that the plot really isn't predictable.
I think maybe she accomplishes this by really keeping the reader "in the moment." Reading it is like enjoying a really great dinner with friends where you are so happy just to be where you are but the conversation is still moving forward with building interest. (I feel like I'm reviewing a book for AP English writing this..."the reader.")
Instead of using fifty adjectives to describe an everyday object, she creates a new object. For instance she came up with this bag called a "Replenisher." The replenisher is an old tattered burlap sack that belongs to the good witch. It works by the person just thinking of what they want (like to eat, drink, etc.) and pulling it out of the bag to replenish themselves (get it?). The young girl takes it with her on her journey so throughout the novel you get to see what she eats. After the "repelenisher" was first introduced I thought, "If this is a fantasy novel it hit the nail on the head for a ton of people. I would totally fantasize about a bag that contained 10 year sharp cheddar and grapes and probably chocolate cake whenever you wanted it." (I told Melissa I could definitely tell a "foodie" wrote the book because the girl pulls out some pretty delicious meals for being stuck in a forest.)
But back to the book I'm taking on our trip out west. (I just checked and it is going to be 23 degrees tomorrow night. Oh how I love Georgia.) I saw on Facebook where Melissa had just gotten her shipment of her newest book in and thought, "Yes! This is perfect-no political downers, no business books about the hundreds of things I should probably be doing and nothing that is going to make me go into deep reflection on my life." And oh so luckily for me I was planning on being at the LeGette household (one of the most fabulous places on earth) early Tuesday morning to go with Sandy to that pickling/hypochloride class. Early Tuesday morning I was excited to get one of the first copies-signed by the author with "To Kathryn: May you make almond toffee. -M.L.LeGette" (I'll be interested to see if toffee is in the book or if is a Southern Scratch order in which case I'll have to find out how much she wants).
By the time I get back from Colorado I'll have finished "For the Kingdom" and then jump right back in to baking! I think Melissa is doing a booksigning at the Mary Willis Library (oldest public library in the state of Georgia I believe right here in Washington, GA!) December 9th from 3:30-5:30. Sandy will also have copies of it at her booth at the market (along with the now "not so weird" unicorn book). Don't be afraid of asking about it because Sandy is not weird and the book is really good I promise. I've already peeked at a few pages of this new one and I think it is going to be really good too.
Melissa said she is working on a third book so maybe we'll plan our next vacation around it's release date...
Hope everyone has a great weekend!! We (obviously) won't be at the market Saturday but will be back the morning of the 20th! There should be produce year round (possibly even tomatoes in December thanks to a wood heated green house) so you haven't missed it for the season. Next Thursday's meal (the 18th) is our last one for 2010 and then we will be doing 2 meals/week starting in January (a family friendly night on Tuesdays and the Weekday Gourmet on Thursdays).
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
A Class on Pickling That Didn't Even Mention a Single Cucumber.
A month or so ago, Sandy LeGette asked if I wanted to go to a "pickling" class with her at UGA. They had such an abundance of okra this year and she thought it would be a good idea to get certified in processing acidified foods. Since I had only made pickles twice in my life and they were the kind you kept in the fridge rather than in the pantry for ten years, I thought it sounded like a great opportunity for some continuing education. This "Better Processing" class is required before you can then go through the steps (about fifty bajillion of them it seems with a dozen different agencies) of actually putting a product on grocery store shelves along with a cute little label. Other than homegrown tomato sauce for meals, I didn't have any product in mind to actually sell but I thought "why not?"
Although Sandy had warned me the class covered not only small canning operations (like anyone who grew up on a farm did with the season's bounty for the winter) but also the huge massive canning operations (like Hunt's) I still thought it would be more of a "how-to" class. When I got the "textbook" in the mail and it was filled with words like hydrostatic retort and diagrams of the seventeen parts of the anatomy of a glass jar, I briefly considered ditching it. Luckily I had already paid and was looking forward to a trip with Sandy who always has these great "food system" insights.
So at 6:30 yesterday morning we were on the road to class at the Food Sciences Department. And for two days we covered everything from breakthrough points for chloride treatment of cooling water to the lug v. continuous thread designs of jar lids. We both learned a lot and I think went away with knowledge of safety & record keeping procedures that we will definitely use. We also learned a ton about things we will probably never use such as names of valves for 300 head filling systems and juice box factories that run through a thousand cartons of juice aseptically within less than a minute.
In our last session yesterday we learned all about keeping a high concentration of chloride in the cooling water so that the surface area of the can won't have any bacteria on it. When processing such a huge quantity of cans or jars in a plant, there are so many additional steps and checkpoints to make sure there haven't been any product defects, everything is sanitized, etc. And pretty much this just meant lots more chemicals and/or higher temperatures.
As soon as we left the classroom we just stared at each other with our eyes wide. I mean, how can that much hypochloride be good for you? What is really left of the food once it's been completely "sterilized?"
I am by no means a microbiologist or a chemist. I'm not even going to pretend like I know which chemicals are bad, worse or ugly because I am not an expert. The goal of the class (with food science & technology staff from UGA and FDA guys there) was to help people SAFELY process these jarred/canned acidified foods. This means how to keep it free from microorganisms while it sits on a grocery store shelf to be sold to the public and then at room temp in your pantry. It was to make sure that nobody starting a small acidified foods business was risking the public's health by not having jars sealed properly, etc. It was to inform us of proper recording procedures so that if the FDA visited your kitchen you had documentation of temperatures, pH levels of your products, etc. for every batch you made. We knew that this was the goal and I think the course did an excellent job of meeting that goal.
But it made us think: "Can food really be responsibly processed on such a mass scale?" What, if any, sacrifices to our health have been made so we can have the convenience of canned vegetables year round? How far have we gone into the direction of processed foods that now we eat them nearly every single day? Sure, families have "put away" food for generations but weren't pickles and dried meats usually reserved for the winter when you didn't have the abundance of summer produce or more fresh milk?
We really did enjoy the class and are glad to have passed our exam and be able to get processes certified, etc. I think it made me see a good "big picture" of food processing on both a large and small scale. I've always found that the "inspection" agencies are really not bad to work with. (For some reason I always got kind of sentimental about the hospital's Joint Commission visits, thinking about how great it was we could all work together to help our patients get even better care). The USDA, the FDA, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, the Health Department, independent or land grant university process authorities and even the Bioterrorism Agency are all involved in some way or another in the process.
It will be a while before I put my Better Practices certification to use (not planning on overseeing a canning plant anytime soon) but I am definitely glad to know I am now qualitifed to proceed to the next fifty steps of paperwork required to produce a jar of pickles. I just wish that they would have at least given me a recipe.
Although Sandy had warned me the class covered not only small canning operations (like anyone who grew up on a farm did with the season's bounty for the winter) but also the huge massive canning operations (like Hunt's) I still thought it would be more of a "how-to" class. When I got the "textbook" in the mail and it was filled with words like hydrostatic retort and diagrams of the seventeen parts of the anatomy of a glass jar, I briefly considered ditching it. Luckily I had already paid and was looking forward to a trip with Sandy who always has these great "food system" insights.
So at 6:30 yesterday morning we were on the road to class at the Food Sciences Department. And for two days we covered everything from breakthrough points for chloride treatment of cooling water to the lug v. continuous thread designs of jar lids. We both learned a lot and I think went away with knowledge of safety & record keeping procedures that we will definitely use. We also learned a ton about things we will probably never use such as names of valves for 300 head filling systems and juice box factories that run through a thousand cartons of juice aseptically within less than a minute.
In our last session yesterday we learned all about keeping a high concentration of chloride in the cooling water so that the surface area of the can won't have any bacteria on it. When processing such a huge quantity of cans or jars in a plant, there are so many additional steps and checkpoints to make sure there haven't been any product defects, everything is sanitized, etc. And pretty much this just meant lots more chemicals and/or higher temperatures.
As soon as we left the classroom we just stared at each other with our eyes wide. I mean, how can that much hypochloride be good for you? What is really left of the food once it's been completely "sterilized?"
I am by no means a microbiologist or a chemist. I'm not even going to pretend like I know which chemicals are bad, worse or ugly because I am not an expert. The goal of the class (with food science & technology staff from UGA and FDA guys there) was to help people SAFELY process these jarred/canned acidified foods. This means how to keep it free from microorganisms while it sits on a grocery store shelf to be sold to the public and then at room temp in your pantry. It was to make sure that nobody starting a small acidified foods business was risking the public's health by not having jars sealed properly, etc. It was to inform us of proper recording procedures so that if the FDA visited your kitchen you had documentation of temperatures, pH levels of your products, etc. for every batch you made. We knew that this was the goal and I think the course did an excellent job of meeting that goal.
But it made us think: "Can food really be responsibly processed on such a mass scale?" What, if any, sacrifices to our health have been made so we can have the convenience of canned vegetables year round? How far have we gone into the direction of processed foods that now we eat them nearly every single day? Sure, families have "put away" food for generations but weren't pickles and dried meats usually reserved for the winter when you didn't have the abundance of summer produce or more fresh milk?
We really did enjoy the class and are glad to have passed our exam and be able to get processes certified, etc. I think it made me see a good "big picture" of food processing on both a large and small scale. I've always found that the "inspection" agencies are really not bad to work with. (For some reason I always got kind of sentimental about the hospital's Joint Commission visits, thinking about how great it was we could all work together to help our patients get even better care). The USDA, the FDA, the Georgia Department of Agriculture, the Health Department, independent or land grant university process authorities and even the Bioterrorism Agency are all involved in some way or another in the process.
It will be a while before I put my Better Practices certification to use (not planning on overseeing a canning plant anytime soon) but I am definitely glad to know I am now qualitifed to proceed to the next fifty steps of paperwork required to produce a jar of pickles. I just wish that they would have at least given me a recipe.
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