Amazing discoveries every day

So maybe it's the fact that I've been in meetings for longer than I care to divulge. Maybe babysitting early in the mornings is starting to take a toll on me. Maybe it's because it's Friday, and it's hot in this darn office and I have a headache brewing and a million things to do before I leave yet I'm updating this blog instead...

But ya'll are about to get ranted at.

CHECK THIS OUT: http://www.familydollar.com/pages/pop-tarts-trifle.aspx

First of all, ew. Trifles are supposed to be wonderfully delicate, the stuff that southern belles dream of as they while away an afternoon with some nice mint juleps or maybe an afternoon tea. They are elegant. They are placed in pretty glass containers. They are made by Martha Stewart and not with PopTarts!

Here is a nice example:Yum!

Yer doin' it right.

But seriously. Poptarts? High Fructose Corn Syrup? No! This is why we're fat, America. Don't stoop to this nastiness! Stand up for yourself and your heart! Make quality desserts for the people you love, if you really love them. You do not have to compromise your waistband, your wallet, or your values to do this! Sure, I've extolled the loveliness of Zebra Cakes in this blog before but this is something different. This is more serious. This is about access to good quality food for people who don't have a lot of money (I struggled to buy food when I was unemployed and I continue to struggle to buy food on my current budget).

When I go to grad school and try to figure out my place in this crazy, wonderful, messed-up world, one of the things I hope to ease is the inequality that our food systems present us with. There is no reason that in this country, in this day and age, that people should go hungry, or that the under-served populations in our cities and elsewhere are also the ones that have the highest rates of obesity and heart disease. It's not a coincidence, folks. It's all part of a bigger, grander design. And I am not going to stand here and watch 10-year-olds get diabetes and not try and stop the madness.

Okay, I feel better now.

Check back soon for updates from cookie potluck :) (Yes, I am aware of the irony).

Consistent Deliciousness

Been a little lacking on my Monday updates and for that I apologize, my lone reader or three :)

Last Friday (not this past one, but the one before), my roommate and I started receiving a CSA from Growing Power. For those of you who don't know, CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and is a way to connect folks to local farmers, as opposed to running out to Jewel where your mangos may come from Chile and most of the fruits and vegetables are "seasonless". I have thought about joining a CSA for some time but couldn't justify the cost and amount of food alone, so N and I are splitting the cost and getting a big bag of fruits and vegetables delivered every other week. We're due for our second shipment this upcoming Friday and so I sat down with her on Thusday and was like, "let's do this thing"... meaning plan out our meals for the next week or so to ensure maximum usage of our veggies. She laughed at me and thought it was all too domestic but it's actually worked out pretty great and we've gotten some amazing meals made over the past few days.

Our CSA included a huge head of cabbage that neither one of us wanted to touch with a ten foot pole. I suggested making cabbage rolls, which I had eaten at the amazing German restaurant up on Lincoln with M and her parents after first moving to Lincoln Square. We looked up a recipe on Smitten Kitchen and were not disappointed. With a whole head of cabbage, however, we definitely got more rolls than we bargained for. Guess who's having cabbage rolls for lunch a lot this week? This girl. Luckily the recipe did state that they freeze well, so when we're just about over it we'll probably stick the rest in the ice box.

Amazingly, we still had a few leaves of cabbage left that were too small to roll up. So last night we decided to take the cabbage, shred it, and make fish tacos. Again, this is not something I would readily advocate for. Despite my family's embrace of fish tacos since moving to California I have always been a bit wary. Yet... these were delicious! We actually made two kinds, fish tacos from this book (yeah Martha Stewart!), and black bean tacos from the ever lovely Smitten Kitchen. I also made the other Martha's guacamole :) and we had a very complete and satisfying meal. As N remarked, "It's nice to know that Smitten Kitchen is so consistently good." And I had to agree.

Meanwhile, for those keeping score, I've only mentioned one vegetable out of our entire two week CSA! We also received a bag of spinach, which M and I hardly made a dent in when we made a yummy spinach lasagne. The rest of that will be used in a quiche sometime this week, probably tonight. We also have a head of broccoli and a bag of green beans, used in a stir fry to come, as well as potatoes, mixed greens, mangos, (sadly from Chile, so we're a bit confused as to how they made their way into our bag) and apples. I'm sure there's more but I can't think of it all right now, but be assured that we have had many incredible, easy, homemade meals around these parts lately, which completely curbs the desire to eat out. For real. As the weather gets colder, I am excited to have more and more recipes under my belt so I can leave the house less and warm the kicthen more. Mmmm hibernation. Get excited.

Kitchen armor

Let's not forget to keep our clothes tidy while cooking. The more famous of the crafty Marthas suggests using printable fabric to make an apron featuring an image of your favorite heirloom recipe. This was my Mother's Day gift to my mom this year, as well as my first project on the new sewing machine. I used my grandmother's beef stew recipe. It was easy as pie (the apron that is, not the recipe)! Go here for the how-to.
(This photo is Martha S.'s version, not Martha R. Mine turned out off-center.)