Apology

I am sorry to all of you who were reading our food adventures faithfully. My shoulder does not cooperate most times. Needless to say, this irritates me. Just as I stated up with Deliberate Choices, it kicked up and I just had to stop. Again, this irritates me. I hope to get back to posting more regularly, but honestly, I can not promise anything. Thanks for checking in.

For those of you who requested a more permanent version of my "War and Peace" treatise, here is what I posted on Facebook.....


Rant warning....  Let me begin with full disclosure, my son is one of the Occupiers.  Most of you know this about him and may or may not support his quest for a "better" world as he sees it.  However, if I may have your attention for a bit, perhaps you could reflect on these facts.  Big business, whether it is agribusiness giant Monsanto, financial giants like Bank of America, etc. or oil super powers like Exxon or Mobil have declared us mere consumers.  Does anyone think that corporations are in the business for any other reason than the consuming of and holding of money?  I don't have an inherent problem with money making, it is what makes the world go round.  However, when the unfettered greed is to the exclusion of concern for the customer and/or world citizens, it becomes a problem.  Why?  Because, we as humans are put here to do what?  Think about this.  Are we here to make the world a better place?  Are we here to gather the most stuff?  Are we here to raise any children we might have to be good consumers?  Are we here to merely consume, consume, consume?
  Have you any idea how your chicken is raised?  Let me illuminate you... when meat birds hatch they are taken to poultry barns where they never see daylight, are only allowed eat what they are given, only drink what they are given, and are viewed as commodities.  Overcrowding is acceptable, and they must be fed a constant barrage of antibiotics to live and this is the real revolting part, they are fed unwanted chicks that are ground and put into the feed.  How are we any different?  We are spoon fed drivel from the news services, eat what we are given, drink what we are given, and the corporations care no more about what we are "fed" than they do the chickens.  Well, they care if they get sued, but otherwise if they can get away with it, they will cram crap at us until we smarten up and say "enough is enough". 
  The drive to get consumers to buy a particular product involves complex psychology and marketing to make the product seem indispensible.  We are bombarded night and day to buy, buy, buy.  People go into big debt buying the latest and greatest thing, to feel like they have accomplished something.   I do believe in personal responsibility, so we are inevitably responsible for racking up debt.  However, we are programmed from early childhood with brand recognition, product placement and the chant "buy, buy, buy" ringing in our ears.  After 9/11 President Bush said to go shopping as the surest way to beat terrorism.  (I paraphrased, but you get my drift.)  I am not a communist, I am not a socialist, I am a patriot who is sickened at what we are allowing to happen in our own backyard.
  Which brings me to Dave.  He is a street medic, which for those of you who don't know means he acts as a first aid provider during protests and between as well.  He and his fellow medics work hours that some of us never have.  24 hour shifts are not unheard of and stress is a constant companion.  Having talked to some of the medics, I can say that these men and women are risking more than their physical selves, they are risking PTSD.  Imagine if you will, facing an armed force who has made a habit of beatings, sprayings and physical intimidation.  An armed force that has dislocated shoulders, intentionally caused nerve damage in wrists, caused head trauma.  Don't believe me?  Do a search on youtube for "occupy police brutality".  Bring a bucket, because the videos are pretty sickening.  These medics know all this and run toward the sound of whichever side calls "MEDIC!!!"  Would you?  I don't know that I would.  They do it over and over again.  Why?  Because they believe that we are worth it, that we deserve a better world, a world where people matter, again.  Where big business cannot donate to Super PACs without disclosure (do some research on that little goodie.)  Where our elected officials are not bought and paid for by the highest contributor, but are beholden to us, the voters.  Where our voices are at least as loud as the corporations. 
 What do they ask in return?  Nothing.  No  benefits, not GI loans to restart their lives after their time of service, no pay to make a nest egg, nothing.  Do you think we can as Americans take the lessons of the past and apply them to these folks?  I am asking you to reach out to an Occupier, a protester,  a patriot and have a kind word, maybe a honk of a horn.  If that is too much, how about just not saying "Get a job!" or telling someone you hear running the Occupiers down that you think they at least deserve a modicum of respect whatever their politics.  Thank you for listening and I hope you can do this for me

1/20/12 Egg McWhoWhos and Goat Pizza

For breakfast we had Egg McWhoWhos or homemade egg sandwiches. A third lb. Grass-fed real smoked bacon, cooked, 1/8 LB. Thinly sliced cheddar, 4 English muffins and 4 eggs fresh from our chickens, three scrambled and one over easy. (Phyllis prefers hers deconstructed, so hers is with the muffin on the side). Cost - $2.00 For lunch, my dad had the remainder of the pasta bake that I had frozen withsome of the goat sausage and a bit of mozzarella added. The kids and I had goat sausage pizza with garlic sautéed spinach, a sprinkle of feta cheese, a couple greek olives and black olives with a sprinkle of oregano and granulated garlic on top. Cost - this used up the rest of the goat sausage, and pasta bake for a total cost of $6.00. For dinner we had leftovers from the night before, i.e. Roast chicken, mashed potatoes and peas and carrots. This was an expensive dinner since we inadvertently lost the leftover chicken. Wahhhh! Most saddening. Total cost of dinner.... $25.00. Ouch. Food waste is a problem for restaurants and home cooks as well. This was particularly hard for me, because I really wanted to see just how far I could stretch it.

1/19/12 Slum-gulleon and rubber chickens

Breakfast Slum-gulleon (a name my mom used for whatever you have, thrown together) 8 eggs 1/2 c. Leftover scrambled sausage from breakfast burritos 2 green onions sliced thinly 2 oz. Sliced baby Bella mushrooms 8 kalamata olives, pitted and torn into small pieces Less than an oz. of feta cheese, crumbled very fine Black pepper to taste In hot skillet (we use cast iron) reheat sausage. Add other ingredients, except for the eggs. When the veggies are heated, add eggs. Allow to cook for a minute or two, then scramble to cook through. We all loved it. Cost - $3.00 for four Lunch Tuna salad rolls with chow chow pickles Can tuna, drained and flaked into a bowl Stalk celery, diced finely 1/2 onion, diced finely 2 T. Salad dressing Mixed and served on bulkie rolls with chow chow pickles on the side. Dinner Roaster chicken (Emery's Meats) 1 lemon 1/2 onion Salt and pepper Place-chicken in roasting pan, squeeze lemon juice over, then place lemon halves and onion in cavity. Salt and pepper to taste. Roast at 350 degrees Fahrenheit until done, that is an instant read thermometer reads 165.size of chicken will determine cooking time. Mashed potatoes 12 potatoes (Emery's), cut into half 2 T. Butter 1/2 c. Stonyfield plain nonfat yogurt 2 t. Granulated garlic Salt & pepper to taste 1/4 c. Shredded cheddar cheese, leftover from breakfast burritos When potatoes are done, drain and put back into cooking pan and return to heat. When steam no longer rises, shut off heat. Add butter and mash. Add seasoning and yogurt, then cheese at end. Peas and carrots Green salad with green leaf lettuce, tomatoes, orange pepper slices, and a few black olives with Ken's lite salad dressing. All of the spices are from the co-op. The chicken was divine, and there is barely a dent in the overall meat. I think three additional meals will be easy to do. Tomorrow I will pick the meat off the bones, then save the bones and connective tissue for stock. The rest will be portioned forchicken tacos or burritos, chicken noodle soup and chicken stir fry. The soup will easily make two if not three meals. That is a rubber chicken, it stretches and stretches!

On Goat Sausage and Gold Plated Chickens

Tuesday, we went to Emery's Meats to pick up a chicken. Not just any chicken, a guilt free, pasture raised, humanely treated, happy chicken. While we waited for said chicken, I found goat sausage. Yay, we had been discussing raising goats, but were unsure about the meat. I am not a huge fan of lamb, although my dad and Dave love it! So, finding goat was a huge score.
Finally, one of the owners found a chicken. A large chicken that I mistook for a turkey! Price, $30.00 US. I nearly fainted. Not really, but I did some quick calculations. If I stretch it to four meals, that's $7.50 per meal. Four meals, you ask? Yes, I can stretch a roasting chicken that far, and perhaps farther. More on that later.
We had the goat sausage on pizza last night. It was really good. We all tried it plain and declared it a yummy hot sausage. It cost $8.00, but I used only half so the cost was $4.00. The rest will be used today or tomorrow.

This is my quest

This year I resolved "to stop making resolutions and just live my ideals and values". Sounds simple doesn't it? It might be if you weren't a person who prefers broad statements like this because they have less wiggle room.
So, after a 24 hour period of false smugness, I encountered my first real challenge. I came across a reference to Coca Cola's impact on an African country. I recognized this as my first chance to "do the right thing" or "do the easy thing". I believe I chose... Wisely. So, now, I am Coke-less. I know it is good for me, good for my budget, and voting with my feet seems to work for me.
Within a week we had watched "Food INC". (Insert painful sigh). I am a reasonably well read individual with a morbid fascination for biological processes and the ramifications of the things we humans do to our world. So, this movie with it's detailing of how we are mucking up our food systems via factory farms was just the kick in the butt I needed for change. As a resident of Maine, I am aware of "agricultural runoff" laws because we do have farms here that are affected by them. But, after seeing feed lots crammed with beef critters, well, it all begins to make more sense.
We, as a family, decided to *choose* pasture fed, and where possible, locally grown meats and poultry. Luckily, I had just purchased a half a pig and half a cow, that fulfil those criteria. So, how is this going to affect us?