Peas in progress

Shelling peas

Today Jacob and I went to the farmers' market. We found the rarest of finds -- peas in the shell. You can frequently find shelled butterbeans in the summer, and often shelled peas in the spring, but to find them still in the shell! Wonderful.

Peas in particular must be the freshest of fresh. When you pick peas, all the sugar in them begins converting to starch, and it doesn't take long. You really need to eat them within a day or two of their being picked or they won't be sweet.

So we bought our peas-in-the-shell and brought them straight home for shelling. I was impressed, but even 2yos can help with this.

Then I slightly adapted a recipe I found on 101 Cookbooks. Here's what I did:

I shelled and rinsed my peas. I boiled a pot of water with a little salt, and I dumped all the peas in for 30 seconds exactly. Then I strained them and rinsed them with cold water to stop the cooking.

For each cup of peas, I added
1/2 c. toasted pine nuts
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
Salt
Lemon juice
1 T. olive oil

And whipped the whole thing up in the food processor.

  Pea pesto.

We couldn't stop eating it.

Some things I have quit eating and drinking

• Meat
  But you knew that already
• Coke of any kind, but especially Diet Coke.
  It's either corn syrup, Nutrasweet or Splenda. I'm thinking any of 'em could kill me.
• Frozen, processed food
  Still eating plain frozen vegetables when fresh aren't available
• Canned food, except tomatoes
  Have to see how many I can put up this summer
• Store-bought potato chips
  As of last night. I "borrowed" the deep fryer my sister was sending to Goodwill. I made homemade potato chips. Both the 2yo and I died and went to heaven. Not buying store-bought again. Ever.

About a year ago, I read What to Eat by Marion Nestle. What a great book -- Nestle, a nutritionist and researcher, examines the food industry from top to bottom -- Meat. Seafood. Dairy. Fresh produce. Canned. Frozen. Corn syrup. All of it. She doesn't condemn it all -- but you walk away from the book knowing so much about where your food comes from. If you're like me, you won't like it.

So, I've been trying to reduce the hands [and chemicals and machines] that have touched what my family and I eat. Please don't misunderstand -- our food industry is in so many ways just a miracle. We're producing so much food in America, so much that I'd hazard to say a substantial percentage is going to waste. The "starving children in China" that we were warned about as children are still starving in some underdeveloped country [or down the street...real hunger still exists in America, in Nashville, but that's another post], and we're throwing food away as fast as we can buy it. Or eating more than two people need in any given day.

So in the midst of such abundance, it seems wrong to me to either waste food or to treat it as a commodity. I'm trying instead to view it as a great blessing, and treat it with reverence. If the food is junk, it's not worthy of me or my family. It has to taste good and be good to meet my standards.

Not to say we're perfect in that -- we had fast food the other night. I'm still struggling to deal with the time required to make every meal nourishing and reverent. And work full time and be president of a nonprofit board and be really, really involved in two other nonprofits and did I mention, I'm a mom to two kids?

But I'm not trying to have a whinefest here. Instead, just saying, we're paying more and more attention to what we eat. And being more purposeful about it.

Menu plan

When I am able to cook again, I can assure you the menu will include squash. Right now at my house, I have

• 3 acorn squash
• 5 butternut squash
• 2 spaghetti squash
• 2 zucchini

I have promised the 8yo she can choose the first meal to be cooked on the new stove. This is all manipulation on my part. Despite my efforts, she eats more junk and less nutritious food than I'd like, and sometimes seems to go for days subsisting on the occasional tub of applesauce.

Any hope of her choosing some of that squash for her meal? Somehow I doubt it.

However, she has -- after a lengthy flirtation with the idea -- declared herself this week to be a full-time vegetarian. Both her father and I have made an effort to educate her on the fact that that will require her to actually eat vegetables.

Her reply: I like artichokes.

Eight-year-olds can muster up quite a bit of scorn when they try. I then urged her to get a paper route so we could afford to feed her year-round.

Freezing tomatoes

I'm not sure I could properly explain the marvelous bounty I got today from my CSA. I could barely lift the box, for starters. The veggies are coming in now, big time. If you work with me, show up early tomorrow and get your pick of the homegrown vegetables I don't like and/or have too many of: eggplant, cabbage, cucumbers and possibly some squash.

But for the moment, I'm off to the kitchen. I ordered special a 25-lb box of tomatoes, for the purpose of freezing them for this winter. Here are the instructions I'm following to freeze the tomatoes....so simple.

I've done this before in years past, but never on nearly this large a scale. I feel sure a lot will have to come out of the freezer to make it happen. I need to get serious about finding a second refrigerator/freezer.

Dr. Pepper made with cane sugar

  Worth the trip to Texas

When Cole and Summer learned that one member of our group has a thing for Dr. Pepper, they arranged to bring these special bottles Sunday night to the Salt Lick. Made only in Dublin, TX, at the oldest existing DP plant, these bottles contain Dr. Pepper made with cane sugar, not high-fructose corn syrup.

Can you tell the difference? Yes. It's a fuller flavor, and it feels heavier in your mouth. Also, delicious.

Plus it tastes better

Read this.

Go, and eat thou likewise. Local food -- from small-scale, independent, organic farmers, if not from your own backyard -- won't expose you to problems like this. Do you really want your food to come shrink-wrapped from halfway across the country?

Just three more days

Just three more days til Tomato Fest '06. I just wanted to let you all know, there is no point in  your entering the tiniest tomato contest, because we have the winner over here. Be sure to come by Bongo Java at noon on Saturday to see us claim our prize.

What? You want to see the tiniest tomato? Forget it. It's remaining safely ensconced in its undisclosed location until the judging.

When this is all you eat

I've really been wanting to include more recipes recently, but when this is all we've been eating in the past week, it's been hard:
Cherries
Grapes
Corn
Tomatoes
Cauliflower
Red potatoes (I did roast these with a little parmesan cheese but it's hardly worth calling a recipe)
Blueberries (LOTS of blueberries)
More tomatoes
Did I mention tomatoes?
Carrots
Hummus
Yogurt
Sourdough bread
UPDATE: I previously forgot the butter beans. Wow, they have been awesome.
And the peaches.

That's pretty much it. This week I'm going to think about actually cooking. But last week it was so hot, and all those fresh fruits and veggies were so good just like they were, well I just didn't get a lot farther than washing them. I'm sorry if you were waiting around here thinking I would have had more for you.

This week will be our week.

Local eats coming to BNA

Well lots of folks here today are all abuzz about the article in the Tennessean announcing that the airport authority is considering a proposal to include a number of local, mostly independent, Nashville restaurants in the upcoming renovation of the airport facility.

The Nashville airport has long been a place where you could go to starve for hours, a massive concourse unmarred by culinary interest of any sort. Part of my problem with their past attempts to inject local interest in the form of barbecue or other semi-enticing restaurants has been that they've done one-shot deals, with limited hours. Inevitably they'd have a barbecue restaurant open at 10 a.m. on Sunday for instance, not a bagel in sight. Where's the logic?

I hope this will help. It's been quite disheartening to fly to other cities in the past five or six years and see really great airports with amazing facilities, great places to eat, free wifi....heck, the list goes on.

Organic produce for North Nashville

Here's a great item I ran across this morning. Feeling goofy I didn't know before since my friend Debbie Miller is so involved with all these issues as the director of Vanderbilt's Child and Family Policy Center. I should read my newsletters better.

The CFPC is working with a number of neighborhood groups in North Nashville on community-building projects, and this summer one of their efforts involves a produce stand. Wha-huh, you say? As the article in the Nashville City Paper and the CFPC's own Web site both point out, prior to the existance of the stand, the neighborhoods served by the produce stand weren't within easy walking distance of any fresh food. So it's not just an amenity, it's a health issue.

Open each Saturday from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., the stand sells mostly organic produce that it purchases from the Farmer's Market and Delvin Farms.