Coming April 23rd: Cooked by Michael Pollan

I Love love love Michael Pollan's books! If you have never read one I suggest starting with Food Rules. It's a quick read--lie 1hr quick -- and it's full of great rules to flow to keep you eating healthy, whole foods. My favorite is, "If your grandmother wouldn't recognize it as food, don't eat it!" His new book, Cooked comes out soon and I ant wait to read it. Here's the synopsis from his website. Michaelpollan.com

In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth— to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer. In the course of his journey, he discovers that the cook occupies a special place in the world, standing squarely between nature and culture. Both realms are transformed by cooking, and so, in the process, is the cook. Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan’s effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements. A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire; a Chez Panisse–trained cook schools him in the art of braising; a celebrated baker teaches him how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread; and finally, several mad-genius “fermentos” (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers) reveal how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns alongside Pollan, but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships: with plants and animals, the soil, farmers, our history and culture, and, of course, the people our cooking nourishes and delights. Cooking, above all, connects us.
The effects of not cooking are similarly far reaching. Relying upon corporations to process our food means we consume large quantities of fat, sugar, and salt; disrupt an essential link to the natural world; and weaken our relationships with family and friends. In fact, Cooked argues, taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make the American food system healthier and more sustainable. Reclaiming cooking as an act of enjoyment and self-reliance, learning to perform the magic of these everyday transformations, opens the door to a more nourishing life.

April Showers...

Ellie's home sick from school today.  I think she has that same fever that Olivia had a week ago.  Hopefully the fever stays down and her headache goes away so she can go back to school tomorrow.  I hope that, but it WAS fun having her here.  I missed her this year.  Vince did too.  When the clouds rolled in and he thunder started to rumble, she and Vince put on snow boots (because what else would you put on to wear in a thunderstorm?) and ran outside to dance in the rain.  "April Showers, Bring May Flowers!" Vince chanted.  I didn't know he knew that saying, but apparently he picked it up somewhere.  He's right.  I was glad to see the rain today, hoping that it would help bring out more green in my yard.  (Not the weeds though, of course!)

My Diaper Movie

It's not a cinamatic masterpiece, but it shows the diapers I have and how to use them.

Spring is FINALLY here!

FINALLY!  The first day of my kids' spring break they went to Nana's house to sled ride.  The last day of their spring break, it was snowing.  FINALLY, they got to play outside without coats yesterday!  I worked in the yard and got all the beds ready for mulch (except edging, still have THAT to do) and started the monstrous task of picking up all the branches our willow tree drops over the winter.  I filled two and a half trash bags and you can't tell I did anything.  Being outside with the kids, Abby sunning herself, working until my muscles hurt--I didn't realize how much I missed it!  I always thought I liked spring the least, but now that I enjoy gardening, I think I've changed my mind.

Recipe Friday: Curried Vegetable Couscous

I got this recipe from a friend.  It tried it this week and LOVED it!  The recipe say you can stuff red bell peppers with this couscous, which is what I did, but it's also great alone as a side.  If you want to stuff peppers, cut off the top and derib the peppers.  Steam them for about 8 minutes, or until tender crisp.

Book Review: The Honest Life

I read a book (actually two) over spring break.  I reread Pride and Prejudice, which I liked A LOT better than Sense and Sensibility, but also The Honest Life, by Jessica Alba.  I was prepared for your run of the mill "how-to-live-greener" guide, but I was pleasantly surprised.   I was prepared to reread info that I already know.  I realize this makes me sound arrogant, like I already know everything there is to know about being green, but the fact is, I've read SO MANY of these books that there's rarely anything that's totally new to me.  Congratulations Jessica Alba!  You had a new fact in your book!  Tear Free baby shampoos?  Not gentler than regular shampoos, as we're lead to believe.  It's not the fact that their ingredients are safer and gentler, they're tear free because there's a numbing agent in them.  Nice!

Using Those Easter Eggs!

Do you have this at your house?  I usually don't dye a ton of eggs because I never know what to do with them all, but this year I decided to dye eggs at Easter Brunch with our family.  I thought if might be fun for grandparents and uncles to dye eggs with the kids, since it's one of the biggest Easter traditions and you don't really get to do it unless you have kids.  I got 3 different decorating packs, Hello Kitty, Batman and Angry Birds.  I hard boiled 36 eggs on Saturday.  Sunday, when we drove to East Canton to my mother in laws house, I left them in the fridge.  So Easter night, we dyed eggs.  Now we have to eat them all.  My two middle kids like "egg boats" so they'll eat some, but not 36.  So if you're stuck with a ton of eggs too, I'm going to share a good egg salad recipe I found in The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson.