1. To keep the skins and beans whole, always soak first.  Even for lentils, a quick 15 minute soak can help keep them from splitting open.

2.  Soaking for at least 12 hours (up to 48 hours) helps them cook faster, and more thoroughly.  Bonus: thoroughly soaked beans are also more digestible.  Change the water every 8-12 hours if you soak longer than 12 hours, and refrigerate if soaking longer than 12 hours.

3.  Lentils are very easily sprouted.  Sprouting makes them a little sweeter, and a little more easily digested.  Simply soak in a warm place for 3-5 hours.  Drain, and cook normally.  Note: cooking times will be slightly decreased.

4.  Very slow and long cooking yields incredibly tender and creamy beans.  For example, simmer for 60-90 minutes and then bake at a warm temperature (170 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit) for up to 4 hours.  A slow cooker would probably yield similar results.

5.  Heirlooms really do taste better. Check out Seed Savers Exchange, Purcell Mountain Farms, Native Seeds, or look for local producers.  Beans are also wicked easy to grow, if you have space…

6.  Cooking in flavorful broth, with plenty of herbs/spices, or with generous amounts of aromatic vegetables can impart flavor to the very center of the beans.  Saute carrots, onion, celery, garlic, etc and cook with the beans.

7.  Fresher beans are a little better– very old beans never do soften up properly.

Molly Birnbaum does a lovely job of presenting both her individual stuggle of losing her sense of smell (and thus taste) while beefing up the book with substantive information about smell, taste, and the brain. Interspersed with her own personal crisis (how do you become a chef without a sense of taste??), she interviews experts ranging from medical researchers to top perfumiers, paints portraits of fellow non-smellers, and summarizes current scientific findings. While that list may sound dense, Birmbaum writes with a tone suitable for an everyday conversation, or a friendly e-mail exchange. Her intelligent explanations and forays into anatomy and psychology are easy to understand, but not overly simplistic.

Above all, Molly becomes a “friend” as you follow her adventures. Her experiences and solid writing allow the reader to empathize with her experiences while also remaining engaged with the scientific inquiries driving her quest. If you’re looking for a light read that still manages to change your perspective, I recommend it.

Title: Season to Taste: How I Lost My Sense of Smell and Found My Way
Author: Molly Birnbaum
Publisher: HarperCollins, 2011
Format: hardcover, paperback, e-book

I’m generally pleased about the decision, but it’s started a line of thought about food habits and families. Obviously, I was raised in that household and theoretically my cooking and eating habits are expected to be similar to my family’s habits. It’s been 10 years, one diet-related disease diagnosis, and quite a few wanders through non-American foodways since I regularly shared a kitchen and table with Mom and Dad. I have my own habits and some no longer overlap with what I ate as a child. Some do (broccoli and cauliflower are AWESOME and breakfast is essential to civilized life), but I expect there will be surprises. I eat fewer grains, partly out of convinience, partly out of finance, and partly from inclination; I eat more beans and lentils; and, oddly enough, I think I often eat less fruit. I lean toward dishes with fewer ingredients, where my mother’s style is more on the everything in the vegetables drawer plus the kitchen sink end of the spectrum. Integration will be interesting.

Mostly, I hear about issues of family gatherings rather than merging households. “My brother/sister/parents don’t understand what I need to eat for diabetes” or “I’m trying to stick to my diet for my blood pressure, but everyone pressures me to join them in eating food I shouldn’t” or “My mother-in-law doesn’t understand my baby (allergic baby) can’t eat ANYTHING that has dairy or butter in it!” Occasionally, parents and grandparents have different philosohpies on feeding kids, whether it’s about vegetables, dessert, or the acceptance or rejection of “kid food.” It’s tricky, especially when it’s just for a weekend. Here’s one procedure to follow:

1) Describe any health concerns beforehand and attempt to shoulder the burden. Offer to bring suitable food, especially if you’re concerned about allergies/celiac, or contact the caterer/restaurant beforehand. Ignore Miss Manners here: safety first. Volunteer to cook, or be the sous chef.

2) Describe, in somewhat dire terms, the consequences if you don’t follow your diet if you meet continued resistance. You can also do the “not in polite company” expression and attitude if your audience might be responsive to that and you’d rather not go into details. Or pull in the “this is what my MD wants me to do” card. (It’s like the teenager’s “my mother would KILL me if I did xyz stupid thing” card). Keep a pleasant tone, whatever your approach, and add in a dark joke about looking forward to a long life with both your kidneys functioning.

3) Calm everyone down. (Well, you just made them anxious and stressed.) Fair’s fair. Don’t dismiss your concerns too much, though, you still want them to respect your dietary issues.

4) Carry granola bars, epi pens, benadryl, your own jar of peanut butter, or whatever other supplies will make you be (and feel) like you have a back-up plan. When it doubt, make sure you have access to transport and groceries.

That’s should get you through most of it on short trips, I think. Long-term stays require more delicate, constant negotiation of culinary philosophies throughout your time together as you merge households. Whether you are one of us twenty-somethings moving in with our boomer parents, or a boomer becoming a caretaker of a parent, crossing generations in the kitchen is territory to approach carefully. What have have your experiences been?

Mark Bittman
Essay About Decreased Meat Consumption

Free will is good, and the meat industry should appreciate that we consumers can actually make decisions based on health, taste, and environment rather than simply marketing and pricing. Are you eating less meat these days? (Ironically, my meat consumption in 2010 and 2011 was possibly the highest it’s ever been. Which is not very.)

American Cancer Society
Environment Matters, folks, But We Can Change It!

Seeing large organizations with backing like ACS send out formal statements in support of actions is always a good sign. The public may not read the report, but policy makers (or their flunkies) will and ACS will doubtless rally their members around the goals.

EPA
Comment on CAFOs – they want your opinion!

I missed the first deadline– we have until today. Am I in favor of EPA regulating all farms? No, but large CAFOs produce an absurd amount of waste that is not always well managed. Somebody needs to pay attention.

Diet
Vegetables and Whole Grains Reduce Strokes!

Basically, eat your vegetables. More greens and whole grains can reduce your risk of stroke– about 8% for every 100 mg of magnesium consumed in foods. Specifically, buckwheat flour has 75 mg per 1/4 cup (typical serving), cooked spinach has 157 mg per 1 cup, black beans have 120 mg per 1 cup, and almonds have 112 g per 1.5 oz (42 g).

P.S. I am still cooking, but pending a move soon, but I’m mostly cooking odd things with remnants. Anyone got any suggestions for nori?

1. Alkaline diets are just another crazy trend. FALSE.

Alkaline diets have been shown to be beneficial in double-blind placebo-controlled trials. It’s particularly well established that a higher plant balance greatly benefits the musculoskeletal system. The basic clinical values studied are equivalent to eating seven to nine servings of fruit and vegetables. However, there is no research showing that they will solve all your health problems! Do not expect it to heal MS, cure cancer, or keep you from dying.

2. To achieve an alkaline diet, you need very specific instructions and must eat a limited diet. FALSE

In short, to implement the diet, all you have to do is replace some of your meat and grains with fruit and vegetables. There are fruits/vegetables that have different acid and alkaline effects but simply switching the categories that you eat is highly effective.

You do need a wide variety of nutrients and antioxidants from many foods to be healthy. Eliminating an option merely because it’s alkaline/acid balance is not sensible. Furthermore, there are benefits to cooking many foods, so you can eat cooked alkaline foods while retaining the alkaline nature and even gaining nutrients that are less or not digestible when raw.

3. The alkaline balance should be the deciding factor in determining what you eat. FALSE

Eating produce has many health benefits from the many different nutrients and compounds. Citrus may have vitamin C (acid), but you need vitamin C and there are additional helpful antioxidants in citrus. So, if you faithfully eat 4-5 cups of mixed produce per day, you will benefit from normalizing blood pressure, decreased risk for diabetes/better blood sugar control, potential prevention of weight gain and/or weight loss, healthier eyes, healthier skin, decreased risk of cancer, and less loss of bone and muscle strength. Is it entirely because of alkalinity? No, it’s because of the alkalinity, the potassium, the magnesium, the calcium, the fiber (yeah, eat the whole food not the juice), the reservatol, the limonene, the beta carotene, the catechins, the vitamin E, the lutein, the quercertin, etc. Those various compounds are why you want a variety of items. All colors, all plant parts, all flavors.

4. You can determine the alkalinity of the food based on its pH. FALSE

To clarify, the “alkaline” and “acid” nature comes from the way the body digests your food, and the particles that enter your bloodstream. Protein, for example, is broken into amino acids which are acidic. Vegetables are typically digested into mineral compounds that are alkaline. Too much of either is difficult for your body to deal with because your body has to adjust the pH of your blood to stay within a narrow range.

The ash factor, as it is typically used, it the non-carbon, non-water, non-carbon portion of the food. In other words, the total amount of minerals. Minerals can be beneficial (calcium, magnesium) in reasonable doses or harmful (lead, mercury). The lack of differentiation makes that number less valuable than it is given in the pseudo-science version of the alkaline diet. It does not reflect on the type or quality of carbon-based compounds, fats, or fluids which are also vital to good health. It does not consider whether your body can digest the minerals. (In some foods there are compounds that tightly bind minerals so we can’t digest the minerals from that food.)

5. It’s easy to switch to an alkaline diet. TRUE

Switch your meals so that half your plate/bowl/meal is vegetables and your dessert is fruit. (No cheating by adding food; you must decrease the protein and complex carb sections.) Ta-da, alkaline diet. You may need some help making it into a habit, or ideas for how to prepare and enjoy produce, but an “alkaline coach”? Check out some blogs, keep a food diary, read your favorite vegetable cookbook. What matters in the end is that you EAT YOUR VEGETABLES. It’s not sexy, and it’s not well marketed. But it just requires that you grocery shop for them, prepare, and eat them.

Chickpea and Olive Flatbread

2/3 c cooked or canned chickpeas, drained
1/4 c black olives, coarsely chopped
1/4 c grated pecorino romano
1 T olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T dried oregano
1 T dried basil (fresh would be better… but it’s winter)
1 clove garlic, minced very finely
Black pepper to taste
1 small, thin pizza crust or brown rice tortilla, toasted

Mash around halt the chickpeas with the back of a fork, spoon, or using a potato masher. Mix in the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, dried herbs, cheese, and olives. Add black pepper to taste. Spread on bread, a pizza crust, or toasted tortilla and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the bread is slightly crispy and the topping is heated through.

A basic recipe like this lends itself to adaptation– chop the roasted pineapple up to add to salsa, serve over pork or game, or top a hearty salad with it. I quite like the combination of the cayenne and pineapple, but feel free to use a milder chili powder if you prefer.

Roasted Pineapple

1 pineapple, cut into chunks
1 T canola oil
Pinch cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 400 F. Mix the cayenne and oil. Toss the pineapple and oil to mix the cayenne pepper in thoroughly. Arrange the pineapple in a single layer on a cookie sheet and roast for 25-35 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.

Could you substitute canned pineapple? I would guess that you could, but that you would need to drain it thoroughly, let it air dry a bit, and only roast it for maybe 20 minutes.

Adelle Davis’s Buckwheat Pancakes

1 packet yeast
1 1/2 c warm water, milk, buttermilk, yogurt
1 T sugar or molasses
2 eggs
2 T fat (oil, butter, etc)
1 c buckwheat flour
1/2 c wheat germ (gf option: ground flaxseed)
1/2 c powdered milk
1 T salt

Stir the yeast into the warm liquid. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, wheat germ, milk powder, and salt. Add the sugar, eggs, and fat to the yeast mixture. Stir in the flour blend and allow to rise, covered, for 30 minutes in a warm place or overnight in the fridge.

Heat a griddle over moderate heat. Spoon the batter onto the griddle. Flip when the bottom is lightly browned and the top is bubbly. Serve with fruit.

Does gluten stay on door handles?
Yes, along with fridge handles, keyboards, mice, and other implements that aren’t frequently washed. Instead, wash your hands with soap and hot water. Not hand sanitizer, actual soap and hot water. You can also wash the door knobs…

Can I freeze root vegetable mash?
Potatoes generally don’t freeze well; other roots vegetables do okay. Revive it when reheating by adding a little fresh hot milk or butter and stirring it vigorously.

Dressing Up Dinner Plates?
Fresh herbs are always a nice touch, or a sprinkle of a spice mixture, grated citrus zest, or freshly ground black pepper. Any edible green leaf can be used to highlight a main dish (think a slice of lasagne on a bed a fresh spinach, or grilled fish on a leaf of rainbow chard). Texture can be varied using items like curly chicory (frisee), curls of carrots, or a chiffonade of something appropriate. Napkins and placemats are easily laid out beforehand, and don’t affect the flavor of your food. Centerpieces can range from a simple bowl of squash or apples to elaborage flower arrangements or fine art. You’ll probably find better advice on setting a table elsewhere…

Top 5 Search Terms

quinoa kale salad
salmonella typhimurium
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things to do with corn tortillas
salmonella

Who knew I talked about food poisoning so much??

1 quart goat milk (we scald/pasteurize it)
1 T dried dill weed
1 1/2 to 2 T (or, 4-6 t) fresh lemon juice

Bring milk to a roiling boil. Remove milk from heat and stir in lemon juice. Return to low heat and stir until the milk white curds have separated from the yellowish whey. Strain the whey from the curds by pouring into a cheesecloth* lined colander. The whey will be draining from the cheese, so I recommend doing this over a pot or bowl. Mix in the dill. Press the cheese, cover with cheesecloth, and place a weight (like a quart jar filled with water on top of an appropriately sized plate) on top. The longer you leave the weight on the cheese, the firmer your cheese’s texture will be. 15 minutes of weight time is a good starting point for a soft cheese, and 30 minutes to an hour will yield a firm cheese.

*Cheesecloth comes in different qualities. Grocery store cheesecloth is flimsy, so you would need three or four layers of grocery store cheesecloth. Cheese-quality cheesecloth is available from cheesemaking supply companies, and you would only need one layer. Linen or muslin napkins can be used in a pinch, too.

I started this post three weeks ago, and no longer have any idea what I was going to say after that sentence. It’s been an odd month, and not much in the way of interesting cooking* due to illness, travel, and a week full of holiday parties. Nonetheless, as we pause for a deep breath, wrap up our shopping, and exchange gifts, what are we doing to support our families, communities, and countries? I’ve done very little recently, sadly, but do intend to do some volunteer time in January.

1. Work on transitioning leadership in my community garden. Meeting #1 set up, herb garden diagram drawn, seeds not yet sorted, must confirm no stray papers in with my own filing.

2. Community nutrition talks: Rotary club, public library.

3. Contribute to the Boston Gardener’s Council’s plans for 2012 Produce to Pantries. I think I was assigned a vague instruction about creating a recipe collection, but wasn’t at that meeting. Must clarify.

4. American Community Garden Association Research Committee. Again, somewhat unsure what I’m supposed to do this month… was actually on the phone call, but see above note about illness. Yeah… might have been better off not being present.

5. Plan 2012 charitable donations.

Do these qualify as holiday giving? Not especially, as they are all year-round activities. Contributing to my community is vital, though, and the end/beginning of the year is a good time to pause and take note of goals and achievements. In the meantime, I’m going to eat locally grown delicious Asian pears, kale from the freezer, home-canned lemon apricot puree, and an experiment in gluten-free sourdough. Perhaps even some Christmas cookies.

*Lots of pasta, lentils, and soup. Mostly not that interesting, sometimes without even garlic and onion.

Image by BlairSnow, via Wikimedia Commons.