New Beginnings

Greetings! Hiatus is over! After several months, I have moved over a thousand miles from my hometown and am settling in to my new home in beautiful, sunny Colorado.

And as I settle in to my new home, there are many new beginnings coming up around me. New job, new school, new garden to get started....

And then there's these little ones.

The babies! Oh my goodness.

The white chicken is a 10-week-old Bantam, and the two little reds are 2-week-old Rhode Island Reds. These little ones will be the main egg producers, and will end up larger than their white friend.

And behind them! See the ears? It's a baby bunny!

We weren't planning on getting this cutie, but we had to when we saw the chicks we had set aside snuggling with it. They love each other.

Yes, that is a video of the bunny licking the chick. Unbelievable. How do they make'm this cute?

So we are in the process of getting the plans together for building the chicken coop. I'll be putting up a post on that in the coming weeks. Other blogs you'll be sure to see: composting, potato apartment building, raised vegetable beds, building a pallet couch, and much much more! Whew! So many projects in the works.

Food 4 Thought: Frankenfood

Food 4 Thought was a bi-weekly article written for a school paper several years ago. It was discontinued after moving to a new state.


FRANKENFOOD


Since the image of Frankenstein, the power to alter the fundamentals of physical existence has appealed to many. With modern technology, the Frankstein question becomes: is it ethical to modify human DNA, to change it or use it for our own purposes? Thus far the answer has largely been no.

But where is the line? Just as controversial but much less talked about is the auxiliary question: Is it ethical then for human and animal DNA to be spliced into plants meant for human food? Genetic Engineering (GE) is a revolutionary technology that has the power to break down genetic walls. Genes from plants, animals, and even humans are randomly inserted into the chromosomes of plants, fish, and animals, much of which intended for supermarket shelves.

By genetically modifying plants, they can grow larger, become pest-resistant, and produce larger yields. Yet according to many inside the scientific community and out, the whole business surrounding GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and their distribution is sketchy at best. 

While scientists originally assumed that the inserted genes would only add a particular desired trait to the crop, new evidence suggests that the host's normal natural genes can get switched off, turned on permanently, damaged, or altered in the process. 

GMOs have already proven to be capable of harm. In 1989 a GE brand of an essential amino acid being sold as a dietary supplement killed 37 people in the US and permanently disabled thousands with a potentially fatal and painful blood disorder. 

Monsanto, arguably the foremost agricultural bioengineering giant produced a potato that absorbed less fat during frying. This led to the development of lower-fat french fries and chips. 

In 1999, British scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztal shocked the public when he brought forth findings from his research on Monsanto GE potatoes. These findings were based on research much more rigorous than required by the virtually non-existent regulations. The potatoes had been spliced with, among other things, Cauliflower Mosaic Virus (CaMv), a viral promoter. Dr. Pusztal's findings indicated CaMv capable of damaging the stomach lining in mammals. Fun fact: CaMv is spliced into virtually all GE crops.

Unfortunately the research remains unfinished; government funding was cut off from the project and Dr. Pusztal fired after releasing his findings to the media.

Wandering the grocery store aisles I began wondering how to identify GMOs from other produce. Engineered products are not labeled as such. This is especially shocking because of the allergy concern; scientists can't tell before testing whether a protein sequence will trigger a food allergy. But since pro-biotech governments and regulatory agencies maintain that GE foods and crops are "substantially equivalent" to conventional foods, neither mandatory labeling nor pre-market safety-testing is required.

Still, an allergy disaster was narrowly averted in 1996. Soybeans spliced with Brazil nuts had tested negative for allergies in animal tests. Despite this, the soybeans, an ingredient ubiquitous in the food market, did cause allergies in humans. Thankfully, scientists in Nebraska discovered the potential threat.

Unfortunately the genetic engineering of produce may well prove necessary and crucial in the coming era of global over-population. With the United Nations estimating a population of 8.2 billion by the year 2025, the need for more efficient food production is fast becoming a bridge we can't avoid crossing.

Without use regulations, health study standards, or required labeling, this potentially and arguably necessary technique of genetic modification is too easily abused. If action isn't taken to put standards in place, perhaps soon our Frankenstein food experiments will prove to be as dangerous as any mad science.

Food 4 thought: The Science of Baking (or How to Trick Your Friends into Eating Vegan Brownies)

Food 4 Thought was a bi-weekly article written for a school paper several years ago. It was discontinued after moving to a new state.

THE SCIENCE OF BAKING
(or How to Trick Your Friends into Eating Vegan Brownies)

The phrase "vegan baking" can be enough to send an experienced chef into fits of nervous giggles. How can a cookie possibly be made without butter? Or a cake without eggs? Alas, the answer can be found in the science of baking. This science can be simple enough, and the basics learned through any recipe. Let's try it with my recipe for (Are they really Vegan?) Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Brownies.

Before we begin making our brownies, we need to learn about one of our ingredients. Flour is at the core of baking, providing the structure of any baked good. When water is added to flour to hydrate the ingredients, the proteins in flour are drawn to each other and bond to form what is called gluten. Gluten networks support the baked good. While dough rises, existing gluten threads touch and create more links. Later, inside the oven, the proteins and starches in the flour transform into the sturdy webbing inside a loaf of bread.

To begin our brownies, stir together 2 cups of sugar, 1/2 cup peanut butter, 1/2 cup apple sauce and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract. The peanut butter is providing the oil, or fat, for the brownies, keeping the texture light. In this way, the peanut butter is a substitute for butter or vegetable oil in other recipes. The apple sauce helps sweeten the brownies while keeping the peanut butter from making the batter too thick.

Sugar does more than make our brownies sweet. "If you think of baked goods without sugar, it’s bread, because it’s not tender,” says pastry chef Mani Niall. The sugar prevents gluten from forming, breaking down the structure created by the flour. This makes the brownies deliciously gooey.

Add 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder to make these chocolate brownies. With this add 1 teaspoon baking soda. Baking soda works by chemically reacting with the acidic cocoa to produce bubbles of carbon dioxide. These expand in the heat of the oven and make your baked goods rise. As a side-note, baking powder is merely baking soda with an acidifying agent (cream of tartar) already in it.

A pinch of salt is next. Salt is an ingredient in any baked good that has a leavening agent, such as baking soda. Salt slows the production of CO2, keeping the bubbles from getting too big. If there is too much leavening in a recipe the bubbles will rise to the top and pop, causing the brownies to fall flat.

Next comes 1 1/2 cups flour. Flour is added late in the process so that the dough isn't "worked" for too long, so as to keep the gluten complexes small. Pastries demand a more tender crumb than that of regular bread. Corriher explains that the lower protein content in pastry, cake, and all-purpose flour creates a less rigid gluten network and a finer crumb.

Beware when using All-Purpose Flour. “The problem with all-purpose flour is that it is all over the place in protein content,” Corriher says. “If you have a high-protein flour, it’s going to suck in water like crazy" and form a dough. Less protein-rich flour won’t come together with as much water. For our recipe add 1/3 c water. From here, add small amounts of flour and/or water until the desired texture is attained. Up to 1/2 cup of flour can be added before the rest of the ingredients need to be adjusted.

Last, add mini-chocolate chips or chopped peanuts. Bake at 350 degrees in a greased 9X13 pan for about 30 minutes. Congratulations! You have made amazing brownies! Serve to your non-vegan friends. When they ask how you baked such an unorthodox delicious desert, proudly answer, "With the power of science!"

Food 4 Thought: Food Additives

Food 4 Thought was a bi-weekly article written for a school paper several years ago. It was discontinued after moving to a new state.


FOOD ADDITIVES


Our bodies are amazing machines. Each cell does a different job, working in harmony with every other cell to create bone, skin, heart, nerves; all to create you. And in ten years, every cell in your body will have been replaced, renewed by the food you eat. And so I find myself concerned when I read the ingredients lists on some of my favorite foods and have to ask: Is my food made of FOOD anymore?

There are more than 10,000 chemical “food additives” that can legally be found in food. A common example is monosodium glutamate (MSG). Used to add flavor to many canned soups and other canned goods, frozen foods, and fast food, MSG is naturally found in seaweed and soybeans. So what’s the problem? MSG in even moderate amounts can cause headaches, nausea, numbness, and heart palpitations, and is the source of the so-called “Chinese-restaurant syndrome,” where MSG is often used.

Next time you pick up a can of soda, before taking a swig of delicious carbonated pleasure, flip the can around and find the ingredients list. If you see BHA or BHT (Butylated Hydroxyanisole and Butylated Hydroxytoluene) then this may interest you: BHA and BHT are used as emulsifiers and clouding agents; they make the soda cloudy and smooth. When, in the 1970s, it became more and more clear that BHT was linked to health problems, including childhood aggressiveness and tumor growth, some companies voluntarily switched to the less-studied BHA to assuage their health-concerned consumers. Now, however, BHA is being studied more and being found to have effects on not only your own hormones, but on the sexual function of your future children, according to the scientific journal Toxicity. It is recommended that BHA and BHT be avoided if you take steroids, birth control, or are pregnant.

Perhaps you’re reading this and thinking “I eat fairly healthy, don’t drink much soda. Fresh fruit will do me good.” Let’s take a walk over to the produce section and I’ll tell you about red dye #2. Citric red dye #2 is used to dye oranges, to make their bright color last longer and make them more appealing to consumers. Perhaps clever marketing, given the sensationalist society we live in. And yet: red dye #2 is a probable carcinogen (cancer causing substance) that the US Food and Drug Administration has recommended banned from use.

There are more than ten thousand chemical additives legally found in food: ten thousand scientific words without meaning to the average person. It’s so easy to concern ourselves with the stresses of work, the demands of family life, and ignore the simple actions we take for granted as normal and safe. So I leave you with this thought: Our bodies are delicate, amazing machines growing and changing constantly; what will YOUR body be made of ten years from now?

Eggplant Starts: UPDATE (+ A Recipe!)

It has been 9 days since planting the eggplant seeds. And look!

Ah! So exciting!

Plants! They are growing!

In my last post about these starts, I showed how I was put the starts in the bathroom by the floor heater to keep them warm. Well....that didn't work. I had never used the heater in there before, and I guess it just didn't work the way I thought it would. Oh well...valiant attempt and all that.

What I ended up doing after that did work exceedingly well. I put the starts on the edge of the table I have out for the rest of my little apartment garden. Under that table is another floor heater, one that works. Heat warming the soil from before is exactly what eggplant starts love. And so far it had worked! I didn't do anything more than turn the heat on when I normally would, including turning it off entirely at night. The eggplants did not seem to mind the cold nights.

Keeping the starts in a plastic bag was a wonderful way to do this as well. It kept all the moisture in there, especially wonderful considering I was intentionally blasting the starts with hot dry air all day.

A look to the future for these adorable little babies: THIS AMAZING RECIPE!

Step 1: Cut eggplant into 1/4 inch strips.


Step 2: Fry the eggplant until slightly crispy.  Place on paper towel to drain, then arrange on a plate directly next to each other.

Step 3: Melt semi-sweet chocolate in a pan set in water. 

Step 4: Drizzle melted chocolate over the eggplant.  Do not cover eggplant entirely with chocolate (as hard as that restraint may be.)

What a strange and amazing recipe! The next step is to experiment with different kinds of chocolates to see what works best. Maybe a little bit of sea salt sprinkled on top....

I'm drooling.

Grow up healthy and tasty, little ones!

Home-made Spray Deodorant

(image from deodorantpeople.tumblr.com)

A while back, I convinced my partner to dump the chemical-ridden Axe-brand deodorant for a more natural (and way healthier) alternative. I bought two bottles of Chrystal-brand deodorant, one without scent and one scented with chamomile.

Trying a deodorant out on this particular man was great to test the reliability of the deodorant for several reasons.
1. He is an unbiased party. He does not care particularly for "green" items, yet does not avoid them.
2. He is highly concerned about hygiene. Ha. Definitely more than little ol' me. (Gender rules: broken.)
3. He is active throughout the day. Lifting, moving, running, and sometimes cooking in a hot kitchen means lots of opportunity for sweat. Ah, the glamourous life of a restaurant owner.

(image from theeifflers)

And after many months of trial, the results are firm: it works! Yay!

The only downside is the price. Almost $4 for a tiny 4 oz bottle that disappeared in a about a month. Blah.

I had been reading all these great recipes on how to make your own deodorant, but they were all solid, which doesn't suit my lovely partner. Woe, woe, woe, that I cannot join in on making deodorant and saving all that money.

I went down to the local health food Co-op and grabbed a bottle of deodorant to buy. Wondering if antimicrobial essential oils were used in the sprays, and particularly what essential oil is used in the scent-free bottle, I check out the ingredients list.

Ingredients: WATER, SALT (potassium alum)


What the what now? 


How is this possible?! How is the deodorant that has already been proven (thanks honey) to be effective be nothing but expensive SALT WATER.


A little google-fu led me to find out that two kinds of salt are commonly used in natural deodorants. These are potassium alum (which contains naturally-occuring aluminum), and Dead Sea salt.

Potassium alum is an astringent, which means it contracts the tissue and reduces secretion and discharge, and an antiseptic, which is an antimicrobial applied topically to kill bacteria (which is what makes that nasty B.O. scent).

Dead Sea salt has much less information about it, and is sold less frequently in the form of deodorant, but also has naturally-occuring aluminum (as well as quite a few other minerals).

So I knew what I had to do: MAKE ME SOME DEODORANT!  I could not find any recipes for liquid deodorant on the internet, but if it really is just salt-water.....well...I can do THAT.

Ingredients needed: 

Dead Sea Salt   OR   Potassium Alum in small crystal form

Water you don't mind putting on your body (I used Kangen Water)

Antimicrobial Essential Oil of your choice (optional)

Step 1: Measure out your water.  Measure out however much water you wish to have deodorant. Keep your water at room temperature, since warmer water will dissolve more salt, which will crystalize at the bottom of the container when cooled.

Step 2: Add salt. Stir.  Salt should dissolve fairly quickly.

Step 3: Keep adding salt.  The salt will continue to dissolve for a surprisingly long time. I can't tell you the ratio for salt to water. The trick is to add salt until the salt no longer dissolves into the water. The ratio for salt to water will change depending on the water you use, the salt you use, and the temperature of the water.

Step 4: Add essential oil. Stir.  Essential oil should never be more than 5% of a liquid because it can be caustic to the skin. A few drops per cup of water should suffice for our purposes.

And you are done! How easy is that?

LESSON LEARNED: Things Not To Do
I looked up how to effectively make salt water online. A handy and simple instructional guideline was on a cooking site. These instructions told me to heat the water to near-boiling, as this would allow more salt to be dissolved. Yeeeeah. Didn't think that one through. The salt that was dissolved because the water was warmer... that just came right back out again.

So one little mishap. I can use this salt again, so it can't be counted as a loss. All in all, I'd call it a win.

Time for my Professional Deodorant Tester to sample! I'll edit this in a few weeks with his weigh in!

Recipe: Caramelized Onions and Greens

"Spontaneous Picnic Dress" from Reddish

One of the best things about having a slow-cooker is trying out new recipes. This post is dedicated to a delicious and ridiculously easy recipe that I was recently made aware of.

Did you know slow-cookers can be used to make Caramelized Onions?

So amazing.

And of course these onions can be used for all sorts of obvious dishes like French Onion Soup. But the recipe here is so simple and easy and down-right DELICIOUS that it has become an instant favorite.

Ingredients needed:
Onions (red or yellow onions work the best)
Leafy greens of some kind
Molasses
Cayenne Powder
Olive Oil

Step One: Cut up the onions.  These will end up being exceedingly soft and much smaller, so I usually just quarter the onions. Cutting into strips works just as well, too.

Step Two: Put the onions in the slow-cooker.  'Nough said.

Step Three: Coat the onions with olive oil.  Using a wooden spoon or turner, break apart the layers of onions and mix the pieces around until the onions are coated with oil.

Step Four: Leave them alone.  Leave the onions in the crock-pot on high overnight. If you have a huge load (three or more onions) it is a good idea, but not necessary, to stir the onions when they are 1/2 to 3/4 of the way done, to allow them to cook more evenly. They are great without doing this though.

And don't forget! The onions are going to shrink quite a bit. They will end up looking like this when they are done:

Step Five: Add greens.  Chop or rip the greens into bite-size bits. I say "greens" instead of something more specific because I feel like it doesn't really matter! I have used chard before with great results, and today I used a combination dandelion greens, spinach, and pea spouts. Pick what greens you have sitting around and toss them in!

Step Six: Add the rest.  A dollop of molasses, and two shakes of cayenne. Stir it all up together.

Step Seven: Let cook until greens are soft.  Can be served immediately, and tastes great cold if you want to save some for later.

Enjoy! Thank me later for teaching you this amazingly easy and OH.MY.GODDESS.IT.IS.SO.DELICIOUS recipe.