Bike riding through the Pioneer Valley

Stopping to smell the roses, I guess. I get to ride through some lovely landscapes between work and home.

Sunday Cooking Project: Goat’s Milk Yogurt

A coworker of mine has goats, and she very generously brought in some milk for me last week. It sure felt like very precious cargo as I carried it home- what a treat! I probably would have cast some sidelong glances at someone who was lovingly cradling a jar of milk on the bus like I was. I mean, yeah, I looked like a weirdo.

Anyway, I decided to make yogurt. The idea of making yogurt and cheese is very appealing to me, but the thought of going to the grocery store and buying a half-gallon of milk and then making yogurt out of that has always seemed not that exciting. I don’t know. I just couldn’t get into it. So this was my chance!

To make yogurt, you heat your milk up to 120 degrees, add a couple tablespoons of already-made yogurt, and then keep the mixture at about 115-120 degrees for six to twelve hours.

In order to maintain the temperature, I put the jar full of hot milk in an insulated cooler with two jars full of water as hot as the tap gets. I did a little research online before launching this experiment about ways to do this, and the jars-of-hot-water-in-a-cooler method seemed like the simplest. So that’s what I decided to do, and I filled up the jars and tucked in the milk for the night and went to bed dreaming of delicious, creamy, homemade yogurt.

The next morning I scampered to the cooler and, wiping some excited spittle from my chin, cracked it open. And what did I find? A jar full of lukewarm milk! It was absolutely not yogurt, nor did it have a single yogurt-like characteristic. So, I refilled the jars with hot water and let it sit for the day, thinkin a little more time would do the trick. I got home from work really late that night and went to bed again, having by that point completely forgotten about the yogurt. The next morning, a solid 36 hours after starting the experiment, I finally gave up and put the milk back in the fridge.

I really, really didn’t want to just throw the milk away. I mean, it came from someone I know. So I turned it into a quiche (which was extra-delicious, by the way) and now I’m just really hoping I don’t get food poisoning. How’s that for an illustrious ending to the story?

We are being poisoned

Check this out: 

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Can you see it? Well, I’m no screenshot expert. It’s the nutrition information for the Baskin Robbins Heath Shake. Wait, here’s a close-up:

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Much better! So, I am totally baffled as to how a milkshake could possibly have 108 grams of fat, 64 grams of saturated fat, and 2310 calories. 1580 grams of sodium? I mean, what did they put in it? Milkshakes shouldn’t have 65% of your daily recommended amount of sodium. And even straight-up fat doesn’t have that much fat in it!

There’s a lot of talk about personal responsibility and freedom of choice when it comes to obesity and related health issues. Food companies and their cronies are fond of saying that they’re just providing options for people and that if people choose to consume unhealthy foods, it’s out of the producers’ hands. I think that’s true to a certain extent, but the existence of “foods” like this is just beyond the pale. Who would ever even think that a milkshake could contain 320% of the daily recommended amount of saturated fat? Why do food companies carry so little responsibility for the health of their customers that they can even get away with producing something like this? This milkshake (to use the term loosely) has 77 ingredients in it! That’s insane.

The trickery is that, while these huge food corporations talk about personal responsibility and freedom of choice out of one side of their mouths, the fact is that they rely completely upon the ignorance of their customers in order to sell their products. If they need people to not know what is really in their food, or what the ingredients or nutrition information mean, then the arguments about responsibility and choice are meaningless.

This just makes me never want to eat in a restaurant again. I mean, what the hell?

Norwottuck Rail Trail

Like a lovely green tunnel. I love the bike trails in the spring!

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Wednesday Knitting Update: Yarnnnnn

This weekend was the annual tent sale at Webs. I think they have a very clever racket going on, which is that they offer huge discounts and have big events all the time, and every time I panic just a little that it’s my only chance to get yarn on the cheap, and I end up spending more money than I planned. Ok, it’s not exactly a “racket,” it’s more of a standard “sale,” but I blame them anyway.

The cool think about this particular tent sale is that local fiber farmers are invited in to set up booths and sell their products directly to customers. I talked to Diane Roeder of Sojourner Design in Northampton, who said that it’s always a good sale day and a good opportunity for her. Obviously it’s a good advertising move for Webs too, but if it’s good for the farmers that’s cool by me. So! Want to see what I got?

Here is some beautiful sock yarn from Diane’s sheep. She dyed it, too. I’ve never made socks, but I’m really excited about the thought, and I suspect that this yarn will offer inspiration as I struggle through the heel.

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More yarn after the jump…

  

Garden at the White House?

There’s this idea floating around that the next president should turn the White House lawn into an edible garden. This is the sort of idea that, at first blush, seems a tiny bit ridiculous. Totally impossible, and also kind of pointless. But I read that, during World War Two, when victory gardens produced 40% of the food consumed in the United States, the Roosevelts had a victory garden too. During the first world war, President Wilson had sheep nibbling away at the White House lawns to free the groundskeepers up for the war effort and to conserve resources. Sure, these were symbolic gestures, but I agree that these types of statements actually mean something. It was definitely a statement when Reagan took the solar panels off the roof of the White House. Maybe it’s time for a positive symbolic gesture about food? There’s information about this at ondayone.org and kitchengardeners.org.

Peas!

So, the rows aren’t exactly straight, but look- peas! I planted sugar snap peas and shell peas, so I should have a nice variety in a few short weeks. I can’t wait for sugar snaps right off the plant, and last year the shell peas I’d frozen were a highlight of my winter. So, these little plants are super-exciting. Look at them go!

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Quakers in the news

This story is from last week, but it’s pretty nuts so I’ll link to it. A teacher at Cal State was fired because she refused to sign the loyalty oath required, by the state constitution, of all state employees. The oath states that the signatory promises to “defend” the state and US constitutions against “all enemies, foreign and domestic.” The oath has been in place since 1952, when it was passed because of the Red Scare. This article in the LA Times focuses on one particular woman, a Quaker, who refused to sign the oath because it conflicts with her pacifist beliefs, but it also cites several other examples of people being fired for refusing to sign it.

If I’m not mistaken, not only would an oath to protect your state against enemies conflict with Quaker views on pacifism, but Quakers, as a rule, do not sign oaths or swear in court. So I think it’s not just the particular content of this oath that would be a problem for Quakers, but the requirement of a loyalty oath itself.

I don’t have anything super-illuminating to say about this, I just think it’s disturbing. In my view, the wide-spread hysteria around communism in the sixties is viewed as a dark time for civil liberties in this country, so its pretty shocking that this archaic law is a) still in place and b) still being strictly enforced. Sad.

Sunday Cooking Project: Bike Week Cookies

In honor of Bike Commute Week, I made some extra-special cookies for my office. The thing that made them extra-special was the guilt they were designed to strike into the heart of everyone who had driven to work that day. Hahaha! Just kidding! I would never, ever be that arrogant.

Ok, so can you see the spokes? And the chains? Yeah, they’re ridiculously charming. Here’s the recipe, which is just a basic sugar cookie recipe that I undoubtedly stole from someone else:

Cream together:
3/4 c shortening
1 c granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Combine:
2.25 c flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Stir flour mixture into sugar mixture. Chill one hour, roll ‘em out, and then bake on ungreased sheets for 8-10 mins at 375 degrees. Let cool and then transfer to a rack. When they’re completely cool, you can decorate them.

Frosting recipe:
1/2 c shortening (or use half butter)
2 c powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1.5 oz cream
food coloring

For the record, I tried to make a little stencil in the shape of a whole bicycle, but that didn’t go too well. They do make cookie cutters in the shape of bicycles, but I didn’t have one, so I figured I could cut a bike shape out of cardboard and just cut each cookie around that. Well, I was mistaken. The dough did not hold together at all. So I went with just the wheel, because those are conveniently cookie-shaped.
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First of the season: Fiddleheads

People get really, really excited about fiddleheads, which I think is mostly a function of fact that they’re pretty much the first thing available locally in the spring, and also because they’re foraged and therefore something of a novelty. If someone tells you that fiddleheads taste like asparagus, that person should be treated with distrust. They do not taste like asparagus- only asparagus itself carries that distinction. Fiddleheads do taste very green, though, which is very welcome by the time they find their way into the stores in late April or May.

So, I’ve only ever seen very simple preparations for these little ferns. They need to be washed and trimmed and cooked thoroughly, since I’ve heard they have the potential to make you sick. But what doesn’t, really? Boil the fiddleheads for five minutes or so and then saute them briefly in some butter with garlic, and they’re pretty tasty. Not asparagus tasty, but they do remind you that asparagus is right around the corner!