Winter Dinner at the Shuswap Lake

This week I’m at my Dad’s cabin on the Shuswap Lake, near Salmon Arm, BC. Mia came for a visit and we ate very well☺ For dinner we had the Botanical Burger with lime tarragon mayonnaise from the Rebar Cookbook. The burger has roasted hazelnuts, grated beets, zucchini, carrots and lots of other healthy ingredients. It was really good, but it is pretty labour intensive- you need to have at least 1.5/2 hours to make these and then time for quite a bit of cleanup.

For dessert we ate Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie. This recipe is made following directions from a few sources. I got the idea to make an apple pie with crumble topping from this month’s People Magazine, ‘Cooking with the Stars’ and because Mia suggested an apple crisp.  We had one little hitch which was that when we got out to the cabin this afternoon I realized that we didn’t have a pastry recipe that only called for butter (we had no lard or vegetable shortening) and no internet connection to look a recipe up. Luckilyy Cole found us a good recipe on his computer at home and read it out over the phone. The apple part loosely follows the recipe showcased in People Magazine for TV actress Lori Loughlin (she is the mum from the new 90210).

 Botanical Burger
pg 100 Rebar (but altered slightly by me)

 2 tbsp olive oil
2 yellow onion
4 garlic cloves
1 cup grated carrot
1 cup grated turnip
1 cup grated beets
1 cup grated zucchini
2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried dill
1 tsp cracked pepper
1 cup mashed potatoes (add cream and butter to mashed potatoes- my addition:)
1/2 cup cooked brown rice (optional)

1 cup hazelnuts roasted
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp nutritional yeast
2 tbsp minced tarragon
2 tbsp parsley
Fresh breadcrumbs (optional)

1) Heat oil in a wide-bottomed pan and sauté onion until translucent. Add garlic, grated vegetables, dill, salt and pepper. Still thoroughly and cook for 10 minutes over medium-high heat, stirring regularly. Transfer to a large bowl and let cool.

2) Place cooled vegetables, rice and hazelnuts in a food processors and pulse until coarsely combined. Transfer to a large bowl and mix all of the remain ingredients. Season to taste. Add breadcrumbs if you want. Also optional, beat one egg and mix into batter. Shape into 5 oz patties and sauté in olive oil until browned on both sides.

 3)While the patties fry stir together mayonnaise ingredients and assemble your favorite burger condiments. Enjoy!

Lime Tarragon Mayonnaise:
1 cup mayozest of one lime
2 tbsp minced tarragon

Combine all the ingredients in a small bow and stir thoroughly. Serve or refridgerate up to three days •
**Don’t be put off by the fact that these burgers resemble raw beef! It’s the beets that do this, as Rebar points out “you can be assured that this recipe was kind to animals”.

Cinnamon Crumble Apple Pie

Pastry:
1, ½ cups flour
½ tbs sugar
pinch of salt
½ cup butter, cut into cubes
3 tbsp ice water

Blend flour, sugar and salt in the food processor. Add butter until just coarse (my dad said should be pea size lumps) Then add ice water until just moist (I only needed about 2 tbsp. Gather into a ball, cover in saran wrap and chill in the fridge for an hour before rolling out and putting in pie pan.


Apples and crumble topping:
About 7 apples, granny smith or a variety
4 tbsp Sugar
Lemon juice to moisten and keep apples from browning

½ cup oats
½ cup flour
½ cup brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/3- ½ cup butter1)

Peel apples and cut into thin slices, add sugar, lemon juice. Put apples in pie crust. Optional: cook apples on stove briefly to soften before baking pie. (I think I would do this next time since the apples were a tiny bit dry. Another option is to bake with tin foil for the last 15 minutes or so. This way the topping will not be blackened while the apples continue to cook.

Next, put brown sugar, oats, flour and cinnamon in a bowl. Using a pastry blender, knives or your hands cut butter to form crumbs.  Spread on top of pie.

Bake at 350 for about 50 minutes or until topping starts to brown.

Eight Weeks until the Sun Run!

I signed up for the Sun Run taking place on April 17th, so it is time to stop dragging my heels and start training again! The last race I did was the Scotiabank half marathon October, 2010. For this race I trained with my friend Jesse Jind and ran the whole race with him. It was really fun. I'm hoping Thomas will start running with me to get ready for this upcoming race, it is so much easier to push yourself when you have a running partner. Also, since I am alone most of the time with my studies and lesson prep it is especially good for me to run with someone. And of course I just want Thomas' company. In 2009 I ran the Sun Run in 41:57 and Thomas ran it in 41:52, I still don't hear the end of that one hehe. This year since I am not training the way I used to (in 2009 I was training 1-2 times per day, 6 days a week) I am aiming for sub 44 minutes. My original dream was to run it in under 40 minutes, I so want to join the sub-40 club!:) But I think I will have to be patient.


I've recorded my training program below. If you haven't created a run program before I've been told the basic rule is to include 3 hard workouts/week with one long easy run, one interval training session and one tempo run (continuous run at just below race pace). Geoff Reid, (who btw, has run ten km in 32 minutes) very helpfully sent me a list of interval workouts that I used to make my program. The other parts of the program I got from the Runners World Website: http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,7120,s6-238-244--6851-3-2X5X8-4,00.html  Two years ago I ran my first 1/2 marathon and followed this free Runner's World 1/2 Marathon Training program quite diligently and thought it was pretty good (although as Vince put it, I blew up in the race...but that is another story). I'll be mixing some bikes and swims into my program since triathlon race season is also creeping up! 


I am working on my nutrition training plan and I'm having fun browsing through high-energy recipes. Will post information about this soon.

Week 1

• Stair workout (Wreck beach stairs X 3), 2 X 15 minute bike ride- rode my bike to the stairs
  
• Easy Run 6.5 km (ran 35 minutes in the woods, difficult to map trail runs since I don't have a garmin watch)
  
• 2 miles easy, 2 X 10 minutes@tempo pace, 2 miles easy
• Easy run 11 km

Week 2

• 10 X 400m with 90 second rest between each
• Easy run 6.5 km
• 6 km continuous run
• 12 km easy run

Week 3

• 9.5 km including hill repeats
• Easy run 3 km
• 4 km easy
  
• 4 km tempo run + 4 X 100 meter strides
• 8 km easy run

Week 4

• 400, 800, 400, 800, 400, 800, 400 w 2 minute rest between each
• 2 miles easy, 3 X 10 minutes at temp pace, 2 miles easy
• Easy run, 6.5 km
• 13 km easy

Week 5

• Wreck beach stairs x 4 + 2 X 15minute bikes rides
• Easy run 6.5 km
• 5 km race/time trial
• 13 km easy

Week 6

• 800, 1200, 1600, 1200, 800 with 2 minute rest
• Easy run, 7 km
• 9 km temp, 5 minute easy warm-up, hard 2 minutes, easy 1 minute
• 11 km easy

Week 7

• 1 min, 2 min, 5 min, 3min, 2 min, 1min, with 1 minute jog between each
• Easy run, 7 km
• 9 km tempo
• 15 km easy

Week 8

• 4 X 400, 1 X 200
• 2 X 400 tempo with 200 jog, 200 sprints
• 3 km easy
• RACE DAY!!:)

An important tool you might not know about if you are a new runner:


Vince told me about the gmap pedometer. This is amazingly helpful for running since you can map out all your runs and figure out your routes according to distance.
 
http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/

**Update/Race Results: I followed this program almost exactly and ended up running the race in 41:17. Was pretty happy. Hoping that maybe next year I will run it in sub 40 minutes!:)

  

Cooking With Buttermilk

I had half a cartoon of buttermilk with the expiry date quickly approaching so I decided to look up recipes that use buttermilk in one of my mum’s favorite and most well-used cookbook, the original New Moosewood Cookbook. Published in 1977 author, Mollie Katzen, wrote every recipe out by hand. This book has been used so much in our house that the cover has fallen off and most of the book’s pages have bits of spice, sugar and other marks on them. The index is handy because it has a wide range of ingredients (including buttermilk) as heading titles, not just the basics like ‘beans’ or ‘squash’.

The two recipes I chose were “Delicious Corn Bread” and “Arabian Squash-Cheese Casserole”. The corn bread was good, but I prefer the recipe my mum makes, which I make all the time now as well. The casserole on the other hand, I would definitely make again. Please see the recipe below.

Arabian Squash-Cheese Casserole

4 Servings

375 degree oven

1 ¾- 2 hours preparation time

Ingredients:

2 medium-large butternut or acorn squash

1 heaping cup chopped onion

3-4 cloves crushed garlic

1 heaping cup mixed green and red peppers, chopped

3 Tbs butter for sauté

2 beaten eggs

1 cup buttermilk or yogurt

½ cup crumbled feta cheese

1 tsp salt

black and red pepper to taste

¼ cup sunflower seeds or chopped nuts for the top

Cut the squash down the middle, lengthwise. Scoop out the seeds, and place it face down on an oiled tray. Bake it at 375 degrees about 40 minutes or until soft. Cool until handle-able; scoop out and mash.

Saute the onion and garlic, lightly salted, in butter. When onion is translucent add chopped peppers. Saute until peppers are just under-done.

Beat eggs with buttermilk or yogurt. Crumble in the feta cheese. Combine everything and mix well. Add salt, black and red pepper or hot sauce to taste.

Spread into buttered casserole or baking pan. Top with seeds or nuts. Bake at 375 degrees………covered, 25 minutes, uncovered, 10 minutes.

**I added breadcrumbs, which I made last week because I had stale bread I didn’t want to throw out. If you haven’t made breadcrumbs before it’s really easy. Just toast the bread, let it cool and put in the food processor or blender. Then put a bit of olive oil and mix through with your fingers. They freeze well and I think breadcrumbs are often a nice addition to casserole. I also sprinkled some small pieces of butter on top before putting the casserole in the oven for a bit of added richness.

The other slight change I made was to bake the squash right side up with a bit of olive oil and brown sugar. This is a trick my nana taught me. Probably not necessary for this recipe but is a good way to bake squash when you will be eating it as is.

Valentine’s Day Candy Making

 





 Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night I made Butter Crunch Toffee to give to the students I teach and a few other special people:) I definitely had some trouble, candy seems to really be something that takes practice. I recommend watching some toffee-making YouTube videos because just reading a few recipes didn’t give me enough of a sense of how to do things with confidence. Confidence here is important since you have to work quickly- I learned the hard way that toffee burns easily.
 Ingredients:

2 cups (170 grams) sliced or slivered almonds

1 1/4 cups (270 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, cut into pieces

1 tablespoon light corn syrup (golden syrup)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Topping:

6 ounces (170 grams) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, coarsely chopped

To make this treat you begin by roasting the almonds, chopping them up and putting half on a cookie sheet. Next you combine sugar, butter, corn syrup, and water on the stove with a candy thermometer clamped on the side of the pot. After this mixture reaches 285 degrees F on the thermometer (you can buy a candy thermometer at Home Hardware or most cooking stores) you add vanilla and baking soda to the mixture, stir and then pour it over the nuts. Next you sprinkle chocolate chips or chopped chocolate bits on top. These melt and can then be spread over the toffee with a wooden spoon. Finally, sprinkle the rest of the nuts over the chocolate and let cool.

I followed a recipe from the JoyofBaking.com, which I think is a good recipe except for one thing. The recipe says to let the toffee cook WITHOUT stirring. I did this and within fifteen minutes the bottom of the mixture was completely burnt. If you follow this recipe my advice is to definitely stir the toffee continuously. It will take about 15-20 minutes on medium heat to reach 285 degree F. On my second attempt I stirred the butter/sugar mixture continuously to prevent burning and things went more smoothly. Unfortunately this time I was so afraid of burning the toffee that I took it off the element too early, when the candy thermometer said about 260. This resulted in toffee that is a little soft rather than nice and crunchy. But it is still yummy and I found that keeping it in the freezer gives it the crunchy texture.

Below is the link to the recipe I followed. As long as you stir the toffee you should end up with a delicious treat! One final note-don’t forgot to add the vanilla and baking soda right before you pour the mixture over the nuts, I just about missed this step.

Butter Crunch Toffee Recipe:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/ButtercrunchToffee.html

Political Unrest in Egypt and Rising Food Prices Around the World, the 'Global Land Grab' and Food Sovereignty

Interesting interview on CBC’s The Current today. Evan Fraser from the University of Guelph and co-author of Empires of Food: Feast, Famine and the Rise and Fall of Civilizations and Frederick Kaufman, contributing editor with Harpers' Magazine and the author of A Short History of the American Stomach, discuss the link between political unrest in Egypt and rising food prices around the world. Apparently in just six months, the price of soybeans is up 46 per cent. The price of sugar is up 34 per cent and there is concern that if nothing changes we could see widespread food riots around the world. In one clip an Egyptian man and woman talk about their fears and frustration regarding the lack of affordable food. Their anger that the world's elite are benefiting financially via food shortages in Egypt is clear, leading Fraser to comment that it is not food shortages themselves that have led to revolutions throughout history but instead rage about profiteering.

The anger felt by people throughout the world suffering from hunger led Fraser and Kaufman to a discussion of the 'global land grab' by multi-national corporations and governments around the world. This is the process whereby millions of acres of foreign farmland, mainly in Africa, is being bought as a type of off-shore food production. I am helping to organize the upcoming Canadian Association of Food Studies Conference in Fredericton, and coincidentally Andre Magnan, Assistant Professor at the University of Regina, submitted a paper proposal today to discuss the 'global land grab'. Interestingly, his research studies the phenomenon in the Canadian context.

About the global land grab Magnan writes in his abstract:

"To date, little attention has been paid to the ways these processes are affecting land ownership and farm structure in the global North. In this paper, I explore a recent wave of corporate investment in prairie farmland as a lens on the process of food system financialization. Over the last five years, a number of specialized investment funds have been created for speculative investment in prairie farmland. Meanwhile, an altogether unique model of corporate farm ownership has arisen with the launch of One Earth Farms, a 150 000 acre grains and livestock operation run as a partnership between a Toronto investment firm and a number of First Nations bands. I trace these developments to changing government policy on farmland ownership, the speculative commodities boom, and continuing concentration of land and agricultural resources on the prairies." Fraser and Kaufman point out that this 'speculative commodities boom' is not going unnoticed by the masses of hungry people around the world. Levels of anger and frustration are on the rise as evidenced by the recent food riots in Egypt, Mexico and elsewhere.

The Current's interview with Fraser and Kaufman concludes with a conversation about the importance of citizen control of local food sources for political stability in both 'developed' and 'developing' countries. Kaufman argues that not only is food security of critical importance, but also “increasingly valued in individual countries is food sovereignty, [or], a country’s right to control their own sources of food”. Fraser and Kaufman point out that people are often searching for high tech policy solutions, but in reality problems with our current food system are very solvable and can be dealt with using simple solutions. For example, Fraser argues that in Canada we can increase food sovereignty by storing more food in our households. Fraser notes that our efforts to address local food sovereignty must not only be at the individual level but at a number of scales including regional policy and the reinvention of a national grain program.

To listen to this interview please see the link below.

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/02/08/global-food/

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/

Will Allen

Last week Cole and I went to hear Will Allen, CEO of an urban agriculture initiative, Growing Power, speak at the Croatian Cultural Centre on Commercial Drive. Will Allen is an urban farmer and community activist, dedicated to supporting low income and small family farmers and bringing healthy, affordable food to urban areas. Seven hundred people showed up to his talk and I’m quite certain that no one regretted attending. He had such a presence, was really funny and seemed so nice and also brilliant. And the work he has done is amazing!

Will Allen started Growing Power in 1998, which now runs the last functional farm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Growing Power also runs farms in Chicago and elsewhere. Most of the Growing Power farms are built in areas where you would never imagine a farm could be built, for example in derelict buildings, abandoned nurseries and even old parking lots. Growing Power facilities include greenhouses, kitchens, indoor and outdoor training gardens, aquaculture system and a food distribution facility. Fish, worms, bees, goats, chickens, turkeys, and ducks are also raised on the various farms. In his presentation he showed hundreds of images of the different components of the Growing Power projects, which also told the story of the organization's growth.

Will Allen is sixty-one now but was a star basketball player in his youth. According to Wikipedia when he started high school he was already 6’7 and 230 lbs. He grew up on a farm and built his own makeshift basketball court. He received a basketball scholarship to the University of Miami, and later was drafted to the NBA. Although he never actually played in an NBA game he did play in the ABA and then in Belgium for a few years. Throughout his basketball career (and his later career in marketing and sales, working for Proctor and Gamble) he always thought about farming. While playing basketball in Belgium he grew a huge garden and had his teammates over for big meals. I’m sure they missed him when he moved back to the US!

His work is relevant to my interest in the revival of traditional food skills because he has a real interest in not only providing urban communities with fresh healthy foods, but with teaching people how to develop food skills. Growing Power conducts workshops and demonstrations in aquaculture, aquaponics, vermiculture, horticulture, small or large-scale composting, soil reclamation, food distribution, beekeeping, canning and preserving food and marketing. Currently, Growing Power is building a new farm and teaching facility adjacent to a school and the whole idea is to enrich student learning by blending the practical with theoretical.

Another aspect of Growing Power that is really interesting is Allen’s focus on attracting racialized youth to the project and his promotion of the message that growing food is a respectful and legitimate occupation for all people. In his talk Allen alluded to the need for destigmatizing food production work in light of the history of slavery and sharecropping and the widespread feeling within the Black community that farming is degrading and the worst type of work. About his deliberate attempts to engage the Black community he says, “African-Americans need more help, and they’re often harder to work with because they’ve been abused and so forth, but I can break through a lot of that very quickly because a lot of people of color are so proud, so happy to see me leading this kind of movement” (New York Times, 2009).

I haven’t even scratched the surface of what Will Allen and Growing Power stand for in this post, but a New York Times article about him helps to shed some light on this amazing man and Growing Power has a blog that also provides more information. Please see the links below.

http://www.growingpower.org/blog/>

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05allen-t.html

Rebar Night

The recipes I am using for tonight’s dinner are from one of my favorite cookbooks- Rebar. Rebar is a vegetarian restaurant in Victoria. I haven’t eaten there since I was a child but now that I have discovered the Rebar cookbook I am anxious to return. The recipes I am making tonight are Buckwheat Crepes with Portobello Mushrooms, Chard and Lemon-Tarragon Cream Sauce and for dessert, Chocolate Zucchini cupcakes.

Buckwheat Crepes 

I started making the crepes last night and realized this is (as the authors warn) a dish for special occasions since there are quite a few time-consuming steps involved in making these. Luckily, tonight is a special occasion since Thomas (in just over a month, Dr. Fritz ) was invited to attend two Assistant Professorship interviews this month! Although this recipe is time-consuming, the nice thing about it is that you can do most of the preparation work the night before. Last night I caramelized the onions, marinated and roasted the mushrooms, grated the cheese and made the crepes. Everything is in the fridge and when I get home from work I’ll just have to assemble the crepes and prepare the cream sauce while they bake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

I’m a little apprehensive about these cupcakes. I have a lot of faith in Rebar main course dishes since I have yet to try one that wasn’t delicious, but I have less faith in their desserts. This apprehension is based on my experience at a party where I was served very dry and dense chocolate cake made from the Rebar cookbook recipe. I haven’t tried any of their baked goods since this experience, which might be a bit unfair since I don't know how fresh the cake was or if the woman who baked the cake missed any steps or ingredients. I suppose tonight will be the test.