I’ve begun the process of following in my Grandmama’s footsteps – I canned strawberry jam and froze green beans!  Some EXCELLENT resources that helped me along the way:

• Homemade Living: Canning & Preserving with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Make Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Chutneys & More – Read this first! It’s a GREAT canning how-to.
• Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry - This has some fantastic canning recipes, including the one I used for the strawberry jam below.
• So Easy To Preserve New & Revised Edition - This book has been around since before I was born – it’s created by the fine folks at the University of Georgia and will fill in the gaps for any home preservation questions you may have (including how long to blanch your green beans).

So my first venture was the jam.  I purchased some beautiful strawberries from Burge Farms at the farmers market and was pretty darn proud of how it turned out!  I made some shortbread to go with the jam and oh my goodness, why didn’t I ever do this before?

Fresh Strawberries from the Market

My very first strawberry jam! So tasty!

So then, a couple weeks later, I purchased some green beans from Planted Rock Farm – they we so flavorful and the texture so spot on that the next week I went back for 3 lbs. to freeze.  My favorite part of putting up beans and peas is how darn green they get once you blanch them.  Truly beautiful!

Fresh Green Beans

Blanched Green Beans Cooling

I can’t wait for peaches to come into season!

Deliciousness!

The only flour that my grandmother ever used was White Lily. I’m actually a bit torn about flour right now. I have used White Lily my entire life (mostly because it did right by Grandmama), but now that I’m trying to be more conscious of the ingredients I cook with I’ve got a little thinking to do.  White Lily does not make organic flours (and they also don’t make unbleached all-purpose flour).  I’m curious to know what flours other people use, particularly with baking.  I know that King Arthur carries a lot of different organic flours – is it worth it to switch from the flour that my family has used (literally) for generations?

Any other bakers out there care to weigh in? What flour do you use, and have you experimented with organic flours?

In most traditions the day is known for the eating of pancakes before the start of Lent. Pancakes are eaten as they are made out of the main foods available, sugar, fat, flour and eggs, whose consumption was traditionally restricted during the ritual fasting associated with Lent. Wikipedia

Lent begins tomorrow, and I’ve decided to give up soft drinks and fast food.  I also will be taking on a renewed commitment to dedicated prayer time.  Are you committing to a Lenten practice this season?

Why Should I Cook for Myself?

• The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks
• French Women Don’t Get Fat

Why Should I Pay Attention to Organic/Unprocessed/Local Foods?

• Food, Inc. (also available on Netflix Instant Watch)
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
• Ingredients (also available on Netflix Instant Watch)

How Do I Change My Lifestyle?

• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
• Homemade Living: Canning & Preserving with Ashley English: All You Need to Know to Make Jams, Jellies, Pickles, Chutneys & More
• In the Green Kitchen: Techniques to Learn by Heart

Ecology teaches that whenever an excess of organic matter arises anywhere in nature, creatures large and small inevitably step forward to consume it, sometimes creating whole new food chains in the process.  In this case [where we are creating a huge surplus of corn] the creatures feasting on the surplus biomass are both metaphorical and real: There are the agribusiness corporations, foreign markets, and whole new industries (such as ethanol), and then there are the food scientists, livestock, and human eaters, as well as the usual array of microorganisms (such as E. coli O157:H7).

~ Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals (pg. 62)

So basically the surplus of corn is not only crippling the farming industry and encouraging a country-wide obesity problem, but it also contributes heavily to the surge in food poisoning in the United States. Hmmm . . .

• about a pound of organic potatoes
• about a cup of organic green onions (that I’m actually growing in my kitchen – this works insanely well)
• about 4 cups of organic chicken stock (homemade following Alton Brown’s instructions and using an organic chicken carcass leftover from roasting and organic veggies)
• 2 Tbsp organic unsalted butter
• 1/2ish cup of organic skim milk
• Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Melt the butter, saute the chopped green onions for 10 or so minutes, add the diced potatoes as well as salt & pepper, cover and simmer for 10 or so minutes, add the hot chicken stock, bring to a boil, then simmer for 25 or so minutes.  Remove from heat, puree with a stick blender (you could put into a food processor if you don’t have a stick blender), then put back on the burner and add in the skim milk. Add more salt and pepper if needed.

This was pretty darn good!  Though I think I need to play with the seasoning a little bit – I think it needs a little something more for some oomph.  Reheated very well for lunch today.  In this picture you see it served with some of my homemade artisan bread . . . and that’s another story.

I am not really big on New Year’s resolutions – my thinking is that if you want to make a change in your life, why not start right away?  That said, I read a book on January 2 that caused me to have a revelation about my relationship with food. The Kitchen Counter Cooking School: How a Few Simple Lessons Transformed Nine Culinary Novices into Fearless Home Cooks is an amazing book.  I’ve always enjoyed cooking, and this book made me realize that there is no reason I shouldn’t be cooking for myself regularly.  As a busy single gal I’ve fallen into the trap of fast food and convenient processed food.  If you check out my Books Read in 2012 list you’ll see that I’m starting a new chapter in my life full of wholesome, organic, responsible/sustainable food.  I’ve always tried to buy organic over conventional, but now there will be more purpose in what I’m doing.  A side effect of this will be a healthier lifestyle, and hopefully I’ll finally get my weight under control (though that is not the purpose of this lifestyle change – it’s not a new diet, though I have lost 14.5 lbs since New Year’s).

So, when I feel like it I’ll share here on my blog. For instance, dinner last night. Homemade steak and French fries – delish! Made with grass-fed, organic sirloin and organic Russet potatoes.  I still need to work on my steak cooking skills (flavor was great, but it was a bit overdone), but the French fries were a keeper! I recently took a cooking class in town and learned how to make French fries from scratch – like, starting with peeling the potato. I knew essentially what it took to make French fries, but it never occurred to me that making them from scratch takes about the same amount of time as making them from a bag in the freezer section. I also decided that it would be healthier to bake them instead of deep frying them, and there had to be a way to get the flavor of deep frying without the frying part. And I was right – these little crunchy buddies were just as tasty as the fried deal, and they weren’t greasy at all! Note the absence of a veggie – I’m trying REALLY hard to learn to eat fruits and veggies, but last night was an exception as I bought fresh green beans to go with this meal and then proceeded to let them get brown in the fridge before I cooked them (and I didn’t realize it until the steak was done and the French fries were browning). Oh well, tonight’s a new night

11. Send Christmas cards in a timely fashion in 2010.
53. Pay for the person behind me at a fast food drive thru.
60. Create a filing system for all paperwork and MAINTAIN it.
72. Participate in NaNoWriMo (didn’t finish, but I started!)
83. Go see a famous jazz musician/group in concert – Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
84. See a Cirque du Soleil show I haven’t seen – Ovo!

• Mark off #26 – I am gainfully employed as the Events Coordinator & Board Administrator at the Alliance Theatre!
• My dad and I took an awesome trip to Washington, D.C. this summer.  We were ridiculously touristy – we saw all the major monuments, the White House, and several Smithsonian museums, so #44 has been thoroughly completed.
• #52 on my list stated “Write ‘to be read’ letters to selected people (letters to be read upon my death by the people who mean the most to me).”  However, I’ve come to a realization about this.  I would much rather live my life so that all those important people know EXACTLY how I feel about them, so there’s no reason to write a letter.  Typically if I decide I no longer want to pursue an item on my list I’ll change it to something new, but I feel like I really had a personal epiphany around this item, so I’m marking it as complete.
• I am in the process of moving (yay!) and as I’m packing up I have organized, filed, and stored all my notes/keepsakes from my graduate classes (#57) and I sorted through all my clothing for a third time (#61).
• I was all set to participate in Blogathon 2010 (#68) this year – I had my charity picked out and everything.  However, they decided to cancel Blogathon 2010 . . . so hopefully I’ll get to do it next year!
• #71 – Participate in Blog Action Day 2010.  Done!