Experiments in Vegetarianism

Funny story -
I was chatting with a partner about changes and challenges and I issued an experimental edict: he'd go vegetarian for one week, a work week, 5 days. Just 5 days. Easy.
A billion text messages later, a late night munchies shopping spree, and 2 weeks of massive transition and I'm a vegetarian while my partner is pretty much a carnivore.

My experimental edict where I got to dictate the diet of someone else became deciding the diet of myself!

Being a person who doesn't like to ask others to do things she herself won't do - When I asked my partner to adopt a vegetarian diet I also adopted the same diet so I could relate 1:1 in what he was going through. During this time I was also engaged in a giant project/conference with my job, transitioning to another job, had just finished hosting company, and had been doing some major driving time.

The first day or two was fairly confusing - trying to be supportive of another person while also trying to navigate my fridge, evaluate regular go-to food choices, and reflect on my overall health was pretty disorienting.

How much meat had I actually been eating? Where were meat and animal products sneaking in to my diet? I had always considered myself a fairly "light" meat eater...until I took a look at my diet over the whole day. Turns out I had actually been consuming a LOT of meat - chicken breast and banana for breakfast, egg and avocado toast for lunch, BLTs for dinner - I certainly wasn't shy of fruits and veg, but for some reason meat was a feature in almost every meal.

By day three I had spent more time in conversation about diet than I had during college nutrition class. It was obviously not going well for my partner, but, in an odd twist, I was feeling better, less groggy, and generally upbeat about the whole thing. I liked the way I was feeling. The biggest difference between us - It had been prescribed to him, I ascribed it to myself.

Even for me, there were some tough moments - Late night munchies where I called my husband and had a talk about what 'good' bad decisions might be, chicken parm at a company dinner, and a day where I didn't eat breakfast that almost put me in a meat-only greasy spoon - but these challenges were overcome. Late night munchies were fixed by the sushi aisle of the QFC featuring vegetarian avocado rolls and some peppered tofurky. I survived the chicken parm situation by actually looking at the chicken...really looking at it and seeing the flesh on the plate. It reminded me of the Butcher in Diablo III...eww. And the greasy spoon moment was resolved by enough will-power to go home and make myself a lunch and the resolution to make sure I prep breakfast the night before from now on.

Easy moments abound - swapping chicken for tofu in my pad see ew, grabbing an apple from the counter, making delicious faux chicken patties loaded with guac, tomato, and lettuce. I am blessed with the privilege of prior experience and experimentation when it comes to vegetarianism. I'm also gifted with a local fruit and vegetable stall where I can buy "seconds" - perfectly good fruits and vegetables at really cheap prices. These things have supported me during the transition to a plant-based diet and I'd suggest to other folks interesting in attempting this change to learn from my experience to find the things that can support them.

Tips from someone who has been there:

Stop trying to "replace" the meat. 
This sounds really simple - but ohmygosh felt like the most liberating idea. Once I gave myself permission to stop trying to replace the meat in a dish I became free to make a variety of vegetables the focus. I didn't need to buy a faux roast to make the main dish with a side of veggies...I could make the veggies the main feature!

I remember the first time I tried being a vegetarian and buying a bunch of frozen Boca burgers...After a while they got really boring. Instead of spending my time comparing my faux-meat product to a real juicy burger I should have been rocking roasted peppers, tossing brussel sprouts in orange glaze, and finding ways to make veggies, not meat substitutes, the stars of the show.

Reframe limitations as strengths. 
Saying you "can't eat meat" carries a different connotation than saying you "prefer eating veggies." The overall result may be the same but the feeling is very different. One is a restriction - telling yourself you can't do something even if you want to, the other is choosing to elevate the aspects of yourself you like the best. Similar to the difference between saying you'll never run a mile or saying you are working towards running a whole mile. One shuts you down, the other builds you up.

Folks who shut themselves or others down tend to be on the negative side of things and that negativity can turn toxic if we let it. We don't need to do that to others, we don't need to do that to ourselves. When you come at something thinking of it as a limitation it can lead to feelings of anxiety or dread...and you shouldn't dread your diet. So, try giving positivity a larger role -

I can't do this  | I can't do this yet

I don't eat X | I prefer to eat A, B, C...

Support yourself and get support from others.
You should always advocate for yourself. Not to be selfish or to put your needs above others, but to make sure that the decisions you make aren't being made for you by others whose interests may not be in line with yours. There's a reason candy is put in the check-out lanes of stores...and it isn't because candy is a necessary food item they don't want you to forget. Candy companies want their items in the check-out lane - right in your face - as you wait in line and get agitated they stand a greater chance of getting you to purchase yourself a "treat."

Support yourself as much as possible - in whatever way is most rewarding to you. Get community support either online or in person for accountability, education, and affirmation. You might have to seek this type of support out - It may not be easy to find right away - but if you can read this blog on the internet - chances are you have a pretty good support network right at your fingertips. There are documentaries on Netflix about vegetarianism and veganism. There are videos of all sorts on Youtube. Post Punk Kitchen is a favorite resource of mine for recipe mining.

Experiment and cut yourself some slack. 
Maybe veganism is right for you. Maybe ovo-lacto-vegetarianism is more your style. Maybe you really freakin' like bacon and you can go vegan on all other things but bacon...do whatever you need to do - as long as you are moving in a positive direction. Cut yourself some slack - if replacing a fast food burger with one Morningstar burger is a massive change for you - that's friggin' awesome :-) Maybe being more educated means switching from the supermarket meat aisle to the family farm a few blocks down where the chickens roam free in the backyard. That's really cool.

In the end, a diet is whatever you eat. Taking control of your diet means making decisions for yourself - thoughtful decisions - about what you put in your body. If you have the privilege to make decisions about what you eat, why not make decisions that are well thought out? Experiment and cut yourself some slack if the experiment doesn't work out the way you thought it would. Alter your perimeters, try again, challenge yourself, and make fully informed decisions.

-Resources-

For Recipes:
Post Punk Kitchen
The Veganomicon

Research:
PETA
Meat Industry
Agriculture and Consumer Protection Dept (UN) Slaughter Guidelines
American Meat Science Association
Factory Farming - New York Times
Industrial Livestock Production - Grace Communications
10 Advantages and Disadvantages of Factory Farming
Temple Grandin - TED Talk
Holistic Livestock Management
Why Eating Meat is Ethical - Editorial
Is Hunting More Ethical Than Factory Farming? - Vegan Blog
Environmental Racism

Diet:
Balanced Nutrition
Vegetarian Diet: How to get the Best Nutrition - Mayo Clinic
Omnivore - Wiki

Community:
Vegan / Vegetarian Support Group
Seattle Vegan Meetup Group
The Vegetarian Society

Office Bento - Lunch Happy

Pretty high up on the list of my favorite things is a beautifully prepared lunch box. I know that after a rough and frantic morning nothing helps perk up my attitude and also my energy more than a pretty and delicious lunch. It's like saying, "I love you," to your future-self.

Now, that doesn't mean I have the time for fancy hand-painted scenes of rice cats playing in fields of grass-shaped seaweed spotted with flower-shaped carrots. I like to get my lunches packed on Sunday in one hour. But I think using one hour to prep 3-4 good meals that will give me energy and make me feel good and keep me on my weight management track is totally worth the time.

I use the Sistema Klip-it boxes, cupcake holders (both plastic and paper), and the little plastic sushi grass dividers you can get from the dollar store. For sauces and salad dressings I use the Sistema 35ml sauce containers. You can get the Sistema products online, at The Container Store, or Goodwill (it you are lucky).

Turkey sandwich, pasta salad, hard boiled egg, cherries, blueberries and sliced strawberries

I usually fit enough food for the whole day in one of these boxes. In the above example it would be hard boiled egg and fruit mix for breakfast, pasta salad for elevenzies, and the sandwich and cherries for lunch.

Turkey sandwich, lemon wafers, pea crisps, cherries, blueberries and sliced strawberries

Next day is similar with the sandwich and fruit, but I added some lemon wafers and pea snap crisps. Sistema sets are good for dry foods - not so good for wet foods - so make sure to drain the fruit! Also, either leave your sandwiches dry or watch Alton Brown's, "How to make a sandwich," show and follow his guidance.

Salad with leftover chicken, cherries, chocolate bunnies, celery and carrot sticks, hummus

Next day, skip the sandwich :-) Just like with the sandwich - leave the salad dry. That little bottle to the right? That's dressing and I put it right in with the salad for storage and then take it out for lunch. Those bottles are awesome 'cause the lid comes off and it it easy to clean out with your finger and soap. I've been through a lot of little squeeze bottles and these are so far my favorites. They aren't perfect - the tiny lid has a little plastic attachment and it can snap off pretty easily. But, all things considered, they are easy to clean, hold a fair amount, and colorfully happy looking.

Vegetarian spring roll, mochi with azuki beans, grapes, rice cake

Great use for plastic cupcake holder = dipping sauce!

Trader Joes chili chicken lime burger sandwich, carrot sticks, Popwise popcorn, pea crisps, grapes, cherries

Okay - my sandwich got a little squashed on this one, but it was still perfectly tasty! This one I used up the last of the pea crisps, the last of the cherries, and basically finished up the week of awesome lunches.

I go through waves - sometimes sandwiches, sometimes salads, sometimes leftovers - depending on what groceries I've picked up. I always try to make sure to have fruits and veggies in every lunch and again, this is a whole day's food - don't try to eat an entire Sistema box all at one sitting - they hold a lot of food!

I have some other types of lunch boxes - ones I picked up in Japan, ones I've found at cute shops, and ones I've stumbled upon in the back of the most remote and odd thrift store. My go-to kit though is a Sistema box, cupcake holders and sushi grass for flexible dividers, cute reusable toothpicks from the Japanese dollar store, and sauce holders.

I'd like to get a fabric placemat or napkin I could put on my desk like a little table cloth, but that's the only thing I think that's missing. Unless you have any other ideas?

Thanksgiving Photo Update

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

We enjoyed the first Thanksgiving at SilverMoon with a feast, games, movies, a concert, and walks to burn off some of those calories!

It was pretty relaxing. 4 days of friends and family, cooking, some cleaning and organizing, and we even went out into the crowds - not to buy, but just to observe the chaos and enjoy the decorations.

Early on Wednesday morning, very early, we woke to screaming and gunshots coming from outside. We couldn't see anything but it was just to the other side of our neighbor's house. Generally our street is pretty calm (yes, just our street) so this was very unexpected and upsetting.

I was not a happy camper at work on Wednesday. Thank you to my bosses and co-workers for being awesome. Wednesday was rough.

Thankfully, after work I was able to focus on preparing the menu - getting the veggies chopped, fruits washed, and sides made took my mind off the violence. I searched for the police report just to see what the story was - but they don't publish reports on open investigations so I let it go.

I assumed no one died as there were no news stories or news vans in the area. I made a pie and cranberry sauce since those things taste better after 24 hours and they took all of my attention.

Thursday I made the ham - Alton Brown style - finished the potatoes and the sides and we enjoyed a feast with friends and games and so-bad-it's-good TV.

The Menu -

::Main & Sides::

Glazed Ham

Maple Syrup baked Sweet Potatoes 

Braised Carrots and Parsnips

Corn

Biscuits

Cranberry Sauce

Mashed Potatoes

 

::Snacks::

Grapes

Carrot sticks and Garlic Humus

Little Oranges

 

::Desserts::

Chocolate Truffles

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Bread with home made Whipped Cream

 

::Drinks::

Ginger Ale

Apple Cider

Mulled Cider

 

When we finally got restless and dared to venture outside - the weather was lovely...cold, but lovely. We walked around Greenlake and into the stores to enjoy the throng and excitement and energy without feeling the need to buy anything.

Also, my scarf matches the Japanese Maples in Waterfall Park - who knew?!

 

On Sunday we found out what the shooting was about. Apparently someone was walking their dog in the early morning hours and another dog, a dog known in the neighborhood as being very aggressive, jumped the fence and attacked the dog walker and their dog. The screaming was the woman being attacked and the gun shots were someone shooting the attacking dog.

Lessons learned -

My neighborhood is interesting.

Keep an eye out when walking you dog.

In my neighborhood folks pack poop bags AND loaded guns when they go out in the morning.  

 

 

Easy-Peasy Meal Planning

Does this ever happen to you?
You go to the grocery store, walk around for way too long, find a bunch of deals and things that look yummy, pile everything into your cart, pay way too much money, then get home to unpack everything only to discover that you have no idea what you are going to make for dinner. To top it off, you've spent so much time in the shopping center that you feel rushed to try to make anything moderately edible!

...this has happened to me more than once...

So - to change things up, I made a grocery list, started planning meals, and it has been wonderful!

When you go to the store knowing what you are planning to eat for the week and knowing what items you need to buy - you get into the store, shop, and leave. It saves time by letting you skip unneeded browsing, and it saves money but making sure that the food you are buying wont be wasted.

In a tiny house with a small fridge - everything needs a place. I don't have acreage of refrigerator shelves for left overs or random groceries. I don't have extra money for bread to go moldy or veggies to go limp from want of eating. I don't have extra time to stroll casually from aisle to aisle browsing cereals and pondering what to make for the evening.

If you have and excess of these three things, well, enjoy (or come over to my house and I'll put you to work) but if you don't have an abundance of space/money/time, you may find this helpful:

(Click Here) Free Shopping List

You'll notice that my list is vegetarian but you can edit it for your own use. If you absolutely never eat peas, then having peas on your grocery list is just a waste of ink. Remove it and add parsnips or something else you love.

How I use it -

1.) Make a meal plan.
I give myself 10-15 minutes to think of or find recipes for meals for the week ahead.
I'm a big fan of: Post Punk Kitchen, The First Mess, and The Food Network for ideas and resources.

Things I look for in a recipe - one pan / one pot recipes, crock pot options, and things I can grill.
They also need to have easy to understand directions, simple lists of ingredients, and bonus points for nutritional breakdowns.

Of course, I love trying new cakes and fancy stews with 25+ ingredients, but I save those for the weekend and focus instead on healthy, simple, and fast meals for the week.

Print or write these out and attach them to the list so that everything stays together.

2.) Analyze the meal plan for ingredients.
Have two recipes that call for half an onion each? Great! Chop up the whole onion and save yourself having to chop again the next day.
Mark down the ingredients you need and take stock of what things you already have in your cupboard.

3.) Take the thing to the store with you! Remember the reusable bags! :-)
Of course while you are at the store you can keep an eye out for discounts and those fancy special ingredients, but try to limit the cursory shopping to a minute or two and no more than two items. Even if there is a great sale on frozen sliced carrots - do you really have room to store all ten boxes? Instead grab one or two and start your meal planning for next week by looking up a carrot soup, carrot cake, and carrot and lemongrass curry.

4.) Save your work!
All that planning and shopping won't do you any good if you look in the fridge on Wednesday and can't remember what you were going to make. So, save yourself the stress and smack the list and recipes to your fridge with a magnet. That will keep it handy and visible for the Wednesday you had to work late and can't even remember your own name by the time you got home.

So - good luck darlings and happy cooking!
 

Lemon Curd - egg and butter free

Oh, Lemon Curd, how I love thee!

Sunny, tart, sweet, tangy, but still smooth and rich and creamy - how do you do it?

Is it butter?

All those egg yolks?

Does lemon curd have to be filled with so much saturated fat in order to taste so good?

According to the internet: yes.

Well, in the words of Adventure Time's Earl of Lemongrab, "UNACCEPTABLE!"

I worked through last week with flavors and ingredients trying to find a suitable egg and dairy free lemon curd. First came the vegan sites and blogs. Vegan cooking is a happy hobby of mine and finding healthy alternatives to traditional dished can be a great experience. But, with two vegan lemon curd recipes tried and the results not-so-stunning, I decided to try my own. 

Cornstarch didn't have the right texture, and coconut milk altered the flavor and left it a bit weak. 

Chance left me with some very large stalks of green rhubarb from a sweet family in Tacoma. When they bought the house it came with several fruit trees and a HUGE rhubarb plant. She had rhubarb stalks as thick as my wrist but she simply didn't like the taste / texture of rhubarb in general so it was all going to waste. We connected online and I ended up with a bucket of rhubarb waiting for a recipe!

So, I had all this rhubarb and I needed something tangy and flavorful to add to the lemon juice... ha! Flavor Experiment!

The rhubarb was washed, cut, cut and simmered with a little sugar, lemons, ginger, real vanilla, low sugar pectin, and lemon zest. Low heat and constant stirring as the rhubarb dissolved let the liquid evaporate without burning at the bottom of the pot. 

In the end it became a rich, thick, lemony spread - worthy of the title Lemon Curd.

Egg and Dairy free Lemon Curd!!

I have about 20 sample jars and two 9oz jars of this deliciousness. More coming soon!

The Plums Have Arrived

There is a great variety of delicious local plums coming up fragrant and ready for the picking all this week and next!

I have batches of Rosemary Plum Sauce, Ginger Plum Jam, and Strawberry Plum Preserve filling shelves soon!

 Rosemary Plum Sauce - a sweet and herb infused sauce great served over grilled lamb and red potatoes. The plums come from one tree in the Interbay neighborhood. The rosemary is picked fresh from a large bush just down the block. I place the washed and crushed rosemary into a kitchen cotton-tie bag and allow it to simmer with the plums until the syrup becomes a deep garnet and carries the smell of rosemary all the way to the neighbor's.

Ginger Plum Jam - a spicy sweet reflection at the end of summer, great with a scone and a mug of Seattle Chai Tea! These plums are sourced from a large row of trees on two different properties. The neighbors who gave me permission to pick as much as I like! (- thanks guys!) The organic ginger is from a local market, it is diced and simmered along with the plums and sugar until the sauce gels, it hits 220F, and reaches a deep dark red.

Strawberry Plum Preserve - a surprisingly rich preserve filled with large pieces of fruit and chunky juicy texture. This is a favorite on an English muffin in the morning with some Irish Breakfast Tea. I'm lucky enough to grow fistfuls of fresh strawberries on my patio! The plums are from the same source as the Ginger Plum Jam, but they are simply sliced in half and pitted and then added whole to the pot. The strawberries are sliced in half and simmered with sugar and organic lemon juice. The result is a thick preserve with large bites of fruit and a satisfyingly sweet, but not too sweet, flavor. 

I leave you with two lovely quotes by the poet Mary Oliver - 

My work is the world.Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird- equal seekers of sweetness.Here the quickening yeast, there the blue plums...                -Mary Oliver

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your wild and precious life?           - Mary Oliver

SugarSpoon Kickstarter Revamp - goes live Thursday!

Hi Darlings!

So lots of little adjustments going on to make everything alright.

I found a reliable source for straight-sided glass jars! I'm working with the company to get the product to look right. Of course things will change - so the product you get may not look exactly like the product seen in the old pictures, but the recipe is exactly the same and the inside is just as tasty!


I'm working on label changes using color and different style backgrounds. I want to make them more abstract in the background, like a watercolor painting or a jam stain across the paper.

The SugarSpoon label is set - a circle with a black spoon at a dipped angle across. Also, I've got the fonts set up and the spacing looking good!

These are all back office changes, things I want to get set up before shipping out rewards to people from Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter is also getting some changes - adding a $1 option, updating and adding flavors, and just obsessing over every little thing. I'm anxious about taking that first step - Thank goodness for Doc and his ability to push me along!

Kickstarter goes live on Thursday!!!

Sugar Spoon - launches soon!

So excited to finish up all the little projects related to Sugar Spoon!

Almost done with Kickstarter - The page is all set but a certain someone (*cough, D, *cough) needs to assist me in getting the video portion of my begging for cash. The fees involved with setting up a small business are pretty high! I was surprised at how much regulation costs - business registry, insurance, website, materials, marketing, licenses, food workers card, getting your kitchen certified or signing a lease with a commercial kitchen, packaging, and tons more make this a huge investment. None of that even considers the time I've spent in the kitchen making samples and trying recipes, going to houses to collect product, trips out to buy jars and lids and rings, rearranging my whole kitchen into a little cannery...it's a huge commitment. 

So, if you help me out with fundraising I'd be ever so grateful. The Kickstarter page will go live in a week or so. I'll update again when the video is all finished.

Last weekend I went to Seafair on Saturday to enjoy the jets - D and I found a good spot away from the large crowd and in the shade. I was pretty happy actually since last year with the sunburn, sweat, long walks, and pressing crowds, had me somewhat dreading the event. 

This year was much better. I lounged in the shade and enjoyed watching the jets rumble by. My favorites are the older prop planes with the shiny aluminum and rivets. I think about how, while I'm enjoying them as a historical art show, there are certain people who would be unnerved by the demonstration. Myself, I get a little uneasy at times. These aren't toys - they are killing machines at their core. Even though they are being used to make an airshow - throwing smoke ribbons, loops, and death-defying acts to entertain, they were originally made to kill people. 

Similar to a gun show - there is beauty, and they can be used to entertain, but they weren't made with those things primarily in mind. 

I didn't go back to Seafair on Sunday. Instead, I spent the day rearranging my kitchen for Sugar Spoon. I have a limited amount of space - it's a small apartment after-all, so everything needs to find a place. This includes the massive jar collection I'm growing and the ingredients and associated supplies with the business. 

I also wanted to add some color and details to the kitchen area - you'll see the "after" in the video, but the "before" was pretty plain. The biggest issue for me is the cupboards. I hate them. 

Yeah, not joking - the horrible mouse brown that shows every fingerprint, yeah, I hate that. 

But, I can't do much about it - I tried to brighten things up with a rainbow of other colors. I'm using lots of red, yellow, and orange to try brightening up the room. 

I stained the wooden shelves a bold, bright red, using some acrylic paint, water, and a sponge. 

I layered on the watered down paint in thin coats so that they wouldn't have that sticky, heavy acrylic, feel to them. Also - full strength paint would've covered the wood grain and stuck to the bottom of my heavy mixing bowls. ... plus...I'm frugal and paint is expensive!

Also, I went to my favorite Goodwill and found some bright lemon meringue kitchen towels. I also found a new Gorgeous Item. It's an Technique brand enamel and cast iron 4qt round cooking pot with a heavy lid embossed with roses and topped with a little bird. 

My pretty kitchen find!

It is fantastic and I can't wait for the cooler months when I'll make sukiyaki, roast chicken, chili, and slow cooked black beans in it. It cost me $20, which is a ton for me to spend on anything at Goodwill, but I consider this an investment. This is a heavy duty piece that should last me forever, I can and will use it, and it is a beautiful addition to the apt that brings me joy to look at and use. 

Also, I found it on Ebay for $168.

There are still some things I'm keeping an eye out for in the kitchen - pegboard, trivets, and wall art or multi-use items that can be used as wall art. But, overall, I'm pretty happy with the results from Sunday. 

It was a busy weekend. 

This week I have plans to see Imelda May on Wednesday and then Guardians of the Galaxy on Friday. 

If you'd care to stalk me, well, I guess I just made it pretty easy. 

Also, I've got to squeeze in some kitchen time for Sugar Spoon, and side jobs cleaning and walking dogs, and meeting friends, and running amok. 

It'll be a busy week!

This is turning into a lunch blog...

I've got a thing for lunch. Instant oatmeal may be fine for breakfast, and ramen is alright for dinner - but lunch needs to have something a little special about it.

I usually make my lunches the night before. They can take some time to make so today I tried two days of lunches at the same time. I made a crusty bread sandwich the "Alton Brown" way, added dried apricots and prunes, banana chips (on one only because I had a little extra room), chocolate cinnamon roll, cantaloupe, and grapes.

Another recent lunch:

Salad with black pepper and italian dressing (that little bottle with the aqua cap), white cheddar Cheeze-its, dries apricots, and watermelon over angle food cake. 

And one more lunch made using the same container: 

Veggie lasagna, strawberry Nutra-grain bar, apple sauce, soy yogurt, apple slices, banana chips, and a different brand of dried apricots that made me feel ill, made my dog ill, and made the Hubbs gack. We threw those out when I got home. 

These were all made using the Sistema container I raved about before. I dropped one of the containers while setting it in the drying rack and the connector piece that holds the top to the bottom shattered. I was so upset  I won't even mention - but Ty calmed me down and I used some fancy duct tape skills to reconnect the two. That's why on some of the photos the connector has gone white. 

Rainy Sunday Rhubarb Canning

Its a rainy afternoon in Seattle.

Mr. Venture and I are just getting over a cold, the dog was sick Friday night, and I'm being L-A-Z-Y with Devin reading on my couch. Normally this would all add up to tea time, but since it's Spring, we made strawberry rhubarb compote instead!

Yesterday, while hunting for a motorcycle jacket that is a blog post all on it's own, we wandered into an Indian / East African grocery store. Between the 5 different types of cumin, wondering what to do with raw green almonds, and hunting through the bin of broken tamarind pods, I found a bunch of organic strawberries and Devin spotted some rhubarb for $1.99/lb.

Devin washed and rinsed all the canning jars / lids / rims, and I got straight to cleaning and slicing the strawberries.

I threw them into my tall stainless spaghetti pot.  

Devin filled the even larger canning boiler. Its like a big lobster pot with a removable wire rack inside that holds the jars steady and evenly spaced while you are bathing them. It covers two burners on my stove so we filled it 3/4ths of the way up, put the lid on it, and cranked both burners to high while we turned our attention to the rhubarb. 

After rinsing it and chopping off the ends, we sliced the rhubarb lengthwise and then diced it like carrots, adding to the steel pot as we went. I like mine sweet, so I added about 1 cup of sugar for every 4 cups of material. I didn't have any cornstarch, so I followed the guide on my jar of pectin. It came to about 3 Tbsps of pectin. 

Stirred till rolling boil, poured into prepped jars that had been drying the the warm oven, lidded, rimmed, and set carefully into the bath. I should really get a jar lifter - but since I don't have one, I used my silicone tongs to pull the jar up just enough to clear the water level, then slide under the jar with the oven mitt to guide it to the table. 

Devin helped:

We waited a bit for the jars to pop and then tightened the rims. Of course, there was slightly more filling than could be jarred - so we sampled the remaining filling over some strawberry ice cream - YUM!

Finished results: 

New Lunch Box Lurvs

I heart the Sistema Klip It Lunch Cube. While nothing is unsexier than "lunch cube," it's a totally functional lunch holder and deserves love despite the horrible name. It holds enough to be a real meal, the different sized compartments rock my love for more fruits than veggies, and (very importannt) it's easy to clean.

Traditional bento boxes are pretty awesome - but I hate losing those little dividers down the garbage disposal!! I don't like putting my hand down that thing to fish them out...gives me the shivers.

So this is my lunch -

Sammich, veggie mac, applesauce, and up in the right top corner are dried cranberries and apricots. Under the dried fruit there'll be some cashews and almonds. Yay Lunch!

Not just lunch really...it can hold enough food to be breakfast, lunch, and a 2pm snack if you pack it right.

It folds up to look like this - 

It's an easy shape to store in the fridge and then grab in the morning before running out the door. The divider that covers the sandwich area locks in with the divider on the bottom so nothing gets messed up even when you toss it into the passenger seat while trying to find your ID badge.

I'm pretty happy.

What to do with too many pomegranates

I don’t always talk about motorcycles, nope, sometimes I can also talk about food.

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon a lot of pomegranates. They weren’t storefront pretty anymore, but they were totally edible and cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap.  Not wanting to bite off more than I could chew – I bought 6.

I promptly forgot about them for a week and had to throw one out – so I started off with 5 no-so-pretty fruits. Since no one eats the outside of a pomegranate, it didn’t bother me they had a few brown spots. All I cared about was the ruby red pips filled with tart juice.

My method of getting the pips out involves cutting the fruit in half, sticking it in a bowl of warm water and tearing it apart. Its fast, fun and somewhat therapeutic after a long day. The outer pith floats in water while the pips sink to the bottom of the bowl. Easy sorting!

I pour the fruits into a pasta pot and heat them to a low simmer for 10 minutes.

During those 10 minutes I rinse out and heat up some canning jars, lids, and rings. I have a collection of various sized canning jars gleaned from older friends and thrift shops. I like to boil them and keep them on their own special shelf in my pantry. A pantry is a blessing, especially for canning.

Since no one I know goes through jugs of grenadine, I used 1/2 cup jars.

After the jars, lids, and rings have been laid out on a clean cloth to air dry. Turn off the juice, strain out the seeds. You can strain the seeds into some sackcloth and squeeze out the last drops if you like.

Straining little bits of pith off the top: 

Return the liquid to the stove and bring back to simmer. Add ½ cup sugar and 1tsp lemon juice for every two cups of liquid.

Cut the heat, and carefully funnel into the waiting jars. Fill to the ring line, leaving about ¼” of space. In order to seal properly, before you put the lids on make sure that there’s no juice spatter sitting on the lip of the jar.

Lid up!

Time for a bath! You should follow the food safety instructions for your particular jar size – but I set mine for 10-15 minutes.

Enjoy!

 Finished jars of delicious garnet liquid:

A spoonful of this garnet liquid over ginger ale and ice finished with a twist of lime is the perfect pick-me-up after a long day. You can also use this anywhere you might use liquid sugar or agave syrup. Try it in a vanilla bean or strawberry cupcake recipe!