Bringing our food to the table

Often as a part of our before dinner prayer I include a request to, "bless all the hands that brought this food to our table."  When I started saying the words I didn't stop to think about what they really meant.  I suppose I thought about farmers, ranchers, and grocers but it wasn't until about a week ago that I began breaking the process of food down further.

I really like the bucolic simplicity of eating farm to table but, my reality is, we are a busy suburban family that takes advantage of processed foods.  I don't make my own bread from wheat I grew then ground into flour, nor do we have meat only when our livestock is grown and ready for butchering.   When the option is available I always prefer to purchase food for my family as close to where it was grown as possible.  However - after a quick look through our cupboards I found items produced and shipped from all over the world including Canada, England, Sweden, Vietnam, and Thailand.  We buy national brand foods particularly cereals, snack foods, and condiments and weave them into a diet of commercially grown produce, meat and dairy products.

So, what does it mean to pray for "all the hands that brought this food to our table?"  

I do believe that first and foremost it means the growers, the shippers and the distributors.  Many of those companies have recognizable public images created by marketing and advertising agencies so I am praying for them as well. 

I watch television and listen to the radio where there are commercials for the national brand companies and the grocery stores I shop in.  Those commercials may influence my purchases, so I am praying for script writers, actors, directors, editors, sound technicians, lighting and camera operators, cable companies, radio stations, electronics manufacturers, and others working in communications.

Looking further, there are the agencies who's job it is to regulate growing, packaging, shipping and selling, so when I pray for our food I am also praying for the USDA, FDA, EPA, customs agencies, lawyers, PR firms, lobbyists, and even some politicians.  

The web of people who have a hand in what arrives on our dinner table is more complicated than a family tree.  Layers and layers of millions of individuals with direct or indirect influence over our food.  I will continue to include all of them in my mealtime prayer.  I am usually the last hand between my family and the food we eat but I absolutely couldn't do it alone.

Berry Picking

Earlier this year we were lucky enough to get a second freezer for our garage.  As soon as we plugged it in I knew that it was destined to be filled with berries!  My husband and I really like to have frozen berries in the house to whip up smoothies on the weekends.  The price of a bag of berries, however, can be a bit staggering.  So, when June rolled around I started looking for the signs that the local berries were ripening.  

A few weeks ago I was able to meet some friends at a lovely little family run organic farm and pick strawberries.  In a fairly short span I had collected about 9 pounds of sweet and juicy berries.  During that same period of time my toddler had a great time picking his own berries and stuffing them in his mouth as fast as possible.  He ate red ones, green ones, leaves, dirt and everything that didn't make it in his mouth was smeared allover the rest of him.  It was a really great way to spend a sunny day.

Right on the heels of strawberry season come raspberries!  The weather has been uncooperative so when the weekend forecast was for sun I decided to seize the opportunity and make it a family affair.  Saturday the three of us got packed up and went to visit another lovely family run organic farm not too far away.  Picking raspberries was certainly cushy compared to strawberries.  For one this farm had lush grass growing between all the rows so, no dust.  These canes were nice and tall so they shaded themselves and if you were unable to bend, or just didn't want to, there were plenty available without bending or kneeling.  The best part, the berries there were enormous and delicious!  My husband and I picked while our son played, picked, and sampled happily around us.


I didn't realize until we arrived at the farm, my husband had never been to a u-pick farm before.  He was thrilled to have the opportunity to be directly involved in bringing the food, we would eventually eat, from the farm to our table.  Growing up my mother grew some fruits and vegetables in our yard and we got to pick berries in the summer to make jam.  I forget that many kids who grow up in the city or suburbs only see food in grocery stores.  I get so excited thinking about all of the wonderful lessons we are teaching our son when we try new things as a family.

After both trips I arrived home eager to get my berries frozen as soon as possible.  I froze berries for the first time last summer and it is pretty easy but there are a few steps to avoid creating a solid lump of squished and unidentifiable fruit.

First they need to be washed. Gently.  I like to fill my largest plastic bowl (I think it is a 16 cupper) with cool water and a squirt of produce wash.  Then I fill my colander about 1/3 of the way with berries and dunk them in so the water can swish around them but they stay contained.  Then I gently rinse them to get all the bubbles and any remaining dirt and leaves off.

Next remove any stems, (the strawberry stems just pinched off) and blot off any excess water by setting the berries on paper or dish towels.


Place the berries in a single layer on a cookie sheet or any pan that will fit in your freezer. I  like to cover the pan with a sheet of parchment paper if I have it.  The paper helps move them from the pan once they are frozen. If you need to freeze your berries in batches, only wash as many as you can freeze at one time so avoid over handling them.  


Leave the berries in the freezer at least until they have firmed up, a few hours, up to over night. Once they are frozen the berries can be transferred to gallon sized zip top bags.  Now they are ready to grab for any recipe or just for a little burst of summer flavor whenever you get a craving.




If you live in the Puget Sound area check out www.pugetsoundfresh.org to find local farms open for u-pick, farm stands or other fun activities.  For those out of the area please share any resources you know of in the comments!

A Beginning

I would like to begin my blog as I begin my day, with breakfast.

Growing up we frequently had a box of flavored instant oatmeal in the pantry next to the cold cereal. I remember choosing it often in the winter and making it in the microwave. My favorite flavor was strawberries and cream and I am pretty sure I would make 2 or 3 packets at a time. As an adult I didn't buy instant oatmeal very often but I didn't cook it from scratch either. I didn't find the instant packets to be very filling and once I started paying attention to the nutrition labels I found the volume I wanted to consume to be full was 2 or 3 times the volume I wanted to consume calorie wise. I didn't cook it from scratch because it seemed like a much more involved process than I wanted to engage in and more than that I envisioned the results to be bland and unappetizing.

As I have been losing weight I have found myself revisiting foods that I had previously written off. Part of the joy in this process has come from discovering that I do like many things I thought I didn't, I just needed to cook them differently. When my son was born I read and was told by several people that oatmeal was a good food for nursing moms. I immediately went out and bought a package of oatmeal cookies. I knew the packaged cookies didn't contain the amount of oats I would get from a simple bowl of oatmeal so I had to move on to the grain in its more wholesome form. Initially I cooked the old fashioned variety just as the recipe on the package suggests; on the stove with water. This did not last long since the simple recipe does yield the results I had envisioned previously, bland and boring oatmeal. The good news was it turned out to be a quick and easy breakfast food that my husband was willing to make too. I was motivated to find ways to like oatmeal because it was good for me and benefited my son so in the following weeks we added the standard raisins, cinnamon and brown sugar. I wanted to up the protein a bit and tried cooking the oats in half fat free milk and half water. The milk made the oats creamier and I don't think I have used only water since then, I frequently will cook them in only milk and alternate between cow and soy milk for variety.

I was delighted to discover that oatmeal really is a great platform for other flavors and textures. Here are some of the things that I regularly combine with my oats:

Cinnamon
Vanilla Extract (a small amount - about 1/4 of a teaspoon)
Apple sauce or slices
Frozen Berries
Fresh Berries
Raisin or any other dried fruit
Chopped nuts - pecans and walnuts are my favorite especially toasted first
Flax Meal

I haven't tried bananas because I don't really like them but if you do I bet it would be tasty.

One morning I was playing with ideas for getting more protein into my breakfast and stirred in a blob of peanut butter. This was not good. The texture was gluey, the smell was odd and it tasted more savory (think Thai food) than I want for breakfast. My advice is to skip the nut butter and grab a boiled egg if you want more protein with your oatmeal.

All of these are fun, quick and easy for an everyday breakfast and changing the added ingredients keeps it from becoming boring. Oatmeal is also a great special occation or holiday treat too. One morning I posted on Facebook that I was stirring Pumpkin Pie Spice into my breakfast and was rewarded with a link to a recipe for Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal on The Good Life Eats blog. Thank you to Rainy Day Gal for pointing me to what has become my absolute favorite breakfast.

The Good Life Eats version of Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal was adapted from a previous recipe. I have in turn adapted it again to suit my taste and style. I have modified the original recipe from individual ramekins to one casserole dish for simplicity sake but it is fun to do single portions as well. Please try it, play with it, and adapt it to suit your life.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

adapted from The Good Life Eats posted 9/11/09

• 1 cup old fashioned oats (not quick cook)
• 1 Tbs whole flax seeds (optional)
• 2 1/2 Tbs brown sugar, packed (or 1 1/2 Tbs of Splenda Brown Sugar Blend)
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
• 1/2 tsp lemon zest
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp butter, softened (or Smart Balance butter alternative)
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 3/4 cup milk (cow or soy)

Topping:

• 1/4 cup pecans, chopped
• 2 tsp butter, softened (or Smart Balance)
• 1 Tbs brown sugar (stick to the regular brown sugar here for the texture)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Combine the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. In an oven-safe casserole dish, combine the pumpkin, milk and butter. Fold the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture and place into the oven for 10 minutes. While the oatmeal is baking, mix the topping. After 10 minutes spread the topping evenly over the casserole and return to the oven for an additional 7 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Toss a few dried cranberries or raisins on top for some added texture and sweetness. Serves 2-4.