The ugly truth

People who know me, or who read this blog, hear me moan bitch complain about the tiny-ness and claustrophobic-ness of this house occasionally sometimes all the time. We live in a 2-bedroom bungalow that has a basement with two additional rooms and a large-ish space which functions as the kids’ play area.

But it’s still a 2-bedroom bungalow.

Because of the pipe backup into part of the basement and the renovators currently in the basement doing stuff, I have more clutter upstairs in our everyday living space.

Here I would like to offer PROOF that my complaining is valid and completely justified. This is a picture of the state of my living room this morning:

Moose meat

You know that new-ish comedy “Last Man Standing’ with Tim Allen? He used to be the tool man…now instead of 3 boys he’s got 3 girls and a grandson. Anyway, he hunts and is the owner or co-owner or something of an outdoor/hunting store. He co-owns it with this guy who used to be a doctor on Chicago Hope.

I live with a hunter. He’s not like Tim Allen, nor does he own a hunting store, although perhaps that might be something he could, potentially, be interested in…

Anyway, my guy took up hunting a few years ago and his emphasis has been mostly on deer. There are deer aplenty all over the place and they are multiplying in mass numbers, so hunting deer has been a passion without guilt, so to speak.

But then one day late last year he was asked if he’d like to join a group who was heading north and spending the night to moose hunt. Apparently moose meat is great!

Bad mood

Like some other people, I don’t bake much. (Andrea @missfish comes to mind, I think Sharon @SharonDV too said something to that effect at some point)…it has to do with measuring and exact amounts. Not me, at least not in the kitchen.

But I am in a blah, horrible, depressed, icky mood so I baked cookies. Then I ate one, and it wasn’t baked long enough (even though I followed the instructions exactly).

So then I ate another one. And stuck the rest of them back in the oven.

It’s too cold to move, so I just eat

This cold snap is making me eat. Because of the cold I drive the kids to and from school. I miss walking…

(Picture: Thick layer of ice on the screen door. Can’t even see outside.)

We don’t have the dog, either, on our designated dog sitting day, because I have to be around for basement work that is supposed to be happening (but hasn’t, yet). (Insurance, helllllooooo??? You said you would call us with the quote…).

Our walks to and from school always take longer with the kids because they, not unlike dogs, do not walk a straight line between A and B (where A is home and B is school). They have to stop to inspect stuff, bend down to look under stuff, climb stuff, walk back to pick up stuff, pet stuff, collect stuff, fight a little, skip and jump. And that is A-OKAY with  me.

(Picture: Lake Ontario with a snow squall over on the USA side, and ‘warm’ water rising in the frigid air above.)

Except, now, I just sit. I sit in the car, I sit at home. I sit and sit and sit.

And I eat.

Chocolate from Christmas.
Bacon sandwiches without mayo because we are out of mayo.
Moose salami.
Cheese and crackers.
Soup.
Marinated olives. YUM.

And a gazillion other snacks, meals and everything in between.

I can feel my waist expanding, but I’m wearing loose clothing right now because I have to wear long johns. Even the 5 minutes I stand outside waiting for the Kindergarteners to come out is unpleasant without proper clothing to keep me from freezing to death.

The tights, long-johns and loose fleece pants I wear do not help me recognize my expanding waist. But I know it’s happening….I can see it. In the shower. In the mirror.

Blah.

It’s cold out there…all I want to do is sit some more, have some tea, and “pass the pastry, please, my way”.

What’s to eat mom? – a new series

I am embarking on a food related series on Javaline.

Food is such a major focus point of parenting…and an endlessly challenging one. Practically everyone who blogs mentions food at some point. I spend a large part of my awake-time in the kitchen, or either thinking about food, shopping for food, or eating food. But most of that time is cooking food. It never seems to end.

Lucky for me I like, even love, cooking. And Javaline is certainly not immune to food-related posts. Click on the food category and you’ll see over 30 posts with food as their main topic. Some are actual recipes, some are ideas, some are rants or related to edible gardening.  Apparently I spend a lot of time thinking about food on the blog.

Healthy eating with meat

The problem with the Paleo diet is that we are in endless need of meat.

He’s the one on the diet, but since I have to feed him AND us, I may as well cook accordingly…

Sure we have a freezer full of venison, some of which I do eat even though I’m not crazy for venison in general, but really I can only eat so many beef/pork/venison burgers or meatballs before getting bored (or sick of it).

We used to have a butcher. He died. We no longer have chicken from the Mennonite farm he used to get it from, nor eggs. We no longer have his awesome sausages. We have to shop for meat at other stores that serve organic, or at least pasture-fed, humanely raised meat-animals.

Beretta Organic Farms sells at Wholefoods and at Loblaws, even. So that’s one option, but that means get in the car and drive a distance. I’m a local kinda gal. I prefer doing my shopping close to home, if possible. So I either make the trip once or twice a month and spend a small fortune to fill the freezer, or I order via mom who passes Wholefoods on her way to visit us once a week.

Once upon a time we knew a guy whose parents had a hobby farm. They sold us a half a cow and we were happy! They also had a few chickens, eggs and a bunch of yummy squashes…but that freezer full of various cuts of beef was heavenly. So easy to plan meals! I will have to make the effort to find someone who sells us half a cow again.

While trying to accommodate his paleo needs, I have found that eating less grain in general (even though most of our grain is whole grain) has helped me in terms of battling mid-afternoon fatigue. But to say it’s challenging to cook this way in winter when most of the fruit and veg is imported, greenhoused, and mediocre at best in terms of taste, is pretty much an understatement.

Which brings us to the fantastic weather we’ve been having over the past few weeks. WARM, sunny, and if I stick my finger in the soil of my garden beds, I can feel it move. The soil! It moves! This normally doesn’t happen until May in these parts. Usually the soil is cold and clumpy, frozen even.

So the itch to sow a few seeds that can handle frost has taken me over. I’m thinking arugula, which can be eaten both raw in salads or cooked. The parsley and chives are poking through already too, and are ready for snipping to add to salads and sandwiches. Or on top of eggs.

In the meantime, I dug out a package of chicken and two turkey legs out of the freezer. The turkey legs are bigger so I put them in the crockpot with some orange slices, and the chicken will be defrosted in time to bbq later. Dinner for tonight is covered.

Don’t ask me what to make tomorrow.

When one must eat some bitter greens

Black-eyed peas and bitter greens (collards, kale, swiss chard, dandelion, rapini and arugula, for example) are on the good-to-eat list DH got from his naturopath. Along with a digestive enzyme to help with the beans, he is happy to eat my funky recipe inventions (although the kids less so). This salad was delish, and easy to prepare. Also very versatile because you can substitute the greens you have on hand with something else the next time.

I used dried black-eyed peas which I soaked and then cooked tender, but you can use canned ones (rinse well to remove excess salt). In this recipe I used wilted collards which I had never had before, and added fresh (not wilted) arugula at the end for some extra kick.

When wilting the greens, do so in olive oil, sea salt, chopped garlic and onion. Add the chopped greens, dripping wet, into the pan, put on the lid, and let wilt. This takes 1-2 minutes max. I then used tongues to mix a little, put in a glass dish, added the drained beans, squeezed a bit of lemon juice on top, and tasted it.

• If you like it slightly bitter this is a good salad for you.
• If you prefer to take the edge off, sprinkle a few drops of maple syrup (please use real syrup, not imitation corn syrup) and mix well.
• You can eat this warm, or cold.
• You can also stuff this into a tortilla and eat it as a roll.

The versatility of a simple pot of soup

I made tomato soup.

Although the kids won’t eat it, sick DH will, and so will I…so I made an extra big pot. Because soup is meant to be versatile, I can now add things to it, just to liven it up a bit.

The basic recipe is so simple, it’s not even a real recipe. I simply took a can of tomatoes and blended them smooth with pressed fresh garlic, and a whole bunch of spices (I used oregano, thyme, garlic powder, onion powder, celery salt and a small pinch of hot pepper flakes).

Then I heated some olive oil in pot, added some chopped onions and carrots (and I would have added celery if I had some in the house, which I didn’t), and stirred in some sea salt, pepper and maple syrup. Once the onion was translucent looking, I poured the blended tomatoes into the pot, added a cup of chicken broth, and let the entire thing simmer for an hour on medium-low heat.

Today I will take half the soup and simmer it with some leftover chicken pieces, and possibly stir in some squash as well.

Tomorrow I might add some beans and pasta to the other half the soup.

Easy, warm and filling. And lunch is ready with minimum fuss for an entire week.

Chicken stock

We had a grilled chicken on a spit on the BBQ last night.

The carcass looked too sad to just toss into the compost.

So I tossed it into the crockpot (aka slow cooker). Chopped up some celery, a couple of carrots, added a bay leaf, sea salt, pepper and mustard seed, enough water to almost fill the crock, and turned it on to low.

Lid on top and it simmered all night.

My house smells like soup. And with the cooler weather arriving….perfect!

I did this before, and here are the instructions.

Tip: grocery store chicken does not make the tastiest stock. If you eat free range, organic chicken, you will note a serious increase in taste in your stock (and meat!).

Crustless sandwiches, and picky eating

My kid doesn’t eat crusts. I have a kid who doesn’t eat crusts.

This may not seem unusual to many parents, but to me it is. I never had this issue as a kid (growing up in Switzerland where the bread we used to eat had thick, dark crusts on them which were a favorite amongst children).

DH thinks that Ben is just normal. Whatever….it’s a lot of bread that goes to waste in my mind. In the picture above which I took today at lunch, he clearly didn’t eat more than just the crusts; he practically left half the sandwich on his plate.

Such waste.

Andrea wrote about this in her own blog (more than once, even), and I’m getting closer to the point where I may follow some of the tips. Trouble is, I don’t know if cutting the crusts off prior to eating will result in a waste-free sandwich…

This brings forth the next challenge, so prevalent amongst North America kids: picky eaters.

I have a very rigid, European attitude when it comes to picky-ness in food – I think it’s the parents who are too quick to accommodate, too lenient on selective eating. I am not this way. And I always have enough of a choice at mealtimes that if someone doesn’t like one part of it, there are plenty of other choices they can make to satisfy themselves.

If it was up to me, I would let that kid go hungry way more often than we do now…it’s a delicate balancing act, this food-eating thing. DH and I agree most of the time on how we handle the ever-changing picky food choices (for 4 years he loved roasted potatoes, now he says he can’t stomach them), but sometimes we take the easy way out. Sometimes I get a look from DH that indicates he’d rather have quiet than some noisy protest which will last for the foreseeable evening and set the tone for the rest of the night…Sometimes, I shrug it off and do it my way anyway. And sometimes, most times actually, we work together to get him to either eat or not eat and realize that this is it for food, hungry or not.

Seems we are not alone. Quick chats with other parents at recreational activity drop-offs reveal all kinds of similar behaviour in 5, 6 year old boys.

Makes me laugh.

And cry…

But eating the crusts? I’d be fighting that battle all alone.