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Food

Sometimes you don’t get what you pay for

Jun 18th, 2011
by htwollin.
3 comments

Earlier this spring (is it still officially spring?), I started some seeds under glass. And I very carefully wrote down on a diagram what I had planted from the seed packets. There was spinach and winter lettuce, mixed cabbages and Soloist Chinese Cabbage. Now, the reason I got those seeds is that I really love Napa Cabbage but they are the size almost of the shoe that the Old Woman Who Lived In A.. lived in and I always end up chucking at least half of it into the compost heap or giving it to the chickens. Soloist is a baby Nappa, so I was really attracted to that. Well, the original plants looked like all seedlings from the cabbage family do so I didn’t think about that. And I kept transplanting them and forgot what they were supposed to be. (more…)

When All Composts Are Not Created Equal

Jun 12th, 2011
by htwollin.
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For gardeners, even the word ‘compost’ will cause people to wax poetically and almost enter a state of ecstasy. Compost is ‘brown gold’ – it is seen as being able to magically transform a garden. And to the extent that when it contains the optimal combination of carbon and nitrogenous materials and has been allowed to cook long enough to kill off seeds and so on, it is great stuff.

But not everything that is called ‘compost’ is equal to this standard. (more…)

Tropic Island Cake

Jun 1st, 2011
by htwollin.
3 comments

I don’t know if I invented this or not (does anyone invent anything these days), but we had three rather sorry looking bananas in the fridge at Chez Siberia and I had the idea that I wanted to add dried cocoanut and pineapple/pineapple juice and make a cake. Aunt Toby is very fond of cakes that have fruit in them (see cake, banana; cake, blueberry, and so forth) because they taste wonderful just..the…way…they…are. No frosting needed.

Not that Aunt Toby feels some sort of ill will toward frostings (see frosting, cream cheese), mind you; it’s just that with some cakes, it’s too much sweetness for me. (more…)

Gardening on the Wild Side

May 9th, 2011
by htwollin.
2 comments

Time was, when we thought our biggest garden menace were the ground hogs, though we have always found that if we ‘encouraged’ outdoor kitties in the area, the amount of détente that could be achieved in the tooth and claw area was enough to establish a certain balance in our garden. Not that I really like sharing produce, mind you; I have a vivid memory of watching in fascination as a rather roly poly ground hog, made his way up a row of ‘the big garden’ (which was actually rather far from the house – that might have been a cue right there – we have had ‘the little garden’ which is literally right across the driveway and which I can hit with a rock if I, ahem, so choose), literally pulling up carrots and onions, taking a bite, and moving on down the produce aisle. All that was missing was a basket. (more…)

The Hot Dish This Season is Chicken Pot Pie

Apr 5th, 2011
by htwollin.
5 comments

Or, it might be meatloaf or mac and cheese. So sayeth the New York Times in a recent article about what’s being served at the parties for the fashionables.

Comfort food. (more…)

Plants and no place to put them? Heel them in.

Apr 3rd, 2011
by htwollin.
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I know it’s hard sometimes to remember “BTI” (Before the Internet) but there was a time when what people had going for them was referred to as ‘sending away’. Even before ‘direct mail’, there were box tops, advertisements in magazines, and catalogs (remember those?). Even before credit cards were opened up in a big way in the 80s, people were putting checks, money orders and God help us, actual cash inside envelops with order forms or even just a note on a piece of paper with an order and sending it away. Many many companies have made their zillions in mail order; I remember ordering stuff when I was in college and growing begonias in my room (the other kids down the hall had some weird thing going on with a closet and a lot of aluminum foil – I never asked…). But I know a lot of people don’t or won’t order plants through the mail – I think for a lot of people there is this whole thing about ‘and what do I do if the stuff shows up and I’m not ready? What do I do?” (more…)

Why Where You Get Your Food is Important: The Glow in the Dark Edition

Mar 13th, 2011
by htwollin.
2 comments

photo: State Library of New South Wales via Flickr

I get rather annoyed with people who say ‘I hate to be an alarmist, but..’

At Chez Siberia, we LIVE ‘belt and suspenders’ because I hate it when I’m right – but I’m really upset when I’ve not taken the precautions. So, here’s Aunt Toby’s take on the nuclear situation in Japan right now.
Being a food person (and if you were standing behind me, you’d see evidence of it all the time — I not only stand on my nutrition principals, I sit on ‘em too), the first thing I thought about when I heard that the Japanese would be doing a release to lessen the pressure was – oh, shit – America’s fruit and veggie supply is based on the West Coast. At the moment, what they are talking about in the atmosphere is Cesium (if you live in the western half of the US, you might want to call up your physician or local health department (if the Republicans haven’t budgeted them out of existence) to discuss Potassium Iodide to block your thyroid from taking up the radioactive iodine, especially if you have infants, children, lactating moms or pregnancies in your midst. (more…)

Want better nutrition? Chew your food MORE.

Feb 6th, 2011
by htwollin.
1 comment

I have a friend who I actually have not met. She is from Canada and her name is Krista Scott-Dixon. I got involved with her through her women’s weight lifting site, Stumptuous 7 years ago and she is someone who knows more about weight lifting, food, eating, and women’s health than anyone I know. She came up with a recipe for a smoothie made with coconut milk that basically kept my mother alive while she was dying of dementia. Brilliant woman. She’s widened her focus in terms of food but recently, she posted something that really hit home with me, which is that if she could say one thing to the people she coaches, it would be ‘slow down and chew your food.’ There’s a lot of other stuff about being mindful about what we eat and the choices we make when we feel like we want to reward ourselves and so on. (more…)

Throw a little science into the garden mix

Jan 10th, 2011
by htwollin.
Comments are off for this post

OK, so Aunt Toby just knows that you’ve got this gargantuan pile of seed catalogs next to the chair or on your night stand and the color photos are just amazing. And your list is growing longer and longer and you are just going crazy with the thoughts of the snow off the ground and the plants IN the ground and what the tomatoes are going to taste like this summer and hey, maybe you’ll make salsa!

Slow down, Bucko. Let’s throw a little science on this, ok? (more…)

New Year’s Resolution: Gonna Eat Better

Jan 2nd, 2011
by htwollin.
5 comments

Well, it’s January 2 and I’ll bet there are already a lot of people out there who are despairing of keeping any sort of New Year Resolutions. It’s ok – you are not a bad person and frankly, there is no reason to drag those resolutions around like some sort of anvil for the rest of the year if you know, deep in your heart of hearts that it’s sort of a waste.

But here’s one that we work pretty hard at here at Chez Siberia that might work for you: Gonna Eat Better. (more…)

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