GMO's...Again

I was listening to the news last night and heard that scientists "have discovered that strawberries and chocolate have tons of antioxidants" (Didn't we find out that a long time ago?). In any case, they are now diligently working to "increase" the nutritional content of the strawberry and cocoa plants and "make them easier to grow".

Read between the lines: "easier to grow" means more resistant to herbicides and pesticides. Furthermore, if we have just found out how good they are for us (that is, nature has done an excellent job without our help), why would we want to mess with them?

Remember, the only way to avoid Genetically Modified Organisms is to buy ORGANIC. I started buying organic chocolate a long time ago. Start doing that yourselves if you have not done that already.

Closed for the Holidays

Farmers Markets are closed this weekend for the holidays. I was able to snatch a few watermelon radishes from a local grower (see header picture). I had never had them before and although hesitant when I bought them, I was pleasantly surprised at their flavor and amazed at how beautiful they are. I can't wait until next weekend so that I can buy some more! They are delicious!

Where is the corn?

Every year the company I work for selects several families on the Christmas Bureau list. The employees and the company pitch in to provide holiday food and gifts to the families we've selected. Today, the kids and I, along with a co-worker went to deliver Christmas gifts to one of those families. We gathered the gifts that had been purchased first and then we marched on to the refrigerator with a list of the foods that had been purchased for this particular family on hand. As we put things in bags or the cooler, we would check them off the list. Corn happened to be on the list for this particular family and as my kids busily went through the bags to make sure we had corn, they both said we were missing the corn. My co-worker took one look in a bag and said it was there as she lifted a can of corn. "Oh" both kids said with a puzzled look on their faces. At that point my daughter looked at me and said that she had never seen corn in a can before and had been looking for ears of corn. There are so many kids in this country that rarely see fresh food and think chicken grows in the shape of nuggets (Did you see the show Food Revolution?) that for me, this was a proud moment :-).

Renewed

It has been a while since I last blogged. I guess life in general has gotten in the way. So much so that we picked up some old bad habits along the way of trying to simply eat healthy, home-made meals. Although religiously only buying organic produce and minimizing processed foods, the word 'Local' was once again lost in our vocabulary. So, how could I blog about something that I was not really doing? How do I pick up where I left off? As I pondered these questions, I heard from a friend of mine that Michael Pollan would be in town (Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food) so I joined her and went to hear him talk. We spent an evening listening to him and meeting with all the local food producers that normally participate in the farmers markets around town. We both walked out re-inspired!

Yesterday, my husband and I visited our nearby farmers market (it had been a while) and stocked up on fresh veggies and grass-fed beef. We did go to WF but only to compliment our local produce and we have once again promised ourselves that eating local organic produce would become our priority. So here I am again! I am going to include a favorite recipe of ours because the sweet potatoes were plentiful this weekend. Try it and enjoy!

Sweet Potato-Pecan Pancakes

Cooking Light, March 2000

1 1/4 cups all=purpose flour

1/4 cup chopped pecans, toasted and divded

2 1/4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp pumkin-pie spice

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup fat-free milk

1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1 tbs vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup (about) of cooked sweet potatoes (original recipe calls for a can of sweet potatoes but we have always cooked our own)

Lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife.

Combine flour, 2 tbs pecans, baking powder, pumpkin-pie spice,

and salt in a large bowl. Combine milk and next 4 ingredients;

add to flour mixture, stirring until smooth. Stir in sweet potatoes.

Spoon about 1/4 cup batter onto a hot nonstick griddle or large

nonstick skillet. Turn pancakes when tops are covered with bubbles

and edges look cooked. Sprinkle pancakes with 2 tbs pecans.