Um, Hi.

Oh, come on. Don't act so surprised. You knew it was going to happen. There I was posting two, even three times a week and then *bam* nothing. What can I say? I get distracted by shiny things.

First of all if you haven't seen the movie yet, our friends at PBS are helping you out. Tomorrow they are premiering Food, Inc. Seriously, watch the darn thing. It's not gross, but it is scary. There's no reason why you shouldn't know exactly where your food comes from. You only put it in your and your family's mouths everyday.

Secondly, is that how you spell mouths? It doesn't look right.

This is a big week in the environmental, sustainable world. Earth Day is on April 22. We'll be doing a special post here where our friend Troy joins us again. He'll tell us which packaged goods are actually OK (impossible!) to buy. In turn, I'll rip apart everything he says. It should be a good time. Come watch!

In the meantime, I'm still hearing about how expensive it is to eat right. So here are some tips from chefs and foodies on how to eat right; even if you're using food stamps to buy your groceries. (Original article here)

I will sum the article up for you: Eating well is about planning, planning, planning

I'm not going to lie. I think about food a lot. Like a lot, a lot. But if food doesn't consume your every waking moment (and I'm not sure what else you would waste your time thinking about), here's what you should be considering:

1. Multi-use proteins
   Chances are, you need to reduce the amount of protein you're eating. A serving size of meat is between 3-4 oz. That's the same size as a deck of cards (short and squat) or a checkbook (lean and longer). When's the last time the chicken breast (hamburger, steak, pork chop, salmon filet, etc.) you had for dinner was that size? Be honest...
   
   I just doubled the amount of protein you have without costing you a penny! Split the protein in half and use it twice during the week. And speaking about that...


2. Cook once, eat twice
   So now you have two pieces of chicken breast because you slyly (there's another weird spelling) portioned out your food. Grill both pieces up and have one for dinner and chop up the other for a grilled chicken salad for lunch.
   
   And you told me you didn't have time to make a lunch to bring to work. I wish you weren't such a liar.
   
   Chicken is the easy one to figure out, but you can do it with anything. Sausage for pasta one night and then breakfast burritos the next morning. Hamburgers for dinner one night and then Mapo Doufu for dinner the next. Yum! (They use ground pork, but ground beef is an easy substitution.)


3. Choose your menu ahead of time
   This is the important one. Choose the menu BEFORE you go food shopping. You'll buy what you need and not spend extra money on random items. And since you know you have twice the protein (step 1), plan your menus around using the main ingredient twice.
   
   Choose a menu that incorporates ingredients you already have on hand. Spices are a money suck, but chances are you have some jumble of them already in your pantry. Choose a menu that includes spices you have on hand.
   
   Choose a menu with a cook time you can actually commit to. I get it, not everyone wants to or has the time to prepare a dinner for 1 hour. Most magazines (and yes, there's THAT show on Food Network) have recipes dedicated to quick cooking. Start there.


4. Eat ethnic
   In case you weren't aware, America is sort of well off. All things considered, we're pretty much living high on the hog. Not everyone eats massive amounts of beef, chicken, pork, etc. daily. Take your cue from them.
   
   Mexican: rice and beans. You can't get any cheaper and more delicious.
   
   Chinese: lo mein. Noodles. You probably have a package somewhere in your kitchen now.
   
5. Think soup
   This is really the biggest dollar stretcher I can think of. You can put a soup together from just about any ingredient and you get a lot of servings out of it. Add a protein for some heft and you've got a great dinner/lunch.

Need more cheap recipe ideas? Here you go!

How do you save money while food shopping?

Stay tuned for the Troy v. Jen smackdown on Thursday.

Just One More Reason

I know you're sitting there thinking, "I'm still not sold, Jen. You've gone on and on....AND ON...about grass-fed beef, but if I buy the 'natural,' 'hormone-free' beef surely that's good enough."

Ahem...

Click here.

Yuck. I think that's worth finding a local farm to source your beef from, don't you?

A Conglomerate of Updates

You might notice a Sunday Dinner with the Dezso's post is lacking. Never fear! Here you go: Michael ate peanut butter and jelly with potato chips and I ate a cucumber. I apologize for the lack of photographs to accompany this four star event.

So shoot me. I had the plague this past week and we welcomed a new addition to the family:
Meet Bear. He's our foster child right now. We'll be finding him a happy home one day; which we hope is soon because he takes up the majority of ours (he's a Great Pyrenees). In the meantime, he's our personal Michael Oher.

For those of you keeping score at home, there's Baxter:

Ginger:

Edison:

And, now, Bear:

But enough about our zoo. Guess what time of year it is kids???

FARMERS' MARKET SEASON! Yea!!!!! Check your local listings and see when yours kicks it back into gear. Most of our local ones started last week, but I missed opening day since I had to bring Bear to meet a new family, which incidentally was on a farm. (No, it wasn't a good fit. Yes, I cried on the way home. First because I didn't want to give up my new baby. Then because I was mad at the people for not thinking he was good enough. I know, typical woman.)

I'll celebrate Farmers' Market season this week instead by hopefully hosting a Saturday night or Sunday night edition of Dinner with the Dezsos with bunches of goodies from the market.

Need compelling reasons to buy your food from the Farmers' Market, aside from delicious tasting, fresh, local food which supports your community? Then boy are you in luck! Check it:

7 Reasons to Eat and Cook from the Farmers' Market

Still not convinced? Shaazaam:

Eating in Season: A Recipe for Life (byline: If you could do just one thing for your health, says this doctor, it would be to make seasonal, farm-fresh produce the center of your diet)

Celebrate and hit up the Farmers' Market this week or weekend!

Home-Made Alternative Series: Bread

I'm still on death's door, thanks for asking. Luckily, we have a guest blogger today! (See, I'm NOT the only person trying to live a little better.)

Besides being a really awesome person who continually inspires me to push my standards a little higher, Troy also has the unique perspective of living this way with two toddlers! I've been picking his brain endlessly for tips and ideas to share with you all because I know many of you have little 'uns of your own.

So, without further ado...here's Troy. (FYI, all the photos are my bread making experiment to prove to you all that it really does work and is simple as all heck.)

Give Us This Day, Our Daily Bread

I have been following Jen and Michael’s blog for a while now. I love her writing and the topics are always timely. We are running at about the same pace of change. Now I do get to take credit for some of this as I was the one who dragged my wife to see Food Inc., and she told Michael, with whom she worked, that he had to see the movie. Next thing I hear, Jen and Michael’s lives have changed and Experiments in Change was born. Since Michael hasn’t been pulling his weight lately, I offered to make a guest appearance and write an article.

For us--that is me, my wife and two toddlers--our plan has been to simplify our consumption. It starts with food, but doesn’t end there. We (I) have been trying to eliminate store-bought, pre-made, packaged foods. Believe me when I tell you this is not easy with two toddlers and a stubborn spouse. But with a little work it’s possible. My plan was to buy only things that I could imagine myself making at some point, and then try, however slowly, to come up with recipes to replace the store bought items. So that meant no more Pop-Tarts, no more Coca-Cola, and so much more…

Bread was something I could imagine myself making. It required research, lots of needless research. Why needless? Because it is so easy. So now it’s been five months since we bought a loaf of bread from the store (admittedly, we did buy buns for bratwurst this weekend).

Here’s what I have learned.

1. Bread is easy to make.


2. Homemade bread is way better than store-bought.


3. And there is almost nothing that makes the house smell better than fresh baked bread. It makes you want to be home.

I started all this before I read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and found out that baking bread is sexy. Go figure.

I started with white bread, because that’s what the kids like. If this was going to be a success I would have to win them over. Then I thought I would try to sneak some whole-wheat flour in there. Then maybe local honey… then, possibly, home-made raw milk yogurt whey. That’s what you call living on the edge. Seriously, once you get the basic recipe down you can start to experiment with substitutions. Just a little a bit at a time until it doesn’t work. You’ll find that it almost always works though.

So here’s my no-fail sandwich bread recipe.

1 cup warm water
1-1/2 Tbsp softened butter
1-1/2 Tbsp sugar (or 3 Tbsp honey - hold back on a bit of the water)
1 Tbsp powdered skim milk
1-1/2 tsp salt
3 cups (15 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp instant rapid-rise yeast

This recipe should work in a bread machine, a stand mixer with dough hook, or a food processor. Or, you could even knead it by hand.

(Editor's note: I used my Kitchen Aid with a dough hook, but any of these ways work. I combined the warm water and the yeast and let it sit for about two minutes to activate the yeast. Then I added the sugar, powered skim milk--easy to find in the baking aisle--and the flour and began mixing. Once it all started to incorporate I added the softened butter and the salt.)




First rise (Ed. Note: The time you let it sit in a very warm area covered with plastic wrap) is about an hour. You can do it in the bread machine or a lightly oiled bowl.

(Ed Note: In between rises you pound the air out of the dough and knead it for about a minute or two before letting it sit again.)

Second rise about 30 minutes. Here's my hint on the second rise: microwave two cups of water to boiling then put the loaded loaf pan, covered with a tea towel, in the microwave with the water. Voila! Warm and draft-free.


(Ed. Note: Last interruption, I swear,...but you may notice I decided to chunk up some butter and throw that on top with salt and pepper before baking. I mean, you might want to try that if you like awesome things.)

Bake for 20 minutes at 375 degrees.



You can partially substitute whole-wheat flour, but your rise times will be longer. You may also want to add a little extra yeast, maybe another ½ teaspoon. Just remember that you’re looking for double volume on each of the rises.

I have done this using each of the above devices. For convenience, I now use the dough cycle on our bread machine and then take it out and bake it in a loaf pan in the oven to get the right shape. But it works just as well with the other methods. The stand mixer makes me feel like I am barely cheating, but is much easier than doing it by hand. When the bread machine eventually dies, or we run out of space for appliances, I'll switch to the stand mixer.

I haven't gotten so compulsive that I am milling my own flour yet, but I have considered it. I use King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour because it has a high protein content, which leads to more gluten and chewier bread. And it's all-purpose, so I don't have to have a bunch of different flours (bread, cake, etc...) in the pantry. I am using Hodgson Mill Graham Flour for my whole-wheat. I'll also add a bit of rye flour to spice things up.

For sweetness and fuel for the yeast, I started using honey--rather than cane sugar--so I could source it locally. Yeast is the Fleishman's that you refrigerate in a jar because it cuts down on the packaging with the individual paper packets. I’m sure there is a way to get this locally but I haven’t figured it out yet. Soon.

That’s it. Bread that the kids will eat. And if they will eat it, so will you. Next, is no-knead artisan bread for when you want something fancy…

P.S. Be sure to check out my blog that will be launching on Earth Day, April 22th: www.recyclingrepublican.com. And, thanks for having me visit Jen.

The Sickness Runs Deep

One downside (and there are only a handful) of working from home is every time I leave the house and mingle amongst the masses of peasants general population, I end up sick. Flying to New York for Easter did not prove an exception to this rule. So now I have a roaring fever, can't breath and there's an army of elves mining for gold in my head. Boy are they going to be disappointed.

Because I'm a freak and completely insane, rather than go out and buy some soup or sit and moan on the couch until soup magically appears, I remember this. The home-made stock I made last week.

And then I obsess.

In between working, blowing my nose, working, moaning and working, I begin to hatch a plan. I had the ingredients on hand for a Pozole knock-off. And for only having half the ingredients and being on death's door, I think it came out pretty well.

Saute 2 sliced cloves of garlic and 1 jalapeno (good for clearing out the sinuses). Add as much chicken broth as you need for a hearty bowl of soup and bring to a boil.

While that happens, in your final serving bowl chop up half an avocado, 1 small tomato, 1 small bunch of cilantro and dress with sherry vinegar and salt.

Once your broth is boiling, add 2 oz. of pasta and cook to the done-ness you like.

When that's done, pour soup over the avocado-tomato mixture and enjoy!

No, I don't have pictures...I'm sick for pete's sake.

Home-Made Alternative Series: Stock

Let me start by saying, it's worth it. It is SO worth it. You're not going to think so when you first see it, but when you taste it...

First off, you're using your whole chicken. You are wasting nothing which is a sexy, environmentally sound thing to do.

Secondly, your soups, risottos, sauces, whatever you use broth in will thank you for making a home-made stock. Home-made stock adds a clean flavor, a rich depth and a complexity you just cannot get out of the box.

It is the difference between dating George Clooney and Zach Galifianakis. One's sexy, smooth, debonair, witty and the other's a schlub (still love you Zach...call me!).

My first attempt at making a stock was a roaring success complete disaster involving smoke alarms, 6 hours of my time and a whopping 1/4 (that's ONE-QUARTER) of a cup of stock. Lesson learned: slow simmer and rolling boil cannot be interchanged.

What you should know up front:

1. This will take between 5-6 hours of your time. Mostly you're doing nothing, but you will need to check on the stock every now and again.
2. Don't skimp on the bones. You want a flavorful stock.
3. When in doubt, skim.

With those commandments set, let's get cooking.

First up, the chicken carcasses from our Sunday night dinner into the pot.

Oh wait, that's Ginger and Edison sunning themselves in today's beautiful weather. Baxter is just to the left of Ginger.

OK back to the recipe, the chicken carcasses in the pot with 4 quarts of water. All told you'll need between 3-5 lbs. of chicken bones. Any bones really. Last time I made stock out of chicken, duck and Cornish hen bones. It was divine.

Over medium-low heat SLOWLY bring this to a simmer...and I mean slowly. Like this should take about 3 hours slow. The whole time, you want to skim anything that rises to the top of the pot with this contraption which I'm sure has a proper name, but since I don't know what that could possibly be, I call it Fred.


Fred is critical to this process. Love Fred.

While you wait patiently for 3 hours or so, you can probably find the time to chop up 6 carrots, 2 leeks and a yellow onion.

When bubbles just start to break the surface of the water it's time to add the ice! This much:
Which is also like 8 cups of ice for you technical folk.

This is a critical step because it brings the fat to the top of the soup which Fred will help you skim out. Once you've skimmed yourself silly, add in your chopped up vegetables. Crank that puppy all the way to medium (we're getting crazy here) and get the slow simmer happening again.

It will take a lot less time this go around, like 20-30 minutes. Once it reaches the simmer, keep it that way for about 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, turn off the heat and let it sit for 20 minutes more.

I'm not sure I've mentioned this here yet, but I have a slight psychotic obsession, think Fatal Attraction but less violent food crush on Thomas Keller. He's my god and he can say nor do no wrong. So this next part is very critical because he says it's critical.

With a ladle, ladle out the stock and strain it through Fred's friend Bob into a bowl sitting in an ice bath.
Then pack the stock up into containers for freezing (if you're not going to use it within a day or so).
It keeps great in the freezer. Just defrost it when you're ready to use it. I guarantee you, it's worth the effort. Make a big batch on a rainy Sunday. You won't be upset. Well, unless your first attempt resembles mine, but the second batch...SO worth it.

Sunday Dinner with the Dezsos

Sure, everyone has heard the phrase "Sunday dinner," but when is the last time you did an honest to goodness Sunday dinner with your family or friends? I'm not talking about having dinner on a Sunday. I'm talking about a festive, home-cooked dinner where the focus is on being together and sharing a special meal; talking about life, no TV or iPhone, enjoying the company and being in the moment.

I don't want to get myself too worked up here (which I have a small tendency to do), but let's not allow 'Dancing with the Stars,' involvement in 1,000 sports leagues and making sure everyone is in bed exactly at 8 become so important to displace a quality meal together. None of those things can substitute for a precious few hours together with the people you care about.

You have to make the time. You might have to bend the rules and let the kids stay up late. You might need to take a little extra time in the morning to prep your meal when you'd rather be sleeping off that red wine hangover. You might even have to shower on a Sunday.

If there's one change you make from reading this blog, we recommend this one. Take the time to reconnect with your food, your home and your family. I promise, you'll be glad you did.

Sunday Dinner with the Dezsos: Episode 1

I'm a complicator. 10 9 times out of 10 if there is a simple straightforward task in front of me, I will find a way to make it more complicated, frustrating and tedious. Because I find compulsive overachieving sexy.

In my experience, there are roughly three other people in the world who operate this way and I'm related to two of them. So let me be straight up about this now...the dinner portion of this meal could not be easier.

Unless you want to spend two days prepping dessert (and who wouldn't really???), I suggest heading over to the local bakery and picking up some cupcakes or something.

Dinner: Roasted chicken over vegetables.

Let's cut straight to the money shot, because...yum:


Two little chickens covered with salt and pepper. I sear the outside of my chicken in a screaming hot skillet before I roast them. This gives them awesome color and makes the skin that much more crunchy and delectable. And who doesn't want that?

I shove some spring onions, garlic, rosemary and thyme up the chicken's butt. Chop up potatoes, carrots and more spring onions. Lay the chickens on top and throw it in a 350-degree oven for an hour and 10 minutes. Nothing simpler and nothing more delectable.

Well, unless you're me. The complicator.

Because, even though vegetables are delicious when roasted under chickens I'm pretty sure they could reach the level of sublime if some of God's nectar was drizzled around on top:

That, my friends, is duck fat. Hello, lover. For those of you who have never cooked with duck fat (and I'd wager a guess that many of you fall into this category), SHAME. For two whole minutes.

Potatoes and duck fat were destined to be together. Their love is stronger than Romeo and Juliet. There truly is no mountain high enough or...you get the point.

Rendering duck fat is a breeze, once you actually procure yourself some raw duck fat. And unfortunately, all I can say is; good luck with that. I'm fortunate to be near a farmer's market with a giant display of duck fat just waiting to be bought. But before I found that, I was buying whole ducks at an alarming rate. You can ask the grocery store though, sometimes the butcher saves it--and then, just gives it to you. For free! What can you get for free these days?

Once you have the raw duck fat, you just stick it in a skillet with a Tablespoon of boiling water and let the heat (on medium-high) do its thing.


Is this step necessary? Of course not. Like I said, I complicate things. BUT...this step does elevate your roasted vegetables to new sinfully delicious levels.

I don't want to lose my reputation as humble, but dang if this wasn't a brilliant dinner. I got nervous when everyone shut the hell up as they started eating, but then I realized it was because they were trying to eat quickly so they could get to the seconds before anyone else.

While I tried (and sort of achieved) at making an uncomplicated dinner. Dessert was a different story altogether. I'll just tell you what I made and if you believe the world might end if you don't impress your friends with a four-star (but like really rated that way from Jean Georges restaurant) dessert, then we can be friends and I'll email you the recipes.

Home-made strawberry soda with birch beer whipped cream AND (complicator) cheese-filled donuts over meyer lemon confit. These were a ridiculous home run. I mean, everyone knows the magic of fried dough, so it's not a big surprise...but this whole recipe came together like magic. Fried delicious dough (supremely handled by Steve. Thanks Steve!) filled with a marscapone/ricotta/pastry cream filling, rolled in home-made citrus/vanilla sugar and dumped over sugared meyer lemons.

I served everyone three donuts which turned out brilliantly because I'm pretty sure if I had made 1,000 donuts there still would not have been any leftovers.

The whole evening was brilliant. We chatted the afternoon away with our friends Dana and Steve (soon-to-be mama and papa! congrats!), ate delicious (there's that humble thing again) food and even got all our dogs together for a play date.

A fantastic Sunday had by all, and all we did was decide to not sit on the couch all day.

Eventually the Sunday Dinner Series will become its own blog, but for now it will be a weekly (or bi-monthly most likely) feature here.