My Food Philosophy

I'm not a vegetarian, vegan, or health food fanatic.  I am concerned about eating healthy, but I am a realist.  I don't want to spend hours of every day preparing food.  I don't want to spend any more of my money for my food than is necessary.  These are not rigid rules, and I make PLENTY of exceptions.  Food is to be enjoyed, and rigid rules squash the fun if you ask me.

1.  I don't drink caffeine. I gave it up completely a few years ago. I don't drink much soda of any kind, but when I do it is never caffeinated, and never diet.  The stuff is bad. It rots your teeth, causes headaches, and all sorts of other nasty stuff.  It's not worth the flavor.  It's weird, after not having any for a long time, the actual taste isn't that great either.  It tastes like a bunch of chemicals.  Speaking of chemicals ...
2.  I really don't like anything with artificial sweeteners.  Fake sugar is just wrong.  If I am going to eat something sweet, give it to me with the real deal.  I'm ok with some of the natural sweeteners, like honey, fruit, etc.  but not those chemically derived, so called "natural" sweeteners.  Just give me the good stuff, in moderation, thank you.
3. I generally avoid "fake" food.  You know, things like, "processed cheese food", margarine, fruit "dink", candy that tastes like plastic, etc.  You know what I mean, the stuff that has more chemicals in the ingredient list  than recognizable food, with a  nutritional value of zero.
4. I avoid the microwave. When you microwave food you kill a lot of the nutrients.  I try to avoid using it.   I'm not rigid about this, just avoid it when possible.  I usually thaw frozen food in a bowl of room temperature water instead of nuking it.
5. I don't over salt my food.  I cook with some, but leave it to the individual eating it to salt it to their taste.  I don't like my food too salty.  A lot of processed, canned foods are so salty that I don't like the taste of them.
6. I prefer to use sea salt over the highly processed, iodized, table salt we grew up with.  Sea salt tastes GREAT!  There is just no getting around it.  If there are health benefits, woo hoo!
7. I prefer locally grown, non genetically altered, chemical free produce.  I would really like it if I could grow all I eat myself, but I'm just not that ambitious.  The local produce tastes so much better.  Here in Hawaii, the stuff grown elsewhere has been on a boat for WEEKS and you can tell.  Maybe the tomatoes are more round, but they taste like water logged cardboard.  I won't however, pay $7/pound for organic tomatoes.  Being concerned about the quality of my food supply, doesn't make me an economic fool.
8. I prefer to eat chocolate that was NOT produced by slaves, child or otherwise.  Most of the world's chocolate supply comes from the Ivory Coast and I don't like their methods.  Human beings are more important than a tasty treat.  Luckily, we grow plenty of chocolate here in Hawaii, without the use of slave labor.  Hawaiian chocolate is very delicious!  I also like Green & Black's peanut and sea salt chocolate bar.  They are a high quality, free trade, chocolate company.
9. Give me real butter, or give me death.  No, not really, but I really don't see the point in eating anything called "vegetable spread" that clearly has no vegetables in it.  Just like the sugar thing, if I'm going to eat it, I want the real deal.
10. What about meat?  Well, I love a good steak! Sometimes a medium rare, filet mignon hot off the grill is EXACTLY what my body craves and needs.  But not every day or at every meal.  I tend to eat meat in smaller quantities than the side dishes on my plate, and for many meals I have no meat at all.  When I was in Jr. High my parents raised chickens and pigs for food.  I think if more people had to "process" their own meat, even once, they would eat less of it.  Meat does not magically appear in the freezer.  It was once a living, breathing creature, and it takes a lot of work to get that steak on your plate. 

If I were to sum up my food philosophy it would be something like this.....

Eat real food, grown as close to home, and processed as little as possible.  Eat less chemicals, and more whole food.  Eat less meat, and more veggies.  Eat food that is produced responsibly, and be wiling to vote with my dollar. 

Ryker ate a Chicken Foot

Ryker is in China. He is 19, although in China he is 20, since they start you out at one when you are born. He left about 10 days ago for WuHu in the An Hui province.  It is a city of about 2.5 million people, all but 30 of which are Chinese.  He is there as an intern teaching English for the next 4 months.  There are 7 interns, and he is the only American.  The others are from Europe, mostly the UK.  He lives in an apartment with 2 other guys, and has his own room and bathroom.  He teaches English to kids from 9-17 at a school, and receives Mandarin instructions from a private tutor.

It costs 2 bucks a minute to talk via his iphone, and a dollar a mega bit for data.  He used up his 50 texts/month while traveling, and Facebook is blocked in China, soooo .... Skype is how he communicates with those of us here at home.  There is a crazy time difference of 18 hours between Hawaii and China.  While I write this at 8pm Thursday, he is already experiencing Friday afternoon.

I am waiting for him to email me photos.  He only has internet access when he plugs his comp into a data cable in his apartment.  The technology disconnect would give me a panic attack.

Here are some of the highlights -

Food is super cheap.  He can eat out and have a huge plate of food and a drink for about .50. At one of these meals he ate a chicken foot.  I admire his adventurous nature, especially with food.  I don't think I could stick a chicken foot in my mouth, let alone chew and swallow it.   Shopping and cooking for yourself is even cheaper.  He went to WalMart the other day - yes, they have WalMart in China, weird I know - I wonder if all the stuff they sell in China, is made in China, like it is here?  Anyway, China in WuHu is in a 7 story high rise, no escalators, just moving ramps, which according to Ryker are skkkeeeeeetchy.  The meat department was a couple of guys with saws cutting up cows and pigs - ewww!  But, hey, at least you can see where your meat is coming from, and maybe that's better than a massive plant infected with ecoli.  If I keep thinking about gross meat I'll never eat meat again.  He bought some duck eggs, which he said were delicious. 

Crossing the street is dangerous, trucks and buses especially disregard pedestrians, and a taxi ride is cheap.  Tons of people are on bikes, rik shaws, and mopeds.  Traffic on Oahu can be bad, but is apparently nothing compared to WuHu.

It is late winter there, and has been in the 40's and rainy.  He's cold.  He took what warm clothes had, which wasn't much, and wishes he had more.  WalMart there doesn't carry his size - in anything, so, he'll just have to make due until Spring.

Being one of 30 foreigners in a city of 2.5 million, he gets stared at a lot, especially by children.  I wonder what they think when they see him?  Last week he went to a kindergarten and taught English a few times.  I wonder if when they went home and told their parents that a giant with big curly hair told him how to say "frog" and "duck" they thought they were making it up?

He says the people he works with are super nice, and that he is enjoying the work.  I think it's awesome that he has this opportunity to go see one of the far flung places of this world.  Ever since he was a small boy he has decorated his walls with maps of the world and made a study of them. Now those maps are going to start getting pins in them, to mark the places he has been.

German Roots

Before the Sauce

After the Sauce

 After baking for an hour

Multicultural Dining

I am sure this has happened to you before. You are driving around with a group of friends or family trying to decide what to eat. Everyone is hungry, but the ideas are all over the place. There is no consensus amongst the group. Someone shouts out, "Mexican", "No, Chinese", another says, "Italian", "How about breakfast?". Of course the most irritating individual says, "None of those, but I don't know what I want."

Just last week I realized the solution. There is a place that is quick, easy, and even affordable, where you can make everyone happy, except maybe Miss I Don't Know. I have been eating there for years, and you probably have been too.

Jack in the Box has it all - Mexican, Italian, Chinese, 24 hour breakfast, shakes, smoothies, and even boring old burgers. Last week I drove away with tacos, mozzarella sticks with zesty marinara, and the best egg rolls, all for under $10. Now tell me, how do you beat that?

Antique Frosting Recipes

My Grandma Teusink baked and cooked lots of yummy things. I have many fond memories of Grandma and food. I LOVE her canned tomato sauce/juice! Especially made into goulash. She grew those tomatoes, canned them, and than cooked them up with ground beef and noodles. I am afraid that I will never taste that again.

In an effort to rescue these memories and share them with future generations I have asked my Mom to scan all the recipes she has from Grandma. A few weeks ago a large envelope arrived with photo copies of many of these recipes. I love it that they are in Grandma's hand writing. I want to create a something with color scans of them so they are preserved in a digital format.

Today Quincie made a chocolate cake. She frosted it with Grandma's White Frosting. It tastes just like I remember - like fluffy marshmallow! It is a great frosting, and so easy. Grandma gives credit to Yvonne Domogalski for this recipe. I have transcribed the recipe exactly as it is on the hand written card.

White Frosting

1 unbeaten egg white
3/4 cup white sugar
1/4 tsp. cream of tarter
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup boiling hot water

Mix well with electric mixer til stiff.
Makes a big batch.
(tastes like 7 minute frosting)

A couple weeks ago I made a yellow cake and frosted it with Grandma's chocolate frosting. It was so great! It made me feel like I was a kid again, sitting in Grandma's kitchen, licking a beater.

One Minute Frosting

1 cup white sugar
1 stick oleo
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 Tablesp. cocoa

Put all ingredients together in pan, bring to boil. (stirring constantly). Boil over med. heat for one minute. Remove from heat - cool to lukewarm. Beat until stiff enough to spread.

I didn't have any "oleo" on hand, so I used real butter. It tasted great, but I think the texture would have been more like Grandma's if I had used oleo. The taste is very similar to fudge. Just awesome!

Bake -O- Rama

Santa (Carl) brought be a stand mixer. I have wanted one for a long time. The last few months we have been watching "Good Eats" on the Food Network. Seeing all the cool stuff that Alton Brown does with his intensified my desire.

I have made good use of it in short time I have had it. Tonight I made an Alton Brown recipe for homemade soft pretzels. Look out Gus!

They do not look perfect, but they taste great! I am not exactly an artist, so maybe with a bit more practice they will look more recognizable.

Here are the other things I have made so far:
1. Oatmeal cookies
2. Peanut butter cookies
3. Brownies
4. Regular bread
5. Dinner rolls
6. Stollens (Christmas pastry)

I want to try out the whisk attachment so I guess it is lemon meringue pie, or whipped cream next!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Recipe

These are so, so yummy! I made them last week, and they disappeared so quickly that we made them again. Ryker got tired of waiting for me so he did most of the work on this batch. We used milk chocolate chips rather than the semi-sweet. They are soft and fluffy and as far as cookies go, pretty dang good for you!

Antique Recipe

This is a recipe I remember my grandmother making. It is more like a cobbler, but I like the sound of baked pudding. I had forgotten that's what Grandma had called it. I found frozen rhubarb at the store. It is the first I have seen in 4 years. With the first bite I was 8 years old and sitting in my Grandma's kitchen. Yummy!

Baked Rhubarb Pudding

3 cups Rhubarb (or 1/2 strawberries)
2 cups sugar
1 stick of butter
3 eggs
1 tablespoon of water
1 cup of flour
1 tsp baking powder


Put 3 cups rhubarb, fresh or canned in a greased pan and sprinkle with 1 cup sugar. dot 1 tablespoon of butter over the top. If you use frozen, thaw first & drain liquid.

Beat 3 eggs, add 1 cup sugar, 1 tablespoon of water or more if necessary to prevent the dough from becoming to firm. 1 cup flour mixed with 1 tsp.baking powder.

Pour over the rhubarb and bake 40 - 45 min @ 350 degrees
Serve with cream (I liked ice cream or cool whip)
Also, can use 1 1/2 cups Strawberries and 1 1/2 cups rhubarb

If you are curious, here is more information about rhubarb. Growing up in South Dakota and Nebraska it grew plentifully in our yard. I remember having a stalk in one hand, and a cup of sugar in the other for dipping. A stalk with the large leaf still attached makes a great umbrella for a small head in a summer rain storm.

It Must Be Fall

Living in Hawaii is odd. Everyday is pretty much the same, warm and sunny. Usually between 70 and 85 degrees. Maybe a little warmer in the summer and maybe a bit cooler on a winter night. In the winter it rains more. Even when it rains it is still sunny for part of the day, at least somewhere on the island. Sometimes it even rains while the sun is shining. It's really pretty cool. Winter is great for rainbows.

Since looking out the window doesn't offer much of a clue as to the time of year we have to rely on other methods.

I am pretty sure that Fall arrived last week. I've been drinking a lot of hot cocoa, and that is definitely Fall activity. True, it is usually late at night, in my air conditioned bedroom, or early morning, before the sun has risen and the temperature is just barely under the 70 degree mark. I really love hot cocoa and the stores here don't carry the good stuff. Thanks to my friends on the mainland for the steady supply of Stephen's - keep it comin'! (Irish Creme is my current favorite, with Dulce de leche running a close second.)

Here is the real clue - I have washed the beaters to my mixer at least 4 times this week. That means 2 things - baking and mashed potatoes. Both of which are Fall-ish sort of things. What would Thanksgiving be without mashed potatoes? I have made real deal mashed potatoes twice this week. Once with red and once with white, and 2 different types of gravy. Do you see a theme here??

Yesterday I made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. They were gone about 10 minutes after we arrived home from church today. If you have never had these, you are missing out. They're awesome! I will be making more of those sometime real soon.

I just pulled a pan of banana muffins out of the oven. It is my mom's banana bread recipe, I just make it in muffin tins rather than a loaf. It bakes in less than half the time and it is easy to grab for breakfast on the run.

I also have this urge to wear fuzzy sweaters, corduroy and really cool boots. Of course by noon I would be sweating to death and miserable, so this passes rather quickly.

It MUST be Fall.