It's That Time Again, Kids....

I am in heaven. Pure bliss. You know why? It's that time of year again, the time that all Chicagoans suffer 9 months of the year just to get to.

Yes, folks, it's summer.

DISCLAIMER: For all of you scientists out there, I realize that it is not yet officially meteorological summer. But I am sitting on my back deck, sun shining overhead, iced latte in hand, staring at my beautiful flowers, herbs, and veggie plants. To me, this is summer incarnate.

And of course the start of summer means the start of the outdoor Farmer's Market and Year 2 of our CSA from Iron Creek Farms. Unlike last year, when I obsessed over which CSA to sign with to the point where we missed  the first few weeks of the growing season, the BF and I were on the ball this year and signed up in time to get the full bounty. I am beyond ecstatic that my groceries will be organic and local for the next 6 months.

So what does that mean for you, loyal readers? For those who have been following my trials and travails since this time last year, you may remember my well-intentioned but ill-executed plan to keep you updated on what we received in the weekly box and how we used it. While pondering the blog post for this summery day I thought, what the hell, let's give it a go again. You know what they say: If at first you don't succeed, etc. etc.

As it is the start of the growing season, our box isn't super big as of yet, but still filled with quite an array of goodies. Oh, and as a quick side note: our experiment with a full share in the Fall/Winter box was still a bit stressful for us last year, so we decided to stick with the half-share this year. It should hopefully be just enough for us to use for the week, while still providing some extras to freeze and store for the winter months.

Week 1: (L to R): sweet potatoes, sungold tomatoes, basil, tomato, beets, radishes, leaf lettuce, spinach

How we used it isn't terribly exciting, but I'm not complaining. As much as I love trying out new recipes with exciting, fresh ingredients, sometimes its just nice to enjoy the raw veggies in their purest form.

From the above selection, we made a few salads with spinach, lettuce, radish, and tomato; sweet potato chips; and simple cooked sweet potatoes with just a little butter. The Sungold tomatoes were so sweet we ate them straight as a mid-day snack for work. And the basil, which is easy to keep alive and fresh in a glass of water, is being used in Aunt Florence's pesto recipe, which freezes beautifully in small containers for whenever the mood strikes us.

Today we picked up this week's box, and while there are some repeats, we've got big, exciting plans for some others... which I will save for next week's post. I'm such a tease! But one has to create intrigue, no? Stay tuned. Also, please let me know below on how you would have used the above box. You know what they say: Curious minds, etc. etc.

Stove Top Popcorn *Recipe Alert*

In my previous post I mentioned that there is an equally easy, yet much healthier way of making microwave popcorn than the PFC-laden bagged stuff that you can buy at the store. It's called Popping Popcorn Yourself.

Well, isn't that what I'm doing, you ask? Buying bags and popping it myself?

No, it's not quite the same. I'm talking about buying plain, simple, unpackaged popcorn kernels. Go to your local Whole Foods and you can find them in the bulk foods section. Fill up a container and voila! You will probably end up with more kernels, and at a cheaper price, then buying a box of 5 indivdually wrapped, artifically flavored other stuff.

There are two ways of cooking this popcorn. The most healthy of which is to just put it in a brown paper bag, throw it in the microwave, and pop it like you would normally. Or, if you don't have brown paper bags, put it in a bowl and loosely cover. But not too loosely: my first attempt landed a ton of pieces of popcorn all over the microwave. That was tedious to clean up... and by clean up, I mean eat straight out of the microwave.

The second way is much tastier, almost as easy, and you get fewer unpopped kernels when you're done. In fact, we've made it on more than one occasion where there were no unpopped kernels at all. (It's strange how excited we got: it was like we won the gold medal in popping. Yes, we're nerds.) Granted, it's not quite as healthy as the air-popped version since it involves oil, but it's healthier in that you don't get bag chemicals leeching into the food. Also, the flavoring is all Au Naturale, as opposed to "butter flavored topping". I hate those qualifiers. They make me shudder.

So without further ado, below is the recipe, if you can call it that. More like a technique. And if you're the kind of person who likes their popcorn adulterated, like us, I've included tried-and-true topping methods. Go pop a pot and enjoy.

Stovetop Popcorn

Ingredients:

3 Tbsp. of peanut oil (or other high smoke-point oil)

1/3 cup organic popcorn kernels

3 Tbsp. butter

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp. paprika (optional)
1/2 tsp garlic powder (optional)

1. In a 3-qt. pot heat the oil on medium-high.  When heated, put three individual kernels of popcorn in the oil and cover.  Once you hear all 3 pop, your pot is hot enough.

2. Turn off heat, pour in the remaining kernels and cover.  Remove from stove and gently shake back and forth while counting thirty seconds. This insures the kernels are all evenly dispersed and coated in oil.

3. Turn heat back on to medium-high, place pot back on stove and wait for popcorn to pop.

4. After popping has stopped, pour popcorn in to large bowl slowly, sprinkling with salt to taste periodically during transfer. 

5. When pot is empty but still hot place butter inside to melt.  Pour butter over popcorn.  Add paprika and/or garlic powder if desired.  Cover with saran wrap and shake to distribute butter, salt, and paprika more evenly.

Information Overload: #howdoesthisworkagain?

I'm still trying to figure out this whole Twitter thing. After obsessing over what my handle should be (and for those of you who forgot and have not yet started following me.. *ahem cough*... it is @AuNaturaleFood) I then decided to sign up for a personal account (@Jor_Cohen, in case you wanted to follow me there, too, but I find that I'm mainly sticking with @AuNaturaleFood). And to date, I still haven't quite totally mastered how/when to use hashtags or how to write in only 140 characters. Hey, I'm verbose.

One thing I did jump on was finding others to follow. It's not that many yet, per se, but seeing what Slow Food USA or Michael Pollen has to say is fun. It can also be a bit of a mind screw, though, when you sign up for things like FDA recalls.

I chose to follow that particular account because in my Au Naturale world I have become keenly interested in how things like conventional farming and overprocessing endanger our health. Especially since I found the below article:

A Second Chance for Faulty Food? FDA Calls it 'Reconditioning'

Um... ew? I don't think I can ever look at a carton of chocolate ice cream the same way again.

I thought it best to have a head start on FDA recalls so I could analyze and post as need be... but I never realized how many would show up in my twitter feed on an almost daily basis. At one point, I had 6 FDA recall alert posts in just 24 hours. In those particular examples many of the recalls have to do with the occasional peanut or other allergen showing up in a food that isn't supposed to contain it. But it's all a scary reminder that mass processing and toying with nature can have some unintended consequences.

Speaking of unintended consequences... the information overload continues for me outside of the Twitterverse as I now read any and every article that smacks of processing. Join me! It includes such articles as:

Microwave Popcorn Bag Chemicals Ruin Vaccine Efficacy

Whoa. I've read that the chemicals will leech into the popcorn itself while microwaving, but this is a new twist. It also brings up the general issue of PFCs in our food and in our bodies.... but as I like to say, that's another post for another day. Also another post for another day? An alternative to buying microwave popcorn: a recipe just as easy and equally as delish! Stay tuned for a recipe alert... although I don't know that it is so much a "recipe" as a technique.

Ooh! How about another fun (fun=scary) article?

CDC: 9 out of 10 Americans Eat Too Much Salt

While that statistic is hardly news, what I found most interesting is how salt ends up in so much processed food, and especially in foods where you don't expect it to exist at all. In the past I, along with many others, used to think that we Americans simply had a heavy hand with the salt shaker. But it explains so much to know that even when you're not manually adding it yourself you could be ingesting an overload. It could explain the continually high blood pressure rates in people who try to watch what they're eating. And it could certainly explain why, after cutting out the processed foods, I've noticed the changes in my own body that I wrote about in this post.

So in a post originally dedicated to my Twitter travails, I apologize for including you in my subsequent information overload. Unless, that is, it inspires you all to go on an information, fact-seeking mission yourselves. In that case: you're welcome!! Enjoy. Become smarter.

P.S. After all of this, please don't forget to follow me at @AuNaturaleFood. Do it now! Seriously, my self-worth is getting wrapped up in how many followers I have. It's the equivalent of getting excited when people "like" your Facebook posts. Sad, I know.