The Price of Rice (In China)

I’ve used that saying:  “What does that have to do with the price of rice in China?” a lot.  Interesting that the price of rice in China apparently has a lot to do with things.  According to the news, “the global price of rice has ’skyrocketed’ 75 percent in a couple of months.’  Some major rice producing countries are limiting the rice type and amount that they are exporting.   The news in America has picked up on these important topics and didn’t hesitate for a second to paint the headlines dire:  Food Rationing in America?  Sam’s Club to Limit Rice Purchases…etc.

Remember Y2K kids?  What happens when you tell people that a store is going to limit anything, whether it be rice, the latest Elmo doll, or tickets to the World Series?

You get a huge run on these items when everyone goes out and buys five or ten times as much as they would have normally.  Heck, I eat rice maybe once every two months and I was tempted to go out and buy an 80-lb bag.  It’s the survivalist in me, I suppose.  But I am going to resist this, because common sense tells me to sit tight.  If I can’t afford rice in a couple of months, then I guess I’ll eat bananas.  If the rice crisis drives up the price of bananas, I’ll eat potatoes.  If a potato famine arrives, I’ll go to the store and buy up all the Fritos.  There’s always plenty of Fritos.  And I bet they keep well with all those preservatives.

In all seriousness, countries are experiences major food shortages.  This isn’y anything new, though you would think so from watching the news.  The food shortages in many places are increasing due to the rising prices of the food.  But why are the prices of food going up?  Is it because suddenly these is no food?  Did a major storm wipe out all the rice? 

One major reason is simply that the cost of oil is becoming out of control.  It costs lots of oil to get that food all over the world to where it’s needed.  So when oil goes up, so does everything else.  This is a good reason to buy your food locally to send the message that we don’t need your stinkin’ rice anyway.  I don’t plan to go without coffee anytime soon.  Or bananas.  My son would lose his mind if I took away his bananas. 

I also don’t plan to give up my car.  I can’t.  Although I do get a kick out of reading the uber-greenie blogs about how much better they are than everyone else because they live in a loft apartment that’s illuminated by candles and how they ride their bike to the protests they attend.  Noble, perhaps.   Realistic?  Not for very many people.  I really get a hoot from the celeb-blogs…Leo bought a Prius, some one else remodeled their Aspen manse to use 34% less electricity…super, guys!  Now how about limiting the number of times you fly back and forth across the pond to your villa in France? 

When you have means, it’s pretty easy to tell other people the right way to do things.  People with money can easily purchase expensive, organic, locally grown lettuce and fluorescent light bulbs.  People like Barbara Kingsolver, who wrote the phenomenal Animal, Vegetable, Miracle can afford a 100 acre ranch in West Virginia to live off the land for a year.  Single people with jobs in the city can easily mock the surburbanites and commuters of the world, suggesting that they take their kids and their dog to the crime ridden neighborhoods and cram themselves into an apartment.  It just doesn’t help the problem, all the finger pointing.  Everyone has someone to blame.  I guess that means that everyone is guilty. 

Now what do we do about it?

Incase you aren’t convinced you can find anything on line:  Rice Online

 

Pumpkin in a Cup

I bought a bunch of seeds online today, in preparation for the arrival of the greenhouse.  Though up to two feet of snow is predicted for many areas of Montana this weekend, I have my sights on spring.  I got a seed starter kit (a little splurge but easy to use) to get a head start on planting.  Starting seeds indoors is a good idea with certain plants, such as tomatoes. 

I ordered some heirloom vegetables.  Some tasty tomatoes and peppers and eggplants and lettuce and onions and peas and beans.  I got some regular ol’ pumpkins that my son will enjoy this fall (hopefully).  I’m also going to attempt watermelon and garlic.  I bought two huckleberry bushes to add to the exisiting wild huckleberry bush that we have. 

Commercially grown vegetables are usually of the type that make for really good shipping and storage.  If you’ve ever eaten a Red Delicious apple, you’ll know what I am talking about.  Pretty and shiny, they look like they ought to taste really good.  If you ask me, they’re the reason that children prefer fast food.  Bite into one, and you’ll think you’re eating wet styrofoam.  They’re nearly tasteless.  Thankfully many stores are catching on to this and stocking some other varieties - Pink Lady, for example.  However, these tend to sell for quite a bit more. 

Besides providing the masses with poor-tasting vegetables, commercial food growers have all but exterminated many of the unique foods once grown in America.  There are many factors that apply here that I have no interest in ranting about.  After all, why bitch about it when you can just grow your own?  So that is what I am doing.  Part of this experiment is also because I want my children to know where food comes from.  One of the grossest things in the world, to me, is when a child is asked where his carrot came from and he replies “the store.”  While technically and usually accurate, the carrot was somewhere BEFORE the store and that is the answer that all kids should know, if you ask me, which you didn’t.

 

Besides being a really good idea, heirloom gardening is also very popular worldwide.  People with means are starting to get sick of those squishy red apples, and also sick of the fact that many types of foods are disappearing or already extinct.  Check out the Ark.  That’s one way to preserve seeds.  Another way is to encourage gardening as a hobby, especially to kids.  Tell them where their food comes from.  When I was at Home Depot (notice I didn’t go to Lowe’s) I saw that they had some really cute planting kits for kiddos there.  Fun window projects, such as Pumpkin in a Cup. 

While searching for seeds, I came across this site, which had a great quote on it that I am going to borrow:

“The federal government has sponsored research that has produced a tomato that is perfect in every respect, except that you can’t eat it. We should make every effort to make sure this disease, often referred to as ‘progress’, doesn’t spread.”
~ Andy Rooney

 

Breakfast is a Sunny Thing!

Those Jimmy Dean commercials are true!  Jesse made Jimmy Dean sausage this morning, and it was soooo good that I feel like a giant ball of sunshine!

Or maybe it’s the fact that I got to eat breakfast that I didn’t have to cook?  Hmmm….either way, it’s looking like a bright and sunny day…

 

Pizza Delivery

It’s probably not a big deal to the vast majority of you out there, but I have to say we ordered pizza last night and it came right to the door.  Amazing. 

We moved (very spur of the moment, by the way, for a move with two kids) from Divide, Colorado.  Divide was a great place to live, if you are going to live near Colorado Springs.  We liked the idyllic outdoor setting, the rural expansiveness, the huge pine trees, the Pikes Peak views.  Colorado Springs was getting too big for both of us and we decided we should raise the nuggets in a less populated place.  There were many factors that played into the timing of the move so we did it.  And we had pizza last night, delivered right to the door.

See, when you move to a rural area you give up such luxuries.  Instead of pizza and a movie, you sit on the porch and shoot ground squirrels.  When you call a place and ask if they deliver to Divide, it’s hard to understand the answer through all of the laughter on the other end.  Instead of a backyard barbeque, you have a fire pit in your yard.  Shoveling snow requires a plow of some type, preferably one with lots of horsepower.  Checking the mail often requires a vehicle.  But I didn’t realize how much I missed the convenience of delivery services!  I am going to see if I can get Chinese delivered tonight. 

I am also thrilled to be in a neighborhood with tons of kids running around.  Some of the strange things we are getting used to: the sound of car doors slamming, the street lights, the frequent neighbors talking and laughing on the porch.  The trash truck is strange.  I got stuck behind a street sweeper.  I can’t remember the last time I saw a street sweeper.  I’m excited about my < two mile commute.  Jesse is excited to be within an hour’s drive of five major mountain ranges.  AJ is excited about the park down the street.  Macy is excited…well, she’s excited to eat and poop and that’s about it, but we assume she will like the park soon.  AJ’s new preschool is amazing…it has “Nigerian dwarf goats, chickens, a woodworking shop for kids, and the most beautiful setting one could imagine for a preschool.  Yet it’s just down the road from us. 

So I guess you could say our new town is not too big, not too small…but just riiiiiiight. 

Hopefully this means we are done moving.  I’m ready to stay put for a while.  I think. 

 

Bacon Haiku

I’ve never been a huge poetry person.  I like some of the classic poems by Robert Frost, and I do enjoy T.S. Eliot’s stuff.  But in general, I think poets are just a little too…emo…is that still a popular word?  However I do pen a haiku or two now and then, because I think haikus are fun and since you have to stick to the syllable pattern, it’s somewhat of a challenge.

  This haiku popped into my head this morning as I did the dishes:

Hungry husband waits

Smells bacon and comes running

Leaves dish under couch

 

High Altitude Orange Marshmallows

Orange Marshmallows

I’ve been reading a lot of cooking blogs out there, and I have noticed that making homemade marshmallows is the thing to do this year.  So today I decided to attempt these fluffy tidbits myself, and I am happy to report the result:  Flufftastic!

I attempted to make a batch of fudge a couple of weeks ago and severely messed it up.  I did some searching on high-altitude candy making, and I have discovered where I went wrong.  So for those of you making candy and living above 1000 feet, here is a good candy-making temperature adjustment you can make:  decrease the temperature by 2 degrees for every 1000 feet.

Here is the recipe:

3 packets plain gelatin

1 1/2 cups water 2 cups sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 tablespoon orange extract

Food coloring (optional)

Powdered sugar

In a large mixing bowl, add 3/4 cups cold water.  Sprinkle the gelatin packets over it.   Cover the bowl with a paper towel and set aside.

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9×13 pan with vegetable oil and set aside.

In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine sugar, 3/4 cups corn syrup and 3/4 cups water.

Cook over medium heat.  Stir the mixture until the sugar is dissolved.  Bring mixture to a boil.

Clip candy thermometer to the inside of the pan and cook syrup until it reaches 240 degrees (known as the soft ball stage).***  DO NOT STIR while you are waiting for it to reach this temperature. 

Remove pan from heat.  Add 1/4 cup corn syrup to the hot mixture.

Start mixing the gelatin with an electric mixer or stand mixer.  Slowly pour the hot syrup into mixing bowl with the gelatin.

Once the mixture is added to the gelatin, beat for 10 minutes.  The mixture will become stiff and more voluminous. 

Add vanilla and orange.

If you want to add food coloring, do that too.  I added four drops yellow and one drop red for a nice, light orange tint.

Pour the mixture into the greased pan. 

Let the marshmallow set for 8 hours, at room temperature, or until they are firm.

Run a knife around the edge of the pan. Dump them onto a cutting board or another flat surface that is dusted with powdered sugar.

Sprinkle/spread powdered sugar on the inverted side of the marshmallow.  Use a knife or pizza cutter to cut these.  If you think they will last for a while, store them in an airtight container or bag. 

***Since I live at 9000+ feet, I adjusted to 222 degrees.

 

Bribe them with cake

I have a sick three year old.  He has a fever of 101.5 and hasn’t eaten in the last 36 hours or so.  I did convince him to have a popsicle this morning, but he isn’t too keen on liquids either, which is bad. 

I’m going to attempt to get him to eat by making a chocolate cake.  If he doesn’t want chocolate cake, then that’s serious, right?

I’m making an attempt to de-badforyou-ize the cake as much as I can by doing the ol’ pumpkin secret ingredient:

• 1 box chocolate cake mix
• 1 can pumpkin
• 2 eggs

Mix the ingredients listed above and bake according to the directions.  The darker chocolate cake you use, the better the pumpkin will be disguised.  If you are health conscious, you can do this all the time, using 3 egg whites instead of the 2 whole eggs. 

Yes, it’s still a chocolate cake…but adding pumpkin adds fiber and vitamins that are generally absent from your everyday cake. 

I just popped it in the oven…I hope he eats it. 

UPDATE:  The child has eaten some cake!  At first he passed on it, but after thinking “hey, it’s cake” he decided to try it.  Four bites.  Now he is eating a popsicle again. 

 

The Sourdough Experiment

I’m making sourdough bread.  I decided to write this down so that I can be held accountable if I forget to stir it.  I’ve never made sourdough bread before, because I knew it wasn’t something that might be considered convenient.  First you have to make the ’starter’, which is essentially the ’sour’ part. 

• Acquire a large bowl 
• Dissolve 1 package of active dry yeast (not quick rising) in 1/2 cup warm water in said large bowl
• Add 2 cups warm water, 2 cups flour, and 1 tablespoon of sugar
• Beat until it’s smooth
• Cover bowl with cheesecloth and let it sit at room temperature for 5-10 days until a “fermented aroma” is detectable
• Stir this concoction 2-3 times per day whilst the fermenting process is going on

Once this is done, you can store it in the refrigerator in a glass jar with cheesecloth on top (do not use a lid…yeast needs air) You feed the starter sugar every so often, which I will get to later on during the experiment.  Let’s just see if I can remember to stir it a couple times a day.

 

The Charlie Brown Gingerbread House

So one of the birthday gifts that my three year old picked out for me was a pre-assembled, ready to decorate gingerbread house.  We love to make crafts, so he was very excited to “make the house present for you” together.  I’ve never made gingerbread, I’m not really even sure what gingerbread is, but it sounded like a good time.  I checked the box, and most of the contents come from Canada instead of China, so we proceeded.

We opened the box and laid the contents of the gingerbread house.  It felt a little like what it must feel to heat up one of those pre-cooked turkeys and serve it at Thanksgiving, since it was already baked and put together, but whatever.

The icing was tricky.  The amount of water it recommended wasn’t enough to absorb all the powdered icing mix, so it said to slowly add water until it had “the consistency of toothpaste.”  How specific.  I did my best, but I think the icing came out too thin, because the little candy pieces kept sliding off. 

The finished product, after AJ and I decorated it:

Just like the picture on the box, no?

 

Mmmm…condensed

Recently I have rediscovered my love of Campbell’s Soup. 

My favorite has always been Chicken Gumbo.  I also like to eat Vegetarian Vegetable (with the ABCs).  I use Cream of Celery in meatloaf, since I am allergic to mushrooms.  There is always the old standby of Tomato, when you are hankering for a grilled cheese sandwich.  I never did like Chicken Noodle.  The bottom line is that there are so many uses of Campbells soup.

I also think the passage of time can be measured by the price of Campbell’s soup.  There was a discount store in my town where we used to go to buy soup.  I remember tomato was always the cheapest.  We could usually pick up four cans for a dollar.  Now you can’t get any soup for under a dollar.  And it’s not because they started packing the cans fuller.  You still need to add water.

There are more choices now; the “chunky” line (but now we’re getting close to two bucks a can), the “soup at hand” line, which is drinkable, and the “healthy requests” line, with less sodium (therefore less flavor).  I prefer to stick with my old standbys. 

 

Fun with Potatoes

Okay, I guess it’s only “fun” if you like to cook.  If you hate to cook, you can probably stop reading right now. 

Last night I made potato skins and they came out fantastic.  I saved the potato innards and this morning made the best hashbrowns ever! 

Potato Skins

• 4 large russet potatoes
• 6 strips of bacon
• Cheddar cheese
• Chopped tomatoes, scallions, and sour cream

Bake the four potatoes (yes, you can cheat and use the microwave).  While the ‘tatos are baking, fry up that bacon.  Leave the pan full of bacon grease.  When the ‘tatos are done, cut each potato in half and scoop out the middle (saving the potato in a bowl), leaving about 1/8th to 1/4th inch of potato in the skin.  Plop those potato skins in the bacon grease and fry them (I didn’t say these were healthy), flipping them a couple of times while cooking, making sure that maximum grease absorption occurs.  Prep a baking sheet.

Place each skin upright on a baking sheet.  Fill the middle with crumbled bacon and cheddar cheese.  Pop them in the oven and broil until the cheese is nice and melted.  By now your house should smell like TGI Fridays. 

When the potatoes are melt-i-riffic, take them out and arrange them on a platter.  You can top them with tomatoes, scallions, and sour cream; but if you are my husband then just eat them with bacon and cheese.  This is a good “man-treat”, for what guy didn’t drool over bacon-y potato skins?

Hash Browns

• Potato innards from the night before
• Chopped onions
• Chopped tomatoes
• Chopped peppers
• Salt, pepper, garlic powder

Heat a frying pan with a nice layer of oil or butter.  When it’s ready, place some chopped onions and peppers in there.  Fry these up until the onions are translucent.  Now dump those potato innards in the pan and spread them around until the pan is evenly covered with potatoes.  Let these cook until you are pretty sure they are nice and brown on the bottom.  Then sprinkle some chopped tomatoes on top and start flipping the potatoes over in sections.  Do your best to flip the ‘tatos pancake style, and not mix. 

When the other side of the ‘tatos are nice and brown, you can place them on a plate and EAT!

 

Green Tabasco

I only recently found the magic of green jalapeno Tabasco.

This magical sauce is milder than regular tabasco, and is really good on eggs.  Just thought I would pass this along, incase for some reason you were wondering about it, that green Tabasco on the store shelf, just sitting there, lonely, all green and weird. 

 

Extreme Bust-up Flaming Nachos

Restaurant menus, especially at the big chain places, tend to use cutesy names for things instead of just calling chicken, chicken.  Instead of nachos, you have to choose between Flaming Extreme Nachos, Veggierific Nacho Bites, or Jalapeno Radish Combo Nachos.  It’s never chicken strips anymore, these once-plain items have evolved into Chicken Fingers (ewwww…chickens do not have fingers), Chicken Zingers, Chicken Chunks, or the occassional Chicken Dippers.  A well known example is Denny’s Eggs Over My Hammy.  Places like Outback Steakhouse are the worst–they have a theme going on top of the weird names.  Everything there is ‘Roo this, or Wallaby that, and as tasty as these items are…I just can’t ask for them by the name listed in the menu.

So what usually happens is, I see something in the menu that sounds good, but I can’t bear to actually speak the words,  I will say, “I’ll have, uh, this…” and point lamely at the item.  At that point, the waitperson will loudly announce, “Oh, you want the Bonzai Bomber Burger?”  And I will shrink at the sound of the exaggerated, ridiculous title bestowed upon a hamburger. 

Does anyone else out there have this problem?

 

Farmer’s Market

I love farmer’s markets.  It’s the next best thing to having a garden.  Tomatoes taste like tomatoes.  Cucumbers have flavor.  You believe that the vegetables you are eating actually grew in the dirt, rather than some 100,000 square-foot warehouse surrounded by flourescent lights and vitamin-water.

Today we tried out the local farmer’s market, and though it wasn’t my favorite of this year, we found a good bunch of carrots, baby cucumbers, and a big basket of tomatoes.  My 2 1/2 year old was quite disappointed at the lack of tractors and cows, but he did proclaim loudly “There’s the farmer!” when a man brought a new bag of corn out from under the table. 

I’m hoping to get in early on a CSA next spring. 

 

Salsa

I’m pretty pleased with myself today.  I made salsa, which I have never done before.  And I have to say, it’s pretty tasty. 

Here is what I did:

• 6 red garden tomatoes
• 1 medium white onion
• 2 fresh jalapeno peppers
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 bunch cilantro

Chop.  Blend.  Dip.