Resolve to Get Cookin'

My Christmas Present...Love it.

It is almost the New Year and I am struggling with a topic to write about.  I have not ventured out too much after Christmas because we are pretty happy at home enjoying the holiday vacation.  However, I am really thankful that I can practice my culinary skills in more familiar territory some good ole healthy cooking.  After Christmas, I made a lentil vegetable soup, cioppino, an awesome roasted chicken some grainy goodness gluten free breads, and tonight it is brown rice stuffed peppers with grass fed beef.  Don’t get me wrong, I have really enjoyed all of the confections of the holiday season and I still indulge occasionally, but I feel best when I eat my healthier goodies.  

Ok. It is time to do the cliché thing and confess my resolutions for 2012.  I know it is cliché, but I really like the symbolism of change that accompanies the New Year.  I actually stuck to my resolutions last year, which was to get more organized and minimize my tendency to stress out.  Doing this helped me focus on some really enjoyable and productive things.  I also got some little surprises along the way that I didn’t even resolve to do.  

Of course, there are some things that I did want to do that I just could not get accomplished because of fear of failure.  So I think a good resolution, would be to overcome the fear of failure and punch it in the face.  I also want to improve my relationships with friends and family.  There isn’t anything really wrong, but I need to visit with them more.  Lastly, my husband and I need a date night every month. No questions asked.  

What are your resolutions?  Don’t do too many so you can welcome life’s little surprises.

Hmmm. A recipe

I got a an awesome cookbook for Christmas featuring my fave TV chef, Nadia G from Bitchin’ Kitchen. Get the book.  This chicken cooked quickly and it was delicious!

One whole 5 lb chicken (organic preferably)

Wash and dry bird and rub butter under the skin

Add one cut up lemon, onion, garlic and some fresh herb sprigs like Thyme, rosemary

Add salt, pepper, and smoked paprika on the top and massage it with olive oil.

Bake at 400 for 45 minutes. Don’t forget to use that meat thermometer for 180 degrees.  Juices should be clear. 

Serve with some tasty pan fried potatoes and  a whole mess of hot and buttered string beans…Thanks to this guy

Tamales and Wine

Every year, my mother, aunt, two sisters and I get together to make tamales before Christmas.  This is such a popular event with Hispano families throughout the entire world around Christmas.  We have made tamales for many years and in our region, the most familiar tamale is red chile corn masa stuffed with simmered and shredded pork shoulder marinated in more red chile (or for some, chile colorado) all wrapped together in a corn husk.  We made these and got creative with a few others.  One of which, I will be sharing its recipe.  At first, I thought I would not share it because some things should be kept within the family.  However, tamales are such a worldly food, it is really the basic elements that we keep and their ingredients continuously change.  In fact, tamales have popped up in the Mississippi Delta, so really here in NM, we are not reinventing the wheel, but I am not claiming this to discredit any cultural context of Latin American countries but instead I want to impress how strong this cultural event has influenced the entire world to embark on tamale making.

Early tamales were traced back as early as 8000 BC in Mesoamerica. The Aztecs and Mayans are believed to have used them as a food for necessity for travelers.  It was a portable, starchy, and had some kind of protein element.  Later around 1200 BC, tamales were used as a food commemorating important feasts and status—including and excluding certain members of society (LeCount 2001).  This might be why I don’t want to share the recipe. You know, keeping it within the family.  Well thousands of years later, the tamale is still a food commemorating a feast although in Mexico City, tamales are a comfort food staple for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. They are made with a variety of ingredients.

Our little group makes tamales by the dozens and has a great time doing it.  We have never referred to it as a tamalada, but in essence that is exactly what it is.  After we prepare them, we steam a few for us to eat and this year we had quite the selection. Of course we made the traditional and regional pork marinated in chile Colorado.  My mom also made a green chile chicken style.  My aunt made a few stuffed with calabacitas and cheese.  I made two sweet varieties:  Dark chocolate, with a coconut, almond, mocha filling and a white chocolate anise with dried fruit and walnut filling.  One of our biggest surprises is that they paired up with a red wine really well.  We had a great time sipping wine and eating tamales, kids playing peacefully, and laughing about how my stepfather has an uncanny resemblance to Foghorn Leghorn.  Until next year. Merry Christmas!!

Don't hate me because I drink box wine

References:

LeCount, Lisa J. 2001. “Like Water for Chocolate: Feasting and Political Ritual among the Late Classic Maya at Xunantunich, Belize.” American Anthropologist 103 (4) (December 1): 935-953. doi:10.1525/aa.2001.103.4.935.

and Wikipedia.

Elements for white chocolate anise tamales with dried fruit filling (I have only made this once and did not use measuring cups so all of this is approximately done by purely eyeballing it. Good Luck) As I make this, my measurements might change. Please let me know if you run into problems.

For the masa

4 cups of Maseca

1 tbls of baking powder

1 tsp of salt

2 tsp of anise seeds

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of butter (2 sticks)

2 cups of milk

1 cup of half and half (you could use cream, but this was all I had)

2 cones of panocha sugar (find in Mexican food stores, ½ cup brown sugar if you can’t find it)

5 star anise

3 oz of white chocolate chopped

1 tlbs vanilla extract

For the filling

1 12oz bag of dried apricots (chopped)

2 cups of toasted walnuts

6 oz of dried cranberries

1 tbls cinnamon

1 jar of apricot preserves

2 shots of whiskey (optional)

1 cup of brown sugar

1-2 bags of dried corn husks

Method

Fill sink with hot water and place husks in to soften.  Warm milk, cream, panocha sugar, and star anise over low heat. Do not boil.  When panocha is dissolved and milk is hot to touch, pour over white chocolate and mix until melted. Add vanilla and discard star anise.  Let mixture cool. Meanwhile, blend dry ingredients together.  Add butter and mix with mixer or hand.  I smoosh it around with my hand.  Add chocolate mixture and mix until it becomes pasty.  Set aside.

Combine all the ingredients for the filling until it becomes a sticky mess.

Once corn husks are softened, wipe off excess water. Spread about 1 heaping tablespoon of masa onto lower half portion corn husk. This takes practice, I use my hand, my sister has more skills and uses a spoon.  Fill it with another heaping tablespoon of filling.  Fold up husk around it.  If you cannot fold the husk, then you have put in too much filling or spread the masa too thick.  Improvise. 

Steam tamales for about 45 minutes or until firm.  

Roots of Culture without Convenience

I struggle with food during the holiday season.  Eating, food, and celebration are intertwined.  I really don’t want to be the humbug on the flavorful merriment, but along with the extra sugar I have been consuming (while helping my kids make a crispy treat house), I did buy the weirdest and ugliest vegetable to dress up and eat to physically feel good.  I was actually surprised how much I enjoyed it!  Don’t get me wrong, those little white chocolate Hershey’s peppermint kisses are delicious, but not satisfying.  

This makes me think more about our connection with food.  For some of us, food=culture.  I know many who prepare foods that associate with different holidays.  All these foods have a cultural context that makes our celebrations complete.  They not only enhance our traditions, they play a significant part of our culture while celebrating holidays. Think about it, we drink when we toast.  We have cake to celebrate important events. My son even told me that he wasn’t looking forward to Christmas presents as much as he was anticipating Christmas foods.  

Our associations with food are powerful.  Throughout history, we have adapted foods, food ways, and food taboos to conform to religious beliefs, form alliances with others, bond with friends and family, celebrate, and build an identity.  It is only recently (if you call the 1950s recent) that convenience foods and chain restaurants have been a part of our food scheme.  Immediately following, a movement opposing convenience foods armed with reasons such as environmental issues, poor working conditions (you remember Cesar Chavez), and nutrition.  Despite this opposition, we have been duped.  Restaurants, food manufacturers, and agribusiness have tapped into our cultural connections with food and formulated a convenient way for us to enjoy our cultural foods by producing them in masses so that we have time to do the really important things like shopping and of course family.  In this way, they have actually robbed us of a historical and important cultural context and replaced it with a new more convenient cultural context with added fat, salt, and sugar.  

I like some convenience foods when I am pressed for time or so that I get an evening off, but I don’t depend on it.  Sometimes convenient for me = leftovers. Sometimes, I just like the way something tastes from a certain place.  (I think this is the case with the Chipotle joint that just opened in Albuquerque. I think they put heroin in their burritos. That line is still out the door in the freezing cold).  However, I don’t see us ordering a case of Chipotle burritos for our next Christmas gathering.  It is going to look more like tamales.  For lunch today will be a lean ham wrap with celery root slaw.

Recipe for Celery Root Slaw

So I bought this ugly winter vegetable.  Even the grocery store workers scoffed at it. I felt sorry for the root, but found a diamond in the rough.   It has a very nutty celery flavor, which you can temper down with a good dressing and other ingredients. I haven’t eaten enough to find meaning or symbolism in it, but I will definitely make again.

½ celery root shredded

3-4 carrots shredded

1 apple (I used honeycrisp)

1 half very small head of purple cabbage

¼ of large onion diced

¼ cup of apple cider vinegar

2 tbls of canola oil (I think a nut oil would work better though)

A couple of drops of truffle oil (not necessary, but added the winter to this winter salad)

2-3 tsp sugar (if you don’t have honeycrisp apples, use honey)
2 tsp of mustard seeds
1/2 tsp each coriander and dill weed

Combine all ingredients and serve or place in fridge until later use. 

 

Want delicious meal ideas with a holiday twist for those in between times of candy eatin’. Try these…

Breakfast: Sweet Potato Oatmeal

Lunch: Top a bbq sandwich with colorful celery root slaw instead of opting for those huge platters of French fries

Dinner: Drag out that slow cooker and make some creamy corn chowder (just add more nonfat milk into this recipe) some bread and a salad.  Eat after a long day of work followed by Christmas shopping

Snack or dessert: Salted Caramel hot chocolate

The Accidental Sweet Life with Extra Salt

Well it has been quite some time since I wrote on this blog. Graduate school took almost all my writing priority this semester. As did the fact that my toddler no longer naps. I felt guilty indulging in a little free writing time when I have a family and other responsibilities that needed my already stretched thin attention span. Well it is December which means this semester is over and time to move on. In the meantime, I have cooked a ton, but I guess I will just start at where I am right now.

I learned a lot this semester. Something shifted inside me and I attribute it to increased knowledge and a realization in how important it is to care for others, not just to say it. I am grateful for the colleagues in my classes who shed light on issues that really touched my spirit and compelled me to integrate what I have learned into my life no matter how subtle. Here is a recap, it’s choppy, but I hope you can understand it.

This semester, I learned that bullying is wrong on a physical, emotional and spiritual level and I hope that God blesses those who are poor in spirit. Thanks Lindsey

I learned that there is a huge problem with our toxic environment…what we eat, what we use to clean our homes, and what we see and hear that deters us away from that reality. Thanks Liana

I learned that although we as health scholars are up against some pretty tough health issues, we can stay positive and find solutions with a fun factor. Thanks Micki

I learned that we all work together and teach each other. Thanks Chidi 

I learned that it’s ok to talk to a classmate for 2 hours instead of typing up a lit review just because I needed a break. Thanks Sara

I learned that we really have it good because our health does provide agency to aspire to do what we want to do. Thanks Daniel and Karen G. 

I learned that it is courageous to point out the obvious. Thanks Margarita 

I learned that I am not the only one who believes in the “thrifty gene theory” and anthropological history to the obesity epidemic. Thanks Andrea

I learned to look at health issues through different lenses and how to approach them systematically, but I am still learning…Thanks Dr. Avila and Dr. Perry and OLA middle schoolers 

Most importantly, I learned that I have a supportive family who respect that I truly believe in making a better place through my language of love…food. Thanks Fil, Devin, and Sam 

During my last week of school, I skipped some meals (not on purpose, well kind of. I chose to do homework instead) and lost some sleep. On the night before my last class, while scrambling to finish my literature review about the what researchers, popular culture and biotechnology do to impair solutions to the overconsumption epidemic causing our population to gain weight, I craved the sweetest most chocolatey thing I could get my hands on. Oh the irony! I made hot chocolate…Not hot cocoa. 

Yes, there is a difference. Hot chocolate? So what? This was a big deal because it was through an accident that I made the best hot chocolate that I ever had. Maybe it was because I hadn’t had something sweet in a while, but it put Starbucks to shame. Here is how it goes. I scrambled to my kitchen desperately looking for the cocoa powder because I knew we ran out of those premade packets of Nestle. I remembered that I left all my baking stuff at my sister in law’s house. Dammit! Frantic, I shoved stuff around the cabinet when I saw…Bingo! A few Trader Joes bittersweet chocolate disks. It was only an ounce, so I hoped it would work. 

I warmed up a little skim milk and poured it over the disks and mixed it around. I was supposed to add just a pinch of salt, but too lazy, I poured it from the box and it was more like half a teaspoon. SHIT!!! My chocolate was ruined. I tasted it and made the ick face. I added some sugar and got an idea…I told myself, screw the low fat skim milk and poured about 4 fluid ounces of half and half in a cup and warmed it up. I also found a little bit of caramel sauce in the fridge. You guessed it, chocolate + salt + caramel and cream = salted caramel hot chocolate. I combined the cream and caramel with the chocolate milk mixture, whisked it and topped it with a lot of whipped cream. Typing up my lit review was a whole lot sweeter. 

Recipe 

6 or ¾ cup fluid oz of a mixture of milk and cream 

1-2 oz about ¼ cup of bittersweet chocolate (I am going to try bitter and milk chocolate next time) 1-2 tsp sugar 1-2 tablespoons of caramel sauce

½ tsp-1 tsp salt. You can even get fancy here and use fleur de sel

A few drops of vanilla 

See above for method…Add the vanilla last. Instead of a photo of the hot chocolate, I have a collage of my accidental sweet family. I drank the chocolate of course! I will post photo soon.