Bad Friend Foods

When Ingrid was an infant she was allergic to dairy products. They gave her weepy, oozy, itchy, eczema patches all over her face, the back of her legs and her elbows. The best way to prevent them was to avoid all dairy. That meant I had to avoid all dairy. Goat, cow, sheep, water buffalo. No dairy. No cheese, yogurt, no fun for me, pirate dairy queen that I am.

She grew out of it, and now dairy doesn't bother her, and now I can eat it, too.

Actually, no I can't. I've been battling another health issue since Ingrid was born, too. It comes and goes, and when it comes, it does so with a vengeance. At times I've been miserable and uncomfortable. I've tried everything, except a change in diet, because I know it would require a radical chance in my eating habits for at least 6 months, and this radical change in diet will mean no more of favorites. No more comfort food.

I can't stand it any more. I'm back to being physically uncomfortable, and I don't want to go the pharmaceutical route again, because it's only a temporary fix. So starting tomorrow, I'm getting on the restricted diet train. In a word, I'm bummed. Here's what I won't be eating for the next six months:

Sugar in all forms, including honey, except occasional whole fresh fruit.
Fungus, molds, and yeast in all forms, including vitamins and minerals.
Most B vitamins (unless label states otherwise).
Most breads and commercial baked goods.
All alcoholic beverages. (At least I can still make wine!)
Mushrooms
Starchy vegetables like corn and potatoes.
Dry roasted nuts.
Barbecued potato chips.
Most commercial soups.
Apple cider and natural root beer.
White flour.
Bacon and other pork, which often contain molds.
Wheat, oats, rye and barley, (gluten).
Fruit and diluted fruit juices, high in fructose (fruit sugar)

Then there are the things I will have to limit:

Whole grains
Nuts and seeds (small amounts).
Beans and other legumes (small amounts).

I can have kombucha, meats, fish, poultry, vegetables. No bread or pasta.

Bummer.

UPDATE! Fermented foods and vinegar are back on the list! Hello Kim chee! (And no way was I going to give up kombucha!) Still no dairy or alcohol.

In Search of...Baby Bees

I've never been a fan of cheesecake. I have a wicked sweet tooth, but cheesecake love has always alluded me. At Christmas, my parents sent my in-laws a cheesecake from Juniors in New York. Apparently, my parents have fond memories of going to Juniors with my aunt who lived in Brooklyn, and feasting on cheesecake. I remember things a little differently. I remember someone in the group saying "let's go to Junior's", others would chime in their affirmations, and I would quietly dissent, outnumbered. Then we'd get to Junior's and everyone would order cheesecake, and I'd search the menu for something else. I hated cheesecake. I hated going to Junior's. I grew up disliking raw tomatoes and mushrooms as well, and now I can tolerate them. Similarly, I can tolerate cheesecake, but I'd never order it off a menu.

Chris and Vincent heard about my anti-cheesecake stance. Chris never knew this about me. He was shocked. Vincent took it upon himself to educate me on the joys of cheesecake. He makes a mean cheesecake. Now I can say I like cheesecake if Vincent Baker makes it. I suppose that's progress.

While chatting at dinner the night of my cheesecake education, the subject, of course turned to the strange things we've eaten or would like to eat. If you recall last year about this time, we ate deep fried waterbugs. I was not terribly successful at this, but I did try. Anyway, Vincent mentioned that he'd heard that the best bugs to eat are bee larvae because they're so sweet. The gustatory wheels in my head have been churning since. I'm on the hunt for bee larvae to fry up in my wok. In my search I found a blog of another adventurous eater: Weird Meat. I'm even more inspired. Audience assistance in my quest to find baby bees is warmly appreciated.

We talked about eating other odd things like bear, elk, big game meat. It might be easier to find a source for those than for baby bees. We'll see.

Bee Larvae Leads
Edible Insects
China Bees. Where's a "buy it now" button?
From the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' Corporate Document Repository, Chapter 8 of "Value Added Products from Bee Keeping". Includes recipes!

Food, Wherefore Art Thou?

This is a really an update of my previous post. I'm still sick. Tomorrow is my last day at my hell job and I got so sick I had to leave at 11:15. I went home, managed to get some food in me, which hasn't come up the same way or exploded out the other end, and my stomach feels somewhat settled. I feel lucky. I fear my luck could run out of my ass at any moment though.

I have a sensitive stomach on the best of days. Still, I love to eat, I like to try new things. Ever since I was pregnant with Bea I've been a happy omnivore. I don't eat huge amounts of meat. I'm wondering if I should return to the vegetarianism of my youth (I was a vegetarian and occasional vegan for about 14 years), or at least give the vegetarian diet a trial run for six months. I bought bacon for the first time in a couple of years. Maybe I'll finish the package first. And the locally raised lamb shanks in the freezer. I couldn't go a pregnancy without eating sushi, can I go six months? I think I have to re-evaluate the diet re-evaluation.

The fact is, I'm healthier eating meat occasionally. It's easier to put food on the table. Bea is the world's pickiest eater, and she has no interest in being a vegetarian. Neither does Chris. I don't think Ingrid cares right now. There's nothing I miss about being a vegetarian. My stomach was sensitive back then, too. We live in an area when you can buy meat from local farmers, support local agriculture, and put a face on your food. This is the kind of omnivorism I like.

What I need to do is start eating the fun rich foods slowly and stick with brown rice, garbanzo beans, and yogurt for a few more days. The bacon won't go bad.

In Bed, Between the Sheets, etc.

We had Chinese food tonight. All of our fortune cookies worked wonderfully with the traditional addendum "between the sheets". Some people say "in bed" at the end of their fortune phrase. They made me happy, but since I'm with my mom and daughters I couldn't really share with them. So here:

People find it difficult to resist your persuasive manner....
Executive ability is prominent in your make up....
Share your happiness with others today....
You have a yearning for perfection....
And my favorite:
God will give you everything that you want....

Buy the shirt!

I Could Have Said The Dog Ate My Homework

I need one more day before the draft rules of Steal Away Jordan will be ready to email to the nice folks who asked for one. But it's not becuase I haven't been working on it. I just need to type up the stuff I've worked on all weekend. I actually have working rules! Well, they work hypothetically. I incorporated everything I had [maggot] brainstormed. Unfortunately, forces beyond my control prevented me from actually typing any of it into an electronic document. But I was really productive, just in the old school, computerless way.

Friday, instead of going to Drum and Dance as originally planned, I was to go grocery shopping and then to either Cafe Koko or Lady Killegrew/Montague Book Mill and geek out with my laptop, some tea, and a pastry. Well, Primo came home from the gym late (why he needed to go to the gym for 2 1/2 hours when he planned to go snowboarding all day on Saturday is beyond me, and to comtemplate it any further will just make me sound like a bitchy wife.). So I could only go to Cafe Koko. So off I went, laptop on my back, Smashing Pumpkins blaring in my ears. At least I had the good sense to wear hiking boots. The sidewalks were crazy slick, and the roads were just as icy. Halfway down my street, I lost my balance and fell hard on my ass. I had to crawl to less slippery ground. I got up and kept walking, even though I felt like I had broken my butt. Ouch.

So I get to the cafe, and there's a live band. Great. Now when I was in college, I indulged in my vice to a much higher degree and listened to music all the time while I studied and wrote papers. I was a Religion major. It kinda worked. So I figured, no big deal, I can write game rules while a little "different" (as we used to call it) and there's music--loud music playing. And my back still hurt from the fall. Well, it would have been easier if a good band was playing, but they sucked. I stayed anyway. I didn't want to walk home just yet. So I pulled out my laptop and turned it on...and nothing happened. I figured I needed to plug it in. Well, that would be easy to do if there was an empty seat near an outlet. Fine, whatever, I like to write stuff out longhand anyway. I wrote a few pages on the role of the Rootdoctor/Conjurer, and jotted notes on slvery and religion. But I wished God would show up and replace the bad funk bad with, say, Funkadelic circa 1975, so I could hear "Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts" live. But She didn't. I went home at 10:30 and didn't fall once. When I got home I discovered that the laptop had actually booted up. That was strange.

Saturday I cleaned the house, went grocery shopping, and had people over for stuffed squid, simmered daikon, mochi, and pizza. I broke out the latest batch of kombucha. I accidentally didn't add as much sugar this time, and it was much fizzier and tangier than usual. Of the people who tried it, I like it, Ingrid likes it, Vincent said he liked it, Joshua defiled it by adding sugar and then he said he liked it, Bea said she liked it, but she didn't want more than a swallow. I don't know if anyone else tried it. The dog took a dump on the rug as people showed up. I poured myself a second glass of wine and took him for a walk. (I had the first while I cooked.) I had a third drink (some tasty beer) just before we watched The Illustrated Man. I didn't make to the end. I fell asleep sometime after Primo came home from snowboarding and before Emily left. Bad hostess! This is why I don't drink very often. Or maybe I fell asleep so quickly because I don't drink very often. Either way, no work all day on game, but time spent cleaning the house, running errands, enjoying the company of friends, and drinking more than I have since my wedding anniversary in November.

Today, Sunday, we went to my in-laws, and I brought my laptop. But I forgot the cord, and the laptop only had about 10 minutes of power-time. So again, I worked for a couple of hours and wrote in my cutie pie kitty cat notebook. I finished tweaking the rules and worked out some things that I can ask my mom about when she comes to visit. And now I've spent an hour typing an explanation for why I don't have the rules ready to give to all the nice people who asked, and it's time to go fold laundry.

Tomorrow evening, really and truly!

Double Bummer

----- Original Message -----
From: Parthenia Ellingsgard
To: info@scandiafood.com
Sent: Thursday, February 22, 2007 9:46 AM
Subject: I can't find what I'm looking for

Hello,
I am trying to find blodpudding. Do you carry it in the Norwalk store? Is it possible to get in this country?

Thanks for your help!
Parthenia Ellingsgard

And their response:
>I am sorry, but we don't have blodpudding and all meat products are banned to be >imported to this country. I miss it too!!!
>
>Best Regards,
>
>Scandia Food & Gifts, Inc.
>30 High Street
>Norwalk, CT 06851
>Ph: (203) 838-2087
>Fax: (203) 838-1831
>www.scandiafood.com

And now for the second bummer:
When I picked Bea up from school today, she looked really sad. I was a little late and she had to wait in the office, but when that happens she just looks mildly peeved. This was different. When I asked her what was the matter this is what she told me (names have been changed): "Today we had a field trip."
Me: Oh cool! Where'd you go?
Bea: To the Food Bank. [Gets a little excited] It's this place where you can get free food, but it's really for people who don't have any food. It was actually kind of boring.
Me: And that made you sad?
Bea [back to sad mode]: No. Katie told me she's not going to be my friend for a while, because she's going to be Cassie's friend.
Me: But you're friends with Cassie, too. Why can't you all be friends?
Bea: That's what I tried to tell her, but Cassie was being really, really rude to me. Then Katie said she wasn't going to be my friend for a whole month.
Me: I'm sure they'll both come around, and they didn't really mean it. Give it a few days and you'll all be friends again.

Then I thought to myself, nice going Psychic Mama. Never profess to know the minds of seven year old girls, even if you've been one.

Me: You have so many other friends. If Katie and Cassie are in a mood, go enjoy your other friends some more.

My heart aches for Bea. She has her moods like we all do, but she is a loyal friend who rarely practices friend exclusivity under normal circumstances. (The last time I saw her do it, she was hungry, it was short lived, and we later talked about how unacceptable it was.) Primo tells me that boys don't do this type of thing. I don't believe him. I think boys do it differently and perhaps later. It doesn't matter, though. It's one of those things that mama and papa can't fix. We can give her the pep talk, a little perspective on things even, but tomorrow Bea has to go back to school and either try to win back her friends (if they haven't chilled yet), or deal with the friendship ban gracefully. I'm sure she'll do just fine.

I, on the other hand, ache for Bea, and am disappointed that blodpudding is banned.

Blodpudding, Lingon Sylt, Kombucha Chaser

...and new neighbors!

My mother in law brought over the last of her Swedish style blodpudding, which she gleefully fried up and served. I was to bring a few pieces over to Meg and Vincent's for a pre-game snack, but by the time I got home from having my eyebrows done there was only one slice left. We split it among 4 people: Vincent, Emily, Joshua (who almost missed it), and me. I don't quite understand it, but Meg didn't eat any at all. Something about being turned off by the name. Some people call it black pudding. How about that? Unless my mother in law (or I) can find an U.S. source for it, there will be no more blodpudding for the "Ellingsgards" for a while. Karin is going to ask some of her friends to bring her some next time they visit her. I've googled and googled to no avail. I found a source for a Scottish style, but honestly, I don't know the difference. Might be worth a try. I've alwasy been curious about haggis.

If there is anyone who lives in Sweden who reads this and would be willing to send me a few packages of blodpudding, please, I beg you, email me. I'll totally make it worth your while, even if you have no interest in kombucha.

I also brought my latest brew of kombucha to wash down the blodpudding. I thought making 1 1/2 gallons was a bit excessive, but between sharing with friend and family, all that kombucha disappears within 72 hours. I might have to buy more jars and just make more and more. I now have about 8 SCOBY's. I'll use two to make the weekly batch, and that leaves six more for the taking!

And what's this about new neighbors? Read here. Speaking as the chick across the street, I'm almost as happy as they are. How often do you say to a friend (paraphrased and embellished) "Hey why don't ya'll buy the house across the street?" and they say, "Sure thing!" It's like I got to pick my neighbors. I'm feeling like a lucky lamb.

EDIT: 2/22/07
Had to share some links.
Swedish Customs mentions blodpudding and natto!

Scottish Health Inspectors say "No!" to Human Blood Pudding

Getting closer to finding blood pudding. Gourmet Food Store sells Boudin Noir, French Blood Pudding.

Scandia Food in Norwalk, CT

Kombucha Turned Me Into Wonder Woman

I love Kombucha, and apparently so does a large contingency of health minded folks around the world. It's always interesting to see how many cures and health claims people can come up with to encourage others to consume something freaky and weird. Now I'm not dismissing anyone's personal alternative health product, and I think there's always some validity to anecdotal evidence of the efficacy of a substance. I do get annoyed and bothered when people try to push snake oil on and take money from desperate and seriously ill people. Quacks put the odd and traditional remedies that actually work in a bad light, and make those who are convinced that all allopathic treatments are safe and effective.
Consider that if you have had a normal pregnancy and labor (and many more are normal than the Obstetic community will let on) giving birth at home has been proven to be just as safe, if not safer than giving birth in a hospital, where you are open to extra interventions and impatient medical personnel. But ask a woman who has given birth at home how many times she's been called "brave", like it's something dangerous and irresponsible. The brave ones are the ones that given birth in a place were up to 30% of all births are done by C-Section and the percentage of episiotomies hovers in the 90's. That's damn scary to me.
Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox.

So check out the claims of health benefits made for Kombucha. I just drink it because it tastes good. Ancedotally, it does help my nervous stomach, as does yogurt and kefir. But I can't do dairy very well, so kombucha it is.
I've always been fascinated with Colloidal Silver. Why on earth would anyone want to consume silver?.... But it's been around for almost 100 years.
Bad medicine is not limited to the alternative health realm. Remember the Swine Flu vaccines? I could go on and on, but maybe other people remember better ones.

The Joy of Fermentation

Microbiology was my favorite non-nursing class in nursing school...

A couple of weeks ago I got 3 kombucha mothers from Freecycle. I gave one away, put one in a big jar of pu-erh tea and another in lung ching green tea. The green tea one is growing some suspicious looking mold on top. I think I need to toss it. The mother in the pu-erh is a stellar success. Both Ingrid and Bea liked it. I'm hoping to have some left to share on Wednesday, but I can't stop drinking it. It's lightly fizzy, a little sweet, and mmm mmm tasty! It also grew a baby quicker than any kombucha I've ever seen. I'll make another batch this week.

I also started making kefir again. The first batch came out pretty good, considering the grains were still recovering from transit. It tasted delicious in my leftover curry. I would like to get more grains, and use the ones I have for grape juice. I prefer the clumpy grains for kefir making, and these aren't very clumpy. I'm going to wait and see if they grow clumpier, though. The second batch came out a bit more tart, but still good.

I started making kombucha and kefir when I was pregnant with Ingrid. My first kombucha met a tragic end neglected atop my fridge. It became a breeding ground for fruit flies. Not cool. I won't let that happen again. I just tossed the kefir because I couldn't eat dairy and I didn't like soy kefir. No one wanted them, so they languished in my fridge and turned all manners of colors. Not pretty at all. But I missed them. Strange as it may seem, the kefir grains and kombucha mothers grew on me (no pun intended) and were a bit like pets. Lesson learned. I will take good care of my pet bacteria (and yeast) from now on.
Photo credit: http://www.uni-kassel.de/fb19/microbiology/

Parthenia is Pregnant...

with Ideas...

I see a theme rising. Even my frogs in their tank behind me are croaking their mating calls again.

Last summer, my friends Crystal, Tonya, and I operated a booth at the Greenfield Farmer's Market most appropriately called "Three Dreaded Ladies". Sadly Tonya dropped out midway, but Crystal, her business partner Julie, and I continued for the rest of the season. Tonya made jewelery, I do herbal products for hair and skin, Crystal, at the time, made cloth diapers and an occasional mei tai traditional Asian baby carrier. Julie and Crystal have parted ways and Crystal will be selling handmade clothes. I'm not sure if Julie will continue on as our one not-literally-dreaded lady, but they diapers would round out our booth nicely.

On top of all the other making stuff and idea generating (i.e. game writing), I'm revisioning my part ("Parthenia's Herbals") of Three Dreaded Ladies. I plan to focus bar soaps first, then bath salts, healing salves, balms, and herb infused oils (hair oil, massage oil, bug repellent). I will prepare fewer brewed herbals like aftershaves, skin toners, and hair rinses. Those are my favorites, but they don't sell very well. I will certainly have edible love potions, as those generate the most praise and positive feedback, and they make most everyone happy.

I've been thinking about offering other edibles like kefir and kombucha, but that would require a Board of Health permit. I could join the Western Mass Food Processing Center and move all of my brewing, mixing, cooking, and curing activities there. The advantages are I would have more room, better equipment, and a safer place to make soap and heat up oils. If I do soap at home in the kitchen, I need someone to keep an eye on the kids because I'm working with hazardous materials and can't stop in the middle of mixing or pouring to take care of boo-boos and arguments. The disadvantages are purely financial. Basically the farmers market last year paid for my herb preparing hobby and my Thai food habit, and that was fine with me. I'd like to expand this year. Kombucha and kefir are incredibly easy and cheap to make, bottling and labelling would really be my biggest expense. If they caught on and sold well they could cover the added expense of being a member of the Food Processing Center. Since there's already one local Kombucha producer, I would most likely do more kefir and herb drinks, and try to find a source for local milk. That's not hard at all. You can also put kefir grains into grape juice and make an interesting sparkling beverage. That could be fun, too.

The week after Ingrid's birthday I'll make the first batch of soap. If any of you local reader wish to learn how to make soap, I will show you how. The cost to you is your labor. In the next few weeks I'll also have spare kombucha babies and kefir grains. And I'm always looking for human guinea pigs to try my herbals. Email me and let me know what you're interested in. And the revised rules for Get/Steal Away Jordan should be done by the end of this week. I was so productive last night that I fell asleep at 3 am, sitting up with the laptop on my lap. Before I dozed off, I managed to type up everything I had handwritten earlier in the week, and simplify the rules and mechanics. Another self-awarded gold star for Parthenia (who is most certainly not physically pregnant)!

Chez Parthenia et Primo, La Cuisine Exotique

So we (Primo, Meg, Vincent, Emily, Joshua, Carrie, and children) had a potluck. We ate fried water bugs ("Mang Da Na"), among other things.

Carrie was the first to try one, and she put forth a valiant effort before she declared that she didn't like them. Joshua and Vincent worked on theirs next, and given how little actual "stuff" there is to eat on them, they certainly worked. Vincent, the seasoned water bug eater, actually cooked them after their eyes freaked me out and I couldn't bring myself to cook them. He gave helpful instructions on where to find the choicest meat on the bug--if you can call bug innards "meat". I can't remember what Joshua said. Primo just jumped right in and bit one in half. It was too much for him, and he spit everything out. You can still smell it in the trash can. Primo looks cute eating water bugs. I'd like to see him do it again.

Emily worked on hers in silence, or perhaps I was in the zone, preparing to eat my water bug and didn't hear what she said. I did manage to snap a great picture of her, though. And that just left me, the person who said, "if you have a recipe for fried water bugs, and you can buy water bugs to fry, shouldn't you try them at least once?" The person who looked the frozen little Mang Da Na's in their little beady eyes and thought, "I can't cook you. You're just too disgusting. What if I can't get bug taste out of my well seasoned wok?" To say that I ate a water bug is really an overstatement. I nibbled a leg and spit out what I could.

I doubt I will eat them again. I now have a sore spot in the roof of my mouth where the bug guts touched. I have a very mild nut allergy and I get the same thing when I eat too many pistachios or pecans. So maybe I'm allergic to water bugs, and shouldn't eat them. While I still eat pistachios and pecans in moderate amounts, they taste good. I think this is a case of true "never again".

They had a lemony taste, rather they tasted like lemon-flavored insects. Nothing like chicken, nothing like shrimp or craw daddies, as I had hoped. It wasn't so much the lemon-flavored insect taste as much as as the squished bug texture that was so off-putting.

All told, it was a very fun evening. Primo and I don't get to hang out with adults together very often, and I hang out with all the adults present (except for Carrie, Joshua's wife) on Wednesday nights to play games. We played a round of Werewolves of Miller's Hollow, which I'm totally addicted to after playing it on Saturday, too.

I hope to do it again--not eat bugs, but have a crazy food potluck. I was thinking rabbit stew might be fun to try. I've only had rabbit when I was no older than Bea, and I was tricked into eating it by my dad. My family nickname is Rabbit (short for Br'er Rabbit.) Eating rabbit seemed wrong at the time, but I'll try it again, why not. I know I can get some at Lukasik Game Farm in South Hadley. And it's been years since I had chitterlings ("chitlins"). I'll bet there are some wacky sushi items others might want to try. Where to go next?

Other items on the menu:
Kim Chee
Canned Quail Eggs
Natto
Grilled Ground Beef and Tofu
Dates
Canned Octopus
Smoked Oysters
Goose Liver Pate
Crock Pot Curry
Something Really Delicious That Emily Brought, but I Can't Remember What it Was
Burned Shrimp Chips (oops!)
Rice
Mochi
Mead, Wine, Beer, Soy Drink

Photographic Evidence

The Feast

So Christmas dinner was everything good: good food, good company, good behavior, adults included. Food wise, we had a few pleasant surprises, and only one disaster.

All my plans of cooking early never panned out. I started the yule log the evening of the 24th. I really need to work on my folding flour and melted butter into whipped eggs and sugar technique. I baked the cake part of the production and that's it. I never made the meringue or the filling. The cake is rolled up in my fridge. It might turn into a New Year's Eve log, or just a really flat sponge cake that no one eats.

I never even got to open the mead, which I was most looking forward to, since I didn't have any on my wedding anniversary last month. We have more beer, wine, and glogg than we can possibly drink. It looks like we will have to have another party soon. Primo will love that. He does not like dinner parties as much as I do, since he ends up doing most of the cleaning. Since I like to cook, I never get the feeling I'm slaving away in the kitchen.

So here's what arrived on the menu:

Appetizers
Crackers and smelly cheese (La Clochette Chevre, Epoisses, and Raw Milk cheddar. I think it was cheddar. I know it was raw milk)
pickled herring
lox
cream cheese (milk and dairy free)
--For the first time in 18 months I ate smelly cheese, and it was like manna from heaven. Ingrid is growing out of her milk allergy! I did limit myself on the dairy just to be on the safe side, but how I've missed La Clochette and Epoisses on hard bread.

Main Course
Roast Goose--she was a little on the small and lean side, but we got a good amount of meat from her. She'd been slaughtered and cleaned three days before (locally). Can't get any better than that if you're going to eat meat.
Swedish Ham with a Puerto Rican Flair--my brother-in-law Juan is a professional cook, and he fixed the ham. I didn't have any because I never got a second helping, but I heard it was great.
Cranberry Relish--I made too much. I'll be eating it with everything for the next week.
Wild Rice and Wheat berries with venison sausage and portbella mushrooms.
Stuffing straight from the bag with venison sausage and mushrooms. Not sure why I bothered with the stuffing. I was afraid there wouldn't be enough rice. Silly me.
Swedish Blood pudding. My mother-in-law thought no one would eat it. I assured her that I would, at least. It disappeared quickly, and it was a hit with our youngest guest. A few couldn't get past the name to try it, but that just left more for the rest of us.
Cranberry Sweet Potato Quiche. I make this every year, but with a nursling with a milk allergy, I haven't had any since I was pregnant in 2004. I made this one with Tofutti cream cheese and soy milk. I'll be eating it for dinner tonight.
Mashed Potatoes. I heard they were great, and I'm sure I'll eat some for lunch tomorrow.
Homemade macaroni and cheese. I passed it up so I could have a little extra clochette. It's in the freezer.
Friendship bread, with flaxseed, sunflower seeds, and oatmeal.
Collard greens. I used to hate them when I was little, but now I love them.
Mixed Salad Greens with walnuts, smoked mozzarella, and vinaigrette. Brought by Meg and Vincent, and I think Vincent made it (thanks for bringing something green!). I come from a family that does not eat enough fresh vegetables. I find I feel sick if I don't have fresh green with a heavy meal. The salad took up 1/3 of my plate so I could save room for dessert, and my digestive system thanked me for the roughage. I skipped the mozz reluctantly.

Dessert
No Yule Log...
Carrot Cake. My mom makes the best carrot cake. Enough said.
Mochi. Again, I bought too much, but that just means more for tomorrow's game night.
Apple pie. Haven't tried it yet, but the same person made it this year as last year, and it was delicious.
Assorted cookies. These were the cookies I got to see in production last week. Everyone was too full to indulge in the sweets, but I noticed the cookies seem to be disappearing into thin air today. They were wicked good.

Primo, a man of few words, gave a Quaker-style blessing.

We never played Werewolves, and the kids didn't decorate any gingerbread houses. We can save that for another time. In fact, the older kids played in Bea's room, and I saw them twice the whole evening.

And the on-going saga of my dad and his health continues. It's really worse than I thought, but nothing new. I've been checking my dad's blood sugar twice a day, and it's been in the mid to high 300's. Last night after dinner it was 457. I think it's really the first time in the 3 or 4 years he's been diabetic that he's had his blood sugar checked regularly, so he's actually seeing what he's doing to himself. Even still, it feels like he's paying lip-service to my mom's and my pleas that he cut back on the sugar and fat. It's easy to say you'll change. It's harder to do it, especially at a family feast, where everyone pigs out. A few days ago I lost it and really dug into him about not checking his blood sugar and eating things that are verboten for a diabetic. I got nowhere.

Several days of almost non-stop eating (with a diabetic who doesn't take care of himself) really forces one to look at her relationship with food. For another post.

Fried Water Bugs: Migraine Helper?

Here's an interesting word of the day, and I will use it in context. I'm a migraineur. They're triggered by my regular hormonal changes, and can be difficult to control. I get them monthly for 2-3 days. I get a full spectrum of warning signs and accompanying issues. When they start I may see spots, I get a rush of frenzied energy, nauseous, a funny taste in my mouth, and a small dull pain in my temples. If I can get to some ibuprofen or even some homeopathic meds, sometimes I can stave them off. Exercise makes then not so bad, but doesn't make them go away. Drinking water and eating protein (if I catch it in time), caffeine, in the form of tea (pu-erh and green tea) help, too. I may just get the pain in the head if I take early measures to stave it off, and I'm generally able to function. I have another remedy, but you can email if you're really curious.
If I develop a full blown migraine, I'm totally incapacitated. I cannot move, I am sensitive to light, food odors, food in general, and noise. I can't wear my hair up or pulled back, and I can't cover my face. I must lay in a dark room for at least 2 hours and ride out the storm. It's like my senses are overwhelmed and I need to shut down for a bit. During this phase, if I get the chance to sleep, I feel better in about two hours, but I wake up disoriented and really hungry.
I'm on the second day of a mild to moderate migraine. I took some Advil this morning, drank a big mug of tea, and I'm hoping the pain in my head will go away. I still have food and Christmas shopping to do, I need to entertain my parents, check my dad's blood sugar, cook dinner, start cooking Christmas dinner, get through the work day. I'm a little stressed out. After work I'm going to the gym to work out for 40 minutes. That should help. I wish I could go right now, but I have to work.
The stress trigger came yesterday in Tran's World International Market. They didn't have the brand of mochi I wanted. (I know, boo hoo for me). They also didn't have my favorite flavor of furikake (the one with whole freeze dried mini sardines) This didn't stress me out. Having Ingrid run up and down the aisles did, and chasing her through Whole Foods pretty much put me over the edge. At Tran's I chased her down the tea aisle to the back, where all the frozen meats are, and was stopped dead in my tracks (she ran around the corner to the vast selection of noodles, and stopped to touch all the soft packages of noodles). There was a package of giant water bugs. Giant water bugs. Now I don't think they would go over well at Christmas dinner, but I'm now totally intrigued, because I actually have a recipe for deep fried water bugs and plum sauce. It's Thai, I think. I don't see it on the menu of my favorite Thai restaurant in Greenfield, Thai Blue Ginger, nor at Hattaporn's Kitchen (which is good, too, but I work right downstairs from TBG.) At any rate, it seems to me if you have a recipe, and the means to make the recipe, why not try the recipe? Because it's a recipe for fried water bugs? Well, maybe, but I'm very curious and maybe this is the frenzied burst of energy part of my migraine. I'm inspired.
I always hate the part on Fear Factor where they eat something nasty, but I don't they're using a classic recipe most of the time. I'm totally curious. Thankfully, I've never said I'd never eat a bug.
They come in packages of 5. My recipe calls for 10. Anyone out want to join me for a deep fried water bug party? I don't think I'll be able to stomach more than one, with or without chasers of tequila. No, I've never swallowed a Mezcal worm either. I'm sure I can get Ingrid to try it. She's too young to be grossed out by eating bugs.
Well I think I have successfully fended off a full blown migraine with all this talk of eating water bugs. The day isn't over yet, but so far so good.

Insects as Food in Thailand. This site has other great bug eating links.

Our Dirty South-Scandinavian-American Christmas Feast

Julia Child is my homegirl...
Finally I got a taste (and whiff) of the "Holiday Season", also known as December, Yule, Solstice, Chanukah, etc. There's not a flake of snow on the ground, it's not even all that cold, and we're not likely to have a white Christmas in New England this year. But go into people's houses, and you'll find all kinds of evidence of the season.

On Friday, I stopped by my friends Meg and Vincent's house and entered a virtual bakery. I cannot describe the joy of walking into a house and getting attacked by the smell of fresh baked cookies. Attack away. They were obviously baking cookies, a time honored tradition in many households this year. Mine is not one of them. As much as I love to cook, I find cookie baking tedious and boring. But I appreciate the smell of a kitchen in use.

Later that evening, Bea, Ingrid, Primo and I joined our friends Rachel and Steve and their kids for a Shabbas/Chanukah dinner of latkes (potato and sweet potato) and cabbage. Again, when we walked in the door, the smell of fried tubers welcomed us. I helped Rachel in the kitchen, ground zero for the aroma. I've never cooked a latke, but I am happy that Rachel has, and that she's good at it.

My time to give a feast to folks will come on Christmas Day, when I invite family and friends over for an African American/Scandinavian feast. Ah the joy of being in an multicultural/multiethnic family! You'd be surprised how well these two food traditions complement one another. I plan the menu feast weeks in advance. I reserve the goose, ask those who will make the specialties to get ready, search for new recipes if I need, plot, dream, fantasize about the feast.

Cooking all day for 17 people is a small price to pay to let my kids wake up in their own house on Christmas Day, something that I never did until I was in my teens. When I lived in New Jersey, we always went to Tennessee and I woke up in my maternal grandparents' house in Memphis on the 25th. When we bought our house, I decided that my kids would always always wake up in their own house on Christmas Day, and people would just have to come to us.

The cookies and the latkes prompted me to begin preparing for the feast, and for the arrival of my parents. First task: clean the refrigerator. I write this on break from that joyous job. I've already filled the compost bucket once with moldy mystery sauces and long lost leftovers. Our fridge used to look full. Now it's surprisingly empty. Cleaning the goose, which entails putting my hand up in the body to get the gizzards and neck, then picking stray feather for an hour is preferable to cleaning the fridge. Oh well. I do it for the kids...

The cooking will begin on the 21st, as I'm attempting to bake a Yule Log instead of a rum cake this year. I need time to regroup if I screw up. The centerpiece of the meal is the Christmas goose, a tradition that started when I was eight months pregnant. I was so in love with food that a good chunk of my midwife prenatal appointments involved my describing in mouthwatering detail, all the delicious food I was eating and planned to eat.
Here's what's on the menu (said in your best Julia Child falsetto):

Appetizers
Assorted cheese and hard bread
Smoked salmon
Pickled Herring

Main Course
Roast goose stuffed with apples and prunes
Wild rice stuffing with venison sausage
Friendship bread (oatmeal, sunflower seeds, flax meal, olive oil, wheat, and any other flour in the house, maybe a little rosemary)
Steamed green beans
Cranberry relish
Cranberry Sweet Potato quiche
Mother-in-law brings: Swedish ham
Mother cooks: baked macaroni and cheese.
Friends bring: Collard greens, salad.
Whatever my sisters and brother-in-law bring.

Dessert
Mother cooks: Carrot cake, pecan pie
Parthenia cooks: Yule Log
Mochi
I'm also going to have a couple ginger bread house kits for the kids to make to keep them occupied. We probably won't be permitted to eat them.

Drinks
Father in law makes: Glögg
Primo goes to Ryan and Casey liquors and buys: red wine, mead, beer.

Yeah, the husband and my dad get off scot-free in the cooking department. This is a good thing. My father is a traditional southern man, who is a wonderful barbeque chef, and that's where his culinary skills end. Primo married a southern girl who could cook. He helps to clean (except the toilets, of course!) and keep the kids out of trouble.

A really bad poem about a Christmas Goose by William Topaz McGonagall

Two toasted sesame seeds in a bowl of white rice

Preface: it was a great end to a beautiful day, one of the best concerts I've seen in a while, and Carrie Rodriguez and Chip Taylor are wonderfully kind people.

Went on a date with the husband last night. Had a delicious platter of sushi and glass of sake. Forgot to order octopus (tee hee). Then we met some of the husband's co-workers at Packard's for their bocce league season wrap up party. I admitted to one of his co-workers that I still have Ingrid's placenta in my freezer (gotta do something about that...) I went home early, because we had a new babysitter. An awesome babysitter! Anyway, I stayed up late, and woke up late the next morning.
Went to the farmer's market 1/2 an hour late and set up my table. Had a great time, saw the usual suspects, lamented with many folks about how much we're going to miss going to or working the market. Beautiful weather, made $26, and met lots of nice folks. I even got to give a couple of herbal product schpiels. Later, a woman came up to me and asked one of the hair FAQs I get asked: Is that all your real hair? Yup. "Wow!" She said, "If I could grow hair like that, I'd throw a perm in it and make it nice and straight." Um, uh, yeah. I smiled and nodded. Not even worth it. I took it as some sort of compliment, and wrote what she said since it tickled me so much. Lord bless her and help her.

Went to the toy store with Bea to get birthday presents for her friends. We have 2 parties this weekend. Whew! We missed a harvest party at Meg's sister's farm in Plainfield, but for good reasons. I can't be two places at once, and I was to cook for the bands at our coffee house, gave up on the idea of crock pot curry (or anything else from scratch), and resorted to fine frozen lasagne's from BJ's, salad, breadsticks, and grapes. Went over just fine, and many praised my cooking, or rather my ability to pick out good frozen entrees, and not burn them when I cook them. The concert was great, I got my CD's autographed, heard a chillingly beautiful version of "Angel of the Morning" that took my breath away, adored Carrie Rodriguez's fiddle playing, her cool mandobird playing, and her awesome red boots.

And somewhere in all the fun I realized Bea and I were the only black folks in the entire crowd (at least 250 people). I really hate it when that happens, and it really bummed me out. Not enough to ruin the night, but enough to wish we lived somewhere like Atlanta for the rest of the evening. Alas.