Psalm 104

Yesterday Jeff and I took a romantic three hour hike and this is what we saw...

We also saw a baby deer, many slugs feasting, snails with amber shells, shy ladybugs, dozens of black winged moths with iridescent dark blue bodies and red heads, bird nests, and flowers of varied hues.  

Strawberry Fields Forever

Walking far along the unpaved road into the fields of strawberries, the three of us take turns rolling the bouncy red wagon behind us. The red wagon wobbles unsteadily while the wheels bicker and squeak, protesting the dirt beneath them.  We can hardly hear ourselves speak during such a racket so we pause in brief moments of rest to share our observations and memories.

The noisy Red Wagon holding our  juicy treasures!

While Susie and I scour one field, Jeff wanders to another and finds a kid-sized,  painted wooden-plank replica of a scarecrow complete with cardboard shotgun. This field seems untouched and holds rounder and more robust strawberries. We pick here. The strawberries we snap off the plants make crisp popping sounds if done just so.  Sugary scents are inhaled as we hold red berries up to our noses. "Smells sweeter than candy," we chime. 

Fresh out of the field, some U-pick Strawberries from Sauvie's Island

This year we go earlier in the season. Our picking experience is greatly different than last year. There are more strawberries, and bigger ones too!  We are pickier about what we decide to pluck. 

Small waves of sunshine coupled with light breezes and cloud cover make for ideal weather. We have a fun afternoon picking strawberries. 

This summer I am bound to make strawberry ice cream and strawberry-chocolate-chip pancakes. We have been known to plop a strawberry or two in a glass of sparkling (or white) wine for a refreshing weekend treat.  And of course, we will be adding them to our spinach (green) smoothies!

Other ideas of what to make with our U-pick strawberries are welcome! :0)

Homemade Pomegranate Cheesecake

Yesterday I made my first cheesecake.... Here is the catch... There is no cream cheese, no confectioners, brown or white sugars, no honey, no butter, no eggs, no cream, and no baking involved! And there are only 7 ingredients! It's a raw vegan cheesecake! Jeff and I have been attempting to eat more "raw" foods lately. Raw meaning: not cooked, and not highly processed. So more green smoothies, more vegetables and fruits in their natural state, less meat, less sugar, less bread & pasta, and apparently more cheesecake. I downloaded this particular cheesecake recipe from therawchef.com. This cheesecake tastes like and looks as close to the real thing as we can tell, although we've never actually eaten real 'pomegranate flavored' cheesecake before, but it definitely tastes like a cheesecake.

So, what is in it? The filling is made out of Cashews, coconut oil, lemon juice, agave nectar, vanilla, salt, and pomegranate juice. What about the crust? Well, take the first 6 ingredients I listed and vary their measurements and you have the crust. Next time I might try almonds or pecans for the crust and I'm sure it would be equally tasty. It was almost too easy to make which means I'll be whipping it up again in the future with (or without) visitor's requests... Any excuse I have to make this... I will take advantage of! Jeff and I both had some for breakfast!

Here are some more photos of this fun kitchen crafting adventure:

The Crust...


The Filling is set...


Ta Da...

Book List

I start Wednesday's theme, Book Review, with my book list:


Bring it to the Table: On Farming and Food --Wendell Berry
Fast Food Nation --Eric Schlosser
Edible Schoolyard: A Universal Idea --Alice Waters
Food Matters-- Mark Bittman
The Locavore Way --Amy Cotler
The Ethical Gourmet --Jay Weinstein
Botany of Desire--Michael Pollan
Omnivores Dilemma--Michael Pollan
Small Wonder--Barbara Kingsolver
Commonwealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet--Jeff Sachs
The Working Poor: Invisible in America--David K Shipler
United States of Americana--Kurt B. Reighley
Financial Peace--Dave Ramsey
Homeland and Other Stories--Barbara Kingsolver
Denialism--Micahel Spector
The Total Money Makeover--Dave Ramsey
Generation Earn--Kimberly Palmer
Exposed--Mark Schapiro
Hot, Flat, Crowded--Thomas L. Friedman
The Progress Paradox--Gregg Easterbrook
The Life You Can Save--Peter Singer
How to Live a Low Carbon Life--Chris Goodall
Life Inc.--Douglas Rushkoff
Give Me Refuge: The Education of a Caretaker--Matt Love
Pedaling Revolution--Jeff Mapes
No Logo--Naomi Klein
The Story of Stuff--Annie Leonard
Becoming Animal: An earthly Cosmology
Broken Open--Elizabeth Lesser
The creative Family-- Amanda Blake Soule
U-Turn--Bruce Grierson
A Poetry Handbook--Mary Oliver
Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui--Karen Kingston
The Art of Simple Food--Alice Waters
Home Economics-- Wendell Berry
What to Eat--Marion Nestle
The Urban homestead --KElly Coyne and Erik Knutzen
Country of Marriage--Wendell Berry
The World without Us--Alan Weisman
Green Barbarians--Ellen Sandbeck
The Rough Guide to Shopping with a Conscience
American Wasteland--Johnathan Bloom
The feeding Web--Joan Gussow
Eat More Dirt--Ellen Sandbeck
Better Off: Flipping the switch on Technology--Eric Brende
Second Nature--Michael Pollan
This Organic Life--Joan Gussow
Radical Homemaking-- Shannon Hayes
Natural Capitalism--Paul Hawkin, Amory & L. Hunter Lovins
Last Child in the Woods-- Richard Louv
Drive--Daniel H. Pink
Nurture Shock--Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
Green Housekeeping --Ellen Sandbeck
Not so Big Life-- Sarah Susanka
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek--Annie Dillard

I can't wait to go to the library tomorrow!

Recent Culinary "Experiences"

The theme of food is a prominent one for this blog. The reason is because the kitchen, when not messy, is my favorite place to be. Well, I should modify that, when its not raining, being outdoors is my favorite place to be, but because its been raining so much lately the kitchen definitely tops my list!

Tonight we made potato leek soup for dinner! We both loved it and Jeff requested that I make it several more times this fall/winter! We used organic chicken broth, leeks, bacon, cream, and 3 different kinds of potatoes: 1 Yukon Gold potato, 1 Red Skinned potato, and 1 Russet potato. We left the skins on the potatoes even though the recipe called for stripping them because we like the varied textures and the roughage is good for us!

Yesterday evening, while watching the Trail Blazer game, I made a pear, gorgonzola, and walnut pizza. Jeff, not being the biggest fan of gorgonzola cheese, didn't appreciate the fusion of flavors. But I was pleased with how it turned out. Here are some photos:

A morsel of Gorgonzola and a slice of pear:


Before Baking:


Freshly baked pizza!:


The final product:

Birthday Pizza

Jeff came home with beautiful flowers and a the Beatles 1 CD for my birthday.

After listening to the CD and slow dancing together in our living room we couldn't figure out what else to do to celebrate. The day before, we had already gone out for breakfast at Bread and Ink to celebrate my 26 years. We agreed we didn't want to spend too much more money and figured we were both hungry for pizza of the homemade variety. After going by Winco to pick up the necessary pizza ingredients I realized I was hungry for birthday cake. We quickly scoped out Fred Meyer's dessert selection and picked out two frosting filled cupcakes with gigantic frosting flowers each proportional to the cups of cake.


It was around 7:15... too late, we thought, to start making the pizza if we were to stop by his family's house later. So, we decided to head on over to the Dekker family's house for Josh's beef and vegetable curry. Although I didn't get around to making the birthday pizza until tonight, I did take a few photos of the garlic, basil, shallot, yellow & red tomato, gruyere & mozzarella cheese pizza. It's in the oven now wafting heavenly scents of tomato, spices, and cheese through the kitchen...I can't wait to taste it!




The tomatoes used on the pizza were from Jeff's mom who gave me this beautiful box of fruits and veggies complete with a small bouquet of autumn colored mums. I can't wait to use the rest of this fresh produce in my cooking!

Making Time for Books...

One of my goals for September was to read every day at least one page if not fifty. While I might not have read everyday, I did finish reading 4 books! Which is huge for me. As much as I might say I love to read, honestly I simply don't make time to enjoy a good book. Thankfully working the night shift desk job at a hotel has provided me with plenty of time to indulge in my new hobby.

At the encouragement of our friends who visited us in September, I took up Ellen Raskin's novel,The Westing Game, for pleasure reading which was a delightful and thrilling read! Highly recommended.

For insight into the industrialization of food, farming and gardening, and personal finance, I read: Animal Vegetable Miracle; In Defense of Food; and More than Enough. I am inspired by the authors' words of wisdom and excited by the opportunity to learn more about the fusion of culture, gardening, food, economics, ecology, and health. As a student at heart, I can't help but wonder why Sociology of Food is not a larger discipline in academia. The job of my dreams at the moment would be to become a professor of Sociology: anthropologically researching the history of food, teaching courses on food practices, and ultimately helping students acquire the tools to make thoughtful choices when it comes to what they eat. Within this "discipline" there are so many areas of interest to me: the agricultural transition from hunter gatherer practices, industrialization of processed "foods", varying cultural mindsets and habits that accompany people through their lives, dieting practices and the health of America vs. other cultures, body image and food, the influence of the Great Depression on food practices, the demand for budget food instead of quality. Quantity vs. Quality, contrasting GM and Organic and what it means for our future food choices, the ever-evolving concept of the meal and so much more!

I am convinced that reading takes us to a new levels of cultural understanding, gives us insight into the minds of great thinkers, and allows for personal growth through new challenges. My goal of reading at least 4 books every month will continue until at least the end of the year! I can't wait to read more!

Very Seedy Whole Grain Oat Bread...

So, today I decided to make a loaf of what I'll call "Very Seedy Whole Grain Oat Bread". It has very special flax seeds (from Valley Pistachio given to me by my parents from their drive to Portland in late July) as well as poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds etc. Unfortunately, I didn't have the patience to soak the grain ahead of time, so the way it is will have to do. Like all my baking projects, I never really know how they will turn out as I'm always adding unmeasured amounts of various ingredients to favorite recipes... I'm all about experimental cooking. This can be a bad thing when it comes to making breads as exact measuring is a basic requirement for "getting it right". Its in the kneading stage and it looks kind of dense...(as whole wheat bread can be a lot of the time) but it hasn't risen yet so I'm hopeful it will be ok. 2 more hours to go...

Update 3:40pm... I am soo thrilled with how it turned out! I am eating a warm peanut butter and honey sandwich in the edge piece as we speak! I am most surprised how doughy the middle is and how crusty the edges are! Jeff should be getting home really soon... Hopefully I can leave some of this sandwich for him for him to try a taste of...... a bite...... a nibble...... the crumbs? This bread is as closed to perfection as I would ever hope to get. Its fluffy and flavorful. Not dense at all. If I can ever repeat the recipe I will be one enthused woman. Ok... now off to make Jeff his own sandwich.

Nature is my favorite color.

So, off we went yesterday morning... Jeff and I went on a 3 hour walk on Powell Butte. It is the most peaceful piece of land I've ever experienced. We walked the perimeter, or as much of it as we could as they are constructing a water reservoir at the tippy top. "I hope this is what heaven is like," I told Jeff. So many colors of green and brown, and yellow. Nature is my favorite color.

We are making veggie pizza for lunch today... Jeff surprised me and soaked the pizza dough while I was napping in the afternoon. Because we are going to Title Wave used bookstore this morning with his sister, I might suggest a taking the pizza for a picnic lunch at a nearby park! :0)

Confessions of a vegetable lover

Recently, Jeff and I have been thinking about how we can start living healthier and finally decided we would put our mouths where our minds are (haha!)... As I mentioned in #17 of my list of 25, a few posts below, I love cooking with vegetables. So, Jeff and I went on a veggie spree at WinCo. We bought more vegetables in the past week than I have my entire life (that's a lot of vegetables). An hour and approximately 20 dollars later, we were at our apartment experimenting with vegetables we'd never dreamed of combining. We made 3 different kinds of soups/ stews, guacamole, ratatouille, home made pesto, and goat cheese & pesto infused meat balls.

"Meatballs?!", you ask in alarm. "But those aren't vegetables"... Granted the meatballs were a bit off of our veggie track, but we oven baked them as opposed to pan frying them like we'd always done in the past, so there was no extra fat. We were worried that they'd be too dry but apparently we released them from their sizzling prison just in time.

In the future we will oven bake our meatballs because it makes for a less messy a method-- keeping dancing grease spatters to a minimum and therefore cutting my clean up time in half! And the fact that I don't have to babysit the pan, turning them over every so often, also makes it a less time consuming project. Anyways, this meatball feast was truly an all around positive experience. However, we've talked about going off red meat for a while... (the exception of course is my visit to California... and who knows what Jeff will cook up while I'm away.) All kidding aside, we just want to be more mindful of where our food comes from. On a similar note, processed foods are a little heavy on the use of fossil fuels and carbon emissions something-er-other, which I've heard is bad for our atmosphere/ planet and our bodies... although I'll be the first to admit I'm not exactly sure how it all works. One of my goals is to learn more about the ill effects of processed foods. Hopefully more on this later...


Here's a sampling of some of the Vegetables/ Plant like foods we used:

Eggplant
Red bell peppers
Mexican Squash
Avocados
Zucchini
Shallots
Roma Tomatoes
Garlic
Yellow squash
Cucumbers
Corn
Yellow Onion
Potatoes
Leeks
Carrots
Celery
Mini red, Orange, and yellow pepper
Celeno Peppers
Fresh Basil
Vine Tomatoes
Rosemary
Green onions
Spinach

Dinner 1: Spicy Vegetable, 3 Bean, Sausage Soup.

Dinner 2:
Goat Cheese and fresh-Pesto Meatballs,
served on Whole Grain Linguine,
with (slightly home made) Pesto Sauce,
Ratatouille on the side.

Dinner 3:
Potato Leek soup,
Corn and Red Pepper Chowder,
Whole Grain Bread.

We were able to freeze the left overs... and have been enjoying them ever since.

Walking to California

I love this quote: "All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking."-- Nietzsche.

I've been sick for 2 1/2 weeks and quite frankly, I'm tired of it. One sign that I'm getting better is I no longer feel foggy. I had the works: Sore throat, head ache, cough, cold. I can't remember ever being this sick especially for this long. The other day when I was starting to feel slightly better Jeff convinced me to go on a walk with him. This was special for three reasons. It was nice to finally get some fresh air, it wasn't raining, we talked while we walked... reminiscent of our Calvin days. I fell in love with Jeff through walking with him and listening to the thoughts he shared.

Jeff and Sarah walking at Calvin College in Sept. 2006.

Shortly after Jeff and I met, especially before we started dating we used to walk for hours around Calvin's beautiful campus and talk about everything. Anyone who has met me knows about my tendency to be quiet... but Jeff really got me talking during those walks.

On another note, In 20 days I will return to California for a 17 day stay! It will be the first time I've returned since getting married last November. The reason for the trip is my parents will soon be moving out of the home I grew up in and they need help packing everything up and cleaning out their house. Jeff is going on a business trip during those weeks up in Sumner Washington to help open a WinCo there. Since he will be staying up there, we figured it would be the perfect time for me to go and visit my family. This will be the second store that he's helped open... Its great opportunity for him to see how yet another store operates so I'm excited for him. But I will miss him so much as this will be the longest we've been away from each other as newly weds. :0(