I read "Animal, Vegetable, Mircale" where I learned what it meant to live off the local land. I realized that my beloved Oranges in January were actually Not the natural order of things. This made me sad. It also made me committed to try to live the same way because not only did it seem logical and easy, but it seemed Old Fashioned and I fancy myself an old-fashioned kinda gal.
I read "In Praise of Slowness" which discussed, well, living slowly. When I first started reading the book I felt apprehensive, waiting to be chided for living a busy American life. But instead of feeling guilty I actually felt great! I learned that I do a pretty darn good job of enjoying life, of having good boundaries and cooking from scratch, just the way my mama taught me.
I read, "In Defense of Food" and my-oh-my I learned so much about food! It seems silly to me now that I had to read a book about food. I mean, really, I eat food several times a day. I thought I knew a lot about Eating Well before I started the book but I can honestly say that I learned how to Eat Better while reading it. Michael Pollan, the author, reminded me why I want to eat local food - which was a great companion to "Animal, Veggie, Miracle" and I began to really pursue that lifestyle over the summer.
As you already know, I had a little patio garden last summer. And I made frequent trips to the Farmers Market. And my cousins shared a lot of their garden bounty with me. I blanched, froze, grilled, and canned an insane amount of local food - all in an effort to get me through a cold Michigan winter. I really didn't realize the full impact of what I was doing because I was having so much Fun doing it!
Then I read "The Omnivore's Dilemna" and got my socks knocked off one more time. This was a close companion to "King Corn" a short documentary I got from the local library. Wow. Once again (again!) I read about cooking from scratch, buying local foods, and the impact of conventional farming on communities.
In the midst of all this learning I simply stopped blogging. I wasn't sure my 4 readers would really care if I wrote about food or not. And then a few weeks ago it dawned on me that I would like to continue talking about food on my blog simply because I like talking about food. And blogging about food, recipes and cooking just feels good and right to me. I would love to take pictures for you and show you some of my recent creations, but I have a new laptop AND my first ever digital camera. I've not figured out how they work together. Yet.
Over the last few months I have experienced the greatest joy when I open up my freezer or my cupboards and create a meal made from the efforts of my summer labor.
Here is one of my latest creations: Grilled Vegetable Lasagna
4 cups frozen grilled summer squash/zucchini (from my garden)
4 -5 cups homemade marinara sauce (from my garden and FM)
15 oz ricotta cheese
1 egg white
1 pkg Meijer gold standard lasagna noodles (made from 2 ingredients)
1-2 tsp dried oregano (from my garden)
2 cups (or less) of freshly grated mozzarella cheese.
Thaw grilled vegetables and toss in large frying pan. Add marinara sauce until the mixture is quite thick. Heat through. Meanwhile, boil noodles according to package directions. Mix ricotta cheese, egg white and oregano in small bowl.
In the bottom of a 9x13 pan spoon about 1/2 cup of marinara sauce. Top with half of ricotta cheese mixture. Top with half of of vegetable/marinara mixture. Top with a layer of noodles, then remaining ricotta cheese mixture, more noodles, and a final layer of vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes or until cheese is gold brown.
When I sat down to eat this lasagna I could actually TASTE the grilled flavor of the grilled veggies. When I was grilling and freezing those vegetables last summer I had absolutely no idea what I would use them for over the winter! Now I'm making notes about how much to grill/freeze this summer. Speaking of next summer, we're planning on having a big family garden at my parents house. And a guy in my house church is going to let me plant a garden at his house too. I'm so thrilled! And I'm having such a good time.
Next post: another pasta recipe I whipped up recently...or the new pizza casserole I created...or maybe a blog about soup?
6 comments:
How much food do you have left in mom's freezer?
Last night I made kabobs of red, yellow, and green peppers, zucchini and onions brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with mesquite grill seasoning. Delicious on the grill.
I'm still drinking my green smoothies almost every morning for breakfast. I get all my fruits and veggies for the day that way.
OMG....this Lasagne sounds wonderful...I am SO making this one. Can't wait till you figure out the camera and we can see pics of all your recipes!
And ditto on the food books, I'm hooked and learning SO much. Isn't it interesting how our blogs change and evolve as we become more educated on this subject?
I am very excited about hearing more from you...I think we are definitely 'soul sisters' in more ways than one!
ps. I just ordered 'The Omnivores Dilemna' from Amazon....can't wait to read it!
I like it when you talk about food! :)
Our email is not sending...just recieving so I thought I would respond here (you can put me on your SPAM list at any time Diane:)
I went ahead and amended my book order to include the other Pollan book, thanks for the tip, and I can't wait to start reading them....I even got DH to read 'Animal Vegetable Miracle' (he loves to read but usually dozes off after a page or two). It was such an inspiration for both of us.
I also wanted to tell you how excited we were to hear that you found garden space....yippee yahoo! I think we could be starting a trend here, there must be lots of backyards out there that are just wasted space. In our case, I think the neighbor is more excited about us starting the garden than we are (and I'm pretty excited!)
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