Vancouver Olympics

In honor of the Vancouver Olympics Opening Ceremony I made Pacific Northwest Salmon with salt, pepper and honey in the broiler. It was a pretty easy and simple meal, but delicious, served with a salad of mixed greens from my garden, avocado and green peppers and ranch dressing. I'm guessing there are not a lot of fresh veggies in Canada right now, but I bet they like ranch dressing, I mean  french fries covered in cheese and gravy is their national dish after all.

I really enjoyed the opening ceremonies. It was of course no match for the precision and scale of the Beijing show, but seeing as Canada is a sparsely populated parliamentary democracy and not a totalitarian regime of 1.3 billion people, I think it is fitting that their demonstration of culture would be on a smaller scale, with a loser and more individual sensibility. They had lots of open space in the production which is fitting for the country. I'm glad that they didn't try to directly compete with the Chinese for spectacle.

 

(of course I didn't take this picture)

Round Two Day 27 & 28

I feel like I should be having some really exciting and adventurous entries here in the last few days, but in reality I'm still just trying to plow through the Thanksgiving leftovers and the CSA vegetables before they go bad. It's a little anti-climactic. I'm also getting a new box of veggies tomorrow, so I've got my work cut out for me. I had big plans tonight to make applesauce and mayonnaise (not together) but the siren song from the backlog of programs on my television DVR wooed me away and I did nothing. It's a miracle I pulled myself away to write this.

Day 27
Breakfast: Granola and Milk

Lunch: Potato Pesto Lasagna. I made this to take to my friend Kathryn who just had a baby. It made a lot, so I tested a bowl of it for lunch. I have to confess that this contained contraband. (Parmesan Cheese Ingredients: Pasteurized Milk, Salt, Cheese Cultures and Goat Cheese Ingredients: Pasteurized Goat Milk, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Vegetable Rennet- I justified buying these because I wasn't going to eat the dish myself, I swear that was my intention!) I did make the Pesto and Alfredo sauce from scratch though!

Dinner: Left over salad with mustard vinegarette. Leftover bean soup. The bacon that I added to the soup after finding it too thick and fatty for breakfast was also too thick and fatty for the soup.

Dessert: Two and a half sugar cookies and a small glass of milk. Drinking milk was not something I did before this project began. In fact we used rice milk in our cereal, the only time we had it in the house was if a recipe called for it. If I did use milk it was usually skim because it is the least milky. I'm not pouring myself a tall glass of milk to drink with dinner or anything. (a few of my brothers do this) But the fact that I would drink even a half cup of whole milk is rather surprising.

Day 28
Breakfast: Coffee, Buttermilk Pancakes with Maple Syrup and Butter.

Snack: A banana I shared with Baby J

Lunch: 2 mini-meatballs with Herby Tomato Sauce - This is from the organic Baby Cookbook... I made too many for him to eat before they go bad, and I have discovered he is too snobby to eat food that has been frozen. Jeez! This kid doesn't know how good he has it!

Dinner: Brown Rice Penne Pasta (This has been in the pantry for months! I guess it is healthier or something, but the consistency is just not right. It's so mushy. I am hoping to make my own pasta sometime soon, and I am going to stick with Durham Wheat Semolina.) shrimp, tomato, onion, garlic, lemon juice and leftover pesto mix from yesterday.

Dessert: Peach Cobbler

Hungry and grumpy

Today was a weird day. As I am writing this I am feeling hungry and unsatisfied that reminds of the way I felt often before the project started, but not so much since. Hungry, despite having eaten what should be a reasonable amount of food.
For breakfast I had cranberries and corn grits with pecans, which was great. Mid morning I split a banana with Baby J, so far everything was fine. For lunch I had some leftover turkey, gravy, dressing and potatoes, and a shortbread cookie which was fine. Then I met a friend for coffee where I had a cappuccino. When I got home I was starving and the power was out on our block. We had candles lit, but it was very hard to see in the kitchen, especially the refrigerator and nothing could be heated up since there was no electricity. I had some salad that my husband had made at that point, and a couple of bites of the open-faced turkey sandwich with gravy he made before the power went out. After I put the baby to bed and the power came back on, I microwaved a cup of bean soup that I made before Thanksgiving. After that I just felt more hungry, so I ate the last cornbread muffin, then another cup of the soup. I still feel weirdly hungry. It's 11:10pm. This sucks. I guess I'll just go to bed.

Leftovers

That's all I've been eating since Thursday, with the exception of the new pie (Paper Bag Apple Pie with Sour Cherries) that our friend Elizabeth brought over on Friday.

DR came up with a brilliant use for the leftover cranberries for breakfast. On Friday he just added them to oatmeal, which was pretty delicious, but on Sunday he made corn grits with cranberries and chopped pecans. We had it again this morning. I think that was finally the last of the cranberries...very sad.

On Friday I was too tired to be very creative, so we just heated up plates of leftovers as is for various meals. But on Saturday night I made Pilgrim's Pie. This is a recipe from Wednesday's LA Times, and it had that perfect, comforting, Thanksgiving leftovers taste. It was exactly what you imagine when you dream of eating leftovers. We ate it in warm bowls with cranberries on the side, so good. All along we've been doing our best to get through the desserts. On Saturday EM came over and did what she could for the cause. She even helped drink some of the wine that was open, and ate a shortbread cookie for good measure.

We finished off the pilgrim's pie last night, and the apple pie. We also made a salad of turkey, beets, celery and red onion, because it's good to throw some raw veggie's in the mix in these circumstances. Also, I don't have the luxury of falling down on the veggie eating front for too long. The CSA box requires you keep it up all week long or the guilt will destroy you. The pilgrim's pie finished off the mashed potatoes and dark meat turkey. We still have almost a full turkey breast, some stuffing/dressing, pumpkin pie, peach cobbler and buttermilk pie to go.

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for ten people. It was a fun and delicious event. We made the Turkey, stuffing and gravy. Our guests brought everything else. My adorable brother Mike brought Bacon Wrapped Dates for the cocktail hour. Rich and delicious.

Jan Smelk brought Smashed Potatoes, I was thrilled that she went so far as to make her own Sour Cream. It's a good friend who is willing to indulge your craziness to that extent.

 EM made brussel sprouts and cranberries, both of which were tasty and fresh.We forgot to put the brussel sprouts out until we sat down, and I had already photographed the food, and I am a terrible blogger and picture taker, so I apologize for that. But they were good. Here are the beautiful cranberries.

We used a recipe for a Lemon-Herb Turkey we found in Bon Appétit Magazine. It was very good, but not the most amazing turkey I've ever had. I think simple might be more the way to go with turkey, as I have discovered with roast chicken. Next time I think we will try just brining the turkey overnight. This was a pretty beautiful bird, however.

We also did a lemon herb gravy. I liked it, but my husband thought it was too zesty. So again, I think simple can be better in these circumstances. It's fun to jazz things up with the traditional meals, but it's not always better than the traditional staples. I didn't get a picture of the gravy, again because I am the worst at taking pictures. Both of my sisters are great about things like that, and I wish they had been here because it would have been beautifully documented. But you are stuck with me, so it is hapharzard and incomplete.

I think the Roasted Vegetable and Corn Bread Stuffing was a top notch entry into the menu. I guess technically it is a dressing and not a stuffing since it was never stuffed into the bird. But I just can't get my head around calling it dressing because that makes me think of buttermilk ranch or thousand island, not a bread and vegetable side dish.

Of course I forgot to take a good picture of the finished project, so this one of the buffet will have to do. You can kind see how autumnal and beautiful it looks. Behind the stuffing are the cornbread muffins my friend the Yam Queen made for the festivities. She is a certified Southern Belle and these are her specialty. They were a great compliment to the meal.

Now for dessert!

It's kind of obscene how much dessert we had, and still have. I've been working hard to get through the leftovers, but it is a daunting task. Jan Smelk brought shortbread sugar cookies. Our cousin Tammy brought a buttermilk pie with strawberries AND a peach cobbler. My friend Lex, who just came back from Paris brought a Clafoutis. And Ben brought a pumpkin pie and real whipped cream to keep us from loosing site of tradition. Jan Smelk had the brilliant idea of adding whipped cream to her coffee and many of us followed suit, for just a little extra dose of decadence.

Here is a photo of our party right before eating. I am so thankful for every person at that table and everything about that meal. We ate so much delicious food, and sat around the table laughing and talking for hours after eating. To have such entertaining, generous and loving friends and family is no small thing and to have the time and resources to make and share so much good food is such a luxury I couldn't ask for more. It is a happy life I am leading and I hope I can always remember how lucky I am.

Round Two - Day 19 & 20

Yesterday began the preparations for Thanksgiving dinner, which we are having at our house. I will chronicle all the efforts to make it from scratch on Friday. In the meantime I will try to sum up the last couple of days. Tuesday I soaked some beans for a bean soup I made yesterday. I threw in the left over bones from the pork chops I made last week, and cut up a couple of the saltiest pieces of bacon. I thought this might be enough salt, but actually it wasn't. I ended up having to salt it when I served it, which never works as well as when you are cooking it. But that's a good lesson. Also, the recipe I used calls for chili powder, which I don't have, so I used curry powder instead. It didn't have the kick that I would have preferred. I'm going to have to learn how to make chili powder. I also had some bread with butter and some of the cookie pieces.

For lunch we had some left over roast chicken from Tuesday night with broccoli and bread. I am pretty excited about this chicken. I have been reafing the Julie/Julia blog, and she mentioned when she made Julia's roast chicken that she (like me) didn't find it worth all the turning and basting work. She said that she makes a roast chicken by rubbing it with olive oil, salt and pepper and putting it in the oven "for a while". So this is what I did and I think it was the best one I have made so far. I cooked it at 450º for about an hour and twenty minutes. Finally, the skin was almost crispy! I think if I had left it in for another 5-10 minutes the skin would have crisped up even more without drying out the meat. I can't believe that roasting a chicken has become the easiest dinner I can make. Two months ago this was something I would have to psyche myself up for for a few days and think about all day. This time I decided right before I put it in the oven. It worked out perfectly because I set Baby J up in his high chair with his dinner, and prepared the chicken and cut up some potatoes and carrots to roast underneath while he ate. I put it in the oven and then started the process of putting him to bed. By the time he was asleep it was almost ready, all I had to so was sauté some beet greens with olive oil and garlic to serve with it and a real grown up dinner was ready.

I apologize for skipping around. Yesterday morning, we had cornmeal pancakes and bacon. We made our own buttermilk for the first time for these pancakes. As promised, it couldn't be easier. A cup of milk, and a tablespoon of lemon juice, left to sit for five minutes. It fermented just like buttermilk! This kind of thing is one of the best parts of this project, seeing science at work! I wish I had paid more attention in school. Perhaps I will have a strong understanding of all of this chemisty and biology by the time Baby J is studying it.

I already told you about Tuesday's dinner, for lunch we finished off the mediocre pumpkin stew from book club night and for breakfast eggs and bacon. Throw in some broken cookie pieces and bread with butter and perhaps a banana or two and that should about cover it.

Round Two - Day 16 and Beer

Are you as bored as I am with the daily report of what I am eating? It's just not as fun as it once was... There isn't much left in my house that would be considered contraband and when a lot of it is the same thing day after day it just get's too monotonous. I think I will have to work backwards this time. I just ate a banana. Before that I had some left over lentils cooked with salsa, onion, green pepper, bacon and mashed up meatballs I had made for Baby J. I made the meatballs almost a week ago and he really loved them, but I was afraid they would go bad if they didn't get eaten, and he only eats one per meal, so we finished them off. They were very good. I think I will post the recipe, as with a lot of the recipes for him, grown people would enjoy them as well. For breakfast I had oatmeal again, and coffee.

Last night I had a slice of pumpkin pie from Thursday night, before that we went to Wurstküche for dinner. This is a sausage and beer restaurant in Downtown LA. For obvious reasons it is a favorite of mine. In fact when I first read about it I felt as if it was created with me in mind as it's target demographic. Judging from it's popularity, I am not alone in my love of sausage & beer. The menu is simply that, about 20 different and exciting types of sausage (I had rabbit, veal and pork seasoned with white wine), your choice of two toppings from Carmelized Onions, Sauerkraut, Sweet Peppers and Spicy Peppers (I had onions and sweet peppers) and Belgian Fries and an assortment of dipping sauces (Bleu Cheese Walnut and Bacon). There are also about a hundred different beers, and they all come in the appropriate glass. I had the Floris Apple Ale, a witbier fermented with apples. It was sweet and autumnal tasting. We were inspired to go there because we were downtown at a beer making workshop.

We walked away with a half gallon jug of Winter Spice Ale. It is fermenting in our kitchen as we speak. If we don't carbonate it, it will be ready on December 5th, which is the official end day of this project. It is fitting to have some beer to drink, since we haven't had any in the house the whole time.

It looks like moonshine, which I love. The process was easier than I had imagined. The only ingredients you need are yeast, sugar and water. If I got it correctly you just have to bring one gallon of water to 140º, then add grains (must be at least 1/3 barley) and slowly raise the temp to 160º. Strain out the grains (which have broken down into sugar at this point). Then add your flavorings, spices and hops, etc. (I did learn that hops came into popularity because the Protestant Church of Germany required they be used exclusively because the majority of other herb growing was controlled by the Catholic Church - I might need to check the exact facts on this, but it was intriguing). Then you cool down the wort - that's what this mixture is called. When it gets to about 130º you can add a few gallons of cool water, which will bring the temp down even further. When it is about 95º, you pitch your brewers yeast. (Pitch means add). Then you cork it and put an airlock on it. Fill the airlock with some cheap high proof booze, like vodka, and wait 2 weeks for it ferment. At this point you have what Donny (Fella in the pic above) calls "alcoholic tea". He said they drink it this way all the time. But if you want to carbonate it, you can pour the mix into empty, clean beer bottles and cap them. They had a little device that puts caps on. If you leave it a few more days it will create the carbonation from the CO2 that naturally occurs. You can also sprinkle a little sugar into each bottle before capping to help the carbonation process along. The other alternative was to get a 5-gallon keg and a CO2 compressor. I'm not planning on doing that, so I didn't pay that much attention to that part. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Round Two - Day Nine - Train Adventure

Not much cooking today. In general for this month I am trying to avoid eating in restaurants. The idea being that I don't want to give myself the opportunity to say, "I don't feel like cooking today, let's go out for Chinese." But as I have mentioned before, I also don't want to turn myself into someone who is no fun, and I don't want to miss cultural experiences that are timely in nature. Both of those situations presented themselves today.

Baby J finally got his sleeping back in order and slept all night until 7am. A huge relief! All of this is easier to handle on more than five hours of sleep. For breakfast we had scrambled eggs, hashbrowns and coffee. Then I headed out to a Bachelorette brunch at Pop Champagne Bar for the beautiful Megan who is getting married on New Years Eve. I had already had breakfast, but that was several hours earlier, and I think it falls into the category of being no fun to go to a party at a restaurant and say, "Oh I make all my food from scratch, I can't order anything." How obnoxious! So I ordered the Lemon Soufflé pancakes, and they were delicious.

After the brunch I had planned a train adventure with DR, Baby J, and my brother Mike. After nine years of planning and five years of construction the six mile light rail extension of the Metro Gold Line opened yesterday. This train stops a short walk from my house, so we have been eagerly anticipating the extension for a long time. It goes into East LA, which is not an area I've had much reason to visit in the 13 years I've lived here, but I think the existence of this train will change that. So yesterday it was free to ride, and there were little festivals at many of the stops. Also there was an article in the Food Section of the LA Times about good restaurants along the route. It was kind of a madhouse, and I couldn't look out the windows on the ride as much as I wanted to. But I was excited to see so many people riding the train, and it was a perfectly beautiful Los Angeles autumn day. We rode the train to the end of the line then walked to a fish taco joint called Tacos Baja. It was nearly a mile away, which I wouldn't say was off the train stop. I don't mind a walk at all. As I said it was a beautiful day, but in the circumstances it was further than I wanted since we wanted to try a bunch of places on the route, and we had gotten kind of a late start. But that being said, it was worth the effort, the fish was crispy, the sauce creamy and the cabbage and tomatoes fresh and tasty. If you are out that way and have the time, I would recommend checking it out.

After the tacos we walked back to the train, and decided to walk along the route for a bit as the next two stops were very close, and we could get a better feel for the neighborhood that way. The next stop was the East Los Angeles Civic Center, which sits on beautifully landscaped park with a lagoon and ducks and farmer's market. Unfortunately we got there as the festivities were winding down and all the vendors were packing up. So after wandering around for a bit we moved along to the Maravilla stop. Here the LA Times recommended a little strip mall restaurant right next to the train, La Chiva Loca.

This place is known for it's tortas ahogadas, which is a sandwich soaked in tomato sauce. I know that the newspaper industry is suffering, but somebody must still be reading it because they had run out of sandwiches by the time we got there. They said it had been a really busy day. The only thing they had left were taquito's, which were little cheese filled tortillas, deep fried, covered in shredded beef, cabbage, onions and tomato sauce.

Based on the tastiness of this little snack I am looking forward to going back to try the torta.
By this time it was getting late and cold, and with a baby there is only so much you can do in a single outing before it becomes abusive, so we got back on the train and headed home. The three stops we visited were said to be the least exciting in terms of food, so we are planning a second train adventure for perhaps next week. Since it won't be the opening, we are hoping it will be a little less hectic as well.

Round Two - Day Five

Breakfast: Granola with milk and coffee. A couple of little pieces of bread that we'd cut up for Baby J that he didn't eat.

Lunch: Fruit Salad: Cantaloupe, Apple, Banana, Grapes. A hamburger: Grass Fed Beef, Onion Salt, Pepper, Lawry's Season Salt Ingredients: Salt, Sugar, Spices (Including Paprika and Tumeric) Onion, Cornstarch, Garlic, Tricalcium Phosphate (Prevents Caking) Natural Flavors, Paprika Oleoresin (For Color). In the past I had held that without cheese there is no point in eating a burger. Now that I have no cheese I am forced to give up that stance. However I have discovered that with good beef, prepared well you can almost not miss it. In fact, I think in this case a slice of cheese may have masked the sheer deliciousness of the meat. In the case of a road trip In n Out stop or a backyard BBQ, I will still opt for cheese when given the chance, but this was a nice surprise.
Creamed Corn Ingredients: Corn, Water, Sugar, Modified Corn Starch and Salt.

Snacks: Two slices of Simple Bread toasted with butter.

Dinner: Pot Roast with carrots and potatoes, Beet Salad
Two glasses of Synergy Wine

Dessert: Pumpkin Pie with real whipped cream.

Day Seventeen

I started out today with a resolve to do better and try harder, despite being away from home. I started out well, but I found it very difficult to keep it up when I'm not in my kitchen. Also it is my eleven-year wedding anniversary, so a little celebratory rule breaking is in order.

Breakfast: Giant Red Grapes and Mini green grapes.
Jalapeno, Cheddar Biscuit from Farmer's Market. I didn't make these, but I bought them from the woman who made them from scratch, which, I think, is the next best thing.

Lunch: Tomato Salad (Red, Green and Yellow Heirloom tomatoes, Green Bell Pepper, Feta Ingredients: Pasteurized Milk, Salt, Cheese Cultures, Enzymes, Natamycin (Natural Mold Inhibitor) , Kalamata Olives Ingredients: Tree Ripened Olives, Water, Distilled and Red Wine Vinegar, Salt, Olive Oil, Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Salt, Pepper) The tomatoes and green pepper were from the beautiful Noe Valley Farmer's Market, and they were so flavorful and delicious. The rest of the ingredients were from my brother-in-law's kitchen.

1 Pumpkin Ale

Since we had a late dinner reservation we went to a Mexican Restaurant called Pappalote for mid-meal around 3pm. We were going to bring food back to the house, but I ended up hooking up with my friend ES there, so I had a Chili Verde Quesadilla and a Negro Modela there.

Dinner is a whole chapter of it's own. We went to a restaurant called Starberry. I highly recommend a visit if you are in the Bay Area. They use local and organic ingredients whenever possible, and everything was really delicious and reasonably priced. There were seven of us, and we ordered a bunch of stuff and shared everything. It felt like an amazing endless feast.

mini corn dogs with spicy mustard & house made ketchup
split pea soup, house smoked ham hock & grilled toast
warm olive tapenade, chili oil & grilled flat bread
marinated japanese cucumber, summer tomato, raw milk feta & black olives
local corn with mascarpone & garlic
Pizza with fresh figs, blue cheese, & wild arugula
roasted porchetta, salsa verde & salsa calabria, market greens
One and a half Dark Blonde Ales

Dessert: We ordered one of each of the desserts here.
Secret Breakfast Ice Cream (Jim Beam & Corn Flakes)


We walked to the restaurant and planned to take a cab home, but after the delicious porchetta (a giant round of pork surrounded by about an inch of fat.) I decided walking the 20 minutes home would be a good step in preventing a heart attack.

Day Fourteen & Squash Blossoms

Breakfast: Polenta, fried with onions and an egg, overeasy.

Lunch: The last of the tabouleh and grapes.

Snacks: A handful of peanuts (Now they are gone), part of a piece of Irish Brown Bread. (I think it's gone bad.) A glass of Just Cranberry Juice Ingreidents: Filtered Water and Cranberry Juice Concentrate

Appetizer: I harvested the last of the bounty of the Summer planting from my community garden. I had one pumpkin, a couple of squash and a bunch of new squash blossoms because of the rain. I was sad to pull everything out, but it is time to move into fall. Also, I was excited to try cooking the squash blossoms, as I have never cooked flowers before. EM, who is my gardening partner came over after we spent a couple of therapeutic hours amending and tilling our soil (hacking at it with a hoe, and tossing dried blood and compost everywhere) for the next planting this weekend. We brought the blossoms home, cleaned them, stuffed them with the Queso Blanco cheese that I made a couple days ago, mixed with grated Goat's Milk Cheddar that I had lying around and chopped basil from my the plant on my porch, dredged them in egg and flour and fried them in oil. They were delicious. My brother MW said that he was going to brag about them to George at work who is always talking about the good food he is eating.

Dinner: After the squash blossoms we had some Quinoa with onion, red pepper, tomato and chicken. Since that was not quite filling enough and we felt wasteful not putting the huge amount of oil used in frying the blossoms, DR fried up the leftover polenta, some onions and red peppers that were about to go bad. It made for a pretty tasty little meal. For dessert we finally finished the Chocolate Chip Cookies that have been plagueing me since the project began, thanks to EM & MW for their help.

Day One

The eating portion of Day One is coming to an end (hopefully). Let's see if I can remember everything I had.

I started off with part of a banana, what was left from the part of banana that went into Baby J's oatmeal with cinnamon. Then for real breakfast, I had the Granola that I made last night with a little organic whole milk. (2% & Non-fat milk have other ingredients besides milk) It was pretty delicious if I do say so.

For lunch I had a leftover hamburger from last night's dinner. It was wonderfully tasty. My husband made them. He started with Organic ground beef from Cost-Co, which is completely acceptable. He added some salsa (also from Cost-Co), which was already in the house. Ingredients: Tomatoes, onions, green-peppers, jalapenos, cilantro, vinegar, lime juice, salt, dehydrated celery, cane sugar, fresh garlic, spices and citric acid. Although, this is a pretty clean list, once this 48 oz jar is gone, we will have to make it ourselves. (However, since we don't have any chips, and I have no idea how to make chips, I have a feeling this salsa isn't going too fast.)
He also used Organic Bread Crumbs from Trader Joe's. Ingredients: Organic wheat flout, organic evaportated cane juice, sea salt, asorbic acid. Then I added to the problem, by putting a slice of cheddar cheese on the burger. This block of cheese has been in the fridge for a while, and I no longer have the packaging, so I don't know the ingredients, but I'm sure it's more than one. Alas, it's almost gone...sigh. I also had a slice of onion and some avocado on the burger. No bun. On the side I had a medley of steamed veggies (Broccoli from TJ, Squash I grew in my community garden and carrots from my Farm Share).

Snacks - Another two bananas shared with Baby J. and a handful of peanuts (salted!).

For dinner we had pasta with pesto sauce. I would have said that eating pasta was just to get it out of the house early, but it turns out that there is only one ingredient: Organic durum wheat semolina, so this is a totally legal food in this project. I was completely surprised by that. (However, it feels like a cheat, and I might still try to learn to make my own pasta.) Anyway, the pesto sauce was left over from a lasagna I made last week. I made the pesto from scratch using basil we grew on our front steps. There was goat cheese in it, so that part couldn't be repeated unless I got a hold of some goat's milk. We also had a salad of tatsoi lettuce, avocado and red bell peppers. We used Trader Joe's Organic Ranch Dressing, ingredients: (all organic except the xantham gum): Fresh Cultured Buttermilk, Vegenaise (Soybean Oil, Water, Brown Rice Syrup, Apple Cider Vinegar, Soy Protein, Sea Salt, Mustart Flour, Lemon Juice Concentrate) Vinegar, Sea Salt, Garlic, Xantham Gum, Onion, Spices, Natural Flavor, Black Pepper, Chives. I'm pretty sure that writing out all of these ingredients will encourage me not to eat things with long lists attached. We finished off a loaf of French Bread left over from Sunday dinner. My brother brought it over, so I don't know the ingredients, but it was probably flour, water, salt and maybe some xanthum gum for good measure. We added butter, garlic salt, onion salt and parmesan, all things we had laying around.

For dessert we each had one of the cookies from the package my mother-in-law gave us to take home from her house on Saturday. Chocolate Chip Cookies from the Ralph's baker. What was I thinking? There are about a dozen cookies in this package. It's going to either take us all month to eat these, or one crazy binge. I don't know which is worse.
Ingredients: Enriched flour (Niacin, Reduced Iron Thiaminmomitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid) Sugar, Vegetable Shortening (Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil) Chocolate Chips (Sugar, Chocolate Liquor, Cocoabutter, Dextrose, Soy Lecithin, Natural Flavor) Eggs, Molasses Contains 2% or less of leavening, Sodium Bicarbonate, sodium aluminium phosphate, monocalcium phosphate) salt, natural and artifical flavors, nonfat milk.

After writing that list I'm pretty sure I know which is worse. typing words like sodium aluminium phosphate really brings home the fact that so much of what we buy to put in our bodies is not food at all, and we really have no idea what it is. I think it is actually better for me to start this project still eating processed foods that are in my home, rather than just going cold turkey. This forces me to face the reality of what I really buy and really eat, not just my idealized version of myself.