10,000 Vinyasas

love this multigrain hot cereal

I picked up some Bob’s Red Mill 7 Grain Hot Cereal the other day.  I have been a fan of Bob’s Red Mill brand of grains, pancake mixes, hot cereals, vegetable soup mixes and other baking products for quite some time, and this multigrain hot cereal is no exception.  It is thick, but not as thick as Bob’s Scottish Oatmeal, and presents a hearty, dense texture when cooked over the stove with raw whole milk.  In addition, I add cinnamon, nutmeg and walnuts or pecans, along with a touch of salt. Topped with some fresh berries, Bob’s 7 Grain Hot Cereal is all anyone could ask for in a quick and easy breakfast.  As an added bonus, and for those who pay attention to the quality of merchants with whom they do business,  I understand that Bob’s Red Mill is employee-owned!

Give this fine, high quality multigrain hot cereal a try.  I thought enough of it to buy it in bulk, and will be enjoying this hot cereal for quite a long time in the future.

10000 Vinyasas Review of Bob’s 7 Grain Hot Cereal

I stumbled across this ancient grain a few weeks ago, and liked the taste of the salad made with it, so I got some and last night made a delicious meal of it, using the following recipe for an outline:

Wilted Spinach Salad with Kamut and Sauteed Vegetables

Ingredients:

* 1 cup uncooked kamut, soaked overnight in cold water
* 3 cups fresh baby spinach
* 1 medium red onion, sliced 1/4″
* 3/4 lb yellow squash, sliced 1/4″
* 8 oz mushrooms, sliced thinly
* 1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted
* 1/4 cup cubed Pecorino Romano
* 6 garlic cloves, sliced thinly
* 1 red pear, cored and sliced thinly
* 2 tsp Kosher salt
* fresh ground pepper to taste
* 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to saute
* 2-3 Tbsp Balsamic vinegar

Preparation:

1. Place the kamut in 4 cups water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and allow to cook for 50-60 minutes. Drain and allow to cool slightly at room temperature.
2. Place the sliced squash in a medium bowl and toss with 1 tsp kosher salt. Allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. This will draw out much of the water which would otherwise prevent the squash from caramelizing. Drain the squash and pat dry.
3. Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large sauteuse over medium heat. Add the squash and saute for about two minutes until one side begins to brown, turn over and saute the other side for an additional two minutes, or until lightly brown. Remove from pan and set aside in a large bowl (you will build your salad in this bowl).
4. Add the sliced onion to the pan and saute until it begins to caramelize. Remove from pan and set aside with the squash.
5. Repeat step 4 with the garlic. Reduce the heat slightly.
6. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Add the sliced mushroom and stir in pan for one minute. Add one tablespoon of Balsamic vinegar and stir. Allow mushrooms to lightly brown and then remove and set aside with the squash.
7. Remove the pan from the heat. Add up to 1/4 cup of olive oil to the pan (*you might scale this back a little if you were heavy handed with the oil while sauteing) and 1-2 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar. Stir to incoporate the brown bits into the warmed dressing. Pour over the sauteed vegetables. Add the pine nuts and kamut. Toss well.
8. Add the spinach, sliced pear, and 1 tsp of kosher salt and toss well, allowing the spinach to wilt.
9. Garnish each serving with some of the cubed Romano. Sprinkle with fresh ground black pepper, and salt if desired, to taste.

I left out the spinach and pear, and changed the cheese to something I had already, but overall, this worked out extremely well. Give Kamut a try; it’s available, probably, in your local bulk bins.

I admit, I patronize Costco pretty frequently. They have a decent selection of fresh fruit (berries), vegetables (mushrooms, greens), and orange juice. Also, the store across town actually sells green coffee beans at a cheap price. Once in a while, like now, they make a mistake in gauging the local taste for unusual beer and have to unload it at a hefty discount. On these trips, I usually like to amuse myself by noting what processed foodlike substances are being offered, usually shaking my head at the lengths to which the food industry (the term is deliberate) goes to add “value” to real food, by processing, packaging, etc. Having shopped at Costco for some years now, I thought I had pretty much seen the full range of this crap, but apparently I was wrong, because the other day I found the store featuring already prepared and packaged hard boiled eggs. Okay, think about this for a moment: some marketing department genius figured that there was profit to be made in selling these, because apparently, people cannot be bothered to boil and peel an egg! I pause to reflect that this is just the culmination of the entire food section of Costco, which is devoted to the principle that anything that comes whole and unprocessed can be made better by peeling, stripping, combining, slicing, dicing, canning, storing in little plastic cups, freezing, and of course, adding all kinds of salt, sugar, additives, preservatives, fillers, stabilizers, emulsifiers, and just plain garbage. At any rate, I thought up a new slogan for the place, based on the hard boiled egg incident:

Costco: Food For Lazy People

I got this from Amazon, using their 15% off discount for Subscribe and Save. It comes in small plastic bags, and looks somewhat like steel-cut oats. Anyway, I tried it this morning; here’s my first impressions: interesting texture. Reminds me of the Cream of Rice hot cereal I used to eat when I was a kid. Thick and hearty when prepared with 1% milk. Good flavor; easy to make. Highly recommend. Of course, this stuff isn’t cheap; as I’ve mentioned before, buying your own cereal ingredients from bulk bins is the cheapest way to go, and offers the most control. Still, it’s good to have some variety.

Sadly, we are about to say goodbye to a local restaurant which, for whatever reasons, has started sliding down the slope of good service and food. I refer in this instance to Sogo, a place I discovered last year, mostly because we would congregate there after acro-yoga practice; Vladimir was fond of it, you see, and to my slight surprise, the food was outstanding, particularly the soups. The owner/chef has some serious cooking chops, and we began to visit it for dinner and some Sunday brunches. Alas, the last few visits have revealed that the local economy is taking a toll on this establishment; first, most of the stock of market items, along with their shelving, was eliminated, leaving a cavernous dining area that scaled poorly in human terms. We noticed also at this time that the menu, which had previously changed daily, had been reduced to “regular” items, with the exception of one soup and one entree. Our last visit was also disappointing in other ways; there was no chilled white wine available at all, even though the wine refrigerator stood empty. When we ordered glasses of red wine, the food arrived quite a while before the wine; in other words, we sat there with our food while the staff, who looked like high school students, struggled to get two glasses of wine to our table, for unknown reasons. Further, there was no acknowledgment on the part of the staff about the lapse. At any rate, we may have eaten our last meal at Sogo, especially for dinner. My heart goes out to the owner; it is certainly not easy to maintain a small, cool gourmet restaurant in an area where most people define “food” as something that is obtainable at a drive-through window, and certainly the irony of having a golden arched establishment in the same strip as Sogo is not lost here. Our opinion is that poor Sogo is not long for this earth. Sad.

Ok, I’ve officially had enough. I shop at Costco often, mostly for the fruits, vegetables, and other whole foods. (The processed foods are another story; the famous samples they give out are a horrorshow of really bad food ideas, so much so that I frequently amuse myself cruising around noting the various blandishments the food “industry” offers to overstressed, poorly exercised, overworked, unhappy people). At any rate, I’ve bought the fresh organic spinach for quite awhile now, because I like eating lots of spinach, and Costco offers the best price in town. Sure, the quantity is a big much, but up until recently I haven’t had too much trouble keeping most of it fresh. Lately, though, for some reason, the spinach has been rotting earlier and earlier. The final straw came last week, when I brought some home, and by the next day, when I opened the package, it was already rotting. Let me tell you, there’s nothing worse than trying to separate out the slimy parts of the spinach from the good. Well, that does it: I will no longer buy spinach from Costco. It is way too much trouble to track down your receipt and go all the way back to the store to obtain satisfaction. Sorry, Costco, but you’ve made your decaying green bed this time, and you’ll just have to lay in it.

Yuck!

There’s a Zen Buddhist saying about bringing presence into every part of your life, even the most mundane of activities. Viewed in that light, my morning espresso-making ritual approaches that of a religious experience, considering the care and time I take to make my three shots of espresso every day. Let’s just walk through this: one has to fill the boiler of the machine (with specially filtered water, of course), turn it on, wait for the machine to heat up, warm an espresso cup in the microwave, wait some more, grind beans, dose ground coffee into basket, lock portafilter and basket into grouphead of machine, pull lever up, wait ten seconds, pull lever down halfway, pull up again, slowly pull lever all the way down while observing the espresso coming out of the naked portafilter. Here’s the payoff: drink the espresso, savor the fullness and subtlety of the flavors and the jolt of caffeine. If I get energetic some morning, I may post a video of the whole thing. Just a little coffee action on a day when I sold my “extra” espresso machine…to celebrate, I suppose, and consider how much I do appreciate this whole process. I’ve left out the coffee bean roasting, which takes place typically about four or five days before the actual making of the espresso (since the fresh roasted beans need to rest before consumption), but is likewise filled with details, none of which I’m sure you want to hear about.

Menu for dinner tonight: Wild Sockeye Salmon,topped with pecans and raspberry chipotle sauce, accompanied by green beans, mushrooms and quinoa.

If all we know isn’t enough, here comes yet another medical/scientific study which shows that sugar is addictive in rats, and as a bonus, leads to increased sensitivity to alcohol and other drugs. It’s long been my observation that those of us who reside in the US are subtlely addicted to sugar, because it is put into so many many foods, or manufactured substances that pass as foods. These new findings would certainly help explain why so much of the population is addicted to medications of some kind, and it surely is another nail in the coffin for the “low fat” theory of obesity.

I don’t trust my local grocery chain. As I’ve become more aware of the evils of the industrial food system, Big Agriculture, and the ubiquity of corn and soy products in processed foods (along with all the other harmful ingredients), I’ve also noticed that the local grocery is pretty much a cheerleader for catering to people’s ignorance and worst impulses when it comes to food. Here, we are speaking of processed meats, products containing white flour and sugar, and horrendously fatty “fresh” food offerings. Further, in contrast to, say, Whole Foods, I perceive that profit, from selling whatever, is singularly the chain’s primary motivation. Hence, they are late and reluctant to stock organic and local produce, doing this only as a sop to some of their customers. As business people, they are ruthlessly predatory, driving out almost every other major chain from San Antonio (the exception is Walmart and Target, not exactly paragons of virtue themselves). In my view, it’s not too difficult to delve beneath the superficial cheeriness and relentless “low price” propaganda and see the essential greediness sucking up the resources and health of the captive, oblivious citizenry. In addition to Whole Foods, we do happen to have a couple of smaller specialty stores which stock a lot more fresh local products (Green Fields, Sun Harvest). Not that these are perfect (nor is Costco, another place I frequent, for the fresh produce, mostly), but they are a damn sight better than the sneaky, fake grocery chain that dominates the retail landscape here.

A couple of years ago, I read a book called Good Calories, Bad Calories. Dense and full of technical analysis of many many studies, it nonetheless was a revelation, at least in my thinking about food. The immediate reaction, upon finishing, was to wonder “how could this be true?” since it essentially pointed out that much of the conventional wisdom about what to eat (and what not to eat) was based upon flawed studies, misinterpretation, and politicized recommendations, most of which center around the “low fat” diet. What Taubes indicates in the book is if you don’t eat as much fat, you have to make up for it by increasing either protein or carbohydrates, and mathematically, this must be true. The role of simple carbs, like sugar and white flour, is examined in the cases of native people who adopt Western diets and thereby suffer cancer, diabetes, heart attacks and strokes, as well as obesity. Although it is impossible, at least to me at this time, to determine whether Taubes is correct (or at least partially correct), I began to adopt a more fat-based diet in response. I had already dropped about 10 pounds (and they were very significant pounds, too, since they came directly off my waist), and I was curious as to whether I could maintain this loss while increasing my fat content. Reading these words makes it seem that it was more of a conscious and linear process, but it actually just evolved over a period of time, while I started eating more nuts and quality meats while trying, gradually to reduce or eliminate more sugar, white flour and processed foods in my diet. As regular readers know, the latest manifestation is the addition of raw whole milk to my diet. At this point, I can report that my weight remains stable and at the level which I consider to be close to the ideal (I’m not ready to give up beer and margaritas, yet). By all rights, if the low fat theory of diet is correct, I should have gained quite a bit of weight over the last couple of years, but that didn’t happen. I am therefore ready to conclude that, for me at least, a low fat diet has no real place in my understanding of the best way to eat. Reducing the amounts of simple carbohydrates, however, does seem to work. Your mileage may vary.

Ok, so I’ve now had about a gallon of the raw whole milk I picked up from a local farmer last week. Tentatively, I can report that consumption of this seems to decrease my appetite (produces a feeling of “fullness”) later on in the day. I’m hoping it will promote more weight stabilization as well. It’s kind of a pain to have to journey out to get this milk every ten days or so, but I suppose it’s worth it, if it is, in fact, healthier. I guess the jury’s still out on this. Certainly it tastes better than the organic skim I had been drinking.

10. The ingredients are inferior. Think you’re getting organic spinach in your salad? I doubt it. This goes double for salmon, which is invariably farmed and contains harmful PCBs.

9. Alcoholic beverages are outrageously priced. Generally, a glass of wine sells for about as much as you can buy the entire bottle in the store. Some establishments resist the temptation to vastly overcharge, but they are rare. Get ready to pay out the nose if you want to drink.

8. Actually, there’s really no telling what could be in that dish you just ordered. The people in the back (see rule #7) might pour a bunch of sugar or corn syrup in there, just to make it taste “better.” Too much salt is also entirely too common.

7. Generally, felons are employed back in the kitchen. I’m not making this up; it’s one of the few areas where people with a criminal record can still find work. Would you invite someone like this into your kitchen to serve you food? I think not.

6. Noise. Apparently, many many restaurant owners think an ear-splitting volume equates to a convivial atmosphere, so little or no noise-reducing materials are used. This does not make for an setting of tranquility and serenity.

5. The temptation to eat crap is too much, when it’s all around you. I’m talking here about white processed flour and sugar. You might be a saint at home, but when it’s staring you up at you from the bread basket, it becomes much harder to stick to your chosen dietary path of avoiding raising your glycemic levels.

4. Poor service and an expected tip for same. We’ve all experienced this one, I’m sure.

3. The sanitary condition of the establishment is also a concern. Periodic inspections by your local health department are necessary, but not sufficient. Do you want to take the time to examine the certificate and do other “homework” to ensure that you’re not risking infection before you decide to patronize a restaurant?

2. Did you know many of the dishes you think are uniquely prepared in the restaurant are in fact delivered frozen on a truck? Why not just skip the dining out and just go straight to the freezer at the grocery store? Google Sysco if you think I’m kidding.

1. If you take even a small amount of time and effort, you can create dishes at home that are much better and cheaper than you will find at almost any restaurant. You’ll know you’re getting to that point when your reaction to most of the offered cuisine at an establishment is “I could make this at home, better.”

According to my latest reading, Real Food: What to Eat and Why, the author highly and in great detail recommends drinking whole, raw milk, fresh from the farm. It’s not too difficult to believe the the industrial processes of pasteurization and homogenation destroy necessary vitamins, minerals, and good fats. Yes, yes, we are continuing our exploration of what to eat, a la Gary Taubes, and trying out the notion that much of the low fat, high carb, meat is bad dogma we’ve been fed (sorry) most of our lives is, well, just completely wrong. To that end, I’ve located a couple of sources just outside the city for raw milk. (Texas, surprisingly, has a raw milk farmer certification program). I’m very curious about this, and about whether drinking such milk will increase my body weight. A continuing series…

Here’s a Thanksgiving tradition at my house (actually, my parents’, which is where Turkey Day takes place since time immemorial), that I started when I dug the recipe out of the newspaper (back when we had a newspaper). Now, it seems that most of the family expects me to appear with it, so here goes:

Almond Squash Soup

4 tablespoons butter
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
1 leek, white part only, diced
1 small carrot, diced
1/2 stalk celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, diced
4 ounces (1 stick) butter
1/2 cup flour
4 medium yellow squash, diced into 3/4 inch pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons rosemary, minced
5 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup toasted almonds
1 cup half and half, or as needed
salt and pepper to taste

Melt 4 tablespoons butter in medium sized pan, then add onion, leek, carrot, celery and garlic, and saute gently until tender, about 8-10 minutes.
While vegetables are cooking, make a roux. Melt 4 ounces butter in separate pan, add flour, stirring in well. Cook over low heat, stirring frequently, about 8 minutes. Remove roux from heat and set aside until needed.
When vegetables are tender, add squash and saute 8 more minutes. Add rosemary and stock, and bring mixture to a boil. Add prepared roux, stir to blend, and allow mixture to cook and thicken about 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and puree in blender, along with toasted almonds, until smooth. Heat half and half and add to soup until desired consistency is reached. Season with salt and pepper as desired.
Yield: 8 servings

I modify this recipe somewhat, depending upon (yes!) what I have in the kitchen. Also, in the past I’ve used skim milk instead of half and half and whole milk. I think the flavor doesn’t suffer.

Honestly, I don’t know why, but this was very very good. I’ve made pasta quite a bit in my life, but this Italian super premium stuff really is to die for. It improves your cooking immensely. I could be wrong about this, but I’ve done this twice now, and it’s been awesome. My best guess…

Well, here is yet another example of the industrial food system, and it’s corrupt influence on the persons in charge of regulating it, in a story about how a new labeling program called “Smart Choices” allows such fine processed foods as Froot Loops to be deemed healthy, or, in the words of the captivated Eileen T. Kennedy, president of the Smart Choices board and the dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, at least the least worst option: “You’re rushing around, you’re trying to think about healthy eating for your kids and you have a choice between a doughnut and a cereal,” Dr. Kennedy said, evoking a hypothetical parent in the supermarket. “So Froot Loops is a better choice.”

Ho ho ho…Thanks, doc. Just for reference, this product is 42% sugar by weight. As one commentator mentioned, surely the doughnut would be better than a tub of lard, so let’s give the doughnut the Smart Choices check too. Actually, I don’t really think you should be buying stuff that has a nutrition label on it; these are processed foods not deserving of your attention. Once again, it’s difficult to come to any other conclusion except that the industrial food system is untrustworthy and no one should buy their products. Here are some of the participants: Kellogg’s, Kraft Foods, ConAgra Foods, Unilever, General Mills, PepsiCo and Tyson Foods.

Just don’t buy. Just don’t.

I’ve been meaning to try composting for quite awhile…just something that seemed to be a good thing to do, but hadn’t gotten around to it until recently, when I purchased a small kitchen bin from a local discount store. About a foot high, it seemed kind of small, but what the hey, let’s give this a shot. Well. I was just amazed, after using it a couple of weeks, at how much kitchen refuse this thing swallowed up. It seemed to be full, but then you press it down a bit, and voila! it goes back down. I’ve put an enormous amount of stuff into this thing (lots of coffee grounds, natch) and it still refuses to fill up. This item has really exceeded my wildest expectations. I mean, the amount of biodegradable kitchen material that we discard is just amazing, when you look at it, and the second thing that ran through my head was, “why doesn’t everyone do this?” I mean really, it’s so easy and so cheap, and requires no effort at all. Just another example of how ridiculously wasteful our industrialized society is, and a hint of how much more we could all do, or at least some of us, if we wanted to.

Here’s a very nice and simple recipe for stuffed portobello mushrooms. Mushrooms, of course, are one of the mysteries of the natural world; we aren’t sure what they are, exactly. A plant, a fungus, who knows? Well, for our purposes, they have quite a “meaty” taste and are excellent in many many dishes. Here is one that will make you smile:

6 or 8 portobello mushrooms, remove stems (don’t discard, they go well in the Mexican Flag Omelet)
tiny amount of red/green bell peppers, chopped
one or two cloves of garlic, chopped
small amount of feta cheese bits
tiny amount of onion, chopped

Put all ingredients into mushroom caps, bake in oven at 400 for awhile. This would be for a single serving, so add more of everything if you’re sharing. Takes about 10-15 minutes. Here’s a picture of some I made tonight:

For those of us who have migrated to whole grains, bought from the bulk bins of local grocers (well, there are no local grocers anymore, just chains), here’s a quick hint to prevent certain, well, bugs and offspring of same from reproducing while in your pantry: freeze the items for a couple of days after you get them home. This should be enough to kill off the potential sources of protein which might one day look up at you from your cereal bowl.

2005 Yellow Tail Chardonnay Reserve…yuck! I understand the differences between California and Australian chardonnays, but still, this one is just aged and failing. If you want value, stick to the regular Yellow Tail; it’s rough, but at least its not overpriced.

2006 Sawbuck Chardonnay (Medocino County). Eschews the traditional “oaky” California version, but still, lacks complexity and balance.

2007 Rock Rabbit Sauvignon Blanc (Central Coast, California). Do these people know what good sauvignon blanc is? Obviously not.