Sometimes the classics need a re-visit.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’99
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, (zinc!) sunscreen would be 
it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by 
scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable 
than my own meandering experience…I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; oh nevermind; you will not 
understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. 
But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and 
recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before 
you and how fabulous you really looked….You’re not as fat as you 
imagine.

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as 
effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing 
bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that 
never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm 
on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing everyday that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts, don’t put up with 
people who are reckless with yours.

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes 
you’re behind…the race is long, and in the end, it’s only with 
yourself.

Remember the compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you 
succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your 
life…the most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they 
wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year 
olds I know still don’t.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t, maybe you’ll have children,maybe 
you won’t, maybe you’ll divorce at 40, maybe you’ll dance the funky 
chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary…what ever you do, don’t 
congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself either – your 
choices are half chance, so are everybody else’s. Enjoy your body, 
use it every way you can…don’t be afraid of it, or what other people 
think of it, it’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever 
own..

Dance…even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for 
good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are the best link to your past and the 
people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go,but for the precious few you 
should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and 
lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you 
knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live 
in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will 
philander, you too will get old, and when you do you’ll fantasize 
that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were 
noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, 
maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one 
might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will 
look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who 
supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of 
fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the 
ugly parts and recycling it for more than 
it’s worth.

But trust me on the (zinc!) sunscreen…

Welcome Back...

I KNOW! Its been a looooong time since I posted. A lot has been happening in life, so... sorry to anyone who stumbles upon this and sees how inconsistent I am. I changed states and its been a rough ride, but now that things are getting sorted out, I'm working on something fun for the holidays. Its not ready yet...


However, I watched this yesterday. Its a piece on the Paleo movement featuring one of my favorite bloggers, Tara Grant, and my Guru (not literally) Mark Sisson. Watch the video. Its short and to the point, and perhaps just enough to spurn you to look further into this phenomenon that has changed my life personally. I have been inconsistent with it since the beginning of 2011, but I have been making every attempt to live as close to a paleo life as I can and things are finally starting to level out. I have lost about 20 lbs without much effort aside from eating better... I still have about 15 to go before I am at my "goal", but I am less goal oriented at this point than I am just trying to live better and eat better for ME personally. I cannot say enough good things about the Paleo lifestyle, but I won't say it here because it would be terribly redundant. Everyone says the same things, so... read, watch, investigate... you will see for yourself. :-)


http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/6336505-healthwatch-caveman-diet-trend-starting-to-catch-fire/




COMING SOON - Gluten Free Maple Bacon Cupcakes: Can it be done? (It probably already has been, but I haven't looked. This will be my version.  :-p)

Cabbage and Bacon

Seriously, I am addicted.

So my little family has been out of town for the last three weeks (hence the blogging hiatus). Husband was working in California where, fortunately, we have some super great friends. A couple of those friends took us camping in the Sespe Wilderness, high up top of one of the mountains there and you can only get to this mountain top location by driving up the scariest, windiest, rockiest, most terrifying road ever. My shoulders were actually painfully stiff once we made it to the top because of the death grip I had on the rental cars available grippy thingies. We only stayed one night, and it was really lovely (except the part where my son woke up at dawn...), lots of stars and nature and stuff. I wish my camera hadn't been on the fritz, I could have gotten some great pics.

Breakfast in the morning made the entire ordeal worth it.


I don't know if I have been living under a rock or what, but somehow I missed this culinary delight. Never has anything ever so tastily and perfectly satisfied my hunger. One of our friends made Cabbage and Bacon with a little salt and pepper. That was it. And it was fucking awesome. It was also the first thing I cooked when I got home.

What ever culture is actually responsible for creating this masterpiece of flavor I can't say for sure (there are many variations and debate about who did it first), but it sure as hell is about to become a main staple in this German / Scottish household.


Seriously, even if you HATE cabbage (like I thought I did) you must try it. Its so easy to make and so delicious that it should almost be made illegal. 


Do it. Now. GO.


~SR~

How Often Should You Eat? | Mark's Daily Apple

Since I (Sara) am preparing for a 2 week trip to California for business, I haven't had time to work on a post for this week. I would like to recommend this article from MDA. Its a starting point to the knowledge that conventional wisdom isn't as wise as it would have you believe and all the junk we have been told about the way we should eat isn't really true and studies have proved it. *sigh*


So start here, and after you are done, research on my friends, research on.

How Often Should You Eat? | Mark's Daily Apple

~SR~

Savory Cauliflower Pie

Happy Tuesday, Gang. Hope you all had a lovely 4th of July.

Today we cook. Cooking is not like baking. Baking is like Science; formulas must be followed to attain the desired result whereas Cooking is like Religion; you can make it up as you go to suit your tastes.

This is an incredibly tasty, healthy recipe.  You can alter the ingredients to make it less healthy should you feel the need, but why would you want to?  It’s my twist on Shepard’s Pie. Shepard’s Pie is a lovely concoction of lamb, peas, carrots, green beans and mashed potatoes. In its original form it is hearty and warm and comforting. This version is no less hearty, warm or comforting; it just lacks most of the evil carbs from the original version.

Here is what you'll need:

• 1 head (or 1 bag frozen) cauliflower
• 2 tablespoons butter (set aside until the end)
• 1 tablespoon coconut flour or almond flour (or the Flour of your choice) 
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (I actually use bacon grease)
• 1 medium onion, chopped (I like mine finely chopped, but chop yours however you like.)
• 1 cup frozen organic peas & carrots, thawed
• 1 pound ground meat (beef, bison, lamb, deer, ostrich, turkey, chicken etc.)
• 1/4 cup beef stock or broth
• 1 tsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• 1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary or 1 teaspoon dried
• 1 tsp Onion Powder
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• ½ cup Sour Cream
• Squirt of Spicy Mustard
• ½ cup cheese

This won’t take too long, especially once you get the swing of it, so go ahead and preheat your oven to 400F.

We start with cauliflower. It will be replacing the mashed potatoes. Never fear if you don’t like or don’t know if you like cauliflower. The taste is so similar to mashed potatoes that you may not even notice.  Chop it up in to large chunks and steam it until just tender. If you have an immersion blender, time to use it, though a food processor will work just fine. If you have neither, I recommend obtaining one or both. Process until smooth and add seasonings to taste. I like to add grated cheese to mine, but that’s me.

Heat some oil in a skillet. I used left over bacon grease, but you can use whatever you have on hand; olive oil, coconut oil, etc. Chop up the onion and throw it in the oil. I like to very, very finely chop mine so that it just blends into the meat later. I don’t like big chunks, but if you do, go crazy and chop it rough. Once the onions are soft add the meat. I used turkey this time, but lamb is by far my favorite. Once the meat is browned, toss in the peas and carrots. I don’t like green beans, so I didn’t add any, but you can if you like them… or you can add any vegies you like… again, go nuts. Cook for about 5 more minutes.

Now we are gonna stir in the flour, add the stock, sour cream, mustard and herbs and reduce the heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes; season to taste. If you don’t like mustard, skip it. If you like Worcestershire, add a couple squirts. You gotta eat it, make it taste good.

Ok… assemble. Take your lovely pie plate or whatever dish you will be using. I have a clear Pyrex dish that I love.  Dump the meat mixture into the pie pan and evenly sort of squash it flat. Don’t smash it, just press it down a bit. Spread the cauliflower mixture over top and smooth it out. I like to sprinkle a little extra cheese on top and maybe some extra herbs to make it pretty.  If you are a butter fan, you can cut some little cubes up and spread it on top. It makes it nice. 

Bake your masterpiece for 30-35 minutes and then let it set up for about 10 minutes before serving. 

Voila. 

~SR~ 

Why everything we know about the Sun is probably wrong.

Ok, maybe not Everything... 


This post was inspired by a twinge of anger I felt this weekend at the industries that are supposedly looking out for our interests. It will be a little ranty, but also insightful (hopefully) and maybe even rousing. It should make you mad. 


It was a lazy sort of Sunday, the boy was coloring and I was reading an article my Father in-law sent me about the dangers of sunscreen. A day or two before, I had read an article about tanning beds, so this was an interesting coincidence in my inbox. The whole thing got me on a roll.


I am an individual that does not tend lend my trust easily, especially to industry. I find that the Bottom Line is always the bottom line, that the only thing anyone cares about is profit, not what is actually good or bad for consumers. Corporations will tell you anything to make you think you need what they are pandering and will go to great lengths to make sure other industries back them up. If the FDA says it, then it MUST be true, right? Well, the FDA has a lot of explaining to do. Its important to know that it really is "us" vs "them" and that they only care about our checkbooks.


I have pretty fair skin, but my Mom doesn't. She used to use tanning beds until she got a little spot of skin cancer on the bridge of her nose. She stopped and has been very very cautious since, using sunscreen and keeping covered up, etc. I have used a tanning bed a time or two, but I wasn't overly fond of the weird smell my skin had after climbing out and I never really devoted myself to it enough to get tan. Of course, it was common knowledge anyway that tanning beds caused cancer and were to be avoided. Its easy to believe the hype that the right course of action is to slather up with sunscreen and limit your time in the sun, my moms cancer was proof, right? Well... not exactly. 


Turns out tanning beds are a misunderstood creature, and may not be as bad for us as we think. Its easy to say that this concept is bull, but really think about it for a second. This article states"


 "In fact, tanning beds are designed to synthesize the perfect conditions of a summer's day, when the UV-rays are balanced to perfectly stimulate the maximum growth of melanin pigment, as well as vitamin D. It is because of these ideal conditions that people can absorb all the UVs and produce all the vitamin D they need in such a short period of time."


Makes sense, so assuming that that is true, we can also assume that not all tanning beds are created equal, and therefore do not perfectly simulate ideal conditions, but the general concept its there; they are designed to simulate the rays of the sun. Does that mean that tanning beds cause cancer? Or more to the point, that the sun does? Because ultimately, this isn't just an attack on tanning beds, its an attack on the actual sun itself. "They" are trying to convince us that the sun is bad for us. 


The Sun. Wait, the sun? The sun, without which we would all certainly perish? The sun, which sustains us and all life on this planet? The frick'n sun... we can't live with out it, but it will give us cancer and we should all be terrified? The answer isn't black & white, but the propaganda that is spewed out via the media on a daily basis would have you believe that it is. Too much exposure, over doing it, going off the deep end... its not good for you, but that is true of EVERYTHING. You can drink too much alcohol, eat too many candy bars, drive a car too fast, text too much and, yes, spend too much time in the sun. Over exposure is bad, but that is why its called over exposure. It it wasn't to much, then it would just be regular exposure and we wouldn't be talking about this.


That leads to the topic of sunscreen. All this talk about the sun and the danger of UV rays, be they organic or artificial, leads many of us to the conclusion that protection from that fiery orb of doom in the sky is our only weapon in the war against cancer. Hide indoors, and if you MUST be outside, cover yourself with a think layer of sunscreen. That is exactly what you are supposed to think. However, stop for a moment and flip that bottle you have in your hands over and take a look at the ingredients. Even if you have "natural" or 'chemical free" lotions, most of them still (oddly enough) contain harmful chemicals. Carcinogenic chemicals. Yes... your sunscreen could be giving you cancer, much more so than the sun. Those chemicals are being absorbed into our skin, into our blood stream, into our organs... so what if we aren't taking that tube and squeezing it into our mouths, its still getting into our systems and causing the same problems it would if we were eating it. That's what the words "for external use only" mean; that this product is not really safe for you, so we don't want you to eat it, ignoring the fact that it will still get into your system if you put it on your body.  This is true of a great many products, not just sunscreen... look at the back of your shampoo bottle sometime. if you can't pronounce it, you probably shouldn't be using it. Sunless Tanning? I don't think so. Here are some of the side effects that the chemicals in sunscreen can cause [from http://www.skinbiology.com/toxicsunscreens.html ]:

In Women	Endometriosis
	Migrane
	Severe PMS
	Erratic Periods
	Increased Breast and Uterine Cancer
	Fibrocystic breast disease
	Uterine cysts
In Men	Lowered Sperm Counts
	Sexual Identity Confusion - Feminization
	Breast Enlargement
	Smaller then normal penis size
	More testicular cancer
	Undescended testicles
	Block or reduce fetal imprinting of male behavior pattern in brain

Ever get the feeling that everything is out to get you? It shouldn't be this way and it doesn't have to be... "they" want to scare you into not thinking for yourself. In the links to some of the articles I have posted are alternatives options to chemical sunscreen, like antioxidant supplements, dietary recommendations and actual natural sunscreens that don't contain things that will hurt you. Its funny to read that what you eat has more of an effect on your chances of getting cancer than the sun does, but "they" don't want you to know that because then "they" won't make a ton of money off of the cosmetic industry. "They" want you to be afraid... I think anger is a more appropriate emotional response to this.


There is tons more to this argument, factors like the ozone, etc. One of the articles above addresses that briefly, but I urge you to take steps toward discovery on your own. I can type till my fingers hurt, but you won't truly *know* it until you see it for yourself. 


So, Sara, what does it all mean? Well, its this. Don't believe everything "they" tell you just because its "them" saying it. "They" do not have your interests at heart. "They" only care about the Bottom Line... that is, how much money they stand to make. Its hard to believe anything anyone says anymore, but what it boils down to is this: stop waiting for other people to come up with solutions to these problems because the solution they come up with probably only works for them anyway. Someone that wants to sell you something will tell you anything to get you to buy it. There is a ton of information out there for both sides of the argument, but ask yourself which one is going to fatten someones pockets, and which one isn't. The one that isn't is probably your best bet. 


There are some things that just shouldn't be about profit.




~SR~

Greetings, Salutations, and Sweet Introductions

Greetings, and welcome to our little corner of the internet.  As this is primarily a food blog, most of what we will be posting about is food, with the occasional nugget of eco-friendly joy and the off gripe about life in general. On a side note, I (Sara) am a spectacular cook, but I have no experience baking.  I will be posting for your reading pleasure both my triumphs and tragedies, my successes and failures, my FTW’s and FML’s. 

For our inaugural post, we decided cupcakes were the way to go. Cupcakes are ALWAYS the way to go.

Since Stefanie is deeply immersed in her condensed summer class schedule at the moment, I went solo on this one. It was my first real ‘from scratch” baking attempt. No cheating… no shortcuts… all experimentation.  My kitchen will forever be known as the laboratory. Lab-or-a-tory. Like a mad scientist.

So, since we are all perpetually watching our figures, this cake contains only ¾ cup of sugar in the entire batch and is completely gluten free. I’ve Googled it and apparently Vanilla Extract is GF, something to do with the distillation process… however, if you are sensitive, I would use an alternative just in case, or do the research yourself to make sure you are comfortable using it. Neither Stefanie nor myself are gluten intolerant, we just recognize that it is the devil and shouldn’t be in frigg’n EVERYTHING we buy.

But I digress. Here is the recipe for my experimental Butter-Fig cupcakes:

·         1 cup Pureed Fig (preferably fresh (you can also use Dates), but dried will work if you soak them in water overnight… or Rum if you are feeling frisky, but I haven’t tried that yet… and that would make it not GF. You can substitute 1c of raw, organic sugar or 1c of agave syrup if you want a lighter colored cake)  It will be thick. Add 1/3 cup of water to make the pureeing process easier.

·         1/4 cup Butter, room temp

·         2 Eggs

·         2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract

·         1 cup GF Baking Flour  (I used Bobs Red Mill)

·         ½ cup Almond Flour (Also Bobs…)

·         1 3/4 teaspoons Baking Powder (look for a GF brand with no Aluminum; yes BP has gluten in it… I know, right? ug.)

·         3/4 cup Milk (I used half almond and half coconut milk, but you can use regular milk if you want. I just don’t care for cow’s milk so I never have it in the house. To be honest, it doesn’t care for me either…)

Blend together the fig puree and the butter. Your life will be a thousand times easier if you have an electric mixer or even a hand mixer (you know, the ones with the turn crank? I totally want one of those… I used my blender.) Beat the 2 eggs together and add to the butter/fig mix, then toss in the vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl, mix the dry stuff together until well incorporated. Now, dump it in the wet stuff. Stir until smooth, adding the milk as you go. This will be a thicker batter, if that makes you uncomfortable, you can add about a ¼ cup more milk, but I wouldn’t mess with it beyond that. I have no idea what will happen.  I’m still new to this.

Preheat your oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with paper liners (this will make 12 cupcakes). You will notice in the photo that I have not used any liners… something else I forgot at the store. Folks with young children will understand this phenomenon. Just grease with a little butter and these babies will fall right out once they’ve cooled. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. I live just a hair above a mile-high and I took mine out a 22 minutes, and cooking times seem to go up as your elevation does, so definitely check this at 20 minutes, maybe even 15 if you are at sea level. 

Now, for the magic on top. My intention was to make a cream cheese frosting, but since I forgot it at the store and didn’t feel like going back out, I improvised. It’s a little weird, unless you have done this before (but since most of us get our frosting from a tub…) it needs to be “cooked”.

·         2 tablespoons of GF flour

·         ¾ cup of Milk

·         ¾ cup Sugar (or Agave syrup) (I actually did half of each)

·         ¾ cup Butter, room temp

·         1/8 teaspoon of Salt

·         1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Turn you burner to medium heat and put a little milk in a small sauce pan.  Add the flour, stir until a smooth paste forms, then add the rest of the milk and stir constantly until it “boils” (it should only take a couple minutes), then remove from heat and cool. I stuck mine in the fridge while I prepped the rest. Blend together the butter, salt, vanilla extract and sugar (or agave…) until very smooth. Here is where that electric mixer will come in handy again. Add this mixture to the cooled milk mixture and blend some more. It will be creamy and difficult to resist eating right out of the bowl.  The boy (my 1 ½ year old son) thoroughly enjoyed licking the spoon and I didn’t feel guilty in the least.

Once the cupcakes have cooled (they will look a bit like muffins), get that frosting and spread away.  Now, enjoy the fruits of you labor.

The taste test: Interesting. It’s moist, fluffy and light, yet slightly muffiny. Its nice, but very rich, any more than 1 and you will have a tummy ache for sure. I am truly pleased with this neutral cupcake, though it’s not as cupcakey as I would like, gotta tweak the flour ratios.  I think that it’s a good starting point for other flavors… blueberry,  raspberry, strawberry… if you use agave instead of figs, lemon would be a good direction to go. Oh yes. This will get explored.

As this was my first actual time baking anything from scratch, and it happened to be a success, I will try not to let it go to my head.  I couldn’t tell you how long the prep time for this recipe is as I am a stay at home mom and the boy can be quite demanding, this took me about an hour and a half, with many stops and starts. I would suppose you can expect half that, maybe less, especially if you are an experienced baker.

Please, if you try to make this, post your experience in a comment. We’d love to hear how this worked out for others.

~SR~

** A fun aside:

I read an article a while ago on OrganicAuthority that made me so happy. Disney World is giving fast food the boot in favor of cupcakes. There is a sweet (pardon the pun) company that makes cupcakes that are free of refined sugar, gluten-free, wheat-free, soy-free, vegan and kosher. If someone can make a cupcake that captures the attention of a mega-corp like Disney then not only must it be good, but it must serve as an inspiration to us all.