Recomended Reading

As Emily and I started this project, it coincided with my reading of a book called "In Defense of Food - An Eater's Manifesto" (Michael Pollan). I highly recommend this book if you are interested in reducing your dependence on processed foods. Many of the ideas discussed within that book are what Emily and I are striving to attain in this project.

If you don't want to read the book, it can essentially be boiled down to the following three simple statements, which are also worked into the art on the cover.

1. Eat food
2. Not too much.
3. Mostly plants.

Sounds simple right. Of course, when you read the first one, it seems pretty obvious... we all eat food! Well, Pollan gets into the the subtle distinction between food and edible substance. The grocery store carries much more of the latter. Pollan also gets into the roots of Nutritionism... where scientific findings direct us to ingest and avoid specific neutrients as a means of improving health (which often leads to worse health than we began with!). Example: avoid saturated fat, eat more low fat or fat free foods... yet we still have an obesity problem, perhaps from eating more carbs).

I hope to reflect more upon the themes mentioned in Pollan's book and work them into future posts. In the mean time, I will post a recipe that I created (and enjoyed for dinner) last week that attempts to fit the above listed criteria. Enjoy!

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Pan Seared Tilapia Salad

Ingredients typically found at Wegmans, but any reasonable equivalent will do.
Estimated cook time: about 15-20 minutes

• Tilapia fillet(s) - individually packaged works great.
  
• Pan Searing flour
• 1 tbsp. Olive oil
• Baby spinach and Arugula salad blend (any will do... the greener the leaves the better)
• Balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing
• Dash of lemon juice added to salad dressing (optional)
  

Rinse fillet(s) in cold water and pat dry. Dust with pan searing flour and shake off excess. Heat oil in frying pan (non-stick works best) over medium-high heat until faintly smoking. Sear fish in pan until golden brown (about 3-5 minutes). Turn over and reduce heat to medium. Cook for another 3-5 minutes until golden brown. Place fish over bed of salad greens. Top with salad dressing.

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I love this recipe because it uses the pan searing technique. It takes some practice to get this technique down, but done properly, you can cook steak and fish very quickly while sealing in the flavor and juices. The creativity for this recipe comes in with the dressing. I like the lemon-pepper taste with tilapia... so I am working on coming up with a dressing with those flavors. Stay tuned, I may revise this if I can work out a better dressing to include.

What We are About.

Just a short note about me. I have been writing a blog called Private Life in Glass House for just about 3 years now. It is mostly a personal blog describing what's going on in my life with a fair amount of commentary posts mixed in (commenting on various topics, mostly politics and current events). This new blog is shared between my fiance, Emily and I. It is one part of a project that we are embarking upon.

Let me give the reader some more insight into what we are hoping to achieve in this project. There are certain things we are and are not aiming to achieve here.

We are not:

1. Advocating for or against a vegetarian or vegan diet. Eliminating processed foods is not necessarily synonymous with the elimination of meat from the diet.
2. Suggesting a specific fad diet. No crazy ideas where you eliminate all carbs or only live on peaches and skim milk here.
3. Suggesting that you give up eating at restaurants and only eat home cooked foods.

We are however about the following things:

1. Suggesting recipes to replace commonly consumed processed foods that are often found in the kitchen.
2. Learning how to cook food and shop for ingredients... an important yet subtle distinction.
3. Figuring out how to streamline cooking. Emily and I both lead very busy lives. That being said, we don't have all the time in the world to be cooking and preparing foods. I am sure that many others will share in that feeling. Techniques for saving time, shortcuts, etc. all important to include here.
4. Suggest local bakeries, restaurants, delis, etc. where you can eat out and enjoy freshly prepared food.

Stay tuned and we will be delivering plenty more posts related to the second list.

Grand ambitions

This weekend Glen and I went to the Farmer's Market to obtain goods for making spaghetti sauce and fruits for the week. With our bags of produce we purchased (including delicious homemade pasta), we began to dive into the project.

Yesterday we made tomato sauce using about 7 pounds of tomatoes. We canned some, froze some, and kept some fresh to use this week.

Today we went apple picking and came home with 35 pounds of apples. We used about 7.5 pounds of apples to make applesauce today. In addition, our kitchen was exploding with flavors such as... stuffed jalapeno peppers, homemade guacamole, and two loaves of delicious, homemade white bread loaves. I am sure our neighbors were quite confused by the mixture of smells coming from our kitchen.

All in all we have a had a very productive weekend canning, freezing and consuming delicious, fresh food. Thank God for Farmer Markets!

It Started With Mayonnaise.

Just a few nights ago over dinner Emily asked me a simple question:

Emily: "Can you make your own mayonnaise?"
Glen: "Sure, it is basically oil, water and egg."
Emily: "What about making other foods?"

Then we got to thinking and talking... is it possible to eliminate all processed and pre-made food products that are commonly found in our kitchen?

Now we could do this by living on a farm where we could milk our own cows, grow our own crops, raise our own chickens and pigs, and so on, but we plan instead on doing this from our modest 800 square foot apartment!

And thus this blog was born. We hope to share our recipes, tips and tricks, and sources for ingredients as this project unfolds.