Found it at Russo's - unsurprising!

Ripe, but not too ripe

Ate it on February 26. I think perhaps I waited too long between purchase and ingestion.

Nearly a week later (i.e. too ripe)

Ready to eat!

It tasted … bland. Kind of vaguely tropical. Sweet, a bit. I was underwhelmed. although if given the chance, would try it again, especially if it didn’t appear to be overripe.

]]> http://www.librarygrrrl.net/2011/03/05/917/feed/ 0 http://www.librarygrrrl.net/2010/03/08/772/ http://www.librarygrrrl.net/2010/03/08/772/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:42:46 +0000 Megan http://www.librarygrrrl.net/?p=772 My CrossFit affiliate, the awesome CrossFit New England, began a summer shape-up challenge on March 1. From March 1 till July 1, participants keep a food journal, eat well, sleep well, take their fish oil, stretch daily, and, of course, workout at CFNE. Winners get stuff – I don’t really care what the “winners” get, since I’m not in it to win it for that purpose. Nope, I’m in it to try to see what eating even more healthy will do for me, my body, and my mental well-being. Now this isn’t something I could have easily done if Amy weren’t on-board. Why? Well, she’s the main (exclusive?) cook in our household, to the point where I wonder how I fed myself between ages 22-32! But Amy IS on-board, and even joined CFNE last week, so off we go on a grand adventure!

The “eating well” in this case involves eating the following foods:

• lean meats
• fish
• eggs
• almost all vegetables
• fruits
• nuts and seeds
• good oils and fats

It does not involve eating these:

• grains
• legumes (peanuts and soy) and starchy veggies (potato: I’m looking at you)
• dairy
• processed crap
• beer (sigh) and most other alcohol

Fortunately for me, I had a doctor’s appointment right before this began and I had (among other things) my cholesterol level checked, so I’ll go back and get it checked in July to see if eating differently makes any difference. I know when people propose cutting grains out of their diet the initial comeback is “BUT YOUR CHOLESTEROL!” So. My cholesterol will be checked again at the end of these 4 months, and then and only then will I listen to that particular concern (if it’s even necessary).

As a start to our adventure, last weekend Amy and I a.) binged on all the processed crap we weren’t going to eat come March 1 and b.) cleaned out and re-arranged our kitchen cupboards. The binge probably wasn’t a great idea, but it did clear some space in the freezer (oh Trader Joe’s frozen pizzas, you are a thing of my past…) The cleaning out and re-arranging was incredibly helpful, though. Now when we open our main food cupboard, we see a variety of nuts and seeds (pecans, almonds, walnuts, pistachios, cashews, sunflower seeds, pepitas, pine nuts), almond butter, shredded unsweetened coconut, tuna, artichoke hearts, some prepared Trader Joe’s “Indian Fare” that adheres to the eating-well principles, Larabars, and a few cans of no-salt-added/no grains/all veggie soups. Gone are: crackers, chips, cereal, mac&cheese, pasta, rice, cookies, and other sweets. The fridge didn’t take much cleaning out or re-arranging – with the exception of eating down the cheese drawer and finishing off the last of the milk and cream. We have always been pretty big on keeping mostly fresh stuff in there.

You might be wondering how it’s going, now that we’re one week in. I have to say: for me so far, great! (I’ll let Amy chime in for herself in the comments.) I apparently don’t mind drinking my coffee black, which surprised me more than you can imagine. I’m loving trying out new ways of cooking eggs and new things to have with it in the mornings. So far my favorite was the big 87-veggie-scramble from Saturday morning, although a hard-boiled egg, a sliced apple, and a glob of almond butter works too. I found a use for all the frozen nearly-rotten bananas in the freezer too: smoothies! Frozen banana, various other fruit, dollop of almond butter or unsweetened coconut, blend, and enjoy…  I’m looking forward to trying to make almond-flour pancakes next weekend. My lunches haven’t changed dramatically – no longer do I bring string cheese, but that’s about the main change. Today’s lunch was what I think will be typical: romaine lettuce with 2 varieties of tomatoes and pecans covered in a homemade dressing of olive oil, lime juice, and red pepper flakes, a hard-boiled egg, and a blueberry/mango/grape salad.

Where this has been really fun so far, though, is with dinner.  Amy really does our menu planning and the bulk of the cooking, based on recipes I find in magazines and online. Last weekend she went through the pile of recipes and pulled out all the ones that fit the eating-well guidelines or could easily be adapted to fit them. And then we talked some and I compromised on some things (yes, I’ll eat more fish even though I piss and moan about it and claim not to like fish that isn’t served raw and on a piece of rice with soy sauce and wasabi next to it; yes, I’ll participate more in the kitchen endeavors) and we set off. Here are some of the things we’ve had so far:

• grilled steak salad with hearts of palm, orange sections, and a mustard dressing
• sauteed chicken with raw fennel and tangerines on a bed of spinach, avocado slices on the side
• steamed tilapia on a bed of lettuce smothered in diced mangoes and a honey-lime dressing
• hearty winter vegetable soup with diced chicken (adapted by substituting cauliflower for potatoes and chicken for chickpeas)

My first eating-out experiment went well too. I ordered a burger (okay, not super-lean, but as close as I could get at a pub to lean) with sauteed mushrooms on it. There was actually an option to get it sans bun, avec salad, so I ordered that. It came with a gigantic mixed green salad and a three-bean salad on the side. The beans are legumes, but I elected to eat them instead of fries and feel like it was a much better choice overall. I admit, cutting out beer will be next to impossible. I just like it too much. And yes, I had one when we went out this weekend. However, I will limit when I drink it – likely either after soccer on Fridays or some one time on the weekend. No more dinnertime beers for me, alas… whatever shall we do with the beer fridge in our basement?

So we’ll see how this all goes and I’ll report back periodically. And when July rolls around I’ll see if my doctor will recheck my cholesterol and I’ll report of that as well. My hope is that in July I’ll feel better physically and mentally, and I’ll lose a little weight and get faster and stronger in the gym and at hockey. Wish me/us luck!

Potatoes need mashing, stuffing needs baking, beets/rutabaga/brussel sprouts need roasting, and the feast needs eating. The dishes need washing, pies need warming/baking, cream needs whipping, and dessert needs to be consumed. Then napping needs to commence.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

A large group of us crashed Libby’s turkey day eve dinner with her mother tonight. Amy ended up with this boat o’ sushi. Yum!

In putting together the list, it seemed like the bulk of what we needed to buy was in the vegetable family, so off to Russo’s we went. Amy and I once made the mistake of going shopping there the day before Easter; today wasn’t quite as nutty, but I’m sure tomorrow will be.

If you’re in the Boston area and you’ve never shopped at Russo’s before, I encourage you to check out the calendar, make sure no major holidays are happening around the time you want to go, and then hit the place up. It’s truly an amazing operation. They stock vegetables I wasn’t sure even existed, despite the fact that I was looking at them. The number of varieties of mushrooms they stock? Requires at least two hands and one foot to count. They make their own bread. They make fresh pasta (try the spinach cheese ravioli – YUM!). They make pickles. They have a deli. And they keep everything stocked despite the massive number of people shopping there.

Here’s Dad as we waited in the line that was about 20 people deep. We were in one of 5 lines feeding into at least 10 cash registers. Our wait wasn’t too bad though, maybe only 10 minutes.

Here we are almost at the registers – Mom had to go on a mad dash through the store to find heavy cream – but fortunately she made it through the crush of people before we had to check out. All told, we spent about an hour there.

I can’t even imagine what this place is going to be like tomorrow on the REAL Thanksgiving Eve. Imagine 20 people around my mom in that final photo… it’s probably going to be something like that. CAH-RAY-ZEEEEE!

Who knew little Maggie liked lefse? Apparently she has Scandinavian genes just like her Mamom!

Then we went to Maine for a long weekend. When we came back, I found that about half the plants had the late blight. And so I had to pull all of them out of the ground and put them in a trash bag. I’m not quite sure what to do to the soil to make it okay for tomatoes again next year – it’s still a little too raw for that.

Not sure what the late blight is? Well, it’s the disease that caused the Irish Potato Famine. It’s a bugger to get rid of, particularly if you want to use organic methods. It can take out the entire crop in a few days, which is why I pulled mine out. It’s a fungal disease, and it’s airborne. I pulled all mine out also because I don’t want to infect my neighbors (although it’s likely too late for that).

The late blight has been a horrible problem in the northeast this year. The trifecta of lots of rain, cool temperatures, and a whole slew of infected plants that got shipped from southern growers to big-box stores (and sold) made ideal conditions for this to thrive. Not only did I lose my 19 plants (sob!) but my CSA lost their entire crop of tomatoes. As in, none of the 300+ CSA shares get tomatoes this year. This is the same CSA that gave out 10+ pounds to each shareholder multiple times last summer. Devastating.

Not sure if you have the blight? Check out these great resources, and if you DO have it, bite the bullet, pull up the plants, and trash them. Don’t compost them. Trash them. It sucks, but better to get rid of it now than continue to infect your neighbors and farmers.

Our tomato plants – all 19 of them (plus 2 sunflowers).

Dying stalks and leaves.

Telltale browning/blackening of the stems.

About 2/3 of the harvest (at least the tomatoes didn’t succumb, but now HOLY CRAP we have a lot of green tomatoes.)

Bagged, ready to be tied and trashed.

So sad….

This is the hand that planted the tomatoes, and it’s the hand that pulled them up.

• Suck the toe of Edgar Allen Poe
• Never Flee from Glee
• Jinx! Buy me a Beer.
• a good man drinks a good beer
• Reference the greats
• Don’t Tease, aim to Please
• Make your Move to Improve your Groove
• A beer in the hand is worth 2 in the fridge.
• No matter Where, you’re always There
• If you are reading this, thank a brewer
• Herbert the Pervert likes Sherbet
• Originality is hard to duplicate
• You’re a Winner!
• Find the Way through Play
• What could be Better than a beer with Eddie Vedder
• Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal
• Those who Race miss life’s Grace
• HI!
• It’s still Home if you’re Alone
• Visit alternative destinations
• It can be Great to Agitate
• Bottled with Care by Rob, Chrissy, and Crew
• Beware the Bore Behind the Door
• The Answer is inside You
• A Magic Brew or two may lead you to the loo
• Kindlessness = Mindlessness
• How did You get like This?
• Don’t Throw Stones at Other’s Bones
• Don’t Plunder the Wonder
• Don’t Rely on those who won’t Try
• Do not Quibble with Iskabibble
• Travel Wide but not to Hide
• I Have What I Want
• Don’t throw a Can at a good looking Man
• You are next in line
• It’s Easy to Talk and Say nothing at the Same
• The root of Pretension is Apprehension
• Magic is Where you Make it

Notes: I had a lot of help drinking these. Punctuation and capitalization were copied exactly.

Tonight we’re off to have dinner out with my folks, and perhaps we’ll catch the Holidazzle parade. Depending on how much we all feel like being outside at night… And tomorrow we go back to Boston. It’s been a quick trip, but a good one.

1. I am in Boston, Ziske’s is (was) in Aitkin, MN.
2. Ziske’s is no longer in the hamburger-making business (see #1).

But oh, those hamburgers! The counter ladies at Ziske’s cooked them to perfection on a grill that was always clean, but perfectly seasoned from years of making burgers and frying onions. Whenever I used to go in, there were at least 2 or 3 farmers at the counter, wearing feed hats, shooting the breeze with each other and the cooks. I’d get a burger with onions (a cheeseburger if I was feeling adventurous) and whatever my mom wanted (this was in the days when she worked at the Patchwork Shop, a fabric store that was a couple of blocks away). They’d wrap up the burgers in waxed paper, and put them in a brown paper bag. By the time I’d get back to the store, the grease would have seeped through the waxed paper.

Casey’s here in Natick comes close to those burgers, but it’s just not the same without the farmers.