Polenta Fritta

Polenta is on the menu of just about every fancy schmancy restaurant I go to (I can be a fancy schmancy kind of girl), and if you order it as a side dish it might cost $8. That's a crazy markup since it costs like 10 cents to make. You can buy premade polenta in plastic tubes, but I can't :) So I make my own of course...and if you'd like to try, all you need is ground cornmeal, water or broth, and salt. Boil the water and add cornmeal while stirring until you get a thick batter. Reduce heat to medium, add salt to taste and cook, stirring fairly continuously, for about 30 minutes or until no longer grainy. Done! You can also add parmesan cheese or cream at the end to make it richer, or fresh herbs. If you would then like to have cute little fried cakes, spread the polenta on a cookie sheet and refrigerate until solid (a few hours). Slice into squares or triangles and fry them in a pan with olive oil.

Corn + asparagus + mushrooms = complete protein :)

Homemade yogurt and granola

Yogurt is one of the things that you can't really get without plastic packaging, so I decided to try making my own. I have to admit that the thought of growing my own bacteria scared me at first, but now I don't see why I was ever eating those disgusting cups of Yoplait! Its very easy; you just need to make sure you'll be around about 8 hours after you start :) Here's how to do it:

You'll need a tablespoon of plain yogurt per two cups of milk. Heat the milk until it just starts to boil, then remove it from the heat and let it cool to a temperature that you can stick your finger into without burning yourself (place the pot in ice water to speed up the process). Take the plain yogurt and stir in a few tablespoons of the warm milk. Stir that mixture into the rest of the milk and pour it all into a large thermos and put the lid on. If you don't have a thermos, you can turn your crockpot on low for a few minutes to heat it up, pour the mixture in, cover and wrap with a towel. Let it sit for 6-10 hours (the longer it cultures, the more tangy it will be). You can now use this yogurt as a starter to make your next batch. Cool huh?


I did recently buy a tub of plain yogurt because I let a batch go bad before making more. Luckily I don't have very many yogurt containers so I can still use it for bulk food shopping and for storing thing like...granola!

I attempted a recipe for granola that I found online, and found it easy to prepare, but difficult to bake. The problem is that it goes from uncooked to burnt faster than cookies, which aren't my strongest suite to begin with. Here is my first failed attempt:



Yikes! That poor pan has seen better days. But the ingredients were cheap so I made another batch and watched it more closely this time. This one came out more edible:




The result was tasty, but not the best granola I've ever had. My conclusion after all of this is that yogurt is worth making at home, but I should just buy granola from the bulk food isle. :)

Corn tortillas

I love tortillas, and since they are really only available in plastic bags, I decided to try making my own. Its almost disturbing how easy they are to make! Here's how:


First buy some "masa harina", or corn flour, which is available in the ethnic food section of most grocery stores. Add the appropriate amount of water and a dash of salt, and stir into a dough. Divide the dough into 2 inch balls.




Put one of the dough balls between two pieces of wax paper, and press it down into a 6 inch circle using something flat like the bottom of a pot. (In this picture I used one of those plastic cookie sheet liners, and pressed it with the rice cooker pot.)



Put a tiny bit of oil into a nonstick pan on medium heat, and cook the tortiallas for about a minute on each side. You can store them for about a week in the fridge, although they dry out a bit. I just sprinkled a bit of water on them and put them back on the stove for a minute to revive them, but I now think its just as easy to make a fresh batch. It literally takes 5 minutes to make a couple of fresh, hot tortillas. Love it...viva Mexico!

Salted Caramel Popcorn

On Saturday, Dannica and I spent a decadent day together. We went to the Lynwood Women's spa for the good part of the day, and then headed to her place for dinner. I brought over a bread round that I had rising in my fridge and some homemade onion jam, and we paired that with a salad and some pulled pork that Dannica had been cooking and recooking for several days so it was absolutely delicious. Then it was movie time, and she opened a bag of Uncle Woody's Caramel corn (yummmm!). And THEN she had the amazing idea to sprinkle salt on it...it was the best idea ever! I love caramel corn and salted caramels, and had just never connected the dots.

So here I am tonight with no caramel corn, but the fond memories of Saturday night urge me to change my lot in life. Here is the result:






It was quite easy! Most of the recipes I found called for corn syrup, but I didn't have any so I used honey, which is what some websites suggested, and I think its delicious! Here is the recipe:

4 cups popped popcorn in a large bowl
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon honey (or corn syrup if you have it)
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
sea salt (optional)
2 cookie sheets lined with wax paper, greased with butter

Put the sugar, butter, honey or corn syrup, and water in a saucepan on medium high heat. Stir until combined. Bring to a boil and cook for about 8 minutes. Remove from heat, add sea salt if you like (I think I put in about 2 tablespoons), stir. Add baking soda and stir. The mixture will foam up for a few seconds and then stop. At this point, whisk the caramel for a few seconds and then quickly pour the sauce over the popcorn and stir until coated (it takes a while). Spread the caramel corn on the wax paper lines cookie sheets. Let cool and store in an airtight container.

My recent trip to the bulk food section of Ballard Market! I rallied up some empty containers and came home without any new packaging. Woot!

I'm grateful that Ballard Market is friendly about customers bringing their own containers; the cashiers happily weigh all of my jars and let me fill them with delicious bulk foods, including the awesome grind-your-own peanut and almond butter! So much fun. However, this is not the case at most big box grocery stores. The cashiers are usually suspicious, or confused about how to tare the weight, or will outright refuse, mumbling something about a health code violation.

So when I read about this packaging free grocery store that is opening soon in Austin, I was a little jealous! Its a massive bulk food concept that goes beyond dry goods. Check it out:

http://www.good.is/post/zero-packaging-grocery-store-to-open-in-austin-texas/

What a great idea! Its the answer to so much of our country's waste problem, and gives ridiculous food brand marketing the finger. I hope these guys do well and more of them start popping up!

A new plastic free year!

Its almost the end of January, but in the lingering spirit of New Year's resolutions I've decided to reignite my anti-plastic blogging efforts. Two years ago I went plastic free for a month and it was challenging. Since then, some of those challenges have become a way of life. For example, its rare that I take a plastic shopping bag from a store, and even when I come home from QFC, the contents of my canvas bag suggest that I did my shopping at a farmers market. I try not to buy anything that comes in a package if I can get it without or make it myself. However, I think my ego is underestimating the remaining waste that I still contribute to the landfills. So I've decided to keep it all for the rest of the year and find out! Not only will this quantify my plastic purchases, but it will also serve as constant motivation for me to not add to the stockpile. I haven't figured out where I'll put all this trash if it gets out of control, but I suppose that's the point.


To make this an excercise in limiting my own contribution to the demand, I am only going to save trash from things that I purchase. In an attempt to not to alienate normal people during the experiment, I'll exempt anything that is given to me as an (unsolicited) gift, or in a way that would be awkward and ultimately pointless to turn down (for instance, while it might seem like cheating for me to eat one of the plastic wrapped sandwiches and cookies at a catered work meeting, it is also more wasteful for them to throw the leftovers into a landfill along with the plastic. Also, bringing my own lunch would make me seem weird and thus begins the alienation that I would like to avoid).

If I can end the year with less than a garbage bag full I'd be proud, but of course the goal is to approach zero. I may regret this by summer :) Happy plastic free new year to me!