the view from sunday night

the view from sunday night is of one of those dinners that i love best. it's when i rummage around in the refrigerator and throw together something that will probably never be repeated, not because it doesn't taste good, but because i'll never have that particular combination of ingredients lying around at the same time again. this was marinated turkey breast, cauliflower, onions, sweet potatoes and half a bag of fresh spinach, stir-fried together and then i added a jar of apricot-coriander tagine sauce (store-bought). i served it with my new favorite starch - bulgur with vermicelli. it was pretty delicious.

my minfigure collection had a bath today. this house is very dusty - the soil out here is very sandy and we almost always have a west wind blowing - so they definitely needed a good spring cleaning. it took me over an hour. i've got to find a better way to display them, either that or get a cleaning person. tho' that project motivated me to do a lot of other dusting and tidying and vacuuming getting down to the business of pairing up the socks in the sock basket. it has turned a bit cold and grey, so it was a good day to stay inside and do such things. i also baked a banana bread since we had some old black bananas. i always feel both virtuous and in touch with my grandmother when i make banana bread, as it's her recipe i always use.

our local art group had our spring exhibition this weekend - this was how our pieces ended up. i say our because they were pretty equally husband and me, tho' the talisman one hanging on the wall was mine and if i'm honest, the driftwood man in front was mostly husband. i laid out all of the pieces, but he's a genius at putting them together. there was a slightly funny story with the talisman one - i was turning it in and there was a woman writing it into an excel sheet on her computer. i said it was called "talismans" and she actually questioned my english, suggesting that the plural should be talismen. not exactly a dumb idea, but still. and even when i said i was sure it was correct with an "s," she and her boyfriend tried to argue further with me, informing me of how the plural of man is men. and i'm the one who is a native speaker. i wasn't sure whether to laugh or slap them, but you have to admire their cheek. it was a very interesting and well-attended exhibition. i'll share some more photos tomorrow. my internet is quite slow this evening. that happens on sunday evening when everyone down the road must get online as well. it's just one of the "perks" of living out in the country.

i told myself i wasn't going to go for the simpson's minifigs, but always, i couldn't stay away. i didn't get any of the ones i really wanted (marge, lisa) in the first round, so i went back to the employee store on the way home. despite carefully picking a bunch of different bump codes, to try to avoid duplicates, i got several more scratchy and ned flanders. grrr. still no marge and lisa. i think they're onto us with those bump codes and they just don't work anymore. the figures are really pretty cool and i did used to watch the simpson's quite regularly. i think in the states, there's a special lego episode on this evening. i've only seen the trailer, but it looks quite cleverly done. i'm looking forward to seeing that, tho' i don't know when it's going to surface here in denmark.

and that's about it...nothing big or major, just an ordinary weekend.

the minimalist

just read this very interesting (if rather unexpectedly (given where it was published) badly written) piece on eating less meat in the NYTimes and thought i'd share (despite the hack writing..the thoughts are good).  i'm going to give it a whirl.  meat as a treat.  and more spinach.  can't go wrong there!

that white asparagus

see, doesn't it just look wrong? and to further make it wrong, it seems that they boil it to death. i was not impressed. just let the poor asparagus grow normally and naturally...green, as it was intended. THAT's delicious.

travel impressions

foggy distance view of neuschwanstein castle in VERY southern bavaria

i'm in munich on a long weekend with sabin. we're having a lovely time, tho' it's raining. here is a quick list of experiences/impressions, since there are many and i love lists:

1. the food is seriously white in this country. or perhaps only this region. white asparagus is clearly in season. and i don't get it. totally overrated as far as i'm concerned.
2. people think you are a bit mental when you carry around 6 cameras.
3. 6 cameras are HEAVY.
4. have officially seen it all on SK1665 CPH-MUC on may 21, 2008: story about caffeinated soap in Scanorama.
5. you can spot germans by their socks. it's clearly a totally different sock culture.
6. you can spot north dakotans by their light-colored, high-waisted, mid-90s lee jeans.
7. did i mention that the food is seriously all white or shades of white--sausages, sauerkraut, asparagus, potatoes...
8. i now officially understand the word "kitsch."
9. there are a lot of average american women who have clearly had too much access to inexpensive plastic surgery and/or botox.
10. risotto made with ordinary rice rather than arborio. not good.
11. white asparagus. totally overrated. (i'm aware i mentioned this before, felt it bore mentioning again.)
12. italian waiter in germany, pretending to also speak english and spanish. not good.
13. spotted on the train: two elderly women (approaching 80), clearly twins, dressed identically and visibly upset about having to sit across the aisle from one another. wonder if they've ever been apart in all their lives?
14. brief moment where i considered putting on a danish accent to avoid being identified in any way, shape or form with shocking amount of arrogant american backpackers which seem to currently be unleashed on europe.
15. it's only been 36 hours and already i'm dying for a green leaf of lettuce. i WANT to embrace the food culture where i am, but i'm not sure i can deal with all this white food! i need other colors!!
16. while starving yesterday afternoon wandered into large apparent tourist trap german restaurant and found it full of...germans. not bad at all. and the beer is superb.

home on sunday...more then if not before.

what is the world coming to?

my jetlagged brain awoke me at about 4 a.m. it was full of a jumble of thoughts. a strange mixture of images from murakami's wind-up bird chronicles, some gorilla show watched on animal planet before bedtime, work colleagues, returning a rental car (that's a weird one, i haven't rented a car in months) and the shipload of water that recently arrived in barcelona. needless to say, these thoughts were not immediately conducive to falling back asleep.

my sunday berlingske tidende had a 4-page in-depth reportage on rising food prices around the world. the article looked at ordinary items that go into people's grocery carts. here in denmark, a loaf of good rye bread has risen 20% in the past two years. milk has risen 28% and eggs 15%. however, it's worse other places--take china, for example. food prices across the board rose 22% in april alone and the price of meat has risen 46% in a year. the article indicated that this was not ordinary inflation, but the disturbing signs of a new era.

an era in which climate change has already had drastic effects on farming around the world. an era in which the use of corn for production of ethanol to feed thirsty american cars rules over using the same corn to feed people or to feed the animals that feed people.

either the world needs new priorities, or we, as individuals, need new habits. the far east had better get used to eating less rice--recently, the philippines imported $2billion in rice from thailand because they had only 2 months' worth of rice reserves. either the philippines has to make more efficient use of its' rice-growing fields (which won't happen overnight), or people have to get used to eating less of their staple food.

the article interviewed danes in a large grocery store and found that people had noticed the rising prices, but that most hadn't really changed their habits as of yet. but, that's because this is a wealthy society--people's salaries have risen in tempo with the rising prices, so it doesn't feel the same. we might consider the odd meatless meal, but overall, i personally continue to choose the more expensive organic foods whenever they are available. this is a luxury choice to have. and it may not be here for long.

what about poor people in developing countries who don't have that choice? the article showed a woman in haiti sitting on the ground making "clay cakes," a blend of clay, salt and vegetable fat dried in the sun and used to close the hunger gap caused by the fact that rice and bean prices in haiti have risen 100%.

articles like this always make me think about what sort of world we have left to sabin. what will be her reality as a grown-up? for one, i suspect the flying around the world she has become accustomed to as a child will be a thing of the past. it will simply be so environmentally indefensible to fly that people won't do it except when they absolutely must. i fear that will make her awfully sad. she expressed amazement just yesterday at the fact that a teenage friend of her big sister had never flown in his life. she's been flying since she was 3 months old and loves it and sees it as an integral part of her identity.

but, it's not all gloom and doom here on a monday morning--perhaps the food crisis will cause people to eat more locally-produced foods and to eat less processed foods, to eat less meat and more vegetables from their region. maybe we'll all waste less of what we buy--i know that i myself throw far too much away because i am a sucker for those 3 for the price of 2 kind of deals.

maybe the smaller farmer, who is using ecological, organic methods will have a better chance in a world where the big countries aren't exporting all of their grain at lower prices than it can be produced for locally and handing out indefensible farm subsidies. perhaps the market for a lamb fed locally on green grass in the pasture down the road will increase, so that the meat we do eat will be worth it--both taste-wise and environmentally-speaking.

and, humans have an amazing adaptability and spirit of invention which cannot be discounted. there will surely be more wind power. someone will come up with an effective method of desalinating water. hopefully, boeing and airbus are already working on planes that use alternative energy sources that leave a smaller carbon footprint, so sabin won't have to give up flying.

it's difficult from this vantage point to know what will happen. but, here and now, we need to change our habits--use more of what we buy, throw less away, choose what goes into our grocery basket in a more conscientious (and conscious) manner, don't let the water run forever until it's cold enough to drink, take a shorter shower. there are countless ways that we as individuals can collectively make an impact. so that the world is still here in a reasonable state for her to enjoy:

seasonal eating

Gonna read the paper, looking for the news about food supply - what a really bad news!

There are hard times in front of us, I think. Battles because of water, food, energy. We get too much people for this little planet.

I hope to go a good part of my way in this life, I´m not keen on being reborn...

my friend Gabi wrote me the words above this morning. coincidental (or perhaps not? but that's a whole 'nother post) because these were the exact thoughts on my mind as i went to sleep last evening and i was just mulling them over as i sat down at the computer this morning. these thoughts are on my mind thanks to reading barbara kingsolver's animal, vegetable, miracle.

i've been thinking about this whole "food miles" issue for awhile now. last winter, i ordered from my organic veggie box people (årstiderne) the "dogme kassen," which includes only produce from Danish farmers, so at least i know it hasn't come from halfway across the globe (Denmark is, after all, only about the size of Wisconsin). i'll admit it got a little boring with the root vegetables week after week and so i broke down after a couple of months and changed our weekly box to "kuk kassen," which might have the occasional spanish tomato or italian fennel.

aside: i'm a little disappointed to look at it right now and see that this week there will be a hokkaido squash from argentina!! not sustainable! i must change back to the "dogme kasse," which will no doubt start to have more exciting things in it now that spring is here. and it does--new potatoes, rhubarb, oyster mushrooms. yum. next week, that's what we'll get.

i'm only at the beginning of barbara's book. in the book, they're anxiously awaiting the first quivering spears of asparagus. it's that season here as well and i too am awaiting them (perhaps i should weed my asparagus bed). we don't have the space for a garden large enough to sustain our family through the summer, so i can't actually wholeheartedly embrace the project of growing our own food, but we will plant tomatoes and cucumbers in the greenhouse. i might even give it a go with aubergine and peppers. i can already imagine how heavenly it will be to step into the leafy greenery of the warm greenhouse and breathe in the smells of tomatoes ripening on the vine.

we can make wiser choices in the grocery store as well, not eating things when they're not in season (especially tomatoes and strawberries). during the two weeks that the danish strawberries are in season, they are heavenly and no doubt we appreciate them that much more because they're not always there. there is an enormous difference between them and the rubbery ones that are picked before they're ripe and trucked up here from spain. i vow that we will only eat things like that when they are in season.

as gabi pointed out this morning, the battle has only begun, so we must begin to think of ways of living that are more environmentally sustainable. i sometimes shudder to think of the world sabin will inherit. however, as TheElementary pointed out in a previous comment this week, human beings are amazingly adaptable. so, at the same time as i fear that life as we know it is changing, i also can't wait to see what lies ahead. the very near future surely holds some asparagus...

conscious consumption

yesterday, inspired by a couple of my recent cookbook purchases...paul cunningham's madjournal and nigel slater's kitchen diaries, i started a 2008 food journal. i'm noting down there what i've been cooking and the adjustments i've made to the recipes (i can never exactly follow a recipe, it's simply not in me). i'm looking forward to being much more conscious about food--being thoughtful about the ingredients that go in--choosing organic and locally grown whenever i can. cooking more in tune with the rhythm of the seasons, learning, really learning, when things are in season and at their peak. and using them then. no more buying tomatoes from soulless dutch greenhouses all winter long. they taste awful anyway!

i'm also noting in the journal how things turned out, how i felt while i was cooking, where the inspiration came from for the dish, who was there when we ate it. i just feel starved for a consciousness about food...for too long, i've been too busy to think about it or to enjoy cooking. and cooking has always been a relaxing, soul-nourishing activity for me, but that was another thing i lost when i was too busy over the past couple of years. i lost the consciousness of the activity itself--the act of cooking. i hope this new journal helps me regain that.