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From the monthly archives: January 2010
Homemade Bacon
The recipe:
Go to Local Harvest. Find a farmer near you who offers pasture-raised pigs, such as this one. No, that’s not where I got my pork, but my farmer doesn’t have a website. Ask for a half or a quarter — this will cost a couple hundred $$ but in my neck of the woods that’s actually cheap (esp. considering the long-term benefits of feeding my family well). I love getting the cuts that other people won’t — they’re a bargain and they make for some good eating.
Make sure you get some pork belly. Sliced. Thin or thick, your choice. Specify that you want it uncured. This is key, and sometimes you have to repeat yourself several times before they understand. It’s not that the farmer is dense, but that most customers DON’T ask for this kind of thing (they want their bacon ready to cook) so if you say uncured they may think you don’t know what you’re talking about and give you cured stuff — which, even if it comes from sustainably raised pigs, will likely still contain carcinogenic ingredients like nitrites, etc. which you don’t want in your body. I know because it happened to me once, getting the cured version inadvertently, I mean. So now I make sure the farmer understands exactly what I want.
Take your pork belly, and marinate it in just enough vinegar to moisten it (it shouldn’t be dripping or soaking, plus garlic (minced or mashed to a paste), some salt to taste, and black pepper. If you want bacon a tad sweet, add maple syrup or brown sugar — just the teeniest bit or your bacon will burn — right before cooking. Or, I’d brush it on the last few minutes of cooking. Pineapple juice is good too 
.
Back to the marination. Do that overnight (or two nights). Bake on a parchment-lined baking sheet in a 350 degree F oven, in one layer, for 15 minutes or so. Drain on paper towels and serve. Yum yum. Your kids will love you, if they don’t already.
ChocBanWalCranOat
ChocWalBanCranOat
CranWalBanChocOat
BanChocWalOatCran
WalChocCranBanOat
WalCran….. fuhgeddaboudit.
Made these cookies today. Pronounced AMAZING by the kids. I saved some nut-less cookie dough for the allergy-sufferers, but otherwise, the walnuts HAVE to be in them.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Whisk together
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour (ground finely)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream together
1 cup packed light brown sugar (can take less actually)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 cup butter, softened
To butter mixture, add
1 mashed very ripe banana
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Mix in flour mixture until well combined, then add
2 1/2 cups old fashioned oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup sweetened cranberries
1/2 cup walnuts
Using a large ice cream scoop, drop mounds onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake 11 minutes or until just golden. Let cool a bit on baking sheet, about 5 minutes, then transfer to racks to cool a bit more.
We like our cookies warm so we eat them right away, but you can store these in airtight containers (to preserve chewiness, though they are also DELICIOUS when the outsides have crisped up.
Variation: Sub 1/2 cup butterscotch chips for half of the chocolate chips. All kinds of awesome.
ETA: I don’t mean the large ice cream scoop used for scooping ice cream into cones (though of course it could also be used for that). I mean a scoop that holds about 1 1/2 tablespoons, kinda like these.
Higher Learning? by Anne Hendershott
As the mom of a college student (and more coming in just a few years), I keep my eye open for articles such as this which I see as a “state of the nation” type of report.
As the mom of a previously-homeschooled college student, you can bet I still keep an eye open for whatever material my child is exposed to at school. Just because our oldest is now 18, a young adult — and very mature for her age, I think — that doesn’t mean our job of parenting and guiding her is over. If anything, we are trying to be ever more vigilant. The dangers are many and oftentimes sneakier. This is, of course, part of the “real world” (whatever that means) that she has to be exposed to, just because we can’t shelter our children forever. For our children to be effective harbingers of peace, justice and love in the world, it is sometimes necessary that they see the unrest, the injustice, the hatred that is around us in their rawest forms. Much as we’d like to continue to shield her from all of that, we realize it is futile, and perhaps harmful in the long term.
What worries me sometimes, and brings me to my knees, is the insidious nature of secular thought. I hate to sound paranoid but the fact is that you cannot let your guard down, even for one minute. This is not something to be complacent about. We have spent many years of our lives exposing our child to — hopefully — the true, the good, the beautiful… so that when faced with the lies and ugliness out there, she can distinguish the difference, and make choices in accordance with who she is: a loving child of God. The scary part is that these ugly lies are often cloaked in colorful, shimmering robes that attract and deceive. Sometimes they come full force, with malicious intent, but more often than not the root is something innocent (or ignorant), and can therefore be easily dismissed as nothing of consequence. And that is where we/she might make our/her biggest mistakes.
As we navigate the waters of college life, one thing we hope to maintain is that parent-child dialogue that, due to ever-busier schedules, is often hard to find time for. Beyond the usual “How was your day?” there still needs to be time for mother-child and father-child and father-mother-child talks. And so, in a way, the homeschooling hasn’t really ended. None of us have graduated yet. In just a few short months, we have had our eyes opened to this process of enculturation that goes on in the college world and beyond. It is a frightening thing to behold. But it’s also a challenging thing, and therefore exciting. Our college student is bringing home experiences and thoughts and ideas that we as a family need to put under a microscope and examine, with great care. I am thankful that she allows us this scrutiny and joins in with much enthusiasm and openness.
My concern right now with this particular child is achieving that balance… somewhere between letting go of this young adult who is stretching her wings and flapping them gently, more strongly by the day… and keeping just enough of a hold on her to keep her grounded, attached to the values and beliefs that she has leaned upon and cherished in her young life. I don’t want to hamper or hinder.
I wonder… if the awareness and the vigilance are there, would those be enough? It’s so easy to say, she’ll be fine, she’s a prayerful person, she loves God…. but looking at these politicians and seeing the fruits, I worry. Did their parents see this coming? Or did they see it coming but did not recognize it? Did they say to themselves, he/she’ll be fine — he/she is in a Catholic college/university and that’s *good enough*. Apparently for these people in office, it wasn’t.
The following is a paid review of Would You Like Some Cheesecake?
Not that I’m still baking cheesecake these days. I’ve long stopped, especially after reading Dr. Weil’s guidelines about cream cheese. I make my own cream cheese these days, out of strained homemade yogurt — yum! It even makes good yogurt frosting for carrot cake. When I perfect it, I think I’ll try making cheesecake again, as it’s something we all love.
But getting back to the task at hand… here’s what I think about the Moms Who Thinks’ cheesecake page:
I love that there are so many cheesecake recipes on it. Several that caught my eye: Black Forest Cheesecake, Cappuccino Cheesecake, Cheesecake Factory Cheesecake (gotta find out if it *is* a good copycat recipe!), and the White Chocolate Cherry Pecan. I’d rather not try another Key Lime because last time I made that it was soooo sour…. though still delicious. It did take me about half an hour just to squeeze those key limes by hand (now that I have a juicer it shouldn’t be as difficult!). My friend and I ate a good part of a 10-inch one just because we were the only ones in the house, LOL, but I digress…
Other things I like about this site: I love that there are recipes by the week, that there are crock pot recipes (need to add to my repertoire), healthy recipes, I especially appreciate the fact that prime rib is in their easy category — it IS easy, but many people think you’ve slaved over it when you prepare it for holidays. And yum, many chicken recipes too.
Things I didn’t quite like so much about the site: I always feel like ads make sites impersonal, and makes me less likely to visit often. Not true, of course, of known commercial sites such as Epicurious or Food and Wine. But still. And I really would be more comfortable with the site if it had an “About Us” section, because the one question in my mind that I didn’t get answered perusing the site was “Who in the world is Mama Shirley?”
After all, the site is titled “Moms Who Think”. Well, this mom’s thinking.
