Food from lucky places

So, as I am adventuring into making more food on my own....and trying to make the most amount of healthy food for as inexpensively as I can (remember that whole no paycheck until September thing!)...I did two exciting things today...

But, before I get to that, something to make you giggle.

It was Betty Bath Day this morning. She get a tad, er, ripe cuz of her size and her lack of desire/flexibility to clean herself in the "important" areas...so she gets a bath every 3-4 weeks. And I realized (well, smelled/realized) that she hadn't had a bath since well before we moved here, and it was high time! Now, I know she looks sad, and she looks really skinny....but trust me, that is still a 15lb 18-22yr old cat. I just say that she looks small because she's so puffy with fur...and I think she shrivels up a bit when she is all humiliated and embarassed.



So, besides bathing Betty, today involved a trip to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been getting (its over 70!), so I went back out to Fort O'Brien. Here's a little video to show you the scenery, and also give you some short education on the Wild Maine Blueberry. I can see how people get so wrapped up in this fruit...it's so fun!

Jusdt a warning though, I held my phone at the wrong angle here, so you have to cock your head to the side at times. Oops.



Besides blueberries and bathing Betty, I also was challenged (in a loving way, of course) by my lovely girlfriend to see if I could learn how to make sushi. So, I did! I got all of the supplies to make sushi (nori--the seaweed, big bag of rice, red pepper, sprouts, cucumber, avacado, and even some fresh crab meat) plus make some wasabi for less than $20.

Now, that might seem like a lot, but it comes with enough nori to make five rolls, which is three more than I can eat in one meal. And, now I have a huge bag of sushi rice (which was not used here, but will be in the future...I just happened to have some brown rice made from recent stir fry) to use (you use about 1/2 cup per roll). And, I have a jar of wasabi powder that will last me forever cuz you just use 1/2 teaspoon to make the amount of paste you need. And I have rice wine vinegar to use for a long time. AND! More fresh tasty veggies! And best of all: I bought a package of sprouts today, and that is going to be my last time buying sprouts in the grocery store, as my friend Amanda showed me a way to make them in my kitchen that I am going to start tomorrow:


SO, here's the finished project. Some are veggie rolls, some are crab/california rolls. Sad news, though, my avacodos were not rip yet, so I have them in a brown bag to get ripened soon.





Just a short post tonight, but hope you enjoy! Leave comments people, sometimes I feel like I am blogging to myself out here!

Cooking from scratch...and harvesting too!

So the past couple of days I have been exploring my long interest in figuring out how to make things from scratch. I've had two projects on my plate: one that was a hassle the first time but turned out really well, and one that...well, I'm gonna have to try again sometime.

As I explained it to Marissa earlier tonight, I am getting pretty bored with this whole not working thing. Most people would think I am crazy, and would die for a "vacation" like this, but the idea of vacation is that you have something central to come back to. And right now, there is nothing "central" to my life. I mean, I have my little to do lists and projects, and then there is always reading the binders of work information that the supervisor gave me to prep...but there isn't a "central" piece to my life right now. Which can be kind of a downer at times. And that's kind of where I was at yesterday. Today, though, a different story!

I decided to be more positive about my current life circumstance. And take this time to read, watch random videos on the internet (I don't have cable, and can't say I miss it all too much), and get things more settled permanently in my apartment. And one of the other things I have been doing has been thinking a lot about issues of sustainability, and more important, what I can do to sustain my own life and lifestyle better. And one of those things that I can readily do is learn how to make things more on my own rather than buying food products that are 1) from who knows where 2) expensive 3) full of high fructose corn syrup and other weird sugary things and 4) come with tons of packaging.

One of the realities of making this move out here is that I am on a limited income until I get my first paycheck at the end of August. I thought it would be a lot harder than it has been, but I have been very intentional about thinking through every time I spend my money (i.e. do I need this NOW or can it wait or do I "need" it at all, what is the intended use of this, am I replacing something or just adding on, etc) and I also have created (well, changed) a really detailed budget through MS Excel that Marissa sent me a while back. So, its really cool to be watching my money, and seeing where I am spending (and not!) it. The other reality of moving out here is that I am taking a pay cut in terms of salary and cost of living for the career opportunity and lifestyle/location opportunity. So, with that, I especially need to be conscientious of every penny, and try to build my savings and repay things as I can.

Anyway, enough of this rambling! In my how can I save money/be intentional with my money/be more conscientious...I taught myself how to do two things this week: 1) make bread and 2) make yogurt (ish).

The breadmaking was an interesting turn of events, because I decided to be all awesome and buy one of those baking stones from the Machias Hardware store. Marissa had sent me this awesome recipe for fridge bread that produces many loaves from one of my favorite magazines, Mother Earth News. What they (stone manufacturers) don't tell you is that the sonofagun smokes like crazy when you first put it in the oven. Incidentally, my oven was only cleaned in parts, so that was also causing a LOT of smoking. (My landlord got a cleaning company to come in here before I moved in here, but I am pretty sure he got majorly ripped off because my apartment was not cleaned as it should be....hence a smoking oven). So, after researching and reading a ton a ton online...and after cleaning my whole over (one hour later....) I decided to just cook the "boule" on a baking sheet. Here's a progression of how that worked out for me:


ABOVE: This is what the bread looked like right after I mixed all ingredients together.

BELOW: Machias Hardware Store helps out again, this time I take my first foray into their bulk natural goods section. Note how I am getting a lot for very little $$.



ABOVE: I figured baking bread is like baking cookies with mom...so I gave the spoon a lick just to make sure it tasted good. Yummy yeasty goodness!

BELOW: The neato (one of them) things about this bread is that it is a NO KNEAD bread. You just set it on your counter (or stove, if you are like me an have about three inches of countertop space) to rise at room temp for two hours. And then presto chango, this is what you get! And then you throw the whole batch in the fridge overnight while you sleep (or try to).



ABOVE: I should've put something against my cute boule for size reference, but in the recipe it says to take out a chunk about the size of a grapefruit. So, hence here is my grapefruit-sized boule getting ready to hop into the oven!

BELOW: Success! One lovely "Panera like" loaf of artisan bread!



ABOVE: Doesn't it look awesome? So pretty, loaf, you are...

BELOW: Look mom and dad, I am eating my own from scratch bread!


Bread successes!!! How fun, huh?

My other food making experience that I am trying right now is making yogurt. See, the way I figure is that I should learn how to make from scratch the things I eat the most. And cut down all the unnecessary sugar (I am fat enough, thank you) and salt (my 12,000 ill kidneys thank you) and I can save money and eat healthier.

So, I found this recipe for making yogurt in a slow cooker, which seemed like a good time. For anyone that knows anything about me is that I LOVE my slow cooker. I think....I could make a whole Thanksgiving dinner from slow cookers...in fact someday I should do that. I think they are just about one of the best kitchen inventions ever. So, back to the yogurt. I read many many recipes, and settled on this one. I went and got a half gallon of Tide Mill Organic Farm whole raw milk (if you remember, this is where I get my CSA from, so in the future I can add a half gallon of milk every couple of weeks to my order to make more yogurt for no additional cost!), and the local whole food market had yogurt starter too! So, I followed the directions:


Alas, when I woke up this morning, I discovered things did not work out so well.


As it turns out, one should probably own a kitchen thermometer (would be good for holiday baking, too, right?). I don't think I let the milk cool enough before adding my starter. Speaking of starter....I think it was bad. Because, after I took the above photo, I noticed on the side there was a label suggesting it be refridgerated (not after opening....just always). And I bought this off of a shelf. SO, needless to say, that was a few bucks down the drain. I consulted back with one of my favorite books Animal, Vegetable, Miracle to find out the company that she uses for cheesmaking supplies, as I figured they might have yogurt starters too. And sure enough, they do! So, I ordered a couple packets, which should be coming in just a couple days (yay New England!).

So, hopefully I will have more success to share with you in the future regarding yogurt.

In other news, I have seem to have a few organisms that have decided to live around me. I have a big spider that takes up residence outside my door every night, as well as a cousin of it that takes up residence outside my kitchen window. For those of you who don't like spiders, skip over this pictures. But, its been real cool because I have seen them eat consume two mosquitos each now, which I most certainly appreciate (I want to get a bat house to put outside to bring in more squito eaters, but I think that will wait for permanent home dwelling). Please meet Aragog and Charlotte (if you need a link for this one, I should hit you over the head with a pan).


(I love the above picture because it looks like the spider is 1/3 of the size of my car!)

And, I found this guy today when I was washing out some more vegetables from my CSA share. It appears he didn't much like living in my fridge for the past day. Although, he warmed up quickly and I set him free outside. Not until I named him Slug-Go, though.


OK, enough creepy crawly pictures, right?
How about something more....Maine? What would you do if you were out for a walk around your neighborhood today (trying to get more exercise...always...) and saw this on the side of the road:


Don't see it? Look closer:

So, what would you do? Perhaps similar to what I did: Pull your iPod earbuds out of your ears and start jumping up and down yelping "I found wild Maine blueberries!!". (Please note...I was on a pretty heavily trafficked road, so I am sure I was a site to see.). So I took some pictures, and then plucked off a handful of berries and nibbled on them all the way home....and ohhhhmyyyygoooodness were they tasty! For use Midwestern folks, we are used to the huge blueberries that are rather tart. Wild Maine bluberries just grow all over the place up here, and they are tiny and taste amazingly sweet. They were so good. I think I also saw chokecherries, too, but I didn't try them (that is rule #1 of harvesting wild edibles...don't eat it unless you can verify by leaf, fruit, and location that it is what it is...) so I will have to bring some home another time to identify them.

How thrilling, though, huh? Just in case you were wondering, or wanted something to go "wow" about...the blueberries I found....on the side of a 55mph road...across the street from the county hospital. Plants are so awesome.

So, yeah, that is all the excitement for today. I am really loving taking pictures and being able to share with you all my small and large adventures in Maine here, and would love to receive any comments and thoughts you have!

ADDITION TO THE POST: I have a received a request (not sure if it is in jest or serious!) about what the cost per unit for both the bread and yogurt would be, so I've broken it down here for you:

BREAD (per batch):
Yeast: $.22
Flour: $1.30
Kosher Salt: $.05
Cornmeal (i used 2tbls): $.06
Water (tap water, per Maine water costs): $.001
LP Gas: unknown (I don't pay for my propane, but I cooked for 1/2hr at 450 degrees)
Batch total cost: $1.63
Loaf cost: $.41

I am not even going to run the cost savings numbers here, since long gone are the days where you can go to a local bakery (if you even have one!) and buy a loaf of FRESH bread for $.40!

YOGURT:
Milk: $3.50 (1/2 gallon of locally grown/produced raw milk)
Starter: $5.49 (packets of four, two used for 64oz/half gal batch)
Electricity (crock pot): again, don't pay the bill for LP so I don't know.
Crock pot: Already had one and you should too.
Batch total cost (initial, with purchase of 8 8oz ball jars): 12.75 ($1.57 ea)
Recurring batch cost (reuseable containers of course!!): $6.25 ($.78 each)

To compare, I saw a 32 oz (1/4gal) container of both Brown Cow (from California) and Stoneyfield (closer, in N. Hampshire) for around $4.30 a container. Compare the homemade, which would be $3.12. And its even better for individual (8oz) servings. Both B.C. and S.F. run their 8oz cups around $1.20 each (!) and mine are...$.78!

For someone like me...who eats 8oz of yogurt a day probably 5 days/week:
Buying Stoneyfield or Brown Cow individuals: $312
Making my own: $202.80


OK, I really do think I will run my own homestead/hobby farm someday....live off my land...

eating (local) creations and exploring (local) waters

So the past couple days has been a pretty quiet time in my life, as you can see from the blog. Just a lot of livin' life, nothing too wild. I'm inherently aware of my super detailed budget that I've set out for myself until September 1 (and then the post-September which is much more exciting, cuz it involves savings!!!) so I am trying to make do with what I can experience for minimal to no cost, other than just some gas to get there, or the old "foot powered" method.

I'm finding I really enjoy living in a town where I can walk twenty minutes and make my way to most of the businesses on the main street. A bike ride or long walk is the grocery store.

To give you perspective:

Things within a five minute walk: Whole Food Market, laundromat
Things within a ten minute walk: bank, gas station
Things within a fifteen minute walk: UMM (work!), Bluebird Restaurant, post office, library, community-supported agriculture pickup spot
Things within a twenty minute walk: Helen's Restaurant, Dairy Spot drive-in, recycling center, town hall, subway, "the dike" (where farmers market is).

Neato!

Anyway, today was my first pickup for my CSA pickup from Tide Mill Organic Farm in Edmunds, ME . What a bounty!


Garlic scapes, broccoli, fresh salad greens, green onions, and I think red chard. I made a beautiful meal for both Betty the Cat and I....well, Betty's was a tad different:

Mine was a wonderful pasta dish using all the fresh ingredients with the addition of some spinach and asparagus that I had picked up at Hannaford, my local grocery. Yum! With the addition of a glass or two of the Wild Maine Blueberry Oak Dry from Bartlett Winery (yay Stephanie! I finally found an "occasion") it was a lovely meal:

I also embarked on something that several people mentioned I need to learn how to do since I live in New England now...breadmaking! Marissa, the most wonderful girlfriend, sent me a great pre-made refrigerator dough recipe from my favorite (ok, my second favorite to National Geographic!!! Nothing beats N.G.!!) magazine Mother Earth News. So, I made the dough tonight, and will try baking it tomorrow! Here's a pic of it right after I combined all the ingredients:

I wanted to try it to make sure it really did taste like bread. Sure enough, it did.
(come on, I live with an elderly cat and am currently unemployed, I have to entertain myself)

After following the directions and allowing it two hours and a bit to rise, here's what I had:
Whoa, sweet. I had to go out and buy a new broiler and pan set for my oven since the one that came with the apartment oven looked like someone had died and been baked on it (thought: I wonder what it will cost me to recycle THAT?), but with a "you're new here" discount (10% since it was unmarked) at the local appliance store (they had two left in the back room), I am in business. And I got myself a baking stone, and some supplies at the Machias Hardware Store (dear family, gift certificates to local business are great gifts ha!!, that is where its at!!!) and I am all set to go. I will post pictures of my baking creation tomorrow. Evidently this is the kind of recipe where you can let it sit in your fridge as a wet dough for up to 2 weeks and just grab a chunk and make a "boule" when you need to. I am stoked to try it out!

Other than exploring local foods lately, I found what I have deemed "my spot" near Machias yesterday. It's Fort O'Brien/Fort Machias State Historic Site. This place is truly wicked awesome. The funny thing is that its just 4.5 miles away from my house...and just a little driveway leads to a fort that has been in existence since 1775! And also is one of the few forts in the U.S. to be in all three land-based U.S. wars (revolutionary, 1812, and civil).

The cool thing is that its just mounds! And there was a cellar that was designated as the ammunitions store room underground that has since been filled:

The view from here was pretty amazing. I brought along Harry Potter to read, and sat all by myself watching the tide come in. I even got "barked at" by a couple of red foxes. A case of they scared me, I scared them. Pretty neat, though...can't say I've ever been within thirty feet of red foxes. The area is just gorgeous, and is atop a cliff overlooking the mouth of the Machias River in Machiasport (where I am thinking I hope to buy a house someday) which leads into the Bay of Fundy. In the background you can see what I think are FCC towers or something like that. Who knows. All I know is that there is only one American radio station I pick up in my car and house here, the rest are Canadian.


Interestingly, yesterday was the first day over 72 degrees that I've seen in Machias thus far, so as you can see, I was out sunning myself. I can definitely see Ft. O'Brien as a reading/relaxing kind of spot. I was there for about two hours on a Sunday afternoon and not another person came by! There are foxes, seagulls, a ton of different water birds I don't know yet, and lobster pots right off the shore...so hopefully someday I'll get to see the lobster getting harvested right in front of me!

I also explored the Machiasport public boat landing, which is right by the BBS Lobster Company, where you can stop in for a piece of the days catch. No one was working on Sunday of course, but I got to see what the public piers look like. A tad different than in Iowa. Note that the tide is at pretty much dead low when I took these, so you get to see a lot of the water life up front.



All in all, a pretty great couple of chill days. In other news, I finished my first "Maine" book, which was The Edge of Maine by Geoffrey Wolff. As I hoped, I learned a good amount of Maine history, as well as the finer points of the interactions of lobster fisherman, blowboaters (sailboaters), and the ferry industry. Neat. Next on the list: Sea Glass by Anita Shreve (thanks for the lend, Stephanie!) and The Lobster Chronicles (if I can find it somewhere used, the local library only has a couple of her books that I already have).

That's all for tonight from the Sunrise Coast!