Driven to Distraction-Blog Interrupted and in Consideration of Food Groups

Sorry for the long title today – but this post includes two basic themes.

I started this blog for a few reasons – as an outlet for my creative energy,  to indulge my passion for all things related to the food world and writing, to have fun with photographing my food and gardens, to begin a new vocation that would allow me flexibility but which could be pursued daily for the rest of my sane and lucid days, and to fill the void left in my time at home since my last child left for college.  Well, you may notice that my blogging frequency has an inverse relationship with the exact number of days that one or more of my children are home.  Yes, my son arrived home from college about three weeks ago and has monopolized a disproportionate amount of my time, hence interrupted blogging.   Not that I’m not happy to spend time with him, I am, but it is crazy the loss of my own time that has occurred since he came home and had to: switch gears from one Summer job to another, prepare to start this Summer job – finding housing in NYC and getting a complete new business wardrobe as well as learn to manage the responsibilities inherent in renting an apartment and subletting for the Summer and dealing with landlords, tenants, ordering and coordinating furniture deliveries and subsequent assembly (Ikea no more) and, yes, after we drove the 4 hours back from Washington, realizing there was no hot water for the tenants.  Of course, it was late in the day Saturday when that was reported and yes, the landlord had done a better job protecting his privacy (phone number) through a number of surrogates and email addresses than my son and his roommate had done in protecting themselves in the event of tenant issues.   Not to mention that my son’s prospective roommate lives in London and is there now for the Summer. Such is the learning curve for un-indoctrinated college kids.   Ok, so now you know where I have been and why I haven’t been able to focus on thinking and writing.  And so……I’ve literally been driven to distraction and become a “blogger- interrupted”.

That said and yet another day today spent helping him handle all these new issues, I came home at around 2:30 and, being that the weather is feeling more like Fall today (54F)  than June, I “needed” to bake a cake.  I actually don’t think I’ve baked a cake for over 2 weeks.  I had a yearning, believe it or not for something warm, comforting and spicy –  gingerbread. Weird, right?  I have a relatively new book that I love entitled, “Baking Style” by Lisa Yockelson.  I spent many happy hours perusing this book in January when it arrived.  It’s a great book, well worth investing in.  Take a look.  Anyway, even though I really wanted a good gingerbread loaf, I settled on her Gingerbread Tea Cake, page 459.  It just came out of the oven and smells heavenly.  I was certain when I started this endeavor that I had a piece of fresh ginger in the house, but alas, I didn’t.  So, I doubled the ground ginger to 4 teaspoons.  I think I will forgo the lemon butter gingered cream as with cakes like this, I prefer them plain with maybe just a dust of confectioner’s sugar.  I even resisted the urge to add chopped nuts and candied ginger to this recipe.  I will let you know how it came out.  If anyone has a great gingerbread loaf – a light and not dense one, please send it along.  I was tempted to make Claudia Fleming’s Gingerbread cake but it included stout and looked like a more dense cake than I was looking for today.  I will try that one on a nice cold day.  I have a definite penchant for gingerbread cakes – loving David Lebovitz’s and the one from Potluck at Midnight Farm by Tamara Weiss.

    

    Looking good…… and hit the spot!

Two new books arrived today that I have been looking forward to for a week.  I don’t know what’s up with Amazon but their usual very dependable 2 day free shipping has fallen off the wagon.  Anyway, I received, “The Girl in the Italian Bakery” by Kenneth Tingle.  I have to confess that I totally misread what this book was about when I ordered it – I thought it was a memoir of someone who grew up in their family’s Italian bakery – it is apparently not anything like that at all – but a memoir of a troubled man who grew up in a housing project north of Boston – ok, so that’ll be interesting!!!!!!

Also, received, “Against the Grain – How Agricuture has Hijacked Civilization” by Richard Manning.  For a variety of reasons, I have long been interested in the obsession in our culture with eating grain – particularly wheat – I know, kinda strange for a baking addict.  But, I have always had an interest in certain anthropological issues and am curious about the influences of the government’s interference with agricultural output in this country (via farm subsidies and their incorporation into the food pyramid – only last June replaced with the “plate concept” which, interestingly, continues to be under the control of the Dept of Agriculture – is that a little conflict of interest or what? – and not the Dept of Health and Human Services), plus the fact that humans,  having evolved as hunter-gatherers, were never meant to eat any refined grains and, um dairy??  Thus, the question, should we eat all of the grain and dairy products that we are directly or indirectly encouraged to eat? Are we making ourselves sick through the consumption of too much of the wrong food groups?  Is our government unwittingly encouraging the marketing and consumption of food products we were never meant to have in large percentages in concert with what they may have directly supported in the generation of industrial food production? (Consider the percentage of space in the grocery store given over to grain and dairy-related products – not to mention the pervasiveness of that ubiquitous corn syrup-try to find a loaf of whole wheat bread in the grocery store without corn syrup in it)  Even some pet food companies have begun to market foods low in or with no grain products for our dogs and cats as they are fundamentally carnivores.  Seriously, do doctors ask you what you eat when you are suffering from osteo-arthritis or other inflammatory conditions, chronic stomach pain, or even  a sinus infection or snoring problems?  My husband’s snoring disappears when he stops eating grain, dairy and sugar.  For years my “treatment” for a cold was to stop eating grain and sugar. For me, it worked!

Our country is seriously obsessed with dairy, wheat and corn products and, it seems to me, this may have had the unintended consequence of contributing to the obesity epidemic and a number of inflammatory diseases via subsidizing farmers and their  huge corn, wheat and dairy production.  Ok, I’ll get off the soap box, but I ask you, is this not good food for thought?  No pun intended.  This concept is worth looking into – especially for anyone with arthritis, gastro-intestinal issues and other diseases with no genetic pre-disposition and if your diet is heavy in grain, dairy and, that dastardly maligned pervasive, sugar. There is a lot of data supporting diets primarily containing lean proteins, fruits and vegetables. Many European countries and primal cultures eat this way and a friend told me recently that during WWII it was found in Italy, of all places, that 1/3 of the population is gluten intolerant.  There’s lots of information out there about these subjects – take a look for yourself.  I think it’s pretty interesting. (By the way, I’m not trying to sabotage my own food blog here, just looking for the right balance and answers to some questions!!!!!!!!! So, this may be a different kind of food blog – one which will examine a wide array of food issues – for and against, delicious and maybe not so healthy but for me, anyway, worthy of consideration.)  These are some of the reasons for the burgeoning growth in Farmer’s Markets around the country – one of my favorite food subjects.  They may market little bags of their own granola and some small batch whole grain breads, but mostly it is their own grass-fed meats, fish and fruits and vegetables.  We as a culture may be a little slow on the uptake, but I think we are getting back to where we belong.  It will be interesting to track the rates of certain diseases as we trend (hopefully) back in the direction of the local farm to table way of eating.  Now, if only the medical profession would get on board.  Wow- that is a lot of editorializing today!

Ok, awkward segue……Cake is fabulous.  Definitely will make it again.  Don’t miss the fresh ginger – surprising!

  Beautiful Climbers on “little garage” this afternoon – great year for roses in NJ – but not looking as good at all on Cape Cod…..interesting……..