What if you're already unprocessed?

One of the things I've been hearing alot in talking about October Unprocessed, is "oh, we already eat really healthy."

This statement is not just hubris--I work in food activism and I live and work in a crunchy-granola urban neighborhood, so a lot of the people I know eat only seasonal, local, organic and whole. They know how to make their own yeast. They have root cellars, in the city. They haven't set foot in a grocery store in 5 years.

I'm one myself. I started with Not Dabbling in Normal's Real Food Challenge in 2009 and never looked back. Except.

I gave myself a pass on candy bars. I like flavored teas. I eat out.

I'm probably not going to stop doing any of those things in the long haul. But I can do it for a month. And maybe I'll find, like I did with the Real Food Challenge, that there are things I can live without. And things that are easy, I mean easy, to replace, like getting local farmer-made raw-milk cheese and plain yogurt, or bread from the family-owned bakery, instead of Sara Lee's "healthy" line. And things that are absurdly easy to make, like jam, and mayonnaise, and flat breads-pita or nan.

Don't talk to me about "I have no time." I don't have kids at home, but I work full time and then some. I just spend all day Sunday cooking, and then the rest of the week I get to hang out on line looking for challenges.

So if you're as green as you think you can get, think again. Look through your cupboard and your larder and take an extra step. Think of creative ways to approach the challenge--go vegetarian if you're not already, or vegan, for one day. (Meat being one of the most highly processed foods we know.) Get really unprocessed and try incorporating more raw foods into your weekly diet. Think ahead and put something up for the winter.

As Andrew says in the Eating Rules blog that "runs" the challenge, October Unprocessed is not just about eating real food. It's about eating mindfully. Read a label, or better yet, a recipe. Eat a carrot for snack.

You'll be surprised how basic you can get.

Apple-maple oatmeal
1/2 cup apple cider (buy it at the farmers market, or read the label. It should say "ingredients: apples")
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup oats
pinch of salt
1 T maple syrup
1/2 apple, cubed.

Boil the apple cider and water, then slowly add the oats, stirring constantly. Boil about 5 minutes or until the oats start to soften. Add the salt and maple syrup, continue cooking until it's the consistency you like. For a sweeter oatmeal, increase the apple cider to a full cup (and skip the water), and/or add more maple syrup.

Add the cut-up apple and serve.

We threw out the baby

I went to grade school in the 60s, which meant the boys took shop and the girls took home ec. We wore skirts to school, and boys had to have their shirts tucked in. We learned ballroom dance and always wore white gloves when we dressed up. Shop meant that the boys learned how to change the oil in a car, basic carpentry like use of a band saw and a table saw, simple construction (bird house), and how to wire a lamp.

The girls made a sewing sampler, and a couple of simple garments both by hand and machine; we learned how to set a table, talk to the servants (this was Philadelphia's Main Line after all), arrange a luncheon, and meals from simple- chicken soup- to complex- a souffle. We learned how to write a household budget and how to balance a check book.

Unfortunately, when women developed consciousness in the late 60s and early 70s, all the "girl" stuff got thrown away. It wasn't valued. The boy things we kept-- now everyone took shop, and no one took home ec. Message received-- things that boys do are good, and things that girls do are bad. Baby, meet bath water. Someday we'll maybe manage a society where every contribution is valued, whether it's done traditionally--girls in the house, boys in the world--or new age, where you work where your talent and your inclination leads you.

I remember Home Ec very clearly-- how to make chicken broth, how to use a percolator (this was decades before Mr. Coffee). We made salad dressing--everyone did in those days. There was no such thing as off-the-shelf salad dressing. We made souffle, at the age of 12, and omelettes.

When you teach children to cook at school, you remove the emotional content and it becomes a normal thing that people do. Especially now, when so many mothers don't cook from scratch anymore, cooking at home, especially for tweens and teens, becomes fraught with political correctness, or parental weirdness. Teach the kids to cook at school--boys and girls--and it moves into the background noise of Things We Should Know.

The first thing we made, on the first day of Home Ec, was cinnamon toast. Seems silly, doesn't it? But how many people reading this blog buy their cinnamon sugar already mixed? That is what seems silly now. Buy your cinnamon from a reliable spice shop, and put as much or as little real cane sugar into yourself. Cheaper, more reliable, no fillers, and custom made for your preference.

Other than that, I remember this cinnamon toast as being the best cinnamon toast I ever made before or since. I don't recall any more how they did it, except that it was toasted in the broiler, not a toaster, and it was bubbly and crisp and exquisitely delicious. Here's my attempt to duplicate it here, on my own homemade wheat bread.

Whole wheat bread
from the American Home All-purpose Cook Book

1 3/4 c. milk
1 T. sugar
1 T. sea salt
1/4 c. honey
2 T butter or shortening
Yeast-- 2 cakes compressed, 2 pkgs active dry, or 2 tsp bread machine yeast
1/2 c. warm water (105-115F)
4 c. whole wheat flour
2-2 1/2 c. white flour

Combine milk, sugar, honey and shortening in a saucepan and heat until bubble appear around the edge and butter is melted; cool to lukewarm. If you are using active yeast, at this point crumble it into the warm water in a large mixing bowl and stir to dissolve, then add the lukewarm milk mixture. For bread machine yeast, add the yeast to the flour or to the milk mixture.

Stir in the whole wheat flour until completely moist. Add 2 cups of the white flour, work in well. If needed, add enough additional flour to make a stiff dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead about 5 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic. It will not feel as smooth as white bread doughs.

Grease a large bowl, and place the dough in it, rotating the dough a couple of times to make sure it is coated with oil. Cover with a damp towel and let it rise in a warm place for about 1 1/2 hours, til doubled in size. Punch down, let rise another 30 minutes or until almost double. Grease two 9" loaf pans. Punch dough down, knead briefly to pop any air bubbles, divide in half. Shape each piece into a loaf and place in pans. Cover.

Let rise 50 to 60 minutes or until doubled. Bake at 375F for 25 to 30 minutes.

Cinnamon toast
2 T softened butter
2 tsp cinnamon sugar (about 3:1 ratio cinnamon to sugar. Add a little clove or a tiny pinch of cayenne for a kick.)
2 slices of bread

Mix the cinnamon sugar into the softened butter, spread on the untoasted bread. Place cinnamon-side up on a cookie sheet or a broiler pan, place in broiler and cook at broil heat until butter is bubbling and edges are lightly toasted.