Sunday, August 14, 2011

Tell Someone You Love Them No Bake Peanut Butter Pie

For those of you who may not know this, I love reading food blogs. My discovery of the purpose of Google Reader has saved my life (as well as lots of time). I am probably not a good blog follower. I do not write responses very often or “like” them. I just read them. Some make me laugh. Some inspire me with new recipe ideas. Occasionally, I do write in my own blog about something we made with a link to the original author. My poor cookbooks feel neglected as I often find it easier to search for a recipe I have read about online.

I am also always fascinated by online friendship culture. I read about bloggers who are great friends with other bloggers even though they have never met in person. It is clear there is a great support system out there if you seek it out. I stay in the shadows and do my own thing, and I am cool with that. Yesterday, though, I witnessed something beautiful that made me cry and tear up again and again. It also inspired me to contribute to the food blog community myself.

Innocently, I clicked on a post for No Bake Peanut Butter Pie. I love peanut butter. Although, we have not dealt with the blistering heat of the rest of the country, our lack of AC and good ventilation makes our little apartment pretty toasty when we fire up the oven (and all I seem to want to do lately is make stuff that requires the oven, go figure). So, my point being, I thought it might be a fun recipe to make this weekend that would not require heating up the apartment.

Then began the tearing up. The post was in honor of a fellow blogger who lost her husband to sudden massive heart attack last weekend. The full on crying began when I went to Jennie’s blog. She wrote about her and her husband’s last date and her intention for quite some time to make him his favorite dessert, Peanut Butter Pie. And sadly, she did not get this chance.

Shit. Not what I expected to encounter in the rare little pocket of free time I had to enjoy on my Friday morning. So, there I sat stunned and in tears. She wrote asking everyone to make Peanut Butter Pie on Friday and share it with someone they love. By the time I got home, my Google Reader was filled with bloggers and their version of Peanut Butter Pie as a tribute to Jennie and Mikey. I don’t know Jennie. I don’t even follow her blog. But I was blown away by the love and support demonstrated by her fellow food bloggers… some of who clearly had some sort of friendship with her, and some, like me, who just feel the need to honor Jennie and her request.

So, it isn’t Friday. If you had been my shadow on Friday, you would know why I am a Sunday pie participant. It’s the thought that counts, right??

My other takeaway from this unexpected experience is that I am bad about making sure my loved ones know I care. For someone so filled with empathy, I am terrible at expressing my feelings and my emotions. I am not good at giving consistent and regular assurance of love and appreciation to most of my dear friends. I just assume that they know I care about them since I keep them as friends. I guess I need to work on that. I also want to make sure that I am enjoying each and every day and being thankful for the experiences it brings me, whether they are good or bad. So this pie is dedicated to all of those special people in my life.

If you are now wanting your own Peanut Butter Pie inspiration or are just curious about how many people really cared enough to make their own, check out Picky Palate’s blog as she has compiled many others who were part of the Peanut Butter Pie memorial. I decided to just go with what Mikey had loved and used Jennie’s recipe. My only changes were leaving out the chopped peanuts and the chocolate drizzle on top.

No-Bake Creamy Peanut Butter Pie

Yield: 8 to 10 servings

Prep Time: 30 minutes

For the Crust:
8 ounces Oreo cookies, crushed into fine crumbs
Pinch of salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
½ cup heavy cream
¼ cup chopped peanuts

For the Filling:
1 cup heavy cream
8 ounces cream cheese
1 cup creamy peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar
14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice

To Finish:
1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vegetable shortening

1. In a medium bowl, combine the Oreo crumbs, pinch of salt and melted butter, tossing with a fork until the crumbs are all evenly moistened. Press into the bottom and about 1-inch up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes.

2. While crust is in the freezer, place the 4 ounces of chocolate chips into a small bowl. In a small saucepan set over medium-high heat, bring the ½ cup of heavy cream to a full boil. Pour over the chocolate chips, let it sit a minute, and then stir gently with a rubber spatula until completely smooth and glossy. Pour over the bottom of the crust, tilting the pan or using an offset spatula to ensure it covers the entire bottom. Sprinkle with the chopped peanuts. Place pan in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling.

3. Using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the 1 cup of heavy cream on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Transfer the whipped cream to a medium bowl and place in the refrigerator until ready to use.

4. Again using an electric mixer, this time with a paddle attachment (or regular beaters if using a hand mixer), cream together the peanut butter and cream cheese on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the powdered sugar. Once it is all added, scrape the sides of the bowl and beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds to completely incorporate. Add the sweetened condensed milk, vanilla extract and lemon juice and beat at medium speed until everything is completely combined and smooth.

5. Using a rubber spatula, stir in about 1/3 of the whipped cream to lighten the mixture. Very gently, fold in the remaining whipped cream until no streaks of whipped cream remain. Pour the filling into the prepared crust.

6. In a microwave on 50% power, melt the 1/3 cup of chocolate chips with the shortening in 30 second bursts, stirring after each one, until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth. Using a spoon or pastry bag, drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of the pie filling.

7. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours (or overnight) before serving. Store leftovers in the refrigerator.

(Recipe adapted from In Jennie’s Kitchen)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Squash Solutions

Yeah, yeah… I know… I have totally fallen off the blog bandwagon. You would think with summer and no classes, I would have been better. I guess I have just needed a mental break. Anyways, I have a couple of writing ideas, so hopefully you will see more from me soon. In the meantime, chew on this one (literally) for a while.

It is that time of year where summer squash and zucchini are in abundance and everyone is looking for ways to use it up. I got this recipe from my mama, which means she probably made it while I was home one time and I liked it. It is scribbled on a sticky note and stuffed in my recipe box. Fancy, eh? I needed something to take to a pot luck, and this seemed like a good idea. It was pretty much scarfed down, so I will take that as a seal of approval.

Here are a couple of cooking notes on changes I made. The recipe below is as written, not as made.

It calls for chicken broth, but I used vegetable broth so that it was vegetarian friendly. Clearly, this is not vegan, but you could probably easily make it so with leaving out the cheese (or using a non-dairy one) and using a vegan corn bread recipe. Personally, I think the cheesy goodness is an important layer of flavor in this recipe. The original recipe calls for Jiffy corn bread. Since, I am trying to eliminated packaged foods from our diet, I found this clone recipe online and made it from scratch. Almost as easy as opening the box, I promise! Instead of using the listed spices, I just threw some Penzey’s Herbs de Provence into the mix.

Ingredients

2 cups of zucchini and/or yellow squash, diced (I like a combo of both)

½ c. onion, diced

½ of pan of Jiffy corn bread (or your favorite corn bread or use the link above)

4 oz. cheddar cheese, grated (honestly, I just grated a hunk of cheese without weighing it … so just add to meet your own cheesy preference)

1 c. chicken broth

1 t. garlic

½ t. thyme

1 T. garlic

Salt and pepper

Cooking Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Sauté onion for about 5 minutes. Add squash, zucchini, and garlic. Cook all to desired tenderness. Mix in spices, salt and pepper shortly before you remove it from the heat.

Place in bowl, add cheese, and crumble the cornbread. Pour in about ¾ to 1 cup of broth (to desired consistency – should be dampened but not completely soggy).

Spray baking pan. Add cornbread and vegetable mixture. Cover with foil. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove foil and finish baking until bubbly and crisp around edges. Then you let it cool slightly then eat it. Yum!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Apricot Crumble

We received a beautiful surprise of apricots with our CSA share last week. We snacked on a few, but before I knew it they were starting to turn a little soft. I decided that they would make a lovely crumble, and I was right. I used Smitten Kitchen’s recipe as my spring board. Making a crumble or crisp topping is really pretty simple. It is always a combination of butter, sugar, flour, and oats with variations of spices or nuts added. I ended up trying this one because it called for melted butter instead of blending in chunks of chilled butter. That seemed a little faster and simpler, and I was curious what the difference in texture would be. I was really happy with the outcome! I did follow her suggestion and do half all purpose flour and half whole wheat flour. Combined with the fruit, that makes it healthy, right? My other deviations were leaving out the pecans because I did not have any and adding a sprinkle of Penzey’s Baking Spice.

I also peeled my apricots. I have never been a fan of cooked stone fruit skin, so I figured it was worth the extra step. I followed the standard method of scoring the fruit and dropping them in boiling water for a minute or two followed by a bath in cold water. The skin popped right off. Unintentionally, I ended up following her suggestion of just tearing the fruit apart. It was actually easier than trying to slice it!

I happened to be sipping on some white wine while throwing this together and R suggested I add a bit to the fruit, which I thought was an excellent idea. I used the wine to make a slurry with a bit of arrowroot starch and some sugar. I recommend arrowroot starch over cornstarch as a thickener for baked goods. For good measure, I tossed in some dried cranberries I noticed on the shelf. Excellent decision on my part if I do say so myself.

I am so happy I did this on the spur of the moment. It reminded me of how quick and easy it is to throw together a yummy dessert that takes advantage of the season’s fresh fruit. It also redeemed me from several disappointing baking endeavors from in the recent past… I suddenly began feeling under the weather after I finished putting dessert together so I ended up not eating mine last night. I can say it made an excellent breakfast this morning. It’s fruit, so it works for breakfast, right?

Oh yeah, my last production point. I used our cute-as-can-be Fiestaware individual pie dishes and made the crumble as two individual servings. I love Fiestaware!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Summer Is About Festivals

It is summer festival time! It is one of my favorite things about the summer season. No matter where you live, it seems there are all sorts of fun, outdoor events planned to fill your weekends. Flagstaff and N. Arizona is no exception. In eager anticipation of my move to Flagstaff, I started following area news last spring (yes, I know I am ridiculous!). I was excited to start gathering information about my new home so I spent more way time than I should reading about it online last spring and summer. One of the best sources of information I discovered was a page for Flagstaff on Facebook. The regular posts on upcoming events made me anxious to. get. there. already. June, in particular, seemed action packed with all sorts of fun going ons that I was going to miss since I was not arriving until mid July. Well, guess what folks, I just had my first June in Flagstaff and was it ever fun!

First up was Hullabaloo. This event is a spin off of Tour de Fat, which is sponsored by the Fat Tire Brewing Company. Rumor has it that it was a very popular event in Flag, perhaps too popular. Apparently the event people decided we were more than they can handle… The fine people of Flagstaff did not let this detour them from having their fun and their response was to create Hullabaloo. It was pretty wacky. I did not take any pictures, but if you click on the link you will see the crazy outfits people wear. Apparently people love to dress up in ridiculous outfits for the event. The other cool thing that I wish I had taken a picture of was the sheer volume of bicycles locked up around the park. It almost looked staged. The event kicks off with a bicycle parade, even.

So, I actually volunteered with my friend N at this event. We were helping out at the Zero Waste Tent. It was sort of fun, and I guess maybe I helped the environment a little bit? Dunno. I think the jury is still out on that one. Basically, they had bins to sort out compost, recyclables, and plain old trash. Our job was telling people where to put stuff. It was a lot of work, and I suspect some people wished they had just dumped their trash elsewhere after it took 5 minutes to sort out everything they had. Just kidding. Sort of. No really, I think it was educational for a lot of people that came to our waste station, but it was also very enlightening for me to realize how complicated it really can be to try and do the right thing when you are putting on a large scale event like this one.

The biggest fail of the day? Sierra Nevada Brewing was the beer supplier of the day and served their drinks in “compostable cups.” I put that in quotes because they were actually NOT compostable for our event. Since we live in such a dry climate, you need a special industrial biodigester to break them down (which the City of Flagstaff does not own) and you cannot just throw them in your average compost pile as they will not break down on their own. So with every. single. person. who walked up we had to direct them to the trash can instead of the compost bin. And then when they said to us (every time), “but the cup is compostable,” we had to explain why it was going to the landfill instead of being composted, and why it was not recyclable (organic material, not plastic), and finish up with the conciliatory comment that at least it would break down faster in the landfill than plastic does. Geez Louise. I am pretty sure I muttered that all night in my sleep since I said it so many freakin’ times. Ugh.

The following weekend, it was the Flagstaff Wine and Food Festival. Again, this was another one that had been on my radar, since last year! It was held at the Coconino County Fairgrounds, and since that was only about 4 miles away and accessible by the FUTS, we decided to bike it. Our friend, C, wanted to go for a bike ride that day so he joined us on our trek out there. Which turned into a stressful journey, where I am pretty sure he tried to kill us because he got us on I-17. Which is an interstate. With trucks. And fast moving cars. And is not a FUTS trail. Now, I should point out that it is actually legal to ride your bike on the interstate in Arizona, but who would really want to? So apparently there was some miscommunication about the envisioned route and the boys were so far ahead of me on their bikes that I was unable to flag them down and stop them when C hung a left instead of continuing on straight. Clearly, I was pissed and freaked by the time I finally caught up to them about a mile down the road. I am pretty sure I used a few expletives when asking why exactly we were now on the interstate instead of peacefully cruising along the FUTS trail. So at that point there was no legal, safe, or practical way to turn around or get back on track with the original plan. So we biked the two or so miles to the next exit. On the highway. With fast moving cars and trucks. At least there was a super wide shoulder. Clearly, I really needed a drink by that point!

In a moment of perfect happenstance, we ran into some of our friends at the entrance to the fairgrounds who had also biked. So, off we went. Time to put the earlier crisis behind us and eat, drink, and be merry. It was a gorgeous sunny day, and we took our time exploring all the local wineries and their offerings. More friends joined us throughout the day, and fun was had by all. I was really impressed by the Arizona wines. I have had a glass or two of local wines, but this really gave us the chance to sample and taste a wide variety. Now I have a winery tour on my list of things to do!

I would definitely recommend going to others, but would also say be prepared to spend more money than the $15 entry fee. Also bring cash. My only criticism is that I wish the process had been made more clear. If you wanted to do just a tasting, you needed a ticket, which could be bought for a $1 a piece. If you wanted a glass or bottle of wine, you needed cash. We used all our cash to buy tickets because we thought it was all interchangeable. Then we had a ton of tickets left, but really just wanted to buy a glass and kick back instead of popping up back and forth for small 2 ounce tastes. We worked it out, but some clearer signage would have been helpful.


This past weekend, we ventured down to Prescott. This was my second visit to Prescott, and I think it is just the most fun little town. I definitely want to spend some more time in this area. There is some good hiking and biking in the area, and the town itself has a nice selection of coffee shops, restaurants, and stores to be explored. It is about an hour and forty-five minutes south of Flag and a slightly lower elevation of about 5000 feet. This past weekend they had the Prescott Bluegrass Festival, which was our reason for heading there.


The Stage

It was free and in the heart of town on the grassy lawn surrounding the downtown County Courthouse. It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon and evening. There was lots of people there, but it wasn’t too crowded. We were able to find a shady spot where we could hear the music and enjoy the people watching.

Our Friend, T, Who Joined Us For the Fun

Nice and Shady

We wandered around a bit as well. On the back side of the courthouse, away from the stage, we discovered a number of groups doing their own thing and jamming away. It brought back memories of fun times at the IBMA Fan Fest in Louisville.

Jammin'

And More Jammin'

We slipped away and had an early dinner at The Raven Cafe, which is this awesome restaurant my friend introduced me to on my last visit. They try to source a lot of local and organic ingredients, and they have a RIDICULOUS beer selection. We sat outside on their outdoor upstairs patio and enjoy good food and good beer. After that we headed back, listened to some more good music then headed home. I am already making plans for going back next year.

Their awesome patio

My yummy mushroom sandwich with sweet potato fries

Finally next week, this one, Clips of Faith. I also enviously read about this one last year. Fat Tire beers and cool independent films about beers and bikes? Yes, please.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

Musings on Meat


Fresh Community Market Veggies - Yum!

Let me begin by setting the stage (or table as the case may be) for you. We sat down to dinner with Robert’s parents who are visiting Flag for a while. It was the summer solstice. The weather was beautiful so we sat outside. We had this amazing meal to indulge in together. A giant garden salad with tomatoes, radishes, carrots, salad turnips, sunflower sprouts and greens. A pile of roasted golden beets. A sweet corn and potato hash I had just encountered on one of the 1001 food blogs I read. Roasted carrots and sweet potatoes to accommodate my mother-in-law’s dietary needs.

As I surveyed everyone’s plate of food, I proudly realized that every single item, down to the onion and garlic, was either from our CSA share or the Flagstaff Community Market. Way to be local and sustainable! BUT. There was one more thing staring up at me. A big brown slab of meat. Steak to be exact. Steak that I had bought for just this purpose before knowing I was going to embark on a challenge posed by my friend Colette. Steak that after a bite or two, I decided was not really doing it for me and was filling up the space in my tummy that could be instead filled by all these amazing vegetables. I ate another bite or two and gave the rest to Robert wondering why I had even bothered in the first place.

Colette decided to take on a personal challenge to be vegan from June 19 to July 14. She also sent an invitation to all her friends to join her in this endeavor. You can check out the experience of the participants on Facebook at Community Challenge: Vegan for a Month. Her reasons for doing so? Here is a little excerpt from her invitation to us:

“However lately as I drive by the Swift plant and hear screeching pigs on the way to work or read about chicks with overgrown breasts that break their legs being jammed into wire baskets, or our that oceans will be depleted by 2050 I find myself feeling really guilty and awful about our level of consumption. Granted, I strive to eat as locally as possible, and am increasingly careful where I purchase meat and dairy down to researching how they are butchered to if they are grass finished or not. However, I can't shake the feeling that if I ate less local meat and dairy, there would be more for folks who aren't ready to be vegan.”

It should also be noted that she goes on later to admit that she is not sure worldwide veganism is the answer and acknowledges that our current food system structure could not handle such a drastic change and provide sustainably for everyone if we all immediately switched to an entirely plant based diet. She also talks more about her purpose in doing so at the blog she started with her partner Drew to capture how the experience goes. I encourage you to read at least the first entry to learn more about why they are trying out this drastic diet change. Her sister is also supporting her in the challenge and also blogging about it. She has some good thoughts and comments on food systems and sourcing as well.

Colette invited everyone to consider taking on one of four options:

  1. I will go vegan from June 19 thru July 14th and encourage folks who aren't ready for it to buy local instead.
  2. I will go vegetarian and encourage folks who aren't ready to buy local. I will try to source my dairy from sustainable, humane sources.
  3. I will buy only local, humanely, and responsibly raised food for this month.
  4. I will do challenge 1, 2, or 3, not for a month but for a day or one week.

Knowing Colette loves to eat well, and that in some ways this would be a tough challenge for her. I, of course, wanted to be supportive. So I opted for an emphasis on number 2, with a dash of 1 as was reasonable, and a little number 3 thrown in as an option to give me some leeway since I was not expecting Robert to embark on this little adventure with me. Honestly, I wasn’t troubled by the idea of giving up meat, but I wasn’t sure I wanted give up dairy and eggs. However, I mentally told myself that I would attempt to be as plant based as possible throughout this process and use dairy and eggs sparingly.

Important Things to Note

Robert and I already eat a mainly plant based diet with animal products being more of our “vice” than animal flesh itself. First of all, we like vegetables and grains. They are yummy when fresh and prepared well. This quinoa and vegetable salad is a great example of how we like to eat. Clearly, it is not vegan because of the mozzarella, but it was locally made and purchased at the Community Market. And of course, you could just leave the cheese out if you liked. For quite some time, meat has been more of a treat than what we center our meals around. Knowing the status of factory farming and acknowledging our budgetary restraints, we have mutually agreed that we would rather spend more on a small share of local beef through the CSA and stretch it out than buy $1/lb chicken breasts weekly at a big box grocery store.

Toasted Quinoa Salad

I would also like to note that I do not want to make any family or friends feel uncomfortable about their own food purchasing decisions and worry that there is judgment from us with regards to what you chose to eat and/or serve us when we are guests in your house. Of course, I will always encourage critical thinking about the topic and appreciate recognition that it IS a serious issue worthy of pause and consideration. We should all know and understand how our food is sourced and produced. What you do with the information after that is up to you. That is all I will ever ask.

The issue of using animals as a food source has been one that I have been struggling with for about two years ever since I took a philosophy class entitled Animal Ethics. I went into the class knowing the basics of our food system problems, but this class took it to a much deeper level for me and forced me to really examine my love of animals and my choice to use them for a food source. Can they coexist? Is it hypocritical to want both? I don’t have the answers… clearly. But, it was the impetus for beginning to drastically reduce my intake of animal flesh. In fact, a lot of times, it just doesn’t taste that good to me anymore. Psychological or physical reaction? Who knows.

So, you are thinking… if I am willing to do the vegetarian thing then what is the big deal with giving up eggs and dairy for a month? Here is where I am right now on these particular issues:

We can get local eggs very easily, and I believe it is an ethical choice if you have that option. The key is that eggs we get are unfertilized, which means we are not eating a future baby chicken. That hen was going to lay that egg regardless of whether or not Mr. Rooster was around to fertilize it for her. It will just eventually rot if not eaten by someone. I feel more comfortable buying from a small scale operation knowing that the chickens are be treated humanely, get to chill and eat bugs in a pasture, and are going to lay the eggs anyway. So, I guess that is why I am okay with eggs. But by doing so, I am also committing to spending almost $5 a dozen to do it right, which compared to grocery prices seems expensive. However, if you do the math, we are talking less than 50 cents an egg. Pretty cheap and healthier eats, really…. We have started exploring the use of egg substitutes when it comes to baking. We have done some experimenting and found some good options like combining ground flax seeds and water and a commercial egg substitute product that has given us good results. That also helps stretch the dollar a bit and reduces our egg intake.

Dairy…. That is a harder one. Anyone who bothers to do some research quickly realizes that for both dairy and eggs, words like “humane,” “organic,” “free-range,” etc. can have some pretty loose interpretations these days. We’d like to think that the idyllic drawing on the side of our milk carton and the organic stamp means that we are doing better… and I guess we are… but it is STILL a big corporate operation. And frankly, those animals’ lives are not really that much better than their cousins down the way as these large corporations still engage in some questionable practices. It’s a hard truth to face, but it is the reality. However, oh how I love my dairy products. Buttah (think Paula Deen when you say it to yourself), cheese, ice cream, cream cheese, sour cream, cheese (oh, said that one already didn’t I?)…. It tastes really good, and much of it is critical for proper baking.

Luckily, I know we can source locally made butter and cheeses at a fairly reasonable price at the CSA. For right now, I just don’t see dairy going anywhere in my life, and instead, I hope to make the best possible choices I can. That doesn’t mean I am not willing to try some experimenting like we have with the egg substitutes. For my first deliberate attempt at a vegan dish the other night, I made this Cosmic Cashew and Kale dish. It had some execution issues due to the type of greens I ended up pulling out of the freezer, but the creamy cashew sauce… Yep, I think I could use that as a substitute for some stuff. I know some of you are thinking, “Well, Cori, there are some lovely dairy alternatives out there made of soy, rice, etc.” My response to you, “they taste like sh*t.” Just not going to happen, boys and girls… and I could get on my soapbox about THEIR production, but we will save that for another conversation.

So back to meat. As I began thinking about all of this, I started considering whether or not choosing to eat the locally raised meat in Arizona is a sustainable and justifiable option as it is quite accessible here. Additionally, at such a high elevation with only about 75 growing days, large scale farming is not really a viable option for everyone around here. I should point out that pretty much all the produce I have been referencing is grown 1 to 3 hours away from here. What we do have is lots of open land that is perfect for grass and grazing. As a result, there are several reputable free-ranging ranches. According to this article, the climate is ideal for open land ranching and there are ways to do it sustainably and actually contribute to the ecological health of the area. Probably the best known is Flying M Ranch, which provides beef for many local Flagstaff restaurants. They are part of the Diablo Trust, which is an area land management organization with the goal of responsible and sustainable land use. The CSA sources a lot of its meat from the A Bar H Farm, which also cites sound ecological practices and humanely raised animals. I also found this gem of website, Eat Wild, which has the purpose of telling you what are your local sources for grass-fed meat, eggs, and dairy. It also shares information about the benefits of these practice: for your health, the animals’ health and the environment. Just like eggs from free-range, pastured chickens, pastured and grass-fed beef is a much healthier choice for you. The Flying M Ranch also cites several studies about why their practices make for a healthier product for us.

I guess the real question will always be, no matter how it is raised, is it ever humane to kill an animal for the purpose of eating it? For the time being, it will be up to each of us to make the decision. For me personally, I still go back and forth on the issue. However, I do find comfort in knowing that I have the option to select products where I know the animal has had the best quality of life possible. The other consideration to think over is whether or not eating meat on a regular basis can ever be a sustainable practice given the resources required to raise and process them as a food source. Not sure where you stand on all of this? Perhaps start with your own challenge. Use Colette’s guidelines above or just challenge yourself to give up something “animal-related” for a designated period of time and see if you really miss it or need it. This is also the best time to try a vegetarian diet while you can take advantage of the summer’s bounty and diversity.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Moab Adventures

I really thought I would be better about blogging once my summer got under way. Ha! Here's to hopefully getting into a better groove. Enjoy!

With my semester drawing to a close and knowing that R’s super busy season where he is not allowed to take time off from work was beginning, we decided to plan a long weekend getaway to Moab, Utah. I had been through there on my way to a conference in Denver this past fall and had been in awe of the landscape.

Gorgeous landscape - in Arches

I also thought it was a cute looking little town. We also figured it would soon be pretty darn hot there, so we should visit it before summer weather settled in for reals there. We had been itching to finally get back into camping, so it seemed like a perfect destination.

So, as I finished wrapping up my papers and what not, we also started making a list of gear and food needed, collecting gear, and packing. Good times. We decided to leave uber early on Friday morning (6 am-ish) so that we could get there around noon and still have half a day to enjoy after we set up camp.

Thursday arrived, and I am physically and emotionally spent from the end of my semester and here is how my day went. I worked until about 1 pm, then I raced home to start packing and cooking and prepping… So between then and about 4 pm, when I went to a friend’s presentation, I made cookie dough (Peanut Butter-Oatmeal Chocolate Chip), these muffins (minus the dates because I didn’t have any. Next time I would toast the pecans.). I thought they would be both a tasty and filling option for breakfast and snacks, which they were. I also gathered other food and started collecting all the crap I thought I might need on this trip. At 3:55 pm, I zipped down the hill on my bike to watch my friend T’s presentation. Raced back up the hill. Baked the cookies and made hummus, kept gathering stuff, then raced back down the hill at 6 pm for the Thesis Public Presentations where I gulped down a couple of glasses of free wine to calm myself down a bit. Then I met R for dinner (where we got in a “fantastic” argument over something really stupid), picked up the car and the rest of our gear, and kept packing until about midnight. Good times. We began questioning whether or not this was a good idea. Maybe we should just call the whole thing off?

At this point we concluded it would get better and we had already invested a lot of time and energy into this process… So, we went to bed and the alarm went off really early. We had a few more hiccups, which I won’t bore you with, but finally, the two of us, our mountain bikes, a crapload of camping gear, with the white beast hauling all of it were on the road, for better or worse. Once we got on the road, we finally settled down and began to embrace the idea of getting away, exploring a new place, and (heaven forbid) perhaps even having fun!

It was enjoyable watching the terrain continue to change as we headed north. After about four hours, we stopped for a late breakfast in Bluff, Utah on the recommendation of our friend J. In this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, there is a great little coffee shop and restaurant called Comb Ridge Coffee. We had these freakishly amazing blue corn pancakes and some tasty coffee. Now we were feeling REALLY good. Yay for road trips and getting away!

Pancakes!

We continued our trek north and enjoying the scenery and each other’s company. Finally, we arrived in Moab. We had done some preliminary research, and knew there was a number of Bureau of Land Management camp sites that were our best bet for a place to stay. So, we drove through downtown and confidently turned onto 128 with eager anticipation about picking out our camp site. We admired the canyon cut out by the Colorado River and began watching for campground signs. We drove through the first one – all taken. Okay, no big deal. Many more to go. Drove through the next one… all taken. Okay, we still have plenty of options. Well, as more miles progressed and we drove through more full campgrounds, our confidence and happy moods began to falter. Huh. Wow, these all filled up really quick. Twenty miles later, we reached the end of our options and concluded there was nothing available. Okay, well, there is other camping in the area. No big deal. We will just try some of the other locations. So, no need to drag you through the minutiae of our agony and failures to find just one. freakin’. spot. There is a happy ending of sorts. We did find a place to rest our weary heads. It just took us two hours, a lot of not trying to take it out on each other, and $20 to conclude that our best option was to set up camp in an open field along with a mixed bag of RV campers, mountain bikers, and off roaders. I squashed R’s skepticism, and said I want to stop and we WILL make this work.

I left R to unwind, and I headed back into Moab because I concluded we needed beer and we needed it stat! I picked up a growler at the local Moab Brewery, and then returned to help R finish setting up camp and unwind myself.

Camping!

We concluded it was not exactly what we envisioned, but hey, we were finally camping! We were there. We were a bit sad at the wasted day. Clearly, our visions of getting in an afternoon hike were wrong. So, instead, we sat back and enjoyed the sunshine and the change of venue. We made a yummy dinner of steak and sautéed veggies (parsnips, potatoes, carrots, red pepper, fennel, and onion - most was from our CSA) and enjoyed that with the local brew. We enjoyed a little campfire and then called it a night. The next morning we enjoyed an omelet with cheese and the leftover veggies from last night. Yum, yum!

Dinner!

The one in the middle is the famous "Balanced Rock"

We had plans to spend most of the day at Arches National Park, but didn’t feel comfortable leaving our gear at its current location. This meant packing it all up, which meant giving it another go for another location. Again, will spare you the long drawn out story, but no go. However, some friends from Flag had made the last minute decision to head to Moab, and we soon heard that they scored a really great site near where we had been the night before. Great. We knew we had a place to sleep and some fun people to hang out with, too. Off to Arches we went… trying to ignore the ominous gray clouds that were quickly filling the sky. It could NOT rain on us, right???

North Window Arch

Turret Arch and Ominous clouds...

Hiking the slick rock to Delicate Arch

Arches was amazing and beautiful. I highly recommend everyone consider going at some point. Rain continued to threaten to dampen our fun, but ultimately, we only had to deal with a few sprinkles. We also quickly realized that it was actually a good thing because it was keeping it cool. We did the hike to Delicate Arch, which is one of the most famous in the park, and from when we started to the end the clouds completely burned off and the temperature probably increased by about 15 degrees.

Ute Indian Rock Drawing of a Hunt

Delicate Arch

Although we had not made it all the way through the park, we decided to head back and locate our new campsite and set up camp again. We figured we could explore the rest of the park and the other hike Sunday afternoon after our bike ride.

Awe... see we DO like each other and had fun!

Our other friends were off rock climbing (crazy people), so we set up camp and then decide to bike the couple of miles into downtown Moab and enjoy a beer at the Moab Brewery.


Like I said, crazy people...

We were decidedly more relaxed and happy than when we started this crazy adventure. We were excited about having people to share a campsite with as that is always a more fun way to camp. After finishing our beer, we headed back to the campsite to start dinner (bean and veggie burritos). Everyone else arrived soon after we started prepping dinner and so all cooked and ate dinner together.

Making Dinner

Yep, a classic face from this one!

We then decided to go into Moab to check out the Art Walk that was happening that night and pick up some beer for campfire drinking. We wandered around for a while, and then we missed the closing time for the state liquor store (9 pm sharp!)… so no beer for us. We decided to have a drink in town and then head back to camp for the night. All in all it was a good day.

Camping is always more fun with friends.

We had planned to eat breakfast in Moab our last day, then head out for a mountain bike ride, and end with a hike in Arches. Well, not all this happened, and everything took more time than I hoped. First, we had to pack all our gear up again so we didn’t get into town until about 10 am. Our friends who had been to Moab before kept raving about The Love Muffin Café, and I had also been interested in trying the Ekleticafe, which was a cute looking little hippe joint.

More Arches

However, there was a line out the door at The Love Muffin and Ekleticafe looked just as busy. So, we ended up down the block at the Jailhouse Café, which still was estimated to have about a half hour wait. So, we waited as that seemed to be what was going to be case for the day, and it had Eggs Benedict, which Robert expressed a hankering for. Well, it ended up being worth the wait. The place specializes in breakfast only, and was the location of the county’s original courthouse and jail. We also got to sit outside. Robert got the Southwest Benedict and I got the cheddar and bacon omelet. We will just have to go back and try the other two next time!

North and South Window

However, it meant it was after 11 by the time we finished breakfast and half our day was gone and we still had a 6 hour drive to factor in to our day plans. So, we decided to start with biking since we had dragged our bikes along and the biking was one of the draws to Moab. Most of the biking is quite technical, so we had few options that were “Cori friendly.” Based on recommendations, we decided to head out to the Bar M loop, which was a ways past Arches.

It started out well, then the trail split and R, who was in the lead went to the right. I tried to flag him down because based on the signage, I thought we should veer to the left. However, he kept going and I followed. Heh… that was my first mistake… After a little ways, we found more signage that made it clear we were now on Bar B (You may want to click on Bar B and read the trail description for better context of this story). R sez, this isn’t so bad. You are doing fine. Let’s keep going. Against my better judgment, I agreed to keep going. Eventually, the slick rock got the best of me and this happened.

My ouchie... makes me look a lil bad ass, eh?

I stuck it out though, with lots of bike walking and putting down of feet, and we finally ended up back on Bar M. Bar M was awesome. Great views. A trail that I felt comfortable on with a little challenge here and there. With the extra couple of miles and the scraped up legs, I was pretty much done by the time we got back to the car.

The type of riding I can do

The type of riding I can't really do
See that red painted line. You follow that.

We concluded we would have to save the rest of Arches for our next trip and that we should start making our way back to Flag. We decided to grab lunch on our way out of town and went to the Peace Tree Café. I had an AMAZING spinach salad with roasted beets, goat cheese, bacon, and parmesan crisps along with a smoothie. Robert had a yummy looking Thai Peanut Chicken Wrap. It was a nice way to end our trip to Moab. I really wanted a tshirt because it had a tree with little peace signs instead of leaves, but they were super expensive.

Despite the headaches of preparing and the bike crash, it was a wonderful weekend getaway to celebrate the end of my first year at NAU and the start of the summer.