Good Food is Everybody's Business
These past few weeks have been a flurry of activity in our little house. As we shake off the shreds of winter to welcome in spring, the birdsong outside our window is echoed by an entirely new sound inside – the nearly constant chirping coming from a box in the corner of our living room.
About two years ago I started experimenting with making my own sandwich bread. I knew it wasn’t too difficult to put out a nice fluffy loaf of white bread (and I think I might’ve once or twice) but if Wonder Bread is what I really wanted then I wouldn’t be making my own bread in the first place. From the start I knew that this mission was all about incorporating whole grains. I want to bring bread back to the basics: handmade, unrefined (or less so), and healthy. Oh, and I want it to taste good too.
What I mean to talk about is seafood, even though we hardly ever eat it at our house. In landlocked Montana the fresh stuff is impossible to get, and it’s so hard to know whether your fish is coming from a sustainable source. (Unless you catch it yourself, which we sometimes do and, if you can, I recommend it!)
Do we need industrial agriculture to feed the world? A while ago I came across a video online that answered this question. The answer, I was happy to find, was a resounding “No!” So often the argument against organic food is “you can’t feed the world that way,” and here the truth was being spoken so plainly, I felt that if everyone could see it we wouldn’t be arguing anymore.
This recipe is a little overdue considering we’re long past pumpkin season, but I figured it’s OK because I still have canned pumpkin in my cupboard (I bought a bunch while it was cheap). I can get a batch of granola and a small batch of cookies out of one can. Fresh pureed pumpkin is even better, and if you have some of that on hand I envy you. If however you have some canned on hand, you should try making this! It’s almost like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast.
I opted to use crimson lentils for this dal, and I’m glad I did – the result was this delicious, bright yellow dish that is pleasing to look at and fun to eat. Yes it’s essentially lentil mush, but the prettiest tastiest lentil mush you ever did see.
Jerusalem artichokes look a lot like ginger, are not even closely related to the artichoke or Jerusalem, and are native to North America. They’re also called sunchokes, which makes a bit more sense considering the plant itself is a species of sunflower.
So in the spirit of Christmas and in the name of baking from scratch, here are some tips for making the most wholesome sweets (and saving money too!)
