Quenepas

Sugar, Not Fats

2010-08-08T22:51:00.002-04:00

That cause disease, that is.

Via www.FoodRenegade.com

Raw

2010-08-08T00:48:00.002-04:00

Raw Milk Discussion via Sicklycat.com with Mark McAfee, CEO of Organic Pastures organic dairy farm

Baby, I Like it Raw from Sickly Cat Network on Vimeo.

Where I've Been

2010-08-06T17:41:00.003-04:00

Hey y'all! I realize it has been a long time since I last posted here. I'm back, and many things have happened in my life in the meantime:

finished an internship in the Netherlands (and fell in love with Holland)

completed my first of year of nutrition training at Johnson & Wales

switched jobs from a shoe store to a bakery

adopted a plot with Mike at the local community garden and are trying to figure out plants as we go

completed a volunteer project with children at an after school program in Rehoboth over the past 5 months teaching healthy cooking classes. Or what I might call "Cooking with Kids: a Crash Course in Patience and Concentration."

And very recently something has else has happened and it is very serious. At least it is to me. I've been reading things and researching and I've found a lot of information that I cant stop thinking or talking about (sorry Mike.). I have come in to a wealth of nutrition ideas that contradict everything that I have learned in my standard, first-step-in-becoming-a-Registered-Dietitian education. I have been learning and reading about what I can only think to call a Traditional, Real Foods way of eating. One that focuses on the idea that high quality animal protein (grass-fed, sustainably raised, wild, etc) should make up the bulk of your diet, that fats don't make you fat. One that says your diet should NOT consist of 45-65% grain and starchy carbohydrate as the Food Pyramid/USDA/American Dietetic Association (ADA) recommends. One that eliminates all things processed, artificially manufactured, full of sugar. That recommends fermented foods and organ meats(!) and rendered animal fats(!!!). That says cholesterol is a good thing! Crazy, I know. If you had asked me 6 months ago if I would recommend a diet low in carb, high in fat, high in animal protein or any of this stuff I would have replied, in a word, "No." But with all of the things I am learning, my answer is much less clear now.

If you know me, you know that the main reason I ever got started working towards a degree in both culinary arts and nutrition is because I wanted to have a career helping people treat chronic illness and disease with preventative nutrition as opposed to Western medicine. I believe that humans can exist, be healthy, thrive, and avoid physical ailments if they are eating the right foods. I also believe that when a person is eating right, that it will naturally fall in line with what is right and healthy for the Earth. It is with this belief that I began my path to becoming a dietitian and have loved every step. Learning about nutrients, phytochemicals, minerals, anatomy, biology, everything. It is also with this belief that I began reading books like Diet for a New America, Living Foods for Optimum Health, and others that advocated a plant and grain based diet. These books endorsed the idea that a vegetarian diet would be a healthy one for both humans and the environment: eat the grain instead of eating the cow that eats the grain, awesome! I ate tofu, I drank soy milk. I ebbed and flowed through veganism and vegetarianism because I thought it was the right approach to holistic health. After taking a vegetarian cooking course at school and learning about the incredible impact that eating commercially raised meats (and big agriculture) has on the environment (desertification of South America, a dead zone due to pesticide runoff in the Gulf of Mexico, for example) I began to associate animal consumption with environmental ruin. This on top of what I thought I knew about how all of Western disease (Diabetes, Heart Disease, Obesity, etc) being the product of our over consumption of meat and protein. Meat was not good for people, not good for the Earth.

I realize now and I am very sure of this: there is not an inherent connection between eating meat and negative effects on the the environment. There is also an important distinction to be made in all of this regarding eating meat and your health: all animal products are not equal. There is a quality issue and by this I mean that the way an animal is raised makes a difference nutritionally. There is in fact a big difference between a piece of meat from a cow that was allowed to move, exposed to sunshine, given the chance to eat what its ruminant digestive tract was designed to eat (grass), wasn't forced to live in a compact, stressful, unsanitary situation and the meat from a cow that was raised on a confined animal feeding operation (CAFO) where the worst possible conditions exist. Studies showing the correlation between animal protein consumption and various types of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, heart disease fail to make this distinction. The information about dairy that lead me to believe that humans shouldn't drink animal milk was most likely about milk that had been pasteurized- not raw milk which advocates of a Real Foods Lifestyle are strongly in favor of. Now I've yet to try raw milk (something I'm really looking forward to) because accessibility is tricky here in Rhode Island so I'll have to wait and see about that for myself soon- more on that later.

What I'm getting at is this: I'm sort of changing my mind about everything I thought I knew about nutrition. I'm reorganizing my thoughts about meat consumption and the diseases of affluence, and the destruction of the environment. I'm learning that when raised properly, meat is good for people and good for the Earth. I'm in the process of absorbing a lot of new information and planning to use this space as a way to sort things out (for mine and Mike's sake) and I welcome any input you might have along the way. I'm really very excited, because I haven't been this inspired for a while. I think I feel so excited because a lot of this information I'm finding feels so intuitive, and I can't wait to know more- from experience. I still have A LOT of questions (ketoacidosis, anyone!) but like I said, I'm keeping my mind open.

2009-10-07T12:43:00.015-04:00

Hello everyone, I’m in Holland!

I've been slow to update, I know. Life in Zeist has just been so busy. I’ve been working full time at the Kasteel Kerckebosch. I’m already into week 5 of my co-op! It’s great to be working in a kitchen again, cooking food and learning things.

The Kasteel is a hotel with two dining outlets, a formal and a casual, both French inspired. We also cater quite a few events and weddings so the work is really diverse. The location is intimate and secluded, set back in the forests of Zeist. There are only 30 rooms so the focus is really on the restaurants and event hosting.

When I work at the hotel I stay in the “Koetshuis,” the student and intern housing. I live with six other interns who are all about my age and all Dutch. It’s pretty amazing how fluent the Dutch are in multiple languages including English. I can communicate easily with almost everybody here so the transition to life here has been pretty easy.

On my days off I stay with Mike’s parents, Grace and Ron. They have also eased my transition into life in Holland to say the least. To venture into a foreign country is one thing. It’s quite another to have two incredibly helpful and friendly natives helping you figure things out at every turn. They’ve really welcomed me into their home and their country.

In the short month that I’ve been here I have seen and done so, so much. In Amsterdam I've been to the Vincent van Gogh museum, the Heineken brewery and gone on a boat tour of the city's canals. I’ve eaten mussels in Zandfoort along the North Sea. I’ve seen a good amount of the surrounding areas by bike, been to wine tastings (multiple! A very special life it is over here in Europe…), sampled many new foods, eaten pancakes in multiple forms, and I've bought a big, beautiful bouquet of flowers for just 4 euro. I’ve seen two incredible opera singers perform in a space the size of my living room. I’ve made traditional Dutch apple pie, bought fruit from a local farm, biked to work in the rain(!) and made several trips to Utrecht.

Oh, Utrecht. I must tell you all that I am in love with a city. If I’m lucky I might live there one day.

Mike will be arriving on the 27th of this month. I can’t wait. He has been on a solo road trip from Rhode Island through Virginia and Georgia and is presently en route to Austin. He’s been visiting friends and family and stops in Texas for a good friend’s birthday. If I feel homesick at all, it’s mostly for him.

In short, everything has been amazing so far. Life here is full of good food and wine and new experiences. I’ll try and update a bit more frequently and keep the pictures coming.

Nick's on Broadway

2009-07-21T10:17:00.009-04:00

Sunday morning was of a rare kind. We got up, skipped our usual eggs or toast at home and went out for brunch. Because such a thing doesn't happen very often, we made it special and went somewhere awesome.

For many reasons, I love going to Nick's. The open kitchen and the friendly, knowledgeable staff are both immediately inviting. They pull off the upscale diner aesthetic without being too kitschy. The tables are close together but you don't think to mind because you are distracted by the knowledge that you are in for something good. And we were. What I think makes the food at Nick's really great is that it is always simple yet incredibly thoughtful. Surprising are the careful details of your meal.

We took our usual approach to brunch ordering- one sweet dish, one savory, plus a side of home fries and split everything between us. Sweet: Half stack of pancakes with the fruit topping of the day (cherries) and fresh whipped cream. This was more than enough to share. I really, really liked the cherry topping. Even though our server called it a "compote" the individual cherry halves were still very much in tact and only lightly macerated, not overly sweet. The cakes themselves were light, tender and contained a few sweet spices I think.

Savory: Polenta (squares) with poached eggs, fresh spinach with roasted red pepper vinaigrette. With two eggs and two squares, this was easy to split as well. The polenta had enough structure to hold the eggs but enough soft richness to dissolve into individual granules in your mouth with no hint of toughness or chew whatsoever. The vinaigrette was tangy and delicious and the fresh spinach added a welcome element of crisp freshness. Nick's home fries always satisfy with their blend of starchy and sweet potatoes plus they added red onions and scallions. Even the mayonnaise we ordered for the potatoes was a special creation laced with crushed black peppercorns.

This is one of my favorites in Providence. The food is always good, the staff always friendly and is consistently one of the best ways to spend a Sunday morning.

Oeufs In A Row

2009-07-17T19:59:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite things about having moved to Providence is my newly developed appreciation for the special foods I can only get in Virginia (Richmond and Virginia Beach, specifically). For my recent trip home I had assembled a mental cue of what I felt were essential foods to have during my brief visit:

1. Ellwood's vegan almond cookie

2. Chick fil a's chicken sandwich with extra pickles

3. Sushi from Akida

4. Anything from Bojangles(?!)

5. Eggs in tuna sauce from 8 1/2

I was able to visit all of these places (success!) and while ordering at 8 1/2 I explained to the cashier and cook that I was no longer a Richmond resident, that I lived far away and would they pleease tell me how to make that amazing tuna sauce. Very kindly they did, generously listing the ingredients and method of prep. While I don't feel I should publish here what they told me (it didn't seem like a huge secret or anything, but still) I think I can describe it without giving too much away. The sauce is very rich, cream based and balanced well with citric acid and a few briney components. It's processed in a robo coupe for a minute giving it a smooth, velvet consistency. The deep tuna flavor (boosted with anchovy) is cut perfectly with the soft-center boiled eggs they serve it with. Okay! For more than that, you'll have to visit the real deal or invite me to your next hor d'oeurve party.

I thanked them for sharing, ordered two to go, took a seat on the bench outside and promptly devoured them.

I've been back for a few weeks now and a few nights ago having all the necessary ingredients on hand to attempt the tuna sauce, I set some eggs to boil. It turned out really well with the exception of a few details. My sauce was much chunkier than the original due to a troublesome processor. Also the quantities were off, my version a bit tart from an overzealous addition of lemon juice. Even still, the results were still pretty tasty and equally devourable on soft-center boiled eggs and paired with a simple romaine salad. I'll definitely try it again, even just to remind myself of my favorite town in the South.