The Economy, The Spenders and Kale Soup

It's a quandary, isn't it? On the one hand, we have an economy coming to a screeching halt. Many people have lost their jobs, and I don't know about you, but Victor and I know several people personally whose jobs face the very real possibility of being cut. Americans have been living beyond their means for decades -- and that's unhealthy on so many levels, I could fill volumes lecturing about it. Finally, with the economic downturn, there are some signs that people are cutting back! And then you run into that other hand . . . companies are waiting on the edges of their seats -- hoping against hope that people start spending again. Ugh.

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The problem is that our economy has been built up, literally banking on people living off credit cards, home equity loans, and living in homes they can't afford for decades now. Forgive me, but it's not sustainable, it's not healthy, and it's not wise to hope that people regroup and continue to live beyond their means!

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This brings me to my next point. STOP! Stop spending beyond what you take in and make sure to give some, and save some. For many of us, there is a very real possibility that you could have a lower income, or no income. Now is not the time to go spending everything you have. When I drop Ripley off at school in the mornings, I am blown away (this is in Rhode Island mind you, where the unemployment rate is over 9%) at the line of cars waiting to get their coffee at Dunkin' Donuts. I'm sorry if I'm offending D&D owners right now, but this is such a simple way for people to save! And, bottled water, are people really still buying that stuff?? How about fake fingernails and manicures? Honestly.

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The sad fact of the matter is that our economy is over inflated beyond what it's citizens can actually support. I'm not an economist, and I'm not even gifted in math, but this is simple algebra that even I can handle. To be perfectly honest, I do hope that our economy shakes down to a realistic, sustainable level. The only other way to keep it at the level it was is for people to live beyond their means. I don't know what that shake down looks like, and I'm sure it's not pretty, but really -- ultimately, it would be best.

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It's certainly an issue that's on people's minds. When Ripley and I went to pick Benjamin up from school yesterday to take both boys to the dentist, we walked by two bus drivers talking. One bus driver, a woman in her 40's or so, was showing off a new pair of jeans proudly, twisting her hips around to show them off. Then the other bus driver exclaimed "I thought you weren't going to buy anything anymore!" "No!" the first bus driver corrected, "they were a gift!" The two ladies chuckled and patted each other on the shoulder in support. That made me happy. Really, this is what friends are for (back to that relationship thing I was talking about), supporting and encouraging each other. Holding each other accountable. Lifting each other up when we're struggling or have failed. That is the good and meaningful stuff in life.

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For us, we have looked over our budget again. Looking to see, if things were to get worse, what else we could cut, and what else we should cut now -- to save, just in case. Sadly, we decided that our "date night" had to go. It's a pretty big weekly expense, so instead, we will just go out together occasionally. I've also reduced our weekly budget for food, home and kitchen needs to $125, including the milk and cream we get from the milkman. Keep in mind that we have a lot of things stockpiled, so we won't be eating rice and beans exclusively just yet.

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One thing we are eating is kale from our garden. What an amazing plant! Here is what I picked yesterday for kale soup.

It's not that dark green, perky, plastic looking stuff you get from the grocery store, but HEY this kale has lived through several snow and ice storms. Here in Southeastern Massachusetts our snow usually doesn't stay long. We very commonly have rain in the winter -- the raw cold kind. So, although it's looking a little dilapidated, our kale is still holding it's own in our garden. Next year I'm going to plant a whole row of fall kale to last for as long as it will, through the winter. It really doesn't do a lot of growing, it just stays green -- and edible! How do we eat it, you ask?

Here's how:

Kale Soup:

• Drizzle olive oil all over the bottom of a large pot, medium low heat.
• Throw in 3-4 sliced onions and 4+ cloves of chopped garlic.
• Add 1 T salt (for large soup pot) and several shakes of red pepper flakes and/or Portuguese Red Pepper Sauce "Pimento de Malaguera Moida" about 1 T.
• Cook until translucent -- try not to brown.
• Add in a chicken breast (with bone), a pork chop (with bone), a ham hock, or some other type of broth that you have on hand like chicken (I wouldn't use beef broth from the store, too strong a flavor) -- if you have it. Otherwise just plain water will do.
• Fill up the pan with water -- but not so high that it bubbles over and splashes on your stove. Bring to a boil, then lower to a nice rolling boil. Cook until the meat is half way done, then . . .
• Add in about 4 peeled potatoes -- cut them in half if you want them to cook faster.
• When the meat is cooked - maybe 45 minutes?, pull the bones and meat out (they should pretty much be all in one piece). Discard the bones and reserve the meat, cutting it into small bite sized pieces.
• With a hand held blender (or transfer to blender) puree all of the potatoes, onions and garlic into a creamy looking broth.
• Don't forget the Portuguese Chourico pronounced "sure-eese" - of course I like the spicy variety. Chop into bite sized pieces. Add this at some point with the following ingredients. It's already cooked, but gives the broth and veggies a nice rich spicy flavor.
• Then, add in the remaining ingredients in order of slowest to cook - to - fastest to cook -- all pleasantly bite sized :) -- 2-3 carrots, 1-2 potatoes, about 4 large leaves of kale (spine and stem removed) chopped thinly, about a cup or so of macaroni elbows or break of spaghetti into 1" long pieces into the pot, and throw in your reserved meat.
• Taste, add more salt and pepper if necessary.
• That's it! Eat with crusty bread. Yumola.

Chicken Soup

First let me tell you that when I went to go downstairs Victor said in a loud whisper "No more cooking!" Victor is not saying this because he's "all done" with the home cooked meal thing -- he would sooner starve than eat a burger at McDonalds (literally) ... and that's not because he has read The Omnivore's Dilema recently. He grew up for the first six years of his life in the mountains of Portugal where everyone lived off the land. (and when I say "everyone" that's not a very big crowd, let me tell you.) They grew and raised their own food, made their own olive oil, made their own wine, dug for truffles in the mountainside behind their home, went down to the town spigot to get water (which is still there and people still use), made their own cheese, made their own bread (I'm not sure if my MIL used a community oven in that house, but she did growing up) ... I could go on and on and on. Suffice it to say, he knows what good food tastes like and he's not going to settle. But, back to the original point of this paragraph ... Victor was saying "No more cooking!" out of compassion for me really. I can get going working away on projects to such a degree that by the end of the day I quite literally can barely stand up. I did go a bit overboard yesterday. There were things I had to catch up on. I baked bread with the new flour I'd bought from a local bakery which is in the French style and requires a "pre-ferment" and I'm still trying to get used to that process. I still had pumpkin cuttings (yes, I saved them all) and seeds from our Halloween Pumpkins waiting for me in the fridge -- so, I made pumpkin puree and roasted pumpkin seeds. I tried an apple cake recipe, because I have apples I have to use up. And lastly (I know, even you're tired reading this post!) I made my Mother in Law's Chicken Soup. Ah yes, the title of this post ...

Dulce's Chicken Soup

I could fill this entire blog with different versions of soups that my Mother-in-Law makes. If you know anything about Portuguese culture, you know that they know how to make a mean soup. I love talking to my Mother-in-Law about cooking because she is a such a wealth of information on how to really cook. Not, let's "pretend" to cook like they did in the old days ... no, no, no she starts talking about how her mom used to make this or that, or how her mom used to cut a vegetable a certain way (and because of the slight language barrier she will literally get any vegetable out of the fridge and start cutting it right there on the kitchen table to be sure I understand just what she means). The irony is Dulce doesn't think she's a really great cook. "Aeeh, I'm not a great cook" she'll say. She has no idea. Maybe she is being modest. There are several Portuguese cultural situations where you say the opposite of what you mean. Like, if you want tea when someone offers it to you. The answer is "Aeh, no thank you." (Like this is the last thing in a million years you would have thought of having at that moment.) Then it's the job of the hostess to ask again "Are you sure, come on, how 'bout some tea?" Your response is (even though you do want tea) is a resounding "Oh, no, no, no, I'm fine, thank you." Again, as hostess, ask one more time (the approved number of times you do this is three) "Come on, just one cup of tea, I already have the water on." and finally you say "Oh, sure, I would love some tea." It took me some time to realize that even Victor was still doing this. He'd always say no, when I started to realize that he really meant yes. Finally (I can be a bit sassy) I'd say, "Now I'm not going to do the whole three times asking thing ... if you want tea, just say you want tea!" I digress. (What else is new?)

Now this soup I haven't ever seen being cooked from the very beginning to the very end. But, when my Mother-in-Law is cooking I watch her like a hawk. My version isn't quite as good as hers, but it's dern close.

• Drizzle bottom of pan with olive oil.
• Put about a tablespoon of salt and a shake (just a small one) of paprika into the pan.
• Thinly slice two onions (btwn 1/8-1/4" wide) and throw in the bottom of the large pan.
• Cook onions over medium heat until they are translucent.
• Put two chicken breasts WITH BONE IN into the pan.
• Fill pan with water (not so full that it will slosh out when boiling)

• Bring water to a boil, reduce heat slightly to maintain a rolling boil - not a simmer.
• Cook for about 1 hour. (you can double check chicken by cutting a breast open and making sure the liquid in there is running clear ... ie: without blood or pinky color)
• Meanwhile, take about 3 medium sized carrots - cut into 1/8" slices, then chop small with a big 'ole knife several times changing the direction of your knife several times until the pieces are both tiny-tiny to the size of a pea or so. (My MIL does this all slowly by hand with one small knife -- it's not just the Chinese that feel the way things are cut is important!)
• Take chicken and bones out.
• The easiest next step is use a hand held blender -- stick it in the pan and churn up the onions.

• Dump the cut carrots into the pot -- continue cooking at a rolling boil.
• Pull chicken off the bones and shred pulling apart with a fork ... kind of like string cheese ... line up the "strings" then cut across chopping pieces into 1/4-1/2 inch lengths. (see pictures)

• Dump about 1/2 lb (which is about 1/2 box) of "Acini di Pepe" pasta into the soup. This is the little pasta that looks like little balls that you find in Italian Wedding Soup. My In-Laws also use regular pasta, which they break off into about 1" lengths when they drop it into the soup pot.
• After the pasta is done cooking (about 10 minutes) put the cut chicken into the pot.

Esta Pronta!

My Mother-in-Law on what was one of her happiest days to date ... the birth of Ripley. We were able to be in the Alternative Birthing Center with our Midwife Silvia -- Our families were in the living room next door, so this picture was taken just a few minutes after Ripley was born. Joy.

Miscellaneous ...

Can I just tell you that Ripley started to have, what we call here, a "baby meltdown" when I had to explain to him yesterday morning that we didn't have any of my Homemade Greek Yogurt (I have updated the recipe with pictures) ready to eat. (It was still straining after a night of "brewing".) This is noteworthy because Ripley is such a picky eater, and to see him gobbling down homemade plain yogurt with homemade super healthy granola drizzled with a little local honey every morning brings joy to my heart!

Over the past two days I made mozzarella (which my sister-in-law Tanya can't believe I didn't start months ago after reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle). My first attempt wasn't a booming success. I did get a large ball of mozzarella which tasted great, but that was with a gallon of milk! This time I had checked out some other instructions online that had other helpful information. I ended up as usual using a blend of the recipes -- the first I'd gotten from www.cheesemaking.com which is the company Barbara Kingsolver had referenced in her book. They tout making mozzarella in 30 minutes -- but having grown up in an entrepreneurial manufacturing family (handbags) I know something about efficiency and LEAN Manufacturing and it don't take no 30 minutes! After making it twice, all of the "wait times" were longer than listed. But, it still is pretty cool and is a big savings -- one large ball I saw at Whole Foods yesterday in the produce department was selling for $7.50! Eegads!

Now (don't roll your eyes at me now) since I was making yogurt and mozzarella in the same 24 hour period I had a lot of left over whey (the liquid that separates from the curd in both of these processes) so if you simply boil the whey again -- let it sit at room temperature overnight (makes it more acidic apparently) -- then strain through your cone coffee filter (not the paper variety) PRESTO! You have Ricotta Cheese!! I guess Ricotta means something like re-cook. You end up with about a cup of fresh homemade Ricotta. I learned about it HERE. Now, I guess over in Portugal -- in the northeastern mountains (see picture ... I know, why did they leave??) where my husband was born and raised for 6 years -- after boiling the whey they throw in a little sugar and drink the whey and ricotta all together -- The ricotta sinks to the bottom and that's the best part at the end.

Finally, here is an okra flower picture untouched by pests!

Monday Evening Harvest - Portuguese Recipe

Siberian Kale Mix, May Queen Lettuce, Arugula, Turnip Greens. Wow! I made a big salad with the lettuce and arugula. The kale went in a Portuguese Caldo Verde (green soup).

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The turnip greens went into a Portuguese dish that is made with mashed potatoes and garlic. Sounds weird, but it's yummy. Here's what I did:

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Boil 4-5 potatoes (I just plunked mine in the soup that was cooking already and just fished them out when they were done.) Coat bottom of pan with olive oil. Cook 4-5 minced garlic cloves in the olive oil on medium low. Add a teaspoon of salt. I added a few shakes of red pepper flakes -- but that's not authentic. Chop turnip tops or broccoli rabe (a bitter green) into thin strips - vein stem and all. Braise greens in the olive oil until they are no longer crunchy (I don't mind a little firmness - but generally it's well done). Take the potatoes out of the boiling water (save a ladle or two of the starchy liquid) and smash until smooth with a fork on a plate or wide mouthed bowl. Once the braised greens are tender add the smashed potatoes and stir all together mixing the greens and potatoes together. Put a little of the reserved liquid into the mix so that it's not too dry.