holiday food (hippie wisdom)
The holidays are here with all of our mixed feelings. Most of us are immersed in some whacky combo of love & fear, peace & chaos. But today, I mean to simply address our love-hate relationship with holiday food. Granted, you should know that I'm writing from a southern holiday food perspective, so the specifics of this may not apply to your holiday menu if it doesn't resemble a southern one. But the general point of "eat healthy, fresh food" is the same...
The Menu
Turkey & Gravy, Cornbread Dressing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Hashbrown Casserole, Broccoli or Green Bean Casserole, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie.
The Taste
Amazing
The Problem
Cans, 50 gallons of dairy/butter, faint hints of a vegetable presence
1. Half (if not more) the dairy/butter in the recipe. If there's already cheese, sour cream, and/or cream of mushroom soup in the recipe, don't put any butter in it. It's completely unnecessary, I promise. The traditional southern hashbrown casserole calls for all 4 of these things! I put less than half of 3 of them and completely eliminate the butter.
I started doing this in most of the casseroles a few years ago without telling Baine, and he didn't even notice. That's how much butter there is to start with. At a certain point, it's less about taste and more about how deeply your vegetables are swimming, which is disgusting.
2. Use less cans & more fresh vegetables (especially ones from your garden or farmer's market!) Yes, this will take more time. But it's infinitely better for the environment and our bodies. And it will taste dramatically better, especially if you succeed in halfing the dairy. Of course we want to bury the taste of green beans with butter when they're from a can. But fresh green beans? Totally different story.
I've been making sweet potato casserole with fresh sweet potatoes (vs. the canned ones) for many years now. It takes longer, but it's easy. Just boil the potatoes (unpeeled) on the stove for about 20 minutes, let them cool, and the pealing basically falls right off the potato. If you've cooked them well, mashing them with a fork takes about 2 minutes. But you can throw them in the food processor to puree instead if you want.
Also, I like using garnet yams instead of sweet potatoes, because they're sweeter, lighter, and have a gorgeous, bright orange color. Sweet potatoes are actually a brownish yellow color on the inside, so I have no idea why they're orange when you buy them in a can.
I made my first pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin this year, and I'll never go back. It tasted dramatically different and so much better. And the nutrients from fresh pumpkin only help to justify eating pumpkin pie for breakfast. :) I prepared the pumpkin, similarly to the yams. After quartering it and scooping the pulp and seeds out of the middle, simmer it (covered) in an inch of water on the stove for about 20 minutes. Let it cool, peel (comes off very easily), and mash. Also, make sure you buy a "pie pumpkin" to do this. Regular pumpkins aren't nearly sweet enough to use for a pie.
So there you go. I promise your holiday food will taste even better this way. Actually, if you're not used to actually tasting vegetables, it might take a bit of time to adjust. But if you give it some time, I think you'll like it even better. And so will your body. And definitely our gracious mother earth.
The Menu
Turkey & Gravy, Cornbread Dressing, Sweet Potato Casserole, Hashbrown Casserole, Broccoli or Green Bean Casserole, Pumpkin Pie, Pecan Pie.
The Taste
Amazing
The Problem
Cans, 50 gallons of dairy/butter, faint hints of a vegetable presence
The Result
Indigestion, at least 24-hour Immobility, Potential Heart Attack, Serious Harm to the Earth
The Solution
Same food. Different recipes. Better taste. Less harm.
Don't get me wrong. There's still plenty of heavy, rich, starchiness to the Craft holiday meals. Probably too much. We make the exact same menu listed above. We just adjust the recipes, so that we can actually taste the food and don't go immediately into cardiac arrest.
Indigestion, at least 24-hour Immobility, Potential Heart Attack, Serious Harm to the Earth
The Solution
Same food. Different recipes. Better taste. Less harm.
Don't get me wrong. There's still plenty of heavy, rich, starchiness to the Craft holiday meals. Probably too much. We make the exact same menu listed above. We just adjust the recipes, so that we can actually taste the food and don't go immediately into cardiac arrest.
How
1. Half (if not more) the dairy/butter in the recipe. If there's already cheese, sour cream, and/or cream of mushroom soup in the recipe, don't put any butter in it. It's completely unnecessary, I promise. The traditional southern hashbrown casserole calls for all 4 of these things! I put less than half of 3 of them and completely eliminate the butter.
I started doing this in most of the casseroles a few years ago without telling Baine, and he didn't even notice. That's how much butter there is to start with. At a certain point, it's less about taste and more about how deeply your vegetables are swimming, which is disgusting.
2. Use less cans & more fresh vegetables (especially ones from your garden or farmer's market!) Yes, this will take more time. But it's infinitely better for the environment and our bodies. And it will taste dramatically better, especially if you succeed in halfing the dairy. Of course we want to bury the taste of green beans with butter when they're from a can. But fresh green beans? Totally different story.
Sweet Potato Casserole
I've been making sweet potato casserole with fresh sweet potatoes (vs. the canned ones) for many years now. It takes longer, but it's easy. Just boil the potatoes (unpeeled) on the stove for about 20 minutes, let them cool, and the pealing basically falls right off the potato. If you've cooked them well, mashing them with a fork takes about 2 minutes. But you can throw them in the food processor to puree instead if you want.Also, I like using garnet yams instead of sweet potatoes, because they're sweeter, lighter, and have a gorgeous, bright orange color. Sweet potatoes are actually a brownish yellow color on the inside, so I have no idea why they're orange when you buy them in a can.
Pumpkin Pie
I made my first pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin this year, and I'll never go back. It tasted dramatically different and so much better. And the nutrients from fresh pumpkin only help to justify eating pumpkin pie for breakfast. :) I prepared the pumpkin, similarly to the yams. After quartering it and scooping the pulp and seeds out of the middle, simmer it (covered) in an inch of water on the stove for about 20 minutes. Let it cool, peel (comes off very easily), and mash. Also, make sure you buy a "pie pumpkin" to do this. Regular pumpkins aren't nearly sweet enough to use for a pie.So there you go. I promise your holiday food will taste even better this way. Actually, if you're not used to actually tasting vegetables, it might take a bit of time to adjust. But if you give it some time, I think you'll like it even better. And so will your body. And definitely our gracious mother earth.
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