Goya and other latino food purveyors have “latino” style flavorings and spice useful to quickly add a certain flavor to foods that some interpret as “latino”.

(Note that I never think of myself or refer to myself as “hispanic”. The term “hispanic” was a broad class term coined by the infinitely odious Richard Nixon because he could not tell us latinos apart from one another.)

One such product is “Sazon” (with various permutations or variations). If you are latino/a you likely know this well, if you are new to this cuisine and have been experimenting with latino recipes, you will very likely come across recipes asking for it.

Do yourself and your family a great favor and either throw away any Sazon you have on hand or simply never buy it in the first place.

Sazon is MSG with annatto. MSG is not a food, its not a spice, it is a neurotoxin, especially when its used as directed in the case of Sazon.

I have written about MSG and how fantastically bad it is for you, from the scientific perspective in this post: Monosodium Glutamate: Bad for your brain, your figure, and your health.

Just step away from the Sazon.

You might ask then, how do I get that rich saffron yellow color without the sazon?!

You could invest in saffron.

I don’t, I just do not have that sort of food budget.

You could do what most latina grandmas and their mamas and abuelas have done BEFORE Goya – not be lazy and make a sofrito or hogao (as we Colombians call it, recipe at end of this post).

If you do not want to go to the trouble of making an hogao (it will add enormous flavor to your food, natural non-toxic flavor) then you can choose to use the coloring agent in Sazon that is not MSG -> ground annatto seeds.

Annatto seeds are seeds from the Achiote tree, grown in tropical Central and South America.

The Wiki says:

It is an important ingredient of cochinita pibil, the spicy pork dish popular in Mexico. It is also a key ingredient in the drink tascalate from Chiapas, Mexico.

Annatto is the red coloring you find on the rind of muenster cheese and cheddar cheese!

You can grind the seeds (shown here) and use pinches of it in recipes that call for Sazon or you can soak the seeds in water a bit to release the powdery coating on the seeds which is what colors things.

Annatto has been indicated in adverse reactions for some people so go easy on using it in the beginning. In all cases, never use a whole LOT of this or any spice, be moderate and find just the right amount that you need, no more.

Let me know if you make the switch!

Always be vigilant about MSG in your food. Its quite literally everywhere.

Hogao:

• 5 large ripe tomatoes, chopped
• 2 bunches of green onions, finely chopped
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of ground cominos
• Pinch of ground annatto seeds
• 1/2 cup of packed, chopped cilantro
• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• salt to taste

Directions:

Saute the listed “hogao” ingredients in the olive oil until wilted, set aside.

Mix the harina and salt and then add the boiling water. Mix until incorporated and set aside for 15 minutes.

Does the idea of mixing pomegranate juice with iced coffee make your eyes bug out like the cute little lamby slippers above?

POM has done this craaazy thing with their POM iced coffees.

.. (click for more) ..

Some time ago I reviewed a cookbook called “Tassajara Cookbook: Lunches, Picnics, and Appetizers” by Karla Oliveira where I covered Tassajara, a magical mountain retreat for the San Francisco Zen Center.

Today’s review covers the related book Tassajara Dinners & Desserts by Dale and Melissa Kent, a beautiful and delicious cookbook that shares simple go-to vegetarian meals used at the Tassajara Zen Mountain Retreat to nourish the monks, trainees and students who live in this amazing place.

The photography is just fantastic, inviting you to dive into this book to learn how to make these tasty dinners. The front cover holds nothing back, just take a look at it!

Contents:

Foreword by Senior Dharma Teacher Eijun Linda Ruth Cutts

Introduction

• What is it like to do active cooking meditation
• How the zen kitchen works

Starters

• Ginger Hummus
• Grandma Chu’s Sweet & Sour Marinated Asparagus

Vegetable Side Dishes

• Pungent Cucumber Salad with Black Sesame ad Ginger
• Moroxican Spiced Potatoes

Vegetable Entrees

• James Creek Farm Ratatouille
• Tagine with Apricots, Olives, and Artichoke Hearts

Baked Entrees

• Baked Muffaletta Crepes
• Annie’s Frittata with Caramelized Onions, Goat Cheese, and Sage

Beans & Legumes

• Butch’s Black Eyed Peas
• Chickpea Stew with Collard Greens and Indian Spices

Tofu

• Dragon’s Head Tofu
• Mole Verde with Tofu

Grains & Pastas

• Mushroom Squash Risotto
• Mint-Cilantro Udon with Fresh Ginger and Meyer Lemon

Desserts

• Lemon Sponge Custard with Raspberry Sauce
• Ricotta Chevre with Ginger Berry Compote

Basic Techniques

• Vegetable Stock and Variations
• Basic Ingredients and Sauces

For this review I chose to make the a vegetarian lasagna with a change to the book’s recipe. Instead of just using a store bought past (fresh or dried) I used some homemade lasagna I made from organic sprouted whole wheat I had made (see this post for information on making your own sprouted whole wheat flour “Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour” and this post on how to make lasagna pasta out of it “Homemade Sprouted Whole Wheat Pasta“). I also used homemade goat cheese (chevre) from our own goats in our backyard (Making chevre cheese from our home-milked goat milk) and organic chard I grew in our garden and egg from our chickens (Humble Garden).

Tofu Lasagna with Mushrooms, Goat Cheese, and Chard

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried pasta or 1.5 pounds fresh pasta
• Sauce:
• 1.5 cups chopped onions
• 1/2 cup diced carrots
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 4-6 cloves garlic, minded
• 1 tablespoon dried italian herb seasoning (I used fresh oregano and basil from garden)
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 cups crumbled tofu
• 4-5 cups diced tomatoes (canned or fresh)
• Filling:
• 1 bunch chard
• 1 pound mushrooms, washed and quartered
• 1 pound goat cheese, softened
• 1 egg
• 1 1/4 cups grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• salt and pepper
• 3 cups grated Provolone, Mozzarella, Fontina, or Gruyere

Directions

Sauce:

Saute onions, carrots, and celery over medium heat until soft and a bit brown. Add garlic and herbs without stirring. Turn up heat to brown and then add wine to deglaze (scrape up fond – stuck bits). Add tofu and cook with much stirring until liquid almost gone. Brown the tofu a bit, coat with all other sauce parts. Add tomatoes and simmer for 30 minutes.

Filling:

Wash greens, remove stems, set the stems aside. Cop stems into tiny bits. Blanch greens and stem bits in boiling water (or steam them) until cooked through. Shock in icy water (this “sets” the chlorophylls so that the chard will be a bright green) and then drain. Chop roughly and then dry completely.

Bake the mushrooms in a 425 F oven or sear them on the stovetop. Set aside with the greens.

Mix the goat cheese, egg, parmesan cheese and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Prepare the lasagna pasta as per instructions.

Oil a 9 by 13 inch baking dish, ladle some sauce on the bottom, add first layer of pasta. Spread 1/4th of the filling over the pasta and cover with some sauce. Layer on some tofu, goat cheese, greens, mushrooms as well as mozzarella (if using). Put down the next layer of pasta and repeat as before, 3 more times. The whole thing should end with a layer of pasta at the top and some more sauce. Sprinkle with parmesan and even, possibly bechamel sauce. (I didnt put the bechamel sauce, seemed a bit much to me).

Bake at 350 F for 30 – 40 minutes until the sauce is bubbling and top is toasty brown.

Our Take on this dish:
Everyone from the toddler on up completely enjoyed this dish. Remember that sprouted wheat yields a bit sweeter product (because the sprouting process started some of the starches on their enzymatic journey) and that any whole wheat pasta product will have a different sort of mouth feel than your usual “white bread” sort of “enriched” pasta product. In this case, the pasta had a lot of presence in this dish, lending an almost “meaty” sort of sensation, which was a plus to those family members who like to have meat at every meal!

My Take on this cookbook:

The book is simply beautiful, the recipes are diverse and quite inspiring for all sorts of eaters: vegetarians to omnivores! I can only say good things about this cookbook, it has been a pleasure to review and oogle over. I suggest giving it a try!

Product Details:

• Title: Tassajara Dinners & Desserts
• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith (January 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423605209
• ISBN-13: 978-1423605201
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds

Some time ago I had the great fortune to meet Dan Estridge on the web and then at a Dole & Bailey event up in New Hampshire (see my blog post from that event: Cross Species Portraiture: The Chicken was a Star).

I can tell you at least one thing about Dan, he is completely devoted to Pastrami and similar sorts of deli meats. He doesnt just like them or just appreciate them. He is obsessed with them.

When we corresponded he spoke of perfecting a pastrami product that he could provide to customers that would be like the sort that he knew from the delis he grew up with in New York.

Some foodies are obsessed with mushrooms, hunting them in the forest. Some are obsessed with confections and other beautiful delicacies. Many of us are quite omnivorous and can appreciate a broad spectrum of great food.

It takes laser like focus and dedication to a specific vision to go where Dan has gone with his obsession with pastrami.

After a lot of hard work, Dan has now started commercial production of pastrami and some other deli meats for his new company NYDP Deli Patrol.

They ship nationwide via their online portal at www.MoreFlavorPerPound.com , a very fetching site .

Currently they are shipping these products:

• Slow-Steamed Pastrami
• Oven Roasted Corned Beef
• Holiday Roast Turkey
• Fireside Roast Turkey
• Fireside Roast Beef
• Griddle-Ready Corned Beef Hash

They say: “Each of the meats can be ordered in a variety of cuts and all products ship express in order to guarantee freshness.”

The story in more detail can be found at their About page. I didnt know that they were selling their corned beef at Fenway!

I have never had an opportunity to try his pastrami. It seems I will in the coming week or so. I will report back and let you know it all went!

I mean, come on though.. look at this roast beef porn

(See about this roast beef here)

I dont think this review will be a painful one!

In my garden (Humble Garden) I grew soybeans this year. They are open pollinated non-genetically modified and organically grown.

They have been fascinating to grow and have been a continual homeschool lesson for the kids.

Now its time to harvest the crazy fuzzy pods.

From the day I ordered the seeds I figured I would serve them like the Japanese edamame or make some miso. I rinsed them and then boiled them for 20 minutes. After that I cooled them and then served them like you see below, with salt. You then pop them from the pods and sprinkle a bit more with salt, eat. A nice snack indeed!

I recently received a case of really cute 8 ounce POM pomegranate juices sent to me by the kind people at POM Wonderful.

Pomegranates are the mythical or iconic symbol of fertility…… To read more of this review, please visit the Papaya Ice Cream with POM syrup review.

A couple of posts ago, I showed you how easy it is to make sprouted whole wheat flour. In that post, Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour, I talked at length on the reasons for sprouting your grains so I wont delve into that today.

Instead, I am going to share one way I have used this flour for lasagna pasta. I will be posting on how this pasta came out a bit later when I review Tassajara Dinners & Desserts.

This recipe is pretty basic, you can piece it together online. As with anything made with flour, the recipe is a guideline because each batch of flour, the world over, will have its own unique level of hydration thus the amount of liquid needed to make it come together will be unique. For this reason, it takes some practice, a willingness to experiment and to fail, even with precious ingredients like this sprouted whole wheat flour that you have spent all this time with. If you lock up with anxiety, then its not fun and then you gotta wonder why you are doing it at all!

Thus, when you give this recipe a try, have a sense of play and don’t stress out if you need to add more liquid, you may very well. I did. I didn’t list the full amount in the recipe because I didn’t want you to start out using that amount but to rather use as needed.

In this case, the extra liquid I used was a freshly juiced spinach and carrot juice that I made on my new Champion Juicer that I got to review and share with you. I will be writing a review on this blog and also at my raw food blog Raw+Simple.

Homemade Sprouted Whole Wheat Pasta

Ingredients:

• 3 cups freshly ground sprouted whole wheat flour
• 1 c whole wheat pastry flour
• 5 eggs
• 2 tablespoons high quality cold pressed extra virgin olive oil
• Spinach/Carrot juice (freshly juiced)

Pinch sea salt

Directions:

On a clean surface, make a mound of the 3 cups of sprouted whole wheat flour and 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour. Make an indentation in the mound and start adding eggs. You will have to get your hands messy for this!

Add all eggs, oil and 1 tablespoon juice (if using) and then use a fork to carefully break the eggs and do an initial mix of the eggs. Now, with your fingers, start mixing in the flour without knocking down the walls. Just take your time.

Once the dough is together enough to knead, knead it like bread dough for 5 minutes to incorporate. This is the time when you will likely need to add more liquid. I added the spinach carrot juice until the ball came together and was not hard or overtly dry. It took about 4 ounces.

Once the dough has come together, put in a plastic baggie, seal, and allow to rest for 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on what your day is like.

After resting, portion out some balls that equal about the amount that you think you want for your lasagna sheets. You can make any sort of pasta you wish.

Roll out sheets on a lightly floured board.

Hang up sheets and allow to dry until a bit stiff. Store in the refrigerator until use. I suggest using it as soon as possible as this flour has all of it’s oils and germ, not meant for super long term storage.

When ready to use, do not boil for long and do it right before you assemble your lasagna.

Let me know if you give this a try!

Click over to this page “Fage” to find a recipe for my fantastic “Fage Yogurt Avocado Buttermilk salad dressing” made from this fantastic yogurt.

Learn about how you can win a free case of Fage greek yogurt at my Fage page!

FAGE (pronounced “fah-yeh”) is 100% natural Greek yogurt, free of additives, preservatives, and sweeteners.

On a Nor’easter day like today, as I listen to the plow guy clear our driveway, I am rather fixated on warmth. It doesn’t help that our wood boiler has been slow to start this morning (making for cold water and no heat from the baseboards).

The boilermaster (namely the DH) is very distracted by a blown motherboard from a power outage last Friday, way too distracted to be attuned to the lack of heat coming from the boiler (I guess even the expensive backup batteries didn’t help, don’t ask me). All of which results in frozen toes and my cooking breakfast in a chilly kitchen while wearing a heavy jacket and scarf.

The advantage to this is that you do not need potholders, you just use your jacket sleeve.

This advantage is not making any friends in my book though.

Days like this (ok, all winter here), making a pot of warming soup is a coping mechanism, not a cute foodie affectation.

Today’s soup is one that I seem to make again and again, its that effective at countering the cold chillies. The base is butternut squash and chicken stock.

Its clearly NOT a raw food. (Administrative note, I am now going to post raw recipes and thoughts over at my new food blog Raw+Simple, its better to keep these things separate)

This soup is extra good because I am using really local food, namely, Dandy the really bad rooster (as seen below). He could NOT play nice in the chicken yard, being brutal to the girls and also to us if we strayed too close.

Dandy and a couple of other past-prime broilers were dispatched last summer. We made a huge amount of stock from these chickens and then canned some of it along with the meat.

I have been going through this stock slowly this winter, savoring each quart. After this soup, I have one quart left! Its no easy thing for me to make this because I find it exhausting to kill and then butcher the chickens. If Dandy had been an agreeable animal, he would not be on my shelf.

A pissy testosterone attitude has it’s consequences.

I long ago ran out of homegrown butternut or any other sort of squash so these are storebought. I did use homegrown sage that I dried last fall.

Thermotherapeutic Creamy Butternut Squash Soup

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/2 butternut squashes, peeled and cubed
• 2 T butter
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 peeled carrots, diced
• 1/4 C fresh fennel, sliced
• 3-4 sprigs dried sage
• 1 quart chicken stock (with some meat)
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 C heavy cream PER SERVING
• sea salt and crushed pepper, to taste

Directions:

Over medium heat in a large heavy pot, saute the onion in the butter and oil. Once the onion is sweated somewhat, add garlic and allow to cook a minute or two, without getting any color on the onion or garlic. Add crushed dried sage, nutmeg, carrots, cubed butternut squash, diced fennel, and then add enough warm water to cover all. Cover pot.

Simmer until vegetables are somewhat tender. Add the quart of chicken stock (but reserve the meat in the refrigerator until later) and either more stock if you have it or warm water to bring the soup up to an almost full pot. Allow to come to a simmer but do not boil, the stock just doesn’t need to be boiled anymore, its been through enough already, don’t you think?

Once the soup has simmered for a good 45 minutes, take an immersion blender to the soup and blend until most of the texture is gone, leaving a few good bits. Cut up the meat and add to the soup. Simmer until the meat is heated through. Add salt and crushed pepper to taste.

Ladle into bowls and add heavy cream right before serving.

Enjoy!

I hope that you stay warm and dry today and likely best to stay off the roads. Stay inside and make up a big pot of something warm and thermotherapeutic!

Who has not stood before a pile of organic vegetables or fruits and compared their price to the price of the conventionally grown ones next to it? Who has not asked, on some level, is there some real qualitative difference? You likely appreciate the lack of chemicals used to grow it – artificial fertilizers and pesticides made from petroleum.

This question – “Are organic vegetables BETTER than conventional ones?” can catch you because there are several assumptions that are meant to trip you up.

Not all organic growers are the same, what the USDA means by Organic may not square with your idea of it, the USDA is known for letting certain things slide for Big Ag, and many other system issues that have been purposefully institutionalized.

You may also assume that “Organic Food” is more wholesome too.

Merriam Webster defines wholesome this way:

• Pronunciation: \hōl-sÉ™m\
• Function: adjective
• Date: 13th century
• 1: promoting health or well-being of mind or spirit
• 2: promoting health of body
• 3 a: sound in body, mind, or morals b: having the simple health or vigor of normal domesticity
• 4 a: based on well-grounded fear : prudent -a wholesome respect for the law- b: safe (it wouldn’t be wholesome for you to go down there — Mark Twain)

Unless you are standing in a farmer’s market where the veggies or fruits are honestly sourced from a local small holding organic farm, the organic items in question – in the big box grocery store – are likely to have MUCH more in common with the conventional ones.

How is this possible?

Big Organic growers grow their plants with the same industrial model as Big Agriculture – huge carbon foot print and constant destruction of the soils.

Depleted Soils

Soil, or dirt as some may think of it, is not just powdery minerals. It is a complex mixture that includes those minerals from long eroded rocks but also organic residues from all the activity that has happened in the soil.

Those organic residues can include:

• Living and degrading plant debris
• Living and degrading insect and animal bodies
• Living and degrading bacterial populations
• Living and degrading mushrooms (mycelium –mushroom roots-, and mushroom fruiting bodies, even spores)

The activities of these living things lend structure to the soil (different zones of life, mineralization, compaction, oxygen levels, nitrogen levels, moisture levels) and also help by making certain compounds, elements, minerals, available, things like:

• Plant-usable nitrogen (nitrogen fixation via bacterial-root-rhizome symbiosis)
• Vitamin production
• Plant-usable forms of elements like calcium, phosphates, and other more rare types.

When soils are plowed, the structure is obliterated and whole communities of plants, mushrooms and bacteria and insects are disrupted, killed, inhibited. They can no longer transmute atmospheric nitrogen and soil-locked minerals and organic debris into nutrients for plants.

The good stuff in the soil is also exposed to the harsh sun, rains, winds – all depleting the soils even further.

Our present day industrial Big Agriculture requires MASSIVE amounts of oil, mechanical toil, and amendments (also dependent on oil for their very manufacture) to compensate for the damage that plowing does to the soils.

Consider these stats:

Raw Broccoli

• From 1963 to 1999:
• calcium went from 103 mg/100g sample down to 48 mg/100g sample
• potassium went from 382 down to 325 mg/100g sample
• Water content went from 89.1% up to 90.6%

Red Tomatoes

• From 1963 to 1999:
• calcium went from 13 mg/100g sample down to 5 mg/100g sample
• magnesium went from 14 mg/100g sample down to 11 mg/100g sample
• potassium went from 244 down to 33 mg/100g sample

Raw Carrots

• From 1963 to 1999:
• calcium went from 37 mg/100g sample down to 27 mg/100g sample
• magnesium went from 23 mg/100g sample down to 15 mg/100g sample
• potassium went from 341 down to 323 mg/100g sample

On top of this soil holocaust, you have genetically modified plants (via breeding and the lab) that have been optimized for the industrial method and which are able to grow in depleted soils.

What you get are vegetables which LOOK like a carrot, a cabbage, a head of broccoli, corn, cucumbers, etc but if you were to measure the mineral and vitamin contents you would find something closer to a wet soggy sponge.

Let me repeat: Big Organic growers grow their plants with this same Big Ag industrial model – huge carbon foot print and destruction of the soils.

What this means to you at the store, is that when you buy Organic, you are buying a compromised promise of pesticide purity but not wholesomeness. You are buying simulations of vegetables.

Taking vitamins will not solve this problem because they are based on a false premise. Many vitamins are not absorbable by the human body unless they are embedded within the context of food (be it plant or flesh).

The only way to resolve this issue (and just how many diseases arise from our bodies being depleted almost from the moment of conception) is to buy veggies from small farms that are practicing permaculture and organic gardening methods.

Better yet, learn how to get your own permaculture and organic garden beds going so that you can eat REAL vegetables with actual vitamins and minerals.

What a concept

If you are interested in learning how, visit my garden blog at Humble Garden and also ask me in comments.