Reading + Eating

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, the book I am currently reading (still), combined with my Weight Watchers waist-line reduction program, have resulted in much healthier eating from local sources.



To that end, I had a huge score at the veg man today. For just $20 I got:

A bunch of broccoli as big as my head
5 heads of garlic
A pound of Brussels Sprouts
A pound of Strawberries - all PERFECT (no smooshy ones!)
A half-dozen bananas
A half-dozen apples (gala and local green)
A bunch of celery
A giant sweet potato (think 2 american yams size)
3 baby zucchini
3 large carrots
1 small tray of mushrooms
2 large baladi oranges (local oranges, very sweet)
4 large new potatoes
and a handful of tomatoes.

...and I was overcharged by local standards.

There are some things about eating seasonally in Egypt that are so worth enjoying! I'm pretty sure the apples and bananas were imports (banana season here is about a month away yet), but they were priced well, so it wasn't a big deal on my pocketbook; though carbon foot print wise I'm sure locavores would have my head for buying that bunch of bananas.

The celery and carrots have already gone into my weekly soup (this week: chicken veg), the broccoli and zucchini will go into a seafood pasta dish tomorrow night, and the fruit I don't eat by Monday will go in to a large fruit salad on Tuesday when I'm home for Police Day.

I've lost 17 lbs and have been feeling more energetic since I started the diet, so all is good on that front.

On the reading front: it's hard to get through books at home when I spend my days wending my way through Hamlet and Julius Caesar with 13 and 14 year olds; but I'm going to start a book list in my sidebar and will TRY to finish at least 10 books in 2011 that are not on my curriculum. Insha'allah!!

If you need something to read, I recommend you check out the sweet post "Morality Check" on Mama Doc's blog (blog list to the right). My friend, Mama Doc, has the most gorgeous twins who say the sweetest, most dear things - and this post is rather thought-provoking as well.

Eating Seasonal?

This probably belongs on the other blog; or maybe it doesn't - who knows anymore?

I'm reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I am very interested in the "by-gone" idea of eating locally and seasonally; and tend to patronize restaurants that feature local, seasonal ingredients.

However, I am not Mario Batali, and my cooking abilities are yet limited: shrimp (available locally from the Nile - though I'm not sure my delicate constitution can handle them), fish (same deal), basic soccer-mom veg, and meat and chicken.

I judge the growing season by the donkey carts I see coming off the highway on my morning commute (and play dodgems with on the weekends), and the trucks I follow across the bridge from the farms on the way home. Yesterday, the trucks were piled high with oranges; today they were piled high with tomatoes. I see homemade pasta sauce in my future week.

But, trying to reduce butter and fried-foods intake has meant a major shift to my diet - including imported delights such as Pam and I Can't Believe it's Not Butter - the only way I can meet my weight watchers restrictions and still enjoy eating.

Still, though, there's one item I don't feel guilty about creating a carbon footprint with. The miles traveled are extreme, and the results delicious on top my popcorn right now.

I feel no guilt, whatsoever, about having a shaker of Old Bay wherever I live. It's a little taste of home and is the comfort of summers ripping apart red-shelled Maryland crabs on the porch: the newspaper tablecloth soaked with juice, Italian bread slathered in butter stacked high, and the burn of old bay in paper cuts from the crabs' sharp tips. This is what food memories are made of.

Scotland

Driving up the coast of Scotland, even in mid-winter, is breathtaking. Despite recent snows, much of the coast was still a brilliant green - dotted here and there with dramatic hills and sheep(!). There were historic cottages, and amazing views of the sea and I can't imagine approaching the city any other way.



Edinburgh was a delight for someone like me who is awed by stone architecture. The castle, built on volcanic rock (I had no idea!), was beautiful and sprawling, representing many different periods and styles of conquerors and monarchs. Underground, I visited a paved-over close (alleyway), and overground I had one of the best meals of my life at The Witchery, just below the castle (brown Mull Crab and Fennel salad, venison with meaty portabello mushrooms and potatoes au gratin, and an assortment of amazing desserts). I ate haggis, neeps and tats at at least two establishments, and felt old old old at the Princes Street Gardens Hogmanay concert - though probably had the best view of the fireworks in all of Ediburgh (on an isolated bench at the base of the hill from the castle, so sheltered that there was only a crowd of 10 people in a huge area, despite the gardens being surrounded by 80,000 spectators on the streets above us!)

The only challenge of Hogmanay (other than staying up past 10pm - yes, I'm getting old) was the obscene amount of people literally falling ON me (or, at one point, SITTING ON ME). Still though, an outdoor concert, not too cold, hot mulled wine for 5 pounds a pop, and the best fireworks display ever made me glad I went.

Next year, though, I think my New Year's Eve destination is going to have to be a bit warmer! :)