1-pot wonder: Local Chicken and Asparagus

I went to the Farmer's Market this weekend and to my delight, what did I find?  Chicken is BACK!  We took a looooooong hiatus from chicken due to its seasonality, so I snapped those babies right up and took them home for a delectable dinner.  This recipe is simple because well-raised chicken speaks for itself. 

For the Chicken:
1T salt
1T chopped fresh parsley
1t pepper
3T butter

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350
Rinse the chicken and pat it dry
In a cast-iron skillet, melt the butter and brown the whole chicken on three sides. Flip back side-down and sprinkle with salt and herbs.
Bake at 350 for 45 minutes to an hour or until juices run clear.

Fresh asparagus might very well be a different species from the grocery store variety.  It is sweet and flavorful.  there is no need to peel because it is so soft and fresh to begin with!

Asparagus:
1 large bunch of asparagus, cut into bite-size pieces
Tops of 1 fennel bulb, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup white wine

Instructions:
When chicken is cooked, remove from skillet and place on cutting board.
Heat drippings on the stove and add fennel, garlic, and asparagus.
Cook vegetables in drippings until they are beginning to become green and soft.
Add wine and cook another few minutes.  When the asparagus becomes bright green, remove from heat and serve.

The LoCo Locavore Takes OVER

Welcome to the 30 Days of Change Blog Carnival hosted by Living Peacefully With Children and Hybrid Rasta Mama. In celebration of the New Year and forgotten resolutions , we're sharing the results of our 30 day commitment to addressing one habit the we either needed to eliminate, reframe, or include in our life. We hope you are inspired and energized to make one positive change in your own habits.

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Hi, I'm Jaye Anne and I want to tell you about my 30 days of change... sniff... I smell...

LOCAL FOOD!  (crash, camera flips over, falls on ground.  View is sideways as you see me transform.  I now have crazy hair and am holding heirloom squashes.)

LOCO LOCAVORE HERE!

Our local feast: steak and delightful delicatta squash

Loudoun County is a freaking HOTbed of locavore possibilities.  That's right, if it's possible to eat locally anywhere in January (PS I have no larder to speak of...), then Loudoun County would be it.  Challenge ACCEPTED.  Everything that could be purchased from the Farmer's Market would be what we ate.  Things that could not be logically replaced (salt, flour) were able to be purchased from other sources with the obvious nod to quality.

The LoCo Locavore took over for 30 days in our house and it was even EASIER than that puny Jaye Anne thought it would be.  Check it out-- The first week there were apples, potatoes, and these delicious sweet squashes.  They had the thinnest skin that could be eaten.  The eggs were still bright orange and brought such richness to my proteinated breakfast.  This was the first week we made homemade pizza.  Instead of tomato sauce (tomatoes are hard to come by honestly in January), we used pumpkin as a saucy base.

our custom sausages that included kidney, heart and liver

There were delicious meats as well.  They had every cut of beef, lamb, chicken, turkey and even GOAT! (still have not tried that one yet...)  Our beef farmer has the best sweet Italian Sausage, and provided a delicious replacement for paper steaks.

The second week was a GOLD mine!  Kale, Chard, Cauliflower in purple and GREEN, scallions, radishes, turnips, beets!  Anyways, LOCAVORE OUT!

(I transform back, and pick up the camera daintily.)

As I was saying, the change was easier than I thought it would be.  It was not stress-free, however.  We had intended the kids to be eating locally as well, but there were some allowances that we had to make halfway through.  Part of the change I had intended was sitting down to dinner every night as a family, and making food for the kids during the day (they head over to my mother-in-law's for the morning).  I think all this was more than I could chew.  I knew it would be though; sometimes you gotta do a lot of things and see what sticks to your routine.  This was part of that figuring out what works for us at this point in time.

watermelon radishes: brightness in the dead of winter

Sitting down to dinner has stuck pretty well, fortunately.  There were a few days in the beginning that the kids protested (read: we ate dinner while both of them screamed in their chairs), but eventually, they both started to enjoy it.  They began to eat better at the table than in front of the TV, mostly because they were not running around distracted.

We did end up getting them some snacks that they had been eating on a regular basis prior to the change.  Honestly, some of the snacks they enjoy the most are healthy (seaweed and applesauce) and come in a user-friendly package.  This makes my life easier and decreased stress for me is an overarching goal.  Plus, I think there is just something about seeing my kids eat that just makes me happy.  I like giving them good options and taking the stress off everybody.  I learned a lot in what is important to me when it comes to them, and how to accommodate their needs and wants with my own goals.

Locavore Superbowl Menu:
Marinated chicken drumsticks
white and orange carrot sticks, cut sweet turnips with creme fraiche ranch dressing
homemade tortilla chips fried in lard
guacamole and salsa from the farmer's market
apple pie

So what are we going to do?  Keep going with this.  My Saturdays are my zen times when I get to go to the Farmer's Market and our milk farm.  I also get to have my weekly cup of coffee (yes, there is fair-trade, locally roasted coffee at my market!) and enjoy a baked good made by neighbors.  My farmer buddies always remember me and even accommodate special orders (like 12 pounds of pork fat for lard-rendering). At the end of the day, I feel like what I have gotten back from this is far more than I have paid for it.

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Please take a moment to visit the blogs of our other 30 Days of Change Blog Carnival participants. The links in this list will be updated by the end of the day.

• Finishing off 2012 depressed and negative, Survivor decided to start 2013 off with positive actions and attitudes. In her blog Surviving Mexico, watch as she discovers how to overcome the disasters and find the adventures in living again.
• Mrs Green from Little Green Blog spent her month not just meditating, but prioritizing it in her life ...
• In The LoCo Locavore Takes OVER, our family went completely local for 30 days... IN JANUARY. Read about how we fared on our local fare. Spoiler alert! We didn't starve. You can also find Wide Awake, Half Asleep on Facebook.
• Mari from Honey on the Bum relates how she came to the conclusion that she should stop picking apart her body, and figuratively, her life, and briefly discusses some challenges on the way.
• Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama shares how she made two changes; stepping outside of her "comfort food shopping zone" and starting a food storage program. You can also find Jennifer on Facebook.
• Mercedes at Project Procrastinot demonstrates new sticktoitiveness when she joined the Ultimate Blog Challenge in January. You can also find Project Procrastinot on Facebook.
• Maintaining a healthy lifestyle during pregnancy can be overwhelming. Join with Shannon at GrowingSlower as she takes back control of her health during her second pregnancy, all while parenting a toddler!You can also find Growing Slower on Facebook.
• At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy has been working on making time every day just to breathe and be.

Also part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays.

I was on Underground Wellness!

So Marie Forleo was on Underground Wellness radio this week!  She is an amazing inspiration and everything she was saying; it was like she was speaking directly to me.  I got up the nerve to actually push (1) and ask a question.  It has always been my goal to do this and I am so happy she answered my question!  She even congratulated me on having healthy babies and I felt her warmth through the phone :-) AMAZING!


photo credit: undergroundwellness.com

Weird Ingredient: Liver Breakfast Sausage

So we all gotta get our liver in, right?  Now that we are more and more aware of its healing properties and extremely nutrient-dense superfood nourishment.  I love lamb's liver because it is not as tough and gamey as beef liver, so it has more of a ground beef quality to it.  Even when I overcooked it, it is still mostly edible.  That's saying a lot for liver!  Guess what?  My kids (ages 1.5 and 2.5) love LOVE liver!  Here is my latest recipe:

2 lbs of lamb's liver, room temperature
2 green onions
1 T salt
1 large clove garlic (or 2 small ones)
1 tsp pepper
1/2 cup rendered lard, tallow, or coconut oil (olive oil will do in a pinch) for frying
1 cup breadcrumbs (gluten-free ones work great too!)

1.  Cut liver and vegetables into large chunks and place into food processor with salt, pepper, and breadcrumbs.
2.  Process until smooth.
3.  In a skillet, melt fat over medium high heat and place scoops of the liver mixture in the pan.  The size can very based on your desired usage.  I like to make big patties for burgers.
4.  Cook first side about 2-3 minutes and the second side 1-2 minutes.  These will fluff up nicely like pancakes.

5.  Enjoy with ketchup or mustard (I like to slather my organ meat sausages in mustard so I can more easily get over that mental hurdle)


This posting is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays

Wordless Wednesday: Baby Self-portraits

My gardening K'nex shelf

So I have had this gardening bug for awhile.  I wanted to start my plants from seed since the varieties are much more vast.  Plus it gave me something springy to do in the gloom of this weird winter (with highs of 25 one day and 72 the next!  Now we are back to 25).  I ordered the seeds at the beginning of January and have been waiting to start them so I can align it with a waxing moon and a water moon sign.  This month, that was the cancer moon sign, and nearly 100% of my seeds that I planted sprouted!  The only ones that did not sprout were oddly misshapen.  I can't believe how effective it was.

So anyway, I started my seeds in a wet paper towel that was then placed into a plastic baggy.  After they sprouted, I put them in a pot with dirt and... well to be honest, I hadn't gotten that far.  I don't like the idea of grow-lights.  To me, it's like feeding a cow nerds.  Might sustain them for awhile, but still not the best start for my baby plants.  The other problem is that I don't have any windowsills.  I live in a basement condo and the light on the back porch does not come in the window until April or May.  Not useful for right now...



I mentioned this to Pablo and he said he would build me a shelf of K'nex.
Of course, I said he was crazy and what are we, five?  Yeah, eating crow now.  He stayed up until 1:30am building me this thing that is way better then the zero ideas I had.  Plus it's awesome and a little nerdy.  Enjoy!

"It ain't easy but it ain't hard" weight loss program: 'Emotions'

This is installment 3 of my series depicting my beginning of my wellness journey, and culminated in my loss of 30 pounds and gain of a new sense of fresh air.

Everyone has emotions, right?  Well apparently after having two back-to-back kids, I had a lot of them.  

After Xavi was born, I was having some pretty annoying pain in my pubic symphasis every time I sat down.  Imagine that: a new mom who wants to sit down; pretty rare huh?  Every time I tried to sit or tried to stand a dull ache would go through my pelvis and reverberate in my bones.  Add a (pretty heavy) nursing baby and an excited toddler and things were um, strained, to say the least.  I mentioned this to my chiropractor, of course, because it felt like a bone problem.  

She had fortunately just been to a new seminar for a method called "Neuro-Emotional Technique" (or NET).  It operates on the principle that improperly processed emotions create stress in the body and can manifest as malfunction or pain.  She adjusted my pelvis and then remembered about the new method she learned over the weekend.  She had me place my hand over my forehead and then tested my muscle.  It went weak.  

"Um, there's an emotion associated with that.  Do you want to deal with it?"  This being a new, exciting, scary realm of ideas, I said 

"yeah, I guess."

"have you had any trauma to this area?"

"well I had a baby."

"That concept?" She asked my limbic system.

weak muscle.

She placed her hand on all the major acupuncture points of the organs: lung, spleen, heart, adrenals, and finally liver.  My body wanted to deal with emotions associated with the liver.  

"anger."  

My muscle went weak

"your anger."

weak again.

"So how would you relate your anger with the trauma associated with having a baby?" she asked

"well, maybe I am angry about my body changing because I had a baby?"

Bingo.  Weak muscle.

"But I don't feel angry.  I thought I was over that."

"well, you may not have finished processing through that emotion, and now it is manifesting as pain instead of anger.  Anyway, we can do this one of two ways.  We can do the two-minute stress relief method or we can go through the original event from conception to present and process through it that way.  Which one do you prefer?"

The two-minute stress relief method sounded like an easy way out.  Besides, this was too intriguing to gloss over.  "ehh, let's try the second one."

Through another series of muscle tests, it came out that a part of me was angry at my daughter (who is my first baby) for changing my body.  Once I had a clear picture of this, I sat up and placed one hand over my forehead and the other on the spot where my liver point is.  I hunched over and let the emotions wash over me while she did some gentle adjustments and rubbed my back.  Pictures of my stretch marks flashed through my head, so did my ever-growing pant sizes and the monthly/weekly weigh-ins at the dr's office during pregnancy.  I let it all go.

That night I slept like a rock.  The next day, I had no more pain in my pelvis.  Then that turned into the next week.  That pain that used to ache through my bones every time I sat down and stood up was gone for good.  And I was hooked to this processing through emotions as a way of long-lasting healing.

This post is part of Food Renegade's Fight Back Fridays, February 1, 2013 edition.