What Has Chile Been Up To?

I know it's been quiet on this blog lately and I apologize. However, my current focus is really on losing weight and increasing my fitness so I spend most of my blogging time at my newer blog: Chile's Little Weight Problem. Over there, I talk about why being overweight and out of shape is a problem, not just because it is unhealthy and unattractive, but because it does not bode well for thriving if things get as bad as many predict they will due to peak oil, economic collapse, and/or climate change.

For my own accountability, to track my progress, and to share what I'm doing with others who may be interested, I am keeping a Food Log and an Exercise Log on the blog. Every bite of food I eat gets recorded in the food log. I'd say this helps keep me from "cheating" but I don't really need it for that. Since switching to eating lots of potatoes, my cravings for sugar, chocolate, coffee, and fatty foods have pretty much been eliminated! All of my exercise is recorded in the log. It does not include the regular chores and activity such as vacuuming or laundry, but it does include significant yard work where I've worked up a sweat from the labor.

I wanted to share some good news with my regular readers here. The following is cross-posted from the other blog and includes milestones that I have reached recently.

Today I will be laundering and then packing away the biggest of my "fat pants." I'm going to save this pair for comparison when I've lost all my excess weight. This morning, I put on a pair of pants that I could not zip up two months ago. Last month, I could zip them up but they were unattractively tight. Now they fit fine, which is good because otherwise I'd be down a pair of pants because of the ones that are too big.

Although my sidebar only records my weight loss from May 23 (17.5 pounds to date) because that is when I fully committed to eating right and exercising, today's weigh-in shows that I've lost over 20 pounds from my highest ever weight recorded earlier this year. I'm beginning to feel like I'm getting my life back! And I'm really looking forward to cleaning out the closet by next year so that I have clothes for only one size. The charity thrift stores will be cleaning up with all that I will be donating over the rest of the year.

As you can see by the sidebar, I have achieved my goal already for a healthy blood pressure. (It was 99/61 on Monday.) I'm sure my cholesterol is back down under 200 where it should be by now and I'm eagerly looking forward to new bloodwork in September to find out for sure. My eventual goal is for it to be 150 or lower as research shows that is the safest level to ensure no heart attacks. However, since excess weight contributes to higher cholesterol, it is unlikely mine will be that low until I lose more weight. Insurance will not pay for it to be checked again until next year (unless medically necessary - which it will not be!)

As you can see by my exercise log, I have been working very hard out in the yard. We're doing a big project that involves a lot of manual labor: using a pick/mattock, using a drop bar, digging, and hauling dirt, gravel, and rocks around in buckets and a wheelbarrow. I've put in over 9 hours on this since we started on Saturday. Normally I'd be in a fair amount of pain. However, thanks to the strength training I've been doing, I am not. I'm sore and I'm tired but I am not in pain. My back and shoulders have been holding up just fine. My feet are sore, but that is due to screwing them up years ago and they always get sore when I spend time standing on them in one place. (They generally hurt less when I walk than when I stand in place.)

The future implications for this are good. With increasing fuel costs (peak oil, political upheaval, aging electrical grid), we expect to need to do more and more without the benefit of machinery powered by electricity or oil. Being more fit will make this easier and it looks like I am already on my way. Note in the exercise log that I did not skip my regularly scheduled strength training workouts just because I'd already done work in the yard.

Are you taking steps in your life to lose weight (if you need to), improve your physical health (shown through measurable lab numbers), and get more fit? If not, what are you waiting for?!

Have you ever had a Wardrobe Malfunction?

On a discussion board I frequent, we've been sharing some funny and embarrassing tales about wardrobe malfunctions. Our tales are related to weight changes. One person took an old pair of shorts on a trip, forgetting she'd lost 40 pounds. The result? Her shorts fell down while she was in the airport. Another person wore pants that had become too large and had to spend the entire day holding them up with one hand to avoid the same embarrassing fate.

On the other end of the spectrum are those of us with embarrassing tales due to weight gain. It still mortifies me to remember the time years ago when my belt popped off as I bent down to pick something up in my boss's office after finishing my exit interview. It was obviously due to my weight and hard to recover from gracefully.

Do you have any funny or embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions you'd like to share?

Ban on Fireworks

Following up on my last post...  Due to the extreme fire hazard due to very dry conditions locally, Pima County has banned fireworks until weather conditions improve - basically until we get some much needed rain. The Sheriff has made a point of pointing out that people caught violating this ban will not just be ticketed for the Class 3 Misdemeanor; they will be arrested on the spot and hauled off to jail.

Cochise County has also banned fireworks - not terribly surprising considering the enormously expensive and destructive Monument Fire is still raging down south of Tucson.

I should note that the Cities' official fireworks displays are still on and will have, as usual, all the fire personnel on hand. All other commercial and personal fireworks' displays are banned, including ones by the big resorts (their previously-granted permits have been revoked until the weather improves).

Please, Don't Be an Idiot

Dozens of fires are burning right now in Arizona, Texas, and Alaska. I can't speak for the other states, but Arizona is bone dry. This is our normal dry season and we are at risk of fires every summer before the monsoon rains begin, usually in early July. Sometimes the fires are started by dry lightning strikes - from building thunderstorms that don't have enough moisture to provide rain but still plenty of electrical activity. Sometimes fires are started by people, such as in the case of the Chediski fire, which was started by a lost person trying to signal a helicopter. That fire grew to be the largest in Arizona's history ... up until this week when the Wallow Fire overtook that statistic. If 500,000 acres burned - so far - is hard to visualize, try it this way: over 700 square miles have gone up in flames. That's equivalent to half the state of Rhode Island!

Another fire in Arizona, however, is now dominating the local news because it is affecting people far more directly. The Monument fire down in southeastern Arizona was human-caused. High winds (40-45 mph sustained wind speed for the past week) and very low daytime humidity (5%) have driven this fire fast and furious towards the small city of Sierra Vista which borders Ft. Huachuca (known for it military intelligence school). On the way, it has burned through 47 homes in mountain canyons already and forced evacuation of three thousand homes from neighborhoods in the foothills and flats below the mountain range. I have family and friends currently displaced from their homes, waiting on pins and needles to see whether the firefighters can keep it from roaring through their neighborhoods.

In addition to the wind and humidity issues, there is a higher fuel load this year for fires to consume. Due to a very unusual hard freeze in early May that killed a lot of frost-sensitive native plants and landscaping, there is a tremendous amount of tinder-dry dead vegetation. My relatives reported that they were desperately trying to remove 20 foot high dead desert broom bordering their property fence while in the pre-evacuation stage this week.

So, with these super-dry, very windy conditions in the SouthWest, I am asking you not to be an idiot. If you smoke, remember that the world is not your ashtray. Keep your butt(s) in the car! I can't tell you how many burned spots along roads and highways show up in this state from idiots flicking their lit cigarette butt out the car window as they're driving.

The national forest has been closed here for over a week, as the resources of this state are already stretched very thin and the last thing we need is another forest fire. That should minimize new fires started by careless idiot campers leaving fires unattended. Nevertheless, these same people might decide to have campfires elsewhere on private or public lands.

Don't be an idiot and kick off a much larger fire! Building a campfire is easy to do safely and every camper worth their salt knows how. Clear adequate space, dig a shallow bowl, line with big rocks, and build a small fire. Never, ever, leave the fire unattended. When done for the night (or day), extinguish completely with water and dirt, stirring to make sure it is totally out. A single hot ember can spark a wildfire! If you can't reach in and touch the dirty, muddy, ashy mess because it's still too hot, you're not done yet.

If you go target-shooting or hunting, be aware that steel-core ammo (generally foreign military surplus) can start a grass fire from the spark created if the bullet hits a rock. Do your target shooting at a proper range where the vegetation has been cleared and there is an appropriate backstop. For hunting, try archery!

With 4th of July coming up and fireworks now legal in this state (thanks to the idiots in Phoenix), we are already looking at our property here to see what we might need to do should a local idiot decide setting off fireworks in their brushy yard would be fun. Since they are more visible at night, the added danger of drunken firework displays is even more concerning. Although we prefer hand tools to power ones, we've assessed the risk and decided we should pick up a small chainsaw to have on hand for emergency tree removal. Better that than lose everything we've worked so hard for. My sweetie just pointed out, too, that we will be sure to purchase a chainsaw with a "spark arrester" on it.

Fires sometimes start by accident as well. Yesterday's "Antelope Fire" even closer to Sierra Vista and Ft. Huachuca started when sparks from a bulldozer clearing a firebreak ignited dry brush. It burned through 2,000 acres in no time, racing towards houses very nearby. If you are operating any heavy machinery, please be very, very careful!

And, for those of you not familiar with the rules of the West which are common sense to the natives, do not ever pull your vehicle off the road into tall dry grasses or weeds and park. The hot catalytic converter can (and does) start brush fires. In our current red flag conditions, these can roar out of control and threaten the lives, livelihoods, and homes of people unfortunate enough to live nearby.

So, please, I implore you again: Don't be an idiot. That brain in your skull is there for you to use, not just to keep the skull from collapsing in. Keep your butts in the car, don't build a campfire, skip the fireworks or go to a community display that has firefighters on standby, watch out with your heavy machinery, and don't park on the grass. And, of course, don't play with matches!

Choosing Conventional Produce

The Environmental Working Groups has come out with its 2011 lists of conventional produce with the most pesticides and those with the least. I know some of my readers strive not to buy anything other than organic and/or locally grown produce, but some people are still purchasing conventional produce from the grocery store because it is less expensive, has the variety desired, or they have few other choices. I still buy a few items at the store that I have not been able to find locally and it's nice to know when I should pay the extra for organic.

Because I would never remember a list of the 12 worst produce as well as a list of the 15 with the least exposure, I copied the lists and printed them out to keep in my purse. Since I'll be pulling them out frequently, I laminated them with packing tape to keep the lists in good shape. They are printed back to back so I only have one small piece of laminated paper to deal with.

Here are the lists, which can also be found at the EWG link above.

The Lunch Beet

My lunch today included all parts of the beet. Of course, you may not believe that since there are no beets in evidence on my plate above, but that's only because it didn't occur to me to include the beet greens with lunch until after the potatoes and gravy were ready. So, while the water was coming to a boil, I ate the delicious roasted Golden beet.

Remember the Penzeys spices trip? The horseradish powder was a smart purchase. I've used it several times already on roasted beets. It's easy to combine a very small amount of the powder with a bit of water to make instant horseradish sauce. Spread on the beets with a sprinkle of salt, its zippy flavor really complements the sweetness of the beet. Best of all, I don't have a jar of horseradish in the fridge that will go bad before I can use it all up.

Once the water was boiling, I blanched the beet greens until tender. Remember, these are the leaves without the stems, since I pickled those separately. After draining the greens, I used my hands to squeeze the excess water out of them and then chopped them finely. I tossed them with minced fresh garlic and minced pickled beet stems to add bite and a touch of sweetness. The stems are somewhat chewy so chopping them finely seems the best way to go.

For the green report, let me note that the potatoes, onions (in the gravy), beets, and garlic are all local. The only non-local ingredients in this meal were the minor players: the flour and salt for the gravy, plus the sugar, vinegar, and celery seed used to pickle the beet stems. The potatoes, whole beets, and onions were also all cooked in the solar ovens over the past couple of days.

This was a lunch that can't be beet!

Pickled Pink

While waiting for my appointment with my chiropractor, I browsed through her latest copy of Bon Appetit. I really appreciate that she leaves it out in the waiting room as the last time I browsed through it, I discovered the wonders of roasted beets with horseradish. This time the word "Sriracha" caught my eye in the Table of Contents and I immediately flipped to the one page article about how chefs were challenged to come up with recipes featuring the spicy sauce.

This particular recipe for pickled chard stems looked interesting, especially since I've been tossing the stems into the compost lately. Sometimes I'll chop and cook them separately but I'm not really crazy about them so I've just been discarding them. This recipe looked like a way to reduce that waste while making an intriguing hot pickle.

The only problem was I don't have any chard. However, I did have beets. Did you know that beets and chard are the same species? I learned that recently when I was breaking up my dying chard plants to toss in the compost. When I broke the stems off at ground level, I was surprised to see concentric white and pink rings in the little swelling at the top of the roots. The rings looked just like the rings on a slice of chioggia beet. I showed it to my sweetie and he looked it up, then relating the same species information to me. Chard and beets are different varieties within the Beta vulgaris species.

So, as you've probably already guessed, I made this recipe with beet stems instead of chard stems.

The red stems were from darker red beets and the green stems from golden beets (my fave). These will be ready to sample in a few days.

In the meantime, I'm starting a batch of radish kimchi following the recipe in Sandor Katz' great book, Wild Fermentation. The wait for those will be even longer, about a week until they are nice and sour.

Lastly, I pulled out my recipe for sweet pickled onions and plan to pickle a big batch of fresh sweet onions from the organic farm.

I just love pickled vegetables. How about you?

State of the Garden

It's June in the desert but that doesn't mean that gardening has to be suspended until the temperatures cool off again. By choosing the right varieties and growing conditions, it is entirely possible to garden through the heat without leaving the hose running 24/7 on the plants. In fact, we found out through a garden seminar at a local nursery last month that it is likely that we've actually been overwatering - and weakening - our plants. We've cruelly cut back on their allowed drinking and the plants seem to be doing fine.

Ok, not all the plants are doing fine. The chard got cooked by the hot sun. If we'd kept it shaded, it would still be going strong, as evidenced by the lovely rainbow chard still available at the organic mini-farm where I volunteer. Theirs is covered with shade cloth and looks just as bright and green now as mine did several months ago.

Speaking of the garden there, I kept some of the sunflower seedlings I helped thin months ago. Last month, they had grown up to about half the height of my ultra-dwarf Fuji apple.

They kept growing and just started blooming this week. The apple tree in the middle is no longer visible, even though it still has about half an inch on the tallest flower. Note the pretty red poppy down in the right corner.

Note also the ugly piece of plywood behind the fence. We had to wire this up to protect the Brassicas in the 5 gallon buckets from the fierce hot winds we've been having lately.

This is a two week old photo of the herb bed in a half-barrel. My sweetie planted them low in the barrel to get a little extra shade. All these plants have about doubled in size by now. I really must make more recipes with basil and dill!

I can't wait for these tomatoes to ripen.

Does anyone else like to see their tomatoes in bondage? It seems to be working as the little yellow plums off this baby are tasty!

I'm excited about the peppers, too, but I have got to convince my sweetie to plant more of them. How can I call myself "Chile" with this few peppers?!

Remember the hugerkultur beds I showed you a while back? This is a picture from May. The plant in the back is an Amish pie pumpkin. There are a couple of other small plants in the foreground but they are not thriving like the pumpkin.

This is the same bed in June. You can see the pumpkin has grown. It's put out a few male blooms recently, too. The other plants never did well.

In the second bed, there are three main plants. Watermelon on the front right, another melon in the back, and a black Futsu winter squash on the left. None did as well as the Amish pie pumpkin, but the watermelon in the other bed didn't grow much at all compared to this one.

Here is the bed in June. As you can see, these plants aren't doing much. I think the melon in the back has put out a couple of blooms.

Will we do the hugerkultur again? Probably. The beds do stay moist longer thanks to the wood underneath, although I think the old horse manure holds a lot of moisture as well. The woody brush layer has also prevented pocket gophers from burrowing up under the plants and eating the tender roots.

I think we just need to find which plants thrive in this kind of bed. Blackberries are supposed to like it; we hope to get some cane prunings this winter and we may fill one of these beds with berries. I think it would look really nice to have a blackberry plant totally covering the bed and growing over the chickenwire hoop.

No new pictures of the fruit trees but most are doing pretty well. One of the figs has never looked good since our last freeze and we're not sure it's going to make it. The fierce winds we've been having have also taken their toll on our future harvest. An apple and a plum were blown off their trees this past week. Birds already pecked one of our few early peaches, too.

We did harvest a strawberry already. Sadly, the picture on your screen is just about lifesize since this is an Alpine Strawberry, which surprisingly does well in the heat here.  The strawberry, however, was smaller than the fingernail on my pinky and didn't have spectacular flavor.  The other disadvantage of this variety is that it does not send out runners like regular strawberries.  What you see is what we've got.

We hope to expand the garden this winter and keep getting better and better at making it work.

Penzeys Spices Come to Town

A couple of months ago, I noticed the sign on the corner of a little strip mall in Tucson that said "Penzeys Spices."  They were obviously not open yet but I was still pretty excited.  I've been hearing about Penzeys spices for years. 

You see, despite my choosing to follow a strict vegetarian diet, I am a foodie.  I grew up with parents that both enjoyed cooking from scratch, often with fresh vegetables straight from the garden. A sibling grew up to be a very adventurous cook, making ethnic foods from across the globe.  And I was helping out in the kitchen myself since I was "knee high to a grasshopper."

Even though I began dipping into vegetarian cooking years ago, I still love using spices to make the food more interesting.  Heck, I've shared my spice list with you before and even finally stumbled across the perfect spice rack after years of searching. I hang out online with other vegetarian foodies and have been hearing people talk about ordering from Penzeys for years.  I never got around to really examining their website and didn't particularly want to order sight unseen, or rather spice unsmelled.  And then I saw the sign.

I've passed by the store once or twice since it opened but not had time to stop.  Yesterday I made time and enjoyed the experience.  For every single herb, spice, mixture, and even extract, they had containers specially set up to open and sniff.  It was a lot of fun going through the store, checking out the selection, and sniffing almost everything.  It confirmed something I already knew, as well:  I much prefer spices over herbs.  Year ago, it took me a while to figure out that was the reason I preferred Asian food over French - the seasonings.

Not surprisingly, this preference is evident in what I purchased there yesterday.  I tried the toasted onion flakes yesterday in some mashed potatoes.  They added a nice bit of tasty crunchiness; next time I think I'll rehydrate them in the cooking water to allow the flavor to permeate more thoroughly.  It's like Lipton's Onion Soup mix without all the other ingredients (MSG and soy) I don't want!

I just looked online for the other spice market - Flavorbank - I used to go to occasionally in Tucson and their website seems to be gone.  That's too bad because their pepper mixtures and smoked salt were incredible.  I haven't been in ages because it is/was on the far side of Tucson from my current location.

If you want to check out a Penzeys near you, here's the list of their locations.