I'm eating organic barley (99 cents a pound, bay-bee) with organic agave nectar (okay, that was a little pricier, but I don't use much) and (non-organic, Costco-purchased, cheap) cinnamon for breakfast, AIFG.

I've been thinking about making sour cream substitute (plain yogurt strained through cheesecloth) for recipes.

Worth it! (Although, okay, I strain mine through a layer of coffee filters over a mesh strainer, but same idea.)

I really need to start making my own yogurt. I have the maker from the House of Mom Kitchen Supplies Emporium (also where I got my Cuisinart, my food mill, and a lot of my canning jars--never say there's no silver lining to parent who hoard!), so it's just a matter of doing it.

I'm about to pull the trigger on the food/sustainability/gardening/conscious eating blog that's been swimming around in my head, thanks to last night's discussion. And I need a blog name. And I have NO ideas.

Let's see...I started with Eno's album Another Green World.

Then I thought of some bad puns off that that didn't work.

But it brought to mind the Green World theory of Shakespeare scholarship.

Green World is a literary concept coined by critic Northrop Frye. In some comedies by William Shakespeare, the main characters escape the order of a city for a forested and wild setting adjacent to the city. This natural environment is often described as a green world. It is in this more loosely structured, fantastic environment that issues surrounding social order, romantic relationships, and inter-generational strife, which are a prominent part of the "city world", become resolved, facilitating a return to the normal order.

So I'm wondering if there's a Shakespeare quote that can help. Something set in the forest of Arden maybe.

eta: Or, you know, work in the Jossverse ref with Illyria.

Back to the Garden of Eatin'

Okay, I think the fruit is mixed up enough that this tastes like strawberry yogurt instead of yogurt with strawberries. The consistency is different than I'm used to, though. It's runnier.

Kathy- the article I read was in The Little House Sampler (http://www.amazon.com/Little-House-Ozarks-Rediscovered-Writings/dp/0840775970/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237224716&sr=8-1) but it may have been produced online as well.

Also, there is High Fructose Corn Syrup in bread crumbs. WTF!

I also get unreasonably angry with the attitude that in order to lose weight or be healthy you need to restrict your intake of things that are actual food. Like fruit juice, milk, and yogurt with neither HFCS or artificial sweetener.

And I go to a super market in the lower class area of town, and while there is a good variety of vegetables (including ones from South America that I have never seen before) , there are no organic or free range anything available. but I can get a pack of chicken feet or tripe or pig hocks.

Hmmm, and Northrop Frye got the "Green World" from Keats' Endymion.

Down whose green back the short-liv’d foam, all hoar,
Bursts gradual, with a wayward indolence.

See now you've got "green backs" bringing in the monetary aspect. How it's not all just fresh basil but an economic critique as well.

Everything has HFCS in it. Bread. Tomato sauce. Salad dressings, ketchup, mayo. Canned beans.

Yep yep yep. I've seriously tried to quit HFCS twice so far (and backslid again, because I'm that backslidey girl, yo), and it was infinitely easier the first time, when it was basically only in sweet things (soda, yogurt, "juice" made of mostly sugar-water); by two years later, it was in sausage! and bread! and ewwww!

reading all of the labels all of the time gets exhausting.

It really does. And that's the thing -- I'll read labels because it's something I get crazy about, but it shouldn't be case that you HAVE to. And that's not about thinking everyone would magically be a foodie if only they knew, the truth or that it's as easy to be an unblemished locavore in Idaho as in the Bay area. It's about better options being available in any store.

Damn. I'll shut up now. I think my popsicle stand reopens today.

I live in a so-so neighborhood - it's trendy, but it seems a lot of the people who've moved in don't shop in the neighborhood - and our local grocery has a good range of vegetables, but a lot of them seem to be old or damaged. I got to the big store - same chain - in the "good" neighborhood and there's a huge produce section and everything's fresh.

The idea of spending the time to hunt down real fresh food, cook from scratch, and then clean up afterwards isn't practical for so many people. Most families these days need two incomes just to make it and, with commuting times being what they are, most don't have that much time at home.

And whose kids are going to eat lovingly prepared organic vegetables? they'll be clamoring for Chicken McNuggets.

Mmm, Chicken McNuggets. With Hot Mustard!

Now I want some.

I recently noticed that there is HFCS in Worcestershire sauce. What do you use to substitute for that in recipes? Is it the same as steak sauce?

My stepfather accidentally bought "honey-like syrup" the other day. Because he could not read the label. It was mostly HFCS with honey as maybe the fourth ingredient, and it was in a little honey bear like regular honey.

I don't think that the Greek yogurt I eat uses HFCS. If they do, it's not on the ingredient list.