If you’re like me (and a lot of other people), the smell of onions cooking verges on intoxicating.  So many delicious dishes start this way that most of us have accumulated years and years of positive associations with the smell.  Needless to say, a pan full of onions caramelizing over a low heat was a doggone good way to start out this week’s Dark Days Challenge.

See how pretty and sweet and brown they are becoming?  That’s what happens when you are armed with patience, a good pan, and some clarified butter.  It’s only my second time caramelizing onions, but I think I’m becoming addicted.  I have a love affair with a lot of the allium family, in fact.  Garlic, onions, shallots, chives…mmmm…  Some stinky things are just so dadgum tasty!

Things are busy around here, as you may have surmised from the less-frequent postings.  That’s a combination of work deadlines and Christmas rush, though I’m starting some classes next week as well.  It’s hectic, but it’s good.  In any case, that busyness is what led me to choose something quick and easy for this week’s challenge.  It doesn’t get much easier than an omelet.

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This post is for Cheryl, but it’s also for my dear little brother, Shorty, who asked about this back before Thanksgiving.  I intended to have it up last night, but WordPress was chapping my hide and the post-writing amounted to a heckuvah fiasco.  In any case, today is a new day, so here it is—another post answering questions from Simple Spoonful readers.

The question: What can you do to stay awake and alert throughout the day without knocking back enough caffeinated beverages to float a battleship?  Shorty tends to nod off in college lectures without his Mountain Dew (shudder), and Cheryl laments The 3 pm Slump.  Unfortunately, food can’t cure it all (Shorty, for example, is only sleeping about 5 hours a day, and no strategically administered parsley or pinto beans or spaghetti squash can fix that), but there are some things that can help to an extent, assuming you don’t have a medical condition such as anemia, hypoglycemia, thyroid issues, or diabetes.  If you are abnormally tired despite sleeping a reasonable amount (8-9 hours), get to a doctor and get checked out.  However, if you just feel a little sluggish, here are some tips for you, in no particular order.

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Okay, folks.  After a reprieve, it’s time to revisit Mercatus Policy Primer No 8:  “Yes, We have No Bananas: A Critique of the ‘Food Miles’ Perspective.”  I had promised a look at how local food movements take into account questions of efficiency, economic or otherwise.

Today, the focus is on the extent to which local food activists work with economic efficiency and plain old efficiency in general.  First, the study authors heartily support the idea that food should be produced where it is efficient to do so.  I absolutely agree.  They also argue that food should be eaten seasonally.  Authors Desrochers and Shimizu claim that “the importance of seasonality [...] is also easily forgotten by activists and consumers.”  If such is the case (and it may well be, though I’d certainly like some stats on that), it’s not a flaw in the local food movement, but rather a problem with its interpretation at the individual level.  The Eat Local Challenge website, a blog which describes itself as a group blog written by authors who are interested in the benefits of eating food grown and produced in their local foodshed, has several articles about the importance of eating seasonally.  Both Alice Waters and Michael Pollan, key figures in the local food movement, liberally pepper their interviews and writings with references to the importance of seasonal eating, as do other leaders such as Barbara Kingsolver and Gary Paul Nabhan. In short, the planning is sound, even if the execution could use some tweaking.

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Audience, meet my Darkest Mint Stars:

And have you yet made the acquaintance of my diabetic-friendly, cinnamon-sprinkled, maple-kissed mixed nuts?

Did I mention yet how delicious December was going to be?  Mmmm…

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Well, let’s be honest up-front here. This was not a 100% local meal.  I honored the spirit of Dark Days, but not the cold, hard rules.

I confess: I used up some things that desperately needed using, since Shepherd’s Pie is such a wonderful haven for wayward mushrooms and forgotten produce that’s been living on the edge for some time.  I could have make it without these things (I did contemplate doing so, in fact), and it would have been equally delicious…but I didn’t.  And I think that’s okay. One of the reasons in favor of eating seasonal, local veggies is the benefit it has on the environment.  Making sure my borderline produce wasn’t wasted definitely fit with that goal.

Who were the non-local food fugitives in question?  A handful of crimini mushrooms, and a half-package of frozen peas that was getting freezerburn.  They were nice, but they didn’t make or break this dish.  It’s like chili, minestrone, stew, or any of that sort of thing: what ya got is what goes in the pot.  And it’ll be tasty.  Really.  Oh, the deliciousness that is a hearty cut of garlic-potato-topped vegetarian pastoral goodness.

There’s not a recipe for this, per se, so I’ll just give you the basic run-down on the process.  Make of it what you will.

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Sorry, folks—I’m a busy bee today.  Fortunately, Mr Pollan has a new interview up.  You can find the Pollan interview on the PBS site.  Feel free to post your thoughts in the comments section here.  I’ll be back soon!

This morning, the Unicyclist and I had an impromptu and very delicious breakfast of pancakes.  I started with the Honey-Wheat Germ Pancake recipe in the Recipes from the Moon cookbook (from the Horn of the Moon Cafe), but (as often happens when I wind up in the kitchen) that recipe was just a skeleton for the pancakes I actually made.  See, when it comes to me and recipes, I’m something of a “fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants” sort of personfolk.

I love recipes.  I love cookbooks.  I love reading them, looking at pictures, imagining delicious dinners to be.  However, I am both an incurable meddler and a thick-skulled pragmatist.  Specifically, whenever feasible, I believe in adapting recipes to what you have on hand rather than going shopping for missing ingredients.  This is exactly how I wound up with some golden, citrus-infused, wheat-germ-free pancakes this morning.  I still don’t know what the Honey-Wheat Germ pancakes from Horn of the Moon taste like, but I had some durn good breakfast.

I adapt for different reasons, but it’s mostly to use up what I have on hand.  The purpose of this post today is to help you figure out how that works, and how you might start using up odds and ends in your cooking.  Shall we dive in?

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The correct answer is:

It depends.

You need dual purpose canning jars, not your leftover jars from store-bought spaghetti.  I’ve frozen in both, with very different results. The wide-mouth, dual purpose canning jars perform wonderfully.  I have a friend who freezes large batches of soup in them regularly, and I have done so as well.  Your recycled spaghetti jars, however, will shatter when frozen, and you will find yourself sadly throwing out your soup so that you don’t accidentally swallow glass slivers with it.

Seriously, always throw away any food involving broken glass, even if you believe some of it should be salvageable.  It’s just not worth the risk of a perforated intestine.

By the way, while poking around on food storage issues over the last couple days, I found out there’s a National Center for Home Food Preservation. Who knew?  It looks like a great resource.  I plan on adding it to my bookmarks.

And finally, for anyone who has been anxiously biting their fingernails in anticipation, I wanted to announce that my Lemon Sunshine Cookies are a finalist over at at 5 Second Rule.  That, of course, meant that I had to make a batch tonight to make sure I remembered the recipe.  As you might imagine, both the Unicyclist and I are heartbroken about the idea of having two dozen delicious cookies in the house.  Somehow, we manage to soldier on.

Keep an eye out.  I’ll be posting the recipe here once Cheryl announces the final results, and I will also be experimenting with a vegan version for all you vegans out there.

December is going to be a very delicious month.

Don’t forget, readers!  If you haven’t voted for some cookie recipes at the online swap at 5 Second rule, get your potooties over there!  Lemon.  Sunshine.  Cookies. Trust me, if more people knew about these cookies, the world would be a happier place.

Vote!  Your taste buds will thank you, and your holiday guests will, too.

Update: Voting ended at midnight.  Sorry for the mix-up! 

Despite the fact that environmental and animal compassion efforts to end commercial whaling have not been totally successful, whaling may finally be on the way out.  Why?

Whales are becoming toxic.

Recently, chief medical officers on the island of Faroe (located between Scotland and Iceland) told the Faroese that their traditional pilot whale hunts not might not be such a good idea, what with the mercury and DDT and PCBs being found in the meat.  Sadly, this advice came not as a precaution, but as a recommendation based on actual studies showing that the Faroese were suffering harm as result of these chemicals and heavy metals.  Studies on the Faroese have indicated that mercury in pregnant women, even at levels well within the “safe” zone established by the World Health Organization, had caused problems for their offspring including learning, memory, and attention deficits, as well as impaired immunity and high blood pressure.  Adults were dealing with higher rates of Parkinson’s disease, circulatory problems and possibly infertility.

This is not a problem isolated to pilot whales or to the island of Faroe.

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