Last night I intended to make a whole homemade pasta sauce, but it got really late and I was hungry, so the idea got bumped to tonight. I hope. Ugh, that's why I like going to the gym in the morning... it gives me time after work to get creative in the kitchen.
Anyway, I made myself an egg scramble with onions, garlic, mushrooms, and fresh spinach. I also had 2 pieces of turkey bacon, which I pretty much charred. As I placed the strips in the pan, I thought to myself, "You have no idea how to cook bacon, do you?" Nope, I do not. But there they were, crackling away. It seemed like it was working out ok, until it started getting foamy (?) and the Pam started burning. Then I got nervous. I didn't want to under-cook it because I like my bacon extra-crispy (and I was a little nervous it got diseased on the infamous 2 hour trip home from WF...). Overall it was good, especially for turkey bacon, and I'm looking forward to doing better next time. I am also looking forward to my secret bacon experiment... to be revealed at a later time. Muahaha!
Why is bacon SO ugly?
Actually, I happened to do pretty well with lunch yesterday too. I made a regular old salad with the usual suspects, but I used tuna packed in olive oil instead of water. My host mom in Spain, Mayte, used to make us the most amazing tuna sandwiches with oil packed tuna on fresh bread (mmmm pan integral), and it would keep me full for hours. And anything packed in olive oil is obviously delicious. It did the trick... it was a lot more satisfying than using water packed tuna. I had a whole Mediterranean theme going on with olives, capers, artichokes, peppers, tomatoes, and mushrooms with a little lemon juice.
And now, on to today's ponderings: local vs. organic. Which is more important? Thank you to Alex for sparking this conversation rambling. (Where are all the comments?!?! No one even played "Guess the Wheat Product"! I feel so alone.) It's funny because I've had this on my mind all week. My thoughts on local and organic (based on The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food Inc., and general reading) are as such:
Why local? To decrease the environmental footprint of the food industry. I am a student of the teachings of the great Michael Pollan, and I have learned how much environmental waste is produced by transporting fruits and veggies across the world. Not to mention the way it affects the taste of foods. Remember when peaches used to taste like peaches? Now they're all mealy and hard. (Side note -- is this really such a recent change in produce that even at age 24 I remember "back in the day" when peaches were good?) Transporting food messes with the whole ripening process and makes foods' flavors unrecognizable. I also like the idea of supporting small farms and farmers via farmers markets.
Why organic? Because I don't want to to eat pesticides! Yuck. As long as you wash things well, conventional produce is mostly fine for YOU, but the effects on the environment are bad bad bad! The pesticides mess up the whole cycle of growth to decomposition by fending off bugs that are actually part of this process. The chemicals also end up in water systems, thereby traveling much further than originally intended and making their way into otherwise totally unrelated ecosystems. The preeminent factor at work here is business. It's a competitive market, and farmers were only trying to keep up with the Joneses. Unfortunately, it has caused a lot of damage in the meantime. As Michael Pollan said, organic may cost more at the cash register, but when you factor in conventional foods' cost to the environment, to your health, and to public health, organic is really quite a bargain.
And so, it would be ideal for me to buy locally AND organically all the time, but I have found this to be too difficult. Not everything is available to be bought local AND organic! For example, I am not going to give up bananas and avocados. Until we start mass producing those in greenhouses in the greater NY area, I will continue to eat my frutas latinas and accept that I am going against my beliefs. I do, however, try to buy those organic. I am a big fan of farmers markets, and the local/organic foods movement is definitely in support of them, but honestly, I'm not even sure that all of those farms at the Greenmarket grow organic produce. Does anyone know? My impression was that the majority of it IS organic, just not necessarily certified? I will try to research this. Either way, farmers markets are my first choice, followed by Whole Foods, where I at least am given a lot of information about where my food is coming from. It's easy to spot local and organic foods, and I appreciate that they are making the effort.
Conclusion: Try for local AND organic, but at least try to settle for one or the other when you have to. I like to think I'm making a difference.
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