The End (almost)

The final day of my Lent experiment came and went without much fanfare here on ye olde blog, sorry about that.

In reality, April 9th was kind of a busy day – had an early Easter celebration at my parents’ house, complete with ham, asparagus, and hot cross buns.  Rushed back to the city for KT’s birthday celebration which was an oyster and prosecco extravaganza (with some BBQ on the side).  I barely had time to think about it being my last day of living on my food stamps budget.

Some people have asked me why I am not doing this for the full 46 days of Lent.  (Lent is actually 46 days… did you know you’re supposed to get a reprieve on Sundays?)  Well, there’s 2 reasons I only planned on 30 days.  The first is that food stamps come once a month, so I felt like I needed to do it for a 30 day period to see what I spent in just that time, and what I had (or didn’t have) leftover.  The second reason is that I am leaving for New Orleans on Monday.

I go to the Big Easy this week every year – spend some time doing some post-Katrina rebuilding (And yes, help is still very much needed.)  Usually I hit Jazz Fest while I’m there, but this year Easter bumped it to a later date.  This makes me feel a little guilty about not doing the food stamps thing for ALL of Lent.  I hate the idea of being this privileged person who does this type of thing at my convenience or for entertainment.  Have you ever heard of Street Retreats?  I’m not even going to give you a link it bothers me so much.  It’s basically an opportunity for people to meditate on “groundlessness” while living like homeless people – panhandling, sleeping on the street and eating in soup kitchens.  AND THEN GOING BACK TO THEIR EFFING HOMES AND FEELING ENLIGHTENED.  Drives me up a flippin wall.

I guess I can rationalize it by saying that I’m not actually using food stamps, and therefore not actually taking any resources from anyone else, like I would if I was going to soup kitchens or food pantries.  And truth be told – this wasn’t just about me tuning in to the experiences of other people, it was also about self reflection.

So there’s actually a publication called the Catholic Encyclopedia, and it says “The purpose of Lent is to provide purification by weaning men from sin and selfishness through self-denial and prayer, by creating in them the desire to do God’s will and to make His kingdom come by making it come first of all in their hearts.”    I like that – not so much in the religious sense, but the idea of denying yourself something you can have in order to create something better.

My next, and last, post will be summary of sorts.  It’s been fun, gang.

What I ate today

Breakfast: oatmeal

And then I went to a conference on quality healthcare initiatives in Augusta – good full day of info and networking.

Conference food: grapefruit juice, coffee, baked chicken with salsa, salad, some sort of broccoli slaw type thing and some sort of grain salad thing.  Refreshingly healthy conference food, I must say, and in keeping with the goals of the event (only slightly marred by the frozen eclair/mini boston cream donut deserts.

Dinner:  Had my nephew for dinner and we made pizza.  And then he made a joke:

Isaiah: What is two plus two?

Me: Four

Isaiah: What is two plus three?

Me: Five

Isaiah: What is two plus ttttt?

Me: Toot

Isaiah: Endless laughter at making his aunt say “toot.”

 

Mozzarella! Mozzarella!

I can’t help saying mozzarella twice – while mimicking the mice from Disney’s Cinderella.

Anywho… I’ve wanted to do this for a while, but hadn’t prioritized it.  So this weekend, I made my own mozzarella.  I bought my milk, unpasteurized, but not raw (can’t sell raw milk in Maine stores) and then called 8 million places to see if they had rennet.  Turns out there is a shortage with the area’s distributors, and I was just about the truck it up to Auburn (an hour away) when I decided to call The Cheese Iron.  Success!  Just 10 minutes outside of town.  I hadn’t been there before, but it was worth the visit, mostly to observe the young hipster at the counter quasi-insult an elderly man from Buxton by asking him if he planned to die in Buxton.  Ouch.

And those are pretty much the ingredients, along with some water and citric acid.  I followed the instructions from The Cheese Queen.  It took longer than the purported 30 minutes, and did involve using the microwave, but I am not completely over instant gratification, and didn’t want to wait for breakfast to have my mozzarella.

The heating and stretching is the fun part, especially with a friend  - trying to stretch without breaking or dropping – kind of a grown up version of Hot Potato.

I realize that there’s an argument that this was an extravagance, that spending nearly $9 for a gallon of milk is in no way thrifty, but I beg to differ.   I not only ended up with a pound of mozzarella made from local cows, but a ton of whey, which I am using for smoothies and as a soup base.  It’s good protein, low sodium, plus calcium.  So the way I figure it, this experiment had a lot of value: fun, cheese, and a byproduct to use in future recipes.

The cheese stretching inspired us to try molasses taffy as well, which I think I was too distracted to properly monitor, I put the vinegar in too late, and we ended up with molasses hard candy instead, half of which I dropped on the floor.  But I want to try it again – it’s not every day that I have an actual reason to rub butter all over my hands.

All in all, this was a part of this whole Lent thing that I would definitely recommend.  It kind of solves some of that weird social/food relationship.  Cheesemaking is a fun activity with other people, and not all that expensive.  Crikey… I sound like I’m writing for Women’s Day or Redbook or some other crap magazine….

$42.76

So I need to update my expenses…..

Last week I bought:

Pretzels $3.49

Mesculin mix $1.84

Asiago cheese $3.83

Tomatoes from Rosemont Market and Bakery $1.49

Red Pepper $1.17

Dried Cranberries $2.12

Bananas $1.33

1 gallon of milk from Winter Hill Farm $8.98

Vegetable Rennet $7.99

Sweet potatoes $2.97

Total: $35.21

That leaves $7.55 for my last 6 days.  The milk and rennet was for a special project, which I’ll write more about later.  I have plenty of food in the house, and I’m feeling pretty good about what I have left!

Sweet

Met my fruit quota today.

warning

This is the 3rd article I came across today warning me NOT TO EAT THOSE TOMATOES THAT ARE IN MY CUPBOARD!!.

Want to avoid BPA? Switch to fresh foods | The Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram.

‘Cuz of the BPA.  Even though my governor doesn’t agree, BPA ain’t good for you.  So I found myself last night (while my local and organic chicken was cooking) standing in front of my cupboard and thinking about what to do with some of that food.  And then I thought about food pantries, and how they are stocked, stocked, stocked with cans, cans, cans.  I thought, it would be nice if the food pantries weren’t full of this type of stuff, but I also think that some BPA tomatoes are still probably better than no tomatoes, right?  Is it wrong to send some of this canned stuff off to the food pantry?  Is it better to waste?

Gah!  Crazy making.

Anyway, here’s what I ate and bought yesterday:

Oatmeal (raisins are gone forgot to buy more)

A pastry from Aurora Provisions that I snagged at a work meeting

Risotto with mushroom, artichokes and spinach

I got home from work and took a jog because it’s probably the last sunny day this week before snow.  Then I hit Trader Joe’s, picked up some peanut butter, and some pizza dough and cheese for when the rugrats visit = $5.77.  And I forgot to buy raisins.

Dinner was homemade bread with peanut butter.  Lazy and delicious.

AND….

Facebook tells me the Farmer’s Market starts in Monument Square tomorrow!

Yahoo!

I like emoticons

It’s been a long day, running from meeting to meeting, and then trying to strengthen the heart of a friend’s whose heart is broken.  So tonight I’m very grateful for a gift from my coworker Mollie – some tea, a nice treat!  Mollie’s lent idea was to be more generous – what a win-win!

Here’s what I ate today:

Some toast from wheat bread I made over the weekend, with some eggs and spinach ( and some milk)

An orange (gift from my mom!)

Mushroom, spinach and artichoke risotto

Squash soup with another slice of bread (and a glass of milk)

Here’s how I did based on USDA guidelines:

Dietary Guidelines Recommendations	Emoticon	Number of cup/ oz. Equ. Eaten	Number of cup/oz. Equ. Recommended
Grain		3.6 oz equivalent	6 oz equivalent
Vegetable		2.7 cup equivalent	2.5 cup equivalent
Fruit		1.2 cup equivalent	1.5 cup equivalent
Milk		2.9 cup equivalent	3 cup equivalent
Meat and Beans		1.8 oz equivalent	5 oz equivalent

To market, to market

I took my niece and nephew to the winter farmer’s market this weekend, each with $5 in hand they earned for doing chores.  Eliza helped me select my eggs, and then made a beeline for the homemade chocolate donuts.  She and Isaiah both plopped down a dollar for one and munched on them happily as we made our way around, seeing what each vendor had.  Then Isaiah ran off and stood in front of the guy with some pretty nice looking apples.  For this kid, it really is like a candy store.  He loves apples just about more than anything in the world.  There was a time when he was just learning to talk, and I used to go over to his house and bring him apples.  For a while before he learned how to incorrectly pronounce my name as Fawa, I was “Apple.”

He finally settled on some Macouns, I think.  Dug into his jacket pockets (which are full of rocks, too) and fished out a couple of dollar bills and handed them to the vendor.  Eliza picked some too, though she was quite concerned about the absence of strawberries.  They were quite a site, walking around the market swinging their bags of apples, munching on chocolate donuts and trying to put their hands on everything.

I came home with quite a haul.  I think I was so focused on helping those two wisely spend their money, that I forgot to do the same with mine.  Here’s what I got (and all local!)

Eggs: $3.75

Parsnips: $1.90

Squash: $3.00

Chicken: $4.35

Apples: $3.00

Total: $16.00

Confession

I have a confession to make.  I bought beer.  I was on a date Friday night, and my date bought tickets to a show and I bought beer.

I know this goes against what we agreed, dear readers, but what was I supposed to do?  This isn’t a longstanding relationship where it all comes out in the wash.  This is new.  I know that when I’m first starting to get to know someone, I tend to like people who go with the flow, who are flexible, spontaneous, etc.  And I want to be that person too!

What?  Stop looking at me like that.

I have been thinking about how much food and drink are involved in our dating lives.  It’s March in Maine.  There might be a nice day here or there, but for the most part, it’s likely to be rainy and cold and muddy.  Trying to plan an outdoor activity is hard.  And when you’re just getting to know someone, it’s not really wise to invite them over to your house, even if it is for trivial pursuit.  That takes time.  There is always a gallery or bowling or the museum or some event happening, but for some reason, people want to add on drinks/coffee/dinner to those types of things.

So this “no purchasing booze/eating out” thing is a little challenging.  I know, I know, I know that we agreed that other people could purchase meals or brews for me, but I kind of have a hang up about that too.  I like paying my way.  I can actually be a little obnoxious about it.  My friend Matt suggests that it might be a turnoff, and others tell me that if I want to be treated like a lady then I need to act like one.  I rarely plan dinner as a first date because I don’t like the whole presumption of the man paying for the woman.  I know that it’s kind of like a gift, that buying a woman dinner is supposed to be like giving her something special, showing that a man can provide, yada yada yada.  But I kind of feel like I need to earn that, and I rarely have earned it by the first date.  And gross!  I don’t mean it like that!  I mean this – I want to feel like you are giving me something, or treating me to something because you really appreciate me, not because it’s your social obligation.  Does that make sense?

So just because I’m “poor” doesn’t mean I’m going to suddenly change my tune about that.  Maybe it is something for me to reevaluate, but not just because there’s a financial need.  This is what disempowers impoverished people!

Now I’m all wound up and it’s early on a Sunday morning, thanks a lot!  All I wanted to say is that I’m not going to feel bad because I spent money on beer on this date.  It was worth it.