Five Rules For Holiday Baking...Stress-free

In my last post, I mention it was ridiculously hot, even for Tucson in October.... Well, the weather has finally cooled a bit and that, for me, means more baking.

Back in '07, just before starting shopOrganic, I spent a week at the Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley. It was an amazing week learning about baking and making things I'd always wondered about but never tried - focaccia, doughnuts, chocolate and more...but I digress. It's time to get down to some serious baking. Here are five rules to follow for stress-free holiday baking.

Rule #1
Never try a new recipe in a high pressure situation.
If you need to bring four dozen cookies to a school party, don't try out a new meringue recipe. Pull out your old tried-and-true recipe. Sure, it might be a boring old chocolate chip cookie, but hey, at least they'll be delicious! (Same goes for holiday cooking as well...).

Rule #2
Use the right flour for the recipe.
While you can get away with a lot using a high quality all purpose organic flour like Giusto's Organic Unbleached Baker's Choice Flour, choosing a specialized flour for certain baked goods will enhance the final result and your friends, colleagues and bake sale customers will be oohing and aahing over your tasty treats. Here's a quick breakdown:

High protein flour
A high protein flour has between 12% and 15% protein. These are sometimes referred to as high gluten flours. These high protein flours are preferred by bakers for bagels, pizza and other breads that require a strong texture. If your recipe calls for all purpose flour and you use high protein flour, you will probably find your final product to be a bit tougher than desired. On the other hand, if you don't have high protein flour available, you can beef up your all purpose flour with some vital wheat gluten.

Medium protein flour
Generally between 10% and 12% protein, like the Giusto's organic flour mentioned above, these are considered all purpose flours. They'll perform well in most applications, but better results can be obtained for specialized recipes using higher or lower protein flour.

Lower protein flour
Lower or low protein flour yields the opposite result of high protein flour. It helps develop a soft, delicate texture for pastries and cakes. Cake flour is usually about 8% protein whereas pastry flour is usually even lower in protein.

Cake and pastry flour will absorb more liquid and is typically must softer when mixed than higher protein flour.

Whole grain flours
Whole grain flours can be tricky to work with - their protein content and flavor varies with the type of grain or the mixture of grains. If your recipe calls for all purpose flour and you want to add fiber and nutrition boost by using whole grain flour, I recommend you either start by substituting no more than 25% of the flour called for with whole grain or use a recipe on the whole grain flour package to begin with. You'll need to adjust your liquids upward a bit when substituting whole grain flour and you'll find the final result will be denser than a recipe that uses all purpose flour. The flavor enhancement from using whole grains, though, is well worth a bit of experimentation.

When I was at the CIA, I noticed they used Giusto's flour almost exclusively. I was impressed by the results and looked for Giusto's when I got home. I was unable to find it and for a long time, Giusto's did not have an organic line available to the general public. However, that's changed and shopOrganic.com just picked up the whole line of Giusto's organic flours - just in time for holiday baking.

Here's a link to all of Giusto's - links to the individual products are above.

Rule #3
Baking is chemistry and if you want to substitute ingredients, think about them as dry and liquid.
The ratio between dry and wet impacts the final result as does the amount of leavening used. Look at your original recipe to understand the basic ratios and then substitute keeping these ratios in tact. And always go back to Rule #1.

Rule #4
Always let your bread products finish cooling fully before cutting.
As much as diving into a warm loaf of bread may seem, the structure of the bread needs to set before you slice it open. If it's just for you or your family and you don't care, slice away. If it's for company or a bake sale (slicing date bread into sell-able servings, for example), let it cool fully.

Rule #5
Enjoy.
Baking is a relaxing, creative process. Allow enough time to enjoy it fully. Be present - consider it your moving meditation. Infuse all your joy and love into those baked products and you'll share the love long after the oven has cooled.

Happy holiday baking!

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Going Green At Home - Part 5

If you've been following the progress of my home gardening project, you'll see that things started to sprout nicely about a month ago. (If you haven't been following and want to start at the beginning, start here). Since then, Tucson's had some unseasonably warm (ok, it's been hot) weather, and the "winter" plants I put in were not happy. I kept them watered and hoped they could hold on until the hot spell broke - which is finally did.

The tomato plant was purchased as a starter, just about everything else came up from seed. There is one mysterious square toward the front, center of the box that has been planted twice but nothing has sprouted - kind of funny given that the rest of
the plants are growing so well.

These plants are grown in this organic soil and I've used nothing else but water. I can't wait until I can harvest the first whatever from this garden - I'm guessing I might have kale or chard soon.

With that in mind, I thought I'd share two winter recipes using vegetables I'm growing would be a great way to get us thinking about ways we can use winter produce.

Kale, by the way, is a delicious winter crop but for those of you who have never used it, here are a couple of tips. First, use your kale quickly. If you harvest it from the garden, use it the same day. If you purchase it at the store, use it within a couple of days otherwise it can get spongy and bitter. Also, cut the center stalk out and toss it (into your compost pile or your trash, but not into your soup). Use only the leaves from your kale.

First up, simple easy delicious kale chips. Skips the potato chips this football season and try kale chips. Even folks who think they don't like kale will love these.

KALE CHIPS
1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
2. Wash and remove the stem from a bunch of kale, pat dry.
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. Lightly coat kale in olive oil and arrange on parchment.
5. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt. (I use velvet salt, it's great on popcorn too and you can use far less than traditional salt due to the fine texture).
6. Bake for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from oven, adjust salt (and pepper, if desired) to taste.


Here's a quick and simple recipe for kale and cauliflower soup. It's a great meal by itself or a perfect side to a grilled cheese sandwich on a fall day. Give this one a try from your organic garden vegetables.

QUICK AND EASY KALE AND CAULIFLOWER SOUP
1/2 cup diced onion
2 TBS minced garlic
3 tsp organic olive oil
1/2 cup white wine
3 cups of organic vegetable stock or organic chicken broth
1 head of organic, fresh from your garden cauliflower, cored and chopped
1 (lightly packed) cup organic, fresh from your garden kale, thinly sliced
2 tsp salt
1 tsp organic lemon pepper
1 TBS organic honey (the lemon gives it extra depth of flavor)

In a large pan over medium low heat, saute the the onions and garlic in olive oil. (Hint: don't overcook the garlic when it gets too brown, it gets bitter). After a few minutes, the onions should be translucent. At that point, add the wine and continue to simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.

Add the chopped cauliflower and your stock (vegetable or chicken). Bring to a boil then reduce your heat to medium low and simmer until the cauliflower is soft - about 20 minutes or so. Add the kale and continue to cook for about 5 minutes. Turn the heat off, put your ingredients into a blender or food processor and puree until smooth. If you have a sprig or two of tarragon or rosemary, you may want to drop that in your soup for the final simmer for added flavor, but the soup stands on its own without that, too.

For a more rustic texture, you can use anything to mash the mixture leaving smaller pieces in tact. (This is also handy if you don't have a blender or food processor or don't want to drag them out of the pantry).

Return to pan and simmer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with a dollop of non fat organic yogurt or sour cream and some rustic whole grain or cracked grain bread - smear the bread with a bit of olive oil and put under the broiler for a couple of minute to brown.

Have a recipe you want to share? Post it here.

As always, shopOrganic.com is your trusted online source for organic food and natural products. We have a wide selection of hard-to-find, unique, gourmet and everyday foods for your culinary pleasure. See you there! Now, go out there and enjoy your day.
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Want To Lose Belly Fat? Strike A Pose

A researcher from Harvard recently concluded a study and found that certain "power positions" not only reduced stress, they reduced cortisol levels. People with high stress have high cortisol levels and high cortisol levels are associated with belly fat, which is an indicator of higher risk for various health issues...the short of it is this - if you want a quick way to reduce stress and cortisol levels, strike a power pose.

According to Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy:

Subjects in the high-power group were manipulated into two expansive poses for one minute each: first, the classic feet on desk, hands behind head; then, standing and leaning on one's hands over a desk. Those in the low-power group were posed for the time period in two restrictive poses: sitting in a chair with arms held close and hands folded, and standing with arms and legs crossed tightly....

Controlling for subjects' baseline levels of both hormones, Cuddy and her coauthors found that high-power poses decreased cortisol by about 25 percent and increased testosterone by about 19 percent for both men and women. In contrast, low-power poses increased cortisol about 17 percent and decreased testosterone about 10 percent.

Want to read the whole article? Click here.

If you're feeling stressed out, try these power poses (after all, it can't hurt). Stand up and lean over your desk to read a report, contract or your email. Close your door, put your feet up, close your eyes and take a few powerful deep breaths. Feel better already, don't you?

Of course, you can also reduce stress through exercise like walking, running, weight training, yoga and tai chi (to name just a few) and through eating healthy, organic foods (you knew that was coming, didn't you?).

Click to visit shopOrganic.com - your trusted source for organic food and eco-friendly products online. First time shoppers save 10% using coupon code GRGDS. How great is that?!
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Going Green At Home - Part 4

If you haven't read previous posts on this topic, you might want to jump back and start with Part 1 to follow the progress of my amazingly easy green-my-home raised bed garden project.

I don't have a lot of time to monkey around, so I needed this garden project to be easy, fast and successful. As you can see from previous photos, the box, soil and grid went in quickly. We did this over the course of a few weekends, but total time spent on this was probably three or four hours total.Though we did want to start most of our plants from seed, I wanted some instant hits of color for the porch and some basil (since my bird friends have decimated my back porch potted basil plants). I love making my own organic pizza from a rustic crust, simple tomato sauce, organic mozzarella and yes, basil galore. So, basil will be a starter plant.


I chose marigolds for their color and natural pest deterrent properties and salvia for a bit of height and gorgeous purple flowers. The basil also went in along with starter greek oregano and cilantro.

Next up, we planted seeds for several varieties of greens including black seed simpson lettuce and rocket (aka arugula). Broccoli went in - just a couple of seeds in the middle of one square and four days later, I had a green sprout.

Last night I sparingly harvested a few leaves of basil for a pasta dish because, well, I needed that splash of green, that deliciously licorice-y basil flavor to give the dish depth. Perfect, my first harvest.

Stay tuned for what we planted next.

Until next time, go out there and green your home. Take "eat at home" literally! Read more!

Going Green At Home - Part 3

In Part 1 of Going Green At Home, I talked about deciding to use a front patio space for a raised bed garden. We left off at having put the 8 x 5 x 1 frame in place. Now, let's get down and dirty - let's talk soil.

First, you need to do your math to figure out how many cubic feet of soil you need. Next, you need to decide on the mix. In Tucson, where's it's pretty dry most of the time, a soil that holds moisture is vital to success.

You can go to any garden center and buy a soil mix, usually they carry something appropriate to your area. However, you can also mix your own. In our case, we did the math and figured out we could save about $60 on soil by creating our own mixture - and the added benefit was we could control exactly what went into that mix.

We chose to add a lot of vermiculite - (make sure the vermiculite you choose is asbestos free). Vermiculite holds moisture and acts like a sponge, releasing moisture slowly. Of course, we added organic compost and other soil components to develop a nutrient rich soil mix.

The trick in mixing your own is that you have to deal with bags that are different sizes - some come in 1 cubic ft., 2.2 cubit ft. and so on. Once you decide that you want a soil mixture of say, 30% vermiculite, you need to calculate how many cubic feet that is and then how many bags you'll need. (All I can say is, do your math a couple of times to be sure you're correct and save your receipt).

If you're going to mix your own, make sure you either mix it in place (which is a bit tricky) or have a tarp of some sort. We found that by mixing our soil in three batches and rolling it back and forth in the tarp, we got a good distribution of the various components and had a beautiful soil mixture. We dumped it into the raised bed and repeated two more times until the bed was full. If you find your bed is full after two rounds, just return the unused (and unopened) bags (which is why I highly recommend you save your receipt).

Once you've got your soil in, you can start watering (to hydrate the soil to it doesn't suck the moisture out of your seeds or starer plants). However, we decided that putting a grid in would help - most container gardening books recommend it so you can remember where you planted what - so we used lath to demarcate the sectors. You can make them whatever size you want, we stuck with the standard 12" x 12". The result was an organized grid system that we can track what's been planted where and when.

Next up - planting, growing, marveling.
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Going Green At Home - Part 2

Before we go further down the garden path...(yes, pun intended), I thought it might be useful to provide you with a few resources. If this project sounds like it's up your alley and you want to try your hand at growing some of your own produce in a small space, you're in luck.

You can do this on your own, but having a personal guide makes the journey a bit more certain. We picked up a copy of the All New Square Foot Gardening book (see the link here to buy your own). It's full of step-by-step instructions, sound advice and great how-to pictures.

The author, Mel Bartholomew, seems to favor planting starters, but I wanted to try my hand at starting from seed. Looking for natural and organic seeds? You're in luck. shopOrganic.com carries seeds for vegetables and flowers.

Whether you buy starters or start from seed, you'll need to plant the kinds of plants that thrive in your climate zone and you'll need to figure out your local growing season. You can extend it in the fall by covering your raised bed - but now's a great time for cool weather growing in most locations (ok, it's still in the 100's here in the Southwest, but we know cooler weather is just around the corner).


Get your green thumb going today and literally put food on your own table. Stay tuned for Part 3 soon!








And here is the rest of it. Read more!

Going Green At Home - Part 1

I am fortunate to live in the beautiful Sonoran Desert, here in sunny southern Arizona. The downside is that it's not usually described as verdant - more like a dusty brown most of the time. My home is a charming one story burnt adobe building that reflects the very essence of the Southwest. When I bought it years back, there was a large fountain on the front porch area surrounded by some scraggly boxwood bushes. Fairly quickly, I turned off the fountain - it seemed a waste of precious water. The boxwoods were pretty much left to their own devices.

Fast forward to this summer.

I guess I've been watching too much home and garden television. I kept looking at that front patio space wondering what I could do with it. After a couple of iterations, I realized it was a perfect spot for a raised bed garden. It's got morning sun and was protected from the harsh afternoon sun and it was the perfect size. Thus began the project that has started to green my home.

We started by clearing the space. We gave away the fountain to a really nice family who came and got it one Saturday morning. We made new friends in the deal, so we were thrilled. Next, we cleared the boxwoods out and prepped the space.

Next, we measured and calculated what we'd need in the way of raised bed materials (wood and a few screws), headed to the home improvement store, came home and built the box. We decided to add bird netting over the top since we have so many birds in the area and, well, they'd already chowed down an entire basil plant leaving me bare stubs and a dead plant.

The box itself was pretty simple to build and it didn't take a skilled carpenter to cut and assemble the wood. We assembled it in the garage and carried it to it's final location - the result is a beautiful 8 x 5 foot 12" deep raised bed garden.

(And yes, that is the Border of Border & Black Ventures, aka Jackie Brown, border collie extraordinare).

This is what I call a triple bottom line - I get fresh organic produce from my own garden; I get to see the lush green of the plants as they grow; and I get to spend some time getting my hands dirty in a really good way. It's low maintenance, but I can putter around it if I want to just unwind - or just sit on the patio and marvel at this little desert oasis.

I've never grown much before - especially not the garden variety - I've never found the idea appealing until Lisa (shopOrganic co-founder) suggested a raised bed garden. The small, manageable scale was instantly appealing and the thought of actually having fresh produce on my front porch was what sealed the deal.

Stay tuned for more posts showing what comes next, where you can find information on how to grow your own and see photos of what's starting to sprout!

We're looking forward to a beautiful, bountiful front porch this fall and hope you'll check back often to see our progress.

And, of course, for all those things you can't grow yourself, green your home with organic and eco-friendly products from shopOrganic.com

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