Back At It

With a short lapse I have returned. Blame it on the snow or the confinement or just a lack of drive, but I am back now.

I recieved a few new books on food I am itching to get through. The first I have opened drew me in for 20 pages before I could seperate myself to eat breakfast. The book is "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois.

In the past month I have become obsessed with simple breads. By simple I am talking about breads with four inredients: flour, salt, yeast and water. I believe this is the way bread was meant to be made. In this book I am seeing my own ideas confirmed and reinforced.

On page they speak about salt. Using coarse salt will not change the flavor of the bread, but compared to fine salt there is a crucial difference to observe. I found this principal throough trial an error. The fine salt packs more densely than the coarse salt and therefore you should use less fine salt in a recipe.

I still have a ways to go, but there are some simple truths in this book. I love simple and elegent. So far this book is it. On the table are also two other books. One is about cheese making and the other is about yogurt. Those books I will expose at a later time.

For now I am out of town, and my materials and kitchen are not on hand. I am enjoying some food that does not fit into my natural foods criteria, but it is the holidays and I make an exception for family while I am a guest.

My latest thoughts have been down the lines of vegetarianism. With all of the problems inherent in our meat production military industrial complex of this fine nation vegetarian cuisine is starting to seem like an easy way out.

We know understand proper nutrition and meat is not a requirement. With all of the concerns I have it seems like a viable and realistic, and even healthy, option. While on the road I will be doing some research and considering another facet to the the experiments I run on my diet. A vegetarian week is coming.

I enjoy fish, I eat little red meat, and I am disenfranchised with poultry production. Pork comes from an animal that seems too intelligent and closely related to humans. Besides, I was never bacon or pork chop fan to begin with.

So I will muse for a few more days and return with my results. On decision has been made though. It is time to step up the workut routine. Food is excellent, and health is important, but to have a well rounded body mind and soul anyone can recite the fact that excercise is important.

Too many of us avoid it, or pretend like we get enough. I know the time can be tricky to allocate, but I am relatively young and it makes far too much sense not to begin a habit that may extend my life and improve the quality of it.