Posts Tagged ‘Duchess’

A garden, a grill and a guy.

5 Comments
Posted 05 May 2010 — by FV
Category As I see it., Evolution Of FV, garden, Really??

Tuesday, May 4th. Gardening day. I would like to share with you some more progress on the garden that the Duchess and I are working on so diligently. I also have a dilemma with which I hope you can help (scroll to the bottom of post if you can’t wait). First, let’s get to the garden.

The progress in the yard has been amazing. The old pool is torn down completely now, (a project started a year ago) the garden in all sprouted and growing and ready for the next wave of crops to be planted and there are tree removal and patio laying plans on the horizon. Today the Duchess and I weeded and then she secured the garden fence and tied lead strings to the fence for the pea plants to climb.

Go Peas Go!!

The garden is slowly, but surely, turning green.

You’ll notice a square in the upper left hand corner that will be the home to more veggies soon like cukes, zukes and peppers. Our indoor seedlings of tomatoes and peppers are itching to get into some outdoor dirt. The space where the pool was is currently a huge sandbox and the old deck has served as a makeshift shed. There’s Choc exploring!

The old pool is missed, but better things are to come.

We decided to cook over an open wood grill. In the ongoing effort to avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup, a homemade BBQ sauce was to be made. I started with onions and garlic.

These were lightly sauteed and then I added one of the few safe non-fresh goods.

Nothing added, just tomatoes.

The recipe called for brown sugar. I am currently against the use of processed sugars, but still have some wool pulled over my eyes and haven’t gotten away from it completely.I compromised with a tablespoon of brown sugar and substituted honey for the rest of the sweetness. I didn’t have Worcestershire sauce so I added a dash of soy sauce. I also had to tinker with the vinegar to honey ratio to get just the right taste. The sauce turned out great and made the chicken just perfect on the open flame wood grill!

I baked some potatoes indoor and seasoned them for a quick stay on the grill with the chicken almost done.

For a vegetable we had roasted cabbage. Just cut into sections drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper and bake for about 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees or until the edges start to brown.

Yum!!

Everything about the day was rolling along very nicely until dinner time.

I would like to share with you and hopefully get some feedback on a problem I am having. My middle child, Choc, is a very finicky eater. I am scrambling for solutions to this situation. Yes, I, FV, am experiencing a food problem that I am having a very difficult time solving. Choc is an amazing kid, as I expect you would think I’d say. He is also a child who is stuck in the rut that I rant and rave about all of the time. He is, for lack of a better term, addicted to bad food. If it’s breaded, fried, smothered in ketchup or sugar, he’ll eat it. If not, well, the fight begins. As you may have gathered Choc’s Mom and I are divorced. I have the boys exactly 1/2 of the time. It is my opinion that the boys eat better with me than anywhere else.  Choc is a very intelligent and emotional young boy. He is very artistic and creative. You would think this would translate into food, but it hasn’t. The secret I have is that most dinner times are tainted by his obstinance to eating and my anger rears as a result. This kid can go without eating a single bite rather than eat the food I put before him. I have contemplated every angle of what shrinks might say. Here’s the facts…

1)Choc will eat every bite of a food he likes, i.e. pizza, spaghetti, breaded fried chicken or pork, ground meat from any animal and mostly all vegetables. He will NEVER turn down a sweet snack like cookies, cake or candy, NEVER!  (I don’t want to sound like a bitter ex, but these are the staples at his Mom’s house)

2)Choc will not eat any whole meats like chicken, steak or pork. He will eat fish, usually, and some fruits.

3)Eating seems to be an inconvenience at times for Choc.

4)It seems that, besides sugar, texture has a lot to do with Choc’s resistance to certain foods.

5)I feel like I am going to lose my mind over this issue. My oldest, Bird, is a year away from being a teenager and his appetite is growing everyday, but he really had no eating issues before. My youngest is still very impressionable and seems to follow suit if tensions rise over eating. Choc, sometimes, just refuses to eat.

Look, these things I know. Kids won’t starve themselves. I know my divorce has put some stress on the kid’s lives. I am not some crazy foodie parent putting vegan-friendly-organic-burger-shaped patties in front of my boys. We’re talking about meat and potatoes. I’m not looking for a litany of reasons this is happening, I’m looking for ways to break this trend of irrational food resistance. My dear Mom, TooRedLyn, would have just strong-armed the point (and the chicken) into my head. I am trying to avoid that method.

So, for the sake of my dear Choc, does anyone have any ideas I could try? I am humbly awaiting your advice.

“How does this make you feel?” -Siggy Freud

FV

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Shake, Rattle And Roll

4 Comments
Posted 21 Apr 2010 — by FV
Category As I see it.

Some ideas have been long standing accepted standards, enduring the test of time and testing. Take for instance, gravity. It almost seems cliche. No one doubts it, we all feel it, it is inescapable. Other ideas have had their problems over the years. For example, the shape of the world. As I am sure you know, people used to think that the world was flat, a huge disc floating around the sun. Oh, wait, we used to think that the sun and all the other bodies in space floated around the earth! Humankind advanced, instruments of observation improved, some dude took a boat ride over the “edge” and from that point on our world got round, spun around the sun and started to shrink. This wasn’t an idea that rattled just a few cages, this was a shift in societal beliefs that led to a period of chaos, disregard and even deaths! Not many changes have caused such a worldwide gasp since then, except, of course, for the recent adulterous ways of Tiger Woods.

There have been other generally accepted truths disproved over the years.

The advertisement on this building is as precarious as the deteriorating brick on which it’s painted. Even smokers know, today, that there are just no health benefits to smoking. But there was a day…

Where am I going with this? Well, I am interested in many things food related. Food at the store, food in schools, whole food, processed food, organic food, there are a myriad of questions to be answered. Well, since you are all generally busy stuffing your faces, I (with great love and affection for all of you) struggle with these issues day in and day out. With this in mind I would like to challenge some long time and basic beliefs. I want to shake the foundation of what “is” by examining what “was”, what “has become” and what is “going to be”.

Today the Duchess and I had our gardening day (pictures and progress report soon). Early in the day, the Duchess was seized by a quick sneeze. I responded by saying “bless you”. She retorted “thank you”. All was well. As I thought about this, I recalled times when people have sneezed and no one happened to say “bless you”. This omission of a well wish after a sneeze is most often regarded as rude, inconsiderate and downright mean. Often the sneezer even becomes a little or a lot annoyed. You have seen this happen, and maybe have been one of the parties involved. The point is that this exchange only occurs because that is what we have all been taught to believe is right and proper. Should a person really feel jilted by silence after a sneeze, no not really. It does feel good, however, to hear a “bless you”. This is my point, it feels good. It seems right. It is what we have alwaysknown. (Disclaimer: I do not recommend omitting “bless you’s” after sneezes, the world is not ready for such change)

What I am about to say might come as a surprise. I am concerned with the consumption of milk, sugar and flour. I know, I can hear the screams, the keyboards being slammed and the Hollywood-like gasps! I know, with high-fructose-corn-syrup and hydrogenated oils out there, what the hell am I doing messing with our beloved “big three”? Let me explain. I still consume milk, sugar and flour. I am not ready to sail into the abyss just yet to see if I’ll fall off into oblivion. You know I feel odd about drinking from a cow, although milk tastes so good, and cheese, oh, don’t get me started! Sugar consumption is out of control! Lastly, flour. I am just not convinced that flour is the best vehicle for the nutrients that found in wheat. I’m sure the Barilla Pasta company is taking their advertising proposal off the table as we speak.

I go into this with an open mind. There are so many things wrong with the food provided for us these days that it even seems to me a bit frivolous to spend time on these feel good, comfortable and long used foods. But, they don’t call me FV for nothin’. I have mentioned before that I feel this blog has been like a gift of three ships. So I will sail and see if I can find new ground, new ideas and maybe rattle the foundations of what we believe is the truth.

Milk could be a flat Earth. Sugar could be smooth, throat cleansing cigarettes. Flour could be an unneccesary, but feel good “bless you”. We’ll see.

Wish me luck, if not, well, bless you.

FV

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Stop Or I’ll Shoots! (or) Shoots And Ladders (or) Shoots And Giggles

3 Comments
Posted 14 Apr 2010 — by FV
Category As I see it., garden

Yippee Ki Yay!!!!! We have done it! We have turned the once Barren Land into productive Earth. My family shall dine on the glory of what has been planted and generations will thrive. We tore in to the Crust and turned the soil, we toiled, planted, we watered, we waited. Then the magic of Mother Earth took over and today as I peered long and carefully into the garden, I saw this…

Through the rocks and rough soil, as you can see, life has found a way.

These shoots are radishes. I searched through the rest of the garden and did find one more tiny shoot. It is lettuce, a bit blurry, but it’s there.

 

This was a most welcome and encouraging surprise. I can’t wait for The Duchess to see our creation, she was tied up at an appointment and missed our gardening day. It did rain most of the day, so not much work would have gotten done anyway. Little NB and I took advantage of a short bout of sunshine and spent some time in the garden. Over the next week we plan to dig some more space or maybe create some planting boxes. We have so much more in store. The yard is beginning to look like spring.

I’ll, of course, keep you posted on all of our progress. I also ask again for you to send me pictures of any gardening projects you are working on, whether it be a sprawling field of vegetables or some herbs on your window sill. Send the pictures to foodvigilante@gmail.com . I can’t wait to share all of your progress as well.

Green thumbs up,

FV

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