Aim
for that 8%
The New Year has emphatically
crunched in with more ice and snow. To add to the discomfort, we are entreated
by every Food magazine to ‘lighten up’ and include ‘more healthy eating’ in our
New Year’s Resolutions.
Apparently those resolutions have been around since the time of ancient
Babylonians, persisting through different cultures through millennia. Currently
in the USA nearly half of us consider making them and one or more are likely to
include dietetic aspirations.
Unfortunately, modern statistical surveys tell us that only 8 percent of
individuals making those Resolutions are likely to keep even one of them. Maybe
the practice of burning those written resolutions in a giant bonfire at Winter
Solstice celebrations arose simply to prevent future guilt.
This is beginning to sound like a cautionary tale as one contemplates
adjusting to our post-harvest and holiday excesses. Even memories of that
chocolate eggnog could lead one to forswear anything but salads and thin soups
for the rest of the year. Such cleansing rituals are likely to last but a week
for anyone who appreciates good food.
So, best not to make any binding dietetic resolutions, but rather pick
some other food related ones that might be more likely to yield results.
An excellent idea, once proposed to me, was that one should take the
month of January to revise the stock of one’s pantry and freezer by cooking
with items primarily at hand, and thus discover and put in circulation items
lost in recesses of those two storage areas. It may be a bit dicey if you are a
minimalist food shopper, but most good cooks find an amazing accumulation in
those two kitchen storage areas, especially after the holiday season.
Fresh fruit and dairy products need weekly replenishing, but if you are a
gardener, carrots, butternut squash, onions and potatoes are probably still
languishing in cool storage somewhere. Besides, even packaged and canned goods
have expiration dates and staple supplies need to be rotated. The extra meals
or soups you cooked at harvest time and stored in the freezer also have a
limited shelf life and the moussaka frozen in September can be a January
timesaver and a delicious dinner.
This sounds like a resolution I might actually be able to keep and in the
process discover some interesting variations on recipes created simply by
availability and necessity. For starters, our extra holiday ham needed an
update for a quick weekend supper, which led me to pair it with Charleston
grits and gorgonzola in a tasty medley. The coarse Charleston grits are whole
grain and take a little longer to cook than the quick variety, but are worth
the effort for both taste and nutrition.
Charleston
grits with gorgonzola
Rinse 1 cup Charleston grits with water, add 3 cups water, ½ tsp. salt
and bring to boil. Turn heat down to low and cook for 25 minutes with
occasional stirring. Stir in 3-4 oz.
crumbled gorgonzola and continue heating until cheese is melted and well
blended in the grits. Serve in flat soup bowls topped with the ham and mushroom
mixture. Any extra grits can be stored in a small container in the refrigerator
and served subsequently cut in slices and broiled for a few minutes.
Ham and
mushroom ragout
Sautè 1 chopped small onion with 4 oz. sliced mushrooms in 1 Tblsp.
butter for 5 minutes. Stir in 1 Tblsp lemon juice, ¼ cup dry Marsala (optional) and 1 cup broth with 1
tsp. cornstarch, bring to boil and cook to reduce to half volume. Stir in 2 cups ham cubed in small pieces and
heat thoroughly before serving on top of the grits with gorgonzola.
A salad with vinaigrette and some fresh shredded parmesan was a simple
accompaniment to this quick supper. We eased back on deserts with a baked apple
topped with a sprinkle of brown sugar.
As an encouraging start, it seemed that the 8 percent aim might be
actually achievable.
(I. Winicov Harrington lives in
Waldoboro and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00
a Day: the Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)
