Dilemma

So I've been thinking about this for a long time...it's been sitting in the back of my head.

I usually buy 2-3 lbs of garlic every fall.

I walk into the Co-Op and there are two barrels of garlic:

Local Conventional

Organic (California)

Does anyone see the dilemma yet?

Welcome to New York State: a giant farm. In NYS, it is really hard to be and survive as a farmer. Lots of state regulations and shit. Taxes and stuff. Dumb shit.

Welcome to the organic movement: still not the norm as far as produce goes, but as it's popular with wealthy middle - upper class white people and indie hipsters, it's slowly becoming more prominent.

Obviously I am not describing either of these things that well, I just want to get to the point.

Is it better for me to spend $1.99/lb of garlic and buy local conventional garlic and support the local farmers and economy, or is it better to spend $5.99/lb and by organic California garlic...and support organic farmers and the whole movement...oh and the California economy which a lot of our produce purchases support.

Obviously I spend $1.99/lb because I don't have a lot of money and would rather help the local economy, but it makes one wonder, doesn't it?

10 FOLLOWERS!

Finally! I believe this is officially a cult now, right? What flavor Kool-Aid should I make?


Cook. Eat. Live. Love.

It is snowing.

Today, it snowed. A lot. And was windy.

Last night I ate pierogis, a whole bag in fact. They weren't very good. I was hungry and gave into temptation. Anyways, I woke up at 5 AM and had breakfast at Amy's Place, as usual. You may not know about Amy's Place, but you should. It's my haven every Wednesday morning.

blah blah blah school blah.

Fast forward to 3:30 PM. I took a bus to the Co-Op. I got a mango and 2 avocados. I don't even really like mango, but I want to give growing a mango tree another chance. One avocado is organic and the other is conventional. I'm going to study them, like an experiment. And then try and grow trees (so Avi won't be so lonely!).

Anyways, I got more tofu and rice too. And some baklava (it was decent, but I've had better...too sweet) and a peppermint fudge brownie, which I have yet to try.

I got home and took my tofu out of the fridge. I put it on a plate and pressed it out for about an hour. Then I made the following:

Experimental Tofu Curry:

1. Cut the tofu into equal size chunks. First I cut it in half, through the z-axis (I think that one?). You cut it so the tofu stays the same length and width, but it is 1/2 thickness. Then I cube each piece into about 20 cubes each.
2. Throw them into a frying pan with some olive oil, salt and pepper. (Side note: I was once told the secret to good tofu is salt, because in America we are so used to salty foods and tofu doesn't have any naturally...I actually over-salted it tonight)
3. Cook on high heat, moving the pan around constantly. Then I added some more salt and pepper and a heap of curry powder, paprika, turmeric and some more salt. This is basically how I seasoned the tofu, I just kept cooking it at a high heat after this.
4. I forgot to mention, I had a clove of garlic, 1/4 a white onion, and a small amount of ginger already diced at this point.
   
5. In a small saucepan, I melted about 5 tbsp of butter and sprinkled in a little salt/pepper. When the butter started simmering, I threw in the majority of the ginger, garlic, and onion. I threw the rest of that in with the tofu then turned the heat way down and I threw in a little soy sauce to the tofu at this point.
6. In a bowl, I mixed three heaping spoonfuls of white flour; heaps of curry, turmeric, and paprika; some salt and pepper; and a small amount of cinnamon.
   
7. When the onions etc where soft, I quickly added the flour mixture and mixed it in a lot. Then I slowly added in about 1 1/2 cups of vegetable broth.
8. I let this thicken on a medium heat and ended up adding more of the spices, plus some "fine herbes" and some Frank's Hot Sauce. I ended up adding about 1/2 cup of water too, to thin it out a little and give me some extra curry sauce.

I burned the rice, cos I suck at making rice. All in all, the meal is pretty good. Last time I made this (Sunday), I used milk instead of vegetable broth. It was more of a solid color than this sauce. It was really creamy though and sometimes I get grossed out by the creaminess of dairy. This is much less creamy. It's got a good spice to it. The rice is okay, but I'll have to scrub the burned rice off the bottom of the pan. The tofu was a little too salty, but I can deal.

Another reason I used vegetable broth was because I am going to (eventually) make it vegan. Why not try, right? Anyways, you can use coconut milk too, which is what a lot of recipes seem to suggest. I hate coconut though. I want to try using clarified butter too. Andrea also yelled at me for using store bought curry, so when I mix my own curry, I'll let you know here.

I listened to John Vanderslice's Pixel Revolt while cooking dinner, and am eating dinner to Say Anything's ...Is a Real Boy.

Cook. Eat. Live. Love.

January Twenty Something

Today is January twenty-something, in the new year of two thousand and ten, and I, Joe Nason, have had a revelation of sorts: why should I let a perfectly good blog just waste away with a semi-failed experiment in its archives?

Why not keep updating a perfectly good blog with a semi-failed experiment in the archives? It seems like a much better idea.

Therefore, I officially shall change the name of the blog from Homefries: A Love Story to Food: A Love Story (for now at least).

I am going to start posting in here about food: food I eat, food I make, food I think about, food everything. I've got nothing better to do, right?

And thus this post, on January twenty-something, commemorates the name change of a (semi) failed experiment into something that I hope will be prosperous and useful, not only to you, the reader, but to myself as well.

Cook. Eat. Live. Love.