On Splitting Atoms to Boil Water

Most of the time, we cook on a wood cookstove, which is also our only heat source.

The model we use is a modern Amish design called the "Baker's Choice" - it cranks out a ton of heat fast with a relatively small firebox and big oven. With a good woodstove, tight and well-insulated construction, and passive solar design, the temperature in our house is super comfy.

This year we will be hooking up our household hot water to the Baker's Choice too--it's designed so that you can heat or pre-heat your hot water by running it through pipes in the firebox, and send it back to your hot water heater for storage.

Our main fuel source for the stove is scrap wood from pallets that would otherwise be headed to the landfill.

We don't use a wood cookstove because of some romantic notion of picturesque old-fashioned homesteading. We do it because household appliances that create heat (namely hot water heaters, ovens, and ranges) are major consumers of energy.

Where we live, our electricity is produced mostly by burning coal and splitting atoms. (The mix for our household, according to the EPA, is about 40% nuclear and 50% coal, with renewables making up less than 3% of the remainder, of which most comes from massive hydroelectric projects involving dammed rivers). You can find out where your electricity comes from by entering your zip code here: http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/how-clean.html.

To get the bigger picture of how electricity is made, you can also see maps by state with sites of coal and nuclear power facilities here: http://www.eia.doe.gov/state/state-energy-profiles.cfm?sid=NC.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not out here on the farm huddled over a fire in the dark. I like my modern conveniences - refrigeration, lights that turn on with the flip of a switch, my trusty Toshiba laptop, and the occasionally-used kitchen appliance (I'm particularly fond of my hand blender). But I just can't justify splitting an atom or blowing up a mountain to boil water for my cup of tea in the morning.

Knowing that the lion's share of our electricity comes from Mountaintop Removal coal and dangerous and toxic nuclear power makes me highly motivated to cut our consumption as much as possible. Similar to knowing where your food comes from, knowing where your power comes from is a good first step.

The nuclear disaster in Fukushima has brought all of this to the forefront of my mind, so I thought I would post a little something about energy here. Not that I expect everyone in the United States to install a wood cookstove, or that even if something that ridiculous happened that it would solve our energy problems.

But I stoke the fire in our stove as a small prayer for sane and simple solutions to our energy needs, solutions that work with the planet's natural forces - air, water, sunlight, tides - rather than destroying the earth and leaving toxic waste behind for future generations. It's a tiny act of resistance to the ridiculously complicated and irresponsible energy systems that humans have created.

My hope is that we learn from the tragedy at Fukushima - that the contamination of air, soil, water, and food in Japan and the low-level radiation dispersing around the planet are finally enough to teach us the lesson we need to learn about nuclear power: it's not worth the risk. Even without accidents, it's not worth the burden of the waste. (Here's an article I read recently that sums up the opportunity for learning and changing our behavior: The Lessons of Fukushima).

More broadly, my hope is that we begin to understand the foolishness of the philosophy that leads us to engage in acts like Mountaintop Removal and the creation of nuclear energy. The idea that the goal of science is "to attain a gradually greater and greater control of nature" as Oppenheimer famously put it, is arrogant and naive. The earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident in Japan have shown us nothing if not that the idea that we can control nature is delusional. I want us to look back at Fukushima as a turning point: the moment when we stopped trying to control nature and started working with and for the natural systems of the planet, understanding that we are part of the community of life on the planet and dependent upon those systems for our survival.

Rant complete. Now off to check on my nuclear-fueled tomato seedlings.

Prize-winning Moussaka

At left: seasonaly-appropriate Greek goddesses Persephone and Demeter with recipe-appropriate mushroom 

held aloft between them.

So, I emerged triumphant from last weekend's Casserole Cookoff , taking home the "most original" prize and tying for "best overall"--brag, brag.  One of my co-competitors asked me to send him my recipe, and once it was all typed up I thought I would post it here as well.  So here is my attempt to reconstruct my non-traditional Vegetarian Potato Mushroom Moussaka. 

Moussaka is a Greek dish usually made with eggplant. Mine has no eggplant and incorporates a fake meat product, to which I am normally diametrically opposed.  The extra chewy spicy layer created by the fake pepperoni in this recipe is worth an exception to my usual no-fake-meat rule.

Here is an approximate recipe:

Mushroom sauce and white sauce adapted from Mollie Katzen recipes.

You will need:

• A bunch of potatoes (8? 10?)
• 3 large portabella mushrooms
• A bunch of fresh parsley (flat-leaf is best!)—about ¼ cup chopped leaves
• 8-12 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped
• Tbs dried oregano
• ¼ cup dry red wine
• ½ cup or so basil pesto
• ½ cup or so bread crumbs
• 8 oz Swiss cheese, grated into thick shreds
• 2 oz finely shredded Parmesan cheese
• 8 eggs
• ¼ cup flour
• 2 ½ cups milk at room temp
• Vegetarian fake pepperoni slices (or I suppose you could use real pepperoni)
• 6 oz tomato paste
• Butter
• Salt, pepper
• Olive oil sufficient for frying

1. Cut the potatoes into thick rounds. Heat olive oil and butter in a skillet, sprinkle with salt, and fry the potatoes lightly until brown, flipping to give both sides a little bit of crispy, greasy, browning effect. They don’t need to be completely cooked through, because they’re going to be baked. Grind on some pepper if you want while they’re frying.

2. Beat 4 eggs. Set aside.

3. Make the mushroom sauce:  de-stem the portabellas and slice or chop the caps coarsely; crush and chop the garlic. Sauté the mushrooms and garlic in butter in a big, heavy-bottomed soup pot. Once they are nice and buttery and sautéed, add tomato paste, parsley, oregano, ½ tsp salt, a few grinds of pepper, and the red wine. Simmer until the liquid is absorbed. Then, add bread crumbs, about ¾ of the Swiss cheese, and the 4 beaten eggs.

4. Generously butter a large casserole or cast iron dutch oven. Cover the bottom with a layer of fried potato slabs. Add a layer of pepperoni or fake pepperoni. Then top that with half of the mushroom sauce. Add another layer of potatoes, followed by a layer of pesto, another layer of pepperoni, and then the rest of the mushroom sauce.

5. Make the white sauce: melt ½ cup butter over a low flame. Slowly whisk flour into butter with a constant motion, making a roux. Once you have the roux made, whisk in the milk. Cook, whisking, until thick. Then separate eggs and beat in 4 egg yolks.  

6. Pour the white sauce over the assembled layers. Sprinkle on extra bread crumbs, the rest of the grated Swiss, and the Parmesan.

7. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, covered. Then remove lid and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

8. ENJOY!

I am not sure what made this "original" --fake meat? eggplantless moussaka?--but CF thinks it was considered original because it was cooked on/in a woodstove.  I can't promise that yours will taste the same without the magic of cast iron and wood-fired cooking, but have at it!

Here's to Spring, when we move away from such thick and fatty wintery foods to more delicate fare ... I promise my next recipe post will be lighter and include green vegetables!

Inaugural bread-baking in the woodstove

Here's the first bread baked in the wood cookstove yesterday on President Obama's first day in office:

Nantahala Herb & Onion Bread

This bread is a nostalgic favorite of mine.  It used to be made fresh daily at the Nantahala Outdoor Center resturant.  Maybe it still is, for all I know!  

• 4 c water (I substituted whey leftover from raw milk cheese-making)
• 1/4 c active dry yeast
• 4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp dried dill weed
• 1 tsp dried rosemary leaf
• 6 T sugar (I substituted honey for half of the sugar)
• 1/4 c butter, melted
• 1/2 c powedered milk (I omitted this. It's not necessary, especially if you're using whey instead of water)
• 1 c onions, chopped
• 10-11 c flour (i used 1/2 spelt and 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour)

1. Combine water/whey, yeast, salt, dill, rosemary, sugar/honey, melted butter, powdered milk if you're using it, and onions.  
2. Allow yeast to activate until mixture is bubbly, approximately 10-15 minutes
3. Add flour.
4. Mix by hand until uniform.   Turn dough onto floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
5. Put the dough someplace warm and allow it to rise until doubled, approximately 45 mintues.
6. After dough rises, knead well.
7. Shape into at least 3 loaves (you can also make more smaller loaves, but don't do fewer than 3 or you'll have a doughy center) and place in greased bread pans.
8. Bake at 350 degrees for 45-55 minutes.  
9. Brush tops of bread with butter after removing, and allow to cool or eat warm!

The smell of herb and onion bread baking in the oven is orgasmic. And breathing in that aroma as it fills the house to the soundtrack of newscasts about Obama's plans to close Guantanemo and reverse the global gag order qualifies as peak experience in my world.

Below: The Obamas greet visitors at the White House open house on President Obama's first day in office.

inaugural

adjective

1.  occurring at or characteristic of a formal investiture or induction; "the President's inaugural address"; "an inaugural ball" 

2. marking the beginning of a new venture, serving to set in motion; "the magazine's inaugural issue";"the initiative phase in the negotiations"; "an initiatory step toward a treaty"; "his first speech in Congress"; "the liner's maiden voyage"