Funny Chicken Commercials

I enjoyed this chicken commercial while we watched the Saints beat the Colts on Sunday. Chickens that take on human characteristics are hilarious. For some reason screaming chickens are comedy gold to me.





You also can't beat a chicken that does Kung Fu.




Dancing chickens are funny too.




Last but not least.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Black Beans and Rice

written by Megan

This morning as I was going through my options for dinner I knew I had a bag of black beans, knew I wanted to be able to throw them into a pot and forget about them, and knew I wanted to have a tasty (and cheap) dish for dinner. So beans and rice it was. I got this recipe by doing a quick search on the internet. It was simple - I cut it all up and threw it in the crock pot and my kids loved it - my toddler ate two big bowls of it! Not to mention it was all REAL food. The recipe calls for canned tomatoes but I used fresh partly because of this article and partly because I had a couple ripe romas sitting on my counter in need of eating. And we ate it on white rice just because we were out of brown. But it would have been good on brown as well.

I got a new crock pot (or slow cooker) back in December and it has rejuvenated my desire to cook this way. It makes it possible to make some really healthy soups, stews, and main dishes with very little work. If you've got one you know what I'm talking about and if you don't - you're really missing out.

Here's the recipe:

1	pound dried black beans (2 cups), sorted and rinsed
1	large onion, chopped (1 cup)
1	large bell pepper, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
5	garlic cloves, finely chopped
2	dried bay leaves
2	cups diced tomatoes (from 28-oz can), undrained
5	cups water
2	tablespoons olive or vegetable oil
4	teaspoons ground cumin
2	teaspoons finely chopped jalapeño chilies
1	teaspoon salt
3	cups hot cooked rice

1. Mix all ingredients except rice in 3 1/2- to 6-quart slow cooker.

2. Cover and cook on high heat setting 6 to 8 hours or until beans are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed. Remove bay leaves.

3. Serve beans over rice. We added lime and cilantro to really make it authentic. Easy, healthy, yummy!

Project Microwave

Last night while I was making soap with my friend Nicole, my microwave caught on fire. I love that my fire alarm goes off when your bread starts getting warm in the toaster, or there is steam coming off of a pot of water on the stove, but when something is actually on FIRE, it doesn't go off. Lovely!

This old thing is going in the garbage, and we begin "Project Microwave". Project Microwave is a project to see how long my family can go without a microwave.

Today starts day 1 of Project Microwave.

My husband Michael, has no idea that I want to do this, so maybe if he isn't on board, we may last only one day. We will see.

I was bummed that I couldn't warm up my birthday dinner leftovers :(

Hello from Cricket Song Farm

Cricket, from Cricket Song Farm sent us this letter, and I wanted to share it with you guys. I love that her kids are now understanding why they chose to live the way they live. Cricket, if you get a website or blog up and running, let us know. I would love to check it out.

Just wanted to let you know how much I have enjoyed your blog and for all the wonderful information you are sharing with us. I am a farmers daughter and have farmed the past 25 years with my husband and 5 kids. I grew up conventionally farming ( fertilizers, pesticides etc.) and knew this was not the way I wanted to contribute to society so my husband and I bought an 70 acre farm. We purchased Nubian dairy goats for manure (yea compost!), milk and cheese, hogs for meat and for lard to render for home-made soap, rare breed Jacob sheep and Angora rabbits for wool to spin and weave, hundreds of chickens for meat and eggs, planted acres and acres of organic gardens and medicinal herbs, canned and dried, tried to be as self sufficient as possible. 25 years ago I was considered "weird" but I like to think that I was just ahead of my time and that main stream society just didn't get it. I say,"I have ALWAYS been GREEN". We live in a little one bedroom,( one other room that is kitchen and living all in one,) 700 square foot house. We felt land was more important than a big house. My kid's favorite memories are the nights they spent talking into the wee hours side by side, wall to wall, on the hard cement floor. Summer was great each child had their own room, a pup tent pitched in the yard! We now have two bedrooms so the boys just have to sleep on the floor. Of course they didn't always enjoy all the hard work, but my oldest daughter now married with a child of her own tells me she finally understands why I wanted that life style.

We currently supply two Farmers Markets in Cedar City and St. George with vegetables and run a CSA. I am not technologically gifted but I am hoping to have a web page and blog up soon to share with my CSA customers. I am listed with local harvest. Hope you will check it out also. I have such a wonderful sustainable farm and feel so blessed to do so. An ancient Chinese proverb says, "I farm the soil that grows my food; KINGS can do no more".

Keep up the beautiful and informative blog, and thank you for listening to a little of my farm story. Happy February time to start the tomato seeds! JILL (cricket)

This is what is says on Local Harvest about their CSA :

Cricket Song Farm is a small organic vegetable, sustainable farm located in Southern Utah. Our goal is to provide individuals with organically grown vegetables; return to the earth more than taken, and respect the value of an honest day's work. We participate in two local Farmers Markets in St. George and Cedar City. Members of our CSA can pick up their share boxes weekly at market May thru October.

We raise a large variety of produce including over 150 heirlooms, herbs, and fresh flowers. Purebred Nubian dairy goats, Jacob and Shetland sheep and heritage breed chickens can also be found at our farm. A CSA member barbecue and pumpkin harvest event along with demonstrations of soap making, spinning, weaving etc. is held in the fall. Visitors are welcome at the farm to walk our herb Labyrinth, and observe how their food is grown.

Click here to be taken to their link on Local Harvest.

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The demons of factory farms?

by Dale Johnson

I enjoyed listening to an NPR program on local foods. But I was dismayed when a lady called in and said that children’s mental capacities and behaviors dramatically improve when they eat pasture produced meat that does not have the growth hormones and antibiotics from factory farms.

HOG WASH! HORSE S_ _ _!

This is the kind of talk that destroys the credibility of the local, organic, sustainable, or small farm movements. All of you know from reading my articles that I want to liberate the layers and that I am strong advocate of backyard farming, gardening, pasturing animals, local food production, farmers markets, and that I am a fan of Michael Pollan, Barbara Kingsolver, and Joel Salatin.

I don’t like many of the consequences of industrial agriculture (It put me out of business as a farmer). But to make uninformed and idiotic statements about it just hurts our efforts. So let me defend industrial agriculture. Industrial agriculture produces good nutritious food with minimal pollutants. Hormones, antibiotics, and bacteria can only be detected in incredibly minute amounts, if at all. For example, BST milk cannot be distinguished from BST free milk with any scientific measurements we have today. If you get a bottle of milk that says “BST free”, it is false advertising because we don’t know for sure. We don’t have a test to detect it and we don’t park a milk policeman at the front gate of every dairy farm to intercept any UPS shipments from Elanco who produces and sells BST to farmers. A correct statement on a bottle of milk says “Our farmers pledge not to use BST.” And almost all farmers who make the pledge live up to it.

Scientists have established thresholds that pollutants cannot exceed to keep the public safe. Occasionally there is an outbreak of polluted food. But let’s put it in perspective. >300,000,000 people in the U.S. can buy any vegetable, fruit, or animal product that they want all year around to keep their family fed on less than 10% of their income. That is incredible. Decades ago diarrhea and food poisoning were common occurrences and you paid a high percentage of your income to get it. We live longer now than all generations before us. In fact we live long enough now to get many old age diseases that we never had to worry about years ago.

So does our cheap corn based diet from industrial agriculture contribute to obesity? I think there is a connection. But I would rather demonize a person who can’t break away from corn chips and the plasma screen TV long enough to get out and grow a salad on their terrace or in their back yard. I love producing my own chickens and turkeys on my pasture, but I shouldn’t complain (I do a little) when I get a pork tenderloin for $1.76 a pound from Circle Four Farms south of Milford, Utah (Look it up on Google Earth).

Please read Michael’s article on grass fed beef. Nowhere does he say that his children are mentally incapacitated or bouncing off the walls because he fed them a Ranchers Reserve steak from Safeway. Let’s defend alternative food systems, but let’s try to do it with facts like Michael does.

If it’s Not Scottish it’s Crap

by Michael

Before Shrek and Highlander came on the scene, my brothers and I grew up wishing we were Scottish. We would yell at each other in our Scottish Brogue, and pine for a family tartan that we could use for our highland dress. Marisa and I have gone to many highland game events here in the Salt Lake Valley and I have had dreams of being a caber toss champion. Don’t ask me why I have been enamored with all things Scottish for so long since I don’t have any Scottish ancestors. The closest I come is some Irish MacTaggart’s on my mom’s side.

Now that you know some of my background, imagine my joy when I found out that my personal breakfast of champions has Scottish roots. About three times a week I have oatmeal and eggs for breakfast. I cook a 1/2 cup of rolled oats with water, and dried fruit, add a little honey, and in the immortal words of Emeril ,"BAM" a yummy healthy filling meal. Then I scramble 1 egg and 2 egg whites to add a little protein and I am set for the day.

Due to the short wet growing season of Scotland, oats became one of the main staple grains for Scottish peasants. It was ground into powder to make porridge. Yes, the same porridge that Goldilocks thought was just right.

I think it’s just right as well, for a variety of reasons.

1) It is full of Vitamin A, Iron, Calcium, and B complex vitamins. These all help with the health of your heart.

2) It is a whole grain and a complex Carbohydrate. Therefore it takes longer for your body to digest it and it helps your blood sugar level off so you feel fuller longer.

3) Oatmeal actually helps you reduce your bad cholesterol levels while at the same time leaving good cholesterol in your blood,

4) Oatmeal tastes yummy.

There are many kinds of oatmeal and I plan on following up this article with another about the different varieties of oatmeal. In the meantime, here is a great recipe to try if you aren’t a fan of normal oatmeal. I would be surprised if you don't love it. It is a big hit in our house.

Baked Oatmeal

Serves 4-6 people

1/4 Cup Oat Bran

2 1/2 Cups rolled oats

1/4 cup Steel Cut Oats

2 tsp Baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

2 Cups Milk

1 Egg

1/3 Cup Apple Sauce

1/4 Cup Sugar

1/4 Cup Brown sugar

2 Cups Fresh Fruit

In a large bowl stir together oats. Add remaining ingredients (except the fruit). Put in a small cake pan (9x9) and bake covered for 20 minutes then uncovered fro 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Enjoy!

Is Eating Local ALWAYS Better?

Matt Caputo of Tony Caputo's in downtown Salt Lake, read this article, where Michael wrote about eating local. Matt left a comment and made some really good points. I thought it was worthy of it's own post.



Thank you so much for shopping at Caputo's and making such a laudable effort to live more sustainably. Our regulars appreciate the same from us. In the last year we switched 100% of our electricity to wind power, started recycling everything possible and using biodegradable bags.

However, to automatically categorize something as having a lower carbon footprint because it is locally produced than something from Italy is oversimplified.

Many locally manufactured products utilize ingredients and inputs from all over the world (of course their are many that do not as well). Many of the products we bring from Italy, come from 100% sustainable old world produced ingredients and we ship them here on container ocean liners, which is a very efficient mode of transport.

A product produced right next door can have a much higher carbon foot print than something from around the world depending on how they are made and transported.

Pasta is a perfect example. Most pastas are dried by putting them into dehydrating rooms that take a lot of energy to run. On the other hand many of our Italian pastas are air dried the old fashioned way. Not only is this more sustainable, but the flavors and textures are not cooked out as easily.

Caputo's applauds your support of local, as we also give strong support to locals when they are producing amazing product. However, it is important to remain critical of local products that use industrial inputs and not give them carte blanche just because they are local.

In our rush to support local producers we should all remain vigilant in order to spot locals using unsustainable production inputs and methods. I have even been hearing troubling rumors from some local farmers and vendors at the Farmer's Market that some of the vendors are just ordering from national distributors and selling it as their own. Not cool considering there is little to no oversight of this.

Thanks,

Matt Caputo