This summer I spent a lonely week with a terrible cold. I passed the time watching the first three seasons of Bewitched, the old sixties sitcom. I got through so many episodes because, as the show progressed, I felt like I was getting a different impression of Samantha Stevens than I had ever before (since watching Nick at Night as a kid, that is).

I think we now have something to learn from Samantha and her struggle with the instantaneous rewards of her magic. As a witch, Samantha has the ability to conjure up whatever she would like, anytime, anywhere. Her magic makes life fun and easy, and who would give it up? Many critiques of the show lament that in a burgeoning feminist era Samantha is forced by her husband to give up her magic, and thus her independence, to be the picture perfect suburban housewife. This point fails to give Samantha agency over her promise to stop using magic for everyday things.

As I lay on my couch sick as ever, home alone, wishing I hadn’t made so many dishes fixing myself chicken soup from scratch, I saw that Samantha (magically immune to mortal sickness) wanted to work, she wanted to do things by hand with her own skill and body. By (trying to) give up her magic she was claiming her independence from her mother, her upbringing, and- importantly, from the instant, no effort life that sixties consumer culture was selling to women.

There is an interesting mess of consequences that came from the post-war production of consumer goods and technology and the intense marketing of these products to women. This marketing, combined with women being interested in, and allowed to, or obligated to work outside the home, successfully undermined the skill of the domestic realm while also allowing women to expand outside of it (the home that is). It is relevant to us now because most of us are living without necessary skills to live a life that is not dependent on consumerism. We have to buy things from other people, usually large companies to cover our most basic needs.

Knowing the role of marketing, pushing tv dinners and touting new gadgets, in the Bewitched era I think it is commendable for Samantha Stevens to pursue a more hand-made life. Granted, at those time she back-slides and does up a whole clean house, new dress, and elegant dinner in one nose twitch, the audience was more entertained and probably reassured knowing that, while maybe eating their tv dinners, even the best wives wouldn’t do all the work if they didn’t really have to.

Is Samantha Stevens a good example of how we should live today, no. But I think she is an unexpected reminder how liberating and often positive it can be when we don’t always take the easy way in life, especially when it comes to our kitchen and our food. We are happier people when we put time, effort, and skill into basic tasks and the fact that we do very little of that puts us in an interesting mess indeed, and the history of all that is something I plan to explore/discuss further (sneak preview…new book called the Radical Homemaker, learn more here).

                          

Nourishing Traditions has plenty of treats and snacks that are all delicious. I am getting the hang of a lot of the techniques, but one practice has got me stuck and stopped a lot of my baking. To really meet the nourishing standard, any quick breads are made with flour that has been soaked over night. It’s easy to just write this practice off as too much time to ask for muffins. What actually gets me is the expense of the soaking (cups of buttermilk each time) and I plain forget or don’t give myself the time (as I think the desire to bake a treat is often an in-the-moment kind of thing).

Luckily, at a particular treat-craving moment, I had all the right stuff to make totally nourishing and absolutely delicious cookies.

From the creation of our camping trail mix (see below) we had many cups of soaked-and-dried nuts (What Ms. Fallon calls “crispy nuts”). These nuts have had the enzyme inhibitor (the natural preservative that you don’t want to be eating) soaked out of it, and the crispy put back in through a long time in a warm oven; enough to make them crunchy but not to kill all of those good nutrients the soaking released. The pumpkin seeds were outrageously good as were the almonds. The peanuts just didn’t really get eaten as the flavor wasn’t great on their own. So I ground them up and used them for the base of these flourless peanut cookies.

They are made by blending all the ingredients in a food processor until you get a nice mealy dough that you will form into walnut sized rounds.

This is a cookie I have don’t think I would be able to find pre-made. The approach of nourishing traditions exists in this area between organic foodie eats and vegan/raw fare. The vegans have made cookies with the right kind of sweetener and often some kind of alternative flour that is more easily digested, but they use vegetable-based oils that are not great like soy or canola (why they don’t use coconut at least I don’t know…). Raw food teats often leaves out the flour for something like the ground up nut base, but I can’t ensure that they have actually soaked the nuts, which is sort of the whole point, otherwise you might as well use flour. The organic foodies have the eggs and milk and butter but they use white sugar and flour (organic is fine, but I want to go beyond).

The ingredient list on this cookie’s package would read like so:

Soaked and dried organic peanuts, organic cultured butter, arrowroot powder, dehydrated cane sugar (unrefined), organic fair-trade vanilla, sea salt.

Tell me if you’ve ever bought a cookie like that…

P.S. You have to let them sit to set, then they are as chewy and tasty as any other.

                          

We are trying to make sure to carry a manageable weight for five days but still get the nutrients we need from active food. One of the ways we are doing this is soaked and dried nuts. These have released their sprout inhibitors and made their nutrients more accessible and abundant to us. But then they are dried at a low enough temp to not be wet and not have had all the good stuff cooked out.

So hold tight until then and be well!

Also! Lots of sourdough activity happening around here to share, as well as thoughts about experimentation versus getting good at what you know and like.

                          

After 12 hours my Zarathustra Bread was done. It is actually very delicious with a really satisfying toothy and chewy texture with an occasional crunchy berry and surprisingly moist. It has a bit of sourness to it, and is more more like a hearty oat bar (or a Scottish oat cake) than bread exactly. I brought this for my lunch with tuna salad, made with homemade mayo, and some dates, feeling like I might have walked out of ancient Greece. You could make these smaller and serve with soup. If you make these and they still have a flavor of doughy-ness they can probably be in the warm oven longer.

I have been eating bites here and there with honey, cream cheese, or jam. Versatile, but not without a bit of an appreciation for the basic-ness and maybe slightly an acquired taste, though I think it’s pretty mild.

                          

So to be honest I guess I like the idea and product of the bowl of flavorful and healthy rice and beans much more than the process. But a recent post on the Culinate Blog about various foodies’ favorite rice and beans combos made me feel that maybe avoiding this primary dish could be a glaring omission on my Eat Healthy on the Cheap repertoire. So I was inspired to make my favorite rice and beans dinner, not just to have for a dirt cheap dinner and hearty leftovers but to overcome my general aversion and get the process under my belt to make it easier in the future. (When I think about the ease with which my parents threw together healthy vegetarian meals after full days of stressful work I think about how many dinners they had made by the time I was 18- thousands! So I try not to get too discouraged when my fourth or fifth attempt at something is still slow and awkward)

The post on Culinate was clever and helpful, especially the reference to this post about cooking beans generally which I only just read, but I wasn’t directly inspired by the famous foodies’ particular choices. So I decided to make a classic straightforward black beans and red rice pilaf.

(As a side note, I am generally pleased with this Culinate blog, based mostly on writing from my hometown of Portland OR, it provides the type of recipes I feel never come across through a general google search which are usually simple meals based on whole foods with intelligent discussion. So this is my plug for others to check it out.)

The recipe for the red rice pilaf was from Alice Waters’ Art of Simple Food. The tomatoes of course making it red, it is just made with brown rice. But this is an important variation because the cooking time is significantly longer than she has as is the amount of stock. (Of course water is totally good to use to, I just felt like making something a little richer)

I made black beans from Rick Bayless’s Mexican Kitchen a great resource for a huge variety of traditional Mexican dishes- and a bit overwhelming both in the quantity and variety and the assumption of ingredients on hand and additional cooking ware. I am working on keeping more dried chiles on hand since they are of nominal cost, keep well, and add exceptional flavor. And I often have dried masa, but many times i look over dishes that sound delicious but I just don’t have a lot of the ingredients and he doesn’t really give alternatives. But the Classic Mexcian Pot Beans are much less particular than his other dishes. I used pre-soaked the beans and cooked them with browned onions in olive oil with a dried chipotle chile, which added the perfect kick, salting them after they were done and letting them sit for a bit.

The whole operation was a couple of hours really from start to finish. But it was largely hands off other than stirring the beans and adding water when needed. I made sure to cook them longer than I really wanted to because I am often impatient and don’t give them enough time. The rice was rich and creamy and the beans were spicy and delectable. A long process but certainly worth it. The change I would make for next time would be to make more of each so the long wait is worth more. Doubling the amount wouldn’t double the cooking time (I don’t think…) and then I would only go through the effort once for more meals. The nominal cost definitely provides incentive for the time commitment.

                          

I’d love your insight into our current scenario:

A peek into our kitchen would render a million spices and nothing to put them into, frozen chicken, strawberries and TJ’s frozen pasta dinners. Fridge with soymilk, condiments, an ancient bag of carrots and some miso. Cupboards of pasta, some soup, ramen and crackers.

The dinner bell rings and we balk and head out to dinner or opt for a quick fast food meal (painful).

WHEN DOES THE COLLEGE LIFESTYLE END??

I run into a wall I think because 1) I’m tired before and after work (who isn’t-moan) 2) IM THE ONLY COOK 3) We max ourselves out so quickly with eating out too often that it is RIDICULOUS that we balk at the grocery store 4) tendency ESPECIALLY to eat out for lunch daily/coffee/snacks..dios mio, right?

I’m curious what you feel like are the ABSOLUTE necessary at all time fresh ingredients to have on hand, what you like for quick breakfasts and convenient lunches.

I’m all for the planning of dinners and hope to utilize our local farmer’s market more along with aspirations of a garden of my own as soon as we’re out of this apartment (expect weekly HELP! calls on that one I’m convinced I have a black thumb).

I decided to address these questions here since I think her situation is largely universal and perfectly speaks to the idea of living mind to mouth.

To me her situation brings up some big issues about the state of our domestic life. I want to take this post to address the larger context we are in as workers (particularly women workers) trying to live well. In another post I will address the actual budgeting and pantry/menu lessons I have been trying to have in our own kitchen/life that may be helpful in hers (or yours! so stay tuned).

My friend’s situation speaks well to the difficulties facing modern Americans’ domestic life. These difficulties seem attributable to 1) that women’s transition into the workplace did not mean that skill sets necessary for “home economics” became shared across the household, they are often either still in the hands of the full-time working woman/mother or lost generally. 2) Even if these skills were had by all in the household, most Americans are no longer in a situation where one partner can work less than full time.

That womens’ role in the world has moved beyond the domestic realm is crucial for equality and to address “the problem that has no name“.

Domestic work as the entirety of ones life and responsibility became menial and even depressing with the societal assumption that you are essentially unable to contribute anything but domestic skills. So there is no question, the fact that America’s domestic life isn’t being upheld solely by women at home is a positive development for valuing women beyond the home and for women who want other options.

The issue though is that needs on the domestic front have not gone away, and managing the domestic realm in a thoughtful and efficient way has HUGE impact on the world. So how is this being taken care of? When and by whom?

Technological developments- electrical appliances, chemicals, disposable products, pre-made food etc- in their attempt to free us from domestic responsibilities has instead required us to work harder than ever to buy these products of convenience which create more waste and still don’t fully meet the need. And as people grow up in this context, our communities are more and more dependent on these things and are losing the skills to function without them.

Skills aside, when do Americans have time to buy healthy food and cook meals with their household? Steven Greenhouse in “The Big Squeeze” provides this sobering analysis of how much we work and how little it gets us:

Since 1979 hourly earnings for 80 percent of American workers (those in private sector, nonsupervisory jobs) have risen by just 1 percent after inflation…worker productivity, meanwhile, has climbed 60 percent. If wages has kept pace with productivity,the average full-time worker would be earning $58,000 a year; $36,000 was the average in 2007. The nation’s economic pie is growing, but corporations by and large have not given their workers a bigger piece… Millions of households have not slipped further behind only because Americans are working far harder than before…Viewed another way, the American worker’s financial squeeze has translated into a time squeeze…The typical American worker toils 1,804 hours a year, 135 hours more per year than the typical British workers, 240 hours more than the average French worker, and 370 hours (or nine full-time weeks) more than the average German worker.

(Suffice to say Greenhouse’s book is highly recommended, the ways in which America’s economic growth has been largely a “spectator sport” for most families are sort of endless, I’m in the middle of the book currently, it is more than timely)

(The end of this movie where they make all the family/life friendly policies like flex hours and job shares and they paint the office the put in plants seriously moved me to tears. But here’s something, who even just works 9 to 5 anymore?)

I think that this context is extremely important when addressing others’ questions about how to eat well. Trying to identify how to eat well on a tight budget with no time does seem to make healthy eating a rarefied experience.

But it can be done, and I think since I cannot personally address the national economic situation or make business to provide workers more time for life and decent pay (except on Nov. 4th!), which may address my friend’s first point, I will see what I can say about the others.

Next Posts on this:

Out of the Kitchen and into the Rat Race (and then into the kitchen again?): Eating well should be a shared task and working should only be paying for the things are really worth it- what are the trade-offs of time spent eating poorly but quickly, setting these priorities and responsibilities as a household.

Go Ask Alice: A shopping list and a budget from my own attempt at Living Mind to Mouth.

                          

The trick now is to know what that money is for. Obviously for “living expenses”. But my cost of living has always just expanded to fit my income.

Once I got to a place where we might not make rent, it became very clear that previously we hadn’t been just covering the basics. We were spending money because we could and then starting again at the same place each month.

Making enough seems to create a mindset of extra money. We feel that in order to maintain a level of normalcy that money should be spent.

The other state of mind that created these habits is the intention/plan that we will someday make more. This is dangerous. These habits just get worse.

Being in a tighter situation it finally occurred to me in a real way, instead of a general philosophical way that I need to re-define my basic expenses. Otherwise, why do I work? Where am I going? It’s one thing to work part time and try to make ends meet and really just be plain poor. And another to make good money and never feel like I have any, and work all the time.

For a while I have tried to keep in mind the concept of satisfaction through rejecting a desire rather than fulfilling it. I promise it’s not so puritanical, and only applies to material goods/desires. The trick for me is applying this to more and more things that seem reasonable given my new income.

GetRichSlowly has a nice discussion on this. The overall issue is “lifestyle inflation” and the real heart of it, is being satisfied with what you have.

I will say that many of the discussions on cutting costs start at a higher level of consumerism that most of us are at. We wouldn’t have bought a new car or any car at all, we can’t really afford brand new things anyway. We already feel like we’ve pared down our consumption relatively far, so how much further could we go? But then we’re still in the place of just working through all our time and spending all our money, so something must change.

This idea of satisfaction really should go hand in hand with understanding our purpose for work. And our enjoyment of work. If we are working too hard, doesn’t it seem good to get to a different level of satisfaction or basic living and then work less…and maybe be happier?

Here’s an interesting source of inspiration for getting creative with our idea of work.

In thinking about purpose, I am working at this full time job to:

• support our little household while one is in school.
• get out of old habits, pay for old mistakes, and build the savings.

I will commit to:

• Redefining our baseline and our priorities of money. The more I spend now, the more I have to work later.
• not indefinitely putting off working less and living that good simple life.

GetRichSlowly has really been a great resource for me in this. From the discussions on budgeting I found this program, Pear Budgeting. I like it for the endless capacity for custom categories and because it makes you enter your receipts. This is going to be the hardest part, because why would you spend your time with this…but how else will you really know where the money goes? And is does all the math etc. Just going through the first step of entering in guesstimates of expenses and seeing how it all adds up was a good start.

A lot of this is common sense passed on through adages over the years, now with some experience and real pressure it’s all sinking in.