Audacity Magazine » Wheel Delicious

What a Load of Crock!

Nathasha Alvarez — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 13:26:51 +0000

Personally speaking, cooking from a wheelchair is a royal pain in the everywhere! I am always concerned about touching the wheelchair and then touching food, burning the food or burning myself.

While I love those cooking shows that make cooking feel therapeutic and rewarding, I find it frustrating and time consuming. So what’s a diva to do?

Answer: The Crockpot!

I stumbled upon this amazing little cooking device which can actually make my poor cooking skills appear to be the work of the legendary cooking chef, Julia Childs.

A crockpot is usually a ceramic pot with a glass or ceramic lid that only needs to be plugged into an electrical outlet.

The cooking steps are simple. Place the ingredients in the crockpot, turn the crockpot on and set the timer. Voila! That’s really all there is to it.

When I use the crockpot, I take as many short cuts as possible. I buy meat that is cut up into smaller pieces like the meat for stir fry or stews. Any vegetable I want to add to the meal I buy chopped up in the vegetable section of the grocery store. I found out that most grocery stores have diced peppers, onions, and celery which cuts prep time to a bare minimum.

For this particular meal, I add the meat, the vegetables, and small potatoes which don’t require cutting or take regular size potatoes and chop them up.

Season it to your liking, add either a bit of water or broth and start the cooking!

I know, it’s that easy!

Crockpots come in different sizes and the pot in the crockpot comes out for easy cleaning. Not that I would be the one to clean it!

There are endless cookbooks specifically for crockpot meals from stews, to chilli, and chicken casseroles.

I love the crockpot.

People with physical disabilities can have a healthy meal with less time in the kitchen. Even your personal care attendant, should have no qualms about preparing a meal for you in the crockpot.

The only downsize I see in a crockpot is that it takes several hours to cook which can also be a great trait depending on your time constraints.

I know people who have made their meals the night before by placing the cooking timer on 10 hours and the next day they eat a deliciously homemade lunch or dinner to reheat later.

The food won’t burn because once the meal is ready, the crockpot keeps the food warm until you are ready to eat it.

So imagine, a whole chicken surrounded with sweet potatoes, and vegetables cooking in your kitchen without you having to slave over it.

Yummy and divalicous!

Questions and comments? Email us at nathasha@audacitymagazine.com .

Now it’s food season. What’ll you have?

Peter Webster — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 22:05:41 +0000

Snow this morning, a spattering, and now bright blue sky and we turned off the heat. It was fall and now it’s quickly shifting into winter. The Cascades have decent snow-depths for the winter sports folks. We got
the studded tires put on a couple of days ago. This is the time of year I think a lot about food…

Beth doesn’t like to cook (although she’s good at it), so I’m the bull cook and bottle washer. I’ve heard about all these couples where the man (or equivalent) does the cooking and is into exotic recipes. I’m not; though I have a wide range of tastes-yesterday we went to a Taqueria and I had tacos made of beef cheeks and barbecued pork.

I like Vietnamese and Thai cooking. Japanese. Buffalo, elk, goat, duck, salmon, venison, huckleberries, camas roots, yams, tofu and taro-I like to eat it all. I’m just not too involved in coming up with unique ways to prepare food.

Buffalo? Broiled or roasts or even in chili. Elk? Nothing like elk hamburgers, as far as I know. I like to eat huckleberries in “wajepay”-that’s a cold huckleberry soup; on fry bread there’s nothing quite as
good, but the wajepay is good any way I can get it.

The same with huckleberries. Up in Washington, on the Indian Reservations, you can often find them fairly cheap. Of course the trip up to the Reservations Goat, they tell me, tastes like pronghorn antelope; it reminds me of lamb without the grease.

Salmon? Split and cooked by an alder wood fire is my first choice. I usually just cook it on one of those George Foreman grills; a little dill and pepper for seasoning. I’ve had salmon jerky that was unbelievably good.

Incidentally, I’m talking about wild salmon. A local market has frozen filets of wild Alaska salmon for $3 to 4 a pound. The farmed salmon, though it’s often quite cheap, is an environmental disaster-in-the-making. It has a wuss-like taste.

When the First Nations people celebrate, there are ceremonies involved with eating the fruits of Mother Nature. It’s served in the order each food arrives during the yearly cycle: salmon, roots, berries, and deer.

Foods are served that order. They are washed down with water: the ritual begins and ends with ceremonial drinks of water. The water, as an old man up on the Columbia River told me, is “The blood of our Sacred Mother Earth. Without her blood, there would be no life.” I like the ceremonies.

Today’s dinner, though, the only things close to indigenous food are going to be squash and corn. Squash is a fine cold weather food. I have chicken marinating in the fridge. The chicken is factory made, however.

It’s the end of the month and we’re eating what we can afford. Lots of tortillas, chilies, beans, and cheese toward the end of the month. Nothing wrong with that diet, other than it gets monotonous after three or four days.

Aztec warriors grew up eating tortillas, beans, and chilies. They were hardy and fit. It’s our American diet that’s screwy.

There’s a famous study about the eating and health of the T’hono d’odam people of southern Arizona and northwest Mexico. The people, who live in Arizona, watch TV and eat like the rest of us are wracked with heart disease and diabetes.

Their relatives in Mexico, though, eat traditionally: chilies, corn, beans, some goat, a little pork now and then, plenty of physical exercise. They have almost zero heart problems and a near-zero incidence of diabetes.

Diabetes is rampant among American Indian
people: bad diets-white bread, hundreds of fried foods, processed everything. Diabetes is now hitting more and more Euro-Americans.

Cardboard is healthier than the diet of the average American. When was the last time you went out to eat and didn’t have fried food? Driving the highway through town, about all you see is hamburgers, fried fish, and more hamburgers.

Mostly that’s all the chain restaurants have: Denny’s, Carrow’s, Shari’s, Skipper’s, Wendy’s at least at Taco Bell you can get vegetarian non-fried burritos, Burger King, McCholesterol’s, Carl’s Junior, IHOP, truck stops.

You know what I mean. If I didn’t mention your favorite fried food farce, it’s because I just got the ones here in town.

Eat well: it’s one of life’s great pleasures!

November. Now it’s food season. What’ll you have?
What are your favorites edibles? Let us know. Write to nathasha@audacitymagazine.com or join the Online Forum.

Desserts

Nathasha Alvarez — Tue, 29 Jul 2003 21:58:07 +0000

This is so simple that anyone can make it. Serves 5-8 people.
EZ Fruit Salad

In a large serving bowl, place chopped up fruit. Any fruit that you would like to have in your fruit salad. I prefer 4 bananas, one pound of grapes, one pint of strawberries, 2-3 apples, one cantaloupe, 3 oranges, and 4 slices of chopped pineapple. You can put more or less fruit. It depends on the amount of servings you want. Then you pour one or two cans of condensed milk over the fruit in the bowl until all of the fruit is covered.
Place the bowl in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to chill and take it out when you are ready to serve.

Pour the fruit salad is a dessert bowl and place a mint leaf in each bowl as garnish.

Wheel Delicious!

Salsa Here, Salsa There

Nathasha Alvarez — Mon, 28 Jul 2003 20:40:06 +0000

Nowadays, everyone wants to eat healthier but they want to spend less time in the kitchen. Parents worry that their children are not eating enough vegetables. No need to worry. Here is a simple food that has been around forever but perhaps you may have over looked it at a party as more than a dip for your chip. That ever popular salsa dip! It has no calories, pure vegetables, kids love it, and it goes with many main courses.

A turkey sandwich will have less calories and taste better then the usual mayonnaise if you spread salsa instead.

A baked potato will be healthier if it is filled with beans and salsa instead of sour cream.

A steak, rice, and salsa on the side makes a scrumptious main course.

Tired of the same fattening salad dressing? Use salsa for that extra spice.

It comes in mild, mediun, and hot. Different varieties add a delectable texture to your food.

Try it and let us know what you think?