You live, you learn

How appropriate this song is on right now!

This weekend, my family visited me. This installment of family consisted of my parents and my two brothers (plus hubby, of course). I planned on serving a dish made from a family cookbook (that Tricia the Red crafted for me as a wedding present and that I will forever cherish) called Texas Hash which consisted of ground beef, onion, bell pepper, and a few spices like salt and pepper. I also bought new potatoes from the Co-op and squash. I had a cucumber but the night before, when peeling it, noticed that it was beyond saving. So long little cuke!

I thought I would make the hash, new potatoes, and cuke. Well, that was out. So I planned on the squash but when presented with that, my parents balked. Eh......did I mention that I was extremely hungover from the night before, when drinking cachaca and staying up until 5:00 am seemed like a good idea? Well, it was because I got to hang out with great old friends.

Anyway, on to the meal. My parents were urging me, in my hungover state, to just pick up some BBQ but I stood firm. The squash was out so I went for the next best thing: biscuits. Sure, our meal would be full of starch but what the heck?

I mixed the biscuit batter and it was very runny. I added some more mix and it still was runny. Or not firm enough to put on the pan. So I thought: "I'll put it in a muffin tin." And I did. And it worked! My bi-muffins were a hit! So was the hash!! A hugely simple recipe that everyone gobbled up with the new potatoes (except my dad who doesn't like onions. He got barbecued chicken from the farm that we had made the week before).

Best of all: everything was local or organic!!! Yeah me!

Now, before I pat myself on the back, I shall speak of the remainder of the weekend. Admittedly, we did not have concrete plans of who would be where and I didn't have enough local food to supply endless amounts of wonderful goodness. So that night, my brothers stuck around and we had frozen pizzas and chips and queso.

The next day, my mom, hubby, and I went to the Bull and Boar for Sunday brunch while my brothers and dad made fantasy football picks (don't ask). After brunch, we took advantage of the Labor Day sales and drove around looking for housing for my mom (they eventually want to move down here). We stopped at HEB for some sandwich fixins for later on that day since the boys and my dad were coming back to watch Sci-Fi's greatest and play games.

Nothing about either one of these two meals was organic or local. My mom was desperate for lettuce and we bought a head of iceberg, which I have been eating off of all week. Chips, queso, sandwiches with watery air crunch, frozen pizza....all of these left me feeling very guilty and bloated. I used to work in a store very much like Wheatsville but it wasn't a Co-op or particularly local. It was like a very small version of Whole Foods. Anyway, I worked in Supplements and Health and Beauty and, despite working there for only three weeks, I learned a lot. Many times, people would ask about detoxers or whole body cleansers. These cleansers flushed out your whole systems, freeing you from toxins in your body and allowing you to start with a clean slate. I have also heard they leave you kind of sick since your body is ridding itself of all that stuff.

So Monday, I was a blob. I think I poisoned myself with all of that stuff. Not necessarily becauase it wasn't organic or local but because I had fallen into a small pattern of eating more fruits and veggies and instead, I went to completely processed materials for a 24-hour period. It was awful!! I blobbed around all day, playing with the kittens and just felt like a slug. I couldn't bring myself to do anything. It was awful but call it poetic justice. Now I just have to remember what I felt like as a blob, poisoned by my own devices.

It made sense though, after learning about supplements. You can poison your body with food, and while that doesn't sound like anything new, I think it's hard for people to recognize it. I certainly never had. One could argue it was my late night/bad sleep, but I think it was the food. I've been hungover before, but I've never felt so useless as I did on Monday.

On a brighter note: I was able to feed my family one meal of local and/or organic food. So it is possible!

Too bad these stamps came out when I didn't know who she was :( Ayn Rand is coming to get you!