Getting Back to my Roots :: Baked Beans

On Lisa?s recommendation I recently read Micheal Pollan?s Omnivore?s Dilemma. Actually, I went to check it out of the library, and there was this enormous waiting list, so I decided I?d read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation first. Fast Food Nation led to The End of Food (Thomas Pawlick), which took up enough time for me to get my hands on Omnivore?s Dilemma. At which point I may have developed a little bitty crush on Michael Pollan for reasons unknown (does that happen to anyone else? They suddenly develop crushes on authors?) and I had to read In Defense of Food, too. And for good measure I read Skinny Bitch.
What was I talking about?
Right, so I?ve read this slew of food books and it has relit a fire under my butt to start making better food choices. Choices that will be better for us in terms of our health, and the health of the environment, because you know, I?m all self-righteous like that.
A lot of people simply assume that I stopped eating meat for animal rights, then are surprised to find out that I?m really not that passionate about animal rights. Don?t get me wrong, I think we should treat ALL living things with respect, and when you do eat a hamburger I think you should respect that it was in fact a cow at one point in its life. Then go ahead and eat the cow. Honestly, eat the cow. I don?t have a problem with the eating of the cow although I would prefer to see you eat a local, organic cow. No, I?m not going to eat the cow because OHMYGOD YOU?RE EATING A COW. Still, I?m ok with it. Honest.
I really am ok with people eating meat, we are omnivores after all. My reasons for becoming vegetarian have always been environmental. I believe as a society we consume way too much meat, and it is a fact that our consumption has had a serious impact on the environment. Every single one of the above mentioned books just made me even more determined not to eat industrially produced meat.
It has also made me question every single food decision I make these days, from crackers to bread to oranges. It would be insane to suddenly go completely local and whole (I?m pretty sure Steve would divorce me if I didn?t keep him in cereal), so gradually, in small baby steps, I?ve been making changes.
The biggest change I?ve made so far is to begin baking our bread. I haven?t bought a loaf of bread since March and I?m pretty darn proud of that and I’m just going to ignore the fact that Steve keeps a loaf of store-bought bread at work (wimp!). Since then I?ve been testing out recipes for crackers, hamburger buns and bagels, but haven?t found a solid recipe that makes everyone happy and consistently produces the same results. I’m not entirely sure if I ever will, we’ll see.
I am also trying to ban all fast food franchises, but Tim Horton’s puts crack in their coffee, and I am weak. So very, very weak. And I didn’t realize how difficult that ban would be with kids because it is so much easier to just buy some fries than it is to put together a lunch when you’re running some errands…
But hands down the craziest (stupidest, completely insane) decision I made was opting not to buy baked beans because I thought, hey! I?m clever! I can bake beans! I?m like, Super Homemaker! I can do anything!
And I did it, I baked beans.

And for the 8+ hours that took I repeatedly said aloud to no one in particular ?Why the hell didn’t I just buy the damn can?? because seriously, baking beans is taking slow food to a whole new level. Not that it was hard, it wasn’t, but crap was it time consuming with the soaking, and the simmering, and the crock-potting. They should be charging $10/can just to make up for the energy costs in production!
I took a picture of a crockpot of beans. I need help.