Day Three

I am discovering the difficulty of the weekend, and social engagements with this project.

We started off with Buttermilk Pancakes, from scratch. My husband, DR made them, so I am not absolutely sure about the ingredients, but I think it was Buttermilk, Butter, All-Purpose Flour Ingredients: Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin (A B Vitamin) Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate (Vitamin B1) Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) Folic Acid (A B Vitamins), Eggs, Sugar, Baking Powder Ingredients: Corn Starch, Bicarbonate of Soda, Sodium Aluminum Sulfate, Acid Phosphate of Calcium, Baking Soda, Salt. These were possibly the best pancakes I've ever had. At least the best I've had at home, really fluffy and buttery tasting. Baby J ate a whole one himself, and probably would have eaten more if there had been more. These will make a reappearance on the menu for sure. I am going to scout the natural foods markets for a buttermilk and all-purpose flower that don't have all the "enrichments", but I am pretty sure I am not going to attempt to make Baking Powder from scratch until I have more definitive proof that the Apocalypse is nigh, so hopefully this can lasts the month.
In addition to the pancakes we had coffee and Morning Star Farms Vegetarian Sausage Patties. (As I'm sure you've already surmised, we are not vegetarians, we just like these) Of course whenever one thing is imitating another thing the component parts list is going to get long. Go to the bathroom, get a drink, put the laundry in the dryer before you read this one, it's gonna take a while. Ingredients: Textured Vegetable Protein (Wheat Gluten, Soy Protein Concentrate, Soy Protein Isolate, Water for Hydration) Egg Whites, Corn Oil, Sodium Caseinate, Modified Tapioca Starch, Contains 2% or less of Lactose, Soybean Oil, Hydrolyzed Vegetable Protein (Wheat Gluten, Corn Gluten, Soy Protein) Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Spice, Natural and Artifical Flavors, Sodium Phosphates (Tripolyphosphates, Tetrapyrophosphate, Hexametaphosphate, Monophosphate), Salt, Disodium Inosinate, Caramel Color, Cellulose Gum, Whey Powder, Modified Corn Starch, Maltodextrin, Potassium Chloride, Dextrose, Onion Powder, Disodium Guanylate, Vitamins and Minerals (Niacinide Iron [Ferrous Sulfate], Thiamin Mononitrate [Vitamin B1] Pyridoxine Hydrochloride [Vitamin B6], Riboflavin [Vitamin B2] Vitamin B12) Succinic Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Lactic Acid, Brewers Yeast, Torula Yeast, Soy Lecithin.
There are very few words on that list that I recognize as food. The description says "Savory, sizzling veggie patties seasoned with herbs and spices". I expected to have a list of vegetables, herbs and spices and a few binding agents. This list has multiple brackets within the parantheses, and I am going to have to look up about 80% of these words. I think I will have to revisit this at another time.

For lunch I made a stir-fry of green beans from our CSA, the Salsa that was used in the burgers, a red bell pepper from CostCo and Hot Link Sausage from CostCo. Ingredients: Beef, Water, Salt, Dextrose, Spices, Paprika, Corn Syrup Solids, Sodium Phosphate, Natural Flavoring, Sodium Erythorbate, Sodium Nitrite in Natural Pork Casing. The Cajun beef sausage sounds more natural and healthy than the chemistry experiment that is the veggie sausage, interesting.

Now is the part of Saturday where I have to confess to knowingly and willfully violating the rules. I attended the Montrose Oktoberfest Celebration where I consumed a Widmere Hefeweizen, a Bratwurst, Potato Salad, Rye Bread and Sauerkraut, as well as some cinnamon & sugar almonds. I don't have ingredient lists, but I am positive they all have more than one. I don't have the hospitality excuse, no one would have been offended if I had declined any of these things. But what's the point of going to Oktoberfest if you don't eat sausage and drink beer? I apologize if your faith in me is shaken. I will try to do better.

Later in the evening while playing cards I consumed some of the Mediterranean Medley of Dried Fruit purchased on the eve of the project, as well as some salted peanuts. I drank a glass of wine, and a vodka and cranberry juice (just cranberry and water - not cocktail) with a splash of Lemonade Ingredients: Filtered Water, Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, Organic Lemon Juice from Concentrate, Organic Lemon Juice, Organic Lemon Flavor. What is "organic lemon flavor", and if it isn't really from a lemon, how is it organic? Anyway, we finished off the bottle of vodka that has been in our freezer for about three years, as well as a bottle of bitters, a bottle of Jameison's, and Knob Creek. So the booze reserves are getting low... but the lone beer is still standing. (I want to make clear that the bitters, Jamie and Knob Creek were killed in the making of three drinks - none of which I drank. We didn't consume four whole bottles of liquor after the Oktoberfest.)