Recall

It's been two months since the initial recalls of foods containing hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP) were issued in Canada and the United States. During that time I've received several updates (via subscription) from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Their list of contaminated products grows with each bulletin. HVP is used in prepared foods as a flavour enhancer, so most of the affected foods are ready-made products such as soups, dips, sauces, dressings, snacks, and seasoning blends. For many households, the recall resulted in the loss of hundreds of dollars of groceries. Our damages totalled $3.69 – a seldom used taco seasoning which wasn't listed for recall but, because it caused symptoms of salmonella poisoning, was tossed just to be safe.

Simply because we don't buy ready-made foods anymore, our pantry was spared a great purge. Soups, stews, sauces, and gravies are made from scratch using home-made stock. We blend our own spices and rarely eat processed meats. We've sworn off most snack foods and prefer the recipes we've gathered for making dips and dressings. With complete certainty, we feel our home-cooking lifestyle is the reason our larder was scarcely touched by one of the biggest food recalls in history.

It began small but we've expanded our home-cooking repertoire over the last ten years. While I've always baked cakes, cookies and some bread from scratch, we once used "convenience" foods frequently. Having (literally) bought in to advertising hype, we thought they were "time-savers." It was my sensitivity to high sodium content that first spurred a change in our food purchases. Next, hubby's growing intolerance to lecithin (a common stabilizer in most bread and broad range of other prepared foods) became cause for concern and a few more items were dropped from our shopping list. Then "middle-aged spread" demanded we examine the sources and types of fats we were consuming, and that analysis led to another change in buying and cooking habits. Each modification resulted in fewer processed and ready-made food purchases. Surprisingly, the difference in our overall cooking time amounted to just a few minutes more. However, the return on our investment turned out to be a huge boost in flavours.

One completely unexpected result of eliminating our consumption of processed foods has been our increasing repulsion of them. This distaste grew in direct proportion to the number of prepared foods struck from our diet. Products we once enjoyed, that smelled fine and tasted good, now smell and taste awful, their odours and flavours repelling rather than attracting. For that reason, eating out has become a challenge, too. Smells wafting from fast food diners make us grimace and it's getting harder and harder to find family-style restaurants that use real, fresh ingredients. Fine dining establishments are one of the few places using good quality ingredients but, since their pricing keeps them on our "treat" list, we rarely eat out. Instead, we're learning to prepare gourmet dishes ourselves. The plates aren't styled as beautifully, but we eat fabulously and for much less cost.

Without getting into the nasty detail of age, I'll just say I was raised in a time when home-cooking was the usual way meals and snacks were prepared. Sure, my mother kept a boxed cake mix on hand just in case unexpected guests dropped in but, mainly, she made meals from scratch. Most mothers did. What really concerns me is that manufactured food is now becoming the norm. Home-cooking is the exception, not the rule. According to cooking shows I watch, fresh produce is unidentifiable by many children today. This can't be good for society as a whole. It seems corporate interests have overpowered government controls and the result is diminishing regulation of the food industry. And, "industry" is an apt description for the chemical concoctions on offer.

Is this recall merely a harbinger of worse to come? Is home-cooking in danger of extinction? Is the slow-food revolution merely a flash in the pan? Sorry for that pun but I truly fear a time when meals may come in pill form. Yum.

Atmospheric Disturbances

Winter stinks. Literally. Cooking aromas, body odours, and laundry pong have nowhere to go so they just hang around. Often times the weather is just too foul to open windows and doors to get fresh air introduced and moving through the home. In colder climes, houseplants would be risked!

There are numerous brands of air fresheners on the market but, for me, their cloying scent is overwhelming. If the intense and artificial fragrance weren't choking enough, most leave an airborne slick of chemicals that, if you have the misfortune to inhale, leaves a bitter taste that lasts hours. Most are worse, even, than the winter reek they're meant to cover up. So, how to keep the home smelling fresh in those closed-home months? There are a few common household products that not only work well, they're thrifty to use, too.

First on my list are houseplants. Depending on the type of plant and its size, they scrub the home's air through the process of photosynthesis (Wikipedia: Photosynthesis.) Plants consume water and carbon dioxide (CO₂) and produce oxygen as waste. Their waste is our gain. Not only is the home cleaned of excessive carbon dioxide – which results from merely breathing – they convert that gas into clean air. The more plants you have, the more square footage of household atmosphere they'll clean. Dispersing plants around the home ensures odours have no hiding places.

Lingering food aromas can be the worst offenders. Rather than mask cabbage or fish smells with spray bursts of chemical lavender or citrus, consider using vinegar. Simmering a few ounces of vinegar on the stovetop for 20-30 minutes will clear the air. If you have a piece of cookware (stainless steel or brushed aluminum) which is blue-stained from cooking alkaline foods, you can serve two purposes by using it to simmer the vinegar. The pot will sparkle, and so will the air quality! After a party, a few small bowls of vinegar, strategically placed, will neutralize any funky remains.

Carpets and rugs tend to absorb odours and, when people tread on them, they're released back into the air. An easy solution is to sprinkle carpets and rugs, liberally, with baking soda and let stand for a half hour before vacuuming thoroughly.

Soda is also great for cleaning and refreshing the refrigerator. A tablespoon or two of this common kitchen ingredient in the wash water and fridge odours disappear. Then, leave the remainder of the box open in the fridge to collect odours until the next cleaning. If objectionable smells happen between cleaning, try adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract to couple tablespoons of water, in a small bowl, and put that in the fridge overnight.

For many years, my mother used charcoal to keep her refrigerator smelling sweet. In my opinion, it worked even better than soda. That type of charcoal (small chunk) is hard to find. Some Garden centers or Nurseries may sell it. If you are lucky enough to find this charcoal – I, so far, haven't been – you'll need about a cup of it in a mason jar with a perforated lid. When it no longer cleans the fridge air (usually about twice a year,) spread the charcoal on a baking sheet and heat it in a low oven (approximately 200 F degrees,) for about half an hour or until odours were purged. Then, cool the charcoal, replaced in its jar and back into the fridge. Used, heated, and re-used, time and again, this fridge freshener lasts years.

There are a number of ways to sweeten the air in closets and drawers, as well. I like to store fragrant guest soaps in with clothing to lend them a fresh scent. Cedar chips, balls, and bars, can be used in closets, and won't add intrusive odours to the garments. Homemade sachets, using common herbs and spices, are another easy way to freshen closed spaces. I buy these spices in bulk for much less cost that pre-packaged brands.

If you wish to create ambiance with scent, try simmering your favourite whole spice (most herbs will not work as well in this application,) combined with a cup of water, in a small pot on the stovetop, and simmer off and on throughout the day, adding water as needed. My favourite combination is cinnamon bark and whole clove, which lends a very nice holiday fragrance to the home. At other times, I use fennel seed, whole cardamom, bay leaves, or star anise. Use your imagination. The aromas you'll create will smell – and taste – so much sweeter than any chemical spray. It's a bonus they're thrifty as well!