Candied Cacao Nibs

One of the benefits of doing my grocery shopping on Saturdays is that the local Farmer's Market is held Saturday mornings downtown. I figured buying from the Farmer's Market is a good way to keep in check where my food is coming from (see previous post), and also eat locally and organically.

I was drawn to a stand that was selling fresh roasted cocoa beans! They had chocolate covered whole cocoa beans as well as sugared cacao nibs. Since I have not had refined sugar in over a month (I'll blog some time about my month-long experiment with low carbohydrate diet and my recent decision to NOT do it anymore), I decided for the sake of my health and blood sugar levels, I should stick to the plain cocao nibs. The lady looked at me a little strangely when I asked if these cocao nibs were for munching on. No wonder, because it turns out that plain cocao nibs are just BITTER! Still, I did not want to waste these nibs, so I decided to try to candy them with honey.

 I spooned some pure honey into a small saucepan, squeezed a small orange into it, and added a splash of water. I heated the mixture until it was thick, and threw in the cocao nibs, coating the nibs evenly. I then poured the mixture into a baking pan and used a spatula to spread the nibs out.

I sprinkled the nibs with cinnamon, then baked them at 350 degrees in the oven for about 8 minutes. When they came out, I sprinkled the nibs again with cinnamon and also some Stevia (in lieu of powdered sugar). I let the mixture harden and now have delicious homemade candied cocao nibs!


*edit* I realize this is a novice mistake, but aluminum foil is a TERRIBLE idea when it comes to candying items. Never using it again!

How many slaves work for you?

I FINALLY saw a screening of Call and Response yesterday. The "rock-u-mentary" led me through a rollercoaster of emotions. It was horrifying, heart-wrenching, hopeful, and even funny at times. One thing for sure, I can no longer stay ignorant or complacent.

I wrote a post a few months ago on human trafficking, but this documentary actually showed some of the victims sharing their stories. First of all, human trafficking occurs within a wide variety of trades: child soldiers, agriculture workers, factory workers, and prostitution to name a few. I think now over 80% of human slaves are sex slaves. Girls (and boys) are kidnapped sometimes as young as one year old! The documentary showed some heart-wrenching footage of 6-7 year-olds offering their services to an undercover reporter.

Most sex slaves are either kidnapped or tricked into their positions, seeking better opportunities but then being blackmailed into their situations. They are broken, mentally and physically, and oftentimes are forced into meth addiction to ensure their dependency on their pimps. Because customers pay more for virgins, some girls are forced to undergo painful surgeries to appear as one, then pimped out to the highest bidder, and undergo the surgery again forming an endless cycle. They are locked up in little chambers (that make my tiny Austin studio look like a palace) where they are called out only to perform services. They are used to make money over and over again until they wear out or contract a disease. They are then disposed of and left to die.

Trafficking doesn't just happen abroad - it is common in the US. In fact, it is even common in Austin. The documentary talks about how some pimps scour the malls for young girls who are alone. They target the insecure ones, woo them with kind words and compliments, then "take them for a drive" where they are never heard from again.

Sex slaves aside, there are people in this world forced into backbreaking labor, sometimes working over 20 hours a day for a sustained period of time. And they are not paid for their work. In fact, there are more slaves today then during the time Africans were enslaved by the colonies. The products the slaves today make are sold more cheaply because the companies save on labor costs. The scary thing is, it is difficult to trace products back to how they were made. I look around my apartment - most of the things I own I bought for a bargain. As a graduate student, I have gotten adept at buying the cheapest products without sacrificing quality. Now I suspect the products I buy can be so cheap only because the labor with which they were made cost nothing.

A new website recently launched (be patient while they work out bugs) estimates how many slaves it might have taken to make the products you currently own. The website is: http://slaveryfootprint.org. As soon as it comes back up I'll make sure to take it and report back to you.

***Edit I just took the quiz today (10/4/11). I have 29 slaves working for me...yikes! End edit***

For now, I'll be super careful what I buy - paying special attention to whether items are free trade or not. After all, as much as I want to be frugal and a good steward of my money, if something is cheap, it may be because someone else paid for it with their freedom. And that is something I cannot stand behind!

Homemade Raspberry Mousse

I've been reading both Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food and the Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living and have become convinced that we are harming our bodies by eating chemically processed foods, especially refined sugar. To that end I've made a decision to try a low-carbohydrate diet and to give up any refined or processed foods.

I am now three weeks into that journey. Since desserts tend to involve a LOT of sugar and are mostly processed, it has been an adventure learning how to make delicious desserts without refined flour or sugars. I'm sure it helps that I've been really getting into watching the Food Network. Today's adventure involved learning to make Raspberry mousse. Here is how I did it (I didn't measure out any ingredients so don't have quantities listed):

To make the fruit juice, I reduced frozen organic raspberries with some Chianti (next I'm I'll try a fruitier wine or fresh-squeezed lemon juice, but I just happened to have an opened bottle ready). I added a little stevia (which is this natural sweetener that doesn't raise blood glucose levels)  to the reduction, but honey works fine too.

The reduction was a little strong, so I diluted it a bit with water (next time, I might try almond milk instead). I then mixed two ounces of gelatin (okay, so I guess there are SOME processed ingredients...next time I'll leave this out and add marscapone cheese instead) into the reduction as well as a little organic heavy whipping cream. After the mixture cooled, I poured it into some wine glasses, covered the wine glasses with seran wrap, and stored them in the fridge.

I then made homemade marscapone mousse by whipping up marscapone cheese with heavy whipping cream and some more stevia. I placed a dollop on each wine glass. Finally, I ground some hazelnuts and coffee grounds as a garnish. As Rachael Ray says, "Delish!!"

I think next week I'll try making a raspberry cream mousse using the marscapone cheese. Note: I do not a natural talent for cooking, so would appreciate any advice and feedback from those who do!

Streams in the Desert

"Waiting upon God is vital in order to see Him and receive a vision from Him. And the amount of time spent before Him is also critical, for our hearts are like a photographer's film -- the longer exposed, the deeper impression. For God's vision to be impressed on our hearts, we must sit in stillness at His feet for quite a long time. Remember, the troubled surface of a lake will not reflect an image."

Revamped Blog

Finally got around to revamping my blog. Let's see how this goes...