The premise of the book is straightforward.  Ehrenreich, a white woman in her 50’s, temporarily leaves behind a world in which she has a doctorate degree, a mortgage and the corresponding material comforts, and a steady job with 401k, to strike it out in Florida, Maine, and Minnesota with the goal of determining whether it’s possible to survive through hard work on a minimum wage.  During this time, she works as a cleaning lady, a waitress, and at as a clothing sorter at Walmart.  While I won’t go into the details about her experiences, suffice to say by the end of the book she finds that she was barely able to survive on the wages she earned to put a roof over her head, to travel between it and her places of work, and to keep herself adequately clothed and nutritionally sustained on a diet of fast food.

On the surface, the main message of this book is to underscore the importance of education and indeed–above all this should be required reading for students as a means to decribe the trials of everyday life and what it takes to survive on without the benefits of value-added skills.  Beyond that–I found this book heartbreaking and at many times throughout felt a tremendous sense of injustice and depression that people experience this in our “1st world” American society.

We all know that unemployment is at highs not seen since the great depression,  but what is not as obvious and measureable is how many people are in what Ehrenreich terms “poverty as acute distress”–meaning that despite working sometimes multiple minimum wage jobs (and thus not considered unemployed) some can barely afford a lunch of Doritos or hot dog rolls to keep from fainting at the end of a work shift.  The main problem is affordable housing.  While there are plenty of jobs which provide the federally mandated $7/hour which translates to $170/week or $680/month after taxes, where in the United states can any rental property be found for the affordable housing ratio of 30% or ~$230/month??

Besides not being able to feed oneself, other hardships faced by those with low-wage jobs include:

1) Living day to day out of a suitcase if one cannot afford permanent housing.  This means living without luxuries you and I take for granted like having dishes to eat from, a stove to cook from, or even a refrigerator to store unfinished food.

2) Not being able to store unfinished food precludes the ability to cook healthy meals–minimum wage workers typically subsist on a diet of fast food.

3) The vulnerability women face while living in temporary housing situations.  As such, the home is no longer a sanctuary after a long day’s work making it hard to truly unwind.  In one situation with paper thin walls an even more fragile windows, Ehrenreich avoided her “home” going there only to sleep at the end of a long evening, with one eye open.  She soon developed tics and involuntary habits of picking at her clothing, which abated when she moved somewhere safer.

4) The catch 22 of having to dress a certain way to work, but not having the money to procure the shirts needed.  We’re talking about a $5 white colored polo-shirt that was the dress code to work at Walmart.  Keeping work outfits clean between trips to the laundromat was a whole other issue.

5) Looking for a job while not having access to an answering machine.

Perhaps the message has hit home especially poignantly because of our recent trip outside of the bay area bubble to another state where unemployment is around 10%.  I wondered throughout the trip how a region could survive with so few apparent industries apart from tourism, a well that has dried now that most Americans are just trying to scrape by and don’t have the money to spend on vacations.  This area seemed to have a self-contained nature, where service jobs provide the income people use to spend on buying things, causing the need for more service jobs.  Upon further thought, my hunch is that far from being “different”, that self-contained service economy might be the makeup of most of the United States.

The observation also seeded the question in my mind–Is there really a need for companies like Wal-Mart, which trades us demeaning, mind-numbing low-wage jobs for the ability to buy poor quality material goods at ridiculously low prices?  This breeds a culture of disposable acquisition, where things are too easily obtained and provide too little satisfaction, which in turn leads to spending beyond means.

Ehrenreich ended her study concluding that it was possible to survive on minimum wage, but that any large unexpected expenditure such as a necessary doctor visit, an injury, or needing maintenance on her car would have been a drastic set-back to her ability to manage finances.  That said, some efficiencies certainly could have been had, like sharing housing with another person.

I came away from this book wondering how I could make it required reading for the kids in our school systems.  The illustrations of the small cruelties encountered while surviving day to day in an unskilled job would be ample motivation for disinterested teenagers to stay in school.  As I child minimum wage seemed like alot to me, but this book describes in vivid detail that the costs do not balance.

Not knowing any educators who influence our national curriculum however, I’ve resorted to telling everyone I know about this book. 

Mike & Sophie’s Rack of Lamb

1T Instant Coffee
1T Water
2T pure Maple Syrup
1 dried chili, cut into small pieces
2T Sigona’s Chocolate Balsamic Vinegar
1t coarse sea salt
1 Frenched Rack of Lamb, ~1.5 lb
1 butternut squash, washed and cut into quarter inch slices, seeds removed
1 package mushrooms, washed and quartered
1/4 cup chicken stock

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Combine Instant coffee with water in a small bowl and mix until coffee is dissolved.  Add Maple syrup, cut chilis, balsamic vinegar and salt.  Microwave for 15 seconds.  Cut the rack of lamb into pieces, with 2 ribs per piece.  Put into quart size ziploc bag, add microwaved mixture and refrigerate at least 30 minutes.  Put a single layer of butternut squash slices in the bottom of a baking dish.

In a medium skillet, heat a bit of oil on medium high heat and sear/brown the lamb pieces on all sides (reserve marinade).  Place on top of butternut squash in the baking dish, and bake in oven until internal temp ~ 160 degrees F for medium rare.  Meanwhile, add the mushrooms to the skillet containing pan drippings and toss quickly.  Add marinade & stock, scrape bottom of pan, cover and cook ~ 3minutes. Remove the cover, reduce liquid in pan until about a quarter remains and sauce becomes slightly thicker.  Remove lamb, & squash, let sit a few minutes, serve with mushrooms & sauce.  I paired this with a “bacony” buttermilk cornbread (recipe from joy of cooking), which worked well!

I started doing most of these things because I don’t like waste.  Yet the side benefit is that they’ve turned out to be great for the environment!

- Reusable shopping bags:  I snag a ton of these from the annual conference my work hosts, and use them religiously during my weekly trip to Trader Joe’s. It’s tricky getting them back to the car and have a tendency to clutter up the hallway, but it’s worth it.

- Reusing Glass containers:  Glass jars of all sizes are no longer recycled, but washed and occasionally goo-goned, then used as storage for all kinds of food.  This has the side benefit of not leaching plastic into the stuff I eat.  I even use a glass VOSS bottle for my water bottle, which is handy because it can be tossed into the washing machine and kept clean!

-Communisty Supported Agrigulture (CSA) box: this started off as a bid to get more veggies into my diet, but has had the side effect of giving me a greater appreciation for unprocessed food.  hubby and I go through a box of these veggies with just the two of us, granted, veggies make up the bulk of our diet these days.  Cooking all of these vegetables has also encouraged me to stretch my cooking skills, and I now bake my own wheat bread for sandwiches as well (although still looking for a recipe which will deliver the soft and chewy results of store-bought!) You can find a CSA Box as well at www.localharvest.org.

You can see the actual post at BlogHer.

-3 slices bacon
-3 stalks green garlic, sliced finely
-1 medium onion, chopped fine
-8 red-skinned potatoes, cut into half inch cubes
-1 cup dried lima beans
-1 quart chicken stock, preferably home made
-a few sprigs thyme
-salt, pepper to taste

**Gruyere Cheese, for shaving

before:  Rinse lima beans and remove anything that looks like it doesn’t belong there.  put lima beans in 3 inches of water, bring to a boil.  Let simmer for a few minutes, covered, then turn off heat but keep pan on the stove with the cover on, for ~2 hours.

Chop the bacon slices into very small pieces.  In soup pot on medium heat, cook the bacon until alot of the fat has been rendered out (in other words, the fat basically melts into oil, leaving behind the meat, which will eventually turn dark brown like bacon bits). Do not allow to burn!  Add green garlic, chopped fine.  add onion and cook until the veggies are translucent.  As the veggies are “sweating” at this point, you should be able to use the liquid which comes out to scrape off any fond, or carmelized bacon juice, from the bottom of the pot.  Add potatoes & thyme, cook for 1-2 minutes.

Add chicken stock, lima beans, and some of the bean water as well.  bring to a boil, and simmer for 2 hours.  season with Salt & pepper.  finally, add the dandelion greens, and possibly some toasted bread crumbs to thicken.  (you could also dip chunks of bread if you like).  enjoy!

Update: Hubby and I had this soup last night and it is a winner.  The finishing touch is to shave some gruyere cheese on top of each soup bowl, ideally while it is piping hot so that the cheese melts on top.   It’s delicious.

Another more common produce item which I’d just not experienced before was parsnip.  Parsnips are not super-prevalent here in the US and indeed, the only place I’ve ever even seen them sold is the farmer’s market.  Apparently this is because of how difficult they are to grow and store.  That said, they are delicious and if you’ve never had them before, imagine something starchy like a potato, but sweet like a carrot.  Parsnips are downright heavenly when roasted in the oven, and drizzled with maple syrup, giving them a brittle, carmel-like glaze:

Roasted parsnips with Maple Syrup (Adapted from Donna Hay Magazine & the Two Small farms recipe page)
2-4 parsnips, peeled and quartered–parsnips should be white, firm and not spongy inside. 
olive oil
maple syrup
salt and pepper to taste

pre-heat oven to 400F.  line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil, and spread out the parsnips out.  Drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper, and toss briefly and arrange in a single layer (do not allow to overlap or touch, they will not carmelize correctly).  put in oven for 45 minutes, until the parsnips begin to brown at the edges.  Remove from oven and drizzle 1/2-1 teaspoon maple syrup onto each parsnip piece.  put back in oven for about 15 more minutes.  Maple syrup will reduce and turn into a brittle-like candy on the outside and bottom of each parsnip.  peel off the aluminum foil and eat, or serve.

Here’s a link where you can find out more about the Community Supported Agriculture choices near you.

Beforehand: De-seed pumpkin and cut into quarters or smaller.  drizzle with olive oil and a bit of sugar, roast at 400 degrees for about one hour.

The pumpkin I had was relatively stringy, so I pureed it in a food processor after roasting it, yielding about 2 cups of pumpkin.

1 cup pureed roasted pumpkin
2 cups flour
pinch salt
one egg

Mix flour and pumpkin together until combined.  Add salt, and egg, then continue to mix until dough is soft and somewhat elastic.  I don’t think I got the proportions completely right here as my resulting gnocchi was a bit hard, but I was wary of the dumplings falling apart if not enough flour was added.   Knead a bit, then form into thin rolls and use a knife to cut into three-quarter inch pieces.  Boil in salted water until the gnocchi rise to the top.  Remove with a slotted spoon.

1/5 remaining raw pumpkin, peeled and cut into thin pieces
olive oil
4 garlic cloves
white wine

heat the garlic in olive oil, then add the pumpkin pieces and cook on medium heat, flipping the pieces occasionally until they begin to carmelize.  when a medium-brown fond has formed, deglaze with white wine, add salt and pepper to taste.  cover and allow the remaining wine to be absorbed into the pumpkin.

Pumpkin cream sauce:

1.5 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup milk
1/2 cup pumpkin puree

melt  the butter in the pan, then add the flour, cook over medium high heat whisking with a small wire wisk continuously so that it doesn’t burn.  slowly add the milk as you continue whisking until the sauce reaches the consistency you’re looking for.  Salt and pepper to taste.  mix in pumpkin puree.

Combine sauce, gnocchi and cooked pumpkin pieces then transfer serving dish, finish with parmesean gratings, and serve.

night before: cover salmon with mojito sauce, wrap and refrigerate. 

using a non-stick pan, pan fry salmon over medium heat, skin side down (if no skin, use a bit of olive oil).  Add Fava beans to leftover salmon marinade sauce while you cook the salmon.  Salmon should take about 5 per side.  be patient,  using medium heat the outsides of the salmon piece will get nicely browned and carmelized, while the inside is cooked sufficiently.  don’t overcook!  remove salmon and allow to rest.  Deglaze the salmon bits with a small amount of white wine (whatever is in the fridge), add sliced onions and sweat briefly.  Dump fava beans into pan, cook until warm, add cilantro at last minute and stir through, transfer to serving dish.  Place salmon on top and you’re done!

 Speaking of silicone, I am floored by silpats as the macaroon halves did not stick to them!  the last time I made raspberry macaroons, I spent a good half hour peeling the halves off the wax paper I’d used.  this way is much better. 

 Today I tried something a bit more adventurous and attempted the lemon tart recipe from the new york times dessert book I have.  It was my first time making my own pastry crust, and I can’t say it was a success.  I’d read many times not to overwork butter based pastry to prevent it from getting tough, so I just barely mixed the ingredients until they were relatively uniform and held together.  Maybe it was because the crust was overbaked, but the texture was not at all what I was hoping for–really flaky and crisp and it almost came apart all over the place–as opposed to the beautiful crusts at tartine which are almost like shortbread.  the lemon curd was a bit tricky and also came out a very bright yellow.  In fact, the finished result was very similar to a tart I got from trader joe’s a few weeks back. 

 Luckily our guests were very gracious and did not complain about the tart at all.  I was very full from dinner at Las Americas Peruvian restaraunt in San Mateo.  This hole in the wall restaurant had piqued our attention on the many occasions that we walked by it and eventually we made the point to give it a try.  Many of the yelp reviews online herald the authenticity of the food here, but it lacks for ambience.  the place seems a bit dirty, which made me a bit uncomfortable about the fish ceviche (although it was quite good).  Two beef dishes were tasty but very similar to each other as well.   All in all, the food was slightly above average, but pretty overpriced–we ended up paying about $80 for two couples which strikes me as pretty high for Latin food.  At least my curiousity is satisfied.