Everything in moderation...including gluttony

Yes, those words did come out of my mouth; last night as I was justifying eating four (4) freshly baked snickerdoodles and two (2) scoops of vanilla ice cream.  I don't gorge on sweets all that often, so my gluttony really is in moderation. 
In other food news, I really like making my own, and I have a hard time paying for beef from cows that spend their whole life standing in their own poo. 
A few weeks ago we saw the movie Food, Inc, and it freaked me out a little.  So from now on, we buy the grass fed beef.  My logic goes like this: a healthier cow makes better beef makes a healthier me.  Also, I limit the chicken purchases to Gold'n Plump because I could not find any bad practice claims about them.  They have open barns without cages that they raise the chickens in, and that works for me.  They don't let them out because they want to prevent the kind of flock-destroying diseases that can be spread by wildlife found outside of the barn.  So that is one change we've made.
Another is making as much as I can on my own.  Right now that consists of bread, yogurt and granola.  The bread has changed from something I struggled with into something I can be proud of.  James found several websites that gave instructions for making a proofing box out of a cooler and a light bulb.  So we got a cooler from Dad (thanks Dad!) and a cord and 15 watt light bulb from Menard's, and for less than $5 we had a proofing box.  I put the light bulb in with the thermometer that James uses for smoking, and put the dough in once the cooler temp gets up to about 80.  If the temp is too high, I just prop the lid open.  It works like a dream, and getting bread dough to rise is no longer an issue.  We apparently don't have a single hot spot in our house, so raising bread used to be nigh on impossible.  The great thing is that this box also works great for yogurt!  I am still tinkering with the yogurt process, but this is the most promising route since it is getting colder out and setting the pot outside is not really an option any more. 
I am continuing to branch out (we had fennel root last week) and exploring new foods is, and always has been, great fun.  I learned how to can last month, and I am hoping that we get off our butts in time to put in a veggie garden next spring.  I am trying to get us to eat more veg, but I haven't found a great source/cookbook yet.  I have had one success from the Veganomicon, but need to investigate further before I add it to my library.  (yea, it was a chocolate cookie and not "real food".  so what?)  Stay tuned for the continuing adventures of what I can cook!