It’s so cold outside …
… we milked the cows and got ice cream!
This past Wednesday I had to get up pre-dawn to plow back the snow so that a tractor trailer could get in with a delivery for us. It was -3 degrees outside, dark and windy. And our driveway is a quarter mile long. Not exactly my favorite way to start the day.
But this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve lived on this hill for almost fifty years. I had my entire body covered in four layers of clothing. Casting fashion aside, I opted for “extreme coverage”. With all those layers on, I looked like an XL man stuffed into a M carhart. Still, even with all that fabric, by the time that I got back in the house my fingers felt like they were burning because they were so cold.
My lovely wife was prepared. She had a hot cup of tea with ginger and honey waiting for me. As soon as my face defrosted, a heaping plate of breakfast was in front of me. It wasn’t five minutes into that meal that I felt just as toasty warm as that bagel in front of me.
Which got me thinking … can the foods we eat actually warm us up on a cold day? Turns out, the answer is yes. The term for this is thermogenesis: “Thermogenesis is the process of heat production in organisms. Thermogenesis is a process that helps maintain the optimal temperature for enzymatic reactions that are critical for life. It also contributes to whole body energy homeostasis by using the chemical energy stored in food to generate heat.”
Huh, how about that. Turns out that Joey Tribbiani was right about those meat sweats. In fact, high protein foods, like meats, make your body work harder to digest them and therefore “warm your insides” up. Maybe grandma knew this when she always put on a crock pot full of beef stew on a cold day.
There are other warming foods too. On the website BrainMD I found this article that lists 10 Foods & Beverages to Keep Warm This Winter. Besides meat it lists garlic, ginger, black beans, cinnamon and even bananas. Complex carbs, such as oatmeal, sweet potatoes and butternut squash are high in fiber and makes the body work harder to process them thereby creating heat.
It works the other way too … there are foods that actually cool the body. Berries, cucumbers, spinach, pumpkin seeds and cilantro all help reduce inflammation and thereby reduce heat in the body.
Maybe next time I need to plow the snow I’ll pack a little snack to go with me!
Thermogenesis aside, beef stew is just yummy on a cold day. And it makes the kitchen smell amazing.
Norway Ridge Angus has some stew meat that is pleading to be used in this classic stew recipe.
And we have plenty of organic potatoes and carrots from our Amish farms in Danville and Lancaster.
Or, you can just pick up a container of beef stew from Engelbert Farm in our Soups & Meals section.
The idea of coming in from the cold and wrapping your hands around a cup of warm ginger tea sounds delicious. We still have a bit of organic ginger from our Lancaster farmers.
Since the tea would only take a little, you would have enough left over to make this Ginger Peanut Salmon Bowl. We have plenty of wild caught salmon portions from Wild For Salmon ready to be the highlight of this dish.
When I was a kid, coming in from a snowball fight was always meant grilled cheese and tomato soup.
We have been working on adding to our heat-and-eat soups options on Delivered Fresh. We have over 20 soups listed with more coming!
And who doesn’t love grilled cheese! Grab some sourdough bread from New View. Layer in some cheese from God’s Country Creamery and enjoy this belly warmer.
We have a whole line of goat cheese Chèvre from Our Five Acre Homestead too. With the organic beets we have from our Danville farmers, we could make these adorable Beet & Goat Cheese Napoleons. Such a great appetizer for a get together.
One of the problems I have with working out in the cold is that I don’t notice the bumps and bruises until I thaw out a bit.
That’s when you need to have some salve from Bespoke Apothecary on hand.
We have their Super Salve on sale for this super cold snap we are going through.