[bring to a boil]

Saturday Morning Breakfast: two fried eggs; home fries roasted...

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 16:22:00 -0500

Saturday Morning Breakfast: two fried eggs; home fries roasted with garlic; simple salad with extra virgin olive oil, salt & pepper; white toast; tomato juice [photo via david].

U.S. Obesity Trends by state (1985-2008) from the CDC.

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:41:00 -0500

U.S. Obesity Trends by state (1985-2008) from the CDC.

SpaghettiOs To Get Less Salt

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:16:00 -0500

SpaghettiOs To Get Less Salt:

The sodium cut will bring SpaghettiOs in line with Food and Drug Administration and Department of Agriculture requirements for main dishes that are suitable for children. To meet these requirements, food products must be controlled for fat, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium and containing a significant level of at least two positive nutrients.

Campbell has cut the sodium level in more than 100 of its products — including V8 juices, Prego sauces, Pepperidge Farm breads and its namesake soups — by 25 percent to 50 percent over the past four years.

1951 [mudwerks,vintage_ads]. Necco is changing it’s...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:07:06 -0500

1951 [mudwerks,vintage_ads].

Necco is changing it’s classic candy to all natural dyes: beets, cabbage, cocoa (wow, cocoa in chocolate candy?) and turmeric. Green will have to retire, as there are no natural dyes that give a consistent green color, which is probably why there were never blue ones, as most blues are apparently, at least slightly, toxic.

"Do you put your child at a future risk for cancer or some other disease because of artificial..."

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:03:23 -0500

“Do you put your child at a future risk for cancer or some other disease because of artificial sweeteners (if this is indeed the case), or do you put him at risk for obesity (and diabetes) by feeding him traditional sugared sodas? The scientific jury is still out. We just don’t know.”

- Hank Cardello, Stuffed: an insider’s look at who’s (really) making america fat, 2009.

Again, Cardello takes his position from so far inside the industry that he can’t even see the obvious (and safest) third option. This myopic perspective of those offering us “an insider’s view” is beyond frustrating and limits any real chance at helpful nutritional advice. If government agencies must carefully couch their language as to not offend powerful business interest, then private writers must be more blunt.

Soda is bad, don’t drink it. It’s not that complicated.

"Frosting is, of course, a usual feature of most cupcakes, and this is all about sugar and cooking..."

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 14:48:00 -0500

“Frosting is, of course, a usual feature of most cupcakes, and this is all about sugar and cooking oils. Most Betty Crocker frostings still contain trans fats (and are loaded with sugar and/or high fructose corn syrup). If Betty Crocker is still laden with trans fats, I’d be very surprised that frostings made from scratch are any better, unless they use Crisco that has been reformulated to have zero trans fats.”

- Hank Cardello, Stuffed: an insider’s look at who’s (really) making america fat, 2009.

Problem: While this book is insight full and heavily researched, Cardello forgets, as many critics do, what actual cooking is. Though he may be able to tell you how many calories are in each popular brand of snack food, and which states instituted which polices to curb overeating in schools, he is unaware that frosting is made, as it has been made for 100’s of years, from of butter and sugar. Butter, which does not contain the harmful types of trans fats found in its partially hydrogenated alternatives.

"Until about the middle of the last century, most of the turkeys eaten on Thanksgiving would have..."

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 11:58:52 -0500

“

Until about the middle of the last century, most of the turkeys eaten on Thanksgiving would have been what we now call “heritage breeds,” including the Standard Bronze, Bourbon Red, White Holland, Naragansett, and Jersey Buff varieties. These turkeys are gorgeous, hardy creatures, developed in Europe and America over hundreds of years and rich in flavor. Though they are the ancestors to the Broad-Breasted White, a sort of made-up breed that arose in the 1960s with the advent of industrial turkey farms (the Broad-Breasted Bronze was mostly abandoned because its dark pinfeathers put off consumers), they bear little resemblance to that now ubiquitous bird in taste or texture.

Today more than 99 percent of turkeys sold in America come from the roughly 270 million raised on factory farms each year. These birds are bred to be so literally broad-breasted that by the time they are 8 weeks old, they are too fat to walk, much less procreate—every Broad-Breasted White on the market is the product of artificial insemination. They are kept in giant barns, given antibiotics to prevent disease, and fed constantly so that they reach maturity in almost half the time it takes a heritage turkey. The result is bland, mushy meat that we have come to equate with tenderness, but in reality processors inject the dressed birds with saline solutions and vegetable oils to improve “mouth feel” and keep the oversize breasts from drying out.

”

- Julia Reed’s history of the Thanksgiving turkey is like a fine meal. (via newsweek)

Dinner in 15 minutes: Broiled Shrimp over Baby Greens

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:29:01 -0500

Dinner in 15 minutes: Broiled Shrimp over Baby Greens

[extra virgin, lemon, paprika, salt & pepper]

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:26:00 -0500

[extra virgin, lemon, paprika, salt & pepper]

Rainy October Evening Menu

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:08:57 -0500

Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Spread

Wilted Greens Salad

Butternut Squash Soup

Moroccan Spiced Halibut w/ Lemon Quinoa

Pancakes w/ Whipped Cream, Rose Syrup

Rainy October Evening Menu

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 17:57:00 -0400

Roasted Red Pepper and Eggplant Spread with Parmesan Crisps

Butternut Squash Soup

Wilted Salad with Apple, Red Onion, Walnuts, and Goat Cheese

Moroccan Spiced Halibut over Lemon Quinoa

Pancakes with Whipped Cream, Rose Syrup, and Fresh Berries

So I made nine two-serving pizzas today. Most are destined to...

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:09:00 -0400

So I made nine two-serving pizzas today. Most are destined to be frozen. I’ll have and quick, cheap dinner for two and I’ll learn how all these different veggies and cheeses freeze.

What would you like on yours?

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:09:09 -0400

What would you like on yours?

Today's Day Off Challenge: Homemade Frozen Pizzas

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:42:33 -0400

Result to follow.

"These hearths provide clear evidence that Neanderthals could control fire, and fragments within the..."

Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:48:00 -0400

“These hearths provide clear evidence that Neanderthals could control fire, and fragments within the ashes provide circumstantial evidence that they could perform radical transformation on their food, a transformation that Claude Levi-Strauss regarded as one of the principal features that marked out humanity as something distinct and separate from the natural world. They could cook.”

- Martin Jones, Feast: Why Humans Share Food, 2007.

Orange Honey glazed Chicken Quesadilla

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:31:00 -0400

Orange Honey glazed Chicken Quesadilla

"We need to stop flattering nutritionally worthless foodlike substances by calling them “junk..."

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 14:10:13 -0400

“We need to stop flattering nutritionally worthless foodlike substances by calling them “junk food” - and instead make clear that such products are not in fact food of any kind.”

- Michael Pollan, “Farmer in Chief,” The New York Times, 2008.

"In the kitchen, a young woman named Rachel Eakley had provided hors d’oeuvre like Parmesan polenta,..."

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:53:06 -0400

“In the kitchen, a young woman named Rachel Eakley had provided hors d’oeuvre like Parmesan polenta, Gruyère and thyme crackers, and pommes annettes.”

- New York Magazine

Ten-minute midnight snack: Hard-boiled eggs over cous cous with...

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:59:00 -0400

Ten-minute midnight snack: Hard-boiled eggs over cous cous with butter, chili powder, watercress and basil.

"The FDA is in trouble. It no longer has the capacity to protect the food supply. It still operates..."

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:54:00 -0400

“The FDA is in trouble. It no longer has the capacity to protect the food supply. It still operates under food and drug laws passed in 1906 and modified in 1938.”

- Marion Nestle, Pet Food Politics: The Chihuahua in the Coal Mine, 2008.