Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Category Archives: Food
Almost a Vegetarian, Day 3
No, she doesn’t have much to do with food.
Over the weekend, I decided I would kinda sorta turn the family vegan. Not in any moralistic stick-up- the-ass “We won’t kill anything” way — we’ll still eat stuff that’s been brutally slaughtered — but as a general goal, an acknowledgment that less meat, more vegies = healthier diet.
I haven’t quite gotten the hang of it yet. For lunch today, I swung by the supermarket. Without giving it a second thought, I bought a ham sandwich, ate it and liked it. Can’t quell the carnivore overnight, I guess.
In the comments to my Daily Kos diary about the Safe Food Act, Kate (yeah, our Kate)(who has a CONTEST, doncha know) griped,
It’s a good diary but would be better with a few recipes.
Thought I would make amends here. Follow me below the fold for black bean cakes — major league YUM.
And now give me some love . . .
Over at Daily Kos, I’ve posted a diary on the Safe Food Act. If you’re not a Kossack, you won’t be able to give me a recommendation. But a few of you are Kossacks.
The rest of you — well, it wouldn’t hurt to edumacate yourselves about the food supply.
Anyone up for live blogging tonight?
D.
Freaking out
. . . over this melamine scare.
From horsesass.org (gotta love a website like that):
Months after dogs and cats started dropping dead of renal failure from melamine-tainted pet food, American consumers are beginning to learn how long and how wide this contaminant has also poisoned the human food supply. Last week, as California officials revealed that at least 45 people are known to have eaten tainted pork, the USDA announced that it would pay farmers millions of dollars to destroy and dispose of thousands of hogs fed “salvaged†pet food.
But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Through the salvaging practice, melamine-tainted pet food has likely contaminated America’s livestock for as long as it has been killing and sickening America’s pets — as far back as August of 2006, or even earlier. And while it may seem alarmist to suggest without absolute proof that Americans have been eating melamine-tainted pork, chicken and farm-raised fish for the better part of a year, the FDA and USDA seem to be preparing to brace Americans for the worst. In an unusual, Saturday afternoon joint press release, the regulators tasked with protecting the safety of our nation’s food supply go to convoluted lengths to reassure the public that eating melamine-tainted pork is perfectly safe.
Which leaves me asking my readers one simple question:
Can you recommend a good vegetarian cookbook?
D.
Back to Eureka
. . . which is our most conveniently accessed “big city.” I’ve written about Eureka here and here, and although those two posts have cool photos, I’ve never posted one of Eureka. Hmm, let’s see what I can get off Google.
Ah, there we go. Eureka at its finest: the peace march on March 20, 2004. That’s what I like about Eureka: it’s called home by a few thousand folks who would be right at home in Berkeley.
And what is it about Berkeley, anyway? I spent four years of my life there, but it feels more like home to me than the San Gabriel Valley, where I’ve spent 23 years, or Palo Alto, where I spent 7. Or, for that matter, my current digs, where we have lived since ’98. So home is where the heart is, and I left my heart in Berkeley, is that it? And a rolling stone gathers no moss and the squeaky wheel gets the grease.
More rambling below the cut.
Jonathan Gold wins Pulitzer!
Los Angeles Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold has won a Pulitzer for food criticism. Gold writes Counter Intelligence, a regular feature (variously at the Weekly and the Times, over the years) in which Gold explored LA’s ethnic holes-in-the-wall to the delight of many — including Karen and me.
When I get the chance, I’ll update this with snippets of Gold. Suffice to say the man richly deserves that Pulitzer.
***
When writing about food, the key to excellence is love. Passion. From Jonathan Gold’s 99 Essential L.A. Restaurants, take this, for example. Feel the love:
Wat Thai
At the northern end of drab, endless Coldwater Canyon Boulevard lies this massive, gold-encrusted Thai Buddhist temple, grounds crowded with parishioners, saffron-robed monks, and small children who run about as if the temple were a private playground. On weekend afternoons and during festivals, the air around the temple almost throbs with the smells of Thai cooking: meat grilling at satay stands, the wheat pancakes called roti sizzling on massive griddles, pungent, briny salt crabs being pounded for the ultraspicy green-papaya salad. This spread may be more or less the equivalent of the smothered chicken and collard greens eaten after services at some African-American churches, and it feels just as homely; the inexpensive Thai feast is open to everyone who cares to come. 8225 Coldwater Canyon Blvd., North Hollywood, (818) 785-9552, www.watthaiusa.org/engmenu.html. Thai.
D.
Well, this blows
Here’s what I heard: some dumbass developer near Sacramento ploughed up a fiberoptic cable, screwing up high speed internet for the entire West coast.
WordPress gives me all kinds of errors when I try to open my comments. I don’t know if this will even post!
Here goes nothing . . .
Yay! It worked! But I’m still disturbed by all these “WordPress database error” files. Next thing you know, I’ll crash my blog. I’ve done it before.
Here. Have a recipe.
From Pampered Chef . . .
Tempting Toffee Crisps
12 whole (5 x 2 1/2 inch) graham crackers
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup butter (do not use margarine)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
1/2 cup chopped almonds1. Preheat oven to 350. Arrange graham crackers side by side in a single layer pan (with sides)
2. In saucepan, combine brown sugar, butter, and vanilla. Cook over medium heat until mixture comes to a full boil. Continue boiling 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from saucepan and pour over crackers.
3. Bake 10-12 min or until bubbly and lightly browned. Remove pan from oven and place on a cooling rack. Sprinkle with chocolate morsels. Allow chocolate to soften, then spread over the crackers.
4. Sprinkle almonds over chocolate. Cool completely. Break into pieces.
I’ve made these using Saltines and they were AMAZING. I can’t even begin to imagine how much better they would be with graham crackers. And, hey, why not throw some marshmallows in there, too? Toffee smores!
D.
Indian weekend
Here’s a change: I’m going to write up a recipe before I’ve ever tried it. I’ll post a followup to let you know how it turned out.
Regulars here know about my favorite Indian cookbook. Last night, I made potato samosas and chicken in creamed coconut sauce; tonight, I’m making a meat curry (gosht kari). Follow me below the fold for some curry, baby!
My life in candy
Oh. My. God. Now they’re making chocolate-covered PayDay bars.
It’s like a Baby Ruth, only better. Baby Ruths are too chewy, too provocative to my TMJs. Chocolate-covered PayDay bars melt in my mouth, giving me that quick double-charge of sucrose and theobromine. Aaah.
Candy wasn’t always this good.
You know you’re in trouble when . . .
you’ve blogged all your recipes.
Tonight, I made Chicken Kiev, focaccia, steamed broccoli, and creme brulee. I have no idea what to blog about, since my usual recourse (when stumped) is to post a recipe.
Unless . . .
Steamed Broccoli
Rinse broccoli and trim off the big fat stalk. Trim it down to individual florettes. Place in the top of your steamer.
Put steamer over boiling water, cover, and steam for five minutes.
Place thin slices of butter over the broccoli, add salt and pepper, toss, and serve.
***
How lame is that?
I’ll make it up to you. I’m going live, so if you’re around in the next hour or two, come ’round and say hi. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have more for you than goose eggs.
D.
Extreme cuisine
Over at the Rara Avis mailing list this morning, the hb/noir folks are having a high time discussing whether art can be immoral and whether art has an obligation to be moral. Interesting discussion, but too dry for this boy. (If you’re curious, you’ll have to sign up, then look back into the archives a bit to find the thread.) I would rather talk about Challenging Food.