foodmuseumblog

Drop That Pretzel! Or Hog, Peach, Strawberry, Bologna...

Let New Yorkers keep their glittery countdown ball in Times Square. Other parts of the country toss food stuffs around to see out the old and bring in the new. Mount Olive, North Carolina boasts a pickle, Cleonia, PA, a pretzel. Orange County, CA,  has its orange, as do Miami and Orlando.
Eastport, ME watches a sardine fall, and the people of Prairie du Chien, WI,  apparently are into carp.

And even though it apparently was invented in Chattanooga, TN, the Moon Pie ( well-lighted) plummets to earth in Mobile, Alabama right around midnight.

ps  In years gone by, evidently the Waterford Crystal ball in Manhattan was an apple, though when I stood there freezing with my date in the late 1960's ( remember dating??) , having imbibed too many Singapore Slings, it was just a ball---I think.  Blurry recall.

Toasting Early This Year, As Lydia Makes Her Entrance

A new person entered our family late last night so the time for cork popping is clearly now. Welcome to the world,  Lydia, of Poland, Maine!  ( Over 9 pounds. )  Her parents, the farmers of Summit Springs, likely think she's cuter than chicks, noisier than their cats, and more cuddly than any of their parsnips, though I'm not quoting here.

So to salute her--ok, we did so earlier today, coffee mugs raised high --my choice is a Gruet Brut, grown and produced here in New Mexico by a French family that knows its methode champenoise.

From the Gruet website: "At 4300 ft. the vineyards are some of the highest in the United States, so regardless of how hot the days might be, the temperature at night can drop as much as thirty degrees, cooling the fruit and slowing down the maturation process on an otherwise short growing season. Sandy and loamy soil, and a lack of humidity that might contribute to rot, give us a consistency of fruit year in and year out, and allow us to produce our award winning wines without the use of pesticides."

Do not hesitate to try this bubbly---you can grab a bottle for as little as $12.95, and know that the bubbles will be just a tad reserved, not intent on exploring the inner caves of your nasal passages, and the taste pleasing and crisp.

Happy New Year, one and all, large and small!

Sugar, Pineapples, and Missionaries in Hawaii

PE-Obama is vacationing in Kailua, Oahu, on land that was "once was the private estate of Samuel N. Castle, a sugar magnate whose Castle & Cooke company was one of the Big Five firms that dominated Hawaiian politics for decades," according to the Washington Post.

Samuel Castle came to the islands in the 1850's as a missionary, saw an opportunity, and teamed up with Amos Cooke to start a general store. Soon Castle and Cooke began investing in the sugar cane business, then pineapple plantations...and eventually they were Dole and then Dole became them and it's confusing even to Wikipedia.

Interestingly, the Asian native sugar cane was brought to the Americas and grown on mega plantations in Brazil, for example, still today's largest producer.  The South American pineapple, made the opposite journey, and became a staple in various tropical climes in Asia. Thailand grows most of the world's pineapples today. ( Zero pineapples on Maui now?)

African slaves were brought into Brazil from the 1600's to do the hard and dangerous labor of growing, harvesting processing the cane into sugar. Europeans demanded this sweetener, first for their chocolate drinks, later for their teas and coffees.

So-- the Hawaiian sugar/pineapple story began with the efforts of Christian preachers and teachers---the first such venture to Hawaii apparently was in 1820, when an earnest group from Massachusetts arrived to save the souls of an apparently very happy, relaxed group of people ignorant of their spiritual peril. As the source Mass Moments, put it:" The islanders were friendly, curious, and easy-going...(they) were accustomed to going without clothing and to gathering their food and fish from the wild. They were completely uninterested in most things the Americans considered important, chiefly farming, sewing, and cooking...."

Sorry, native Hawaiians.

BTW   An exhaustive effort to chronicle all Obama food-related "things" can be found here.

Latkes and Lox for Christmas

Maybe I'm channeling my inner Jew, but I just decided it would be fun to make latkes and zucchini cakes  for a casual Christmas supper--served along with the smoked salmon I'm still awaiting from my sister-in-law. Full fat yogurt will stand in for sour cream, and the Empire apples I found somewhere will be coaxed into apple sauce. Along with a bottle of bubbly I picked  up at Trader Joe's, this sounds perfect to me. No lengthy hot oven activity, just loads of grating by hand. Simple food, fibrous and satisfying. (Chile powder will play a role!)

On Feeding a Terrier Attacked by Coyotes

The little Jack Russell is recovering nicely, thank you, top and backside wounds healing well, the larger tummy punctures bandaged with baby diapers and flaming pink tape, Ace bandages, even a piece of the ever-useful Duck (sic) Tape.  Anti-biotics and pain killers applied. Even through her drugged-up zombie stupor, she made a move towards the UPS man coming to the door, so there!

Yesterday, Day Two of the Recovery, she lapped up homemade chicken broth, tiny pieces of chicken, pills encased in Nancy's finest Full Fat Cream Cheese, the water from the mozzarella container, and a few bites of actual canned dog food offered by a friend---on the advice of a friendly soul at Petsmart, my neighbor bought Nutro Ultra Adult Lamb, Chicken and Salmon Formula, and the terrier lapped it up.

We're taking it slowly, offering small amounts.

And as for me? Friends have brought me the best cinnamon roll in NM, from the fabled Range Cafe, plus tasty shrimp--and Son of Foodie called "The Day Of" recommending I have a wee dram of Single Malt Whiskey.

Readers, I did. And it wasn't even noon.

( Mesa snow dog,  just a few days ago.)

On Not Consuming Soda, Staying Calm as Grounds Fly

Firm proof of my non-average-American-ness:  "The average American consumes about 35 gallons of nondiet soda each year and gets far more added sugar from soda than from desserts." That's according to today's Nicholas Kristof column in the NY Times.   A lifelong water drinker, I get my sugar from wine, and occasional fabulous desserts.

Eons ago, when my brother and I were kids, our mother did a riveting demo of Coke's remarkable ability to A--clean brass and B--eat a hole through a piece of bacon. Thus ended our interest in soda.

Coffee, too, probably eats holes through flesh but yet I drink it. And, yesterday, my Organic Sumatra grounds covered almost the entirety of the counter, lodging in every cranny, crevice and visible crack.   In a mad moment of multi-tasking---placing bread in the toaster at the same time as I was pouring hot water into my Melitta filter, an errant elbow had knocked the filter from here to eternity.

The terrier ran from the room, hot grounds and water frolicked at will, and I remained surprisingly calm.  The new Tao-based  me surveyed the scene, grabbed some rags, began the cleanup, and selected a lower, more stable pitcher to receive my next attempt at coffee making.

At no time did I consider seeking a soda.

Vilsack?? And C-Span's "White House Week."

Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack,  the agri-business puppet many consumer groups fear. Tom Vilsack, shining  light regarding the reform of farm subsidies.  

Hmmm.

As noted here previously, the Organic Consumers Association pressed hard against Vilsack's nomination, apparently to no avail. Given that I am an Obama Mama, I waited to see what PE-Obama said regarding this candidate in his December 17 press conference.

As reported in the Washington Post, Obama stressed that he was concerned with"...ensuring that the policies being shaped at the Departments of Agriculture and Interior are designed to serve not big agribusiness or Washington influence peddlers, but family farmers and the American people."

It appeared to me as if the Interior Secretary pick, Ken Salazar, was top banana in the announcements, even though Salazar evidently is not much favored by environmentalists. It's  possible that Agriculture and Interior would work pro-actively together, with Ag seemingly taking its cue from Interior. 

In the question period, Obama suggested that Vilsack had an interest in developing
"cellulosic ethanol." Since this is bio-fuel developed from non edible plants or parts of plants, it certainly speaks to those of us who find severe drawbacks in corn-based ethanol.

All in all, however, we are not enthused about these two picks. 

(  Heartening for those of us who live in close contact with native Americans,  Obama stated this:  "Among the many responsibilities Ken will bear as our next secretary of the interior is helping ensure that we finally live up to the treaty obligations that are owed to the first Americans. We need for than just a government-to-government relationship; we need a nation-to-nation relationship. And Ken and I will work together to make sure the tribal nations have a voice in this administration.")

FYI--For several days C-Span has been running a fascinating in-depth series on the White House--two things stand out for me thus far--one, that the WH has a "Chocolate Shop; " secondly, that the only edibles apparent on the grounds are some puny hanging baskets containing herbs.

We, and probably many others, already have emailed the Obama-Biden Transition team re the re-establishment of veggie gardens on the grounds. Apparently John Adams, the first President to live at the White House, established some. Greenhouses, too, stood there for well over 50 years--Andrew Jackson established the first "orangerie " at the White House, an environment for the growing of assorted fruit trees. But these all are long gone.

UPDATE--Michael Pollan, ubiquitous media guest on the topic of food--Pollan has written several superb books on food issues--was interviewed this morning on NPR. 

"I was very disappointed in that news conference," ( Pollan) said, "not to hear Vilsack use the word 'food' — or 'eaters.' And the interests of everybody except eaters was discussed: farmers, ranchers, people concerned about the land." Interestingly,  Pollan asserted that it was possible that Energy Secretary Steven Chu, an opponent of corn-based ethanol, might face off against Vilsack, collegially, of course,  on this issue.

Both Pollan and NYTimes columnist Nicholas Kristof  in recent days had called for the naming of a Secretary of Food for the country.

Simple Eats. PLUS, "Downed Power Lines" Rouse Foodie's Ire

This raw morning I woke up with a hankering for some breakfast spuds, plus a boiled egg with buttah. So I grabbed two smallish potatoes, a hunk of leftover onion, poured some olive oil in the pan, grated the spuds directly into it, added the chopped onion, tossed it about, let it brown at a highish heat, salted and peppered, put a lid on it and lowered the heat way down. ( Technically I made the Swiss potato dish rosti, more or less.)

While the potatoes finished cooking, I made coffee, toast, the egg, then removed the lid, added some dried red chile  and ate a splendid breakfast. Total prep time--15 minutes maybe? Max.

Is this fast enough America?  Did I really need to buy some packaged, prepared or frozen thing or other form of decidedly-not-as-good spuds?  (OK, you can slop some cereal and milk in a bowl and slurp it down more quickly, but I don't eat that stuff.)

Come on! The suppers I make ( fresh) rarely take more than 30 minutes, and I know this is true of my cook-ish friends as well.

The Not FOOD Rant ----As for "downed power lines," how many decades have I heard this phrase? Through my entire  lifetime of seasons. Winter ice storms, fierce fall hurricanes, etc., etc., always the delicate damn lines stuck up on wooden poles, since the end of the 19th century. ( I've read that.) 

The street I live on, in a neighborhood carved from the mesa in the 1970's, has all underground phone and power lines.  Believe it or not, many years back,  during an outage by which we were not affected, I once called both the then telephone company and the gas and electric company and asked them why some places still had not buried the lines.

"It's too expensive."  How many millions would the nation have saved had it dug underground all those lines, year by year, gradually? 

And by building efficient cars, establishing wind farms, creating affordable solar panels, requiring rain cachment, not fighting wars, yada, yada, and yada.

Oh hush, and go eat something.

"Get Rid of Lawns!"

The famed biologist and "ant man," E. O. Wilson gave a talk last month I was delighted to catch---and  while he  ambled happily hither and yon in his prepared remarks--- there are 5-6000 species of bacteria in a handful of soil; 42 ant species were discovered in one section of one tree in the rainforest,  same as the number of species in all the UK-- during the question period he was sharply  to the point.

When asked about the number one environmental thing Americans easily could do, he did not answer, "Switch out those antique light bulbs,"  but said, instead, "Get rid of lawns."

We agree, of course. Let's put in a good word for "edible lawns,"  however, as well as for "edible estates," a concept promoted by architect Fritz Haeg, among others. (  Haeg's book,  Edible Estates: Attack on the Front Lawn, came out early this year.)
Amazingly, though, even in these difficult times, with water shortages, food shortages, and money shortages, many Americans are still constrained by the so-called covenants of where they live.   These, naturally, are mired in the mid 20th century. ( No visible veggies growing, no clothes lines, no chickens, etc., etc.) Home owners may be  further cobbled by the rigid definition of "curb appeal" as well.

Plant edibles, people, and then go out and graze with selected ruminants, right out front where the Zoning Board folks can see you!

( Photo thanks to http://www.inhabitat.com/2008/05/10/edible-estates-goes-to-print/)

Kristof of the NYT re new Secretary of FOOD

Yay---Mr. K speaks our mind! 

"A Department of Agriculture made sense 100 years ago when 35 percent of Americans engaged in farming. But today, fewer than 2 percent are farmers. In contrast, 100 percent of Americans eat."

Note our comments on his blog today at 10:18 am and ( due to a glitch,)  10:21.

Oprah Weighs 200, And Do We Mind? Should She?

Apparently the January cover of the O mag has a pic of the trim Oprah and the chunky Oprah, and inside, the chunky O evidently regrets same. So what?!  She's rich, influential, has a private chef...she's active, on-the-ball, and, ok, a tad heavy. Fortunately, she's given up trying to be "thin," but I really do not think she needs to stress out about this. Nor make other naturally larger persons feel badly about themselves. Of course, she is only 5 feet 6 inches tall..............uh oh.

Green Chile Bisque

Saturday night I ate my first ever green chile bisque--it was hot, silky, green and great. Chef Bob prepared it at his house--he and I and assorted others used to kibbitz together at our respective kids' baseball games--and finally, many years later, I sampled his cooking. Terrific!  The bisque  was based on a Craig Claiborne recipe---"What does Craig know from chiles??," had to be asked, so I did. "I'm thinking he wouldn't have gone this hot."  ( Correct. This was a New Mexican ( umpteen years here, but not a native) making this dish.)

OK,  so Craig died 8 years ago. And when Chef Bob first viewed the recipe, it  noted that "fresh green chiles may be hard to find." Not here, of course. I cannot vouch for Zabar's and that ilk in New York.

Here's a green chile bisque recipe from the Sizzling Southwest Cookbook.

Groceries on $25 a Week

Over 30 million Americans are now on Food Stamps---that's 1 in ten. You can buy any food, except pet food, and prepared meals, with the stamps, as well as seeds and plants to grow.
Back in May of 2007, the Washington Post ran this piece on some Congressmen who decided to see how they could eat on the then average of $21 a week for one person using food stamps.
I found a more recent exploration of this at $25 a week  on the blog Cheap Healthy Good.

Most likely, not many organic veggies on that budget. I am picturing a small  basket filled with dried beans and lentils, garlic and onion, oil, dried milk, corn meal, sweet potatoes. Hmmm. Not easy!

I may try this for real next time at the store. (The folks cited above went heavily for canned goods.)
Incidentally, a 90-something low income couple we know relies heavily on Save A Lot, a no frills grocery store. It does have lots of fresh veggies, though not organic, and it requires the customer to bag his/her own groceries, with an option of using the store's old cartons.  Here's how the corporate entity, Supervalu Inc. that owns Albertson's and Jewel Osco, among other chains, describes Save A Lot:

"SAVE-A-LOT^® is the nation's leading extreme value, limited-assortment grocery chain, operating more than 1,170 value-oriented stores in all types of neighborhoods - urban, rural and suburban - and delivering terrific savings of up to 40 percent compared to conventional grocery stores."

"Extreme value!" Exciting times, indeed.

ps   Supervalu ( grrr......)  is spelled correctly.

Chocolate As Our Meso-American Ancestors Intended

Yesterday I made my second visit to New Mexico's chocoholic mecca, cozy, eclectic Kakawa Chocolate House in Santa Fe. This time I drank a  tiny cup of silken Mayan Full Spice, a concoction that is superb, its taste best delineated  as "complex." The proprietor, Mark Sciscenti, is a self-described Chocolate Historian, who  creates elixirs ( drinks), handmade chocs, and wheat-free pastries.

Cacao, vanilla, chiles, all solid American foods, star in Mark's heavenly offerings, along with many other ingredients, other than wheat. ( For the heat averse, Mark makes a less pungent Modern Mexican drink that my pal enjoyed.)

While I was  sipping my elixir, I overheard Mark mention that he was seeking someone local willing to supply him with spelt and barley. Anyone?

NB  No "caca" was involved in the making of any products at the Chocolate House.

Secretary of ( A Lot of ) What We Eat

Now that Mr. Obama has taken care of national security et al, it's time to ponder the best choice for Secretary of Agriculture. Among the people I consult, there's a distinct wish for someone A--who looks at food from the consumer point of view or B--certainly someone who stands as much  for sustainability and the independent farmer as for corporate agriculture. Is either of these remotely possible in this era of mega-farms and GM crops?
Eternally optimistic, we think a different breed of Ag Secretary is likely--whoever gets the job will have to balance all the above, and keep an eye out for promoting environmentally-friendly farm practices.

I am betting that Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas gets tapped-- (or, ok, at least for something in the Cabinet. ) Sebelius, from the sunflower-plentiful state, is apparently a buddy of Obama's, and is noted for being a solver of fiscal dilemmas--the farm subsidy program comes readily to mind.

The Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association recently came out vigorously against Tom Vilsack for the job. They propose a long list of people, including Gov. Sebelius.  See it here.