I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I’m just not goal-oriented enough to care. But, I also realize the value of turning a new leaf, of making steps towards living the life we care about. I know the value of repentance. In honor of Change For the Better and the New Year, I thought I’d spend…
The Loss of Food Knowledge
Yesterday, I walked past the produce aisles at my local H.E.B. and read some signs. Above the bananas: “Yellow bananas are ready to eat today and tomorrow. Green bananas are ripe and ready to eat in 3-5 days.” Above the lemons: “Room temperature lemons yield more juice.” Above the pears: “Press gently around the stem…
The War Against Local Food Rages On
Five years ago, my hero Joel Salatin (self-described as a “Christian libertarian environmentalist lunatic farmer”) published an article called Everything I Want To Do Is Illegal. Last year, he published a book by that name (A Food Renegade Must Read). Why would a farmer’s life be illegal? Ask the feds. From this press release: On…
Savory Sweet Potato Fries W/Chipotle & Cilantro Mayo
Every year during the standard holiday dinner, I turn my nose up at sweet potatoes. I’m sorry, but smothering them in shiny white goo and turning them into mush just doesn’t do it for me. But — and this is a big but — I love sweet potatoes! How can I possibly love them, when…
Why Packaged Foods Are Evil
Deceptive Labels Assault Us From Every Grocery Store Aisle I haven’t bought lunch meat in ages. If we want meat on our sandwiches, we usually stick to tuna, pulled roast beef (from that cow we bought in the spring), or pulled chicken (from pastured hens we buy direct from a farmer). But not too long…
Easy Pumpkin Spice Yogurt Cream Cheese
Have you ever wanted to make cheese? Not a cheese ball, mind you. I’m talking about honest-to-goodness homemade cheese. Thankfully, you can. And it’s easy. The simplest methods of cheese-making produce soft cream cheeses, so that’s what I’m showing you today — a simple yogurt cream cheese, jazzed up with pumpkin and spices just in…
Food Matters
The trailer for this recent documentary looks promising. I’ll be watching the film tonight. Food Matters Official Trailer from foodmatters on Vimeo. Unfortunately the film’s not yet on Netflix, but you can view it online directly for a one-time fee of $4.95 here.
The Skinny on Lard
I haven’t found a good local source of lard — AKA good old-fashioned rendered pig fat. (If you live in the Texas Hill Country and know where to get lard, please let me know!) Before the age of hydrogenated Crisco, Lard was King. Only the industrial revolution, with it’s filthy animal husbandry, gave lard a…
How to Easily Store Bacon
My husband turned 35 today. We’ve been married for 10 years and have 2 amazing sons. I am so grateful. For his birthday breakfast, I served him farm-fresh uncured bacon & eggs with hash browned potatoes. (Yes, I made him break the Orthodox Nativity Fast to do it, but it’s only your birthday once a…
Mark Bittman – What’s wrong with what we eat?
NY Times Food Writer, Mark Bittman, gave a TED talk in December 2007 on what’s wrong with our food. While I’m forever in debt to Mark for bringing us the famous No-Knead Bread recipe, and I appreciate his critique of industrial agricultural techniques in the TED video below, I think his arguments fail to see…