TracyFood

On milk and monopolies. 31 March 2010 1:22 pm

Posted by Tracy in : GMOs,agriculture,books,economics,geekery,milk,politics,reading,school , View Comments

So yesterday I spent some quality time (read: almost four hours) in the Rose Reading Room of the main branch of the New York Public Library, blasting through Nature’s Perfect Food: How Milk Became America’s Drink by E. Melanie DuPuis, for my food processing and industrialization class. Today I gave it three out of five stars on GoodReads (which I won’t link to because their shiny toys and WordPress do not get along, sigh) but that might have been a bit ungenerous on my part, perhaps an inevitable result of reading the whole darn thing in one sitting. Also I was maybe a little resentful to be reading DuPuis instead of Anne Mendelson’s Milk: The Surprising Story of Milk Through the Ages, which has been on my “to-read” list for something like two years now (and I know I love Mendelson’s writing; her Stand Facing the Stove: The Story of the Women Who Gave America The Joy of Cooking remains one of my favorite bits of food geekery ever). But I digress. Back to DuPuis, and why I might have to upgrade her book’s rating. (more…)

Corned beef adventures with Greg. 30 March 2010 10:36 am

Posted by Tracy in : not even vegetarian,people,photos,pictures , View Comments

So, something I forgot to mention in my comments about Roger Horowitz’ Putting Meat on the American Table yesterday is that any and all mentions of corned beef made me grin hugely. You see, a few weeks ago at a Wednesday night dinner, I said to Greg, “We should make corned beef for Saint Patrick’s Day!” but he maintains that I was more subtle about it than that, because he thought it was his idea. In any case, whee-ha, right? The only problem was that the recipe we wanted to use called for the meat to sit in its spice rub for five to seven days (rotated once a day for more or less even penetration of deliciousness) and Greg had plans to be out of town for the weekend before St. Pat’s. Hmmmm…. (more…)

Monkey Monday: cookies and random 29 March 2010 1:28 pm

Posted by Tracy in : baking,cookies,dessert,eating,friends,fun,monkeys,people,photos,pictures , View Comments

So first things first, big thanks are due to Sam, for bringing homemade Oreos to one of Greg’s dinner parties and saying stuff like “they’re super-easy!” and “just Google for ‘homemade Oreos’” because I did and the results were delicious:

Oh yes.

These are almost exactly the recipe at Smitten Kitchen, with the somewhat-less-sugar version of the cookie parts and a heaping teaspoon of instant coffee thrown in for extra bittersweet chocolatey goodness. The only drawback was (more…)

The U.S. Childhood Obesity Task Force: a comment 26 March 2010 2:28 pm

Posted by Tracy in : diet stress is a health hazard,geekery,health,health at every size,nutrition,politics,writing , View Comments

So on February 9 of this year, President Barack Obama signed a Presidential Memo establishing a joint task force between the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Education, directing those agencies to come up with a plan to address the “problem” of childhood obesity. The task force is part of a larger effort, led by First Lady Michelle Obama, with the uncontroversial but catchy name Let’s Move! and I have extremely mixed feelings about this project because I support almost everything about it except the fact that good things like improved school lunches and increased access to healthier food in underserved neighborhoods are being pursued in the name of ending obesity. Those mixed feelings are part of why I haven’t posted about Let’s Move until now—but also, I ran into a deadline. The Joint Task Force’s official Request for Information is accepting public responses until 11:59 tonight (and yes, that link will take you to much more information about the Task Force and a way to submit comments of your own). Here is what I wrote: (more…)