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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…)

Ask TracyFood: should I freak out about genetically modified foods? 10 March 2010 11:05 pm

Posted by Tracy in : GMOs,Marion Nestle,agriculture,books,economics,environment,food safety,food snobbery,friends,geekery,health,history,politics,science,sustainability , View Comments

So I got a message from the splendiferous Ms. Lara earlier today:

Hey, Tracy! Someone on FB is arguing that GM crops are categorically horrible and bad and whatnot. Can you send me some informative links to help educate her (and myself!)? (I seem to recall you linked to an article about the death of an agriculturalist who saved millions of lives with his crops, so of course I thought of you…)

Many thanks to my favorite foodie!!
-L

Well. How could I resist the chance to go all run-on sentence on that? (more…)

Something fun to do tonight? 1 December 2009 2:59 pm

Posted by Tracy in : books,events,not even vegetarian,nyc,random,reading,school,vegetarian,writing , View Comments

I know, I know, where’s my ridiculous post-Thanksgiving update? (It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost exactly a week since we started all the cooking.) My guess is it’s in the same hiding place as my motivation to work on finals. Anyway, this event should be interesting, if only for the juxtaposition of Anna “if world hunger didn’t motivate you to take my mom’s advice to eat less meat (or none), how about climate change?” Lappé with Julie “did I mention I’m a butcher now?” Powell.

True Story: Nonfiction at KGB – Julie Powell & Anna Lappé

KGB Bar, 85 East 4th Street
New York City, NY
December 01, 2009
7:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Knowledge of this reading was brought to me by Food Sociology classmate Sam Kressler. Thanks Sam! You rock! For more information, check out the full description at KGB Bar’s website. (I just could not bring myself to cut and paste all their text; I may be slow getting back into gear after the long weekend, but that’s just too much cheating.)

Monkey Monday: extra-rambly edition. 23 November 2009 10:21 am

Posted by Tracy in : baking,books,breakfast,cookies,cooking,fangirl,geekery,milk,monkeys,random,vegan , View Comments

Because I expect everyone will have better things to do over the long weekend than read my blog, and because I have been unable to decide on a regular posting schedule for months now, which might mean not writing anything else postable this week, today’s post is extra-bonus long. There’s lots of Post-Punk Kitchen fangirling, odds and ends about stuff I cooked, upcoming events, and more. Here we go…

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Yay for book review comics! Here’s one for Vegan With a Vengeance. So cute! So awesome! And speaking of that book, I made Isa’s Tempeh Helper for dinner last night, and it was comfort food-alicious (bear in mind, however that I don’t think I’ve ever eaten Hamburger Helper in my life, so I have almost no frame of reference here). Because I had to cut some gnarly-looking bits off the tempeh, I made up the weight difference in cremini mushrooms, which made the end result taste more than a little like the Seitan-Portobello Stroganoff from VWaV, but that’s just another way of saying it was very tasty indeed. (more…)

Foto Friday: more cookies, less ranting. 20 November 2009 12:08 pm

Posted by Tracy in : baking,books,cookies,dessert,food as spectator sport,food snobbery,fun,winter squash , View Comments

So yesterday I thought about going out to do some responsible stuff before my 7 PM yoga class, but decided that I would be happier staying at home to restock our supply of delicious instant food. End result bragged to Facebook and Twitter last night:

Final score for Afternoon O’Domesticity: 1 big pot dal, 1 batch punkin spice cookies, 1 pan cornbread, and many dishes done… priceless.

The dal was an extra-spicy version of the recipe I made up out of Nepal nostalgia, and the cornbread and pumpkin cookies are both from my beloved Moosewood New Classics. It’s actually my second batch of these cookies in a week; the first was last Friday, when I decided it was time to use up the leftover canned pumpkin from our Halloween winter squash-stravaganza — only then of course I ended up opening another can of pumpkin, so I was still left with a partial can in the fridge, like when I started, only with more delicious, delicious cookies. Check them out! (more…)