Saturday, September 23, 2006

Preach, Alton, Preach

This is a post from Alton Brown's web page about the E-coli infected spinach outbreak. It's brilliant. Here you go.

Edible News
Tuesday, September 19, 2006E. coli 0157:H7

It’s 11:30 pm on Monday night and as of 1pm today 114 persons are infected with E. coli 0157:H7 in 21 states. According to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention here’s the breakdown:
California (1)Connecticut(2)Idaho (4)Illinois (1)Indiana (8)Kentucky (6)Maine (2)Michigan (4)Minnesota (2)Nebraska (1)New Mexico (5)Nevada (1)New York (7)Ohio (10)Oregon (5)Pennsylvania (4)Utah (15)Virginia (1)Washington (2)Wisconsin (32)Wyoming (1)

In short, a lot of people are sick and one person has died in Wisconsin. This is a bad thing. And yet, it was going to happen. It was bound to happen.

I don’t want to sound like some crazy, anti-establishment bio-terrorist but maybe, just maybe this is a wakeup call. Truth is our food system has major flaws which point to one reoccurring theme: too much of our food is produced by centralized, industrial concerns. At this hour the continued suspicion is that the spinach, which may have been infected by irrigation water in a field, incorrectly composted manure used as fertilizer on organic crops, or by water used in processing. It may be quite a while before we know.

Now look at the states listed above. 21 states affected by spinach grown not only in one state but in one region of one state. Had the spinach stayed near home odds are good this would have been caught sooner. But packaging and trucking just gave the 0157:H7 time to grow. (For some reason I’m reminded of Charlie Sheen in Apocalypse Now talking about “…every minute Charlie squats in the bush he gets stronger…”.) What’s my point? Had the big chain grocers and restaurant suppliers purchased locally grown produce, this wouldn’t have happened. But don’t blame them. Nope. Blame us. By demanding fresh spinach year round (or anything else for that matter) we create the monster. It’s like Dan Akroyd thinking of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in Ghost Busters. Our own unnatural desires and our refusal to consume locally grown foods have brought us to this sorry state.

And to make matters worse, our ever-wise government has told us to eat no fresh spinach at all. They could have advised us to eat only locally grown spinach but Noooooooo. Let’s shoot every poor farmer in America that’s doing his or her job in the foot. And why? Because we can’t sort out what went there when and how and what it might have touched or been near. Here’s the news kids: when the system gets this big and out of whack, all the king’s horses and all the king’s men (and the USDA and the CDC, and the FDA) cannot keep us safe. I want you to think about that a minute. It’s not their fault. it simply cannot be done. It should not be done.

Right now everyone is doing what they have to do and by the looks of it they’re doing it right. I’m hoping that ground zero for this outbreak will be discovered and that something will be learned. But I still hold that until we diversify and decentralize our food growing system and learn to eat locally and seasonally, we only open up ourselves for more of the same.

And let that be a lesson to us all.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Help! (as in the Beatles' song, not an actual cry of physical help, just mental and emotional help needed)

Hello All or None,

This is a whine, as opposed to my normal rant, so you've been forewarned.

Last week, I got a speeding ticket in a speedtrap (guess it was quota time) and today, on lunch, I went to start my car and the battery wouldn't start. So, I had to purchase a new battery. Good thing I just got paid on Friday, but now with all of that, I don't have money to pay any of my bills or buy any groceries.

So, to whatever meta-physical being that's decided I need to learn something, remember you can't get blood from a stone. In other words, I'm tapped out, so nothing else please.

The only solace I have right now are the brownies and cookies I made yesterday since I had the day off. Which, if you're wondering, is the last thing I need to be eating. But hey, it's either that or go home crying. So, I'm voting for fat and sugar (which turns into fat, BTW.)

The recipe for the cookies and brownies is below if you're having my kind of week (month, year, decade...



Turtle Brownies
(makes 16 brownies)

For the batter:
4 Tbl unsalted butter,

plus more for pan
3 oz good-quality unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/2 C all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 C sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 C milk
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

for the topping:
1 C sugar
1/3 C heavy cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coarsely chopped toasted pecans (4 oz)

Preheat oven to 325. Line a buttered 8" square baking pan with parchment paper, allowing 2" to hang over sides; butter the lining, excluding overhang; set pan aside.*Make batter: Put butter and chocolate in a heatproof medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water; stir until melted. Let cool slightly.Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in a a separate bowl; set aside.Put sugar and eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add chocolate mixture, milk, and vanilla, and beat until combined. Add flour mixture; beat, scraping down the sides of the bowl until well incorporated.Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until a cake tester inserted into brownies come out with a few crumbs but is not wet, 27 to 30 minutes. Let cool completely in pan.
Make topping when brownies are cool. Bring 1/4 C water and the sugar to a boil in a medium sauce pan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar has dissolved. When water comes to a boil, stop stirring, and wash down sides of pan with a wet pastry brush to prevent crystals from forming. Continue to cook, swirling pan occasionally, until mixture is medium amber, 5 to 7 minutes.Remove from heat and immediately add cream, vanilla, and salt.** Gently stir with a clean wooden spoon or heatproof spatula until smooth. Add pecans, stir until caramel begins to cool and thickens slightly, about 1 minute. Pour caramel over brownies; spread with a spatula. Let caramel set for about 1 hour. ***I melted about 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate from Schaffen-Berger with just a little milk or cream (wisk until smooth and don't burn the chocolate) and poured it over the top after the caramel had set up then put them in the fridge overnight. These may be the best thing I've ever put in my mouth.***

Cranberry Hootycreeks (goofy name, I know, but I really good cookie)
makes 32 cookies
INGREDIENTS:
1 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup rolled oats
1 teaspoon
baking soda
1 teaspoon
salt
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup white chocolate chips
1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper. 2. In a medium bowl, beat together 1/2 cup softened butter, 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until fluffy. Add the ingredients, and mix together by hand until well blended. Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. 3.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until edges start to brown. Cool on baking sheets, or remove to cool on wire racks.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Deep Thoughts

Hello All or None,

I'm super tired so this blog will be short, but I feel the need to comment on what I see around me lately. I can't believe it's been 5 years (yesterday) since I woke up and turned on the TV to see the world falling apart. I was watching some video footage yesterday from someone filming on the street before anything happened and showed both planes crashing into the towers. It looked like something out of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. It still doesn't feel real. I was here in Oklahoma City when the bombing happened but I actually felt that move the earth under me so it's a little more real to me. But I can't imagine watching that from the street and seeing people jump out of the buildings.

It should have never happened and as adamant as I am against the war, something inside me is conflicted because the people who were behind this should be dealt with. But the war we're fighting isn't doing that. In trying to defend our country, when we should have gone after the specific group who did this, we went and did something else completely. We put ourselves smack in the middle of one of the biggest messes possible.
And by we, I mean our government.

Speaking of our government, I didn't watch the state of the union speech last night because I make a point not to watch something I know is going to irritate the piss out of me. But I did read the transcript, as you can here, http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/09/11/bush.transcript/index.html. Basically, to me, it was a "let's scare the American public with lies so we can continue with our war."

This whole notion that if we don't continue with the war, the terrorists will come and kill us in our beds is ridiculous beyond belief. It's just a way for the Bush administration to make money off their oil concerns while Americans don't have enough money to eat, go to the doctor, or afford a decent place to live and pay their bills. They are killing our country in addition to killing our servicemen and women because of this stupid war.

The thing I love the most is not once did he speak about anything else but the war, not one other thing affecting the country. Not Katrina, not the new hurricane that hit Florida, not gas prices, just the war. I hope our next president can make a dent in fixing all the things that this administration has fucked up.

So, I guess my post wasn't very short, huh? :)

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Laborous Day...

Hello All,

I had a good weekend, although it seems like I spend most of my weekends cooking now. Which isn't a bad thing I guess, as long as I don't spend all of my weekends eating. :)

I made my first gumbo Saturday night (Chicken, Sausage, and Smoked Turkey Gumbo) with Pralines and Calas for dessert. Calas are little fried rice cakes. Not at all like a popcorn style rice cake, but imagine fried dough with cooked rice in it and dunked in powdered sugar and drizzled with honey. If you're interested in cooking cajun or New Orleans type food, please visit www.gumbopages.com for some awesome recipes. Spaghetti with Sugo Sauce on Sunday and Clean out the pantry pasta last night (plus I made more pralines :D).

When my mother comes to town, she always wants to buy groceries for me. And if you've read what I've just written, you'd know I don't need anymore groceries. But I don't really use meals in a box or overly processed stuff like that because that's why I learned how to cook, so I wouldn't have to eat that stuff (that my Mom made.) So, I have stuff in my pantry from her that I'll never use like instant cheesecake mix, premade piecrusts, and hamburger helper. The gourmet in my head is cringing just typing those words. Ugh. So, I cleaned out the pantry and decided I would make jazzed up hamburger helper since I had two boxes of the lasagna hamburger helper. I used Italian sausage instead of hamburger and sauteed some crimini mushrooms and added some red wine and balsamic vinegar. This may be the best clean out your pantry meal I've ever made. Yummy!