My sister recently told me about the weakening of organic labelling laws, obviously driven by Big Agribusiness trying to cash in on people’s desire for (and willingness to pay more for) safer and less chemically-treated foods … without actually adopting measures to stop using pesticides, herbicides, hormones, and antibiotics and other chemical nasties.
Grrr …. !
I will have to start carrying around this shopper’s guide to pesticides in produce (courtesy of too many chefs).
I couldn’t resist a linking to the news of the upcoming Snoop DeGrill. Now that is a barbeque grill worthy of a Foodgoat backyard.
After a week of pain, a mysterious rash, and persistent pleading from me and various mothers, Foodgoat finally relented and went to the doctor. Diagnosis: shingles.
He’s something of a medical curiosity, because shingles is very rare in someone of his age and general good health, but it’s much less fun than it sounds (I’d post a picture of his rash, but the digital camera isn’t feeling well either). Foodgoat is very unhappy.
Personally, I (partly) blame all the recent fast-food meals. It can’t have been good for either of us. Anyone see Supersize Me yet?
So last night I did what I could: I made an anti-shingles meal. It consisted of …
sauteed beef (red meat contains a lot of lysine, an amino acid which inhibits the growth of the shingles virus)
brown rice (B vitamins, important for nerve health and the immune system)
green salad (calcium and magnesium, for the health of nerve endings)
garlic bread (garlic has antiviral properties)
pomegranate/blueberry juice (more antioxidants than any other juice and helps the immune system)
ice cream (for morale)
I like soy sauce and all, but ewwwwwww!
Tasty Checks
I like my new junk food themed checks. They’re not as cool as these designs, though.
Food Comic of the Day
Today’s comment on the difficulties of navigating the politics of food and femininity is brought to you by the newest link in my favorites section, Angry Little Girl (which, by the way, has some kick-ass t-shirts).
The New York Times has an article, Opening 13 Cans of Whoop, featuring a taste test of the growing encroachment of skinny cans promising to boost your energy. Appropriately enough, it’s in the Fashion section, and not Food section.
Foodgoat is way ahead of this guy. Months ago, he discovered the amazing revitalizing qualities of Red Bull. He then collected all the energy drinks in at the store, he got them from the Asian market.
He intended to post about them, but he never did (let’s face it, I’m the blogger at heart around here), and caffeine overdoses are one food adventure I don’t care to ride along with. Foodgoat may have happily survived the time he had 14 cups in an hour, but I never quite recovered from that freshmen night I took a caffeine pill to finish a paper. Eek!
Running on Fat
My big cause, aside from universal health coverage and requiring couples to go camping before getting married, is recycling.
I used to drive by a huge landfill on the way to my cousins’ house (it’s since been covered up and turned into an expensive housing subdivision and golf course), so maybe that’s why I can’t stand just throwing anything away. Garbage dumps just seem like giant coordinated littering, if you ask me. So I recycle, I freecycle, I re-use, and soon, I will compost.
But one thing that throws a wrench into all this happy tree-hugging is cooking oil, which is hard because I love all things fried, and we go through gallons of olive oil. You can, in theory, use it multiple times by careful filtering, but eventually it does get smelly and funkified. But you can’t pour it down the drain. You can’t pour into the trash. You can’t compost it. You’re reduced to collecting it into (recycle-able) jars and cans and wrapping it in (recycle-able) newspaper and putting it in the trash like so much toxic waste.
Enter biodiesel. Diesel cars, outfitted with a not-too-expensive conversion kit and an extra fuel tank, can run nicely on plain old used cooking oils and fats. Restaurants are happy to just give that stuff away because they have to pay for disposal anyway. Drivers are happy because it’s a lot cheaper than gas. Environmentalists are happy because emissions are much cleaner and it’s a renewable resource. Farmers are happy because it’s a big potential market. I’m happy because the oil is being used instead of sitting into a smelly pit or seeping into the groundwater and because it just seems so sensible.
Granted, not knowing anyone with a biodiesel vehicle, this doesn’t change what I do with the oil. So I haven’t deep fried in much too long. But Foodgoat may soon be in the market for a new car, so I may be dropping hints about diesel cars as well as hybrids. Unfortunately, it’s really only German manufacturers making diesel cars, and we all know what happened to his last German-made car …
One week into the house and still I’m living out of boxes and wondering where all the spices ended up, so cooking ain’t happened.
However, I did run into a garden center yesterday 15 minutes before closing and came out with a bunch of raspberry bushes and an elderberry plant. I have very little resistence when it comes to buying plants, even though my record isn’t so great. The house’s yard is lovely already, but it’s a flowery yard, and I want a useful, productive yard.
The elderberry, a tribute to one of my favorite movies, Arsenic and Old Lace, is indigenous to the northern part of the U.S. and produces big black berries that old ladies make wine with. It’s rather old-fashioned, I guess. But I think it’s coming back in style: it’s hardy and apparently easy to grow, and produces nice white flowers. Unfortunately, it’s one of those plants that don’t self-pollinate, so I need to run back to the garden center again to another elderberry plant.
I’ve never actually had elderberry, but I’m looking forward to it.
Now see, why didn’t I think of this? I would totally eat at Cereality, the cereal bar and cafe. You eat out of your very own cereal box and the workers are dressed in pajamas.
foodgoat 