My life, and all of our lives here in the “first world” are obsessed with, organized around, and circumscribed completely by the three words that make up the title of this post: me, here, now. Nowhere is this more true than in the United States, where we are famous for our collective national amnesia, and [...]
Digging In To the South
Quite literally. For the last several weeks we have been working to get our planting done before it got really hot here, and today we finish up putting in the first round of vegetables.
Biodynamic, open-pollinated, heirloom seeds from Abundant Life and Nichols nurseries are going to provide us with Artichoke, Broccoli, Brussel Sprouts, Cabbage, Carrot, [...]
On (Not) Wasting Food
As an avid reader of “foodie” blogs, I run across articles like this one all the time, and I’m really not sure why they even exist. How hard is it to not waste food, particularly if you like food enough to read a food blog?
Everyone occasionally has a few leftovers or some fresh herbs that [...]
Beyond Food Miles - A Locavore Apologetics
The locavore movement has been misunderstood, perhaps willfully, by quite a few people. Newspapers characterize it as being simplistically, or militantly, focused on food-miles and ignoring the “fiendishly tricky business” of balancing your carbon emissions on your dinner plate.
Never mind that many of the objections raised in the above Guardian article are canards. Environmentally-sound growing [...]
Visualizing What You Eat
In the great race to the bottom, visualizations and info-graphics are a handy tool for replacing words, what with all that laborious reading some old codgers think we ought to do since we have a facility for language. It’s annoying enough to have to read the names of the foods we buy, why should we [...]
The Cruelest Cuts
From my old home state of North Carolina comes a six-part expose on the poultry industry, documenting the lives of North Carolina’s 28,000 poultry workers. Editor Rick Thames kicks off the series with a searing editorial that compares these workers, mostly illegal immigrants with few rights, to the South’s most notorious historical underclass. But it [...]
Peter Reinhart’s Napoletana Pizza Dough
4 1/2 cups (20.25 ounces) unbleached high-gluten, bread, or all-purpose flour, chilled
1 3/4 (.44 ounce) teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon (.11 ounce) instant yeast
1/4 cup (2 ounces) olive oil (optional)
1 3/4 cups (14 ounces) water, ice cold (40°F)
Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting
1. Stir together the flour, salt, and instant yeast in a 4-quart [...]
White Bean Dip
Recently I made a pot of Great Northern Beans with some leftover ham from our Christmas feast that I had been keeping in the freezer. We ate beans with hoecakes yesterday, and today I was tasked with doing something with the leftovers.
Now, my usual response to beans or soup leftovers is to begin what we [...]
Christmas Dinner
Christmas is only a week away, so now my thoughts turn to food, of course. This year I am cooking Yuletide dinner for 8-10 people and trotting out my French cookery skills to (hopefully) wow our guests.
Inspired by the work of Marvin Woods with African-American Gullah cooking, I have been playing around for some time [...]
Daily Dining
Daily Dining
Food on the brain today as the planning of the 2008 garden swings into high gear. Compost is cooking away, the plots are laid out (we’re using Square Foot) this time, and the long list of crops is in hand. We have also reorganized the frozen food storage over the last few days and [...]
Daily Dining
Daily Dining
The old saying goes “Breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince, dinner like a Pauper”. While I am not there yet exactly, I can feel myself moving in that direction, beginning with my refound love of breakfast foods and my rekindled habit of rising early.
breakfast ▼
Sumatra Mandheling coffee
Scrambled Eggs
Sausage Patties
Biscuits
lunch ▼
12 oz Dr. [...]
Daily Dining
Daily Dining
Okay, so I skipped breakfast today, which is never a good idea. The remainder of todays foods were down-home favorites - simple foods I grew up with and have always had an affinity for.
breakfast ▼
3 cups of Sumatra Mandheling coffee
2 tsp sugar
lunch ▼
1 cup leftover Brunswick Stew
dinner ▼
1 slice Meatloaf
1 cup Boiled Potatoes
1 cup [...]
Molecular Gastronomy for the Masses
Molecular Gastronomy for the Masses
Daily Dining
Daily Dining
After a week of this food blogging experiment, I am convinced that simply paying attention to what I eat makes me eat less. I am also becoming convinced that putting it out here for all the world to see (theoretically at least) is pushing me towards eating better foods in general.
breakfast ▼
3 cups Sulawesi [...]
Daily Dining
Daily Dining
Today’s eating was dominated by Sunday Dinner, done on a German theme this week, and quite delicious, if I do say so myself.
breakfast ▼
Coffee: 3 cups
Sugar cube: 2
dinner ▼
Schweinepfeffer (Paprika Pork Stew): 1.5 serving
Onion Rye Bread: 2 slices
Westphalischer Kirschkuchen (Westphalian Cherry Cake): 2 pieces
supper ▼
Westphalischer Kirschkuchen (Westphalian Cherry Cake): 1 piece
Today’s Weight: 202 lb
Daily Dining
Daily Dining
Okay, so I have been corrected as to the proper Southern usage of Dinner and Supper. Dinner is the largest meal of the day regardless of when it is served, and supper is the small meal after (and only after) dinner.
So you can have Lunch and then Dinner or Dinner and then Supper, but [...]
Daily Dining
Daily Dining
I think I might just enjoy this whole food diary thing, so I have been playing around a bit with how to make it a more enjoyable topic for postings, starting with a snazzy layout. Let me know what you think.
breakfast ▼
Coffee: 3 cups
Sugar cube: 2
Fried Bologna Sandwich
Fried Bologna slice: 2
Cheese: 1
Over-medium egg: 1
Bread:2 [...]
More Bacon Goodness
I have many times pointed out my love of all things bacon, so I was happy to find that Vosges Haut-Chocolate offers a milk chocolate bar laced with smoked Applewood bacon bits:
Crisp, buttery, compulsively irresistible bacon and milk chocolate combination has long been a favorite of mine. I started playing with this combination at the [...]
Daily Dining
Todays Food:
coffee: x3
sugar cube: x3
beef & cabbage stew: 1 serving
banana: x1
candy Corn: 1 serving
pasta w/ Pesto: 1 serving
kielbasa: 1 serving
steamed Broccoli: 1 serving
olive bread: 2 slices w/ margarine
Todays Weight:
209 lb
Daily Dining
Jenn and I are on a quest to trim the old waist-lines, and are beginning with a modest food diary in order to get a handle on what we actually eat. I’ll be posting a daily list of my consumption along with my weight for the day. So, here goes.
Today’s Food:
coffee: x3
sugar cube: x5
half & [...]
Farmers Markets Cheaper Than Supermarkets?
There has been a little flood recently of items concerning the costs of shopping at farmers markets instead of supermarkets. Meg Hourihan points to some conclusions from a business-statistics class at Seattle University. Meanwhile, over at Becks & Posh, Sam has come to the same conclusion.
For my part, even ignoring the cost/value of known provenance, [...]
What’s Cooking Grandma?
What’s Cooking Grandma?
What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like?
What Do 300 Calorie Meals Look Like?
What’s In Cool Whip?
What’s In Cool Whip?
The Condiment Packet Gallery
The Condiment Packet Gallery
The History Of Dinner & Supper
The History Of Dinner & Supper
Fast Food Advertisements v. Reality
Fast Food Advertisements v. Reality
Move Over Spork, Here Come Chork!
Move Over Spork, Here Come Chork!
Corn & Lighter Fluid McNuggets
Corn & Lighter Fluid McNuggets
Kasher L’pesach Coca-Cola
Kasher L’pesach Coca-Cola
Edible Chess!
Edible Chess!
Are You A Big Fat Idiot?
Okay, so over-eating makes you dumber, smoking makes you dumber, lack of sleep makes you dumber, unnecessary seriousness makes you dumber, multi-tasking makes you dumber and dumber, email makes you dumber, and meetings make you dumber…
So the dumbest person to work with, or for (in an office setting, anyway), would be a fat smoker who [...]
The Caffeine Database
The Caffeine Database
Bacon Mints
Bacon Mints
Welcome To The Fattest Place In Europe
This comes as no suprise to me, but I am sure that all over Britian, little indignant gasps and “tut tut”s are being heard as the weeble-wobble people of Europe discover that with respect to girth at least, they might as well be Americans.
I find it particularly amusing because the British are, to borrow their [...]
New record for world’s hottest pepper: Bhut Jolokia
New record for world’s hottest pepper: Bhut Jolokia
Cows With Guns
Cows With Guns
Chocolate Covered Bacon
Chocolate Covered Bacon
Thirteen Vegetarian Meals
As I have been exploring my relationship to my food again, I have been flirting somewhat with vegetarianism.
Vegetarianism still makes a lot of people wonder what it is that you eat, even though the vast majority of all dishes in the world could be considered ‘vegetarian’.
With that in mind, here are thirteen of my favorite [...]
History of General Tso’s Chicken
History of General Tso’s Chicken
These are the ramblings of 