Prickled by Pickle Pringles

Sunday evening in a college dorm means growling stomachs. Five or six hours from the last dregs of dinner consumed and after fifty pages of reading, six pages of paper writing, or a few problem sets, we want a reward. So off we go in the car to 7/11. Not necessarily the premiere of culinary needs, but for some cheap thrills (emphasis on the cheap) the fluorescent, sticky aisles of colorfully packaged sweets and glorified junk food piques ones interest. Then this catches my eye:

Pickle.

Pringles.

As a New York Jew, something about this offends me, but it takes a while for the unsettling feeling to settle in. I'm already skeptical about pickles found outside a proper deli, but this takes the cake. Lets break it down into flavor. Sure the chip may taste vaguely of pickle, but what about the sour twinge on the tongue? The juicy flavors rolling down your chin? I'll give the Pringles the benefit of the crunch. There's nothing more satisfying than a good juicy, crunchy pickle, and Pringles crunch better than any other chip. Still, there is a feeling of utter blasphemy about this neon green EXTREME pickle Pringle tube.

Japan Disaster's Impact on Food Imports

This article discusses the various foods that may have been contaminated and that the FDA has voted to ban for the time being. Dairy products, fruits and vegetables won't be able to get into the US, and seafood must be scanned for radiation levels. A look at how a disaster like that can impact our global food system.

Betty Crocker, Gender Roles and More

When Betty Crocker's cake mix came out in the 1920s, it was an insult to home makers. Domestic workers did not see the cake mix as a relief from the intensive labor and time commitment but a challenge to their gender role. Domestic workers were able to channel their work ethic through cake baking and rigorous cooking but now the element of hard work is taken out of cake.

In connecting cake to american capitalism, the transition from traditional cake baking to manufactured cakes represent the deskilling of domestic workers. The way industrialization and capitalism deskill workers by forcing them to do monotonous tasks under wage slavery, capitalism reached home life and deskilled homemakers. Cake baking used to take talent, time, effort and commitment for these women, but now that there is an easy route, skills are meant to disappear. american capitalism strikes again by popularizing cake - out - of - a - box and undermining the art of cake baking.

ginger tea - a favorite remedy

Over the weekend, I managed to catch somewhat of a cold - sore throat, runny nose, hoarse voice, the usual. Naturally, I'm coping by chain-drinking bottles of warm water with honey and lemon, but what I'd really love is a cup of ginger tea. Last year when I was living in China, my roommate suggested that I drink some to soothe my throat. She made me my first cup - she sliced up a good hunk of fresh ginger, boiled it for maybe ten minutes (the longer your boil, the spicier the tea), decanted it into my mug, then gave me brown sugar to add. According to some sources, ginger has a laundry list of medicinal properties - it can treat indigestion, respiratory ailments, motion sickness, fevers... and it can even be used to "gain the affection of a woman"! At any rate, it's a delicious and honestly comforting tea.

The gluten free scones experiment

The tricky thing about baking is that there's literally a science to it. Chemical reactions happen during the baking process, so flour, fat, liquids, binders and leaveners need to be carefully portioned in order to achieve desired results. Add gluten free flours to the mix (pun intended) and it's a whole new beast. The prime trickiness of gluten free baking is that there's no gluten; the substitute flours are lacking the wonderful binding protein that helps to keep the baked good together. Gluten is what makes bread kneadable and pie crust roll-out-able. It also provides the ability to trap bubbles of air in the dough (think yeast, flaky pastry, or any creaming of sugar and butter). Another wild card is that GF flours often require more liquid than the wheat kind. Working in the gluten free realm means a lot of trial and error, and a lot of sifting,while you search for a blend of flours that will let you replicate the effect you desire.

I've made GF cookies before with success, though an attempt to make cut out cookies this past Christmas failed miserably. Muffins and quick breads can be dense. I can't even make regular yeast bread, so I won't be attempting gluten free anytime soon. I hadn't tried scones before, but thought they'd be relatively easy: at least they're supposed to be on the dry side.

Now, if you type in a google search for gluten free scones (which is what I did) you'll find a lot of different recipes. Most of the ones I looked at called for "my favorite gluten free flour blend". Some of them called for specific brand name GF mixes. My cupboard being what it is, I decided to take it a step further and find a blend recipe, which led me to here. The Gluten Free Goddess' flour blend guidelines break the types of flours into weights, and suggest what types are interchangeable. I liked the additional substitution listings she had (egg, sweetener, dairy, etc). It seemed as though this site held help for any type of allergen free baking that might need to be done.

I made a blend of the following, which she recommends for cakes, muffins, breads and cookies :

1 cup Sorgum/ brown rice flour mix
1/2 cup millet
1 cup tapioca
1 teaspoon guar gum

Since I don't own a sifter, I whisked them together.

Now, as delicious as many of her recipes sounded, the Goddess' scone recipe called for pureed butternut squash and vegan cream cheese. I wasn't aiming for vegan scones, so I sought a different site for a recipe. That led me here. The Gluten Free Gourmand's scone recipe was full of butter and cream. Yum! I decided to follow that recipe. However, I did make some adaptations. I didn't think any of my changes would have made a difference, but my results were decidedly un-scone like.

For starters, I didn't hand cut the butter into the flour. I used a food processor, pulsing the butter pats into the flour until the "large crumb" stage was achieved. I chilled the bowl that the flour then went into, to help preserve the butters integrity. I did use nuts, which were fresh out of the freezer. I omitted the fruit, and since my lemon zest was dried I pulsed it along with the flour and butter to chop it fine. Instead of cream, I used a mixture of almond milk and whole milk yogurt. I made no adjustments to amounts, whisked my wet ingredients separately, and added them to the dry.

Now, it was when I added the wet ingredients to the dry that I sensed trouble. Instead of it forming a dough I got a batter. It was a thick batter, but definitely something I couldn't knead. So instead I lined my baking sheet with parchment paper, spread my thick batter in a round in the center, brushed it with almond milk, sprinkled sugar on top, and slid it into the oven.

My first thought was that maybe I'd treat it like biscotti: bake it until it set, then slice it and re-bake it. I decided to wait and see what the result was. I baked it for longer than 10-12 minutes (more like 15) and after it passed the toothpick test I pulled it out of the oven. I let it cool slightly, then cut it into wedges.

What I had was definitely not a scone. It was more like a muffin. It was tasty though, so I let it cool and judged it worthy of meeting it's food destiny.

Next time, I think I'll try the flour blend for the heartier breakfast bars.

Top 10 Disgusting Foods

10. Kopi Luwak

9. Ox Penis

8. Bird Spit

7. Caterpilla Fungus

6. Rats

5. Monkeys Brains

4. Spiders

3. Bee Larvae

2. Balut – Duck Fetus

1. Snake Blood and Bile

Which one do you think is the most disgusting? I saw kopi luwak coffee beans on TV and they were a delicacy. The coffee beans were really expensive and people say that they are delicious. Also, I heard about a Chinese dish prepared with lamb penis, but I didn't know people ate ox penis. Personally, I found monkey brains, baluts, and the snake blood & bile very disgusting. I've read about monkey brains being harmful due to various brain diseases, but I guess people still eat them, and some even eat it fresh while the monkey is still alive....yuck!

[Courtesy of http://listverse.com/2007/09/11/top-10-disgusting-foods/]

Overnight Oats

When I was younger I hated breakfast. Cereal was too soggy, toast too boring and oatmeal too gummy. However, when I got to Smith everything changed. For me, breakfast has become the most important meal of the day. For the most part I eat at the dining hall but some mornings I do my own thing. One of my favorite breakfasts is Overnight Oats in a Jar. I have seen this recipe on several different blogs, Oh She Glows has several posts on them that can be seen here. When I have an almost empty jar of nut butter I add 1/3 cup of rolled oats, 1 cup of almond milk, 2 tablespoons of chia seeds and 1/2 of a thinly sliced banana. I mix everything really well and leave it in the fridge overnight.

The chia seeds have a gelling property which makes the oats really thick and pudding like. The bananas really permeate the oatmeal which gives it a natural sweetness. Overall, a delicious, refreshing breakfast! I usually top my oats with the other half of my banana or whatever fruit I have on hand. For those of you not familiar with chia seeds check them out here. They're relatively inexpensive when bought in bulk and you can do so much with them!

Bites o' Hugs

This is a picture of Allie, my roommate. Occasionally she bakes cookies or cupcakes, usually on special occasions. Today, she made whoopie pies. For this batch, the cake part was lemon flavored, and the filling was strawberry. I had been having a stressful day, so when I came home I was not thinking about pastries. I walked in the door ready to complain about all the work I had to do, but Allie looked at my with a smile and told me to try one of her whoopie pies. When I took a bite, I immediately felt better. All of the stress seemed to fall away from my shoulders, and I couldn't help but smile back at Allie. I told her that it tasted just like a hug would taste. She replied by explaining that everything she bakes, she makes with love. I couldn't help but think about the connection between love and food. When someone wants to express love for us, they often make us something to eat. Whenever I go home for breaks, my mom always plans to make me my favorite foods. To make ourselves feel better when we are upset, we often make ourselves something nice to eat. Food is very representative of love in our culture. And today, instead of giving me a hug and telling me to feel better, Allie gave me one of her whoopie pies.

Smitten for this Kitchen

My friend Caroline showed me this blog and I immediately fell in love with everything I saw. Smitten Kitchen is a blog run by a woman Deb and her husband. The blog has been around since 2006, and offers everything from recipes to conversion charts. Deb is an amazing chef. She has made her own Goldfish crackers, Pina Colada cake, broiled mussels, and many more. The photography is beautiful, so beautiful that Deb sells prints.

While home over break, Caroline and I made Deb's blueberry crumb bars. A non chef, I was shocked at how easy it was to make them. Making the bars was simply a matter of making the crumb mix out of flour, butter, an egg, sugar, and lemon zest. I promise you, if I say it was easy, then it was really easy. Though we were supposed to wait for it to cool after baking in the oven so that we could cut it into bars, Caroline and I scooped some out of the pan. It was delicious, piping hot, sweet, but not too sweet. If I were to make this recipe again, I would add sliced almonds to the crumble, which I felt was a little bit flat and texture-less.

Check out Smitten Kitchen. With over four years worth of recipes, you're bound to find something that you want to try!

http://smittenkitchen.com/

Chocolate Shake + Cheese Fries= Great Combination?

You ever just crave junky, greasy food? Last night I had the biggest desire for French fries and a chocolate shake, so around 12 a.m. my friends and I drove to the Route 9 Diner. I love going to diners because most of them have a relaxed, welcoming and fun atmosphere. Surprisingly, the diner was filled with lots of college students. Walking in, there was a positive atmosphere, people were laughing, the lights were bright and music was playing.

When the waitress asked for our drink orders, I immediately responded, “chocolate shake, please”. The shake was amazing! It was the perfect amount of thickness; you could still drink it with a straw, but there were some ice cream chunks that required a spoon. It was topped off with whip cream and chocolate sprinkles. Even though the shake probably would have been enough, we ordered chili cheese fries. The mountain of fries was covered in cheddar cheese and chili. It was the most satisfying meal because it was just so fattening and greasy in a good way.

I was able to take a picture of the milkshake. But the cheese fries were all gone before I thought to take a picture.

The Other Side

I came across this article from the "Food Manufacturing" website and I think that it is a really important one to keep in mind. In much of the literature that we have looked at in class including Pollen and Kingsolver's books, as well as Food Inc, we have mostly heard a very critical viewpoint of the meat industry. This article is about meat farmers and their efforts to give themselves a more positive name in response to such criticism. I think that what is so important about this article is that it puts the people back into the conversation. In my opinion, in Food Inc they were very careful to criticize big corporations while getting sympathy for the small farmers. However, there are just regular people who work for the corporations as well. This article shows that some meat farmers are just doing their jobs the best way they know how, and although movies like Food Inc try to blame the corporations, not the people, the farmers are still feeling the repercussions of it. According to a spokeswoman representing the meat farmers, "I would estimate that 2 percent of farmers have issues, either not following good production practices or not following good environmental practices and unfortunately they are the ones picked up by the opposition," she said. "The opposition has taken that 2 percent and made them the poster children of agriculture." This is an important opinion because until now we have only really heard about the problem farms. It is so interesting to me that she says only 2% of farms are actually like that. I would like to see some data to follow up on this so that I can make informed decisions myself. So far I feel like all the information I've seen has been from one side or the other.

Here is the link to the full article:
Food Producers Join to Fight Bad Image

Stephen Colbert and Food - A GREAT combination

I am obsessed with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I have been known to get weird looks at the gym because I am laughing/hacking at them while trying to do the elliptical. They both poke fun at everyone, yet at the same time, they are witty and extremely well-aware of worldly issues. Therefore, I feel as though I can get my comedy and intellectual television all in one!

The other day on the Colbert report, Nathan Myhrvold was interviewed for his new 6 volume series called Modernist Cuisine. Priced at over $600, the book takes an in-depth look at new scientific techniques for cooking, something that many refer to as "molecular gastronomy."

I love thinking about molecular gastronomy because it is something that I would never attempt at home. First of all, where could I get liquid nitrogen to quickly freeze some ice cream? Some modern tools are available to home cooks, such as a sous vide, a cooking technique that involves vacuum sealing food and cooking it in a water bath, so that meat cooks slowly and very evenly. But at approximately $1000 at Williams-Sonoma, I think sticking to the oven or a fry pan is the better option. That being said, this new type of cooking is fascinating because it explores ways to enjoy food that had never been attempted before. It is groundbreaking, and I am sure it is delicious.

As usual, Stephen Colbert pokes fun at his guest, but even he is wowed by the results of some of the techniques. It is a funny clip, and if you have a minute I think you would really enjoy it!

The Colbert Report
Tags: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive

For-Profit Schools in the Culinary World

I first heard about this controversy on 88.5 WFCR (the local public radio station) a couple days ago. The piece discussed the growing phenomena of "for-profit schools" particularly as it manifests itself within culinary institutions. A number of students banned together in solidarity and filed a class action law suit against the Cordon-Bleu on several campuses for fraud. I only recently realized that the Cordon-Bleu is now a subsidiary of the Career Education Corporation (CEC), and by extension, the basic structure and decision-making -- like all other corporation -- incentivized by profit maximization. The CEC owns roughly 90 campuses worldwide. According to the Securities and Exchange Commission 10-k form, in 2009, the company made $1.6 billion in revenue leaving $81 million in net income. As far as my slow brain can tell, this reveals an immediate contradiction in priorities: the students, as is typically the case for centers of learning, or profits, as is the driving force of any corporation and the backbone of basic economic theory. Ultimately, students attend the institution, are hit with $50,000 worth of debt, and then graduate, now qualified for positions offering wages (not salaries) for $8.00 or $12.00 per hour.

So, who are the winners in this situation?

More information HERE

The SEC 10-k form HERE

Korean and Mexican Food, Twitter and Food Truck!

Do you know about the Kogi Taco Truck in Los Angeles? Did you ever use twitter to follow a popular food truck? In LA, a former high - end chef runs two food trucks selling a combination of Korean and Mexican food. Kim chi quesadilla, kogi tacos and other Korean - Mexican mixed food take the community by storm. The Kogi Taco Truck does not have one set location so it relies on Twitter to specify that night's location. This food truck has more than 16, 000 Twitter followers and the customers would simply wait in their cars or in long lines for these delicious and creative street food.

I think this food phenomenal is very interesting as food trucks/street food are resurfacing. This food truck tells a story of social media, polyculturalism, and social entrepreneurship. This story represents the funk of today's society - using Twitter to have the flexibility of locations, mixing Mexican and Korean food together and recognizing it as "LA food" not culturally distinct food and being able to start up a business with little capital via food truck.

You can watch ABC news coverage on this popular Kogi Taco Truck: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7387022.

Raw Food

Over Spring Break I went to Montreal. In my opinion one of the best parts about traveling is trying new food. On our last night my friends and I went to Crudessence; a restaurant that serves only raw, vegan, and organic food.

I ordered the lasagna, "layers of zucchini slices, sun dried tomato sauce, and macadamia nut "rawcotta" garnished with crumesan and served with cesar salad. The crumesan was definitely the standout component of this dish. It had a distinctive nutty taste but it also tasted quite cheesy. Out of all the food we ordered I would say my dish tasted the most like its non-vegan counterpart.

Overall Crudessence was an amazing dining experience! It was my first experience with raw food and I really enjoyed the opportunity to try several different dishes. That being said, I already want to go back!

Another awesome food blog

Ok, I'll admit it, I'm being lazy about this post. Maybe it's the fact that it's the last day of break, and I'm still in that mentality. But I think the awesomeness of this blog that I'm about to link you to makes up for it.

http://www.cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

Cakewrecks is a daily blog about unintentionally creepy, funny, or just plain wrong cakes. It's rife with humor, and on Sundays its creator Jen posts amazingly beautiful cakes instead. Reading this blog has sent me trolling past the bakery case in major supermarkets with my cell phone's camera at the ready. Seriously, it's like if fail blog were edible. Check it out.

The Dukan Diet

I recently heard about the Dukan Diet, which is basically a French version of the Atkins Diet. On this diet, you can eat unlimited amounts of high protein foods while most carbs are eliminated. Sound familiar? While I am not surprised by the latest popular (but unhealthy) diet, I am a little surprised that it originated in France. Perhaps I've just been ignorant of previous diet fads from other countries, but whenever I read about how unhealthy Americans are, they are usually compared to the the French. The so-called "French paradox" refers to the rich, fatty diet that the French consume and yet remain thinner than we are. While the French are undoubtedly slimmer than Americans, perhaps their relationship with food is becoming just as unhealthy. Here is one doctor and nutrition researcher's take on the Dukan Diet: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-katz-md/dukan-diet-the-fad-diet_b_800501.html.

Fresh Salsa and Guacamole

For spring break I went to Puerto Rico. The native people are so welcoming, the beaches are beautiful and the men are gorgeous! But this blog is about food. Saying that, the food was amazing! A lot of the meals contain meat. I noticed that Puerto Ricans really like to incorporate beef and pork into their dishes. The day we arrived to the hotel, I wasn’t in the mood for anything with meet so I ordered guacamole with salsa and plantain chips. After that day, I ordered that meal every day for lunch! The guacamole was so fresh! The salsa which was fresh tomatoes, cilantro and onions was mouth-watering. It made me feel ashamed for eating canned or grocery store salsa. The cilantro, onions, and tomatoes perfectly complemented each other. I may attempt to make the guacamole and salsa, but I fear that it will not be as delicious. The plantain chips were freshly made. They were still hot as they server brought them out. Hopefully, I will be able to find another restaurant that can make fresh guacamole and salsa like the restaurant in Puerto Rico. I guess until then I will sadly stick to grocery store salsa.

Little Giant Blueberry Tree

Yesterday I was sitting on the couch watching TV, (as all good college students do when they don't have any plans for spring break) and I got a little freaked out when I saw this new infomercial. It's for a product called "Little Giant Blueberries". It's this genetically engineered blueberry plant that can produce 4 pints of blueberries everyday and grow up to 8ft tall in 90 days.

Oh brother.


Every summer my sister and I would run through the woods near our town lake, scouring for the wild blueberry bushes that were infested with tons of tiny blue dots of juicy goodness. Once picked, it would take days for the berries to grow back, and the bushes never grew taller than about a foot, let alone 8!

Watching this infomercial, I had to wonder how these berries could actually be good for you. They're advertised as an inexpensive way to get fresh fruit and thus - SURPRISE! - lose weight, but when a scientist is interviewed talking about the genetic benefits of these particular berries, I get a little frightened. I'm interested to know what you all think - here's the link to the website and their infomercial!

https://www.blueberrygiantplants.com/?mid=769997&a=55958&s=asotvr&ClickID=03_70971418_4f423fa5-4ba3-4d6b-9f13-71bd02803c27

Home Sweet Froyo

Now that we are all on Spring Break, I'm sure that for those of us who are home, we've been returning to our favorite local eateries. I am guilty as charges, but happily so because one of my favorite places in Palo Alto is Fraiche Yogurt. Fraiche, (pronounced "fresh") is a local froyo stop that popped up in Palo Alto before any chain like Pinkberry or Red Mango came to town.

What sets Fraiche apart from most frozen yogurt places is that it makes a fresh yogurt and a frozen yogurt. The fresh yogurt is simply non-fat milk and probiotic cultures. This fresh yogurt is the base of the frozen yogurt, which also comes in Valrhona chocolate flavor, lactose-free soy, and pomegranate. All the yogurts are either 99% fat-free or fat-free. Like most frozen yogurt places, Fraiche does offer a variety of toppings, such as shaved chocolate, figs, olallieberry puree, fruits, nuts and honey.

The taste of the natural frozen yogurt is light, and in comparison to Northampton's GoBerry original flavor, the natural does not have as heavy of a milky taste. Fraiche frozen yogurts are all thinner than GoBerry's. Though Fraiche is much more expensive than any frozen yogurt place I have been to, the portions are fairly generous and the quality is always satisfactory.

I don't know when any of you might be in California in the near future, but if you are, you can't come to Palo Alto or San Francisco without stopping by!

SkyMall's latest invention: Fruit by the vial

On my flight to England, I couldn't help but peruse every airline's unfailingly amusing piece of literature: the SkyMall catalog. For the uninitiated, SkyMall displays a great collection of the newest, flashiest, most overpriced and unnecessary products - electronic tie racks, fake rock lawn ornaments, space-age head massage machines, and so on. This most recent issue featured a full-page spread on a new line of food-like products. FruitAsia, the most prominently displayed variety, is apparently "the original fruit and vegetable shot, offering an exciting new way to get the goodness of fruits and vegetables your body needs each day." The product (which is apparently "mouth-watering") is sold by the 3-ounce vial, and it claims that the producers have managed to compress 5 servings of fruits and vegetables into each shot. Also featured are revelatory products like Proasis, the "original all-natural protein shot," PediaGro, a protein shot for toddlers and young children, and Protein gem, which is essentially a protein-injected Jell-o cup. (You can read about all eight products on SkyMall's online catalog.)

I wondered, since when is it a pain to eat fruits and vegetables? And who's so deprived of protein that they have to resort to getting it from a vial? The FruitAsia series vividly illustrates our collective impatience for healthy eating, and encourages us to eat laboratory-produced Franken-foodstuff in order to spare ourselves the trouble of eating a balanced, nutritious diet.

Integrated nutrition

Vacation time! Traditionally all diets are off when you hit the road. Since I'm not traveling far, I thought that I'd try to keep my locavorism intact on my weekend trip. After all, there is still plenty of local fare in the Hudson Valley.

I'm visiting my friend Lily in Beacon NY. We began today with a trip to the Coldspring Farmer's Market. Their web site provides directions, as well as a lists of vendors both general or week specific. http://www.csfarmmarket.org/fm-vendors09.html

What a different winter market than the one in Northampton! Noho has three prepared food vendors tops, one of which is a bakery, with 6 tables dedicated to farm direct foods. Coldspring's market is mainly prepared foods, with only one table occupied with fresh produce. However they have a fish vendor, the first I've seen at a farmer's market! Also, the one table of produce has mushrooms! Needless to say I was super excited.

Lily and I bought flounder, scallions, mushrooms, arugula, and a sour cherry tart. We ate most of it for lunch. The mushrooms were a combination of king oyster and fresh shitake. I marinated the latter in tamari and olive oil and sliced the former into thick scallop like rings. The mushrooms got prepared in batches- first the oyster "scallops" fried in a bit of olive oil until golden brown, then a quick stir fry of the marinated shitake which I garnished with diagonally sliced scallion green after I tossed them all together. Lily pan fried the flounder with scallion bulb, and seasoned it with salt, pepper, lemon and paprika. A quick salad of arugula completed the meal. Scrumptious!

Then we were off to DIA Beacon, a museum of contemporary art. I love museums, but my feelings about modern art are either to love it or hate it. This museum had lots of art that spoke to me: this piece begged me to get up close and personal with it.
Shortly after this we were told that photos weren't allowed.

Regardless, if you're in the area, I highly recommend you check DIA out. http://www.diabeacon.org/sites/main/beacon

All that museum walking had us hungry again, and for dinner we opted to order out. For this we turned to Poppy's. http://www.poppyburger.com/Poppys_Burgers_and_Fries/Welcome.html

Like Local Burger in Noho, their menu features burgers made from local grass fed organic beef. I indulged in a BBQ bacon cheeseburger.
(photo by Paul David O'Hanlon from the Poppy's website)

I wanted to compare this to Localburger's Westhampton. How did it measure up? Poppy's sauce isn't as sweet, their bacon is thicker, and they serve their burger on a flaky egg bread bun. In my humble burger loving opinion, Poppy's is tastier.

After dinner, it was tart time. Thanks to Lily's presence of mind, we have a photo of it before...
and after....



Made by Dutch Desserts in Kinderhook ( www.dutchdesserts.com ) Lily's opinion was that this delicious little gem had a " crumbly cookie like crust", that went well with "not too sweet" filling. She said she prefers tarts because "pies can be sickeningly sweet." I agree that this tart was a perfect balance of sweet and tart, neither overwhelming the other.

So, my local food integrity intact for another day, I am sated by a day's worth of nourishment. Not only have I eaten delicious, fresh food, but I've spent the day in great company feeding my mind, heart, and soul.

Wal-Mart vs. Burger King

As evidenced by our recent readings, people with greater income levels are often able to make healthier food choices. They often have more money to spend on food as well as more time. In addition, they have greater access to stores that stock healthier foods. However, I found this set of images from Sparkpeople that compares fast food prices to the price of healthier items stocked at Wal-Mart.

The food from Wal-Mart is healthier and more cost effective. It is definitely difficult to choose the healthy options that may be more time consuming to prepare but I think people need to be made aware of healthier and more economical options.

Check out some of the other comparisons!
http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=what_20_will_buy_at_the_drivethru_and_at_the_supermarket