NY Times: Switching to Grass-Fed Beef.
”Beef from grass-fed animals has lower levels of unhealthy fats and higher levels of omega-3 fatty acids, which are better for cardiovascular health. Grass-fed beef also has lower levels of dietary cholesterol and offers more vitamins A and E as well as antioxidants.”
Reuters: Tax soda, pizza to cut obesity, researchers say.
Discover: Beer Consumption Increases Human Attractiveness to Malaria Mosquitoes.
”These results suggest that beer consumption is a risk factor for malaria and needs to be integrated into public health policies for the design of control measures.” So, I suppose you stick to G&T;’s in the tropics ...
Reuters: Life of wine.
CNN: The no-budget diners’ guide.
“Crickets and grasshoppers: First, pluck off the barbed legs, because they can chafe your digestive tract. Then, roast the body for a snack that’s both crunchy and nutritious.” Also, don’t miss the tips on munching your shoes.
Washington Post: FDA warns of salmonella risk from common flavor enhancer.
IMPORTANT. “Thousands of types of processed foods — including many varieties of soups, chips, hot dogs and salad dressings — may pose a health threat because they contain a flavor enhancer that could be contaminated with salmonella, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.” Here’s the list. There’s a Trader Joe’s item on there.
notonthehighstreet.com: dunk mug by mocha.
I’ll take one of these, too. With a nice fat chocolate chip underneath.
The Coolist: L’Arc Paris Restaurant + Club.
Very nice, but is it too much to ask, to see people in the space?
Wired: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation.
“Indeed, 90 percent of the world’s wheat has little or no protection against the Ug99 race of P. graminis. If nothing is done to slow the pathogen, famines could soon become the norm — from the Red Sea to the Mongolian steppe — as Ug99 annihilates a crop that provides a third of our calories.”
The Atlantic: The Great Grocery Smackdown.
“In the grocery section of the Raynham supercenter, 45 minutes south of Boston, I had trouble believing I was in a Walmart. [snip] The first thing I saw, McIntosh apples, came from the same local orchard whose apples I’d just seen in the same bags at Whole Foods. The bunched beets were from Muranaka Farm, whose beets I often buy at other markets — but these looked much fresher. The service people I could find (it wasn’t hard) were unfailingly enthusiastic, though I did wonder whether they got let out at night.” In this economy, the grocery that synchs high quality with low price will win out.
I’ll also make a plug for groceries that keep their produce ‘freshened.’ Too many times I walk into Whole Foods to spoiled or rotting veg — or, going off on a tangent, Trader Joe’s to find short-dated meats. [I live 20 minutes outside of town; having to return things ends up being a time-consuming, gas-consuming pain in the arse.]
Slate: The environmental impact of pet food.
“… the emotional attachment you feel to your dog or cat isn’t a free pass to ignore its contribution to your family’s overall consumption patterns. Maybe it means you make some personal trade-offs to balance out your choice of animal companion — like riding your bike instead of driving, for example.” Or ask your dog to become a vegetarian (also suggested in this article).
LA Times: Tim Burton based his weird White Queen on cooking star Nigella Lawson.
“She’s really beautiful and she does all this cooking, but then there’s this glint in her eye and when you see it you go, ‘Oh, whoa, she’s like really ... nuts.’ I mean in a good way. Well, maybe. I don’t know.” Excellent.
Washington Post: Alternatives to BPA containers not easy for U.S. foodmakers to find.
“But they are discovering how complicated it is to remove the chemical, which is in the epoxy linings of nearly every metal can on supermarket shelves and leaches into foods such as soup, liquid baby formula and soda.” Read further to find out how soaked we are in BPA: cutting boards, gloves, CDs, dental sealants, credit card and ATM receipts, sports bottles, baby bottles, food containers, eyeglasses, computers ...
Metro.co.UK: ‘Cat casserole’ TV chef Beppe Bigazzi banned after La Prova Del Cuoco show.
“I can assure you, it’s a delicacy – now I am going to get lots of letters.” Siamese brown rice casserole, Easy Himalayan casserole, Layered Abyssinian bake ... just teasing. I doubt many people have a clean stream behind their digs.
Miller-McCune: Studying Drunken Promiscuity at Mardi Gras.
“68 percent of the men and 63 percent of the women reported having at least five or six drinks per sitting. Almost one-quarter of the men reported having at least 16 drinks per sitting; 15 percent of women reported the same.” I wouldn’t be functional with that amount of alcohol.
NewWest.Net: New Rules Put Organic Dairy Cows Out to Pasture.
“… it’s not just dairies that will have to change their ways. Organic meat producers will have to do the same—120 days of pasture and at least 30 percent of the animals’ diets coming from pasture during the grazing season. The new rules go into effect in June and producers have a year to comply.”
It just came to me.
Whole Foods here in Santa Fe sells chicken breasts prepackaged in threes. Did they come upon a farm with mutated three-breasted birds? Most recipes I come across use two or four ...
BBC News: Fish oil supplements ‘beat psychotic mental illness’.
“A three-month course of the supplement appeared to be as effective as drugs, cutting the rate of psychotic illness like schizophrenia by a quarter.”
New Scientist: Did rice wine lead to flushed faces in Asia?
”The mutation causes alcohol to be metabolised at 100 times the speed that it otherwise would be. As the enzyme removes alcohol so quickly from the blood stream, it protects people from the harmful effects of alcohol ...” Downside: the antithesis of a cheap date.
Rebecca Blood: 7 tips for the home baker.
Some great baking tips. In his later years, my old man took a shine to creating French bread. I still remember his thermometers, his timers, his weighing scales. Our kitchen, on a Saturday morning, looked like the chemical lab of a mad scientist. He had great success in making all kinds of things. His real joy came when adding a baking stone and dousing it with water. Then the crusts would crack properly.
If you’re at high altitude (as I am), a less-dense atmosphere with less oxygen wreaks havoc with ‘traditional’ recipes. I have a ‘cheat sheet’ we use when baking. Speaking generally, less baking powder or soda, less sugar. Increase liquid, increase flour. Raise baking temp about 25 degrees.
Dig around online, you’ll find the tricks. My problem these days is dealing with gluten-free recipes. Everything you know about traditional flours gets thrown out the window.
365/25.
I said I wasn’t going to do Pottery Barn shots. Some will say this is too damned close. I’ll plead that I wanted to play with reflections, and my mirror experiments were failing spectacularly. This is a little different than PB, nesting different kinds of glasses within each other in sharp afternoon sun-setting light. The inner glass is one of those wonderful Glencairn glasses, a creation that has transformed my consumption of Scotch whiskies.
Self-portrait on the photoblog.
Our Best Bites: Brilliant. Put me down for a half-dozen.
BBC News: No, really, that’s OK … you can keep the sheep lungs.
US planning to relax haggis ban. “Ms MacSween said sales of haggis were no longer confined to the Burns Night season in January. The company has also diversified into products such as haggis nachos, she said.” Haggis nachos. Now, I’ve heard the more adventurous chefs here in town apply sauce as “paint.” I don’t think any of them have gone *here* yet.
