With Cinco de Mayo right around the corner, my brain is buzzing with thoughts of Mexican food -- burritos, tamales, chorizo. But at some point, thoughts switch to faux Mexican dishes, the US concoctions that are more fusion than ethnic. This then leads me to my first forays into recipe creation. I've been cooking and baking since I was a little kid, but it wasn't until I hit puberty and got sick of those too-simple Old El Paso taco mixes that I discovered that recipes are nice, but not necessary.
My mother handed the kitchen over to me, and told me to make my own tacos, since I wasn't happy with the dry, plain mix. In a flurry, I was pulling out old spices that were covered with dust, sniffing, shrugging, and throwing them in. I scoured the fridge for anything that might work and added that. In a blink, I had a meal that was better than any powder or simple sauce. It was just as easy, there was no extra mess, and the result was so very worth it.
Check out the "recipe" after the jump, and let me know what your first unique creation was.
Researchers from Exeter and Oxford U asked 740 pregnant women (all first-time moms) to keep a food diary during their gestation periods.
Their findings? That women who ate more food and more nutrients were 24% more likely to give birth to a boy (specifically, 56% of the women in the group who ate the most gave birth to boys). The average woman who gave birth to a male consumed 2,413 calories a day and ate foods containing potassium, calcium and vitamins C, E and B12. The odds of having a boy were also higher among women who consumed one bowl of cereal every day (though the researchers didn't specify whether the bowl was eaten at breakfast or not).
But some people are wary of the stats, saying that a man's sperm ultimately decides whether a child will be male or female, and that diet has little or nothing to do with it.
If anything, hopefully the study will remind and encourage pregnant women to eat a healthy, well-balanced meal no matter what sex their baby turns out to be.
Are you baking Earth Day-themed cookies? Making an organic fruit salad? Walking to the grocery store (with your reusable bag, of course)? Finally starting your own compost pile?
In this age of recycling, what's a trendy, cola-drinking gal to do when she finishes off her carbonated beverage of choice?
Why, make it into a necklace, of course! All the cool kids are turning their food and drink packaging into something lasting and eco-friendly: jewelry and accessories that are surprisingly fashionable and wearable, in that quirky, I-just-polished-off-a-Kit-Kat sort of way.
Here are some of coolest accessories made from food we could find. Here's hoping the designers rinsed them out first.
Gallery: Food packaging makes for a great accessory
One of the (many) perks of working for Google is that they offer free gourmet meals to all their employees at 17 different cafes across their sprawling network of offices. One discerning Google employee has made something of a name for himself within the company through his regular food recommendations and reviews that he posts to an internal email list for the culinary edification of his co-workers. He's become so well known in the Google community when it comes to food that he was asked to join the committee responsible for hiring the chefs.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published an article about Thunder Parley, this notable Google food reviewer, in their workplace section. It's a fun read, not only for his story, but also as a peek into the world of free Google food.
My grandfather, who died in 2001 at the age of 91, used to proudly announce that he had been subscribing to the New Yorker since its inception in 1925. Whether or not that tidbit was exactly true, that magazine lost a loyal customer when he died, as he did subscribe as long as I knew him (and I was nearly 22 when he made his exit). I used to love to sort through the stacks of back issues that lived on the coffee table in my grandparents' den whenever we visited them, for the old food issues as well as any that featured fiction from authors I knew.
The folks at the New Yorker have put together a slide show of 21 covers that feature food, drink and dining that range from 1925 all the way up to September 2007. It's an interesting thing to take a peek at, because it gives you a glimpse at how our cultural perspective on food has shifted.
I've always been fascinated by how other people live their food lives. This means that I really enjoy cooking with friends, love peeking at the shopping cart contents of strangers and always wanted to check out what my co-workers brought to eat for lunch. This slightly odd trait of mine is why I'm loving a recent addition to my RSS reader.
Simply Breakfast is a site that gets updated just about every weekday (and occasionally on the weekend as well) and features a single image in each post. Every day the picture is of what Jen is having for breakfast that morning. In concept it sounds sort of boring, but Jen is an artist who seems to carefully compose her meal before she snaps the shot. The result is something that is inspiring, appealing and addictive. She's got a new book out that gathers a bunch of her breakfast images together and also has an Etsy shop where you can buy prints of her photos.
Until I hit high school, my family ate dinner together nearly every night. I'm talking TV off, table set, glasses of milk, hands held for a moment of silence, dinner. I feel really lucky to have grown up with such a foundation of family meals and someday when I have kids, I hope to give them the same experience.
Both studies and common sense tell us that eating communally it good for us, so someone out there went and declared this week (September 16-22) National Eat Dinner Together Week. Sponsored by the National Pork Board (who oddly situated it in the middle of the Jewish High Holidays*) it is a good reminder to clear off the table, make a pot of soup, a roasted chicken or a stop at your local prepared foods market and sit down with your friends and family.
*The Jewish side of my family is highly secular. They don't think twice about eating pork products most of the year, but even they try to avoid them during the High Holidays. Seems like an odd choice on the part of the Pork Board.
Maine Fare- Celebrating the Bounty of Maine! Is a three day event held each year in the mid-coast area with tastings, book signings, cooking classes and demonstrations, great food and beverages of all kinds, and over thirty of the best chefs in the state getting together to show off the bounty of food in Maine. If you are a foodie, then this is the place to be the third weekend in September, Friday 9/14, Saturday 9/15, and Sunday 9/16/2007.
Originally this event started out as the 2005 Camden Food and Wine Festival but it grew so rapidly that the focus had to widen as well. Now Maine Fare is coordinated by Maine Festivals and Events, a nonprofit corporation dedicated to preserving, protecting, and sharing the cultural resources of Maine through a wide range of educational programs and special events.
As far as wine regions, the Central Coast of California uses unusual grapes and SIV praises a hot wine, Le Picpoul from the Languedoc region in France.
You must have A/C in your house if you can stand to be in the kitchen! White wine gelees are a refreshing addition to the summer table and the Times hunts down the recipe for Grilled Cheese from restaurant Lucques.
I used to be afraid of scallops. Like few other things for which there is no explanation other than "maybe I was traumatized by it so badly in my childhood that I can't remember it, but I know I hate it," scallops were deep down in there with roast beef, rice krispies treats, cherry-flavored cough syrup, and the entire cuisine of Vietnam. However, in recent months, I have slowly been facing these fears head on.
Okay, so I am pretty sure that I still can't eat roast beef and rice krispies treats, but I have had some awesome experiences with scallops.
A friend of mine made a dinner of seared scallops that had been seasoned with just basic spices and exotic mushrooms that were sauteed in nothing but butter. Sometimes, the most delicious things are just that uncomplicated.
One of the things with which I have fallen in love in recent history is squash blossoms. When I first encountered these, I was slightly turned off by the idea of eating such giant flowers, even though I wasn't unfamiliar with edible flowers. It's just that the edible flowers I've eaten in the past have been small things that have been tossed in with salads.
For some reason, this picture of squash blossoms over on food blog Big City, Little Kitchen makes me want to sit out on a sunny deck with a glass of lightly chilled wine and a plate of these things, as prepared in the recipe for Fried Squash Blossoms in the post. The cool thing is that the recipe, though uses the standard stuffing of ricotta cheese, uses cornmeal as the breading.
If UK's Soil Association has its way, there might be a ban on organic foods imported into the UK. At the very least, the Soil Association would want those foods that are allowed in the UK to be stripped of their "organic" label.
The concern arises because the organic foods are brought into Britain via carbon-emitting flights. The demand for organic foods is rising much faster than UK farmers' ability to supply it. However, increasing the number of flights into the UK with organic foods from elsewhere means that there will be an increase in greenhouse warming.
How can someone who puts out such a fun food mag put on such an unbearable TV show?
I want to like Rachael Ray, the TV show. I really, really do. Honest. But it's just an annoying hour to me. Maybe it's because I'm a guy. One minute Rachael will be teaching us how to make some cool quick meal with pasta and vegetables, and then five minutes later she'll be talking about women in abusive relationships or how someone can organize the shoes in their closets. It just doesn't work for me. (And there's also the whole thing with her voice and bubbly personality, which I can take on 30 Minute Meals but when it's an hour every day...). But it's really popular, so maybe I'm not the right audience.
But Every Day With Rachael Ray? That's a great little magazine. It has a bunch of recipes that you feel you can actually cook (unlike some mags), quick guides to eating in various cities, tips on shopping, tips on buying wine, interviews. It's well-done. If there's one quibble I have is the whole "celebrity fridge" feature in the back of every issue. It's kinda funny to see what celebs have in there, but do we have to have some quiz about what they have? On the same page where we can see the answers?!? It seems to be a quiz made for people who find the TV Guide crossword difficult.
Have you ever stashed a Coke in the freezer, hoping to chill it quickly, then forgotten all about it, only to have it explode all over your frozen peas?
Until I hit high school, my family ate dinner together nearly every night. I'm talking TV off, table set, glasses of milk, hands held for a moment of silence, dinner. I feel really lucky to have grown up with such a foundation of family meals and someday when I have kids, I hope to give them the same experience. 
If UK's Soil Association has its way, there 
How can someone who puts out such a fun food mag put on such an unbearable TV show?
A fraking amazing Battlestar Galactica cake
Iced Tea 101
Pierogies + cheese + onions + kraut = Parmageddon!
