"meals" news and stories

When I was preparing the lamb earlier this month, I looked at the bottle of wine that I needed to pull out for the recipe and came to a decision: I would make a nice place setting, dim the lights a little, and give my meal some ambiance. Topped with a side serving of Henry Miller, I had an amazing meal. A rare, amazing meal. But while the food was great, it rests in my memory banks more for the experience.

The dinner got me to thinking -- even those of us who spend much of our days thinking, talking, making, or writing about food don't always give it the attention it deserves. Think about it -- you taste something, you moan, you devour, but you also get sidetracked by diversions -- television, conversation, busyness. It's quite easy to appreciate, but not really concentrate, on a dish.

But we should, at least a little more. A simple and nice place setting invokes similar responses and feelings to one set for a bigger deal. A wine or flavored water will touch the tastebuds in a way cola can't. Running a paper napkin across your lips is nothing like cloth. But more than all of that, it's the feeling the whole package evokes -- time to relax, enjoy, and savor your food. The spotlight has been turned on, and directed towards your plate.

If you find a quite night in the middle of holiday stress, slow town, take a moment, and make yourself something special. We put so much care into picking our food, why not how we plate and eat it? Sometimes it makes all the difference.

I was just sitting here, typing into the wee hours of the night when I heard sirens. They got closer, and closer, and then stopped in front of my house. I figured I was safe, since the alarms in my building go off if you roast coffee, let alone stir up some big flames. So I go outside, and the abandoned house across the street is a-flame. There's a nice toasty smoke haze to the air, and the sidewalks are littered with late-night passerby and robe-clad residents.

Looking at the smoky, empty house, the sirens and incessantly blinking lights from 6 firetrucks began to fade away. The house was replaced with a more modest late-fall bonfire in my mind, one with loud, crackling flames.

Being a foodie, that quickly stirred up thoughts bonfire-worthy snacks. When the sky is dark, the air is cold, and the flames are crackling, what foods do you eat?

For most of the years of my life, my family has eaten string beans as the main vegetable for Christmas dinner. We don't do the traditional green bean casserole, instead choosing to steam them and dress them with butter, toasted almonds, salt and a little roasted garlic. They are so good and my sister, mother and I often fight over the leftovers the next day.

However, this year we're planning on deviated from our tradition in order to have a huge bowl of these Brussels Sprouts instead. Sadly, according to our friends over at Green Daily, Brussels Sprouts are not a particularly green choice for the holiday table. Apparently the seem to have the ability to cause some people to have a bit of gas after they eat them. If you multiply that gas over the millions of people who eat sprouts for Christmas dinner, it can have something of an effect on the green house effect. Luckily, for those of us who don't want to give up our sprouts, we can follow these simple cooking tips in order to reduce their gassy effects.

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I saw an ad in a food magazine recently in which a mother was putting down a platter holding a tofurky in front of her son and girlfriend. It implied that it was the first tofurky that this woman had prepared and that she was doing it for this new arrival who was presumably a vegetarian.

I imagine that there are actually quite a few of you out there who may find yourself with a vegetarian or vegan around your holiday table next week. I actually don't recommend preparing tofurky as my experiences with it have been decidedly unpleasant (it's great in concept but sadly just doesn't taste that good). Instead, you might want to check out this post over at the Well Fed Network which lays out a bunch of tips and recipes for how you might want to make your non-meat eating guests feel welcome around your table.

During the years that my sister was a vegetarian, we typically made lots of veggies and always had several non-meat dishes into which we added chopped and toasted nuts for additional protein. For those of you who aren't meat eaters, how to do you handle these big, celebratory meals?

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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.

via the Epi-log
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