"veggies" news and stories

A cucumber. A pickle. They're the same thing, but are they fruits or vegetables?

Think you know your stuff? Take my little quiz here on a piece of paper and see the answers after the jump.

QUESTIONS - FRUIT OR VEGETABLE?

1. Cucumber
2. Potato
3. Bell Pepper
4. Corn
5. Tomato
6. Radish
7. Peanut
8. Acorn Squash
9. Artichoke
10. Snow Peas

Source

We all know that we're supposed to wear sun screen to protect us from harmful radiation from the sun, right? Well did you know that fruit or vegetables grown in the sun need it too?

I know that thought has never occurred to me before, but I can see the reasoning. If human skin can get sunburned, why not apple skin? Apparently about 20 to 40 percent of some crops are destroyed every year from solar radiation, according to an article in the Mercury News. That's bad for farmers, who can only use the damaged fruit for juice, as well as the environment, as crops that are more susceptible to sun damage need more water.

The article features a company that makes sunscreen for produce, Purfresh which makes the veggie sunscreen Purshade among other things. I just thought that this perspective on sunburn was very interesting and worth sharing. How do you feel about sun screen for produce?

According to A Good Day for Salads, (in a section entitled A Short Course on the First Course) the advent of the salad as the first component of a meal came in this country when the first European settlers arrived. They were amazed by the abundance of fresh, edible vegetation. While they waited for their meat to cook over open fires, the couldn't help but nibble at the young greens growing all around them. Thus a tradition was born.

This book, written by Louise Fiszer and Jeannette Ferrary, attempts to take the simple salad to a far more sophisticated and tasty place than those plain greens that the founding fathers plucked from nearby clearings. They start with dressings and other tasty toppings and move forward through chapters devoted to bite-sized salads, salads as starters, folk-y salads (mostly the traditional salads associated with particular ethnic cuisines), salads for parties and potlucks, picnic salads, salads that can serve a full meal, fruit salads, salads for dieters, wrapped salads and lastly, salads you can make from the pantry.

If you are looking for a fresh approach to salads, this is a lovely book to look at. Their combinations and pairings are interesting and occasionally surprising (with happily tasty results). They don't just focus on the lettuce-based salads, also offering up pasta, grain, meat and alternative veggie mixes. If your garden is producing overtime or your CSA box is delivering more each week than you know what to do with, this could be helpful.

Source

I had no idea that taste buds were inherited. I always thought that while we are born with certain likes and dislikes when it comes to food, we can learn to like various foods (or dislike - I often go through long phases where I don't like a food I usually like).

Over at Esquire.com, Dr. Mehmet Oz (he's the guy in the scrubs you see on Oprah a lot) explains that we get our taste buds from our parents, and that half of us fall into an extreme category. There are supertasters, who have more taste buds, and undertasters, who have less and have to eat more flavorful food. He even gives us a test to see which one we are. Mix one packet of Sweet 'N Low in half a glass of water. Put a spoonful on your tongue. If it's sweet, you're an undertaster. If it's bitter, you're a supertaster.

I don't have any Sweet 'N Low in the house so I can't try it, but if you do let us know in the comments.

A couple of Friday nights, I took a break from school work in order to make a big pot of beef stew. I needed to retreat to some deeply comforting food and in cold weather there's nothing like beef stew (at least in my mind) to warm you up. It had been awhile since I had made it and but it's one of those recipes that always comes back to me when I have the ingredients spread out in front of me.

You can adjust this recipe to your tastes. I used about a cup of red wine to deglaze the pan when the veggies have picked up all the caramelized brown bits that come from browning the meat, but if you can use a little water instead. I always use parsnips in mine, but if you find them objectionable, feel free to leave them out. Instructions on how to make my version of beef stew are after the jump.