Recipe and Cook's Corner

[Marz]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1370364/Prince-William-asks-special-wedding-cake-Rich-Tea-biscuits-dark-chocolate.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

gonna try this, its sounds yummy!

[Marz]

as a mushroom fan..... that looks especially yummy.

glad you enjoy cooking!

i fondly recall reading the "He could also cook!" entry in Beyond Brokeback the other day... it was touching. i almost wish he had elaborated on what the first fantastic meal was that his lover ended up cooking for him.

Its very yummy, gonna make it again soon

[oilgun]

This is NOT yummy!

Meat Glue!  I had never heard of this and it's pretty shocking.  I just may turn into a vegan again it's so disgusting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXXrB3rz-xU

[oilgun]

Ok, maybe not vegan, but definitely vegetarian..

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/vegetarian-diet-may-reduce-risks-for-serious-health-problems-2268727.html

Vegetarian diet may reduce risks for serious health problems
Saturday, 16 April 2011

A new US study suggests that vegetarians may be at significantly lower risk of developing a condition associated with heart disease, diabetes, and stroke than people who eat meat.

Announced April 13, researchers found that vegetarians (those who eat meat of any kind less than once a month) experience a 36 percent lower prevalence of metabolic syndrome, a precursor to heart disease, diabetes, and stroke, than non-vegetarians. To measure metabolic syndrome, researchers tested for five risk factors: high blood pressure, high HDL cholesterol, high glucose levels, elevated triglycerides, and an unhealthy waist circumference. The benefits of the herbivore diet also held up when adjusted for factors such as age, smoking, alcohol consumption, and physical activity.
[...]

The researchers' next study will be to determine if smokers experience a higher prevalence of lung diseases than non-smokers. 

[CellarDweller115]

White Chocolate Brownies:

6 tablespoons of unsalted butter
8 ounces of white chocolate (or one cup of white chocolate chips)
2 eggs
1/4 cup of sugar
1/2 tablespoon of vanilla
1 cup of flour
1/2 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350.

Grease and flour an 8 inch square baking pan, or line with foil.  Melt butter and 4 ounces of the white chocolate in top of a double boiler over hot water.  When melted, remove from heat and add the other 4 ounces of white chocolate, stir to blend well.  Set aside.  Beat the eggs and sugar until pale and smooth.  Add white chocolate and butter mixture, vanilla and flour.  Beat just until smooth.  Add semisweet chips and stir by hand, being carefull not to over-mix.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool on a wire rack, cut into squares.

My own little "twist", I melted some of the excess white chocolate I had and drizled them over the top.

[gnash]

mm, that looks like cornbread with cilantro~ 

i like the drizzle of white chocolate on top... nothing like a little added sweetness

[Jer009]

Time to Revive Home Ec

(snips)

Too many Americans simply don’t know how to cook. Our diets, consisting of highly processed foods made cheaply outside the home thanks to subsidized corn and soy, have contributed to an enormous health crisis. More than half of all adults and more than a third of all children are overweight or obese. Chronic diseases associated with weight gain, like heart disease and diabetes, are hobbling more and more Americans.

But what if the government put the tools of obesity prevention in the hands of children themselves, by teaching them how to cook?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/opinion/revive-home-economics-classes-to-fight-obesity.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=bring%20back%20home%20ec&st=cse

[gnash]

^^^ from the article:

"My first brush with home economics, as a seventh grader in a North Carolina public school two decades ago, was grim. The most sophisticated cooking we did was opening a can of pre-made biscuit dough, sticking our thumbs in the center of each raw biscuit to make a hole, and then handing them over to the teacher, who dipped them in hot grease to make doughnuts."

EWWW....

luckily, home ec in the seventies was slightly better. we made things like salads and pizza... but the only thing i really remember making was chocolate chip cookies, because somebody in our group (probably steve) turned the oven up to 550 degrees...  when our teacher noticed that, she shrieked. she admonished us, turned down the heat, then opened the oven door and bent down to check on our cookies.

the heat from the oven immediately melted her synthetic wig.... it went from fluffy to flat (and shiny) in in two seconds.

nobody said a word, but we all looked at her in horror. the rest of the class was conducted with her hair like this. after the bell rang, we raced out, and when she went into her side room to check herself in the mirror, she let out a blood curdling scream. everyone in the class started running.

[CellarDweller115]

nobody said a word, but we all looked at her in horror. the rest of the class was conducted with her hair like this. after the bell rang, we raced out, and when she went into her side room to check herself in the mirror, she let out a blood curdling scream. everyone in the class started running.

[Jer009]

That's a dandy story, gnash! My homeroom was in the home ec kitchen, but I never took home ec. I wish I had!

But I agree with the author--getting kids cooking is a fine start. Get those kids chopping onions and steaming broccoli! Eating what you've cooked yourself  is deeply satisfying, even more when you've grown it, too.

 Plus organic produce is more available than ever (though pricey), and there's community farming going on which I understand is largely organic. And the popularity authors like Michael Pollen and films like Food, Inc. and Jamie Oliver and the rest, I have hope Americans can rediscover real food again.

[gnash]

I fully agree with the beneficial aspects of home gardening! I used to go out and pick my breakfasts in the summertime. Unfortunately, so many city folk don't have the luxury of home gardens. Although, I drove through south central los angeleles the other day and marveled at the expanse of empty space on wide streets like vermont and crenshaw, and wondered why those dirt lots weren't used for planting!

Some people take advantage of the farmers markets that abound in this big city, but they're so expensive. Even grocery stores force people to eat fast food, because it's cheaper. It used to be that cuts of meat were prohibitive and produce was cheap, but now they're both sky high. 3.99 for one artichoke? Really? And if you buy organic, forget it!

I weighed a fresh pineapple the other day. It would have cost nearly 10 dollars. You can get it canned for 99 cents.

So yes, it's cheaper to eat the less nutritional stuff. That's how it's supposed to be. 

For the kids that learn cooking skills early, that's great. You do bring that knowledge with you into adulthood. I am often dismayed at how picky kids are about food. My own neice and nephew had awful eating habits, avoiding most veggies, and they were not adventurous at all. Then again, my sister is an awful cook, lol. It really does matter how you're brought up. 

[chapeaugris]

It also matters what your mother ate when she was pregnant with you, apparently. They did an experiment with pregnant women and found that when the mothers ate a certain food regularly during the third trimester, their babies liked the taste of it when they first tried it.

As for kids learning to cook, I think microwave ovens have been a negative factor. Why bother to go through the time and trouble of chopping and sauteeing when you can grab a Hot Pocket from the freezer, nuke it in the machine and it's ready in less than 2 minutes? We've never had a microwave (I refuse to get one) and when my younger daughter, who doesn't enjoy cooking, was living at home she at least made scrambled eggs or an omelette when she wanted hot food. Now she's living with a family in Colorado and does just what I described above. And the school lunches there...

[Jer009]

Years ago, my family lived in a suburban house, and my parents planted fruit trees. We had mangoes, avocado, grapefruit and mamey (a Caribbean fruit that many Latin people eat) and limes. For my morning tea,  I would pick a fresh lime, and for breakfast I would hunt for where our sole hen layed her eggs. Free range, organic eggs! I didn't know how good I had  it.

About microwave ovens: I own one, but use it mostly to reheat coffee and such, not for "real" cooking. People who nuke a Hot Pocket are likely to eat that way on a regular basis, and their waistlines and cholesterol and sodium numbers show it. Besides nutritional factors, real food is a delight! I love broccoli, yellow squash and all the rest. It's delicious, and I would feel deprived without fresh foods.

[gnash]

3rd trimester? damn, my mother must have eaten just about anything.

i agree about frozen food and microwaves, and ugh, school lunches can be atrocious for sure... i remember the crap in high school even in the seventies. or is that especially in the seventies? i don't know how they were able to ruin the food, but maybe what they had on hand was bad to begin with, like canned vegetables and fruit. i guess you can't expect school cooks to actually peel and cook a potato or carrot. oh, and lots of frozen stuff too. like fish sticks.

wouldn't it be great, if, just to be on the safe side, for their health, and low sugar/sodium/fat intake and all that, if all school menus went vegan? or even just vegetarian?

lol, if schools went vegan, most people would freak out and probably say stuff like we were trying to brainwash the kids or something.

[fritzkep]

Some would. Even suggesting a healthier way to eat brings on accusations of the nanny state on the part of some antigovernment people.