February 2010


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Is Educating Parents Too Much to Ask?

hotdogoctopus4

Pediatricians are calling for a redesign of the hot dog.

No, I’m not bullshitting you.

Apparently a hot dog is:

The perfect plug for a child’s airway.

Is it, really? A long tubular piece of meat? Are children swallowing these whole?

Now, I don’t have children. But this seems strange.

Oh wait a second. I think these pediatricians mean the small, round coins that parents CUT THE HOT DOGS INTO FOR CHILDREN are a choking hazard.

Here are some ideas for anyone that is concerned:

1) Cut the hot dog in half lengthwise

2) Educate your child on chewing food

3) Don’t feed your child a nitrate filled hot dog if they are too small to chew their own food.

4) Leave my hot dog alone. Seriously.

(Photo Credit)

in Rants & Raves / Red Meat 3 comments
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Homemade Pasta, Take Two

spaghetti

Right off the bat, I have to give you ESers credit for suggesting the Pioneer Woman’s pasta recipe. I used it for my second go at making pasta and it blew the recipe from the pasta machine box out of the water. It’s funny how only a few tiny little differences can make such a sea change in the final product. I guess you bakers out there already knew that, huh? I don’t know if it was the flour-to-egg ratio, the beating the eggs by hand (which was fun!) or something else that put this one over the top, but it finally got me that fresh fettuccine I was looking for.

Still, as tasty as fresh pasta is, it’s still just pasta, and if you ask me it needs some added oomph. I was tempted to add some truffle oil or basil or something weirder right into the dough, but I wanted to first see how the basic recipe worked, so I resisted the urge this time. (Yep, I’m proud of myself and yep, I’m open to suggestions for the future.)

So the flava experimenting was left for the pasta add-ons. Looking around my kitchen, I saw the usual suspects: bacon and pine nuts. Two ingredients I’ve blabbed on about for years, yet had somehow never completely been brought together. Until now.

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in Bacon / Endless Bacon / Pig / Recipe 1 comments
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Saluting 10 Ways to Eat Healthy at 7-11

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Finding sustainability is a process. For me, it took years of kitchen experimentation. I started with a bag of frozen mixed vegetables, bathed them in I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Spray and topped it with an economy-size jar of Cajun seasoning. I know, every item I mentioned should be charged with sustainable foul play. But it’s a process. Not only learning what tastes good together (not frozen vegetables soaked in spray butter), but learning about ingredients themselves. Fresh vegetables would be better. Fresh vegetables in real butter would be even better. And in-season vegetables would be better yet.

When I recently stopped in 7-11 to grab a carton of ice cream (sometimes coffee ice cream is mandatory), the multiple rows of fruit stunned me. Fruit in 7-11. Of course the rest of the aisles burst with high fructose corn syrup and artificial flavors, but it’s still a positive first step. Remember, it’s a process.

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in Lists / Veggie 2 comments
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Cheese Porn

cheese magazine

As you surely know by now, I’m a sucker for cheese. And despite my typical blogger shit talk, I also happen to be a sucker for dead tree media. So on a recent Barnes & Noble trip I really had no choice when confronted with Culture: the word on cheese. That’s right, an entire magazine completely about cheese. Cheese making, cheese tasting, cheese travel — if it doesn’t have curds, Culture doesn’t cover it.

Despite the rather preposterous $9.95 cover price, clearly I had to pick up a copy of the winter issue. And I’m glad I did, because inside it gets even better:

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in Cheese 3 comments
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How To Make Your Water Sparkle

For Liza’s birthday, her mom (Ruby Girl) bought her Sodastream, a DIY sparkling water maker. Liza is an avid sparkling water drinker and a major environmentalist, so this gift was right-on. The Sodastream machine also turns water into: cola, ginger ale, tonic and lemonade. While the upfront price tag is a bit high – like most things green – the end result will both save on dollars and waste – also like most things green.

Enjoy Liza’s sparkling demo:

in Drinks / Trends 8 comments
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Feed Us Back: Comments of the Week

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You ESers to all worked up this week, particular about the definition of a foodie. Nicky:

I think it’s funny that this question even comes up in this day and age. Are you telling me that people like Heidi Swanson at 101 Cookbooks are not foodies? I think people would be surprised to find out many of the foodies they know and love are vegetarian. Watch your backs meat eating foodies we are right on your tails.

erica has a better idea than posting calorie counts at fast food restaurants:

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in Veggie 0 comments
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Friday Fuck Up: A Whole Lot of Fucking Up

tuscanmilk

A little bit ago I led 80P into a terrible failure of a dinner. I felt awful. It wasn’t until he sucked down almost all of the ill-tasting noodles that I realized we could at least turn this barely edible dinner into a blog post. I actually coached 80 along, offering advice on a few of the steps. In this gChat interview, however, I straddle the line between innocent interviewer and guilty girlfriend.

gansie: so, 80, tell me about that time you fucked up pasta sauce

80P: I was hoping to make an edible cream sauce for pasta

gansie: mmm…cream sauce

80P: but apparently I didn’t use enough fat

gansie: what’d you start with

80P: Well, I started with whole milk, which I thought would thicken if I simmered it for a while

gansie: whole milk – why the hell did you have whole milk in the fridge. gross.

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in Cheese 7 comments
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