How to Survive Without Ever Eating Food... What?

I stumbled upon a website today that took me by surprise. At first I thought it was joke, but then I realized the guy is serious. He stopped eating food two months ago. And yep, he's still alive. Rob Rhinehart, every body. A computer programmer from the Bay Area, Rhinehart had the idea that the body needs only certain nutrients, not the actual foods that contain them, so he set out to make a concoction that contains only the nutrients that have been deemed necessary and/or beneficial for human survival. What resulted was a drink, which he's calling Soylent. Apparently it tastes fairly sweet, is psychologically satisfying, and has him feeling physically and mentally prime. He's supposedly improved in his physical activity (able to run farther) and mental ability (increased focus, faster thinking, etc.). He even says that scars he's had for years have become nearly invisible in just the two months he's been drinking Soylent. I'm certainly skeptical as to whether this is something that is sustainable or is just working short-term, but I'm extremely interested to see more. He's planning to start a Kickstarter campaign and to run a clinical trial if the funding from that comes through. Although I'm not sure how safe this is (considering he's not a chemist or dietitian and makes the drink on his own at home), I must say I'm hooked and curiously awaiting future developments.

http://robrhinehart.com/

Happy Easter!

Every year, the day after Easter, I always see photos of every family's yearly traditional Easter Bunny Cake. I always wonder,"how in the World did they create such a masterpiece." This year I have finally took the initiative to look at a recipe and figure out how it's done; and who better to learn from than the famous Betty Crocker! Does this look hard or easy to master? You be the judge.

EASTER BUNNY CAKE

Prep Time: 30 min
Total Time: 2 hr 10 min
Servings: 12

Ingredients

1 box Betty Cocker SuperMoist carrot cake mix
Water, vegetable oil and eggs called for on cake mix box
Tray or cardboard covered with wrapping paper and plastic food wrap or foil
1 container Betty Crocker Whipped fluffy white frosting
1 cup shredded coconut
Construction paper
Jelly beans or small gumdrops, as desired
1 cup shredded coconut
Green food color

Directions

Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees F (325 degrees F for dark or nonstick pans). Make, bake and cool cake as directed on box for two 8-inch or 9-inch round pans.

Step 2
Reserve 1 layer for another use or to make a second bunny. Cut 1 layer in half as shown in diagram. Put halves together with frosting to make body. Place cake upright on cut edge on tray.

Step 3
Cut out a notch about one-third of the way up one end of body to form head (small end) as shown in diagram. Attach half of cutout piece from tail with toothpicks. Frost with remaining frosting, rounding body on sides. Sprinkle with 1 cup coconut. Cut ears from construction paper; wrap ends that will be inserted into cake with plastic food wrap. Press into notch on top. Use jelly beans for eyes and nose.

Step 4
Shake 1 cup coconut and 3 drops food color in tightly covered jar until evenly tinted. Surround bunny with tinted coconut. Add additional jelly bean if desired. Remove ears, plastic wrap and toothpicks before serving. Store loosely covered.




Source: http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/easter-bunny-cake/b8af0f55-67d5-4fb0-aaec-ab11ff5df7e3

10 Fun Food Facts

I have had a long week of writing papers so I decided to keep this week's blog post light. So here is a list of the top 10 fun food facts I found on the Internet. I was surprised by quite a few of them!

1. More than 345 billion Oreos have been made since 1912: guess Oreos really our America's favorite cookie!

2. Ketchup was created to treat liver disease: Hmm..I don't remember reading about this in the Ketchup Conundrum. Apparently in 1834 Dr. John Cook Bennett announced that tomatoes cured headaches, diarrhea, nausea, and could even fight Cholera.

3. You can get addicted to vanilla: who knew vanillic acid was similar to epinephrine and norepinephrine and could cause a reaction in the brain that can be addictive.

4. About 30% of all food produced in never eaten: just one U.S. family of four wastes almost 2,000 pounds of food every year.

5. There are such things as square melons: people in Japan have grown watermelons in glass cubes to force them into cubic shaped melons that make them easier to store in refrigerators.

6. People can be overweight and malnourished: if you eat too many fatty foods high in calories but that also lack vitamins and mineral the body needs, people are said to be over and underfed. Therefore, it is thought that a large population of Americans are both obese and starving at the same time.

7. A strawberry McDonald's milkshake contains 50 artificial ingredients: apparently real strawberries were too expensive so instead they used 50 chemicals to resemble one naturally grown food. Lovely.

8. Processed cheese is less than 51 percent cheese: this makes me think about that Sargento cheese blog review we read. The source I received this from (the list was called "10 really disgusting food facts") said that cheese companies should instead market the cheese as "cheese-like-substance."

9. One record-setting chicken laid 364 eggs in one year: before being domesticated, chicken only laid about dozen or so eggs a year

10. Microbes are required in the production of cheese, beer, bread, yogurt, wine, kimichi, salami, and chocolate!

Is Your Kitchen A Health Hazard?

One aspect of food we don't think much about is architecture. I find that the area in which I am eating can change the way I feel about the food itself. Normally, I can snack all day at home and in my room; yet when I go to a restaurant that feels just a bit too much like a restaurant, I leave with a knot in the pit of my stomach.

The New York Times' Sunday Review published an article called "Is Your Kitchen a Health Hazard?" which was kindly forwarded to me by my mother. This article is all about how the architecture around food, specifically in our homes, has changed. Kitchens are quickly becoming combined with living rooms by the elimination of the wall separating the two. Thus, we are starting to equate eating with just hanging out.

My 118 year old Victorian style house does not have this combo kitchen-living room. In fact, the two are separated by the dining room, yet I still noticed the "hanging out in the kitchen" phenomenon. When I was at home over break, my family hosted some friends for dinner. Despite our preparation of every dish in advance, we all still congregated in the kitchen.

I think that in some ways our culture is now combining the ideas of food and relaxation. I know that addiction to comfort foods is a big problem, especially in college life when we are away from the home and home's familiar comfort. Chemically, some foods simply can make you feel more relaxed. However, I feel like we are walking a fine line, or in fact starting to tip over to one side where we are using food as a method of relaxation, which can be dangerous to our oh-so-hectic lives.

I really enjoyed this article and I recommend it to others.
Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/opinion/sunday/is-your-kitchen-a-health-hazard.html?_r=2&

Hungry Hungry Hippo

Tonight's dinner does not seem too appetizing for me. I don't really like beef anymore unless it's on a burger or steak and I don't think that turkey should be gingered...so, I'll be eating dinner at the CC...probably.

While I was in the shower, I was planning out exactly what I wanted to buy (like any true closet hefty would do). I started out with a simple Buffalo Chicken Wrap (so far my fave), then I got a little greedy and added an order of fries, then I simply got ridiculous and added cheese to my fries. I figured that was a nice deliciously fattening way to end March, but then my weakness drifted through my mind like a tumbleweed - I need a Vanilla milkshake too. At this point, this is about a $12ish dollar order and I really need to pump the breaks, until I realized that tonight is a BIG night in t.v. land for me - the season finale of the Walking Dead is tonight and the season premiere of Game of Thrones (haven't quite figured out how I'm going to watch it though) is tonight as well (AAAAHHHHHH!). Inevitably, I added two, maybe three, bags of chips to that as well.

Now I'm stuck with an almost $20 dollar order of a chicken wrap, cheese fries, multiple bags of chips, and a milkshake...no one should ever spend almost $20 dollars in the CC!

I'm starting to feel like I need to suck it up and eat at Wilder or something, but the little piggy in me is screaming "Y.O.L.O.!"

Peeps

   I'm not a very religious person so I don't celebrate Easter but I do take any excuse to eat candy. Over the past week I've eaten more than my fair share of chocolate eggs, reeses peanut butter cups and marshmallow peeps. There is something spectacular about the first bite of a peep. The sugar hits your tongue, calling your tastebuds to attention, and is followed by the fluffy marshmallow. Their absolutely addicting.

Peep Fun Facts:
In 1953, it took 27 hours to create ONE peep. Now, it only takes 6 minutes.
Their are enough peeps produced in a year (>1 billion) to circle the earth twice.
Peeps have been the #1 non-chocolate easter candy for the past 20 years.
Yellow is the best selling peep in America.
This Easter, Americans will eat more than 600 million peeps.

http://www.justborn.com/just-for-fun/fun-facts

Farmer's Market

This weekend my friend's and I decided to go for a walk around downtown.   We went into Thorne's market and looked around the stores there.  We discovered this store that is located on the last floor that is called the Farmer's Market.  As we walked in, there were people playing music and welcoming everyone into the market.  We found that all of the food they were selling came from farms around the area.

Some of the foods were produced in farms from Easthampton and from Hadley, as well as other farms.  The food was all organic and freshly grown from these farms.  They were selling products like different flavors of jams, salsa, cheese dip, carrots, potatoes, meats, beets, breads, strawberry plants to grow them in your own garden and much more.

I tried some cheese samples and the dip samples with chips.  The cheese sample I tried had a fresh, creamy texture, and different flavor compared to the non organic cheeses I am use to eating.  Similarly, the cheese dip tasted creamy and delicious.  Also, I noticed that much of the food products were very affordable.  It is definitely a place I will continue coming to support the organic and fresh products they provide.

     

Aspartame

I was having some trouble starting my homework today because I was tired, irritable, and a just unfocused. So, what did I do? I didn't take a nap or eat an apple or anything good for me like that. I trundled down to my house basement where there's a vending machine and got a Diet Pepsi (OneCards are like credit cards; once you swipe them once, it's over and over again... and then you have no printing money!). This drink is like my lifeblood - I don't think there's a day that goes by where I don't have either a bottle or a glass of it at one of my meals (excluding breakfast, that's just weiiird!). I've tried to quit it, but it's just so difficult!

Ooohmmm

Thus my topic was born. Aspartame, a chemical sweetener that goes into many diet drinks. I decided to do a little digging; aspartame is an artificial sweetener (this I knew) that is TWO-HUNDRED times sweeter than table sugar. I was surprised by this, really surprised. It makes sense though. I regularly use Splenda to sweeten drinks like coffee, and am always a bit annoyed when I use an equal amount of sugar and find my drink to be not as sweet as I would like. I have my explanation for this phenomena!


Now, zero calories is a lie. Technically there are 4 calories per gram of aspartame, but remember how it's 200 times as sweet as table sugar? If one used a whole gram heads might start exploding all over the place. It doesn't take nearly that much to make things palatable, so scaling down the amount down make the calorie content truly  negligible.

Part of me was waiting to here that my ingesting of this chemical was slowly killing me. According to Wikipedia the FDA approved the use of aspartame in all foods in 1996, which makes me feel a bit better. The FDA says aspartame is "one of the most thoroughly tested and studied food additives the agency has ever approved," but even I've heard about the panics involving artificial sweeteners. I've heard things like "EQUAL GIVES YOU CANCER" and "ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS ARE MAKING YOU FATTER,"  (the latter seemed argued a bit more convincingly) from biased sources. Sometimes it's hard to make the right choice in the matter. After all, look at FDA's track record with some of the other foods we put into our body. It's a bit scary, but for now I'm sticking with my fake, sticky soda until someone truly trustworthy tells me otherwise.

Happy Easter!

Zeppoli

While being home for spring break, I had the pleasure of seeing my grandmother. As we spent the day together at my house, we talked about many things. One of those things was how she wished she had the ingredients to make zeppoli. At school, when mentioning this treat, I’ve had to explain it to many friends. The best comparison I could come up with was that it was kind of like funnel cake. After talking with my grandmother, I had to investigate to see if that information I was giving out was in fact true. Turns out, it wasn’t. While there very similar, zeppoli contains one ingredient that funnel cake definitely does not: ricotta. I was shocked to say the least, not being a fan of ricotta cheese because of its texture. I don’t think this will impact my liking for zeppoli though; I’ve enjoyed them for far too long to be discouraged by one ingredient.

Here are the recipes for funnel cake and zeppoli, respectively.

Funnel Cake

8 cups vegetable oil for frying


1 1/2 cups milk

2 eggs


2 cups all-purpose flour


1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon


1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions

In a deep-fryer, or heavy skillet, heat oil to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a large bowl, beat milk and eggs together. Combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Stir into the egg mixture until smooth.

While covering the funnel hole with one hand, pour in 1 cup of batter. Start from the center in a swirling motion to make a 6 or 7 inch round. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle with confectioners' sugar and serve warm.

Zeppoli

2 quarts vegetable oil for frying

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 pinch salt

1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup ricotta cheese

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup confectioners' sugar for dusting

Directions

Heat oil in a deep-fryer to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

In a medium saucepan, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Stir in the eggs, ricotta

cheese and vanilla. Mix gently over low heat until combined. Batter will be sticky.

Drop by tablespoons into the hot oil a few at a time. Zeppoli will turn over by themselves. Fry until golden brown, about 3 or 4 minutes. Drain in a paper sack and dust with confectioners' sugar. Serve warm.

GoBerryGoCollege!

The first time I visited Smith College, my Mom and I visited for a weekend. We arrived  Friday afternoon and took a self guided tour of the campus. We looked at the houses and tried to figure out where we were in relation to the town. It just so happened, that it was also reunion weekend for all Smith Alumni, so there were hundreds of women eager to help us. Two recently reunited best friends offered us direction into Northampton. We walked down Elm Street and merged onto Main Street. We window shopped and walked by Chocolate Emporium. They had us at chocolate. But we resisted the urge, saying that we had not had lunch yet. We crossed the street and walked passed "Oh My". I think my Mom missed the fact that it was a sensuality shop because an awkward sex joke was not the next think out of her mouth. Instead, she said, "how about GoBerry?"I said, "why not!" I had never had frozen yogurt before, and figured that this was the perfect opportunity to try.

We walked into the shop and the woman behind the counter said "Hello" with a huge smile on her face like we were her best friends. Then, we asked to try a sample of each flavor of frozen yogurt. I ended up choosing Mango and Blueberry mixture, and my Mom chose Mango. Then we added the toppings. Three each. We figured it could not hurt. By the end, our bowls were more fruit toppings than frozen yogurt, and looked something like this:

I was blown away by how yummy and strange GoBerry frozen yogurt was, and immediately I wanted more. I will always associate GoBerry with college touring because of that one experience. It was the mixture of friendship, kindness, and family that made this experience so memorable, yet the frozen yogurt is what I remember most.

my umpteenth post about Portland

As promised, here is my post-Portland blog post about Portland food. (Wow, that's a mouthful.) Since a picture says a thousand words and I have seven, I'll try to keep this brief.

My food experience in Portland is never matched by that of any other town. Honestly, this probably has much more to do with whom I visit there than the actual food culture of Portland, but I'd say it's a bit of both. Portland's grocery stores are full of great produce (often organic, some local); both the stores and restaurants (/food carts) have tons of vegetarian and vegan options; and the people there are weird, so the food they make is weird too. And better yet, the couple that I visit there have great taste in food (no pun intended) and love to cook. Needless to say, it makes for a great combination. Here is just a sampling of the amazing food I had while there.

toasted pb&j with organic peanut butter and black current jam

that delicious pizza I wrote about a few weeks ago

shredded kale salad

an organic blood orange

a "betty" pb&j from the gourmet grilled cheese food cart; challah bread, gruyere cheese, pickles, white pepper, sea salt, and peanut butter

the classic voodoo doughnut (check out Voodoo Doughnut's website for more of the weird, creative, hilarious, and often a little disturbing donuts they make)

scrambled egg whites with pesto & chipotle mayo

Nutella Mug Cake

Nutella is God's gift to the world. I firmly stand by this belief, shame and all. It just makes me so happy. There are so many ways to eat it: on toast, in a sandwich, on fruit, on crackers, in cake. It's like peanut butter, but better.

My all time favorite Nutella creation is this lovely little monster called Nutella Mug Cake. I do not exaggerate one bit when I say that it is the best chocolate cake I've ever had. I accredit it all to the Nutella. In fact, I know that the Nutella is what makes it so special because I tried the recipe without Nutella last week and it was inedible.

Whenever we're on break from school and home together, my sisters and I make it religiously. I urge you to try it! It's a really simple recipe and you could probably even make it in a dorm room (you would just have a lot of ingredients left over).  I attached a link that will bring you to a tumblr page with a bunch of pictures and the recipe. Please try this so that you can be awakened.

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/nutella%20mug%20cake

P.S. A tip to avoid an overflow of chocolate: use a really, really big mug! Also, reapply whipped cream every few bites.

The Ice Fetish

ICE! ICE! ICE! I NEED MORE ICEEE!

According to Glamour magazine's article, "Addicted to Chewing Ice? What It Could Mean," by Sarah Jio, there is "a whole community of ice chewers out there." Finally! My people are recognized!

I admit I am a obsessive ice chewer. I chew ice due to boredom, to focus, because of hunger and because it is a mind controlling craving. Jio quickly and very briefly touches on the points as to why ice chewers just can not stop chewing ice. Jio's first point stated is a commonly heard of body imbalance, anemia. She stated, "According to Mayo Clinic hematologist Ruben Mesa, M.D., if you're a compulsive ice chewer, your body might be trying to tell you that you're deficient in iron." Jio the displays her next few point into a sentence that lists them all, "According to Mesa, ice chewers are more likely to have emotional problems, high levels of stress, even obsessive-compulsive disorder."

But WHY? is the question. Why ice? Why not gum? Why do only these factors create an obsession over ice chewing? Its Sarah Jio has a little more work to do; but thanks Glamour magazine for some insight to my well known, common addiction.



Source: http://www.glamour.com/health-fitness/blogs/vitamin-g/2008/08/addicted-to-chewing-ice-what-i.html

Georgia

During Spring Break I traveled to Gainesville, Georgia with the Smith Crew team for our annual spring training trip. Everyday we woke up dark and early at 6am for morning practice. After a couple hours of work on the water we'd return to the hotel absolutely famished. All 50 of us would descend on the breakfast buffet like we hadn't eaten in ages. We'd load up on fresh fruit, hash browns, omelets and best of all biscuits. Every morning there were baskets of warm buttery biscuits. They were fresh out of the oven and perfect for an after practice feast.

The second best food item offered on the trip was southern sweet tea. The tea is perfectly sweetened and best served iced cold. I'm glad I live in New England because if I lived in the south I would probably refuse to drink anything but this delicious refreshing drink. 

Costco

Although this spring break I was unable to go back home to California, my friend invited me over to stay at her house near Boston.  Since the time we arrived to her house, we were always looking forward to what we were going to eat.  It was last Wednesday when her mom decided to take us to Costco.  The first place we went to when we walked into Costco was the food court.




After looking closely at the menu, we decided to get a combo pizza for all of us.  It was going to take about 20 minutes to be prepared, so we decided to walk around.  As we were walking, there were so many different samples we could try.  There were samples like yogurt, oatmeal, smoothies, soup, chocolates, etc.  Once we were done shopping and sample tasting, we decided to go back to the food
court. 

Before we went to eat the pizza, I ordered the non-fat yogurt swirl, which tastes like ice-cream, and my friend got the mocha freeze.  While we were looking at the menu, I noticed that the prices are awesome and the food looked great.  We went to sit down on a table to enjoy our meal.  When we were done eating, her mom bought the chicken bake and shared it with us.  The pizza, non-fat yogurt swirl, mocha freeze, and chicken bake were all very delicious.  I can't wait until the next time I go back to Costco to try new things, maybe the Churro.  

  

S & S

There is one restaurant in my hometown that I have been eating at as long as I can remember. Even when I lived in Seattle, we would come back to Cambridge to visit friends and family, and we would find ourselves sitting down to a meal at S & S. Derived from Yiddish for "eat and eat" or something like that, S & S has been around since 1919, way before any of our times! Why is S & S important right now? Well, I ate there not once, but twice while I was home for Spring Break.

The first time I was there I had baked stuffed... uh, well, some sort of fish, and it was very good! Served with too much rice pilaf for one person though. Second time around, on the Sunday I returned to Smith (I shed a small tear at recent memories), I had a petite filet mignon served with potato pancakes, fresh fruit salad, an English muffin, and poached eggs. Yes, it was a lot of food; what's notable however, is the meat. I have not had beef in the longest time, at least not a nice cut. This was good, very good.

I got it medium (after reading how much chefs detest the "well-done" orders, which I usually make), and it was perfect. Small, thick and juicy. I had been a pescatarian for six months before this, and avoided red meat for years before that. I do not have much taste for steak, but I decided to broaden my culinary perspectives just a bit (my parents were happy). I do not regret taking a step back! It was definitely well worth it.

Thanks Ma! (the original owner)

Traveling

Some people travel for art, some for religion, some to relax, but my family travels for food. Of course, there are other reasons for taking off on a journey: visiting family, graduations, funerals, weddings, etc. However, food is what we think about before, during and after our trips.

My family just started preparing to take a road trip from Colorado (I'm flying home) to Connecticut for my sister's graduation. The first thing my father assigned to me was to figure out our food; what we bring in the car, where and when we would stop to eat is now all up to me. Perhaps we think so much about food because of our interesting dietary restrictions (vegans and demanders of high quality fare) or perhaps we just take too much enjoyment from what we stuff in our faces.

I've heard others do it too, of course. My parents friends will come back with stories of suitcases filled with chocolate from Europe or funny tales of ordering something unexpected when speaking a different language. After reminiscing about meals long passed, they finally remember to show us the pictures they took, more than half of which contain the dishes they sampled.

Even coming home I find that all the pictures I have taken are of the foods I have prepared (not a single one of my family in sight). I think that the reason we talk about food so much is because eating is familiar, and while the local delicacies may vary, the process of eating does not. And when you travel to a foreign place, sometimes the process of eating is the only thing that remains constant.

Too Many Cooks in the Kitchen

Make your own burrito night

Over vacation I traveled to St. Simon's Island in Georgia with my ultimate frisbee team. Needless to say, it was a blast. It was warm, we played frisbee all day, and it was a block from the beach - an awesome way to spend spring break. Besides playing frisbee, sleeping, and going to the beach, there was a fair amount of cooking, food shopping, and of course, eating. Each night a group from our team took a turn preparing a meal for the rest of us. We had a variety of dishes ranging from make your own burritos to chili. My group made vegetable stir fry which was a much larger task than we were originally anticipating. It takes a lot of food and a lot of preparation to feed 30 people a homemade, well-balanced well. And although I love to cook and we ate some delicious food, it reminded of me one thing: there is such a thing as too many cooks in the kitchen.

Tuesday night dinner crew piled in the kitchen

I found myself having to take deep breaths and reminding myself that not everyone does things in the same way I would do them. When one of my group members enthusiastically suggested marinating the chicken in lime juice for the asian fusion style stir fry (with a sauce mainly comprised of soy sauce, ginger, and garlic), I smiled and told her she was in charge of the chicken all a while wondering in my head why anyone would think of mixing lime juice and soy sauce. But hey, the meal was a hit I just don't think I will be cooking with companions again any time soon.

Muddy Buddies

I was recently considering the idea of supply and demand regarding food. I was considering the idea that food products start as this idea. It starts as a recipe where one family decided to through a bunch of ingredients together and it just so happened to taste good. I then realized that if that recipe becomes popular, larger companies and corporations decide to make a replica of the product and then patent it. For example, Muddy Buddies:

Ingredients:

9 cups of rice chex or corn chex

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Preparation Directions:

1. In a large bowl, measure cereal; set aside
2. In 1-quart microwaveable bowl, microwave chocolate chips, peanut butter and butter uncovered on High 1 minute; stir. Microwave about 30 seconds longer or until mixture can be stirred smooth. Stir in vanilla. Pour mixture over cereal, stirring until evenly coated. Pour into 2- gallon resealable food-storage, plastic bag. 
3. Add powdered sugar. Seal bag; shake until well coated. Spread on waxed paper to cool. Store in airtight container in refrigerator.

http://www.chex.com/Recipes/RecipeView.aspx?RecipeId=45860

Muddy Buddies started with one family mixing chocolate chips and peanut butter chips together with chex cereal. Then, Chex cereal put that recipe onto the back of their cereal boxes as a suggested snack. Then, when General Mills realized that the muddy buddies were very popular, and so, they made a pre-packaged version of Muddy Buddies under the name of Chex by General Mills cereal. Since the packaged version of Muddy Buddies was a success in the food market, they have now made a new special version that is “Cookies and Creme Muddy Buddies.” From the original product, chex was able to adapt and exploit a recipe that started as a family snack, into a wide produced product in a airtight, carbonated bag all due to supply and demand. 

The Squealer.....

The squealer 10.50 
Shelburne grass-fed beef and house-made bacon ground together, served with chipotle mayonnaise 


Last night I had the absolute pleasure of indulging in one of the best burgers in the country (in my humble opinion). The People's Pint is a Pioneer Valley cult gem, hidden in the quaint town of Greenfield, a mere 25 minutes from Northampton. I had the luxury of having my friend's car for the weekend, so it was an opportunity for a food-venture. The sun was setting as we drove to Greenfield, and the little piggy and the cow guided us forward! 

The People's Pint is a bar with an impressive selection of beer from their own brewery and other local entities. They also serve ridiculously good bar-style food that would make any bar-food / local-food junkie squeal with delight. The atmosphere is busy, but homey, casual, and comfortable. There is nothing really pretentious about the place, which is hard to pull off when you are serving local food and local brew. The people that work there are also very relaxed and friendly. Its a wonderful atmosphere to bite into a burger. 

I don't eat much meat, and when I do it has to be raised with some level of identifiable integrity. It is expensive to approach meat this way, therefore I consume very little of it. The Squealer though is every dribble and drop worth the meaty indulgence. The beef is mixed with bacon, dressed with melted cheddar cheese and amazing chipotle mayonnaise. I plunge into burgers full throttle (non of that cutting food or dainty eating nonsense). I like a messy and equally juicy burger cooked medium rare sitting in front of me. The burger is insane. It is so unbelievably good and I drool right now as I think of my meal last night. 

So thanks well treated piggies and cows for fulfilling my deep meaty desires and satisfying me until we meet again. 

Buffalo Wild Wings

A Buffalo Wild Wings has recently opened on Staten Island and as with any new restaurant, the place is packed around dinner time. Especially now, with March Madness underway, the restaurant is sure to be overwhelmed by the average sports fan looking to enjoy the game on a big screen tv with some beer and wings. 

Over spring break, I had my first experience at this establishment and I was shocked by the number of sauces offered for their chicken wings. Being that we had done some work on the chicken wing in class, I was tempted to research the origins of the chain upon my return home. 

Here is what I found: 
Buffalo Wild Wings in 1982 was founded by 2 men, originally from Buffalo, after being unable to find a place to enjoy their beloved buffalo chicken wings... in Ohio. I was initially shocked by this finding, mostly because I thought the company had originated in Buffalo but also because the chicken wing had been created in 1964 and I assumed that 18 years would be more than enough time for the craze to reach Ohio. Clearly, I was mistaken. 

In the long run, I am not sure how this particular Buffalo Wild Wings will sustain is current popularity. This island is a place certainly not devoid of bars and grills, both chain and family owned, and there are plenty of places to get homemade buffalo wings. I have a hunch that these wings may not even be fresh, but just pre made and then heated when ordered. I'm very interested in finding out the truth. Does anyone know for sure?

Spring Break Fatness

I am not the only person who can say that it was beyond "nice" to be away from Smith and Dining Services for a week.

As I'm sure many of you will share stories of the wonderful home cooked meals that you indulged in while away, I am going to share the wonderful take-out meals I ate while at home.

My first real night at home was spent eating some chicken concoction that my dad whipped up, and it was pretty good actually, but the real fun didn't start until Saturday when my dad forced me to go to Red Lobster with him. I was in a pretty lazy mood and wanted to do nothing but lay around in my bed all day but somehow, he managed to get me into a Red Lobster where I proceeded to tell him about our Bourdain essay and the recycled biscuits. Sure enough, when he looked at me with the same face I give people when I'm both disgusted and confused and said, "Recycled biscuits?" our waiter, who was extremely cute by the way (oh how much I miss home already!), brought out the cheddar biscuits. After he ate his lobster lover's platter and I attempted to eat my seafood alfredo (which I devoured later that night), he paid the bill and we left.

The next few days, I got a little ridiculous. I actually had my favorite food for three days in a row: either Chicken or Shrimp and broccoli with rice, a shrimp roll, and an iced tea (the kind that only they at my Chinese take-out spot know how to make). I also didn't fail to squeeze in a cheesesteak and Arizona sweet tea. I then topped off my week home with a small ground beef pizza and soda from the pizza spot around the corner from my house.

Now that it's time to go back to Smith, I think I am content with saying that I have had my fill of fatness, but it's diet season and summer break is 7 WEEKS AWAY and I have GOT to get my body back in tip-top shape, see you guys on Tuesday!

Veganville

             For whatever reason, many of my housemates have embarked on a journey to become vegan or vegetarian. Personally, I wouldn't be able to  become either because I love both my meat and dairy products equally. However, I will support them in their endeavor and eat as many meatless dairy-less meals they need. Being apart of this friend group has really opened my eyes to the meat fillers, tofu patties (which I haven't tried), and all the soy products I could imagine. It amazes me that their are so many substitutes for the real thing.
             Even the media has become aware of this push to become vegan or vegetarian. I was watching Saturday Night Live from this past Saturday where Justin Timberlake was both the host and musical guest for the fifth time, and a skit comes on with a man trying to sell sausage. The end result is Justin comes out dressed as tofu. He remixes a few popular songs, and he encourages everyone to come down to Veganville. It was one of the funniest skits that I've ever seen, but regardless, it shows how this new food craze is moving through society. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy35qv_justin-timberlake-bring-it-on-down-2-veganville-veganshake-snl-3-9-13_music

            Please enjoy this video!

Mooo

  When I was a kid I was forced to drink a glass of milk every night at dinner. I grew up in Minnesota...where it's practically a crime to be lactose intolerant. So I loved milk but I hated being held hostage at the dinner table until I emptied the thick plastic cup. It was a pretty intense love-hate relationship. A couple years ago, Island Dairies (the local dairy on St.Croix) moved to Puerto Rico. I'm not entirely sure what changed in the milk making process to make it safe to ship back to St.Croix but whatever it was made the milk really gross. So I promptly stopped drinking milk. I'd have a glass every once in a while but I noticed that if I drank too much my stomach would start to hurt (OH NO! lactose intolerance!!). This past summer, I lived in Minnesota and I went to the State Fair (pretty much the greatest state fair in the country). On of the many fantastic things about the State Fair is the milk. You can get unlimited milk (skim, 2%, whole or chocolate) for 1 DOLLAR. It's foamy, fresh and delicious.

 I've been really sick for the past week and in an attempt to get healthy again I banned all dairy products from my diet. So naturally, I found myself craving a cold glass of delicious milk.
 

Cupcakes

Inspired by my paper topic, I decided to do a post about cupcakes. I love cupcakes. Whoever invented them, which I will soon discover through research, is a genius. Let me share with you why I love cupcakes.

They're the perfect serving size (at least for my liking).
They're adorable.
They're fun to make, and much easier than cake.
They're fun to eat.
You can decorate each one differently.
If you're baking with a group of people there's no need to fight over a frosting flavor or cake design because everybody can be in charge of their own cupcake.
They can be an arts and crafts project, and then be the snack at snack time (double whammy).
They're cute and popular enough to be a gift by themselves.
And...  they're cupcakes.

As for my very academic search, I typed "cutest cupcakes" into Google images. I began "researching" the variety of cupcake designs and these are some of my favorites.

This reminds me of my sister, therefore I had to post it. Also it's a cookie and a cupcake and that's great.

It's a cupcake that looks like a baby! It doesn't get any cuter than that.

This is the cutest thing I've ever seen.

I think this is a cupcake...

Am I eating a pie or a cupcake? You'll never know.

Cravings

Over winter break my sister introduced me to a hearty winter soup. This soup is a carrot ginger miso soup, three flavors which did not sound at all appealing the first time she told me about it. She was so excited about making this meal for my family and me that I didn't say anything. I didn't remind her that I am not a big fan of soups or that ginger was one of my least favorite flavors. Instead, I sat down with my bowl, tried to take as small of a portion as possible and hoped that it would be good.

Imagine veggie spring rolls. This was exactly what the soup tasted like minus the grease. The carrots, ginger and miso all melded together to play decadent notes on my tongue. I was in love.

Now, getting ready to go back home, I have been trying to decide upon which meals I wanted. This was the first one I thought of and to tell you the truth, I can't wait!

So, I am wondering, do any of you have foods that you didn't initially think you would enjoy because of the ingredients? And were you happily surprised to find that odd flavors that you did not like before were able to morph into a sumptuous dish when added to other unexpected ingredients?

Cartopia

It's less than a week until spring break now, and thus less than a week until I'll be in Portland. Hence, a blog post about the wonderful city and its amazing food is in order. The number one part of food culture in Portland that I love: food carts. They're magnificent. Everything is cheap, anywhere from a small cone of Belgian fries with pesto dipping sauce for $2.50 to a mega burrito for $6 (see below), and there's a ton of variety. You can find anything you want at a food cart - Mediterranean, Chinese, Mexican, French, etc... It's all somewhere. And the food is good. Nowhere else can I be so satisfied with my food having paid so little for it.

But on top of that, there is something in the atmosphere that makes the experience. Most food carts in Portland coexist in pods - i.e. they are set up in groups. My favorite pod is a group of food carts on the corner of Hawthorne and 12th called Cartopia. It houses my all-time favorite food cart, Potato Champion, makers of the aforementioned Belgian fries with dipping sauce, and also has stands that sell great pizza, Mexican, fruit pies, southern barbecue, and crepes. These carts are set up in an L-shape, blocking off a patch of asphalt from the intersecting streets. There, a patio-type tent is set up with picnic tables and decorative white lights. The carts are open until 3 or 4 in the morning, and the place comes alive at night. Post-midnight is the prime. The lights are on, some rock and roll or folk is playing from the speakers at the crepe stand, and it's buzzing with the energy and warmth of people chatting and eating.

So, with that, my plan for the first night of spring break: a late dinner at the carts right after landing at the airport (a medium cone of Belgian fries from Potato Champion with pesto and chipotle mayonnaise dipping sauces and a smoothie from Perierra Creperie), followed by a Bananagrams tournament with Erica and Dave, with whom I will be doing a lot of great cooking over the following week. Expect a post about all of that great food when I get back!

Vegan barbecue from Homegrown Smoker

Burrito from the Mexican place at Cartopia

The makers of wonderful smoothies and nutella/banana crepes

So which is better?

One of the main things that I've learned at Smith (besides the fact that many Smithies love cats) is that  people usually know a better substitute for the food available here in Northampton. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well, here's a few examples:

I was working on my GIS Lab in the Spatial Analysis Lab late one night, when someone saw my Limered Assam Milk Tea (with boba) sitting right next to my notes. If y'all don't know, I love bubble tea - some may find the boba disgusting, but I find them very fun. She had said, "Wow, you like Limered? They don't make good bubble tea. I know many other places where they sell authentic bubble tea." Well. I'm sure there are better bubble tea stores out there in the vast wilderness that is the US of A, but there's only one bubble tea shop in Northampton! When I have a bubble tea craving, I have no choice but to go that one store!

And a couple of days ago, my friends and I were at Limered (big surprise there!) when we saw one of the employees eating pho. We wondered if it was from Pho Vietnam, the vietnamese restaurant located right next door to Local Burger, when she corrected us and said that she got it from the "better" vietnamese restaurant on Route 9. I have no idea where Route 9 is, but I'm probably still going to eat pho at Pho Vietnam.

And finally today, I mentioned to my friend that I was going to eat and study at Haymarket (because we all know that Haymarket has magical properties that can increase overall productivity), when she had said, "Eww. Why Haymarket? Woodstar is so much better." Sigh.

I guess it's because I'm used to what Northampton has to offer and I'm pleased with it. But this disgust that everyone is feeling is the same with me. Whenever my friends eat at Comstock and Wilder's Korean Night, I'm always slightly disgusted. Why? Because I know a way better place that gives out authentic korean food.

***** I'm siting in Haymarket now and I'm overhearing a nearby conversation of Monsanto and farmers! I know what they're talking about!*****

Rainbow Cookies

With spring break so close, I can’t help but think about home and all of the things I love about it. One of those things is baking with my mother. Although I have no memory of ever having these cookies due to my dislike for strawberry, they are a much-loved staple of my mother’s and I have fond memories of baking them with her, especially during the holidays. Over the years, I have suggested many alterations to the recipe like changing the colors based on the holiday, exchanging the almond extract for vanilla, or substituting cherry jam for strawberry. Each time I was met with resistance, for you could never change such a classic recipe, and thus none of my ideas have ever come to fruition. For all of your viewing and baking pleasures, here is the recipe straight from my mother’s memory, for it is too precious to have recorded on a recipe card.

Rainbow Cookies

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 cup flour

1 cup sugar

8 oz unsalted butter (at room temperature)

2 tsp almond extract

12 oz mini chocolate

2 tsp vegetable oil

strawberry jam

red food color

green food color

Procedure:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

2. Grease 3, 8x8 baking pans.

3.  Put 8 oz of butter in mixing bowl and blend until well creamed.

4. Add 1 cup of sugar and mix well until batter is creamy.

5. Add eggs one a time mixing well after addition of each egg.

6. Add almond extract, blend well.

7. Add flour mix until blended.

8. Separate batter into 3 equal parts.

9. In one bowl add 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of red food color to batter and mix well. In the second bowl add 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon of green food color to batter and mix well. The remaining batter is yellow and no food coloring is added to it.

11. Add separate batters to 3 pans.

12. Bake the pans for about 8 - 10 minutes.

13. Allow cookies to cool.

14. When cool run a butter knife around the edge of the pans. Take the cooling rack put on top of the baking pan and turn it upside down so the layer comes out of the pan. Do this for the other 2 pans. 

15. Let the cookies continue to cool on the racks.

16. Take 8 oz of the chocolate morsels and melt them using a double boiler.

17. Take one colored layer of cake and about 3 teaspoons of strawberry jam and spread the jam evenly over the layer. Next, take the yellow layer and place smooth side down. Take 3 more teaspoons of strawberry jam and spread evenly over the yellow layer. Take the last colored layer and place on top of the yellow layer so the smooth part is on top.

18. Spread the melted chocolate evenly and thinly over the top and sides of the cookie with a spreading knife.

19. Once the cookie is covered, refrigerate it to dry the chocolate layer.

20. When the chocolate is dry you can flip the cookie over to frost the bottom.

21. Put the cookie back into the refrigerator and let the chocolate dry.

22. When the chocolate is dry take the cookie out of the refrigerator.

23. Let it come to room temperature.

24. Cut the cookies.

25. Refrigerate until serving.

Stress = FEED ME!

With the first half of the semester wrapping up and professors deciding to drench us in "Things To Do," I, and I'm sure everyone else, am feeling completely and impossibly overwhelmed. To add to that, this time next week we all will be on Spring Break, which means that professors are trying to squeeze out the little bit of life we have in us before setting us free for a week (which we all know is not true because somehow, Smith will follow me home seeming as how I have a book to read, two papers to write, and some other assignment I don't even understand yet).  But before all of that, I have to get through this blog post.
I had a really hard time finding a topic to talk about this week and found myself saying, "What am I going to write my blog on?" That changed about two minutes ago...
After staring blankly at my nearly blank word document for my other class for five minutes, my pounding head forced me to close it out and unfortunately call it quits for the night. As I angrily began to pack up my stuff, the first thing that crossed my mind was a half empty box of Pop Tarts I have in my room. I figured I could warm that up and wait patiently for my clothes and blankets to finish washing and what not, while images mindlessly flip across my television screen.
There it was, I realized that I was using food to make myself feel better. And although I know I don't make much sense right now, the one thing that is making sense in my brain is the fact that a warm Brown Sugar Pop Tart and a glass of milk are all I care about in this moment. In addition to that, if I lived closer to the CC, I would probably go there and buy a milkshake too. Therefore, I guess in a sorry attempt to fight back my tears of the impending doom that this week is surely promising, I'm going to eat my pain away...certainly this is not healthy or normal, but it makes me wonder, is this what college, and stress in general, does to us?

Food Porn

Last night I was in my friend's room and I saw a cookbook resting on her roommate's desk. It had a beautiful picture of something - which I now know was a savory biscuit with tomatoes and whipped goat cheese - on the cover. It is called "Smitten Kitchen" and I spent the next twenty minutes flipping through it and yelping with joy as I read the titles of the food and saw the gorgeous pictures. I learned that the author of the book ran a food blog before publishing her first cookbook.

From http://smittenkitchen.com/

I went online to look at her blog and wow, it is really something. It got me thinking: what is so intriguing to us about pictures of great looking food? Companies use pictures of food for advertising to get our attention, get our mouths watering, and ultimately get us to buy the product, but how is this any different than the picture on the cover of the cookbook? Don't both get our mouths watering? Aren't both advertising? But somehow paging through pictures of a cookbook or even more popular these days, scrolling through food blogs or tumblrs of delicious looking food is quite acceptable.

Before I continue, I must admit that I have had really unhealthy relationships with food, so therefore I may be more hyper aware of food related things compared to the average person. But, I have a lot of friends here that scroll through websites like foodporndaily.com and talk about how delicious all of the food looks. But there is an attitude of "I would not eat that because it is really unhealthy for you, but I am going to look at it and pretend like I would." They are filling some need to actually enjoy good, rich, sweet, delicious - whatever the adjective is - food instead of actually eating it. A lot of these websites don't even have the recipes attached for the food that are pictured.

From foodporndaily.com

I mean, now that I think about it, is it any different than me paging through cookbooks? Except in that case, I would actually "indulge" in cooking and eating the food...

2 Ingredients for Flourless Nutella Cake

     As I was looking through the web, I stumbled upon an interesting recipe. This recipe only requires two ingredients and I came across it while looking through the website stumbleupon.com.  I was intrigued by this dessert, because it seems fairly simple to make and I love Nutella!  It looks very delicious and moist so I am excited to make it someday.  But first I need to buy eggs and Nutella.
     The prep time is about 10 minutes,  25 minutes to cook, which is a total of 35 minutes to make this amazing dessert.


Ingredients:
4 large eggs
8 1/2 ounces of Nutella (check this weight on scale)

This is the recipe:
1. Grease a 6 or 7 inch round spring form pan.
2. Line with parchment paper on sides and on bottom.
3. Preheat oven to 350F. Beat eggs on highest speed with stand mixer until about triple in volume, about 6 minutes. The egg consistency is the key to making this recipe work, so don't try to save time on this step. Eggs must be beaten until triple in volume as that is what creates the cake.
4. Measure out Nutella into a glass bowl. Microwave Nutella for about 20 seconds to make it softer. Add in 1/3 of the egg mixture.
5. Gently stir with a spatula in the same clockwise direction until all of the egg is mixed in and no streaks remain.
6. Then add another 1/3 of egg mixture and fold again until no egg streaks remain. Pour in remaining third and make sure to scrape the foam that sticks to the mixing bowl into the batter and stir until no streaks remain. Make sure to do this in 3 batches because otherwise the whipped eggs may lose too much of the air that has been whipped into them if you try to do it all at once.
7. Pour batter into spring foam pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes until knife inserted comes out clean. Let cake cool completely before removing from pan and cutting and serving.

     Since I am not much of a baker but this recipe seems fun and easy to make, I am willing to try it out and see how things go.  I like how it looks moist from the inside but crunchier on the top.  Overall, I am sure it'll taste great because in my opinion you can never go wrong with Nutella.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1c77QR/kirbiecravings.com/2012/03/2-ingredient-flourless-nutella-cake.html/

Breakfast for Dinner

We have very specific meals in America. In the morning between 6 and 9am, we eat breakfast. That could be eggs, bacon, cereal, bread,yogurt, fruit, etc. Between 11am-2pm we eat lunch. That could be a sandwich, soup, potato, fruit, yogurt, etc. Between 5-8pm we eat dinner. That could be foods ranging from meat to a sandwich. That is the "golden standard" for what time, and what we should eat. Then on Sundays, all of a sudden brunch exists. Where you can eat breakfast or lunch foods. You can eat sweet foods and bitter foods. But only on the weekend does brunch happen. Why is it that we have created these very strict rules for when we are allowed to eat a meal, and what foods we can eat at certain meals. Personally, I love breakfast foods. I think that they should be served at every meal, three times a day. Breakfast foods top all the other meals. French toast, pancakes, bacon, eggs, toast, and potatoes are the best. But somehow it was socially unacceptable to consume breakfast foods at any other time of day than breakfast. But then, this revolutionary idea was invented where, sometimes, you can eat breakfast for dinner. This is the most brilliant invention. It is socially acceptable to eat breakfast foods at another time of day. What I wonder is, why do we have to call it "breakfast" for dinner. Why can't this meal be just like any other meal. Why are certain foods defined as breakfast foods, some defined as lunch foods, and some defined as dinner foods? Then, who determined that there are some foods that only fit into the "brunch" category? Why are some foods only appropriate for consumption on the weekends between the time of 9am-1pm? Who made these rules? Why did someone make these rules? What is the point?

The Pioneer Woman

I was watching the Food Network while I was running on the treadmill the other day. Since I don't have a television at Smith, the only time I watch TV is when I am at the gym. That day, an episode of "The Pioneer Woman" was on. I have seen this show many times before, but I watched it in through a different lens this time after what we have been discussing in our classes recently.

The Pioneer Woman is a "city girl turned country gal" named Ree Drummond. She writes a blog (http://thepioneerwoman.com/) that combines photography and recipes that are "purely country." On her website she describes herself as follows: "My name is Ree. I'm a desperate housewife. I live in the country. I channel Lucille Ball, Vivien Leigh, and Ethel Merman. Welcome to my frontier!"

It is all kind of creepy actually. She blogs about how her children actually like wearing "civilian clothing" and about candles and household tips and tricks. It perfectly feeds into this fascination we have with cowboys and farmers and seeing a real live family being so happy living this life, we can't help but want it too. It reminded me a lot of the farmer portrayed on Food, Inc. There he was chopping heads off of fresh chickens in the beautiful country side. It just can't be true.

On her show, she portrays an idealistic way of living. Her husband is a true cowboy and they own hundreds of acres of land. They have cattle and she home schools her four beautiful children. Yet, when she was making the recipes - which are always rich and meaty - she uses eggs from a carton, potatoes from a bag, and meat from a Styrofoam tray.

What is our obsession with this idealistic farm image? We know what the meat factories actually look like. We know it is all a hoax. I watched her show and felt a little scammed as well.

Grey Poupon

I know we talked about this last week, but they played it during the Oscars reminding me of class. Enjoy!!