Food Day 2012

…is October 24. Food should have it's own day and so it does. This is definitely an item for Everybody Eats. iCreate too as well as community gardens and farmers markets. Check out the many partner organizations, no government or industry funding accepted, and start panning a Food Day event. Get the word out.

Food Day is a celebration of real food and a campaign to help solve food-related problems in our homes, on our farms, in our schools and in our communities. We want food to be healthy, affordable, and produced with care for the environment, animals, and the women and men who grow, harvest, and serve it.

Salt Meats Cheese in Sydney

This one is just because it appealed to me, reminding me of delis, charcuteries and the shop all over Munich and everywhere in Germany that sell Aufschnitt (cold cuts), cheese and beverages... trying to remember the German name, not Metzgerei, which is for the butcher's, is driving me nuts and no doubt will until I remember. I thought what a delightful place and isn't food about place as well as memories? My father, raised on a dairy farm outside Canton in northern New York State was a lifetime cheese lover. Food is still as much about memory and associations as it is about nutrition. A different kind of nourishment.

Dessert Spaghetti and Meatballs?

 Resuming Everybody Eats posts but am I still napping, having another bizarre dream? Didn't we already finish the Lewis Carroll / Alice unit at Fantasy and SF? Just the dish for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party...

Dessert spaghetti and meatballs on a fork? What?

This recipe explains how to create what looks like normal spaghetti and meatballs, but is actually a concoction of sweet treats. Using some basic ingredients and supplies these scrumptious desserts will be sure to add fun to all occasions.  

By: icecats at Instructables (always fun)

Continue Reading » Dessert Spaghetti and Meatballs on a Fork 

Going Potatoes

Ever wonder why the Irish go bananas for the potato? This infographic from GoIreland suggests that it's more about health and nutrition than taste.

Aside from being virtually fat-free, one spud provides your body with complex carbohydrates that are released slowly into the bloodstream, reducing insulin spikes. And most of a potato's fiber and nutrients are concentrated beneath its skin, so don't peel it!

Check out the full infographic for all the fun facts about the potato's history and nutritional benefits.

Infographic: Health Benefits of the Potato

Planet BBQ

 …as explained by Steven Raichlen, one of the country’s leading BBQ experts, on cooking out of doors using fire...

… two million years of human history as seen through the prism of grilling. From Thailand to Turkey to Texas, grilling is apparently a way of life. We live on a BBQ planet. 

Barbacoa is a form of cooking meat that originated among the native tribes of the Americas, from which the term “barbecue” derives. They cooked slow and low over a smoky fire. BBQing began with homo erectus, an extinct species of hominid that lived from the end of the Pliocene epoch to the later Pleistocene, about 1.3 to 1.8 million years ago. 

Raichlen has a theory that there was a forest fire which roasted a bison or prehistoric deer and uttered the first grunt of gastronomic satisfaction. The discovery that you could cook meat with fire led to massive changes in how humans were built. It led to a tripling of the size of the human brain and a shrinking of the size of the jaw....

In The Iliad by Homer, there’s a scene of an animal sacrifice. A pyre was raised on the beach and a cow slaughtered. The meat was covered in fat and the salt and basted every now and again in red wine. “I’ve made it and it’s delicious,” Raichlen said.  

Read the rest of Planet BBQ on berfrois (Intellectual Jousting in the Republic of Letters), crossposted with Chloe Veltman’s website