23 March 2009

Time for a Revolution? Not Quite.

A pair of articles in this weekend's New York Times puts the spotlight back on the ol' hometown and the optimism of the local/organic/anti-agri-business/slow food movement.

First up: Andrew Martin's "Is a Food Revolution Now in Season?", the latest in speculative will-they-or-won't-they-change-the-world journalism. It's not a bad article, it just seems like I've read it before. The only difference? The bits about the Obama Administration. Okay, I'll concede that there's an authentic spirit of hopefulness in the new outlook of many of these foodies and food pioneers -- one that's not related to how well Whole Foods' stock is doing today. While I agree that the new administration brings with it cause for celebration in the local food world, until the political world can reconcile to a holistic approach to food and environment, foodies are simply patching up cracks in the quagmire's façade.

For instance, check out this choice quote from Fred Hoefner, policy director of the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, when asked about Michelle Obama's new White House vegetable garden: “We just want to make sure that interest in that symbolic action can be channeled into some of the more difficult policy challenges.”

The point in new Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack's plan that'll have the most impact (IMHO) is the placement of fresh, unprocessed foods in school kitchens. Many children in the cities of Berkeley and Oakland relied on free school breakfasts in my day, a fact that I'm sure only increases in times of economic crisis. And having school lunch options with real vegetables that taste really good will go a long way toward changing the eating habits of children across America -- and perhaps their parents' too. After all, when Junior comes home and asks for arugula, Mom's more likely to give it a try, right? And wouldn't you know, the first lady agrees!

Chew on that for a minute, then start reading Mark Bittman's article, "Eating Food That's Better For You, Organic or Not", which I'll cover later this week.

18 March 2009

Yum! Flourless Nut Butter Chip Cookies


This is a batch of cookies from a recipe I made up. It's delicious. I've made these cookies a bajillion times, given them as gifts, and have finally figured out which brand of peanut butter makes for the most consistent results (Adams, if you're curious).

Thought I'd post some after-St.-Patrick's drool-worthiness to go with the hangover:

12 March 2009

Bacon: Because too much is never enough

Made the most perfect batch of bacon bits tonight. Behold:



I used them to make a pretty carbonara-style pasta, which was delicious. Even though I don't generally do the lactose, I made a little exception for the butter in this one, though I used unsweetened soymilk for that portion of the recipe. Fake butter's okay, especially Earth Balance, but I gotta have the real stuff if I'm going so decadent as carbonara anyway!



What's your favorite bacon dish? I know, it's a loaded question. Give it some thought?

07 March 2009

Recipe: Rolled Biscuits

Pulled out the rolling pin this week for a rolled biscuit recipe I've been looking at sideways for a while now. Will they come out flaky and fluffy, or will they fall flat? Rolled biscuits, here I come.
Recipe: Rolled Biscuits
1 3/4 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsp. double-acting baking powder
6 Tbsp. chilled butter
3/4 c. milk
Extra flour for dusting

0. Preheat your oven to 450ºF (my oven runs hot & in fairly precise increments of 5º, so I set it to 445ºF).



1. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Cut in chilled butter using a fork or a biscuit cutter, until pastry has a clump-free, flaking consistency. Create a cavity in the center of the dough and pour in the milk. Use a fork to stir the liquid into the pastry, turning it around the bowl until it begins to pull away from the sides.

2. Turn the dough on to a floured board and knead quickly -- only 8 to 10 times, so it retains a flaky consistency and doesn't get tough. Roll the dough out in as few strokes as possible. Use a round pastry cutter, a large cookie cutter, or even a floured glass to cut the biscuits into shape, then place on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool 2 minutes before serving with butter.
Well, here's how they came out:



Yup, flat as flat can be. I could barely pull apart two halves of the biscuit to put butter inside. Though they worked for my purposes (dipping in soup), I think I'll probably try a different dough next time, because this experiment turned out far from perfect. I was fantasizing about flaky, puffy, southern-style biscuit towers and I got a squished-down version instead. Maybe it's time to seek out a bag of White Lily and see if I can't turn out a batch of these.

01 March 2009

Vegan Cupcakes: Vanilla-Agave

What better way to start back up on the ol' blog than by making up a batch of simple vanilla-agave vegan cupcakes? Also, I had an excuse since I've wanted to celebrate having a new roommate in my little apartment today. I grabbed my copy of Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World (essential, seriously), shopped for a few missing ingredients, and made my way back to the kitchen.

The great thing about vegan cupcakes is that the ingredients come together so quickly, in a way that traditional dairy-full cupcakes just don't. (The icing is always delicious and fluffy, too, but I've got some left over cream cheese icing from my last baking experiment, so the finished product wasn't completely dairy-free.) Oil-based cupcake recipes tend to make spongier, fluffy cupcakes, but they don't rise as much, according to my past experience. And, just as I suspected, they were dense, moist and rich, but didn't rise sky-high over the pan's edge.

The flat surfaces made them easy to frost, so with the icing at a perfectly spreadable temperature, the finished product turned out quite pretty (if I do say so myself). The result? Delicious.