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matriarchy

  • Location: Berks County, PA

Weekend Giveaway: 'My Father's Daughter'

Jack Nicholson.

Cook the Book: 'River Cottage Every Day'

Potato Soup. I can grow at lot of the ingredients: potatoes, onions, garlic, celery, herbs. And find the rest locally: milk, butter, cheese. Since it is spring, I am adding asparagus right now., but I can add all sorts of things, including hot sauce and chunks of smoked meat. It's simple, yet versatile.

Weekend Giveaway: 'The Food Matters Cookbook'

We expanded our garden, shop at a local producer market, and eat much less fast/chain food. We eat very little packaged food.

Cook the Book: 'The New Brooklyn Cookbook'

Philly. Huge community of urban gardeners and local foodies.

DVD Giveaway: Food, Inc.

Less fast food, more local restaurants. Less supermarket, more direct from producer. Less prepared, more homemade. Have teen children that run food policy awareness workshops for other teens. We didn't see Food Inc yet.

Cook the Book: 'Jamie's Food Revolution'

We keep pizza dough in the fridge ($1.18 in frozen balls at Walmart, yes Walmart, superstores). My teens like to make their own pizza. I make pizza sauce and we keep shredded Mozzarella on hand, Leftover stuff makes good toppings.

Cook the Book: '660 Curries' by Raghavan Iyer

When I was a teenager in the 70s, I used to cut recipes out of magazines, fantasizing about the day when I would have my own apartment. One of them was for a turkey curry that uses up Thanksgiving leftovers. I grew up in a home with almost no ethnic food at all, so curry seemed exotic, but the ingredients were friendly. It's very mild spice-wise, but it was my first exposure to Indian food. To this day, I make that curry after Thanksgiving, with apples raisins, almonds, turkey, onion, and yogurt. My 16yo daughter makes her own curry experiments in our kitchen - green beans, potatoes, and chicken most recently. I'm not making her wait until she leaves home to cook!

Cook the Book: 'Ten'

When my kids were little, we often had a very limited food budget. I shopped very carefully, usually leaving an item or two in the cart until I was sure I had enough money for everything. Putting things back embarrassed my kids, so they tended to watch closely to see if it was going to happen. Once, when we were checking out at a grocery store, it became apparent that I didn't have enough cash, and I gave back a pack of chicken thighs. The bag boy didn't realize the cashier had set them aside to be restocked, and he put them in our shopping bag. I said nothing. When we were walking home, my oldest daughter, probably about 7 or 8 years old, said, "Mommy, we didn't pay for that chicken." I told her it was the bag boy's mistake, and no one noticed, so it would be OK. I guess I wanted to look at it as a "windfall" of chicken. I immediately forgot about it.

But today, when I was thinking about this blog question, I asked my now-16-year-old daughter what was the most extreme thing she ever saw me do to get food. "You stole chicken." She told me the whole long-forgotten story. Obviously, like a lot of parents, I thought my kids would buy my flimsy excuse for a morally-questionable action. I may have been too tired to walk back, and certainly tired of not having enough money, but my kid remembers me "stealing chicken" to this day.

Cook the Book: 'Kneadlessly Simple'

So far, I have been making quick breads, biscuits, and bread machine white. But I want to make real bread more than one loaf at a time, with a minimum of kneading - I have carpal tunnel issues. This book would be perfect!

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: D'Artagnan Boneless Heritage Ham

Grilled ham and cheese on whole wheat.

Sweet Potato Biscuits

I made note of this recipe back in June, but didn't try it until now. It's a great way to use up leftover holiday sweet potatoes. The biscuits are FABULOUS. I served them with some homemade pineapple jam at breakfast, but I could totally see doing them with ham and chutney at dinner, or just gobbling them down unadulterated. The recipe made 12 nice-sized biscuits and they were gone before the pan cooled.

Muhlissa, I suspect you added more than a cup of mashed tater. I don't know what a "medium" potato - is they go from pretty-darned small to giants of several pounds, especially if you grow your own. But I LIKE the idea of a sweet potato pancake - you could roll all sorts of things into it. Yum!

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: Southside Market Sausage

I live in a BBQ-challenged part of Pennsylvania. I make do with Jambalaya Jay's Cajun place at the Fairgrounds Market, where they have great Cajun food and sometimes BBQ specials.

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: Zingerman's Praise the Lard Gift Box

We didn't eat much pork when I was a kid. Ham, but not uncured pork. I had to wait until I was an adult to discover pork. I recall the first time I had a BRT pork roast, cooked by a boyfriend when I was in college. Rosemary and orange juice marinade. I married him.

Seriously Delicious Holiday Giveaway: D'Artagnan Boneless Heritage Ham

Miracle Whip!

Serious Eats Gift Guide: For Bacon Lovers

Last year, I won a one-year subscription for the Grateful Palate Bacon of the Month club, courtesy Serious Eats. I can't tell you how cheering it is, during a difficult month, to have a package of bacon suddenly appear.

You also get some assorted bacon swag, and a monthly bacon cartoon. Frankly, the cartoons are usually very bad - but who cares? I have BACON!

I will miss it. Even the Post Office workers will miss it - I have a PO box, and they all commented on the Bacon package. I just can't justify the cost on our family budget. The packaging waste and huge food mileage make my inner eco-vore cringe. But, again, it's BACON! I think I am going to search out local sources of monthly bacon indulgence.

Holiday Gift Idea: The Note Tote

Just use scrap paper from the recycling bin! Like the envelopes your bills come in - you can even put the relevant coupons in the envelope. Back to the recycling bin when done shopping. This bag idea is just another silly thing to buy.

Win a Free Organic D'Artagnan Turkey Here!

I have some pie pumpkins, so I am going with Spiced Pumpkin Pudding.

Cook the Book: 'Second Helpings of Roast Chicken'

We go through a lot of garlic. We also use a lot of milk - I make yogurt and cottage cheese. I think lettuce and spinach go bad most often. We use part of a head or a bag, and then it gets covered up by something, and is slime by the time I see it again.

Cook the Book: 'Summer on a Plate'

Early in my life, Julia Child. I actually removed a chicken from its intact skin to make her pistachio-studded Chicken Melon when I was a teenager - I have photos. I also loved the Fanny Farmer Cookbook back then. Then there were a few local chefs when I worked in kitchens, and a friend that introduced me to vegetarian cookbooks, where an omnivore can learn a lot. After I left food service, I had a chef neighbor who showed me a lot about whole foods. Lately, I am fond of Alton Brown and of Mark Bittman.

Starbucks refuses to give written nutritional info

Sometimes, it's just nice to know in advance that you can walk into a place and order something without asking a lot of questions that hold up the line. Then just sit down with your friends and drink up without a lot of medical explanations.

Ironically, Starbucks announced today that they are closing two of their three stores in my area, part of the 600-store closings planned. Both stores are less than a year old. I guess nutritional secrecy isn't their only problem.

Starbucks refuses to give written nutritional info

Ccbweb, that's the number I called, and the CSR could not give me allergen information without collecting personal data and "doing further research." She also said that information could not be given in writing and would not be posted to the website. I just find that very strange, and too risky for me.

This is supposed to be part of the new "healthy" product line. It should not be a difficult question for a major food chain: "Is there any soy-based ingredient in this product of yours?"

If I call, as Erin did, and they say "nope, no soy," and I find out later that the fiber powder is from soy, is the no-writing rule so that they can say, "We didn't tell her there was no soy." Or do they truly not know the sources of their food additives? Which one of those weasel-reasons is worse?

Starbucks refuses to give written nutritional info

Erin, were you able to get those answers without giving your personal into and phone number? I was specifically told that I could not find out what was in the "gluten-free protein and fiber powders" without having them call me back.

Were you specifically told that the Vivanno was soy-free, or did you assume so, because the protein was gluten-free? I am not trying to cast aspersions on your information, it's just that I want very specific information.

Soy is very frequently part of protein and fiber powders added to food and drinks, along with thickeners like carageenan. The FDA does not require these things to be labeled "soy" and there are soy-derived ingredients in 60% of prepared foods, often legally labeled as "natural flavors" or "vegetable protein". MSG, mono-diglyceride emulsions and vitamin E are typically soy products, as is fake cheese.

Where you told what kind of fiber powder? Hydrolyzed soy protein is gluten-free. Soy is often used as an insoluble fiber additive for "high-fiber" health foods.

Starbucks refuses to give written nutritional info

And here is the Panera Bread chain beverage ingredients, on their site. Click on the mango smoothie, for instance, and the pop-up will be detailed ingredients:
http://www.panerabread.com/menu/cafe/drinks.php

This open sharing of information feels far more customer friendly to me. What is Starbucks hiding, that Tier I CSR's cannot tell me if there is soy in the Chai? Surely someone else has asked.

Orange Julius is not quite as detailed, but they provide detail about additives that might contain allergens - so I can see that there is lecithin in the Coconut cream, that probably comes from soybeans. They also warn me that other beverages may end up containing with traces of these additives:
http://www.orangejulius.com/sec_nutrition_allergy.html

So, if Starbucks is worried that someone will take something out of context, or they will have liability exposure by listing ingredients, why not simply use similar disclaimer statements, that have undoubtedly been reviewed by many attorneys?

At a time when we are all asking where things come from, and looking at food miles and supply chains, it seems out-of-place, and gives the appearance that something is being hidden, for Starbucks to be so secretive.

Starbucks refuses to give written nutritional info

Many franchise chains do provide full ingredient lists. Here is McDonalds', for instance.

http://www.mcdonalds.com/app_controller.nutrition.categories.ingredients.index.html

Shoo-Fly Pie

What kind of molasses did you use? There are a number of types, with more or less strong flavor.

Starbucks refuses to give written nutritional info

When Starbucks announced the new Vivanno drinks, I hustled to see what was in them. Orange Mango Banana Blend, from website:

"Made with a whole banana blended with all natural Naked® Juice made exclusively for Starbucks, our proprietary whey protein & fiber powder, 2% milk and ice."

That's not a specific ingredient list. Exactly what is in "whey protein & fiber powder". What's in the Naked Juice blend? I avoid soy for medical reasons, so I sent a website inquiry, asking if the new drinks had any soy product in them. I also asked about the Chai Latte I usually order.

Today's email reply: "Due to the nature of your inquiry, we are unable to provide an ideal response via email. Therefore, we would like the opportunity to provide/gather more information in order to best assist you. Please call our customer relations department at 1-800-235-2883."

Odd. Seems to me, that was a yes/no question.

So I called, and was told they don't give any nutritional information in writing. In fact, the customer relations rep could not answer the question. She said she had to refer it to another department for research and call me back, requiring me to leave a phone number. If I could not leave a phone number, I could not have an answer. Not even for the Chai drinks they have sold for years. I suggested adding specific info to their website, but she reiterated the no-info-in-writing policy.

WTF? What kind of food service business refuses to provide written nutritional information? About ALLERGENS? Does that meant they plan to lie, and don't want to be trapped by independent testing? The whole goal of a franchise business is to provide a uniform experience across the brand, so they *must* have ingredient specifications written down somewhere.

I was only an occasional Starbucks customer - but now I am not a customer at all. Their policy implies there is something weird or false going on with ingredients. Ick!

Recipes that use fish stock?

My daughter worked at a fish market for a while, and I couldn't resist the lure of free fish heads. I made a lot of fabulous fish stock (Fumet de Poissons). We go through our homemade chicken, pork, and beef stock regularly, but not the fish stock. I have 5-6 quarts of it in the freezer, and I seldom find a recipe that uses more than a cup or two. Many seafood soup recipes generate their own stock. Anyone care to share a recipe that requires fish stock?

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