Scrapin' Up the Bits - Bollito di Manzo style

Gina DePalma's posts on Serious Eats are invaluable. Best known as the pastry chef at Molto Mario's world-famous Babbo, DePalma is in Italy doing research for a cookbook and writing up the occasional delicious recipe.

I printed out this Bollito di Manzo recipe some time ago. Now, with fall in full swing, some perfect grass-fed beef cuts for it in our freezer (short ribs), and most of the appropriate veg from the final week's take from our CSA, it was time to finally make it.

The result: good, but not great. The meat itself was really good: extremely tender with a real depth of flavor. You could tell it was grass-fed. The broth, on the other hand, was a little too tame. Not surprisingly, I did not have any veal bones. Next time (and there will be a next time) I'll add one more rack of short ribs, a few more all spice berries and peppercorns, and I may remove the short ribs when they are tender, strip off the beef and put the bones back in to cook in the pot for just another hour or so before turning off the heat and letting it cool.

In the meantime, I have a good bit of of the broth from this first batch in the freezer. When I go to use that, I think I'll bring it to a simmer for about 30 minutes with a parmesan rind in it, maybe even use it to make some risotto. I'm thinking mushrooms.

I'll admit that I'm slightly torn on this one: whether raw oysters harvested during warm months along the Gulf Coast should be banned. I enjoy raw oysters. I eat them selectively, though, from places that I feel are dedicated to getting the freshest product possible. In these parts, that likely means the northeast coast.

Yet I know that when I eat them I am taking a risk. A small one, but a risk nonetheless that I may get sick. Apparently in the Gulf Coast region about 15 people die each year from eating raw oysters. They apparently have a higher risk of being infected with a nasty bacteria when they are harvested during warm months. And the FDA had proposed a ban on them.

After getting push back from legislators in the region and the oyster industry, that ban has been indefinitely delayed.

The agency said it would conduct a study of the issue. “It is clear from our discussions to date that there is a need to further examine both the process and timing for large and small oyster harvesters to gain access to processing facilities,” the agency said in a statement.

There are, reportedly, ways of dealing with the bacteria.

The anti-bacterial process treats oysters with a method similar to pasteurization, using mild heat, freezing temperatures, high pressure and low-dose gamma radiation.

But doing so "kills the taste, the texture," [said Mark DeFelice, head chef at Pascal's Manale Restaurant in New Orleans]. "For our local connoisseurs, people who've grown up eating oysters all their lives, there's no comparison" between salty raw oysters and the treated kind.

For now, the non-anti-bacterially treated Gulf Coast oyster is alive and well.


The health care reform bill -- you know, the one that will end democracy and freedom as we know it (that's snark, FWIW) -- passed in the House includes language that would require many restaurants, including fast food chains, to explicitly post on their menus how many calories are in each dish. It's interesting because the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation just did a study (careful, this is the whole PDF!) that showed providing calorie information at the point of purchase decreased the amount of food people ate during those meals.


Oh, and finally, while as a country we throw out like 30 percent of the food we purchase and have gazillions of acres of corn to provide feed for cows so we can have cheap burgers at Red Robin, there are a lot of people going hungry:

In its annual report on hunger, the [USDA] said that 17 million American households, or 14.6 percent of the total, “had difficulty putting enough food on the table at times during the year.” That was an increase from 13 million households, or 11.1 percent, the previous year.

For those in the Pittsburgh area, you can make a contribution to the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank here.

Action Alert on Food Safety Legislation

From the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition...

FOOD SAFETY ACTION ALERT!
November 12, 2009
MAKE A CALL TO PROTECT FAMILY FARMS,
LOCAL FOOD SYSTEMS AND SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

CALL SENATOR CASEY THIS WEEK!

The Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee will take up S. 510, the Senate version of major food safety legislation already approved by the House of Representatives, next Wednesday, November 18.

The bill would put real teeth into federal regulation of large-scale food processing corporations to better protect consumers. However, the bill as written is also a serious threat to family farm value added processing, local and regional food systems, conservation and wildlife protection, and organic farming.

We need a food safety bill that cracks down on corporate bad actors without erecting new barriers to the growing healthy food movement based on small and mid-sized family farms, sustainable and organic production methods, and more local and regional food sourcing.

The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the National Organic Coalition, have fashioned five common sense amendments to S 510. We need your help to make them happen! The House has already passed their Bill. This is our last best chance to affect the final legislation.

Step 1: Make a Call

Please Call Senator Casey's office at (202) 224-6324 and ask for the aide in charge of food safety issues. Tell them you are a constituent and are calling to ask the Senator to support the amendments proposed by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition and the National Organic Coalition to the Food Safety Modernization Act. Specifically, ask your Senator to support the following key changes to the bill:

• The bill should direct FDA to narrow the kinds of value-added farm processing activities which are subject to FDA control and to base those regulations on sound risk analysis. (Current FDA rules assume without any scientific evidence that all farms which undertake any one of a long list of processing activities should be regulated.)
  

• The bill should direct FDA to ease compliance for organic farmers by integrating the FDA standards with the organic certification rules. FDA compliance should not jeopardize a farmer's ability to be organically certified under USDA's National Organic Program.
  

• The bill must provide small and mid-sized family farms that market value-added farm products with training and technical assistance in developing food safety plans for their farms.
  

• The bill should insist that FDA food safety standards and guidance will not contradict federal conservation, environmental, and wildlife standards and practices, and not force the farmer to choose which federal agency to obey and which to reject.
  

• Farmers who sell directly to consumers should not be required to keep records and be part of a federal "traceaback" system, and all other farms should not be required to maintain records electronically or any records beyond the first point of sale past the farmgate.
  

Step 2: Report Your Call

Let us know how your Senator responded by clicking here http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=iDwJjwNOL9Ow7ubh59KDmnf2vBJtLWG%2B and typing in a brief report.

Step 3: Learn More

For more information on the Senate Food Safety bill, please see NSAC's Talking Points here http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZMugpdHrZ%2B5jVzlGNRk2rHf2vBJtLWG%2B and its Policy Brief Food Safety on the Farm here: http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=N0qoiyP9CL10FyBbFnz%2Fjnf2vBJtLWG%2B

Fast Food Abomination of the Week

The title of this post is somewhat of a misnomer. Sure, the large version of the new Quiznos Double Cheese Cheesesteak has 1,400 calories and nearly 3000 mg of sodium -- meaning that, in a single greasy swoop, it provides nearly three-quarters of recommended daily calorie intake and 50 percent surplus of daily recommended sodium intake -- which more than qualifies for it this prestigious honor.

But what is more impressive is that Quiznos managed to match up this dietary nuclear bomb with an equally sickening commercial. You know, the one where the two guys are sitting in a bathtub, outside, with a campfire underneath the tub. Something dubbed a "hillbilly hot tub."

Now, I'm no marketing guru, but, as a corporation, do you really want to embed in your potential customers' minds the image of two hairy, slovenly men sitting in close proximity in a dirty bathtub with one of your food products? Is a "hillbilly hot tub" Quiznos' version of "where's the beef?"

Something tells me that Don Draper would not approve.

Big Ag in the White House

Sigh. I know that he's got a lot on his plate, but some times I wonder WTF the current resident of the White House is thinking. If, during your campaign, you say you will not hire former lobbyists, then, you know what, don't do that, or at least try.

Some back story from the indispensable Tom Philpott here, including this:

President Obama has nominated one of [Big Biotech Ag's] own as the chief agricultural negotiator at the U.S. Trade Office.

To take the post, Islam “Isi” Siddiqui will have to leave his current perch as vice president for agricultural biotechnology and trade at CropLife America, the trade group representing the U.S. agrichemical industry (member list here). Its mission: to hip the public (and the government) to the ““benefits of pesticides and crop-protection chemicals.”

This is the crew that chided Michelle Obama for daring to opt not to use “crop protection” (i.e., toxic pesticides) in the White House Garden. ...

As the Doha round of global trade talks lurches on, Siddiqui’s position will be an important one. Southerm-hemisphere nations like India and Brazil are pushing for lower U.S. crop subsidies, while the U.S. is demanding wide-open markets for U.S. goods—everything from foodstuffs like industrial corn to agrichemicals. Siddiqui can be counted on to push that agenda hard.

So, if this nomination sounds like a bad idea to you, go here please and type in the requisite info.

Au Natural Necco?

Now I have to get a pack to see if I can taste the difference...

Necco, short for New England Confectionary Co., cranks out about 4 billion of the roughly quarter-sized wafers each year, packaging them in large rolls (36 wafers) and junior rolls (nine wafers). Beet juice, purple cabbage, cocoa powder and turmeric -- a spice often used in curries -- are some of the natural ingredients in the new wafers, which will be phased in at retail stores before and after Halloween.

Scrapin' Up A Few Bits... Policy Style

Serious food issues actually in the news. It's not just health care reform and Jon & Kate. Who knew?

Cracker Jacks, which I'll admit I enjoy, would be hard to characterize as a nutritionally "smart choice." But that didn't stop Frito Lay from smacking a "Smart Choice" label on it, as part of the larger, snack-food industry backed Smart Choices Program. [UPDATE: Per a note from a Cathy, who purports to be a Frito Lay employee, Cracker Jack was not included in the Smart Choices program. My bad. And, more importantly, the Associated Press's bad. Which, in turn, means the bad of about a gazillion news outlets, including little ones like the Washington Post, L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal...] I guess it's decisions like the Cracker Jack's Froot Loops one that led to the program's voluntary termination.

Industry leaders launched the program this year to highlight foods that meet certain nutritional standards with a green label on package fronts.

The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday that such programs may mislead consumers about the health benefits of certain foods, and it told manufacturers it will crack down on inaccurate labeling. It did not criticize specific products or label programs or give a timeline for enforcement.

Froot Loops were also considered to be a smart choice. 'Nuff said, I guess.

And the Obama administration, despite its many challenges on many fronts, appears to be -- with an extra emphasis on "appears" -- getting serious about improving nutrition in schools.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack challenged the nation’s middle schools and high schools on Wednesday to provide healthier meals and more time for exercise and physical activity for their students.

My understanding is that schools often have their hands tied as to what they can serve, where they can procure the food they serve, and, of course, having the kitchen staff who can do anything more than reheat frozen food items.

I mean, don't get me wrong, the "taco in a bag" on the menu at my son's elementary school sounds great. His description is that it's taco meat in a bag with tortilla chips and some cheese. Also called nachos, I suppose. And I would suspect made with the finest factory-farm ground beef -- "slaughterhouse trimmings and mash-like product" and all.

In other words, the very definition of nowhere to go but up.

And speaking of healthy school lunches, Baltimore City schools have implemented "meatless Mondays." ABC News covered it the other evening. And the Center for a Livable Future puts the kaibosh (sp?) on questions about whether these meatless meals are depriving children of much-needed protein.

The United States is among the very few wealthy nations in the world where people derive the majority of their dietary protein from animal sources. The global average is 30% of dietary protein from animal sources, including dairy and eggs, and 70% from grains, vegetables, and fruit.

If Mr. Riter had bothered to contact the Baltimore City Schools he would have found that each meat-free meal contains more than the amount of protein required by the USDA. My guess is that Mr. Riter jumped to his mistaken conclusion after reading misleading quotes from a meat lobby organization, or he really needs to brush up on his basic biochemistry.

Gorilla + Drums = ?????

You'll have to wait to see. It's worth it.




A big hat-tip to NPR's Marketplace, which tipped me off to this old commercial, which, BTW, increased sales of Cadbury products in the UK (possibly Europe?) by 10%.

Tea

Made an Asian-style soup with curry paste, ginger, lemongrass, lime juice, etc. earlier in the week. It was quite good. At the end of the week, still had some of the ingredients in the fridge.

Which brings me to my point. I've been doing some intense weight training and, along with it, increasing my intake of protein and fiber, among other things, which can leave me with quite a bit of stomach upset.

So today, with said stomach upset in full force, I made a ginger-lemongrass tea. Very simple:

Boiled enough water for a single large mug. When it reached a boil, removed it from the heat and added about 2 tablespoons worth of quarter-inch sliced ginger and a two-inch long segment of lemongrass that had been smashed with the side of a knife.

Let the "tea" sit for about 10 minutes, pour into a mug, add a little honey, stir, and drink.

Within the hour my stomach felt much better. Whether this was due to the tea is really not important, because it was delicious.

Pollan Talks Shop w/ Farmers, Jamie O. in the NYT

This is from NPR's "Talk of the Nation."

I'll have to listen to the entire thing soon. Got about halfway through. Really good stuff.

Also, Jamie Oliver's been doing a series of shows about food in America, for the BBC I believe. This lengthy feature about it will also have to be weekend reading.

Broken Record Post: NY Times & Beef Safety

The hordes of LBoN readers (snicker, snicker) are familiar with the coverage this blog has given to the safety of one of our country's favorite foods, beef.

As was pointed out on a science journalism blog, just when you thought this territory had been well covered -- that is, that it has been fairly well established that there are some serious problems with beef safety, etc. -- the New York Times' Michael Moss one-ups everybody and rips off this doozy in last Sunday's paper.

It leads with the story of Stephanie Smith, who can no longer walk due to an infection with E. coli that she got from a hamburger. It turns out, Mr. Moss reports, that ground beef, whether it's in a nicely packaged mound or frozen pre-made patties, isn't necessarily always what you think it is...

Ground beef is usually not simply a chunk of meat run through a grinder. Instead, records and interviews show, a single portion of hamburger meat is often an amalgam of various grades of meat from different parts of cows and even from different slaughterhouses. These cuts of meat are particularly vulnerable to E. coli contamination, food experts and officials say. Despite this, there is no federal requirement for grinders to test their ingredients for the pathogen.

The frozen hamburgers that the Smiths ate, which were made by the food giant Cargill, were labeled “American Chef’s Selection Angus Beef Patties.” Yet confidential grinding logs and other Cargill records show that the hamburgers were made from a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin. The ingredients came from slaughterhouses in Nebraska, Texas and Uruguay, and from a South Dakota company that processes fatty trimmings and treats them with ammonia to kill bacteria.

I particularly like that ammonia bit at the end. "Would you like fries with that? Oh, and we're running a special extra-value meal for burgers with extra ammonia. It's a real bargain, I tell you."

So, as I did once before, I'd like to come back to a letter to the editor (scroll down a bit) that came in reply to my op-ed on the subject of beef safety published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last year. The LTE came from Mr. William R. Henning, the Emeritus Professor of Animal and Food Science at Penn State University.

Penn State has come under criticism from some in the sustainable ag community because of its cozy relationship with the corporations that make up big ag. They have this one professor, Terry Etherton, who apparently believes that anybody who doesn't think pumping cows full of hormones is the be-all end-all of "progress" is anti-science and anti-agriculture. Nice, I know.

Keep that in mind when you read this bit from Mr. Henning's LTE: [NOTE: From this point forward, all bolded text is mine for emphasis]

I'm confident we have a very safe and affordable supply of this important protein. Strict and numerous government regulations along with strong industry leadership protect the safety of our beef.

And then a little later on in the LTE:

For example, each of the 100 million animals that enter the human food supply is closely inspected by veterinarians and trained inspectors. And the inspection system continues throughout the entire process, including careful examination of both raw and fully cooked products.

I tried to wrap my head around how 100 million animals could possibly be closely inspected, even if there was a fully stocked army of inspectors, which published reports have indicated there is not.

In any case, compare the LTE claims with this from the Times' article:

The United States Department of Agriculture, which allows grinders to devise their own safety plans, has encouraged them to test ingredients first as a way of increasing the chance of finding contamination.

Unwritten agreements between some companies appear to stand in the way of ingredient testing. Many big slaughterhouses will sell only to grinders who agree not to test their shipments for E. coli, according to officials at two large grinding companies. Slaughterhouses fear that one grinder’s discovery of E. coli will set off a recall of ingredients they sold to others.

It's almost as if Mr. Moss and Mr. Henning are talking about two entirely different worlds, no? In any case, the article apparently caused enough of a ruckus to prompt a response from the Department of Agriculture, from Sec. Vilsack himself no less.

He talks about additional inspections, new guidelines, better record keeping. But something seemed to be missing: The fact that something can be labeled as ground beef and yet really be "a mix of slaughterhouse trimmings and a mash-like product derived from scraps that were ground together at a plant in Wisconsin."

Anyone else find that unnerving? Perhaps the "strong industry leadership" touted by Mr. Henning from our state's largest (only?) land-grant university will address that?

Right, right. Dumb question.

UPDATE: Speaking of Big Ag influence on land-grant universities, The Ethicurean provides a primo example, this time involving Michael Pollan.

H20 & Manure

Otherwise known as

Water...

and ...

Poo.

Scrapin' Up the Bits... Backyard Chicken style

Jumping right into it...

Jill Richardson at La Vida Locavore does some reading and signals the warning bells about farm-raised shrimp:

As the shrimp grow, the water is treated with pesticides and more piscicides, but by far the gravest area of concern is the use of antibiotics to ward off disease. Acutely toxic to other marine organisms, they can cause contact dermatitis in the shrimp farm employees who administer them. When the plug is pulled on the ponds at the end of the growing season, hundreds of pounds of shrimp remain marinating in the toxic mud at the bottom, and pickers have to be hired to scoop up the stranded shrimp. ...

The adulteration of shrimp does not end at the pond... shrimp are routinely soaked in a solution of sodium tripolyphosphate, or STPP, a suspected neurotoxicant, still legal in the United States, that prevents seafood from drying out in transit and boosts product weight. Borax, best known as a hand cleaner and insecticide, is used to preseve the color of shrimp in some countries. The most unscrupulous countries use caustic soda to chemically burn tiger shrimp a customer-pleasing pink.

I only buy wild-caught fish these days, including shrimp, but eating fish has truly become a hazardous thing on a number of levels. It's really sad.

UPDATE: Via Twitter, Richardson responds to a question about whether wild-caught is all right. Her reply: "wild-caught is bad environmentally (it's caught via trawling and 90% of the catch is other species, killed and thrown away)." I'd like to confirm if this is the case everywhere, including in the Gulf.

On another serious note, have you seen these "smart choices" labels on various food items? I'm vaguely aware of them. Not surprisingly, they don't really mean much.

The criteria deciding which products are “better for you” were set by a panel of representatives from companies such as Kellogg’s, Con Agra and Kraft, as well as independent scientists from health organizations and Academia.

However, something strange must have happened in those criteria-setting meetings, if the result was a seal of approval for Froot Loops and other uber-sweet products. Fruit Loops is 41% sugar by weight, contains a rainbow of artificial colorings, and some trans-fat to boot.

Long story short, some folks who realized the "smart choices" were kind of dumb, got together, put some pressure on other signatories to the "smart choices" program, and those signatories, like the American Diabetes Association, are now leaving the program. They are deserving of a Stewie-style "Victory is Mine!"

Ever thought about raising chickens. In video form, writer Susan Orleans gives you the low-down.

We ate at one of LBoN's favorite places in the world, Dinette, over the weekend. Had a pizza with roasted eggplant and "Salsa Di Canella" on it. The salsa was, in effect, the sauce, and its flavor reminded me of garam masala. Our server said it did indeed have some of the same ingredients in garam masala. It was delectable. And now I'm thinking that it might be a good idea to roast some eggplant, throw it in the food processor with a little oil, some garam masala, some type of herb, and put it on some crostini type things.

I think I made one formal request, via email. But I don't like to be pushy. So perhaps I'll beg:

Please, China Millman, add a link to LBoN to First Bites' "food blogs" list.

For beer and Halloween freaks, Rogue has a special growler-sized edition of Dead Guy Ale that reportedly grows in the dark. You can pick one up, along with Oktoberfest and a multitude of pumpkin ales, at 3 Sons Dogs & Suds.

And, finally, I'm all up in this Twitter thing. It's quite addictive. I'm mostly using it for work purposes, at least in terms of my own "Tweets." But I'm needy. I can always use more "followers."

Azzeria (Wexford)

Being a true pizza snob is a difficult existence. Simply put, often I'd rather go without than eat an inferior slice just because it's technically pizza. There are times when hunger, convenience, and a lack of options gets the better of me. But, as a general rule, I try to avoid poorly made pizza.

What are the/my criteria for "poorly made"? Well, let's start with the crust, which, remarkably, is the most underappreciated component of a pizza. Think about a crust from a typical chain, whether it be Dominoes or a smaller, local chain. It typically has the texture of damp cardboard, lacking any crispiness or chewiness, and has almost no flavor, with the exception being that of grease.

Next the sauce. Again, the sauce at most pizza joints taste primarily of grease, excessive salt, and tomato paste. There is little actual flavor of tomato or even any herbs. There is also often an excessive overabundance of sauce. The toppings? Mass-produced, tasteless mozzarella, and, again, typically too much of it. Mushrooms? Canned or dried, sad little things that taste like and resemble jigsaw puzzle pieces. Olives. Boring black, likely from a large can. Sausage? Crumbly, dry, closer to bird droppings than a meat product. Pepperoni? Well, pepperoni is pepperoni. The only difference typically is that of quantity.



Which brings me to a relatively new addition to the northern 'burbs of Pittsburgh, Azzeria. Located in the Village at Pine on Rt. 19 in Wexford, this is a second location -- the original is in (or at least on the border of) Mt. Lebanon -- for Azzeria. And I can say without hesitation that the pizza at Azzeria is quite good.

Is it on par with Dinette? No. Then again, few pizzas are.

Generally, though, the pizza at Azzeria is at least two steps above what can be had at most predominantly pizza joints and at other restaurants that also offer pizza on the menu.

The crust could use a little more salt, and often times could use another minute in the brick oven, but generally it has the flavor and texture that you would expect from what is in effect homemade bread, and serves well as a canvas for the toppings.

Speaking of the toppings, Azzeria seems to understand the fundamental importance of moderation. The sauce or cheese or various toppings are not heaped on and seem to be of high quality (even the pepperoni).

The plain red is quite good. Tangy tomato flavor and the fresh mozzarella tastes, well, fresh. The "white," topped sparingly with 4 cheeses, including a whipped fresh ricotta, is also well done. You can taste the different cheeses with no single one dominating.

The vodka sauce pizza, an idea I like, is an interesting offering and mostly successful. The beans & greens pizza, another good idea, is overwhelmed by too much garlic. I suppose this appeals to some people, but I'd rather taste the bitterness of the escarole and creaminess of the beans. My favorites are the white and my personal concoction of sausage and escarole.

Also on offer are some salads, a bit small for my liking, but fairly fresh, and soups, which I've yet to have. The wings, which are doused in herbs and fired up in the brick oven, are smoky and meaty (could be a bit crispier) and a welcome change from the overly sauced and underflavored wings that litter the menus of restaurants across the city/country.

There is also delectably creamy and locally made gelato, made by Mulberry Creamery. Among the many flavors on offer, the "Death by Chocolate" lives up to its moniker and the pistachio tastes like pistachios. An excellent way to end a visit here.

The setup at Azzeria is a little atypical. There is no wait staff. You place your order at the counter and a few minutes later they call your name to pick up your food. Herein can be a problem, because let's say you need to get an extra drink or some gelato or, heck, another pizza, you have to wait in the ordering line, which, depending on how busy things are, can take 5-10 minutes. Yes, typically you'd have to wait for your server to get any of things, but at least you'd be sitting.

It's also BYOB, with small wine glasses and corkscrews available. Unfortunately, there is no liquor store in the plaza. The new Giant Eagle in the same plaza will soon have a liquor license soon, though. The restaurant itself is wide open, with a few booths and tall two- and four-top tables, and garage door-like walls that open up to ample outdoor seating for when the weather feels like cooperating.

Overall, I'm a big fan of Azzeria and am glad it's here. With so few good dining options in this neck of the woods, it's nice to know there is a kid-friendly place where we can have an affordable, quality meal in a comfortable environment.

First Futbol of the Year

After a rocky start to the Serie A season, this makes two wins in a row for my Giallorossi. Forza Roma!!

I Was Right

Like I said, I thought this prosciutto-wrapped chicken would make a great Sunday dinner.

And it did.

Some tips in preparing it, though. First, you don't need heavy cream or as much butter for the broccoli puree. I used half and half and a little less butter than it called for and it was still quite rich. Further reductions in butter and the amount of cream could probably be made with little lost in terms of flavor.

Second, if you happen to get truly plump chicken breasts, you'll likelyneed to roast it for closer to 20-25 minutes in the oven.

Third, the carrots in this recipe are really just a poor man's version of the classic carrots in
Marsala. Which is what I ended up making. Per Gina DePalma, here is how they're made:

Carrots in Marsala

• One pound of carrots, cut on the angle into quarter-inch coins
• 2 tbs butter
• 1/2 cup of Marsala
• Water
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt
• Flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat, add the carrots and toss to coat.

Add the Marsala, let it come to a bubble, add enough water to mostly cover the carrots. Add the sugar and pinch of salt and give a quick stir.

Bring to an easy simmer and cover. Cook until the carrots are tender, 15-20 minutes. Remove the cover, turn up the heat a little, and let it cook until most of the liquid is gone and all that's left is a nice glaze on the carrots, 10 more minutes.

Remove from heat, toss with parsley and serve.

The Size of My Fist...

... and crisp and tasty as ever. The Honey Crisp apples that is.

They've had them now at McGinnis Sisters for a few weeks.

They are from PA, significantly cheaper than any apple variety at the Giant Local Grocery Chain, and taste fantastic. And, to boot, they are ridiculously large. Seriously, they are as big as my fist, often bigger.

And that's saying something, 'cause I've got fairly sizable hands (scroll down)! [And you know what they say about guys with big hands? Clumsy in the kitchen.]

But even Honey Crisps that are inferior to these in size and cost are still typically the bestest apples ever.

Our Lovely Factory Farms @ Work

This time it's factory dairy farming, part of the NY Times' excellent series on water pollution. An example of the impact of dirty water?

In Morrison, more than 100 wells were polluted by agricultural runoff within a few months, according to local officials. As parasites and bacteria seeped into drinking water, residents suffered from chronic diarrhea, stomach illnesses and severe ear infections.

“Sometimes it smells like a barn coming out of the faucet,” said Lisa Barnard, who lives a few towns over, and just 15 miles from the city of Green Bay.

Tests of her water showed it contained E. coli, coliform bacteria and other contaminants found in manure. Last year, her 5-year-old son developed ear infections that eventually required an operation. Her doctor told her they were most likely caused by bathing in polluted water, she said.

Runoff from these farms is very poorly regulated, the Times' Charles Duhigg explains. And they seem to skirt around the regs that do exist. And then there's this:

And regulations passed during the administration of President George W. Bush allow many of those farms to self-certify that they will not pollute, and thereby largely escape regulation.

Wow. There's some tough regulation. Self certification. Seems a bit like asking a murderer to remain in his house for a prison sentence, as long as he self certifies that, honest, he won't leave the house or kill anybody ever, ever again.

Despite what many, including many family farmers, think, regulation in and of itself is not bad. Excessive regulation is bad, as is the practice of purposefully not enforcing regulation.

The biggest problem, in agriculture, though, is probably that big ag pretty much writes the regs. As a result, they get the veneer of being a "heavily regulated industry," when in reality the regs are chock full of loopholes large enough to accommodate the space shuttle, but loopholes that really only benefit the big guys.

It's a terrible system. One most legislators seem perfectly willing to maintain.

Cooking Stuff

There is some policy-related news that I've been meaning to get to (perhaps tomorrow), but in the meantime, some actual preparation and consumption of food items.

I can't remember the last time I made anything with chicken breasts -- my preference being, of course, the dark meat -- but this sounds really good, and although it's a tad labor intensive, it would probably make a really good, and healthy, Sunday meal.

And I'm not sure if lobsters are still really cheap (relatively speaking, that is), but this lobster tale (pun intended) got me thinking back to the most recent New Year's Eve, and a decadent meal that I would highly recommend trying to emulate.

We picked up some lobsters from Penn Avenue Fish Company and intended to use it as part of a pasta dish using some fresh pasta we got from Penn Mac in a saffron cream sauce. For the latter, I did some searching on the Intertubes, found one that seemed to meet our needs (tablespoon or two of shallots sauteed in a little olive oil, add half-cup of white wine and reduce in half for about 5-10 minutes, cup or so of heavy cream, pinch or two of saffron, salt, pepper, stir over medium low heat for a bit, finish at the very end with some chopped herbs, parsley or tarragon. I forget the exact details, to be honest - try the aforementioned and you might be surprised.).

Having never done anything with lobster in our kitchen, I followed the instructions in the first hyperlink above:

''The best way to kill them, according to animal welfare agencies, is to put them in the freezer first for 15 minutes,'' he said. ''It slows their metabolism.''

After that, Mr. [Trevor] Corson suggested, put the lobster on its back and slice lengthwise through its soft underbelly.

From that point, you put them in the boiling water.

We had purchased two lobsters. I put them in the freezer for the prescribe time. I removed them. Unfortunately, for the lengthwise slicing of the first lobster, I used our chef's knife with the rounded tip, which precluded me from getting a good first incision into the large crustacean, thus defeated the entire purpose -- that is, humanity -- of this approach, as the poor thing wriggled its antennae and claws as if it were indeed feeling the pain. It was not enjoyable.

For the second lobster, having learned a hard lesson, I used a more traditional chef's knife, and the lengthwise cutting went very quickly and smoothly. No wriggling this time.

We boiled the lobsters and when they were done, my wife extracted as much meat as possible while I made the cream sauce and got the water for the pasta boiling. When the pasta water was ready, folded the lobster meat (most, not all, because there was a lot!) into the sauce, cooked the pasta, combined it all in large bowl and it was fantastic. We enjoyed it tremendously with a lot of red wine before watching the Big Night. A perfect desert to our meal.

A day or two later, we made lobster rolls with the unused lobster meat. As good as they might be on a pier in Nantucket? Probably not, but man were they tasty.

More Bits Scraping

I typically don't like to follow a "Scraping" post - known in blogging venacular as a "digest" - with another "Scraping" post. But I'm all about breaking the rules these days.

To begin with...

This is the thing that is no good about having a young child involved in soccer: Games are always on Saturday, which interferes with our semi-occasional ritual of trips to the Strip District.

And now I have yet another very good reason to make it to the Strip: Peace, Love, and Little Donuts. According to the PG's China Millman, these little donuts are quite good.

And, it's official: I have a mad addiction to Extra Cheddar Flavor Blast goldfish. The snack crackers, that is.

I also have an addiction to beer. Among my favorite, most styles from Dogfish Head. Which reminds me, I need to pick up a 6 of the Punkin' Ale before it's gone.

In any case, the crazy guys at Dogfish have a new brew in the works. It involves purple corn... and human saliva. It's called chicha. The NY Times was there to watch it made. And thanks to the wonders of the Intertubes, you can too.



Speaking of the Times, Michael Pollan, per his usual, has a thought-provoking piece on how health-care reform is inextricably linked to food policy reform.

The moment these new rules take effect, health insurance companies will promptly discover they have a powerful interest in reducing rates of obesity and chronic diseases linked to diet. A patient with Type 2 diabetes incurs additional health care costs of more than $6,600 a year; over a lifetime, that can come to more than $400,000. Insurers will quickly figure out that every case of Type 2 diabetes they can prevent adds $400,000 to their bottom line. Suddenly, every can of soda or Happy Meal or chicken nugget on a school lunch menu will look like a threat to future profits.

When health insurers can no longer evade much of the cost of treating the collateral damage of the American diet, the movement to reform the food system — everything from farm policy to food marketing and school lunches — will acquire a powerful and wealthy ally, something it hasn’t really ever had before.

While it has its logic, I'm not sure I'm buying it. First, it assumes that, at the least, some weak form of reform will pass whereby pre-existing conditions are a thing of the past and there have to be standard rates. No one is saying those have to be affordable rates. Without some type of competition to bring down rates, would it be any surprise if rates for insurance just got higher, and priced out a lot of people (even if some form of subsidies are made available)?

And I don't see the insurers taking on Big Ag and the like. They would just find an easier way to keep their profits high. That's how they roll.

Scrapin' Up the Bits... Good Weed Style

A beneficial weed? It's called kudzu...

The study found that a kudzu root extract had beneficial effects lab rats used as a model for research on the metabolic syndrome. After two months of taking the extract, the rats had lower cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and insulin levels that a control group not given the extract. Kudzu root "may provide a dietary supplement that significantly decreases the risk and severity of stroke and cardiovascular disease in at-risk individuals," the article notes.

A double take from the PG. First, a great profile on a small farm in Carrick.

She talks about why each plant is placed in the garden: Nasturtiums nestle among squash, providing an edible flower for her customers, bringing in beneficial insects and providing ground cover. For similar reasons, Brussels sprouts share space with radicchio; thai, cinnamon and lemon basil are neighbors to tomatoes.

Radicchio? That's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

And next from the PG is this nerve-wracking little bit: Pennsylvania's Secretary of Agriculture, Dennis Wolff, is resigning, effective early next month. You remember Dennis Wolff, don't you, of milk-labeling fame?

The trend these days is to provide more information on food labels: "no trans fat" "free-range" "no preservatives." Mr. Wolff concluded in this case, however, that by stating what was not in the milk, these dairies were misleading consumers into believing their products were safer or healthier, something he dubbed "absence labeling."

But Mr. Wolff provided no evidence to support these claims. No public hearings were held or scientifically valid surveys conducted to assess consumers' feelings about the labels. A Food Labeling Advisory Committee reportedly held a single meeting to discuss the matter, but who was on that committee, or what they discussed, has not been revealed.

We try to limit our use of plastic bags for our kids lunches, relying very heavily on little Tupper Ware or Glad containers for fruit, applesauce, pretzels, etc. And when we do use plastic bags, we do our best to reuse them. Looks like these Lunch Skins will make things a whole lot easier...


And, finally, Kevin Sousa -- the talented chef who is getting all sorts of praise for those fancy tacos at Yo Rita on Pittsburgh's South Side -- has had it up to his taste buds with food bloggers.

The more "foodie" blogs i read the more frustrated i get. These simple sons (and daughters) of bitches and their self righteous "reviews" of restaurants that are nothing more than yet another form of hipsterism that is spreading like shoulder pads all over my fair city. These jagoffs just want to be noticed...and have their meals comped in exchange for a good "review" as if the skinny leather tie and vest with no shirt weren't enough to make people say "hey, did you notice that dipshit with the w.a.s.p. painter's cap?"

I'm not sure if I qualify as a foodie or if my blog is considered a foodie blog. I'd like to think that my tens of adoring readers come to good 'ol Lusty Bit for more than just my adaptations of others recipes! I'd like to think that LBoN is a little bit... deeper ... than that. Heck, I'm writing about weeds and milk labels and all kinds of mixed up, crazy stuff, no?

And I've never gotten comped a freakin' thing, that's for sure. Guess you need more than tens of readers for that to happen. That said, I did eat recently -- finally -- at Yo Rita. And here is my review:

Yo Rita has good food. Yo Rita also has good drinks. Our mussels ceviche was, hmmm, all right. It had this foam on top of it that didn't really do much for the dish. The mussels seemed to be very fresh. But, overall, I was a little disappointed. IM(unpaid)O, they needed a little heat or just more depth of flavor. Perhaps the idea was to let the mussels' flavor shine through. But I tend to think that mussels do best when they are paired with bold flavors, e.g., white wine with garlic and herbs, curry and coconut milk.

My watermelon margarita was good, as was my wife's pineapple margarita. Could have slugged down a few of those in the time it took to put that foam on our mussels. My classic margarita was better. It was exactly what a margarita should be, you get the tequila, but you also get the tang of the lime and a little sweet from the liqueur.

We had four tacos. The chorizo was excellent, and, man, that chorizo was truly kickin' the heat. The duck taco, also very good. The braised pork, enjoyable, but, to be honest, the pork, which was shredded, was a tad dry. My favorite: the black-eyed pea. The peas combined with some exceptionally creamy goat cheese was a perfect combination.

I'll definitely try to make it back to Yo Rita. And hopefully nobody will confuse me for a foodie.

Pesto, Potatoes, Green Beans

An Italian classic: spaghetti with pesto, green beans, and thinly sliced potatoes.

Whenever we have this dish, I always think of one of my all-time favorite movies, The Big Night. A woman has ordered risotto...

Woman: I just don't see anything that looks like a shrimp or a scallop, but I get a side order of spaghetti with this, right?

Secondo: Well, no.

Husband: I thought all main courses come with spaghetti.

Secondo: Well, some, yes. But you see, risotto is rice, so it is a starch and it doesn't go, really, with pasta.

Woman: But I don't...

Husband: Honey, honey, order a side of spaghetti, that's all. And I'll eat your meatballs.

Woman: Yeah, he'll have the meatballs.

Secondo: Well, the spaghetti comes without meatballs.

Woman: There are no meatballs with the spaghetti?

Secondo: No. Sometimes spaghetti likes to be alone.

Secondo goes to the kitchen

Primo: Why?

Secondo: She likes starch. I don't know. Come on.

Primo: How can she want... maybe I should make mashed potatoes for on the other side.

Secondo: Primo, look, don't, okay, because they are the first customer to come in two hours.

Primo: No. She's a criminal. I want to talk to her.

You would think that the potatoes would just lead to starch overload in this dish. But they don't. They add a nice layer of texture, and when you get a bite with pasta, green bean, and potato, there's really not much better.

And the great thing about this dish was that the basil came from our garden (which, after some much needed maintenance, has recovered somewhat), the potatoes from Farmers @ Firehouse, and the green beans from the farm.

One can dream

Seriously, this is the most awesome thing I have ever seen.

Some Music

I only listened to the new album once and I kept hoping for some more upbeat tunes. Nevertheless, Neko can belt it.

Scrapin' Up the Bits... "Mad Men" style

The third season of Mad Men returns to AMC this Sunday. Admittedly, season 2 was not as good as season 1, and season 3 almost never happened, so hopefully there was no rush to crank out less- than-stellar material. This show has gotten raves for its quality of course, its influence on fashion, and, now, its devotion to getting its cocktails right...

Liquor is not only an integral part of many plotlines (last season, it played a pivotal role in a car crash, a divorce, a rape and two career implosions), but often a telling sign of character. When it comes to choosing a character’s poison, Ms. Perello said, many people have input, starting with the show’s creator, Matthew Weiner: “Matt will say, ‘I want them to have a brown liquor.’ And I’ll go, ‘Let’s do a nonblended Scotch, because this is a person who would appreciate that.’ ”

The cocktail historian David Wondrich, 48, thinks an old-fashioned is a conservative choice for the young Draper, but considers his preference for Canadian Club “exactly right. We’d had years of destruction of the American whiskey industry up until then. So the Canadian stuff was viewed as being pretty good.”

Another month, another recall of hundreds of thousands of pounds of beef. I'm a little late to writing about this, but it certainly did not get the coverage previous recalls have. Guess people are just so used to it by now...

I'm more than happy to put in my fair share of time for delicious food, but several hours of serious prep time and two days in total just is beyond my limits, even for something as delicious sounding (and looking) as Sicilian style square pizza.

Finally, and happily, there is a chance that beer might once again be brewed in the hallowed tanks of the Penn Brewery. Tom Pastorius apparently did not like what was being done to the business, and the beer, he worked so hard to make a success.

Tom Pastorius, who founded the brewery in 1986 and sold most of it to Birchmere Capital in 2003, is working with a group of investors who have negotiated to buy back Birchmere's stock. They've applied for a $300,000 Urban Redevelopment Authority loan for working capital as part of a plan to fix up and return brewing to the building.

The obesity rescue berry?

Maybe you've heard of miraculin. I haven't. It's this little berry, resembles a cranberry apparently. You chew it up, get all of the pulp and seeds out, swirl around in your mouth, and dispense. Now put a lemon in your mouth. It will taste sweet. Miraculin makes anything acidic taste sweet. It's used for "flavor tripping parties" in the Big Apple and elsewhere.

Mr. Aliquo greeted new arrivals and took their $15 entrance fees. In return, he handed each one a single berry from his jacket pocket. ... He ushered his guests to a table piled with citrus wedges, cheeses, Brussels sprouts, mustard, vinegars, pickles, dark beers, strawberries and cheap tequila, which Mr. Aliquo promised would now taste like top-shelf Patrón.

But could it be used to combat obesity? Hmmm....

But with miraculin, would anyone be able to tell the difference between tofu pudding and creme brulee? Since it's nearly impossible to change someone's taste, perhaps what's needed to get Americans to eat better is literally to change their perception of taste.

Could miraculin really do that? Perhaps?

At the very least, some folks see a business opportunity.

Some companies have been attempting to create flavor-modulating compounds that mimic what miraculin does naturally. Two of those are Senomyx and RedPoint Bio, which are also developing bitterness blockers and exploring the pathways that translate to salty.

Both have partnered with or are in talks with food companies who are trying to reduce calories in their products by adding taste enhancers instead of sugars or sweeteners.

If these products reach a wider market, more and more patients might be eating foods with the same taste but just a fraction of the calories -- and they likely won't be able to tell the difference.

As this blog post points out, perhaps it could lead people to eat lower-calorie foods, but would it fill them up, or just lead to them still taking in as many calories as before by consuming more?

Paint me intrigued, but extremely skeptical.

The Angry Robin Cometh

We have an Angry Robin in our backyard.

I don't know why it is angry. But it expresses its anger by dive bombing those who go near the garden. Well, everybody except my 7-year-old son. When he goes out to the garden, the Angry Robin remains esconced in our unruly apple tree, spouting disgruntled chirps. My theory is that it's the two missing front teeth. Heck, I'm scared of that mouth these days...

The Angry Robin may be the female robin that has reared at least two batches of babies in a nest under our deck this summer. Perhaps she is exacting revenge for all of the times we made her evacuate the nest by daring to walk past the nest down to said garden.

Conversley, it could be her mate. Maybe it's a new beau who is trying to show up the other male robins in the vicinity. "This is how you treat humans, you losers. Grow a pair!"


Not sure why our garden is even very attractive to the Angry Robin. It has tanked big time. The zucchini plant is already tapped out. The few cucumbers we got were scrawny and curled. The lettuces did all right until the rains came. As did the tomato plants, which have also succumbed to the nibbling of bunnies -- amazingly, our first ever problems with animals. The jalapenos are doing well. And I'm hoping the poblanos and red chiles recover. And the Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.

I think our garden problem is multi-fold. We planted too much in too little space. We failed to keep the tomato plants under control. And, of course, the copious amounts of rain.

In any case, if there is another run in with the Angry Robin, it will no longer be met with girly screams and scampers back up the deck stairs. From this point forward, it will be met with awe-inducing force. A suburbia WMD, if you will.

This secret weapon?

The garden hose. On the "shower" setting, of course. I promised my daughter I wouldn't really hurt it.

Grass-finished beef here! Get your grass-finished beef!

China Millman, the Post-Gazette's resident restaurant critic (I'm not sure what the heck to call that "Munch" guy), dishes on some options for local grass-finished beef. Grass-fed, I presume, should be reserved for cow's that truly do eat nothing but grass their entire lives. Grass-finished are those that aren't sent to CAFOs to be "finished" for the last part of their lives on grain-based feed (and to get all hopped up on antibiotics and growth hormones -- partaaaay at the CAFO!).

In addition to helping consumers find local options for grass-fed/finished beef, there is something else I found particularly welcome about this article: the reserved way she describes the potential health benefits of grass-fed/finished beef.

Preliminary research suggests that grass-finished beef may be more healthful than grain-finished beef. It's leaner and lower in calories. It also contains higher levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin E and conjugated linoleic acid, which health professionals believe may have cancer-fighting properties.

Terms/phrases like "preliminary" research and "may be more healthful" are important. Although you will often see proponents of grass-fed/finished beef (of which I consider myself one) tout its health benefits, as far as I know, there have been no studies that have directly compared health outcomes between people who consume primarily corn-fed beef (which probably represents 99% of the meat-eating population, in the U.S. at least) and grass-fed/finished beef (nor are there likely to be any, for a number of reasons). Those overstatements always bother me and I don't think they help the "cause" any.

Second, I find it curious that Ms. Millman didn't explicity state where she stands on the taste issue. Although she cites others' feelings, she doesn't offer her own preference. She's a food critic, after all. I would have liked to have seen something in that regard, even if, for the purposes of this article, she was playing the role of straight-news journalist.

My own opinion is that grass-fed beef can be better than grain-fed. The problem, if you want to call it that, is that the taste actually does vary from farm to farm. I have had some grass-fed beef that was fantastic, and some that was quite disappointing.

If it's something you're into, I would recommend finding a grass-fed/finished producer whose product you enjoy and getting as much of it as possible. And telling everybody you know about it. Demand begets popularity, and popularity begets a bigger marketplace for these products. Although it's not something that can happen overnight. It definitely takes time. But hopefully it will start to happen.

A taxing situation

Sooooo... you've got this fairly disturbing report showing that obesity-related health care costs run about $147 billion annually.

"These results reveal that obesity continues to impose an economic burden on both public and private payers," writes Dr. Eric Finkelstein, director of the Public Health Economics Program at the North Carolina-based RTI International, which produced the national study.

"The connection between rising obesity rates and rising medical spending is undeniable."

Part of the solution to the obesity problem, it's been argued, is to slap a tax on junk food. Make it more expensive to eat bag after bag of potato chips and drink 24 oz. Mountain Dews, and you produce an easy incentive to alter people's behaviors. On its face, it seems like a no-brainer (h/t Serious Eats):

About one-third of Americans are obese, up from 15% in 1980. Fat people are more prone to heart disease, diabetes, bone disorders and cancer. An obese person’s annual medical costs are more than $700 greater than those of a comparable thin person. The total medical costs of obesity surpass $200 billion a year in America, which is higher than the bill for smoking.

Of course, the folks who make some of these products don't like this idea one darn bit. Perhaps you've seen the ads from Americans Against Food Taxes? You know, the one which argues that, during these tough economic times, those meanies in Congress should not be adding to the cost of "the simple pleasures that we all enjoy, like juice drinks and soda" by slapping a big 'ol fat tax (no pun intended) on them.

[On a side note, does anybody actually believe that "Americans Against Food Taxes" is actually a grassroots organization, and not an astroturf campaign funded by the American Beverage Association?]

As others have pointed out, I think it would be difficult to define just what should and should not be taxed. What about the juice drinks we buy, made by the folks at Honest Tea (which is partially owned by Coke, I know, I know), that are organic, have just a little (real) sugar and only have 40 calories? I would hardly say that qualifies as a fattening food.

But generally I think it's a good idea. The revenue could be used to pay for health care reform and, as has been shown with cigarettes, may actually help ween people off of the stuff. At the same time, it's a regressive tax, because it would hit lower-income people (who are at increased risk for becoming obese) harder, since they often live in neighborhoods that lack grocery stores and decent restaurants and, as a result, buy more food items at convenience stores and fast-food restaurants (which are in abundance in many low-income areas) meaning their diets are replete with the fattening foods that would become more expensive.

To be workable, in my view, taxing junk food has to be coupled with a serious effort to make healthier foods more affordable, by taking away those billions in corn subsidies and using them instead to help more farmers return to growing a diverse array of crops, and to promote a more regionalized food system, so those said farmers can't more easily get their products to willing customers.

In the end, I doubt either will occur. But stranger things have happened.

Fritto Misto

One of the first shots from my new camera with its "food" setting -- obviously there are way too many food bloggers out there!

We typically follow the Mario Batali recipe from Simple Italian Food for this recipe: a batter composed of flour, salt, baking soda, water, and olive oil. Dip the veg in the batter and fry. We used canola oil, maintained at about 350 degrees.

For this go-round, we had green beans, cauliflower, and zucchini, topped with some fried sage leaves. On the side, some cheese (from grass-fed cows) that friends of ours picked up at a farm in upstate New York. Remarkably fantastic combination of flavors, particularly when washed down with a grenache.

The frying knocks down the health quotient a bit, but man is this a fantastic way to enjoy summer vegetables.

Young Farmers

A great piece today in USA Today about an influx of new, young farmers. It's an interesting read and makes me think there is hope yet for a more regional, sustainable system of agriculture in the United States. I liked this quote in particular, from a 27-year-old farmer in upstate New York:

"The America that I want to live in will support people who are willing to work their asses off, who want to do good things for their community. We're patriots of place. Here I am, I'm planting my trees."

This influx of young farmers is needed. As the writer, Elizabeth Weise, explains, the average age of an American farmer is 57.

Not so interesting, and actually rather infuriating (to the point that I want to personally damage a wall with my head, or at least a fist), are some of the thoughts posted in the "comments" section that follows the article. Usually it's easy enough to laugh off such comments:

"We are moving backwards into a peasant existence where you need to grow your own food to survive. This is progress?"

OR

"I wonder how long it will be before the enviromentalists zero in on these common peole like they have the bigger farmers and put them out of buisness?"

OR, my favorite

This article makes me laugh. Urban liberals / progressives constantly berate and belittle any "gun lovin' redneck" any chance they get, yet it is those exact red-state / red-county rural types who live minimalist, organic lives by hunting and farming their own food. Liberals will read about such a lifestyle in $5 glossy magazines but it is that "good 'ole hillbilly" who is actually living the life.

... but in this case I can't even chuckle. These are people who are mired so deeply in their ideology, misconceptions, and grossly distorted view of reality that they can find fault in young adults who are brave enough -- 'cause I'm sure as hell not -- to jump into one of the most difficult trades that exists based on an honest belief that what they are doing will make things better.

These are not people who are trying to get rich, they aren't trying to fleece anybody, and they are willing to work their "asses off" -- at the great risk of failure and economic ruin -- because that belief is so strong. And these commenters read something like this and respond with misinformed cliches about "urban liberals" or those crazy environmentalists who just hate everything and want to do something bad, although what has never been adequately explained.

Then again, these are probably the same people who still believe there are WMDs in Iraq.

Beer Bistro Dinner at Pines Tavern

The Pines Tavern is a neat little place not far from our house. We eat dinner there on occasion, but not necessarily frequently.

Generally speaking, the food produced by the kitchen is high quality. The only problem I have with The Pines -- and why we probably don't eat there more often, despite its close proximity to the Fillippelli household -- is that the food tends to be very heavy. This is particularly true at lunch, where sandwiches, which are typically chock full of great ingredients, are just weighed down by too many of those ingredients.

On the plus side, it has a spectacular back patio. When you're sitting out there, you deservedly feel like your somewhere in the French countryside. not just around the bend from a run-down 7-11 and a slightly less rundown pizza joint.

Where the patio succeeds, the interior leaves something to be desired. The dining rooms are in desperate need of being updated. They are designed more for, well, a geriatric-leaning clientele. The bar area is cozy, great for a cold fall or winter day, but not ideal once the weather warms up.

Back on the plus side, and this is a big plus, the Pines grows a lot of its own produce throughout the spring, summer, and fall in gardens just across the street from the restaurant. It also sources lamb and, I believe, other meat from local farms. So the folks who run this place make a valiant effort to follow the local route, which is why I try not to forget about it.

One regular event that has caught my attention are these enticing-sounding "Beer Bistro" dinners held every month. The dinner is three courses, and features beers from a single brewery, a different one with each course. This month's dinner is being held this week, featuring beers from Pennsylvania-based Victory Brewing. The menu, particularly the ribs and grilled peaches for desert, is calling out my name.

It runs this Wednesday through Friday: $39 if you're getting the beers, $32 without. That's a good deal!

Too Many Drugs, Too Much Safety

I don't know if this has legs, but I'm amazed that it was even introduced in the first place:

The Obama administration announced Monday that it would seek to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in hopes of reducing the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans. In written testimony to the House Rules Committee, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, said feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle — done to encourage rapid growth — should cease.

The reason: giving antibiotics to healthy animals so that they grow faster can promote antibiotic resistance. As Dr. Kellog Schwab, director of Johns Hopkins' Center for Water and Health explains it:

"This development of drug resistance scares the hell out of me. If we continue on and we lose the ability to fight these microorganisms, a robust, healthy individual has a chance of dying, where before we would be able to prevent that death." Schwab says that if he tried, he could not build a better incubator of resistant pathogens than a factory farm. He, Silbergeld, and others assert that the level of danger has yet to be widely acknowledged. Says Schwab, "It's not appreciated until it's your mother, or your son, or you trying to fight off an infection that will not go away because the last mechanism to fight it has been usurped by someone putting it into a pig or a chicken."

Next, although the article is somewhat hard to follow if you're not familiar with the broader topic of food safety, it still paints a scary picture:

Dick Peixoto planted hedges of fennel and flowering cilantro around his organic vegetable fields in the Pajaro Valley near Watsonville to harbor beneficial insects, an alternative to pesticides.

He has since ripped out such plants in the name of food safety, because his big customers demand sterile buffers around his crops. No vegetation. No water. No wildlife of any kind.

"I was driving by a field where a squirrel fed off the end of the field, and so 30 feet in we had to destroy the crop," he said. "On one field where a deer walked through, didn't eat anything, just walked through and you could see the tracks, we had to take out 30 feet on each side of the tracks and annihilate the crop."

Basically, you have food safety measures being taken, much of it done in a proprietary fashion, to address problems being created by factory farming operations, not many of the little guys who actually do things like, you know, plant other plants to protect their products from bugs, instead of bombarding it with pesticides. And many of these safety practices are, according to this article, being proposed for use on national level.

Watcha Been Doin'?

I don't know. Watching the Tour De France, I guess...

What can I say. I've had ideas, thoughts, urges, inspirations. But nothing's been enough to get me to post anything new. Was a cooking fiend this weekend.

Just tonight made this Batali chicken dish, via Gwyneth Paltrow (via my friend/colleague Brittany) that was really quite delicious. On the side some potatoes, parboiled, tossed with olive oil, crushed fennel seed, sweet paprika, a little cumin, salt, and pepper, and finished on the grill (in a grill pan). A very nice partner for the chicken. Next time, more salt, more fennel, more paprika, cooked over higher heat to make the potatoes crispier (although I wonder if that might dry them out?).

Last night made some fish tacos, on excellent flour tortillas from Reyna's in the Strip, using the blend of fish for the fish tacos at Penn Avenue Fish Company. I purchased said fish from... Penn Avenue Fish Company. Topped with, among other things, purple cabbage from Blackberry Meadows Farm, purchased at Farmers @ Firehouse.

Friday it was finally time to cook the scallops we picked up on the way out of the Outer Banks a few weeks ago. Seared, on top of a pea puree (peas, courtesy of the farm, a little butter, a little more half-half, mint, basil, salt, pepper, a little lemon).

Speaking of tacos, Yo Rita, on the South Side, may be the place to go. Until January 2009, I believe, it was called Iguana Grill. Its food, and apparently whole way of running the operation, has been remade by Kevin Sousa, who from my reading, is as close to a "celebrity chef" as there is in Pittsburgh. Sousa is apparently doing side gigs while he waits to open up his own place, Salt of the Earth. That's the name of his blog, which is fun reading. The tacos sound like my kinda deal. I will go there soon. I hope.

I've also been working on a food-related short story -- a send-up, of sorts, of myself. I hope to publish it on this blog in several parts. I hope it's good. But who knows. I write about cancer research most of the time, and have maybe completed one or two fiction stories in all of my writing years. So it may stink.

There are numerous interesting things happening on the food policy front. I've been unable to keep up with them, except for the fact that the prez appointed a former Monsanto lobbyist to be a key advisor on food safety at the FDA. Not change I can believe in. Although some respected people don't think it's necessarily going to be a disaster. For the best policy updates, I highly recommend The Ethicurean and La Vida Locavore (note to self, that's two additions to blog roll. Get on it!)

Oh, and I got a new digital camera, one that has a setting just for food. Because there are like a million food blogs out there. Mine, no doubt, is the best. Just that nobody knows it yet...