Guayaki - Organic Yerba Mate Tea - (Guayaki.com)
I really only drink two things - water and tea. And I’m pretty fussy about the quality of each. Since I gave up the sauce (caffeine that is), I’ve been enjoying Yerba Mate as my new primary tea source. Guayaki sent me some samples to review for the magazine and I am now addicted to their Organic Yerba Mate. Not an awful addiction as addictions go. The company […]
My guest today is Beth Bader, a very busy mom who juggles raising a family while working full-time, and writing three different blogs. In our interview, she talks about wrangling sharks, not for food, but tagging them, and what she’s discovered about the foods we’re eating.
Beth’s blog is The Expatriate’s Kitchen, “Musings on food and life, with my original recipes, and a cynical wit as sharp as my ten-inch French knife”.
I guess Thursday is Bad Cow Day. Sorry cows! I love your sweet, cud-chewing faces, but your owners have issues!
According to the Humane Society, 17% of the U.S. beef supply comes from spent dairy cows. These cows no longer produce financially viable quantities of milk and are sold at steep discount to slaughterhouses. In fact, prices for dairy cows can be as little as one-tenth the price of a well-fed beef steer on the meat market. This partially has to do with net meat gain: the dairy cow is bred for optimum lactation, not muscle mass. The price differential also has to do with condition: the dairy cows tend to be older and more feeble, depleted of calcium and afflicted with a multitude of bacterial infections, the result of sedentary, unifunctional lives.
Um. Look I don’t want to be an alarmist or anything. But. Um.
See, I’ve got kids? And, see…they’re kind of…energetic enough? I mean really, truly. Spend five seconds in my house and you will see: they are doing just fine bouncing off the walls of their own accord. So, I’ll thank the world for not encouraging them to bounce off the ceiling, as well.
Oh, but I can‘t thank the world, because apparently the world is instead choosing to fill them with caffeine when I’m not around.
As this great article from Metroactive explains, “these days, constraints on caffeine consumption for kids and young teens are nonexistent. Kids are having caffeine early and often.” It’s not just in their drinks, apparently. Candy bars? Increasingly filled with the stuff.
You remember those ads. Clay lamb and dog statues sprouting thickets of green blades, punctuated by an 800-number and a 2-for-1 offer.
Last year, I was visiting Mexico with my father and some of his colleagues. One day, we went out for lunch at this gorgeous restaurant called Los Danzantes in Coyoacan - Frida Kahlo’s hometown, which is now an incorporated neighborhood in Mexico City.
I ordered a lemonade and when it came, it had tiny seeds throughout, like the seed of a strawberry or kiwi. Like a strawberry seed, also, each had a tiny gel sac. The effect was a satisfying texture and delightfully tart taste. When I asked our friends about the seeds, I was told that they were from the chia plant. As in ch-ch-ch-chia.
Apparently, the hearty seeds were one of the most important foods during the Aztec era. Aztec warriors, during battles, were said to subsist on the seeds alone, which I later learned are the world’s best source of plant-based Omega-3 oils.
When I got back from my trip, I spent a few weekends trying to find sources for my favorite Mexican ingredients. I found locally-grown tomatillos at a farmer’s market and a Mexican grocer in Kensington Market who sells queso de oaxaca, jarred nopales (cactus pads), and canned huitlacoche (corn fungus…better than it sounds!) But much to my surprise, it was incredibly easy to find chia: I had been passing packets of Salba on the shelves of my local health food store for years and soon learned that Salba is a type of Chia, a member of the mint family.
In the heat of summer a tall glass of fresh, brewed iced tea can be refreshing. Keep a pitcher handy by making your own using solar power. All you need is a glass jar, water, tea and a hot sunny day.
J A Bowman from Dallas, TX says:
Make Sun Tea in any clean closed glass container. Fill container with water, add tea bags, close container and place in the sun until the
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Mexican Horchata
Horchata is a traditional rice drink first developed in Spain and modified in Mexico. This is a delicious, sweet drink that has been around for thousands of years and is best served cold. Plan ahead when making it, as it requires some advanced preparation (the rice needs to soak overnight).
Ingredients
1 cup long-grain rice
Hot water
4 cups non-dairy milk
1/4-1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Ice for serving
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