When I was in college I briefly dated a boy whose idea of a meal was eating cold meat chili from an open can. In retrospect, how and what he chose to feed himself provided a very telling insight into his character and values. How and what we eat shapes our lives and who were are. Nothing we do is more intimate; our meals sustain our very existence. When we choose to grow our own food, buy from local farmers markets and not eat highly processed packaged food, we are not only taking positive steps toward building and sustaining a locally based economy, but we are also lessening our collective carbon footprint upon the planet.
If you are starting to feel inspired to create some simple, affordable, tasty meals from locally available seasonal food, but are a bit clueless how to begin, Lisa Jervis‘ new book, Cook Food: A Manualfesto for Easy, Healthy, Local Eating, may provide just the help that you need.
As recently as 1989, the Pemba Flying Fox, one of Africa’s largest bat species, was critically endangered, with only a few individuals left on Pemba Island, off the coast of Tanzania. Since an intervention by Flora and Fauna International (FFI), numbers have soared to a staggering 22,000.
According to conservation worker, Joy Juma, “At one time roast bat was a very common dish on Pemba. Now people value the bats for different reasons.”
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”.
Summer Vegetable Risotto Use this recipe as a model for many of your favorite seasonal vegetables, so long as those on the sturdy side (bell peppers, artichoke hearts, broccoli, beets) are precooked until not quite tender, either by blanching, steaming, or roasting. As a general rule, for every cup of rice, you will need about 3 cups of simmering broth.
Cooking time: The total cooking time from the first addition of liquid
If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard a thousand times: Eat Your Vegetables! From the day we moved onto solid foods until we moved out of the house, we heard this culinary command at least three times a day. Yet at some point, we tuned it out.
A new study American Journal of Preventive Medicine confirms this: Americans are eating fewer vegetables than ever. Researchers evaluated data from two large national health surveys
If we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard a thousand times: Eat Your Vegetables! From the day we moved onto solid foods until we moved out of the house, we heard this culinary command at least three times a day. Yet at some point, we tuned it out.
