homefries.org

The Columbia Journalism review has an article about recent books that look at modern food production:
Organic food presently accounts for only 2.5 percent of all food sold in the United States–and that counts all the “industrial organic” food Pollan scorns. Are, then, these debates about the ethics and politics of food largely a pastime of [...]

[Read more →]

The farmers market at Boston City Hall resumed this week, and today I bought a loaf of whole wheat bread and a dozen beautiful, large, brown, free-range, local eggs. Woot!

[Read more →]

A great article at Incharacter.org by Bill McKibben.
We’re used to independence as the prime virtue — so used to it that three quarters of American Christians believe the phrase “God helps those who help themselves” comes from the Bible, instead of Ben Franklin. “Love your neighbor as yourself” is harder advice, but sweeter and more [...]

[Read more →]

I won’t link to their website, because that’s actually good for them, but the Snickers website has 1) a homophobic ad they aired during the Super Bowl; 2) three more even worse ads that they’re inviting people to vote on for airing during the Daytona 500; and 3) bigoted reactions from pro football players.
So, no [...]

[Read more →]

I recently finished Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma (which I’ve reviewed for UU World. Many of the concerns Pollan takes up regarding food production have also been addressed by the Guardian. Today, for instance there’s this article: Will the organic dream turn sour?
We now have millions of people buying organic in a committed way. But [...]

[Read more →]

Adapted from the basic pancake recipe in The King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook, page 32.
Dry ingredients:

2 cups flour (I used 1c unbleached white, 1c whole wheat)
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch ancho chile powder
cinnamon
allspice

Wet ingredients:

1/2 cup mashed sweet potato
1/2 cup oil
1 cup orange juice
2 eggs

A little melted butter [...]

[Read more →]

Today’s version for the contra dance potluck:

2 sweet potatoes, 2 carrots, 1 beet, cut into chunks
large handful dried apricots
small handful dried nectarines
juice of 3 oranges
large dollop of honey
cinnamon, cayenne, minced ginger, salt

put in buttered casserole dish, cover, and bake at 350

[Read more →]

Julie Powell’s blog fame has been transmuted into a book, Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, and 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. It captures not only the joys and sorrows of cooking (and blogging) her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but also life as a secretary in New York on [...]

[Read more →]

I’m making a debut appearance as a guestblogger over on the wonderful Bakerina’s blog with this entry:
I’m not, nor have been, Jewish, but I find the Pesach holiday very meaningful. Pesach is the commemoration of the Exodus story and the creation of the Jewish people, but it can also be a universal story of enslavement [...]

[Read more →]

M.F.K. Fisher. What a wonderful, idiosyncratic writer! In one chapter she remembers making eggs in little ramekins while drinking champagne at three in the morning before going to bed; in another she suggests that one leave the grease from mixing up meatloaf on your hands for a while as a moisturizer. This in a book [...]

[Read more →]