Humane Society video of workers abusing "downer" cattle

The Humane Society has a remarkable video of workers using a forklift to get "downer" cattle up on their feet long enough to pass inspection.

Beyond the cruelty evident in the video, the Washington Post explains that putting downer cattle into the food supply is dangerous.

One reason that regulations call for keeping downers -- cows that cannot stand up -- out of the food supply is that they may harbor bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease. It is caused by a virus-like infectious particle that can cause a fatal brain disease in people.

Another is because such animals have, in many cases, been wallowing in feces, posing added risks of E. coli and salmonella contamination.

The Humane Society and other groups have for years urged Congress to pass legislation that would tighten oversight at slaughterhouses.

Here is the USDA response yesterday from Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer:

"While we are conducting our investigation, today, USDA has indefinitely suspended Westland Meat Company as a supplier to Federal food and nutrition programs. Westland Meat Company will not be permitted to produce or deliver any products currently under contract. Under the suspension, no further contracts will be awarded to Westland Meat Company. The suspension will remain in effect until all investigations are complete and appropriate action is taken by the Department. An administrative hold has been placed on all Westland Meat Products that are in, or destined for Federal food and nutrition programs.

"It is unfortunate that the Humane Society of the United States did not present this information to us when these alleged violations occurred in the fall of 2007. Had we known at the time the alleged violations occurred, we would have initiated our investigation sooner, and taken appropriate actions at that time."

The coverage at Ethicurean doesn't think much of Schafer's complaint that the Humane Society should have come directly to USDA with this information.

The USDA had ample opportunities to discover what was going on. An inspector visited the Westland plant twice a day at the same exact time — always a great way to keep tabs on something. Do health inspectors tell restaurants when they’re coming through?

The meat industry in this country is broken from start to finish. We take ruminants and feed them grain their stomachs weren’t designed to eat, treating them like garbage disposals for our industrial leftovers; implant steroids so they’ll grow faster; feed them antibiotics so they can survive the poor diets and crowded feedlot conditions; then ship them to slaughterhouses where they are killed and processed at speeds that practically beg for bacterial contamination and worker injuries.

What will it take to get Americans to stop eating beef that’s been marinated in E. coli and suffering? At what point will we say enough is enough?

My five-year-old daughter has been asking questions about vegetarianism, which I'll tell you about in a future post. Meanwhile, maybe it's time to join the New York Time's Mark Bittman in at least rethinking our meat consumption.

CARNIVAL IS HERE!!!

Time for Fiesta, for fun, for great and delicious Meals... CARNIVAL is here!!! This Year it will last until february 6th and till that day we will fool ourselves and go to parties, get our costumes on and eat and drink and sing and dance like maniacs... Do you want to join us?

Special dressing: Huecco a fantastic musician to get you in the mood for moving your hips!!! (turn player on to feel his wild rhythm)

If you come to Barcelona, the places to go for the Carnival Parades are Sitges and Vilanova i la Geltrú, these are two small cities near Barcelona which have a beautiful, colorful and crazy Fiesta-Carnival. The first one: Sitges is wellknown for its beaches, narrow old stoned streets and european gay meeting point. And the second: Vilanova i la Geltrú for its gastronomy among other things.

All these days of sinny nonstop party (? ;-)) take place just before the beggining of the Lent when sacrifies of the body and soul are required. This is what religion recomends, but since I told you before, I'm not a religious person, I only take what I want from traditions... so I just take the party and the eating celebrations!!!

Here in Catalonia is also a tradition today, Thursday, to eat omelette and egg's sausage. That's why this day is called "el dia de la truita" the day of the omelette or also "Dijous gras" Greasy thursday. So here you have tortilla de patatas, tortilla de alcachofas, egg sausage and some iberian acorn ham to follow with what tradition says.



To perform tortilla de patatas, just follow the link and if you want to do artichokes omelette perform same steps, but instead of potatoes and onion use artichokes, cook them at low heat so that they get soft enough to do the omelette. For 6 to 7 artichokes use 4 to 5 eggs. I meant to cook a zuchinni one but didn't have the time, so it will be posted next month. The egg's sausauge has this yellow colour that becomes darker the dryer it gets. The ingredients are pork meat, eggs, salt, pepper and nutmeg, all of them stuffed in the intestines pork skin, cooked in a cauldron, strained and ready to eat. I always buy it prepared and cooked.


This is a dessert that's consumed during these days called "Coca de llardons". Main ingredients: Lardons which are small strips or cubes of fatty bacon or pork that is cut from a pig's belly. Typically of 1 cm (3/8 inch) on a small side, pinenuts and sugar, not to mention calories.... but so flavourfull and tasty!

The 6th of February, is the last party day... the Carnival king is burnt (a man sized doll) and then we proceed to "the bury of the sardine" This is another funny tradition that simbolizes that the excess days are over. We buy a dry sardine, at the begining of the holiday, dress it with colored papers or even clothes and the 6th we bury it in the ground, in a park or in the country side. And this is when abstinence time begins!


Cityzens from Vilanova i la Geltrú playing a Sweets War.

Fabes con Almejas - Food Event

This recipe is original from Asturias, a wonderful region here in the north of Spain, and I really mean Full of Wonder! Because their meals are exceptional, their landscapes are breathtaking, and their milk and cows are the best! Not to mention its Cider... mmmmm. My husband is half Asturian half Catalan, so this one goes for him!!!

Special dressing: Nancy Sinatra (turn player on).

This beans called Fabes are BIG SIZE ones, the famous Fabada is also cooked with them, but since we are having such good weather, I reserved fabada for colder days and here you have this great marriage between land and sea: Fabes and Clams. It's an easy and tasty recipe, if you live in a cold place... it will warm you up!

I'm posting this Beans & Clams for the Legume Love Affair Event that Susan is hosting at her The Well-Seasoned Cook, please take a look, it will surely be a good inspiration for the winter meals.


Once upon a time (this is back to early 80s), I used to work in a model agency in Barcelona as a booker. It was a great and fascinating job, the fascinating part came when a good looking guy would enter the office and present himself, he, he, he. They came from all over the world and most of the times (I was pretty young then) we would just "fall in love" with them!!! From that period of my life I remember meeting a North American, a handsome guy called Randy and he was just so cowboy looking (or the idea I had from cowboys) so funny, he would always be joking with us... a very nice man! He taught us something related with beans and after all these years I still remember the song... weird ugh? This one, Peter, I'm not going to sing, but here you have the "lyrics" for those of you interested in them. Back to those days we laughed with the song. Have you Americans heard about it?????

Eat beans in every meal,
the more you eat,
the more you fart,
the more you fart,
the better you feel,
so, eat beans in every meal!

Sorry about it, I couldn't resist the temptation!!!

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: ½ kilo of fabes (beans from Asturias), a bunch of parsley, 1 carrot, 1 bay leaf, 1 kilo of clams (galician ones if possible), 4 garlic cloves, salt, 200 cubic centimeters of olive oil, 1 spoon table of wheat flour and 100 cubic centimeters of dry white wine.
•The night before have the beans in cold water. Make sure there’s 5 to 6 fingers of water above the beans.

•Strain the beans and have them in a casserole together with the onion, the carrot, the bay leaf and 3 springs of parsley. Cover with cold water. If tap water if too strong in lime use mineral water. Turn the heat high until it boils, then low it to minimum and take away the white foam. Have it low and throw some cold water if you see it boiling. Keep the low heat.
•In a saucepan with the olive oil add the minced garlic. Medium heat.

•In a small bowl pour the white wine and add the flour, stir until you get them mixed and before the garlic gets golden add the mixture to the saucepan and also the minced parsley (3 more springs).
•Stir until you see the flour emulsionates with the rest of ingredients.

•Now, with a kitchen spoon (see the picture for those of you who doubt of the size) take one spoon of the beans liquid and pour into the saucepan.
•Stir for a while aprox. 1 minute.

•Strain the clams and wash them under tap water and add to the saucepan at low/medium heat.
•Have them for 4 minutes or until they open. Add some salt.Take away from heat.
•Take the shell of half the clams and leave the other half. Reserve.

•When the beans (fabes) have been slowly cooking for 4 hours (that’s the time I had them on the heat), take the parsley, the carrot, the onion and bay leaf away and add the cold clams dressing and the clams.
•Instead of stirring just shake the casserole to avoid breaking the beans. Have it all simmering for 10 more minutes, taste it and add the salt you consider necessary.

•Serve hot and enjoy its wonderful taste!!!
•If you don’t find faves you can use normal white beans.
•Big clams are better than smaller ones, but if you feel an uncontrolled desire to do the recipe and you don’t find the big ones, small tasty ones will be ok!
•Buen provecho!!!

Empanadillas - Puff Pastry Event

Special dressing: Rod Steward (turn player on) Sailing through different textures, flavours and recipes...

First of all I must say that this has been my first time performing Empanadillas, and I'm quite pleased with the result! I followed a recipe from Simone Ortega and I had fun playing with the dough, I thought it would be more difficult and it wasn't... but... there's always a but, the recipe didn't say the amount of salt.... and my empanadillas were lacking in salt, have that in mind if you follow my recipe; and also were too thick and when boiling them, the inner side of the dough was a bit raw. These two tips should help you in achieving a better result!!!

Also, I must admitt that the proper translation of Puff Pastry is Hojaldre and the dough I made is not Hojaldre. Empanadilla could be translated as Pasty, so I got a bit confussed here but after all my efforts I decided to post the entry and send it over to Ben's blog: What's cooking? and his Puff Pastry Event! Please take a look and also notice differences between Pasty and Puff Pastry!!! There's a gift for the winner: a set of wonderful Tuperwares!!! Please drop by and see what we all come up with.

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•The Stuffing
•Ingredients for 4 servings: 400 grs of frozen spinachs, 100 grs of bacon in strips, 50 grs of pine nuts and 1 big pork sausage, salt and olive oil.

•The Dough
•Ingredients for 4 servings: 300 grs of wheat flour, 25 grs of butter, 3 table spoons of olive oil, 1 egg, ¾ glass of water, salt and some more flour to have on the working surface.

•Follow package instructions to boil the spinachs. Have some salt in the water. Reserve and strain. Make sure they leave all water away.
•In a saucepan with some olive oil, fry the bacon until golden. Reserve. In the same oil fry the meat of the sausage that you have previously minced. Reserve.

•In the same saucepan add the pine nuts until golden, when so, add the spinach, bacon and pork meat and stir at medium fire for 2 minutes, add a pinch of salt and reserve.

•Get a pot ready and have the water, butter, some salt and olive oil at low heat. When the butter is disolved, take away from the heat. Pour in a big bowl and add the flour through a strain so that you don’t get lumps.

•Stir and start getting a dough.
•Once all flour is in, add the egg and keep on working the dough.
•When you have an homogeneous texture, add flour to the working surface and knead for a while (I did for ½ hour).

•After that time make a ball with the dough and cover with a clean kitchen cloth for minimum ½ hour.
•I left it for 3 hours and then procedeed with the empanadillas.

•Take the dough over a clean surface with some flour on and with a rolling pin expand the dough until you get a thin lay.
•With a glass or a big cup or any other kitchen tool get circles in the dough. Once you have the dough circle put some of the spinachs in one half of the circle and close the dough to get a clam shape. Use a fork to close the “clam” and make sure the stuffing won’t leave the empanadilla while boiling in the olive oil. Have it boiling until golden.

•Then reserve in kitchen paper so that all the oil leaves the empanadilla and present in a tray. Eat while is still hot.

Enjoy them!!!
Stuffing could also be: Canned tunna fish plus boiled egg plus tomatoe fried sauce, for example.

Should food stamps be included in the stimulus package?

Bob Greenstein from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities yesterday argued "yes."

Changes reportedly made last night in the stimulus package would reduce its effectiveness as stimulus. Although the package includes a reasonably designed tax rebate, the two most targeted and economically effective measures under consideration — a temporary extension of unemployment benefits and a temporary boost in food stamp benefits — were zeroed out, apparently at the insistence of House Republican leaders.

Greg Mankiw last week argued "no" at first, ...

Some of the proposals on the table strike me as particularly odd. For example: a temporary increase in food stamp benefits.

In standard macroeconomic theory, the business cycle is symmetric. That is, stimulating an economy that is suffering from insufficient aggregate demand should be the opposite of cooling off an overheated economy to reduce inflationary pressures. Would anyone seriously propose a temporary cut in food stamp benefits in an overheated economy? I don't think so. Food stamps seem the wrong tool to address the business cycle.

... but then seemed to relent, only partially, after reading interesting responses from his readers.

Marty Feldstein may well be right that those on food stamps have a higher-than-average marginal propensity to consume. Nonetheless, I wonder if we really want to target such cyclical measures on the poorest members of society. That is, for any mean level of food stamps, wouldn't the poor be better off with a constant stream of benefits than with a benefit that fluctuates over the business cycle? Using food stamps as a cyclical tool seems to risk destabilizing some families' food consumption in an attempt to stabilize the overall business cycle.

Megan McArdle argued that more food stamps aren't needed because poor people are obese, and food insecurity is not [a problem] "except for people who are too screwed up to get food stamps (because they don't have an address)". (Paul Beard from A Crank's Progress sent me the link). TBogg responds to McArdle's post, so I don't have to waste time with it. I'll defer a more thoughtful post about food assistance and risk of overweight and obesity until a later date. But a quick look in the U.S. Food Policy archives offers some useful facts, which might serve to temper this argument. USDA research suggests the gap in risk of overweight between food stamp participants and nonparticipants is shrinking anyway, at least for some demographic categories, because Americans from all walks of life are increasingly becoming overweight.

How safe and effective are DHA and ARA additives in infant formula?

Infant formula companies say oils that have been added to infant formula in recent years make the products "closer than ever to breastmilk." But these additives -- DHA (an omega-3 fatty acid) and ARA (an omega-6 fatty acid) -- may be ineffective or even unsafe, according to a report released today (.pdf) by the Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based food policy advocacy group.

What is troublesome, however, is that some infant formulas contain DHA- and ARA-containing oils that are novel foods—extracted from laboratory-grown fermented algae and fungus and processed utilizing a toxic chemical, hexane. These algal and fungal oils provide DHA and ARA in forms that are structurally different from those naturally found in human milk. These manufactured oils are known as DHASCO and ARASCO, which stand for docosahexaenoic acid single cell oil and arachidonic acid single cell oil.

These oils are produced by Martek Biosciences Corporation and appear to be added to infant formula primarily as a marketing tool designed to convince parents that formula is now “as close as ever to breast milk.” Substantiating this thesis is a Martek investment promotion from 1996, which reads as follows: “Even if [the DHA/ARA blend] has no benefit, we think it would be widely incorporated into formulas, as a marketing tool and to allow companies to promote their formula as ‘closest to human milk.'”

Scientists have conducted numerous studies that show little or no benefit to an infant’s development from adding DHASCO and ARASCO to infant formula. Overall, research results are inconsistent and inconclusive. Meanwhile, the formula companies have advertised aggressively in an attempt to convince parents that their DHA/ARA formula provides the same nutrients, and therefore the same benefits, as breast milk.

A former employee for the Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) in Texas explains: “Since they added these oils to formula, many new mothers seem to believe that formula is just as good for their babies as breast milk. It became much harder for us at WIC to convince mothers to breastfeed when formula ads claim that formula is as close as ever to breast milk.”

Mainstream web sources on DHA and ARA offer little reassurance. The Food and Drug Administration's FAQ page about infant formula says there is mixed evidence of short term benefit and no evidence of long term benefit. FDA says systematic monitoring is not in place to assess risks and benefits in countries where these addititives have been used, and the agency has asked formula makers to do postmarket surveillance of infants who consume these additives.

Season Veggies with 3 Sauces

Special dressing: Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzeral (such great people, such great singers) Get yourself to heaven!!! (turn player on)

If these veggies were an actor they'd be Brad Pitt, if they were an Island they'd be Seychelles, if they were a trip they'd be one to the moon! They were just extraordinary!!!!!! I'm in heaven!!!Soooooooo GOOD! It's so easy to be healthy! I'm still so excited because we had them for lunch and we could not stop eating... I had prepared 4 servings and when my daughter and I took a look back to the plate they were nearly gone!! We left some for his father so that he can try them at night for dinner.

Here you see: Artichokes, just the right time to eat them; Zuchinni, so tender and fresh, and Calçots which are similar to green and fresh onions but a bit sweeter and tremendously juicy and tasty. If you follow the link you will see that they are typical from the south of Catalunya, normally barbaqued and dipped in salsa romesco, it is said that they can be aphrodisiac, not to mention the diuretic and digestive properties!

I'm posting this Season Veggies with 3 Sauces for the GAME NIGHT Party Recipes Event at Mansi Desai Blog Fun and Food.

Please take a good look to her site and maybe you come out with a good idea for a Night Party Recipe!!!

Now that is the time to eat Calçots, there's lots of restaurants here by the coast and in 2 or 3 weeks inland, that announce them in their Menus. Eating them can be a bit messy because the procedure is: take one hot and cooked calçot, peel 2 or 3 of its layers, hold the green leaves with your fingers and dip into the sauce, take it up high over your mouth.... and mmmmm inside! This is why in restaurants you get a pair of plastic gloves and a big bib to avoid stains in the clothes. Everybody looks so funny with those things on!!!

The sauce that normally accompanies calçots is Romesco, that's why I used here for this veggies recipe, together with Allioli and Soy Vinaigrette, which could also be a good choice.

(click on pictures to get the recipe)





Allioli








Romesco




For the Soy Vinaigrette I don't have a picture but here is the recipe: Ingredients: 1 glass of Extra Virgin Olive oil, 1 spoon table of soy sauce, 2 spoon table of Módena Vinegar, some salt and minced parsley. Just mix the ingredients well and you have the sauce ready. Sauces can be prepared in advance and have them ready in the fridge.

To get the veggies done you will need: 3 to 4 calçots or green and tender onions, 2 artichokes, 1 zuchinni (veggies per person). For the coating: Use a big bowl to pour 200 grams of wheat flour, 1 1/2 glass of cold water, 1 egg yolk and salt. Mix all ingredients until you get an homogeneous result.

Wash, clean, dry and cut the veggies, drop them in the flour coating bowl. Meanwhile prepare a saucepan with 2 fingers depth of olive oil and when it's hot add the coated veggies. They should fry in a medium heat, if you do so, they will be crunchy on the outside and tender inside. Once they are done, place them over some kitchen absorving paper and after they leave all oil in the paper keep them in the oven while you cook the rest to have them warm (80ºC).

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Hope you try this easy recipe... it will surely get you to heaven... mmmmmmm!

Health labels and symbols

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation this week offered a fascinating feature on food rating systems. Yoni Freedhoff from the Weighty Matters blog takes the interviewer on a tour through the grocery store and comes down hard on Canada's Health Check symbol. The CBC compares the Health Check symbol unfavorably to the "Guiding Star" system introduced last year by the Hannaford supermarket chain. And David Katz defends the Overall Nutrition Quality Index (ONQI) system he and his colleagues have proposed.

Katz also discussed his ONQI system on Marion Nestle's blog, What to Eat. Nestle is not a big fan of such systems. I found this part of Katz's response badly insufficient:

As for the concern raised about the system being proprietary: the ONQI was developed with no commercial interest in view. It was supported by the non-profit Griffin Hospital, in Derby, CT- and when finished, offered first to the US FDA. The FDA, while very supportive of the work and the sophistication of the ONQI, encouraged commercialization as the only way to get the ONQI into consumer hands any time soon.

So now, yes, there are business interests involved. And there is intellectual property. But the fundamental workings of the ONQI algorithm were shared with scientists at a conference held in Washington, DC on 11/30/07 devoted to the purpose of transparency. Dr. Nestle was invited, but unable to attend. The ONQI will soon be published in the peer-reviewed literature as well. Not every last detail of the algorithm will be shared, but more than enough for those even with somewhat less expertise than Dr. Nestle to judge the reliability and robustness of the system. Of the 100 or so scientists who attended the November conference, not a one complained that they had insufficient detail to judge the algorithm.

I won't trust any food rating system whose full scoring details can't be widely shared with everybody and scrutinized. A conference presentation or partial write-up does not suffice.

Dunno about Juno

At first, my wife and I both fell for Juno, the well-received recent movie about a charming off-beat teen's pregnancy. Preparing for a new life while the life in progress bears up under stress is a theme that always plays my strings. The Lauren Hill song "Zion," a single mother's ballad for a new son, made my eyes tear when it came up on my iPod on the walk to the train station this morning.

A couple days after our movie date, though, I'm sorry to say that my most memorable mental images from Juno are the bald product placements for Sunny Delight, the unmeritorious sweetened orange drink, and Tic Tacs. The Sunny Delight bottle shows up in a freeze frame hand-drawn image in the opening sequence, which is probably the most craven product placement I've ever seen. The Tic Tacs are ubiquitous.

And that in turn puts me in the spirit to link to a damning review of the movie. I'm not a frequent movie goer. But Ken Krimstein, who puts more time into culture watching, judges that Juno is derivative and mercenary from top to bottom.

Noodles Casserole

This is Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes, the comic from Bill Watterson. I'm sure you all know him! For those of you who don't please go to the first book store you find and buy one of its Comics collection... He is one of the best ever! He will make you laugh even if you had the worst of the days!. Calvin's character is so sweet and yet so naughty, childish but philosofical, imaginative and rational... One of his big fights is food. In his imagination food can be alive and atack him!!!

Well, here you have a dish your kids will love. It has noodles (pasta is always a big help with kids) and it has pork meat (tender and tasty) and veggies (maybe not a favourite among children but you can always switch the recipe ones for others they like better).


Special dressing: Sam Cook (turn player on)

This is one of the basics in Catalan cuisine - Fideus a la cassola - Noodles Casserole. The real recipe should be done in an earthenware dish but some months ago I changed my old kitchen for a new one and it's not a gas one anymore, so I can not use my earthenware casseroles. Instead, I used an ironed one and the result wasn't that bad... there were no leftovers!

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: 400 grs of noodles (the bigger size, the better), 300 grs of pork rib cut in pieces, 5 ripe tomatoes, 2 artichockes,1 onion, 150 peas, 1 ½ liters of water, olive oil and salt.
•For the dressing: 2 garlic cloves, 20 grs of hazelnuts, 3 saffron threads, some parsley and salt.

•Fry the meat until golden, then chop the onion and cook at medium heat until transparent together with the pork ribs. Add the tomatoe sauce.

•Be patient and let the sofrito do it’s way. Keep on stirring until the tomatoe disappears and it gets oily. Then add the artichokes. Stir for 5 minutes at medium/low heat.
•Add the water (if you have meat stock it will be tastier) and the peas.
•Once it boils again add the noodles. Let cook at medium/high heat.

•Meanwhile prepare the dressing and when noodles are nearly done (after 15 minutes cooking or see instructions in your package) add it to the casserole. Add salt to your taste.
•Cook for 3 more minutes and then turn heat off and cover for 5 minutes.

Be a kid for a while and enjoy this dish too!!!!! ;-)

Chicken Legs coated in Hazelnuts, Herbs and Bacon

This is our beloved doggy! She is a very inteligent and beautiful poodle. Since we bought it as a gift to our dauther the summer of the 2004, she has filled our life with humour, love, friendship... and I could go on and on. For those of you who don't have a dog, I guess it's hard to imagine how important in our lives dogs become. Well, today I'm a bit upset because just bebore Xmas, Boleta (that's her name, meaning little ball) met her blue prince and we thought that she might be pregnant and were really happy about it! Today was the day the Vet would confirm that, she had an ecography programmed and it didn't show anything good: She only had one puppy and it's dead.... ooooohh. There's still a chance that her body absorbs what she's got in the uterus, but most probably she will need surgery.

I'm the kind of person that worries too much for everything, so I tell myself that it will be ok, the Vet said that she'll be back home during same day. So lets hope everything will be alright.

So, today is not a very cooking-inspired day... I came out with this simple, easy, basic ingredients and quick dish.


Ingredients for 4 servings: 8 Chicken legs, 8 smoked bacon slices, a bunch of hazelnuts, a good pinch of rosemary, salt, black pepper and olive oil.

* First of all preheat oven at 200ºC.

* Now, prepare a dressing with the peeled toasted hazelnuts, rosemary and salt. Smash all ingredients together and reserve.

* Take away the chicken skin, clean it under tap water, dry it and add salt and black pepper to your taste.

* Coat in the hazelnuts dressing. Wrap the legs with the bacon slice.

* Drop some olive oil in an oven tray and place the legs on it, drop some more olive oil on top.

* Insert in the oven in a mid/high possition. Cook for 35 to 45 minutes. Last five minutes turn heat to 220 to have a crispy result.



* I had some roasted red peppers' leftover and used it in the dish to give some colour but you can have it with any other veggies: fried artichockes, some salad, whatever you feel like!

Pork Cheeks with White Beans - Food Event

Special dressing: Joan Baez (I adore her voice) A tribute to my grandmother.

Here in Spain it's said that we don't throw anything away from the pork. And it's so true! Here you have a dish made out of its cheeks. This meat can be the more tender meat you ever had. A slow cooking is the key and what else needs slow and long cooking??? Beans, yes! So it's so good to have them together.

This is such a comforting dish for cold winter days... I would not imagine myself eating this during hot summer, uffff. I would barbaque the cheeks instead and have some garlic, olive oil and parsley on top, but this will be a post for a summer recipe. Back to the subject, now that days are short and everything we can get to keep us warm is good, mother nature tells us we need some fat to ease the cold days. This dish will give you energy to face the winter temperatures.

I'm posting this recipe for the Comfort Food event at Eve's Garden of Eating, please drop by and see all fantabulous recipes foodies post to keep cold away! And take a look at her wonderful recipes too!

Nowadays, you can find tinned beans at supermarket, but I rather cook and eat them the old way, like my grandmother used to do. She was the sweetest grandmom on earth. She was a happy, independent, original, imaginative and funny woman! This toast and dish is for you, Angelina!

The white beans she used to cook are a variety called "Mongetes del ganxet", you can only find them in farming villages near Barcelona, and it is said that, when cooked, they are the softest you can find! My grandmother had some tips: Never use the old harvest beans, just the latest one. Be patient and cook them for hours at such low heat that water nearly doesn't boil. If you see it boiling, add some more cold water to "frighten the beans" and drop the temperature. Don't add salt until the dish is nearly finished, 2 minutes before turning heat off. Use mineral water if the tap water is too heavy on lime.
If you follow these simple instructions, your beans will be remembered as Angelina's beans are!

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: 300 grs white dry beans, 4 pork cheeks, 100 grs fresh bacon, 1 onion, 4 ripe tomatoes, 2 green peppers, 1 garlic head, 2 thyme springs, 1 bay leaf, 1 carrot, 1 leek, some parsley, olive oil and salt.

•The night before, have the beans in cold water (double their height).

•Have a big casserole with some olive oil in its bottom and fry the bacon and cheeks (salted) until they get golden.
•Once they are golden take away from the casserole and reserve in a plate.
•Cut the onion and convert the ripe tomatoes into a sauce (no peels) and start a sofrito.

•In the same oil you cooked the cheeks and bacon, throw the onion and once it’s transparent add the tomatoes sauce. Have the heat medium/low and keep on stirring until you get the perfect sofrito: Tomatoe seems to dissapear and it gets oily again (see pictures in Power Point to get a better view).

•Take the cheeks and bacon back to the casserole and stir so that all flavours mix (1 minute).
•Then add cold mineral water till you cover the cheeks and then add the strained beans, the peppers, carrot, garlic head, leek, thyme and bay leaf (all cleaned). Don’t add salt!!!! The beans could become too hard and not soft at all. We want them to be very soft.

•It’s no good for the beans to boil, so we we'll keep the casserole hot, nearly boiling for 3 hours, if anytime, you see it boiling, add some cold water to stop the process.
•When beans are new and not from last years’ maybe they will be cooked in 2 hours, just keep an eye on them.It's always better to use the latest harvest beans. 2 Minutes before turning off the heat, add salt to your taste.

•Prepare the dish with the green pepper, beans, cheek without the bone and some sauce.

I hope you enjoy it!

Cheap food at all costs?

The BBC World Service radio talk show World Have Your Say had an interesting programme today about tradeoffs between food costs and other nutrition and environmental goals. After reading an earlier post on U.S. Food Policy, they called to ask whether I thought it was essential to seek cheap food at all costs. They were juggling a bunch of other interesting interviews with callers from places like Nigeria, Kenya, and India, with a lot of insight into hard food choices in less developed countries.

My own hunch is that the tradeoff between healthy food and cheap food for hungry people is overdrawn. Several factors can make food too expensive: more packaging, more processing, air freight, placement high on the food chain (animal products), rare or exotic sourcing (caviar), and nutrition and environmental quality (organic, local boutique farming). Most of those factors suggest healthy wholesome food and low cost can be complementary. Even when these goals are competitive to an extent, as in organic food, the tradeoffs probably don't break the budget. It would be folly to pursue cheap food at all costs.

Meals 4 kids

Project Bread and the MA Department of Education for several years have collaborated on the Child Nutrition Outreach Program. The partnership works to enhance child nutrition programs, especially the School Breakfast Program and the Summer Food Service Program.

Interesting components include a Healthy Meals Initiative ...

For many children, the School Breakfast and Summer Food Service Programs provide critical meals that they might otherwise go without. Both programs adhere to nutrition guidelines set forth by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Yet, because these guidelines are so broad, Project Bread has developed additional guidelines that are above and beyond those set by the USDA. We have also worked to create access to the freshest produce available by encouraging food service directors and summer meal providers to purchase locally grown vegetables and fruits.

... and a Locally Grown Foods Project.

The Locally Grown Foods Project is a collaborative effort between Project Bread and the Massachusetts Farm to School Project. Through this partnership, summer meal providers connect with local farmers to purchase fresh, locally grown produce for summer meals. As a result, children who attend participating summer meal sites receive the best quality produce available.

I've been apopted by a Veteran FoodieBlogger!!!

Special dressing: Bryan Adams, Sting and Rod Steward (turn player on)

Hi everyone! Just before Christmas I joined the Adopt a Blogger program. For those of you who don't know about it, I will say that is one of the most wonderful ideas I've seen since I started blogging. Kristen from Dine and Dish came out with the idea of helping newbie bloggers into the FoodieBlogg universe... something we all wished when we started... a big hand that could guide us and tell us how this worked and what we were supposed to do. I considered myself adoptable since I have only been blogging for a bit more than 6 months now.

Then Kristen would find a Veteran blogger mate/pal for the Newbie and they would follow these simple instructions:

*The Veteran blogger will put a link to their adopted bloggers blog on their own blog. The newbie will do the same
*The Veteran blogger will visit and support the newbie blogger's site on a regular basis. The newbie will do the same.
*The Veteran blogger will do at least one post on their blog about their adopted newbie. The newbie will do the same. The post can be about a recipe the blog featured, a promotional post or anything you like...as long as it promotes the blogs in one way or another, that is fine.

My Veteran FoodieBlogger mate/pal is D. from Wicked Good Dinner, she has great recipes, with music recomendation and she has beautiful ideas to get kids involved in the process of recipe elaboration. If you go through December's month you will find lots of links to interesting foodie related blogs and webs. Eventhough, you will see that her Wicked Good Dinner is kind of new, she's been blogging for years and knows all tips and tricks. Please pay her a visit and enjoy her recipes!!!

I felt that the 3 Musketeers song from Bryan Adams would be perfect for this post... All for one and one for all!!!

Presidential candidates offer views on hunger

Will Perreault and Isha Plynton, who are Bill Emerson National Hunger Fellows with the Congressional Hunger Center, helped put together a voter education guide (.pdf) to the current Presidential Election.

The guide sought to be nonpartisan, but the major Republican candidates sat out this conversation about hunger and hardship for low-income Americans.

The following candidates were mailed this questionnaire and contacted by phone but did not respond by the announced deadline: Chris Dodd, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Gravel, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, Dennis Kucinich, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson. People who are interested in their views on this matter should contact their campaigns directly.

Here is one of the questions from the questionnaire:

In your eyes, what is the single most effective policy measure to enable food insecure individuals to become food secure? What will you do to promote this policy?

Hillary Clinton's response to this question highlights economic issues.

We need to address the root cause of the food security problem – economic insecurity. I have proposed a new economic blueprint that will put us on a path toward shared prosperity by creating more good jobs, restoring fairness to our economy, & renewing the bargain that if you work hard you can get ahead.

Barack Obama's response emphasizes the Food Stamp Program.

Our food stamp program targets those who need it the most & expands in times of economic trouble. It also helps its recipients eat more healthily. I will increase funding & protect it from cuts. Most importantly, I will provide the leadership this country needs by speaking about the key role that food stamps play in alleviating hunger.

If you were one of these candidates, would your own response have emphasized economic issues or food assistance programs?

Cargol treu Banya - Snail show me your Horns

These are the snails we ate at my moms' birthday lunch party last January 14th. All our family LOVES Snails cooked any way! This recipe is soo easy that if you like snails, please have no doubt go ahead and cook it!

Snails have a small corner in our family's memories and this is why I upload Snails, garlic and mint as one of the entries of the FOOD FOR THOUGHT Event that Erin is having at her Skinny Gourmet. Please drop by and take part in the event or see what we all come up with!

When we were small kids, my parents had a small tiny house in the country side for the weekends. It was great to change buildings and noise and cars for woods and butterflies and freesh air! We could play with mud... buagghhhh! Play hide-and-seek in the forest, fish small frogs in a creek and go for snail hunting at night or after it rained! Snail hunting was one of my favourites. My brother and I (2 years and a half younger than I) would dress in our rain coats and plastic boots and would have one flashlight each and a bag and start the search with my parents. It was soooo exciting that when I smell snails cooking or when I go outside during a rainy day and the earth has that wonderful wet smell, memories immediately come back to my head so brightly!


We would pick as many as we saw hidden in the back of the leaves or in the fennel springs or even in the middle of the path, they would try to escape of the bag and we would push their slimy bodies back to the bottom.

Once back home, my mom would put them inside a big holes strainer and add some flour, covered them and leave them in a fresh place for a week or two so that they would clean their guts with the flour. One of the snails though was "pardoned" by my brother whom would sing a song to the snail until it showed its horns. The word Patience was invented being inspired in my brother... he could sing the song for hours, 2 inches away from the snail's shell. The translation of the kids song would go this way, more or less:

Snail show your horns, climb up the mountain,
Snail show wine, climb up the little hill. Snail show your horns, climb up the mountain, Bubé Snail I'll come with you!
Special dressing: Me singning the song in catalan (top hit! he, he, he)

Ingredients for 6 servings: 2 Kg. of snails (Bubé kind), 3 fresh mint springs, olive oil, 2 garlic heads, some salt, and a pinch of black pepper.

Have a big saucepan with low heat and some olive oil and 2 mint springs, add the alive snails previously cleaned (inside and outside) when the oil is still cold. The snails will try to escape... I feel sad for them, but this is the way to cook them. Cover the saucepan so that they can not leave it and wait for 1 minute while you stir and cover.

You will see that they throw out a lot of dribble, that's ok, they must be cooked in their own juices. Keep on stirring and when you get to see the oil back in the bottom of the pan, add the 2 garlic heads (previously peeled and smashed) and stir. Cook it for 45 to 60 minutes at low heat. Add some salt if you wish and black pepper just 2 minutes before the dish is done.

Ready to eat!

Aromatic Lentils Purée with Eggplant Sticks

Special dressing: Frank Sinatra; found him very appropriate since lentils are quite my way!

Here is my month's entry for the February Joust at Jenn DiPiazza's blog, for those of you who still don't know who Jenn is, she is the Fantabulous owner of the foodie blog Leftoverqueen and every month there's a Joust going on with 3 Main ingredients: This months' ingredients are: Lentils, eggplant and cinnamon. The winner of the previous joust is the one choosing the ingredients for the next one.

It's been really hard to match these three ingredients: lentils and eggplant weren't a problem, but adding cinnamon it was just unreal from my Spanish foodie point of view!!! I have only seen cinnamon used in desserts. However, I finally came with a solution, I combined the lentils and cinnamon and left the eggplant aside. The dish has some asiatic notes, I guess, because the legume has an unimaginable taste for me... but so delicious and sooooo exotic! I really want to thank Dharn for putting me in the edge and making me think of these three ingredients' marriage!

Colours are not my favourites but this is what happens when chorizo is not in the lentils stew!!!

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: 2 medium sized eggplants, 250 grs of dry lentils, 1 garlic head, 1 bay leaf, 50 grs cured ham, salt, 2 liters of water, 1 teaspoon of grinded cinnamon, 1 tsp of sweet paprika, 1 of grinded cummin, a pinch of black pepper, olive oil, some beer, some flour, 2 big red onions and 2 garlic cloves.

•I use lentils that don’t need to be soaked in water the night before. Just rinse the lentils and have them in a pot with the garlic head, bay leaf, ham, some salt and the water. Cook at low heat for 1 hour.

•In a saucepan with some olive oil, cook (low heat) 2 big red onions and 2 garlic cloves, when the onion is transparent add the spices: sweet red paprika, commin and cinnamon. Keep on stirring for 5 minutes at low heat and reserve.
•Take the bay leaf away from the lentils and add the onion and spices to the lentils stew. Stir until all flavours mix.
•With a food processor convert it into a purée and strain so that we don’t find any peels. Add a bit of water if it’s too thick. Reserve it and keep warm.

•Cut the eggplants in sticks and throw some salt on them so that they take away the bitter liquid. After ½ hour, shake them and have them ready to coat in beer and flour: just pour enough beer to fill the bottom of the soup plate and then add as many flour as necessary to have a creamy texture. Coat the eggplants and throw into a saucepan with hot olive oil. Fry them and reserve in kitchen paper to leave all the oil. Add salt on top of them.

•Present the dish with a disc of eggplant in the glass (like a piece of lemon in a martini) and the eggplant sticks on the base of the plate.

•Have a good dip!

Barcelona Restaurants Recomendation

Mallory from the Salty Cod is coming over from Paris to Barcelona in February and she asked me for some restaurant recomendations and I thought of making a post out of it. The list will include City restaurants: old, classic, new, with michelin star, cozy, not that known, with basque food, catalan food and other region's food. Also, I will add their web so that you can get more info if you wish. My personal experience and their situation.

Let's start with a classic:

Restaurant 7 Portes
http://www.7portes.com/

The restaurant is located in a national monument building, near the harbour and downtown. The stablishment opened in 1836 and its atmosphere and dishes are excelent! The paella is a must here!


Alkimia
No web address. Barcelona, Industria, 79. Tel. 93 207 6115

This restaurant is located very near Sagrada Familia and has 1 michelin star. The dishes are very creative and inspired in the catalan cuisine. Very good choice!


Casa Jordi
http://www.casajordi.es/

Located in the upper side of the city, in a good shooping area. The restaurant looks like an old catalan country house (masia) and it offers really good food for a good price!


La Dolceta
No web address. Barcelona, Urgell, 266. Tel. 93 321 8351.

In the same area as Casa Jordi. It has a catalan cuisine with old traditional dishes from Lleida: Typical Snails, Trinxat, and more. Good quality price relation.


Comerç 24
http://www.comerc24.com/

In one of the fashion City areas: El born, old neighbourhood with night life, bars and one of the most beautiful churches of the city: Sta. Maria del Mar. If you go there, leave your mind open to new experiences, the food is absolutely gourgeous. Aidan Brooks, trainee chef, one of my links (foodiebloggers I'd share a coffee with) is working now there! He'll be happy to see you there for sure!


Gorria
http://www.restaurantegorria.com/

Very near the Sagrada Familia too. One of the best restaurants with Navarre and Basque cuisine. Or the best! Wonderful dishes: cochinillo, pochas de sangüesa and rape a la donostiarra. Not cheap but worth the price.


Moo
http://www.hotelomm.es/

This restaurant is located in the Hotel Omm, very near Paseo de Gracia (one of the main shopping areas of the city) and Gaudi buildings.The restaurant plays with wines and meals' marriage, it has magnific and innovative cuisine and the restaurant atmosphere is very nice.


Torre de Alta Mar
http://www.torredealtamar.com/

From this restaurant you will get one of the best views of the city. It's located on top of a harbour tower and some windy days it shakes a bit, which makes the experience more exciting... The food is excellent, a good place to try one of their rices.


In our family, there's a tradition: every birthday lunch is spent in a good restaurant. This has been going on since my husband and I met and it has enriched us so. Now in January it's my husband's birthday and February is mine... I can't wait to see what we come up with!!!
Here I have mentioned a few restaurants, but more will come soon!

How sausages were made

According to the old saying, there are two things in life whose manufacture you never want to see: laws and sausages. U.S. Food Policy always keeps its eye on the manufacture of laws, but I never witnessed sausages being made until yesterday.

At Anne and Josh's sausage making party, in between all the bustle and conversation, we added spices and flavorings to about 50 pounds of local organic pork and lamb, ground it, packed it into pork intestines, cooked some of it in a smoker, vacuum sealed it, and distributed it to all the party-goers. My son stuffed meat into the grinder, while my wife and daughter took photographs. Perhaps mistaking me for one of the many good cooks in the room, Anne put me in charge as recipe manager for a batch of 10 pounds of brandy and sage sausage, with real brandy and fresh sage from her backyard garden. The potluck lunch at the party included home-made bread with either home-made pate or home-made raspberry jam, deviled eggs from one friend's backyard chickens and her own pickled okra.

Now, I've finally seen how sausages were made once upon a time. And I no longer understand the old saying.

Catalan Spinachs Cream

Special dressing: Bonney M and their Sunny version (turn player on and move your hips)

Isn't it great when a winter day starts with an eyeeaching blue sky and the sun shines and warms you up and you drive your car to the country side to this fantastic old catalan house - Masia - which has their own stables and the most sweet and beautiful horses and you go for a ride in the forest... When all these ingredients show up in my day, I probably couldn't have a better day!!! So come with me, dance with me and eat this Catalan Spinach Cream with me... you will like it and need it!

When all these ingredients combine to become a dish you probably couldn't have a more energizing and healthier meal!

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: 500 grs of cleaned spinachs leaves, 1 leek or 1 onion, 1 big potatoe, 1 ½ liters of water, olive oil and salt.
•For the dressing: 2 eggs, 50 grs of pinenuts and 50 grs of raisins.

•Clean the leek and cut in small pieces (or onion). Cook with some olive oil at low medium heat, after 2 minutes add the spinachs and stir for 2 more minutes.
•If you use frozen spinachs throw in the pot and add the water. If they are fresh after the 2 minutes stirring, add the water, the potatoe in pieces and some salt.
•Have it boiling at low heat for 20 to 30 minutes. Once done, take away 1 or 2 glasses of the spinachs liquid and with a food processor convert the soup into a cream. Get the consistance you want by adding more liquid.

•Boil the eggs for 10 minutes and leave them in cold water. When they cool down, peel and grate. Reserve.
•In a saucepan sauté the pinenuts (watch out they don’t get burned) and reserve.
•Present the dish with the cream, the grated egg, the pinenuts and the raisins on top.

I'm not a fan of the raisins, that's why you won't see any in the picture.

The amazon girl is my daughter and the horse name is Shimla. The best picture of the day!

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest - Pasta Nest with Quail Eggs

Special dressing: Over the cuckoo's nest

Wasn't it a BIG movie? I read the book and watch the movie and both were fantastic. Jack Nicholson is one of my favorite actors ever! I wouldn't mind to share a Paella with him!!!

I saw this multicolored Pasta nests and inmediately came to my mind the idea of the dish. But it couldn't be a cuckoo's nest because they don't build them. When the cuckoo's female has to "give birth" to the egg (please excuse my english, couldn't find the proper way to say that), looks for another birds' nest and leaves there her egg. When the tiny birdies are born the cuckoo throws its "brothers in law" out of the nest! Cuckoos don't know much about gratefulness, do they?

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: 60 grs of cured ham, 1 big onion, 2 garlic cloves, 4 ripe tomatoes, Pasta for 4 (aprox 100grs each), duck foie, 12 quail eggs, olive oil, salt and parsley.

•Start a sofrito with the ham, when starts smelling great, add the onion and garlic and when the onion is transparent, add the tomatoe sauce (made out of the ripe tomatoes).
•Be patient and stir and stir until you get the sofrito done. Low heat and wait until the tomatoe seems to dissapear and it gets oily. Add a pinch of salt. The sofrito should look caramelized when finished.
•Keep it warm while you boil the pasta (follow package instructions) Rinse and drop some oil on top so that it doesn’t get sticky.
•Boil the quail eggs for 1 minute, peel and reserve.

•Place the pasta in a plate and try to make a nest with it. In the middle hole place the sofrito. Reserve the oily part.
•Add small pieces of duck foie grass on top of the sofrito.

•Place the tiny eggs on top. Sprinkle with some parsley. Add a pinch of salt and drop a bit of the sofrito’s oil on top of the eggs and pasta.

My daughter knows much about gratefulness... she still saying how good the Pasta was!!!

Buen Provecho!!!

Red Potatoes - Potatoes Rioja - Style

Special dressing: Genious of soul (turn player on).

I hope you can find chorizo (red spiced sausage) wherever you live... because it would not be the same with other charcuturie "sausages". Chorizo is the soul of this dish. Here in Spain, nearly every region has its own kind of chorizo, you can find it in Asturias, Extremadura, Salamanca, La Rioja, and more. So, any of them will be ok for this recipe, just make sure it can be cooked and then chose it spicy or not (there's different grades). Mine was from La Rioja and a bit spicy.

The 3 Kings thought I was a good girl and the morning of the 6th I found some gifts for me being one of them this Wonderful Recipes book - La Cuina Salvavides - from Mireia Carbó, she is a catalan cook but this recipe, with some small differences is from La Rioja, one of those traditional, old, simple and tasty recipes.

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: 1 kg of potatoes, 150 grs of chorizo, 1 onion, 2 garlic cloves, ½ big red pepper, 2 dried red peppers (ñoras) or 1 tsp hot paprika, olive oil and salt.

•First of all, cut the dried red peppers in half, take the seeds away and place in a hot water bowl to get them moisturized for a while.
•Slice the chorizo and reserve.

•Peel and wash the potatoes. Halve the potatoes by piercing each one with the point of the knife and pulling it apart with the hands. This method eases the release of the starch, which will made the sauce thicker and smoother. Reserve.
•Peel and cut the onion, the garlic and red pepper in small pieces and let cook with generous olive oil spurt at medium/low heat. When ready (onion is transparent) add the chorizo and stir for 1 minute.

•Take the dried red peppers out of the bowl and with a spoon get the meat they have inside adhered to the skin.
•Put the potatoes into the cacerole stirring them around so that they don’t get stick to the bottom and pour some hot water. The water should almost cover them. Add the red dried peppers meat and stir.

•Add some salt, bearing in mind that the chorizo might have some already.
•When it starts boiling, turn heat down and cover the cacerole so that ingredients cook very slowly for almost half an hour or until the potatoes are soft.
•This dish is better if cooked in the morning/lunch time and eaten at night! Or reserve it for next day’s lunch.

These are perfect for cold days!!! Hope you enjoy them.

Stuffed Avocado with Prawns

Special dressing: Jonh Denver Don't know what John Denver has to do with an avocado, but you can always fill your senses with this dish! ;-)

This is such an easy recipe that I'm not uploading a Power Point. I'm sure that most of you have tasted guacamole... well, this is very similar but it has the exotic touch of the prawns and a different sauce... just to make it a bit different! It seems that is a typical dish from Islas Canarias.

I never get tired of avocado, I love it! And I found this easytodo recipe in this book I mentioned before of Iker Erauzkin. You can also present the prawns guacamole in nice glasses or inside the empty peel, that's how I did. Serve with a multicolored salad.

Ingredients for 4 servings: 4 avocados, 24 prawns (I buy them cooked and frozen at my fishmonger), 1 orange, 1 lemon, 1 green onion, fried tomatoe sauce, mayonnaise, tabasco, cognac and salt.

* Cut avocados in half, get their meat in a bowl and flatten with a fork, drop some lemon on top to avoid avocados oxidize, add some salt.
* In another bowl mix the onion cut in small pieces (only white part) and the prawns also cut in small pieces (reserve 12 to decorate the dish).
* Prepare a pink sauce with the following ingredients and add to the onion and prawns: Whip 2 mayonnaise table spoons and the juice of one orange, then add one tea spoon of fried tomatoe sauce, a spurt of cognac and a few drops of tabasco. Add to the onion and prawns and stir.
* Join this second bowl ingredients to the first one with the avocado. Place the mixture in the fridge and wait to fill the peels with it until it's cold.

Present with some multicolored salad.... Refreshing!

The Magic Kings Night - The Kings Cake

Special dressing: The lion king (turn player on)

Tonight the 3 Magic Kings from the far East will arrive to Spain and when all kids are fast sleep they will get down from their carriages or their camels and enter each house in silence and leave some presents to the kids that have been good. Nobody can be awake or they will just pass that house!

There's different ways for the kids to ask to the Magic Kings for what they want: they can either write a Kings letter and send it over to them 15 days in advance or so, or give it to their Majesties in person during the 5th of January (you can find them in their thrones in some special streets), which is very impressive for the girls and boys, or go to the Cavalcade and throw the letter to their favorite's King's Carriage.
I just love this tradition, the small kids have this special light in their eyes... so precious!!!

La Vanguardia, my favorite online newspaper, will give this Sunday, as a present to the readers, a beautiful book with all these wonderful pictures of Cavalcades in Barcelona city throughout the years, please take a look to the link and you will have a view of what it is this Magic Night!
The Flash document only shows some years, not all of them, but it's worth to see, enjoy!

The BIG DAY is the 6th when kids wake up (most of the times around 6:00 AM!!!!!) and find all the presents hidden in the dinning room. What a beautiful moment...
When everything is calm again and after lunch, we usually buy (again, we don't bake it at home, we just buy it) this Roscón - Tortell - Cake, which has a small figure hidden inside (of a popular character) and also a bean. The one who gets the bean is the one that has to pay the cake! And the one getting the figure will be lucky!

I didn't bake the cake either but I looked for the recipe so that you can bake it if you wish.

Ingredients for 4 servings: 500grs of flour, 75 grs of butter, 15 grs of baking powder, 100 grs. of sugar, 250 ml. of milk and sweetened fruits.

* Mix the baking powder with half a glass of warm water and when it has dissolved add 125 grs. of sift flour. Once we have an homogeneous dough, make a ball and let it rest for 1/2 an hour covered with a wet kitchen cloth.
* Meanwhile, in another recipient mix the rest of the flour with the butter, the suggar and the warm milk. If you boil the milk with a stick of cinnamon, orange peels or lemon, you will get a more aromatic milk. We will also achieve an homogeneous dough that we'll leave aside and wait until the first one has fermented. When so, take both doughs and mix and work them together for 10 or 15 minutes.
* Let it rest again for 2 hours. Once the time is over, get an oven tray greased with butter, put the dough on it and give it the shape, add the sweetened fruits on top. Wait until its volume increases during 20 minutes and, after, bake it in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes at 180ºC. Take it out of the oven and sprinkle sugar on top. Eat it when it's completely cold.

Hope you enjoy it!

Does watching TV make us happy?

The question -- "Does watching TV make us happy?" -- is one I have been asking for many years. It is also the title of a recent article by Bruno S. Frey, Christine Benescha, and Alois Stutzer in the Journal of Economic Psychology.

The traditional economic theory holds that people's decisions reveal their preferences, as the authors explain:

Individuals are assumed to know best what provides them with utility and are free to choose the amount of TV consumption that suits them best. By revealed preference, it follows from the fact that individuals watch so much TV as has been empirically observed that it provides them with considerable utility.

But, is this the right way to look at it? Here is the full abstract:

Watching TV is a major human activity. Because of its immediate benefits at negligible immediate marginal costs it is for many people tempting to view TV rather than to pursue more engaging activities. As a consequence, individuals with incomplete control over, and foresight into, their own behavior watch more TV than they consider optimal for themselves and their well-being is lower than what could be achieved. We find that heavy TV viewers, and in particular those with significant opportunity cost of time, report lower life satisfaction. Long TV hours are also linked to higher material aspirations and anxiety.

Of course, TV watching also has a strong association with nutrition issues such as childhood overweight and obesity. Some researchers suspect that TV watching is simply correlated with other types of dysfunction, which in turn contribute to overweight and obesity. Other researchers think TV watching contributes directly to weight gain because it displaces active time with sedentary time, provides a venue for continuous snacking, and exposes the viewer to thousands upon thousands of advertisements for junk food.

There is an active scientific debate between these alternative explanations for the strong association between TV watching and weight status. But, I am struck how even market-oriented conservatives recognize that one or another of these explanations is correct. For example, Todd Zywicki at George Mason and his coauthors at the Federal Trade Commission work very hard to convince the reader to oppose a ban on television advertising for junk food, because it may not be the ads themselves that contribute to obesity:

More plausible causal explanations for the observed correlation between television viewing and obesity exist. First, television viewing is a sedentary activity; thus, at least some of the time that children spend watching television might otherwise be spent on more active pursuits.... Second, there seems to be a tendency for both children and adults to snack while watching television, thereby increasing calorie intake. Of course, the snacking may be triggered in part by exposure to food ads; as previously discussed, however, children's ad exposure has been found to have a very small impact on their snacking. Another possible explanation for the link between snacking and TV is that it is simply easier to eat while watching television than while pursuing other activities.

If you think about it, does it really matter which of these explanations is correct? Don't they all reflect very badly on TV watching?

Changurro

Special dressing: Chris Rea (turn player on)

Just before Christmas days, I went to a book shop and searched for the gastronomy section. I found a little treasure among all those cooking books... it's called Cocina de Fiesta Holidays' Cooking, and it's one of those books that shows wonderful pictures, easy to follow instructions and also suggestions to set your table depending on the holiday and the season, ideas to follow to be a good host and so on. The author is a young Basque cook living in Catalonia called Iker Erauzkin. The recipe I followed is Changurro, this was my first time performing it, but I must say that it was really easy. The only problem I found was that it needs some hours to prepare because if you buy the crabs alive (that's what I did) it can take 3 hours to boil them and take all the meat inside (I was cooking for 12!).

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•Ingredients for 4 servings: 1 big spider crab, 2 crabs (see picture) which weight more than 1 kilo each, 1 onion, 1 leek, 2 garlic cloves, 1 teaspoon of flour, 200 ml of seafood cream (you can buy it in the supermarket) or 2 table spoons of fried tomatoe, 2 boiled eggs, ½ glass of Txacolí (it’s a basque wine. I couldn’t find it, so I used white young dry wine instead), olive oil, salt and black pepper.

•Boil the two kind of crabs in a big pot with boiling water a bunch of salt, some small black pepper balls and a bay leaf. Once it stars boiling again count 15 minutes and place the crabs in cold and iced water to stop the cooking process.
•As soon as they are cold, open them and take all the meat inside, place it in a bowl. Proceed the same with all the crabs.

•Add some olive oil (just a bit, we want the veggies to cook in their own water) to a saucepan and cook the onion, leek and garlic at medium/low heat.
•Just before the veggies get golden, add the crab meat, and the flour. Stir for some minutes and add the Txacolí (or some other white young dry wine).

Let the wine reduce while stirring and then add the seafood cream or the fried tomatoe.
•Taste the mixture, add some salt and pepper to fit your taste and leave aside.
•You can have it hot or cold.

•You can use the empty heads of the crabs to present the dish or rather use a Martini glass, for example.
•Once the crab mixture is in place, add some boiled egg grated on top and a spring of parsley.
•Close your eyes and feel the sea in your mouth. MMMMMmmmmmm

Hunger 2008 report from Bread for the World Institute

The Bread for the World Institute, the research arm of the faith-based anti-hunger lobbying group Bread for the World, recently released its Hunger 2008 report, Working Harder for Working Families. It offers a compelling mix of powerful photographs, personal stories, and fine clear data illustrations. It describes food insecurity and hunger without either exaggeration or understatement, and places hunger correctly in the context of poverty and the low-wage labor market. A particular strength is its economically astute focus on how public policy can support work and asset building. These emphases give the report a politically centrist flavor, but it still packs a good hard policy wallop. You may well close the report with a new determination to do something about what you see. More importantly, you may have an improved diagnosis about what that something should be.

The Good Luck grapes

There's so many ways to say goodbye to the old year and welcome the new one... our tradition in Spain is the following: Get 12 grapes ready, and when the first ring of the bell announcing midnight sounds, eat the first grape, when the second sounds, eat the second grape and so on until you finish the grapes with the sound of the bell. It is said that you will be lucky if you are able to eat them all by the time the twelve bells ring.

I consider myself a lucky person and I'm never able to eat all grapes... I don't chew them fast enough and I always end up looking like a hamster! Which makes everybody laugh!!!

What I always do is open the grapes and take the seeds away to be able to eat them faster... but I still haven't succeed! I hope I have lots of years ahead to keep on trying ;-)

This Year my family and I have spent this special night in a wonderful Spa-Hotel, we have had some good food, good massages, and some special water treatments... just fantastic!

The Spa has an old part and a new one dating 2003, it's surrounded by beautiful gardens and it helps you forget all the stress and hurry... too bad we couldn't stay longer!!!

One of the dishes I enjoyed the most was a carpaccio of red prawns, lobster and Mango! Delicious!!!