Figs and Ham: A Gods Meal

Three typical Mediterranean trees, which I love, are: The cypress, the fig tree and the olive tree.

The cypress is associated to the death. Our cemeteries are full of them, it was thought that its large shape erected from earth to the sky would help the souls of the dead people to reach heaven. But the cypress is also associated to hospitality, and this is what I really want to tell you about.

Here in Catalonia, long time ago, there was a tradition followed by most of the Catalan country houses, called Masias: they used the cypresses as a sign to show their hospitality grade: One cypress beside the house would mean that poor people, or priests travelling had the right to stop for a small quantity of food: some wine+bread+some sausage, two cypresses meant that they could get a full lunch or dinner and three cypresses showed the right to have 2 meals there and also a space to spend the night.

I'm adopting this tradition here in my blog and from now on, this will be a 2 Cypresses blog.

The second tree I love is the Fig tree and specially the variety that has two fruits: the first one during spring and the second one during summer. This fig tree is called Higuera brevera and the Brevas (spring fruit) are bigger, more flavourful and whiter inside than figs (summer fruit), which are sweeter than brevas and more red inside.

Now the recipe I'll show you is not even a recipe because there's no cooking involved, you will only need the following ingredients: Iberian acorn ham (European and Japanese whom want to buy some, follow this link) and figs or brevas and a good glass of wine. It's as easy as peeling the fig and cutting it in two. Then wrap it with the Ham and get ready for one of the most amazing sensory experiences of your life!!! The contrast of flavours, textures, and sensations you will feel will teletransport you directly to the Mediterranean :D. If you can't get Iberian acorn ham, (if you are in the States follow this link to buy some online) try it with some serrano ham... this will only teletransport you 100 meters from your house ;-).

The bad news are that my camera broke! It's been with me for 6 years now and suddenly without a word... it passed away! I think it saw the white light (the LCD screen became white all of a sudden). Is this a sign? My husband couldn't believe this had happened when a week or two ago I mentioned that I would like to have a more professional camera... It must be a sign! I swear I didn't do anything wrong with it :D. I saw this beauty on sale: Nikon D40 with a 18-55mm and couldn't resist the temptation... So today's special dressing, as you might have guessed - smart friends - is: I got a Nikon camera! From Paul Simon.

You will see that the figs' pictures are taken with an old camera I had at home and the trees ones belong to my shinny Nikon :D! We are getting to know each other, but see the difference!

And finally the Olive tree with its twisted trunk and wonderful shade is so basic in our diet and culture. But this post is getting too long and I will talk about Olive trees, Olive oil and Olives some other day during next month.

Meanwhile, eat healthy and enjoy food and life! Buen fin de semana! Have a great weekend :D

Paul Roberts: "The End of Food"

From Tom Ashbrook's radio interview with Paul Roberts, author of a new book called The End of Food:

Ashbrook: "... Are you getting unnecessarily apocalyptic on us? ..."

Roberts: "... That's a mouthful there ...."

See also the New Yorker.

Duck's Breast Dressed in Nuts and Herbs with Raspberries' Sauce

Time for the LeftOverQueen Joust again!!! You still have some days left to enter into this FANTABULOUS Foodie Event! Easy rules, great entries, big expectation, wonderful recipes... what else can you ask for? The Joust is served! For those of you who still don't know who Jenn is, I'll tell you: She is the woman in charge, She is the 5 Michellin Aprons' owner ;-)... still reading? Run to her place and join the feast!!!

This month's ingredients were: Lime (hard to find here... but I did), raspberries (harder to find here... but I found a wonderful jam) and almonds (there's plenty of almonds here... no problem with that).

I've been thinking and thinking what could I do with those ingredients and when I finally get the picture of jam raspberry's muffins... Meghan from Craving for Perfection has been faster than me! So after searching through all my books and magazines, I got some inspiration from a Spanish recipe: Duck with cherries sauce (which I'll post about some day).

If you have never tasted duck's breast... please do! It's one of the tastiest meats and so tender... Mmmm. Just delicious! If you combine it with a sweet ingredient... then, my friend, you'll be in heaven!!!

These are some of the wild ducks we have at the mouth of the Ebro River (south of Catalonia).

The breasts I used for this recipe are not from wild ducks, though. I went to a farm where they are raised in captivity but in a big space and in day light and good grain. All these shows in their meat... Mmmmm. Ok, now to the recipe!

Ingredients for 4 servings: 2 ducks' breasts, 4 raspberries jam's tablespoons, 1 lime's juice, 20 grs of toasted ground almond, 20 grs of ground walnuts, 2 teaspoons of provence herbs, 3 or 4 olive oil tablespoons, some black ground pepper and thick sea salt.

• Heat a big pan and when it's very hot add the 2 breasts. First do the fat skin one and when it's brown, do the other side. Notice that it leaves a lot of oily fat; to avoid boiling the breast in its own fat, first cook one - empty the pan from the oil - and do the other after. Once they brown in both sides, reserve.
• Preheat oven at 200ºC.
• Prepare the walnuts, almonds and herbs and throw them in a mortar and smash until you get small pieces, add the olive oil and some salt. Reserve.
• With a kitchen brush or with a spoon, add the nuts mixture to the breasts. Both sides should be covered.
• When the oven has achieved 200ºC place the breasts in a Pyrex glass container and over the middle rack. Have for 10 to 12 minutes.
• Meanwhile prepare a sauce with the raspberries jam, the lime juice and a sprinkle of ground black pepper.
• To serve the dish: Cut the breasts in slices, drop some thick sea salt on top and add the raspberries sauce to one side of the plate. Mix all ingredients while eating. The contrast of flavours is spectacular!

Enjoy it :D

Leeks & Potatoes Puree with Steamed Cider Mussels

What a pompous title for a simple and delicious recipe, don't you think? Today's special dressing will be: I want muscles ♫. Playing around with the words :D

Yesterday, while reading my favourite newspaper La Vanguardia, I found this article in its magazine: Calorias a la vista - Calories in sight. It talks about a new law that it's about to force Restaurant chains in New York, with more than 15 branches, to show in their menus the quantity of calories each dish has. This law pretends to open people's eyes to this huge problem: Obesity.
The controversy is served... Is this law going to have side effects? Is it really going to help obess people? Is it going to create an obsession for calories control? What do you think?

Ben from What's cooking? and Ivy from Kopiaste are organizing an event called Fat Chefs or Skinny Gourmets to show the world how we can eat healthy when following a diet. If you want to join, there's plenty of time, go to their blogs and check for the instructions. Who's not following a diet now that summer is getting so near?

I'm kind of following one myself, but with all spring and summer new products and my huge hunger (imagine myself with the 3 piglets' wolfe's face) and my uncontrolled thirst for fresh beers and good wines, my Foodie Weight Crusade is stuck at 63,3 Kilos.... Oooooppppss :(. Anyway, I do eat healthy and here you have a sample of a light and gorgeous dish.

The total amount of calories you will get with this dish is of 200 cal. aprox.

With regard to its nutritional composition, it contains good quality proteins and very little fat-less than 2 per cent-so its caloric value is not very high, 100 grams of edible portion of mussels provide 67 calories.

Iodine is the most prominent mineral content in mussels, but also includes the presence of iron, calcium, sodium, magnesium and phosphorus. The iron-containing -4.5 grams per 100 grams of mussel meat-even exceeds that of many meats such as pork or beef, although we must have in mind that mussels are eaten in smaller quantities and less frequently. They are also a good source of B vitamins, particularly folic acid and vitamin E.

I'll be cooking more recipes with mussels during this spring and summer. Our Mediterranean mussels' season starts in May and ends in September.

Ingredients for 4 servings: 1 kg. of fresh mussels, 750 grs of leeks, 500 grs of potatoes, 3 garlic cloves, 100 ml of cider, 1 spring of thyme, 1 bay leaf, a bit of saffron, 1 liter of water, 4 olive oil table spoons and salt.

• Clean the leeks and keep the white part only. Draw a cross with a knife in the upper part of their leaves to ease their cleaning. Chop in small pieces. Reserve.
• Peel cut and wash the potatoes and the garlics. Reserve.
• Pour the olive oil in a casserole and add the garlics. Golden them at medium heat and add the leeks and some salt (just a bit because the mussels' water that we will add later is very salty).
• Stir for 1 minute and pour the water in. When it starts boiling, low the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Add the potatoes and cook for another 20 minutes.
• Meanwhile clean the mussels under tap water and take away all the things adhered to their shells.
• Place a pot on the heat and add the cider, the thyme and the bay leaf, bring to boil and add the cleaned mussels. Cover the pot and steam the mussels. When they are all opened, turn heat off and reserve.
• With the help of a food processor mix the leeks and potatoes until you get a thick puree.
• Strain the mussels and keep that juice.
• Add 200 ml of the mussels juice to the puree and mix again. Taste and if you still want it to be stronger add a bit more.
• Serve with some mussels on top and a bit of saffron too.

Have the rest of the mussels inside a bowl and serve aside or take their shells away and add them in the puree. Enjoy the dish! It's an easy, cheap, healthy and low calorie meal! Can't ask for more!!!

Joe Biden: "Defuse this crisis"

A reader points out that Senator Joe Biden's column on the food crisis and agricultural policy includes some hard reflections, ostensibly in the form of questions but packing a punch.

Ask the hard questions and re-examine our own food policies. Does our current biofuels policy, which I have supported, that diverts corn from food to fuel make sense? Should we provide more flexibility to our food-aid program and allow USAID to locally purchase food abroad instead of requiring them to buy American food and shoulder all the transportation costs associated with that?

LOVE, PEACE AND FLOWERS

Special dressing today: All you need is LOVE from The Beatles. (turn player on and get in the mood for love :)

Sweetheart Ivy from Kopiaste has sent me this cute award!!!

I'm kind of childish and I Love its design but most of all Love its meaning♥!!! The award is self-explanatory and I want to: first say THANK YOU IVY!!! I love you this much t♥♥ and secondly I'm sending it to 5 more people whom probably have a bunch of them, because surely everybody loves them, but I don't care... I just want to send them my love and a big hug!!!

They are the following:

1. The LeftoverQueen



2. Kalofagas



3. More than a Burnt Toast



4. What's Cooking



5. Souvlaki for the Soul

One of the best foodie decks you could have :D

Of course I love all of you who come over my blog and leave nice words of encouragement and jokes and smart observations! I even love those of you who are shy and never say a word... if you weren't there, this blog would have no meaning! So THANK YOU readers, bloggers, accidental readers... I LOVE YOU ALL! SMUACK ♥♥

Here you have some FLOWERS from my terrace for you all! I liked Heather's idea... she has a beautiful garden, go and check!!! Find some PEACE inspiration here :D


My favourite: Passiflora or Flor de la Pasion.

Fragant jasmin.

Vibrant Rhododendron.

A young tomatoe plant... Yes, I'll be harvesting my own tomatoes this summer :D

A purple Clematis.


I don't remember the name for this one. It's a bulb one.

Enjoy life, enjoy cooking and enjoy blogging!!!
Happy weekend Everybody :D

P.S. Peteeeeeer, Susaaaaaan, Jeeeeeeenn... and all figs' lovers... I bought the first ones this season!!!!! Soon the most sinful recipes will be on your screens ;-)

Pulpo a Feira - Octopus Galician-Style

Mind if I start eating my Octopus without waiting for you to have your napkin on your lap? Are you an Octopus fan? Or are you an Octopus detractor?

If you are a fan, then copy and paste this recipe instructions because you will just love it!!! You will need such a few ingredients and the result is so tasty and flavourful!

This Octopus is typical from Galicia. I even found a page in Wikipedia where it talks about this recipe. Galicia is the evergreen land, up in the northwest of Spain, just over Portugal. I've never been there but I positively know that I would fall in love with their people, their food and their landscapes!!! One of the most famous foods there is their Seafood, not to mention their cheese!. All good restaurants in Spain have Galician products in their Menus.

See what Matt Gross from The New York Times thinks about Galicia in his article written 2 years ago.

Galicia has strong Celtic influences; the Bagpipes is their musical instrument and Meigas (Witches) live in the dark, humid and green forests... or that is what legends say! So, here is my opportunity to add my special dressing today: Van Morrison and Moondance. Yes, I know he is Irish but I LOVE him! He is one of my favourites ever!!!

Now, turn the player on and follow these easy instructions :D

Ingredients for 4 servings: 4 to 5 big potatoes, 4 black pepper balls, 1 bay leaf, 500 to 600 grs of octopus (legs), half a glass of Extra virgin olive oil, 2 garlic cloves, red sweet ground paprika, red hot ground paprika, thick sea salt and water.

Octopus is a bit tricky to cook, if you don't follow the boiling process properly it can be too chewy or too rubbery. Here you have a few tips: *If you buy it fresh at your fishmonger, what I do to get it softer is freeze it first: have two days in the freezer at least, and then one day before cooking it, have in the fridge and let defreeze little by little. Prepare a big pot with boiling water and one onion inside, put the octopus in the boiling water for 1 minute and take it out. Repeat the procedure for 5 times in a row (this is done to avoid the skin to fall). Leave it inside the pot and let it boil for 25 minutes at medium/high heat. Use a fork to see if it's completely done and reserve. *If you buy it frozen or canned and cooked (La Tienda has some canned octopus) then you can directly go to the next step.

Peel and wash the potatoes. Have another big pot ready with water, the black pepper balls and the bay leaf. Cut the potatoes in thick slices and put in the pot, make sure the water covers them. Boil until potatoes are done. Reserve.

Mince the garlics and add to the half glass of extra virgin olive oil. Also add two teaspoons of sweet red paprika and one teaspoon of red hot paprika. Stir and reserve.

Get a wooden plate or tray and set the potatoes on it, drop the thick sea salt on them, add the octopus cut in circles on top and pour the oil mixture over the octopus. Tachán!!! The 8th wonder is ready to be devoured!!!

PLEASE NOTICE: Pilar, a Galician foodie blogger has sent me this comment which I feel I should publish in the post. For those of you who want to know the REAL recipe please see her instructions. I'll translate it the better I can.

Nuria, he intentado varias veces dejarte mi comentario pero no sé qué pasa.Bueno quisiera puntualizar unas cuantas cositas. Espero que no te parezca mal. Como gallega, y residiendo actualmente en Galicia, te diré:1. El pulpo "a feira" no suele llevar ajos picados. En algunos lugares de Ourense se los ponen, pero son los menos.2. Las patatas quedan más sabrosas si las cueces en el mismo agua de cocer el pulpo. Toman un sabor y un color maravilloso.3. El orden en el que se pone el condimento es: primero la sal gruesa, luego el pimentón y finalmente el aceite de oliva virgen. No se suele mezclar el pimentón y el aceite, ya que de ésta forma lo que estás preparando es una "caldeirada".Espero no te molesten mis indicaciones pero me ví en la obligación de explicarte estos pequeños detallitos que para nosotros los gallegos, son tan importantes.Un bicoPilar
Nuria, I've been trying to leave you a comment but don't know what's going on. Well, I would like to emphasize some things. Hope you don't take it bad. As a Galician and living now in Galicia, I'll tell you that: 1. The Pulpo "a feira" normally doesn't have minced garlic. In some Ourense places they add it, but it's not a general habbit. 2. Potatoes are much more flavourful if you boil them in the octopus water. They absorb a wonderful taste and colour. 3. The order to follow when adding the rest of ingredients is the following: first the thick sea salt, the paprika, and after the olive oil. You shouldn't mix the paprika and the olive oil because then what you get is a "caldeirada". I hope that this small indications don't make you mad but I felt I should explain you these small details which are so important for us Galicians. A kiss, Pilar.

Thanks so much Pilar for showing me how to perform a Real Pulpo "a feira" :D. I really appreciate that!
In my defense ;-) I want to say that I went through different ways of cooking it and all of them claimed to be the real one. None of them mentioned the boiling of the potatoes should be done in the same water used for the octopus. I thought about it but didn't follow my instinc. The garlics addition is something I found in a couple of recipes, I saw it was not a majoritarian tendence but I liked it. And concerning the order of the ingredients in the dressing... my fault, I thought it would be better if I just mixed the ingredients and poured them on top of the octopus and potatoes... that was my cooking license!

Banning "downer" cattle? Allowing tests for BSE?

In February, after school children received shipments of meat from the plant that abused "downer" cattle, the Washington Post headline read, "USDA rejects 'downer' cow ban." At the time, U.S. Food Policy wrote:

Why would the meat industry even want a headline that says, "USDA Rejects 'Downer' Cow Ban"? Surely, only a small fraction of cows are healthy enough to walk through the plant gates but later collapse. In the midst of a crisis of public confidence in USDA oversight of the meat supply, this headline will confirm to most readers that USDA lacks the power and willpower to protect us and our schoolchildren. The headline strikes the same odd chord that readers will recall from earlier articles about USDA's action to prevent Creekstone Beef from voluntarily testing its own meat for the pathogen that causes "mad cow disease."

Today, the Post headline reads, "USDA to ban 'downer' beef." That's much better on "downer" cattle, but hold the celebration for a minute.

USDA is still pulling out the stops to press its legal case that Creekstone Beef should be forbidden to test Creekstone's own beef, voluntarily, and at the company's own expense. Sam Hannanel wrote May 9 for the Associated Press (via Modesto Bee):

The Bush administration on Friday urged a federal appeals court to stop meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease, but a skeptical judge questioned whether the government has that authority....

The agency argues that more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers. "They want to create false assurances," Justice Department attorney Eric Flesig-Greene told a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Economists tend to believe that an economic actor's actions reveal a lot about his or her preferences and beliefs. Here's what I think USDA's actions imply about the beliefs of senior department decision-makers.

They don't believe there is a large risk of a BSE epidemic, with widespread cases of the human variant of mad cow disease (the officials are surely decent enough that they would, in that case, support more mandatory testing).

On the other hand, they don't believe the risk of finding a case of BSE is near zero either (the officials are clever enough that they would, in that case, allow Creekstone Beef to pursue its own quirky and pointless food safety testing strategy, and would prepare themselves for making sure true false positives were recognized as false).

Instead, the officials' actions seem to me most consistent with believing there are a handful of real cases of BSE out there in the beef cattle population, and that these cases will naturally die out without infecting new cattle over the next several years. Of course, if this were true, a handful of people would be subjected to risk of the deadly disease years after eating a cow whose infection was never discovered.

Tomato genetically modified to be more expensive

From the Onion this week:

PASADENA, CA—Geneticists at the California Institute of Technology announced Monday that they have developed a tomato with a 31 percent larger price tag than a typical specimen of the vine-ripened fruit. "By utilizing an exciting new breakthrough in gene-splicing technology, we've been able to manipulate this new tomato with recombinant DNA in such a manner as to make it nearly as pricey as a similarly sized tangelo," said Dr. Lee Nolan, who headed up the project....

"... a clinic on how to use the power of the purse ..."

Dan Morgan at the Farm Policy blog this morning:

Under House rules, the Agriculture panel is a “minor” committee that is not required to be geographically representative. (There are six members from North Carolina and Georgia, none from New England.) The result is a panel unified behind the interests of farmers growing staple crops that collect the bulk of subsidies. This year, dairy interests did particularly well, snagging an extra $410 million to help cover rising feed costs, and imposing a 7.5 cents a pound fee on all imported dairy products to help finance domestic dairy promotion activities. The poultry industry in Virginia and Georgia beat back an attempt to deny crop insurance to Prairie Pothole farmers who plow virgin prairie lands to plant corn.

In effect, the aggies held a clinic on how to use the power of the purse to silence opposition to current farm subsidies. They heaped new money on anti-hunger groups, certain conservation programs, the biofuels industry, West Coast salmon fishermen, and even a few hundred farmers in Alaska.

To understand the Farm Bill debate, it helps to distinguish between trade-distorting subsidies and "decoupled" subsidies (also called direct payments). Trade-distorting subsidies, such as deficiency payments that pay farmers when prices fall below a certain level, encourage over-production, hurt the interests of farmers overseas, and complicate trade negotiations. Decoupled subsidies, which simply pay farmers a check based on their history of farming a particular crop, do not distort trade, but they provide a welfare check to many prosperous farmers and hence are difficult to explain politically. Current farm programs include both kinds of subsidy.

U.S. Food Policy has noted that, compared to the bill passed by Congress, the Bush administration came out for stronger reforms to trade-distorting subsidies. Morgan gives the administration less credit than we did, in part because the administration didn't also call for stronger reductions in decoupled subsidies or direct payments.

But a larger share of the blame may go to the White House. For all the Bush administration’s rhetoric about the need for more subsidy reform, it insisted on keeping or expanding the biggest subsidy of all—the $5 billion in automatic payments. That stand cost it the high ground in the end game of negotiations over the farm bill.

Had the administration agreed to a significant cut in the automatic payments—say $1 billion a year—it might have come to the table with a farm bill that used those savings for all the things the nutrition, conservation and fruits and vegetables lobbies wanted.

Butifarra's Omelette

What is it that makes someone sad or low down when it has all necessities covered? Is it the weather? Is it a bad feeding? Is it... is it... What's wrong with me today? I have everything I need, I'm in good health, nothing is wrong in my life... but still, I feel low down.

Today is a grey and cloudy day. I should be happy because it's been raining lately and our water reserves have improved. I should be happy today because I will go to the supermarket and fill my fridge and tomorrow will go to the market and fill my pantry. I should be happy because I am healthy and so is my family. See? I just give for granted all these things, but one day you have it all and the next you don't. My thoughts and heart are with all the Chinese and Burmese people suffering the consequences of the devastating earthquake and cyclone.

I should be grateful for the life I have! So, with this in mind, let's prepare a dish that will give my body chemical strength and will help me see the bright side of life!

Therefore the special dressing today is: Always look at the bright side of life, from Monty Python (turn player on)

Ingredients for 4 servings: 2 butifarras (catalan pork sausage), 300 grs of fresh spinach, 50 grs of pine nuts, 4 big eggs, 1 onion, salt and olive oil.

• Pour some olive oil in a new saucepan, when it's hot, add the butifarras that you have emptied before and fry the meat, when golden, add the pine nuts and after 1 minute add the chopped onion.
  
• In a pot with some salty water add the clean spinach and let boil for 2 minutes. Strain and reserve. Make sure you take all the water away.
  
• Meanwhile beat the eggs in a big bowl and add some salt.
  
• When the onion is transparent and soft, add the spinach and stir for 30 seconds. Take all saucepan ingredients and put them in the eggs bowl. Make sure you leave the oil in the pan.
  
• Stir the mixture.
  
• With the help of a strainer pour the oil of the sauce pan in a cup. Clean the sauce pan and add the oil back. Make sure all the surface is oily and add the eggs mixture with medium heat.
  
• Spread the omelet evenly in the sauce pan and cook while shaking a bit the pan so that it doesn't get adhered to the surface. After 2 minutes aprox, and with the help of a big plate flip the omelet upside down and cook the other side.

To see if it's completely done, insert a toothpick and when it comes out clean it means that it's cooked.

We like it a bit juicy in the inside... MMmmmmm and also we prefer it cold or at room temperature. The bunch of ingredients used to cook it will surely cheer you up and give you strength for a "hard-day-blogging"!!! ;-)



I'm sending this recipe: Butifarra's Omelette to Kalyn's kitchen and her famous weekly event: Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted this week by Cate from Sweetnicks

Spinach are supposed to give your body strength because they are rich in iron. Pine nuts will give your brain some extra energy to face a hard day and will be good for your heart. Onion will help your blood circulation system and the eggs and pork meat will supply you with proteins.

What else do I need to feel fortunate in this world? :D

Anchovies in Vinegar

We are finally in season to have Boquerones en vinagre - Anchovies in vinegar! And here is the recipe for those of you who feel like having this flavourful tapa with a fresh beer or some rioja red wine :D

Ingredients for 6 servings (as a tapa): 500 grs of fresh anchovies, 6 garlic cloves, a good bunch of fresh parsley, wine vinegar (I used sherry vinegar), salt and extra virgin olive oil.

It's so important to use superfresh anchovies. Clean them, chop the head off and take the guts off too. Clean and wash under fresh tap water. You can have them with their bone or without, if you don't want to chew some extra calcium for your bones then, take the bone off also.

Place them in a large and deep recipient large and deep so that you can cover them with the vinegar. Have them outside the fridge for 2 hours. This way, the vinegar will be able to do its job. After that, strain and place in a glass jar (never metal one) together with the garlic finely chopped and the parsley. Add some salt and the olive oil to cover them completely.

You can have them this way in the fridge for 4 to 5 days and start eating them after the first 12 hours. Have them over some bread or with chips and enjoy!!!

This is my contribution to Pixie's and Rosie's Putting up Event. You are still on time to send your marmalades, preserves, etc at You say tomatoe, I say tomatoe or Rosie bakes a Peace of cake!

A very important tip: Always eat them fresh, never let them warm up outside the fridge! The combination of heat, raw fish, garlic and olive oil could be dangerous for your health!

Antenna Hairstyles

Last night I stood at a friend's house, which was pretty much fun. My two friends laughed about my hair all the time because a few streeks lifted up and they called it my "antenna". This inspired me to do a post about weird hairstyles and updos. I actually found tons of hilarious images but those above were the best to cut out (its not very easy to cut out frizzy hair with photoshop). The the black and white model in the lower right hand corner looks pretty funny to me. Her hair is really attached to two hoops hanging in the air. Wow I'm surprised what kind of topics I'm able to come up with.

House and Senate pass Farm Bill

The House of Representatives this week passed the post-conference version of the Farm Bill by a veto-proof majority, after Republicans abandoned the White House position. The Senate also passed the bill on Thursday.

In a conference call with bloggers and public interest groups on Wednesday, White House official Barry Jackson said:

This bill is $20 billion over budget, not paid for, and full of accounting gimmicks and time shifts in payments... This is not in the best interest of American Agriculture. This is not in the best interest of American taxpayers. Congress can do better than this.... This Farm Bill deserves to be vetoed, and the President will veto it.

Deputy Agriculture Secretary Chuck Conner pointed out that, with current high commodity prices, farm incomes are higher than ever in recent years, so one could reduce trade-distorting subsidies without impoverishing farmers: "Now is as good a time as any for some of these reforms."

Because the Farm Bill's political support depends in part on anti-hunger and environmental groups, who might otherwise have been in favor of stronger reform to traditional row-crop subsidies, the bill includes some new funding for food assistance programs, new money for fruit and vegetable growers, some gains for the CSP conservation program, and small amounts of additional funds for some sustainable agriculture priorities.

I asked Deputy Secretary Conner whether these anti-hunger and sustainable agriculture priorities would be jeopardized if public interest groups tacitly supported a White House veto of the House-passed Farm Bill. He responded that the administration's concern is with the growth in total funding in the bill, and with the lack of reform to subsidies for rich farmers, not with specific anti-hunger or sustainable agriculture provisions. The administration would support the bill if Congress revised the row-crop subsidies by reducing trade-distorting price supports and capping payments to rich farmers, for example, while retaining the anti-hunger and environmental provisions.

Here is the summary by Ken Cook in the Environmental Working Group's Mulch blog:

[T]his farm bill could have gone far beyond the miserly spending increases it provides for nutrition assistance to the poor at home and abroad, conservation, farmers markets, organic food, minority farmers and other important priorities that have long been neglected or under-funded. And there would have been money left over to give taxpayers a break.

Apparently the Democratic caucus thought they were log rolling when the subsidy lobby tossed them some twigs.

In a period when crop prices and farm incomes are soaring to record levels, the continuation of bloated subsidies to the largest, most prosperous farms in the country can only be seen as a breathtaking cop-out on the part of congressional leaders.

Connect Nutrition

From former student Kelly Horton's project in Seattle, Connect Nutrition.

Welcome to Connect Nutrition

Connect Nutrition was founded to address the need for unique and innovative solutions to solve problems of inadequate nutrition, hunger, and food insecurity.

We create connections and opportunities for Communities, Organizations, and People.

Connect Nutrition supports organizations participating in active food, nutrition, and agriculture policy advocacy efforts and nutrition program planning and implementation to increase community food security, decrease hunger, increase access to healthful foods, and create sustainable food systems.

We do this by assisting local, national, and international non-profit organizations, government agencies, academic institutions, socially responsible businesses, and community groups in all aspects of program design, evaluation, training and management, policy analysis, and advocacy in the areas of food security, community development, and poverty alleviation.

Oftentimes, our clients face unfriendly political environments, operate with dwindling resources, experience budget pressures, and are in need of expert knowledge of food, nutrition, and agricultural policy, nutrition science, or technical expertise for program planning. These problems present a variety of challenges. Connect Nutrition helps organizations to achieve their missions by capitalizing on core strengths and lending expertise in the areas most needed.

In the eloquent words of Doc Hatfield, "We are a community of shared values. . . healthy land, healthful food, healthy community. . . we're all one family."

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"Wrong turf, Burger Boy"

Here's a passage from the funny column by Fred Grimm in the Miami Herald today.

Corporate executives bent on an Internet smear campaign might first consider the ignominious unmasking of surfxaholic36.

Surfxaholic36 was the online pseudonym a Burger King vice president reportedly pilfered from his young daughter to post all manner of scurrilous stuff about his company's perceived enemies.

Unfortunately for Steven Grover, those enemies included the Student-Farmworker Alliance. Middle-age inhabitants of fancy corporate suites should refrain, always, from picking Internet fights with any organization with ''student'' in its title. Wrong turf, Burger Boy.

Grover, as surfxaholic36, reportedly posted nasty comments laden with misinformation under Internet articles about the Immokalee-based SFA.

Surfxaholic36 charged, among other sins, that the alliance and their partners at the Coalition of Immokalee Workers were pilfering pay increases they had negotiated for Florida's beleaguered tomato-pickers and were ``reaping millions in cash from unknowing or duped supporters.''

For more about the dirty tricks company, Diplomatic Tactical Services, mentioned in the column, see the innovative SourceWatch wiki.

Socks & Sandals: New Trend Or Fashion No-Go?

Recently I came across a lot of photographs or magazine scans on which the models wore socks underneath sandals, which made myself wonder. I never found this kind of combination appealing and I actually always have to smile when I see people wearing it. To me it's somehow a grandma thing. Personally, I consider wearing sandals and socks as a fashion no-go, I think the models shown above can pull it off though. But I would never dare wearing something like that myself. 

What do you think?

ps: How do you like my new header? Do you think I should keep it or put back my old one?

Trout Navarra-Style

Special dressing: Carly Simon (turn player on)

Doesn't it look great? Well, it tastes great too :D. This is one of those really easy recipes that needs nearly no work at all and that everybody will appreciate eating it.

First things first... the rivers near my house don't have trouts swimming gracefully, the rivers near my house have contaminated waters that now we are trying to "save" and clean and get their fauna and flora back in again. The rivers near my house have huge factories by their riverside which have been throwing shit for years and years into the water and nobody seemed to bother, when finally somebody bothered and reported about it, paying the fee was cheaper than getting the factory in order. Nowadays, it seems that things start moving and that their waters are less contaminated and slowly some fishes and birds are finding their place there.

Please care for the environment!!!

This beautiful trout comes from a fish factory, but hopefully in a near future we'll be able to fish them again :D

Mr. Kalofagas has also a dish with trout fish factory... I thought that Canada was the perfect land for fresh and wild fish, but it seems that we, humans have the ability to get things dirty all over the world :( . It's been some time now since I wanted to cook this Trout and his dish reminded me that I should be going to my fishmonger... and this last time she had trouts!

Take these few steps, have these few ingredients and in no time... it's done! Feel the combination of the fish with the ham and bacon! This recipe is original from Navarre, another beautiful region from Spain.

Ingredients for 4 servings: 4 trouts, 4 slices of country ham, 50 grs of fresh panceta, flour, olive oil, parsley and salt.

* Clean and wash the trout (watch out, it's very slippery), cut its head off and take its guts away (or ask your fishmonger to do that). Dry with a cloth or kitchen paper.
* Fill each trout with a slice of a good ham and sprinkle the trout with salt (have in mind that the ham is salty).
* Lightly coat each trout in flour.
* Meanwhile, in a big sauce pan on a medium heat, fry the panceta cut in dices in some olive oil. When fried, reserve.
* In the same sauce pan with the same oil and at medium heat too, fry the trouts and fry for 5 minutes each side.
* When done, let rest on kitchen paper so that it absorbs the excess of olive oil.

Serve the trout alone or with some chips or some steamed rice. Eat while it's still hot.

It's been so long since I did this recipe that I twisted the ingredients: to fill the trout I used the panceta slices and to fry in olive oil I used some ham dices... ups! Does it really matter?

This is the kind of look I would love that all our rivers had!!! Actually, this is a Catalan river at the National Parc of Aigüestortes... a beautiful place with no contamination... but so far away from my house!

Farm Bill analysis

Here is an excerpt of a Farm Bill analysis on Friday, following reports that Congressional negotiators had completed their work.

... At a time of record farm income, Congress chose to further increase farm subsidy rates, require the American taxpayers to subsidize the incomes of married farmers already earning up to $1.5 million per year, and expand government control over farm programs. This bill also adds a number of provisions never considered by the full Congress such as numerous trade-related provisions and expansion of the Davis-Bacon Act. Congress should reconsider increasing by $20 billion the current spending level of $596 billion over 10 years.

This Farm Bill Asks American Taxpayers To Support Still Higher Subsidies During A Time Of Record Farm Income

The United States' booming farm economy makes it impossible to justify further increasing subsidy rates and establishing additional subsidies for some crops. With rising food prices and farm income at an all-time high, Congress should not be looking to increase the burden on taxpayers by forcing them to further subsidize the part of our economy that is setting records....

Congress Should Not Jeopardize America's Support For The Farm Bill By Increasing Subsidies Without Real Reform

The lack of reform in this bill puts future farm bills in jeopardy by eroding overall support for farm programs.

The farm bill fails to adequately reform payment limitations and instead allows for excessively high limits on the level of allowable income for receiving farm subsidies. The Administration originally proposed to lower to $200,000 the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) limit for receiving farm program subsidies. Congress wants to allow subsidies to continue for married couples who farm and have adjusted gross income of $1.5 million and for people with AGI of $500,000 who are not full-time farmers.

The farm bill fails to reform crop subsidies by increasing instead of decreasing the subsidy level for many crops at a time of record crop prices and record farm income. This legislation would establish additional subsidies for dry peas, lentils, small chickpeas, and large chickpeas. This amounts to adding crops to more subsidy programs....

The bill also restricts international emergency food aid, putting millions of people at risk and undermining our ability to save lives. This provision would alter current law by restricting the ability to redirect food aid dollars for emergency use, limiting the government's ability to respond to emergencies.

The bill walks away from conservation. The Administration is disappointed that the Conservation Title is nearly $4 billion less than the Administration’s proposal. It reduces enrollment in Wetlands Reserve Program WRP by thousands of acres, falling short of the President's goal of 250,000 acres enrolled per year. The bill dismantles the sodsaver proposal that would protect native grasslands from being cultivated to capture subsidies....

But please don't make me identify the author of this analysis. You may not like it. It may cause you to ignore the good common sense. Sigh. Okay, it's the White House.

Fuddruckers shares partial nutrition facts

Fuddruckers restaurants today shared with me for the first time a spreadsheet table with partial nutrition facts.

As one might expect, the beef alone in a half pound cheeseburger, not counting the cheese, dressing, or extras, has 660 kilocalories and 110% of the recommended daily value for saturated fat.

An email from Fuddruckers said the company will release nutrition facts in the future.

Hello Parke,

Thank you for your interest in our Fuddruckers products.

At this time, we do not have a formal nutritional guide available on our menu items; however, we are in the process of developing a nutrition guide.

Since we are in the process of developing our nutritional guide, we do have limited information available. Attached you will find our available nutritional information. Please note that some restaurants may receive products from an alternate vendor and the nutritional/ingredient information may vary.

We do recognize the importance and need for nutritional information on our menu items and we are hopeful that we will be able to provide our guests with this information in the near future....

Following the decision by Quiznos in November to release nutrition facts on the Quiznos corporate website, Fuddruckers was one of a small handful of remaining U.S. restaurant chains that would not share such information. Restaurant nutrition information is a significant public policy issue, because restaurants are exempted from the federal law that requires nutrition facts information for most other food sold in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration has recommended that restaurants share such information, but has no authority to mandate disclosure. States and municipalities have been stepping in to compensate for the absence of federal leadership.

From an economic perspective, information is essential for empowering consumers to defend their own interests in a free market. Under conditions of severe "information failure" in private markets, economists have no grounds for hoping that markets serve consumers well in the absence of government intervention.

I first heard that Fuddruckers might be sharing more nutrition facts information from an anonymous comment at U.S. Food Policy. Thanks anonymous commenter.

Caldo Gallego with Gigantes. A Greek Legume for a Spanish Dish.

Gigantes is the name of these huge white Beans I got from my foodie friend Ivy from Kopiaste, straight from Athens! We made a package foodie exchange and will post about the rest of the wonderful Greek foods she sent me very soon!

Back to the 60s, when I was a kid, there was only one TV channel and it was in black and white, we didn't have playstations nor nintendo games... we had books, street games, nice and rounded dolls (not super skinny barbies) and small plastic cars; but most of all, we had imagination! A cardboard box could become a school bus or a dolls' house. And after reading Greek Mythology I would become Palas Atenea (Athena) the goddess of courage and wisdom! Back then, those were not adjectives for girls nor women... we were taught to be nice and submissive future wives, but I dreamt I was a smart and powerful goddess, standing on my room's chair I would point with my sword the dolls sitting on the floor that deserved a place beside Hades, the god for the Death. From here, my tribute to all Greeks :D.

To do this dish, I changed my sword for a chorizo and I used my imagination to make a Caldo Gallego from Galicia with Greek Gigantes and the ingredients I had in my pantry and fridge. The result was spectacular, the taste so rich and the texture of the beans perfect!!!


Thanks Ivy for sending me the Gigantes Plaki recipe, but I finally made up my mind and decided to do this broth that is closer to a stew than to a broth. Maybe you like the recipe and do it yourself :D. All my family was here for lunch and they all Loved Gigantes!!!!

Ingredients for 8 servings: 500 grs. of Gigantes (or normal sized white beans), 1 good ham fresh bone (with a bit of ham still adhered to the bone), 200 grs. smoked panceta (mine was cured), 1 chorizo colorado (I used 200 grs of cured and tender chorizo cular), 400 grs. potatoes, 500 grs. of tender green leaves of grelos (typical veggie from Galicia. I couldn't find and used half a small cabbage), olive oil and water.

* The previous day cover the beans with cold water, 2 or 3 times the beans height. I had them nearly 20 hours soaking because they were so big.
* Wash the ham bone under tap water and place in a big casserole, fill it with cold water and bring to boil, after 30 minutes discard the water. This is done to take the salt from the bone away, if your bone is an iberian acorn ham one, doesn't need to have a previous boil.
* Place the bone ham in the casserole again. Rinse the beans and put them in too. Cover with cold water 2 times the height of the beans, or if you want to have enough stock to make soups, then pour 3 to 4 times the height of the beans. Bring to a boil and then simmer at low heat for 10 minutes.
* Meanwhile cut the panceta and chorizo (take peel away) in dices. If you use a galician chorizo don't cut it and cook it with the peel. Chop the cabbage in big pieces and add to the casserole.
* Simmer the ingredients for 3 hours and a half, shaking the casserole now and then so that you don't break the beans.
* Meanwhile peel, wash and cut the potatoes in small pieces breaking them with your knife so that they leave the starch out. Add them to the casserole 30 minutes before the beans are done.
* It took me 4 hours to get them soft and tender, but depending on the kind you use it can take less. Keep on testing to see when they will be done.
* Taste and add some salt if you consider it necessary.

This dish will be much better the day after, so strain the beans and keep the stock in a different recipient, once cold, place in the fridge.My casserole wasn't too deep and I didn't get much stock, so we had it as a stew.

A proper Caldo Gallego would have some of the ingredients in the bottom of the bowl and everything would be covered with the stock and some drops of olive oil on top. Another tray would be presented with the rest of the beans, chorizo, panceta, potatoes and cabbage.

I'm submitting the picture hereunder to the Jugalbandi's Click Event for May... Beans 'n Lentils.

Vogue Germany

I just found these pictures published in the german Vogue in December 2007. I wondered why they had shown summery images and outfits in winter, but I really liked these ones so I decided to put them on my blog. I whish I had a pool in the back yard myself because it got so hot outside lately and that would be a nice opportunity to cool down after sunbathing.

May 9

I'm so sorry my computer did not want to show any pictures in the last few days on any sites on the internet plus my camera somehow deleted all the pictures I took from my memory card. So weird. That's why I am late with updating my dialy outfits. Today I will post the outfit from the day before yesterday. This makes me so mad. I have to take new pictures of yesterdays and todays outfit later on.
I really apologize. I hope this will never happen again...
Below are the photos from May 9... I actually liked the outfit but on these images it looks kind of crappy.



Shirt American Apparel, Shorts Vintage American Eagle, Shoes Converse.

Federal food assistance programs adjust for food price inflation once per year

Recent food price increases have been dramatic, and many people are discussing the causes.

One source of particular concern has been food assistance programs, such as food stamps and school lunch. Fortunately, federal food assistance programs are indexed for inflation, with updates to program benefits once per year. Program benefits may lag behind recent rapid price increases by 3-5% for a period, and then they are corrected at the next annual update.

A CNN story this week made it sound, unless you read closely, as if food stamp participants have been absorbing the brunt of the food price increases:

But for those on food stamps, higher prices for milk, eggs, bread and other staples often mean tough choices and empty bellies. Many are forced to forgo fresh vegetables and meat, while loading up on pasta and potatoes. Others are turning to churches, food banks and other charities, which are already strained by the increased demand....

"It's been very tough for families," said Stacy Dean, director of food assistance policy for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal-leaning think tank. "They don't have the flexibility in their budgets so they just don't buy as much food or they buy cheap food or they skip meals altogether. Congress can and should act to help people survive the spike in prices."

The fifteenth paragraph explained the impact of price increases on food stamp benefits quantitatively.

The maximum food stamp benefit no longer covers the cost of the "thrifty food plan," the menu of food items the government uses to calculate its allotment. In March, it cost $567.20 to buy the items in the plan for a family of four, compared to $542.10 last June, when the inflation adjustment was set.

Food stamp participants are suffering from reduced real inflation-adjusted benefits at present. The real spending power of the food stamp benefit is currently just under 5% [percentage corrected from 3.5%] below what it was at the last annual update, which can be a substantial hardship for families on a tight budget. Barring Congressional action, this shortfall will continue to grow until the next annual update. Some people consider the benefits inadequate even at the time they are updated, but that is a different issue from food price inflation.

In a related story, Alexandra Lewin at Corporations and Health Watch has a nice article recently describing the hardship facing school meals programs, such as the National School Lunch Program.

Both the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and competitive foods, those foods sold a la carte outside the NSLP, are affected by rising food and gas prices. As documented by the Economic Research Service, in 2007 milk prices increased by 17%, cheese by 15%, bread by 12% and rice and pasta by 13%.

Kids in poorer communities will suffer most - these already cash-strapped schools are looking for ways to cut costs, undermining many efforts districts have made to implement the mandated, but unfunded, school wellness policies.

The reimbursements for federal child nutrition programs are updated once each year using the federal government's price index for restaurant and cafeteria food. The real value of the reimbursement may currently be running 3-5% below what it was at the last annual update.

In the 2004 reauthorization for child nutrition programs, the federal government required local school districts to establish wellness policies. During the preceding several years, the nutrition environment in schools had been deteriorating, with the growing sales of sugary sodas and high-fat, high-sugar products in schools, but it was difficult to find any one person or committee that had actually chosen these changes. The important bad decisions had been made made piece-meal. The "mandated, but unfunded" school wellness policies mentioned by Lewin were written by the districts themselves in answer to the mandate in the reauthorization bill. Except in trivial ways, the government did not actually require particular policy changes.

USDA's Food and Nutrition Service recently completed a major report on the question of whether reimbursement rates cover the costs of producing school lunches and breakfasts.

Spring in a Jar - Arte y Pico Award

There's some things about Spring time that I LOVE! If I could put them in a jar and have it in my pantry shelf.... during winter cold and dark days I would open the jar and let the smells, sounds and colours fill the room and fill my heart.

Let's pretend I can do that! First of all, I would grab some scarlet poppies. They are so delicate that immediately after you pick them, they faint. Second, I would somehow manage to get the swallows' screeches in the jar too.Their wonderful sound cheers me up and makes me feel renewed every spring. Third, I would climb a figs' tree and collect its precious fruit... that smell and flavour drives me crazy (in the good sense). I would fill the jar and my tummy with sensual ripe figs.
And the fifth ingredient would be a thunderstorm, one of those noisy ones that starts in the afternoon once you are back home and sweeps the sky and the land from dust and dirt and 15 minutes after a shy sun shows behind the clouds and there you are ready to take a deep breath and fill the jar with that awesome and incomparable smell!!!
I'm sending this Jar to sweet Pixie from You say tomatoe I say Tomatoe. She is having the event "Putting up" going until May 21st, click here for details, and I don't know if I'll be able to have my Boquerones en vinagre ready on time.

Also I'm sending another Spring jar to Val from More than a burnt toast and to Ivy from Kopiaste because I feel so grateful to them for giving me the Arte y Pico Award!!!

This Award is given to blogs that you think have an outstanding design, creativity and content and that enriches the community. So I feel really really proud and happy to know that Val and Ivy think this way about Spanish Recipes! Thanks so much girls :D

Here you have how it works:

1)You pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award with their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contribute to the blogger community, no matter what language.
2) Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.
3) Each award-winning, has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the ward itself.
4) Award-winning and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of "Arte y pico"blog , so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5) To show these rules.

And now, I'm passing the torch... ups, the award to:

* Peter from Souvlaki for the Soul. His blog is full of outstanding food pictures and he always has nice words and brilliant recipes for everybody!
* Mallory from The Salty Cod. She is an American girl in Paris and loves writing about food, gardens, cities and adventures in general. See her beautiful photos and beautiful thoughts too!
* Amy and Johnny from We are never full. These smart guys will make you laugh and enjoy savoury meals and shoots from their wonderful kitchen!
* Katie from Thyme for Cooking. When I grow old... I want to be like her :D! One of the things I admire the most from Katie is her ability in telling stories, not to mention her ability in preparing meals for her and son marie!
* Martha from Deliciosa Martha. A catalan blog that I visit from time to time and that has wonderful stories, great food related recommendations and beautiful pictures.

Have a wonderful weekend! We will have it :D... the weather forecast promises rains and rains and rains for 3 days to our thirsty and dry land!
Special dressing for today: Stormy weather