Toasted Noodles with Cauliflower, Clams and Mushrooms

This is what we call a "rossejat de fideus" in Catalonia, where fideus are noodles and rossejat means to golden/toast.

I'm following some of the recipe steps to make a "rossejat" but the final dish will be different. Maybe when spring is here I can show you how a real Rossejat is cooked.
So, let's put our apron on and see if this time I can get a new one as a prize ;D... do you follow me? Nope? As easy as this... I will win an apron if I get the first place in the Royal Joust.

Do you think this dish is a winner? Then go to the LeftoverQueen Forum and vote for me :D. I'll be really happy to get that apron :D. Participating is fun! Come and join the Foodie blogroll and the Joust :D

And now let's start cooking!

Ingredients for 4 servings: 300 grs of noodles (the thinnest possible Nº 0 is what I used), 1/2 liter of vegetable stock, 4 garlic cloves, 400 grs of fresh big clams, 400 grs of cauliflower, 200 grs of dried mushrooms, olive oil, salt, black ground pepper and parsley.

• Pour 5 tablespoons of olive oil in a sauce pan and add 2 chopped garlic cloves, when fragrant add the clams (previously cleaned under tap water) and cover with the lid. Turn heat down to low and wait until clams open. When they do so add the chopped parsley and stir for 1 minute. Add some salt and black ground pepper. Reserve the clams.
• Have the mushrooms in hot water for 1/2 hour until they rehydrate. Strain and dry.
• In the same sauce pan saute the cauliflower and the mushrooms until the cauliflower is al dente. Reserve.
• Heat the vegetable stock so that we have it boiling when we need it.
• Get a paella or a stainless steel pan and pour 4 olive oil tablespoons. Peel and smash 2 garlic cloves with your fist and throw them in. Shake the paella and let the oil aromatize, when the garlic becomes golden discard.
• Now, at medium heat, throw the noodles in and stir with a wooden spoon until they get completely toasted. When they achieve this toasted golden colour quickly add what you had reserved (clams, cauliflower and mushrooms) and the boiling stock to cover the noodles. Add some salt and pepper to fit your taste. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh parsley.
• These thin noodles will be cooked in no time (follow your package instructions) maybe 4 to 5 minutes is enough. You shouldn't stir them while they get cooked. The dish will be done when they have absorbed all the stock. Enjoy!

You can use fresh mushrooms if you wish. Also if you do your own vegetable stock the dish will improve!

Are you crazy about clams or noodles? See what I recommend you here under :D
Beans and Clams... perfect for these cold days.
Noodles paella with Duck... have I heard it's Duck season?
Broccoli's hot and spicy soup... let's change the cauliflower for a broccoli here!

Corn Refiner's Association industry response

Thank you to reader Jack Everitt for a comment on the post High fructose corn syrup contaminated with mercury and other food safety news.

Jack pointed out the industry's quick response to the mercury research allegations. You can read the press release at their website www.hfcsfacts.com. They say the study is outdated and of 'dubious significance.'

WASHINGTON, DC – The Corn Refiners Association (CRA) today challenged the relevance and accuracy of information published by Environmental Health asserting that certain tests found measurable levels of mercury in high fructose corn syrup.

“This study appears to be based on outdated information of dubious significance. Our industry has used mercury-free versions of the two re-agents mentioned in the study, hydrochloric acid and caustic soda, for several years. These mercury-free re-agents perform important functions, including adjusting pH balances,” stated Audrae Erickson, President, Corn Refiners Association. “For more than 150 years, corn wet millers have been perfecting the process of refining corn to make safe ingredients for the American food supply.”

“It is important that Americans are provided accurate, science-based information. They should know that high fructose corn syrup is safe,” continued Erickson. “In 1983, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration formally listed high fructose corn syrup as safe for use in food and reaffirmed that decision in 1996.”

“High fructose corn syrup contains no artificial or synthetic ingredients or color additives and meets FDA’s requirements for the use of the term ‘natural.” Erickson said.

CRA is the national trade association representing the corn refining (wet milling) industry of the United States. CRA and its predecessors have served this important segment of American agribusiness since 1913. Corn refiners manufacture sweeteners, ethanol, starch, bioproducts, corn oil, and feed products from corn components such as starch, oil, protein, and fiber.

In comments on the same post and elsewhere, reader extramsg cautions against alarmism and points out Marion Nestle's nuanced summary.

[Note: Updated slightly Jan 29]

High fructose corn syrup contaminated with mercury and other food safety news

I can't wait to see the new ad-campaign to try to wiggle out of this one. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has issued a report, Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup, revealing that mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). The research article was published January 26th in the scientific journal, Environmental Health by Renee Dufault et al. From the IATP report:

What she found was that possible mercury contamination of these food chemicals was not common knowledge within the food industry despite the availability of product specification sheets for mercury-grade caustic soda that clearly indicate the presence of mercury (as well as lead, arsenic and other metals). Upon further investigation, she found mercury contamination in some commercial HFCS, which can be made from mercury-grade caustic soda.

Through this public scientist’s initiative, the FDA learned that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury. The agency has apparently done nothing to inform consumers of this fact, however, or to help change industry practice.Consumers likely aren’t the only ones in the dark. While HFCS manufacturers certainly should have been wary of buying “mercury- grade” caustic soda in the first place, the food companies that buy finished HFCS and incorporate it into their processed food products may be equally unaware of how their HFCS is made, i.e., whether or not it is made from chemicals produced by a chlorine plant still using mercury cells.

The HFCS isn’t labeled “Made with mercury,” just like contaminated pet foods, chocolates and other products have not been labeled “Made with melamine.” Under current regulations, that information is not made available to either consumers or to companies further down the food supply chain.

When we learned of this gap in information, we set out to do the FDA’s work for it. We went to supermarkets and identified brand-name products—mainly soft drinks, snack foods and other items mostly marketed to children—where HFCS was the first or second ingredient on the label.

We sent several dozen products to a commercial laboratory, using the latest in mercury detection technology. And guess what? We found mercury. In fact, we detected mercury in nearly one in three of the 55 HFCS-containing food products we tested. They include some of the most recognizable brands on supermarket shelves: Quaker, Hunt’s, Manwich, Hershey’s, Smucker’s, Kraft, Nutri-Grain and Yoplait.

No mercury was detected in the majority of beverages tested. That may be important since sweetened beverages are one of the biggest sources of HFCS in our diets. On the other hand, mercury was found at levels several times higher than the lowest detectable limits in some snack bars, barbecue sauce, sloppy joe mix, yogurt and chocolate syrup. Although closer to the detection limit, elevated mercury levels were also found in some soda pop, strawberry jelly, catsup and chocolate milk. The top mercury detections are summarized in Table 3, on page 14 of the report.

Environmental mercury from chlorine plants, coal-fired power plants, dental offices and other sources have helped contaminate albacore tuna, swordfish and many of our favorite fish with mercury. Eating these fish has long been thought to be the most important mercury exposure for most people.

However, HFCS now appears to be a significant additional source of mercury, one never before considered. When regulators set safe fish consumption recommendations based on an understanding of existing mercury exposure, for example, they never built mercury contaminated HFCS into their calculations. HFCS as a mercury source is a completely avoidable problem. HFCS manufacturers don’t need to buy mercury-grade caustic soda. And the chlorine industry doesn’t need to use mercury cell technology. In fact, most chlorine plants in the U.S. don’t use it anymore, as it is antiquated and inefficient.

While we wait for the FDA to do its job and eliminate this unnecessary and completely preventable mercury contamination, we have a few suggestions for what you as consumers and voters can do.

Currently, food manufacturers don’t list on their products the source of HFCS and whether or not it is made from mercury-grade caustic soda. So call them. Make use of the toll-free numbers or Web sites on many packages, and let companies know you’re not comfortable eating their product until you know exactly what is in it. As voters, call your elected officials and ask them for hearings to find out why the FDA is not protecting us from mercury in HFCS.

Also, ask these officials to reintroduce legislation originally proposed by then-Senator Barack Obama a few years ago that will force the remaining chlorine plants to transition to cleaner technologies. Because even if they stop providing the caustic soda used for HFCS, their mercury pollution is still contaminating our food system as it falls on farm fields and waterways.

Tom Philpot at the Grist also covers this topic in Some heavy metal with that sweet roll? Seems to me the house of cards is falling with food safety. In the FDA's spotlight is salmonella in peanut butter from mildew in peanut butter plants, melamine in dry milk from China, and the myriad of meat contamination, with its sights probably on the newest report of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) being found in swine and swine farmers in the Netherlands and Canada. The more of these reports that continue to surface, the more people will be looking towards alternative food systems.

A letter to U.S. Food Policy from Professor Harry Kaiser

In a recent article on this blog, Professor Wilde referred to a study that Kent Messer, William Schulze, and I conducted on designing voluntary food checkoff programs that sustain high levels of participation. In particular, Wilde was very critical of one paragraph in our study:

One might question the social importance and magnitude of under-provision of advertising for generic commodities. However, contrast the public health impacts from the types of foods associated with the majority of branded advertising, such as soda, beer, chips, and candy, to the types of foods that now benefit from mandatory generic advertising, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, chicken, pork, beef, and milk. Not only do the generic commodities comprise the key nutritional elements of the United States Department of Agriculture food pyramid but these commodities also tend to be low in fat and salt (in comparison to branded snack foods and restaurant meals) and represent the bulk of what might be called the components of a healthy diet. If generic advertising for agricultural commodities collapses because mandatory programs are declared unconstitutional, the "Dancing Raisins" will be gone and the vast majority of ads for snacks will be for chips, cookies, and candy. Given important health problems such as obesity, juvenile diabetes, and osteoporosis, the under-funding of generic commodity advertising has serious public health consequences.

Professor Wilde did not buy our argument justifying generic advertising for generic commodities, arguing:

Years of previous coverage here (and here) cast doubt on the claim that checkoff advertising is largely consistent with federal dietary guidance. The dancing raisins comparison is misleading, since a tiny fraction of checkoff advertising is for fruits and vegetables, while much of the funding is for high fat beef and pork and cheese. I don't think there even is a federal checkoff program for raisins. Raisins are not mentioned in Becker's CRS report (.pdf). Perhaps those ads were from a California state level board? If you believe that the checkoff programs are mostly about skim milk, not cheese, you've been hoodwinked by the public relations. I am not sure where the "low fat" comment came from -- federal dietary guidance gives greatest importance to saturated fat rather than total fat, and the products covered by checkoff programs are disproportionally high contributors to saturated fat in U.S. diets, compared to foods not covered by checkoff programs. And, how could lower checkoff advertising possibly lead to obesity? This is a very, very bad paragraph.

We do not share Wilde’s view that this is a very, very bad paragraph. Rather, we continue to believe that the nutritional state of consumers in the United States would be worse without generic food advertising programs. Here’s why.

The ERS publication, Amber Waves, recently reported the results of a study that indicates average per capita daily caloric intake in the United States has increased by a whopping 523 calories since 1970. It is no wonder we have an obesity problem with such a significant increase in caloric intake. However, when you examine the breakdown of changes in specific categories of foods consumed, which is provided in the table below, it becomes clear that there is no link between the introduction of generic food advertising and obesity. Wilde correctly points out that a sizable proportion of generic food advertising is for fluid milk, cheese, beef, and pork, but look at how caloric intake has changed for these categories since 1970. Dairy is actually down 11 calories per person per day, and meat, eggs, and nuts is up by only 24 calories. So to blame generic food advertising for changes in fluid milk, dairy, beef, and pork per capita consumption is a weak argument since there was basically no change in consumption of these commodities since 1970.

It appears from this table that the real culprit in increasing obesity is the tremendous increase in consumption of fat and oils, which increased by 216 calories since 1970. I am not aware of any significant generic advertising program for fats and oils. Our caloric intake of sugar and sweeteners also increased a sizable 76 calories over this period, and while there is a voluntary generic sugar advertising program, it is very small, and probably had little to no impact on this increase. My guess is that most of the increase in sugar, fats, and oils calories is due to us consuming a lot more soda, candy, junk food and fast food than we consumed in 1970. A major contributor to this change in consumption habits is the huge amount of brand advertising for these items, which completely overshadows the amount of generic food advertising.

Wilde asks: “how could a decrease in generic advertising possibly lead to obesity?” The answer is generic advertising of agricultural commodities has basically been a defensive strategy by our nation’s agricultural producers to stabilize tremendous losses in market share lost to increasing soda, chips, candy, and fast food consumption. For example, one of the major reasons dairy farmers initiated generic milk advertising in the mid-1980s was to combat huge losses in market share to Coca Cola, Pepsi, and other soda companies that were outspending the American Dairy Association by a ratio of 16 to 1 (Leading National Advertisers, 1980-1984). From 1970 to 2001, annual per capita soda consumption more than doubled, increasing from 21.9 gallons in 1970 to 54.3 gallons in 1999 (Beverage Marketing Corporation). Over that same time period, annual per capita consumption of fluid milk products decreased over threefold from 25 to 8 gallons (Putnam and Allshouse, 2003). Much of the loss in milk consumption over this period was the result of aggressive advertising (and other promotional strategies) by soda companies, which continue to outspend milk advertising by a substantial amount. For example, in 2003, even with a mandatory program, total soda advertising ($1.25 billion) was still 6.5 times the combined amount spent by dairy farmers and milk processors ($193 million) (Leading National Advertisers, 2003). Unfortunately, in 2007 combined generic fluid milk advertising has fallen to about $80 million, along with per capita fluid milk consumption, while obesity continues to rise.

We agree with Professor Wilde that there could be improvements in mandatory generic advertising programs for food. More emphasis should be given to healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables and lower fat products. There has been some progress in this area over the last ten years. There are now more generic advertising programs for fruits and vegetables than there were in the past. There is generic advertising for the majority of fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States. In the past, generic milk advertising did not differentiate among whole, reduced fat, low fat, and skim milk, and now we are seeing more examples of skim and lowfat “milk mustache” advertisements. At the same time, there are some examples of promotional efforts that are not consistent with nutrition guidelines, and we support efforts to promote lower fat products like lowfat and skim milk, lowfat cheese, and leaner cuts of beef and pork. But our point has always been that generic advertising of healthy food is a desirable feature of these mandatory, self-help programs.

The ERS per capita data represent the amount of calories available for consumption after adjusting for spoilage, plate waste, and other losses in the home or marketing system.

Harry M. Kaiser
Gellert Family Professor of
Applied Economics and Management
Cornell University

Vilsack names top advisors and 48 other appointments

The patiently awaited announcement from Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has arrived as he releases his chief of staff, and deputy chief of staff as well as 48 other appointments filling key points at USDA.

Drum roll please!

Chief of Staff is John Norris. According to the press release:

John Norris has been chairman of the Iowa Utilities Board since 2005 and served as Governor Vilsack's first chief of staff in 1999. He served as Senator John Kerry's Iowa Caucus Campaign Manager and as National Field Director for the Kerry-Edwards Campaign. He was the Democratic nominee for Iowa's Third Congressional District in 2002. Norris is a graduate of Simpson College and the University of Iowa Law School. He also served as state director of the Iowa Farm Unity Coalition in the mid-1980's. He is married to Jackie Norris, who serves as Chief of Staff to First Lady Michelle Obama. They have three sons.

Deputy Chief of Staff is Carole Jett.

Carole Jett recently left federal service after 33 years to participate on the Obama Agriculture campaign team in Indiana and served as Co-Lead of the President's Transition Team USDA Agency Review Group. She served as Farm Bill Coordinator for USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) prior to her retirement. Previously, she led the NRCS 2002 Farm Bill implementation effort and served on assignment with the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee.

Sarah Wyant at Agri-pulse has collected a list the 48 other appointees. As far as I can tell, I don't see any of the "sustainable dozen that Food Democracy Now has petitioned for in the last few months. As Jill Richardson points out on La Vida Locavore, many of the positions have "acting" in front of them, meaning they are doing the job until they are official appointed or replaced.

Vilsack's first line of business was repealing the proposed $3 million dollar cut to the Fruit and Vegetable Program, proposed by the previous administration. A nice 'good-bye gift,' I guess. He also has extended the comment period for 2008 Farm Bill Farm Program Payment Limitation and Payment Eligibility rulemaking process. Vilsack discussed his priorities in a teleconference call:

"Let's be clear - in no way is this move(extending the comment period) a signal that we will modify the rules for the 2009 crop year," Vilsack said. "Sign up has begun and it's important that clear and consistent rules remain in place so that producers can prepare for the crop year and manage their risk appropriately."

To date, USDA has only received seven comments on the payment limits rule and Vilsack says that by extending the comment period additional farmers and other interested parties will have the opportunity to comment.

"In keeping with President Obama's recent pledge to make government more transparent, inclusive, and collaborative, I would like to pursue an extended comment period so that more farmers and other individuals can participate in this rulemaking process," he said. "I'm particularly interested in suggestions that would help the Department target payments to farmers who really need them and ensure that payments are not being provided to ineligible parties for future crop years."

Cargols & Conill i Romesco - Snails & Rabbit and Romesco sauce

In my house, a casserole dish always means healthy and comfort food. It also means slow cooking food, steamy windows, and the thing I like the most: Mom, is there anything left in the casserole? The answer should always be... Yes darling, go help yourself :D
Why is this a healthy and family favourite dish?

Here you have some of the main reasons: First, we love rabbit and snails (it's a catalan tradition to have both together in the same dish). Second, rabbit is one of the most healthy meats... it's white, non greasy, and very tasty (great for diets). Third, romesco is such a wonderful sauce... think about the ingredients: garlic, tomatoes, ñoras, hazelnuts and almonds, olive oil... what on earth could be healthier than that combo?
Why am I giving you all these health tips? Well, I'm sending the dish over to Meeta from What's for lunch honey? and her Monthly Mingle. Many dishes came to my mind for her Healthy Family meals, but Snails & Rabbit and Romesco Sauce won the first place!!! So, here you have it Meeta :D. The hostess for this month's event is Michelle from What's Cooking Blog.

Wouldn't you lick these snails and suck all the sauce in them? Well, we do! Wouldn't you use your bread to clean the plate? Well, we do! Wouldn't you use your fingers to eat the rabbit and snails and leave the plate with just the bones and shells, as if Tim Burton would use it for a new movie? Well... we do!!!
Really, you don't know how good is this dish if you don't try it!!! Just buy the Rioja wine, light some candles and get your beloved in front of you, open the bottle and have it for Valentines day... help the world population grow bigger :D :D :D.
Ingredients for 4 servings: 8 rabbit pieces + the liver, 1 kilo of fresh snails, 2 medium onions, 4 garlic cloves, 4 tablespoons of romesco sauce (home made is my choice), 1 guindilla (small red chili pepper), flour, salt, black ground pepper, 2 glass water and olive oil.

To cook the snails you will need: patience, some branches of thyme, half a garlic head, water and salt.

Buy the snails alive. Have them fasting for at least a week. Clean them throughout one by one and rubbing the shells under tap water. Put in a strainer and rinse them under water for several times. Have them in cold water and those that don't come out of the shell put in a recipient with hot water. Those not coming out of the shells should be discarded.

Prepare a deep big pot with cold water, the thyme and the garlic. Put the snails inside, cover with the lid and have at low heat. When the snails feel the heat will come out of their shells (this is the way to cheat them and have the bodies out of the shells to eat them easily). Once they are dead and the water starts boiling, take the foam away and add some salt. Boil for 20 minutes, strain and reserve.

Start the dish:

• Get some olive oil in a big casserole, while it heats up, clean the rabbit, dry, add salt and pepper over it and coat in flour. Fry in the casserole's hot oil. Just at medium heat. Reserve when golden.
• If the oil didn't get too dirty from the flour, add the two chopped onions and stir at low medium heat until they get some colour, then add the chopped garlic. Stir until fragrant add the chili and finally the snails. Stir at low heat for 10 minutes. If the oil was full of burnt flour, strain it and add some new one to start with the ingredients.
• Get the rabbit back to the casserole and pour the 2 glasses of water over it. Shake the casserole and simmer with the lid on for 15 minutes.
• Use the rabbit's liver now. Chop it and add to the casserole, stir and shake for a while until the liver is cooked. Cover with the lid for another 10 or 15 minutes. Stir now and then.
• Add the romesco sauce and shake the casserole so that all ingredients mix. Have at low heat for another 5 minutes.
• This dish is better the day after or if you cook it in the morning will be perfect for dinner. Enjoy!

Do you love Rabbit and Snails? Want more recipes?

Rabbit and Noodles casserole
Snails done in Garlic and Mint
Rice with Snails and Veggies

Living richly

For several years, my wife and two children and I have been experimenting with different environmental disciplines. Our goal is not to live miserably, but instead to see how much we can improve our impact on the world and still have our life feel prosperous.

There is some kind of fairy-tale magic at work. Every time we give something up, we get more in return than we sacrificed.

We adopted a low-car-use calendar, but it turned out to be more fun than driving. We now get a rebate from our car insurance company for low mileage on our one beat up old Honda Civic. We see more friends in the neighborhood. Our kids are tougher and less needy. We get more exercise without spending more time.

We bought a new boiler for heat and installed better insulation in our home. They save us money. We recently put extra blankets on our beds and started lowering our night-time thermostat one degree every few nights, planning to stop when we became uncomfortable. It hasn't happened yet. We just save money and sleep as well as ever.

At my profession's annual meeting last July, I told some colleagues to enjoy the beer we were sharing because they might not see me as frequently next year if I decide to limit my air travel. I expected them to express concern about the resulting harm to my career. Instead, they teased me for being self-indulgent and shirking my work, putting my family and personal happiness before my profession. Uniformly, they agreed less travel would be no hardship. "Sure," one joked, "why don't I say I'm an environmentalist too and spend more time with my family." This week, I took the Amtrak Acela instead of the air shuttle from Boston to DC for business. The view of the ocean shoreline was beautiful, there was a plug for my laptop, I worked the whole time without interruptions, and felt as if I had gained time instead of lost time.

After years of doing these experiments on our own, we recently decided to try to find a larger community of people around us, in part to reassure us we're not crazy.

We invited our church congregation members and neighbors of several faiths to a dinner at our church a couple weeks ago. Astonishingly, more than fifty people, including 20 kids, accepted the invitation. With help from our children, we cooked a bean chili with a little hamburger over pasta, cole slaw, fresh bread, and fresh whole fruit for desert.

There is a tradition of thought, from long before Thoreau all the way down to Michael Pollan and after, of thinking about one's own meal as a way of contemplating what life really costs. Our dinner cost us less than a dollar per person, and there were leftovers. We served 50 for less than the price of a nice restaurant meal for 2. We showed the guests the one pile of organic material from food preparation that would be composted, and the smaller pile of trash for the landfill. The trash was minimal (tomato cans and a few plastic bags), because the ingredients were all real food in their original form. People often say that it is the time cost that prevents them from cooking at home. Eating with friends is the remedy. Our 3 and a half hours of work to make the meal came out to less than 8 minutes of preparation time per person who enjoyed the meal.

The after-dinner discussion was exciting. We hired one of the church youth to babysit the younger children in a play room nearby so the adults could really spend some time concentrating on what big thing we can undertake together. Another meal is planned. I will post updates to the blog from time to time.

Pork Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

Saturday AM
Today the wind is so strong here that the park in front of the house looks desolate, 3 trees have been uprooted, some leaves, papers and bird's nests furiously fly in the air.

I should get dressed and go for the bread and newspaper but I'm a bit scared... should I fill my pockets with stones? What if the wind blows me away as a dishevelled Mary Poppins?

A strong wind is one of the meteorological phenomena that scares me the most! I feel like anything could beat me any time! Oh, I got it! Maybe I should go for the newspaper with my ridding helmet on :D.
The blinds beating against our windows woke me up and I couldn't go back to sleep... I hate waking up early on a Saturday morning!!!

The view of the park in front of my kitchen window. Two trees have been beaten down to the floor. The whole park has had 9 uprooted trees and some more have many branches broken.


So, to get in a good mood, here I am blogging about my Cabbage rolls, simple, easy and delicious daily cooking :D. I'm sending this over to Simona from Briciole and her Fresh Product of the Month: Cavolo - Cabbage, if you want to participate too, you are still on time! Go and check :D.

Ingredients for 4 servings: 1 cabbage, 1 big onion, minced pork meat (250 grams), 1 teaspoon of sweet ground paprika, 1 tablespoon of sugar, olive oil, salt and black ground pepper. Optional: some slices of Butifarra negra, or slices of baked potatoes and a sauce to fit your taste.

• Separate and clean the outer cabbage leaves. Prepare a big pot with boiling salty water and drop the leaves in for only 1 minute. Refresh in a bowl with water and ice cubs. Drain and reserve.
• Clean and cut the rest of the cabbage (1 cm. dices) and boil in salty water for 10 minutes aprox. Drain and reserve.
• Chop the onion and fry in a sauce pan with some olive oil at medium heat until it gets a bit golden, then add the minced meat. Stir and fry until the meat gets golden and ad the cabbage. Stir a bit more, add some salt, black ground pepper, paprika and sugar. Stir and Reserve out of the heat.
• Preheat oven at 180 ºC.
• Lay the cabbage big leaves on a clean surface and fill with 2 spoon table of the meat mixture. Roll them and place in an oven recipient (previously rubbed with some olive oil). Pour some olive oil over the rolls and place in the oven for 10 minutes.
• Present the rolls over some baked potatoes or some butifarra negra. Also you can make a sauce and pour some over.

Saturday PM

My brother and sister, whom live in a village surrounded by forests called me from their cellulars phones... the electric fluid is non existing, trees have fallen over the houses, the roads are cut, fix phones don't work, 2 men died when trying to lift and carry away from the road a fallen tree; they didn't notice another tree falling over them. One of them was a friend of my sister.

In another village nearby, 4 kids died when the ceiling and walls of the sport hall fell apart.

This was never seen here! Not only Catalonia has been affected, the north of Spain has had 14 meters high waves. The emergency help is collapsed. We are all in shock!

You can see what happened at Lavanguardia.es

A glamorous Classic: Fried egg & Chips... with Foie and Truffle!

Does this dish need a description? Wouldn't you just run for the bread? Is there any other dish as popular as Fried eggs with chips? I bet every country in the world has its version.

Raise your hand if you don't like fried egg with chips... exactly what I thought: everybody loves it! But this time, surprise your Buddie, husband, dear, cuchi, cari, honey, babe and add some glamour to the basics! Some foie and truffle will surely be a surprise here.

Want to give your affected Valentines dishes a twist? Have this breakfast ready for her/him and think what will come after... you need to burn the calories ;D.

My sister in law grows her own veggies and has her own hens and, last time she visited was so nice to bring us some eggs... see that bright orange yolk? That shows the corn hens eat :D. I'm sending my glam eggs to Grow Your Own, Andrea's Recipes Event, which calls for home made/grown products. When it's this cold, hens don't lay as many eggs as usual... so, thank you Tati for sharing them with us!

Ingredients for 4 servings: 4 eggs, 3 medium onions, 3 medium potatoes, 4 slices of foie (raw goose liver), 1 truffle, olive oil and thick sea salt.

1. Peel and cut the onion in fine strips. Caramelize in some olive oil at low heat. When it achieves a brown dark colour put in a strainer to remove the excess of oil. Reserve.


2. Peel the potatoes and use a mandolin to get the thinner possible. Fry in olive oil 0,4º. First 5 minutes the heat should be high, then low down to medium and when they get golden and crispy place over kitchen paper to leave there the excess of oil. Reserve.


3. Preheat oven at 150 ºC.


4. Fry the eggs and reserve.


5. Heat a sauce pan and when it becomes real hot add the foie slices. Just some seconds each side. Reserve.


6. Present the dishes: Prepare a bed with the potatoes, pour some salt over them, place some of the caramelized onion, the foie with some thick sea salt on top and the fried egg with some more sea salt. Place in the oven to heat it up a bit and just before serving grate the truffle over it.
   

Enjoy it!!!

Want to try other egg dishes?

Spanish Omelet
Fried Quail egg on Sobrassada toast
Spanish Deviled eggs

Eating better

From Jill Richardson at La Vida Locavore:

Call it official: I am officially a David Pimentel fan. Pimentel, a professor at Cornell, has been doing research for years about the link between food production and oil. In a new study, he describes how food production energy needs could be cut in half. And, since about 19% of fossil fuels go to our food (about the same amount used for cars), a 50% savings would be significant!

Here are the press release and links from the publisher of Human Ecology, where the article by Pimentel and student coauthors appeared last year.

Do your thing, Mr. Obama

In meetings with world leaders in times of conflict, remind them of the futility of hate and lead them to hope that their divisions can be overcome.

In your conversations with Americans in times of fear, reassure them that Government of the People will protect them and advance their common good.

In your national leadership on the U.S. Food Policy issues covered in this blog, well..., er..., try not to flunk. Our expectations for you in this area are low and reasonable.

If you do your thing well, Mr. Obama, we'll still be grateful.

Your personal MLK day (re-posted from 2007)

On that December 5 night in 1955, when the Montgomery bus boycott had lived 1 full day so far and nobody knew it would eventually live a long life of 382 days, a frightened crowd gathered in church to sing "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" and other reassuring hymns.

The speaker who then rose to the podium was a relative newcomer to Montgomery, and a youngster, who had lived just 9820 days so far, less than 27 years. Martin Luther King was not yet famous, but he met the needs of the congregation that night.

When King was shot in Memphis 4504 days later, he was only 39 years old. That's my age, too.

More precisely, February 14 this year (2007) is my "personal MLK day." That is the holiday I dreamed up on which a person has lived 14324 days so far, the number of days that King lived in total. The personal MLK day may be used as a time of reflection on what you have accomplished and want to accomplish.

Epilogue. Last night at bedtime, in our own little MLK Day observance, my children and I sang "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" and discussed the words. They have lived, respectively, 2346 and 1748 days so far.

*** Compute Your Personal MLK Day in SAS Statistical Software ***;
data temp;
my_bdate = mdy(--,--,1967);
k_bdate = mdy(01,15,1929);
k_ddate = mdy(04,04,1968);
k_age = k_ddate - k_bdate;
my_kdate = my_bdate + k_age;
format my_bdate k_bdate k_ddate my_kdate date.;
output;
proc print data=temp;
run;

Red Peppers Babel's Tower

I extraneously got some inspiration from the Genesis... You all know, I'm not a religious person... but, I have read about the Babel Tower.

So, when Jai and Bee from Jugalbandi announced the new Click event for this month: RED, I immediately pictured this Red Peppers Babel Tower in my mind.

According to the biblical account, a united humanity, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, took part in the building after the Great Flood; Babel was also called the "beginning" of Nimrod's kingdom. The people decided their city should have a tower so immense that it would have "its top in the heavens."(וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם) However, the Tower of Babel was not built for the worship and praise of God, but was dedicated to the glory of man, with a motive of making a 'name' for the builders: "Then they said, 'Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'" (Genesis 11:4). God, seeing what the people were doing, confounded their languages and scattered the people throughout the earth. (Wikipedia source)

This Babel Pepper tower is dedicated to the glory of Red Peppers: a good source of selenium and vitamin C, E, and pro vitamin A. Peppers are antioxidant and beneficial to the body, the perfect ingredient in a low calorie diet, diuretic, digestive, depurative... All these peppers come from a different background and their characteristics are unique and different, but somehow they managed to understand each other and build the tower!

I wanted to go to La Boqueria and get Peppers from all over the world, but I couldn't make it last week, and these are all from the grocer's shop and the Friday's farmers market:
Still missing some Pimientos del Piquillo from Lodosa and Jalapeños from Xalapa and... you can add your own here :D
I simply grilled the fresh ones (20 to 30 minutes in the oven's grill at high temp.). Boiled some rice in salty water and drained. Heated 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and added one guindilla, after aromatizing the oil, added some cooked chickpeas and the drained rice. Stirred a bit and turned the heat off. Presented in a small bowl and added some peeled stripes of grilled red pepper. Seasoned with some extra virgin olive oil and salt.

I'm sending the previous picture to Click's Event! Come join... It's fun!!!!
And meanwhile, grab your fork and eat!

More recipes with peppers:
Escalivada and fresh anchovy
Stuffed Piquillo peppers
Stuffed Red peppers

USDA releases 'naturally raised' marketing claim standard

The USDA Agriculture Marketing Services has issued a voluntary standard for 'naturally raised' livestock and meat marketing claims.

Naturally raised, often used as a marketing tool to attract consumers concerned about animal welfare, has up until now not had a official definition.

The new standard states that livestock used for the production of meat and meat products have:

1. been raised entirely without growth promotants, antibiotics (except for ionophores used as coccidiostats for parasite control)

2. have never been fed animal by-products

The voluntary standard will establish the minimum requirements for those producers who choose to operate a USDA-verified program involving a naturally raised claim. USDA analyzed over 44,000 comments from producers, processors, consumers, and other interested parties in the development of this standard.

Many are concerned that:

a) the standards aren't stringent enough on what it means to 'naturally raise' an animal. Under this ruling, animals raised in CAFO's (Confined Animal Feeding Operations) can still be tagged natural.

b) the new label will undercut the USDA Organic certification and/or farmers pushing to establish sustainable raised meat.

The Consumers Union and Food and Water Watch say the new standards sanction un-natural practices.

"This regulation will allow an animal that has come from a cloned or genetically engineered stock, was physically altered, raised in confinement without ever seeing the light of day or green of pasture, in poor hygiene conditions with a diet laced in pesticides to be labeled as ‘naturally raised.’ This falls significantly short of consumer expectations and only adds to the roster of misleading label claims approved by USDA for so-called natural meat," said Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Senior Scientist and Policy Analyst at Consumers Union.

"These last minute rules for the 'naturally-raised' label on meat practically invite agribusiness to greenwash their products and rip off consumers" stated Patty Lovera, assistant director for consumer group Food & Water Watch. "Until these standards are revised, consumers will have to navigate another set of misleading labels at the grocery store."

USDA said it received more that 44,000 comments about the rule, while Consumers Union and FWW generated more than 36,000 signatures stating that the USDA's proposed standards for "naturally raised" were flawed, would only confuse consumers and should be withdrawn.

A national telephone poll conducted by Consumer Reports’ National Research Center released in November 2008 showed American consumers want the “naturally raised” meat claim to mean more than USDA's proposed standard, including that it came from an animal that:

• Had a diet free of chemicals, drugs and animal byproducts (86%)

• Was raised in a natural environment (85%)

• Ate a natural diet (85%)

• Was not cloned or genetically engineered (78%)

• Had access to the outdoors (77%)

• Was treated humanely (76%)

• Was not confined (68%)

Jiraiya VS Pain !! - Naruto 381

Title: Jiraiya VS Pain !

Chapter: Naruto 381

Category: naruto chapter 381,
manga series, naruto english, naruto indonesian, Naruto Shippuden, naruto episode, naruto comics

Download Link:


* English Version

- Naruto 381_1 English
- Naruto 381_2 English




* Indonesian Version

- Naruto 381_1 Indonesian
- Naruto 381_2 Indonesian
- Naruto 381_3 Indonesian

NOTE:
- Use WinZip/WinRar/IZArc to extracting the file
- Enjoy reading with Acrobat Reader or FoxIt Reader

I love it !

I want it to be summer.

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Shaping the Humanitarian World

The new book Shaping the Humanitarian World, by professors Peter Walker and Dan Maxwell at the Friedman School at Tufts, draws on years of leadership experience in promoting more effective humanitarian assistance. From the publisher, Routledge Press:

This book both describes the history of international humanitarian action, details its present structure, key organizations and methodologies and goes on to examine some of its most critical challenges. By tracing the history on international humanitarian action from its early roots through the birth of the Red Cross to the beginning of the UN, Walker & Maxwell examine the challenges humanitarian agencies face, from working alongside armies and terrorists to witnessing genocide. Particular emphasis is placed on the developments of the past fifteen years, the rise in humanitarian action as a political tool, the growing call for accountability of agencies, the switch of NGOs from bit players to major trans-national actors and the conflict between political action and humanitarian action when it comes to addressing causes as well as symptoms of crisis. Humanitarianism has a vital future, but only if those practicing it choose to make it so.

Lobsters Kitchen Outing and 3 Sauces.

Sometimes things are not as they seem!!!

Tartare Sauce:
Ingredients for 4 servings:
250 grs. mayonnaise sauce, 25 grams. capers, 50 grams. of small pickled gherkins, 1 branch of parsley, 1 teaspoon lemon juice.
Drain well and finely chop the capers and pickles.
Place mayonnaise in a bowl and add the capers and pickles, mix everything well, add chopped parsley and return to very mixed. Cover and leave the container in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Béarnaise sauce:
Ingredients for 4 servings:
500 grs of butter, 4 egg yolks, 2 tablespoons of vinegar, 1 tablespoon of fresh chopped tarragon and salt.
Melt the butter in a pot and let cool down. Carefully lay the pot and pour the melted part in a bowl. Discard the butter foam.
In a new bowl, placed in a pot with hot water (baño maria) whip the egg yolks with the vinegar and the tarragon herbs.
Slowly add the butter while stirring the mixture (still in baño maria - waters' temperature should be between 60 and 70ºC).
When the sauce has emulsionated, add salt to your taste. Use the sauce on top of half lobster and gratin in the oven.

Mustard vinaigrette:
Ingredients for 4 servings:
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard (or similar), 50 cl of cider vinegar, 150 cl of extra virgin olive oil, some salt and white ground pepper.
In a small glass jar, pour the mustard, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Cover the jar with a lid/cover and shake until all ingredients present and homogeneous look. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Pepe, Manolo and Juanito had a 8 to 10 minutes bath at the silvered jacuzzi ;D. The water was aromatized with 2 bay leaves, a small bunch of black round pepper and some salt. They were delicious... thank you guys!

Highlights from Vilsack Senate confirmation hearing

This morning, I was among a presumably small number of people huddled around our computer screens or speakers, observing the Senate Agriculture Committee's hearing of Obama's Agriculture Secretary Nominee, former Iowa governor Tom Vilsack. Committee Chair Senator Harkin released this statement about the nomination. The archived webcast of the hearing is available here.

Although I only watched half of the hearing, the Senators covered many of the controversial topics in food and agriculture policy, ranging from organic standards to domestic and global hunger, trade liberalization, crop insurance, forestry and of course commodity payments. If you have never watched a confirmation hearing, as I hadn't, it feels remarkably like being a fly on the wall of a job interview. Vilsack drew on examples from his past positions to illustrate his commitments to farmers of all sorts, rural development issues, action against hunger and experiences addressing civil rights concerns in government.

As expected, Vilsack sailed through the hearing, which included substantial mutual back-scratching and compliments to the Committee on its work passing the 2008 farm bill, despite the many obstacles to doing so.

Some highlights included Vilsack's encouragement of locally grown fruits and vegetables and pronouncement that they should be grown not just in rural areas, but everywhere. He announced that he met with Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle last week in order to demonstrate the importance of working together for nutrition.“It’s going to be important for us to promote fresh fruits and vegetables as part of our children’s diets. . .that means supporting those who supply those products” and making it easier for consumers to buy locally grown products, Vilsack said. And there was Senator Pat Roberts' contrasting descriptions of local, organic farmers who sell apples "with a little extra protein" at farmers markets in "the county seat," with "real" farmers involved in production agriculture, as he proclaimed that the latter group are the ones actually supplying America's food.

It is expected that Vilsack will be confirmed easily by the full Senate as early as next Tuesday as soon as Obama is sworn in as President and officially nominates his Cabinet. You may wonder, as my roommate did, how the Senate can hold hearings for administration appointees before President-elect Obama has officially nominated them. From my small amount of research, it seems that this entire process is going more quickly than in previous transitions, with the hope that the new Administration will be in a better position to tackle the myriad problems with which they will be confronted on Day 1 if these appointees can be confirmed immediately. Some Republicans in Congress have expressed frustration at the unprecedented speed with which the administration-elect is proceeding through the nomination and vetting process; I imagine that if Congress were controlled by the opposite party, even the bipartisan spirit supposedly sweeping Washington would not be enough to enable things to proceed this quickly.

Diet books

U.S. Food Policy is not the best place to find diet books. More commonly, we discuss what's wrong with diet books. The number one reason we do not have advertising in the margin -- ranking more important than our internal sense of nonprofit virtue -- is that most Google ads for our content would probably be for diet programs.

Still, I enjoyed reading Jane Brody's surprisingly upbeat summary of the field this December.

But I’m happy to say that there has been a tremendous improvement in recent years in the crop of weight loss guides. Most have been written by research scientists who avoid gimmicks and boring, overly restrictive or quick weight-loss schemes that are bound to fail. Instead, their recommendations are based on sound studies and clinical trials that have yielded a better understanding of what prompts us to eat more calories than we need and, in particular, more calories from the wrong kinds of foods.

Among the books Brody favors are: The Volumetrics Eating Plan, by Barbara Rolls; Ending the Food Fight (Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food / Fake Food World), by David Ludwig; and The Instinct Diet, by my faculty colleague Sue Roberts. If U.S. food policy were designed by Sue, I can tell you the food system would be a different place (!), with a pricing structure that favored fruits and vegetables across the board and many other changes as well.

U.S. Food Policy blog makes "Best Health Policy 100"

Radio Technician Schools has released The Health Policy 100: The 100 Best Health Care Policy Blogs. The categories range from general health care blogs, regulation, ethics, finance and the economy, public health, technology, health conditions, global health, law, access and insurance.

U.S. Food Policy was categorized as Environment and Food along with Environmental Health News, Clean Water, EnviroWonk, Farm Policy, Impact Analysis, Safe Foods Blog, eFoodAlert, Not In My Food and BarfBlog.

If you would like to put a U.S. Food Policy widget on your webpage or blog you can get one here.

Manga Series - Naruto Chapter 380

Title: That Face... !!!

Chapter: Naruto Chapter 380

Category: Naruto, Manga Series, Naruto English, Naruto Indonesian, Naruto Shippuden

Download Link:


* English Version

- Naruto 380 01-08 English
- Naruto 380 09-16 English

* Indonesian Version

- Naruto 380 01-16 Indonesian



NOTE:
- Use WinZip/WinRar/IZArc to extracting the file
- Enjoy reading with Acrobat Reader or FoxIt Reader

SNAP benefits and food spending in stores and restaurants

Food benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) expand household grocery spending for low-income families. This seems obvious, because the nation's largest food assistance program, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program, provides targeted food benefits that legally may only be spent at authorized retailers such as grocery stores.

But, what is the effect of SNAP benefits on food spending at restaurants? This is less obvious, because the food benefits may not be spent in restaurants. Benefits could increase restaurant spending by increasing total resources, or the benefits could suppress restaurant spending by substituting grocery food for restaurant food.

In a recent study in the American Journal of Agricultural Economics (AJAE), my colleagues Bea Rogers, Lisa Troy, and I estimated "Engel functions," which show how food spending responds to increased total household resources for food stamp participants and non-participants.

The most interesting finding is that food stamps appear to raise food spending on groceries ("at home" food spending), while perhaps suppressing food spending in restaurants ("away from home" food spending).

This graph shows "at home" food spending (on the vertical axis) as a function of total income including food stamps plus cash income (on the horizontal axis), for single-parent households. Food stamp participants (the shorter line) have greater at home food spending than non-participants (the longer line), even holding constant total income. The upward slope of each line shows how food spending increases as total income rises.

The next graph, by contrast, shows that away from home (restaurant) food spending is lower for participants than for seemingly similar non-participants.

This pattern may have nutritional implications, because past research has shown that restaurant foods contain on average comparatively more of the nutrients (such as salt and saturated fat) that Americans are advised to consume less frequently or in smaller quantities.

Related research, including similar results for household food security outcomes, is available in a report from USDA's Economic Research Service.

My Recipe contribution to BloggerAid CookBook: Eggplant Mousse with Butifarra negra

My friends Val, Ivy and Giz at BloggerAid are such fantastic and generous people! They are assembling a Cookbook to help ease the world's hunger!!!!

In Ivy's words: we will be publishing a cookbook with 100% of the profit from sales being directed to our chosen agency. The funds we raise will be directed to specific programs of The World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations frontline agency. The needs are great and choosing a specific effort is currently being negotiated.

Who will contribute to this cookbook?
YOU!!!!

The cookbook is targeted for sale on Amazon by November/December 2009. There is a great deal of work involved in delivering this project and we will rely on you to help in any way you can. We will keep you informed every step of the way on Bloggeraid !!!!

I want to collaborate!!! Do you want to join too? Head to Ivy's blog for more info.

I chose an appetizer with basic ingredients and easy recipe instructions. This is one of the dishes I had in my table during the Christmas holidays and it was an absolute hit!!!! I cannot publish the recipe here because it can only be shown in the Cookbook, but I will tell you that it has eggplant, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt and butifarra negra... Mmmmm. Remember to buy the book next Nov/Dec 2009 and get all kinds of gorgeous recipes!!! I'm getting mine reserved ;D

All ingredients can be found all over the world except the Butifarra negra that is a traditional Catalan pork blood sausage, but you can substitute it for something similar typical from your country.

I hope that the Cookbook will be a great success and we will contribute in making this world a better place to live :D
On a separate note, I'm trying to make my blog look nicer, but will take me some days to get things right... please, be patient... it will hopefully be for good! Año Nuevo, Vida Nueva! New Year, New Life!