Monkeyfister

Excellent film that needs wide circulation and viewing.

via Mother Earth News

You may have heard that the popular documentary Food, Inc. is now available on DVD. (Get your copy at Hungry for Change.) But if you haven't seen the award-winning movie yet, now is your chance to see the movie for free. PBS will be airing Food, Inc. tonight (Wednesday, April 21) at 9 p.m. EST in honor of Earth Day. Find information about your local broadcast here.

Directed by Robert Kenner and co-produced by renowned investigative journalist Eric Schlosser, Food, Inc. takes a critical look at the hidden truths of America's food industry, examining complex issues such as the corporate control of the food supply, consumer and worker health and safety issues, and the environmental repurcussions of our industrial food system.

We applaud the message of this important film, and encourage you to check it out!

More at the link.


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Labels: Control The Food- Control The People, Corporatocracy, Food

In between chores, I am enjoying my favorite Bloody Mary recipe. It's my own concoction, arrived at after years of experimentation.

While Active Duty Navy, I was stationed at Ft. Belvoir at Mt. Vernon, VA. Across from the Main Gate was a joint called the Polo Grill, it was sorta upscale without being snooty about it. On Sundays, they had this marvelous Bloody Mary and breakfast buffet. You'd buy the vodka of your choice by the shot, and then they had EVERYTHING you'd every imagine putting into a Bloody Mary. There was always much spirited discussion and recipe swapping at that looooong table.

Here's my ultimate favorite final, personal recipe.

In a 16 ounce glass, combine:

-- 4 shots vodka ( I use Sobieski vodka. New on the market, it is very good, priced at a surprisingly cheap $20.00 per half gallon. I remember when Ketel One was new, too.)
-- Juice of 1/4 lemon
-- A hearty dash of Worcestershire Sauce
-- Two not-so-vigorous dashes of the Tabasco-style Hot Sauce of your choice. Might want to add to taste at the last before garnish.
-- 4 solid shakes of ground celery seed
-- 6 rotations on your fresh Black Pepper grinder

Leaving room for ice, fill remainder of glass 2/3 with Clamato juice, and 1/3 (~ a little can's worth) with V8 Spicy.

Stir.

Top with ice.

Garnish with Kosher dill pickle spear, or celery heart stalk... I do both, and also alternate, and keep them with every refill, and munch them all in the end. I prefer the dill pickle, though. The two here in my glass right now, with the celery, I grew and pickled myself-- makes it all the better! The Clamato only adds a bit of sensuality to ther flavor-- this drink doesn't taste of clams first... You don't even really note the Clam flavour.

YUM!

I hope you also find this recipe as good as I do.

Now, I know there are those who insist that if a Bloody Mary uses Clam juice, it is a "Bloody Caesar," but phhhhhht to all that. This here is a Bloody Monkey... It could have been called The Bloody Fister, or The Bloody Fister Augustus, so, perhaps Bloody Monkey is the best choice for polite company.

Tonight's dinner:

-- Garden-harvested Rosemary Roasted Cornish Game Hen with Basmati Rice, Herbs, Giblets, and Homegrown Oyster Mushrooms Dressing.
-- Fresh-Harvested Roasted Potatoes, Turnips, Onions and Carrots.
-- Garden-Harvested Endive salad, rescue-ripened "Monkeyfister's Marvel" Tomatoes, Garden Onions, Carrots and Herbs.
-- Spiced Apples and Pears with Pomegranate over Vanilla Ice Cream.

This time of year, my garden set-up fucking ROCKS! Everything is thriving under the hooped "mini-greenhouses" of my Wintergarden beds. It makes the cooking of serious comfort food a really easy deal. Just go out and pull up and snip what is needed.

Next year is going to suck more than this year has... I STRONGLY recommend that you book in your community garden space, negotiate some garden space and crop-sharing deals with your neighbors, or start planning your backyard or container gardens NOW.

2009 was a bad year for food crop seed producers, and stocks are, again, limited.

This weekend, I got my seed-starting closet all cleaned out, and ready to roll. Lights are ready, Flats are full of soil, ready for seeds and water come New Year.

Cut back the Asparagus, which has finally relented to the deep frosts. Just counting the dozens of new stalks produced this year, those beautiful Asparagi are going to force me to freeze dozens and dozens of young spears next Spring. I am SO DAMNED EXCITED! I mean that of the 30 crowns that I have planted, every crown produced on average 34 stalks, once I left off Spring harvest. The fall after planting, there were ~12 stalks per crown. I am going to drown in Asparagus come the Spring, and I cannot WAIT!

I ripped up this weekend, and need to replant the Strawberries this Spring... Three years on, and it is time to start over. Good thing that I am re-doing, and doubling the depth of the Strawberry/Asparagus bed this Winter! Perfect timing-- and it is all in the timing.

Back on the Bloody Mary track-- My jag has ultimately encouraged me to eat an entire stalk of celery between drinks, snacks and meals, today.

OK. Laundry and more cooking is calling.



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Labels: Alcohol Drinks, Community Gardening, Food, Gardening Like Your Life Depended On It, Recipes

... and a bunch of simple how-tos for a lot of basic preservation methods for the harvest.

Well. I really didn't think that the sudden return to hotter, more normal weather for this time of year, here in the Mid-South, would bring on yet another flush of peppers so quickly, but, as you can see, I presumed wrongly:



Last week, I had twice this many. The bunch pictured above were just blossoms, or little, tiny pinkey-sized things. A little rain, and then the heat really brought them on.

The Cayenne Peppers are in the dehydrator right now, where they will stay for 24 hours. I'm going to infuse some Olive Oil with some of them, and will grind the rest in a coffee grinder devoted to this purpose. If you grind your dried Cayenne Peppers, be SURE to wear some gloves, and a face mask, and DO NOT open the grinder immediately. Let the powder rest and settle for a while. I wear safety goggles as well. There is nothing worse than getting an eyeful of Cayenne dust. Handle ANY hot pepper with care-- and don't touch your face, or any other sensitive body part without thoroughly washing your hands first! I wash twice with soap, and then soak my fingers in vinegar or lemon juice after handling them.

Half of the Jalapenos, I am going to chop into rings, blanch for 2 minutes, spread out on a parchment-lined tray, and freeze to use later in salsa, chili, or whatever. I'm going dice and do the same thing with those little Bell Peppers. The rest of the Jalapenos I am going to pickle along with all the others, and I am going to take a guess that I'll get close to ten quarts put up. I've got plenty for the Winter, now!

Below is the growing Maitake Mushroom patch from Fungi Perfecti. It's sitting in my spare bathroom, and doing incredibly well!


I also have a big pile of beans to freeze (soaking in ice water right now), and a bunch more of my Monkeyfister's Marvel Tomatoes to process in one way or another. I think I might can some more hot salsa since I have so many Jalapenos.

One last fun thing before getting back to teh kitchen... I harvested my three giant Sunflowers today! They are on the kitchen table each in a linen flour bag that I bought at a local store. When they are dry, I'll flip them over into the bags, and shake, twist and tickle the seeds out; winnow the seeds from the other flowery bits; soak the seeds in a brine of 1/4 cup kosher salt to 1 quart of water over night, and then them for about three hours at 225-degrees for a tasty snack through the fall. Each flower is about 18" across, and there are a LOT of seeds per flower.

Plenty to do. Plenty to do.

UPDATE-- After five hours in the kitchen, I now have: Three quart bags of frozen Jalapeno rings, seven quarts of mixed pickled Hungarian/Sweet Bananas, and two quarts of pickled Jalapenos. No salsa. I'm wrung out. Time to do some laundry and watch Heroes on iTunes. Tomorrow, I'll freeze those Tomatoes, and infuse some Olive Oil for Christmas gifts.



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Labels: Food, Food Preservation, Food Security, Freezing Food, Gardening, Pickled Peppers, Sunflower Seeds

I like to make cukes and sour cream or cukes and yogurt, with dill, onion and a bit of vinegar, but yesterday, I was looking for something a bit different.

via Cooks.com

WHITE GAZPACHO

2 c. peeled, diced cucumber
1 sm. clove garlic
1/2 c. parsley
2 tbsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 c. yogurt
1/2 c. sour cream

Combine cucumber, garlic, parsley, salt and vinegar in blender and blend until smooth. Stir in yogurt and sour cream until evenly mixed. Chill and serve. May be garnished with chopped tomato or red pepper.

To be honest, I don't usually make any type of Gazpacho into the blender, as I like a little something to chew. I just chopped everything up really, really fine, mixed it up, and chilled it. This is a wonderfully tasty and refreshing side.

Tonight's Dinner:
-- Grilled Local Grass-Grazed Beef Kabobs with Peppers and Onion from the garden
-- Baby Potatoes, Yellow Squash and a Giant Garden Mushroom (surprise to me tonight!) wrapped in foil and grilled with Butter and Parsley
-- White Gazpacho
-- Sliced Fresh Tomato
-- Homebrewed, draft Amber Ale

I LOVE garden harvest time!

So, lay your favorite Summer recipe on me, and share it in comments!



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Labels: Easy Recipes, Food, Recipes

I've gotten quite hooked on Black-Eyed Pea Fritters. I got the recipe via Little House In The Suburbs, and I promise you that it is cheap, easy, versatile and absolutely delicious.

First, let me tell you that I am NOT the guy to sit down to a plate of Black-Eyed Peas, but, made into this recipe, I have become a huuuuge fan. I have also made them with cooked Purple-Hull Peas, and Crowder Peas now, and each is equally delicious.

Try adding some Parsley, Garlic and Cumin, perhaps some Lemon zest or juice, and maybe a sprig of Mint. I've had them in these ways, and the super-fresh Mediterranean flavor really is tasty! Alongside some sliced Tomato, Cukes and Spring Onions... Oh, wow! From pulling out the food processor, to done-- ~10 minutes.


Click the link for the simple recipe!


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Labels: Food, Recipes

Europe has just rescinded a gaggle of really stupid laws that determined appearance standards for "salable" fruits and vegetables. Now, even "ugly" veggies will make it to the marketplace. More people will be fed, and less food will needlessly wasted. Good on ya, Europe-- 'bout time.

Psssst-- America-- you're on warning.

via NPR

All Things Considered, June 30, 2009 · Bendy cucumbers, knobbly carrots, puny cauliflowers and naked onions are among 26 misshapen fruits and vegetables that will make their way to supermarkets Wednesday after the European Union rescinded a two-decade-old regulation in an attempt to end what it calls unnecessary marketing standards.

The Brussels-based EU has maintained that ugly produce is unworthy of the marketplace, and it has been throwing out nutritious but unsightly food.

Diana Henry, author of Pure Simple Cooking, food columnist for the Sunday Telegraph and host of her own TV cooking show, says she is "thrilled" with the new decision.

"I think it's great," Henry tells Robert Siegel. "I'm just sorry that they've taken regulations away from 26 fruits and vegetables, but there ... [are] still 10 that ... [are] going to be scrutinized.

"I would quite like it if they could also be ... de-regged."

Apples, citrus fruits, lettuce and bananas are among the fruits and vegetables still covered by the rules against misshapen produce.

"Bureaucrats are telling us what's a perfect peach, and I think that a perfect peach is actually a very elusive thing, and it doesn't always have to do with how it looks at all," Henry says.

More, plus the audio, at the link.


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Labels: Food, Food Security

Regular commenter and ol' friend, skip, turned me onto via Fungi Perfecti.

I had been curious about raising my own culinary mushrooms, and perhaps inoculating my garden beds with some. So I was pleased to find a three-month "Mushroom of the Month" subscription for $70.00 at the site.

Month 1: The Shiitake Mushroom Patch™
Month 2: The Pearl Oyster Mushroom Patch™
Month 3: The Maitake Mushroom Patch™

So, I plunked down the cash, and Monday afternoon, the first cube was waiting at my door. I scooped up a five-gallon bucket full of snow, and brought it in to melt down. Yesterday, I put the cube into the water to soak for 24 hours, and now, it is on a plate with its humidity bag over it. Hopefully, in a week or two, I'll have a nice bloom of Shiitake mushrooms to harvest. The instructions say that it will bloom every two weeks or so, for sixteen weeks, and then I should bury it in the garden to inoculate the garden. It's the gift that will keep on giving... I hope!

Meanwhile, I just took a trip out to the garden beds. Even though I have a huge pine branch over one of the beds, the Spinach, Strawberries and Garlic all survived the cold. I'll be ready to put in the Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Brussels, and a few other cold crops on Saturday. I have a couple of loads of compost set for delivery to the very large Corn patch in the back meadow, which I'll have to spread around.

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Labels: Food, Grow Your Own

NPR runs a regular piece called, "This I Believe," where people write in about their personal beliefs and experiences.

This particular piece was so sweet, that I had to pull off the road on my way home from work tonight because I got a bit teary. What an awesome thing. Click the link and listen to the short piece, as told by the author, Jim Haynes.

via NPR.org

All Things Considered, January 12, 2009 · Every week for the past 30 years, I've hosted a Sunday dinner in my home in Paris. People, including total strangers, call or e-mail to book a spot. I hold the salon in my atelier, which used to be a sculpture studio. The first 50 or 60 people who call may come, and twice that many when the weather is nice and we can overflow into the garden.

Every Sunday a different friend prepares a feast. Last week it was a philosophy student from Lisbon, and next week a dear friend from London will cook.

People from all corners of the world come to break bread together, to meet, to talk, connect and often become friends. All ages, nationalities, races, professions gather here, and since there is no organized seating, the opportunity for mingling couldn't be better. I love the randomness.

I believe in introducing people to people.

Here is why I got all misty:

When I was unemployed, living in Saginaw, Michigan post 9/11, I lived on the fourth floor of a five-story apartment building. We had a loooong, central interior hallway. I lived at the very end, and always kept my door open so the cats (they were just kittens then) could run up and down the hallway, and get some exercise, and to also let friends know that I was home and accepting company.

As so many of the people in the building were also on hard times, my neighbors, Angela, Pete and decided to start doing some communal cooking amongst ourselves. Friends would come by, and we'd, of course, invite them to eat with us. Before too long, we were throwing pot-luck dinners for the floor. The only requirements were that the dish had to be an old family traditional recipe, and the recipe had to accompany the dish. Pete is of Cajun descent, Angela is Polish, I'm Sicilian and Polish, we had two immigrant sisters from Mali on the floor, an Irish woman (whom I was hot for), and a wonderfully diverse assortment of other friendly people on the floor. We put out tables, and we opened our apartments, and twice a month, we all feasted and shared our food, families, and friendship.

In the early days of this, one-by-one, people on the floor would come out, about to complain about all the noise. We'd invite them to dinner and to be with us, and the next time, they, too brought a dish. Within three months, the entire apartment building was involved, over sixty apartments, and even the quiet women from Mali were opening their doors for our communal dinners. Even in the heart of some of the most dire fiscal times of my life, these dinners stand out as some of the finest moments.

There is truly something magical about sharing food, and taking the time to know your neighbors. I don't quite know how to get something like this started in my neighborhood right now, but I think that I am going to try and do something like this this Spring, when the Spring veggies are producing, and before it gets too hot. I think that it will prove to be a very good thing for my little community. The people are all friendly enough, it is just a matter of getting them all together.

I highly encourage you, dear reader, to give this a try. Breaking bread, sharing food, making friends, and creating a binding community will prove to be solid currency in the times to come.


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Labels: Food

I don't lay this out often at all. The last time I wrote this out was March, 2003. Those of you who know Pierogi know that Mrs. T's are a sad, sad excuse for Pierogi. I don't even call them Pierogi. I know better.

A Pierogi is a sort of Northern European Ravioli. The dough wrapping is thinner, and it is filled with any number of stuffings. Usually a Potato and Cheddar mixture, or a Kraut and Mushroom mixture. Some people add Sausage, anything works, really. I especially like the breakfast/dessert Pierogies, and I put an abbreviated filing recipe at the end of this long-ass post. Right now, I am going to show you how to make the two classic dinner Pierogi varieties.

This is a PERFECT recipe for a "Cooking Party." Invite a group of friends, four is a great number, and have some wine or vodka, and some appetizers on hand for a great time. This recipe is nearly impossible to make alone, and hard work for only two people. Back in the day, my family would all get together, a dozen family members-- four generations, two rooms, and two big tables to make hundreds and hundreds of Pierogies in the span of a whole day. My Brothers, Sister, and Cousins, My Parents and my Aunts and Uncles, some Great Aunts and Uncles, the Grandparents, and my Great Grandmother. Constant work and cooking until all of a sudden, it was time to FEAST!

These recipes came straight from Gdansk, Poland with my Great,Great,Grandmother (Mom's side) and have never changed for their goodness. The card that I'm getting this from is from my Grandmother, and I suppose her Mom wrote it for her (it's old and brittle, and I really need to laminate it, and also recopy it). I'm sort of doing that process here. This is a little 3"x5" card. Dough recipe on one side, Cream Cheese recipe on the other. Grandma wrote "soak prunes in rum," at the bottom the short list of possible fillings. It is assumed to use preserves. The rest is Family Tradition. Unchanged.

One thing, right from the start: LOTS of Butter, and LOTS of Sour Cream. When in doubt, MORE butter.

You start making the dough ONLY once all the fillings are cooked and cooled, and everything is laid out, and ready to go. Fill a BIG pot full of water and have it on the stove, a pound of butter softening. Once you start making the dough, the machine starts ticking away, and every minute counts, as the dough goes from crazy wet and sticky to crusty dry very quickly.

OK-- FIRST the fillings, which you need to make early in the day, or the day before.

I'll give you all two dinner recipes to start. It's all about that dough, though...

For a shopping list for both fillings (and dough) I do this:

--All-Purpose Flour
--3 pints Sour Cream (two for the dough, one for dinner)
--2 dozen Eggs (you'll probably have a few extra)
--3 lbs Butter (you'll end up with only a few sticks left)
--4 lbs Mushrooms-- Morels are the very finest and worth it, or go for the "wild" varieties-- Chantrelle, Shitake, etc, first... any work, but avoid the Portobello, it's too thick, dry and meaty.
--6 med. Onions
--5lb bag of Potatoes (you'll have some left)
--2 lbs extra sharp Cheddar Cheese
--1 quart of Milk
--2 Quarts of Sour Kraut
--cheese cloth (or an old, clean towel)
--Have an empty 28oz tomato tin (well washed) on hand from the recycle bin.

The day before you make the dough, and begin the assembly process, make one or both of these two classic filling recipes:

Potato and Cheese:

--Peel and make mashed potatoes-- enough for six for dinner. Cover when done. Set aside. Keep warm.
--In a large pan, saute two large onions in butter until translucent. Add salt and pepper to taste-- more pepper is more authentic. Add to Potatoes.
--Grate 1-1/2 lbs of extra sharp cheddar cheese fine. Add to Potatoes.
Mix together until cheese is melted evenly into potatoes. Put back on medium heat to help cheese melt into Potatoes if necessary.
Chill in fridge overnight... to firm it up and cool it.

Kraut and Mushroom:
This is much more complex to make the filling, and to stuff the Pierogies, but, damn, it is SO good and worth the time and effort.

--Chop four lbs of mushrooms VERY fine-- (when I lived in Michigan, I'd go out pickin' Morels in April-- if you live near Lansing, I can tell you where the motherlode is-- right in the middle of town at a disc golf park).
--Rinse 64 ounces of Sour Kraut in a sieve under running water for a long time to remove the sour. You'll know when that point is reached, just taste it from time to time.
--Put in an old towel (told you it was an old-world recipe) or several layers of cheesecloth, and twist to squeeze out as much water as humanly possible. You may have to open it up, fluff it, and re-twist several times to really do it right--best to do it in two batches. You will be surprised at the paltry amount of kraut you actually end up with-- the weight of Kraut is mostly water. Set aside when done.

Now for the cooking:

--Saute 3 medium sized, finely chopped onions and the mushrooms over medium-low heat in butter until tender. Add Butter as needed. DO NOT BROWN.
--Add Kraut.
--Toss until blended in pan
--Salt and pepper to taste
-- you'll be surprised at the lack of sour in that ol' kraut-- HONEST (I'm not one to just sit down to the bowl of kraut-- this is the only way I can eat it). Refrigerate this filling over-night.

You will go through LOTS of butter with this recipe-- Polish foods are NOT for dietetics, they are to survive long, cold brutal winters. And long, brutal Catholic fasting periods... It's time to get down to business...

Time to make the dough, it is ALL ABOUT THE DOUGH.

For the dough:

--2 Cups Sour Cream
--6 Egg Yolks (SAVE THE WHITES)
--1 tbs Butter
--A librul pinch of Kosher Salt (or just plain ol' salt, but just an 1/8-1/4 tsp or so) to help it stretch
--S L O W L Y sift in 4 cups Flour (add dashes of flour until you can actually work with it-- you DO NOT want it like a pie or pasta dough-- that's too firm-- when it's good, it will probably still stick (full lump) to your palm suspended upside down-- --knead well-- it will be very sticky, but hold in a lump. Cover with a bowl, allow to set for about 5 minutes.

To Assemble your Pierogis:

With a knife, slice off about a 1 inch thick piece of your dough-- you'll end up making two-three batches of the dough for all this damned filling you've made-- but with all the friends you've assembled to help you, you'll be thankful. Be sure to keep the remaining lump covered, as it gets dried out fast. And only make ONE lump at a time.

Knead and warm the dough in your hands one more time-- it's important to start it hand-warmed. On a well-floured surface and with a well-floured rolling pin, roll your dough out as absolutely thin as you can get it-- take your time-- it's sticky, and very elastic. You'll need to "warm" it up slowly through rolling it-- add small pinches of flour to the surface and pin as needed to keep the damned dough (you'll be saying that) from sticking-- but only a little at a time... Remember, this is NOT like a pie or pizza crust.

Now, as all Old-World recipes go, there is always one odd thing that you MUST have. I am being very exact here, and I mean VERY exact, the best cutter for your Pierogi is a 28 oz. Tomato can-- it's exactly the right size.

With your cutter, cookie-cut as many circles of dough as you can from the rolled out dough. Save all the rest, and work it back into the remaining lump. KEEP THAT REMAINING LUMP COVERED. Don't let it get dry and crusty.

Start with the potato filling-- it's easiest to learn with.

Grab about a 1-1/2 Tbs gob of filling in your hand... you'll get an idea how much is right after the first couple (about two knuckles worth). Wad it up neatly, a place it on the dough favoring one half-- leave a bit of edge showing. Don't Overstuff!!!

Use a brush to put a bit of egg white onto that exposed edge you've left-- this is gonna be like a glue. Fold the dough over the filling-- don't stretch the dough-- it will rip.

Pick it up, and pinch the edge closed between finger and thumb-- the pinching motion involves a bit of a rolling motion along with it. The key is you must not tear the dough, and the pinched seal must be SEALED. Make more dough only as needed-- you might assign a "dough-master" to keep abreast of the need to keep things going. As you finish a Pierogi, place it on a tray without touching any other Pierogies. Don't stack them-- they will stick together.

(pant, pant) Almost done...

Make all of your pierogies. Set aside flat-- do not stack-- on floured cookie trays or other firm, flat, moveable surfaces.

(Yes, this recipe is involved, but it is absolutely correct-- and you won't find a Buscia who will argue a single point.)

Have a pound of butter out to soften. Take two sticks and put them into a wide shallow dish or bowl, side-by-side.

When they are all pinched up and ready, put a large pot of water on to boil. Once the water is boiling, the magic starts.

Plop your Pierogies into the boiling water about a dozen at a time. Keep in the water until they float back to the top-- this is why they needed to be sealed-- they'd fall apart otherwise.

Scoop them out IMMEDIATELY as they rise to the surface with a slotted spoon or strainer. Now they are pre-cooked...

Dip or swipe them in the dish of softened butter, both sides--cover librully-- and place them back on trays to cool. When cool, put them in the freezer, making sure not to crush them, OR into zip-lock bags-- don't over stuff the bags-- 6 is perfect for a 1 QT freezer bag. Draw the air out and stack flat in the freezer. Of course you'll want to save some out to savor the fruits of your labour, as by now you are figuring out why you never see old Polish women smiling in those old pictures...

Put tonight's Pierogies in the fridge for a while to firm up, while you clean up, sip some quality Polish vodka, or some good wine to relax after your Pierogi ordeal. It's really a labour of love, as you will find out when you eat them. You'll also find out why you rarely see a thin, old Polish woman.

To Prepare For Supper:

Sautee onions in butter over gentle heat-- use plenty of butter, keep the heat gentle-medium. When onions start getting a bit soft, fry up your Pierogies-- don't rush, you've been patient this far-- cook until a bit golden brown, and slightly crispy, turning often. Serve with a plop of sour cream to dip them in, and some kielbasa.


Sides:
Whatever veggie you serve with them will be fine, but I recommend cooked beets, and some cold Northern European Style cukes w/sour cream and dill, salt/pepper, and green onion *or* cukes w/a mix of vinager/dill/pinch of salt-pepper and a dash of sugar and green onion. A bit of Pickled Herring in Sour Creme is always a plus for those of you on the East Coast! Make all sides the day before.

HOLY POPE ON A ROPE-- ARE THEY WORTH THE EFFORT!!! And with this GIANT recipe, you've not only got plenty in your fridge to get a good Catholic through Lent, but enough to give your hard-working friends a bag or two of each as a parting gift on the way out. All-tolled, if you do it right, this recipe will really only cost you about $40. If you make dough to use up all the filling, it comes out to under $1.00 per meal of six Pierogies (three of each, the mushrooms are the expense). They are VERY filling. You'll have DOZENS and DOZENS-- even AFTER giving so many away to your Cooking Party friends.

If the recipe wasn't good, I wouldn't have spent two and a half hours typing it out meticulously for you all. I put in a LOT of parentheticals and dashy-notes, but if you read it all first, and follow my side notes, you'll do great.

Honest-- they are work-- enlist close friends and family and it will be a blast!!!

Enjoy!!

Breakfast Pierogis:
The breakfast/dessert fillings will knock the best crepes on their butts for brunches/dinners. Your guests will praise you...

Basic filling recipe:

One block of Cream Cheese
1/4 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1 pound of your favorite Fruit Preserves-- I especially like Strawberry or
Raspberry/Blackberry. Other good ones are Apricot, Blueberry, and Prune,

Prunes should be chopped super-fine in a food processor (these days), and soaked in some clear Rum to re-constitute them, and then drained as above... Mix in some super-finely chopped walnuts while soaking, and ooooohhhhh MAN! Even the liquids retained from the draining are incredibly good. I just pour it into a glass and drink it.

Put into a triple wrap of cheese cloth, and tie VERY tightly, give it a twist until the preserves start squishing out, and then stop, untwist, and hang off of your kitchen sink faucet over a bowl for several hours until thoroughly drained of liquids. Find something to do with the liquids.

Blend thoroughly with a mixer until fluffy-ish. Put in fridge for an hour. Make Pierogies as above, without the onions.

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Labels: Food, Recipes

I took some of my ground Venison, and some ground Organic Black Angus from the farmer around the bend, and made some Golobke. More stocking-up, and using up the last of my Cabbages.

Core a large Cabbage (Savoy Cabbages are the best for this), and boil whole for about 20-minutes. In the same pot drop a bag of "10-minute-rice." Pull the rice out when cooked and let cool.

Meanwhile, take your ground meat, and mix thoroughly with a finely-diced onion, a hearty handful of chopped Parsley, Black Pepper, one Egg, add the Rice. Put it in the fridge to keep cool.

Preheat oven to 350-degrees.

When the Cabbage is steamed to tenderness, pull it out of the water, and let cool enough to handle.

Pull off individual Cabbage leaves, and lay out on a clean plate. Take a wad of meat mixture, and put it on the leaf. Fold the thick end of the leaf over the wad of meat, fold the sides of the leaf in, and roll it up. Put it in a large, deep oven cooking pan. Repeat until the meat and/or cabbage leaves are gone.

Take a can or two of Tomato Soup concentrate, and pour over the rolls. Take a 12-ounces of Spicy V-8, and pour it over. Add one soup can of Water. Add extra Parsley and some Black Pepper. Back in the old days, we'd stew some tomatoes with vegetable stock and some peppers, and then puree it-- the V-8 covers this, and provides all the salt necessary. Spoon liquids over Cabbages. Cover with parchment and some tin foil, and put in the oven for 65-minutes. After 65-minutes, pull them out, re-baste with liquid, reduce oven heat to 325-degrees, and cook another 30-minutes.

Side with some boiled Potatoes, drained, and finished with a dollop of butter, some Sour-Cream, Black Pepper and Parsley; Green Beans; and perhaps some Cukes with Sour-Cream, Onions, and Dill, with a dash of Cider Vinegar.

A Polish-style Winter feast.


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Labels: Easy Recipes, Food

Excellent presentation by Michael Pollan. I strongly recommend this book.




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Labels: Food, Permaculture

Hm. It's amazing that a group of middle school kids cannot identify Asparagus, but they sure know the McDonald's logo.

These are cullings from the documentary of the same name as this post's title. We've got to do better than this. Yeah, this is England, but I would venture that we're feeding our kids the same, if not worse here. I remember quite well my school lunch fair. I was always bummed out when I had to eat from the lunch line. My brown bag lunches were always better.

Part 1:


Part 2:



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Labels: Fast Food Nation, Food, Public Schools

Remember back in February, when I said the Food Bank shelves were pretty bare? It wasn't just a local anomaly.

via Tri-State Observer

According to the May 1, 2008 CCC inventory report there are o­nly 24.1 million bushels of wheat in inventory, so after this sale there will be o­nly 2.7 million bushels of wheat left the entire CCC inventory,” warned Matlack. “Our concern is not that we are using the remainder of our strategic grain reserves for humanitarian relief. AAM fully supports the action and all humanitarian food relief. Our concern is that the U.S. has nothing else in our emergency food pantry. There is no cheese, no butter, no dry milk powder, no grains or anything else left in reserve. The o­nly thing left in the entire CCC inventory will be 2.7 million bushels of wheat which is about enough wheat to make ½ of a loaf of bread for each of the 300 million people in America.”

The CCC is a federal government-owned and operated entity that was created to stabilize, support, and protect farm income and prices. CCC is also supposed to maintain balanced and adequate supplies of agricultural commodities and aids in their orderly distribution.

The winter wheat is finally browning-off around here, with about two-weeks until harvest as it dries. My questions are-- does the wheat shortage include the new crop? Has the winter wheat crop already been sold down? I certainly hope that's not the case. We need all the extra we can get right now.

Hat tip to Survival Acres

UPDATE: USDA Reports:

The 2008 wheat crop survived the winter in good condition. As of
late April, winter wheat conditions were rated 76 percent good to
excellent, 14 percent fair, and 10 percent poor to very poor. As of May 1, total winter wheat for grain production is forecast to be 20.4 million bushels in Wisconsin, an increase of 10 percent from 2007. State yield is currently forecast at 68 bushels per acres, down one bushel from last year.

The 300,000 acres to be harvested for grain this year is up 11 percent from last year. The increase in acres to be harvested more than offsets the lower yield forecast, resulting in the slightly higher production.

Nationally, winter wheat production is forecast at 1.78 billion bushels, up 17 percent from 2007. The expected area for harvest as grain or seed totals 40.2 million acres, up 12 percent from last year. Based on May 1 conditions, the U.S. yield is forecast at 44.3 bushels per acre, up 2.1 bushels from the previous year.

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Labels: Food, Food Security, wheat harvest

Dmitry Orlov lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union, and has been analyzing the differences between America's infrastructure, with the Soviet's system. He has a book coming out soon, called Reinventing Collapse.

In the essay excerpted below, he discusses how the Soviet people dealt with food, and compares it with how we Americans treat food. He has a wicked wry sense of humor.

via Club Orlov

Up to the middle of the 19th century, the Russian empire operated something vaguely analogous to the plantation system in the old South, with an ever more distant, French-speaking nobility presiding over a multitude of illiterate, Russian-speaking serfs. Based on a more humane serfdom rather than outright slavery, it bound peasants to the land, giving the landowner control over its use and nominal responsibility for their welfare. As the 19th century wore on, the imperial throne found the perpetuation of serfdom increasingly embarrassing to its international prestige as a leading European power, and so, in 1861, less than a month before the outbreak of the American Civil War, serfdom was abolished by imperial decree, without any bloodshed and without any serious detriment to agricultural production. Some peasants were gradually able to acquire their own land, and by the early 20th century the more fertile parts of Russia and the Ukraine had many prosperous farming families. Pre-Revolutionary Russia was, by all accounts, a well-fed place.

Then came the man-made disaster, known as collectivization, the results of which can be plainly visible to this day to anyone who travels through rural Russia and the surrounding lands. The epicenter of this disaster is central Russia, and the further out one travels — to the Baltic states or to Western Ukraine — the less one sees of its enduring devastation. It is as if a series of plagues had swept through the land, leaving poverty and desolation in its wake. Under the revolutionary slogan “All land to the people!” the prosperous farming families were labelled as the class enemy and persecuted. Grain, including seed grain, was confiscated to feed the starving cities. The result was starvation in the countryside and a collapsing rural population. In place of the prosperous family farms, collective farms were organized, once again binding peasants to the land, but without the benefit of the old church-bound feudal traditions. The introduction of mechanized farm machinery, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and “scientific” farming methods did little to forestall the disaster: the best farmers were either dead or had escaped to the cities. Despite much government effort and some wildly creative solutions, such as attempts at broadcasting seeds using rockets, agricultural production never fully recovered, because fixing the problem involved undoing collectivization and this was not politically advisable.

Another thing not politically advisable was neglecting to feed the people. In particular, all areas at all times had to be supplied with bread, which, more than any other staple, was symbolic of the covenant between the Communist government and the subservient masses. Bread riots, which could not be repressed and could only be quelled by a serendipitous delivery of bread, struck fear into the heart of every local Communist functionary. To make such a scenario unlikely, there were local food stockpiles in every city, stocked according to a government allocation scheme, and staples such as bread were almost always available. And while the quality of other government-supplied food was sometimes questionable, the bread was always excellent — a reflection of its symbolic importance. But the right to be fed did not necessarily extend beyond the basic carbohydrates, especially in the outlying areas. Moscow was always the best-supplied city, with Leningrad a distant second, while in many provincial towns the store shelves were mostly bare except for bread, vodka and a few varieties of canned foods, and whenever some scarce item, such as sausage, suddenly appeared, lines would instantly form until it was sold out. Shopping was rather labor intensive, and involved carrying heavy loads. Sometimes it resembled hunting — stalking that elusive piece of meat lurking behind some store counter.

Shortly before the Soviet Union’s collapse, it became known informally that the ten percent of farmland allocated to kitchen gardens (in meager tenth of a hectare plots) accounted for some 90 percent of domestic food production. During and after the economic collapse, with the government stores quite uncontaminated by food, and often closed altogether, these plots became lifesavers for many families. The summer of 1990 particularly stands out in my mind: it was the summer when we ate nothing but rice (imported), zucchini (grown by us) and fish (from a local lake, caught by some neighbors).

The dismal state of Soviet agriculture turned out to be paradoxically beneficial in fostering a kitchen garden economy, which helped Russians to survive the collapse. Russians always grew some of their own food, and scarcity of high-quality produce in the government stores kept the kitchen garden tradition going during even the more prosperous times of the 60s and the 70s. After the collapse, these kitchen gardens turned out to be lifesavers. What many Russians practiced, either through tradition or by trial and error, or sheer laziness, was in some ways akin to the new organic farming and permaculture techniques. Many productive plots in Russia look like a riot of herbs, vegetables, and flowers growing in wild profusion. In the waning years of the Soviet era, the kitchen garden economy continued to gain in importance. Beyond underscoring the gross inadequacies of Soviet-style command and control industrial agriculture, the success of the private kitchen gardens is indicative of a general fact: agriculture is far more efficient when it is carried out on a small scale, using manual labor.

More at the link.


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Labels: Collapse, Food, Food Security

FOOD!!!

Recipes, growing, canning, preserving, global food issues, everything food.

I'll be adding more to this new category in the next few days, as I sift through my many bookmarks for the good stuff.


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Labels: Food

Unrest is breaking out as a result.

And then the war... and the mass migrations and deep famines...

via Reuters

WASHINGTON/PARIS (Reuters) - Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers can't keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it's already boiling over.

Around the globe, people are protesting and governments are responding with often counterproductive controls on prices and exports -- a new politics of scarcity in which ensuring food supplies is becoming a major challenge for the 21st century.

Plundered by severe weather in producing countries and by a boom in demand from fast-developing nations, the world's wheat stocks are at 30-year lows. Grain prices have been on the rise for five years, ending decades of cheap food.

Drought, a declining dollar, a shift of investment money into commodities and use of farm land to grow fuel have all contributed to food woes. But population growth and the growing wealth of China and other emerging countries are likely to be more enduring factors.

World population is set to hit 9 billion by 2050, and most of the extra 2.5 billion people will live in the developing world. It is in these countries that the population is demanding dairy and meat, which require more land to produce.

"This is an additional setback for the world economy, at a time when we are already going through major turbulence. But the biggest drama is the impact of higher food prices on the poor," Angel Gurria, head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, or OECD, told Reuters.

In Gurria's native Mexico, tens of thousands took to the streets last year over the cost of tortillas, a national staple whose price rocketed in tandem with the price of corn (maize).

Global food prices, based on United Nations records, rose 35 percent in the year to the end of January, markedly accelerating an upturn that began, gently at first, in 2002. Since then, prices have risen 65 percent.

In 2007 alone, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization's world food index, dairy prices rose nearly 80 percent and grain 42 percent.

"The recent rise in global food commodity prices is more than just a short-term blip," British think tank Chatham House said in January. "Society will have to decide the value to be placed on food and how ... market forces can be reconciled with domestic policy objectives."

Many countries are already facing these choices.

Overshoot.

We're there.



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Labels: Food, Food Prices, Food Security, Food Wars

Holy shit.

via WKBT

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Spring wheat prices have been on the rise all winter -- smashing previous records.

At the Minneapolis Grain Exchange, trading rose to $19.80 a bushel yesterday -- nearly triple the record from 1996. Trading closed at $19.35 a bushel.

Grain experts say the wild increases are due to a fear that grain supplies won't keep up with rising demand. Poor wheat crops worldwide have left wheat supplies at a 60-year low.

The impact of that shortage has fueled a wave of uncertainty about everything from food price inflation to possible hunger in the developing world.

For decades, agriculture's great problem has been surplus, not scarcity. And farmers have faced low prices while consumers benefited.

Experts say this week's action in Minneapolis previews a different sort of marketplace.

Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, http://www.twincities.com

Not good at all.


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Labels: Food, Food Prices, Food Security, Lawns To Gardens

I've been advocating stocking up on food for a while now-- especially wheat and corn products. I myself, have been looking for a store of staples for camping and "just in case."

You all know that I am no whore for any product. But, I am thrifty, and look for the best deal around. I've spent the past month comparing prices and values, and when it comes to emergency and camping food, Survival Acres is the best deal around. John cares about your survival and needs, not, necessarily, a huge profit margin, as I found at plenty of other places for the same stuff.

Look folks, we're heading for a doozy of a long Depression, and when it comes to assets in hand, emergency food is a pretty good thing to have, along with some silver, if you've got nothing else. When the repo man shows up at your door, your food is not on his menu of things to seize. Neither are the silver coins in your pockets.

Before the shit hits the fan, and WalMart's everyday low prices hit the fucking roof, and you need to feed your family-- hell, even if you're an avid and regular camper-- I recommend that you write an email to our good friend John, at Survival Acres. I'm pretty set up, as a single guy, but still felt it a good idea to buy up a few months of long-storeable food stuffs for the potential really hard times, or storms that just might hit me. I've lived through 18 months of absolutely no work after Guilliani Day. I understand stretching everything. It's when I perfected my gardening techniques, and when I raised my own chickens and goats. Fortunately, I camp enough where I will use the food regardless of what happens.

I sent off an email stating what I might be interested in, and my needs as a camper, and received a wonderfully personalized email in return. John suggested items more fitting to my needs at an equal or better price. It is rare to get this kind of personal service on-line. We have a very caring friend At Survival Acres, and I do recommend him to each and every one of you interested in emergency and camping food supplies.

I don't take any money from him or his company, I just recognize goodness and quality when I see it, and when I see it, I like to pass it on to you. I put his banner in my Sidebar a year ago.

If you're looking for emergency or camping food or reliable water purification equipment, I recommend Survival Acres. Best service, attention and quality of product amongst a mind-boggling, expansive and expensive array of retailers. John's honesty, integrity and knowledge garnered him an Award this year for his inspirational and vital blogging, these types of qualities are things I hold in high esteem.

I will attest that you could do worse shopping for food elsewhere. I think that you will have a good experience with Survival Acres.


Tell him Monkeyfister sent you. It might grease the skids for you.



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Labels: Food

The grains and cereals outlook has taken a sizable turn for the worse this week. Prices are set to soar to the point where this is going to start tearing into the budgets of those who think themselves above worrying about their food. This is a MASSIVE Global Crisis, folks, and it's not going to stop at Ethiopia or Somalia-- this one is going to settle in right here in the US of A, and cause havok from the bottom of the social ladder right to the top.

via Bloomberg

Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Soybeans jumped to a record, corn reached an 11-year high and wheat rallied after U.S. government reports showed that production is failing to keep pace with rising global demand for food and biofuels.

The world soybean harvest will fall 6.5 percent this year, U.S. corn inventories will be 20 percent less than estimated a month ago, and wheat farmers in Kansas and Texas planted less even as the price of the grain doubled, the Department of Agriculture said in separate reports today.

Tighter supplies will boost the cost of feed for hog processor Smithfield Foods Inc. and poultry producer Pilgrim's Pride Corp. General Mills Inc., the second-biggest U.S. cereal- maker, said today it raised the price of Pillsbury refrigerated dough to offset higher wheat costs. Globally, food prices have doubled on average in the past five years, UN data show.

``We can't grow our way out of this grain-shortage hole,'' said Jim Gerlach, president of A/C Trading Inc. in Fowler, Indiana. ``We'll have to price our way out. I'm bullish until further notice. We'll see ups and downs, but the trend will remain higher.''

The U.S. is the world's biggest producer and exporter of corn and soybeans, and exports more wheat than any other nation.

Soybean futures for March delivery rose 38.5 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $12.9875 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade, after earlier reaching a record $13.1025. The last record was in 1973. Futures gained 78 percent last year, after U.S. farmers planted the fewest acres in 12 years and sowed the most corn since 1944.

---

Corn futures for March delivery rose the Chicago exchange's 20-cent daily limit, or 4.2 percent, at $4.95 a bushel, the highest for a most-active contract since June 1996. Prices have surged 44 percent in the past three months, even after the U.S. harvested a record crop.

Corn supplies on Aug. 31 will total 1.438 billion bushels, down from 1.797 billion forecast in December, the USDA said. The department also cut its estimate of the record 2007 harvest by 0.7 percent and said corn use in the first quarter of the marketing year rose 15 percent.

---

Wheat jumped 3 percent after a U.S. government report showed the country's farmers increased plantings of the winter crop by less than half of analysts' estimates.

Growers sowed 46.61 million acres of winter wheat from September through November, up 3.6 percent from a year earlier, the USDA said. Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expected a 7.8 percent gain, after prices doubled during the past year to a record. Planting fell in Kansas and Texas, the top wheat-growing states, with total hard-red wheat varieties declining 1 percent.

``I'm truly shocked that we couldn't even match last year's hard-red winter number with these prices,'' said Mike Zuzolo, the chief market analyst at Risk Management Commodities in Lafayette, Indiana. ``I've got to think that world buyers like Pakistan are going to now'' increase purchases, he said.

It truly is past time to worry about our food security. You'd best be stocking up on your breads and cereals right now, and seriously planning your gardens. This will only get worse.


FOOD IS NOT AUTO FUEL. Anyone who wants it to be is a total asshole. Want to fuel your car with ethanol? Move to your own farm, and raise and distill your own.



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Labels: Food, Food Prices, Food Security

I got this recipe, again, when I was a kid. My best and oldest friend, Jeff is Jewish, and his father made this very often.

16 ounces of Cream Cheese (warmed and softened)
8 ounces of Nova Lox Salmon
1/4 cup chopped green onion
1 TBS of Dill
Sea salt to taste

Put all ingredients into a food processor, and chop the hell out of it until it is nice and creamy. Scoop out of processor, and plotz into 3, 3" tart pans to mold. Chill for at least an hour. Un-mold onto a plate using a flexible spatula.

Spread on a nice, fresh, warm toasted bagel-- an onion bagel is highly recommended.

My gods-- it is SO good.

I'm treating my co-workers tomorrow-- I ordered up four dozen bagels from Zabar's-- express delivery. They re STILL fresher than that Zender's bullshit at the Kroger.

Some plain cream cheese, straight up Lox, and some organic butter...

I hope they appreciate the effort. It'll be a very Merry Christmas time breakfast feast for those that do.





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Labels: Food, Recipes