Oh SNAP!, or Failures in Feeding America's Poor

Good commentary and horrific visuals of Before and After purchasing power of Food Stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program with the deceptively cute acronym SNAP.  Not only are their too few calories, too many of what's there are white rice and white potatoes, which manage to be filling, and maybe even fattening, but not nutritious.

As John Cole says, these rations would drive a person to sell them for liquor and cigarettes instead.

Me and Harold McGee

Nobody beats Harold McGee on the science of cooking--his On Food and Cooking is a must have for anyone who is a serious cook.

How wonderful that he has a new book!  Here's a teaser interview.

Lazy Yakatori Steak

I defrosted a beautiful 1 3/4 lb. sirloin that I got on sale at Whole Foods for $6.99 a pound.  I found this easy recipe for Yakatori Steak so that I could get one more go on the grill before it gets too cold, which I decided to make even easier by using red wine vinegar instead of lemon juice to save a step and not cubing or slicing up the steak to thread on skewers.  Lazy! 

With it I will grill salt and vinegar potatoes and local eggplant that I bought yesterday at Sonnewald.  I'm very excited to get a chance to make the potatoes, though of course rice is the obvious (and lazier) accompaniment to the steak.  La!

A Winning Recipe: Tortilla Espagnola

(Updated: I was too busy last week to make this, get the photo, and submit it to NYT, but it's still a winner.  I wrote this post on 9/20.)

The NYT Well Blog is putting together a round-up of readers' potluck recipes and photos, deadline 24 September.  I at first felt like I had nothing to submit, but my friends reminded me that very few recipes are truly original--we're all vamping on someone else's idea.  Besides, the entry form asks for the source--hurray for such explicit protection of intellectual property!

I first thought I'd go with a tart, since I have been the Queen of Tarts this summer.  They are impressive--edible at any temperature and with crusts that often permit them to become finger food, which is something of a win.  But I hesitated, because my tarts are seasonal, and I felt a winning recipe should be for all seasons.

And then I remembered Epicurious's Tortilla Espagnola, which I revised pretty heavily and with great success for preparation in my iron skillet.  Not only is it even more of a finger food than tarts, it creates more individual bits, tastes best at room temperature, and is a very easy prep that leaves you with lovely flavored olive oil to use when you cook.  A win!

Found Food: Roasted Squash Seeds

While I am perfectly happy to compost my food scraps and reuse them that way, the best foods are those that have further edible iterations.  The kuri squash that I used to make the Spiced Kuri Squash and Chicken Stew yielded some plump, beautiful seeds that begged to be roasted.  Since these will be higher calorie and a huge temptation, I'm taking them to a neighbor's tonight along with a bottle of Portguese wine.

Roasted Squash Seeds
Makes 2 cups

Seeds from a winter squash such as Kuri
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon kosher or fine sea salt
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1)  Take seeds scooped from squash and rinse in colander to get rid of as much squash fiber and meat as possible.  Spread on baking tray and dry out.

2)  Preheat oven to 375 F.

3)  Place seeds in a mixing bowl.  Add oil and stir.  Add spices (improvising as necessary or desired) and stir.  Spread seeds evenly on baking sheet.

4) Place baking sheet full of seeds in oven and bake 20-30 minutes or until seeds begin to brown.  Adjust salt as desired.

Why Won't Americans Eat Their Veggies?

The NYT just published this interesting article about how Americans, despite all efforts to convince them otherwise, refuse to eat their vegetables (I combine the exception categories in one curved swoop: an older, well-educated, better-paid woman).

This fascinates me on a purely rhetorical level: here we have serious efforts of persuasion that fail, and fail again, and then fail some more.  I am also delighted by the Rockin' Baby Carrot Campaign, though I think reimagining baby carrots as junk food is probably NOT the wisest decision.  But who knows what works with kids these days? 

The two points that stand out for me beyond all the whining excuses are these: vegetables are expensive, and they require work to integrate them into a meal.  If we want more Americans to eat veggies, we first need to make them cheaper--rather than subsidizing processed foods that at once fatten us while starving us of vital nutrients, we should apply those subsidies to make vegetables cheaper (and the logical first place to start this is Food Stamps).  I really think that's the quickest and best fix.  But it'd also be good to teach America's children more about good eating habits--there is a clarity of mind in young people, who see things in Black and White, that makes them amenable to clear arguments about healthy choices, and they would take this propaganda home with them (childless that I am, I might be romanticizing America's youth--still, I have seen 9-year-olds that are remarkably receptive to anti-smoking arguments, for instance).  In the longterm, these children would also have the education about food to make better choices and avoid fad diets--this could be a comprehensive win.

All of this is fantasy territory, however.  The corporate food producers fattened and fed by subsidies will never let Congress make such a change, and even I can see that America's education system needs other fixes first, as we slide ever lower in reading and math.

Ikea's New Cookbook: Delightful, Delicious, Delovely

I am still swooning over the clever visuals in this cookbook. *want*  (h/t David Lebovitz)