Why your food will cost a lot more, starting soon

The weather. More than half the United States is in a drought right now. What had looked like a world record corn crop is now vanishing before our eyes; across the Plains, many farmers are plowing under what little they have left—not enough has been growing to pay for the cost of harvesting. US soybean crops are failing too—on foreign exchanges, the price of soy is nearing record highs.

The biggest reason for this is drought; when drought is accompanied by drastic temperatures, as it has been, things get worse. For many of our typical crop plants, when the mercury climbs, photosynthesis can slow and even stop. That means the plant is dying. Continue reading “Why your food will cost a lot more, starting soon” →

Small Bites: 5 cool grilling tools and celebrating LGBT Pride Month in the kitchen

Five cool tools for summer cookouts and honoring the contributions of gay and lesbian chefs for LGBT Pride Month are subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

A fun, exhausting weekend road trip and a surprisingly debilitating summer cold are conspiring to keep me out of the kitchen this week. I’ll return next week with a recipe.

Grilling equipment used to consist of a fire and a sharp stick. Or maybe two sharp sticks, so you could use one to protect your meal from a saber-toothed tiger. Things have certainly evolved since then. Our tandem loves of grilling and of gadgets have converged to create a dazzling array of tools and accessories for outdoor cooking. Some come with a princely price tag—how many pizzas would you have to grill in your artisan fire pizza oven to amortize its $6,500 cost? Others are just, well, silly. Do you seriously need your grill thermometer to alert your smartphone when the steaks are done? Continue reading “Small Bites: 5 cool grilling tools and celebrating LGBT Pride Month in the kitchen” →

Small Bites: Honoring a father/son chef team for Father’s Day and embracing kitchen contraptions

The award-winning father-and-son chefs Michael and David Cordúa and wonderfully weird kitchen gadgets are subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

Having Esquire magazine call your first restaurant one of America’s best new restaurants is no small feat. Having them follow that by naming your second place the “Restaurant of the Year” means you really must be doing something right. Chef Michael Cordúa definitely is. The Nicaraguan-born, self-taught chef and restaurateur is credited with introducing Americans to upscale, inventive Latin cuisine. Through his growing group of award-winning restaurants in Houston, he is expanding our palates as he explores the diverse culinary cultures of the Americas. Continue reading “Small Bites: Honoring a father/son chef team for Father’s Day and embracing kitchen contraptions” →

Small Bites: Drinking (and dining) with dinos and artisanal ice cream goes big

Wine Enthusiast invades the Field Museum this Friday night with 500 wines and 45 restaurants for Toast of the Town 2012. And on the USA Character Approved Blog, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams keeps growing, but keeps it real.

We are serious museum geeks. Marion refers to the Field Museum’s annual Members Night event as “the happiest night of the year.” Not only do you get to go behind the scenes, talk to real scientists and poke around in their offices—you can do it with a drink in your hand. So when Wine Enthusiast asked us if we’d like to attend Toast of the Town Chicago at the Field, with 500 wines from nearly 60 wineries and foods from more than 45 restaurants, well, let’s just say we were excited. Continue reading “Small Bites: Drinking (and dining) with dinos and artisanal ice cream goes big” →

Small Bites: New York ate my homework and playing Character Approved catch-up

Two sisters fighting cancer with cupcakes and a mother/daughter chef team are the subjects of recent USA Network Character Approved Blog posts.

We just spent four amazing days in New York City, eating, drinking, seeing tons of art, hanging out with friends and walking, walking, walking. Totally fun, totally exhausting. So despite my best intentions of having a recipe based on those experiences to share now, I just couldn’t get it together. Instead, I’m going to catch up with a couple of posts I’ve written recently for USA Network’s Character Approved Blog. I promise to have a recipe again next week.

Eating cupcakes is always a good thing. And when you can say you’re fighting cancer by doing it, so much the better. Cupcakes for Courage is a Chicago-based food truck that donates a portion of its proceeds to support cancer research and Ride Janie Ride, a foundation that helps individuals struggling with the financial burden of cancer treatment. Continue reading “Small Bites: New York ate my homework and playing Character Approved catch-up” →

Small Bites: Seamless launches iPad app and Chef José Andrés takes to the streets

An iPad app that makes ordering restaurant deliveries seamless and a new food truck from an award-winning chef are the subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

When it comes to ordering in, I am a Luddite. Menus stuck to the fridge with magnets and the Google are my go-tos. Programming our neighborhood Chinese place and The Brown Sack into my cell phone was a technological breakthrough for me. So imagine my excitement, skepticism and trepidations when I ordered dinner on an iPad recently. Continue reading “Small Bites: Seamless launches iPad app and Chef José Andrés takes to the streets” →

Small Bites: Growing new farmers and the Beard Foundation celebrates the “Best of the Best”

Stone Barns Center’s efforts to mentor young farmers and a new cookbook celebrating winners of the James Beard Foundation’s annual Outstanding Chef Award are the subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

How you gonna keep them down on the farm? As America’s population of farmers ages, this question is keeping some food producers—and consumers—awake nights. The average age of American farmers is now 57. In Medium Raw, Anthony Bourdain makes the point that even if we “bring monstrously evil agribusinesses” to their knees and free up “vast tracts of arable land for small, seasonal, sustainable farming,” we don’t have enough people actually willing to farm. The Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is working to change that. Continue reading “Small Bites: Growing new farmers and the Beard Foundation celebrates the “Best of the Best”” →

Small Bites: Fight climate change in the dark and alternative spring breaks

Turn out the lights this Saturday night for Earth Hour. And students spending their spring breaks fighting hunger and supporting sustainable food are the subject of my latest USA Character Approved Blog post.

In 2007, 2.2 million people and more than 2,000 businesses in Sydney, Australia turned off their lights for one hour, marking the first Earth Hour. Last year, more than 5,200 cities and towns in 135 countries worldwide switched off their lights, sending a powerful message for action on climate change. It also marked the start of something new—going Beyond the Hour to commit to lasting action on climate change.

Earth Hour is organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the world’s largest and most respected independent conservation organizations. WWF’s mission is to stop the degradation of the Earth’s natural environment and encourage people to live in harmony with nature. Continue reading “Small Bites: Fight climate change in the dark and alternative spring breaks” →

Small Bites: Pressure cookers rehabilitated and a fruitful life in food

Modern, non-exploding (and even programmable) pressure cookers and celebrating Women’s History Month with the woman who launched Julia Child’s career are the subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

My mom had a pressure cooker. She loved it. But for the rest of us, it was kind of like having Mt. Vesuvius in your kitchen. You didn’t know when it was going to blow, but you knew it would be bad. More than once, I remember my mom cleaning stew or pot roast or something off the kitchen ceiling. She took it in stride. Mom took lots of stuff in stride, as I recall.

Still, I have to think she’d love the new generation of pressure cookers. They’re just as efficient at cooking foods up to 70 percent faster and don’t involve as much potential drama. Find out more about these classic timesavers made safe in my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog. Continue reading “Small Bites: Pressure cookers rehabilitated and a fruitful life in food” →

Black History Month: Two chefs trade restaurant kitchens for activism

As Black History Month draws to a close, two chefs who’ve taken very different career paths—one trying to turn at-risk youth around, the other trying to turn nutritionally at-risk communities around—are subjects of recent USA Character Approved Blog posts.

Many chefs are exposed to cooking and what will become their careers in their mother’s or grandmother’s kitchens. For Jeff Henderson, it was a prison kitchen. He was serving a ten-year sentence for drug trafficking and was assigned to kitchen duty as punishment. That punishment turned his life around. He quickly discovered a passion for cooking and developed a head for business.

Upon his release from prison, Henderson talked his way into a dishwashing job in the new Los Angeles restaurant of a prominent African American chef. From there, he eventually worked his way up to Chef de Cuisine for the restaurants of Caesar’s Palace. Then he walked away from it all. Continue reading “Black History Month: Two chefs trade restaurant kitchens for activism” →