Healthy choices and the power of fun

We all know that healthy living includes not just eating right, but exercising too. And many of us try to cajole, bribe and browbeat ourselves [and sometimes, our loved ones] into “burning more calories than we consume.” This sensible balance is an easy concept to grasp, but not always so easy to live up to.

But what if we could make doing the right thing fun? Would we do it then? That’s the question The Fun Theory has set out to answer in a number of ways. In this charming video, you’ll see how they tested whether fun could motivate people to exercise a little more.

How do you motivate yourself to get more exercise? Do you have a secret for making it fun? Continue reading “Healthy choices and the power of fun” →

A quick taste of Toronto

domenics-fish-mkt

I don’t know if Toronto has an official tourism tagline, but maybe they should consider stealing IHOP’s: “Come hungry. Leave happy.”

On a recent visit, Marion and I did just that. I’ll get to the food in a moment, but first here’s how Canada’s largest city fed our urban souls. When we’re traveling, some of the things we look for in cities we visit are great museums [art and otherwise], active gallery and music scenes, cool shops, a diverse, lively street culture, walkability and, if possible, decent public transportation.

Toronto delivered on all counts. We parked our car at our downtown hotel and didn’t touch it again until we were headed back to Chicago days later. Much of what we wanted to do and see was walking distance, down streets that invited and encouraged walking. Continue reading “A quick taste of Toronto” →

“86 Hunger” with top Chicago chefs, winery turns garbage into great taste

Six Chicago chefs—including Rick Bayless—are teaming with with the Greater Chicago Food Depository to take hunger off the menu. You can join them. San Francisco’s tough composting laws are actually helping restaurants and winemakers.

west_town_tavern

The restaurant business is full of colorful terms. You only have to watch Hell’s Kitchen to hear some of the more colorful ones. Well, or hang around in my kitchen when things start to go wrong. But to “86” something lets the entire kitchen and restaurant staff know that a menu item is no longer available.

86-hunger-sm The Greater Chicago Food Depository wants to 86 Hunger: Take Hunger Off the Menu. To do it, they’re teaming up with six Chicago restaurants for a series of dinners in intimate settings, now through November 18. The series of dinners is being launched in a year when 35 percent more Chicagoans are turning to the Food Depository and its network of pantries, soup kitchens and shelters. Funds raised will benefit the Food Depository, which serves 500,000 men, women and children in Cook County every year.

Chef Rick Bayless kicks things off with a VIP event at his Frontera Grill on Wednesday, October 21. Dinner includes a visit to his home garden and a live cooking demonstration in the restaurant’s test kitchen. Continue reading ““86 Hunger” with top Chicago chefs, winery turns garbage into great taste” →

Blog Action Day 2009: Global warming and the meat of the matter

Nearly 10,000 bloggers around the world are taking part in Blog Action Day 2009, discussing this year’s topic, Global Warming, from the perspectives of their individual blogs. Here are my thoughts on meat’s giant carbon footprint.

Mae West once famously said, “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful!” Unfortunately, just about everywhere you look these days, the opposite is proving to be true. Take meat, for instance. America’s growing love affair with meat [and more recently, the developing world’s increasing infatuation with it] is having dire consequences for our health and the health of the planet.

How big is the world’s love of meat? In his 2008 article “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler,” New York Times food writer Mark Bittman said, “The world’s total meat supply was 71 million tons in 1961. In 2007, it was estimated to be 284 million tons. Per capita consumption has more than doubled over that period. [In the developing world, it rose twice as fast, doubling in the last 20 years.] World meat consumption is expected to double again by 2050.”

What makes these numbers so scary? Consider this. According to Livestock’s Long Shadow, Continue reading “Blog Action Day 2009: Global warming and the meat of the matter” →

Goodbye to an old friend: Gourmet folds

gourmets-final-issue

By now, probably everyone has heard that Gourmet magazine has published its last issue. Certainly, there has been plenty of coverage of the announcement in every medium out there. I don’t know that I have anything significant to add to the noise, but not saying anything at all just wouldn’t be right. Think of this post not so much as a full-fledged tribute, but more as a scribbled note, a bunch of flowers or perhaps a votive candle in a jam jar left at a makeshift memorial somewhere.

Gourmet was something I grew into gradually. As a fledgling semi-serious home cook, I found its—I don’t know, seriousness, I guess—more than a little daunting at first. But Marion loved it for that very reason. Her cooking chops were well established, and she appreciated that Gourmet’s recipes felt like real cooking. So it was that, for a time, we had his and hers subscriptions to both Bon Appétit and Gourmet. I pored over the former and merely glanced at the latter; Marion took exactly the opposite approach.

But as the months and the magazines piled up, I found myself lingering longer over Gourmet’s sumptuous photographs, studying recipes and finding them less daunting, more doable. And more interesting than a number of things I was cooking. Slowly but surely, I had become a fan. Continue reading “Goodbye to an old friend: Gourmet folds” →

Five exciting new [to me] food blogs and big little news from an old favorite

Looking for fresh inspiration in the kitchen? You’ll find lots of great ideas at these five blogs. And you’ll find an exciting addition at a perennial favorite.

1. Food in Jars

My approach to blogging matches my magpie-eye approach to everything. Random cool new things are always catching my attention; as a result, you never know what you’ll find at Blue Kitchen. So I can’t help but admire Marisa’s decidedly focused approach to her blog, Food in Jars. For her, it’s all about canning.

Marisa’s stated goal is to “get as many people excited about canning as is possible.” Her own obsession began with collecting Mason and Ball jars, using them for food storage and just admiring their design and beauty. Finally, she started using them for their intended purpose. In her Philadelphia apartment kitchen, she cans just about every fruit and vegetable imaginable, making jams, jellies, pickles, salsas, sauces and more. You’ll also find tips and tricks as well as jar love and, um, jar porn. Canning food has always seemed a bit daunting to me. But with Marisa’s excellent guidance, I just may have to try my hand at it.

2. Madame Fromage

Another single-minded Philadelphian, this time dedicated to cheese. Even though she lives in Philadelphia, writer Tenaya [aka Madame Fromage] still considers Continue reading “Five exciting new [to me] food blogs and big little news from an old favorite” →

Extreme locavores: In Brooklyn, “truck farm” is taken literally, Chicago restaurant farms its roof

The Brooklyn filmmakers who gave us the Peabody Award-winning feature documentary King Corn turn an old pickup truck into a farm and a film. And Chicago’s first certified organic farm is on a restaurant rooftop.

truck-farm

How do you grow your own food in the big city if you ain’t got any land?” That was the central question behind Truck Farm—both the tiny farm and the film. Filmmakers Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney set out to prove that fresh vegetables can be grown just about anywhere. Even in the bed of a 1986 Dodge Ram pickup.

To do so, they combined “green roof technology, organic compost and heirloom seeds to create a living, mobile garden on the streets of Brooklyn, NY.” They’re using green techniques to film the project too, outfitting the truck with a solar-powered camera to provide a time lapse record of the farm’s progress.

Following the lead of other small farms, they’ve even started their own CSA. Your $20 subscription will get you Continue reading “Extreme locavores: In Brooklyn, “truck farm” is taken literally, Chicago restaurant farms its roof” →

September is Hunger Action Month

hunger-action-month

The figures are staggering. According to Feeding America, one in eight Americans struggle with hunger. That’s more than 38 million people facing hunger every day, just in the United States.

But there are hopeful figures too. Feeding America is a network of 205 food banks around the country. Together, as Feeding America’s website reports, they provide “low-income individuals and families with the fuel to survive and even thrive. As the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, network members supply food to more than 25 million Americans each year, including 9 million children and 3 million seniors. Serving the entire United States, more than 200 member food banks support 63,000 agencies that address hunger in all of its forms.”

Even more hopeful is that, on average, a single dollar donated to the network will provide three meals. So even a small donation can have a big impact. Continue reading “September is Hunger Action Month” →

Revelation in a shell: Eggs are better when chickens live better

Treating chickens more humanely not only improves the flavor of their eggs, it improves their nutrition. But confusing labels make finding the best eggs tricky.

organic-egg

Okay, so this should probably not be so much revelatory as it is common sense. On the other hand, the way you get pearls is by irritating oysters. Still, in a world in which we are increasingly appalled by how industrial farming is abusing animals and our environment in the name of cheap food, chickens get the shortest end of the stick by far.

According to an article in the Christian Science Monitor, “Chickens are perhaps the least protected of farm animals. All farm animals are exempt from the federal Animal Welfare Act, but unlike other types of livestock, chickens are also exempt from individual state laws prohibiting cruelty to animals and from the federal Humane Methods of Slaughter Act.” The Humane Society of the United States gives an equally grim assessment of conventional egg production in our country: “Arguably the most abused animals in all agribusiness, nearly 280 million laying hens in the United States are confined in barren, wire battery cages so restrictive the birds can’t even spread their wings. With no opportunity to engage in many of their natural behaviors, including nesting, dust bathing, perching, and foraging, these birds endure lives wrought with suffering.”

Guilt alone was enough to send me exploring alternatives when it came to buying eggs. But at the supermarket, I was met with two immediate obstacles. First, a baffling array of competing claims—natural, organic, cage free, free range, hormone free, antibiotic free, vegetarian diet… Continue reading “Revelation in a shell: Eggs are better when chickens live better” →

Don’t just live well—live better than practically everybody else

There’s no shortage of people ready to tell you how to be a better you. Teachers, bosses, spouses, parents, grandparents, little sisters, big brothers… even cousins you see maybe once a year. But few can do it as succinctly, entertainingly and spot on accurately as Clifton Kelly.

As co-host of TLC’s What Not to Wear, Kelly routinely transforms fashion disasters into well-groomed, confident success stories. But looks can only take you so far. To help transform just about every other aspect of your life, he gives us the unapologetically confidently titled Freakin’ Fabulous: How to Dress, Speak, Behave, Eat, Drink, Entertain, Decorate, and Generally Be Better than Everyone Else.

And in about 250 pages, he delivers on all the promises the title makes. Freakin’ Fabulous is the really helpful older sibling or worldly wise aunt telling you what to do with your napkin in a restaurant [place it in your lap as soon as you’ve been seated]; all those little grammatical quandaries you slept through in school [like who vs. whom, fewer vs. less and lay vs. lie]; and that fashionably late only applies to cocktail parties.

Only Kelly is much more entertaining than your sibling or aunt. Continue reading “Don’t just live well—live better than practically everybody else” →