Okay, this sucks hard. Blue Kitchen is so broken at the moment that we don’t even know what all is wrong with it. We do know that you can’t click through on old posts, and we can’t reply to comments. Hang in there. We’ll be back soon.
Category: Random Food For Thought
Cool kitchen gear alert: the 2015 Housewares Show is coming to Chicago
We like kitchen stuff. We don’t need to own it all, but we just like being around it, looking at it and talking to people who like it as much as we do. So attending the International Home + Housewares Show every year is like the best school field trip from childhood memory. Continue reading “Cool kitchen gear alert: the 2015 Housewares Show is coming to Chicago”
Christmas memory leftovers
OKAY, IT’S CHRISTMAS EVE. I could post a recipe here, I suppose. But even if you were inclined to add it to what you have already planned, would you have the time, energy and open stores to track down ingredients and put it together? Yeah, I didn’t think so. Instead, I’m going to share a holiday story with you. Continue reading “Christmas memory leftovers”
Plenty to be thankful for on Thanksgiving
No recipe this week. Just some random thoughts on Thanksgiving, food and family.
We had a full house this Thanksgiving weekend. Both daughters were in town, as was another guest—quite a crowd for our two-bedroom apartment. With an inflatable mattress, the living room was pressed into part-time duty as a bedroom. The five of us shared our apartment’s one bathroom. The more skittish of our two cats often found herself trapped behind closed bedroom doors. Transportation for various needs involved scheduling turns with our one car, walking or taking public transportation. And we all loved it. Continue reading “Plenty to be thankful for on Thanksgiving”
Not to get technical, but no recipe this week
No technical difficulties. Life is just being a little too interesting right now to put together a post. Everybody’s okay, but there is just way too much going on. I won’t bore you with details or excuses (and I think any litany of excuses should be required by law to end with “and the sun was in my eyes”). I’ll just say come back next week for a fresh recipe.
What we’re reading: chicken vs. beef and improving fish farming
What we eat doesn’t just affect our health—it affects the health of the planet. Two recent articles highlight serious food production problems and possible solutions.
Want to help improve the planet’s health? Eat less beef and more chicken. That’s the assessment of James Hamblin’s most recent piece for The Atlantic, “Meats: A Health Hierarchy.” He backs it up with some powerful numbers, like the fact that farming cattle produces about four times as much greenhouse gas as does poultry or fish. To explain the impact of this much greenhouse gas, Hamblin quotes Scott Faber, senior vice president for government affairs at the Environmental Working Group: “If every American stopped eating beef tomorrow and started eating chicken instead—which I don’t expect—that would be the equivalent of taking 26 million cars off the road.” Continue reading “What we’re reading: chicken vs. beef and improving fish farming”
The spread of the new: when big restaurant chains get it right, everyone wins
These days, I skip breakfast. This is shocking to my sister, who says, “How can you do that? It’s one of the three most important meals!” But I just, oh, I just can’t.
As it happened, the other day, we had to drive up to the North Shore to take care of some errands and see some folks. So by the time we got to the Old Orchard mall, it was late morning and I was good and hungry. Continue reading “The spread of the new: when big restaurant chains get it right, everyone wins”
Why honey bees are dying, why it matters and what we can do about it
Honey bees, vital to growing most of the fruits and vegetables we eat, are dying in huge numbers. Several studies point to one chemical killer. You can tell the EPA to do something about it.
For all its mechanized muscle and technological wizardry, agribusiness still needs bees. In fact, according to USDA, “one mouthful in three in our diet directly or indirectly benefits from honey bee pollination.” Whole Foods is more direct in sharing this information—and in stating the problem at hand: “One of every three bites of food comes from plants pollinated by honeybees and other pollinators, and pollinator populations are facing massive declines.”
The problem is something called Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). In the winter of 2005/2006, beekeepers began reporting losses of 30 to 90 percent of their hives. This wasn’t a decrease of populations within hives, but entire hives of bees either dying or disappearing. Significant losses have continued, year after year. And as agricultural demand for bees has increased, so has the pressure on remaining hives. A new Harvard study is only the latest to point a finger at a widely used class of pesticides. Continue reading “Why honey bees are dying, why it matters and what we can do about it”
In Michigan, NIMBY trumps urban farming
Recent changes to Michigan’s 33-year-old Right to Farm Act exclude urban farms from protection.
When Michigan passed the Right to Farm Act back in 1981, it was designed to protect farmers from urban sprawl. As suburban development expanded into rural areas, the new residents—people with “limited understanding of farming,” as a Right to Farm Act FAQ sheet calls them—often found typical farming conditions, including dust, odors, animal noises and such, unacceptable. Sometimes, the interlopers would file nuisance suits against the farmers. Essentially, the law said this is how farming smells, sounds, looks and acts. It has a right to do so.
Over the last several years, the flow has reversed, with farming moving back to town. Increasingly, urban dwellers are raising vegetables, chickens and even goats in their backyards or on small plots of land. Some do so for their own consumption, wanting to reduce their reliance on factory-farmed foods. Some are entrepreneurs, producing small batch products to sell at farmers markets and other outlets. Late last month, the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development put their right to do so in doubt. Continue reading “In Michigan, NIMBY trumps urban farming”
In Conversation: Gale Gand on dessert, simplifying things and her new book Lunch!
James Beard award-winning pastry chef Gale Gand talks about her new restaurant, her new cookbook and other red hot irons she has in the fire.
Gale Gand wears a lot of toques. A co-founding partner of Chicago’s Michelin-starred Tru, world-renowned for its contemporary French tasting menus, Gale hosted the Food Network series “Sweet Dreams” for eight years, the first nationally televised all-dessert show. She appears regularly on TV shows like“Good Morning America,” “The Today Show” and “The Rachael Ray Show.” She produces her own artisanal root beer, volunteers, teaches, speaks and does cooking demonstrations. Gale also lists “mom” in her description on her website; she and her environmentalist husband Jimmy Seidita have a teenaged son and twin daughters.
Most recently, Gale opened a burger joint, SpritzBurger, with the Hearty Boys, Dan Smith and Steve McDonagh. And her eighth cookbook, Gale Gand’s Lunch!, hits bookstores this week. It seemed like a good time to check in with her. Continue reading “In Conversation: Gale Gand on dessert, simplifying things and her new book Lunch!”