Hands Across...

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Another gathering

Need diff power

Many people are blaming BP for this issue, and while it was their rig, all the other competing companies have rigs in the gulf with the same “plans” in case something happens.  The people tying to boycott the company are not realizing a few things:

1. BP doesn’t own most of these BP stations, local people do and it can cost thousands for them to break their contract and sell another gas “brand.”
2. If you stop giving BP money, they won’t be able to pay the people they’ve wronged. It may sound counter-intuitive, but if they go broke, all the fishermen and others they’ve wronged won’t get a dime.
3. Boycotting BP just gives the money to someone like Exxon (I somehow remember them having a spill) or someone else. How will that help?

There is really only one solution at this point and it is simple:  Start embracing alternate energy sources.

Dave thanking us for joining him

People starting to gather for the event

I know what some of you are thinking:  “It’s impossible!” “It’s hard!” “I won’t until celebrities/politicians/etc do!”  And to you I simply have to say: “Grow up.”  That’s right, grow up and stop thinking only of yourself.  Yes, switching from oil will be hard, no it’s not impossible and anyone who waits for someone else to do it first is a fool.  We humans have come up with many reasons/excuses for why we use oil as much as we do:

• We can’t think far enough ahead to see what it’ll do.
• We don’t care about what happens to the planet after we’re gone.
• We don’t believe oil use causes any harm.
• It’s cheap, easy and (seems) plentiful.
• Etc, etc, etc…

What does that say about us as a species?  We like to act superior and speak of how much knowledge we have, yet we burn the remains of the ancient creatures that came before us to power our daily lives.  We have the ability to harness the power of the sun, the wind, the water and even the heat from the Earth itself.  These energies create less disease-causing pollution and are sustainable, and yet… and yet we choose to shun them because it’s easier to not change.  Even in the face of a future oil crash and after our oil was effectively turned off in 1973 for a short time, we continue to use.  Because of oil’s strangle hold on us we’re at the mercy of a handful of countries in the Middle East, and to loosen their grip we choose to, in a certain politician’s words, “Drill, Baby, Drill.”  Oil has literally shaped both America’s policies abroad as well as our environment.  And it’s not just America.  You see, there’s a secret the oil companies have:

They have major oil spills around the world every year, it’s just usually not reported.

Did you know, for example, that in Nigeria, they’ve had the equivalent of one “Exxon Valdez” sized spill a year for the past 50 years?  Not just that, but oil spills happen all the time and usually are bigger than the ones we Americans know about, for example, over 5,500,000 tons of oil was spilled between 1910 and 2010 worldwide (this doesn’t include all spills and doesn’t include the ongoing in Nigeria or the Gulf).  During this time period the “Exxon Valdez” comes in at just 35th place with a mere 37,000 tons of oil being spilled (that’s less than 1% of the total oil spilled in the last century).  To get an idea, one ton of crude is equal to 308 gallons (or 7.33 barrels).  This means over one and a half BILLION gallons have been spilled in the past 100 years.  That equals an average of 16,940,000 gallons (403,333 barrels) being spilled somewhere each year.

I feel this is completely unconscionably.

So what can a single person do to help?  Well, here are some ideas:

1. Replace all “energy eating” devices with modern energy saving ones (light-bulbs, appliances, vehicles, etc).
2. Bike/walk more if going short distances (things like Bionix and Xtracycle will help a lot to accomplish this).
3. Set your computers (and other devices) to go to sleep when not in use.
4. If you have the ability, convert to solar or wind power to help with your power usage.
5. Vote for politicians that agree with these goals, research before you go to the polls (don’t stick to party lines “just because”).
6. Write companies and ask them to conserve energy and to find ways to reduce their oil usage.
7. Eat locally (in season), cook more meals yourself and also buy goods made locally.

While some are obvious to how they help, the last suggestion usually throws people for a loop.  What a lot of people don’t think about is how their eating habits directly affect their oil usage.  First, you have to think of travel cost.  For those living up north, to get your “fresh” strawberries in December they have to travel by truck or plane from California, Florida or Mexico to your grocery store.  This uses many bags, boxes, machines and trucks/planes to gather, pack, ship, store and sell these berries.  Each part of this uses some form of fuel, from the creation of the plastic bags to the machines used to move the berries to the vehicles used to ship them.  The worst part is that in the end, many of these berries will go to waste when they’re not all purchased.  If one were to eat local, you might not be able to have fresh berries in Winter, but you’ll save fuel and also look forward to them come summertime.

Time to go beyond

Reclaim our America

Just liked this shot

Second, many things in the US are made from corn.  Plastics, almost everything you get from a fast food company, and most junk food are made from corn.  This might not seem like a problem, but it takes about 5.5 gallons of oil to make the fertilizer required to grow an acre of corn and 2008 the US grew 86 million acres of corn (this was down from 2007).  That translates into approximately 47,300,000 gallons used just to grow corn.  Why are they growing all that corn, anyway?  Long story short, it’s used to produce everything from the high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in your soda to plastics to almost any food additive you can imagine.  If we were to start cooking more and eating/shopping local, we wouldn’t need all this corn and the land could be used to produce other food (reducing the need to use all the fertilizer or ship corn all over the country for processing).

If that isn’t enough, how about this?  One issue we face in the US is a growing unemployment coupled with a rising illegal immigrant population.  Part of this issue is directly related to our current agriculture policies in that it relies on the cheap labor as much as it relies on the oil.  If the undocumented labor goes away, the system would fall apart as no unemployed person wants these jobs.  In fact, to prove it, they’ve started a campaign called “Take Our Jobs.” From the site:

Take Our Jobs is a national campaign led by United Farm Workers aimed at hiring U.S. citizens and legal residents to fill jobs that often go to undocumented farm workers.  The effort spotlights the immigrant labor issue and underscores the need for reforms without which the domestic agricultural industry could be crippled, leading to more jobs moving off shore.

As part of the movement, the campaign is sending a letter to U.S. lawmakers, offering up farm workers who are “ready to welcome citizens and legal residents who wish to replace immigrants in the fields.” The campaign is encouraging Members of Congress to refer their constituents to vacant farm worker positions in locations across the country. All who are interested or unemployed and are legal residents or U.S. citizens are encouraged to apply.

By choosing to eat from local, smaller farms, you directly impact this cause.  If the large industries can’t make money with their monocultures grown on their large farms, they won’t need to hire undocumented workers to keep the costs down (and will use less oil).  Now, the price of food will go up some, but that isn’t a horrible thing.  If people learned to cook for themselves like many others in the world do, they’d realize that their dollar can go a long way.  Plus, the food being purchased would most likely (if local) be of better quality and better for you, usually causing a reduction of medical costs later on in life. And if all that’s not enough, you’d be directly helping your local economy instead of sending your money to who knows where.

Great potluck, all local made!

Renee of Twin Oaks Farm, a local farmer

No matter what happens, it won’t be easy, but why shouldn’t we be up for the challenge?  We could be the next “Greatest Generation,” but the war we’d win would be for clean energy and a massive reduction in fossil fuels.  We could make a stand and show our children’s children that we did care.  That we heard the call to action and stepped up.

Some organizations that are working to help with this goal are Hands Across the Sand and Reclaim Our America.  Recently I attended events put on by both organizations and met and was joined by the founder of Hands Across the Sand (Dave Rauschkolb) as well as the Executive VP of Reclaim Our America (Jenifer Kuntz).  These groups are small, but growing and have one simple goal:  Reduce our oil usage and focus our efforts on alternative fuel sources.  The photos you see peppered throughout this article were taken at the events and I think it shows that this spill has brought our oil usage to the forefront of many people’s minds.  If you want to learn more about what you can do, feel free to contact one of these organizations and I’m sure they can point you in the right direction.

Bike more, eat local, consume less

Save a cow, drink a beer.

I know not everyone agrees with the need to reduce oil usage, citing everything from the economy to jobs, but put it this way:  These spills hurt the economy and jobs each time they happen, why not switch to a cleaner energy source that can create just as many jobs as oil?

The picture in question... man, I love this time of year!

The week before last I was at the Farmer’s Market and I thought I saw blossoms and got very excited, only to be informed they were daylilies. Lucky for me, though, when I told them that I was hopeful for squash blossoms, they told me to stop by next week and they’d see what they could do.  As I walked up to their booth this last weekend I saw a bag of something orange greet me.  Turns out, just for me, they plucked 11 squash blossoms.  How glorious!

I had thought about doing something different, but I couldn’t help myself… I had to stuff ‘em and fry ‘em!  The bright side?  My uncle will finally have his recipe.  The brighter side?  So will all of you!

Ingredient Breakdown:

• 10-12 Squash Blossoms (Fresh, 2 days is about all you got in the fridge after picking)
• 1 large clove Garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp Salt, halved
• 3/4 c Shredded Gouda (Goat, Parrano, etc)
• 1/2 c Grated Cheese (Mizithra, Parmesan, Romano, etc)
• 1 Tbs Fresh Herbs (Parsley, Oregano, Thyme), minced
• 1 Tbs Fresh Basil, minced
• 2 Eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp Milk (optional)
• 1 1/2 c White Flour
• 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• Black Pepper
• Canola/Vegetable Oil  (enough to fill a pan 1/2″ deep)

Quick clarifications.  I’ve made this recipe twice now and I’ve realized that the cheeses and herbs can be altered a bit and will work great.  First time I made this I used a fresh goat gouda, mizithra cheese, basil and parsley.  Second time I made this I used parrano, parmesan, mizithra, parsley, oregano, thyme and basil.  Both times were awesome, so I think you should be able to tweak those components a bit. Also, try and use the blossoms as soon as possible as they really will only last 1 – 2 days after picking.

Instructions:

1. Mix the cheeses, herbs, garlic, 1/4 tsp salt and pepper in a bowl and set aside.
2. Combine remaining 1/4 tsp salt, baking powder and flour, stir, spread onto a plate and set aside.
3. Mix eggs and milk (if using) in a bowl and set aside.
4. Remove the pistil (long pointy thing in the center of the flower) from the blossoms carefully (the flowers rip easily… tweezers will help here).
5. Stuff cheese mixture into flowers, try not to overfill, twist or press flowers closed.
6. Heat oil over medium heat.
7. When oil is hot, dredge each flower in flour, followed by the egg mixture, followed by flour once more.
8. Place three to four blossoms into the oil and cook until golden brown, turning occasionally.
9. Drain on paper towels, serve with marinara sauce and eat up!

Now for the making of shots:

Cheese & Herbs

Pistil in middle

Stuffed!

1st Dredge

2nd Dredge

Fry, baby, fry!

Draining

Final product!

Hopefully this season you get a chance to try these… they’re quite addicting and make you look forward to this time of year and the Farmer’s Market.  Since this is the only thing I’ve ever done with these, what is your favorite blossom recipe?

This truly an example of popular demand. Our plans were to feature the product only through May 23, but millions of Double Down fans have spoken and we won’t disappoint them. You’ll continue to be able to get the Double Down at KFC this summer.

So what will be seen once this is removed from the menu?  Well, I was contacted yesterday and shown an advertisement for what could be the Double Down’s successor:  The KFC Triple By-Pass. Now, like the Double Down, this “sandwich” contains no bread and looks to be just as difficult to eat (if not more-so). Let’s check out the breakdown:

• Eight Original Recipe Chicken Fillets
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Pork Roll
• Fried Eggs
• American, Swiss, Cheddar & Pepper Jack Cheeses
• Leaf Lettuce

Not too shabby for its $12.95 price tag (the combo price isn’t listed), but the big question is: Will it sell?

Gaze into the abyss and see what stares back...

To be honest, I’m not thinking it will, but not because of the price.  For those of you who looked at the full image you’ll not that it’s not real, sadly.  No, this “advertisement” is a creation by MAD Magazine for their upcoming 504th issue (which you can pick up June 15th), and yet, could very well be a real item some day in the future.  In fact, there already is an item for sale called the “Triple Bypass,” and while it isn’t chicken, it may be able to kill you.  Yes, I’m speaking about the burgers from the Heart Attack Grill:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbKRSYAuSNg

I’m not even sure that many patties even legal on a sandwich, but at least you eat free if you’re over 350 lbs.  Good thing all the waitstaff dress in nurse uniforms… perhaps it’ll get you into the ER faster?

So, this whole discussion has left me with a couple questions that I’d love to hear your answers to:

1. Since the KFC Triple By-Pass isn’t available to purchase (due to it not being real), who out there will be willing to create one and eat it in the name of delicious, delicious science?
2. What will be the next “extreme” menu item at a national fast food franchise?  What could you dream up and for who?

Really, at this point almost nothing is off the table, so I’d love to see what people think, and if anyone out there wants to actually take on the challenge of creating (and eating) the Triple By-Pass, shoot me an e-mail!

Le Whif

Three easy steps

Looks tasty!

Not a whistle

As you can see, the box closely resembles a cigarette box with three tubes inside that resemble plastic cigars.  The instructions on the box (and included inside) are very simple:  Open, Whif, Close.  Before trying this, I decided to go look on their website to find out more information and amazingly it seems that this little stick is a bit more technical than it seems:

“Le Whif is a new delicious approach to eating and breathing.  With Le Whif, we inhale food, like chocolate, into our mouths and taste it, without chewing, an experience of flavor without a single calorie.

Invented by Harvard Professor David Edwards, in collaboration with students, designers, engineers, and entrepreneurs working in Edwards’ ArtScience Labs centered around Le Laboratoire, in Paris, Le Whif contains hundreds of milligrams of tiny food particles.

When you place Le Whif between your lips, and breathe in gently, the particle are picked up by the air stream, enter your mouth, and fall onto your tongue.  You puff, as if to breathe, and suddenly you have an experience of flavor.

Le Whif uses particle engineering to form natural food substances, like chocolate, in particle sizes that are small enough to become airborne though too large to enter the lungs. The design, which builds on decades of aerosol science work by David Edwards and his colleagues, directs food particles to the mouth following the air that accompanies a natural inhalation.”

Nothing like particle engineering to make one’s mouth water, eh?  The cool thing is that this whole idea started as a  science experiment when it came to vaccines as can be seen here:

The idea was to create a new way to inhale drugs and vaccines. The article appeared in the Journal Science at a propitious time. Concerns of eliminating needles for diabetic patients drove scientists to consider inhaling insulin.  This paper showed how to do it simply and led to the creation of David’s first company, AIR (see Idea 4). For more check this http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9188534

Stemming from that, they got the idea to move onto food:

The idea was to breathe food, starting with chocolate.  This idea came to David while having lunch at Thierry Marx’s restaurant near Bordeaux.  Later several Harvard students contributed to the idea, including Jonathan Kamler, and leaders of the Laboratoire incubator, LaboGroup, including Jose Sanchez and Tom Hadfield.

And it looks like the future may be “Le Whaf,” as you can see:

The idea was to create a new way of eating by breathing liquid droplets.  If whiffing was breathing dry particles, whaffing would be breathing wet particles. David conceived this on the basis of work done at his company Pulmatrix (Idea 7) and later it was designed by French culinary designer Marc Bretillot.

How cool is all of that?  Anywho, after dinner on my last night there, I gathered Jess and my siblings together for what would end up being a very interesting dessert.  I handed out the sticks and we “whiffed.”  Shockingly, it tasted good… and chocolaty. The flavor came through very well and weirdly gave the effect on your tongue that you had just eaten something.  We also learned a valuable lesson:  Don’t inhale. Seriously, just pretend you’re Bill Clinton when you use these or you’ll end up hacking up a lung.  How do I know this?  Well, my brother has been known to smoke the occasional cigar and habit caused him to go ahead and inhale.  He described the chain of events like this:

1. This is kind of weird, I don’t get anything.
2. Wait, I think I taste chocolate!
3. This is pretty good!
4. Wait a minute, I’m inhaling this…
5. It’s in my lungs… it’s in my lungs!!
6. <hacking for the next hour>

Yes, I believe we may have given my brother Chocolatier’s Lung… not a good thing. This was snapped seconds before the hacking started:

Remember kids, don't put chocolate in your lungs!

I know the website mentions inhaling and that the particles won’t enter your lungs, and that might be, but on the safe side, you may want to avoid doing that.  Other than that mishap, we all really enjoyed the product… I’d have to say I enjoyed the plain chocolate the best (we tried each of them), but all were good.  I wish there was a way to have made the mint non-artificial so they could have been able to throw on an “all-natural” label, but two outta three ain’t bad.  Next time I’m there I’ll have try the coffee flavor as well.

So, have you “whiffed” your food?  What is your favorite non-traditional candy?

Turns out it's not really rocket science... who knew?

A quick breakdown in case you don’t like trying to figure out what’s going on there:

1. A pot
2. A digital therometer
3. Whole Milk (local if you can get it)
4. Starter yogurt (plain, live cultures), room temp
5. Bottles to hold the yogurt, sterilized
6. Heating pad (not pictured)

Surprised?  I was… turns out you really don’t need much to make your own yogurt except time.  The first thing you need to do is to put about a tablespoon of yogurt “starter” in each bottle (per 2 cups of milk). Next, fill up your sink with icewater.  Why?  Because as soon as we get the milk to the right temperature, we’ll need to cool that pot down as fast as possible.  Next, pour your milk into the pot and secure the thermometer so that it’s in the liquid, but not touching the bottom.

Slowly heat the milk on medium-low, stirring, until it hits 180-185 degrees.  As soon as it hits 180, immediately take the pot off the stove and put it in the sink until the temperature of the milk reaches 110 degrees.  While cooling, setup your heating pad.  I just got one of my extra large pads, placed it on the counter and set it to “medium.”  Once your milk hits the 110 degree mark, it’s time to bottle.

Pour a small amount of the milk into the bottles and blend with the starter.  Once mixed, go ahead and pour the rest in.  Mix well, seal with the cover, and place in the heating pad.  Your goal is to keep the bottles between 110 and 120 degrees for 8 – 10 hours.  Periodically you may need to check on your heating pad to make sure it hasn’t turned off, or that your bottles haven’t gotten too cold.  I found that using the thermometer on the outside of the bottle gave me a good ballpark of the temp inside, but if any of you have a better way, I’d love to try it!

183... perfect!

Rest, my beauties...

118, right on!

So, you’ve waited the time, you’ve babied the bottles… what next?  Simple, just open it, stir until it is very well mixed, re-seal, and toss into the back of your fridge until cold.  You see, this stops the bacteria from feeding, which will make the yogurt less tart, though a bit less thick.  The next day, open it up and take a taste… if all went well, it’ll taste, well, like yogurt!

Curds and whey

Yogurt!

Not cottage cheese

You may notice the chunky look of the yogurt… I promise the texture isn’t like cottage cheese (nor is the taste), it just looks like it.  I’ve been told that if you strain it, it’ll come together nicer, but then you lose all the goodness in the whey, so I left it.  What’s left to do now?  Nothing but eating!  I’ve dressed mine up with some strawberry preserves and walnuts (yum!), but the possibilities are almost endless.

Mmmm... tasty! Really, what did I do before yogurt?

Now, this was my first time doing this, but it won’t be my last.  Does anyone else out there have any tips or tricks for me (and everyone else) when it comes to making yogurt?  Don’t be shy!

Yo, listen up here's a story about a little guy that has a blue finger...

I, being the smart guy I am, asked her to instead look it up online.  Turns out, there isn’t much about this on the ol’ interwebs, so off to the doctor we went.  I was completely at a loss, as I haven’t hit my finger on anything, it’s not in pain, and is just awkwardly swollen.  We get get to the office, wait for a couple thousand years, and finally get seen.  The doctor is perplexed.  I was informed he’s never seen a spread like this for a finger that wasn’t broken and he questioned me for what seemed like forever, but I had no answers for him.  Now came the poking and prodding.  No matter what he did, it didn’t hurt, just felt uncomfortable… kinda “full” sorta.  He told me that if it hurt or if it tingled or if I felt nothing this would be easier, but since it felt normal all he could assume is that somehow I managed to burst a blood vessel.  The current working theory is that I did something to weaken or cause a very slight break in the blood vessel on Sunday, so when I worked out (and my blood pressure rose) on Monday, it fully burst, causing the weird blue finger.

It's blue (da ba dee da ba die), it's blue (if it was green I would cry)...

Pure weirdness.  As a bonus, as I was being worked over, it was noticed that my heart isn’t sounding quite right… cue the EKG!  Yep, it looks like my heart is missing a beat or something… the doctor said that it was “regularly irregular” and that since I’m asymptomatic, it’s not an emergency, but something that needs to be researched.  Nice.  You know, I don’t eat trans fats, I eat Omega-3s… what more does my heart want from me?  Oh well, at least the doc isn’t that worried about it.

The best part of the story?  I returned home to remember that I never put the chicken back in the fridge… it had been sitting in the microwave for close to 5 hours.  D’oh!  Into the trash it went… guess I’ll be having chicken sausage instead.  Anyway, at this point I just need to get my finger to turn back to a normal size and color and I’ll be good.  I never realized how often I bend the thing, but it turns out while typing and writing, I do it quite a bit.  Has this, or any other medical mystery, happened to any one of you (or someone you know)?

“It’s a very sickly-sweet, dark biscuit and I was expecting more from it”.  And it takes itself too seriously, he says of the ad slogan.

“It’s like someone rudely coming into your home and telling you how to arrange your settee. It arrives here and says: ‘I’m Oreo and this is what you do with me.’

“Well we’ve had biscuits for a long time and we know what to do.”

So what’s with all this Oreo talk, you ask?  Well, I wanted to make my own chocolate cookie with “creme” filling, but I didn’t want to make a sandwich cookie.  Nope, I wanted it to look like an everyday chocolate cookie on the outside and be filled with a creme of sorts on the inside.  After much experimentation (I honestly made one cookie at a time, testing techniques, even sitting and watching the cookie bake), I came up with this:

Sorry Oreo, but *this* is actually milk's favorite cookie. No hard feelings?

This was the 5th attempt at getting it right.  The first couple exploded while the next couple just didn’t work out well at all.  The taste is quite similar to the Oreo… the chocolate is a bit salty, the center is a very sweet vanilla creme, everything you’d think it was.  The texture is softer than an Oreo, though it’s not chewy and the center matches very well.  While there isn’t the “fun” of pulling it apart and eating the bits separately, you also don’t get the issue of the cookie shattering around the filling.

One big change between these and the classic Oreo is the ingredient list.  Now, currently Oreo doesn’t have any partially-hydrogenated oils (remember that whole fiasco?), but it still could be better.  Here are the ingredients:

Sugar, Wheat Flour, High Oleic Canola Oil (and/or Palm Oil and/or Canola Oil and/or Soybean Oil), Cocoa (processed w/ Alkali), High Fructose Corn Syrup, Cornstarch, Baking Soda (and/or Calcium Phosphate), Salt, Soy Lecithin, Vanillin, Chocolate

Here is what is in mine:

Wheat Flour, Brown Sugar, Butter, Sugar, Cocoa (raw), Egg, Palm Oil, Corn Flour, Baking Soda, Milk, Salt, Vanilla

You see, doesn’t that seem a lot better?  At the very least, it’s things you can go pick up in your local supermarket.  So, are you ready to cook?  Let me warn you, these are a bit complicated, but totally worth it (try ‘em warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top…).  First up, the “creme” filling:

Ingredient Breakdown:

• 2 c Powdered Sugar (sifted, not packed)
• 1/2 c White Flour (sifted, not packed)
• 1 Tbs Milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/4 c Palm Oil Shortening
• 1/4 c Butter (room temp)

Instructions:

1. Mix butter, shortening, milk and vanilla together until well combined.
2. Mix flour and powdered sugar together.
3. Add sugar mixture to shortening mixture in 4 batches, mixing with a spoon (or by hand) until it reaches a thick, smooth consistency.
4. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to solidify slightly.

Alright, then… now the filling is all done. Should look something like this:

We both know you'll be eating this with a spoon, but you don't have to admit it.

This actually will make a little more filling than is needed for the cookies, but it’s better than too less (plus, we all know you’ll be eating it while you cook). Next up, the cookie dough!

Ingredient Breakdown:

• 8 oz Unsalted Butter (melted and cooled slightly)
• 11 oz Bread Flour
• 1 oz Corn Flour
• 3 oz Cocoa Powder (not Dutch process)
• 1.5 tsp Kosher Salt
• 2.5 tsp Baking Soda
• 2 oz White Sugar
• 8 oz Light Brown Sugar
• 1 Large Egg
• 1 Egg Yolk
• 3 Tbs Whole Milk
• 1.5 tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions:

1. Whisk together the flours, salt, baking soda, and cocoa in a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Whisk together the egg, egg yolk, milk and vanilla extract in a separate bowl and set aside.
3. Put the butter in the large bowl, then add the sugar and brown sugar. Cream the mixture for two minutes on medium speed (it won’t really cream as much as it’ll resemble an oil slick, but that’s okay).
4. Add the egg mixture to the sugars and butter and mix on low until well combined (about a minute).
5. Slowly incorporate the flour/cocoa mixture, one third at a time, until thoroughly combined.  The dough should be very thick, but not crumbly.  Add milk/flour to adjust the texture if needed (use your best judgment here).
6. Chill for at least two hours.

If you’re wondering just how thick the batter should be, it should be something like this:

That weird design is due to me patting it down with a spatula, so you know.

Make sure you have some time available before starting the next part, as you have to assemble, then bake these cookies… it can be time intensive depending on how many you make.

Instructions (cont):

1. Place oven rack in the middle of your oven and preheat to 375°F before baking.
2. Scoop out 1 oz of dough and roll into a ball.  Split the balls into two even halves and flatten into rounds.
3. Place .4 oz of the filling into the center of one of the halves, then take the other side and gently pinch together the seams (like a ravioli) so that the filling doesn’t come out (check out the last time I did this here).
4. Once the filling is sealed in, gently pat into a smooth round oval.  The cookie won’t rise that much, so the size and shape you make it here will be very close to how it looks in the end.
5. Place the cookies on a plate and back in the fridge for about 10 minutes, just to harden back up.
6. Take out the cookies and poke some holes on the top to vent the steam from the filling (this is important, cookie will explode a bit if you skip this step).
7. Place the cookie onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, placing just 6 – 8 cookies per sheet
8. Bake for 10 minutes or so, rotating the pan halfway.  Make sure that the filling hasn’t erupted out of the cookie (alternatively, just sit and watch ‘em bake).
9. Cool 2 – 3 minutes on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack.
10. Eat and enjoy.  Refrigerate cookies for storage as the filling has butter in it and isn’t a fan of long-term room temperatures.

Here’s a shot of the assembly, also a bonus shot of me watching the cookies bake with my cat, Mishka, who refused to leave me alone for some reason.

Some of the construction

She's a very weird cat some days...

All in all, this cookie was a pain in the butt to make, but in the end it was exactly what I wanted it to be.  Jess simply can’t stop eating them, in fact, her go to dessert has turned into one of these cookies, warmed up, topped with vanilla ice cream.  If any of you out there try this, please let me know your results!

1. Why the “usual” yogurt is pretty fake.
2. Why you don’t need to pay for “specialty” yogurts.
3. Why you should just buy plain yogurt.

Sounds like a blast, right?  Well, just remember, you should learn something every day and today it looks like it’ll be yogurt.  Let’s get crackin’!

1.  Why the “usual” yogurt is pretty fake.

Yogurt, in the traditional sense, is milk that has been cultured with different bacterias that change the flavor, consistency and nutrition.  Pretty simple, right?  Wrong.  It turns out that most yogurts sold on store shelves have a bit more than milk and bacteria.  Example… this is what is in Yoplait Original – Harvest Peach yogurt:

Cultured Pastuerized Grade A Low Fat Milk, Sugar, Peaches, Modified Corn Starch, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Nonfat Milk, Kosher Gelatin, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid, Tricalcium Phospate, Pectin, Colored with Annatto Exrtract, Vitamin A Acetate, Vitamin D3

Here’s a second, Dannon Activia – Vanilla:

Cultured Grade A Reduced Fat Milk, Fructose Syrup, Sugar, Contains Less than 1% of Fructose, Whey Protein Concentrate, Corn Starch, Modified Corn Starch, Kosher Gelatin, Natural Vanilla Flavor, Sodium Citrate, Malic Acid

If you’re thinking, “Wow, that’s a lot more than the few ingredients required,” then you hit the nail right on the head.  The issue is that most people who like yogurt grew up eating the stuff that was made using all sorts of fillers and stabilizers and such to give the yogurt the flavor and texture that it has.  It turns out most “traditional” yogurt doesn’t have that texture.  Of course, there is a way to have your yogurt and not have all the added stuff:  Buy Greek Yogurt.  Most Greek yogurts on the market don’t have any fillers because they are thick, due to having the moisture taken out of them.  An example, Chobani Greek Yogurt – Plain:

Cultured Pasteurized Nonfat Milk.

A second, just so you can see what’s in the flavored version, here is Chobani Greek Yogurt – Peach (to compare to the Yoplait Peach):

Cultured Pasteurized Nonfat Milk, Evaporated Cane Juice, Peaches, Locust Bean Gum, Pectin, Natural Flavor.

That’s it.  Really… just the requirements.  For me, if I have the choice between 6 ingredients and 14 ingredients to get me to the same product (peach yogurt), I’m gonna go for the 6.

May the schwartz be with you! Wait, wrong Yogurt...

2.  Why you don’t need to pay for “specialty” yogurts.

This week my little sister was visiting she mentioned to me that she had been buying Activia because it had “Bifidus Regularis” in it so it would make her stomach feel better.  It was at this point I felt the need to explain to her what that actually was.  You see, Dannon figured out an awesome marketing tactic: Take something that everyone uses, give it a new name, then have your commercials say you’re the only one who has it.  It’s as if KFC declared their chicken breed to be “Chicken Tastius” and only they use it.  Don’t take it from me, take it from them:

What is Bifidus Regularis™?
Bifidus Regularis™ is the marketing name of the natural probiotic culture in Activia® and Activia Light that has been clinically proven to survive passage through the digestive system, arriving into the large intestine as a live culture. Activia® and Activia Light with Bifidus Regularis™ are proven to help with slow intestinal transit. The scientific name of the Bifidus Regularis is Bifidobacterium animalis DN-173 010.

As well as:

Why is L. casei Immunitas® unique?
There are many L. casei culture strains, some already present in human intestinal flora. First identified in 1919, L. casei strains are used in a number of dairy products worldwide. The L. casei Immunitas® culture in DanActive is a proprietary strain that can only be found in Dannon’s DanActive. L. casei Immunitas® is the “fanciful” trademarked name for the L. casei culture that is only found in DanActive. This strain was selected by Danone Vitapole, Danone’s international research center.

Pretty much everyone who puts L. casei in their product uses their own strain.  The company Yakult Honsha in Japan uses the L. casei Shirota strain to do the same thing that Dannon does.  So what’s the issue here?  Well, you’re both paying a premium for these products as well as getting all the extra fillers.  Going back to Chobani (only because it’s what I happen to buy):

Probiotics aid the gut by increasing the number of helpful bacteria, and inhibiting harmful bacteria, and may strengthen the body’s immune response.  [...]  And just in case you’re wondering, yes Chobani Greek Yogurt does contain “good bacteria.” Each cup has three unique strains of probiotcs:

1. L. Casei
2. L. Acidophilus
3. Bifidus

Well, look at that!  They have their own unique strains, too!  Not only that, but both L. Casei and Bifidus are in their product together.  Yep, you don’t need to buy two yogurts for the same effect.

I tell ya, marketing departments should get more credit, they're sneaky!

3.  Why you should just buy plain yogurt.

Most yogurts come in the usual flavors like peach, blueberry, etc.  That’s all fine and well, but why should you have to let the yogurt company choose your flavor?  I’ve started buying interesting preserves, like golden plum, pear calamondine, fig and others and just mixing them in myself.

I doubt most of you have ever had these flavors in a yogurt, have ya?

Not only does it help you control the amount of sugar and such that you have (as you get to add it to taste), but it also allows you to get creative.  Fig yogurt is heavenly.  Seriously.  I usually buy preserves/jams/etc from the Farmer’s Market and use it in my yogurt.  By doing this I’m both supporting a very local business as well as getting flavors I usually wouldn’t (fyi, you can get some of these from Twin Oaks Farm online).  This morning I decided to have Pear Calamondine with a splash of my homemade vanilla extract…

Much tastier than the random stuff you could buy already mixed.

Doesn’t that look much better than the stuff you get already put together?  Seriously, give it a try!  Next I’m gonna try to make my own, as I have access to a local dairy farm and I’ve been wanting to try for a bit.  Have any of you ever made your own?  Do you have your own favorite things to do with yogurt?

Americans tend to graze rather than sit down and eat a full meal, so the food is tailored for convenience and Americans do not seem to be as discerning about quality.

That’s pretty harsh, but also kinda true.  Have you ever just wandered around the supermarket?  Between the Cheez Whiz, Chocolate-Chip Pancakes on a Stick and Guacamole made without those pesky avocados, it does kinda make you wonder when Americans just stopped caring what they ate.

Americans eat 31 percent more packaged food than fresh food, and they consume more packaged food per person than their counterparts in nearly all other countries. A sizable part of the American diet is ready-to-eat meals, like frozen pizzas and microwave dinners, and sweet or salty snack foods. [...]

The Japanese eat a large amount of packaged frozen seafood, but it undergoes very little processing and has few chemical additives. Some Europeans eat a similar amount of packaged food per capita as Americans, but much of it is bakery bread and dairy products, rather than things like frozen toaster pastries and artificial nondairy creamer.

They have a big ol’ graph that went along with the article for you to check out:

Packaged vs Real Food (click to go to the full graph)

You may notice that not only does the US lead in processed food, if you add all the pounds per capita, we also just plain eat more than the others.  Insane, isn’t it?  I mean, the easiest conclusion you could reach from the data above is that Americans want to eat low-quality, highly processed foods.  Why?  What would cause a people to put take off their kitchen apron and throw on a muumuu?

Hopefully with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on a major network and Michelle Obama bringing the cause of local, fresh foods to the front line, these facts will change over time.

It's back and out for blood!!

The KFC Double Down is Real! No Fooling. @ KFC

The new KFC Double Down sandwich is real and it’s coming April 12th! This one-of-a-kind sandwich features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!The Double Down comes in two versions: Original Recipe® or Grilled and the nutrition information is below.

And the nutrition info:

Did anyone think this day would come?  I honestly thought the news was a practical joke, but after talking to the PR person who contacted me, I honestly believe them. Not only do they have the site, but the Nutrition Data (pdf) has already been updated with the sandwich.  The only difference between the one I tried and the new model is the addition of a “Grilled” version, which I’m sure to try out for SCIENCE!

Get ready America… The Double Down is coming.  So… who’s gettin’ one?