Some Notes On The Grocer

I want to write about food a little more. I enjoy planning big meals, the marketing, the cooking, and sitting around a table with friends and family. I am also working on a post on cloning food animals, yuccch!)

I own stacks of cookbooks. These allow me to compare recipes I might enjoy, they teach me some about ingredients, methods, and even the history of modern cooking. I especially enjoy reading the cooking writing of Richard Olney, an American who lived most of his working life in France. His book Simple French Food will blow your mind! Olney cooked in a rustic kitchen in Solliès-Toucas in Provence, France; and it affected his cooking. He cooked directly from the land with the freshest ingredients available to him His food ethic profoundly impacted Alice Waters and he American restaurant Chez Panisse. Olney’s food ethic gets an homage in Waters Chez Panisse cookbook: “The recipes of Elizabeth David and Richard Olney provided a starting point and inspiration to us; and we soon realized that the similarity of California's climate to that of the south of France gives us similar products that require different interpretations and executions. My one unbreakable rule has always been to use only the freshest and finest ingredients available.”

I find trips to my local market increasingly disturbing (even before cloned meats). I avoid the center aisles. Start with the fresh produce, then move to talk to the butcher about grass-fed beef. In the winter I move into frozen for organic corn and peas in poly bags. Next I make my way to the baker for whole grain breads. I admit this is easy. I have an Organic co-op not 7 miles away in two directions, and a bakery across from them. Also I know how to cook.

It can be disheartening sometimes. I find myself biting my tongue every trip to the local big chain. Inevitably I pass along an aisle with another couple pushing their cart. In the bottom , they have loaded as many cases of soda as will fit, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Sven-Up, and the odd Diet Coke. The cart bottom will be filled with frozen entrees, usually in green boxes or otherwise denoting “Natural” or ‘Light” terms with no real nutritional meaning. Next are packets of white bread, hot dog and burger buns, and maybe English muffins. The vast center will be filled with chips. Sour Cream and Onion, Bar-b-Que, Mesquite, Cheese puffs, tortilla chips with salsas, and then cracker. Saltines, Ritz-Bits, Gold Fish feature heavily. On top are those green boxes of “snack well” cookies, as though these make up for the excesses of the whole.

I hope that America can shake it’s addiction to high-fructose corn syrup HFCS. Run a web search and you will notice an unending number of hits. On one side, researchers find a direct ,ink to HFCS and obesity (we drink millions of pounds in our daily soda). Opposed to the science will be the industry stooges, who generally argue that the direct link can be disputed, a little. Better that we should turn all this extra, federal subsidized corn production into gasoline. At least in the short term it will make a better fuel for cars then people.

Christmas Menu

(form my cookbook available for download at http://www.savefile.com/projects/1056511)

House Salad with Pomegranate Seeds

Carrot and Orange Soup

Roasted Red Potatoes

Cole Slaw

Spiral Cut Honey Ham

Pineapple Bake Dressing

Pomegranate Granité

Apple Crisp À la mode

Have a safe and Happy New Year--Party on Dude!