I love me some Obama, but with the $819 billion stimulus package that the WaPo helpfully calculated to be “larger than the combined total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan so far,” I’m getting deja vu.  Thanks, dudes, for evoking my favorite thing to bitch about in the Bush administration and making it look small in comparison to what our dear Lincoln incarnate will spend.

That inauguration night Daily Show clip comparing the “prose cheese” of the two administrations floated to the top of my mind today… and kind of sat there like a delicious, crusty piece of cheese toast on a bowl of French onion soup that turns out to be made with icky beef stock.

In case you missed it, here’s the clip:

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM – Th 11p / 10c

Changefest ’09 – Obama’s Inaugural Speech

http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:216538

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At long last, I’ve decided on my food-related resolutions. Want to hear ’em? I thought you’d never ask!

Here are the first three:

1. Make more stuff from scratch. I’ve had a blast these past couple of weeks with the time freed up by a break in classes. I packed my kitchen with homemade bread, granola, sauerkraut, cookies, and other goodies. I hope I can keep this up even when my schedule gets tighter. Continue reading →

As the JibJab look back at 2008 quips, “McCain has many houses, but none of them are white.” Obama does (or will) have a White House, and with great real estate comes great responsibility. Or so says an organization urging Obama to take the presidential residence on a left turn (notice the traffic signal) into the world of organic gardening. As heard on NPR, the WhoFarm project–which drives around this nifty bus with a garden on the top–is one of the groups encouraging Number 44 to go organic. They started even before we knew who would get the office, taking a cross-country tour and ending up in D.C. just before the election.

Michael Pollan is in on it, as is Kitchen Gardeners International. According to former White House executive chef Walter Scheib, previous presidents did grow and eat organic. Continue reading →

No, this post is not about inexpensive freeze-dried Apollo chili. While NASA’s working on innovative space food and recycled pee, I’m dealing with my own space challenge–cooking small.

When I first laid eyes on my current kitchen, the first word that came to mind was “mini.” I noted how the stove crowded four gas burners onto a range the size of a place mat, and that the cabinets looked like something you’d see in a fun house “skinny” mirror. The rest of the apartment proceeded to charm the pants off me, though, and I started to think of the kitchen as cute and livable. (At least it had actual cabinets with doors, which is more than I can say for my last one-person place). Once I moved in, I started thinking about how to continue to do the cooking I love in a smaller venue. With a little thought and a lot of trial and error, the kitchen really is becoming livable and cookable. I thought I’d share some of my space-saving fixes here. Continue reading →

Checking out the Chronicle of Higher Ed’s Mama Ph.D. blog for a friend who’s about to become one, I came across this post. It fascinated me on a number of levels. This mini essay not only depicts the reality of standard nutrition education, but demonstrates the complexity of parenthood and good writing technique to boot.  I love how the writer knows 10 times more than the presenters and has better things to do with her time, but in the end she must go because her daughter can’t let her miss the “party at school.” And the “hand-drawn poster,” “tiny plates,” and “little plastic glass of water” emphasize the amateur and futile nature of it all.

Those three aspects of the writing aren’t even what the post is about. The writer wants community, she says, and what better way to develop that than combining pedagogical technique and food? She also makes this point elegantly through the piece. As a foodie and writer, I approve of the commentary and the technique.

You have to give those nursing students props for serving quinoa, though. And why couldn’t the mom just stick out a hand and introduce herself to someone? Well, as I have demonstrated many times, no blog post is perfect.

You know that thing about how variety is the spice of life? It’s kind of true, but do you know what I think is really the spice of life? Spice is the spice of life. And herbs, too. Just take a look in my spice cabinet and you’ll know what I’m talking about. You’ll be like “Damn, that girl has a lot of spice(s).” And you’ll be right. Many of them you  might not recognize. That’s okay – it takes me a minute, too.

Well, recently I added a few more to my collection of esoteric seasonings. I thought I’d share with you these new additions to the family, and how they’ve livened up my life. Throughout, you’ll find links to the Epicentre Encyclopedia of Spices, which sounds like it knows what it’s talking about. Continue reading →

…of the fall issue of Edible Chesapeake. Check it out! You just might see a little article by your favorite onion-affinitied foodie blogger. The magazine is available at all the FreshFarm Markets farmers’ markets, Whole Foods, Coppi’s Organic on U Street, and other fine establishments.

Want to see how real people whose regular breakfast isn’t granola eat local? Check out Locavore Nation. The eastern region blog includes someone close–Autumn Long from West Virginia. But just to warn you, she’s kind of an exception to the “real people” rule. Her average breakfast is probably not only crunchy, but plucked that day from a tree of crunchy things that she and her homesteading husband planted with their own hands.

While I like the book and the people behind Veggie Revolution, I don’t think you have to write a manifesto to invoke change through food.

Maybe you can start with food resolutions you’d like to make. Got any?

Here are a few of mine: Bake bread more often, and don’t always use the bread maker; invite people over for dinner; educate myself about the global food crisis.

As the saying goes, a good wok is hard to find. Or maybe that’s my own oddball variation on something people actually say. But the point is that you can’t just wake up one day in the middle of DC, USA and find yourself a wok by nightfall. You have to know what you want, first of all, and then you have to troll the websites and the stores–and, yes, rely on a little luck–to get it. Continue reading →