http://www.simplespoonful.com Your Guide to Reading Between the Tines Sat, 19 Dec 2009 03:54:16 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I have been popping into the kitchen almost daily to make up some wonderful concoctions for Christmas. So far, I have raspberry bars, oatmeal butter cookies, raw whole foods fudge, chocolate covered peanut butter balls, triple ginger gingersnaps, dark chocolate coconut bark sprinkled with sea salt, spiced candied nuts, caramel ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/12/18/cookies-and-goodies/ It took a bean pie to get me back here. It started with the beans themselves--heirloom Christmas beans splashed with maroon and cream. They are the size of giant Lima beans. Broad and flat, with  rich, chesnut flavor and creamy texture. These are the beans I wanted. I soak them, cook them, ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/11/26/thanksgiving-with-bean-pie-hold-the-turkey/ At the end of July, the Unicyclist and I went to Colorado for my cousin's wedding. It was a gorgeous affair at an amazing location near Pine. Best of all, we were lucky enough to stick around the state for a week afterward to enjoy the mountains and rivers of ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/08/18/mile-high-eats/ As the steaming asphalt may have reminded you, it's still summer. Perhaps, like me, you've recently spent some time thinking about how much people seem to do in the summer. They get married and go on trips, they light sparklers and host cookouts, they move houses and have reunions with ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/08/17/in-which-our-heroine-eats-well-across-state-lines/ It's July in the Sonoran Desert. The cicadas sing, dust storms roil on the horizon several times a week, the garden is dry and listless, and mesquite pods have begun to litter the ground. Meanwhile, I try to figure out when I can comb the neighborhood for mesquite pods to ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/07/19/back-to-the-blog-another-day-at-the-farm/ The White House garden is bearing fruit. And vegetables. I heard about it on NPR on my drive this afternoon. Sam Kass, White House Associate Chef, was talking about all the things the students of Bancroft Elementary have learned while working with Michelle Obama. These are the students who dug the ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/06/16/greens-for-everyone/ Well, as most of you are aware, I have joined the 9-5 crowd.  This explains my infrequent forays into the blogosphere these days.  Not only is there just a lot less time (thanks to the commute, plus the fact that I'm working 6 days a week while also finishing a ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/06/03/lunches-on-the-go/ Just for your reading pleasure, here's some tidbits I unearthed recently about food, industry, and the places they intersect.  In no particular order: 1) Six German states banned Red Bull Cola after the food safety agency in North Rhine-Westphalia (LIGA) found trace amounts of cocaine in the brew.  Austria-based Red Bull ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/05/26/food-news-of-the-weird/ Here's an interesting video that covers quite a bit of ground: swine flu and industrial ag, GMOs and overpopulation, politics and sustainability, and consumer confusion campaigns (including Cheerios). Pollan also mentions Michella Obama's White House garden, big ag subsidies, and the impact of the Standard American Diet on the ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/05/21/michael-pollan-food-ads-and-revolution/ It turns out that communists and their grand poo-bah (read: Barack Obama) hate Cheerios.  So says Ed Anger of the Weekly World News.  Now, I'm not familiar with Anger, and I have no idea if he shoots from the hip as a columnist or if his schtick is parody.  The ... http://www.simplespoonful.com/2009/05/18/why-communists-hate-cheerios-and-other-tales/