oh, eau.

i think this boxed water idea is really cool.

and, on the subject of water, here's another scary graphic.

one more.

i had to eat one more fried egg before i go to iceland tonight. this was an easy-easy meal. it includes: the last two pieces of sourdough bread (toasted), baby carrots, fancy lettuce salad, and a chunk of jalapeno jack cheese. and i fried the egg in butter instead of olive oil, which made it nice and greasy.

and p.s. i ate some chips too.

banana-na-na-na-na.

my new-ish friend jack came over on tuesday for breakfast. exciting. exciting.

i decided to make banana bread for the occasion. (and fried eggs, obviously. and other morning goodies.) it was important that i make something tasty and something that it is practically impossible to mess up. i have made this recipe a million times so i felt confident that i wouldn't burn down the house or anything.

i promised courtney i would make it for her as soon as she moves to new york. in the meantime, here's the easy recipe for everyone to enjoy. compliments of tina.

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup butter, soft
2 eggs
2 lg or 3 small bananas
(you can also add 1 cup nuts or 1 cup chocolate chips)

1. mix butter and sugar. beat in eggs.
2. add flour, baking soda, and salt. mix thoroughly.
3. add bananas. (this is when you would add the chocolate or nuts. i added flax seeds!)
4. bake at 350 for at least 1 hour. sometimes it takes longer.

yum.

crazy sugar.

we are in the midst of eating what i call the crazy sugar. it looks like dirt and tastes like earth. what is it, you ask? officially, it is unrefined whole cane sugar. it is not my favorite.

so i am using agave nectar in my coffee, which i love love love.

look.

i have a variety of emotions about this graphic.

day of fun.

michelle and i embarked on a "day of fun" yesterday. this was apparently "day of fun 2.5." (for those paying attention, this is "burrito" michelle, my colleague.) we went to grimaldi's. i had never been. i was possibly the last resident of new york who had never even tasted their pies. even my parents have.

it was incredible. quite possibly the best pizza i have ever had. i cannot think of better. thin, baked, crispy crust, fresh mozzarella, a bit of basil and perfect tomato sauce. really. and i never gush about pizza.

so we looked at whimsical french children's books and travelogues in the lovely powerhouse bookstore. and then. voila! almondine. we bought both passionfruit and pistachio macarons. the passionfruit was so tasty that we had to go back for more. and then! we bought black currant and raspberry as well.
and then, of course, beer. michelle drank a beer called mother's milk. i am not kidding. it's made in new york by keegan ales. she loved it. and she's got good taste (and takes great photos).

something funny.

because food politics are serious.

read here. ha.

the brave new world.

mother jones tries to help us understand what a new, sustainable food system might look like. because, apparently, "organic and local is so 2008."

rock rockin' it.

president obama wants to make our food safer to eat. me too. he thinks the failure to inspect 95% of food-processing plants was “a hazard to the public health.” well, that's an understatement.

Mr. Obama announced the creation of a Food Safety Working Group, which will include the secretaries of health and agriculture, to advise him on which laws and regulations need to be changed, to foster coordination across federal agencies, and to ensure that laws are enforced. Along with Mr. Obama’s announcement, Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary, announced that “downer cattle,” or those that cannot walk, will be banned from slaughter. In the past, cattle that passed a pre-slaughter inspection and then became injured could be sold into the food system if an inspector certified the meat as safe. This case-by-case exception system will be abandoned. Last year, only about 1,000 out of 34 million slaughtered cattle got into the food supply with such exceptions.

i think i should be a part of the food safety working group. i know things.

snow day.

we had a snow day on march 2nd. it was the first time in at least 5 years that there has been a snow day when the schools closed. it was so exciting. what a treat.

i already needed to go to the grocery store when we got the snow day. and i was not going to go in 10 inches of snow. i had another ready-set-cook moment. i had to make do with what i had in the house.

so.
i boiled rice vermicelli noodles with part of a vegan-bouillon cube. then, i stir-fried broccoli and kale in sesame oil with onion and garlic. i tossed everything together, including the broth. it became a nice soup-like noodle dish, though the picture does it little justice. (the soup part is not even evident!)

small time.

this photograph looks like it has yellowed over time, like i found it in the attic. but those are bosc pears, which have an orangey-yellowy color to them. and tortilla chips. because meals need chips. ha. to that, i laugh at myself. i love chips.

and sprouts. i was in a sprout-eating phase for a moment there. on sandwiches specifically. this is a super egg sandwich (eggs over medium) with dill havarti and sprouts.

yes. breakfast. i know.

it's like i want to eat breakfast all of the time. especially breakfast tacos.

i typically buy corn tortillas, because the flour ones (which i actually enjoy more) tend to have all sorts of processed and inexplicable ingredients. i also love potatoes, but never make them. there are certain lovely food products that i love and rarely cook and just eat them in restaurants, or when someone makes them for me. potatoes, for sure. in any capacity.

but i made some last weekend. i boiled them for a little while first so that when i put them in the oven, it wouldn't take very long. i cooked them on high heat with olive oil, rosemary, and a bit of salt and pepper.

i am sure you have noticed that i mostly fry my eggs, but breakfast tacos warrant scrambled eggs. so i scrambled these onions, and sprinkled shredded havarti over them. i am obsessed with havarti; it's like butter. so creamy. i want to eat it on everything.

and salsa. what's a taco without salsa? or a meal, for that matter?
i hope my goddaughter-to-be likes spicy food.

more on safety.

i, apparently, woke up angry. i cannot even deal with this article.

it's official. food safety inspectors exist. but do not notice serious issues.

damn it, janet.

safety and definitions.

let's define organic. in terms of food production. the short version? because it's complicated.

lacking in synthetic substances. no fertilizers or hormones.

the us department of agriculture has rules. a person can't just label anything it wants to be organic. and no one said organic would taste better, or keep you from getting sick, or save the world. it's just that there are plenty of us who do not want to eat too much pesticide. so, there are specifications.

in the nytimes dining section this week, there was an article about people making a decision not to buy organic food anymore because of the recent salmonella outbreak. one has nothing to do with the other. i have been thinking about this article for days and it just makes me mad. organic food can become contaminated in the same ways that conventional food can become contaminated. the organic label is about its creation and treatment.

read the article, and then disregard it. people are lacking intelligence. and any kind of analytical skills. that's why the economy is a bust.

it's like people have chosen NOT to look both ways before crossing the street.

with the good silverware.

you see? i eat dinner.

it's just not as pretty as breakfast and lunch. i don't usually photograph lunch because i am at work and that would be weird. i did just get one of these for my sandwiches. less trash. whoohoo.

anyhow, i was reading about ricotta salata last week and decided to buy some, for use in some sort of pasta dish. i sauteed garlic, onion, and tomatoes with some crushed red pepper and basil. i poured this mixture over my spaghetti and then crumbled the ricotta salata over it.

the cheese is a bit like feta in texture, and not creamy like traditional ricotta. i am unsure if i will buy it again. but i do plan to eat all of it. obviously.

the promise.

blake got his coupon from dr pepper. i did not.

real fear.

in my crazier food moments, i don't want to eat anything processed. i just want whole foods. i don't mind if they are deep-fried, as long as it is in a plant-based oil. i like fatty foods: avocados, potato chips, french fries, macaroni and cheese. many, many other things.

and i don't have children. if i did, i think it would be difficult to explain my weird food philosophies. why i wouldn't serve them mcdonald's fries and burgers but why we could have them at home. why sometimes oatmeal is ok and sometimes it isn't. i would be neurotic. i know it. parenting is difficult.

this week, i read an article about how the way that parents deal with food often gives their children anxiety, perpetuates eating disorders, makes them unable to just eat. the kids want to be good, to eat right, and they can't understand the nuances in their diets.

Many try to stick to an organic diet. In general, their concern does not stem from a fear of obesity — although that may figure into the equation — but from a desire to protect their families from conditions like hyperactivity, diabetes and heart disease, which they believe can be avoided, or at least managed, by careful eating. While scarcely any expert would criticize parents for paying attention to children’s diets, many doctors, dietitians and eating disorder specialists worry that some parents are becoming overzealous, even obsessive, in efforts to engender good eating habits in children. With the best of intentions, these parents may be creating an unhealthy aura around food. “We’re seeing a lot of anxiety in these kids,” said Cynthia Bulik, the director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “They go to birthday parties, and if it’s not a granola cake they feel like they can’t eat it.”

ergh. it's so hard. reading this, my heart broke a little.