Required reading from James Beard

Required reading from James Beard by Anjuli

Posted on 05-06-09

The 2009 awards were in Monday. One article I read mentioned the only way these awards could reach Oscar-worthy notoriety is if it was broadcast live. As Thomas Keller makes abundantly clear, not all celebrity chefs are comfortable with the camera (and apparently some journalists can only muster questions like “What did you eat for breakfast?”). I scrolled passed the obvious celebrity of Momofuku Ko, Dan Barber, and Jean Georges to the journalism awards.

The Pyramids by Anjuli

Posted on 05-01-09 · Tags: Diet, Food, Pyramid, USDA

The USDA food pyramid has been inadequate since its inception in 1992. It is accepted that each day we need to consume protein, fat, and carbohydrates, in addition to the 8 essential amino acids, a lot of water, and some vitamins and minerals. The sources of our nutrients and their volume, however, have been argued for centuries. The USDA food pyramid is so steeped in politics, $$$, and other non-food-related power struggles, it has caused a series of rebuttals over the years from a myriad of specialists and individuals alike, all eager to add their two cents. Below is a sampling of these alternative pyramids, some helpful, some witty, and some literally flipping the pyramid concept on its head.

Each image demonstrates the brilliantly iconic form of the pyramid, while also exposing the limitations of trying to encapsulate a diet in an isosceles triangle. These are just the tip of the iceberg.

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Traveling Monkeys

Digital polaroids documenting the daily life of two traveling monkeys.

This means “I had a good birthday” in sleep speak.

We’re going to Jackson (Hole) and we’re taking Harvey with us. As a PI he’s accustomed to traveling in stealth.

And the jury says? It’s toasty and pillowy soft. It’s so smooth you almost don’t realize what your eating is cold. Matt ate his toasted marshmallow custard ice cream with his eyes half closed.

Just made toasted marshmallow ice cream w/ homemade marshmallows and an egg custard base. Wow. It reminds me of my first real egg custard in Maine.

Mom says if you’re going to make your own ice cream, you just *have* to do it up right with custard. Next up, sugar punkin’. Holiday cooking rules. And since I seem to have started off with one of the most complicated recipes possible, it’s all easy breezy from here on out. Two hours and I’ll be tucking into ~~a big bowl~~ a spoonful from Matt’s bowl, says he (after we licked the whole machine clean). Who doesn’t love ice cream in winter?

The snow storm on October 24th devastated Simsbury. My mom had around 100 trees down on the path around the property, including a couple of treacherous Old Maids (cracked but still attached branches that hang vertically). So we’ve been walking around the property as much as we can, pruning and clearing and macheting and chainsawing.

We can’t really fathom how a bunch of heavy snow can take down all these trees and limbs, but we’ve seen the results firsthand. It feels good to be out in the woods, breathing in the leave dust and feeling the chilly November air of New England. We can’t complain. It is good to be home.