Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

So, I got rear ended this week and what I've lost in mobility and ease of mind... I hope to gain in perspective. But I don't think that's going to happen in light of my most recent fixation - the honey bees. I know... I'm a bit late in boarding that worry train. Häagen Dazs has already infused the cause with it's ad campaign that has left an indelible mark on my consciousness. Unfortunately, this obsession reveals more about the lack of stimulation in my daily life than the genius of the company's graphics and the wit of the people responsible for posting honeybee trivia on their videogame cum pleasuregarden cum acidflashback cum comeagain? website: HelpTheHoneyBees.com

As I rest in bed with my laptop, thinking of my next chiropractic visit, trying not to make any quick movements while controlling an animated honeybee that leads me through the strangely enchanting Häagen Dazs fields, these are the things of immediate concern:

• every third bite of food produced in the U.S requires the pollination of fruits and vegetables by honeybees
• does my local supermarket carry the all new Häagen Dazs Vanilla Honey Bee Flavor? Will they deliver it?
• how long will it be before I can do a head stand? (better than horse tranquilizers for its enduring calming effect)
• my chiropractor's tapered fingers were so pretty - he is a man over 6 feet tall - but his fingernails were like almonds
• almonds - they are completely dependent upon honeybee polllination - and they are the perfect nut
• did you know that honeybees (Apis mellifera)are actually an invasive species? Yup, they arrived in the U.S. with the first European colonists
• local bee pollen is said to relieve or cure allergies when added to your diet
• honey will NEVER spoil - I kind of like it when it starts to look like a childhood crystal growing experiment - crunchy!
• I've got to plant some nasturtiums and so should you - you can eat these low maintenance, colorful flowers and they feed wild bees

Weighing The Dog

It is awkward for me and bewildering for him
as I hold him in my arms in the small bathroom,
balancing our weight on the shaky blue scale,

but this is the way to weigh a dog and easier
than training him to sit obediently on one spot
with his tongue out, waiting for the cookie.

With pencil and paper I subtract my weight
from our total to find out the remainder that is his,
and I start to wonder if there is an analogy here.

It could not have to do with my leaving you
though I never figured out what you amounted to
until I subtracted myself from our combination.

You held me in your arms more than I held you
through all those awkward and bewildering months
and now we are both lost in strange and distant
neighborhoods.

by Billy Collins

Spinach, Almond, Raisin Frittata

Serves 3 to 4



12 oz baby spinach
Extra-virgin olive oil (preferably first cold-pressed)
1 medium onion, cut into 1-inch dice
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, or more to taste
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup toasted, crushed, and salted almonds
5 large eggs plus 1 egg white
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon each salt and fresh-ground black pepper
1/2 cup fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, Asiago or Pecorino-Romano cheese
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Chop the spinach. Film a 10-inch skillet (with an ovenproof handle) with oil, and heat over medium high. Add the onions and a little salt and pepper. Sauté them to golden brown.
2. Stir in the garlic and then stir in the spinach in 2 batches. As the first batch wilts, add the second. Stir over medium high until all the leaves wilt. Stir in the thyme, raisins, and nuts, and remove the pan from the heat.
3. Beat together the eggs, milk, salt, pepper, and 2/3 of each of the cheeses. Pour the mixture over the cooked spinach. Sprinkle with the remaining cheeses, cover with foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake 10 to 12 minutes more, or until a knife inserted in the center comes out with only a few bits of creamy egg and cheese clinging to it.
4. Let the frittata stand 5 to 10 minutes before cutting it into wedges. You may also serve this cold (leftovers!) or at room temperature which makes it a great dish for a party. Make two and you can eat when you and your friends wish – not when the dish is at a particular temperature.

****(Perhaps Obvious) Tips - be careful when setting the skillet out, it’s easy to forget that the handle’s hot. To make the work easy, use a large serrated knife to chop/crush the almonds.

****Frittatas are Italian omelets (they probably preceded the French omelette) that are partially cooked on the stovetop and then transferred to the oven. "Frittata" is more fun to say than omelette and requires no fancy flipping or obsessive-compulsive folding. That means you needn't suffer from any of the stress related to turning out a perfect dish or angst when it looks like a preschooler had a party on your plate.

Recipe by Cristina Paul

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

Globalization At Its Best
South Korean 3 Year Old, Ha Youngwoong, Rocks


It's Mother's Day today and if this lovely little crooner doesn't make you want to procreate, nothing will. By the way, Mother's Day in the U.S. was initially intended to unite women against war. Julia Ward Howe was a social activist who wrote a Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870 to promote peace and disarmament. President Woodrow Wilson made the holiday official in 1914.

Falling




The truth is

that I fall in love




so easily because

it's easy. It happens



a dozen times some days.             lovely women in the world,

I've lived whole lives,               but because each time,




had children,                   dying in their arms

grown old, and died             I call your name.




in the arms of other women

in no more time




than it takes the 2-train
to get from City Hall



to Brooklyn,
which always brings me




back to you:

the only one




I fall in love with

at least once every day—




not because

there are no other



by Patrick Phillips, from Boy © 2008.

Graham Cracker Cake

Serves 10 -12

Ingredients for Cake:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
5 large eggs, separated
1 1/4 cup whole milk
33 graham crackers, (about 2 3/4 cups) finely crushed in a food processor
3 Tbsp all purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups baker's sugar or superfine
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts


Directions for Cake:
1. Preheat oven to 350˚. Allow butter, eggs, and milk to come to room temp. Grease a 10x15x1” baking sheet and cut parchment paper to fit the bottom. In a large bowl stir together all the dry ingredients (except sugar).
2. Beat butter on medium-high speed in a mixer for 30 seconds. Beat in sugar until well combined. Beat in yolks one at a time.
3. Combine milk and vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture. Beat on low speed until just combined. Gently stir in the walnuts.
4. In a clean bowl, whisk egg whites on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold 1 cup of whites into the batter. Then fold the rest in. Do not over mix.
5. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 25 - 30 minutes – cake should spring back to the touch. Cool cake in pan on wire racks for about 10 minutes. Then carefully invert onto a cooling rack and remove parchment paper. Cut cake crosswise into 3 equal pieces. Cool completely before frosting.

Ingredients for White Frosting:
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
4 3/4 powdered sugar, divided
3 Tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Directions for white frosting: Beat butter on medium-high and slowly, add 2 cups of powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt. Gradually beat in the rest of the powdered sugar until the frosting is a smooth consistency. Frost the cake and decorate with walnuts, candied ginger, or bits of broken graham crackers

***Historical factoid: A Dr. Graham invented the graham cracker because he feared that youngsters might become perverse if they consumed too many sugary foods. So he set out to create a recipe for a bland cracker to satisfy children's appetites for snacks without igniting their potentially fiery sexual appetites. Thank goodness for the puritanical resourcefulness of Dr. Graham. What would preschool snack time, campfires, and everyday life be like without these delightful, rectangular munchies?

Recipe adapted by Cristina Paul from a 2004 Better Homes and Gardens contest winner

Blah-Blah-Blahg: Food For Nought

F sells...
or at least an open-mouthed shot of privileged teenagers leaves so very little to the vivid imaginations of Gossip Girl's viewers. That way, the CW needs only to suggest the scenarios which the network and the censors will not allow. So Gossip Girl really DOESN"T put the F in OMFG. My response to the OMFG campaign: WTFC