The Food of 2006...

I am absolutely floored that tomorrow will be 2007. As many of you, I am busy thinking about the past year and thought I would mention some of the hot food news for the year 2006:

1. Bacon was the food of the year. It seemed everywhere I looked people were writing and/or eating bacon.
2. Spinach: the E Coli scare
3. Transfats are being eliminated-2006 was the first year where the concern of transfats were making the news and people/companies were eliminating their use.
4. Foie Gras banned in Chicago
5. Labeling: Labels are being re-evaluated and written clearer to identify healthier foods for shoppers.
6. Organics are the new marketing campaign for your neighborhood grocery store. Everyone knows about them and just about all grocery stores carry them.
7. Rachel Ray
8. The Hostess comeback- Everyone seems to be making their own versions of the Snowball to Twinkies. The kids of the 70s are all grown up and now we are reminiscing about the sweet snacks of our youth.
9. Cupcakes! Everyone was trying to decide who has the best cupcakes. It was fun trying them all. Even Sprinkles Cupcakes are my favorite. Bundt cakes made a comeback too...
10. Vending machines = healthy? Vending machines now providing healthy alternatives along with the traditional.
11. Obesity in children is the hot topic and the hot problem. Overall national attention was finally made.
12. Butterscotch was the comeback flavor...although it didn't last very long.
13. Going back to the farm-eating local for health. It seemed that 2006 made a wider impact about eating local and re-visiting your roots on the farm.
14. Pinkberry Frozen yogurt was "thee" food everyone was talking about for months! The LA Times called it "The taste that launched a 1000 parking tickets".
15. Fer Food! The blog Fer Food came into being!! Stay tuned 2007 for what we have planned next!

Happy New Year from Fer food!

Pretty Produce

I realized today what a sucker I am for pretty produce. I like a pretty squash or shiny apple. But-geez I think I am out of control! I went to the Pico Saturday market today (It is now my favorite market on the Westside). This market has vendors I have never seen before. I was like a kid in a candy store. I wasn't alone. At one point, I was looking at the multi-color cauliflower and announced out loud its beauty. The woman next to me agreed and we both sighed. I admitted to the agreeable stranger that I was a a sucker for pretty things....a sucker for pretty produce!

-Fer

Carbon McCredit?

How much do food items contribute to warming the globe? The world of "green" chose to calculate the carbons in an everyday hamburger. The article included many factors: growing and feeding the cattle for not only the beef but the cheese, growing the produce, storing and transporting the components and cooking for all of these items.

Another scary part of the article is that it says the typical American eats THREE burgers a week. Is this true? I eat a cheeseburger only a couple of times a year. How many do you eat?

Now with all of the talk of adding calorie numbers to menus this article asks if one day there will be a menu listing for carbon credits.

-Fer

Merry Christmas

Christmas. Another year has passed! I am shocked at how time flies. It seems to go faster every year. Here at Fer Food, we wish each one of you the merriest holiday season. We will be signing off for a few days but be back before the end of the week. We will have plenty of new stories and holiday photos to share!

-Fer

Food Photo Friday!

Hey Hot Lips!

Eat Your Cake and Wear it Too

Or AKA "A Cupcake For P.Diddy"! A Japanese department store has created a 100 million yen ($848,600) cake. And yes, it is edible although I would watch out as you may get one of the 100 diamonds stuck in your teeth.

The Cranberry

I love cranberries. What holiday table would be complete without those beautiful red berries? Those round berries have more health benefits than other fruits.

Some of the health benefits include: The cranberry lowers LDL cholesterol and raise HDL (good) cholesterol; It can possibly ward off cancer and they have been shown to inhibit cancer cell proliferation, particularly with the cells associated with breast cancer.

Cranberries are great dried and can easily be thrown into a salad. I like to use them as I use raisins. You can easily throw them into your cornbread batter. I like the sweet/tart combination of the corn with the cranberry. Recently, I found an appropriate drink for the holiday season. A cranberry martini!

The Holiday Martini
Servings: 1
• 2 ounces vodka
• 1/2 - 1 ounce vermouth
• 2 ounces cranberry juice
• Frozen cranberries for garnish
(the frozen cranberry acts as a small ice cube to keep the martini cold)

Pour the first three ingredients into a cocktail shaker with a few ice cubes. Shake for 10 seconds and strain mixture into a chilled martini glass. Float 3 cranberries for garnish (It has to be three or five..garnish is all about odd numbers).

-Fer

p.s. We also can't forget the traditional Jezebel Sauce I love so much.

The Pie People

Watch this funny cartoon about pie.

Holiday Indulgence

Obesity is the hot topic in the health world of late. Obesity in the US is at an all time high. In fact-we are the fattest country in the developed world. Weight is usually calculated by the Body Mass Index. It is a common weight measure used for adults that compare the weight and the height of a person.

I was listening to KCRW's Good Food over the weekend. This week Brian Wansink was on the show. He is the author of Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think. I enjoyed his points and look forward to reading his book.

So...you might ask..what does any of this have to do with holiday indulgence? Mr. Wansink gave an example of how many more Hershey Kisses you would eat from a bowl on your desk compared to a bowl that was moved away from direct access. People eat 70% less kisses if they have to get up and walk over to them. That statistic was shocking to me. So-put those holiday candies out of view and save yourself a pound or two.

Why are we so fat? It has to do with portion sizes, lack of exercise (eating more than your can burn) and not paying attention to our bodies as they eat. Most people eat while they read, watch TV, make a call or use the computer. No one just "eats to eat" anymore. If we paid more attention to the food we eat and our body's response to it, I believe we would be more apt to hear and feel when we are full. I am not saying these ideas and these ideas alone can solve our country's obesity problems but-I think these simple three ideas might be a good start.

Food Photo Friday!

The Nobel Prize Banquet

Have you ever wondered what people eat at the Nobel Prize banquet? The Menus can be viewed by year on their website.

Take a look.

The Pig Repeated

Have you ever had a day where subjects are repeated to you multiple times? It really is a strange phenomenom. Today that topic was bacon!

My friend Liz from Buffalo, NY emailed me this morning and gave me the link on the blog iheartbacon.com. She was responding to my past post on bacon flowers.

When I arrived home tonight I started reading my daily news and food feeds (get it food feeds?) and there was an article in the Dallas news about BACON!! The article lists the blog that Liz referred me. Wow. So-I guess the food of the day is bacon and I wanted you all to know! So-don't miss out and go and get yourself a BLT!!

-Fer

Interesting Tid Bits

An article in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine listed some patents that were issued this year. The writer color-coded the patents to classify them from "yuck" to brilliant". Here are a "Fer" selected few of the patent highlights:

NO. D527,165 Design for an ornamental cucumber sandwich
***This I had to see....so I looked it up. Click the link above to see illustration.
NO. 6,981,501 Personal air purifier seated in the user's nostrils
***This is for that person on your gift list that has absolutely everything.
NO. 6,998,112 Sleep-inducing toothpaste
***I thought this was brilliant. Just don't use it in the morning!!
NO. 7,047,648 Spoon with an extendable straw
***Better milkshake access!
NO. 7,060,314 Method of and apparatus for producing endless rolls of a resilient foodstuff
***I love the words "resilient foodstuff".
NO. 7,107,900 Apparatus for injecting an edible filling into a bagel
***Where does edible filling go if it is placed inside a bagel?

-Fer

Chips Ahoy!

What if you were walking down the beach....

The Art Show

My office had an art show last week. Everyone brought art to sell. Hmmmmm...I don’t make art.

What I decided to do is make my own version of “art”. I made caramels. My art was (hopefully)not only from the taste of the food but from the presentation of the food. I had a lot of fun creating the “look” of these caramels. I visited so many ideas but eventually it came back to my original idea. I used Chinese take-out containers and tied hemp and/or raffia string around them. I used the hemp string to signify the addition of caramel with “nuts” and white raffia string to signify “plain” caramel. I wrapped each caramel in wax paper with a twist of each end.

These sweet caramels are a family recipe. Although not difficult to make, with a little thought in packaging, the food became art.

-Fer

Protect Your Heart

I recently read an interesting post "99 Ways to Keep Your Heart Pumping". The blogger gives a great list on how to act now (this very minute)to prevent heart disease.

Recipe Boxes

Do you remember those little boxes that use to sit on a shelf? I remember growing up and everyone had one in their kitchen. My grandmothers, all of my aunts, my mom and each of their friends had one. I see such a change with the “old-fashioned” way we all handle our kitchens. We have laptops to handle the recipe finding now. Who needs an old recipe box? I do.

Recently, I have been cooking up my grandmother’s recipes. It has been so delightful to see her handwriting as I cook. It reminded me that even in the smallest way she is still with me when I cook. How wonderful it is that I have copies of her recipe cards! How sad it could be if my generation doesn’t have anything to hand down to their grandchildren except and old computer with some recipe files. I don’t want to knock technology. I am thrilled to look up and quickly find a recipe on the Internet; However, with all of that technology, we may miss out on some homegrown memories.

-Fer

Pie Cinnamon Rolls

For the holidays, my grandmother always used the left over pie dough to make cinnamon rolls. This weekend, I made some of her little rolls and ate them right out of the oven. They are easy to make and taste delicious.

1. Roll out your left over pie dough.
2. Sprinkle sugar and cinnamon over the dough.
3. Roll the dough to make a “cigar-like” shape. Cut the “cigar” to make the rolls. Each roll should be about an inch thick.
4. Group the rolls together to form a circle on a piece of aluminum foil.
5. Place in 350 degree oven and bake until lightly brown for about 15-20 minutes.

-Fer

p.s. Happy Birthday Mom!

Food Photo Friday!

Modular pie construction?

Photo above from www.instructables.com