Grandma Crabtree's Ole Bollens

1 pket of yeast
1 c lukewarm milk
2 1/4 c flour
2 t salt
1 egg
1 qt vegetable oil
conectioners sugar or
regular sugar and cinnamon mixed

Pour yeast into cup of lukewarm milk, stirring, let it sit for 5 min till soft.
Sift flour and salt into large bowl.
Stir in yeast mixture and egg into flour mixture till smooth.
Stir in currents
Cover bowl of dough, set it in a warm place and let rise untill double, about 1 hour

Heat oil in deep fat fryer to 375 degrees-this is critical-if the oil is to low the ole bollens will be tough and greasy.
Form dough into balls with spoons and drop into oil.
Cook for about 8 minutes
Roll in sugar and cinnamon or dust with confectioners sugar

My grandma only made these once a year, at Halloween. They are terrific! As fun as it was going into Lynden and trick or treating, it was going to grandmas that we waited for. There is nothing like walking into a house that smells like doughnuts and sugar. Did it matter if some where tough? Nope. While we were there different family groups would stop by-it was so much fun. I really miss my grandma and love doing it for my own kids. Now that I'm grown and am conscious about I eat, I've decided an occasional deep fried food item occassionaly will do much much harm. -at least when it comes to ole bollens! As a side note, I brought them to a Hanukkah party and it turns out my Jewish friends have a similar doughnut in their tradition.

My Favorite Recipe

Louisiana Seafood Gumbo
-Olive oil, for sautéing
-Medium-sized onions, coarsely chopped
-Clove garlic, finely chopped
-Green bell pepper, coarsely chopped
-Baked okra, sliced
-Chopped tomatoes
-Stock, recipe follows
-Shrimp heads reserved for stock
-Sliced hotlinks
-Cleaned crab and chopped into chunks
-Lemon slices
-Chopped green onions
-Served with rice

Directions:
-Coat a large saucepan with oil and cook the onions until translucent. Add the garlic, bell peppers, and okra. Add the roux and mix thoroughly to pick up all the excess oil in the pot.

-Next add the tomatoes and bring the mixture to a boil. When mixed, strain the stock and add it to the pot, mixing thoroughly to prevent lumps. Cover with lid, bring to the boil and cook for 20 minutes. Clean the shrimp and sauté in a separate pan to get rid of any excess moisture. When they have turned pink add the shrimp and crab to the gumbo. Cook for 10 minutes. Lastly, add lemon slices and chopped green onions

Food Network, "Louisiana Seafood Gumbo". 05/30/10 .

Here is my family's Alfredo recipe:

Fettuccine with Alfredo Sauce – 4 servings


This is an enhanced Alfredo Sauce using three cheeses.

We have also added garlic and mushrooms to a basic

Alfredo Sauce. Parmesan, the third cheese, is tossed with

the noodles and also passed around the table.

4 tablespoons butter

4 cloves garlic, chopped

A handful of sliced mushrooms

1 and 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Dash of white pepper

1 and l/2 cups half-and-half (light cream)

2/3 cup shredded semi-soft cheese like

Provalone or Mozzarella

1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola (we use Feta)

8 ounces medium-wide noodles

¾ cup grated Parmesan Cheese
Begin by bringing water to boil in a large saucepan.

(Cook noodles as package directs.)
In a small fry pan, over medium low heat, melt 1 tablespoon butter

and sauté the garlic and mushrooms until lightly browned (2-3 minutes).

Remove from heat. Set aside.

In a 2-quart pan over medium-low heat, melt 1 and ½ tablespoons of the butter. Mix in flour, nutmeg, and pepper; cook. Stirring until bubbly. Slowly stir in half-and-half; cook, stirring constantly until sauce

gently boils and thickens. Mix in semi-soft and Gorgonzola cheeses until blended. Add garlic and mushrooms. Turn heat to lowest temperature to keep warm.
Toss cooked noodles with 1 and ½ tablespoons butter and ½ cup of the Parmesan cheese. Use the remaining cheese on the sauce.

Favorite Recipe

Here is a link to my favorite meat pizza recipe. I'm a big pizza fan and tried this one a few months ago and loved it :)

http://www.razzledazzlerecipes.com/super-bowl-recipes/hearty-meat-pizza.htm

8th Post

Breaded Eggplant w/ Lamb Gravy
-Family Recipe, not written down, dictated to me.

After roasting a leg of lamb, take the drippings and combine with water and flour roux and create some lamb gravy. Pour into small pot & set aside

Peel a large eggplant
Cut into slices 1/2 inch thick
Spinkle with salt
Cover the slices with a wet paper towel
(this removes the bitterness of the eggplant)

Prepare a bowl of flower and small bowl of whipped eggs
and a plate of bread crumbs

Let the eggplant stand for an hour
Take a frying pan, pour a 1/2 inch of olive oil and bring to high heat
(sizzling)

Now take the eggplant slices
Dip in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs
Then fry on both sides
Fry untill golden brown

Create several and serve with lamb gravy

Enjoy

The most readily apparent element of each of these websites it the biases that the creators hold in terms of each. With both the Mon Santo site and “saynotogmos.org”, their motivations are quite clear, as the author, their purpose for providing this information, and their biases are clear within the realm of the work. Because of this, when it comes to instilling any particular fears about eating genetically modified foods, the assertions of either site simply cannot be taken at face value. Still, there some notion about fearing something upon which so much debate rests. That said, the fact that there is so much debate does create the precedent for a great degree of openness regarding the issue, whether it is simply labeling the products using genetically modified ingredients. Even though the industry might claim that this might lead to a consumer backlash, discussion is still the best method to promote greater safety and responsibility. With the internet, even though there still may be some form of contact, as was apparent on the sites, there remains a disconnect between the viewer and information supplier, separated by technology and geography. There is little accountability this way, the individual can make variable assertions and suffer few repercussions for their actions. Because of this, even though a website may be accessible to the user, the fact remains that this form of media allows a certain degree of anonymity and thus potential irresponsibility on the part of the author.


Here are two opposing viewpoints regarding the issue:

“Attack of the Really Quite Likable Tomatoes” Economist 27 Feb. 2010: 16. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 May 2010.

Clark, John. “Why Should We Believe in GM?” Farmers Weekly 24 Oct. 2008: 56. Academic Search Complete. Web. 24 May 24, 2010.

7th Blog Assignment

I feel the site with the least reliable information is of course saynotogmos.com. Like the others have stated below me, they used no sources in siting their information and seemed very biased in opinion. Next on the list I would rate monsanto.com as the middle reliable site. It provided very little actual facts and information, rather more info on trying to "sell" me into believing what they believe in. I feel the most reliable site for actual information and facts is the nature.com site. The nature.com site did the best job siting sources of where the information came from and was most professional to read, though a bit boring.

After reading through all of these I am still unsure about genetically modified foods and how I feel about them. Going into this, it just seems so impossible to do anything about. It's such a large issue that seems near impossible to solve. People are not going to start paying much more for foods just because they are not genetically modified. People want low prices... it's that simple. And until organic foods can get their prices down to similar levels that these genetically modified foods, I don't see the majority of people switching over anytime soon.

However, regardless of price/demand and the whole social issue of selling genetically modified foods, I really don't see any reason why all foods shouldn't be labeled that they are genetically modified. Like the person said below me, we should all know what we are eating and how it is made. We have the right to know. That way it is up to the CONSUMER to decide whether they are okay with eating genetically modified foods or not. To me, that makes the most logical sense.

Azadi, Hossein; Ho, Peter. "Genetically modified and organic crops in developing countries: A review of options for food security" Biotechnology Advances Vol 28, Issue 1. Jan 2010.

7th Blog

Reading over the websites the most biased information I saw was saynotogmos.org. Although I know I should be avoiding genetically modified food, these people do not even give contact information to debate on the issue. The second of course was monsanto, they are selling me something. Nature.com seemed to get their message across but since I am still not entirely sold on the importance of this issue, I had trouble reading through the whole website. Yes Food Inc shocked me but I do not think I need to examine every bite of food I eat.

I do not have qualms about eating genetically modified food, yet. But I do have some long term health problems that I've become slightly lethargic about. Maybe once I get hit with some sort of revelation: a doctor convincing me to switch to holistic medicine or a week of eating all organic clearing my senses, maybe then I'll really start to think about how this will affect my health. I think right now I need to think globally (what gmos is doing to this planet) because it is difficult to see the importance of paying top dollar for food.

I think all food should be labeled genetically modified, it should be part of the freedom of information act. I cannot see any reason why food should not be labeled genetically modified or organic or trans-fat or fat-free or whatever else people want or need to know. We should all know what we are eating and we should all be able to make the decision of whether we want to eat it or not, it's our bodies, no one has a right to tell us what goes in it.

Staff. "Attack of the Quite Likeable Tomatoes." Economist. Feb 2010: 394. pg16

Staff. "GM Faces Unfair Regulation." New Scientist. Feb 2009. 201. pg 5

Blog 7 Big Business Again

The Monsanto site was a terrific selling tool-easy to get around and pleasant to look at-green and healthy looking. Scitable was pretty good for I think unbiased info. Phd's wrote in and responded asn well as others who cited and used a reference page. The sayno website seemed to be an opinion page. There was no author or group taking credit, although some of the responders included their name and reference sheet. This was very had to trust-it could have been a government ploy to see who their detractors are.

Do I have qualms about eating GMO's? Yes! And what gets me is that I'm sure I have for years even thought I have yet to see products labled GMO's. The Scitable website brought up my concerns: we don't know the long tem consequences of consuming a GMO-how much is to much?Especially in the case of the biotech companies wanting to add vaccines to food. It seems like they will create a resistance to the vaccine. It makes me sick that business is tampering with fish and animals to make them grow larger, quicker. I'm angry that peopleare ruining the food chain for the entire world. The "reason" for this, (rather exscuse) is to feed third world countries-the answer to world hunger. And I really hate that those people are getting this food with no choice at all-no one is giving them the option to take it or not.

I believe the FDA has refused to enforce labeling because of their big business ties. The fact that their leaders come from the different food companies tells us all that we need to know aobut the FDA -that and they do not have the publics best interest at heart.

I'm sure some really sincere people are working on biotech stuff to 'feed the third world', thinking theyare doing a service for mankind. Isn't that just what the mortgage brokes said as well? "We were just trying to get the people into a house", leading to banking and financial collapeses in the US. And behind it all were a few big business (financial) firms.

Nakaya, Andrea C., ed. America in teh Twenty-first Century: Opposing Viewpoints Farmington
Hills. Greenhaven Press, 2006. Print

GMO

After reading the websites I feel that the saynotogmos site was really bias and one sided. I mean I noticed they had some good information like regulation and labeling, gmo and children, and also the safety of gmos. The site has basically articles for everything on gmo’s and even about Monsanto. I feel the Monsanto site just basically covers the breeding and biotechnology of their seeds, but doesn’t provide too much information. From taking a few health classes and from watching Food Inc, Monsanto controls the seeds and farmers basically. They modify corn, cotton, oilseeds, vegetables and fruit seeds and In-the-seed traits that protect against bugs and weeds. So basically they have the upper hand in the seed industry and when farmers don’t cooperate they get a big lawsuit. I feel that the tinyurl.com site provided good information as well. Like I found it interested that they labeled the approved commercial products like plum, soybean, canola and corn. They also listed the products that are in the development like rice, maize, Coho salmon and tobacco. I felt I learned a lot from this site, and I fell the information was valuable because I had no idea that plums were virus resistant. I also thought learned that soybean was herbicide tolerance, and I don’t really see that this site is too bias I feel it just informs you more about gmo and its risks. I think that they all provided useful information, but none of them changed my mind about eating gmo foods because I have been eating them for so long already and I don’t see why I will just change my eating habits all of a sudden. I mean I definitely am more aware of what I eat now, and am trying to eat a little healthier but I don’t think there’s going to be a point where I just completely stop eating gmo foods. I do feel that foods should be labeled because there are a lot of people who eat them without knowing they are genetically modified. I feel we should at least have the right to have our foods labeled, because although the companies are making and modifying the food, we are the ones eating them. So I think it’s only right we do as the Europeans, and that maybe can be a step towards more healthy people. Because with the percent of obese children and adults here America we got to start making some changes when it come to food and labeling could be a good start.

Sixth Blog

Although this is not my first time learning about where foods are processed and where they come from, I still found it very interesting. One of the biggest impacts for me was the how the beef and chicken are produced. I find myself eating a lot of fast food and I know at anytime, I could be at risk for some of contaminations that are in those meats. No factory is perfect, especially with the employees working at extremely fast pace they do. Even if the USDA clears the meat for being safe, they still aren’t a hundred percent accurate because, they rely on being able to see if the meat is contaminated and there is no way you will be able to just see if the meat id infected. I also found it disturbing that the companies like Tyson and Monsanto, refused to talk about their production process. That just made me assume they know they are guilty, but just don’t care.
Knowing what I know now is why I don’t eat as much beef hamburgers as I use to. I mean I still like eating chicken, even though they aren’t good for you, but I feel that beef have had more issues. The beef that get processed can be from thousands of different animals and how they feed the corn cows, increases the chance of Ecoli. I honestly feel I will eventually turn away from fast foods, and eat healthier. But even green plants are contaminated, so I almost feel how the world is today, that nothing is safe to eat. I know now day’s companies just want money as fast as possible, instead of being healthier. I just find I sad that these companies can do whatever they want basically and have so much control, especially over farmers. Even when Smithfield workers are always punished and nothing happens to the company, when they are the ones transporting to the country. Evident that America cares more about their money, than the people who actually live in it.

"Genetically Modified Foods and Organisms”. U.S. DOE Human Genome Program. 05/09/10 .

It was not the idea that the production of food has become increasingly and almost universally industrialized that was most shocking in the film, as this has been the historical trend, but rather the fact that this history has indeed begun to repeat itself. During the Industrial Revolution and afterward, health and safety standards were either not implemented or downright ignored for the sake of production, and unethical practices existed in terms of both the product and producer. As societies have advanced, and discoveries have been made as to how dangerous these elements of production were, entities reacted accordingly, in an attempt to prevent further damage. It can be argued that this is both the governments, as well as the consumer’s role, to not only protect themselves but society as a whole through their actions. When these groups fail to perform this duty is when we as a people have truly not acted in accordance with the benefit of our shared history, and the damages incurred on those before us.

While it can be argued that the industrial system is necessary for our world today, and is unequivocally so for the American lifestyle, it is at our own peril that we fail to update this system. The idea of monopolizing the use of certain dominant kinds of seed is in line with this, drawing distinct parallels between the current day and the monopolies of the golden age of industry. It is not because the industrial system has changed to meet a new standard of efficiency, but rather that the consuming populous has become as complacent in their actions as to have allowed the degradation of the means of production. Even though to very nature of a monopoly is the crowding out of competition, and thus makes combating such a thing difficult in the present, one only needs to look at the past to observe the brand of behavior that led to the current situation and understand that the status quo will only intensify the quagmire.


Here is a U.S. government document regarding the nature of monopolies in the economy:

United States. Federal Trade Commission. J. Thomas Rosch, Commissioner. Monopolies, Innovation, and Predatory Pricing: Observations on Some Hard Questions in the Section 2 Context. Antitrust 2010 Conference: New Administrations, New Cases, and New Economic Realities in Global Markets. Los Angeles, CA: 2010. Web.

6th Blog Assignment

Wow. Just wow. This film truly opened my eyes. I had never seen this movie before, though I had heard of it and heard it was a good film for everyone to see I just never took the time to sit down to watch it until now.

It just goes to show what people will do for money. I never really realized that just these 3 or 4 large conglomerates dominated the food market like this film stated. I was priveleged to take a class last quarter called Journalism 190 (which I HIGHLY reccommend all of you take if this film interested you) that discussed the media monopolies like Viacomm that simply brainwash us into eating certain foods, behaving certain ways, and doing EXACTLY what they want us to do. This film reminded me very much of the many different films we watched in that class. It was crazy to see the extent these corporations go to just to make a buck. Like genetically modifying chicken so that their breasts are larger? I mean come on.... sure Americans for the most part prefer to eat white meat but completely changing the species of an animal and altering the course of nature just for the sake of profit is simply not okay. It's frusterating to see that the FDA and USDA see these things going on but yet don't do a thing about it. I guess the hard part to consider is where do you draw the line? What is okay and what isn't? All I know is that this movie really made me think and like the person below stated, I also will NEVER EAT TYSON CHICKEN AGAIN... blech. It just creeps me out to think about it.

Bucher, O; D'Aoust, JY; and Holley, RA. "Thermal resistance of Salmonella serovars isolated from raw, frozen chicken nuggets/strips, nugget meat and pelleted broiler feed." Weblog Entry. Department of Food Science, University of Manitoba. 7 March 2008.

Ahhhghghgh;h!

Crisis of personal responsibility is right. I’m referring to the food manufacturers and their awful mechanized way of processing. I think because it’s so unnatural to see a living creature dealt with in such a manner that really plays on my mind. It’s not a natural thing to do. I think it’s so scary because it seems like people will be next! Machines are for manufacturing metals, chemicals, -things. Not living things. It was a very upsetting film which I could only half look at. Wasn’t there a lot of difference between them and the PolyFace Farm owner who had his kids helping him butcher? And the bacterial level was so much lower!
On a different note, I really got angry (oh why am I not surprized?) to find out that big business and both political parties (Bush and Clinton) had not cracked down on these practices. There is no way that I’m going to put my hope in the current administration to do it. I supposed I’m being cynical but…

United States. Dept. of Labor. OSHA. Safety and Health Topics: Poultry Processing. Aug. 2007. Web. 11 May 2010.

5th Blog Assignment

This blog assignment is a bit late, as I was absent from class when we recieved the farmers market assignment, so I had to wait until the next Saturday to attend. But better late than never, right? :)

First off, this wasn't the first time I had attended the farmers market. Since I was born and raised in Bellingham, I have been priveleged enough to attend the farmers market quite often. To me, it is something I really take pride in being from Bellingham. I love goin there on a beautiful sunny morning and seeing all the different types of people who attend and just the high energy and good vibes that the farmers market puts out. One thing I love about it is that the farmers market really brings different groups of people together. I know for a fact that I typically wouldn't associate with alot of the different types of people who attend there, but since we all are brought together under one common interest we are blessed with getting to know all different types of people.

Prior to arriving to the farmers market I had an idea of what meal I wanted to create. Since I am a fairly picky eater, I decided a stir fry sounded delicious, especially considering the large amounts of fresh veggies that the farmers market had to offer. I purchased a variety of different fresh vegetables from a few different sellers, all who told me these vegetables were locally grown. I chose to add green and red peppers, carrots, peapods, and onions (along with some chicken purchased from costco). I got home, put everything in the refrigerator and waited until that evening to make stir fry for dinner. I couldn't help but notice that all of these vegetables seemed different than what I was typically used to purchasing from the grocery store. They looked a bit different, maybe since they were organic, but definitely had a ton of flavor and I might even venture to say more flavor than what I usually get from the grocery store. I can honestly say this was one of the best dinners I have ever created by myself, and me and my roommate really enjoyed eating it on Saturday night.

Cromidas, Rachel. "The Pulse: Making Farmer's Markets more Accessible." New York Times. 11 November, 2010.

6th Blog

Food Inc. will greatly make me reconsider my food intake, no question about that. Although, I can not do anything (immediate) to change my economic status, I can start changing the way I eat. I WILL NEVER EAT TYSON CHICKEN AGAIN. And everyone else should consider the same.

Not only did I take this away from the film but I never considered that only three to four corporations control the American food industry. Although I do not consider myself an anarchist or for that matter, that much of a rebel, I just can not participate in this American system. I have to rebel in some way. Although I think I probably will not, and will be eating some of their food in the future. It is just so frustrating that we have turned into this, and that for a small time there was a glimmer of change but we went back to poor working conditions and poor (gross) food just to make money.

When I was hit with the immediate image of the chicken farmers at the beginning of the film, I knew that this movie would have some impact on me. I do not know if I will be able to get out of my head the factory workers snapping the heads of numerous chicks. Or the information that Tyson farms modified these birds so that they'll breasts will grow larger just because the American consumer likes white meat. And it is not only how the animals are treated, the image of Smithfield shows that the consumption of Americans' (and other countries') meat keeps worker's jobs intact. However disgusting and dangerous their jobs may be, they need it, and the job can be taken no matter how long they've had it or how hard they've been working. It is a vicious cycle.

Again Food Inc. has made me greatly consider my food intake. I will be checking out the website cited at the end of the film: takepart.com/foodinc. A journal article to consider:

Frazer, Lance. "Chicken Electronics: A Technology Plucked From Waste." Environmental Health Perspective. July 2004

Assignment 5

Approaching the market, it was easy to see the level of pride that the Bellingham community has it. It was not just a place where people buy and sell items, but rather it had the sense of a fair surrounding it. There were the stands with plants, produce, and cheese of course, but there was also art, music, discussion, and freshly prepared food with tables to congregate around. It was part old world grocer, part garden store, part exhibition and part festival. When looking for something to make a dish out of, my options were severely limited, illustrating the kind of hassle it can be to cook for a multiplicity of people. Seeing as I had already decided on making some sort of sauce of tortellini and ravioli (but had grudgingly accepted that, due to the shortcomings of a dorm kitchen, I would only be able to “doctor” the sauce with what I had procured), I looked for cheese, garlic, spinach, or mushrooms to add. However, seeing as those I was cooking for had conflicting notions of what they would be willing to eat, namely one disliked mushrooms and spinach completely, and the other would not go near garlic (and I still think the pair of them are crazy for saying so) limited my choices. Coupled with the fact that cheese is a very picky food, either you like a particular variety or you don’t, meant that I would have to find a compromise. When discussing the garlic with a vendor, I was able to acquire some that was younger than what might ordinarily be bought in the grocery store, meaning that its flavor would be less powerful, both blending into the rest of the sauce better, as well as allowing an additional person to consume it.
On the issue of how the produce was grown though, the vendor was far less helpful. It simply could have been that she was helping a friend or family member in selling the produce, or that the methods behind growing such things was second nature, and thus inherent yet somehow unexplainable. Either way, they insisted it was organic, and grown in a natural way. That said, the garlic worked perfectly well and was not used up completely, meaning that it will also be appearing in a more thorough home-cooked meal (hopefully with the sauce not coming out of a jar).
What was most interesting about the market was not what I bought for the sake of this assignment, but rather the multiplicity of live plants that were available for sale. Looking simply at live tomato plants, there appeared to be dozens of varieties ranging from ones that were best used for making sauce, to those that were grown for cooked or raw consumption. This can easily be used as an analogy for why I found the farmer’s market so interesting, it was not the idea that the produce sold was organic, or that it was a sign of protest against the industrial farming system, but rather the kind of extreme variance that can only be achieved at the confluence of individuals and small groups. Each working in their own way, producing something that is not the cookie-cutter definition of a product, but each providing their own contribution or change to the end result, whether it be big or small, for the consumer to appreciate on the other end.

Here is an example of how the farmer’s market is adapting to the modern world:

Vora, Shivani. “A Virtual Farmer’s Market” Inc. April 2010: 32. EBSCO. Web. 3 March. 2010.

Blog 5 Farmers Market

Grey, overcast, and threatening to rain: a typical Saturday in the spring at the Farmers Market, here in Bellingham Washington. I arrived 15 minutes before the market opened to make my vendor selection for this week’s assignment. Some of the vendors were still hustling to set up, but for the most part they were standing around drinking a hot beverage, smiling, laughing, talking with the other early arrivals. I picked Terra Verde Gardens to speak to as a man began singing and playing his guitar for change. I choose Terra Verde because of the huge beautiful displays of radishes, salad turnips (what?) and other greens. I bought bok choy (yes, I’ve never used it), salad turnips and some arugula. The second thing that caught my eye, was a brochure, “2010 Community Supported Agriculture” . It turns out you can buy shares in the business. It works this way: you can buy a full share, a ¾ share, or a Farmers Market Share. This money is used to cover the farms short fall of cash when it’s needed for spring planting and other costs. In return you get a box, yes a box of the current week’s fresh veggie every week of the Market!
Terra Verde farms is certified organic and is owned by Amy and Skuter Fontaine and located in Everson. Terra Verde has fan page on Face Book where they have recipes and other interesting stuff. The recipe I chose has bok choy in a stir fry with garlic and red pepper flakes. If you like garlic, you’ll love this. I felt like a savvy informed consumer to be purchasing food at the Farmers Market after a month of food shock since this class started.
I liked this article because it studied value and markets:

Connell, David J., Smithers, John, and Alun Joseph. "Farmers' Markets and the “Good Food” Value Chain: Complete. Web. 1 May 2010.

5th blog

Since I am kind of a picky eater, I decided to make something simple and to head to market and pick up a few things for a chicken salad sandwich. I thought the farmers market was actually very interesting, especially with all the different vendors. Since I my recipe was pretty simple all I needed was chicken breast, blanched slivered almonds, celery, cranberries and some onions. All the rest like mayo, ground pepper and the other seasoning I used I already had. But the chicken breast I got was skinless and was always boneless. It was interesting getting that kind of chicken because usually I never get breast because I prefer thighs or legs when it come to chicken. I didn’t really get to talk to any of the sellers because I was kind of in the rush, but I do think I will go there again because they had a large variety of different foods that looked good to eat.
So the recipe I made was pretty easy but was the first time I ever made a chicken salad. It was actually really easy, just had to cook the chicken for the most part. Well I cooked the onions as well but the celery, almonds and dried cranberries I just added in. The outcome was a success and the sandwich was very good. I also must say that I will definitely be using the recipe for this dish again. I will even try other recipes for different kind of chicken salad sandwiches.

5th Blog

Since it is my usual schedule to go to Snohomish County on Saturdays, I decided to visit their local fresh produce stand that I had seen many times before, but always thought would be out of my price range. Since most of the produce comes straight from Sunnyside farms, I decided this would suffice for my Farmer's Market assignment and while there, I realized buying fresh was not as bank breaking as I thought it would be.

While researching for a recipe to make, my father sent me out to buy food for ratatouille. I would need to buy: eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers (epicurious recipe), onions, parsley and various other things for the dish. And I threw in some fresh tortillas that just looked appetizing. The whole grocery list came to only about thirteen dollars, which although felt like a lot, still was not incredibly terrible for what I got. The vegetables were crisp and sweet, and vibrantly colored, and while there, Stephanie (the manager) came around to each customer with a bag of grapes and let us try the varying fruits.

Stephanie let us in on a little secret, she said that local farmers love when Yakima asparagus starts to come in because this means it is the beginning of fresh vegetables for the region. And the ratatouille my family made certainly tasted fresher than it had in the past, although the vegetables are cooked down, they retained a sweet taste that I had not tasted before.

Eller, Daryn. "Farmer's Markets: A Trip to Bountiful." Vegetarian Times. May 2002. pg 34

Assignment 4

Perhaps it is a part of the traditional American lifestyle, namely being disconnected with the source of what’s on the dining table. Therefore, if one believes that “you are what you eat,” then we truly don’t completely know ourselves. What we as a culture value is the ease at which something is made available; fast food, microwavable meals, food taken out of the freezer and thrown in oven and then ready to eat. In this instance, we are what we eat, or at least in the sense that Americans have gained the reputation of being a work-focused, unnecessarily scheduled people.

Then, are we really what we eat, or is what we eat simply a representation of the kind of culture and societal values that a people holds dear? As a college student, cost is what matter most to me. While the food at the dining halls can range from decent to disgusting, it still indicates a value choice. Namely, the emphasis on other matters outside of food, as the focus of both one’s time and wealth is as indicative of what we choose to eat as the food itself. Therefore, it is not that we do not necessarily give much though to what we consume on a daily basis, but that it is indicative of larger trends that food either serves as a tangible indicator for, or is part of the intricate and complex human life.

Below is a book from the library addressing a similar issue:

Dolfsma, Wilfred, ed. Consuming Symbolic Goods: Identity and Commitment, Values and Economics. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print

4th Blog

Reflecting on the food I consume is a task. I operate on twenty dollars a month, give or take, after rent and on weekends shop at a grocery store I like to call the House of Mom and Dad. I am almost done with school (three months, yes) and will have money after this "transition" period so to think of my food now, when I am in a state of abnormality, is difficult.

To think of sustainability and the future of food when I am already constantly thinking of my own future seems arbitrary. But this sounds like I'm saying: "But I'm too busy thinking of myself--I don't have time to care what goes in it." A rather childish way to look at the world.

However sometimes my childish view of not caring about the food I eat is needed. I am done with my teenage obsessions of yesteryear, of what is really in a McDonald's burger or how do they really treat the food I put into my body. Again, I do not have funds to worry, maybe eventually I will.

In Manifestos of the Future of Food, Jamey Lionette says, "As it stands right now only a privileged few can afford real, clean, and sustainable food; soon even the privileged will have little access to such food." I have yet to see the value in such clamoring for food, I will wash my pesticide ridden apples in hot water before I eat them. I do not want to fear a caste system in America over something as simple (and at one time sparse) as food.

Lionette, Jamey. "A View From Behind the Counter." Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed. Ed. Vandana Shiva. Cambridge, MA: South End Press, 2007. 109-131

Blood Type Influence

Now, we’re getting to the heart of the matter by looking at these various reasons for why we eat what we eat. I believe at a foundational level we’re all influenced by biology and our blood types. For example, type A’s tend toward vegetarian. For me, my blood type 0 as the main influencer in my eating choices. The food that gives me the most energy is lean meat, veggies and fruit which is typical of a type 0 with an excess of stomach acid and an allergy to wheat. Could it be that our values stem from a genetic predisposition to eat certain foods and abhor others? As I’ve analyzed myself, I remember intensely disliking chicken as a child and refusing to eat it. The fact that it was a bird didn’t bother me, but that chickens were gross birds doing and eating disgusting things, and I couldn’t get past it psychologically. Grass eaters on the other hand are clean and eat what is nature has provided-unless their kept in a feed lot and that’s just plain cruel and inhumane and wrong. My food choices are made keeping the smallest “footprint” possible in my use of our natural resources. I compost, reuse, and put back. I think part of our responsibility is to teach others how to be responsible sharers of this small planet, but the answers are not simplistic. The Peace Corp goes to a Third World country to help improve their living conditions and then later are accused by other Americans of wrecking their culture and being imperialistic. No wonder some tend to take an isolationist world stance-we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t!
I've included a website and a book for you to check out:

D’Adamo, Peter, Catherine Whitney. Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type: The Individualized Diet Solution to Staying Healthy, Living Longer & Achieving Your Ideal Weight. New York: Putnam & Sons. 1996. Print.

Here is the official website for Dr. D’Adam- http://www.dadamo.com/bloodtype_O.htm

Fourth blog

They say you are what you eat, so if that statements true than I am the furthest thing from anything healthy. Not that I never eat healthy, but frequently find myself attached to more meat than anything. I know that not all meat if bad, but I feel it was to evenly consume the amount of vegetables and meat I could be healthier. It is evident that my consumption of meats are way higher than veggies, so I think I could be better off eating more healthy since I am getting older.
Being the picky eater I am makes it hard to eat certain things. For example there are some foods I never eat that are good for you like tomatoes, carrots and a few other things out there I am skeptical about. Even when they are combined with other foods making it hard to even taste them, I still won’t eat it. But the funny thing about that is that if I don’t know they are in a particular food, than I will probably eat it if I don’t notice it, but if I do know even if not visible I wont eat. And I happen to eat a dish of potatoes just today not knowing mushrooms were in there and ate it not even tasting them. So I definitely think when it comes to food I am very selective.
Knowing that I am a picky eater, I feel it kind of defines who I am. Like for example the foods I eat on a regular are mostly just basic nothing too exotic. I do feel that I am pretty different from most people, so me being a picky eater I don’t eat a lot of food most people do. I just feel I am me, and not like too many other people or in other words cut from a different cloth. Now if I was the more flashy type of life style, I am sure I will be into would be more into the exotic and fancy foods. So I definitely believe that there is truth to the saying you are what you eat, because what and how a person eat can explain a lot. For me I tend to eat a lot of fast foods and at the same time I am very impatient person who hate waiting on things. I just always want to be on the go, and I even have a need for speed behind the wheel, so I do like things to do things fast. So for me I do believe that the food I eat, the way I eat and what I eat is definitely defines who I am, somewhat.

Barer-Stein, Thelma. You Eat What You Are: People, Culture and Food Traditions. Ontario, Canada: Firefly Books, 1999.

Assignment 4

As I stated in one of my earlier posts, I am a picky eater. I always have been, and I have a feeling it's something that always will be. To be completely honest, I wish I were less picky. I would love to be able to attend dinner parties and events and have no problem finding something that I like, but that is not the case. Though I am getting better as I get older, I still have huge amounts of expansion to do in terms of my diet to be deemed "not a picky eater".

If I were to take the phrase “you are what you eat” literally, I would be a very small amount of things. Unlike most people with a wide variety of foods in their diet, mine consists of a few items that I truly love to eat. Since I don't eat a ton of different types of food, I am very careful about what I eat and make sure what I am eating is healthy. Although I'm a college student with a small budget, I still make it a point to make sure the things I am putting into my body are for my benefit, rather than taking a toll on me physically.

My all-time favorite food would have to be cheese pizza, which isn't necessarily the healthiest choice but it sure hits the tastebuds well :)

Willett, Walter C. M.D. Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating. Free Press; 1 Edition. June 2005.

Assignment 3

Having to harvest one’s own food would undoubtedly foster a closer relationship and understanding with the things that they eat. Having to put effort directly into obtaining food, whether it be simply taking the time to prepare it, let alone growing or hunting it, that connection and time invested forces the individual to reevaluate the kind of work that goes into preparing what you eat.

In my own family, there are varying degrees of this, from my grandparents who grow a fair portion of their own produce, to my extended family in Wisconsin who hunt as part of that regional culture. Even beyond that, one of my great uncles is also a butcher, and often sends venison back home for the holidays. Being raised here, as an outsider to those cultural elements, it is easy to observe not only an understanding of where their food comes from, but also a certain reverence for it. For example, there is a genuine effort made to kill the animal as quickly as possible as to not make it suffer any more than necessary. In this sense, that connection is definitely beneficial as it instills a true sense of the value of what goes on the table. Even if it makes someone a bit unconfortable with what they’re eating, it’s not like they have any other choice.

While hunting may be negatively viewed by a good portion of people, in order to consume meat as humans have done since the immemorial, killing is inherently necessary. What is not necessary however, is to perform that act in a fashion as humane as possible. Perhaps this is my own bias, but I see nothing wrong with hunting in a non-subsistence situation, so long as the animal is killed quickly and with as little pain as possible, and the meat is put to good use. That said, the lengths that the author went to in the assigned reading seemed to be slightly unnecessary in its extravagance.

Here are two works that deal with hunting in the Summit database:

Waterman, Charles F. Hunting in America. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973.

Print.

Laney, Dawn. Hunting: Opposing Viewpoints. Detroit: Thompson/Gale, 2008. Print.

3rd blog

I do not know if I can answer the question of whether harvesting food gives me a stronger connection to the food I eat. I never tended a garden and I have never shot an animal and eaten it. My father recently planted a tomato bush and it produces some delicious cherry tomatoes but to be honest I have tasted better in a store bought package.

Reading the Urban Deerslayer made me think of how the hunter's viewed their relationship to the deer they were killing. When I eat an animal, first of all, I do not want to be up close and personal with said animal. I would not want to gut my food, and skin my food, and butcher my food. And I have never felt, if I saw a deer eating at my father's garden, the need to seek revenge on the animal and kill him and eat him. When you put this humanistic quality on the animal, this need to seek revenge or the thought that the deer may have known it was your garden, it comes off sounding cannibalistic.

I choose to be an oblivious eater and know this may be wrong. I am not eating an animal because they are overpopulating my community or they are ruining my property. If were to put this kind of emotion in to the act of eating them I would not want to eat meat and the animal would become more than food.

Millstone, Erik and Tim Lang. The Atlas of Food. Berkley Univerisity of California, 2008

Patti, Charles H. The Food Book. New York: Fleet, 1973

A Hunter Gather Point of View

Scavenging has a seriously negative connation for me with the suggestion of extreme poverty. Gleaning is looking over a harvested field and picking up the small fruit or vegetable that got missed by the machinery, scavenging suggests a coyote eating the already dead animal which made reading Rinella’s Scavenger’s Guide difficult to get into. I grew up hunting and fishing and like Rinella, I cringed when he said he enjoyed” killing his own food.” You don’t kill, you hunt. You kill a varmint or a pest. It’s all in the word usage isn’t it? I was learning Spanish and my friends’ sister made up a cassette tape that I could play during a road trip I was taking. What she did was talk about “body parts” instead of” parts of the body. I found fear over taking me as I listened to the tape so I tossed it out the window! –I felt like I was listening to a crime scene description.
It’s in growing our own food that makes us aware of the symbiotic relationship between human beings and the land. There is a “country” proverb: “don’t s….in your own pond” We’ve probably all heard some variation of that bit of wisdom. Those who plant gardens don’t want to eat food grown in chemicals, just as fishermen don’t want our water ways to be polluted so their fish is safe to eat. And who better than a hunter understands the need for culling done by bears and wolves when they eat the sick and weak deer and elk. The population of deer is too big to support itself and so you see diseased, sickly, weak animals that need to have food brought in to them because the predators are removed from the area. Hunters and fishermen understand the need for a healthy ecology.

Gollner, Adam. The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Obsession. New York: Scribner, 2008. Print.

Prose, Francine. Gluttony. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.

Blog 3

I think that harvesting your own food could actually give you a stronger connection with the food you hunt because it will bring you back memories. Like for exactly there would be other memories from that day other than actually hunting. It could be a memory of certain scenery or going somewhere memorable to hunt. When you just go to stores to buy your meats I think it will be different because you don’t where the meat actually come from. When you hunt you know where exactly it comes from and also get the opportunity to get the meat without being processed through anyone else.
Although I wouldn’t say that killing your own food is a bad thing, but I would prefer to just buy mine at the store because I don’t know anything about hunting. I also wouldn’t know how to clean the meat properly, so I would just rather buy it. I wouldn’t say hunting is a good or bad thing to do because some people just have to do what they have to do. All cultures are different and there are cultures where they prefer to hunt and cook their own meat. Lower developed countries also seem to have villages and areas where they hunt and kill their own meats and feed to their families. Markets like we have in our country may not be accessible to other countries, meaning in some places they just can’t go buy their meats and food like we can. So it would be totally understandable if people put in those citations kill animals in order to survival. They just can’t starve themselves or their families, so they just doing what’s necessary to survive.

Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain). Nursing Standard. Great Britian: Middx Harrow, 1987.
Bettinger, Pete. Key issues and future directions of mechanized harvesting : discussions and guidance from working groups. Corvallis: Oregone Sate, 1993.

Let's just say “picky” is an understatement

I grew up in a family where we sat down at the table five nights a week to eat dinner together. Now in most families, if you didn't like the food your mom made for dinner that night you didn't eat. At least, that's how the majority of my friends families worked. In my family, things were a little different. Let's just say I was a bit spoiled growing up. If I didn't like the food my mom made, she would go out of her way to make me a meal that she knew I would like. Typically that would be one of 3 different food groups; pizza, chicken nuggets, or the good ol' PB&J. This may or may not have something to do with me, now at 21 years of age, being one of the pickiest eaters I've ever heard of.
Since I grew up here in the United States I have become used to these “normal” foods I eat every day. However, what seems normal to me, might seem completely strange to someone on the other side of the world. We think of foods that are “gross” like described in the article we were assigned to read, but to other cultures and other groups of people, those foods are the norm. It's all a matter of what you've grown up with and what you've been exposed to.

Sargenti, Sara. “Top Seven Deadly Foods: Gross or Tasty?” ABCNews. 19 Oct. 2009.

2nd Blog

A couple years ago I worked in a deli and amongst all the craveable dishes that the deli produced: fried fajitas, fried burritos, fried jalapeno poppers, fried cheese sticks, fried--I think you get the idea, nothing spiked more midnight, or at least, late night cravings than fried chicken livers or fried chicken gizzards. We did not make these fried items daily so if one particular customer did not see fried gizzards and liver, he would make me go back into the freezer, fry up a bag of them, and bring them back to him soaking of grease straight out of the paper bag.

I tried these chicken gizzards and livers one day to see why they sparked such a craving in a my customers and I was immediately dumbfounded. What was wrong with these people? The minute I bit into the fried liver I was hit with an overwhelming taste of iron and grease, and I liked some liver, liverwurst at least. I spit that out and tried a gizzard and could not even get through chewing one gizzard. First because of the texture it was like chewing on an erasure that tasted like liver soaked in grease and batter.

Chicken is a long time staple in American cuisine and for most Americans the phrase "it tastes like chicken" sparks comfort in an uncomfortable meal. Also a long time staple with some Americans seems to be fried food. However the unusualness of this part of the chicken did not spark comfort in me and I think that the fact that it was covered in batter and fried made it even more unappetizing. Fried gizzards and liver are ultimately the grossest thing I've ever eaten.

Schlosser, Eric. Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All American Meal. Boston: Houghton

Those psycho barriers are strong

Compared to the eating escapades some adventurous souls I’m really boring. The grossest thing I’ve ever taken a bite of was cow’s liver, breaded in some kind of sauce. Believe me, I did not know what it was or I would never have tasted it. I’m not sure why my stomach rebels at the thought of eating some foods. It’s not like I wasn’t exposed to different animal parts: I saw my grandma cooking a pigs head and feet and using the meat. I helped with the cutting and wrapping of our beef and I knew what our home made sausage was encased in! That being said, my siblings and I did not eat any food product made of the innards of the beef cows, pigs, or chickens although my folks did. Growing up on a farm, they used the whole animal and it wasn’t strange, it was considered good stewardship. It was the same with vegetables, you don’t toss the turnip greens, and you got two meals from the plant.

Rather than being influenced by our cultures food, we were more influenced by my mom’s intense hatred for food, being anorexic when she married my dad. She hated food and I think that attitude carried over to her children when we were in her womb. We all have our own food intense likes and dislikes tending to gravitate toward to rice, vegetables and vegetable protein or and the “normal” beef, pork, chicken, and turkey products that one would see in a typical grocery store here in Whatcom county.

There is a psychological barrier that I have to get through to eat something like kidneys or duck tongue. Just writing about it, my stomach is feeling nauseous-so how does one get past that? I have not got a clue as to how Alan Richmond, the author and food taster for this article, “Waiter There’s a Cloven Hoof on My Plate”, was able to eat what he did.
http://www.uglyfood.com/ There is a truly awful picture on this website. If you’re an animal lover-beware. There is a list of countries where you can find the most amazing recipes for living creatures.

Since I am very selective of what I eat I rarely ever eat food that I have a bad feeling about. Like I seem to have trouble eating foods with horrible smells because I always assume that it will be nasty, but there are a few exceptions with foods that have bad smell. The grossest food I think I have ever eaten was peas when I was in kindergarten. I say this was grossest food because it actually made me throw up and since a kid I just hated the smell, so when I was forced to eat I ended up throwing it up. Now till this day I still refuse to eat them and probably will never eat them again because I kind of feel scarred. So even though peas might not even taste that bad, I just have always disliked the smell and since it caused me to throw up it’s a big no no .
In certain cultures its okay to eat animal pets like cats and dogs, like in Asia there is nothing wrong with it, but in America it is seen to be gross and a big don’t! I am normally not the judgmental type but I do find eating either a dog or cat a little disgusting. Also eating raw foods in my culture is considered a don’t and me personally prefer my meats cooked, but it’s not also the case in other cultures. For me it’s not only with meats but I hate eating any foods that is cold or not cooked, unless it not meant to be heated. But in other cultures people do it, but I honestly say I am a very picky eater. I also live with two roommates who are Mexican and Asian so I seem to learn a lot bout both their cultures. Like they eat certain things I would never eat but there are also things in there culture that are extremely good, so it is a good thing that I am more open now with different cultures now compared to my younger years
Frater, Jamie. "Top 10 Disgusting Foods". Listverse . 09/11/2007 .
"Grossest Food You’ve Ever Eaten". BuzzFeed. 03/10/10 .

Assignment 2

Being a more careful person, I have not experienced what most people would consider to be “gross” food. In my hometown, I was exposed to a decent amount of Korean food in high school, but it was often brought by my fellow students to share, and thus chosen accordingly. Because of this Americanization, or at least adaptation in certain circumstances to American culture, all of the food was in line with what the rest of the student body was used to. However, this did not turn out to be the case when I brought my Japanese roommate back to my hometown last year. In trying to find a more traditional Japanese meal, we ended up at a small place named “Koharu”, that was in an area of town that I knew quite well, but had never noticed before. While having some Japanese food before, there were certain dishes that I was accustomed to. That said, what my roommate ordered was something that I had never noticed before, namely sushi containing salmon eggs, as well as other raw seafood. Even though I was used to a certain extent of seafood, the idea that it was served raw seemed to me to be inherently unsafe to eat.

It can be argued along these lines that the judgment of whether or not a particular kind of food is edible is purely situational. Namely, we are accustomed to a particular diet in this region for several important reasons; the resources available (one example would be salmon) and the outside influences that are either accepted or rejected by the general society, or simply one facet of it. In the Pacific Northwest, this can most easily be identified as the abundant influence of Asian cuisine, which can be seen both as an integrated element of our society, or as its own separate entity. Still, reflecting on such differentiations is difficult, and can be seen as something akin to comparing apples and oranges. Because of this, to some extent it can be seen as psychological as the situational nature of “edibility” undoubtedly influences an individual’s perception of food. Whether it evolved out of the need for survival, or simply cultural elements, it is true that different eating habits evolved from equally different conditions, and thus can provide the precedent for different levels of acceptance or avoidance outside their hearth, or place of origin, in today’s increasingly globalized world.

While not necessarily dealing with the issue of “gross” foods, this article about regional Indian cuisine helps illustrate the situational nature of what we consider to be edible:

Yee, Amy. “Tastes of India, by New Delhi Taxi.” The New York Times 11 April 2010. Web. 11 April 2010.

Assignment 1

One of the most interesting elements of American culture is the nature of both integrating incoming peoples as well as observing those characteristics that withstand the melting pot, those that remain unique to that group of society. While this can be seen more obviously in with recent immigration, these differentiations still exist today albeit in a far more covert sense. This is the case for my family, which has strong roots in Wisconsin and the Midwest, which allows for us to still maintain some remnants of our German and Scandinavian heritage along with that of a more classical sense of Americana.

That said, while one might try to escape from the stereotypical understanding of the food most often associated this area of the country (as it is associated more with the region rather than its European roots), it has ironically remained true in this particular case. Namely, what can be humorously referred to as the “holy trinity” of Wisconsin dining; brats, beer and cheese, have remained the staples of most family get-togethers that I can personally remember. The roots of these can be traced back to the dominantly northern European settlement in the area, and the fact that these communities remained relatively culturally distinct for a fair amount of time. To mention a more local example of this, Mt. Angel, Oregon will suffice, as it still shows obvious signs of its beginnings as a Bavarian settlement. That said, it should be noted that even though the iconic foods can be easily associated with their origins, they remain more as a regional characteristic and thus something more indicative of America rather than of northern Europe.

That said, bratwurst and most of the finer cheeses (often sent from our relatives back in Wisconsin) are reserved for specific family events, such as birthdays, but more often for times like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Even though these influences are more apparent in those circumstances, there are still areas where this is visible, mainly in amount of cheese we use for everyday meals, as a means of perhaps compensating for the differences between what is most often provided and our own family tastes. Because of the fact that this is so close to the rest of American “food culture”, it seems a slight regional curiosity rather than distinct in its own right. That said, this is probably the only notable aspect of my family’s cultural eating habits, and thus in this case warranted slight examination.

Although I couldn’t find anything specifically about Wisconsin cheeses in the library, here are a couple more general sources:

United States Department of Agriculture. Cheeses of the World. New York: Dover Publications Inc., 1972. Print.

Warren, D.Sc, C.H., G. F. Warren, PhD. Dairy Farming. New York: Macmillan Company. 1919. Print.

Food

Food

Both my parents worked five days a week, sometimes for ten hour days, sometimes more. We were a family that lived off convenience food. My mother says every time we pull into a McDonalds and every time I order a simple double cheeseburger from the dollar menu, “I swear I wish your father never introduced you to those.” She tells me the story of when she rushed home from her job at red lobster during a lunch break and found my dad had taken off lunch as well. She was expecting to see the babysitter with carrots and peanut butter sandwiches and there I am with a quarter pounder bigger than my head (she’s exaggerating) ketchup smeared all over my mouth, and I’m happy as can be.

I really do not have any cultural influence when it comes to food other than my American upbringing right here in the Pacific Northwest. You can say that is a very bad thing or you can say that it is a very good thing. I enjoy sushi, but it’s California rolls which I am constantly corrected it is not sushi, and sea food, and Mexican food, and I watch Andrew Zimmern on the Travel Channel but beyond this I really have not branched out too far with my food except for grossing out a couple of friends by eating fried gizzards once.

I do enjoy oysters; this was my grandmother’s influence. At the age of six she took me out to a restaurant and asked me to try one, not thinking I’d like them, and I did very much. It impressed her. I also know that my grandmother was Jewish, so maybe this will spike the unusualness of my food culture, but beyond this simple fact we never immersed ourselves in any of her culture’s kosher customs. To be honest, I really did not spend too much time with her, and I do not think she followed her religion to the letter.

Overall, my food history is a pretty simple one, I am always a fan of trying new foods but my favorites tend to be the “classics,” whatever that the classics are.

Jakle, John A. Fast Food: Roadside Restaurants in the Automobile Age. Baltimore, Md: John Hopkins UP 1999

Drucker, Malka, and Eve Chwast. Grandma's Latkes. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 1992

Paul Jones culture

Growing up in my early childhood years I was mostly raised with a southern culture. This was due to majority of my family being from the state of Texas, mostly from the cities of Austin and Houston. With family form the South the food that I was accustomed to and still to this day is soul food. Food such as fried chicken, greens, corn bread, yams, and baked macaroni and cheese are some of the dishes that be at family dinners. On every holiday especially Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter are holidays were there are big family dinners. Also with being mixed with black and white I was exposed to the American Culture. Majority of my family is African American so that’s what I was basically limited to and must say there were a lot different myths and superstitious things that I hand to deal with. For example sweeping someone’s foot is said to be back in the Southern culture. My mom would also tell me to never cross a pole and if I did to go back and walk by it.
Now that I am older I do seem to eat certain foods that I didn’t when I was younger. For example I never really liked vegetables as a kid and differently wasn’t that open with eating food from other cultures. This was because everything I ate was mostly what I was fed but now I am able to go out more and even make my own food. So now I am not just limited to just a certain culture, I am open to try certain things from a lot of different cultures in fact. Like I have tried Somalian food, Indian food and many different Asian foods. Although there are still foods I won’t eat, I definitely feel that I have grown from my younger years and have discovered that there are a lot of other good cultures out there I can relate to.
Encyclopedia of Southern culture, Charles Reagan Wilson;University of North Carolina Press, c1989.

Food and culture in America : a nutrition handbook ,Pamela Goyan Kittler, Kathryn P. Sucher; West/Wadsworth, c1998.

As I considered the types of food that I was given as a child, one predominates: country cooking from a mix of cultures in Europe: Dutch, Swedish, English, and German. Our diet consisted of lots of meat and potatoes, pickled fruit and vegetables and fruit pies. Growing up on a farm where my dad and grandpa grew potatoes, wheat, and hay, ran 100 head of dairy cows, and raised beef cows, pigs and chickens. We lived off what we raised, the fruit trees and gardens. You can see where this is going-we ate meat and potatoes with lots of milk, cheese, and ice cream. In addition to these "basics", we got from my mom's Swedish heritage Swedish meatballs and the most delicate of pastries made by dipping a device likea branding iron used to identify your herd, into a batter that was placed into hot oil. The result was deep fried cookie that was dusted with powdered sugar. I think the people that serve "elephant ears" at our local fairs must be Swedish! On the other side of the family, my Dutch grandma made doughnut balls cooked in hot oil and again dusted in powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar. We loved all that sugar and fat!

One of the chores was the annual butchering. We went to a cousins place where we cut and wrapped the beef (I don't like to say cows). There are six of us kids in the family and out of the six, one is a vegan, one is a vegetarian, one eats only packaged foods, one prefers poultry, and two eat beef on a regular basis. For the vegan and vegetarian, it's a moral issue. For me, like one of the people in this weeks video, its the smell of cooking beef that makes me naseous. In fact, when I cook for the family, I eat the salad and they eat the entre. However, when I do eat meat I get the most amazing energy and alertness so I go through this mind - body conflict.

Singer, Peter. The way we eat: why our food choices matter. Emmaus PA: Rodale, 2006.
Print.

"The sociology of food and eating: essays on the sociological signifigance of food." Food Habits
Encyclopedias. 2003. Print.