4 year olds are funny

I got home from work later than usual on Tuesday. I hadn't give any thought at all to dinner, and folks were hungry. I had some ground sausage leftover from the weekend that I had to use up, and some ground beef.

I wanted something fast and easy, so I made spaghetti and meatballs. I made the meatballs on the smallish side of ping pong balls, and they were done by the time the spaghetti was cooked.

As an afterthought and with 5 minutes to spare I made some ghetto garlic bread out of some older hamburger and hot dog buns spread with butter and a shake of garlic powder under the broiler.

My daughter was fascinated by this new type of bread.

"What kind of bread is this?"
Garlic bread, sweetie.
"Are you going to take pictures of it??"

Slate article on HFCS

Slate has a remarkably balanced article regarding high fructose corn syrup.

Dark Sugar - The decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup.

"High-fructose corn syrup first started trickling into our food supply about 40 years ago; by 1984, it was flowing from just about every soda fountain in the country. These days HFCS accounts for almost half of all the added sugars in the U.S. diet, but the corn Niagara may soon be over. Last week, PepsiCo became the latest manufacturer to turn its back on America's sweetener, introducing three new soft drinks—Pepsi Natural, Pepsi Throwback, and Mountain Dew Throwback—sweetened with a "natural" blend of cane and beet sugars."

So is it really the end of the line for HFCS? I don't think so. It'll be a game of Whack-A-Mole; get it out of soda and it'll pop up somewhere else.

Agribusiness mad at Obama's organic garden

I keep reading this thinking it has to be a late April Fool's day joke.

Some PAC named MACA ( Mid America CropLife Association) has sent Michelle Obama a letter asking her to use regular pesticides in the White House Garden.

No - I'm not making this up!

"Did you hear the news? The White House is planning to have an "organic" garden on the grounds to provide fresh fruits and vegetables for the Obama's and their guests. While a garden is a great idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun, CropLife Ambassador Coordinator and I shudder. As a result, we sent a letter encouraging them to consider using crop protection products and to recognize the importance of agriculture to the entire U.S. economy."

Read all about it here.

Hummus and flatbread.

I love hummus. I love fresh bread. Why not have both for dinner?

The hummus started as dried chickpeas, soaked overnight and then boiled for about 40 minutes.

Strain them, put them in the food processor and add tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and garlic.

I like mine drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sumac.

The bread is also brushed with olive oil, and then sprinkled with a spice mix called za'atar. It was cooked directly on the ceramic tiles of my oven.

Babyback ribs

You know who makes a decent dry rub? McCormick. Shake a good coating onto the meat side of a slab of baby back ribs. Rub it in. Let it set for a while, bring it up to room temperature, then into a 250 degree oven for 4 or 5 hours covered with some foil.

Slather on some sauce and then onto the hot grill for 20 minutes. Not exactly low fat; but live a little.