Random Thanksgiving Facts

Ben Thompson  

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and everyone is getting ready to indulge in delicious food. Most Americans know the basics about Thanksgiving: pilgrims, Native Americans, turkey, Charlie Brown, and Macy’s. However, there are many more interesting facts about this amazing holiday. I have taken the liberty of surfing the web in search of the most interesting and random facts there are about Thanksgiving.
First on my list is that the author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb” was responsible for establishing this holiday. Sarah Josepha Hale campaigned for almost 20 years to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She sent letters to five different presidents in hope that they would respond to her request. After years of waiting, she was finally able to convince Abraham Lincoln to establish Thanksgiving as a national holiday with the hopes that it would help unify the country after the Civil War.
Second: Americans love turkey. Over the past 20 years, American consumption of turkey has increased dramatically, from roughly 8.3 pounds of turkey per year in 1975 to over 18 pounds of turkey per year in 1995.
Third: the Republic of Turkey does not refer to turkey as “turkey” on their restaurant menus. They instead call it “large bird”.
Fourth: Franklin Roosevelt scheduled Thanksgiving one week earlier in 1939 in order to help the economy. He believed that giving people another week of Christmas shopping would help spur the economy. Many people argued against this and the date was changed back in 1941.
Enjoy your break, enjoy your turkey, and have a good holiday!

An Entrée into the World of Food Blogs

Molly Donahue  

There is something about food blogs that lures me to sit in one place, drink several cups of coffee and gather a list of recipes to recreate for more time than I care to acknowledge. The internet is flooded with food blogs and food enthusiasts alike generating gorgeous images of their kitchen creations. It is almost guaranteed that the visit to one food blog will inadvertently take you to another. They all link up - tempting you to click onto another and then another. It is a vicious cycle of flour, eggs and butter - vicious yet innocent.

Smitten Kitchen: Deb Perelman serves up consistently delicious meals from her small New York kitchen. The photos of her dishes are beautiful - the pictures alone will have you in the kitchen. She uses ingredients that you would probably already have or can easily find - nothing fussy. Her first cookbook, which will feature 80-100 recipes written and photographed by Deb herself, will be released in fall of 2012.
Recipes to try: mom’s apple cake, meyer lemon and fresh cranberry scones, mushroom lasagna

Joy the Baker: Joy, based out of Los Angeles, has a food blog that constantly induces new cravings. Her voice is unique, informal, and honest. Joy is relatable - she eats popcorn for dinner, has a drawer of chocolate, and makes friendship bracelets. If her blog has you hooked, check out her podcast. Joy, along with Tracy Benjamin from shutterbean have a free weekly podcast where they discuss the “most important unimportant” topics.
Recipes to try: cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread, curried sweet potato soup with goat cheese biscuits, chocolate espresso sandwich cookies

KathEats: Kath Younger from Charlottesville, Virginia is a registered dietitian. Her blog captures her daily meals and various aspects of her life. The trademark of the blog is “Kath Eats Real Foods” and it is evident that she does. Posting three times a day, you may feel like you know a bit too much about her life but, you’ll keep reading. KathEats does not focus on recipes but rather on her resourcefulness in cooking. She pieces together impressive meals daily and utilizes left-overs.
Recipes to try: overnight oats, risotto with butternut squash + ‘shrooms

101 Cookbooks: Heidi Swanson, based out of the Bay Area, is the author of Super Natural Cooking and Super Natural Everyday. Her blog features healthy, vegetarian recipes. The images on her blog capture moments of her life while her dialogue makes you feel like you are having a conversation with her. Reading her blog, will naturally slow you down, if only for a moment.
Recipes to try: macaroon cherry tart, pumpkin and feta muffins, roasted delicata squash salad

Anthony Bourdain: A Foodie’s Confession of Love

Emily Kastl  

Tuesday nights are my date nights. I don’t go out to a fancy dinner, partake in engaging conversation, or even leave my house for that matter. Instead, my date arrives promptly at 8pm by way of the Travel Channel. For the next hour I look on as my foodie crush, Anthony Bourdain, explores another obscure corner of the world, eats unrecognizable parts of animals, and harasses locals, all while narrating with his exceptionally dry and usually offensive humor.
In the culinary world, few people are respected more than this Emmy Award-winning chef, author, and host. This may come as a surprise since he often gives off the “a**hole vibe,” for lack of a better term. If you wear love-tinted sunglasses while watching Bourdain’s show No Reservations like I do, his bluntness is really brutal honesty. If something tastes awful, he’ll gladly tell you and toss in some profanity while he’s at it. In my mind, this is what makes Mr. Bourdain so great. Since his remorseless delivery is so unique, he can offer a completely different perspective of a particular country. You think you’ve seen travel shows about Japan before? Not until you see Bourdain get tanked on Sake and make fun of locals singing karaoke. Can’t say I’ve ever seen Samantha Brown do that…
Beyond his career as a TV host, Bourdain’s life story is an inspiring one. His past life as a poor, drug addict line chef is one he is very open about and of which he holds no regrets. Beyond being a wise-cracking TV host who gets to travel the world and eat the best food available, Bourdain is passionate about how foreign policy affects the very places he visits. His sharp-tongued humor is perfectly woven into articulate accounts of life from the local’s perspective. The lens through which he delivers his experiences allows people like myself, sitting on their couches thousands of miles away, to smell the smells and hear the sounds of local markets. I have learned more about the world’s cultures from my Tuesday date nights than I have from any professor.
On that note—Mr. Bourdain, if you’re reading this and need a new coffee-fetcher, I’m your girl!

Insights into Al Dente

Carmen Lee  

Picture beautiful ribbons of Italian tradition, canvases on which to create masterpieces of color and flavor. I mean, who doesn’t love pasta?
Thankfully, for pasta lovers and skeptics alike, I am starting a series that explores the world of pasta in its best form; al dente, meaning as perfectly prepared as possible. One company that has taken this technique to heart is the Ann Arbor based Al Dente Pasta whose creativity is unbounded, as seen in pasta varieties such as squid ink fettuccine and spicy sesame linguini. Monique, the founder of Al Dente, draws inspiration from travel and the local community. With an amazing amount of dedication and passion, she and her husband Dennis put modern twists on a wonderful tradition. This teamwork is more than a company – it’s a family. Managed by Monique’s sister, Al Dente has expanded nationwide, selling to cities across the country and even in Canada. People around the country get to enjoy the family’s fresh take on pasta. What a great way to pass on this beautiful tradition!

Is your mouth watering yet?

In this series, I will report all the latest and local happenings at Al Dente. I’ll even post step-by-step recipes of delicious dishes, so you can enjoy a taste of Italy in your own home. Keep on the lookout for future posts! If you’re not completely in love with pasta yet, you definitely will be soon.

It’s as Simple as Bread and Butter…or is it? The Realities of Living a Gluten-Free Lifestyle

Heather Fendell  

Bread and butter are staples of everyday life. But what would happen if this staple was cut out? Recently I discovered that my aunt has Celiac’s disease, which is an intolerance to wheat, barley, rye, and most other grains. This led me to investigate and learn more about Celiac’s by taking it upon myself to try to experience a gluten-free lifestyle for at least a week. Being lactose-intolerant and (now) gluten-free, I found it quite difficult to find foods that fit my diet, especially in a college environment.
Luckily my roommate has access to a car, and a trip to Whole Foods made my restrictions much less of an issue. I realized that gluten-free is not about what I can’t eat, but instead eating different forms of the foods that I love. The bakery section offered gluten free chocolate chip cookies, cakes, bagels, and fresh loaves of bread, and I stumbled upon a whole section of gluten free pastas! I substituted my favorite Special K cereal for Peanut Butter Panda Puffs, and found substitutes for pretzels. At first the list of forbidden foods seemed so overwhelming that I found myself feeling constantly hungry.
In today’s day and age, we are fortunate enough to be able to have gluten-free eateries (such as Silvio’s which offers gluten-free pizza, pasta, and cookies), bakeries, and a plethora of options in the supermarkets. Since becoming gluten-free I have noticed an increase in my energy levels and an overall feeling of healthiness. So far, I plan on continuing with the diet, and thanks to gluten free bakeries, I can have my cake and eat it too!

“What’s that for?” -- “Gives it a little kick.”

Ben Thompson  

It’s Friday night. You just finished your homework when you’re suddenly hit with a craving for something sweet. Unfortunately when you open your fridge, all that you find are lemons, pickles, hot sauce, and beer (assuming that you are at least 21 years of age). Just as you lose all hope, you realize that your roommate just bought this weird pack of berries and labeled them ‘hands off.’ You pop a berry in your mouth and drink a beer in hopes that it will help relieve the crave. To your surprise, the beer tastes like liquid chocolate. Thinking you’ve gone mad, you taste the remaining food. Amazingly, you felt like Charlie Bucket and got the sudden urge to sing “Pure Imagination.”
This berry is none other than the famous Synsepalum dulcificum, or as we say in English, Miracle Berry. It contains a special glycoprotein called Miraculin, which binds to the sweet receptors on the tongue and makes them responsive to acids. This makes sour and, as rumor has it, bitter things taste sweet. Before taking off to the market, there is some bad news. The berry only has a shelf life of 2-3 days, so unless you fly to West Africa, you won’t be able to eat the berry. However, the pulp has been freeze-dried and made into tablets to be sold commercially. People have been known to host “taste tripping” parties using these tablets.
The Miracle Berry is also being developed into a sweetener for diabetics and obese people. It has gained popularity in Japan and would most likely do well in the United States as well, but, unfortunately, the FDA will not allow businesses to commercialize the berry.
If you want to have a “taste buds on LSD” party, then buy yourself some Miracle Berry tablets and see what it’s like to find the golden ticket.