Radical homemaking — Traditional, or not?

I'm trying to decide if I like this or not. I think the problem, on the surface, is that you must have a certain social-economic status in order to live radically in this setting. You must be secure in your property, in a home and have the ability to carve out a domestic space. The basic needs must be met before you can live simply. I love the idea but it does not address a basic problem in our society. Not everyone has a place of security from which to operate and attach to this kind of simplicity. The one thing holding back our group from founding our intentional community is the money to purchase the property and build our yurts. Once the land and improvements are made we can live on virtually no money... until then? Well there is a reason our commune will have so many semi-retired MA, MS, JD and PhDs on it.

Radical homemaking — Traditional, or not?: "

The Oregonian’s Leslie Cole recently interviewed Shannon Hayes, who has a book out titled Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture. The idea behind the book? That being domestic can be radical, not merely traditional. As Cole writes:

The women and men Hayes profiles in her new book strive to eat locally, live on less, and untether themselves from a consumption-driven culture. They cook more, shop little, and make do with what they have. They strive to view decisions through the lens of family, community, planet, and social justice.

Cole goes on to profile a few Portlanders who exemplify the radical-homemaking ideal, including Sarah Gilbert, Chris Musser, and Gretchan Jackson. No radical-homemaking guys, though — for that, you’ll have to read Hayes’ book.

from Sift

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04/14/10 PHD comic: 'Two cents on the dollar'

04/14/10 PHD comic: 'Two cents on the dollar': "

Piled Higher & Deeper by Jorge Cham		www.phdcomics.com
title: "Two cents on the dollar" - originally published 4/14/2010 For the latest news in PHD Comics, CLICK HERE!

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Sleep Box

I want one!!

Sleep Box: "

After a rough night with little swissmister, I am dreaming of a Sleep Box (and a nanny that comes with it to take care of the little man while I take a nap).

(thank you Karen)

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Sloppy Joes

I am SO going to Veganize this!!

Sloppy Joes: "

I used to be terrified of sloppy joes. It’s true. When I was a little girl, I got it in my head that sloppy joes were demons, and that if I ate them I’d become possessed and die.

Okay, listen. I know that sounds crazy. But thanks to my best friend Becky, who was a strong Baptist, demon possession was among the largest of my childhood fears. Becky and I thought my parents’ basement was possessed, she thought Vogue magazine was possessed, and I, in turn, came to believe sloppy joes—in all their wonderful, hot comfort foodedness—were possessed.

I’ve since come to see the light. I’ve made my peace with sloppy joes.

And Becky’s made her peace with Vogue magazine.

We’ve both grown a lot in our faith.

Here’s what you need. As you can see, I accidentally left a couple of items out of the Cast of Characters shot. And you know what they say: it ain’t a party till somethin’ gets left out of the Cast of Characters shot!

First, add the butter to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. Dump in the ground beef and cook it till it’s brown.

When the meat is brown, drain out most of the fat. Look at all of this!

You wanna make your cardiologist happy? Send him a photo like this.

Next, cut a medium onion in half from root to tip. Lay one half of the onion face down on a cutting board, then make several vertical slices across the onion.

Then cut in the other direction to dice it.

It’s been awhile since I showed you how to dice an onion.

It was time.

Now cut off the top and bottom of a green pepper or two (depending on the size.) Cut the round in half and lay the halves flat.

Cut the halves into strips…

Then cut up the strips to create a small dice.

I love dicing bell peppers. If I could get a job that would involve my dicing bell peppers 24 hours a day, I’d jump at the chance!

I’d probably quit within two days because by then I’d be really dang sick of bell peppers.

But it would be the best two days of my life.

Dice up some garlic, too—several cloves! Have courage!

Throw in the onions and peppers…

And the garlic! Cook this for a few minutes, until the onions and peppers start to get a little soft.

Measure a cup and a half (give or take) of ketchup. You can also a little jarred chili sauce, too, if you have some languishing in the door of your fridge.

Throw it into the meat mixture…

And stir it to combine. Add a little salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper to spice things up a bit.

Add a cup or cup and a half of water…

And stir it in.

Next, add in a little brown sugar, some chili powder, and some dry mustard.

Stir it around and let it simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, just to let the flavors all meld.

While it’s cooking, sprinkle in some red pepper flakes to give the sloppy joes some bada BOOM bada BING BANG BOOM!

But only if you’re into that sort of thing.

Along the way, you can also add in a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce, more salt and pepper if needed, and even (I do this often) a tablespoon or two of tomato paste to give it a little deeper tomato flavor. Taste and test along the way—you can even add a little Tabasco to really set things on fire.

To serve the sloppy joes, I like to toast the buns first. It gives a little bit of substance and crispness to the sandwiches, and it creates more work for me, which is a hobby of mine.

No. Not really.

Be sure to use butter on the griddle!

Without butter, nothing matters in life.

Add a heapin’ helpin’ of the meat mixture.

Yummy! And no sign of Satan anywhere!

Plop on the top of the bun and serve it up with a big bunch of kettle cooked potato chips. The crunch is essential!

Oh, and if you’re feeling particularly naughty…you can melt a slice of cheese over the top.

Enjoy these! They’re scrumptious.

Love,

P-Dub

Sloppy Joes

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Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Cook Time: 20 Minutes

Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 8

Ingredients

• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2-½ pounds Ground Beef
• ½ whole Large Onion, Diced
• 1 whole Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1-½ cup Ketchup
• 1 cup Water
• 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Chili Powder (more To Taste)
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• ½ teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes (more To Taste)
• Worcestershire Sauce To Taste
• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (optional)
• Tabasco Sauce (optional; To Taste)
• Salt To Taste
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste
• Kaiser Rolls
• Butter

Preparation Instructions

Add butter to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Drain most of the fat and discard.

Add onions, green pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until vegetables begin to get soft.

Add ketchup, brown sugar, chili pepper, dry mustard, and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Also add tomato paste, Worcestershire, and Tabasco if desired. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Spread rolls with butter and brown on a griddle or skillet. Spoon meat mixture over the rolls, topping with a slice of cheese if it makes your skirt fly up. Serve hot with kettle cooked chips!

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Let’s Ask Marion: Does The USDA stand for Ultra Silly Dietary Agenda?

Let’s Ask Marion: Does The USDA stand for Ultra Silly Dietary Agenda?: "

With a click of her mouse, EatingLiberally’s kat corners Dr. Marion Nestle, NYU professor of nutrition and author of Pet Food Politics, What to Eat and Food Politics:

KT: Monday’s New York Times had an editorial supporting the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, a bill that would give the US Agriculture Department “new powers to set nutritional standards for any food sold on school grounds, particularly junk foods that contribute to obesity.”

The current standards leave a lot to be desired, as Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution has revealed. In the first episode, Jamie stood accused of shortchanging the kids on carbohydrates because he omitted the bread from a meal that already included rice.

Last Friday, in episode three, Jamie found himself charged with the violation of “insufficient vegetables,” despite the fact that his noodle-based entree featured seven different vegetables. The remedy? Add a bunch of french fries to the meal to meet the veggie quota.

How did the USDA’s school lunch standards ever get so nutritionally nutty? Would passage of the CNA support the wholesome, made-from-scratch meals that Jamie Oliver’s trying to bring back to our cafeterias?

Dr. Nestle: You are asking about the history of the USDA’s school lunch program? Nothing could be more complicated or arcane. Fortunately, two new books take this on: Susan Levine’s School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program (Princeton, 2010), and Janet Poppendieck’s Free for All: Fixing School Food in America (California, 2010).

I used Poppendieck’s book in my Food Ethics class at NYU this semester and reading it while watching Jamie Oliver’s programs was a lot of fun. Yes, Oliver is doing reality television but no, he’s not exaggerating. If you find this difficult to believe, read Poppendieck’s book or take a quick look at Kate Adamick’s review of Oliver’s Food Revolution on the Atlantic Food Channel.

As Levine and Poppendieck explain, and as I discussed in Food Politics (California, 2007), school lunches started out as a way to dispose of surplus agricultural commodities by feeding hungry kids. Over the years, it got caught up in a series of “wars”–first on poverty, hunger, and malnutrition and later on welfare and obesity.

The politics of school lunch, and of the CNA in particular, have always reflected the tension inherent in any welfare program, in this case feeding the poor vs. inducing dependency and overspending. In recent years, as obesity became much more of a public health problem than malnutrition, the politics came to reflect the tensions between commercial interests and those of nutrition reformers. Congress is always involved as it endlessly tinkers with the rules for “competitive foods”–the sodas and snacks sold in competition with federally supported school meals.

Competitive foods put schools in a dilemma and in conflict of interest. They make money from competitive foods to help support the school lunch program. But sodas and snacks undermine participation in school meals programs.

Poppendieck points out that the result is a mess that leaves financially strapped school districts with few choices. It’s not that the “lunch ladies” (you have to love Jamie Oliver’s term) don’t know how to make decent meals. It’s that they are up against inadequate funding and equipment, and impossible nutrition standards that can be met most easily by commercial products like Uncrustables that are designed to meet USDA standards. My favorite example contains 51 ingredients (my rule is “no more than five”).*

Inadequate funding is a big consideration in the Child Nutrition Act. This act provides $4.5 billion over 10 years for school meals. Although this represents a 10-fold increase over previous (2004) funding, it works out to an additional measly six cents per meal–not nearly enough to solve school districts’ financial problems.

But–and this is a huge step forward–the act gives USDA the authority to set nutrition standards not only for foods sold in the cafeteria but also in vending machines and a la carte lines.

And the bill does a few other Very Good Things. It provides:

• An estimated $1.2 billion over 10 years for meals at after-school programs, free meals to all students in schools with high poverty levels, and increased availability of meals during summer months.

• An estimated $3.2 billion for establishing nutrition standards, strengthening local wellness policies, and increasing reimbursement rates.

• Mandatory funding for schools to establish school gardens and buy foods from local sources.

• Increased training for local food service personnel.

• Automatic enrollment of foster children for free school meals.

As for the pesky nutrition standards: the bill expects the USDA to revise them according to the recent report of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), School Meals: Building Blocks for Health Children. This report recommended a conversion to food-based, rather than nutrient-based, standards along with increases in the amount and variety of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and limits on calories, saturated fat, and sodium.

All of this makes the CNA well worth supporting. Is it perfect? Of course not. But it is a good first step to making big improvements eventually. In the meantime, plenty of schools are already doing great work and more are joining the food revolution one meal at a time. These deserve all the help we can give them.

*NOTE: the label of this particular Uncrustable was sent to me by someone who works in an upstate New York school district:

BREAD; ENRICHED UNBLEACHED FLOUR (WHEAT FLOUR, MALTED BARLEY FLOUR, NIACIN, REDUCED IRON, THIAMIN MONONITRATE, RIBOFLAVIN, FOLIC ACID), WATER, HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP, YEAST, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL AND/OR SOYBEAN OIL, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: WHEAT GLUTEN, SALT, DOUGH CONDITIONERS (MAY CONTAIN ONE OR MORE OF: DIACETYL TARTARIC ACID ESTERS OF MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES [DATEM], MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, ETHOXYLATED MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE, CALCIUM PEROXIDE, ASCORBIC ACID, AZODICARBONAMIDE, L-CYSTEINE), YEAST NUTRIENTS (MAY CONTAIN ONE OR MORE OF: MONOCALCIUM PHOSPHATE, CALCIUM SULFATE, AMMONIUM SULFATE), CALCIUM PROPIONATE (MAINTAIN FRESHNESS), CORNSTARCH, ENZYMES (WITH WHEAT). PASTEURIZED PROCESS CHEESE SPREAD: CULTURED MILK AND SKIM MILK, WATER, WHEY (FROM MILK), SODIUM PHOSPHATE, SALT, CREAM (FROM MILK), CORN SYRUP, LACTIC ACID, SORBIC ACID (PRESERVATIVE), GUAR GUM, ARTIFICIAL COLOR, ENZYMES. BUTTER FLAVORED OIL: PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED SOYBEAN OIL, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL AND ARTIFICAL FLAVORS (WITH MILK), VITAMIN A PALMITATE, BETA CAROTENE ADDED FOR COLOR.

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