not so hot, dog.

As some may know, and others will soon, my favorite food is probably hotdogs. They're not only delicious but they're horribly unnutrious (the tastiest food always is :]) and are made best in my favorite invention, the microwave. Hot dogs have a mulitude of uses in many obviously classy recipes, including mac n cheese with hot dog pieces and spaghetti-o's with hot dog pieces. While browsing through some pictures today I came across a not so conventional use, and I would like to share it.



Not sure what this concotion is, but it is not anything I desire.

lean-bean

Tonight I watched Good Eats, a show where host Alton Brown approaches cuisine and food in new and somewhat ridiculous ways- especially with his scientific methods and his precise measurements. I'll give you an idea of how the show goes for those who haven't seen it.

While introducing the main ingredient to the foods he will create during the show, the host usually introduces other uses for the ingredient as well as a little bit of history of how it came to the United States or how it was first used or where it came from. This episodes main ingredient was edamame, a member of the soy family.

I was disappointed at the reveal of this ingredient, after reading Jim Rutz's article on the potential dangers of soy products. It's hard to decide whether I want a delicious and nutritious meal or if I want breast cancer and a weakened thyroid. sigh

Alton Brown likes to let the viewer know how to choose the ingredient at the grocery store. He mentions that when choosing it you could choose between fresh edamame beans, or bagged which is what he prefers.

He wastes no time in mentioning the various ways to cook the beans, whether boiling or baking, he introduces the more adverse and scientific way of heating the beans by using a magnetron. Since not very many homes have such a device, and not very many families have access to this device, a microwave can be used.

Getting into his first method of preparing the edamame, he mixes one pound of edamame beans with a quarter of a cup of water to keep it from burning, and puts it into the microwave. After it is done cooking he adds salt to create an easy to make snack. He eludes to the fact that the Japanese used to enjoy this snack with beer.

His next version of preparing the edamame is in a salad. He starts by separating the beans from the pod. Adding corn, scallions, garlic, salt and pepper he bakes it in the oven mixing in oil, so the ingredients absorb each other. Although the viewer can't smell this baked concoction, he mentions a great aroma that it produces. After cooking, he adds a few other vegetables to finish off the salad, which can be served chilled or heated.

While this food, while being mostly soy-based, actually looks rather tasty, it is also the only vegetable that delivers all proteins necessary to the body in order to live. To this, he mentions, that one could quite literally live off of eating the edamame beans alone.

Normally I am not one to enjoy any form soy or anything resembling it, however the way that it was prepared during the show reveals ways that I might even desire. Though they seem fairly easy to make I probably will never attempt any of the methods on my own. Being one to usually over-react, soy terrifies me now that Jim Rutz has sheered the wool off my eyes and endowed me with the knowledge of its 'poison.' Hope you can enjoy these dishes regardless of my superstitions. :)

Senti-mentos

Hm, today I was looking through recent articles on Google's 'news' section and I became aware of these two unrelated but interesting/alarming pieces of information. 

1- Joesph Belanger, a psychologist who previously worked at a hospital in Jamestown has been sentenced to seven years for his interest in and possession of child pornography, which he claims stemmed from treating sexual offenders. I hope this does not become an epidemic, surely psychiatrists will have some serious mental issues from this kind of 'osmosis' like transfer of ideas.

2- The kosher symbol was left off 14 million boxes of Girl Scout Thin mints. Well, I can think of NOTHING more news breaking than this tragedy. Thankfully it was immediately recognized!!!

Anyway, I will share my most recent food tasting experience, though it's somewhat shallow.

I had some Freschetta frozen pizza last night and it was actually pretty decent though I'm not too picky to begin with. It was thin crust which never really entices me much- I want more food for my dollars not crunchier harder food. I already make it crunchy and hard on accident so I usually don't prefer frozen food that already comes the way I can make anything turn out. Also, the product insisted that it was "delightfully thin" though I'm not sure how they gauged 'delightfully.' It was pretty crunchy, so if you like crunchy bread and you have no opposition to a giant mess of crumbs then this is for you!

On a 100 percent positive note I also purchased a delicious new product, Mentos gum. I guess it's nothing ground breaking, but certainly pleasing. Mine was 'red fruit' and lime flavor. I like this because it keeps me in suspense, which 'red fruit' could I be ingesting? It's a mystery! Puts some spice in my life.

Soy Boy

Today, upon browsing some articles I came across something that peaked my curiosity. A slow poison, claims Jim Rutz, is making our kids gay. Soy, the health food that many people seem to enjoy, or at least pretend to enjoy in hopes of becoming in better shape, is apparently poisoning us. 

Eating soy products is marketed as being good for you- considering it's packed full of amino acids so it's naturally high in protien. However ingesting large quantities of soy also deposits alarming quantities of estrogen into your body according to Rutz and his research. 

So homosexuality is not something you're born with, it's something you are fed in a bottle as an infant? This seems highly ridiculous to me but after consulting the most reliable source of information ever, Wikipedia...I solidified my agreement with Rutz's claim.

Does this mean that those evangelical christians actually cannot blame gay men and women for their orientation that they claim they have felt since they were young? The Evangelical Christian Church is "unalterably opposed to homosexual activity," but how can these innocent people ever prove that they are not the sinners, it's really their parents who are culprit? I mean, what were those parents thinking?..Their child is hungry..gets colic from dairy milk.. won't breast feed.. clearly these children should go hungry in hopes of saving them from a life either of sin or of hiding their true feelings. Hm.

Appetizer

I tend to have few interests. Of those one or two or three things that I actually enjoy, I typically know little about. This is one of them. However I am embarking on a mission to become more informed about my most appealing hobby, eating.

I guess it started when I was born, everyone eats to maintain living. I sure did and I sure do still. When I learned about this blog project where I had to pick something to write about for ten weeks I was very worried. I'm no expert in any aspect of anything at all, so I decided that my best bet would be to write about something that affected me daily- that way I would never run out of things to write. Ta da.

I'm not cultured in any sense, by that I mean that my scope of foods pretty much only encompasses what has been offered to me in cafeterias, regular American style resturants, and occasionaly the home cooking of some of my more skilled friends. For example, my experience of "real French cusine" would have to be the crepes I made during French 1 in middle school, or perhaps the chocolate mousse I purchased in "France"...or should I say Epcot.

Regardless of these shortcomings, I plan to create a blog that will elaborate on many different aspects of food, including the preperation, serving, enjoyment, and unconventional uses, to name a few. My purpose is to strive to engage in real thoughtful conversation about something as trival as food.