Casual Kitchen

Anticipated Reproach, And Why Vegetarians Are Such Jerks

2012-01-24T03:11:00.000-08:00

I've never in my life met a vegetarian who was a jerk.

But whenever the subject of vegetarianism comes up--even highly flexible and inclusive versions like CK's Part-Time Vegetarianism--there's usually at least one or two vehement responses from meat-eating readers who presume that some jerk vegetarian wants to take their meat away.

Why is that? I mean, anyone spending five minutes at Casual Kitchen would quickly figure out that we're not vegetarians. We're not a threat to the meat-eating world at all. We're just trying to eat a little healthier and save some dough.

Here's the thing. When a meat-lover responds in an aggressive way to a post on vegetarianism, they expect to be pilloried for their food choices. They think a "reproach" is coming from a pack of tie-dyed vegetarian kooks, so they act accordingly.

That, in a nutshell, is Anticipated Reproach. Essentially, people are expecting missiles to be fired at them, so they fire their biggest missiles first--in a pre-emptive strike to protect themselves.

Anticipated Reproach explains how arguments spontaneously appear out of thin air. All you need is to have one person fire a defensive verbal missile, another person to react, and it's on.

I don't mean to pick on meat-eaters (although admittedly, I'm using them as a rhetorical device in this post). And obviously, the veggie/vegan/meat debate is just one of a million places where you can see anticipated reproach in action. It shows up in all kinds of discussions: in political debates, in debates on taxes and entitlements, in debates on corporate power, about the level of government involvement in our daily lives, and in every other hot-button issue we face as a society today.

It helps explain why otherwise well-behaved people start up insane arguments on Facebook, and why people will waste hours attempting to correct the views of people they don't even know.

And if you think it's only other people who do this, think again. All of us are guilty of anticipated reproach from time to time.

But here's the thing: when you anticipate a reproach that hasn't yet been made... well, you're actually imagining something that doesn't exist. You are making it up. And of course it goes without saying, you haven't furthered the discussion by one millimeter, you've taken it backwards into name-calling and defensiveness.

There's a couple of takeaways here. First, for fellow bloggers: try not to take reader comments personally, particularly the nasty ones. Those comments are almost always about the commenter, not about you. Most likely they are thinking of other times when they've been reproached for their views, and they're simply anticipating still more reproach from you.

Second, don't fall unwittingly into the various anticipated reproach traps. Don't pre-emptively escalate your language. Try to use humor, but avoid sarcastic humor (this is a particularly tough challenge for me). Don't make declarative and pontificatory statements. Instead, ask questions, and try, sincerely, to learn the thought process of the people who don't agree with you. Hey, you never know, you might even learn you were wrong!

Nahhh, probably not. :)

In any event, here at CK, you won't find yourself reproached. Ever. This is my solemn promise to you, dear readers.

I created this blog so that we could all have a "no-reproach zone" to talk about cooking, our diets and the food industry. Yes, you will find your assumptions questioned here, and yes, you'll be challenged here to think differently--sometimes very differently--about things.

But don't anticipate a reproach... because that reproach ain't coming.

Readers! What are your thoughts?

Related Posts:
In Defense of Big Farms
Food Militancy, and Food Moderation
The Top Lame-Ass Excuses Between You and Better Health

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Egg on Tata

2012-01-17T03:11:00.000-08:00

This is a frequent breakfast I make for myself and Laura. It's cheap, it's healthy, it's hilariously easy, and it provides our bodies with hours of healthy energy.

I often write about thinking about your meals and your diet as tools. I want my readers to make their food work for them, so that what you eat helps you accomplish your goals.

In our case, this is the kind of breakfast I'll eat after a hard morning run, or on the morning after a day of heavy physical activity. It combines carbs, protein and fat in just the right amounts, and it's a good example of why big breakfasts are phenomenal tools for managing your weight and your food intake.

Furthermore, when I eat a high-satiety-factor breakfast like this, I'll be a lot less likely to succumb to hunger pangs later in the day--and eat something I might regret.

Finally, I'd be lax if I didn't use this breakfast an yet another example that contradicts the ludicrous but commonly held view that healthy food has to be expensive. This ginormous plate of food, which was enough to feed two, can be made in its entirety for less than a dollar.
*********************************
Egg On Tata

Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 uncooked potato, unpeeled and thinly sliced
1, 2 or 3 eggs
Spices of your choosing

Directions:
1) Place potato slices onto the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet. Add some seasonings, then cover and fry at medium high heat for 5-7 minutes, until potatoes are becoming tender and starting to brown nicely on one side.

2) Flip over potatoes, and then crack your eggs over the top of them. Add some more seasonings on top of the eggs. Cover again, and cook another 4-6 minutes, until eggs are done to your liking.
*********************************
A few recipe notes:
1) I strongly recommend not peeling the potato. Not only will you save yourself 3-4 minutes of prep time, you'll also add to the nutritional completeness of this meal.

2) Spices: normally we use cayenne pepper as our primary spice, with an occasional splash of Tabasco. But feel free to experiment here by trying other spices: garlic powder, sage, black pepper, etc., or even fresh herbs like parsley or basil if you have them handy.

3) This post is gratefully dedicated to my father, Clayton Koontz, who continues to teach me how to cook easy, nutritious and delicious breakfasts for hilariously little money. My father is still making the most out of the fact that he grew up in the Depression--and I'm all the luckier for it.

Related Posts:
A Tale of Two Breakfasts
The 911 Frittata
The 80-Second Latte
How to Make Creole-Style Coffee

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Ask CK: Butter Or Margarine? What's a Girl To Do?

2012-01-12T03:11:00.000-08:00

If you have a question you'd like to ask Casual Kitchen, send it in!!
**********************************
Eleni asks:

I wonder if you could help settle a family debate. Do you use real butter, half-butter-half-vegetable-fat spreads, or olive oil-based spreads...or what? My mum will only buy real butter, and she slaps it on pretty thick. Subsequently, she has high cholesterol. She's not anywhere near overweight, and otherwise her diet's not bad - plenty of fruit and veggies and hardly any pre-packaged convenience foods. So...I blame the butter.

My sister came to visit me and was horrified when I produced a tub of half-butter-half-vegetable-fat "spreadable butter" for our toast. "Don't you know they're full of crap?" she cried! So what's a girl to do? What do you do in the Casual Kitchen?

This is a provocative question, mainly because so much of the science and health conclusions out there simply aren't clear. In fact, do readers remember (I think it was back in the late 80s/early 90s) a widely publicized study that claimed margarine was healthier for you than butter--and then shortly thereafter a different and equally well-publicized study came out and claimed the exact opposite?

Thanks for nothing guys.

In recent years, health experts have shifted the debate somewhat. Rather than helping us make a Morton's fork of a choice between butter or margarine, they now caution us from consuming excess trans fats. Of course, trans fats tend to show up more in margarine and other hydrogenated vegetable oils. Thus that's a strike against manufactured vegetable oil based spreads.

Then again, now that limiting your intake of trans fats is standard health advice, many manufacturers have reformulated their spreads to reduce--and in some cases eliminate--trans fats.

Once again, thanks for nothing. I still don't know which is better.

Now, with butter, we have a different problem. Butter contains very small amounts of trans fats, but there is some (mixed) evidence that the specific types of trans fats in butter are actually good for you. However, butter also contains cholesterol, which isn't in hydrogenated vegetable oils.

Confused yet? I'll confuse you more--because there isn't always a connection between the cholesterol you ingest and cholesterol levels in your blood. All of us have that annoying friend or family member who eats all the butter and egg yolks she wants and yet still has great cholesterol numbers. And my wife, despite her steady diet of oatmeal, exercise and red wine, has always had borderline bad cholesterol numbers.

What do we do here at Casual Kitchen? Well, as readers well know, we are true omnivores: we eat everything, but we eat nothing to excess (uh, with the exception of dark chocolate). Thus, we try to keep our fat intake at reasonable levels, and we try to keep our intake of hydrogenated oils at a very bare minimum.

And I'll confess in the interests of full disclosure, I have a bit of a personal bias against manufactured fats. The idea of a fat that's been deliberately modified so that it remains solid at room temperature, and the idea of putting something like that in my body--and later having it possibly floating around in my arteries... I mean, if I think about this too much I kind of lose my appetite.

Therefore, when we cook, we use olive oil. When we bake, we try to bias our ingredients towards butter. When it comes to "butter-like" spreads, we pretty much never use them. Instead, we try to cook and eat foods that taste great by themselves, and those kinds of foods ideally shouldn't need butter or butter-like spreads to taste better.

Last, my biggest confession of all--and proof that there's not an ounce of food absolutism here at Casual Kitchen, ever. On occasion, we will happily use hydrogenated oils--a textbook example being Laura's brilliantly perfect apple pie crust, which simply handles best with Crisco. Then again, in 2007, Crisco reformulated their shortening too, and they've now eliminated almost all of the trans fats from their product.

Hmmm... one more slice of pie for me!

So how do you know whether butter is better or manufactured spreads are better? Well, the short answer is, neither is good for you if eaten to excess. But likewise, neither will kill you if eaten in moderation.

And that, I think, is the real answer. Eat what you like, but please do so in moderation.

Readers, what is your take on the butter vs butter-like spread debate? How do you balance health concerns with taste? Share your thoughts!

Resources:
Trans Fat Fight Claims Butter as a Victim (New York Times)
Trans Fat is Double Trouble For Your Heart Health (Mayo Clinic)
Natural Trans Fats Have Health Benefits, New Study Shows (Science Daily)
Consumer Reports Weighs In On New Crisco (Consumer Reports)
Trans fat (Wikipedia)

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

What's "In" And "Out" For The New Recession

2012-01-10T03:11:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past year or two, you're well aware that the economy's in the tank. Unemployment is close to 10%. People are protesting on Wall Street while our entire banking system is still limping out of the last credit crisis. And our elected officials can't seem to stop themselves from spending money on boondoggles and benefits that we can't afford.

And yet serious recessions aren't entirely bad things. For one thing, they help put life back into perspective. Have you noticed that nobody talks about their wine cellars anymore? That nobody seems to be buying luxury goods anymore, and even those who still are finally know enough not to brag about it?

Everybody I know--everybody--has cut back on meaningless frivolities. And those status-related and aspirational purchases that we thought were important... well, they suddenly don't see quite so important after all. And, by the way, long-time CK readers know that thanks to my former career picking stocks on Wall Street, I know people across the entire socio-economic spectrum. Believe me, this phenomenon is occurring at every level of society. Every level.

Heck, even advertisers on TV and in the media are starting to tone down all the images of luxury and consumerism.

The era of conspicuous consumption that enveloped our culture in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s is over. I repeat: it's over.

Okay. In today's post, I'm going to walk a fine line between irony and seriousness by writing the rest of this article in a style that you'd typically see in Cosmopolitan magazine. In other words, the rest of this post is for the few remaining tone-deaf consumerists out there who never got the memo telling them they're totally out of style.

This is what's "in" and what's "out" in The New Recession:

Out. Dinner out five or six times a week.
In. Cooking at home, eating better and saving boatloads of money.

Out. Cooking with aspirational ingredients like truffles, designer olive oils, or artisanal cheeses airlifted in from across the planet.
In. Cooking with simple, easy-to-find and affordable ingredients.

Out. Heavily advertised, processed foods, when the consumer ends up paying for both the advertising and the processing.
In. Diets based on unbranded, affordable and healthy food items like lentils, potatoes, rice, whole grains, beans and other staples.

Out. High-priced restaurant meals and $12 appletinis.
In. Inviting your friends over for a casual dinner party and great conversation at a fraction of the cost.

Out. Obscure grains that are simple fare in the rest of the world, but are marketed here as high-priced aspirational goods.
In. Shopping at locally-owned ethnic food shops and finding absolute steals on bulk grains, spices and other staples.

Out. Ridiculously priced, out-of-season organic produce.
In. Reasonably priced, in-season produce.

Out. Second-order foods.
In. First-order foods.

Out. High-end, organic pet food.
In. Pet food.

Out. Driving to your grocery store in a brand new Hummer or ginormous SUV.
In. Hanging on to your five- or seven-year-old reliable car.

Out. Running out to buy the latest overpriced celebrity-endorsed cookbooks and cookware.
In. Relying on the foundation cookbooks and kitchen gear you already own.

Readers, this list is far from complete. What are you doing differently now in your diet, your home life and your consumption habits? Share your thoughts!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

A Slaughterhouse Catch-22 for Food Regulations

2012-01-03T03:11:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite readers left a great comment about food regulations on my Interview With FDA Commissioner David Kessler post. Here's the portion that struck me as particularly provocative:

I have no patience with the "nanny state" objection. All the governmental regulations that have been put in place to protect citizens are there in response to citizen demand. The government doesn't do a single.blessed.thing that citizens haven't asked for.

If someone is smart and responsible and capable of figuring out, e.g., how to read a food label and why it's desirable to wear a seat belt, well yippee for them. The regulations don't impinge on their rights at all.

Double true. With extra truth sauce.

However, if we're going to be intellectually honest here, we owe it to ourselves to at least try to think up the contra-case: an instance where food regulation goes too far, becomes a clearly bad thing and does impinge on peoples' rights. Fortunately, we have one. Actually two.

One is happening right now. It's the new slaughterhouse regulations recently enacted by the US Department of Agriculture, in response to a spate of high-profile e. coli outbreaks that shook the meat industry over the past few years. This article in The Atlantic addresses the subject better than I ever could, but suffice it to say that our government's new meat processing regulations have become so complex, so onerous and so expensive that only the largest mega-regional slaughterhouses can afford to meet them.

So what happens next? Well, for starters, the small-scale meat processing industry is now likely to die off or get consolidated away.

Which leaves us with a problem. Let's say you're a local, small-scale rancher or beef farmer, and you want to send your ethically grown cattle to a small, local, ethically-managed abattoir. Unfortunately--and in an ironic example of unintended consequences--you can't. You'll soon have to send your cattle hundreds of miles away to the same gigantic industrial slaughterhouse everybody else is stuck using, because your small-scale abattoir became unprofitable under the new regulatory framework.

Here's the thing: As regulations increase, the economics of a given industry inevitably change. Big players can handle the incremental costs of new regulations--but the little guy can't always. If regulations become too costly, the big guys become the only players left. Sadly, our government, while trying to protect us, may have inadvertantly regulated away an entire segment of the meat industry, leaving behind an entrenched and far less competitive oligopoly of a few huge market players.

Bonus question: what do you think happens to meat prices as the slaughterhouse industry consolidates? Will farmers get paid more per head of cattle? Will consumers end up paying less for meat? It only takes vestigial critical thinking skills to figure out the answer to both questions is no.

Another irony. Talk to the ethical meat consumers you know. Ask them if they're in favor of more government regulation of our food supply. After they say yes, explain this scenario of the slaughterhouse industry, and see what happens to their once decisively-held opinions. Careful what you wish for.

And if you think the snowball stops there, think again. Consider any onerously regulated industry with a small number of large players. What's the primary barrier to entry for new competitors in such an industry? The primary barrier to entry is, sadly, the ability to meet onerous regulations. The secondary barrier is the ability to exercise political power by lobbying political leaders to impact future regulations in your favor.

You'd think being successful in the meat processing industry meant being good at processing meat. Not for long.

Okay, admittedly, this is just one example. But it's an exceptionally clear and depressing example of how increasing regulations can destroy competition, hurt suppliers and consumers, and worst of all, force perfectly ethical market participants right out of an industry. The question is, where exactly is that point where regulations become too onerous? How do we know when we've crossed it?

I don't know the answer. But I suspect it tends to happen to already-regulated industries that happen to be deeply out of favor with the public. Think about it: Our politicians can easily generate maximum electoral capital by regulating, punishing, assailing, railing, grandstanding and moralizing against these out-of-favor industries, all the while appearing as if they care about their voters. And in a few years, when the industry consolidates down to a few powerful mega-players, you can quietly start collecting political contributions in exchange for softening future regs. This to me is one of the darkest aspects of nanny state politics.

There's one more point I'd like to make: We consumers often think big, greedy companies are anti-regulation. This is far less true than you'd think.

And since I'm trafficking in so much irony today, let me share possibly the most ironic regulatory event of the last one hundred years: The cigarette industry, which is essentially a duopoly here in the USA, actually wanted the FDA to extend its authority and regulate tobacco products. Why? Because the FDA was likely to pass onerous regs that--if strict enough--would prevent another major cigarette company from ever being created in the USA. Bam! You've earned yourself permanent protection from new competition.

Why am I talking about this? Am I trying to say I hate all government regulations, I love contaminated meat, and I think we should return to an Upton Sinclair-esque era with no rules?

Don't be silly. My point is far more limited: regulations don't always protect people. Sometimes they actually hurt consumers, prevent competition, and annihilate small businesses. And all that does is make life easier for the large, politically-connected businesses that remain--and the politicians who represent them. What I want CK readers to understand is that there's no black and white here: you cannot assume that more government regulation is always a good thing. Again, be careful what you wish for.

For Further Reading (investment and industry analysis geeks only):
Competitive Strategy by Michael Porter
Innovation and Enrepreneurship by Peter Drucker
Wikipedia on Porter's Five Forces
Prophet of Innovation by Thomas K. McCraw (a great biography of economist Joseph Schumpeter)

Related Posts:
The Problem with Government Food Safety Regulation
How to Give Away Your Power By Being a Biased Consumer
Survivor Bias: Why "Big Food" Isn't Quite As Evil As You Think It Is
Let Them Eat Cake! Thoughts About Wealth, Power and the Food Industry
Understanding the Consumer Products Industry

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

A Quick Update For Readers

2012-01-01T03:11:00.000-08:00

Readers! A quick update: I'll be in Santiago, Chile for most of January, working on my Spanish. As an experiment to help my Spanish immersion, and to reduce to an absolute minimum the amount of time I spend thinking in English, I'm going to take a short one-month break from publishing Retro Sundays and Friday Links posts.

Don't worry though, you'll still get your regular dose of CK each week. January's regular weekly articles are already queued up and ready to go, and as always I'll be moderating and responding to your comments and your emails. I'm really proud of the posts I've got coming up this month--and particularly happy with this week's post--so stay tuned!

I'll return to my regular publishing schedule in February. As always, thank you for your support and attention.

CK Friday Links--Friday December 30, 2011

2011-12-30T03:11:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
A simple introduction to natural sweeteners and how to use them. (A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa)

An exceptional, if occasionally bitter, recap of 2011's biggest food stories. (Small Bites)

A visual history of champagne, minus the death and dismemberment. (1 Wine Dude)

How to live comfortably on $36 a month for food. (Andrew Hyde)

"The problem with society is we aren't materialistic enough." (Miss Minimalist)

Recipe Links:
One of the easiest bread recipes out there: Irish Soda Bread. (30 Bucks a Week)

Intriguing! Brown Rice Risotto. (100 Days of Real Food)

Off-Topic Links:
Looking for ways to save a ton of money in 2012? Go on an "apparel diet" and embrace a year of conscious consumption. (The Great American Apparel Diet)

Shoot your inner critic and save your dreams. (A Life of Spice)

When you find yourself in a difficult or uncertain situation, don't automatically assume the worst. (Your Voice of Encouragement)

Give up on the idea of "perfect" -- it’s never done anyone the least bit of good. (Food For the Thoughtless)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

2011-12-25T03:11:00.000-08:00

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How to Use Food and Wine Jargon Without Sounding Pretentious (December 2009)
I learned two important things after writing this post: First, the people who really should read it most likely won't. Second, never create "composite characters" made up of people from your old career. I had three separate colleagues from my former Wall Street days ask me if this post was about them.

Eight Tips to Make Cooking At Home Laughably Cheap (December 2006)
This post was inspired by a know-it-all friend from Manhattan who claimed it was cheaper to eat out than to cook at home. Fool. I later created the meme Laughably Cheap and a ton of laughably cheap recipes to go with it, and well, the rest is history.

Wintry Tomato Vegetable Soup (December 2007)
This easy and inexpensive soup recipe has been a long-time favorite here at CK, and it's an absolutely perfect meal for a freezing winter day.

Capitalize on Your Cooking Core Competencies (December 2007)
Turn your household into a well-oiled cooking machine with the tips in this post--the final installment in my series on How to Team Up in the Kitchen.

Blog Improvement 101 Links (December 2008)
What are your plans to make your blog even better in the coming year? I put together this list of the ten best articles on blogging from 2008, and I'm still referring to each of them in my efforts to improve Casual Kitchen. These articles are as useful today as ever.

A Short Guide to Common Nicaraguan Foods (December 2009)
Laura and I spent a week in Nicaragua two years ago (we were there with a team of eye doctors giving free eye exams), and we simply fell in love with this country and its unpretentious foods. This post gets a surprising amount of search traffic--and a ton of comment spam from people selling Central American real estate. Go figure.

Eight Things Frugality Taught Me (December 2010)
Most people live in a state of constant fear of being different, and one result of that fear is our culture's voracious consumerism. What has frugality taught you?

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday December 23, 2011

2011-12-23T03:11:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!! Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
That old wive's tale about adding a potato to fix an oversalted soup? A food blogger goes debunking and proves it doesn't work. (Kitchen Mage)

If you're having a craving, say it to yourself: I AM HAVING A CRAVING. Once you put it into words--and once you're honest with yourself--you'll control it. (Ombailamos)

Pssst: Mike Pollan's entire Edible Education 101: A Complete Course on Modern Food Production, is now available totally free. Bookmark it! (The Atlantic, via Mollie Katzen)

For lit geeks only: What if Virginia Woolf, Raymond Chandler or Geoffrey Chaucer had turned to food writing? (The Independent)

Recipe Links:
Make a pile of delicious Potato Latkes for a mere 50c. (Real Cheap Food)

Let citrus be your savior during the cold months with this intriguing Grapefruit Cake recipe. (A Thought For Food) Bonus Post: How to Segment Citrus.

A Brownie Recipe to end all brownie recipes. (The Clayton's Blog)

Off-Topic Links:
The curse of competition. (Lisa's Liberation)

A "mommyjacking" taxonomy. (Mommyish)

Getting paid to do what you love just ends up making you dislike doing what you love. (You Are Not So Smart, via Alosha's Kitchen)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Share YOUR Best Post of 2011!

2011-12-20T03:11:00.000-08:00

Did you write an article or a recipe for your blog during the past year that you're particularly proud of? Would you like to put in front of a wider audience?

Then share it right here at CK!

Readers know that one of my goals at Casual Kitchen is to match thoughtful readers with thought-provoking things that should be read. It's why I created my Friday Links series, and it's one of the ways I try to pay it forward to the many talented writers and bloggers out there.

So, just like I've done this week in each of the last few years, I'd like to give the floor to you, dear readers, and give you a chance to use Casual Kitchen to get the word out on your best work from the past year. It's my way of thanking you for your incredible support.

Here's how to participate: Just paste a link to your favorite post or your best recipe from 2011 in the comments section below, and add a sentence or two on what it's about. That's it! It can be your most popular recipe of the year, a great piece of food writing, or even something from outside of the world of food blogs.

(And if you're one of the infinitesimally few bloggers out there who's too shy to share your own work, feel free to nominate a great post from someone else's blog.)

Finally, as Casual Kitchen wraps up its fifth year, let me take a moment to thank you, my incredible readers, for all your support, comments, feedback and attention. I'm profoundly grateful.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

2011-12-18T03:11:00.000-08:00

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Mastering Kitchen Setup Costs (December 2006)
How to build a well-stocked kitchen at a surprisingly reasonable cost. This post--from the very first month of CK's existence--is one of my all-time most widely-read.

Three Strategies to Create Space in Your Kitchen (December 2007)
Do you have a tiny kitchen? Are you and your family members climbing all over each other rather than cooking? This post is for you.

Pernil: Puerto Rican-Style Roast Pork Shoulder (December 2008)
I'm not kidding when I say that this was one of the best Christmas meals I've ever had in my life. And it's hilariously easy to make.

Mint Melts: Teaching Kids to Cook With an Easy Cookie Recipe (December 2008)
Sure, cookies may not be healthy. But they are an ideal teaching tool to get your kids interested in cooking. Here's how.

Cheap Eats in Honolulu: Nine Inexpensive Restaurants You Should Check Out in Waikiki (December 2009)
Yes, you can find inexpensive meals in one of the USA's most expensive vacation spots. These nine restaurants are by far the best and cheapest restaurants in the Waikiki district of Honolulu.

How Have Your Tastes Changed Compared to Your Parents? (December 2010)
Back in my parents' era, making it to your second bottle of Tabasco meant you'd had a long marriage. Today, Laura and I go through a bottle a month. In this post, readers share the many ways their tastes have changed since growing up and leaving their parents' homes.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday December 16, 2011

2011-12-16T03:11:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Could you feed a family of eight for a full day on $2 total? (Owlhaven)

A spectacular prep tip: how to peel an entire head of garlic in ten seconds. (Vimeo, via Nutmeg Disrupted)

For those who are really paranoid about bacteria on your fresh produce, here's an easy, inexpensive technique you can use at home. (Basically Vegan)

A wine blogger unearths a stunning pay-for-access scandal at the Wine Advocate, leading to the resignation of a well-known wine critic. Go citizen journalism! (Jim's Loire, followed by this follow-up story. See also: Wine Diarist, Gawker and The Baltimore Sun, and a bonus post: Why the wine world looks like a bunch of d-bags)

Recipe Links:
Drink this Nutella Hot Chocolate and all will be right with the world. (The Hungry Housewife)

Make Peter's Roasted Pork Shanks with Crackling and all will be right with the entire universe. (Kalofagas)

Wait. Did you just say Spaghetti in a Mild Curry Sauce? (A Life Of Spice)

Off-Topic Links:
This week's unsolicited book recommendation: The Investor's Manifesto: Preparing for Prosperity, Armageddon, and Everything in Between by William Bernstein. The best investing book I've read all year by a mile. Short, blunt, insightful and incredibly useful. Use it and stop getting separated from your money!

A fashion blog's fascinating take on minimalism and clothing. (Chictopia)

Finding it pointless and wasteful to blow $20 on wrapping paper that's just going to be torn to shreds Christmas morning? Some alternatives. (The Simple Dollar)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

A Thank You To Readers, And the Best of Casual Kitchen 2011

2011-12-13T03:11:00.001-08:00

I want to take a moment, as I do every year at this time, to thank my readers for joining the conversation here at Casual Kitchen.

CK passed some big landmarks in 2011: a few weeks ago, this blog turned five years old. In October I published my 700th post. And if my math is right, sometime early this year CK had its one millionth pageview. I'm deeply, deeply grateful.

I took Casual Kitchen into some new and different directions this year, and I'm thankful that readers not only stayed with me, but that you added so many thoughtful, insightful--and most importantly, civil--comments along the way. It's thanks to you, my dear readers, that Casual Kitchen exists, and it's thanks to you that it's become exactly what I want it to be: a thoughtful forum for adult discussion about food, health, consumerism, frugality and many, many related issues.

So without further ado, here's the best of CK 2011. Once again, thank you so much for being here.

PS: next week, I'll give you a chance to promote and share *your* best post of 2011. Stay tuned!
********************************
Best of Casual Kitchen 2011

1) A Fund For... Who, Exactly? Addressing the "A Fund For Jennie" Controversy
I was one of very few writers to publicly address how Bloggers Without Borders spearheaded an enormous charity fundraiser for a fellow food blogger who, it later turned out, never needed the money. By an order of magnitude my most widely-read post in 2011.

2) The Tragedy of Ersatz American Restaurant Food
In nearly all high-volume restaurants, the idea that your dinner entrees are actually cooked for you is a quaint fiction. This popular post kicked off several heated discussions in the comments: whether cruises sucked or not, how I've ruined peoples' trust in restaurants, and even whether it's appropriate to use the word "tragedy" in a post about food.

3) The Top Lame-Ass Excuses Between You and Better Health
This post describes the entire taxonomy of excuses I get here at CK. I originally created it so I could refer commenters to it if they slipped into excuse mode (Hi, thanks for your comment. You've made a lame excuse. Please read this post on excuse-making, especially #4). The weird thing? I've gotten hardly any excuses at all since this post went live. Hmmm.

4) Never From Concentrate? Never Again
It's impossible to harvest totally identical-tasting juice from season to season and year to year. And yet every single carton of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice tastes exactly the same. How? Read this post to find out. I promise, you'll rethink the value of "Premium" OJ.

5) The Sad, Quiet Death of Campbell's Low-Sodium Soup
When Campbell's killed off their "healthier" line of lower-sodium soups, were they putting greed and profits above the health of their customers? It depends on how you look at it.

6) Doing More Harm Than Good
Sometimes posts just come bursting out of you, and that's exactly what happened with this one, which I published right after the Bloggers Without Borders/A Fund for Jennie controversy. This is one of the posts I'm most proud of this year, and it seemed to resonate deeply with readers.

7) On Spice Fade, And the Utter Insanity of Throwing Spices Out After Six Months
The rule of thumb about throwing out your spices after six months is pure hogwash, and it needlessly costs consumers extra money. I explain why, borrowing from the science of... uh, radioactive isotopes. (NB: This post got picked up by Reddit, where, predictably, it sprouted a 96-comment thread which climaxed in a completely useless discussion of how to store spices in nitrogen gas.)

8) Companies vs. Consumers: A Manifesto
This post articulates many of my fundamental ideas about consumer empowerment, and how we give our power away to Big Food, often without even thinking about it. See also: What's Your Favorite Consumer Empowerment Tip?

9) How to Own the Consumer Products Industry--And I Mean Literally Own It
I describe step-by-step how to make intelligent investments in the consumer products industry, to help readers take control and ownership of the companies that sell to us. Quite honestly, this post was too long, too detailed and about as popular with readers as radioactive nutmeg. So why is it on this list? Because I was proud of it: it combined my former career on Wall Street with my goals to help consumers master their financial destiny, and in some ways it was the most empowering thing I wrote all year.

10) What's Wrong With the Government Limiting Food Marketing to Kids?
When the FTC rolled out new rules for limiting food marketing to children, my first question was Wait: is it children who actually buy these foods? I gave readers a chance to sound off on that and a few other choice questions, and the result was a thoughtful and counterintuitive conversation about parenting, paternalism and the role of government in our lives.

BONUS: A Simple Rule To Make Your Life Environmentally Sustainable and Worry Free
Why do we waste so much time worrying about minor aspects of our consumption and behavior patterns when they often have a pitifully tiny impact on the environment? This post shares a simple framework for your buying and eating decisions, so you can spend more time dealing with major things you can control--and stop worrying pointlessly about minor things you can't.

　
Honorable Mention:
How to Defeat the Retail Industry's Ninja Mind Tricks
Three Rules of Thumb for Tinkering with a Recipe
An Easier Way to Crack An Egg: Blunt Force Trauma
Can You Resist $107 Worth of Advertising?
What's Your Take On Restaurants Charging Mandatory Gratuity Fees?

　
Best/Most Popular Recipes of 2011:
1) Citrus Orzo Salad With Olives and Sundried Tomatoes -- One of the most striking and laughably easy pasta salad recipes in CK's history.

2) Easy Braised Red Cabbage -- My favorite recipe of the year. Plus, how often do you get to use the phrase "nestle the studded onion" in a recipe post? Not that often.

3) Curried Corn -- Adapted from the exceptional Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, this is a healthy 20-minute recipe with a fascinating combination of flavors.

4) Hilariously Easy Chicken Soup -- When I say hilariously easy, I mean it. This recipe costs less than $1.00 a serving and takes fewer than 30 minutes of direct labor time.

5) Tomato Lentil Soup with Orzo -- A pot of this easy-to-make soup will feed your family for days at a cost of just 60-70c per serving.

6) Feta Walnut Dip -- Not exactly a frugal recipe, but it is the best and healthiest spread I've ever tried.

7) Fiery Sausage and Split Pea Soup -- Possibly the easiest recipe in Casual Kitchen's entire history.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

2011-12-11T03:11:00.000-08:00

Readers, a quick public service announcement: if you'd like to support Casual Kitchen, please consider doing so by using Amazon.com via any of the Amazon affiliate links here at CK. It's perhaps the easiest (and least expensive!) way to support your favorite blogs--every purchase you make pays a modest commission to Casual Kitchen, and there is absolutely no extra cost to you.

Thank you! Now, onward to this week's Retro Sundays...
****************************
This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Using Salt = Cheating (December 2006)
Salt, when overused, blinds your taste buds and covers up your food's true flavors. Here's how to de-condition your palate away from salt. See also the bonus recipe for Easy Split Pea Soup.

Seven Ways to Get Faster at Cooking (December 2006)
Seven practical and specific tips that will make you into an efficient cooking machine. One of the first high-traffic posts in CK's history.

Shrimp in Garlic Sauce (Camarones Ajillo) (December 2007)
A spectacularly good and shockingly easy recipe from one of my all-time favorite cookbooks, Daisy Cooks. I promise it will be one of your best meals of the year.

Pasta With Roasted Red Pepper Sauce (December 2008)
A striking pasta sauce that's so easy it's almost unfair.

Survivor Bias: Why "Big Food" Isn't Quite As Evil As You Think (December 2009)
Who's really selecting the foods on our grocery store shelves? We are. That's right: fattening and unhealthy foods are on our store shelves because we put them there.

Roasted Zucchini and Chickpea Soup (December 2010)
One of 2010's best recipes and a runaway reader favorite. You can make this easy and unusual soup in under an hour (of which just 20-30 minutes is "active" time) for less than $1 a serving.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday December 9, 2011

2011-12-09T03:11:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Creepy ways food companies give low-fat foods that high-fat mouthfeel and texture. (NPR, via Summer Tomato)

Mastering the art of food gift giving. (Stonesoup) Bonus Post: Seven lessons from an Argentine grillmaster.

In case you hadn't heard: last week, Congress lifted a ban on horsemeat. (Eatocracy)

Speaking of politics: Did she or did she not? Questions about whether Michelle Obama has given up trying to get food companies to stop marketing junk foods to kids. Hey, it's an election year people! (Food Politics)

Why morning workouts are better. (344 Pounds)

Recipe Links:
How to make Whole Roasted Garlic. (Eating Rules)

Laughably easy Mushroom Stock. (Happy Herbivore) Bonus Post: How to freeze tofu.

Off-Topic Links:
The USA is a country of wildly imprudent and slobby people--especially with money. An except from Ben Stein's new book What Would Ben Stein Do. (Free Money Finance)

Smoking helps your distance running? How even the most idiotic health claims can be "proven." (PLoS Blog)

Tell the voice of negativity to take a hike and listen to that other voice, the one that gets drowned out. (Kitchen Bitsch)

Why on Earth do people idolize Steve Jobs? (Rachel Rofe)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Ending Overeating: An Interview With Former FDA Commissioner David Kessler

2011-12-06T03:11:00.001-08:00

Readers, today we have an enormous treat: An interview with a true thought leader in food, and one of Casual Kitchen's biggest influences, Dr. David Kessler.

Long-time CK readers of course know Dr. Kessler as the author of the exceptional book The End of Overeating, which exposed many of the food and restaurant industry's most pernicious and manipulative food processing techniques. His book completely reshaped how I think about food (you can read my rabidly positive review here), and it galvanized many CK readers to reconsider the suspect value of most processed foods and restaurant meals.

What readers may not know is that Kessler's book is just the tip of the iceberg of his career: Kessler ran the entire US Federal Drug Administration from 1990 to 1997, and he was a rare example of a senior government official who was able to work successfully under both a Republican and a Democratic President (George Bush Sr., who appointed him, and Bill Clinton, who kept him on). During his tenure FDA Commissioner, he was best known for dramatically increasing regulations on cigarettes, instituting many of our current food labeling requirements, and for stiffening the regulatory framework surrounding our food industry. After leaving government service, he served as the Dean of Yale Medical School.

I asked Dr. Kessler to talk about The End of Overeating for one simple reason: If there's ever a time of year we should read his book, it's right now during the holidays when we're surrounded and most tempted by processed, hyperpalatable and unhealthy foods. I'm grateful that he took the time to share insights about his book, about the food industry, and about the current state of overeating today.

Here's what he had to say:

CK: What's changed in the two and a half years since the publication of The End of Overeating? Are things improving in our culture with regard to obesity and our eating habits?

Dr. Kessler: It's been gratifying that new science continues to support the findings in The End of Overeating. I purposefully did not use the word "addiction" in the book, feeling it was a distraction, but scientists increasingly are using addiction science to look at the world of overeating and weight gain. The past two and a half years have seen an explosion in attention to this topic. Awareness and knowledge can only help us make informed decisions about what we eat.

What's the most important piece of advice you'd share with the average person who's up against the modern food industry?

It is most important to understand how huge portions of foods loaded and layered with sugar, fat, and salt can hijack the mechanisms of our brains. It's not always obvious what those foods are, so try to know what's in that chicken breast, as well as what's on that hamburger.

What's been the harshest, most unusual or most unsound criticism that you've received about The End of Overeating? And what reader responses to your book have most inspired you?

One criticism [I've received] is that I place the blame for the obesity epidemic on food companies, who are merely selling what the public wants, and not on individuals. I believe that corporations have a responsibility not to manipulate the brains of consumers. I believe individuals have the responsibility to understand they are being manipulated. I think that is clear to readers of The End of Overeating.

I am most inspired by readers who approach me after I have given a talk on the topics in the book and tell me that they felt for the first time as if someone knew what they were going through, that the science of that was a revelation, and their eating habits and lives had been changed forever. Heady stuff!

Some of the central ideas of your book--if taken to an extreme--can put us on uncomfortable ground. An example: if hyperpalatable food is truly bad, does this mean that the food industry should instead sell us "not-very-good-tasting food" so we won't eat so much? Is it really Big Food's fault that it merely sells the very food that we consumers consent to buy?

We've been conditioned to consume those loaded and layered foods. Believe it or not, once you know what's in those products, they can become "not-very-good-tasting food." Foods that are not highly processed, real foods, can taste good once we break the cycle of eating hyperpalatable foods. Food companies have long known what sells. Now they know the science of why. What is their responsibility once they have that knowledge?

You were appointed to run the FDA in 1990 under bipartisan support. You've successfully served under presidents of both the right and the left. If President Obama took you aside and asked you for your top policy suggestions on the subject of heath, diet and the business of food, what would you tell him?

What I tell all policy-makers is what I've said in my answers to your questions. Policies about truth in food marketing, food labeling, farm subsidies, etc., should be informed, as all good public health policy is, by the science.

Readers, share your thoughts and opinions!

Related Posts:
Four Steps to Put an End to Overeating
The Pros and Cons of Restaurant Calorie Labeling Laws
Obesity and the Obama Administration: A Blogger Roundtable Discussion
Who's Watching the Watchdogs? Ethical Problems in the "Ten Riskiest Foods" Report By the CSPI

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

2011-12-04T03:11:00.000-08:00

Readers, a quick sneak preview: this week Casual Kitchen has an important post coming up--an interview with former FDA Commissioner, and author of The End Of Overeating, Dr. David Kessler!

This is an enormous "get" for me, and while I'm an admittedly shameless Kessler fan (his book has hugely influenced the views and philosophies here at CK), I made sure to throw some tough questions at him. I think readers will enjoy his provocative responses. Look for it on Tuesday!
**************************************

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

Why Davis Baking Powder Put in a 23% Stealth Price Hike (December 2010)
A product we all use surreptitiously sneaks a gigantic price increase on consumers. I contact the company to find out why. Incredibly, they call me back to explain their position.

How to Whine About Big Food (December 2009)
Quite a few readers took my ironic tone literally and thus missed the point of this post. Ultimately, however, it went on to become one of 2009's most popular posts, and the first of dozens of articles I've since written on the theme of consumer empowerment.

Spicy Sauteed Beets (December 2009)
A striking and hilariously easy recipe that you can make in under 30 minutes. It's funny: this post got a collective yawn from readers when it first ran, but it's gone on to become a highly searched-for recipe.

15 Creative Tips to Avoid Holiday Overeating (December 2008)
This post contains my most powerful habits and tactics to help you control your food intake during those all-too-dangerous holiday months. Warning: a few of these tips are downright weird.

How to Team Up in the Kitchen (December 2007)
When Laura and I first got together, the kitchen was the site of some of our biggest turf battles (think two Napoleons trying to work together). Eventually, however, we figured out how to collaborate as cooks. This post reveals our best secrets.

Why I'm a Part-Time Vegetarian (December 2006)
The first post ever here at CK. It's not exactly my best writing, but it's where I haltingly outline some of my views on avoiding rigid dietary labels--and rethinking the amount of meat in the standard western diet. PS: At the end of this post there's also a bonus: a laughably cheap and easy Spanish Chickpea and Garlic Soup recipe.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday December 2, 2011

2011-12-02T03:11:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
A brief history of tipping. (Food Woolf)

Is it a good thing or a bad thing that only 60% of farmers own the land they farm? Answer: It depends. (Sustainablog, via Appetite for Profit)

Tips to host a successful food-allergy-friendly potluck. (Eating Rules)

Scientists discover "cooking can be surprisingly forgiving." (Science News)

Recipe Links:
Traditional, homestyle Enfrijoladas. (Mexico In My Kitchen)

A quick and handy 49-second video on how to make Mulled Wine or Gleuwine. (Youtube, via Denver Doings)

A laughably easy and tasty recipe With No Name. Let's call it Hearty Chorizo and Bean Stew. (Stuff Yer Bake)

Off-Topic Links:
This week's unsolicited book recommendation: Lighten Up by Peter Walsh. If you know someone who wants to start down the road away from "stuff," this book would make a perfect gift. Useful, readable and encouraging.

If this article doesn't convince you to get on top of your estate planning, nothing will. (Get Rich Slowly)

How success really works, and why copying is better than begrudging. (Inc. Magazine, via Alosha's Kitchen)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Lured By A Prettier Box

2011-11-30T03:11:00.000-08:00

What's different about the two packages in the photo below?

Hardly anything. Well, except that the definition of "al dente perfection" sort of changed.

Basically, this is a case of a food company deciding, for whatever reason, to change the look and feel of their packaging.

We'll ask why they did this in a moment. But for now, consider how odd it is that Barilla draws absolutely no attention to the change. There's no "New Label!" or "Now with a new look!"-type message on the box. It's likely, therefore, that most customers will never notice the difference. (Heck, if it weren't for the fact that I was making a double batch of Citrus Orzo Salad and needed extra orzo, I'd have never noticed either.)

Okay. We have a stealth package redesign, a new box that quite frankly doesn't look any better than the old box, and an obviously unchanged product inside. All of which leads us to an existential question that I shout at the top of my lungs every time I see pointless changes like this:

Why? Whyyyyyyyyyyyy?

Seriously, why bother? Why change the box? What was wrong with the old packaging (the box on the left) and what's so great about the packaging of the new box? What's the point?

I can think of a few reasons. Perhaps Barilla is running split-testing for their next product redesign. Perhaps they want to test a few versions out on the market before choosing. And who knows, maybe one of their designs will result in a spike in sales.

That's great for Barilla if it works. But all this takes us to our last question: Who bears the cost of this packaging change?

Yup. It's the same people who ultimately bear the costs of advertising, marketing, and all the other expenses companies incur to try to get us to buy their stuff. We do. We consumers ultimately pay for all marketing techniques, ads, redesigns, product reformulations, and any other attempts by companies to convince us their product is new, different and better. These costs are passed right on through to us.

Here's where long-time CK readers start to nod their heads--and where newer readers here should start to rethink the value of many of the standard marketing techniques and traditions of the consumer products industry.

Which brings us to yet another reason why we can't be passive consumers in the grocery store. Remember, it's the zombies who get separated from their money. Intelligent consumers must use other cues, including quality, price and our own personal preferences to make the best buying decisions.

And that's why I want my readers to look at packaging redesigns just as they look at advertising. They are both sources of incremental costs, and they should be seen as destroyers of value for consumers.

Which is why when you see a new package or a new look in a product you typically buy, check the price right away.

If a food company can regularly change up their packaging and still keep their price below competitors' prices, by all means keep supporting that product. Or, if you're totally ecstatic with the quality of that product regardless of the price, again, by all means keep buying.

However, if you ever see an item that:

1) Tries to dress itself up as up-market or aspirational,
2) Raises prices without a commensurate increase in quality, or
3) Sneaks a stealth price hike past customers in the form of a smaller product volume or weight...

...drop that brand immediately. Don't waste time with ineffective and effete actions like grumbling or complaining. Instead, take action and quit buying. Find a substitute made by a company that doesn't presume that you're a passive, mindless consumer.

Force companies to compete for your business by offering value, not by offering a prettier box.

Readers, how do you think about this issue?

Related Posts:
How to Defeat the Retail Industry's Ninja Mind Tricks
Can You Resist $107 Worth of Advertising?
Where Going Generic Works... And Where It Doesn't
On Spice Fade, And the Utter Insanity of Throwing Spices Out After Six Months
How to Own the Consumer Products Industry--And I Mean Literally Own It
Companies vs. Consumers: A Manifesto

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

2011-11-27T03:11:00.000-08:00

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

How to Make Your Own Inexpensive Sports Drink (November 2007)
This post will take 15 seconds to read and it will save you hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of dollars over your lifetime. Never again overpay for heavily-advertised Gatorade or Powerade.

Reader Questions and Answers on Raw Foods and My Raw Food Trial (November 2009)
My raw food trial unleashed a slew of Q&A from readers curious about the psychological and nutritional effects of the diet, how much extra it cost, what my food cravings were, and how much of a pain in the ass it was to cut up all those veggies. One helpful reader even warned me that my colon would blow. Um, it didn't, thank goodness. Bonus post: see also Four Final Conclusions From My Raw Foods Trial.

Malcolm Gladwell Was Completely Wrong About Cooking (November 2009)
When it comes to cooking, don't believe a word of Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 Hour Rule. Read this post to learn how to become a good cook--and I mean a really good cook--in a matter of days.

Follow-Up Thoughts on The Realities of Your Grocery Store (November 2010)
You'll never guess what the primary source of incremental profits is in grocery stores these days--and it has serious ramifications for consumers.

Ten Frugal Things We Do (November 2010)
Thanks to readers, who contributed a huge list of their favorite frugal habits in the comments, this post crowdsourced an enormous collection of great ideas and advice for saving money.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday November 25, 2011

2011-11-25T03:11:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Jacques Pepin likes hotdogs and beer, and never spends more than twelve bucks for a bottle of wine. My kinda guy. (Bon Appetit, via Alosha's Kitchen)

Why I've nearly given up ordering fish in restaurants. (Food Politics)

It ain't the turkey that makes us drowsy after Thanksgiving dinner. (Accidental Hedonist)

Five ridiculous myths people use to trash local foods, and why they're all stale, shallow and totally wrong. Read critically. (Alter.net, via Grow. Cook. Eat.)

Recipe Links:
A truly healthy and easy-to-make snack: Cauliflower Breadsticks. (The GastroGnome)

How to make your own Coffee Liqueur that's even better than Kahlua. (Creative Culinary)

Healthy, inexpensive and restorative: Kale and White Bean Soup with Egg Yolks. (A Mingling of Tastes)

Off-Topic Links:
The majority--perhaps the vast majority--of published scientific research claims are wrong. Here's why. (Science News)

Using the "Ambush Method" for better brainstorming. (Time to Write)

Interesting and surprisingly profound lessons learned through a life of working in the service industry. (Food Woolf)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Never From Concentrate? Never Again

2011-11-22T03:11:00.001-08:00

Readers, you're about to read why I'll never buy another container of Tropicana Pure Premium Orange Juice--ever again.
*********************************

How is it possible that every carton you've ever had of Tropicana Pure Premium--every single carton--tastes exactly the same?

The "Never From Concentrate" Tropicana OJ you drank last week tastes the same as the stuff you had last summer. Even more weirdly, it tastes exactly the same as the cartons you bought a year ago. And the year before that.

Seriously, if this is supposed to be real juice, then how is that possible?

It's possible because that delicious and impossibly uniform Tropicana taste is entirely manufactured.

Tropicana's process involves juicing oranges, pasteurizing the juice, and then "de-aerating" the juice--a fancy word for storing the juice in an environment that's stripped of oxygen. Juice that's been processed in this way can then be stored for extremely long periods of time without spoiling. And that enables Tropicana to store juice inventory for months--thereby selling you "fresh juice" when oranges aren't remotely in season.

The thing is, this industrialized process also produces juice that basically tastes like nothing. Which brings us to the worst part of all: Tropicana then adds back flavoring and fragrance agents to their juice, using so-called "flavor packs" that are engineered to replicate a specific and consistent scent and taste. And because these flavoring and fragrance additives are technically made from oranges, Tropicana can still claim their juice is all-natural and never from concentrate.

That's why every single carton of orange juice tastes--freakishly--exactly the same. It has been manufactured that way.

When I first began to learn about the flavoring, scenting and storage processes behind the market's best-selling orange juice, I quite simply couldn't believe it. Or maybe, after too many years of habitually paying a huge price premium to buy a skillfully-branded product, I just didn't want to believe it.

But once you think it through, it's inherently logical. Oranges from different years don't taste exactly the same. It is quite simply not possible--and not natural--to harvest and produce totally identical-tasting fruit juice from season to season and year to year. Mother Nature simply does not work that way. Tropicana would have to do something to their juice to make it perfectly uniform.

Here's another thought. Yes, it's weird that this brand of orange juice tastes exactly the same all over the United States, all year round. But it's even weirder that until a few months ago, it never crossed my mind that this might be weird. And I'm a food blogger! This is how far we as consumers have gotten from the food we eat.

In reality, the frozen concentrate orange juice in the freezer compartment suddenly doesn't look quite so bad in comparison. Yes, it's equally processed and manufactured, but it sells for one third the price. More importantly, it may more accurately reflect the true taste of orange juice. Things aren't always as they seem, are they?

Readers, ask yourselves: is this simulacrum of fresh orange juice really worth a premium price? Share your thoughts!

Sources:
Freshly Squeezed: The Truth About Orange Juice in Boxes (Civil Eats)
The Secret Ingredient In Your Orange Juice (Food Renegade)
The Secret Ingredient In Orange Juice, Is NOT Orange (Healthy Times Blog)
Tropicana: Our 100% Juice Could Contain "Anything From Nature," Even Dairy (Consumerist)
Alissa Hamilton's book Squeezed: What You Don't Know About Orange Juice

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Retro Sundays

2011-11-20T03:11:00.000-08:00

This Week in History at Casual Kitchen:

The Pros and Cons of a High-Carb/Low-Fat Diet (November 2007)
A decade ago, I fell under the spell of Dr. Robert Hass' groundbreaking book Eat To Win, which changed everything I thought about eating and exercise.

Cookbook Review: The Cornbread Gospels (November 2008)
You'd never guess a book about cornbread could be such a joy to read. The Cornbread Gospels is a goldmine of amazing recipes--more than 200, ranging from straight cornbreads, to muffins, to flapjacks, pancakes and johnnycakes, to desserts--even an enormous chapter on foods that go with cornbread. This unsung gem of a book should not be missed.

How to Make a Simple Frittata (November 2008)
An easy dish that everyone should add to their cooking arsenal. Frittatas are laughably easy to make, they seem fancier than they really are--and you can eat them without any quiche-like threat to your manhood.

The Seven-Day Raw Foods Trial (November 2009)
Last year, in a fit of both curiosity and masochism, I attempted a seven day trial of eating 100% raw foods. It turned out to be both a significant challenge and a highly instructive experience--and it permanently changed the way I eat. This series went on to become one of the most widely-read in Casual Kitchen's history.

A Tale of Two Breakfasts (November 2010)
One of these breakfasts has a third the calories of the other. Which one would you choose?

Prices, Zombies and the Advertising-Consumption Cycle (November 2010)
Don't respond mindlessly to advertising and marketing. Instead, read this post--and you'll start to see heavily advertised products as destroyers of consumer value too. One of the most important articles in my series on Understanding the Consumer Products Industry.

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

CK Friday Links--Friday November 18, 2011

2011-11-18T03:11:00.000-08:00

Here's yet another selection of interesting links from around the internet. As always, I welcome your thoughts and your feedback.

PS: Follow me on Twitter!
*************************
Remember that recent study that links moderate alcohol consumption and an increased risk of breast cancer? Time to rethink it. (The Incidental Economist)

Good ideas for foods to have on hand for emergencies. (Ingles Nutrition)

Ways to eat less. (Owlhaven) Bonus Post: Correcting kids without losing your cool.

Is it right or wrong for a woman to breastfeed openly at a table in a restaurant? (The Bitchy Waiter)

Recipe Links:
You'll need a spoon to finish it: My Family's Favorite Hot Chocolate. From Mollie Katzen's classic cookbook Sunlight Cafe. (Mollie Katzen)

An interesting stylistic twist on the standard baked potato: Accordion Potatoes! (Chow and Chatter)

Weird, yet tempting: Sriracha Peanut Butter Cookies. (Tastes Better With Friends)

Off-Topic Links:
Best tips for writing quickly--and well. (Time to Write, via Nail Your Novel)

Why do you need to be conscious of your own bias? Because bias prevents you from comprehending, accepting, and applying information that may be useful to you. (Ombailamos)

For readers interested in film, here's a brilliant post by Roger Ebert on the life of Pauline Kael, the most important film critic of the 20th Century. (Roger Ebert's Journal)

Do you have an interesting article or recipe that you'd like to see featured in Casual Kitchen's Food Links? Send me an email!

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!

Casual Kitchen's Holiday Reading and Gift Guide

2011-11-15T03:11:00.000-08:00

One of the unexpected advantages of having a relatively widely-read blog is people send you free stuff in the hopes that you'll talk about it with your readers. Much of it isn't worth talking about. But some things are actually really good. And over the last several months, I've received quite a few intriguing books, cookbooks and products, all of which (with one huge exception, as you'll soon see) are worth bringing to readers.

Normally I'd dedicate a full post to, say, one cookbook, but this can be a slow and inefficient way to share ideas with readers. So, I thought I'd instead create a "holiday gift guide" post, with short reviews of several items. I want my readers to be able explore the things that catch their interest--and quickly skip those that don't. As always, my goal is to warn you away from bad products and draw your attention to the best ones.

A few (unabashedly self-promotional) words about Amazon.com: one of the easiest ways to support your favorite bloggers is to keep them in mind when you're about to make a virtual trip to Amazon.com. For example, when you use the links here at Casual Kitchen, I receive a small percentage commission on everything you buy during that visit. Amazon builds this modest commission into their overall cost structure, which means you pay no extra.

To me, this is one of the best win-wins out there, and it helps bloggers like me continue to provide readers with hundreds of free articles and recipes. As we approach the holiday gift buying season, I would be grateful if you would keep Casual Kitchen in mind and use the links here whenever you go to Amazon.com!

Thank you so much for your support. Now, on to the reviews!
******************

1) The Farmer's Kitchen: The Ultimate Guide to Enjoying Your CSA and Farmers' Market Foods

This exceptional, multipurpose cookbook is an absolute standout of all the things I've seen this year. The Farmer's Kitchen helps readers make the most of their local regional produce: it explains thoroughly which produce is available when, how to choose truly ripe vegetables and fruits, how to best to store them--and how best to prepare them.

But this book is much more than a guide for handling and dealing with seasonal produce: There are also more than 200 easy, affordable and delicious recipes in this book, which means at just $15 at Amazon (and just $9.99 on the Kindle) this book is a stunningly good value.

One of the best parts of this book is a brilliantly arranged index organized by fruits and vegetables. Which means if you happen to be overwhelmed by a specific veggie or fruit from your garden or your CSA share, you can easily use the index to find exactly the right recipes to use them up.

By the way, CK readers might recognize co-author Julia Shanks as the both the author of Grow. Cook. Eat. and as a regular, insightful commenter here at CK. That's why when she sent me a review copy of her book, I was overjoyed to accept it. Once again, let me repeat: this book is a unique standout.

Click here to buy The Farmer's Kitchen

2) Family Feasts for $75 a Week

Let me start off by admitting that I'm totally biased. I absolutely love Mary Ostyn and have a ton of respect for everything she does. She a gifted writer, an expert on healthy and frugal home cooking, and she's even written authoritatively on adoption and homeschooling issues. And don't forget: while she does all this, she's managing a family of ten--yep, ten--kids.

But I don't have to rely on favoritism to say that this is easily one of the smartest books I've found on how to cook, shop and feed your family for less. Family Feasts for $75 a Week came out a little over a year ago, but as the economy continues to struggle, the wealth of frugal wisdom and knowledge in this book is even more valuable today.

For just $11 at Amazon, Family Feasts will give you an entire arsenal of tips to save time and money in your supermarket and home. On top of that, it offers hundreds of scalable and easy to prepare recipes across a wide range of cuisines.

Mary writes from a unique position of authority, because she's a real-world woman living in a real-world home, and yet she still makes it all work on a modest income. Finally, if you are willing to apply just a fraction of the ideas in this book, it will quickly pay for itself many times over.

Click here to buy Family Feasts for $75 a Week

3) The Jersey Shore: Atlantic City to Cape May

Readers, if any of you out there are planning to visit coastal New Jersey in the future, you simply must read this guidebook.

Authored by Jen Miller (find her @jerseyshorejen and at her blog Down The Shore With Jen), this is by far the best and most complete guidebook I've ever seen about the Jersey Shore. It contains everything: restaurant recommendations, information on lodging and logistics, historical and cultural events, and activities for all ages.

As a New Jersey resident myself, let me just say that the Jersey Shore isn't a single place: it's an entire region of coastal cities, towns, villages and communities along the New Jersey oceanfront. It has nothing to do with that puerile show on TV, and everything to do with the rich diversity and history of one of the USA's oldest vacation destinations. If you've ever had an inkling to visit or vacation at the Jersey Shore, buy this book.

Click here to buy The Jersey Shore: From Atlantic City to Cape May

4) The EatSmart Precision Pro Scale

For me, this sleek-looking and surprisingly affordable kitchen scale by EatSmart Products was an unexpected standout. It's exactly the sort of thing that would make a great gift to a friend or family member who's interested in managing portion control, wants to keep a precise diet log, or who simply wants to be able to measure ingredients accurately.

It's easy to use. It has a digital readout that measures to the tenth of an ounce. You can easily weigh items in kilograms/grams or in ounces/pounds, making this scale ideal for converting recipes to or from metric units.

Best of all, this product sells for a reasonable $25 at Amazon. If you or someone you know is looking for a small, sturdy and highly accurate kitchen scales that will take up next to no space in your cupboard, consider this one.

Click here to buy The EatSmarket Precision Pro Scale

5) The Deen Bros. Get Fired Up

I briefly wrote about Jamie and Bobby Deen's cookbook in my recipe post for Citrus Orzo Salad--which by the way is one of the most striking pasta dishes I've cooked in years.

This was an unexpected gem of a cookbook. It offers a great range of healthy, original and highly creative recipes, as well as tons of great tips and advice on making your tailgating, grilling and outdoor picnic experiences easy and fun. I was truly positively surprised by this cookbook, and at an inexpensive $14.00 at Amazon, I recommend it.

Click here to buy The Deen Bros. Get Fired Up

6) The I [Heart] Trader Joe's College Cookbook

Here's where I break up the rhythm and talk about a cookbook that, quite frankly, sucked.

Normally I like to protect my readers from books like these by not talking about them. But I'm rethinking this approach, because I think from time to time there's value to be gained by pointing out a cookbook's flaws, even if they're fatal. Why? Because gives readers rules of thumb on what to look for--and what to avoid--when shopping for any cookbook.

What I don't like about this particular book is that it's little more than a walking advertisement for Trader Joe's ingredients. Every single recipe in here calls for some sort of product you can only buy at Trader Joe's, and almost always, those products are already prepared, second-order foods. This might add convenience, but it also stacks unnecessary costs onto your food budget. Uh, and it's not really cooking to make "recipes" consisting of pre-made foods.

For example, on page 54 is a "recipe" for Chickpea Penne. It's more or less representative of what's in this book. It has three ingredients: half of a 16-ounce package of Trader Joe's frozen penne pasta, a 10-ounce package of Trader Joe's Channa Massala, and Trader Joe's crushed garlic.

Look, I heart Trader Joe's too. But sorry, that's just not a recipe. And this is simply not a worthwhile cookbook.

Obligatory Link to The I [Heart] Trader Joe's College Cookbook (but please don't buy it.)

7) Joy Bauer's Food Cures

I'm often suspicious of books by TV pundits, "experts" or celebrities. Readers who've read my Cooking Like the Stars post, for example, know that celebrity chef endorsed cookware is rarely worth the price premium. That's why my frugality radar was on high alert when I got this book.

I shouldn't have been so cynical.

This is an enormous, encyclopedic, and incredibly useful reference guide--newly revised and updated just this year--that you can refer to for nearly every kind of food, diet, weight loss or health challenge. Best of all, it sells for the laughably cheap price of $13 on Amazon! There are resources in this 500-page guide for everything from cardiovascular problems to arthritis, from IBS to celiac disease, from insomnia to memory loss. Each chapter concludes with a program of lifestyle advice and dietary suggestions to help manage and address each health situation. (Be sure to check out her companion Food Cures website too.)

This is an impressive and extremely affordable dietary and lifestyle desk reference.

Click here to buy Joy Bauer's Food Cures

8) Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook

About a year ago, a friend visiting from Italy asked me, in all sincerity: "Why do tomatoes here taste so bad?"

This book will teach you exactly the answer to this question, and it will forever change how you look at grocery store tomatoes. It's by far the most unusual book on today's list, but it's also by far the most striking and interesting. It's part history, part science and part muckracking expose on the tomato growing industry, and when you finish reading it you'll radically rethink your tomato buying habits. I really enjoyed this book and I highly recommend it to readers. An engrossing read.

Click here to buy Tomatoland

How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!