Having said that, I have to say I love people with strong opinions and a willingness to participate in honest, open discussion; I learn a lot from them. Solid facts, strong opinions, love them both.
What I don't love is when people repeat catch phrases based on opinion (or repetition) as if they were real live non-smooshy facts.
Like "Children born today will have a shorter life span than their parents."
Unless you have been off-planet for the last six months, you have heard this one, I know you have. Unlike many such sound bites, however, this one has a specific genesis: Jamie Oliver's TED speech.
What he actually said was this:
"We, the adults of the last four generations, have blessed our children with the destiny of a shorter lifespan than their own parents. Your child will live a life ten years younger than you because of the landscape of food that we've built around them."
Shorter lifespan? That's some scary stuff. This meme spread like wildfire. Maybe faster. Like wildfire on the Internet! Seriously, it seemed that within hours everyone who works with food, kids, school, or health was repeating it. The line is being used as the rallying cry for a long overdue reform of the school lunch program - a goal I support wholeheartedly.
There's only one problem: it's just not true.
The Centers for Disease Control's most recent report on life expectancy (2007) says that we have once again hit a record high life expectancy of 75.3 years for males and 80.4 years for females. Significant declines were seen in the mortality rates for more than half of the 15 leading causes of death including heart disease (4.7%), stroke (4.6%), diabetes (3.9%), hypertension (2.7%), and cancer (1.8%). The only place that the CDC notes an increase is, sadly, in infant mortality, which is up 1.2 percent from 2006.
This is almost old news so why am I bringing it up now? Well, it was brought to mind by the current kerfluffle over remarks made by British Health Secretary Andrew Lansley. According to the news, Lansley called Jamie Oliver's attempts to make over UK school lunches a failure. As you might expect, this led to a twitstorm of people denouncing Lansley for denouncing Oliver.
Being a member of the seldom trust, always verify clan, I went looking for Lansley's speech. It took a couple of days, but I found the video of Andrew Lansley's speech. He said
"If we constantly are lecturing people and telling them what to do we will actually find that we might undermine and be counterproductive in the results that we achieve. Let me give you an example, Jamie Oliver, quite rightly, was talking about trying to improve the diet of children in schools..."
He goes on to describe a sequence of events: more kids brought lunch from home, schools started checking the contents of those lunches, some parents switched to cash so the kids could go off-campus to eat lunch, now there are calls to ban certain foods from sale around schools. Apparently one result of this is that fewer kids are eating lunch at school and reaping the benefits of Oliver's work to improve their school meals.
In light of this sort of unintended consequences, Lansley simply calls for examining evidence when evaluating government programs. Which is not at all outrageous or catch phrase worthy. "Lansley Attacks Oliver" on the other hand, makes a great headline so I expect we'll be seeing a lot more of that.
Look what I made!
Pretty cool, huh?
It's going up over at kitchenMage as soon as I finish up a site redesign that has been giving me fits - though I am triumphant over an errant DIV tag at the moment, so it's a good night.(Note to self: If your RIV is not correctly floated in CSS, it will break. kthxbai) Before that, well there was this thing...er, yeah, more on that elsewhere later. Or not.
In other news: Remember Michelle, my intrepid technical editor? Well, since last we visited with her, she has landed herself a book deal of her very own and as if that's not enough, she is just back from hanging out with Michelle Obama at the White House. Yeah, I know! The White House! I am feeling all aunt-like about her success; I'm just so damned proud!
On a personal note, I do apologize for being a bit absent from these parts. Life has been rather in my face the last while - four major rounds of hospitals, ERs, surgery, and other assorted fun in the family in the last 18 months. I have plans for regular writing after the 4th of July, you do not want to know what I have planned between now and then. Thanks for your patience with me, the MIA writer.
One of my very favorite places to dine is The Herbfarm Restaurant, which serves a regional, hyper-seasonal - each themed menu lasts but a few weeks - nine-course tasting menu that will set you back a couple hundred bucks a person. Unless you look at the wine list. Do that and all bets are off.
The last thing you might expect to find at the Herbfarm is kids. Yet they do go. (And yes, they behave - aided by Borage and Basil, the resident pigs that can be fed between courses...a welcome distraction in a multi-hour meal.)
Better, some of those kids wrote a detailed review of the Chambers of the Sea dinner a few nights ago. (They are standing at the 'pass' watching half a dozen or so people plate the next course. I know because I have stood there myself, with that same rapt expression on my face.)
How was dinner?
Well, it was greatly educational:
"It was great! I learned that tulips are edible flowers (they’re great)."
Cool:
"The foam was really cool, especially for foam."
"It was actually really cool, because we got to eat the tulip and sniffing the little leaves."
"Meeting the pigs was kinda cool."
Philosophical:
"Despite the Rockfish can be ugly, when it’s served it can be beautiful."
Not always perfect:
"The rockfish was nice. I didn’t like the asparagus, and quite frankly, I detested the foamy stuff. Kinda grapefruit dipped in fish oil and left out for a few days. The potatoes were very salty. I liked the drink."
...and yet, awesome:
"The awesome guitarist was playing awesomely."
You should go read A Menu for the Chambers of the Sea, and as you do, keep in mind that "K" is 7 "G" is almost 11 and "I" is between them. Their parents are a particularly awesome combination of brave and crazy and I salute them.
How about your kids? What's the fanciest place you have taken them? Would you consider going to a place like the Herbfarm with your young'uns in tow?Everyone is talking about Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution (I am no exception, I've a bit of a rant brewing) but I have found a much more accessible little revolution taking place in our own little corner of the web.
Michelle Stern, who owns a cooking school for kids, writes at What's Cooking, does community outreach for DOOF, and is about to sign a deal for her first cookbook has been taking on school lunches in her school district and making inroads. (Michelle was also the tech editor for Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids so I am especially proud of her.)
Michelle's approach is a straightforward one that many people would be able to make work in their own school districts. . There have been two meetings so far and there are already changes being made to the food being served at the school. After only two meetings. Take that, Jamie Oliver!
Michelle has been writing about her own personal school food revolution in an ongoing series at her site. This is her story so far.
Michelle's first move was to write a letter to a few other families whose kids attended schools in her local school district. In it, she spoke of her concern for not only her child, but also for the kids from low-income families who have little choice but to eat school lunches. She included the link to an informative video by Ann Cooper to provide additional background on the issue. She also asked people to help enlist other parents in the cause.
Her objective was clearly stated: "We need to gather together a group of parents (from all SR city schools) who will be willing to go to the district, speak up, and demand change." As a kicker, she noted other local schools that had listened to parents and made significant changes in their school food programs and this: "our principal supports better food at our school but says that parents are the ones that need to speak up."
Great opening salvo!
She explains the issue succinctly, shows her concern is for all of the kids in the district, and clearly explains what's next. (Within a few days, comments on this post included a representative from the school district and others with substantive additions to the project.)
During this meeting, the parents were given a clearer understanding about how the district manages its food service, including ordering, distribution and preparation methods. I am fascinated, and appalled, that the school kitchens are not actually certified for cooking. Yes, you read that right, you cannot cook in most of their school kitchens. Worse, the brand new "Central Kitchen" will not be equipped to cook food either.
The news wasn't all bad, though. The district is implementing Nutrikids, which will provide parents with nutritional information that isn't currently available. More importantly, the parents and district were able to find common ground in several goals:
Again, comments on the post continue the discussion with several people bringing out specific points that they took away from the meeting.
Uh oh! Walking into the next meeting, Michelle and friends were met with a tray of 'breakfast items' from the current menu. Donuts, "honey buns" and muffins the size of a 1st grader's head shared the spotlight with tiny containers of dried fruit and nuts and sugar-filled cereals. Not exactly brain food for the small people.
Discussions of the nitty-gritty nutritional information followed with the district surprising the parents by saying they should set a higher bar for their nutritional goals. That's encouraging!
Best of all, there was some real progress made:
Brava! Michelle and her Mighty Band of Parental Units should be proud of themselves. Those are real changes that will impact the lives of many students in that district. Fast, too! It was only about six weeks from when Michelle the letter to that meeting.
I see some things that Michelle did really well here:
Michelle is promising updates on the Central Kitchen renovation soon. Plus something called "High-Tech Burritos" - hmmm, I have worked in tech a long time and eating a CD just doesn't sound appealing, even if you wrap it in a tortilla, so I am curious as to what the heck this is!
I love that Michelle is writing up these meetings in such detail. By doing so, she can help other parents start their own lunch revolutions.
What are you doing to change the food your kids eat? Please share your ideas with us in the comments.
Barely gets better than BFFs, bodacious aprons, and buttery brushes.
Seems like just about everyone who reads food blogs knows about Pioneer Woman, the online persona of Ree Drummond, who counts Pioneer Woman Cooks among her popular web sites. Ree is arguably the biggest food blogger around, and she recently published a cookbook of her own:The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl
Shortly before Ree's book came out, we chatted in email and I offered to send her a copy of my cookbook. I did and recently she dropped me a note that included some very complimentary words about my book and an offer to send me one of hers. After squeaking just a bit to myself about what she said, I sent a couple of people email saying, "Look! It's the food blog version of Oprah saying: Great book! How cool is that?" someoneElse sent mail agreeing that it was a very cool thing and then, ever the supportive partner, asked, "Can you quote her?"
Um, er...have I ever mentioned I am horrible at self-promotion? I am. Total fail.
Give me a friend to talk about and I am all over it; I have fearlessly asked pretty famous people to do things that included giving money, and they did. So I know how. But do it for myself? Not a chance. ...although there was once when I asked the #1 expert in a topic to write the Foreword of a technical book I wrote...and the President of a major tech firm...well, okay, I guess I can sometimes. Or so someoneElse tells me.
After staring at the email for a few days, I took a deep breath and typed email that said, essentially, "May I quote you?" My crossed fingers clicked Send.
And I waited. And waited.
Note to self: Do not send important email to someone who is hours ahead of you late at night. Doubly so if they have crazy rancher's hours, as demonstrated by sunrise photographs. (I only get sunrise photographs if I am still awake, never if I am just awake.)
The next day, I got a sweet note back from Ree saying that I could reprint her words here. (Since there are no photos, the embarassing little happyDance I did in my kitchen did not happen, right?)
Withut further ado - because, really, enough already - here is what Pioneer Woman had to say about my cookbook:She said, Bravo! I must admit I love it when people say Bravo! about my writing. It makes me feel like I did something worthwhile with all those months of work.You did a wonderful job on the cookbook---it's not just for kids, I would say. And the tips throughout the book are great...there's a real wealth of information in there. Bravo!
Thanks again for the kind words, Ree! (I'm looking forward to your cookbook, although I have to buy more butter and, I fear, larger jeans.)
Who doesn't love a bake sale? I know that I am a soft touch for kids bearing homemade goodies. All those brownies, cookies, cakes, even marshmallows...and calories. Well, you knew there had to be a downside, didn't you?
But what if you could buy all those tempting treats and not eat a calorie? Better, what if the money went for a good cause?
My wonderful tech editor, Michelle Stern, of What's Cooking may just have your answer: Buy a Virtual Slice of Dessert…and Help Haiti. (my 'contribution' is those marshmallows, recipe here: Berry Marshmallows with Chocolate recipe.
The virtual bake sale is simple. Just go to What's Cooking and click on the Donate button. You will be taken to First Giving, which is handling the donations. All proceeds go to Red Cross for their rescue efforts in Haiti.
Then go make yourself something sweet to munch. I'd share my marshmallows, but they are really hard to squish through the tubes of the Internet.
One of the things I really miss, though, is the ability to slip cool pages between my fingers, getting the feel of a book. Indexes draw me first - how weird is that? - I look up a few key things that give me an idea of the tone and intended audience of a book. If it is a kid's cookbook, I look for pizza: Is there a crust recipe or simply an instruction to split an English muffin? (Don't get me wrong, I love English muffins. Yet the resemblance between them and pizza crust is nominal, at least it should be.) Another key point is the ratio of sweet to savory. Books dedicated to sweet treats are great, but if a general cookbook is half sugar-laden concoctions, it gives me pause.
From there, I move on to the Table of Contents to see how the author organized the book. How many pages are devoted to a given topic? What are the key points being covered? (I never gave the TOC of a book much thought beyond the obvious until we wrote the first edition of Understanding Directory Services (2nd Edition)
Photographs matter in cookbooks, too. I really like books that have photos of most, or all, recipes. When I was contemplating writing a cookbook, this issue loomed large. Photographs are expensive to print and publishers are loathe to do a book full of them. Fortunately for me, I snagged a spot in a photo-heavy series, allowing me to do step-by-step photos of each recipe. (Sort of like Pioneer Woman, but with only a handful of photos per recipe...less butter...nutritional information for each recipe. No cows. Definitely no cows. There are cute punks, though. Lots of them.)
I must confess, I also read Acknowledgments. Sometimes I read them first. This one is simple: having written a number of books, I realize that any book is teamwork; I like to see the team get its props. Agents, editors, production teams, graphic artists, and that all important indexer are a good start, but how about the people who kept them fed and in clean clothes while the book absorbed their life? If the book is by a blogger, did they acknowledge their peers and fans? (No person is an island seems more true for bloggers than many folks. If your book bears your blog's name, you had a lot of people who helped you make the deal; they are called readers. Tell them thanks.) Peter Reinhart is really good at this as I discovered one day when I searched for my name at Amazon and discovered it in two of his books. I was a recipe tester, but figured I was one of a couple hundred, far too many to list.
This is all a long way of saying that, while I can't slide a book through the tubes of the Internet to let you turn the pages for yourself, I can give you a peek at my Table of Contents. I hope it gives you a bit of a clue about what I was going after with the book. More importantly, it has the complete list of recipes. (I also put links to a few reviews after the TOC, just in case it piques your interest.)
Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids
Picture Yourself in the Kitchen Together
Parents: Picture Yourself in the Kitchen with Your KidsBut If I Let My Let My Kids In The Kitchen…
What's To Eat?
Organic Food
Food for Thought
Helping Your Kids Eat Better
What to Eat: Using Common Sense
Nutrition: Fuel For Your Body
Dealing with Picky Eaters
House Food Rules
Defensive Shopping
Stretching Your Food Budget
Grow Something!
Making a Kid-Friendly Kitchen
Age Appropriate Cooking
Food Safety
Kitchen Equipment
Basic Techniques
Making a Meal
In the Larder
A Collection of Tips
Breakfast Matters
Ricotta Pancakes with Strawberry Balsamic Compote
Eggs Ahoy!
Sleepover Steel-Cut Oats
Berry Berry Smooth
Nutty 'Nanner Chip Smoothie
Apple PuffCake
Eggs Berkeley
Orange Glazed Bacon
Coconut Almond Granola
Too Cool For School Breakfast Parfaits
Rise and Shine Ham and Cheese Strata
Light and Fluffy Oat Pancakes
Bananas for Breakfast!
Marvelous Midday Meals
Skamokawa Salmon Burger
Crunchy Chicken Cranberry Pockets
Pasta Primavera Salad
Black Bean and Sweet Potato Stew
Gobble It Up Turkey Kabobs
Seriously Good Stuffed Tomatoes
Squish Squash Soup
Chef's unSalad Wraps
Ants in an Apple!
Magic Microwave Mac 'n Cheese
Family Dinner Matters
Pasta with Spring Greens and Asparagus
Mary Had a Little Lamb Burger
Lemon Rosemary Chicken
Stuff Yourself Silly Squash
Canadian Bacon and Cheese Soufflé
Pizza Your Way
Meatballs and Salsa Marinara
Eat Your Vegetables
Sweet Potato Sticks
Tex-Mex Bean Salad
Wild and Crazy Rice
Good Zuchs!
Sweet and Sour Copper Pennies
Garlic-Braised Winter Greens
Roasted Cauliflower
Nap'ple Slaw
Salsa Verde
Sunny Spinach Salad
Greek Village Salad
Goin' Green Salads
Back to Basics Vinaigrette
Blue Cheese Salad Dressing/Dip
Bee Yourself Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
Dreamy Creamy Herb Dressing
The Basics of Bread
Tools and Techniques for Making Bread
Exploring Yeasted Bread
Flaky Biscuits
Savory Cheese and Scallion Scones
Pita Pocket Bread
Rosemary Fans
Cheddar and Caramelized Onion Breadsticks
Snap'Em Up Snack Crackers
The Case for Cookies…
Craisy Nutty Brownies
Amaretti
Ginger Applesauce Cake
Rhubarb Gingerberry Crisp
Marcella's Pie Cookies
Strawberry Ice Cream
Butterscotch Pudding
Minty Cool Chocolate Cake
Mini-Pavlovas
bethCookies
Creating a Personal Cookie
Not quite the same as standing in the aisle of your favorite bookstore but you don't want to be there right now anyway. Seriously. I've been following @theStew, who is live-tweeting Black Friday from an undisclosed mall - makes shopping from the couch seem better by the tweet!
A few reviews:
If you would like to buy a copy, check out the book at one of these stores:
Amazon
Powell's Books: Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids
The Elliott Bay Book Company: Picture Yourself Cooking With Your Kids