Bastion's Blog for Kids Who Can't Cook Good.

How does the past outline steam?

2011-01-17T01:21:00.001-08:00

testestestestest

How does the past outline steam?

What We Leave Behind

2010-05-31T13:16:00.000-07:00

I need to test a content-based link and I believe the first thing I should do is recommend a book that has deeply affected my life.

What We Leave Behind is the story of disposable culture. Jensen and McBay pull no punches in their indictment of industrial capitalism. This is the most insightful and brutally honest book I've read. The accounts within are shocking and wonderfully arranged. The bitter sarcasm is, at times, laugh-out-loud funny while other stories had me withholding sobs in public. Much of the time I was reading this I felt rage toward the ignorance that persists in this world, but it ends on a zen-like note that comforts subtly. For anyone who is even mildly aware of the side effects of industrial capitalism, this book will confront misconceptions and put you in the mindset to affect meaningful change. The future is very dark, to say the least, if the message of this book goes unnoticed.

Semper Fi, Do or Die! Kale! Kale!! KALE!!!

2010-05-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

Alright kids, here's a simple recipe for delicious kale:

1 small white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
4-5 white mushrooms,sliced
4-6 good-sized kale leaves, cut to bite-size squares
about 2-4 tablespoons cooking oil
salt and pepper to taste

Place the oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Simmer onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes. Add mushrooms, stir occasionally for a couple more minutes. Add kale, stir and cover tightly. Let cook for 5-10, stirring gently every couple minutes. Kale turns a much brighter shade of green when it's ready. Use your judgment. Add a dash of salt and pepper and enjoy.

I don't care how conditioned anyone is to frozen dinners and fast food, nothing tastes better or is as nourishing as well-prepared, fresh vegetables. Suck it up and try it. You'll be glad you did when you get older and realize how much money you're saving by living independent from the various myriad of prescriptions your GMO/chemical-fed classmates are on :)

More than 3 and you've screwed the pooch.

2010-05-28T23:37:00.000-07:00

This is a list of ingredients in your standard McDonald's french fry.

Potatoes, vegetable oil (canola oil, hydrogenated soybean oil, natural beef flavor [wheat and milk derivatives]*, citric acid [preservative]), dextrose, sodium acid pyrophosphate (maintain color), salt. Prepared in vegetable oil (Canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil, hydrogenated soybean oil with TBHQ and citric acid added to preserve freshness). Dimethylpolysiloxane added as an antifoaming agent.
(Listed from: http://nutrition.mcdonalds.com/nutritionexchange/itemDetailInfo.do?itemID=6052)

Here's Burger King's list(found at http://www.vegetarian-restaurants.net/OtherInfo/Burger-King.htm)
The ingredients for the French fries (as stated on Burger King's site) are Potatoes, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Modified Potato Starch, Rice Flour, Potato Dextrin, Salt, Leavening (Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate), Sunflower Oil, Dextrose, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate added to preserve natural color, Natural† and Artificial Flavors, Xanthan Gum, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Medium Chain Triglycerides, Smoke Flavor. †Natural flavors from plant sources.

(How they found this on the BK website is beyond me... the whole thing is built like a vortex of mind control. Okay, I need to discuss this with myself to prevent my head from exploding... The Burger King AND Wendy's websites both try to bury their ingredient lists. When you go to the "nutrition info" sections they provide, you can weigh the calories of an eMeal you click out for yourself, but you can't view the ingredients of the items. You have to contact them, and good luck contacting them. Another thing I realize from working with fast food ingredients in the past is that the cases have ingredient labels, and they're always printed on the very outside, right underneath packing tape where it's most likely to be destroyed when the box opens. There's a very clear message that all big corporate websites send: Do NOT bring them real questions. You may refer to the preselected FAQs, but other than that you better be willing to put in some hours for an answer... What I don't understand is why they think they have to hide the ingredients. It's not like people have chem labs where they can steal the recipe(and if they did, they could reverse engineer it anyway, right? Right. anyway...), it's not even like they have to label their genetically modified ingredients for crying out loud! The lobbyists who subsidize all their farming with the tax money have made sure to nip that problem in the bud. Nope. Nothing wrong here. Just keep your head down and keep feeding the machine. Okay? Okay.)

That was a fun(lapse), now back to the point. While I was ranting, I just devoured a whole french fried potato. Interested in my list of ingredients? Well, okay. Lemmie tell you. Come close...

Are you ready for it?

Here goes: russet potato, peanut oil, salt.

Want to know how? Okay: Pour enough peanut oil in a pan or skillet to cover the bottom. Don't go nuts, you only need enough to just cover the edges of the potato once it's in there. Put the pan with oil over medium-low heat. Slice the (washed and pat dry)potato lengthwise into about 1/4 inch slices, lay the slices flat and cut them to fry size. Lay the potato in the oil, do something else not too far from the stove for 5 minutes or so, come back and flip the fries.Wait another 2-3 minutes, then start turning and checking them. If they're fried-food brown, they're done. Fish them out with your fingers and practice throwing them into your friend's mouth right out of the oil... or, if you'd rather live without being painfully deformed, you can use a long fork or chopsticks and place the fries on some paper towels, or recycled brown paper bag. THEN you shake the salt on (especially if you went for the first option and got grease in someone's eye, add salt to that to soothe the burning. Truxt me. Ahmah doctor.)

So, start-to-finish, anyone can make french fries at home in less time than it takes to get dressed and get experimented on at the fast food drive-by.
(Photos will accompany this all in time.)

It's a Start?

2010-05-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Salutations Friends.

This is the very first post of what I hope will become my regular blog dedicated to the various foods I create day to day. Everyone seems to be cashing in on internet advertising these days, and I'm hoping to get a piece of my own while promoting myself as a Pampered Chef consultant(and hoping to catch the eye of someone who has the resources to put me in charge of a restaurant.)

Bear with me for now. This is only a test. Delicious recipes with accompanying photographs are in the works... along with adsense links to products and services I would recommend, and hopefully a link to my own Pampered Chef website where you'll be able to order the best kitchen tools around. :)

This is it for today. See you soon kids!