An Ode to Crockpots (the Slow Cooker Kind)

My twin found a lovely blog by a woman who for her New Year's Resolution decided to use her crockpot everyday of 2008. It is here, at A Year of Crockpotting. She's also a funny lady, so even if you don't use her recipes, it's still an entertaining read. She reports on her childrens' reaction to her latest creations in the crockpot.

Twin recently made one of the recipes, which was delicious. It was a chunk of beef with feta, a jar of roasted tomatoes and some white wine. The actual recipe is here. It was delicious, even with less feta than called for and a cooking time about two hours longer than necessary. That is one of the joys of crockpots: you can cook things for twelve hours and still have edible (even better, delicious!) results.

Another delightful recipe is from Rival: Crock-Pot: Slow Electric Stoneware Cooker Cookbook from the 1960s or 70s. We enjoyed making this shortly after our 21st birthsday. Despite the title, not rabbit is involved.

Welsh Rabbit

• 2 lb sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 2 cups beer or ale
• Cayenne pepper
• 2-3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 10 oz can of tomato soup
• toasted bread slices

Put all ingredients except egg yolks and bread into CROCKPOT. Cover and cook on High until cheese melts; stir wll. Beat in egg yolks, using medium or low speed of mixer; beat until smooth. Turn to Low until serving time--2 to 6 hours. Serve over toast slices or crackers, or as a hot dip with bread sticks.
Ingredients may be increased by half for the 41/2-quart model.

Lastly, for our birthday cake, I used a recipe I found at this LiveJournal. The chocolate cake cooked in the crockpot is wonderful. It's very chocolatly and gooey. Twin and I put the leftovers in the fridge, and ate them like those giant chocolate muffins for the rest of the week. You can see a photo of it at the top of the post. Like many foods made in crockpots, the cake tastes better than it looks.

Blog #5- The Future of Food:

Prior to watching the Future of Food, I would not use the word fear to describe how I feel about genetically modified foods. I would say I find it frustrating and unfair for companies to not be completely honest about what constitutes their food products, but I have never regarded GMO’s as having the potential to be significantly harmful for humans. This film opened my mind to the power of companies such as Monsanto who use their patents to attempt to control the entire farming system, and have dangerous influence in the Environmental Protection agency. After watching the film would certainly say I have fears about eating genetically modified foods because of how little I trust companies such as Monsanto.

An issue that cannot be ignored is who is responsible for the safety of food products. It was disturbing to hear how many powerful people working for the EPA used to work for Monsanto; but more disturbing is the fact that the FDA is anything less that impeccable. Inadequate testing and not requiring labels for some GMOs are two ways FDA is being irresponsible. I was amazed that terms such as “substantially equivalent”, or GRAS- meaning a food product is generally recognized as safe are enough to give a food product credibility. The film quotes a statement taken from Monsanto: “Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food, out interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA’s job.” But if the FDA is not doing their job- then who can be held accountable? It is not ethically sound for companies to no want to label their food as containing GMO’s for profit gain, but it is plain wrong for companies to not want to use labels because of foreseen liability issues. If companies were confident that their products were safe, why would anticipate such liability?

The film discussed how many different types of potatoes and apples are not widely grown anymore. I have always been proud to say that Washington has great signature apples, just as someone from Idaho might say about their potatoes. It is a realistic fear that we will soon have even less varieties. Fortunately Mexico continues to sustain their corn varieties. I enjoyed the Mexican gentlemen’s take on seeds and grains essentially being the same thing and why shouldn’t a farmer assume that there is an embryo (baby) inside that seed? It is interesting that Mexican farmers rely of wild corn strain, Teocintlen, to mix with their cultivated strain- because this wild strain has resistance. I think the power and ability of nature to take care of itself is underestimated. I was angered at the thought of how destructive it would be for the genetically altered corn to invade some of Mexico’s corn and completely destroy it. The film touched upon the idea that gaining efficiency with farming sacrifices diversity, no only plant diversity but also intellectual diversity. The effects of genetically modified food on the immune system and it toxicity have not been tested thoroughly, and companies like Monsanto seem to have the power to stop such research.

Another big question the film brought to my mind is property rights. I have difficulty understanding how basic property rights can be destroyed. The idea that it is your job to fence your property in and protect it from outside factors outside your control doesn’t make logical sense to me. The farmer, who was taken to court by Monsanto because their seed found its way into his fields and cross pollinated, referred to the system of food as a “Feudal system.” Essentially whoever controls the seed controls the food. But the only reason companies like Monsanto can have so much power, is because their products are being purchased. Consumers have the power to make changes. Just like the protest for better organic standard prevailed, so can the demand for safe food, and labeling. We as consumers need accurate information so we need to continue to exercise our rights.

“The next green revolution.” Economist. 386 (2008): 81-82.

"We want what we can't have."

Interacting with the T.V in general- whether it is playing video games or watching television shows- decreases time spent doing physical activity and is often coupled with unhealthy eating. The majority of food brands marketed to children sell unhealthy food products that are very tempting and enticing because they portray a fun lifestyle, and are often cross-marketed with a new movie or toy. Just as manipulative as these commercials are the images of models and t.v stars who send a contradictory message: be thin but eat fatty foods. From an early age children watch beautiful/handsome thin reporters, and celebrities on television- who define success. These same channels show television stars who resemble this same body type but eat a very poor and unhealthy diet and rarely exercise. Children and adolescents with normal to larger bodies are virtually invisible in the media.

Media projects the icon of the ideal body type of a woman as “barbie without the chiropracticly challenged feet,” according to the film Body Image: Let’s get real. I can remember going to the Body Shop with my mom when I was younger and seeing the poster of a doll essentially opposite to Barbie called Ruby. The poster was for a new campaign by Body Shop for self esteem. Under the picture of the doll was the quote: "There are three billion women in the world who don't look like supermodels and only eight who do". In is ironic because on one spectrum media is encouraging obesity and on the other end it is encouraging serious eating disorders.

The article While French eye thinness, America’s obesity expands- really hits home with the idea that paying attention only to negative body image from models ignores the real problem: obesity. But ignoring eating disorders as a result of media is also not an option, especially because this image also contributes to violence and silencing of women- Killing Us Softly 3: advertising’s images of women. In my grossly simplified model there are two outlooks to this unrealistic body image portrayed by the media: {I am worthless if I don’t look just like this thin model or star so I should go starve myself}, or {I will never look like this thin star so why even bother, that happy meal looks good}. One may lead to starvation, the other to obesity. The point is that both lifestyles are unhealthy, and there needs to be a serious change in the media’s body image- involving more realistic healthy looking models, and television stars living a healthy lifestyle. Because currently media is selling a body image that is completely out of sync with the food products its food brands keep chugging out and the lifestyles portrayed in television shows.

• Clark, Levina, and Marika Tiggemann. “Sociocultural Influences and Body Image in 9- to 12-Year-Old Girls: The Role of Appearance Schemas.” Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 36 (2007): 76-86.

Articles to Ruin Your Appetite

In an attempt to avoid ranting (this is my third attempt at writing this blog), I will address a few comments to each item viewed or read this week.

1. While French Eye Thinness, America's Obesity Expands: I thought banning of encouragement of extreme thinness was very interesting. On a related note, sometime last year, a major fashion show in Spain required that the models be within a certain BMI range. The range was, if I remember correctly, actually lower than it would be for most people, but even then, a fairly large proportion of the models failed to meet the requirement. I also think that the Spanish government was in part responsible for the requirement. Perhaps the bans are because high fashion, and the extremely thin models that comes with it, is more observed or prevalent in Europe? I'm not sure exactly, but I do know that the nightly news has NOT been running clips about how fat Europeans have become, so it makes more sense that extreme thinness is the focus there. I understand the author's opinion that too thin is not the predominant problem in the US, but it's not like the French government was trying to change weight problems here in the US either.
2. An Insatiable Emptiness: I remember a drawing in one of the girls' magazines I read in elementary school that had a slightly different version of a Norman Rockwell painting that showed a young girl in a slip sitting in front of a mirror looking pensively at her reflection. In this version, the girl was anorexic and was so thin that her shoulder blades and elbows were frighteningly prominent. I remember the girl talking about her hair falling out because her body no longer had the extra energy to grow it. This caused me some concern since I had hair coming out everyday when I brushed my hair. Fortunately, my mother explained that hair normally sheds--but doesn't normally fall out in clumps. The author's statements in Insatiable Emptiness about her mother's attempts to control her reminds me that eating disorders are also frequently triggered when high-achieving people feel out of control, and that the disorder is an attempt to re-gain control over at least one aspect of their life.
3. Body Image: Let's Get Real: I am so glad I am no longer in middle or high school.
4. Killing Us Softly 3: Advertising's Image of Women: I appreciated that the speaker still kept a sense of humor. She had many valid points, and many were quite serious. But she didn't spend all her time earnestly saying how screwed we are. That said, I don't remember any prominent suggestions on how to fix things. She pointed out that the people who say they simply ignore advertising are those most likely to be wearing a branded t-shirt. So where does she shop? She also wore makeup, so clearly she isn't immune either from ideas about how a woman should look and what products they need to achieve that look. My point is not that she shouldn't buy clothes, or wear makeup, but that she shouldn't make fun of those who buy certain things--because she also buys similar things!
5. "Why you think we live in a culture where...obesity has been on the rise...yet the media projects extreme thinness." Okay, obesity is on the rise because people spend all their time running around to eight million things a day, and then they spend their spare time in front of the computer or TV. Then they insist on "getting their value's worth" with huge servings of unhealthy food. They don't have the time/inclination to cook food from actual ingredients and they don't actually physically move that much. Ta-dah, increased obesity. When you can buy a squirt tube of combined peanut butter and jelly, a product you use because you don't have time to make a normal PB&J sandwich, you're waaaaay too busy or lazy. And then there is the media. Despite their claims, they have never actually had a great grasp of reality. When my mom was in Africa for the Peace Corp at the very end of the 1960s, she thought she'd come back find the US in the midst of an all out civil war from what the magazines said. While the US did experience plenty of turmoil, we were not actually to the level of the 1860s. While I enjoyed any number of WB channel shows, I knew that the physical appearances of everyone on those shows, from the janitors up to the protagonists, WAS NOT TYPICAL. The number of hot guys and gals on the shows were ridiculous; no town has that many tanned, toned and well groomed people. And those people NEVER wore the same outfit twice. I don't know the exact reason that the media portrays such thinness (rib cages and hip bones really aren't attractive, no matter how great the clothes and makeup), but apparently parents need to make clear to their children that what's portrayed by the media is not actually REAL. It's all been created by fifty people with special lights, sets, cameras and computers. If you were there in person, it wouldn't look identical to the end product.
   

• Furnham, Adrian, et al. “Preferences for Female Body Weight and Shape in Three European Countries.” European Psychologist. 12.3 (2007): 220-228.

EDITED 6/8/08 for spelling and clarifications.