charity: water

            Quick, think of the last thing that you spent twenty dollars on.  Did you know that twenty dollars could have been used to provide clean water to an individual in a developing country?  I am absolutely terrible with using my money wisely and I am certainly not here to guilt trip anyone into donating to this cause.  My only goal in writing this post is to give these people a voice.  I complain every time my shoe comes untied, I can’t even begin to comprehend not having clean water to drink every day.  It’s easy to forget about those that are less fortunate, especially when our lives are as hectic as they are.  When everyone is so concentrated on when and what they have to do next, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture.  The reality of it is, people are walking hours to collect unsanitary water from a stream or pond, then walking hours back.  The thought of my own mother carrying a jerry can full of water a few miles is terrible, and I don’t feel like anyone else’s mother should have to go through it either.

            Close to a billion people don’t have access to clean water.  Without clean water, these people have no way of growing food, washing food, or cooking food safely.  By raising money for charity: water, we can put wells in these communities.  Women and children will spend less time walking to get water, allowing them to spend their time and resources elsewhere.  Using this clean water, communities can build irrigation systems and begin to build farms and from these farms, processing facilities will emerge.  So, in other words, building wells in these deprived regions is the only way to improve these underdeveloped countries.  I respect the fact that some communities want to remain the same and continue to live and represent their culture, but I can’t sit around while millions of people get sick from waterborne diseases.  I believe we were all put on this Earth to help one another through difficult times, but we are all starting to lose sight of that.  In the words of Tupac Shakur, “We gotta start makin’ some changes.”

Side note:  My fundraising campaign is no longer active, but I encourage all of you to start your own campaign.  Another option is to donate to a random person’s campaign.  I’m sure it would make their day!

Re-introduction

I have decided that I really like blogging.  It has slowly turned from an assignment in English class to something that I legitimately enjoy doing.  I feel as if it is a way to let everyone know what I’m doing and where I am in life without having one of those awkward phone conversations where you ramble on about what’s important in your life, knowing the other person isn’t listening.  I know that I did a brief introduction discussing why I love food, but despite my undying love of it, there are more important aspects of my life.  This is my way of letting you all know who I am away from my passion of food.

            First of all, let me begin with what is most important to me.  The most important thing to me is my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  My number one goal in life is to constantly be searching for how God can use me to fit His overall plan.  I have dedicated my life to Him, and I am trying to better myself and reflect God’s will for me.  Unfortunately, it has not always been this way.  I grew up going to church every Sunday, doodling in the bulletin, and planning what I was going to eat for lunch that afternoon.  My life was pretty perfect and the only thing I worried about was how many cosmic brownies we had left in the kitchen.  Right before my eleventh birthday all of that changed.  It was around this time that God placed a few events in my life that I was not ready for, that nobody could be ready for.  I found out that my grandfather only had a few more days left to live after suffering from congestive heart failure, and I found out that my mother had cancer.  Since I was just a kid, no one ever outright told me that my mom had cancer, but I knew that she had to keep going to the hospital and that something wasn’t right.  Once I found out that she had cancer, I started doing worse and worse in school.  I was so confused.  How was I supposed to focus on who killed who in the War of 1812, when I knew my mother was going in for radiation therapy that day.  My teacher kept asking me what was wrong, but when I went to tell her, nothing came out.  I felt like God had left me alone and didn’t care about me anymore.  I stopped going to church and decided that it would be best to still believe in God, not because I thought he was real, but because Hell sounded awful and I didn’t want to go.  This state of my life continued for almost eight years.  Once I arrived in Clemson, one of my friends, Biff, asked me to go to FCA.  I had no idea what FCA was, but it sounded like fun so I decided to go.  I had a great time and decided to go back the next week, and the next week, and the next week.  Then it all caught up to me.  I don’t remember what song was being sung, who the speaker was, or what the speaker was talking about.  All I remember is looking around at 800 people screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs and I felt a shiver go down my spine.  It was as if my love of God was grabbing a hold of my spine and telling me, “I never left, I’ve been with you the whole time.”  It was this point in my life that I decided that I couldn’t expect anyone to change my life for me, it was my responsibility.  This moment, to me, felt like walking outside for the first time in a while.  It was that feeling you get when you’ve been in the bottom floor of the library working on a paper for 12 hours straight, and after you email it to your professor you make that climb up the stairs and out the door.  Once you take that first step out of the shadow and into the sun, you feel free.  All you can thing about is how great the sun feels.  Rediscovering my love for Christ was my “walking into the sun” moment.  I now realize that God put those adversities in my life to wake me up, to make me realize why I was put on this Earth.  While I do miss my grandfather, I can see myself turning into him more and more each and every day.  My mother has been cancer free for years now and loves spending time with all of her grandbabies!

            The second most important thing to me is my family and friends.  I have a rather large family and they can definitely drive me crazy, but I know that each and every one of them would be there in a heartbeat if I needed them for something.  I can point out how each of my family members has helped shape who I am today and wouldn’t trade any of them for the world.  I also love spending time with my wonderful girlfriend.  She came into my life in what some would call an awkward situation.  She is the little sister of my best friend.  She and I had slowly gotten to know each other after spending time with his family.  She would always play God of War, throw football, and hang out with us after we got off of work.  I loved hanging out with her, but knew it was against the rules to date your friend’s younger sister.  It wasn’t until years later that I asked my friend if it would be okay if I asked his sister out on a date.  That was definitely the most awkward conversation I have ever had, but ended up being one of the best.  Jessa and I have now been dating for over two and a half years.  She is one of the sweetest and sassiest women I have ever met.  She helps me out if I ever need it, but she also makes sure that I get done what I need to do.

            As of right now, my life is going great.  I am hoping to one day travel to underdeveloped countries and help them set up food processing facilities.  If I can help improve just one person’s life, it will all be worth it to me.  While I would love to jump right into this, I know that I need to gain experience in the food industry before I can accomplish such goals.  I also know that despite the goals I have in life, I could get another curveball thrown at me at any given moment.  Since I cannot prepare for what God has planned for me, I have to be adaptable and be ready for any changes He sends my way.  I look forward to getting to know each and every one of you.  While I may come across as shy and reserved, it’s really just me being awkward.  I really do love meeting new people and learning what their passions are and what they enjoy about life.  I hope that all of you feel as if you know me a little better and I look forward to getting to know you as well.  Thanks for reading!

Resourcefulness

Hey everyone!  I hope everyone had a great weekend celebrating both Easter and The Masters.  I had a pretty eventful weekend that included: finding small kitten, naming him Jeeves, hanging out with him all day, and having to give him back to his “owner”.  To be honest, I really don’t like cats.  Maybe it’s because the cat I had when I was a kid was terrifyingly mean, or maybe it’s because I envy their lazy lifestyle.  I am much more of a dog person, but this little kitten ran up to my porch, licked my face, and then fell asleep on my shoulder.  I was crushed when I had to give Jeeves back, but I don’t have anywhere to keep him so I guess it was for the best.  Now that I have given Jeeves this little shout out, it’s time to get back to the food!

I had planned on writing about pimento cheese, but no one legitimately wants to read a blog post on pimento cheese, so I decided to change the topic to being resourceful in the kitchen.  I’m sure that many of you are wondering how on Earth I got from pimento cheese to being resourceful, and the truth is that I didn’t.  I actually saw an article on MSN that discussed what to do with leftover Easter eggs.  This sent my mind into brainstorm mode and I immediately thought of all the ways a love to reuse what most people throw away.  Before you ask, yes, yes I am “that guy”.  I currently have 36 sweet tea bottles saved in my closet because I went through a mild addiction to Gold Peak Tea and decided that I could better justify buying the tea if I kept the bottles to do something with.  Then, I got the brilliant idea that I could create a raft and set sail on Lake Hartwell.  I also decided that instead of throwing away the basketball I had with no grip left, I cut it in half and tried to fashion a hat out of one of the basketball halves.  While none of my little side projects ever work out, it always reminds me of how much most people waste.  The kitchen is where I see people throw away the most, and I am here to put a stop to it with this very blog post.

            First of all, let’s start with my number one most wasteful practice, making too much food.  People usually love making food for others.  It’s both a way to feel appreciated, and a way to show off a set of skills.  People also tend to over-estimate what others can eat.  This usually leads to food sitting in the refrigerator until it is thrown out.  I have two solutions to this problem.  The first is to not make as much food to begin with.  Instead of making 36 hamburgers for a party you know is only going to have 4 other people, try making 6 cheeseburgers and saving the rest of the ground beef for shepherd’s pie, spaghetti sauce, or pizza.  The other option is to freeze the leftovers.  I know it’s easier and cheaper to buy food in bulk and it’s a great idea, but please buy responsibly.  While a freezer does not stop all microorganism growth, it does slow it down drastically.  If you make 4 gallons of soup, freeze 3 separate gallons and save them for later.  Freezing food in individual servings keeps you from having to thaw and refreeze it, keeping safety and quality issues at a minimum.  Always remember, the faster something freezes, the smaller the ice crystals are, and keeping ice crystals as small as possible is key to retaining the quality.

            Another way of being more resourceful in the kitchen is by asking yourself whether or not something can be repurposed before throwing it away.  A lot of people will roast a ham or a chicken and throw the bones and scraps away.  DO NOT DO THIS EVER AGAIN!  The bones and scraps can be boiled to make a stock, and this stock can be used to make all sorts of delicious soups, rice, noodles, etc.  What I usually do after roasting/smoking a chicken is boil the scraps and bones with spices until the meat falls off the bone and the collagen begins to come out of the bone.  Then, I pull out the chicken and take the meat off the bones, wait for the stock to boil down enough to be full of flavor, boil no-yolk egg noodles in the stock, and add the chicken meat back in.  This last step is definitely optional, but I like to add two cans of condensed golden mushroom soup to the stock as a way of cheaply adding mushrooms and creaminess.  A second optional step is instead of waiting for the stock to boil down and become flavorful, strengthen it with chicken bouillon or a chicken rub.  Another way to repurpose food items is to use them as ingredients themselves.  I have been known to get a little crazy with some leftover Chinese food pizza.  I chop up the leftover eggrolls and chicken and melt it onto pizza using cheese as the “glue”.  I completely understand if Chinese food pizza isn’t for you, but try to be creative with leftovers.  If you have leftover produce that is starting to wilt, or milk that is past the date, you can use it to cook with.  A lot of times food deteriorates in quality before it becomes unsafe, meaning that it can be repurposed without a problem.  While I can’t advocate going around eating moldy bread all willy-nilly, I also hate to see people throw things out as soon as it approaches the sell-by date.

            Wow, that post was a doozy and I appreciate those of you who hung in there the entire time.  I am happy to answer any questions that anyone may have for me.  Please let me know of any questions in the comment section or by emailing me if it’s personal.  I can’t think of any food-related questions that would be considered personal, but feel free to ask anyways!  I’ll see everyone next week!

Genetically Modified Foods

            I have decided that most of you are probably getting bored with my rambling on about food, so what better to talk about this week than something controversial.  Today I will be discussing the pros and cons of genetically modified foods.  My view of genetically modified foods has recently changed after some research into the topic, so I will first discuss why I don’t like it and then discuss why it is inevitable.

            For the most part, I tend to live my life as natural as possible.  I feel as though God created animals for us to hunt, not genetically modify.  On the flip side, I feel that if God didn’t want us to genetically modify animals, we wouldn’t be able to.  I also try to stay away from things like irradiated meat.  I know that from a food science perspective there is no research stating that irradiated meat has any negative side effects, but I feel like my body wasn’t designed to ingest anything that has been treated with radiation.  I am also concerned with what effect that genetically modified foods have on the environment.  While they are “better” for the environment in the short term by eliminating the use of pesticides, I am most concerned about the long term effects.  Genetically modified plants and animals will eventually alter the balance of the ecosystem, and if there is one thing you don’t want to mess with it is Mother Nature.  Despite these serious and possibly harmful effects, genetically modified foods are inevitable.

            It is said that the Earth’s population doubles every fifty years, and that over half of the people that have ever lived are alive today.  At this rate there will be around 14 billion people in the world in the year 2062, and by the year 2112 there will be over 27 billion people on this planet.  There is no way that our current food production systems will be able to handle those numbers, and I don’t see us moving to Mars anytime soon.  If scientists can convince the general population and government that it is absolutely necessary, disease-free animals and plants could take the place of wasted crop space.  Animals could also be engineered to be bigger and produce more meat.  While ideas like these are certainly frowned upon in today’s society, it will eventually have to happen.

            If any of you want to know where to find more information on this topic or want to ask me more in depth questions on why I feel the way I do, please let me know in the comment section.  I hope to hear from all of you!

Nawlins

            I have no real way to describe New Orleans.  Its food is reflected in the attitude of its people, both genuine and sassy.  My first New Orleans dish was an alligator po’boy, but it was no ordinary alligator po’boy, it was a smoked alligator sausage po’boy.  This was a perfect way for the smoked flavor to work its way into the alligator without overpowering it, while still providing the fennel flavor we all associate sausage with.  It was served with a Creole remoulade, tomato, lettuce, and pickle.  The only thing that I would have done differently with the sandwich itself is remove the tomato seeds.  The green slimy seeds can be easily removed and significantly subtract from the bitterness of a dish.  Some people, such as my dad, love the green slimy seeds, but I despise them.  The fries that were served with the po’boy were just as simply delicious.  They were thin and had a spice mix similar to that of Tony Chachere’s or Bojangles coating them.  Overall, the dish was fantastic and I can’t wait to go back to Huck Finn’s.

            I cannot decide if the best part of New Orleans is being with people I love, thinking of the food I’ve eaten, or thinking of the food I’m going to eat.  While I do enjoy looking forward to eating everything in the city of New Orleans, the anticipation is killing me.  Tomorrow we are all going to a restaurant called Daisy Dukes.  I am already planning on getting half of a catfish po’boy and a cup of gumbo.  I would also enjoy having some of Café Beignet’s famous beignets.  I believe Tuesday we are all going out and getting a few pounds of boiled crawfish and embarrassing ourselves trying to pry open the little creatures.  I have had them before, but I don’t even remotely remember how to eat one.  Hopefully buying four pounds of them will give me the practice I need to become a professional.  The food here is a little more expensive than I thought it would be, but I guess that’s the price you pay for greatness.  Hopefully I can make it to the many food adventures I have planned and provide a few more reviews soon!  Please let me know if you have any comments, especially if they are suggestions for where to eat in New Orleans.

Pizza

Pizza is the cook’s blank canvas.  It is a way to express feelings, emotions, or attitude.  As a lot of you already know, I love making pizza.  Growing up I never really like it.  I was only ever interested in the crust; I never wanted anything to do with the rest of the pizza.  There were only slight differences in Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, or Domino’s.  They all tasted like greasy cardboard that had some government cheese spread on top.  I don’t even want to talk about the school cafeteria’s square pizza.  I hate to sound like such a food snob because I love and appreciate all kinds of food, but my past experiences with pizza have just been awful.  While Domino’s did recently improve their recipe, all they really ended up doing was adding garlic salt all over everything.  That is not what pizza was meant to be.

Pizza is a great way to show off creativity and a little bit of who you are as a person.  For example, I love making barbeque pizza with barbeque sauce and tons of cheddar cheese because I am fat and love barbeque.  People from New York love chewy, thin crust pizzas so that they can fold it in half while eating it.  I don’t really understand the purpose of folding a pizza, but to each his own.  People in Chicago are famous for their deep dish pizza.  This reflects their go big or go home attitude.  Some people enjoy more sophisticated pizza such as Wolfgang Puck’s salmon and caviar pizza, while others love taking leftovers and throwing them on some dough.  I’ve even been known to make a pizza using leftover Chinese food along with a chopped up eggroll.  I don’t want to ramble too much about different types of pizza because I want each and every one of you to try a unique pizza.  I started out using Marcella Hazan’s recipe for simple Italian pizza dough, but I always found that I needed to add some form of sugar whether it was brown sugar or honey powder.  I found another recipe that is very similar to Ms. Hazan’s recipe except it contains brown sugar, which helps the yeast produce CO₂ and gives a thicker crust.  Have fun and post your ideas in the comment section!

Pizza Crust Recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/jays-signature-pizza-crust/

Nutrition... and All That Jazz

            As I sit here shoving as many Girl Scout cookies into my mouth as a possibly can, I begin reading the stories on the box, trying to fully immerse myself in the greatness of these cookies.  I accidently turn the box one too many times and find the nutrition facts panel.  I try to look away as if the head of Medusa were glaring right at me, but it is too late.  The bold saturated fat percentage is already burned into my brain.  Does that keep me from grabbing another cookie?  Absolutely not, but it certainly should!

            This whole fiasco gets me thinking about the nutrition and overall eating habits of our country.  There is no denying that what we are putting into our bodies is awful for us.  The real question is where the blame falls.  Is it the responsibility of food manufacturing companies to create healthier options?  Is it the responsibility of the consumer to either buy healthier options or inform the manufacturers that they want healthier options?  Is it the government’s responsibility to inform its citizens of the consequences of eating such unhealthy food?  After all, the government’s job is to serve and protect, but are they really responsible for protecting us from our own choices?

            I have been slowly working my way through a book by the brilliant Jeffrey Steingarten.  In his book, The Man Who Ate Everything, he discusses what is known as the French paradox.  He attempts to answer the question why the percentage of obese Americans is over three times that of France, while the French consistently consume cheese, bread, pastries, and other forms of saturated fat.  He worked vigorously to find a connection between the French lifestyles and their relatively low rate of obesity.  The final verdict was inconclusive due to so many conflicting studies.  The most common theories involve France’s red wine consumption, eating habits, and fat sources.  While some studies show that certain phenols in red wine help prevent heart disease, recent studies show that there isn’t a strong enough correlation between the two.  The eating habits of the French are the most likely source of the paradox.  While Americans tend to eat large meals quickly, the French tend to eat meals more slowly and divide them between multiple courses.  Eating more slowly gives the lateral hypothalamus time to send the signal that you are full and need to stop eating before you have time to shove those extra mozzarella cheese sticks down your gullet.

            Back to my earlier point!  The real question is, who is responsible for our eating habits?  If we can find out who should take charge, we can take the necessary steps to solve the problem.  While I’m sure most of you think that consumers should take responsibility because they are the ones consuming the food, I feel obligated to remind you that most of us don’t have our own food chemistry set at home to play with.  There was virtually no way for consumers to instinctively know that trans fats were bad for their health until the government took initiative and ran studies on the correlation between these fats and the heart disease.  In fact, recent news suggests that companies knew of the harmful effects of trans fats, but decided not to publish the results.  Isn’t it funny how that works?  I personally feel that most of the responsibility falls on the government to inform the general public about these health issues and ways to find/create healthier options.  As much as I despise the government sticking their nose in my business, its job is to protect and serve the good of the people.  I think it is time for them to man up and take action to solve this health crisis. 

This certainly does not get everyone else off the hook.  It is also the responsibility of the manufacturers to disclose any findings about how their products affect consumer health.  Last, but not least, it is the responsibility of the consumer to look out for themselves and stop shoving Girl Scout cookies in their face like they are in some sort of contest.

            I know this was a rather long post, but if any of you troopers who made it through the whole thing have any food science related questions such as what a trans fat is or why it has negative effects, please feel free to contact me.  If I do not have the answer I certainly know people who do.  Thanks for reading and I will hopefully have a new recipe ready by next week!