One can't make an edible Cornish Pasty without turnips! :) Turnips are also known as 'Swedes' which offends my Swedish husband to no end. I tell him, "If the turnip fits..." LOL!
Posted on 01/09/2010 5:03:43 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
There are many predictions regarding life in 2010. The Food Channel (FC) recently released their Trends for 2010, based on research conducted in conjunction with CultureWaves and the International Food Futurists.
Here are a few from their list I hope become reality.
Keeping it Real. In light of our back-to-basics economy, FC predicts we will return to basic ingredients. Pantries will be stocked with essentials; pure, simple, clean and sustainable foods. We’ll shift from convenience foods to scratch cooking, now that we have more time than money and more food knowledge and concerns.
Remember cuisine d’opportunite? We will be exploring what more we can do with our basics and what’s on hand to get ourselves through the long haul of economic recovery.
Food Vetting. Food vetting, or sourcing, is something I’ve been promoting for several years. Food vetting will give us an element of control over the quality of the foods we eat. We want to know where our food comes from, how it’s grown and harvested and whether it is truly good for us or not.
According to Territorial Seed Company in Albany, Ore., polls conducted by the National Gardening Association indicated that two million more households grew vegetables in 2008 than in 2007, and 2009 results suggest a 20 percent increase in vegetable gardening as compared to 2008.
As we continue to struggle in the midst of this recession, growing a garden helps us to gain control of our personal food security. Growing and preserving food are skills that help us “stay in shape mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
“Renaissance by definition means a rebirth, a revival, or a retrofit of the best of the past,” reads the introduction of The Territorial Seed Company catalogue. “Time-honored homesteading skills are becoming modish. Those with a keen instinct to thrive in tough times are returning to the fundamentals of gardening, canning, cooking, baking bread, sewing and cutting fire wood. A return to the use-it-up, wear-it-out, make-it-do or do-without values hit home again. These are the very values that once defined our country.”
Mainstreaming Sustainability. When we started publishing our monthly sustainability section it was hard to put into words exactly what sustainability meant. Now, the concept is as natural and ingrained as tying our shoes.
I have been teaching sustainable cooking classses for going on four years now. My family has eaten local, seasonal food for longer than that. FC suggests that we replace the words “local” and “sustainable” with “nearby” and “hometown,” which may help clarify that local designation.
Packaging will also take a sustainable change. You will see more bamboo and biodegradable and “nude food” that is more transparent with less packaging.
Food with Benefits. Just a few years ago, it was hip among Hollywood celebs to eat a “gluten-free” diet, even if it wasn’t medically required. Nutritionally fortified and “free from” foods will be more easily found, and we can expect to see nutritional value labeling on foods, which will make it easier for the consumer to know what the food contains.
FC says we will make changes in the way we feed our children, making sure that school lunch menus are built with beneficial foods and not just “cheap” foods.
You can also expect to read more in this column about how to feed your family tasty meals for pennies and still ensure nutrition.
Will Trade for Food. This notion has huge potential. As we raise our own vegetables and fruits, chickens and eggs, make our own cheeses and sausages, we are realizing that we have items that others may need.
FC predicts that barter exchange companies will spring up to redefine banking with ‘trade dollars.” More cooperative meals (remember the neighbors who take turns cooking for each other?) and gifting of foods will be occurring, too.
You can read the complete list of trends at http://www.foodchannel.com It’s fun to read what psychics and researchers predict for the New Year. But in the end, we determine what the new year will bring.
One certainty is that over the next year we will prepare approximately 1095 meals. My wish for you is that each of those meals, even the low-ly PBJ, is prepared with attention to the ingredients and loving intention for those who will eat it, so that you might experience the joy of cooking.
I still love meatloaf,beef stew,and the occasional Lindt chocolate bar.
I still can’t get past that sentence that says I have to prepare ONE THOUSAND AND NINETY-FIVE friggin’ meals this year! Aarrgghh!
Actually, I love to cook. I had Baked Eggs (from my own laying hens) and homemade (made by ME) bread/toast for supper tonight. Total comfort food.
The sourdough ‘sponge’ for Ciabatta bread tomorrow is cookin’ on the counter as I type.
Life is grand. :)
I cleaned out the pantry today (I’ve been stuck home with a back injury; I was bored, LOL!) and found a Cadbury ‘Royal Dark’ bar. Score! :)
Think i’m going to go with lots more cold weather and root crops in the garden this year. Back to the Michigan basics.
I do love butter fried parsnips and don’t think I’ve had them since the early to mid 90s when my great grandmother died.
One can't make an edible Cornish Pasty without turnips! :) Turnips are also known as 'Swedes' which offends my Swedish husband to no end. I tell him, "If the turnip fits..." LOL!
Pass the chocolate!
My great grandmother grew up on a farm near Traverse City in Mancelona. We ate a lot of the same stuff that’s in a pasty minus the wrap but I assume that’s because she was German and not Welsh.
I’m German. It took me a while to get into ‘wrapping’ my food in pastry or potato pancakes once I started cooking for ‘The Turnip’ (as he is AFFECTIONATELY called...)
However, I make a mean Sauerbraten...and that’s basically beef wrapped around a pickle, LOL!
Meat on the outside = Good.
Meat inside a crust = Bad.
BINGO !!!!!!
Is Spam considered sustainable?
My great grandmother used to make her own sauerkraut. Bet there weren’t too many kids around who liked sauerkraut let alone knew how to make it in the big clay crocks.
If there is a word that should be banned from the lexicon, it is "sustainable."
Well, I know for a FACT that in my Army days I was eating canned food back from before I was born, LOL!
However, Hormel says of SPAM:
“The processing techniques utilized by Hormel Foods makes the canned product safe for use indefinitely if the product seal remains intact, unbroken and securely attached to a can that has been well maintained.”
So, pretty much forever; that’s the utmost in ‘sustainability’ IMHO, LOL! :)
http://www.hormelfoods.com/faqs.aspx#can4
Please refer to ‘SPAM Sustainability’ Post #15. :)
Soup & cornbread
Beans & cornbread
My favorite is Martha White’s Sweet Yellow..... do you have Martha White in the frozen north.
I've seen it at Wal-Mart. I'll test drive a package next time I go there. Anything has to be better than that horrid Jiffy Mix Cornbread, LOL! :)
Cool. I’m having a very tasty homemade Spam spread right now!
2010 may give “Lean Cuisine” a whole new meaning.
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