My favorite and I can easily make it to perfection and not destroy wifey's kitchen
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.
My favorite and I can easily make it to perfection and not destroy wifey's kitchen
I have a canned ham (small one) in the pantry and a can of Corned Beef. The ham is going into Scalloped Potatoes tomorrow and the Corned Beef is going to be introduced to two packages of cheap Mac-n-Cheese later in the week.
I know. The Salt Police will be all over me, but I’m using up what’s on hand. It’s the only sane thing to do these days. :)
No kidding!
If you’re unfamiliar with ‘The Two Fat Ladies’ cooking show, please borrow their DVDs or cookbooks from your library, or rent the DVDs.
They are WONDERFUL. Yes, they’re English, but they really know how to cook...and they’re funny as heck! Very basic dishes, with the exception of some of the seafood dishes...but I’m landlocked, so that seems ‘exotic’ to me.
They have wonderful recipes for game, or just substitute a chicken or a Cornish Hen or beef if you don’t hunt.
I’m using a number of their recipes in the menu for my 50th Birthday Extravaganza this coming summer. :)
http://psjk.homestead.com/twofatladies.html
Damn the Salt Police! You need salt!
Um...thanks, but no thanks. I grew up poor on Spam and Free Government Cheese. I’ve had my fill, LOL! :)
Let me guess. Cheese is in. :-)
I love fondue but never eat it.
My cheese intake has been lagging of late.
It may be global warming. drat.
No, because "sustainable" has become the new marketing buzz word that is supposed to imply some sort of self-righteous superiority to a product.
Your goals are laudable and I fully support them.
My mom made saurkraut in the big crock, out in the yard by the corner of the house. Went out every day or so and removed the scum that would form. Did the same thing with dill pickles. I have made kraut but not in that size crock.
Not new to my family- kids learned and do also.
I was reading about sauerkraut a bit ago and it sounds like a really good food healthwise. (Homemade)
Try Quaker corn meal, or if you are able, grind your own corn. There is the proverbial recipe on the Quaker box that is good. Corn meal is like biscuits- don’t not overmix.
This is not a mix, but it is a very simple and good recipe.
So you had trouble with the "homeless" bums then too?
Spam is part of my food storage, but I do not have very many recipes- I would think it would be reasonably easy to incorporate into a recipe. Suggestions welcome.
I had saurkraut in Warsaw back in the late 1980s and it was great. Open barrel, combined with the woman putting it in the take home container wearing gloves and using tongs. It was more mellow than we have here-did not have such a bite, and was absolutely great. I went back and bought another pound. I was told it is aged a minimum of a year.
I’ll send some along in the next few days.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.