food inc. the movie

(click on this link if you'd like to see the 3 1/2 minute trailer for the movie.  If that doesn't work it can be found by searching for food movie inc. trailer in you tube)

Yes, the latest effort from Eric Schlosser et al is coming to a theatre near you.  It is what you think, looking at the state of the American food chain from the seed, meat, supermarket and labor angles. Eric Schlosser & Michael Pollan do much of the narration. Non-partisan, the lightest moments you will experience are in the trailer above.  If you haven't read The Omnivore's Dilemma, that might be a more humanistic and thoughtful approach to looking at the food situation.  This is more of an investigative reporting view from as many troubling angles as possible.  I thought I was pretty familiar with them, but this movie was able to point out a few more.

Overall, I would say this movie wants to overwhelm you into action, which is a tall order.  Overwhelm tends to numb and fuzz me out.  It is not a movie to see with your children.  But I had never seen inside an industrial chicken coop or meat processing plant (or a CAFO, which stands for "concentrated animal feeding operation) so I guess I have done that now.  I wish there had been more balance to the movie so that we could be left with a sense of purpose, not a sense of how completely messed up things are.  But perhaps it will speak to another layer of people that were not aware of this mulitfaceted insanity and effect at least one change in each of them.

I did leave with resounding appreciation for one of the panelists after the movie.  I mean all of the panelists were amazing I am sure in their own right, having already effected some measure of change in their area.  But Helge Hellberg, Executive Director of Marin Organic, didn't request that we get angry and sign a petition or vote against another legislative measure, he asked us how we were feeling.  He said that he felt pretty terrible and that he thought the movie was not appealing.  That bringing back the love and beauty is the way through this and if we each do one thing more towards this nurturing that we are helping.  He said it better than that, but it was timely and pleasantly shocking in its own right.  

The movie does touch on buying at a farmer's market or planting a garden (even a small one) as ways to help and has some enjoyable moments with Joel Salatin at Polyface Farms (and some in your face moments too), but they are not enough of a breather for me.  Enjoy the trailer.

One more thing, as I was gliding down the escalator, contemplating how lucky we are (afterall, I'm eating a delicious local organic greek salad as I write this) I saw this poster in a drugstore window:

                                     

Don't know if it is for real, but it was a tongue in cheek reminder that we would rather create a fix it product than undo what we have done.

Breakfast of Champions

We didn't run the Bay to Breakers Sunday, but it was a gorgeous summer day with much to do.  More shelves for our storage area & making dessert for 40 well deserving teachers - homemade butterscotch pudding and torta di mandorla.  The above picture though, is of Alicia's whole wheat chocolate chip brownies - a great way to begin this day. While Alicia debates whether or not to share the recipe(Alicia, will you?? pretty please?), here is a link to another pastry chef-food blogger's recipe for the torta di mandorla, an almond olive oil cake that smells so fantastic, it must be good for you. 

Gina DePalma's discussion of almonds vs. chocolate as a gift of love is worth the read. Here is the link seperately under a combined foodie blog, Serious Eats:

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2009/02/almond-olive-oil-cake-recipe-torta-di-mandorla-italian-desserts.html

Checking out the world today, the outfit on Muni on Mondays for job hunting is light blue button down shirt, yellow tie, some with, some without blazer. Still hopeful faces, still empty briefcases.

simple fruit salad

I had done my version of the Las Vegas Spin this past Saturday and was still not quite awake when presented with this great antidote to travel-lag by Greg on Sunday morning.

My version of the Las Vegas Spin is taking a crack of dawn flight into LV, spending the day at a tea convention seeing wonderful friends (what are we doing tasting tea in a place like this?), then flying back the same day, getting home shortly before midnight.  Long enough to smell like the invisible cigarette smoke that permeates every hotel there, but short enough to have enjoyed myself more than trashed myself.  I have to tell you, the smell of oranges and mint was a wonderful reminder of how lucky I was to not still be in Las Vegas.

Even though these oranges have been lurking in the fridge for the last month or so, they were still clearly flavorful and delicious.  Yes, if you are not sure what to do with those oranges, they seem to be one of the few fruits that can be stored in the fridge for a long time - they will keep their flavor and not mold away like they do on the counter.  Just plan ahead if you don't want to bite into ice cold fruit.

Putting this together is easy and Greg simply peeled the oranges (get those bioflavanoids!) instead of the fancier, messier supreme method ("soo-prem", french for what it sounds like, refers to the supreme cut, in this case, the way to cut oranges into membrane-less sections). Get those youngsters to help you hand peel- the results will impress them too.  

The magic is in assembling shortly before serving and using fresh mint - somehow it connects with the honey in a luscious way. I forget about fresh mint and what a great herb it is.  Actually, less or more of any of these ingredients should still yield accolades. And come to think of it, there are many other combinations of fruit you can use, so I've suggested some below. 

Simple Fruit Salad

4 small oranges/apricots/peaches

1 blood orange/1/2 cup strawberries/ 2 plums

1 Tablespoon honey

1 handful fresh mint leaves, washed & minced fine (chiffonade)

Peel or chop up the fruit, mince that mint and combine just before serving.  To make the honey more liquid, put the jar in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes and stir into thinner consistency before you pull some out.

I'll add a little detail on chiffonade soon but here is the short on it: 

• stack 5 or 6 of the leaves at a time
  
• fold the stack over as if you were turning tabacco into a cigarette (tighter gives you more control but remember the leaves are kinda tender too) 
  
• then slice crosswise as thinly as possible.  
  

I went a little overboard on the chiffonade, so we left out some of the mint when making the salad to make sure we weren't overdoing it - then forgot about it.  It dried in a few days on a plate and will make a delicious tisane.