Hours before I even heard about the recall of Banquet Frozen Pot Pies, I had decided to post this recipe from Martha Stewart's web site for Lighter Chicken Potpie (I've seen it spelled both ways - "potpie" and "pot pie" - and I'll use Martha's spelling for her recipe and two words for Banquet, because I don't want Martha mad at me). It's a healthier version of the classic chicken potpie recipe, using more veggies, low fat milk, and oil instead of butter. Full recipe after the jump.Lighter Chicken Potpie
Hours before I even heard about the recall of Banquet Frozen Pot Pies, I had decided to post this recipe from Martha Stewart's web site for Lighter Chicken Potpie (I've seen it spelled both ways - "potpie" and "pot pie" - and I'll use Martha's spelling for her recipe and two words for Banquet, because I don't want Martha mad at me). It's a healthier version of the classic chicken potpie recipe, using more veggies, low fat milk, and oil instead of butter. Full recipe after the jump.How to get to the heart of a pumpkin
Maybe you were inspired by my post last month, asking for fresh pumpkin recipes. Or maybe one showed up in your CSA box and has been sitting on your counter for the last week, gazing at you serenely as you try to figure out what to do with it. However you came to be in possession a cooking pumpkin, now that you have one, you've got to determine how to deal with it. Apartment Therapy Kitchen has a post up today on the best way to crack open a cooking pumpkin, so that you can extract the seeds (delicious toasted with a little butter and salt) and roast/steam/bake the flesh for delicious eating. Their pictures take you through the process of cutting open the pumpkin and are really helpful if you're feeling a little daunted by your pumpkin's tough exterior.
Grist asks, Sow What?
Grist, that handy resource for environmental news and commentary, is spending the next two weeks focusing on food in a series called Sow What? They are diving into the heartland, talking to writers and researchers, taking a look at sustainable farming practices and generally trying to provide good information about the world of food that's out there these days.
Currently they have an article up about industrial agriculture in Iowa, a quiz in which you can test your own knowledge about food and farming, a look at Confined Animal Feeding Operations (pig farms) and a slide show of images from the sustainable food revolution. They'll continue to post information over the next two weeks, so make sure to check back and see what else they have to say.
Blueberries are the healthiest fruit
That's according to Mehmet Oz, the doctor who always appears on Oprah in his scrubs, talking about colons, and Joel Harper, in this quick Q and A at Esquire.com.
Oz and Harper (a personal trainer) answer several questions about food, health, and exercise. Besides declaring blueberries the healthiest fruit, they also say that the only good thing about pizza is the sauce, that colon cleansing isn't really worth it, and that a little alcohol isn't bad for us at all. They also answer the question on whether it's ok to eat something that has fallen on the floor as long as we pick it up within five seconds.
As for the pizza advice, I think there's another good thing that they're forgetting: pizza is totally awesome!
Banquet recalls frozen pot pies
It's becoming very clear that we can't eat anything anymore. Just lock yourself in your home and make everything from scratch.
Banquet is recalling all of its frozen chicken and turkey pot pies after a salmonella outbreak made 100 people sick. The company that owns Banquet, ConAgra, even went so far as to completely stop making the pies yesterday while the cases are investigated.
Here's a little twist to this particular recall story: they're also telling consumers not to eat "similar generic brands." Yikes. Here's all the info on the recall, including what code numbers to look for and what to do if you want a refund.
Oddly enough, I'm posting a recipe for a chicken pot pie today.
Buying organic is a growing trend
According to a study that our friends over at Green Daily unearthed, it is now officially cool to eat organic. That poll showed that the number of people buying organic is going up and that 79% of people believe that buying organic food is better for the environment. Ninety-eight percent of frequent organic food buyers believe that it also tastes better than conventional foods. The study also broke down which groups of people are doing the organic buying and discovered that they are either mostly liberal, mostly college graduates and are frequently both. These results make me blush a little, as I fall smack dab into this demographic and I do my best to buy organic foods whenever possible. Who knew I was so predictable?
Happy National Angel Food Cake Day!
Many of the national food holidays that we feature here at Slashfood don't have a web page that celebrates the day. The day just "exists." But it's really great to find a day that people on the web actually celebrate with a forum and recipes. Like this one at RecipeZaar for National Angel Food Cake Day.
Check out their recipes for basic Angel Food Cake and one for Paul Newman's Chocolate Orange Angel Food Cake. Food Network has one for Maple Angel Food Cake, and MedicineNet.com has a lighter dessert you can try, Chocolate-Mocha Angel Food Cake.
No bonfires necessary to make this Chocolate Biscuit Cake
I've been reading Nothing But Bonfires for awhile now. I stumbled across it a couple of years ago, when I read a comment that Holly had written over at another site. I liked her writing style (at least what I could glean of it from a two-sentence comment) and so followed the link over to her site. Most of the time she writes about The Bachelor, her international childhood or her sister's search for the perfect prom dress. However, once in a while, when the stars shift into alignment, she writes about food.
Today she wrote about the Chocolate Biscuit Cake she made for her work bake sale and they looked screen-licking good. Most of the ingredients are widely available in the UK and spottily available in the US. I think that in these parts I could probably track down most of them at Wegman's. Holly recommends checking out World Market (aka Cost Plus). This recipe calls for Lyle's Golden Syrup, which also happened to be a favorite of the late food writer Laurie Colwin (she always used it to make gingerbread). Anyway, enough digressing. Go check out her recipe and make yourself drool as I have been doing all day long.
What are your leftover habits?
I'm a big fan of leftovers. I love cooking something sort of big one night and knowing that I'll be able to eat it for lunch or dinner for the next couple of days. However, I believe in treating my leftovers with consideration. I always reheat them (typically in a pan on the stove top) and will often give them a slightly new taste with a sprinkling of fresh herbs, a handful of cheese or some toasted nuts. I have a very hard time with leftovers that are just plucked from the fridge and eaten cold.
My sister, who has been in town for the last couple of days, does not have the same leftover philosophy as I do. She is happy to graze in front of the refrigerator, taking bites of congealed pasta straight from the plastic container or eating half a piece of cold pizza, putting what she doesn't want back in the box, toothmarks and all.
What kind of leftover person are you? Do you avoid them all together? Do you transform them into something new with each meal? Or are you in my sister's camp, willing to eat whatever is there as is?
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Thanksgiving and more: Food & Wine in 60 seconds
If you're going to buy a dwarf Key lime tree for your dad, be careful. - A Very Dallas Thanksgiving.
- A quick guide to some biodynamic wines.
- Explore the foods of Cleveland, Louisville, Memphis, and St. Louis.
- A guide to Thanksgiving in your 20s, 30s, and 40s.
- America's best new whiskeys.
- This month's recipes: Sweet & Spicy Chicken Curry, Cashews with Crispy Sage and Garlic, Potato Chips with Chevre, Pepper Jelly, and Bacon, Smoked Mozarella Spread with Flatbread Crackers, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds, Pumpkin and Yellow Split Pea Soup, Savory Cranberry-Walnut Biscuits, Dr. Pepper-Glazed Ham with Prunes, Roasted Turkey with Italian Sausage Stuffing, Apple Cake with Toffee Crust, and Slow Cooker Sour Cream Cheesecake.
Depressing fortune cookies appearing country-wide
How often do you take the message inside your fortune cookie seriously? If you're anything like me, you read them for a quick giggle and then leave them crumpled on the table. Occasionally I'll keep one if it seems particularly applicable to something I'm going to through, but that's fairly rare.
But what if you got a fortune that predicted bad times ahead? Or one that suggested that "Perhaps you've been focusing too much on yourself." Or even possibly "Your luck is just not there. Attend to practical matters today." These are just a few of the fortunes that consumers have been discovering lately in the cookies produced and distributed by Wonton Food, the country's largest fortune cookie manufacturer.
Apparently, they decided to spice things up and so hired some new freelance writers to create new fortunes. These insulting and dire notes are what these new writers came up with. The backlash has been swift, as people have written into the company to complain about the negative nature of their fortunes. Wonton Food is planning on keeping most of the new messages in circulation, but have admitted that they will be taking a few of the most offensive messages out of their cookies.
Via New York Times
Fall Flavors: Autumn Harvest Pie
It just occurred to me that I've never had a pie that has more than one fruit in it. I've had dozens (if not a hundred) apple pies over the years, blueberry pie, cherry pie (not a big fan), and pies filled with other foods such as custard and pecan. But I've never had a pie that combined two fruits before.
But I plan on making this one, courtesy of Martha Stewart, the Autumn Harvest Pie. It has three fruits in it: apples, pears, and cranberries. The cranberries worry me a little bit. I'm thinking they might overwhelm the flavors of the apples and the pears, but I'm going to give this a shot. Full recipe after the jump.
Huge pumpkin in Half-Moon Bay
Most years, my parents grow pumpkins in their vegetable garden. One year a pumpkin got lost behind some particularly large leaves and was left to grow for an extra month after its brethren had been removed from the vine. By the time we discovered it, it was huge (and starting to shuffle its way off this mortal coil). It seems that our pumpkin was nothing in comparison to the pumpkin that took the honors today at the Half-Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival Weigh-off. Clocking in at 1,524 pounds, that pumpkin was grow by Thad Starr from Pleasant Hill, OR. For bringing the largest pumpkin to the festival, Staff gets a prize of $6 a pound for his gigantic gourd. That comes out to a not-so-shabby $9,144.
The five largest pumpkins will be on display at the festival through the weekend.
Via Philly.com
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
I'd like to wish our Canadian readers a very happy Thanksgiving! For those of you not in the know, our Canadian friends celebrate their bountiful harvest each year on the second Monday of October. Other than the date, they celebrate in much the same way that we do down here in the United States, with an abundant spread of food and the resultant post-dinner coma. Enjoy!
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Mmmm ... Coffee Fudge Brownies
Even though I don't drink coffee, I like its flavor in other things. I like coffee ice cream, so I'm open to the flavor, especially in desserts.
After the jump, a recipe for Coffee Fudge Brownies from Lifetips.com. It's a fudgy brownie, not a cake-like one (hence the name) and they say that the coffee flavor isn't too overpowering, so this might be good to try even if you're not thrilled with coffee like me. It also includes Kahlua! (The pic is from another site; these brownies might look different.)
