Kitchen Cabinet

Author: heldke

  • Cary Fowler Grass Pea Soup

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    heldke

    Today, you have an opportunity to taste something quite rare and special, if you venture over to the soup zone in the MarketPlace. In honor of Cary Fowler (who just won a big prize, for his efforts to preserve biodiversity, btw!), we’re serving Grass Pea Soup. Grass Peas, also called Cicerchia (Lathyrus sativus), are similar…

  • It’s Paul Thompson Day in the MarketPlace!

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    heldke

    Check out the VariVeggie Zone today, to find the menu inspired by Nobel Conference presenter Paul Thompson. Professor Thompson blogged about one of his favorite summer meals, heirloom tomatoes with cottage cheese and fresh black pepper–and about his dream of opening a restaurant chain called “Fat Elvis.” The Dining Service has recreated that meal here,…

  • How far did your taco travel?

    How far did your taco travel?

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    heldke

      Talk about your food miles! According to this study, conducted by students at the California College of the Arts, the ingredients in your “typical taco” (an admittedly troublesome term!) travel, collectively, two and a half times the circumference of the earth to reach “your taco truck.” Admittedly, we in St. Peter HAVE no taco…

  • Twinkie Tax: More effective than Salad Sale?

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    heldke

    A study by psychologists at SUNY Buffalo suggests that, if you’re interested in encouraging the consumption of nutrient-dense foods like fruits and vegetables, and decreasing the consumption of what are politely referred to as “calorie dense, nutritient-poor foods,” you’ll get further by slapping a tax on the latter, than by decreasing the cost of the…

  • This IS a parody, right?

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    heldke

    Just what are we willing to eat, if it comes on a circle of dough in a cardboard box?

  • Ode (walla) to sugar: is 52 grams really so much?

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    heldke

    (Second in a series) Our story so far: We were looking at a bottle of juice, remember? The bottle of real, honest-to-goodness, 100% juice, no added sugar. The one with “only” 52 grams of naturally occurring sugar in it. What’s the big deal about 52 grams (a.k.a. 12 teaspoons) of sugar?  That’s a good question.…

  • Who’d Walla drink all that sugar?

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    heldke

    (First in a sugary series) When’s the last time you sat down to a bowl of 12 or 13 teaspoons of sugar? (Translation: just over a quarter cup of sugar. Translation: 52 grams of sugar. Translation: one-eighth of a pound of sugar. Translation: thirteen sugar cubes. Translation: a whole lotta grittiness in your mouth.) The…

  • In Memory’s Dining Hall: “Ma” Young and Lushburgers

    In Memory’s Dining Hall: “Ma” Young and Lushburgers

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    heldke

    (First in a series) The history of Gustavus is populated by characters. Individuals whose names always float to the surface when  folks who have been here A Certain Length of Time start to reminisce; persons who, if they’d been around in the Facebook era, would have the sort of page you’d visit, just to see…

  • Meat, Death and Compassion: More on “The Compassionate Carnivore”

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    heldke

    (Part Two of two) Last week, I wrote some thoughts about The Compassionate Carnivore, Catherine Friend’s book about how to satisfy her meat love in the most humane, just and sustainable ways possible. My first entry explored this whole matter of love; I confronted the similarities between Friend’s love of meat and my own love…

  • Eating What You Love: Ruminations on “The Compassionate Carnivore”

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    heldke

    (Part One of two) I’ve been reading a book called The Compassionate Carnivore, by Catherine Friend, the southeastern Minnesota farmer who wrote Hit by a Farm. It’s an extremely thoughtful, readable book about how to make the choice to eat meat a responsible, sustainable, ethical, and (most of all) compassionate choice. Friend undertakes this project…