acorn pie
Acorn pie, acorn pie,
Everybody wants a piece of
Acorn pie.
from the Acorn Pies weblog
I don't have a recipe just yet.
Acorn pie, acorn pie,
Everybody wants a piece of
Acorn pie.
from the Acorn Pies weblog
I don't have a recipe just yet.
I got a chance to walk down South University this morning and noticed four restaurants underway with work but not open yet.
Momo Tea's owner and a contractor were in the store working on things, and didn't yet have a date for when they were going to open.
Miki is taking the space in U Towers where NYPD used to be, or where Orange Julius used to be, depending on your reference point for geography. I didn't see any work going on in the place.
Ayaka had a sign in the window saying "Now Hiring" and there was enough paper over the window to make it impossible to see in.
And Chef Jan's China Gate on the corner of South U and Church has a sign in the window "Now serving Pho" (but they used the proper spelling Phở.)
These four, plus all of the other asian restaurants in that neighborhood, makes it quite a concentration.
Here's a list of all of the permits in the City of Ann Arbor's Trakit system on South University, so you can figure out where everyone stands with occupancy permits (haven't decoded it all yet).
If the power goes out for an extended period of time, some of your food can go bad. Here's pointers to documents you can grab ahead of time and print out so that you can know how to sort through things.
From the American Red Cross: Food safety in a power outage
Sudden power outages can be frustrating and troublesome, especially when they are prolonged. Perishable foods should not be held above 40 degrees for more than 2 hours. If a power outage is 2 hours or less, you need not be concerned, but how do you save your food when the refrigerator is out for longer times? Being prepared can help. By planning ahead, you can save your perishables.
USDA, Keeping Food Safe During an Emergency
Keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed as much as possible to maintain the cold temperature. The refrigerator will keep food safely cold for about 4 hours if it is unopened. A full freezer will hold the temperature for approximately 48 hours (24 hours if it is half full) if the door remains closed. Obtain dry or block ice to keep your refrigerator as cold as possible if the power is going to be out for a prolonged period of time. Fifty pounds of dry ice should hold an 18-cubic foot full freezer for 2 days. Plan ahead and know where dry ice and block ice can be purchased.
CDC, What you need to know when the power goes out unexpectedly
When the 2003 blackout hit, one of the things that I didn't know was that the Busch's store nearest me had an emergency generator and was online the whole time. Not every grocery store has uninterruptable power.
The Arborwiki dry ice page has a listing of some companies in the Ann Arbor area that sell dry ice.
Here is the Penzey's Apple Pancake recipe...a morph from the Dutch Baby.
If you have a kid who eats peanut butter, you've been listening to news of the peanut recalls. And when your eight year old furrows his brow when you go shopping together and is concerned about salmonella in his peanuts, you're concerned too.
The latest bit of this story is the closing of the PCA plant in Plainview, TX. I was able to grab some old news stories about the opening of the plant, and to compare those with the stories that are running now. Here's something like a narrative.
In the 1969, Jimmy Dean opened a sausage factory in Plainview, TX. It closed in 1974, sat idle for 30 years, and then was reopened as a peanut processing plant in 2004. The best local source for news coverage is the Plainview Daily Herald, and these clippings are from their online site.
From the Plainview Daily Herald, 4/15/2004:
KCBD, Ch. 11, has a similar story from 4/21/04:
The cached copy of the PCA site (since removed) has this to say about the Texas plant:
How did Plainview get the plant? More from the Daily Herald, Feb 25 2007:
One day, Peanut Corporation of America President Stewart Parnell from Lynchburg, Va., flew in for fuel and a visit and happened to mention that he was looking to locate a peanut processing plant in this area, and Miller directed him to Hale County State Bank President Brian Pohlmeier, who was on the board of the Plainview-Hale County Industrial Board.
“As it turned out,” said Miller, “Brian had been Parnell’s loan officer for several of the planes he had bought and it wound up with the peanut plant locating in the old Jimmy Dean plant.”
The Sept 1, 2008 Daily Herald has a brief story about the rehab of the plant:
The IDC has issued millions of dollars in revenue bonds to help businesses in the area, including three bonds in Hale County and four in Castro County — mainly for dairies, IDC legal representative Malcolm Tisdel said.
There's more from the 10/29/2003 Daily Herald:
The inducement package being offered Peanut Corp. calls for the city, county and Plainview-Hale County Industrial Foundation to contribute $100,000 each in $10,000 increments over a 10-year span. It also calls for paving the parking lot of the plant and installing a special water line for firefighting purposes.
The county approved the proposal Monday and the industrial foundation board was expected to do so today.
In return for the incentives, the plant which will process shelled and cleaned peanuts into candy and food products is expected to hire an initial batch of 35 employees, process 256,000 pounds of nuts daily and ultimately invest $1 million in the project.
“If they pull out, we don´t pay the ($10,000) installments,” industrial foundation Executive Director Grady Elder said in outlining the proposal at Monday´s Commissioners Court meeting.
The plant closed in 1974. The building is owned by Ronald Thompson of Lubbock.
I don't know what a sausage factory that has been idle for 30 years looks like, and how much it takes to rehab it to the point where it's ready to clean peanuts for use in candy.
As seen on the Raleigh News and Observer recalls page:
When you call the 888-227-4268 number late on Friday night, you get a message that it's only answered on weekdays. The CaribouCoffee.com web page does not have any information on the front page at this time. I've looked for a press release on their corporate site, and no information is available. The PR contact I have is
Caribou Coffee/CONTACT: Lauren Mihajlov of
lmihajlov@cariboucoffee.com/
/Web site: http://www.cariboucoffee.com /
(CBOU)
UPDATE Saturday (9am): from the PR contact:
Ed,
Thank you for your interest. The recall is entirely voluntary and
precautionary. We have pulled all of the product from stores and
notified the purchasers we have record of. We have no indication of
anyone becoming ill from this product.
Thank you for being such a passionate customer of Caribou Coffee!
I purchase Trader Joe's brand "Cheddar Wisconsin Mild" from the Ann Arbor store weekly on Sunday a.m. Inevitably the cheese has started to grow mold in the package by the time I use it mid-week, well before the sell-by date. The latest incident was this week's moldy cheese with a sell-by date of Feb 11.
The UPC is 221563 502583 .
If I didn't know better, I'd suspect that a cheese slicing machine was not cleaned frequently enough, introducing mold into the product where it is cut.
The store is always, always, always happy to refund my money, but I'm getting really weary of wondering whether I will feed my kids moldy mac and cheese.
thanks
Edward Vielmetti
Ann Arbor, MI
+1 734 330 2465
http://vielmetti.typepad.com/vacuum/food_and_drink/
UPDATE: Cheese returned, product complaint form filed; everyone was nice about it.
UPDATE 2: Beware TJ's blue cheese, a recall:
Contact:
(201) 508-6426 (for all Ilchester or Global Cheese Market products)
(513) 751-4490 (for all Trader Joe’s or Cropwell Bishop Creamery products)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -- January 26, 2009 -- Cropwell Bishop Creamery Limited of England is recalling in the United States limited amounts of Blue Stilton and Shropshire Blue Cheese, as described below, as a precautionary measure because they have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Although healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea, Listeria infection can cause miscarriages and still births among pregnant women.
The recalled product was distributed nationwide in retail stores.
This recall is limited to the following Blue Stilton and Shropshire Blue Cheese Products:
The potential for contamination was noted after recent testing of the cheese. The cause of the potential problem has already been corrected. No other products other than those identified above are affected by this recall.
There have been no complaints received and no illnesses reported in the United States. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is aware of this recall.
Consumers who have purchased the products identified above are urged to destroy all recalled products on hand, and then obtain a full refund payment by contacting the following customer representatives:
I used to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch every single day in sixth grade.
Here's the current 1/19/09 recall information via the Emergency Email Network.
| FDA Issue definitive statement on Peanut Butter Salmonella - Do not eat guidelines
|
|
January 18, 2009: Based on this information, and on the current state of the investigation, the FDA recommends that consumers avoid eating products that have been recalled and discard them. Because identification of products subject to recall is continuing, the FDA urges consumers to postpone eating commercially-prepared or manufactured peanut butter-containing products and institutionally-served peanut butter until further information becomes available about which products may be affected. Efforts to specifically identify those products are ongoing. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is conducting a very active and dynamic investigation into the source of the Salmonella Typhimurium outbreak. At this time, the FDA has traced a source of Salmonella Typhimurium contamination to a plant owned by Peanut Corporation of America (PCA), which manufactures both peanut butter that is institutionally served in such settings as long-term care facilities and cafeterias, and peanut paste?a concentrated product consisting of ground, roasted peanuts?that is distributed to food manufacturers to be used as an ingredient in many commercially produced products including cakes, cookies, crackers, candies, cereal and ice cream. The FDA has notified PCA that product samples originating from its Blakely, Ga., processing plant have been tested and found positive for Salmonella by laboratories in the states of Minnesota and Georgia. The state of Minnesota has reported to FDA that its samples of King Nut peanut butter are a genetic match to the strain of Salmonella that has caused illnesses in that state and around the country. King Nut is a distributor of PCA product. On January 16, PCA expanded its voluntary recall to include all peanut butter produced on or after August 8, 2008, and all peanut paste produced on or after September 26, 2008, in its Blakely, Ga., plant because of potential Salmonella contamination. The product being recalled is sold by PCA in bulk packaging in containers ranging in size from five to 1700 pounds. The peanut paste is sold in sizes ranging from 35-pound containers to product sold by the tanker container. These products are not sold directly to consumers. PCA has stopped all production at its Blakely, Ga. plant as the FDA continues its investigation into the source of the Salmonella contamination. At this time, there is no indication that any national name brand jars of peanut butter sold in retail stores are linked to the PCA recall. As the investigation continues over the weekend, and into next week, the FDA will be able to update the advice based on new sampling and distribution information. The FDA is working closely with members of the food industry to narrow this advice and to publish a detailed list of implicated products as soon as possible. The FDA is encouraging manufacturers to help inform consumers about whether their products could have contained commercially prepared peanut butter or peanut paste from PCA. Also, if manufacturers know their products do not contain ingredients from PCA, they may wish to inform consumers of that fact. Retailers should stop selling products which have been recalled. For information on products containing peanut butter from companies not reporting recalls, consumers may wish to consult the company?s website or call the toll-free number listed on most packaging. Information consumers may receive from the companies has not been verified by the FDA. The FDA will closely monitor these events by continuing to work with the firms on the details of their actions, conduct follow-up audits and inspections, monitor the progress of the firms? actions, and notify our foreign regulatory counterparts of products that may have been distributed internationally. |
Joy of Cooking, my go-to cookbook for some basic version of pretty much anything, has a recipe with anchovies for Green Goddess dressing. While I like anchovies, I really don't cook with them at home. So I'm looking for alternatives for that same style dressing that use something else in its place.
Some suggestions:
for anchovies, substitute tarragon;
for anchovies, substitute miso or fermented black beans;
bacobits;
A Green Goddess recipe from The Veggie Table with 1c fresh parsley
Epicurious (Bon Appetit) Green Goddess recipe has 1c watercress
Wikipedia notes an Annie's Naturals variant of this recipe using tahini. Cookthink mentions the Annie's recipe, but their own Green Goddess recipe is with anchovies.
Annie herself prints an ingredient list. Here's the Goddess Dressing:
*Organic Ingredients
CONTAINS SOY AND WHEAT INGREDIENTSMade on shared equipment that also processes Egg, Milk and Anchovies.
and the Green Goddess Dressing:
Ingredients: *Soy Oil, Water, *Sour Cream (*milk, *cream, cornstarch, *skim milk powder, cultures), *White Wine Vinegar, Sea Salt, *Sugar, *Whole Egg Powder, *Garlic, *Onion, *Lemon Juice, *Tarragon, Xanthan Gum, *Green Onion, *White Pepper, *Parsley.
*Organic IngredientsCONTAINS EGG, MILK AND SOY INGREDIENTS
Made on shared equipment that also processes Wheat and Anchovies.
Vegetarian Times May 1990 has a recipe that starts with 8 oz of tofu; no need to link to it. They describe tofu as a "white, easily digestable curd" and balsamic vinegar as "an exotic aged vinegar". Ah the early 90s.
Harry's Roadhouse Cookbook recipe for Green Goddess Dressing has both chopped spinach and chopped parsley, but no anchovies.
Some combination of some of those lists of ingredients should be enough to get you to mix up something plausible; season to taste.
The joke of course is that most of what passes for Mexican food outside of Mexicantown is really something else, and that there's a lot of bland or just plain weird vaguely hispanic cuisine that gets sold as "mexican food" but is better described as "Mich-Mex". e.g. "there are no good burritos in Michigan".
The kids were hungry tonight, and I had enough ingredients in the fridge to put a hot plate full of food for them in less than 25 minutes. That was a success. Here's what I did for them, and the other recipe I did for myself.
For the kids, something that started out being called enchiladas, but really is a lot more like a lasagna style with mexican ingredients. At least one other person has had the same idea.
Mich-Mex Lasagna
tortillas (ours are from the Ann Arbor Tortilla Factory)
beans (black beans, unseasoned, because the kids are like that)
cheese (this week it was cheddar, but some mild white or brick cheese would work too)
salsa (Trader Joes Pineapple Salsa)
Get a small casserole dish just a little bigger than the size of a tortilla. Put a tortilla flat on the bottom, and then layer salsa, beans, cheese, tortilla, salsa, beans, cheese, tortilla, salsa. Put in a 375 degree oven and bake until the cheese is bubbly and it smells good, about 20 minutes.
Note: no need to roll things up, just layer them, and whatever ingredients you like will go into this nicely - we had it one week with baked squash, and I'm sure that rice, onions, garlic, peppers etc would all be fine.
For me, a pan full of whatever happened to be on hand that the kids wouldn't eat. This was so easy that I am thinking that it could be breakfast food too. The key to it is my stash of slow roasted tomatoes from this summer that I am eating two at a time instead of bland canned tomatoes or tomato paste.
Rice and beans
Oil
Garlic
Onion
Pepper (Poblano? or whatever you have a taste for)
Spices: cumin, oregano, maybe a little chili
Tomatoes, slow roasted, frozen, that you have in tubs in the freezer
Black beans, fully cooked, rinsed if need be
Leftover cooked rice
Fry onion, garlic, pepper in oil; add spices, cook until fragrant. Add frozen tomatoes, cook until they are melted and there's still liquid in the pan. Add rice and beans to absorb the liquid, cook until hot and it smells good. Serve with a hot tortilla and salsa.
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