Coconut, minus the hype

Palm and coconut oils have made a huge comeback in the last few years. But should you really be buying coco butter to cook with? It’s loaded with saturated fat. On the other hand, actual coconut, used sparingly for flavor, can be a sophisticated and not necessarily diet-busting addition to many dishes, particularly the aviyal “dry curries”. Here I try out coconut as part of an aviyal tailored to the unexpectedly smoky and bitter edge of cowpeas.

Lightening up homemade scones

Scones don’t have to be a commercial, or even a homemade, salt-fat-and-carb bomb to be delicious. Try these for a lazy brunch.

Whif? Whaf? The Wonka of breathable food faces FDA review

The French surprisingly enough didn’t mind the fact that many of the chocolate inhalers didn’t work well, or that they started coughing whenever the chocolate powder went the wrong way. Even more surprisingly, it didn’t really matter what kind or quality of chocolate was in the little gadgets, or how it actually tasted in comparison with actual chocolate. This was closer to participating in Modern Art, or at least in fashion’s idea of modern art.

ANDI Scores, Whole Foods, and diet scheme cha-ching

“ANDI Top 10 for Produce”, “ANDI Top 10 Super Foods” and so on abound at your local Whole Foods. Is it a sound nutrition ranking system or just another commercial diet fad?

Pecans, Profits, Poverty: reason to remember the gleaners

Most of the pecan thieves in Georgia are genuinely poor–laid off and out of work, trying to make 15 or 20 bucks with the bit they can gather in a bucket or sack at the edge of the groves. Perhaps, given that pecan prices are way up this year, the talk of theft should be reconsidered in such small cases, and turned around to a discussion on gleaning.

School lunch vs. Congress: Ketchup all over again

The spending bill is due for a final vote later this week and you won’t be surprised at all to find that the “no new lunch” provisions come primarily from the hands of a number of Republicans in both houses.

Artificial sweeteners–false promise for lower carb counts?

Oddest of all was our host’s insistence that the real secret to glucose control was his use of artificial sweetener, which let him enjoy all kinds of great desserts “sugar-free”. I was puzzled–the carb difference for a pan of baked apples made with artificial sweetener, a tablespoon or two of table sugar, or no sweetener at all would be pretty minimal. Maybe a gram or two out of 15 or 20 per serving.

Weighing in on kitchen scales

Why do most Americans who actually have a digital kitchen scale get one in the first place? We needed one when our daughter became diabetic. Our friend got one after she had a stroke and had to lose weight. It’s a great tool for learning how to calculate, cut down on carbs and portion things right. But you can take it too far, and in the foodie world, it’s becoming kind of an obsession, like iPhone apps for food. Will it really make you a better cook?

Pyrex and Anchor Hocking now both unsafe for cooking

A lot of my recipes suggest Pyrex glassware for microwaving, because I’ve been using my old Pyrex bowls for years without any problems. But the January Consumer Reports feature on exploding glass bakeware and the tests they ran on Pyrex and Anchor Hocking are scary. The new glassware is made using a cheaper, less stable formula and it’s more liable to shatter under hot-cold shifts even though it’s been tempered.

Who the federal spending cuts are hurting: Food pantries

The LA Times reported today on Southern California’s food pantries.  Demand in Los Angeles and Orange County has gone up 70 percent since 2008. Between LA and OC, the food banks are reaching more than half a million people. The LA Regional Food Bank alone is serving something like 1.25 million pounds of food a [...]