Posts Tagged ‘food’
Chef Corn
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Chef’n Palm Zipper Corn Cob Stripper £5.50 … |
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6 x White Porcelian ‘Corn on The Cob’ Serving Dishes £19.95 … |
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Kenwood kMix KMX54 Stand Mixer, Peppercorn Black £299.97 … |
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Chefs Larder Sponge Mix 3.5kg Bag £17.99 Chefs Larder Sponge Mix 3.5kg Bag… |
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Chef’s Larder 100% Whole Grain Rolled Oats Approx 76 Servings 2kg Pack £4.03 Chef’s Larder 100% Whole Grain Rolled Oats Approx 76 Servings 2kg Pack… |
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Chefs Larder Scone and Doughnut Mix 3.5kg Bag £14.79 Chefs Larder Scone and Doughnut Mix 3.5kg Bag… |
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Gimme 5 Game Pack: GourMania + Farm Frenzy 2 & 3 + Supermarket Mania + Hotel Mogul £8.99 1. Hotel Mogul: Lynettes conniving husband has cheated her out of her family business! Use your business savvy, and Time Management skills, to help Lynette repurchase her company and send her husband to the slammer. Buy, develop and sell commercial properties to make a profit. Build attractions that increase your income, and keep your eye on the bottom line as you purchase materials and hire worke… |
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Mexican Food Made Simple £6.98 MasterChef winner and founder of Wahaca, Thomasina Miers brings her fresh approach to over 130 easy-to-follow, classic recipes, bursting with flavour and style…. |
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Jamie’s America £10.00 Including 120 diverse and delicious recipes, this book shows you the quick and easy way to put a little slice of America on your dinner table…. |
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Chef Sara Raw Vegan Gluten Free Cuisine The First Raw, Vegan, and Organic food preparation book on the planet that is free of GMO, gluten, soy, peanuts, cashews, nightshades, honey, grains,corn and beans. It contains delicious meals that are easy to prepare and full of nutrition. Chef Sara details how each ingredient can help fight Cancer, Diabetes, Celiac Disease, High Blood Pressure, Candida, and allergies. She teaches how to detox sa… |
Boil Corn On The Cob and You Lose
Boil corn on the cob and you’ll notice the corn tastes like water and the water like corn. If you think about it, you can make a flavorful vegetable broth by simmering onions, carrots, and celery in water. So, are you trying to cook your corn or make corn broth?
Boiling is a moist conductive cooking process. This means that your corn is in direct contact with the heat, in this case it’s boiling water. The flavorless liquid takes on the characteristics of the item you’re cooking. Also, the cooked item absorbs bland water, affecting the taste of your fresh ingredients.
Most delicate vegetables are better cooked in an indirect fashion. This means that the source of the heat doesn’t directly touch the food being cooked. This is the best way to retain color, texture, flavor, and nutrition. If you enjoy healthy cooking, then local fresh ingredients are important.
Don’t boil corn on the cob. Steaming is the best way to cook corn. Steaming is an indirect moist cooking method where the heat source is simmering liquid from below. Boil corn on the cob if you want, but you’re losing flavor, texture, color, and nutrition over steaming.
Boiling is to steaming as sauté is to roasting. When something is placed in a sauté pan, it’s accepting heat directly from the source, just like boiling, except sauté is a dry method of cooking. If you were to place something in the oven, it will cook by the indirect application of hot air, similar to the moist air used to steam corn on the cob.
The best way to cook the summer’s bounty is in a large pot with a small amount of water that will not actually touch the corn because they’re suspended above by a steamer basket or wire rack. This way, flavors and nutrition don’t leach into the cooking liquid, making corn soup and watery corn.
Now, you’ve kept the integrity of seasonal fresh corn in tact. But what if you have more fresh corn than you can possibly eat before it goes bad?
Freezing corn on the cob enables you to store the flavor of summer for later use. Summer is fantastic for fresh ingredients, but eating seasonally presents a small problem. Many fresh fruits and vegetables have a very short season, yielding great amounts of ingredients, but too much to eat at once.
Fresh corn tastes best directly from the field, but when you’ve got more corn than your family can eat in a week, summer must be preserved.
All things that grow in dirt must be ‘sanitized’ before freezing, canning or storing. Bacteria in the soil can cause illness when allowed to grow over long periods of time. Freezing doesn’t kill many types of bacteria, but high temperatures do. So, before sending our corn to the deep freeze, it’ll have to be shocked first.
Shocking vegetables means cooking very briefly in water or steam, then plunging the item into an ice water bath to stop the cooking immediately. The purpose is not to cook the corn, but to kill any residual bacteria before storage.
Freezing corn on the cob means removing the kernels from the cob. You can’t freeze the entire cob, and there’s not much reason to. The ingredient you’re trying to preserve is the corn kernels, not the cob.
After the shocked cobs are fully cooled and dried, they’re stood on end and a chef’s knife will cut a straight line downward behind the kernels but in front of the cob to cut all the flavorful parts off for freezing.
Then, simply gather the corn that’s been removed from the cob and store in plastic bags for the freezer. Sometimes, I’ll toast the corn in a Cast Iron skillet for use in Mexican or Latin dishes, or for a flavorful vegetable salad.
A fresh ear of corn is one of the fantastic flavors of summer, but it can be quickly ruined by improper cooking and storage. Boil corn on the cob and you’ve left the flavors of summer in your pot of water. Steaming and then freezing corn on the cob is the best way to have seasonal flavors any time of the year, no matter what you’re cooking.
About the Author
Chef Todd Mohr has inspired thousands of people to improve their health and nutrition through healthy eating. His FREE online webinar “How To Cook Fresh in 5 Easy Steps” reveals the secrets to selecting, cooking, and storing farm fresh ingredients for easy everyday Home Cooking.
Burger Press
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Progressive International HPM-1 The Perfect Burger Press £7.50 Make perfect burgers, uniform in size and shape, every time with this 3-piece burger press. The set includes a removable dimple insert, a non-skid base, and comfort-grip pusher. The insert creates an impression in the center of the burger, allowing it to cook more evenly and faster. Use the press without the insert to create all kinds of seafood burgers. Safe to clean in the dishwasher, the burger… |
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SAGAFORM HAMBURGER / BURGER PRESS – SINGLE £10.89 If the perfect burger eludes you, Sagaform can provide the missing ingredient. The Hamburger Press works simply by compacting the meat tightly and evenly, helping to avoid homemade burgers that either fall apart on the grill, or which are charred on the outside and raw in the middle…. |
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Weston Non Stick Burger Press and Burger Maker eXpress with Burger Ejector & Emboss £25.00 Weston Burger Press with Real Tree Emboss – This is My favourite – the Single Press Burger Maker Kit that imprints the Realtree ‘Horns’ logo on the burgers! Very cool for barbecues or entertaining. This is the only Burger press of its kind in the UK. Make perfect burgers, with ease – every time! Simply place any ground meat on the burger forming tray, close the lid and press the burger presser bu… |
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3.5 (90mm) Burger Press £21.49 Tongmaster supplies only premium products at the best price. We’re experts in the trade having over 40 years experience supplying to butchers,Restaurants, supermarkets and households alike. We make customer satisfaction a priority and are certain our tried-and-tested seasoning’s and recipe’s perfected over time will be a big hit with your family or customers.Our products qualify for free postage w… |
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Sirman HF100 4 (100mm) Burger Press £229.00 Tongmaster supplies only premium products at the best price. We’re experts in the trade having over 40 years experience supplying to butchers,Restaurants, supermarkets and households alike. We make customer satisfaction a priority and are certain our tried-and-tested seasoning’s and recipe’s perfected over time will be a big hit with your family or customers.Our products qualify for free postage w… |
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4 (100mm) Burger Press £49.95 Tongmaster supplies only premium products at the best price. We’re experts in the trade having over 40 years experience supplying to butchers,Restaurants, supermarkets and households alike. We make customer satisfaction a priority and are certain our tried-and-tested seasoning’s and recipe’s perfected over time will be a big hit with your family or customers.Our products qualify for free postage w… |
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Burger Sweatshirt by CafePress Warm up in our stylin’ Hanes Heavyweight 90/10 cotton/polyester sweatshirt. Thick but not bulky, for maximum comfort and durability whether you’re working out or hanging out. 10.1 oz. patented PrintPro174; fabric in a 90/10 cotton/polyester… |
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Burger Baseball Jersey by CafePress Our 100% cotton Baseball Jersey is a sporty hit with both men and women whether you’re in the game or just looking the part in great run-around casual-wear. Choose red, blue or black sleeves. 6.1 oz. 100% heavyweight cottonStandard f… |
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Burger Hooded Sweatshirt by CafePress The hoodie: the perfect utilitarian piece of clothing. Leave your hat and scarf at home Stay warm and comfy in your Pullover Hooded Sweatshirt. This hoodie is constructed with a cotton/polyester blend – both durable and comfortable.Heavyweight 90… |
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The Powell and Pressburger Collection [DVD] £23.29 United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Black & White, Box Set, Cast/Crew Interview(s), Documentary, Featurette, Interactive Menu, Multi-DVD Set, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Short Film, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: ***WARNING***ALL DVD TITLES CONTAIN ENGLISH SUBTITLES EXCEPT FOR THE DVD TITLE – A CANTERBUR… |
Tips and Tricks for Preparing Better Burgers
Summers are identified for delicious grilled food. The aroma of food cooked in an open grill in summers is extremely appetizing. The mix of grills, charcoal and delicious food is unmatchable. But grilling is definitely an art style and creating a perfect burger may be the Holy Grail for anyone who considers themselves a master griller.
So, before you truly try making burger using a grill, you have to know some requisite tricks and ideas. The approach to making burger starts with all the meat cut. You should always choose the freshest meat available. Also, the best options would be ground chuck and ground steak. Both these options are considered better than some other meat cut since they’re twofolded. These are cherished for being very low in fat and meat oil. In addition, ground steak is also popular for additional scrumptious flavor as compared to ground chuck.
Proper seasoning of the burger can be very necessary. You must use the right combination a blend of spices so as to enhance the flavor. Many people go way beyond the typical salt, onion mix and pepper. Ranch dressing mixes became increasingly famous in seasoning your burger.
Secondly, you should utilize some type of binder while forming the burgers to ensure it could hold all of the ingredients together. Egg is a superb binder for burgers. It will prevent the burgers from splitting while turning on the grill. You may also concede to utilize breadcrumbs as a very effective binder for burgers.
You furthermore may need to test beyond the flattened balls to make a great burger. You can also use various devices like patty formers for making some exclusive burgers. These patty formers have rings that are pressed into the burgers themselves to retain the juices and therefore the flavour of the burgers. By choosing to make use of one of these, you may make sure that you will have the juiciest burgers in town.
At last, it’s the time to grill the burgers correctly. The idea is largely to cook the burger on slow flame on the grill. Furthermore, keep remember to spin the burger at repeated intervals. Also, don’t ever overcook the burgers, it may damage the particular flavor of a burger but it’s patty. Burgers taste best at average well. Cooking on average flame enables the meat to become more softer and juicer even after grilling.
About the Author
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Cookie Fondant
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Swift Tinplate 26 Alphabet Cookie Cutters £8.99 These tiny cookie cutters from Swift measure just 2.5cm high and 2cm wideThey can be used for baking and crafts, and are also ideal for cutting out sugar paste shapes, or pastry shapes when pie makingSet contains 26 cutters, one for each letter of the alphabetMade from tin plate with a rolled edge making them comfortable to holdHand Wash onlyComes with a handy storage tinOther shapes available… |
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Mini Number Cutters Set, for Icing, Sugarcraft & Cake Decoration £8.79 Mini Number Cutters Set, for Icing, Sugarcraft & Cake Decoration, as used by Cake Creators for Birthdays, Anniversary, etc See also Mini Alphabet cutters in the same series… |
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Gadgetpooluk 4PCS Flower Rose Cake Cookies Cutter Plunger Paste Fondant Sugarcraft Decorating £3.49 “Free Postage(Royal Mail 1st Class).Click logo for more great offers. Product Line: Accessories for PC/ LAPTOP/ Apple/ Game/ Mobile phone/ Car / Motorbike / Bike, CCTV Equipment, Mp3, Kitchen & Home Products, Garden & Outdoor Products, Health & Beauty, DIY & Tools, Wedding Accessories, Gift, Baby Toy, RC toy and so on”… |
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Rolled Fondant, 20 lb. Container – White/Vanilla, Certified Kosher. £89.99 … |
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Fondant Roller-6X4.5X1.25 £7.19 Fondant Roller-6″X4.5″X1.25″… |
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Wilton Push N Print Cookie Cutter Set [Kitchen] Serve cookies that make a great impression – use Push ‘N Print Cutters to emboss a fun design before baking! It’s so easy! Load one of the 3 imprint disks in the cutter, cut the cookie, then press the plunger with the disk still in place to imprint the design. Bake, cool and serve a treat that’s perfect for celebrations and cookie gift baskets…. |
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20 To Make: Sugar Animals (Twenty to Make) £2.01 Sugarcraft expert Frances McNaughton has designed twenty wonderful sugar animals that you will want to make using simple techniques and readily available ingredients. Frances McNaughton shows how to make cute and funny sugar animals for cake decorating using sugarpaste and a few simple tools and techniques. First we learn about the simple shapes that are the basis for all the animals, and the few … |
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The Flour Pot Cookie Book: Creating Edible Works of Art £3.80 Hardcover… |
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Peggy Porschen’s Pretty Party Cakes: Sweet and Stylish Cookies and Cakes for All Occasions £18.99 … |
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Renshaw’s Regalice© Professional Ready to Roll Icing 500g White £1.24 Ingredients Emulsifier: E471, Glucose syrup, Sugar,Acidity regulators: E260, E262, Stabiliser: E413, Vegetable oil, Added water, Glycerine Flavouring, Colours: E104, E133, E153… |
Fun and Creative Birthday Cakes
“Ace of Cakes” and other Food Networks has become part of every homes. These shows not only entertain cake enthusiasts, they also share recipes and expert tips. Cake Decorating stuffs and other cooking techniques of world – renowned chefs are made available because of these shows.
You’ll find innovative cake design below.
Carousel Cakes – The carousel cake is very popular. This kind of novelty cake emphasizes the decorator’s skills. Depending on the cake decorator’s style and creativity he or she can add animals or other to make the cake appealing. The cake covering can greatly differ, depending on the complexity of the designs.As previously discussed, carousel animals can be added in this particular type of cake. It can be made from cookies to small plastic figures or even wood. In assembling the canopy of the cake, the easiest way is to a cardstock. For example, you can use a 8 1/2 x 11 inch sheet, cutting a circle about 7 inches in diameter. When measuring the size of the canopy, always consider the base size. After cutting, start decorating the canopy by covering the sheet with tissues or colorful prints.
Game Board Cakes – Are you fond of board games? Did you know that chess, Monopoly and other fun and exciting board games are now used as themes for birthday cakes?These cakes are appealing and it brings back childhood memories.
In making this type of cake, first, you must decide which board game you want to imitate. Keep in mind that the cake must resemble the actual board game. You can start frosting the cake with white colored butter – cream or cover it with a white colored fondant. After frosting or covering it with fondant, now is the time to assemble the actual board game. Let’s say you are imitating a Candy Land board game, the blocks that serves as pathways can be made with flattened fondant. Use rolling pin to flatten the fondant and then cut it into squares. To make the path attractive, alternate the colors of the square path. After which, you can decorate the board game with the use of gumdrops and even the actual game pieces.
Movie themed inspired cakes – Everyone has a favorite movie. These days, movie themes are widely used as inspiration for birthday and party themes. They use actions figures that are readily available in comic shops and novelty stores. They can also mimic the movie character to use by simply downloading the pictures on the web.
Certainly, novelty designs are the thing for the future because they are refreshing and gun to look at. In addition, you can also visit sites that offer help and tips in fondant decorating. This will surely help cultivate your skills and creativity.
About the Author
Interested in birthday cake decorating? Visit us today and get tips on using fondant decorating.
Veggie Peeler
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Great Ideas No Mess Veggie Peeler – Peel Vegetables Mess Free – Collects Peelings Inside For Easy Disposal – Ideal For Potatoes, Apples, Carrots And Other Fruit And Veg £3.96 Peel fruit and vegetables without the mess with this clever mess free vegetable peeler. The peeler collects peelings inside a large vessel for quick and easy disposal. No more tipping the chopping board into the bin! Fitted with a soft comfort grip handle and removable lid. Dishwasher safe. Ideal for apples, potatoes, carrots and any othe… |
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FordEx Group Great Ideas No Mess Veggie Peeler – Peel Vegetables Mess Collects Peelings Inside for Easy Di £11.52 Collects fruit and veg peel for easy disposal Peels fruit and veg quicker than by hand Lightweight and easy to grip Simple and effective to use Dishwasher safe Peel fruit and vegetables without the mess with this clever mess free vegetable peeler. The peeler collects peelings inside a large vessel for quick and easy disposal. No more tipping the chopping board into the bin! Fitted with a soft comf… |
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FordEx Group Metal Apple Peeler, Veggie Peeler, Vegetable Peeler, Multifunction Peeler #010032 £62.52 Peels, cores and slices apples in seconds and all at the same time Stainless steel blades, suitable for peeling potatoes, pears and apples Easy to use, works by manually turning the handle A great time-saver for pie making The strong levered suction cup on the bottom to prevent it from moving during usage All blades are adjustable and within seconds you can either just core or slice the apple (lea… |
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Ceramic Veggie Peeler-Green & White £17.49 Ceramic Veggie Peeler-Green & White… |
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Gem?sesch?ler Veggie Peeler … |
Cooking Under Pressure-How Green It Is
When I was in my twenties I was a Pressure Cooker, my definition: a person who cooks meals short order for a family of picky eaters on various eating schedules, while juggling school, a career, a carpool, baseball, basketball and soccer seasons, and a seemingly never-ending home renovation.
Along the way, I learned a couple things about kids:
- kids will eat foods they help prepare so I always recommend child safe veggie peelers as a must have in the kitchen
- you can slip a lot of nutrition into soup and thererby into your kids without them even suspecting what you are up to!
- kids love to see things close up, so don’t be afraid to keep a magnifying glass or microscope nearby
As I became a little older and hopefully more savvy, I began to look for ways to economize for the sake of my time, and that led me to a store called “Fortunoff’s” now gone, but was then “The Source” a destination spot for many a young homemaker looking for obscure kitchen items like my Fish Turner and my Measuring Spoons (dash, pinch, and smidge sized). It was there I purchased my first actual pressure cooker, a kitchen gadget of cartoon lore for most of my generation…I know for sure my mom never had one, and the only rare others I’d seen were in the basements of older neighbors.
This little stovetop appliance became my number one go to gadget anytime I was making soup, stew, rice, pasta, you name it, if it boiled it went in the pressure cooker. Chickens that formerly boiled for 2+ hours to make soup were ready for adding veggies in 30 minutes and tasted delicious when done. When cooking short ribs or other meats, I generally brown the meat and the onions in the bottom of the cooker with a little oil before adding water and the lid, it makes for a delicious full flavored gravy and I never worry that the meat will be tough.
Cooking accounts for approximately 10% of the energy used in a home, and pressure cookers cut cooking time by 60-70%, so by using this handy gadget, you can significantly cut you energy usage, good for you and good for the enviorment. The shortened cooking time also means that your kitchen doesn’t overheat, essential if you live in a warmer climate.
The most difficult thing about using a pressure cooker is getting over the fear of buying one, if this sounds like you get a less expensive one to start $50-$60 and try it, you will wear it out in time and want a better one. By that time you will know it was worth the investment and $100-$200 will not seem like much at all. Stainless steel, in my opinion, is better than aluminum, they hold up better with no fear of leaching of mineral content and they are better for browning meats. Always remember to wash the gasket by hand even though the rest of the pot is dishwasher safe.
When designing a new kitchen always remember to discuss with your kitchen designer what types of small appliances and pots you use so they can make sure your new kitchen offers the proper storage solutions to meet your needs.
About the Author
I have 20 years experience in Home Furnishings and Interior Design, specializing in Kitchen and Bath Design since ’02. I have a passion for learning and love the opportunity to collaberate on projects of all sizes. My strengths in the field begin with my design background, use of color and texture to bring interest to a room, spatial relationships, organizational skills, innovation, decisiveness, and planning. I have had the thrilling experience of helping hundreds…?maybe thousands of people with their projects, and what I love is it never gets boring, and no two are ever the same. Thanks for reading.
Please follow my blog at http://www.kitchendesigntrends.blogspot.com
Hire me to design your kitchen at http://www.thekitchendeziner.com
Edible Food
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Jet BlackÊDouble Sided Edible Food Pen £0.70 Jet BlackÊDouble Sided Food Pen A 2 sided pen; thick and thin allowing you to work on whatever scale you require, from bold colour work right down to the intricate details of character model work!With the development of a specially formulated “Food Ink”this is a pen that allows the ink to flow through a standard chunky nib, right down to a 0.2mm nib. This nib is so fine that you can even use it f… |
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Ready-to-use Metallic Light Silver 100% Edible Food Paint for Cake and Icing Decoration £2.10 This fantastic edible food paint from Rainbow Dust is a “must have” item for todays cake makers. Incredibly versatile and available in a huge range of colours. Coverage Guide: Using the EasyCover Sponge, we used half a bottle (approx 12ml) of paint to cover an 8 inch round cake (3 inch deep) which was sat on a 10 inch drum, also covered in sugarpaste. We applied 2 coats to get an even metallic fi… |
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dark gold,quick drying,double sided,edible food pen. £0.58 A 2 sided pen; thick and thin allowing you to work on whatever scale you require, from bold colour work right down to the intricate details of character model work! With the development of a specially formulated “Food Ink” this pen that allows the ink to flow through a standard chunky nib, right down to a 0.2mm nib. This nib is so fine that you can even use it for facial features on your sugar mod… |
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River Cottage – Edible Seashore [DVD] £9.99 … |
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Good Eats With Alton Brown V1: All Season Edibles [DVD] [2009] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] … |
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Organic Broccoli Sprouting Seeds – 16 Oz (1 Lbs)- Organic- Edible Seed, Gardening, Hydroponics, Growing Salad Sprout & Food Storage- Brocolli Sprouts Contain Sulforaphane These special sprouts provide a fresh and natural way to supplement your diet with sulforaphane, a phytochemical found in broccoli and related to tumor reduction according to John’s Hopkins research…. |
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Aloe Life Animal Aloe 100% Edible/Unsented (4fl.oz.) £5.35 Aloe Life’s Animal Aloe is 100% edible and can be applied to your pet directly for wounds, hair loss, skin irritation, scarring and brush on gums for tooth and gum treatment. Aloe Life Animal Aloe can also be squeezed on food or taken off of the hand for digestion, gas, constipation, allergies, colds, kidney, support and longevity…. |
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Jason Natural Products Herb Tea Bulk – 5 Oz. – Bulk £9.94 A collection of herbs from around the globe, all that compliment each other to form a wonderful tea blend useful as a daily tonic drink…. |
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Decorated Mouse Pad with edible image £5.99 Professional “Brite White” fabric mouse pads are among the most versatile and durable, providing brilliant graphic reproduction for spot color or full color imprints. This durable polyester surface is above industry standards and provides a superior product value overall. Designed to reproduce vibrant detailed images. Our mouse pads have white fabric top with the 100% genuine black rubber base (n… |
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Bentonite Clay 250g £6.94 This amazing ‘healing clay’ has the ability to absorb toxins, impurities, heavy metals and other internal contaminants. It is renowned as one of the most powerful and effective healing clays. It can be used internally or externally and has many varied benefits. It is often used to treat: bites, poisoning and skin infections skin blemishes (makes a great clay face mask) and ailments such as itching… |
American Food in American Literature
The months between the cherries and the peaches
Are brimming cornucopias which spill
Fruits red and purple, somber-bloomed and black;
Then, down rich fields and frosty river beaches
We’ll trample bright persimmons, while you kill
Bronze partridge, speckled quail, and canvasback.
—Elinor Wylie1
I ate another apple pie and ice cream; that’s practically all I ate all the way across the country, I knew it was nutritious and it was delicious, of course.
—Jack Kerouac2
In October of 1998, Jiao-Tong, the literary editor of the China Times in Taipei, Taiwan, invited me to write an essay on American food in American literature for presentation at the first International Conference on Food and Literature that was held in Taipei in May of 1999. I thought that I would find many secondary source books on this topic. After extensive searches of the net and communications with several professors of American literature at universities in the United States and Canada, I was quite surprised to find no book in print on the topic. Not only was there no book about it there was also no single article that directly addressed my topic. The absence of secondary sources explains why most of the references in this essay are to primary sources. The limitations on time and space for this writing further explain why I have limited my survey of American literature to novels, short stories and poetry. I have tried to make a representative selection among novelists, short story writers and poets including writers from almost two hundred years of American literature, both genders and a variety of ethnic groups. Because there are so many versions of primary works that I cite, I have limited those citations to author’s name, title of work and internal part such as verse, chapter, or section and omitted page numbers of the particular versions that I used. Less well-known works, collections and anthologies receive standard citation format.
To bring some order to this vast quantity of material, I have created three themes around which I can weave what I have found about American food in American literature: continuity and discontinuity; purity and impurity; and, abundance and scarcity. These three themes allow several important truths about the American experience through time to appear as preoccupations of its writers as well. For example, the great changes wrought on the land and the indigenous peoples were accompanied by profound and lasting attachments to European food habits. Also, the tremendous abundance of natural resources and artificial wealth in America has long coexisted with devastated land and utter poverty. The greatest American writers, such as Melville, Faulkner, Hemingway and Steinbeck, have repeatedly recognized and embodied these extremes in their plots and in their characters, much as they are embodied in the every day lives and personalities of Americans.
As an introductory frame for my presentation, I would like to offer some possible explanations for the lack of secondary sources. First, I think that most of the famous and popular American foods, such as pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers and ice cream are derivative from European foods. The pizza came from Italy. The Hot Dog is a version of the German sausage. Hamburgers are reformed meatballs joined with bread that is as old as agricultural civilization itself. And ice cream also has its counterparts in the cuisine of European nations. So the first reason for the lack of secondary sources is that most American foods are derivative and not original to America.
An ironic counterexample in this context is the Chinese fortune cookie. As a food item, it has very little nutrition, but as a part of the American idea of Chinese food it has become a necessity at American Chinese restaurants. However, I have asked several owners, waiters and waitresses in American Chinese restaurants whether Chinese fortune cookies came from China. All of them have told me that they did not. They were invented in America and most likely, according to this oral history, in San Francisco. This seems to me to be a credible history. San Francisco grew as a city on the money generated by high-risk professions such as whaling, shipping, gold mining and offshore ocean fishing. We can easily imagine an enterprising Chinese person noting how concerned the Americans in these professions were with their future Good Luck or bad luck, putting this understanding together with a well-established American liking for sweet desserts, and creating a sweet dessert that looked different and contained words of wisdom about the consumer’s fate.
Second, until the last few decades, American literature and literary criticism were dominated by males whose worldview connected food with women and put them both in the kitchen and out of sight. Most of the male writers whom I read for this essay used food and activities around food to highlight aspects of character or plot. They did not present food gathering and preparation, cooking, serving, eating, drinking and cleaning up as activities that substantially reinforced aspects of their main characters, most of whom are men, or as events that substantially advanced the plot, story-line or themes of their writing.
Indeed, a related topic could be included in this kind of study that has to do with care of the body generally. For example, it is extremely rare for any American writer to mention such bodily functions as excretion or urination. Different kinds of breathing are certainly associated with different kinds of emotional and physical conditions, such as fear, sorrow, fatigue, exertion or contemplation. But like food, other bodily processes are usually ignored, taken for granted or glossed. I mention this topic only in passing, and do not have the time or space here to dwell on it, but simply to point out that focusing on food as a topic in relation to literature is an important innovation that signifies a range of human activities whose presence or silence in literature would be an interesting expansion of this focus.
Third, as an American, I feel that most Americans take food for granted. We tend to view it as an unavoidable burden placed on our freedom of activity by the condition of having a physical body. We tend, especially in the last decade of the 20th century, to try to minimize as much as possible the time and energy required for all phases of life connected with physical nourishment of our bodies. The growth, popularity and power of the fast food industry in America reflect this disdain for the necessities of physical nourishment.
After the Allied victory in World War II, the US experienced unprecedented prosperity while applications of new technology allowed older tasks to be done with increasing speed. The complete acceptance of free market competition, in an ideological, political and economic opposition to centralized, planned economies and societies, the tremendous success of rapid, large-scale mass production in support of military forces during the war, and the increasingly tense and complicated struggle between capitalism and communism began to change the values of American society from the slower, simpler values of agricultural life and rural living to the faster, more complicated values of industrial production and urban living. Speed began its emergence as a paramount American value. For example, in 1955, shortly before the experiences recorded in Kerouac’s On the Road, the two fast food companies that are now the largest in America—McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken—were founded. “By the early 1980s there were about 440 food franchising companies with a combined total of more than 70,000 retail outlets in the United States.”3 Americans from smaller, more congested living situations in Europe slowly adjusted to the scope of the American land and its resources. Size, especially bigness, became a common value in all areas of American life. With the advent of speed as a value, the American ideology for the remainder of the 20th century gained its primary outlines—the bigger the better, the faster the better. From automobiles to hamburgers, this ideology began increasingly to govern how Americans thought about everything they did. Both values play significant and signifying roles in the relationship between American food and American literature.
Besides the social environment of European derivation, male dominance and indifference toward food, there is the traditional character of the successful American writer. Most of America’s most famous writers were and continue to be male. Most of these male writers, such as Hawthorne, Twain, Faulkner, Hemingway, Steinbeck, Poe, and Miller, continually placed their leading characters, most of whom were males, in positions that required the creation of a stable and meaningful life. Like the first colonists, like the pioneers, like the immigrants, their characters are continually faced with challenges to their survival, their ability and their manhood where the latter is defined in terms of overt verbal and physical superiority rather than mutual, cooperative care or nurturing. An ironic counter-example is Ayn Rand, a female writer who totally accepted the values of competition, personal power and rugged individualism. Her powerful male characters, such as the nearly godlike architect in Atlas Shrugged, are faced with problems and situations that demand forceful, individual creation and production on large scales.
The fact that creation and production also consumed energy, resources, time and money was not a central concern until the beginnings of the environmental movement in the late 50’s and early 60’s. The fact that creation and production often resulted in the emotional and physical deprivation of less independent beings, such as children, animals, women, the poor, and members of minority ethnic groups was also not a central concern of American writers or critics until the late 50’s and early 60’s. The earlier writers felt driven to produce and reproduce the feelings, drives, imagery and characters of male-oriented, individualistic creation and production in their writings. As a consequence, many of the facts of life, such as eating, drinking, digesting, excreting and nurturing were consistently absent, implied, glossed or ignored.
These are at least four reasons why there is such a scarcity of secondary sources on the topic of American food in American literature. It is, in effect, a book waiting to be written.
Fortunately, however, there are many instances of food in American literature and they do show some interesting patterns and features. I have created three themes to focus these patterns and features: continuity and discontinuity; purity and impurity; and, abundance and scarcity. First I am going to briefly described the substance and justification of each theme and then proceed with the literary material that especially illustrates and is illuminated by each theme.
A. Continuity and Discontinuity. The first European colonists on the East Coast of America experienced several discontinuities and began creating others. From crowded European cities and farmlands they came to vast, sparsely inhabited forests, mountains and valleys. From the rigidly intolerant societies of many 16th and 17th century European countries they came to a land whose societies, those of the indigenous peoples, were completely strange and closed to them. From lives of poverty and scarcity they came to a land that gradually disclosed resources and riches beyond their wildest dreams. From old, settled areas in Europe that had long ago been tamed by the sword, the plow, the cross and the crown they came to wilderness that seemed indifferent to the grandeur and traditions of European civilization.
Within these discontinuities they also created discontinuities in the lives of the indigenous peoples, by war, trade and intermarriage. In the natural life cycles of the new land, they also began creating discontinuities by the invasive activities of logging, farming, mining, urbanization, hunting and fishing. The cultivation of extremes that have
become fixtures of American life began at this time. There were Americans who loved the wilderness and the indigenous ways and shed as many of their European ways as possible. There were Americans who loathed the wilderness and the native ways and strove either to change them or destroy them. These latter among the early colonists insisted on the continuation of European religions and languages, official protocols, social forms and manners and whatever foods they could make in the new world, such as bread, or have shipped from Europe without spoilage, such as tea.
The indigenous people fell before the larger and larger waves of Europeans most of whom firmly believed that the best Indian was a dead Indian. For example, it is estimated that in 1600 there were approximately 10,000,000 indigenous people living in many different groups, or tribes, across the American continent. By 1900, under an official US government policy of extermination, that total had fallen to approximately 500,000. The impact of the new inhabitants on the land has been no less powerful. In 1600, most of the land east of the Mississippi River and west of the Rocky Mountains was covered with mixed hardwood and deciduous forests. By 1990, less than 3% of the original trees remained standing.
Besides the clash of Europeans and indigenous peoples, the growing population of Americans cultivating land for crops, especially cotton and tobacco, sold to a growing population of consumers in Europe provided a market for human labor—slaves. The slave trade, initiated by the Dutch and pursued by almost every Western European country with seafaring expertise, created extreme discontinuities in many aspects of African life that are beyond the scope of this essay. But the importation of Africans as slaves created an entirely new stream of Americans, subjected for two hundred years to plantation conditions of near starvation, who invented and innovated with the meager edible material accessible to them. Their creativity has contributed many different kinds of distinctively American foods, such as chitlins, greens, and an entire range of foods centered in the bayou area of Louisiana known as Cajun food. Along with original contributions made by the indigenous peoples to the first colonists’ and pioneers’ diets such as corn, some of these food items that have lasted longer than the institution of slavery itself have also found places in American literature.
B. Purity and Impurity. The early colonists on the American East Coast brought with them a deep fear of hell and a deep desire to purify their lives of any elements that prevented the practice of true Christianity. True Christianity meant for them a literal reading of the bible and a literal construction of human social life around the teachings and tenets of the bible. Red, for them, was the color of the devil, the color of evil and the color of the indigenous people. Pure black and pure white were their colors of choice.
Those Americans who loved the wilderness, however, quickly adopted the use of multi-colored animal skins for clothing and natural dyes for coloring cloth or their skin. It was therefore no mere historical accident that the American cultural revolution of the 60’s adopted wildly colored clothing, vehicles, hair and language as an obvious and dramatic signifier against the dark suits, white shirts, dark ties and dark shoes of establishment figures. It was no historical accident that the beatniks and hippies both reached out for foods that differed greatly in flavor, color, smell, taste and texture from white bread, roast beef, boiled potatoes, oatmeal, milk and tea. It was also no historical accident that some of the most influential writers of this era, such as Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder, found deep and lasting inspiration from the literature and the food of lands and peoples far beyond the American shores.
C. Abundance and Scarcity. From 1895 to 1915, approximately 23,000,000 immigrants moved from Europe to the United States. These people came from all parts of Europe. They left living conditions characterized by poverty, political turmoil and oppression and lack of any kind of opportunity for improvement. America was a land that promised to make their dreams of prosperity, wealth, abundance and freedom come true. Many of those immigrants made their fortunes in America then returned with them to their families in Europe. But many others stayed in America, had their families there and began contributing tastes, colors and flavors to an increasingly heterogeneous American scene. This period of intense migration saw the beginnings of neighborhoods in major cities, such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago. These were ethnic enclaves for Italians, Poles, Germans, Jews, as well as Blacks trying to find an alternative to the militarily defeated but still powerful racism of their former southern masters, or others whose strong sense of group identity always brought with it special foods that were amplified by the increasingly large scales of American life.
At the same time, the rapid growth of large-scale manufacturing, in factories employing tens of thousands of immigrants who were poorly paid and allowed only a minimal education beyond the background of their European origins, turned some of these neighborhoods into the first American slums and ghettos. Extremely low wages, non-existent social services, waves of unemployment and the increasing pressure of large families and new arrivals frequently put many of these new Americans on the edges of malnutrition, hunger and even starvation. Abundance and scarcity began to appear as poles of a socioeconomic oscillation driven not by such obvious institutions as slavery but by beliefs, prejudices and attitudes about the superiority and inferiority of different kinds of peoples coupled with firmly established patterns of access and lack of access to resources. The negative shock of World War I was followed by the positive euphoria of the roaring 20’s. That decade of unprecedented prosperity and national expansion was followed by the great depression of the 30’s. America was clearly moving into the vanguard of a world order whose extremes ranged from genocide to population explosion, from starvation to rotting surpluses and from worn feet in foul mud to toenail polish in satin slippers on polished marble.
A first glimpse of the theme of continuity and discontinuity can be seen by comparing the two citations at the beginning of this essay. Elinor Wylie lived from 1885 to 1928. Jack Kerouac lived from 1922 to 1969. Ripe fruit appears as an edible food from the tree in Wylie’s poem and as an ingredient of pie in Kerouac’s novel. Wylie’s cherries and peaches are closer to unprocessed nature than Kerouac’s baked apple pie. Wylie’s poem signifies the rootedness of the early European colonists in a land that provided ample foodstuffs. Kerouac’s novel signifies the restlessness of urban Americans for whom food had become an uninteresting necessity.
Wylie’s poem signifies abundance and therefore the value of bigness without the addition of speed that played such an important role in the life of Kerouac’s main character, Dean Moriarty.
In fact, Dean Moriarty was based on the real man, Neal Cassady. In 1964, I was living in Palo Alto, California, having dropped out of Stanford University to try my hand at writing fiction and poetry. I met a lovely young woman who was a first year student at Stanford and invited her to a party. The party was in a house in the east side of Palo Alto that was increasingly known as a suitable place for non-conformists and beatniks. The party featured many people whom neither my friend nor I knew along with much wine. It also featured some very unusual people. At one point during the party we were drinking wine in the small, brightly-lit kitchen. In a commotion of laughing, talking people, a young man with a brilliant smile and ringing laughter, whose feet seemed barely able to stay on the floor, floated and flew through the room while the man who had invited me to the party introduced him to me as Neal Cassady. He acknowledged me and disappeared out another door. I never saw him again but retain to this day the vivid impression of light and speed that he also seems to have given to Kerouac.
The continuity between Wylie’s poem and Kerouac’s novel is indicated by the American saying, “It’s as American as apple pie!” Another kind of continuity appears, moreover, when the verse after the one quoted above from Wylie’s poem is considered:
Down to the Puritan marrow of my bones
There’s something in this richness that I hate.
I love the look, austere, immaculate,
Of landscapes drawn in pearly monotones.
There’s something in my very blood that owns
Bare hills, cold silver on a sky of slate,
A thread of water, churned to milky spate
Streaming through slanted pastures fenced with stones.4
Taken together, this verse and the one quoted at the beginning of this essay dramatically display all three themes. There is continuity and discontinuity between the doctrines of a European religious heritage, Puritanism, that emphasized great worldly achievements but as little worldly display as possible. One of Max Weber’s most important contributions to our understanding of the modern Protestant viewpoint is his clear delineation of the conflict in early Protestantism between acquiring great wealth to signify being in god’s favor and displaying only humility to the rest of the world without the material ostentation that the Pietists, the Puritans, the Luddites and many other Protestant groups found so distasteful in Catholicism.
Weber argues, convincingly, I think, that the “Puritan, like every rational type of asceticism, tried to enable a man [sic] to maintain and act upon his constant motives, especially those which it taught himself itself, against the emotions.”5 The goal of this action was to lead a certain kind of life “freed from all the temptations of the world and in all its details dictated by God’s will, and thus to be made certain of their own rebirth [in heaven after the last judgment] by external signs manifested in their daily conduct.”6 From the Bible as well as from all other religious literature, success in difficult tasks is a clear sign of God’s favor. For Protestants, such signs do not guarantee salvation but they are the closest to a guarantee that a Protestant can get. Indeed, that “God Himself blessed his chosen ones through the success of their labours was…undeniable…to the Puritans.”7 This doctrine that combined asceticism with success in worldly endeavors positioned Protestantism to be the driving religious force behind capitalism and the great creations and accumulations of material wealth that have occurred in modernity. But it is no less true that this combination can be a rhythm, an oscillation, a confusion or conflict. This combination clearly provides much of the historical substance for our themes of abundance and scarcity and purity and impurity.
A condensed example of the oscillation between abundance and the austerity of American Puritanism can be seen in a brief passage from the short story, The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, by Edgar Allen Poe (1809-49). This passage also underlines the way in which food and the activities surrounding food have been treated by many of America’s greatest male writers—as unavoidable but uninteresting necessities, even in a fictional setting: “The table was superbly set out. It was loaded with plate, and more than loaded with delicacies. The profusion was absolutely barbaric. There were enough meats to have feasted the Anakim. Never, in all my life, had I witnessed so lavish, so wasteful an expenditure of the good things of life.”8
The tension between the narrator and his hosts in Poe’s tale is echoed by the tension between the narrator and the main character in On the Road. The quote from Jack Kerouac is part of the first-person narration of the novel by Sal Paradise, the supporting, secondary character that is based on Kerouac himself. For the duration of his cross-country hitchhiking trip, he lives on apple pie and ice cream. This diet reflects not only Sal’s poverty, but also clearly situates the novel in a continuous American tradition that de-emphasizes the bodily, physical or material world. A discontinuity, however, occurs between the naturalness of the fruits in Wylie’s poem and the impersonal, processed food that Sal Paradise ate. A further discontinuity appears in the fact that Sal is taking his food on the road, on the run, at high speed, while Wylie is painting a picture of humans relating to trees that by their nature cannot move from where they are.
Wylie’s poetic picture is drawn from her life in New England. Many of the first colonists stayed on or close to the coast because it allowed them to continue the seafaring lives and occupations they had practiced in Europe and because it provided an abundance of food. However, their Puritan ideology often resulted in lives that were lived as far from that abundance as Wylie’s “cold silver on a sky of slate.” Another American poetess, Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979), was born in Massachusetts and raised by her grandparents in Nova Scotia, the eastern, seafaring Province of Canada. Her life partly overlapped Wylie’s and she also paints the spirit of that area specifically in terms of food but with an emphasis on the austerity of their diet:
From narrow provinces
of fish and bread and tea,
home of the long tides
where the bay leaves the sea
twice a day and takes
the herrings long rides,9
Moreover, the abundance that Wylie hates is also rejected by Kerouac in an off-hand, casual way as though the less time a man spent on something as mundane as food the better or higher quality a person he was. However, the oscillation between abundance and scarcity appears in Kerouac’s novel in the contrast between Sal Paradise and the main character of On the Road, Dean Moriarty.
“…but Dean just raced in society, eager for bread and love; he didn’t care one way or the other, ‘so long’s I can get that lil ole gal with that lil sumpin down there tween her legs, boy,’ and ‘so long’s we can eat, son, y’ear me? I’m hungry, I’m starving, let’s eat right now!”—and off we’d rush to eat, whereof, as saith Ecclesiastes, ‘It is your portion in the sun.’” (Ch. 1 (italics in original))
It is also certainly worth noticing in passing that in both writers, differentiated by gender, by background, and by time, there is a strong connection between religion and food. This commonality and this continuity clearly occur in the traditional American feast days of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. All three feature unusually large and lengthy meals as well as strong connections with the Christian, Protestant backgrounds of the early American colonists, settlers and pioneers. As with the bodily functions mentioned before, bringing the topic of food and literature into the foreground also illuminates the strong presence of Judeo-Christianity in American life and literature. Again, this innovative topic proves to be a powerful lens for viewing a wide range of signifiers that occur repeatedly and pervasively in American literature.
Indeed, the theological basis of Wylie’s hatred of “this richness” is the Puritan soul struggling for release from all of its attachments, involvements, entanglements and preoccupations to, with and in the material world. Metaphysical battles are fought on empirical battlefields. In this case, the metaphysical battle between the ontological powers of good and evil is fought on the empirical battlefield of the relationship between a poetess and edible, natural fruit. The apple signifies the fall of man at the hand of woman. The hatred of “this richness” is therefore a self-hatred that drives the woman farther from impure nature and closer to the immaterial purity of the austere, unadorned Protestant soul. The continuity of the human body with nature is displaced by the discontinuity of the immaterial soul with the body. The abundance of human bodies and souls is displaced by the scarcity of the elect, those in Protestant doctrine chosen by God from the foundations of the world to survive the last judgment and live eternally in heaven.
Serious reflection on the relationship between food and literature brings us to a range of signifiers that underpins all literature, namely, religion. Why? Because writing originally served the purpose of passing on what is most valuable in the viewpoint and experience of the group. The most valuable possession of all is that which most certainly promotes the survival of the group. All human groups discovered long ago that humans are dependent on greater powers for survival. All humans need air, water, food, warmth and sleep. The fear of, respect for, worship of and sacrifice to the powers that govern life, both visible and invisible, is the ancient substance of all religions. The ancient truth and pervasive message of all religions is the dependency of humans on those powers, including the power of reproduction that is represented in ancestor worship. Religion embodies, ritualizes and carries forward that fundamental truth of human dependency. The denial of that dependency can lead to greatly innovative creativity and profoundly transformative spirituality as well as to self-destruction and madness. Humans can imagine absolute freedom but to try to live it, as Nietzsche showed, leads only to self-destruction and madness.
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) struggled with madness all her life and eventually ended her life by committing suicide. The following poem opens with the kind of paean to natural abundance that we saw in Wylie’s poem and closes with a similar feeling of empty space and cold silver. The contrast between the terms “nothing” and “blackberries” in the first line signifies the tension between abundance and emptiness. This signifier in turn connects with the tension between purity and impurity through the signifier of nothingness as a desirable and advanced spiritual state and as the material condition of spiritual devotees on earth. In this poem, these themes are again carried by concrete, local wild food and abstract, created imagery that moves the reader away from an abundant present to an absent but implied purity above or beyond the physical earth:
Blackberrying
Nobody in the lane, and nothing, nothing but blackberries
Blackberries on either side, though on the right mainly,
A blackberry alley, going down in hooks, and a sea
Somewhere at the end of it, heaving. Blackberries
Big as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes
Ebon in the hedges, fat
With blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers.
I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me.
They accommodate themselves to my milkbottle, flattening their sides.
Overhead go the choughs in black, cacophonous flocks—
Bits of burnt paper wheeling in a blown sky.
Theirs is the only voice, protesting, protesting.
I do not think the sea will appear at all.
The high, green meadows are glowing, as if lit from within.
I come to one bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of flies,
Hanging their bluegreen bellies and their wing panes in a Chinese screen.
The honey-feast of the berries has stunned them; they believe in heaven.
One more hook, and the berries and bushes end.
The only thing to come now is the sea.
From between two hills a sudden wind funnels at me,
Slapping its phantom laundry in my face.
These hills are too green and sweet to have tasted salt.
I follow the sheep path between them. A last hook brings me
To the hills’ northern face, and the face is orange rock
That looks out on nothing, nothing but a great space
Of white and pewter lights, and a din like silversmiths
Beating and beating at an intractable metal.10
It is no accident, in this perspective, that Neal Cassady, the living person behind Kerouac’s character Dean Moriarty, died of a drug overdose on the hot, shining steel rails of a railroad track in central Mexico. The use of drugs in all groups has traditionally been associated with personal and group alignment to the greater powers for the purpose of amplifying the ability of the group to survive. Cut from their traditional moorings in religion, drugs have become a way to experiment with the physical, psychic and spiritual dimensions of absolute freedom. The fact that many drugs, such as LSD, cocaine, methamphetamine and opium, make the user feel that they need no food or other natural supports for their existence, shows precisely how they fit into the attempt to deny dependency and achieve absolute freedom. The discontinuity of the American experience in relation to older traditions, the abundance of material wealth and the usually unacknowledged background ideal of a pure, immaterial soul have worked together to produce in its literature characters like Dean Moriarty who make a life—and a death—of treading the edge between innovation and self-destruction.
Or, to condense our themes in the pithy and quintessentially American poetic language of William Carlos Williams: “the pure products of America go mad” (from “On The Road To The Mental Hospital”)
Apple pie and ice cream, moreover, also provide Kerouac with an opportunity to make a statement of value that clearly displays abundance as bigness: “I ate apple pie and ice cream—it was getting better as I got deeper into Iowa, the pie bigger, the ice cream richer.” (Ch. 3) “Better,” “deeper,” “bigger,” and “richer,” work together to define a system of values that was both American—bigger is better—and Romantic—depth and richness.11
The theme of abundance can be found in all periods of American literature. In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, Scarlet Letter, for example, a character who is the “father of the Custom House—the patriarch, not only of his little squad of officials, but, I am bold to say, of the respectable body of tide-waiters all over the United States—was a certain permanent Inspector.”12 The Custom-House was the official federal government office responsible for inspecting all cargo coming into the country by ship and determining what if any duties had to be paid. In the novel, this particular Custom-House is located on a wharf in the harbor of Salem, Massachusetts. In this particular character, Hawthorne signifies one of the most important aspects of the American diet that also repeatedly appears in its literature—the consumption of large quantities of meat. The Inspector had the unusual ability to remember in great detail
“the good dinners which it had made no small portion of the happiness of his life to eat….to hear him talk of roast meat was as appetizing as a pickle or an oyster….it always satisfied me to hear him expatiate on fish, poultry, and butcher’s meat, and the most eligible methods of preparing them for the table. His reminiscences of good cheer, however ancient the date of the actual banquet, seemed to bring the savor of pig or turkey under one’s very nostrils….A tenderloin of beef, a hindquarter of veal, a sparerib of pork, a particular chicken, or a remarkably praiseworthy turkey, which had perhaps adorned his board…would be remembered….”13
The dominance of meat in the American diet can be seen in several ways. One is the following chart of specialty foods in the individual franchises of the top thirty fast-food companies in the US:
Type of Food Number of Franchises
Chicken 8,683
Hamburger/Hot Dog/Roast Beef 29,600
Pizza [usually served with a
meat topping] 11,593
Tacos [usually served with a
meat filler] 3,620
Seafood 2,630
Pancakes/Waffles [usually eaten
with bacon,
sausage or ham] 1,63014
Another view of this American food habit comes from considering the quantities of meat consumption and production in the United States. For example,
“Americans spend about 25 percent of their food budget on red meat. The per capita consumption of beef in the United States has increased steadily, while that of pork has declined….Only in Australia, New Zealand, and Argentina is per capita consumption higher than in the United States. The United States normally produces about 27 percent of the world’s meat.” (Ibid., (13) 190)
From the United States Chamber of Commerce, the source of these statistics in Compton’s Encyclopedia and from the 19th century work of Hawthorne, we can move to the late 20th century. In the late 1980’s, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, by a California writer, Fannie Flagg, was published. In the first section of the novel, a reproduction of an article from the weekly newspaper in her fictional southern US town of Weems, Flagg describes the basic menu of the newly opened Whistle Stop Cafe:
…the breakfast hours are from 5:30 to 7:30, and you can get eggs, grits, biscuits, bacon, sausage, ham and red-eye gravy, and coffee….
For lunch and supper you can have: fried chicken; pork chops and gravy; catfish, chicken and dumplings; or a barbecue plate; and your choice of three vegetables, biscuits or cornbread, and your drink and dessert….
…the vegetables are: creamed corn; fried green tomatoes; fried okra; collard or turnip greens; black-eyed peas; candied yams; butter beans or lima beans.15
Later in the novel, the items in a particular meal served to a customer are described as “fried chicken, black-eyed peas, turnip greens, fried green tomatoes, cornbread, and Iced Tea.”16
The fatness, abundance and purity of meat in the American diet have also been used by some writers as a counterfoil to other kinds of scarcity and impurity. Sylvia Plath uses the tradition of a large meat meal on Sunday, as a once a week special gathering for American families, that often features a large, oven-roasted turkey, to give stark contrast to another kind of oven:
Mary’s Song
The Sunday lamb cracks in its fat.
The fat
Sacrifices its opacity…
A window, holy gold.
The fire makes it precious,
The same fire
Melting the tallow heretics,
Ousting the Jews.
Their thick palls float
Over the cicatrix of Poland, burnt-out
Germany,
They do not die.
Grey birds obsess my heart,
Mouth ash, ash of eye.
They settle. On the high
Precipice
That emptied one man into space
The ovens glowed like heavens, incandescent.
It is a heart,
This holocaust I walk in,
O golden child the world will kill and eat.17
One of America’s most gifted and enigmatic of contemporary poets, the Pulitzer Prize winner John Ashbery (1927-), turns America’s abundance into a counterfoil not of impurity but of scarcity as a lack of certainty:
Hardly anything grows here,
Yet the granaries are bursting with meal,
The sacks of meal piled to the rafters.
The streams run with sweetness, fattening fish;
Birds darken the sky. Is it enough
That the dish of milk is set out at night,
That we think of him sometimes,
Sometimes and always, with mixed feelings?18
Besides the prominence and priority of meat, the Plath poem and the lists from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café foreground an important continuity and discontinuity in American food. The important continuity stems from the fact that the early colonists and pioneers, trying to live in a strange land before it had been developed for agriculture, made their bread primarily from locally available grains, especially corn. Wheat and other related grains were too hard to grind by hand and required a heavy, complicated mill that the early settlers could not carry with them. Corn became a staple food as important to the early European colonizers as it already was to the indigenous people:
Young, ripe corn was eaten as roasting ears. In winter the husks of the kernels were soaked off with lye to make hominy. For breakfast and supper there was boiled corn-meal mush. Sometimes the mush was fried and served with butter or pork drippings. The most common dish, however, was hot corn bread. Baked on a hoe blade before the fire, this was called hoecake. Mixed with water into a stiff batter and covered with hot ashes, it was ash cake. From the Dutch oven it emerged as corn pone or corn loaf. Small cakes of corn pone were called corn dodgers.19
In the passage from Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter both fish and turkey are mentioned along with pork and chicken. The fish and turkey were most likely caught and shot in their natural habitats. The pork and chicken were most likely raised and butchered in a domestic animal keep. This combination of wild and domestic meat began with the first colonists and continues to the present day. Indeed, the pioneers who traveled by foot, wagon and horse from the east westward on the American continent found a great abundance of wild game for meat. Still they tried to carry enough familiar, nutritious foodstuffs to last them for the journey to their new homestead and to carry them through periods when wild game was unavailable. A typical load for one adult traveling by oxen-drawn wagon westward was:
“…200 pounds of flour, 30 pounds of pilot bread, 75 pounds of bacon, 10 pounds of rice, 5 pounds of coffee, 2 pounds of tea, 25 pounds of sugar, half bushel of dried beans, one bushel dried fruit, 2 pounds of baking soda, 10 pounds salt, half a bushel of cornmeal. And it is well to have a half bushel of corn, parched and ground. A small keg of vinegar should also be taken.”20
In many rural or sparsely inhabited parts of America the mixing of wild and domestic meats continues to this day. In Alaska, for example, where I have lived for many years and which is one-third the area of the entire contiguous forty-eight states of the US, many people still rely on hunting for a large portion of their meat supply. John Haines, past Poet Laureate of the State of Alaska and Alaska’s best known poet, began homesteading near Fairbanks, Alaska in the 1950’s. I have known him personally for many years and read poetry with him on the stage of the Loussac Library in Anchorage in 1986. His poetry clearly reflects how the dependence on wild meat can crystallize the themes of abundance and purity in an identification with the predator:
If the Owl Calls Again
at dusk
from the island in the river,
and it’s not too cold,
I’ll wait for the moon
to rise,
then take wing and glide
to meet him
We will not speak,
but hooded against the frost
soar above
the alder flats, searching.
with tawny eyes
And then we’ll sit
in the shadowy spruce and
pick the bones
of careless mice,
while the long moon drifts
toward Asia
and the river mutters
in its icy bed.
And when morning climbs
the limbs
we’ll part without a sound,
fulfilled, floating
homeward as
the cold world awakens.21
Long before Haines or any other European settled in Alaska, however, the indigenous people had long lived on whatever meat animals they could kill and prepare. In fact, when the first French explorers met and spent time with the indigenous people in the north of what is now Canada, they were so impressed by the predominance of uncooked meat in their diets that they called them “Esquimeaux,” which is French for “eaters of raw meat.” Further down the coasts of Canada and Alaska, however, salmon run by the millions up the great rivers and are caught and used by the local people. These Americans now eat their salmon after it has been smoked or cooked, as told in the following poem, “Subsistence #2” by Andrew Hope, III (1949-), of Sitka, Alaska:
Dog salmon colors
Glistening
Evening sun
Incoming tide
Washing the beach
Dog salmon shine
Silver purple flash
Reaching
Lifting a big one
By the tail
Incoming tide
Washing the beach
Time to eat
Fried dog salmon
For dinner22
There are five kinds of salmon that migrate into Alaskan fresh waters and are used there for food. Each kind has its own name and some kinds have different names in different areas of Alaska. Thus, discontinuities through time in preparation—from raw to cooked—have occurred along with discontinuities in time among practices of naming the same foodstuff. Dog salmon are so-called because they were once used by the thousands to feed the many dogs upon which the indigenous Alaskan people relied for transportation during the long winters. This kind of salmon, however, is perfectly fit for human consumption and now that many indigenous people in Alaska travel only by motorized vehicles in all seasons, dog salmon have become a staple of human nutrition.
These discontinuities connect with the discontinuity signified by the meal ingredients in the first and second quotes from Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café which is variation in regional foods. Grits, for example, is a kind of cereal or mush made from corn or wheat that is coarsely ground. Grits is considered by most Americans to be a food characteristic of the American South. Its public presence in northern cities is usually the result of southerners moving north and opening restaurants that feature American Southern cuisine. Other typical regional American foods are codfish associated with the northeastern seafood cuisine, key lime pie associated with the cuisine of the Florida Keys, tortillas and red beans associated with the southwest cuisine derived from America’s Hispanic heritage, and salmon associated with the northwest and Alaskan cuisines.
One of Alaska’s Native American poets, Charlie Blatchford, a Yupik Eskimo whom I knew personally and who is now deceased, stated the case for meat very simply in one of his few published poems:
Forgotten Words
Our language, of what I know,
has been prepared
with wisdom and grace.
The fine skin has been fleshed
and lies to one side.
The innards have carefully
been exposed.
Their sweet flesh
ready for feast.
Meat, the staple of life,
is consumed with satisfaction…
Sedating our need
for new words.23
In the hands of more contemporary poets who are not Native American, as Charlie Blatchford was, meat continues to signify substantial food and is often joined by a kind of substance that could serve as a separate topic alongside food—intoxicants such as alcohol and drugs. In Whitman, Kerouac, Burroughs, Ginsberg and many other writers, wine, beer and other kinds of mind-altering substances often accompany food and especially meat. This range of consumable signifiers has a history in all literatures that is as ancient, as interesting and as important as that of meat and other foods. Indeed, putting the light of interest on food has again brought into focus an important stream in the lives of all peoples that could well serve as a topic for extensive further research, discussion and writing. In many poets, the connection between meat and wine is briefly made, as in the fourth verse of “Asylum” by Herman Fong (1963-):
At meals they barely feed her,
give her the smallest cuts of meat,
mostly fat, and a few red drops of wine.24
A concentration on the details of ordinary life characterizes the style of many American writers, both older and younger. John Steinbeck, a Nobel laureate and one of the pre-eminent American literary voices of the 20th century, frequently drew for his characters and settings from the everyday lives of people in California. Some of his best and most popular writings, novels such as Cannery Row, Grapes of Wrath, and Of Mice and Men, and the short story collection, The Long Valley, feature characters and settings in coastal, southern and central California. Tortilla Flats features the lives of “paisanos” who lived near the central California coastal town of Monterey. According to Steinbeck, a paisano was a “mixture of Spanish, Indian, Mexican and assorted Caucasian bloods” (Ch. 1). The main character, Danny, and his friends hear about a ship that has been wrecked on the nearby coast. They go to the beach and salvage flotsam from the wreck then sell it. The sale puts five dollars into Danny’s possession, an unusually large amount of money:
The five dollars from the salvage had lain like fire in Danny’s pocket, but now he knew what to do with it. He and Pilon went to the market and bought seven pounds of hamburger and a bag of onions and bread and a big paper of candy. Pablo and Jesus Maria went to Torrelli’s for two gallons of wine, and not a drop did they drink on the way home, either. (Ch. 5)
Part of Steinbeck’s genius as a writer and one of the aspects of his stories that set them apart from other American writings is the deliberate use of food items and activities for characterization and plot development. Tortilla Flats provides an example of his style as well as continuing to demonstrate the importance of meat in the American diet across all geographic regions and ethnic groups:
Danny’s business was fairly direct. He went to the back door of a restaurant. “Got any old bread I can give my dog?” he asked the cook. And while that gullible man was wrapping up the food, Danny stole two slices of ham, four eggs, a lamb chop and a fly swatter.
“I will pay you sometime,” he said.
“No need to pay for scraps. I throw them away if you don’t take them.”
Danny felt better about the theft then. If that was the way they felt, on the surface he was guiltless. He went back to Torelli’s [the wine merchant], traded the four eggs, the lamb chop and the fly swatter for a water glass of grappa and retired toward the woods to cook his supper. (Ch.1)
The particular food item of onions appears in the first passage from Tortilla Flats as a small detail that signifies a range of regional foods in an American southwest first colonized by European settlers from Spain not from England. Between hamburger and onions are both the continuity of easily prepared and consumed meat and the discontinuity of regional American cuisines. Another great American literary voice, that of William Carlos Williams, also picked out this range of southwestern signifiers on his one and only trip to that part of America. Besides a fine ear for the peculiarities that distinguish American English from all other kinds of English, Williams also had a keen eye for the small details of place that brought the reader in close to the object of Williams’ writing. The following passage is from “The Desert Music” which was based on Williams’ trip to the American southwest and his sojourning in towns that, at that time, were far more Hispanic than Caucasian:
–paper flowers (para los santos)
baked red-clay utensils, daubed
with blue, silverware,
dried peppers, onions, print goods, children’s
clothing . the place deserted all but
for a few Indians squatted in the
booths, unnoticing (don’t you think it)
as though they slept there .25
The use of activities around food to develop plot and character is also part of the style of another American novelist who received a Nobel Prize for literature, William Faulkner (1897-1962). From the deserts and sparse valleys of the southwest to the lush forests, swamps and meadows of the deep south, American literature, like the perduring literature of every language, has consistently insisted that the physical place and its features are part of the story. In the following passage from Light in August, Faulkner uses Mrs. McEachern’s attempt to nourish Joe as a reflector for both characters:
He was lying so, on his back, his hands crossed on his breast like a tomb effigy, when he heard again feet on the cramped stairs….
Without turning his head the boy heard Mrs. McEachern toil slowly up the stairs. He heard her approach across the floor. He did not look, though after a time her shadow came and fell upon the wall where he could see it, and he saw that she was carrying something. It was a tray of food. She set the tray on the bed. He had not once looked at her. He had not moved. “Joe,” she said. He didn’t move. “Joe,” she said. She could see that his eyes were open. She did not touch him.
“I aint hungry,” he said.
She didn’t move. She stood, her hands folded into her apron. She didn’t seem to be looking at him, either. She seemed to be speaking to the wall beyond the bed. “I know what you think. It aint that. He never told me to bring it to you. It was me that thought to do it. He dont know. It aint any food he sent you.” He didn’t move. His was calm as a graven face, looking up at the steep pitch of the plank ceiling. “You haven’t eaten today. Sit up and eat. It wasn’t him that told me to bring it to you. He dont know it. I waited until he was gone and then I fixed it myself.”
He sat up then. While she watched him he rose from the bed and took the tray and carried it to the corner and turned it upside down, dumping the dishes and the food and all onto the floor. Then he returned to the bed, carrying the empty tray as though it were a monstrance and he the bearer, his surplice the cut down undergarment which had been bought for a man to wear. She was watching him now, though she had not moved. Her hands were still rolled into her apron. He got back into bed and lay again on his back, his eyes wide and still upon the ceiling. He could see her motionless shadow, shapeless, a little hunched. Then it went away. He did not look, but he could hear her kneel in the corner, gathering the broken dishes back into the tray. Then she left the room. It was quite still then.26
Faulkner lived and wrote in the Bible Belt. The Bible Belt signified the fact that most people in the south were fundamentalist Christian Protestants who girded themselves with the spirit of austerity and yearning for an otherworldly paradise of simplicity and peace articulated so strongly by New England writers such as Wylie and Bishop. Although food occurs frequently in Faulkner’s work, it is rarely ample, elaborate or wasted. Usually it serves to highlight the physical scarcity and tenuous moral condition of people who live on the edge of a society whose abundance seldom appears in his work:
And Judith. She lived alone now. Perhaps she had lived alone ever since that Christmas day last year and then year before last and then three years and then four years ago, since though Sutpen was gone now…she lived in anything but solitude, what with Ellen in bed in the shuttered room, requiring the unremitting attention of a child while she waited with that amazed and passive uncomprehension to die; and she (Judith) and Clytie making and keeping a Kitchen Garden of sorts to keep them alive; and Wash Jones, living in the abandoned and rotting fishing camp in the river bottom which Sutpen had built after the first woman—Ellen—entered his house and the last deer and bear hunter went out of it, where he now permitted Wash and his daughter and infant granddaughter to live, performing the heavy garden work and supplying Ellen and Judith and then Judith with fish and game now and then, even entering the house now, who until Sutpen went away, had never approached nearer than the scuppernong arbor behind the kitchen where on Sunday afternoons he and Sutpen would drink from the demi-john and the bucket of spring water which Wash fetched from almost a mile away….”27
Another indication of Faulkner’s genius is his ability to see in an event as ordinary as a young man ordering pie and coffee from a waitress with whom he secretly wants some kind of relationship the potential for fine, deep drama. Faulkner’s preference for scant food and small food items continues to display the themes of scarcity and purity that were inescapable in his social and historical environment. In the following passage, Faulkner describes Joe, the boy in the passage just presented, who has come to a restaurant to be served by the waitress, in terms that transparently bring into play the signifiers of purity as immaterial dimension and food as binding, burdensome material necessity:
He believed that the men at the back…were laughing at him. So he sat quite still on the stool, looking down, the dime clutched in his palm. He did not see the waitress until the two overlarge hands appeared upon the counter opposite him and into sight. He could see the figured pattern of her dress and the bib of an apron and the two bigknuckled hands lying on the edge of the counter as completely immobile as if they were something she had fetched in from the kitchen. “Coffee and pie,” he said.
Her voice sounded downcast, quite empty. “Lemon coconut chocolate.”
In proportion to the height from which her voice came, the hands could not be her hands at all. “Yes,” Joe said.
The hands did not move. The voice did not move. “Lemon coconut chocolate. Which kind.” To the others they must have looked quite strange. Facing one another across the dark, stained, greasecrusted and frictionsmooth counter, they must have looked a little like they were praying: the youth countryfaced, in clean Spartan clothing, with an awkwardness which invested him with a quality unworldly and innocent; and the woman opposite him, downcast, still, waiting, who because of her smallness partook likewise of that quality of his, of something beyond flesh. Her face was highboned, gaunt. The flesh was taut across her
About the Author
Farm Animals
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Farm Animals – Assorted – Pack of 12 £2.10 Farm Animals – Assorted – Pack of 12. Sizes vary from 6cms to 8cms Assorted designs only Ideal for pinata fillers, loot bags and Kids Party Toys Surprise your guest with these wonderful and colourful Animals Great Value For Your Money Disclaimer: Colour shades may vary with other matching Items of the same colour… |
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Swift Set of 7 Farm Animal Cookie Cutters £2.99 Farmyard Fun for all the family, make and decorate seven popular farmyard animal shaped cookies with cutters from SwiftThe set contains 7 cutters in the following shapes – Duck, Pig, Cow, Lamb, Chick, Cat and DogMade from tin plate with a rolled edge to make them comfortable to holdCutters vary between 4.5 and 8cm highCutters can be used for baking or craftsHand wash onlyOther designs and cutters… |
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RoomMates Repositionable Childrens Wall Stickers, Farm And Jungle Animals £13.94 This little polka dot piggy went to market, this little polka dot piggy came home… and brought a whole bunch of friends along with him! Swirly sheep, multi-colored chickens, ducks, cats, cows, rabbits, lizards, monkeys, turtles, salamanders, centipede, snails, owls, walrus, and even an elephant complete this large crew. A wonderful way to decorate a nursery! Be sure to check out the coordinating… |
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HOOPLA FARM ANIMAL BIRD APPLE TREE CHILDREN BEDROOM 10M WALLPAPER ROLL DECOR ART £10.89 NEW FARM ANIMAL PRINT WALLPAPER BY DECOR LINE… |
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HOOPLA FARM ANIMAL BIRD APPLE TREE CHILDREN BEDROOM 10M WALLPAPER ROLL DECOR ART £10.89 NEW FARM ANIMAL PRINT WALLPAPER BY DECOR LINE… |
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HOOPLA FARM ANIMAL BIRD APPLE TREE CHILDREN BEDROOM 10M WALLPAPER ROLL DECOR ART £10.89 NEW FARM ANIMAL PRINT WALLPAPER BY DECOR LINE… |
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Farm Frenzy: Animal Country (Nintendo DS) £10.82 Ever wanted to be a farmer? Down on the farm the fun never stops as you milk the cows, feed the chickens, collect eggs and finally ship your goods to market. Spend the money you earn on new livestock or maybe a new barn or other buildings like a bakery to add to your farming empire. But keep an eye out for those nasty bears destroy everything! Manage all types of farm animals, plus dogs & … |
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Triple Play Collection: Farm Frenzy Trio (PC CD) £5.72 … |
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Farmscapes Collector?s Edition (PC CD) £4.97 … |
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Animal Farm [DVD] £1.74 United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), SPECIAL FEATURES: Interactive Menu, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: George Orwell’s political fable about corruption and betrayal in post-revolutionary Russia gets a new look in this version that employs a cast of real animals alongside digitally manipulated critters and lifelike beasts crafted by Jim Henson’s Creature Sh… |
Living Like a Farm Animal
Growing up on a small farm in the Mid-West taught me a lot about farm animals, but I never thought that I would grow up to think like one. I learned that animals have a narrow mind because all they want is food and sex. They have no creative ability and would die if food and sex wasn’t easily available.. My job as a farm boy was to make sure they had both. My dad and mom always told me that I should never grow up to think like a farm animal. They said that if I did they would lose all respect for me. My father not only was a farmer but he also was a breeder of livestock that won prizes at the state fair. My mother was a school teacher who had many of the things that she wrote published. I loved my dad and mom and promised them to be the type of person that they would be proud of. A few years latter I left the farm to make my mark in the big city.
I was hired as platform worker for an automobile manufacturer, the pay was good but the hours were long. After work I always had dinner and a few drinks at a local bar. One night as I was ready to leave, in walked the most gorgeous woman, our eyes met and we quickly knew that we were going to be lovers. After a week of a hot romance, she asked me to meet her five children. They were noisy kids but I thought she did the best that was possible. Her husband had deserted the family and she was supported by the state. Later I moved into her place and that’s where my new life began.
After coming home from work I was hot and hungry, but I couldn’t get near the shower because one or two of her children were always using the toilet. Her kids never provided any interest to me because they were wild and made a big mess. They were served dinner first and about time she was ready to serve me, the food was cold or burned. If I complained she angrily replied that the kids come first and that I should learn to be more understanding. I was angry but I also was sexually attracted to her, and I anxiously waited for her to finish feeding the kids so we could make love. The sex was great and even if the food was bad I had plenty of it.
One day it dawned on me while waiting for her to enter the bedroom that my life was focused only on having lots of sex and food. I was the person that my parents warned me not to become and I had no desire to better my life. If my dad and mom were alive they would lose all respect for me. Today I visited their gravesite and apologized for becoming worse than a farm animal. That is because farm animals have no chance to rise above their condition. I left their gravesite and headed north to the state capital where enrollment at the city college was opening. Never looking back only forward to becoming the person my parents would be proud of.
melpol
About the Author
retired and single recluse.
Perfect Cookie
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For The Love of Cookies: Perfect Recipes for Parties, Family & Friends £1.69 … |
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Cookies: Perfect Recipes for Parties, Family & Friends £3.33 … |
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Cookie (Perfect) £0.60 Amazon store this book for us, then pick, pack and deliver as well as provide 1st Class customer service. Books Found Fast via Amazon….. |
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Annabel Karmel Princess Cookie Cutter Baking set – Perfect for a Little Princess! £6.99 … |
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Wilton 16 x 14-inch Perfect Results Air insulated Cookie Sheet £15.99 … |
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Wilton 17.25 x 11.5-inch Perfect Results Large Cookie Pan £11.49 … |
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EMARTBUY 8GB MICRO SDHC CARD HIGH SPEED CLASS 4 WITH BLACK USB READER BULK PACK SUITABLE FOR LG KP500 COOKIE £15.99 … |
Wedding Cookies – A Perfect Treat For the Guests
Cookies are known for being a thing of joy for ever. It is but natural that it has just the right merits to suit a lovely occasion like marriage. Wedding Cookies have a perfect blend of taste and flavour and the element of fun that is eternally associated with romantic fortunes make it a perfect treat for the guests and augment the delight of the occasion. Fun is associated with decorated cookies in every step right from making or procuring it to eating.
Cookie gift baskets can be excellent personalized wedding favours and in this respect they have a dynamic role to play. The can be used as romantic fortunes and made to carry romantic fortune or messages for the new couple. They carry messages from heart to heart. They are the perfect carriers of good wishes. The heart shaped wedding cookies circulate love among the guests and thus creates perfect ambiance for the romantic association for two souls.
Decorated Cookies do not fall in the category of junk favours and thus are the preferred edibles for most of the guests. There can be no debate on the fact that wedding cookies go extremely well with the guests and are love equally by all.
Customized decorated cookies can be created in accordance with the theme of the wedding and as well as with the season of the wedding. The shape, flavor and the décor of the cookies speak a lot and thus one should take special care while selecting them.
If one is enthusiastic enough then making wedding cookies at home is a fun and has personal touch that has hardly any comparison but if that sounds to be in convenient then lots of online vendors and local bakeries are always there to help. They take care of the personal taste and preferences and often provide with customized cookies.
Wedding cookies often carry the name of the bride and the groom and the wedding date inscribed upon them and thus makes for easy and effective memoir.
Cookies have other merits as well and it is culmination of all these factors that have made cookies a favored choice for wedding down the ages. Cookies are known to be cost effective and moreover they can be stored for long time.
At last one can never go wrong with a cookie gift basket for the newly wed couple is sure to love it.
About the Author
To get more information about personalized wedding cookies for special day, visit www.myowncookie.com
Cream Dipper
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Economy Ice Cream Dipper | 12 Scoops per Litre | Ice Cream Scoop, Metal Scoops, Ice Cream Spoon £2.99 Economy model, one size only, liquid filled dipper which transmits heat from the hand to help cut through the ice cream, making serving easier.Dimensions:W 40mm L 180mm… |
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Winware Ice Cream Dipper (Liquid filled to transmit heat from hand to scoop) £6.65 … |
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SMALL SALADS – CELERY SOUR CREAM DIPPER … |
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Doritos Sour Cream Chive Dip 300g £2.94 Doritos Cool Sour Cream & Chives Dipping Sauce 300g… |
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MAXONS American Cream Soda Sherpot 50 g (Pack of 18) £12.99 … |
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Ice cream dippers: An illustrated history and collector’s guide to early ice cream dippers … |
12 Ways to Make Food Fun For Toddlers
When youre an adult the steamed broccoli is just plopped onto your plate right next to the drab, boring looking chicken fried steak.
No one bothers to make a Smiley Face out of gravy or to mold the mash potatoes into a castle. Of course, if you were to do that stuff on Your Own youd get dirty looks from your spouse as well as the waitress.
But if youre a toddler its perfectly okay to make eating fun. In fact, its encouraged (those toddlers get all the breaks).
Before we jump right into the 12 ways to make food fun for toddlers, we should probably discuss their eating habits.
Toddlers dont really eat meals they just snack and they do so all day long. This eating pattern is a result of their small stomachs and their ability to burn calories extremely fast (if only that lasted into adulthood). A toddlers stomach is about the size of their fist. So obviously it doesnt take much food to make a toddler full.
I know what youre asking right now, Okay their stomachs are small, that makes sense, but why are they such notoriously picky eaters?
Well, a human triples his or her body weight during the first year of life. But humans of toddler age, 2- to 3-years old, gain weight at a much slower pace (although your clothing bill may disagree).
Since they gain weight more slowly, they need less food. Since they need less food they instinctively realize they can afford to be finicky (lucky you).
Finally, toddlers are like little Magellans. They are constantly exploring the world around them. Not only does this exploring burn calories but it also makes it harder for them to sit still and eat.
Now you know why your toddler is a persnickety grazer that never seems to want to slow down for meal time. Thats also why its important to make food fun for toddlers. The more enjoyable you make eating, and eating healthy, the more likely they are to develop responsible eating habits in the future.
Keepin It Healthy, Yo
This isnt exactly fun but it is important. Since toddlers are extremely active and eat very little its important that they eat the right kinds of foods. For each snack (meal) try to include at least two different food groups. Also try to stick to nutrient-dense foods like avocados, broccoli, brown rice, cheese, fish, kidney beans, pasta, Peanut Butter, poultry, sweet potatoes, and yogurt.
The Basics
Beyond the old airplane trick, there are some basic things you can do to make any food fun for your toddler. The first thing you can do is name the food. Eating something called Broc Wee or Avo Cado Wado is much better than eating broccoli or avocados (I still call tomatoes tom toms). Another trick is putting a face on their food. For instance using peanut butter to draw eyes and a smile on a piece of toast is always a crowd pleaser.
Dip It and Dip It Good
For a toddler, a dip and something to dip with is pure unadulterated fun. Its really like a cross between craft time and snack time. For dips, look to yogurt, peanut butter, cream cheese, cottage cheese, and guacamole. For dippers think about apple slices, pear chunks, bell pepper strips, or toast. Dont be afraid to mix and match. Peanut butter and bell pepper may not sound good to you but your toddler may love it.
Bring It On Cone
Take an ice Cream Cone or a wafer ice cream cup and fill it with bite-size fruit. Remember toddlers are tiny so make the fruit chucks very small. Your toddler can eat the fruit right from cone or they can pick the fruit out with their fingers. While they are at it they can also eat the cone. I do a similar thing with martini olives.
Spread Your Things And Fly
Another thing toddlers like to do is smear things onto other things (so do some adults but thats another story). So help them explore that skill. Show them how to spread peanut butter, cheese, or fruit concentrate onto toast, crackers, and rice cakes. Youll probably need to teach them how to use some sort of spreading implement or you could always have them use their fingers.
String Cheese Incident
Who doesnt love a string of food? Im still waiting for string bacon. String cheese is a great finger food that comes preassembled and ready to eat. Give your toddler two and they can use them as drumsticks in between bites. Another good idea: cut the string cheese into bite-size chunks and insert stick pretzels into the cubes.
Smoothie Operator
For a change of pace your toddler can drink a snack instead of eating one. Make them a smoothie using milk, fruit, wheat germ, yogurt, honey, and/or peanut butter. Keep in mind that its a good idea to avoid raw eggs (salmonella poisoning). Done right, a smoothie can be a very healthy and filling snack.
Just Try To Toppings That
Toddlers like food with toppings and why not? Its an awesome concept: food topped with more food. Toppings are not only a good way to combine two food groups but its also a good way to broaden their palette. You can top a food they like with food they havent tried or arent particularly fond of eating.
Just Another Fruit Brick In The Wall
Dissolve three envelopes of unflavored gelatin in 3/4 cup boiling water. Add 12-ounces of your toddlers favorite frozen juice concentrate (after all every toddler has a favorite frozen juice concentrate). Stir everything up until its thoroughly mixed. Pour the concoction into a lightly sprayed 9-by-13-inch pan. After allowing it to chill for several hours, cut into fun shapes and serve. Its like eating building blocks.
Nibble Tray
Grab yourself a compartmentalized dish, an ice-Cube Tray, or a muffin tinsomething bright, inviting, and safe. Fill the compartments with a variety of bite sized and nutritious finger foods like apple slices, broccoli florets, carrot bits, cheese blocks, and cereal. Place the buffet near their play area or somewhere they can easily get to it. Your toddler can graze on this smorgasbord for about hour or two before you have to throw it away (the food not your toddler).
Yes, We Have No Frozen Bananas
Bananas are the perfect food. Think about it, they already come in their own package. However, the banana can be made slightly better if you cut one into relatively thin circles and then roll it in crushed cereal or coconut. Place what you have in a dish and freeze. This is a great snack for your toddler on a hot summer day.
Dried Fruit Of the Spoon
Dried fruit is often overlooked as a healthy snack. Its usually better for your toddler than fruit snacks because dried fruit lack preservatives, Food Coloring, and artificial flavoring. Also, dried fruit is a nice change of pace from regular fruit; even toddlers get tired of eating the same old banana chunks and apple slices all the time.
About the Author
Ryan Hogan crafts useful articles for ParentingFun411, a website that offers parents a directory of fun parenting things. Also find tons of parenting information for parents and parents-to-be such as the Best Ways To Make Food Fun For Toddlers.
Chop Sticks
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Kitchen Craft Pure Oriental Chop Sticks Re-usable Bamboo, Pack of 10 £0.99 KCORSTICK Features: -Pack of ten chop sticks. Includes: -Includes a pack of ten reusable chopsticks. Construction: -Bamboo Construction…. |
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Melamine Chopsticks Chop Sticks – 27cm (10 Pairs) – Create an authentic Oriental feel when eating at home! £4.74 Our kitchen accessories are 100% durable and are therefore a MUCH better purchase than the other cheaper / less durable and poorly manufactured items that you can buy from high street retailers and other internet sellers…. |
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Training Chopsticks for kids, learners – Brightly coloured Blue learning chop sticks for childern £3.20 Chopstick trainers, makes using chopsticks childsplay! The cute girl rubber fixing hinge can be removed to leave a nice set of funky blue chop sticks!… |
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Chopping is Cutting an Item Into Small Pieces and Size and Shape are not Important
A good sharp knife is used to shape a food product and reduce its size. Having the same size and shape ensures even cooking. Items are shaped by slicing, chopping,
dicing, mincing and other special cutting techniques. Slicing is used to create three specialty cuts: chiffonier, rundle, and diagonal. Slicing skills are also used to produce oblique or roll cuts and lozenges. A chiffonier is to finely slice or shred leafy vegetables or herbs. You first wash and distend the leaves, such as spinach. Stack several leaves on top of each other and roll them tightly like a cigar. For more details you can go to Then make fine slices across the leaves while holding the leaf roll tightly. Rendell’s are disk-shaped slices of round vegetables or fruits, such as carrots. Diagonals are oval-shaped slices of cylindrical vegetables or fruits. The cut is similar to cut rundles except that the knife is held at an angle to the item being cut.
Oblique cuts are small pieces with two angle-cut sides.
You hold the knife at a 45-degree angle, and make the first cut. Roll the item a half turn, keeping the knife at the same angle, and make another cut. The result should be a wedge-shaped piece with two angled sides. Lozenges, not cough drops, are diamond-shaped cuts prepared from firm vegetables such as carrots, turnips, and potatoes. Slice the item into long slices however thick you want it. Then cut the slices into strips. Cut the strips at an
angle to produce diamond shapes. Sounds easy, doesn’t it. Horizontal slicing is used to cut a pocket into meats, poultry, or fish. This is usually referred to as butter flying. Chopping is cutting an item into small pieces and size and shape are not important. This is much easier than the other ways of cutting. Mincing is the same except the pieces are
smaller. Dicing is cutting an item into a cube. Chefs in restaurants would want each side to be equal. Before an item is diced, it is cut into sticks, such as juliennes and baton nets. The sticks are 2 inches long, with the sides either 1/8″for juliennes or 1/4″ for baton nets. Burnoose is cubes of 1/16″, small dice are 1/4″, medium dice are 1/2″, and large dice are 3/4″. Pays Anne is a flat, square, round or triangular item 1/2″ x 1/2″ x 1/16″.
Turner is a cutting technique that results in a football- shaped finished product with 7 equal sides and flat ends. This is a difficult cutting technique that takes a lot of patience.
Parisian’s are spheres of fruits or vegetables cut with a small melon ball cutter.
Now that you know all the different types of cuts, my advice
would be to find machines that slice and dice, such as a
mandolin. They are much quicker and usually safer.
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About the Author
a student of college