In Case You Needed More Proof Corn Syrup's Evils

This article is from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy:

Much High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated With Mercury, New Study Finds

Brand-Name Food Products Also Discovered to Contain Mercury

Minneapolis – Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published today in the scientific journal, Environmental Health. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brand- name food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient—including products by Quaker, Hershey’s, Kraft and Smucker’s.

HFCS use has skyrocketed in recent decades as the sweetener has replaced sugar in many processed foods. HFCS is found in sweetened beverages, breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS. Consumption by teenagers and other high consumers can be up to 80 percent above average levels.

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms,” said IATP’s David Wallinga, M.D., and a co-author in both studies. “Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered. We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply.”

In the Environmental Health article, Dufault et al. found detectable levels of mercury in nine of 20 samples of commercial HFCS. Dufault was working at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when the tests were done in 2005. She and co-authors conclude that possible mercury contamination of food chemicals like HFCS was not common knowledge within the food industry that frequently uses the sweetener. While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice or conduct additional testing.

For its report “Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup,” IATP sent 55 brand-name foods and beverages containing HFCS as the first or second ingredient to a commercial laboratory to be tested for total mercury. Nearly one in three products tested contained detectable mercury. Mercury was most prevalent in HFCS-containing dairy products, followed by dressings and condiments. Attached is the summary list of the 55 products and their total mercury content.

In making HFCS, caustic soda is used, among other things, to separate corn starch from the corn kernel. For decades, HFCS has been made using mercury-grade caustic soda produced in industrial chlorine (chlor-alkali) plants. The use of mercury cells to produce caustic soda can contaminate caustic soda, and ultimately HFCS, with mercury.

“The bad news is that nobody knows whether or not their soda or snack food contains HFCS made from ingredients like caustic soda contaminated with mercury,” said Dr. Wallinga. “The good news is that mercury-free HFCS ingredients exist. Food companies just need a good push to only use those ingredients.”

While most chlorine plants around the world have switched to newer, cleaner technologies, many still rely on the use of mercury cells. In 2005, 90 percent of chlorine production was mercury-free, but just 40 percent of European production was mercury-free. Four U.S. chlor-alkali plants still rely on mercury cell technology. In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama introduced legislation to force the remaining chlor-alkali plants to phase out mercury cell technology by 2012.

Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use, CU study finds

This article was passed along to me. This is very important!

Eating less, eating local and eating better could slash U.S. energy use, CU study finds

How much energy we use to produce food could be cut in half if
Americans ate less and ate local foods, wolfed down less meat, dairy
and junk food, and used more traditional farming methods, says a new
Cornell study.

'We could reduce the fossil energy used in the U.S. food system by
about 50 percent with relatively simple changes in how we produce,
process, package, transport and consume our food,' said David
Pimentel, professor emeritus of ecology and agriculture in the College
of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell.

Pimentel's analysis, co-authored with five former Cornell
undergraduates who were in Pimentel's Environmental Policy course in
2006, is published in the academic journal Human Ecology.

Pimentel says that about 19 percent of the total fossil fuel used in
this country goes into the food system -- about the same amount we use
to fuel cars. His analysis details how changes in the food system
could reduce energy.

For example, the researchers recommend:

* Eat less and cut down on junk food: To produce the typical
American diet requires the equivalent of about 500 gallons of oil
per year per person, says the study. Americans, on average,
consume about 50 percent more calories than recommended by the
federal government for optimal health and get one-third of their
calories from junk food. Eating less and cutting down on junk food
would use significantly less energy, considering all the
processing, packaging and transportation costs saved.
* Eat less meat and dairy: We use 45 million tons of plant protein
to produce 7.5 million tons of animal protein per year, according
to Pimentel. Switching to a vegetarian diet, he says, would
require one-third less fossil fuel than producing the current
animal-based American diet.
* Eat more locally grown food: Food travels an average of 1,500
miles before it is eaten. 'This requires 1.4 times the energy than
the energy in the food,' Pimentel said. A head of iceberg lettuce,
for example, which is 95 percent water, provides 110 calories and
few nutrients. Irrigating the lettuce in California takes 750
calories of fossil energy and shipping it to New York another
4,000 calories of energy per head, according to the analysis.
Locally grown cabbage, on the other hand, requires only 400
calories to produce and offers far more nutrients, not to mention
it can be stored all winter long.
* Use more traditional farming methods: Pimentel's team also shows
how using methods to reduce soil erosion, irrigation and pesticide
use, through such things as crop rotation, manure and cover crops,
could cut the total energy now used in crop production.

The study's co-authors are Sean Williamson, Courtney Alexander, Omar
Gonzalez-Pagan, Caitlin Kontak and Steven Mulkey, all Cornell Class of
2007.

http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/Aug08/Energy.Food.html

Pumpkin Pancakes & Apple Cider Syrup

I think I have mentioned how terribly I am missing autumn before. I miss the cool breeze, the changing leaves, and the smell of cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves. Thankfully I have access to the spices since the first two are impossible to buy in the desert.

I had some extra pumpkin and had this urge to make pumpkin pancakes for a while, so on Sunday morning I made them for our lovely wonderful guests from CA! The recipe is from allrecipes.com, (one of the best recipe sites, btw!) To top off this delicious breakfast, I threw together an amazing apple cider syrup.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 whole wheat flour)
  
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons vinegar

Directions

1. In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, pumpkin, egg, oil and vinegar. Combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, allspice, cinnamon, ginger and salt, stir into the pumpkin mixture just enough to combine.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

There is no recipe for the apple cider syrup since I made it up on the spot! But all I did was pour about 1 cup of apple cider in a pot on medium heat with some cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. I then added a few tablespoons of flour (corn starch would have been ideal since you need 1/2 the starch to flour but I didn't have any) and whisked that in while over the heat for about 10 minutes until it thickened.

The pancakes were wonderful and fluffy. I was unsure what the wheat flour and pumpkin would do to the texture but they turned our really well. The pumpkin pancakes weren't very sweet so it was a good thing we had the syrup on hand! The combination of pumpkin, spices, and apple cider was really amazing. Expect some more pumpkin/apple cider combinations in the future!

Mango Saffron Ice Cream & Peach Pie

As promised, I have made an ice cream flavor recommended by a reader! Thanks to a comment posted by “bite me,” I made mango saffron ice cream yesterday to give to a friend as a graduation gift. As with all my ice creams, I used my standard recipe for French vanilla while making a few changes.

I started by bringing 1½ C milk to a simmer with about ¼ teaspoon of saffron. Once small bubbles started to appear, to took the pot off the heat and let the saffron steep for 30 minutes.


Next, I strained the saffron out of the milk and continued with the rest of the recipe. I added ¾ C sugar to the milk and brought this back to a simmer. I then tempered in two egg yolks and stirred for about 10 minutes, until a thick custard was formed. The custard was then put in the fridge to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, I cut and pureed two mangos. Once the custard had cooled some, I added two cups of heavy whipping cream and stirred in the mango puree. This mixture was then placed in the fridge to cool for a few hours before placing it in the ice cream maker for 15 minutes.

I was unsure how this recipe would work out and was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out! You first taste the mango by itself, and then slowly the saffron comes in at the end. Both flavors are very subtle and nice. This ice cream mixes a pleasant amount of sweetness from the mango and savory from the saffron to create a unique and incredibly enjoyable dessert. Thanks so much to “bite me” for the recommendation!

That same afternoon I made a peach pie to bring to a dinner party at night. The recipe I used from the Joy of Cooking (a.k.a. the Bible) called for homemade pie dough for the crust. Normally, I avoid store-bought dough at all costs, but do to a lack of time (and a lack of shortening, which is required for any successful pie crust that is both soft and flaky, thank you Alton Brown) I bought a box of two rolls of pie crust. The recipe is as follows, changed slightly from the original to match my adjustments:

Peach Pie
Line a 9-inch pie pan with:
1 rolled out pie dough (store bought or home-made)
Preheat the oven to 425º F.
Peel, pit, and slice ¼ inch thick:
2 ½ pounds peaches (6 peaches for me)
Combine in a bowl with:
½ C sugar
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon salt
Let stand for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pout the filling into the bottom crust and dot with:
2 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Cover the pie with a lattice made from a second piece of rolled out pie dough. Lightly brush this top crust with:
Milk
Sprinkle with:
2 Tbsp sugar
Bake about 55 minutes. Cool completely on a rack.

The pie was incredible and was better than any store-bought peach pie I have ever had. Making the lattice was easy, and was simply done by cutting strips about an inch thick out of rolled out pie dough, laying about half horizontally and then covering those with the other strips vertically. Brushing the top with milk definitely gave the pie a gorgeous golden brown color. Pictures are below!

Sushi Party!

The last piece of meat I have ever eaten was sushi in Kobe, Japan. I thought it would be the most ceremonious way to end my carnivorous career and indeed eating raw octopus and some other unidentified raw fish (I can only hope they were some kind of sea creature) was an experience! I had always been a huge fan of sushi before, my favorite being shrimp tempura. In fact, shrimp tempura is one of the only meat-filled foods I ever crave anymore. I do love veggie sushi, particularly avocado rolls and asparagus tempura rolls, but it always seems like a very expensive meal to buy at a restaurant, seeing as it is only a small piece of vegetable wrapped in a palm-full of rice. I have always been tempted to make my own sushi, but never seemed to have the time to actually pull it off. So when Rose asked me what I wanted to make for my birthday dinner, sushi seemed like the perfect choice!



Neither of us had ever made sushi, nor did we do any research like we normally do before trying a new dish. We entered the kitchen with a pot of sticky rice, nori (seaweed paper), some veggies, and tempura batter and just went at it.

First was prepping all the veggies and cutting them into small, thin pieces. We started with carrot, cucumber, avocado, and red pepper. Next, we cut up some sweet potato, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, green beans, and mushrooms to be fried in the tempura batter.


We started frying the tempura vegetables until they were golden brown in a pot of hot peanut oil. I never fry unless I have to since I have an aversion to flesh-burning-hot oil for some reason…but I overcame this apprehension for my love of tempura. For the most part, the frying went well and there were no serious burns or other injuries.


After the cutting and frying was complete, we were ready to start rolling the sushi! Thankfully the nori package had directions and little diagrams. While sushi seems somewhat self-explanatory, once you are standing there in front of the sushi mat, the task seems slightly daunting that first time. We placed a sheet of nori on a sushi mat and then spread about a ½ cup of sticky rice over the nori. Starting with the end closest to us, we started laying the veggies in thin rows next to each other. I then started rolling the mat up, making sure to squeeze the sushi roll right throughout so that it keeps its form.


Once rolled, we cut the sushi into 6-8 pieces. After trial-and-error, we discovered that you have to cut the roll in the same direction that the nari was rolled. If not, the cuts become rough and the sushi pieces start to fall apart.


I was surprised to find how easy it was make the sushi rolls! We served the sushi and tempura vegetables with a side of soy sauce, soy & wasabi, and teriyaki. For about the same price of ordering a few rolls of sushi at a restaurant, we were able to make easily 50 pieces, enough to feed four people and still have leftovers for another meal.


This will be my last DC post for about 7 months, since I will be moving back to Baltimore for three weeks before I leave for Tucson, AZ! But that does not mean the end of posts! I will continue writing about my cooking experiences from across the country plus my experiences working at the Tucson food bank. I am sure there will be an increase in the amount of ice cream I make since I hear the heat can be atrocious.


So please leave some ideas for a fun/crazy/unique ice cream flavor for me to (try to) make!

Also, I added a little gadget to the top right of the page so you can subscribe and be told whenever I post something new. Or add the Hungry Sprout to Google Reader, a nifty new application I started using myself for reading blogs!

The Last Operation Frontline Class

This morning was my last Operation Frontline class at the Ward 8 farmers market in Anacostia. The theme for the last class with other OFL lessons is usually something along the lines of “healthy baking,” but since we only have a single burner the ability to bake anything was nonexistent. So instead we made fruit smoothies and pancakes! I am a firm believer that this world would be a better place if people only ate more pancakes, so it seemed like a fun and delicious was to end the class.

The fruit smoothies were simply a mixture of ice, fruit, milk, yogurt, and a little bit of honey. We used two bananas, and a couple peaches, apricots, and nectarines. My favorite farmer from the market, Carl, (who’s farm is certified Naturally Grow in PA) gave us a bunch of seconds (produce that is bruised or blemished, not pretty enough to sell but usually still delicious after a few spots have been cut away) and so Ona & I talked about how smoothies were a great way to use seconds or even fruit that has been bruised or is going bad at home.

Fruit Smoothies
1 C ice cubes
1 C fresh fruit (berries, peaches, bananas, etc)
1/2 C milk (or soy milk)
1/4 C Yogurt (plain or vanilla)
1 Tbsp Honey

Add ingredients in a blender and puree until smooth.

Usually our technology for this class is limited to the portable gas burner and so we felt pretty adventurous breaking into the realms of a blender powered by a generator (kindly given to us by Virginia, one of the women in charge of the market). What seemed to be ice jamming the blender turned out to be the generator just not having enough power to blend anything! So Ona walked somewhere and found an outlet to blend everything together. She came back a few minutes later with delicious smoothies!

I was unsure where Ona went since I was preoccupied making a blackberry sauce that would later be used to top the pancakes. This is a sauce that I throw together pretty often making pancakes or waffles, and I usually use whatever berries I have on hand (strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries work very well in this recipe too. And while I’ve never tried it, I have no doubt a mixture of all of them would be great!)

Berry Sauce
1 pint blackberries berries
1/3 C brown sugar
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp water
1 1/2 tsp cornstarch (or 1 Tbsp flour)

Mix berries, sugar, and lemon juice in a pot and heat over medium heat for a few minutes, until the juice starts to come out of the berries. In a small bowl, whisk in water to corn starch and mix into berry mixture. Cook over heat for a minute or two to allow sauce to thicken.

Once the sauce was done, I took it off the burner and got started on the pancake mix. Instead of using a plain mix, I figured it would be fun and more nutritious to make multigrain pancakes. I threw this recipe together from the Joy of Cooking and a few I found online.

Multi-grain Pancakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup quick cook oats
1/3 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup flour
2 t baking powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 T apple sauce (or vegetable oil)
2 T honey
1 t vanilla

Mix first seven ingredients in a medium bowl.

In a large bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, butter, honey and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients; mix well. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Spray with cooking spray.

When pan is quite hot, pour in 1/4-1/3 cup batter. Cook until bubbles pop, flip and cook until brown.

While the pancakes were cooking, Ona gave a lesson on healthy drinks and the dangers of soda, Gatorade, etc. She did a demonstration in which she held up different beverage packages (a Pepsi bottle, Gatorade bottle, and a Starbucks cup). For each, Ona would ask the class participants to guess how much sugar is in each of these drinks. She would then pull out sugar packets totally the amount of actual sugar found in these drinks all taped together. Needless to say, people were shocked and sickened to see just how much sugar is actually in these drinks! Its one think to see the amount of grams on the back of a label, but to physically see just how much sugar is in a drink is quite another thing! Ona continued by talking about the benefits of drinking water, so as not to get too many empty calories and sugar from all of these drinks.

Then we ate! The pancakes were a hit and the blackberry sauce lasted no longer than a few minutes! I was happily surprised that the pancakes weren’t as heavy and dense as I expected from a multi-grain batter.

Unfortunately, I had to say our goodbyes to the class participants, Ona, and Batina. The OFL class has truly been an incredible and invaluable experience for me. I am so thankful that I was given the opportunity to volunteer this summer by doing what I love and sharing my passion for food with others. I found that I learned a lot about nutrition from the classes and I learned how to cook in front of others. Most importantly, I was able to see malnutrition first-hand in my community while hopefully creating a sense of empowerment within the people we talked to, showing how they can create healthy and affordable meals for themselves and their famines, while using fresh, local (and hopefully organic as much as possible!) produce. I hope that when I return to DC at the end of February, I will be able to continue volunteering with OFL and the food bank, and hopefully teach this same class at the market again!

Healthy Snacks at OFL

This past Saturday was the fourth Operation Frontline class and the lesson for the day was healthy snacking. One led a good discussion on what constitutes a healthy snack and how to shop for them. She drew a diagram of a typical supermarket and showed how shopping on the periphery of the store can help ensure that you are purchasing the healthiest, most fresh, and often cheapest food in the store.

My recipes for the day were hummus, guacamole, and tofu in a Chinese peanut sauce. I started by sautéing the tofu in the very begging of the class since that took almost 30 or 40 minutes for the tofu to fully cook. This was started before Ona’s discussion and went through the rest of the demo. While the tofu was cooking, I moved on to the hummus and guacamole.

Hummus

1 (15 ounce) can garbanzo beans, drained, liquid reserved
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil

Directions:

Mash garbanzo beans with a fork (or blend in blender or food process if available). Add the garlic, cumin, salt and olive oil. Enjoy with pita, tortilla chips, or veggies!

I used a hummus recipe that did not call for tahini, like most traditional recipes, since it is quite expensive and often difficult to find at many grocery stores. We also did not have a food processor since there is no electricity, so we used a potato masher instead. The hummus turned out well and was a big hit with the class. It was eaten with cut up peppers, cucumbers, and tortilla chips. Next was the guacamole:

Guacamole

4 avocados - peeled, pitted, and mashed
1 lime, juiced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup diced onion
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 roma (plum) tomatoes, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)

Directions:

In a medium bowl, mash together the avocados, lime juice, and salt. Mix in onion, cilantro, tomatoes, and garlic. Stir in cayenne pepper. Refrigerate 1 hour for best flavor, or serve immediately.

The guacamole was by far the biggest hit of the morning! People kept coming back up for this dip and I can’t say I blame them. I am huge guac fan, and this one turned out so well!

After the tofu had browned nicely on all sides, I sautéed some pepper, onion, zuchinni, and squash in a little bit of olive oil while putting the peanut sauce together.


Tofu & Veggies in a Spicy Peanut Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pound firm tofu, cubed
¼ onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
1 small zuchinni
1 small squash

Sauce
1/2 cup good peanut butter
1/2 cup hot water
2 Tbs. soy sauce
2 Tbs. sugar
3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp. cider vinegar (white vinegar would work too)
1 to 2 Tbs minced fresh cilantro
cayenne, to taste
salt, to taste (if peanut butter is unsalted)

DIRECTIONS

Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute veggies and tofu for 5 minutes.

In a small bowl combine peanut butter, hot water, soy sauce, sugar, garlic, vinegar, cilantro, and cayenne. Pour over vegetables and tofu. Simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender crisp.

The recipe for the sauce was taken from the Moosewood Cookbook, one of my all-time favorites. I make this recipe once every month or so and use it on anything from veggies, pasta, rice, and even sautéed spinach. So good!

Only one out of the eight participants in the class had ever tried tofu. While there was some hesitation, everyone tried it in the end. I would say about half the people liked it while the other half pushed it to the side while eating the veggies. It took me at least 10 tires before actually learning to enjoy tofu, so I am impressed with the fact that everyone tired and that some even liked it! Even for those that weren’t falling in love with the tofu, they seemed to enjoy the sauce, which is another plus!

Ona surprised me at the end of the class by pulling out homemade muffins with candles on them to celebrate my birthday (the following day, the day of this post…please feel free to send cooking or other baked goods my way. I am also a huge fan of cheesecake. Oreo please. Thanks!) and had the class sing. She also gave me an awesome Capital Area Food Bank apron, which is so cool ☺ Thank you so much Ona. That was amazing of you.

This class had the most talkative participants of all the classes by far! Everyone was engaged, asking questions and making comments throughout the class. I think people really learned a lot this class, plus they tried some new foods! A few participants came up after the class to thank us personally and shake our hands, which was really wonderful. Next week, the final class: fruit smoothies and pancakes!

I also tried to make an apple cider sorbet this week. I didn’t have a recipe to follow and just played it by ear…It tastes awesome (since cider can’t really not taste awesome) but it needs some work to prevent it from turning into a solid block of delicious ice. Next time, though, I will use cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc and make spiced cider sorbet and hard cider sorbet. Yeah, I’m kind of in a cider kick. I think my body is craving autumn now that it is finally realizing I will be skipping autumn while in Arizona!

Breakfast Burritos & Bread

Saturday was the third Operation Frontline class and we focused on protein and dairy. The nutritionist, Suzie, from the first two lessons moved out of state so Ona, the program’s assistant coordinator has taken the reigns for the last few classes. For the first half of the class, we discussed the benefits of low-fat proteins and meat alternatives.

Ona conducted a powerful demonstration in which participants were given a sheet with the typical McDonalds and Chipotle menu with the total amount of fat and calories per meal. She then asked people to count the amount of fat they would get from a meal at these restaurants. The amount of fat from a cheeseburger, small fry, and an apple pie were scooped onto a piece of bread in the form of Crisco to show visually just how much fat is in fast food. In the end, there were 13 scoops of Crisco in this “fatty patty.” Everyone in the class seemed disgusted and I heard a few people mention how they would think twice before going to a fast food restaurant again.

For the cooking portion of the class we decided to make breakfast burritos and yogurt parfaits. We received fresh tomato, onion, and pepper from the farmers market for the burritos and blueberries (the best blueberries I have ever had probably!) and blackberries. The recipes are below:

Breakfast Burrito
2 eggs
2 tbsp milk (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/4 red onion
1/2 tomato, chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil or butter or margarine
1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese
fresh cilantro
1 flour tortilla

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs together with the milk until well beaten and season with salt,pepper, and cumin.

Heat the oil or butter in a skillet or frying pan over medium-high heat. Saute the pepper,onion, and tomato on medium heat for 5 minutes. Carefully add the eggs. Cook, mixing frequently, until you have scrambled eggs of the desired consistency.

Place the scrambled eggs in the center of the flour tortilla, and top with cheese.

After cooking the eggs, we had the class come up and top the egg & veggies with cheese and salsa. I found this nifty guide online to show the “proper” burrito folding technique at http://howtowrapaburrito.com/ (the best part is the fact that someone actually bought the domain name for this…) The burritos were tasty and way better for you than a regular burrito at Chipotle! Pictures below are courtesy of the wonderful Ona (she is keeping an excellent blog about all of the DC Operation Fronline programs called A Generous Helping. It is also linked at the right of this page!




Yogurt Parfait
2 C vanilla yogurt
1 C granola
1 C fresh berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries) or peaches

In a large glass or clear plastic cup, layer 1/2 of yogurt, 1/4 C granola, and 1/4 C fruit. Repeat layers

We used half vanilla yogurt and half plain yogurt mixed together, which cut the amount of sugar in half while keeping most of the sweetness. The class came up to the table to put together their own parfaits, which was fun!

The class had recent turnout and we decided to continue with the program for the last two weeks. Next Saturday will be healthy snacks!

On Sunday I made a loaf of honey oat bread to bring into the office. I used one of my favorite recipes that I found on allrecipes.com (a great site, by the way). The recipe can be found: here http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Honey-Oatmeal-Bread-II/Detail.aspx

Somewhat similar to the gnocchi experience a few weeks ago, the dough kept sucking in all the flour I poured in since it was so freaking humid! I was about to give up on bread making in DC for the summer, but eventually a dough-like thing was forming.

I somehow managed to get the giant loaf (since all the extra flour!) into my bag and biked it work this morning. Seeing as it disappeared inside the first hour of the workday, I would say it was a success! The bread was incredibly soft and delicious. I normally follow the recipe by brushing honey and dropping oats on top after baking, but I left that step out this time since I figured sticky fingers on work keyboards would be a bad idea.

Ginger Snap Ice Cream

After my semi-failed attempt at peach cobbler ice cream I had to get right back into making a new batch since I had some cream & milk that needed to get used before going bad. Ginger snap had been recommended as a potential flavor and while I usually think of ginger snaps and ginger bread as more of a winter flavor I figured I’d give it a try.

As always, I started with the French Vanilla recipe from JOY and added things to it to make this batch of ice cream.

French Vanilla Ice Cream (aka, the base to every ice cream I ever make)
2 C heavy whiping cream
1 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp vanilla

After the custard was fully chilled (read below to the post entitled I Love Ice Cream More Than Words Can Say to get a full description of the custard-making process) I started by adding the spices. I found a recipe online that seemed similar to what I was going for and so I started by adding the recommended amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger but found that this was not nearly as flavorful as I was hoping for, so I just added tons and tons until the flavor seemed right. I also added freshly ground cloves to the mix.

Two minutes before the ice cream was done churning, I added crushed up ginger snap cookies. A handful of the best store-bought ginger snaps I have ever tasted were donated to me by Sally. They taste like real ginger and are incredibly crisp. I was worried that they would be too hard, but the cream softened them up a great deal and they scoop out easily with the ice cream.

The ginger snap ice cream turned out very well and I will be sure to make it again, regardless of the season.



Does anybody have recommendations for the next ice cream flavor? I am thinking bananas foster but am open to ideas!

The Past Week

I haven't had time to post in a week but I have been able to squeeze in a little bit of cooking. I should mention that the peach cobbler ice cream tasted quite good but the texture…horribly icy and I’m not sure why. I think the peaches weren’t ripe enough or something, but I will definitely be trying again.

On Wednesday night, Rose and I had some leftover gnocchi to finish off so she made an incredible sauce out of ricotta, half-and-half, white wine, rosemary, and some other herbs. We made it up on the spot and there is no recipe, but it was delicious. We also made an omelet with tomato, mozzarella, and basil (possibly my favorite combination of foods ever, and one we throw together in one form or another at least once a week). Thursday was homemade pizzas with my fellow interns topped with tons of veggies while watching Clueless. The dough was from Trader Joe’s, which saved a few hours of waiting for it to rise, plus it had herbs & garlic in it, and you can rarely go wrong with herbs and garlic. Friday night I just sautéed veggies in tons of garlic and tossed it with whole-wheat pasta and feta.

Saturday morning was my second OFL class at the farmers market. At first no one was showing up and we were unsure if we were even going to go through with the class. Eventually a few people did show and we decided to start since we were there and had all the produce ready. This week’s lesson was on fruits and vegetables. I first made a corn & black bean salsa with the below recipe that I compiled from a few different ones I found online:

Corn & Black Bean Salsa
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 1/2 C corn kernels (about 4 ears)
1/4 C onion, finely chopped
1/2 C red bell pepper,chopped
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
4 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Drain and rinse the black beans in a colander. Cut fresh corn off the cob. Finely chop onion, pepper, and cilantro. Add all ingredients into a bowl; add salt & pepper to taste. Mix together with olive oil. For best taste, let sit covered in the fridge for at least an hour, but can be eaten immediately.

Since we don’t have a fridge, we let the salsa sit until the end of the lesson for the flavors to combine. I next made a “fruit salsa,” which was actually a fruit salad. I had a recipe but everyone forgot to print it out, so we just added everything we had: a few peaches, a mango, a few golden kiwis, papaya, blueberries, and a pineapple. We topped it all with a splash of orange juice and honey.

The two salsas were eaten at the end of the lesson, and they seemed to be a hit. I think the veggie salsa needed some more salt and cumin but besides that everything was delicious. Below are a few pictures taken by my fellow foodie intern, Julie (one amazing food photographer, by the way)





Unfortunately, only one person from the first week showed up to the class so much of the time was spent reviewing what we did the prior week (the food pyramid, whole grains). Even so, the people did show up seemed to learn some and enjoyed themselves. We decided to try one more class next week and determine if we finish out the last two weeks. The classes are meant to be a comprehensive nutrition cooking class and if people only show up for one or two classes they do not get the entire message and we have to spend time going back over everything we’ve already discussed. I mentioned that I am up for staying with the class as long as Operation Frontline wishes to keep it going. So we shall see how this Saturday goes.

Right after the class Rose and I went to Rehoboth beach! By far the most relaxing and amazing weekend I have had in a long time. On Sunday morning, Rose’s aunt made French toast for breakfast and so we caramelized peaches to put on top. To do this we melt some butter and mix in brown sugar, cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg and cooked the peaches in this deliciously unhealthy mixture for a few minutes. So good.

Be on the lookout this week for a new ice cream (maybe bananas foster or ginger snap) and anything else I can think up! If anyone is reading and has an awesome recipe you should share it ☺ I will also try to start taking more pictures of the food to share with everyone!

Gnocchi and Peach Cobbler (Ice Cream)

On Saturday, Rose and I decided to make homemade gnocchi. I have had some prior experience making pasta (spinach & mint ravioli, rosemary linguine, and spinach & ricotta ravioli), so gnocchi seemed like it would be a simple, quick task in relation to those daylong experiences. How little I knew…

The recipe was simple enough. We steamed 2 pounds of potatoes for about 30 minutes and then mashed them with a pinch of salt and about a tablespoon of freshly chopped rosemary. The recipe then called for 2 cups of flour to be kneaded into the potatoes. Unfortunately, an incredible amount of humidity mixed with my stubbornness in the kitchen when things go wrong is not a good combination. No matter how much flour I added the dough would keep getting sticky.

So, about after an hour or two and 6 to 8 cups of flour later, I finally gave up (with Rose’s insistence that everything would still work out). We rolled out the dough, which was 10x the size it was originally supposed to be, into thin rolls and cut them into 1” pieces. We then boiled the gnocchi’s in salted water for a minute or two until they floated to the top. Boiling all of this dough took a long time, but we were finally able to sit down and eat the gnocchi topped with tomato sauce with freshly squeezed lime aid while watching Monk (one of the funniest show ever btw, besides Arrested Development, Flight of the Conchords, and the Office).

While it took a few hours longer and much more flour than we expected, the gnocchis actually tasted really good! The fresh rosemary was a great addition, and now we will be eating gnocchi every meal this week and still won’t run out for a while!

Sunday I decided to make peach cobbler ice cream. The plan was to make a regular peach ice cream with cinnamon and then add toasted oats covered in brown sugar and butter, the cobbler topping. The peaches were not as ripe as they should have been to make peach ice cream so it is not as “peachy” as I would have liked. Next time, I will wait a few days after buying them until they are soft and juicy before turning them into ice cream. The oat topping though tasted delicious and truly made the ice cream. The recipe still needs a little work, but it is still quite delicious!

Operation Frontline

This morning was my first class with Operation Frontline. Operation Frontline is a joint effort with Share our Strength and local food banks throughout the country, the Capital Area Food Bank in DC, in which cooking and nutrition classes are provided to people in low-income communities. The class focuses on teaching people how to make healthy & nutritious meals on a budget. Most of the classes are taught in community centers, schools, etc.

I am a volunteer chef for a new program that the food bank is trying out at a farmers market that focuses on using fresh, local produce. The class is at the Ward 8 market in Anacostia, a tiny market by the Congress Heights metro stop. I had been nervous about the class since I am far from a professional chef and have never had to run a cooking demonstration before. Even so, I thought this would be an amazing opportunity for me to help share my love of food & cooking with people who could learn a lot from the experience.

This class was focused on whole grains (each of the 5 classes has a different food group if focuses on) and so I decided to make homemade oatmeal and whole-wheat pasta salad. When we got to the farmers market we visited the tables and purchased some peaches & blueberries for the oatmeal and veggies for the pasta salad. Becky, the director of the program, started the class off and then handed the rest over to Suzie (the nutritionist) and myself.

The class went well and all of the participants seemed to be interested and engaged the whole time. There were 6 people in attendance, mostly middle age or elderly people from the community. After Suzie did the first part of her nutrition lesson, I began making the oatmeal. I talked about the health & economic benefits of using rolled oats over instant oatmeal while slicing up peaches to be added in. After the oatmeal was done, we divided up the pot, and everyone topped their cereal with fresh, local peaches and blueberries. The highlight was when one woman originally said she usually eats oatmeal with butter said, "This doesn't even need butter!" The recipe was the basic recipe from the back of the oat container, but I also added in about a tablespoon of honey and a few dashes of cinnamon.

I then started the pasta salad by boiling a box of whole-wheat pasta and cutting up the veggies. We used a cucumber, zucchini, pepper, cherry tomatoes, and feta cheese. The dressing was a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, honey, fresh herbs (we used sage, parsley, and leeks, all from the Capital Area Food Bank's organic farm outside the city), salt, and pepper. We were supposed to also put in Balsamic vinegar, but we forgot to bring it. The pasta salad was a hit and numerous people said how they were excited to try the recipe that week at home.

We gave out a box of whole-wheat pasta for all the participants and a $10 voucher for produce at the market. Everyone left with a smile on his or her face and a few people mentioned how they were going to bring a few friends to next week's class.

I was worried that the class was going to be a total disaster but overall it was a huge success. The class went relatively smoothly and Suzie & I seemed to work well together. It couldn't have been a success without the invaluable help of Becky and Betina (the class assistant). The participants seemed happy & thankful for the class and everyone involved seemed to have a good time and get a lot out of the experience. I am so thankful that it went so well and that I was given this opportunity to begin with.

Next week's lesson is on fruit and veggies featuring salsas of the fruit and veggie persuasion!

I Love Ice Cream More Than Words Can Say

My absolute favorite thing to make is ice cream. This past winter I bought an ice cream maker with gift money from the holidays, and it was the best investment I have probably ever made! Since then, I have made a batch almost every week, if not twice a week. I have also dabbled in sorbets and gelato, but mostly I stick with ice cream. I recently made a list of flavors I have made over the half year while bored at work once, and here is what I could remember (in no particular order):

Peppermint Bark, Chocolate-Hazelnut gelatto, Chai, Berry sorbet, Pineapple-Orange sorbet, Pineapple-Orange-Strawberry Sorbet, Mint-Oreo, Birthday Cake (made by my old housemate, Sunny. She is amazing), Mango Sorbet, Strawberry, Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, White-Chocolate Raspberry, Blackberry, Mint Chocolate Chip, Irish Coffee (also a Sunny creation), Caramel, Pumpkin, Pumpkin Pie, Chai Pumpkin Pie, Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, Vegan Peanut Butter Brownie, Cookies and Cream, Maple Walnut, Thin Mint, Samoa, and my most recent flavors were Mexican Chocolate and Coffee Oreo.

I have spent a lot of time experimenting with different ice cream recipes, changing the proportions of cream, milk, and sugar and the use of egg. What I have found is that there is one recipe that tends to work amazingly well and it is this recipe that I use for 95% all ice cream I make now. Not surprisingly, this recipe comes out of the Joy of Cooking (or as I refer to it, the Bible), the single best cookbook for anyone to purchase in my opinion.

French Vanilla Ice Cream
2 C heavy whiping cream
1 C whole milk
2 egg yolks
3/4 C sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2 tsp vanilla

Start by heating 1 C whole milk an 3/4 C sugar, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Then, slowly temper the egg yolks into the cream mixture (by slowly adding about 1/2 C of the hot mixture into the eggs before pouring the whole thing back into the pot. This will help the eggs heat up without curdling). Stir this mixture constantly until it reaches about 175 degrees fahrenheit. I use a candy thermometer, but if you don't have one, you can use a wooden spoon and when the custard gets thick enough to cover the back of the spoon, you should be good. Take this off the heat and let it cool down for about 1/2 an hour before adding the 2 C cream and vanilla. Let this chill in the fridge for at least 4-6 hours, but overnight is better. I put a piece of plastic wrap directly on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.

Once the cream has chilled all the way, place it in the ice cream maker for 15-20 minutes. If adding solids to the ice cream (chocolate chips, broken cookies, nuts, etc) do this two minutes before the churning is done. The measurement for these is almost always 1 C. Once it had doubled in volume, transfer to a container and place in the freezer for at least 4-6 hours before eating.

For the Mexican Chocolate ice cream, I added 1/4 C coco powder to the egg yolks before tempering them into the hot milk/sugar mixture. Once it cooled down and the cream was added, I put in only 1 tsp. vanilla, and some cinnamon and ceyenne pepper. Unfortunately, I didn't measure the spices and just did it to taste, but it turned out amazingly well. You taste the cinnamon and chocolate, but then the spiceyness of the ceyenne comes at the end almost as an aftertaste. Awesome.

For the Coffee Oreo ice cream (technically Coffee JoeJoe, since I used the Trader Joe's version of oreos, which in my opinion are much better and they don't have high fructose corn syrup!) I added 1/4 C coffee into the milk/sugar mixture once the sugar disolved. I took the pot off the heat and covered it, letting it steep for 1/2 an hour before straining the coffee grounds out. I then put the mixture back on the heat and followed the rest of the recipe with the eggs & cream. Two minutes before it was done churning, I added 1 C of crushed cookies.

If you have any ideas for future ice cream flavors, let me know and I will try them out!

Cranberry Walnut Bread

Last Monday, I decided to make a sourdough starter. A starter, or a sponge, is a technique that was used in bread making before the commercialization of yeast in which a mixture of flour and water ferments over a few days, collecting yeast from the air, which then multiply. All of my previous bread making has remained in the realm of instant yeast and I was intrigued by the idea of a starter. My fellow intern, Iris, talked about using starters for bread and I thought it was the coolest thing to have a living organism in your fridge that would be able to make bread indefinitely! I did research the night before and was overwhelmed by the commitment required to make a successful starter. By far the coolest fact I learned was that starters will live forever as long as they are taken care of, and that there are some in existence today that have been alive for centuries! How cool!?

I started Monday morning by mixing 2 cups AP flour, 2 cups water, and one package of yeast, and covering the bowl (having not made bread in this kitchen before, I was told there wouldn't be enough yeast spoors in the air and to add yeast to the mixture to get it started, the rest will grow from that). Every twelve hours or so, I would feed it with another cup of flour and cup of water. By day two, the starter was almost 8 cups and I was becoming a little concerned that this project would take over my entire room (I didn't force my experiment upon my housemates, and so I left the concoction in my bedroom). I learned from a website that you could actually dump half of the starter and add back the same amount in flour and water again so it doesn't end up filling the entire sink. After only a few hours of adding the flour/water mixture, the starter would start to bubble and become incredibly foamy, increasing some in volume.

I figured to give my starter a try on Wednesday night as a sort of test run for the actual loaf I was planning on making for the 4th of July. I made a simple whole wheat loaf by adding 2 C starter to 4 C flour (I used 2 C whole wheat flour & 2 C bread flour) I then let that mixture sit in the fridge for 12 hours or so to let it proof (fermenting the dough). I then took the dough out of the fridge and let it reach room temperature for about two hours before adding some more bread flour and kneading for about 10 minutes. The recipe called for 1/2 C flour, but I found I needed to add much more since it was humid and the dough was too sticky. After kneading, I shaped the dough into a ball and let it rise for two hours. I baked it in a 450 degree oven for 40 minutes with a tray of boiling water underneath to make a thick, crisp crust. The loaf turned out pretty well and was a hit at the office.

The real loaf that I had been planning on all week was made on Friday morning. I did the same steps as above, but added 1 cup of cranberries and 2 cups toasted walnuts to the dough. This bread was gorgeous and quite delicious! It was one massive loaf that weighted a few pounds Below are pictures of the dough while it was rising and right after it came out of the oven.

Overall, my sourdough starter was a success and I will use it (hopefully) for years and years to come. If anyone would like some starter, let me know and I can give you some of mine!

The Seed & the Sprout

The Seed:

My interest in food and hunger issues has grown over the years from a mere interest to a lifestyle. Food has not always played a central role in my life; to the contrary, I was the pickiest child imaginable while growing up. I refused to eat half of the meals my parent’s made and so ended up eating lucky charms for dinner more often than I would like to admit. I didn’t even eat vegetables until I entered college and that was because the lady in the salad line forced them upon me! It is amazing to look back over the past two years and see how my relationship to food has changed so drastically and how that relationship has transformed me personally. People often laugh when they find out that I am a vegetarian who didn’t eat vegetables up until three years ago, and that my first mushroom wasn’t until a year and a half ago!

So I decided to start a blog. While I can only hope my family and friends read it once and a while, the main purpose is for me to have a place to think and talk about food, share my successes and failures in the kitchen, and to try and piece together my many thoughts on food, agriculture, the environment, hunger, and sustainability. The product will hopefully be something semi-coherent and something that will continue to grow and change as I grow and change.

Hungry Sprout will be a site where I talk about everything related to food. I will talk about adventures from the oven, recipes I’ve found, ice cream I have churned, bread I’ve baked, vegetables I’ve grown, and my attempts to try and give back to the community around me when I can. I realize this sounds very ad-hoc. There are cooking blogs, baking blogs, and social progress blogs. To me, cooking, sustainable agriculture, and fighting hunger must go hand-in-hand. If we are to build a sustainable food system, it must be rooted in an agricultural system that is healthy for the earth, our bodies, our communities, and the world around us.

I am no expert on any of these issues. My experience in the kitchen and on the farm is limited and far from professional. But food is my life and I love sharing with my friends and family. I hope these little posts will add a new dimension to my relationship with food and friends. If people do end up reading for some reason, please please please post and share experiences, recipes, etc! I promise to try them out!


WARNING: THIS FIRST POST IS TERRIBLY LONG, BUT I FELT I MUST WRITE EVERYTHING. ALL OTHER POSTS FROM HERE ON IN WILL BE SHORT AND TO THE POINT…I HOPE.

My interest in food and hunger issues began in the winter of 2006/Spring of 2007. That December I traveled in India for two weeks with a study tour from school. That was my first experience with poverty on such a large scale and I was unsure how to deal with it in any healthy and productive way. Every morning my group would walk out of our hotel and women begging for money and food would surround us. They could not speak English, but their body language was impossible to misinterpret. These women would take their right hand to their mouth as if to eat food, but they clearly hadn’t eaten in days. Most of these women had small children in their arms that were visibly malnourished, every one of their bones protruding through their skin. One friend on the trip told me of how one of these women tried selling her child to him in exchange for money to purchase food. A tour guide explained how many of the beggars actually drugged their children to make them look even more ill in hopes that it would help them to get more money from tourists. I had no way of processing this reality and found myself trying to shut it out of my mind and turning a cold shoulder.

It is not that I didn’t care (I was brought to tears numerous times a day), but I felt paralyzed. I didn’t know how I could possibly help these people who were so desperate to survive that they were willing to sell their child. Our group leaders explained how we shouldn’t give them money since that would just cause more and more people to follow us around and that giving money or food might perpetuate their poverty, that giving money to an organization when we returned home would better help the community in the long run. This thought helped some, but I still could not get over the terrible feeling I felt every time I saw someone starving to death because they couldn’t afford the plethora of fruit and vegetables that were being sold right down the street in a market.

I returned from India with only two weeks before I left to study abroad through the Semester at Sea program. I had no time to process anything I saw and tried to shove it in the back of my mind. Semester at Sea took me around the world in 100 days, eleven ports in nine different countries. For a detailed account of my semester and my trip in India, you can go to the travel blog I kept, which is linked to on the right of the page under “Food for Thought,” entitled the Tyranny of Distance.

While on the ship, I took the most influential class of my life, entitled “Food & Society,” with Professor Simon Nicholson from American University. The class went over many aspects of food, from the history of agriculture, industrial agriculture, sustainable agriculture, the future of food, and world hunger issues. It was this class that helped me to realize the power of food. It is over these few months that the connection between my passions, the environment & human rights became evident. I realized how food is one of the strongest relationships humans have with the environment, their body, their family, their community, and every living human being.

My experiences in port seeing hunger in a world of plenty in every single country strengthened my interest in food and hunger issues. From favelas in Brazil, townships in South Africa, a Dalit village in India, and on the streets of Beijing, everywhere I went I saw hunger and I could not escape it. And then I would step back onto my cruise ship and sit down to an all-you-can-eat buffet dinner where waiters brought drinks and dessert. The dissonance I felt was overwhelming and ever-present…


The Sprout:

When I returned back to the States I knew that I was changed beyond belief. For the first time, I knew what I wanted to do with my life, what I had to do with my life. I wanted to dedicate myself to helping to build a sustainable agricultural system and helping to provide those less fortunate with healthy, delicious food.

For the next eight months, I worked part-time on an organic farm while at school. I learned more practical knowledge during my time on the farm than my four years at college. I focused the rest of my non-academic energy on the environmental club at school, helping to bring food issues into our work. I spent the entire year writing my senior thesis entitled “America’s Failing Food Aid System & the Need for Reform.” (If you would like to read it, I would be more than happy to send it along, although I must warn you that it is long…longer than this first blog post).

I am currently living in DC and working for Food & Water Watch on their food team. The main project I am working on is related to labeling laws for rBGH, an artifical growth hormone in milk that has unknown and potentially dangerous effects on humans. I just received a volunteer position through Operation Frontline, a joint project of the Capital Area Food Bank and Share Our Strength. I will be a volunteer chef at a local farmer’s market (Ward 8 Farmers Market in SE), teaching people in the neighborhood how to use local, fresh produce in a cheap and delicious manner. That starts next weekend and I will be sure to update about that when it happens. I am nervous but incredibly excited, since it seems like the perfect opportunity for me, bringing together all of my passions and interests in a really fun way.

Starting in September, I will be a Fellow with the Congressional Hunger Center for a year. For six months, starting in September, I will be living in Tucson, Arizona working with the Community Food Bank. Then I will return to Washington, DC for six months to work on hunger policy through a governmental or non-governmental organization.

On top of all of that, I find time to cook constantly. I make ice cream every week and try making bread every week or so (I just made my first sourdough starter…more on that to come). I talk about food non-stop to my friends (thankfully most of them are just as obsessed over food as I am!)

So that is who I am and why I am here. That is why I am always talking about and working with food and what motivates me to get up every morning. If anyone read this far down, I applaud you. I will name an ice cream flavor after you or something in return! I feel as if I am always on a journey, learning new things about food, trying new flavors, and continually fighting industrial agriculture. I hope the Hungry Sprout will help me to make sense of this journey and will be something I can look back on for years to come.If people do read, I urge to always share your foodie thoughts, recipes, pictures, and experiences! Thank you and enjoy!