Election Day Recipe For Calm

 How should you vote? Like you were following a recipe. With care and concern. This could make for a food secure future for all.

There are several crucial campaigns right now, from gubernatorial ones in Virgnian and New Jersey and the mayoral one in New York City. All affect how people in these states shop and eat. As a New Jerseyan I am more than concerned about not only my future but also the future of my fellow New Jersey and. Shopping here is tough. Luckily I have LIdl for all the major purchases like milk and cereal. Even the frill buys like soda and cookies are much cheaper at the store. The same with it's rival Aldi. So many are shopping here for all sorts of items, from pet food to baby foods and essentials to ingredients for holiday cooking and baking. They also offer valuable coupons for that enable us to get free stuff.It's always a fun thrill to get a free croissant, or bag of pretzels or even a free bottle of mouthwash. yet it's also important. Money saved is just that. With Trumps; tariffs' all over the place food has gotten more and more expensive. Parents are worrying about whether they can buy their kids fruits and veggies along with meat. That should not be. There should be  no worry when food shopping.

Then there is the SNAP benefits.Trump wants to halt  them during the government shutdown, even though thousands of families will be  affected. SNAP or Food stamps  have been around since 1939, the invention of then Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace and the program's first administrator Milo Perkins. The program first operated by permitting people on relief to buy orange stamps for their food shopping .For every orange stamps bought there were blue stamps that enabled families to buy food determined by the Department to be surplus.Modern food stamps came in the early 1960's and in 1964 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law to make the practice permanent. The stamps allowed people to buy local food and vegetables along with basic foodstuffs. Alcohol and luxury food were not on the program as were imported foods.There have been decades of other reforms however no president has ever done anything this cruel. Churches and food pantries can only do so much.This is a Red problem  - no question about this. Yet Republicans can be as caring as their Democrat counterparts. If they're not vote them out.It's just that simple.

As with any recipe, care and concern should always be used. It creates the perfect dish.THis should also apply to how you vote too.

Environmentally Correct Shrimp

There's more scrutiny over a simple plate of shrimp than ever.There are questions about its' origins , and its' impact on the environment. what about overfarming and its' impact on other species? Most importantly what the right kind to eat and will it increase or decrease our carbon footprint on the planet.

Melissa Clark discussed these points in her article along with recipes in today's New York Times Food section.The author of the issues weekly A Good Appetite has unearthed some eye opening facts on American's favorite seafood. we eat more of it now than ever, with forty-nine per cent of families eating it in 2018. It used to be a luxury food, only being seen at weddings, usually next to caviar. Now it's affordable with some shrimp going for $5.97 a pound.The problem is that the popularity comes with a cost.Farmed shrimp, what most of us eat , originates from mostly from Southeast Asia, namely Vietnam. Workers are basically slave laborers harvesting disease ridden crustaceans from antibiotic swamps (!) amongst dead mangroves in some cases. Some of the shrimp also come from India and South America. There are facilities that do have transparency , don't misuse antibiotics and overcrowd their ponds. American shrimp farms are rare , with only one percent of all shrimp coming from the US. A new company Tru shrimp, out of Balaton Minnesota is working to improve water recirculating systems. That means no antibiotics in the water and more shrimp being raised here, not abroad. This will lessen our carbon footprint.

Then there is wild shrimp. It is fresh caught , a delicacy only available to those living along the coast. Ms. Clark went to Galveston, Texas , home to many shrimpers. She met with fisherman, Buddy Guidan, who has been shrimping for forty years. He is successful, with a fleet of forty boats, a retail store, Katie's seafood Market and a restaurant, Katie's seafood House. They shared boiled shrimp   - an entirely different eating experience. The meat has a firm, plump texture with a saline taste similar to lobster.It was like heaven to her,especially with the shrimp being dipped in melted butter. Unfortunately this may be a thing of the past. The number of wild shrimp is finite and fragile. Our appetite for it will not stop , meaning it could be on the endangered species list. We've over fished areas where they were rampant, off the coasts of  California, Maine, Washington and Oregon. There are few exceptions such as wild Alaskan spot prawns which are popular right now with West Coast chefs. Right now all the wild caught ones are from the Gulf of Mexico, and off the coasts of the Carolinas and Georgia. Another problem is outfitting the shrimp nets to not include turtles. Keep in mind that wild shrimp can also be chemically treated too to preserve them. some boats have plate freezers which freeze the shrimp without any interference, yielding a much more delicious crustacean.

Knowing all this should we eat more shrimp? My advice is to cut down on it if you care about the environment and the species' future. Make it for a special meal with family and / or friends. Treat it as something rare.

The Artisanal Food Magazine

It should come as no surprise that food magazines are now indie and artisanal. After all,most foods are, Why not the magazines that feature them? It's a new food trend that may just be a permanent one.

Tejal Rao, the famed chef and, cookbook writer wrote about them in today's New York Times Food section  It's a movement that arose from frustration. Many of the people, creating these  are stymied  by what they see in the long established cookery magazines. There are ones that recipes cater more to novices than seasoned chefs or the ones that are so corny and homey that it hurts to read them, despite the fact that some actually do print pretty  good recipes. Many of these indies combine lifestyle with cooking as Jarry, one created by Lukas Volger and Steve Viksjo.It celebrates the meeting of food and queer culture.It gave an L.G.B.T.Q. spin on food. Unlike other food magazines, there's an article on designer , Zac Posen who also has a cookbook out as well as a culinary tour of Milan. Dill magazine, created by only (!) twenty year old Shayne Chammavanijakul on South Asian noodles along with flavors and dishes . There are some interesting recipes you wouldn't see in standard lifestyle or cooking magazines.The wittily named Toothache was created by pastry chef , Nick Muncy, for chefs. It may be the first of its' kind because it offers recipes in technical terms not ones for foodies or home chefs .

Is it easy to create a artisanal magazine? Like food blogging it does require a large chunk of time to come up with ideas and format. , It is also costly unlike food blogging, which just requires signing onto a free  blog.A print magazine needs ink and paper along with contributors to create an issue. This requires money, easy to get from a publisher , not so from an independent one. Dill's creator, Ms. Chammavanijakul had to work nights at Chipotle just to pay her contributors.Family and friends also chipped in with financial and editorial support. Staffs on these artisanal issues tend to be small. Sometimes it's just a staff of one or possibly two doing everything, from layout to promotion. The circulation also is very small. Readership could only be around one hundred and fifty subscribers.Pricing is also high.Dill is nine dollars an issue. Toothache is a whopping twenty dollars for two biannual issues.Yet, unlike, the mass produced food magazines, these come with saturated ink drawings along with original articles that would appeal to a more experienced crowd.


These new artisanal magazines may last as long as their more established counterparts. They show a side of cooking and food not always seen. This may be more than a trend. It may be the start of an entirely new publishing phenomenon.