Farm Bill Outreach

You can find your local congressman and senators listed here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/

Sample letter sent to Rep. Shuster (R) in my district, copy, paste & send it along!

As a young head of household and father of a four year old in your district, I must say I'm dismayed by early news of the 2012 Farm Bill. Now is not the time to sacrifice a young generation's health at the expense of subsidies to food providers. America and Pennsylvania are ready to support legislature enforcing tough health guidelines on school lunch programs. No longer can we have Food Interest Groups dictate that potatoes and corn are a healthy lunch, not at a time when America's youth face expanding waistlines & diabetes rates.

In addition to enforcing nutritional standards, I also suggest supporting the following:

• Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act (S 1773, HR 3286). This comprehensive bill supports the development of “infrastructure” such as local-based storage and small-scale processing of locally grown foods; increased ability of low-income families to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables from farmers markets, farm market stores, and community supported agriculture farms; and support to schools in purchasing more locally grown foods.
• The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act of 2011 (HR 3236) This bill addresses many of the barriers that young farmers face if they want to get into farming, such as limited access to land, high land prices, credit, business planning, and training.
• Community Agriculture Development and Jobs Act of 2011 (HR 3225). This bill supports urban farming and community gardening initiatives, getting good food to residents who often don’t even have grocery stores nearby.
• Preservation of Farm Bill funded nutrition programs, including SNAP Education and other SNAP spending. SNAP, the new name for food stamps, was already cut last year, so should be spared; and it’s a great way to connect low-income families to healthy, locally grown food.
• Protect working lands. This proposal from American Farm Land Trust would retain current funding levels for conservation easements to permanently protect farm land from development.
• Use the Grassley-Johnson language to put real caps on farm subsidies so that they don’t just help “big farms get even bigger,” and to oppose the “Brown-Thune” plan that, according to The New York Times, is being heavily criticized as a bait and switch scheme that defeats such capping efforts.
• Require farms that get subsidies of any kind from Farm Bill programs comply with provisions that protect the environment against soil erosion and damage of wetlands. Let’s not use taxpayer dollars to harm the environment.

To quickly surmise how young people view this issue, see below snippet. It's rather laughable.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/keenan/congress-declares-pizza-a-vegetable

Respectfully,

Michael Bartholow

Moroccan Mint Tea Recipe

Here's a quick and easy iced tea recipe that reeks of fanciness but requires no effort. Ever had HonestTea's bottled mint tea? It retails for $1.75/16oz at Sheetz. This recipe's cost is extremely negligible and makes 64oz for under 50 cents! That's $7 if purchased by the bottle.

Moroccan Mint tea is an international affair. Originating in Morocco, the recipe uses Chinese Gunpowder tea, so named by the British because of its resemblance to cannon powder. How's that for transcontinental? Gunpowder tea is green tea that's been rolled into tight pellets. Unlike green tea's grassy flavor, this one has a very smooth, honey-like taste. It even has a pleasing honey color when brewed.



I started with Chinese Gunpowder tea from one of the Asian grocers in the Strip District. There I purchased a 1 pound container of basic Gunpowder tea for under $2 that looked exactly like this:


With tea on hand, I grabbed the following equipment:

• Teapot with strainer (or use tea kettle/pan)
• 3 teaspoons Gunpowder tea (sub any green tea loose or bagged)
• 2-4 Tablespoons Sugar/Honey
• Several Sprigs of Mint (sub a peppermint tea bag)
• Pitcher

While waiting for water to boil, add tea to teapot. Add sugar and bruised mint (roll it in your hand a few times) to pitcher.



Cool boiled water for 2 minutes. NEVER steep green tea with boiling water. It will render it undrinkably bitter and that's the main reason most folks dislike plain green tea, it's been steeped too hot.

Add cooled water to teapot and steep for 1-2 minutes. Watch as tea pellets unfurl into proper tea leaves.



Pour tea into pitcher, sugar dissolves and mint will become fragrant. Allow mint to sit in warm tea for 10 minutes for best result. Discard mint and chill tea. That's it! You've made Moroccan Mint tea. Boil a second pot of water and re-steep your loose tea. Enjoy a plain cup of Gunpowder tea while your Mint tea cools off in the fridge!

Prepping for Comicon

Thanks to the prodding of Lance & Mithun I am tweeting (Twatting? Twittering?) for the express purpose of providing live updates from NYComicon. You'll find the feed right there -->

Keep checking on me as I fling some mobile pics & stuff up onto the blog. Am definitely aiming at recording a Venture Bros. panel and who-knows what else.

TJ's Bean & Barley Soup

Well, this has been burning a hole in my pantry, let's see what our $1.79 Trader Joe purchase turns into. If you're suspicious as I am that there are that many types of beans in this colorful bag, the back lists the following: Baby lima benas, black turtle beans, blackeye peas, dark red kidney beans, garbanzo beans, great northern beans, green lentils, green split peas, large lima beans, light red kidney beans, navy beans, pink beans, pinto beans, red lentils, small red beans, small white beans, yellow split peas, pearl barley.


Ingredients

1 bag Trader Joe's 17 Bean and Barley Mix

4 cups or 32 oz. veggie broth

Miripoix, 1 cup each:

-chopped onion

-celery

-carrots

-bell pepper - any

2 tbsp olive oil

3 garlic cloves

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp Italian seasoning

1 can diced tomatoes

1 bay leaf

salt and pepper

Directions - Package

1. Soak bean and barley mix overnight.
2. Drain and rinse. Pour 4 cups of vegetable broth over beans and cook on medium heat for approximately 1 hour.

3. Add chopped onion, celery, carrots, peppers. Press in garlic cloves and basil leaves or dried basil, salt and pepper to taste, olive oil, diced tomatoes, bay leaf and Italian seasoning.
4. Add about 4 more cups of water or vegetable broth and let it all cook on low to medium heat for another 1-2 hours.

Jasmine Pearl Tea

First up on the drinkable docket is a teeny tiny sampler pouch obtained at TenRen Tea on October's Chinatown trip (pics forthcoming, they are somewhere, honest). I'd never had this type before and it looked neat. Apparently, according to the link below, this one isn't cheap, so teeny $3 packet is probably the way to try it out.

It's a whole-leaf green tea base that is heavily scented with Jasmine flowers and rolled into tiny little cannonballs that unfurl in the brewing. I'm guessing the baggie makes about 4 cups at a tsp per, so we're trying it out in our big teapot with 3 min brew time and 180deg water, sits about 2 min to cool from hitting boil.

TenRen Tea's Jasmine Pearl-Info Page

Results were great, as soon as hot water hits the room smells like Jasmine. Pretty cool. Light in taste, color is peach/amber differing from the typical grassy green. Got 3 brews out of the big pot and fridge'd a good amount to share. Not one to sugar my green tea, but this one was great with it.
Brewed leaves unrolled:

OMG I have too many teas...

...so I'll blog them. I suppose cutting cigar hunting down drastically has left a void for another consumable obsession. Enter festive teas from the Orient.

Football Snacks

A quick spread for a cold game.

Griddle Quesadillas with Guac
Family fav, made economical and fast with a leftover rotisserie chicken. Do not fear the avocado, by the time it's mixed, it tastes only of garlic/lime/hot sauce. Lots of heart-healthy fats & great way to sneak a superfood into mexi night.

Ingredients
Flour tortillas-Burrito size/Corn for tiny Q's
Shredded Rotisserie Chicken
Oil/Brush or Favorite Non-stick Spray
Mexi cheese mix/Shredded Chedder
Green Onions

Directions
-Steam tortillas in warmer or on plate covered with wet paper towel for 30-60 seconds or until fully pliable

-Assemble Chicken/Cheese/Onions as desired, fold over, spray/brush with oil, transfer to griddle on medium-high for 10-2 min per side.

-Slice with pizza cutter, serve with Guac

Guacamole
Ingredients
1 Avocado
1 tsp Garlic Salt
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tbsp Frank's Red Hot
Sea Salt/Black Pepper to taste

Directions
-Mash, combien all to desired texture. Great chunky or totally smooth.

Cuban Black Beans & Rice
What could be cheaper & tastier? A staple dish of Cuba, beans and rice form a complete protein and add up to far more than survival food. The brown rice kicks the nutrition into high gear with tons of fiber and mineral action and the beans supply an ample amount of protein and good fats. Adapted from wholefoods.com

Ingredients
Brown Rice - Sub with your fav
1.5 cups brown rice
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Black Beans
1 tablespoon grapeseed or high heat-stable oil
1 large onion, chopped
1 bell pepper, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon chili powder1
1 can (14.5 ounce) diced tomatoes with some liquid
3 cups (cooked) black beans, drained
Sea salt, to taste
Ground pepper, to taste
Chopped, fresh cilantro for garnish
1 lime, cut in 4-6 wedges for garnish

Directions
-Dry roast the rice in a wok for 3 minutes until aromatic. Add to cooker with 2:1 ratio water. Cook it!

-Saute onion for 2 min in large skillet/wok over medium high heat. Add the bell pepper, garlic and chili powder. Sauté for 2 more minutes. Reduce heat to low, add diced tomatoes and simmer, uncovered, 15 minutes. Add beans and simmer 5 minutes longer to heat through. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

-Serve beans over brown rice with cilantro, lime wedges & hot sauce.