Four (or Five!) Reasons Why

….Everyone Loves Ice Cream

July 9th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Food

1. It comes in a wide variety of flavors so it can meet the tastes of just about anyone, whether you’re into Bubble Gum (yuck!), Cherries Jubilee, Vanilla or Double-Chocolate Fudge. Baskin Robbins, which has used “31 Flavors” within its logo for decades, has actually offered more than 1,000 different varieties of ice cream since it was started by Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins more than 60 years ago.

2. It’s good for you because ice cream contains milk. Milk comes from cows, and it contains minerals, vitamins and calcium that are good for your body. The consumption of calcium has multiple benefits. It not only helps give you strong bones but it helps keep weight off, protects your heart, improves premenstrual moods, and protects against colon cancer. So, whenever you eat ice cream, you’re actually doing something good for your body.

3. While it’s particularly popular in the summer, you can pretty much eat ice cream any time of the year and any time of the day. For six reasons on why to eat ice cream in the winter, check out Jeremy Curry.

4. It’s the ultimate tool to get children to behave. If they’re having a temper tantrum/public meltdown or you want them to clean their rooms or stop picking on their younger sister, you can always pull out the “If don’t behave, you won’t get to eat ice cream” weapon from your child-raising manual. Ah, nothing like a little bit of food bribery to get the kiddies in line.

More: For a list of the most fattening ice cream flavors, Newsweek has the goods. The winner is Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter, which comes with 360 calories and 24 grams of fat. And for a list of the most popular flavors, check out makeicecream.com.

Technorati Tags: Baskin Robbins, Ice Cream

….This Blog Should be Rockin’

….Year-End Lists are Boring

….Dining Outside is Good

July 7th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Food

1. There’s something different about dining al fresco as opposed to sitting inside around the kitchen or dining room table. It’s more relaxed, the food tastes better, the wine/beer is colder and the conversation flows easier. Maybe it has to do with the fact it’s more of an informal atmosphere.

2. You can drop food on the ground, and it doesn’t matter because, after all, you’re eating outside. Meanwhile, eating inside requires you to behave, have manners, eat with a knife and fork, and keep all of your food either in your mouth or on your plate.

3. It’s okay to be loud because the noise is free to travel wherever it wants. When you’re indoors, the noise is trapped so the conversation seems to be more restrained. This is particularly pertinent for children who should be allowed to make as much noise as they want…as long as they enjoy what their eating and eat well.

4. When dining outdoors, it’s okay to leave the table to go for a walk or wiggle your toes in the grass. Doing it inside doesn’t go over so well.

5. Meals seems to last longer and are more fun outside. When you’re outside and the weather is nice, there’s no need to rush anywhere because where you’re at is so good.

For some tips on dining al fresco, check out this article from The Epicurean Table.

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….Baking is Becoming Cool

June 25th, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Food

1. As we become increasingly aware of eating better and healthier, doing your own baking is a much better choice. You know decide the ingredients you want to use. Instead of refined sugar, you can use brown sugar. Instead of shortening, you can use butter.

2. When you bake at home, you know everything is fresh. The bread is soft and chewy because it just came out of the oven; not because of some artificial preservative that lets grocers keep bread on the shelf for a week.

3. As the prices for wheat continue to climb so will the cost of baked goods that you purchase from a grocery store or bakery. The price of bread, for example, has jumped 50% in the past year - and there’s little chance prices are coming down soon. If you bake at home, however, you cut easily cut your prices in half.

4. There’s nothing like baked goods coming out of the oven. More than anything, it’s the smell that permeates your home and draws you into the kitchen looking for something delicious.

Technorati Tags: baked goods

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June 19th, 2008 | No Comments | Posted in Culture, Environment, Food, Health

Where's my money going? 1. The Environment. While it has been many moons since the effects of global warming have been brought to the international stage and most of the planet has seen Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth,” the reality is that most people won’t make changes to their global footprint until it starts to hit them in their wallet. Hybrid cars didn’t really start to become popular and there wasn’t a lot of thought around alternatives to car travel until gas prices started to soar. The movement to buy local, in-season fruits and vegetables only recently became highlighted by a surge in food prices (caused by higher input costs). Corporations only went “green” when they realized they could charge consumers a premium for it. And consumers only stop using plastic supermarket bags when they start getting charged for it. Sort of sad.

2. Charity. There is no doubt that giving to worthy causes is a good thing. A ton of people do it every year and many organizations survive on the generosity of others. We’ve already commented that there is a sense of charity fatigue developing. Another trend that seems to be emerging is the concept of charitable lotteries, where promises of million dollar give-aways and dream homes result in the sale of high priced tickets. It’s unfortunate that more people are inspired to give when there is the probability, albeit extremely low, that they’ll win something in return.

3. Health. Most people know what’s bad for you. Smoking. Eating too much. Not exercising. Stepping into oncoming traffic. Some of this is out of your control. Some of it is not. Although we know that we can make changes to improve our health, there is a strong tendency not to do so and rationalize every which way as an explanation. But some studies show that financial incentive brings beneficial effects, with attendance at exercise sessions improving when personal trainers and even more so when money is involved. While the long-term benefits are debatable, it’s clear that money talks and walks and runs.

4. Personal finance. When times are good, the money flows. Banks are more than eager to extend a helping hand when you need money for the extra square footage you didn’t know you had to have when looking for a house. Credit is practically free and card companies more than happy to increase your line of credit so you can spend more. Retirement savings? Pshaw! They’ll be plenty of time for that. Well, the bubble has burst yet again and somehow we’re all surprised when we see the carnage left behind. Yes, it’s lesson learned. But it’s also an awfully painful one that could have been avoided. Think objectively about your real needs and live within your means.

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….We Love Pigs

June 2nd, 2008 | 1 Comment | Posted in Food

1. Bacon. Is there any other meat that is as universally loved? You can put bacon on pretty much anything, and people will welcome its addition with open arms. In fact, you could run with the slogan: “Bacon; it’s not just for breakfast”. And bacon is one meat that has the ability to break the resistance of most die-hard vegetarians.

2. Ribs. I could eat ribs any time, any day with pretty much any type of sauce. Any meat that you can eat without using utensils can only be a good thing. Of course, I’m going to sniff my nose at beef ribs, but porks ribs rule the day. In fact, I’m starting to salivate just thinking about a nice rack of pork ribs.

3. Pork chops. For some reason, every time I think of pork chops, I think of Peter Brady saying “Pork chops and apple sauce” - probably due to far too much sit-com watching as a kid. Yup, pork chops with apple sauce are pretty ideal comfort food.

4. Ham. Probably one of the best things to slap between two pieces of bread. Give me a ham and cheese (preferably Edam or Havarti) any day of the week.

More: For information on how to BBQ pig necks, check out Chomposaurus. A discussion about pigs and pork couldn’t be complete without two contributions from Homer Simpson:

Homer: Are you saying you’re never going to eat any animal again? What about bacon?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Ham?
Lisa: No.
Homer: Pork chops?
Lisa: Dad, those all come from the same animal.
Homer: Heh heh heh. Ooh, yeah, right, Lisa. A wonderful, magical animal.