Continuing the theme for Blog Action Day, here are five easy things you can do (believe me, it's not even 10 a.m. and I've already done them, so no excuses) to take part.
1. Sign and share this petition: Take immediate action against the famine by signing this petition and asking world leaders to ensure people do not go hungry. Then, share the petition with people you know. If are connected to the Twitter, use the hashtag #BAD11.
2. Watch and Share “The F Word” Video: As is typical, celebrities have been solicited to take up the fight as well. If there were no crises, I'm not sure what Bono would spend his time doing, but hey, at least he cares. Besides, this is an excuse for me to drop a different kind of F-bomb.
3. Check out this graphic: This “Fight the Famine” interactive chart illustrates the countries that are leading relief efforts in Africa and those that are lagging behind. Canada, Germany and the UK have fulfilled their aid commitments, while France and Italy still have work to do.
This year's Blog Action Day snuck up on me. Normally they send out a series of emails to promote the day months and weeks in advance so that bloggers like myself can prep some content. This year, I got one Friday telling me it was today. Not sure if I maybe missed some emails earlier, but I was bummed to not get the chance to fuller prepare you for the information onslaught.
In any case, I will attempt my best here to give you a few posts and pass along some info because I have always enjoyed being part of Blog Action Day, the one day a year when bloggers try to organize around a singular topic to educate the masses. In previous years the topics have been near and dear to my heart (poverty, climate change, water), and now this year the topic is food.
I thought it was more specific like the lack of available food or starvation and such, but the organizers are running the gamut from farmed foods to fast food to hunger to whatever you can think of (even just blogging about your favorite food). Kinda weird, but I'm going to take the more serious route because while I like to write about idiots and Friday funnies and comedy and video games, I also like to throw out some serious stuff now and then. So prepare yourself for some food-related posts and I encourage you to repost or share as you wish, or ignore it at your own peril. Just remember that it's good to think deep every now and then.
Before I left for Ireland, I did partake in a cool little cooking experiment. My mother-in-law, knowing my addiction to cooking, smoking and creating our own food instead of having to buy everything, bought me a cool book, called Jar It, Pickle It, Cure It. The book has all sorts of easy recipes on making things from scratch, which is right up my alley. Some of them are naturally things I won't really care for all that much (a lot of the pickled items, for instance, but one that jumped right out at me was making bacon from scratch.
I'm not a big bacon eater, since it's not good for the heart health, but as long as it's eaten in small amounts and in moderation (like, once every three months) then I don't think it's going to put me over the edge of unhealthiness. And when the wife and I discovered the glory of the H Mart (an all-Asian/Hispanic grocery store) that had raw pork belly, I knew I had to give it a shot.
You basically start with raw pork belly:
You make a mixture of curing salts, molasses, pepper and sugar, and rub that all over the belly like a paste. Throw it all in a ziplock bag and refrigerate it. Every day, you flip it over and massage the belly a little, helping the paste suck the moisture out and getting the molasses and pepper and sugar in. After seven-10 days of doing this, you fire up the smoker and smoke that stuff super-low for about 5 hours.
When that is finished, you cool it off, let it get a little firm, and then slice it however you see fit. Then cook that fine bacon.
The interesting part is tasting real homemade bacon for the first time. It's sweeter, smokier and lot richer in flavor. And at first I thought I had screwed it up until I realized that this is what real bacon actually SHOULD taste like, instead of something that's been processed half-a-dozen times somewhere in Nebraska and then shipped to my grocery store in plastic airtight packages. This was as fresh as it was going to get, and once I told myself to get past the store-bought perceptions fo what bacon should taste like, I found it delicious. Damn delicious. Had to stop myself from cooking up the second piece of belly delicious. I had two big portions left, so I have to use them soon since they only keeper for about six months. Knowing some of my friends, this shouldn't be a problem. As an added bonus, this has allowed the wife and I to laugh about one of our favorite scenes in Muppets history, when Kermit loses his memory.
For years I ate fruit as breakfast. Or maybe a muffin or a bagel. Because damn I love a bagel. The Jersey in me shines through when a bagel is placed nearby; I'll devour a sack of bagels like my dogs attack a rawhide.
Early last year, I decided to abandon that and start eating oatmeal on a regular basis, because I've read too many articles that getting the fiber in regularly is a good thing for the ticker. I've always been a big fan of eating a handful of almonds every day, but adding in the oatmeal is apparently another good way to keep the ticker going strong. Plus, as the wife constantly reminds me, "Grandad has eaten oatmeal every morning for his entire life and he's 429 years old a going strong, so think of that when you make that face about oatmeal." Fair enough.
But apparently I got this off on the wrong foot. I got hooked on the instant oatmeal packets (preferably the Cinnamon and Apple flavored one), and thought I was in a good place. Then a number of people told me that those packets don't have half the nutrients you actually need, and the oatmeal is on the crappier side of oatmeal.
Now I've gone whole hog. Got myself what seems like a storm shelter's worth of oatmeal, and every night I pack a little jar. 3/4ths of a cup of oats, some currrants and a pinch of brown sugar. Yeah, it's more work than the instant packets, but it's nicer to use fresh ingredients and putting all of it together regularly is another way to get closer to the real thing instead of relying (and buying) someone else's creation. Now I've just got the same oatbag, (or oatjar, depending on how you look at it) and in my goofy mind my heart is happier already. My heart is in this jar's hands, so do good for me jar.
While I do allow myself the occasional dabble into the fiction realm, everyone by now knows my love for reading nonfiction, especially stuff that relates to food and to specific moments throughout history and their impact on the greater world or society as a whole. After reading The Omnivore's Dilemma last year, I knew I would have to commit some time to reading Michael Pollan's follow-up, In Defense of Food.
After the first book, he openly admits in the introduction that one could have been left rather depressed and confused about where to go with the food situation. Organic is good but how to trust it? Whole Foods is great but their owner is kooky and they are still a chain, so their demand and mercy is not always on the up-and-up. I still felt comfortable with where I was in my food decisions, but the book did indeed give me a little planted seeds of doubt.
Whatever small amounts of doubt remained were dashed by the time I finished In Defense. It just reaffirmed all the other information I have acquired. Pretty much kept me believing that shopping more at my farmer's market is the right direction for me to go; that I should continue to figure out how to grow as much stuff as I can in my backyard garden; that I will continue to shop at Whole Foods and Trader Joe's, just as long as I avoid things that come in a packaged container. It's nothing shocking, I know; but when you reinforce those notions enough and reinforce good behaviors, soon enough it becomes the norm and you don't even think about going to the crappy Safeways and Giants of the world.
But besides that, the real key is just making sure I eat better and have a greater understanding of why eating these plants and unpackaged foods is the the way to go. Because I want to be around this mortal coil for awhile; and thankfully other people seem to want me to stick around as well. So eat well. Not too much. Mostly plants.
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