Food Security Carnival Discussion Post.

[commodorified]

Solicit or offer ideas, cheer each other on, ask for or offer data or resources, team up and do a group-authored post or a mini-carnival cluster of posts, find a beta, be a beta ...

I would like to say: I am not at all worried about avoiding duplication, and suggest that nobody else be either.

If eight people do posts on How To Cook Eggs, they will all be different, they will all be right and useful, and each of them will be somebody's absolute most useful and favourite post of the whole carnival.

Carry on!

Comments

[cxcvi]

I guess now I have no excuse to not do the "how to make Yorkshire Pudding (and from that, Toad in the Hole)" post that's been forming in my mind for over 6 months...

[thefourthvine]

How to go to a farmers' market if you've never been? I'm not sure that fits entirely into the food security theme, but it's what I can think of that I could write about.

[commodorified]

No, that? Is PERFECT.

Not only does it touch on "learning what you need to know to get more of the food you want with the best use of precious resources", it also hits the "for a group: neighbourhood, city, province, state, country, whatever, food self-sufficiency adds to food security" aspect.

Flour

[cxcvi]

Actually, while I'm here, I have a question:

Over here (in the UK), we have a few different types of flour (and for the purposes of this enquiry, I'm talking about white flour that contains gluten):

- Plain flour, that contains a bit of gluten

- Bread flour, that contains a lot of gluten (which contributes to making bread rise)

- Self-raising flour, that contains about the same amount of flour as plain flour, but also contains raising agents, of which sodium hygrogen carbonate being the main one I believe (commonly known as sodium bicarbonate and other names that the article describes; although it's available separately, as well as in something called "baking powder")

Do these types of flour have different names in other parts of the world?

Re: Flour

[jumpuphigh]

I'm in the US and I would call the first one all purpose flour but the other 2 are the same.

ETA: Actually, I think the 3rd is called self-rising but that's close enough that I wouldn't question it (obviously - as based on my reaction here).

[kake]

Hurrah! I am probably going to post something about how to cook when you have money but no time/energy. I'm hoping it'll be useful to people who are trying to switch from takeaways/ready meals to simple cooking.

[commodorified]

OOH.

I am thinking of doing one on Eating Well On The Road. I've done enough Long Haul Travel to have had to give some real thought to food, because it was WAY too many days in a row to just eat whatever was available at the fast food places we stopped at and still feel human and fairly healthy by the end of the trip.

[niqaeli]

Would a post talking about learning to navigate a food restriction without losing your mind be appropriate or not? I'm not interested in telling anyone how to eat, nor in weight-loss or anything like that. I've just, for reasons that have to do with not enjoying feeling like I've been run over by a steamroller, had to limit my sugar and even complex carbohydrates some. This process has been a fun and exciting trip through everyone else's food neuroses. ...it may be worth noting at this point that if there is just ONE thing I could get through everyone's head re: food, it's that there is no such thing as any universal truths about food because human physiology is so complex. What may as well be poison for one person can be absolutely vital for another and can we stop trying to pretend that there are any constants and also stop trying to police other people's food because aside from it being morally and ethically dubious-at-best also it isn't practical.

Alternatively, I'd be happy to focus solely on the part of that post that would be about nutritional labels and learning to scan them quickly for the information that matters to you. I use nutritional labels heavily for figuring out if something is sufficient/appropriate for me. (This is in part because I eat a lot of pre-prep food because I rarely have the time/energy to deal with anything more complicated and I'm fortunate to live somewhere I have high-quality, reasonably priced options. But making sure it's going to be a sufficient meal for me before I buy said is important -- and not everything or, often, much of anything available qualifies.)

[commodorified]

That would be PERFECT.

That would be so perfect that the fact that you feel like you had to ask makes me wonder if I did a really bad job writing that section of the announcement; I am new to this talking about food in a broader sense, and very much learning on the fly.

D'you mind taking a look at the post again and seeing where, to you, it does and does not convey BOTH "please don't tell people what they "need to" do and how they "need to" do it to meet YOUR standards", AND "if you know a way to make being bombarded with those messages - as we all are - easier and less damaging PLEASE SHARE OMG"?

[ruric]

One thing I'd like to know more about from people who have hands-on experience is baking with gluten free flours. A friend of mine cannot eaten gluten but still has a taste for biscuits, cookies, brownies and the occasional slice of cake.

I can get my hands on gluten free flour from the health food shop and have been slowly experimenting with rice and soya flours but any advice anyone could give would be much appreciated. (It's more fun getting it direct than from a cook book). For instance it never occurred to me that bog standard baking powder contained gluten (it does!) which when added to gluten free flour kind of negates the gluten-free aspect. *headdesk* I do now have a source of gluten free baking powder though!

Also a post which might be worthy is the bounty of root veg! In my poor student days I fed myself and the ex on what we called the Stew Of Doom, a cauldron of root veg (turnips, potatoes, parsnips, onions - basically anything cheap and carbo loaded available in Wales) cooked up on Sunday and which had additional things thrown in as the week progressed. It was receptive to having cheap cuts of meat thorwn in or cheese added and we had fun with many herbs and spices too. cheap, nutritous and it only went horribly wrong on one or two occasions. *G*

[executrix]

The GlutenFree Girl blog has been covering a really exciting development--baking by ratios.
http://glutenfreegirl.blogspot.com

Building on Michael Ruhlman's work, the participants in the "ratio rally" are adapting gluten-containing recipes by making up their own blends of gluten-free flours. Basically, once you have one or more flour blends in your pantry, you can use just about any recipe from any cookbook.

Also, people who are going gluten-free now can take advantage of changes in thinking about GF foods. A lot of commercial GF foods contain guar gum and other gums--and some people who react badly to gluten also react badly to gums. So cooking without them is likely to make you feel better.

[nancylebov]

At this point, I've just got some topics:

Quick, cheap, pleasant: I've got rice with about three parts tahini to one part miso, but nothing else that's as good.

Ways of finding out which foods/quantities of food are good or bad for you.

[kake]

Rice with pesto (from a jar) and a bit of lemon juice (from a bottle or from a lemon) is quick, pleasant, and relatively cheap (though this partly depends on how much you have to pay for pesto).

Content warning: poss eating disorder triggers

[kaberett]

I struggle with eating regularly, because I have difficulty thinking of things to eat, and just won't eat if I can't think of anything interesting that I'm also capable of cooking with limited energy. I assume "here are some of my go-to categories of food", with p much what I've said here as intro, would fit under the auspices of the project?

Re: Content warning: poss eating disorder triggers

[geeksdoitbetter]

definitely!

i keep a very short list of things i know i like and are easy for me to make, as well as being easier for me to do a quick shopping run for

and then, you know, i don't look at the list for months at a time

[amadi]

Part of this is where I was going when I created cookability but as it turns out, the people who don't have the (metaphorical) spoons to cook are also low on spoons to post our recipes and tips and whatnot. Go figure. :)

I'm going to think on how I can participate in this. It's such a fabulous idea.

[tei]

HEEEE Your icon is the best idea ever.

[giglet]

How about a post on when to plan what you will cook?

My widowed dad is learning to cook for himself, and the most difficult part for him to master has been the idea that, if he waits to think about food until he's ready to eat, then his choices are limited, but if he plans dinner the night before, he can make a lot of different things.

[indywind]

I suspect I'll get into that a little bit, and would love to see what anyone else has to say about it.

[kindkit]

I might make a post about roasting and using a whole chicken (since it's cheaper than buying chicken parts but many people are intimidated by it).

[jenna_thorn]

Would a "Basic pantry staples" list be helpful?

Thinking here from the point of view of someone who taught a college-aged friend that assembling sandwiches wasn't really cooking.

This is rice. Sticky (short grained) rice smooshes and is good for risotto or sushi. Long grain rice doesn't clump and will have basmati or jasmine on the label and be more expensive, but very tasty. Specific cuisines call for specific types. End of month calls for whatever is available.

Rice is dry storage until cooked, then needs refrigeration. If bought in bulk, separate into insect-proof containers, because bugs like rice, too, and losing one container of five is better than losing one five-pound container. Temperature isn't as important as humidity.

Ways to cook rice:
option a. 1 cup rice + 4 cups water, boil until toothsome, then drain the water.
option b. 1 cup rice + 2 cups water, bring to boil, cover, and turn off heat, let sit so that it steams. When the water is absorbed, the rice is cooked. Fluff with a fork.
option c. buy a rice cooker. Ask other poeple. I've no clue, but some folks love them.
option d. oven-baked, good for large groups
option e. ??

things to do with cooked rice.
option a - stuff with rice: mixed frozen veg or canned tuna or last night's leftover chili, heated separately then combined or, if not too cold, mixed in to heat through.
option b- stuff beside rice: Throw a little butter or salt, if you want, on your rice and use as a separate veg. next to your grilled chop or sausage in tomato or chunks of grilled portobello.
option c - stuff on rice: rice as foundation, including under chicken cooked in sauce or potato curry or tofu stirfry or slivered beef in teriyaki or ...
option d - stone soup (always and forever)
option e - heated, with milk and a bit of brown sugar for breakfast or then cooled, threatened with a cardamom pod and called rice pudding, om nom nom.

Bonus household use: in climates humid enough (Hello Texas Gulf Coast) to clump salt or brown sugar, a dozen grains of cheap white rice in your salt shaker on the table will help kept it usable. A thin cloth bag filled (not too full!) with rice and, if you've got it, a scent agent like lavender, tossed in the microwave for less than a minute, makes a lovely heating pad. Watch for bugs or empty it, though. (Have you seen the insects of the Texas Gulf Coast?)

And then something along similar lines for potato and dried beans.

[daedala]

Would it be helpful to have a post about how to buy meat from a farmer and eat from your freezer all year long? This is what I do now (lamb, split quarter of beef, and half a hog), and it can be cost-efficient, but it requires a fair bit capital up front. It may not be appropriate for talking about food security, though the mention of "income increase" was what made me think of it.

I was thinking something along the lines of pros and cons, the mechanics of doing it, the costs, how much freezer space is really needed, maybe some stuff on how to cook these exciting new cuts of meat you may not have cooked before, and so on.

ETA: In the U.S.; I'm not sure it works the same elsewhere, though some parts would probably translate ok.

[stultiloquentia]

Yes, please.

[dorothean]

Solicitation of ideas!

I would be very interested in reading people's ideas on how to cook for just one person. I live by myself and have trouble sometimes. I get most of my vegetables when I eat out (e.g. at the Whole Foods hot bar) which is more expensive than I'd like. But it's hard to buy vegetables when it's just me eating them, because they go bad before I've gone through the lot. I guess I need to cook big batches of things I can freeze, but that takes more planning than I'm up to, sometimes!

[cpolk]

I live alone and cook alone. i've done a post or two about this, and I was planning on writing from an "eat alone" viewpoint.

I cook things from scratch and rarely buy processed foods because of a diet restriction, but that's my personal thing because of celiac. as for managing fresh produce, i always buy fresh produce and cook with it. Do you think that will help?

[lireavue]

*wanders through from Network* HMM. I might do something about, how to plan out a week's worth of meals, assuming that you live in a place/are in a financial situation where you can do weekly grocery runs. Or at least, how I plan such a creature, and then how I reconfigure a menu plan based on various and sundry of the things that can rear up and bite you when you least expect it.

(Lord knows I still misjudge the amount of time leftovers from x dish will last on a regular basis. And I consider myself pretty decent at this by now.)

[kittydesade]

*wanders through from lireavue* and I'm sure no doubt she will bully me into writing something about which I have experience. ;)

[nineveh_uk]

I had a school cookery lesson that was "how to make boiled egg and toast". It took me years to work out why. But I was 10 at the time.

[amazon_syren]

Given the date, I am going to talk about Imbolg and "in the belly", possibly also the idea of "hungry month", and - more to the point - how to do Local Food in Deep Winter.

This may include instructions for properly storing long-keeping veggies in a one-bedroom apartment,
and/or
Recipes for bringing out the deliciousness in Hardy Veggies ("Cabbage and potatoes again? YAY!"), ideally on the cheap,
and/or
How to incorporate Preserves into regular meals.


There may or may not also be a post about the kind of preserves you can do in a boiling water bath plus why you might want to do this (since, so far, it hasn't actually saved me any money, but has contributed to my locavore experiments).

Or a post on What To Do When the Milk is Going Off (because that stuff is expensive and it sucks rocks to be pouring it down the drain if you don't know that - up to a point, at least - you can still use it in cooking even if you can just go around drinking the stuff anymore).


Heck, I might do all of the above, just because I like writing on these subjects. :-D

[alexbayleaf]

I'd love to read the "how to incorporate preserves" one.

[stultiloquentia]

Something I'd love to read about: how to choose and cook cheap cuts of meat. Give me a pretty roast or a pork chop or a pile of ground beef and I know just what to do, but anything with a lot of bone or fat or gristle attached (whole chickens excepted) and I start to flail.

[alexbayleaf]

I have a whole bunch of things I'd like to do, and might do them as individual short posts.

- buying and cooking dried beans
- how to make your own salad dressing
- simple urban foraging (Mediterranean climate edition, with some applicability elsewhere)
- making vegetable stock from scraps and leftovers
- making a very small amount of meat go a long way / meat as a flavouring

[geeksdoitbetter]

salad dressing! ~claps~

[synecdochic]

I ... am tempted to do something about "what to do when you like food, you really do, it's just that you literally grew up in food service from before the time you were born and therefore have SOME ISSUES AROUND FOOD SAFETY, not to mention you spent five years on a pain medication that totally and completely destroyed not only your appetite but your ability to actually put the food in your mouth and chew without gagging", except it might be a little specific. *G*

(Seriously, though. Growing up in a restaurant gives you weird issues. I can't eat leftovers at all -- if something has been out of the fridge/off the heat for more than about half an hour, I cannot make myself eat it -- and I absolutely have to overcook the fuck out of some foods in order to be willing to eat them (while not caring, oddly, about others). My sister -- who spent less time working in the restaurant before we sold it, but still did somewhat -- doesn't mind leftovers, but she won't eat any food that's touching or mixed with another food. And let's not talk about my issues regarding food transportation and storage before something's cooked. It's my experience that those of us who were restaurant kids either grow up to be completely unconcerned about food safety and will eat anything, anywhere, at any time, or grow up to be hyper-paranoid about food safety. I got the hyper-paranoia; my sister got "slight quirks", thankfully for her...)

I think that might be a little bit too specific, though, and probably a little too likely to kick off food issues in others, so I may write it up and post it on my own. I don't think "how to live with your own (mostly irrational) paranoia about food safety" necessarily fits the "food security" topic *G*

[nancylebov]

Not wanting to eat food which has been touching other food is something that some picky eaters have-- your sister might have felt that way regardless of your family having a restaurant.

[nancylebov]

I could write a stir fry 101 article, but it occurs to me that stir fry isn't exactly 101-- it might need a separate article (possibly by someone better qualified) on how you tell when things are cooked.

Also, I don't cook from recipes much, but would people want to take a crack at how you tell whether a recipe is worth trying?

[geeksdoitbetter]

i would enjoy hearing about more ways to prepare fresh veg

mebbe without having to buy a wok, tho?

[rydra_wong]

Ooh, how about "How To Be Hungry" -- something on managing eating when you have a hard time registering hunger signals (because of meds side-effects, sensory issues, or whatever other reason)?

[amazon_syren]

That would be cool and helpful. :-D

[starcat]

I am looking forward to this and hope to link to it for my work.

[0jack]

I think I'll do a post on some basic concepts and skills that help keep my kitchen on track—pre-cooking/freezing, soaking beans, using the slow cooker and pressure cooker, etc. Maybe a little cost/benefit analysis of some "toys" like pressure cookers and pressure canners. Keeping in mind, of course, that just having a regular freezer is something that a lot of people don't have. I'll address as much as I can in starter post.

I may do a separate section for those without an actual kitchen. I once lived a year with a hot plate, toaster oven, bar fridge, and bar sink, 2 pots & 1 fry pan, $30 week for 2 people, no pantry/food storage or prep space other than what was behind the bar—and we didn't go hungry. It was limited, but okay. When we bought a microwave at last, it was Nirvana. We did have a fireplace (we lived in someone's basement) and I actually cooked on that as well. *g*

[bemused_leftist]

Yes! 'Cooking' without a kitchen! Some of us don't always have space or even enough water for normal dishwashing.

I don't want to have to explain my unusual living situation/s, especially when I'd have to explain it again to each new person.

Could we have it that we focus on the question asked, instead of inquiring about WHY the poster doesn't have this or that 'normal' thing, or "But last week you said you HAD a ___"...

[castiron]

My issue with food: I can cook a decent meal, no problem. What makes me go "screw it, let's go out for supper instead" is the aftermath: washing the dishes, washing the containers I used to bring my lunch to work, cleaning up the stove, wiping the counters, wiping the table.... (And yes, we have a dishwasher. But the plastic containers can't go in there, and it doesn't handle pots and pans.)

Any tips for making the teardown more tolerable?

(I do know about "clean as you go", and that as annoying as it might be to spend 15 minutes on dishes after the meal, it's a lot harder to get the impetus to spend 90 minutes on moldier dishes after a few days.)

[bemused_leftist]

Yes! I made several posts on the previous entry about how to use disposables more, where to get good ones, etc.

[bemused_leftist]

What is the central home base for the Carnival going to be? What about a new LJ Community? (I can start one if nobody else does.)

[commodorified]

For now it lives in my DW.

I feel like by having been the proposer and laying out the guidelines I've accepted some degree of responsibility for how this one runs and I can best discharge that by keeping it close to me.

After Feb 2, we'll see what happens. I feel like ideally by then there will be a small but viable community of people with lots of kickass ideas of how they'd do it if they ran the zoo and I can say "ROCK. HERE YA GO." And wave my baby goodbye as she bikes away into the big big world.

:-)