cakeaustin

My friend and colleague, Joy, had her housewarming last night. I made a tart using Lightsey’s figs, Watson’s peach amaretto jam, almond paste, pate brisee…

assembly

…and finished for the party.

And then, this afternoon I had mr. and mrs. Val and Fede-to-be over for their wedding cake tasting. The cupcakes provided a perfect bite-sized portion while serving the dual purpose of practice for next weekend’s Cupcake Smackdown 1.0 organized by my friend, Jennie Chen. I won’t say which flavor prevailed. You’ll just have to ask the happy couple.

engaged to be...tasting cake

In the words of Queen Elizabeth I,

“This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Photo and text below via Obama Foodorama:

Kirschenmann, Jackson and Berry

“1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has what seems like a constant stream of celeb guests, and for people who follow food and Ag policy, a White House visit from Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson and Fred Kirschenmann is an equivalent event. The trio visited the White House last week when they were in DC for meetings, and Wes Jackson just went on the record with his local paper, the Kansas-based Salina Journal, and he describes the visit. Ob Fo noted recently that the White House Kitchen Garden is a little bit like a green Grand Central Station these days, with all the students and volunteers and visitors going through, including many farm groups from conventional agriculture; what makes this particular event notable is that these particular visitors are pathbreakers in the sustainable ag/environmental community. But please, don’t get yourself in a lather that it’s any indication of Future Policy Directions, as Jackson himself noted to the Salina Journal. (Above: Fred Kirschenmann, from left, Wes Jackson and Wendell Berry in Washington last week).” CLICK TO CONTINUE READING @Obama Foodorama…

As I clicked on a local news station’s website to read a story about Austin food pantries being forced to place restrictions on who receives help, my mouse paused on this little gem (photo to right):

I’ve never been to – let alone, heard of – Sirloin Stockade, but it’s clearly a restaurant with an identity crisis. Obviously, the self-referential carrot cake caught my eye first, followed by the all-American pepperoni pizza, meatlof-ish (?) brick of who can say, fried chicken and so on.

I think it must be like a Golden Corral, or as I refer to it, Golden Feedtrough.

Unfortunately – and, all joking aside – the source of these restaurant chains’ mainstays are in factory farming of  heavily subsidized corn, wheat and soy and of mercilessly confined cattle, pigs and chickens.

It is only a matter of time until the American public lifts fully the veil cast for so long on their food supply. I am grateful for the brave directors of such films as Food, Inc. and FRESH for shedding light on the awful truth: that this 60+ year illusion of endless plenty, having so far surpassed our forefathers’ dreams of a chicken in every pot, must and will come to an end.

My hope is that, by then, enough of us have learned to grow our own food, or have supported the safekeeping of arable land along with those who steward it, long enough and widely enough, to sustain us. As Berry writes, it is only from our relationship with the land, our place, that we learn what is enough.

The current Pepcid Complete marketing campaign invites us and our fellow countrymen to use a heartburn-relief product which will effectively solve the problem of having to “hurt now” or “hurt later”. What it fails to offer is the third, more sensible, healthful and free of cost solution: EATING LESS. Or even EATING FOODS WHICH WON’T TRIGGER HEARTBURN. It’s a simple proposition, but one that manages to elude a large number of the U.S. population: eat foods which your body can comfortably digest, and avoid foods which cause plaque on your arteries, lethargy and lack of joy in life.

This, of course, is a difficult proposition for the many Americans living in poverty, without access to nutritious, affordable food. Organizations such as SFC are working to combat this crisis through programs which put locally farmed food in the paths of food stamp recipients – from neighborhood farm markets which accept the Lone Star Card and WIC vouchers to free cooking and nutrition classes held in the most underserved areas.

Good decisionmaking on the part of consumers is an oft-overlooked variable in the war for decent healthcare in this country. As the Obamas tout the importance of eating well, it will be interesting to watch their message infuse – or fall by the wayside of – the government agencies charged with feeding America. For a start, how about a return to useful semantics? Shouldn’t the goal be “nourishing America?”

In closing, I’d like to give credit to Pepcid for offering sound advice to consumers on not getting heartburn in the first place – seriously. My hope is that more product marketing sites will begin to give credence to the relevance of eating right – before rushing to the medicine cabinet.

The user-generated content revolution predicted by the futurist on staff at my former marketing agency is here. Blogging always seemed natural to me; now, Facebook, quenching one’s undeniable need to share – but Twitter is changing the whole game. Last month’s Time Magazine which a friend passed on to me, made a good case for this, but I see the phenomenon happening at lightning-speed now. Case in point: Seventh Generation is tweeting – about equal numbers of followers and tweeters they follow, in the 6,000 range. They’re getting what any conscientious company would dream of: real-time consumer feedback. This is gold – not only for their PR folks but for R&D as they develop products and improve existing ones.

Now let’s visit our Big Ag friends…how many followers would you hazard a guess mighty Cargill has? 56. What’s more – they’re only following 4. Click over to DuPont. A bit better, at 355. But they are following NO ONE. My favorite is ConAgra, which, despite following 88 and having 148 followers, has YET TO TWEET. Monsanto has a respectable 1,843 but follows 201. What does all of this mean? If I knew nothing else of these corporations, I would infer that they are not listening to their constituents, either because they did not care or because they didn’t have to. I believe it is both.

The revolution won’t be televised.

And she calls the magazine Living.

I have idolized Martha Stewart for most of my life. My mother and I have shared many hours enjoying her recipe books together and even when Martha spent time in prison, I turned a blind eye, believing that she had done more good than harm in the world – particularly for women. More valuable than anything else she accomplished was re-acquainting us with our households, our kitchens, gardens and time honored traditions and crafts.

Over the last two weeks I’ve challenged myself again to turn the other cheek, when MSL Omnimedia engaged a fellow Austin blogger in a legal kerfuffle over the name of her website, alleging copyright infringement. The claim is weak, unnecessary and ultimately, garden variety cyberbullying.

Today, upon seeing THIS ad in the June issue of Living, I find the for the first time I’m able to perceive Martha as a mortal. The pedestal is gone.

Noting my ire, a friend raised the question, “How can you be sure she [Martha] is even aware of what ads her staff are running?” I can take the ‘busy’ argument, believe me, but I can’t stomach the founder of a media empire turning a blind eye to an issue facing every adult and child in our country: diet-related disease.

As anyone can see by simply visiting the Wikipedia page on HFCS, this product is hotly debated; its benefits and detrimental effects, rabidly contested by trade orgs such as CRA and ABA.

Many bloggers have covered the TV ads which launched in Sept. 2008. This new wave of print is insidious, and like the McCafe campaign featuring smiling latinas, targets women with misleading claims wrapped with a bow.

To see all variants of the campaign and read the copy – all of which, is naturally endorsed by “experts in their fields”, click here. Peppering the website are soundbites and quotations pulled out of context, such as that from the American Medical Association, which fails to include the next sentence from its official findings published in 2008 stating that further INDEPENDENT research was recommended on the health effects of HFCS.