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Friday, March 21, 2008Leave The Eggs Alone!Time for a food rant. I just ran to the grocery store. And what did I see on the shelf beside the nice, brown, cage free eggs? Pasteurized eggs. Folks. Eggs do not need to be pasteurized. "Protection from salmonella!" the carton cried in obnoxious font. No. No and no and no. All it takes is a little bit of reading to learn the truth about these things. You're reading right now, so here it is: Salmonella does not live inside eggs. If the shell is intact, there is no way for it to get in. And eggs aren't "born" with salmonella. So, what's the hype? Well, salmonella can -- and sometimes does -- live on the eggshells. Why? Chicken poop. And such. Right. So why are they pasteurizing eggs? Because we live in a paranoid, brainwashed, believe-what-they-tell-you society. And somebody in said society came up with the brilliant idea of pasteurizing eggs. Pasteurization kills things. Good things. It kills vital enzymes that our bodies need for optimal health. It kills them in milk. That's why pasteurized milk is nutritionally void (and also why so many children end up with so-called "milk allergies"). It kills them in bottled juices. That's why we should eat fresh fruit and drink freshly squeezed juices instead. And it most certainly kills them in eggs, too. An egg is a nearly perfect food. (You've heard differently? Of course you have. We've been misled for decades now.) Why mess with it? "Because salmonella might be living on the eggshell and make me and my family very, very sick." Ahem: Here's how to make sure your eggs are safe: 1. Wash your hands when you've been handling whole eggs. That way, you won't transfer any unsavory, microscopic beasties to other foods and surfaces. 2. Wash your eggs with mild soap and water and rinse well before you crack them. Salmonella taints eggs when the shells touch the inner goo. So if you wash the shell first, there is no danger of contamination. 3. Never, never, never use an egg that's already cracked. Discard it immediately. 4. Choose naturally fed, free range, and/or organic eggs. Yes, they are more expensive. Yes, you get what you pay for. (Yes, they taste better.) Oh, and the whole scare tactic about Never Eating Anything Made With Raw Eggs? Ur, wash your eggs first. Remember, the salmonella doesn't grow all by itself inside an egg. Chocolate Mousse and French Silk Pie, here I come! That's my whole foods rant for the week. And now I'm feeling hungry. Labels: cooking, natural foods Thursday, April 19, 2007Ban Me From the KitchenI have a new warning for pregnant women: Don't try new recipes until after the baby's born. Because we all know that those hormones drain the thoughts out of your brain like a sump pump in overdrive. I had a hankering for a nifty pasta and spinach salad. My usual trying-new-recipes method is to do a brief search online to get some good ideas, and then come up with my own recipe. It didn't take me long to concoct a passionate conglomeration of ingredients in my head, and I headed to the grocery store after dropping off my daughters at ballet. Who could resist a spinach-and-wagon-wheel-pasta salad, redolent of fresh lemon juice and minced garlic, tossed gleefully with grape tomatoes, black olives, red onion, marinated artichoke hearts, grated Parmesan, crumbled Feta, and -- as a special tip of the hat to my husband -- pine nuts. So I doused the pine nuts with olive oil and slapped them under the broiler while the water boiled. Then I promptly forgot about them. In the midst of grating cheese and slicing olives and stirring the boiling pasta, it occurred to me that something smelled odd. I thought maybe it was the permanent food crust that lives on my stovetop. But no. It was Blackened Pine Nuts a la Jillian. I was devastated. They were expensive. Eric is going to tease me mercilessly. And the entire downstairs smells like the residue from a kitchen fire. Still, I quickly regrouped and continued to toss the remaining ingredients in the bowl. I sliced open the container of Feta -- ah, I love Feta! -- and it looked blueish-green. This wasn't a good sign. In a fit of panic, I read the lid to confirm my suspicion. Yep. I had accidentally purchased crumbled bleu cheese. Two whole containers of it. Ask me if my children like bleu cheese. Now ask me if I'm going to tell them that the cheese in their pasta salad isn't Feta. Overall, the salad is beautiful, and even pre-soaking time, it tastes pretty darn good. Still, I think I would have been safer putting this one off. I think tomorrow night we'll order a pizza. |
About Me
I am: Mother to five stunningly individualistic children... Writer of young adult fantasy... Passionate advocate for Women At Home... Madly in love with my husband... In need of Organic Gourmet Chocolate on a regular basis. I've got a Paypal account if you'd like to contribute to the cause....
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