Meat me in Paris!

Greetings from Paris my dear blog readers!!

(Note that the title only sounds good if you pronounce the word "Paris" as the French would)

Yes, that's right. I am currently writing to you far from the hustling bustling United States, but that doesn't mean I can't do what I'm supposed to do on a Monday! The food here is, in a word, magnificent. And I'll tell ya, there's a whole lot of strange forms of meat here (liver, feet etc). Some of which I have tried, and others that I could not muster up enough bravery to be able to even put near my mouth (and normally, I'm open to almost anything). But still, it's Monday and it is important that I keep to my rule and not eat meat today (even while in a city with much fine food).

Anyway, what I'm here to tell you is that you too can continue to be meatless (or at least meat conscious) while you're away from home. Here are a few tips I've put together for eating (and not eating) meat on the road, in the air, and in a totally different city:

1.) Skip the meat at breakfast: I mean, really. When was the last time you actually had bacon and sausage with your breakfast at home? It shouldn't be too hard to give up this one luxury for a single day of your vacation. Substitute with eggs or yogurt (seriously, even I gave up French porsciutto on meatless Monday!)

2.) Go meatless with airline food: Think about it, how good could the meat be in the air? It's frozen, processed, and not to mention just plain gross. So whether it's meatless Monday or not, I'd say just pass on meat based Airline food. A vegetarian option is almost always offered, and if not you can always just ask.

3.) Fish always beats other meat: sometimes the situation just doesn't allow for a vegetarian option to be available. But better than getting meat is getting fish, which is a lot farther away from meat than a hamburger is.

4.) If worse comes to worse.... Just don't go meatless. Sometimes, it's just impossible to get a quality vegetarian meal, especially in a foreign country. Promise that sometime when you get home, you'll have an extra meatless meal to make up for it. It can be really Difficult to keep to A meatless tradition when youre far from home. But seriously, Don't beat yourself up, you will be forgiven :)

I hope you all found these tips helpful!

Happy eating!
Leda :)

P.S. I apologize for the late post, bad formatting and spelling mistakes. But unfortunately I'm writing this post from my iPod :/
I promiseto bring you a new recipe next week!

5 (Fun?) Facts You Didn't Know About the Meat that You Eat

Hey everyone,

Sorry I haven't written in so long.... I know you all have been waiting with bated breath for a new post (and that might possibly explain why I had 32 pageviews today when nothing new was on.... either that or someone just refreshed the page 32 times. Good for you!)

Anyway, no meal today (that's right, I didn't have dinner... nah, just kidding. We had boring food that I didnt even make). So I've decided to do a more informational post (and I really should be doing more of these...).

Now, you might be wondering why I put the word "fun" in parentheses with a question mark (aren't you just fascinated by punctuation?) Well, that's because while information about the meat you eat may be interesting/gruesome/shocking, I'm not sure I would call it fun. It was all for alliteration's sake, you know?

Also, I'm too lazy to put citations and sources down for my information. All my sources are reliable. Trust me. I did not make this stuff up. I mean, who would?

So here we go with 5 (fun?) Facts you didn't know about meat:

1.) 99% of all animals eaten in the U.S. come from factory farms- Yes, I have put this on my blog before. However, I believe it is one of the most shocking and truly revealing facts about meat consumption in the U.S. Factory farms are what make up the core of the problems we face here with meat. Because of it, we have bad quality meat that abuses animals, puts chemicals into our bodies, and eventually makes us sick. You know how one day you might wake up and throw up, but the next day you're fine? Many people just say "Oh, I caught a bug". But in reality, most "24 hour stomach bugs" come from consumption of bad meat.

2.) Animal agriculture is the #1 cause of global climate change- When we think of things like "global warming" and "global climate change" the first thing that comes to mind as a cause is things like gasses and transportation. That is part of what makes animal agriculture the #1 source (as in transporting meat), but in fact animal agriculture contributes even more to climate change than all transportation in the world combined.

3.) The average American eats the equivalent of 21,00 whole animals in an entire lifetime- Okay, so this one absolutely shocked me. And I'm still trying to figure it out. Seem's like a lot of meat, huh? Just think about it in terms of whole animals. It's kind of gruesome, isn't it? Although I'm still not sure of the validity of this one, I still feel it was worth sharing (and thinking about!)

4.) About 1/3 of the land surface of the Earth is used for livestock- Don't we have better things to do with our land than to use it for caging and abusing various animals? This is mind boggling as we keep in mind that most of the Earth is water anyway. So now that we know that (yay learning!), think about it. Of the remaining space left over on the earth, we use it for farming animals (and not even in a good way!). Don't get me wrong, it's fine if a good amount of land is used for livestock, but 1/3 is simply ridiculous.

5.) And now I leave you with my favorite fact, complete with a video! 70% of America's beef is treated with ammonia- The video really explains it all, but really. First of all, they're using the outside of the meat that isn't even meat. Or edible. But then they use something called ammonia to "clean" it. Ammonia is a chemical. It is absolutely not made for human consumption. And even worse, labels don't even tell you if you're consuming ammonia or not. Because apparently it's a process. A process? Really? Next thing you know they're going to call high fructose corn syrup a process and you won't know if you're eating that either!

Anyway, here's the video (if you need a visual aid/ deeper explanation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wshlnRWnf30

Happy Eating!

(Oh, wait. That's going to be quite hard after watching that video....)

Leda :)

(Image credit: procsilas via flickr)

(Credit to Jonathan Safran Foer Eating Animals)

Can You Say Risotto??

Well, this post is long overdue.... but I'm going to post it anyway, because I'm sure you are all dying to know what I had for Meatless Monday this past Monday. First, I'll post the recipe, just so we can get that out of the way.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tablespoons good olive oil

1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts (2 leeks)

1 cup chopped fennel

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice

2/3 cup dry white wine

4 to 5 cups simmering chicken stock, preferably homemade

1 pound thin asparagus 10 ounces frozen peas, defrosted, or 1 1/2 cups shelled fresh peas

1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest (2 lemons)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup mascarpone chcheese, preferably Italian
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, plus extra for serving
3 tablespoons minced fresh chives, plus extra for serving

Directions:

Heat the olive oil and butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks and fennel and saute for 5 to 7 minutes, until tender. Add the rice and stir for a minute to coat with the vegetables, oil, and butter. Add the white wine and simmer over low heat, stirring constantly, until most of the wine has been absorbed. Add the chicken stock, 2 ladles at a time, stirring almost constantly and waiting for the stock to be absorbed before adding more. This process should take 25 to 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, cut the asparagus diagonally in 1 1/2-inch lengths and discard the tough ends. Blanch in boiling salted water for 4 to 5 minutes, until al dente. Drain and cool immediately in ice water. (If using fresh peas, blanch them in boiling water for a few minutes until the starchiness is gone.)

When the risotto has been cooking for 15 minutes, drain the asparagus and add it to the risotto with the peas, lemon zest, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper. Continue cooking and adding stock, stirring almost constantly, until the rice is tender but still firm.

Whisk the lemon juice and mascarpone together in a small bowl. When the risotto is done, turn off the heat and stir in the mascarpone mixture plus the Parmesan cheese and chives. Set aside, off the heat, for a few minutes, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot with a sprinkling of chives and more Parmesan cheese.

So first off, I'd just like to say that risotto is one of my favorite things to eat.... EVER. And although this dish is time consuming, it is by no means technically difficult (depending on what your defenition of "technically difficult" is....) and in the end is so worth it. Trust me.

This dish is originally an Ina Garten (aka the Barefoot Contessa) recipe. And although she is mostly a "French" chef, this Italian dish is nothing short of spot on. And let me just make one thing clear, all of her dishes turn out well. Maybe I'm over exagerrating a bit, but my mom and I have never come across a recipe that wasn't delicious.

(Ina, if you're reading this- which I'm sure you're not- I'd just like to say that my mom and I love you!)

Anyway, I made a few modifications to this dish (which is surely wonderful in it's original form, because I've had it that way). To be truly meatless, I always make sure I use vegetable stock. Sure, chicken stock has more flavor, but it's chicken. Also, I substituted the fennel for an extra leek, just because I don't like fennel (I mean, it tastes like licorice!)

So when my mom suggested that I make a risotto, I felt this bit of fear strike through my body. No, risotto's not a scary dish. But a few weeks ago I was watching The Next Food Network Star with my family and Jyll (a very experienced cook, I might add) made a risotto for none other than the famous Wolfgang Puck. She served it to him and the selection comittee, and he took one look at it and said (in his very pompous Austrian accent of course) "Darling, let me show you how to make a risotto the right way. Yes, in the kitchen. Right now". And that's just what he did. Well, isn't he charming? Now do you see why I was afraid to make risotto? If Jyll couldn't make it right, what makes me think I could? Well, I was wrong. And it turned out wonderfully.

Now onto how it tastes (yes, I do overwrite). To me, risotto is the Italian version of Mac 'n' Cheese (though I do believe that is originally considered Italian as well....?) However, instead of pasta we use arborio rice, a short grain rice that's very meaty (haha) and tender. The trick with this dish is that you have to stir it constantly (and yes, by constantly I do mean constantly). The best part of this whole recipe is the marscapone. It makes the rice so thick and creamy. Not to mention the fact that you first mix the marscapone with lemon juice. Seriously, I could eat a whole bowl of just that.

And this is yet another dish that comes complete with leftovers! And I mean a lot of leftovers. Seriously, I'm about to go eat some now for lunch.

All in all this risotto turned out fabulous. It really is a good way to get your vegetables while eating comfort food.

How easy is that?

Leda :)