ruth117’s Recent Comments

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  The problem with cooking to fight obesity is that you can make just as many snacks as the big producers do at home with ordinary apliances. Since I have started learning how to make more things at home I have made "oreos", marshmallows, bacon icecream, chips, crackers, and a huge aray of other large calorie items. You still have to make the personal choice to eat less.On Can Jamie Oliver cooking lessons cure obesity? posted 1 week, 6 days ago 10 Responses

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  It is something of a paradox that North Americans seem to be so concerned about the Rainforest destruction (to the point of being choosy about the ingredients in their box of comfort cookies) when we are the ones who have destroyed our natural ecosystems on our own continent with little remorse. The native prairies which were here before european invasion were amazingly diverse with some biodiversity counts being just as high or higher than the rainforest. However native prairie has almost all been plowed up and are now vast monocultures of corn and soy and the plants and animals they once supported have been reduced to the point that almost all of them are rare or endangered or extinct. The American bison and Burrowing owl are no less magestic and "cute" than the orangutan and the ferns. 

  It would be easy to throw up our hands and do nothing. To say that we have wrecked our earth to the point of breaking and that there is nothing we can do to change. But there is something we can do and it has to be together!! We cannot just say to the people of Indonesia and Malaysia that they have to clean up their act and do nothing about our own environmental woes. If we threw out everything in our cupboards that endangered the earth in some way there would be very little in there and we would have done almost nothing to put the native ecosystems right. First of all we need to learn how to get what we need from the land we have now without ripping up more of it. Then we need to learn how best to obtain the nesecities of life (not the excesses!!!) from less land and then the natural systems can start to restore themselves. This is not an easy task but one we (as the human popultation) must do. It can start with making your first batch of homemade cookies and end with saving the earth!

  On Palm oil, healthy rainforests, and your kitchen posted 2 months, 1 week ago 20 Responses

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  I was wondering the same thing so I looked up Crisco brand and here is the ingredient list:

  SOYBEAN OIL, FULLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED AND SOYBEAN OILS, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, TBHQ AND CITRIC ACID (ANTIOXIDANTS)

  Soooo basically there is no palm oil, but lots of soybean oil (another potential ecological disaster) and lots of other things that aren't really good for you. The good thing is that you only use 1/4 cup and this is spread around 25 cookies. Plus they are really good!

  On Palm oil, healthy rainforests, and your kitchen posted 2 months, 1 week ago 20 Responses

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  Make your own Oreo's!! from Smitten Kitchen http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/05/my-kingdom-for-a-glass-of-milk/ I did a while ago and they were wayyyyyy better than the original!!

  Homemade Oreos
  Let’s talk about the sugar for a minute, shall we? This is a sweet cookie. A good, sweet cookie. Yet, if you think of an actual Oreos, the wafers are fairly un-sweet and actually on the slightly salty side, which contrasts with the super-sweetness of the filling bringing harmony, happiness, yada yada. If you want your cookie closer to that original, you can take out a full half-cup of the sugar. If you want to make the cookie by itself (as I did a while back for ice cream sandwiches), go ahead and use the full amount.

  Makes 25 to 30 sandwich cookies

  For the chocolate wafers:
  1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
  1 teaspoon baking soda
  1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar [see recipe note]
  1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) room-temperature, unsalted butter
  1 large egg

  For the filling:
  1/4 cup (1/2 stick) room-temperature, unsalted butter
  1/4 cup vegetable shortening
  2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
  2 teaspoons vanilla extract

  1. Set two racks in the middle of the oven. Preheat to 375°F.
  2. In a food processor, or bowl of an electric mixer, thoroughly mix the flour, cocoa, baking soda and powder, salt, and sugar. While pulsing, or on low speed, add the butter, and then the egg. Continue processing or mixing until dough comes together in a mass.
  3. Take rounded teaspoons of batter and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet approximately two inches apart. With moistened hands, slightly flatten the dough. Bake for 9 minutes, rotating once for even baking. Set baking sheets on a rack to cool.
  4. To make the cream, place butter and shortening in a mixing bowl, and at low speed, gradually beat in the sugar and vanilla. Turn the mixer on high and beat for 2 to 3 minutes until filling is light and fluffy.
  5. To assemble the cookies, in a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch, round tip, pipe teaspoon-size blobs of cream into the center of one cookie. Place another cookie, equal in size to the first, on top of the cream. Lightly press, to work the filling evenly to the outsides of the cookie. Continue this process until all the cookies have been sandwiched with cream. Dunk generously in a large glass of milk.
  On Palm oil, healthy rainforests, and your kitchen posted 2 months, 1 week ago 20 Responses

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  Here in Winnipeg, home to the Canadian Wheat Board and surrounded by thousands of acres of grain land, it is amazing how hard it is to get local wheat / flour. In local supermarkets there is still only two or three brands of flour (typically Five Roses, Robin Hood and Store Brand) It is really sad that even in the "Bread basket of the world" local flour is hard to find. Fortunatly there is hope! A local bakery commited to using grains from its foodshed sources organic grain from local farms (much like Farm and Sparrow) and sells excess for home use. I'm glad for small bakeries like this that are bringing back real, local foods!

  P.S. Tall Grass Prairie Bakery (http://www.tallgrassbakery.ca/index.html )also makes the most amazing whole wheat cinnamon buns...yummy!

  On Against the grain of industrial agriculture, truly local bread stages a comeback posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago 1 Response