This is a long one...let me start at the beginning, which is a very good place to start.
Adam is playing Jefferson Davis, president of the South in the Civil War, in a wax museum at school. What a fun idea right? He got his costume together complete with top hat, white shirt, and vest and he memorized his lines.
The next night, Ana whacked him HARD with a recorder (the kind you play, people call it a flute sometimes) and gave him a big old black eye. So, he already looked funny but I figured that he'd be fine cause he had his costume. If I needed to, I could put a bit of mineral makeup around it.
Well, the next day I picked him up after dress rehearsal and noticed that I'd picked up a hobo instead. His top had had been crunched, his pants were dirty because the goats jumped up on him that morning while he was feeding them their bottles, and the clincher...he had DRAWN a beard on his face with black markers.
When I asked my brother (who works at the school) if he'd seen Adam he mentioned that he had and was wondering which character he played. I said, "I know, he looks like a hobo." My brother's response..."You mean he's not supposed to be a hobo?"
I told him that he was the president of the South...
pause for hysterical laughter on both ends of the line
Yeah, after quizzing Adam I found that the kids asked their teacher if they could draw beards and he said ok, as long as it will come off. Now, what 11 year old boy is going to have any idea if the marker is going to come off of his face?
pause for more laughter
so, he scrubbed and scrubbed and even used a magic eraser on his face. Now we're down to a crunched hat, a black eye, and a 5 o'clock shadow of black marker. Yeah, he's gonna be playing a hobo today.
ok...more laughter.
Friday, May 21, 2010
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Bugs in our food too?
This article made me laugh. I've known about carmine and where it came from for a while now but I've chosen to somewhat ignore it. I'm just happy to not have the red #40 in my food. But, the laugh factor came when reading the cost of carmine vs. chemical dye and thinking, can't we just have non-dyed food? Would it really be that awful? Would kids NOT eat a strawberry granola bar because it wasn't red enough? Would they not eat a gogurt that was pale pink from strawberries instead of bright red from petroleum or bugs? I do know that certain colors are more appetizing and I've been known many times to throw in a handful of blueberries in a green smoothie to make it purple but, that's my point. Unless your food is green from supplements, why bother painting it different colors?
http://www.usnews.com/money/business-economy/articles/2008/07/11/will-bug-based-food-coloring-catch-on.html
Would you rather eat something made from petroleum or bugs? It's not a dare but the crux of a change in the food industry. Pressure on companies to abandon artificial dyes is expected to result in increased use of natural food colors—the most popular of which is cochineal, a dye made from insects that are ground up and added to foods to make them rosier.
Click here to find out more!
The British government has recommended that food manufacturers stop using additives like Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5 (commonly called "nasties" in the U.K.) by the start of 2009. Some American activists, citing studies linking eight artificial dyes to hyperactivity in children, want the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take a similar stance.
A move away from artificial food coloring would spur demand for a red dye made from the cochineal beetle. Cochineal, often known as carmine, has already made its way into hundreds of U.S. products, including yogurt, waffles, and lipstick.
Demand in Peru alone for the cochineal dye has doubled in the past six years, from 1,000 tons of dry cochineal in 2002 to 2,000 tons now, according to the Cochineal Working Group, a network of farmers and researchers. The dye is made by scraping female bugs and their eggs off cactus leaves and grinding them into a powder. The main producers are in Peru, Chile, and the Canary Islands.
"Production could be more if necessary," says Liberato Portillo, coordinator of the Cochineal Working Group, a section of the International Technical Cooperation Network on Cactus, which provides information and research on cacti. As demand has increased, Ethiopia and China have started cultivating the insects as well, Portillo says.
Making carmine the main source for natural orange, red, and blue tints might be easier said than done, says Al Baroudi, president of Food Safety Institute International, a consulting group based in Henderson, Nev. "People who are farming it now don't have a remote idea of what the demand will be" if large international manufacturers start placing huge orders for the dye to keep their foods' vibrant colors—and their customers.
Baroudi says the price of carmine would no doubt go up with demand. The cost of carmine is generally about four times that of coal- and petroleum-based synthetic dyes—between $50 and $80 per kilogram for carmine, compared with $10 to $20 for synthetics. Jeff Greaves, president of Food Ingredient Solutions in Teterboro, N.J., says that with carmine, "you typically have to spend 10 to 20 times as much to get the same color intensity" as you would using artificial colors.
Although the FDA has rebuffed calls for it to ban artificial colorings, experts expect many food companies to shift on their own to satisfy international markets. Global Industry Analysts reported in late 2007 that "outbreaks of food scares and heightened awareness of the health benefits of organically produced ingredients are thought to be behind the dramatic turn from unhealthy ingredients."
Greaves says that "there is definitely a trend towards natural color.... Carmine sales are up 20 percent this year already." Greaves's company processes and distributes both artificial and natural food colors for sale in North America and Europe. It is one of the world's biggest carmine suppliers, selling about 75 tons of the dye per year.
"There's still a cultural 'icky' thing about carmine," Greaves says. But drastic market change is not unprecedented. In the mid-1970s, "Red [Dye] No. 2 got removed overnight, and what replaced it was carmine," he adds. Use of Red No. 40 also increased after the FDA banned Red No. 2.
Companies will "work real hard to formulate new colors for export," says John Rushing, an expert on food science and business who teaches at North Carolina State University. Red cabbage is another source for a natural dye, but it's much more expensive than carmine, Rushing says.
Cochineal is not without controversy, and not just because making food coloring from insects may be unappetizing. For one thing, cochineal is an allergen. "Allergies to carmine are less common than to artificial food coloring, but they can be severe," says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington health advocacy group that supports a ban on artificial food dyes. "If carmine is used, it should absolutely be indicated on the food label as a potential allergen."
Carmine is also an animal-based dye, which doesn't sit well with vegans and vegetarians. Erik Marcus of Vegan.com says foods with carmine "are always nonvegan."
There is already a small effort to avoid carmine. When Nestlé, the Swiss food manufacturing giant, switched its Smarties candies from artificial reds to carmine in 2004, it was blasted by vegetarian groups for the insect content. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals lists candies with no carmine (or other animal-based substances) on its website, and a few cosmetics companies tout themselves as "carmine free."
http://www.usnews.com/money/business-economy/articles/2008/07/11/will-bug-based-food-coloring-catch-on.html
Would you rather eat something made from petroleum or bugs? It's not a dare but the crux of a change in the food industry. Pressure on companies to abandon artificial dyes is expected to result in increased use of natural food colors—the most popular of which is cochineal, a dye made from insects that are ground up and added to foods to make them rosier.
Click here to find out more!
The British government has recommended that food manufacturers stop using additives like Red No. 40 and Yellow No. 5 (commonly called "nasties" in the U.K.) by the start of 2009. Some American activists, citing studies linking eight artificial dyes to hyperactivity in children, want the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to take a similar stance.
A move away from artificial food coloring would spur demand for a red dye made from the cochineal beetle. Cochineal, often known as carmine, has already made its way into hundreds of U.S. products, including yogurt, waffles, and lipstick.
Demand in Peru alone for the cochineal dye has doubled in the past six years, from 1,000 tons of dry cochineal in 2002 to 2,000 tons now, according to the Cochineal Working Group, a network of farmers and researchers. The dye is made by scraping female bugs and their eggs off cactus leaves and grinding them into a powder. The main producers are in Peru, Chile, and the Canary Islands.
"Production could be more if necessary," says Liberato Portillo, coordinator of the Cochineal Working Group, a section of the International Technical Cooperation Network on Cactus, which provides information and research on cacti. As demand has increased, Ethiopia and China have started cultivating the insects as well, Portillo says.
Making carmine the main source for natural orange, red, and blue tints might be easier said than done, says Al Baroudi, president of Food Safety Institute International, a consulting group based in Henderson, Nev. "People who are farming it now don't have a remote idea of what the demand will be" if large international manufacturers start placing huge orders for the dye to keep their foods' vibrant colors—and their customers.
Baroudi says the price of carmine would no doubt go up with demand. The cost of carmine is generally about four times that of coal- and petroleum-based synthetic dyes—between $50 and $80 per kilogram for carmine, compared with $10 to $20 for synthetics. Jeff Greaves, president of Food Ingredient Solutions in Teterboro, N.J., says that with carmine, "you typically have to spend 10 to 20 times as much to get the same color intensity" as you would using artificial colors.
Although the FDA has rebuffed calls for it to ban artificial colorings, experts expect many food companies to shift on their own to satisfy international markets. Global Industry Analysts reported in late 2007 that "outbreaks of food scares and heightened awareness of the health benefits of organically produced ingredients are thought to be behind the dramatic turn from unhealthy ingredients."
Greaves says that "there is definitely a trend towards natural color.... Carmine sales are up 20 percent this year already." Greaves's company processes and distributes both artificial and natural food colors for sale in North America and Europe. It is one of the world's biggest carmine suppliers, selling about 75 tons of the dye per year.
"There's still a cultural 'icky' thing about carmine," Greaves says. But drastic market change is not unprecedented. In the mid-1970s, "Red [Dye] No. 2 got removed overnight, and what replaced it was carmine," he adds. Use of Red No. 40 also increased after the FDA banned Red No. 2.
Companies will "work real hard to formulate new colors for export," says John Rushing, an expert on food science and business who teaches at North Carolina State University. Red cabbage is another source for a natural dye, but it's much more expensive than carmine, Rushing says.
Cochineal is not without controversy, and not just because making food coloring from insects may be unappetizing. For one thing, cochineal is an allergen. "Allergies to carmine are less common than to artificial food coloring, but they can be severe," says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington health advocacy group that supports a ban on artificial food dyes. "If carmine is used, it should absolutely be indicated on the food label as a potential allergen."
Carmine is also an animal-based dye, which doesn't sit well with vegans and vegetarians. Erik Marcus of Vegan.com says foods with carmine "are always nonvegan."
There is already a small effort to avoid carmine. When Nestlé, the Swiss food manufacturing giant, switched its Smarties candies from artificial reds to carmine in 2004, it was blasted by vegetarian groups for the insect content. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals lists candies with no carmine (or other animal-based substances) on its website, and a few cosmetics companies tout themselves as "carmine free."
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Five safe ingredients
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2940146/five_safe_ingredients_for_foodsensitive.html?cat=25
This is an article about five safe ingredients that one mom keeps around for safe treats.
This is an article about five safe ingredients that one mom keeps around for safe treats.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
cute lunch, risotto cakes and meatballs
http://lunchinabox.net/2010/03/24/leftover-remake-risotto-cake-recipe/
This one looked particularly yummy and easy to make Feingold safe.
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