Romney's Hurricane Sandy Relief Rally Was a Fake Food Drive

Mitt Romney and Party have treated us to false coal miner rallies where the workers were required to attend by their employer and not even paid their regular wages for doing so. Then there was the phony charity dish washing event staged by Paul Ryan, the Republican vice president candidate.

NOW, we must endure a false Hurricane Sandy Aid Rally.

Unable to continue campaigning as usual during the worst storm to hit New York, New Jersey and surrounding East coast area in a century, Romney needed to find another way to keep his face before the voting public.

Why not stage a political rally but call it a relief rally instead? Need a photo opp? That's easy. Just send your staff to the nearby Walmart to buy $5,000 worth of canned food and then heavily stocked the tables in front of the candidate, least he look bad.

Attendees without a food donation were given one by Romney's staff, enabling them to give 'their' (Romney's) food gift back to the Republican candidate when he shook their hand in front of the waiting cameras.

Prearranged, phony, fake, staged!!! Are there words negative enough to comment on the character of someone willing to exploit the suffering of millions of citizens suddenly without homes, lights, heat, food? We are at a loss to find them.

Crafting a self-serving event complete with illusionary donations and then adding childhood stories about one's own generosity, it NOT a presidential response worthy of any individual seeking to one of the world's most powerful positions.

The correct response is to donate cash to the American Red Cross. Cash enables them to purchase the resources most needed by the disaster victims and avoid the costly and time-consuming process of sorting, delivery and even finding a heat source to prepare food donations. 

Perhaps Romney, one of the wealthiest men to ever run for president, might consider this well known fact and write a check to the Red Cross equal to say the price of his wife's show horse, instead of focusing on obtaining PR photos of himself.

Post Note, November 1, 2012: The staff at Your Culinary World has voted unanimously to award Lindsay Lohan the BURNT COOKIE AWARD for absolutely stupid statements.

With an almost unbelievable careless disregard for the safety of others, she twitted, "WHY is everyone in SUCH a panic about hurricane (i'm calling it Sally)..? Stop projecting negativity! Think positive and pray for peace." 

Dear Miss Lohan, hurricanes and the loss of life that they bring is no joke. You should know better or be silent. Being a celebrity is a responsiblity, not a platform for spreading dangerous misinformation!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Batman Gets It Right while Rush Limbaugh Gets It WRONG

Take heart Batman! A recent study at Cornell University’s Food and Brand Lab found that when children were asked if the Caped Crusader would eat apples (good) or fast food French fries (bad), they overwhelming said their hero would choose apples!

Wow! Pow! Bang!  So move over film critics who of late have negatively reviewed the most recent Batman film, The Black Knight Rises, as having little merit.

The movie’s talented director, Christopher Nolan, has even gone on record to defend the many fans who have responded to the critics’ negative reviews by storming the Internet.

The resulting digital wave was so massive that the popular cinema info site, Rotten Tomatoes, closed down the viewers’ comment area. Rather sad.

But possibly the strangest of the strange was Rush Limbaugh’s seeing sinister political plots by President Obama and Hollywood, where none existed, by confusing the film’s villain’s name, Bane with Mitt Romney’s controversial firm, Bain.

With just a little study (no apple from the teacher for Limbaugh), this extreme conservative radio host would have learned that the movie’s hateful character was actually created by Chuck Dixon and Graham Nolan (both lifelong conservatives) back in 1993, years before Romney began asking Americans to consider electing him president.

So at this point, the children in the Cornell Test Lab seem a whole lot smarter than this ill-informed commentator who often advances his career through hateful speech on a wide range of topics, including labeling those who advocate healthy food choices for children as "Food Nazis".

His comments are not just sad thoughtless speech, but rather the hazardous habit of substituting hate for truthful useful information.

Post Note, July 20, 2012: The staff of YourCulinaryWorld.com arrived at the office greatly saddened today by the tragic news from Aurora, Colorado where many people were killed and many more injured by a masked shooter during a midnight showing of The Dark Knight Rises.

The question that comes to mind as we discuss this horror is "Why?" Why must our world be like this? Why must be the innocent suffer?

We do not have the answer. We wished we did, but we do know that we must seek to understand the source of such violence, no matter how ugly the resulting answers may be to us or about us. 

Only then can we change the future and genuinely leave these darkened days behind us, rather than endlessly repeat the past, complete with all its senseless clubs and stones, guns and bombs. Then perhaps the seemingly ceaseless stream of tears that floods our world might stop.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Move over Ralph Lauren and Coke, Bouillon Cubes Were First Olympic Sponsor

As the Running of the Bulls comes to a close in Pamplona, Spain, all eyes will soon be turning to the London's Summer Olympics.

And you are correct, if it seems that there are almost as many sponsors for the Olympics this year as there are athletes. After all, the Games, which began in 1896, are expensive and the seemingly endless bills for lodging and arena construction have to be paid.

Indeed, heavy governmental funding for the Utah 2002 Winter Olympics, not to mention that the Olympic torches used were made in Burma, have been very stressful topics for the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, in the current US presidential election.

So as you might have expected, commercial sponsorship has been a controversial element of the Olympics since its beginning. But did you know that its first official sponsor was the company that first offered soup made from bouillon cubes to tired athletes?

That's right – bouillon cubes, those invigorating little compact squares of concentrated soup.

Even less known is the fact that Nicolas Apperts, who first marketed bouillon cubes, also invented the process of canning as we know it today. A failed champagne producer and an unsuccessful innkeeper and chef, Nicolas Apperts was a man who collected talents to seemingly no benefit.

But when Napoleon announced he would award a huge cash prize to anyone who could develop a method to preserve food for his far-flung army, Nicolas Apperts knew his day had come

As an unsuccessful chef, he well understood spoilage. As a failed winemaker he knew bottling – especially champagne.

As a result, he developed a method so simple, so obvious it had been overlooked by everyone else. Just put the desired food in a bottle, top it off with a liquid sauce, seal the bottle like a champagne bottle and then heat the bottle until the internal liquid boils.

It worked! Nicolas Apperts received the award, got the huge government contracting and built the very first commercial bottling plant.

It was in the research lab of his newly flounded company, that he reduced soup to its most compact form to the delight of weary athletes and hurried chefs everywhere.

And what better place to first demonstrate the "Cube's" restorative powers to the public than at the 1908 Summer Olympics, where Dorando Pietri, the couragous Italian Marathon Runner AND pastry chef, enjoyed its nurturing and resorative powers. (And what chef would not identify with his final push in their own effort to make it through a long and seemingly endless day of effort).  

Video Text by Sir Arthur Conan Doyale, Famed Author of Sherlock Holmes Novels

So let us never underestimate the power of the small, the few, be it a single world-class athlete or a tiny little bouillon cube in the hands of a creative chef who can inspire us all!

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Enjoy Historic Food and Drink for an Honest Fourth of July This Election Year

Soon the U.S. will be celebrating its Independence Day. No president is more associated with American ideals than George Washington. Yet, similar to the current presidential campaign rhetoric, myths equally abound regarding the nation’s first president and Colonial War hero. Just consider...

Childhood

• Then: George Washington never chopped down a cherry tree.
• Now: Barack Obama was never born in Kenya.

Education

• Then: George Washington left formal education at 14.
• Now: Barack Obama attended Columbia University and Harvard University on work and grant scholarships.

Personal Wealth

• Then: George Washington refused his general’s salary of $48,000 while serving for 8 years as commander of the Continental Army. Instead, he billed Congress only for his expenses, which totaled $447,220!
• Now: Mitt Romney has accepted no public campaign donations, choosing instead to rely on Super PACS funded by millionaires.

Human Rights

• Then: George Washington was the only slave-owning President who ever freed his slaves – all 124 of them.
• Now: Despite current political ads, illegal immigration is down 60% since 2000.

 Religion

• Then: George Washington never knelt at Valley Forge or anywhere else. He occasionally attended the Episcopal Church but was known to never kneel with the Congregation or to receive Communion.
• Now: Barack Obama is a Christian. Period, end of discussion.

Temperance

• Then: Washington operated one of the new nation’s most commercial successful distilleries at Mt Vernon, producing rye whiskey, apple and peach brandies.
• Now: Religious guidelines aside, the White House needs to continue to represent the bounty of America to its many international guests, including California’s wines and Kentucky’s legendary whiskeys and bourbons.

Hospitality

• Then: George Washington hosted a nearly endless stream of guests. He also belonged to many social clubs and service organizations such as the Fish House Club and Masons.
• Now: Mitt Romney often restricts press and public access, limits questioning and won’t release multi-year income tax filings.

As you can see, the U.S. has come a long way, and yet, still has further to go. So, why not skip the patriotically named red-white-and-blue colored cocktails this Fourth, and drink what Washington drank, the famed Fish House Punch, matched with his favorite Colonial Hoe Cakes.

It’s a strong drink, but it’s honest – the way we still long for our politicians to be.

Fish House Punch

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 ½ cups water
• 1 ½ cups fresh lemon juice (6 to 8 lemons), strained
• 1 (750-ml) bottle Jamaican amber rum
• 12 oz. Cognac (1 1/2 cups)
• 2 oz. peach brandy (1/4 cup)
• Lemon Slices
• Special Equipment: Half Gallon Cardboard Juice or Milk Carton, Top end cut off

Directions

• To make ice block, fill carton with water and freeze until solid, about 8 hours.
• Stir together sugar and 31/2 cups water in a large bowl or pot until sugar is dissolved.
• Add lemon juice, rum, Cognac, and brandy and chill, covered, at least 3 hours.
• Put ice block in a punch bowl and pour punch over it.

Colonial Hoe Cakes

Ingredients

• 1 ½ cups self-raising cornmeal
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 Tbsp melted shortening
• ¼ cup melted shortening

Directions

• Combine cornmeal and baking soda in a medium bowl.
• Add buttermilk, egg and 1 tbsp melted shortening.
• Stir until just moistened.
• Heat ¼ cup of shortening to 365 in large cast iron skillets. (Originally baked on a hoe’s metal surface, hence the name).
• Pour ¼ cup batter into skillet for each hoe cake.
• Fry 1 to 2 minutes until golden brown.
• Serve with butter and honey.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012

Post Note, June 27, 2012: If you are looking for a great movie to honor the 4th that is historically accurate and entertaining, check out 1776, the Musical. It's a patriotic must.

Republican Candidates Offering American Voters Quite a Menu of Choices

Currently Republican Party members in the United States are watching an interesting array of candidates all vying for their party’s 2012 nomination against the popular U.S. President Barack Obama.  

After 19 angry debates the field has narrowed to four still eager contestants – Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum.

And while their suggested policies for improving existing economic conditions ranging from voluntary self-deportation for non-citizens to a fantasy manned lunar space colony, perhaps their political points of view (and personalities) are most clearly reflected in their choice of favorite foods.

Ron Paul loves healthy organic soups and salads. Mitt Romney enjoys traditional New England baked beans while Rick Santorum likes a plain grilled cheese sandwich.  And Newt Gingrich, well, he loves ice cream with everything on it.

The above is not exactly a menu (or an array of candidates) that will likely delight insightful diners or thoughtful Republican Convention delegates as they contemplate the actual needs of the 21^st century.

It seems there are only two choices possible – ones that any experienced chef would recommend: (1) change the menu or (2) get ready for an empty dining room (and a massive electoral loss).

The results of the American presidential election is a matter that effects more than just the United States. As every chef who sources his or her products from around the world knows, we live within a very connected community on this small planet.

It is vital that the American people reach beyond a simplistic diet of phrases and political rhetoric to a larger cuisine of inclusive understanding and mutual respect.   

Without such a choice, well, we're all going to need a very big drink in the very near future to make it through the darkening evening of our very legitimate concerns.

Your Culinary World copyright Ana Kinkaid/Peter Schlagel 2012