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Reality TV hits the Cooking Shows

I love watching cooking shows on television, although I don't remember often enough to do it regularly and don't have anything but the most basic cable. I've caught an episode of Jacques Pepin's Fast Food My Way, which was fun. The website has some fun little videos to watch as well. You can always learn so much by watching.

The other day I read in the paper that there was a local thing going on whereby they brought two chefs into someone's private home and they had to cook dinner using only the ingredients that were on hand. The family only had about an hour's notice so there was no last minute shopping going on. Then the family voted on who had made the best tasting dishes.

Now I see that PBS is doing the opposite of that with a reality show called Cooking Under Fire, where contestants cook in a restaurant. So if you like to cook and have a yen to perform in public, they're seeking 12 contestants. You can audition or send in a video tape.

I won't be applying but I might be watching come April.

Can Hemp Save U.S. Farmers?

On December 19, 1606 three small ships commanded by Captain Christopher Newport, departed London, England bound for America, where 120 persons established the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States at Jamestown, Virginia. For years the settlers struggled to make a go of it. Food was scarce and the colony was nearly abandoned.

Eventually they established farms, growing much-needed crops. One of these crops was hemp. In 1619 Jamestown made growing hemp a mandate for farmers. If a farmer refused, he was thrown in prison.

Today, farmers are thrown in prison if they do grow hemp, even industrial varieties. In fact, the U.S. is the only developed nation that has not established hemp as a crop, the Congressional Research Service says. But ideas are blooming in Congress as lawmakers look at industrial hemp as a cash crop that could save many US farmers.

David Monson is a conservative Republican in North Dakota's legislature. He is also a farmer who believes that a new cash crop could revitalize his state's agricultural industry, which has suffered from poor yields and depressed soy and corn prices. Five states have passed hemp-farming bills and U.S. Representative Ron Paul, a Texas Republican, introduced such a bill in Congress last June.

Federal anti-drug officials claim that allowing hemp crops would create a slippery slope toward legalizing marijuana. Proponents counter by saying hemp growers would have to undergo criminal background checks and agree to have their plants tested for THC.

Until 1970, growing hemp was legal in the US. During World War II, the government urged farmers to grow it for the war effort. Case in point: George Bush Senior parachuted from his plane after being shot down by enemy aircraft. The cords of his chute were made from -- you guessed it -- hemp fiber.

Since Jamestown, hemp has been woven into the fabric of U.S. history. Benjamin Franklin built the first American hemp paper mill. Betsy Ross sewed the first American flag using hemp thread. George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew hemp on their plantations, and the first two drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper.

So was the U.S. Constitution.

Henry Ford, quite the visionary, developed a vehicle that was made completely out of organic products, the majority being from hemp. And those three small ships that departed London in 1606? If it wasn't for the cordage and rigging lines woven from the long, strong hemp fibers, they might not have survived the trans-Atlantic crossing.

Dipping Sugar

My 2 year-old son uses a French fry as a utensil for eating ketchup. He dips a fry, sucks off the ketchup, then goes back to the well again with the same fry, repeating as needed until nothing is left but an inedible mess of slimed potato. Then he grabs a new fry and starts again.

And you thought food blogs were supposed to be appetizing.

I bring this up not to dissuade you from ever having children -- that's your call -- but to make a point. I'll give you a hint -- it's not the authentic tomato flavor he's after. Like most of us, what he really craves is sweet.

That's right, though cleverly disguised with just enough vinegar, ketchup is loaded with sugar, more dessert than dinner as far as nutrition is concerned. From barbecue sauce, to honey mustard dressing, to sweet and sour pork, to the French gastriche, the idea of mixing sugar and acid is not new. What is new is the habit of pouring it over everything we eat, made easier than ever by the introduction of the squeezable bottle. (Once upon a time you had to wait for your ketchup, but not anymore. Sales must have skyrocketed. )

So next time you pick up that red bottle, take a pause. It might not be your burger that's making you fat. It might be your ketchup.

（http://transfatty.blogs.com/index/rants_and_ramblings/index.html）