My brother sent this excellent video by Quarter Productions who gave us the awesome video of Chris Piascik drawing. The music is perfect for this video of a butcher using the entire hog.

I love when the announcer says something like, “The bear doesn’t even know it’s a contest.”

Via Kerry Skemp

I may have posted this Swedish Apple Pie recipe before, but it’s Thanksgiving, or as I call it in my head Pietime. Anyway, here’s the recipe for the best and dead simplest apple pie ever. I suggest making 2 of these pies at a time. You’ll just be disappointed if there aren’t any leftovers.

Pre-heat oven to 350.
Cut up and peel 4-6 pie apples into a pie plate.
Mix fist of sugar and a fist of cinnamon and sprinkle onto apples in pie plate.
Mix 1 cup flour with 1 cup sugar.
Mix sugar and flour with 1.5 sticks of butter and 1 egg.
Spread mixture evenly on top of apples.
Cook until golden brown (45-65 minutes).
Eat pie.
Eat leftover pie for breakfast.

I’m helping to put on a fun event this weekend in Union Square. Going Nutty! features nuts from Superior Nut being used by chefs from all over Boston (Flour Bakery, Kickass Cupcakes, Channel Cafe, Rocca, OM Restaurant, Bloc 11, and how2heroes) in some of their favorite dishes.

If you want to get nuts this weekend, come to Bloc 11 and Grand from 2-4 PM on Sunday the 4th. All proceeds benefit the newly founded Juniper Fund, which was formed to honor John S. Hall, bass player for local band Addison Groove Project, who passed away in 2004. To RSVP or for more info, check out the Facebook Page.

Back for year number 4, Union Square Main Streets has their What the Fluff fest on Saturday, the 26th from 4-7PM. Lots going on including:

Vendors with lots of Fluff treats will make this a real party. You’ll find a wacky collection of times, from Fluff t-shirts to soaps that look like ’smores, from savory barbeque to whoopie pies. Food vendors include: Kickass Cupcakes, Pao de Acucar, India Palace, Cantina la Mexicana and Somerville High School. Other vendors include: Union Square Main Streets, Groundwork Somerville, Neighborhood Health Plan, Grand, Yelp, Dirty Ass Soap.

In his latest Op-Ed for the Times, Michael Pollan sounds an optimistic note that even the worst case health care reforms will result in positive changes to the diets, and health, of most Americans. It will be a hard fight, but it’s expected that the bare minimum health care reform will make it harder for insurance companies to drop you when you get sick, while also not allowing them to decide to cover you or not based on preexisting conditions. This means, that for the first time, health insurance providers will actually be financially rewarded for keeping you healthy. If they have to face the consequences ($$$) of your soda drinking ass getting diabetes, they’re going to do what they can to make sure you don’t get diabetes, and they’re going to use their friends in Congress to help them.

But these rules may well be about to change — and, when it comes to reforming the American diet and food system, that step alone could be a game changer. Even under the weaker versions of health care reform now on offer, health insurers would be required to take everyone at the same rates, provide a standard level of coverage and keep people on their rolls regardless of their health. Terms like “pre-existing conditions” and “underwriting” would vanish from the health insurance rulebook — and, when they do, the relationship between the health insurance industry and the food industry will undergo a sea change.

Chef Will Gilson of Cambridge’s Garden at the Cellar is raising two cute pigs, Porcini and Truffle, for slaughter later this summer in anticipation of a dinner at the James Beard House in New York. The pigs are being raised on a farm, not at the restaurant, but I still think it’s notable. I like eating meat, but I also think people should make a conscious decision about what they’re eating. Articles like this that put a cute face on your pork chop force you to think about it. More chefs raising their own animals (hopefully as close to the restaurant as possible) will mean better educated eaters, and I hope more local chefs adopt this way of sourcing meat.

I predict that in 10 years, at least 30% of the people I know will keep their own chickens, regardless of where they live.

I’m not going to constantly write about Jewish holidays, but there are certain questions that need answering (such as can you blow out Hanukkah candles and why is some Matzo ok for Passover and some not). So to answer the question about where to get carbs on Passover (aside from, well, Matzo and Matzo ball soup), get it from quinoa – the superfood.

As far as I can tell, quinoa doesn’t fall into the category of being confused with wheat, possibly because it is technically a seed, and possibly because it was never “sold in the same form as wheat”, the trait that damns corn and beans to be avoided by Ashkenazis this week.

The Ashkenazic rabbis (probably around 10th or 11th Century AD) in Germany also prohibited what they called kitniot — basically, anything that was sold in grain-like form or might be confused with grain. Their prohibition included rice, millet, corn, and legumes. When in doubt, prohibit, on the grounds that it is better to be more strict in avoidance of foods than to be less strict and potentially violate the Biblical commandment not to eat leaven. Of course, corn (maize) was not known to Europe at the time, but when the New World crop made its appearance a few centuries later, it was quickly identified as kitniot and thus prohibited for Passover.

I might be the only one on the internet talking about this, but all Matzo sold during Passover should be Passover safe. Look, I know I have to take personal responsibility for this, but I could have used a little help. Streit’s, I’m looking at you. Shaw’s Porter Square, you should be ashamed. You can’t have a “Passover Section” and include foods that aren’t for Passover.

Incidentally, you might wonder why it’s OK for Matzo to be made out of flour, but not be able to eat any other unleavened flour products. Matzo is made under strict supervision and must come out of the oven less than 18 minutes after water is first mixed with the flour. No word on why no one has made pita bread or tortilla wraps in less than 18 minutes. There could be something there.