Slim Down for Summer with That's Fit

Milk, meat, and mini-cows

mini-cow
These days, we do what we can to rely on local products, but what about bringing the farm right to your back yard?

UK's Sunday Times
has published an article on the wonders of mini-cows. That's right -- moo machines that don't need a big farm to thrive. The size of a cuddly German Shepherd, these cows will give you 16 pints of milk a day, chew up that pesky, ever-growing grass, and then become tender, omega3 fats-rich meat at the age of two. It's certainly a way to save costs and get an ever-present supply of milk. Those who have dipped into mini-cow delights will artificially inseminate to produce a new calf per year and get the most for their money.

Now, this sounds great, but I don't think selling people on the temperament of the mini-things is a way to get cows for milk and meals -- "Bessie is not only a 2-year animal friend, but a tasty piece of meat!" Then again, I'm tainted by a childhood experience where I befriended my family's cow before it got slaughtered for meat, and I not only lost a friend, but we couldn't eat her -- the cow had a disease that tainted the meat.

But back to the mini-cows -- is this something you'd add to your backyard?

That's one tasty typeface

value pack meat typeface
Looking for a way to make the header of your food blog a little more interesting? Why not use this Value Pack Meat Typeface to give your site a little more meaty goodness? Created by artist Robert Bolesta, each letter was carefully hand-shaped, packed and photographed. I particularly love the details of the font, including the stickers and the fact that each letter includes the price and weight labels.

[via Geekadelphia]

Sliders make for a fun dinner

homemade sliders and roasted root vegetables
Despite all the food reading and writing I do, I often find myself falling back on the same five or six dinners. When I get home from work, unless I've planned ahead to try something new, the combination of hunger and weariness drive me to make the things I know by heart. These include things like turkey burgers, omelets, big salads with grilled chicken or a can of tuna, quesadillas, beans and rice with salsa and quick pasta dishes.

Tuesday night, it looked like it was going to be another one of those nights, with more of the same. On auto-pilot, I grabbed a pound of ground beef* from the freezer and set it in a bowl of water to defrost. I cut up some root veggies to roast and chopped up a bit of onion real fine to go in the meat. Instead of forming the meat into regular sized burgers, I decided to go with mini patties, making my very own sliders. It was a little adjustment, but it made for a far more interesting meal. Topped with some local blue cheese, thinly shaved onion, bright red tomato and a ruffled lettuce leaf and sandwiched between two toasted sourdough rounds, it was the best things I've cooked all week.

*One of the smartest things I've done in a long time is join a buying club for meat and poultry. Once a month I place an order and a week later, I pick up a bag of neatly packaged frozen beef, chicken, pork and turkey at a friend's house. It's all local, organic, grass fed/finished and means that there's always something wonderful in the freezer for dinner. It has helped immeasurably with the 'What to do for dinner?' question.

Midnight Sausage: British Columbia



Honeymoon photos from British Columbia. From Flickr user sneaky monkey's Flickr.

I'm posting images of sausage counters the world over each weeknight (and occasionally weekend) witching hour until I run out. Please use the comments section to post links to your Flickr or personal site faves, and perhaps you'll see 'em posted here late some evening.

Previously-- Midnight Sausage: Ipercoop Supermarket, Italy

Cold Cuts ID Quiz


Think you can tell cotto salami from Dutch loaf or summer sausage? Prove you're not just full of baloney with AOL Food's Cold Cuts ID Quiz, then come back to share your score.

Cold Cuts ID Quiz

Read what my Dad had to say about lunchmeat a while back.

The deliciousness of rolled steak

rolled flank steak with chimichurri
Last night, I met up with a friend for sushi and a movie. While I was pouring over the nigiri section, he was scheming up his salmon rolls and something super-tasty that I hadn't had before -- Negima Yaki. It's thinly sliced grilled beef wrapped around green onions and lathered in teriyaki sauce. It's basically small rolls of awesome, making me daydream about cooked rolls of beef all day.

And then I see one of yesterday's posts on Serious Eats. It featured the picture above, for rolled flank steak with chimichurri. You can check out the mouth-watering recipe there, but in the meantime:

Do you ever roll up some thin slices of steak for a meal? If so, what are they rolled up with?

Hebrew University study shows that red wine can increase your longevity!

Over the past few years, as wine has undergone repeated studies, it has started to seem like the modern-day fountain of youth. According to its various supporters, it can fight off streptococcus bacteria, reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease, and flush one's system with antioxidants. Still, all of these pale beside wine's greatest claim to fame: the so-called French paradox.

For years, scientists have wondered how the French, who have one of the most saturated-fat rich diets in the world, manage to have such a low incidence of heart disease. While they haven't been able to scientifically determine the mechanism at work, anecdotal evidence has suggested that France's impressive wine consumption might have something to do with the paradox. Recently, scientists at Hebrew University in Jerusalem have confirmed the link and have even determined part of its mechanism.

According to the researchers, when the body digests meat, particularly turkey and red meat, it produces two toxic chemicals, malondialdehyde and hydroperoxide. These compounds can cause cancer, inflammation, and heart disease. However, red wine contains polyphenols, a particular kind of antioxidant, that neutralizes the toxins and prevents their absorbtion into the bloodstream.

Continue reading Hebrew University study shows that red wine can increase your longevity!

Midnight Sausage: Ipercoop Supermarket, Italy



Preserved meat counter at an Ipercoop supermarket in Italy. From Flickr user cary b's Flickr.

I'm posting images of sausage counters the world over each weeknight (and occasionally weekend) witching hour until I run out. Please use the comments section to post links to your Flickr or personal site faves, and perhaps you'll see 'em posted here late some evening.

Previously-- Midnight Sausage: Donaueschingen, Germany

Elevate your summer cook-out with gourmet hot dogs

gourmet hotdogs from D'artagnan
I remember once, while I was around 7 years old and playing at a friend's house, my mom stopped by with lunch for me (they were doing her a favor by watching me and she didn't want to impose on them to feed me as well). It consisted of a napkin-wrapped hot dog that she pulled out of her purse. I remember looking at with distaste, as the hot dog was wrinkled and grey, and the bun was also a sad affair. It was edible, but certainly not exciting. That experience colored my perception of hot dogs and it was years before I ate them with gusto.

Fast forward to the present day and I am singing a very different hot dog song. This conversion is in large part due to gourmet meat producer D'Artagnan's new line of exotic (and very tasty) hot dogs. They come in four varities - pork, beef, buffalo and duck and they are made from meat that was never treated with antibiotics or growth hormones. They are uncured, which means that they are nitrate-free. For all the fancy varieties of meat, they do still taste much like your classic hot dog. Larger than the traditional frank, they are filling, which means that while the pack only comes with four dogs, you'll only need to eat one to be satisfied, so there's plenty to go around.

I recommend eating them with potato salad and some good, whole grain mustard. Very tasty!

Feast Your Eyes: Enormous beef ribs

a huge rack of beef ribs
The weekend is time for barbecue and so it is the perfect time to feature a gorgeous picture of some saucy, tender ribs. The image comes to us from Michael in Toronto, and he made the ribs based on a recipe out of How to Cook Meat by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby. Looked good enough eat!

Thanks Michael, for adding your tasty pic to the Slashfood Flickr pool!

The New York Times Dining & Wine section in 60 seconds: burgers, barbecue skewers, Big Easy cocktails

burgers
Cheeseburgers are popping up in the three-star restaurants of Paris. Quelle Horreur!

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic: Sliders are invading New York!

iPhone's Urban Spoon program will tell you where to eat.

Which is the definitive Big Easy cocktail - the sazerac or the Ramos gin fizz? Eric Asimov ponders.

The Minimalist makes rosemary branches into barbecue skewers. The Minimalist is the MacGuyver of the kitchen, isn't he?

Make snail butter, without the snail.

Politics of the Plate: A Clear Conscience

Gourmet's Barry Estabrook finds that more food producers are addressing the issue of sustainability. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.

Carnivore's Delight

It's not often that you'll find this space singing the praises of vertical integration in agriculture, but I was heartened to read this week that Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (the subject of a September 2002 profile in Gourmet who became the national face of sustainable food production after being featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma) had bought the small, 70-year-old slaughterhouse in Virginia that processes his grass-fed cattle.

This is good news because small meatpacking operations in this country have been closing in droves, unable in many cases to comply with stringent USDA regulations designed for the enormous facilities that handle most American meat today. As a result, sustainable livestock farmers have had to truck their animals over great distances, or in some cases cease raising cattle, sheep, and hogs altogether for want of an approved slaughterhouse. T&E Meats, as Salatin's company is known, will continue processing his animals and also those of nearby small producers.

I'm going to knock on wood, but I dare say Salatin may be part of a trend here. Earlier this spring, two other grass-fed beef producers, White Oak Pastures in Georgia and Paicines Ranch in California, opened their own slaughterhouses.


The story continues at Gourmet.com: Politics of the Plate: A Clear Conscience

Feast Your Eyes: Pastrami on Rye

pastrami on rhy
After all the in-season produce and lucious desserts we've seen in this column lately, I thought it was time to feature some good, old-fashioned meat. For some reason, the topic of pastrami comes a lot around my apartment (my boyfriend is something of a fan) and so I searched the Slashfood Flickr pool for some good pastrami pics.

Happily, Vanessa took some amazing pictures of pastrami on rye from Katz's Delicatessen last February during a Thorough Borough Crawl and added them to the pool so that we could feast our eyes on some delicious, meaty goodness. Thanks Vanessa!

Extreme Grilling: 4th of July roundup

man grilling
The Grand Rapids Press has a list of several dozen beef, chicken vegetable and fish tips for your Independence Day bash. Try wrapping fish in prosciutto or bacon to prevent drying. And cook snapper and other delicate fish in foil or on a plank so it doesn't fall apart.

Hawaii's KGMB has a video of Tyler Florence making a grilled pork tenderloin for a big 4th of July cookout. He suggests stocking up at a wholesale club like Sam's to save when feeding a crowd.

BBQ.about.com has chicken, pork and beef brisket recipes, with ideas for kebabs, potato salads, ice tea, sangria, and something called 'flag fudge.'

Nashville's WSMV teaches you how to build a top notch grilling station, from grills to spatulas to thermometers to lighter fluid.

Kalyn's Kitchen has some cool 'think outside the burger' ideas special for the 4th: grilled shish kabobs with whole wheat pita and tzatziki, grilled salmon with maple syrup glaze, grilled chicken with tarragon mustard marinade, grilled tri-tip with salsa.

Epicurious has a bunch of burger ideas: Feta burgers with grilled red onions, jalapeno burgers, open face lamb burgers with mint yogurt sauce, buffalo burgers with pickled onions and smoky pepper sauce, sun-dried tomato burgers with balsamic-glazed onions, porcini-Gorgonzola burgers with veal demi-glace, tamarind-glazed turkey
burgers, sesame tuna burgers....

Also on Epicurious: A complete guide to grilling. Rubs and marinade recipes, technique tips, how to test for doneness, where to taste the best regional barbecue. With input from grill guru Steve Raichlen.

Martha Stewart has a very tasteful (naturally) Fourth of July menu. Check out the ribs.

Global Gourmet has another grilling guide. Check out its rundown of recipes from their favorite grilling cookbooks. Whoopi Goldberg's Big Bad Ass Beef Ribs, anyone?

Even vegetarians get in on the grilling action, at Vegetarians in Paradise, with recipes for Independence Day grilled tempeh steak, grilled veggie skewers, grilled red onions and grilled corn on the cob.

The Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest

Philadelphia Magazine writer Jason Fagone spent one year profiling some of the most divinely outsized personalities in the world of competitive eating. While Akron house painter Coondog O'Karma makes a midlife grab at glory via rapid-fire pizza consumption, Bill "El Wingador" Simmons attempts to reclaim Wong Bowl supremacy from 90lb Sonya "Black Widow" Thomas, and day trader Tim Janus dons the mantle of the mysterious Eater X, it all comes down to one shared hunger. They all want to win the Mustard Yellow Belt of International Hot Dog Eating Supremacy back from the Japanese who'd dominated the Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog-Eating Contest nearly every year since 1997.

Back in July of 2001, that would mean beating the record of 25 1/8 set the previous year by Kazutoyo "The Rabbit" Arai.

That was before Takeru Kobayashi's 50 Dog Day.

Read an excerpt from Jason Fagone's Horsemen of the Esophagus on AOL Food

Next Page >

Tip of the Day

Making a batch of mini-cupcakes for a school or work party but can't figure out a way to transport them without crushing them? Here's how to do it!

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