The Presidential Plate: Obama and McCain on Food

With November 4th looming ever closer, we Americans are being bombarded with political articles, ads, and (god awful) e-mail forwards, attempting to swing our vote one way or the other. The sheer quantity of information is mind-melting, and rarely very helpful: who’s more patriotic? Who wears nicer pants? Whose wife bakes better cookies?

Who cares?

I want to know the facts, man. I want to know what John McCain and Barack Obama have planned for my country, without all the obfuscating fluff. I want to know what they think about the economy and the war and well ... food. Insofar as this blog is concerned, especially food.

With that in mind, what follows is a brief guide to each potential president’s views on food issues. Obesity initiatives, agricultural policies, thoughts on the world crisis – it’s all here, with a slew of supporting quotes garnered from reliable sources (interviews, their websites, etc).

My goal isn’t to tell anyone what to think or how to vote, and the post is far from definitive. (With three months and 40,000 misquotes to go, I don’t know how it could be.) If I missed anything or got something wrong, let me know and I’ll correct immediately. Also, please note that the first word of every quote links to my reference.

(Oh, and for the hell of it, following the policy section is a short summary of the men’s favorite meals. If I DID vote purely on obfuscating fluff, I’d have to go with Obama’s “Mayo Hate in ‘08” campaign over McCain’s “Dude Food” platform.)

OBESITY INITIATIVES

McCain: advocates a combination of personal responsibility and prevention: “Parents must impart to their children a sense of personal responsibility for their health, nutrition, and exercise.” He believes that government has a role (though perhaps less so than Obama), stating “we should again teach nutrition and physical education to our children, and better inform adults what our foods contain and the importance of exercise.” According to a May 15th statement, he also, “supports providing marketing tools for the fruit and vegetable industry focused on promoting healthier American diets.”

Obama: will focus on prevention and “[address] differences in access to health coverage” with seemingly special focus on promoting nutrition and play within urban communities. He advocates both, “physical education in schools” and “changing eating habits for kids.”

U.S. FOOD PRICES: AGRICULTURAL POLICIES

McCain: is an adamant supporter of small farmers. He “opposes providing billions to subsidize large commercial farms,” promises to extend federal assistance to farmers in the event of natural disaster, and will “expand access for U.S. agricultural producers to foreign markets, providing a great and lasting benefit to American farmers.”

Obama: like McCain, is a vocal supporter of small farmers, and claims he will:

1. “Implement a $250,000 payment limitation so that we help family farmers — not large corporate agribusiness.”
2. “Close the loopholes that allow mega farms to get around the limits by subdividing their operations into multiple paper corporations.”
3. “Strengthen producer protections to ensure independent farmers have fair access to markets, control over their production decisions, and transparency in prices.”
4. “[Support] immediate implementation of the Country of Origin Labeling law so that American producers can distinguish their products from imported ones.”
5. “Help organic farmers afford to certify their crops and reform crop insurance to not penalize organic farmers. He also will promote regional food systems.”
6. “Establish a new program to identify and train the next generation of farmers. He will also provide tax incentives to make it easier for new farmers to afford their first farm.”

U.S. FOOD PRICES: ETHANOL POLICY

McCain: is super anti-ethanol. Straight up, he “will roll back corn-based ethanol mandates, which are contributing to the rising cost of food.” He supports offshore drilling to combat rising gas prices and claims, “the second generation of alcohol-based fuels like cellulosic ethanol, which won't compete with food crops, are showing great potential.”

Obama: Strongly pro-ethanol in the past, Obama is willing to reduce subsidies and repurpose corn for nourishment instead of fuel if the food crisis continues to worsen. He says, “My top priority is making sure that people are able to get enough to eat. And if it turns out that we've got to make changes in our ethanol policy to help people get something to eat, then that's got to be the step we take.”

FEEDING THE U.S. POOR

McCain: wants to "[carry] out a robust Emergency Food Assistance Program at a time when high food prices are hurting the neediest among us … and indexing food stamps to reflect the current cost of living.”

Obama: supports a mentoring program for “all low-income, first-time mothers” called the Nurse-Family Partnership, and would create more like it, to “help improve the mental and physical health of the family.” He also wants to raise the minimum wage, and as previously mentioned, appears to be particularly concerned with food access issues within poorer neighborhoods.

GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS

McCain: is for free trade when it comes to the world’s food supply, proposing to battle the problem “through reduction of trade barriers and improved world markets.” On the science front, he’ll “direct the USDA to carry out a comprehensive research approach to help develop more drought resistant higher yield crops and increase production per acre. This will not only be critical to addressing our worldwide food needs but also necessary to combat global warming.”

Obama: will address the food crisis partly by combating global poverty in general. Among other initiatives, he says he “will embrace the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty around the world in half by 2015, and he will double our foreign assistance to $50 billion to achieve that goal. He will help the world's weakest states to build healthy and educated communities, reduce poverty, develop markets, and generate wealth.”

FAVORITE FOODS TO EAT

McCain: shrimp, enchiladas, pizza, baby back ribs, BBQ

Obama: nuts, vegetables (especially broccoli and spinach), Dentyne Ice, Handmade milk chocolates from Fran’s Chocolates in Seattle

LEAST FAVORITE FOODS TO EAT

McCain: “I don’t do too well with vegetables.”

Obama: mayonnaise, salt and vinegar potato chips, beets, asparagus (“if no other vegetables are available, he’ll eat it”), Soft drinks (he prefers water)

Readers …analysis? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

(Photos courtesy of nazret.com, city-data.com, and reddit.)

City Kitchen Chronicles: Eggplant Mini Pizzas for One Sad Poor Little Girl

City Kitchen Chronicles is a bi-weekly column about living frugally in Manhattan. It's penned by the lovely Jaime.

It’s been a rough week around this City Kitchen here. When I started this column, part of the premise Kris and I worked out was that it would be my personal take on my personal quest to live cheaply and well in this very expensive city, chronicling my cooking *and* financial adventures as I try to pay off my credit cards and not subsist on ramen.

This weekend my mother asked, “Are there any better-paying jobs you could have?”

“Tons,” I answered. “But I want to work in theatre.”

Later in the same car ride and conversation I said, “I’m kinda having fun, actually, learning how to cook healthy and cheap.”

And it’s true. But sometimes I wish I didn’t have to be quite so cheap.

Last week a friend was in town from California. Dinner out.

Next week I’m joining friends for a dinner party (and Risk tournament, because we are dorks). I’m bringing dessert – that’s a pile of ingredients I wouldn’t normally buy.

Oh, and did I mention the mysterious $90 electric bill? This is with a mere 2 nights of air conditioning all month. Are fans really so expensive?

So, yeah, things are really tight these days. For those reasons and who knows what else (okay, this is where not strictly budgeting and tracking my money starts to be maybe not the best thing), this past week was the first of a month of extra tightness. There just isn’t any cash to spare, and every dollar counts. Buying coffee one afternoon might mean I’m short of cash for eggs or cereal or whatever other cheap food I’m subsisting on this month. (My poor sister just got a mix CD for her birthday. An awesome mix CD, but a mix CD nonetheless. The piece of paper it was wrapped in? That doubled for her card.)

For all that I’m eating super-cheap, though, I’m still eating healthy. When I planned out my food purchases for the month – beans, soy milk, bread, peanut butter, etc. – money for vegetables was the first item on the list. It’s not very flexible – every Saturday I spend $10 a week at the farmer’s market, give or take a dollar, and that’s not negotiable. I’ll get my protein from beans rather than tempeh, stretch out my stir-fry with rice, eat a few extra pb &j’s, but my local, seasonal vegetables are not up for debate.

Yes, part of that is psychological. I’ve got my Saturday morning routine, my sense of eating healthily and kindly to the earth. But it’s also the foundation of a healthy week for me, filling up my fridge with local zucchini, green beans, collards or chard. (Come fall it’ll be winter squash, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts.) If that food’s there – and frugal me is loathe to let it go to waste – then all week I’ll be eating right. (Kale also counteracts too many pb & j’s. Totally undoes the damage.)

The farmer’s market also gets me to try new vegetables all the time. Old Jaime might try to live on string beans, carrots, tomatoes, and red peppers from the supermarket, but red peppers are expensive (they get cheaper later in the summer) and kale is pretty cheap. Even cheaper? Wild greens like purslane or lambsquarter, which have been popping up at the market a bit. Off the top of my head, some vegetables I’ve tried and come to love, since starting to shop at the farmer’s market: purslane, lambsquarter, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, collards, beet greens, chard.

Also: eggplant. I know, they’re not adventurous or weird or rare at all. But other than breaded and fried and smothered in marinara and cheese, I’ve never been a huge fan. I stir-fry a lot, and any time I’ve stir-fried eggplant it’s either undercooked or dissolved into mush. My friend K. makes fantastic eggplant, but any time I’ve tried to duplicate her dish, I’ve been sorely disappointed.

Until this week. At the greenmarket last weekend I saw a lovely little single-serving eggplant, so adorable I couldn’t resist. Eggplant is blessedly light, so per-pound prices give you happy surprises, like a 25 cent vegetable that’s enough to anchor a dish. I brought it home determined to make something good, and, lucky me, I did.

The answer came, as answers often do, in the form of pizza. In the form of pizza, but (you low-carbers will be familiar with this trick) using the eggplant as the base rather than topping. I raided my pantry and fridge and came up with tomato paste for the foundation of the sauce, and happened upon a remnant from less stringently frugal days, a slice of goat cheese at the back of the fridge just begging to be used. With a little seasoning in the paste and some toaster oven broiling for the eggplant, I ended up with a plate of adorable mini-pizzas, full of vegetably goodness, and blessedly cheap.

Eggplant Mini Pizzas
(serves 1)
1 small eggplant
½ t olive or canola oil (or a few spritzes of cooking spray)
salt and pepper, to taste
2 T tomato paste
1 oz goat cheese
dried basil, to taste
dried oregano, to taste
dried chili flakes, to taste
fresh basil, to garnish (I took a few leaves from my anemic windowsill plant)

1) Slice eggplant into thin rounds, about ½ inch.

2) Salt eggplant and let sit in a colander 20-30 minutes. (This step leeches out the bitterness.)

3) Mix tomato paste and seasonings in a small bowl or mug.

4) Rinse eggplant and pat dry with paper towels.

5) oss eggplant with oil, salt, and pepper. (You can also spray your baking sheet with Pam, which I sadly don’t have on hand.)

6) Set oven or toaster oven to broil.

7) Arrange eggplant slices on baking sheet (covered with aluminum foil, if you like.)

8) Cook eggplant until lightly browned.

9) Flip the eggplant, and top each with some tomato paste mixture and goat cheese.

10) Cook eggplant pizzas until goat cheese is melty and ever-so-slightly browned.

11) Top with chiffonaded fresh basil, if you have.

12) Feel a little richer than you are.

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price per Serving
155 cal, 10.9g fat, $1.06

Calculations
1 small eggplant: 20 calories; 0.2g fat; $0.25
½ t oil: 20 calories; 2.2g fat; $0.05
salt and pepper, to taste: negligible calories and fat; $.02
2 T tomato paste: 12 calories; negligible fat; $0.09
1 oz goat cheese: 103 calories, 8.5g fat; $0.60
dried basil, to taste: negligible calories and fat; $0.02
dried oregano, to taste: negligible calories and fat; $0.02
dried chili flakes, to taste: negligible calories and fat; $0.01
fresh basil: negligible calories and fat; free! (I took a few leaves from my anemic windowsill plant)
TOTAL: 155 calories, 10.9g fat, $1.06

Tuesday Megalinks

Associated Press/USA Today: Recession? Eat, drink, smoke and be merry
Sin is in, ladies and gents. While lots of businesses are having gigundo problems staying afloat, the makers of cigarettes, booze, and candy remain pleasantly recession-proof. Bring on the cocktails, I say. (Thanks to Slashfood for the link.)

Culinate: On board - A closer look at your knife’s best friend
Nifty, extensive piece on the importance of purchasing a decent cutting board. It doesn’t sound like it’s a big deal, but really, it will save good knives some major wear and tear.

Daily News: City supermarkets are dying commodity
500 NYC supermarkets have gone kaput over the last decade, and local unions attribute the trend to competitions from CostCo-esque big-box stores. This is perhaps most damaging to elderly Big Appleites, who don’t necessarily have the financial resources or physical powers to shop in bulk.

Epi-Log: Top 10 Most Oddly Compelling Food Videos
Please note #1, in which Coney Island hot dog king Kobayashi challenges a Kodiak bear to an eating contest. Dude, if there’s one thing I learned in life (besides never start a land war in Asia), it’s DON’T CHALLENGE A BEAR TO AN EATING CONTEST.

Epi-Log: What Do Olympic Athletes Eat?
Answer: a lot.

Get Rich Slowly: U-Pick - The Next Best Thing to Growing Your Own
Great treatise on the fun/wonder/value of picking your own produce at a nearby farm.

Men’s Health/Huffington Post: Genius Junk Food - 6 Snacks That Are Actually Good For You
Beef jerky! Chocolate! Sour cream! Not so bad! I’m especially happy about the beef jerky part, since it’s a go-to on long car rides. Mmm ... dried cow on interstate highways ... (Thanks to Lifehacker for the link.)

New York Magazine: His Magical Elixir
One of the great advantages of being stuck in an airport for eight hours is the opportunity to buy and read magazines from cover to cover (ads included). I found this particular piece Friday night around 7:30pm, when a tornado threatened to tear through Manhattan, thus delaying down all outward-bound flights. That aside, it’s an EXCELLENT article on the spurious claims of vitamin waters, many of which aren’t backed by viable medical research.

New York Times: Hungry at 30,000 Feet? Pay Up
Speaking about travel, airplane food jokes may soon be a thing of the past, since airlines are increasingly forcing passengers to fork over cash midflight in exchange for baggies of honey-roasted peanuts. Suggestion? Bring your own and avoid the 300% markup.

New York Times: Los Angeles Stages a Fast Food Intervention
In an effort to combat inner city obesity rates, LA isn’t allowing fast food chains to open any new branches for the next year. Author Kim Severson says it best: “Even in a country where a third of the schoolchildren are overweight or obese, the yearlong moratorium raises questions about when eating one style of food stops being a personal choice and becomes a public health concern.”

Our Four Pence Worth: Festival of Frugality #139 (The Michael Phelps Edition)
When you’ve got a Festival of Frugality named in your honor, you know you’ve made the big time. Call me crazy, but I think this Phelps kid is going places. (Note: the page might take a minute or two to load, but it will eventually.)

Serious Eats: Why Don’t Recipes Include Salt Amounts?
Great question. I don’t often include them on the recipes posted here, preferring to let “salt and pepper to taste” stand in for a prescribed measurement. Folks, would you rather see a hard number? If yes, I’ll start adding them in.

Slashfood: Chocolate-Stuffed Bananas on the Grill (via Glorious Food and Wine)
Oh, holy moly. Has anyone out there ever tried this? If not, can you try it right now and mail me some?

Slate: Food Fight - The four barriers to the genetically modified–food revolution—and why no one is talking about them.
Soon, food production might not be able keep up with Earth’s growing population, meaning the genetically modified stuff has to happen. But there are obstacles, including accessibility and transparency issues, that may never be resolved. Read on and discover.

The Simple Dollar: The Frugal Whole Chicken (or, Waste Not, Want Not)
Trent ruminates on buying a whole chicken vs. just the breast.

The Simple Dollar: Winning the Battle Against Low Quality Generics While Still Saving Money
Lots of bloggers (me included) often advise readers to “Buy Generic!” to save mad cash, but very few (me included) explore why shoppers are hesitant to experiment with store brands. Here, Trent does the dirty work and comes up with some solid strategies.

Wise Bread: Grocery Shopping for the Cheap and Lazy
WB mainstay Andrea Dickson compiles an off-the-beaten-path buying guide for real people. Stellar post with an even better comment thread. This week’s must-read.

(Photos courtesy of fohboh, TheChrisBerry.com, and American Feast.)

Stuffed Peppers and Michael Phelps (a.k.a. How I Spent Last Thursday)

If y’all get the chance this afternoon, head on over to this post at Gawker. They’ve set up a Michael Phelps compliment-a-thon (a la Chuck Norris Facts), and the 1100+ comments are pretty dang funny. Some samples:

“Michael Phelps can run a marathon in four miles.”

“Sliced bread is the greatest thing since Michael Phelps.”

“Michael Phelps' original cut of Howard the Duck was widely considered the greatest film ever made.”

“Contrary to popular belief - the songwriting team of Lennon-McCartney was really Michael Phelps. In fact, he wrote the White Album while doing a leisurely backstroke.”

Like these commenters/everyone else on Earth, I’ve developed a slightly unhealthy obsession with Phelps. I mean, c’mon, man - the kid’s got it all: a duffel bag of gold medals, a physique that’d make Mae West blush, and THAT DIET. At a mind-boggling 10,000-calories PER DAY, it’s enough to feed a women’s basketball team, with a little left over dessert.

According to news sources, Phelps gets most of his meals at restaurants, since cooking on his own would consume valuable breaststroking time. Admittedly, if I was whipping up “three fried egg sandwiches … three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits,” every morning, I wouldn’t have time for much, either. (Also? By the glistening Speedo of Pieter Van den Hoogenband, that’s a lot of food.)

Yet, like Phelps, there was an era when I didn’t cook for myself. (I didn’t know how, was the problem.) Most of my days were spent in the dining hall, wondering if hot dogs went better with rice or macaroni. My first Betty Crocker cookbook (and post-adolescent fun/exciting weight fluctuations) changed that for the better. Today, cooking is my meditation, only I get lasagna at the end instead of enlightenment.

Betty’s Stuffed Pepper was one of the first non-heat-and-eat meals I ever made on my own. Flavorful, filling, healthy, and fairly basic in terms of cooking skills, it’s become one of my favorite foods for nights sans The Boyfriend. I’ve messed with the directions over the years so it’s more to my taste (subbing ground turkey for beef, altering the sauté time), but there are endless variations on this basic recipe. What's more, it’s a great way to get rid of leftovers, and you can’t ask for more than that.

(Except for Michael Phelps’ phone number. Which I assume is 867-530PECS.)

Stuffed Peppers
Makes 1 stuffed pepper
Adapted from Betty Crocker.

1 medium green bell pepper
1/2 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 of a medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
4 oz ground turkey
1/3 cup cooked rice (I used brown rice. - Kris)
salt and pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/3 cup your favorite pasta sauce
1 or 2 T low-fat part-skim shredded mozzarella

1) Preheat oven to 350ºF.

2) Fill medium pot about 2/3rds of the way with water. Bring to a boil. Chop off top inch or so of green bell pepper. Take out seeds and white membrane-y stuff. Parboil the pepper for 5 to 8 minutes, until it bends ever-so-slightly when you touch it. Once finished, make sure there's no water in the pepper, and put it in a glass baking dish, open side up.

3) In a medium skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add onion. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until not soft, but crisp-tender. Add garlic. Cook 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add meat. Cook it until it's browned, breaking it up with the back of a spoon as you go. Add rice, oregano, and about 2/3rds of the sauce. Cook until hot/warm throughout. Salt and pepper to taste. Dance.

4) Carefully use your spoon to stuff the pepper with the meat mixture. It should exceed the top of the pepper by about 1/4 to 1/2 inch. (You can eat the leftovers in the skillet later.) Pour the rest of the tomato sauce on top of pepper. Cover dish loosely with tin foil. Bake for about 25 or 30 minutes. Uncover. Top with cheese. Bake without cover for 10 or 15 more minutes. Cheese should be melted when done.  (If you're preparing several peppers, up the initial baking to 45 minutes, and keep the uncovered baking at 15 minutes.)

Approximate Calories, Fat, and Price Per Serving
330 calories, 12 g fat, $1.88

Calculations
1 medium green bell pepper: 24 calories, 0.2 g fat, $0.50
1/2 teaspoon olive oil: 20 calories, 2.2 g fat, $0.02
1/4 of a medium onion: 7 calories, 0 g fat, $0.06
1 clove garlic: 4 calories, 0 g fat, $0.02
4 oz ground turkey: 160 calories, 8 g fat, $0.83
1/3 cup cooked rice: 72 calories, 0.6 g fat, $0.04
salt and pepper: negligible calories and fat, $0.02
1 teaspoon dried oregano: 3 calories, 0 g fat, $0.03
1/3 cup your favorite pasta sauce: 26 calories, 0.2 g fat, $0.22
1 or 2 T low-fat part-skim shredded mozzarella: 14 calories, 0.8 g fat, $0.14
TOTAL: 330 calories, 12 g fat, $1.88