Tuesday Megalinks

Lots of lists and how-tos in this week's links, including Eat Me Daily’s fall cookbook preview, The Kitchn’s guide to $20 group dinners, and a triumvirate of healthy goodness from Chow. Take it away, internets…

5 Second Rule: Advocate
Interview with Dr. Susan Rubin, founder of Bettter School Food, which is at the forefront of the Make School Lunches Less Sucky for Kids movement. Informational. Inspiring. Anti-Monsanto. (Thanks to Casual Kitchen for the link.)

Boing Boing: How Many Minutes Do People in Your City Have to Work for a Big Mac?
Chicago: about 12.
Nairobi: nearly 160.
Um … this is one of those times I’m happy I live where I do.

Casual Kitchen: The Food Spending Poll - Results and Conclusions
Dan ran an informal poll by his readers, and found that we spend 5 percentage points more on food than the U.S. average. We’re #1! We’re #1! (Um, but seriously – check out the stat breakdown. Eyebrow-raising stuff that could be attributed to us foodblog readers’ natural interest in cooking.)

Chow: 10 Beginner Cookbooks
Expected: Joy of Cooking, How to Cook Everything, How to Boil Water.
Unexpected: Cooking with Jamie, Starting with Ingredients, The Joy of Mixology. Mmm … ologies.

Chow: Know Your Peppers – Chow’s Visual Guide to Chile Peppers
If you don’t know your Basque Fryers from your Hot Banana peppers, this excellent pictorial is the place to start. Don’t forget to check page 2, because MY GOD, confusing a Habanero with a Pimiento de Padron would be very, very, very bad. (Like, worse than accidentally calling your dad “old dude.” And trust me, that’s bad.)

Chow: Whole Grains 101
From A (amaranth) to W (wheat berries), this guide to common grains could be even handier than that pepper thing I just posted. P.S. Has anyone out there tried Kamut? I’ve never even heard of it before. It sound like a Dungeons & Dragons warlord.

Eat Me Daily: Fall Cookbook Preview
Of special note: Pioneer Woman’s inaugural tome (yay!), Alton Brown’s first book about Good Eats (double yay!), and Michael Psilakis’ book on updated Greek classics. If any of his recipes came from Kefi (one of his NYC restaurants), it’s gonna be good.

Eat Me Daily: NYC Subway Ads: Human Fat Pouring Out of Bottles
These ads depicting fat poured from high-sugar drinks (Snapple, Gatorade, etc.) are much like the subway itself: gross, but effective.

Gizmodo: Alton Brown’s Safe and Scary Kitchen Hacks
Alton likes to have liquid nitrogen around. Y’know, for kicks.

Jezebel: Why is Normal Eating So Hard to Define?
The Jezzies analyze a recent New York Times blog post, which defines “normal eating” in one of the best ways I’ve ever read: “Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it-not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.” More on this tomorrow…

The Kitchn: 10 Ways to Feed 10 People for Less Than $20
As Labor Day Weekend creeps up on us, we’re likely A) running out of money, and B) entertaining a large group of people angry over going back to school/ending their vacation/running out of health insurance. The Kitchn has the remedy, with fantastic suggestions for substantive party meals.

The Kitchn: How to Properly Season a Dish
Do you over-salt? Have you under-peppered? The Kitchn feels your pain, and tries to ameliorate the situation with this informative post.

Mrs. Micah: Couponing for Charity
Do you have a lot of coupons, but not a lot of use for them? Kate’s collecting them for charity. It’s a great way to contribute without breaking the bank.

New York Times: Exploring Peanut Butter’s Potential
PB (peanut butter, not Pam Beasley) finally gets some respect as a high-class ingredient. If you click, don’t forget the link to Bittman’s blog – the comments are full of solid recipe ideas.

Newsweek: America’s War on the Overweight
Complex, interesting article about changing national sentiment regarding the obese. Is the anger ingrained in our culture? Is it self-loathing? Is it anger over health care bills? Read and ponder.

Simple Dollar: Handling an Overwhelming Harvest Without the Waste
Whether you have bushels of zucchini or a metric ton of tomatoes, Trent has ideas about how to get rid of it without anything going to waste. Gardeners! Read this!

Slashfood: What Can I Get You Folks? Server Errors That Servers Hate AND When Should Your Server Say No?
Thought provoking, somewhat controversial recurring Slashfood column on the everyday debates over waiter service. These are Hanna’s two most recent entries, along with the obligatory outraged commentary. Good stuff.

Slate: Don't Buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (You will never cook from it.)
Julia’s seminal tome just hit #1 for the first time, ever, but Regina Schrambling cautions you against buying it. And … um … I agree. (*avoids lightning from on high*) I owned Mastering for YEARS, and only cracked it to browse. Everything looked so complicated (at the time) and the recipes used SO MUCH BUTTER … I couldn’t do it. Le sigh.

(Photos courtesy of What You Really Get, Marlboro University, and Scientific American.)

Tuesday Megalinks

Lots of lists and how-tos in this week's links, including Eat Me Daily’s fall cookbook preview, The Kitchn’s guide to $20 group dinners, and a triumvirate of healthy goodness from Chow. Take it away, internets…

5 Second Rule: Advocate
Interview with Dr. Susan Rubin, founder of Bettter School Food, which is at the forefront of the Make School Lunches Less Sucky for Kids movement. Informational. Inspiring. Anti-Monsanto. (Thanks to Casual Kitchen for the link.)

Boing Boing: How Many Minutes Do People in Your City Have to Work for a Big Mac?
Chicago: about 12.
Nairobi: nearly 160.
Um … this is one of those times I’m happy I live where I do.

Casual Kitchen: The Food Spending Poll - Results and Conclusions
Dan ran an informal poll by his readers, and found that we spend 5 percentage points more on food than the U.S. average. We’re #1! We’re #1! (Um, but seriously – check out the stat breakdown. Eyebrow-raising stuff that could be attributed to us foodblog readers’ natural interest in cooking.)

Chow: 10 Beginner Cookbooks
Expected: Joy of Cooking, How to Cook Everything, How to Boil Water.
Unexpected: Cooking with Jamie, Starting with Ingredients, The Joy of Mixology. Mmm … ologies.

Chow: Know Your Peppers – Chow’s Visual Guide to Chile Peppers
If you don’t know your Basque Fryers from your Hot Banana peppers, this excellent pictorial is the place to start. Don’t forget to check page 2, because MY GOD, confusing a Habanero with a Pimiento de Padron would be very, very, very bad. (Like, worse than accidentally calling your dad “old dude.” And trust me, that’s bad.)

Chow: Whole Grains 101
From A (amaranth) to W (wheat berries), this guide to common grains could be even handier than that pepper thing I just posted. P.S. Has anyone out there tried Kamut? I’ve never even heard of it before. It sound like a Dungeons & Dragons warlord.

Eat Me Daily: Fall Cookbook Preview
Of special note: Pioneer Woman’s inaugural tome (yay!), Alton Brown’s first book about Good Eats (double yay!), and Michael Psilakis’ book on updated Greek classics. If any of his recipes came from Kefi (one of his NYC restaurants), it’s gonna be good.

Eat Me Daily: NYC Subway Ads: Human Fat Pouring Out of Bottles
These ads depicting fat poured from high-sugar drinks (Snapple, Gatorade, etc.) are much like the subway itself: gross, but effective.

Gizmodo: Alton Brown’s Safe and Scary Kitchen Hacks
Alton likes to have liquid nitrogen around. Y’know, for kicks.

Jezebel: Why is Normal Eating So Hard to Define?
The Jezzies analyze a recent New York Times blog post, which defines “normal eating” in one of the best ways I’ve ever read: “Normal eating is going to the table hungry and eating until you are satisfied. It is being able to choose food you like and eat it and truly get enough of it-not just stop eating because you think you should. Normal eating is being able to give some thought to your food selection so you get nutritious food, but not being so wary and restrictive that you miss out on enjoyable food. Normal eating is giving yourself permission to eat sometimes because you are happy, sad or bored, or just because it feels good. Normal eating is mostly three meals a day, or four or five, or it can be choosing to munch along the way. It is leaving some cookies on the plate because you know you can have some again tomorrow, or it is eating more now because they taste so wonderful. Normal eating is overeating at times, feeling stuffed and uncomfortable. And it can be undereating at times and wishing you had more. Normal eating is trusting your body to make up for your mistakes in eating. Normal eating takes up some of your time and attention, but keeps its place as only one important area of your life.” More on this tomorrow…

The Kitchn: 10 Ways to Feed 10 People for Less Than $20
As Labor Day Weekend creeps up on us, we’re likely A) running out of money, and B) entertaining a large group of people angry over going back to school/ending their vacation/running out of health insurance. The Kitchn has the remedy, with fantastic suggestions for substantive party meals.

The Kitchn: How to Properly Season a Dish
Do you over-salt? Have you under-peppered? The Kitchn feels your pain, and tries to ameliorate the situation with this informative post.

Mrs. Micah: Couponing for Charity
Do you have a lot of coupons, but not a lot of use for them? Kate’s collecting them for charity. It’s a great way to contribute without breaking the bank.

New York Times: Exploring Peanut Butter’s Potential
PB (peanut butter, not Pam Beasley) finally gets some respect as a high-class ingredient. If you click, don’t forget the link to Bittman’s blog – the comments are full of solid recipe ideas.

Newsweek: America’s War on the Overweight
Complex, interesting article about changing national sentiment regarding the obese. Is the anger ingrained in our culture? Is it self-loathing? Is it anger over health care bills? Read and ponder.

Simple Dollar: Handling an Overwhelming Harvest Without the Waste
Whether you have bushels of zucchini or a metric ton of tomatoes, Trent has ideas about how to get rid of it without anything going to waste. Gardeners! Read this!

Slashfood: What Can I Get You Folks? Server Errors That Servers Hate AND When Should Your Server Say No?
Thought provoking, somewhat controversial recurring Slashfood column on the everyday debates over waiter service. These are Hanna’s two most recent entries, along with the obligatory outraged commentary. Good stuff.

Slate: Don't Buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (You will never cook from it.)
Julia’s seminal tome just hit #1 for the first time, ever, but Regina Schrambling cautions you against buying it. And … um … I agree. (*avoids lightning from on high*) I owned Mastering for YEARS, and only cracked it to browse. Everything looked so complicated (at the time) and the recipes used SO MUCH BUTTER … I couldn’t do it. Le sigh.

(Photos courtesy of What You Really Get, Marlboro University, and Scientific American.)

LIKE: Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans and Corn

Oh! Sweet readers, I know it’s enormously self-indulgent to list your LIKES on what’s ostensibly a food blog, but then again, it’s kind of enormously self-indulgent to keep a blog in the first place. And I am nothing if not enormously self-indulgent (also: a lapsed Catholic). So … um … here are some LIKES.

LIKE: Tom Waits’ first album, Closing Time.
Holy schmoly. The Husband-Elect and I have been listening to this non-stop for the past week. It’s gorgeous and sad, and Waits’ voice doesn’t yet sound like he swallowed a handful of gin-soaked gravel. Due warning: while lovely, don’t play Closing Time when you’re sad/unemployed/nursing a breakup. It’d be like taking downers after your favorite team loses the Super Bowl. (But seriously, it’s tremendous.)

LIKE: Curtis Sittenfeld’s third novel, American Wife
An imagined biography of a Laura Bush-like figure, this gave me new perspective on the former First Lady. I used to think she was kind of an affable drip. But considering she never really wanted to be in the public eye in the first place, she held up pretty well under the circumstances. Also, Sittenfeld can write like nobody’s business. She makes quiet small-town life as engrossing as the White House.

LIKE: Dooce’s Maytag post
If you’ve ever struggled with an appliance company, read this now. I mean it. It’s epic. (Rated PG-13 for language. But it’s Dooce, so that’s to be expected.)

HALF-LIKE: Julie & Julia
How do you review a movie that’s alternately wonderful and one of the worst films you’ve ever seen? Because Julie & Julia is that. The Meryl Streep/Julia Child half is charming, lovely, and funny. (There’s a scene between Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Jane Lynch where you just wish you were sitting with them.) I’d watch it 27 times. BUT. But. But. But. The Amy Adams/Julie Powell half is TERRIBLE. (Like, even worse than Color of Night.) In the book, Julie comes off as kind of a self-obsessed schmo, but a lovably self-obsessed schmo. In the movie, Amy Adams plays her as a whiny, neurotic, incapable jerk who’s reduced mostly to crying and explaining the Streep/Child part of the story. Very frustrating, and strange to think that both halves were made by the same director.

LIKE: Stuffed Peppers With Black Beans and Corn from Cook’s Illustrated Best Light Recipe
Another triumph by Kimball’s crew, which only further cements my theory that they’re actually a race of detail-obsessed aliens stuck on Earth until each and every human learns to eat well. Of course, if you should make it yourself…

1) The only problem with the recipe was that it made almost twice the amount of stuffing you’d pack into four peppers. This leaves you with two options: buy and cook eight peppers, or use the leftover stuffing as a side dish or burrito filling. Either one is delightful, but, I did my calculations using eight peppers. Due to this, they’re different than they appear in the CI book.

2) Though each serving is a whole meal for $1.57, this is definitely one of the more expensive dishes we’ve featured on the site. It’s largely due to the peppers. (Bad peppers! Why you gotta hurt my bank?) However, the recipe makes sense to cook now, while bells are still in season (OR you can try to get them on sale).

3) If I could make one tiny change to the dish, I would have reserved 1/3 cup of the cheese and sprinkled it on the peppers during the last 10 minutes in the oven. But I like stuff melty, so it’s totes up to y'all.

How about you guys? What do you LIKE lately? The comment section is awaiting you…

Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans and Corn
Serves 8
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Best Light Recipe.

Salt
8 medium red, yellow, or orange bell peppers,, 1/2 –inch trimmed off tops, stemmed, and seeded
1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium jalapeno chile, minced (include seeds and ribs if you want it hotter)
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 14.5-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup frozen or fresh corn (if frozen, make sure to thaw)
1 cup 2% shredded cheddar or pepper Jack cheese
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Set aside a 9x13 baking dish.

2) Boil 4 quarts water in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add 1 tablespoon salt and all the bell peppers. Cook 3 minutes. Remove peppers from water and drain them in a colander. Once drained, stand them up on paper towels.

3) When water is boiling again, add rice. Cook 13 minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing sticks.. Drain.

4) While rice is cooking, add oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno. Cover. Saute 8 or 10 minutes, until onion is translucent and soft. Uncover. Add garlic. Saute until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Add black beans, tomatoes, and corn. Cook 2 minutes. Pour everything into rice bowl.

5) To the bowl, add cheese and cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to combine.

6) "Carefully and loosely" even distribute filling among the peppers. Place in baking dish. Bake 25 to 30 minutes in the middle of the oven. Serve.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
320 calories, 4.7 g fat, 6.6 g fiber, $1.57

Calculations
Salt: negligible calories, fat, and fiber, $0.02
8 medium red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, 1/2 –inch trimmed off tops, stemmed, and seeded: 248 calories, 2.9 g fat, 20 g fiber, $6.94
1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked: 675 calories, 1.3 g fat, 2.4 g fiber, $0.33
1 teaspoon olive oil: 39 calories, 4.5 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.11
1 medium onion, diced: 46 calories, 0.1 g fat, 1.5 g fiber, $0.29
1 medium jalapeno chile, minced: 10 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.11
3 medium garlic cloves, minced: 13 calories, 0 g fat, 0.2 g fiber, $0.15
1 14.5-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed: 350 calories, 1.8 g fat, 17.5 g fiber, $0.80
1 15.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained: 82 calories, 0 g fat, 6.5 g fiber, $1.70
1 cup frozen or fresh corn (if frozen, make sure to thaw): 132 calories, 1.8 g fat, 4.2 g fiber, $0.37
1 cup 2% shredded cheddar or pepper Jack cheese: 324 calories, 24.3 g fat, 0 g fiber, $1.25
¼ cup cilantro, chopped: 1 calorie, 0 g fat, 0.1 g fiber, $0.45
Fresh ground black pepper: negligible calories, fat, and fiber, $0.02
TOTAL: 1920 calories, 37.8 g fat, 52.4 g fiber, $12.54
PER SERVING (TOTAL/8): 320 calories, 4.7 g fat, 6.6 g fiber, $1.57

LIKE: Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans and Corn

Oh! Sweet readers, I know it’s enormously self-indulgent to list your LIKES on what’s ostensibly a food blog, but then again, it’s kind of enormously self-indulgent to keep a blog in the first place. And I am nothing if not enormously self-indulgent (also: a lapsed Catholic). So … um … here are some LIKES.

LIKE: Tom Waits’ first album, Closing Time.
Holy schmoly. The Husband-Elect and I have been listening to this non-stop for the past week. It’s gorgeous and sad, and Waits’ voice doesn’t yet sound like he swallowed a handful of gin-soaked gravel. Due warning: while lovely, don’t play Closing Time when you’re sad/unemployed/nursing a breakup. It’d be like taking downers after your favorite team loses the Super Bowl. (But seriously, it’s tremendous.)

LIKE: Curtis Sittenfeld’s third novel, American Wife
An imagined biography of a Laura Bush-like figure, this gave me new perspective on the former First Lady. I used to think she was kind of an affable drip. But considering she never really wanted to be in the public eye in the first place, she held up pretty well under the circumstances. Also, Sittenfeld can write like nobody’s business. She makes quiet small-town life as engrossing as the White House.

LIKE: Dooce’s Maytag post
If you’ve ever struggled with an appliance company, read this now. I mean it. It’s epic. (Rated PG-13 for language. But it’s Dooce, so that’s to be expected.)

HALF-LIKE: Julie & Julia
How do you review a movie that’s alternately wonderful and one of the worst films you’ve ever seen? Because Julie & Julia is that. The Meryl Streep/Julia Child half is charming, lovely, and funny. (There’s a scene between Streep, Stanley Tucci, and Jane Lynch where you just wish you were sitting with them.) I’d watch it 27 times. BUT. But. But. But. The Amy Adams/Julie Powell half is TERRIBLE. (Like, even worse than Color of Night.) In the book, Julie comes off as kind of a self-obsessed schmo, but a lovably self-obsessed schmo. In the movie, Amy Adams plays her as a whiny, neurotic, incapable jerk who’s reduced mostly to crying and explaining the Streep/Child part of the story. Very frustrating, and strange to think that both halves were made by the same director.

LIKE: Stuffed Peppers With Black Beans and Corn from Cook’s Illustrated Best Light Recipe
Another triumph by Kimball’s crew, which only further cements my theory that they’re actually a race of detail-obsessed aliens stuck on Earth until each and every human learns to eat well. Of course, if you should make it yourself…

1) The only problem with the recipe was that it made almost twice the amount of stuffing you’d pack into four peppers. This leaves you with two options: buy and cook eight peppers, or use the leftover stuffing as a side dish or burrito filling. Either one is delightful, but, I did my calculations using eight peppers. Due to this, they’re different than they appear in the CI book.

2) Though each serving is a whole meal for $1.57, this is definitely one of the more expensive dishes we’ve featured on the site. It’s largely due to the peppers. (Bad peppers! Why you gotta hurt my bank?) However, the recipe makes sense to cook now, while bells are still in season (OR you can try to get them on sale).

3) If I could make one tiny change to the dish, I would have reserved 1/3 cup of the cheese and sprinkled it on the peppers during the last 10 minutes in the oven. But I like stuff melty, so it’s totes up to y'all.

How about you guys? What do you LIKE lately? The comment section is awaiting you…

Stuffed Peppers with Black Beans and Corn
Serves 8
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Best Light Recipe.

Salt
8 medium red, yellow, or orange bell peppers,, 1/2 –inch trimmed off tops, stemmed, and seeded
1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 medium onion, diced
1 medium jalapeno chile, minced (include seeds and ribs if you want it hotter)
3 medium garlic cloves, minced
1 14.5-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained
1 cup frozen or fresh corn (if frozen, make sure to thaw)
1 cup 2% shredded cheddar or pepper Jack cheese
¼ cup cilantro, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper

1) Preheat oven to 350F. Set aside a 9x13 baking dish.

2) Boil 4 quarts water in a large pot or Dutch oven. Add 1 tablespoon salt and all the bell peppers. Cook 3 minutes. Remove peppers from water and drain them in a colander. Once drained, stand them up on paper towels.

3) When water is boiling again, add rice. Cook 13 minutes, stirring occasionally so nothing sticks.. Drain.

4) While rice is cooking, add oil to a large skillet and heat over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno. Cover. Saute 8 or 10 minutes, until onion is translucent and soft. Uncover. Add garlic. Saute until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds. Add black beans, tomatoes, and corn. Cook 2 minutes. Pour everything into rice bowl.

5) To the bowl, add cheese and cilantro. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir well to combine.

6) "Carefully and loosely" even distribute filling among the peppers. Place in baking dish. Bake 25 to 30 minutes in the middle of the oven. Serve.

Approximate Calories, Fat, Fiber, and Price Per Serving
320 calories, 4.7 g fat, 6.6 g fiber, $1.57

Calculations
Salt: negligible calories, fat, and fiber, $0.02
8 medium red, yellow, or orange bell peppers, 1/2 –inch trimmed off tops, stemmed, and seeded: 248 calories, 2.9 g fat, 20 g fiber, $6.94
1 cup long-grain white rice, uncooked: 675 calories, 1.3 g fat, 2.4 g fiber, $0.33
1 teaspoon olive oil: 39 calories, 4.5 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.11
1 medium onion, diced: 46 calories, 0.1 g fat, 1.5 g fiber, $0.29
1 medium jalapeno chile, minced: 10 calories, 0 g fat, 0 g fiber, $0.11
3 medium garlic cloves, minced: 13 calories, 0 g fat, 0.2 g fiber, $0.15
1 14.5-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed: 350 calories, 1.8 g fat, 17.5 g fiber, $0.80
1 15.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained: 82 calories, 0 g fat, 6.5 g fiber, $1.70
1 cup frozen or fresh corn (if frozen, make sure to thaw): 132 calories, 1.8 g fat, 4.2 g fiber, $0.37
1 cup 2% shredded cheddar or pepper Jack cheese: 324 calories, 24.3 g fat, 0 g fiber, $1.25
¼ cup cilantro, chopped: 1 calorie, 0 g fat, 0.1 g fiber, $0.45
Fresh ground black pepper: negligible calories, fat, and fiber, $0.02
TOTAL: 1920 calories, 37.8 g fat, 52.4 g fiber, $12.54
PER SERVING (TOTAL/8): 320 calories, 4.7 g fat, 6.6 g fiber, $1.57