I'm trying to compile a good list of foods that would travel well. I'm trying to avoid anything heavily processed with commercial preservatives (no Goldfish or fruit snacks, etc.)

These foods should keep for at least a day in standard outdoor temperatures. Also, they should not get physically fucked up by being in a backpack all day.

So far, I've got these:
Rucksack Sandwich (Baguette, salami, butter, pickles)
Scones
Granola (inline with avoiding preservatives, this can be easily made at home)
GORP mix

P.S.
Shoutout to Squeeze in Marfa, TX for the rucksack sandwiches.

My tomato and pepper harvest this year is going to be negligible (thanks, deer!), but I have tomatillos coming out of my ears. My favorite Salsa Verde recipe freezes well.

To the extent that everyone who grows tomatoes will have lots of green ones, here's a good chutney recipe that works well for water-bath canning:

Green Tomato Chutney

Servings: 3 pints

Ingredients:

2 1/2 lbs green tomatoes (a few ripe or partially ripe are fine to be included)
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar, packed
1 cup chopped red onion
1 cup golden raisin
1 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
1 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
1 teaspoon coriander seed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cinnamon stick
1/16 teaspoon ground nutmeg
(***For my taste, I'll mince in a couple of whatever fresh hot peppers I have in the garden, and increase other spices to taste, and add a chopped large knob of fresh ginger.)

Directions:

Place all of the ingredients in a medium sized (about 4 qt) thick-bottomed pot. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer. Cover and cook for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove lid and simmer uncovered for an additional 15 minutes to thicken.

Notes:

Note: If desired, this recipe can be canned by processing filled (sterilized!) jars in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes. Recipe will fill six 8-oz jars or three 16-oz jars. Otherwise, chutney will keep in the refrigerator for a few months.

The other garden success story this year, heavy rain, weird weather, bugs, and pestiferous ungulates notwithstanding, is basil. Freaking huge bushes of every variety I planted: Italian Mountain, Genovese, Persian, Thai Kaprow, Thai Holy, and Purple Opal.

I'll be processing fresh Italian basil with olive oil and freezing it in silicone trays. Internet rumor has it that freezing doesn't treat fresh garlic well, and you're better off making pesto from frozen basil as needed.

I may do the same thing with neutral oil for the Persian basil, and peanut oil for the Thai, unless someone else has suggestions.

We'll also have about 50 lbs. of apples from a single tree. They're a little too organic for eating out of hand, unless you're comfortable with inadvertent insect protein ingestion. But drying, pies, and cake are definitely in the picture. This is a simple, reliable apple cake recipe that's easy to share around. I'm still digging for my old bakery Caramel Apple Torte recipe.

I really like pickled jalapenos, but my go to recipes are nachos and jalapeno poppers wrapped in bacon. I'm trying to eat healthier, but I seem to be lacking some good recipes or ideas. I found a potato salad recipe which sounds really tasty, but still not terribly healthy.

New advisory report pushes disastrous privatization schemes

Link to the article

This week, President Biden’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council issued a report recommending the privatization of the nation’s water systems.

The chair of the advisory council is the CEO of Global Infrastructure Partners, an infrastructure investment bank with an estimated $100 billion in assets under management that targets energy, transportation, digital and water infrastructure.

The report recommends, among other things, that the federal government “[r]emove barriers to privatization, concessions, and other nontraditional models of funding community water systems,” and open up all federal grant programs to support privatized utilities.

Food & Water Watch Public Water for All Campaign Director Mary Grant issued the following response:

Water privatization is a terrible idea. President Biden should have never appointed an investment banker to chair an advisory council for the nation’s infrastructure. Wall Street wants to take control of the nation’s public water systems to wring profits from communities that are already struggling with unaffordable water bills and toxic water.

Privatization would deepen the nation’s water crises, leading to higher water bills and less accountable and transparent services. Privately owned water systems charge 59 percent more than local government systems, and private ownership is the single largest factor associated with higher water bills — more than aging infrastructure or drought.

Instead of relying on Wall Street advisers, President Biden should support policies that will truly help communities by asking Congress to pass the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act (HR 1729, S 938). After decades of federal austerity for water, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was a step forward, but it provided only about seven percent of the identified needs of our water systems. The WATER Act would fully restore the federal commitment to safe water by providing a permanent source of federal funding at the level that our water and wastewater systems need to ensure safe, clean and affordable public water for all.

Link to Food & Water Watch

Certain resources/commodities/services like water, food, electricity and health should remain in public domain. I don't understand the askance that is associated with this view.

Once these fall to the profiteering domain, we will be sucked dry and forced to accept abnormal standards as normal to gain access to these which in first place should be in public domain protected in public interest by public representatives.

These resources will be and are used by IMF and sister organisations that are usually called "banks" as leverage to get their debts serviced or sold as AAA+ securities.

They tried that with real estate but that burst since a physical house doesn't just disappear which leads to emergence of derelict patches within the estates. This would certainly destroy the demand and the dead estate would translate into toxic securities by just being there and not disappearing. Similarly things that are too volatile will also not be accepted as essential by the public as was the case with electronics/net. So that's not worth it.

But what if the resource or commodity is essential, which means it has sustained demand, as well as it is volatile enough which means it vanishes after its monetary utility. Now that's "gold". Theoretically its value will not only be retained but it may even increase with no downside. Perpetual profitability.

Hello! I live in an area where a great part of socializing is done by going to bars and having a drink (or several). I don't drink alcohol, and always get weird stares after the third Nestea/Aquarius, plus I get bored from drinking the same thing over and over again. Sometimes the places we go to have the option of alcohol-free cocktails, but it's not the usual thing.

So, what are you suggestions of other drinks I could order, that do not contain alcohol? Things that I could drink in hot weather, day or night? I'm open to all sorts of flavours.

The ones I have listed:

• Coke
• Tea
• Coffee
• Aquarius
• Nestea

Thank you all for your help in advance!

I'm going to start with three questions but feel free to propose your own:

1. What if anything have you tried around finding and using more ethical sources of meat?

2. What cooking methods and recipes do you use that reduce the amount of meat you eat in a meal?

3. What vegetarian protein sources do you find palatable and tasty?

I’m going purely on YouTube vids for the technique. They all seem to agree to soak in water and then cook the rice cakes in stock, then add gochujang, gochugaru, soy sauce, sugar, cook until thick, top with spring onion and optionally add cheese. (I’m skipping the fish cakes).

Some recipes start by frying some garlic, some fry off the gochugaru etc for a minute, some add the white part of the spring onion much earlier… I’m not sure whether any of these steps are necessary/make a big difference.

Anyone who is familiar with the dish - is there anything extra you do to elevate this dish? Anything I should know about the cooking process?

After trusting my nana to pass on the details in anticipation of a small family gathering, this has turned into something else! I'm currently smoking a bunch of chicken drumsticks over maple wood chips but some of my lower effort choices going into battle today are:

Chocolate sorbet. I love this one because it's stupidly easy to make, can be made way in advance and is a naturally vegan/ dairy free option. Blending the mixture at the end is an essential, unskippable step. I used 80% cocoa solids and this time I've replaced the Grand Marnier with some 42% chocolate rum.

Ready made dolmedes from a tin. Another easy vegan/ veggie option, assuming you just get the ones stuffed with rice and herbs.

Caprese skewers. Easy veggie canapé with only some assembly required! Baby plum tomato, fresh basil leaf and mini mozzarella pearl on a skewer. Maybe drizzle over some pesto. Looks fancy arranged on a slate serving tray.

Boiled potatoes with really, really good butter. Cultured, unpasteurised stuff. It helps that these are potatoes from my garden too, instantly made fancier with the addition of fresh herbs.

For cooking I mean like making it largely from scratch. Eating out (or dining in) is hopefully self-explanatory. By premade meals I mean like ramen bowls, cans of soup, Stoufers or Banquet meals, frozen pizzas, etc. Throwing something together is like a sandwich, cereal, a box of Mac and cheese/ hamburger helper or a ramen packet where you add a boiled egg, leftover pork and some chives, etc-- stuff where it's mostly finished food that just requires a little bit of work.

I had triple jaw surgery 6 months ago, but things went wrong around a wisdom tooth and one of the implants, so I had a revision last month. As a consequence of that, I have not been allowed to chew since my jawbone needed peace and quiet to grow back together.

The suffering is soon over, though. On August 17 I can eat normally again! I have had multiple dreams of eating and chewing things normally, and I have even had unquiet dreams/nightmares of eating but then remembering that I'm not allowed to eat.

For reference, I have eaten nothing but mashed potatoes, soups, overcooked pasta, yoghurts... for the past month. Last time around, my first solid meal was a cheeseburger from McDonald's but that was definitely not very satisfying. So please help! What should my first real meal in a month be!?

PS: my frustration is expertly expressed in this moment in this video. I WANNA CHEW!

In addition to other uses of the ghee I personally really like that it is a good, mostly neutral base to add basically any flavoring desired and make homemade spread.

Some flavors that I so far tried are:

• Chili - excellent and easy to control how spicy the result is
• Garlic - both fresh, dried and a salty garlic paste. A kind poster has pointed out that it needs to be acidified or consumed in only a few short days or there is risk of developing botulism toxins - https://news.okstate.edu/articles/agriculture/2020/gedon_home-infused-oils.html
• Soy sauce - specifically shiitake mushrooms one
• Carob - not bad but the flavor is not really distinctive even if I add relatively lot of it. Perhaps I should tinker with it more
• Ajvar(tomato, eggplant, pepper mix)
• Horseradish
• Chill and bitter chocolate - did not turn out all that well but I will still try again to see if I can make a better result
• Ginger - dried

I probably should start keeping track of how much of something I add exactly but so far I do it just by guess. Usually something like one to three tablespoons for 150g of ghee or so.

Usually I simply add the warm ghee and the flavoring in the glass jar. I can not really use a mixer since I do small batches and do not want to have to clean it up afterwards. What I arrived at is to simply give the jar a good shake about every half an hour for a few hours. It is probably not the best solution but good enough.

It completely kills the longevity of the ghee. Especially the ingredients that are not dried but I do not really care since it is gone in a week anyway.

So far I only made ghee from store bought white butter so I am not sure how much difference it would make to make it directly from milk or from less processed butter.

Is there someone here who tried something similar? If so what flavors have you tried or recommend?

Edit: edited the problematic garlic entry.

Greetings ~food! Not too long ago, I posted a topic asking for cookbook recommendations and received a flood of amazing recommendations. Thank you all for sharing your favorites; I have expanded my collection thanks to that thread! One that has become a quick favorite of mine is Pasta Grannies, although I accidentally grabbed Book 2 and I'm still needing to grab Book 1.

Something that has dawned on me with that cookbook is the desire to make all the recipes similar to how Ash Ketchum wanted to catch all the Pokémon! The first recipe I made was Rina's Capriccio and oh lordy did it blow my mind how good it was and that I made it! My only complaint was the struggle to just pick one recipe to try and I'm aspiring to make a pasta dish every Sunday now.

Since there are several recipes from Pasta Grannies between the two books and their Youtube channel, I'm indecisive on what to do next. To all who have dived into their recipes, what are your favorites that are absolute must tries? What are some that might not be worth the effort? I'd love to hear everyone's experience with pasta making regardless if it's a Pasta Grannies recipe!

I'm trying to put together a small amount of kitchen equipment that I can take with me when we travel. And I'm looking for suggestions. I've been stung by holiday let kitchens before missing seemingly small but essential items.

So far I've got:

• Digital scales
• Good sized chopping board
• Sharp knife + sharpening stone
• Peeler
• Tongs
• Measuring spoons
• Small jars of salt, sugar, and oil
• Coffee grinder (yes it is essential)

Edit (community suggestions)

• Swiss army knife
• Probe thermometer

Any recommendations on other things you've missed in holiday houses before?

We have a multi-cooker (Ninja Foodie Max) which gets most of its usage as an air frier or pressure cooker.

We want to start meal prepping as with two kids time in the kitchen is getting increasingly difficult. Our go to big reusable meals are Bolognese or curries which we are getting a bit bored of, so what's your go to meal prep recipes?