Football Party Snacks Traditional and Healthful

I'm always emotionally torn this time of year. I love Summer and nearly everything about it. But I like Fall as well. Fall, though, has an additional advantage that Summer lacks - Football!

Yes, it's that time of year again when The Boss losses me every Sunday until February. From years of experience she's learned that if she wants anything out of me, she better ask for it on Saturday.

This year will be only slightly different. Oh, I still won't be doing any major projects on Sunday, but as far as dinner and cooking, that will be taken to a whole new level and realms unexplored.

In the old house, Sunday dinners were quite an ordeal as I ran back and forth between the kitchen and television, eventually leaving us with a subpar meal or one that was prepared so late it was nearly time for bed. But now, with the new house, I have a clear view of the large screen television from the kitchen,  and as an added bonus, I have DirecTV NFL Sunday ticket. I won't miss a single Seattle Seahawks game while I party in the kitchen.  Can you say "awe inspiring"?

The temptation to cook more and more elaborate snacks and appetizers will only increase with each week of the season as I try to add variety and originality from the previous weeks. It will be Football Food Heaven - all varieties of chicken wings, imaginative pizza combinations that will spin your head, and chips with salsa, cheese, and chili that'll leave ya bloated until next week.

But when I think past these immediate exalted images and sensations, I realize that this approach may not necessarily be a healthy one - afterall it was over ten years ago when I quit smoking and spent entire Sundays at a local sports bar, watching football and drowning myself in hot wings and beer, eventually earning an additional 60 pounds of bulk to carry around by the time Spring hit.

So with that in mind, I've decided that each Sunday of this coming season I'll have one of the traditional, often high calorie, snacks paired with at least one healthful alternative. And I'm talking more than just your average veggie tray (which for many football fanatics is usually nothing more than scooping large amounts of Ranch dressing with a celery or carrot stick).

A quick search of the internet has landed two new appetizers already. The first snack comes courtesy of Old El Paso and is simply called Taco Humus (let that idea roll around in your head a moment). I figure I can pair this with the traditional Loaded Nachos, and have a Mexican theme snack day.

The second snack is Zucchini Parmesian Crisps directly stolen from The Food Network website. Since it's zucchini and parmesian, I'm guessing this might go well with my personal favorite - Pizza. The Italian spices on the pizza will be a good compliment with the sprinkled parmesian baked on the zucchini.




If you can't wait to see how they turn out for me, follow each of the links I provided above to find the recipes and discover for yourself.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to continue to comb the internet and pull all the cook books off the shelves in my search for inspiring healthful alternative. I'll share each one here, as well as post pics on my Instagram account. So bookmark this blog, follow me on Twitter and Instagram, and I'll see you on the field....er.... I mean, the kitchen.

Until Next Time...
Here are two videos (Video #1 and Video #2) that tackle the theme of gastronomically entertaining football parties.

Scoringly Yours,
Michael     

The Great Parmesan Cheese Scandal of 2016

In my debut posting to this blog, I mentioned that the business of food and the food industry interests me just as much as actually cooking does. It should be no surprise then that I've been glued to the buzz surrounding the latest breaking story about grated parmesan and how multiple food manufacturers have been duping the public about the ingredients in their product.

So...... Fresh off the Great McDonald's Mozzarella Sticks Scandal of 2016, I give you The Great Parmesan Cheese Scandal of 2016! (Seems like, as a country, we're having cheese issues so far this year)

This all started with a tip to the FDA that Castle Cheese Inc. was doctoring its parmesan cheese with too much cellulose, which is used as an anti-clumping agent and is derived from wood pulp. By law a certain amount is acceptable, but whistle-blowers said that Castle Cheese Inc. was putting just a little bit too much in. In fact, by the time the FDA finished its investigation, they reported that Castle, who makes Market Pantry brand 100% grated Parmesan Cheese sold at Target Corp. stores, contained “no parmesan cheese." Castle also supplies Always Save Grated Parmesan Cheese and Best Choice 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, sold by Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc.

This inspired the FDA to investigate other producers of grated cheese, and as a result of this investigation, the supermarket chain Jewel-Osco removed all of its Essential Everyday 100% Parmesan Cheese from shelves, which contains 8.8% cellulose, and Wal-Mart removed its Great Value 100% Grated Parmesan Cheese, which registered 7.8% cellulose. Other brands, including Kraft, came in within the legally acceptable 2-4% levels of cellulose.

The lesson from this is quite simple - Business is business, and many food producers have no problem cutting a few corners, especially when just a little change here or there can save them millions of dollars and the consumers are unable to tell the subtle difference. That's why I buy block parmesan, which is less susceptible to the cellulose and fillers. Note, I said "less susceptible," not "completely immune" to.

I've never liked grated parmesan cheese. I've thought its odor was over-powering and its texture just odd. Maybe companies add that extra flavor and odor as a way to mask the blandness of the actual product (see the book The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth about Food and Flavor by Mark Schatzker for more details.) I've always liked freshly shredded parmesan on my salads, and I've recently begun cooking with it as well. Yeah, it can be a pain shredding it by hand, but I think the small amount of effort is worth it.

There are still many claims and phrases companies put on their labels to tempt us to buy their product over their competitors. For instance, the word "organic" is still being brandied about a lot lately but there is no clear definition what it means, and the FDA hasn't tackled that issue as of yet. "All natural" is another term, and while it is technically defined, the definition is so vague it's useless.

Are these companies evil for intentionally deceiving us? It honestly depends on your point of view and your philosophy on the whole matter. It's important to remember, these companies don't exist to make sure you have a well balanced healthy diet. These companies exist to make money and to satisfy their hungry stock holders. Yes, they chose the food industry to conduct their business and have a legal obligation to be honest in product labeling and delivery, but don't ever forget who they're really loyal to and who they're willing to bend the rules for --- it's not you. I've understood that from the beginning, and maybe that's why I'm surprised that other people are surprised when stories like this break. (For instance, did Fast Food Nation tell you anything you didn't already suspect?)


So I'll keep an eye on this story to see if anything new comes of it, and in the meantime, your homework is to buy your kitchen a cheese shredder and from now on, only buy parmesan in blocks.

Until next time...
Here's a short video from Gourmet Magazine on different shredding/grating tools you can buy and the results of each tool.

Cheesely Yours,
Michael