Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is Saturday, May 14

An annual event, Stamp Out Hunger is Saturday, May 14. 

You don't even have to haul your food donations to a remote location. 

Just collect and bag nonperishable food items and leave the bag at your mailbox by 9 a.m. for your letter carrier to collect; it will be delivered to your local food bank (such as Gleaners Community Food Bank). 

And if it's going to rain, well, tie the food up in white plastic grocery bags. 

For more information, or to make a donation if you're not going to be home, visit to www.gcfb.org/StampOutHunger.

Pepin retires, to the disappointment of many a PBS watcher

A legend has retired, and Public Broadcasting System watchers aren't likely to be happy with the result. 

Jacques Pepin will only appear on PBS in re-runs after this year. 

In addition to being a fantastic chef, Pepin, 80, is noted for his good humor, joie de vivre and his incredible teaching ability, including a cooking show he did with Julia Child.

I've seen this Frenchman late at night and found him able to break down things simply, so that anyone can follow along (even a large knife-phobic soul like me). 

Slate's tribute to him is here; an excellent article, it mentioned a PBS channel that had some of his shows online. 

Now I just have to find the episode that teaches you how to make mayonnaise, since, so far, I have found the process too hard to even think about trying. 

You too can become a sushi master ... if you hurry

You can become a sushi master ... close to (my) home. 

This public workshop is offered at Carls Family YMCA for a donation of $25. 

Your teacher? Food Network's Cutthroat Kitchen Champion and local restaurant owner Tom Lin. 

Hurry up; there are only 20 spaces available for the workshop. All proceeds go to Carls Family YMCA's annual campaign.

Thanksgiving's a wonderful holiday with way too much food ... and pie!

Thanksgiving is a great concept: taking a day to be grateful for what we have. 

I'm not at all pleased with the addition of shopping to the mix. It really doesn't seem to go with the concept of the day. 

Black Friday sales before Black Friday, which is bad enough, as I am not fond of large hordes out shopping. It's a good way to get injured. Plus, I wouldn't get up that early unless someone was paying me. As someone once said, "Not a morning person doesn't even begin to cover it." 

But back to the bird and all the fixings; since this is a food blog, you knew food had to come in somewhere! 

I was thinking of pie. Pumpkin and pecan, specifically. One of my friends was making a pecan pie cheesecake and I told her to add chocolate, because it reminded me of a marvelous pie I had in Texas once at a fundraising dinner. I found a recipe that sounds similar here if you want to give it a try. 

If I make it, I'll post a pic. I may not, because I'd need to do some shopping the day before Thanksgiving (shuddering at the thought). But perhaps you're more daring. 

Poll: Sugar in spaghetti sauce? Yes or no?

It's been a while since I posted. I have a burning question that must be answered. Preferably right now. 

Why does nearly every spaghetti sauce I see have sugar in it? Is it really necessary? 

Here are some of the answers I ran across doing a brief Internet search:

• To tone down the acidity. 
• Just because we've always done it that way. 
• I prefer to use carrots; it's an Italian thing.
• I don't care why; it's wrong. 
• Isn't that illegal in some states? 

My guess is that it depends on how acidic the tomatoes used are. What do you think? It's relevant right now; I am planning to make homemade pasta sauce for dinner. 

Please answer quickly: should I put sugar in my spaghetti sauce or not? Why? 

Thanks for your input! 

The burning question: waffles or pancakes?

I just read an interesting post on Washington Post's Wonkblog, shared via Facebook by Real Simple. 

Here's the premise: Waffle House is heavily preferred in the South, though it's been slowly creeping north. You won't find one in Michigan though, and where you don't find it may be affected by franchising laws. IHOP rules here, supposedly. 
 .
But apparently that's mostly in three major areas: southeast Michigan's tricounty area as  well as the Lansing and Grand Rapids areas. 

The rest are probably scattered in decent-sized population pockets (I do know there's one in Saginaw and another in Mt. Pleasant, for example. Both have colleges in town or nearby, though, so that may account for IHOP's presence.) 


My father likes both, but he did live in southern Ohio for a while. I usually prefer pancakes, but as a kid, loved the Belgian waffles Big Boy served with strawberries and whipped cream.

So do you follow the trend that's implied in the article and prefer pancakes? Or do you like waffles better? Please leave a message in the comments!

The next new, gluten-free flour is ... coffee flour

Yes, I've been missing in action again.

It was nothing less than an article about coffee flour on Mind Body Green and a second article from Discover Magazine indicating when it would be available to the general public that led me to write a new post.

Coffee flour, hmm? How is it no one came up with this long ago?

It is:
1. Gluten-free
2. Sustainable (after the seeds are extracted, the flour is made from the remaining fruit, which previously went to waste)
3. A source of additional income for coffee growers

According to the CoffeeFlour^® website, it is high in fiber (five times that of whole wheat flour). It also has:

• 84 percent less fat than coconut flour
• Three times the protein of kale (per gram)
• Higher amounts of iron than any grain/cereal in the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) database

Note: The caffeine content varies by the variety, concentration and recipe details. (More coffee flour = more caffeine, presumably.)

Coffee flour should be available in stores next year, according to these sources.