Top Ten Links of the Week: 4/23/10 – 4/29/10

Happy Friday, folks! Quick update on Tuesday’s Ask the Internet question: the broth and new ratio totally worked with the polenta, and the addition of pancetta provided some much-needed depth and textural variation. Howevs, the spinach still needs work. I sautéed it much faster this time, using the oil left over from the meat, but the aftertaste remained. I’m thinking a switch to either kale, chard, or baby spinach is in order. Almost there, though! Look for the final version on Monday.

Meanwhile, BEHOLD! Here’re the links.

1) Oregon Live: Meet some of Portland's radical homemakers
A fantastic piece. Just stellar, and I love the reconceptualizing of domesticity as, “living by four tenets: ecological sustainability, social justice, family and community.” It’s extreme and ideal at the same time. An absolute must-read, though I do wish it brought a few guys into the picture.

2) The Local Cook: Top 10 Things to Do Before CSA Season
Just signed up for your first CSA? Don’t know how you’re going to handle it? No worries, sweet kale lover. This resourceful rundown will steer you in the right direction.

3) Serious Eats: Why Ben & Jerry’s Relationship with Wal-Mart is Actually Good for the Future of Food
Sometimes, the little guy can best change the big guy by working from the inside. If there’s ice cream involved, all the better.

4) The Atlantic Food: Message to Food Editors - What 30-Minute Meals Really Mean
In which Michael Ruhlman makes a decent point – learn to prioritize food – and obscures it in a cloud of unpleasantness. Dude, you want people to listen to your message? Try not to insult them in the process. Enh. Debbie says it better than me

5) Jezebel: Spoon Fed – When Food is About Love, Not Disorder
I like this whole piece on learning to reconcile personal food issues with eating’s social nature, but this statement struck me most: “I find that when we cook together we encourage each other to enjoy food for what it is — a source of nourishment and even excitement, not an enemy.”

6) Slashfood: Cook’s Illustrated vs. food52
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to RUMBLE. In this corner, Cook’s Illustrated, the venerated trial-and-error foodie mag headed up by bowtied culinary lovegod, Christopher Kimball. And in the opposite corner, food52, the new-ish website with the many-people-one-recipe mentality. Who will win next week’s cooking throwdown? Only your hairdresser knows for sure. (Pic from Village Voice.)

7) Chicago Tribune: The 50 Worst Restaurants in the World
In response to San Pellegrino’s recent naming of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants, folks at CT came up with this creative list. My favorites:
24. Haggis Hut
21. Actual Panda Express
20. Fraulein Sauerkraut’s Thwap and Serve
9. Le Jirque
3. Friday’s based on the novel Push by Sapphire

8) Wise Bread: 10 Ways to Cut Waste When Feeding Kids
These smart tips might seem pretty intuitive to experienced parents, but I’m babysitting a lot more now, so they’re spectacularly well timed. I have no idea what I’m doing, see. (Just kidding, Mary! Ha?)

9) A Good American Wife: Nutritional Values
Speaking about feeding kids, Anne has some valuable insight.

10) Serious Eats: How to Toast Spices
Toasting spices is an inexpensive, easy way to bring out their flavor. Also, “mellow, toasty complexity” is my new favorite phrase. You know what I like about 30 Rock? It’s mellow, toasty complexity. And nuclear physics? It’s mellow, toasty complexity. And socks? Guess.


HONORABLE MENTION

BoingBoing: Unicorn Meat
Finally!

Consumerist: Baseball Park Food is So Overpriced. Do I Still Have to Tip?
Yes!

Food Politics: The 2010 Dietary Guidelines – Some Hints at What They Might Say
Useful!

The Kitchn: 10 Tasty Dinners to Serve on the Cheap
Tasty!


AND ALSO

The 120 Minutes Archive
Eep! Well, slap me with a moog and call me Matt Pinfield. Someone, somewhere, is cataloguing every episode of MTV’s seminal indie/alternative music show. With video and occasional performance links! (Though, this is undoubtedly the best set in history. Johnette 4-evs. Imma let you finish, but she's the most underrated rock vocalist of all time.)

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