http://www.bonappetit.com/blogsandforums/blogs/badaily/2013/02/google-employee-cafeteria-food.html
1. Display healthy foods front and center
When you walk into many Google cafeterias, the first thing you pass is
the vibrant salad bar. The idea is that if you fill your plate with
produce, you'll go lighter on everything else. In the company's
snack-filled micro-kitchens, bottled water and grab-and-go fruits take
center stage in clear refrigerators. Nuts and dried fruits are displayed
in glass containers at eye level, so you see the good stuff before the
Cheetos craving takes hold. It's just as easy to give produce
prominence at home: Keep a stocked fruit bowl on your kitchen table, and
liberate vegetables from the crisper (ever notice how you magically
forget about the green beans until they've gone bad?). Instead, give
them prime placement in your fridge or on your counter.
2. Hide the bad stuff
On the flip side, keep indulgences where you can't see them. At Google,
that means relegating soda to the lowest shelf of the refrigerator
behind frosted glass, and storing candy in covered, opaque containers
and bags of potato chips in drawers. Once Google stashed away the
unhealthy snacks, employees' fat consumption from candy dropped an
impressive 11 percent.
3. Scale down your servingware
Research has shown that smaller plates promote decreased food intake. So
Google cafeterias now offer nine-inch plates in addition to their
traditional 10 1/2-inch versions. They also replaced giant serving
spoons with more modest ones. At home, try using salad plates for main
courses, swapping in smaller bowls for cereal or pasta, and downsizing
serving utensils. Choose the smallest possible packages or bottles of
chips, candies, and soda--we all know how easy it is to polish off
whatever's in front of you.
4. Create food categories
Every dish in the cafeterias is identified with a color-coded label that
indicates the food's healthful-ness. Taking cues from a traffic light,
"green" options such as minimally processed fruits, vegetables, and
whole grains can be eaten in large quantities; "yellow" foods like lean
proteins should be eaten in moderation; and "red" foods-- heavily
processed or high in fat or sugar--should be eaten sparingly.
Color-coding at home is unrealistic, but organizing your pantry to
create similar categories is a visual reminder of smart food choices.
For instance, keep quinoa and barley in one cabinet and white pasta in
another.
The technique has proved effective: When researchers at Massachusetts
General Hospital used a similar labeling approach in their cafeteria,
employees ate 11 percent fewer "red" foods and nearly 7 percent more
"green" dishes almost immediately.
5. Compromise on comfort foods
Even beautiful greens at the salad bar won't forever curb a passion for
pizza. So the Google chefs make simple swaps in some of their
crowd-pleasers, offering turkey burritos instead of beef and thickening
gravies with puréed vegetables rather than roux.
6. Weigh In
Technically Google's cafeterias also qualify as all-you-can-eat buffets,
and as anyone who's ever grabbed six slices of bacon knows, it can be
nearly impossible to gauge how much you're really eating. To address
this, Google installed kitchen scales within the New York cafeterias so
employees can keep track of what they're piling on. Use the scale at the
check- out counter at your cafeteria, or get one for your home. (It
comes in handy for baking, too.) Everyone's different, but you need
less than you probably think: A three-ounce portion of protein is a
good guideline.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Smoking Points
After a quick little research, here are some of the most common cooking lipid smoking points.
| Fat | Smoke Point | Quality |
| Avocado oil | 520°F | Refined |
| Safflower oil | 510°F | Refined |
| Mustard oil | 489°F | |
| Ghee | 485°F | |
| Olive oil | 468°F | Extra light |
| Soybean oil | 460°F | Refined |
| Coconut oil | 450°F | Refined |
| Corn oil | 450°F | Refined |
| Peanut oil | 450°F | Refined |
| Sesame oil | 450°F | Semirefined |
| Sunflower oil | 440°F | Refined |
| Hazelnut oil | 430°F | |
| Almond oil | 420°F | |
| Grapeseed oil | 420°F | |
| Macadamia oil | 413°F | |
| Olive oil, high quality | 405°F | Extra virgin |
| Canola oil | 400°F | Refined |
| Walnut oil | 400°F | Semirefined |
| Castor oil | 392°F | Refined |
| Avocado oil | 375-400°F | Un-Refined, Virgin |
| Lard | 370°F | |
| Vegetable shortening | 360°F | |
| Corn oil | 352°F | Unrefined |
| Coconut oil | 350°F | Extra Virgin (Unrefined) |
| Safflower oil | 320°F | Semirefined |
| Butter | 250–300°F |
Cast Ironed Steak Tips
Not that any of us need to perfect our steak cooking, but a couple of good points come out of this video. One thing I learned is that beef has it's mildest flavor when it's raw - it makes sense, I've just never thought about it before.
Also, he uses Grapeseed oil, which I know has a super high smoke point.
Cooking a Steak Right
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Soda Bread
Recipe: Skillet Irish Soda Bread Served With Cheddar and Apples
Time: 1 1/2 hoursButter for greasing pan plus 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
2 eggs, well beaten
1 1/2 cups raisins or currants
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
Good aged Cheddar cheese, for serving
Tart apples, cut into slices, for serving.
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-inch oven-proof skillet and line with parchment or waxed paper.
2. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, eggs and 2 tablespoons melted butter. Add wet ingredients to dry and stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Stir in the raisins or currants and caraway seeds.
3. Pour batter into skillet. Brush top with remaining butter. Bake until golden and firm to touch, about 1 hour. Cool 10 minutes before slicing and serving with Cheddar and apples.
Yield: 1 10-inch loaf.
Soda Bread Recipe
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