Archive for January, 2012
I am Trying to Have a Better Attitude
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on January 18, 2012 – 1:01 pm -
about Sundance that is. I have made some “Sundance Resolutions” this year and they are as follows:
1. I will not run over the tops of any limos with my pickup
2. I will not try and incite the locals to harass the celebrities
3. I will not drive my diesel through town early in the morning and rev the engine to wake up all the late sleeping hungover celebs
4. I will not sulk in my house and refuse to come out for two weeks
5. I will take advantage of the “locals” ticket deals that Sundance offers to make up for the inconvenience of overtaking our little town for two weeks
6. I will go to a few viewings and smile and nod and attempt to be civil
7. I will buy some cool swag while I’m over there and give it away on my blog!
If you would like to enter the drawing for said cool swag, just leave a comment below!
xxoo,
RMW
This post is in honor of the letter “I” and part of Jenny Matlock’s Alphabet Thursday. For more ironic “I” posts please click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/
Posted in She Loves | 28 Comments »Food Security & Diabetes
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on January 16, 2012 – 1:52 pm -
She calls it “kid surfing”, Tiana Gaines explains to CNN correspondent Deborah Feyerick that there are days when she fixes food for her three children and then waits to eat her meal from whatever they leave on their plates. Food insecurity in America is at an all time high. Obesity is a direct cause of diabetes, so if America is hungrier than ever, shouldn’t diabetes be on the downswing? Diabetes, however, is being diagnosed at levels never seen before, especially among America’s poorest families living in urban areas.
One reason behind this phenomenon is that many poor urban households don’t have access to the kinds of foods that encourage health instead of disease. In an article on urban farming, Krishna Ramanujan states “More than half a million Chicagoans live with no grocery stores nearby” Grocery stores have abandoned the poorer urban areas of the country leaving them at the mercy of convenience stores that charge high prices for processed foods full of fat and calories. Most of these stores don’t even carry fresh produce or meats. You can buy an apple turnover, but not an apple. Eating enough apple turnovers can pretty much assure a person of becoming obese and perhaps even of developing diabetes.
The grocery store chains argue that the big box format they currently use just doesn’t work in cramped urban areas. There isn’t enough parking space and rampant crime means higher insurance rates that cut into already slim profit margins. Another argument is that poor people can’t afford and just aren’t interested in, high quality fresh food. Grocery stores are businesses, not charities. It isn’t reasonable to expect them to open in a location where they can’t make money. However, there are many mothers like Tiana who go to great lengths to feed their children, some of them working two jobs so they can put nutritious food on the table. The Hartmann Group concluded after studying trends in buying organic foods, that Latinos and African Americans (ethnic groups often found in some of the poorest neighborhoods) were actually more likely than Caucasians to be in a core group of regular buyers of organic food given the opportunity to do so.
What about personal responsibility? Even with access to healthy food, some families would still subsist on potato chips and cola. Shouldn’t people be held responsible for their own choices? I think there is a great deal of merit to this argument. If there was more demand, the markets would find a way to fill it. It does, however, take a motivated, strong individual to walk past several fast food restaurants to catch a bus to a market miles away, tote the food back home and then prepare it for her children. The odds are better that these children will get a healthier diet if a grocery store is closer. When you add the burden of perhaps working more than one job and the overwhelming exhaustion many of these young women deal with just to survive, it would take a very strong individual indeed. I’m not sure I would be strong enough. Would you?
Simply put, families that live with extreme food insecurity tend to eat the least expensive food they have access to. Typically the cheapest food available to poor urban families who live miles away from a grocery store, many of whom don’t own a
car, is fast food. My point is that they shouldn’t have to go to such herculean efforts just to put a plate of fresh green beans on the table for their children. We spend millions of dollars treating diabetes. According to an article in the Palm Beach Post, “At least 1 out of 8 federal dollars spent on providing health care go to treat diabetes and its complications” Certainly we can channel a few of those dollars to help prevent diabetes instead of just treating it.
Grass roots organizations in some large cities have put together a mixture of public assistance and private funds to entice grocery stores back to the inner city with some success. My home state of Pennsylvania, with help from a community investment organization, has made a commitment to help close the food gap in rural and urban Pennsylvania with impressive results. The City of Hartford, Connecticut has developed a wide range of initiatives to help give the urban poor better access to healthy food.
All of these programs are helpful, but I believe that some of these nonprofit community support groups should shift their focus away from enticing supermarket chains back into the inner city and spend their limited resources creating and supporting new solutions to the problem. For example, subsidies to develop a system of “mom and pop” type stores that carry fresh produce and meats, catering to the tastes and needs of the local population. Instead of handing out food stamps to be used at convenience stores, vouchers to buy food at farmers’ markets could benefit both the consumer and the farmer. Community gardens where people grow their own food can actually transform a neighborhood of diverse people into a community with a common goal of feeding itself.
The ability to access fresh healthy food should be a right, not a privilege. We have a common human bond in our desire to feed our families well and live healthy lives. No parent should be forced to feed their children a diet that practically guarantees them a shortened life span spent battling diabetes.
Posted in She Loves | 4 Comments »HOMEMADE POTATO CHIPS
Written by Rocky Mountain Woman on January 11, 2012 – 1:02 pm -
Umm…yeah…these seriously rock..
Start by slicing a whole lot of potatoes in a food processor. You can do it by hand, but you are going to want A LOT of sliced potatoes…
Rinse the slices thoroughly with cold water then let drain and pat dry with paper towels
Heat oil in a deep fryer or in a dutch oven to 350 degrees
Cook the potatoes in batches until brown and crispy
and then remove with a spoon and place on paper towels to drain
sprinkle with Kosher salt while they are still warm and greasy
slice a bunch of green onions
spread the green onions and a whole lotta crumbled blue cheese over the still warm potatoes
Did I mention that these are seriously good/bad? oh yeah…
Print This Recipe
This post is in honor of the letter “H” and part of Jenny Matlock’s Alphabet Thursday. For more hip “h” posts, please click here http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/
Tags: AppetizersPosted in She Cooks | 33 Comments »
