My Brief Beef with Beef

I LOVE hamburgers.  I will probably never stop eating them (in moderation…sometimes in excess).  I don’t feel bad for the little cows that go off to slaughter, and I definitely don’t care if they mixed up crappy parts of the cow and mixed it in with the good stuff.  Burger is totally delicious.

However, I have a huge problem with the public and personal safety that has recently come into question with beef.  Let me fill you in on the reasons I’m contemplating greatly reducing or eliminating dining out on burgers…
Japan has been rejecting our beef for years because of Mad Cow Disease.  Mneh?  I find this to be a rare concern for the time being, but Mexico has recently rejected US beef as well!  MEXICO?!  Home of montezuma’s revenge?!

This is greatly disturbing to me.  I realize checking for safe levels of toxins in foods costs a lot of money, but perhaps health care costs would go down if we made a little effort in food safety.  Right?

It’s not all darkness and horror folks, Mark Bittman has a solution to e-coli and other health concerns!  While this is a bit excessive (I’m all about a quick burger), I might attempt to ease into my own burger making.  For the time being, I’ll be ordering whole cuts of meat.  Damn.

-M

Do good.

Tonight I went out to dinner with some close friends…much needed.  We were discussing this year’s Dine Out For Life on April 29th.  A group of restaurants in the Twin Cities donate a portion of their profits to fighting AIDS for one night of the year.  I happened to have a brochure with me and we noticed Sven Sundgaard was the poster child!!  Sven, the weatherman for Kare 11!

As we were walking out, guess who was walking in…SVEN!!!!

Believe it people.

-M

Current Events

Hello,

I am the type of person who likes to stay fairly aware of current events and the goings-on in the world.  However, there are chunks of time where I give up on humanity and focus my efforts inward, completely ignoring my surroundings.  The past 4 months (approximately) has been the “avoid-all-news” type of time period.  I mean, I still perused the NYTimes for headlines, but I really haven’t put much effort into making myself up to speed.

Anyway, last night I had a mindless project and decided to flip on NPR.  I got sucked into stories and news for the next THREE HOURS!  What?  Me?  I frequently tell my boyfriend that he is a grandpa because he has switched from music to NPR on his commutes to work…and now I am one of THEM.  sick.

I guess the switch for me was inevitable because I already listen to approximately 6 hours of The Current each day.  But now I can tell you all of the details of the health care bill, playground coaches, and the intimate details of last year’s famous pirate raid/US Navy takedown.  Impressive, sad, or necessary?  You be the judge.

-M

Bitten

So I knew that there was a food and wine section in the NYT. I also knew that there was a section totally devoted to blogs. But I had never put two and two together and realized that Mark Bittman is the awesomest dude with the awesomest blog and the awesomest recipes. Fun fun fun!

My current favorite “foodie” blogs are:
(caveat: I say “foodie” with quotation marks because these people tend to not eat anything resembling real food. Mostly I visit these sites because they are ridiculous, but I secretly get inspired to be a skinny person)
KERF
Carrots ‘N’ Cake
Food, Fitness, Fashion
I thought I would share these just for giggles. For my real foodie sites, check out “The Internets” section.

Know of any other awesome NYTimes blogs? I need some fuel for my addiction to the New York Times.

-M