humanity
Humanity topics include pieces on the real lives of chefs, professionals, amateurs, inspiring youth, influencers, and general feel good human stories in the Feast food sphere.
Thanksgiving Is Here
Happy Thanksgiving! As we gather around the table for another filling meal of turkey, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, rolls of all types, dessert pies, cranberry stuff, stuffing of all types, wine, juice, milk, water, cola's, mashed potatoes, Italian green beans, and brussels sprouts, we give thanks to the people who matter the most. Thanksgiving is a tradition that everyone celebrates and it's never the same if you don't make your own imprint or make new additions to your meals. My Mom passed our Thanksgiving traditions to me and I'm keeping those traditions alive by celebrating them. I will add new additions every year. Last year, I baked my own sweet potato casserole with fresh sweet potatoes, brown sugar, honey, and jet puffed marshmallows. It was a long process but in the end, it was worth the effort because it was so delicious. I have decided to try that recipe again for this years Thanksgiving. I haven't made my own sweet potato casserole and felt it would open new broad ideas. I have also started on baking my own pies for Thanksgiving. I've baked cherry pies, blueberry pies, pumpkin pies, and apple pies. Out of all them, we settled on my cherry pie with whipped cream. Every year, the recipe for my turkeys hardly changes. It remains the same, tastes the same, and is so juicy, you'd be surprised. No jabbing with injectors, no salt solution because if you inject with salt, salt dries out the meat, and using a pop up timers to determine if the bird is done. After all, you don't want a raw turkey. I also stuff the bird with a hearty filling stuffing mix and it tastes good. All my secrets come from the seasoning and what I use. I have a secret recipe for my birds and this secret recipe comes from my Mother. One part of this secret recipe comes from love. As much as I have to say that if you show love, it shows in all of your cooking. It shows you care. Without that love, your food shows it. If you're nervous and afraid, it shows. Organization plays a part of putting the entire meal together. I try to time it all together. For example, I sit the turkey in the sink, open it and clean it fully, taking out the giblets and the gravy packet. While the turkey drains out, I start with the stuffing, the celery, mushrooms, and other spices added to the stuffing. The timing is everything for a perfect thanksgiving meal without any rushing and missing steps. The mess that comes with it is usually not so bad if you keep up. I attempt to keep up with messes. I have to or I'll have no room to work. It's very hard to work in a small space for a kitchen, but it works out in the long run. My kitchen isn't updated for big family meals. This kitchen has no breakfast bar, no eat in dining, and one small counter top to work on. I have to keep the counter space clean while I work. As much as I would love to get a bigger space, I make it work as I often do. I don't feed a big family and a twelve to fifteen pound turkey is enough for two people. It may feed more, but I freeze some of the cooked turkey for later.
By Tracy Lawson7 years ago in Feast
Why I Bake
My legs tremble from the weight of the day's activities. My hands shake with exhaustion and overuse. My back slumps forward more than the old ghoul-ish curve will usually allow. My shoes have long been forsaken, but perhaps should have remained on, if only for a futile sense of support. And yet I stand.
By Preston Dildine7 years ago in Feast
How Food Saved My Life
I was a depressed, suicidal teenager. My mother died when I was two, and my father remarried when I was three. He married a woman who’s intentions were not pure. She put on a good face in front of my dad, but behind closed doors she was physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive. For years my dad had no clue. She tried sending me away to boarding school. Told me that she tried giving me up for adoption but none of my family wanted me. I later asked my family and they all said it was a lie. I wasn’t allowed to express my thoughts or feelings. I had to conform into the person she wanted me to be, and I did not like that person. My step mom was cold hearted, and didn’t care about anything that wasn’t her, or her biological children. I grew up thinking I was a no body. My life had no importance, because this is what I was told on the daily. If the person who was raising me didn’t even believe in me, who would? I was obviously nothing. I would never find happiness, or love. I was told over and over that I would never be somebody. I would never be loved. Even if I had the chance to be a mom, which the dad would probably leave me, my kids would hate me just for the simple fact of it’s me. I would never be pretty enough. Or smart enough. Or skinny enough. I, as a being, would never be enough. Hearing this from a young age is bad enough. But hearing it from the woman who chose to raise you is just unbearable. You believe it. Without even realizing it, you start to look at yourself in the mirror, and tell yourself you will never be good enough. You don’t deserve to live. You should just disappear. Do everyone a favor and just die. And then you get to the point where you attempt to kill yourself by swallowing all the pills you can find in your house. It doesn’t work, and you wake up puking, asking God for forgiveness and saying you won’t try it again if he gets you through the pain. But you do. You do try it again. Four more times that month. At this point you’re just begging for someone to notice you’re in pain. You’re waiting for someone to realize you are not ok. But instead, the only reaction you get is, “Wow, you’ve been getting sick a lot this month.” You want so bad just to blurt out everything, but you know once you do, you will either be laughed at, or sent away, and neither one of those is what you need. What you need is love. But for some reason love just doesn’t exist in that house. You cry yourself to sleep, you beg God not to let you wake up in the morning. You’re so exhausted from being told you’re of no importance in this world. I was so terrible at being alive I couldn’t even kill myself. So what did I do? I turned to, well you guessed it. Food. I needed to get out of my own head, my own thoughts. When you cook, you have a lot of things you have to bring into thought, so there isn’t much room for anything else except what you’re cooking. For example, something simple like spaghetti you still have to think about it. It takes 10 minutes for the water to boil. While that’s going on, I’ll brown the meat and season the sauce. By then the water will be ready. Throw the noodles in, and put the sauce on real low. They both will be ready at the same time. For me, cooking became my lifeline. It was seriously life or death. If I wasn’t cooking, I was thinking about how I wanted to die. Eventually I got the help I needed. Cooking at home turned into my first job. My first job turned into my career path. I now am 25, own a home, a vehicle, have two kids, a dog, and am looking to buy a boat. Not only did cooking help me through the rough times, it also helped me with the good times. I have amazing people in my life now. I get told every day by the love of my life, also the father of both of my beautiful children (who love me as much as I love them), that I am beautiful and perfect the way I am. I no longer feel like I am worthless. I am now a strong woman who believes in herself. I am also grateful for the bad childhood I had. Without it, I wouldn’t be the woman I am today. I am strong. I am beautiful. I am worth the breath I take. I am worth it. If it wasn’t for me cooking in my kitchen to get out of my own head at the age of 18, I would have missed all of this. Cooking saved my life. I mean that. If it wasn’t for cooking, I probably would have ended up finding a way to kill myself. Cooking is the reason I’m alive today.
By Brittany Giamanco7 years ago in Feast
The Making of a Semi-Successful, Kinda Okay Chef/Baker
Tiny chefs around the world at this exact moment are discovering their natural talent for cooking while others are making sure they just stay best friends with their microwave or delivery man. Every child has tried their hand at cooking with their mothers and fathers or even grandparents, a skill once learned can be a beautiful thing.
By Maya Seibold7 years ago in Feast
Farmers Market
It’s getting close to the end of the season for farmers markets but that doesn’t mean you should stop going. Going to farmers markets can be a fun activity you do every Saturday morning but it could be your way of life from now on. You’re probably wondering what I mean by that, well there are some markets that go on all year round, that’s right y’all farmers markets can go on all year. Now going there and getting fresh veggies, homemade breads, and other baked goods, flowers or even art could be a pass time but for the vender it is their way of life. It can be how they make all their money or just a way to get some extra cash, whatever it is, it’s a way to support the locals in the community. I’m all for supporting small businesses, they give you something that a corporate business doesn’t, passion. I myself have a small farm stand where I sell produce from on Saturday’s and a way of getting some extra cash. What I love most about it is telling my customers how much agriculture and serving the community means to me. We as humans find that if a business is passionate about what they do and who they do it for you dollar goes a lot further with that vegetable stand guy than the big box stores. That should make you feel better about the business you do with your local community, most people out at the farmers market are just trying to get by like the rest of us and if you’re loyal they will cut you a deal, especially if they are passionate. With that next time you are in town in a Saturday morning check to see if there is a farmers market and remember, local always taste better and makes the community happy too.
By Miranda Yearington8 years ago in Feast
Signs You're Dating a Foodie
The beginning of a new relationship is an exhilarating time as you and your date slowly learn more about each other, deciding whether you're truly compatible. It's during this time when certain suspicious details may come to light. Maybe they use words like "umami," or maybe they have a bunch of weird gadgets in their kitchen. Whatever provokes your suspicion, it's imperative for you to maintain vigilant for any other signs you're dating a foodie.
By Joseph D. N. Kendrick8 years ago in Feast
Restaurants That Recycle Food
With the way American food portions go, many restaurants used to just throw it away but there is a new movement now about restaurants giving away their food for free. A new app called Meal Connect leads to intercepting food that goes in the trash. Feeding America reaches the 42 million people in the United States that struggle to afford food for themselves. Low-income people like me count on food banks. I started using a food bank because I wanted to save money. It is something we low-income folks simply have to do. Feeding America has 200 food banks, and the application helps manage the steady flow of food from a restaurant to a person who can’t afford it.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Feast
Food Waste in the United States
What happens to all that restaurant food we do not eat? We waste it by throwing it away. What happens to food that expires in the grocery store? We also waste it. 15,000 tons of food is thrown away in households daily (The Guardian). A third of the daily calories Americans eat is wasted. The types of food thrown out the most are fruits and vegetables, followed by dairy and meat. We unnecessarily waste food. 30 million acres of land, 780 million pounds of pesticide, 4.2 tons of irrigated water. The thing is, according to this cited The Guardian article, rotting food clogs up landfills, releasing methane into the air, which is a greenhouse gas.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in Feast
Chef Life
Cooking. It can be fun. It can be hell. Like any job it’s really what you make of it. It’s not like what you see on Food Network. It’s not glamorous. People generally look down on you. Most know that it isn’t a good paying job. Hell, I’ve been doing it for 13 years and my wage has only went up five dollars since I first started on this sweaty, greasy, rage-filled, thankless road.
By Fisher King8 years ago in Feast
SKEP – Fruit Routes Summer 2018. Top Story - June 2018.
Fruit Routes, June 2018 at Loughborough University in the U.K., was three days of events created and curated by artists and food activists Anne-Marie Culhane & Paul Conneally around food systems, food production, eating together, growing, and climate change. Fruit Routes always has a feast built into it, sometimes more than one; this year it was a Wild Tea Party called 'In Your Hands' where foraged nettle and sage tea was drunk followed by tasseography, a reading of the tea leaves.
By Paul Conneally8 years ago in Feast
