I decided to just write about my latest dish instead of using an article.  I made the yummiest home made Lasagna on Sunday night.  It was a home made meat sauce with peppers, onions, mushrooms, garlic, beef, pepperoni and fresh tomatoes.  I cooked the noodles and added fresh motz cheese, the sauce, ricotta and baked it for like an hour.  It was sooooooooo good!  Everyone loved it.  I invited my cousin and his gril friend over and made fresh home made garlic bread with it.  It was a big hit!

Jennifer
Bartlett

English 11

Holly Pappas

Ethnography

Farmer’s
Market

            I did my Ethnography on the Farmer’s Market.  I went to one and observed what it was that
they do there.  It is mostly local
farmers selling their produce.  They had
fruits, vegetables, homemade breads, homemade pies, freshly squeezed beverages,
and things to that idea.  They were all
set up at their own little booths with all their own products.  It was quite amazing.  I loved it.

I guess I mean it’s good to know that there are still
some real people in this world still trying to survive, or live off the land if
you will.  I found it very spiritual and
enlightening.  I loved going there and
just watching it all un-fold.

I actually went and talked to a few of the farmers.  Most of them were all local from around the
area.  I told them I was doing a report
for school and they were happy to cooperate with me and share a few words.  One woman actually told me the farm she runs
now she grew up on.  It was her great
grandfathers, then her fathers, now she runs it.  I thought that was amazing.  She looked very proud to tell me her
story.   I enjoyed visiting the farmers
market.  It was very interesting.

Another farmer told me that it was his father’s dream of
being a farmer.  His father never got to
do it, so he played out the dream for him.
His father was actually there with him and looked so very proud of his
son.  Very touching stories came from
this experience.

The general social group of the farmer’s market was older
males and females.  It was cute to see
all the older people walking around, buying their produce, and chatting amongst
themselves talking about their families and grandchildren.  It was a great experience.  I saw something you don’t see every day in
society.  It was inspirational.

Farming is a great way to live if you’re into living like
the old days.  I thought it was
awesome.  The famers market I visited was
last year when all the fresh produce was ready to be sold.  I also visited a local farmer in
Lakeville.  He loves farming.  He was also telling me he wants to buy a farm
in upstate New York somewhere and do it there to.  He said he enjoys living off the land.

I enjoy talking to these people and I also enjoy the
fresh produce.  I love to cook with them,
they taste so much better.  I visit a
farmers market every year when it’s time for the produce to be sold to the
public.  They still hold one in
Middleboro, Ma every year.  You do
actually see other young people, like me.
I like seeing young people experiencing something so old-fashioned such
as a farmers market.  I think it’s a great
experience for young people.  I think
it’s a hoot to see them interact with the older people as well.

I think the younger generation should be more involved in
something as simple as a farmers market.
It is part of the everyday world and it’s refreshing.  Young people should experience things such as
this.

It is interesting to me how these people live on a year
to year basis.  Everything they have goes
into their crops and farm.  Without their
farm they have nothing.  So without
people like us buying their products they would have nothing.  It’s sad in a way but meaningful.  To end I would simply like to say support
your local farmers!

My theme is about food.  To begin my memoir I would like to simply say I love food.  I love everything about it.  I love to cook it, I love to eat it, I love to share it.  I like to find new recipe of food from different cultures and countries and make it.  I think food is so interesting.

I got very interested in food because growing up my parents were kind of poor.  I have a brother and a sister.  Then there wasn’t as much money as there is now a days.  My mom isn’t the best cook either.  She always cooked something edible, but it never had very much flavor.  I’m not trying to sound mean or ungreatful at all.  My parents did the best they could with what they had and I loved my childhood.  My point is I come from a family that doesn’t have a cooking background.  An example would be Italian or Portugese.  They have food backgrounds.  My grandparents aren’t very skilled in the cooking area either.  We are french canadian, but not cooking french.  I always said when I grew up and moved into my own place that I would teach myself how to cook great food of all kinds.  That is just what I did.  Some of the good food I have cooked would be:  home made mac n’ cheese, home made french onion salisbury steak with a red wine suace, home made stuffed pepper soup (that is my moms favorite, she asks me to make it all the time), home made alfredo.  I do everything home made.  Another thing I do that my family loves is pumpkin breads.  Everyone in my family gives me their pumpkins after Halloween.  I cut up all the pumpkins and boil them.  Then I seperate them into freezer bags and make everyone home made pumpkin breads for thanksgiving and christmas gifts.  Its all done from scratch and its delicious.

I love cooking.  It’s kind of funny.  My friends will come accross a great recipe and they will give it to me to make and we will all be the guinea pigs.  I love it.  I’m the chef in my circle of friends.  I am also the family chef.  Everytime we have a family gathering or holiday party I am the one they come to.  I take much pride in it as well.  I guess you could say cooking was a goal for me that I have achieved.  I was going to come to college to be a chef.  I almost took cullinary.  I changed my mind and decided to do nursing because if I had to cook everyday for work it wouldn’t be fun anymore.  I like to keep business and pleasure seperate, if you will.

When my mother cooked her spices consisted of salt and pepper and that was it.  My grandmother was even worse.  I remember this one time grandma made a beef stew.  She was all happy about it and I tried it and it was terrible.  It tasted like water and it looked like water.  I ate it anyway and told her that it was good to avoid hurting her feelings.  There was another time, I think it was christmas.  She made a chocolate cream pie.  It was terrible.  The chocolate was chunky, like a film was across the top and she mixed it all in.  I feel bad because she tries, she just doesn’t have it.

There was a time when my mom tried to cook stuffed peppers.  They came out so hard.  The peppers and the rice.  I learnt from her experience.   So the next day I made them at home and I brought them to her because they are her favorite.  She was very greatful.  I boiled the peppers first for about 5 minutes.  After I stuffed them I put them in a pan to bake them in the oven.  I added a little water to the bottom of the pan to gaurentee they would be soft, and it worked.   I cook for my parents as much as possible.  I only live two houses down from them so I am a constant visitor and chef for them.  I know they love it.  They took care of me for all of those years and now it’s my turn to take care of them.  They were always there for me and now me for them.

We have a very close knit family and now we have a chef to finish that off.  They love when I cook and that makes me feel so good.  Every year we have a family reunion that I cook many dishes for.  Every year the dishes are different.  I also cook for the holidays in my family.  Whether it be turkey or ham or pies.  I always get a phone call from whomever is hosting the holiday dinner to cook things.  This past thanksgiving my sister hosted it because her and her husband got a new house.  she called me and I was there very early to help her with everything.  I didn’t mind because I love cooking so much.   I enjoy cooking for everyone.  It’s one of my favorite things to do.  I get great joy and pleasure out of cooking.  It’s wonderful!  I couldn’t ask for a better or more supportive family.  I love them dearly.

http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/national-geographic-magazine-love-and-lies/

This article is by Michael Pollen as well.  I like his writing that is why I always read his articles.  This particular article, “love and lies”, is about how we use vegetables and such words to describe humans.  It is also about all different kinds of Orchids and what they do.  I found this very interesting because Orchids are one of my favorite flowers.  I have an ice orchid plant.  You put 3 ice cubes on it once a week.  It is very fascinating looking.  My 8 year old daughter said they look kind of scary.  They look like they have teeth.  I love them.

This particular article just goes through the different types of orchids and what they do.  Whether they lure insects in or shelter certain insects or what have you.  The orchid is a flower of seduction in a way, not only to insects, but to humans as well.  There is something about the flower that is exotic and draws us in.  They are a beautiful and mysterious flower.  They also talk about Darwins theory.

http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/michael-pollan-answers-readers-questions/

This was actually an article about frequently asked questions that people have about food.  It is interesting how people think and to read about their questions.  They were pretty logical questions and I think Michael Pollan once again came through with very good answers.  He seems to know quite a bit about food.  Very knowledgable.  I agree with pretty much everything hes said so far.  All of the articles are by him.  I find him interesting and on my level of thinking.

I was also thinking of posting what I made this week that was a new recipe.

This week was home made mac n’ cheese.  It came out fabulous.  I made up my own recipe to.  I didn’t copy anyones recipe.  I enjoy that once in a while to.  I like making my own recipes and winging it.

My theme is about food.  To begin my memoir I would like to simply say I love food.  I love everything about it.  I love to cook it, I love to eat it, I love to share it.  I like to find new recipe of food from different cultures and countries and make it.  I think food is so interesting.

I got very interested in food because growing up my parents were kind of poor.  I have a brother and a sister.  Then there wasn’t as much money as there is now a days.  My mom isn’t the best cook either.  She always cooked something edible, but it never had very much flavor.  I’m not trying to sound mean or ungreatful at all.  My parents did the best they could with what they had and I loved my childhood.  My point is I come from a family that doesn’t have a cooking background.  An example would be Italian or Portugese.  They have food backgrounds.  My grandparents aren’t very skilled in the cooking area either.  We are french canadian, but not cooking french.  I always said when I grew up and moved into my own place that I would teach myself how to cook great food of all kinds.  That is just what I did.

I love cooking.  It’s kind of funny.  My friends will come accross a great recipe and they will give it to me to make and we will all be the guinea pigs.  I love it.  I’m the chef in my circle of friends.  I am also the family chef.  Everytime we have a family gathering or holiday party I am the one they come to.  I take much pride in it as well.  I guess you could say cooking was a goal for me that I have achieved.  I was going to come to college to be a chef.  I almost took cullinary.  I changed my mind and decided to do nursing because if I had to cook everyday for work it wouldn’t be fun anymore.  I like to keep business and pleasure seperate, if you will.

When my mother cooked her spices consisted of salt and pepper and that was it.  My grandmother was even worse.  I remember this one time grandma made a beef stew.  She was all happy about it and I tried it and it was terrible.  It tasted like water and it looked like water.  I ate it anyway and told her that it was good to avoid hurting her feelings.  There was another time, I think it was christmas.  She made a chocolate cream pie.  It was terrible.  The chocolate was chunky, like a film was across the top and she mixed it all in.  I feel bad because she tries, she just doesn’t have it.

There was a time when my mom tried to cook stuffed peppers.  They came out so hard.  The peppers and the rice.  So the next day I made them at home and I brought them to her because they are her favorite.  She was very greatful.  I cook for my parents as much as possible.  I only live two houses down from them so I am a constant visitor and chef for them.  I know they love it.  They took care of me for all of those years and now it’s my turn to take care of them.  They were always there for me and now me for them.

We have a very close knit family and now we have a chef to finish that off.  They love when I cook and that makes me feel so good.  I enjoy cooking for everyone.  It’s one of my favorite things to do.  I get great joy and pleasure out of cooking.  It’s wonderful!

http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/out-of-the-kitchen-onto-the-couch/

I read Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch, by Michael Pollen.  I thought this article was very interesting.  He talks about Julia childs.  I think she is one of the most interesting and funny chef’s ever.  I Love her.  I also loved the movie that they made that he talks about.  He talks all about her throughout the whole article.  He talks about how he used to watch her all the time as a child.  He talks about her features and television show.

One of the things he brought up is how her show was cancelled.  He mentioned that the reason that they cancelled her was because she always appeared drunk.  I for one have seen her show and her movie and agree.  She did appear drunk most of the time, but I still think she was a great chef and I won’t penalize her for her drinking.  I think a lot of her drinking had to do with the age she was in.  I mean a woman being on television and being famous in that day in time was not ordinary.  I enjoyed this article very much and learned a lot more about one of my favorite chefs.

http://michaelpollan.com/articles-archive/rules-to-eat-by/

I read Michael Pollen’s article Rules to eat by.  In this article he talks about some of the new products on the market, such as Splenda with Fiber.  Do we actually need this, or is it just a way to get us to spend more money?  He also talks about how we decide what to eat.  How marketing pretty much lies to the general public.  How they all say 0 trans fat, or check mark for eating smart and how we can’t believe what they tell us.  He states “how did humans decide what to eat or stay healthy before we had nutritionists?”  I think thats an excellent question.  Obviously we did pretty well before all of these technical gurus came along.  I also think obesity is way worse now than it was then.  He also goes on to talk about how different cultures have different eating habbits.  I think he makes some excellent points about how we can’t really trust all of these social hungry nutritionists.  We have made it this far without listening to them, well some of us have.  Society is a bunch of followers.  It’s almost like they can’t think for themselves.  They feel the need to listen to what people tell them to eat instead of what they feel in general.  I think that to a certain extent we need to eat some of the things they tell us to.  I also think its common sense.  People should know that they can’t eat McDonalds everyday or Burger King.  Also they can’t eat just fruits all day everyday because of the acid.  Like I said a lot of it is common sense.  People need to realize that they don’t need to always listen to nutritionists.  They need to think for themselves.  Michael Pollen makes a lot of these great points in this article.  I like this article, I think it was very well written.

http://www.thediabetesclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/food_pyramid.jpg

I decided to start off my blog posts for the semester with the food pyramid.  This breaks down all the foods into categories.  You have to start somewhere.  I decided to post just a picture first instead of an article because this is the beginning.  Logos, Ethos, and Pathos doesn’t completely apply to this because it is not an article.  This picture shows all the different food groups such as:  Fats, oils, sweets, milk, yogurt, cheese, meats, poultry, fish, dry beans, nuts, fruits, veggies, breads, cereals, and pasta.  They are broken down into groups and it tells you how many servings you should eat a day.

This is based on a healthy everyday intake of these food groups.  It is very important to get the proper healthy nutrition your body needs on a daily basis.  Most people do not eat well.  They blame it on stress or busy lifestyles.  No one understands business and stress more than me.  I am a full time student, house wife, mother, and I work.  I do not always eat the way I should, but I try my hardest to get a good intake of a few food groups a day.  That is with the acception of the bread, cereal, and pasta group because I have celiac as I stated in my theme blog.

Celiac is a disease where wheat is recognized as a foreign object in my body.  It’s tough to eat gluten free but I have to do it.

My theme is going to be food.  I enjoy cooking very much.  I am constantly  looking up new recipes and cooking new things.  All from different cultures and countries.  I also just recently just found out that I have celiac disease.  This is a disease where you are allergic to wheat.  I am supposed to eat gluten free.  This class will give me a chance to find new recipes and research more about it.  I was just diagnosed with it about a month or two ago.  It will also help my mother and my sister because they also have it.  I finally starting to get this whole blogging thing so heres to a hopefully great semester.