Donuts and I have an amazing history; our history reaches back as far as the 6^th grade. Every day from the 6^th to the 12^th grade I travelled 1.5 miles early morning to get the fresh batch of donuts. I knew early that there was something about the great taste of these dough made tasty goods. There was something magical that happened when I had a donut, the sweet and flaky tasty good had made an impact on me at an early age and right there that moment I became hooked. If there was a little rain, no problem I will catch the bus. I think it was safe to say I had an early on obsession with thing people call the donut. Krispy Kreme doughnuts were introduced to me at a young age and ever since I had those donuts I have always had a really good liking for them. I decided to share with the class these specific donuts because donuts are a food that makes me feel happy, or better yet something that I can look forward to at the start of end of each day.

Krispy Kreme was founded in Winston Salem North Carolina on July 13, 1937 by a man named Vernon Rudolph. It all ordinated in Paducah Kentucky with an 18 year boy named Vernon Rudolph and his uncle Ishmael Armstrong who owned a local small general store. During the great depression many businesses were closed down and many people were out of work. Unfortunately Vernon and his uncle Ishmael decided to move to Nashville Tennessee where they created “the Krispy Kreme donut company” and they did extremely well, and young Vernon eventually took off and ended up in North Carolina where the current Krispy Kreme headquarters are. I think it is interesting how one man’s vision and passion turned into one of the top doughnuts chains around the world. I admire the adversity that Vernon and his uncle had to overcome, moving not knowing how well the new business would do that took a chance, and because of that chance people all over the world can share his thoughts and feel his passion through these sweet tasty goods. The best part of these doughnuts are the fact that you can buy them hot fresh out the oven when the light is on. Hot Krispy Kreme doughnuts are the best things since sliced bread. Grateful that I was able to share a part of me through the expression of the types of foods I like to eat, it’s very powerful when you can relate to someone and not necessarily know too much able them. Food is everything.

Hope Buhl

Food & Culture

Dr. Annemarie Perez

12/13/2016

Food Presentation:

Dirty Rice-Vegan Style

My dirty rice dish is a recipe that always brings back childhood memories when I prepare it. My childhood was very humble but it was also full of love and great food. I am the youngest of six children whom my Mother raised and because there were so many mouths to feed my Mother always had to be creative to make food last and also to create what we thought were these grand dishes but really it was just my Mother being creative to make ends meet. This dish has always been unique to me because it was different every time and every time my Mother made it, it was delicious. The reason it was different every time was because my Mother would always cook dirty rice when our food got low and so she would use the ingredients that we had in the fridge and cabinet and she would create a master piece out of nothing.

I now prepare the many variations of this dish for my daughter and my family. It is the only dish that I have come to master; my family loves it and often request for me to make it for them. I love to make it for breakfast for my daughter because it’s quick and tasty. I scramble eggs, cheese, white onion, green onion, sausage salt, pepper and rice and she just loves it. I also make a soup out of this by preparing my own broth with tomato paste, water or vegetable stock and seasonings and just add the rice (a photo of this is attached and you can see how red and thick the sauce is).

Now that I have become a working Mom myself, I realize that rice is actually “a saving grace staple food” and what I mean by that is that rice is one of the most inexpensive foods and being that it is so cheap it keeps many bellies full across the world without breaking the bank. It made me emotional writing this paper because as a single working Mother myself of one child, I realized how hard it must have been for my Mother to have to feed six children and at the time and three grandchildren was also added to our family. I couldn’t even imagine having to do that on the income she had. So when I think of it I am both sad and proud of my Mother for having the strength and courage to even attempt such a great task. I am sad because I know it must have been very difficult for her and I can remember that a lot of the times all we had was rice and she would prepare a “sweet rice”, which was boiled and she would add sugar, butter, salt and pepper and it was just devine!

Rice is a staple food around the world and I thought it was so beautiful to research and experience the way people around the world enjoys rice as I did when I was younger and as I continue to enjoy.

Vegan Dirty Rice:

Ingredients:

• Jasmine rice (brand-Goya 2 cups)
• Pinapple (1 can of dole chopped)
• Serrano peppers (5 sliced)
• Garlic-fresh (half clove)
• Onion (1 white finely chopped)
• Parsley (half cup) mix at the end of preparation.
• Green onion (half stalk) chop finely
• Broccoli florets (fresh stalk 2) chop small
• Veggie bouillon, chicken bouillon or tomato bouillon for flavor and taste (2 table spoons)
• Grape seed oil (4 table spoons)
• Garlic powder (1 tablespoon)

Preparations:

• Cook two cups of Goya Jasmine rice in a medium sized pot with two cups of water and two cups of rice: I cook it until it is almost done because you don’t want it to be mushy when you fry it at the end. Set the rice aside while you prepare the other ingredients.
• Chop onion, garlic, green onion and broccoli florets add to a few tablespoons of grape seed oil and sauté until tender and golden.
• Sauté the Serrano peppers in separate skillet with a tea spoon of grape seed oil until golden or until your desired texture.
• In the same skillet you just sautéed the Serrano peppers in add six tablespoons of grape seed oil and add in the rice and veggies
• As you mix in all the rice and veggies, add the 2 table spoons of the bouillon of your choice and also add in the 1 table spoon of garlic powder
• Add in the parsley (half cup and mix in).
• Mix really well so that all the veggies and seasonings are mixed evenly throughout the rice.

Enjoy!

Jambalaya: “The word is said to be a compound word of Jambon from the French meaning ham, and Aya meaning rice in Africa, as there were many slaves in the Louisiana at the time. Common belief is that it originated from the Spanish Paella, which has also transformed in the United States to a dish called Spanish rice.” (Kitchen Project)  Although the exact origins of the dish are not known for sure, the most commonly held belief is that it was the result of a variety of ethnicities mixing in the port of New Orleans.  Stanley Dry noted that the earliest known recipes were found in two cookbooks from the city published in 1885. Unfortunately it was not common for cooks to add a place and date to recipes during this era, so it is impossible to know if any pre-dated these recipes. (Veetee Blog UK)

New Orleans is famous for many different one-pot meals such as etouffee and gumbo; and jambalaya is one of the main ones that come to mine.  It is primarily a rice dish with a variety of smoked meats, (ham, chicken, sausage and seafood) seasonings and spices usually to the liking of the one preparing the dish.  Some versions of the recipe for jambalaya have even used boar, turkey, venison, oysters, duck and alligator.  It was created by those living in the Creole and Cajun regions of Louisiana with a variety of versions based on the region.  The region also played a part in the color of the jambalaya where the Creoles made it with a red hue and Cajuns would have a brown-earthy color. There can be as many versions of Jambalaya as there are cooks that prepare it.  Jambalaya like gumbo came about through necessity of having something to eat.  Whatever ingredient was readily available for a meal it was thrown in the pot and became jambalaya in this instance?  Many living in the lower bayou areas used game from those waters.

To get simple idea of what it takes to make the basic recipe for jambalaya it starts with a cast-iron pot, the tool of choice for most cooks preparing this dish.  “We don’t know when cast-iron was first used, but it has held a revered place in household kitchens for centuries” especially for a one-pot meal like jambalaya. (Hobby Farms Johnson)   The “trinity” stock was prepared which are celery, onion and bell pepper.  The choice of meat for the jambalaya is prepared and lastly the rice is added.

Jambalaya today is still a favorite in the state of Louisiana and a big part of family and social gatherings.  There are annual contests, cook-offs and a festival in many parts of Louisiana celebrating this dish.  The festival is held in the city of Gonzales, which was proclaimed as the “Jambalaya capital of the world” by the governor of the state in 1968.  This cheap, filling and delicious dish called Jambalaya is a unique and uniting dish that is likely to be enjoyed by generations to come. (Veetee)

In my house jambalaya is a happy dish, a dish that is not on the table every week like chicken and mashed potatoes.  Jambalaya is a dish that is rarely made, maybe 3 or 4 times per year if that.  I like preparing it for house parties.  If you told folks you were preparing jambalaya or gumbo you can guarantee that they would show up for the party.  So with all that said I hope that after tasting jambalaya it will make its way into your homes and kitchen tables. Enjoy!

                                                     Champurrado

Ibarra is a Mexican chocolate produced by the company Chocolatera de Jalisco of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. This Mexican chocolate company produces several other chocolate products however, they are known throughout international markets for their famous Ibarra table chocolate. The Ibarra chocolate is about ½ inches thick and 3 ¼ inches in diameter it is shaped in a circle and molded into 8 pieces. This chocolate contains cinnamon flavoring, cocoa liquor (not cocoa butter), vegetable fat, sugar, and soy lecithin. It is typically used to make hot cocoa in a traditional Mexican form. To prepare a cup of Ibarra hot cocoa one needs two pieces of Ibarra chocolate, milk or water.

For example, my grandmother has cooked with this particular chocolate, Ibarra, for years. She does tend to make the traditional Mexican hot cocoa, but she has learned to make another type of traditional drink that goes by the name of Champurrado. This chocolate beverage taste similar to hot cocoa, however it has several other ingredients. My grandmother’s champurrado recipe contains milk, water, cinnamon, Ibarra chocolate, evaporated milk, sugar, flour, and vanilla. One can add alcohol if desired, but my grandmother never has added alcohol to her champurrado.

The chocolate based atole, champurrado, connects me to my childhood in so many ways. For one, my grandmother whom I adore is the only one who knows how to make this chocolate beverage. As a child, I always looked forward to the Holidays because it was the only time I got to taste my grandmother’s delicious champurrado. In fact, it was my favorite thing to drink served alongside my spicy chicken tamales. Not only did it the hot cup of champurrado keep my hands warm, but it kept me warm inside. I recall sitting around the fire, trying to stay warm on a cold Christmas night, with my family sharing a cup hot cup of champurrado. We sat around the fire for hours reminiscing and sharing wonderful thoughts and laughter’s. The following morning we would wake and warm-up the leftover champurrado and serve it again with tamales. A simple breakfast, yet my favorite childhood dish.

Unfortunately, I no longer have much connection to this traditional drink. My family doesn’t come together like we use to in the past therefore, my grandmother doesn’t make champurrado anymore. It is rare when I have a cup of champurrado. If I want to have a cup of champurrado I have to ask my grandmother to make me a personal batch. I have tried my friend’s mother champurrado and it just doesn’t taste the same as my grandmothers. Champurrado can be a challenging recipe to master. For one thing, one can over cook the flour which can cause the champurrado to harden once it cools. An instant mix for champurrado is actually sold in Mexican grocery stores but of course it doesn’t taste anywhere near by grandmothers delightful champurrado.  My grandmother’s Champurrado will always take me back to my childhood years where my family was happy and complete during the Holidays.

I decided to do my presentation on pasta with my Grandmother’s sauce because it is the food that takes me back to my childhood more than any other food. I remember that as a child we would gather every Sunday around my grandmother’s dinner table after mass and enjoy this dish. Although I love the flavor of it, its flavor alone is not the reason why I enjoy eating it so much. Every time I have this dish I relive a certain memory or feeling. It gives me the sense of family. The food is just the trigger to these memories and emotions. As a child, I did not care much for vegetables, so my grandmother would always try to find new ways to get me to eat my vegetables. One day, she decided to add pureed carrots, celery, and onion to the sauce she usually made and her recipe was born. To prepare her sauce you will need a quarter cup of olive oil, five garlic cloves, red pepper flakes, three carrots, two to three stalks of celery, one onion, seven to ten tomatoes depending on the size, 2 bay leaves, 2 tablespoons of butter, some basil, some nutmeg, and salt and pepper to taste. Start by cooking the olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes together in a large pot. Be careful, these ingredients cook fast. This should only take about 15 seconds on high heat. Next, Blend tomatoes, onion, celery, and carrots and add to the pot. You want to add these immediately to the oil to avoid burning the garlic and red pepper. After that, add a pinch of nutmeg and the 2 bay leaves. Lower the heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper taking into consideration that the pasta is cooked in salted water. Finally, remove from heat and stir in the butter and basil. To cook to pasta, start with a pound of your favorite dry pasta. There are many excellent brands out there that are usually only available at smaller specialty stores, but one of my favorites is the De Cecco brand and it can be purchased at most supermarkets. Add the pasta to pot of boiling salted water and cook for about ten minutes. The texture of the pasta should be “Al Dente,” this basically means that the pasta is cooked through but not mushy; there should be some resistance when biting into it. Once the pasta is cooked it is time to drain it and toss it with the sauce. To plate, scoop into a bowl and top it with more sauce, cheese, olive oil, and cheese. I like to refer to pasta as one of the original fusion foods because it took ingredients from all over the world to make a traditionally Italian dish. The noodles originated in china but Italians created many different shapes to better carry different sauces. Tomatoes are native to the Americas, but they were introduced to Europe by Spanish conquistadors and the spices were available because of the Indian spice trade. So, it took ingredients from all over the world to create this quintessentially Italian dish.

Jell O Brand Chocolate Pudding

Ingredients

As a child growing up, my Mom would make my brother and I chocolate pudding as a treat. You can buy pudding already prepared or you can make pudding by just adding cold milk to a box or cook it up on the stove top. My mom used the stove top and we loved to eat ours warm with a little bit of whipped cream.

To make this simple dessert you need a box of Jell O chocolate flavored pudding and 3 cups of whole milk. You put the milk in a pot on medium heat and add the pudding contents. Stir mixture until it boils being careful not to scorch the milk. Put the pudding into small bowls and refrigerate or you can eat it warm.

Milk

Chocolate Pudding Mix

Bring Pudding Mixture to a boil

Chocolate Pudding – Bon Appetit

Nutrition Analysis

Some history on Pudding – The original pudding was formed by mixing various ingredients with a grain product or other binder such as butter, flour, cereal, eggs, and/or suet, resulting in a solid mass. These puddings are baked, steamed or boiled. Depending on its ingredients, such a pudding may be served as a part of the main course or as a dessert.

Boiled or steamed pudding was a common main course aboard ships in the Royal Navy during the 18th and 19th centuries. Pudding was used as the primary dish in which daily rations of flour and suet were prepared.

Some history on Jello- In 1897, in LeRoy, New York, a carpenter and cough syrup manufacturer, Pearle Bixby Wait trademarked a gelatin dessert, called Jell-O. He and his wife May added strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon flavoring to granulated gelatin and sugar. Then in 1899, Jell-O was sold to Orator Francis Woodward of Genesee Pure Food Company.

In 1925 The JELL-O Company merged with Postum Cereal, Inc, that would eventually become General Foods Corporation.  Today Jell-O is owned and manufactured by Kraft/General Foods.

In 1927 Chocolate Jell-O was introduced and not long after discontinued.

In 1936 Chocolate returned to the Jell-O lineup as an instant pudding made with milk. The pudding became so popular that other pudding flavors were added such as vanilla, tapioca, coconut, pistachio, butterscotch, egg custard, flan and rice pudding.

Milk and dairy products provide essential nutrients your body needs to build strong bones and healthy teeth. Milk helps keep bones strong by providing 9 essential nutrients, including calcium, vitamins A, D and B12, protein, potassium, riboflavin, niacin and phosphorus.

These essential nutrients do more than just build strong bones. Studies have shown that drinking milk can help reduce the risk of osteoporosis, a bone-crippling disease that affects 28 million Americans, aid in weight loss, help lower your risk of colon cancer and more.

Chocolate is made from cocoa beans, the dried and partially fermented seeds of the cacao tree (Theobroma cacao), a small, 4–8 m tall (15–26 ft tall) evergreen tree native to the deep tropical region of the Americas. Recent genetic studies suggest the most common genotype of the plant originated in the Amazon basin and was gradually transported by humans throughout South and Central America.more.

Now that I’m a mom eating chocolate pudding with my kids brings back memories of my childhood and having this special treat made by my mom. With life these days I opt for buying pudding already prepared, but this class has taught me to reflect on my childhood and to appreciate the little things that my mom did for me and my brother. I hope that one day my kids will have some of these same memories about me that I have about my mom, I better get into the kitchen and start making some memories.

Works Cited

“Jell-O Chocolate Cook & Serve Pudding & Pie Filling 3.4 Oz. Box.” Recipes. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.

“Jell-O.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.

“Alta Dena.” Alta Dena. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.

“Chocolate.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.

Https://whatscookingamerica.net/author/brenda/. “History of Gelatin and Jell-O, Whats Cooking America.” What’s Cooking America. N.p., 04 June 2016. Web. 15 Dec. 2016.

Avgolemono soup

By Emily Hartman

This dish is one of my favorites.  It combines two of my favorite things, lemon and soup.  I think I was born with the genetic disposition to always need lemon.  As it turns out lemons are incredibly good for you.  They have many vitamins and help kill germs. Lemon helps kill germs because of its acidity.  Lemon also provides so many vitamins at the same time because it must grow in sunlight and have rich moist soil.  Lemons contain vitamins B, C, copper, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, potassium, and fiber.  With this ammount of healthful ingredients in lemons I am even more drawn to them.  So ever since I have had Avgolemono soup I can not have chicken noodle soup without lemon in it.  Also, it is not bad to have when sick, get the vitamins and kill the germs at the same time, a double whammy.

Avgolemono soup was first given to me on easter when I was still an infant.  It was a dish made by my Papu, grandfather in Greek.  It was delicious but I never really understood my love for this soup untill I was older.  After my Papu died I all but forgot about this soup.  It wasnt untill my family had gone to a medeterranean resturant when I was in highschool that I remembered this soup.  Now that I am older my interest and love of this dish has been rekindled.  Its warm creamy goodness, chicken chunks, soft carrots, small easy to eat noodles, and lemon.  I can not stress enough how much I love lemon.  What really drove me to cooking and learning about this dish was my attempt to reconnect with my Greek heritage.  My mother would always tell me about the great intelectuals and food that came from her family, in a way I wanted to know and connect with that past.  I have studied so much about my heritage and even connected with my family in Greece.  For this assignment though I had to look deeper, find the origin of the food I most loved.  In that case lemon.

In my research I found that lemon originated some where in Asia.  It was brought to Greece by the Sephardic Jews who migrated throughout the Middle East and up into Europe.  They also brought the recipe for the lemon sauce that is made, originally the soup was just a lemon sauce.  A sauce with lemon egg and broth.  For that I am thankfull. There are so many Greek dishes that taste so good because of lemon.

I found that soup was originally just bread in a bowl with broth poured over it.  The reason for the bread was because people thought that bread was super nutritius.  Well kind of, bread then was made with wheat that had small maggots in it and bits of stone, so protine and minerals?  Soup became so much better over the decades and the result is better than ever.

Spinach was one of my mom’s favorite vegetables and I enjoyed eating it as a child.  My mother cooked creamed spinach, spinach with cream simmered with onions and butter.  Our family doctor prescribed spinach for my mom to increase the iron in her blood; spinach is high in iron and the B vitamins.  Recent studies have also shown that spinach fights against certain cancers including prostate cancer; it is high in anti-cancer carotenoids which are the bright colors in vegetables and fruits.  These types of colorful fruits and vegetables are high in antioxidants and help to keep the blood stream clean of free radicals and other cancer causing agents.

This recipe for spinach casserole calls for spinach as the main ingredient, cream cheese, blended white cheese including shredded provolone, mozzarella and Parmesan, eggs, onion, mushroom, garlic and salt and pepper.  The cream cheese I have chosen to use in this recipe is by the the brand Kraft, “Philadelphia Since 1872” sold in most all grocery stores. This cream cheese is a favorite for many American recipes including cheese cake, quiche and cheese balls.  The name Philadelphia was given to the product because, at the time, the best dairy farms were in Philadelphia-the product was originally produced in upstate New York.

Kraft Food’s main headquarters is in Northfield, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Following Nestle food company, Kraft foods is now the second largest North American food and beverage company.  They employ about 100,000 employees and operate in 70 different countries as Kraft International.  The North American segment produces five different categories of foods including snacks and cereal products, convenient meals, beverages, cheese products and grocery condiments.

Kraft began when J.L. Kraft, a cheese salesman, patented his first processed cheese product in Stockton, Illinois in 1916.  The company then started supplying cheese to the United States army in tins during World War 1.  In October, 2012 Kraft split into two companies, Mondelēz International, Inc. became the snack food portion of the company, while the remainder of the company operated as Kraft Foods Group, Inc. to serve the North American grocery stores.  In July 2015 Kraft merged with Heinz foods and became The Kraft Heinz Company.  This merger combined the third largest food and beverage business along with the fifth largest food and beverage business in the world, together.

Kraft contracts with dairy farms in the Pacific Northwest region in Idaho.  One of these dairy farms, Dry Creek Dairy, owned by Bettencourt Dairies LLC., has 10,000 milking cows and is owned by Luis Bettencourt who also owns 13 other dairy farms that produce cow’s milk from 60,000 cows.  In 2012, Bettencourt sold the dairy farm as a result of farm workers abusing the cows.  These farm workers were videotaped punching, dragging and kicking the cows, and these disturbing videos were released to the public, the media and animal abuse activists.

Spinach Casserole

3 (10) ounce packs of frozen spinach, well thawed and well drained of their juice1 (8) ounce box of Philadelphia cream cheese

2-3 cups of shredded mixed cheese including mozzarella, parmesan, and provolone

5 beaten eggs

4-6 large white mushrooms, diced

1 large onion diced

2 cloves of garlic, diced

Season with salt and pepper

2 tablespoons of vegetable or olive oil

In a large cooking pot, heat the oil, add the onion and garlic to the pot and cook until translucent, then add the mushrooms, cook until soft.

Add the Philadelphia cream cheese, on a low heat, continue to stir until melted in with the onion, garlic mushrooms, stirring frequently.

When the cream cheese is stirred and melted into the translucent vegetables, remove from heat.  Add the beaten eggs and shredded mixed cheese.  Add the spinach stirring, not over mixing together, but well blended.  Season with a little salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Prepare a glass or metal baking dish by greasing the interior and sides.

Spread mixture into the baking dish, sprinkle a little of the remaining shredded cheese mixture on the top and cook for 35-40 minutes.

References

The World’s Healthiest Foods, 2001-2016. http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=43  Accessed 12/12/16

Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_Foods  Accessed 12/13/16

The History of Kraft Foods Inc.  http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/kraftfoods.pdf  Accessed 12/13/16

Magicvalley News.  http://magicvalley.com/business/agriculture/bettencourt-sells-dairy-that-was-site-of-animal-cruelty-video/article_9402143b  Accessed 12/13/16

Wikinvest 2006-2012.  http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Kraft_Foods_(KFT)  Accessed 12/13/16

Frugal Antics of a Harried Home Maker.  June 5, 2015.  http://frugalanticsrecipes.com/2013/06/creamy-spinach-casserole/   Accessed 12/13/16