Secret Family Recipe (W7)

     When it comes to family recipes, I usually don't question the ingredients because I just accept them for their deliciousness. I actually called my mom to ask her if there is any secrets in the recipes that her, my dad and my grandma may use. I asked her about my dad first and of course she responded with, "well your dad just thinks he has secret recipes but really doesn't." This was funny because my whole family knows that my dad tries to exaggerate the originality of his meals. He usually isn't exaggerating though, because I find almost everything he makes to be out of this world! I have mentioned his ribs before where he claims there is a secret technique to the cooking process. I am pretty sure it has to do with the timing because they are "fall off the bone ribs" every single time. I was sad to hear that my dad actually just cooked ribs tonight because its my favorite meal and my mom rubbed it in my face. She promised that when I come home for spring break she will have him make them again though.
     The question to my mom about the recipes also sparked some funny memories of my aunt's chili. My aunt (bless her heart) isn't the greatest cook. She is a nurse, so she is kind of a work-a-holic and doesn't have a whole lot of time to cook. When she does cook though she always makes a lot of food so my family comes over to try whatever it is that she made. She has a special chili she makes, and when she makes it right it is actually pretty good. My mom told me that her secret to the chili is grape jelly, which surprised me because I never really noticed. The reason why I haven't ever really noticed is because nine times out of ten the chili would be burnt. We would call her chili "ash tray chili" and has been a joke ever since.
     As for my mom, I noticed that her main ingredient for almost everything is cheese! My mom makes the cheesiest broccoli casserole ever along with the cheesiest lasagna. Her lasagna has beat the lasagna at every Italian restaurant I have been too. Every layer (including the very top and very bottom) has a generous amount of Velveeta cheese. I can't wait to have that again either!
     Lastly, I have to mention a punch that has been in my family forever. I first tried it from my grandma, and then my mom started making it for every one of my birthday parties. It's an orange punch that doesn't sound extremely special or anything but I would have to say that it's my favorite drink and would pick it over anything else if I had the choice. Whenever you decide you want to throw a party, I recommend serving this punch. Our family punch includes 4 packets of orange kool-aide, 5 cups of sugar (my grandma uses 6), 1 can of frozen orange juice and 1 large can of pineapple juice. This actually serves four gallons of punch, so my mom usually freezes the rest if it isn't all used. It makes a delicious Popsicle and you can even fill up an ice cube tray with it for some extra cool flavor too the punch.
    My family secret recipes may not be the most secretive and original but they sure do make an impression. I have to say that my dad wins with his ribs every time though and if he says its secret and original then I am going to believe it. My mom just likes to prove him wrong sometimes!

Food Injustice W6

      It was my first time watching Food Inc. and I have to say that it completely changed my perspective on the American food industry. I have known that the business is sketchy and we have had a lot of discussions in class, but to see it on screen was horrifying to me. Every time an animal was shown, I had to cover my eyes. There were a lot of points in the film that successfully persuaded me. The few that stood out most to me were the animals, how the farmers and workers are treated by the companies, and the story of the mom dealing with the death of her son.
     I am the biggest sap when it comes to the death of animals, so I basically had a frown on my face through the entire film. I'm not even a vegetarian, and sometimes I wish I was but I raised on eating meat. Anyways, I couldn't believe some of the images I saw. The two absolute worst were they showed how the chickens can't even stand up and the pigs were getting slaughtered by a "kill floor." Genetically modifying animals to fit our tastes such as making the chickens fatter than they naturally are showed a crueler side of the industry. When seeing all of those chickens starting to fall and breaking their legs, I was just thinking to myself how un natural and inhumane that was. The "kill floor" almost made me cry! I would of never thought that something like that existed. For the pigs to be slaughtered in a mass quantity, you just squash them all at once with the floor? I still can't believe it as I sit here and reflect on the sad image coming back to mind.
     Those images shown really made an impact on me because I am really sensitive to the fact of how our companies are treating the animals with so much cruelty. The film showed us the alternative to this, with a farmer who ran a small business from his farm and he definitely did not harm the animals in the way that the companies did. I just did not know the companies were that powerful and especially over the farmers and workers they control. It was so sad to see how the companies treated the farmers and the workers by making them work so hard for so little control and so little money. These companies are making a fortune, while having the farmers and workers doing all the dirty work for them. This really showed me how cruel the companies were. Not only do they treat the animals in such an inhumane way, they don't have respect for anyone such as the people working for them!
     In addition to the companies treatment of the people involved, another persuading concept that stood out was the story of the mother and son. The mother lost her son to a food illness that wasn't recalled until about twenty days after the little boy's death. This image was used to emphasize the important fact that our food contains so much bacteria and illness more than ever before. The film showed how the way the farms are feeding the animals corn now along with putting the animals in unsanitary conditions in which the disease feeds off of. So the conditions that the companies put the animals in are just harming us more, by the increase of ecoli and salmonella present. The story of the mother and son added a lot of emotion behind this fact that really made me think "why?" Why do the companies even put animals in conditions where disease is easily contracted? Why are they making food un-safe, rather than safe? It just doesn't make sense to me. I really liked how the mother continues to fight for safer food, because obviously something needs to change.
     The images of the animals, the workers and farmers, and more diseases successfully persuaded me to really hate the companies involved in this horrible business. The companies that control our food industry are suppose to make sure our food is safe, but ironically it's the complete opposite. They treat everyone around them with disrespect and I really hope we can continue to fight with these companies until there are some major changes made.

W5 More Fast Food Nation

     I am going to reflect on the chapters we read in Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser. The sections about McDonald’s chicken nuggets have officially made the McNuggets dead to me. When you choose chicken over beef, you automatically think that you are making the "healthier" choice. This is not always the case, and especially when it comes to the McNugget. According to Fast Food Nation, the Mcdonald's McNugget actually resembles beef more than it does poultry! Okay, I thought we were buying "chicken" nuggets. These chicken nuggets also contain twice as much fat per ounce as a hamburger! The sad part is that parents let their kids eat these fatty processed chicken nuggets that have absolutely no health value.

     Fast Food Nation enhanced my awareness of how our Country relies heavily on fast food and how it lacks the whole point of nutrition we need for our bodies. Fast food comes from processed foods that contain so many chemicals that we don't know half of the real ingredients. Americans spend ninety percent of their money on processed foods, and it is the flavor industry in America that is responsible for this. In almost all of the food products we buy contain the words of either "artificial flavor" or "natural flavor." Surprisingly, natural flavor is no better than artificial flavor. These flavor compounds contain actually more ingredients than the foods given their taste. This is shocking to me, because I had no idea that processed foods contained chemicals we didn’t even know about!

    I have been ignorant of all the details shown in Fast Food Nation, so I am glad that I have more knowledge of what is actually going into my body. These readings make me wish for my own kitchen, because I know everything that I heat up in my dorm microwave is no good!  But then again our culture runs off of this kind of food so how can I escape it? If ten thousand new processed food products are entering the American market every year, then it makes it almost impossible for me to escape it. Sometimes I wish we could go back to the good old days and live off the land!