Being the documentary lover I am, when I heard about this recent one about what’s really in our food, as well as the high cost (to our health) of cheap (in quality and price) food, so I just had to share. It’s another great one you can watch with the whole family. What will you and your family do to support local, fresh and organic growing and eating?
I had a fantastic interview live on my Facebook page with the brilliant food and nature writer Eugenia Bone who edited and contributed recipes and essays for the Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook. You can watch the replay below. We discussed the magical nature of mushrooms of all kinds, their health benefits and culinary delight and how to incorporate them in your diet, even how and where to forage for them.
Below you can watch the trailer of the documentary of the same name, of which Eugenia is also imparting her knowledge and immense wisdom about the magical, fantastic world of fungi you didn’t know you needed to know.
You can get a copy of the Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook here. There are SO many fantastic recipes in the book and one of the easiest and most simple ones is the Enoki Mushroom Soup recipe that I made and posted here.
Much of the world has been celebrating Christmas season since the beginning of December, but the really special days for those who celebrate are Christmas Eve (December 24th) and Christmas Day (December 25th). Much of society closes down between the late afternoon of Christmas Eve and all day on the 25th for church services, private family dinners and opening gifts. Christmas Day is usually when most stores, shopping malls and many other amenities are closed saved for gas stations and some restaurants. It’s a quiet and peaceful time, which is lovely in and of itself as an observer, but what about when you’re on the outside looking in and not partaking in any of the ceremonial or celebratory engagements?
Well, you can do all sorts of fun things with your family and friends during that time- in fact, it’s a fabulous opportunity to create special memories with your loved ones by doing something you might not otherwise have time to do over the course of a couple of days.
This year, Christmas falls over a weekend so there’s even more time to make it into an extended holiday! Here are just a few examples of ways to spend it:
At the end of the day, any of these quiet time activities can be used to get closer to those you want to spend time with and to create memories that will last a lifetime….
This post was sponsored by Zabiha Halal, a Canadian food company that I’ve come to know and hold in high regard. To follow their updates, you can “like” their Facebook page here and follow them on Twitter here and Instagram here. They also have a lifestyle blog called Living Halal, here. The contents of this post are the sole opinion and expression of Yvonne Maffei of My Halal Kitchen.
I found a pretty remarkable video online that I think really articulates a lot of what I’ve been wanting to share for a very long time, all compiled into a 45-minute piece of staggering information about the connection between sugar with consumer wellness and how industry associations and food manufacturers place it in food products in quantities that are pretty surprising to most consumers.
The Secrets of Sugar is a powerful documentary that discusses the sugar industry, research based on sugar consumption and what consumers are up against when eating the typical diet of processed foods where additional sugar is pretty hidden. They discuss a possible connection between high sugar consumption to fatty liver, diabetes, cancer and even possibly Alzheimer’s.
I’d love to read your comments about this documentary at the end of this post.
Disclaimer: This information is not intended as medical advice. Consult your doctor for further information on this and other wellness topics.
I have a pretty large collection of cookbooks, as you might imagine being the case since food writing, blogging and cooking are all an integral part of my daily life. It’s a completely rare situation that I come across a cookbook so absolutely intriguing and heart-wrenching because of the current political, economic and logistical strain of the inhabitants offering up their recipes. That is the case with The Gaza Kitchen cookbook written by Laila El-Haddad and Maggie Schmitt (2013).
I got The Gaza Kitchen several months ago and have been meaning to write this review ever since, as soon as I had made a collection of recipes from it to share here on the blog. As the unfortunate turn of horrific events in Gaza take place at this very moment, I feel it’s the perfect time to share it and talk about it, as this is not just a cookbook, but a documentation of history, of deeply-rooted cuisine and of a determined people- those who make do with what they have under distressful living situations that continue to worsen. For the authors, it was the perfect way to bring awareness to the situation of the Palestinian people, in general (not just in Gaza) and to start that discussion with those who are interested in learning more, for food is the most intimate and personal way to get to know a people and their plight whether it was yesterday or today.
Just as I thought I had known plenty about Middle Eastern food in general and a good amount of Palestinian food history and flavors, I was amazed at some of the nuances this book and all of the discussions spawning from it have unveiled. For example, did you know that “dill seed, garlic, and crushed red peppers–[are]those things are used in unison” in a Gazan kitchen? Read more about that in this Bon Appetit interview between Laila Haddad, Maggie Schmidt and Israeli Chef Yotam Ottolenghi.
This book is unique because it’s not a glossed-over recipe book where everything is made to be picture-perfect, which is what I absolutely love. It’s a documentary on paper. It reads reality, humility, real life, hospitality, homemade and what’s readily available. After all, the Gazan people, like all other Palestinians in the same occupied territories, are subject to things like power outages, limited water usage, and disappearing agricultural land. How on Earth does one cook under those circumstances?
Some of the recipes showcased in the book are:
There is also a section at the beginning of the book outlining some of the key ingredients in the Gaza Pantry (i.e. chickpeas, red tahina, mastic, nigella seed, etc.)
Alongside the recipes are tidbits of individual Gazans and their personal stories as well as information on the following important topics regarding the daily live of the Gazan people:
It’s a fascinating journey through the lives of the Gazans and if you listen to the interview in the video below, you’ll come to learn that the authors would like to do another documentary style cookbook on the other parts of Palestine. As you can imagine, it’s going to be a logistical feat to get it done and with the current crisis ensuing, I’m sure most people are not concerned with food in the whimsical sense, but in survival mode. This book is helping to preserve the culinary history of the Gazan people, insha’Allah, most of whom are not actually even from Gaza but from the towns and villages outside of Gaza, as Laila says in the interview below.
You can see a bit of the interesting ways in which some of the more traditional Gazan recipes are made in this video of Anthony Bourdain’s show, Parts Unknown.
You can purchase this book from Just World Books here. Make some of the recipes in the book. Read the stories of the people covered and about their daily lives. It’ll help you feel more connected to just one of the many groups of people around the world who need their voices to be heard and for our heartfelt prayers to be made for them, especially at this very moment. #PrayForGaza