Kouka (Coo-ka)

Every Christmas I'm always found asking my Grandma, "when are you making Kouka and can I help?" Its about the only tradition we have left in our house. Every Christmas morning, everyone gets up, works on the puzzle upstairs for a while (another year-round tradition in our house) grabs something to drink and a piece of Kouka, and heads downstairs to open presents. Kouka is a sort of German pastry with prunes or apricots, cottage cheese and cream cheese. Sounds strange, the prunes and apricots, but it's my favorite pastry of all time, and a tradition I plan on keeping up in my house. My Grandmother has the original recipe somewhere in the house... she thinks. She's spent so many years experimenting with the recipe, which she learned years ago, so the original ingredients and preparation has been warped. I invite you to try this recipe below, which is the one my Grandmother wrote herself using "modern-day" products as she likes to say. It is too funny not to post the original.

Ingredients:
1 box Pillsbury Specialty Hot Roll Mix
1 large package of prunes, pitted preferred
1 package of dried apricots
1 quart of small curd cottage cheese
3-4 oz cream cheese, (6-8 oz is richer!)
1/3 cup sour cream or yogurt
2 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp. almond extract
3 tablespoons flour
Cinnamon
5 pie pans 8 or 9 inch in size

Directions:
1. Steam prunes and apricots separately and cool. Bring eggs and cream cheese to room temperature.
2. Make roll mix dough per instructions on box. Watch temperature of water so that you don't kill the yeast! I have often just spooned the dough in the mixing bowl for 5 minutes- using a bread mixer is easier. While dough is raising, proceed with pans and topping mix.
3. Oil pans and set oven to 350 degrees.
4. To make the cheese topping- beat 2 eggs and mix with softened cream cheese. Add cottage cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/3 cup sour cream or yogurt, 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla, 1/4 tsp. almond extract and 3 tablespoons of flour.
5. Cover raised dough in oiled pans, then spread dried fruit halves (each on their own pan, not together) over the dough. Add about 1 cut cheese topping on each pie (more if they're 9") Sprinkle the tops generously with cinnamon and sugar.
6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, test by cutting pie in half and checking that dough is baked through - it should be lightly browned on the edges and top.
6. Let cool 10 minutes or so in pan, then remove to cooking rack. After 30 minutes or so transfer to brown paper. Cool thoroughly before storing. Sprinkle more cinnamon and sugar on top if desired. Eat withing the week. ENJOY!

She even wrote a little history of where she got this recipe from, when she was living in North Dakota:
"A couple Bakeries in ND make and sell Kouka year around, or only at Christmas and Easter. 40% of the population of ND are descendants of Germans immigrating out of Russia."

Mother knows best...

What’s my favorite recipe? That’s a tough question. Considering my culinary skills are lacking, I still have a few I enjoy cooking. Ribs, fried chicken, pasta, all delicious choices, all I have cooked and enjoyed on many an occasion. However the one recipe, my favorite recipe, is a dish I have never prepared on my own. A meal so delectable I refuse to make on my own because of the possibility of ruining it.

My mother is my best friend, my hero, and my favorite cook. She is the preparer of my favorite meal, taco casserole. The meal consists of soft taco shells, tortilla chips, beans, ground beef, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, and topped with a little hot sauce. While living at home my mother would make this masterpiece every couple of weeks, though it felt like months between enjoy this delight. Now that I have moved away since attending Western, approximately two and half hours from my hometown of Bremerton, Washington, I am unable to enjoy it quite as often. When I get home every few months though, there is nothing like walking in to my childhood home with the scent of taco casserole in the air!

Basic name and basic ingredients but combined with proper cooking and enough love, it creates my favorite dish. As the old saying goes, mother knows best, food not being excluded.

The Reliability Characteristic

I've always been concerned about the reliability of websites, especially considering anyone can access it. I found it interesting looking at each of the three links and comparing and contrasting their content. The first of the three, the Monsanto site, is a company whose sites purpose is to inform workers and consumers of their products and convince its readers that Biotechnology is a benefit. Their site is easy to navigate, and has a great form to contact different departments, for different reasons from job opportunities to customer or student inquiries. It was updated this year, thus has reliable information, but considering their bias is for Biotechnology with hardly, if any, information of its faults, it made me a little weary.
The second of the three links was the one that I considered most reliable and authoritative mainly because the author, Theresa Phillips who is a Ph.D. is non-biased and her purpose is to inform about the controversies and facts surrounding GMO’s to any readers, in this case most likely students considering her article is on a learning site with specific links for teachers and students. The article is easy to read and was published in 2008 so has relatively fresh information, however there is no direct way to contact the author, but the site does have an "ask an expert" box.
The third link I disliked the most. The site seemed more difficult to navigate to me, no distinct author or corporation, and their audience seems to be "Texas and beyond," so anyone who runs into their site in other words. It was updated this year, and does have a decent contact form (to who it is unsure), so seems to have informative information, but the fact that it is biased again does not give the whole picture of the debate on GMOs.
I think there is some good to GMOs, but it makes me nervous that they are not labeled on packaging. I would like to be informed about what I am consuming, and if it is something I don't want in my body, I should know before I ingest it.

Haugen, David, and Susan Musser, (eds.). Genetic engineering. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Print.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know

Blog #7

After examining the three sites I have concluded all of them to be different from one another. Two of them reaching opposite spectrums on the GMO debate, while the third remains neutral and provides unbiased information on the subject.

For the first url, located at Monsanto.com, they create GMO's therefor supporting them. The article was posted by the site, was updated this year, and no specific author was named. It appears the intended audience is targeted at those who are interested in GMO's and also possibly those who remain neutral, attempting to try and pull those people in.

When I opened the third link, located at saynotogmos.org, I deduced they are against any GM foods. Also, if we were to have GMO's, they are for labeling all of them. This article, which is actually the home page, is updated monthly and has no specific author. The audience they are trying to reach is those who support labeling as well as those who are neutral about the issue.

Finally, the second url, located at nature.com/scitable, was the better of the three sites because the author is unbiased about the issue. The article was posted in 2008 by Theresa Phillips. You cannot contact her directly but the site does have an "Ask an expert" option as welll as a "contact us" list(which is the cased for the other two sites as well.) Ii feel her target audience is the entire population of those concerned with the GMO issue.

I don't have many concerns with gentically modified foods however I do wish to be informed about these foods. There should be no reason why these foods should not be labeled GMO's. It's just like putting nutrition facts on foods. Everything that goes into my food products I Persoanlly want to know.

Site
*Katesposito. "Pros and Cons of GMO's." Lovetoknow.com. Web. 2010

Food Inc.

There are so many things from this movie that irritated me, and so many things I want to do because of this movie. One thing that irritated me was the treatment of these animals, as well as the workers. I knew about the poor treatment of the workers, and I had an idea that the treatment of the animals was bad, but not to the extent that the movie showed. I had no idea that these chickens were so cramped together in dark buildings with feed coming out of little tubes above them. The fact that these animals could barely take a few steps before plopping down seems just inhumane, even if they are just being bred for food. The other thing that irritated me about the treatment of the animals was that they only fed the cows corn. I know that this makes them fatter, and I knew that corn is probably one of the most, if not THE most, grown food because of its diverse uses, as stated in the video. But the fact that feeding these cows corn, something they are not made to eat, makes the meat worse to eat, it just seems all around wrong. Not only are you feeding something to an animals that naturally does not eat it, but it makes the meat us humans are eating worse. I don't think I'll ever get that image of the round tube-thing stuck in the side/inside of that cow out of my mind.
The main thing that made me the most angry from this movie was the story of the two year old child dying from the meat at a fast food restaurant. I remember hearing about it years ago, and it made me more aware of all the recalls, like the ones on peanut butter and spinach. One enormous part of my identity is my attachment to children, and the fact that these big companies are so detached from the consequences of their decisions, like the private farmer stated, frustrates me to no end. It is this reason that causes me to be against such huge business corporations.
I think one thing I will definitely do is buy at least two copies of this movie and send them around to my family and friends, pleading for them to watch it. I think its about time we spread the word and introduce people to where their food is coming from.

Hometown Farmers Market

While I was home last weekend, I went back down to the Olympia Farmers Market. I had been there once before, but it was cloudy and no where near the experience I had just two days ago. It was sunny, plus the fact that it was mothers day made the entire market explode. Hundreds of people flooded the docks, and the entire Market was full of booths from flowers to fruit, to pottery. When I think of a farmers market I thought of something rather different than what I saw. At least five singers with guitars were spread around the area singing music from country to classical rock, not to mention the main stage, and at least two guys were out making balloon animals. There was even a woman doing palm reading!
My Mother went with me and we had an interesting time squeezing through the crowded aisles of the covered market. It took is about 30 minutes just to walk through and glance at all the stalls! When I checked out how long it was open, I found out it's open April through October Thursday through Sunday, and November to December on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 until 3:00, which was a lot longer than I expected. The only thing I was a little bummed about was that the only major food stands were selling apples, pears, and potatoes- no strawberries like I had hoped. But I had the great pleasure of talking to one of the farmers and he gave me some great advice and ideas! He helped me pick out two kinds of apples and two kinds of pears, rather enthusiastically too, and when my mother asked him about using those to make a salad, he told us about a great recipe he loved; he told us to use normal lettuce, and mix in small cut up pieces of the apples and pears, one pear which was crunchy, the other softer, and to head over to another stall at the market that sold nuts, and buy raspberry walnuts, which were delicious! He said then find any dressing, and even suggested taking a look around to see if anyone was selling any of their own dressing, since he wasn't sure. I thought it was amazing that the people at the market were suggesting other stalls to go to!
The salad tasted great, and we used a honey dressing that pulled everything together. My Mother and I agreed we would have to go back at least once a week during summer and get food, considering the apples and pears I bought were just over $3, which was insane to me! If anyone lives around or happens to visit Olympia, I would definitely visit the market there!


Cromidas, Rachel. "The Pulse: Making Farmers' Markets More Accessible." ProQuest. New York Times, Apr 11, 2010. Web. 11 May 2010. .

I'm Not Loving It

Watching Food Inc. was an eye opening experience. Little did I know, animals are harvested not unlike vegetables. I knew we lived in an imperfect world, but when it gets to the extreme of pumping our chickens with steroids to the point they can only take two steps and just collapse it really makes me want to become vegetarian. Unfortunately for my tastes buds, cheeseburgers, steaks and chicken strips are way too delicious.
The biggest shock to me, being a finance major, was the amount of debt farmers occur due to these big companies making contracts with them. According to the film, the average contract farmer gets into debt of over $500,000; however, they only make a mere $18,000 a year from these companies. Not taking into consideration these farmers paying their other bill or feeding themselves, it would take them at least 28 years to pay off!
Another shocking fact was the amount of illnesses that occurred. Annually 179,000 Americans contracted a food related illness. It especially hit me when they talked about the two-year old boy who was infected with e coli. The pain he went through really tugged on the heart strings. Not to mention the astounding fact that they took 16 days after the boy was infected to stop selling the meat.
Our meat is continuing to be manufactured and roided up with who knows what. So the major question remains. What are we truly eating? Thanks to Food Inc, I will be carefully monitoring what I eat from now on, and stay away from McDonalds!

Source
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Herr Foods Inc. Recalls 'Herr's Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt Flavored' Kettle Style Potato Chips Because of Possible Health Risk. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2010. Print

New Delicious Experience

The Farmer’s Market on Railroad was a new experience to say the least for myself. I’ve of course heard of these types of markets around my hometown, but never made the attempt to try one out.
Walking down the many booths they had set up the first question I asked myself was “where do I begin?” I stopped at a stand where a woman was selling a variety of vegetables and asked her what her favorite item was. She responded by denying that she had a favorite, however recommended her red tomatoes. I responded “no favorite huh?” I than asked her how she started selling at the market. Her family has always grown their own food and said she wanted to share it with others. She also mentioned a small financial incentive as well. After my conversation with the woman I purchased three tomatoes and went on my way.
For my dish I made a fresh tomato sauce. The recipe called for 1 to 1 1/2 pounds ripe tomatoes, about 3 large tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil, 1/2 teaspoon salt, black pepper, to taste, 1 pound spaghetti, and freshly grated Parmesan cheese. I’ve cooked my own spaghetti in the past, but never my own sauce. To avoid a biased critique of my own cooking I asked my roommates to sample it as well. To make a long review short they simply said I should cook it again sometime.
The farmers market may not be in my near future, it is definitely something I would like to try again.

Recommended Article
* Etter, Lauran. Food for Thought: Do You Need Farmers for a Farmers Market? Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition. Web. Apr. 2010.