Good for the First Lady, rewarding the good actors and calling out the… cash-motivated. From Politico:
First lady Michelle Obama used a White House lunch honoring the pint-size winners of a national recipe contest to send a clear message to Congress on Friday: Healthy school lunch reforms are here to stay.
The first lady called out the “grownups” in Congress, whom she said are “trying to undo some of the progress we’ve made,” and delivered her sharpest remarks yet on the food industry.
“There’s a lot of money involved in feeding our kids at school,” Mrs. Obama said, surrounded by schoolchildren from all 50 states at the third annual “Kids’ State Dinner” in the East Room. “We are currently spending $10 billion a year on our school lunch program…so it’s not surprising that certain interests are resisting change and trying to take us back to the old way of doing business, because for them there’s a lot of money on the line.”…
Mrs. Obama’s comments come as the Obama administration wages a battle against House Republicans and the School Nutrition Association (SNA), which have teamed up to relax many of the changes mandated by the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, a bipartisan law championed by the first lady…
The event, which was organized by Mrs. Obama’s childhood obesity campaign, Let’s Move!, as well as the recipe website Epicurious and the departments of Education and Agriculture, was attended by the 54 winners of the Healthy Lunchtime Challenge, which promotes kid-designed lunches that meet federal dietary guidelines.
The dishes, selected from more than 1,500 entries, had to stick to the USDA’s school lunch standards, which include fruits & veggies, low-fat dairy products, whole grains and lean proteins. Kids ages 8 to 12 came up with recipes with such clever names as “Barack-oli & Mich-room Obama-lette” by 11-year-old Elena Hirsch of Michigan. Others included “Mo-Rockin’ Meatless Meatless Monday Special” by 8-year-old Lily Vinch of Guam and “Chi-Irish Shepard’s Pie” by 9-year-old Roisin Liew of Delaware.
President Barack Obama made an appearance at Friday’s lunch and briefly talked about the importance of healthy eating, revealing some of the first family’s guilty pleasures in the process.
“Each of us have our weaknesses,” the president said. For Malia it’s ice cream, for Sasha it’s sushi and for the first lady it’s French fries. “My big thing: chips and guacamole,” he said. “If there’s a good bowl of chips and guacamole, I lose my mind.”…
While I’d be the first to aver that good chocolate is one of the building blocks of a happy life, my real weakness is potato chips. Salty, fatty, crispy, high-carb mouth miracles! (Hey, I’m from the generation that got fed salted, sweetened baby food — my taste buds were ruined before my first birthay… )
***********
Apart from memories of gustatory bliss, what’s on the agenda for the day?
Keith G
Today is brownie day at the shop. Wherein I bake a week’s worth of chocolate chunk brownies – one of our best selling items. And then it’s on to cookies and cake balls.
This job is why it is imperative that I get out and run everyday, even in the Houston heat.
raven
And today is the day I go on the Battle of Atlanta tour. It’s raining like hell now and supposed to keep it up most of the day.
another Holocene human
Good for Michelle standing up to the greedy frozen food association. Just two little things:
There’s some evidence that the switch from whole milk for children to skim (which is then often sugared to make it palatable) was a big mistake.
And there’s a reason that our ancestors removed the bran of the grain and fermented what was left and it’s not because they were barbarians, it’s because grasses, not wanting their seeds to be eaten, protect them with lectins and other fun compounds.
The industrial food revolution in the early 20th revolutionized how we consume cereal crops but… just because it was cheap and fast for the masses doesn’t mean polyunsat vegetable oil and ‘quick-rise’ cereal bread are easier on a human digestive or endocrine system than tallow and sourdough.
Hal
That Michelle Obama’s eat healthier and exercise message is in any way controversial says so much about the ridiculous level of vitriol aimed at the Obama’s, particularly from the right. I’m not talking about valid criticism, just the knee jerk response that if it is something the Obama’s support, even if it is clearly a common sense thing like eating healthier, it must be evil.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: What is this “rain” you speak of?
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: It be pumpin up from the Gulf like mad! We had temps in the mid-60’s this week and its 68 right now. It’s the coolest it’s been in 50 years but I’m sure it will heat up in time for the opener with Clemson!
MattF
Ah, chocolate. Here in the DC area we have Cocova downtown:
http://www.cocova.com
And a good online site is chocosphere.com.
BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: We’re supposed to heat up by mid-week. It’s been June here lately(June Gloom).
raven
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m looking through the prune, in June
OzarkHillbilly
You and me Anne. However, I want to share a little discovery I made last night. I am growing Romanesco zucchini this year, which has been a big gustatory success in this household. It is very good raw and the wife has taken to putting it in salads. I also have been drying stuff in a solar food dryer which is great for those times you have more than you can eat but not enough to can. Last night I was taking some of the Romaneso out of the dryer and I thought, “Hmph, looks just like a potato chip.” and popped one into my mouth.
Oh my Dog, better than a potato chip. Next batch I am going to put a little salt on (gotta have some) and maybe some garlic or black pepper or fresh ground cayenne or onion or basil or….
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Costco has apple chips, same principle. They yummy.
c u n d gulag
I’m with Sasha on this one – SUSHI!!!!!! SASHIMI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Which I haven’t eaten in over 6 years because I’ve been unemployed, and poor, and refuse to eat that supermarket shit.
Supermarket sushi compared to sushi made by a trained sushi chef, is like having a McDonalds hamburger instead of a freshly made one on the grill.
I have to go and buy a vacuum cleaner this morning because our current one pooped the big burrito a week ago.
It died in a cloud of dust – thankfully, over the old wooden floor in a bedroom.
So I’m spending money on a vacuum cleaner that would buy me several sushi rolls, and a platter or two of sashimi – and that sucks (pun intended).
Talk you all y’all later.
Have a great weekend! :-)
scav
@raven: I’m now trying to CGI a mashup of you, the fire scene from Gone With The Wind and action footage from the battle of Passchendaele. Well, I’m enjoying myself at least. Greetings to the communal fields of battle.
Iowa Old Lady
@Keith G: If I had your job, I’d be in a sugar coma.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah I am gonna do some come apple harvest. I just never would have thought of zucchini chips. Now it is like, “What else might work?”
ThresherK
@Keith G: I’m a home baker who hasn’t got a go-to brownie recipe. I like brownies chewy. For some reason have much more trouble with them, especially making them dependably replicatable texture-wise, than anything else in my oven.
Can you suggest recipes without giving away any trade secrets?
(PS I’m returning Alice Medrich’s Seriously Bitter Sweet to the library today three weeks past due. Worth every penny I cheefully pay ‘Big Literacy’. )
raven
@scav: And I’m trying to figure out if they are going to do this thing! I paid $45 so I guess I’ll go rain or shine.
scav
@raven: If nothing else, showing up slightly damp, bedraggled and determined might shame them into superior efforts if they go through with it (the likely more personalized trip is also a benefit). Or you’ll with luck shame them into an even bigger recompense if they bail. Do you prefer a corvid avatar or Rhett in a ball gown for the muddy scenes, by the by?
satby
I have to work today, my “part time job” has turned into a nearly full time gig that’s seriously cutting into my other income attempts. All of which put together still leave me underwater on bills. I’m going back to looking for another job, if I am going to work almost full time, I may as well try for a job in my experience level. After this weekend, so I hopefully get some sleep first. I wake up at 2 am thinking of all the stuff I didn’t get done during the day. UGH!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone:)
Off to swim and run some errands.
rikyrah
you can switch from whole milk to 2% or 1%, and kids can get used to it. Skim, however, is nothing but white colored water, and I understand a child’s resistance to it.
raven
@scav: It’s a go! Ya’ll have a good day.
rikyrah
Black voters could decide who controls the Senate in 2015. Here’s how.
By Aaron Blake
April 23
Black voters played a huge role in delivering Barack Obama to the White House in 2008 and 2012. And in 2014, they will play a huge role in determining whether the president’s party can stop Republicans from taking the Senate.
Why? Here are four reasons:
1. Black voters are hugely influential on the 2014 map
Six of the 16 states with the highest black populations are holding key Senate contests in 2014. A seventh — the most African American state in the country, Mississippi — is holding a contest that could get interesting if there’s a tea party upset in the GOP primary.
This is a highly unusual set of circumstances, especially when you consider that most states with large numbers of African American voters generally don’t hold competitive Senate races because they are safely red (in the South, generally) or blue (in the Northeast).
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/04/23/black-voters-could-decide-who-controls-the-senate-in-2015-heres-how/
Hillary Rettig
a “kids’ state dinner” featuring a menu designed by kids – what a marvelous idea! FLOTUS rocks!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Bring some soap.
tybee
@raven:
a realistic experience.
rikyrah
Defeating Obama’s kryptonite with the black vote
By Jonathan Capehart April 23
Norm Ornstein’s piece in National Journal today came up during a taping of “Press Pass” for “Meet The Press” this morning. It was one more in a series of pieces on the “Green Lantern theory” of the presidency, which was refined by Greg Sargent and others riffing off Matthew Yglesias’s “Green Lantern theory of Geopolitics” from 2006. “In a nutshell,” Ornstein writes, “it attributes heroic powers to a president — if only he would use them.”
If only Obama had dealt with Congress the way LBJ did — persuading, cajoling, threatening, and sweet-talking members to attain his goals — his presidency would not be on the ropes and he would be a hero. If only Obama would schmooze with lawmakers the way Bill Clinton did, he would have much greater success. If only Obama would work with Republicans and not try to steamroll them, he could be a hero and have a fiscal deal that would solve the long-term debt problem.
Having a little fun with the topic, NBC News’s Kristin Welker asked me what superpower I thought President Obama needed. Before the segment, I thought long and hard about this. The president has tried working with Republicans. He’s tried schmoozing them. He’s tried cajoling them. And he’s tried to giving them space so it wouldn’t look like he was interfering or that Republicans were doing the bidding of the man the base hates. That’s when it hit me.
Superman has superpowers and a great costume (even though it breaks Edna Mode’s “No capes!” rule), but he was no match for kryptonite. What Obama needs more than anything is for the American people, voters, to knock the kryptonite out of the hands of his opponents.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2014/04/23/defeating-obamas-kryptonite-with-the-black-vote/
rikyrah
I’m glad that FLOTUS is smacking back against Big Food. They just want to poison our children and have taxpayers pay for it through the School Lunch program.
RSA
I predict weak sales of chips and guacamole in red areas of the country, with Obama derangement being even more powerful than salty fatty goodness.
NotMax
Remember back when potato chips came in a crinkly cellophane bag, 1/3 of them were already crumbled into teensy bits and one could use the inside of the bag to slick down a stubborn cowlick?
Don’t miss those snack encounters at all.
(And boy, to this day, the grief I get when I sometimes bring unsalted pretzels or unsalted mixed nuts as snackage for our regular Saturday night gatherings.)
geg6
My snack food of choice is caramel flavored rice cakes. You will all think I’m nuts but I love them.
We have the usual bumper crop of zucchini and yellow squash, so I’m making stuffed zucchini for dinner tonight. Rainy ugly day here, so I’m just going to laze around the house until dinner and then settle in to watch The Butler on DVR.
OzarkHillbilly
@rikyrah: Amen.
NotMax
Having a much more frustrating time finding flights from Maui to NYC and back this year than last. Prices are crazy high, and some of the layovers are incredible – on some affordable flights ranging from 6 to 11 hours. The search continues….
OzarkHillbilly
@geg6:
Recipe?
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
I’ve been meaning to ask about something related: This Yahoo! News piece pats Obama on the head for reacting more forcefully to the MH17 shootdown on Friday than on Thursday — recovering from what the writer calls a “wobbly” first reaction. Whereas the only difference I noticed was that Obama was careful on Thursday not to get ahead of the evidence; but waited for confirmation of a missile strike before calling it that.
Mustang Bobby
Day One of house-sitting for a friend and his dog and cat. Already I have proved the theory that to a dog you’re family; to a cat you’re staff. Ben the beagle is already following me around and showing me his belly while Madam the cat is in her place on the couch and radiating disapproval until feeding time rolls around. Then she disappears to her secret lair where I think she consults the Feline’s Manifesto For Ruling the World and draws up her plans.
If you don’t hear from me by Thursday, I’ll be that strange smell in the crawlspace.
big ole hound
@BillinGlendaleCA: I’m in the East Bay and we actually had a brief rain shower on Tuesday evening. Sat in a lawn chair to feel the sensation of “sky water”.
MattF
@Amir Khalid: You’re just missing the point– no matter what, it’s Obama’s fault.
c u n d gulag
@Mustang Bobby:
ROTFLMAO!!!
Here’s what I learned cat-sitting a long time ago:
Keep a water piston handy, just in case.
And aim at the cat’s nose!
They HATE that! I think to them, that’s feline waterboarding.
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
Did Edna Mode have a rule re underpants on the outside?
amk
@Amir Khalid:
Obama doesn’t do mcdonalds journalism. You should see the whiny wh press corpse (sic) bitch and moan on twitter just because his PC was a few minutes delayed yesterday.
scav
@Mustang Bobby: If that cat is visible on the first day it is unlike most I’ve sat for. After about a week of solitude, they tend to appear — some merely to disagree with my feeding regime (or attempt a treat scam) and others to stock up on on-demand physical affection. There are a few I’m not sure I could pick out of a line-up.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Heh. If cats had the gumption to feed themselves they wouldn’t need us.
Josie
Anne Laurie: Mmmmm, potato chips – the only possible food to accompany a sandwich. And none of those silly flavored ones. Just good old fashioned crispy potato chips.
Amir Khalid
Reports of pro-Russian rebels messing about with the MH17 crash site, moving bodies and wreckage around, keeping international investigators away, from the Guardian liveblog. Bob in Portland must be watching his inbox anxiously for the email with the talking points.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Cats do have the gumption to feed themselves. They’re just too smart to expend needless effort when there are humans around who will voluntarily feed them.
Mustang Bobby
@OzarkHillbilly: When I last house-sat for my friends all they had was a cat… a different one than this one. I stopped by twice a day — morning and evening — to refill the food dish and change the water. I never saw the cat the entire time. I knew it was alive because the food would disappear and I didn’t smell a corpse, but I couldn’t affirm in a court of law that it even existed.
Ben the beagle, on the other hand, is totally a pack animal. I’m never out of his sight. I’m about to head back to my house to do the laundry for a couple of hours and I expect a welcome back from him with everything but candy and a stripper.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
The President wants to get,you know, facts, before he speaks about something.
Sigh.
How dare him..who does he think he is…The President of the United States?
MattF
@Amir Khalid: BiP must be scouring the nets for proof that the flight was transporting Nazis from the Amazonian jungles for duty in Kiev.
Villago Delenda Est
I don’t know if I’d refer to the likes of Gohmert as “grownups”, but FLOTUS is fundamentally correct.
The insane worship of Mammon is destroying this country. It must stop, or we are doomed, and we’re going to take the entire species with us at the rate we’re going.
Villago Delenda Est
@amk: The press corpse needs to be spanked.
At a minimum.
Of course, you’re all aware of my solution to the whining babies of the press corpse.
shelley
Chex Mix! Homemade is best, but a store-bought bag is my occasional guilty pleasure.
Gin & Tonic
@MattF: Doesn’t look like the war of public opinion is going very well. I know the London press is pretty excitable, but take a look here at a summary. It’s a Belarussian (Byelorussian) site, but all you need to see is the one picture.
geg6
@OzarkHillbilly:
2 large zucchinis, halved lengthwise
1 1/2 lbs. ground beef
1 10 oz. can condensed tomato soup
1/2 10oz. can water
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tablespoon Italian seasonings
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 cup shredded Italian cheese blend
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil. Scoop seeds and flesh from zucchinis halves with a spoon, leaving hollowed out shells. Discard seeds and half the flesh. Put remaining flesh in a large bowl.
Mix ground beef, tomato soup, water, bell pepper, bread crumbs, egg, Italian seasoning and garlic powder with zucchini flesh. Spoon into zucchini shells. Arrange stuffed zucchini on prepared baking sheet.
Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on zucchinis and continue baking until cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 more minutes.
Yum.
Richard Bottoms
Fucking Charles Widmore is at it again.
JCT
@Mustang Bobby: Beagles are hilarious. I used to give mine a biscuit every day when I left for work. She made the connection between my getting dressed and then leaving , so NOW, whenever I change a single article of clothing she starts dancing and begging. She’s 12 now and still acts like a human toddler. Silly doggie.
MattF
@Richard Bottoms: This reminded me of old Radovan Karadzic’s claim that those piles of dead Bosnians were actually artfully arranged corpses taken from local morgues. In any event, claims like that are not a good sign.
Villago Delenda Est
@Richard Bottoms: I expect BiP to be echoing this, to include “they were all fascist sympathizers of the Ukrainian SS to begin with”.
JoyfulA
@c u n d gulag: Sign up for your local Freecycle.org. Weekly or so, someone’s giving away a vacuum cleaner on my local.
schrodinger's cat
You and me both, Anne Laurie. Love potato chips, especially the kettle cooked kind. Cape Cod is my favorite brand.
tom
@another Holocene human:
Fat isn’t bad for kids, too much fat is. Same with sugar though to a lesser degree in my opinion. Replacing whole milk with low-fat (or as it should be called “sugar added”) milk is a mistake with the new/promoted food standards. If using whole milk gives them too much fat in their diet then lower the portion size of fat, don’t increase the portion size of sugar to off-set it.
jake the antisoshul soshulist
Potato chips! Slowly I turned.
When confronted with a bag of plain classic potato chips, I go into a mode resembling sharks in a feeding frenzy or zombies
with a plateful of brains.
Mnemosyne (iPhone)
Sitting under the hairdryer waiting for my color to set. Then the haircut, and I’m ready to face a passel of relations next month.