What We’re Reading – The Sad State of School Lunches, Drink More Coffee, Outdoor Pizza, Lost Italian Cheese, Wine Spritzer
Grist (Nine-year-old’s lunch blog shames school into making changes) – Maybe we all need to starting shaming schools throughout the world so they stop serving subsidized garbage to children or just create a blog showcasing what type of lunches are actually served, per 9 year old Martha Payne’s actions. We recommend making from scratch lunches for your child but if h/she must eat a school lunch then urge your local school system to serve adequate school lunches.
New England Journal of Medicine (Association of Coffee Drinking with Total and Cause-Specific Mortality) – Is there an association between consuming coffee and death? The short answer is no, so go ahead and enjoy your morning cup!
SeriousEats (The Pizza Lab: We Test The New and Improved KettlePizza Grill Insert) – Have you ever wanted to make pizza on your grill but wished it could perform like an authentic pizza oven? We actually haven’t wished that we could make pizza on our grill but the folks over at SeriousEats have tested the “KettlePizza” insert and they weren’t impressed. The test results reinforce our long held belief: you shouldn’t own a kitchen gadget that doesn’t have more than one use (or under performs, of course).
Bon Appetit (300,000 Wheels of Cheese Destroyed in Italian Earthquake) – The recent earthquake in northern Italy unfortunately caused damage to beautiful old structures and claimed the lives of a few Italian citizens. Less important, but still a sad occurrence, 300,000 wheels of Grana Padano and Parmigiano-Reggiano were lost in the region of Emilia-Romagna.
NY Times Magazine (It’s Time to Update the Wine Spritzer) – Growing up in a family that only drank homemade wine I often observed a few of my uncles dilute our homemade red with seltzer or lemon/lime based soda, ice cubes, and big wedges of fresh lemon. In a sense, my Uncles were creating wine spritzers and both off-setting the heavy alcohol content in our homemade red and battling the intense summer heat in New Jersey. The NY Times takes a more sophisticated approach to the wine spritzer but the spirit is the same (viz., using wine as a mixer in a great cocktail or drink).
