Cooking 4 Four

Even though my blogging has slowed down considerably, especially in terms of actual scientific content, I've decided to launch another blog - Cooking 4 Four. This second blog is going to be a more personal and focused space, reserved for food-related topics and issues. Food in general, and healthy, local, organic, sustainable, home cooked food in particular have become an increasingly more passionate subject in my life, especially in terms of providing a healthy lifestyle for my family. Cooking 4 Four is an attempt to capture and share that passion.

At the moment, there is just a single, "welcome" post over there, but hopefully in the coming days, it will begin to fill up and take on the identity I have envisioned for it. Hopefully "from A to Z" will shape up soon as well - perhaps the focus I give Cooking 4 Four will help me re-find the focus here. Anyways, since there's nothing new to read here, why not check out the new place. And leave a comment in the welcome post to let me know you stopped by. Thanks!

Chocolate Molluscs

What do you get the molluscophile in your life? Chocolate oysters from the Wellfleet Candy Company, of course! Molded from a real Wellfleet oyster, these gourmet chocolates are the latest rage in invertebrate haute cuisine.

I haven't had one of these yet, but the Boathouse, Mayo Beach, and West Side varieties sound delicious.

Michael Pollan lecture

For those in the Providence area:

Michael Pollan, author of The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food, will be speaking at Brown tomorrow night (Thursday, Feb. 21) at 6pm.

I recently read The Omnivore's Dilemma which I found outstanding. It was well-written, entertaining, and educational. I was particularly shocked about what I learned concerning the corn industry. Though I was already a aligned with the organic, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, locally-grown, free-range ideals, this book helped focus my energy on realizing some of them better. If his writing is any indication of his speaking ability, this should be an excellent lecture.

I'm planning on being there and then probably heading out for some "Green Drinks" at Nick-a-Nee's afterwards.

Scallops...it's what's for dinner

Having a brother who works for the National Marine Fisheries Observer Program definitely has its perks. Last night I cooked up scallops that were caught from the Nantucket Lighthouseship Area (NLSA) of George's Bank.

This area is a heavily managed and is only open to scallopers on occasion. It was opened this summer for a brief period of time and my brother was given some of the catch. Actually, I believe his roommate, one of the observers, was given the scallops, but, in any case, some of the scallops made their way to my brother and then he passed some on to me.



So, I cooked em up last night. Nothing fancy - just a simple pan sear in olive oil and served over some lemon orzo and with a glass of Gewürztraminer (note: the photo above is not my dinner, but an image I plundered from the web) . Now, I am by no means a scallop aficionado, but those were some tasty molluscs. Not sure how many pounds of scallops they pulled out of the area, but I'm glad to have gotten a few. Hope they didn't do too much damage while they were there...

I realize now that this post is on the opposite side of the "George's Bank shellfish" fence than one I posted a while back. Seems hypocritical. Probably is. All I can say is that I'm just going to have to trust that the National Marine Fisheries Service knows what they're doing (my brother works with them, right?) and if they say it is OK to open up NLSA to scallopers, then it's OK for me to eat those scallops. Did I mention they were real tasty?