kitchenmage

An Obama wordle...and a hungry child

This has little to do with food, but I figure there must be one or two of you who are also word geeks, political geeks (oh yeah, everyone is a political geek this week!), or just plain curious. Besides, since breaking my arm, I have been mostly banished from the kitchen because, well, let's just say that when I cut an onion and cry, it's not about the Syn-propanethial-S-oxide.

So I have been reading a lot, watching endless political TV and playing on twitter just a bit. In the process, I have discovered all sorts of time-sucks, er, I mean cool and useful web tools, One of my favorites is Wordle,

Wordle, in case you have missed it, is this marvelous tool that lets you create custom word clouds using a piece of text, an RSS feed, or even someone's del.icio.us tags. It's a great way to get a quick impression of someone's writing, giving you a quick visual of the topics they address and an idea of their style.

A number of websites have started to use them to illustrate various things. One of my favorites is cookthink, which attaches one to its cookthink questionnaires, which uses a wordle of each person's RSS feed to give you a snapshot of the person being interviewed. Some of the wordles there have one or two clear favored topics, like Julie Biuso's champagne, or Carol Fenster's chocolate.(Note to self: bookmark their sites...)

One word that everyone uses a lot? "Favorite." That's good because it means people are writing about food they truly love. The interviews are interesting, too. Check them out if you haven't yet.

But that's not why we're here...

Giveaway: Ferrero Chocolate Christmas Trees

Every once in a while, the conversation here at Casa Kokopelli turns to a favorite topic: If you could solve one global problem, what would it be?

My answer varies only in detail, the essence of it remaining the same over the years: End world hunger.

It's just one small thing. Is that really asking too much?

I try to do what I can in my own small way. Many occasions that call for gifts result in a donation to my local food bank in honor of the event and my personal charitable giving is largely directed towards feeding people. One year we had a blast making Christmas breakfast for the kids and families at a Ronald McDonald House. Friends who come to visit, hungry or not, are likely to leave with bags of food: homemade goodies, pantry staples, 25 pound bags of rice...it's all been handed to someone at one time or another.

I like feeding people.

Adequate food is a human right!

Today is the 60th birthday of one of my favorite documents: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UN has a special anniversary page up where you can get the DHR in 360 languages to share with your friends.

As a food-writer, I want to point to article 25, which starts:

(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. (emphasis mine)

Simple stuff on paper, but the reality? Not so much.

Since  typing is still hard for me, I'd like you to create your own vision of hunger for me - and share it in comments if you wish. Close your eyes and remember a time when you were really hungry. Not 'nothing since lunch and it's 9pm hungry' but 'it's the 28th and no shopping for 5 days hungry.' What did it feel  like: physically, emotionally, socially? Many of us can remember the gnawing of a truly empty stomach; the horrible choice of feeding our kids or ourselves, but not both; or standing in a foodbank line for hours. (Sadly, I can pull all three of these scenarios from memory.)

Imagine that you live with that every day of your life. Hungry. Every. Day.

Now go to Feeding America (Second Harvest) and give generously. Or pack up a bag for your local foodbank. Or take an unemployed friend grocery shopping. Whatever you choose, please do something to help another person achieve the food security we all deserve.

Dish up literacy! Dine out for a good cause

Eat out on Thursday, September 18, at a Dish Up Literacy restaurant and they will donate a at least 20% of their proceeds to help provide new books and reading resources to children in need.  Dish Up Literacy, a benefit for Page Ahead Children’s Literacy Program, allows diners to put books in the hands of kids simply by going out to eat.

There are a number of great restaurants participating: Julia's, Macrina Bakery, FX McRory's, Ten Mercer and others.  If you aren't in Seattle, there are options for you, too. One of my favorite local breakfast cafes, The Place Family Restaurant is even involved. Must be my excuse to eat Northwest Eggs Benedict (made with crab cakes instead of Canadian Bacon).  Check out who's participating at Dish Up Literacy.

A Taste for Reading benefit lunch (Seattle)

Food and books, two of my favorite things, come together next week in Seattle at A Taste for Reading(pdf), a benefit luncheon for Page Ahead. Even better, there is entertainment from an as yet unannounced school group, so you get your dose of cute kids too. Page Ahead is a children's literacy program that distributes books to kids and encourages parent and community active involvement in reading with children.

A Taste for Reading happens next Wednesday, April 9, at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center on Seattle’s Waterfront. Lunch will be served at 11:30, with the entertainment at noon. They are even promising that it will end "promptly at 1" so you can all scurry back to work. A donation will be requested (the meal is valued at ~30) and contributions over 250 will be matched.

To make (required) reservation, drop them email or call 206.461.0123.

Menu for Hope: We have a winner!

The oh-so-busy Pim has posted the list of Menu for Hope prize winners over at Chez Pim. More important than any individual winner, though, is the total. We collectively raised over $90,000. That's about a 50% increase over last year's total. Pretty darned good for a bunch of cheese sandwich freaks fans.

I am really excited to be able to start on my very, special 'cookies for Carolyn Comiskey' - Hey, I even got an alliterative winner! Do you suppose she'll like chocolate? Coconut? Creamy fillings? We will all have to wait and see what creative confection Carolyn inspires but in the meantime, go see if you won anything.

Menu for hope

Menu for Hope is a charity auction that benefits the UN World Food Programme. Led by Pim of Chez Pim, Menu for Hope raised over 60,000 last year. Here's a bit of how it works, from Pim:

Each year, food bloggers from all over the world join forces to host the Menu for Hope online raffle, offering an array of delectable culinary prizes.  For every US$10, the donor receive a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of their choice.  This year, the prizes include once in a lifetime experiences such as touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià, dining on a historic British meal prepared by Heston Blumenthal, or joining Harold McGee on a lunch date to satisfy a lifetime's worth of cooking curiosity.  You can also tag along with your favorite blogger on a tour of their favorite markets, restaurants, or even receive a care package fashioned especially for you from your favorite bloggers themselves.  All you need is $10 and a bit of luck.

This is my first year participating in the event, and seeing the sorts of prizes Pim lists above, I am thinking I will have to bid on a number of things as well. Coming up with a prize that will stand out just a smidge amongst the things that are likely to be up for bid - seriously, Adria, Blumenthal, and McGee - was a daunting task but I think I came up with something bid-worthy.

Are you ready for Menu for Hope?

If it's December, it's time to help feed the world!

Well, actually it's always time to feed the world but I am especially aware of it now, when the wind turns icy in the late afternoon dusk and the thought of sitting with a mug of hot tea and a warm laptop is downright inviting. How fortunate I am in that comfort. Many of you too, I am guessing.

Not everyone is quite so lucky, however, but we can help.

There are, of course, local food banks and shelters that can use your help now more than ever. America's Second Harvest is a great organization and can help you find a food bank in your area.

Think more local than even that too. Know a college student who could use a home-cooked meal with leftovers to go? Invite them over, and make extra food to be sure
there are leftovers. (Sure that's an old mom trick but I have yet to be refused when I innocently say, "How ever did I end up with two chickens for the four of us? Take one home...?")

Or you can go global...

do you support public radio?

If you are one of those folks who donate to public radio, please consider doing so tomorrow to  KMUN in Astoria, Oregon between 10-12 (west coast) tomorrow. someoneElse will be on All Kinds of Folk and it's pledge drive time so I am angling for quick donations and thus more music, less begging.

There are rumors of me having to speak too. One can only hope the rumors are not true because, while I like music, I know nothing about it. "I gave it a ten because it's got a good beat and you can knead bread to it!" is my fallback position. Again, I think more money=less talk - in which case, I may be writing checks myself!

The KMUN audio stream is available online, either via their preferred method, which involves installing software that lets your machine host bits of the stream (meaning your upstream bandwidth and some hard drive space) or my preferred method of snagging the stream here and plugging it into something like Windows Media Player.

If you decide to contribute, please tell the nice person on the phone that you are a friend of kitchenMage. I'd love to feel a presence from the food-people out there. Sort of like a big invisible hug while I am in radioland, which is so not my usual hangout.

KMUN
Donation info page
Donate here
503.325.0010
1.800.528.0010

climate convergence in skamokawa this week

In the midst of global climate change and with the lack of a sane energy policy at the front of many people in evenTinierTown's minds, there is a bit of hope on the horizon - or at least a great weekend.

The west coast Climate Convergence is slated for this week in Skamokawa, WA (yep, evenTinierTown is on the map!). During this event, a lot of crunchy granola folks will converge on evenTinierTown, talk climate change, party and listen to people like Starhawk speak. (hmmm, are there people 'like' Starhawk?)