Nothing is more discouraging than staring at a table full of beige food: starchy potatoes, bread, pasta,  rice, even breaded or fatty meats. While some of these are foods I love, when I see a table of beige food, it tells me there is no seasoning whatsoever. Where are the herbs, the spices, the sauces? Where is the flavor? Because beige food doesn’t just look beige, it tastes beige.

One of the things you will notice about the recipes on this site is that the pictures are usually quite colorful. Aside from visual interest, I work hard to incorporate a variety of elements into each dish because I like to offer complete meals: protein, vegetables, herbs and spices, and a starch. Colorful food just seems more appealing, and it is a better balance of nutrients. It’s hard for me to imagine serving fried chicken with white rice and a side of cheesy potatoes, but for some people that is an everyday dinner.

Maybe it is the security of these foods, often referred to as comfort foods, that causes people to follow such a monochromatic diet. I am always a bit awestruck when eating over at someone’s house and the vegetable dish consists of a couple cans of limp vegetables heated in the microwave. The beigeness of American diets has actually gone under some serious scrutiny. Nutrition experts have chastised the lack of variety present in the American meal, full of carbs and empty calories. Just look at the typical fast food meal to illustrate the point: beef patty and bun, french fries, soda, and perhaps a deep fried pie or vanilla ice cream. Just thinking about the sodium content is enough to make me reach for a glass of water!

This is even the subject of some “healthy living” books and “diets” that focus on adding more colorful food to the plate. These are not necessarily weight loss diets, but suggestions on changing overall daily routines by adding more fruits, vegetables, fresh herbs and spices (and therefore reducing the amount of beige food consumed). One such book, What Color is Your Diet? focuses on replacing various beige foods like bread and potatoes with a range of colorful foods.

So here are some tips to help reduce the amount of beige in your diet (without feeling like you’re dieting):

• Swap your starch side dish for pureed vegetables, like sweet potatoes, butternut squash, or cauliflower.
• Add chopped and sauteed veggies to rice dishes.
• Serve pasta as a side or compliment rather than the main dish, like serving stir-fry over rice.
• Look for whole grain pastas, rice, and bread.
• Put a bowl of fresh cut fruit on the dinner table rater than serving dessert.
• Rather than serving food over rice or couscous, try fresh spinach or mixed greens.

Lately, I have been updating the site with recipes and blog entries like a madwoman. Part of it is probably some left over energy from my extended hiatus this spring and summer, but mostly it is because I am gearing up to complete a rather large and ambitious special project. This particular project is going to take things a step further, as I am actually registered for a Liberal Studies Independent Readings course for the semester entitled: What is food?

The purpose of this project is to explore the intrinsic qualities of food and how this is expressed through cultural storytelling. If that sounds like a mouthful, it is. To break it down, there are qualities to food that exist outside of the simple need of eating food to live. We associate emotions and memories to certain foods, such as comfort from a bowl of soup or an image of grandma from the smell of baking cookies. The project will explore how we take these thoughts and create stories, similar to the barrage of cooking memoirs now available that combine recipes with personal stories.

The overall intent of this project is to define how food culture in developed and guided, particularly through the lens of American pop culture. My prelimary answer to the question “What is food?” is that “Food is everything.” I am also using this site as a vehicle for the project, including blog posts that will be considered “assignments” and potentially a resource page relating to food culture and/or storytelling.

Let’s cut to the chase: what does all this mean? Here’s the run down:

• Fewer new recipe posts. There are nearly 400 recipes already on this site and most of my current cooking has been various reincarnations of dishes I have already made, so this is not a detriment to the site.

• More Books for Cooks reviews. As the name suggests, an independent reading project consists of a fair amount of literature. This is exciting because the current Books for Cooks section is quite lacking in variety and substance.

• Regular Bitter/Sweet entries. Consistent project updates will be posted, with discussions ranging from the readings to current events and other related subjects. Not too dissimilar from the current blog, but with a bit more long-term focus.

• Possible design and format changes. There are always updates going on behind the scenes as software becomes out-dated, and there are usually talks of major overhauls on a semi-regular basis. This is not a dramatic departure from the standard mode of operation.

• New categories added. Depending on how I decide to structure this project on the site, there will be new categories on the Bitter/Sweet blog as well as the site in general. It is possible that I will also add additional pages for the information.

To start off the new Winter Brews project, here is a twist on Mexican drinking chocolate. In Mexico, it is common to mix chocolate with cinnamon and milk to make a warm, thick beverage. This recipe uses 1% milk and cocoa powder, making it slightly lighter. Nonfat milk would make it less creamy and a higher fat content milk will make it more creamy, so use the milk you prefer.

New Mexican Hot Cocoa
adapted from Cooking Light

1/2 cup water
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of cloves
4 cups milk, 1% or 1/2%
1 tsp vanilla extract
cinnamon sticks for garnish, optional

Combine water, honey, cocoa powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and cloves in a medium saucepan. Stirring occasionally, bring to a boil. Gradually whisk in milk and vanilla extract. Heat until hot, but do not boil. Remove from heat and serve with a cinnamon stick if desired.

Last year at this time, I posted about the Arctic Tug-A-War in which several nations are clamoring for a place in the arctic and access to its resources. But even with all this attention, no one is taking responsibility to ensure the environmental stability of a fragile ecosystem in peril.

Now, one year later, CNN is again reporting on the struggles in the Arctic. This time around, the climate change is literally making the village of Shishmaref disappear. This tiny village sits on the edge of the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Circle, where increasing global temperatures are thawing the permafrost and causing the coastline to erode and fall into the ocean.

Many other villages on the Alaskan coastline are facing tremendous problems due to global warming, including coastal erosion and flooding. Entire houses have slid away from the shore and fallen into the icy waters. This has caused entire villages to relocate, but some residents are not as quick to move as their neighbors.

For many people in these communities, the ground on which stand holds significant meaning for their cultures and families. By moving, some feel they are losing a piece of themselves. This reluctance to move seems almost crazy, as some houses perch dangerously close to the icy ocean waters.

The people of Shishmaref, known as Inupiat, have a history on this island dating back to the early 1900’s. Considered an indigenous “Indian” or “Eskimo” tribe, the Inupait people have a proud history like many other Native American tribes in the United States. Asking them to give up their land is asking them to give up their history.

The report from CNN, which is incredibly extensive, goes on to site a 2009 Government Accountability Office report that “found that 31 Alaskan villages face ‘imminent threats’ because of coastal erosion, flooding and climate change. At least 12 are at some stage in the relocation process.”

Now the finger pointing begins, blaming every thing from industrialized nations to government to the average person driving an automobile, and of course the talk from skeptics who state that global warming is a myth (see this report on “Climategate“). In the meantime, where are the estimated 150 climate change refugees suppose to go?

It is a complex issue and increasing problem without an easy solution. Rather than asking who is to blame, however, perhaps we should be asking who can and is willing to help?

The holidays have come and gone, but winter is here to stay for at least a couple more months. To help muddle through the cold and gray, here is a new Special Project: Winter Brews. These are tasty beverages to help warm you from the inside-out. This is a must-have for January, when the twinkling lights are put away and it seems like every day becomes little more dark and gray.

Imagine stirring a pot full of wonderful, spicy goodness on the stove, then ladling the brew into a mug and sipping in the warmth on a cold night. That is the idea behind these recipes; beverages that are warming for the heart and the home. This project will consist of easy-to-prepare warm beverages with (mostly) simple ingredients from the pantry. Why send you back out into the cold to fetch a missing item from the store?

Here is a basic list of ingredients to have on hand for Winter Brews:

• Sugar
• Honey
• Cocoa powder or baking chocolate
• Spices such as ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger
• Fine grain salt
• Regular or powdered milk
• Heavy cream
• Instant coffee or espresso

Some recipes may contain other pantry items, for example Peach Horchata calls for rice and frozen peach slices and the recipe for Sbiten includes jam or preserves. Sweetened condensed milk or evaporated milk are also good items to stock in the pantry when making Winter Brews, and of course who doesn’t love a hot beverage garnished with a cinnamon stick?

So, join me for Winter Brews and we’ll sip away the cold and gray together!