Where to buy Olestra Oil (Olean)?

Made with Olean brand fat replacer.

So I'm making my french fries today and something occurs to me. It's occurred before. I mean, olive oil is great an oil, but why in the year 2012 can't they produce an oil with no fat. Then I correct myself and say "They do Liv!" and remember the fat-free (Olean) chips I buy. They're fried in Olestra oil, but I don't ever recollect seeing bottles of the stuff available at the supermarket. Surely this most be very lucrative. If everyone fried in fat-free oil, would it not shed hundreds of millions of pounds of fat from Americans diets? The resulting pressure over the North American continental plate would be lifted, causing a massive earthquake, and create uplift to reverse rising sea levels caused by global warming. So why in the world don't we have Olestra available to consumers?

So why don't they? I figured now is as good of time as ever to find out. Some quick searching didn't come up with much other then some FDA nonsense restricting it to a few items. No reason why, it just is.

A similar ethos appears to be responsible for the agency's reprehensible treatment of the fat substitute, Olestra. Even as government public-health officials are telling us to eat less and exercise more — in order to combat the nation's worsening epidemic of obesity, which now kills 300,000 people a year — they are also restricting an excellent tool for controlling the intake of fat and calories. In 1996, following an eight-year review, the FDA approved Olestra, a cooking oil that adds no fat or calories to food. (Olestra is a molecule of table sugar covalently linked to soybean or cottonseed oil, and is too large for the body to absorb or digest.) But they only allowed its use in chips, crackers, and other ''savory snacks," though Olestra can also be used instead of margarine, lard, butter, and oils in frying, baking, and sauteing. Moreover, Olestra is the most-tested food substance in history, having been subjected to far more trials than most prescription drugs.

I'm still not sure I understand "Why?" So my first thought that comes to mind, if I can't get it in the US can I get it outside the US? I admittedly have done this with many regulated substances, frustrated by America's nonsense with itself and food or drugs. I'm not the only one. Talk to any senior citizen within a bus-ride of Canada or Mexico, and they'll tell you when to sign up for the caravan for meds, but sadly, I haven't found it's available elsewhere, unless someone knows something I don't....

Till the situation changes, I'll be using my tried and true method of tossing, or rubbing my foods in a bowl to lightly coat it in oil and baking.

Why Is Pork & Sauerkraut a New Years Tradition?

Why Is Pork & Sauerkraut a New Years Tradition?

Shannon got looking up Welsh New Years traditions the other day and discovered the concept of divination where you take egg whites in water, and they're to spell our the initials of your suitor. Of course we also had mince pies. 

Being also of part German, I remember Grandma saying "Pork & Sauerkraut" was good luck. I've always been a big fan of pork kielbasa and sauerkraut personally, and it's a fairly common southern meal here in the south as it's commonly served with Macaroni. The reason for the luck? Pork from a "fat" pig, means a "abundant" year ahead, and the kraut, being from green cabbage resembles money. "ich habe Schwein gehabt," or I have had pig," which means colloquially that: I have had good luck!"

Speaking of the south, found this tidbit interesting:

African Americans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries made one of the most enduring contributions to the modern holiday. Starting in the Carolinas but extending throughout the South, hoppin' John and greens became traditional New Year's fare, black-eyed peas bringing luck and the rice (which swelled in the cooking) and greens (like money) bringing prosperity. ---Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, Andrew F. Smith [Oxford University Press:New York] 2004, Volume 2 (p. 189-90)

Where to buy rectangle school cafeteria pizza?

Jean jackets, New Kids on the Block, and Square Pizza.

People come in and out of our lives, as do foods. Some, like cafeteria food probably should remain as some distant memory, but often like myself and others, you'll reach the age of thirty-something and ask yourself "Whatever happened to that square / rectangle pizza from elementary school?" It might hit as a pregnancy craving, or simply a nostalgia yearning, but when it hits, you'll end up asking "Where can I buy it?"

The interesting thing is you can't. (Unless you can bribe the High School lunch lady.) School pizza is made low-fat, and in bulk, and when I was asked to locate some, you realize that humouring your inner child might be harder than you think. But ultimately I'm here to help, and my crack research staff did turn up some findings.

Now where to buy square chocolate milks?

The square pizza you remember from 1985, while trading Garbage Pail Kids, at the lunch-room table is called Commodity Pizza, and it's made by Tony's. (There are other imitators, but Tony's is the real deal.) What you'll need to do is contact a local food distributor in your area, and order a case of their 4x6 pizzas, and arrange to pick it up. The cost is about $50.

Tony's Commodity Pizza Item Numbers

• 63495 Pepperoni

• 78456 Sausage

• 63572 Cheese

Greasy and Delicious.

Probably the simplest method is to order it online is from Schwan's, (we've also heard Gordon Food Service offers it too, but they only service a few states.) however I have been asked to provide a recipe for rectangle cafeteria pizza, in the rare case you can't convince yourself to pay $50 for a box of edible memories. Rather than suggest a dough, (flour, water, baking powder) my suggestion is to buy a Pillbury read-made pizza dough, add some sauce and buy some low fat cheese. (If you're adamant on making your own, just Google "no yeast pizza dough.") It's as close as you're going to get. Honestly. There are two key characteristics of square cafeteria pizza that are important; one, they use low-fat cheese, such as Cabot's brand 1% or 2%. Two, the dough is non-yeast risen. As far as the pepperoni, I've never found commercially available square pepperoni in that style, though it would be possible to buy a whole link of sausage and dice it, I find the style of pepperoni superfluous. Really, you're worth $50 anyhow... so let your younger you have a pizza party, and blow milk out your nose giggling from the fun.

Bassahi Burgers | Horse Meat Recipe

An outdoor cookout (roast) of horse meat. 

"I'm so hungry, I could eat a... "

Let's talk about horse meat, a common staple of food in Japan (known as Bassahi) and many other countries. While it remains taboo in America, there's not really any rational reason not to eat horse. (Some cultures despise our eating rabbit and cow.) Even if you're disgusted by the idea, the plain fact, is you may have already consumed some. Annually more than 20,000 tons are imported into the U.S., some marketed delicacies to serve those accustomed to the meat, and many others who have a taste for exotic foods; but, some are imported by ways of fillers in sausage and other meat products that are labeled as beef or pork. Indeed, the next time you open a can of your favorite spaghetti sauce, you may be in fact ingesting horse:

Horse meat is commonly sold at grocer's in Japan.

NY TIMES - Berlin, July 23 1905 - The considerable increase in the prices of beef, mutton, and pork throughout the empire gives occasion to the trade organ of the German butchers to draw attention to the ever-increasing use of horseflesh as an article of diet. Horseflesh is more free from parasites than beef and pork, and richer in nutrient. It is only sentiment (says the trade journal) which leads so many persons to object to it. Horseflesh dealers are unable to execute all the orders which reach them.

In Berlin there are 200 slaughterhouses for horses, and in the suburbs fifty, employing about 1,000 men. The Berlin municipality intends shortly to provide a large central slaughter house. One of Hamburg's best known products is horseflesh sausages. The industry has already been in existence for fifty years. A considerable quantity of these sausages, it might be mentioned, are exported as beef sausages. Probably 6,000 horses are slaughtered every year in Hamburg for food. Not long ago in Berlin the owner of a certain restaurant invited about fifty of his friends to a banquet, at which dishes of beef and horseflesh were served, and only six of those present were able to distinguish between the roast beef and the roast horse.

Even better, based on Biology growth of Animals, horses produce muscle mass quicker making them a better choice than even cows for society and a good eat to boot. So all that leaves is the horse meat recipe, which is also quite delicious to make of any animal you can grind up in your kitchen:

A1  Style Bassahi Horse Burger Recipe

Ingredients:

Here in another country, horse meat is being prepared.

• hamburger buns
• ground horse meat (or beef, rabbit, or zebra)
• sliced mushrooms
• cheese (Swiss, Gruyere, or sharp cheddar) 
• sliced onions
•  butter 
• A1 brand steak sauce
•  lettuce 
• tomato Slices
• mayonnaise 
• salt and pepper

Method:

1. Sauté sliced onions and mushrooms with butter over medium-high heat.
2. Cook horse patties till medium well and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Melt your favorite cheese on top.
4. Top with mushrooms, lettuce and tomato.
5. Add mayonnaise to the bun lid, and smother in A-1

Of course these are a hoot at your next neighborhood cook-out. Don't tell anyone what's in them till the rave reviews are in, then spring it on them that it's a delicious horse burger.

Horse, it's what's for dinner.

Rawley's Bacon Fried Hot Dogs

Rawley's Drive-In
"You'll Relish the Flavor!"

Let's be frank, most people have yet to have a fried hot-dog. If they did there would really be no other way to eat them. Sure, occasionally you're going to get a hankering for a dirty water hot-dog from New York, or a Chicago Char-Dog, but the crisped, charred outer skin of a fried hot dog is something all together amazing. You "crunch" into it and the juices squirt, as the flavors explode in your mouth. For years they've been served up in the south, like where I get them, at my concession stand at the local drive-in theater in Eden, NC, but they became somewhat of a national craze when Martha Stewart mentioned Rawley's in Fairfield, Connecticut as her favorite food. Seems a bit uncouth for such a proper woman, but I digress, she did do jail time. Once Martha came out of the closet, several other food celebrities jumped on the band wagon until it was a national craze, and people started making them at home.

Bacon Fried Hot-Dogs.

Rawley's has been serving up hot-dogs and milkshakes since 1946.

Now if you don't have a deep-fryer, and don't want to waste $5.00 on a bottle oil, then you can just shallow fry your choice of hot-dog with about a 1/4 cup of oil. Rawley's deep fried dogs are actually fried then grilled, so this remains true to their style. Top it how you like; Rawley's "The Works" is typically relish, mustard, kraut and bacon, but I'm personally a big fan of this, my own creation:

Fried Chili Cheese Dogs:

Deep fried hot-dog goodness.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of hot dogs. (Rawley's uses Hummel Brothers brand)
• 1/4 cup of oil.
• Chopped bacon
• Chili (prepared prior)
• Onions
• Butter (optional)
• Mustard
• Shredded Sharp Cheese

Method: 

Grilled Onions

1. Place oil in frying pan and heat at 3/4 mark till oil begins to slightly smoke.
2. Slice hot-dogs, long-ways, partially through and fry face down for about two minutes.
3. Flip hot dogs, fry the outside, add the chopped onions and fry.
4. If you really want to go out, take some melted butter and brush the inside of your buns. Rawley's of course dry toasts their's on the grill, but I prefer mine in the French fashion.
5. Fry your chopped bacon, and then assemble hot-dog and top with mustard and cheese.

The final product: The world's best hot-dog.