New South Wales has wine of the week
2004 Nine Stones Hilltops Shiraz ($13) is this week's pick.
This robust red wine from New South Wales offers a lot of concentration, flavor and aging potential for a moderate price. It has ample blackberry, black-pepper and chocolate flavors, with some earthy and meaty nuances. It comes with a screw cap, which guards against cork contamination.
Serve with grilled red meat.
Shopping list raises multiple questions
The contemporary shopping list, incorporating -- but not limited to - modern health, environmental and animal cruelty concerns:
€ 1 gallon milk (but were the cows treated with bovine growth hormone, and were they kept inside in factory farms?)
€ 4 salmon filets (should I buy over-fished wild salmon (expensive!) or farm-raised (possibly in fouled waters)?
€ 2 pounds ground beef (hmm, lots of possibilities - mad cow disease, inhumane packing plants, crowded feedlots, not grass-fed, E.coli-contaminated?)
€ 1 package chicken breasts (salmonella contamination, with avian flu to come? birds raised in crowded cages; Chesapeake Bay pollution from manure runoff?)
€ 1 dozen eggs (oh, dear, do I buy cage-free or organic? or do I go for the low-priced eggs, good for my budget, but from chickens crammed into battery cages?)
€ 1 pint blackberries (local but not organic? organic but trucked in from Mexico?)
€ 1 pound peaches (on sale at the supermarket, where they've been trucked in from far away? or just-picked and ripe from the farmers market but more expensive?)
€ 1 pound coffee (organic? should I look for the Fair Trade sticker, meaning workers got paid fairly?)
Folk tales and recipes for children
“Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters” is by Jane Yolen; recipes are by Heidi E.Y. Stemple (Interlink, $24.95).
No matter the fate that awaits the fox that stole the grapes, the monk who made Stone Soup, or Little Red Riding Hood, the stories in this illustrated collection have happy endings: recipes.
The author shares 20 classic childhood stories from many parts of the globe, with a type size and brevity that invite reading aloud. Yolen's notes in the margins shed light on the stories' origins, alternative versions and lore about the main ingredients.
And the doable recipes - breakfasts to desserts - have age-spanning appeal, laying out details for equipment and serving suggestions. What else would you do after midnight with a retired coach, asks the headnotes for the recipe that follows “Cinderella?” Make pumpkin tartlets, of course.
International housewares sampler
From Pangea Artisan Market & Cafe in Washington: handcrafted housewares made by skilled artisans in developing countries. Pangea is sponsored by the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group that promotes sustainable business growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America. For more information, Call (202) 872-6432.
- From wire reports
This robust red wine from New South Wales offers a lot of concentration, flavor and aging potential for a moderate price. It has ample blackberry, black-pepper and chocolate flavors, with some earthy and meaty nuances. It comes with a screw cap, which guards against cork contamination.
Serve with grilled red meat.
Shopping list raises multiple questions
The contemporary shopping list, incorporating -- but not limited to - modern health, environmental and animal cruelty concerns:
€ 1 gallon milk (but were the cows treated with bovine growth hormone, and were they kept inside in factory farms?)
€ 4 salmon filets (should I buy over-fished wild salmon (expensive!) or farm-raised (possibly in fouled waters)?
€ 2 pounds ground beef (hmm, lots of possibilities - mad cow disease, inhumane packing plants, crowded feedlots, not grass-fed, E.coli-contaminated?)
€ 1 package chicken breasts (salmonella contamination, with avian flu to come? birds raised in crowded cages; Chesapeake Bay pollution from manure runoff?)
€ 1 dozen eggs (oh, dear, do I buy cage-free or organic? or do I go for the low-priced eggs, good for my budget, but from chickens crammed into battery cages?)
€ 1 pint blackberries (local but not organic? organic but trucked in from Mexico?)
€ 1 pound peaches (on sale at the supermarket, where they've been trucked in from far away? or just-picked and ripe from the farmers market but more expensive?)
€ 1 pound coffee (organic? should I look for the Fair Trade sticker, meaning workers got paid fairly?)
Folk tales and recipes for children
“Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters” is by Jane Yolen; recipes are by Heidi E.Y. Stemple (Interlink, $24.95).
No matter the fate that awaits the fox that stole the grapes, the monk who made Stone Soup, or Little Red Riding Hood, the stories in this illustrated collection have happy endings: recipes.
The author shares 20 classic childhood stories from many parts of the globe, with a type size and brevity that invite reading aloud. Yolen's notes in the margins shed light on the stories' origins, alternative versions and lore about the main ingredients.
And the doable recipes - breakfasts to desserts - have age-spanning appeal, laying out details for equipment and serving suggestions. What else would you do after midnight with a retired coach, asks the headnotes for the recipe that follows “Cinderella?” Make pumpkin tartlets, of course.
International housewares sampler
From Pangea Artisan Market & Cafe in Washington: handcrafted housewares made by skilled artisans in developing countries. Pangea is sponsored by the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group that promotes sustainable business growth in Africa, Asia and Latin America. For more information, Call (202) 872-6432.
- From wire reports
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