This past weekend I was in the Val D'Orcia of Southeastern Tuscany, which I will write more about later, but it meant that I had a long flight back to New York from Pisa. One of my favorite activities when I am on a plane is reading through Sky Mall magazine. I love to read about all of the different inventions that people come up with and actually try to sell. Maybe I am too cynical, and people do actually buy some of these things, but I never cease to be amazed at the amount of machines that people invent to do the simplest things. My top pick from my last flight was the Westbend Egg & Muffin Toaster. The machine toasts two slices of bread, cooks an egg (steamed, poached, or scrambled), and warms pre-cooked meat. They also point out that the machine could also be used to warm pineapple slices. Oh, well that is exactly what I have been waiting for, because I often would like to put pineapple slices on my eggs and toast, but it is too much of a pain to warm them up! This brings me to the title of my entry, "It's Called a Pan People!". Seriously. Save yourself some space, and cook your egg in a pan. You are going to have to cook the meat in the pan anyway, because the handy machine only warms up pre-cooked meat anyway. As for toasting the bread, use a toaster. Or the same pan.

Growing up we had a lot of cookbooks. Usual suspects, Greens, Moosewood, Silver Palate- that type. I would leaf through the pages and delighted in reading every recipe (or at least the dessert recipes). But there was one that I religiously avoided: Beard on Bread. I never actually opened the book- somehow I took it's title too literally— the image of some hippy-looking man with his beard all over a loaf of bread ingrained in my mind. Disgusting.
This past fall my mom sent me several cookbooks to help me settle into my new apartment. And there it was. Beard on Bread had returned to me.

And I like it.

On Sunday I made banana bread, and mostly followed his recipe. Well. Half the recommended amount of sugar, a few spoonfuls of ricotta cheese, and for no reason in particular, I added 2 pinches of coriander. It was good.

Artificial sweeteners have been on my mind lately. The other day on the news I saw a report on why doctors are saying that artificial sweeteners may inhibit people’s ability to lose weight. It spoke about how most people turn to artificial sweeteners when they want to cut calories, but that this hurts the body’s ability to metabolize sugar, so that the next time they are eaten, the body processes them at a slower rate, causing weight gain. The logic behind this made perfect sense to me, and ever since I heard the report, I have been trying to get a grasp on how artificial sweeteners might be contributing to our obesity problem. I also think that artificial sweeteners allow us to not be accountable for everything we put into our bodies, and thus we lose our grasp on moderation. I think that it must be true that people have a harder time processing sugar if they deprive their bodies of it, but I also know that most people probably eat too much sugar in the first place, making the middle ground somewhat inconceivable.
You might have seen the Splenda commercial that is aired on the television about a mom facing a “sugar situation” in the morning. Her eyes dart around the room while she is preparing breakfast, and spots all of the foods she will feed her family, and how all of them need sugar: the grapefruit, the cereal, and the coffee. I was horrified by this ad, because I think it sends so many wrong messages to people who might be truly concerned about the health of their family. First of all, let me say that grapefruits do not need sugar. I peel mine and eat it like an orange. If you find it too pungent, then put a dab of honey (a dab). I have also heard of people mellowing their flavor with olive oil (again, only a dab). Secondly, most cereals are overly sweetened already, and do not require additional sugar. Instead of feeding children sugary cereals, or topping them with artificial sweeteners, we should be feeding them natural products, like oatmeal, and sweetening them ourselves with honey, agave nectar, or organic cane sugar. More importantly, we should be getting them used to enjoying foods that are not sweet in the first place.
Sugar is like an addiction. The sweeter things are, the more we like them, the sweeter we want them. I see this with myself all of the time. If anyone has issues with sweeteners it is I, which is why I am so interested in this topic. I have been using Stevia as a sweetener for about a year now, in addition to organic cane sugar. Stevia is a no-calorie sweetener from South America, which has been derived from herbs for a very long time. Even though I am content with my all-natural sweetener, in the end my downward spiral into sweetness is the same. The more I get used to sweetening my food, the sweeter I want it, the sweeter I make it. The only thing that I see being a solution for this dilemma that we all face is getting used to not eating such sweet foods all of the time. Once I got used to eating grapefruits without sugar on top, I realized that I truly loved all of the aspects of their flavor – the tanginess, the sourness, the sweetness. When I was topping them with sugar, I was only letting myself enjoy the sweet. I mentioned oatmeal earlier. When I started eating oatmeal for breakfast, I would barely sweeten it. That way, I was able to get to know the real flavor of oatmeal, and the subtle flavors that are found in the grain. Nowadays, I add blueberries and a little agave nectar, but when I add too much sugar, I know that I am missing out on the real flavor of the oats.
By using artificial sweeteners, we are allowing ourselves to overly indulge in sweetness. We are taking the accountability away from our eating and our moderation. If you think you are eating something without calories, you think that you are safe, and that you are free to do it as much as you want. While in fact, we should be accountable for everything that eat. Only then will we be able to respect our bodies and lose weight.
Because losing weight is not about eating more of something, it is about learning moderation and balance. There is nothing wrong with having a decadent piece of chocolate cake or putting a teaspoon of honey into your tea. But if you are going to do it, do it right, with real ingredients, not artificial ones, and enjoy it for what it is worth. And the rest of the time, enjoy foods that are not sweet, because it makes you appreciate them more. We can wean ourselves off of sugar, and we must do it.

If you have never been to Beard Papa for a cream puff, then you are really missing out. Emma told me about them a little bit over a year ago. She had eaten them in LA, and was excited that in New York they had a few locations. I was skeptical at first, because I could not quite grasp what "Beard Papa" meant. It certainly did not sound like the name of a place where I would find the most delicious cream puffs in the world. But I trusted her, because Emma is always right about places like these.

The BP "Cream Puffs" are sort of like a cross between a profiterole and an eclair. It is a choux pastry (a dry and airy dough) that is pumped full with the most delicious creamy custard ever. I have eaten many fine French profiteroles and eclairs in my life, but not one could compare to the perfected texture of the Beard Papa cream puff. The cloud-like pastry dough is perfectly airy and slightly crispy to the bite, and the custard is light and flavorful. Even my mother, who is the most skeptical foodie I know, sings their praises.

Everyday you can find the classic vanilla and the eclair (classic vanilla with a chocolate coating on top of the dough) flavors, but each day of the week there is also another featured flavor that changes. Thursday's is pumpkin, and Tuesdays we know is Green Tea. They are so delicious and satisfying, that on this cold February day, it was one of the only things that could make us smile.

After finishing "In Defense of Food" by Michael Pollan, I keep thinking about how I have been hosting Kitchen Caravan. Initially, we thought that we would help people learn about nutrition from informing them about all of the nutrients in the ingredients that we use. While I still think that educating people about healthy foods is important, I am not so sure that I want to make people obsess about what has vitamin A and what has vitamin E. We should all just be able to enjoy an apple, not because it is full of fiber or vitamins or whatever, but because it is simply an apple, and not only is it good for us, but we enjoy eating it. In his book, Pollan talks about how foods have been stripped down to their nutrient contents. Food companies then can inject the nutrient into a food product, and convince us that it is healthy. I think that in the future we will look at ingredients in a more holistic sense, and not zone in so much on the minutiae of the food's nutritional profile. We all need to just relax, and trust our senses when it comes to eating. Let's not worry so much about the chemical make up of an almond, and just enjoy it as a little snack before dinner.