Are You Checking Your Labels?

So- (I love starting things off with so)
I worked at the new Plan B last night with one of my favorite Chefs- Tyrone Hunt. This new restaurant is much nicer in the back, with a ton of nice stainless steel equipment- which is a huge turn on to a foodie like myself. I have been working for some time now on my first cookbook, which hopefully will be finished in September and it is exciting to know that Tyrone will be making some tasty additions.

Second- I just finished the most delish dinner I think I have cooked in the whole month of June- it was a Purple Pesto Pasta with Fresh Rosemary-Sage Chicken. Tomorrow I leave for a summer job in the Bay Area and wanted to make a nice romantic, candlelight dinner for my girlfriend. Also earlier today I made a pretty imressive Tuna Sandwich- have recipes and pics but the images are stored on my nice Nikon not the cell phone camera I have been posting with all week- so i have to resize them first. This means I have three recpies or so I have in back-order, so to speak. But that is cool, this will give me something to do next week in the off chance I wont be cooking. This is highly unlikely as I tend to cook anywhere I go.

Now the meat and potatoes (lame-o pun, excuse me) of this post- FOOD LABELS- ARE YOU CHECKING THEM?
What called my attention to this today was a short story my mom shared with me, names withheld. Now i am a food-nut, some would go so far as to say food extremist- but with good cause. This has rubbed off somewhat on my mother (alot more recently apparently), case in point, she is out golfing with a reasonably intelligent engineer friend of hers and he asks if she would like a beverage, to which my mom replies water. He gets a water and an Arizona Iced Tea. Apparently the Chef Everett in my mother shone thru and she asked- "do you think thats healthy- dont you know that it has High Fructose Corn Syrup in it?"
startled, her friend quickly turns it around, examines the label and says, "You know what- your right, i didnt know." And he tossed it!

Now, I got a kick out of my mom's comment, but it also was a reminder that we should ALWAYS check the ingredients on ANY food product that you put in your mouth. Some things are so typical, they can linger under our nutrition radar unchecked possibly forever. However it is best to be familiar with everything you eat, especially anything you intake habitually- many foods today have questionable, unhealthy and even downright toxic ingredients. Some people avoid things more strongly than others but the point remains that it is better to be aware than to not. For example have you seen what this Baskin-Robbins shake has in it? Now, I personally was appalled by the pro-corn syrup ads that were on TV earlier this year, but they have since vanished thanks to lots of pissed off consumer feedback. No matter what your level of health-conciousness, you ultimately have to digest what you eat. And you are what you eat. Choose accordingly. Dont pad the pockets of comanies who care more about profit margins than your health and well being. Thanks Arizona for your stupid (inorganic, unhealthy and poisonous, yet highly commercially successful) $0.99 Ice Tea. boycott- even if they are going "organic"- they are still selling the inorganic.

Keep up the good work and a watchful eye on the things that you eat.

P.S. stay tuned for the step-by-step pesto instructions, and a few other goodies this week as I cook from a new location in Sausalito, CA- from monday thru friday now until mid-august.