Kitchens and Politics, July 2024

In My July Kitchen 

New plate from the Ann Arbor Art Fair.

I'm sharing my July kitchen activities and food thoughts with Sherry and her blog party called In My Kitchen. It's been an exciting month, with lots of cooking: in fact, I have already posted photos of quite a few things that we ate. During the month, we’ve had visitors; moreover, we have been following the eventful news about the upcoming elections and the excitement of the Paris Olympics. I've also been enjoying the blog party Paris in July, where more than 20 bloggers have shared posts about books, movies, art, food, and other topics with a French theme.

But let’s look around my kitchen: first the refrigerator —

Cooking and Baking This Month

From the following photos, you can see that the innovative recipes and baking in our kitchen are now done by Len. I still do my share, but I tend to make our old favorites and easy meals — not worth photographing.  And he does the novel recipes, especially from the New York Times and a couple of recent Asian cookbooks. Len has been baking bread and trying new recipes for several years since I began to feel burned out (and since he retired from teaching at the University).

Len made pizza.

Dinner for two nights. Miriam made the New York Times farro salad. Len made the seafood dish.
I concocted the leftover versions.

I made Aloo Gobi — a dish of potatoes and cauliflower with Indian spices.

One French dish we made this month: I made the base and Len torched this crème brûlée.

More delicious baking from Len.

For more photos of our July meals, see this post from Monday:

https://maefood.blogspot.com/2024/07/what-we-ate-and-drank-in-july.html

 

Beyond My Kitchen: Kamala Harris and Food

Kamala Harris in the kitchen (a few years ago).

Some great facts about Kamala Harris:

• Harris loves to cook. According to a New York Times article, she "scrolls cooking sites and relaxes at the end of the day by reading cookbooks. (Her favorites are by the Italian cook Marcella Hazan and the California chef Alice Waters.)" She has made a few cooking videos, and has given informal demonstrations of her recipes during campaign events.
• Harris has consistently promoted policies and legislation to combat hunger and poverty. Unlike her Republican opponents, she has made efforts to provide more federal food aid — not to cut benefits for those in need. In 2020, as a Senator, she cosponsored the “Closing the Meal Gap” act which extended food benefits during the pandemic. She advocated for increases in funding for summer meals for children who were dependent on school breakfast and lunch programs during the school year. These children otherwise might go hungry when school was out-of-session. She also worked to expand eligibility for school lunch programs.
• “As part of the Biden administration, she of course supported a major expansion a of the tax credit that greatly reduced child poverty but expired in 2022 in the face of unified Republican opposition.” (source)
• Harris favors better wages for food workers; for example, she supported McDonald’s workers in Iowa in 2019 as they went on strike to obtain a $15 hourly wage and the right to form a union. 
• Harris has promoted efforts to improve working conditions and to ensure better pay for agricultural workers. The United Farm Workers has already endorsed her for President: 

“Since the very beginning of her career in California — the nation’s largest agricultural producer — Kamala Harris has proven herself a loyal friend of all working people. … Vice President Harris has stood with farm workers as California Attorney General, as a United States Senator, and as Vice President. The United Farm Workers could not be prouder to endorse her for President of the United States. Together, we continue the work of building an America that works for all of its working people. ¡Sí Se Puede!” (https://ufw.org/harrisendorsement7212024/)

 

And Olympic Gold

Blog post © 2024 mae sander