Food Thoughts and Pictures for November

Post-Thanksgiving 

Friday: Chinese Dinner

Miriam in China: Real Chinese Food

Miriam visited China in November, and brought back many food pictures, which she agreed to share here.
These are only a few of her fascinating photos.

Saturday: Post-Thanksgiving Mashed Potatoes

Leftover mashed potatoes were made into potato patties.

Thanksgiving: Once-A-Year Feast

In our family, there is no other meal than Thanksgiving with such a set selection of foods. In my childhood, my mother, father, sister, and brother and I would often have Thanksgiving Dinner with my mother’s sisters and their families, or my mother would invite a friend of the family to our house. Yes, turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and more. My aunts sometimes made the famous (notorious?) casseroles of sweet potatoes garnished with marshmallows or of greenbeans in mushroom soup. Our menu this year was close, but no casseroles. 

A few photos:

Mashed potatoes cooking in my kitchen. (Made by Miriam)

We roasted two chickens with stuffing. 

Gravy and squash on the stove near the pot of potatoes.

You can see the stuffing at the right in this photo of the table as we were setting up for the meal.

We used my great-grandmother’s turkey platter: the oldest item in my kitchen.

My dinner plate: turkey, snow peas, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and squash.

Pear-topped cake for dessert (no pie this year).

Coming Next: Christmas Flavors

Tom and Evelyn brought us some wonderful German Christmas treats.

Other Things We Ate in November

Olive oil and Hellmann’s mayo: two items you’ll always find in my kitchen.

Roast beef and French-style potato salad. This is Trader Joe’s ready-to-eat roast beef, a new item for us.

Here I am, cooking in my kitchen.

Making soup in my kitchen — a squash that’s equivalent to pumpkin.

Falafel.

At the Farmers’ Market

Carrots!

Local produce in my kitchen.

Blog post and photos © 2025 mae sander

Shared with Sherry’s November Kitchen Blog Post.

Falafel Past and Present

 Dinner Tonight

Falafel that Alice made from a recipe starting with dried chickpeas.

Eating Falafel

Falafel in Dearborn, Michigan, around 20 years ago
(from an earlier blog post).

Most famous falafel in Paris on Rue des Rosiers, the famous Jewish neighborhood for at least a century.

Israeli Falafel as I enjoyed it in Abu Gosh.

Lunch including falafel in Abu Gosh (near Jerusalem), 2018.

From 2016: Falafel (from Trader Joe's), a Turkish eggplant salad, and a cabbage salad with tahini dressing

Where Did Falafel Come From?

Many cultures claim Falafel as their own, often implying a very long history for the dish. Asconsumed today, its history isn’t really very long: one plausible theory is that it was invented in the late 19th century in Egypt at the request of British officers looking for a local version of Indian fried croquettes. In Israel in the mid-20th century, Jewish refugees from Yemen found a way to make a living by selling falafel as street food; thus, Israeli version of the dish is associated with Yemen although in fact it didn’t exist there, only later with the immigrant community.

Here’s one summary of the status of the dish in Israel, where I really got to know the dish:

“Consider falafel, Israel’s most popular fast food — as culturally synonymous with the country as burgers and fries are with the United States. Just as hamburgers are not technically an American invention (origin: Hamburg, Germany), falafel, deep-fried balls of fava beans or chickpeas, can be traced to India, where frying fritters made of chana dal was a common cooking practice, thought to have been brought west by Turkish or Arab traders.

“Another theory about the origins of falafel is that it was invented by Egyptians using fava beans, a vegetarian alternative to meat for Egypt’s Christian population to eat during Lent. Food historians speculate that when the dish migrated toward the Levant, the fava beans were replaced by the more common chickpea, which lends credence to the notion that falafel made of chickpeas may have roots in Jewish Yemenite cuisine.” (source)

My Ann Arbor Kitchen in May

May, 2025: Food in Ann Arbor

May has been a very busy month. We traveled to Virginia for Alice's graduation, and we began our back-yard cooking season in Michigan. For Sherry's In My Kitchen this month, I've divided my post into two parts: Virginia and Michigan; yesterday’s post was about Virginia. Before and after our Virginia trip, we cooked a variety of foods in our kitchen, and after a lot of rain, were able to cook on the grill in our back yard.

Finally: Outdoor Cooking and Eating

In my kitchen and dining room…

I love this new dragon cup made by Evelyn. The dragon wraps around the cup, so I showed two sides of it.

Salmon and coleslaw

At the Neighbors’ House

Sushi Lunch

Beyond My Kitchen: Government Interference in Science and Government Dishonesty Emerges

First, a cartoon suggesting who will eat when we achieve our new social order. (source)

Here’s one clear and believable summary of the current childhood nutrition situation, as expert food scientist Marion Nestle explained it:

“Most American children’s diets are dominated by ultra–processed foods (UPFs) high in added sugars, chemical additives, and saturated fats, while lacking sufficient intakes of fruits and vegetables.”

The “Make America Healthy” report on childhood nutrition was released this month. While the problems in our society with feeding children a healthy diet seem to be pretty well formulated, the solutions seem questionable and more details of the dishonesty of the study have been revealed each day.  

Current budget legislation substantially cuts benefits for families who need them, and reduces benefits to farmers who have supplied food to food banks and other charities. This makes the report seem a bit hypocritical. Note: for info about more government interference in science and health, see “Trump’s new ‘gold standard’ rule will destroy American science as we know it.”

 

Here’s a quote from the press release about this new publication:

“We will end the childhood chronic disease crisis by attacking its root causes head-on—not just managing its symptoms,” said U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “We will follow the truth wherever it leads, uphold rigorous science, and drive bold policies that put the health, development, and future of every child first. I’m grateful to President Trump for his leadership—and for trusting me to lead this fight to root out corruption, restore scientific integrity, and reclaim the health of our children.” (source)

New details keep emerging about this report. In particular, a news story on Thursday revealed that the report “contains citations to studies that do not exist.” (source) Several of the authors whose works were “cited” stated that the supposed articles and fictitious coauthors. Further reports on Friday revealed that the study is based on unreliable AI generation. Bottom line from an expert:

“This is not an evidence-based report, and for all practical purposes, it should be junked at this point….It cannot be used for any policymaking. It cannot even be used for any serious discussion, because you can’t believe what’s in it.” (quote from Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association)

I’m not just skeptical about this bogus study, which the Trump administration is nevertheless supporting. I’m terrified by the meaning and implications, in the first quote, of  “truth,” “corruption,” and “scientific integrity.” The administration has undermined existing programs and sabotaged public trust in the food supply. Kennedy's crackpot science ideas are already doing quite a lot of harm in agriculture, medicine, and climate science. Layoffs of food regulators, perversion of regulations, and defunding of agriculture and welfare programs (details here) undermine the well-being and health of all citizens. 

I started writing this on Tuesday, and new revelations each day have caused me to revise what I’ve said. You really can’t trust this government!

Blog post and photos © 2025 mae sander

Shared with Sherry and with Deb.