Good Food

I was recently introduced to someone who works at a facility that provides children with fresh made, nutritional meals. Seems like a very logical idea right? Now this is something that we all want for our kids but very few of us follow through with. If any of you have set foot in a high school cafeteria you know what I'm talking about. We are giving our kids the choice of fries, burgers, poutine or hot dogs for lunch. Why is it that we all talk about helping our children grow up right, teach them how to eat properly and take care of their bodies but fill them with this crap at lunch. When I was in school I was very fortunate (though I didn't know it at the time) to have parents that cared enough to send me off to school with a fairly balanced lunch. At least one piece of fresh fruit or some veggies, a sandwich always on whole wheat bread and some juice. My lunch pail never saw the likes of snack cakes, pop, or white bread.

I think that we are at a critical point in time with childhood obesity, diabetes and so many other health problems with our youth. This is why things need more programs in place to help our youth grow up to be knowledgeable and health conscious adults. I think that schools need to step up and make fresh healthy meals available to the students. Kids spend a lot of time in schools and besides home it is a key player on having them develop their lifelong food habits. I have strong doubts that most school cafeterias have seen food that did not come in pre packaged, fried or otherwise processed. Lets change this, lets do everything we can to have our kids grow up healthy and make good decisions when it comes to the food they eat.

Rub Me...

Oh hey blog, I've ben neglecting you but not to wory, I always come back. So I've been working at a BBQ shack in town and have been playing arnd with some ideas for different dry rubs. I like to rub my meat down and let it set for at least 24 hours before I even think about throwing it on the smoker.  There are so many different ways f doing dry rubs, the possibilities are endless and I'm just really beginning to understand the full spectrum of what I can do with them. Do you want to use a sweet or salty rub, one that is heavily spiced or something that will tickle your tastebuds a little more gently.

I think a lot of determining what goes into a good rub depends on (obviously) the meat being used but also the sauce that it will be finished with. I don't want to use a heavily seasoned strong rub if the sauce is going to be super sweet or sper strong tasting as well. Of course the sauce flavour will be more pronounced in the end but don'tlet that fool you into thinking that the rub is not going to impact the taste of the meat as wll. Generlly with the rubs  I use I go for a more subtle hint of flavour rather than something that will jump out and grab your tastebuds off the start. Like a good chili I like the flavour to be there but not overtake the other flavours.

In the end each person will come up witha unique blend of spices for their own rub and I'm sure many of them will be better than the oes I'm currently trying to put together. If you have any suggestions for rubs pleae let me know!