Hill Country Galleria Halloween

All treats. No tricks. Bring the children to beautiful, fun and safe Halloween event at Hill Country Galleria on Saturday, October 27th. Featuring live performers, activities, candy give-aways and live music, the party starts at 3:30pm:

3:30-4:00 Paiyh Dance Studios Performances
3:30-6:30 Free Face Painting,  Bounce House, Bungee Jump
4:00-6:00 Trick-or-Treating at participating stores
7:00-9:00 Live Music: Carson Brock & the Effect

Costumes desired, but not required.

Boo!

As Goes California...Label GMO Food

In advance of the California referendum to label genetically modified foods, Danny DeVito, Bill Mahr and other popular celebrities tout "The Right to Know."

Prop 37 affects the entire country, not just California! Their economy is the largest in the nation and the eighth largest in the world. What happens there with food labeling affects us all.

Say "yes" to Prop 37 and make a difference for healthy food consumption across the country!

If you need more information on what GMOs are and how they affect your health and the environment, please take a few moments to view articles on the topic by searching: Michele Jacobson and GMO Blog. Thank you!

Whaddya mean organic food is not nutritionally superior?

When Mark Bittman realized that he could not ignore the recent study conducted by Standford University, he addressed the flaws in its methodology that made its conclusions jaw-dropping to all of us who buy organic food.

The study, which suggested — incredibly — that there is no “strong evidence that organic foods are significantly more nutritious than conventional foods,” caused as great an uproar as anything that has happened, food-wise, this year. (By comparison, the Alzheimer’s/diabetes link I wrote about last weekwas ignored.)That’s because headlines (and, of course, tweets) matter. The Stanford study was not only an exercise in misdirection, it was a headline generator. By providing “useful” and “counter-intuitive” information about organic food, it played right into the hands of the news hungry while conveniently obscuring important features of organic agriculture.

If I may play with metaphor for a moment, the study was like declaring guns no more dangerous than baseball bats when it comes to blunt-object head injuries. It was the equivalent of comparing milk and Elmer’s glue on the basis of whiteness. It did, in short, miss the point. Even Crystal Smith-Spangler, a Stanford co-author, perfectly captured the narrowness of the study when she said: “some believe that organic food is always healthier and more nutritious. We were a little surprised that we didn’t find that.” That’s because they didn’t look — or even worse, they ignored.

Read the rest of Bittman's column here.

Roasted Cauliflower - Yogurt Feta Dressing

Some recipes are so appealing, you just have to try them right now.
 

Boggy Creek Farm Cauliflower - Picture courtesy of Boggy Creek Farm

Ingredients

Head of cauliflower
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon cumin seeds or cumin powder
Sea salt
Black pepper
Greek yogurt
Sheep's milk feta
Fresh lemon juice

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Break cauliflower into bite-size florets. Toss with olive oil, cumin, salt and pepper and spread in one layer on a non-stick tray. Roast for 30 minutes or so, until cauliflower is tender and its edges are toasted.

3. Blend 3/4 cup yogurt with feta until smooth. Add a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and some chopped, fresh mint leaves.

4. Toss the cauliflower with this dressing. Serve at room temperature.

I'm sure it will keep, but it's so good, you'll want to eat immediately!

~Recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen