Posted on 02/11/2015 5:02:45 AM PST by Kaslin
Before the nation's Food Nanny guilt-trips you into ditching boxed dinners on a frazzled night, know this: The first lady profited from cheese dust before she was against it.
In the new issue of Cooking Light magazine, Michelle Obama takes another sanctimonious stand against processed foods. The occasion of this latest hectoring is a month-long celebration of the fifth anniversary of her Let's Move initiative. This time, she spins a slickly crafted tale of how her former personal chef challenged daughter Malia several years ago to turn a block of cheese into powder. "She sat there for 30 minutes trying to pulverize a block of cheese into dust," Mrs. Obama claims.
"She was really focused on it, and it just didn't work, so she had to give up. And from then on, we stopped eating macaroni and cheese out of a box because cheese dust is not food," snob momma Obama pontificated.
Hey, Michelle Antoinette: Shunning convenience foods is easy when you've got a taxpayer-subsidized cooking staff whipping up four-course feasts every night. Those boxed meals you spit upon are affordable and easy to store, and last a long time. For someone who pretends to be sympathetic to working-class and middle-class families, Her Royal Highness sure has a funny way of showing it.
But the faux populist narrative must be spoon-fed to the masses. Cooking Light's editor marveled at how "real" Mrs. Obama is and how genuinely "personal" her government health crusade is. Yahoo News similarly gushed over the nation's enlightened "family meal champion" and touted the five-year anniversary of her "pivotal" Let's Move initiative.
Message from sycophantic foodie and women's magazines: Michelle Obama is just like you and me! She's an ordinary mom who cares!
Except she's not.
Before she was wielding the power of public office to dictate school lunches and castigate junk-meal makers, Mrs. Obama profited from the very same processed food industry she now demonizes. What none of the fan-girling mainstream journalists who've covered her Let's Move anniversary campaign has bothered to mention in their glowing profiles is that "cheese dust" was gold dust for the Obamas.
The first lady may not think it's food now, but powdered edibles provided hefty financial sustenance for her family 10 years ago. It's just one of the many tasty perks of political influence Mrs. Barack Obama has enjoyed in her adult lifetime.
Let's move? How about let's remember, shall we? In June 2005, a few months after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate, Mrs. Obama snagged a seat on the corporate board of directors of TreeHouse Foods Inc. Currying favor, the food-processing company put her on its audit and nominating and corporate governance committees despite her complete lack of experience or expertise. For her on-the-job training and the privilege of putting her name and face on their literature, the company forked over $45,000 in 2005 and $51,200 in 2006 to Mrs. Obama -- as well as 7,500 TreeHouse stock options worth more than $72,000 for each year.
Mrs. Obama raked in that easy money thanks to the worldwide conglomerate's popular product line of powdered non-dairy creamers and sweeteners, hot and cold cereals, evil macaroni and cheese, skillet dinners, powdered gravy and sauce mixes, powdered drink mixes, powdered soup, and puddings.
She certainly didn't look down her nose at milk dust, cheese dust, juice dust, oatmeal dust or broth dust when it came mixed with a healthy paycheck.
I wouldn't begrudge Mrs. Obama's enterprises, except for the fact that she's using taxpayer money and public office to shove her highbrow tastes and control-freak ideology down our throats. More offensive: Constant posturing from the White House about the need for jobs, while Mrs. Obama now sneers at the food-processing industry that put money in her designer pocket. Kraft Foods alone employs 103,000 people, with manufacturing and processing facilities worldwide, and reported annual net revenues topping $40 billion.
When you look past the phony concerned-mom costumery, Mrs. Obama's healthy living campaigns are all about control and cash flow. While she food-shames the rest of us, her Partnership for a Healthier America charity is a conduit for corporations and lobbyists to buy access. Her Fed Foods racket is pulling in millions of dollars from secret donors and nonprofits.
Mrs. Obama's self-aggrandizing food elitism is hard for ordinary Americans to swallow, no matter how much truffle oil her personal chef drizzles on top.
You could do it in an oven or microwave too.
An electric smoker works good too, just omit the wood chips.
When you stop salivating over B/G’s salad, try this.
BALTHAZAR SALAD / dinner salad w/ crusty bread, ramekins of French butter.
Place blanched asparagus, green beans in salad bowl. Add paper-thin fennel slices, paper-thin radishes, romaine chiffonade, bite-size frisée, 1/4” radicchio strips; toss to mix. Add Lemon Truffle vinaigrette to coat salad w/ a thin sheen.
SERVE portions topped w/ ricotta salata matchsticks, slivers of raw beet, 1-2 thin slices avocado; sprinkle of minced blanched lemon zest. Maldon salt or fleur de sel to taste.
Lemon-Truffle Vinaigrette / keeps a week, Mix 2 Tb l/juice, ¼ tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper. Whisk/dribble in 6 Tbs mild ol/oil, 2 Tbs white truffle oil til emulsified.
OMG! Do you make these?
Mmmmm.....yup.
One my fave lunch places was the downstairs Tea Room at the Japanese Takishiyama Dept store—now closed.
Used to be across from Bloomies.
The serene room was all silvery wallpaper and bleached oak paneling.
The bento box was fab-—one day I asked the chef what exceptional flavoring she had put on the salmon-—she said it was nothing more than imported Maldon sea salt.
I don’t remember this restaurant. On 3rd or Lex? We used to go to the China Bowl across from Bloomingdale’s. Very down and dirty!
The Takishiyama Dept Store chain is a big, big deal in Japan.
In NYC-—it was a bit above Bloomingdale’s-—across the street-—63rd entrance, I believe (around there).
The restaurant was downstairs in the store....you had to know it was there-—there were no outward signs.
Smoked Duck Bento at Tea Box Café in Takashimaya Dept store-
w/ the sophisticated Japanese cuisine culture as a bonus.
I looked it up and it was said it was on 5th Ave. So I assume this was an outpost. By the time it opened, I was living in the 20s and didn’t get to the upper east side much, anymore.
“When Everybody ate at Schrafft’s” by Joan Kanel Slomanson, 2007 nostalgia book.
METHOD Stir/dissolve pkg dry active yeast, ½ c warm water. Add stir/dissolved 1 1/2 c warm water, 2 tea salt. Add cup at a time sifted 3 1/2 c flour, 1 1/2 tea sugar, 1-2 tea Kraft cheese powder (from mac/cheese box). When dough becomes hard to stir, turn out on floured surface. Let dough rest as you wash bowls. Knead dough 10 min smooth and elastic, add flour if needed.
Place in buttered bowl; let rise 2-3 hours (triple in size).
Punch down; turn out on counter. Sprinkle w/ cup grated sharp Cheddar. Roll up; knead just long enough to incorporate cheese. Halve dough; let rise 45 min in two greased loaf pans covered w/ towel. Bake 450 deg 15 min; reset to 350 deg; bake 10 min. Cool on racks.
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Sounds like what they serve at Red Lobster... or maybe better...
Moochelle: “Mac ‘n Cheese is for the Rabble....”
2 cups Bisquick baking mix
2/3 cup milk,
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar,
1/4 cup melted butter,
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder.
Mix baking mix, milk and cheese until soft dough forms; beat vigorously 30 seconds. Drop spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 450 deg 8-10 minutes til golden brown. Brush warm biscuits w/ Garlic Butter.
Garlic Butter Mix Butter and garlic powder. NOTE: Instead of garlic powder, steep several cloves of chopped garlic in melted butter while preparing biscuits.
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