It's tame. Go on, click it, I dare you! You'll want a tummy tuck, too! I do! I'll pass on the piercing, though. At almost 53, not many people would ever see it. Me, my kid, the dog, and eventually the mortician...

Kathleenca, we cure pork belly, smoke, & then run it through our commercial-style slicer for bacon. Home cured & smoked bacon is delicious & you get to control the ingredients/quantities of what's in the cure. Emeril did a show on his favorite food group - pork fat! :) One of the preparations was pork belly with a tangerine glaze. Might be a place to start? I can't purchase pork belly locally. I have to order it from Whole Foods in Rhode Island. We bought 15 lbs. about 3 months ago to last us until next fall. We used some of it as holiday gifts to neighbors. Seemed only fair since they had 'suffered' through the smoking & told us it had made them starved for bacon! lol /tricia Here is a link that might be useful: Emeril's Tangerine Glazed Pork Belly

I doubt we can have our cake & eat it also with regards to our food supply. Due to many reasons but including genetically modified food, pestisides, herbicides, fertilizers, & what we all agree are deplorable living conditions for chickens, hogs, & beef combined with antiobiotics & hormones food yields are higher today than 50 years ago. That results in lower food prices here in the US & across the world (yes, I know we also have the government subsidies but that's another topic). Also, many of our agricultural practices contribute to runoff that polutes rivers & streams making fish unhealthy for consumption. It's possible now to purchase food from growers that practice sustainable agriculture, free-graze their animals, do not use pesticides nor herbicides. Their animals are hormone free. Of course, their products are costlier because their yield is less. Are we all willing to pay more for our food to have the quality? DH & I purchase organic dairy & produce whenever available. In fact we go out of our way to seek it out (largely due to Annie's preaching - lol). We're now also buying 100% grass-fed beef, we don't buy poultry nor pork that's been injected with some type of "flavor enhancers". We're purchasing now organic produce & putting it up for winter consumption. Some products we've not switched to organic. For instance, I still buy KA regular flours. The organics are so expensive I've not yet pulled the trigger & made the switch. With the increased costs of what I hope are "healthier" foods we've had to substantially reduce the quantities & varieties of what we consume both in order to stay within our budget allowances & also because some products are just not available organically. We also maintain a food storage program. It's going to take some time to get that converted to more organics. We're doing that via new purchases & rotation of older items. Sometimes, it's not even about the food product itself being healthier grown via "organics". It's just about knowing we're buying from somebody who's doing something to reduce the amount of chemicals going into the soil annually. Or, fewer pesticide sprays. dcarch is right about feeding the world's population. There's no more large land areas to be converted to food production without seriously jeopardizing the ecosystem (cutting down rain forests) more than we've already destroyed. So, the only way to feed the ever increasing population is to increase yield per acre. Are we all willing to make the sacrifices necessary to, so to speak, put our money where our mouth is? Everybody complaining about current mass-agri business already buying all organics, free-range, etc.? Or, driving all over town trying to save $1.00/lb. for chops? Are you still feeding your family the cheapest butter available? Good quality, hormone/antibiotic free, etc., butter is between $5.99 - $8.00/lb. here. Obviously, we don't eat much butter anymore. That translates into much less baking. If you don't like mass-agri business there are lots of alternative choices available. You'll just have to seek them out...and be willing to pay the provider of those products a fair price for their labors & costs. It took us over 2 years to source many of the products we're eating today versus shopping at our local chain store. We're blessed. We can afford to buy organics still putting enough food on the table we're not going to bed with our stomachs growling. Most of the world cannot. Should they go hungry? I think it's a very valid question. We also can't ignore food preparation methods in looking at today's food health issues. Sure, chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, & gravy is good but it's not healthy. Pasta can be good, especially if it's whole wheat, but it's not healthy to eat pasta 10+ times/month...especially with today's serving sizes. IIRC, a serving is 1/2 cup cooked pasta. So, how many of us only eat 1/2 cup? What happens when the sauce is cooked with chicken, pork, & beef? Food & health is a large issue both in the US & around the world. There's no one single answer. And, there's no one single reason for the problems. /tricia

I had the same problem you had with the blueberry with the charoset sorbet I made for Passover. It was whiz-pow at the slushy phase and just tasted like frozen applesauce at the frozen stage. Another thing you can do to intensify the blueberriness is reduce it. Of course, you have to chill it then, but it should work The storage issue is one I've yet to solve. I have some insulated ice cream containers, including a long narrow one that's good for scooping, which work fairly well defending ice cream from the freeze for an hour or two so you can get through dinner. Sorbet, having no fat impediment, lasts at the good spot for less than an hour. The problem is food storage and dessert storage are meant to be at different temperatures. I've been considering getting a portable cooler. They make them that do all the freeze/cool temperatures you could want. I figure it could chill wines, hold frozen desserts at the correct temperature, and also serve as a cheese cave. The issue is I'm not about to get four of them, and that's four different temperatures (only segregating wine into white and red), so I'd have to manage the cheese making so it didn't run into entertaining, chill whites in the fridge and bring down reds to sufficiently below ambient that they'll still be a nice temperature during dinner, without shocking them, and get it cooled and the dessert in before company! Argh!! More likely, company will get something baked the previous day, and the reds will get to be happy, and we'll do the ice cream thing when it's just us. If you have a few hundred dollars you're willing to throw at it, however, you can certainly get an electric cooler and get your ice cream and sorbet to the correct temperature(s).