With 2017 almost in the bag, here's my annual retrospective of Casual Kitchen's best posts of the year.
Once again, I want to thank you, readers, for your time, your attention, and your support. I'm deeply grateful. See you all in January!
***********************
Top Posts of 2017
8) How To Beat Inflation
7) Why Bad Blogs Get More Readers
6) When Food Advocates Tell You What To Serve Your Customers
5) If I Can't Give Advice (!) How Do I Evangelize Frugality and Anticonsumerism?
4) Nine Terrible Ways to Make Choices (That You Probably Didn't Know You Were Using)
3) Using Your Sophistication and Great Taste Against You
2) Running Towards Humps
1) Checkers... and Chess
Note for new readers: If you're new here and you'd like to look over Casual Kitchen's best work over the years, a great place to start is the "Best Of" posts from each year:
Best of Casual Kitchen 2016
Best of Casual Kitchen 2015
Best of Casual Kitchen 2014
Best of Casual Kitchen 2013
Best of Casual Kitchen 2012
Best of Casual Kitchen 2011
Finally, let me thank all readers, new and old, for generously supporting my work with your kind purchases at Amazon via the links at this site!
Showing posts with label Best of.... Show all posts
Showing posts with label Best of.... Show all posts
The Very Best of Casual Kitchen 2016
It's hard to believe another year is about to wrap up, and it's even harder to believe this is Casual Kitchen's tenth anniversary.
When I started this site back in late 2006, I had no clue what I was doing: I just had some ideas I wanted to share about how to cook healthy food efficiently--and for very little money. Little did I know this humble little site would take me in all kinds of directions, and I'd address all kinds of topics: from understanding the tricks and tactics of the consumer products industry, to addressing various facets of consumerism, to addressing cognitive fallacies and excuse-making scripts, even sharing insights from my professional domain: stock market investing. This humble little site turned out to be a significant growth experience for me on many different levels.
So, readers, let me thank you for coming along with me on this journey (and, of course, for generously supporting my work with your kind purchases at Amazon via the links at this site)!
With that, let's share the best posts of CK 2016. Enjoy!
************************************
10) How to Use Grocery Store Circulars To YOUR Advantage, Not Theirs
Your grocery store's weekly circular is the most underappreciated tool in an empowered food shopper's toolbox. Here's a quick and easy two-step method to capture maximum value from it.
9) Raw Milk: The Irony
The controversy over raw milk illustrates an irony about food regulation: sometimes a more heavily-regulated food industry brings us precisely the foods we don't want.
8) The REAL Story of the Bumblebee Tuna Recall Controversy: What it (Subtly) Teaches Us About Branding, Product Differentiation and Third-Party Manufacturing
Not my most concise headline. But Bumblebee's tuna recall earlier this year gave consumers a deafening reason to ignore branding--completely.
7) Money Sundays: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
A popular post about a (hypothetical) conversation... that went sideways in a hurry.
6) Where Can I Find Low-Cost Sources of Protein and Fat?
If you're not careful, a low-carb diet can cost a lot more. Here's a useful collection of the most cost-effective proteins and fats money can buy.
5) Psychological Hunger... Compared to the Real Thing
How to really understand the "feeling" of hunger, how to feel around its edges, and how to differentiate it from true hunger (the two are most definitely not the same). Includes free bonus humor from Louis C.K.
4) "Nobody Listens to Me in Real Life, But on the Internet Everyone Does"
Why your friends and peers cannot be experts, and why we denigrate and ignore them when we should be emulating them.
3) Virtue Signalling
Is virtue-signalling the same as practicing actual virtue? Your answer says a lot about what kind of person you are. Also: after reading this post, you'll never think about political statements the same way again.
2) The Old Lie: Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day
How often have you eaten breakfast only to be hungry again just an hour or two later? This post explains why, and offers two surprisingly easy dietary tweaks that will change your life for the better. Casual Kitchen's most widely-read post of the year.
1) What Underwear Teaches You About Saving Time AND Money
Don't worry! This post isn't really about my underwear. It's about how we assume there's an unavoidable trade-off between saving time and saving money--that in order to save money, you have to waste time, and vice-versa. Back when I was young and broke, however, I made a discovery that proved quite the opposite.
[Honorable Mention!] "Learn to Live on Lentils…"
How a beautiful little story about Diogenes (and a staggeringly condescending remark from a food "journalist") turned lentils into a metaphor for solution-minded thinking. See also the unexpectedly popular follow-up post Subservience.
*************************
Last of all: If you're a new reader and you'd like to look over Casual Kitchen's best work over the years, a great place to start is the "Best Of" posts from each year:
Best of Casual Kitchen 2015
Best of Casual Kitchen 2014
Best of Casual Kitchen 2013
Best of Casual Kitchen 2012
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
When I started this site back in late 2006, I had no clue what I was doing: I just had some ideas I wanted to share about how to cook healthy food efficiently--and for very little money. Little did I know this humble little site would take me in all kinds of directions, and I'd address all kinds of topics: from understanding the tricks and tactics of the consumer products industry, to addressing various facets of consumerism, to addressing cognitive fallacies and excuse-making scripts, even sharing insights from my professional domain: stock market investing. This humble little site turned out to be a significant growth experience for me on many different levels.
So, readers, let me thank you for coming along with me on this journey (and, of course, for generously supporting my work with your kind purchases at Amazon via the links at this site)!
With that, let's share the best posts of CK 2016. Enjoy!
************************************
10) How to Use Grocery Store Circulars To YOUR Advantage, Not Theirs
Your grocery store's weekly circular is the most underappreciated tool in an empowered food shopper's toolbox. Here's a quick and easy two-step method to capture maximum value from it.
9) Raw Milk: The Irony
The controversy over raw milk illustrates an irony about food regulation: sometimes a more heavily-regulated food industry brings us precisely the foods we don't want.
8) The REAL Story of the Bumblebee Tuna Recall Controversy: What it (Subtly) Teaches Us About Branding, Product Differentiation and Third-Party Manufacturing
Not my most concise headline. But Bumblebee's tuna recall earlier this year gave consumers a deafening reason to ignore branding--completely.
7) Money Sundays: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
A popular post about a (hypothetical) conversation... that went sideways in a hurry.
6) Where Can I Find Low-Cost Sources of Protein and Fat?
If you're not careful, a low-carb diet can cost a lot more. Here's a useful collection of the most cost-effective proteins and fats money can buy.
5) Psychological Hunger... Compared to the Real Thing
How to really understand the "feeling" of hunger, how to feel around its edges, and how to differentiate it from true hunger (the two are most definitely not the same). Includes free bonus humor from Louis C.K.
4) "Nobody Listens to Me in Real Life, But on the Internet Everyone Does"
Why your friends and peers cannot be experts, and why we denigrate and ignore them when we should be emulating them.
3) Virtue Signalling
Is virtue-signalling the same as practicing actual virtue? Your answer says a lot about what kind of person you are. Also: after reading this post, you'll never think about political statements the same way again.
2) The Old Lie: Breakfast Is the Most Important Meal of the Day
How often have you eaten breakfast only to be hungry again just an hour or two later? This post explains why, and offers two surprisingly easy dietary tweaks that will change your life for the better. Casual Kitchen's most widely-read post of the year.
1) What Underwear Teaches You About Saving Time AND Money
Don't worry! This post isn't really about my underwear. It's about how we assume there's an unavoidable trade-off between saving time and saving money--that in order to save money, you have to waste time, and vice-versa. Back when I was young and broke, however, I made a discovery that proved quite the opposite.
[Honorable Mention!] "Learn to Live on Lentils…"
How a beautiful little story about Diogenes (and a staggeringly condescending remark from a food "journalist") turned lentils into a metaphor for solution-minded thinking. See also the unexpectedly popular follow-up post Subservience.
*************************
Last of all: If you're a new reader and you'd like to look over Casual Kitchen's best work over the years, a great place to start is the "Best Of" posts from each year:
Best of Casual Kitchen 2015
Best of Casual Kitchen 2014
Best of Casual Kitchen 2013
Best of Casual Kitchen 2012
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
The Very Best of Casual Kitchen 2015
We're finishing up Casual Kitchen's ninth year, and at this time each year I share the best posts of the past twelve months.
Once again, I'd like to thank you, dear readers, for your attention, your comments, your participation, and (of course) all of your support for my work here.
I'm grateful.
Enjoy, and see you in January!
*****************************************
Best Articles
10) The Best Way to Save Money By Cooking From Your Pantry
A new and broader way to think about pantry foods helps you maximize cooking convenience and minimize costs.
9) Disease Mongering
You'll look at illness, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry in an entirely new way after this post. One of the year's most trafficked articles and one I'm quite proud of.
8) Status Competition
This idiosyncratic and surprisingly popular post explains how Laura's 14 year old Honda Civic helped reduce status competition among her colleagues.
7) That Man Moved the Sanka!
Robert Cialdini's exceptional book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
offers an interesting historical example of how to manipulate buyers by using the mere appearance of authority. Know this marketing technique--and be a more empowered consumer.
6) The Scientific Study That Cried Wolf
How fear-inducing studies have become self-parodying, how they mislead us about danger and safety, and how they meet the media's needs and not our own. Bonus: a (very) brief discussion of the Denominator Fallacy.
5) "The Consumer Must Be Protected At All Times"
In which the 20th Century's best-known consumer advocate unintentionally reveals his contempt for everyday people.
4) A False Referent
It's likely that in some area of your life, you are someone else's false referent. Which means you have the power to change the default status environment in a significant way for those around you.
3) Restaurant Spending Now Exceeds In-Home Food Spending. But it Still "Costs Too Much" to Eat Healthy?
Don't try and claim, as you whip out your credit card to pay for your restaurant meal, that "healthy food costs too much" or "it takes way too much time to cook food at home." If you still think this, you haven't been thinking at all.
2) Why Can't I Find People Who Share My Values on Anti-Consumerism and Frugality?
There's a subtle and surprising reason why it's difficult to find frugal peers--and it has to do with being able to see what's not there. This post obviously touched a chord, as it went on to become CK's third-highest trafficked post of the year.
1) The Teacher Was Already There All Along
You know the saying "When the student is ready the teacher appears"? It turns out we've been interpreting it totally incorrectly. Here's how.
Best Recipes
In June, I did a one month trial of publishing a brand new recipe post each and every day. This was a big burst of posts in a short time frame, not typical of my normal editorial calendar (and quite possibly a burden to long-time readers accustomed to once-a-week articles), but this month of new recipes went over extraordinarily well. Readers really liked the series, and the pageview stats showed it.
Here's the link to the full archive of the entire month of recipes, and here are the top four favorite recipes as measured by pageviews:
Vinegar-Braised Chicken and Onions
Easy Lemon-Lime Quinoa
Sauteed Kale in Coconut and Lime Sauce
Seared Curried Scallops with Coconut Rice
Anybody curious which recipe got the least traffic? This one:
Green Apple Charoset
And then here are my favorite recipe posts of the year:
1) Simple Spicy Sausage and White Bean Cassoulet
You'll never believe something this delicious could be this easy to prepare.
2) Almost Meatless Sausage and Chickpea Stew
A hearty, scalable and protein-packed stew you can make in under 40 minutes for a mere 84c per serving.
3) Easy Crockpot Jamaican Chicken
Google's search algorithms decided this would be Casual Kitchen's the most trafficked recipe post for 2015. Thank you Google.
4) Spicy Crockpot Spare Ribs
Without a doubt, the best meal we've eaten at CK in the past several years. Hilariously easy too.
And finally:
5) Ten Healthy Recipes for Under $1 a Serving
Readers know I’m supremely partial to any recipe disproving the laughably false claim that "healthy food always costs more." This post offers ten of the least expensive recipes in Casual Kitchen's entire history.
Last of all, an Honorable Mention section for a few articles that I felt proud of but just didn't make the cut above:
1) Organic-Dropping
2) On Trusting Food Bloggers, Cookbook Authors and Their Recipes
3) A Primer on the Fasting Window and Intermittent Fasting
4) Desire Triggering
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Once again, I'd like to thank you, dear readers, for your attention, your comments, your participation, and (of course) all of your support for my work here.
I'm grateful.Enjoy, and see you in January!
*****************************************
Best Articles
10) The Best Way to Save Money By Cooking From Your Pantry
A new and broader way to think about pantry foods helps you maximize cooking convenience and minimize costs.
9) Disease Mongering
You'll look at illness, healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry in an entirely new way after this post. One of the year's most trafficked articles and one I'm quite proud of.
8) Status Competition
This idiosyncratic and surprisingly popular post explains how Laura's 14 year old Honda Civic helped reduce status competition among her colleagues.
7) That Man Moved the Sanka!
Robert Cialdini's exceptional book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
offers an interesting historical example of how to manipulate buyers by using the mere appearance of authority. Know this marketing technique--and be a more empowered consumer. 6) The Scientific Study That Cried Wolf
How fear-inducing studies have become self-parodying, how they mislead us about danger and safety, and how they meet the media's needs and not our own. Bonus: a (very) brief discussion of the Denominator Fallacy.
5) "The Consumer Must Be Protected At All Times"
In which the 20th Century's best-known consumer advocate unintentionally reveals his contempt for everyday people.
4) A False Referent
It's likely that in some area of your life, you are someone else's false referent. Which means you have the power to change the default status environment in a significant way for those around you.
3) Restaurant Spending Now Exceeds In-Home Food Spending. But it Still "Costs Too Much" to Eat Healthy?
Don't try and claim, as you whip out your credit card to pay for your restaurant meal, that "healthy food costs too much" or "it takes way too much time to cook food at home." If you still think this, you haven't been thinking at all.
2) Why Can't I Find People Who Share My Values on Anti-Consumerism and Frugality?
There's a subtle and surprising reason why it's difficult to find frugal peers--and it has to do with being able to see what's not there. This post obviously touched a chord, as it went on to become CK's third-highest trafficked post of the year.
1) The Teacher Was Already There All Along
You know the saying "When the student is ready the teacher appears"? It turns out we've been interpreting it totally incorrectly. Here's how.
Best Recipes
In June, I did a one month trial of publishing a brand new recipe post each and every day. This was a big burst of posts in a short time frame, not typical of my normal editorial calendar (and quite possibly a burden to long-time readers accustomed to once-a-week articles), but this month of new recipes went over extraordinarily well. Readers really liked the series, and the pageview stats showed it.
Here's the link to the full archive of the entire month of recipes, and here are the top four favorite recipes as measured by pageviews:
Vinegar-Braised Chicken and Onions
Easy Lemon-Lime Quinoa
Sauteed Kale in Coconut and Lime Sauce
Seared Curried Scallops with Coconut Rice
Anybody curious which recipe got the least traffic? This one:
Green Apple Charoset
And then here are my favorite recipe posts of the year:
1) Simple Spicy Sausage and White Bean Cassoulet
You'll never believe something this delicious could be this easy to prepare.
2) Almost Meatless Sausage and Chickpea Stew
A hearty, scalable and protein-packed stew you can make in under 40 minutes for a mere 84c per serving.
3) Easy Crockpot Jamaican Chicken
Google's search algorithms decided this would be Casual Kitchen's the most trafficked recipe post for 2015. Thank you Google.
4) Spicy Crockpot Spare Ribs
Without a doubt, the best meal we've eaten at CK in the past several years. Hilariously easy too.
And finally:
5) Ten Healthy Recipes for Under $1 a Serving
Readers know I’m supremely partial to any recipe disproving the laughably false claim that "healthy food always costs more." This post offers ten of the least expensive recipes in Casual Kitchen's entire history.
Last of all, an Honorable Mention section for a few articles that I felt proud of but just didn't make the cut above:
1) Organic-Dropping
2) On Trusting Food Bloggers, Cookbook Authors and Their Recipes
3) A Primer on the Fasting Window and Intermittent Fasting
4) Desire Triggering
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Seven Favorite Books of 2015
CK readers know I advocate a healthy diet--of both food and information. Which is why I'm a fanatic of quality books that shape and direct your thinking in helpful ways. And now that we live more or less in an era of intellectual candy, I'm finding long-form book-length reading is all the more important for my cognitive growth and personal development.
Sure, everyone likes candy. Everyone knows it's okay in moderation. But if your entire diet consists of candy and little else, you'll soon find yourself in cognitive and dietary trouble. With that in mind, here are the very best books I read in the past year.
PS: Readers, feel free to share in the comments the best and most useful books you’ve been reading!
Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography
by Errol Morris
The most striking book I read all year. On one level it's an exploration of photography, of what photos do and don't tell us about reality. On another level, this book is about much more: It's an exploration of us. How we see things, and how the presumptions, values and socio-cultural programming we bring to an image dictate the "truth" we see. Initially, I mistakenly presumed this book was for photography geeks only. It's not. It's a book that teaches us how to better understand reality. Highly, highly recommended.
The Road Less Traveled
by M. Scott Peck
It's difficult to describe what exactly this book is, so I'll start by stealing the words of Washington Post reviewer Phyllis Theroux, who called it "not just a book but a spontaneous act of generosity." A book about personal development, about dedicating ourselves to reality, and about rooting out fear, ego-attachment and other impediments to our psychological growth. I found The Road Less Traveled to be astoundingly useful. It really was a gift.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini
A foundational resource on advertising and media manipulation, and a book that entertains while it makes you into a more sophisticated and empowered consumer. Intriguingly, there were surprising parallels between this book and Erroll Morris's Believing Is Seeing: reading both helps expose the silent reality behind both our store shelves and our media. See also a popular Casual Kitchen post inspired by Cialdini's book: That Man Moved the Sanka!
The Road to Serfdom
by F. A. Hayek
This is one of those books everyone cites but no one reads--a particular shame in this case, because The Road to Serfdom is entirely accessible to readers, even those not remotely trained in economics. Hayek, one of the 20th Century's greatest economists, saw up close what happens when the state takes over too much control of the economy: it leads first to coercion and later, tyranny. If you want to understand why economic freedom is indispensable to political freedom, this book explains how and why in compelling prose.
The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic
by David Shenk
An excellent "biography" of Alzheimers and age-related dementia. Highly useful explanations of how we form short- and long-term memories, how dementia interferes with memory formation, and what to expect over the course of the progression of the disease. On a personal note: My mother is experiencing moderate memory loss, and this is the first of several books I'll be reading to try and better understand her reality. Next on my list is the well-regarded book The 36 Hour Day.
Six Easy Pieces
by Richard Feynman
Six brief essays on the essentials of physics taken from Feyman's famous lectures at CalTech, and designed for the non-scientific reader. An interesting book on several levels, not least of which is the intellectual humility of Feynman as he outlines the boundaries of physicists' knowledge about reality. Also worth understanding that even purely scientific domains like physics are subject to the same fashions, whims and peer pressures as heavily politicized domains like climate science or ag science. I sure wish I'd had a professor like Feyman at my university.
Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth
by Mike Tyson and Larry Sloman
First, a friendly warning: If your eyes are too dainty for strong language do not read this book. A hilarious and at times sobering memoir of one the most polarizing figures in sports. Mike Tyson is a savant (some consider him a genius--see this fascinating interview at the New York Public Library for why) with his own idiosyncratic way of looking at the world, and no matter what you might think of him, it's hard not to empathize with a guy trying so hard to figure out his life and purpose. Related: see also Andre Agassi's striking autobiography Open.
Readers, what are YOU reading? What books would you recommend to me and to the other readers here at Casual Kitchen? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Finally, coming up next week, we'll share 2015's best articles here at Casual Kitchen. Stay tuned!
Read Next: How Do I Find Good Books To Read?
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Sure, everyone likes candy. Everyone knows it's okay in moderation. But if your entire diet consists of candy and little else, you'll soon find yourself in cognitive and dietary trouble. With that in mind, here are the very best books I read in the past year.
PS: Readers, feel free to share in the comments the best and most useful books you’ve been reading!
Believing Is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography
by Errol MorrisThe most striking book I read all year. On one level it's an exploration of photography, of what photos do and don't tell us about reality. On another level, this book is about much more: It's an exploration of us. How we see things, and how the presumptions, values and socio-cultural programming we bring to an image dictate the "truth" we see. Initially, I mistakenly presumed this book was for photography geeks only. It's not. It's a book that teaches us how to better understand reality. Highly, highly recommended.
The Road Less Traveled
by M. Scott PeckIt's difficult to describe what exactly this book is, so I'll start by stealing the words of Washington Post reviewer Phyllis Theroux, who called it "not just a book but a spontaneous act of generosity." A book about personal development, about dedicating ourselves to reality, and about rooting out fear, ego-attachment and other impediments to our psychological growth. I found The Road Less Traveled to be astoundingly useful. It really was a gift.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
by Robert CialdiniA foundational resource on advertising and media manipulation, and a book that entertains while it makes you into a more sophisticated and empowered consumer. Intriguingly, there were surprising parallels between this book and Erroll Morris's Believing Is Seeing: reading both helps expose the silent reality behind both our store shelves and our media. See also a popular Casual Kitchen post inspired by Cialdini's book: That Man Moved the Sanka!
The Road to Serfdom
by F. A. HayekThis is one of those books everyone cites but no one reads--a particular shame in this case, because The Road to Serfdom is entirely accessible to readers, even those not remotely trained in economics. Hayek, one of the 20th Century's greatest economists, saw up close what happens when the state takes over too much control of the economy: it leads first to coercion and later, tyranny. If you want to understand why economic freedom is indispensable to political freedom, this book explains how and why in compelling prose.
The Forgetting: Alzheimer's: Portrait of an Epidemic
by David ShenkAn excellent "biography" of Alzheimers and age-related dementia. Highly useful explanations of how we form short- and long-term memories, how dementia interferes with memory formation, and what to expect over the course of the progression of the disease. On a personal note: My mother is experiencing moderate memory loss, and this is the first of several books I'll be reading to try and better understand her reality. Next on my list is the well-regarded book The 36 Hour Day.
Six Easy Pieces
by Richard FeynmanSix brief essays on the essentials of physics taken from Feyman's famous lectures at CalTech, and designed for the non-scientific reader. An interesting book on several levels, not least of which is the intellectual humility of Feynman as he outlines the boundaries of physicists' knowledge about reality. Also worth understanding that even purely scientific domains like physics are subject to the same fashions, whims and peer pressures as heavily politicized domains like climate science or ag science. I sure wish I'd had a professor like Feyman at my university.
Mike Tyson: The Undisputed Truth
by Mike Tyson and Larry SlomanFirst, a friendly warning: If your eyes are too dainty for strong language do not read this book. A hilarious and at times sobering memoir of one the most polarizing figures in sports. Mike Tyson is a savant (some consider him a genius--see this fascinating interview at the New York Public Library for why) with his own idiosyncratic way of looking at the world, and no matter what you might think of him, it's hard not to empathize with a guy trying so hard to figure out his life and purpose. Related: see also Andre Agassi's striking autobiography Open.
Readers, what are YOU reading? What books would you recommend to me and to the other readers here at Casual Kitchen? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Finally, coming up next week, we'll share 2015's best articles here at Casual Kitchen. Stay tuned!
Read Next: How Do I Find Good Books To Read?
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
The Best of Casual Kitchen 2014
Every year at this time I share Casual Kitchen's best posts for the prior twelve months.
And as always, I would like to thank you, readers, for all your support. Thank you for clicking through to the site, for doing your shopping at Amazon via the affiliate links here *, and most of all, thank you for reading and participating in the conversation. You are why Casual Kitchen exists.
With that, let's get to the very best of CK 2014!
* A quick public service reminder: the easiest way to support my work here is to use the links to Amazon on this site to do your shopping (you can find them on the right margin, or in the postscript at the bottom of every post). Amazon pays me a modest affiliate commission on any and every item you buy--at zero incremental cost to you. This is the ideal way to support bloggers you follow!
*************************
Top 10 Best Posts of 2014
10) The Tragic Tale of Peat Village
My personal favorite post of the year. An allegory about how certain elites seem to know so much better how we should live--and worse, how they seem to think their own rules don't apply to them.
9) Consumerism and Modern Pseudovalues: Some Thoughts
Intellectually, we all know that buying things cannot bring lasting meaning to our lives. So why do so many of us keep acting otherwise? PS: If you think life is about dying next to a large pile of branded consumer goods, do yourself a favor and don't read this post.
8) A Cup of Morning Death? How "Big Coffee" Puts Profits Before People
I'm not gonna lie: I was proud of this parody of the entire litany of unethical rhetorical techniques the Food Babe and others use to impose paranoia on consumers (see also my post on the Subway yoga mat controversy for an all-too typical example). At the rate we're going, we'll soon instinctively fear any ingredient with more than four syllables.
7) What Happens Once You've Cooked a Recipe 100 Times?
In short, five amazing things happen. And each makes cooking easier and more enjoyable than ever.
6) Consumers: Pay For Your Own Brainwashing! (Or Don't)
Companies love it when we pay extra for their familiar branded products. But how did that "feeling" of familiarity get there? This post shares a rather ugly, hidden truth about branded consumer products.
5) The Six Core Principles of Healthy Inexpensive Cooking
This popular series is an articulation of CK's central philosophies on consumer empowerment, frugality, and how you can feed yourself healthy food on very little time and money. Honestly, I should have written this years ago.
4) MORE! Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
The original Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes received a ton of linkbacks and has probably brought more readers to Casual Kitchen than any other post. This all-new list offers yet another collection of easy-to-prepare recipes, most of which cost less than a dollar a serving. Enjoy!
3) Expediency and Treadmill Effects
Clearly, I should have thought up a more eye-grabbing title, but this was an important consumer empowerment post discussing how we're subtly lured into more expensive "solutions" than we actually need.
2) Tips vs Strategy
How to choose an information-gathering approach that actually helps you, rather than protects your ego. Bonus: A life with a lot less snark and condescending remarks.
1) The Broken Food Pyramid
This post should make you very humble, not just about government dietary guidelines, but about most of the things we think we know.
Bonus! Top book-related posts at CK in 2014:
Jayson Lusk: The Food Police
Dr. Lusk was exceptionally generous with his time to both answer provocative questions and offer readers here a bonus book list of recommended reading.
Art De Vany: The New Evolution Diet
I pay this book the highest compliment when I say it significantly changed how I think about diet and health. This post, intriguingly, was my second highest trafficked post of 2014, behind The High Cost of a "Feeling" of Safety.
The Heart of the Plate
In short, the best cookbook of the past few years. Mollie Katzen takes vegetarian fare and makes it simple, honest, delicious--and available to anyone. An excellent resource.
Finally: Honorable Mention!
Here are a few posts I'm really proud of, but they just didn't quite make the cut:
How to Keep a Fitness Training Journal
Things are Important Before They're Important
Create Your Own Food Myths for Fun and Profit!
Meat-Eaters Ordering Vegetarian: Polite? Or Phony?
The Illusion of Control and How It's Used Against You
Once again, readers, I thank you for reading. See you in 2015!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
And as always, I would like to thank you, readers, for all your support. Thank you for clicking through to the site, for doing your shopping at Amazon via the affiliate links here *, and most of all, thank you for reading and participating in the conversation. You are why Casual Kitchen exists.
With that, let's get to the very best of CK 2014!
* A quick public service reminder: the easiest way to support my work here is to use the links to Amazon on this site to do your shopping (you can find them on the right margin, or in the postscript at the bottom of every post). Amazon pays me a modest affiliate commission on any and every item you buy--at zero incremental cost to you. This is the ideal way to support bloggers you follow!
*************************
Top 10 Best Posts of 2014
10) The Tragic Tale of Peat Village
My personal favorite post of the year. An allegory about how certain elites seem to know so much better how we should live--and worse, how they seem to think their own rules don't apply to them.
9) Consumerism and Modern Pseudovalues: Some Thoughts
Intellectually, we all know that buying things cannot bring lasting meaning to our lives. So why do so many of us keep acting otherwise? PS: If you think life is about dying next to a large pile of branded consumer goods, do yourself a favor and don't read this post.
8) A Cup of Morning Death? How "Big Coffee" Puts Profits Before People
I'm not gonna lie: I was proud of this parody of the entire litany of unethical rhetorical techniques the Food Babe and others use to impose paranoia on consumers (see also my post on the Subway yoga mat controversy for an all-too typical example). At the rate we're going, we'll soon instinctively fear any ingredient with more than four syllables.
7) What Happens Once You've Cooked a Recipe 100 Times?
In short, five amazing things happen. And each makes cooking easier and more enjoyable than ever.
6) Consumers: Pay For Your Own Brainwashing! (Or Don't)
Companies love it when we pay extra for their familiar branded products. But how did that "feeling" of familiarity get there? This post shares a rather ugly, hidden truth about branded consumer products.
5) The Six Core Principles of Healthy Inexpensive Cooking
This popular series is an articulation of CK's central philosophies on consumer empowerment, frugality, and how you can feed yourself healthy food on very little time and money. Honestly, I should have written this years ago.
4) MORE! Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
The original Top 25 Laughably Cheap Recipes received a ton of linkbacks and has probably brought more readers to Casual Kitchen than any other post. This all-new list offers yet another collection of easy-to-prepare recipes, most of which cost less than a dollar a serving. Enjoy!
3) Expediency and Treadmill Effects
Clearly, I should have thought up a more eye-grabbing title, but this was an important consumer empowerment post discussing how we're subtly lured into more expensive "solutions" than we actually need.
2) Tips vs Strategy
How to choose an information-gathering approach that actually helps you, rather than protects your ego. Bonus: A life with a lot less snark and condescending remarks.
1) The Broken Food Pyramid
This post should make you very humble, not just about government dietary guidelines, but about most of the things we think we know.
Bonus! Top book-related posts at CK in 2014:
Jayson Lusk: The Food Police
Dr. Lusk was exceptionally generous with his time to both answer provocative questions and offer readers here a bonus book list of recommended reading.
Art De Vany: The New Evolution Diet
I pay this book the highest compliment when I say it significantly changed how I think about diet and health. This post, intriguingly, was my second highest trafficked post of 2014, behind The High Cost of a "Feeling" of Safety.
The Heart of the Plate
In short, the best cookbook of the past few years. Mollie Katzen takes vegetarian fare and makes it simple, honest, delicious--and available to anyone. An excellent resource.
Finally: Honorable Mention!
Here are a few posts I'm really proud of, but they just didn't quite make the cut:
How to Keep a Fitness Training Journal
Things are Important Before They're Important
Create Your Own Food Myths for Fun and Profit!
Meat-Eaters Ordering Vegetarian: Polite? Or Phony?
The Illusion of Control and How It's Used Against You
Once again, readers, I thank you for reading. See you in 2015!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Share YOUR Best Post of 2013!
Did you write an article or a recipe for your blog during 2013 that you're particularly proud of? Would you like to put it in front of a wider audience?
Then share it right here at Casual Kitchen!
One of my goals at CK is to connect good readers with good things that need to be read. I've been running this feature at CK for a few years now, and every year I've been overjoyed with how many great posts readers have shared here. So, today, I'm giving floor over to you, readers. Use the platform here at Casual Kitchen to get the word out on your best work from the past year. It's my way of thanking you for your incredible support.
Here's how to participate: Just paste a link to your favorite post or recipe from the past year in the comments section below, and, if you like, add a sentence or two on what it's about.
That's it! It can be your most popular recipe of the year, a great piece of food writing, or even something from outside of the world of food blogs.
PS: If you don't have a blog (or if you're one of the infinitesimally few bloggers who don't want new readers), feel free to share a great post from someone else who you'd like to support.
Finally, as Casual Kitchen wraps up its seventh (!) year, let me thank you, my incredible readers. I can't tell you how grateful I am for all your support, insights, feedback and comments.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Then share it right here at Casual Kitchen!
One of my goals at CK is to connect good readers with good things that need to be read. I've been running this feature at CK for a few years now, and every year I've been overjoyed with how many great posts readers have shared here. So, today, I'm giving floor over to you, readers. Use the platform here at Casual Kitchen to get the word out on your best work from the past year. It's my way of thanking you for your incredible support.
Here's how to participate: Just paste a link to your favorite post or recipe from the past year in the comments section below, and, if you like, add a sentence or two on what it's about.
That's it! It can be your most popular recipe of the year, a great piece of food writing, or even something from outside of the world of food blogs.
PS: If you don't have a blog (or if you're one of the infinitesimally few bloggers who don't want new readers), feel free to share a great post from someone else who you'd like to support.
Finally, as Casual Kitchen wraps up its seventh (!) year, let me thank you, my incredible readers. I can't tell you how grateful I am for all your support, insights, feedback and comments.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
The Very Best of Casual Kitchen 2013
Every year at this time I share the very best articles of the past year--and thank readers for joining the conversation at Casual Kitchen.
I can't begin to describe how profoundly thankful I am to you, dear readers, for reading, participating and being here. You've supported me by clicking through to the site, by making purchases at Amazon.com via the links here, and even by giving direct donations to Casual Kitchen. And along the way you've added thousands of thoughtful and insightful comments. Thank you. You're why Casual Kitchen exists.
So without further ado, here's the very best of CK 2013. Once again, thanks so much for reading. I'm grateful.
PS: Next week, I'll give YOU a chance to promote and share *your* best post of 2013. Stay tuned!!
*********************************************
The Best of Casual Kitchen 2013
10) The 4-Hour Chef: An Extended Review of a Terrible Book
Readers, what makes a writer credible? What makes us trust a writer enough to rely on what he or she teaches? This post explains why Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Chef was one of the worst--and least credible--books of the year.
9) The Paradox of Cooking Shows
It's hard to believe, but millions of people spend more time watching other people cook on TV than actually cooking themselves. How can this be? See also the intriguing debate in the comments.
8) How To Be Fooled By Expensive Wine
If wine experts are easy to fool, then regular wine-buying consumers are hilariously easy to fool. Read this post, and don't get needlessly separated from your money when you buy wine. Related: The Cork Debate: Does Good Wine Really Need a Cork?
7) The Current State of Individual Blogging
It's getting harder and harder to be a blogger these days, as your traffic stats, your earnings, and your ability to reach new readers slip increasingly out of your hands. This post explains two things: why I keep writing anyway, and why "Swiss Chard" teaches you everything you ever needed to know about search.
6) A 30 Day Voracious Reading Trial
I did a 30 day trial of intensive reading in August, and it turned out to be a life-changing experience. Here's why I did it and what I read. One of the years' most popular posts.
5) Consumer Empowerment: How To Self-Fund Your Consumer Products Purchases
Believe it or not, there's an easy technique you can use to get companies to pay you to buy their products. Oddly, there are exactly zero comments on this post--striking given this post's high pageview count. PS: See also how a reader tried to make me feel guilty for sharing the idea at all.
4) Did Newark Mayor Cory Booker Really *Try* With His Food Stamp Challenge?
Does a Stanford/Yale/Oxford-educated politician have an obligation to help others learn? I wrote this post after Cory Booker bungled a food stamp challenge, squandering an opportunity to teach the fundamentals of how to eat healthy on a small budget.
3) Ethanol Hurts the Poor
It's bad enough that our country's idiotic ethanol policy wastes more fossil fuels than it replaces. Worse, it also drives unnaturally rising prices throughout our entire food supply--hurting our very poorest citizens the hardest. This post explains why you should never support the use of ethanol as a fuel.
2) The Cure for Worry Porn
Have you noticed the explosion of alarmist articles and reports showing up everywhere in our media? It seems like there's a cancer risk or some other unnerving danger lurking everywhere these days: in our homes, in our neighborhoods--even in the linings of our canned food. This post destroys the entire edifice of alarmist worry porn. Several readers wrote in to thank me for writing it.
.... and the top post of 2013!
1) When It Comes To Banning Soda, Marion Nestle Fights Dirty
How I lost most of my respect for one of our country's most important food policy activists. Read this if you care that our food policy issues are debated fairly, rationally and honestly. By far my most widely read post of the year, and a post I was at first afraid to publish.
Best Recipes of 2013:
Readers, you might notice a common theme in 2013's recipes: E-A-S-Y. As always, I pride myself on bringing readers healthy, inexpensive and truly easy-to-prepare recipes. Enjoy!
Easy Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Stew -- Rich barley, tangy tomatoes and a mild hint of dried thyme make this hearty stew truly unforgettable.
Easy Chicken In Tomato Sauce -- A laughably simple and delicious recipe that costs as little as $1.25 per serving.
Easy White Bean Spread -- A healthy and hilariously inexpensive appetizer. This recipe is so easy I felt like a doofus for waiting so long to share it.
Easy Beet "Pesto" -- A striking pesto spread that's so good your guests will literally inhale it.
Easy Curried Chickpeas and Tofu -- You can make this flavorful recipe in under 20 minutes and for just over $1 per serving.
Honorable Mention:
The Risotto Blogroll: 20 of the Internet's Easiest and Most Delicious Risotto Recipes
What's the Link Between Dietary Cholesterol and Blood Cholesterol?
The Food Industry Should Only Sell Bad Tasting Food
Dispute This! Negative Self-Talk And Better Health
To Kill a Good Idea Part 1 / To Kill a Good Idea Part 2
Banning Food Advertising Won't Do What You Think It Will Do
The Extreme Reach Fallacy
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
I can't begin to describe how profoundly thankful I am to you, dear readers, for reading, participating and being here. You've supported me by clicking through to the site, by making purchases at Amazon.com
via the links here, and even by giving direct donations to Casual Kitchen. And along the way you've added thousands of thoughtful and insightful comments. Thank you. You're why Casual Kitchen exists. So without further ado, here's the very best of CK 2013. Once again, thanks so much for reading. I'm grateful.
PS: Next week, I'll give YOU a chance to promote and share *your* best post of 2013. Stay tuned!!
*********************************************
The Best of Casual Kitchen 2013
10) The 4-Hour Chef: An Extended Review of a Terrible Book
Readers, what makes a writer credible? What makes us trust a writer enough to rely on what he or she teaches? This post explains why Tim Ferriss's The 4-Hour Chef was one of the worst--and least credible--books of the year.
9) The Paradox of Cooking Shows
It's hard to believe, but millions of people spend more time watching other people cook on TV than actually cooking themselves. How can this be? See also the intriguing debate in the comments.
8) How To Be Fooled By Expensive Wine
If wine experts are easy to fool, then regular wine-buying consumers are hilariously easy to fool. Read this post, and don't get needlessly separated from your money when you buy wine. Related: The Cork Debate: Does Good Wine Really Need a Cork?
7) The Current State of Individual Blogging
It's getting harder and harder to be a blogger these days, as your traffic stats, your earnings, and your ability to reach new readers slip increasingly out of your hands. This post explains two things: why I keep writing anyway, and why "Swiss Chard" teaches you everything you ever needed to know about search.
6) A 30 Day Voracious Reading Trial
I did a 30 day trial of intensive reading in August, and it turned out to be a life-changing experience. Here's why I did it and what I read. One of the years' most popular posts.
5) Consumer Empowerment: How To Self-Fund Your Consumer Products Purchases
Believe it or not, there's an easy technique you can use to get companies to pay you to buy their products. Oddly, there are exactly zero comments on this post--striking given this post's high pageview count. PS: See also how a reader tried to make me feel guilty for sharing the idea at all.
4) Did Newark Mayor Cory Booker Really *Try* With His Food Stamp Challenge?
Does a Stanford/Yale/Oxford-educated politician have an obligation to help others learn? I wrote this post after Cory Booker bungled a food stamp challenge, squandering an opportunity to teach the fundamentals of how to eat healthy on a small budget.
3) Ethanol Hurts the Poor
It's bad enough that our country's idiotic ethanol policy wastes more fossil fuels than it replaces. Worse, it also drives unnaturally rising prices throughout our entire food supply--hurting our very poorest citizens the hardest. This post explains why you should never support the use of ethanol as a fuel.
2) The Cure for Worry Porn
Have you noticed the explosion of alarmist articles and reports showing up everywhere in our media? It seems like there's a cancer risk or some other unnerving danger lurking everywhere these days: in our homes, in our neighborhoods--even in the linings of our canned food. This post destroys the entire edifice of alarmist worry porn. Several readers wrote in to thank me for writing it.
.... and the top post of 2013!
1) When It Comes To Banning Soda, Marion Nestle Fights Dirty
How I lost most of my respect for one of our country's most important food policy activists. Read this if you care that our food policy issues are debated fairly, rationally and honestly. By far my most widely read post of the year, and a post I was at first afraid to publish.
Best Recipes of 2013:
Readers, you might notice a common theme in 2013's recipes: E-A-S-Y. As always, I pride myself on bringing readers healthy, inexpensive and truly easy-to-prepare recipes. Enjoy!
Easy Slow Cooker Beef and Barley Stew -- Rich barley, tangy tomatoes and a mild hint of dried thyme make this hearty stew truly unforgettable.
Easy Chicken In Tomato Sauce -- A laughably simple and delicious recipe that costs as little as $1.25 per serving.
Easy White Bean Spread -- A healthy and hilariously inexpensive appetizer. This recipe is so easy I felt like a doofus for waiting so long to share it.
Easy Beet "Pesto" -- A striking pesto spread that's so good your guests will literally inhale it.
Easy Curried Chickpeas and Tofu -- You can make this flavorful recipe in under 20 minutes and for just over $1 per serving.
Honorable Mention:
The Risotto Blogroll: 20 of the Internet's Easiest and Most Delicious Risotto Recipes
What's the Link Between Dietary Cholesterol and Blood Cholesterol?
The Food Industry Should Only Sell Bad Tasting Food
Dispute This! Negative Self-Talk And Better Health
To Kill a Good Idea Part 1 / To Kill a Good Idea Part 2
Banning Food Advertising Won't Do What You Think It Will Do
The Extreme Reach Fallacy
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
Easy. Do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site! You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
The Very Best of Casual Kitchen 2012
Every year at this time I share the very best articles of the past year--and thank readers for joining the conversation here at Casual Kitchen.
CK passed some huge milestones in 2012:
1) A week or so ago, this blog turned six,
2) In June I published my 800th (!) post,
3) For the past several months pageviews have been running 60,000-70,000 a month! (for me, that's a lot.)
I can't begin to describe how grateful I am to you, readers, for continuing to visit and participate. Not only have you stayed with me, but you've also added hundreds of thoughtful and provocative comments along the way. You are the reason Casual Kitchen exists.
So without further ado, here's the very best writing of Casual Kitchen in 2012. Once again, thank you so much for being here.
PS: Next week, I'll give YOU a chance to promote and share *your* best post of 2012. Stay tuned!!
********************************
Countdown! The Best of Casual Kitchen 2012
12) Attack of the Cheaps! Eight Great (And Temporary) Ideas to Save $500-$700 a Month
Best title of the year. Put these ideas to work and you'll save up to $6,000-$7,000 every year. See several excellent reader-submitted ideas in the comments too.
11) Anticipated Reproach, And Why Vegetarians Are Such Jerks
If you've ever wondered why otherwise well-behaved people start insane arguments correcting perfect strangers over the internet, this post pretty much explains it. Groupie moment: Mollie Katzen, one of my culinary idols and author of the incomparable Moosewood Cookbook
, complimented me on this post on her Facebook page.
10) The Judgment of Paris: The Blind Wine Tasting That Changed the World
How history's most embarrassing wine tasting ended up putting California wines on the map once and for all. I know everyone loves hating on the French, but, well... this time they deserved it.
9) Review: The Mindful Carnivore
My review of one of the most unusual and intriguing books of 2012: Tovar Cerulli's intelligent and honest exploration of the ethics of hunting. If you're interested in this topic, don't miss A Mindful Carnivore: Books For Further Reading.
8) How Do I Follow the Wheat Belly Diet?
From my series on the controversial and inflammatory book Wheat Belly,
this post explains step-by-step instructions on how to follow the book's dietary guidelines. This post quickly became one of my most searched-for articles. See also: Does Wheat Belly Eating Always Cost More?
7) Extreme Savings
Why the conventional wisdom to save 10% of your income is not only insufficient, it will condemn you to a lifetime of wage slavery. See this post for some of 2012's angriest comments, and see my response to them in On Excuses and Insensitivity.
6) Thinking Through Pink Slime
An important side of the pink slime debate that you'll never see in the mainstream media. Given the extremely emotional nature of the subject, this post received surprisingly civil comments.
5) Is Organic Food Healthier? Or Just Another Aspirational Product?
If you want to get real value from organic food, you simply must consider it from the perspective of those selling it to us. And those soft popping sounds in the distance? Those are the exploding minds of thousands of fanatical organic food buyers. By far 2012's most controversial post.
4) Who Gains From Fair Trade Certified Products?
It almost never occurs to people how skillfully companies capitalize on our desire to feel good about ourselves. Beware: this is one of the worst retail ninja mind tricks out there.
3) Two People, Fifteen Days, Thirty Meals. Thirty-Five Bucks!
Based on a real 15-day trial of simple, low-budget eating that I actually carried out. This post gives readers a full recipe list, a full menu list and an complete itemized grocery list that you can use to create 15 days' worth of simple, healthy dinners for the hilariously low cost of just $35. That's right--more than two weeks of eating for thirty-five bucks. I thank both Reddit and Get Off My Internets for picking up this post and sending me a ton of traffic.
2) How Food Blogs Disempower Their Readers
We all use mental lenses to look at the world. But why is it that most food blogs impose a disempowered, victim-based filter on their readers? More importantly, what can we do about it? Readers, I'm as proud of this post as I am of anything I've ever written all year.
1) How To Be Manipulated By a Brand
In just 300 words, this post unlocks a deeply empowering idea about the consumer products industry. Read this post and you'll never be manipulated by branding ever again.
Best/Most Popular Recipes of 2012:
1) Coconut Curry with Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas -- An absolute home run recipe with unforgettable flavors that you can make in just 30 minutes. This was the runaway best recipe of the year.
2) Garden Pasta -- Possibly the easiest recipe in the entire history of Casual Kitchen, and you can easily get it on the table in 15 minutes.
3) Red, White and Blue Sangria -- Three sangria recipes in one post! Please enjoy responsibly.
4) Laughably Cheap Carrot and Fresh Cabbage Curry -- At just 50c a serving, this outrageously healthy and delicious recipe permanently disproves the ludicrous notion that healthy food has to be expensive.
5) Moroccan-Style Carrots -- A simple, memorable and delicious side-dish. You'll wow your guests with it.
6) Chickpea and Tomato Salad with Fresh Basil -- A delicious, distinctive and laughably easy dish. Just steer clear of the $6 heirloom tomatoes!
Bonus! Your Money Or Your Life
Finally, a bonus entry--one that isn't even about food. Rather, it's an archive of one of my most ambitious writing projects ever: A chapter-by-chapter companion resource to the one personal finance book that influenced me more than any other.
Readers, I'll make you a solemn promise. If you...
1) Read Your Money or Your Life,
2) Complete each of the book's nine steps, and
3) Carefully read this companion resource,
....you will solve all of your financial problems once and for all. Don't think for a minute that I'm exaggerating.
Honorable Mention:
And Ghirardelli Was Third
An Eight Point Manifesto Against Big Food
Zombies, Processed Foods and the Advertising-Consumption Cycle
Three Books In Three Days
How to Blind-Taste and Blind-Test Brands
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
For those readers interested in supporting Casual Kitchen, the easiest way is to do so is to do all your shopping at Amazon.com via the links on this site. You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
CK passed some huge milestones in 2012:
1) A week or so ago, this blog turned six,
2) In June I published my 800th (!) post,
3) For the past several months pageviews have been running 60,000-70,000 a month! (for me, that's a lot.)
I can't begin to describe how grateful I am to you, readers, for continuing to visit and participate. Not only have you stayed with me, but you've also added hundreds of thoughtful and provocative comments along the way. You are the reason Casual Kitchen exists.
So without further ado, here's the very best writing of Casual Kitchen in 2012. Once again, thank you so much for being here.
PS: Next week, I'll give YOU a chance to promote and share *your* best post of 2012. Stay tuned!!
********************************
Countdown! The Best of Casual Kitchen 2012
12) Attack of the Cheaps! Eight Great (And Temporary) Ideas to Save $500-$700 a Month
Best title of the year. Put these ideas to work and you'll save up to $6,000-$7,000 every year. See several excellent reader-submitted ideas in the comments too.
11) Anticipated Reproach, And Why Vegetarians Are Such Jerks
If you've ever wondered why otherwise well-behaved people start insane arguments correcting perfect strangers over the internet, this post pretty much explains it. Groupie moment: Mollie Katzen, one of my culinary idols and author of the incomparable Moosewood Cookbook
, complimented me on this post on her Facebook page.10) The Judgment of Paris: The Blind Wine Tasting That Changed the World
How history's most embarrassing wine tasting ended up putting California wines on the map once and for all. I know everyone loves hating on the French, but, well... this time they deserved it.
9) Review: The Mindful Carnivore
My review of one of the most unusual and intriguing books of 2012: Tovar Cerulli's intelligent and honest exploration of the ethics of hunting. If you're interested in this topic, don't miss A Mindful Carnivore: Books For Further Reading.
8) How Do I Follow the Wheat Belly Diet?
From my series on the controversial and inflammatory book Wheat Belly,
this post explains step-by-step instructions on how to follow the book's dietary guidelines. This post quickly became one of my most searched-for articles. See also: Does Wheat Belly Eating Always Cost More?7) Extreme Savings
Why the conventional wisdom to save 10% of your income is not only insufficient, it will condemn you to a lifetime of wage slavery. See this post for some of 2012's angriest comments, and see my response to them in On Excuses and Insensitivity.
6) Thinking Through Pink Slime
An important side of the pink slime debate that you'll never see in the mainstream media. Given the extremely emotional nature of the subject, this post received surprisingly civil comments.
5) Is Organic Food Healthier? Or Just Another Aspirational Product?
If you want to get real value from organic food, you simply must consider it from the perspective of those selling it to us. And those soft popping sounds in the distance? Those are the exploding minds of thousands of fanatical organic food buyers. By far 2012's most controversial post.
4) Who Gains From Fair Trade Certified Products?
It almost never occurs to people how skillfully companies capitalize on our desire to feel good about ourselves. Beware: this is one of the worst retail ninja mind tricks out there.
3) Two People, Fifteen Days, Thirty Meals. Thirty-Five Bucks!
Based on a real 15-day trial of simple, low-budget eating that I actually carried out. This post gives readers a full recipe list, a full menu list and an complete itemized grocery list that you can use to create 15 days' worth of simple, healthy dinners for the hilariously low cost of just $35. That's right--more than two weeks of eating for thirty-five bucks. I thank both Reddit and Get Off My Internets for picking up this post and sending me a ton of traffic.
2) How Food Blogs Disempower Their Readers
We all use mental lenses to look at the world. But why is it that most food blogs impose a disempowered, victim-based filter on their readers? More importantly, what can we do about it? Readers, I'm as proud of this post as I am of anything I've ever written all year.
1) How To Be Manipulated By a Brand
In just 300 words, this post unlocks a deeply empowering idea about the consumer products industry. Read this post and you'll never be manipulated by branding ever again.
Best/Most Popular Recipes of 2012:
1) Coconut Curry with Collard Greens and Black Eyed Peas -- An absolute home run recipe with unforgettable flavors that you can make in just 30 minutes. This was the runaway best recipe of the year.
2) Garden Pasta -- Possibly the easiest recipe in the entire history of Casual Kitchen, and you can easily get it on the table in 15 minutes.
3) Red, White and Blue Sangria -- Three sangria recipes in one post! Please enjoy responsibly.
4) Laughably Cheap Carrot and Fresh Cabbage Curry -- At just 50c a serving, this outrageously healthy and delicious recipe permanently disproves the ludicrous notion that healthy food has to be expensive.
5) Moroccan-Style Carrots -- A simple, memorable and delicious side-dish. You'll wow your guests with it.
6) Chickpea and Tomato Salad with Fresh Basil -- A delicious, distinctive and laughably easy dish. Just steer clear of the $6 heirloom tomatoes!
Bonus! Your Money Or Your Life
Finally, a bonus entry--one that isn't even about food. Rather, it's an archive of one of my most ambitious writing projects ever: A chapter-by-chapter companion resource to the one personal finance book that influenced me more than any other.
Readers, I'll make you a solemn promise. If you...
1) Read Your Money or Your Life,
2) Complete each of the book's nine steps, and
3) Carefully read this companion resource,
....you will solve all of your financial problems once and for all. Don't think for a minute that I'm exaggerating.
Honorable Mention:
And Ghirardelli Was Third
An Eight Point Manifesto Against Big Food
Zombies, Processed Foods and the Advertising-Consumption Cycle
Three Books In Three Days
How to Blind-Taste and Blind-Test Brands
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
For those readers interested in supporting Casual Kitchen, the easiest way is to do so is to do all your shopping at Amazon.com
via the links on this site. You can also link to me or subscribe to my RSS feed. Finally, consider sharing this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to Facebook, Twitter (follow me @danielckoontz!) or to bookmarking sites like reddit, digg or stumbleupon. I'm deeply grateful to my readers for their ongoing support.
Share YOUR Best Post of 2011!
Did you write an article or a recipe for your blog during the past year that you're particularly proud of? Would you like to put in front of a wider audience?
Then share it right here at CK!
Readers know that one of my goals at Casual Kitchen is to match thoughtful readers with thought-provoking things that should be read. It's why I created my Friday Links series, and it's one of the ways I try to pay it forward to the many talented writers and bloggers out there.
So, just like I've done this week in each of the last few years, I'd like to give the floor to you, dear readers, and give you a chance to use Casual Kitchen to get the word out on your best work from the past year. It's my way of thanking you for your incredible support.
Here's how to participate: Just paste a link to your favorite post or your best recipe from 2011 in the comments section below, and add a sentence or two on what it's about. That's it! It can be your most popular recipe of the year, a great piece of food writing, or even something from outside of the world of food blogs.
(And if you're one of the infinitesimally few bloggers out there who's too shy to share your own work, feel free to nominate a great post from someone else's blog.)
Finally, as Casual Kitchen wraps up its fifth year, let me take a moment to thank you, my incredible readers, for all your support, comments, feedback and attention. I'm profoundly grateful.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Then share it right here at CK!
Readers know that one of my goals at Casual Kitchen is to match thoughtful readers with thought-provoking things that should be read. It's why I created my Friday Links series, and it's one of the ways I try to pay it forward to the many talented writers and bloggers out there.
So, just like I've done this week in each of the last few years, I'd like to give the floor to you, dear readers, and give you a chance to use Casual Kitchen to get the word out on your best work from the past year. It's my way of thanking you for your incredible support.
Here's how to participate: Just paste a link to your favorite post or your best recipe from 2011 in the comments section below, and add a sentence or two on what it's about. That's it! It can be your most popular recipe of the year, a great piece of food writing, or even something from outside of the world of food blogs.
(And if you're one of the infinitesimally few bloggers out there who's too shy to share your own work, feel free to nominate a great post from someone else's blog.)
Finally, as Casual Kitchen wraps up its fifth year, let me take a moment to thank you, my incredible readers, for all your support, comments, feedback and attention. I'm profoundly grateful.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
A Thank You To Readers, And the Best of Casual Kitchen 2011
I want to take a moment, as I do every year at this time, to thank my readers for joining the conversation here at Casual Kitchen.
CK passed some big landmarks in 2011: a few weeks ago, this blog turned five years old. In October I published my 700th post. And if my math is right, sometime early this year CK had its one millionth pageview. I'm deeply, deeply grateful.
I took Casual Kitchen into some new and different directions this year, and I'm thankful that readers not only stayed with me, but that you added so many thoughtful, insightful--and most importantly, civil--comments along the way. It's thanks to you, my dear readers, that Casual Kitchen exists, and it's thanks to you that it's become exactly what I want it to be: a thoughtful forum for adult discussion about food, health, consumerism, frugality and many, many related issues.
So without further ado, here's the best of CK 2011. Once again, thank you so much for being here.
PS: next week, I'll give you a chance to promote and share *your* best post of 2011. Stay tuned!
********************************
Best of Casual Kitchen 2011
1) A Fund For... Who, Exactly? Addressing the "A Fund For Jennie" Controversy
I was one of very few writers to publicly address how Bloggers Without Borders spearheaded an enormous charity fundraiser for a fellow food blogger who, it later turned out, never needed the money. By an order of magnitude my most widely-read post in 2011.
2) The Tragedy of Ersatz American Restaurant Food
In nearly all high-volume restaurants, the idea that your dinner entrees are actually cooked for you is a quaint fiction. This popular post kicked off several heated discussions in the comments: whether cruises sucked or not, how I've ruined peoples' trust in restaurants, and even whether it's appropriate to use the word "tragedy" in a post about food.
3) The Top Lame-Ass Excuses Between You and Better Health
This post describes the entire taxonomy of excuses I get here at CK. I originally created it so I could refer commenters to it if they slipped into excuse mode (Hi, thanks for your comment. You've made a lame excuse. Please read this post on excuse-making, especially #4). The weird thing? I've gotten hardly any excuses at all since this post went live. Hmmm.
4) Never From Concentrate? Never Again
It's impossible to harvest totally identical-tasting juice from season to season and year to year. And yet every single carton of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice tastes exactly the same. How? Read this post to find out. I promise, you'll rethink the value of "Premium" OJ.
5) The Sad, Quiet Death of Campbell's Low-Sodium Soup
When Campbell's killed off their "healthier" line of lower-sodium soups, were they putting greed and profits above the health of their customers? It depends on how you look at it.
6) Doing More Harm Than Good
Sometimes posts just come bursting out of you, and that's exactly what happened with this one, which I published right after the Bloggers Without Borders/A Fund for Jennie controversy. This is one of the posts I'm most proud of this year, and it seemed to resonate deeply with readers.
7) On Spice Fade, And the Utter Insanity of Throwing Spices Out After Six Months
The rule of thumb about throwing out your spices after six months is pure hogwash, and it needlessly costs consumers extra money. I explain why, borrowing from the science of... uh, radioactive isotopes. (NB: This post got picked up by Reddit, where, predictably, it sprouted a 96-comment thread which climaxed in a completely useless discussion of how to store spices in nitrogen gas.)
8) Companies vs. Consumers: A Manifesto
This post articulates many of my fundamental ideas about consumer empowerment, and how we give our power away to Big Food, often without even thinking about it. See also: What's Your Favorite Consumer Empowerment Tip?
9) How to Own the Consumer Products Industry--And I Mean Literally Own It
I describe step-by-step how to make intelligent investments in the consumer products industry, to help readers take control and ownership of the companies that sell to us. Quite honestly, this post was too long, too detailed and about as popular with readers as radioactive nutmeg. So why is it on this list? Because I was proud of it: it combined my former career on Wall Street with my goals to help consumers master their financial destiny, and in some ways it was the most empowering thing I wrote all year.
10) What's Wrong With the Government Limiting Food Marketing to Kids?
When the FTC rolled out new rules for limiting food marketing to children, my first question was Wait: is it children who actually buy these foods? I gave readers a chance to sound off on that and a few other choice questions, and the result was a thoughtful and counterintuitive conversation about parenting, paternalism and the role of government in our lives.
BONUS: A Simple Rule To Make Your Life Environmentally Sustainable and Worry Free
Why do we waste so much time worrying about minor aspects of our consumption and behavior patterns when they often have a pitifully tiny impact on the environment? This post shares a simple framework for your buying and eating decisions, so you can spend more time dealing with major things you can control--and stop worrying pointlessly about minor things you can't.
Honorable Mention:
How to Defeat the Retail Industry's Ninja Mind Tricks
Three Rules of Thumb for Tinkering with a Recipe
An Easier Way to Crack An Egg: Blunt Force Trauma
Can You Resist $107 Worth of Advertising?
What's Your Take On Restaurants Charging Mandatory Gratuity Fees?
Best/Most Popular Recipes of 2011:
1) Citrus Orzo Salad With Olives and Sundried Tomatoes -- One of the most striking and laughably easy pasta salad recipes in CK's history.
2) Easy Braised Red Cabbage -- My favorite recipe of the year. Plus, how often do you get to use the phrase "nestle the studded onion" in a recipe post? Not that often.
3) Curried Corn -- Adapted from the exceptional Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home,
this is a healthy 20-minute recipe with a fascinating combination of flavors.
4) Hilariously Easy Chicken Soup -- When I say hilariously easy, I mean it. This recipe costs less than $1.00 a serving and takes fewer than 30 minutes of direct labor time.
5) Tomato Lentil Soup with Orzo -- A pot of this easy-to-make soup will feed your family for days at a cost of just 60-70c per serving.
6) Feta Walnut Dip -- Not exactly a frugal recipe, but it is the best and healthiest spread I've ever tried.
7) Fiery Sausage and Split Pea Soup -- Possibly the easiest recipe in Casual Kitchen's entire history.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
CK passed some big landmarks in 2011: a few weeks ago, this blog turned five years old. In October I published my 700th post. And if my math is right, sometime early this year CK had its one millionth pageview. I'm deeply, deeply grateful.
I took Casual Kitchen into some new and different directions this year, and I'm thankful that readers not only stayed with me, but that you added so many thoughtful, insightful--and most importantly, civil--comments along the way. It's thanks to you, my dear readers, that Casual Kitchen exists, and it's thanks to you that it's become exactly what I want it to be: a thoughtful forum for adult discussion about food, health, consumerism, frugality and many, many related issues.
So without further ado, here's the best of CK 2011. Once again, thank you so much for being here.
PS: next week, I'll give you a chance to promote and share *your* best post of 2011. Stay tuned!
********************************
Best of Casual Kitchen 2011
1) A Fund For... Who, Exactly? Addressing the "A Fund For Jennie" Controversy
I was one of very few writers to publicly address how Bloggers Without Borders spearheaded an enormous charity fundraiser for a fellow food blogger who, it later turned out, never needed the money. By an order of magnitude my most widely-read post in 2011.
2) The Tragedy of Ersatz American Restaurant Food
In nearly all high-volume restaurants, the idea that your dinner entrees are actually cooked for you is a quaint fiction. This popular post kicked off several heated discussions in the comments: whether cruises sucked or not, how I've ruined peoples' trust in restaurants, and even whether it's appropriate to use the word "tragedy" in a post about food.
3) The Top Lame-Ass Excuses Between You and Better Health
This post describes the entire taxonomy of excuses I get here at CK. I originally created it so I could refer commenters to it if they slipped into excuse mode (Hi, thanks for your comment. You've made a lame excuse. Please read this post on excuse-making, especially #4). The weird thing? I've gotten hardly any excuses at all since this post went live. Hmmm.
4) Never From Concentrate? Never Again
It's impossible to harvest totally identical-tasting juice from season to season and year to year. And yet every single carton of Tropicana Pure Premium orange juice tastes exactly the same. How? Read this post to find out. I promise, you'll rethink the value of "Premium" OJ.
5) The Sad, Quiet Death of Campbell's Low-Sodium Soup
When Campbell's killed off their "healthier" line of lower-sodium soups, were they putting greed and profits above the health of their customers? It depends on how you look at it.
6) Doing More Harm Than Good
Sometimes posts just come bursting out of you, and that's exactly what happened with this one, which I published right after the Bloggers Without Borders/A Fund for Jennie controversy. This is one of the posts I'm most proud of this year, and it seemed to resonate deeply with readers.
7) On Spice Fade, And the Utter Insanity of Throwing Spices Out After Six Months
The rule of thumb about throwing out your spices after six months is pure hogwash, and it needlessly costs consumers extra money. I explain why, borrowing from the science of... uh, radioactive isotopes. (NB: This post got picked up by Reddit, where, predictably, it sprouted a 96-comment thread which climaxed in a completely useless discussion of how to store spices in nitrogen gas.)
8) Companies vs. Consumers: A Manifesto
This post articulates many of my fundamental ideas about consumer empowerment, and how we give our power away to Big Food, often without even thinking about it. See also: What's Your Favorite Consumer Empowerment Tip?
9) How to Own the Consumer Products Industry--And I Mean Literally Own It
I describe step-by-step how to make intelligent investments in the consumer products industry, to help readers take control and ownership of the companies that sell to us. Quite honestly, this post was too long, too detailed and about as popular with readers as radioactive nutmeg. So why is it on this list? Because I was proud of it: it combined my former career on Wall Street with my goals to help consumers master their financial destiny, and in some ways it was the most empowering thing I wrote all year.
10) What's Wrong With the Government Limiting Food Marketing to Kids?
When the FTC rolled out new rules for limiting food marketing to children, my first question was Wait: is it children who actually buy these foods? I gave readers a chance to sound off on that and a few other choice questions, and the result was a thoughtful and counterintuitive conversation about parenting, paternalism and the role of government in our lives.
BONUS: A Simple Rule To Make Your Life Environmentally Sustainable and Worry Free
Why do we waste so much time worrying about minor aspects of our consumption and behavior patterns when they often have a pitifully tiny impact on the environment? This post shares a simple framework for your buying and eating decisions, so you can spend more time dealing with major things you can control--and stop worrying pointlessly about minor things you can't.
Honorable Mention:
How to Defeat the Retail Industry's Ninja Mind Tricks
Three Rules of Thumb for Tinkering with a Recipe
An Easier Way to Crack An Egg: Blunt Force Trauma
Can You Resist $107 Worth of Advertising?
What's Your Take On Restaurants Charging Mandatory Gratuity Fees?
Best/Most Popular Recipes of 2011:
1) Citrus Orzo Salad With Olives and Sundried Tomatoes -- One of the most striking and laughably easy pasta salad recipes in CK's history.
2) Easy Braised Red Cabbage -- My favorite recipe of the year. Plus, how often do you get to use the phrase "nestle the studded onion" in a recipe post? Not that often.
3) Curried Corn -- Adapted from the exceptional Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home,
this is a healthy 20-minute recipe with a fascinating combination of flavors.4) Hilariously Easy Chicken Soup -- When I say hilariously easy, I mean it. This recipe costs less than $1.00 a serving and takes fewer than 30 minutes of direct labor time.
5) Tomato Lentil Soup with Orzo -- A pot of this easy-to-make soup will feed your family for days at a cost of just 60-70c per serving.
6) Feta Walnut Dip -- Not exactly a frugal recipe, but it is the best and healthiest spread I've ever tried.
7) Fiery Sausage and Split Pea Soup -- Possibly the easiest recipe in Casual Kitchen's entire history.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
A Thank You To Readers, And the Best of Casual Kitchen 2010
2010 was another great year for Casual Kitchen: I published about 85 articles this year, more than 50 weekly Friday Links posts, and I had quite a few guest posts published at various other sites: notably, at Cheap Healthy Good (where, amusingly, a couple of commenters called me "simplistic and naive"), at Eating Rules, at Fooducate (twice) and at A Sweet Life.
And you, my dear readers, responded with record pageviews and a record number of amazing and insightful comments. Casual Kitchen had some 350,000 pageviews this year, and I'm grateful for your attention and participation. Without you, there's no point to Casual Kitchen even existing.
I know I've said this before (uh, like a year ago at this same time), but it bears repeating: Casual Kitchen is truly becoming what I've always hoped it would become: a widely-read site where people can have intelligent discussions about the food industry, and where people can learn how to make the most of the money they spend on the food they eat. I'm deeply grateful to have some of the most insightful and thought-provoking readers any blogger could ever hope to have. Thank you!
With that, let me share with you my selection of the top ten articles and the top five recipes at CK during 2010. Enjoy--and if there are any posts you think I unfairly overlooked, please let me know in the comments!
1) The Do-Nothing Brand
Read this post and you'll never again think the same way about branded foods. One of CK's most controversial posts.
2) Avoiding the "Yes, But" Vortex
This post, part of a three-part series on the psychology of food, might very well be the most important thing I've ever written here at CK. Be sure not to miss the follow up posts as well as the great back-and-forth discussions in the comments.
3) How to Feel Less Hungry on Fewer Calories: Hacking the Satiety Factor of Food
Most of us are aware of the connection between how filling a food is and how many calories it has, but that relationship isn't quite as simple as it seems. In this post I'll teach you how to help your body and subvert your appetite by hacking your food's "satiety factor."
4) The Worst Lie of the Food Blogosphere
I made more enemies with this post then any post in CK's history. But I strongly believe that when we whine and complain about the evils of Big Food, we simply give our power away to the food industry. That stops here and now.
5) Weight Is Just a Number
Your body weight is the answer to the wrong question. There are several better and more meaningful metrics you can use to measure your body's health and fitness.
6) Meat Versus Miles: Why Less Meat is Better Than Going Local
The conclusions here were controversial, but once you think through both the math and the economics you'll have no choice but to rethink the value of a high-meat diet. Quite a few militant locavores were infuriated by this post, which was based on data from the excellent book Cooking Green.
7) Trusting Your Own Taste in Wine and Food
Enslaving your preferences to others is the polar opposite of consumer empowerment, and it's contrary to everything Casual Kitchen is all about. Don't pattern or reframe your taste preferences based on what some stupid "expert" says. Think and choose for yourself, and you'll be happier with the results.
8) Why Do Products Go On Sale?
This post was the sleeper hit of the year. It started with a seemingly simple question from a reader, and it led to a post explaining how consumers can take advantage of the natural rhythm of the retail industry. Ultimately, however, this question inspired me to write an entire series on the consumer products industry, and my multi-part Understanding the Consumer Products Industry series is still in progress!
9) Knowing When Not To Be a Food Snob
Normally this blog doesn't go out of its way to criticize food writers, especially well-known and well-liked ones. But the behavior of Michael Ruhlman and his friends at a midwestern restaurant was such a monumentally offensive example of arrogant cultural snobbery that I had to write this post in response.
10) On the Earthquake in Santiago
Earlier this year Laura and I spent nearly four months reincarnating our Spanish in the amazing city of Santiago, Chile. We also had the singular fortune of experiencing Chile's enormous 8.8 earthquake while we were there--and this popular off-topic post describes our experiences. (See also my follow-up post on the inaccurate and deeply misleading media coverage of the quake, which ultimately inspired an entire series of posts on the media that I'll be running in 2011 on my writing blog, Quick Writing Tips.)
Honorable Mention:
On the Benefits of Being a Part-Time Vegetarian
Breaking Your Own Frugality Rules
Why Davis Baking Powder Put in a 23% Stealth Price Hike
Best Practices to Raise the Level of Discussion on Your Blog
Top Five Recipes of 2010:
1) Roasted Zucchini and Chickpea Soup -- In my humble opinion, this was the runaway best recipe of the year. This elegant and easy-to-make soup tastes absolutely incredible and costs a mere 99c a serving!
2) Vegan Potato Peanut Curry -- Simple, exotic-tasting and extremely popular among readers. One of cheapest and easiest recipes in Casual Kitchen's history.
3) Indian Mung Bean Stir Fry -- Don't let the unusual main ingredient, sprouted mung beans, scare you away from this amazingly healthy and laughably cheap recipe. PS: this post will also teach you how to sprout your own mung beans at home--it's way easier than you'd think.
4) Hamburger Corn Pone Pie -- The most popular recipe of the year, and a Koontz family favorite.
5) North African Lemon Chicken -- Oddly enough, this delicious dish was inspired by a badly written recipe in a badly written cooking magazine that I happened to find--in all places--at my dentist's office. The fact that it went on to be one of CK's most trafficked recipes of 2010 proves that good cooking inspiration can be found literally anywhere.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
And you, my dear readers, responded with record pageviews and a record number of amazing and insightful comments. Casual Kitchen had some 350,000 pageviews this year, and I'm grateful for your attention and participation. Without you, there's no point to Casual Kitchen even existing.
I know I've said this before (uh, like a year ago at this same time), but it bears repeating: Casual Kitchen is truly becoming what I've always hoped it would become: a widely-read site where people can have intelligent discussions about the food industry, and where people can learn how to make the most of the money they spend on the food they eat. I'm deeply grateful to have some of the most insightful and thought-provoking readers any blogger could ever hope to have. Thank you!
With that, let me share with you my selection of the top ten articles and the top five recipes at CK during 2010. Enjoy--and if there are any posts you think I unfairly overlooked, please let me know in the comments!
1) The Do-Nothing Brand
Read this post and you'll never again think the same way about branded foods. One of CK's most controversial posts.
2) Avoiding the "Yes, But" Vortex
This post, part of a three-part series on the psychology of food, might very well be the most important thing I've ever written here at CK. Be sure not to miss the follow up posts as well as the great back-and-forth discussions in the comments.
3) How to Feel Less Hungry on Fewer Calories: Hacking the Satiety Factor of Food
Most of us are aware of the connection between how filling a food is and how many calories it has, but that relationship isn't quite as simple as it seems. In this post I'll teach you how to help your body and subvert your appetite by hacking your food's "satiety factor."
4) The Worst Lie of the Food Blogosphere
I made more enemies with this post then any post in CK's history. But I strongly believe that when we whine and complain about the evils of Big Food, we simply give our power away to the food industry. That stops here and now.
5) Weight Is Just a Number
Your body weight is the answer to the wrong question. There are several better and more meaningful metrics you can use to measure your body's health and fitness.
6) Meat Versus Miles: Why Less Meat is Better Than Going Local
The conclusions here were controversial, but once you think through both the math and the economics you'll have no choice but to rethink the value of a high-meat diet. Quite a few militant locavores were infuriated by this post, which was based on data from the excellent book Cooking Green.
7) Trusting Your Own Taste in Wine and Food
Enslaving your preferences to others is the polar opposite of consumer empowerment, and it's contrary to everything Casual Kitchen is all about. Don't pattern or reframe your taste preferences based on what some stupid "expert" says. Think and choose for yourself, and you'll be happier with the results.
8) Why Do Products Go On Sale?
This post was the sleeper hit of the year. It started with a seemingly simple question from a reader, and it led to a post explaining how consumers can take advantage of the natural rhythm of the retail industry. Ultimately, however, this question inspired me to write an entire series on the consumer products industry, and my multi-part Understanding the Consumer Products Industry series is still in progress!
9) Knowing When Not To Be a Food Snob
Normally this blog doesn't go out of its way to criticize food writers, especially well-known and well-liked ones. But the behavior of Michael Ruhlman and his friends at a midwestern restaurant was such a monumentally offensive example of arrogant cultural snobbery that I had to write this post in response.
10) On the Earthquake in Santiago
Earlier this year Laura and I spent nearly four months reincarnating our Spanish in the amazing city of Santiago, Chile. We also had the singular fortune of experiencing Chile's enormous 8.8 earthquake while we were there--and this popular off-topic post describes our experiences. (See also my follow-up post on the inaccurate and deeply misleading media coverage of the quake, which ultimately inspired an entire series of posts on the media that I'll be running in 2011 on my writing blog, Quick Writing Tips.)
Honorable Mention:
On the Benefits of Being a Part-Time Vegetarian
Breaking Your Own Frugality Rules
Why Davis Baking Powder Put in a 23% Stealth Price Hike
Best Practices to Raise the Level of Discussion on Your Blog
Top Five Recipes of 2010:
1) Roasted Zucchini and Chickpea Soup -- In my humble opinion, this was the runaway best recipe of the year. This elegant and easy-to-make soup tastes absolutely incredible and costs a mere 99c a serving!
2) Vegan Potato Peanut Curry -- Simple, exotic-tasting and extremely popular among readers. One of cheapest and easiest recipes in Casual Kitchen's history.
3) Indian Mung Bean Stir Fry -- Don't let the unusual main ingredient, sprouted mung beans, scare you away from this amazingly healthy and laughably cheap recipe. PS: this post will also teach you how to sprout your own mung beans at home--it's way easier than you'd think.
4) Hamburger Corn Pone Pie -- The most popular recipe of the year, and a Koontz family favorite.
5) North African Lemon Chicken -- Oddly enough, this delicious dish was inspired by a badly written recipe in a badly written cooking magazine that I happened to find--in all places--at my dentist's office. The fact that it went on to be one of CK's most trafficked recipes of 2010 proves that good cooking inspiration can be found literally anywhere.
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Share Your Best Post of 2010!
Did you write a post or an article for your blog during the past year that you're particularly proud of? One that you'd like to put in front of a wider audience?
Then share it this week with the other readers here at Casual Kitchen!
One of my goals here at CK is to help match up my amazing readers with the many exceptional bloggers and thinkers out there--especially those who ought to be more widely read. It's the reason I created my Friday Links posts, and it's a key reason why I use Twitter. It's also my way of paying it forward to other writers.
Therefore, today I'd like to give the floor to you, dear readers, and give you a chance to use Casual Kitchen to get the word out on your best work from the past year. It's my way of thanking you for your incredible support.
And so, if you have a post you consider among your best of 2010, share it in the comments! It can be your most popular recipe from the year, a great piece of food writing, or even something from outside of the world of food blogs. (And if you're one of the rare bloggers who's too shy to share your own work, feel free to pay it forward and nominate a great post from someone else's blog.)
Here's all you have to do: paste a link to your best post from 2010 in the comments section below, and add an explanatory sentence or two on what your post is about. That's it!
Finally, as Casual Kitchen's fourth (!) year draws to a close, let me take a moment to thank you, my incredible readers, for all your support. The audience here at CK is bigger than ever (we're at 40,000 pageviews a month and over 1,200 RSS feed subscribers--and still growing!). I know I say this often, but it bears repeating: I'm deeply grateful.
So tell me--what would you like to share?
Here's to still more great writing from all of us in 2011!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Then share it this week with the other readers here at Casual Kitchen!
One of my goals here at CK is to help match up my amazing readers with the many exceptional bloggers and thinkers out there--especially those who ought to be more widely read. It's the reason I created my Friday Links posts, and it's a key reason why I use Twitter. It's also my way of paying it forward to other writers.
Therefore, today I'd like to give the floor to you, dear readers, and give you a chance to use Casual Kitchen to get the word out on your best work from the past year. It's my way of thanking you for your incredible support.
And so, if you have a post you consider among your best of 2010, share it in the comments! It can be your most popular recipe from the year, a great piece of food writing, or even something from outside of the world of food blogs. (And if you're one of the rare bloggers who's too shy to share your own work, feel free to pay it forward and nominate a great post from someone else's blog.)
Here's all you have to do: paste a link to your best post from 2010 in the comments section below, and add an explanatory sentence or two on what your post is about. That's it!
Finally, as Casual Kitchen's fourth (!) year draws to a close, let me take a moment to thank you, my incredible readers, for all your support. The audience here at CK is bigger than ever (we're at 40,000 pageviews a month and over 1,200 RSS feed subscribers--and still growing!). I know I say this often, but it bears repeating: I'm deeply grateful.
So tell me--what would you like to share?
Here's to still more great writing from all of us in 2011!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me or subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Best of Casual Kitchen 2009
2009 was a great year for Casual Kitchen. This blog was profiled in the Chicago Sun-Times, blurbed in the New York Times, and traffic grew strongly, with year-to-date pageviews up 124% compared to 2008.
Casual Kitchen is truly becoming what I've always hoped it would become: a widely-read site where people can have intelligent discussions about the food industry, and where people can learn how to make the most of the money they spend on the food they eat.
I published more than 100 articles this year, and as we wrap up 2009, I'd like to share what I thought were the top 10 posts of the year here at CK. Enjoy!
1) The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
A recession-busting special in which I compiled all of the best, cheapest recipes on this blog, many of which cost $1.00 or less per serving. This post was retweeted repeatedly on Twitter and ultimately turned out to be one of the most heavily viewed posts of the year.
2) Guess What? We Spend Less Than Ever on Food
This short and controversial post got picked up by several economics blogs, and then got picked up by The New York Times. And it led to our own poll of food spending of Casual Kitchen readers, which indicated that the average CK reader spends meaningfully more on food than the national average.
3) Survivor Bias: Why "Big Food" Isn't Quite As Evil As You Think It Is
Yes, we spend a lot of time criticizing the food industry here at Casual Kitchen. But we shouldn't forget that we as consumers have enormous influence on what foods appear on our store shelves. See also How to Whine About Big Food, which also ruffled a few feathers when it ran earlier this month.
4) How Food Companies Hide Sugar in Plain Sight
Another short and extremely popular post in which I expose a sneaky trick that food companies use to make food appear like it contains less sugar than it really does.
5) The Raw Foods Trial
In which I ate a 100% raw diet for seven days--and lived to tell about it. The link takes you to the main archive page of the full trial, which turned out to be the most popular series in the three year history of Casual Kitchen.
6) The Hummus Blogroll: 17 Easy to Make Hummus Recipes
Every possible variation on hummus you could imagine. All of these recipes are easy to make and surprisingly inexpensive. I never had so much fun putting together a blogroll.
7) 27 Themes and Ideas for Wine Tasting Club Meetings
This was a popular post that ran in the middle of a series on wines. See if you can finish this article and not start your own wine club! For still more on wine, see my post on How to Start A Casual Wine Tasting Club and How to Enjoy Wine on a Budget.
8) The Priming Reflex: How to Control Your Appetite (And Turn Your Back on a Million Years of Evolution)
Three tips that may forever change how you eat.
9) Who's Watching the Watchdogs? Ethical Problems in the "Ten Riskiest Foods" Report By the CSPI
After seeing the media mindlessly parrot the misleading conclusions of a biased and alarmist study on food-borne illnesses, I got so angry that I wrote this post in response.
10) How to Give Away Your Power By Being a Biased Consumer
A few readers got angry with me for making positive comments about Wal-Mart and negative comments on organic foods. However, the point of the article still stands: if you want to be an empowered consumer, you have to take a hard and unfiltered look at your unconscious biases. Read it with an open mind and see what you think.
Honorable Mention:
1) 41 Ways You Can Help the Environment From Your Kitchen
2) Brand Disloyalty
3) Ask Casual Kitchen: Advice For a New Blogger
Once again, I thank my readers for your contributions, your insights and most of all for your attention. Here's to an even better 2010!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com via links on this site, or by linking to me from your own blog, or by subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
Casual Kitchen is truly becoming what I've always hoped it would become: a widely-read site where people can have intelligent discussions about the food industry, and where people can learn how to make the most of the money they spend on the food they eat.
I published more than 100 articles this year, and as we wrap up 2009, I'd like to share what I thought were the top 10 posts of the year here at CK. Enjoy!
1) The 25 Best Laughably Cheap Recipes at Casual Kitchen
A recession-busting special in which I compiled all of the best, cheapest recipes on this blog, many of which cost $1.00 or less per serving. This post was retweeted repeatedly on Twitter and ultimately turned out to be one of the most heavily viewed posts of the year.
2) Guess What? We Spend Less Than Ever on Food
This short and controversial post got picked up by several economics blogs, and then got picked up by The New York Times. And it led to our own poll of food spending of Casual Kitchen readers, which indicated that the average CK reader spends meaningfully more on food than the national average.
3) Survivor Bias: Why "Big Food" Isn't Quite As Evil As You Think It Is
Yes, we spend a lot of time criticizing the food industry here at Casual Kitchen. But we shouldn't forget that we as consumers have enormous influence on what foods appear on our store shelves. See also How to Whine About Big Food, which also ruffled a few feathers when it ran earlier this month.
4) How Food Companies Hide Sugar in Plain Sight
Another short and extremely popular post in which I expose a sneaky trick that food companies use to make food appear like it contains less sugar than it really does.
5) The Raw Foods Trial
In which I ate a 100% raw diet for seven days--and lived to tell about it. The link takes you to the main archive page of the full trial, which turned out to be the most popular series in the three year history of Casual Kitchen.
6) The Hummus Blogroll: 17 Easy to Make Hummus Recipes
Every possible variation on hummus you could imagine. All of these recipes are easy to make and surprisingly inexpensive. I never had so much fun putting together a blogroll.
7) 27 Themes and Ideas for Wine Tasting Club Meetings
This was a popular post that ran in the middle of a series on wines. See if you can finish this article and not start your own wine club! For still more on wine, see my post on How to Start A Casual Wine Tasting Club and How to Enjoy Wine on a Budget.
8) The Priming Reflex: How to Control Your Appetite (And Turn Your Back on a Million Years of Evolution)
Three tips that may forever change how you eat.
9) Who's Watching the Watchdogs? Ethical Problems in the "Ten Riskiest Foods" Report By the CSPI
After seeing the media mindlessly parrot the misleading conclusions of a biased and alarmist study on food-borne illnesses, I got so angry that I wrote this post in response.
10) How to Give Away Your Power By Being a Biased Consumer
A few readers got angry with me for making positive comments about Wal-Mart and negative comments on organic foods. However, the point of the article still stands: if you want to be an empowered consumer, you have to take a hard and unfiltered look at your unconscious biases. Read it with an open mind and see what you think.
Honorable Mention:
1) 41 Ways You Can Help the Environment From Your Kitchen
2) Brand Disloyalty
3) Ask Casual Kitchen: Advice For a New Blogger
Once again, I thank my readers for your contributions, your insights and most of all for your attention. Here's to an even better 2010!
How can I support Casual Kitchen?
If you enjoy reading Casual Kitchen, tell a friend and spread the word! You can also support me by purchasing items from Amazon.com
via links on this site, or by linking to me from your own blog, or by subscribing to my RSS feed. Finally, you can consider submitting this article, or any other article you particularly enjoyed here, to bookmarking sites like del.icio.us, digg or stumbleupon. Thank you for your support!
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