Last Saturday was my mother’s 80th birthday, and as a family (by which I mean my sister and I) we decided that instead of going out to dinner we would hold an open house at my sister’s with a finger food buffet. Given that there woud be at least 20 people present, a sit-down dinner was out of the question, and anyway finger food allows people to mingle and be more discrete about the amount of food they actually enjoy consuming at these occasions. Also, you don’t have to worry about Cousin Agnes the Vegan, Or Uncle George the Lactose-intolerant when planning your menu.

After all, canapes (or finger food) are all about variety. And let me say here and now that the only difference between canapes and finger food is the willingness of the host to carry a tray of food around the house and not look offended when people say a polite “No Thank you” to the delicacy on offer. But my point about both is that variety is the key, even if you’re obeying the Hosting Etiquette Edict to serve only three forms of canape. You can achieve a very high level of variety with only three canapes (one meaty, one cheesy, one veggie- there ya go), so just imagine the rainbow of flavours you can achieve if you really let yourself go. After all, most canapes are actually very easy to prepare, can be served at room temperature, and therefore can be made in advance. But I digress.

For my mother’s party, we decided to serve her favourite canapes, as well as a few of our own. So we decided on a theme; “Canapes Through The Ages”. This allowed us to serve food that reflected the changing times, as well as our Anglo-American heritage. Canapes that have never been seen on these shores (or indeed on any shore after 1978) shared tray-space with British stalwarts, and the latest in contemporary party food. And while the resulting menu may not strike anyone as being terribly high-end, it certainly meant that any given guest would find at least three kinds of canape that they personally remembered with great fondness, or with which they were currently enamored.

Two final notes before I give you the menu; we (myself, my sister, and a dear friend) cooked it all ourselves instead of buying shop-bought where possible, and we were not above mingling through the party with trays.

A CAVALCADE OF CANAPES THROUGH THE AGES

• Deviled Eggs
• Cherry Tomatoes stuffed with Cream Cheese and Chives or Tuna Mayonnaise
• Homemade Sausage Rolls
• California Dip With Vegetable Cruditees
• American Shrimp Cocktail
• Cheese, Pineapple, and Cocktail Onion Kebabs (stuck into a half-grapefruit, of course)
• Goat’s Cheese and Tomato Pisalladiere
• Dates Stuffed With Parmesan
• Carved White-Trash Ham
• Duck Liver Pate and a Selection of Cheeses with Crackers
• Homemade Yakitori

By the way, my mother did get to have a cake too. I may be canape-Obsessive, but I’m not downright mean.

I confess, foodie friends, that on a day like today - hot, humid and grey - I don’t feel especially inspired to do much beyond delving deeply into a dish of white chocolate raspberry truffle Häagen-Dazs (the key, I am sure, to living a long and happy life). But I am refraining from such activity for a bit longer so I can share some local (local to me anyway) food news with you.

Here in Gotham, mini-Mayor - known to the rest of you as Mike Bloomberg - can often be found pushing food-related legislation intended to improve people’s health or lives whether they like it or not. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I don’t.

As a non-smoker, I wasn’t terribly put out when the smoking ban made the smoking section in restaurants a thing of the past. Oh, some of my friends have been temporarily banished to the sidewalks on an evening out but they’ve managed just the same and I get to spend less time at the dry cleaners so there you are.

I didn’t care for the idea of restaurants being compelled to post the calorie count of every item. Not that I didn’t think people could use the information - but it seemed to me, to be a logistical nightmare for the restaurant owners. Not the big chains who control and/or dictate their entire ingredient flow and production process. I mean, the cafe owner who doesn’t know EXACTLY how many calories are in every single item he gets from every supplier or EXACTLY how many calories are in this slice of pie vs. the other one.

Besides, I didn’t want to be faced every single morning with the truth about my morning Starbucks and muffin. I know - knew, I should say - that there were better choices but a Venti Mocha Frappaccino made me HAPPY, DAMN IT! Then those hideous numbers came and denied me my plausible deniability. My morning routine became tainted by guilt, by the shame of the self-destructive. It was the same drink and the same muffin I had overpaid for lo these many years. But now, I was forced to face the fact that no only was I overpaying for what was essentially ice - I was also undermining any healthier eating later in the day because my overpriced ice was coated in chocolate sauce. Fine. I gave them up.

But just recently, one of mini-Mayor’s pet projects from a few months back has come into effect and it is one that I can get behind whole heartedly. The Green Carts Legislation. The city has created 1,000 new permits for street vendors who exclusively sell fresh fruits and vegetables. Of course, there are 9000 other food vendors who would like permits for the stuff they are selling - soups, hot dogs, pretzels etc. But these 1000 permits are very specific about the fresh fruit thing and are to be targeted in neighborhoods that are VASTLY under-served by major supermarket chains and where obesity and diabetes rates have skyrocketed way past the average. In fact, the official press release had some numbers that surprised me a great deal.

“A recent study by the Department of Health found that supermarkets in Harlem are 30 percent less common than on the Upper East Side, and that while 20 percent of Upper East Side bodegas carried leafy green vegetables, only 3 percent of those in Harlem could say the same.”

Sounds like the only thing they have less of than supermarkets is banks. But that’s another issue for another time. 30 percent? A lot. Of course, I’m not sure what is being done to address the price of these now more accessible fresh fruit and veggies. Putting them within reach physically but out of reach financially won’t help anyone. I’m still perusing information regarding this legislation to see if that is being addressed.

From time to time we must all face the mistakes and miscalculations of our foodie pasts. Sometimes this takes the form of a poor digestive experience, or of breath that would stun a camel, and sometimes it takes the form of going through your kitchen cupboards in the hope of having a bit of a tidy. Dry-heaving and social failure notwithstanding, the tidy is by far the most daunting of the three.

For it is when we tidy those kitchen cupboards that we face all our past failures of judgment (such as the half-gallon bottle of Nam Pla I purchased on sale in a fit of enthusiasm for Thai cookery that lasted about a week) and fits of culinary amnesia (such as the five half-empty bottles of Tabasco Sauce that prove that I for one do not check the cupboard before shopping). Perhaps even worse, we must face that we - and our forebears - are sometimes unreasonably reluctant to throw anything away, regardless of how over the years it may have altered in flavour, texture, or general toxicity.

I speak with resigned affection of my mother, with whom I have lived for the past year. Now when I moved in with her I simply shoved all my kitchen staples in front of hers and never again ventured past the first row of jars or tins or bottles on each shelf.

Until yesterday. Yesterday a neighbor who was moving away presented me with a box of kitchen staples she’d no longer need. As she’s a professional cook I greedily snatched at the box and then attempted to add its contents to our cupboards. Nothing doing. There was simply no more room. The time had finally come to have a thorough examination of our cupboards and to let go of anything that might be past its prime.

Past its prime? What I found in our cupboards had me reaching for the phone book to contact a)the Center for Disease Control, and b) The British Museum. Before I list the horrors I encountered, I must first in my mother’s defense explain that she’s a 79 year old woman who was raised during British wartime rationing. Hence she views sell-by dates as lies of the devil, and firmly believes that there is no such thing as stale bread. I had to get her out of the house before I could even attempt to throw anything out.

So what did I find? Well, in no particular order, what amounted to three full pounds of brown sugar, all solidified to the point of being actual Jurassic amber; a tin of bicarbonate of soda with the price listed in shillings and pence; jars of curry powder, dill weed (who even calls it dill weed anymore?), marjoram, and cayenne pepper, each of which only gave off a faint odour of dust; a box of rice that made scuttling noises when I picked it up; two packets of Lime Jell-O that gave off a worryingly salty odour when I opened them; a packet of Betty Crocker Angel Food Cake mix with a sell-by date that pre-dated my birth; a packet of spaghetti that was sprouting leaves like bonsai bamboo; a tin of condensed milk with labeling written in what I believe may have been Swahili; canned goods so old the labels had simply faded away; and a packet of flour that had long since become plain old concrete. And those are just the highlights.

It was as exhausting an experience as it was terrifying. Some of her boxes and packets and tins had sat in those cupboards so long they had adhered to the melamine. I nearly lost an eye prising the flour off the shelf with a fork. Bits of rice and pasta had stuck so hard the shelves felt like a relief map of the Middle East.

But it’s done. The cupboards have been cleaned and sorted and all but alphabetised and are my pride and joy. I have vowed to sort through them again every three months, and to never venture out to the shops without first ascertaining that I am not double-buying.

Now I just have to figure how to break it to my mother that the bicarbonate of soda she presumably cuddled as a child has been filed under B.

By which I mean it’s in the bin.

In my latest food news persue, I mentioned the blog Lost Taco and further mentioned that a blog about searching for that perfect taco might strike some as self-limiting. I mean, blogging day in and day out, week after week about a single item or particular foodstuff? Now, I personally don’t feel that way – like I said, I could easily blog about roast chicken all day. I can see dedicating an entire blog to ice cream – though I’d be hard pressed to keep it to a single flavor. If I had to pick a single flavor – that flavor would be coffee. The variations in coffee ice cream never cease to amaze me. Still - though I haven’t looked, I would be shocked if someone (several someones) hadn’t done so already.

In any case, that got me thinking. What are some of the item specific blogs out there? The ones that focus on a single thing and delve deeply into the details, the uses, variations and types in a particular category. Here’s what I found along with what they are about in their own words.

Before I start though - I am aware that tacos (and taco bloggers, I presume) vary widely from region to region so in the interest of bicoastal fairness, I present The Great Taco Hunt (”A guide to the Los Angeles taco scene”) and Taco Addiction (”Hardcore taco-y goodness“). Now, onto my discoveries”

• Hummus 101: “This blog is about Hummus, regardless of sex, race, religion or color. It is about the love for Hummus and the things you can do with it - including making it yourself. We’ll share with you our recipes, amaze you with some uncommon Hummus trivia facts, and suggest recommended restaurants where you can eat Hummus throughout the world.” Fantastic! Hummus is one of those things I was late coming to but now that I have, I love it. And this blog has a side of falafel and tahini as well so it’s all to the good.
• The Bacon Show: “one bacon recipe per day, every day, forever.” That seems pretty clear.
• Slice: “is a weblog about America’s favorite crusty, saucy, cheesy meal—pizza! We offer a delicious mix of news digests, reviews, videos, and musings on all things pie-related.” Pizza is one of those foods that people have “views” on and there are many pizza laden blogs — The New York Pizza Blog and Pizza Blog from Pizzatherapy just to name a couple — but this one is particularly comprehensive and makes me hungry.
• Garlicster: “a blog for all things garlic.“
• The Salsa Review: “. . . born out of a desire to remember all of the delicious (and not so delicious) salsas that I have eaten.” OK, I admit I never would have thought to go looking for a blog dedicated to salsa but that, my friends, is the beauty of blogrolls. The internet is a never ending treasure trove of forks in the virtual road.
• Wonders of Tea: “A site concerning everything to do with tea. A personal diary of tea events and periodic reviews of various teas.” (I know what you’re thinking - what about coffee? Seriously? Where is the challenge in finding a blog about that. You can’t move for the sites and blogs about coffee.)
• Chocolate Obsession: the blogger states that she loves chocolate and if her about page is anything to go by we have no reason to doubt her. Like pizza lovers, chocolate lovers have views. I must say, I agree with most of the ones here. “There are really two types of chocolate to my mind-set: chocolate for tasting and chocolate for eating. High-end chocolates are generally about the chocolate itself and are made for tasting. At the other end of the spectrum are all of the candy style chocolates like your Kit Kat and Crunch bars. And I’m not about to limit myself to candy or fine chocolate. All chocolate is fair game. I love chocolate ice cream and have been known to imbibe the occasional chocolaty beverage (even some of the alcoholic variety). There isn’t a lot I won’t try.“

Oh there are more of course - many foods who deserve and in fact have their devotees. I’d love to collect more if you know of any. This was just a quick hit and run list, the result of a passing thought. More to come I hope.

Long, long overdue it’s true but better late than never eh? Blame the heat. Summer, feeling that we all needed a reminder of what time of year it actually was, has turned up the temp lately and all I can think of food wise is salad. I may, in fact, become tedious on the subject quite soon but in the meantime, I have actually poked around to see what else is happening in the Food-verse, since a girl cannot live by salad spinner alone.

This week the big food event in New York is the Second Annual NYC Food Film Festival. This is not in any way to be confused to with the Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival (not that I image you could confuse them but better to be safe than sorry). The former I won’t be around for but the latter? Count me in! I am plotting to get to come hell or high water.

While I hunt up tickets for the event, another New Yorker (newly arrived) is on food hunt of a another kind. I recent came across (via The Grinder) a new blog called Lost Taco - and it is the story of one man’s search for a decent taco in New York. Now, this may seem to be a slightly narrow scope to some of you but when one has a great love of a particular foodstuff, the hunt can be consuming (and funny). If I had the personal bandwidth, I’d be blogging a search for the perfect roast chicken (and likely finding it at a place in Chicago called “The Place Next Door” but that’s another story).

Bringing together the subjects of blogs and food festivals, The Guardian’s food blog Word of Mouth came down with a case of vapors over the growing prevalence of food festivals but recovered enough to produce a slightly condescending (if not wholly inaccurate) description of the characters often found at those events.

Here’s something I seem to have missed then it hit the stands a couple of weeks ago: New York Magazine takes a close look at breakfast (described in their subtitle as the ‘Loneliest Meal’).

They call it a breakfast manifesto but honestly, the word manifesto seem to call for much more active engagement than I can muster until well after breakfast and coffee. It trots out the standard breakfast issues - don’t skip breakfast or you will be inefficient, heavier, unhappier etc. All in all, I didn’t learn an awful lot from the article. Far more interesting to me were the related articles linked to at the end. So often “related articles” is how I find the stuff I really am interested in. Sort of the online equivalent of preferring the the B-side of a 45. (Yes, I just dated myself dreadfully. Ah well. When the appropriate metaphor calls, one has to answer.) But The Coffee Junkie’s Guide and The 100-Cereal Taste Test - definitely worth checking out. Even for me - who will drink almost any coffee in extremis and can’t stand cereal of any kind. Never could. Go figure.

And finally, culinary holidays for the week:

• National Fudge Day (June 16): How can this be anything but fabulous. Well, someone might ruin perfectly good fudge by adding nuts to it but I shall keep my fingers crossed that any fudge personally encountered by me will be free of such foolishness. I feel the same way about adding nuts to brownies. It is wrong.
• National Apple Strudel Day (June 17): Apple Strudel. An foodstuff genuinely associated with Austrian cuisine and Germany (the word strudel is German for current or whirlpool) unlike German Chocolate Cake which is only mistakenly associated with that area.
• National Cherry Tart Day (June 17): no, tarts are not the same as pies. If they were, would we need Cherry Pie Day and Cherry Tart Day? I rest my case. But in case you need more convincing - a pie pan (dish, plate - whatever you call it) has sloped sides and it round while a tart pan has straight sides and can be almost any shape. The crust involved is also a point of different. Pie crust is made up of flour, salt, solid vegetable shortening (lard for the most manic traditionalist) and cold water, resulting in a crisp and flaky crust suitable for both sweet pies and savory dishes. Tart crust contains flour, sugar, salt, unsalted butter, and cold water - all of which comes together to produce a firm but crumbly crust.
• National Peaches & Cream Day (June 21): Peaches and Cream actually is a dish (well, it’s also a flavor) and not just a way of describing a particularly lovely complexion but I’m guessing that most of you have not actually had it (the dish, I mean. Having a peaches and cream complexion is largely a matter of lucky genetics and sunscreen). When I was growing up, it was a bit of a mushy thing frozen for a summer treat but more often, it is a more
  structured pie or a muffin.

More soon, my friends! Have a great rest of the weekend and a good week.