Margarine Wars

Being the margarine enthusiast that I am, I found this article rather amusing...

Imagine, if you will, a world where oleo-margarine is banned. Where only real butter is available and people have to smuggle the substitute substance across the border, avoiding border patrols, and taking back roads in the dead of night.

Is it some sort of Orwellian nightmare? Life in some oppressed communist satellite state? No, this was life in Wisconsin until the late 1960s, albeit with some fictional flourishes. These were the oleo wars and as silly as it may seem today, people then fought margarine as seriously as many fight genetically engineered food today.

Oleo-margarine was invented in 1869 by French scientist Hippolyte Mége-Mouries. He developed a way to extract an oil from beef fat. He combined this oil with milk, water, and a yellow dye to create a edible substance that resembled butter but was cheaper and stored better than the real thing.

His process was granted a U.S. patent in 1873 and by 1886 there were 37 plants in the United States manufacturing oleo-margarine. Fears soon developed that this product would be fraudulently substituted for real butter.

By 1886, the dairy lobby succeeded in having legislature passed that instituted labeling and packaging restrictions. Taxes were also imposed on margarine manufacturers. Wisconsin went a step further and in 1895 passed laws requiring hotels and restaurants to have clearly posted signs indicating that margarine was sold there.

They went even further by prohibiting the sale and manufacture of colored margarine (margarine was naturally white).

Despite these restrictions, the manufacture of margarine continued to increase and the dairy industry asked for more restrictions. The Grout Bill passed in 1902, which stated that margarine shipped between states was subject to the laws of the state it was being shipped to and that butter colored margarine was subject to a 10 cent per pound manufacturing tax while uncolored was only taxed 1/4 cent per pound.

It was the Great Depression and then World War II that gave oleo-margarine its greatest boosts. The Depression increased sales for the cheaper product and Wisconsin reacted by enacting license fees on margarine manufacturers and increasing the tax on the uncolored margarine to six cents per pound, while colored margarine was banned outright.

WWII, with it's food rationing, introduced margarine to many who had resisted it until then and after the war, as margarine's popularity gained, the government was forced to reconsider it's margarine legislation. In 1950, the federal law taxing colored margarine was repealed. Slowly, over the next decade, states that had instituted their own laws against margarine repealed them until only Wisconsin remained, refusing to change its laws.

In 1957, margarine consumption surpassed butter consumption, yet while others enjoyed their colored margarine and toast, in Wisconsin it was still illegal to use it and Wisconsinites were forced to color their own margarine or cross state lines to buy it. The 15 cent tax on uncolored margarine back in the 1950s was a huge extra expense that many families couldn't bare.

After much debate, including a blind taste test that embarrassed several of the pro-butter contingency, a law was passed on July 1, 1967 making colored margarine legal in Wisconsin for the first time since 1895. The product however, was still taxed until 1973.

Today, only a few laws regarding margarine still remain in Wisconsin, such as butter substitutes are not allowed to be served in state prisons and margarine may not be substituted for butter in restaurants unless requested by the customer

Chocolate Brownies with Fudge Frosting

I don't know why but thi week I've had a MAJOR yen for chocolate. Chocolate bars, chocolate cake, chocolate ice cream. Chocolate, chocolate, chocolate!!! Given the fact that I am leaving for a cruise in less than a week in which I will be eating and drinking nonstop, this craving is really not so good for my waistline. But hey, there's not much I can do and I refuse to ignore my cravings.

Here's a yumtastic recipe from Betty Crocker's cookbook for chocolate brownies with fudge frosting. I put peanut butter morselfs in mine because nothing is better than peanut butter and chocolate!!!

Suggestions for additions to the batter:
1/2 cup peanut butter, stirred in before baking
Chocolate chips
Peanut Butter chips
Walnuts
Heath Bar, crushed up

Cocoa Brownies
2 cups sugar
1 cup margarine or butter, softened
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups flour
1 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 350ºF. Mix together sugar, margarine/butter, vanilla, and eggs. Stir in remaining ingredients and mix well. Spread in a greased 9x13 pan.
Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 25-30 minutes. Cool. Frost if desired.

Fudge Frosting:
1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup milk
4 tablespoons margarine or butter
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla

Mix granulated sugar and cocoa in saucepan. Stir in milk, margarine, corn syrup and salt; heat to boiling, stirring frequently. Boil, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes. Cool. Beat in powdered sugar and vanilla. Add enough powdered sugar to desired spreading consistency.

Just One More Reason to Get That Beauty Sleep

Lacking Sleep Boosts Risk of High Blood Pressure, Study Finds
By Nicole Ostrow
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Sleeping less than seven or eight hours a night as a routine puts people at risk for high blood pressure, a study found.

The less the adults participating in the research slept, the more likely they were to see their blood pressure rise, according to research published in yesterday’s Archives of Internal Medicine. For every hour of missed sleep, odds of developing the condition rose an average 37 percent over five years, said Kristen Knutson, the lead author. Skipping two hours sleep raised the blood pressure risk 86 percent.

More than 73 million American adults have high blood pressure and about 70 million suffer from chronic sleep problems, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to heart attack, stroke, heart failure or kidney failure, according to the American Heart Association.

These study’s results “confirm what we’ve seen in the lab that there are health consequences to not getting enough sleep or not sleeping well,” said Knutson, a research associate and assistant professor at the University of Chicago. “People don’t respect sleep relative to diet and exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle.”

Researchers in the study followed 578 adults who had their blood pressure and other health signs measured between 2000 and 2001. At the start of the study, the participants were aged 33 to 45 years old. The scientists also measured how long each participant slept using a sensor on the wrist that chronicles rest and activity at two different points in the study.

After five years, each participant’s blood pressure was checked again and each was asked about their sleep.

Six-Hour Average
The adults in the study slept an average of six hours each night. Only seven participants averaged eight or more hours of sleep each night, the researchers found.

In the study, 14 percent, or 75 people, developed high blood pressure during the trial, the authors said. A U.S. National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that the rate of high blood pressure among those aged 25 to 74 years old was 15 percent, she said.

Lack of sleep may affect the body’s sympathetic nervous system, which controls how the body responds to stress through the fight or flight response, Knutson said. Chronic lack of sleep or sleep problems may have a long-term effect on the cardiovascular system, increasing high blood pressure, she said. Not getting enough sleep is also related to obesity and diabetes, affecting overall heart health, she said.

People should focus on sleep as part of a healthy lifestyle that includes diet and exercise, Knutson said. Future studies need to examine whether improving sleep reduces a person’s risk of developing high blood pressure, she said.

The study, sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, was part of a larger trial called the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, which recruited patients aged 18 to 30 years old in 1985 and 1986 from Chicago, Minneapolis, Oakland, California, and Birmingham, Alabama. The study’s results only included participants from Chicago.

Chocolate Toffee Crescent Bars

Just got back from Little Rock, AR where I stayed at the Capital Hotel. This place is gorgeous and has THE best toffee in the world. This isn't the recipe but for relevancy's sake, I figured I'd post it anyways because it's yummy.

Chocolate Toffee Crescent Bars

Ingredients
1 8 oz. can refrigerated quick crescent rolls
2/3 cup butter or margarine
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup chopped nuts, your favorite
6 ozs. (1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips

Instructions
1. Heat oven to 375 F. degrees
2. Unroll dough into 2 long rectangles.
3. Place rolls in ungreased 15" X 10" jelly roll pan, pressing over bottom to form crust, sealing perforations.
4. In small saucepan, combine butter and brown sugar, boil 1 minute.
5. Pour evenly over dough and sprinkle with nuts.
6. Bake for 14-18 minutes or until golden brown.
7. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with chocolate chips.
8. As the chips melt, slightly spread them over top.
9. Cool completely; cut into bar

Happy Memorial Day

I hope everyone has a fantastic Memorial Day. I'm off to the University of Texas' graduation in Austin. Safe travels and please don't drink and drive!

Best Lasagna Recipe

This lasagna recipe is out of this world!! The combination of the meat sauce and the cream sauce is simply divine. This is one recipe you don't want to miss out on!

Ingredients

Noodles and Cheese:
1 pound lasagna noodles
16 ounces Parmesan cheese
16 ounces grated mozzarella cheese
16 ounce cottage cheese

Meat Sauce:
1 pound ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/2 pound mild sausage
1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (12-ounce) can tomato paste
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon basil
2 teaspoons salt
Black pepper
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Cream Sauce:
1/4 cup margarine
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups milk

Instructions
1. Cook lasagna noodles according to package directions. Drain, rinse with hot water. Drain again. 2. To prepare the meat sauce, brown ground beef in a skillet. Add onion and garlic. Drain grease and add sausage, tomatoes and tomato paste. Stir in oregano, basil, salt, pepper, fennel seed and parsley. Simmer, covered, 30 minutes. Uncover and simmer 30 minutes more, stirring occasionally.
3. To prepare the cream sauce, melt butter over medium heat. Stir in flour. Cook 1 minute. Add milk and cook, stirring constantly, until smooth and thick.
4. Preheat oven to 375F. To assemble the lasagna, pour 1/3 of meat sauce in bottom of a 15-by-12-inch pan. Lay 6 or 7 noodles over sauce. Pour 1/2 the remaining meat sauce over noodles. Sprinkle with 1/2 the Parmesan cheese. Add another layer of noddles. Sprinkle on mozzarella. Pour hot cream sauce on top. Layer with remaining noodles, cottage cheese, remaining meat sauce and remaining Parmesan cheese.
5. Bake until cheese melts, about 30 minutes. Serves 12.

Poor Reporting on Margarine

There was a really crappy article in The National Post recently that helped to perpetuate the myths that margarine is one molecule away from plastic, was originally used to fatten turkeys AND increases one's risk for cancer five fold.

WOW, that certainly is giving one food product a lot of credit and power! If it can do all of those things, what can't margarine do?

Awful, awful, awful. These myths unduly harm consumers and may prevent them from consuming a product that not is harmless, but can help reduce the amount of saturated fat in one's diet.

Please do not believe these margarine email hoaxes that pop up sporadically. For more information, check out www.margarine.org.

Emma, out.