Controversy, Cow's Milk, and Cakes in the Morning #FoodieReads

I was reminded of this book when I read Cara Nicoletti's Voracious last week, so I tracked down a copy of In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak.* And we read it, as a family, over the weekend. Jake said it looked familiar, but I don't remember owning it.

Though we do have Where the Wild Things Are in about six different languages and even had a Wild Rumpus for R's 6th birthday! How I miss the days when I dressed them up as book characters...now we argue about the existence of Big Foot, discuss whether you can actually create a perfect circle mathematically, ponder how we know what we know, and they talk about programming languages that are Greek to me.

Controversy

The boys remembered that I had a DVD of In the Night Kitchen and they thought it was creepy when they were little. Maybe we only viewed it once, because I don't remember it at all. I'll have to dig it out and watch it.

In the Night Kitchen has been censored in several states - think Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Texas - because Mickey prances naked through the story. In fact the American Library Association ranked it in 21st place of "100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 1990-1999" and 25th place from 1990-2000. That's a whole lot of controversy for a little kid's privates...we all have private parts, right?

Cow's Milk

But that page in particular - God bless milk and God bless me! - reminded me of a conversation I was having with a friend about milk. Did I drink milk? And, if so, what kind did I drink? I thought it would be an interesting question to pose on my blog...and I'll answer, too. 

Apparently, my friend had read an article that essentially said you should never drink cow's milk; you should only drink soy milk or nut milk. So, here are my thoughts.

No one in my household except my older son really drinks milk. I use it in my cooking and, sometimes, add a splash to coffee though, for the most part, I drink my coffee black. But R likes milk. Whole milk. Whole cow's milk. So, that's what I buy. My friend asked if I buy organic milk. Usually, yes. But, if not, then I just make certain that I'm picking milk from cows that were not treated with growth hormones. "No rBST" is what I look for on the label.

Regarding soy milk...no, I avoid soy products for the most part. Regarding nut milk...again, no. Commercial nut milks use around 3 nuts per gallon. I use about 100 nuts per liter when I make it. Here's my Homemade Hazelnut Milk recipe.

Thoughts? Do you drink milk? What kind? And why??

Cakes in the Morning
I don't often serve cake in the morning - sometimes pie, but I think I justify that because there's fruit in it. But I'm getting better at pancakes! I make them with ricotta.

Ingredients

• 2 C ricotta
• 2 T  fresh lemon juice
• 2 T finely grated lemon zest from an organic lemon
• 2 C all-purpose flour
• 2 T baking powder
• 1/2 t salt
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1-1/2 C whole milk
• melted unsalted butter for brushing

Procedure
Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Beat egg whites in a medium bowl until frothy. Continue until stiff peaks form.

In another bowl, blend together milk, egg yolk, ricotta, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Gradually add dry ingredients to the yolk mixture. Whisk until just moistened.

Add in egg white mixture; fold just to blend. 

Heat a griddle or heavy skillet over low to medium heat. Brush with melted butter. Using scant 1/3 C batter for each pancake, Scoop batter onto griddle and cook until bottom is golden brown, edges are dry, and bubbles form on top of pancake, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Flip pancakes and cook until browned and just cooked through, approximately another minute.

Transfer pancakes to plates. Serve immediately.

*This blog currently has a partnership with Amazon.com in their affiliate program, which gives me a small percentage of sales if you buy a product through a link on my blog. It doesn't cost you anything more. If you are uncomfortable with this, feel free to go directly to Amazon.com and search for the item of your choice.

Here's what everyone else read in January 2018: here.