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France approves soda tax and I agree
I hate taxes as much as the next dad, but taxes are sometimes good. They raise prices and change behavior, such as smoking. And often, legislators best efforts to tie taxes to consumer education (anti-smoking campaigns) or health effects (cancer research) are reversed when new legislatures need the cash to fund other pet projects (remember when lotteries were only to be used to fund education?) Often too, they are regressive, affecting poor people disproportionately. Price elasticity is real however, and anything that gets people off the sugar drink habit has to be good. People are still free to drink a Coke now and then, but are de-motivated to drink Coke for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is sometimes the case.
PARIS — France’s top constitutional body on Wednesday approved a new tax on sugary drinks that aims to fight obesity while giving a boost to state coffers.
The Constitutional Council approved the new soda tax, announced in August as part of the government’s fight against obesity and within the framework of a broader austerity programme, after it was passed in parliament last week.
The tax, which works out to one euro cent per can of drink, is expected to bring in 120 million euros ($156 million) in state revenues.
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Sweet Sally’s mail order treats for the holidays
The good people at Sweet Sally’s send us cookies from time to time. This is just a big “thanks” to them for keeping us fat and happy while we sit at the computer all day. We listed them in top food gifts to send for father’s day, and that could go for the holidays for anyone a long way from home cooking.
For Thanksgiving and beyond, they just sent us their Pumpkin Scones and a Pumpkin-cranberry strudel, both of which are very tasty and perfect to send to someone who lives far away, but are thinking about during the holidays. The scones are very good, and what you’d expect out of a scone. The strudel is also very tasty, but is a heavier dessert that’s better complemented with a nice scoop of vanilla ice cream.
GreatDad.com Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to us, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.
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Review: iGrill for iPhone
You’ve got to love the iGrill for iPhone. It has such a silly name, you’d expect it to be sold on Saturday Night Live. However, the jokes about i- things are passé. We are now into an era where stuff can be made that adds value simply by harnessing the power of the iPhone as computer in your pocket. The iGrill is one of those products that would have been a joke a few years ago, but is now a very powerful device for the serious griller.
I love this video starring Chris Allen, one of the inventors of iGrill. He’s so earnest and truly cares about making sure this product fits your needs. If you can’t get to the video, the principle of iGrill is easy. It’s basically a meat thermometer connected to a Bluetooth relay box that sends a signal to you anywhere in a 200 ft. radius. The app on the iPhone does the rest.
Let’s talk about the iGrill hardware first. The iGrill comes in a white or black box, a bit larger than a set of playing cards. There are headphone like jacks on two sides to accept thermometer probes. The front of the iGrill is very clean with an on/off button and a + and – button for setting the temperature alarm. The iGrill functions as a meat thermometer even if you don’t use the Bluetooth and iPhone app connectivity. The box takes four AA batteries (included).
The fun for techie grilling dads who like to show off their gadget prowess comes with the iGrill apps and Bluetooth connectivity. There are two iPhone apps. One has a black icon and is very basic, focusing on temperature alone. The other, shown as a white icon, has the temperature monitoring, but includes a lot more information, including tips, recipes and cooking guidelines. At some point, I would imagine the simpler app will go away, but it may be more straightforward for some users. Both make monitoring food temperature easy.
Here are some observations from our first cooking experience. Watching the temperature gauge while cooking a few steaks was a fascinating process. We watched the temp move slowly and then really jump in the last few seconds and had to react fast when the steaks were done. It seemed like the iGrill suggested leaving the steaks in about a minute longer than I would usually have done, but the steaks came out perfectly medium rare. I’m glad I didn’t have to sprint from 200 feet away to rescue them when they hit the magic point however.
Between our first and second attempt, I migrated to the new iPhone 4s and had to pair the new iGrill (migrating phones requires re-entering a ton of data I found, including car Bluetooth codes and many app passwords). This is where I ran into some problems. The iGrill is only meant to be paired with one device at a time, so the site covers that issue in many videos. The iGrill requires you to reset the device’s Bluetooth settings if you switch phones or want to use the iPad.
If you read my Griffin Beacon review, you’ll know that I’m no stranger to Bluetooth connectivity issues. They can be a challenge and the iGrill put me through my paces. However, iGrill customer service is the most responsive product service I’ve ever seen. They answer email questions literally within minutes and with a few ideas on their part –the trick finally was to take the batteries out for 15 seconds — I was able to re-sync the iGrill with the new iPhone. Customer service was equally responsive when I found I had gotten a bad thermometer probe. They sent one out immediately, without even knowing that I was writing a review.
The iGrill is a fun toy for grillers and I will be taking it out, especially for thicker pieces of meat with longer grilling times. The iGrill would also make a great thermometer for candy and chocolate makers, though tests have not yet been done to see if the probes could withstand that exposure.
Expect more from the maker, iDevices, a Hartford-based company. They invented this product themselves, but are in business to help other inventors bring iPhonef-friendly hardware devices successfully to market. This is a fun first entry for them and you have to cheer on inventor Chris Allen, featured in all the videos, for his homespun charm and interest in making every iGrill chef a happy iGrill user.
GreatDad.com Review Policy: The featured product for this review was provided to us, at no cost, by the manufacturer or representing PR agency for the sole purpose of product testing. We do not accept monetary compensation for reviewing or writing about products. We only review products that we have personally tested and used in our own homes, and all opinions expressed are our own.
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Ketchup banned in French cafeterias?
After four years of discussion and recommendations, the rules went into effect this week. The French government has banned ketchup in all schools and colleges, as a way to promote healthful eating. The decision was likely made easier because the French would prefer you don’t put ketchup on your croissant with ham.
I’m sure most Americans will say, “Oh those French…” But food habits start early and putting sugar (yes, ketchup is tomatoes plus corn syrup) on your food just teaches you to eat that way. It doesn’t help parents when schools serve cookies and juice boxes when they aren’t at home.
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Tales from the Grill
I find I still have a lot to learn about how to grill. I’m still living in a world where you throw the burgers on, wait till they look dark with black stripes and then throw some cheese on. Now, I’m doing steaks and pork chops and have a bigger fear that I’ll ruin a $10 piece of meat because of my ignorance. Meat and grills all seem to be very temperamental and many are in the ranks of grillers who live with ancient apparatus because they know where all the grill hot and cold spots are.
Image via Wikipedia
What I do know how to do is follow a recipe. I volunteered to try out a new one using raisins the other day. Seems the California Raisin Board is promoting the use of raisins as a natural sweetener and sticking them in a sauce seems like a natural idea. I ran out and bought all the ingredients including tomatillos, raisins, and a can of chipotle chiles “in adobo” (whatever that is), as well as four nice pork chops for a surprise Friday night treat for my hard-working wife.
Unfortunately, when I got home, a brewing work crisis called me away from the kitchen. Our babysitter had just brought the kids home, so I thought I’d enlist her to quickly put the BBQ sauce recipe together before she left. Ten minutes later she told me she was leaving and that the sauce was done and on the counter. Success! Now, all I had to do was prep some asparagus, some pasta, and a salad and the meal was done.
This is where our simple grilling story takes a hot and shocking twist. As I rummaged around the kitchen for other ingredients, I noted that I found no evidence of two of the key sauce ingredients. The raisin bag was gone and so was the can of chiles. To my horror, I found the empty raisin bag AND the empty can of chiles in the trash. She had used a full pound of raisins instead of a 1 1/2 cups, but worse, had used the one whole can of chiles rather than “1-2 chiles” as the recipe required. My daughter and I tasted the sauce and both felt like those cartoon characters who go all red with smoke coming out their ears. It was inedible, at least for us softies.
Emergency situations require for emergency measures. I packed the kids up and ran them to the store and we bought all the ingredients over again. However, instead of opening a new can of chiles, I just used a proportionate amount of our babysitter-made hot sauce, which still gave the recipe plenty of kick without burning our lips off.
This is a good recipe for BBQ lovers. It is spicy and you can dial it up or down by adding more or fewer chipotles. It has lime for a little tang and the raisins give it sweetness without using molasses or plain sugar. It’s sweet without being sugary, a taste I don’t like in a lot of store bought sauces. Click here to find the raisin-based chipotle barbecue sauce.
Here are my top opinions on barbecuing with this sauce:
1. Brown the pork chops a bit before slathering on the sauces. A few minutes on each side will do it and then keep on brushing the sauce on. Grill each side after putting on sauce. Don’t serve with ungrilled sauce on one side as I did.
2. Make sure to reserve some sauce that isn’t used as marinade to put on the cooked meat.
3. The raisin board wants you to use raisins rather than molasses or corn syrup, which many recipes use. Raisins have fiber, potassium, and anti-oxidants, which are good for you, and even 1/4 cup of raisins is considered a full serving of fruit for a child. However, a sugar is a sugar is a sugar whether it comes from an apple or a bag. At least with raisins, you get some other good stuff along with your sugar. It’s hard to tell if you really are able to even get a 1/4 cup serving on one pork chop, without really drowning the thing in sauce, but be my guest! It will make it tangy.
3. The next time I make this sauce, I’ll skip the added BBQ sauce and put some extra raisins, tomatoes and secret spices (clove, cinnamon, garlic, tamarind) in instead. You’ve already put a lot of good stuff in this sauce; why ruin it by pouring an industrial concoction into it. You certainly don’t need to add “smoke flavor” since you’re putting it on the grill!
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