Strawberries Love Rum

Last updated on: June 14, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

In the past two weeks I’ve posted two different strawberry pie recipes: a no-bake, gluten-free strawberry pie, and a strawberry-rhubarb pie that will make you swoon. We have so many strawberries that I’ve been hulling and freezing them, and doing so inspired me to try something else: frozen strawberry daiquiris. Not-Too-Sweet Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri for each serving, you’ll need: 2 oz. coconut rum 1 cup frozen strawberries the juice of 1 lime and 1 lemon (or equivalent bottled lemon/lime juices)... Read more

Some Early and Good Words About My Book

Last updated on: June 13, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

You can now pre-order my book on the InterVarsity Press website, and there’s even some kind words about it there from Norman Wirzba, author of Food and Faith and professor at Duke Divinity School. I’ve featured his work before on the blog, and he has also written the Foreword to my book! “Christian faith and life have always been deeply and inextricably bound up with eating. But Christians have not always appreciated this. What a joy then to have the gift... Read more

Judy Garland, Barbie, and the Nightingale

Last updated on: June 12, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Sometimes a post begins with just one image. In this case, it’s this one, via my friend Gina: Okay, so any character/person translated into Barbie becomes instantly inhumanly skinny and sexy (ever notice how Barbie is a sort of totalizing idea? Barbie in any form, dress, color, character. Even Barbie as Katniss Everdeen.) But the Judy Garland/Dorothy Gale Barbie is especially disturbing because of Judy Garland’s own sad story. She was started on diet pills at age 8 or so.... Read more

Bugs are gross because we DON’T eat them…

Last updated on: June 11, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

I have a review of John S. Allen’s new book–The Omnivorous Mind–up at Books & Culture. from the review: Crucial to Allen’s theory of food is the idea that humans are more than omnivores: we are superomnivores; we exercise a certain “cultural capriciousness” in deciding what (or what not) to eat that’s not really to our advantage in terms of survival. Consider the story Jonathan Safran Foer tells in Eating Animals. As his grandmother fled the Nazis, she was starving... Read more

Maternal Mortality, What God Desires, and What I’m Thinking of When I Think of Women’s Rights (#Mutuality2012)

Last updated on: June 9, 2012 at 10:14 am By Rachel Marie Stone

I have a new post at Sojourners’ God’s Politics blog on maternal mortality and its connection to current controversies about birth control and whether it fosters a culture that’s “anti-life.” Here’s a bit of it: Not long ago, a Christian woman experienced in grassroots mission work in east Africa told me that one of the saddest things she encountered was the attitude of resignation on the part of people living in extreme poverty. She said something along these lines: “When... Read more

Live on the Radio in South Africa & An Earnest Defense of Sarcasm

Last updated on: June 8, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Last Sunday night I had the pleasure of speaking with Kate Turkington of Believe it or Not, a top talk radio show in South Africa. (Go figure, right?) Anyway, it was really fun. I was a bit terrified–this being my first live, as opposed to taped, radio interview–but Kate had (apparently) read quite a bit of this blog and my bio and had some great questions. She even asked about NYC Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed ban on sugary drinks that are... Read more

Yes, Yes, of COURSE I care about health…

Last updated on: June 7, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

Most of the responses to my recent Her.meneutics post (“The Dark Side of Healthy Eating”) have been very positive, for which I’m really grateful, not least because the spirit of that post really captures some important aspects of my upcoming book. But some readers have asked whether or not I do, in fact, care about healthy eating–or whether I’m more: “lets [sic] all eat hot dogs and bacon full of nitrates! (which are proven to cause cancer) and make fun... Read more

Another Strawbaby Pie

Last updated on: June 6, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

When we decided to try and grow some strawberries in the yard, I kind of assumed that the most we’d get would be a few berries for noshing on while weeding or whatever. I was not thinking we’d be in ‘please help me find more good strawberry recipes and while you’re at it get me some tequila for strawberry margaritas’ territory. But that’s where we are. And I’m not complaining. It’s a beautiful place to be. One of my best... Read more

Legos, Spaceships, and Breasts

Last updated on: June 5, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

The lovely Sarah Dunning Park (get her new book of poems!) pointed me to this post from Kate Bachus, which compares a “girl” Lego set with a “boy” Lego set, and talks about her own daughter’s enjoyment of a “boy” Lego set. It fits nicely with the thin-and-sexy-toys and images theme I’ve been exploring on this blog (starting with the Candy Land post) but takes a slightly different perspective, pointing out how Lego sets marketed for girls don’t offer the... Read more

When Healthy Eating Isn’t

Last updated on: June 4, 2012 at 6:00 am By Rachel Marie Stone

When people find out that I write about food, they frequently assume that I’m either about to pronounce judgment on what they eat, or that I’m about to dispense dietary wisdom. In fact I’m a bit of a dietary antinomian. This isn’t to say that I don’t harbor my share of concerns about the state of agriculture, food, and eating in this country. I do. I’m concerned that diet-related disease and obesity disproportionately affect people who are poor. Government subsidies... Read more