I remember reading last year that there is a maple syrup shortage from Canada that is effecting the price of food.  I did not realize that Canada makes 80% of the world’s maple syrup!  Many consumers have been switching to maple syrup as a sweetener in their baking products so the demand for maple syrup has been increasing.  Canada had a mild spring this year, which lowered their maple syrup production.  New England, however, had a banner year and had lots of maple syrup.

As I was reading this story I found myself wondering why it took so long for this story about Canada having a mild spring (effecting the maple syrup supply) to enter the news media – their spring was six months ago for crying out loud!

And I was surprised to learn that so much syrup came from Canada because when I buy maple syrup at the store it always says it was from a New England state!

I wonder how the supply is this year!

Over the past thirty years, the government has made huge efforts to de-regulate everything that they could possibly de-regulate.  They de-regulated the airline industry, transportation, and the telephone company.  They thought that by doing this it would increase growth and be good for business.

Well, I have not seen any positive results from deregulating anything, and I think it is time for the government to reconsider it’s stance on regulation and deregulation.  The consumers need more protection from the evil people who sell us tainted foods, and need more protection from price-gouging.  Time to start reining in the big corporations that make obscene profits at our expense!

With Hurricane Ike bearing down on the Gulf Coast, the price of gas is going up again.  It seems lately that any and everything seems to be an excuse to raise the price of gas!  I understand that there is concern that the refineries might be damaged and that will cause an oil/gas shortage.  I sure wish that “we” (and by “we” I mean this country) would aggressively pursue finding other sources of energy so we could end our dependency on fossil fuels forever!  I think that what the American consumer is going through over gasoline prices is simply highway robbery!

The word is out that there is a Great American Seafood Cook off happening in New Orleans. The cook off is supposed to be using domestic sustainable seafood recipes.   This cook off is one of the most prestigious contests.  The winning chef will win the title of King of American Seafood.  I went onto the Internet to find out what I could about the contest.

I’m very excited about the event because it is featuring local, fresh food instead of something foreign, frozen or canned.  I think that promoting local seafood is important.   I’d love to be able to enter my Aunt Johnnie’s baked seafood recipe in a seafood cooking contest!

This is her recipe:

Aunt Johnnie’s baked seafood casserole

1 pound of fish (suggests scallops, shrimp, or crab)

2 T butter (or oleo)

2 T flour

1 c chicken broth

1/8 t nutmeg

salt & pepper

Parmesan cheese

Bread crumbs

To make veloute sauce:  In a saucepan, melt butter, stir in flour, slowly add broth.  Return to heat, stirring constantly until thick & smooth.  Blend in salt & pepper & nutmeg.  In a separate frying pan saute fish in butter for approximately five minutes.  Combine the fish with the veloute sauce and put all in a shallow baking dish.  Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese and brown it quickly under the broiler.

This recipe does not specify what KIND of bread crumbs to use, whether to buy the canned seasoned bread crumbs, or crumbs made from fresh bread.  So I’ve tried it both ways and I think I like the the fresh bread crumbs version the best.

If you’d like to share your favorite recipe with me, I’d love to hear from you!  Feel free to leave a comment with your recipe in it!