The Raggedy Awards – Year Seven

It’s Ann and Andy here- together again 🙂 – and presenting the 2024 Raggedy Awards.

To commemorate the passage of another year of blogging Andy and I always choose something or some things that were favorites of ours on BigLittleMeals during that year. A recent news story made it super-easy for me to pick my favorite blog. So without further ado…

That blog now seems so au courant given the presidential news of late. Had I not written the blog back in July of ’23, I might have been shocked at the photos of the nearly- bare-breasted women at the White House on April 10, the State Dinner for Japan’s Prime Minister and his wife. I might have been appalled that I was more interested in those photos than in the meal that was served (which included a delicious-sounding salad with avocado, grapefruit, cucumber, watermelon radishes and “shiso leaf fritters.”

And then there’s the news coming from another President – and the frequently-bare-breasted women who may – or may not – have surrounded him.

Now I’ve just got to find a drawing of a bare-breasted Raggedy Ann!

Now it’s Andy’s turn:

My pick for a favorite blog is Holiday Cheer and the F-Bomb. Similar to Ann’s pick it’s a bit on the risqué side of things, although, admittedly, f-bombs are not as titillating as bare- (or nearly bare-) breasted women.

You may be wondering why from among all of the intellectually sophisticated blogs I wrote this past year I would select one featuring such words as “f*ck,” “c*nt,” and “sh*t.” Wouldn’t vulgar words be offensive to our readers? But because swearing is good for the soul and good for the body, I decided that I would be providing a valuable public service by blogging about it, and furthermore, the blog was f*cking worthy of a Raggedy Award.

I should add that selecting this blog for my annual award gives me the opportunity to share a particularly exciting benefit of swearing that I neglected to discuss previously. On Bicycling.com I learned about research that found that subjects who “swore their heads off” while on stationary bikes increased their output by up to 25 watts compared to subjects who did not swear. I conducted my own experiment to test this out recently on a short steep climb (less than half a mile at a 16% grade) while on a Santa Rosa Cycling Club ride. All during the climb I repeated the “F” word until reaching the summit. I later checked my Strava app to see how my f-bomb effort compared to my previous swear-less efforts (Strava is a program that provides statistics for all of my rides).

As above graph shows, the result was stunning. Since 2012 my speed on this climb had been steadily declining (aging has a way of slowing one down), but on my recent F-bomb rant up the hill my speed dramatically spiked. In fact, I broke my own all-time record for that segment. To be honest, the fact that this was the first time I had ridden my e-bike on this segment probably had more to do with that spike in speed than my profanity rant. But it sure was good for my soul to have an excuse to go on a swearing binge while peddling up that hill.

Next is the Raggedy Award for our favorite ingredient of the year. Last year’s choice – flaxseeds – was a gimme, and we still recommend them highly (just be sure they’re ground). Over and over we’re reading about the importance of fiber in our diets, and flaxseeds provide that. They also have Omega-3 fatty acids that help lower cholesterol.

The winner this year is a Middle Eastern spice mix named for a plant that was known and used in Ancient Egypt and is said to have been found in the tomb of Tutankhamen. We are referring to za’atar. Za’atar is the name of both a green herb native to the Middle East and a spice blend that features za’atar.

According to that Bon Appetit article linked above, “In Arabic, the word za’atar is used to describe a number of plants in the Lamiaceae family, like Syrian oregano, wild marjoram, wild thyme, and hyssop—the latter of which makes appearances in ancient texts, like the Bible, and was lauded throughout Western Asia for its flavor and superfood properties (hence the old adage that za’atar makes you smarter). Depending on the source, any of those herbs can be considered za’atar.“

The ingredients of za’atar spice blend will vary from Lebanon to Syria to Palestine. Our favorite, Z&Z Za’atar, features za’atar that is (was?) grown by farmers in Palestine. It’s ingredients are : za’atar (wild thyme), sumac, sunflower oil, and toasted sesame seeds. You’ll find some other za’atar blends that contain salt, so when using those blends remember to cut back on your own addition of salt to a recipe.

Here are some BigLittleMeals recipes using za’atar. (And here’s a recipe for Braised Eggs with Leeks and Za’atar from Ottolenghi that we intend to try soon.)

• Ottolenghi’s Basic Hummus
• Za’atar Chicken
• Fattoush

Andy and I have the Za’atar Chicken on rotation! Frequent rotation.

To conclude our award ceremony, Andy and I have joined forces again to pick the BigLittleMeals Best Recipe of 2024.

Not surprisingly, our best recipe includes our favorite spice of the year, za’atar. And it’s a “bestie” because its presentation is beautiful; it’s delicious; and it’s healthy.