Those of you familiar with Pimientos de Padron surely got a little excited when you saw the title of this post.

I picked up these amazing little peppers this week (as I do almost every week when they’re in season) at Happy Quail Farms at the Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market because, well, once you’ve had them you are pretty much required to buy them if you ever see them for sale.

Just the other day one of my closest friends and I nearly got into an argument about who loved Padrones more:

“OMG, I LOOOOVE Padrones!”

“Me too.”

“No. I LOOOOOOOVE Padrones!!”

“Me too! I buy them every week!”

“I eat them EVERYDAY!!”

Okay, I can’t compete with that. Maybe you do love Padrones more, but it is almost certainly because you have access to them everyday at work. It is to be expected that your affection for Padrones grows stronger with every serving. Lucky girl!

For those of you unfamiliar with Padrones they are small, thin skinned green peppers that are usually served alone. They are found most often in Spain as a popular tapas dish. Generally Padrones are not spicy and have a rich chili smell and flavor. Generally. About one out of every 10 Padron peppers is really spicy. This makes eating them a little like playing Russian roulette with your tongue. So not only are they absolutely delicious, the gamble you play with every bite makes them one of the most exciting foods you can eat. It is even more fun if have a friend to join in your adventures, but then of course you have to share….

Padrones cook very quickly. To prepare simply heat a pan and add a generous amount of high-quality olive oil until it is shimmering. Place Padrones in the pan (I don’t recommend washing them first because the water makes the oil pop and splatter all over the place) and stir until peppers are covered in oil. Continue stirring every 30 seconds or so until the peppers start to blister and inflate, about 2 minutes. Salt generously with course sea or kosher salt and serve. Be sure to add the entirety of the cooking oil to the serving bowl (it now has a subtle pepper flavor). I like to dip an Acme baguette or pain epi in the oil between bites. The bread also helps dampen the heat if you are the lucky roulette winner.

How much do you love Padrones?

Thanks to everyone who took part in my first poll: What is your favorite excuse for not eating healthy?

It seems that the vast majority of you are willing but not always able to eat healthfully, with the most common problems being lack of time or unforeseen forces that prevent you from getting the best meal as often as you would like. Hopefully some of you have found ways to eat healthy most of the time, but nearly everyone could benefit from a few tricks that can help streamline healthy eating so that you come up against these kinds of obstacles less frequently.

The way I see it, the impact of both insufficient time and world obstacles can be diminished with better planning. First, for busy people there are parts of your day that you just need to automate and perform without question. Eat breakfast. Shop on weekends. Cook in large batches (plan for leftovers). Subscribe to a CSA. Stock frozen vegetables. Always have onions, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and herbs in the house. Carry healthy snacks. Always have cans of soup at home. If you do these things automatically, your ability to quickly prepare a healthy meal will vastly improve.

Likewise, if you are prepared in advance when something unforeseen prevents you from acquiring your usual healthy meal, you can quickly turn to your plan B without worry or hesitation. For example, I always carry almonds with me in my gym bag. Just 5-10 of them and I can survive a few extra hours at work and make it home safe without pouncing on the first taqueria that crosses my path.

But certainly there are other reasons the world could be against you. One reader suggested I should have actually had an alternative answer: “Unhealthy foods taste good!” I replied that this counts as “the world is against me”, but her comment brings up an important difference that should be addressed. Neglecting to eat healthy because you don’t have time is very different from usually eating healthy but sometimes eating “unhealthy” foods because you like them. I never, ever recommend that anyone sacrifice quality of life for the sake of nutritional ideology.

Good health and healthy eating should improve your quality of life. The occasional indulgence is nothing to be ashamed of so long as it is something you partake in knowingly and with purpose. What I discourage is what you could call “wasting” an indulgence on something insignificant and of low quality simply because you did not have time or were too tired to cook dinner. Butter croissants and gelato are sublime foods that should be treated as such. And if they are made of real ingredients from scratch they aren’t even that bad for you on occasion. The same cannot be said for a Big Mac, which is neither exquisite nor even comes close to approximating real, healthy food.

Another reader suggested that two of the answer choices should be lumped together: “Can’t cook” and “Don’t like vegetables.” I absolutely agree that these two items are related. Proper cooking can make entrails taste delicious. But I have certainly encountered soggy, low-quality, over-cooked vegetables that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy (if I had one). I highly recommend working on your cooking skills and learning to cook vegetables the way you like them. Start with good ingredients and you’re half way there. Personally I have nearly conquered all my former food aversions. Please ask if you are interested in specific recipes or cooking recommendations.

Finally, I am happy that not many of you find eating healthy is too expensive (but I know this is a legitimate concern for many people). I admit, the price of food has gone up significantly and healthier food is undoubtedly more expensive than unhealthy food. For this I offer a few philosophical arguments.

My first proposition is to eat better food, but eat less of it. I realize people don’t like to hear this, but it has been shown that people tend to eat more of the cheapest (highly refined, processed) foods because they are much less satisfying. Also, there are very few people (mainly people with wasting diseases or anorexia nervosa) who would not benefit from eating fewer calories. Calorie reduction is the single most effective way to live longer and prevent diseases like cancer. The only caveat is that nutritional needs must be met. Fortunately this can be done with higher quality foods.

Another consideration is that although food is more expensive now, most Americans are spending far less (%) on food today than they did 50 years ago (and way more on health care!). This is certainly because the market has been flooded with cheap, government subsidized, refined calories (corn, soybeans). Why is this? As Michael Pollan writes in his new book In Defense of Food, “For the majority of Americans, spending more for better food is less a matter of ability than priority.” How much did your T.V. or cell phone bill cost last month? Think about this before denouncing fresh fruit as the root of your financial woes.

My argument is that healthy eating is a delicious way to elevate quality of life now and in the future and actually reduce long-term health costs.

Any concluding thoughts on how to make health eating easier?

I hope that last week I managed to convince some of you to venture out to the farmers’ market today. This, my friends, is the absolute best time of year to buy fresh produce from local farmers. Never is the quality of food so strikingly different from what you get at the grocery store as it is in late summer. It reminds me of when I was living in Italy and it seemed like everyday I ate the best ________ I’ve ever had in my life.

Let’s start with the tomatoes. Remember back when you were a kid and somebody told you a tomato is really a fruit and you didn’t believe them? To a kid, tomatoes are vegetables because they aren’t sweet like fruit. Well, I guarantee you if you gave that child one of the tomatoes from today’s market they would understand that indeed, a tomato is a fruit. To put it bluntly, these beauties are like candy. And there are so many varieties to choose from! Zebra Stripe, Brandywine, Early Girl, Cherokee purple…. Remarkable.

Next, the stone fruits. Peaches, nectarines, plums, pluots, nectaplums. It seems farmers don’t have any difficulty crossing stone fruits to create delicious new varieties, and right now every single one of them is sweet (beyond description) and delicious. At Twin Girls Farm today I tasted a Sweet Burgundy Plum that was as intensely flavored as a wine grape (if you’ve only ever had grapes from Safeway and the like, you have no idea what I’m talking about). The pluots though, are in rare form. What I refer to as the “flavor monarchy”–Flavor Queens, Flavor Kings, Flavor Grenades–is clearly taking pride in living up to its name. For those who don’t know, Flavor Queens are the golden green variety, Flavor Kings are a rich purple, and Flavor Grenades are speckled gold, red and purple. (psst: the Flavor Kings from Frog Hollow today are truly out of this world).

Grapes are also starting to appear on the scene. The precious Zante currants (aka Champagne grapes, see pic) were absolutely irresistible. Each fruit is only about the size of a BB, but they are amazingly sweet and flavorful.

Piles of orange, yellow and purple carrots were a favorite among spectators today. Greens are also at an all-time high with wild arugula, tatsoi, spinach, beet greens, radicchio, lettuces and even more exotic items like purslane. Leaves are fluffy, crisp, green and red, just begging to be turned into salads. And like last week the peppers, both sweet and spicy, are in abundance.

Other purchases include:

• Mediterranean cucumbers
• Summer squash
• Pimientos de Padron
• Basil
• Italian parsley
• Okra
• Blackberries
• Baby leeks

I really am beginning to think we should change Thanksgiving to August. Get it while the gettin’s good everyone!

A report published today in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition systematically reviews the data examining whether or not a dietary supplement (this time the antioxidants called carotenoids) has the ability to fight a human disease (this time lung cancer).

Not surprisingly, there was no association found between taking supplements and cancer risk.

Why was this study done? Because people who eat foods that are high in carotenoids do seem to be protected against cancer, but no one is sure of the exact reason why. General Mills would love to tell you that they can add carotenoids to your breakfast cereal and help you prevent cancer, but sadly for the food industry this is not true. But you are the winner here, because you can still get these cancer fighting benefits by having a diet rich in fruits and vegetables!

Bon appetit!!

We are all in a hurry sometimes. I happened to be in a hurry tonight. I won’t bore you with the details, but I got held up at work today and had more things to do when I got home than I could really fathom (including writing this post). I needed dinner, I needed it to be healthy (I’m going out twice tomorrow and for dinner Friday–wish me luck) and, most important, I needed it to be quick.

A recent study published in the journal Cell describes a chemical that has the ability to increase exercise endurance in mice without a regular exercise regimen (i.e. training). News media has paraded this research as the discovery of an “exercise pill” that could potentially reduce or eliminate the need for regular exercise.

If this sounds a little ridiculous to you, you are not alone.

I am happy to report that not everyone interprets this new data as the answer to America’s obesity epidemic. An article appeared in today’s ScienceDaily explaining that the research does not even come close to testing all the potential benefits of exercise and therefore extreme caution should be taken when interpreting the results of this single study.

Benefits of exercise that were not tested in the mouse study include (but are not limited to) increasing positive measures of cardiac capacity and decreasing risk for diseases like heart disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, breast cancer, colon cancer and osteoporosis.

So let’s be clear: there are countless benefits of exercise and we have no idea if this substance can replicate them or not.

It is also good to remember the pure physical enjoyment and heightened quality of life that can be achieved through exercise, valuable outcomes that scientists often neglect in their analysis.

And did I mention this study was done on mice and not humans?

Such research may one day improve the lives of individuals who have the misfortune of a physical handicap that prevents or limits regular exercise. For the rest of us, my advice is to find ways to make exercise fun and enjoyable rather than hoping science can give you an excuse for getting out of it.

What do you think about an “exercise pill”?

Last week’s poll on healthy eating has closed. Here are the results:

Too busy 35%
The world is against me 35%
Can’t cook 20%
Too expensive 5%
Don’t like vegetables 5%

n = 20

Check back for advice on dealing with each of these obstacles to healthy eating.

An eye-opening article published Sunday in the New York Times gives data from the USDA that approximates how much food consumption has changed since 1970. Not surprisingly, it has gone up… to the tune of almost 2 lbs extra per week! And it isn’t 2 lbs of broccoli. Most of the increase has been in meats, grains, sugars and fats.

Marion Nestle also chimed in, adding that since 1970 our daily caloric intake has gone from 3,200 to 4,000. Remember that all else being equal adding just 100 extra calories per day can increase your weight by 10 lbs in a year. Somehow I get the feeling we aren’t burning all this extra food off either.

Notable purchases at today’s Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market:

• Dry-farmed early girl tomatoes
• Morel mushrooms
• Basque frying peppers
• Red hot chili peppers
• Baby lettuces
• Rosemary
• Mediterranean cucumbers
• Fresh pullet eggs
• Israeli melon
• Purslane
• Summer onions
• Radicchio
• Raspberries and blackberries
• Nectaplums
• Arugula
• Beet greens

Our house has a tradition of having our friends over for soup one night a month. After running over three years, Soup Night is now pretty legendary and tales of it can be heard across the land. Despite the notable absence of all the original Soup Night founders, last night was no exception.