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Culinary Gardening Series Episode 3

2010-08-23T09:17:00.000-07:00

Back in May, I uploaded Episode 1 and 2 of the Culinary Gardening Series produced in conjunction with Boulder Valley Media Alliance (Channel 22) and Eric Skokan, the owner of Black Cat Farm and Black Cat Farm Table Bistro.

Episode 3, as you will see, takes place in Eric's bistro kitchen where he talks us through preparing a bistro meal with produce from his farm.

2010-07-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Hello Readers,
I'll be on vacation from July 4th.
Enjoy my most recent posts or scroll down the right-hand sidebar to "Blog Archive" and peruse posts from previous months and last year.
Happy summer!
Louise

Roses with Breakfast

2010-07-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

This morning, on my way to breakfast with friends, I popped into my local Whole Foods Market where I noticed the most glorious bunches of roses.

The rose colors were so vibrant and splendid; I stopped, pulled my iphone from my bag, took several photos for posterity, and then bought a bunch.

Once at my friends, we set the table with our shared bounty, whereupon I was delighted by the likeness of the candy-colored roses I'd brought to the colors in our breakfast spread.

There really is nothing more appetizing than fresh, colorful food. Perhaps that's the case because color radiates energy and life, even joy, and certainly beauty.

Food that looks beautiful isn't always delicious, but its beauty inspires our desire to taste nevertheless.

Many years ago, I became quite intoxicated by the rich hue of Chinese-red roses. I bought a bunch, not for the purpose of beautifying my home, but to eat.

I plucked the petals from the buds and tossed them into a large jam pot with water, sugar, and rose water. Well on the way to making rose-petal jelly, my hope was that I'd create a floral jelly rich in color, scent and flavor.

Alas, my jelly was a flop, but don't let my failure deter you. I'm linking here to a recipe that is very straightforward and simple. Try it for yourself and see if you can create a batch of rose petal jelly that rivals the beauty of the rose on the stem -- and do let me know how you get on!

Rose petals not only make heavenly jelly, but you can also eat the petals. Last summer I plucked velvety, ruby-red petals from buds and used them as garnish on a dessert plate of wild strawberries, Colorado peaches, yogurt and honey.

Steep lavender and rose petals in hot water with black tea for a delectable cuppa; you can also add rose petals to green salads for interest, color, and as a talking point!

And did you know that rose petals ground with a little water into a gelatinous paste, then molded into tiny balls, and then dried, are the original rosary beads?

Ah, the versatile rose, so beautiful, you just want to eat them -- and indeed you can, though today, I just gazed at them over breakfast.

Herb & Pesto Polenta with Salmon & Eggs

2010-06-29T11:05:00.001-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a friend had come to visit and brought with her treats from the northwest where she lives.

One of those treats was a bottle of marionberry spread, which I wrote about in my post titled Marionberry Rhubarb with CashewNut Cream.

Another of the treats was an 8-ounce pack of locally caught, wild king salmon (also known as Chinook salmon) which she'd bought direct from the fisherman who'd smoked it with maple and wine.

That's one of the advantages of living in the Pacific Northwest: access to just-caught, wild fresh fish, and in particular, Chinook salmon.

In the July issue of O Magazine, which I mentioned last week because of the 10-page spread on extreme dietary choices, there is a "tip box" on the page featuring a woman who is a pescavore (eats only seafood).

The first tip in the box is "Download a Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch pocket guide for best picks, fish to avoid and good alternatives."

I've linked to that guide, and others like it, many times on this blog. And the reason I've done so is to alert readers to easily-accessible, online resources that can help them make healthy and sustainable seafood choices when grocery shopping.

Because I'm posting a meal idea making use of the wild caught Chinook salmon my friend Judi gave me, I went onto Seafood Watch's website to see what they had to say about salmon, and I saw the heading Updated West Coast Salmon Recommendations.

Seafood Watch is recommending consumers avoid wild caught salmon from California and Oregon due to the declining populations of Chinook salmon in these states.

Whereas wild caught salmon from Alaska remains the best choice and good alternatives are wild caught salmon from Washington (which is what Judi gave me) and northern Oregon.

Last summer, I took a friend's husband grocery shopping. Bruce is an introvert and he wanted some tips on navigating Whole Foods Market on a budget and without going into overwhelm. It was Bruce who introduced me to Seafood Watch's pocket guide.

I was very impressed that he made specific seafood choices for his family based on the guide and I decided if he can do it, I can too, and so can you. Read the guide online, print it out, and keep it on hand when next grocery shopping.

Herb Polenta with Pesto, Salmon & Eggs
1) To make the polenta base (which is underneath the pesto and salmon in the top pic), pour 1 cup of polenta into a pot with 2 cups water and 2 cups half and half. Gently stir off-and-on for about 30 mins over a low heat.
2) At the last minute, toss your choice of grated cheese and stir until the cheese melts. Taste test, adding salt and pepper if you wish.
3) If you have herbs growing in your garden or window box, pick a handful. I chose parsley, marjoram, and chives, chopped them coarsely, and then tossed them into the cooked polenta.
4) Now pour the polenta into an oil-lined pan or baking tray and let it set.
5) Once it has set and is cool, turn polenta onto a plate and spread it with pesto. I had some garlic scape pesto left over so I used that.

To Serve: Break into pieces about 3 ounces or more, depending on the number of people eating, of smoked salmon and spread the bits atop the herb and pesto polenta. I dotted some sliced black olives over the lot, and then garnished the plate with a couple of sliced, hard-boiled eggs.

One cup of cooked polenta made the portion in the top pic, which I cut in two, sharing it with a friend with a side salad of garden-fresh greens.

Meatless Monday

2010-06-28T08:25:00.001-07:00

This morning when I was in the garden, I noticed the pumpkin blossoms blooming (below).

It was just this past weekend that I commented on a series of pictures of harvested squash and their blossoms posted by my Facebook friend, British actress and author, Carol Drinkwater.

Carol and her husband have an olive farm above Nice, in the dry Mediterranean climate of the south of France. There they grow olives--which produce award-winning olive oil--farm bees, and harvest produce from their vegetable garden.

The growing season is obviously longer in the south of France since the pictures Carol posted of the squash from her garden reveal large, ready-to-eat squash, versus the just-budding pumpkin growing in the Colorado garden I'm care-taking.

Pumpkins, which are actually a gourd-like squash, produce the same edible yellow flowers as the zucchini, a summer squash.

Last August, when house sitting another property, an urban farm with a huge vegetable garden, I wrote about preparing squash blossoms for a series of garden-to-table vegetarian side dishes.

Seeing Carol's pictures this weekend on Facebook, and then noting the pumpkin blossoms in the garden this morning, I thought I'd reprint a variation on my recipe for stuffed squash blossoms for this week's Meatless Monday all-vegetarian meal idea.

Lining the platter of cooked blossoms (pic at top) are nasturtium leaves and their flowers.

To the left are nasturtiums growing in the garden.

Both the nasturtium leaves and the flowers are edible and they're easy to grow, even in a window box! (Or find them at your local farmer's market.)

The leaves have a delicate peppery flavor, and the flowers look amazing tossed into a simple green salad because of their bright orange, yellowy-red color (pic at very top).

(The pink flowers in the pic just above are not nasturtium flowers.)

Stuffed Squash Blossoms with Nasturtium Leaf Salad
1) If you have access to a vegetable garden, that's probably the most likely place you'll find squash blossoms (or your local farmer's market). Pick blossoms which are open and healthy looking.
2) In the kitchen, gently cut the stamen out from inside the blossom.
3) Wash blossom of dirt and little bugs. (You can of course leave the bugs in the blossom; they'll add to the mineral and protein content of this vegetarian dish!) Set blossoms aside.
4) Into a bowl crumble about a cup or so of cornbread. If you made my DuckEgg cornbread, use stale leftovers. Or you could use stale bread crumbs or leftover cooked rice.
5) To the bowl, add your choice of grated vegetable, such as carrot or zucchini, perhaps some green onion, and some fresh herbs i.e. basil and oregano, or sage and thyme, or parsley and cilantro -- a mix of your favorite herbs.
6) Add one large or two small eggs to the mix, stirring gently so the stuffing binds. If mixture is sloppy, add more grain or crumbs.
Note: As you can see in the pic at top, my stuffing was too wet and so it oozed out of the blossoms. To avoid this, make sure your stuffing is firm, one large, rather than two small eggs, may be plenty.
7) You might also like to add your choice of grated cheese, i.e. Parmesan.
8) Take a small teaspoon of stuffing and place it into the center of each blossom. As you stuff each blossom, curl the end so that the blossom is sealed; now place it on a baking tray and moisten with a little olive oil.
9) Place baking tray of stuffed blossoms into heated 350-degree oven for about 10-15 mins. Keep and eye on the blossoms, you don't want them to overcook, but you do want the stuffing to set.

To Serve: Decorate a serving platter with nasturtium leaves and nasturtium flowers. Using an egg spatula, gently arrange the hot, stuffed blossoms in the center of the platter.

To a bowl of Garlic Dressed Salad Greens add a couple handfuls of nasturtium leaves and a handful of the edible flowers, toss, and serve salad alongside your platter of stuffed squash blossoms.

What Are You Eating?

2010-06-24T11:15:00.000-07:00

The July issue of O Magazine features a 10-page spread titled "What Are You Eating."

Within those 10 pages are the preferred diets of 10 individuals.

Ranging from a fruitarian to an all-day grazer of junk food, from a carnivore who prefers to hunt and kill his own meat to an omnivore with an appetite for just about anything, the diets are extreme.

The article is worth reading for the shock factor. Apparently some people eat what they eat quite happily and for valid personal reasons -- like the guy who lives on bread, steak and cereal because nothing else tastes good to him!

Whether the 10 (and others like them) are healthy eating what they're eating is highly questionable, but that's another article.

When I finished reading "What Are You Eating," I realized Market to Mouth probably looks and reads as though I'm one of those people who are, quote, "making it hard to feel good about eating anymore ... that subset of -arian, -vores, and -ists who eat not just thoughtfully but righteously."

I confess to being very thoughtful about the food I buy, cook and eat (or this past month, the food I pick from the garden to cook and eat). Though hopefully, I'm not righteous about it; I certainly wouldn't want to make readers feel guilty about what they're eating or not eating.

Being a thoughtful and conscious consumer of locally grown and produced whole, unprocessed food reaps dividends; the most obvious is the benefit to one's health, and then the benefit to the economic and sustainable health of one's community.

For these reasons, I feel very good about consuming and eating thoughtfully and with a conscience.

With that in mind, today's thoughtful meal idea comes, once again, from the garden to the table.

However, it's not exactly a meal, but rather a delicious side of unusual edibles: snap-pea greens and garlic scapes, both of which I've included in a number of posts in recent weeks.

In fact, it was this past Meatless Monday that I posted a recipe for pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto garnished with pea greens (pic to left).

I still have some of the pesto in the fridge and I've been using it to dress salads, and as a paste on crackers with cheese and olives.

Garlic scapes (pic below) have a strong garlic - onion flavor when raw, but gently sauteed or roasted in the oven tossed in a little oil, they're not as pungent.

The leaves, shoots and flowers of the snap peas are sweet and tender and taste just like raw snap peas.

Find scapes and snap-pea greens at your local farmer's market and then toss washed and coarsely chopped scapes into a skillet with butter and saute until just soft.

Toss washed snap pea greens over the scapes, gently stir for a minute or until the leaves wilt slightly. Season to taste.

To Serve: Spoon wilted greens into a serving bowl. Add a dollop of sour cream. Eat as a side with pasta or baked potato and or as accompaniment to fish or poultry.

Marionberry Rhubarb with CashewNut Cream

2010-06-23T07:06:00.001-07:00

Last Friday I mentioned a friend had arrived for a visit. And with her, she brought a bag of goodies including a jar of Oregon marionberry spread.

As it turned out, I didn't open the spread while she was here. Instead, this morning I plucked some stems of green rhubarb from the garden, stewed them, adding the marionberry spread to create a beautiful, ruby-red compote for breakfast.

The green variety of rhubarb stays green upon cooking, in fact, a rather unappetizing green so the addition of the dark burgundy berry spread added desirable color.

While at Whole Foods a few days ago, I noticed locally grown, organic red rhubarb in the produce section. At $6.99 lb it was priced high -- a luxury item for most.

I haven't compared that price to our local farmer's market, but if you're looking for rhubarb, that might be a more budget-friendly option.

The marionberry spread had no added sugar and like the rhubarb it's tart (though the green variety of rhubarb is actually a bit sweeter than the red varietal).

Rather than add sugar to my compote, I tossed in chunks of apple for sweetness and topped the lot with cashew nut cream and swirls of honey.

Marionberry Rhubarb with CashewNut Cream
1) Wash and peel 4 stalks of rhubarb. When I peel the stalks, I just remove the most fibrous sinews. If you remove all the outer fiber from the stalks, there's not much left, so go easy with the peeling.
2) Chop rhubarb into chunks, toss into a pot, and add just enough water to cover the rhubarb.
3) Simmer over low heat for about 10 mins.
4) Add either a cup of your favorite fresh or frozen summer berries, i.e. blueberries, raspberries, strawberries or a heaped tablespoon of a dark fruit, sugarless spread. Stir the fruit or spread through the rhubarb until it's well blended.
5) Remove pot from the stove and add chopped chunks of apple.

CashewNut Cream
1) Toss a large handful of raw cashew nuts into a blender. Add hot filtered water, just enough to cover the nuts.
2) Blend the nuts and water until creamy. Add more water if you'd prefer a smoother cream.
3) Taste test. If you like the flavor as is, great, and if you'd prefer an enhanced flavor consider adding a dash of vanilla or some cinnamon or a slug of maple syrup.
Note: Simply by adding water and blending, cashew nuts turn incredibly creamy. Other nuts don't blend to the same smooth consistency, but don't let that stop you swapping out cashew nuts for say, pecans or almonds.

To Serve: Ladle a portion of the fruit compote into a bowl. Top with a heaped spoonful of the cashew nut cream and swirls of honey or maple syrup.

If you're eating this for breakfast, as I did, and you'd prefer a heartier start to your day, spoon the fruit compote, nut cream and honey over a bowl of hot oatmeal and finish it with some whole, raw cashews.

Meatless Monday

2010-06-21T09:22:00.000-07:00

One thing that happens when you have access to a garden filled with a selection of spring greens, herbs, and onions is innovation in the kitchen.

Though the garden I'm tending while house sitting doesn't have basil growing, it does have parsley, spinach (and lots of other leafy greens) plus a selection of onions, including garlic.

The garlic, busily forming underground into the bulb we recognize, is also sprouting long green shoots above ground. These green shoots grow into curly tendrils that look quite exotic (see slide show below).

And what I discovered via a Facebook friend is that those exotic-looking tendrils are called garlic scapes and they're delicious cooked or eaten raw in say, a pesto.

The scape's flavor is a cross between garlic and the purple spring onions I posted about last Friday.

Because I find raw garlic highly pungent, when I blended the scapes into the pesto sauce I made yesterday, I added equal portions of both spinach and parsley.

Whenever I make traditional pesto with basil, garlic, Parmesan and nuts, I toss in a handful of parsley. The chlorophyll in the parsley helps counteract the heat of the garlic and it balances out the highly aromatic basil.

And having made a batch of garlic scape pesto, naturally it lent itself to a Meatless Monday pasta dish!

If you want to try your hand at today's meatless meal, and you don't have garlic scapes in your veggie garden, look for them at your local farmer's market.

Follow the slide show and method recipe below to make:

Pasta with Garlic Scape Pesto

1) Wash about 4-6 scapes, and a small handful each of spinach and parsley. Drain.
2) Put scapes and greens into a blender with about 3/4 of a cup of olive oil.
3) Pulse until the oil and greens and blended, then add several tablespoons of grated Parmesan and pulse again.
4) Taste test. Add salt and pepper if you wish, and a splash of lemon or lime juice.
Optional: Rather than salt the pesto, you could add a squirt of anchovy paste or even several anchovy fillets and a bit of the oil from the tin.
5) Boil your choice of pasta. Drain, and then run colander under the hot water tap and flush out starchy water. Return pasta pot the stove, stir for a minute over low heat to dry pasta.
6) Away from the hot plate, stir pesto through pasta.

To Serve: Pour pesto pasta into a large serving bowl. Decorate the top with black olives. I garnished the edge of the bowl with snap-pea greens and the white, edible flowers attached to the greens.

With the pasta, I served a large garden salad, the one I posted last week, though I omitted the garlic from the dressing since the garlic scapes in the pesto was sufficient garlic for one meal.

Tumeric Chicken with Purple Spring Onion

2010-06-18T09:33:00.001-07:00

One of the joys of having friends to stay, especially friends who enjoy pottering about in the kitchen, is the likelihood of eating a meal they've prepared.

And that's just what happened last night, when a friend of mine flew in from out of town for a visit.

Judi, who lives in the northwest, arrived with a bag of locally-grown goodies: Seattle's very own organic and fair trade Theo Chocolate, wild king salmon, that she'd bought direct from the fisherman who'd smoked it with wine and maple, and Misty Meadows Marionberry Spread.

I've never had marionberries. According to Misty Meadow's website, marrionberries are from the Willematte Valley in Oregon, and they're of the "cane berry family" and have a "clear fruity flavor."

Apparently, marrionberry pie is an Oregon favorite, as is warming the jam and pouring it over ice cream. I'm excited to smother the jam over a chunk of my DuckEgg Cornbread, which I plan to make for our breakfast this weekend.

I thought we might have the wild king salmon for dinner. Wrapped in it's cryovac pack, the exquisite color of the salmon, it's obvious succulence, and the wine and maple smoking veritably screamed out to me: eat me now!

However, Judi insisted that I keep it for later; she'd picked up some "natural" chicken (there's that nebulous labeling again) and had an idea for cooking it up with vegetables from the garden.

Of course any ideas she had for cooking dinner were fine with me, since I was thrilled at the prospect of eating a meal prepared by someone other than myself!

I let her fossick in the veggie garden and after a while she came in with purple spring onions, which once washed, peeled and trimmed are really quite beautiful (pic to left).

She'd also collected kale and turnips (both of which are abundant right now and thus they've been appearing in all my blog meals of late), and cilantro and parsley.

I was interested to see what Judi would create with ingredients I've been cooking with these last couple of weeks.

Here is what I observed, and then ate with gusto:

Turmeric Chicken with Purple Spring Onion
1) Wash, peel, trim and cut into pieces one large purple spring onion. (You'll be able to find these at your local farmer's market.)
2) Toss spring onion in a skillet with some oil; saute gently on low until transparent.
3) Add about a teaspoon of turmeric; stir into onion.
4) Over the turmeric onions lay several boned chicken thighs; stir about so that the meat is well coated with turmeric.
5) Having washed and coarsely chopped a handful each of parsley and cilantro sprinkle over the chicken (pic at top).
6) Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the lot, place the lid on the skillet and with the heat still on low; allow the chicken to gently cook in its own juices for about 15 or so mins.

To Serve: We had our turmeric chicken over a bed of sauteed turnips, turnip greens, kale and carrots (pic to left and below).

Judi did what I've doing with the garden greens and simply washed, drained and chopped the vegetables, tossing them into a second skillet with peeled and chopped fresh ginger and olive oil.

She then allowed the veggies to wilt over a med-to-low heat, adding a dash of rice wine vinegar at the last minute to bring out the natural flavor of the vegetables.

Because the color of the turmeric chicken was a rich yellow, sitting atop an ample portion of the wilted greens, turnip and carrot, the variegation of colors in the meal was quite spectacular.

To finish, Judi sprinkled some chopped, raw almonds over the chicken and this added crunch and texture.

You might prefer to serve your turmeric chicken with the Garlic-Dressed Salad Greens I posted recently; this would be a lighter though equally satisfying meal.

FYI: I posted a note on Facebook regarding my lack of success sourcing organic and free-range chicken meat in Boulder County. In response, Edible Front Range directed me to their online resource page.

I checked it out, and indeed, they've put together an extensive list of all that's locally grown, including poultry that's organic, truly free-range and humanely farmed.

Edible is published regionally, so check out your local publication for links and connections to the best locally grown produce, meat, dairy, poultry and eggs.

Salmon with Steamed Cucumber & Turnips

2010-06-17T07:46:00.001-07:00

I have this nifty way of cooking fish on top of the stove so that there is minimal fuss and mess and no fishy smell.

As you may be aware, reading my posts, I do a lot of stove-top cooking, sauteing and steaming meals in an iron skillet.

I prefer my cast iron skillet over other fry pans because it's solid and versatile.

And since iron skillets are absent plastic handles and heat-sensitive non-stick surfaces, they can go from the top of the stove into the oven with ease.

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a recipe for DuckEgg Cornbread, which I baked in the oven in a skillet lined with foil.

The salmon in today's meal idea is also cooked in foil in a skillet (with lid on), but on top of the stove rather than in the oven.

The fish gently steam cooks in its marinade (pic to left), and because it's enclosed in foil, I can toss vegetables around the skillet and they'll cook separately but at the same time (pic below).

The beauty of this method is that I can prepare a complete meal (for two) in one pan, without the fish flavor and smells permeating the vegetables, the pan and the kitchen!

I chose to make this dish with wild-caught Sockeye salmon, which I'd bought frozen -- two fillets to a pack.

The frozen variety is economical, yet the flavor is not always great, so I usually marinade previously frozen fish.

For the vegetables, I picked turnips and their leafy-green tops from the garden, some organic carrots at the bottom of the fridge, and an organic cucumber I'd picked up on sale at the market.

Salmon with Steamed Cucumber & Turnips
1) Place your choice of fish on top of a piece of foil (enough to wrap around the fish).
2) Over the fish drizzle some olive oil, Braggs Liquid Aminos or Tamari or Soy Sauce.
3) Add to that a chunk of peeled and chopped ginger root, and the same of garlic or green onions or shallots. And you might like to also add a splash of orange or lemon juice.
4) Allow the fish to sit in the marinade in the foil for at least 30 mins.
5) Meanwhile, wash and chop a selection of vegetables. As I mention above, I used baby turnips, and their green tops, carrot, and cucumber.
Note: We think of cucumber as a salad vegetable, but it's wonderful cooked; it turns transparent, soft and juicy, while still maintaining its distinct cucumber flavor.
6) Now turn the fish over in the foil a few times, coating it with the marinade. Fold the foil over the fish, creating a sealed packet (see pic above), and then place the foil pack in the center of the skillet.
7) Scatter the chopped veggies around the fish, and if you have any more ginger bits, scatter those over the vegetables; drizzle a couple tablespoons water and oil over the veggies too.
7) Put a lid on the skillet and turn the stove-top heat to low and allow the fish and veggies to gently steam for about 10-15 mins.

To Serve: Onto a plate or large bowl, spoon a portion of vegetables. Unwrap the foil, gently lift the fish out with an egg lifter and place it over the veggies. Pour the juice, ginger and garlic bits from the foil over the fish. Garnish with chives or green onions or parsley or dill.

Garlic Dressed Salad Greens

2010-06-16T09:01:00.001-07:00

While I have access to a bounty of garden-fresh salad greens, daily, I'm creating different and interesting ways to eat them.

I used to think the loose salad mix at the market was tasty and good value; at around $6.99 pound, I could buy a big bag and make it last a few days.

Once spring arrives, the locally-grown farmer's market loose salad mix offers greater variety, and thus flavor, for similar dollar value.

If the garden on the property I'm care-taking wasn't bursting with spring greens, I'd definitely shop my local farmer's market for salad greens.

Or I'd consider growing my own!

For some, a green salad's yum factor is dependent on the selection and flavor of the leaves. For others, it's the dressing.

I like a combination of both interesting greens and tasty dressing. And while I understand the convenience of the myriad of bottled dressings available at the market, there is nothing more delicious than unadulterated home-made vinaigrette.

I say unadulterated because if you read the labels on store-bought dressings, such as a simple vinaigrette, you'll note that the list of ingredients includes a whole lot more than oil and vinegar!

It's really very easy to make your own vinaigrette, and rather than use kitchen equipment to do so, consider making it directly in the salad bowl.

My mother had a wooden salad bowl which she used especially for making her garlic vinaigrette. Over the years that bowl became infused with the scent of olive oil and garlic and the wood, so well oiled, turned from medium brown to a rich, deep brown.

You'll note in the slide show below, that I coarsely chopped a clove of garlic on a wooden cutting board first. I then added a pinch of salt and chopped the garlic some more, sliding the flat side of the knife back and forth across the garlic to create a paste, and then chopping some more.

Using the knife, I then scooped the garlic paste into my wooden salad bowl.

Garlic Dressed Salad Greens

1) Wash and drain (or run through a salad spinner) a selection of your favorite salad greens. In the pic at top, you'll see that I chose tender young spinach, red lettuce, red beet leaves, iceberg lettuce, and sweet snap-pea greens.
2) On a chopping board, chop a clove of garlic coarsely, as I describe above. Place the garlic paste in a wooden bowl and pour in 2-3 tablespoons of a good quality virgin olive oil, and a tablespoon of good quality balsamic vinegar.
3) With the back of a wooden spoon, work the garlic into the oil and vinegar.
4) Taste test. Given that a pinch or two of salt went over garlic to create the paste, additional salt is probably not necessary, but you might find it needs some ground black pepper, or a splash of lemon juice. You could add a drop of honey or a pinch of sugar which will tone down the tartness of the lemon and or vinegar.
5) Toss in your selection of greens and gently toss with wooden salad utensils.
6) Once tossed, I added some lavender-colored chive flowers and the white flowers from the sugar snap-pea greens.

Edible flowers are such pretty garnishes in a green salad plus they add flavor.

To Serve: Spoon salad onto white plates; the white showcases the color of the salad so beautifully. Make sure some of the edible flowers are visible on top since this adds interest and eye-appeal.

Meatless Monday

2010-06-14T09:54:00.000-07:00

My favorite flatbread at the moment is Ezekiel's sprouted grain tortillas. And this Meatless Monday I used them to create a sensational, vegetarian meal-in-a-sandwich.

I like the sprouted grain flat-bread because it's moist and chewy and full of chunky bits of sprouted grain, literally! Plus, it's not made from processed flour.

Though not gluten-free, the whole grains (including wheat) in the bread are sprouted prior to being made into dough, and it is this process that makes the gluten in the grains more digestible.

So with sprouted flatbread on hand, and lots of tender kale leaves in the garden, and fresh herbs, i.e. parsley, mint, flowering chives, I decided to combine mostly raw ingredients for this meal, bar, what I consider this sandwich's piece d' resistance: warm, caramelized onions.

Follow the slide show below, and the method recipe below that to make:

Herb Cheese, Kale & Caramelized Onion Flatbread

1) Wash and drain a handful of fresh herbs such as parsley, mint and chives, or parsley, basil and chives or parsley, sage and chives.
2) Place patted-dry herbs into a large cup and chop coarsely with kitchen scissors until.
3) Toss chopped herbs into a bowl; add a heaped spoonful of one of, or a combination of, cream cheese, goat cheese ricotta cheese or any soft, white cheese.
4) Peel and chop and chunk of cucumber and add that to the bowl, plus a quarter of a soft avocado.
5) Using a fork, gently mash the ingredients together, maybe add a squeeze of lemon juice, salt and pepper -- test taste to determine whether you want to add the juice and seasoning.
6) Spread the creamy mix onto one side of a piece of flatbread.
7) Now peel and slice an onion, adding it to a pan with a chunk of butter and about a teaspoon of brown sugar.
8) Stir over low heat so that the butter and sugar coat the sliced onion. Put the lid on the pan, and allow the onion to soften -- about 5-7 mins. At the last minute add about a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar; stir it in well. The vinegar will offset the sweetness of the onion while also adding a golden color.
9) Tear several kale leaves into pieces, and place into a bowl. Pour about a tablespoon of your choice of oil over the kale (I used walnut oil)-- just enough to coat the leaves. Add a pinch of salt, and now work the oil and the salt into the kale with your fingers so that the leaves soften. Add a dash of vinegar or lemon juice.

To Serve: Layer the kale over the creamy filling on the flatbread, and then top with lots of caramelized onion. Place a second piece of flatbread on top and then using a sharp knife slice the sandwich in four, placing the triangles decoratively on a serving plate.

You'll note in the pic at top that I added a couple pieces of sliced tomato for color, though you could add sliced bell peppers, chunks of raw carrot or any number of colorful vegetables. For a decorative garnish, and for fun and interest, I used the flowering chive buds, plus some stem.

Poached Chicken with Raw Kale Salad

2010-06-10T12:20:00.001-07:00

One of my friends teased me about the garden-to-table posts appearing on Market to Mouth this month.

I think my days care-taking a property with vegetable garden, fruit trees, chicken and ducks is sounding almost too ideal to some.

Pottering about the garden this morning, taking pictures of kale, beet leaves, and celery; later taking pics in the kitchen of the meal I'd prepared with those vegetables, while in-between working on the computer, I was aware that right now, I'm living my ideal life.

These past two years I've significantly downsized, putting my household effects in storage, renting a small cottage in Chautauqua Park during the winter and house-sitting over the summer.

A simplified life really does have advantages, especially during these uncertain times. Maybe you've noticed, but it does feel as though the only certainty is change these days, and when one's life is uncluttered, it's much easier to ride the waves of change.

And so I'm enjoying my simple life, especially the garden-to-table lifestyle of preparing meals straight from the backyard.

Though today's meal idea does include chicken, in fact, the leftover Maverick Farm chicken breasts from the pack I bought and used in yesterday's Chicken with Chives, Peppers, Artichoke and Avocado.

Where yesterday I did a gentle pan fry with the ingredients on hand, today I poached the chicken on a bed of celery and to go with it, I prepared a raw kale salad. To prepare this meal, follow the slide show and method recipe below.

Poached Chicken with Raw Kale Salad

1) I picked several celery stalks from the garden along with some beet leaves and baby kale leaves. The first slide is celery and the second is red-beet leaves.
2) Find these vegetables and greens at your local farmer's market or Whole Foods market or any natural grocers.
3) Wash, drain and cut the celery into small pieces. Toss into a skillet.
4) Lay chicken breasts atop the chopped celery, and then some parsley atop the chicken, as well as some sliced lemon.
5) Add about a cup of white wine, or a combination of water and the juice of half a lemon to the skillet.
6) Place the lid on the skillet and cook on a low heat for about 15 mins or until the chicken is just done.
7) Using a spatula, remove the chicken breasts from the skillet and place them on a plate.
8) Pour the contents of the skillet, the celery, parsley and liquid, into a blender. Blend until smooth. And then pour the celery sauce through a strainer onto the plate around the chicken (pic at top).
Note: For a richer sauce, add roasted cashew nuts to the blender (they'll turn the sauce quite creamy). Straining the sauce is optional.

Raw Kale Salad
1) Place baby kale leaves into a salad bowl. Pour your choice of either olive, walnut or hazelnut oil over the greens -- just enough oil to coat the leaves.
2) Add a couple pinches of salt. If you have a gourmet salt on hand, like Himalayan or French Sea Salt or Grey Salt, use that. Massage the salt and oil into the leaves with your fingers, this will soften the kale, though baby kale leave are very tender so they don't need a lot of massaging.
3) Add a splash of balsamic vinegar or the juice of half a lemon, and gently work that into the salad.

To Serve: You can either bring the poached chicken breasts to the table on a platter, as in the picture at the top, with the accompanying kale salad in a bowl, or you can slice the breast and spread it around a plate lined with some of the sauce, with a portion of salad to the side.

In the slide show, you'll see that I sliced the breast and topped the pieces with a red-current jelly, though you could use a red-chili jelly or a fruit chutney atop the chicken.

Chicken with Flowering Chives

2010-06-08T13:29:00.001-07:00

I've taken to calling my charges, the eleven egg-laying chickens I'm care-taking, "Girls."

It's surprisingly easy to feel fond of chickens. Each morning when I let the girls out of their coop into the yard (pic below), they gather about me clucking as though I'm their new best friend!

Obviously it's food they're after; not my friendship. But they are in fact quite comfortable in close proximity to me, so long as I don't behave in an aggressive manner.

Tracy, whose property I'm house sitting, told me that because she eats chicken, she thought it important to have the experience of butchering one of her own.

So with the help of a friend, she did just that. I didn't ask details; I didn't want them. Though I do think it's admirable that she butchered one of her own.

We're alienated from the process of growing and butchering meat, pork and poultry for our personal consumption and I don't think that's a good thing.

We'd probably eat a lot less of it if we had to kill the animal or the bird ourselves.

Back in January I posted an entry for a minimal-meat meal idea and linked to Julie Powell's new book, her follow up to the best selling, Julie and Julia.

I did so because her new book, Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession, is both a challenging but eye-opening read about butchering (and other stuff, like the breakdown of her marriage).

Because I pursued further reading on the environmental and health woes of factory farming animals, I'm more conscious of the meat and poultry I buy at the grocery store now, checking it for the Animal Welfare Approved stamp or the Certified Humane stamp.

However, in all honesty, I'm still not having any luck finding chicken labeled with either of those stamps.

I bought Maverick Farm chicken breasts at Vitamin Cottage this past weekend and though the label says "All Natural" labels can be deceiving.

According to the Eat Humane site, in addition to the AWA and Certified Humane labels, "pasture raised" or "USDA Organic" are good options for poultry; "All Natural" doesn't rate a mention.

Eat Humane also rates grocery stores according to how animal-welfare friendly their meat and poultry is. Not surprisingly, Whole Foods ranks highest, though I have found Vitamin Cottage to have a good range of buffalo, pork, and eggs labeled with the Certified Humane Stamp.

If searching for humanely-farmed poultry items at the store leaves you feeling frustrated, and if you have the yard space and the inclination, I came across a great resource, The City Chicken, a colorful site created to inspire budding chicken-keepers to take the plunge!

And despite that I could only find "All Natural"chicken, I did make a rather yummy meal with the breast.

Chicken with Flowering Chives
1) Slice chicken breast into chunks. Toss into a hot skillet lined with olive oil.
2) Into the skillet toss chunks of red and yellow organic bell peppers, and pieces of bottled or tinned artichoke hearts.
4) If you have any spinach or kale or broccoli, you might like to toss in some green stuff too.
5) And If you have an opened bottle of white wine, add half a cup, turn heat down, and then put the lid on the skillet and cook for about 5-7 mins. or until chicken is cooked through.
6) To finish the dish, pour in a couple tablespoons of cream, and stir through to create a creamy white wine sauce. Add seasoning and test taste.
Note: If you don't have wine, use a splash of water and a squeeze of lemon juice. Or simply put the lid on the skillet and turn the hot plate to low, allowing the chicken and veggies to cook in their own juices -- though if you do this, finish the dish with a splash of balsamic vinegar or lemon juice to taste.

To Serve: You might light to serve the chicken over pasta or rice, especially if you have white wine and cream sauce to mop up. On the other hand, you could eat it as is, decorating the edge of the plate with chunks of avocado, and sprinkling the lot with chopped chives or parsley.

To garnish, I added edible chive flowers from the garden; they look so beautiful atop this dish and they're strong garlic-flavor is a delicious accompaniment to any chicken dish.

If you don't have access to flowering chives, you could also garnish this dish with black or green olives or even capers.

Meatless Monday

2010-06-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

There's a funny cartoon on Meatless Monday's homepage: Two hogs are noshing, snout to snout, and one says to the other, "TGIM."

In support of Meatless Monday, at the beginning of each week I post one meal idea that's vegetarian -- though MM promotes one whole day completely meat-free (that's three meals, and snacks).

The goal of this sterling program is to bring to people's awareness both the personal and environmental health benefits of consuming less animal protein: beef, buffalo, pork, chicken, turkey etc. etc.

As one of the "bloggers on board," I look forward to Monday's because it means a creative time in the kitchen coming up with a simple, nutritious, delicious, and budget-friendly vegetarian meal so that you, my readers, can easily recreate it at home without too much fuss.

This Monday, I have additional incentive; I have two French friends coming to an early supper. One of the women has a French cooking summer camp for children, The Language of Food. Because of Marie Pierre's love of food and cooking, it was fun and pleasurable for me to put my best foot forward in the kitchen today.

And with a backyard full of spring greens, plus chicken and duck eggs in the fridge, my vegetarian meal idea was inspired by organic ingredients from the yard.

Follow the slide show below, and my method recipe below that, for steps on how to make ...

Spinach & Cheese, Raisin Bread Terrine

1) Line a small baking tin with buttered foil. You could also use the butter paper, buttery side up -- that's if you save the paper your butter is wrapped in.
2) Place your choice of sliced stale bread pieces over the foil. I used sprouted grain, Ezekiel Raisin Bread. If you don't use raisin bread, you could toss single raisins in over the bread.
3) Wash and wilt a small bunch of spinach, then drain it of any excess water.
4) Take small chunks of the wilted, drained spinach and dot it around the bread, in between the spinach, dot pieces of either goats cheese, cream cheese, or your favorite cheese.
5) Into a blender break 3 large eggs. I used one duck egg, and because I had whites leftover from the egg-yolk mayonnaise I made last week, I added 3 chicken-egg whites to the duck egg.
6) Pour one cup milk or half and half over the eggs (or a nut, grain or soy milk); add salt and pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. Run the blender.
7) Pour half the contents of the blender over the bread, spinach and cheese, and now repeat the process: layer of bread, raisins, spinach, cheese, and then pour the remainder of the egg mixture over the lot.
8) Dot the top of the terrine with dobs of butter and place the baking tin in a 350-degree oven for about 30-40 mins.

To Serve: As you can see in the slide show or the pic at the top, I sliced the terrine into wedges and placed them into large serving bowls. I added a chunk of goat cheese to the side, into which I stuck several walnuts and a piece of parsley. I chopped fresh chives over the terrine and garnished it with edible chive flowers.

For a more substantial meal, slice larger chunks of terrine and serve with a bountiful spring salad.

Grow Your Own

2010-06-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

As you're probably aware, if you've read my posts this past week, I'm house-sitting a property just shy of an acre.

This involves care-taking a large yard with vegetable garden, young fruit trees, and chicken coop with 11 laying hens, 2 laying ducks, and one bossy black gander.

The advantage to my situation is having access to free-range organic eggs and young spring greens, which I've been incorporating into the meals I've been blogging about lately.

The additional benefit is the savings on my food bill. When you grow your own, or have access to a garden, as I do, your grocery bill is substantially less.

I think I spent around $40 at Whole Foods last weekend on fish, poultry and ground buffalo, organic apples, pears, a bunch of organic carrots, a pack of organic baby bell peppers, a loaf of sprouted Ezekiel bread and my favorite snack food, Boulder Canyon potato chips, plus a couple other small items.

It was May last year that I integrated into my posts information I heard Micheal Pollan, the food activist, share on local radio on the topic of eating a mostly plant-based diet, and when possible, plants you've grown.

I''ll reprint here three things he made a point of stressing on air:

1. Most of what we're eating today is not food.
2. Eat food, mostly plants, and not too much.
3. If you invest $60 in growing your own veggie garden, in the first year, you'll reap $200 worth of produce.

Embracing a backyard-to-table lifestyle means I'm most aware of point number three, that is the budgetary advantage to growing your own.

However, lots of people do not have a yard (I don't when I'm not care-taking others'). Yet the absence of one's very own backyard is no longer a barrier to planting, nurturing and harvesting organic vegetables.

For instance, community gardens rent small plots of earth where it's simply a matter of turning up, tilling the soil, planting, tending, watering, and harvesting your own. Check the American Community Gardening Association to locate a community garden in your neighborhood.

Or what about this: consider sharing your green thumb with a local farmer or vegetable gardener in exchange for fresh produce.

If you're in a big city, and thinking there's no way you'd ever have access to growing your own produce, check out the Urban Farming Program. Spear-headed by former singer and songwriter, Taja Sevelle, one of my favorites within the program is Edible Walls, a vertical farming project -- I mean how creative is that, growing produce in planters attached to the sides of buildings!

Maybe you don't have a backyard, but perhaps you do have a bit of front lawn and a flower bed. There's a local movement where I live called Boulder Community Roots which supports the conversion of lawns into vegetable gardens.

And if you live out in California, the latest trend is urban foraging. Maybe you won't get to till the earth, plant, nurture the crop as it grows, but foraging will give you the benefit of collecting surplus harvest from backyards, farms and businesses.

Check out these websites: NeighborhoodFruit and VeggieTrader and FallenFruit and consider implementing a similar program in your community.

Happy harvesting!

Rhubarb with DuckEgg Cornbread

2010-06-03T13:10:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I wrote about the unusual delights of green rhubarb as a savory compote to meats, poultry and fish.

With plenty of rhubarb in the garden, I stewed another batch of the fibrous green vegetable and wondered what I might do with it this time.

This month, in addition to care-taking a large yard with vegetable garden, and a dozen young fruit trees, I'm also feeding, watering and daily collecting eggs from 11 laying hens and 2 laying ducks.

The duck eggs are mounting in the fridge because I haven't eaten them, and the families who drop by to collect eggs prefer the chicken eggs over their richer cousins.

Perhaps you've eaten or cooked with duck eggs and noted that they have a strong flavor, bright orange-yellow yolks that are higher in fat than chicken eggs, and thick protein-rich whites.

We had two, Khaki Campbell ducks in our backyard when I was growing up. My mother loved that they ate the snails and grubs in her garden and she loved to use their eggs primarily for baking, in particular rich and buttery dried-fruit and nut cakes.

So standing in front of the open fridge today, looking at the duck eggs and the stewed rhubarb, it occurred to me that I could bake something with a couple of those eggs -- something that I could have eat with the stewed green rhubarb.

Rhubarb with DuckEgg Cornbread

Watch the slide show above and then follow my method steps to prepare this delicious dessert.

1) Wash two fresh duck eggs of any dirt and debris.
2) Pour 2 cups of cornmeal into a bowl; add 1 cup milk or buttermilk or half and half or whipping cream (depending on how rich you want your cornbread to be).
3) To sweeten the cornbread, I added 1 tablespoon of orange marmalade and 2 tablespoons of raspberry jam. I had open bottles in the fridge and decided the chunky jams would make for subtle, fruit sweeteners.
4) Melt 4 ounces of butter and pour over the above ingredients.
5) Add 1 tablespoon of baking powder to the bowl.
6) Break the duck eggs into the batter and stir well.
7) Line an iron skillet with oiled tin foil and then pour the cornbread batter into the skillet.
8) Put the cornbread into a 450-degree oven for 20 mins or until it's golden brown.

To Serve: Slice pieces of warm cornbread and place in bowls. Top with spoonfuls of stewed rhubarb and a dob of leftover fruit jam, which you might prefer to mix through the stewed rhubarb first. Pour half and half, whipping cream or spoon yogurt, sour cream or ice cream to the side of the cornbread.

Baby Turnip Greens & Lacinato Kale

2010-06-02T12:25:00.000-07:00

While I have access to a veggie garden bursting with a selection of young tender greens, I'm making the most of it, daily preparing meals from the backyard bounty.

A friend commented on yesterday's post asking me if the green rhubarb I'd prepared from the garden tasted different from red rhubarb. My response was that it's a bit sweeter, or shall we say, less tart than the red variety.

You wouldn't expect the green rhubarb to be slightly sweeter than the red variety since it's natural to assume green is unripe and thus tart -- however, that's not the case with rhubarb.

Just as it's a mistake to assume green rhubarb is more tart than red, it's also erroneous to assume that baby turnips are unripe because they're not yet large and bulbous, and that baby kale will be lacking in flavor because the leaves are delicate.

As you'll note in the slide show above, baby turnips are about the size of radishes and their leaves are soft and smallish, as are the leaves of baby, purple lacinato kale.

What I've noticed eating spring greens from the garden, whether lettuce, spinach, kale, turnip greens, or snap pea greens, is that they're all slightly sweet, tender, and less fibrous than mature greens.

This time last week, I posted a dish made by local farmer, chef and bistro owner, Eric Skokan. Titled, Lamb with Baby Turnips and Pea Greens, I described the method Eric used to cook the dish, and then I also had the opportunity to sit down and eat the meal.

Eric had pan sauteed the baby turnips on high until they browned. He then added a handful of turnip greens and wilted them quickly. Applying this rapid cooking method meant the baby turnips were par-cooked, as were the greens.

I decided to cook the tiny turnips, their greens, and the baby lacinato kale I'd picked, longer than a rapid saute, since the toughness of the par-cooked turnips wasn't pleasant.

You can follow my method in the steps below or in the slide show above.

Baby Turnip Greens & Lacinato Kale
1) Wash a handful of baby lacinato kale leaves and the same of turnip greens.
2) Cut the baby turnips from the stalks, leaving maybe an inch of stalk in place. Cut each baby turnip either in half or quarters.
3) Trim the woody stalks from all the leaves. You might even peel the leaves off some of the tougher stalks.
4) Now chop half an onion into chunks, and a red bell pepper or a carrot.
5) Toss the onion, pepper and or carrot into a oil-lined skillet and saute over medium heat.
6) Toss the halved (or quartered) turnips into the skillet and stir.
7) Now add the kale and turnip greens and stir the veggies until the leaves begin to wilt.
8) Add a splash of water (maybe quarter of a cup) and put the lid on the skillet. Cook the vegetables on med to low for about 5-7 mins.
9) Test the turnips for tenderness; cook longer if they need it, and season to taste.

To Serve: At the top is a picture of the platted vegetables without meat. I decorated the edge of the plate with the turnips, and dotted rock salt over the middle pile of greens.

To the left is a version of the dish, with chunks of organic buffalo and rice meatloaf at the edge of the plate. I topped the meat with spoonfuls of a sweet tomato relish since it complimented the slight bitter-sweet flavor of the greens.

Savory Green Rhubarb with Goat Cheese

2010-06-01T09:28:00.000-07:00

A savory, onion scent is wafting through the kitchen as I type. I have green rhubarb on the stove simmering with celery, ginger, apple and onion.

We think of rhubarb, which is available early spring, in conjunction with sweet summer fruits like strawberries. Yet because it is sour, it's well suited as a stewed savory side to meats, poultry and fish.

Prior to today, I'd not eaten rhubarb as a savory dish, but because a green variety of the celery-like vegetable is growing large at the bottom of the garden on the property I'm care-taking this month, I thought, why not!

Why not stew it with complimentary vegetables like celery and onion, plus some ginger and apple -- all of which seemed to me as though they'd be delicious with the tart-tasting stalks.

I was right! The vegetables I chose to stew with the rhubarb stalks created a tart though slightly sweet compote that didn't need seasoning.

However, because the consistency of the compote, after 10 minutes of cooking, was creamy, I felt some additional creaminess in the form of a spoonful of goats cheese, would add just the right note of flavor and texture to finish the stewed vegetables.

If you'd like to try your hand at preparing savory rhubarb, follow the slide show above and my method recipe below.

Savory Green Rhubarb with Goat Cheese
1) Wash a couple stalks of green or red rhubarb. Remove some of the outer fibrous strings, and cut the stalks into pieces.
2) Repeat this process with a couple of celery stalks.
3) Cut half an onion and half an apple into chunks.
4) Slice off a small piece of ginger root, peel, and chop into tiny bits.
5) Put all of the above ingredients into a saucepan with half a cup of water. Simmer on low for about 10 mins or until the vegetables have cooked to a soft, compote consistency.
6) Set aside and allow compote to cool.
7) Add about a tablespoon of either goat cheese or cream cheese or sour cream to the vegetable compote and stir till the cheese or cream has blended in.
8) Taste test. You might find it needs a little zing; if so add some lemon zest or salt and pepper.

To Serve: Spoon a portion of the rhubarb compote into a bowl and top with slices of roasted rosemary chicken, or a fillet of poached fish -- such as the mahi mahi I featured last week.

I topped my sliced, leftover roasted rosemary chicken pieces with toasted walnuts, and to the side, I spooned some tomato chutney (shown in the slide show above). Instead of chutney, you might prefer to add a spoonful of fresh tomato salsa.

Garden-Fresh Lunch

2010-05-28T14:37:00.001-07:00

Market to Mouth's theme this week has been meals made from just-picked garden-fresh produce.

On Monday, I featured spaghetti squash infused with chervil, served with sides of wild arugula and yellow rapini flowers, and leeks poached with pear.

I bought the produce for the Meatless Monday dish from the farmer's market stand of Eric Skokan, farmer, chef, and bistro owner.

Wednesday, I observed Eric at the Black Cat Farm Table Bistro preparing Lamb with Baby Turnips and Pea Greens using produce from his organic farm. This was a dish he intended including on that evening's daily-changing menu.

Yesterday, I prepared a lunch for myself and two friends with just-picked salad greens (pics above) and we ate lunch (pics below) under the shade of a beautiful maple tree in the backyard of a home I'll be care-taking for the next month.

Tracy, the home owner, is a member of the group, Boulder Culinary Gardeners, as is chef, Eric Skokan. BCG members are an egalitarian lot, sharing their wisdom with other local farmers and gardeners striving for organic, healthy and sustainable gardens.

I don't have a garden, but I love the opportunity to care for the gardens of others, especially when I can pick, prepare and eat directly from their backyards!

This summer, for the second summer in a row, I have the good fortune of caring for the properties, vegetable gardens, and egg-laying hens of two BCG members -- Tracy and Barbara.

Follow this link to see posts featuring Barbara's urban farm, where I was last August, watering, picking, cooking and eating extraordinary produce and fresh eggs, and where I'll be again this August.

But back to yesterday -- as you can see in the top pictures, Tracy has a wonderful selection of lettuces in her garden.

For lunch, I picked wild arugula, spinach, Bordeaux spinach, butter lettuce, purple-leafed lettuce, and chives with flower blossoms intact.

All the leaves were young and delicate and so I simply washed them, putting them through the salad spinner, and then I served them plain on a platter with a few of the yellow rapini flowers leftover from the bag of greens I bought last weekend at Eric's Black Cat Farm stand.

Simplicity is the key when you have access to tender, baby salad greens.

I served the platter with sides of oils, vinegar, and lime wedges. (On hand, I had olive and walnut oil, though hazelnut and avocado oil would be suitable accompaniments too.) That way my guests could choose whether they wanted to add additional flavor to their salad greens.

With the platter of garden-fresh salad greens, I also served a variation on traditional Waldorf Salad using ingredients I had on hand:

half a chicken breast,
some celery,
bottled artichoke hearts in olive oil,
apple,
walnuts,
chives,
and I bound the salad with a dob of sour cream and lemon juice.

The other platter is something I made up, again with ingredients on hand. I poached a fillet of mahi mahi on a bed of leeks and celery and some leftover chervil from my purchase last weekend at Eric's farm stand.

Poaching the fish in a pan (lid on) with half a cup of water and the juice of one lemon, meant it was infused with the delicate anise-flavor of the chervil, and the leeks and celery.

With the heat on low, the fish cooked in less than 10 mins, after which I let it sit to cool (lid off). Meanwhile I prepared an avocado, oil mayonnaise:

Avocado Mayonnaise

3 eggs yolks
1 and half cups of grapeseed oil or a mix of grapeseed and olive oil
one clove garlic
half an avocado
juice of half a lemon and or a splash of balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

In a blender, whiz the yolks, garlic, lemon and or vinegar, salt and pepper. Very slowly, drizzle in the oil, bit by bit, so that the yolks and oil emulsify or thicken.

The key is patience when making oil mayonnaise. It's too easy to pour the oil quickly,which can cause the mayonnaise to break or fail to thicken.

Finally, add the avocado, and then a splash of water -- this will give the mayonnaise pouring consistency.

As you can see in the pic above, I served the sliced mahi mahi on a platter with the poached vegetables under the fish. I then poured the avocado mayonnaise over the fish, topping it with the lavender-colored chive blossoms, and lastly, I decorated the edge of the plate with red and green Bordeaux spinach leaves.

The two friends, who shared the above lunch with me, were happy to volunteer that it was a sumptuous but simple feast!

If you're hankering for something other than a barbecue this long weekend, try your hand at the above outdoor-lunch menu. If you don't have a veggie garden, it might mean shopping at your local farmer's market for interesting, just-picked salad greens, but the end result is definitely worth it.

Organic Lamb with Baby Turnips & Pea Greens

2010-05-26T08:35:00.000-07:00

Last Monday I mentioned that I'd be at Black Cat Farm Table Bistro hosting an upcoming episode of the Culinary Gardening series.

With camera gear crammed into his kitchen, we filmed Eric Skokan, the farm and bistro owner, preparing a dish from his daily-changing menu, one that featured vegetables and greens he'd harvested from the farm that day.

I also took pictures, in between asking lots of questions. I began by asking where the lamb for the dish came from. You see, Eric is now grazing lambs for his bistro on his farm.

However, the lamb he used for this dish came from another local organic farmer.

The cut he used for the meal is steaks from the lamb leg. He prepared them by browning the steaks on one side in a small skillet lined with oil, and sealing the other side before popping the skillet into a medium oven for about 15 minutes (rare to medium-rare).

I was a bit dubious about cooking lamb steaks like this, since in Australia we might use the eye fillet or the eye of the loin (like a beef tenderloin) for the cooking method Eric employed.

To accompany the lamb, Eric prepared just-picked baby turnips, with green tops intact, and sugar snap-pea greens with flowers still intact.

Using grapeseed oil for sauteing -- it can withstand high heat and is mild in flavor -- he added half a teaspoon of chopped garlic to the pan, and some peeled and cubed potato.

While the potato cooked, he chopped the leafy tops from the tiny turnip bulbs, leaving an inch of sweet stems in place.

When sauteed, the turnip stems release their sugars and brown up beautifully, as do the bulbs (pic below).

As the cubed potato browned, he tossed in a handful of the snap-pea greens and a pinch of kosher salt. Some of the raw pea greens were kept in reserve to garnish the plate (pic above).

Eric uses either kosher salt in his cooking or sometimes sel gris or grey salt, an unrefined, moist sea salt that's harvested from the Brittany region of France's Atlantic coast.

It's considered a gourmet salt and has a price tag to match, but it's a treat, so consider having it on hand for special-occasion cooking.

Into a second saute pan, he added a handful of turnip leaves to the browning bulbs (pic below) along with another pinch of kosher salt, plus a few shreds of grated lemon rind.

He squeezed the juice from half a lemon over both the pans of sauteing veggies because, just as I've mentioned many times in posts on Market to Mouth, lemon zest and or lemon juice enhances the natural flavor of fresh produce.

The zing factor of lemon also cuts through oil and fat, which will dominate a dish without the addition of citrus or the tart kick of a splash of vinegar.

Pulling the lamb leg steaks from the oven, Eric let them sit for about 10 minutes. This allows for the juices, which have settled during cooking in the rarest area, to radiate throughout the steaks.

Before platting the lamb, he spooned some lamb au jus, a lamb stock reduction, to which he'd added mustard, onto the plate. The thinly sliced lamb went over the sauce, and then Eric loosely scattered the browned turnips and potatoes and the greens around the meat, garnishing the dish with spindly, raw pea greens and white pea flowers.

To add piquancy, he topped the lot with additional shreds of lemon rind, which would register on the palate as a sharp, fresh bite.

When I asked whether he might swap out the lemon for orange zest and or juice, Eric responded that orange is a more distinct flavor and he therefore uses it with warmer, pungent spices.

He had me taste another au jus on the stove, one that was infused with cardamom pods, proposing that this was a sauce more suited to the addition of orange due to its pungent, aromatic quality -- I agreed.

As you can see in the pic at the top, the "scatter" presentation technique showcases the beauty of the individual vegetables --I especially love the effect of the raw pea greens framing the plate.

Eric's presentation style is a trick I'll employ; after all, why wouldn't you want to show off farm-fresh, simply prepared vegetables in such a tantalizing, au naturel fashion.

Oh, and the lamb steaks, they were incredibly tender!

Meatless Monday

2010-05-24T08:43:00.001-07:00

Last week I uploaded episodes 1 and 2 in the Culinary Gardening series I'm hosting.

Filmed in collaboration with Boulder Valley Channel 22 and Eric Skokan, the owner of Black Cat Farm, this past Saturday I visited the Black Cat's stand at our local farmer's market.

I wanted to purchase some of the delicate greens Eric talks about in episode two and prepare them for a Meatless Monday meal.

That's Eric in the pic below, at the farm's market stand, bagging handfuls of arugula.

I bought some of his wild arugula, which is in the tub next to the one Eric is handling.

The wild variety has a peppery kick, whereas the broad-leaf arugula is slightly nutty and mild in flavor.

In addition to wild arugula, I chose chervil, for its anise flavor, Bordeaux spinach, a hybrid red spinach, Tatsoi, a varietal of Chinese cabbage, and rapini flowers -- they're the delicate yellow flowers arranged at the edge of the plate in the pic above.

Without a doubt, Eric had the most unusual varieties of greens at the market.

In past years, I've visited a Hmong family's stand especially for their unusual Asian greens; however, Eric's greens are now surpassing their selection in interest and flavor.

I paid $5 for just over a pound of green, red, and yellow spring leafy-greens and flowers and once home, I washed and drained my purchases, allowing them to dry before I stored them in paper-towel lined Tupperware bowls.

Because the flavors of each of my purchases is distinct, for today's meatless Monday dish, I chose to use the wild arugula for its peppery wow-factor, the rapini flowers for their beauty as a garnish, and the chervil to add anise flavor to bland, spaghetti squash.

I chose not to cook the greens at this meal, knowing that cooking would compromise their flavor, texture and color. Instead, I simply stirred chopped chervil into the cooked spaghetti squash, and used the arugula and rapini flowers as a side garnish to the squash.

Because spaghetti squash and chervil are subtle flavors, as an additional side, I poached leeks and pear, an equally subtle and delicate combination, and one that I knew would compliment, rather than compete with the center vegetable.

Chervil Spaghetti Squash with Poached Leek & Pears & Wild Arugula
1) Cut a spaghetti squash into pieces. Gently simmer for about 20 mins or until the flesh begins to come away from the skin in spaghetti-like strands.
2) Using a fork, scrape the squash from the skin into a pan. Top with some grated Romano or Parmesan, and a dob of butter. Gently heat, stirring until the cheese melts.
3) Meanwhile, slice and wash of grit, half a leek. Wash and chop a pear, one of the hard-flesh varieties. Pop the leeks and the pear into a saucepan with a little water and gently simmer with the lid on for about 10 mins.
4) Roughly chop a handful of fresh chervil and stir into the spaghetti squash. Season to taste.

To Serve: Spoon a portion of the spaghetti squash into a large bowl. Garnish with a sprig of chervil. To the side, add a spoonful of poached leek and pears. To the other side, line the squash with arugula topped with rapini flowers, drizzle with an oil such as avocado, almond or walnut oil, and squeeze some fresh lemon juice over the raw greens.

Tomorrow, I'll be at Eric's, Black Cat Farm Table Bistro hosting the culinary gardening series from his kitchen, while he prepares several dishes with some of his spring harvest.

This week I'll blog about those dishes, and the tips and tricks Eric employs as Boulder's only authentic, organic farm-to-table chef.

Black Cat Organic Farm Episode 2

2010-05-19T08:24:00.000-07:00

Culinary Gardens - Black Cat Organic Farms - Part 2 from BVMA on Vimeo.

Yesterday, I featured Episode 1 of the Culinary Gardening series produced in conjunction with Boulder Valley Media Alliance (Channel 22), and Eric Skokan, the owner of Black Cat Farm and Black Cat Farm Table Bistro.

Today, Episode 2 is available for viewing (above).

Filmed again on Black Cat Farm, we followed Eric into his root cellar, a dugout with stairs leading 6 feet down into a small, damp room that maintains a temperature of around 40-degrees Fahrenheit.

The dug out, which reminded me of a very snug wine cellar, is a recent addition to the farm. Built in the fall of 2009, it has yet to stand the test of a hot, dry Colorado summer.

It did do its job over a very long and cold winter, successfully storing and maintaining around 10,000 pounds of vegetables!

Most of the veggies stored appeared on the Black Cat Bistro's fall and winter menus, but at the time of filming, about 600 pounds of root vegetables were still in the
cellar.

As you can see in the pic to left, and in the video above, tubs of gnarly parsnips line the side of the cellar, as do turnips, and parsley root, a conical-shaped veggie that tastes like carrot and has a green-leaf top like flat-leaf parsley.

Eric cooks and purees parsley root, using it as a bed for meat dishes, with the green tips as a parsley salad accompaniment.

Next to the root cellar is a hoop-house, a temporary hot-house that can be moved. Should there be an infestation of disease, on an organic farm like Black Cat, the structure can be relocated, leaving the disease behind.

Starting afresh on a clean patch of earth means chemicals are not necessary, the use of which would render the growing process of hot-house vegetables non-organic. A temporary hoop- house, versus a fixed, greenhouse structure, is one of the conscious choices Eric makes as an organic, farm to table chef.

Unlike the damp, near-freezing temperature of the cellar, the hoop-house was steamy warm and filled with the gentle aroma of moist dirt, and in that dirt there were lots of veggies starters and more young salad greens.

Eric's intention with the farm is to make sure his bistro menu showcases the myriad of produce grown on the farm, with a fun selection of seasonal vegetables appearing on plate as cooked, pureed, and or roasted in combination with raw, crunchy, leafy salads -- something I tried to achieve with my last Meatless Monday post.

Because the Black Cat Bistro menu is truly seasonal, the challenge on the Farm is to plant variety so that say, carrots aren't the signature vegetable over winter, and red lettuce isn't the summer salad ingredient.

To counteract the potential for a repetitious menu, Eric grows around 200 varieties of vegetables and fruits on 10 acres! And one of his personal favorites is asparagus.

We end Episode 2 up close and personal with several spears just starting to appear above ground. Eric shared details of a dish he intends preparing with asparagus and local morel mushrooms.

Episode 3, which I'll upload in the next few weeks, begins with a discussion over the now fully-grown asparagus and a sampling of both green and white varietals. I was absolutely blown away by the tenderness and sweetness of the raw spears, but more on that in episode 3!

Black Cat Organic Farm

2010-05-18T14:15:00.000-07:00

Culinary Gardens, Black Cat Organic Farms Part 1 from BVMA on Vimeo.

About a month ago, I began working on a Culinary Gardening video series in collaboration with Boulder Valley Media Alliance (Channel 22) and local chef, Eric Skokan, the owner of Black Cat Farm Table Bistro.

Eric's situation is unique: he owns and operates a neighborhood-style bistro, he grows much of the organic produce for his bistro on Black Cat Farm (10 acres he leases from the county), plus, he sells his produce at Boulder Farmer's Market.

Just one of these ventures is enough to keep the average person extremely busy, which Eric is, however despite this, he also considers himself extremely lucky because he has a life where he's able to immerse himself in his passions: cooking and gardening.

We began shooting the series on Black Cat Farm at the end of March, in between several sizable spring snow storms.

At that time, farm interns were harvesting winter produce that had been planted the previous June. Varietals grown from seeds that Eric sources via Boulder Culinary Gardener's seed exchange program, and from FEDCO, a seed coop in Maine, and that are suited to Colorado's climate.

The soft-leafed greens that interns were harvesting for the Bistro's daily-changing spring menu had not only survived Colorado's winter, they had, to my surprise, thrived under an insulating blanket of snow!

I had the chance to nibble on some winter spinach, hazelnut-like mache (also known as lamb's lettuce), anise-tasting chervil, parsley root leaves, and turnip greens.

We'll be observing Eric in the kitchen preparing these greens as accompaniments to several Black Cat Bistro signature dishes in future episodes!

Working in the kitchen with amazing organic produce pulled from the earth within hours of being prepared and eaten is the reason, I gathered, that Eric dedicates himself to operating an authentic, farm to table restaurant.

Do check back this week for more; I'll be uploading the second episode in the series, which includes footage of Eric's amazing root cellar, a dug out in the ground next to his hoop-house--a temporary hot-house--plus some footage and discussion on growing asparagus.

Meanwhile, learn more about Eric, the Black Cat Farm, and the bistro, by watching the 9-minute video above. Enjoy!

Meatless Monday

2010-05-17T07:03:00.001-07:00

Food is like fashion: trends come and go.

One of the trends that has been around awhile is the penchant for stylish restaurants to serve par-cooked vegetables.

Now some vegetables are suited to being served and eaten hot and partially raw, like radishes, which we often think of as a cold, salad veggie.

For the meatless dish (above), I char-grilled Easter egg radishes so that they were piping hot on the outside, but still crunchy and firm and not as hot on the inside.

Asparagus is another vegetable that does not need to be boiled till it's limp and tasteless.

You may recall the dish I posted last Meatless Monday: Grilled Asparagus atop Fried Bread with Tomato Salad.

My preference these days is to grill asparagus spears in a skillet, just as I grilled the radishes. This cooking technique ensures the color of the vegetable isn't compromised, the flavor remains intact, as does firmness, texture and crunch.

One vegetable that does not lend itself to the par-cooked method is eggplant.

Much to my chagrin, I was served trendy, almost raw eggplant as an appetizer at an Italian restaurant late last week. Given that it's fairly neutral in flavor with a sponge-like texture, eating par-cooked eggplant is akin to eating a dirty kitchen sponge -- not nice!

Eggplant needs to be cooked well in order for it to be palatable and in order that the naturally occurring toxin solamine (or solanine), present in high quantities in eggplant and the other nightshade, potato, is destroyed.

If you're a raw foodist, it really is important to understand that cooking certain foods was a crucial step in human evolution; cooking eliminates the danger of ingesting naturally occurring toxins and it makes some foods easier to digest.

Solamine won't kill you, but like any toxin, it's not something you want to consume often. So cook your potatoes and eggplant!

Today's Meatless Monday meal is a combination of cooked, par-cooked and raw, which made for an unusual and interesting combination of the following:

hot, soft food(polenta)
hot, crunchy food (radishes), and
cold, crunchy food (sprouted beans).

Squash Polenta with Grilled Radishes and Sprouted Beans
1) Into a pot pour a cup of polenta and 3 cups of water. Bring to the boil.
2) Peel, core and chop a small acorn squash into chunks.
3) Add squash to polenta and once the pot is boiling, turn heat to low. Stir contents often.
4) Cook polenta and squash for about 30 mins. At the 20-min mark, add half a cup of your favorite firm cheese. Continue stirring until the cheese melts, the squash is soft and the polenta mix solid but not too solid. Taste test for seasoning, add salt and pepper to your liking.
Note: If you prefer your polenta soft, add more liquid, i.e. water, stock or even half and half if you want to enrich the flavor.
5) Set cooked polenta aside, now wash a bunch of radishes, either plain radishes or the colorful Easter egg radishes I used, and then cut the radishes in half lengthwise.
6) Heat a skillet lined with a spoonful of olive oil, drop the radishes into the skillet and stir them about on high until the skins are charred and hot, and the insides are still firm.

To Serve: Spoon a portion of steaming hot polenta onto a plate, decorate the edges with the char-grilled radishes and top the lot with a sprinkling of raw, sprouted beans, lentils and peas.

You can sprout your own bean / lentil mix (follow this link and watch a New Zealand couple with heavy accents show you how to sprout at home).

Or you can buy sprouts at your local organic market or farmer's market. I bought a small pack at Whole Foods Market for about $3.

"Sprouting" is soaking a seed until it germinates. Rich in protein, vitamins and minerals and live enzymes, sprouts are an easy-to-digest raw food, they're also delicious, with an almost peppery flavor, and they're crunchy.

Sprouts are the perfect accompaniment to spring salads, and hot dishes in need of texture, color, added flavor and crunch.

Food Revolution Friday

2010-05-14T07:10:00.000-07:00

A number of weeks ago, an email titled "Food Revolution Friday" was sent out to Jamie Oliver fans.

From Meatless Monday to Food Revolution Friday -- it's catchy, it's fun!

And these campaigns are great educational vehicles for anyone who is interested in learning how to feed themselves, and their family, a healthier diet.

Given that it's Friday, I thought it fitting to introduce readers to, if you don't already know about it, Jamie's Food Revolution Community Page on Facebook.

There you can get the latest news from Jamie, participate in a community of like-minded people, and share your thoughts on the "revolution."

Today, my contribution to the revolution is several quick-to-prepare, healthy, family-and budget-friendly meal ideas.

Friday evenings are the one night of the week when it's very tempting to heat up a frozen pizza or some other pre-packaged meal high in sodium, sugar and saturated fat.

Yet, if you have any corn or wheat tortillas on hand, either large or small, it's just as easy to put together your own yummy pizza.

And what's more, this is the kind of meal that kids love to help prepare because the steps are simple, they get to use their fingers, and they can pick the toppings they want, and then taste-test as they put the pizzas altogether!

The pic at the very top is a fish tostado and just above, shrimp tostado.

My recipe can be altered to suit the ingredients you have on hand. Follow the link and see for yourself how easy it is to put these together with minimal ingredients and minimal energy.

To the left, is my version of a mini corn tortilla pizza. The recipe is here.

Remember, you can make the mini corn tortilla variety, or you can use large wheat or rice-flour tortillas.

I've included anchovies, but leave these off if you don't have them or if, in your household, they're not a kid-friendly food.

Experiment with the recipes, improvise, and you'll be delighted with how easy and fun it is to make your own healthy pizzas over heating up the frozen, supermarket variety.

Where was Your Chicken Grown

2010-05-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

If seeing chickens raised in confined, inhumane conditions on an industrial farm disturbs you, then why would you choose to eat those chickens?

I posted that question on Facebook after watching an interview with Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Righteous Porkchop and advocate of animal welfare agriculture.

Toward the later part of the middle of the interview, Nicolette makes a comment along lines of ...

Source your food from places you'd be wiling to visit. If you wouldn't want to go there, you shouldn't be eating food raised there.

If you eat animal protein, as I do, Nicolette's challenge is very confronting.

I tend to avoid visual material that documents the inhumane treatment of animals on factory or industrialized farms, and for sure, I wouldn't visit a factory farm; I simply cannot tolerate seeing animals suffer. But I do choose to eat animal protein.

Chicken is a staple in my diet. I eat it at least once or twice a week. It's a tasty light meat, which lends itself to being prepared in a myriad of ways and it's budget-friendly.

This past summer I house sat a small urban farm where owners Barb and Morris raise chickens for their eggs. That's Barb above, holding one of her baby chicks (also to left).

The chicks pictured here, are now full-grown, egg-producing hens.

During the day, the chickens roam free, scratching for feed in their quarter-acre yard, pecking at kitchen scraps, and flapping about in dust baths.

At night, they go into their enclosure, where they snooze and roost on railings.

Barb's free-range chickens live, as Nicolette would say, "a life that respects their fundamental nature."

And when given that opportunity, Nicolette also says those animals tend to be healthy, which means this system of farming, doesn't require all kinds of chemical imputs, and it therefore produces healthier food.

These days, I buy eggs that are labeled Certified Humane which means the eggs come from hens raised according to stringent Animal Care Standards.

Increasingly, many of my friends are bypassing the store --and labels-- and going to the source, buying their eggs direct from urban, backyard farmers, like Barb, whose eggs are no more expensive and they're the real deal: eggs from free-range, happy, healthy hens!

Sourcing humanely-farmed chicken has been a little more challenging. I look for either the Certified Humane stamp or the AWA label.

Food labeling is a minefield of misinformation and confusion, so familiarize yourself with the real meaning behind the labels on chicken and egg cartons at your local market.

I'm eating less chicken and meat these days both for budget and health, as well as for ethical and environmental reasons.

(Nicolette does a great job of explaining how and why factory farm manure is an environmental hazard. Fast forward to the 4 min and 37 second segment of her interview.)

But when I do choose to eat humanely-farmed chicken, I thoroughly enjoy it. Here are just a few of the simple and delicious chicken dishes I've posted on this blog:

What's in Your Food

2010-05-11T08:41:00.000-07:00

Do you ever wonder what's in your food?

You know, as in preservatives, synthetic flavoring and dyes, pesticides, herbicides, hormones, antibiotics ... the list goes on.

Read the labeling on any packaged food carefully; it's often horrifying to note the number of chemical acronyms masquerading as food.

You may recall the post I wrote a couple of weeks ago about the bright orange yolks in the eggs that I ate in Australia. The enhanced color is the result of an additive, a synthetic carotenoid.

For health and health safety, food consumers (that's everyone!) need to demand that all food labeling be transparent so that we can make conscious choices about what we feed our brain and bodies.

I went to an event last night and there was a buffet of deli sandwiches, deli-meat pinwheels, crudites and cut fruit, popcorn, brownies and Rice Krispy treats, bottles of pop, and lots of plastic: cups, plates, knifes & forks, and all the food was on plastic platters.

With every bite of my plastic-tasting deli meat and cheese sandwich, deli-meat pin wheel, and fruit pieces, I honestly wondered what I was ingesting.

If you google "What's in our food" there are copious links to articles and blogs containing a lot of disturbing information, I mean overwhelmingly disturbing to the degree that it's hard not to feel as though, as a friend of mine once said, food is dangerous!

And then there's the recent New York Times article about President's Cancer Panel releasing a 200-page report declaring the health dangers of chemicals in our food and environment and the consideration that citizens should give organic food over non-organic food.

A number of years ago a school friend of mine died from non-hodgkin's lymphoma, a cancer that originates in the lymph system. Toward the end of her life we talked about "why," what could have caused her to be dying at 43 with no family history of cancer, having enjoyed a full and fun life in a beautiful environment in rural Australia?

Judy reflected that as a kid she rode her bike to school alongside the state's biggest, industrial fruit orchards, through mists of chemical spray.

She wondered if the regular, direct contact with herbicides and pesticides, and then eating the fruit sprayed with those chemicals, caused her cancer.

I have no doubt it did.

With her treatment options exhausted, Judy turned to an organic diet and meditation, but it was too late.

Food can be scary, but living in fear of eating is just as dangerous to one's health.

The alternative: be a conscious consumer!

Think about what you're buying at the grocery store, read labels, say no to packaged, bottled, frozen and processed foods containing acronyms masquerading as food.

Be tireless in your pursuit of clean, organic, real food and humanely-farmed meat, poultry and dairy, and sustainably-fished seafood.

Meatless Monday

2010-05-10T08:03:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I opened a wrapped pack of 2 chicken quarters I'd purchased only to discover that the meat was off.

I'd bought the chicken at a small Whole Foods in Boulder. The store is closing soon and I wondered if that had anything to do with the meat-counter associate's carelessness.

Selling meat with a high stench factor is an enormous liability.

I simply cannot understand how the chicken pieces passed within range of the associate's olfactory sense without him realizing that the chicken belonged in the trash and not in a customer's grocery cart.

Needless to say I returned the meat to the same store. But I was so put off by having been sold it in the first place, rather than exchange it for more meat, since none of the meat or fish looked
fresh, I asked for my money back.

There is no better deterrent to eating meat than being around bad meat!

That said, I had my meatless Monday meal, last night, Sunday. The vigorous color and freshness of the vegetables in the meal above were a delicious alternative to my proposed chicken dinner.

Grilled Asparagus atop Fried Bread with Tomato Salad

1) Place several pieces of bread onto a baking tray and drizzle with olive oil.
2) Bake in the oven until the bread is golden. Or you can fry the bread in a pan on top of the stove.
3) Snap off woody bottom part of asparagus spears, wash, and then toss them into a heated skillet lined with olive oil.
4) Shake the skillet about so that the asparagus char grills evenly.
5) Meanwhile top fried bread with lashings of garlic-infused chic-pea hummus, then lay asparagus across the hummus toast.
Note: Or you could spread the bread with an easy variation on Welsh Rarebit: to grated cheese add seeded mustard, S&P, cayenne pepper, bind with an egg yolk, spoon atop bread and bake in the oven till golden.
6) Sprinkle hummus fried bread with your favorite cheese and some chopped green onion.
7) Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, season with salt and pepper.

To Serve: You can either serve this dish plain (pic to left) or with a tomato salad, as in the pic above.

For the salad, I simply chopped a large fresh tomato and added green olive chunks, and a dressing of squashed capers, olive oil and lemon juice.

Slow Food

2010-05-07T08:36:00.000-07:00

While on Phillip Island, Australia, I had several meals out, one in particular was a very long Sunday lunch.

A leisurely three-hour meal might seem like a drawn out affair, but the view through dappled light out the second story restaurant, over the esplanade and across the bay was delightful, as was the opportunity to sit and relax and eat in an unhurried fashion while in good company.

At the two-hour mark, I did start to feel a bit restless; we'd had dessert and were waiting for coffee, which in Australia does not come with dessert, but after, as the grand finale and digestif to a meal.

And then there's the check, which does not come quickly, and sometimes not at all, well, not until you ask for it.

During my young adult years, living in Melbourne, long weekend lunches or lengthier dinners, never made me restless because that was, and is, how we choose to dine (sometimes) in my home country. In other words it's a cultural norm.

Whereas in Colorado, my adopted home, we don't sit long over a meal, particularly not when eating out where food is ordered, arrives promptly, is eaten rapidly, and often the check is delivered with dessert and coffee with the unspoken message to eat and beat it.

With that acculturation, it's no wonder I felt restless two hours into Sunday lunch; I'm no longer used to the practice of lingering over a meal without feeling pressured to move quickly on to the next thing.

Once upon a time, I understood the Australian preference for a drawn-out lunch or dinner as the definition of slow food; however, the slow food movement is so much more than a lingering meal.

The mission of Slow Food International states that "Slow Food works to defend biodiversity in our food supply, spread taste education and connect producers of excellent foods with co-producers through events and initiatives." And that slow food is "good, clean and fair food."

The intention of slow food international is to counteract the harmful health, environmental and social effects of fast food, defined as food sold in a store or restaurant with pre-cooked or pre-heated ingredients and served in a packaged form.

With an emphasis on the food cycle: where it comes from, how it's grown and who makes it, Slow Food fosters the joy and sensuality of eating real, unprocessed food.

Perhaps the pace of a lingering Australian meal is more demonstrative of the Slow Movement which "aims to address the issue of time poverty through making connections."

The culture of "eat it and beat it" is an illustration of time poverty and one that is definitely not conducive to connecting, not to the food, one's meal companions as in friends and family, or to the larger community.

Slowing down, lingering and conversing, whether over a meal or just a tea / coffee break is conducive to building relationship, and it's an opportunity to enjoy life's simple pleasures.

An outgrowth of Slow Food and Slow Movement is Cittaslow, Italian for Slow City, municipalities that are committed to improving their quality of life via a number of criteria:

a population of under 50,000
environmental protection and sustainability
local products
hospitality
infrastructure, road safety, bicycle paths
historic buildings
new technology
cultural and historical values and diversity
unique town identity

There is only one city is the U.S. which has the designation of Cittaslow and that is Sonoma Valley, CA. Sonama Valley chose to be Cittaslow "by claiming its own values instead of being another look-alike city with the same fast food, the same local craft products, and the same menus."

I've never been to Sonama Valley, so I'm wondering if along with their slow city status, they've managed to adopt a culture of the slow, lingering meal or if despite meeting the above criteria, they still eat it and beat it.

With the season of outdoor eating almost upon us, I'm going to make a commitment to invite some friends over for a backyard lunch in the garden, under the trees, at a long trestle table, French-country style!

And I'm going to see if we can linger over our lunch for an extended period, enjoying the spiritual, sensual pleasure inherent in a slow meal that encourages communion, without feeling anxious by the illusion that the day is wasted if we don't move quickly on to the next thing.

Smart Snacking

2010-05-04T00:19:00.001-07:00

Today I left Phillip Island for Melbourne airport en route back to my adopted home of Boulder, CO.

But not before one last sweet with a frothy cappuccino at a local cafe.

Over the last couple of weeks I've been indulging in sweet snacks by way of coping with the emotional challenges inherent in this trip to a quiet, rural Australian island.

I wouldn't recommend using food as an emotional coping strategy, it's one of the primary contributors to weight gain and the slew of subsequent health issues that accompany carrying extra pounds.

Yet I've been doing it; even on tiny Phillip Island there is an active cafe culture where desserts and cookies like those above and left are beautifully displayed, and for a self-professed sweet tooth, they're oh so hard to resist.

So I didn't resist!

I book-ended my light lunches and nutritionally balanced dinners with one or two daily treats along lines of baklava, chocolate Tim Tams, plain croissant with jam, chocolate croissant, banana bread, apricot slice with cream cheese frosting, and cookies.

The fact is, sometimes we do seek comfort in food, especially sweet and salt snacks. With that reality check, here's another: I think there's a way to be smart about snacking.

In Boulder, I keep a mix of raw nuts, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries, raisins and coconut date rolls in my cupboard. I buy them in the bulk aisle at Whole Foods, and once home, I mix them together to create my own trail mix.

I also tend to reach for salty snacks like plain corn chips, potato chips or rice crackers dipping them in tapenade or thick pesto or homemade guacamole or salsa.

Yet what I know about my salty snacks (versus the sweets I've been eating) is that I'm swapping out sugar for sodium, and butter for vegetable oils which we tend to over consume, because if you read the labels of processed foods, you'll find that they usually contain one or two.

Vegetable oils like sunflower and safflower are rich in Omega 6 fatty acids and today, snack and processed foods tend to be our main source. Whereas Omega 3 and 9 are found in whole, unprocessed foods like deep-sea fish, flax seeds, walnuts, avocado, seaweeds and green algae.

Healthy smart snacking begins with cutting down on our over-consumption of Omega 6 oils, and it feels as though I've done that while in Australia, after all I haven't eaten chips and crackers, though chances are the store and cafe bought sweets were made with vegetable oils!

A more nutritious alternative to the rapidly digested carbs and empty calories in cake, pastries, cookies, and chips is a combination of slowly digested carbohydrates as well as protein. For example:

whole grain crackers with nut butter, avocado, soft white cheese or boiled egg
oatmeal or whole grain nut and seed bars (read labels carefully if store bought)
homemade trail mix (pre-packaged varieties often contain fried & salted nuts and extra sugar)
yogurt (the dessert in the middle of the pic at top is, believe it or not, is low fat yogurt and fruit)
some protein drinks (read labels for added sugar and sodium and acronyms masquerading as food)

Controlled portions of smart snacks such as those just listed contain Omega 3 unsaturated fats, protein, minimal simple sugars and thus slowly digested carbohydrates, plus vitamins and minerals.

Upon my return to Boulder, it'll be back to controlled snacking of the healthy variety, but I confess, I'm having afternoon tea with an Australian couple next weekend and I'll be making YoYos to go with the tea--they're the shortbread cookies sandwiched with butter cream in the pic above. Here's the recipe!

Meatless Monday

2010-05-02T23:22:00.000-07:00

I happened upon a Nigella Lawson cooking show on the TV this weekend.

The British Domestic Goddess has a thing for comfort foods, in particular eggs, cream, butter and cheese.

Nothing wrong with a dash of dairy, it adds richness and flavor to just about any dish and if you're going without meat for a day, eggs and cheese can be a great protein alternative.

In fact, last Meatless Monday I linked to my recipe for custard-based Caramelized Onion Quiche.

However, Nigella's cooking tends to involve more than a dash of dairy.

I watched her as she made her favorite "comfort meals for one," including puree of peas with heavy cream as a side to baked lamb shank; spaghetti cabonara with pancetta, eggs, heavy cream, Vermouth, and Parmesan; a skillet meal of potatoes, bacon, and eggs beaten with heavy cream all tossed together till the eggs set and the cheese melted.

Oh, and the dessert: pots of chocolate with, you guessed it, chocolate, eggs and more heavy cream.

Actually, I think the chocolate pots came after the cabonara and before Nigella announced that she often treats herself to a comfort meal out if she's on her own -- the scene segued to the domestic goddess sitting outdoors at a fast food cafe, tucking into cheese-smothered french fries.

By the end of the show, having listened to Nigella punctuate mouthful after mouthful of cheesy, creamy, egg-y, runny chocolate-y goo with "yum," I was sure I could feel my liver twitching at the sheer richness of all the saturated fat in her comfort food meals.

And then I wondered, if Average Citizen cooked and ate daily from Nigella's, Baking and the Art of Comfort Cooking, would they wind up in the same predicament as Morgan Spurlock who ate his way through two months of McDonald's food for his documentary Super Size Me?

Probably.

So the moral of this story: eat comfort foods in moderation.

I've been reminding myself daily of this for the past two weeks because one of the ways I've coped with the emotional stress of spending time on Phillip Island, Australia with my father who is fast fading in a nursing home with dementia is by engaging in emotional or comfort eating.

Though, in my defense, my daily small portions of sweets (my comfort food of choice), have been at afternoon or morning tea or dessert after one of the balanced meals of Tasmanian salmon salad, lamb and veggies, quiche and salad, and basa fish with bok choy that I've prepared or that my sister made or which I've eaten out.

In other words, the comfort foods I've eaten were sweet treats book-ending nutritious meals that were light on saturated fat and big on flavor.

Today, my last Monday on Phillip Island, I've made myself a comforting, vegetarian or meatless meal of stuffed butternut squash accompanied by arugula scattered with roasted hazelnuts.

And for dessert, I bought myself a piece of thick, moist, banana bread from Mad Cowes.

Eggplant Stuffed and Capsicum Dip Stuffed Butternut Squash

1) Slice a small butternut pumpkin (or acorn squash) in half lengthwise. Scored the flesh with a knife and place the halves on a baking tray. Moisten the flesh with olive oil.
2) Cut a small eggplant into chunks and place the pieces on the baking tray with the pumpkin. Drizzle the eggplant with olive oil, coating the pieces by tossing them about in the oil with your fingers.
3) Place the baking tray into a 375-degree oven for about 30-40 mins.
4) Remove the softened flesh from the pumpkin skin (pic left) with a spoon, placing it into a bowl.
5) Add several spoonfuls of the capsicum dip from last Tuesday's post (that's a spoon of the dip in the pic above), test taste, and if it needs more dip, add to taste.
6) Remove the soft flesh from the eggplant skin (pic above) and toss into the bowl with pumpkin mix.
7) Spoon mix back into pumpkin skin and place baking tray back into a 350-degree oven for about 15 mins or until heated through.

To Serve: Place stuffed pumpkin half onto a plate along with several handfuls of peppery arugula or baby spinach leaves. Douse salad greens with balsamic vinegar, a splash of olive oil and lemon juice; dot with roasted hazelnuts or filberts.

Mad Cowes

2010-04-29T21:22:00.001-07:00

I'm still on Phillip Island, 2 hours south east of Melbourne, Australia.

And after a week's worth of boiled egg on toast with Vegemite for breakfast, this morning I opted for something different: brunch out at Mad Cowes.

A clever play on words, Mad Cowes has nothing to do with the disease first found in infected British cows, rather, it's a wonderful little cafe on the esplanade of Cowes, the main town on the island.

When I walked into Mad Cowes, the first thing I noticed written on the cafe's chalk board was "indulge and enjoy."

I don't think Australians need any prompting; as I mentioned last week, judging by the expanding girths of my compatriots, over-indulging appears to be the new national pastime.

It's not my imagination either; Australia's Department of Health and Aging cites these very concerning figures: 42% of men and 30% of women are overweight and 25% of men and 24% of women are classified as obese.

And this, despite the fact that Melbourne has been named best sporting city in the world! But what this title actually means is that Melbourne plays host to great sporting events -- it does not mean that Melbournians are busily playing lots of sport and burning off their excess weight.

With this in mind, I ran my eye down the menu and Mad Cowes and saw the kind of fare that I'd find on breakfast / brunch menus in Boulder or any other city in the US.

There was French toast, egg and bacon sandwich, eggs Florentine and Benedict, granola with fruit and yogurt, plain fruit with yogurt, and pancakes (above).

I ordered the pancakes, which were actually listed as "Ricotta Hotcakes w/seasonal fruit & pure Canadian maple syrup, yogurt or ice-cream." Ice cream was an option with a number of the other breakfast items.

Call me crazy, but ice-cream for breakfast strikes me as an unnecessary caloric indulgence.

When I asked the (slim) proprietor questions about the food, he said they get a lot of Canadian and American tourists at Mad Cowes, hence the selection of dishes on the menu, the large servings, and of course the maple syrup.

I'm not sure Australians can use the excuse that their fat because of an imported American diet; blaming, and allocating responsibility elsewhere, is not a solution.

While on the island I don't have a car and there's no public transport. So every day the distance I walk totals around 4 miles. I considered my brunch of pancakes with bacon and syrup and yogurt this morning a treat, but not an indulgence because I'm exercising.

If I'd had the seasonal fruit with the pancakes, instead of swapping it out for bacon, obviously I would have consumed less calories and fat, but today I anticipated walking further than usual and so I opted for more energy.

It's a simple equation that overweight Australians (and Americans) have apparently forgotten: eating more calories than energy expended will cause weight gain.

If you have a big energy-expenditure day on your schedule, and you fancy a hearty breakfast like the one I had Mad Cowes, you might like to try making these Seed and Nut Waffles, the recipe for which I posted almost a year ago.

I like them as an alternative because of the option of using a mix of high-protein flours, seeds and nuts in the waffles instead of the processed white flour in the pancakes I had.

Instead of spoon of yogurt on your waffle, you could use ricotta drizzled with honey, maple syrup or agave, and topped with fresh fruit, perhaps a few extra nuts, this version of a big breakfast is high protein but low in saturated fat.

Organic Farm Stays in Australia

2010-04-28T17:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I mentioned the tiny farm isle of Churchill Island where the year-round once-monthly farmer's market is held.

Today I'm featuring the third island in south east Australia's Western Port Bay: French Island.

Twice the landmass size of Phillip Island, where I've been for the past 10 days, French Island has comparatively few inhabitants bar a sizable koala population.

In fact, there are only 60 full-time inhabitants on the island who are outnumbered by a couple of thousand (from recollection) very cute and sleepy koala bears.

There was one part time celebrity resident, the pop-starlet, Kylie Minogue, whose secluded property was her getaway pad, until she sold it!

Apparently Kylie's farmlet had a full organic vegetable and fruit garden and plenty of koalas in the surrounding trees.

There's another more public organic farm on French Island, McLeod Eco Farm.

Formerly a mid-security jail and farm that operated until the 1970's, it was transformed into an eco farm that began offering luxury-to-budget farm-stay accommodation in the former jail compound (pic above) about 10 years ago.

The 220 hectare property is set in the middle of the island's National Park. There are 120 free-range hens (farm-stay visitors are welcome to collect their eggs) and there is 1.5 acres of organic vegetable garden where more than 1500 varieties of fruit and vegetables are grown.

The produce grown here is used in all the meals available to visitors in the farm's restaurant.

When I visited a number of years ago, there were lots of twenty-something travelers from around the world staying in the farm's budget-level accommodation--sensitively renovated jail cells--and tending the garden when not exploring the rest of the island.

Like WWOOF, Willing Workers on Organic Farms, McLeod's Eco Farm gives kids (and adults) from urban environments the chance to get their hands in the dirt and learn directly how to tend a garden from farm to table.

In Australia, WWOOF is a form of cultural exchange where wwoofers live and work on the host family's farm and learn about the skills of organic farming and the area they're visiting.

McLeod's Eco Farm is slightly different in that even the budget accommodation is not free, though at around $25 a night for a cell, it's still very affordable, and in conjunction with the hands-on farm experience, it really is a great way to explore rustic and rural island, the 234 bird species, 100 species of orchid, the rare, long-nosed potaroo, and of course the koalas.

Viva Las Veggies

2010-04-27T22:37:00.001-07:00

On my walkabouts around the town of Cowes on Phillip Island yesterday, I noticed a cookware store advertising cooking classes.

I popped in to the store to check the lineup of classes and noted that their popular re-run is Vegetarian Meals for Meat Lovers.

I'd already posted my Meatless Monday essay, but if I were to add a one line addendum it might read thus: Australians are slowly embracing the idea that a meal can be complete without meat.

I've also been back into the island supermarket (Coles) several times and I don't believe I've seen one person using those cloth bags I photographed to carry out their groceries.

I have seen lots of plastic bags being used (large paper bags aren't available), which makes me think no one cares about the small tax applied to plastic bag usage. And obviously they haven't been banned from stores on Phillip Island as they have elsewhere in Australia.

After my online research revealed that the bright orange yolks in my breakfast eggs are the result of synthetic caratanoids, I wandered into the local, independently-owned health food store to inquire about their eggs.

There, I was able to buy eggs from free-ranging hens that had not been fed food enhanced with any agent that would their yolks.

This morning I boiled one of the eggs, and chopping it up on my Vegemite-coated rice cake sure enough, the yolk was normal mellow yellow.

While at the health food store, I asked the proprietor about the availability of organic vegetables on Phillip Island. Apparently Coles periodically carries them, though I haven't seen any since my arrival a week ago.

Then out-of-the-blue a bloke behind me said, "If you're looking for good organics, try Viva Las Veggies." Loving that clever name, I couldn't resist wanting to know more.

As it turns out, one of Phillip Island's farmers grows organic veggies and then delivers orders to locals, on this 20 by 5-mile wide island, who find out about his great service word of mouth.

It seems to me a farmer's market is waiting to happen in this rural spot, though having said that, there is an open-air market on one of two other nearby islands in Western Port Bay.

Accessible by bridge from the north-east end of Phillip Island, Churchill Island plays host to a year-round farmer's market on the fourth Saturday of each month.

I remember a fantastic selection local cheeses, fresh flowers, condiments, pastries and regional organic fruits and veggies there a number of years ago. I'm guessing Mr. Viva Las Veggies sells his cornucopia of organics there now too.

I doubt that the chunky vegetable, nut and cheese dips I featured last week are organic; well they're not labeled as such. Nevertheless, I bought another flavor at Coles, this time Red Capsicum with Feta and Cashews.

That's it in the pic to left (and the one next to it is Beetroot).

Using the recipe I posted last Thursday, swap out the baby spinach leaves for red bell pepper (sometimes referred to as red capsicum in Australia) and swap out the Parmesan for feta.

You will need to either grill or blanch the bell pepper and then peel off the outer fibrous membrane before coarsely chopping the softened flesh and mixing it with the other ingredients.

As you can see in the pic above, I topped another fish meal with the tasty dip.

Steamed Baba and Bok Choy with Red Pepper Dip
Note: Basa is a freshwater farmed, mild-tasting tropical fish, like the mild white fish I was posting about a couple of weeks ago.
1) Wash and chop a baby bok choy and a handful of any other colorful veggies you have in your fridge.
2) Either put the veggies in a steamer or into a pot with a small amount of water.
3) Place a fillet of mild-tasting fish over the veggies (you might like to marinade the fish for an hour of so first in canola oil, lime juice or white white, a pinch of chili, salt and pepper).
4) Squeeze the juice of half a lemon or live over the contents of the pot or steamer and put the lid in place.
5) Turn heat to high and once the water is boiling, turn heat to low and let the fish and veggies stead for about 5-7 mins.

To Serve: Spoon vegetables onto a plate, gently placing the fish atop. Lay sliced pieces of avocado over the fish; add a spoonful of the red pepper dip over the avocado. If you have black olives or capers on hand, you might like to top the lot with one these salty additions. Squeeze the remaining half of the lemon or lime over the meal.

Meatless Monday in Oz

2010-04-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

The Meatless Monday movement is going global.

Along with the U.S., 7 other countries are participating in the campaign that promotes going without meat the first day of each week, Monday.

Those countries are Britain, Taiwan, Holland, Brazil, Finland, Canada, and Australia, which is where I am this week and next.

As I mentioned in my previous post, Australians are big meat-eaters. For the average Aussie, eliminating meat from their diet, even one day a week, would require an enormous shift in their perception of what constitutes a complete meal.

The main meal of the day is typically in the evening here and generally the focus of that meal is good quality, locally grown, pasture-raised (versus factory farmed), highly flavorful meat.

I asked about, and no one I spoke with on Phillip Island had heard of Meatless Monday, certainly not the blokes at the small, specialty butcher, where I've made several purchases, nor members of my family, of all whom enjoy a varied diet, but one that does include, on most days, meat.

However, it was only a couple of months ago that I became familiar with Meatless Monday, despite having written often about the budgetary and health benefits of minimal-meat meals on this blog.

So it could be that Meatless Monday Australia has yet to catch on. According to their website, it appears the campaign only began in earnest in Australia in December, 2009.

Four months isn't enough time for an obvious change to have occurred, particularly one intended to encourage Australians, who strongly identify with their cattle- and lamb-farming heritage, to consider doing away with the food that this country's economy was built on, even for one day a week.

Sounds like heavy stuff, but to many Australians, meat, especially beef and lamb, is very much part of our cultural identity and quiche is not.

Yet out and about browsing the menus of the local Phillip Island cafes (there are many, since this is a popular tourist and weekend getaway spot), quiche is, in fact, a staple.

You can get big fluffy pieces of egg-y quiche with a couple of sides of salad for around $8 (pic left). Not bad for a substantial and nutritious meatless meal.

Of course, there's often bacon in the quiche.

That said, vegetarian quiche is not completely unheard of after all, even though meat is big, Australians aren't descendants of club-wielding, mammoth-binging Neanderthals -- well, my family isn't, as far as I know.

The eggs that go in those light fluffy quiches are unbelievably rich in color. As you can see in the pic to left, the yolks verge on bright orange.

With minimal research, I discovered that because Australians like their eggs with dark yolks, commercial egg producers add a synthetic carotenoid to enhance the color of egg yolks.

Apparently there is currently a food-labeling review underway in Australia that would require all egg producers to clearly identify on their labels whether they use feed additives to enhance the color of their egg yolks.

As far as I was aware, the box of "free range eggs," from which the above boiled egg originated, did not contain labeling indicating food additives had been feed to the laying hens.

To start my Meatless Monday, I had a simple breakfast, one that's is not uncommon in Australia: egg on buttered toast with Vegemite. Though I didn't have toast, so as you can see in the pic at top, I had a rice cracker instead.

Because Vegemite is savory, salty spread, it's great on buttered crackers or toast and to have with eggs. Certainly, if you're into healthy colorful food, as I am, the combination of dark brown under white and bright orange hard-boiled egg is a spectacular way to begin the day!

In all seriousness, Australians do enjoy Vegemite and toast for breakfast, and with an egg or two on the side it's a sugar-free breakfast that's high in B vitamins (Vegemite) and rich in Omega 3's (the eggs).

The cafe where I had the quiche and salad, is right by father's nursing home, where I'll be visiting again around lunchtime today. Rather than have quiche, and thus more eggs for lunch, I noticed on the cafe menu a vegetarian Mediterranean Plate. I think I'll make that my second meal on this Meatless Monday.

Dinner will be tricky.

I'm sharing it with my sister's family this evening, and perhaps you saw the 3-lamb cutlet meal she cooked the other day. So my guess is when I mention Meatless Monday, she'll look harried and propose that if I don't want lamb chops (again), then bad luck, because that's what we're having!

Oh well, when in Rome ...

Feeding Your Family on Less in Australia

2010-04-23T15:14:00.001-07:00

Maybe you're familiar with Curtis Stone, the gorgeous Aussie celebrity chef who stars in his own US-based TV show,Take Home Chef.

The show title is a clever double entendre because once you've seen charismatic Curtis on TV doing his thing, most women, if they had half a chance, would want to take him home!

However, Take Home Chef is totally above board with a premise that looks something like this: Curtis goes into a supermarket and approaches an unsuspecting shopper suggesting that he help them pick out groceries for a fabulous meal, which he also offers to cook for them in their kitchen.

So on reality TV, he does actually go home with the shopper, who is generally thrilled at the opportunity to take Curtis home and have him cook up a sumptuous meal for them and or their family.

Within a couple of days of arriving on Phillip Island, Australia, I saw promotional posters (pic above) at the local Coles supermarket branded with Curtis's photo. It appears he is now also the spokesperson for a Coles campaign titled "feed your family for under $10."

Coles is not the kind of supermarket I would normally shop at. It's everywhere in Australia, and over the years it has eased out a lot of small, family-owned markets and green grocers. In other words, they're a corporate stronghold with questionable business ethics.

Additionally, though produce is labeled "Australian Grown," at the Phillip Island Coles, there are no "organic" labels on the fresh fruits and vegetables.

If I had my druthers, I wouldn't shop at Coles, I'd seek out a family-owned specialty grocer with "organic" labeling and fair prices (they do still exist in Australia, I hope!), but not on this tiny island.

Anyway, on the way out of Coles, I picked up the small recipe booklet, brandishing a pic of Curtis holding a $10 note, and found that it contained 7 meal ideas for a family of four, and the accompanying recipes.

And what I noticed flipping through the booklet, is pictures of prepared meals lacking color (due to minimal vegetables), but with an emphasis on meat and carbs:

Chicken drumsticks with parsley and lemon
Chicken fried rice
Fettuccine bolognese
Moroccan beef skewers on a bed of couscous
Pork curry with pineapple and snow peas with rice
Beef ragu with rigatoni
Chinese egg noodles with broccoli and carrot

As you'll note, 6 out of the 7 meals contain meat, and 6 out of the 7 meals is either pasta or rice- based, but none of the meals feature lots of plump, colorful, fresh veggies.

I'm not surprised. You see, Australians are big meat-eaters. Like Argentina, this country was built on the back bone of cattle and sheep farmers. We're "ranchers" at heart and we're very proud of our beef and lamb, which due to its superb flavor, is exported all over the world.

Understandingly, small specialty butchers are still thriving despite corporations like Coles. The one in the pic to the left is right opposite Coles, in fact.

I bought my Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon there, plus some chicken and my sister bought lamb chops for a family meal (below), which as you can see is heavy on the meat!

Despite that I'm not a big meat-eater these days (as you will note from the posts on this blog), I enjoyed every mouthful of that delicious, 3-lamb cutlet meal.

Grazed on lush green open pastures, the flavor of locally-grown lamb is unbeatable.

In this blog, I stress often the budgetary and health benefits of minimal-meat meals and going one day a week completely meat free (Meatless Monday).

Whereas Curtis for Coles is proposing Australians can eat-for-less with meat featuring in 6 out of 7 main meals, and with vegetables barely present in those meals.

Personally, I question the health benefits of Coles "feed your family for under $10" campaign.

On Monday, I'll explore the Meatless Monday campaign in Australia. I'm interested to see if it's catching on or if Australians are resistant to cutting back on their meat consumption.

Earth Day Down Under

2010-04-22T16:44:00.001-07:00

I'm on a small island a couple hours SE of Melbourne, Australia, a beautiful spot that feels very removed from the rest of the world.

Perhaps the position of Phillip Island at the bottom of the globe (directly south and you reach Tasmania, then Antarctica) is the reason it's not obvious that it's earth day today -- either that or the locals don't give it credence.

However, when I picked up some groceries in the local market the other day I snapped a pic of some cloth carry bags (above) in the entryway.

The print on the bag says, "Bringing your own bag is a small step to help the planet." Australia, like a number of other countries, either tax usage of plastic carry bags or have banned them altogether.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about the overuse of plastic produce bags (and plastic carry bags). There were a couple of reader responses to that post worth including here:

"Maybe we should buy more permanent bags for our produce, and re-use those bags elsewhere."

I thought Michael's idea was a good one and then a couple days later Dawn suggested this:

"I have several large organic cotton bags I use for produce. Some are mesh and some are woven. You can get woven and cotton ones at Greater Goods.

My response to Dawn's suggestion and link: "Thanks Dawn, I think BYO linen/mesh/woven bags will (need to) be the wave of the future for bagging loose, fresh produce."

Honor Earth Day and consider investing in a number of cloth bags and use them to collect loose produce at the grocery store, farmer's market or wherever you shop for your fruit and veggies.

In addition to noting the cloth bag at the market on the island, I collected my loose mix of bitter salad greens in a "mushroom bag," a very thin paper bag that keeps mushies from deteriorating.

Rather than reach for a plastic bag to contain my greens, I used the paper mushroom bag because it seemed the lesser of the two evils: plastic or paper.

The loose mix of salad greens here is comparable in price to what I'm used to paying at Whole Foods in Boulder (around $6 a pound), though there was no indication that the mix was organic.

There was quite a bit more radicchio in the mix too, which I plucked out in order to create a bed of purple bitters as the basis of my leftover meal (pic below).

As I mentioned yesterday, I intended making a meal using a leftover 3 oz piece of seared salmon cooked the night before.

The salmon is Tasmanian Atlantic salmon, though the bloke behind the counter at the specialty butcher on the island where I bought the salmon didn't know much about it other than he thought it was wild caught versus farm raised. (The website indicates that Tasmanian Atlantic salmon is farm-raised.)

The price was much the same as what I'm used to paying for Coho salmon, though I have to say the flavor of Tasmanian Atlantic salmon is superior. In fact, I have no problem believing the accolade that it "ranks among the best salmon in the world."

To have atop the salmon, I bought a Chunky Dip of baby spinach, cashew nut and Parmesan.

Containers of vegetable dips flavored, nuts, spices, and cheese are now as ubiquitous as Vegemite and Tim Tams in the food markets here.

The list of ingredients looked pretty straightforward: spinach, cashew nuts, Parmesan, and Canola oil. And as the brand suggests, it is chunky, chunkier than say pesto, an oil, nut and cheese-based sauce for pasta.

And as you can see from the pic below, it's thick. I spooned the Chunky Dip onto the salmon and it just sat there without slipping off.

And the ingredient I added to give zest to the dip was chopped lemon -- peel and flesh. Without the lemon, the dip was a tad rich by virtue of the canola oil, cashew nuts and cheese.

Spinach, Nut and Lemon Dip
If you'd like to try making your own dip, in a bowl combine the following:
1) Half a bunch of washed and drained baby spinach.
2) Some coarsely chopped cashews.
3) Several slices of lemon chopped into chunks and a squirt of juice too.
4) Light olive or canola oil to bind the ingredients.
5) Salt, pepper, a pinch of chili and a splash of white or rice wine vinegar to taste.

6) And enough finely grated Parmesan to thicken the dip.

Tasmanian Atlantic Salmon Salad

1) As you can see, I assembled my meal by lining the plate with radicchio leaves from my bag of mixed greens.
2) Then I added a half a grated granny smith apple to radicchio and sprinkled it with dried cranberries.
3) The leftover piece of salmon went next and a spoonful of the spinach, nut, lemon and Parmesan dip topped the lot.
4) I cut a thick slice of avocado into pieces and spread it about the plate and then drizzled the juice from the remaining chunk of lemon over the meal.

Vietnamese-Australian Baklava

2010-04-21T18:49:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I arrived in Australia where I'll be for about 16 days.

My elderly father is slipping away and my sisters and I have gathered to say goodbye to our dear old dad who is in a nursing home on Phillip Island.

I've referred to Phillip Island in this blog. It's where my family spent the summers and where my parents subsequently retired. Nestled in Western Port Bay, it's about 75 miles south east of Melbourne.

It's a small island, maybe 20 miles long and 5 wide, with a population of about 7000 permanent residents. However, over the summer the influx of vacationers swells the population to around 40,000.

Though Phillip Island is, for the majority of the year, small-town rural Australia (60% of the island is farmland devoted to grazing sheep and cattle), it is nevertheless, a microcosm of my home country.

For the next couple of weeks, I'll be exploring and blogging about the food culture here since it typifies the rest of the country and it will help keep my mind occupied when I'm not sitting at my father's bedside.

Additionally, because I anticipate doing quite a bit of (emotional) eating--and like any foodie, whether it's emotional eating, or a simple or gourmet meal, I like my food to be interesting, flavorful, colorful, healthy and always scrumptious--I thought it'd be fun to share what I am buying, cooking, and eating.

The day after I arrived, I picked up some basics at the supermarket, which included two must haves: Vegemite and Tim Tams.

Vegemite, if you haven't heard of it, is a black, tar-like yeast spread which most Australians grow up eating on sliced bread with butter. It's comfort food to us in the same way that bread spread with peanut butter and jelly is comfort food to most Americans.

I can get it in the U.S., but a big bottle here is the same price as a small bottle in Boulder CO., so I bought a big bottle (I'll take whatever is leftover back to Boulder with me).

I can also buy Tim Tams in Boulder, but again, they're half the price here. Like Vegemite, Tim Tams are comfort food. Rich and divinely delicious, this ubiquitous Australian biscuit is two chocolate wafers sandwiched together with chocolate cream and then dipped in more chocolate.

There's a fat attach in every Tim Tam: a 95 calorie biscuit (cookie) contains almost 5 g of total fat. Last night I had two and half cookies after dinner. The remaining half has teeth marks around both ends. What can I say; it was a very emotional day.

This morning I walked the main street of the township of Cowes (the main town on the island) and noticed three bakeries within one block.

Now this is normal since Australians love fresh baked bread, cakes, tarts, cookies --both country style and gourmet-European style-- the kind of caloric and carb-heavy foods I rarely reference on this blog, except within the context of posts on "foods to eat sparingly."

Judging by the expanding girth of the average Australian (and the fact that there are 3 thriving bakeries in one block), baked treats are apparently being consumed regularly here, rather than sparingly.

This morning, I was just another average Australian, which means I popped into the bakery my mother used to frequent--one that is owned and operated by a Vietnamese-Australian family-- and purchased a piece of (Greek) baklava and a (French) croissant for around $5.

That's the baklava above, well on the way to being consumed, by me, at morning tea time while I was working at my laptop.

July of last year, I wrote about hosting a Greek, South African exchange student when I was a teenager. Helen brought with her a classical Greek cookbook and she taught my mother and me how to make a number of traditional dishes, including baklava.

The Vietnamese bakers must have learned how to make their baklava from a Greek too because their version is excellent. Full of nuts with a hint of cinnamon, and just enough honey syrup to moisten the layers, it was worth the mid-morning indulgence.

It's almost lunchtime now, and I'm making myself leftovers from last night's dinner which was pan-seared Australian salmon and salad. (Chances are I'll be finishing off the half-eaten Tim Tam for dessert.)

I'll post that meal tomorrow, because I want to share how I improvised and added a key ingredient to a delicious baby spinach, cashew nut and Parmesan cheese dip that I bought to go with my fish dinner.

One thing I discovered at the supermarket is that the range of gourmet, but affordable, fresh vegetable and nut dips-cum-sauces is fantastic here -- so good, they're worth recreating at home!

Sole with Yams, Zucchini and Capers

2010-04-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

This week on Market to Mouth the theme has been simple meal ideas for a spring, liver detox.

Starting with Monday's raw muesli and veggie juices, followed by Tuesday's baked sole with spinach, and then
yesterday, I had an enormous bowl of raw salad at Mad Greens.

I haven't just been writing about meals for detoxing the liver, this week I've been walking my talk in the effort to do my own detox.

A couple of weeks ago a rash appeared on my torso, and as I mentioned on Monday, my metabolism is in need of a re-boot!

The skin is a great indicator of the state of the liver: rashes, dermatitis, acne and so on are mainly linked with liver function or rather a sluggish liver.

Once the liver does it's job, eliminating toxins and purifying the blood, then ailments like skin conditions begin to clear. I'm beginning to notice a difference already; 4 days into my detox diet, my skin isn't as inflamed.

In addition to modifying my diet (minimal saturated fat, no sweets, more raw veggies and fruit, no alcohol but lots of filtered water), I'm also supplementing with Milk Thistle extract since it supports liver function and it cleanses the blood.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that any kind of diet is not easy. I love to cook, and eat what I cook, so making a conscious choice to not cook and eat certain foods, and to also avoid sweets (very difficult for me since I love sweets) is a real challenge.

However, I'd rather feel better, and have healthy-looking skin, than ignore the symptoms and eat on regardless, all the while knowing that what I'm putting in my mouth is contributing to the way I look and feel.

And like most people, I put on a few pounds over the winter, which tend to drop off on a detox diet.

Loose a few pounds, jump-start your metabolism (so you have more energy) and improve the look of your skin -- if that's the result, then why not muster up the discipline to stick with a 'clean' diet for a couple of weeks!

Making the most of the remaining piece of frozen sole (featured in Tuesday's post), I've come up with another light and simple fish meal. Since fish is absent saturated fat, it's a great protein source while on a detox diet.

White fish, such as flounder, cod, sole, tilapia, trout etc. are low in omega oils, but while doing the detox diet, it's not such a bad thing to steer clear of oilier fish like salmon, and shellfish, which though low in omega oils are high in cholesterol.

Sole with Sweet Potato, Zucchini and Capers
1) Into an oven-proof skillet, place half a thinly sliced yam (or regular potato if you don't have an orange yam on hand).
2) Slice a zucchini and place it over the potato.
3) Either place a whole fillet of your choice of white fish over the vegetables, or slice the fillet into pieces and dot those pieces atop the vegetables (as in the pic above).
4) Dot the fish with chopped green onion and a spoonful of capers, sprinkling some of the caper juice over the fish and veggies.
5) If you have fresh herbs on hand, lay some leaves over the fish and veggies. Any herb will do, since, no matter the herb, it'll add flavor. You could also use dried herbs, if you wish.
6) Drizzle a couple tablespoons of water over the lot, put a lid on the skillet, and put it into a 350-degree oven for about 15 mins.

To Serve: As you can see in the pic at left, once cooked, this meal presents beautifully. Gently lift portions of the potato and fish from the skillet onto a plate, and pour some of the pan juice over the fish.

Squeeze lime or lemon juice over the lot, or add the lime / lemon juice to a warm glass of water and drink this with your meal.

Warm lemon water is the perfect beverage to drink first thing in the morning or during the day and or with meals, especially while on a detox diet.

Sole with Wilted Spinach and Bacon

2010-04-13T08:39:00.001-07:00

After yesterday's raw food, including two juice meals, I'm inclined to want a heartier meal.

Though not so heavy that the liver-cleansing effect of a raw muesli breakfast and veggie juice for lunch and dinner are completely thwarted.

Actually, for breakfast today, I made another bowl of raw muesli, adding it to hot oatmeal cooked with a pinch of cinnamon and ginger, and a dob of orange marmalade.

Once the oatmeal was soft, I stirred in the raw, grated apple and spooned the lot into a bowl, topping it with the seeds mentioned yesterday.

Lunch was a different matter.

Now quite hungry, rather than reach for something fatty or carbohydrate heavy, something that would undo the best intentions of Monday's raw meals, I made a hot lunch consisting of fish and spinach.

Heartier than a raw juice lunch, nevertheless, this is still a light meal (because it is absent saturated fat), one that I think of as a good transition meal after a day of liquid.

It's highly nutritious, easy to digest, low in fat and full of phytonutrients, and it has flavor and texture.

Obviously it's not the sort of thing you can whip up without access to a kitchen, so it's more likely to be an evening meal for most.

The fish is sole (I had a frozen pack of two fillets in my freezer). You can use flounder, cod, tilapia or check Seafood Watch for the best sustainable white-fish choice in your area.

The bag of mixed braising greens I referred to yesterday (which I buy at Whole Foods), has spinach and arugula in it too, so though this sounds laborious, I picked the spinach and arugula out of the mix to wilt for this dish.

Sole with Wilted Spinach and Bacon
1) Wash a handful of greens, i.e. spinach, arugula, kale.
2) Slice a rasher of turkey bacon (optional). I use Applegate because it carries the Certified Humane stamp, which has become increasingly important to me now that I do my best to avoid factory-farmed meats.
3) Toss a chopped green (spring) onion into an oiled pan with the bacon, saute gently; add the greens, stir.
4) Place your piece of fish over the vegetables, drizzle with the juice of a lemon, lime or even an orange. If you have fresh herbs on hand such as thyme, oregano, or sage (dried herbs would be fine too), dot the top of the fish with your choice of herbs.
5) I had some leftover cooked rice in the fridge, which I tossed into the pan too -- any cooked grain would work, if you want the meal to be more substantial.
6) Cover the pan with a lid and steam cook for about 10 mins. or until the greens have wilted and the fish is done but still moist.

To Serve: Spoon onto a plate, season to taste, and drizzle with more citrus juice if you like. Et Voila, a delicious light lunch or dinner that's easy on the digestion and highly nutritious.

Meatless Monday

2010-04-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

Raw foodies advocate a diet of at least 75% raw food such as fresh fruits, vegetables, sprouts, seeds, nuts, grains, seaweeds, and beans.

Undoubtedly, there are health benefits to eating lots of fresh, organic, live and enzyme-rich foods. But 75% of your daily food intake, that's a lot of cold, raw food!

Upon googling "raw food diet," I did note some precautions and they include the disclosure that a raw diet may not be appropriate for children, people with anemia, and people at risk for osteoporosis.

Additionally, Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese Medicine suggest that a raw diet is not always appropriate in cold climates or for people with a deficient constitution.

So it's important to consider carefully your overall health and subsequent dietary needs before embarking on an ongoing diet of mostly cold, raw foods.

Frankly, it's not a lifestyle diet that I could embrace daily and over a long period of time, particularly living in Colorado where snowy winters will last 5 months, prompting me to prepare warming, heavier cooked meals.

However, as the snow and ground thaws, and longer, warmer days encourage more outdoor activity, I've been noticing that my constitution is sluggish and in need of a bit of a boost.

Given that I don't reach for coffee to overcome sluggishness, I thought Meatless Mondays would be the perfect day to eat raw, meatless meals.

I'm thinking a series of raw food --perhaps even all-juice meals-- meatless Mondays would be a great way to detox my system over the spring in preparation for lots of fun summer activity.

With that in mind, today I began my meatless Monday with a raw-muesli breakfast (pic at top).

Raw Apple Muesli
1) Grate an apple into a bowl.
2) Douse with the juice of half a lime.
3) Sprinkle with a mix of raw sunflower and pumpkin seeds, walnuts, and raisins.

For more substance, you could add the raw-apple muesli to cooked oats, rice, millet, quinoa, buckwheat -- the latter three are high-protein whole grains.

For lunch and dinner I've decided to juice.

Last summer I came across a barely-used juicer at a garage sale. At $5 it was an incredible deal and I used it quite a bit June through August.

Over the winter, it sat dormant -- a bit like me.

I've dusted it off and I'm putting it to use again with the juice meals I'm making this Meatless Monday.

Vegetable Lunch Juice
1) Pick several handfuls of organic veggies from your crisper. I chose carrots, purple cabbage and celery. To counteract the cabbage-y flavor, I added an apple, which sweetens the juice (as does the carrot).
2) Wash your choice of veggies (and fruit) and run them through the juicer.
3) Add the juice of half a lime or lemon; it will add piquancy and draw out all the flavors, in the same way salt does.

Vegetable Dinner Juice
1) I have a bag of mixed braising greens which are delicious sauteed, but you can also juice them. Wash a couple of handfuls.
2) The greens will be quite bitter so I'm adding a couple of carrots and if I had a red beet, I'd probably add that too. Beets are also sweet, more so than carrots.
3) This will make quite a dense and beautifully colored juice--the beets will add a pink hue to the green and orange.
4) Adding the juice of half a lime will bring out the rich, raw vegetable flavors. If the juice is too dense, add some filtered water.
5) And if a glass of juice for dinner leaves you wanting for more, serve your juice with a bowl of grains, such as one of those mentioned above: rice, millet, or quinoa and sprinkle the bowl with nuts and seeds.

One day a week of raw foods and no meat seems very manageable to me, especially now that we're out of the winter deep freeze.

I have to say though, I couldn't do raw every day. I know by tomorrow morning, I'll be looking forward to a hot, cooked breakfast!

Plastic Bags: Use Less at the Grocery Store

2010-04-09T10:25:00.001-07:00

It was almost a year ago that I wrote a post titled Re-Use Your Plastic Bags.

Around that time, as a way to gather data for a book proposal based on this blog, I was sharing my expertise as a grocery shopping-cum-cooking consultant

One of glaring things I noticed shopping with people is the consistent and unnecessary over-use of plastic bags at the grocery store.

Above is a pic of one of my client friends looking very sheepish because I had gently admonished her; every time she picked up an item of fresh produce, she grabbed a plastic bag.

Whether it was ears of corn, a pound of apples, oranges or heads of lettuce, Amy, like so many people I'd shopped with, put her fruits and vegetables into plastic bags before depositing them into her shopping cart.

Now, you're probably thinking, "What's wrong with that?! I do it; I put all my fruit and veggies in plastic bags."

In response, I'm going to ask that you ponder why?!

I'm guessing your answer might be something along lines of "because they're there!"

Right above the vegetables, or over by the fruit, it's easy and it's convenient to grab a plastic bag from one of the dispensers for your lettuce, potatoes, lemons etc.

In fact, one of my clients said that the reason she used plastic bags is because she thought it would be more convenient for the check out person!

Yet, I've never found loose, un-bagged produce to be an issue at the check out.

In other words, I've never had a check-out person say, "Excuse ma'am, we need you to put all your fruits and vegetables in individual plastic bags; it makes our job easier."

Of course, the reality is it's not my responsibility to make the check out person's job easier or more difficult (and I don't believe grocery stores require that of me).

But waste, in particular plastic bag waste, is my responsibility.

In fact, it's everyone's responsibility, including the check-out person at the grocery store, to reduce the number of plastic bags going into landfills.

The title of the post I linked to above is Re-Use Your Plastic Bags, and if you read that post you'll note that I'm not suggesting you do away with bagging your groceries in the small plastic produce bags or the large plastic carry bags.

Rather, I'm advocating using recycled plastic, and fewer plastic bags altogether, and then keeping your plastic bags and reusing them again and again, in fact, until they fall apart.

As we move closer to Earth Day 2010 "use less plastic" will be the re-occurring message in this blog.

If like me, you're a visual person, and if you're serious about wanting to change your relationship to plastic bags, and thus your relationship to the environment, watch "Plastic Bag," an 18-minute indie film narrated by German film director, Werner Herzog.

Reminiscent of the French film "Red Balloon," it's a poignant story on the vortex in the Pacific Ocean where plastic bags swirl about for eternity.

Pork, Vegetable and Lettuce Wraps

2010-04-07T08:29:00.000-07:00

After braising much of the red-tip leaf lettuce I received in my Mile High Organics starter bin, I still had some large outer leaves.

And despite that we're heading into the second week of April, here in Boulder CO it's snowing, so eating cold lettuce salad sounded unappealing.

With that in mind, I came up with a couple different ways to use the remaining lettuce as a feature in two hot meals.

Perhaps you've eaten out at a Thai restaurant and had lettuce wraps -- that's where I drew inspiration for the first meal idea (pic above).

Lettuce wraps are a wonderful way to eat with your hands: you spoon the filling onto the leaf, wrap it into a bundle, and then pop it into your mouth!

Traditionally, Thai lettuce wraps call for large iceberg lettuce leaves, but I used red-tip lettuce which isn't as crunchy as iceberg, but nevertheless it's colorful, and it tastes delicious.

Pork, Vegetable and Lettuce Wraps
1) Tear off the large outer leaves from the lettuce head, wash and drain.
2) In a skillet, saute a spring onion, some thinly sliced purple cabbage, and a carrot.
3) Toss in either ground chicken, turkey or pork -- I used pork.
Note: At Vitamin Cottage I found some locally grown and humanely-farmed ground pork which is incredibly flavorful and absent antibiotics and hormones.
4) Saute the ingredients gently, now grate half an apple and toss it into the pan. Put the lid on the pan and cook over low heat for about 10 mins.
5) Removing the pan from the hot plate, add chopped fresh sage and thyme (or your choice of herbs) to the mix, and then season it to taste.

To Serve: Lay lettuce leaves on large plates and spoon pork and veggie mix into the center of the leaf. Drizzle with seeded mustard, and then either eat as is with a knife and fork or wrap the lettuce around the filling and eat the bundle with your hands.

The second dish I made, (pic above) was inspired by old fashioned cabbage rolls, except I swapped out cabbage leaves for lettuce leaves.

1) Make the filling as above.
2) Boil a little water in a pot and quickly blanch several large lettuce leaves.
3) Lay the blanched leaves flat on a chopping board and then spoon filling into the center.
4) Wrap each leaf around the filling and place the lettuce rolls into a baking pan.
5) Pour either some water or white wine or chicken stock over the rolls to moisten them, and bake in a 350-degree oven for about 15 mins.

To Serve: Spoon a couple of rolls onto a plate, pour pan juice over them, drizzle with mustard mixed with either sour cream or mayonnaise, and garnish with apple slices and a fresh sprig of thyme or sage.

Braised Red-Tip Leaf Lettuce

2010-04-06T10:12:00.001-07:00

Shopping online for organic produce (in fact, all your food) is not a unique concept these days. Google it and see for yourself.

However, I'm a visual and tactile person, which means I prefer to see and touch, sometimes even smell, vegetables and fruit before buying them.

Nevertheless, this past week I tried something different: rather than buy my produce at the grocery store, I ordered it online.

You see, I'd picked up a Mile High Organics coupon at an event, and once I'd checked out their website, I decided to give them a go, after all, their philosophy reads "delivering the Farmer's Market to you."

Fresh organics delivered to my door sounded enormously appealing, especially since it read as though the produce is sourced from local farmers -- though there is a statement on the website that says "local when available."

I was excited to receive my starter box containing a small bunch of bananas and carrots, a pound each of oranges and d'Anjou pears, 2 tomatoes and a red-tip leaf lettuce (despite that none of these items were grown locally).

The contents of Mile High Organics "starter bin" are fixed. In other words I didn't have a choice of fruit and veggies and also, I wasn't allowed to swap out any items for something else.

If you've read my blog, you'll know that I do my best to shop and eat by the seasons -- that's what I advocate for budget, health, and sustainability--therefore, if I'd had my druthers, I would not have picked oranges, nor the bananas and tomatoes (all of which were grown outside the US), given that we're barely into spring and these items are summer fruits.

Anyway, the goodies arrived on my doorstep late in the day. Normally the "starter bin" with delivery is around $19, but with my coupon it was a grand total of $5.95 so upon opening the tub and seeing several pounds of fresh produce, it felt like Christmas in April.

Unpacking the contents I noted that the bananas, pears, tomatoes and oranges would need to sit out for a few days since they were far from ripe: the bananas were dark green as were the pears, and the tomatoes were an insipid yellow-red, while the oranges were as hard as a tennis ball.

I snapped off a carrot from the bunch, washed it and ate it immediately; it was deliciously sweet with a full-bodied carrot flavor. The head of red-tip leaf lettuce was enormous. I washed it, left it to drain in a colander, and then wrapped the leaves in a linen kitchen towel, storing the bundle in the fridge.

I doubted that I'd eat the whole lettuce in salads before the leaves started to brown around the edges and so I decided to braise it and eat it as a hot vegetable.

Drawing from the classic French dish, braised lettuce and peas cooked in chicken stock and finished with cream, I improvised and created the following:

Braised Red-Tip Leaf Lettuce
1) Wash and drain a head of lettuce (use half a head for this recipe).
2) Wash and chop a couple of spring onions and toss into a pan with either a dab of butter or some light oil like olive or canola.
3) To the pan, add your choice of spring vegetables i.e. carrots, asparagus, peas -- such as snap peas, snow peas, or frozen shelled peas.
4) Gently saute on med a few minutes, then add washed and drained lettuce; saute a few more mins.
5) If you have stock on hand, pour in about half a cup or enough to gently simmer the veggies and lettuce until they're just soft. Use water if you don't have stock, or if you have an open bottle of white wine, use half water and half wine.
6) To finish the veggies, add a slurp of cream (optional) or simply season to taste.

To Serve: This makes a great side to fish or chicken, or spoon it over a grain such as millet or quinoa or your choice of noodles.

I love this dish since it's a great way to prepare lettuce if you have an abundance on hand but don't fancy eating lots of cold salads. And this week I made it twice in the effort to use up the red-tip from Mile High Organics.

The starter bin was an interesting exercise in purchasing organic produce online. Because I had a coupon it was certainly economical, but without a coupon, I wouldn't do it again.

Online shopping is convenient, and it's not as stressful as in-store shopping, yet it can't satiate my preference to eye, touch and sniff produce before buying it.

Plus, if like me, you place a high value on buying local and thus shopping and eating by the seasons, there's no guarantee that produce purchased online is going to either local or seasonal.

Meatless Monday

2010-04-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

I'm late writing my Meatless Monday post because I've been distracted watching Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution on Hulu.

Jamie's a very personable celebrity chef who's been entertaining British and Australian audiences for years with his accessible and fun approach to cooking simple, healthy food.

It will be interesting to see if he can now motivate American audiences to change their habits and patterns around food.

In the episode linked to above, he initially comes up against some resistance in the West Virginian school system, where he's trying to implement his Food Revolution lunch program.

However, by the middle of the episode, Jamie's motivated a group of Huntington high school kids to cook a fund-raiser dinner for 80 local dignitaries and potential sponsors of his program.

By the uplifting end, you can't help but shed a few tears over the stories the kids share about what they've learned and how they feel Jamie's Food Revolution will improve their lives and the lives of other kids.

But change happens slowly, particularly when it comes to changing the way we eat, so I'll be tracking the progress of Jamie's Food Revolution as I'm curious to see if he can make a difference where it's most needed -- in the lunchrooms of American schools.

Meatless Monday is a fun and innovative way to make changes to the way we eat. By making the first day of the work week meatless, we're encouraged to think out-of-the-box regarding our food choices.

For some, eating three vegetarian meals may mean putting a little extra effort into meal preparation; for others, it may be a simple process of elimination.

Either way, Meatless Monday is an exercise in intention: the intention to give up meat for a day--though I prefer to consider it less about giving up something, and more about giving my body and liver a break from digesting the saturated fat present in animal protein.

In other words, going without meat is a chance to eat lighter, less fatty fare for a day.

The meal idea I have for this meatless Monday makes the most of the humble chic pea, a legume with gourmet potential. (My recipe behind this link includes ham, but you can easily leave it out).

Red Curry Chic Pea Casserole (pic above) is all vegetarian and it includes a number of spring vegetables including beet greens, however, any leafy green like chard, kale, dandelion greens, or spinach will work.

If you're feeling reluctant to cook with dried chic peas, because of the lengthy soaking and boiling they require, you'll find the power soak method a quick and easy alternative to using a pressure cooker and or overnight soaking.

The Temptation of Out-of-Season Fruit

2010-03-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, I hosted a Sunday lunch. It was a glorious spring day so we ate outside on the patio.

I made my version of bouillabaisse-cum-chowder and with it, we ate olive bread, cheeses, and a simple green salad.

Dessert was a fruit flan, which I bought at my local Whole Foods.

I deliberated over whether to buy the flan topped with summer berries or a pear and almond flan. Another option was an apple and almond flan.

Last Thursday I wrote about the advantages of eating in-season fruit for health, budget and sustainability. Given that we're just coming out of winter into spring, apples and pears are still the in-season best buys.

Summer fruits, like berries, are available, but they're not in season and so they're expensive, plus they're not as flavorful as they are at the height of their growing season.

I love almonds with pears and or apples so I was leaning toward the responsible choice: in-season fruit flan, especially having written that post just days before.

Then again, I loved the look of the summer-berry flan--such gorgeous colors, so apparently decadent.

And it was the same price as the apple or pear almond flans!

Despite what I know and despite what I've written on the topic of shopping, cooking and eating by the seasons, I chose the out-of-season berry fruit flan.

I'm aware that as I stood in front of the pastry case deliberating, it didn't matter that I knew the more responsible choice was the in-season fruit plan; in that moment, confronted by the colors of the aesthetically-appealing berry-flan versus the less colorful sensible pear flan, I chose the one that looked prettiest, the one that provoked in me a more intense response.

In other words, I made an emotionally driven choice, as we so often do with food. And as soon as we allow our emotions to drive our choice-making, reason, logic, best intentions, even values, fly out the window!

It's important to me to walk my talk, to role model what I write about on this blog, yet I'm human and a messy one at that, which means sometimes I make decisions that are not aligned with my core values.

A Facebook friend commented that she's impressed over my tackling the food and sustainability issue by encouraging awareness around shopping and cooking by the seasons.

"It's hard to avoid the choices tempting us to do otherwise," she said.

Indeed it is.

Regardless, at the end of the day, was I happy with my choice?

You know, the berry flan really did look the prettiest, but as I state above, summer fruits bought out of season have less flavor and they're not succulent, and as a matter of fact, the berries on the flan were not flavorful, nor were they juicy.

Alas, the flan did not live up to its appearance. And I'm glad, because it was a reminder to stick with what I know to be the best choice: buy and eat in-season for flavor, budget, health and sustainability, even when it's tempting to do otherwise.

Meatless Monday Broccoli Timbales

2010-03-29T10:23:00.000-07:00

Meatless Monday: one day a week make the choice to cut out meat.

In conjunction with the Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, Meatless Monday's goal is to improve the health of individuals and the health of the planet.

Going without meat on Mondays isn't a round-about way of promoting a vegetarian diet.

Rather, it's a campaign designed to encourage meat-eaters to be more aware of their health, for instance, less saturated fat is better for one's heart.

It's also a means of alerting meat-eaters to the impact factory-farming animals for human consumption has on the environment and ultimately the planet.

In previous posts, I've linked often to the Animal Welfare Approved site which certifies and promotes family farms (versus factory farms) that raise their animals (for human consumption) with the highest welfare standards.

So if you do eat animal protein, as I do, then choosing meat stamped with the AWA label or with other Humane Food Labels ensures that at least your purchase has not contributed to the environmental and inhumane scourge that is factory farming.

Additionally, humanely-raised animal protein is antibiotic and hormone free, which is good for the animal and for the consumer. And despite how ironic this reads, humanely-raised animals graze happily and live according to their species before being humanely slaughtered.

Humanely-farmed protein items have a slightly higher price tag. But by reducing the amount you consume, for example:
1) go meatless on Mondays,
2) eat sustainably-fished seafood a couple evenings,
3) eat no more than 3 ounces of animal protein at any one meal, then you can avoid going over budget.

So there are responsible and creative ways to eat animal protein with your budget, health, and the health of the environment, in mind.

This weekend I stumbled upon actress Alicia Silverstone's newly-released vegan cookbook The Kind Diet. Flipping to the part one, I noticed these section headings:

Nasty Food #1: Meat
Nasty Food #2: Dairy

Recently, I quoted a friend as saying, "sometimes food just seems scary." She was making reference to the way certain foods are represented in the media as cancer causing, heart-attack inducing, filled with chemicals, bad for your health, etc. etc.

When I read Alicia's "Nasty Food" labeling, I thought of my friend who finds topical information about food overly worrisome.

As a minimal-meat and minimal-dairy eater (but nevertheless a responsible consumer of both) I found the "nasty food" labels very worrisome since they advocate against the dietary choices of the majority, which is not vegan.

Beware nasty food labeling that is extreme.

A balanced diet full of colorful seasonal veggies, fruits, fish, small amounts of animal protein including meat and dairy, plus grains, legumes, nuts and seeds is a sound approach to health and wellness.

By way of making intentional and healthy dietary choices for ourselves and the environment, Meatless Monday is something we can easily integrate into our lives -- far easier than completely eliminating meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy.

With that in mind, I'm linking to a recipe I posted last fall for Broccoli Timbales. Delicious vegetable, egg and cheese-based individual custards, timbales can be served on their own as a light meal or with a side of rice or noodles, and perhaps a side salad.

Keep in mind that you can swap out the broccoli for carrots, spinach, chard or a combination of all three or your choice of seasonal vegetables.

The Advantages of Eating In-Season Fruit

2010-03-25T09:22:00.000-07:00

The recommended serving of fruit per day is 2-4.

I'm not a big adherent of that during the winter, even as we begin to see signs of spring.

Because of the worldwide distribution of food, seasonal foods are available year-round now which means it's easy to forget about seasons when we do our weekly grocery shop.

Seasonal fruits like fresh, soft summer berries are available all year at my local Whole Foods -- they're more expensive in the winter, and they're not as flavorful, but they're there.

Even peaches, and end-of-summer fruit, are reappearing as we head into spring; they're displayed not far from the tropical pineapples from Hawaii and the grapes from South America.

The transportation of fruits grown abroad means we have access to quite a colorful selection of 2-4 servings of fruits in the winter.

As a result, we've grown accustomed to choice so that the notion that it's not as healthful to eat cooling summer foods when there's snow on the ground may seem contrary.

Yet there is wisdom in the seasons, therefore it follows that there's good judgment in choosing and consuming foods that nature produces at specific times of the year.

Seasons are natures way of providing our diets with diversity while also providing an effective way to balance our systems so that we can cope with the heat of summer (by eating summer fruits and vegetables) and the cold of winter (by eating warming root vegetables, and fruits like apples and pears harvested late in the fall).

It's a 21st-century ailment buying and consuming out-0f-season foods just because we can, because they're available, after all not that long ago transporting fresh produce internationally was not possible like it is today.

And I meant "ailment," since eating out of season is not the healthiest of diets and can lead to a number of physical ailments.

Nor is it budget-wise (summer fruits are sometimes double the price in the winter) and it's certainly not sustainable, particularly when fruit (any food, for that matter) is transported internationally.

So what are we to do?

Again, because we've grown accustomed to choice, such as tropical fruits in winter, frozen summer berries all-year round, the idea of passing up these options in favor of the seasonal fruit of the region may seem to some too limiting, even unnecessarily ascetic.

Yet foregoing choice at the grocery store is an exercise worth practicing for health and budget, and if you're concerned about being a responsible consumer, for sustainability.

You may find that the seasonal fruit of your region is limited, or it may not be. In Colorado, I tend to stick to apples in winter, and some pears, with the occasional lemon or lime, which I use in my cooking.

Unfortunately, though apples and pears grow in Colorado, the varieties available at my local store are trucked in from out-of-state, as are the lemons and limes.

An apple or a pear a day is less than the prescribed 2-4 servings, however, if I wasn't eating all those colorful veggies I've been referring to in previous posts, I might have nutritionists concerned.

Come summer, I'll make up for a winter of apples and pears eaten raw or cooked into a myriad of dishes, and indulge in the cooling fruits of the season and the region -- chances are, I'll even go over 2-4 servings a day!

Eat a Rainbow

2010-03-23T08:25:00.001-07:00

A meal lacking color is not as aesthetically pleasing nor as flavorful and nutritious as a meal bursting with green, orange, red, purple and more.

Yesterday, as in many previous posts, I made reference to the phytonutrient-rich properties of colorful vegetables.

Last week after posting information about food-pyramids, the ANDI food ranking list and tips for shopping on a budget for health and wellness, a friend remarked that sometimes food just seems scary!

That is, she said, if you deviate from the prescribed 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Prescriptive information can be scary; in fact, I think it's best used as a guideline rather than the formula.

When I googled "servings of fruits and vegetables per day," five did appear to be the number, but it did go as high as nine.

One food pyramid suggested 2-4 servings of fruit and 3-5 of veggies a day -- if you did eat the 4 and the 5 then you would be consuming 9 servings in total.

Frankly, I find the idea of the 2-4 and 3-5 servings not scary, but potentially daunting in its capacity to cause me to feel obsessive about counting and weighing and measuring my food, which is no fun.

I like color. And preparing my meals so that they are filled with a combination of green, purple, orange, red, yellow and white is a far easier, less neurotic way to ensure eating sufficient veggies and fruits.

And I like this fun little tune about color; it sure beats perusing pyramids and counting portions.

I also get quite excited by the art of coordinating vegetables and fruits so that the end result is a plate vibrating with interest, texture, flavor, and of course color.

The pic above is a plate of braised winter vegetables: leftover orange-yellow acorn squash from yesterday's meal, purple cabbage, curly green kale, and white and green spring onions.

I love the combination of the purple against the yellow-orange squash -- I probably wouldn't wear it, but it's gorgeous on a white plate!

For flavor, I tossed in a clove of peeled and chopped garlic and the same of a chunk of fresh ginger root, plus a couple rashers of Applegate certified-humane turkey bacon.

I served the veggies atop a portion of cooked quinoa (yesterday it was quinoa noodles) which I'd drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and then I poached an egg and set it in the middle (pic left).

This made for a rainbow-of-meal with who knows how many servings of veggies, but without a doubt plenty of color, and thus plenty of phyto-nutrients, and it included neutral-colored quinoa, a high-protein grain, plus a white and yellow Omega 3-rich egg.

Color: Eat it; it's good for you!

Meatless Monday

2010-03-22T08:21:00.000-07:00

It's Monday, our meatless day, and so today I'm featuring curly quinoa pasta topped with stewed acorn squash.

This heavy-on-the-carbohydrates vegetarian dish is quite filling. It's also predominantly orange-yellow, the color of the acorn squash.

Lacking a variety of color, which would make this a more nutritious meal, I'd serve it with a side, like a green salad or the Winter-to-Spring Salad posted a few weeks ago.

Red, orange, green, purple and white vegetables combined or paired create an edible rainbow choc-full of health-giving phytonutrients.

I received a group email recently about the amazing green-skinned and white-green flesh cucumber; it had been showcased in the New York Times "Spotlight on the Home" series.

Apparently one cucumber contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, folic acid, vitamin C, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, zinc and electrolytes.

Despite its potential as a superfood, the cucumber doesn't appear on the ANDI list as one of the top 30 foods.

But eat it anyway.

In fact below, I'm suggesting refreshing cucumber side-salad and or cucumber water as a palate cleanser to today's Meatless Monday dish.

Quinoa Pasta with Acorn Squash
1) Quarter a small acorn squash, remove the skin and the seeds, cutting the quarters into small chunks.
2) Line a skillet with olive oil, toss in a peeled and chopped clove of garlic, and the same of a chunk of ginger. Saute gently over med heat.
3) Slice one leek, and using a strainer, wash out any grit.
4) Add leek and acorn squash to skillet, stir ingredients over low heat. Place lid on skillet and let vegetables stew in their own moisture for about 15 mins.
5) There are various options for adding more flavor to the stewed squash and leeks, for instance a) Turn the heat off and stir through a big blob of sour cream or yogurt and finish with the juice of half a lime and some chopped cilantro.
b) With heat still on, pour in a good-quality bottled tomato sauce and a spoonful of capers or perhaps some sliced green olives. Stir over low heat.
c) Or you could simply serve it atop the pasta plain (as in the pic above), but then I added toasted walnuts and feta cheese (not seen in the photo), which added crunch and creaminess.

Note: I chose curly quinoa pasta for this dish to add interest and because quinoa is one of those high-protein gluten-free grains which ground into flour and made into pasta is a great substitute for, or simply a change from, standard wheat pastas.

To Serve: Once you've drained your pasta, coat it with olive oil. Spoon pasta into bowls and top with stewed acorn squash, variety a, b, or c.

As mentioned above, you might like to serve a side of the spinach-based Winter-to-Spring Salad or a bowl of peeled and thinly-sliced amazing cucumber doused with organic rice-wine vinegar.

On the other hand, you could add the cucumber slices to a jug of water. Cucumber infused water is a refreshing palate-cleansing beverage, the perfect accompaniment to a starchy, but nonetheless delicious, bowl of pasta and stewed acorn squash.