Food and Water Watch are continuing their quest to keep us safe. They're organizing a campaign to end factory farming, industrialized husbandry, a practice that is neither good for our bodies or our environments.
From a recent email:
"Factory farms have already forced out many small producers by lowering the price that farmers are paid for chickens and pigs. The tough economic times are hitting everyone hard and many farmers are losing their contracts. The USDA has bought up surplus pork, chicken and eggs for nutrition and school lunch programs to absorb some of the over-supply, but still, the agency continues to back loans for new factory farms."
Tell the USDA that we want to stop factory farming by clicking here
Showing posts with label Commentary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Commentary. Show all posts
Friday, July 31, 2009
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Little Locavores
This post was originally published on Being Savvy, Caitlin Giles excellent blog for Chicago parents. I'm reposting it as part of Real Food Wednesday.
My proudest moment as a chef/mom/food educator was relayed to me second hand. While perusing the produce aisles of the supermarket in late February, my mother asked my 4-year old son if he wanted strawberries. Declining, he said to my mother quizzically and yet emphatically, “Grandma, we can’t buy strawberries now, they’re not in season.”
When too many kids are eating far less than the recommended daily allotment of fruits or vegetables, why worry about whether the fruits and vegetables that they do eat are in season or worse locally grown? If you’re living or working in one the country’s food deserts, where the closest thing that you’ve got to a grocery store is a bodega that stocks more varieties of Cheetos than fruits, this is not likely to be your main concern.
How about the rest of us? Is it really that much of a struggle to pass by the California-grown strawberries in June or the Mexican-raised tomatoes in August? Locally grown, seasonal produce is all around us. Even Wal-Mart has even begun to source locally or at least regionally. But before I get into the where, I want to talk about the why. Here are my top three reasons for introducing locally-grown, seasonal foods into your child’s diet.
It tastes better. I started eating locally not for ideological reasons, but because it tastes better. If you’ve ever eaten a pea off of the vine or sweet baby greens picked in the morning and served on the table in the evening, you know what I mean. And strawberries, sweet Illinois strawberries. The white-hearted California berries bred for shipping have nothing on our tiny, ruby-like orbs that soar with flavor. If you want your child to have a lasting love for fruits and vegetables, give him ones that are full of flavor. Seriously, who could love starchy peas or wilted salad greens?
It’s better for the environment. A small caveat on this statement, even taking into account food miles (i.e. the distance your food travels from farm to fork), just because food is grown within a certain distance from your home does not intrinsically make it better for the environment. However, most local farmers who sell to consumers are small family farmers that tend their soil in a responsible manner often using organic methods even when they are not USDA certified as such (the little “o” versus the big “O”). How do you know the difference? The best way is to talk with the farmer and ask about their pest management systems and how they fertilize their soil. If, however, you don’t have the time or the inclination to do so, at the end of this post, I list markets and retailers that focus on locally grown, seasonal and sustainable produce that do the vetting for you.
It can forge a lasting connection between your child and the earth. I believe that connecting your child with the people who grow the food and the growing cycle creates a deeper respect for the food that they eat and for the earth. It was recently reported that America throws out 30% of the food raised in this country, a despicable fact given the rise in malnutrition and hunger on the planet. I have found that children who understand where their food comes from are less likely to waste it. My son knows that his apples come from Farmer Pete and his carrots from Miss Beth. He says “cheese please” to the cheese guys and knows that the good milk comes from the market in glass bottles. And the growing cycle, well, suffice to say, he’s pretty excited when June’s strawberries arrive.
Locally-grown, seasonal and sustainable produce is available from May through October at the City of Chicago’s farmers markets and year round at Green City Market (check the website for days and times), Green Grocer Chicago and Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks. Many of the Whole Foods in Chicago carry locally-produced items as well.
A final note, I’m actually not throwing my mother under the bus. My son and she were in Florida at the time of their conversation in the produce section where the strawberries in question were in fact in season.
My proudest moment as a chef/mom/food educator was relayed to me second hand. While perusing the produce aisles of the supermarket in late February, my mother asked my 4-year old son if he wanted strawberries. Declining, he said to my mother quizzically and yet emphatically, “Grandma, we can’t buy strawberries now, they’re not in season.”
When too many kids are eating far less than the recommended daily allotment of fruits or vegetables, why worry about whether the fruits and vegetables that they do eat are in season or worse locally grown? If you’re living or working in one the country’s food deserts, where the closest thing that you’ve got to a grocery store is a bodega that stocks more varieties of Cheetos than fruits, this is not likely to be your main concern.
How about the rest of us? Is it really that much of a struggle to pass by the California-grown strawberries in June or the Mexican-raised tomatoes in August? Locally grown, seasonal produce is all around us. Even Wal-Mart has even begun to source locally or at least regionally. But before I get into the where, I want to talk about the why. Here are my top three reasons for introducing locally-grown, seasonal foods into your child’s diet.
It tastes better. I started eating locally not for ideological reasons, but because it tastes better. If you’ve ever eaten a pea off of the vine or sweet baby greens picked in the morning and served on the table in the evening, you know what I mean. And strawberries, sweet Illinois strawberries. The white-hearted California berries bred for shipping have nothing on our tiny, ruby-like orbs that soar with flavor. If you want your child to have a lasting love for fruits and vegetables, give him ones that are full of flavor. Seriously, who could love starchy peas or wilted salad greens?
It’s better for the environment. A small caveat on this statement, even taking into account food miles (i.e. the distance your food travels from farm to fork), just because food is grown within a certain distance from your home does not intrinsically make it better for the environment. However, most local farmers who sell to consumers are small family farmers that tend their soil in a responsible manner often using organic methods even when they are not USDA certified as such (the little “o” versus the big “O”). How do you know the difference? The best way is to talk with the farmer and ask about their pest management systems and how they fertilize their soil. If, however, you don’t have the time or the inclination to do so, at the end of this post, I list markets and retailers that focus on locally grown, seasonal and sustainable produce that do the vetting for you.
It can forge a lasting connection between your child and the earth. I believe that connecting your child with the people who grow the food and the growing cycle creates a deeper respect for the food that they eat and for the earth. It was recently reported that America throws out 30% of the food raised in this country, a despicable fact given the rise in malnutrition and hunger on the planet. I have found that children who understand where their food comes from are less likely to waste it. My son knows that his apples come from Farmer Pete and his carrots from Miss Beth. He says “cheese please” to the cheese guys and knows that the good milk comes from the market in glass bottles. And the growing cycle, well, suffice to say, he’s pretty excited when June’s strawberries arrive.
Locally-grown, seasonal and sustainable produce is available from May through October at the City of Chicago’s farmers markets and year round at Green City Market (check the website for days and times), Green Grocer Chicago and Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks. Many of the Whole Foods in Chicago carry locally-produced items as well.
A final note, I’m actually not throwing my mother under the bus. My son and she were in Florida at the time of their conversation in the produce section where the strawberries in question were in fact in season.
School's In; rBGH is out
There's exciting news in Evanston for those who care about our childrens' health. Evanston School District 65 is exercising its right to buy rBGH-free milk.
Developed by Monsanto, rBGH or recombinant bovine growth hormone artificially increases milk production by 10-15%. Despite concerns over the risks to both humans and animals, the FDA continues to assert its safety. Many large corporations, including Wal-Mart, Starbucks and Chipotle refuse to purchase milk from cows given rBGH and the Chicago Public Schools has gone with a supplier whose milk is rBGH-free.
With the help of Food and Water Watch, Evanston has given rBGH milk the heave-ho announcing that it will serve rBGH-free milk in its cafeterias starting this autumn.
To learn more about the risks associated with rBGH milk, visit Sustainable Table or The Center for Food Safety's website. For more about the campaign, check out this Local Beet article by one othe Food & Water Watch's Field Organizer.
Developed by Monsanto, rBGH or recombinant bovine growth hormone artificially increases milk production by 10-15%. Despite concerns over the risks to both humans and animals, the FDA continues to assert its safety. Many large corporations, including Wal-Mart, Starbucks and Chipotle refuse to purchase milk from cows given rBGH and the Chicago Public Schools has gone with a supplier whose milk is rBGH-free.
With the help of Food and Water Watch, Evanston has given rBGH milk the heave-ho announcing that it will serve rBGH-free milk in its cafeterias starting this autumn.
To learn more about the risks associated with rBGH milk, visit Sustainable Table or The Center for Food Safety's website. For more about the campaign, check out this Local Beet article by one othe Food & Water Watch's Field Organizer.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Compost Chronicles: I Fought the Law, and the Law Won
Corporations, municipalities and organizations all over America are making zero-waste commitments, setting 5, 10 year goals to create programs that will ensure nothing that they buy or use will end up in a landfill, but will instead be reused, recycled or composted. Many experts, such as the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, consider zero-waste programs to be one of the quickest, cheapest and most effective ways to fight climate change. Given Chicago’s reputation as one of the greenest cities in America, it probably would surprise you to learn that it neither has made nor could make a zero-waste pledge at this time. What’s the hold-up? The law in Illinois as currently written effectively prohibits commercial composting of food scraps. In this feature, I’ll explain why and, more importantly, what you can do help get the offending and out-of-date provisions off the books.
Illinois requires commercial composting facilities accepting any material, other than landscape waste, to obtain a pollution control facility permit from the State Environmental Protection Agency. The Chicago Ordinance requires any composting operation to have a permit unless the waste, food or landscape, is created on-site, composted in-vessel (conducted in a fully enclosed container), and the resulting compost used on site. To explain, if a school were to compost its food scraps in full enclosed composting equipment, like an Earth Tub, it would have to use all of that compost on its property – it could not sell it or give it away to farmers, community gardeners or landscapers. Some may ask ‘what’s the big deal?’ A lot of businesses have to get permits or licenses to operate. Perhaps, the answer is found in the name of the permitting section, the Pollution Control at the State Public Nuisance Cessation and Abatement at the City. Composting, a life creating process, is considered a nuisance, a pollutant, by the government. And as a result, the permitting process is going to be an arduous and expensive one.
This has been the practical effect. According to Ken Dunne of the Resource Center, a municipality could charge up to $300,000 to site a composting facility within its limits. Consequently, as of today, there are no commercial composting facilities in Chicago that accept food scraps. In fact, according to findacomposter.com, a service of BioCycle Magazine, there is not a single composting operation in Illinois that accepts food scraps. The Resource Center’s composting site on 70th Street in Chicago was shut down by the City in 2003. A project that was to involve the Resource Center and the City of Chicago never materialized. The Resource Center is still operating, funding its operations through its recycling activities. The Center collects compostable food scraps from a limited number of restaurants and events, like Green Fest. It then brings these compostable materials to a composting facility in County Line, Indiana, where it is mixed in with other materials. Because of this mixing process, the resulting compost is used for landfill cover, not for farm purposes. Food waste represents 15-20% of residential garbage, without food scrap composting, we are squandering a valuable resource that could be used to enrich our soil.
So much for the bad news; the good news is that change may be on its way. Senator Heather Steans has introduced a bill, SB99, that would allow food waste to be commercially composted in Illinois. The bill seeks to amend the Illinois Environmental Protection Act to remove food scraps from the definition of garbage. It then defines “food scrap” to mean “compostable material that (i) results from the handling, processing, preparation, cooking consumption, or sale of food and (ii) is separate from either a household waste stream or a municipal waste stream.” It includes within this definition biodegradable food containers, i.e. compostables. The bill also goes on to exclude composting facilities that accept food scraps from the definition of pollution control facilities, thereby removing them from the arduous permitting process. The bill essentially treats food scrap composting in the same manner as landscape composting, allowed in Illinois for years.
The Fact Sheet, which accompanies the bill, focuses on the economic benefit of the amendments. It recognizes that the cost to process a food scrap composting site in Illinois is prohibitively expensive. It then asserts that “the bill will open up the ability for investors to form food waste composting facilities, creating jobs in Illinois and selling Illinois-made compost all over the country.” Only after the Fact Sheet concludes that the bill would prolong the life of Illinois’ landfills, does it note that it would reduce gases that contribute to climate change.
In the current financial and political climate in Illinois, starting with the economics of the situation is probably the best approach to take with the legislature. While it may seem that SB99 is a win-win piece of legislation that creates jobs, increases business opportunities and saves the environment, there are deeply held misconceptions about composting, which sank a similar piece of legislation in 2005 despite strong support by then Lieutenant Governor Pat Quinn.
To pass, the bill needs your help. SB99 is before the Senate Environment Committee on Thursday February 26. Call or email your Senator and urge them to support this important legislation. Food scrap composting is critical to the fight against climate change. It would reduce the amount of waste brought to our landfills, thus decreasing methane emissions. It is also a valuable soil conditioner that reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and pesticides. As Kay McKeen of SCARCE (School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education) put it, “our soil is a valuable resource, one that can be healed.” This cannot happen through chemical means, but instead by the nutrient-rich compost from our food scraps.
If you don't know your senator, search here
And then call or email to them the following.
Phone and Email Script for Support of Composting Legislation
Hello. My name is ________. I want to ask you to co-sponsor Senate Bill 99. SB99 is a bill that will allow commercial food waste composting in Illinois.
I support SB99 due to the following:
(Choose any of the following)
• Composting reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Properly aerated composting significantly reduces methane produced by decomposition. Methane has many more times the global warming impact of carbon dioxide.
• Composting reduces the amount of waste going to landfills. Currently, organic waste that could be composted makes up 1/3 of the waste in Illinois landfills.
• Creating commercial composting facilities separate from landfill facilities will create new jobs throughout Illinois. Currently, many organizations that wish to compost food waste export it for composting to surrounding Mid-western states. We should keep these jobs in Illinois.
• Using nutrient rich compost, the product of composting, instead of chemical fertilizers in crop cultivation and gardening will reduce the quantity of chemicals leached into our drinking water and food crops. Reducing dependence on chemical fertilizers is beneficial to ecological, animal, and human health.
• Illinois law should follow the example of states such as Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, California, Pennsylvania, and New York that have well established composting regulations. Illinois law should not lag on this issue.
I strongly believe that Senate Bill 99 will provide significant environmental and economic benefits to the state of Illinois. I request that you co-sponsor Senate Bill 99. Thank you very much for your time.
Monday, February 9, 2009
The Compost Chronicles: Earl the Earthworm
My son, the budding environmentalist, was inspired by a book to ask for a very unusual birthday present. Last November, Tim Magner of Green Sugar Press contacted me about the possiblity of some sort of collaboration with Purple Asparagus. About a month later, I received a package with Magner's three books, "N is for Nature," "An Environmental Guide from A to Z" and "Earl the Earthworms Digs for His Life." Sundays and Mondays are my nights to take Thor to bed and rebuffing his request to read the Lorax for the twelfth day in a row, I grabbed "Earl." He was fascinated by the book. After I explained the idea of a worm bin, and a slight bit of encouragement, Thor decided he wanted one for his birthday.
So on its way from Montana is a Tumbleweed Worm Farm from Planet Natural along with a bunch of red wiggler worms. More to come after their arrival.
Tim Magner's books are available on his site and also at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum.
Monday, January 5, 2009
A Delivery Resolution: The Local Beet
Like many of us, I have several New Year’s resolutions. Some of which are pretty common – there’s always my promise to exercise more. Others a little less expected – since my holiday cards are STILL unmailed, I resolve to write them in July this year. Given that I’m marching towards a pretty significant milestone birthday, some are pretty personal – these I won’t be publicizing. There is one, however, that is particularly relevant to Local Beet Readers. To read more.
Friday, January 2, 2009
A Surreal Meal
Last night, my husband, son and I had a very strange meal at one of our new favorite restaurants, Anteprima. Anteprima is an artisanal Italian restaurant in the Andersonville neighborhood of Chicago. Naming the neighborhood is relevant is important in understanding the restaurant’s demographics. Not too long ago, the area received some national notoriety as a result of another restaurateur’s decision to post a sign, which stirred a fierce conflict between two of the neighborhood’s largest inhabitant groups: gay men and urban straight parents.
Back in 2005, the owner of Taste of Heaven, a coffee shop, tired of rowdy children and the parents who ignored them posted a kid-level sign, with child-like handprints stating that “children of all ages have to behave and use indoor voices.” Both the Chicago Tribune and Time Out Chicago wrote short pieces about the sign and the controversy it was generating. Then, it hit the New York Times – reported on no less than the front page. The Trib revived the story in columns by Eric Zorn and John Kass. Pages and pages of blog posts ensued on the Stew, the Trib’s blog, which gave voice to the back story only alluded to in the Times’s piece – the conflict between childless gay men and affluent moms. On other sites, I saw words like “breeder” and “fag” bandied about with abandon. Fortunately, however, there were reasonable people on either side of the issue who were willing to see each other’s side – i.e., kids shouldn’t be allowed to run around and scream in any restaurant setting, unless it has the word Play Place attached to it and that customers of a coffee shop with a huge picture of an ice cream cone on its front door shouldn’t expect total solitude while drinking their double soy cappucino.
Last night, we got sandwiched between these demographics making for an interesting evening. A couple with a son about Thor’s age (5) walked in shortly after us and were seated just west of us. After about a minute, the father pulled out a DVD player, popped some earphones on the kid (pronouncing that he looked like a rock star) and fired it up. Other than climbing his feet along the restaurant’s wall, the kid was pretty quiet. Certainly more quiet than the gay couple who walked in and sat to the east of us. I’m not sure how it started, but by the time our entrees arrived, we learned much about their relationship, which was crashing upon the rocks before our very eyes.
Now we out a lot and so while surreal, this wasn’t the weirdest restaurant moment we’ve had by a long shot. I think that would be between my buying a painting from a homeless man at El Tinajon or Thor cleaning baseboards at our friend Stephen Dunne’s restaurant in Roscoe Village. But it of course reminded me of how our dining experience can be impacted by the behavior of others, especially children. Because of Purple Asparagus and our family dining focus, I’ve been interviewed on the question of eating out with children several times. Thor has been going to restaurants since he was born and for the most part is a very good patron. He’s gotten gifts from our regular waitresses, been allowed to help process the credit card from others and has frequently gotten us special treats from the kitchen. Here are my top six tips.
Eat Early:
When we go out with Thor, we eat as early as possible. We really like to arrive between 5 and 6. Most people who don’t want to eat out with kids in a restaurant don’t go at that time, but instead later, like 8. In most restaurants, it’s either not very busy or full of other families making a perfect and relatively stress-free time to dine with a 5 year old.
Butt on Wood (or whatever the chair is made of):
The rule is, unless he’s going to the bathroom, arriving or departing, the butt must be in the chair. Waiters are busy and are focusing their attention at the adult level, not kid level. If your kid is running around, it’s not just rude, it’s
dangerous.
Sotto Voce (otherwise known as “Inside Voice”):
This is most often our biggest challenge especially with a boisterous 5 year old, one that requires constant reinforcement. We also find that the busier and noisier the restaurant, the better. We’ll actually try to sit near the kitchen or by a door. We find that the background noises will overtake even the pierce of a 5 year old’s occasional shriek. We did certainly find that an arguing set of gay men drowned him out. Unfortunately, I think they needed to follow this advice.
Bring the Carrot and the Stick:
I’m sure that many a child psychologist would scold me, but I’m not above bribery or threats. Dessert is a good carrot and the loss of TV time a fine stick.
Encourage Kids to Interact:
Thor orders for himself. He must say please and must say thank you. And if he’s rude, he must apologize. He won over one of his biggest fans when he apologized for being naughty. It was a new waiter at one of our favorite restaurants. He was being a pill and we could see how she was categorizing us in her mind as that type of parent with that type of kid. Under duress, he apologized and her mood just melted. She gave him hot chocolate sauce on his ice cream gratis and he started to understand the power of honey versus vinegar.
We also require him to interact with us. As I mentioned, the child in my story was generally quiet, but he was shut off from the waitstaff, other patrons and his parents. He might as well have been sitting in front of a TV at home. While we do allow Thor to bring quiet and unobtrusive toys to distract him (crayons, paper, a small car or train), we do not allow anything that isolates him – I’m not certain how bringing a DVD player to dinner is any different than an adult spending the meal on a cell phone or a blackberry.
Tip Well:
For the small spills on the floor, for the 4 top that must be set for what is essentially 2 diners and just for the general inconvenience, we tip well (20% and up). For me, it’s like a corkage fee. We pay a little extra for the ability to bring our son. Waiters remember that and will be happy to see you the next time. And remember, it’s still cheaper than a baby sitter.
Back in 2005, the owner of Taste of Heaven, a coffee shop, tired of rowdy children and the parents who ignored them posted a kid-level sign, with child-like handprints stating that “children of all ages have to behave and use indoor voices.” Both the Chicago Tribune and Time Out Chicago wrote short pieces about the sign and the controversy it was generating. Then, it hit the New York Times – reported on no less than the front page. The Trib revived the story in columns by Eric Zorn and John Kass. Pages and pages of blog posts ensued on the Stew, the Trib’s blog, which gave voice to the back story only alluded to in the Times’s piece – the conflict between childless gay men and affluent moms. On other sites, I saw words like “breeder” and “fag” bandied about with abandon. Fortunately, however, there were reasonable people on either side of the issue who were willing to see each other’s side – i.e., kids shouldn’t be allowed to run around and scream in any restaurant setting, unless it has the word Play Place attached to it and that customers of a coffee shop with a huge picture of an ice cream cone on its front door shouldn’t expect total solitude while drinking their double soy cappucino.
Last night, we got sandwiched between these demographics making for an interesting evening. A couple with a son about Thor’s age (5) walked in shortly after us and were seated just west of us. After about a minute, the father pulled out a DVD player, popped some earphones on the kid (pronouncing that he looked like a rock star) and fired it up. Other than climbing his feet along the restaurant’s wall, the kid was pretty quiet. Certainly more quiet than the gay couple who walked in and sat to the east of us. I’m not sure how it started, but by the time our entrees arrived, we learned much about their relationship, which was crashing upon the rocks before our very eyes.
Now we out a lot and so while surreal, this wasn’t the weirdest restaurant moment we’ve had by a long shot. I think that would be between my buying a painting from a homeless man at El Tinajon or Thor cleaning baseboards at our friend Stephen Dunne’s restaurant in Roscoe Village. But it of course reminded me of how our dining experience can be impacted by the behavior of others, especially children. Because of Purple Asparagus and our family dining focus, I’ve been interviewed on the question of eating out with children several times. Thor has been going to restaurants since he was born and for the most part is a very good patron. He’s gotten gifts from our regular waitresses, been allowed to help process the credit card from others and has frequently gotten us special treats from the kitchen. Here are my top six tips.
Eat Early:
When we go out with Thor, we eat as early as possible. We really like to arrive between 5 and 6. Most people who don’t want to eat out with kids in a restaurant don’t go at that time, but instead later, like 8. In most restaurants, it’s either not very busy or full of other families making a perfect and relatively stress-free time to dine with a 5 year old.
Butt on Wood (or whatever the chair is made of):
The rule is, unless he’s going to the bathroom, arriving or departing, the butt must be in the chair. Waiters are busy and are focusing their attention at the adult level, not kid level. If your kid is running around, it’s not just rude, it’s
dangerous.
Sotto Voce (otherwise known as “Inside Voice”):
This is most often our biggest challenge especially with a boisterous 5 year old, one that requires constant reinforcement. We also find that the busier and noisier the restaurant, the better. We’ll actually try to sit near the kitchen or by a door. We find that the background noises will overtake even the pierce of a 5 year old’s occasional shriek. We did certainly find that an arguing set of gay men drowned him out. Unfortunately, I think they needed to follow this advice.
Bring the Carrot and the Stick:
I’m sure that many a child psychologist would scold me, but I’m not above bribery or threats. Dessert is a good carrot and the loss of TV time a fine stick.
Encourage Kids to Interact:
Thor orders for himself. He must say please and must say thank you. And if he’s rude, he must apologize. He won over one of his biggest fans when he apologized for being naughty. It was a new waiter at one of our favorite restaurants. He was being a pill and we could see how she was categorizing us in her mind as that type of parent with that type of kid. Under duress, he apologized and her mood just melted. She gave him hot chocolate sauce on his ice cream gratis and he started to understand the power of honey versus vinegar.
We also require him to interact with us. As I mentioned, the child in my story was generally quiet, but he was shut off from the waitstaff, other patrons and his parents. He might as well have been sitting in front of a TV at home. While we do allow Thor to bring quiet and unobtrusive toys to distract him (crayons, paper, a small car or train), we do not allow anything that isolates him – I’m not certain how bringing a DVD player to dinner is any different than an adult spending the meal on a cell phone or a blackberry.
Tip Well:
For the small spills on the floor, for the 4 top that must be set for what is essentially 2 diners and just for the general inconvenience, we tip well (20% and up). For me, it’s like a corkage fee. We pay a little extra for the ability to bring our son. Waiters remember that and will be happy to see you the next time. And remember, it’s still cheaper than a baby sitter.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Japan Pottery
I love dishware. Whether it be fine French porcelain or diner china, I am fascinated with dishware and ways that it complements my food. One of the things that I think is most special about my little catering company is that we serve on my personal collection - gathered from high end boutiques and yard sales. Imagine my delight when I stumbled upon a blog dedicated to Japanese pottery (or more accurately the blogger stumbled upon me). Enjoy!
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
The Compost Chronicles: Compostables - Friend or Foe?
This entry of the Compost Chronicles was originally posted on The Local Beet.
The first time that I bought disposable dishware in any sizable quantity was for Purple Asparagus. Last February, we signed up with the City to take part in their Winter Events where each weekend we led kids in a different food-centric project. Given the volume (500 kids a weekend) and the messiness of the projects (consider popcorn ball snowmen decorated with dried fruit and honey), we needed an abundance of the stuff. Compostable dishware, which was relatively new to Chicago, seemed to be the right choice for a business seeking to be sustainable. We ordered a case of bowls, a case of spoons and a case of bags for the kiddies to transport their projects with minimal fuss.
On the first day of the festival, I watched our volunteers help the children decorate their snowmen with locally grown, dried fruits “glued” on with locally produced honey. Feeling oh so virtuous, I began to clean up the abandoned bowls and spoons. I certainly didn’t need to worry about wasting, they were compostable! So with a large pile of stickiness, I walked to the garbage bin. Just as I reached my hand to release the first bowl, I looked to the bottom, past all of the discarded soda cups and candy wrappers, and saw the shiny black plastic of the garbage bag. Oh shit, I said to myself. Because at that moment, I realized that compostables won’t compost in a garbage bag destined for a landfill.
In fact, compostables, at least utensils and cups made from corn starch, won’t even compost, at least in a home composter. Built to be sturdy, they break down only in high-heat composting facilities, which are not publicly available to Chicagoans. Moreover, it’s seems troubling, at least to me, that in the face of a global food crisis, we divert potential food supplies, i.e. corn, to create products of convenience for Western society. Another disconcerting fact is that the corn used to create these disposable compostables is in all likelihood genetically engineered. Consider that when you purchase an expensive, organic salad in a compostable container. Finally, should PLA (corn plastics) get mistakenly mixed in with ordinary plastics in the recycling stream, the whole batch is ruined.
And yet, with all of these problems, many well-meaning businesses continue to switch to compostables. To justify this decision, I’ve heard several interesting explanations.
At a street festival, a Kashi representative was passing out samples in PLA cups, which were discarded in plastic lined garbage containers. His justification was that the PLA cups would ultimately require less space in landfills because the corn cups degrade faster than plastic. True. PLA reacts in a landfill just like other organic matter. In plastic bags, without access to light, moisture or oxygen, it degrades anaerobically in a process that creates methane a much more powerful and therefore environmentally destructive green house gas than carbon dioxide. Until society routinely harnesses landfill-generated methane to power our energy-hungry society, this explanation provides cold comfort.
In a recent email, a food service business explained its decision to continue to use its PLA products. It conceded the problems with compostables, but expressed its desire to move America away from our dependence on foreign oil (oil for those of you who don’t know is what regular plastics are made from). But isn’t this a false choice? Not too long ago, the standard post-purchase retail question was ‘paper or plastic.’ Today, we know that the conscientious answer to this question is neither. We need to urge a similar rethinking of our dependence upon convenience in the food world. Whenever possible, we need to decline single use utensils and instead select reusable ones. These days, for when I’m out and about, I’ve got a SIGG for my water, a stainless steel mug for my coffee and bamboo flatware for my meals. When I’m home, I use china, flatware and cloth napkins. Even when you have a party, there’s no need to rely upon disposables. If you’re having a crowd, renting is a cost effective alternative. But for a little fun, you could designate your parties BYOP – bring your own plate – a potentially great ice breaker if you ask your guest to bring their favorite, ugliest or most interesting. At the office, stash away a plate and silverware in your desk. It only takes a minute to wash.
The last justification for the continued use of compostable was put forth at a meeting for sustainably- minded restaurateurs. The speaker, as in my previous example, conceded the limitations of compostables, but urged their continued use to “create awareness.” Now, this was a head scratcher for me. Initially, I thought that there were only two awareness-building possibilities. First, people would have their Eureka moment realizing that their cup made of corn would never compost under the current conditions of disposal. Second, they would believe that their compostables would somehow magically compost under mounds of garbage in the landfill. I realized later that there was a third possibility, one that could create some good. Discarding valuable compostables exposes the great need that we have in this city for a comprehensive composting program. Most of the forward-thinking green cities have in place or are working towards creating a green bin program with curbside/alley pick up of compostable waste. Even Boston, a city older than Chicago, has in the works a state-of-the-art composting facility that would not merely process the city’s organic waste, but seek to capture the escaping gases to power 1,500 Boston residences. If Chicago truly wants to become a green city, it needs to not merely create an effective recycling system, but also a comprehensive program for the reclamation of organic matter through composting.
The first time that I bought disposable dishware in any sizable quantity was for Purple Asparagus. Last February, we signed up with the City to take part in their Winter Events where each weekend we led kids in a different food-centric project. Given the volume (500 kids a weekend) and the messiness of the projects (consider popcorn ball snowmen decorated with dried fruit and honey), we needed an abundance of the stuff. Compostable dishware, which was relatively new to Chicago, seemed to be the right choice for a business seeking to be sustainable. We ordered a case of bowls, a case of spoons and a case of bags for the kiddies to transport their projects with minimal fuss.
On the first day of the festival, I watched our volunteers help the children decorate their snowmen with locally grown, dried fruits “glued” on with locally produced honey. Feeling oh so virtuous, I began to clean up the abandoned bowls and spoons. I certainly didn’t need to worry about wasting, they were compostable! So with a large pile of stickiness, I walked to the garbage bin. Just as I reached my hand to release the first bowl, I looked to the bottom, past all of the discarded soda cups and candy wrappers, and saw the shiny black plastic of the garbage bag. Oh shit, I said to myself. Because at that moment, I realized that compostables won’t compost in a garbage bag destined for a landfill.
In fact, compostables, at least utensils and cups made from corn starch, won’t even compost, at least in a home composter. Built to be sturdy, they break down only in high-heat composting facilities, which are not publicly available to Chicagoans. Moreover, it’s seems troubling, at least to me, that in the face of a global food crisis, we divert potential food supplies, i.e. corn, to create products of convenience for Western society. Another disconcerting fact is that the corn used to create these disposable compostables is in all likelihood genetically engineered. Consider that when you purchase an expensive, organic salad in a compostable container. Finally, should PLA (corn plastics) get mistakenly mixed in with ordinary plastics in the recycling stream, the whole batch is ruined.
And yet, with all of these problems, many well-meaning businesses continue to switch to compostables. To justify this decision, I’ve heard several interesting explanations.
At a street festival, a Kashi representative was passing out samples in PLA cups, which were discarded in plastic lined garbage containers. His justification was that the PLA cups would ultimately require less space in landfills because the corn cups degrade faster than plastic. True. PLA reacts in a landfill just like other organic matter. In plastic bags, without access to light, moisture or oxygen, it degrades anaerobically in a process that creates methane a much more powerful and therefore environmentally destructive green house gas than carbon dioxide. Until society routinely harnesses landfill-generated methane to power our energy-hungry society, this explanation provides cold comfort.
In a recent email, a food service business explained its decision to continue to use its PLA products. It conceded the problems with compostables, but expressed its desire to move America away from our dependence on foreign oil (oil for those of you who don’t know is what regular plastics are made from). But isn’t this a false choice? Not too long ago, the standard post-purchase retail question was ‘paper or plastic.’ Today, we know that the conscientious answer to this question is neither. We need to urge a similar rethinking of our dependence upon convenience in the food world. Whenever possible, we need to decline single use utensils and instead select reusable ones. These days, for when I’m out and about, I’ve got a SIGG for my water, a stainless steel mug for my coffee and bamboo flatware for my meals. When I’m home, I use china, flatware and cloth napkins. Even when you have a party, there’s no need to rely upon disposables. If you’re having a crowd, renting is a cost effective alternative. But for a little fun, you could designate your parties BYOP – bring your own plate – a potentially great ice breaker if you ask your guest to bring their favorite, ugliest or most interesting. At the office, stash away a plate and silverware in your desk. It only takes a minute to wash.
The last justification for the continued use of compostable was put forth at a meeting for sustainably- minded restaurateurs. The speaker, as in my previous example, conceded the limitations of compostables, but urged their continued use to “create awareness.” Now, this was a head scratcher for me. Initially, I thought that there were only two awareness-building possibilities. First, people would have their Eureka moment realizing that their cup made of corn would never compost under the current conditions of disposal. Second, they would believe that their compostables would somehow magically compost under mounds of garbage in the landfill. I realized later that there was a third possibility, one that could create some good. Discarding valuable compostables exposes the great need that we have in this city for a comprehensive composting program. Most of the forward-thinking green cities have in place or are working towards creating a green bin program with curbside/alley pick up of compostable waste. Even Boston, a city older than Chicago, has in the works a state-of-the-art composting facility that would not merely process the city’s organic waste, but seek to capture the escaping gases to power 1,500 Boston residences. If Chicago truly wants to become a green city, it needs to not merely create an effective recycling system, but also a comprehensive program for the reclamation of organic matter through composting.
Monday, November 17, 2008
A Toast to the President-Elect
So, I know I wasn't a particularly active blogger for a while there. I wasn't away from my computer, however. I was right there in front of it too often obsessively following this year's very exciting election. To celebrate its happy conclusion, I posted the following on Just Grapes, a wine blog run by the wine shop, Just Grapes, at 560 West Washington here in Chicago.
My love of champagne began, believe it or not, when I was three years old. As the story goes, on a flight to Florida, my parents gave me a tiny plastic cup filled with the golden bubbles. Whether out of curiosity or for their own amusement, they fully expected me to wrinkle up my tiny nose and push it away. Little did they know that it would flow easily down my young throat, leading me to ask for more.
My love of champagne grew only stronger when it helped me through a dark time in my life: the death of my first marriage. I lived with a good friend during these difficult days who opportunely owned a large and varied collection of champagne. His earnest belief was that one could not be truly unhappy while drinking champagne.
It was with this theory in mind that I chilled two bottles of wine prior to leaving for the election rally in Grant Park on Tuesday. The first was a sparkling wine from Oregon – simple, clean and from a blue state. My hope was that if the evening did not go well, we couldn’t feel too hopeless while drinking something related to champagne. The second, the wine that ultimately was drunk, was the Pol Roger Sir Winston Churchill 1995, a wine whose taste lived up to its prodigious name. Rich and nutty, with big golden bubbles, full bodied – it flowed down as easily as that the first sip in the airline seat between my bemused parents. A perfect way to toast a new President and a new day in America.
Friday, November 7, 2008
Why Feed Your Kids Local Foods?
This post was originally published on Being Savvy, Caitlin Giles excellent blog for Chicago parents.
My proudest moment as a chef/mom/food educator was relayed to me second hand. While perusing the produce aisles of the supermarket in late February, my mother asked my 4-year old son if he wanted strawberries. Declining, he said to my mother quizzically and yet emphatically, “Grandma, we can’t buy strawberries now, they’re not in season.”
When too many kids are eating far less than the recommended daily allotment of fruits or vegetables, why worry about whether the fruits and vegetables that they do eat are in season or worse locally grown? If you’re living or working in one the country’s food deserts, where the closest thing that you’ve got to a grocery store is a bodega that stocks more varieties of Cheetos than fruits, this is not likely to be your main concern.
How about the rest of us? Is it really that much of a struggle to pass by the California-grown strawberries in June or the Mexican-raised tomatoes in August? Locally grown, seasonal produce is all around us. Even Wal-Mart has even begun to source locally or at least regionally. But before I get into the where, I want to talk about the why. Here are my top three reasons for introducing locally-grown, seasonal foods into your child’s diet.
It tastes better. I started eating locally not for ideological reasons, but because it tastes better. If you’ve ever eaten a pea off of the vine or sweet baby greens picked in the morning and served on the table in the evening, you know what I mean. And strawberries, sweet Illinois strawberries. The white-hearted California berries bred for shipping have nothing on our tiny, ruby-like orbs that soar with flavor. If you want your child to have a lasting love for fruits and vegetables, give him ones that are full of flavor. Seriously, who could love starchy peas or wilted salad greens?
It’s better for the environment. A small caveat on this statement, even taking into account food miles (i.e. the distance your food travels from farm to fork), just because food is grown within a certain distance from your home does not intrinsically make it better for the environment. However, most local farmers who sell to consumers are small family farmers who tend their soil in a responsible manner often using organic methods even when they are not USDA certified as such (the little “o” versus the big “O”). How do you know the difference? The best way is to talk with the farmer and ask about their pest management systems and how they fertilize their soil. If, however, you don’t have the time or the inclination to do so, at the end of this post, I list markets and retailers that focus on locally grown, seasonal and sustainable produce that do the vetting for you.
It can forge a lasting connection between your child and the earth. I believe that connecting your child with the people who grow the food and the growing cycle creates a deeper respect for the food that they eat and for the earth. It was recently reported that America throws out 30% of the food raised in this country, a despicable fact given the rise in malnutrition and hunger on the planet. I have found that children who understand where their food comes from are less likely to waste it. My son knows that his apples come from Farmer Pete and his carrots from Miss Beth. He says “cheese please” to the cheese guys and knows that the good milk comes from the market in glass bottles. And the growing cycle, well, suffice to say, he’s pretty excited when June’s strawberries arrive.
Locally-grown, seasonal and sustainable produce is available from May through October at the City of Chicago’s farmers markets and year round at Green City Market (check the website for days and times), Green Grocer Chicago and Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks. Many of the Whole Foods in Chicago carry locally-produced items as well.
A final note, I’m actually not throwing my mother under the bus. My son and she were in Florida at the time of their conversation in the produce section where the strawberries in question were in fact in season.
My proudest moment as a chef/mom/food educator was relayed to me second hand. While perusing the produce aisles of the supermarket in late February, my mother asked my 4-year old son if he wanted strawberries. Declining, he said to my mother quizzically and yet emphatically, “Grandma, we can’t buy strawberries now, they’re not in season.”
When too many kids are eating far less than the recommended daily allotment of fruits or vegetables, why worry about whether the fruits and vegetables that they do eat are in season or worse locally grown? If you’re living or working in one the country’s food deserts, where the closest thing that you’ve got to a grocery store is a bodega that stocks more varieties of Cheetos than fruits, this is not likely to be your main concern.
How about the rest of us? Is it really that much of a struggle to pass by the California-grown strawberries in June or the Mexican-raised tomatoes in August? Locally grown, seasonal produce is all around us. Even Wal-Mart has even begun to source locally or at least regionally. But before I get into the where, I want to talk about the why. Here are my top three reasons for introducing locally-grown, seasonal foods into your child’s diet.
It tastes better. I started eating locally not for ideological reasons, but because it tastes better. If you’ve ever eaten a pea off of the vine or sweet baby greens picked in the morning and served on the table in the evening, you know what I mean. And strawberries, sweet Illinois strawberries. The white-hearted California berries bred for shipping have nothing on our tiny, ruby-like orbs that soar with flavor. If you want your child to have a lasting love for fruits and vegetables, give him ones that are full of flavor. Seriously, who could love starchy peas or wilted salad greens?
It’s better for the environment. A small caveat on this statement, even taking into account food miles (i.e. the distance your food travels from farm to fork), just because food is grown within a certain distance from your home does not intrinsically make it better for the environment. However, most local farmers who sell to consumers are small family farmers who tend their soil in a responsible manner often using organic methods even when they are not USDA certified as such (the little “o” versus the big “O”). How do you know the difference? The best way is to talk with the farmer and ask about their pest management systems and how they fertilize their soil. If, however, you don’t have the time or the inclination to do so, at the end of this post, I list markets and retailers that focus on locally grown, seasonal and sustainable produce that do the vetting for you.
It can forge a lasting connection between your child and the earth. I believe that connecting your child with the people who grow the food and the growing cycle creates a deeper respect for the food that they eat and for the earth. It was recently reported that America throws out 30% of the food raised in this country, a despicable fact given the rise in malnutrition and hunger on the planet. I have found that children who understand where their food comes from are less likely to waste it. My son knows that his apples come from Farmer Pete and his carrots from Miss Beth. He says “cheese please” to the cheese guys and knows that the good milk comes from the market in glass bottles. And the growing cycle, well, suffice to say, he’s pretty excited when June’s strawberries arrive.
Locally-grown, seasonal and sustainable produce is available from May through October at the City of Chicago’s farmers markets and year round at Green City Market (check the website for days and times), Green Grocer Chicago and Irv & Shelly’s Fresh Picks. Many of the Whole Foods in Chicago carry locally-produced items as well.
A final note, I’m actually not throwing my mother under the bus. My son and she were in Florida at the time of their conversation in the produce section where the strawberries in question were in fact in season.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Remembering Abby
Abby Mandel Meyer 1932-2008
"Grieve not ... nor speak of me with tears ...
but laugh and talk of me ...
as though I were beside you.
I love you so ...
'twas heaven here with you"
Ilsa Pachal Richardson, Program at Service
Judging from the number of market bags that I own, I’d been going to Green City Market for several years before I met Abby Mandel Meyer in person. In 2005, my non-profit, Purple Asparagus, had agreed to organize the Market’s Saturday kids programming. We’d worked out most of the details of our involvement with her then-assistant, Jeanne Pinsof. Nevertheless, the final okay had to come from Abby herself. I’d been primed for my conversation with her by a board member of ours was also on the Market’s board so I knew that she had a reputation of being imperious. And while this personality was one that I’d become used to in my career in Big Law, as this was my first contact with someone of this stature in my new profession, I was nervous. I remember precisely where the conversation took place. It was late May and she was weaving in and out of the rows of Nichol’s vegetable plants. Trim and well-dressed with her notable Chanel sunglasses, we had our first of many conversations while walking through the Market. She was direct, but gracious, clear with her goals and appreciative of our efforts. Nothing like I had anticipated.
I’ve heard the complaint that Abby was “divisive”. Not surprising as she was a driven woman with big goals and a personality to match. She expected a great deal from those around her, but she demanded a lot from herself as well. And if you did a job well, she was quick to praise and her praise meant a lot because you knew it was honest and well-deserved. I always believed that this was the secret to working with Abby, which was difficult for some because it was a true test of your mettle. You could never phone it in with Abby – she always challenged you to do your best.
I’ll miss many things about Abby, her candor, her directness, even her characteristic shorthand in responding to emails. Only the week before she passed away, I had received an email response to a question I had asked: “lets talk mon.” Sadly, I know now why we never did. But most importantly, I will miss the opportunity of not getting to know her even better. She was a great woman who challenged and inspired and I personally am grateful to have known her.
"Grieve not ... nor speak of me with tears ...
but laugh and talk of me ...
as though I were beside you.
I love you so ...
'twas heaven here with you"
Ilsa Pachal Richardson, Program at Service
Judging from the number of market bags that I own, I’d been going to Green City Market for several years before I met Abby Mandel Meyer in person. In 2005, my non-profit, Purple Asparagus, had agreed to organize the Market’s Saturday kids programming. We’d worked out most of the details of our involvement with her then-assistant, Jeanne Pinsof. Nevertheless, the final okay had to come from Abby herself. I’d been primed for my conversation with her by a board member of ours was also on the Market’s board so I knew that she had a reputation of being imperious. And while this personality was one that I’d become used to in my career in Big Law, as this was my first contact with someone of this stature in my new profession, I was nervous. I remember precisely where the conversation took place. It was late May and she was weaving in and out of the rows of Nichol’s vegetable plants. Trim and well-dressed with her notable Chanel sunglasses, we had our first of many conversations while walking through the Market. She was direct, but gracious, clear with her goals and appreciative of our efforts. Nothing like I had anticipated.
I’ve heard the complaint that Abby was “divisive”. Not surprising as she was a driven woman with big goals and a personality to match. She expected a great deal from those around her, but she demanded a lot from herself as well. And if you did a job well, she was quick to praise and her praise meant a lot because you knew it was honest and well-deserved. I always believed that this was the secret to working with Abby, which was difficult for some because it was a true test of your mettle. You could never phone it in with Abby – she always challenged you to do your best.
I’ll miss many things about Abby, her candor, her directness, even her characteristic shorthand in responding to emails. Only the week before she passed away, I had received an email response to a question I had asked: “lets talk mon.” Sadly, I know now why we never did. But most importantly, I will miss the opportunity of not getting to know her even better. She was a great woman who challenged and inspired and I personally am grateful to have known her.
Sunday, May 25, 2008
A Tale of Two Cities
In April, my husband and I travelled to New Orleans for the first time since Katrina for the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Anyone who read my post detailing our trip to Newport, RI for the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs conference may sense a trend in our vacation travels (busman’s holiday, maybe?).
We weren’t certain what to expect, at least in regards to the condition of the city. One of our closest friends had lived in New Orleans prior to Katrina as did his entire family. Their Lakeview neighborhood home was completely destroyed and they relocated to Lake Charles, Louisiana. As a result, I hadn’t talked to anyone who lived there to know what things really looked like.
Initially, we were pleasantly surprised. The tourist-friendly areas of the French Quarter, Uptown and the Warehouse District never looked better. The streets were cleaner than I had recalled, new businesses had opened and the bars were full with visitors. If you remained in these neighborhoods, you might actually believe President Bush’s celebration of New Orleans’ “comeback” in his visit shortly after our stay.
If, however, you ventured outside of these areas, a different tale emerged, one of two cities. On our third day there, we booked a van tour through the Katrina-ravaged neighborhoods. In far too many areas, it seemed from our eyes that the storm could have happened months if not weeks before. Houses ripped off of their foundations pushed into fences or even rolling over other houses. Overgrown weeds provided the only cover for debris. And worst of all, many of the homes, if we can call them that nowadays, still bore the spray-painted markers of the rescue workers to inventorying the contents (i.e. dead or not dead). Of course, there were some bright spots: Musician’s Village with its brightly-colored bungalows most bearing Obama 2008 signs on their front lawns. But those signs of progress were few and far between.
Now, I admit that I’m the most consummate of travelers. Nevertheless, the only other place in the world that I’ve seen such a contrast was in South Africa a few years after apartheid ended. It had a similar disparity of beautiful, well-maintained tourist areas full of world class restaurants and luxury hotels with the shanty towns next to the highway. I certainly understand the need of a city so dependent upon the hospitality industry to put on a good face for the world. Once tourists return, the rebuilding can commence with greater speed. Nevertheless, it was a very sad day for me to see so vividly the failings of our own government. Let’s certainly hope that whomever becomes our next president (perhaps one whose name rhymes with yo’ mama), will make New Orleans a greater priority than the current administration.
On to the positives, the City has thankfully retained its wonderful quirky character so visibly demonstrated by the pirate convention, which was going on at the same time as IACP. We stayed largely in the French Quarter, being in walking distance from our lovely hotel, the Lowes across from the Windsor Court. However, some of our best meals were had in the Warehouse District, including our first Crescent City meal at Couchon. If I ate nothing more than the butter-dripped dinner rolls, I could have been happy. Ah but there was so much more. Barbecued oysters, veal cheeks and beef brisket. Absolutely wonderful. In the evening, we had a disappointingly uneven meal at August. Although my shrimp bisque was silken and rich, my entrée was unmemorable evidenced by the fact that I can’t recall what I ate. My dessert, a trio of strawberries, was disappointing in its execution given the high quality of the ingredients. Across the table, my husband’s lamb was outstanding and his cheese plate well-chosen. My second favorite meal was at the old French Quarter stand-by, Mr. B’s Bistro. My catfish paired with unctuously rich black-eyed peas was by far one of the best things I’ve eaten thus far this year.
Obviously, the New Orleans’ experience cannot only be summed up by food – drinks play a big part of it as well, whether Pimm’s Cups at Napoleon House or a Hurricane at Pat O’Brien’s. Our two best drinking experiences this trip were at W.I.N.O. (Wine Institute New Orleans) in the Warehouse District and a Sazerac at Arnaud’s. Pictured above, WINO, a self-serve wine bar, with a hundred or so bottles of fine wine was a New Orleans original, especially because many cities, Chicago included, would not allow its existence because of dramshop laws. The Sazerac was my first and, while I’m not much of a cocktail drinker, it was wonderful, slightly reminiscent of my grandmother’s Manhattans.
And on to the third of New Orleans’ great pleasures, in my view: music. We had the wonderful opportunity to pick up two CDs from street musicians who were playing outside of Brennan’s. I was able to pick up one of the two bands on tape, enhanced only by the very talented jitterbugging groupies. Enjoy! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4303664839541666912&hl=en
Sunday, May 11, 2008
Anyone Can Cook
So I just couldn’t do it. The party venue du jour of the preschool set is Pump It Up. The place is a well-oiled machine – they get the kids in and out on well-timed increments and the kids do love it. However, the thought of spending my son’s birthday in a warehouse filled with house-size inflatable slides without a stiff Bloody Mary was not one that I could bear.
How glad am I to be friends with Elena Marre, owner of The Kids Table. Not only did I know we’d be treated well when I booked a cooking class for Thor’s birthday party, but alcohol (for the larger set) would be welcome.
When you do what I do for a living, food is a part of every celebration, particularly birthdays. But how do you incorporate something more than pizza and macaroni and cheese into a 4-year old’s birthday. Thus, thankful was I when Ratatouille was the Pixar movie of the year. I was even more thankful when Thor took to it (he knows what a toque is and who wears it). A French bistro themed birthday party for a 4-year old! Hoo-ray!
Like a busman’s holiday, I actually enjoy planning the minutia of a personal event. Once I have the theme, ideas flow from there: invitations, décor, menu and music. With the theme set, I needed to find the image for his invitation. No cheesy paper cartoons for us. I loved the bistro sign at the end of the movie, but was unable to find any sign of the image even on Al Gore's Internet. I used my art class skills, thought to be lost forgotten, bought a linoleum stamp carving set and created it myself. With the exception of the slightly wider, squirrel-like tail, I think it turned out quite well.
My husband and I have quite a few single friends and friends without children so Thor gets two birthday parties: an adult and a kid party. We like to keep the two consistent in theme if possible. This year, given our Francophile-kid party, we had a bistro party. The invitation for adults was the Eiffel Tower. We began with the kid-friendly frites with aioli and gougeres, supplementing with pate of duck livers from the whole ducks that were cut up for the meal’s centerpiece: cassoulet. We partnered it with a salad of butter lettuce, candied walnuts and Roqufort. Dessert was handmade Parisian macaroons and chocolate mousse cake.
For the kids’ party, we were unfortunately unable to get Thor to cook anything more exotic than pizza, but at least it was made with whole wheat crust and topped with lots of vegetables. The kids started out by making their own chef’s toques, moved onto homemade lemonade, squeezing the lemons on individuals, and then rolled their pizzas crusts and topped them. While the pizzas baked, they made and enjoyed fruit kabobs.
While the pizza-making portion of the event was particularly French inspired, we carried our theme to the adult refreshments: a beautiful platter of French cheeses paired with a French wine, two excellently valued wines the Da Estate Vin de Pays Chardonnay 2006 at $7.99 and the La Forge Vin de Pays Pinot Noir 2006, which was $9.99 when we bought it in February, but has increased to $12.99 since then (worth the increase).
But the piece de resistance (to continue the French theme) was the beautiful “Rat” cake prepared by my good friend Naomi Levine of Tipsy Cake. It was an absolute masterpiece in fondant down to the chervil in Remy’s hand. The kid’s loved it and the parents (including us) were amazed.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
My family participated in this year's Earth Hour earlier this evening. We had a late dinner, lit some candles, poured some wine and enjoyed good conversation. Towards the latter part of the hour, Thor and I read my favorte Dr. Seuss book, The Lorax. I haven't read it since I was a child and it was amazing how moving it is for a kids' picture book. When the lights went back on, Thor asked to have Earth Hour every week.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Eating Clams in Newport RI and the East End of Long Island
On my list of things-to-do, one of the oldest items is to write a post about a trip that my husband and I took to the north fork of Long Island and Newport, Rhode Island in early November. While I had the best of intentions of writing it while the trip was still fresh, you know what they say about those kinds of intentions. With the holidays, crunch time in the business and my husband’s surgery, this item kept falling to the bottom of the list. Having finally gotten my head above water again, I figured I could get this done and finally cross it off. (A to-do list is only as good as its cross-offs).
Last year I joined the Women Chefs & Restaurateurs. Glad was I when I got the invitation to their annual meeting, which was held in Newport, Rhode Island. My parents live on Long Island, fairly close to McArthur Airport. So it was there that we made an exchange: our son, Thor, for their car. We then drove to Greenport, a small town on the north fork of Long Island to stay at a lovely B&B, Bartlett House Inn. That evening, my parents had made reservations for us at the North Fork Table. The name may sound familiar to those who follow the New York restaurant scene. I forget who the chef is, but the pastry chef is one of my personal heroes, Claudia Fleming, formerly of Gramercy Tavern. The restaurant sources locally from the farms and vineyards surrounding it. The meal was really lovely – I had the Block Island fluke crudo with Hawaiian sea salt and grapefruit – fresh and fantastic. Mike had the Hudson Valley Foie Gras terrine. Also wonderful and especially unctuous. I ordered the monkfish as an entrée and Mike a lobster pasta dish. The flavors were really deeply layered and vibrant. The only small disappointment came with dessert, though not its execution, but instead the menu. The only locally sourced dessert was the apple tart, which I then ordered. Unbelievably rich, yet light as a feather puff pastry topped with perfectly cooked caramelized apples. Mike had some sort of chocolate dessert as he is apt to do. As a mignardise, we were given the tiny spice dougnuts, which are featured in Fleming’s wonderful book, The Last Course.
Next day, we drove out to the very deserted Montauk point to see the lighthouse and had lunch at a hole in a wall with fantastic fried bay scallops and clam chowder. We made our way back to the North Fork to visit the vineyards. Long Island wines, while better then when I lived there, are still no match for other winemaking regions. We did find some good sparkling wines from Lenz, a really great (but expensive) red from Wolffer and a very interesting blueberry port from Duck Walk. The most interesting and entertaining part of the day was when we were asked to appear on a television segment that they were filming on red wines and headaches. Somewhere in NY, they were watching my profile for a split second. That evening, we had dinner at the Frisky Oyster, http://www.thefriskyoyster.com/. Two chefs who were catering in Manhattan decided to make their way out to Greenport to open a very funky, little restaurant. While I don’t remember that much of the meal, I do know that I liked it, particularly their take on a caprese salad, which included a very tasty gougere. What I do remember was our dessert, which we did not partake of at the Frisky Oyster, but instead at my favorite Greenport establishment, Claudio’s. http://www.claudios.com/ Claudio’s is the “oldest, same family run restaurant in the United States.” I myself have been going there since I was 6 months old when my parents and I would sail there on our annual family cruise. Dessert was not chocolate, nor apple this evening, but clams – baked clams to be exact. I certainly could not have left Greenport without a batch of those.
The next morning we woke up to the first Nor’easter of 2007, not a welcome sight given that we were taking the ferry to Connecticut and then driving to Newport. We moved up our reservation, skipped the complementary breakfast and instead had the remaining freshly-made doughnuts from Wickham’s Fruit Farm on the ferry with a cup of coffee on the trip over. We made our way through the torrential rain and wind and arrived in Newport. Our first stop after being told that we had to check-in later was to Banister’s Wharf and the Black Pearl. http://www.blackpearlnewport.com/tavern.htm We started with the clams casino (I do love my clams) and then I had the grey sole and Mike the scallops. Both were very New England in their preparation, old-fashioned, yes, but also excellent. That evening, there were no official events for the conference, so we had dinner again on Bannister’s Wharf at Fluke Wine Bar. Having already had clams, scallops, and even fluke, we decided it was time for a good old lobster. We shared this and the paella – a good rendition, but not mind-blowing.
The conference theme was sustainability and the keynote speaker was Joan Dye Gussow. Her speech led into a panel discussion with the founder of Red Tomato in Boston, a company that markets products from family farms throughout New England, and Nora Pouillon. The discussion centered on local foods and why it’s important to support our family farms, which began a lively debate on bananas in the Dominican Republic and the living conditions of the farm workers. The woman who began the discussion worked for a frozen food company and she was really asking how far does the idea of “local” go. Odessa Piper, formerly of L’Etoile and a real pioneer of the local foods movement, stood up and said something extraordinary. She explained her position simply as “the distance your heart can travel” implying that it is as far as you continue to care about and seek to improve (whether by buying or not buying) the conditions of the people raising/producing/growing the product and the earth upon which it is raised. It was a personal eureka moment for me.
The next memorable event and meal was the gala dinner the next evening to which Mike accompanied me. We had a wonderful table: a Providence radio host, Ginny Lambrix, the very young director of winegrowing of De Loach and fellow Colgate alum, Lee Jones of the Chef’s Garden and Karen Waltuck of Manhattan’s Chanterelle. All of the meals were prepared by conference participants, so the food was not like that of other conferences. The evening was lovely, but there were two highlights. The first was the comic relief. During the cocktail hour, Mike was watching the Patriots’ game in the hotel bar. He met a bunch of guys who were guests at a wedding in the hotel. After halfway through the awards presentation, one of the guys pulls up a chair next to Mike. He introduces himself to the ladies around him and feigns interest in the speeches. A few minutes later, the restaurateur of the year award is given to Karen Waltuck. She walks to the stage at the front of the ballroom and our friend moves to the side of the room picks up a potted plant and carries it to the stage and presents it like one would give roses to the leading lady. He gets escorted out. While we all know about wedding crashers after the perfectly awful Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn movie, one does not often see conference crashers. The second highlight was much more inspirational and that was meeting Leah Chase of Dooky Chase who received the President’s award for a lifetime achievement. Suffice to say, she was definitely a presence and it was a moment I won’t soon forget.
Our final meal, the next day, was an oyster feast with oysterman shucking on site followed by a clambake made in the hotel’s pit overlooking the sunset. It was quite an evening.
The next day we returned to Long Island again traveling in the rain. Our last meal was at the Seafood Barge in Southhold. I shared oysters with Mike and then had a green salad – clearly the indication that it was time to go home. I had eaten so much seafood for the past 5 days that I felt like I should be taking someone’s temperature. I definitely exceeded my Mercury allotment for the month.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Welcome
Welcome to Having-Company, a resource for those of us trying to understand and incorporate sustainable practices and principles into our lives. I’m a former attorney who left the law several years ago to open a Chicago-based, boutique catering company, Monogramme Events & Catering, which specializes in seasonable and sustainable cuisine. I’m also the founder and president of a non-profit, Purple Asparagus, dedicated to bringing families back to the table by promoting and enjoying all the things associated with good eating.
Having company is one of the best ways to introduce sustainability into everyday life. Food can nourish more than our bodies as a thoughtful and well-prepared meal can fill your heart and expand your mind. We all eat, and by sharing food with family and friends, we foster the connections that sustain us. If we prepare meals that respect the seasons and incorporate products that are kind to the environment, we create a bond not only between people, but between people and the earth.
In this resource, I want to inspire people to build and sustain connections within their communities. To do this, I will provide sustainable resources, recipes and information about events and projects in which to become involved. The better connected that we are to one another and to earth, the more likely we’ll take care of each other and it.
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