Family Photo Friday

Something a little different this week, since we're off our regular posting schedule.

 

 

 

Enjoying a dinner of some broccoli soup, good bread, garden asparagus, and foraged morels.

Sign of Spring - Fiddleheads

Foraged spring greens are always a delight, but I especially like learning to identify new plants.

Fiddleheads are a new one for me, and with the help of The Forager's Harvest, my new favorite wild edibles guide, Dan and I were able to correctly identify, harvest and prepare them.

We were also on the lookout for ramps (wild leeks) but did not find any on our hike today, so will continue looking next time out. The window for fiddleheads is so short, we'll likely go out again in the next couple of days to get more for fresh eating as well as freezing.

P.S. On Eating Skate -- and an Impressively Quick Reply

Wanted to add this...because by the time I finished writing and posting the previous entry, this response was in my inbox. Incredible!

Dear Ms. Heller:

     Thank you for your inquiry regarding skate fish.  This is the response I received from our Director of Purchasing. "We source Winter Skate, not one of the species mentioned...this species is not endangered and is fished by permit only with a quotable catch to ensure its sustainability."

     We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback.

Sincerely,

Denise

 

 

Denise Fiore

Office Manager

Restaurant Education & Operations

 

The Culinary Institute of America

1946 Campus Drive

Hyde Park, NY  12538

Phone:  845.451.1547

Fax:  845.451.1094

Web Site:  www.ciachef.edu

 

Food is Life

Create and Savor Yours.™

Eating A Skate May Be A Mistake

I had a lovely time with my friend Susan touring around the Mid-Hudson Valley last weekend.
We walked the trail around the Vanderbilt Mansion and got to sit out on the rocks by the Hudson River during the few cool but sunny hours. Later, when it rained, we toured the insides of the Mansion as well as the home of FDR. Susan and I also met up with my college roommate Barbara who lives in the area.

But the main attraction of the weekend was the time that Susan and I spent at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park. We had dinner at one of the CIA restaurants, American Bounty, and took a Gourmet Meals in Minutes cooking class.

I was going to write more about both the dining and class experience. But when I googled to find an image of what I ate on Friday night, I didn't find a good photo to post but instead found some disturbing information. This is what I wrote to the CIA just now on a comment form on their website:

When I was at American Bounty last Friday, I ordered the skate fish. I had talked generally with our servers about local and sustainable foods but did not ask a specific question about this only fish on the menu. Although I had seen skates on beaches, I had never eaten one nor knew about them as edible (I have since seen the 1980 Julia Child video on cooking skate).When I returned home, I googled Skate and was dismayed to find that:

 "In 2010, Greenpeace International has added the barndoor skate, bottlenose skate, spotback skate, and maltese skate to its seafood red list. "The Greenpeace International seafood red list is a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries." wikipedia

Could you please tell me what kind of skate was served and where and how it was caught? Any other comments about why it was chosen to be on the menu would be appreciated.

Will the CIA respond?
Have you ever eaten skate?

Next time I'll share more about the wonderful cooking class...
And dear readers -- just click on this link if you would like to view Julia Child's Skate cooking demonstration:

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On Absolutism

I recently ate lunch at one of the Chinese buffets in town. When I told a new acquaintance where I was going to eat, he was extremely surprised.

I write, think, and talk a lot about sustainability and living my beliefs. I have worked hard to reduce the negative impact I have on our planet, and to increase the positive impact I have in my own community. I am working on growing and preserving more of my own food, and I buy a lot of local, bulk, and organic foods. And like everyone, I am also human.

 A mostly local breakfast with a kiwi from California

When I was vegan, people often said to me "I would be vegan if it weren't for ________," where the blank was cheese or ice cream or even bacon. I hear people make similar statements about other things "I would do x, if it weren't for y exception."

My response is always "So go for it." There are always going to be exceptions and shades of gray. If we wait until circumstances are perfect, chances are we'll never do anything. I do think commitment and follow through are important, but getting started is more important, and many people need that gradual easing in or the occasional exception.  

That's OK. Give yourself permission to not be absolute about everything, to not be perfect, to allow yourself exceptions without having to feel guilty. I enjoyed my Chinese buffet lunch, and that's OK. Those exceptions and shades of gray are all OK, as long as you are moving in the direction you want to be going. So get started. NOW.

What I Do, Part 2 - Food Not Bombs

Read my first post on what I do (an overview) here. Over the next few months, I intend to write more about the specifics of some of my current projects and interests, as well as more generally about what it means to be a Scanner.

I've already mentioned a few of the ways I try to live my beliefs... including eating locally, growing my own food, and dumpster diving. Some of these changes mostly just affect me, others have a larger impact. I guess I'm always looking for ways in which my own small changes and actions can have a larger ripple effect .

One project I'm involved in that I hope falls into that category is Food Not Bombs. Food Not Bombs is an international organization with autonomous regional chapters like the Binghamton chapter which collect food that would have otherwise gone to waste (through arrangements with natural food stores, grocery stores, food pantries/food recovery programs, and yes, occasionally dumpster diving) and use it to prepare meals which are then shared with the community. 

Like other programs that offer community meals, one of our intentions is to help those most in need. But some of our other goals differ - we strive to reduce food waste, build community and bring people together (by allowing anyone to participate in preparing, eating, and cleaning up after meals), and also to serve food that is both tasty and nutritious.

 

So how have we done with these goals?

• We have absolutely reduced food waste by using food that would have been wasted to prepare meals. All leftovers are given away or taken home by volunteers and all food scraps are either fed to our chickens or composted. 
• There is a strong sense of community at meals. I love coming and eating and chatting with different people each week. One of my favorite parts of each week is listening to the person who brings and plays a different musical instrument each week. This was not something we arranged, but something that grew spontaneously out of this community.
• We serve vegetarian food. Most of the meal consists of well-seasoned fresh vegetables (we do incorporate canned and frozen veggies as needed, but that is usually less of the meal), grains, and beans. We provide exposure to a type of food that many regulars on the community meal circuit do not get anywhere else and try to get people to realize that vegetables are both healthy and delicious! We also share our recipes and cooking tips with anyone who is interested and many people try our recipes at home. Volunteers also learn a lot about cooking and safely utilizing food that others might throw away.

While Food Not Bombs has no formal leadership structure and is a non-hierarchical organization, it seems common in many chapters for a few individuals to take on the majority of the responsibility. While we have many wonderful volunteers, I think Dan and I have fallen into that position and gotten a bit stuck there. There are pros and cons to this, but at this point my goal for working with Food Not Bombs is to make myself obsolete. I'd like to continue to be involved because I enjoy it, but know that the chapter would be able to continue with or without me. Towards that end, I intend to continue trying to help develop leadership in others and examine whether there are ways that I am unconsciously clinging to power and control (and try to let go of them).

I hope this will make the organization stronger, grow my skill set a bit, and free up some of my time and energy to work on other projects. Because there are always other projects.

Winter Flavors

It's a challenge to eat local this time of year and still have a well-rounded diet. Tonight I made a lentil stew with homegrown garlic, onions, and carrots in it. That's typical of my winter diet - mixing local fresh and stored produce with bulk staples. I often find myself getting bored with staples though, and when I happen upon recipes that put a new twist on old ingredients, it makes me very happy.

This Flatbread with Roasted Apple, Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion recipe from Chef Chloe fits the bill. I made this recipe with local apples, squash, onions, garlic, and chard. It has no dairy, instead using a garlic white bean puree as the base, and is really hearty and delicious. My flour and dried beans I purchase in bulk, saving both packaging and money. The original recipe calls for spinach, but I substituted chard instead, and I think you could use kale too. If you decide to try this recipe, take Chloe's advice and make extra of the bean puree, as it is excellent on sandwiches or crackers as well.

Winter Greens!

My dad and I have been experimenting with extending our growing/eating season for fresh veggies. Most of the information we have used comes from Eliot Coleman's excellent books, including The Winter Harvest Handbook: Year Round Vegetable Production Using Deep Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses and Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.

A page from Four Season Harvest showing a sketch of a cabbage stalk sprouting in a bucket inside.

This is how it turns out in real life! 

I have a cabbage stalk sprouting in my apartment (I cut the stalk off the cabbage and planted it in a bucket of potting soil), and I have been eating the leaves on sandwiches. There is not much greenery, but it helps satisfy my urge for fresh greens.

Also on the sandwich are Tofu Kan (a local baked marinated tofu which I love), local cheese (Baby Rand from CNY Bounty), hummus (leftover from Food Not Bombs), canned banana peppers (store bought), and our own homegrown carrots. The carrots did amazingly well this year - growing huge, keeping a good flavor, and storing well so far, in both the ground and the fridge.

Local Cheese Showdown!

At Thanksgiving, we had a local cheese showdown - three NY cheeses vs. three Wisconsin cheeses (local to a visiting relative) plus homemade crackers and local apple slices.

 And the winner of the showdown is...

 All of us! (Because we all got to eat a bunch of really delicious cheese.) The crowd favorite was the 15-year-old cheddar (WI). I was a big fan of the aged raw milk cheddar which tasted more like parmigiano (WI) and the baby rand (NY). They were all super tasty though.

We all had a great time!

Presto Change-o, Abracadabra

Q: What happens when you swap four roosters (purported to be hens)...

...for four actual hens?

A: A lot less crowing and little bit of tasty magic:

 

Restaurant Review - China Lake

Last Saturday, Dan and I ate at China Lake, our new favorite restaurant in the Binghamton area. China Lake is located at 3215 E. Main St in Endicott. The atmosphere is nothing special and the service can be spotty (best not to wait for menus if it's busy, just grab 'em yourself from next to the register), but the food is definitely worth it! I also like that the food is so good it seems to break down certain normal social barriers... every time we go it seems people are talking to people at the next table - about how good the food is, about their favorite dishes, or the best ordering strategy.

China Lake has two menus -  a longer one with the usual American Chinese classics, and a shorter one-page menu with more traditional Chinese options. We have enjoyed dishes from both menus, but I am partial to the traditional menu and recommend trying dishes you are not familiar with. I also recommend going with a group of people so you can taste several dishes.

Failing that, plan to order more dishes than your party needs and take home the leftovers. This visit, we followed that strategy and ordered four dishes plus an appetizer for the two of us - steamed dumplings, home-style bean curd, three flavored chicken, pork lo mein, and pea shoots (listed on the menu as sweet pea leaf, I believe).

The dumplings were decent but nothing exciting, for an appetizer I recommend the beef scallion pancake. The bean curd was delicious, and just the right texture too, with a good assortment of veggies. Next time I'd skip the lo mein and order something else from the traditional menu. Dan's favorite was the three flavored chicken, which is cooked in small chunks on the bone with a sesame-based sauce flavored with garlic, ginger, basil, and some secret tasty ingredients (the proprietress would not divulge). The pea shoots were my favorite dish - cooked just the right amount and not too strongly flavored so the natural taste of the greens came through. I would be inclined to order these next time if I hadn't committed myself to ordering my way through their entire list of veggie options.

Although if I get enough people to accompany me next time, I can have my pea shoots and eat some other traditional Chinese veggies too. Who'd like to join me?

A new addition to the family...

... chickens!

First we had to build the coop...

and the run...

 

and then the chickens arrived! 

We have 4 Barred Plymouth Rock hens, though one of them has been crowing like a rooster some mornings. They are about 5 months old and have not started laying eggs yet, but hopefully they will soon. We wanted them for the eggs, but they are also quite entertaining. Dan spends hours out there just watching them scratch and peck and then chase each other around over scraps of food. Definitely better than TV.

Rural Music

Now that summer has officially ended, I am reflecting on the local events that mean summer to me.
One summer tradition is The Bainbridge Old Time Band concerts. Only one-hour long, three to four times each summer, outside if the weather is good, and always associated with desserts and church-fundraisers. The season usually begins with a Strawberry Shortcake Special. The concert pictured above happened toward the end of blueberry season...and for $2.50 I got the works. The choices included blueberry cobbler -- which I devoured, blueberry buckle, and a blueberry cake, topped with a large scoop of vanilla ice cream, and garnished with a use-serve-yourself helping of blueberry sauce.
The band which has grown in size since the first time I heard them...used to play from the small gazebo at the other end of the park...is now up to 15 players. The evening's program included marches and waltzes and a medley of Scottish tunes sandwiched between the national anthem and God Bless America. Folding chairs, caps of white-haired couples, the band leader is the local maple syrup producer and his mom leads the last tribute song.
There are many other musical offerings in this area -- people raved about the Blues festival this past weekend on the bridge in Binghamton and my family and I enjoyed the line-up at this year's Colorscape, but summer just wouldn't be summer without the Bainbridge Old Time Band.


   What events mean summer to you??

Summer Salads

One of my favorite things to eat in the summer is salads made of whatever is fresh from the garden right now. Then I often add something from the fridge that needs to be used up, or some other local goodies.

Greens plus steamed asparagus, walnuts, and hard-boiled eggs with local dressing

Greens plus fresh herbs, carrots, radishes, olives, asparagus, celery, and crumbled goat cheese

Leftover salad from above plus local cheddar and local bread with goat cheese and slow-fried garlic cloves

Spinach plus asparagus, broccoli, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs (done like this so they are still a bit soft) dressed with oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper

What's your favorite summer thing to eat?

Fresh Blueberry Pie

As promised...and with folks gently reminding me...below is the scrumptious and easy Fresh Blueberry Pie recipe.
I don't have a photo of mine and can't seem to link to any photos online (lots of photos available of double-crusted blueberry pies but this one is open-faced. For a glimpse look at the one at Open-Faced Blueberry Pie...although the recipe there deviates from my easier version).

FRESH BLUEBERRY PIE
INGREDIENTS
Pastry for Single-Crust Pie

1 cup fresh blueberries
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup cold water
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 cup water

** 1 8-ounce package, cream cheese softened
2 tablespoons milk
3 cups fresh blueberries

(**I often substitute approx. 6-7 ounces of neufchatel cheese -- similar to cream cheese with lower fat content) 

DIRECTIONS
Prepare single pie crust -- from scratch or store-bought
(I've even served this pie made with a store-bought graham cracker crust -- got great reviews but I think the taste is better with a pastry crust)

Stir together 1 cup blueberries, the sugar, and 3/4 cup water in a medium saucepan.
Bring to boiling, stirring occasionally.
Cook uncovered about 2 minutes or till the berries begin to pop.
Combine cornstarch and 1/4 cup water; add to saucepan.
Cook and stir till thickened and bubbly; cook and stir 2 minutes more.
Transfer to a bowl; cover with plastic wrap.
Cool for 1 hour without stirring.

Stir together cream (or neufchatel) cheese and milk in a small bowl.
Spread in the bottom of the (cooled) pie crust.
Add half of the 3 cups blueberries followed by half of the blueberry sauce; repeat layers.
Cover and chill at least 2 hours.

Serve all by itself but it's even more delicious with ice cream or whipped cream. Enjoy!

Blueberry Picking

These photos were taken at Stone Hill Blueberry Farm, our favorite u-pick place. The two blue buckets that Alan is carrying each hold 8 quarts of berries. We picked them in under two hours. And since this was our second trip there this season, we've frozen over 30 quarts of berries so far.

The Blueberry Time of Year

Berry-picking is one of my favorite summer activities. Of course, I love to eat the berries, all kinds of the summer gems, and also preserve them in various ways so we can taste summer in the winter –like when we open a jar of strawberry jam or warm up some frozen blueberries to add to our breakfast cereal in December.

In addition to a prolific strawberry bed, some very tasty black raspberries, and some dying old and thorny wild blackberries, we also have a number of cultivated blueberry bushes in our backyard. Alan planted the first ones in 1981, the year we moved in. They were a pre-Mother’s Day gift while I was still childless but pregnant. So those bushes have both sentimental and aesthetic value – they plus others added over the years form a lovely hedge at the bottom of our garden fence.

Yet when I want lots of sweet blueberries, I drive out of town to Stone Hill Blueberry Farm,

a wonderful organic u-pick place about five miles from our house.

Here’s their own website description:

Organic is better! Come to Stone Hill Blueberry Farm and pick some delicious Blueberries on south sloping farm with 2000+ blueberry bushes! Early, mid-season, and late varieties of blueberries available. The bushes are fertilized with soybean meal, mulched with sawdust and rows are mowed weekly. The Picking season runs from mid-July to at least the end of August, and sometimes into early September each year.

We park our car and walk to the carport attached to a trailer (at certain times of day you can hear from inside it, the small dog barking and the TV in the background) and pick up some plastic buckets. The smaller ones have a rope through the handle to be worn around your neck to leave both hands free for picking. Ambitious pickers like us also take a larger 8 quart bucket to pour our berries into as they get heavier around our necks. In the photo, Alan is carrying the two 8 quart buckets we filled in less than two hours.

Depending on the week, which varieties are ripe, and the capriciousness of nature – the amount of rain and sun the bushes have gotten -- some seasons, some days, the berries are small or plump, sweet or tart. Sometimes the picking is so easy – using two hands to milk whole clusters of berries into my basket – and other times really having to reach in and choose the one or two berries in the bunch that are ripe. And berries can fool you – the top might look lushly blue but once you’ve pulled them from the bush their undersides may still be reddish.

And although I try to stay in the moment, and just enjoy the beauty of the fields, the tartly-sweet pop of a berry on my tongue, and the rhythm of the picking, the reverie begins... I experience a torrent of thoughts and ideas, memories, and reactions. On some excursions I am quiet and reflective, grateful for the abundance and the serenity, for the opportunities of the natural world that I didn’t experience growing up. Other days I feel rushed, already planning the dinner that will accompany the blueberry pie I’ll be making later that day, and internally complaining about the people talking on their cellphones as they pick. I feel territorial when another picker gets too close to me in the row I am harvesting.

Berry picking is such a simple reminder that what is important is how I do whatever it is I am doing. When I return home, when I cook and eat and share those berries, I will vaguely recall the mood I brought to the fruit picking. The berries are flavored by my perspective. 

Blueberry recipes anyone? I'll post the recipe for the best fresh blueberry pie ever; it always gets rave reviews and is so easy to make. Do you have any favorites?

Incredible Food Day

Here are a few more photos from Spain - from my last day in Spain, in a food market in Madrid.

Octopus, mussels, shrimp, bell peppers and onions, and a "short" beer.

Asparagus and other tasty treats on display - mostly slightly fancy versions of the sort of tapas you'd find in many bars in Spain (small open-face sandwiches, omelette, etc).

I tried two types of caviar at this stand. Not sure what they were though as neither my Spanish nor the vendor's English were proficient enough to communicate the nuances of fish eggs. (In fact, the only thing the vendor was able to communicate in English was "Egg. Fish. Egg fish!")

Amazing seafood stand, recommended by two gentlemen whose food I was drooling over. They shared a barnacle with me. It was salty and delicious and strangely textured.

I didn't think the food could get any better, but then I had these oysters. And then I had one more even though I was full because they were so tasty.

Though I was quite full after this incredible meal, I walked away elated. No food coma from this sort of food, more of a food high. Probably one of my top 5 meals ever.