Catch-up

Oof, one thing after another and suddently it's 10 days later. There's a name for this...slow blogging..and I wrote about it on GTTSB. So let's just say I'm trying to guarantee quality blog. Here are some pics from the last couple of weekends at the store. We also had the first couple of episodes of B&P's Discussion Sections, but maybe I'll talk about those in a couple of days.


First up, Bath Fizzies with those Dodges of Double D's B's. Simple to mix (oil, scent, baking soda, citric acid), delightful to use. We combined, compressed and took them home as gifts. Eamonn loves them, but is frustrated that they don't just fizz for the whole bath time--just until they dissolve. He kept trying to sit on one in tonite's bath, so now his can smells like cranberry. Could be worse. A lot worse.

Next up was Truffle Making, in kid-(grand)parent teams. The class was lead by Jinjer Miller, who is has great truffle-expertise. We rolled coffee-flavored, vanilla, almond and peppermint. They were all very pretty, but I thought the almond rocked (secret ingredient: Watkins Almond Extract). Delish.

Last, but not least, was Shrimp Three Ways--as cocktail, proscuitto-wrapped and in gumbo. We were a small, but dedicated bunch and Chad even broke out the crab cakes as an extra treat. Chocolate, seafood, last weekend was rather decadent.

Entertaining with Seafood

We were a boisterous bunch last Saturday. A few dates, a girls' night out, some of the regulars. Chad Measner of South Padre Sea Foods (and the B&P chef, btw) demonstrated how to peel and boil shrimp for cocktail, sauteing for scampi and searing sushi-grade tuna. He even whipped up a couple of sushi rolls using the raw tuna--a treat for some, a (scary) adventure in eating for others.

Watching Chad, with some assistance from Erich, it occurred to me how loose one should be when cooking. A dash of salt, a squirt of dressing, a splash of oil...there was very little measuring, but lots of tasting and adjusting that went on as we watched. I guess it pays to have quality ingredients within an arm's reach so you can just add a bit of this and that (and have the confidence to mix whatever flavors are on hand).

Anyway, it was quite tasty and the Crane's Lake Chardonnay and Brut were respectable matches. Cheap, but not headache-inducing. We were all pleasantly surprised by the Brut--bring on the bubbly!

Oh (Big) Brother

I'm always charmed by the uneveness of my CSA produce from Angelic Organics. They pull all the carrots and we get all the carrots, lumps and bumps and warts included. A few years ago, I got an eggplant with a long tubular growth, right in the center of its "face"; I put a pair of Eamonn's sunglasses on it and enjoyed at least 10 min.s of hilarity until Eamonn, disgusted, grabbed his specs off the fruit. Sadly, I couldn't find that picture of the shaded aubergine, so you'll have to enjoy this zucchini duck I found on Google images...

Our friends in Europe don't feel the same way. Get a load of this...apparently, the European Union has something against eggplant noses (and braided carrots and twisted squash). There has been a rule on the books banning misshapen fruits and vegetables, although this is going to be repealed at the beginning of July. However, they are keeping the standards for apples, citrus, pears, tomatoes and strawberries. These have to be marked as substandard or intended for cooking, only.

What?!?!? I thought Europe was supposed to be so Green and Less Wasteful than Americans. Heaven forbid a parsnip should have an extra leg. What do they do to keep themselves amused after naptime, before fixing dinner?

Suds from Scratch

For three November weekends in a row Bushel and Peck's is sponsoring Terri and Dan Dodge's soap making classes. They are the brains behind Double D's B's, and have already graced us with their bees and honey. Now it's soap-expertise.

Our first class was last Saturday; students decided what "flavor" soap they wanted to make--rosemary/calendula, lemongrass/poppyseed, honey-oatmeal, or peppermint--and organized ingredients (lye, oils, scents). We learned proportions, how to measure and mix, secrets to choosing smells and herbs. I was sitting next to the rosemary-calendula group and, man, that cleared my sinuses.

The ingredients are all vegetarian (although, old-schoolers can try a recipe with lard at home). The lye provides the cleansing action, the oils the moisturizing and the scents, well, provide the scents. Everything is mixed and the chemical reaction of the lye, water and oils creates a solution that cooks itself (the water and lye heat up to almost boiling, oil cools it back down). The mixture is poured into a mold, where it hardens for a day and then is removed to continue curing for another month. The lye combines with the oils during this 4-week long chemical reaction, after which is it officially soap. The recipe uses 5% more oil than will react with the lye; the final result--a beautiful, delicious smelling, moisturing (because of the extra oil) bar!

If you find yourself yearning to mix, there's still space on Nov. 15.

Indoor Farmers' Market, #1

We experimented and were delighted with the results: the indoor farmers' market is on! The Art Gallery at Bushel and Peck's was full of favorite Beloit FM vendors, including: Golden Bear Elk, Arrowhead Orchards, Daval's Buffalo, Earl Hulson, Jimmy's (or Jackie's) produce. There were also wonderful hand-crafts from Bonnie Miller (I bought a great vintage race car piggy bank), David Mauk's lawn ornaments, Robin's Roost candles, and Rhonda Power's beautiful jewelry. Almost everyone will be back next week, so be sure to stop by (from 8-12:30 on Saturday.)

A little something for knead-a-phobes

It's the end of the road for my trusty bread maker. It has accompanied us through 6 moves (Beloit via Washington DC via Austin, TX) over the past 13 years, but it can no longer beat down raised dough. I bought a new knead bar, to no avail. So, I've been trying to figure out how to keep making bread, without having it turn it into an all-afternoon affair. I don't have a good kneading surface, I tend to overknead, I have an entourage that doesn't like a distracted mother.

Mark Bitten has come to my rescue. He is The Minimalist for the NYTimes and specializes in simple to fix, yet complex to taste, recipes, accompanied by a thorough description of what he is doing and why. He has taken a no-knead recipes for bread and shortened the prep time down to about 5 or so hours. Brilliant. The white bread is divine and, frankly, less work than the bread maker bread was.

Speedy No-Knead Bread
(adapted from Mark Bittman)
3 c. bread flour (MB says you can use reg. flour, but the loaf will be shorter. I recommend bread flour; it has more gluten in it which contributes to the chewy texture of bread. Usually gluten is developed through kneading, which we aren't doing, so I would think the extra would help)

1 package (1/4 oz.)instant yeast (I used quick rise, because that what I had for the bread maker...some comments on MB's blog suggested that was better)

1 1/2 t. salt
Oil as needed

1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. Add 1 1/2 c. water (I warmed mine slightly--100 degrees or so), and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest about 4 hours at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. (I put mine in the microwave, which happens to be the warmest place in the kitchen. It's also a more consistant temperature than leaving it out on the counter.)
2. Lightly oil a work surface and place dough on it; fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest 30 min.s more. (I'm not sure you can call what I did "folding"; I slurped it around a couple of times and left it on the counter)
3. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6-8 quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) (I used a Corningware casserole dish) in the oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from over. Slide dough into pot, seam side up (?) and shake pan once or twice to distribute dough.
4. Cover with lid and bake 30 min.s, then remove lid and bake another 15-30 min.s until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

This makes a big, oval loaf that has a great crust. It is moist and almost sourdough-y on the inside--because of the yeast? I don't know but, anyway, it barely made it past dinner. We all had fourths.

Roxanne Neat

Mighty gusts of wind blew the doors open and sent great clouds of fall leaves rolling down the street today. I guess this means we're full into fall (which we are by the calendar, but it seems like we just started wearing coats about two weeks ago). It was nice to slip into the store for brunch and to listen to the lovely, clear voice of Roxanne Neat, a central Wisconsin folk singer.

She played for a little more than an hour, and treated the audience to guitar, keyboards and even (my fave) the banjo. Fresh from an appearance on WERN's (Madison) "Simply Folk," her selections ranged from traditional folk songs to modern ballads. She even slipped in the stores' un-official theme song, "I Love You, a Bushel and a Peck." It was delightful...and too short.

Perhaps she can be convinced to return...

The Start of Something Beautiful...

Saturday evening, we had our first cooking class, Cooking with the Cheap Cuts, Part One, taught by Rich Horbaczewski who is co-owner of Bushel and Peck's and Grass is Greener Gardens. Lamb shanks and an Angus beef roast were the cuts, and Rich prepared them in a traditional Italian Ossobuco style. He cooked and held forth on farming, eating, hunting, and cooking; we watched and listened (and snacked on fresh hummus and tabouleh, chips and veggies). When the sample pot was finished, he unveiled the final product (another version made earlier that day), which we enjoyed with wasabi mashed potatoes (G is G yukon golds), Bob McCabe's ciabatta bread, and jus from the pot. With a sampling of Bandit wine's cabernet savignon, it was the perfect meal to finish up a crisp fall day.

This is the recipe he used from New Italian Recipes.

This meal was an example of one of Rich's convictions that lamb can stand in for veal in most dishes (he's cooking his way through them to prove his point). Lamb is a tender, flavorful meat that retains these characteristics despite being pasture-raised and grass-fed. Veal calves don't have as carefree a life; to keep the meat tender they aren't allowed the wander and graze so the muscles don't toughen up. I won't go into the details much, but if you ever drive past a farm "growing" veal and see these young cows cooped up in their wire mesh cages it will probably make you want to turn to lamb, too.

You're certainly not sacrificing anything. The meat fell of the bones when it came out of the pot, the jus was rich and hearty with no need for thickening and the whole plateful cost (including the spuds and bread) cost about $7.

Here's what else I learned:
-The shank is the leg bone. Rich has his processed so the bone is sliced, and you can see the interior meat (still red because of recent butchering...New Zealand lamb often has red food coloring added to make it look more appealing, as older meat tends to be greyish). Also having the bone cut means more of the marrow will seep into the sauce and make it richer.

-Because of the grass diet, the meat is not as marbled (veins of fat throughout the muscle) and benefits from a longer cooking to keep it moist and tender.

-Owls only eat the head and gullet of chickens when they swoop down in the night and pick off unfortunate stragglers (see what you can learn?). Foxes just drag the poor suckers off into the woods.

Stay tuned, we have two seafood-themed cooking classes coming up in November and a couple of classes that are t.b.a.

Gourd Love

This is the time of year when we get squashed by squash. Acorn, butternut, pumpkin, delicata, etc etc. And while they are a delight to behold, all yellow-orange flesh and brilliant-colored skins, even the most diligent roaster can get a bit overwhelmed. My dear friend Jeff is currently under siege from his CSA in North Carolina; he asks, "What else can you do with an acorn squash besides turn it into a baked, sugary blob?"

Once you tire of the butter and brown sugar treatment (and it takes quite a few squash to get to that place), here is one of my favorite ways to use up a lot of squash. Pretty much any winter squash will do, altho it's probably best to stick to the same kind when making the puree. The quickest way to cook the squash is in the microwave: halve it, scoop out the seeds, turn the halves face-down on a dish and nuke them on high for 15-18 min.s. They are done when you can easily pierce the skin with a knife. You can roast it too (same prep, but cook cut-side up in a 425-degree oven for 30-45 min.s). Scoop out the flesh and mash it up--you can add a bit of water to smooth it.

Winter Squash Lasagne, serves 4-6
(adapted from Everyday Cooking)
4c. squash puree (I've used acorn, butternut and delicata)
1/2 t. dried rubbed sage (or 2t. fresh, finely chopped sage)
15oz. part-skim ricotta cheese
1 c. grated Parmesan Cheese
1 pkge. no-boil lasagne noodles (I always use Barilla...their American plant is in my hometown of Ames, IA)

-Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
-Grease an 8x8 baking dish, set aside.
-Mix puree with sage, 1t. salt and 1/4t. pepper; in a separate bowl mix ricotta with 1/2 c. Parmesan, 1/2t. salt, 1/4t. pepper.
-Place 2 noodles in the bottom of the baking dish and spread with half the squash mixture.
-Cover this with 2 more noodles and spread with half the ricotta mixture.
-Repeat 2 more layers, then sprinkle remaining Parmesan on top.
-Cover baking dish with foil, and bake until lasagne is heated through--about 45 minutes.
-Remove foil and continue baking for another 20-25 min.s. (Don't overcook, the no-boil noodles tend to dry out)

Here's a Business Plan...

Wouldn't this be a cool future for the Stateline area?

When I read the term "cheese cave," my mouth starts to water...

Bee-yoo-tiful

Ah, bees. Aside from the stinger, what's not to like? They pollinate, they make honey, they're striped. And, oh the honey. We had Dan and Terri Dodge in the store, last week, from Double D's Bs. They bottle different flavors of honey and also have created a skin care line that uses all natural ingredients, including honey. They keep hives here in Beloit and also in a rural area near town; they try not to move the bees too much, so as not to disturb the hives, but also so they can keep track of what pollen is making which flavor.

We tasted: linden (from the trees that line Grand street outside the store--how local is that!?!), clover (the most common flavor of honey), wildflower (my favorite--a bit clearer and more "flowery" than the clover), cranberry (a bit richer and green-tasting) and buckwheat (which was a beautiful dark brown and tasted a bit like sorghum, good for cooking and stir-fries) . They also had a jar of slightly crystallized "whipped" honey--I could eat that by the spoonful, and honey in the wax comb.

They also brought a chunk of hive, with the queen in it. She was industriously moving throughout the comb, laying eggs (1500 per day) as she went. Terri pointed out that the other bees move away as she comes by--"make way for the queen!" I think all the clamoring bees freaked Eamonn out, and he refused to taste the honey at all, despite lots of yummy noises made by his parents. He eventually was lured back and now refers back to the honey, and how much he loves it, on a regular basis.

I learned:
-Don't pull the first dandelions of the season, if you can help it. They are the first flowers to appear with both pollen and nectar in them, and the hungry bees need the calories to get up and running after winter.

-Colony Collapse doesn't tend to hit small hive owners like it does the larger beekeepers. The industrial keepers drive huge truckloads of bees around the country to pollinate cash crops; this traveling stresses the bees and also puts them in contact with bees from other parts of the country that may already be infected. Like everything else, keeping things small and local tends to be a bit safer and healthier.

-Some of the possible causes of colony collapse include disease, stress and exposure to pesticides. Cell phone tower (same frequency that bees communicate) and aliens (seriously) have been disproven. Aliens?

-Eating raw honey (unfiltered with bits of wax and insect parts in it) does seem to help people with intense pollen allergies. Terri says some local doctors have recommended Double DsBs to patients.

-It is most likely that Albert Einstein did NOT say that if bees disappeared from the face of the earth, mankind would only have four years left. However, the point is a good one...think of how effective a bee-based system of pollination works (what machine could individually dust every single flower of a plant-)-no bees (or bumble bees or black flies) would be catastrophic for our agriculture. No bees, no food chain. Think about that while you slurp down a spoonful of whipped honey.

A (sorta) Local Genius

The MacArthur Genius grants were announced last week. It's always interesting to read who gets the grants; it's such a diverse group of artists and scientists. This one caught my eye: Will Allen is an urban farmer in Milwaukee, who has developed education programs revolving around gardening and farming in the city--rather than rural areas--with his non-profit, Growing Power. They grow, they sell, they eat...with an emphasis on sustainable methods (of course).

What a cool project. (We've got our own version here in Beloit, at the Merrill Park Community Garden)

Canned and Delivered

Okay, that's the last canning pun...I promise.

Anyway, we had our canning workshop last Sunday (actually a fortnight ago). Diana and Jenny (from Angelic Organics) were the knowledgeable, funny and sassy teachers. We weren't a big group, but we filled the kitchen nicely, and every one got a couple of cans of fresh tomatoes.

A few things I learned:
-Canning is easy. Basically you need a clean, sterilized container (which you can do by dunking a jar in boiling water) and something to create a vacuum seal (boiling water or pressure cooker). Altho, there was some discussion about just sealing up hot contents in a sterile jar being enough to create a vacuum (think about how the plastic wrap tightens around hot food in the microwave).

-Canning is pretty. Just look at our tomatoes--and then imagine some artfully arranged ingredients in, say, a relish with corn kernels nestled amongst the tom.s and peppers, a spring of dill and red pepper strips in pickles, layers of different colored fruit preserves).

-Canning is fun. I could see how a canning party (old-school it-goes-faster-with-friends gambit, like a barn-raising) would be a good way to spend an weekend afternoon. If everyone is chopping and pouring, you could get a lot of items "put up" and get the whole chore over with.

-Canning is a great way to get rid of a lot of stuff you are sick of...but will miss by the middle of winter. Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, corn. All things that go into overdrive in the garden by the end of August, but will be a welcome treat when you pop the lid in February.

-Canning is relatively safe (say, compared to eating Oreos from Hong Kong). As long as you make sure a vacuum has happened (the top of the jar is tight and hard), and your food is fresh you should be fine. Don't eat anything that smells or looks funny--it should be pretty obvious.

Summer in a jar...why am I just catching on this now!?!

Signore Baby

Alec, the 13-month-old, had always been rather picky--not fussy--but picky, he likes what his likes and spits out or drops what he doesn't. Dinner is always a bit of a crap-shoot; one day he powers down melon and cheese, the next day I get a withering look and it's smeared onto the tray top.

About a month and a half ago, I started giving him most of the same stuff that the rest of us are eating, but chopped or mashed up into little pieces. Again, some was a hit (always roasted chicken and beans, sometimes homemade bread, fish, soup), some got the Look and was quickly dispatched to the floor.

Then, one night I made risotto. Risotto is one of the most delicious, satisfying, comfort foods the Italians ever gave us...even more so than pasta. Basically, it's rice cooked in broth that is stirred almost constantly, so the end result is rich, creamy and extremely satisfying. It's extremely versatile, too, since you can add all sorts if things to the basic combination of olive oil, butter, onion, arborio rice and stock. (What mother of two has time to constantly stir stock into rice, while the wee ones empty the tupperware drawer all over the kitchen?...I share my secret below)

I have never heard the baby make such a noise. After the first taste, he demanded more with a roar similar to the "yummy noise" that Dr. Franken-steen's monster makes in Mel Brook's Young Frankenstein. Then he went through about 3 bowls of it that night and 3 more the following evening. So, nothing wishy-washy about his feelings on risotto.

Try this version from Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet, and see if it doesn't elicit some yummy noises from you. Despite the labor-saving approach, I find this very similar to the painstakingly-stirred versions. And you now have time to put all the plastic containers away...

Basic Risotto (serves 3 as a first course, 6 as a side dish)
2T. unsalted butter
2T. olive oil
1/2 c. minced yellow onion
1c. arborio rice
3c. Chicken broth
2T. kosher salt
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1. Heat butter and oil in a heat-proof casserole dish, in a microwave, uncovered, for 2 minutes (these are the times that work on my microwave...adjust if necessary). Add onions and stir to coast. Cook uncovered for 4 mins. Add rice and stir to coat. Cook uncovered for 4 min.s more.

2. Stir in broth (make sure this is room temperature--one time I added cold broth and shattered my dish). Cook, uncovered for 9 min.s. Stir well and cook for 9 min.s more.

3. Remove from oven. Let stand, uncovered, for 5 min.s to let rice absorb remaining liquid, stirring several times. Stir in salt, pepper and Parmesan cheese, if desired.

If you can't Can...Come!

There's still space in Bushel and Peck's Canning Workshop this weekend: Sunday, September 28 from 3-5pm. Diana Nolden and Jenny Hoople from Angelic Organics will be doing a hands-on demonstration of pressure and hot-bath canning in the store's kitchen. They'll be using local, organic tomatoes and you'll learn how to prepare, can and seal them to save for later this winter when the mere idea of a woody, pink, tasteless tomato makes you sad.

Fee is $20 and covers everything. Come in to the store or visit the website to sign up.

Meet Your Meat

I'm continuing my catch-up on events at Bushel and Peck's Local Grocery. A talk was given in late August by Rich Horbaczewski, who is one of the owners of the store, as well as Grass is Greener Gardens. He and Jackie raise chickens/eggs, sheep and turkeys, as well as grow potatoes, herbs and cut flowers. This talk was an opportunity to hear how they started the farm and learn more about the challenges of sustainable farming.

By now, I've read a lot about the difficulties of meeting organic standards, especially for raising meat. Keeping animals healthy while avoiding excessive medication and allowing them plenty of access to pesticide-free grazing is the least of the problems. The National Organics Standard Board requires every step of the way to be certified organically, from the food the animals eat, to the processor that does the butchering. Often times these requirements are beyond what small producers can afford, so the farmers have to forgo the organic label.

It was interesting to hear about it, from some one in "the trenches." Rich pointed out that to get his chickens to the nearest organic butcher, he would have to drive all of them four hours to Decorah, Iowa. If he wanted that label, he would have to completely stress the birds out during the trip. Organic, but not particularly humane. Grass is Greener Gardens has decided to meet as many of the organic standards as possible, but opts to process their meat at Lena Meats in Illinois, just across the border.

Other things I learned:
-Eggs labeled as being from "vegetarian" chickens are not necessarily better. Chickens love to peck in the dirt and eat bugs--there's been studies that find the bug-fueled eggs actually have higher levels of Omega-3s. Go Grubs!
(more on this from Wednesday's New York Times)

-Cornish Cross chickens are a breed developed by Tyson to grow super-fast (6 weeks) with gigantic breasts. They are pretty dumb and slow and, therefore, are a treat to foxes and raccoon and owls who are looking for a midnight snack. Rhode Island Reds (what GGG raises) take a lot longer (10-12 weeks), but they are pretty sharp and keep an eye out for predators. Nonetheless, they are much more expensive to raise because they have to be cared for a fed almost twice as long as the Cornish Cross.

-The best time to have sheep give birth ("throw lambs") is in the winter. If you are avoiding antibiotics, there are no mosquitos/ticks/fleas/etc. to pass on disease or infection. It's pretty rough on the farmer, tho.

-(My favorite anecdote) Because lambs are born in the winter, if a ewe rejects one, there's a chance that it may freeze to death. Rich has found several that were pretty cold, but he brought them inside, put them in a warm tub and eventually "defrosted" them. He says they are pretty bone-headed (one liked to sleep with his head in a bucket), but otherwise fine. They have to be bottle-fed and, therefore, become pretty attached to Rich and a few got to live in the house while Jackie was away. I guess that situation didn't last--especially when the baa-ing in the background drowned out phone conversations.

By the spoonful...

Deborah Madison's pesto recipe from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone is the best. I think it's the butter she adds at the end, but I find myself eating it by the spoonful. Or using as a spread in sandwiches; or on pizza; or layered with ricotta on foccaccia (that's how we ate it in Italy back in the junior-year-abroad days). It certainly doesn't last very long.

This time of year, when the basil is going crazy and the garlic is just starting to come in, I try to make a few batches. I hear that if you leave the salt and cheese out, you can freeze it to enjoy in the winter, altho I can never make it last. Check it out:

My Pesto (adapted from D. Madison)
1 to 2 plump garlic cloves (be careful with fresh garlic, too much can really overpower everything else and make the sauce rather painful to eat)
Salt
3T pine nuts (I've also used walnuts and pecans)
3c fresh basil leaves (you can mix in some parsley, which doesn't really affect the taste, but helps the pesto stay brilliantly green)
1/2c grated Parmesan
2T soft butter
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil

In food processor: Process garlic, salt, and pine nuts until fairly finely chopped, then add the basil and olive oil. When smooth, add the cheese and butter and process to combine.

I s'pose you could put it on pasta, too.

A Taste of Joe

A few weeks ago, we had our first tasting event at Bushel and Pecks': Johnson Brothers Coffee. Johnson Brothers is a coffee roaster specializing in organic, free-trade beans and owned by Michael Johnson, who was in the store with Alex Butler for the tasting. Through these tastings, they educate coffee-drinkers about bean flavors, the effects of roasting and demonstrate the subtle difference between different brews. It was fascinating business and I learned equally about difference between Salvadoran and Ethiopian beans, as well as how firmly entrenched people's coffee preferences are.

We started with their standard dark roast Sumatran coffee--smoky, rich, familiar. Many tasters stopped there, insisting that they "only drank dark roast" and didn't want to go any further. But, when we did, we moved onto medium-roasted Guatemalan Maya Ixil Quiche (what I drink at home) and Pacamara Tierra Fertil from El Salvador. What a difference! The Sumatran tasted burnt in comparison, while the Central American brews were much clearer and, in the case of the Pacamara had almost honey undertones.

We continued with a Nicaraguan, that was included to demonstrate "baggy" flavor; i.e. the beans had sat around in burlap bags for too long and had started to pick up the flavor. It was hard to describe, other than it was sort of unpleasant compared to the others. We finished with a Ethiopian Yirgacheffe that, to my mouth, almost had a green tea flavor. It was startling when compared to the more familiar coffees, but began to grow on me.

I love a hot cuppa first thing in the morning, usually with a splash of cream. Michael and Alex were very forgiving of those of us who tend to doctor coffee, as they noted how much of drinking coffee is about the experience itself--sitting a cafe, reading a favorite book, lazily waking up at the breakfast table. But they want us also to consider coffee as a fine beverage, like wine, appreciating the subtleties of flavor and choosing a brew according to our moods and tastes, instead of just as a vehicle for caffeine (which, btw, is actually weaker in dark roasts because it gets "burnt" out).

So it was certainly an eye-opener (in many ways...it was alotta coffee for the afternoon), and I look forward to repeating the exercise later in the fall. Medium-roast, who knew?!?

Top 10 Spices

Last nite over dinner, the husb and I compared our top 10 favorite spices. Here's mine (sort of in order):
1. Garlic
2. Cinnamon
3. Salt
4. Vanilla
5. Sesame Oil (not exactly a spice, I s'pose)
6. Fresh Sage
7. Fresh Basil
8. Fresh Oregano
9. Tarragon
10. Ginger

At first, it seems kind of pedestrian, but it's interesting how international many of these are as ingredients. I certainly couldn't cook without the first 4 and would be depressed if I didn't have access to the last 6.

How about you?

How it all started...

As with all enthusiasms, this one for eating locally/sustainably/etc. has been building for awhile. It first started to appear as a serious endeavor when I read an excerpt of "Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollen in the New York Times. He was writing about what we owe the animals that provide our meat, and this resonated with me--being a sort of guilty meat-eater (but not so guilty that I can give it up). I liked the idea of trying to provide a happy, carefree life to livestock so that they come to the butcher's unstressed and healthy. No matter what, they are dying so that we can eat, but it is a pleasant life up until that point (and it's a pretty quick point).

I was also pregnant with my first son, Eamonn, so all of my food choices become loaded with implication. Every choice was not only for me but for him, too, and this responsibility also made me consider the source of most of my food.

The double whammy of Pollan and Preg to my diet continued once I gave birth and began feeding this little person. How were his sweet potatoes fertilized? What lurked in the ground beef of his taco? What was injected into the cow who gave his milk (and I'm not talking about me)? I became a much pickier consumer, as much as I could be, and a faithful reader of labels. Even so, there's only so much driving around I could do to assemble groceries from approved sources; I had to compromise on some of my purchases (cereal, crackers) and not on others (meat, eggs, veggies).

For a year I helped coordinate events at a local grocery store that specializes in locally-produced organic food, Bushel&Peck's Local Market (many of these happenings are chronicled on this blog). I learned a lot, met many of my local producers and ate some delicious meals. But, you can't do everything, and I decided I would rather focus my energies elsewhere.

Writing this blog is one of those energies, and cooking is another...so, here I am, with a Pig and a Cornfield and a lot to say. Let's Eat!