I know people who grimace at the word "organic," not because they love pesticides, but because the "I only shop at Whole Foods" culture turns them off. Culinary condescension isn't going to change minds. Meat-eaters aren't going to go vegetarian just because you give them dirty looks. I know. I was a militant vegetarian for a year.
I just read an abridged version of this column in the magazine The Week about a British cooking show that's sparked some controversy for touting frozen and easy dinners, and while I don't plan purchasing any Banquet microwavable meals anytime soon, it's food for thought.
-Toshio...off to make a Whole Foods run...
For some reason, for me there's always been a higher barrier to entry to composting versus, say, recycling, or avoiding plastic bags and water bottles. Part of this is that I don't have a yard; I have public park. For years, a fellow apartment-dwelling friend of mine has collected all of her compost in a large plastic bag that she stores in her freezer until she can drop it off at a city composting facility or throw it into a yard-owning friend's heap. It's smart and doesn't require tons of effort, but it's still not what I'd call easy.
Luckily, some cities are putting a lot more effort into making it even easier - in SF, for example, we not only have communal veggie gardens popping up behind and between apartment buildings, but we also have a major city composting program, where you can chuck your compostables into a green bin just like you'd throw a can into the blue recycling one, and the city will pick it up and put it to use.
-Jenifer...off to take a walk down easy street...Ah, the irony of today's tip: dried fruit...on my birthday. (Toshio swears it wasn't me that inspired the wrinkle references...but thanks guys, thanks.)
I guess I have a few more years before I become that cranky, pretending-to-be-deaf old lady who just does whatever the hell she wants and no one will say anything, but when that day comes, I plan to boost my antioxidant intake with dried fruit morning, noon, and night...by way of heavily buttered panettone (with a bottle of Moscato on the side).
I guess for that to be eco, I'll need to actually live in Italy. Oh, shucks...
-Jenifer Morgan...off to see if I look more like a dried prune or a dried apple...
I have yet to try the Maple Valley sugar for cooking yet, but my first experiment will be maple walnut fudge. I plan to substitute it for both the maple extract and the sugar, since the maple flavor is palpable.
If you've got a sugar/sweetener experiment of your own going, please share it!
-Jenifer Morgan...off to work off a pound so I can replace it with a batch of fudge...
There are a lot of things I really miss about living in New York.
But one that I didn't even remember until I was asked to write this blog? Kosher pickles. There was this amazing stand in the middle of a dodgy flea market somewhere around NYU. And occasionally, I'd stumble upon it, and buy the best pickles I've ever eaten, all wrapped up in soggy wax paper and dripping down my arm.
-Heather... off to another day of meetings in LA...
To sum it up, the writer points to the fact that whether you pick local or organic, you’re making the right choice. Plain and simple consciousness about how your food is produced and where it comes from is bound to ultimately lead to better buying choices.
By no means do I purchase only local and organic food when I’m at the grocery store (though frequenting the best co-op in the nation helps). But today’s tip and the article are just reminders that putting a little thought into our purchasing never hurts.
-Toshio…off to squeeze a local lime into my nonlocal Tecate…
Gotta love the sauces of the East. But if you're looking for an alternative to soy or tamari sauce that is way lower in sodium but will still satisfy your salt tooth, think West.
I usually stir fry with Bragg's Liquid Aminos, which is made from non-GMO soybeans, and has protein and healthy amino acids like Lysine. They carry this stuff in most grocery stores in SF, and Whole Foods nationwide, but if you wanna try before you buy, the company offers free sample packets through its website here.
-Toshio...off to zap some of last night's stir fry (cooked with Bragg's) in the micro...
My family used to have a hothouse where we grew tomatoes - lots of them. I don't know what variety they were or who originally planted the older ones, but in summer, you'd open the door and oh, what a delicious, fresh smell! And oh...what a delicious fresh taste. None of your mealy, white fruits here - I could eat them like apples.
So the fact that I really can't remember eating better tomatoes is because 1) I've actually never eaten better-tasting tomatoes, 2) eating tomatoes within 20 min of picking makes a difference, or 3) there's just something about planting your own and seeing them grow from seed to fruit.
I'll be planting some container-based heirloom seeds soon on my balcony (um, fire escape)...we'll see how it goes.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to plant some fog-friendly Sebastopols...
My transition to mostly vegetarian ways (and I'm not 100% there yet) has been very gradual. I raised sheep for 4-H (um, in my salad days), so it's not like I ever thought that animals magically turned into food, but I also raised my animals on a big, beautiful farm in MT, where they had acres to roam, veterinary care, and natural food.
But most animals raised for meat don't live like that, I've learned over the years, and alas, even if the package reads free-range or hormone-free, there's no way to really know how an animal was treated during its life unless you raise it yourself. And go figure, I can't raise animals in downtown SF.
Would love it if y'all shared some stories about your own meat-eating habits and/or transition to vegetarianism in today's blog!
-Jenifer Morgan...off to eat a salad...
Why was the fickle, shrill-voiced wife of Popeye called Olive Oyl? Who knows, but there's a better way to pair up spinach and olive oil: Tuck this little salad gem in your pocket for when strawberry season arrives at a farm near you:
¼ cup sugar or equivalent sugar alternative
2 tbsp sherry
2 tsp organic olive oil
1 tsp organic red onion, minced
¼ tsp paprika
8 tsp sea salt
6 cups organic spinach (not canned!)
2 cups organic strawberries, halved
2 tbsp organic almonds, slivered and toasted
-Jenifer Morgan...off to mouth "olive juice" to my olive oil...
I just learned that everybody's favorite olive-based pasta sauce originated in the brothels of Naples. Literally, spaghetti puttanesca means "whore's spaghetti."
Its strong, spicy scent is supposed to have lured men off the streets into the bordellos of fair Italia, and while I've never (knowingly) been to a brothel, I have definitely been lured into the kitchen by the smell of good pasta sauce.
Below's the recipe for our delicious Slutty Puttanesca, which SF team members had the buona fortuna to sample at a recent office potluck. (Note: You might want to pick a more family-oriented sauce if the kids are coming to dinner.)
3 tablespoons organic, extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon anchovy paste
1 can organic diced tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato purée
2 handfuls black olives, finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers
1/2 teaspoon of crushed red pepper
2 cloves garlic
Salt and black pepper to taste
Heat oil in saucepan over medium heat, add garlic and sauté. Add tomatoes, tomato puree, olives, capers, anchovy paste, and red pepper. Bring sauce to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 10 min. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
-Toshio...off to bait somebody into my kitchen...
Anyone else feel like shopping for dinner is about as easy as assembling an IKEA filing cabinet blindfolded?
Step one: Remember to bring reusable bags.
Step two: Root out what's produced locally. At Whole Foods, some produce is labeled according to where it's grown, and of course at the farmers market, you can just ask...but I've realized that while I can tell you that Mumbai is on the Western coast of India, or that Iceland is north of Scandinavia and I think they raise sheep there, I frankly have no idea how far away Thermal, CA, is from SF (it's a big state) or whether the dates I want were actually grown or just packaged there.
Step three: Balance map of CA in one hand while keeping cart with errant wheel from careening into a canned pie-filling display and excuse self past person stopped mid-aisle trying to discern between Italian parsley and cilantro while chatting on her cell...
Step four: What was I supposed to buy again?
Step five: Use mnemonic device to recall meaning of numbers on produce labels.
Sheesh. All I can say is that step six, leaving the store knowing (at least approximately) where your food came from and how it was produced, is usually worth the effort.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to drink some grapes of Napa...
It's true. Seafood may be gone by 2048. And I've been flippin' freakin' out since I heard the news.
As a vegetarian in the 90s, seafood was the one "meat" I occasionally cheated with. The Japanese side of my family always brings over sashimi for the holidays, so I can't remember a Thanksgiving at home without spicy raw tuna with loads of wasabi, right next to the cranberry sauce and stuffing.
To tell the truth, it's rare that I buy fish to cook at home, but next family get-together I'm arriving armed with pocket seafood selectors in an attempt to nudge my extended family members in an eco-friendlier direction. Fingers crossed I've been eating anything but bluefin all these years...
-Toshio...off to contemplate a Thanksgiving without karaino-maki...
If you haven't spent much time in the produce section, think about perusing a fruits-and-veggies-101-type book beforehand. This one is paperback, so you can tote it along with you, and it's not too expensive, so you can save a few bucks to spend on organic rutabaga: Field Guide to Produce: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Fruit and Vegetable at the Market.
Happy carrot and kumquat biting!
-Jenifer Morgan...off to vegetate...
-Jenifer Morgan…off to get a little sugar rush…
But every year, during the holidays, we'd make cookie cutter sugar cookies using the recipe from the old original Betty Crocker cookbook (not all that eco, but the recipe is below, and they are still the best you'll ever taste).
I always loved baking and decorating cookies each year. I adored using Red Hots as the clappers for the bells. Loved putting those really hard silver BB-style decorations on the points of the stars, wondering if I'd break my tooth on them when it came time to eat them. Reveled in mixing the most-likely-poisonous food coloring into the frosting and watching those initial striped swirls streak through the creamy whiteness.
My Michael-Jordan-worshiping brother? Not so much his thing. In fact, we eventually banned him from cookie decorating (which was his aim all along) after he decided to mix all the colors together and make all of his cookies a mud-like grayish brown color. Brown stockings and sleighs and stars and trees?
Somehow just not as tasty.
-Heather...off to make some rum balls, heavy on the rum...
Recipes from Betty Crocker New Picture Cookbook [copyright date has disappeared], typed as written.
Ethel's Sugar Cookies
- ¾ C. shortening [part butter]
- 1 C. sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp. vanilla (Mom and I like to use ¼ tsp almond instead)
- 2 ½ C. Gold Medal Flour
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
Butter Icing [For extra richness, add 1 egg yolk.]
- 1/3 cup soft butter
- 3 cups sifted confectioners' sugar
- about 3 tbsp. cream
- 1 ½ tsp. vanilla
The thing is, sticking a prepackaged bag in the microwave is so easy compared to using an electric popper or the stovetop method - and sometimes I play that big, lazy American whose religion is convenience, to a T. So when I heard the nation's biggest popcorn producer is dropping diacetyl from all its products, I felt a mix of excitement and guilt, because I know it'll make me that much more inclined, when I'm feeling lazy, to just pop a prepackaged bag in the electromagnetic radiation machine (aka microwave) and be done with it.
But thanks to new Biter team member Hanah, we found there's a middle ground - microwave popcorn made using stuff you already have:
What You'll Need
- 1/2-cup unpopped popcorn
- 2-3 tbsp melted butter
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp nutritional yeast (optional)
- Paper lunch bag
- Large bowl
- Pour the popcorn in the paper bag and fold the top of the bag twice, so it's closed.
- Put the bag in the microwave and cook on high for 2-3 min, or 'til the pops are 5 sec apart.
- Take the bag out and pour the popcorn into a bowl and drizzle it with butter, then toss it with salt and nutritional yeast, as desired.
-Toshio...off to zap some kernels...
Even if you can't forage for them on your own, I recommend roasting some in the oven while you queue up Christopher Guest's Best in Show to enjoy the best nut-referencing screenwriting in Hollywood history, namely a scene with the character Harlan Pepper of Pine Nut, CA.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to pick a peck of pine nuts...
Now, you'll forgive me if I don't...quite...remember what went into that batch of "cocktails" we mixed up and threw some pomegranate seeds into, but it was something like this punch. Pretty much, pomegranates, sugar, and miscellaneous booze equals good times.
Happy holidays!
-Jenifer Morgan...off to Hades...
Witness the results of my recent conversations with the Biter team:
Brett (tech guru):
"We always make turkey sandwiches the day after Thanksgiving. Just some little buns, turkey, and mayonnaise (or some other condiment)."
Kinsey (graphics master):
"My mom's favorite thing to do with leftover mashed potatoes is to make patties out of them and fry them up in a pan. They get all crispy and delicious on the outside, and gooey-mashed-potato-goodness on the inside. She's half-Swedish, so I guess it's sort of her take on a potato latke. Yum."
Beth (NY Bite editrix):
"We always made ‘Thanksgiving on a sandwich,' which was turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce on bread. Messy, yummy, awesome...especially with the cranberry sauce. Otherwise, we'd make a turkey casserole - boil up some lasagna noodles, layer or dump everything in (except the cranberries), add some chicken stock, and bake it for a while. Nothing fancy..."
Hannah (party planner):
"Here's one from my Dog: Kelsa says that instead of wasting plastic wrap or tinfoil, and in order to conserve the water and energy you would use to wash Tupperware, leftovers should just be placed on the floor for the dogs."
Jen (close friends with a chef):
"Well, you could always make soup stock with the turkey carcass. Strip off the meat, throw it into a pot with as little water as possible, and boil the crap out of it. Don't worry about clingy bits of skin or herbs, since they'll add to the flavor. Add lightly sautéed veggies, water, a little white wine or sake, barley or rice, salt, pepper, and fresh herbs at the end and voilà! Add the leftover meat just before serving."
We know you can do better, so post your own ideas in the comments.
-Toshio...off to change my skivvies...
Biters:
The time has come for a new generation of Thanksgiving dinners. A local generation that is light on the pesticides and heavy on deliciousness.
Submit your local Thanksgiving menus, reap the rewards (a copy of Paul Hawken's latest book), and if you ever falter, let this training montage from Wet Hot American Summer help you get your booty back on track.
-Toshio...off to drop and give you 20...
Years later, like a kid who was never allowed to eat the odd bowl of sugary Captain Crunch - like, not even at a friends' house on Sunday (poor sots) - I spied some pre-caught, pre-cleaned, pre-cooked, and pre-battered sustainable cod fish in the store, and oh the crispy deliciousness!
Don't tell my mom, OK?
-Jenifer Morgan...off to add whip up some special tartar sauce...
But I did happen upon the most wonderful thing in the process: fresh coconut water. Wonderful flavor and texture, chock-full of electrolytes…and remarkably difficult to come by.
Here’s hoping that someday we can get it – and every other fresh, raw, delicious good thing - from a vending machine…or at least at a few more grocery stores and restaurants.
If you’ve got a favorite source in your home town, share it with us in the blog!
-Jenifer Morgan…off to eat dinner before I go coconuts…
Eat some sexy food, and have fun making that offering.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to sacrifice my waistline to the Goddess of Chocolate...
And maybe because I grew up on a farm with a small population of very free-range, healthy, egg-laying hens, I never thought about factory farms and the conditions of our fowl friends. After learning more about them, I admit that my appetite for eggs has not improved. But while reading Reason for Hope by the miraculous Jane Goodall, I found out that there are wonderful people adopting chickens from these factories, taking them out of their tiny cages and giving them the chance to feel sunlight and walk for the first time. If you have a little extra space in your yard, some time, and a lovin' heart, check out Farm Sanctuary, a national project that offers refuge and adoption services for neglected farm animals.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to fry up some potatoes...
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
So it's not so simple - now what? As the Bite says, I think we can start by just educating ourselves about how the stuff we buy is produced, and when we can - dare I say it? - buy less stuff.
-Toshio...off to think about something a little less perplexing...
-Jenifer Morgan...off to do some more Z Sweet experimentations...
I'm not as addicted these days, but I can't stop eating this new Cactus Jerky stuff. It's made in California from a very renewable resource and isn't nearly as malodorous as the Cajun tofu. Note to Heather: Chewy can be a good thing.
-Toshio...off to get wasted...
Call me a bad Biter if you want, but I always store the leftovers in my roommate's big, fat plastic Tupperware container with a locking lid. I wouldn't buy one myself (though I'll save and reuse the occasional plastic margarine container), but as long as it's there or until someone gifts me a greener container, I have no plans to give it up...yet another case of cheapness and laziness trumping health considerations.
-Toshio...off to eat out...
And yet, there are pizzas that are a pizza-cutter above, namely:
Best NY Pizza: Grimaldis in Brooklyn; thin crust with pepperoni and grease
Best Chicago-Style Pizza: OK, so I've never been to the supposedly windy city, but in the Bay Area, there is a clear imposter-winner, and it's Zachary's; stuffed with pepperoni, artichoke hearts, and black olives
Best I-Guess-You'd-Call-It-Pizza Pizza: the Girl from Ipanema from SF's Pizza Orgasmica
Best Frozen Pizza: Amy's Kitchen Margherita Pizza
Tell us your pizza secrets...where does your ideal bite come from?
-Jenifer Morgan...off to eat some, no matter how they slice it...
Today's tip perfectly epitomizes what would have become the "No Duh" category criteria. There's nothing really for me to say here to kick off this blog - we all know: takeout containers = unnecessary waste.
So why - knowing that - does it still feel like such a guilty little pleasure to have restaurant food at home?
-Heather... off to plan my home-cooked meals for, well, Burning Man...
I'd gaze in envy at my tiny blonde Nordic-looking friends as they pulled out their thin little mayo-ridden, tuna-only sandwiches on soggy white Wonder Bread, wishing my lunches were more like theirs.
God, but kids are so stupid.
-Heather... off make a whole-grain sandwich...
Inspired by a course on sustainability I took in Esalen, CA, I started working on an idea I had for creating a community sustainability center. The core focus kept coming back to food, and how we sustain ourselves and our communities at the same time. Coupled with that, I kept hearing my oldest daughter Mackenzie begging not to have to eat the school lunch. I finally put two and two together and realized how drastically we needed to change the system.
Another trip back to Esalen for a workshop with Amory Lovins provided me with an arsenal of info and contacts. I was blown away by the enthusiasm and support that the Farm-to-School idea garnered when I first started talking about it in Bozeman. I don't know if I would have made it a step further if a handful of mothers at our elementary school didn't jump on the bus with me. They were right there to support and add great ideas.
One short email to farm-to-school expert U of MT professor Dr. Neva Hassanein and Grow Montana, led to a community gathering of more than 65 people, and the program continued to grow quickly from there. The support of Bozeman School District's Food Service Director, Bob Burrows, was huge. Add to that the volunteer support that Grow Montana granted us (in the form of a full-year Food Corps volunteer), and we were off to a great start in a state where folks said Farm-to-School would never work!
School lunches often include fatty beef from industrial cattle operations, genetically modified corn and soy products, and heavily processed grains. Tell your legislators you want our kids eating healthier food. The Farm Bill, a massive piece of legislation that is reauthorized every five years and dictates what our kids eat for lunch, will be on the floor of the Senate this September. Call your senators about this very important topic - or visit http://healthyfarmbill.org to send them an email.
-Jen's friend Jenny Grossenbacher...off to the co-op...
Or, well... no. Don't. 'Cuz nature's kind of fine-tuned this whole gorgeously balanced gene thing, no? It's had millennia of trial and error to get that one right. Not quite sure I trust something that's only gone through seven years of testing by a government body quite as much as I trust natural selection. God only knows what one misplaced spliced gene will do to us, the oceans, the world.
-Heather...off to read more of The Moral Animal...
Since then, I've only had veggie burgers here and there, but a couple weeks ago, my roommate made me try a Trader Joe's Marsala Veggie Burger at a BBQ. Maybe it was the fact that it was grilled, or maybe I'd had too much Coors, but with a little chutney on top, the Marsala Burger was so good that if I ever wanted to go back to being vegan, I think I'd have a much easier time, thanks to TJ's. The burgers aren't available at all locations (which is why we didn't include them in our Wanna Trys), but if you can find them and you like samosas, definitely pick some up.
-Toshio...off to drink a Coors...
The first time I ordered a bag of CSA produce, because you don't get to choose exactly what you're gonna get, I was forced to find ways to use vegetables that were completely foreign to my diet. They delivered potatoes that weren't in French fry form. Radishes sans ranch dressing. And kale. Just...kale.
I'd never heard of kale, much less knowingly consumed it. But now it's one of my top-5, desert-island, must-have, favorite vegetables. Braise it in a little olive oil and when you're done, sprinkle nutritional yeast on top. So, so good. Point is, CSAs are great for all the reasons we listed in the tip, but expanding your culinary horizons is a definite benefit, too.
-Toshio...off to make a sandwich (which totally counts as cooking)...
They shouldn't have assigned the blog to me today, because I'm going to bag on the tip. Oooh, the drama of an unregulated blog...
Here's the deal - I am NEVER going to bake one of those cake mixes. Never. Oh, don't get me wrong - our editorial team has deemed them good, and they are. I just don't believe in boxed cakes. They rank up there with fat free cheese (??) or fake sugars. Why bother? My equation? Eat less of the real thing, and bake fewer, but better cakes.
Now in this case, at least, the Daily Tip lists organic alternatives to other boxed cakes, so it's a step in the right direction. And as my mom tells me all the time - boxed cakes make mom's lives easier, because damn it - kids don't really care.
Well, I don't have kids yet. So I promise you - if you get a cake from me, I made it from scratch.
-Heather... off to figure out what cake to make for my sis-in-law's birthday...
A couple weeks ago the whole SF office had a tasting. We went to Whole Foods to pick up some crackers and goat cheese, spread some Cavi*Art fake caviar (courtesy of TheGroovyMind) on top, held our breath, and all took a bite at the same time.
No one vom'ed or even made a face. The stuff's actually not bad. It doesn't "pop" in your mouth or smell like caviar (not that I'm a connoisseur), but made me think about how far fake meat has come since the first tofurky came out of the oven. Soon enough we'll have perfected fake foie gras. Bring on the braunsweiger.
-Toshio...off to eat the opposite of caviar - French fries...
So yeah, I'm the one who can't shut up about Wallaby's organic Dulce de Leche yogurt (though, ahem, Toshio isn't far behind). It's smooth, absolutely delish, and (hallelujah) bug-free.
-Jenifer Morgan...off to have Dulce for dolci...
PHOTO ALBUMS
