Things They Don't Show You on TV Cooking Shows - Part 1

Fresh Pasta, Key Limes



First, when making fresh pasta, using the Mario Batali enforced well method, dig that well deep. I measured out my flour, 3 1/2 cups, formed my mountain, pressed down a crater and starting cracking the necessary five eggs. About at egg three, they were running down the sides, like a Hawaiian volcano. I had as much egg on the sides of my board as I had within the flour. I tried spreading the flour over that way to catch the stray egg. That did not work too well. Eventually, as the dough was hardly coming together, I I trenched a new hole and fitted a beaten egg in that. By a lot of folding from there, I managed to wet things up. Still, next time, I believe I will follow Lidia B's directions and make the pasta in a big bowl.

For a first attempt at fresh pasta, I was mostly pleased with my efforts. I'm a snob in these type of things, and every thing I have read about fresh pasta is that there is a significant better-ness to pasta rolled by hand on a wooden board than pasta rolled with a machine. So, I was gonna be a rollin' stone of a pasta maker. My wife warned me. "It's really hard", she said. She warned me off. We argued. We agreed that she could be brutally honest in her assessment of the pasta if she said it in a nice way. "Good first try."

Second, did you know how intense key limes could be? As I mentioned last week, we found these gloriously yellow key limes on Maxwell Street. We have been using them in our recipes but it's taken some adjusting. Last Friday, my wife needed some citrus for her carrot kugel (pudding). She used what she thought was the equivalent amount of these key limes. The color was carrot but the flavor was all Joe's Stone Crab. Deborah Madison has a recipe for asparagus with citrus butter. She notes the affinity between asparagus coming into season and citrus just ending its season. I squeezed three key limes for the recipe, much less juice that was called for, yet I still had to add an extra tablespoon of butter to achieve some type of balance.

Anyways, I am out here cooking, letting you know what they don't tell you on your TV.

Vital Book

Local Flavors - Deborah Madison

Mike Sula in last week's Reader highlights several new cook books (with one, Terrine by Stephane Reynaud high on my list as I just ordered a 1/2 hog from the Wettstein's farm). Sula needed to add a few more favorites and used his blog to enhance his list. (My guru, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall makes the supplemental list; Sula cites his River Cottage Cookbook, although the one that I'm liking more right now is the River Cottage Family Cookbook, also out.)

Must be a hot media item, as the New York Times also reviewed new cookbooks this weekend. They too felt it necessary to include a web-extra list of books. And buried in there, for the computer savvy, one can find the most important, the most vital book of the season, Local Flavors by Deborah Madison.

The New York Times does not waste a lot of words on this tome:

"A paperback edition of an influential cookbook first published in 2002. "

Me, what I would say first is "thank god this thing is back in print." See a while back we gave a way our edition as a present before we even made use of the book, with the promise that I would buy a new one. Then, for over a year at least, we found it outta circulation. We picked up the new edition over the weekend. As far as I can tell, there is no new editorial content. Yet, for a book six years old, it remains more current than ever.

Three reasons: a natural organization of foods that is not tied to the ideal California-Tuscan notion of seasonality; recipes that are simple, useful and based on accessible ingredients; and bits of wisdom sprinkled throughout its pages. Any time I open the book, I find something that I wanna make. Something I can make. The nuggets interspersed, I feel like I could have written those myself, although my wife thinks it insulting that I dare compare myself to Ms. Madison.

Randomly, I open the book. On page 67, an herb salad, the recipe like so many in the book is not so much an order but a request. You can mimic the combination she presents or follow her general directions to make an herb salad with whatever you have around. Page 98, she reveals that Alaska can produce a farmer's market as good as anywhere warmer. Page 116, she finds that Birmingham, Alabama can be as limited in offerings in late September as Chicago can be in early May. Page 201, 3 beet caviar with goat cheese; page 267, Concord grape tart.

This book is filled with the type of things my wife and I cook, how our family eats. As you put more local on your table, use Local Flavors to guide you.

It's Good to be a Locavore

Oak Park Farmer's Market - May 31, 2008

It's good to be a locavore because it's going to be a very good year at the Oak Park Farmer's Market. I chatted briefly with the River Valley Mushroom people, and they echoed my beliefs. They were very happy to put a stand up in Oak Park this year.

Know what that is? Unami central. Genuine porcini mushrooms, with a few morels in the back. I mean morels are pretty darn cool, but fresh porcini's. See those that often. I had to spring for all of them, that's about $20 worth of glutamatial glory. I'm thinking fresh pasta, Wisconsin Parmesian (Antigo) and the porcinin's sliced thin.

I did not see Sandhill Organics last week. I was a bit worried with our new mushroom bounty and the woman farming Forest Park that we left these guys to fend for themselves. Nope. A lot of lettuces that looked like this today at $2.50 each as well as chards and radishes both in rainbow assortments.








Farmer Vicki's Genesis Grower's was not gonna let you ignore her and her stuff.

Neither was Nichol's Farm who applied their trademark variety to the green onion business, kept on pushing the old 'tatoes and caught up on the wild watercress craze.













Of course rhubarb and asparagus were everywhere.









A very good year indeed. See you next week, when the market opens at its regular time, 7 AM; Pilgrim Church, 460 Lake Street (between Elmwood and Scoville) and runs until 1 PM.

Be a Locavore, Put More Local on Your Table

Discussion at Kendall College, June 14 2008 - 10 AM

The Greater Midwest Foodways Alliance was kind enough to provide me a lectern on June 14 to discuss all things local. Details of the event can be found here. Hope to see you all there!

Eat Seasonal

Rhubarb

The Epicurious map of seasonal foods got a few things right, for Illinois. Rhubarb is in season. Be trendy, make sweets from vegetables. Things eaten recently in the bungalow made with the season's finest.

Rhubarb Muffins

Pre-heat oven to 375

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar (we used vanilla sugar)
6 tablespoons butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
2 1/2 cups rhubarb, finely chopped
3/4 cup dried cranberries
3 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbs vanilla
Turbinado Sugar

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and buttermilk. Add rhubarb and cranberries, do not over-mix. Whisk together dry ingredients in another bowl. Slowly add dry mixture to wet mixture. Scoop into greased muffin tins. Sprinkle turbinado sugar on top. Bake at 375 for approximately 25 minutes.

Rhubarb Shlump or You may call it Grunt

First, make a rhubarb compote:

3 cups rhubarb, chopped
1 quart sour cherries (frozen)
1 1/2 cup blueberries (frozen)
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
Juice of 2 limes
Pinch of salt and cinnamon
Shake of fresh ground pepper
1/2 Cup of water

Combine all ingredients but for the blueberries in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until rhubarb starts to breakdown. Add blueberries cook for a few more minutes.

Make a batter:

1 cup flour
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 tbs melted butter
1/2 cup buttermilk

Combine dry ingredients. Add melted butter. Slowly add buttermilk to form a wet but not too wet batter.

Grunt while you do this:

Have the compote at a gentle simmer. With a teaspoon, form walnut sized dumplings from the batter. Drop into compote. Cover tightly with foil. Cook approximately 15 minutes until dumplings are firm.

With Shakey-Shakey

Pre-heat oven to 350. Put how ever many stalks of rhubarb you have in a baking pan. Cover with a good amount of sugar, probably 1 cup. Pour in enough water but not enough to drown rhubarb. Bake at 350 until very soft, about 30 minutes. Parcel out rhubarb into bowls while still hot. Pour over shakey-shakey (condensed milk).

Everything You Read About Seasonality is Wrong

Epicurious's Seasonal Ingredient Map

I'm sure Gemma at Gaper's Block had the best of intentions when she directed her readers to this Epicurious guide to what's in season. And not every guide to seasonality is wrong. I mean I think this one has it pretty close. I have not, however, seen the mainstream food press ever get it right. The people who put together these guides typically get two things wrong. First, they assume stuff is in season around here well before it is. Second, they miss things that are in season when they are in season. Epicurious and about every other such guide does not guide the Chicago area locavore very well.

The Epicurious guide has the following in season in Illinois NOW, May: cherries, peas, cucumbers (!) and potatoes. Of these the only ones you'll find in Chicago area markets now are potatoes, and those potatoes you might see are last year's potatoes, still viable from good storage. Of course, for Wisconsin, the guide states for May:

The growing season is currently dormant here;
opt for items from storage, such as apples, pears, and root vegetables.

Funny when I was in Madison a few weeks ago things hardly seemed dormant (and not a pear in site).

Our guardians of foodie discourse do not pay attention to the neat things popping up on our lands in the Spring such as nettles, morels, ramps, watercress, sunchokes and scallions. Likewise, they forget that farmer's can grab their over-wintered crops for us such as parsnips, spinach and carrots. Most glaring, they have no idea that farmer's around here use just a wee bit of technology to goad Mother Earth into all sorts of crops such as Farmer Vicki's baby bok choy (gosh that was good), beets and kale. They make you look for what's not here and fail to see what is there.

The other problem, obviously, is that Illinois is a long and varied state and the climate in Little Egypt hardly matches what is here in Chicago. For all I know, farmer's markets in Cairo are awash in peaches right now. Still, a map such as presented by Epicurious should be representative of the entire state, certainly where most of the people are. Most of the people shopping farmer's markets right now, in this state will not find a cherry, not a local cherry.

They Write Press Releases

Chicago & Midwest Wine Show

Did you hear that Paul Virant will be on Iron Chef America? Well, how about this, Virant's restaurant Vie features Illinois wines on its list. Wanna know more about local wine?

Prospect Expositions, LLC is answering the need for a comprehensive wine exposition serving the vast and affluent Chicagoland marketplace by launching the 2008 Chicago & Midwest Wine Show this fall.

In cooperation with the Illinois Grape Growers & Vintners Association, the show will be Sept. 27 – 29, 2008 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center, 5555 River Rd., Rosemont, Illinois. The event will cater to both individual wine lovers and those in the trade such as retailers, restaurant/bar owners, caterers, food and beverage directors, chefs, sommeliers, and others.

Show hours will be: Saturday, Sept. 27 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. for public and trade
Sunday, Sept. 28 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. for public and trade
Monday, Sept. 29 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. for trade only

“We have found wine shows to be successful in other markets but no one is serving the Midwest like we plan to with our unique event,” says Lawrence Skaja, President and Founder, Prospect Expositions, LLC. “Our Saturday through Monday event will give wine lovers and those in the business of selling or distributing wines an excellent opportunity to experience an expansive assortment of vintages from around the world and talk with producers. This will all be done in an upscale ballroom setting with a complement of accessories and equipment of all types.”

The Saturday and Sunday events will have special highlights including live music, food tastings from area restaurants, and other hors d’oeuvres. Individual tickets will be sold in advance via the event website and through beverage retailers, restaurants, and other sources throughout the Midwest. Advance tickets are $55/per day for regular admission and $145 for VIP admission which includes Saturday-Sunday admission plus complimentary valet parking both days. On-site prices will be an additional $10 for one-day tickets and $20 for VIP tickets.

Individual tickets will be available online starting around July 1 and at participating wine retailers throughout the Midwest. Discounted group tickets are available by calling 847-759-6900 around the same time.

Qualified trade attendees will have complimentary admission on all three days with exclusive access on Monday. Proof of a valid state liquor license will be required to register.

"IGGVA is pleased to be a Participating Sponsor of the 2008 Chicago and Midwest Wine Show to help increase the awareness of the consuming public on the varieties and qualities of wines available from Illinois," says William W. "Bill" McCartney, Executive Director of the Illinois Grape Growers & Vintners Association.

For general inquiries, please call 847-759-6900 or email info@chicagomidwestwineshow.com. Complete event details including exhibit and sponsorship opportunities are now available on the official website http://www.chicagomidwestwineshow.com/.

What Is and Is Not Local, Maxwell Street Market - May 25, 2008

The Lime That's Key

I figure any show that's good enough for Paul Virant should be good enough for me, so I've watched a few episodes of Iron Chef America. A Judge Jeffrey Steingarten comment irked me. It was something along the lines of "everyone knows the best pistachios come from Sicily." Maybe great pistachios come from Sicily, but one thing I have learned in local is that great anything come producers who care, who work for it. I bet, I bet for sure, that there's some farmer in California growing "local" pistachios that are as good as anything just plain ol' Sicilian. What I'm getting at, is that when I'm making the occasional non-local purchase, I want to get something that's more than just standard accepted foodie blather, the everyone knows stuff. Or put it this way, I may buy limes all the time, but I rarely blog about limes.

At Maxwell Street, last Sunday, I got limes worth blogging about. Yellow limes. As my wife, the native Floridian will tell you, "everyone knows that key limes are yellow." She, after all, had a key lime tree in her front yard. Yet, you rarely, if ever see yellow limes in the markets around here. And I'm talking about key limes that will show up at Mexican markets and even Trader Joe's. See most of the limes that hit are markets are pulled from the tree so far before ripe you never see their true colors. That's what I'm looking for in my non-local. At Maxwell, they were $1 per basket, about 15 limes per basket. Hopefully you can find them next week at the market, but given the seasonality of these limons, I wonder if you will.

I also wonder if you will be able to walk into the Whole Foods there, on Canal, and find some local asparagus. Local just aint easy to find at Whole Foods these days. Still, this Whole Foods on this Sunday was selling Michigan asparagus for $3.49/lb; I thought that seemed pricey, but at checkout my bundle came to less than a pound. They made a great addition to that night's fried rice.

New Maxwell Street Market run up and down Canal, near Roosevelt from 7 AM until 3 PM every Sunday.

What Took So Long

Oak Park Farmer's Market - May 24, 2008

Oak Parker's love a block party. I have no actual statistics to base this on, but I believe that every block in Oak Park (but for the main streets) has a block party. Some have more than one. I have no statistics to base this on, but I bet you that at every block party at some point, talk amongst the neighbors (some who only talk this one time per year) will be about Village government. It won't be pretty. Me, my pet complaint used to be the gobs of money we spent on our recent library. I've changed that to the gobs of money spent on our recent Public Works building. Still, for all the complaints, I love my Village because as my family and I walked back to the parking lot on Saturday morning, we saw the Village Clerk, who we know well. We asked, is their free parking today (we had not paid the box), and she said, "I have no idea."

I had no idea how the pre-season market would hold. Oak Park had decided to open a limited market two weeks earlier than they normally opened. I saw one of the Nichol's guys a few weeks ago and he seemed psyched about the earlier market. Then, I read somewhere that it was for the sale of bedding plants. Me, I go to the Oak Park Market for donuts. I go for food to eat now. I no want no bedding plants. I can report back. Yes, there were bedding plants. Tomato plants galore. Food too. Donuts three. In fact the donuts were selling so fast that powdered sugar was out. See, when the donuts are too hot, the powdered sugar melts. High demand negates powedered sugar. When you're down to plain and cinnamon, you know your donut will be warm. Good I think.

Most but not all the vendors showed for this trial-run. All brought food beyond plants even if most of the food was rhubarb or asparagus. Nichol's also had old potatoes (more on that anon), some arugula, green garlic that I wanted more than anything this day and spinach. My pal Vicki was at another market, but her Genesis Growers had a full table with baby bok choy and mint and rosemary and scallions, which surprisingly have not been in the CSA box. I ordered a 1/2 hog (farmer talk) from the Wettstein's and was wowed by the new-to-the market Catalina Farm, which is farm in name only as she is putting the local in local, farming a small plot in Forest Park. She had a name for it. Swib or something like that. I'll take better notes next week.

There will be a next week, this abridged market that did not seem so abridged. Then, it's on to about twelve weeks of the best market in the Chicago area. You should find me there most Saturdays, usually before 8 AM. I hope to see you there too. The Oak Park Farmer's Market meets at Pilgrim Church 460 Lake Street (between Elmwood and Scoville). Market hours are 8 AM until noon for one more week and then 7 AM until 1 PM the rest of the season.

What's Local at Cassie's Green Grocer

Back From the Honeymoon and Better Than Ever

It was about when Cassie was done ringing me up that I mentioned that I had come in just for some herbs. Cassie replied by snipping me some parsley and cilantro from the plants growing in her window. I would have still blogged 'bout Green Grocer. I mean the herbs came after she told me to help myself to a few edible flowers that were surprisingly not selling that fast but before she also filled a (compostable!) bag with a sample of baby mustard greens. I would have blogged. What a great place Cassie has going.

I mean can you walk into any other store in, and or near Chicago these days and find bunches of wild ramps, giant stuffer morels, deep green watercress? All local. Or French breakfast radishes, the size of D batteries, 1/2 red, 1/2 white; asparagus successfully kept fresh through vertical enclosure in a water bath? Local. Now, I skipped all of that but for the radishes. I did get strands of sage and chive, both with their flowers; a tub of rosemary (quite generous for the price) and baby arugula that bites like its teething. I at least admired the other salad greens.

I did not take a full inventory of all the cool products there yesterday, but I espied plenty of cool. Cool included local eggs, Trader's Point Creamery cottage cheese, and local/artisianal tempeh from Mu Tofu.

See, Cassie's local includes much that is not at Green City Market or any other farmer's market. Yet, even if you are a farmer's market junkie like me, you have to welcome and appreciate a shop like this. I really want local to be there when I need it. I really want to be able to supplement with a thing or two that I need now. Green Grocer is servicing these needs. Go visit.

Eat Local Cheese

"Not that he’s trying to discourage mold. Inside the cave, resting on cedar shelves, 11- and 38-pound wheels of English-style cheddar wrapped tightly in muslin are covered with splotchy, gray microbial colonies that after months of aging help the cheddar develop the exquisite caramelly flavors that can send chills jolting down the back of your legs."

There are a lot of great cheeses from the Midwest, but gosh darn if I had to pick an absolute top-top favorite, a first amongst a lot of firsts, I would probably go with BluMont Dairy's Lil' Wil raw milk cheddar from cheese master, Willi Lehner. Mike Sula tells Willi's story in this week's Chicago Reader. Willi is easy to find nearly weekly at the Dane County Farmer's Market just around the corner from where the State Street carnival hits the capital square at the BluMont stand. Have him autograph a block of cheese.

I will add, or stress, or whatever, that as good at the cheese can be outta the fridge, it can only fully be appreciated if you let it come to room temperature.

Listen to Me

More Thoughts for the Illinois Food and Farm Task Force

To paraphrase a great local writer, will this VI guy ever shut up.

• Turn locally grown beans into commercially sold dried beans
• Turn locally cured/smoked hams into deli ham
• Turn locally raised turkeys into deli turky
• Create incentives for local food companies like Vienna, Mars, etc. to use local raw materials

Listen to Me

Scroll Down

On Tuesday, I went to a Listening Session for the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force at Hull House (props to Hull House too, btw). I started my report of the event early Wednesday but got distracted. I saved what I started as a blog/draft. I did not realize that the post, when done, would go below the other post I had made yesterday. Readers who go to the top of the blog may not see the newer post. Since getting a better local food system matters a bunch to me, here's the post. Read.

Farmer's Market News

Assorted tidbits of note:

• The hardest woman in forage, the sidekick to the superheros who hang at the AquaRanch, the person who was one of the few things between me and a diet relying mostly on potatoes this winter, Robin "Winter" herself, is running a stand this market season for the Midwest Organic Farmers Co-op. She'll have frozen (Illinois) farm-raised tilapia and cheeses and vegetables grown in this state. See her Thursday's at the Daley Plaza Farmer's Market. What she has leftover she'll be selling at the new Woodlawn market. Tell her I said to stop by and say hi.
  
  
• Also at Woodlawn are my latest heroes, the farmers from Windy City Harvest. The best advertisement for their work on the West side of Chicago is the fruits of their work. I mean the vegetables of their work. Picture-perfect, tastes even better.
  
  
• It's Farmtastic. That's the clever tag for the new multi-cultural farmer's market running this year in Maywood on the first and third Saturdays from June through October at St. Eulalia Church 1851 S. 9th Avenue, Maywood. They have a nifty color flyer that I'll post as soon as I get a computer ready version.
  
  
• Jim Vitalo, who many farmer's market denizens know as the "Vinegar Guy", is spearheading a new market this season, on Thursdays. The market will be at the Maywood VA Hospital. I'll have more news on this market soon.

Listen to Me

Report from the Soupbox

As I previously posted, the Illinois Local and Organic Food and Farm Task Force held "listening sessions" yesterday. The session leaders informed us that only a small fraction of the food grown in Illinois went directly to consumers in Illinois. Moreover, Illinois consumers were spending a host on organic foods and about none of that came from from food grown within the state either. The result, as we were told, the real ghettos around here were the boarded up and declining rural communities of Illinois. The Task Force hopes to rectify that by ramping up, tremendously, the local food system. Eat local.

The listening session gave a bowl of soup, a delicuous fresh baked roll and a soap box of 120 seconds to who ever wanted. Beyond the time limit, there were no rules. One person read a poem that turned soup into sex. Another person had a poem, with no connection, as far as I could tell, to food, period. Jason Hammel, from Lula's in Logan Square made some very good points. Others railed against GMO's and wanted to give it to the Man. I planed on just being a listener myself, but when most of the talkers seemed 10,000 feet in the air, I thought it would help for someone to speak from the ground. I wanted them to hear from someone eating local. I asked for non-frozen meat and better hours and more available food. If I really had myself collected, and perhaps could talk fast, I would have given this list:

• A central, year-round, daily market, somewhere triangulated between Milwaukee's recent Public Market, the Ferry-Terminal Market in San Francisco and Cleveland's Westside Market.
• Markets open in the afternoon and evening
• More winter markets
• Farmers growing for winter markets. In other words, producing surplus quantities of potatoes, root vegetables, apples, pears, onions and the lot then storing them at optimum conditions. These crops will be released over the course of the Winter.
• Farmers growing in the winter using hoop-houses and other technology--lettuces, greens, herbs, maybe even berries.
• Fruits and vegetables grown for ethnic markets.
• Local food served in schools.
• Mills grinding local grains into the full range of desired grains including white flour.
• A viable commercial fishing industry, including river fish and Lake Michigan fish.
• Pecans grown at one tip of the state and hazelnuts grown at the other; in between a revitalization of the native black walnut crop.
• Artisanal consumer (that's consumer) products derived from local corn and soy including tofu and cooking oils.
• Clearly marked sugar derived from locally grown sugar beets.
• Efforts to ensure the survival of our honeybees.
• Marketeers selling a range of foraged crops including watercress, ramps, paw-paws, wild burdock, dandelions and plenty of mushrooms.
• And last but not least, local meat that is not frozen when I go to buy it!

Today's Iron Chef Hype

Another Vie Review

Good example of why Paul Virant was asked to compete on Iron Chef America at this Flickr site. Well done Renka!

LAST MINUTE - CHANCE TO BE HEARD - TODAY (MAY 20)

Sorry for the last minute-ness of this, but I only got the word on this late yesterday.

The Illinois General Assembly created a "Food & Farms Task Force to further the cause of local eating in this state. In other words, trying to better hook up non-commodity farmers in the state with consumers of their food. The Task Force has scheduled “Listening sessions” at various locations statewide to gather recommendations from the public on production, infrastructure, public access, public education, and economic benefits that can be derived from Illinois farmers directly serving the needs of their neighbors. They need input!

There are two listening sessions TODAY May 20, 2008.

- Hull House Museum on the UIC campus, 800 S. Halsted, 12noon to 1:30pm, as part of their Rethinking Soup series (free soup!)

- DePaul Center, 1 E. Jackson Blvd., Room 8005, 3pm to 5pm, http://www.chicagofoodpolicy.org/events.htm

My wife and I are going to attend the session at Hull House. And a trip to Hull House is never complete, no, with a trip to nearby Manny's. We plan on being at Manny's around 11 AM and then walking to Hull House. We would love for anyone to join us at this last minute call to action (or for an early sandwich).

Here's the link to the Task Force for more info. Those who cannot attend in person can submit written comments at any time prior to July 15, 2008 to Debbie Hillman, dlhillman@sbcglobal.net (or call 847-328-7175 for mailing address).

Eat Good Bread

Bennison's at Pastoral

I asked a food savvy friend recently where you could get good bread downtown. His response:

"Where can you get good bread anywhere in Chicago?"

I'm not fully in agreement on that. There is a list, not a long list, but a list of good bread in Chicago. At or near the top of that list is Bennison's. Anyone in the Loop should know that Pastoral, 53 E. Lake, sells Bennison's bread. Become French, take home a baguette tonight.

Pastoral carries a pretty good selection of local cheeses. Today they had a wide array of Brenda Jensen's Hidden Springs Creamery products, both the aged cheeses and the fresh tubs. They are also now carrying Trader's Point Creamery yogurts, but not the one my wife craves/needs, the low-fat vanilla.

Latest in Iron Chef News

Fine Take on Vie

Want some Iron Chef news. Cora beat Faulkner last night. See, in anticipation of my culinary hero being on Iron Chef, I watched Iron Chef America last night (that and the fact that there was nothing on the DVR or the TV that my wife and I could agree on, why she was not interested in an old Minnesota Fats video I recorded beats the heck outta me...). I'll say this, most of the food they made looked awfully good.

Anyways, in other Vie news, Gary Fine, takes his excellent keyboard to Vie this week. He brings up the noise factor and it's a legit point for sure. My wife and I have commented to ourselves that Virant and his family did a wonderful job at Vie making the place appear posh without throwing a huge amount of $$ into the design/decor. We always thought of it as money well spent as his resources have been used otherwise quite well.

Eat Local is Green

Go Green Team

Over the weekend, my family and I volunteered for the Green Team at this year's Green Fest at Navy Pier. An outfit from North Carolina called Seven-Star marshaled the forces. Our mission: keep the landfill bound dumpster at Navy Pier to the barest. Our tactics: Mom and Dad went with the frontline troops, guarding four sets of garbage bins (and God help anyone who put compostable* material in my solid waste bin); the kidz went with the brigade in the rear. Although us frontliners tried to ensure that all garbage got neatly divided, those in the rear followed up to ensure it fully happened. Together, the Green Team/Seven Star put dry paper one place, metals and plastics 1-6 (although there was one number I believe that even we could not take-on) in another place; all food waste, plus all manner of bio-containers, plus soiled paper went to a third place (to be composed by some master industrial composter) (fact: Green Fest only served vegan food so that all food waste could be composted--meat in compost piles attracts the wrong kind). We did not stop there. We stacked and bundled the cardboard. We reconned for Cliff bar wrappers that would be sent back to Cliff, same with the juice boxes from Honest Juices. We isolated E-waste, with those dreaded heavy metals, for render-safe procedures (fact: yes there was some). We succeeded brilliantly, we can proudly proclaim mission accomplished.

And this has to do with eating local. Well, there's nothing like being knee deep in goo-goo muck to get you hep on waste. Clearly, the best way to reduce and eliminate landfill bound material is to compost. Remember, space is not the only landfill issue. Food waste, rotting away in landfills, produces huge amounts of methane gas, gas that's just plain horrible for the world. (Wanna whiff, drive the Eisenhower around Hillside, IL). Compost your food waste.

And...and, now we get to the local part. What's left after the food waste. How 'bout the packaging? the bags, especially the dreaded plastic bags? It's not that eating local necessarily reduces packaging, it's the nature of the way that one shops and buys if you are a locavore that reduces packaging. For instance, the bulk of my produce this week came from my Farmer Vicki's CSA box. That's one re-usable box. A few of the products come wrapped. Who wants a CSA portion with leaves of baby spinach spewed all over the place. Still, it is the barest of extra packaging. Compare greatly to the packaging at a supermarket or worse Costco where everything is packaged. Shop the farmer's markets, you'll find the same sort of thing (bring your own bags to schlep the stuff home!).

Want more? Snazzy packaging technology just does not seem to have reached the type of people you buy from when you buy local. I have tons of local jellies in the Bungalow. Not a single one is packaged in a PVC upside down squeezable container. When I buy berries or the like, it nearly always in cardboard, and when it's not, it's in balsa wood. (Fact: the farmers gladly will take back your used containers.) The actions of buying local encourage green.

The Green Team marches on.

*Leading candidate for 2008 word of the year?