National Day Of Thanks

Thanksgiving is a day of thanks that crosses all the boundaries that people build. Americans of all ethnic and religious backgrounds have embraced Thanksgiving and it is one of our universal national holidays. 

I am thankful for many things this year. Chief among them are all the friends and colleagues who have welcomed my family back to the North Coast with open arms. This move -- back across the country less than a year after moving away -- would have been impossible without the generosity and kindness of so many people in this community. There were times that my sanity was tested, but there was also someone there with a solution and a shoulder.

I am also grateful for some of the changes we found when we came back. I'm thankful that the new (to me) Wild Rivers Market is here, providing some products that used to require a trip to Arcata. I'm grateful for Vita Cucina's pizza nights, and for the ongoing delicious-ness of their open-faced roasted veggie sandwich. 

I am especially happy to be on the DNATL food team again. This is challenging work that makes me happy to go to the office (almost) every single day. It is meaningful, it requires thought and research and creativity, and it's one of the best jobs I can imagine.

Even though it didn't work out as a long-term situation, I am grateful for the time I got to spend in the northeast. It was my home for most of my young adulthood and I love many parts of it. As a family, we got to spend lots more time with my extended family and some of my closest friends. It was wonderful.

And now, we are back on the beautiful coast with the tallest trees in the world at our backs. I am grateful for every walk on the beach, every one of the beautiful small stones I pick up, time on the Smith, and each walk among the redwoods.

Life is good.

What are you thankful for this year?

What's Cooking?

Today's post is easy: What's on your menu tomorrow? 

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and a day to remember all the people, events, places, and things we are thankful for this year. Today is for planning; checking lists, dashing off for last-minute forgotten items, maybe starting some prep work.

So what are you cooking tomorrow?

I'll go first. 

Number of people: Six, including two children 7 and under

Location: My newly-borrowed house

Highlights of the menu: For a variety of reasons, we're doing small plates this year instead of one big feed. Thanks to the coming together of Thanksgiving and Chanukah, we'll be starting with an appetizer of latkes (potato pancakes) served with cranberry-orange sauce, sour cream, and a little smoked salmon for those who want to indulge. Both children are very fond of cheese, so we'll be having a cheese and fruit course somewhere during the afternoon. I've got an impressive haul of cheeses thanks to Rumiano's, Face Rock Creamery in Bandon, and a gifted round of Humboldt Fog. Apples, grapes, and bread will round that out. 

Dessert: This is a highlight for many people. I had planned to make an apple pie with a cheddar cheese crust in honor of my nephew, but my own child vetoed that plan. Instead, we are having a pumpkin-praline pie courtesy of Vita Cucina and making a chocolate ganache pie with a Biscoff cookie crust. (I'll be breaking all the rules and boiling a can for a couple hours this afternoon to make dulce de leche to stir into whipped cream tomorrow.)

You don't need to use these categories, but we'd love to know what you're cooking if you'd leave us a comment!

Healthy Food, Healthy Kid

Most parents, at one time or another, struggle with getting their kids to eat the "right" foods. Maybe your kid will eat strawberries by the dozen, but won't touch a vegetable. Or maybe your kid will eat any vegetable as long as it's drowned in cheese sauce. Or maybe your kid won't eat anything but cheerios, three meals a day.

We all know -- and some of us have -- kids who aren't interested in eating anything that comes by vitamins, minerals, or fiber naturally. So what do you do? There are as many different approaches as there are parents. Some go for a three bite rule, others require a clean plate.

Yesterday in the New York Times, the Motherlode column addressed these questions. How, asked KJ Dell'Antonia, do you define a "healthy eater" and how to do you raise one? Plenty of parents chimed in with suggestions and stories. The ones I find comforting are those whose children will eat anything as adults no matter how restricted their food choices were as a child. 

How did you raise or are you raising your healthy eater?

Three Years Of Food Work

Over the past week, we've been preparing for our next Food Council meeting (December 3rd at 5:30, potluck at the FRC) and for our next year. It's been exciting.

One of the pieces I've been working on is a timeline of what we've done. Continuity in the work is a wonderful thing and it helps if more than a few people know what's already happened. Luckily, I not only kept, but brought my calendars from the last several years, and I was able to go through them and pull out highlights of the food work.

We'll have it on display at the meeting, along with a calendar projecting our work in 2014. We're moving forward on a number of different (some completely new) paths and we hope you'll join us!

Michael Pollan's Latest

Before I get to today's post, I should apologize for there being no post yesterday. I briefly contemplated back-dating a post so it would appear that we hadn't missed a day, but that seemed like cheating. Suffice to say there was a sick child involved and a post just wasn't in the cards.

So, moving on.

I recently (as in, this morning) finished reading Michael Pollan's latest, Cooked. I'm not entirely sure why, but I had been avoiding it for a while. Part of it was that I was worried that his conceit of breaking his books into very distinct larger-than-chapter chunks might get old. Not every single subject can be broken down like that. 

I still believe that, but I think it worked out ok for this one. I see where his thinking was, even if I don't completely agree.

But let me back up.

Cooked is about the human ability to transform raw, whole foods into something new and greater than the sum of its parts. Pollan tackles this one cooking technique at a time, focusing each segment of the book on Fire, Water, Air, or Earth. Fire comes first and is about the art of the grill, specifically, the art of barbecue. Water is about slow-braised foods, such as stews, hearty sauces, and just about anything else that can be cooked slowly in liquids. Bread and the magic of yeast is at the heart of Air. And Earth is about the foods created by the same microbes found in the soil: fermentation. 

(And the Earth section is where this four-part harmony breaks down a little. The subject is so complex that it doesn't fit the "one recipe for each element" theme of the book; it's broken down into three smaller sections, one for fermented veggies, one for cheese, and one for beer.)

In the end, I enjoyed the whole book and loved parts of it. The microbiology of cheese? Loved it. The entire section about cooking whole pigs? Not for me, so much. If you like reading and thinking about cooking and the chemistry and biology behind some of our most-favorite food categories, this is a great book to add to your wish-list.

Healthy: Support A Ban On Trans-Fats

I don't know that you need a megaphone, but it's time again to talk to the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA recently decided that trans-fats, the former darlings of highly processed foods, cannot be "generally recognized as safe". They are proposing a ban on the use of trans-fats in foods manufactured and sold in the United States. This seems reasonable for a substance that isn't recognized as safe. Or as actual food.

But, of course, Big Food and Big Ag are likely to fight this new rule and they have lots of money to bring to the fight. So the FDA needs to hear from citizens-who-are-not-corporations. The public comment period for this rule change lasts for 60 days from the announcement, which came early last week. The Center for Science in the Public Interest is providing a template for those wanting to lodge a comment on the regulation. 

You can learn more about trans-fat and the proposed ban on the FDA's website.

Do-It-Yourself Food Workshops

Food Day 2013 has come and gone, and those of us who were on the planning end of the events could hardly be happier with the results and turnout. Amongst other things, we were able to hold a series of DIY workshops based around different aspects of food, including growing, cooking, storing, and more. The day of the workshops was one of the most well received events we had for Food Day, and we planners were just as excited as those in attendance. We were particularly excited at the prospect of continuing these workshops throughout the year. Due to various time and budget constraints, we were only able to have one day with multiple classes, and were not able to do the publicity that such an event deserves. Needless to say, things were hectic with logistics for the day, and we felt overall attendance could have been helped by increased publicity. So now we have all of 2014. A whole year to spread out as many DIY Workshops as we can, over the seasons, months, maybe even weeks!

Like at every Food Day event, we had people fill out evaluation sheets after the DIY classes. I know some people think that those evaluations are pointless sometimes, but I assure you we read through every single one and took suggestions to heart! We are using those evaluation sheets to guide ideas for workshops in 2014 and we have already begun planning. Here is just a little taste of the types of workshops you can look forward to in 2014:

• Winter cooking (i.e. soups, bread, foods to warm the house!)
• Canning (a comprehensive, multi-day course on how to can everything from jam to smoked salmon)
• Smoking meat and fish
• Cheese making
• Seasonal foraging
• Tree pruning/grafting/orchard care
• Soil preparation and testing
• Seed starting

And that's just touching on the ideas for Winter and Spring. We now have plenty of time, and more funding, and we are going to work hard on making sure these classes are worthwhile for Del Norters. Keep your eyes and ears peeled in the near future and look for more info in the Triplicate, KCRE, this blog, and our Facebook page!