February 2012

If you live in Minneapolis, and are a local food junkie, you might have heard some rumblings about the Urban Agriculture Zoning Text Amendments that are coming before the City Council's Zoning and Planning Comittee on March 1. This process, prompted by Homegrown Minneapolis way back in 2008, has been a long time coming in terms of making urban agriculture a legal use of land in the City of Minneapolis. After a two-year process in which stakeholders, urban farmers, city officials, and neighborhood residents have agonized over striking the right balance between the entrepreneurial urban farmers’ needs and neighbors’ peace of mind, these amendments to the Minneapolis zoning code are in danger of being severely weakened to the point of undoing all of the careful work by city planners, citizen advisory committees and urban farmers.

One of my earliest food memories is of eating soup with my dad. Both of my parents were medical residents and although I don't remember feeling juggled, I know that caring for me with two punishing call schedules was an elaborate dance. It must have been on those bleary-eyed nights when my mom was on call, that my dad would pull out the Campbell's Alphabet Soup. He would serve it in one big bowl and float big chunks of Meunster cheese in it which would melt into long gooey strings. Together we would eat, our heads touching, our spoons crossing - giggling, looking for letters and trying to get that cheese. 

Another week, another new take on Mexican food. This time we stumbled upon a Latin eatery called Taqueria La Hacienda. Situated awkwardly off of Lake street, it seems like the type of location that screams hole-in-the-wall. However, for the first time, we were welcomed with a restaurant that certainly had something new in this Latin eating adventure: a budget. 

Taqueria La Hacienda, it turns out is a local chain with three locations: the original on Lake street, a taco stand in the Mercado Central (Lake and Bloomington) and a spot in Burnsville. Not only do they have three locations, but they obviously have some money invested in their business as evidenced by their nice website, video menu screen and nice decor. 

Having burned and scraped my way through various pots and pans and spent a pretty penny for new issues every five years or so, I have a few reasons for reverting to old ways and adopting cast iron into my cookware family.

Formed by a pouring molten pig iron into casts, the technology behind the creation of this age-tested cookware is very simple. The earliest references to civilization’s use of cast iron can be traced back to fourth century BC and it’s debut into the kitchen scene was around the 17th century. Though the cast iron skillet was chucked aside by most and Teflon coated pans became commonplace, there are many worthy qualities to be examined and preserved.

Cooking healthy doesn't always just mean the ingredients