Girl Detective

I recently sat down with Cameron Adair, chef at Amici Pizza and Bistro in Northeast Minneapolis, to talk about the restaurant, which celebrates its first anniversary on February 28. The owner, Greg Pratt, and Adair, leading the kitchen, opened last year in the redecorated space formerly occupied by Snap Pizza.

Winter in general -- and this cold, extra-snowy one in particular -- calls for warm, filling food. Slow-cooked, warm food is ideal, but most people I know don't have the time or energy for it on a busy weeknight. Many of us agree that any fresh food is better than packaged food, yet faced with a blank slate for supper and kids crying, "I'm hungry!" it's no wonder we throw up our hands and reach for a box of mac and cheese. (My kids like the Back to Nature kind, from Madison, Wisconsin.)

My husband and I are not native Minnesotans; we moved here from Philadelphia in the late 1990s. Once we got here, we were happy to discover that there's much more to living here than enduring those long, hard winters. One of the most weird and wonderful discoveries was the Minnesota State Fair. Fair-savvy friends first took us in 1999, and I haven't missed a year since. Even when our first son was a week old. I went; he stayed home.

Before I moved to Northeast Minneapolis, The Wedge was my co-op. Every Saturday, I'd walk into produce area and ask the staff what they recommended. One memorable August day, in response to my question, one employee threw up his hands and exclaimed, "It's all good this week!" Since then, I've believed there's a brief moment in August when all local produce is at its peak. Judging by last week's CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farmshare box, that moment is now.

This past week, my vegetable bin contained leeks, potatoes, tomatoes, basil, corn, cucumber, green and yellow summer squash, purple kale, and garlic. I flirted with the idea of creating a kitchen-sink soup, but I decided to highlight each item's individual strengths instead. I also wanted to play fast and loose with recipes and not fret too much about amounts.

In my last article, I wrote about Brassica vegetables, which aren't the most popular items in the CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box. This week, I've spent time with more widely loved summer vegetables, red potatoes and yellow squash.

Sugar is enjoying a resurgence in popularity after years of being vilified for empty calories and its role in things like tooth decay, obesity and diabetes. As the negative effects of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) have become better known, sugar's profile has risen. Cane sugar, as opposed to cheaper beet sugar, has especially benefited from HFCS's bad press; it is actually being touted as a healthful ingredient. Yet cane and beet sugars are highly processed, refined and provide no nutritional value. Other, less refined, sweeteners have some benefits that sugar doesn't. Yet nearly all of them raise blood sugar, and have little nutritive value. So why bother?

These people don't look like farmers, I thought as I met some of the staff of The Cornerstone Group, a local real estate development company that manages both retail and domestic properties. Colleen Carey, Cornerstone's president, was dressed in gauzy white, while her colleagues wore suit jackets.

“We had a presentation this morning,” Colleen explained. “We don't normally dress like this.”

She quickly proved she and her staff were unfussy and practical. As they guided me along the building, Colleen picked up stray bits of trash and leaves as she went. We entered a utility room with a dauntingly steep metal staircase to the roof of Kensington Park building. Topside, we looked over Richfield's business district. The view wasn't great, but I hadn't come for that. What I wanted to see was the Cornerstone Rooftop Farm, the first of its kind in Minnesota.

Over the last two months, ABC aired Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, a six-episode reality series documenting the English chef's mission to improve school food in Huntington, West Virginia. (The preview episode was the subject for one of my previous posts for Simple, Good and Tasty.) Was it a success?

For a fortunate few, eating gluten-free is simply a choice. For others it's a difficult lifestyle change once they've been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance, which can ranging from a mild sensitivity to full-blown celiac disease.

Yogurt is one of the few real foods that hasn't been demonized in recent decades. Bread, butter, milk and meat have all come under scrutiny, but yogurt has retained its standing as a healthful food. While probiotics have become trendy, yogurt has always been a great source of the live bacteria – like acidophilus – that's beneficial to our digestive tracts. Plus, yogurt is a good source of protein and calcium. So what’s the problem?

Two things: One is that there hasn't been a good, local, organic yogurt widely available in the Twin Cities. And the other is the plastic containers, which Minneapolis and St. Paul recycling don't collect.