Recipes

It's book club time again! Tonight we're gathering to discuss My Life in France at Mississippi Market Natural Foods Co-op’s Selby location from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. and near Harmony Co-op in Bemidji from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. 

Full market basket, check. Overflowing CSA share, check. Hideously prolific garden, CHECK WITH THE ZUCCHINI ALREADY! Yes, this time of year is chock-full of local goodness. So much so, at times, that you might just move from happily local-foods-rich to utterly overwhelmed. Fear not, The Minnesota Table: Recipes for Savoring Local Food Throughout the Year is here to help. Author Shelley N.C. Holl  and chef/recipe creator B.J. Carpenter have culled out some of the most delicious tips, tricks, stories and concoctions imaginable.

Onward and upward!  Are you ready for another dose of book club?  We sure are! 

As the Simple, Good, and Tasty club continues, we're looking forward to tonight's discussion about Real Food: What to Eat and Why. Where do you stand on full-fat or raw milk? Organic over local? Check out our proposed discussion questions, grab the book (or not -- you know, getting all the way through the reading isn't as important as checking in and participating), and swing on over.

When the folks at Simple, Good, and Tasty decided to host our first annual pig roast and potluck last year, we weren’t at all that sure of what to expect. Would anyone come eat with us? Would people bring potluck dishes that reflected our values, or boxes of Twinkies? Would we have enough food?

This year we’re a little bit wiser, and we feel a little bit more confident that we know what to expect. But what about you, dear readers? Do you know what to expect? This information should help.

Why Are We Having a Pig Roast and Potluck?

More than anything, I think we can credit columnist and cookbook author Mark Bittman with helping make the local, sustainable, sane, reasonable food movement more popular. Sure, Michael Pollan got there first, but he was arguably ahead of his time in terms of bringing the education, history and underlying issues of our food system to the table. Since then, many real food advocates have followed in his footsteps and have done a bang-up job getting the rest of us on board.

I begin with a confession. I’m a mother and I don’t like Mother’s Day. There. I said it.

I know I'm not the only one. Admit it. You, too, think Mother's Day is another contrived holiday, a la Valentines’ Day, that pressures normally reasonable people to (a) buy silly, impersonal cards, (b) send pesticide-ridden flowers, (c) take their loved ones to crowded restaurants at odd times of the day because all the reservations at normal meal times (like before 10:00 p.m.) have been overbooked for six weeks.

Or (d) do something really outrageous, like make mom eat breakfast in bed.

Don't get me wrong. I love the original intent of breakfast in bed, but the right setting with the right company is crucial to its success. (Imagine, if you will, a romantic, lakeside inn; a bed pilled high with pillows, down comforters, and sheets I will never have to wash; and a passionate, pleasing and playful BFWB. You get the picture?)

thedailygreen.com

When I was young, there was a great deal of pomp and circumstance around Easter. Not coming from an overly religious family, this fussing typically had more to do with food than ritual, though the reflective and celebratory nature of the day carried through. In those years, it was about Easter dresses, patent leather shoes, and Grandma’s good china. And as often as possible, our whole family gathered together -- grandparents, their daughters, and us, the daughters of the next generation -- for a good meal.

This month's book club selection, The Compassionate Carnivore, by Catherine Friend, chronicles the author's journey to better understand and appreciate the face on her plate. Here's a short excerpt from Indie Bound, describing the book:

This just in from Organic Valley, via a press release:

Organic Valley, America’s largest cooperative of organic farmers, recently won awards for its European Style Cultured Butter and Pasture Butter, two delicious butter offerings from its family of farms. To celebrate the awards—and recent health findings that butter is in fact better—Organic Valley has developed several recipes and serving suggestions just in time for the holidays. 

Recently found another Twitterer named Elle who writes a great recipe blog. Elle is celebrating her first anniversary as a food blogger. Here's what her blog profile says:

Hi! Living in New England with my amazing husband, four kids, and six pets. I love to cook and collect cookbooks, which I read like novels. Doesn't everyone?

In any case, the site features all sorts of good, tasty sounding things. Some are even healthy, or seem to be, like this recent post about granola with yogurt, fruit, and nuts. (I'm fairly obsessed with granola, can you tell?)