Green Options

Another chef on my personal short list for the White House (Kitchen) Cabinet would be Bryant Terry. He cooks some amazing food as you can tell from his “Eco-Soul Kitchen” posts at TheRoot.com and the pages of his cookbooks, Grub and the forthcoming Vegan Soul Kitchen, but it is Terry’s work in the realm of food justice that makes me want him talking with our next president over dinner.

That work includes his projects such as b-healthy! (Build Healthy Eating and Lifestyles to Help Youth), a multi-year initiative with the objective of empowering youth to create a more just and sustainable food system. Other projects include People’s Grub Parties in cooperation with the People’s Grocery, the Black and Green Fund, and the Southern Organic Kitchen Project, a program that will help bring nutrition education and food justice to historically-excluded urban communities in the South. Along with his knives, Terry would bring to the White House a unique understanding of the negative impacts of our agricultural policy on our nation’s people.

Chef Terry gave me a moment of time to fill out his “application” for the job.

What would you bring to the table as White House Chef?

The Journal of the American Dietetic Association just published a study that answered my question, “Why Eat at Fast-Food Restaurants: Reported Reasons among Frequent Consumers.”

According to the study, the main reasons people eat fast food:

It’s Fast: 92 percent
Easy to Find/Get: 80 percent.
Tastes Good: 69 percent
Cheap: 63 percent.

Fast, easy, cheap. These are the defining terms for the relationship with our food for nearly one in four adults and children daily, and at least three times a week per person.

More study results after the jump.

On my short list for job candidates who should be Obama’s White House Chef: Kurt Micheal Friese. As our President-Elect takes office and struggles to wrest the Farm Bill from the deathgrip of one of our nation’s largest lobbyist groups, I think Chef Friese would be ideal to serve up some good advice along with Obama’s dinner. (Pictured left, with his wife, Kim McWane Friese.)

My only worry is that the restaurant owner (Devotay in Iowa City), author of A Cook’s Journey, Slow Food in the Heartland, member of the board of directors for Slow Food USA, Edible Iowa River Valley editor-in-chief and contributor on Grist just might be too booked for the job. Chef Friese found a few moments, however, to fill out the “application.”

The phone rang on Friday. It was our CSA farmer, “Farmer Dan.” We then went through the list of everything he had from the greenhouse and field and how much I needed. Arrangements were made for a special drop at one of the restaurants he sells to. Ten minutes later, part of my menu for Thanksgiving changes, salad is now on, and broccoli, another sweet potato dish, five pounds of late season apples mean a pie and applesauce both.

At the last farmers market of the season, I purchase spinach and more pecans. The pies will now include pecan. My spouse is off picking up our turkey, just butchered Saturday. There, he will get pork sausage and more pecans, both of which will go in the stuffing. Whatever else looks good, more eggs, whatever we can buy, he will get.

Forget President-Elect Obama’s cabinet, what’s on his table?
There’s lots of talk about Obama’s pick for White House Chef. Here’s an overview of who’s on the short list, plus who should be on the list. Think you’re the one? Find out how to let us know.

So, who’s might be cooking?
You can scratch Rick Bayless off the short list for White House Chef despite speculation by the New York Daily News and that Bayless’ restaurant, Topolobampo, is an Obama favorite. The two remaining names being bandied about include Art Smith, former Oprah chef and Daniel Young, who was the personal chef to Carmelo Anthony of the NBA.

Art Smith’s central theme is posted on his web site, “the sharing of a meal is a common, anticipated ritual that reunites us with loved ones and brings a sense of balance to our lives.”

Find how out to “apply” for the job after the jump …

Like we needed a study to tell us parents this. Still, with the average kid watching FOUR HOURS of television per day, some of us haven’t figured it out yet.

Here’s what the University of Illinois study found out about what’s on that TV:

Only 13 percent of the programming labeled by the networks as “educational” was found to have real educational value. Nearly one in four of these programs was ranked as even “minimally [...]

As the world celebrates a historic Presidential election in the U.S., as democrats take more seats in Congress, and, as many of us nurse our post-victory party hangovers, even chickens have a reason to celebrate. Or, at least the chickens in California.

You see, Prop 2 passed in our nation’s largest agricultural state. This law phases out some of the most restrictive confinement systems [...]

© Bernd Juergens | Dreamstime.com

Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Beet

Leery of the leek? Afraid of asparagus? Broccoli your personal Boggart? It seems witches are not the only green thing that scares us. You are not alone. According to a 2007 study published in the American Journal of Medicine, fewer than a third of us eat enough fruits and vegetables daily.

Perhaps it’s time we faced our deep-rooted fears?

Number 5: Beets.
I clearly recall making little towers of canned, pickled beet cubes. I don’t remember eating them more than once. It was a long, long time before I faced down a beet again as an adult. As my first season participating in the Eat Local Challenge and as a member of a CSA, I felt compelled to cook whatever came in the weekly box in whatever way I could to make it palatable.

What I found out was, they are pretty good. That, indeed, everything not in a can tastes a whole lot different. Beets are especially good roasted and especially good for you as they are rich in the same anthocyanin compounds like wine and berries.

And the Top Four Are …

The store shelved are flooded with “fun size” treats in orange and black bags. It’s Halloween season, and candy is certainly on the minds of every kid I know this time of year. It’s on my mind for different reasons.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has issued a voluntary recall notice for the Sherwood Brands Pirate’s Gold Milk Chocolate Coins. The candy, manufactured in China, is the latest product thought to contain the melamine-contaminated milk powder. The product is primarily [...]

The closest I have come to my own Iron Chef experience would be my ongoing Battle of Orange Food. This is a strange phenomenon at our house in which, one day, our child who LOVED everything orange in baby foods decided she no longer liked orange vegetables. For no reason.

The challenge was on. I admit, I got a little nuts. ALL of the squash and pumpkins in the photo, plus another 15 pounds of sweet potatoes and some carrots were stockpiled. I have a small problem with squash addiction. I also love orange food.

Over the course of the last two years, I have made soup, gnocchi, pasta dishes, desserts, everything from Pumpkin Gnocchi with Walnut Cream Sauce to Curried Squash Soup to Vanilla Bean Sweet Potato Pie with Brown Sugar Pecan Crust. It’s been a crazy mission to let no use for orange vegetable go unexplored.

My most recent favorite recipe follows …