For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure

Forget bologna and cotto salami. Cured meats have returned to their artisanal beginnings. The delicious fare of a famous Seattle cured meats master is the subject of my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

Sometimes a place just starts showing up on your radar. We started hearing about Salumi long before we started planning our recent trip to Seattle and Portland. About its delectable handmade salamis, prosciuttos, pancettas, lardos and guanciales—and about the famous owner with the even more famous son. Then when our trip started taking shape, we asked mado chef/owner Rob Levitt what places we should hit. Top of his list was Salumi. Continue reading “For Mario Batali’s dad, retirement is a delicious sausage-making adventure” →

Blog Action Day 2010: Food’s water footprint

Today is Blog Action Day. Thousands of bloggers all over the planet are talking about water, from the perspectives of their individual blogs. I’d like to talk about food’s water footprint, how what we eat affects the water we all need.

The Great Lakes are called that for a reason. Together, they cover 94,000 square miles. In school, they loomed large for me, both in geography and history lessons. I was enthralled by tales of intrepid explorers and voyageurs braving these fresh water oceans in mere canoes. And living in Chicago now on the shores of Lake Michigan, I am wowed by its power and size every single time I see it.

Still, on a trip to Toronto last fall, we were given a startling new perspective on the Great Lakes and on water in general. A large chalk illustration of the five Great Lakes covered an entire wall in a trendy shop Continue reading “Blog Action Day 2010: Food’s water footprint” →

Just like somebody’s grandma used to make: Braised Lamb with Juniper Berries, Fennel, Sage

Adapted from an Italian grandmother’s recipe, slow oven braising allows many flavors—onions, garlic, celery, wine, sage, juniper berries, fennel seed, bay leaves—to melt together in this soul-satisfying, fork tender lamb dish. Recipe below.

One of the perks of doing Blue Kitchen is that we’re occasionally asked to review cookbooks. It’s also one of the drawbacks. Writing, thinking, reading and talking about food on a daily basis means that we’re almost always at least a little bit hungry—kind of a low grade infection that never clears up unless you are actually actively engaged in consuming a substantial meal at the moment. And when a gorgeous cookbook like Jessica Theroux’s Cooking with Italian Grandmothers: Recipes and Stories from Tuscany to Sicily comes along, whole hams can’t quite stay your hunger.

To write Cooking with Italian Grandmothers, Theroux spent a year in Italy talking, cooking and often staying with a dozen Continue reading “Just like somebody’s grandma used to make: Braised Lamb with Juniper Berries, Fennel, Sage” →

Blog Action Day 2010: The topic is water, the time to get involved is now

This Friday, thousands of bloggers around the world will talk about water from their own perspectives. Water is shaping up to be the next big global issue, encompassing human rights, animal rights, the environment and more. Get involved. Write. Read. Comment. Act.

Water. Most of us take it for granted because we have the luxury of doing so. At least for now. But almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water—that’s about one in eight of us. And as a result, 42,000 of us die every week. Even where water is plentiful, the ways that it is used and misused have consequences for everyone.

On Friday, October 15, Blog Action Day wants to get the whole planet talking and thinking about water. If you write a blog, visit the Blog Action Day website and sign up to write about water from your blog’s perspective. If you have blogger friends, encourage them to get involved. You can also Continue reading “Blog Action Day 2010: The topic is water, the time to get involved is now” →

Talking cheese in Oregon, making grilled cheese sandwiches in Chicago

Two variations on classic grilled cheese sandwiches—one with pear jalapeño chutney, one with roasted tomatoes, both with delicious Tillamook cheeses from Oregon. Recipes below.

A FEW YEARS AGO, OUR FRIENDS BUD AND CHRISTINE WERE VISITING FROM FRANCE. Before dinner, we put out some Tillamook aged white cheddar with crackers. Between bites, Christine kept exclaiming in her charming French accent, “You can’t get cheese like this in France!” Her words alone might have simply referred to the fact that the French don’t make cheddar-style cheeses. But the way she and Bud were happily gobbling it up said it wasn’t just cheddar—it was the Tillamook cheddar. Continue reading “Talking cheese in Oregon, making grilled cheese sandwiches in Chicago” →

Sharing the love: Tiny microbuses make a big splash on the Tillamook Cheese Loaf Love Tour

How do you celebrate 100 years of making great cheese? By taking it on a year-long road trip. Tillamook’s Loaf Love Tour is the subject of my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

In the post above, you saw how seriously Tillamook takes its cheesemaking. Here’s how they have fun. Their cheeses are available in all 50 states, but they’re not universally known everywhere. So to kick off their 101st year in the business, they decided to spread the word—and the love—with the Loaf Love Tour. And what better way to do that than with the official vehicle of the Summer of Love, the 1966 VW Microbus?

Cute as the original was, though, it wasn’t quite cute enough. So the Tillamook team chopped their trio of microbuses to a diminutive Continue reading “Sharing the love: Tiny microbuses make a big splash on the Tillamook Cheese Loaf Love Tour” →

Long distance locavore: Linguine with foraged chanterelles from Seattle, cooked in Chicago

Mushrooms, shallots, sage, cream and Parmesan combine to make a rich, satisfyingly “meaty” vegetarian meal. Recipe for Sautéed Chanterelles with Cream and Linguine Fini below.

The day before Marion cooked these chanterelles in our Chicago kitchen, they were in a stall in Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Not much more before that, they had been in a nearby forest. We were in the market on the last morning of our first visit to the Pacific Northwest. Our luggage was already overstuffed with food purchases, many in glass containers padded with laundry in the hope they would survive the flight home. But when we saw these mushrooms, we knew we had to squeeze some into our carry-on bags. I’ll turn the kitchen over to Marion now and let her tell you what she did with them.

In another earlier life, I used to gather chanterelles in the wild all summer. It was such an everyday thing that I took it totally for granted. It was part of the season, like swimsuits and the beach. Continue reading “Long distance locavore: Linguine with foraged chanterelles from Seattle, cooked in Chicago” →

To get kids eating healthier, Jamie Oliver launches Jamie’s Home Cooking Skills

Jamie Oliver is on a mission to get everyone to eat better. His new website, Jamie’s Home Cooking Skills, is the subject of my latest post on the USA Character Approved Blog.

A recent study shows Americans aren’t eating their vegetables. I know you’re as shocked as I am. But I was shocked at just how much we’re not eating them. The study, released this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, concludes that “only 26 percent of the nation’s adults eat vegetables three or more times a day,” according to The New York Times.

Part of the problem is that too many of us just don’t find vegetables interesting. But British-born chef/cookbook author/TV personality Jamie Oliver thinks that’s because no one is learning to cook anymore. Continue reading “To get kids eating healthier, Jamie Oliver launches Jamie’s Home Cooking Skills” →

Round-up: Travels, a beautifully unimproved cleanser and food in the news

The kitchen was closed this week while we were on a trip to the Pacific Northwest. Seattle, Portland and all gloriously green, mountainous, forested and ocean-viewing points in between. Plenty of great food moments too, including Seattle’s Pike Place Market, shown above, that are sure to inspire future posts here. In the meantime, here’s a quick look at my new post on the USA Character Approved Blog, plus some food stories making the news recently.

Bon Ami Cleanser: Old, unimproved and still just right. Cleaning product makers have been leaping onto the green bandwagon, with mixed results. But Bon Ami has been green since it was just a color. For more than 120 years, it’s been made of a handful of simple, real ingredients. And it’s been cleaning like crazy, while living up to its promise of “hasn’t scratched yet.” Continue reading “Round-up: Travels, a beautifully unimproved cleanser and food in the news” →

Easing into autumn: Simple, flavorful Pork Tenderloin with Sage and Roasted Grapes

Quick-cooking roast pork tenderloin gets a flavor boost from sage, shallots, garlic and roasted grapes. Recipe below.

There’s more than a hint of autumn in the air lately, and I say bring it on. The no-cook dinner salads and quick-grilled everythings of summer are all well and good, but I like heartier fare. Roasts, stews, serious soups… These are the foods that excite me on a primal, lizard brain level, both in the kitchen and at the dinner table.

Pork tenderloin is the perfect way to transition back into serious cooking season. It’s leaner and lighter than a lot of roasting fare. It also requires as little as 15 to 20 minutes in the oven, so you’re not overheating the kitchen in the cool-but-not-yet-cold fall weather. Continue reading “Easing into autumn: Simple, flavorful Pork Tenderloin with Sage and Roasted Grapes” →