Colorful news for your kitchen: Green cutting boards and black garlic

Dishwasher-safe cutting boards made from sustainable bamboo and fermented garlic that delivers subtle flavors and a striking appearance are the subjects of my latest posts on the USA Character Approved Blog.

Despite what a certain famous frog says, being green is easy, at least when it comes to cutting boards. TruBamboo has introduced handsome, durable cutting boards made from bamboo, the quintessential green renewable resource. And best of all, they’re dishwasher safe.

I mean, let’s face it—we all want to be greener in our daily lives, but not if it means using green products that require special care or, worse, don’t work well (I’m talking to you, eco-friendly window cleaners). Continue reading “Colorful news for your kitchen: Green cutting boards and black garlic” →

Chicago small bites: Alfresco dining, help wanted for good cause and farm dinner, on a farm

Your outdoor meal at First Slice Pie Café helps provide meals for Chicago’s homeless; Greater Chicago Food Depository needs volunteers to help pack 40,000 family food boxes in 40 days; and City Provisions is hosting a farm dinner field trip.

Last winter, chef Mary Ellen Diaz opened an outpost of her popular Ravenswood restaurant, First Slice Pie Café, in the recently renovated Water Works Visitor Information Center in the historic Pumping Station across from Water Tower Place. Well now, for the summer at least, you can savor homemade pies, pizza made from local, seasonal ingredients, salads and sandwiches al fresco at café-style tables and chairs outside along the Pearson Street side of the Visitor Center.

The reasonably priced food gets Diaz’s three-star gourmet touch, including organic ingredients, and the pies are amazing. Eating there feels good too—a portion of all proceeds from the First Slice Pie Café is donated to the First Slice community kitchen, which provides these same restaurant-quality meals to homeless men, women and children. Continue reading “Chicago small bites: Alfresco dining, help wanted for good cause and farm dinner, on a farm” →

Food notes from all over: Mobile Indian food with a side of fun, Cajun cooking in the Midwest and bar snacks for wine

Fake brothers from a fake country serve up real treats from a DC food truck, a former construction worker cooks up Cajun food surrounded by Illinois cornfields, and a California winery creates bar snacks to pair with its wines.

Gourmet food trucks have been catching on everywhere (well, except here in Chicago, where draconian health regulations continue to thwart most attempts). In the past couple of years, chefs and wannabe chefs have been rehabbing used postal vans, delivery trucks and even old ice cream trucks and creating rolling restaurants that serve up an amazing range of eats in cities across the country. But few do it with the style and charming back story of the Fojol Bros.

Only two of the four Fojol Bros. are actual brothers, and no one is named Fojol. Wearing turbans and patently false mustaches, they peddle a changing menu of delicious, healthy Indian food with no preservatives from their homeland, “Merlindia.” And they let people know of the whereabouts of their “traveling culinary carnival” on Twitter. The Fojol Bros., back story and all, are the subject of my latest piece on cable station USA Network’s USA Character Approved Blog. The blog is in soft launch mode at the moment—I’ll let you know when it goes into full launch (heck, I’ll probably take out a full-page ad somewhere).

At Ron’s Cajun Connection, a lively roadside place about 80 miles southwest of Chicago, every order comes with a side of sass, from chef/owner Ron McFarlain himself. Continue reading “Food notes from all over: Mobile Indian food with a side of fun, Cajun cooking in the Midwest and bar snacks for wine” →

Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market on Saturday, April events at Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand

Chicago’s Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market returns with another one-day event of delicious creations by local small-batch pastry artisans, and Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand features a month of events highlighting food grown or produced within 250 miles of Chicago.

Going locavore in Chicago is sweeter than ever these days. In February, we wrote about a pre-Valentine’s Day Pastry Market at Logan Square Kitchen. Well, they’re at it again. This Saturday, April 10, the Logan Square Kitchen Spring Pastry Market will feature a day of pastries, chocolates, caramels, ice cream and more. Most of these treats are not widely available. In fact, many one-of-a-kind items will be created just for this event.

All the vendors featured at this one-day event are local food artisans, most of whom produce their wares in small batches, many producing seasonal items available for only a short time. Continue reading “Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market on Saturday, April events at Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand” →

Logan Square Kitchen serves up fixes for the Chicago locavore sweet tooth

I‘m often kvetching about the lack of food trucks in Chicago, thanks to draconian local health regulations. Well, last weekend Logan Square Kitchen reminded me of the wealth of delicious locally produced foods—and the wealth of local culinary talent—with a pre-Valentine’s Day Pastry Market.

Logan Square Kitchen is itself an outcome of an increased interest in local, artisanal foods. Created by longtime Logan Square residents Zina and Nick Murray, it houses a shared-use commercial, two-galley kitchen that chefs, pastry chefs and entrepreneurs armed with secret family recipes can rent to produce their creations. Unlike home kitchens, it is up to health department code, so users of the space can legally market their wares.

The front half of Logan Square Kitchen is an event space. And that’s where we found a number of delights last Saturday, all locally produced. Continue reading “Logan Square Kitchen serves up fixes for the Chicago locavore sweet tooth” →

Eat, drink and be healthy in 2010

A quick round-up of ideas for healthy eating and drinking, including fighting diabetes with small changes, more reasons to drink coffee, reasons to drink and not drink wine and an excuse for pregnant women to eat bacon.

‘Food Rules’ from someone who should know

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c

Michael Pollan

www.thedailyshow.com

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Michael Pollan has written definitive tomes on food and health—the health of those who eat it, those who produce it and the planet we live on. The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals is the best known, weighing in at nearly 500 pages.

His latest book, Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual, is a lot slimmer, a pocket-sized 112 pages. But in its own way, it’s just as full of useful information. In it, Pollan lays out 64 rules to help us eat smarter, eat healthier. In a piece he wrote for Huffington Post, he tells how the list came about and gives us a small taste of the list. Here are a couple of samples:

#36 Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.

#39 Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself.

Pollan recently appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. He entertainingly but forcefully makes the point that the way we eat is responsible Continue reading “Eat, drink and be healthy in 2010” →

This isn’t regifting, is it? Five holiday desserts from the Blue Kitchen archives

The holiday entertaining season is upon us. A few weeks ago, I made a Cherry Orange Loaf Cake that’s great to serve your guests or give your host. Here are five more dessert recipes to help make celebrations sweeter.

1. Frangipane Pear and Cherry Cake

Pears and tart cherries team up with almond-based frangipane in Marion’s flavorful Frangipane Pear and Cherry Cake that gets even better the second day. So it’s perfect for making a day ahead or having on hand when guests drop by.

2. Hazelnut Rosemary Jam Cookies

Fresh rosemary adds a subtle, mysterious something extra to my not-too-sweet Continue reading “This isn’t regifting, is it? Five holiday desserts from the Blue Kitchen archives” →

The face of hunger is changing—so is fighting it

As the effects of a sagging economy continue to spread, an ever-growing number of Americans face “food insecurity,” a newly coined euphemism for not knowing where your next meal is coming from. Hunger.

According to Daily Kos, the PSA above featuring President Obama is sadly already out of date. It says that one out of eight Americans is at risk of hunger. The number is now one out of six. According to a new report by Feeding America, more than 49 million of us are at risk for hunger.

A recent article in the New York Times delivers more sobering numbers. Food stamps, once scorned as a failed welfare scheme, now help feed one in eight Americans and one in four children. More than 36 million people “use inconspicuous plastic cards for staples like milk, bread and cheese, swiping them at counters in blighted cities and in suburbs pocked with foreclosure signs.” Continue reading “The face of hunger is changing—so is fighting it” →

“My complements to the turkey”: Choosing the right wines for Thanksgiving

Puzzled by what wines to serve with your Thanksgiving dinner? Here’s some advice from people smarter than me on the topic.

Let me start by quoting Eric Asimov. “We all like what we like.” If you have certain wines you like, you might as well just enjoy them with your Thanksgiving dinner. Old so-called rules—”red with meat, white with fish and poultry”—are being reconsidered or abandoned altogether. In his New York Times wine column, The Pour, Asimov recently issued “A Plea for Calm.” In it, he calls for wine people not to get so wrapped up in certainties and rankings and absolutes. “The truth is that wine—good wine—refuses to conform to anybody’s need for certainty,” he says. “Good wines are alive. They change. They are not static, so a score today can be worthless tomorrow or next month or next year.”

That said, many of us could use a little guidance when it comes to pairing wine with what epicurious calls the “cacophony of holiday flavors.” Most wine writers agree that Thanksgiving is not the time to pull a vintage Bordeaux or Burgundy—or even a big chardonnay—from your cellar. More modest bottles Continue reading ““My complements to the turkey”: Choosing the right wines for Thanksgiving” →

Five exciting new [to me] food blogs and big little news from an old favorite

Looking for fresh inspiration in the kitchen? You’ll find lots of great ideas at these five blogs. And you’ll find an exciting addition at a perennial favorite.

1. Food in Jars

My approach to blogging matches my magpie-eye approach to everything. Random cool new things are always catching my attention; as a result, you never know what you’ll find at Blue Kitchen. So I can’t help but admire Marisa’s decidedly focused approach to her blog, Food in Jars. For her, it’s all about canning.

Marisa’s stated goal is to “get as many people excited about canning as is possible.” Her own obsession began with collecting Mason and Ball jars, using them for food storage and just admiring their design and beauty. Finally, she started using them for their intended purpose. In her Philadelphia apartment kitchen, she cans just about every fruit and vegetable imaginable, making jams, jellies, pickles, salsas, sauces and more. You’ll also find tips and tricks as well as jar love and, um, jar porn. Canning food has always seemed a bit daunting to me. But with Marisa’s excellent guidance, I just may have to try my hand at it.

2. Madame Fromage

Another single-minded Philadelphian, this time dedicated to cheese. Even though she lives in Philadelphia, writer Tenaya [aka Madame Fromage] still considers Continue reading “Five exciting new [to me] food blogs and big little news from an old favorite” →