Chef’s Night Off at Kitchen in the Market

I would (almost) always much rather give a gift than receive one. I think it’s a glorious challenge to pick out the exact perfect present for someone and experience their joy as they unveil the big surprise. That is why it was my absolute pleasure to give K, for his birthday, a night in the kitchen to cook with Mike DeCamp, chef de cuisine at the venerable La Belle Vie in Minneapolis.

Chef’s Night Off is a hands-on, small group class hosted at Kitchen in the Market (KITM) in the Midtown Global Market. Take a class a KITM. It’s the most fun you’ll have in a kitchen … probably ever. You’ll eat fantastically and learn a lot too. As if all of this wasn’t enough, the evening also benefited Renewing the Countryside, a local non-profit organization that champions rural communities through farming, business and other creative initiatives.

Alright, enough with the gushing over how brilliant and hospitable KITM owners Molly Hermann and Tracy Morgan are, here’s the food porn!

The menu:

The hot frozen gin fizz was like a steamy, boozy frozen lemonade slushy. If @YoungChef2 (Mike DeCamp on Twitter) wants to send me the secret recipe for that drink, I’d be eternally grateful (hint, hint). Thanks to lovely celebrity assistant Joy Summers for opening our eyes to this magical cocktail.

Silky, slightly sweet egg custard with chewy, savory bacon jam — Bacon and Egg Custard.

       Tart, sweet and salty Apple, Olive and Feta Salad on crostini.

After taking a few moments to have a cocktail, pour some wine and grab some small bites, it was time to get to work. We broke into four teams and got busy prepping our assigned courses.

Fish “noodles” in action.

Important things first … does everyone have a wine glass? Good. Now let’s saute those brussels sprouts.

Chef DeCamp (and his epic beard) giving instructions before the beef tenderloin gets a quick sous vide.

A siphon, Dixie cups and a microwave oven equal a mean dessert prep.

And after toiling over hot stoves (that’s a vast overstatement), we all sat down to enjoy the delicious fruits of our labor.

Smoked char with dill, potato, mustard seeds and fish “noodle.” Paired with a lovely rosé. If you see her, ask Stephanie Meyer (aka Fresh Tart Steph) what happened to all those crispy little potato chips.

We were on Team Foie with K heading up foie duty (the assignment of his dreams). I was given the task of picking through a pile of organic arugula to find the “coolest looking” pieces for garnish and gently sautéing the rest. You don’t know pressure until you’ve been asked by an amazingly talented, high-caliber chef to find “cool” pieces of arugula.

Seared foie gras with kumquat jam and arugula. Paired with a very sweet moscato.

Sous vide beef tenderloin, beef cheek terrine and Northern Lights blue cheese with sautéed leeks and brussels sprouts. Paired with a red wine neither of us can remember at this point (not because it wasn’t memorable, but because I forgot to record the wine pairings).

Spongy chocolate microwave “mug” cake (made in Dixie cups), strawberry, crushed pistachios and puffed wild rice. Paired with a very strong bourbon that I sipped once then donated to the bourbon-loving Stephanie March (a celebrity assistant).

Chef’s Night Off — heck, ANY experience at Kitchen in the Market is well worth it. This occasion was a special splurge for K’s birthday and we both had an amazing time, got to hang out with some foodie friends, meet some wonderful new people, cook and eat a unique and delectable meal and we’ll likely be talking about it for many birthdays to come. Cheers!

Comfort Food: Seared Scallops Over “Witch’s Stew” With Beans — Top Chef Night

When you hear the words comfort food, what comes to mind?

For me it’s fluffy biscuits, piping hot with melted butter and honey, warm, juicy blueberry muffins, ooey gooey macaroni and cheese, pot roast cooked for hours until it’s fall apart tender, mangoes so ripe that juice drips down your arms as you eat them, Polish sweet bread caked with cold butter and chocolate peanut butter ice cream. Oh yeah, and a honey banana malt from The Malt Shop in Minneapolis. Everyone conjures a different vision when they think of comfort food and we build on our lists of comfort foods as we go through life. After we made Lindsey Autry’s seared scallops over “witch’s stew” with beans (click here for original recipe), both K and I agreed that this is going on our comfort food list.

This is an easily dressed up crock pot (aka slow cooker) dinner. We made it home cook friendly and paired it down to serve two.

“Witch’s Stew”

1/2 lb beef chuck, cubed (or bone-in short ribs)
1 TB cocoa powder
1 TB dried ground espresso
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 whole clove
1 TB brown sugar
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp ground dried ginger

1 small shallot, quartered
2 cloves garlic
1/2 carrot, peeled and large chop
1/2 can strained peeled tomatoes
1 TB tomato paste
1 cup red wine (not expensive, but good enough to drink)
1 TB orange zest
5-7 sprigs fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
beef stock, chicken stock or vegetable stock
1/2 jalapeno, finely diced
Safflower oil (or other high heat oil)

Save 1 TB spice mix. Set aside. Combine all dry spices (through ginger above, including salt and sugar) in a mixing bowl. Coat chunks of meat in spice blend. NOTE: If you have time, refrigerate for a few hours. If not, you’ll still have a great dinner.

In a saute pan with high sides or braising pot, coat bottom with oil and heat to medium. Add meat and sear until golden on two sides. Put meat into crock pot.

Add a bit more oil to pan/pot and saute shallots and garlic until just soft. Add carrot and 1 tsp spice mix (save the other half for the beans) and saute until carrots are just getting soft. Add canned tomatoes, breaking them up and simmer until liquid evaporates. Add tomato paste and stir until incorporated. Deglaze the pan with red wine, scraping the bottom to release the delicious bits. Add orange zest, bay leaf, thyme and jalapeno. Reduce by half and add entire pan/pot to crock pot, over meat. Add beef, chicken or veggie stock until the meat is just covered. Simmer in crock pot for four to six (up to eight) hours.

Beans
The original recipe calls for Dragon beans. We couldn’t find those, but fresh green beans are an acceptable substitute for dragon beans.

1/2 lb fresh green beans, washed and dried, ends trimmed off
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
Remaining 1 tsp spice mix from meat

Toss the beans with oil and spice blend. Saute in hot, dry pan until slightly charred.

Vinaigrette for scallops
1 TB extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cumin (can use whole seeds or dried, ground cumin)
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/4 tsp minced fresh jalapeno
lime juice, to taste
small orange or clementine segments
1 TB chopped fresh cilantro

Heat oil in small saute pan and toast cumin until you can smell it. All garlic and saute until golden. Add jalapeno and saute for one minute. Remove pan from heat, add squeeze of lime, orange segments and cilantro. Set aside until ready to pour over scallops.

To finish the stew
1/2 small shallot, finely diced
1 small carrot, finely diced
1 TB fresh Italian parsley (or cilantro), finely chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme, finely chopped (or 3/4 tsp dried thyme)
1.5 TB butter
salt, to taste

Saute shallots and carrots until tender. Add herbs and stir in butter. Add to meat and broth in crock pot and stir.

Scallops
4 large fresh scallops

Pat scallops entirely dry on both sides with paper towel. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Coat bottom of saute pan with safflower or canola (high heat) oil and heat on medium-high. When oil is very hot, add scallops and cook until seared and brown (2-3 minutes). Flip and cook two minutes more.

To serve: Spoon stew into bowls. Place scallops on top of stew, spoon vinaigrette over scallops. Place beans on top of stew, alongside scallops.

The scallops were perfectly cooked — seared with a light crust on the outside and tender, barely cooked through on the inside — and sweet. The vinaigrette was fresh, tart and had a bit of heat from the jalapeno. The beans were crisp with a nice smoky char and the stew…oh, that stew. It was so very rich and warming. It was more meat than broth and the meat just fell apart when touched with a spoon. The spices gave the broth a deep complexity and every bite was closed-eyes sigh inducing.

Would we make this again? Yes. It is a perfect slow cooker meal for fall and winter. So very warming and easy to make while still feeling special and a little fancy.
Soundtrack: The Church.

So, what are the comfort foods you crave?!

How Dinner Makes a Difference: A Non-Elitist Tale in Braised Short Ribs, Basil Potato Puree and Apple Slaw

“If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.” – Anita Roddick

Note: I rewrote this post no fewer than six times because I feared it sounded “elitist” — a term often thrown around when people talk about slow food, “real” food, organic food, etc. After much deliberation, the best way I can think of to counter this is to explain that I am most definitely not part of an elite anything. I grew up in a solidly middle class household. Both of my parents worked full-time and made extraordinary sacrifices to provide for my younger brother and me. As an adult, I worked for years with local nonprofit organizations (nonprofit translates to “teeny paycheck,” in case you’ve never been employed by one) and for the past six years I have owned my own writing/communications consulting business.

If you look up the phrase “living paycheck to paycheck,” my picture is likely next to the definition. I am still dutifully paying off the debt I accumulated when I started my business. Because I have taken contracts in “corporate America,” I know it’s not the path for me so I charge ahead with the thing that makes me most happy — working for myself, earning clients and (hopefully) pleasing them with my work. I do hope that someday my work will lead to larger financial rewards, but for now, it’s mostly a labor of love. I scrimp and save every penny I can. Once or twice a year, I hit the consignment shops for some “new” (new to me anyway) clothes. I struggle mightily spending money on something that we don’t truly need and, if we want to replace a chair or something like that, secondhand on Craigslist is always my first option. Mostly, I just learn to be good with what we’ve got and use things until they’re run into the ground. In addition to knowing I can’t afford brand new “stuff,” I’m generally good with not buying much or buying secondhand because it extends the life cycle of perfectly good products that aren’t junk, but might otherwise end up in a landfill.

BUT, when it comes to what I put into my body, I do not compromise because what you put inside of you is a very intimate thing. It makes a big difference, not just in your health and well-being, but because it touches the lives of other beings and the world we live in.

Everything we do during nearly every minute of every day has an impact. That is an incredibly overwhelming fact. Some days, it’s too big for me to even think about. Some days, it’s all I can think about. Years ago, I made a choice to do everything in my power to make a difference with the food I choose to eat. For a recent Top Chef Night, we made chef Beverly Kim’s braised short rib over Thai basil potato puree with apple slaw (click here for original recipe). Here’s how we made her dinner home cook friendly and a rundown of how dinner can make a difference.

In our kitchen, we have a pact: If we’re going to eat meat, we’re going to honor the animal it came from by cooking it properly and (to the best of our ability) knowing the source. Often times, this means finding alternate cuts of meat because a humane option didn’t exist at the store we chose to shop at that week. After reading, listening to and watching so many pieces of information on the impact of factory farms and Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) I can’t physically bring myself to eat “conventional” meat any longer. I look at the ground pork wrapped in plastic with a $3.99 price tag on it and, while the price is tempting to my wallet, I know it’s artificially low because of a screwed up farm subsidy system and because so often the scale of the farm operation means that so many pigs were crammed into a space and treated so poorly the sheer number of bodies makes up for the low, low prices. More than once, I have stared at these fleshy plastic and styrofoam packages and cried (yes, in a grocery store aisle) in remembrance of videos and photos of horrific animal abuse.

This is a complicated issue and I don’t want to knock farmers or farm workers who also make choices and face their own frustrations and financial situations. K prefers not to be meat-free and catering to two different diets is too costly and complicated to work in our household. But we do observe Meatless Monday and have several meat-free meals throughout the week. Our choice is to keep it local and humane and, if it’s not, I’ll stick with a veggie option.

K has a fondness for bacon, but does not have a fondness for my substitutions. He reluctantly agrees to them most of the time because I’m cute and convincing. This week, however, he wanted real short ribs. The co-op doesn’t carry them right now so he made a special trip, over his lunch hour, to Whole Foods. The recipe calls for 35 lbs of short ribs and, seeing as there are two of us, we went with 2 lbs instead.

Short Ribs
2 lbs short ribs
1 shallot, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
2 organic carrots, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 lemongrass stalks
1/2 jalapeno pepper
2 TB organic tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 TB ginger, thinly sliced
1/2 kiwi fruit, peeled
1 box organic beef stock (or vegetable stock, if you prefer)

* K’s workplace participates in a local farm cooperative. We order things each month. They’re small, mostly family farms in Minnesota and, because you buy direct from the
farmer, the prices are VERY affordable. We get much of our meat and veggies through this program.  More companies are participating in these programs, check with your employer to see if the option exists or if you can help set one up!

In the morning or afternoon, season the short ribs with salt and pepper, sear on both sides then pop them into the slow cooker (aka the crock pot). With the back of a knife, whack (or “bruise”) one stalk of lemongrass and toss it in with the meat. With the other stalk, peel off the woody outside and mince the tender white/purplish inside (something I only recently learned you could do). Saute the shallot, celery, carrot, garlic, minced lemongrass and jalapeno until brown and tender. Add tomato paste, deglaze the pan with red wine (cheap, but still good enough to drink with dinner). Save 3 TB for the curry sauce. Dump everything into the crock pot. Add enough organic beef stock to cover the meat then let the whole thing simmer on medium through the day.

Potato Basil Puree

3 medium-sized Yukon Gold potatoes
6 large basil leaves (we couldn’t find Thai basil, so we used regular organic basil)
1/3 cup organic cream
2 TB butter (Hope Creamery makes THE BEST butter ever)
1 shallot
salt and pepper to taste

Peel and cut the potatoes into uniform sized pieces and boil in salted water until tender. Mince shallots and cut basil into long, thin strips (chiffonade is the fancy pants word for this). Saute shallots and basil then puree with cream (or milk, if you prefer). When potatoes are done, drain the water, mash them (or use a potato ricer) then stir in basil cream. Season with salt and pepper. Do this at the last minute so your potatoes will be hot when dinner is ready.

Apple Slaw

1/2 tart green organic apple
1/2 lime, juiced
1 tsp. chili flakes
salt, to taste

Peel apple and cut into match sticks. Toss in chili flakes and lime juice. If it’s too tart, add a bit of honey until it’s perfect to your taste buds.

Curry Sauce

As I mentioned, I’m a big fan of substitutions in order to avoid having to buy hard-to-find (and often expensive) ingredients that we most likely won’t use again. I also hate the taste of coconut. Hence this curry sauce dramatically modified from the original recipe.

1/2 shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced (or 1 tsp dried ginger)
1 lemongrass stalk
3 TB fish sauce
1.5 TB lime juice (as a substitute for tamarind paste)
1.5 TB  white wine vinegar (as a substitute for tamarind paste)
two shakes of Worcestershire sauce (as a substitute for tamarind paste)
2 TB red curry paste
1/2 jalapeno pepper, minced
3 TB red wine mixture from short ribs
1/2 cup cream (as a substitute for coconut milk)

Bruise the lemongrass stalk by whacking it with the back of a knife. Saute shallots, ginger, jalapeno, garlic and lemongrass. Deglaze the pan with the red wine mixture then add curry paste, vinegar, lime juice, Worcestershire sauce, fish sauce and cream (or coconut milk, if you’re using it). Let simmer on low for 15-20 minutes. Strain before serving.

The recipe also included bok choy and spicy chili peanuts, but we skipped both in the interest of time and simplicity. And the end result? The meat was falling apart tender, the potatoes were a tiny bit dry, but the basil flavor was nice and the curry sauce was smooth, warm and full of flavor. The apple slaw was tart and a bit spicy and added the perfect fresh amount of crunch.

Would we make this again? Yes. Despite the enormous length of this post, this is actually a pretty quick crock pot dinner and a nice twist on the traditional roast beef with mashed potatoes.
Soundtrack: The Suburbs.

We don’t eat like this every day. Far from it. But Top Chef Wednesdays are the night we’ve chosen to cook together, build our little “team” and have fun in the kitchen. We do local, grass-fed, humanely raised and organic whenever we possibly can. It may make a difference only to us. I hope it makes a difference to small farmers, to animals with happier lives, with fewer pesticides on the land and in our bodies — but this is the way we’ve chosen to eat and I can give you numerous personal examples of how it has improved my health. I pay attention to the food we eat and where it comes from because it matters to me. Regardless of income, we all DESERVE the advantage of healthy, nourishing, real food. I may not have much money, but I spend it where I think it can make the most impact. Any positive difference, no matter how small, is still a difference.

Epic Valentine’s Day Dinner III

We can *always* find a reason to go out to eat at a restaurant. For us, however, Valentine’s Day has never been one of those reasons. Instead, we’ve made it a tradition to go through our fanciest cookbooks and make an epic Valentine’s dinner that will challenge our skills, delight our taste buds, give us a chance to work as a team and enjoy a quiet, candlelit dinner without the crowds. Here are the highlights of this year’s Epic Valentine’s Day Dinner:

The setting: White tablecloth (really a white sheet from IKEA, don’t judge me), Valentine-red table runner, candlelight flickering off ebony rocks and sparkly glass.

K practiced his new molecular gastronomy skills by making honey “pearls” with agar agar, cold oil and a length of plastic tubing.
Honey pearls:

To begin: Crisp crostini with creamy, tangy goat cheese, a drizzle of farm-fresh honey and honey pearls.

First course: Mixed baby greens and herbs with shrimp, avocado and creamy champagne dressing. Recipe by Jean-Georges in the Harvest to Heat cookbook.

Main course: Pan-roasted scallops with morel mushrooms and asparagus puree. Recipe by Thomas Keller in the French Laundry Cookbook.

The bubbles:

Dessert: “Tofu” cheesecake with candied lime and coffee-infused maple syrup from Morimoto. The cheesecake is made with soy milk, cream and cream cheese with no tofu in sight.

Love ruled the day and, to top it off, we got each other the exact same bizarro card. We must be MFEO.

We hope your Valentine’s Day included a spare moment to recognize the love in your life, in all its many forms.

How to Throw a Party — MN Food Bloggers Style

Step 1: Find a willing restaurateur (in this case, Stewart and Heidi Woodman of Heidi’s).

Step 2: Make sure the fates collide so the party takes place at the same time amazing local hip hop artist Brother Ali is filming a music video at the same restaurant.

Step 3: Mingle with cast, crew and fellow food bloggers and eat delicious food.

Braised beef tongue.

Crab cakes.

Lamb meatballs.

Step 4: Add cocktails and liquor.

Ginseng and deer antler whiskey.

Ginseng vodka. All ginseng courtesy of Hsu Ginseng and Will Hsu (@wphsu)

Step 5: After many cocktails, make sure a festive crowd with cameras and an appetite encourages the chefs to demonstrate mad skillz.

Giant lobe of foie gras.

Step 6: Ravenously eat rich bits of foie with fig compote. Try to save some for event organizer Stephanie Meyer (@FreshTartSteph), fail miserably. Enthusiastically instigate chefs to utilize foie fat by cooking pork in it (genius idea, @MSPFoodie)

Step 7: Get pulled into sitting at a table in front of lights and cameras with “prop cocktails” and the director’s bottle of water while music video films with you in it.

Step 8: Bust out the big guns — deadly good moonshine from @MarkDewes and gecko and seahorse liquor straight from Vietnam.

Step 9: Dance party in the kitchen and the bar. (Those photos stay with me, just in case I need a favor some day!)

Step 10: Raise money for the Sojourner Project (the most important reason for the entire evening).

Step 11:  Go home, very late, shaking head, asking, “Whose life is this?!?” And wake up the next morning asking, “Did that really happen?”

Thanks to the kind, generous hosts Stewart and Heidi Woodman, thanks to the talented and incredibly patient (can’t emphasize that enough) staff at Heidi’s, thanks to Brother Ali for the chat and the opportunity, thanks to Stephanie Meyer for organizing it all and thanks to all the MN Food Bloggers for a truly one-of-a-kind evening.

Wow. Now, *that’s* how you throw a party.

Welcome 2012 — Blogover and a Celebratory Giveaway

Happy 2012! I don’t really make New Year’s resolutions, but with the new year comes a wonderful opportunity to turn over a new leaf (or leaves, as the case may be). One of those changes involved me getting a new camera as a Christmas gift from K. This means new and improved food porn on the blog (see above Korean braised “short ribs” with edamame scallion puree and mushrooms from a recent Top Chef Night). Those “short ribs” are only in quotes because the co-op didn’t have actual short ribs so we made grass-fed beef chuck roast instead — nothing nefarious to see here, people.

But with the addition of enhanced food photography, I just couldn’t leave the old, stale blog format. So, as you can see, Eat.Drink.Life.Love. got a blogover (a blog makeover). Simple, clean and sizzlin’ hot. And with upgraded photos and a revamped site, we also decided to add new food adventures. So this year K and I will be playing with a little molecular gastronomy, some new techniques (using, for example, K’s new sous vide machine — yes, I caved on that because he so wanted it and I’m an awesome wife and gift giver) and even developing and testing our own recipes!

Top Chef Night will continue, of course, so we’ll keep making a dish featured on the show each week and we’ll fill you in on how to make it home cook friendly.

This will also be the first full year in awhile that I’m completely back to working for my own company from my home office. And I love it. No more corporate contracts for this girl — learning the inner workings of a processed food empire was an eye-opening and disturbing experience. So (shameless plug alert) if you or anyone you know needs social media or PR assistance, SEO copywriting, marketing and sales copy, communications, research or grant writing help, I’m here to assist. I’m at Social Visibility Consulting.

In honor of the blogover, blog-o-lutions and making happy career strides, we’re hosting our first ever giveaway.
The prize: A $25 gift certificate to Smashburger redeemable at any of their many locations across the U.S.
Note: Smashburger is not a sponsor of this giveaway. In fact, I’ve never even been to a Smashburger so you’ll have to let me know what you think!

Here’s how to enter: We’re looking for inspiration as we start creating recipes — for one entry, leave a comment next to this post with an ingredient idea (apples, pig’s feet, tripe, quinoa … the sky’s the limit).
For an additional entry, follow Eat.Drink.Life.Love on Twitter (@EatDrinkLifeLuv) and leave a second comment next to this post letting us know you’re one of our “Tweeps.” If you already follow, leave a comment and let us know.
For yet another entry, become a fan of Eat.Drink.Life.Love on Facebook . Leave another comment next to this post telling us you like us, you really, really like us (on Facebook).

The contest begins Wednesday, January 11 and ends at 11:00 pm CST on Thursday, January 19. The winner will be chosen randomly and contacted through the information provided in the entry.

Thank you to everyone who visited in 2011 — the sheer number of people reading my musings on food is overwhelming. K and I look forward to sharing many more food adventures with you during this bright, shiny new year. Good luck and we look forward to your ingredient inspiration!!!

What Happens in the Kitchen…

‘Twas the week before Christmas and all through Stephanie Meyer’s house, not a creature was stirring except 45 women, chef Adam Vickerman from Cafe Levain, comedian (server/bartender for the evening) Dan Mogol, host John Levy (Stephanie’s husband) and patient puppy Louis. So…creatures were stirring. And chopping and drizzling and grating and talking and laughing and drinking bubbles and eating.

The sparkly scene featuring snacks, smoked salt and Kelli Abrahamian

Stephanie was gracious enough to host a ladies-only MN Food Bloggers evening of cooking with Chef Vickerman. The atmosphere was festive and the menu was fantastic, to say the least:

* Roasted mushroom soup with sautéed mushrooms, Honeycrisp apple and cider gastrique
* Charred kale salad with roasted and pickled root vegetables, bacon lardons and buttermilk vinaigrette
* Slow roasted pork shoulder with braised white beans
* Brussels sprouts with dried fruit chutney
* Panna cotta with candied pecans and citrus reduction

Each course was more luscious, savory and mouth-watering than the last. The roasted mushroom soup was so smooth and the wonderful mushroom funk was cut by the sweet apple and the tart gastrique. The kale salad was *perfect* — the veggies were firm and well cooked, the lardons were a fantastic chewy bacon explosion and everything was bathed in the tangy buttermilk vinaigrette.

World's best pork and beans, now with bonus brussels sprouts deliciousness!

The pork was fall apart tender and the beans were delicate and scrumptious. The brussels sprouts were roasty, toasty brown with pops of sweet from apricots and dried cranberries. The creamy, dreamy panna cotta was lush with citrus freshness and crunchy candied pecans.

Panna cotta perfection.

It was such a privilege to spend time in the kitchen with Chef Vickerman and I prepped with pleasure quartering brussels sprouts, chopping dried apricots, squeezing citrus and grating cheese. Then there was eating and a room full of chatty ladies went silent except for the occasional exclamation about how delicious each bite was.

So, what *does* happen when you gather 45 women in a kitchen, where women the world over have gathered together for centuries? Amazing happens. Joy, bonding, celebrations of success, comforting of sorrows, warmth and beauty, secrets, shoes, confidence, laughter, gorgeous, classy and strong happens. Plans are hatched, ideas born, problems solved, power is built, vision is clarified and friendships are formed. Maybe a woman’s place really is in the kitchen … it’s the staging area for taking over the world!

The ladies (and gents too) I’ve met this year through the MN Food Bloggers group have elevated my life in ways I couldn’t have previously imagined and I’m so blessed to have vastly expanded my circle of friends. And it all started in the kitchen.

Happy New Year to all the cooks and eaters. May 2012 bring wonderful tastes and adventures to you all.

Cameron Hughes Wine Event

I am notoriously frugal. K once went shopping with me and I tried on a sleeveless shirt. He said he liked it, I told him I would only pay $45 for it if they agreed to include the sleeves. As a self-employed writer, my budget for items is often zero, so frugality is a necessity. K, on the other hand, loves many of the finer things in life, like wine. He adores wine, he learns about wine and he knows what he’s talking about. The words cheap … er, frugal, and *good* wine rarely go together. But we found a way to make that happen when we went to a Cameron Hughes wine event at the Edina, Minnesota Room and Board store.

As soon as we entered the store, we were given a wine glass and invited to sample wines, cheeses, toasts and chocolate dessert. As tempting as the food was, it was really the glass (and what was soon to be in it) that we focused on.

Cameron Hughes, you see, is a master negotiator. He goes to the top wineries across the planet and takes their extra wine off their hands. Because those wines are often in very limited release, the wineries do not allow any additional wines to be sold under their name, so Hughes releases them under his own name. You won’t know which high buck winery your beverage came from, but it won’t matter whose name is on the label because the wine is some seriously fine wine.

The wine is released in limited lots, identified only by their lot number, origin and type of wine. Sampled at this event were:
* 2009 North Coast Petite Sirah
* 2009 Atlas Peak Chardonnay
* 2002 Gran Reserva Ribera Del Deuro Tempranillo
* 2009 Santa Barbara County Pinot Grigio
* 2009 Russian River Pinot Noir
* 2009 Arroyo Seco Chardonnay
* 2009 Spring Mountain Meritage
* 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
* 2009 Stag’s Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon

K’s favorite? Lot 303 — the Stag’s Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon. It started faintly sweet and full then slowly gained deeper, dark fruit flavors. My favorite was Lot 242– the Atlas Peak Chardonnay. Normally, I don’t care for Chardonnay. The flavors are far too warm, too heavy and the wrong kind of sweet. This, however, was *un-oaked* Chardonnay which tastes more citrus and mineral, almost like a Sauvignon Blanc.

Under their original labels, these wines are very expensive. But as part of the Cameron Hughes “Lot Series,” they go for between $11-28 per bottle. The wines can be ordered online or can be found at Sam’s Club or Costco liquor stores. They definitely have a cult following and people stalk the release of the spirits, so you have to act fast to find them. The Cameron Hughes website also has a locator that can help you track down the wine near you.

Trust me, you will be a hero if you bring a bottle or two to a holiday gathering or put a bow on one as a gift. And no one has to know you were frugal and only paid pennies on the dollar for what some other suckers are paying big money for. Everyone’s a winner!

World Food Day

Food can unite and food can divide — often it does both. I think about food every day. What should we have for dinner? I shouldn’t have that scoop of ice cream, it’s not good for me. Don’t feed the dogs bites of people food, they’ve learned to beg at the table. The people in east Africa think about food every day too because they don’t have any, they’re literally starving to death. Politics, religion, warfare and government (or lack thereof) are preventing them from receiving lifesaving food aid.

Somalian Children Wait for Food in a Kenyan Refugee Camp -- Photo Courtesy of NewsOne.com

Aside from giving as generously as you possibly can to groups like the American Refugee Committee, Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF I’m not sure how else we can help. I have little, but they have less so I give as I am able. The only other thing I can do is think long and hard about where my food comes from and how to be responsible with the feasts I’m lucky to have every day.

Almost every night I sleep with my iPod plugged into my ears — an inane and mindless podcast or audio book quietly murmuring in the background to drown out my thoughts. Because at night, I think. Some nights it’s about all the things I have to do the next day, sometimes it’s about money or the future, but many nights I need the noise to distract me from the images burned into my brain from the news of the day. Angry adults beating helpless children. Sadistic people “breeding” puppies and kittens and cramming them into tiny cages, disfiguring them for life. Elderly people, abandoned and alone in a cold nursing facility, waiting for someone — anyone — to come see them. Meeting rooms full of people figuring out how to deflect blame for an environmental disaster they caused, all in the name of profit. Farm workers, zombified after years of menial and repetitive work, kicking and punching sick animals on their way to slaughter. Stick-thin children with distended bellies and flies crawling on their faces, too weak to brush them away because they haven’t eaten or had water in days. I’ll stop so you don’t have to start sleeping with your iPod too.

Bad things happen in the world, but many people find comfort and solace in community and communities can be built around many things. I find joy, challenge, consolation, creativity, frustration, love and community in making, sharing and eating food. K and I met over a wonderful meal prepared with heart (metaphorically speaking) and we learned about each other and how we work as a team as we’ve cooked together over the years. We like to cook for others, so everyone can feel the warmth emanating from our kitchen and we can share laughter and conversation and nourishment together. Even when he gets bored in two minutes, I love to share time in the kitchen with my nephew (age 4) so he better understands that what he eats matters and knows where his food comes from. Food is always a shared topic of conversation whether you’ve never met someone before or you’ve known them for years. An entire group of people in our state, the MN Food Bloggers group, meet regularly to talk and laugh and share over food and drinks. Our happiest moments are often celebrated with sparkling cakes and our lowest hours are often soothed, if temporarily, by a bowl of Ben and Jerry’s.

I try not to eat emotionally or out of boredom (to varying degrees of success), and try to be mindful of the food we consume. I want what we eat to be nourishing and good for us, but also to be good for the planet. If we’re eating meat, I need to know that it was raised and slaughtered as humanely as possible. In this quest, we devote a significant amount of thought and time and a bit more money to food. But it’s worth it. I want us to eat real food, not chemicals. I want us to know where our food comes from — a nearby farm, processed in small batches so we don’t end up eating a fast food shit burger (that’s literally what’s in your fast food burgers America, sorry to be the bearer of bad news). I want our meals to be thoughtful and made with love, not reheated fake food in a chemical-leaching plastic container eaten while leaning over the kitchen counter or in front of the TV. I don’t want us to waste what we’ve got, so we compost scraps and have “clean out the fridge” dinners instead of leaving things too long so they go in the trash.

Food is love. May we all have both in abundance. This week, take a moment to really think about your food and where it comes from. Spend some time cooking a real meal or two for yourself and/or your family and friends. And, because we have so much, please consider making a donation to an organization helping to feed those in the Horn of Africa suffering from severe famine and drought in the hopes that they too will feel the love and the community built through food.

K and I Cooking a Meal Together in our Kitchen. Courtesy of StarTribune.com

Girls at the Fair

It was like a scene from “Sex and the City,” except this group of ladies was on the hunt for food (preferably fried) and our glam outfits were stained with warm blueberry sauce. We even had a gorgeous red-head and a Samantha.

It was an absolute pleasure to join up with blogger and foodie gals Kate (@KatentheKitchen), Stacy (@WolvesGal), Amanda (@SweetNSnazzy), Jen (@thewhlehrtdlife) and Samantha (@escinsider) for an afternoon and evening at the Minnesota State Fair. If you’ve never been to the “Great Minnesota Get Together,” it is certainly a collection of characters. It’s generally hot (though the temperatures during our visit were divine) and dusty. You will alternately walk through puffs of smoke and the wafting smell of grilled meat and have to watch out for the dreaded “poo shoe” in the smelly animal barns. We saw a man dressed in a banana suit and small town local legend the “Vanilla Gorilla.” For just one dollar you can get endless refills on all the milk you can drink (this is not a challenge recommended for hot weather). And for $40 you can buy a V-slicer from a man with a microphone over his ear that uses the word “amazing” in every sentence.

My first steps into the Fair this year were to the Daily building where a finalist for Princess Kay of the Milky Way was having her likeness carved in butter. The room was 40 degrees so she was wearing a snow suit and a sparkly crown.

Butter Sculpture in Progress

Then, the group tracked me down and we went straight to the food building. Visiting the Fair with a group of people is definitely the way to go because you can share bits and bites of everything and have room to sample plenty of food. We grabbed a few containers of the real cheese curds — hot, salty, crunchy and addictive — while on the hunt for beer. Across from beer we found the San Felipe Asian carnitas tacos. This sounds like it could be a strange and misdirected fusion. It *could* have been, but instead it was a fabulous mix of the best of both worlds. Wrapped in a spinach tortilla were tender, juicy pork carnitas with a crisp slaw coated in a sauce with a hint of wasabi. One taco fed five of us easily.

Satisfied for the moment, we headed off to see the baby animals in the Miracle of Birth center. It was impossible not to coo and squee at the fuzzy ducklings, soft lambs, naked and squirmy piglets and wobbly calves. After snuggling a four-day old lamb and a one day old snoozing piglet, we decided it was time to move on to see some agriculture.

Sleeping Baby Piglet. Can you Stand the Cute?

There is never a straight shot to anything at the Fair. You must wind through the lanes of people and there are endless distractions in the form of vendors, exhibits, buildings with mysterious noises and smells, rides and Midway games. One of the distractions that we couldn’t pass up was the Minneapple pie booth. We shared a pie with a flaky, crisp cinnamon-sugar coated crust and a naturally sweet and tender apple filling. Capped off with creamy and spicy cinnamon ice cream, it was a perfect treat. And it kept us fueled long enough to get to the Agriculture building. We toured giant crops that Samantha joked came from Chernobyl Farms. Case in point, these ginormous pumpkins:

It Really *IS* the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

We admired the seed art (also known as crop art, crotch art and see dart). Some of the pieces truly were spectacular and you couldn’t tell they were crafted using seeds. My favorite was this homage to Stacy and Clinton from TLC’s “What Not to Wear.”

What to Hang on Your Wall

We passed by the bee booth (which sometimes has a man in the booth with the bees) on our way to honey sunflower seed ice cream and honey lemonade. I love me some honey and I have no idea how I missed the honey lemonade in the past. It’s sweet, it’s tart, it’s flowery and full of honey flavor and it’s so refreshing. After several hours of walking, our feet needed a break so we checked out the amateur talent show and snacked on some peppery jerk fries from Harry Singh’s. Highlights of the amateur talent show while we were there were the “house band” and their wordless but energetic “Eye of the Tiger.” Lowlights: Someone sang, “My Heart Will Go On.”

One of the Impressive "Minnesota's Got Talent" Performers

We wandered around a bit more — beers and sangria were consumed. We saw a big green beacon in the distance and got some fried pickles to provide sustenance until we hit the International Bazaar. I’m no fan of pickles, but the breading on these was crunchy and substantial and the pickles were thick and not too pickley. Once we made it to the International Bazaar, we shopped our way to Holy Land where Kate enjoyed some kushari which confused us all — rice, lentils, macaroni, fried onions and tomato sauce. The rest of us enjoyed gyro on a stick, some falafel and grape leaves. The falafel was a little dry, but the grape leaves were tender and filled with rice and dill. Everything benefited from a slathering of cool, cucumber tzatziki sauce.

Our evening coming to an end, we found a table at the Blue Moon Diner and shared two dishes of sweet corn ice cream — one with bacon butter sauce and the other with warm blueberry sauce. This was the most amazing ice cream we’d ever eaten. Naturally sweet from the corn milk and cream, but not overwhelmingly sweet. The bacon butter sauce had nice chunks of salty, chewy bacon with honey butter overtones. But that blueberry sauce … it was fresh and wild and sweet and earthy and blue. So we shared another dish. Then another dish. Then another dish. Then offered to share our lottery winnings with their employee if he’d just tell us the recipe. Which he wouldn’t.

Exhausted, exhilarated and full, we all headed to our respective buses for the ride home. Though I think Stacy may have wisely grabbed some mini donuts for the road. I should have done that. I have no photos of the food we ate because we ate it too quickly, but it was a delectable culinary tour of the Fair with some great company. I say we make a date to do it again next year!

(front to back) Samantha, Amanda, Kate, Stacy and Jen. (Not pictured) Me. Hey, someone's gotta take the picture!

Best of the best: Asian carnitas taco, honey lemonade and that fan-flippin’-tastic sweet corn ice cream with warm blueberry sauce.