My head is still swimming a bit from all that I heard and continue to absorb from the day. The first panel that I went to was titled: "Climate Change and Food." I didn't film it, but I will be posting highlights/transcripts as soon as my little fingers can type them up. Like the panel yesterday on re-localizing food, this discussion also focused on a decentralized food system and smaller farms as the only means of surviving the massive climate changes that are occurring and will continue to occur- and like yesterday there was a tone of optimism and promise that truly does make things appear less bleak.
Later on in the afternoon, I went to the culminating discussion "Slow Food Nation." Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, Eric Schlosser, Wendell Berry, Alice Waters and Carlo Petrini. The line up of speakers kind of seemed too good to be true, but it was true! And I feel so lucky to have been able to listen in on their conversation. I say listen in because it felt less like a presentation for the audience than it did an exchange of ideas and exploration of how to move forward given the current social, political and environmental state of the world. The people who were on stage this evening are all working towards a similar goal, but their experiences and expertise covered a wide range of activity. There was something incredibly powerful about seeing those experiences and expertises playing off one another. I don't know if any of the people on stage tonight will walk away freshly inspired with new ideas to take on the challenges our world currently faces, but there was a feeling, at least to me in the audience, that something was being born. Not an idea, but a charged energy and appreciation of the movement itself. The direction we and our political leaders need to go is clear. The discussion tonight felt like a burst of energy to fuel us into that direction. (Again, I will be posting transcripts... but it was 2 1/2 hours long so it might take me awhile).

I just got home from my first day at Slow Food Nation! Today, I went to the "Re-localizing Food" panel with Gary Nabhan, Dan Barber, Winona LaDuke, and Michael Pollan- the discussion was moderated by editor-in-chief of Saveur Magazine, James Oseland. The overall tone of the panel was quite optimistic in that round about "our food system is going to get better and go local because soon we physically won't have a choice" sort of way. It's an interesting twist on the doomsday end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it rhetoric that infects so many liberal discussions about the future (or maybe that doomsday stuff is just leftover from Y2K? Do we still know what Y2K is?) There was a lot of discussion about policy and government and ways of enforcing/encouraging local eating. Gary Nabhan said something I hadn't ever heard before: that the city of Austin is re-routing its city buses so that they don't just go to Wal-Marts and Sam's Clubs but also have stops at farmer's markets-- hopefully more cities will follow suit?

I filmed the discussion and will be posting highlights soon(ish)... Also stay tuned for Michael Pollan's favorite preserved food... one of many small video treats as part of our local eating month (2 days away!)

After the panel I sampled my way through the marketplace, it was crowded but
still delicious. I tried "Dad's cardamom ice cream" from Three Twins
Organic Ice Cream. Apparantly their secret to deliciousness is that
they use part creme fraiche... after my discovery of 2 weeks ago, you can imagine that this was right up my alley. It was towards the end of the day so there were only 2 flavors left-- but rest assured-- I will come back with the full report tomorrow!

Ever since I can remember, I have loved Salade Niçoise. When I was a little girl and we would go to France, I would always order “une salade nicoise sans anchois, s’il vous plait”. It would make my parents laugh, because that was one of the only phrases of French that I had memorized. Now that I am grown up, I love the anchovies the most.
The Salade Niçoise, is a composed salad (salade composée), which gets its name from the combined ingredients that are associated with the city of Nice: tomatoes, tuna, anchovies, hardboiled eggs, and green beans. I have had so many of these salads over the years, that I have self-appointed myself to be the world expert in the field. In culinary school we learned to make the correct Salade Nicoise, which as a composed salad, means that every element is prepared and dressed separately before being arranged on the plate. My own experience with eating these salads in restaurants and making them for myself at home has taught me a few things: 1) it is always fun to add unconventional ingredients to the salad, as long as you keep the basics there. There have been many occasions in Paris when my salad was served with corn kernels and grated carrots. Even Parisians break the rules. 2) It is also better to put the salad together and then just dress everything as a whole. I hate salads that are over-dressed, and very often, when each element is individually dressed, there can be excess oil on the plate. So to keep it simple at home, dress the salad as a whole.
The other day I made a big Nicoise salad for my mother and my picky boyfriend at the beach in Rhode Island. I had brought some ingredients from the Greenmarket, and my mom had just gone to the Stonington Farmers Market, so we had a lot of local vegetables. We had already roasted the little fingerlings that she had bought the day before, with some olive oil and rosemary. We had also already roasted some avocado squash. I boiled the French green beans as well as two fresh eggs, and I was halfway there. In our cupboard I had found some tuna packed in olive oil and anchovies. I took a large platter, arranged the lettuce and all of the veggies in an even pattern, added the canned tuna and anchovies, some heirloom tomatoes, and then dressed it with a simple vinaigrette of mustard, olive oil, lemon juice, and vinegar. You can see in the photo how delicious everything looked together on the plate, and how simple it ended up being. Summer never tasted so good!

The other day I went to the farmers market with my boyfriend and we bought a huge bunch of basil. I have found that since herbs are usually sold as a huge bunch for a very low price, it is worth only buying 1 or 2 types at a time. A lot of recipes include a few herbs at a time, but in order to not let any go to waste, I have had to scrap my fantasies of multiple herb salads while only cooking for two. Instead, I have just started putting the herb of the week into everything I make. Sometimes the combinations are matches made in heaven, while other times you find that you don’t like the way certain herbs accent other flavors. However, in the end, you end up learning what goes well with what by taste. And you don’t have any waste. For example, in the beginning of the summer, I found Apple Mint at the market. I was fascinated by the new herb and bought the bunch. It was so much mint that I did not know what to do with it, so I just started throwing it into everything. We ate it in salad with tomatoes, on fish, in mojitos, in everything. I loved its flavor, but when I finally used the rest up in an ice cream I had discovered my favorite use for it. Apple Mint Ice Cream was my great success for the month of July.
This week our intensive herb was basil. I have been using a leaf or two as a garnish for everything, but last night it appeared in almost every dish. For cocktail hour I made a basil- cucumber mojito. Along with the drinks I prepared a ceviche with fresh Stonington, CT scallops (local for me). I cut the scallops in half both ways and set them in lemon and lime juice with a hint of garlic to “cook” in the acid. After about an hour and a half, I seasoned them well with salt and mixed them with diced heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced red onion, and thinly sliced basil. Following that we had cantaloupe melon with feta cheese from Beltane Farm and basil chiffonade. And of course for our main dish there was a side of pasta with a classic pesto. I love basil, but what I love more is learning about what it goes well with and what it does not. There is no shame in throwing an herb in something and later realizing that it was not the best choice. The reward of learning all of the flavor nuances of the herbs is much greater than wasting Summer’s verdant bounty.

"I'm quite convinced that cooking is the only alternative to filmmaking"

-Werner Herzog

I had been wanting to see Les Blank's short film "Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe" (1980) for quite some time. I like the title, I like Les Blank, I like Werner Herzog.... Well I finally saw it yesterday and was thrilled by what I discovered. Do you know where Werner Herzog cooks his shoe before he eats it? Chez Panisse. Assisted by none other than Alice Waters, who helps him soak his shoe in duck fat before putting it in the pot. Brilliant. And he really does eat it.

Back in May, Katie (my roommate) and I enthusiastically signed up for a half-share at the Kensington/Windsor Terrace CSA in Brooklyn. The pickups started in late June. With a half-share you are supposed to pick up your veggies every other week, but restless/busy/weekend booked as I have been this summer, this was the first Saturday that I was able to be the one to go pick up our vegetables.

And I will report, that I had so much fun! It was a fantastic week. We got purslane, and corn, tomatoes of every color, purple basil, fennel... yum. And beautiful. Everything looked so delicious that Katie and Nick (other roommate) and I decided to have an impromptu dinner party to celebrate our CSA booty.  Svetlana, Tom and Sarah who are in town from LA came, along with Brandon, one of Nick's new friends from medical school. We had a huge salad, with the fennel, purslane and tomatoes-- we added some other farmer's market goodies like peaches and feta too.  And we also made purple basil pesto with walnuts. It did not look as purple all ground up, but it was still tasty. 

For dessert I made a peach crumble, and we had ice cream with an assortment of fun toppings (toasted nuts, coconut, raw cacao powder, sprinkles, creme fraiche) for mini-sundaes. We also discovered something sort of naughty, well I don't know if that's the right word-- but I accidentally had some of the creme fraiche on a bite with my vanilla ice cream. I know it sounds like a little much, but I will go on record as saying that I liked it better than whipped cream. 

Assuming I will be here for more CSA pickups (I already know I'm going to be in San Francisco for Slow Food Nation next one) we want to have more CSA dinners. Everything is so fresh and delicious-- so much better eaten right away and shared with friends.

Food is all around us. Last weekend, Emma and I went to Shohola, Pennsylvania. We are working on a local eating project with Leda Meredith and Ellen Zachos, so we went over to Ellen’s country house to explore our region more in depth.
Upon arrival Friday afternoon we immediately headed out again for a bit of watercress foraging. It is so great to hang out with Leda and Ellen, because you constantly are learning how to identify edible wild foods and fun tips for their uses in cooking. When I am around them it feels like everything is edible. It was amazing for me to see watercress growing in the wild- so pristine, vibrant, and green.
Friday night we were treated to delicious local-beef hamburgers grilled to perfection by Ellen's husband, Michael. Boy oh boy- were we in for a treat, because Ellen and Michael had just returned from New Mexico and had brought with them some green chiles. Emma and I are really dreaming about New Mexico these days, so we were delighted to have some of what- is- local-there on our on our local-here burger. I must add that while Michael was out manning the grill, us ladies made up a new cocktail- the Pennsylvania Pirate- a Shohola-Caribbean crossover with Elderflower Champagne, Brugal Rum, and muddled mint. That became the beverage of choice for our cocktail hours.
Saturday morning we went to the farmers market and bought our missing supplies: cheese, fingerling potatoes, eggs (hen eggs and guinea fowl eggs too!), plums, and purslane. After the market we headed over across the street and picked blueberries and blackberries like little bears for a few hours. We spent Saturday afternoon filming tips and techniques for our local eating month, so that all of our viewers learn how to store up for Winter on local foods. One of those techniques was preserving blueberries without sugar- one you should all stay tuned for (hint hint). Saturday night we had a special dinner, which everyone will learn about soon, made with 100% local ingredients. My favorite was the fingerlings cooked in duck fat. Yum.
On Sunday morning we wrapped everything up and sat down for a final lunch. One of Ellen’s farmers had given us some lamb sausage with paprika and parsley, which we through in the skillet. Ellen was generous and opened up a bunch of her chutneys: apple and chipotle, pear and ginger, and tomato, lemon, and ginger.
What I loved about the weekend was that I had a role in where my food came from. I had learned how to forage for watercress, and eaten the results in a salad. I had met the woman who sells the eggs and fowl at the market, and as a result I had faith in how those ingredients had been raised. I know that I can eat hot oatmeal in the Winter topped with local blueberries that I had picked myself. This is going to be an ongoing theme from now on, as we work more on learning how delicious local foods are.

A couple of weeks back my roommate Katie's friend Daniel from college came to stay with us. He is working at Hill and Hollow Farm, a biodynamic farm in Kentucky, and brought with him this beautiful red cornmeal that they grow on his farm. I'd never seen anything like it, but it was even better when he turned it into a delicious cornbread, the recipe for which he kindly shared (and it's posted here)... Oh how we love handy houseguests!

I am going to let everyone in on a little secret recipe I am working on. It is a local version of Cobb Salad. I never really liked Cobb Salad, but when you use local ingredients, you have to give everything a second try. This all started because I happened upon Avocado Squash at the Union Square Greenmarket one day. I have to admit that I often lament the fact that avocados are not a local ingredient. Their smooth texture and richly subtle flavor are one of a kind. But these Avocado Squash that I found are actually quite comparable and make a great substitute. Lately I have been going loca (sorry, I am a bit cheesy at heart)brainstorming all of the things that I can make with avocados using local ingredients. I am going to publish my recipe during September's local eating month, but I wanted to let everyone in on what is going into it. Red leaf lettuce provides the base of the dish, chicken is simmered in some aromatics, creating a tasty soft meat, Avocado Squash are roasted until nice and soft, purple peppers are thrown in for their awesome color, heirloom tomatoes are sliced and added in, and local blue cheese adds a salty crumble. I am not going to share with you my secret recipe for salad dressing, nor the hidden spice that makes this extra special. You must all stay tuned for early September when we can enjoy the harvest at its peak.

This week Sophia and I went to Washington, DC to film an interview with Senator Harkin. We talked about the Farm Bill, farmer's markets and the importance of eating locally. The interview will air next month as part of our Local Eating Month. Throughout the month of September we will be posting recipes, videos, tips and techniques for ways to bring local foods into your daily life.

After we filmed the interview we went to Adams Morgan and had macchiatos at Tryst, mojitos at Bossa and mezze at Meze... Very indulgent, but we had a lot of college culinary memories to fit into one short afternoon.