Just Eat Food News

I decided to make a submission for the Next Food Network Star.  It was so much fun, and it certainly helped to have such a supportive cameraman/editor/food prep/cat restrainer/technical guru.    

To see the official video click here. 

Not sick of me yet?  Click here to see the outtakes!! 

For this meal idea I wanted to create something that would bring some of the best offerings of the fall season.  This meal is as pretty to look at as it is delicious to taste.  I would recommend pairing this meal with a glass, or two, of pinot noir. 

• Pork Tenderloin
• Berry Sweet Potato Bake
• A is for Applesauce

You will notice that the Berry Sweet Potato Bake serves 4-6 where the other dishes serve about 2.  That is because the Berry Sweet Potato Bake is a welcome addition to tomorrow's lunch.  Believe me, you will wish there was more of it!  Let the countdown to Thanksgiving begin!

STUFFED SPUDS (SERVES 2)

This is a satisfying vegetarian (if you eat dairy) meal.  Hearty enough for a chilly fall day. 

INGREDIENTS

• 1 Tbsp. Olive oil
• 1 C Carrot - diced (about 3 carrots)
• 1 C White onion - chopped
• 2 C Button mushrooms - sliced
• 1-1/2 C Frozen peas 
• 1 Tbsp. Salt-free seasoning blend
• 6 Potatoes - about 3" in length, clean, remove eyes, and poke several small holes
• 14.5 oz. Can cream of mushroom soup - I only used about ¾ of a can.  You will need to make that determination based on how soupy you want the consistency. 
• Sharp cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

Heat olive oil in fry pan on medium heat.  Once the oil is hot, about 4 minutes, add carrots and stir occasionally for 5 minutes.  Add onion, mushrooms, peas, and seasoning blend and continue to cook for about 10 minutes, until the onions are translucent.  While the veggies are cooking begin to cook the potatoes.  Place on a plate and microwave on high for 5 minutes.  Turn them and cook for about 7 more minutes.  Continue to cook if they are not fork tender.  Once the onions are translucent, and veggies are tender, add the soup and continue to cook until heated through.  Then, split each potato down the middle, and place the halves in the bottom of individual bowls.  Top with veggie mixture and garnish with sharp cheddar cheese. 

NOTES

We used 3 Yukon, and 3 Red Skin potatoes just to be crazy.  For a salt-free seasoning blend I am in love with Trader Joe's® 21 Season Salute.  There is just enough kick to it, if you're into a little spicy.  If the soup is too thick for your liking, thin it with a little milk.

Ok guys...we're girls.  We don't want burgers and brats on the first date (maybe the second, or third).  Let me give you a little advice on what we would really love.  You can use it as your own idea.  Actually, I took the idea from some friends so feel free!

This meal happens to be one of my husband's favorite meals, and takes about 15 minutes to get it from the kitchen to the table.  No stove.  No cooking.  You can do this.  I can help.  Let's review the reason we date.  We date to get to know each other, converse, share likes and dislikes.  This meal forces conversation, creativity and sharing.  I know you are thinking this sounds really touchy feely. You think this is bad?  Wait until I give you the recipe for unicorn cupcakes (joking).    

This is what you need to get at the store:

FOR SALAD - combine all ingredients in small mixing bowl

• 1 Tbls Organic olive oil
• ¼ Tsp Balsamic vinegar
• Greens (I recommend arugula-has a peppery taste)
• 1 Tomato
• 1 Lemon - only use a squeeze for the salad

SERVE THE FOLLOWING ON A CUTTING BOARD:

• Crusty rustic bread
• Nice cheeses, you can purchase an assortment, or just one nice wedge will do
• 1 Avocado (smashed slightly in a small dish)
• Hummus - feel free to pick up some cucumber, carrots, or celery for dipping

If you feel like you might die without some kind of meat at dinner, go ahead and buy prosciutto, or something similar.  I assure that you won't die, but do what you must.

Add a little Sinatra, a nice wine, and you have an impressive little evening planned! Just mix, match those scrumptious little bites, and have fun!  Think of all the benefits of not going out to dinner.  You won't feel rushed, have to wait for a table, know exactly what you are eating, and you can save some cash to splurge on a nicer bottle of wine!

I know it seems a little lofty to think this could happen.  But it did.  Let me explain...

We joined a CSA (community supported agriculture) program in June of 2007.  Each week for $26 we picked up our large box of veggies from Be Wise Ranch in San Diego.  The box was packed full of fresh, organic produce grown just a few miles away from our house.  We always had some staples, but the fun part was trying veggies we hadn't had before, or probably wouldn't pick out for ourselves just because we didn't know what to do with them. 

We loved forcing ourselves to find recipes for fennel, turnips, collard greens (I stuff them like cabbage rolls-YUM), kale, rainbow chard, etc.  When I compare what we received in the box, I am not sure what we were eating before, and I can't compare it to anything I have had since we moved in July 2008   Oranges, that would drip down your hands, bags full of gorgeous heirloom tomatoes, green beans that would snap, fresh raisins, the list goes on and on.  The experience awakened me to question what I had been eating in the past.  All the bargain shopping had robbed me of such an incredible rich experience.  We no longer felt the need for large portions of meat to feel satisfied. 

To this day there isn't a veggie that will go bad in our house.  I will use every last scrap in some kind of soup, or pasta concoction.  There's no going back now.  My voracious appetite for fresh produce has taken over, and put my senses in overdrive.

The CSA program was not only supporting everything I believe in, but had awakened my senses to fresh produce.  Not flown, trucked, or commercially farmed.  That particular CSA is sold out now.  But, there are others to check out.  We originally found our CSA through Local Harvest^TM.  I encourage you to take a look to see what is available in your area. 

And this, my friends, is how a simple box of veggies changed everything...

Is it enough to buy organic?  The more I learn, the more I believe it is about being local, and sustainable.  When possible, I hope to stimulate the local economy, buy from small farms, and in turn know where my food is coming from.  As a consumer it is important to know, and see what your dollars are being spent on. 

It pains me to think that the money I spend on my beloved Kashi® cereal makes it back to Kellog's®.  Or, that my purchase of Muir Glen® tomatoes eventually gets back to General Mills.  It seems that all of the organic brands I have been buying over the years have now been bought up themselves.  Please visit The Cornucopia Institutes post on the subject to see which corporations have swallowed up the companies we thought we are supporting. 

In order to compete with national brands the smaller companies must adopt certain industrialized methods.  But, what price does the environment pay when organic farming is industrialized?  An interesting read can be found in this month's issue of Gourmet.  The article entitled, "Greens of Wrath" explores what happened to farmers post the E. coli in spinach outbreak of 2006.  Some small farmers that sell to Earthbound Farm (I'm sure others as well) have taken extreme measures to ensure that wildlife, and vegetation be stripped from the landscape surrounding their fields, in hopes of ensuring the outbreak doesn't happen again.  The idea of stripping the land of all living things to make a barrier sounds absurd and bizarre.

This is so contrary to what my mind conjures up when I imagine organic crops.  Not to mention that these bags salads, and a big part of organic veggies are all flown from CA.  That is a long way to my local Whole Foods® here in Chicagoland.  Can you imagine all the oil we use to ship "organic" produce across the country?  After cars, the food industry uses the most fossil fuels, and contributes the most to green house gas emissions, according to "Farmer in Chief", by Michael Pollan.  We can attempt to combat this by staying local.  This is an idealistic approach.  I get that.  But, we once operated this way and I think if we can support local commerce when possible we could have a big impact on where our food comes from in the future. 

MINI MEATLOAF (SERVES 6 - ASSUMING A SERVING IS 2 MINIS)

INGREDIENTS

• 1 LB Bison, or grass-fed beef
• ½ C Red onion - chopped
• 1 C Spinach - washed, dried, and chopped
• 1-1/3 C Whole wheat bread crumbs
• ½ Tsp Minced garlic
• 1 Egg

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 375°. Combine all ingredients in medium size bowl. Mix thoroughly. Shape mini-loaves into small footballs. About the size of your palm. Place mini-loaves on a broiler pan (I suggest rubbing a little olive oil on it to prevent sticking), and place on middle rack of preheated oven. Cook about 20 minutes. 

NOTES

An easy variation would be to toss in carrots, or red peppers. The small loaves make for a fast, delicious dinner, and also help with portion control.  The loaves are shown served with beets, and red skin mashed potatoes. 

I found a great site for just that thing!  Eatwild is a great resource to figure out where to find grass-fed/pastured products in your area, and to learn about all the benefits.  I choose to eat grass-fed only products because I believe a natural diet for the animals can only result in healthier food for us.  Not to mention that we are putting back into the earth what we take out when animals are pastured.  Oh yeah, and it tastes better.  Pastured animals don't need antibiotics because they are eating a natural diet.  Which means we don't get pumped full of unnatural crap either.  Buying meat in bulk can be kind of tricky, but I have found that the farms are incredibly helpful.  There are also buying clubs where you can link up with other people in your area to create a pick up location for us urbanites that may find it harder to get to the farm locations for pick ups.  Check out the site, it's great!

SOUTHWESTERN STUFFED GREEN PEPPERS (SERVES 4)

These are so great to make in the fall, when things are starting to cool down, and you want a hearty, comforting meal.  This is a twist on the standard stuffed green peppers that I love as well.  Once you get the hang of it there are tons of possibilities to change things up.  Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4)

FOR FILLING

• 1 lb Grass-fed beef, or buffalo
• ½ C Onion - chopped
• 2 Tsp Cumin
• 1 Tsp Garlic
• 1 ½ C Cooked brown rice
• 1 15 oz Can organic black beans - drained
• 4 Green peppers - cleaned with bottoms cut for sitting flat

FOR SAUCE

• 1- 28 oz Can organic diced tomatoes
• 1- 15 oz Can organic tomato sauce
• Dash of hot sauce (I love Cholula® - and use a LOT more than a dash)

GARNISH

• Avocado
• Red onion - chopped
• Cheddar cheese

DIRECTIONS

Brown grass-fed beef with onion, cumin, garlic in a medium skillet.  While browning the beef, mix together the diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, and hot sauce in a separate bowl.  Once the beef is browned, drain, and add to beef mixture, rice, and black beans. Mix to distribute ingredients evenly.  Fill green pepper cups with the beef/rice mixture.  Make sure to pack the filling in there with the back of a spoon.  Once the peppers are filled, place a thin layer of the tomato mixture into the bottom of a sauce pan.  The pan should be just large enough to hold all the peppers.  Put the filled peppers into the sauce pan.  Ladle in the tomato sauce in the open spaces the peppers create in the pan.  Fill the pan until the green peppers are about ½" above the mixture.  Cover the pan.  Cook on medium-low heat for approx. 50 min.  Remove from pan, ladle tomato sauce over the portion, garnish.

NOTES:

When I trim the bottom of the green peppers I use a small portion of it inside the bottom of the pepper to ensure the filling will not escape through any holes created by the trimming.  Also, any green pepper that was trimmed, I chop up and throw that in the pan to be browned with the beef, and onions.  This meal could be made vegan easily, by subtracting the meat and subbing with more rice, or soy meat substitute.  These are great the next day so make extra for lunch the next day. 

Never having an organic beer before I wondered how they would compare to regular beers.  Kyle and I were pleasantly surprised.  I would buy some of these beers again just because I like them, and then they just happen to be organic.  Now to be fair, I am sure there are a lot of brewers that buy from farms that don't use pesticides.  But, for this test we only wanted to try 'organic' beers.  So this is what we were judging: color, aroma, and taste.  For this test (this was so fun I think we will do more) we were judging 5 pale ales.  However, upon closer inspection it doesn't appear that they are all "pale ales" oh well close enough.  Oh, and one of them isn't domestic, which wasn't part of the deal either.  I am hardly going to dump that research down the drain so you will find info on them here as well.

So here they are, in no particular order (other than this was the tasting order) and our findings.

Wolaver's^TM Pale Ale: The color was a clear, dark amber, with moderate carbonation.  The aroma was grainy, and hoppy.  We gave it an average of 5.5 on the hoppiness scale, and a 3 for maltiness (sweetness).  We both thought the finish was smooth, light, and refreshing.  This was Kyle's favorite pick.  He typically will pick up a 6er of Sierra Nevada® or Stone® Pale Ale, if you would like to compare tastes. 

Butte Creek Brewing Company Organic Ale: The light amber/ golden color was as accompanied by moderate carbonation.  Butte Creek definitely had more carbonation than the Wolaver's^TM.  Out of all of them, this one had the strongest aroma.  Very earthy, you could pick out the barley in it.  We gave it an average of 2 on the hoppiness scale, and a 6.5 for maltiness.  Finished nice and easy, very balanced.  Kyle's enjoyed this one more than the Wolaver's^TM on the first time through (we had a little refresher at the end).

Goose Island Beer Company, Lamar Street Organic Pale Ale: The color was a dark red amber, and wasn't clear.  The carbonation was very light.  The aroma was fruity and sweet for me, balanced for Kyle.  We gave it an average of 3 on the hoppiness scale, and a 5 for maltiness.  The finish was full bodied, and clean.  It was too flat for Kyle, but this was my favorite!  I typically like everything.

Stone Mill Organic Pale Ale (Michelob Brewing Co. ®): The color was light honey, with the highest amount of carbonation.  We couldn't believe how fruity it smelled, like banana almost.  We gave it an average of 2 on the hoppiness scale, and a 7 for maltiness.  The finish was fruity with a bite.  Kyle could taste the banana and that was a little weird for him.  However, this kind of tasted like a white beer for me (which I love).  I liked this one.

Wychwood Scarecrow Golden Pale Ale: The color was a light gold, with very light carbonation.  The aroma was nutty.  We gave it an average of 4 on the hoppiness scale, and a 3.5 for maltiness.  The finish was balanced.  We both thought it tasted very European...it's brewed in England. 

If you are interested in trying any of these I recommend checking out the brewers websites for a list of distributors.  We had a lot of fun doing this and think it would be a GREAT idea for a party.

Let me know if there are any product categories that you are particularly interested in and I would be happy to test them out for you!