Happy 4th of July!

I know I'm a little late, but I think it's safe to assume that plenty of you are still celebrating the long weekend that this holiday has turned into.This year I decided to switch it up from the traditional US flag cheesecake and celebrate with a strawberry/blueberry pie. I found a ton a variations on this recipe, and I'm sure you have your own favorite. Plus, I'm not great at doing things like writing down what I put into a dish, or using exact measurements, so here are some loose tips for festive and unique berry pies of all kinds:

1. Use almond flour, but then cut back a little on the butter and water. Almost flour is great. It's tasty, it's better for you than white flour, and it tends to stick together in mixtures better than whole wheat. Most of baking is somewhere around 1/2 nut flour and 1/2 unbleached white. Just be aware that the oils in the nuts will make your dough stickier, so reduce your added fats a bit to compensate.
2. Keep it simple. You don't need gelatin. The only ingredients in the filling of this pie were the berries, a little sugar, and starch. (Tapioca and potato are both great choices.) It did come out a little runny, so I would probably add a bit more starch and maybe even a little flour in future experiments.
3. Cookie cutters are your friends. I don't know why I had never thought to use cookie cutters for pie crust before, but now that that mental door has been opened, the possibilities are endless.
4. Foil makes a great divider. The line between types of berries was made by folding a double layer of tin foil, sticking it gently into the raw bottom crust, filling the berries in, and then taking it out before adding the top crust.

These basics can be used to create any kind of shape or flavor combination. What kinds of creative pie recipes have you tried?

Corn Free July 2018

Happy Corn Free July again, everyone! I appreciate you checking back after such a long hiatus. A few things have inspired me to get back to the blogging game. The first is, of course, that it's that time of year again and,true to form, I've spent July 1st hungry, confused, and wishing I had planned ahead a little better.

For those of you new to the site, Corn Free July was an experiment I tried in 2011 after reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, to see if I could eat in a way that was slightly kinder to our animal friends and to the environment. For more details on the diet challenge, check out how it all started, or check out the recipe list.

One of the other reasons that I decided to come back here today is that, a few months ago, I had a pretty scary health crisis. I've been lucky enough to be in good health and to not struggle with my weight for my entire life, and so the health part of dieting, for me, has always been maintenance, or insurance against the future. I got a serious wake-up call in January when the future became now. On my first grocery shopping trip after that, I saw John Mackey, Alona Pulde, and Matt Lederman's The Whole Foods Diet: The Lifesaving Plan for Health and Longevity. I had never heard of it before, but into the cart it went without a second thought. There is some amazing science in these pages giving concrete evidence that our Western diet is killing us. There wasn't much that I hadn't heard before, but I was due for a reminder.

If you're interested, The Whole Foods Diet is for sale on Amazon, I'm sure, because oh my God can you even believe Amazon owns Whole Foods now? One of its features is a 28-day meal plan complete with recipes, and since I finished the book the day before yesterday, I decided to fold it into Corn Free July. This diet advocates for a 90% plant based diet, which will be an added challenge for me, since that isn't something that I typically focus on, but I think it's worthwhile to try. I hope you'll join me!

Corn-Free July 2017

I haven't written here in awhile, close to two years if the truth be told, and a lot of changed since then. I confess that the majority of what has happened in food news has passed me by as well. A new job, a new apartment in a new town, the simply act of getting out of the habit have left me feeling adrift in the world of sustainable agriculture. I could, I suppose, also tell you that I've taken a break from the blogging game to write my novel- which is totally almost done, I swear- but I wouldn't want to push the limits of your patience with me.

I guess the easiest touch point to get back in is to say something that I think, or at least hope, that most readers will be able to relate to: A new life routine has led to a new food routine, and in turn, a new relationship with eating in general. And that's what's maybe the most interesting thing to me about writing about food- the fact that are so many different ways to experience eating. Enough to make "food writing" a known term, with sub-genres even within it, a whole ecosystem as rich, when you really get under the hood, as any other fiction or non-fiction genre, and with as much blurring of lines regarding what qualifies.

I hope I will always come back to Corn-Free July as a way to remind myself to think about the way I choose to eat and why. I went to the farmers' market in Harvard Square, Cambridge, by the Charles Hotel yesterday. Have any of you been there yet this year? For a geographically small market it has a wealth of choices: bread, fish, meat, eggs, cheese, fruit, vegetables, flowers, plants. A high-end pasta and sauce artisan. A stand that makes lemonade while you wait. If you plan ahead and don't mind dropping some serious cash, you can do your grocery shopping for the whole week there.

The need to plan, and to budget judiciously, can be daunting. But in the end, when you really measure it, did that cost you more stress than walking through the endless maze of a supermarket? Holding your tongue against the road rage of other people carts? Constantly stopping yourself from grabbing impulse items? At least if you overspend at the farmers' market, you know you're always getting something healthy. And maybe you've put less white noise in your brain as well, leaving more room for meaningful thoughts.

As summer returns to the northern hemisphere bringing with it local food, often eaten outside, how do you shopping and eating habits change?

Jazz Brunch at Johnny D's

Corn Free July has passed once more, and, as usual, it involved a lot of cooking from scratch, but I always find a new restaurant or two during the challenge, and this time I discovered the sustainable side of a local favorite: Johnny D's Uptown in Somerville's up and coming Davis Square neighborhood. Johnny's D's is mainly known for its live music, and I hadn't thought of it as a place to find good quality food, but it was recommended by the Eat Well Guide, so I checked it out.

For Corn-Free purposes, Johnny D's fits into the category that most restaurants with an eye to sustainability do. That is they have several grass-fed or otherwise sustainable items, but these make up less than half the menu. That said, free range eggs are not often to be found at any restaurant, and I was glad to be able to have the brunch experience during July. Their cheese isn't grass-fed, so I couldn't get that in my omelette, opting instead for avocado, which made up for it well.

The milk was also not grass fed, and I declined to ask about the brand and ingredients in the soy milk, because really, who wants to be that person during a busy Sunday brunch shift? Luckily, the coffee was excellent on its own (this coming from someone who rarely drinks coffee, and never without cream, so it must be real nice.)

The ambiance was also nice, with live music that was noticeable but not distracting, and a helpful and personable wait staff. If you're in the area and have never been to Johnny D's, you really must, and you've got to hurry. They're shutting down in 2016!

What corn-free brunch experiences have you had? Any tips or restaurant recommendations?

5 Years of Corn Free July

It's the fifth time I've done this, and over the years, as I describe the project to new people, the explanation has gotten easier and easier. Not because I've perfected my elevator pitch. If anything, the opposite is true. Self-promotion will never come easily to me, and on top of that, as I've fallen into the Corn-Free July habit, I've gotten too close to see the whole picture, and often have a hard time articulating why I do it.

And yet, people just get it. Back in 2011, when Sean Bean was the star of Game of Thrones, we thought Mitt Romney might be the next president, and LMFAO's Party Rock Anthem was the jam of the summer, sustainable food wasn't quite as trendy as it is now. The Corn Refiners Association's desperate ploys to exonerate HFCS in the court of public opinion were still a recent memory. Things like kale and quinoa were just slightly unfamiliar health foods instead of punch lines to jokes that you secretly hope are about you.

In 2011, when I told people I was going off corn for a month, I got a lot of confusion about what was so bad about a starchy plant that tastes great grilled. In 2015, I get wise nods and buzzwords of agreement. "Mm, yes. GMOs. Factory farming. Subsidies. Monoculture."

Is the fact that this issue has gotten more widely recognized encouraging, or simply evidence that the problem has gotten too big to ignore? Are we really doing anything about it on a large scale?

One optimistic piece of evidence is the consistent reduction in our nationwide demand for red meat. Beef is, by far, our least efficient source of protein, in terms of energy, water, and land resources. If demand slows enough, we may reach a point at which there is no longer a need for the factory farming system we now have, and more and more beef cattle can be raised on pasture. This would be a significant win, I believe.

But why has that demand gone down? It has to do, in part, with economics, as middle and lower class wages continue to not keep up with inflation, and the price of red meat continues to rise. And of course it has something to do with increasing awareness about the conditions under which cattle are raised and the associated health concerns. But I wonder how much is the ethereal X factor that takes hold and makes something unpopular simply because it's unpopular? How many people are opting for chicken instead of beef just because it's what everyone else at the table is ordering? And is that a problem, or is that what we want?

I've been saying since I started this blog that we'll only really see a large scale change in our food system when responsible eating becomes the default setting and not something you have to go out of your way to do. Are we getting closer to reaching that tipping point, or is concern for where your food comes from still for hippies and weirdos?

What about you? Have your food choices gotten more conscientious in the last five years? Have you noticed a significant rise in the availability of more responsible food choices? Let me know in the comments section!

Corn-Free Raspberry Lime Rickey with Q Club Soda

We all know Coke isn't the smartest beverage choice, no matter how wholesome our friends at McCann Erickson try to make it seem. It's got too much sugar, and too much caffeine, and all kinds of weird artificial colors and stuff, but what you might not know is how many questionable ingredients go into something as straightforward as club soda. Most of the popular brands include ascorbic acid or other additives that are kind of sort of sometimes derived from corn, highlighting the frustrating lack of transparency in the food chain once again. This is a not a good discovery to make standing in the soda aisle of a Star Market just minutes before you've promised to arrive at a July Fourth party with cocktail mixers.

Luckily, most of the big box retailers have a health food ghetto these days, and that's where I was able to find club soda from Q Drinks, whose ingredients are carbonated water and Himalayan salt. Not sure what's so difficult about coming up with that recipe, but what do I know?

After doing a little research on the company, I found that they have a whole lineup of your standard soda flavors that pride themselves on the high quality of their ingredients. I've only tried the one so far, but it's good to know that the rest are out there.

Corn-Free Raspberry Lime Rickey:

• 4 fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1 cup Q Club Soda
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon lime juice
• 1 lemon wedge
• 1 lime wedge
• 1 ounce gin (optional)
• ice

Fill a glass 3/4 of the way or so with ice and club soda. Add gin and citrus juices. Place raspberries on top, and garnish with lemon and lime wedges. Serve with a straw to muddle the raspberries. Enjoy outdoors.

Putting the Eat Well Guide to the Corn Free Test

In a way, it's surprising that this didn't happen sooner. The Eat Well Guide, a project of Sustainable Table, is essentially Yelp for sustainable food, allowing users to search its database for eating establishments near them, specifying options such as farms, stores, or caterers. There's plenty of information, and as much transparency as can be expected on the Info section of the website, which states that

"We built the Eat Well Guide to make it easier to find good food and support local farmers, restaurateurs and others who are doing their best by their customers, their workers and the planet."

The site goes on to list the standards to which it holds the organizations in its database, but I had my doubts as to how "sustainable" these places really were, so I pulled up the full list of organizations on the guide within a mile radius of my house, and here's how a few of them check out:

• Whole Foods Market This is an obvious one, and a place that greatly facilitates the Corn Free challenge, particularly with meat and dairy products. Be careful, though. Just because you bought it at Whole Foods doesn't mean it's "good." Like with any grocery store, stay away from those center aisles. The fact that the packaged snacks are Annie's brand instead of Nabisco doesn't make all that much of a difference at the end of the day. Grade: 4/5 corns
  

• Life Alive Urban Oasis and Organic Cafe I've written about Life Alive on the blog before, and it's one of the only restaurants I cant think of where just about every menu item is corn free. And vegan, and nut free for that matter. If I remember correctly, at least half the options also don't have gluten. You'd have a hard time finding a dietary restrictions that prevented you from eating here. That said, the food is dynamic and nourishing, and never boring.
  
• Harvest Co-Op I want so badly for this one to get a higher grade than it does. The principles of a co-op are so fantastic. In theory it's a community-owned grocery store that brings local food to urban areas at a reasonable price. And it is. Kind of. At Harvest, for an inexpensive yearly membership, you get perks like eligibility to run for a seat on the board of directors, and participation in "Member Appreciation Day," a monthly day when all the merchandise is discounted. The selection is pretty disappointing though, with little to no grass-fed meat available, and plenty of common junk food brands in the center aisles.
  
• The Independent Located in the oh-so-hip neighborhood of Union Square in Somerville, The Independent offers a "seasonally influenced" menu prepared using "local, sustainable, and fresh ingredients." While all this is true, The Independent falls into a category of restaurant that proudly name-drops the source farms of their meat and vegetables, while cutting corners on staples like bread, dairy, and sweeteners. There's nothing inherently wrong with that. I love The Independent and what they're doing. Raising the sustainability bar would likely make the menu prohibitively expensive and potentially unreliable, but for the purposes of Corn Free July, just about every dish has something off-limits.
  
• Savenor's Market Savenor's is exactly what you think of when you imagine a neighborhood grocery store. A favorite food shopping destination of Julia Child, it has a long standing reputation as a place to get your provisions if you're serious about food. Like just about any other place on this list, some cookies and condiments of questionable provenance have will sneaked onto the shelves from time to time, but they have an outstanding meat and produce selection, and knowledgeable staff happy to answer questions. It's also the only place I've ever found corn-free ice cream!
  
• Chipotle Chipotle is doing something a little differently than most of the other places on this list by essentially trying to infiltrate the fast food scene and raise the bar a little, both in quality of the food and the dining experience. They have strong opinions on GMOs, and high standards regarding humane treatment of the pigs that go into their delicious, delicious carnitas. The idea that fast food can be (somewhat) sustainable has increased demand for that kind of thing, and put McDonald's on the defensive in that area. It's still fast food though, and I'm not sure how much it deserves a spot on a list like this.
  
• Grendel's Den and Restaurant Located in the heart of Harvard Square and boasting a vaguely literary name, maybe it shouldn't be a surprise that Grendel's has recently jumped on the green bandwagon. Menu items with an eye to environmental stewardship include local, seasonal veggies, and plenty of vegetarian menu items. (I especially like the portobello reuben.)
  

Overall, I think this guide is a fantastic step in the right direction. One of the biggest deterrents to eating green (or following through on anything, for that matter) is convenience, and having a user friendly tool to find what you're looking for in a hurry can be great. That said, plenty of the organizations the Eat Well Guide will help you find only have a handful of truly sustainable options. A responsible consumer will still have to read between the lines and work to find the information that's specifically important to them.

What do you think of the Eat Well Guide approved options in your city? Check it out and let me know in the comments section!

Easy 4th of July Recipe Suggestions

The winter holidays are the ones that get a bad reputation for their unhealthy food, but let's not forget the diet-breaking pitfalls of a July 4th Celebration: All those hot dogs and hamburgers, and the buns they come in and condiments that go on them are usually bought with an eye toward quantity, not quality. That means that what's not a great specimen of responsible eating gets knocked down a peg or two in the name of grabbing the cheapest thing at the supermarket and rushing back to the grill. And don't forget the token package of processed veggie burgers made from who knows what and tasting like cardboard to pacify your vegetarian friend. At least at Thanksgiving and Christmas, someone is likely to have put some time and effort into making your doctor mad.

If you've got a pot luck cookout to go to and you don't want to bring one more nondescript pasta salad, here are a few of my favorite corn-free, side dishes from around the internet:

Twice Baked Potatoes with Kale from Smitten Kitchen
Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms with Crispy Goat Cheese from Blogging Over Thyme
Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Mango from The Post Punk Kitchen
Grapefruit Avocado Salad from Simply Recipes
Broccoli Parmesan Fritters from Smitten Kitchen

Corn Free July 2015

Hello from the world of neglected blogs! I'm proud to report that I was able to complete a pretty decent first draft of my novel, A More Elegant Solution, during my time off. The research for that led me to explore in more depth the sustainable food movement and its pros and cons, and I'm ready to get back into that arena in a more journalistic way. That said, July has crept up on me even more than usual this year, and my kitchen is sorely ill-prepared for a month of eating unprocessed and grass fed. Maybe that makes it more of an adventure. I hope you'll join me on the journey! And please, please send me links to restaurants or recipes that might accommodate.

February Link Roundup

It's been a rough February, and I couldn't be happier that we got through it. Now if only someone would tell the snow that it's almost spring everything would be perfect. Here some of the most noteworthy news I found while I was snowed in:

The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy names top 5 energy efficient states. Massachusetts is Number One!

Dr. Dwight Lundell, a heart surgeon from Arizona, writes a book adding his professional opinion to the growing consensus that fat isn't to blame for our national health epidemic.

Brewers in Portland try their hand at making beer with purified waste water in order to conserve and work around drought.

Obama freaks everybody out by proposing to consolidate food safety oversight currently done separately by the USDA and the FDA into one organization run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

January Recipe Roundup

So many recipes, so little time. I've accepted the fact that I will never get to all the recipes I've bookmarked over the years, just like I will never get to all the books on my shelf, but here are a few that I tried for the first time in January, and found successful:

Bulgur Salad with Cucumber and Red Peppers from Once Upon a Chef

Whole grains and beans for heartiness and protein, offset with fresh, crispy vegetables for brightness make for a surprisingly satisfying meal that doesn't feel heavy. Plus a salad like this doesn't need to be cooked, and leftovers are easily packaged and stored to take to work as lunch.

Baked Potato Soup from Simply Recipes

This on is perfect for rewarding yourself after shoveling snow. It's also a great example of how to use meat as a garnish rather than the focal point of a dish. Bits of bacon, and frying the vegetables in bacon fat, give it flavor and heartiness without overpowering the potatoes that are the star of the show.

Roasted Butternut Squash with Lentils and Walnuts from Danielle Omar

photo credit: Danielle Omar

This dish is fun because the squash, lentils, and walnuts make for a complex bite with three very different, complementary textures. If anyone knows how to efficiently peel and chop a butternut squash though, please let me know.

A New Year and A New Project

I hope you'll forgive me if I'm not around much the next few months. I have a new writing project that, like a new baby, requires constant supervision if it's going to thrive. If you know me, you know I I've always been more comfortable in the world of fiction than the real world, and blogging, with all its need for getting facts straight and doing research and writing about things that are still happening and relevant has always been a challenge for me.

Which is why my next project is a novel. It's an exploration of the food system and what we can do to change it, told through the eyes of a very flawed and very not at all real young man named Adrian who shares some of the same passions that we do. It's been a lot of fun reading all the usual news on this subject and wondering how Adrian would react to this or that. This is, of course, not highly conducive to analysis or journalistic networking, so I'm going to leave that part of my writing life alone for awhile. I'll still be writing from time to time, just with less frequency.

In the meantime, please continue to connect with me on Facebook and Twitter. And I hope you'll read the finished product someday.

What's in the News: December 2014

Well, the holiday season is pretty much over, and so is 2014. We're just a couple of bottles of champagne and a half-hearted joke about an unused gym membership away from putting this whole thing behind us, but before we do, let's see what happened in food news this past month that you may have missed:

From CoconutOil.com: Sporadic and anecdotal evidence shows that coconut oil may reverse the symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease. The Alzheimer's Association is reluctant to test this, going so far as to imply that coconut oil consumption could actually be bad for you.

-5 points

From Boston Business Journal: New startup CookRadar pairs adventurous foodies with amateur chefs who name their own price for home-cooked meals.

+5 points

From Aljazeera America: Vermont becomes the big player in the GMO labeling issue. If it's law goes into effect in 2016 as planned, it could set a precedent for nationwide labeling.

+5 points

December Recipe Roundup

One thing I love about the holiday season is all the nice, warm comfort food. Here are few favorite recipes I tracked down this month that were delicious:

Pork Tenderloin with Cranberries from Paleo Leap:

This is a great gluten-free option, and with a glaze of cranberries, honey, and cinnamon, it's a perfect cold weather meal.

Sausage, Potato, and Cabbage Skillet Fry from Homesick Texan:

Easier and more flavorful than your average stir fry, this delivers a hearty, complex bite with just five ingredients.

The Best Cutout Sugar Cookies from Just a Taste:

I talked about these in my Holiday Cookies post a couple of weeks ago, but it bears repeating now that I've gotten some favorable reviews on them, that these are a little fluffier than most sugar cookies, and are great with or without frosting.

Almond Joy Truffles from Real Food Real Deals:

I was shocked at how easy it was to make these guys. If you're short on time, or just don't want to get a lot cookie sheets dirty, no-bake is the way to go. No gluten, no animals products, and very little sugar go into making these a quick and easy treat any day of the year.

What have you eaten this month?

Kitchen Sink Cookies: Your Holiday Baking Just Got Easier

The holidays snuck up on me again this year. Three weeks ago, I was feeling great, having gotten a head start on my planning, and now here I am still not done yet.  Christmas is ten days away, there are rumblings at work of a last minute Secret Santa, and one irritating friend has already caught me off guard by giving me a gift before I was ready.

If this sounds like you, fear not! I can't help you with the fact that the Amazon shipping window has closed, but I can remind you that dessert is always a great gift. Whether you've got a office party or cookie swap obligation, or just a family member that's hard to shop for, something hand-made and thoughtful is never a bad way to go. Cookies also make a fantastic last-minute gift for someone you didn't plan on seeing, or item to bring to a party you forgot about.

Last week I posted some of my favorite fancy pants cookie recipes, but it you feel that the time for getting all that has passed, you can still wow your love ones/hated ones/tolerated ones with some seriously good cookies they've ever had without even making a trip to the store.

Every year, the last batch of cookies I make is to use up the orphan ingredients. This works at any season of the year to clean out your cupboard of items you don't know what to do with, and it's equally useful for whipping up a hasty holiday treat.

No two batches are alike.

Directions: (based on the Original Nestle Toll House Cookie Recipe)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a medium-sized bowl, combine 2 1/4 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt. Variation: Use up to 50% nut-based flour without changing the recipe.
3. In a large bowl, beat 2 sticks butter, 3/4 cups granulated sugar, 3/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract until creamy. Variation: Sub coconut oil for butter, almond extract for vanilla, and feel free to cut back on the sugar. In the photo above I COMPLETELY FORGOT the brown sugar, and they ended up tasting a little more like a short bread cookie, but still good.
4. Beat in eggs one at a time (or about 1/4 of a very ripe avocado to make it vegan)
5. Stir in flour mixture until well blended.
6. Stir in about half a cup each of chocolate chips, oatmeal, chopped nuts, dried fruit, whatever you've got in the cupboard. Get creative.
7. Back 9 to 11 minutes, until golden brown. If you're using nut flours, they will spread out a little, so take that into account when you're spacing them out on the cookie sheet.

Holiday Cookies 2014

How are your holiday preparations coming along? I'm pretty excited that my cookies are all boxed up and ready to go. I thought getting the baking out of the way early was a smart move until I realized how much extra will power it was going to take to not devour every last one before I have a chance to give any away.

As always, these cookies are corn-free and as healthy as they can be while still tasting decadent. Every batch this year was made with a 2:1 ratio of unbleached all purpose flour and cashew meal. The cashew meal gives the cookies a rich, nutty flavor, adds extra oil so the cookies don't get too dry, and of course, cut down on gluten and refined carbs. I did use a lot of butter, but if it makes you feel better, here are some smug charts on how the low-fat movement is making us the unhealthiest we've ever been.

And now the 2014 Official Holiday Cookie List:

1) Ribbon Cookies

These tri-color cookies are always a huge hit, and my personal favorite to make. I will admit there were some questionable ingredients in the food coloring I used, so if you have a corn allergy, I would do some research or get all natural food coloring.

2) Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies

I learned tonight on The West Wing (yes, I am just now watching The West Wing for the first time) that these are apparently called Black Eyed Susans. (Yes, that's the kind of useful knowledge I glean from The West Wing.) Anyway, Hershey doesn't exactly make the most sustainable chocolate, so I sacrificed form for function and used locally produced chocolate bar squares.

3) Macaroons

photo credit: The Yellow House

If you're a Ibsen fan with a dark sense of humor like me, you know it just isn't Christmas without macaroons. This recipe from The Yellow House gives a bright lemony twist to the traditional coconut bite. I subbed maple syrup for the recommended honey and they came out quite nicely.

4) Sugar Cookies

I haven't been totally satisfied with the sugar cookie recipe I've been using for the last few years, so this time around I tried one from Just a Taste. They puff up more than other sugar cookies, giving a little bit more life to your cutout shapes, and the flavor is incredible. I opted not to use the frosting that Kelly recommended, and I don't miss it at all.

5) Almond Joy Truffles

This no-bake option from Real Food Real Deals can be completed in a flash if you have a good food processor, plus they contain no sugar, no flour, and no eggs or dairy! Just don't forget to pit the dates, or you'll be biting down on something and thinking to yourself , "Wow. That's one tough almond." Idiot.

6. Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cookies

Because you've got to have at least once sinfully chocolaty option, I tried out this recipe from Two Peas & Their Pod that combines two of my favorite non-standard baking ingredients: avocados and coconut oil. They taste great, but have some patience when stirring in the chocolate chips. Without eggs as a binding agent, those little guys just don't want to stay mixed in.

What are you baking this holiday season?

What's in the News: November 2014

November is over and there's no more denying that it is officially The Holiday Season, whatever that means. Look for some cookie recipes later in the week, but first, here's what happened in food news during November, and how dire the outlook is:

The Global Green Economy Index ranks the U.S. in 28th place, despite a perception that we're working much harder than that towards sustainable infrastructure.  -10 points

The Washington Post published a piece co-written by Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, and others outlining a proposal for a national food policy that would put organizations like the EPA and USDA into a more well thought out fight against everything wrong with our food systems, which might get more done than our current system of similar but discrete agendas undoing each other's work. +10 points

Celebrity Chef Tom Coliccio "comes out" as anti-GMO, and attempts to publicize something called Food Policy Action that he apparently founded in 2012. Why isn't this more public knowledge? Does General Mills own Bravo along with everything else?

5 Places to Shop in Boston for Small Business Saturday

Small Business Saturday is a movement organized in response to Black Friday that reminds shoppers not to give all their holiday gift money to big box stores. I was a little disappointed to find out that it's organized by American Express, but that's a conversation for another day. Here's a list of indie shops in Boston (who sell online as well if you're not local) where you can get a present that's a little more personal than a TV.

Penzey's Spices

photo credit: Penzey's Spices

With an online store as well as brick and mortar location in Arlington, Massachusetts and Norwalk, Connecticut, Penzey's is a great place to shop for anyone who love to cook or bake. Pick up one of their pre-arranged gift boxes, or put together your own personalized collection.

Follow the Honey

Harvard Square is a great a place to get almost all of your shopping taken care of, whether you're shopping for toys, books, clothing or jewelry. While you're there, don't forget to venture a little farther down Mount Auburn Street and stop into this little shop for a fantastic assortment of honeys, plus candles, soaps, cookbooks, and more. Plus, you'll be supporting beekeepers that are keeping our pollinator population intact.

Pemberton Farms

photo credit: Pemberton Farms

From unique jellies and small batch liqours to plants and gardening supplies as a reminder of spring, Pemberton Farms in North Cambrdige is your hookup for outside the box yard and kitchen needs. And while you're there, you can even save a trip and pick yourself up a Christmas tree!

Taza Chocolate

photo credit: DigBoston.com

Somerville's very own chocolate factory makes its bars right on the premises with ethically sourced beans and no preservatives or unpronounceable ingredients of any kind. If you've got family visiting for the weekend, take them on a $5 tour, and pick up a hot chocolate set complete with mugs and whisks at the gift shop on your way out.

The Hempest

photo credit: spreedia.com

Hemp is more versatile than people realize for use in textiles, skin care products, and even food. The controversial alternate material is an important plant to have as part of a healthy polyculture. You can find an assortment of great hemp-based gift items online or at The Hempest in Burlington Vermont, or any of their three Massachusetts locations in Boston, Cambridge, and Northampton.

Are you observing Small Business Saturday this weekend? What's on your list?

Top Chef Boston and Cooking in Pop Culture

Contestants pick out produce at Whole Foods Maket in Lynnfield, MA.
photo credit: Eater.com

Reality shows aren't going away any time soon, and neither are the programs in the sub-genre of cooking reality shows. Food and cooking are becoming more and more visible in pop culture, from controversy over the word "foodie," to CSAs and farmers markets gaining popularity, to everyone suddenly brewing their own beer. Does the entertainment media have a responsibility to portray a responsible food system? And if so, how are they doing with that?

Bravo's Top Chef filmed its current season, which is airing now, right here in Boston, and it's gotten some of us locavores raising eyebrows at what the producers have chosen to showcase.

A recent interview with Top Chef judge Gail Simmons focused on Simmons' personal preferences for food that is healthy, seasonal, and ethically sourced. In fact, almost every judge and contestant on the show has, in a private interview, mentioned something to the effect that these issues are important to them in their own cooking, but they rarely come up on the show itself.

The Boston season, like most seasons of Top Chef, features the contractually obligated trip to Whole Foods in nearly every episode, which never bothered me until I thought about all of our great local grocers, butchers, and farms that would have made for way better local color than the strained Revolutionary War references they insist on weaving into every episode.

We can hope that Whole Foods was chosen because of its quality, but this is never really stated, and we're left wondering whether Whole Foods just did a better business deal than Stop and Shop or- gasp- Market Basket. We know that there are a lot of advantages to the way that Whole Foods sources its products, but either this topic never comes up when the cameras are rolling, or it gets edited out in favor of the personal squabbles that give Andy Cohen something to get excited about.

What are your thoughts? Do cooking shows help or hurt the problems with our food system? Or should we look at them in a vacuum, as pure entertainment? And if you're watching Top Chef Boston, who do you hope will win?

Blueprint Brands at Local Craft Brewfest

For the last few years, I've been guest blogging for the Boston Local Food Festival and it's sister event, Local Craft Brewfest. Here's my latest article on local Marketing Company Blueprint Brands.

It can be hard to reconcile a love of local, ethically sourced food with a love of booze. Like cell phones and hot showers, alcohol tends to sometimes fall under the category of “I gotta draw the line somewhere.” Luckily, there’s Blueprint Brands, a marketing and sales company that works solely with ”a carefully curated selection of boutique distilleries that are committed to the production of small batch spirits, with a steady focus on well sourced ingredients and hands-on production methods.”

This means that not only can you feel good about the sourcing of the liquor you enjoy, you can get a tastier and all around better quality product as well. No matter what your spirit of choice, you’ve got options. Blueprint Brands represents dozens of distillers of tequila, rum, vodka, you name it. Travelling? From the Blueprint website, click on the state you’ll be visiting and they’ll give you a list of their distillers whose wares are available in that area.

Read the full article at the Boston Local Food Festival website!