Jacqulyn Maisonneuve' s Work from 9/11/09

These photos are from last Fridays home restaurant. Tonight we had another great group join us for our first Thursday night restaurant. We got to use our new long walnut tables that our friend Darrel made for us. The tables are beautiful and will allow us to sit larger groups together at one table.

I was particularly exited about the chicken of the woods mushrooms that I found in the park this morning. They were the nicest mushrooms I have ever found and we roasted them and added them to a wax bean stew with a poached egg.

Some upcoming nights are full but we still have spaces for September the 25th, September the 26th, October 8 and October 17.

Tonights Menu:

Cauliflower Soup with Basil

Fall Squash Fritter

Roast Chicken on Corn Cake with Corn Sauce

(Labbe) Abymes Savoie 2007

Coho Salmon with Zucchini Radish Salsa and Almond Vanilla Sauce

(La Chapiniere) Touraine Gamay 2007

Poached Egg with Wax Beans and Wild Chicken of the Woods Stew

(Lopez de Heredia) Cubillo Rioja Crianza 2002

Lamb Shank with Beets, Beet Greens, Roasted Potatoes, Red Onion and Tomato

(La Sauvageonne) Cot. du Languedoc "Les Ruffes" 2007

Cave Aged Marissa, Sheep Milk Cheese with Olive Oil Cracker

Date Sorbet with White Chocolate Brownie

(Pierre Paillard) Brut Champagne Bouzy Grand Cru NV

Noodle, Quince and Fig Crème Brulee

Coconut Macaroon

Ginger Oatmeal Cookie

Chocolate Cupcake with Vanilla Icing

Lamb Shanks

We are making lamb shanks for tomorrow night's Home Restaurant. We have been using Whitmore Farm Katahdin Hair Lamb. The breed has no lanolin, which is the fat that accompanies sheep with wool. Katahdin are a woolless breed and we like this because it has a cleaner flavor, none of the mutton taste that comes from lanolin. Also Whitmore's Farm does not let their lamb get too big, so the shanks are a perfect size portion-wise as well as texture and flavor. For any bigger and I would have to cook them too long just to make tender, thereby losing much of the delicious flavor.

I braise these shanks in a red wine and water concoction that I steep for hours with herbs, onions and garlic prior to adding the lamb. I do not use stock because I want the lamb-ness of these particular lanolin free lambs. After my red wine concoction is flavorful enough I brown the shanks individually. Then I add the shanks to the broth and let simmer for one hour covered. I uncover the shanks and continue to cook for twenty minutes and then remove the shanks. I continue to reduce the sauce while keeping the shanks warm and then serve. Lately we have been doing beets with tops and roasted potatoes. This lamb is so flavorful I really don't want too much to compete with it. I think I will make a tomato reduction with onions and serve as a condiment.

Whitmore Farms is at Rose Park Farmers Market on Wednesdays. As our friend James say's look for "the most well dressed farmer you have ever seen".

Grandmother's Matzo Balls

My grandmother was Russian Jewish and an amazing cook. She ran a catering business in South Philly and took care of my crazy blind grandfather. Things I remember about him: first and foremost that he Loved food. Second, he use to march in place to Sousa-like music every morning, AND the third thing to know about Karl Blum was that he was a news junky that listened to the radio all the time, a radical and vehement LIBERAL!

Although we were never religious, we were definitely Culinary Jews. My Grandmother made incredible knishes, kreplach, and blintzes. Special occasions were always a feast. When we had Rupperts Restaurant, Christmas Day was a day off. After she died we would get up early every Christmas morning and drive to the Lower East Side just to eat at Ratner’s kosher dairy restaurant. Of course this meant shunning the Jewish tradition of a movie and Chinese food on Christmas. Eating stuffed eggplant or cold kasha in her tiny apartment my mother found her late in life, these are my Proustian moments and Jewish soul food will always make me think of her.

This Saturday we are doing a Rosh Hashanah Home Restaurant for one of our new favorite guests. We are serving kasha, brisket, kuegel and I will be making my Grandmother’s Matzo Balls. She would serve them in a bright flavorful Chicken stock that made the whole place smell good. My Grandmother loved to feed people as much as she loved to cook.

When Chana Leah Grinstadt was 15 years old she came through Ellis Island from Russia via Poland. She came from Barassa Russia and came across on a ship named the Polonia. When she arrived in New York, she did not know her birthday so she chose Armistice Day, November 11. Anna Blum died in November of 1997 after her 90^th birthday party–I think of her everyday…

Matzo Ball Recipe

1/2 cup matzo meal
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons seltzer

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Bring 1 1/2 quarts of well-salted water to a boil in a medium sized pot.

Reduce the flame. Run your hands under water so they are thoroughly wet. Form matzo balls by dropping spoonfuls of matzo ball batter approximately 1-inch in diameter into the palm of your wet hands and rolling them loosely into balls. Drop them into the simmering salt water one at a time. Cover the pot and cook them for 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove from water and serve in hot chicken broth.

Vegan Matzo Ball Recipe

1/2 cup matzo meal
1/2 cup pureed silken tofu
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons seltzer

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Bring 1 1/2 quarts of well-salted water to a boil in a medium sized pot.

Reduce the flame. Run your hands under water so they are thoroughly wet. Form matzo balls by dropping spoonfuls of matzo ball batter approximately 1-inch in diameter into the palm of your wet hands and rolling them loosely into balls. Drop them into the simmering salt water one at a time. Cover the pot and cook them for 20 to 30 minutes.

Remove from water and serve in hot vegetable broth.

mushrooms

Martin Lane with a Puffball we found last fall

A friend of mine just recently moved to Seattle. He returned for a visit this weekend and brought me beautiful chanterelles. I get calls regularly after a rain from my brother who finds the most amazing chicken of the wood mushrooms behind his house. Last Wednesday I went for a run in my own special part of the woods and found wild oyster mushrooms for our September Eleventh Home Restaurant. At Rupperts we had a few people out searching for us regularly. Sometimes the competition was fierce where we had some accusing others of being impostors. We actually got a phone call from one of our mushroom hunters in a paranoid state: "if someone calls and trys to be me, it's not me, it's someone else trying to sell you mushrooms" ...OK, what mushrooms have you been delving into?

The great thing about DC is that Rock Creek Park is full of edible mushrooms and what a difference wild mushrooms make. When we were coming up in the eighties I can remember we called oyster and shiitake mushrooms we bought from farms wild. Rightfully they are now referred to as cultivated mushrooms as the wild are far superior.

A mushroom hunter that used to come to Rupperts taught us, if you find a mushroom, know that you can always touch it. That is to say there is no such thing as a poisonous to the touch mushroom. However eating is another story. And the best thing to do if you find one you are not familiar with is to bring it to an expert. Our Mushroom guys used to bring us mushrooms that John could only eat because he does not drink–the toxins are released by consuming with alcohol. I see lots of mushrooms in the woods but there are very few that I collect to eat, only the ones that I can positively identify.

As a vegetarian mushrooms are important to me for a few reasons but basically its the texture I enjoy, the masticating–the tearing apart of a fleshy texture with my teeth. Every Thanksgiving the key dish for us is a Mushroom stuffing full of onions, garlic, shallots, quinoa, olive oil and herbs. We saute the onions, garlic and shallots then add the mushrooms to cook until soft. Next we stir in cooked quinoa, olive oil and season with salt, pepper and herbs–sage is great. We throw it all into a cast iron skillet and bake until it is crispy. Of course we never know which types of mushroom we are going to find and if we do not find any there is always the farmers market.

These days we also rely on Fadia who has The Mushroom Stand at the Thursday Penn Quarter market and the Sunday Dupont market. I often call her during the week to see if she is bringing wild varieties to the market.

I hear it is going to rain on Wednesday, I will be looking for chicken of the woods, oysters and puffballs this weekend all of which I often find in DC during the fall.

Wedding Flowers

Over labor day weekend I did flowers for three weddings. One of the brides is from the UK and is a gardener, we used all local flowers as well as tall stalks of okra, fig branches and bunches of grapes. The wedding was at the nature sanctuary Woodend, in Montgomery County. The flowers came from Wollam Gardens and from my garden. The pre-wedding photos were taken by Jacqulyn Maisonneuve, a senior at Corcoran School of Art studying photo journalism. She is working on her thesis about integrating eco practices into everyday life. She is photographing us regularly. The wedding photographs are by Jay Premack who coincidentally introduced us to Jacqulyn, and happened to be photographing this wedding.

September Eleventh

photos by Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

While we were cooking tonight for another amazing Home Restaurant (more about this below) my mind wandered to earlier in the day. I thought of spending an hour this morning with pre-kindergarteners tasting, touching and smelling herbs. We played in coffee grounds as we discussed the benefits of sprinkling coffee grounds on our edible garden. We chopped and ate farm fresh apples. My mind wandered to the magical rainy morning filled with the excitement of who knows what’s to come in a room full of three and four year olds.

Cooking and organic gardening are places where we can truly enjoy Chance–and spending the morning with out my multi-task portable communication device (a.k.a. my cell phone) contributes to the place of chance, that is to say the present. Of course the children and the amazing potential and wonder I have from being around them contributes more, but this by-product is the lesson I learn from them.

It has been written that communication is the doing away with chance. That is to say I receive the message and respond–yes communication is good. But similar to standardized chemical farming and Fast Food, that are both so quick to eliminate chance, cell phones have scripted things so tight that there is no Chance that we can miss anything. We run the risk of missing everything.

Frances, the Librarian at Scott Montgomery, uses a Reggio Emilia approach that allows the Children to wander and explore with respect and responsibility. This approach actually gives the children: Chance. That is to say the wonderful moment of the present is privileged in the discovery of demands and desires.

There is a symbiotic relationship to the Dinners we do out of our home and the time spent at Scott Montgomery Elementary Garden. We work hard at a practice in both disciplines, we have found curious, thoughtful people to share and learn from. We have discovered the importance of Chance–the play, the exhilarating unscripted-ness of cooking, farming, and children, the feeding of really any practice.

What is at stake is an issue of Time and for any Practice to have a Chance, what matters most is time spent–the actual practicing. To have as many chances as possible in the just being there is of the utmost importance. We discover, if we look closely in the between spaces of any practice, the ability to ride chance like a massive wave that you cannot master but only incorporate in an arrangement, thereby benefiting from its power in a symbiotic relationship.

We had a lovely evening. We reconnected with amazing guests and colleagues whose work we admire as well as met some new friends.

Dinner Friday September 11, 2009

Starter Bites
Roasted Okra with Banyuls Vinegar
Noodles with Olive Oil and Fennel Tops
Red Bean Puree
Lima Bean Puree
Winter Squash Puree

Basil Lime Vodka Martini
(Corail de Roquefort) Cotes de Provence Rose, 2008

Seated
Seared Sea Scallop with Cucumber, Garlic and Ginger Sauce, Basil with Sesame Bread

(Villargeau) Coteaux du Giennois Sauvignon Blanc 2007

Ratatouille with Creamy Corn on Corn Cake

(Lopez de Heredia) Rioja Crianza 'Cubillo' 2002

Whitmore Farm Lamb Shank with Roasted Potatoes, Beets and Beet Greens,Wild Oyster Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions

(Chateau Les Valentines) Cotes du Provence Rouge 2006

Cave Aged Marissa Cheese with Walnut Cracker and Garden Greens Dressed with Walnut Oil

X-Mas Melon Pudding

(Cantina Alice Bel Colle) Moscato d'Asti DOC 2008

Almond Torte with Fig Compote, Fresh Figs and Caramelized Almonds and Frozen Chocolate

(Chateau de Vaux) "XB" Extra Brut Methode Traditionnelle 2003

Dessert Bites
Toasted Fennel Seed Cookies
Cornmeal Drops
Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies
Honey Cakes

Tonight’s play list was based on Blues and Bach and contained Modern Jazz Quartet's amazing Blues on Bach. We built around the entire album by playing Glenn Gould’s 1959 Goldberg Variations as well as Urban Contemporary, Blues inspired work like Erykah Badu and Hipster Folk Blues like Iron and Wine… Cyrus Chestnut and my favorite album Miles' Kind of Blue–One year We listened to nothing but Gould’s 1959 Goldberg Variations and Miles' Kind of Blue. I think it was the year we were waiting for Martin Lane to come…

Ohio River Boat Song, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Gulf Shores, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

You Will Miss Me When I Burn, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

The Brute Choir, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

I Send My Love To You, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

More Brother Rides, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Agnes, Queen Of Sorrow, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Viva Ultra, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Pushkin, Greatest Palace Music, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Come On In My Kitchen, The Complete Recordings, Robert Johnson

Come On In My Kitchen, Blue Light 'Til Dawn, Cassandra Wilson

Certainly, Baduizm, Erykah Badu

Acoustic Medley, Songs Of Freedom [Disc 2], Bob Marley

Hear My Train a Comin' (Acoustic Version), Blues, Jimi Hendrix

Satisfaction (I Can't Get No), Greatest Hits, Devo

Love No Limit, What's The 411?, Mary J. Blige

Flow, Lovers Rock, Sade

Maundering, Master And Everyone, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy

Sweet Thing, Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan, Chaka Khan & Rufus

If This World Were Mine, Anthology [Disc 1], Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

How Come U Don't Call Me Anymore?, The Hits / The B-Sides (Box Set), Prince

Everybody Is A Star, Moonlight Mile, Sly & The Family Stone

The Devil's Real (Live), Live As I'll Ever Be , Chris Smither

Kamera, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco

It's Not Happening, Chinatown, The Be Good Tanyas

a man/ me/ then jim, More Adventurous, Rilo Kiley

The Rooster Moans, The Creek Drank The Cradle, Iron & Wine

Upward Over The Mountain, The Creek Drank The Cradle, Iron & Wine

Don't Explain, Mystery Lady: Songs Of Billie Holiday, Etta James

I'd Rather Go Blind, At Her Best, Etta James

Trans Fatty Acid, The K&D Sessions (Disc 1), Lamb

Baroque Impressions, The Dark Before The Dawn, Cyrus Chestnut

Regret?, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Blues in *B* flat, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Rise Up in the Morning, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Blues in *A* minor, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Precious Joy, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Blues in *C* minor, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Don't Stop This Train, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Blues in *H* (B), Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Tears from the Children, Blues on Bach, Modern Jazz Quartet

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 – Aria, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 1 a 1 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 2 a 1 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 3 Canone All'Unisono. A 1. Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 4 a 1 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 5 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 6 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Seconda, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 7 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 8 A 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 9 Canone Alla Terza. A 1 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 10 a 1 Clav. Fughetta, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 11 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 12 Canone alla Quarta, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 13 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 14 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 15 Canone Alla Quinta. A 1 Clav. Andante, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 16 a 1 Clav. Ouverture, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 17 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 18 a 1 Clav. Canone alla Sesta, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 19 a 1 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 20 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 21 Canone alla Settima, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 22 a 1 Clav. Alla breve, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 23 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Bach: Goldberg Variations, BWV 988 - Variatio 24 Canone All'Ottava. A 1 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 25 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 26 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 27 a 2 Clav. Canone alla Nona, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 28 a 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 29 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav., The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Variatio 30 a 1 Clav. Quodlibet, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

Aria da capo, The Glenn Gould Edition N°23, Glenn Gould

So What, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

Freddie Freeloader, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

Blue In Green, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

All Blues, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

Flamenco Sketches, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

Flamenco Sketches - Alternate Take, Kind of Blue, Miles Davis

Rioja

Tom Kiszka the wine importer that we work closely with pairing wine with our food stopped by around 9:00 tonight with selections for tomorrows Home Restaurant and lots of information. We had been back and forth via email and telephone as the menu evolved. In total we are serving 6 different wines tomorrow night.

It is always good to see Tom and exciting to see the wines. Tom sat down with me for about 45 minutes, tasted a few things that we were cooking and shared his knowledge about the wines he brought with him.

We talked a lot about all of the wines that we are serving but spent the most time discussing the Vina Cubillo Crianza 2002, a classic Rioja. Rioja is a wine made from grapes grown not only in the Autonomous Community La Rioja, but also in parts of Navarre and the Basque province of Álava. Riojas have traditionally blended fruit from all three regions though there is a slow growth in single zone wines. Riojas are aged in Oak and Tom said that many Riojas are done in new oak which gives an exaggerated inauthentic flavor. He said many of these Riojas taste, "like they are on steroids". The Loez de Heredia family who make the wine we are serving use only old oak and make Rioja in a classic style. The vineyard has been in the family for 5 generations and practices have been carefully passed from generation to generation. Riojas are an ideal pair with vegetables. We will be serving this wine with the second seated course of stewed green zebra tomatoes, eight-ball squash and local garlic on cornbread with a sweet corn sauce.

We will finish the meal with Chateau de Vaux, XB Extra Brut 2003. Our Home Restaurant tomorrow night will be the first time this sparkling wine will be served in DC. This bubbly is made in the Moselle style which as Tom says, "makes for ferocious lively bubbles". It is 100 percent Chardonnay and from a tiny obscure vineyard in the North East of France that is a favorite of Tom's. We served a white from this same vineyard at a dinner a few weeks ago. Tomorrow we will enjoy the wine with an almond torte, figs from our garden and a bittersweet chocolate sorbet.

BITES!

I LOVE small bites to end a meal! The bites at the beginning of dinner (that we pass) and at the end (that are sometimes cookies) are some of my favorite things about doing these Home Restaurants. Maybe its because with the eating of such a tiny portion I can amp up flavor? Maybe its because these bites sort of operate outside of the official meal–That is to say that the expectation that goes along with a main course does not accompany these bites and because of that I can experiment? Or maybe its because sometimes the best bite is simply a fresh strawberry and that simplicity would never pass as 'serious cooking'?

These are the cookie batters I made tonight for Friday's bites. Some are cookie recipes I have been making for years and some I have recently made up. All the batters I made tonight for Friday nights dinner are vegan. These same recipes can be made with dairy–everywhere I use earth balance substitute butter, everywhere I use soy milk substitute milk and everywhere I use tofu substitute one egg for each 1/4 cup of pureed tofu...

Salty Rosemary Biscotti

2 1/4 cup flour

1 1/4 cup sugar plus extra for rolling

2 tablespoons cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons non hydrogenated margarine such as, earth balance

2 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped rosemary

1/2 cup tofu pureed

1 tablespoons water

1 cup rough chopped walnuts

directions

1.In mixer combine flour sugar, cornmeal, baking powder, salt.

2.Add earth balance cut in 8 pieces and rosemary till sand like.

3.Add tofu and water then walnuts.

4.Make logs and roll in sugar and himalyan salt.

5.Bake in a 350 degree oven until just dry enough to slice, about 20 minutes.

6.Remove from the oven and slice into 1/4 inch cookies.

7.Turn off oven and return sliced cookies to oven, let sit in cooling oven for several hours until dry.

Fennel Seed Shortbread

10 tablespoons earth balance

1/4 cup plus 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cups flour

3/4 cup spelt flour

directions

1.Beat earth balance and sugar in a mixer until fluffy, about 3 minutes.

2.Add cornstarch, salt and flowers.

3.Beat until fully incorporated.

4.Roll into sheets and cut with a cookie cutter.

5.Bake in a 350 degree oven until lightly golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/2 cup oatmeal

1/4 cup soy milk

1/4 cup grapeseed oil

1/2 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon agave nectar

2/3 cup sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup good quality bittersweet chocolate chips

directions

1.Combine all ingredients in a mixer and mix until about half of the oatmeal is broken into small pieces.

2.Bake individual cookies in a 350 degree oven until they are golden brown around the edges, about 12 minutes.

Cornmeal Cookie

8 oz earth balance

2/3 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

1/2 cup ground almonds

directions

1.Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in flour and mix well.

2.Add the cornmeal and ground almonds and mix to a firm and smooth dough.

3.Pinch balls of dough, place on a lined or greased baking tray and then flatten each ball with a fork.

4.Bake in a 350 degree oven until lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Clagett Farm

For the last few years we have been members of the Clagett Farm. By purchasing a share in the winter for the upcoming growing season we become members for the entire season. Every week we receive a portion of the harvest.

Clagett Farm is a CSA–Community Sustainable Agriculture. CSA's are to Supermarkets what Netflix are to Blockbusters. That is to say a move that hopefully contributes to the lessening of importance that supermarkets have on our contemporary settings. Farmer's Markets offer positive alternatives to Supermarkets, however CSA's take the arrangement a bit further. They assure not only extremely local produce but extremely seasonal as well.

Many times Clagett offers us ingredients outside of what we would usually buy. In other words you receive only what the farmer can make happen that week and yes you do have some input by suggesting to the farmer things to grow. But ultimately we are never sure what is going to be at our pick up spot each week and that is when we are able to create outside our usual selves and we find this exhilarating.

Clagett Farm is owned and operated by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and also works in collaboration with the Capital Area Food Bank. The farm is dedicated to providing food to people of all income levels. In addition to the regular share they offer about half of their shares for free or at a reduced price.

During the local growing months what we eat and cook is influenced by what we get from both our share and our garden. This goes for both family meals and Home Restaurants. Today after picking up our share we began planning the menu for this Friday's Home Restaurant which will include everything we got today–– 8 ball squash, red potatoes, eggplant and okra. This in addition to produce from our garden and other farmers will make the meal.

Right now we are thinking the 8-ball squash and eggplant will become part of a ratatouille, the potatoes will be served with the final savory course of meat and the okra will be roasted and served passed as guests arrive, in the garden if the weather is nice. However this may change as we gather our other ingredients.

We still have a few spaces left for Friday night. Let us know if you can make it!

Early Fall Garden

Fall is here and we spent a good part of the day in the garden. Many of our summer crops are just beginning to bear fruit after a cool start to summer. It looks like we will be getting more tomatoes, cucumbers and summer squash over the next two months than we did all summer.

We replaced some of the early summer crops such as, shelling beans, French beans and heat loving lettuces with fall crops today. We planted cabbage and sorrel both of which we started in small containers about a month ago when we had no room to put them in the ground. From seed today we started beets, carrots, arugula, spinach (which I am hoping it is cool enough for germination, spinach does not like the heat), mixed greens, kale and a new batch of chard. All winter greens do great if you plant them from seed in the next week or so. Other plants that thrive with early fall sowing are peas, radishes and bunching onions. Most of the seeds we planted today came from Johnny’s Seeds.

We are focusing on minimizing the powdery mildew on the pumpkin and fall squash plants at our home garden, the neighbors yard and at Scott Montgomery Elementary School. We have read that powdery mildew is common with pumpkin plants and that the best way to avoid it is with organic fungicide sprays, a mixture of watered down baking soda and liquid soap or a neem oil based spray. We have tried the first two and will probably treat with neem oil later this week. With the neighbors we may have waited too long to treat but at school we are working proactively hoping to prevent instead of trying to treat later. Powdery mildew does not necessarily kill plants but we have read that it can seriously interfere with production.

Last year we enjoyed fall vegetables as well as tomatoes on Thanksgiving…there is still a lot of farming left this year…and hopefully a healthy harvest of pumpkins.

Home Grown Okra

Although I am a fan of okra this is the first year that we have ever grown it in our garden. Since we moved into our house about 11 years ago and met our friend who everyone affectionately called "the farmer" we have always had a steady supply of the most delicious okra in the summer. "The farmer", Johnny Knox actually did not live in our neighborhood but was constantly on our street visiting friends and family. He had a farm in Upper Marlboro and grew loads of delicious vegetables that he shared with us. When we had our restaurant he would supply us with large quantities of various vegetables and amazing cooking greens. He continued to share the same quantities after we closed our restaurant. Our friends often benefited from his productive garden as we would share his large harvests.

Johnny Knox passed away last year at 90 plus years of age. This year we planted okra for the first time. We chose a red variety that has been delicious, productive and beautiful. Not only have we been rewarded with a plentiful crop of fresh okra but the flower that blooms before you actually get the okra is astonishing. We planted the okra from seed in early June and started getting okra about a month ago. It will now be an every year garden crop for us.

Often when we cook okra people say, “the okra was delicious and generally I do not eat okra.” I think there were two things differentiate this okra. One is the freshness, it is not necessary to grow your own, this time of year just picked okra is available at farmers markets. The other thing that is unique is we often roast it in a pan over the stove or in the oven at a high temperature. Personally I like okra roasted or boiled. However boiled okra has a sticky consistency while roasted okra is not at all sticky and has a fresher brighter taste.

Tonight we were all hungry without too much food in the refrigerator and were happy to find about a dozen okras ready to be picked. We incorporated them into a stir fry with a beet, an eggplant and calaloo that we seasoned with garlic and ginger and served over some black rice dressed with sesame seeds and sesame oil.

Closer To Soil

There is really one reason we wanted to plant a garden at Scott Montgomery Elementary. I mean of course, we hope that we contribute to the appearance of the grounds, and I hope there is an abundance of pumpkins at the end of the season. However, the real reason we wanted to plant a garden was to introduce children to where food comes from.

Today we spent an hour with three and four year olds scratching in the soil, spraying water and planting seeds. Frances, our librarian, led us as we got our hands dirty, washed our hands, ate some apples from local farmers (snack time) and got closer to the soil that feeds us.

Gardening is a Process of which one has the opportunity to get ones hands dirty, and watch something grow from a mere seed. Organic gardening is one that demands structural change and that change usually means more time in the garden and as a by-product exposes us to our neighbors. We visit the garden twice a day, to weed and water and as a by product have had many conversations with people asking:

“What you planting?”

“Pumpkins,” I reply.

“You think they’ll be ready by Halloween.”

“I hope so!” is my emphatic-sheepish declaration.

“We’ll see, but I bet your looking at Thanksgiving.” they advise.

Martin Moulton, our tireless neighbor leader (who has been instrumental in our involvement with Scott Montgomery), responded to a local blogger’s question with, “Right now, people here are isolated; once you bring them together, they will see each other as neighbors, not stereotypes. It would dispel some myths.” He is right. We are following his lead while we bring kids closer to soil.

Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

A few weeks ago we were contacted by Jacqulyn Maisonneuve, a senior at Corcoran School of Art studying photo jounalism. She is working on her thesis about integrating eco practices into everyday life. After spending a few days with us she asked if we would be willing to have her document our lives and work over the next several months. We will be posting her photographs regularly on our blog.

These photographs are of us at the Penn Quarter Farmers Market and Cowgirl Creamery gathering ingredients for our last home restaurant.

raw sesame salad

One of my favorite quick meals is raw vegetables dressed with sesame. I could eat this everyday. It is especially good with cauliflower and white mushrooms...It is one of those marriages made in heaven. The crunchy-ness of the cauliflower is complemented by the creaminess of the sesame and the texture of the mushrooms. This afternoon returning home hungry after a busy morning I was happy to find both of these vegetables in my refrigerator left over from some recipe testing.

Sesame Dressing

Raw Sesame Paste
Rice Wine Vinegar
Water
Salt
Pepper

I mix these ingredients in a bowl until smooth adjusting the consistency and flavor until I get it right. Often I add a little bit of minced hot peppers.

For lunch today my salad consisted of cauliflower, mushrooms, chard and tomato picked from our garden and a generous amount of sesame dressing.

The protein from the sesame provides fuel as well as satisfaction. Sesame is a good source of minerals and vitamins including a significant amount of calcium.

exercise and health

I am troubled by the recent Time Magazine Article, Why Exercise Won't Make You Thin. The author suggests that it is possible to separate weight from other health issues. Even as the author concedes that exercise is important for cognitive abilities, prevention of disability and mental health... He goes on to expose that exercise alone will not make you thin. I do not know what audience he is talking to but I think that most human beings understand that there is a relationship between calories taken in and calories expended.

I cannot imagine there are many individuals being swindled into weight gain by exercise. Furthermore the author does not seem to differentiate between appearance and actual health. How many people have become fat from exercising? If someone is already overweight and is active are they worse off than if they are overweight and sedentary? Or is this conversation about individuals who want to loose 5 pounds but whose health is not in jeopardy?

The author goes on to talk about the type of exercise that we should be getting, maybe it is better to do prolonged exercise throughout the course of the day rather than short bursts of intense organized exercise at the gym...yes maybe for some people it is...however we live in a society full of conveniences that preclude moving our bodies. Many peoples only opportunity to move comes in the form of organized exercise...I do not see how that is not preferable to no exercise.

The whole conversation is flawed. There is a health crisis in this country that is centered on the food we are ingesting. Yes, each of us is different in the way our metabolism works, what brings us pleasure and even how our day is composed. This prescription to eliminate what is generally a positive health benefit in our daily practice because of some inconclusive studies and an individuals dislike of his chosen exercise seems bizarre. Instead how about some ideas...if you are running every day, not enjoying it and not happy with your body why not try walking to work or riding your bicycle. If your weekend is your only chance to exercise and you find yourself sore and unable to walk up the stairs all week try gardening or swimming on the weekends. If you are not getting the results you want from your exercise routine try adding up the calories you are burning and taking in...It is a known fact that one of the contributing factors to the overwhelming weight problem in this country is a sedentary life style. I find it offensive that this article suggests otherwise.

There are lots of questionable facts used in this article including: a flawed study which is central to the conclusions; a misleading statement that fat turns to muscle; and offering the information that extremely overweight people burn more calories (what is his point overweight people do not need to exercise because their bodies are working so efficiently??).

The author also totally ignores other conflicting studies that suggest that exercise actually suppresses some peoples appetites and that studies show that people who are able to maintain a weight loss for an extended period of time nearly always incorporate exercise into their daily practice.

A European Time article Cracking The Fat Riddle, shares a more inclusive view on the many causes of the epidemic weight gain that we are experiencing across the world. Also check out Benjamin Opipari's rebuttal to the Time Magazine article.

Ultimately we have to acknowledge who Time Magazine is written for...the upper class professional who is worried about the "gut fat that hangs over my belt when I sit", is a far cry from those suffering from diabetes and obesity. For many whether or not they exercise is a life or death situation. Nutrition advocates are already working against financial discrepancies and the high cost of healthful food. Exercise, although hard for some, is free and one of the most important weapons in the fight for good health and to have to argue against the fallacious argument that it makes you fat is infuriating.