Flowers

I have been feeling pretty down all day...I have been working the last couple of days on samples and proposals trying to get a big corporate flower job that I found out this morning I did not get.

Seeing Jackie's photos tonight made me feel a lot better about the amazing work I am so lucky to have... beautiful flowers, food and gardens AND with my kid around most of the time!! It must suck to work at a certain bank these days... (I won't mention which one...)

Arranging flowers is messy work...stems, leaves, boxes and vases are everywhere...basically chaos. Now the flowers are all neatly arranged in vases ready to go to various events. Fig branches and some amazing weed vine with blue berries came from our garden, Dahlias came from Wollam Gardens in Virginia, viburnum, anemone, tulips, hypericum, hyacinth, lisianthus...came from Holland and hydrangeas from South America.

Thursday evening I did flowers for the opening of the new Longview Gallery space. Tomorrow I am doing flowers for a wedding. Tomorrow night we are doing an 'all girl' Home Restaurant. On Sunday I have a couple of weddings. Days roll right into days...

Jacqulyn Maisonneuve came by today and took a few beautiful shots of the flowers.

≈

Hana Market

Sometime all of us, especially Martin-Lane need a break from home cooked food. This evening after a long day of school and after-school activities we decided to go for our favorite carry-out...which consists of supplies from Hana Market at 17th and U.

This tiny, jam packed Japanese Grocery store that has been open for less than a year is our source for many items including maccha tea, seaweed, miso and fresh japanese vegetables that are grown on a local farm.

This evening we bought some frozen vegetarian goyza, dried wakame seaweed, a pre-made seaweed salad, fresh bean sprouts and some tofu cakes. We steamed the goyza, rehydrated the wakame and dressed it with sesame oil and soy sauce, dumped the seaweed salad on a plate, heated the tofu cakes and mixed the bean sprouts with lettuce from our garden and dressed it with sesame oil and rice wine vinegar.

We completely appreciate the small independent stores that supply us with interesting ingredients.

chestnut

Every fall we used to have a well dressed woman in a large black Cadillac would show up at our back door to sell us chestnuts. We would excitedly welcome her and buy about 100 pounds from this tweed clad Virginia farmer. At the time there were not many farmers markets around and before she started showing up, the only chestnuts that we could find were imported from Italy. The Italian chestnuts were always a bit tired by the time we received them and not nearly as good as the local chestnuts.

This woman who grew and delivered chestnuts also taught us a method of shelling chestnuts which prior to her information was torturous. She told us to cut the chestnuts in half, place them in water, bring the water to a boil and as soon as they were cool enough to handle remove the shell. This method is vastly superior to the other methods that we had previously tried. We added the provision to always use a dinner knife to remove the chestnut, not your fingers. Using your fingers inevitably results in chestnut being jammed under your nails. A condition that to this day we call "chestnut thumb". Pain that results from any substance under the nail–no matter what job or discipline is now Chestnut Thumb.

There are certain repetitive jobs in the kitchen that I really enjoy and mark the change of seasons. In the spring there are peas and then fava beans, in the fall there are chestnuts. Minds wander as monotonous prep jobs become moments of conviviality. The mark of a good kitchen is conversation...

For the last couple of weeks we have been buying chestnuts on Saturday morning at the 14th and U Farmers Market, from Kuhn Orchards. We use chestnuts in a variety of savory and sweet dishes. At last weeks Home Restaurant we served a Poussin Noodle Soup with Chestnuts and Turnips. This week we will pass a warm savory Chestnut Soup while guests are gathering. Over the next couple of weeks I will pair chestnuts with chocolate and also probably make a dessert with chestnuts and fall fruits.

Chestnut Soup

Onion
Garlic
Shelled Chestnut
Sherry Vinegar
Salt
Pepper
Sage

Sweat onion and garlic. Add water and chestnuts and cook until chestnuts are soft. Puree until smooth adjusting the amount of water until desired thickness is achieved. Season with sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and sage to taste.
Serve warm.

Jacqulyn Maisonneuve's Work

Where are the grapes with seeds?

I am frustrated with the difficulty of finding grapes with seeds. For a few weeks in September we were able to find them at the farmers market. Whole Foods has not carried them for several seasons, the Giant near my house always had them last year but they are not available there this year either...

I understand that the crunchy, sweet, seedless varieties available today were developed to appeal to consumers. I prefer grapes with seeds for a few reasons. In nearly all cases seeded grapes have more intense flavor, not necessarily sweeter but more complex which I prefer. I eat nearly all grape seeds, ocassionaly very large or bitter ones I discard, and I enjoy the texture that they add. It also appears from everything that I have read that many of the health properties of grapes actually come from the seeds themselves. They are believed to be extremely high in antioxidants and to strengthen the human immune system. It seems absurd that buying grape seed extract is popular but buying grapes with seeds is nearly impossible. This is not the case in many other countries around the world where grapes with seeds remain popular.

Hopefully the absence of the of seeded grapes will pass...I have noticed in the last couple of years that watermelons with seeds are more available than they have been in a decade. I am a fan of the seedless watermelon but my daughter Martin-Lane swears that the texture and flavor of a good seeded watermelon is better than that of a good seedless watermelon. This summer we enjoyed quite a few watermelons with seeds.

Tonight at 1508

Thank you to a great group of enthusiastic eaters this evening who came out on a cold and rainy night. This is what we served.

Passing
Scrambled Whitmore Farm Egg with Sorrel
Diver Seared Sea Scallops on Corn Cake with Eggplant
Roasted Fingerling Sweet Potato with Winter Squash and Pumpkin Seed Puree
Roasted Broccoli
Green Tomato Soup

Sorrel Martini (Labbe) Abynnes Savoie 2007

Seated
Eco Friendly Foods Poussin Noodle Soup with Turnips and Chestnuts
(La Chapiniere) Touraine Gamay 2007

Wild Puff Ball, Hen of the Woods and Oyster Mushrooms with Green Beans and Cauliflower
(Gerard Boulay) Sancerre AOC 2007
Eco Friendly Foods Beef Strip Loin with Beets, Beet Greens, Potatoes and Horseradish
(Chateau Les Valentines) Cotes du Provence Rouge “Le Punition”

Farmers Cheese with Apple on Walnut Cracker

Carrot Sorbet with Coconut Macaroon
(Chancelle/Bourdin) Cremant de Saumur NV

Chocolate Torte with Frozen Fig and Ginger
(Roc des Anges) VDP “A” Passerille 2004

Dessert Bites
Candied Pumpkin Seeds
Salty Rosemary Oatmeal Cookies
Molasses Cookies

Farmers Cheese

At Rupperts we served Farmers Cheese with warm bread before everyone started their meal. So, everyday we made the cheese. We chose this as a condiment to serve with our bread because it was delicious, light and paired well with all foods. Sometimes we would make it with raw goats milk if a farmer brought it to us, often with it with dairy from Lewes Farm. Before yesterday I had not made farmers cheese in years and even though I used to make it everyday I must confess to not remembering the exact proportions. Luckily the cheese if forgiving and there are many possible variations that will result in excellent cheese.

The batch we made yesterday came out great and we are going to mix in some herbs and serve it on a walnut cracker with a slice of honeycrisp apple after our last savory course and before our first sweet course at tomorrows Home Restaurant.

Farmers Cheese

You can substitute this for store bought ricotta in any recipe. For the batch we made yesterday we used Trickling Springs Dairy that we bought from Timor Bodega.

2 cups buttermilk
1/2 gallon milk
salt to taste
1/4 cup white vinegar

Place all ingredients in a pot and gently heat. The curd will separate to the top. Use a ladel to gently remove the curd from the liquid. Put curd in a strainer to separate the solid from the liquid. Once all of the solid is separated adjust salt and chill.

on an open fire

Last weekend there was lots of cooking over an open fire...

We went camping in Harper's Ferry last Sunday. When we go camping it is this strange mix of doing things we don't usually do and spending time outdoors. What that means is that we refrain from the comforts and the electronics of home. This also means that we bring food to cook over an open fire: Not Dogs and Vegan Marshmallows...things we don't usually eat and have nothing to do with nature! The fun part is putting things on a stick and cooking them on/in an open fire. That is to say walking the fine line between catching things on fire and cooking.

I have to admit we have never cooked on a rotisserie before. That is before last Saturday, we were preparing for a party and needed to cook a few young chickens for a salad bite that we were passing later in the day. With the confidence of not having to serve these birds straight from the fire we decided to tryout the rotisserie.

We discovered the trick was to regulate the fire as well as the distance between the fire and the chickens while all the time rotating the rotisserie. This sounds like a lot but is totally worth it! After about an hour of cooking, the chickens slowly became crisp and juicy. However the best part about cooking on the rotisserie was the lightly smokey taste–just enough not too much...

We are roasting a few birds on the rotisserie for this Saturdays Home Restaurant to serve with noodles in a chestnut broth.

food=x

Nothing is more daunting than someone standing in front of you, asking you to create a menu. The question 'What kind of food do you cook?' 'What's your specialty?' falls along those same lines. Maybe my reticence to these requests is one of language–How do you say in so many words that there are multiple variables, that begin with immediate logistics and move all the way out to a position on the earth and its relation to the sun at the time the dinner will be served OR My food=x, in that x is the variable in a reciprocal determination of the various produce, animals and dairy that local farmers are producing... but how about we start with 'Do you have any have any food restrictions?'

The answer is of course:
1. fresh–everything comes straight from the farm
2. seasonal–the quality of food is better in season AND human tastes are more receptive to seasonal foods (that is to say food tastes better in season)
3. local–food for the most part tastes better if it does not travel far

I am sure we could find exceptions to these demands (and sometimes are forced to)–But why intentionally would we! We have the freedom to cook what ever menu we want... and with this freedom we acknowledge the parameters that empower any creative process. Paradoxically, limitations are our freedoms...

Creativity for us is not the making of something from nothing but the awareness of an arrangement and the ability to discern and use productive forces while encouraging life and life processes. That is to say within an arrangement there are parts, individuals, groups, species, societies, eco-system all working on each other in no hierarchical fashion, Chefs (humans) are not outside of these networks. Reciprocal determination will almost always seem like chance, however 'chefs in an eco-system' understand the play of limitation and potential in the simple assembling and interpreting of sustenance.

The request for a menu can only be fulfilled by more questions. What's the occasion? Do you know of any allergies? What time of year is the event?... The question, "What's for dinner?" for us amounts to a radically material question: What's Fresh, Seasonal and Local...

Home Restaurant Dates

Wanted to let you know about our last available October date and the
just announced November dates of our Home Restaurant¬–
Saturday October 17, Friday November 13 and Saturday November 28.

We rely heavily on farmers, a wine importer and other purveyors that
we have worked with for years to source ingredients. This time of
year we supplement our supplies with food from our garden. We are
committed to using best food practices.

Every week new fall produce is showing up in our own garden and from
our favorite farmers this week we saw the first: Chestnuts,
Sunchokes, Parsnips, Asian Pears, Baby Kale, Brussel Sprouts…
We will be getting Eggs and Lamb from Whitmore Farms, Poussin and Beef from Eco Friendly Foods, Sustainable Seafood from Prime Seafood…

We start with passing food and cocktails, in the garden weather
permitting, and then move to the dinner table for several courses
with wines picked for each.

Reservations and to inquire about the Requested Donation: sidraforman@gmail.com
Please share this email with any potentially interested diners. You
can also choose a night of your own (other than the ones mentioned
above) if you have a group of 10 or more.

Please advise if you have any food restrictions, vegetarians are more
than welcome!

Check out this post from out blog about a recent Home Restaurant,
http://www.sidrapractice.com/2009/09/september-eleventh.html

Sidra,
sidrapractice.com
sidraforman.com

chaos

This is what my kitchen looked like a few days ago... John snapped this from the back stairs... A Chaos theorist who owns a gallery here in DC (and ate with us a couple weeks ago), told us that Chaos theory claims a temporal frame of predictability and Complexity theory is more spacial than temporal... I operate in mostly the same space, however I find it difficult to predict what will happen at any time. I am not sure if this makes me complexly chaotic or chaotically complex... click on the photo to see captions...

Raw Milk in Cheese

When we had Rupperts we would make regular trips to France to check out markets, eat and visit wineries...On our return we would always sneak in as much young raw milk cheese as I could carry in a carry-on bag. Prior to 2001 airport security was less stringent and this was never a problem. Towards the end of our stay in France, whether in Paris or elsewhere we would visit a great cheese shop and collect cheeses that were not sold in the US because of rules about not selling unpasteurized (cheeses made from raw milk) cheeses that have been aged for less than 60 days.

Cheeses made with raw milk have a more complex flavor than cheeses made with pasteurized milk. The argument against raw milk cheeses is that there is harmful bacteria present in the cheese that could be harmful to consume. Over the years there have been a few cases and it is widely acknowledged that pregnant women should avoid eating raw milk cheeses. On the other hand the French have been eating non aged raw milk cheeses for about two thousand years. However, small artisan cheese makers that are still producing farmhouse (where milk is from the farm where cheese is produced and no character is lost in the transportation of the milk) unpasteurized cheeses are dwindling for all sorts of reasons but in many cases economics.

Frances, my librarian, gave me a book called Au Revoir To All That, by Michael Steinberger. Last night I learned that contemporary raw milk has less bacteria than raw milk used to have which could actually make it more dangerous:

"He (Morelin who works for a large French cheese maker) told me that the nature of milk had changed.. Twenty years ago, raw milk typically had 200,000 to 300,00 bacteria per gram. Now, thanks to the increased hygiene standards mandated by the European Union, the milk had just 10,000 bacteria per gram...At this point I confessed to some confusion. If there now were so many fewer bacteria in the milk, didn't it this mean the milk was safer...He explained that when there had been many more bacteria in the milk, all those pathogens had had to fight for space, and it had created a stable environment. With fewer germs, there was less competition and more space for the bacteria to develop. 'It's a paradox of food safety,' he said. 'With fewer germs, the danger may be worse.'"

I did not find this surprising in the world today of hand sanitizers and fear of bacteria. I recently heard about a case where a child actually got alcohol poisoning from licking the hand sanitizer off of his hands!

We find friendly bacteria in the kombucha we brew, small production wine, which relies on bacteria to develop, raw milk which is only available through joining buying clubs and when we travel small raw farmhouse cheeses.

Ultimately the search for solutions will always lead to more problems until we realize that the way we view problems and their solutions are the problem itself. That is to say that there is no difference between a solution and its problem. A solution is always contained in a problem and in order to move beyond a problem without exasperating situations we must acknowledge on some level uncertainty–the fine line between nature and society, science and tradition and that healthy eating can not be divorced from 'good' eating...

Our love of technology and state of the art has to be balanced with immediate situations, that inherently lie outside of universal perspectives...

Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

Jacqulyn Maisonneuve is at the Corcoran School of Art working on her senior thesis in Photo Journalism. We asked her to share words about her project:

For Sidra Forman and John Cochran and their daughter, Martin-Lane, deciding what’s for dinner goes beyond the refrigerator. The foods they eat and their practice encompass a way of life. It’s not only about eating healthy food, but also knowing where food comes from and trying to live more sustainably.

After running Rupperts Restaurant for eight years Sidra and John decided it was time to have their own restaurant in their home in Washington, D.C. Several times a month, they open their home to friends and clients for dinners. What makes Sidra & John’s restaurant unique is the care that goes into each and every meal. The menu is prepared weeks in advance with many of the ingredients found just outside their door.

Sidra and John’s commitment to healthy living extends beyond their family and business and into the community. Though not fearful about our food system and it’s current state, they understand the problems and are working toward solutions. They are passionate about reaching out to others, especially children, through local schools, neighborhood gardens and community composting centers. They share their knowledge of where food comes from and the importance of nutrition. They hope to offer people alternative ways to think of production and consumption in our industrialized food system. They are living on their own terms without dropping out of society. This is what is radical about them.

Thursday Night at HOME

We had a great group of old and new friends join us this evening for dinner. It is a fun time of year to cook since both late summer and fall ingredients are available. We are looking forward to our upcoming dates. We have reservations available for next Saturday October 17 and are excited to announce Friday November 13 and Saturday November 28 as our open dates for next month.

Tonights menu:
Passing
Green Tomato Soup with Walnut Oil and Sage

Whitmore Farm Egg Salad with Chives

Seared Scallop on Cucumber with Pickled Cucumber

Mashed Potatoes with Basil

Apple Sauce with Rosemary

Derricks Lemongrass Martini
(Labbe) Abymes Savoie 2007

Seated
Whitmore Farms Lamb Chop and Sweetbread with Turnips and Turnip Greens
(Chancelle/Bourdin) Saumur Champigny Rouge 2007

Cauliflower and Wax Beans with Wild Oyster Mushroom, Woodear, Shiitake, Royal Trumpet and Hen of the Woods Mushroom
Chateau Soucherie, Anjou 2008

Poussin with Broccoli, Black Barley Squash Gratin and a Ginger Garlic and Saffron Sauce

(Geoffrenet-Morval) Chateaumeillant Rouge 'Extra Version' 2007 (Pinot/Gamay)

Cheese
Franche Compte with Walnut Cracker

Carrot Sorbet with White Chocolate Brownie
Paillard Bouzy Champagne
Cornmeal Pancake weth Apples, Pears, Raspberries, Frozen Argmanac and Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Cookie Bites:
Mini Chcolate Cakes
Coconut Macaroons
Quionoa Cookies with Golden Raisin

Breakfast For Inspired Teaching

This morning we had a Home Breakfast for the Center for Inspired Teaching. Empowering students through inspiring teachers, principals and the entire school faculty the CIT takes a very interesting approach. Teachers are underpaid and over worked. They handle our most precious commodity and The CIT is looking to inspire, build up, a very positive approach!

The purpose of the breakfast this morning was to spread the word about the work and recruit individuals to participate in a spring fund raising event. The organization welcomes involvement by the community in the form of financial and volunteer contributions.

What was fun for us, besides having Derrick spend the night so he could be here in time (Derrick is not an early bird)... was the chance to envision our luxury hotel breakfast and actually put it together. We have always kicked around the idea of owning a hotel, with luxury rooms, a killer breakfast and afternoon tea. This probably will never happen, but on this morning in support of teachers we had the chance to meet some interesting people and feed them Hotel 1508's Continental Breakfast:

Sesame, Poppy Seed and Sweet Cinnamon Breads served with Fig and Ginger Jam, Butter from Tickling Springs Creamery and local Kuhn Orchard Honey

Quinoa Granola served with a choice of Pequea Valley Yogurt, Tickling Springs Milk or a Housemade Cashew Almond Milk

Soft Boiled Whitmore Farm Eggs

Twin Springs Honeycrisp Apples

Equator Coffee
Herbal Tea
Fresh Squeezed Carrot Juice
Housemade Kombucha

Quinoa Granola Recipe

2 cups cooked quinoa
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup raw walnuts
3 tablespoons agave nectar
salt to taste
1/2 cup golden raisins

1.Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Combine all ingredients except for the golden raisins. Put granola on a sheet tray and cook until dry, stirring about every 20 minutes.
2.The amount of time it takes for granola to dry depends on how wet the quinoa is but generally it will take 2-4 hours.
3.Remove dry granola from oven and mix in raisins. Store in an airtight container.