Egga Disha

As previously mentioned, we eat a good bit o' eggs… at least once a week… typically for dinner.

I’ll often make egg burritos for lunch, tossing in whatever I can rustle up in our fridge and pantry that seems like it might taste good.

The other evening we had an egg burrito for dinner, slightly tweaking a Mark Bittman recipe for “spicy scrambled eggs.” On the side we had a tomato, red onion, and avocado salad. (Yes, yes, I know: tomatoes and avocados? Obviously sourced far, far away from Western Pa. Hey, I do my best. The eggs were local and free-range, so there!).

The burrito was absolutely delicious, but just having these alone as scrambled eggs is also perfectly acceptable.

Spicy Egg Burrito

• 1 jalapeño pepper
• 1 small clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 1-inch knob of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon of canola oil
• 5 eggs (there is no flavor substitute for truly free-range eggs)
• Salt and pepper
• ¼ cup of cilantro, chopped
• Shredded cheese of your choice
• 2 tortillas

Roast the jalapeno: Using tongs, hold the jalapeño over a burner, turned to high, rotating as needed, until the skin is charred all over. Wrap it in a small bit of plastic wrap and let it sit for five minutes. Unwrap and scrape off the char. Remove the top and seeds and dice. If you want a spicier burrito, be sure to leave a decent bit of the ribbing on the pepper when removing the seeds.

Crack eggs into a bowl, beat, and add salt and pepper.

Put a large sauté pan on a burner of medium-low heat. Warm tortillas on both sides, until you see just the first bits of brown, move to a plate and cover with a dry dish towel.

Heat the oil over medium heat. Add the jalapeño, ginger, and garlic, and sauté until fragrant and the pepper bits are sufficiently tender, about 2-3 minutes maximum.

Add the eggs, let them begin to set, and proceed as you typically would for scrambled eggs. [Mark Bittman advises removing the eggs from the heat every few minutes, then stirring up, then putting back on the heat. I tried this, once, and it didn’t make any difference in the final product.]

When the eggs are ready, lay out the tortillas, add some shredded cheese in the middle (some manchego would probably be fantastic), top with the eggs, the cilantro, and, if you wish, some of your favorite hot sauce. Wrap ‘er up and enjoy!

And, as for the title of this post, a word from a truly celebrated chef…

As Expected

The Lame Duck in Chief fulfills his promise. Farm Bill vetoed. The House pulls off a first under the current administration, and, as expected, overrides the veto.

The 316-to-108 tally, far over the two-thirds needed to overcome a veto, sent the five-year, multipurpose bill to the Senate. Barring a last-minute shift in that chamber, senators appeared certain to vote overwhelmingly for the bill, sealing the president’s defeat.

Yes, more money for food stamps and a little more conservation and some more farmers markets.

But remember this: in this bipartisan-supported bill, you can make up to $1.25 million in farm and nonfarm income and still qualify for a subsidy for your commodity crop. In every sense, that is a failure to do the right thing.

The Inevitable Farm Bill

After all this time, the Farm Bill has passed the House by a veto-proof margin, so the President’s threats to veto the bill are meaningless. He’ll veto and it will go back to the House, get the requisite two-thirds vote and, poof, it’s law. The Times offers up a pretty good summary.

While I’m nowhere near a Farm Bill expert, and from what I’ve read there are some good things about this behemoth, the subsidies still render this bill a stinker on par with worst CAFO waste pond. This sums it up well:

Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, said: “Sometimes here in Washington, we tend to drink our own bath water and believe our own press releases. And to hear some of the debate here, you would think this is the best bill in the world and that everybody out there has just got to support it.”

This comment on a Washington Post story about the Farm Bill – from a real farmer, no less – is even better.

Government incentives are calculated against planting (no one can forsee harvests). My farm is bordered on one side by a river. The bank on my side is between 20 and 30 feet high, and my property never floods in the fall rains and none-too occasional hurricane. The bank on the other side is only about 5 or 6 feet above the average water level, and it routinely - I could even say reliably - floods in the fall. The land on that side of the river amounts to about 200 acres, and every spring, my neighbor plants it in corn. He gets paid to. It doesn't matter the floods ruin the crop every year, that the floods leave all the ears mildewed and unfit even for cattle feed. He gets paid to plant his 200 acres in corn, and so he does. I'd hazard to guess that he gets paid for the loss, too, by federal crop adjustment insurance. Nevertheless, the incentive to plant various crops adds a weight to the base cost of seed, and this cost is distributed in the yield. That means the price of this fellow's 200 acres of sacrificial corn seed gets figured into the cost of seed for crops that are actually harvested - driving my costs, and your food prices, ever higher.

Scrapin’ Up the Bits… Lucy Style

I don’t know whether this is a good thing, but the Post-Gazette has discovered Lucy! The PG’s Marlene Parrish has anointed Lucy, and her delectable banh mi, as a “fresh find.”

Since I have declared Lucy’s banh mi as one of my favorite all-time foods, I am torn. Because this could mean, you know, that when I do get to the Strip to get a banh mi, there might be a long line! And there is nothing worse than waiting, in line, endless minutes ticking by, stomach gnashing, mouth dribbling, eyes open so wide they burn from lack of blinking, for that … first bite.

Too bad it’s on the other side of the state, because I’d love to attend the Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture’s inaugural Grass-Fed, Grass-Finished Beef Challenge Cook-Off. The name needs a little work, though.

One of the worst things about not being independently wealthy and having to, like, ya’ know, work for a living, is not being able to spend tomorrow afternoon at Piper’s Pub on the South Side, watching the Champion’s League final between Chelsea and Manchester United (which defeated my Roma side in the semifinals!! Red Devils, indeed!), sipping on a mug or two of “real ale” from one of Piper’s many new firkins. Bloody shame, that is.

And while mushroom hunting is still in the works, I also have intentions of doing some additional foraging for exotic wild foods, about two feet off of my back patio. Because there, you see, resides a single growth of garlic mustard:

What is garlic mustard? An invasive weed, actually. While picking up flowers and veg plants for our garden at Harvest Valley Farms recently, Art King mentioned it to me, after it was mentioned to him by Bill Fuller of Big Burrito fame. This is one nasty weed, explains Iowa chef and Grist contributor Kurt Michael Friese:

It came to New World from Europe in the 1800s as a culinary and medicinal herb. With no natural predators here, it soon grew out of control. Extremely prolific, a single garlic mustard plant can spread into a patch of 20 to 120 feet in just a year. Garlic mustard will shade or crowd out native species of flowers and mushrooms and cause massive disruption in a habitat if left unchecked.

In Hickory Hill Park near where I live in Iowa, garlic mustard's invasion has reached such heights of success that local volunteers pull out nearly a ton of the stuff every year!

Based on the nibbles I’ve taken out on the patio, seems to me that it should have some natural predators: Humans!

I’m hoping to use it in place of arugula in some pasta or to make a pesto out of it, as chef Friese advises. But some smart local farmers would be wise to pick this stuff and package it as a new “gourmet European herb” for their markets. At a production cost of $0 (aside from picking it, I suppose), seems like a winner.

And to end things sort of where they began -- with street food -- one of my favorite songs (and my kids’ favorite songs, too) comes from the late-great Joe Strummer, from his post-Clash career with Joe Strummer & the Mescaleros.

The song, “Bhindi Bhagee,” is an homage to the glories of multi-culturalism, particularly its influence on food and music. In case you can’t understand it, the first verse – the stuff about food – is below the clip.

My daughter particularly likes the “toxic empanada.”

Well, I was walking down the High Road
And this guy stops me
He'd just got in from New Zealand
And he was looking for mushy peas
I said, no, we hadn't really got 'em round here
I said, but we do got

Balti, Bhindi, strictly Hindi
Dal, Halal and I'm walking down the road
We got rocksoul, okra, bombay duck-ra
Shrimp bean sprout, comes with it or without - with it or without
Bagels soft or simply harder
Exotic avocado or toxic empanada
We got akee, lassi, Somali waccy baccy
I'm sure back home you know what tikka's all about - what tikka's all about

To Test or Not to Test?

In the mid- to late-1980s and early 1990s, the first automobile manufacturers began to sell cars with airbags as a standard feature (they weren’t a federal requirement until 1998). Imagine if the National Highway Safety Traffic Administration had sued those carmakers, arguing that they should not be allowed to sell cars with airbags because they were trying to create “false assurances” that people driving those cars would be safer than cars equipped only with seat belts.

It’s a ludicrous proposition, I know. But the government has been actively engaged in a very similar type of action. Last year, the United States Department of Agriculture -- which is charged, in part, with assuring that farms and meat packers produce food free from things that will make consumers sick – sued a Kansas-based beef outfit, Creekstone Farms, to prevent them from testing all of their cattle for so-called Mad Cow Disease, known in scientific circles as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

The feds lost. But they decided to appeal. And it’s looking like they’re set to lose again.

Chief Judge David B. Sentelle seemed to agree with Creekstone's contention that the additional testing would not interfere with agency regulations governing the treatment of animals.

"All they want to do is create information," Sentelle said, noting that it's up to consumers to decide how to interpret the information.

Hmm… Now why would the government object to wider testing of cattle? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Ensure the safety of meat. Isn’t that one of the most important functions of the USDA and FDA and other government agencies, protecting the public well being?

For example, the FDA requires that every single unit of red blood cells and plasma intended for use in patients is tested with exquisitely sensitive (and intensively regulated) tests for HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B, among other things.

Ironically, there are even specific inquiries on the FDA-mandated questionnaires that prospective blood and plasma donors must fill out specifically intended to screen out donors who may have consumed beef that may have come from… wait for it… BSE-infected cows (e.g., From 1980 to 1996, did you spend time that adds up to three (3) months or more in the United Kingdom?)!

So, yes, if you even visited certain countries in the U.K. for just a week between 1980 and 1996, you cannot donate blood in the United States.

Yet, only approximately 1% of cattle intended to become integral parts of chili cook-offs and drunken weekend barbecues across the United States are tested for BSE.

So, again, why would the government – or, to be more accurate, the current administration – object to a cattle company wanting to test more of its cows for BSE?

Larger meatpackers have opposed Creekstone's push to allow wider testing out of fear that consumer pressure would force them to begin testing all animals too. Increased testing would raise the price of meat by a few cents per pound.

This action by the Feds just reeks of the same kind of corrupt behavior of the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture when it attempted to outlaw milk labels that used phrases like “hormone free.”

As Creekstone’s attorney told the appeals court judges:

"This is the government telling the consumers, `You're not entitled to this information,'" Frye said.

This is outrageous behavior. And it proves yet again, as Sen. Barbara Boxer once said, that “elections have consequences.”

Scrapin’ Up the Bits… Rampin’ It Up Style

I’ve heard ramps – aka, wild leeks or baby leeks – mentioned on Iron Chef America and Top Chef, read about them in Food & Wine and the New York Times, but until today, I’d never eaten them. They look like a cross between leeks and scallions.

I approached the ramps sans recipe, the great Mother’s Day adventure of 2008, if you will. Decided to grill halibut fillets (from Penn Avenue Fish Company) on a bed of braised ramps (from Farmers @ Firehouse) and wild mushrooms. Kept the halibut simple: olive oil, salt, pepper. Ramps, braised for about 20 minutes in white wine, olive oil, butter, adding the mushrooms for the last 10 minutes of the braise.

The result: holy s@#$! My poor photography skills prevented a photo, but I won’t forget this meal any time soon.

Speaking of holy s@#$… had my first taste of a raw-milk baby swiss from Pasture Maid Creamery in New Castle. Unlike any cheese I’ve had before. Hopefully the farm market at Harvest Valley Farms—where I had my sample while picking up some flowers and veg on a rainy Mother’s Day morning—will be able to procure it on a regular basis.

And speaking of wild food like ramps, it seems like it’s time to take my new-found addiction to mushrooms to the next level. I’m goin’ mushroom huntin’! This week I’ll send my $15 membership check to the Western Pennsylvania Mushroom Club and, if all goes as planned, take the wife, kids, and do some foraging on one of two upcoming WPMS events: May 24 at Moraine State Park or May 31 at McConnell’s Mills. My one hope: Not to poison myself!

Finally, some good reading. First…

… via Ethicurean, I came across this series at Edible Portland, “Diary of a Young Farmer.” Here, Zoe Bradbury is recounting her efforts to, well, become a young farmer. Given the shrinking number of true small farmers left in the United States, you’d think the feds would be doing everything they could to help one get a foothold in some soft dirt. Um, actually, maybe you wouldn’t. But nevertheless, it’s compelling reading.

… and via The New Yorker, the story of Grant Achatz. About two years ago, I was convinced for a day or two that I had oral cancer. I had just finished an article on researchers developing tests for the early detection of oral and head and neck cancer. A common symptom of oral cancer, tongue numbness. You know what else makes your tongue feel numb? Eating a huge bag of sour patch kids in two sittings!! In any case, Grant Achatz is, by all reports, an incredible chef running one of the most highly respected restaurants in the country. Now he has tongue cancer.

Oh, yeah. Almost forgot. Go Pens!!!!

Food a Spicy Plate for the Media

In the mainstream media, food is hot news right now. The “food crisis.” Corn-based ethanol. Farming. It’s as if somebody opened a window of a room that’s long been shuttered.

The New York Times, for example, has been running a series of agriculture-focused articles. The most recent article looked at farmers and the growing cost of chemical-based fertilizer. The cost of these fertilizers has reached the point, the Times explains, that some farmers have taken to the “age-old” practice of using pig manure to fertilize their fields.

Not to be outdone, the Washington Post also has been running a series of articles on food and the “food crisis.” In today’s paper, the focus was along the lines of other articles recently documenting how rising food prices domestically are affecting people’s lives.

One response, the Post notes, is an increased use of scissors:

Take the uptick in coupon clipping. According to NCH Marketing Services, a coupon clearinghouse in Chicago, the number of grocery coupons redeemed in 2007 increased by 100 million, or 6 percent, to 1.8 billion. The rise reversed a seven-year decline. "Every year, manufacturers have made coupons more difficult to redeem by shortening the expiration date and increasing the purchase requirements. And every year, people redeemed them less," said Charlie Brown, NCH's vice president of marketing. "This tells me that consumers are now more determined to save money."

This is interesting, in large part, because these days we buy very few products from the big name brands, meaning that even if our family wanted to, we’d find very few, if any, coupons for the products we regularly purchase.

This was also surprising:

One thing consumers haven't skimped on are organic products. Over the past 12 months, organic food and beverage sales jumped 25.5 percent, to $4.3 billion, according to Nielsen. Many shoppers who prefer organic are finding other ways to cut back rather than give up products that they think are healthier and better for the environment.

Case in point: Poli Marinova, a Bethesda marketing communications manager, said she has cut her grocery bills by almost 30 percent without switching to conventional foods. Instead, she skips "luxury items" like sushi and prepared sandwiches and soups. "We're buying a lot less overall at Whole Foods. We used to buy juice, biscuits and baby food from there," she said. "Now, we get a lot of that stuff at Costco or the Giant so we can afford to keep buying organic."

It's gotten to the point where Congress is actually holding hearings on the topic, so they must see this as a politically expedient way to make themselves look like they give a rip be hearing from their constituents about this.

At a hearing on the high cost of food on Capitol Hill, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) summed up the current situation this way: "When you walk down the street, you hear people complaining about food prices almost as much as gas prices."

Yes, because Sen. Schumer spends so much time walking through the neighborhoods in his home district.

Even some of the big networks’ evening news programs -- in between must-see segments on teen pop stars’ bare shoulders and self-centered Midwestern pastors -- have found time to report on this topic. Talk about miracles.

The former 2007 Farm Bill, now the 2008 Farm Bill, is also making news, as the House and Senate search for a bill they can agree on. As much as it pains me to say it, this is the one time where the current resident at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is actually doing some good. According to the Wall Street Journal, the White House thinks the subsidies in the bill are way too big and is promising a veto if they aren’t slashed.

Some of the regulars from The Ethicurean are at a conference in Phoenix where the Farm Bill is a hot topic. Good reading.

Speaking of farms, two new reports that have not received the media coverage they are due – one from the Union of Concerned Scientists, the other from the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production -- have reached unsurprising startling conclusions: CAFOs and industrial agriculture are bad things.

Finally, as for actual food, this recipe for a banana-poblano sauce sounds extremely interesting and quite delicious. In this case, the Washington Post food folks used it on turkey chops, but a white, flaky fish feels like a better option to me.

I'm mixin' up a cocktail...

A nonfood-related item with which to kick off this glorious spring weekend:

The new single from one of the most underrated bands out there, the UK's own, ELBOW.

The Food Crisis: Coming to a City Near You?

Well, a new meme burning through the popular news media at a rabid pace is the international food crisis that might, just might, be starting to nudge its way into the land of large waistlines and large TVs, the good old US of A.

First, the global perspective:

Increased food demand from rapidly developing nations such as China, the use of crops for biofuels, global stocks at 25-year lows and market speculation are all blamed for pushing prices of staples like wheat, maize and rice to record highs.

That in turn has sparked food riots in several African countries, Indonesia and Haiti, and the FAO has warned that 37 countries face food crises.

This is not something that came from no where, however:

"The situation we are in is the result of inappropriate policies over the past 20 years. Between 1990 and 2000 we lowered food aid for agriculture by half," U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director General Jacques Diouf] said.

Generous farm subsidies in wealthy countries had also discouraged agriculture in the developing world, further aggravating the situation, he said.

"Above all we have not invested in water management in different countries of the third world... In Africa only 7 percent of land is arable," he added.

If you didn’t catch that, the “Generous farm subsidies in wealthy countries” is shorthand for the United States.

Which brings us back to the situation domestically, where food prices are rising dramatically. And it appears that it’s having some perhaps surprising effects. The big box stores, for example, are seeing indications of strange purchasing behavior:

The regulatory clash came amid evidence that a rash of headlines in recent weeks about food riots around the world has prompted some in the United States to stock up on staples.

Costco and other grocery stores in California reported a run on rice, which has forced them to set limits on how many sacks of rice each customer can buy. Filipinos in Canada are scooping up all the rice they can find and shipping it to relatives in the Philippines, which is suffering a severe shortage that is leaving many people hungry.

More about those moves by Costco and Sam’s Club:

The two biggest U.S. warehouse retail chains are limiting how much rice customers can buy because of what Sam's Club, a division of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., called on Wednesday "recent supply and demand trends."

[snip]

The limits affect 20-lb bags, not retail-sized portions. Costco could not immediately be reached for comment on its limits or whether they are the first ever.

Sam's Club said it will limit customers to four bags at a time of imported jasmine, basmati and long grain white rice.

In the United States, at least, whether this is an indication of any sort of actual crisis, or something altogether different, is unclear:

The move comes as U.S. rice futures hit a record high amid global food inflation, although one rice expert said the warehouse chains may be reacting less to any shortages than to stockpiling by restaurants and small stores.

In a related story, there is a growing backlash against the boom in corn-based ethanol production as a way to alleviate the dependence on oil. In an Earth Day column in the Washington Post, Lester Brown and Jonathan Lewis, of the Earth Policy Institute and Clean Air Task Force, respectively, say it’s time to end the experiment:

…we call upon Congress to revisit recently enacted federal mandates requiring the diversion of foodstuffs for production of biofuels. These "food-to-fuel" mandates were meant to move America toward energy independence and mitigate global climate change. But the evidence irrefutably demonstrates that this policy is not delivering on either goal. In fact, it is causing environmental harm and contributing to a growing global food crisis.

Their charges consist of:

• It requires tons of energy, mostly coal-based, to produce ethanol
• Ethanol production produces beau coup pollution
• It’s driving up the cost of other food staples – that is, exacerbating the international food crisis.

More than a year ago, some researchers from the University of Minnesota, also in the pages of the Post, predicted some of these problems.

Some biofuels, if properly produced, do have the potential to provide climate-friendly energy, but where and how can we grow them? Our most fertile lands are already dedicated to food production. As demand for both food and energy increases, competition for fertile lands could raise food prices enough to drive the poorer third of the globe into malnourishment. The destruction of rainforests and other ecosystems to make new farmland would threaten the continued existence of countless animal and plant species and would increase the amount of climate-changing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

It’s funny, in a sad sort of way. So many of these things are discussed directly or alluded to in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma. I have yet to read his latest, In Defense of Food – I’m desperately trying to actually finish a fiction book – but I did read Pollan’s most recent essay in the New York Times Magazine. It, too, touches on the environment and food prices.

It’s one of those must reads. Exhibit 1:

There are so many stories we can tell ourselves to justify doing nothing [about global warming], but perhaps the most insidious is that, whatever we do manage to do, it will be too little too late. Climate change is upon us, and it has arrived well ahead of schedule. Scientists’ projections that seemed dire a decade ago turn out to have been unduly optimistic: the warming and the melting is occurring much faster than the models predicted. Now truly terrifying feedback loops threaten to boost the rate of change exponentially, as the shift from white ice to blue water in the Arctic absorbs more sunlight and warming soils everywhere become more biologically active, causing them to release their vast stores of carbon into the air. Have you looked into the eyes of a climate scientist recently? They look really scared.

So do you still want to talk about planting gardens?

I do.

Seriously. Read the whole thing.

Pizza Fusion: Eco Friendly and Pretty Darn Good

I’ll get this out of the way right up front. I had my doubts. Yeah, yeah, organic. Yeah, yeah, local. Yeah, yeah, hybrid delivery vehicles and old Levi’s masquerading as insulation. All part and parcel of this new “green business” known as Pizza Fusion.

A small chain with only four locations at the moment, three of which are in Florida, I can honestly say I was expecting to leave disappointed. And, I’m happy to report, my expectations were greatly exceeded.

Located on route 8 in Gibsonia, not far from the Turnpike exit for Butler Valley and in the same plaza as one of the relatively new Atria's outposts, Pizza Fusion makes a good pie, even if it is oval.

We ordered a large, half-plain (for the kids), half with sausage and roasted red peppers (for the nonkids). The pizza was thin, with a slightly crisp crust that offered just the right amount of chew. The sauce, just a touch too sweet, the cheese, and the toppings all were obviously of above average quality. The roasted red peppers were organic, the sausage was not.

Overall, an enjoyable pizza. We’ll be back. In the meantime, though, some other observations:

1) Pizza Fusion offers beer and wine, all of which are organic. My wife and I both had a pale ale from Peak Brewing, which wasn’t bad. My personal opinion, however, is that, ecologically speaking, local can be as important as organic, so it would be nice if some local beers of a certain quality (cough, cough… any from Penn Brewery) were offered.

2) Some of the pizza options are, to my mind, unnecessary, bordering on the irrational. A “surf and turf” pizza with steak, shrimp, and lobster? It’s bad enough that there is a BBQ Chicken pizza on the menu (abomination!), but a pizza laden with steak and lobster? For $48? I don’t know what that is, but it ain’t pizza.

3) The service was pretty slow. But this was day two for this restaurant. I was amazed the service wasn’t worse.

4) Finally, our bill was over $40, which most people might say is expensive for dinner at a pizza joint (anticipating a long wait for our pizza, we also got some bread sticks for the kids).

I’m not complaining. I understand that quality ingredients cost more. But when you can get a few (nasty) pizzas from the various national chains for less than $20, that kind of price is a hard sell for those who equate organic and anything “green” with pot-smoking hippies and bleeding heart liberals from San Francisco, and who actually think Domino's is an acceptable meal.

Light, Local, deLicious

Eggs. Love ‘em! I can’t remember the last time I actually had eggs for breakfast. They’re almost always lunch or dinner.

About once a week I make an egg burrito for lunch, usually with some finely diced onion or shallot, a little garlic, some form of heat, some type of cheese, a sprinkle of cilantro.

For dinner, we usually turn to the versatile frittata, my favorite being one topped with garlic-oil infused croutons, chives, tarragon, and multiple dollops of ricotta.

Tonight, with little in the way of time or good options for dinner and not a great variety of available ingredients for a fritatta, we turned again to eggs, very simple and very local.

The eggs, free-range, our last few from Heritage Farm that I picked up at the Farm to Table conference. The eggs would be scambled.

Into the eggs, just before they were set, went some freshly grated Parmesan.

Once the eggs reached the plate, sprinkled on top, some arugula, our first real pickings from the arugula plant I picked up at same said conference, which shares a spot in our dining room window with a field greens plant.

On the side, a few slices of toasted ciabatta, from, I believe, Penn Mac.

We were a little pressed for time, or otherwise I might have reduced some balsamic 'til it got a bit syrupy and drizzled over top of the eggs and bread. Next time.

By no means a stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal, but with some Pellegrino or glass of a fruity white wine, you’ve got yourself one satisfying meal.

They're baa...aack!

Fresh herbs, that is.

After a whiny -- probably overly so -- post last fall lamenting the disappearance of fresh herbs from our little patio-side and lawn gardens, I suppose it's incumbent upon me to likewise celebrate their return.

And, indeed, I'm waaaayyy excited. Probably overly so.

In any case, they may not look like much yet, but soon I'll be mining these bad boys on an almost daily basis.

First, and a nice surprise, cilantro, which, unexpectedly, returned of its own accord.


Next, some very robust looking tarragon.


Finally, some illustrious oregano, soon destined to be mixed with crushed San Marzanos and gently spread atop some pizza dough.



Others are on the way: Chives already look fantastic. The tiniest leaves of mint and sage and thyme are peaking out. Flat-leaf parsley and basil will be planted within a few weeks...

Seriously, can I get an Amen!?

Scrapin' Up the Bits, Jet-Lag Style

Just back from the Left Coast to cover a medical research conference as part of my day job, but there is plenty to report on, some important, some not-so…

An example of the latter? Cindy McCain, the wealthy wife of the Republican Senator and GOP presidential nominee, apparently has a little thing for borrowing other’s recipes without proper attribution. Some of her sources? Rachel Ray and…

Also on Tuesday, the Wonkette site posted a recipe, “Cindy McCain’s 3-Minute No-Bake Cookies,” which appeared in the December 2007 issue of Yankee Magazine and was identical to a recipe from Quaker Oats.

You mean the one from the back of the can?

I missed Tony Bourdain’s recent talk in Pittsburgh. Thankfully, the Post-Gazette and Corduroy Orange were there to provide some of the nasty bits.

I also missed the movie “King Corn” when it was in (a few) theaters. Thankfully, PBS’ Independent Lens has my back. It’s being shown all week.

King Corn is a feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the subsidized crop that drives our fast-food nation. In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, andpowerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat-and how we farm.

Here’s a little… taste, so to speak:

Next, a fairly new Pittsburgh food magazine, Table, has a feature in its spring issue on the Heinz company and how it develops its latest and greatest food “innovations.” One interesting tidbit from the article:

More important, though, are the views of the Heinz Sensory and Insight Panel, a group of 50 or so part-time expert tasters who work 20 to 30 hours a week tasting and rating the company’s products.

[snip]

Interested? Watch the newspaper, Matthews recommends. Heinz occasionally runs an advertisement seeking candidates [for the panel].

And, finally, while on my previously mentioned business trip, I took the opportunity to eat at The Linkery. Like Pittsburgh’s own Bona Terra, The Linkery was named by Gourmet magazine as one of the country’s best farm-to-table restaurants.

Now, typically, when I go on business travel, I seek out great restaurants and, when I can, I try to order dishes that reflect the local culinary specialties. But, at The Linkery, I ordered the “complete burger.”

I know it’s strange to travel to other side of the country just to order a hamburger. But this was not any regular old hamburger. In fact, it was, hands down, the best burger I’ve ever had. Here’s how my burger broke down:

house-ground beef from Brandt Farms

house-cured red oak-smoked bacon from Vande Rose Farms

medium aged Gouda cheese from Winchester Farms

grilled onions

pastured-chicken fried egg from Wingshadows Hacienda

house-baked bun

The burger, ordered medium rare (with an emphasis on the rare), was just ridiculously tender. And when combined with the cheese and bacon and the onions and the egg, with a little arugula for some bite, all on a fantastic bun (which is, undoubtedly, the single most overlooked part of the burger in pretty much every restaurant, even those that claim to pride themselves on their burger), it was perfection. Best burger eva’.

Food is Expensive

Food prices are climbing.

U.S. consumer food prices normally rise by about 2.5 percent annually, but they increased by 4 percent in 2007 -- the biggest increase in 17 years, according to U.S. Agriculture Department data.

And, if anecdotal media reports are any indication, they are starting to cause some serious pain.

[Patricia] Norris must purchase only what is on her shopping list, to avoid spending more than she can afford.

"Sometimes I cry," she said, when she passes items on store shelves she can no longer buy.

But not everybody is crying. Among others, Michael Pollan and Alice Waters, in last Wednesday’s New York Times, suggest there is a silver lining to these increasing prices, at least potentially:

“It’s very hard to argue for higher food prices because you are ceding popular high ground to McDonald’s when you do that,” said Mr. Pollan, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and author of “In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” (Penguin Press). “But higher food prices level the playing field for sustainable food that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels.”

I have to wonder how accurate this assumption is. There is at least one example in the Times article to back it up:

In the category of meat and dairy, rising commodity prices could very likely help the small but growing number of farmers who raise animals the old-fashioned way, on grassy pastures. With little or no need for expensive grain, these farmers can sell their milk and meat for more attractive prices.

That is welcome news to Ned MacArthur, founder of an organic, pasture-based dairy in Pennsylvania that sells milk, butter and other food under the Natural by Nature label. Unlike dairy farmers who feed their animals grain, people on the 52 farms in his consortium are looking forward to the coming months, he said.

“The grass is starting to grow now so within the next couple weeks the cows are really going to take off,” he said.

But Tom Philpott at Grist argues that, despite some of this (potential) leveling of the playing field, this ‘higher-food-prices-are-ultimately-good’ thinking is wrong-headed.

I have a hard time imagining people who are struggling to put food on the table rambling off to the farmers' market on Saturday to fill cloth bags with the sort of fresh, local, organic produce so beloved by Pollan and Waters (and me). Indeed, higher food prices are likely to send many time- and cash-strapped people in quite the opposite direction.

Rising costs may end up increasing the allure of large entities with economies of scale, cutthroat buying practices, and experience in transforming low-quality ag inputs into stuff people like to eat. I'm talking about fast-food companies, which can likely absorb higher input prices and still churn out crap -- and rake in profits. If that's true, prices at the drive-thru won't rise quite as steeply as those in the supermarket line, giving people yet more incentive to abandon their home kitchens and flock to the Golden Arches.

I believe he has a very strong point. Contrast the reality of Patricia Norris…

"I don't buy anything I don't have to," Norris said.

or of mother-of-three Laura Miller from California (from the same Reuters article)…

She plans meals two weeks in advance and shops with the daughter who doesn't ask her to buy snacks. Miller's printed shopping list, organized by item and place of purchase, shows that she does the bulk of her buying at Wal-Mart.

"I won't pay $6 for a box of cereal when I can get it for $3" at Wal-Mart, she said.

with reality as it is perceived by Alice Waters (per the Times)…

“Make a sacrifice on the cellphone or the third pair of Nike shoes,” she said.

I think part of what Pollan and Waters and others might be discounting here -- aside from how most people outside of San Francisco live and make decisions about food purchases (probably Waters, more so than Pollan) -- is that the local/sustainable food infrastructure, at least in most places, is not set-up to leap into this alleged breach. Local, sustainbly raised food still has to be sought out, through Farmers’ Markets, CSAs, specialty grocery stores, etc.

And even for those willing to undertake such searches, a Tyson broiler chicken at Wal-Mart is still probably going to cost a good bit less than the pastured one from the organic farm two hours away being sold at the Saturday farmer’s market. And a tray of 5 or 6 steaks at Costco with a big Swift sticker on it is still going to be far cheaper, and more readily available, than grass-fed steaks from a farm just down the road.

And it’s not like it’s the fault of the family farms or organizations that organize farmers markets. They are doing their best with the resources they have available. They could sure use some help from the feds or the state government.

In Pennsylvania, this is what qualifies as help:

Governor Edward G. Rendell today announced a new $75,000 investment in farmers markets to improve consumer access to Pennsylvania products.

Development and expansion grants of up to $10,000 are available through the Farmers Market Development Matching Grant Program for eligible farmers, nonprofit organizations, local government units and businesses or associations that manage or operate farmers markets.

$75,000??!! I think Paris Hilton spent more on some fancy bagels for her bevy of personal assistants and sycophantic, hanger-on friends for breakfast yesterday morning.

And while the Farm Bill bouncing its way through Congress increases funding for conservation and organic programs, it still most heavily favors subsidies for commodity crops. And a handful of mentally, and I would argue morally, bankrupt legislators aim to keep it that way…

Farm-state lawmakers, for their part, refuse to pare $5 billion in automatic payouts that go out each year to farmers who have historically planted subsidized crops - regardless of price or whether the crops are still grown.

In short: Less talk about how high food prices are good. More talk about food policy that makes fruit, vegetables, pastured/organic chicken, pork, beef, etc. more affordable and available.

First Bites: Passport Cafe & Chicken Latino

In the span of a week, I had lunch at two restaurants I’ve been meaning to try for some time. Neither disappointed.

First came lunch at Passport Café in Wexford. This restaurant had an inauspicious beginning, restaurant review wise, that is. The relative newbie dining critic for the Post-Gazette, China Millman, in a mostly polite manner, ripped the restaurant a new one.

However, the review ran in November, when Passport Café had been open only a few months, and I’ve eaten at enough restaurants—and enough new restaurants—to understand that some times it takes some time to get things right.

And my Brazilian Chicken Salad was indeed right.

I’m not really sure what was supposed to make this dish so “Brazilian” (perhaps some soccer players with only one name made the dressing?), and I got the impression the menu didn’t exactly reflect what this particular offering actually was on this particular day.

This was chicken salad—a mixture of shredded chicken and other ingredients with something wet to bind it all together—not, as the menu seemed to suggest, hunks of roasted chicken on some form of greens.

The chicken was mixed with, among other things, raisins and shredded carrot. It was moist and had a subdued sweetness. A good bit of shoestring fries sat atop the chicken, and the entire thing rested upon a small bed of mixed greens. The dish was finished with a light coat of what I might guess was a balsamic vinaigrette, although the menu said this salad was served with a thyme vinaigrette.

The fries were delicious, although there were probably a few too many, and they were a bit oversalted. Nevertheless, the entire thing was very satisfying, and I left wanting more.

I do have to agree with Ms. Millman on one thing, though. The complimentary bread was forgettable, and that’s being generous. But the restaurant itself has a comfortable, clean atmosphere, and my meal was enjoyable. And that makes it worth a return trip.

Chicken Latino, in the Strip District, came the following Saturday. This was an entirely unplanned trip. While I had enjoyed some samples at the Farm to Table Conference, I had nothing approaching a lunch. I left well after the lunch hour and had to stop at Penn Avenue Fish Company to pick up something for dinner that night.

I could have had lunch there, but the taste memory of banh mi struck my taste buds. It was by no means cold outside, so I hoped the banh mi cart would be in its usual spot on Penn Avenue. It was not. I walked another block or two, thinking maybe gyro or chicken on a stick, and there it was, just around the bend: Chicken Latino.

Peruvian roasted chicken. Oooohhhhh. I freakin’ LOVE this stuff. My wife has on more than one occasion insinuated that I have a strange obsession with this chicken. Every time we return to D.C. to visit friends or I travel there for work, Peruvian chicken is on the brain. And that’s because, with the exception of Chicken Latino, there is not a single Peruvian chicken joint in all of Pittsburgh. D.C. is filthy with them, and, as far as I can tell, they’re all good.

For whatever reason, I had yet to make it Chicken Latino, even though I spotted it several months ago. But here I was, by myself, desperately hungry. It was time to act.

It was, perhaps the best Peruvian roasted chicken I’ve had. And I don’t think that opinion was biased by my state of hunger. The quarter chicken was ridiculously tender, and the spices that coated it were spot on. A smear of the ubiquitous spicy green sauce present in all Peruvian chicken establishments (cilantro and jalapeno, among other things? I’ve never asked) provided some added heat.

The menu at Chicken Latino is short and simple. Various options for chicken: quarter, half, whole. Yucca, black beans, coleslaw for sides. A chicken sandwich and a few others, including some weekly specials, including a tilapia ceviche on Saturdays.

Very reluctantly, I did not order any yucca fries, which is tantamount to Peruvian chicken heresy, in my view. Next time, though, there will be yucca. Oh, there will be yucca, indeed.

Local Is As Local Does

Farming is not adapted to large-scale operations because of the following reasons: Farming is concerned with plants and animals that live, grow, and die.

- Cornell University Agriculture Professor, via Omnivore’s Dilemma

It’s not everyday that you get to meet somebody who was in one of your all-time favorite books. But that’s what happened to me on Saturday, and probably to many others who attended the Farm to Table Conference at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center this past weekend.

Anybody who stopped by the Heritage Farm booth at the conference most likely met the 20-year-old Peter Burns, who played a small role in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Peter—who along with his father, Greg Burns, operates Heritage Farm in Ridgway, Pa., about 2 hours northeast of Pittsburgh—was an intern at the increasingly famous Polyface Farms during the time Pollan spent there researching Dilemma, and he nabbed a few mentions in the book.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Greg and Peter about their farm and their products. Among other things, they told me how the folks from the Big Burrito Group recently paid a visit to the Burns’ farm and will be sourcing some Heritage product for the Big Burrito family of restaurants. [A quick aside: If you believe in local food and you dine out in the Pittsburgh area, you simply must patronize one of Big Burrito’s many excellent establishments. Bill Fuller, Big Burrito’s executive chef, is as fervent a supporter of local farms as you’ll find. If this movement is going to continue to grow and flourish, it will be on the backs of dedicated chefs like Fuller.]

Peter’s year-long internship at Polyface, Greg said, has allowed Heritage to follow in the Polyface/Joel Salatin mold. So the grazing beef cattle help to fertilize the soil that sprouts the grass they eat, and the chickens (and turkeys!) are brought in behind the cattle as they are moved around the farm, picking out vital nutrients from the cow’s waste, leaving their own fertilizer packages behind to nourish the grass. As Salatin told Pollan, running a nearly universally sustainable operation means being a very good grass farmer.

If nothing else, the conference offered an opportunity for attendees to get some quality time with local farmers who are producing quality products.

I picked up some creamy raw milk cheeses from Pasture Maid Creamery, part of Dean Farms, in New Castle, a family-run operation that’s been around since the late 1800s! I also sampled some delicious cheese from Emerald Valley Farm in Scenery Hill, Pa. I foresee a shipment of some of Emerald Valley’s Formage Blanc varieties in the very near future.

Speaking of dairy products, I usually need my milk to have a good bit of cereal floating in it (my most recent favorite: Barbara’s Peanut Butter Puffins). But I really enjoyed the tall glass of raw milk I sampled during one of the three cooking demonstrations held on Saturday. And the bite of bison tenderloin, courtesy of Bistro 19 executive chef Jessica Gibson, was wonderfully tender. The bison was from Wooden Nickel Farm in Edinboro, Pa. Seriously, who even knew there was a buffalo farm in Pennsylvania?!

All in all, my 4 or 5 hours at the conference on Saturday was time ridiculously well spent. I met some of the true leaders of the local food movement, found new sources of sustainably produced products, and even added to my own local food production: a pot of freshly sprouted arugula and a pot of mixed lettuces.

Both pots are lounging in a window in my dining room. With any luck, in a few weeks, they’ll be my ultra local source for a salad that will accompany some monster grass-fed rib eyes in my freezer that I’m just dying to slap on the grill!

Welcome spring. It’s time to eat!!

Scrapin’ Up the Bits, Stank Style

In reading a New York Times article on the continued abuse of reliance on earmarks by members of Congress, I couldn’t help but notice the aroma of this bit o' pork:

Three Iowa lawmakers — Senator Charles E. Grassley, a Republican, Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat, and Representative Tom Latham, a Republican — sponsored a $196,000 item for research into ways to reduce odors from swine and poultry.

Ah, yes, in a time of remarkable political rancor, it's heartening to see that helping big factory farms find ways to mask reduce their illness-inducing stink is a bi-partisan pursuit. Democracy at its finest.

Speaking of Big Ag and polluted air, Elanor from the Ethicurean waxes eloquent about the rampant pesticide use on the melons and almonds and tomatoes grown in California’s Central Valley and its impact on the local community, including the children of the workers. Some of it is just… jarring.

Drift testing conducted at the school has found a "chronic" presence of pesticides at low-to-moderate levels in the school air. Chronic meaning constant. These kids are breathing in pesticides all the time.

And if you’re searching for a better understanding of how the big meat packers undermine food safety and quality in the pursuit of profit, Alan Guebert fills in some blanks. A taste:

Since 1980, the number of U.S. hog farmers has dropped from 667,000 to 67,000 while the percentage of hogs grown under contract to packers has risen from virtually zero to more than 70. Those two numbers are as related as ham and beans.

Finally, so much for my grand onion theory. Troy Bogdan of Pure Earth Organic Farm near Meadville, Pa., based on observation from 12 years of running an organic farm, sets me straight.

The reason an onion (especially the ones stored over winter) gets strong, is because it is getting ready to sprout. There is a natural time clock in each member of the onion/garlic (allium) family, and when "the alarm goes off," that means it's time to wake up from hibernation, and start to grow and get ready for reproduction. This in turn causes EXTREMELY strong flavors and scents.

If you see any of Troy’s delicious garlic for sale, be sure to pick some up.

Easter Brunch

We hosted our first family holiday meal on Easter Sunday. It was a small group, and we determined early on that we would keep it simple:

• Fruit and croissants (courtesy of Whole Foods)
• Easter bread toast (courtesy of Mother of Fillippelli)
• Two types of scrambled eggs: plain and flavor-infused with ginger, garlic, scallions, red chili, cilantro (eggs courtesy of Sonshine Farms in Mercer, Pa.)
• Roasted asparagus (again, Whole Foods)
• And, the centerpiece of the meal, a hickory-smoked ham

The ham came from Willie’s Smokehouse in Harrisville, PA. The ham was excellent. Moist, extremely flavorful. I don’t yet know the source of Willie’s pigs, but I intend to find out, ‘cause I’m not waiting until next Easter to order another hickory-smoked ham.

The asparagus, unfortunately, was a flop. I have grilled and sautéed asparagus with great success, but never roasted it alone. Roasting the asparagus seemed to be a wise option because the stove top was busy with scrambled eggs. Although I had some of my own ideas, I searched for some roasted asparagus recipes, and Bon Appetit, via Epicurious, offered an appealing one: lemon juice, lemon zest, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Roast for approximately 20 minutes at 450.

Mistake. Way too long. It turned to mush. A terrible waste of what, by all appearances, should have been some fantastic asparagus. Bad Bon Appetit, Bad!

Thankfully, a shot of Crown Royal, a holiday tradition for my wife’s family, made the disappointment a little more bearable.

Scrapin' Up the Bits, Jalapeno Chip Style

Ah, sitting on the couch, watching a recording of today’s Inter Milan vs. Liverpool Champion’s League match, drinking a Stone Pale Ale, and treating myself to a highly rare treat, Miss Vickie’s hand-picked Jalapeno potato chips.

Odd combination for a Tuesday evening, but perfect for reporting on this mish mash of interesting news, some local, some not so…

To begin with, a special type of ticket for Tony Bourdain’s March 31 talk as part of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lecture series went for some big bucks on eBay. It included a one-on-one with the smoking cook world traveler, autographed book, a top-notch seat. The bidding apparently went back and forth, peaking at more than $2,200.

"We never expected this great a response," said Jayne Adair, director of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures series.

Alas, I waited too long to finally order tickets. Just too long. They sold out two hours before I called.

And here’s some important news for Strip District junkies. The former Il Picolo Forno on 21st St. in the Strip District, next to La Prima Espresso, is now Colangelo's.

Picolo Forno is a well-regarded Italian restaurant in Lawrenceville, run by the son of the former owners of Il Piccolo Forno, Antonio and Carla Branduzzi. Antonio died in January 2007 and, up until a few months ago, his wife had continued to operate Il Piccolo Forno. We only discovered it more than a year ago, and fell for it immediately. Nothing like a late morning espresso or cappuccino from La Prima with a slice of pizza from Il Piccolo.

Mrs. Branduzzi closed Il Piccolo Forno a few months ago. As I learned Saturday morning, it has reopened as Colangelo's, and appears to be mostly unchanged. There were still thick slices of pizza on the counter, still delicious pastries in the glass case (we had some great cannoli's Sat. night), and still an open walkway between it and La Prima for some world class espresso drinks.

Needless to say, this is excellent news.

Meanwhile, according to the Post-Gazette, local restaurants are in a pinch.

Rising fuel costs meant many suppliers bringing in produce, meat, pasta and other ingredients had started adding surcharges for every load. Eat'n Park officials studied ways to consolidate truck loads. Or, as Mr. O'Connell put it, "Can we make two deliveries instead of three deliveries to a restaurant a week?"

The cost of ingredients also weighed on results. Beef prices are up, as are wheat, dairy, even fats and oils used in cooking. For Kings, food costs rose more than $560,000 above the previous year.

The article focuses on chain restaurants, which have greater flexibility in dealing with rising prices. The indies have to be feeling it that much worse. There have been numerous reports about the skyrocketing costs of wheat. But costs for everything are going up.

However, there could be sort of a silver lining to all of this, at least in terms of America’s bulging belt line.

Take the "senior menu" at Eat'n Park. It's never been just for seniors, Mr. O'Connell said, because anyone could order from it, but in February the chain turned it into a "smaller portion" menu. Someone who wants the Rosemary Chicken but wants just one chicken breast can get that.

"It's really, 'Hey, here's another way for people to save money,' " he said.

Kings is approaching desserts in the same way. "Our desserts were huge," said Mr. Whalen. In the past couple of years, the chain has been offering mini-desserts for those who want just a taste.

And, finally, it’s been a while. But this week’s Fast Food Abomination of the Week goes to… Quiznos, for its Prime Rib Ranchero: with loads of meat, pepper jack cheese, and chipotle mayo. I believe this is the second time Quizno's has secured this honor.

I couldn’t find the nutritional information for Quizno’s entire menu on its Web site, but I did find some examples of healthy Quizno’s eating here.

Among some of the highlights: As of November 2007, Quizno's large tuna melt has over 2,000 calories and 175 grams of fat! And what is probably the closest relative to the Ranchero, the large Prime Rib Cheesesteak Sub, has 1,770 calories and 116 grams of fat.

Those numbers speak for themselves.

A Salad

The dreary last days, if we’re lucky here in western Pennsylvania, of winter are really starting to get to me. I'm yearning for sunlight and t-shirts!

This arugula salad is something we might typically have as part of a late dinner on a spring evening, after the kids have gone to bed, along with a grilled steak rubbed in a good extra-virgin olive oil, salt, pepper, and a healthy dose of fresh herbs. We actually ate it Sunday with some leftover pizza (for which a small portion of said arugula had, the night before, been a topping, along with fresh mozzarella, caramelized onions, and prosciutto).

Now, you could save yourself a little trouble and use raw red onions. However, the red onions I have had this winter have been almost unbearably strong. I have a theory about why this is the case.

Several years ago I watched an episode of “Good Eats” all about onions on the evil network. Alton Brown claimed that, as a defense mechanism to ward off hungry vegetable predators, onions release a chemical irritant when they are cut. I have noticed, however, that the onions we get from the CSA rarely bother my eyes when I cut them. Yet, I am regularly reduced to a wincing Wendy when dicing or slicing grocery-store onions.

My theory: onions grown by massive, factory farming operations are bathing in what I can only assume is heavily abused soil, rife with chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This hostile environment pumps up their defense mechanisms, causing them to be hyperactive and unleash their toxic fury on unsuspecting home cooks everywhere.

The onions from our local farm, however, are not bullied by chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and thus are a more tranquil veg, more than happy to be part of a avocado and tomato salad or rest upon the top of a grass-fed beef burger.

I have no idea if this has any scientific validity whatsoever. Nevertheless, long story short, for this salad, I let the heat do some work on my red onions.

Baby Arugula Salad with Lemony-Oregano Vinaigrette

• Half cup of walnuts, roughly chopped
• Big bowl of baby arugula
• 1 cup of thinly sliced red onions
• Pecorino Romano
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 3-4 tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon of oregano, finely chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste

Turn oven to 325 degrees.

Combine lemon juice with oregano, salt, and pepper. Whisk in half-cup (or more) of olive oil. Lemon flavor should be strong, but not overwhelming.

Toast the walnuts in the oven for 3-5 minutes.

Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium heat. After a minute or two, add onions and sauté for 5-10 minutes, until onions are soft and beginning to brown/caramelize.

Sprinkle walnuts and onions over arugula, shave a healthy amount of pecorino over top, and toss with about two-thirds of the dressing. (NOTE: The salad should not be drenched in dressing.) Serve immediately.

A Losing Battle

I’ve been entirely remiss lately with the frequency of my posts. There’s been so much going on that it’s been difficult to pick which ones to devote some time to, and, in the end, indecision and laziness prevail.

Well, that, and when you write as part of your day-job, sometimes the thought of banging away on a keyboard into the evening—after you’ve scrambled to get a child to tae kwon-do; made, scarfed down, and cleaned up dinner; given kids baths; put kids to bed; made kids’ lunches for the next day; done a little laundry; paid some bills; and who knows what else—offers little appeal.

Anyway, I guess you could say that there’s a theme to the two following stories. And that theme would be: Our government stinks. When it comes to food policy in this country, legislators and the current administration will pay lip service to things like good nutrition and supporting “family farmers,” but where the seeds meet the soil, they almost uniformly side with the powerful interests working against these important objectives.

For example, there was a great op-ed in Sunday’s New York Times by Jack Hedin, who runs a small organic farm in Minnesota. Mr. Hedin explained how, to meet increased demand for his organic fruits and veggies, he rented some land from another farmer who raised only commodity crops.

But the arrangement ran into some problems with the Feds, namely the USDA’s Farm Service Agency, which manages the massive U.S. farm subsidies program:

The commodity farm program effectively forbids farmers who usually grow corn or the other four federally subsidized commodity crops (soybeans, rice, wheat and cotton) from trying fruit and vegetables. Because my watermelons and tomatoes had been planted on “corn base” acres, the Farm Service said, my landlords were out of compliance with the commodity program.

I’ve discovered that typically, a farmer who grows the forbidden fruits and vegetables on corn acreage not only has to give up his subsidy for the year on that acreage, he is also penalized the market value of the illicit crop, and runs the risk that those acres will be permanently ineligible for any subsidies in the future. (The penalties apply only to fruits and vegetables — if the farmer decides to grow another commodity crop, or even nothing at all, there’s no problem.) [emphasis added]

In one sense, I can understand where the Feds are coming from. The farmer from whom the land is being rented is, I guess, double dipping: getting paid by the government to grow only corn or, worse yet, nothing on his land, and then renting out that land and getting paid again.

The problem, however, is the same: No incentive to grow fruits and vegetables, but you get paid to grow corn and soy and other crops so that mega-corporations like Tyson or Pepsi have access to cheap feed for chickens or high fructose corn syrup for soda.

And it gets worse. Mr. Hedin?

The federal farm program is making it next to impossible for farmers to rent land to me to grow fresh organic vegetables.

Why? Because national fruit and vegetable growers based in California, Florida and Texas fear competition from regional producers like myself. Through their control of Congressional delegations from those states, they have been able to virtually monopolize the country’s fresh produce markets.

Last year, Midwestern lawmakers proposed an amendment to the farm bill that would provide some farmers, though only those who supply processors, with some relief from the penalties that I’ve faced — for example, a soybean farmer who wanted to grow tomatoes would give up his usual subsidy on those acres but suffer none of the other penalties. However, the Congressional delegations from the big produce states made the death of what is known as Farm Flex their highest farm bill priority, and so it appears to be going nowhere, except perhaps as a tiny pilot program.

I’m sorry. I thought Congress worked for the people, not big companies. Silly me.

Or, in an absolutely expected development, President Bush’s final budget of his reign of terror administration has eliminated the funding for Pasture Systems and Watershed Research Unit at Penn State.

This is a big deal for research into things like sustainable farming, keeping waterways safe from runoff, etc. As a letter from the researchers about the situation explains:

Unless Congress acts to restore the $4.42 million allocation in support of the University Park location, the entire research program will be terminated and all 45 scientist and support staff positions will be abolished.

The research program at University Park seeks to develop profitable and sustainable animal, crop, and bioenergy producing enterprises while maintaining the quality of ground and surface waters. The loss of this research unit would end cutting edge research on nutrient management, forage and grazing land management, water quality, integrated farming systems, and bioenergy cropping systems for the northeastern U.S.

I believe Sam Fromartz, proprietor of ChewsWise, summed it up best:

In light of the growing demand for grass-fed meat and pasture-based dairy farming in the northeast, I find it incredible that this program is being killed. We need more research into sustainable agriculture, not less.

But then we wouldn’t be able to offer $5.1 billion more in commodity crop subsidies, would we?

Excuse me while I go vomit.

Bob’s Yer Uncle

I know there are those (cough, cough… Tony Bourdain) who think he’s a bit too cheeky, a bloody fool, or perhaps some other British insult. But I happen to like Jamie Oliver, particularly his recent emphasis on supporting local, sustainable products—even though some (not me) might find his tactics a bit extreme.

I liked his old show on the Food Network -- even though the premise of always having some different friends coming over for this or that meal was annoying -- and I was pissed when it got canceled so those genius network execs could make way for more Rachel and Paula and Big Headed, cleavage-laden Italian gal.

So, I was really happy when I saw that he had a new show, even though it's on the same said evil network. And I really enjoy it. No false premises or goofy contrivances. Instead, he simply picks something from his ridiculous gardens or a local farm to highlight as the theme ingredient for each show: eggs, rhubarb, chiles, and so on.

The theme ingredient for one of my favorite episodes was the mushroom. The episode opened with Jamie and his chef pal, Genarro (sp?), tromping through nearby woods engaging in daring acts of mycology. Using some freshly picked porcinis, they used a small camping stove to make a mushroom bruschetta that looked quite remarkable (and it wasn’t even in HD!).

So I decided I’d try to duplicate it. I watched that segment from the show a second time and made it as an appetizer for a recent Sunday family dinner (and again tonight to accompany some straciatella).

It was one of the best things I’ve ever made. Now, granted, that’s not necessarily saying that much. But, nevertheless, do this right, and I guarantee the final product will elicit moans of delight. That, or your money back.

Note that there are no real measurements here, just some general guidance, which makes it a little bit of an adventure.

BTW, Sir Oliver also is the genesis of “Bob’s Yer Uncle.” I guess it means “That’s f#$@ing good!”

Mushroom Bruschetta (Adapted from Jamie at Home, “Mushrooms”)

• Thinly sliced bread suitable for bruschetta, such as ciabatta
• 2 packages of wild mushrooms, or 2 cups of chopped assorted mushrooms (baby bellas, shitake, crimini, etc., but NOT white buttons)
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Butter
• Crushed red pepper
• Fresh thyme
• Lemon, cut in half
• Salt & pepper
• Small glass of water

Crank up the oven and toast the bread slices (on a lower heat if you just want crispy bread, broil if you want it a little darker)

Put two swirls of olive oil in either a 10-inch saute pan or a larger saute pan, and turn the heat to medium-high.

When the pan is hot, 1-2 minutes, put in a handful or two of mushrooms. [NOTE: The key to success is not to crowd the pan. If the pan is jammed full with mushrooms, Jamie explained, the mushrooms will release all of their liquid and the dish will be runny. So regardless of the pan size, just be sure that each bit of mushroom pretty much has the room to lay flat of its own accord (at least that’s the formula I’ve been using).

Give the mushrooms a toss or two, add a healthy pinch of salt and pepper and a dash or two of crushed red pepper. Let them cook for a minute or two. Give the mushrooms another toss, and add some thyme from two or three thyme stems.

Toss again, let the mushrooms cook for another minute or so. When they’re getting soft, add a nice hunk of butter, maybe 1 tablespoon for a small pan and two if you’re going with a larger pan to avoid having to do batches. (Personally, I like doing the batches.)

Give the mushrooms another toss or two, and over the next minute or so, watch the whole thing get creamy. If you’d like it to be a little more saucy, add just like a teaspoon to a tablespoon of water and let it cook for another minute. Squeeze in about 10 drops of lemon juice, give one final toss, and it’s ready to eat.

Put a spoonful or two on each slice of bread, and be sure to get a little sauce on each slice.