Life Begins at 30

Review: The Slow Food Guide to San Francisco

You may be interested in reading my latest post for Bay Area Bites which is a review of the new book "The Slow Food Guide to San Francisco." 

Here's an excerpt:

I found the content of the book and the restaurant reviews to mainly be engaging and fair. Many of the contributors are names that you may be familiar with: Meredith Brody, Bruce Cole, Kim Severson, and Jan Newberry are just a few of over 50 Bay Area writers who contributed to this book. Descriptions tend toward story-telling. For instance, I learned the history of Cowgirl Creamery, the number of jars of jam that June Taylor makes in a year -- all with her stovetop kettle (answer: 20,000), and how Zuni Cafe is like a long-term, monogamous relationship.

You can read the rest of the review here.

Where's Jen?

I have been at the Eco-Farm conference this week!  It has really been amazing to hear the stories of farmers who are making big changes in this world.  The general vibe and enthusiasm for farming that I have seen is completely invigorating and fun to be around.  I'll have lots more to talk about in the upcoming weeks.  In the meantime, check out this article.  I saw Anna Marie Carter speak yesterday, and she blew me away.  She is doing astounding things in Watts, California and we need to know her story. 

Fast Company: The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart

... Wal-Mart sets the pace, even if you're not working for them.

Very interesting article in Fast Company this month about Jim Wier, CEO of Simplicity - a company that makes lawn mowers.  The article walks through his company's decision to stop selling product to Wal-Mart, and the reasons why.

Wier's company is known for making lawn mowers that are passed down from father to son -- they are high quality and last for years and years.  Wier reconsidered selling lawn mowers at Wal-Mart when his company had to change that strategy in order to create low-cost models required by Wal-Mart executives.

If you know nothing about maintaining a mower, Wal-Mart has helped make that ignorance irrelevant: At even $138, the lawn mowers at Wal-Mart are cheap enough to be disposable. Use one for a season, and if you can't start it the next spring (Wal-Mart won't help you out with that), put it at the curb and buy another one.

That kind of pricing changes not just the economics at the low end of the lawn-mower market, it changes expectations of customers throughout the market. Why would you buy a walk-behind mower from Snapper that costs $519? What could it possibly have to justify spending $300 or $400 more?

Read here. (via kottke)

Jen's Mom

This is my mom, Olivia.  Those of you who read comments on the blogs of my friends Shuna, Sam and Cookiecrumb may know her as "Jen's mom."

I think it all started when I was visiting mom a few months back.  It was early in the morning and she was still in her pajamas.  I went in to say hi to her and she excitedly told me, "I left a comment on 'I'm Mad and I Eat' and she wrote back!".  I had a knot in my stomach as I realized my worlds were colliding, and I looked over her shoulder to read a rather benign comment about the royals coming to the Pt. Reyes farmers' market. 

There were several things about this that cracked me up -- I knew that mom looked at blogs every once in a while, but I didn't know how regularly she was reading some blogs.  Also her handle - "jen's mom" - as if I am the only "jen" on the planet.  I often comment on blogs as "jen," but I only feel I can do that because I include a link to my blog which makes it obvious which of the many (many many) jen's I am. 

The next time I saw one of mom's comments on a blog was in the litany of get well wishes that Fred received on Sam's blog when he wasn't well. 

Fred! Mystery solved! I just took a peek at what you've been eating! "BRAT diet for you," says an American mom, "Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, Toast"....just kidding. I'm jealous. Be better. Sam, caregivers give better care when fortified with French wine.
Happy ending to you both.

I was innocently reading through the comments and realized that the advice for a BRAT diet sounded familiar.  By the time I read the advice to Sam to drink wine I didn't even have to read the handle to know that my mom had struck again.

Around this time, I noticed a real shift with mom.  She would insert bloggers' names into regular conversations with me.  Whenever we were talking about blogs, she would have a little piece of paper and take notes on new blogs I was telling her about.  "Did you see what happened to the Food Whore and that Bridezilla," she would ask in the same breath as "have you called your grandparents?" 

"How do you find these blogs?" I asked her one day.  "From Food Porn Watch, of course."  She admitted that she is hooked on many of them and astonished that so many blogs feature such compelling writing. 

The coolest was when I received a note from her the other day.  She included a quote -- not from Walt Whitman or from Shakespeare or the Bible ... but from Shuna:

We preserve people by making the dishes they taught us. Dishes they loved, were proud of, gave us permission to start making when their hands stopped working. Sharing food with others is about tradition. About a desire to reach in and pull close. About re-remembering. Closing our eyes and taking us there.

I am really glad that she is a part of this blog world.  I love that she reads the same blogs that I do, but brings her own perspective to the posts.  I love that she noticed the amazingness in Shuna's blog post about cooking and intentionality, while I read it and loved it but moved on quickly and forgot about it in my backlog of bloglines feeds.  So if you ever receive a comment on your blog from the vague handle "jen's mom" just know that it's my mom and she is having so much fun reading your blog.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John - Back in Theaters

Last year, I reported about seeing the movie The Real Dirt on Farmer John - the documentary movie about an organic farmer outside of Chicago.  The movie is going to be shown on several theaters throughout the nation, and here in the Bay Area will include Q&A sessions by Farmer John and director Taggart Siegel.  See the list below or look here for further details.

CHICAGO - Friday, January 20.  Esquire 6 Theater at 58 East Oak St. Farmer John and Director Taggart Siegel in attendance for Q & A following the film.

MINNEAPOLIS - Friday, January 20. Regal Brooklyn Center 20 Theatre at 6420 Camden Avenue North in Brooklyn Center Farmer John and Director Taggart Siegel in attendance for Q & A following the film on Saturday January 21st.

Friday, January 20. Crown Block E 15 at 600 Hennepin Avenue Minneapolis

SAN FRANCISCO - Opening Night on Friday, January 27. Presidio Theater at 2340 Chestnut St. Farmer John in attendance for Q & A following the film on Opening Night. (415) 776-2388

BERKELEY - Opening Night on Friday, January 27. Shattuck Landmark Theater at 2230 Shattuck Avenue Director Taggart Siegel in attendance for Q & A following the film on Opening Night.

SANTA CRUZ - Opening Night on Friday, January 27. The Nickelodeon Theater at 210 Lincoln Street

SANTA ROSA - Opening Night on Friday, January 27. The Rialto Lakeside at 551 Summerfield Road

SAN RAFAEL - Opening Night on Friday, January 27. The Rafael Film Center at 1118 Fourth Street

PORTLAND - Opening Night on Saturday, January 28 at 5:00 pm. Cinema 21 at 616 NW 21st Avenue Farmer John and Director Taggart Siegel in attendance for Q & A following the film on Opening Night. Scheduled to run February 1 – February 9

SAN DIEGO - Opening Night on Friday, February 10. Mission Valley Cinemas (Hazard Center) at 7510 Hazard Center Drive

DEL MAR - Opening Night on Friday, February 10. Flower Hill Theater at 2630 Via De La Valle

TEMPE - Opening Night on Friday, February 24. Valley Art

DENVER - Opening Night on Friday, February 24. Cherry Creek 8 at 3000 East 1st Avenue

BOULDER - Opening Night on Friday, February 24. United Artists Village Theater at 2525 Arapahoe Avenue

SANTA MONICA - Opening Night on Friday, March 10. The Laemmle Santa Monica at 1332 Second Street

WEST HOLLYWOOD - Opening Night on Friday, March 10. Sunset 5 at 8000 Sunset Boulevard

PASADENA - Opening Night on Friday, March 10. Pasadena Playhouse 7 at 673 E Colorado Boulevard

ORANGE COUNTY - Opening Night on Friday, March 10. Edwards University Town Center 6 at 4245 Campus Drive (949) 854-8818

New Year's Eve - Washoku style

Jason and I have a New Years' Eve tradition that I often fear makes us sound boring, but it is such a wonderful way to take a deep breath after the hustle of the holidays and to ring in the new year: we stay home and cook together.  I don't know how this started, but we did it the first year we were dating and it has continued ever since.

This year, Jason had just bought me Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen (Ten Speed Press) and we planned the entire meal from recipes from this book.  If you have any interest in replicating Japanese cooking at home, I suggest you check out a copy of this beautiful book. 

Each recipe that we made from it was a success and I feel that it has so much to teach me.  The book has a chapter on "The Washoku Pantry" that's greatly informative.  The author, Elizabeth Andoh, recognizes her audience and not only gives a thorough explanation of an ingredient, but she tells how to choose it at a store, what to look for, and gives the reader sources for finding it.  She also gives recognition to a traditional way of cooking, while also giving shortcuts if you don't have the time.  The fish that we made had a recipe for traditional marinating which involved 2-3 days of marination, and an "impatient marinade", which we used, requiring a few hours.

The principles of washoku cooking are designed to create harmony and balance in a meal - in taste, aesthetics, and methodology.  One of the ways that you can create balance is through the colors of your food - balancing white, black, yellow, red, and green.  Using this principle, we decided on the following menu:

Miso soup with mushrooms
Watermelon radish with two salts
Whole fish marinated in miso
Sweet potatoes simmered with kombu and soy sauce
White rice with black sesame seeds

Each recipe was slightly adapted to our own style of cooking.  For instance, Ms. Andoh's recipe for fish was for fillets, but we adapted it to be used for whole fish - a dorado from Ports Seafood at the Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market.  The white rice I originally wanted to make had an ingredient called zakkoku mai which I couldn't find, so I substituted black sesame seeds.

The radishes with salt were a revelation.  We chose to make two salts from the book: kuro goma salt made by mixing salt with toasted black sesame seeds, and ao nori salt made by mixing salt with ao nori - a marine alga that is harvested from shallow ocean beds and dried.  Both were delicious in very different ways -- I was partial to the earthiness of the ao nori salt, and Jason preferred the roasty, toasty taste of the kuro goma.  I could see these salts becoming a regular part of our cooking, as I could imagine that they would be delicious on tofu, noodles, rice, and many other foods.

Going into 2006 in true Life Begins at 30 style, many of the ingedients we used for this meal were from local vendors.  I posted on Bay Area Bites this week about our trip to the farmers' market to purchase ingredients for this meal.  We used:

• Black sesame seeds from Full Belly Farm
• Watermelon radish from Heirloom Organics
• Mushrooms from Far West Fungi
• Sweet potatoes from Eatwell Farm
• Lemons from Jason's mom's house

Other blogs discussing Washoku: Recipes from the Japanese Home Kitchen:

Hanashi Station  |  Superchef Blog  |  Brooklyn Washoku  |  Cooking for Margy

Check her out, she's a finalist!

Friend and fellow blogger Jeanne mentioned on her site today that she is a finalist for this month's "Cook the Cover" contest hosted by Gourmet magazine.  She entered her "Black and Tan" cookie recipe.  If she wins, she gets to go to the Gourmet Institute in New York!

Will you please go and vote for her (select the text that says "click here and vote")?  In Jeanne's words:

Well, color me black and tan!  I'm one of three finalists for this month's Cook the Cover competition at Gourmet Magazine! I know can you believe it?  I can't, really I can't. It's brilliant. 

Some of you will remember this as my entry into this year's IMBB/Cookie Swap. On a complete whim  I decided to enter them into the publication's monthly reader event.  I was certain that my entry would be one of hundreds if not thousands of possible entries.

So here's what I'd like to ask--because although right now as of 7amPST I am in first place with 40% of the voting. However we all know one should never rest until the work is done. After all the Linzers are right on my tail.  I need your support through a daily vote!  Simply vote by going to here  and click on the text next to the big photo that reads--"We've chosen our December finalists." Click the the first entry to activate your vote for my recipe entitled "Black and Tan."

The winner's recipe will be published in a future issue.  There's also an all expense paid trip to the Gourmet Institute in New York City.  Do I get to meet Ruth? Do I?!

Ohmigawd. Ohmigawd. Breathe. Breathe.  Please vote daily! THANKS! Winner is announced on January 18--my parent's 42nd wedding anniversary.

Congratulations, Emily Avila!

Congratulations to Emily who won the prints that we offered up for the Menu for Hope raffle.  Emily lives in Santa Cruz.  Her husband is a chef at Soif Wine Bar - check it out if you're ever in the area. 

This was such a fun event -- it raised a whopping $17,101.32.  Thanks to everyone who participated.