In the true spirit of this blog, which if you haven't noticed is a spirit with itchy panties and marshmallow fluff at the same time, I'm going to release the random photos on my phone. As as you know, I make no claim to being the daughter of some fancy food photographer...though I am.

The gene pool is an odd force.

I'm doing this because tons of photos in one post makes Sherwin's day really sunny and he was the host of the most this week when I showed up with the Other Heather at his house on the Jersey Shore.

He made us lunch and made us feel like queens. Not the borough. The other kind.

So here we go:

I had this great idea to show how the horrible details of our food system live right next to all of us out there that are trying really hard to eat clean, traceable food in some sort of weird harmony. It's a loud, raucus harmony but it is there.

Here is a photo taken a block from my house:

I took it while on my way to a baby shower that was held in a community center smack in the middle of New York City. And much to my delight, it had a theme of bees and honey.  The father-to-bee (as they reminded us) had bee hives on his roof in Bedford Stuyvesant.

How great that this was next to the cake:

And yet with my blog post about all the good farmy things going on in Atlanta, my wonderful host educated me about (drumroll, please)...

Redneck Crackers and pimento cheese:

Those are Ritz crackers soaked with canola oil, ranch dressing and hot sauce with pimento cheese.  Homemade pimento cheese. It's addicting and terrifying all at once.

So then one day I was sure the world was conspiring against me to get my daughter to eat her body weight in sugar. No, I don't count granules and as someone who became a pastry chef strictly for the reason that I was told I couldn't have a cookie....ever, I'm pretty chill about it.

But one day someone, who shall remain nameless, brought my 3 year old to the Doughnut Plant and gave her a chocolate doughnut. She was going to visit my mother and for that entire visit she was lethargic and wouldn't eat anything for the rest of the day.

Lesson learned.

But I got freaked out because all the other adults were freaked out and when I texted the babysitter the next day to see how they were, I got this photo:

Really, no big deal. The baby sitter is very careful about feeding her and a treat is a treat. Some how everyone else's vibe pushed me over the edge and I started making what I now call Crazy Mother's Veggie Burgers (because somewhere in my brain, this would stop all wars and create world peace).

Recipe

1 can organic chickpeas

1 handful finely chopped swiss chard

1 cup cooked quinoa

2 cloves garlic

1/2 onion

worsteshire sauce

organic garlic powder

salt and pepper

First caramelize the onions. As you can see here, the Indian cuisine is still in my blood.  The darker the caramelization, the richer the flavor. The traditional western cook might throw these out.  I covet them. 

Throw in the garlic and let cook.

Put all the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse.

I like it with with some texture.  I let my daughter be in charge of the pulse button. There was no self control there. It was smoother than I liked but tasty.

Shape into burger and cook as you would any other burger.

Getting back to random photos, each year through the restaurant we do a dinner for the Women's Campaign Fund. Chefs get paired up with patrons of the organization and cook in their fabulous homes. This year we got to cook in the only full eco home in New York City.  It was a great event. The host let us do a very casual buffet of our farm-to-table food.

Here is her back yard:

Here is our awesome waitstaff getting ready for the guests to arrive

My kitchen staff prepping:

One of the hors d'ouvres. Yes, you can make anything traceable.

The buffet:

Another hors d'ouvre: Cauliflower soup with pickled ramp and uni.

I wish I had some more photos of this one but I'm a little protective of customer's privacy. Peter Max was there.  Extreme vegan.  Should have gotten him to write on my arm or something.

Life went on and here's one of the breakfasts that got thrown into life:

Breakfast at Jack's Wife Freda

I was at Jack's Wife Freda. It's on Lafayette.

It was my new favorite restaurant until I went to NoMad today. At NoMad they have two vegetable entrees. This by no means means that they are vegetarian. Here is the roasted carrots with cumin, wheatberries and crispy duck skin:

I could eat this forever. It was unbelieveable. I felt sated and happy.  And sadly, I felt that I was better than anyone else because I didn't pick a heavy protein as my entree. Petty, I know.

The lamb I had for dinner made up for it.