I'd like to start this end-of-the-year post with a little good news and end it with a recipe.

The good news is smart, exciting and as Time Magazine made The Protester the person of the year, this good news will lend itself to that.

India is suing Monsanto.

Yes, you read it right.

The country many consider to be stuck back in caveman times with it's crazy divide between the crazy rich and the crazy poor has gotten up and made us look a little silly.

I'm loving it.

Monsanto has been going into India and taking samples of their indiginous vegetables to create GMOs for the Indian population in America.

Quite simply, India isn't going to take it anymore.

And neither should we.

See here:

www.wakeup-world.com/2011/10/11/indian-government-files-biopiracy-lawsuit-against-monsanto/

Moving on, this last year has brought me the project of Delicious America, the show and online video project about people, food and sustainability I've been creating with Sherwin.  We haven't released anything yet but we're well on our way. Once we get the nerve, we'll be posting some of our video pieces on this blog. Get your traceable popcorn and a bean bag chair.  3 minutes of heaven, I tell you.

Which in turn brought me this blog and the drive for traceable food.

So thank you all you people out there who have been reading this blog, sending your thoughts, ideas and support.

The world is at once going to Hell in a handbasket (always wanted to use that phrase. It just slays me.) and is getting greener all the time. Sometimes it tough to tell if things are getting worse (just watch TV), if they've never been that bad in the first place or perhaps getting better than they're lettling on (just watch TV).

In the meantime, I'll concentrate on the home kitchen, with a bit of info on my work kitchen----the lines blur occasionally----and hopefully we'll all learn or just be mildly entertained. 

So, here's my fridge as of yesterday:

This is what happens if you do it remotely well....or lots of people give you stuff in jars for the holidays. No big mystery, you're looking at the latter.

Full of stuff.  Lots of it traceable. Some of it not really but we're working on it.

Or I'm working on it....that's the glitch.  But I'm on my way. The packaged part of the groceries has been knocked down by 75% at least. And we don't do regular mainstream packaged food as it is.

We just trusted the crazy people with the "organic" stamp to give us good food.

That relationship is over.

It's tough with the work/family/life dynamic to do it whole hog.  I hear there are people that are really good at it.  Kudos.  But I've seen what they settle on sometimes and unless they're living on a farm, they're human too.  So don't beat yourself up.

So unproductive.

Ultimately, what I've found is that it's the simple things that make the difference in the home kitchen.

It's the simple things....but what I wouldn't do for caviar and a shot of vodka. Local, of course.

It's having the snack back-up, the stuff in the fridge and pantry that's ready for a quick bite.  Yes, I had this bread in the freezer cut and ready to go. (I can't give enough shout outs to Bobolink and the jam is from Anarchy In A Jar . I'm not one to love jam/jellies/conserve but holy s***, this made me a believer.

Proteins and dinner items (veg, etc) can be easily picked up on the way home.  We can't all get to  the farmer's market but there are hormone, free range options all the time now.

I find meat the hardest thing to stay on top of.  Partly because of the schlepping around town early in the AM on my way to work and partly because it's expensive and there are fewer meat vendors than the other farmers.  So I give myself some leeway. Though I will say, it's so important to watch the meat you eat, if you eat meat.  SO important.

Here's a sample of what I threw together when I was driving myself crazy about the meat topic last week:

Kale, red quinoa and chicken soup. (look closely for the soup)

Why drive myself crazy?  Dunno.  Why get pissed at Big Food for poisoning us? Just a glutton for punishment, I guess.

I've rambled on long enough.

In the new year, we'll be seeing recipes and info to more favorite food sources. And if we get the cajones, some Delicious America footage.

Happy New Year, everybody!

Here's a great photo of a traceable breakfast and the recipe for the artichoke relish follows.

xox

Heather

Local eggs sunnyside up, artichoke relish from friends in Atlanta, local Brebis Blanche cheese, and baguette

RECIPE: Artichoke Relish (inspired by Woody Brooks, Atl.)

• 1 garlic clove

• 11/2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

• 1/4 teaspoon Dijon mustard

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 roasted red peppers, rinsed, patted dry, and cut crosswise into thin strips

• 1 (6-oz) jar marinated artichoke hearts, rinsed, patted dry, and coarsely chopped (I do use fresh artichokes, cut out the hearts, cook them in chicken stock to tender but really, no pressure.  There are great canned artichokes at farmer's markets and healthfood stores)

• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Mince garlic and mash to a paste with a pinch of salt, then transfer to a bowl. Whisk in vinegar, mustard, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon pepper, and sugar. Add 2 tablespoons oil in a slow stream, whisking until mixture is emulsified. Stir in roasted peppers, artichokes, and basil, then add salt and pepper to taste.

The other day I received an e-mail. I don't know where it came from or what they were telling me I was supporting but it was from General Mills.  They went on to tell me how great ready-to-eat cereals were for us.  Our children too.

Here's what they said:

Thank you for your email regarding the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (CFBAI), and for your positive comments about our products.

Your email also encourages support for the very different approach suggested by the Interagency Working Group (IWG). Please allow me to respond, as we do have serious concerns with the IWG proposal.

Our most advertised product is cereal – and we stand behind it. Cereal is one of the healthiest breakfast choices you can make. Ready-to-eat cereal has fewer calories than almost any other common breakfast option. Cereal eaters also consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters.

Childhood obesity is a serious issue – and General Mills wants to be part of the solution. But if the issue is obesity, cereal should perhaps be advertised more, not less. Because frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights – including people who choose sweetened cereals. It’s true of men. It’s true of women. It’s true of kids.

Data published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, based on the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services’ National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), found that frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights overall, and that includes kids who eat sweetened cereals. To be precise, kids who eat four to seven servings of cereal over a 14-day period are less likely to be overweight than kids who eat fewer than four servings of cereal. Kids who eat cereal more frequently, or more than seven times in 14 days, are even less likely to be overweight.

A separate study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association followed 2,000 American girls over a 10-year period. It also found that girls who demonstrated a consistent cereal-eating pattern had healthier body weights and lower body mass index (BMI) than those who did not.

Really? Who believes this?  This is the reason I ending up knee-deep in finding out where our food comes from. Sadly, as I go, it gets more alarming.  How can our bodies keep up with nature if what we put in it strays so far from the way we're supposed to feed them? We are the richest and sickest nation in the world.

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know I've brought up the issue of "Round Up Ready" flour.   Many grains and plants fall under "round-up ready" and it's almost all the flour and grains that we eat when we don't know directly where they come from.

Round Up is an herbicide that Monsanto created in the 1970's.  It kills everything but the seed.  It leaves a powerful residue on the seed and therefore, the plant.

For more a more technical  explanation:

*Glyphosate (roundup) chelates (immobilizes) a tremendous number of soil minerals, reducing plant uptakes of some micronutrients by as much as 80%. Calcium, cobalt, copper, iron, manganese, magnesium, nickel, zinc — all are bound up by glyphosate. While it is rapidly immobilized in the soil because it binds with those nutrients, glyphosate can remain in plants and soils for a very long time — up to 22 years in clay soils.

Alarming, no?

And it gets better.  Round up has been proven to cause miscarriages in every labratory animal it's been tested on. 

I can't stress enough the need to find out where our food comes from.  We as a country do everything we can to grow more, make more food as cheaply as possible.  Yet we have starving children in every major city as well as an enormous amount of wasted food daily.

By supporting farmers, you support yourself.  It is preventative medicine.  The amount of money going into the healthcare field as well as Big Pharm is directly related to how we allow our food to be handled.

Doing something about this is easy.  I don't expect you to run through the street screaming like I do.  It's a bad idea on a rainy day and my family is finding it embarrassing.

But you can take good baby steps and think twice.  Buy one small thing at a farmer's market, take note of the food you eat and how you feel afterwards. 

Or just spend your life savings on buying a farm and go for broke. 

Note my attempt at humor.

For more information on the health risks of GMOs (genetically modified organisms)

go to: http://www.responsibletechnology.org/gmo-dangers/65-health-risks/1notes

Footnotes: *http://healthimpactnews.com/2011/the-dangers-of-roundup-ready-food/

I've been crazy with the holiday rush.  Parties at work, double the reservations and feeling about as un-holiday as possible. Up to my eyeballs with making things that look like this:

Choco buche

I'd like to note here that a good percentage of what you see in the photo is traceable. Not enough for my taste.  It's a tough fight.

Traceable items:

flour

butter

water

chocolate

cocoa

heavy cream

hazelnuts.

I'm especially proud of the flour. It's been a big change in such a big restaurant kitchen. And honestly, the product is SO MUCH better.  Jeez.

This one: Lemon buche

Not as much.

It's the lemon that got tricky. We could get traceable lemons but that runs us a lot of money. Remember, in a restaurant lemons are everywhere.   Tons at the bar, in sauces, desserts and then we're in a hotel.  So yes, room service.  We trace that food as well. Northeast U.S.=no citrus locally.

Big note to my locally based readers:  This Sunday is the last New Amsterdam Marketof the season. It's going to be a doozie.  The theme of the day is fish. So there will be fish mongers and chefs on hand to sell, demo and talk about local fish and what you can trace.

Other key vendors I'm terribly fond of to check out:  Pie Corps: greatest savory pies ever, Bent Spoon: amazing ice cream. Amazing., Liddabit Sweets, local sources confections (like everything  you crave), and my good friends Food and Water Watch out there making sure we still have both.

There are a ton of other vendors there that I like. These are just a few to get you to get your butt down there tomorrow and stock up.

There are also a lot of prepared food so you can hang out and eat and pretend you're at a San Fran farmers only it will actually be cold and wet and really feel like it's Christmas.

Here's one of my favorite eggplant recipes.  Just a reminder that many local farmers use greenhouses this time of year. This one if for ease. Eggplant, spices, salt. That's it and it's so good.

Recipe: Eggplant Curry

Ingredients

5# Japanese eggplant

4 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp chili powder

½ tsp dried mango powder

2 T salt

2 T chopped cilantro

Method

1. Wash eggplant. Cut into 1” pieces on the diagonal

2. Heat oil, add eggplant. Add all of the spices and salt. Cover and cook until eggplant is tender.

3. Finish with cilantro.

I've been asked to develop a recipe for a packaged pancake mix.

I know, Packaged.

The concept is a completely traceable, farm-to-table, ready to cook mix.

So, the owner of the company gave me the mix that they like the texture of the best. It caused me to do something I never do: wake up and make pancakes.

I don't think my daughter has ever had pancakes before. Don't feel bad for her, she's had better food than most adults in the short time she's been on Earth.  I also happen to subscribe to the idea that protein is the best way to eat early in the day.

So, here I am with a box of mix.  Mind you, it is all natural, whole grain, buckwheat pancake mix:

Box of mix with favorite take-out menu stategically placed over brand name. So clever.

A little milk and a couple of eggs and we've got batter.

Batter. Hard not to give in to the world of mixes.

This may seem silly to you but I was strangely thrilled at how easy it was.

And then it scared the crap out of me.  Too, too easy.

And where did that flour come from anyway?

Guilt filled me.

And then I remembered I was getting paid for this gig and I felt better.

Morals are shaky things, aren't they.

So, anyway, a little butter (if you see the brand in this photo, it was my husband's purchase. I figured, hey, I'm cooking from a mix, all caution to the wind...)

I don't think I've made pancakes at home in years. Butter is always the deal breaker.

And voila!  you've got pancakes.

Keep coming back. You still won't find Martha-quality photos.

No surprise, my kid loved them. Starch with syrup.  Shocker.

Or even stoned Martha-quality photos.

I was not so thrilled.  The texture was fluffy but not really great.

Of course, this was buckwheat cut with whole wheat. The amount of fluff is limited. The assignment is to have the pancakes fluffy. I'm more of a crispy edge, tender middle pancaker.

Here was the final product:  (and again, the bananas are not on my list as I haven't the faintest idea where they came from)

Portrait of the artist as pancakes.

Flavor was okay.  I think we can do better. Let you know when it hits the shelves.

In the meantime, I've been moved to start making pancakes at home.  Real ones.

Here's my favorite recipe.  Ricotta is key.....it always is.

4 large eggs, separated

1 1/3 cups ricotta

1 1/2 tablespoons sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons freshly grated lemon zest

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

In a bowl whisk together the egg yolks, the ricotta, the sugar, and the zest, add the flour, and stir the mixture until it is just combined. In a bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they hold stiff peaks, whisk about one fourth of them into the ricotta mixture, and fold in the remaining whites gently but thoroughly. Heat a griddle over moderately high heat until it is hot enough to make drops of water scatter over its surface and brush it with some of the melted butter. Working in batches, pour the batter onto the griddle by 1/4-cup measures and cook the pancakes for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until they are golden, brushing the griddle with some of the melted butter as necessary. Transfer the pancakes as they are cooked to a heatproof platter and keep them warm in a preheated 200°F. oven.