2009 in Review

This post is more for me than you.  It's hard to believe 2009 is almost over, yet we were so busy during the twelve months. In January, our kitchen was re-floored and re-insulated.  By the end of the month we installed cabinets, new appliances, and cooked our first meal in the new configuration.

February saw a trip to Florida citrus groves and Maple Syrup season in Ohio.

In March we built a playhouse for Lil and started seeds.

April and May were busy with the Baying Hound Intuit contest and the beginnings of the garden.

June saw our first harvests of berries, beans and peas.  We also took time to visit family, Great Hill dairy and the ocean in Massachusetts.

In July Kayoko came to stay with us for two weeks.  Tomatos, peppers, and squash were growing like weeds. We harvested onions, shallots, and garlic.

August saw trips to Cleveland and California.  At home we canned, dried, and shared some of our harvest with the local settlement house.

We visited the Shrimp and Fish Festival in September and picked apples at Windy Hill Apple Farm.  We also planted a few fruit trees.

In October, the Kids Cook classes began.  We picked apples again and made applesauce.

By November the garden was spent and we turned over beds for the winter.  We participated in several feasts including the Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 Harvest Meal.  I reported on the Cleveland Fabulous Food Show. Countertops were installed!

In December we shared recipes and made our holiday tree.  We hosted a formal Christmas Eve dinner and Cooked a Duck in honor of the Rose Bowl football game.

2009 was an exciting year full of growth in the garden, expansion of this blog, and richness in our personal lives.

In 2010 I wish for you many happy harvests.  Thanks for reading!

Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association Annual Conference

The Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association conference will be February 13 - 14, 2009 in Granville Ohio.  I am presenting a workshop about urban edible gardening from 10:35 - 11:30 AM Saturday. The conference website is rich with details including online registration.  Full registration is $90/130 (member/nonmember); a single day is $65/90. A limited number of volunteer scholarships reduce the rate to $50.

Keynote speakers are Joel Salatin on Saturday and Ann Cooper on Sunday.  Mr. Salatin is also offering a full day pre-conference workshop event on Friday.

I am honored to be among the food and farming educators presenting at this event.  Please consider joining me and introduce yourself as a reader if you come to my workshop.  If you cannot attend, I will offer my materials at Hounds in the Kitchen as well.

Hound Approved Gardening & Local Foods Events: December 2009

Kids Cook classes ~ Sprout Soup, 4310 N High St. ~ 4:15 Tuesdays December 1, 8, and 15, repeats 11:15 Thursdays December 3, 10, and 17 ~ Three - six year olds join me for 45 minutes of tasting, cooking, and food education.  $3 per class per child. Candlelight Nights ~ Franklin Park Conservatory ~ Wednesdays December 2, 9, 16, & 23 5 - 8 PM ~ The conservatory will be dressed for the holidays with dramatic evening lighting, live musical performances, family activities and a live poinsetta tree.  Free with admission

Composting Workshop ~ Jeffrey Mansion ~ Thursday December 3 7 - 8 PM ~ Friends of Alum Creek & Tributaries (FACT) will present a one-hour public composting workshop hosted by the Friends of Bexley Community Garden. Participants will receive a compost bin (1-cubic yard capacity) and reference guide. These items are valued over $40.00 and are provided to registered attendees as part of discounted workshop fee. $15 non-members; $20 door.

North Market Holiday Open House ~ North Market ~ December 5 - 6, 8 AM - 5 PM Saturday, 12 - 5 PM Sunday ~ music, roasted chestnuts for sale, holiday edibles, and craft sale.  Free

Black Creek Bistro Holiday Open House ~ Black Creek Bistro, 51 Parsons Ave ~ Sunday December 6, 5 - 8 PM ~ Ten holiday wine tastes, buffet of Black Creek Bistro food made from local ingredients, live music. $20/person

North Market Cookie Decorating ~ North Market ~ Saturday December 12, 10 AM - 12 PM ~ Kids decorate a Mozart's cookie in the Dispatch kitchen. Free.

12 Months of Green Living ~ Blue Rock Station in Philo Ohio ~ Monday, December 28, 2009 9 AM- 4 PM ~ Spend the day exploring how to get started in a greener life, enjoy a terrific lunch, and make new friends who share the desire for a simple, honest life. Cost: $45.

As always, if I missed an event, please leave a comment or email and I will gladly add them to the list.

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Kids Cook a Harvest Meal

Buoyed by the success of recent Kids Cook classes, I hatched an idea:  could I cook an entire meal with children?  Then I questioned if we could use Ohio raised seasonal ingredients at the same time.  Thanks to sponsorship from the FoodBuzz 24, 24, 24 program, I was able to test out the concept by hosting a kid prepared Harvest Meal with three families on Friday. Preparation started by gathering ingredients.   I visited the North Market, Weiland's Market, and farmer friends to gather meat, drinks, produce and eggs.

I chose Wild Goose Creative, a local artist cooperative gallery, for the location.  Their brick lined deep room with a full kitchen was a lovely venue for our casual and creative meal.

When Alex, Lil and I arrived on Friday, we set up tables for ingredients, a work station, a snack table and a craft area.   While kids love to cook, my experience is that they also need space to process their experiences through play.

When the families arrived, they each contributed a gift to be donated to a local settlement house.  We sang a song to learn each others' names.  I showed everyone around and explained that the event would be free form.  Parents and children could jump in and help cook when they wanted and take breaks as needed.

The first task was to make a small snack platter of Middlefield Original Cheese (Middlefield, Ohio) and crackers.  I hoped (correctly) that having designated snacks would help kids refrain from eating raw ingredients.  Drinks for the evening included apple cider (Mansfieldm Ohio), Cabernet Franc from Kinkead Ridge Vineyard (Ripley, Ohio), Edmund Fitzgerald Porter from Great Lakes Brewing Company (Cleveland, Ohio) and Charlie's hard apple cider from Windy Hill Apple Farm (Johnstown, Ohio).

Next we prepared Speckled Hen farms chickens for cooking.  The children doused the skin with lemon, olive oil, salt, and pepper, after which Alex trussed the legs in the tail skin.  Alex then whisked the birds off to our home oven to reserve the Wild Goose oven for side dishes.

Dessert was a pumpkin cake with cream cheese icing made from pumpkins grown in Marysville Ohio.  Even the littlest boy in the group helped spice the cake.

White and sweet potatoes were chopped and boiled for mashed potatoes.

In between cooking tasks, the children played.  They decorated placemats and made felt flowers for our kid friendly tablescape at the craft area.  They also ran laps around the tables to burn off steam.

We mixed golden Ohio eggs and Snowville Creamery milk into cornbread batter.

We cleaned  golden nugget and Hokkaido blue squash from our urban garden for roasting.  Later, we mixed a filling of onions, garlic, black eyed peas, sharp cheddar, cilantro, and chili powder and stuffed the squash.

Ohio cabbage, turnips, and apples were chopped into a harvest salad.  Salad dressing was olive oil, Charlie's apple cider vinegar, and oregano from our garden.

As all the cooking was going on, families set the dining table.  The homemade placemats and flowers were perfect for the kid centered dinner.

Finally, we ate our meal together.  Adults and children bravely tried new-to-them dishes made from seasonal ingredients.  We shared thanks for the bounty of the earth and the pleasure of friends.

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Did you notice my apron in the pictures?  It was given to me by Amy D who makes super cute and functional items from reclaimed fabrics.  Find an apron for yourself or to give as a gift at The Kickstart and Whole Foods Dublin or purchase online from the  Made by Amy D website.

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Tuesday begins the December series of Kids Cook classes at Sprout Soup in Columbus Ohio.  Join me for engaging hands on lessons and great food!

First Blogiversary!

One year ago I started Hounds in the Kitchen.  The intervening year has included:

~ 155 blog posts

~ 7 Kids Cook classes

~ hundreds of pounds of produce from the garden

~ 30 subscribers

~ 265 comments

~ 2 speaking engagements

~ 1 renovated kitchen (almost...)

~ $6 earned in advertising

~ $30 spent in domain registration and hosting

~ 1 press trip to the Fabulous Food Show in Cleveland

and...

~ 1 sponsored dinner

Tomorrow afternoon Alex, Lil, and I will be making a Harvest Meal with three families as part of the Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24 program.  I will share all the details soon.

Thank you, readers, for making writing this blog exciting and interesting every day.  I hope to continue Hounds in the Kitchen for years to come.

Now, go enjoy Thanksgiving!

Kids Cook Classes December

There are six Kids Cook classes remaining in 2009.  I have three new ingredient topics for December, each repeated twice a week.  Bring your three to six year old child and enjoy cooking and learning about healthy food!

Tuesday December 1 ~ 4:15 - 5 pm ~ Greens

Thursday December 3 ~ 11:15 am - 12 pm ~ Greens

Tuesday December 8 ~ 4:15 - 5 pm ~ Cranberries

Thursday December 10 ~ 11:15 am - 12 pm ~ Cranberries

Tuesday December 15 ~ 4:15 - 5 pm ~ Cinnamon

Thursday December 17 ~ 11:15 am - 12 pm ~ Cinnamon

Each lesson will again feature at least one recipe we will make together, a story, and take home recipe card.  Each class costs $3 per child.  We will meet at Sprout Soup, 4310 N High St.

Please email me or comment if you have any food allergies and I will gladly alter recipes.

Finds at Fabulous Food Show

With a light crowd and quick pace, I was able to visit the entire floor of the Fabulous Food Show on Friday night before the Ruhlman/Keller conversation.

The fine folks at Blue Jacket Dairy offered samples of their gretna grillin' cheese and cheese curds.  I am already a huge fan of the delicious gretna soft cheese, especially when crusted on a hot skillet. Owners Angel and Jim King said they will be at the Worthington Farmer's Market every other week starting in January.  Their cheeses can also be found at Weiland's market locally.

I enjoyed talking to the farmers of Covered Bridge Gardens about how corn grows and their four colors of popcorn.  A local mill stone grinds some of their crop into cornmeal.  (Did you know that cornmeal can come from the same corn grain as popcorn?  I didn't!)  They also offer a CSA for people local to their Ashtabula county location.

Edward Gordos, distributor of Middlefield Original Cheese Co-op and pictured above in the apron, was generous with his time and cheese samples.  He explained that the Middlefield co-operative had operated for fifty years but was suffering from lack of hand milking amish farmers due to low prices in the mid nineties.  His distributorship helped the farmers and cheese makers transition to more artisan products and begin retail sales, including distribution to Whole Foods stores in Ohio and Kentucky.  Their business is growing and this year they started marketing organic cow's milk, 100% grassfed cow's milk  and goat's milk varieties.  All milk used in the making of the cheese is hormone and steroid free and comes from Ohio cows.  Most importantly, the varieties I tried were tasty!

The Ohio apple people had a busy booth tasting apple varieties.

Many of the rest of the booths were occupied by processed seasoning mixes, gimmicky cooking "tools", and prepared ready to eat foods.  Celebrity chef appearances are the other big draw to the Fabulous Food Show, although I attended none except the aforementioned Keller/Ruhlman interview.

I was intrigued by two non-edible exhibits.  Sillycone Inc. was an exhibitor showing off their freezer, oven, and microwave-safe BPA free silicone food trays.  While not an entirely new concept, Sillycone is innovative in their letter, number and symbol designs.  The family owned company is based in northeastern Ohio.  They offered me a sample of the 26 letter trays that can be used to make letter shaped ice, chalk, candles, chocolate and more.  I am excited for Lil and I to explore the alphabet with food!

Then I ran into this:

It's an oversize (two feet in diameter!) burger cake.  Only in Ohio...

I had high hopes for the large beer and wine tasting area.  Cleveland is, after all, home to my favorite brewery, Great Lakes.  Several wineries in the area are acceptable and others in Ohio are excellent.

I should have read between the lines here.  Just because Inbev (parent company of Anheuser-Busch) is based in Belgium does not qualify Michelob varietals as Belgian beers.  I tasted a bottled Michelob "cask ale" that was sickeningly sweet.  Stella Artois and Hoegarden were the only beers available on draft and the only ones I consider Belgian.

The wine selection was similarly uninspiring. I could find only one Ohio wine, from a mediocre winery.  I recognized most other selections as average $12 bottles.  Two Bailey's products and several pre-made cocktail mixes occupied the spirits section.

In conclusion, the Fabulous Food Show favored typical middle American food preferences more than I expected.  I had high hopes for more honestly local whole foods.  Ohio is home to hundreds of farmers raising heirloom products and dozens of fantstic breweries and wineries.  A fabulous food show is the perfect time to introduce consumers to these local treasures.

My stay in Cleveland was enhanced by lodging provided by the Cleveland Airport Marriott.  They were showing off their luxurious and comfortable  rooms, renovated lobby, and Dean James Max restaurant AMP150.   I did not have a chance to eat at the restaurant because I was busy at the food show.  The menu changes seasonally and makes use of northeastern Ohio's local foods.

A Conversation with Thomas Keller and Michael Ruhlman

Many Clevelanders are drawn to the Fabulous Food Show to see TV celebrities like Guy Fieri, Tyler Florance, and Sandra Lee.  In the opinion of many food lovers, the true stars appeared on Friday night when Michael Ruhlman and Thomas Keller held an open conversation around Keller's new book, Ad Hoc at Home.

Food writer and Cleveland native Michael Ruhlman started the conversation with the story of how he came to write the The French Laundry Cookbook with Thomas Keller, the visionary chef of the a family of fine restaurants.  "It was all because I lived in Cleveland," he related.  Ruhlman had a conversation with food media specialist Susie Heller who lived in Cleveland and was looking for a writer.  Ruhlman thus began a now ten year long friendship with Keller.

The talk continued with an overview of Keller's food philosophy.  "Other than nourishment, food is also nurturing," Keller said, a theme repeated throughout the evening.  "[It is] so, so important about food: nurturing and memories."

Ruhlman moved the conversation to practical advice for home cooks.  To his question about what makes a good cook, Keller replied "It's all about repetition."

Home cooks can elevate their cooking with consideration to two things: product and execution.  Product is what you buy as raw ingredients.  Keller and Ruhlman agreed that consumers have improved grocery store selections in the last twenty years by being choosy with their purchases.  Ruhlman urged cooks to continue talking to grocery store managers and farmers market vendors demanding higher quality.

Home cooks can improve their execution by practicing solid organization.  Mise en place (the act of preparing and setting aside components before beginning to cook) has its place in the home kitchen.

Cooks must not be afraid of their food.  They need to touch and feel the food at every point in the cooking process.  Use all the senses to observe and adjust techniques.  Temper meats by allowing them to come up to room temperature before cooking.  Use salt throughout the cooking process.

At many points in the conversation, Keller emphasized the importance of seasoning.  When Ruhlman asked how home cooks can train their palette, Keller suggested using spinach.  Try cooking spinach alone, then adding salt little by little until the flavor of the vegetable is fully heightened.  Keller actually carries salt in his pocket at all times to season meals to his taste.

The conversation then turned to food sourcing, particularly local foods.  Keller clarified that delicious heritage proteins are available year round, so seasonal ingredients are typically fruits and vegetables.  "I love vegetables so much," he swooned.  Enjoying produce in season creates rituals.  When something comes back into season, cooks have the opportunity to remember the last season and savor the flavors.

Keller proclaimed that California has the best produce in the country.  He said it is "difficult to mass produce high quality food."  Home cooks always enjoy high quality food when they buy in season and cook at home.