Dining and Opining

Turkish and Lebanese Delights

2012-02-22T10:00:00.000-06:00

Sometimes we like to go all out. To feast like kings and queens.

In the past, this impulse, when paired with the desire to see our friends TY and SK, has culminated in a Sichuan Feast and a Mexican Fiesta.

This time around, a Mediterranean-inspired spread, with nods to Turkish and Lebanese cuisine. I've linked to some of the recipes or sources below, but let me know if you want more information about any of these dishes--they all turned out wonderfully!

(1) A spread of marinated goodness: artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, roasted red peppers, home-canned dilly beans with garlic cloves, and home-pickled beauty heart radishes; and
(2) Hummus, Vegan Muhammara (an amazing walnut-roasted red pepper spread), and Baba Ganoush, with whole wheat pita:

Turkish Red Lentil Soup (super simple, and really hearty) and Turkish-Style Braised Green Beans (made with green beans I'd frozen from the market last summer):

Spinach and Black Eyed Peas with [lots of extra] Caramelized Onions (Roden's Arabesque, p. 268), and Eggplant Pilaf (Roden's Arabesque, p. 170):

Orange, Olive, and Onion Salad (Roden's Arabesque, p. 48), and Pistachio-Rosewater cookies:

The book from which many of the latter dishes came is Claudia Roden's Arabesque: A Taste of Morocco, Turkey, & Lebanon. SK and TY owned this book and were eager to try it out, which was one of the motivating factors that led us to choose this cuisine as our focus.

Also, because our friends (along with TY's favorite food blogger at Serious Eats, Kenji Lopez-Alt) were having a vegan February, all the dishes were modified to be vegan, if they weren't already.

A fantastic meal, all around! I'm hungry just thinking about it.

What cuisine should we tackle our next go-round?

Food, Memory, and the Environment

2012-02-16T14:36:00.001-06:00

I've got a guest post up over at A Liberated Life:

Food: Health, Community and Memory!

Please check it out, and let me know what you think!'

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A sneak peek:

How might crafting stories help us to live in a more environmentally sound way? What's the connection between individual food memories and a larger politically-engaged food movement?

These are the questions I've been pondering as I set out on the adventure of teaching an undergraduate seminar called “Eating and Memory.” My students all live in the University of Wisconsin's GreenHouse, an environmental living community in one of the campus dorms. These students are vibrant, passionate, and really bright. So I figured if anyone were able to help me answer these questions, it would be these folks.

On its surface, a class about food memories doesn't immediately seem to fit into a environmental curriculum. It's less tangibly connected to sustainability than, say, a class on wind turbine design or on how to build a composing toilet. And yet, it seems to be a crucial piece of the larger picture...

Read More...

An Arctic Feast

2012-02-13T08:00:00.000-06:00

The 2012 Global Meal season at the UW GreenHouse started out in style, with an Arctic Feast!

Our close friends Andrew and Ariana curated a feast of "caribou" stew (actually made with venison because of caribou sourcing issues) and white fish with cranberries:

Macaroni salad, Caesar salad, and fresh dinner rolls:

And an English trifle(ish) dessert!

And what made the Ariana and Andrew qualified to present this feast with the eager students was the two years they spent living in Inuvik, in the Northwest Territories of Canada, on the very northern-most tip of North America, just 50 miles south of the Arctic Sea.

With a backdrop of evocative photos, the As wove beautiful and intricate tales of their time in Inuvik, sharing with the students stories of how the community finds food (hunting, trapping, gathering, growing, sharing, buying), of their travels to the north, of the ethnic makeup of their town, of their night sleeping in a hand-made snow cave in dangerously frigid temperatures, and of enduring months with no daylight and months with no nightfall.

They also brought beautiful objects of show and tell, to display the different ends to which animals killed for meat are put--hats and slippers and mittens and boots made of seal and beaver and caribou and squirrel. Ariana even learned from some of the village elders how to sew animal hides using sinew (animal tendons), and showed off some of the slippers she had sewn herself.

The whole night was awesome and eye-opening. So many of the residents commented on how fascinating it was to learn about this place that no one ever talks about, and to have a sense of this small community whose world is so shaped by the harsh environment and deep historical roots.

Global Food for Thought at its finest!

To Fresh Starts

2012-02-09T22:42:00.000-06:00

Ok. After celebrating Dining and Opining's One-Year Anniversary and then taking a few days off to regroup, I had high hopes for my return to this blogging space. I hoped to come up with some clear, clever structure that would allow me to post less frequently, but more thoughtfully and usefully. One day on "dining" (with photos/recaps of actual food/cooking experiences) and one day "opining" (with more discursive essays on food culture, politics, or history)? Or one recipe and one article analysis a week? Or maybe some riff off those photo-a-day projects, where I tried to post one photo each day that chronicled my experience with food during that day, along with some creative nonfiction that put the photo in context? Or a focus on food memoir, to go along with the course I'm teaching this semester, where I shared stories from my food-filled past?

All these ideas whirling around, but as is often the case with good ideas--they all started raising my expectations and leaving me feeling more and more anxious about my return to the new and improved D&O.

I imagined all my eager readers, holding their collective breaths until I unveiled my grand return. And then those same eager readers (all 10 of them!) feeling disappointed when that return didn't turn out to be so grand after all.

So, I psyched myself out. And stopped posting altogether. But that's no way to be, is it?

Now I want to lower those expectations, remove the pressure to post each and every weekday, and just write and reflect when the spirit moves me. Perhaps as I begin to get into this new groove, one of those earlier clever structures will reveal itself as appropriate, and I'll settle into another rhythm. But perhaps not. You'll all bear with me one way or another, I hope?

To make sure I don't feel off the wagon entirely, my goal will be to share at least one post per week, with Friday as a deadline for the end of each week. But hopefully this will happen automatically, without my forcing anything.

Some things I have on deck for all of you:

A guest post I'm planning to write for the wonderful blog A Liberated Life, in which I'll share some thoughts on living authentically as it relates to food.
A guest post on my place within public humanities for the University of Wisconsin's Center for Humanities blog, Humanities NOW.
Recaps of the local food tour I'll be leading for the American Society for Environmental History conference at the end of March.
Stories and photos from this semester's GreenHouse Global Food for Thought Meals
Food memoirs I write along with my class in Eating and Memory

And so much more! As always, I'd love to hear from you...

Beautiful Vegetables

2012-02-03T13:13:00.000-06:00

Lurpak - Lightest from Blink on Vimeo.

Beautiful! (even if in a weird butter-product ad)

One Year Anniversary!

2012-01-28T18:55:00.004-06:00

Today marks one full year since I began this little blog.

One year since I first made an entrance.

One year of writing posts every single weekday, rain or shine, happy or sad.

A year of recipes and reading links, of photographs and holidays celebrated together.

I have a lot of thoughts about how this year has gone, and how the experience of producing this blog has shaped me and my reflections on food. I hope to devote my next few blog posts to sharing some of those thoughts, as I consider what comes next for Dining and Opining. (And, as always, I wholeheartedly welcome your input). What will almost certainly come next is a bit of a pause, and a bit of a re-structuring. I likely won't be posting every day this week, and may not establish a regular rhythm right away. Whichever way it goes, I'll keep posted.

But, for now, I want to THANK YOU for being along for the ride, for reading and thinking with me, for commenting (either on the blog or in person) and letting me know that what I write means something to you.

That means SO MUCH to me. And I can't thank you enough for it.

Thank You, D&O Readers!

Comfort Food

2012-01-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

I recently read this beautiful article, Showing Compassion Through the Gift of Food, at npr.org, and was flooded with memories of all the times friends have taken care of me by sharing a meal or a treat.

It made me want to share these photos with you, of a recent meal--full of Southern comfort food--that our friends SB and JB made for us to help us through some rough times.

A pan of delicious barbecue tofu and crock pot full of golden grits:

Stewed greens and barbecue sauce, along with an assortment of delicious pickled peppers and tomatoes:

Crispy, buttery cornbread and perfect gluten-free apple tarts:

The whole meal came together like a dream, and kept us full and warm (in our bellies, and our hearts) for days to come.

Like the author of the above article told her six-year-old daughter, "when you make people food with your hands, it can help them feel better."

How have friends offered you solace through food in times past?

Food Job Opportunities

2012-01-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

In the past couple of years, I've been really excited about two new initiatives that have cropped up: FoodCorps (a public service program dedicated to bringing good food to limited-resource communities) and Food Day (a day in promotion of healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way).

Now, as it turns out, they are both hiring! Both, at the same time!

You've gotta check this out:

FoodCorps:

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And Food Day, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest (an awesome organization in its own right):

Food Day - Accepting applications for spring internship. Applications for summer internships will be considered in February/March.
Food Day is a major national event that CSPI is sponsoring this October. The goal is to educate the public and support policy measures on such issues as diet and health, sustainable agriculture, farm-animal welfare, and food insecurity. Interns will help develop materials, identify and work with local activists around the country, and answer inquiries from the public about how to get involved in Food Day. More information here!

(They're also seeking summer interns for Health Promotion Policy, Nutrition Policy, Food Safety, and Litigation).

Ode to the Onion

2012-01-25T08:14:00.000-06:00

A beauty from Pablo Neruda:

Ode To The Onion

by Pablo Neruda

Onion,

luminous flask,

your beauty formed

petal by petal,

crystal scales expanded you

and in the secrecy of the dark earth

your belly grew round with dew.

Under the earth

the miracle

happened

and when your clumsy

green stem appeared,

and your leaves were born

like swords

in the garden,

the earth heaped up her power

showing your naked transparency,

and as the remote sea

in lifting the breasts of Aphrodite

duplicating the magnolia,

so did the earth

make you,

onion

clear as a planet

and destined

to shine,

constant constellation,

round rose of water,

uponthe table

of the poor.

You make us cry without hurting us.

I have praised everything that exists,

but to me, onion, you are

more beautiful than a bird

of dazzling feathers,

heavenly globe, platinum goblet,

unmoving dance

of the snowy anemone

and the fragrance of the earth lives

in your crystalline nature.

---

I originally saw this left-aligned, but I really like the onion-like bulbous shapes that emerge when it is center-aligned. Yes?

Root Quilt!

2012-01-24T08:00:00.000-06:00

How beautiful is that?

You might think it's some image I pulled off the web, but it's not! It is, in fact, a small quilt that my dearest friend AMM made for me by hand!

It came in the mail yesterday, just in time to cheer me in a deep and touching way as the semester began. I think it's one of the most beautiful works of art I've ever seen, and for now, am displaying it as such--over our bed in our bedroom:

The actual image (inspired by this Pinterest pin) really resonates with me, with its beautiful cross section of sky and earth, of blue and brown. The way the colorful roots are nestled below ground with their green leaves above ground creates all kinds of aesthetic harmony for me.

I love it beyond (any more) words. Thank you, amm.

Food on This American Life

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-06:00

I (along with other white people) love This American Life.

And so when looking for audio recordings about food and family for my seminar, I naturally turned to Ira Glass and the others at Chicago Public Radio for inspiration.

I figured I'd start a running list of episodes to listen to here so that I could come back to them, and so I could ask you all for recommendations or reviews. Be in touch!

117: You Gonna Eat That? [Whole episode]
The family table is stage on which many family dramas are played out. We hear three stories...of three families...at three meals.

110: Mapping [Act Five]
LA Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold goes to the places on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles that he visited back in the early 1980s. He tells the story of how he decided to map an entire street using his sense of taste, and how doing this changed his life. (13 minutes)

62: Something for Nothing [Act Three]
Tao Of The Dumpster.Writer Dirk Jamison, who gave up a 9-to-5 job and succeeded in getting something for nothing: he decided he'd feed the family by diving into dumpsters for free food. His father's very zen attitude about this, and how it affected the family. Dirk is the author of Perishable: A Memoir. (16 minutes)

264: Special Treatment [Act One, and Act Four]

Act One. Lunchtime With The King Of Ketchup.Jonathan Goldstein with a story of the kind of preferential treatment we all dream of, where waiters routinely bring us extra appetizers on the house, delivery men throw a little something special into our take-out orders, and deli owners regularly comp us free pickles and chips. He talks with his friend Howard, who lives this dream, about all the work that went into making it a reality. (16 minutes)
Act Four. The Way To A Boy's Heart Is Through His Stomach.Lisa Carver's nine-year-old son, Wolfgang, was born with a rare illness that, among other things, makes it impossible for him to eat anything by mouth. He's fed through a g-tube, straight into his stomach. But he remembers fondly what food tastes like, and he misses it. And, because we eat all the time, he's constantly watching people do the one thing he wants desperately to do—but can't. Lisa talks about how the people at school—and everyone in Wolfgang's life, really—go out of their way to help him in his private war with his own desire. (10 minutes)

Georgia Thali

2012-01-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

While visiting my parents in Georgia, we had our first experience with thali, otherwise known as "a unique experience in gourmet eating" through Indian vegetarian cuisine.

JH did some searching on Yelp.com for the highest-rated restaurants in the area, and came across Vatica Indian Vegetarian Cuisine, which immediately caught our eye. Vegetarian! Indian! All You Can Eat! $8.99! Thali!

What's there not to love?

So, we made it there faster than you could say lickety-split, and soon were treated to this feast:

This traditional thali preparation offers a range of different curries in separate bowls, along with rice and other accoutrements. In this particular case, we got (beginning with the bread at the bottom and moving clockwise): roti (flatbread), a sweet treat made of rice flour, raita (yogurt sauce), a bean curry, potato-pea curry, malai kofta (like vegetarian meatballs), daal (lentil soup), basmati rice, and in the middle, some sort of potato bite with cilantro sauce, and papadam (thin, crispy cracker).

It was all delicious--though in a subtle and comforting way, not in a knock-your-socks-off-flavorful-Indian kind of way. And there were unlimited refills on all of it! So, by the end of the meal, we were looking like this:

Although the food was satisfying, the real highlight of the place were the friendly owner and his quirky co-owner uncle. We told them it was our first time at the restaurant, and that we were from out of state, so the quirky uncle came up specially to talk to us, and to laugh very loudly and buoyantly with us, at unexpected moments. He was a real character.

Perhaps this sign that was posted in the restaurant can give a glimpse into some of his silliness:

When I asked "Is that really what VATICA stands for?," he responded by laughing, you guessed it, loudly and bouyantly.

Oh, and in addition to the thali, the signs on the restaurant window promised "tasty snacks," which they delivered, in the form of this spicy Indian trail mix (often known as chevda, or Bombay mix), and these sweet date-coconut-nut treats:

All in all, dining at Vatica was a delight, and I encourage you all to go out looking for some thali and quirky proprietors of your own!

Food Writing Exercises

2012-01-19T07:00:00.000-06:00

As the spring semester approaches, I'm doing my best to plan for the small seminar I'll be teaching called Eating and Memory (described previously in this post).

Because I got such helpful feedback and guidance last time (thanks, SW!) when I asked for help, I figured I'd try it again, this time with less a focus on readings than on writing exercises.

I'm trying to structure each class around some sharing, reading, and writing, and so would like to have a whole bank of writing exercises to rely on as I put together the class schedule.

I have some early ideas, but would really love more of them from any of you who like to write, teach writing, have taken great writing classes, or just have ideas about how to spur good writing, particularly in the genre of creative nonfiction.

Some of what I've come up with so far:

Try to write a portrait of a person by describing a food, a meal, or an eating experience.
Try to write a portrait of a place by describing a food, a meal, or an eating experience.
Look at the food [apple? Oreo cookie? Chex mix?) in front of you]. Write your associations, memories, ideas, descriptions for 3 minutes, based on sight only. Now smell it, and write about that. Now pick it up and move it around in your hands. Write. Now bite into it. Write.
Spend ten minutes writing a short story based on the title _______. "In Grandma's Kitchen," or "Craving the Food of Childhood" or "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie I've Ever Had.
List the contents of your refrigerator (either in your dorm room, or at home) . Choose two or three items and write a story about why they are in your refrigerator.
Look at the food [again, what options?] in front of you. Describe it from the perspective of a elderly woman whose husband has just died, but do so without mentioning the husband explicitly. Now describe it from the perspective of a new father. Now from the perspective of a chef on his first day on the job out of culinary school.

Values, Ignorance, and Seafood: Some Quick Thoughts

2012-01-18T12:15:00.001-06:00

A special treat today--a guest post by the husband, JH:

Whennon-vegetarians ask me about my (almost) vegetarianism, I bracemyself for one of two responses. First, there is what I like tocall “the Oklahoma response.” This typically involves one form oranother of deliberate crassness: either a reminder that meat tastesgood, or a suggestion that caring about the well-being of non-humananimals is naïvely soft-hearted. (My father's comments usually fallinto this category, as when he gleefully tells people that myvegetarianism is merely “a fad” that the kids are following thesedays.) The second response is what I call “the Madison response.” The Madison response usually involves a lot of vigorous nodding,perhaps followed by an admission that my interlocutor is sympatheticto vegetarianism—maybe she/he even tried it once!—but an explanation that for one reason or another, she/he still eats meat, often with some degree of guilt. Mymother exemplifies one strain of this response. On thoseoccasions when I've mentioned some difficult-to-stomach aspect ofindustrial animal agriculture to her, her response is nearly alwaysthe same: “I don't want to know about it!”

I canrelate to this response. Modern industrial agriculture is an uglything, filled with harrowing tales of tiny cages, unanesthetizedmutilations, giant manure pits that seep into the water supply, andmuch more. It is a system with enormous environmental consequences,and where the lives of animals are often nasty, brutish, and short. For a lot of people, a long hard look at the system would probablynot allow them to continue their usual way of eating with equanimity. It's all much easier if we just fail to learnabout the problems involved, lest they trouble our consciences.

Idon't mean for this to sound belittling. As I said, I can certainlyrelate to such a frame of mind. Despite having read my fair share ofPeterSinger's work on global poverty, AZ and I just took a vacation to PuertoRico, just to get away from the Madison winters and get a little R&R. The money we spent in doing so could obviously have alleviated much more suffering hadit been put to an alternate use. But if you'd mentioned that fact tome while I was lying on the beach, I probably would have told youthat I didn't care to reflect on that fact at the moment.

Lessdramatically, I admit that I practice a kind of willful ignoranceabout aspects of my diet as well. Unlike AZ, I'm not a strictvegetarian, but a pescatarian: I eat fish or crustaceans about once aweek. I do this in part for variety and in part for the nutritionalvalue, but mostly I eat fish just because I like it. For me, there'snothing like a delicious Wisconsin Fish Fry on a Friday night to capoff a long week.

WhileI think some types of seafood consumption are not ruled out by any ofmy reasons for being a vegetarian,I sometimes find myself slipping into the “I don't want to know” mindset, especially when it comes to eating species that are overfished,or for which the methods of harvest are deeply environmentallydestructive. I carry the Monterey Bay guide in my wallet, butsometimes I don't look at it, for fear that it won't give me theanswer I desire.

Allof this is a recipe for cognitive dissonance. But this might beabout to change. For I'm finally reading a book that Annagot me for my birthday a few years ago, Bottomfeeder by Taras Grescoe. (The other book I'm readingright now is Moby Dick. I must be in an aquatic phase.) I'm only acouple of chapters into the book right now, but it's exactly the kind ofresource that someone like me could use to bring my eating habitsmore into alignment with my values. The author reviews the differentmethods of commercial fishing and some of their less savory effects--environmental destruction, large levels of bycatch, depleted stocks. Each chapter deals with a different species of fish, and some of the costs and benefits involved in the process that takes the fish from ocean to plate. You also get some amusing anecdotes wherein theauthor grills 4-star chefs about the ethics of their seafood choices. At the end, he gives a list of fish to eat and those to avoid. Forthose interested, here they are:

AVOID:Bluefin tuna, Atlantic cod, Atlantic Halibut, Chilean Sea Bass,Grouper, Monkfish, Orange Roughy, Dogfish Shark, Skate, AtlanticSole, Tilefish.

EAT:Arctic Char, Pacific Halibut, Herring, Jellyfish, Mackerel, Mullet,Oysters/Mussels, Pollock, Sablefish, Sardines, Squid, Trout, Whiting.

Ofcourse, such a one-size-fits-all list is bound to gloss over a numberof differences within species concerning where and how they areraised/caught. But for those looking to exercise a little morethought in their seafood choices, books like this one, or even justthe above list, might provide a good place to start.

Trader Joe's

2012-01-17T09:31:00.002-06:00

There's a great piece in the Los Angeles magazine about the secret behind the success of Trader Joe's, the popular grocery store chain specializing in low-price gourmet and quick-fix item: Enchanted Aisles.

Getting a peek into this store that has traditionally resisted journalistic attention is fascinating.

Trader Joe's has been a divisive store in Madison, where it takes away business from the much-loved Willy St. Co-op, but doesn't offer the same connection to local farmers or the emphasis on products that are sustainable in a bigger way. Still, the exciting range of products and the large organic offerings to bring customers back again and again.

What do you think of Trader Joe's? What are the pros and the cons? And why do people keep coming back?

Storing Fruits and Vegetables Without Plastic

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

I recently came across a great tip sheet for how to store fruits and vegetables without plastic, from the Berkley Farmer's Market, and wanted to share it with you!

You can download and print this PDF copy to hang on your fridge door!

How to Store Vegetables & Fruit Without Plastic

Artichokes‐ place in an airtight container sealed, with light moisture.
Asparagus‐ place them loosely in a glass or bowl upright with water at room temperature. (Will keep for a week outside the fridge)
Avocados‐ place in a paper bag at room temp. To speed up their ripening‐ place an apple in the bag with them.
Arugula‐ arugula, like lettuce, should not stay wet! Dunk in cold water and spin or lay flat to dry. Place dry arugula in an open container, wrapped with a dry towel to absorb any extra moisture.
Basil‐ is difficult to store well. Basil does not like the cold, or to be wet for that matter. The best method here is an airtight container/jar loosely packed with a small damp piece of paper inside‐left out on a cool counter.
Beans, shelling‐ open container in the fridge, eat ASAP. Some recommend freezing them if not going to eat right away
Beets‐ cut the tops off to keep beets firm, (be sure to keep the greens!)by leaving any top on root vegetables draws moisture from the root, making them loose flavor and firmness. Beets should be washed and kept in and open container with a wet towel on top.
Beet greens‐ place in an airtight container with a little moisture.
Broccoli‐ place in an open container in the fridge or wrap in a damp towel before placing in the fridge.
Broccoli Rabe‐ left in an open container in the crisper, but best used as soon as possible.
Brussels Sprouts‐ If bought on the stalk leave them on that stalk. Put the stalk in the fridge or leave it on a cold place. If they’re bought loose store them in an open container with a damp towel on top.
Cabbage‐ left out on a cool counter is fine up to a week, in the crisper otherwise. Peel off outer leaves if they start to wilt. Cabbage might begin to loose its moisture after a week , so, best used as soon as possible.
Carrots‐ cut the tops off to keep them fresh longer. Place them in closed container with plenty of moisture, either wrapped in a damp towel or dunk them in cold water every couple of days if they’re stored that long.
Cauliflower‐ will last a while in a closed container in the fridge, but they say cauliflower has the best flavor the day it’s bought.
Celery‐ does best when simply places in a cup or bowl of shallow water on the counter.
Celery root/Celeriac‐ wrap the root in a damp towel and place in the crisper.
Corn‐ leave unhusked in an open container if you must, but corn really is best eaten sooner then later for maximum flavor.
Cucumber‐ wrapped in a moist towel in the fridge. If you’re planning on eating them within a day or two after buying them they should be fine left out in a cool room.
Eggplant‐ does fine left out in a cool room. Don’t wash it, eggplant doesn’t like any extra moisture around its leaves. For longer storage‐ place loose, in the crisper.
Fava beans‐ place in an air tight container.
Fennel‐ if used within a couple days after it’s bought fennel can be left out on the counter, upright in a cup or bowl of water (like celery). If wanting to keep longer than a few days place in the fridge in a closed container with a little water
Garlic‐ store in a cool, dark, place.
Green garlic‐an airtight container in the fridge or left out for a day or two is fine, best before dried out.
Greens‐ remove any bands, twist ties, etc. most greens must be kept in an air‐tight container with a damp cloth‐ to keep them from drying out. Kale, collards, and chard even do well in a cup of water on the counter or fridge.
Green beans‐ they like humidity, but not wetness. A damp cloth draped over an open or loosely closed container.
Green Tomatoes‐ store in a cool room away from the sun to keep them green and use quickly or they will begin to color.
Herbs- a closed container in the fridge to kept up to a week. Any longer might encourage mold.
Lettuce‐ keep damp in an airtight container in the fridge.
Leeks‐leave in an open container in the crisper wrapped in a damp cloth or in a shallow cup of water on the counter (just so the very bottom of the stem has water).
Okra‐ doesn’t like humidity. So a dry towel in an airtight container. Doesn’t store that well, best eaten quickly after purchase
Onion‐ store in a cool, dark and dry, place‐ good air circulation is best, so don’t stack them.
Parsnips‐an open container in the crisper, or, like a carrot, wrapped in a damp cloth in the fridge.
Potatoes‐ (like garlic and onions) store in cool, dark and dry place, such as, a box in a dark corner of the pantry; a paper bag also works well.
Radicchio‐ place in the fridge in an open container with a damp cloth on top.
Radishes‐ remove the greens (store separately) so they don’t draw out excess moisture from the roots and place them in a open container in the fridge with a wet towel placed on top.
Rhubarb‐wrap in a damp towel and place in an open container in the refrigerator.
Rutabagas‐ in an ideal situation a cool, dark, humid root cellar or a closed container in the crisper to keep their moisture in.
Snap peas‐ refrigerate in an open container
Spinach‐ store loose in an open container in the crisper, cool as soon as possible. Spinach loves to stay cold.
Spring onions‐ Remove any band or tie and place in the crisper.
Summer Squash‐ does fine for a few days if left out on a cool counter, even after cut.
Sweet peppers‐ Only wash them right before you plan on eating them as wetness decreases storage time. Store in a cool room to use in a couple a days, place in the crisper if longer storage needed.
Sweet Potatoes‐ Store in a cool, dark, well‐ventilated place. Never refrigerate‐‐sweet potatoes don’t like the cold.
Tomatoes‐ Never refrigerate. Depending on ripeness, tomatoes can stay for up to two weeks on the counter. To hasten ripeness place in a paper bag with an apple.
Turnips‐ remove the greens (store separately) same as radishes and beets, store them in an open container with a moist cloth.
Winter squash‐store in a cool, dark, well ventilated place. Many growers say winter squashes get sweeter if they’re stored for a week or so before eaten.
Zucchini‐ does fine for a few days if left out on a cool counter, even after cut. Wrap in a cloth and refrigerate for longer storage.

FRUIT:

Apples‐ store on a cool counter or shelf for up to two weeks. For longer storage in a cardboard box in the fridge.
Citrus‐ store in a cool place, with good airflow, never in an air‐tight container.
Apricots‐ on a cool counter to room temperature or fridge if fully ripeCherries‐store in an airtight container. Don’t wash cherries until ready to eat, any added moisture encourages mold.
Berries-Don’t forget, they’re fragile. When storing be careful not to stack too many high, a single layer if possible. A paper bag works well, only wash before you plan on eating them.
Dates‐dryer dates (like Deglet Noor) are fine stored out on the counter in a bowl or the paper bag they were bought in. Moist dates (like Medjool) need a bit of refrigeration if they’re going to be stored over a week, either in cloth or a paper bag‐ as long as it’s porous to keeping the moisture away from the skin of the dates.
Figs‐ Don’t like humidity, so, no closed containers. A paper bag works to absorb excess moisture, but a plate works best in the fridge up to a week un‐stacked.
Melons‐ uncut in a cool dry place, out of the sun up to a couple weeks. Cut melons should be in the fridge, an open container is fine.
Nectarines‐ (similar to apricots) store in the fridge is okay if ripe, but best taken out a day or two before you plan on eating them so they soften to room temperature.
Peaches (and most stone fruit)‐ refrigerate only when fully ripe. More firm fruit will ripen on the counter.
Pears‐ will keep for a few weeks on a cool counter, but fine in a paper bag. To hasten the ripening put an apple in with them.
Persimmon –Fuyu‐(shorter/pumpkin shaped): store at room temperature.–Hachiya‐ (longer/pointed end): room temperature until completely mushy. The astringentness of them only subsides when they are completely ripe. To hasten the ripening process place in a paper bag with a few apples for a week, check now and then, but don’t stack‐they get very fragile when really ripe.
Pomegranates‐ keep up to a month stored on a cool counter.
Strawberries‐ Don’t like to be wet. Do best in a paper bag in the fridge for up to a week. Check the bag for moisture every other day.

Russian Food on Smitten Kitchen

2012-01-13T07:30:00.000-06:00

Deb over at Smitten Kitchen just put up a Russian recipe for apple sharlotka and referred to her Russian mother-in-law.

This, of course, made me want to find all her Russian recipes and to read as much about this part of her culinary heritage as possible (because she's such a great cook/blogger and because it's so fun to see others prepare the foods I grew up with!).

So, here, a little gallery of her recipes and stories of Russian foods I know and love, all totally worth a perusal:

Salad Olivier

'Golubtsy,' or Stuffed Cabbage Rolls

'Chorni Chleb,' or Russian Black Bread

'Baklazhanaya Ikra,' or Eggplant Caviar

Salted Mushrooms

And a bonus story about her encounters with Russian cuisine!

---
P.S. Happy Friday the 13th!

La China Dulce

2012-01-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite food treats that we discovered in Old San Juan was what they called "La China Dulce."

Before we saw the stand selling the treats, we saw lots of people--old and young alike--with their faces buried deep in beautiful citrus fruits with white rinds, sucking up the sweet juice on the hot [winter] day.

When we approached the stand, we realized that the reason the fruit had white rinds was because it the outer orange rind was being removed, in a spiral fashion, to reveal the white pith below.

There was a man sitting before baskets and baskets of these fruits, passing each one through a hand-cranked machine that peeled the oranges (like one would peel an apple or potato).

Then, these partially peeled fruits were sold to passers-by for 50 cents a piece--either "open" with the top cut off, or closed, in a bag to go. You then just used your teeth to scrape out the sweet flesh and juice of the fruit as you strolled the beautiful pathways and plazas of Old San Juan, soaking up the majesty.

Wordless Puerto Rico

2012-01-11T08:00:00.000-06:00

Meals for a Year

2012-01-10T08:30:00.000-06:00

One of my blogging role models, Sara Cotner, with the help of some other food-loving ladies, has put together an awesome resource called Meals for a Year.

This site compiles an "entire year's worth of delicious, healthy, fast, vegetarian recipes in a convenient, user-friendly, meal plan format" with meal plans for each months of the year, with 20 recipes, and shopping lists for each week organized by recipe and section of the grocery store.

This is a really neat idea that some folks might find really helpful. We don't do much meal planning in our house--instead putting together dinner based on the contents of our fridge or the CSA box, but if you do like to plan week by week, this is an incredible resource.

And from a quick glance at the recipes, it looks like they do try to stay roughly seasonal, so you could always use your farmers' market produce along with this guide.

Enjoy!

Marietta Diner

2012-01-09T07:30:00.000-06:00

New Year's Eve saw us going bowling and to an all-night diner in Georgia, where we were visiting my parents.

The diner was called Marietta Diner, and from the Yelp reviews, it seems to be real icon of this north Atlanta suburb.

It was packed on New Year's Eve when we arrived, around 12:30 AM, with people in all their holiday finery. We were greeted at the front door by a cheerful, rotund man in a suit, and also by huge displays cases of cakes like these:

Cakes upon cakes!

We perused the huge menu, which touted Food Network's feature on the Marietta Diner, and which served foods from every spectrum: Greek food, breakfast food, seafood, American-style diner food, pasta--the whole gamut.

And the place was so bright! All the lights and decorations and cheerful waiters kept us smiling and awake despite the late hour.

After much debate (and because we'd already gotten loaded fries with cheese sauce and jalapenos at the bowling alley), we settled on just splitting a slice of the Seven Sins Chocolate Cake, which was both sinful and with at least seven layers of dark chocolate and milk chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate mousse.

We really enjoyed all this festive diner spirit, and kept wondering why it is that Madison doesn't have an all-night diner, or at least not one with any local character. (Or am I wrong about this and there is a diner I haven't yet stumbled across?) Doesn't it seem that such a place would go over SO well in Madison, with such a large college, up-at-night population? All-night diners were staples in lots of the places we've lived--St. Louis, Stillwater, OK, and others--and so we long for that little bit of late-night experience.

Here is my call for a Madison 24-Hour Diner. Who will follow up on it?

The Bounty of the Family Table

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I suggested that I'm well-fed when I visit my parents (and there's been hints of this in the past), but today I figured I'd share some pictorial evidence in support of that claim.

So, without further ado, photos of the beautiful feast my mom put together in celebration of my brother's recent completion of the Executive MBA Program at Duke! [Each of the Zeide (grown) kids now has two Master's degrees.]

Plates of beautiful garnishes and green salad:

The Russian salad olivye and the dish solyanka:

Brown rice and chicken:

Baklazhannaya ikra and cranberry sauce:

And a composed plate of it all together:

Oh, and my adorable 3-year-old nephew Jeremy says you can't forget the chewy bread! Here, imagine him saying "Ah-nee, the bread is touching my nose!"

Oh and there was apple cake, with fresh strawberries and grapes for dessert. You know, nothing much...

My Role Models

2012-01-05T07:30:00.000-06:00

During a recent visit to my parents' house, I got to look through their freezer and take a peek at their food storage situation. It made me realize (or re-realize, I guess) that I picked up all my food storage habits from somewhere very close to home!

Bags and bags of stewed tomatoes, tomato sauce, okra, and yellow summer squash (all straight from their garden!)

Cranberries, on the left, (bought from the store during peak cranberry-selling season) and so many bags of frozen dried wild pears, which my Papa picked from a wild pear tree in the woods beyond their house, and then dried with a food dehydrator, on the right:

Needless to say, when we're with my parents, we always eat well! (I'll be back with some more evidence of this soon...)

Tropical Vacation!

2012-01-04T08:00:00.000-06:00

We're leaving for a vacation to Puerto Rico today, so I'm going to be posting some pre-written posts over the next week, but will be back with photos and stories from our trip when we return!

Stay tuned for the tropical edition of Dining and Opining, featuring fresh fruit and spicy sauces, warm baked goods and street food.

Some of the things I'm particularly excited about:

Adobo sauce: made by crushing together peppercorns, oregano, garlic, salt, olive oil, and lime juice or vinegar, and used to flavor many island dishes
Sofrito: potpourri of onions, garlic, coriander, and peppers browned in olive oil and colored with annatto seeds, which imparts the bright-yellow color to the island's rice, soups, and stews.
Tostones: Fried slices of either plantains or green breadfruit, which is a large, round fruit from a tropical tree that has a thick green rind covering its starchy, sweet flesh.
Piraguas: A shaved ice cone covered with syrup of fruity flavors such as: raspberry, pineapple, coconut, guava or tamarind, among others.
Tropical Fruits of all sorts! Bananas of different varieties than the Cavendish we find in the U.S. Papaya. Mango. Chironja--cross between orange and grapefruit. Coconut. Soursop. Pineapple. Star Apple. Avocado! Passion Fruit. Tamarind. Oh my!
These Vegetarian Restaurants! Especially: La Buena Mesa de Oscar, La Zanahoria, Bangkok & Bombay

(Sources: http://www.topuertorico.org/culture/foodrink.shtml, http://www.puertoricodaytrips.com/tropical-fruit/, www.vegguide.org/region/616)

Sustainability of Organic Ag?

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

There's a fascinating article in the NYTimes about the problems that have arisen as big organic agriculture has grown: Organic Agriculture May Be Outgrowing Its Ideals

Check it out!

Some of the most interesting excerpts:

The upsides for the economy of some of the parts of Mexico that export organic produce to the U.S.: "They also point out that the organic business has transformed what was once a poor area of subsistence farms and where even the low-paying jobs in the tourist hotels and restaurants in nearby Cabo San Lucas have become scarcer during the recession."

The limits of the organic label: Organic produce has to be grown without synthetic fertilizers, hormones, and pesticides, but "the checklist makes few specific demands for what would broadly be called environmental sustainability, even though the 1990 law that created the standards was intended to promote ecological balance and biodiversity as well as soil and water health."

Attempts to modify "organic" to embody a larger sense of sustainability: "And last year the Agriculture Department’s National Organic Standards Board revised its rules to require that for an “organic milk” label, cows had to be at least partly fed by grazing in open pastures rather than standing full time in feedlots."

The many players involved in these large-scale decisions about the food system: "But each decision to narrow the definition of “organic” involves an inevitable tug-of-war among farmers, food producers, supermarkets and environmentalists."

Consumers' narrow understanding of what's good about organics: "While the original organic ideal was to eat only local, seasonal produce, shoppers who buy their organics at supermarkets, from Whole Foods to Walmart, expect to find tomatoes in December and are very sensitive to price."

The inevitable limits of seasonality (which we just can't accept!): "Few areas in the United States can farm organic produce in the winter without resorting to energy-guzzling hothouses. In addition, American labor costs are high."

Water scarcity and American dominance: Organic farming in Mexico depletes already suffering aquifers, "Many growers blame tourist development — hotels and golf courses — for the water scarcity, and this has been a major problem in coastal areas. But farming can also be a significant drain...The logistics of getting water and transporting large volumes of perishable produce favors bigger producers. Some of the largest are American-owned, like Sueño Tropical, a vast farm with rows of shade houses lined up in the desert that caters exclusively to the American market.
While traditional organic farmers saw a blemish or odd shape simply as nature’s variations, workers at Sueño Tropical are instructed to cull tomatoes that do not meet the uniform shape, size and cosmetic requirement of clients like Whole Foods."

Reflections for the New Year

2012-01-02T08:30:00.000-06:00

Happy 2012!

I've been writing on this here blog for a full eleven months now, with my first post on January 28, 2011. I have posted every single weekday between now and then, come rain or shine, hell or high water, delicious meals or brain tumors.

When I first began this project, I intended for it to be something I'd do regularly for one full year, to test myself, my writing abilities, my stick-to-it-iveness. And since then, Dining and Opining has felt like a really central part of my life, something I look forward to as a way of cataloging my days and my thoughts on food. It has been a way of connecting with all of you readers (those who are my dear friends and those who've stumbled across this little project from elsewhere). It has been a way of putting my thoughts down, collecting my reflections in one place, recording all those little scraps of ideas and photos and foods.

And as the one year of this project comes to an end, I'm thinking a lot about what comes next. What does this blog look like on January 28, 2012, when I've fulfilled my pledge to myself to write every weekday for one full year? What next? Will I keep going? What form will my writing take? Or should I be done with it, and just let it stand as a year in my life?

I wonder all this because there are also moments when this little blog has been a burden. When I've wondered whether anyone is actually learning anything from this, whether the work I put into it is worth it, whether I might be better spending my time elsewhere, and whether I'm doing all this for the right reasons.

So, I'll keep thinking on this over the coming days, but would also love any thoughts that you all have to share.

What do you get out of this blog?
Should I keep going?
If so, how might I modify my posting structure to make it more sustainable? Two posts a week--one on dining and one on opining? Random posting when the mood strikes me? Other ideas?

Whatever happens next, I thank all of you so much for coming along for the ride, and for reading my words and sharing in my food life with me!

Happy New Year!