(y)our food choices

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We cook a lot in our tiny kitchen and love it! Baked bread, simmering soups and homemade pizzas are just a few of the staples in our apartment. We are constantly experimenting with recipes and love a challenge. We’re not Iron Chefs but we do respect the men and women who are and their dedication to the craft. We’re just two men who are trying to get back into the simple ways of life. We’re all about farmer’s markets and grass fed beef. We believe that the food we eat is sacred, even if we are not of the religious state of mind, and that with every bite we take or every drink we consume we can all make a difference, for good or not so good. We hope you enjoy reading about what we are eating, peruse the pictures we take of our food, and tell us about what your eating and drinking. In the future we will be linking this blog to a new blog called Your Food Choices where we hope to get some lively discussions about food and how it affects us all. Cheers! Steve & Jason

Salt

A Classic!

I grew up with the Morton Salt Company – “When it rains it pours.” There was just one salt in our kitchen and it came from a navy blue canister. I didn’t pay much attention to salt. I sort of knew how to use it, though I remember being counseled against over consumption – high blood pressure and all that. I had no idea then, of course, that salt is so important to our survival – it helps our bodies regulate fluid balance, it actually helps regulate blood pressure, and it assists in food absorption in the intestinal tract.

Like so many foods, salt is now terribly misunderstood. Our ancestors could not have imagined a day when salt would be vilified as a public health menace. Salt preserves and cleanses and is essential for so many forms of food preparation and preservation. Of course, we now consume far too much salt if processed foods are our principal source of sustenance. But, if what we cook at home begins as fresh whole unprocessed food, we’ll need to add a little salt – for great taste and for your good health.

The myriad uses for culinary salts grows more creative by the season. And why not? Salt boosts flavor and the larger crystals add satisfying texture to just about everything they touch. Big crunchy crystals of natural sea salt are a perfect compliment to ripe summer tomatoes or grilled steak. We get the big gray crystals we keep in our pantry from the San Francisco Herb Company. They’re amazing and the company’s prices make buying in bulk an easy investment. The gray salt in our cupboard adorns vine ripened heirloom tomatoes at breakfast whenever possible. Our orange Hawaiian sea salt provides color contrast to the white of a sliced boiled egg in one of our ad hoc nicoise salads. But more than all the others, the snowy white sea salt we buy in bulk from Rainbow Grocery waits next to the stove in its salt box for the next meal. It has to be refilled often.

The universe of salt manufacturers is vast. We like the idea of salt made by traditional methods and only very modestly processed, if processed at all. With all that is available online, serious home cooks have no reason to go without interesting salts. But if the local supermarket is your only choice, you should understand what you’re looking at on the store shelf. You can learn just about everything you’ll ever need to know from the Salt Institute – a non-profit salt industry trade association. Note the member company list to gain an understanding of the Institute’s perspective.

– Steve

A farmer’s market has finally come to our neighborhood. Farm booths line up, tucked into a parking strip dividing the block between Irving and Judah at 8th and 9th Avenues. It’s now well into June and the market’s bounty hints at the summer weeks to come. Lot’s of things are now in season. The strawberries are getting bigger, the tomato varieties are more plentiful and the summer squash are beating their growers in the game to keep them at a manageable size before harvest.

Eating seasonally makes sense if you’re trying to consume the freshest locally produced foods available in the market. There will be much more written on the virtues of eating organic, locally produced food. For now, we’re just happy to say our choices have gotten better.

We’re lucky to live in California where fresh produce comes into local farmers’ markets year-round. If you’d like to know what’s in season in your area, take a look at this useful site. Winter can be tough in certain parts of the country, but taking advantage of the summer market’s bounty by freezing or canning while things are cheap and plentiful can make a huge difference in your winter consumption. Seriously, even if you live in a home that has modest storage capacity, you can put a lot of food up in storage at a fraction of the cost of grocery store shopping. What’s more, you’ll know where the food came from and the people who grew it for you.

For a list of farmers’ markets near you, visit Local Harvest online. This exceptional site allows you to search for farmers and markets in your area. You’ll also find a host of blogs and resources to keep you in the loop on local food trends. Of course, we hope you’ll take note of what’s out there and then step away from your computers, walk outside and head to the nearest market. Enjoy!