(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

Sometimes, what might seem like a brilliant blog idea can lose momentum and fade away if we don’t just sit down and write it. Looking through many photos of our cooking we’re amazed at how many missed opportunities have gotten away from us – great ideas unwritten and unpublished. So to make amends we’re finally getting around to writing and publishing a blog that we started several months ago. We figure since the guy that predicted the rapture was wrong–twice, we have time to prepare for the next BIG party.

Back in May, the day before the “first” rapture was supposed to happen, Jason was in our kitchen making a big batch of grilled cheese sandwiches for an Artist Opening at Zannah Noe‘s Velcrow Studio. Making the sandwiches took hours, and as the time went by Jason thought about the type of food one would serve at a rapture party. We’re Gleeks (we’ve seen all the Glee episodes multiple times) and it seemed obvious to Jason that Grilled Cheesus would not only be the ultimate rapture food, but it would coincide with the season finale of Glee–assuming we were all still here. Alas, the season ended, the world didn’t, summer rolled over us like a truck and here we are, approaching Halloween, and this darned grilled cheese post is just now seeing the light of day.

All the fixings for the ultimate grilled cheese.

So now we’re in our kitchen prepping more sandwiches again, for Zannah Noe’s Open Studio on Saturday, October 29, TODAY! We will be at her studio with our panini maker, bread, and lots of cheese. The Ultimate Grilled Cheese is a Ruth Reichl recipe that we fell in love with after seeing it on the PBS holiday special, A Moveable Feast, which featured several cooking show hosts preparing their favorite holiday food. Ruth’s grilled cheese sandwiches are wonderful and adaptable to any, and all, cheese. The point is to experiment.

With All Hallows Eve only a couple days away, and the holidays fast approaching, if you need a quick and easy appetizer that everyone will love, try the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich. They are so good that if the rapture does happen these sandwiches will be your ticket to Heaven.

The Ultimate Grilled Cheese

1/3 pound Swiss cheese, shredded
1/3 pound Irish cheddar cheese, shredded
1/3 pound mozzarella cheese, shredded
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
freshly ground pepper
6-8 slices No-Knead bread or good quality bread

Mix the shredded cheeses with the onion, shallot, garlic, and ground pepper. Place between two slices of bread using a panini maker to grill the sandwiches, or butter both sides of the sandwich and lightly grill in a skillet over medium low heat.

At (y)our food choices, we’ve had the sort of year that might lead folks to think we’re on perpetual holiday. We’ve traveled, we’ve celebrated (often) and we’ve eaten very, very well. The food choices we’ve made have been, on the whole, good ones. Whole, organic foods purchased from local producers, home baked breads and wild caught fish and game represent the bulk of our food consumption. We’ve purchased more cookbooks than we care to admit and we’ve worshipped at the alter of molecular gastronomy. Along the way, we’ve shared what we’re learning with others and we’ve joined people in their efforts to fight the good food fight.

But as we reflect on our glorious year in food, we are reminded that far too many people struggle with food insecurity, poor or no access to fresh food and the pressure and misinformation of a food industry hell bent on getting us to consume more and more of the processed stuff that fills our bodies with garbage. These are tough, lean times for a lot of our neighbors. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 49 million Americans didn’t have enough food in 2009 for an active, healthy life. Many of the most vulnerable are children living in poverty. That’s outrageous.

On Monday, October 24th, we join others around the country in observing Food Day, an important awareness campaign created by Center for Science in the Public Interest. According to the Food Day organizers:

Food Day seeks to bring together Americans from all walks of life—parents, teachers, and students; health professionals, community organizers, and local officials; chefs, school lunch providers, and eaters of all stripes—to push for healthy, affordable food produced in a sustainable, humane way.

Food Day’s goals are ambitious and noble. It’s hard to argue with a movement aimed at addressing our most pressing dietary and food safety challenges. Take a look:

With our collective awareness heightened, join us Monday and every day in a quest to find and prepare the most nutritious food possible for you and your families and to work to make clean, affordable, real food available to everyone.

Happy Food Day!