Menu for February 6

Ta and Lisa joined me this morning to shop for our dinner coming up this Friday. As we shopped, the following menu came into focus (please note the embedded links lead to a recipe):

Starter: Dinokalopita Frittata (like Spanokopita but with Dino Kale instead of Spinach)

Salad: Roasted Candy Cane Beets, Golden Beets, and Fennel, with a Roasted Shallot Vinaigrette.

Main Course: Tuscan Bean Stew (two versions, one with Italian sausage and one vegetarian) served with Polenta grilled with Montasio Cheese

Dessert: Pear Tart with Homemade Crème Fraîche

Update on Plans for Feb 6 Dinner

I will be in the U-District Farmer's Market tomorrow at 9:30. I would love to have some fellow shoppers. Let me know if you can join me.

Also, I am still collecting a headcount, so let me know if you plan to come to dinner and if you will be bringing guests.

I have decided to wait until next Sat or Sun to make anti-CAFO cookies.

A Bake In?

This is a picture of some anti-CAFO cookies I found on the F.A.R.M. website (Families Against Rural Messes). These were made by some residents of Rock Island County, Illinois.

I would like to organize a work party to make 300 of these (yes, you read that right) to serve at the Wednesday University series on food issues that Lucy and I are presenting this quarter. I will be delivering the lecture on February 11. Would any of you be interested in helping me? We could use the Husky Den Kitchen for this, I am pretty sure. I will also ask Seattle Arts and Lectures to allow you free admission to the session so that you can receive acknowledgment from the class participants for your contribution of labor to the cause!

January 9 Meeting

Sara McCurdy, Brady Ryan, Theresa Klaassen, Trang Ta, and Ann met to discuss our next event. Instead of coming up with a menu, we decided to embrace the challenge of seasonality and work with a local farm to see what is available in early February and have that set the menu for our next meal. Ann will visit the Farmer's Market tomorrow to talk to the farmers who are still bringing produce to market to explore with them what they might have in a month's time. Another sub-theme for this event might be "expanding our vegetable vocabulary." Maria Hines, of Tilth Restaurant, was interviewed on KUOW yesterday evening and she was talking about the year she spent in France and the tremendous diversity of winter vegetables you can find there that we hardly ever see here. You can find some of the recipes using these vegetables on her blog.

We decided to move the date to Friday, February 6. We also set a deadline of January 28 to get a head count for dinner and collect money ahead of time as much as possible so we have some funds for shopping for the meal. We are keeping the cost to $15.00 for participants, plus $10.00 for guests. Those of you who overpaid last time can deduct that amount for this time. We are also planning a trip to the farm to pick up the produce either Jan 31 or Feb 1, and we will need to get a head count for that activity as well so that we can plan transportation.