Red Celery?

A produce farm in Oviedo, Florida, has successfully developed a red celery-- well, red at the base anyway. They plan to test market it beginning in December in the west, northwest and southwest-- not in our area, in other words-- but we'll get it eventually. Will the red color get you to eat more celery? How about your kids?

Duda Farm Fresh Foods says the celery has the same great flavor and crunch, with a more interesting color. We eat with our eyes first, of course, but will our eyes tell us that this color just doesn't belong to celery? What happened to purple carrots? That was a development recently, but the carrots in my market (and on my table) are still orange.

Is the Ohio Valley ready for red celery? What do you think?

Cooking as Community

"...once upon a time, before every home had its own kitchen in which Mom labored more or less alone, cooking was itself a social activity, one that fostered community and conversation around the chopping board or cook fire long before the meal was served." Michael Pollan, in the Sunday New York Times Magazine.

A few months ago a few friends, my husband, and I got together and cooked a meal, intending to do it on a more or less regular basis. Predictably, most of the cooking was done by the women, with most of the men deciding the high road was to stay out of the way. The menu was ambitious for a group who were not accustomed to chopping, simmering and working in cooperation with one another. But the results were delicious and everyone enjoyed the meal and the experience.

When we tried to schedule another one, it never worked out. Life just got in the way.

Kitchens these days are being designed with huge islands where guests and family could, if they chose to, have a glass of wine and help with (or at least watch) the food preparation. In many cases, they remain empty as we call out for pizza or eat fast food more evenings than not.

What would it take to bring back that community, that shared food experience that used to be so common? And would life be more fulfilling if we did?

Why not plan to gather some friends and some ingredients and make and share a meal? And let me know if you like it. It's a beginning...

Flour Heaven

I got a box today filled with flour. 17 pounds of flour. I was in Heaven!

My local grocery stores carry all purpose flour, bread flour, and whole wheat flour. End of sentence. If I want to do a recipe with white whole wheat or semolina or buckwheat, well, too bad! So I bit the bullet and ordered flour from King Arthur. My mind immediately began to formulate my plan of attack. Homemade pasta, dessert bars with whole wheat pastry flour, semolina bread...

I think I'm not alone in my turning to breads, soups, and stews as the weather turns cooler. There is something about waking up to a day which calls for a long-sleeved shirt that says, "make some bread today." So I am armed with ingredients for the cool days ahead. Tomorrow, raisin bread.

Money Buys You Things

To paraphrase playwright David Mamet, "Money is nice to have, because it buys you things." (Or, I would add, experiences.) Unless you are actually operating at a subsistence level, where you really have no options, you get to choose on what, and where, you spend your money. If, like some folks I know, you think that Wally World is the next best thing to sliced bread (an apt analogy, if ever I heard one) then the choice to spend the lion's share of your money there is the right one for you. If you like to have choices, though, then some more thoughtful choices need to be made.

I HATE Wally World! And I shop there twice a year, if not more, for the best prices on commodity items (like strands of 100-light Christmas lights.) But if I (as I do) like to have the option of going there for my stuff or elsewhere where the service is better and the quality is better and the choices certainly are better, then I had better think twice about choosing them as my go-to store for non-commodity items, like groceries or clothing, ...or plants.

Yes, I agree that we're sometimes brought to a standstill by the bewildering number of choices in things like petunias. But do you really want to only have the option of red or white or pink? Because if you spend most of your money at Wally World (and other big boxes), and the small businesses go out of business, then Wally World gets to choose what you will buy. And what you will not buy. Because they choose not to sell it to you.

Especially in this economy, you have enormous power. You have the "thumbs up or thumbs down" vote in the acropolis. Who survives, who dies? Do you want choices, or just low, low prices? The next time you are in your favorite "mom-and-pop" small business, ask yourself what you would miss if they weren't there any more. If this bothers you, then think long and hard before you drive by your local bakery/hardware store/garden center to drop a chunk of change at Wally World. The future is what you choose it to be.

5 Steps to Happiness

What do we need to do to be happy?*

1. Connect. Form or foster relationships with friends and relatives.
2. Be active. Get outside and play or walk or move in some way.
3. Take notice. Of the seasons, of the world around us.
4. Keep learning. Study, or just be curious.
5. Give. Share what we have with those who need.

*Thanks to statistician Nic Marks and the folks at TED.

Sunday Supper of Buckwheat Pancakes

I bought buckwheat flour a while back for a recipe I was making, so I thought I'd try making buckwheat pancakes for our Sunday supper. I had always imagined that buckwheat pancakes would be heavy and somewhat bitter. But I was quite surprised! These were much better than regular pancakes, with a pleasant complexity of flavor, and not heavy at all, but rather light and fluffy. The recipe is quick and easy, and makes about eight 6-inch pancakes.

1 large egg

1 1/4 cup buttermilk

3 Tbsp butter, melted

1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup buckwheat flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

Whisk the egg, buttermilk and melted butter together in a medium bowl. Whisk the flours, baking soda and salt together in a small bowl. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients just until blended. Pour 1/3 cup batter onto a hot griddle sprayed with cooking oil spray, flip when the edges are dry and cook on the other side until done. Repeat until all the batter is used. Serve with butter and syrup.

Facebook Knows Where You Are. Oh, Nooo...

Some of my Facebook friends are sending messages back and forth, warning each other that Facebook Places will know where you are if you don't block them. Oh, nooo! That's terrible! Why would Facebook do that?

Well, let's see. Facebook spends lots of money to create a venue where we can all talk to each other and play games and have fun, right? And they just do that because they like us, right? Ummm, no.

Actually they want to know who you are and what things you like. And who your friends are and what they like. And where you all are. So that maybe if you are in the midwest and like football and drink Coke, they can tell the Pepsi Cola Company that maybe they should advertise on a midwest football game or something.

If you don't want Facebook to know stuff about you, don't use Facebook, Folks. You don't have to use it, life as we know it will still go on if you don't. If you use it, then deal with the fact that they will know stuff about you, probably much more than you realize that they know. That's the way it is.