One of the first email blasts I read from Daily CandyNew York is actually  relevant to anyone living in limited space in any city, and so I thought I would share. A couple Daily Candy contributors tried out the Window Farms project in their Brooklyn apartment and shared their success here. Check out the video below to find out what the project is all about.

I’m still not sure how I’ll change MAF, if at all. Since the summer, I’ve been writing about food from a more general nutritional and health-conscious perspective. I think that I will continue to focus my blogging in this way, which isn’t so dependant on restaurants and other goings on about town tied to a specific geographical location.

So, please keep reading! New posts will be coming shortly.

And New York, it’s good to be home.

One of Founding Farmers's large dining rooms

Last week, the Washington Post published an article in which the author describes the difficulty of serving “green” or “sustainable” food in restaurants, using DC’s popular Founding Farmers as an example. This quasi-exposé begins by pointing out misleading and not-so-environmentally-friendly aspects of the restaurant’s menu, such as the farm raised (not wild) salmon and the vegetable salad, which is not composed of local produce despite the list of small farms provided on the menu.

The article goes on to essentially list direct quotes from Dan Simons, the chief executive of Founding Farmers’s management company, offering excuses for these missteps. WaPo reports: “’We’re not Equinox,’ he said, referring to the Washington restaurant that has built its reputation on a decade of promoting local farmers. ‘Is green [only] about what people put in their mouth? Or is it about the whole experience?’” I suppose by “whole experience” he is referring to the building’s US Green Building Council’s LEED certification and the use of organic cleaning products.

I’m pretty sure that “not being” Equinox is not a very good explanation for misleading diners into believing their food is “farm fresh” when it is not. And yes, it is nice that Founding Farmers was built with sophisticated environment-friendly architecture, but when I think about the “dining experience,” the quality of the food is the first thing that comes to my mind.

The list of excuses goes on, and can basically be summarized as such: it is more difficult and more expensive to order food products from many small sources than fewer large sources, it is a pain to change the menu constantly, and Founding Farmers is so busy and puts out far too many meals to deal with these tasks. But I thought these are precisely the measures restaurants who market themselves as “green” should be taking.

I think there are two main lessons to be learned from Founding Farmers. The first is that perhaps “green” restaurants need to be smaller, with fewer tables and shorter menus. This might make it easier to offer dishes catered to the season and local produce availability. Second, the certification standards for food that qualifies as “sustainable” should be more detailed. The Green Restaurant Association’s standards seem a little broad. If these are are tightened up, diners will surely understand what they are ordering.

Michelle in her signature sleeveless look

Last night, Barbara Walters named Michelle Obama #1 on her list of the Most Fascinating People of 2009. The list also included pop culture stars such as reality TV sensation Kate Gosselin and performance genius Lady GaGa. While the other interviews were certainly entertaining, it was nice that Walters asked the First Lady some legitimate questions on one of our country’s most pressing issues: health.

In the past year, the First Lady has worked to raise public awareness on the issue of nutritional health and fitness, most notably through her garden, the White House Farmers’ Market, and killer arm strength. I was pleased to hear that Michelle Obama plans to continue to promote healthy living. Indeed, Obama named this as the issue on which she would like to focus during her husband’s term in the White House. She stated:

I think I’ve begun to lay the foundation to a conversation about the health of our kids — particularly when we’re looking at statistics that say that one in three kids in this country are obese, and those numbers increase if you’re African-American or Hispanic… So we’re going to spend a lot more time on that issue in the years to come.

Bravo.

View the interview here.

10) Watercress: With its crisp stems and dark , spicy leaves, watercress is a welcome addition to any salad. It is also packed with Vitamins A and C, iron, calcium, and folic acid.

I like watercress in beet salads (beets, although popular in the summer months, remain in season through the winter) with some goat cheese, and some pine nuts or sliced almonds tossed in a vinaigrette.

9) Leeks: Because who doesn’t like leek and potato soup on a cold day? Here is Chocolate and Zucchini’s recommended recipe, adapted from Sophie Brissaud’s La table végétale. Simple and delicious.

8 ) Artichokes: I have always been somewhat fascinated with artichokes because of how beautiful and interesting they are both to the taste and the eye. Artichokes are actually flowers, and the bud is the edible artichoke “heart”.

When shopping for artichokes, look for ones that feel heavy and are tightly closed. They can be cooked in many different ways. Most basically, they can be steamed and tossed into a salad or other simple dishes. Stuffed artichokes are also a favorite Italian dish of mine.

Artichokes are a great source of fiber, Vitamin C, magnesium, folate, copper, and potassium.

7) Cranberries: While cranberries are great for baking,  I am a huge fan for another reason: cranberry sauce. Cranberry sauce is easy to make, with room to get creative. I simply use the recipe from the Ocean Spray bag (found here) and experiment adding other fruits to the mix. Orange zest can add some great tang, but my favorite fruit to add is number 6 on the list…

6) …Pears: Like apples, pears can be great for baking and to throw in salads. But I like just eating them out of hand. They are one of the few cold weather fruits that you can bite into and let the juice run down your arm. Pears also have an incredible subtle fragrance– one of my favorite scents.

5) Pumpkin: I always love it when pumpkin reappears as an ingredient on fall menus. I look forward to seeing what classic dishes can be re-worked with some autumnal flavor. For example, I just had the pumpkin gnocchi at Posto, and my friend Emily just made a delicious batch of pumpkin chili. I am also a fan of eating ice cream no matter how cold it is outside, and pumpkin ice cream and/or gelato is just delicious.

If you still carve jack-o-lanterns (I won’t judge), and don’t know what to do with all of the seeds, try baking them with salt for a snack.

4) Winter Squash: Acorn squash, butternut squash, and spaghetti squash are just a few of my winter favorites. The squash are easy to just simply roast and enjoy, or make into wonderful soups. Great comfort food.

3) Clementines: The perfect snack. Enough said.

2) Sweet Potatoes: Nothing adds flavor and color to a winter dish quite like sweet potatoes. Simply bake unpeeled at 350 degrees F for 30 to 45 minutes or boil them peeled and cut in half for 20 to 30 minutes and mash.

Sweet potatoes, like most other foods with a rich color, are a great source of nutrients. Sweet potatoes are rich in Vitamins A, C, and B-6, fiber, copper, and potassium.

1) Pomegranates: Eating a pomegranate has always been a sort of ritual for me. They are only good for a small portion of the year (I find they peak in November) and they are messy and require a lot of work. But they are so worth it.

Pomegranates seem to be a growing trend in the food world with their oft-buzzed about anti-oxidant content, and it didn’t take long for them to be sold seeded at the grocery store, their juice to be bottled, and, finally,  mixed into cocktails (the only logical final step). Not only do I find these innovations to be disappointing in flavor (am I the only one who thinks pomegranate juice is yuck?), but they take the fun and beauty out of the process of cracking open the fruit and exploring each nook and cranny within it, working for every seed.  So put on a bib, roll up your sleeves, and dig in, because now is the time.

Honorable Mention: Lobster. Technically not a fruit or vegetable, but this is the time when lobsters are really great to eat. Most people think of them as a summer favorite, but their shells are harder and their meat is tastier in the months that end in “ber”.

Everyone should check out this week’s issue of The Nation, a special called “Food for All.” Various restauranteurs and food activists including Alice Waters and Dan Barber contribute articles to support the grassroots movement of “food democracy.” These authors argue that a transformation of the food industry is necessary and they discuss the various obstacles that our nation must overcome in order to make safe and nutritious food available to all.

Eggs: Perfect in their simplicity

After my rant a couple weeks ago about how gross I think green peppers are and why, I thought I might write a post about one of my favorite foods to maintain some semblance of positivity. I didn’t have to think twice about the topic: eggs were my answer.

Eggs are fantastic for a number of reasons: they’re cheap, healthy, easy to make, taste great, and can be combined with lots of different ingredients and cooked in many different ways depending on individual taste. Basically, eggs are the perfect food.

I like eggs cooked all different ways: over easy with a nice runny yolk, scrambled, in a frittata, in an omelet, boiled and poached on toast, to name a few. My favorite way to make an egg meal for myself is to make a vegetable scramble. I chop any vegetables that I have in my refrigerator and sauté them in olive oil on medium heat. I like to use a wide variety of vegetables in every scramble including, but not limited to, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, asparagus, broccoli, spinach, avocado, and kalamata olives. I then take one whole egg and two egg whites and scramble them in a bowl. Next, I add shredded cheese, usually feta, goat, or sharp cheddar, to the eggs and mix well. Once the vegetables are almost completely cooked, I turn the heat way down to low heat (this is KEY to decent eggs) and add the scrambled eggs, distributing the vegetables into the runny egg. Every so often I stir the eggs in the pan so that they cook evenly and none of the eggs are cooked too much. A few minutes later, I sprinkle some salt and pepper on them and have a delicious and nutritious meal.

Eggs are obviously great for breakfast, but for me, they are the ultimate comfort food. If I’ve had a long day and I don’t feel like spending a lot of time in the kitchen but need to eat something before I crawl into bed, an egg scramble is the way to go.

Eggs have recently gotten a fair amount of praise from celebrity chefs and food writers. I loved what Mark Bittman did in his recipe posting and corresponding podcast, “More-Vegetable-Than-Egg Frittata.” This really exemplifies how eggs can be used not as the main focus of a dish, but as a component to maintain texture and form, a strategy that I employ in my vegetable-heavy scrambles. In Eric Ripert’s post on his visit to Blue Hill at Stone Barns, he gushes about the soft boiled egg he ate (farm fresh, of course) that had been perfectly cooked in a circulator bath set at 61.9 degrees. Here, Ripert shows that although eggs are nothing new, the art of egg-cooking is continually advancing. Simple as eggs are, the possibilities are endless.