apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Note: I am attending Slow Food Nation events all weekend and hope to post about that experience in the near future. Meanwhile, here’s my impression from opening day.)

It’s late Friday afternoon and I have just returned home after spending the day at the Slow Food Nation Marketplace where several dozen local artisan producers were offering tastes and selling their wares. The prices weren’t bad and everything was made locally from local ingredients. As you can imagine, there was much deliciousness everywhere.

And there was also plenty of politics.

Our friends over at re-nest recently posted this wonderful video of eco-architect Michael McDonough’s kitchen. While it's a pretty upscale project, there’s a lot of inspiration here even for us everyday folks.

Emma’s popular post on the best way to cook pasta triggered a vague memory of a no-boil method I had read about years ago. A few minutes of internet sleuthing and there it was: Alain Ducasse’s risotto-like Olive Mill Pasta recipe. The thinking behind this is that the pasta cooks in the sauce as it's being made, thus capturing the starch and flavors and creating a rich and unctuous dish. Curious and hungry, I gave it a try.

18 Reasons is a new gallery/community space in San Francisco's Mission district, located in a storefront kitty-corner from the famous Tartine Bakery and just around the corner from the equally popular Bi-Rite Grocery Store and Creamery.

The purpose of 18 Reasons is to "promote a dialogue between our neighborhood and people who create food and art; provide a space where ideas are exchanged and relationships are forged, and encourage people to communicate this shared passion with each other."

15 reasons why we eat

hunger

boredom

obligation

celebration

habit

curiosity

belonging

craving

comfort

distraction

survival

nourishment

discipline

tradition and...

There’s been a little grumbling that the Slow Food Nation event being held here in SF over Labor Day weekend is too pricey. True, there’s the $2500 Patron’s Package and the $500 dinner with Thomas Keller and Alice Waters. Even the $65 admissions ticket to the Taste Pavilions is a bit over the top for some.

But there are many free and reduced cost Slow Food Nation events. For more information, including an opportunity to win two free seats at Deborah Madison’s table at Greens on Saturday, August 30, read on.

Most of us have a favorite mug we automatically reach for, whether it’s the first bleary cup of the day or a quick afternoon pick-me-up. This one is mine. It’s a lovely, sturdy stoneware mug, handmade by Occidental, CA potter Barbara Hoffman. I’ve had it for about three years and I dread the inevitable day when I shall accidentally drop it and it will be gone forever. So in anticipation of that, I try to remember to appreciate it while I can.

What’s you’re favorite mug and why?

Due to some slightly unusual circumstances, I’m eating alone a little more than normal these days. This is fine, as long as it doesn’t happen too frequently. While I enjoy the occasional quiet evening when it’s just me, a bowl of pasta and a pile of New Yorkers, in my experience too much eating alone eventually leads to no good.

This has got me thinking about all the ways and reasons people come together to eat. I’m immediately reminded how universal gathering for a feast is. Crossing all cultural, class, race, age and gender divisions, as a species, we’re a beast that likes to feast and have been doing so since, well, forever.

Surely you’ve noticed the National Cattleman’s Beef Association’s print ad campaign by now. In one, large slabs of beef are posing as cliffs, surrounded by rivers of blood and dotted with lentils and mushrooms. In another, a medium-rare beefy seashore, complete with parsley foliage, is gently lapped by sea-salted waves.

The slogan? Another mouthful: ‘Discover the power of protein in the land of lean beef.”

The Nebraska Beef Council calls these ads fanciful and cutting edge. But what do you think of the beefscapes? Do they whet your appetite for a nice steak or leave you feeling a little creeped-out?

Are you ‘roughly between the ages of 16 and 34’ and passionate about all things related to food? Then you may be interested in Slow Food’s Youth Movement Program which is bringing together young farmers, students, artisans and eaters at the Slow Food Nation event here in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend. Events include an overnight camping retreat, a workshop and a meet-and-greet evening. The weekend culminates in a pot luck Eat-In celebration in Dolores Park.

For more information, or to a support scholarship for this program, read on.

Faye Hess is my latest kitchen crush. I can’t remember exactly what interweb meanderings brought me to her cooking videos this week, but there I was. Within one minute of watching ‘Making Gnocchi’, I felt that delightful tingle you get when you recognize one of your people. My first clue: the potato peeling confession. Second clue: that fabulous green couch. Third clue: her fresh sage and garlic rap.

Recently I attended a food and writing retreat where one of the participants wrote an entire essay about the morning she baked a chocolate croissant from Trader Joe’s frozen foods section. She had a particularly sensuous writing style and by the end of her reading, I was quite taken with the picture of a hot croissant pulled fresh from my oven and eaten in bed while the morning fog beat at the windows.

So, you know, I thought I’d give it a try.

It’s full-on tomato season in California right now and we’re starting to see all sizes and colors of heirlooms and dry-farmed Early Girls in the markets. But never before have I seen the Chubba Bubba. What an odd and intriguing and beautiful looking tomato! Kind of like a cross between a roma and those sweet and sour gumballs I used to love as a kid.

I was inspired a few weeks ago by a post over at Smitten Kitchen on what we are afraid to cook and why. What a great question! And what a great thing to take on. There’s nothing like the feeling of overcoming fear (baking bread, souffle, sushi), plunging right in and coming out the other side victorious. Kind of like a culinary Outward Bound.

What are you afraid to cook?

In my case, it was fried chicken.