With the temps being on the chillier side these days, I was about to get all Dylan on yo’ ass and announce, “If you wanta have a picnic, that’s up t’ you. But don’t tell me about it, I don’t wanta hear it, ‘Cause, see, I just lost all m’ picnic spirit. Stay in m’ kitchen, have m’ own picnic!” However, starting tomorrow the Bay Area mercury is going to fever up to the 80s, so it’s finally time to slap on the SPF 30, grab some grub and a stadium blanket, and leave the San Franciscan layers at home.

Now, whether you pack cold fried chicken or lentil salad, whether you opt for a market-worn canvas tote or a full-loaded picnic basket, or whether you go to the beach or spread out in Golden Gate Park, I’m here to tell you about five indispensable picnic tools I can’t do without.

Opinel No. 9 carbon steel pocket knife: I used to bring my trusty, fifteen-year-old Swiss Army knife on picnics, but as much as I loved the cunningly stored plastic toothpick, my old backpacking tool just wasn’t picnic practical. Gunk and crumbs got jammed in every crevice, and I never seemed to use any tool other than the corkscrew. Furthermore, both blades dulled quickly and I bent back way too many nails just trying to pull the bottle opener out!

Once my husband got this classic, French folding knife for Christmas, we realized it was just what we needed for any and all of our cheese slicing, sausage cutting, or radish slivering. The carbon steel blade takes eons to dull and the entire knife wonderfully lightweight. Over one hundred years old, these knives are as brilliant as they are beautiful. ($12.55) (I might have to take up foraging just to have an excuse to buy the super special mushroom knife. But that’s another post.)

GSI Lexan® Wineglasses: Elegant, stackable, and lightweight, I simply adore these wineglasses. I stumbled upon them at REI and couldn’t get over their brilliance. In fact, I might have to go back for the corresponding Champagne flutes. ($5.95 per glass)

Small Wooden Cutting Board: Lightweight and packable, mine measures 10×10, but Crate and Barrel has some even smaller than that. ($8.95)

L’Occitane Verbena Towelettes: Isn’t progress a wonderful thing? I remember when the only choice we had for après picnic clean-up reminded me way too much of changing my little sister’s diapers. Thank god L’Occitane stepped in with their version of wipes, which they call “towelettes,” thus elevating the product even further. French and herbalicious, the towelettes clean, refresh, and aromatherapize you as you lie in the sun and digest your wine and cheese. You can also get lavender flavored ones and they even repel mosquitoes! ($8.00 for a pack of fifteen densely packed towelettes.)

Swiss Spice salt and pepper shaker: Sleek, refillable, and humid-proof, this combined salt and pepper shaker is as adorable as it is useful. It packs flat — unlike my old Morton favorites, which are decidedly not moisture resistant — and is just so darn adorable. ($16.00)

Teaching kids to eat and drink healthfully requires much more than admonitions. After carting away the vending machines and abolishing the Big Gulps, we can’t leave the kids empty-handed. Rachelle Boucher from Generation Chefs is working hard to fill the void. From the popular Pizza Smack-Downs at COPIA to her weekly cooking classes (free to high school students) in the beautifully outfitted kitchen at the Marin Youth Center (MYC a.k.a. “Mike”) she’s bringing fresh, whole, homemade food generously flavored with reaffirming messages and lots of common sense to a wide and diverse group of kids.


A visit to one of her cooking classes reveals her consummate skill in converting teens to the cause of healthy eating. Endowed with humor, warmth, and endless energy, she’s a master of choreographing 25 wary bundles of apathy and hormones into productive teams of excited, skilled, fruit-and vegetable-loving cooks.

Rachelle hefts up 20 pounds of refined sugar so the kids can see how much the average American teenager consumes every six weeks.

Her class this past week highlighted our favorite fruit of the season–strawberries–along with one very shiny, red bike blender. The lesson for the day involved putting down sugary drinks and sipping fruit smoothies instead. In addition to fresh strawberries, melons, and bananas, the teen chefs could choose from a colorful array of juices, frozen fruit, yogurts, and natural flavorings. Most importantly, they learned that not a single grain of added sugar was needed to create a delicious drink.

A rainbow of sweet goodness just before the pedal action.

Mike Graham-Squire from the Youth Leadership Institute joined the class to show the teens how to select ingredients, calculate food costs, determine servings sizes and overall yield, and–most importantly of all–operate the bike blender. As representatives of schools and local community organizations, the kids were also learning how smoothies can be a healthful, interactive, and effective fundraising tool at large events.

From the Country of Marin’s Nutrition Wellness Program, nutritionist Ellen Szakal taught the class how to read product labels to determine the number of teaspoons of sugar in each serving. A chart listing their favorite snacks and a hands–on exercise counting out a disconcertingly large pile of sugar cubes helped them understand just how much unnecessary sugar they were consuming each day.

It’s a skill adults could use, too.

Calculating How Much Sugar Is In A Container
Looking at the Nutrition Facts label on the side of the package, find the number of grams of sugar. Then divide that number by 4. For example, ingesting 65 grams of sugar in a 20-ounce drink bottle (considered 1 serving) means swallowing 17 individual teaspoons of sugar.

So much youthful energy, it takes extra hands to hold the jar still.

Berkeley-based Juice Peddler sells kits for retrofitting bikes to become human-powered blenders. From the first-generation’s endearingly clunky tricycle platform and antique hand-drill to the fifth-generation’s sleek, high-density polyethylene design, the company has been at the forefront of DIY bike blender technology.

The kids took turns pedaling their fruit concoctions and proudly shared tastes of their icy treats with other teams. Lined up for judging, the smoothies created a rainbow of delicious fun: Monkey Melons, Fruit-A-Palooza, Pink Panther, Go Mango, Fruit-A-Licious, and Pink-A-Licous Strawberry.

I’m glad I didn’t have to judge, as it would have been a tough call to pick just one winner.

Sammy and Brittney confer on the formulation of their team’s smoothie.

Pinkalicious Strawberry Smoothie
The members of Team Pinkalicious decided to celebrate the happy coincidence of their clothing colors with an appropriately hued smoothie.

Serves: 6

Ingredients
10 ounces strawberries, hulled
1 banana, chopped
1 cup frozen berry medley
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 cup orange mango juice concentrate

Preparation
1. Place all ingredients in the jar of a blender.
2. Blend until completely mixed.
3. Serve immediately.

Minted Strawberry Agua Fresca
Another excellent recipe from Generation Chefs that highlights the current season’s bumper crop.

Serves: 6

Ingredients
2 cups ice cubes
3 cups strawberries, hulled
2 small mint leaves, optional
1 1/2 cups cold water
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime or lemon juice
3 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
6 whole strawberries, split 3/4 up from the point, for garnish
6 mint sprigs, for garnish

Preparation
1. Place all ingredients in a blender in the order listed.
2. Blend until completely mixed. Taste and adjust for sweetness or tartness as desired.
3. Pour into chilled glasses, garnish with mint sprigs, and slide a berry onto the rim of each glass.

As a kid, the only green vegetable I willingly let into my mouth without making faces and disgusting noises was the artichoke. Knowing what I know now about the seasonality and regionality of food, I’m pretty impressed that my mother was able to get her hands on artichokes in Minnesota all those years ago. As a born and bred Californian, my mother loved artichokes just as much as we did. That said, I think she was motivated to stop the retchings, gaggings, and death rattles at the dinner table more than anything else.

I grew up scraping my eager teeth across the “strip the leaves and dip them in hot melted butter” globe variety, and it wasn’t until I moved out to California that I really had any experience with delectable baby artichokes. These little suckers are now in season, but if you don’t know how to strip and cook them, they can end up tough and bitter.

You want the leaves to be tightly closed. The more open the leaves are, the more likely they are to have a choke.

The stems of artichokes are just as delicious as the artichokes themselves, but the tougher outer skin should be stripped down. Using a very sharp paring knife, carefully peel off the layer.

This is what a clean stem looks like.

Snap off all the outer leaves until you get down to the tender pale green/yellow leaves.

Trim off the top of the leaves and cut the artichoke in half lengthwise.

Because artichokes start to brown (oxidize) the moment you cut them, toss them in a bowl of acidulated water. That is, water that has lemon juice squeezed into it.

Sauteed Spring Artichokes

Serves 2 as a side dish

Ingredients:
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
Spring onions, thinly sliced
1 lb baby artichokes
1/4 cup water
Juice from 1/4 lemon
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
1. Heat the oil in a high-sided saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions, raise the heat to medium-high, and sauté the onions for about 2-3 minutes.

2. Add the artichokes, stirring to coat with the olive oil. Splash in the water and lemon juice and cover the pan. Stirring every so often, simmer until the base of the artichokes are tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve.

Serving Ideas:
You can serve these artichokes as a side dish just as they are or with a little Fiore Sardo grated on top, but I also like to combine them with farro and snipped chives, with pasta, or with roasted potatoes.

I have a confession to make. For a couple of weeks in April, I allowed my daughters to place a little bag of Doritos in their lunch boxes. Many people will think I’m ridiculous for feeling this is something to confess to, but I know a lot of you out there struggle with the same feelings I have about junk food. I never thought I’d feed my kids processed food, but after a lot of thought, I came to the conclusion that a few Doritos were actually good for them.

Okay, they’re not good for their health or digestive system (obviously), but they may just be good for their general ideas about food and food consumption. Many people will disagree with this statement, but hear me out.

When I first started packing my daughters’ lunches in Kindergarten, I would include organic yogurt, tofu bologna and turkey sandwiches, apples slices or strawberries, cheese, and a slew of other healthy choices. They devoured these meals, each day returning with empty lunch boxes and happy faces. In first grade, they started to tell me about other kids’ lunches. They started to become very opinionated about the visual buffet before them each lunch period. I got some ideas from the other moms, such as sending miso soup in a thermos and chopping up fresh mozzarella cheese with grape tomatoes for a side salad. Meanwhile, my daughters started to question the lunches some of their schoolmates brought each day. Why did some kids get bright orange chips in a bag while they never did, and what were those yellow plastic lunch trays with pizza and nachos in them (the answer was Lunchables, a mass-produced Kraft product advertised to look fun, with it’s own game site marketed to unwitting kids)?

I explained what these things were, noting that everyone’s food choices were a personal matter best discussed in their own families, while also making it clear that those food choices weren’t mine. Meanwhile, I continued with my own school-lunch repertoire and thought all was fine and good until my daughters started reporting on who had “unhealthy” lunches. I quickly found out who had Lunchables, who had Ding Dongs, and who had Doritos in their backpacks. I started to feel uncomfortable with the sanctimonious tone my daughters used when ratting out their peers, and cringed when one said that my lunches were healthy because I loved them (which seemed to imply the kids with Lunchables were unloved).

And then, early this year, one of my daughters repeatedly told me about a few girls who would dangle Doritos in front of her face each day. When she told me about this, she said she wouldn’t want the Doritos anyway because they weren’t good for her, but I could see how much she wished she could eat just one of those bright orange chips. She was saying what she thought I wanted hear (that Doritos were bad), but inwardly craving the junk food she was seeing in other kids’ lunches. When I asked her to honestly tell me if she wanted some, she admitted she did.

My first instinct was to say “too bad,” but then I decided that at 7 ½, she was old enough to be an active participant in her own food choices. I was also concerned that in my attempts to give my daughters a nutritious energy-filled meal at school and speak honestly with them about nutrition, I had instead somehow equated homemade sandwiches and cut up vegetables and fruit with being “good,” while at the same time transforming junk food into a “forbidden fruit.” I began to wonder if one day, maybe in high school or college, they would rebel by gorging themselves on Twinkies and Cap’n Crunch.

I was also concerned that I was raising them in a bubble of food elitism, where we were smug locavores and everyone who ate otherwise was gastronomically bankrupt. Even worse, they seemed completely ignorant of the fact that healthy food is simply more expensive than processed food, and that much of the world is striving to get enough food to eat at all, let alone organic and locally raised. As I didn’t want to get into a prolonged discussion about the farm bill with my two 7-year olds, I thought that in addition to trying to inform them about food with age-appropriate discussions, I would also help them learn to make their own nutritional decisions. Let them eat cake (or rather processed chips), while telling them what’s in them (i.e., why they are such a bright orange and why they taste different than regular corn chips). They’re smart girls and I thought it was time for them to start thinking about this stuff on their own.

It was through this reasoning that I found myself buying a box of small bagged Doritos. I looked at my daughters in the grocery store aisle and said, “So, is this what you really want in your lunch?” Both looked at me wide-eyed. “Yes. We really really want them,” they yelled with huge smiles. As I placed the Doritos into my cart, I tried not to frown. I hated buying this crap for my kids, but I also didn’t want to create little eaters who feel superior about their cut red peppers while longingly eyeing other kids snacks. By taking away the stigma of processed foods, I was hoping to also take away the allure. I was hoping that the road to a lifetime of loving vegetables and slow food just might start with a small bag of Doritos once or twice a week.

Has anyone else out there struggled with their kid’s desire to have junk food? If so, how did you handle it?

Update: I included the Doritos in my daughters’ lunches for about two weeks. I never asked them if they wanted them. They had to initiate putting the bags in their lunch boxes themselves. This week, however, they seem to have forgotten that those little red bags even exist. When making their lunches in the morning, we have included the normal peanut butter and jam sandwiches, yogurt, cut up fruit and homemade popcorn, along with other standard choices. No one has asked for Doritos or even acknowledged that they’re sitting in the pantry. I’m hoping that by making then accessible, they’re no longer so appealing and therefore ancient history.

I’ve been reading a lot about the rising cost of food. The general media is painting a fairly dim picture of the current state of food prices and accessibility, and Jennifer Maiser’s recent articles on BAB helped enlighten us about the politics behind these stories and the reactions to them. Anyone who has walked into a grocery store lately, however, doesn’t need to read about escalating prices to know they’re real. Food is simply more expensive, and feeding one self, let alone a family of four or five, is getting more cost prohibitive each day. So what is a parent who needs to feed a family on a fixed budget to do? Luckily, there are quite a few options out there for the frugal home chef.

Cost-effective home cooking can be simple and the results just as satisfying and flavorful as any high-cost dinner you make. You won’t be grilling any T-bone steaks or putting giant prawns on the barbie, but all types of meat are within reach as long as you choose the right cuts.

Following are three recipes that will feed a family of four, and may even provide some leftovers. One costs less than $5 to make, the next less than $10, and the last just over $10. The costs were calculated using a trip to my local farmer’s market (where I can often purchase a bunch of greens for only $1.00 or $1.50 each) and a trip to Trader Joe’s (which I think is the most affordable place to buy staples like canned beans, pastas, rice, and organic milk). I didn’t include prices for dried spices as they are often standard in any cupboard; also, the minor cost doesn’t really affect the final dollar amount much, so I opted against the extra math involved in calculating something like how much a teaspoon of cumin will cost. I’ve included one vegetarian, one chicken, and one beef recipe to cover all the bases (well, except fish).

Under $5
This vegetarian dish was a staple in my house when I was growing up and is something I frequently make for my family now. You can make this traditional Italian peasant dish year round with whatever greens are in season. It’s the cheapest meal of the three and probably also the healthiest. Be sure not to drain out all the pasta water as you’ll need some to finish off the dish.

Linguine with Greens and White Beans = $4.18

Ingredients
1 bunch of chard, broccoli rabe, mustard greens or any other leafy green ($1.50)
1 12 oz can white beans drained and rinsed ($.69)
2 cloves of garlic
¼ tsp crushed red pepper (if desired)
1 lb linguine ($0.99)
3 Tbsp olive oil
Some pasta water
Top with Parmesan cheese ($1.00)

Preparation
1. Cook linguine in salted water until al dente.
2. Meanwhile, in a large pan, heat the olive oil and cook the garlic until lightly browned. If using the crushed red pepper, add it now.
3. Add the greens and partially cook until warmed through. If using a tougher green, add about a ¼ cup of water and cover to help cook the vegetable.
4. Add the beans and a little pasta water.
5. Stir thoroughly and cover for one minute.
6. Once the beans are heated through and the vegetables are wilted (but not soggy) add the cooked and drained pasta.
7. Add more water or olive oil if necessary.
8. Add salt to taste.
9. Serve with Parmesan cheese.

Under $10
Chicken legs are the least expensive cut of chicken you can buy. As dark meat is far juicier than white, the legs are also one of the tastiest cuts and are great for barbecuing, roasting, or braising. Most kids also love drumsticks as they are easy to pick up and fun to eat. The following dish can be baked or barbecued. If you do the latter, be sure to set the potatoes on the grill in a pan and be careful not to overcook them. With a salad, this dish is a complete meal that is both filling and nutritious. The salad I’ve included is one of my favorite spring salads as it uses baby arugula, which is so perfect this time of year, and pink grapefruits, which add a lovely sweetness to the entire meal.

Roasted Balsamic Chicken and Potatoes with a Baby Arugula, Pink Grapefruit, and Candied Almond Salad = $9.75

Roasted Balsamic Chicken and Potatoes = $5.00

Ingredients
6 chicken legs (just under $2.00)
¼ cup olive oil (about $.50)
¼ cup balsamic vinegar (about $.50)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
3 large russet potatoes halved and sliced into 1/4 –inch pieces ($1.50)
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup chopped fresh Italian parsley ($.50)

Preparation
1. In a large pan, mix the olive oil, vinegar, mustard and some salt and pepper. Marinate the chicken in the mixture for at least an hour or up to one day in the refrigerator.
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Add potatoes to the pan with the chicken and mix in the marinade. Top with a little more olive oil if needed.
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove chicken from oven and top with chopped parsley.
6. Bake another 15 minutes or until done.
7. Serve.

Baby Arugula Salad with Pink Grapefruit and Candied Almonds = $4.75

Ingredients
1 medium bunch of baby arugula ($2.00)
1 large pink grapefruit, peeled and cut into ¼-inch pieces ($1.00)
½ cup unsalted almonds ($1.00)
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp water
¼ cup olive oil ($.50)
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar ($.25)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
1. Heat almonds and sugar in a dry pan on medium-high heat.
2. Toast the almonds in the pan until the sugar starts to meld into the nuts.
3. Add the water and quickly stir so the sugar melts into the nuts. Turn off heat.
4. Wash and dry arugula and place in a large salad bowl.
5. Add chopped grapefruit (with its juices) and candied nuts.
6. Mix salad dressing ingredients thoroughly and then add to the salad.
7. Mix and serve.

Just Over $10

Beef, Poblano, and Potato Tacos with a Corn and Avocado Salad with a Lime-Cilantro Dressing = $10.53

I’ve been adding potatoes to my beef tacos for most of my adult life. It all started in my early 20s as an attempt to eat less red meat, while retaining the beef flavor in some of my favorite dishes. A food article at that time suggested cutting the beef in some recipes in half and adding potatoes for extra heft. I tried this with my tacos, and was surprised by how well the potatoes worked with the beef in corn tortillas and how nicely the flavors melded. Later, I decided to add some roasted poblanos to add even more flavor to the dish and loved the results. The salad I serve the tacos with uses fresh corn and avocado and has a lime and cilantro dressing that screams Mexico. Served with some canned black beans, you have a quick, hearty, and healthy meal. Parents should note that my daughters don’t like the poblano peppers much, but I think they taste great and so let them pick them out on their own.

Beef, Poblano, and Potato Tacos = $6.09

Ingredients
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
½ lb ground beef (I used Niman Ranch) ($3.00)
¼ red onion chopped ($0.25)
1 medium potato chopped into cubes ($0.50)
1 tsp cumin
½ tsp oregano
1 large poblano pepper roasted and peeled (see directions below) ($0.80)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro ($0.25)
¼ - ½ cup water
10 corn tortillas ($1.29)

Preparation
1. Heat oil in a large pan.
2. Add the onion, beef, and potato. Cook until both are mostly browned (around 5 minutes on medium heat).
3. Add the cumin and oregano and mix in thoroughly.
4. Deseed and chop the poblano pepper and then add it to the potato/meat mixture.
5. Add ¼ cup of water to deglaze the meat and potato bits on the bottom of the pan. Add more water if needed.
6. Add the cilantro and stir.
7. In a separate pan (I use a large cast iron pan), add the remaining tablespoon of oil. When hot, brown each tortilla on both sides.
8. Fill browned tortillas with beef mixture.
9. Serve with lime, sour cream, or crema if desired (these will add to the price of the dish, but are not necessary).

Corn and Avocado Salad with a Lime and Cilantro Dressing ($3.75)

Ingredients
2 ears of fresh corn ($2.00)
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro ($.25)
1 avocado chopped ($1.00)
Juice from 1 lime ($.50)
1 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation
1. Add all ingredients in a bowl and mix.

Can of Black Beans = $0.69
I like to serve this meal with some warmed black beans. A can costs 69 cents at Trader Joe’s. If you add this, the grand total goes a bit over $10 to $10.53, but it’s worth it.

How to Roast Poblano Peppers

Method One: On a gas stovetop
1. Turn a burner on high and set pepper on top of the grate.
2. Roast on all sides until the pepper’s exterior is completely charred.
3. Place in a paper bag and close tight for about five minutes. This will allow the skin to steam off.
4. Tear open bag and peel off the outer skin of the pepper (it should now come off very easily).

Method Two: In the oven
1. Turn on your broiler
2. Set your pepper on a pan and place on the top shelf under the broiler.
3. Char on one side thoroughly, and then turn over.
4. Char on the other side and then remove pepper from oven.
5. Place in a paper bag and close tight for about five minutes. This will allow the skin to steam off.
6. Tear open bag and peel off the outer skin of the pepper (it should now come off very easily).

Here are some links to other recipes that I thought looked good and seem to fall in the under $10 range. I have not actually added up the costs for these ingredients, but they look inexpensive to make. About a year ago, I made the falafel recipe and thought it was great. And, although I’ve never made the chickpea ragout, I completely trust all of Jacques Pépin’s recipes.

Falafel from Mark Bittman’s NY Times column
Chickpea Ragout from Jacques Pepin’s Food Made Fast site
Beans and rice from Recipe Zaar
Tofu and Bok Choy Stir fry from Epircurious

In honor of the 134th annual Kentucky Derby, which just happens to be happening tomorrow, I am making mint juleps. How could I not? Since I am neither a Southerner, nor have I ever been to Churchill Downs, I very easily could not. But I have lots of Southern friends and often like to pretend I am from the South– especially when I’ve been drinking bourbon. If I drink rum, I like to pretend I’m from the Midwest.

Ah, Magnolia. Ah, Churchill Downs. I’m certain that, had Sir Winston ever visited Kentucky, he would have downed several. Juleps, I mean. In case you didn’t know, the mint julep has been the official drink of the Kentucky Derby since 1938. Prior to 1938, I very much doubt anyone cared about officially recognizing official drinks.

The Julep, courtesy of Merriam-Webster.com: ju·lep

Pronunciation: \ ‘jü-əp\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Arabic julāb, from Persian gulāb, from gul rose + āb water (that’s rosewater, in case you weren’t following).

Date: 14th Century

1: a drink consisting of sweet syrup, flavoring, and water 2: a drink consisting of a liquor (as bourbon or brandy) and sugar poured over crushed ice and garnished with mint.

For the purposes of todays post, we will focus on number two. Definition number two, that is.

I am a sucker for a good mint julep, and it isn’t very often one comes across one– especially in California. When I was a young lad living in Los Angeles, my favorite bar/restaurant was called Ports. It had no sign, yet the habitués were congenial. I once asked my favored bartender to make me a julep, but he lacked the necessary fresh mint and therefore refused me. Two warm summer evenings later, I asked again for a Julep and he replied again in the negative. I then produced a large bunch of spearmint, presenting it to him as I would a nosegay. He accepted, sniffed, and made everyone at the bar a julep. And then we started dating.

Until I ran out of mint.

The Mint Julep
Thought it may sometimes seem that the Persians pretty much invented everything, it’s the American South that may lay claim to the mint julep. Sometime during the 18th Century, white people living below the Mason-Dixon line started drinking this concoction of bourbon, ice, sugar, water, and mint. Henry Clay introduced the drink to the swamps of Washington, D.C. in the early 19th Century at the Round Robin Bar in the Willard Hotel, months before the hotel was bought out by the InterContinental chain.

What I enjoy so much about the julep is that it is refreshing, incredibly easy to make, and yet not so simple. There are essentially five ingredients and twenty-seven thousand theories upon how to make one. For an excellent read on what is, what is not, and what might be considered a true mint julep, I encourage you to read Jason Wilson’s story Juleps for the Derby? All Bets Are Off. It made me a very, very happy fellow.

Ingredients:

About 8 fresh mint leaves, plus one attractive sprig for garnishing
1 teaspoon of superfine sugar (it dissolves better than table sugar)
3 ounces Kentucky bourbon
a good splash of soda water
Crushed ice, and lots of it
Powdered Sugar, for dusting (I’d never done this until reading Wilson’s article, now it shall be forever part of my Julep schtick)

Preparation:

1. Chill a tall Collins glass or silver julep cup in your freezer for a few minutes.
2. Combine mint, sugar, soda, and half of the bourbon in the bottom of the glass. Muddle gently.
3. Add a few spoonsful of crushed ice and stir. Fill the glass the rest of the way with ice, top off with the second half of the bourbon, garnish with mint, and dust with powdered sugar.
4. Drink immediately, but don’t grab the glass around the middle unless you wish to give yourself away as unrepentently Yankee.

Serves: 1

If you now have especially strong feelings about the mint julep, you might wish to join the Mint Julep Sisterhood. Please watch this instructive video. NB: Granny Mae is wearing a snood, which means I must love her, in spite of her toothlessness.

If you have been suffering from the Vapors, I hope this has helped. Enjoy your Derby Day.

You know when you take a bite of something and you realize that this is a taste you are going to crave? Like salted caramel ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery. It’s usually something you can’t get just anywhere. For me it often happens when I’m traveling somewhere and I won’t easily find that taste again back home. Like the Middlewhite bacon sandwich at St. John’s in London (on homemade bread with homemade ketchup, don’t knock it til you try it), which my husband and I often wistfully talk about. Or, more recently, the most perfect shrimp po-boy from New Orleans.

A few weeks ago I went to New Orleans, a city I adore and which I’ve visited many times while growing up in Texas, but where I had not returned for at least 8 years. This was my first visit post-Katrina, and it ended up being one of the most meaningful, eye-opening, and intense experiences I’ve had while traveling (more on that in another post when I’ve had a chance to digest it all). For me, most of what makes New Orleans so special are the people who live there and their generous and kind spirit. With all that they’ve been through, they still carry on with the most positive attitude, full of Southern hospitality. It’s obvious every time you go to a restaurant or a bar and they serve up some authentic New Orleans cuisine, welcoming, gracious, and always happy to have you there.

On the advice of a few locals, we headed over to Domilise’s Po-Boy & Bar for one of the best po-boys in town. Tucked away in a residential area, we almost drove by the nondescript corner restaurant. It’s all that you might expect from a divey po-boy shop, the deep fryer and sandwich station on one wall, the bar on the other, and a handful of tables scattered in between. The line moves swiftly, and then you have to jostle for a table before your name is called and your sandwich comes out. In keeping with the old-time Southern feel, the drinks on offer include bottled Barq’s root beer and crème soda.

We were told that their specialty was the “1/2 and 1/2 dressed.” Huh? 1/2 fried shrimp, 1/2 fried oysters. “Dressed” means slathered with mayo, creole mustard, ketchup, and topped with shredded lettuce and pickles. There is nothing light or healthy here, so if you are looking for that, you should go elsewhere.

Not being a huge fan of fried oysters (I like mine raw), I went for the shrimp po-boy dressed (although my friend did order the 1/2 and 1/2, which only comes in a large size, and amazed us all by eating the whole thing). It was incredible, and we were not disappointed. I knew one bite in that I was done for. Fresh, crisp-fried shrimp that burst in your mouth with flavor, real Gulf shrimp that you just can’t get out here on the west coast. Light, airy crisp-on-the-outside French bread–oozing with the perfect amount of condiments–held it all together. I knew that I would return to the Bay Area and think about that sandwich, and wish I could just pop on over to Domilise’s and get another. I’m thinking about it right now actually. My friend Amy emailed me a week to the day that we went and reminded me of the sandwich, and how she wished she had one RIGHT NOW. It’s going to be a problem, I can tell.

So I decided to try to reconstruct one from memory. It won’t be the same. I don’t have the sweet old guy behind the bar asking, “What can I get you sweetie?” Or the friendly folks around us smiling and chatting with us, or the smell of the fresh seafood being deep fried, or that perfect taste that I crave when it all came together one day in New Orleans.

A Dressed Shrimp Po-boy

Serves 4

Ingredients
For the shrimp:
Peanut oil for frying
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornflour
1 egg
1 1/2 lbs medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

For the sandwiches:
4 soft white French rolls (New Orleans style), split in half and warmed in the oven
Mayo
Creole mustard
Ketchup
About 2 cups shredded iceberg lettuce
Dill pickle slices

Preparation
1. In a medium saucepan, add enough oil so that it is 1/2-inch deep. Heat to 375 F.

2. Have ready three shallow bowls. In bowl #1, put about 1/2 cup flour. In bowl #2, crack the egg and whisk it until frothy. In bowl #3, stir together about 1/2 cup cornflour with about 1/4 cup flour. Rinse and dry the shrimp. Dredge them first in the flour, then in egg, then in the cornflour mixture.

3. Add the shrimp, in batches to avoid overcrowding, and fry just until golden brown. Set aside to drain on a paper-towel lined plate.

4. Spread each side of the bread with mayo, then creole mustard. Layer the fried shrimp, a squirt of ketchup, the lettuce, and then the pickle slices on the sandwich. Eat it up!

Domilise’s Po-Boy & Bar
5240 Annunciation St.
New Orleans, LA
504-899-9126
map

A small way that you can help:
The Southern Food and Beverage Museum, located in New Orleans, lost over half its collection of cookbooks in Katrina. They are trying to rebuild their collection through donations across the country. If you have cookbooks on the American South or cuisines and cultures that have influenced the cuisine of that region; community-based cookbooks or pamphlets; culinary histories; or any cuisine-based books that you think they might be interested in, please send them to:

Southern Food & Beverage Museum
Attn: Liz Williams
1 Poydras Street, #169
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130

Two weeks ago, I mentioned the rising cost of food around the world. It’s been a hot topic lately, and reports are becoming more grim. Costs are starting to hit home in our supermarkets, and warehouse retail chains are even beginning to restrict volume (20 pound) rice sales due to supply issues.

Most sustainable food activists believe that the price of food does not reflect its true price, and that subsidies for crops like corn and soy create artificial prices that keep the price of junk foods and processed foods artificially low. This means unsubsidized, whole foods like farmers market products are more expensive but that they are actually the real price of food.

In an article in the New York Times recently called “Some Good News on Food Prices,” Michael Pollan and Alice Waters made the argument that rising food prices will equalize the playing field that is our food system — organic, local, pasture-raised foods will become feasible options when all food prices are high. “Higher food prices level the playing field for sustainble food that doesn’t rely on fossil fuels,” said Pollan in the article.

As most know, I am an active voice for voting with your fork and making conscious decisions about where your food dollars go.

However, I have trouble with this argument. And I especially have trouble with Waters’ claim that food budgeting in this current climate is simply a matter of reprioritizing:

“It is simply a matter of quality versus quantity and encouraging healthier, more satisfying choices. ‘Make a sacrifice on the cellphone or the third pair of Nike shoes,’ she said.”

While many of us are privileged to be able to make that budget decision or reprioritize, we, in the sustainable food movement, are only alienating those who cannot make those choices with statements such as Waters’. Many are having to make very difficult decisions about their food budgets at the moment, and now may not be the time to make them feel guilty about the decisions that they are facing.

I’m not the only one who was rankled by this article. Tom Philpott, in an article at Grist, called the Pollan and Waters argument an oversimplification.

“I have a hard time imagining people who are struggling to put food on the table rambling off to the farmers’ market on Saturday to fill cloth bags with the sort of fresh, local, organic produce so beloved by Pollan and Waters (and me). Indeed, higher food prices are likely to send many time- and cash-strapped people in quite the opposite direction.”

I agree with Philpott. Now is the time for sustainable food activists to make sure that there is great access to farmers market, great promotion of CSA’s, and to continue to talk about sustainably sourcing our food. But it’s not the time to bask in the fact that our nation’s food prices are reaching crisis levels.

Black Tartarian Cherries: “Copyright 1910 – Edward M. Mitchell, San Francisco”

In celebration of National Postcard Week, which spans the first week in May in the US and UK, be sure to send out a few notes to your favorite folks. An actual piece of personal mail, let alone hand-written thoughts for someone you know and love, is the closest thing to a hug you can share long-distance.

A trick I learned a long time ago from a consummate correspondent: Buy a stack of cards, stamp them in advance, and keep them in a pretty box in a visible place with a pen right there next to them. If you’re trying to stay in touch with someone specific—your grandfather in the nursing home, your friend from college, your flame across the country—address the cards in advance and shuffle them up. Then, all it’ll take are two minutes and three sentences to remind someone that they’re important to you.

Michael Sowa’s surreal “Zum Kartoffellagerhaus.”

Yes, email is so convenient and links to weird news always provide a laugh. And, yes, Facebook offers a million ways to poke your friends. But for this one week, pickup a pen and send your thoughts on paper.

To help inspire you, I’m sharing a few food-related postcards from my own boxes. Some are waiting to be mailed out; others were sent to me from friends who know how much I like to cook and eat. Below you’ll also find a few resources for tracking down interesting postcards, or, if you’re feeling especially ambitious and creative, making your own.

A card from Hong Kong.

One last quick note: On May 12, the postcard rate will go up to 27 cents. It’s still, a bargain, though, for injecting a smile into someone’s day, so go ahead and buy a couple books of the USPS’s brand-new, colorful tropical fruit stamps.

This linen postcard, showing two boys and their very big catch, is from my own collection of vintage travel cards.

San Francisco Bay Area Post Card Club
Local history buffs will want to browse these online exhibits of delightful historical postcards to learn about “Goats in San Francisco” or modern-day restaurant “freecards”. Visit SFBAPCC’s website to learn about their monthly meetings at Fort Mason or read their latest newsletter. The April aviation issue (pdf) includes a linen postcard showing the elegant tables in the Skyway Wing Room of San Francisco International Airport, with its expansive view of the ramps and runways during the cutting-edge “air age” of the 1950s and 60s.

Advertising for the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in 1939. (From the postcard collection of Katheryn Ayres.)

Pomegranate Postcard Sale
One of the foremost publishers of postcards and notecards is offering a postcard blowout sale. It’s a mystery assortment of 100 cards—plenty to get you through the week and beyond.

MoMA Food Collection
Visit the online museum store of the Museum of Modern Art to purchase a box of postcards featuring food art drawn from the paintings, drawings and prints in their collection.

A card from Singapore, one in a series of drawings from the Straits Settlements of the early 18th century.

Art Postcard
Although I’m emphasizing actual paper cards, I’d be remiss not to mention new ways of sending images with messages. This impressively extensive online art postcard gallery allows you to search by style of art, topic, artist’s country, or keyword. Select an image, type your message, and your friend will receive your virtual postcard.

Handmade Postcards
For the crafty among you, here are a few sites showing how to make your own gorgeous works of mail art. At the more involved end, see how leaves can be pressed into still-wet pulp to make elegant Japanese-style paper cards. On the much, much easier end, learn how to transform any photo into a unique postcard in seconds. A wonderful way to reuse AND amuse is by appropriating food packaging, such as dried pasta boxes, with their built-in, plastic-coated “viewing frame,” to make fun postcards. All you need are scissors, pen, and a postcard stamp. This last one would be an especially fun project with kids, but adults will enjoy these moments of creativity and connection, too.

A cup of matcha on tatami mats. Japantown’s gift shops have beautiful cards.

Deltiology
If you’d like to brush up on postcard history, spend some time reading about deltiology, considered the third most popular collectible hobby in the world after stamps and coins (baseball, limited to the US, counts lower). Since that first postage stamp in 1840, these little missives have helped document our shifts in technology, travel, communications, and social networks.

Coco-note
No piece about food and mail would be complete without a mention of that classic tourist gift: a whole coconut mailed intact from Hawaii. Coco-notes and Fortune Coconuts are the modern incarnations of what surely the US postal service regrets ever allowing.

Cindy sent this from Argentina to let me know that she was eating fine.

This was supposed to be an easy-does-it post…

Go to Coffee Bar. Go to Coffee Bar to get a beautiful, just-for-you cup of Clover-made coffee. Go to Coffee Bar because it is not Starbucks, which, not surprisingly, is just around the corner.

And then, upon my second trip into the place, I bugged the barista into letting me take pictures of my coffee being made:

202 Degree F. water goes in, barista stirs with care…

Machine works like a big French Press in reverse and makes what looks like a giant, overbaked sugar cookie…

Out comes one of the best cups of coffee I’ve ever had…

Blah, blah, blah…

Well, I thought, spending more than $10,000 on a coffee machine is so absolutely worth it! And so is the $3.00 charged per cup. Really.

I still think so. If you are a coffee lover and have not had Clover coffee, I suggest you do so. Now.

I was feeling so self-satisfied. I’d had a long, pleasant walk, I was in a sleek, beautiful space with a good book clutched under my arm, and I was being very well caffeinated by a cup of coffee so strong and well balanced, that I felt no need to add sugar or cream, which is atypical of my style. I normally drink kindercafe in the morning. I had everything I needed for a good half hour’s rest-and-refuel.

And then the barista told me that Starbucks had recently bought the company that makes the Clover machine. I felt as though the Publisher’s Clearing House van had just pulled up to my house and, as Ed McMahon was about to hand me my bouquet of balloons and over-sized check, my doctor telephones me to tell me I have only two weeks to live. A certain bitterness crept into my otherwise perfect cup of coffee. I think it was my tears. Or perhaps some of the bile that rose from my esophagus as I tried to digest the news.

Perhaps Starbucks saved enough money from the tips they stole from their baristas to buy Clover’s soul.

I suppose a small consolation is that Coffee Bar was able to purchase its Clover before Starbucks wrapped its caffeinated tentacles around it. And that it’s very much worth experiencing.

I also love the fact that the folks at Coffee Bar are pleasant, helpful, and relatively no-nonsense about their coffee. Their coffee menu is simple:

Sorry, Yelp woman, no cinnamon. Bring your own if it’s that much of an issue for you.

Remind me later to tell you about my mixed feelings about Yelp.

Go to Coffee Bar for a nice, big cup of this:

Nuff said.

Coffee Bar
Open Daily from 7 am
1890 Bryant Street
(Mariposa and Florida)
San Francisco, CA
94110
415-551-8100

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