What exactly is a “sustainable” wine? Easier answered back in the make-your-own backyard wine days. Like so many food and beverage products today, the definition varies depending on who is writing up the label.
Aaron Lange over at LangeTwins broke down the organic, sustainable and bio-dynamic barriers for me recently, and talked about the family winery’s commitment to going a step farther – native wildlife habitat restoration. On a winery. Where a couple acres of grape-worthy land can cost more than the average home. Supporting the past, in real (drinkable) time.
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Like many young cooks, I learned to cook with a Dutch oven by my side (here, always and forever, Le Creuset). We learned to sauté onions together. We simmered Better Homes’ spaghetti meat sauce after school. On weekends, we watched tough cuts of beef magically morph into tender stews and stroganoff when those Junior League cookbook dreams of righteous recipe perfection came true. But even when they fell short, it didn’t really matter. Better to learn now.
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Notice how many foraging books have been making the rounds of late? (A favorite: Matsuoka Wong and Eddy Leroux’s field guide and cookbook, Foraged Flavor — lamb’s quarters meatballs!). The latest, from UCLA professor of Italian and culinary history Luigi Ballerini, is A Feast of Weeds: A Literary Guide to Foraging and Cooking Wild Plants with recipes by Ada De Santis (translated by Gianpiero W. Doebler).
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“Making dinner shouldn’t be fatal. But four million people in the developing world die each year from illnesses linked to smoke spewing out of crude stoves — a scourge that has frustrated experts for decades.”
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What to bookmark this week:Virginia Tech archivist Kira Dietz’s blog, What’s Cookin’ at Special Collections, sharing her discoveries as she ferrets through recipes housed at the University Libraries.
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Cooking is often about remembering — actively, looking forward and without regret. You might be inspired by a family member, an incredible vacation, a certain farmer’s produce or a neighborhood restaurant dish that you loved.
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Food history news, events, and exhibitions. Or, what pops up on the Google search “Food History” radar with an (sometimes informative, often entertaining) eye towards the past. This week:
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I’ve always been a bit wary of a cookie that looks too perfect. You know, the ones with the razor-sharp edges, or crafted in circles so symmetrical they induce geometry class yawns. The worst offender this time of year: Those holiday cookies all dressed up for magazine covers with the ornamental icing piped so meticulously, it surely took all the fun out of making them. The flavor of that sticky-sweet icing laced with Red Dye #5? No comment.
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“The true yam, or ñame (pronounced “ny-AH-may”), is a starchy tuber that originated in the tropical regions of both the Old World and (to a far lesser extent) the New. Extrapolate from this and you may presume that it was brought to the North American mainland by slaves, along with other staples like okra, pigeon peas, and sorghum….
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Ian Knauer, formerly of the Gourmet test kitchen (Howdy Ian!), has a handy new video on Making Apple Pie 101 over on the History Channel. With a little history tossed in for good measure. Turn the page for more.
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