You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘To Eat or Not to Eat’ category.
So, the talk of the town in St. Paul lately is the new Trader Joe’s at Randolph & Lexington. On our way home from a Craigslist jaunt yesterday, we decided to stop in to see what the hub-bub is all about. Call me a co-op snob, but I was pretty disappointed. I know the Trader Joe’s mission is good food at good prices, but does that have to include shrinkwrapping all of the produce? I needed a sweet pepper and a tomato, and I left without buying either one. The tomatoes are plastic-wrapped on styrofoam trays, and I can’t justify throwing away that much trash just to pay less for produce. I watched the shoppers aimlessly toss these prepackaged veggies and fruit into their carts, and I wanted so badly to yell, “Don’t do it!” But far be it for me to ruin someone else’s shopping experience; I’m not comfortable jumping on my soapbox in front of strangers just yet.
I will, however, give Trader Joe’s one credit for reasonably priced organic fruit, available in packaging similar to that at the co-op or any other store. But I still cringe at bringing home those plastic fruit containers that aren’t recyclable in Minnesota, no matter where they’re sold. The variety of organic TJ-branded snack chips is good, but I’m trying really hard to eliminate as many processed foods as possible from my diet, so buying a bag of organic tortilla chips isn’t high on my grocery list. I guess Trader Joe’s works for some shoppers, but I knew within 5 minutes of perusing that I probably won’t return too often. Most of the staples I buy were absent, including the Silk and Organic Valley chocolate soymilk I can find even at Target.
My co-op, my CSA and the St. Paul Farmer’s Market have spoiled me, but in a good way, I think. There’s a novelty to stores like Trader Joe’s — for shoppers who haven’t had any other experience but at a big-box supermarket, it’s a veritable wonderland of quirky, kitschy snacks and beverages they’ve never seen before. Not to mention the unusual samples: crackers with melted goat-cheese mozzarella and apple juice? But I saw through the novelty quickly and know now I’d rather stick to my regular shopping outlets. An uppity reaction, I suppose, but I know there are more sustainable options out there, and I’d rather spend my money locally whenever possible.
I am excited, though, to check out the newest Mississippi Market location on West 7th Street. I shop at the Selby & Dale location, which I love (shout-out to the awesomely helpful employees there), but I’d like to see how the new place turned out, plus use the 10%-off coupon MM so nicely sent me. Yes, I am still hooked by some direct mail these days — I’m not completely jaded yet!
Rarely do I get a creative spark when it comes to mixing flavors and ideas for dinner. Tonight’s fare was certainly an exception. The best part? I made the meal entirely from local food! The bonus: a gorgeous, flavorful, colorful plate of pork, carrots and fennel.
I scoured the fridge for some marinade ideas and found some Annie’s organic teriyaki marinade — so I cheated on the pasture-raised Minnesota pork with store-bought marinade. Hopefully I can be forgiven. But I needed to devote my attention to the vegetable accompaniment: sauteed carrot ribbons and fennel. My friend Andrea sent me the recipe since I needed something to do with the organic fennel from last week’s CSA box. I also had fresh carrots on hand, recently purchased from the St. Paul Farmer’s Market on Saturday. (Simply saute the carrots and fennel in 2 tsp of olive oil, with a dash of red pepper flakes, for about 10 minutes.)
I wasn’t exactly sure how to create a “carrot ribbon,” so I simply pushed harder than usual with the vegetable peeler to create longer, thin slices of carrot. It seemed to do the trick, and I was sauteeing in no time:
I marinated the pork for about 40 minutes, then tossed it and the marinade in a saute pan for 12 minutes — adding the marinade to the pan helped keep the pork juicy and moist.
And I was right about the flavor combination: the hint of licorice in the fennel and the sweetness of the carrots paired wonderfully with the teriyaki-drowned pork. For once, I, Ms. Picky Pants, found myself piling all of the ingredients onto the same forkful, it was that good. Doug and I celebrated the delicious meal with a glass of crisp, fruity pinot grigio. Magnifico.
The finished product:
I am super pleased with our first CSA box of the 2009 season!
Here’s what we got:
arugula
broccoli
green garlic
green butter lettuce
green onions
mint
purple kohlrabi
potatoes
spinach
radishes
The box!
And the kohlrabi and green butter lettuce are just fabulously vibrant:
Beautiful veggies
The variety is awesome, and I can’t wait to see what the next box brings. Our newsletter tipped us off that strawberries are on the way!
As I tossed another yogurt container in the trash just now, I thought, “How in tarnation do I avoid throwing away #5′s, short of not buying the stuff in the first place?” The more I throw away, the more heavily my guilt weighs on me.
Since my recycler, Eureka Recycling — like all curb-side recycling companies in Minnesota — doesn’t take #5′s, I thought perhaps there might be a drop-off site somewhere. Eureka doesn’t accept #5′s at its drop-off site, unfortunately.
I was about to give up my search, when I came across a “You asked … we answered” column in The Star Tribune (see the “Those darn yogurt containers” entry), in which a spokesperson from Eureka explains why #5′s aren’t recyclable. I was disappointed after reading the answer; there was no mention of what else to do with the containers but throw them away.
Until … Out of the corner of my eye, I spot a featured reader comment titled “#5 response was lacking”:
The response to the reader’s question about #5 plastic was extremely limited. First off, even if the yogurt containers were made with #1 or #2, that doesn’t mean the municipality would accept it (Minneapolis and St. Paul only accept bottle-shaped plastics). Companies intentionally use #5 because the plastic can be used to make a thinner container, which means if it must be landfilled, less actual plastic will be thrown away. However, #5 plastic is perfectly recyclable, even though it is not accepted by metro recyclers. Recycline/Preserve is one company that makes pure #5 products and collects consumer #5 at Whole Foods stores for this purpose. The Lake Calhoun and St. Paul Whole Foods have drop-offs for #5.
Woah. I can walk to my Whole Foods and drop off my #5′s? Eureka! According to the Preserve website, there are Gimme 5 bins at the Lake Calhoun and St. Paul Whole Foods locations. Not only can I deposit my #5 plastics, but also my Brita pitcher water filters. Preserve uses the recycled plastic to manufacture its own pure #5 plastic products. Now that I know more about the company’s processes and values, I’ll also be on the lookout for Preserve products.
I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief right now. Oh, yogurt, you are not lost to me!
More food-related blibbity-blah today. I just received a really cool thank-you email from Driftless Organics, confirming my membership! The owners seem really committed to keeping their members informed and up-to-date on the farm goings-on, which is pretty dang awesome. It’s great to know what they’re up to, and that they’re just as excited for the growing season to start as we are.
In addition to maintaining its well-organized and thorough website, Driftless Organics started a blog to communicate to members on a regular basis. OnePotatoTwo is the perfect way for me to check in and get to know the farmers. Love that.
Tally ho! We’re on our way! I’m feeling really good about choosing Driftless Organics for my inaugural CSA season.
Mississippi Market saved my sanity today.
I spent at least an hour and a half scouring the Coborn’s Delivers site to determine if grocery delivery was a viable and economical option. The name has been stuck in my head since the Minnesota Public Radio membership drive — I heard the Coborn’s sponsorship announced countless times over the air. Plus, I wanted to explore another local business. Needless to say, my search was somewhat frustrating; the site does have a “natural/organic” category, but there are limited brand and quantity options (I don’t need 32 oz. of chicken, thank you). I filled my cart with as much organic stuff as I could and supplemented with non-organic where necessary. But by the time I got to the checkout, I hesitated, wondering if perhaps Mississippi Market would have what I was looking for, for less. I really didn’t know if Coborn’s prices would be comparable to brick-and-mortar grocery stores, or if the prices are inflated to reflect the delivery costs.
Since my conscience was telling to me to stop and think, I did just that and emptied the cart. Despite the fact that I hadn’t showered or even brushed my hair, I still donned my jacket and drove off to Mississippi Market with a printout of the Coborn’s list to compare prices. I am so glad I did! I came home with more items for the same price and didn’t have to sacrifice organic items to do so.
And the best part? I finally joined the co-op. I’d been mulling it over since we moved back to St. Paul and knew I’d do it eventually. I shopped at MM the first few years I lived in St. Paul, so I knew the selection was good and the prices were fair.
I was a member of the East Side Co-op when I lived in Northeast Minneapolis, but the membership doesn’t really do me any good in St. Paul. (I know I can get a membership refund, but there’s a long and complicated story behind why I haven’t done it.) Now, when I shop at MM, I can say, “Yes!” when the cashier asks me if I’m a member, instead of sheepishly saying, “I’m a member at East Side.” And I’ll be a member-owner in my own community. Sweet.
It may not be difficult to find organic ingredients for macaroni and cheese, but I decided tonight to take my standard recipe up a notch and go organic. I’ve slightly modified, several times, an Alton Brown recipe I found on foodnetwork.com to see what works for my taste, so most of this recipe is Alton’s, but I’ve left a few things out and added my own twists. Tonight’s version was the creamiest I’ve ever made, and all of the organic ingredients came from Kowalski’s and Whole Foods. Even the goldfish crackers (or duck-shaped, as is the case with the 360 brand) are organic.
Be forewarned: This is not a reduced- or low-fat recipe. It’s the real deal.
Organic Baked Macaroni and Cheese
(Makes 6 to 8 servings)
1/2 pound elbow macaroni (tonight I used chiocciole, a snail-shell-shaped pasta)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp flour
1 Tbsp powdered mustard
3 cups whole milk
1/2 tsp paprika
1 large egg
8 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 oz. asiago cheese, shredded
1 tsp kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
3/4 cup crushed cheddar goldfish crackers (borrowed this idea from an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives)
Preheat oven to 350.
Boil pasta in salted water to al dente.
While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and mustard; keep it moving for about 5 minutes. Make sure it’s free of lumps. Stir in the milk and paprika. Simmer for 10 minutes.
Temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of both cheeses. Add the salt and pepper. (The mixture should be thick.) Fold in the macaroni, and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish. Top with remaining cheese and crushed goldfish crackers.
Bake 35 minutes. Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes before serving.
Enjoy!
By golly, I’ve done nothing but talk about food all week. I can’t say I’m eating a whole lot of it, but it’s certainly on the brain as of late.
I made my weekly grocery-shopping trip last night. Amazingly, almost everything I bought was organic, with the exception of a pint of grape tomatoes — which I couldn’t justify spending $3.99 on organic when the non-organic tomatoes were 2 for $3 — and a package of chicken sausage.
Despite the miserable malady I suffered a few weeks ago (in which I lost everything I ate the day before, including beef roast), I still mustered up the courage to buy a package of grass-fed ground beef. Typically I can’t even look at a food for a good few years if it came up the way it went down. So kudos to me for overcoming the “I don’t think I can eat red meat for a while” syndrome.
I also have to give props to my co-worker for a produce-bag reusing tip: She told me a while back that she rinses out her produce bags and brings them on her next shopping trip. I usually toss my produce bags in with the plastic bags I drop off in the recycling bin — but no more. Armed with three reusable shopping bags and a handful of previously acquired produce bags, I shopped without bringing home any additional bags from Kowalski’s.
I also found an earth-friendly, cruelty-free, biodegradable dog shampoo at PETCO. I typically dislike shopping there, but it’s the only place I can get Zuke’s training treats for Jasper. The poor little dog has allergies, on top of the psychological distresses he suffers, and the Itch Stop shampoo I used on Sunday simply did not help. So hopefully the earthbath hypoallergenic shampoo will relieve his little pink armpits and belly.
Yes! I have buy-off from Doug, and we are going to submit a member application to Driftless Organics for their 2009 CSA.
I mulled over the information yesterday, and calculated the weekly cost to be about $17. If I were to buy organic produce at Whole Foods or Kowalski’s, I’d spend at least that or more every week. Plus, I’m horrible at deciding which vegetables to buy at the store — I can never make up my mind on what would be good to eat that week. Having the every-other-week CSA box will motivate me to do more meal planning around what we get in each box. (We decided that a weekly box would be too much for two people to consume.)
I’m really looking forward to this!
I had a chance to look over the Land Stewardship Project’s CSA brochure (downloaded as a PDF from the LSP’s website). After leafing through the 40-plus pages of CSA listings, I think I may have found one that fits our needs.
Driftless Organics in Soldiers Grove, Wis., offers an every-other-week share at a reasonable price, with the option to split the cost into two payments. I don’t think we need a full box every week, since there are only two adults in our household — so it wouldn’t be practical for us to buy a full weekly share. And the St. Paul pickup site is close to home, which is ideal. They also offer specialty boxes, such as a Thanksgiving box and beef boxes (of organic, pastured beef!).
I nearly did a backflip when I saw that parsnips are available — I’ve had a fondness for parsnips since a scrumptious meal at The Crafstman introduced me to them a little over a year ago. I am intrigued by the prospect of learning to cook with them.
I think my overworked brain would benefit from sleeping on this thought, before I instinctively pull the trigger on the application form, as I am usually wont to do when it comes to making and acting on decisions.
Recent Comments