I'm Back!

It's been a while and for that I am sorry. But I got completely run over by Thanksgiving, the Channel 94.1 Diaper Drive, holiday parties, Christmas, the flu, New Years, traveling, dinner parties, a trip to DC for the Inauguration, a sick cat, a sick dog and then some more dinner parties.

I know it sounds like a lot of excuses, but it's just the bare honest truth.

But I am back.

I've been doing a lot of cooking; some good and unfortunately for my husband, some bad. I hope to have some of my winning attempts up on the site soon.

Right now I'm menu planning for a brunch I'm hosting for my Book Club this Saturday. If all goes well, I'll have some breakfast gems come out of it. I'm going to be trying out my new favorite thing, punch.

Mark my words, 2009 is the year of the Punch.

The Chinese may claim it's the Ox's spin on the dance floor, but I'm telling you, in these economic times stretching anything especially high ticket items like alcohol will become all the rage.

So let's get ready for a new year of posts, a new year of food and a new year for punch.

L.A. to Say Good-bye to Plastic

There's an article in the LA Times today...the Los Angeles City Council has voted to ban plastic bags from stores and supermarkets by July 2010.

On Tuesday, the council voted that if the state fails to put in place a 25 cent fee per shopper who requests plastic that they would put a ban in effect.

Another reason to BYOB or Bring Your Own Bag.

An Interview with Greg Christian

The first thing Greg Christian tells me before beginning our interview is that he is not responsible for the veracity of his statements after saying them, but that what he is about to tell me is true at the time of its telling. He waits for me to agree to this condition before we continue.

Greg describes chefs as "natural aggressors of food". They take these raw and natural materials and bend them to their will to create the dishes we enjoy. How the materials come to them and what becomes of the materials when they're through is of less concern to the chefs as long as the food they serve is good.

This is the chef Greg Christian used to be.

He's still an aggressor of food, his catering business makes about $4 million dollars in annual profit, but now he takes responsibility for his part in the global food system. Greg runs the only Zero Waste kitchen in Chicago and by the way he operates Greg Christian Catering and Organic School Project he is getting out the message about supporting local, organic and sustainable agriculture. But he will be quick to tell you that he doesn't know what sustainable agriculture is, that what he is doing is simply "respecting Mother Earth".

It was in April of this year that Greg's kitchen, in partnership with the Chicago Resource Center, became Zero Waste.

What does that mean, Zero Waste?

It means his kitchen doesn't create any un-recycled refuge. Every scrap, every container, every by product is recycled. The food is composted, the grease is handled by a bio-diesel company, the plastic is taken by a plastics recyclers. This is just one of the ways Greg is taking responsibility for his part in the global system. Greg doesn't consider himself an agent of change, in fact he is quite adamant that he is not a "Change Agent", but just someone trying to honor and bless the system.

But whether he means to or not he is changing things. In the case of Chicago Public Schools, one school cafeteria at a time.

The Organic School Project or OPS, came out of the experience Greg had in his own home with organic food. His daughter had been diagnosed with severe allergies and asthma and after failed attempts treating her with mainstream medicine; the family tried using more nature inspired methods and introduced organic foods into the house. According to Greg, this dietary switch did the trick; she's continued eating organic and hasn't suffered an attack in years.

This situation coupled with the cafeteria horror stories his kids brought home from school inspired him to help feed other school age kids as healthily as he was feeding his own kids. And so the idea for OPS was born. The program works to not just feed students, but also to teach them about nutrition and the part they play in the environment.

Currently OSP has a contract with the Chartwells-Thompson/Compass Group to provide all the meals and snacks for the over 400 students at Louisa May Alcott School in Lincoln Park. OSP is operating their “More Positive Food” program at 3 other public schools, the hope is that if these pilot programs can continue to prove successful that more schools will join.

Though Greg is adamant that he isn’t trying to change anything, his work getting people to eat local and organic is slowing changing several things.

It’s changing how a bride is choosing to feed her wedding guests. It’s changing how schools are feeding their students and how students are seeing their food. And finally, it’s changing how industrial kitchens can be run “green” and still earn a profit.

Greg works daily to find the balance in himself between the chef food aggressor with a business to run and the man studying to humble himself and come to peace with his part in the global food system.

This is what I know is true…at the time of my telling it.

***This is Part One in a series of interviews with Greg Christian. Stay tuned for the next installment.

FDA Green Lights the Red Tomato

The Food and Drug Administration says fresh tomatoes are safe to eat.

The FDA Associate Commissioner for Food, Doctor David Atchison, says all types of domestic tomatoes can now be consumed without concern they may be tainted with salmonella.

What prompted the FDA to lift the advisory, a couple of things.

Farms identified through trace-backs are no longer shipping tomatoes and critical checkpoints along the supply chain have turned up no evidence of salmonella contamination.

The new villans, the jalepeno and serrano peppers. Doctor Atchison suggests the elderly, immune-compromised and young children refrain from eating jalepeno and serrano peppers while the FDA continues to investigate.

Mainstream Going Green

As more and more Americans try to downsize their spending and stretch their hard earned dollar there seems to be one expense that is recession proof. Green.

The movement to buy local, shop organic and be environment friendly has the all natural business seeing some green of their own, profits. The organic industry's sales are growing at a rate of three to eight times faster than its non-organic competitor. And it's not just food.

Organically grown and produced ingredients can also be found in clothes, toys, pet foods, cleaning and personal care products. According to a recent survey put out by the Organic Trade Association:

"Organic non-food sales grew 26 percent in 2006."

The survey goes on to predict that the 2008 U.S. sales of organic food and beverages will be even stronger than previous years.

"Sales for 2008 are projected to grow by 18 percent from a $16.7 billion base in 2006, to an estimated $23.2 billion in 2008."

Estimates reach the $25 billion total U.S. organic sales for 2008 when the Organic Trade Association factors in both food and non-food products.

It's not just what people buy, but also how people shop.

More and more people are bringing their own reusable bags to the store. As awareness grows about the adverse effects of both plastic and paper grocery bags have on the environment it's become another way to shop "green".

Websites like ReusableBags.com have dedicated themselves the the advancement and education of the BYOB or Bring Your Own Bag initiative. Even mainstream outlets like Target and Jewel-Osco are catching up to more eco-centric competitors Whole Foods and Trader Joe's by selling reusable bags of their own.

But if your inner environmentalist still cries out to do more you can join the locavore movement.

The Chicago Locavore website defines a locavore as

"someone who makes every effort to get their food from sources close to where they live"

Nina Interlandi Bell founded Chicago Locavores in January of 2007 as a Yahoo Group that had about 30 members. Bell said two months ago they switched to being a full fledged website with 100 members. When asked about her reaction to recent recalls and warnings in the nation's
food supply Bell wrote,

"It's a great feeling to know that you don't have to run to your freezer or refrigerator to check if the food you have bought has come from any recalled sources, and if you ever have any specific questions or concerns you can actually call and talk to the person who grew it for you. That's a lot easier than an 800 number."

Even in the shadow of a gloomy economy shoppers are making the economic choice to go Green.

Whole Foods Closed Down

The Whole Foods supermarket on North Avenue remains closed today due to a mouse infestation.

According to a Chicago Tribune online story, the store located 1100 W. North Avenue was initially closed on Wednesday due to a health inspection's discovery of a mouse caught in a trap under one of the coolers and droppings.

The Austin, Texas based company was planning to have the store reopen on Friday, but due to lingering public health issues remained closed as of Saturday.

A spokeswoman for Whole Foods stated that, "After reassessing our situation, it was determined that additional areas within the store need to be further worked on in order to meet the city's standards."

No word on when the North Avenue location will be reopening.

Unfortunate news to come the same week the world's leading natural and organic foods supermarket announced it new "The Real Deal" program. The new initiative is Whole Foods reaction to rising food costs by creating specially priced in store items, coupons, budget recipes and on-line forums to share money saving tips.

The New No-No...The Jalapeno

According to a new story in USA Today, jalapenos are the latest culprits in the recent salmonella outbreak.

The USDA and the CDC have been closely monitoring our Southern borders all this week for any contaminated produce entering the United States. Their recent surveillance and testing has brought the jalapeno pepper under suspicion with the tomato as the cause of the recent saintpaul salmonella outbreak.

This particular strain of the bacteria has now infected a confirmed 1000 people.

The CDC won't go so far as to say that peppers and tomatoes are the only and definite causes of the infection, but that the are more often than not a present factor to those infected.

It's Wednesday!

Just a reminder to everyone that it is Wednesday, or in the bargain world...Grocery Circular Day.

Wednesday is the day that grocery stores publish their sales for the week. These deals usually start on Thursday, so it give you a day's head start on your list and menu ideas.

Friday is the Fourth of July and there will be a lot of entertaining going on this weekend.

For those of us on a budget, today is the day to get a jump start what deals we can get for feeding our crowd.

They're Back...

Good news for tomato lovers, according to the Chicago Sun Times the tomato is back.