Good Food, Good Treats, Good God, Let's Eat!

(Photographs taken by Alex Griffin)

Toasting to the Season with Toastmasters!

(I tried to take better pictures, but by the time I was able to grab a camera, people started eating all of the food. Fourty-seven of the fifty-eight bean and salsa cups I made were already gone!!)

'Tis the season to eat and be jolly, and boy did we ever encompass both so well! The Toastmasters club held their Christmas party this evening. One of the lead speakers at this meeting was Ed Hipp, a very close friend and father figure of mine.
Ed Hipp recently went to the national Toastmasters convention and won first place for his comic relief speech. As we discussed the current status of our lives (the honors, the struggles, the humorously embarrassing moments...) I informed him about a trip to France that my school is teaming up with Kirkwood Community College to engage in. "Well, you know I need someone to cook for the Toastmasters meeting this coming Tuesday. Do you know anyone interested?"
Since I'm telling this story, obviously the answer was yes. As I planned for this event, Dell Hipp planned an appetizer list with me to be prepared. Mangal Tamang, another student that attends the Culinary Arts Program with me, also attends the Toastmasters meetings, so what better way to incorporate fellow classmates and spread the goodies!! Dell and I planned for him to split the load with myself.
Mangal Tamang prepared delicious chai that he learned to make in Nepal before moving to the United States. Wanting to add some spice to the table (also spice helps tame appetites so people eat less, shh...) I asked for him to prepare a spicy dip for chips. Indeed, he did. A hummus dip, rich in flavor and spice, watered the mouths of the people and the chips alike.
Preparing the more intense appetizers, I wanted to split the tastes down the middle; two savory, two sweet. The outcomes were a decomposition of spanakopita rolled into puff pastry instead of layered with Phyllo dough, beans and homemade salsa served in little Phyllo cups topped with a slice of roasted red pepper and a leaf of fresh basil, a hazelnut cheesecake bite with raspberry whipped cream and a mint leaf garnish, and finally two bite size tarts, one apple and one raspberry.
Although I bought the puff pastry and Phyllo dough, I made everything else by scratch (I even whipped the whipped cream) and tried to make it all as organic as possible. Despite the work, I thoroughly enjoyed the day. Playing with food, figuring out how to make little cheesecakes with only 3 hours to prepare them, and a day full of learning accompanied by the joy of watching every last bit of food I made get eaten. Somebody even ate the last one I was taking home for myself!!
“A gourmet knows that the best part is not always the expensive part, and he will find that part, and then he will share it. A gourmet should want to share.” -Mark Kurlansky

Now Announcing...

Yesterday I went to the mailbox, expecting cards from old family friends wishing us happy holidays and bragging about the success of their families throughout the year, when instead multiple pieces of mail with my name on them popped out. Quite excited (I hardly receive mail, spare the junk) I gathered them and trudged downstairs to my room. A bill from the optometrist, a statement from the bank, some mail asking for donations to help those even poorer than myself... But one letter peeked the fading curiosity inside of me. Addressed to Ms. Astred Griffin, the letter came from Who's Who Among Students.
Indian Hills nominated students to be included in the 2009 edition of Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. It is my great pleasure to let you know that you are part of this elite group.
The Who's Who program is a nationally recognized institution in which more than 1,000 colleges have adopted as part of their annual campus honors. Designed to recognized outstanding academic achievement and student leadership regardless of one's financial ability to participate, the honored student's personal biographical sketch reside in the 2009 Deluxe Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges book. Along with this great honor, the honorees are eligible for one of ten H. Pettus Randall Scholarships worth $1,000.
Honored, grateful and still slightly aghast, I am pleased to accept this honor and wish to use it in helping flourish myself, those around me and the amazing program at Indian Hills which has allowed me to unfold my potential.

Sicily, Italia

The largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, Sicily is located right off the southern most tip of Italy. Highly rich in the arts, cuisine, architecture and language, Sicily is an autonomous region of Italy (autonomous means the right to self-government; 5 of the 20 regions of Italy benefit particular conditions of autonomy). The economy in Sicily relies largely on the production of oranges and lemons, as well as tourism due to its untarnished natural beauty.
Upholding the nickname of God’s Kitchen, Sicily developed a history of producing a variety of noted cuisines and wines. Sicily's varied climate produces crops that are intrinsically flavorful, particularly those grown in the rich soil fertilized by Mount Etna's eruptions. Due to the quality and natural flavor of Sicilian-grown vegetables, the local cuisine is usually simple so as not to overpower the taste buds with a combination of too many strong flavors.
Healthy and affordable by the general populace, their savory dishes include fresh fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes, olives/olio, artichoke hearts, citrus fruits, apricots, aubergines (eggplant), onions, beans, raisins and freshly caught seafood. The cuisine is also famous for the rich sweet dishes including ice creams and pastries.
Spices commonly used in Sicilian cuisine include saffron, nutmeg, cloves, pepper and cinnamon. These spices were introduced by the Arabs due to the cultural blending that took place during the earlier years of Italian history. Parsley is also used abundantly in many dishes.
As like the rest of Italy, pasta/rice, dairy and meats play an important role in their cuisine. They use both cow’s and sheep’s milk to develop cheeses particular to their own region, yet also include many other cheeses. Two examples are Pecorino Siciliano and Caciocavallo cheese. Pecorino Siciliano is an origin-protected firm sheep milk cheese. Caciocavallo cheese, made with either sheep or cow’s milk, is shaped like a tear-drop and is similar in taste to the aged Southern Italian Provolone cheese, with a hard edible rind.
The Normans (people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France, that descended from Viking conquerors of the territory) and Hohenstaufen ( or the Staufers; a dynasty of Germanic Kings who in 1194 became Kings of Sicily) first introduced meat dishes to the island and fashioned a fondness for the meats. Meats commonly consumed in Sicily include goose, lamb, goat, rabbit, and turkey.
Rich in culture and well defined in cuisine, Sicily is one of the seven wonders in my world.

Scrumptious Starches in the Snowy Weather.

Fennel Risotto with Vodka
Serves 5

• 2 large fennel bulbs
  
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 6 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 1 3/4 cup risotto or carnaroli rice
• 2/3 cup limoncello, vodka, or lemon-flavored vodka
• 5 2/3 cup vegetable stock, simmering
• 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• 2-3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Trim the fennel, reserving the fronds for garnish. Cut bulbs in half lengthwise, remove the V-shaped cores and chop the flesh coarsely. (Note: add the fennel trimmings to stock for extra flavor.)
   
2. Heat oil and half the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion & fennel and cook for two minutes, or until soft. Add the rice and cook another two minutes, stirring frequently, until the rice is translucent and well coated with fat.
3. Pour the liquor into the rice. It will bubble rapidly and then evaporate. Add a ladle full of stock. Cook, stirring constantly, until the liquid is absorbed.
4. Continue stirring in the stock, about a half ladle full at a time, letting each addition completely absorb into the rice before adding the next. This will take about 20-25 minutes. When finished, the risotto should have a cream, tender and yet somewhat al dente texture to it.
   
5. Stir in the remaining butter, cheese, and lemon juice. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit one minute.
6. Garnish with the reserved fennel fronds, and serve.

Mushroom Pasta with Port
Serves 4

• 4 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 6 shallots, sliced
• 6 cups sliced white mushrooms
• 1 tsp all-purpose flour
• scant 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 tbsp port
• 4 oz sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• Freshly grated nutmeg
• 1 lb dried spaghetti
• 1 tbsp freshly parsley, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 6 triangles of fried white bread, to serve

1. Heat butter and half the oil in a large saucepan. Add shallots and cook over medium heat for 3 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook over low heat for 2 minutes. Season to taste with salt and black pepper, the sprinkle over the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 1 minute.
2. Gradually stir in the cream and port, then add the sun-dried tomatoes along with a pinch of nutmeg and cook for 8 minutes over low heat.
3. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to boil. Add the spaghetti and remaining olive oil and cook for 12-14 minutes, until al dente.
4. Drain the spaghetti and return to the pan. Pour over the mushroom sauce and cook for 3 minutes. Transfer spaghetti to a large serving plate and sprinkle with the chopped parsley. Serve with the triangles of fried bread.
   

Slow down, you move too fast...

Where will it all end? The times we are living in today are so entirely dominated by what I call "the tyranny of urgency", both in the financial field, where the transactions are made in a fraction of a second, and in the media, the realm of the ephemeral, or even the political scene, where the next election seems only the temporal horizon of public action. Our societies live in a kind of instantaneanism which prevents them from controlling the future. - Jerome Binde

Off to the city...

In the desperate need to get out of town, Adam Darland and I drove to Des Moines for some mischief and mayhem. We drove straight to the Half Price Books store. This store, if you have not heard of it, is heaven. Everything you could possibly imagine (books, music, movies/t.v. shows, accessories, etc.) for the most incredible prices. I purchased five normally pricey book, a season from a t.v. series, and a deck of wine cards for only $62. In shock, I forced Adam to go through the bag with me just so I could explain everything I got. He listened, I'm assuming, because I was his ride home.
We stopped by Gateway Market to grab some grub on the go; we ended up buying a loaf of olive bread, cheese, apples, chocolate and juice. Healthy, eh? Just to finish off any healthy cell in our body, we stopped by this Chinese grocery store to acquire a durian fruit for our class to see. This fruit's edible flesh emits a distinctive odor, strong and penetrating even when the husk is intact. Regarded by some as fragrant, others as overpowering and offensive, the smell evokes reactions from deep appreciation to intense disgust. The odor has led to the fruit's banishment from certain hotels and public transportation in Southeast Asia.
While roaming the candy isle in the store, I secretly searched for White Rabbit Creamy Candy. As a child, my dad would always buy us children this candy and pass it out as a treat. The memory of it's taste was so strong in my mind that I just could not let it go; I needed to get this candy. A soft, chewy textured taffy-like candy wrapped in edible rice paper, this candy gained popularity with the slogan, "Seven White Rabbit candies is equivalent to one cup of milk". Reportedly, some college students took that seriously and dissolved the candies with water in a hot kettle.
Anyhow, I searched and found the White Rabbits in a red bag. "I could have sworn the bag was originally blue..." I remarked to Adam. Almost in a daze, I approached the counter. (At this moment I would like to thank Adam; they would not accept checks and I swear my wallet ate all the money, so he gave me three dollar coins to spend on this purchase. ) Only knowing about the vanilla flavored White Rabbits as a child, which had the blue and white bag, without realizing, I bought the red bean flavor. Thus, the red bag. Slightly different in taste, I still enjoyed the moment when I savored the flavor of the White Rabbit.
All's well that ends well, and despite the weather and one close call, we made it home safe.

What is an Eat-In?

An Eat-In is a gathering of people in a very public place sharing a meal they have cooked together. It is a “protest potluck,” both a celebration and a demonstration. Its purpose is to make a public statement about the need to fix our broken food system. By gathering participants around the table for a meal, an Eat-In also aims to build communities of people who are committed to creating a food system that brings more people good, clean and fair food.
Frustrated by the lack of good food in the surrounding communities and want to rally others to start addressing the situation, I have been scheming for ways to set-up an eat-in of my own. On the official Eat-In website, I found a list of ideas for an eat-in. Though all were humorously inspiring, some were just plain kick. The ideas constant came back into my thoughts until I was forced to realize how awesome they truly were.
For my school, a 'get cooking!' eat-in would generate publicity while enabling the students to show off their skills, creativity, and ability to prepare and present the food. With the 'get cooking!' eat-in, every person gets assigned to a cooking team. Each team meets in a different kitchen to cook the good, clean and fair food for the potluck. Afterwords, when food is prepared, the task of presentation leaps into the picture. The teams join together to discuss the food; where it came from, why they chose to create that dish, the presentation and finally involving other people in the joyous task of chowing down!
By inviting school faculty, administration, local journalists, local farmers, passersby and capturing this event in photographs, the amount of good that could be done to help raise awareness about food, culture and the lost joy that was once called a "meal" is unimaginable.
Another prospective eat-in eating it's way into my mind is themed 'meet your farmer'. At a local farmer's market, invite farmers and their customers to sit down together and enjoy the true pleasures behind the work. To help establish a presence, doing a cooking demonstration or even leading a short open discussion about food, farming and feasting would be sure to get the attention of those shopping around. Maybe if you talk to the farmers & explain what you are doing, they would gladly donate some food for the meal (good publicity for them too; if one sees it and likes it, one is sure to reenact it..).
So far these are just ideas, but great ideas and motivation breed the pure ability to accomplish.

Just another note, I stumbled upon some amazing websites today. Check them out!!!
http://www.eat-ins.org/index.html
http://realfoodchallenge.org/
http://fooddeclaration.org/en/actions-info/

"Whoa, I didn't know we had a pool here.."

As convenience wrestled effort to the ground, passion was left on the floor in defeat. No longer does our society have passion. The moment you see a flash of it in someone’s eyes, ADD takes over and they have to answer the text message vibrating their pocket. Life moves too fast to allow people to work with love. We have so much stuff thrown in our faces (none of which are relevant to what life’s about) that we are blinded from sense. I used to play into the dramatics taking over life; running around the halls at school, complaining about how hard life was as I gained weight eating McFries and drinking my cheap gas station “cappuccino”, all the while contemplating why I was not happy. Then I let life in. I would walk outside alone and just be with myself. No phone, no music... just me and my thoughts. I realized what was missing from life; the passion to live and make life worth living. You don’t live life by crying over spilled milk. You follow your dreams & speak the words of wisdom so you can help others open their thoughts. What we could achieve if we work together to get off the couch and into the fields is my central driving force. Hopefully by the time I’m dead the whole world will have restored it’s lost passion for life.

Buy fresh, read more, live well.

(Pictures from top to bottom: Carlo Petrini's book Slow Food Nation; Carlo Petrini sipping Navarro Pinot grape juice with Alice Waters as they announce Slow Food Nation at Greens; All things American. Farming is freedom, farming is life; Carlo Petrini's book Slow Food, A case for taste; The Slow Food Nation '08, visit http://slowfoodnation.org/ ; The most inspirational book I've ever read, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. )

When I started the culinary program, I knew no one/nothing. Chef Gordon (he fancies calling people by made-up names; I can't figure out if he wishes to inspire people to follow after the great "movers & shakers", or whether he genuinely cannot remember their names..) always called me Alice. 'What? Who is Alice? I'm sure he will tell me...'. All he would tell me was to look it up.
Upon looking it up, I read all about Alice Waters and her extreme presence within the local fresh food movements. The more I read about her, the more I realized another name popping up; Carlo Petrini.
I had remembered my Chef ranting about the Slow Foods Movement, saying that I would love Alice Waters's involvement in it. Well, it turns out that Carlo Petrini is the founder of the Slow Foods Movement and Alice Waters has forwards written in two of his books (not to mention the many more books under her belt).
Just to give my destiny another little nudge, after clocking out at work one day I stopped into their culinary book section. To my surprise, right in front of my eyes lay a copy of Carlo Petrini's Slow Food Nation. There is an excerpt I would like to share with you:

The contradiction in agroindustrial terms is clearly emerging: agroindustry has given us the illusion that it could solve the problem of feeding the human race. I would go even further: over the last 50 years, it has turned food production into both executioner and victim. Executioner, because the unsustainable methods of agroindustry have led to the disappearance of many sustainable production methods which were once part of the identity of the communities that practices them and were once the highest pleasures for the gastronome in search of valuable knowledge and flavors. Victim, because the same unsustainable methods- originally necessary in order to feed a larger number of people- have since turned the sphere of food and agriculture into a neglected sector, completely detached from the lives of billions of people, as if procuring food has become a matter of course and required no effort at all. Politics shows little interest in it, except when pressured to do so by the most powerful lobbies of international agroindustry, while the average consumer either does not reflect on what he or she is eating or has to make a titanic effort to obtain this information that will explain it. -Carlo Petrini

Please read this book. Not only awakening, but also inspiring, Carlo Petrini, with the help of many others, attempts to shake the world out of it's coma and back into life.

Ubriacone

While shopping at the Gateway Market in Des Moines on a field trip with my culinary class, we stopped for some cheesy conversation. The man working at the cheese counter explained to us the details about all the different cheeses. One caught my eye; this cheese was pale white with random splashes of burgundy running through it. I picked it up curiously to examine it. "Ubriacone. Italian Cows Milk with Red Wine". As enticed as I was, naturally, I bought it. After opening the package to try some of this cheese, I discovered a leaf on the outside skin of the cheese. Peeling it away, it revealed holes in which the red wine was allowed to seep in. 'Okay,' I thought. 'This calls for some research'. My discovery:
Ubriacone is a delicious raw cow's milk cheese bathed in a mixture of local Clinton & Raboso wine must & then pierced like a gorgonzola to let the aroma and flavor of the wine permeate the cheese to a new degree. Ubriacone is an affectionate term in Italian for the "great big drunk". The cheese is covered with grape leaves to cover the holes of the piercing so that mold won't grow in the holes. Keep the leaf in place when cutting the cheese.

I reccomend for anyone who can to try this cheese. I wrapped the cheese tight and placed it in back in my fridge (hidden from view; my mom in a cheese fiend) to keep safe so I can bring it back to class and let my schoolmates have a try.

Giving thanks...

Eating pizza and drinking wine...

Eating food and drinking wine are two of the biggest passions in my life. Now, add into the equation a group of wonderful friends and conversation and life is complete. Tonight we are enjoying a thin crust pizza, layered with olive oil, mozzarella & Swiss cheese, finally topped with chopped tomatoes and fresh basil leaves.
Paired with this crispy yet sweet and pulpous pizza, we bought a Pinot Noir. Produced by P.K.N.T., this wine, a brilliant purple/red color, has rich fruit notes of cherry, plum and strawberry, yet has a kick of leather and dirt. The combination of the cheeses, with it's bitter and yet sweet qualities, build a perfect bridge with the sweet and semi-dry qualities of the wine.
Imported from the middle regions of Chile, this P.K.N.T. Pinot Noir is a great discovery for me.
This wine would go well with white meats, mild/dry cheeses, light veggies (esp. asparagus) and possibly sushi.
Good food, good wine, good night!!!

Allow me to introduce...

Since this is the beginning, allow me to introduce myself and who I am. I am Astred Aviella Anistasia Marie Tara Sarasvati Griffin. Currently attending Indian Hills Community College, I am in their Culinary Arts program. Being a vegetarian and firm slow foods follower, skepticism constantly knocks on my door. But with the skeptics comes the opportunity for growth and change. My original plan involved music school to study blues & jazz (I'm a singer..). Reviewing all of my nonsensical plans for the future, my sister intervened and applied me to Indian Hills for their Culinary Arts program. Hesitantly, I dragged myself to class the first day. Did I really want to become a chef? Isn't that just a hobby or passion, not a sound career choice for me? Yet, day after day, I would wake up at 5 a.m. and drive the 35 minutes to campus in order to start the new day ahead of me. The more I went, the more I involved myself. The more I learned, the more passion grew inside of me for what I was doing. I have to run back to class now; I am a sixth term culinary student at Indian Hills, taking a short break from my classes to start this blog in hopes it will inspire the need to fulfill passions amongst everyone around me and the need to change for the better.