Eat. Drink. Better.

What if you could promote peace, foster a multicultural world, support local artists, help underdeveloped countries thrive and save the planet just by eating deliciously rich and organic chocolate candies? 

Well, thanks to Sarah Endline, the creative genius and cacao bean extraordinaire behind sweetriot, you can.  Oh, and did I mention that the chocolate candies are actually good for you, and rich in health benefits?  I know it seems to good to be true, but Behind the Burner gave me the amazing chance to speak with Sarah who shows us how a sweet tooth and a passion for change can make anything possible.

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Okay. This recipe may not be the healthiest most sustainable, seasonal, vegan dessert or even what most people would consider traditional holiday fare. However, it has become a regular christmas staple in our household and like most traditions, it has a story attached to it.

Nothing dramatic really, but about 15 years ago, I was experiencing one of those ‘blue’ christmases that Elvis sang about - all lonely and weepy and not much fun. My friends took turns trying to keep me from total despair and I found myself slumped on a stool in my dear friend Roberta’s kitchen a couple of days before christmas. I was a bit like a dry sack of flour so she put me to work as she was busily preparing her family’s favorite holiday dessert, strawberry squares.

Keep reading to get this delicious recipe . . .

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Mission Pie is a corner café, bakery, and neighborhood gathering place in the SF Mission District that brings the flavors of local farms into the city and tells their stories. Mission Pie encourages urban folks toward intimacy with their food through live relationships with the people and places that grow our ingredients. With pie as our ally, we create a warm environment that encourages exploration of our choices and values, and where, as neighbors, we can find support and friendship in our pursuit of healthy and sustainable lives. We celebrate farmers, bakers, chefs, and all who work together toward a healthful food system.

Mission Pie is a business venture in collaboration with the non-profit Pie Ranch, a diversified small-scale educational farm that is just one hour south of San Francisco.Through “hands-on work and collective reflection at Pie Ranch, San Francisco teenagers discover new competencies and insights” that truly benefit them as individuals and in community.

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Tea is one of those things that unites people.  The experience of sharing a cup with friends, or that momentary feeling of steamy relief with the sip of a chamomile blend when you’re sick or a bedtime ritual that soothingly lulls you into slumber.

It also comes with other healing and beauty benefits that Tracy Stern, founder of Salon Tea, has harnessed in her commitment to making green living fashionable through tea.

As part of our Behind the Burner series, I got the amazing chance to chat with this fabulous lady whose sense of style is instantly captivating from her Vogue-worthy wardrobe to her recyclable tea tins.

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A Michigan butcher says that having his own wind-power plant could have a positive long-term economic benefit and help to ensure the future sustainability of his family business.

Earl Bosch, owner of Earl’s Meats in Holland, Michigan, says he wouldn’t consider himself an environmentalist, but he also says he is looking to alternative energy to power his meat cutting shop.

He’s not your typical green-power enthusiast. He’s 54 year-old butcher with 35 years in the industry, not a treehugging vegetarian. But he’s starting to see the light.

Bosch has already purchased solar panels for the roof, and now he’s ready to invest $140,000  in wind turbines in order to fully power his business from green energy sources.

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According to the New York Times (NYT), the mess that is COPIA (offically the American Center for Food, Wine and the Arts), the ambitious Frankenstein’s monster in the heart of Napa that was founded in a large part from money donated by the late Robert Mondavi, finally filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code.

Anyone who has been following this soap opera for the past several years can only shake their head in bewilderment. COPIA was and is a good premise that got caught up in to much self importance and pretentiousness. No one wanted to come and no one came.

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We all know the joys of dining out, feasting on flavorful fare, consuming creative cuisine and devouring decadent desserts, ‘oohing’ and ‘ahhing’ at the tantalizing tastes that whisk us from the doldrums of everyday life to some epicurean plane of existence.

But what if you could create those culinary masterpieces at home?

Thanks to Divya Gugnani, you can.

This Harvard educated Venture Capitalist-Turned-Chef is the prolific powerhouse behind Behind the Burner.com, a cooking wonderland dedicated to bringing savory secrets of fine food preparation from renowned restaurants around the world to your table, one gourmet recipe at a time.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Divya and learning more about the brains, the bites and the business.  And she’s as talented in the board room as she is in the kitchen, with an infectious energy and passion that, like the food she and her chefs prepare, leave you yearning for more.

This will be the first in a series of posts featuring Behind the Burner chefs, organic cooking ideas and special offers for the Eat. Drink. Better. readers, so be sure to check back each week for the latest in edible enjoyment.

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As a former restaurateur, I have always been appalled, even disgusted, at those restaurant/food blogs that feel it is their need to consistently obsess over the demises of a local entrepreneurs hard earned business. Why must we always rubberneck and concentrate on the negatives? With the state of the restaurant biz these days, do we need 5 posts-a-day on which chef is going to layoff more staff or who is about to bounce paychecks? Is this how people get their kicks?

With that mindset, I was pleasantly surprised, almost overjoyed, when Eater.com posted the following notice on Tuesday, November 11, 2008,

An emergency meeting of the Deathwatch Committee was called earlier today, with the upshot being that the Deathwatch has been suspended until further notice (but absolutely not-no way in hell-permanently). In its stead, Eater will be bringing you some new features in the coming weeks, one of which shall be called Rally Cry, which has you nominating restaurants we then collectively try to save.

The point is that we know that you know that we know that we’re all in this together. We’ve got no love for a scenario with fewer great restaurants to obsess over, so here’s us doing our part.

Two thumbs-up and a big “tip-of-the-hat”, thank you Stephen Colbert. After all, the word sustainable means “the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely.” Or at least long enough to get our fill.

Due to studies suggesting vegetarians have stronger immune systems and are 40% less likely to get cancer, as well as recent outbreaks of E.coli traced to a Vermont slaughterhouse, PETA is urging Blue Cross of Vermont to lower insurance rates for vegetarians, while increasing those for meat eaters.

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