Eat. Drink. Better.

Do you usually bring wine when you are invited to a dinner party? Are you going to toast a little bubbly on New Year’s Eve? Perhhaps you are skilled at the art of making homemade wine?

While you are searching for the perfect bottle to share, here are some ideas to consider for the gift wrap:

1. Wrap a bottle of wine and champagne into something fun and festive by wrapping them in funnies (which will also work well for eco box wine) or any scrap paper for that matter.

2. Make a wine bottle sleeve. This is for that sweater that you can’t donate because of the holes in it or the fact it shrunk in the wash. Simply snip off a sleeve and tie with a ribbon. If it is cold outside, this will keep the reds at a good temperature as you travel to the party.

3. Fabric gift bags make extra special gifts themselves. These adorable presents are “easy to make and encourage the recipient to reuse the wrapping, instead of tossing it in the trash.”

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When I was growing up, the silky sounds of Nat King Cole crooning, ‘chestnuts roasting on an open fire…’ was the hallmark of the holidays for me.  Every time I would hear it, I’d get that rush of childlike exuberance that encapsulates the magic of the season, and makes you feel like anything is possible.  

Yet, despite the fact that inordinate amounts of food were also synonymous with the holidays in my family (6 courses and 3 hours worth of dishes to be exact, by hand), we never had one dish with a chestnut in it.  Not a one.  For shame.

So, as I got older, and began to nurture my inner chef, I decided to remedy that travesty by starting a new tradition of savory chestnut soup to begin the descent into our annual colossal feast, much to my Grandmother’s chagrin who quite religiously served Italian Escarole soup.  (And by religiously, I mean had served Escarole for 30+ years prior to my first course usurping; or usouping, as it were. OK, bad joke.)

But my soup was a big hit, and each year I’d add or change the ingredients, perfecting my chestnut prowess with new and interesting pairings.  Needless to say, some years were better than others.  The addition of raisins, for example.  Disaster.  Cranberries, however.  Surprisingly delicious.  And those tart little buggers are still the perfect complement to the soup.  The cranberries, that is — not my family!

And now for the first time ever outside the hallowed halls of the Snowfield residence, I am sharing my coveted recipe for you to share, which now includes honey glazed grilled salmon, making it a hearty first — or even second — course for your own foray into holiday gorging and merriment.

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Continuing our series from Bon Appetit Management chefs, is a visit to the West Coast for seasonal salads, brightly colored with pomegranate and persimmon over lush green arugula. No wonder the rest of the country gets a bit green with envy over the steady diet of local salad all year.

My personal answer is a CSA farmer with a few greenhouses, a trend I hope catches on. Until then, we can all have visions of persimmons dancing in our heads with this menu from Chef Melissa Miller, Café Bon Appetit at SAP Corporation in Menlo Park, CA.

Over on the opposite coast, fish is local and the dishes from Chef Michael Aquaro at Duke University in Durham, NC, include Oyster Stew, Cumin Crusted Petit Poussin, and Southern “Pecan Pie” Braised Greens. Recipes for the Oyster Stew and Dried Cranberry Oatmeal cookies are included in this post.

Recipes follow the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

Giving Mother Earth a Gift This Holiday Season by Cooking Green.

Can a winter’s holiday feast be local and sustainable? It doesn’t seem such an easy task, even for a locavore like myself as I contemplate turnips, a few remaining pumpkins and sweet potatoes. Even so, with some resourcefulness and help from regional chefs of the Bon Appetit Management Company, we can all have a Low-Carbon Christmas — even in the frozen tundra of the upper Midwest.

Bon Apetit, a company that offers corporations, universities and colleges onsite catering and food service with a commitment to sustainable, local cuisine, had four of its chefs from various regions of the country put together low-carbon, high-flavor menus for the season.

The regions include Upper Midwest (follows), Northeast, West Coast and Southeast. Each of the menus will be featured in an Eat Drink Better post beginning with the upper Midwest menu, below.

General tips for parties and seasonal gathering that keep things low carbon include not using bottled water or disposable dinnerware. Don’t use bottled water and compost food waste as much as possible. Use less beef and dairy products.

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Once a year, Food Bloggers from all over the world band together for a fundraising campaign called ‘Menu for Hope’.  Last year, they raised over $90K for the UN World Food Programme, the United Nations international food aid organization.This year the charity raffle goes until the 24th of December. They explain:

“Menu for Hope again raises funds for the WFP’s school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa.  This is the second year we are supporting this program, which assist the WFP’s efforts to supply the program by buying directly from local farmers who practice conservation farming methods.  With this program, we help feed the kids (which keep them in school) and support their parents and community farming. This sustainable approach to aid is something we believe in and strongly support.”

Together they’ve whipped up a delectable list of amazing food related prizes for this raffle:  Click here to view the list of all the prizes. Every US$10 donation will buy you one virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of your choice.  Read the rest of this entry »

It’s not the healthiest recipe in the world, but Icelandic Leaf Bread is a tradition dating back centuries, and with some modern adjustments, can make a wonderful addition to Christmas celebrations.
Laufabraud or Leaf Bread is so called because it has an intricate pattern incised to it: the pattern is a metal cutter, usually leaf shaped, and often owned by a family as an heirloom. It originated in North Iceland, but has spread across the country and is so famous it has its own stamp!

Recipe

• 1 kilogram wheat flour
• 30 grams sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 500-600 ml milk (preferably low fat)
• 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
• Fat for frying (sunflower oil is good) and a tall cooking pot for frying the bread.

Method

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Heat the milk just to boiling and melt the butter in it.

Pour the hot milk mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until cool enough to handle then knead into a ball. It will not be as elastic as normal dough.

Roll the dough into around four sausage shapes and put under a damp cloth while you work on it. Cut off about a double walnut size and roll it out into a circle – you should be able to see the writing on a poster through each bread! Now take a tea plate, lay it on each circle and cut round so they are evenly sized.

You can store Leaf Bread uncooked by layering it with baking paper and storing it in a plastic bag in the fridge.

Now have fun cutting out patterns using diamonds and bead shapes while you heat the cooking oil until it’s just below smoking. Prick each bread lightly with a fork to stop it bubbling and drop one into the fat, it will sink and then rise, when it reaches the top, turn it using a barbecue fork and when it is golden on both sides lift it out and put on kitchen paper to drain. You can set a plate on each bread as it cooks, to keep it flat. When the breads are cold, store them in a tin, they will keep for several weeks.

Serve with winter salads and strong cheeses as a tasty age-old accompaniment to winter feasts.

As the economy tanks, tips on saving money this holiday season are on the rise. But here’s the most frugal, green holiday tip of them all: recycled food.

No, we’re not talking about gifting your mother-in-law with the half-empty jar of mayo. But do think about scouring the back of your pantry for those ingredients you may have been stockpiling that would make a great food gift or holiday dish. Consider this the ultimate form of recycling: creatively using up ingredients that would otherwise be composted — or landfilled.

That’s my inspiration behind this recipe for Peppermint Biscotti. You know those red and white peppermints you can pick up for free as you exit a restaurant? Apparently I can’t say no to these as I had accumulated a jar of them over the course of a year. I realize, these mints are hardly a blip on the nutritional radar, but I still didn’t want to see them wasted — considering I was the culprit who collected them in the first place. In crushed form, these peppermints add a seasonal mint twist to biscotti. And I’ve never met anyone who didn’t love these cookies as a holiday gift. So much so actually that friends now gift me with their collection of peppermints for my annual biscotti-baking marathon.

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All Champagne is sparkling wine made through the “Methode Champenoise.” But not all sparkling wine is Champagne.

Wine writer Alan Richman in the December 2005 issue of Bon Appetit magazine bombastically wrote:

Say what you will about California Sparklers - which are to French Champagne what paddlefish eggs are to beluga caviar - they will not transport you to a fantasy world, unless you are enthralled by the Napa Valley wine train. Sparkling wines that are not Champagne structurally lack finesse, enologically they lack bouquet, and sentimentally they lack ostentation.

I hate to disagree with a James Beard award winning writer, but Alan, YOU ARE WRONG.

Domestic bubbly has reached amazing heights and achieved complex flavors and textures. These wines are world-class while still somehow maintaining their own sense of terroir. Some are even fantastic values.

Here are my Top 9 sparkling wine suggestions for your 2009 New Year’s Eve celebration.

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A British printing company has released a new edible Christmas card printed on potato starch paper with vegetable inks. While I doubt the card will be the highlight of your holiday meal, an edible card allows for easy, green disposal.

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Fuyu Persimmon and Duck Salad with Hazelnut-Sherry Vinaigrette

What in the world is a Fuyu persimmon? The Fuyu (pictured at the right) is a non-astringent persimmon variety. It is sweet and delicious when it becomes orange to orange-red in color and is still firm. The Native American persimmon grown in the southern U.S. and the more common pointed Hachiya persimmon are astringent varieties that do not lose their bitterness until the fruit becomes soft.

Why do we care? Ripe Hachiya persimmons are great for making cooked dishes such as chutneys, relishes, steamed puddings or even pies. The Fuyu persimmon is perfect for this salad because its sweetness will cut through and balance the richness of the duck while maintaining its crisp texture.

Take a look at my post The Persimmon - More Than Pudding for additional persimmon information and recipes.

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