Normally, I would not simply repost, but this important piece of information deserves to be published, especially in the wake of people saying the government is doing nothing..
-----------
HHS News Release, for immediate
Obama Administration Details Healthy Food Financing Initiative
Philadelphia -- The Obama Administration today released details of an over $400 million Healthy Food Financing Initiative, which will bring grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities across America. The initiative was announced today in Philadelphia by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The two cabinet members appeared with First Lady Michelle Obama, who recently launched the Let's Move! campaign to solve the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation. The initiative is a partnership between the Departments of Treasury, Agriculture, and Health and Human Services.
The Healthy Food Financing Initiative will promote a range of interventions that expand access to nutritious foods, including developing and equipping grocery stores and other small businesses and retailers selling healthy food in communities that currently lack these options. Residents of these communities, which are sometimes called "food deserts" and are often found in economically distressed areas, are typically served by fast food restaurants and convenience stores that offer little or no fresh produce. Lack of healthy, affordable food options can lead to higher levels of obesity and other diet-related diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
Through this new multi-year Healthy Food Financing Initiative and by engaging with the private sector, the Obama Administration will work to eliminate food deserts across the country within seven years. With the first year of funding, the Administration's initiative will leverage enough investments to begin expanding healthy foods options into as many as one-fifth of the nation's food deserts and create thousands of jobs in urban and rural communities across the nation.
To help community leaders identify the food deserts in their area, USDA recently launched a Food Environment Atlas (www.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/). This new online tool allows for the identification of counties where, for example, more than 40 percent of the residents have low incomes and live more than one mile from a grocery store. Nationwide, USDA estimates that 23.5 million people, including 6.5 million children, live in low-income areas that are more than a mile from a supermarket. Of the 23.5 million, 11.5 million are low-income individuals in households with incomes at or below 200 percent of the poverty line. Of the 2.3 million people living in low-income rural areas that are more than 10 miles from a supermarket, 1.1 million are low-income.
"Our effort to improve access to healthy and affordable food is a critically important step toward First Lady Michelle Obama's goal to solve the challenge of childhood obesity within a generation, said Agriculture Secretary Vilsack. "The Healthy Food Financing Initiative will enhance access to healthy and affordable choices in struggling urban and rural communities, create jobs and economic development, and establish market opportunities for farmers and ranchers."
Effective local programs, such as those in Pennsylvania, have shown that well-targeted financial and technical assistance can create viable businesses that provide healthier options in communities that lack access to healthy foods. These investments not only improve food options, but also create jobs, help revitalize distressed communities, and, importantly, open up new markets for farmers to sell their products, which can provide an economic boost to rural America. By better connecting producers and consumers, we can build a stronger connection between cities and rural parts of the country and help create new opportunities for farmers and ranchers. This initiative is part of a broader Obama Administration commitment to promoting economic recovery, including support for small businesses and job creation. It is also part of the Administration's efforts to revitalize neighborhoods and communities by employing place-based approaches--strategies that target the prosperity, equity, sustainability and livability of places.
"It's been a tough year for America, but for our middle class and distressed communities it's been a tough decade," said Secretary Geithner. "We're here to make sure that in America, where a child grows up doesn't determine whether they have access to a better--healthier--future. By introducing powerful incentives for private investors to take a chance on projects – like a new, healthier grocery store – we can make that difference for America's children, while creating new jobs and services in their communities."
Through the joint initiative, which was included in the President's Budget for 2011, Treasury, USDA, and HHS would make available more than $400 million in financial and technical assistance to community development financial institutions, other nonprofits, and businesses with sound strategies for addressing the healthy food needs of communities. The initiative will make available a mix of federal tax credits, below-market rate loans, loan guarantees, and grants to attract private sector capital that will more than double the total investment. Federal funds will support projects ranging from the construction or expansion of a grocery store to smaller-scale interventions such as placing refrigerated units stocked with fresh produce in convenience stores.
"Encouraging people to choose fresh, nutritious food is important," said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "But to achieve that goal that kind of food must be available, and in far too many parts of our country -- both urban and rural communities -- that's not the case. This collaborative initiative is a creative way to help solve that problem, while at the same time working to strengthen the economy of low-income communities through business development and job creation."
Each of the three agencies brings a particular expertise and set of resources to the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. Specifically:
* The Treasury Department will support private sector financing of healthy foods options in distressed urban and rural communities. Through the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) and financial assistance to Treasury-certified community development financial institutions (CDFIs), Treasury has a proven track record in expanding access to nutritious foods by catalyzing private sector investment. The Healthy Foods Financing Initiative builds on that track record, with $250 million in authority for the NMTC and $25 million for financial assistance to CDFIs devoted to helping finance healthy food options. Treasury's CDFI Fund has a long history of supporting these kinds of investments, including: providing funding for the landmark Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative that has brought 68 grocery stores to underserved communities; the Roberts Fresh Market, a full-service supermarket in an underserved area of New Orleans that was devastated by Hurricane Katrina; and a new Super Giant in Washington, D.C., the only grocery store in the Anacostia neighborhood and now one of Giant's most successful stores.
*
* The Department of Agriculture specializes in improving access to healthy foods through nutrition assistance programs, creating business opportunities for America's farmers, and promoting economic development in rural areas. USDA's proposed funding level of $50 million will support more than $150 million in public and private investments in the form of loans, grants, promotion, and other programs that can provide financial and technical assistance to enhance access to healthy foods in under-served communities, expand demand and retail outlets for farm products, and increase the availability of locally and regionally produced foods. USDA has a solid track record of supporting successful farmers markets, and has also invested in grocery stores and creating agricultural supply chains for them, such as in the People's Grocery project in Oakland, CA.
*
* The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) specializes in community-based efforts to improve the economic and physical health of people in distressed areas. HHS will dedicate up to $20 million in Community Economic Development program funds to the Healthy Food Financing Initiative. Through the CED program, HHS will award competitive grants to Community Development Corporations to support projects that finance grocery stores, farmers markets, and other sources of fresh nutritious food. These projects will serve the dual purposes of facilitating access to healthy food options while creating job and business development opportunities in low-income communities, particularly since grocery stores often serve as anchor institutions in commercial centers. HHS has supported fresh food projects in the past, such as the Plaza del Valle in Panorama City, CA.
###
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
The One Kitchen Revolution
Which came first the seed or the fruit? In any case, this circular movement of reproduction and continuance has fostered the planet we see today. Circular orbits, circular patterns of seasons, circular concepts of DNA to seed to parent to seed and so forth. This is the revolution, true revolution. It is a complete circle.
Of course, revolution itself conjurs up many images of past events: American revolution, French Revolution, the cultural revolution in China. Each of these had a similar feature: each movement cast off the previous regime, and installed a new one, from one to the next.
Our modern 'revolutionaries', like Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann, have very little in common with this type of revolution. There is nothing to follow up their dissatisfaction with 'the way things are.' There is no answer to what we ought to do once we have revolted, as like always, life must go on. People still need to eat. People must mate and have babies in safe and secure places or the revolution is devolution, and ends in death, with no reproduction or continuance.
It is, in fact, Will Allen, leading voice of the food revolution that we should be watching instead (http://www.growingpower.org/). So what is the food revolution? First off, the food revolution asks a very important question: "Where does your food come from?" Let's try that one again:
"WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM?!?!?"
That question, in and of itself is revolutionary, though our great grandparents would be shocked to see how quickly our connection to our food roots has been severed, or at least severely sprained. Where does your food come from? It used to come from the backyard or the neighborhood farmer. In Portland, Oregon, where I am lucky to be alive, the food is often local. We are a few steps ahead in the march toward food safety and awareness here in our little corner of the NW USA, but we still have many miles to go yet.
And that is the crux of this writing. Revolution is circular. Where does your food come from denotes a single direction. At this juncture I must ask:
"Where is your food going?"
Americans throw away 40% of the food they purchase (http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/americans_waste_40_of_their_food). If this seems like a lot, it is. Think about it. We are pissed off because we pay 30% of our wages to taxes. That means you are working for the government for 1/3 of your working year. Outlandish, indeed. But throwing away 40% of our food? First of all the waste must end. But second of all, we have to stop looking at our by-products as waste at all.
In the city of Portland, residents are allowed up to three hens for egg production. Kitchen scraps make great chicken scraps, leftover vegetable bits (yes, even the melon rind) make excellent stocks. Why use water when you can use a more flavorful liquid? Not only does this process capture any remaining nutrients from otherwise wasted items, it helps to break the vegetable matter down in advance of the compost, making an easier time for the worms and mycelium.
Scraps of meat leftover, which cannot be composted, can certainly be turned into soup and canned. I used to be so intimidated by the process of canning, but it is really quite simple and can be done for any amount of food, from one quart of leftover soup to 40 quarts of marinara sauce to last two years.
"Where is your food going?" This is the One Kitchen Revolution. No matter how much green local sustainable organic, bio-dynamic, no spray, non-GMO food you buy, what you do with it matters. We have to complete the cycle of knowing to complete our revolution. Start today, start at home. It is the only logical place on which to stand our ground and start the battle of a lifetime.
Of course, revolution itself conjurs up many images of past events: American revolution, French Revolution, the cultural revolution in China. Each of these had a similar feature: each movement cast off the previous regime, and installed a new one, from one to the next.
Our modern 'revolutionaries', like Glenn Beck and Michele Bachmann, have very little in common with this type of revolution. There is nothing to follow up their dissatisfaction with 'the way things are.' There is no answer to what we ought to do once we have revolted, as like always, life must go on. People still need to eat. People must mate and have babies in safe and secure places or the revolution is devolution, and ends in death, with no reproduction or continuance.
It is, in fact, Will Allen, leading voice of the food revolution that we should be watching instead (http://www.growingpower.org/). So what is the food revolution? First off, the food revolution asks a very important question: "Where does your food come from?" Let's try that one again:
"WHERE DOES YOUR FOOD COME FROM?!?!?"
That question, in and of itself is revolutionary, though our great grandparents would be shocked to see how quickly our connection to our food roots has been severed, or at least severely sprained. Where does your food come from? It used to come from the backyard or the neighborhood farmer. In Portland, Oregon, where I am lucky to be alive, the food is often local. We are a few steps ahead in the march toward food safety and awareness here in our little corner of the NW USA, but we still have many miles to go yet.
And that is the crux of this writing. Revolution is circular. Where does your food come from denotes a single direction. At this juncture I must ask:
"Where is your food going?"
Americans throw away 40% of the food they purchase (http://uspoverty.change.org/blog/view/americans_waste_40_of_their_food). If this seems like a lot, it is. Think about it. We are pissed off because we pay 30% of our wages to taxes. That means you are working for the government for 1/3 of your working year. Outlandish, indeed. But throwing away 40% of our food? First of all the waste must end. But second of all, we have to stop looking at our by-products as waste at all.
In the city of Portland, residents are allowed up to three hens for egg production. Kitchen scraps make great chicken scraps, leftover vegetable bits (yes, even the melon rind) make excellent stocks. Why use water when you can use a more flavorful liquid? Not only does this process capture any remaining nutrients from otherwise wasted items, it helps to break the vegetable matter down in advance of the compost, making an easier time for the worms and mycelium.
Scraps of meat leftover, which cannot be composted, can certainly be turned into soup and canned. I used to be so intimidated by the process of canning, but it is really quite simple and can be done for any amount of food, from one quart of leftover soup to 40 quarts of marinara sauce to last two years.
"Where is your food going?" This is the One Kitchen Revolution. No matter how much green local sustainable organic, bio-dynamic, no spray, non-GMO food you buy, what you do with it matters. We have to complete the cycle of knowing to complete our revolution. Start today, start at home. It is the only logical place on which to stand our ground and start the battle of a lifetime.
Monday, February 8, 2010
The One Kitchen Revolution
I am happy to announce that I will be advertising in Portland's 2010 ReDirect guide. To team with the group responsible for this amazing publication, as well as the elite list of folks who have chosen to be sustainable and green in their approach to business is an honor that I, as an Oregonian, am proud to have. I have been shown nothing but absolute sincerity, honesty and integrity from this company, and have gained many contacts throughout the Portland small business community by being involved, and look forward to another year of working with them and meeting new folks. Look for my advertsisement for
"The One Kitchen Revolution"
and get ready for an informative and educational year for food!
"The One Kitchen Revolution"
and get ready for an informative and educational year for food!
Friday, February 5, 2010
A recipe for the day...
In the absence of having naything of real substance to share, I would like to share a recipe and quick story regarding the idea of using what you have:
I was gifted, some time ago, actually, a large amount of Baking Cocoa. Now, I have worked as a baker, when Kenny and Zukes Jewish Deli was in its toddler stage, I cut my teeth as a production baker for this amazing Jewish Deli, producing up to 100lbs of Rye bread a day, amoung other things that I will spare you right now. But that being my only experience, when it comes to baking, I get the idea, but the execution can be porrer than my expectation. That being said, I stumbled across a recipe for flourless chocolate cake that was finally in weight measurment, instead of volume. I at least learned that much, if your baking recipe is in volumes, it was put together by an amateur. Not wanting to identify with the amateurs, I decided to give it a try:
200g Butter
220g Semi-sweet Chocolate
200g graulated Sugar
4 ea Eggs, separated.
Simple. However, not having chocolate to melt, but only the cocoa powder, I made the follwoing changes:
340g Butter
200g Baking Cocoa
200g Organic Granulated Sugar
4 ea Eggs, separated
2 ea Egg whites.
Melt the butter and cocoa together. The mixture will be somewhat dryer than the recipe above at this stage, but do not worry...
Whisk in the sugar, and when cool enough, mix in the egg yolks and the 2 extra whites. Whipe the rest of thw whites and carefully fold these into the mix until you have a uniform batter. This batter will fit perfectly into a 10 inch torte pan, and has the wonderful quality of not needing a pre-greased pan. I have, as of yet, had zero issues getting this cake out of any shape of pan, whether fluted edges or not, and the shelf-life of this has been hard to grasp, as the roommates have been eating it very quickly. I recently made my own version of orange curd, and serve this amazingly dark and rich cake with my orange curb for a familiar but nicely sophisticated flavor combination. The bitters work very well together.
Enjoy!
I was gifted, some time ago, actually, a large amount of Baking Cocoa. Now, I have worked as a baker, when Kenny and Zukes Jewish Deli was in its toddler stage, I cut my teeth as a production baker for this amazing Jewish Deli, producing up to 100lbs of Rye bread a day, amoung other things that I will spare you right now. But that being my only experience, when it comes to baking, I get the idea, but the execution can be porrer than my expectation. That being said, I stumbled across a recipe for flourless chocolate cake that was finally in weight measurment, instead of volume. I at least learned that much, if your baking recipe is in volumes, it was put together by an amateur. Not wanting to identify with the amateurs, I decided to give it a try:
200g Butter
220g Semi-sweet Chocolate
200g graulated Sugar
4 ea Eggs, separated.
Simple. However, not having chocolate to melt, but only the cocoa powder, I made the follwoing changes:
340g Butter
200g Baking Cocoa
200g Organic Granulated Sugar
4 ea Eggs, separated
2 ea Egg whites.
Melt the butter and cocoa together. The mixture will be somewhat dryer than the recipe above at this stage, but do not worry...
Whisk in the sugar, and when cool enough, mix in the egg yolks and the 2 extra whites. Whipe the rest of thw whites and carefully fold these into the mix until you have a uniform batter. This batter will fit perfectly into a 10 inch torte pan, and has the wonderful quality of not needing a pre-greased pan. I have, as of yet, had zero issues getting this cake out of any shape of pan, whether fluted edges or not, and the shelf-life of this has been hard to grasp, as the roommates have been eating it very quickly. I recently made my own version of orange curd, and serve this amazingly dark and rich cake with my orange curb for a familiar but nicely sophisticated flavor combination. The bitters work very well together.
Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Schooled by a Frenchman...(figures)
I once asked a catering boss of mine, when I was still entertaining the idea that catering would be the best career choice for me, how he attracted his clientele and how it was that he was so busy. His statement, albeit sarcastic, was all too true, I have come realize: Lots of Free Food. How can anyone know what it is you have to offer, especially in the case of the sensory* heavy food. (*meaning that you can sit in a chair and decide not to buy it, but once you put my food in your mouth, please don't give it back to me, even if you don't like it; it takes a more defined sensory experience to check your taste in food, no pun intended).
So now, years later as a Private Chef and part-time caterer I find myself giving away a lot of free food, or free cooking lessons as the case may be. Last night, February 2nd, I was the 'sponsor' of the Portland February Green Drinks networking meet-up. By this, I was featured to speak for a short time and introduce my business, and also give a little background of myself and how ended up doing what I am doing. One of the first things that I tend to encounter when meeting new clientele, especially on the younger side, is a lack of fine restaurant experience. In this regard, I have been very lucky, but I do not take it for granted.
As I explained last night, I named my company A Muse Bouche for several reason. First, i explained, amuse-bouche is a French term for 'amuse the mouth,' and is a reference to the small bites, smaller even than appetizers, unordered and usually termed a 'gift of the chef,' this dish brought once the drink orders are in and the table is into the evening's experience. This was what I was taught in school (WCI in Portland) this is the title of one of my favorite cookbooks by Rick Trumonto: Amuse-bouche. Now, once may immediately see the difference in spelling, which of course is an aberation to any language, but expecially French. Now, the split between the A and M of muse allows me to gloriously indulge (and give reference to) my other oral passion with is poetry and performance poetry (see my other blog for poetry posts of no particular order: http://sayv1.blogspot.com/). A Muse Bouche, in my humble translation, now means A Mouth Muse, refering to my fixation, and to the greek goddesses of the arts, from which amuse is taken, of course.
Imagine my surprise when after my talk I was approached by a young woman in the guise of a private chef (and amuse-bouche caterer) and a Frenchman, who was quick to ask me why I was using amuse-bouche, instead of amuse-gueule?
Huh?
Now, until last night, I had never even heard this term. But it goes something like this:
Taken from http://everything2.com/title/amuse+gueule
"In the most literal sense, amuse gueule translates from the French as an amusement for the mouth - but not a mouth in the human sense - amuse bouche would be used in that case (which indeed it sometimes is). It seems that gueule means a non-human mouth, either that of an animal or more intriguingly, a gun. When used in reference to humans, gueule is a slang term, roughly translating as gob. It gives you an idea of the playfulness of the dish.
In a culinary sense amuse gueule refer to tiny, mouth size morsels of intricately designed food that is presented to the diner before a meal.
Picture this scene; somehow you have gathered the folding to dine at a 3 star Michelin restaurant in France. You are seated, presented with menus, provided with the best mineral water to slake your thirst, and the sommelier is on his way to discuss a deceptively perfect Sancerre to accompany your starters. This does not happen quickly, you are in for a full on, 5-hour gastronomic tour-de-force. Amid all this pleasant cacophony, an uninvited plate arrives - somewhat to your surprise. Perhaps it is a single oyster, garnished with the finest unpasteurized osetra caviar, or it may be a demi-tasse filled with an enchantingly green fresh pea soup - topped with a single sea scallop. The idea behind amuse gueule is not only to "amuse the mouth", but as a display of hospitality as well.
To the chef, amuse-gueule provides a breaking of shackles. No longer is the emphasis placed on carefully balanced flavors, which must harmonize with the rest of the menu. An amuse gueule brings a sense of playfulness and decadence to an occasion - one that lets all hell break loose in a single, blissful mouthful. "
And I thought I was playing with words! How beautiful an irony that in fact the roughness of the word gueule, as an animal mouth, gives the lascidasical attitude some justification in its simply throwing a mouthful of wonder together.
Given this new light on the definition of what it is I am most passionate about, I must beg this explantion: As amuse-gueule is rough in its translation and asks for animal mouth to be supplanted for the human, giving an almost barbaric tint to an otherwise perfect piece of art, so too let my butchering of the language be the roughshod animal mouth blundering of this American, giving an almost ironic mouthful of hilarity to my philosophy on food and the life therein!
So now, years later as a Private Chef and part-time caterer I find myself giving away a lot of free food, or free cooking lessons as the case may be. Last night, February 2nd, I was the 'sponsor' of the Portland February Green Drinks networking meet-up. By this, I was featured to speak for a short time and introduce my business, and also give a little background of myself and how ended up doing what I am doing. One of the first things that I tend to encounter when meeting new clientele, especially on the younger side, is a lack of fine restaurant experience. In this regard, I have been very lucky, but I do not take it for granted.
As I explained last night, I named my company A Muse Bouche for several reason. First, i explained, amuse-bouche is a French term for 'amuse the mouth,' and is a reference to the small bites, smaller even than appetizers, unordered and usually termed a 'gift of the chef,' this dish brought once the drink orders are in and the table is into the evening's experience. This was what I was taught in school (WCI in Portland) this is the title of one of my favorite cookbooks by Rick Trumonto: Amuse-bouche. Now, once may immediately see the difference in spelling, which of course is an aberation to any language, but expecially French. Now, the split between the A and M of muse allows me to gloriously indulge (and give reference to) my other oral passion with is poetry and performance poetry (see my other blog for poetry posts of no particular order: http://sayv1.blogspot.com/). A Muse Bouche, in my humble translation, now means A Mouth Muse, refering to my fixation, and to the greek goddesses of the arts, from which amuse is taken, of course.
Imagine my surprise when after my talk I was approached by a young woman in the guise of a private chef (and amuse-bouche caterer) and a Frenchman, who was quick to ask me why I was using amuse-bouche, instead of amuse-gueule?
Huh?
Now, until last night, I had never even heard this term. But it goes something like this:
Taken from http://everything2.com/title/amuse+gueule
"In the most literal sense, amuse gueule translates from the French as an amusement for the mouth - but not a mouth in the human sense - amuse bouche would be used in that case (which indeed it sometimes is). It seems that gueule means a non-human mouth, either that of an animal or more intriguingly, a gun. When used in reference to humans, gueule is a slang term, roughly translating as gob. It gives you an idea of the playfulness of the dish.
In a culinary sense amuse gueule refer to tiny, mouth size morsels of intricately designed food that is presented to the diner before a meal.
Picture this scene; somehow you have gathered the folding to dine at a 3 star Michelin restaurant in France. You are seated, presented with menus, provided with the best mineral water to slake your thirst, and the sommelier is on his way to discuss a deceptively perfect Sancerre to accompany your starters. This does not happen quickly, you are in for a full on, 5-hour gastronomic tour-de-force. Amid all this pleasant cacophony, an uninvited plate arrives - somewhat to your surprise. Perhaps it is a single oyster, garnished with the finest unpasteurized osetra caviar, or it may be a demi-tasse filled with an enchantingly green fresh pea soup - topped with a single sea scallop. The idea behind amuse gueule is not only to "amuse the mouth", but as a display of hospitality as well.
To the chef, amuse-gueule provides a breaking of shackles. No longer is the emphasis placed on carefully balanced flavors, which must harmonize with the rest of the menu. An amuse gueule brings a sense of playfulness and decadence to an occasion - one that lets all hell break loose in a single, blissful mouthful. "
And I thought I was playing with words! How beautiful an irony that in fact the roughness of the word gueule, as an animal mouth, gives the lascidasical attitude some justification in its simply throwing a mouthful of wonder together.
Given this new light on the definition of what it is I am most passionate about, I must beg this explantion: As amuse-gueule is rough in its translation and asks for animal mouth to be supplanted for the human, giving an almost barbaric tint to an otherwise perfect piece of art, so too let my butchering of the language be the roughshod animal mouth blundering of this American, giving an almost ironic mouthful of hilarity to my philosophy on food and the life therein!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Canning as you go
Man...I guess this is the speed of life, but things are progressing int he kitchen quite rapidly. Exciting recipes, ides, thoughts and journalling...so far all scrawl. I will keep the followers of this blog up to date as soon as I tackle the monster of a task of disciple in the home kitchen (see my lecture series). A blow by blow account of actually living in my own kitchen, rather than in the idea of it.
Starting about two weeks into the New Year, my lover and I decided to set forth on a task of regularizing our schedule, purchasing and preparing food weekly, to make sure we were set up for the week to come: chopping all the necessary ingredients for a whimsical salad, cooking off a chicken and making stock, canning extras, taking the leftovers and creating sides out of them. At first, the idea of canning leftover seemed pretty foreign, as far as it seemed like every time I have set up for canning, there has been a process and a whole day. But when it comes to acidic foods, simply cooking these sealed jars in Boiling water for 15 minutes post canning ought to do the trick. Lo and behold, after dinner, you have dinner for some unknown time in the future. If you have space in the freezer, being prepared at the end of each meal to freeze the leftovers will also save space in the fridge, prevent the moldy science experiment in the back of the fridge, and give a delicious meal later on. (we no longer have space in the freezer, and will glad take the donation of a drop freezer at the drop of hat. If you have an extra one.
At any rate, this practice is one that I have been regularly tending to now for the last three weeks, and while we have certainly spent more money on food than in previous weeks, we have a stock of food canned now, in the freezer, have items cut up, and I have about 18 new entries for the kitchen cookbook, waiting to be tested and perfected and printed for your enjoyment. The updates will keep coming.
Much love and happiness in your kitchen,
Your Culinary Coach
Zachary
Starting about two weeks into the New Year, my lover and I decided to set forth on a task of regularizing our schedule, purchasing and preparing food weekly, to make sure we were set up for the week to come: chopping all the necessary ingredients for a whimsical salad, cooking off a chicken and making stock, canning extras, taking the leftovers and creating sides out of them. At first, the idea of canning leftover seemed pretty foreign, as far as it seemed like every time I have set up for canning, there has been a process and a whole day. But when it comes to acidic foods, simply cooking these sealed jars in Boiling water for 15 minutes post canning ought to do the trick. Lo and behold, after dinner, you have dinner for some unknown time in the future. If you have space in the freezer, being prepared at the end of each meal to freeze the leftovers will also save space in the fridge, prevent the moldy science experiment in the back of the fridge, and give a delicious meal later on. (we no longer have space in the freezer, and will glad take the donation of a drop freezer at the drop of hat. If you have an extra one.
At any rate, this practice is one that I have been regularly tending to now for the last three weeks, and while we have certainly spent more money on food than in previous weeks, we have a stock of food canned now, in the freezer, have items cut up, and I have about 18 new entries for the kitchen cookbook, waiting to be tested and perfected and printed for your enjoyment. The updates will keep coming.
Much love and happiness in your kitchen,
Your Culinary Coach
Zachary
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