An amazing dinner

A few friends and I won an award in a student work competition at our school. The prize: a gourmet dinner from one of our professors. It's a tradition that he offers this award every year for the best digital project, ours, a website created for a presentation to the Biosphere 2. Last Friday we went to his house for dinner, and all I can say is it was AMAZING. Aside from the food being incredible and gorgeously presented, the night time temperature was a beautiful 75 degrees and the ambiance was just perfect. Here are a few pictures from the night that I took with me new camera.

Give a little hope today

According to Heifer:

• Right now, more than 500 million people are living in "absolute poverty" and more than 15 million children die of hunger every year.

• World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the population is underfed and another third is starving.

• Even in the United States, 46 percent of African-American children and 49 percent of Latino children are considered chronically hungry.

Hunger is something I've never experienced, thankfully, and that makes it hard to sit here and say this is what we should do...I definitely don't have the answers, but it seems doing nothing is not a good solution either.

I realize that the solutions to this problem are extremely complicated. There is an over abundance of food in this world, yet millions (maybe even billions) of people are still starving. The world has changed so much over the past century, even the past 20 years, so that now it's nearly impossible to subsistence farm. People the world over have lost their land to development and large commercial farms. They have been forced to move to cities and slums to find work because they can no longer make a living growing food.

O.K., so this is supposed to be a post about hope, right? So, what can you do today?

• Post about world hunger on April 29.

• Visit Heifer International to learn more about Pass On The Gift.

• Make a small donation or take some other action to end world hunger.

• Join this event and add a badge to your blog before April 29.

• I recently watched the Future of Food again online, and while it makes the problem seem overwhelming, it's a good eye-opener. You can watch the entire video at Hulu by clicking on the link above.

• Support community and small scale agriculture. This, I think, is one of the most important solutions. First of all, this has the direct potential to help feed people in communities that cannot always afford to buy their own food. When people learn to grow food themselves, they are learning a life skill that can help to move them away from hunger and create a community of support. Second, even if you don't grow the food yourself, by supporting a local CSA or family farm, you are giving your money back to the community, and back to families, rather than large scale agriculture and bio-tech companies that do not always have human health at the top of their list. For more information, check out Laurel's post here. It's really a worthy read. Also, you also might want to read about Farmer Frank - it's a happy story :)

The joy of a carrot

This is a very special carrot...it's the only one I have ever been able to grow in Arizona. Actually, I thinks it's a first in general. Don't be fooled by its small size, it packs a flavorful punch that was oh, so tasty.

Green Eggs and No Ham

I went to the farmer's market yesterday and I just had to share with you my wonderful find...beautiful eggs! The amazing part is that some of them are a subtle mint green color....so gorgeous. It's been a small dream of mine to one day have chickens, so I must find out what type of hen laid these beauties.

Simple Pleasures

Today was one of those days.
The good kind,
where the sun warms your skin and
there is a perfect breeze in the air.
When you ride your bike to the farmers' market
to buy a weeks worth of produce
that only costs $21
all of it grown in Arizona
by hardworking hands in the earth
and love
lots of love.
That is the kind of day I had today.

Can you say yum?

Motivator: Laurel at SimpleSpoonful, with her flair for food and her "Darn Good Hummus" recipe.

Insider knowledge: Native Seeds lady at the farmers market, offering up her knowledge about the nutritious benefits native tepary beans.

The goods: 1 lb bag of native blue speckled tepary beans. Small, creamy brown and tan with a hint of blue.

Inspiration: Mangochild's dedication to all things local.

Final Results: Delicious tepary bean hummus!

Sorry, if I give you the recipe I will have to kill you. No, actually I know the ingredients, but I have no clue how much of each I put in here. So, if you would like to try this out on your own, here's an estimate. Also, Laurel has worked quite hard to perfect her recipe, so paying her a visit would probably be a very good bet!

Ingredients:
-Native Tepary Beans (1.5 cups cooked?)
-1 clove garlic, pressed
-2 TBS Tahini
-1 Tsp Cumin
-Juice from 1/2 of a lemon
-A small amount of milk or water to get to the right consistency.

Blend together in a blender or preferably a food processor.

Eat. Enjoy. Yum.

Cookbook Giveaway at SimpleSpoonful.com

Happy New Year everyone! My friend Laurel at SimpleSpoonful.com is starting the new year on a fresh note by giving away some vegetarian cookbooks. The giveaways are a great addition to any kitchen...Moosewood selections and others. To enter the giveaway, Laurel is asking you to write a poem about a vegetable....but hurry, the deadline is midnight tonight Pacific time.

We are hoping a rap counts as a poem because this is our entry:

DJ Kimmus (featuring beetNick)

Yo, DJ
don’t kick da beet!!

da pppptttt-pppptttt tssssst
da pppptttt-pppptttt tssssst

here’s a little rap,
with a succulent beat,
about a tasty root
so earthy sweet!!

This little beet
is a double treat
greens on top,
and underneath
a juicy feat!!
Saute their greens,
and cook the meat.

red or gold
Yo,
behold!!
boiled… broiled…
this beet ain’t
SPOILED!!

Slice it
Dice it
throw it in a
Soup
suckin down some borscht
while ya sit on yur
STOOP!!

red and ROUND,
my hands stained
PINK
No matter yo
‘cuz this beet
STANKS!!

Yo, Check da beet…
da ppppttt-ppppttt tsssst
da ppppttt-ppppttt tsssst

Beet soup and other good stuff

Believe it or not, it even feels like fall in Arizona. It may still be 80 degrees during the day, but the tree in my front yard is turning red and there is the comforting scent of smoke in the air. The change of seasons has left a yearning in my stomach for good, wholesome fall foods. The other night, I tried out this recipe for Beet Soup from Epicurious.com and I think it was delíche.

Beet Soup

• 1 large red onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 5 medium beets (2 pounds without greens), peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 red apple such as Gala or Braeburn, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces**
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 4 to 5 cups water
• 2 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 1 tablespoon packed light brown sugar

Cook onion in oil in a 5-quart heavy saucepan over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add beets and apple and cook, stirring occasionally, 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook, stirring, 30 seconds.

Add broth and 4 cups water, then simmer, uncovered, until beets are tender, about 40 minutes. Stir in vinegar and brown sugar.

Purée soup in 3 batches in a blender until very smooth, at least 1 minute per batch (use caution when blending hot liquids), transferring to a large bowl. Return soup to pan, then season with salt and pepper and reheat. If soup is too thick, add enough water to thin to desired consistency.

Serve soup in squash bowls.

Now, the recipe called for roasting and acorn squash and using it as a bowl for the soup. Good idea, right? Well, I guess I got a little carried away with the knife and didn't quite cut it right...I ended up with a big hole in the bottom...

...therefore, my soup went in a ceramic bowl and the acorn squash went on top. Voila! It all goes to the same place, right? I do like the idea of eating your bowl though...***

**Because I didn't have any apples I left that out...It may have been too sweet with the apples for my liking, but maybe I'll try it next time.

**I'm getting a bit perturbed with blogger at the moment because I can't seem to control the italics...is anyone else having this problem? Grrr....

On another note, Angelina at Dustpan Alley just posted a beautiful reminder about life that I hope you will take a chance to read.

The Non-felonius Cactophagy Expedition

I'm catching up a bit with this post, but thought it was still important to share. Mostly because it was so fun and resulted in something delicious.

A few weeks ago my architecture friend C invited N and I to "hunt" for Prickly Pear with which we would make a feast of all things bright pink. (Making food that was bright pink was not quite the intention, but it was an interesting consequence of cooking with this Sonoran desert fruit.)

The prickly pear adventures began in the Colonia Solana neighborhood, a higher-end neighborhood in Tucson that has fortunately left much of the native vegetation in tact. We were initially skeptical of searching for prickly pear in a neighborhood, especially one like this, but fortunately no one asked us what we were doing. We kept it on the down low and stuck to some of the alleys where, lucky for us, there was prickly pear galore.

After accumulating two paper bags full of fruit we thought, "this is probably enough." Well, let me tell you, this fruit goes a long way...it was more than enough. What proceeded was a 6 hour adventure in scrubbing, peeling, chopping, juicing, and baking. It left us with pink hands and lots of glochids, but the results were completely worth it. Here are some pictures of the process and the results.

Prickly Pear Butter

Prickly Pear Cobbler

If you would like the recipe for the cobbler, which was soooo good, here it is. It doesn't give a time to bake it or anything, but we just watched for the crust to turn brown.

3-1/2 cups of prickly pear pulp
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of water
1 stick of margarine or butter
1 cup of flour
1 cup of sugar (for crust)
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of milk
1 teaspoon of vanilla

Place the pulp, cup of sugar, and water in a saucepan and boil (with stirring) until the sugar is completely dissolved ... then remove from heat and set aside. (This will be the filling.)

To prepare the crust, begin by putting the margarine (or butter) in a large baking casserole and placing the casserole— in turn—in the oven as it preheats to 350°. Then, in a clean bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, milk, and vanilla together and pour the resulting mixture—which should have the consistency of pancake batter—into the hot casserole, atop the melted margarine (DO NOT STIR). Then—in the center of (and on top of) the crust mixture—pour the filling. (Here again, DO NOT STIR.)

Now slide the whole works into the 350° oven. During the baking period, the batter for the crust will actually rise over and completely cover the pie's filling. (yep...it's true.) The pie is done when the crust is completely brown.

Enjoy!