4th Annual Holiday Party

Well it's been a long time since our last "Dinner on 12th". We did quite a bit of traveling this fall which resulted in our having to put of dinner parties on hold. But we're back for the holidays with our annual holiday party. Here's what I'm planning on making for the get-together this weekend...

Crostini of triple cream and fried sage

Goat cheese and Marionberry-pepper jam canapes

Madras spiced cashews

Roasted vegetable and goat cheese wellingtons with red pepper coulis

Crudités with edamamme hummus

Endive “spoons” of mache, pomegranates, gorgonzola and candied pecans

Deviled eggs with crispy capers

Curried winter squash bisque with a trio of condiments (Cranberry-apply chutney, Garlic croutons, or chive sour cream)

Rustic French apple tart

Toffee mascarpone bars

Oatmeal caramelitas

Debbie's amazing caramel brownie bites

Peppermint chocolate cookie truffles

We are really looking forward to sharing the evening with friends. And to those who couldn't make it this year, happy holidays to you all.

Grow your own salads every day with virtually no work

I recently went to a workshop on growing perennial vegetables with a local guy, Norris Thomlinson, who is currently living in his fourth forest garden. He showed us how easy it is to build a perennial vegetable garden that takes very little maintenance and will provide you with a large range of greens for salads any day of the year, with almost no maintenance. While the up front effort is similar to one year of annual vegetable gardening, in all subsequent years, the maintenance effort is really limited. If this sounds interesting to you, Norris teaches free workshops and you can read more about him in the story below that recently came out in the Portland Tribune.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=124699176452499600

Home carbonation setup

Do you drink carbonated water? We do. We go through about a liter a day. We figure that adds up to maybe $250 a year in carbonated water. Its also a lot of greenhouse gases burned, since each bottle of water travels hundreds, if not thousands of miles to reach our door. So we wanted a better solution. I searched for ways to carbonate our own beverages online, and all of the standard products cost about $.50 per liter, and that's after you pay $100-$200 for the product. Commercial units cost maybe $1500-$2000. All of that seemed like too much and also extraordinarily high for what was essentially putting carbon dioxide in water. So I sought out out a do-it-yourself unit and found that I could make a contraption that would work with only a few hours of work and less than $100 in parts.

Most of the folks who have attended Dinner on 12th have had some of our homemade carbonated water. We use a set up that consists of a 20 lb. CO2 tank, a regulator, some tube, and a plastic fitting. It took about 45 minutes to put together, and another two hours to do all the shopping. The CO2 tank supposedly carbonates about 1000 littres of water, making the price about five cents per liter. Below is a link that will walk you step-by-step through with the purchase, where you can get it, and how to put it together. If you end up doing this, let me know how it works out.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Soda-Water-%26-Home-Carbonation---Pays-For-Itsel/

March Dinner on 12th menu

Mushroom dinner: From the simple to the decadent

Is it spring yet?!? Please? I keep hoping to see the first sweet peas or, dare I dream, fresh fava beans at the market. But alas, winter still is hanging on. So, we'll just go with it and work with what we've got. For dinner I'm highlighting our glorious local mushroom, from a simple peasant farro pie from Lucca (Torta Salata di Farro) to a very decadent potato gratin made with an incredible truffle butter I got last week at the opening weekend of the PSU farmer's market. And I still have a few stashes of huckleberries in our freezer from last season, saving them for a day like this when I really need a shot of summer. So, I think I'll bust those out too. Here is the tentative plan - unless of course those favas make an appearance in the next two days, then all bets are off!

Torta Salata di Farro with Mushrooms*
Truffled* Purple Potato* Gratin
Roasted Beet* and Carrots* on a Bed of Arugula*

Lemon Curd* and Huckleberry* Tart

* = locally grown

Video on food politics

Today I saw a rarely reported story about how the food corporations (e.g., Pepsico) influence our national school policy that directs what food is served in school lunch programs. This video is about a scientific conference that the feds convened that was supposed to give input about that policy. As the story shows, a lot of the people who attended were food corporation representatives, not scientists.

Our school lunch programs are about $10 billion a year, so its clear that policies which would improve the health of our kids are not going to be happily received by food corporations, which stand to loose a lot of money if we institute healthier policies. Our corporations are profiting off of poisoning the next generation and almost no one even knows about it.

Asking good questions

I've lately developed an interest in something called permaculture and have begun taking a 6-month class on the topic. Today I was reading the textbook by Bill Mollison where he was talking about the ethical basis of permaculture and I ran across a passage that I really liked and wanted to share.

A basic question that can be asked in two ways is:

"What can I get from this land, or person?" or

"What does this person, or land, have to give if I cooperate with them?"

Of these two approaches, the former leads to war and waste, the later to peace and plenty.

Most conflicts, I find, lay in how such questions are asked, and not in the answers to any question. Or, to put it another way, we are clearly looking for the right questions rather than for answers.

These dinners are largely about community and community is about cooperation. I hope that these dinners allow us a chance to learn more fully what we have to give by sharing in community. Hope to see you soon.

February Dinner on12th Ave.

Winter Tuscan Supper

At this time of the year I often get the travel bug. Maybe it's the long, rainy Portland winter that just keeps stretching on and on, or maybe it's my ancient Gypsy ancestors calling me to the open road, but whatever the case, I'm feeling the need for a change in scenery. However, since the practicalities of life do not lend themselves to gallivanting about the world right now, I've been trying to bring the world to my kitchen lately. So for this Dinner on 12th, I thought I would bring a little Tuscany to our table. Given that we are still trying to use mostly, if not all, local ingredients for these dinners, it's going to be a winter Tuscan meal; so sorry, no fantastic fresh fava beans or tomatoes-- it's rainy and cold in Tuscany right now too. But here is what I am tentatively planning for us on Friday:

Skillet Gnocchi with Chard* and Smokey Beans*
Farro and Borlotti Salad with Shaved Pecorino
Creamed Winter Greens*
Tiramisu

* = locally grown

January Dinner on 12th

Oh it's so much easier to tout the wonders of eating locally when it's August, but January is a little trickier. But we're still going to try for this dinner to have most if not all our ingredients coming from local sources. Given the brisk weather out there, I thought a nice hearty bowl of soup and something chocolaty for desert might be comforting. So, here's the menu I'm tentatively planning on for our next dinner on this Friday:

Ribolitta (Tuscan bean soup)
Potato* and Kale* Galette
Sauteed Forgotten Purple Carrots with Arugala**
Chocolate Hazelnut* Mousse and Chocolate Shortbread Cake

* = locally grown
** = VERY locally grown -- i.e. from our garden