This was my first time at this “low-waste, alcohol free, pet free, smoke free and must have fun event.”  I went with my blogging friend Laureen Hudson, her daughter (Michael stayed in Petaluma with Miriam and Aurora’s big brothers), and Laureen’s friend Lisa.

Held at the beautiful and green Salmon Creek School (pause a moment to lament that we don’t live near enough for my daughter to attend a school with such clean air and lack of chemical stink), it was a mix of hippie aesthetic with practical advice, local businesses, and of course samples galore.

Fermentation roughly falls into two categories: dead and alive.  This event covered both.  Alcohol and bread are the two best examples of the former.  You can’t make them without fermentation (excluding things like crackers or tortillas) but we eat them for the taste and general nutrition (and they preserve foods without winter or electricity).  There are few to no probiotics.  Probiotics are what make ferments live.  You eat these for all the usual reasons but also for the nutritional powerhouse of the yeasts and bacteria.  Yoghurt, kefir, krauts, and pickles are the best known live ferments (though they aren’t always sold live).

As regular readers of my blog know, I make a variety of vegetable ferments (krauts and pickles).  And I long to make more.  I’ve tried my hand at coconut yoghurt and have plans to make water kefir next.  Another project on my list is dairy-free cheese (something pungent, like blue).

Many attendees lamented the lack of alcohol at a festival dedicated in part to its production.  But there were workshops covering spirits; my guess is logistical concerns kept out the samples.  Cheese (from cow, sheep, or goat milk) was another large component.  Since dairy and I don’t get along well, I had to skip that part.  No one there makes non-dairy cheese but I will make this my mission to find out how.

The Beverage People in Santa Rosa has classes and equipment/ingredients for sale for a wide variety of fermented products, but their specialities are beer, wine, and cheese.  My friend Gabe Jackson, who works there, even made us a case and a half of blackberry wine (picked from our garden–and yes, a post on that is coming!).  He’s promised to keep his eyes open for information on non-dairy cheesemaking.  His dairy cheese class at the festival was a big hit.

I attended classes on sauerkraut and pickle making, both with demos and fairly straightforward advice for beginners.  Kathryn Lukas, the owner of The Farmhouse Culture, demonstrated a simple cabbage ferment.  The woman next to me sounded peals of joy when Kathryn said don’t bother to pound your cabbage, just massage it a bit with salt to release the juices.  Since it had never occurred to me to pound my veggies, I just smiled, but now I wonder what I do that isn’t necessary or what little things I might be missing.  Kraut making is pretty easy, but there is a lot that can go wrong too.

Another thing that that hadn’t occurred to me was the sugar content of the vegetables.  Usually with ferments sugar is a good thing, even necessary, as it feeds the yeasts.  But *aha moment* what makes krauts go off often is the yeasts gaining control; krauts and pickles are a bacterial ferment, not so much yeast.

Most of our kraut is red onion.  Most of the time it comes out fabulous.  Once in a while we get an unwelcome surprise.  I asked Kathryn her opinion and she said it was likely the sugar in the onions.  Which can vary a lot.  I don’t know how to fix this…can I add some acid?  Can I measure the sugar to know which onions to avoid?  I don’t want to mix with large amounts of other vegetables.

Kathryn says to keep your vegetable blends no less than 75% cabbage so they come out well every time.  That works great for kim chee, which I also make, but sometimes you want something different.  I asked her if there was a chart of different buggies (desirable and undesirable) but she didn’t know of one.  I would find that very helpful, since I know what my off ferments look/smell/taste like and could match the bugs.

Jill Nussinow (the “Veggie Queen“) taught pickles.  These should be easy but even more can go wrong than with krauts.  I’ve made cucumber pickles and had one fantastic batch, a couple okay batches, and one batch we couldn’t eat.  Turnip pickles were so-so and tomato pickles were a total fail (though I sat near someone who said her green tomato pickles come out great, so I’ll give it another try).  Cool temperatures seem to be pretty important (you can get away with summer temps with kraut) and so is good technique.  Other than that, I’m not exactly sure why mine fail so often.

This very expensive crook was much touted at the festival.  What do the experts say? does it make better kraut or pickles?  The answer is no, but it does make it a lot easier.  You still have to weigh down the veggies (you never want them to contact air); this crock does come with weights.  But apparently when you fill the outside rim with water and put on the lid, you get a seal that lets CO2 leave without letting air in.  So less chance of trouble.

In addition to the pricey rimmed crock, Cultivate in Sebastopol had a variety of crocks and other equipment, at decent prices.

One ferment I’ve been wanting to make for a while is water kefir.  Dairy kefir is pretty common and makes a drink similar to liquid yoghurt, though the buggies are totally different.  Instead of using a bit as a starter, like you do with yoghurt, you strain and save the kefir grains, which are like tapioca.  You put the grains into your new liquid and go again.  The grains will multiply with time so there are plenty to share.

You can use dairy kefir grains in a non-dairy liquid and they will turn into water kefir grains.  It’s the same minus a few cultures that only reproduce with dairy.  So you can’t make dairy kefir with water kefir grains.

Water kefir is delicious and can be made fizzy or flat.  Apple juice is a common base, so is coconut water (not to be confused with coconut milk).  But you can make it with water too, as long as you add some sugar to feed the yeastie beasties.  Like with all ferments, the bugs eat the sugar and you’re left with a low (or at least lower) carb product.

The folks at Cleansing Ministries Rejuvenation Center in Santa Rosa gave a demonstration on making ginger root beer water kefir.  I can’t wait to make it.  Once I get my hands on some water kefir grains, I’ll blog the full recipe and my results.  Miriam adores kefired apple juice, which she had at a friend’s once, but I am allergic to raw apples and apple juice and found that the symptoms kicked in after too many samples of apple ginger kefir.

Nowhere could you see the hippie/mainstream dichotomy of the festival better than by looking at the water kefir demo and the “Fermented Foods and your health” talk. Karen Miller-Youst admonished us not to make kefir in a room where there had been anger and Dr. John La Puma gave us isolated sounds bites about the medical wonders of fermented foods.

John started us off with his credentials (part his resume and part the famous people he’s worked with), accompanied by a glossy flyer advertising his book.  The flyer was similar to the talk, filled with little tips like “cooked carrots and cooked tomatoes are better for you than raw” (something that is not only banal but wrong: soft or ground carrots make it easier to get the nutrients out but raw whole ones still have them and there is exactly one nutrient, lycopene, in tomatoes that is present in higher amounts when cooked, not exactly a reason to give up raw produce).

But onward to the talk.  What would you consider the number one reason to eat live fermented foods?  John’s was that probiotics lower the incidence of antibiotic-induced diarrhea (he even said it twice and had it on a slide).  Yep, it’s true, but…  His other reasons were about how probiotics are good for various gut conditions.  Also true.  But very allopathic.  You can’t be a doctor unless you treat disease, and all bodily workings are mostly separate from each other.  Right? Not really.

Granted, I left the talk before the end (the room was giving me a headache, the only problem I had in the building), but not once did I hear him say anything about the normal role ferments play in human health.  How every traditional culture has them in spades.  How they exist in nature as well and are part of non-agricultural societies cuisines.  How they work and why they are not just “healthy” things we can eat but essential to keeping our bodies balanced.

Fortunately, the organizers and attendees in Freestone needed no convincing.  The emphasis was on how to get more ferments in our lives, not why.  A nice playground and a butterfly ride for the kids, tons of samples (I could could have drunk Farmhouse Culture’s pickle juice all day), foods for sale, and live music rounded out the day.  I’ll be back next year!

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I got my chance May 8, 2009.  I announced the meal as vegan and gluten-free (the other meals there are vegetarian or vegetarian plus some fish), planned a menu, and set to work.  I quickly realized that, while my cooking skills are pretty good, my catering skills are quite lacking.  It didn’t help that we were never sure exactly how many people would show up (RSVPs are due two days before, but they’re flexible).

I planned for 20, got 18 (equivalent of 15 since several were small children), and cooked enough for 30.  Whoops.

A few folks lingering over dinner

After many years of cooking Passover Seders for upwards of 20 people, I have learned the trick of saving complex or new recipes for smaller venues.  Everything I made was simple to moderate and something I’d cooked many times before.

The Menu:

Chili-Cornbread Casserole
Roasted vegetables (red beets, golden beets, rutabaga, & leek with rosemary)
Green salad (romaine, cherry tomato, daikon radish, carrot, orange cauliflower, & mustard balsamic dressing)
Fresh strawberries with cashew cream
Challah (from masa) with sesame seed & oatmeal

Chili Cornbread Casserole

The good news is the food all came out fabulous.  No mishaps at all.  I can’t tell you how relieved I was about that.  The bad news is we had some disasters with the timing.  One of the disadvantages to cooking a large meal outside of your home is that you tend to forget things.  Well, Michael and I left a box of miscellaneous items behind.  Unfortunately, they were essential items for both of the dishes I had to finish up and bake in the synagogue kitchen.

Michael running home to get it set us back about 45 minutes, and we were already running 15 minutes late.  So everything was pushed back an hour (which means at least my time estimates were dead on).  The challah also took longer than expected, even though I had deliberately made them thinner than usual so they’d cook faster.

Salad and strawberries

All in all, I’d call it a success.  The next time I get the chance to cook for a crowd, I’ll have a clearer idea of amounts.  And hopefully the timing will work out better.

Roasted root vegetables

For anyone interested in the amounts of ingredients I used and what it all cost, check out my blog entry Catering Lessons: The Cost of Cooking for 30.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

You may wonder about the two titles.  Did I cook for 20 or 30?  Well, that’s part of learning to cater meals, judging amounts.  I goofed big time.  Because of late RSVP’s and walk in’s, I wasn’t too sure exactly how many would come, so I planned for 20 (knowing I’d have enough for 25 if need be).  We got 10 adults, one teenager, 5 children age 5 and under, and 2 more adults who weren’t present for the dinner but were given care packages of food.  I’m counting this as the equivalent of 15 adults.

With most of the food, I made twice as much as necessary.  Had I made half as much total, we would have run out of most things, but people would have been able to eat large amounts and been satisfied.  As it was, we all ate very well and took home enormous amounts of leftovers.

Below, I give costs for everything I used.  Some are exact, some are estimated.  Pretty much everything is organic and good quality.  I didn’t skimp.  The savings comes from making things from scratch.  I did one huge Whole Foods run two days before the dinner.  A few items were in my pantry so those say “est” after them.  Soy flour we had to get from a local store.  The strawberries are from the amazing Carstensen Farms here in Petaluma (organic and picked the morning of the dinner).  The masa is organic and made from whole corn in Sonoma by Primavera.  The olive oil for cooking is Star from Costco and the olive oil in the salad dressing is an organic brand I get in 55 gallon drums for my soap business.

Chili Cornbread Casserole

On my blog entry for this recipe, I have a single and a double recipe.  I made a quadruple one here.  We finished the larger of the two pans.  Now, this does save well and is almost as good cold as it is hot.

The big splurge here was the dried tomatoes, which I got to reduce any trace ingredients that might cause problems for people.  They came from the Whole Foods olive bar, but Costco jarred tomatoes are much cheaper and you can also buy plain dried tomatoes in some stores’ bulk sections or from Trader Joe’s.

Note that this recipe fed 30 people with several sides.  If you’re serving it to your family as is, or with a small side salad, count on needing two servings per person.

Dried beans (1/2 black, 1/2 adzuki) 6 cups (2 2/3 lbs) $4.30
Olive oil 4 TB or so $0.25 (est)
Vegetable mix total 8 cups $4.32
- Yellow onion 2 (1.9 lb) ($2.83)
- Carrot 3/8 lb ($0.73 .37)
- Celery .45 lb ($0.76)
Cumin 2 2/3 TB $0.94
Oregano, fresh 4 tsp (from my garden, free)
Chilies, dried 4 large $0.50 (est)
Sun-dried tomatoes pint deli container $8.81
Tofu 24 oz $2.84
Rice wine/vinegar 4 TB $0.25 (est)
Lemon juice 4 TB $0.25 (est)
Soy flour 2 cups $1.80
Brown rice flour 2 cups (.66 lb) $1.18
Xanthan gum 2 tsp $0.10 (est)
Cornmeal 4 cups $2.35
Baking soda 2 tsp $0.10 (est)
Baking powder 2 TB $0.10 (est)
Apple cider vinegar 1 cup $0.85 (est)
Soy milk 2 cups $0.87
Sunflower oil 12 oz $3.80

Grand total: $33.25
Per serving (feeds 30): $1.11

Roasted Vegetables

This is a 14 lb batch.  We ate about half.  Leftovers last a couple of days.

Keep costs down by buying at farmer’s markets or on sale.  You can roast a wide variety of vegetables.  Beets and rutabagas run $2/lb at my local Whole Foods and leeks run $3 with some sales down to $2.  When choosing based on cost, keep in mind waste in preparation (almost none for the root vegetables, quite a bit for the leeks) as well as shrinkage during cooking (moderate for root vegetables or cauliflower, a fair amount for leeks and cabbage).

Red and golden beet 6.83 lbs $13.59
Rutabaga 6.71 lbs $13.35
Leeks 6 large (2.47 lb ($7.39) at WF plus some leftovers from a local farm) $10 (est)
Olive oil & celtic salt $1 (est)
Rosemary free (from my garden, would be $2 in store)

Grand total: $37.94
Per serving (feeds 30): $1.26

Green Salad

The base is 4 heads of romaine lettuce.  This made 2 large bowls.  I only put dressing on one of the bowls since dressing will make salad go limp and gross pretty quickly when leftover.  We ate about half.

Watch the cost of lettuce.  It can vary a lot.  It’s usually sold per head and the size of the head varies even more than the per head cost does.  I was lucky and these were large heads on sale.  You can use any type of lettuce you want, or other greens.

Romaine lettuce 4 heads $6
Cherry tomatoes clamshell container $2.99
Daikon radish .76 lb $0.75
Orange cauliflower 1 head (1.63 lb) $4.87
Carrot 3/8 lb $0.36
Dressing (with salt) 3 cups $6.66
- Olive oil 2 cups ($3.25)
- Balsamic vinegar 3/4 cup (est) ($1.91)
- Amy’s Mustard 3-4 oz (est) ($1.50)

Grand total: $21.63
Per serving (feeds 30): $0.72

Strawberries with Cashew Cream

I got a full flat of strawberries (12 baskets).  The cost is slightly higher if you buy less.  We used 6 baskets.  The cashew cream was a big miscalculation.  We only ate 1/4 of it at best.  The problem with the cashew cream is it’s hard to judge if you’re going to get a thick or a thin batch.  This was thin.  It tasted great but no one wanted to take very much.

Strawberries 1 flat (12 baskets) $28
Cashew (raw) 6 cups (1.97 lb) $15.74
Lemon 2 $1
Vanilla 2 TB $0.50 (est)
Stevia & salt $0.50 (est)

Grand total: $45.74
Per serving (feeds 30): $1.52

Challah

I bought 10 lbs of masa and used 5 (on purpose so I’d have some for myself later).  I made two trays of challahs and we ate 1/3 to 1/2 of them.  They weren’t ready until well into the meal.  I suspect we would have eaten far more had they been ready on time (before the meal, just after the blessing for the wine).  Note that the reason for the oatmeal is so they contain one of the 5 grains (the rest have gluten) so we can say the blessing over bread.

Masa 5 lbs $7.50
Oatmeal, sesame, salt 2 cups $3 (est)

Grand total: $10.50
Per serving (feeds 30): $0.35

Total costs for entire meal: $149.06
Per person (30): $4.97

Hours spent on meal, about 10.
8 hours prep work (not counting shopping)
1 hour work on site
1 hour cleanup (which I didn’t do, but my husband did a fair amount)

If I were to charge for my time, I’d tack on $200 to the total.
That would make the total $349.06.
And the per person cost a mere $11.64.
Not bad for an organic gourmet meal (meat doesn’t usually cost more, though organic meat would).
Fortunately, my time is a donation.

The synagogue charges $10 per adult, $5 for ages 5-12, and free for under 5.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I’m afraid I was boring this year and brought exactly the same things I brought last year.  But, hey, why mess with success? Every dish was popular.  I picked some lovely greenery from my garden to put in vases and brought the following dishes:

Lemon cranberry sauce	Organic cranberry sauce made with lemon instead of orange.
Edamane salad with roasted red cabbage	Organic cold salad made with edamame and roasted red cabbage.
Pumpkin Pie	Organic vegan gluten-free pumpkin pie.
Cashew cream	Organic raw vegan cream made from cashews, lemon, stevia, and seasonings.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Challenge #1: Prepare a 30 second promo for what could be their new show. Unlike in previous versions of this, each promo was carefully scripted (including wardrobe) by the Food Network and the contestant had a fair amount of time to do it, with multiple takes, a director, and rehearsals. Each promo was broken up into 2 or more mini-scenes.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t done completely fairly. Aaron just had to walk down a hallway then he had to say something before throwing dice down a craps table. Adam had to stroll along a stage with a showgirl on each arm, with some closeups. But Lisa was harnessed to a rig where she went up a couple of stories, grabbed a bottle of wine from a shelf, and had to say her lines in multiple locations along the way. Needless to say, the quality of the promos was inverse to the difficulty.

Challenge #2: Prepare a buffet for 50 guests (the selection committee, hotel chefs, and Vegas performers). They had a reasonable 6 hours to cook and a $1000 budget. The buffet was supposed to be “over the top, Vegas style” and they had to do an “entertaining” intro before the service. Although they didn’t state any rules for the foods, each contestant appeared to have 3 main courses, one vegetable side dish, and a dessert.

How did things go? My favorite, Aaron, did the best with his promo but totally bombed at the buffet. His intro was embarrassingly bad and all three of his main courses were pasta (the reviews of the food were that it was okay but not great). Lisa did so-so with the promo (hard to do when dangling 15 feet in the air), fabulous with the buffet intro, and well with the food. Adam did decently with the promo, well with the buffet intro, and was the runaway favorite with the food.

It’s been obvious that the selection committee loves Aaron, likes Lisa but has reservations, and isn’t too fond of Adam. But because they traditionally gave immunity to the person who won a particular challenge, they couldn’t get rid of Adam. And they didn’t want to dump Aaron for having one bad week. So they wimped out and are bringing all 3 contestants to the final episode this Sunday. At least it’s in New York.

So, enough of that, what the heck would I make if I were feeding 50 people? The budget isn’t an issue, even with expensive items, because everyone ate all 3 buffets, so portions were small. $1000 is $20/person and you can do a lot with that (catering budgets include labor, not just ingredients, and they weren’t serving alcohol). I’d want to be true to my personal food restrictions, at least the basic ones.

Main Courses:

Sweet peppers stuffed with shrimp paste with a hoisin sauce (hot)
Grape leaves stuffed with fish (cold)
Vegan soup, maybe chickpea with Georgian Walnut paste (hot)

Vegetable/Side:

A beautiful raw salad (cold)

Dessert:

Mango sorbet topped with pine nut cream and toasted almonds (cold, but with hot almonds if possible)

The shrimp I envision is the kind you get in dim sum restaurants stuffed into tofu. You take raw shrimp and process it with some other ingredients. I’ve made it before but it was years ago. I’d add spice and something to bind it, egg or flax goo. Maybe peas or something like that for texture and a fresh flavor. Stuff into those gorgeous colored sweet peppers that are 1-2 bites each. Roast. Serve with a salty intense dipping sauce based on hoisin.

The grape leaves came to me as a great choice but, if I were really in a competition, I might swap them out since I don’t have much experience with grape leaves. I’d cook a mild white fish like halibut and mince (not process) it well with a lot of fresh flavors like parsley then either add chutney or use similar flavors.

I’ve made the soup before from one of my favorite cookbooks, Olive Trees & Honey: A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World, and it’s simple but really good. The walnut paste has a unique flavor and is used regularly within the country of Georgia.

The raw salad would have no lettuce but lots of carefully cut items to make it special. Lots of long thin strips like noodles. Avocado, some more of the sweet peppers, pea pods, bean sprouts, specialty mushrooms. I’d have to see what looked good in the store and went together. A variety of colors. Served either with a chimichurri sauce (lime juice, parsley, mint, cilantro, very good olive oil, and garlic) or something else with an intense flavor that would pull all the other ingredients together.

Mango sorbet is very simple, which is the best way to do it. Take very ripe mangoes, remove the skin and pits, and puree them. A touch of salt, a squeeze of lime, some vanilla is all you need. It’s plenty sweet enough. Most people would add simple syrup but mango doesn’t need more sugar and all that water will just dilute the flavor.

I’d serve it with some vanilla bean pine nut cream (because you don’t have to soak pine nuts) and some toasted almond slices on top. If the kitchen didn’t have an ice cream maker, I could freeze half the puree in ice cube trays and then blend it up and then freeze again (watching it carefully so it doesn’t get too hard).

My meal could be done by 2 people (each contestant got a former contestant as a sous chef) in 6 hours with no problems. Granted, it did take me a few days to come up with the dishes, instead of near instanteneously like the contestants are forced to do. And I might not be able to get every ingredient I needed (in January, in the middle of the desert…oh, they’d all be in the store, just not at their peak). But hey, I’m a blogger in front of a computer, not a trained cook trying to smile for the camera. I get to imagine success.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This week there was one big challenge broken up into several parts.  The 9 contestants were randomly sorted into groups of 3.  After being woken up at 3am, their day started immediately after being given instructions.  With the clock ticking, they had to shower, dress, eat, and drive off.  To show character I guess, but I really didn’t see the point of it.

Each team visited 3 locations and had to answer a food-related question.  If they got it right, they could choose an offered ingredient and head off to the next location.  If they got it wrong, one team member had to waste time doing boring food prep before getting the ingredient.

The questions were a mix.  I could answer one third to half of the ones shown.  At least the first one was easy: which two components of wheat are left out of white flour? (bran and germ)…the team got it wrong.

The 3 locations were bread, cheese, and meat stores.  Each one had 3 ingredient choices and the teams got to choose in the order they were ready.  It was made out to be a big deal to get the last choice, but really everything was good.

When they finally arrived at the meeting point after the challenge, they found out that the prize for coming in first was simply to go first in the next challenge.  This was supposedly an advantage, though I didn’t see it that way.  Going later meant more time to think about what to cook.

Each team had a mere 45 minutes to plan and cook and plate brunch for 30 people.  On a moving train.  Each of the 3 ingredients from the previous challenge had to be featured, but there was a full pantry of other foods too.  Although I’m not sure this was part of the requirement, I believe each team made 3 dishes, each with one of the featured ingredients, and one team member made each dish.

So…bread, cheese, and meat.  Not really a Cyndi meal.  But sometimes cooking with restrictions means you have to use the foods you normally avoid.  The teams made French toast (2) and bread pudding, various salads (to use cheese or duck), fried eggs, a salmon sandwich (my favorite), and strip steak.

I think I would have made a frittata with cheese and meat and toast with a savory topping.  Or maybe eggs Benedict with the meat ingredient in lieu of the usual ham and the bread ingredient in lieu of the usual English muffin.  Then maybe a side salad (spinach would be nice) with the cheese ingredient.

Not the most exciting of challenges but at least the most boring contestant went home and my favorite (Aaron) was one of two to win the challenge and be featured in a magazine.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve seen a couple seasons of this series before and it’s different each time. Sometimes the camera skills challenges (pacing a cooking segment, facing the audience (camera) as you do it, explaining things just so) start immediately (which means they expect some bumpiness because everyone’s new) and sometimes they come later (when they expect contestants to be more polished).

For one season, they kept emphasizing choosing recipes for the home cook, yet most of the challenges involved cooking for dozens or hundreds of people. Very odd. And pretty much always, they focus on fast fast fast. You’re lucky if you have a few hours to prep and cook (vs a few minutes) and the longest period I’ve ever seen for cooking is overnight (with no tending allowed). This rules out a huge percentage of dishes: bread, pickles, roasts, marinades, slow cookers, even beans. It’s an odd, but consistent, restriction.

Thanks to my trusty DVR, I’m a bit behind with the shows. I just watched the first one which aired June 1, 2008. Ten finalists were put through two challenges.

Challenge #1: Face the camera, with or without a prop, and state your culinary point of view in one sentence (or very quickly).

I know exactly what mine would be–I thought about it in past seasons too–though I’m still not sure how to articulate it succinctly. No props for me.

Vegetarian? food allergy? special diet? I’m Cyndi Norwitz and I’m going to show you how to turn a dietary restriction into an opportunity.

Challenge #2: The 10 contestants were randomly paired into 5 groups of 2. They had to present a 3 dish meal to 9 Food Network stars and producers (plus make a “beauty plate”). Each person in the pair had to make one dish that represented their culinary point of view, then collaborate on the third. The hard part was they had 10 minutes to plan their menu, a few minutes to shop, then only 30 minutes in the kitchen to prep, cook, and plate everything (with no help).

The time element made this one really hard. Just having a few more minutes to plan and another half hour to cook would have made all the difference. But I think I would have done this dish:

Chopped salad–lettuce, shredded root vegetables, avocado, and tomato–with an olive, sun-dried tomato vinaigrette (blended mostly smooth) and topped with seared salmon and mushrooms.

I would wash and slice mushrooms, sear the fish with mushrooms, then pop it in the oven (7-10 mins total, could save 3 minutes if I had pre-sliced mushrooms). Then wash and prep the salad veggies and blend the dressing (7-10 mins, assuming I had an electric shredder and a salad spinner, or I could save time with prepacked salad greens). The fish would be done in 10-15 mins, leaving a couple minutes to plate it all up. And with time to work on whatever dish I was sharing (as the fish cooked).

What would go with that dish? Let’s see…

Pine nut cream over fresh fruit (pine nuts can be creamed without any soaking, or they could soak for 10 mins if timed right)

Baked mushroom caps topped with vegan pesto and some toasted pine nuts (at last minute to warm them but keep from over cooking the pesto or making the seeds soggy)

Soup made with finely chopped butternut squash or carrot and ginger, cooked for as long as possible then blended smooth with plenty of spice and a boxed pre-made broth.

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

This year, a first-night seder on April 19, 2008, wasn’t the most stressful, but it was the weirdest.  All the food came out well but, otherwise, everything that could have gone wrong did.

I always find dietary and other restrictions to be a challenge (in a fun competitive sense) and I pride myself on creating a safe space for all of my guests, with food they can eat (perhaps not everything, but a decent meal).  But this year pushed me to the brink.

We had our own restrictions: no meat, nothing that Miriam is allergic to (she can get sick from crumbs and I want her to have a few days a year with other people where she can eat anything she wants), no chemical products on the guests, etc, but they’re seamless for us.  And we can still have a full seder.

(In foreground: matzoh plate next to my seat; in background: the main table with Miriam (brown dress), her Aunties Connie and Jan (holding babies), 3 other friends, and Grandma Julie standing at right.  The note on the door to our bedroom warns people not to open it, since that’s where the kitties spent the evening.)

This year, due to medical issues with guests, we had to leave the doors and windows wide open but couldn’t turn on the heat, we couldn’t light our candles (beeswax even), we couldn’t take photographs (except when the reactive guest left the room, so my food and other photos are lacking), we had two guests who invited themselves at the last minute (and one arrived scented and had to scramble to change clothes and wash-up), dinner was completely out of order and late, we had 4 (yes, four) cancellations the day of the seder, there were 2 guests who simply didn’t show up (medical emergency and they had a bad email address for me), oh and we nearly killed one guest (her fish allergy, which we always managed to accomodate in the past by being careful, was far worse that day, and we did more last minute cooking than usual, which made for more fumes)

Add to that the fact that I dropped a few of the usual rituals and customs to save time, but then ended up with even more gone due to the above restrictions.  We didn’t start with eating hardboiled eggs like we have in most years, due to Miriam’s allergy.  Two years in a row now I’ve had the idea of using whole walnuts instead, but then I can’t find any.  We skipped the handwashing and didn’t sing a single song.  And the post meal sections got lost entirely.  No Elijah’s cup, which I’m still upset over.  We only did the hunt for the affikomen.  It felt more like a dinner party than a seder.

Oy.

We were supposed to have 20 guests (including 5 children) but, with all the additions and subtractions, we ended up with 16 (including 4 children).  Three were new to our seder (2 had never been to any seder).

We had two tables.  The main one is our regular dining room table.  Michael always sits there, at the end furthest from the kitchen.  Then we move a buffet and desk back to add another table.  I always sit at this one, in the chair nearest the kitchen (behind the wood doors to the right).

(Main table to left has Grandma Julie (white shirt) and 2 friends; secondary table has my cousin Sara next to Miriam (visiting from the other table) and 3 friends)

Ritual Foods:

Oat flour matzoh
Horseradish
Parsley
Wine
Grape juice
Charoset
Salt water
Roasted beet (an ancient alternative to a roasted lamb shank)
Roasted egg

(Seder Plate: Parsley, horseradish root, roasted egg, roasted beet, salt water, charoset)

Dinner Menu:

Beet borscht
Gefilte fish
Mushroom and olive compote
Baked yams
Pan seared roasted halibut with rosemary
Drinks: Wine (red & white), grape juice, water, seltzer, lemon slices
Dessert: Macadamia Nut Torte

(Connie offers a toast)

(Sara gets Miriam some yams, as a friend looks on)

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

It’s an international list, with most subscribers living in the US. Monica lives in Los Angeles, and I got to meet her when I was in LA for Expo West last year. This year, we planned a potluck and invited all local Foodlab members. Unfortunately, there were some last minute cancellations, but we had a lot of fun.

(Miriam, Cyndi, Jessica, Monica)

Monica and Matt, and 3.5 year old son Donovan, hosted the event. Jessica came with 2 year old daughter Roxie. And Michael and I (Cyndi) were there with barely 3 year old Miriam.

(Monica & Jessica)

(Cyndi & Monica)

Our first order of business was to go through the several supermarket-sized bags of samples and literature I’d brought from Expo West to share.

(Jessica, Roxie, Monica)

Next we started cooking.

(Jessica making vegan curry)

(Jessica & Cyndi making tortillas)

And then we ate.

(Miriam, Donovan, & Roxie ready to eat, with Michael in the background)

All of the food was amazing. We banned any ingredient that none of us could eat (dairy, gluten) and anything that would cause a problem for someone if they got a trace (soy, canola, orange, egg, chocolate). We allowed but discouraged foods that one or more people had a problem with (reaction or a choice) but where a trace wouldn’t matter (meat, corn). And it was a given in this group that everything would be fresh and free of food additives.

(Jessica’s vegan curry)

Here’s what we ate:

Monica:

Olive bread
Crab cakes
Misc pre-dinner snacks (veggies & chips)

Jessica:

Keifer (non-dairy keifer grains fermenting apple juice)
Curry
Hummus with eggplant
Cashew cream with fresh strawberries (similar to my recipe)

Cyndi:

Pickled red onions
Corn tortillas (made on site with Jessica)
Halibut ceviche

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

Miriam and I went to Whole Foods today and found asparagus on sale, so we got a lot of it, because it’s good leftover. Then we went to the fish section to see what they had. There was some inexpensive coho (king) salmon (previously frozen from local catches over the summer). This was an uncut half salmon, so I did what I did last time and got the fish filleted with the leftovers in a bag for fish stock.

Then we went back to the produce department to pick vegetables that went with the fish. I decided to roast the asparagus then I talked out loud to myself for a while (confusing the produce worker) before deciding to make a raw marinated salad.

This is what we had:

Baked salmon

I bake salmon all the time. I love the stuff but it can get a little old to cook it the same way. So I decided to try something different. I lightly seared the fish skin side of the fillets in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil. Then I added sliced crimini mushrooms and turned the fish over to lightly sear the other side, adding more oil as needed. “Sear” implies browning but I didn’t do that; I just lightly cooked it so that it would seal in some of the moisture. Then I turned off the heat, turned the fish back skin side down, added a bit of salt and pepper, put some white wine in the pan, and stuck the whole thing in a 350*F oven. It came out absolutely amazing.

Roasted asparagus

Very simple. Rinse asparagus, remove tough parts of ends, toss in baking dish with olive oil and salt (I used coarse celtic salt), bake until done (turn every few minutes). I started off in a 350*F oven then turned it up to 400*F after the fish was out.

Fennel salad

Using my mandolin, I sliced a fennel bulb (saved the stalks for later), one red daikon radish (also called watermelon radish), and 1/4 jalapeno pepper (couldn’t taste it; I should have used 2-3 times as much). I added a bit of chopped fennel leaf and dressed the salad with the juice of 1 fresh lemon, olive oil, and some salt. Subtle flavors but a perfect complement to the rest of the meal.

Additional Foods

Lemon wedges, white wine, and strawberry ice cream for dessert.

As we ate this meal, I thought back to a comment a newcomer to an allergy list made today: how can I live without cheese! No disrespect intended to the poster; we’ve all been there with our additive foods and patterns. But here we are, eating this amazing meal with no dairy, no eggs, no gluten, no legumes, no grains, lowcarb and mostly all organic. Go on, ask me if I feel deprived

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.

A few of the guests sharing their meal.

There was an organic turkey, stuffing, a variety of side dishes, desserts, and more.

Main food tables.

Michael carving the turkey.

Dessert Table.

I brought five offerings, all homemade (from scratch), organic, and vegan: 1) Cranberry sauce (made with lemon instead of orange due to my daughter’s allergy); 2) pumpkin pie with a pecan crust (I cooked and pureed pumpkins from the farm across the street from me); 3) cashew cream; 4) edamame salad with roasted red cabbage; and 5) two vases of flowers and greenery from my (certified organic) property.

My food offerings plus one of my flower arrangements (the one on the right). Note how they’re on a special table to avoid cross-contamination with potential allergens. All foods at Ecology House or Environmental Health Network events are labelled with ingredients.

Organic isn’t just about the food either. Ecology House was built with lower-toxin materials and uses no pesticides, herbicides, carpets, or VOC-containing products. All residents and guests are required to use fragrance-free nontoxic personal care products (we buy organic when possible). Most of us can’t afford all organic clothing, but it’s all my daughter wore for her first 6 months, with a large percentage of organic fiber afterwards.

How wonderful it was to celebrate the holiday not just with good friends and good food, but in a place with clean unpolluted air.

Ending on a cute note. Miriam having fun (age 2 1/2).

©2012 Norwitz Notions. All Rights Reserved.