This blog has moved

Not far … just over to Slow Food Harrisburg.

Radical Again

This is the last post here, and the first post on Slow Food Harrisburg. I’ve been vexed by my current radicalization about food, because I don’t know if it will interest anyone but me. And I didn’t want to keep writing about Slow Food on a page supposedly devoted to eating out in Harrisburg, which definitely has a Restaurant Row implication.

Anyway, I renamed the blog, moved all the past posts here, and will laboriously move all the links, which will give me a chance to reconsider them.

And it’s all about slow food.

The question today is this:

sourcing food

True Food was established in 2000 as a means to engage non-farmers in the struggle against genetically engineered crops. It’s now a 40,000 member network dedicated to stopping the genetic engineering of our food, farms and future, and working with others to create a socially just, democratic and sustainable food system.

The True Food food list is really two lists — a list of real foods, and a list of Frankenfoods. genetically modified organisms scientifically designed to separate you from your money and your connection to good taste.

Take that most utilitarian meal, the TV dinner … or Heat & Serve meal, as it’s called by Big Food.

Here’s a True Food list of edible Heat & Serve meals:

– Amy’s Kitchen Chili
(Medium & Spicy) Chili with Vegetables

– Annie’s Naturals P’Sghetti with Tomato Sauce All-Star Pasta with Tomato Sauce

– Bernie O’s Pasta with Tomato sauce

– Bearitos Chili Black Bean Chili Spicy Chili Baked Beans

– Ginny’s Vegan Foods Savory Soy Chili Classic Ratatouille Roasted Red Pepper Chili Mexican Fiesta Stew

– Grandma Millina’s Kids Meals Pasta Rings in 3 Cheese Sauce Vegetarian Franks & Beans

– Health Valley (Hain/Celestial) Chili Fajita Turkey Chili & Beans 3 Bean Chili

– Yves Veggie Cuisine Veggie Chili Veggie Country Stew Veggie Macaroni Veggie Penne

While here are the Frankenfood dinners:

– Chef Boyardee (ConAgra) Beefaroni, Macaroni & Cheese, Mini Ravioli, ABC’s & 123′s

– Dinty Moore (Hormel) Beef Stew, Turkey Stew, Chicken & Dumplings

– Hormel Chili with Beans, Chili No Beans, Vegetarian Chili with Beans

– Kids’ Kitchen (Hormel) Spaghetti Rings with Meatballs, Macaroni & Cheese, Pizza Wedges with 3 Cheese

– Franco-American (Campbell’s) Spaghetti O’s, Mini Ravioli, Power Rangers Pasta in Sauce

Next: Chocolate

Here’s Sara’s take on the Slow Food banquet, and your invitation to our next event.

It will be Tuesday evening, Feb 5, at Cheesetopia in Camp Hill — 2201 Market Street.

Beginning at 5.m., master artisan chocolatier Frederic Loraschi will offer bonbons, chocolate truffles and hot chocolate, and talk about creating incredible edible art. A native of France, he is known for his chocolate and sugar sculpure, and most recently was executive pastry chef at the Circular Dining Room of The Hotel Hershey.

Loraschi started his pastry …

Missed you. How’s it going?

What I like about blogs is you can let ‘em be and come back and BAM! They’re still there.

Slow Food Harrisburg dinner was very cool, and Sara writes about it Thursday in the P-N Go section. Will link when it’s up. Best part for us was the three cheesemakers getting up and talking about their farms. The Amish guy told a joke — who knew there were Amish jokes?

If one sheep jumps the fence, how many sheep are left?

None.

Whoa. That’s sheep for you. We had sheep and cow and goat cheese, a great dinner prepared and presented by the culinary students at HACC, good wine and some hearty propaganda from the Pennsylvania Farmstead and Artisan Cheese Alliance.

The next day, Dee and I set out for the new farm market in downtown Carlisle. It’s called the Carlisle Central Farmers Market, smack in the middle of Pennsylvania’s best soil.

This is a small space, though it might be bigger in the summer. It took us 15 seconds to find Keswick Creamery and Otterbein Acres, two of the three cheesemakers from the previous night, tucked into a small space with Painted Hand Farm. We bought cheese — crucial, because we always seem to run out midweek — and some ground goat.

I have loved goats since we went to dinner at the Browns’ farm in upper Dauphin county about 20 years ago. The goats leaned against the barn and watched us. They were just animals who liked to lean up against something. They made me happy. Now I get my goat fix from the farm near us at the bottom of Pleasant Drive, where about 60 goats roam the pasture in season.

Loving, honoring and eating animals are tough and constant choices in the omnivore world, so i t Thought I’d try goat chili. I put the goat into my standard chile recipe and … it really liked the seasoning. In a good way, it sorta multiplied the chipotle.

Try some goat. It will put hair on your chest. If, you know, you want some. But cut back a little on the seasoning.

eating local

While the first Slow Food Harrisburg dinner later this month is almost sold out, there’s a lot you can do to get ready for the local harvest that will start in April.

Here are some links to the good eats:

A Southcentral Pennsylvania Harvest Schedule organized by earliest likely harvest — when to start checking for what foods.

A Pick Your Own Produce guide to central Pennsylvania, and a really good page …

Chef Showdown

Bame left, Wallace right

Curiel Bame, the chef who helped bring ceviche to Pittsburgh, will go against Chef Richard Wallace, executive chef at the Old Corner Hotel in Williamsport, on Thursday at 11 a.m. in the Best Chef of Pennsylvania semifinals.

Bame, exec chef at Pittsburgh’s Seviche, told the Pittsburgh Tribune Review that his signature dish, popular in Miami’s South Beach area, is one he’s always enjoyed. “I ate it for lunch when I was a kid,” Bame said. “My mother was Mexican, so I grew up with it.”

Ceviche is a way of sort of cooking raw fish in acidic lemon or lime juice — making for a light citrus flavor, as opposed to sushi’s sometimes soy-sauce laden wrapping.

Wallace, who defeated Stock’s on 2nd executive chef James Woltman in the quarterfinals, originally won his regional competition by impressing the judges “with his creative use of flavor and attention to detail.”

At 1:30 …

Rock Stars of the Farm Show

Wherever you’ve got Dawson Flinchbaugh, you’ve got food. Flinchy is just one of the guest chefs at this year’s Pennsylvania Farm Show, being covered with grace and style by the amazing Mary Klaus.

The Rock Stars thing …

Best Chefs

Executive Chef James Woltman of Stock’s on 2nd will challenge for the Best Chef in PA title next week, along with regional winners from across the state at the Pennsylvania Farm Show.

Last year’s winner, Chef Michael Adams of the Farmhouse Restaurant in Emmaus, will defend in competition that begins Wednesday, January 9. Random pairings of the eight chefs who won regional competitions in 2007 will kick off the cooking at 11 a.m. Three more rounds will follow at 90-minute intervals, all on the Culinary Connection Stage.

The Semi-Final rounds will be …

We’ve got the wine.

Slowly we turn, step by step … now we have the wines, the complete menu and the reservation form for the first Slow Food Harrisburg dinner in January.

Go here to read the invitation from Curtis.

And if you have not read Barbara Kingsolver’s excellent “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle,” the Amazon link is here.