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.
and Happy Solstice … here’s a nice read from John Mariani about growing up with holiday feasts.
While we were sleeping, Big Food took over the table. Not just our table, most of the tables in the world. Through genetic manipulation, strong marketing and good lobbyists, six companies now control 98 percent of seed sales in the world. They have reduced the number of vegetables that are not corporate hybrids by 90 percent.
“The ultimate unnatural product of genetic engineering is a ‘terminator gene’ that causes a crop to commit genetic suicide after one generation …
I don’t know where you get your root vegetables, but mine don’t come spicy … and i likes ’em that way.
So standing in the kitchen with a glass of red wine and Jean Shepherd’s “Christmas Story” on fridge TV, I went through a bunch of recipes. Darren McGavin was changing the tire and when Ralphie let loose the F-bomb, I said to myself “WTF!” There were no interesting recipes!
As a public service project, I set out to design the perfect (and perfectly easy) hot and sweet root veggie roast.
Three local cheesemakers will present their best products and three chefs will make a feast from them at the first Slow Food Harrisburg banquet on Friday, Jan. 25, at HACC’s Wildwood Conference Center.
The PA Farmstead & Artisan Cheese Alliance picked the artisan farms: Keswick Creamery, Otterbein Acres and Three Belle Cheeses.
Guest Chef Jason Viscount of Bricco created the menu with Chef Instructors Michael Finch and Jim Switzenberg of HACC.
A Cheesemaker’s Reception opens the evening at 6:30, with wine, samples and discussions from the three producers.
The appetizer is a Roasted Beet and Oterbein’s Sheep’s Milk Feta Salad …
Recipe explorer Heidi Swanson, who won last year’s Best Food Blog – Recipes, has taken this year’s overall Food Blog award.
She started 101 Cookbooks in early 2003 when she looked at her huge cookbook collection one afternoon and realized she was cooking the same recipes over and over.
She decided to stop buying cookbooks and explore the ones she had. It didn’t quite work out that way, but one good result was a happy, charming, literate blog.
See all the 2007 Food Blog Awards here.
“Change ain’t lookin’ for friends.”
— Buckaroo Banzai
About 73 percent of my life has changed direction in the past three weeks, so I changed the blog too. I thought about dropping it, but writing becomes a habit after a few decades. So here it is, for what it’s worth. Still.
What a friend we have in changes.
I was watching Emeril last week. He was deep into his holiday gig, but letting his sharper edges show …
HACC’s senior culinary reception for faculty, family and friends last night was terrific, from the student-run charcuterie station to the sushi trays to the grilled calimari, which stopped just short of al dente.
(That’s not easy. Most people cook squid into a rubber band you could shoot paper clips with.)
My favorite thing was the BLT: a crisp bacon flake stuck in creme fraiche on a grilled apple slice with some kind of arugula puree drops encircling it. Startling, funny, tasty.
Also, I’m no longer a sushi virgin.
By AL BAKER
People often ask me about my resemblance to Winston Churchill, both of us being outstanding war-time leaders, orators and cigar aficionados. There is more to this story than just coincidence of talent and passion. Churchill became Prime Minister in 1940 just before I was born. My father, being a great admirer of the PM, gave me the middle name of Winston in Churchill’s honor. Thus we are sort of kin, if not by blood, certainly by name.
It was probably through this name line that I inherited my love of cigars.
There is a story told of Churchill’s first dining with King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. Churchill’s handlers told him that because the King was an abstinent that it would be an insult for the Prime Minister to either drink alcohol or smoke during the meal. Undeterred, my namesake convinced Saud that his religion required him to consume alcohol and smoke cigars with his meal …
Wondering what to do for dinner Wednesday night?
There are some tickets left for the Senior Culinary Students’ Reception at HACC, a Global Cuisine Gala. The students did everything from menu design to ordering to receiving to — tomorrow night — cooking and serving. Tickets are $20 at the door, or from faculty secretary Ragin El-Shater, rlelshat@hacc.edu, 780-3248.
Butlered appetizers start the evening at 6:30:
* Creamy Mushroom Phyllo Pockets with Red Pepper Sauce
* Black Olive Tapenade in Grape Tomatoes
* Crab and Avocado Tostadas
* Prosciutto with Melon on Wheat
* New Potatoes with Gorgonzola and Walnuts
Out In Harrisburg, Eating 
