ColumnWhat better way to use food, than for good? The Giving Table is a creative way to harness the power of food blogs.

When I discovered the The Giving Table, I knew I had stumbled upon something that was right up my alley.

Those of us that talk, write, and post about food are privileged to be able to do so. While we might be concerned over whether or not cardamom or cinnamon would be a better spice to use (answer: cardamom) most of the world is simply dealing with getting food on the table. As I wrote a few weeks ago, “We have to start to learn how to turn passion for food into a passion for improving the food system, taking the pleasure that we get from eating and transforming it into advocating for real food, not only for the privileged, but for everyone.”

And that is when I came upon The Giving Table, which is attempting to do just that.

Started by Nicole Gulotta, The Giving Table’s tagline is simple: “Doing Good with Food.” Gulotta does that by mobilizing food bloggers and others to participate in social campaigns. Think about all those food blogs and all those food blog readers out there. If you could get them all to put some money towards a good cause, it would be sure to have some impact. Well that’s exactly how Giving Table works. It recently wrapped up a campaign supporting the Lunchbox Fund, an organization who provides daily meals for orphaned and impoverished children in townships and rural areas in South Africa.

I caught up with Gulotta to learn more about the inspiration for The Giving Table, how it works and how she sees the food world changing.

Anna Brones: What inspired you to launch The Giving Table?

Nicole Gulatta: As a food blogger, I was looking for ways to give back in a meaningful way. I started researching nonprofit organizations that worked in the food realm but couldn’t find what I was looking for online, so I created The Giving Table to act as a resource. Over time, it’s evolved into a platform to empower other food bloggers to take action and help improve the food system.

AB: Give us the basics for how it works?

NG: Food bloggers develop content for their websites every day and attract loyal readers through their engaging storytelling and delicious recipes. The Giving Table’s “donate a post” model works in tandem with this content, and fits seamlessly into existing strategies. It’s a regular post with a deeper message. Every post includes three sections—a narrative, a recipe, and a call to action—and guidelines are provided for every campaign so our messaging remains consistent. The day of the event, bloggers help spread the word on social media, and reach out to their networks to join us.

AB: When we talk about “good food” it very quickly gets labeled as a pretentious thing. What can we do to democratize the subject of food?

NG: I think people assume it’s pretentious when they haven’t experienced it for themselves. Eating locally is about building community, supporting regional food economies, and being empowered by cooking for yourself and your family. When you think about food in a local way, it’s a lot more natural than how we function now. Farmers markets offer direct access to growers, rather than the barriers you find in supermarkets with food packaged by companies you know little about, yet control the majority of our food supply. Education tends to work in most sectors when it comes to changing perception. When people are aware of the issues and have tools to positively impact the system (like cooking at home or participating in Meatless Monday, for example), the tides will start to shift.

AB: What are some of your favorite food activism organizations?

NG: Share Our Strength focuses on eliminating childhood hunger in the U.S, which is a silent epidemic gradually coming into the light. There’s a relatively new organization supported by Tom Colicchio called Food Policy Action that rates members of Congress based on how they vote on food policies. It’s amazing to see how your representatives have voted on certain issues. On the animal welfare front, Mercy for Animals and The Humane Society are on the front lines exposing animal abuse and our broken factory farm system.

AB: Who is a food activist that you look up to and why?

NG: Alice Waters is inspiring. She’s created an entire movement to change how we approach food in the classroom, and it all started with one garden in Berkeley.

AB: Let’s say you talk with someone who is passionate about food and wants to start taking steps to make positive change in the food world. What’s the one thing that you suggest they do?

NG: I believe in the power of small changes. Buying a few more organic groceries, incorporating more meatless meals throughout the week, and cooking more at home are all great ways to start making a difference. Over time, what began as a conscious choice (and maybe even a struggle) to change, will feel like second nature. I also think it’s important to find out what’s going on locally and get involved in some way, whether it’s volunteering with a local food organization or getting to know farmers at your weekend market.

AB: Do you feel positive about the future of food politics or not?

NG: I feel mostly positive. Even a few years ago, we weren’t having conversations about GMOs and food labeling and obesity. Now it’s a normal topic of conversation around dinner tables and in the media. People are becoming more interested in what they’re eating, where it came from, and whether or not it’s healthy. Eventually, things will change because consumers demand it.

AB: Favorite thing to make at home?

NG: My standard answer is usually risotto, but lately I’ve been enjoying composing giant salads with a lot of different flavors and textures. Sometimes there’s nothing better.

Related on EcoSalon

10 Remarkable Nonprofits You’ve Never Heard Of

United We Share: Collective Consumption for the Greater Good

Foodie Underground: Kitchen Table Connections

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Image: Giving Table

The post Doing Good with Food Blogs — The Giving Table: Foodie Underground appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnWhen simple just doesn’t suffice.

“Why is bone luging a thing?”

It was 3:30 on a Monday afternoon and this had to be the oddest text of the day.

“I did not know if this was a new foodie thing to do,” my friend followed up by way of explanation.

When you write a column on food, your friends and colleagues often take it upon themselves to one-up you on knowing what the latest and hippest thing in the food world is. And they’re often pretty successful.

I had no idea what bone luging was. So I looked it up.

For starters, the fourth Google option upon searching “bone luging” was a site called How Hipsters Date. I clicked hestitantly, slightly turning my head and squinting with both eyes the way you do when you’re watching a scary movie, in fear of what would pop up on the screen. You just never know.

Called “the new drinking fad food writers love to hate,” by Gothamist, bone luging combines the trend of bone marrow with the obsession of taking shots in ways reminiscent of college days. It’s simple: Eat the marrow out of a transected piece of bone, then use the empty bone to direct a shot into your mouth.

Cue disgusted shivering.

Tasting Table claims the trend hails from Portland – the little foodie bubble that I like to call home – and although I have never been to Metrovino which has bone luge on their menu, I can envision several local hot spots offering it sooner or later.

If you’re shaving fennel and serving crispy pig ears, a bone luge is really only so far away.

There is a lot of talk of food trends, but sometimes I wonder if trends are really trends at all, or simply the odd creation of a socially networked generation that’s obsessed with creating more internet fodder. Journalist Felicia Heaton went to the efforts of making a how-to guide:

Bone Luge How-To

Part 1: Order the bone marrow. Scrape it from the bone and eat it by spreading it on toasted bread. Or, if you’re die hard, suck it right off the spoon.

Part 2: Pick a liquor or fortified wine to compliment the marrow.

Part 3: Grab your smart phone in preparation for the obligatory Bone Luge photo.

Part 4: Pick up the bone as a funnel, pouring the drink at the top and watch it flow down the hatch. (Don’t forget to snap the photo!)

Part 5: Share your work via social networking.

Because would a food trend even be a food trend without the internet and people uploading photos of themselves in semi-compromising situations [note: most bone luging photos are not the most becoming, and it’s not because of the 80s ski sweaters]? There is a bone luge Tumblr page and a hashtag. Give it a few weeks and it might end up going the route of bacon. Just read the manifesto. I can’t wait for the “Sh*t Bone Lugers Say” video to come out.

Is anyone else sick of food trends? What happened to regular artisan goat cheese made from happy animals and organic farms with farmers trying to make a difference? Have these admirably foodie foods gotten lost in the mix of smoke-infused cocktails and bartender mustaches?

As the same friend who tipped me off to bone luging in the first place said, “Can’t I just go somewhere that doesn’t serve complicated things?”

Social media and the internet have allowed us to connect with food lovers, influence the discussion on food politics and be inspired to eat better, but it’s also a wide world of cats eating cupcakes, which I am certain isn’t doing a damn thing for advancing the food movement.

Bad trends happen to good people. Keep in mind that taking the joy of food out of the equation and replacing it with the need to jump on the latest bandwagon isn’t hip or underground, it’s just trite and disappointing. When someone offers you some bone marrow and tequila, feel good about saying no. Because when it comes to food, you should keep it simple, stupid.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Image: thegift73

The post Foodie Underground: When Food Trends Go Wrong appeared first on EcoSalon.

Delicious brunch recipes from some of our favorite food blogs.

For the past two months we’ve been running our Sunday Brunch series. We’re wrapping it up this weekend to leave room for a new series – keep an eye out for it next weekend – but we wanted to celebrate by recapping all of the great recipes and food blogs that we have featured over the last eight weeks. We’re pretty sure that if you made all eight of them this weekend you would be hosting the best brunch party ever.

Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Coffee Cakes

Not only will you get a delicious dish out of this recipe from Turntable Kitchen, but it comes with a hand selected playlist too.

Mascarpone, Nutella and Fresh Berry Toasts

Food Blogga loves Nutella as much as we do and these toasts are the perfect way to justify eating it on an early Sunday morning.

Triple Cheese and Spinach Strata

From the vaults of food magazine Honest Cooking, this Triple Cheese and Spinach Strata will serve a crowd.

Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls

Have a few gluten sensitive friends coming over? Not to worry. Just put a batch of these cinnamon rolls from Gluten Free Girl in the oven and you’ll have nothing to fret over.

Pumpkin Pancakes

Big Girls Small Kitchen puts pumpkin to good use in these hearty pancakes that will soon be a regular brunch favorite.

Almond Ginger Granola With Blueberries

A bowl of this granola from So Good and Tasty, and you’ll wonder why you ever ate the store bought stuff.

French Choquettes

Kerry of  French Revolution has this easy recipe that’s simple to make but will certainly impress your guests.

Creamy Grits with Crispy Leeks

From Herbivoracious, here’s a dish that puts a fresh spin on an old classic.

Bon appetit!

Image: xiux5

The post Our 8 Favorite Sunday Brunch Recipes appeared first on EcoSalon.

Whip up these delicious gluten-free versions of the traditional cinnamon roll. 

Many of us have a Christmas morning tradition, and for one of our favorite food bloggers, Shauna James Ahern of Gluten Free Girl, it’s cinnamon rolls. These rolls happen to be 100% gluten free and are sure to please a hungry holiday crowd. Enjoy!

Ahern: For Christmas, I want cinnamon rolls. To tell the truth, I have made them every Christmas for the past four years. The first year’s were awful: gnarled at the edges, a bit burnt, and dry as insulation. The second were from a mix. The third year…Did I make them the third Christmas? I was eight weeks pregnant, sleeping and sick most of the time. It’s a bit of a blur.

Last year, Danny and I proudly carried in the cinnamon rolls we had created for the first draft of our cookbook. And they were….good. I mean, really good. But they still didn’t match the image I had in my mind of what a good cinnamon roll should be.

I want a soft, pliable dough, one that tastes good on its own. Yes, I love plump golden raisins, brown sugar almost melting, the ooze of cinnamon-scented butter on the edges, and cream cheese frosting. Really, how could you not love cream cheese frosting? Most of all, I want a cinnamon roll that stands up to the rush of Christmas morning, with a few stragglers left until the afternoon when we pick at the caramelized edges to stave off the hunger pains until dinner begins.

I want the cinnamon roll you see above. And I need it to be gluten-free.

A few days ago, I finally baked it.

The post Sunday Brunch: Gluten Free Cinnamon Rolls appeared first on EcoSalon.

We know what you’ll be making for brunch today. 

Welcome to Sunday Brunch, a new weekly series that’s bringing you inventive and delicious brunch recipes from our favorite food blogs around the web. Today, it’s Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Cake from Turntable Kitchen in the oven. And since Turntable Kitchen is known for pairing music with food, they even made us a special brunch playlist to serve up with this recipe.

Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Coffee Cakes
Adapted from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking
*Serves a crowd

The cake:

• 3 1/2 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 sticks of butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 2 1/4 cups of sugar
• 1 16-ounce package of sour cream
• 4 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

The chocolate cinnamon swirl:

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon

The pecan crumb:

• 3/4 cup of flour
• 3/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3/4 cup of roughly chopped, toasted pecans
• 6 tablespoons of cold butter (unsalted), diced into small cubes

1. Start by making the pecan crumb topping by putting all of the ingredients, save the butter, into a food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add the butter, pulsing until fully incorporated. Chill in the refrigerator while you make the cake.

2. Whisk the sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon in a small bowl to combine to make the swirl.

3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and butter a 9 x 13 inch baking pan.

4. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

5. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the butter until smooth and light. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy.

6. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure to beat well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all of the ingredients are mixed.

7. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla. Next, beat in the dry mix in three additions (don’t over mix the batter).

8. Pour about 1/3 of the cake batter into the pan, spreading it evenly. Top with half of the chocolate-cinnamon swirl mixture.

9. Pour another third of the batter and top with the rest of the chocolate-cinnamon swirl mixture.

10. Pour in the rest of the batter, smoothing it evenly. Sprinkle with the crumb topping.

11. Bake for about 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

12. Once cool, cut into crowd-serving-sized squares or rectangles.

*Note: if you are using a smaller pan, you should keep in mind that the cake will take much longer to cook (up to an hour and forty five minutes). To make sure you don’t burn the crumb topping, make a foil tent and cover the pan while you bake.

Sunday Brunch is an ongoing series featuring brunch recipes from some of our favorite food blogs around the web. New recipes every Sunday, so that you’re ensured a gourmet weekend. Bon appetit!

The post Sunday Brunch: Sour Cream Pecan Crumb Coffee Cakes appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnThe wonderful world of pairing your culinary experience with a musical one.

In my world, there’s nothing better than a night in the kitchen, a glass of wine in hand and St. Germain playing at full blast. Music is to cooking like coffee is to a Monday morning; it injects a level of energy and fuels the creative spirit.

Think about it: how often do you cook in absolute silence. Whether it’s the calming voice of the NPR reporter, the Latin love of Gypsy Kings or the electronic beat of Daft Punk on in the background, many of us set the mood with one sound or another. Of course there are the cooks that bask in the silence, but pairing your food and music is an art.

In my adolescent years, my mother and I had an obsession with the Big Night soundtrack, a constant reminder of film about food and passion. Personally I am a fan of French-inspired rhythms when I am in the midst of kitchen creativity, but that could just be a lusting after European dinner parties of yore. But music for cooking and music for eating are two very different things, and as it turns out, there’s a song for every meal. Turntable Kitchen knows that well, running a food blog that’s devoted to mixing recipes with music, and creating a delicious experience in the process.

“In my mind, there is a natural affinity between the two because the experience of enjoying good food and good music can be so powerful that it can be almost transcendent. A good meal or a good song can call to mind old memories,” says Matthew Hickey, who runs Turntable Kitchen with his wife Kasey Hickey.

In fact, thinking about what we’re listening to while we eat might be one way that we put a bigger focus on what we’re eating. Much like a dinner with friends heightens our culinary experience, music accents what we’re eating.

“Music definitely improves our eating experience. I think enjoying a meal should be about more than just consuming food. A great meal should be a memorable experience that appeals to all of your senses – and music plays a big part in creating the perfect ambiance for that experience. Not only that, recent studies have demonstrated that when drinking wine while listening to music, people perceive the wine to share the same characteristics as the music they are listening to. I believe the same is true for food. Thus, listening to rustic, smokey music (for example) while enjoying a meal can enhance our perception of those same flavors in our food,” says Hickey.

It all comes back to appreciating and honoring the food in front of us. In a rushed world of fast food, we zip back and forth between errands, hopefully finding five minutes to cram a sandwich in, not caring about the ingredients or care put into making it. But in a world where we honor food, and the tradition around it, we give it time and thought, and music merely accentuates the process.

A couple of months back, we came up with Rocking Out in the Kitchen, a playlist of all of our favorite songs to cook to, which I have had on repeat ever since. Does St. Germain influence my cooking, or is my music taste inspired by what I want to eat? Hard to say, but either way, pairing the two is almost as important as picking a good bottle of wine to put on the table; some restaurant professionals, much to the chagrin of others, seek advice on their playlists. Apparently, musical failure is not an option in the food world.

But food isn’t the only thing that gets a technological aid in pairing it with music. Drinkify is a new website that picks a drink for whatever you happen to be listening to. From the website:

 Drinkify automatically generates the perfect* cocktail recipe to accompany any music.

* May not actually be perfect.

Example of “not perfect:” typing in M83 – as I was having an obsession with this song last week – got me a recipe for 8 oz. water and 8 oz. of iced tea in a highball glass. Maybe not what I would have personally chosen, but the idea is fun and quirky which certainly gets it points.

We can be as obsessed with food as we are with music, and vice versa, idolizing our favorite dishes and artists. Love Music Love Food, an artistic endeavor that resulted in a book documenting musicians and their favorite foods, does exactly that, finding a perfect combination of the two, half food porn, half rock star love.  “I found the thought of a rock star so involved in food intriguing and had the potential for some creative imagery combining the portraits of artists with their favorite food or drink,” says food photographer and LMLF founder Patrice de Villiers.

So how do you go about pairing your dinner with the perfect mix? I asked Hickey, who’s the food music master.

I think it is important to pair music that shares similar qualities as the food you are eating. Sometimes, an album just intuitively feels like the right pairing for a dish. Other times, it takes a little more thought. When selecting our pairings, I take a number of factors into account. For example: “Does the dish use ingredients that are specific to a geographic area?” and “What are the most prominent flavors in the dish?”  I’ll sometimes make a list of the adjectives that come to mind. Then, I’ll look at the list I’ve made and try to find an album that shares those same characteristics.

There you have it, now go forth and pair your dishes with equally good musical masterpieces. Bon appetit!

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Victor Hertz, pincusvt, Brandon Giesbrecht

The post Foodie Underground: Can Music Make Your Food Better? appeared first on EcoSalon.

The Green Plate is always combing the web to see what’s happening in the world of organic, sustainable, fair, and tasty food. From recipes, to food and agricultural policy, there are dozens of great sites that I depend on for my daily diet of information.

So here’s the Green Plate’s list of the best organic, smart, green, newsy, tasty, seasonal, sustainable food places on the web to share with you readers:

Group Blogs – Cooking:

Food 52 launched with a splash last fall by New York Times food writer and cookbook author, Amanda Hesser, and friend and fellow food writer Merrill Stubbs. It’s unlike any other site out there, in that instead of telling readers what to cook, it showcases the fine work of talented home cooks. It’s interactive, fun, well-designed, and full of tasty recipes. Readers can rate recipes and cookbooks, and from the recipes readers submit, founders are creating an online community cookbook and recipe database.

Started by New York food writer, Ed Levine, Serious Eats combines community, recipes, and food news into one of the most respected voices about food on the web. Though not explicitly green, the recipes and news on Serious Eats are about what’s current, and what people want to talk about, so there’s plenty that’s seasonal, veg centric, healthy, and well-sourced, right alongside articles on where to get the best burger in New York.

Culinate also has a strong community component along with recipes, news articles, cooking tips, interviews, recipes, podcasts, food news, and blog posts. It’s all about real food and is focused on an audience who cares where their food came from and how it was produced. The reporting and writing is always high quality.

The Kitchn, part of Apartmenttherapy.com, has writers across the country contributing recipes, product reviews, store spotlights, and news. There are also giveaways, cool kitchen tours and more, all served up with a strong editorial voice. The focus is on what people who care about good, real food are cooking and eating, so though not explicitly “green” there’s plenty there to chew on. And always great recipes and tips.

Group Blogs – News, policy, stories:

The New York Times Diners Journal blog features the work of many of the Time’s best thinkers on food issues, including Mark Bittman. You’ll find New York-centric news but also plenty about what’s going on all over the country trend-wise, plus Bittman’s tasty, simple, seasonal, veg-centric recipes.

Cooking Up a Story is an online television series (and blog) about people, food, and sustainable living. The videos spotlight farmers, artisan food producers, and other individuals who are bringing sustainable food to our tables. Many are unsung heroes and all are fascinating and inspiring.

Civil Eats is a blog with contributors around the country (full disclosure: I am one of them). You’ll find interviews with food activists and farmers, book reviews, recipes, gardening and farming tips, policy discussions, and all kinds of news. Many contributors are activists and movers and shakers in the world of sustainable fair food, so this is info from the front lines.

Sustainable Table is also home to The Meatrix and the Eat Well guide and it focuses on educating consumers on food related issues and building community through food. You’ll find shopping guides, recipes, and more on this invaluable site.

The Food Section of activist hub Change.org dishes up thought-provoking news on the issues that affect our food system. You’ll find articles skewering corporate misdeeds and great reporting on policy developments – plenty to chew on.

EcoCentric is the new home that combines Sustainable Table, Eat Well Guide, Daily Table, The Green Fork, H20 Conserve, and Network for New Energy Choices to cover the intersections between sustainable food, water, and energy. It’s a smart choice since food, water, and energy are all essential for our survival. The reporting is wide-ranging and interesting.

It’s no surprise that the Big Daddy of green blogs, Grist.org would be one of the most definitive food voices on the web. It’s been my first stop for years. The reporting goes beyond parroting and digs into the issues. With top-notch writers like Tom Philpott, Tom Laskawy, Bonnie Powell, and Paula Crossfield (also managing editor of Civil Eats), this should be the first place you go for policy news, stories from around the country, and the exposure of hypocrisy in high places of all sorts.

Speaking of Bonnie Powell, the blog she founded, The Ethicurean, is a must read for curated news from around the web, as it offers well-researched, original feature articles, and stories about cooking and farming.

Combining cooking and policy news, the The Atlantic’s Food Channel is all about smart food journalism.

With the gossipy, tabloid tone of the rest of the Daily Beast, Hungry Beast is a fun, but not-always-feather-light destination for news about food, recipes, and features.

Individual Blogs – Cooking:

Uber-blogger Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes migrated from the tech world to become one of the first full-time food bloggers. Her site is one of the web’s best treasure troves of home cooking.

Another early entry into the world of food blogs, 101 Cookbooks, is at the top of every blogger’s blog roll. Created by technological and media 2.0 whiz, Heidi Swanson, who is also a cookbook author and professional photographer, 101 Cookbooks is one of the most beautiful and useful food blogs on the planet. All of Heidi’s recipes are vegetarian and healthy, but she doesn’t really talk about it. It just is. I like that.

Engaging writing, gorgeous photography, and creative, delicious, doable recipes are the hallmarks of Smitten Kitchen. This is where I come for inspiration and just to bask in Deb Perelman’s beautiful food.

Individual Blogs – Policy and News:

Sam Fromartz, author of Organics Inc., one of the first books about “big organics” and how things REALLY work in the world of food policy and business, has a blog called Chewswise. It’s refreshingly idiosyncratic. You’re just as likely to get a recipe for Sam’s famous baguettes as a serious discussion about the farm bill, but there’s always something to provoke thought.

James Beard award winner and former contributing editor of Gourmet Magazine, Barry Estabrook reports on food politics in Politics of the Plate. Alternating between news bites of food stories from the web and the kind of hard-hitting features he became known for at Gourmet, Barry’s site is a great place to catch-up.

Josh Friedland’s The Food Section is a rich stew of food news culled from around the web, commentary, features, and new product news.

Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment and tell us about your favorite food stops on the web!

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: wickenden

The post Top 20 Organic, Sustainable, and Just Plain Tasty Food and Recipe Blogs appeared first on EcoSalon.