In case you missed it, there was an article in last night’s Ann Arbor News, “Once-a-Week Vegetarianism” that you should check out: http://www.mlive.com/annarbor/stories/index.ssf?/base/features-0/1190731602161520.xml&coll=2

The article described the efforts of Josh Mugele and his daughter, Eleanor, to give up eating meat for one day each week. Eventually their project evolved into ‘Vegetarian Wednesday’ with an associated weblog: http://vegetarian-wednesday.blogspot.com/. The site offers very interesting discussion about the various reasons that folks are trying to move to a more vegetarian diet, as well as some hints and recipes.

Hats off to Josh, who by the way is a UM medical student (where does he find the time!). Eventually we hope to support Josh and Eleanor’s effort to raise awareness of the benefits of eating less meat by selling ‘Vegetarian Wednesday’ t-shirts on our website.

Let us know what you think.

Ellen

Good Morning!

If you didn’t have a chance to read the NYT article last week about Alice Waters and her new book, “The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes From a Delicious Revolution” (Clarkson Potter, October) check out the article online: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/19/dining/19wate.html

Among other things, the article makes brief mention of the Edible Schoolyard project in Berkeley: “Her pioneering Edible Schoolyard project, in which schoolchildren grow their own lunch and teachers use gardens for science lessons and recipes for social studies, is thriving in Berkeley, has been planted in New Orleans and may expand to Pittsburgh and Brooklyn. But in more than a decade the concept has not permeated the nation’s thinking on education.” Well, it has permeated into Ann Arbor.

Ann Arborites should be proud of the local initiative called “The Agrarian Adventure,” online at: http://agrarianadventure.org/index.html . Look over their website and see what the Agrarian Adventure is striving to accomplish.

This organization is working out of Tappan Middle School. They are creating programming in the K-12 public schools that reveals to kids the very fundamental connections between the food they eat, their health, their environment, and their community. Among other activities, this organization helps to run the Tappan Food and Garden Club where the kids, parents and community volunteers maintain an organic garden and greenhouse. It is really quite impressive; take a walk over to the Tappan field and look around.

I am inspired by the wonderful people who volunteer their time and expertise to such a vital program for our kids and our community. I’m committing to volunteer with the Agrarian Adventure and I hope you will consider supporting this organization as well.

Their website isn’t up to date, so be sure to make it a point to volunteer or support the “Agrarian Adventure Harvest Dinner,” Friday, October 12 at 6-8pm. To volunteer or get more information, email: info@agrarianadventure.org

Ellen

Attached below for your interest is the list of ingredients for this weeks meals.

ingredients-for-sept-19-2007.pdf

In response to many requests for smaller portions and mildly seasoned foods, we are now offering new menus adapted for the preferences of kids and seniors. If you know seniors for whom grocery shopping and cooking is a challenge, please let them know about us. We’d be happy to help them out. We welcome your feedback on these new menu items.

Please also note that we are now offering gift certificates. A special meal makes a wonderful ‘Thank you’ or ‘Congratulations’ gift for a special occasion. You can order gift certificates directly from the menu page. Details are available on the FAQ page.

I look forward to seeing you when I make deliveries this Wednesday!

Ellen

Hi folks,

It’s been a long time since I’ve written. August was so busy. Now that school has started we are enjoying the return of our usual routine. I’m looking forward to offering you healthy, quick cooking, meal kits very soon. I’m sure you will enjoy the innovative new menus loaded with bright, tasty foods, especially the new Mediterranean entrees. Look for new side dishes we’ve developed using the bounty of late summer and early fall produce. As always, you can expect the finest quality fresh ingredients with emphasis on local produce and products.

In going through my recipes, I discovered a little treasure that I had forgotten about. Many years ago there was an article in Cooking Light magazine that described simple snack cakes that you can quickly make from scratch in a single bowl. These cakes are so simple to make because you don’t need to cream butter and sugar separately and then mix dry ingredients separately, etc. Using this special recipe, you basically just mix everything together in the specified order and in about 10 minutes your cake is in the oven. Only one bowl and one whisk to clean up. The downside is that they have a pretty high fat and sugar content. I have successfully replaced the eggs with egg substitute. Next I’ll try replacing some of the butter with canola oil or applesauce. If anyone experiments and comes up with a good ‘lite’ modification to the recipe, please send it to the blog so we can all try it.

Though I love to cook, I’m not usually an enthusiastic baker, but there is something about the start of school that always inspires me to bake for my kids. If you’re looking for a quick ‘scratch’ snack cake recipe this is the one for you. I’ve given the chocolate cake recipe below, but the article had several other recipes, that I’d also be happy to share if you’re interested [Blueberry-Pecan Cake; Spicy Molasses Cake; Black and White Cake; Rum Raisen Applesauce Cake; Pineapple Upside Down Cake].

Enjoy a wonderful week,

Ellen

Devil’s Food Cake Excerpted from Cooking Light (p. 104, 2001).

Makes one 8×8 cake

• 2 t all-purpose flour
• 5 T butter
• ½ C Dutch processed cocoa
• 1 C packed dark brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• ½ t baking soda
• 1 ½ t vanilla extract
• ¼ t salt
• ¾ C all-purpose flour
• ½ C hot water
• 2 t instant coffee granules
• 1 T powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350º degrees.

Coat an 8×8” square glass baking pan with cooking spray, dust the pan with 2 t flour.

Place butter in a large microwave safe bowl. Cover and microwave at HIGH for 1 minute or until butter just melts. Add cocoa, stirring well with a whisk. Add brown sugar, stir well until mixture pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, stirring with the whisk with each addition until smooth. Stir in baking soda, vanilla, and salt. Lightly spoon ¾ C flour into dry measuring cups, leveling with a knife. Gradually add flour to the bowl, stirring just until blended (do NOT over stir). Combine hot water and espresso. Add to flour mixture, stirring just until blended.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350º for about 25 minutes or until cake tester is clean. Cool 10 minutes on a wire rack. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Hi all,

Since so many of our customers are planning to vacation during the last few ‘official’ weeks of summer, we have decided to take some time off out of the kitchen. Therefore, there will be no meal deliveries until after Labor Day. During the next couple weeks we will be planning new fall menus and testing new recipes (OK, I guess we will be in the kitchen!).

If you find yourself at home, too, and in need of some simple meals, you’ll want to include the Eggplant Salad recently published in the NYT:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/15/dining/151arex.html?ref=dining

It’s easy to prepare and surprisingly very flavorful. It’s a very simple recipe, so the key is to use the freshest produce you can find. If you use those bland ‘pink’ tomatoes from the supermarket, you won’t find the salad very satisfying. I used heirloom tomatoes and the tiniest baby eggplant I could find at the farmer’s market–they were very sweet and thin-skinned. I’m not a big fan of mint, so I substituted basil. Although I had hoped to have left overs, my family polished this salad off at one meal, so you might want to make a double batch!

Enjoy the rest of August, and we’ll see you in September!

Ellen

This week’s menus feature all the fresh Michigan produce that is plentiful now:

ingredients-for-august-15-2007.pdf

I thought you might also be interested in a cute little book I just discovered: Midnight Snacks (Broadway Books, NY) by Michael J. Rosen and Sharon Reiss (Copyright 2002 Michael J. Rosen and Sharon Reiss). It has recipes that you’ll find helpful when you want a quick snack or something easy for unexpected (or expected!) guests. The recipe for Peach Gazpacho caught my eye.

Peachy-Keen Gazpacho

Chop each of the the following in a food processor separately, taking care not to pulverize: 2 large ripe peaches, 2 larger tomatoes (seeded and juiced, reserved), 1/2 red or yellow bell pepper, 1 small onion, 1 English cucumber (peeled and seeded), 6 basil leaves. Combine everything and add 1T Grand Marnier and 1T olive oil.

The only real issue is getting everything as cold as possible, which can take a while.

Once the soup is chilled, add salt and pepper to taste and a dash of hot pepper sauce to taste.

I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks good. I’m planning on trying it soon. Let us know what you think if you decide to try it.

Ellen

Hi folks,

Below is a link to the ingredients used in this weeks menus. This isn’t final, just a hint of what you might find in your meal kit. I am thinking about changing the salad dressing–seems like too much lemon this week—so check back tomorrow for changes. And you never know what goodies I’ll find at the Farmer’s Market on Wednesday, so things could change again! Ah, that’s what’s so great about using seasonal fresh produce, you never know what you’ll be inspired to make until you see what looks good!

ingredients-for-august-8-2007.pdf

If you have additional questions or special dietary concerns, please contact us using our contact form. We will make every effort to address your needs.

It’s been a long time since I’ve written a post. While the kids have been enjoying the recent hot weather at the pool, I’ve been spending a lot of time trying new recipes and pulling together new menus for meal kits for late summer and fall. One of my favorite sources for interesting vegetarian recipes is Heidi Swanson’s website www.101cookbooks.com. This website is a terrific resource if you are trying to improve the quality of your diet and move toward more vegetarian foods. Browsing around you’ll find lots of valuable information, tips and recipes. Swanson’s first cookbook, Cook 1.0: A Fresh Approach to the Vegetarian Kitchen, has lots of simple recipes organized in a rather unique manner. She gives base recipes that can be modified with interesting ingredients and it’s all layed out in a table format. It’s also a very pretty book with nice food photography. From the website, you might want to try the recently posted recipe for a summer quinoa salad, it’s very good. We left out the goat cheese and added very salty black olives. My daughter loves olives. You’ll find all kinds of uses for the avocado dressing, too: http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/quinoa-and-grilled-zucchini-recipe.html

You might also find it interesting that there was an article in the Utne Reader about Heidi Swnson’s website along with some updates on the controversy surrounding soy. You can check out all the articles online at: http://www.utne.com/issues/2007_142/features/12609-1.html

If this rain lasts all day, you can look for a posting very soon with all the ingredients for this weeks menus!

Ellen

If you haven’t seen today’s New York Times, ask a friend for their copy of the food section from July 18th or click on:  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/dining/18mini.html?incamp=article_popular.  Mark Bittman offers up 101 ideas for quick, simple summer meals.  You’ll be glad to have this list handy as the temperatures climb and your patience for cooking wears out.  I haven’t gone through all of them, but I did see a couple that I’ll be trying (for example, #82 looks good: tuna, olives, tomatoes, mint, lemon zest and red pepper flakes with pasta  or #41 raita on broiled fish).  It’s not that these are fabulous recipes, it’s just that when you feel desperate to make SOMETHING, all you really need are a few good suggestions to get you started.

Another place I always find ideas for things to make is the food and cooking blog:  http://www.elise.com/recipes/  (Simply Recipes).  This blog has received very good reviews and several awards.  I have found a broad range of creative recipes here and all have been reliable and reproducible.  Many are vegetarian, too.

No meal kits next week, so try a few of the NYT suggestions and let us know if you find some good ones!

Have a great week.

Several customers have requested the ingredients for the foods in our meal kits. I have posted the ingredients for this week’s meals at the link below. The ingredients for future meals will be posted as soon as possible.

If you have additional questions or special dietary concerns, please contact us using our contact form. We will make every effort to address your needs.

ingredients-july-18-2007.pdf

I hope you had a terrific weekend enjoying the wonderful weather we are having these days. Have a great week.