I was chatting with a friend recently about the frustrations of planning meals for our families. Once the carefree days of summer pass and school and activities impose so many demands, planning dinners for the week can help to reduce the chaos. Planning ahead sounds so good, but it’s hard to do–it usually only lasts a couple days at my house! However, I found a great website that I thought you might find helpful. The weekly menu planner on Epicurious is a good place to get ideas and maybe even a couple recipes. Epicurious also had some great back to school ideas, check it out. Enjoy.

http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/everydaycooking/weeklydinnerplanners

I hope that you had a wonderful holiday. As you are aware, I took quite a bit of time off at the end of last year. During the last few weeks Treetown Vittles moved to a new kitchen and we successfully secured our retail food license. I am so excited to begin the new year with exciting plans for expansion and wonderful new menus that I’m sure you will enjoy. Please check out our new menus for January and February.

One of my resolutions for 2008 (there are many, but you know how that is . . . .) is to communicate more frequently with you via this blog and to offer more recipes and practical food tips that you might find useful.

To start off the year on the right foot, I’d like to call your attention to a terrific local food blog by Kim Bayer, thefarmersmarketer.com.

It is a very thoughtful site that is filled with useful information and discussion that will prompt you to more carefully consider your eating habits as well as your food purchasing choices. The more that I give consideration to the complex food issues that confront us, the more convinced I am that businesses like Treetown Vittles could provide busy people with the extra help that they need to eat healthy foods and to take a small step toward repairing our world. We aren’t there yet, but I believe it is a worthy goal, even for a small business like ours . . . and it’s so exciting to be a part of this change. I look forward to working together with you, our customers, to enliven our effort. As always, I welcome your suggestions and comments.

I wish you a peaceful, happy, healthy new year.

Ellen

Hi there,

I haven’t written in quite a while so there is a lot to report. First, I’d like to introduce customers to Deda’s Bakery: http://www.dedasbakery.com/index.htm. Consistent with our effort to support local producers, I have selected Deda’s to be our preferred vendor for baked goods. All of the ingredients used in their baked goods are fresh and natural; preservatives and additives are never used. I’ve received enthusiastic feedback from you about their unique soft biscotti. Chris and Catherine offer very high quality baked goods and I look forward to working together with them to offer you unique desserts that are worth breaking a diet to enjoy! If you’re going to have dessert once in awhile, make sure it’s something special. Next week, be sure to try Deda’s Key Lime Tarts—-they promise to be a real treat.

Attached is a list of ingredients for the menu items this week:Ingredients Oct 10

Also, I’ve received several requests for delivery of special meal kits to seniors. I know from my own family experience that grocery shopping and meal preparation can be problematic for some seniors (and for their families!). Although I’m not able to make special meals for seniors at this time, please take a look at our menu offerings for kids. These meals have smaller portions and are mildly seasoned. They usually require very little cooking and could, in some cases, be helpful to seniors. As always, please feel free to contact me to see how we can be helpful.

Well, I’m off to do shopping for tomorrows meal kits! See you at the Farmer’s Market tomorrow morning!

Ellen

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

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.

I thought I’d use this blog to share quick prep recipes and other helpful cooking and food tips.  One cookbook that I am using for some of my summer recipes is Peter Berley’s book:  Fresh Food Fast (Regan Books, 2004) Copyright 2004 by Peter Berley. 

Check it out, it’s a pretty book for your collection.  I think that you will find it has some wonderful recipes using common ingredients in creative ways.  It is organized by season, so you can be sure to use Michigan fresh produce that is readily available now and LOCAL.  The book even gives you shopping lists, if you’re the organized type (not me!). Speaking of LOCAL, I’ve been trying to use as much local produce in our meal kits as I can find at a reasonable cost.  If you are also getting into the ‘local’ movement, you will find the Local Harvest website an invaluable resource for tracking down local products:  http://www.localharvest.org/ 

Here is a recipe from Berley’s book that I think you will enjoy as a great summer dessert using Michigan blueberries.  Don’t let the ‘Soufflé’ scare you away.  There are no egg whites to beat, and nothing to fall!  It’s an easy, guaranteed winner you will make often.  I made it with raspberries and it was terrific.   I dusted it with powdered sugar when it cooled and it was beautiful.  Don’t try this with low fat ricotta or eggbeater, it takes all the life out of it. 

Lemon-Ricotta Soufflé with Blueberries

From Fresh Food Fast by Peter Berley (Regan Books, 2004) Copyright 2004 by Peter Berley.

½ C sugar

6 large eggs

grated zest of 1 lemon (buy a microplane zester, you will love it!)

1 pound of whole-milk ricotta cheese

1 pint blueberries 

1.  Set a rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 375.  Butter a 9-inch pie plate or baking dish.  Set aside 1T of sugar.  2.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, remaining 7T of sugar, and lemon zest.  Add the ricotta and whisk until smooth.

3.  Pour the mixture into the pie plate and bake for 15 minutes.  Top with blueberries, sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of sugar, and bake until just set, about 15 minutes more.  Serve warm or chilled. 

Enjoy,

Ellen