Local Autumn Dinner: Roasted Lemon-Herb Chicken with Sweet Potato Fries

We have a few staple meals in our household and one of them is definitely chicken. Donny's favorite. I found this great roast chicken recipe here from WFM. Use local chicken breast or leg & thighs. Instead of buying lots of herbs at the store I picked a few handfuls of herbs from my garden, i.e. basil & parsley. The recipe is very easy, but it does call for overnight preparation.

Homemade sweet potato fries are a delicious side to any meal, especially roast chicken. The recipe is simple, but make sure you have enough oil and a frying pan deep enough. (See below for saving oil.) Candy thermometer is also a good idea. Shout out to Junio for this recipe!

1-2 large sweet potatoes is enough for 2 people. First peel the sweet potatoes and cut into thin strips. The thinner they are the quicker they will cook.

In a small prep bowl combine 1 tsp. of each: minced fresh garlic or garlic flakes, pepper & salt, chili powder. Also add in 1 tsp. each of a couple dried herbs. Any combination of parsley, basil, oregano or your favorite is tasty. Mix thoroughly and set aside.

Fill your pan half-full with oil (safflower, corn, or canola will all do the trick). Boil oil until it reaches 350 degrees. Gently toss sweet potato strips into pan. Make sure all strips are full covered with oil. Feel free to have your partner test one of the fries. Should cook fully in about 3-5 minutes. Prepare a bowl with a paper towel lining. With tongs or slotted spoon, carefully remove fries from oil and place into lined bowl. Scatter seasoning over fries and toss to your liking.

If you are having a lot of people or only have a small pan, repeat the frying/seasoning process with multiple batches.

Enjoy fries with some homemade ketchup.

**Oil can be reused. Wait until you are finished with dinner to allow the oil to cool. Carefully pour oil into a glass jar with secure lid. Make sure most food bits stay in pan. Keep in refrigerator for multiple uses.**

Reminder: Reuse Packaging

The idea of local living is a constant struggle. Growing your own food is ideal, but of course there are types of foods and certain brands that you feel you just cannot live without - or maybe you can't get local. After a quick bike ride to Whole Foods this morning for some fair trade coffee we found one product, while not from So-Cal, inspires another aspect of local living - reusable packaging.

Check this out: Nancy's cultured cottage cheese (see below) says "I am reusing this container for" FILL IN THE BLANK.

It's a great idea to rinse out glass bottles/jars for when you make your own hot sauce or tomato sauce, but what about those pesky plastic containers? More often then not we rinse them out and recycle them; even though the plastic is perfectly fine to clean & reuse. They aren't changing the world with this, but an idea right on the packaging is progress and I like it.

Pumpkin Carving

Local California pumpkins.

(Pictured left: Malika's ghost.  Pictured right: Donny's glare scare)

Abbot Kinney Festival 2008

This Sunday, September 28 is the yearly Abbot Kinney Festival in Venice. It is basically a really well organized block party. This year should be no exception.  I am looking forward to it. Aside from the music and the people watching and the mass consumption of alcohol & yummy food, there will also be several options to educate and participate in eco-friendly activities.

- a "green" food court 

- sustainable art workshops

- a bike valet (sponsored by WFM) 

- free test drives of alternative-fuel vehicles

- "green" lifestyle area to promote the environment within the community, not just as a trend or in a product

I hope all of these fun things really do come through.  It looks like a great event!  If you live in the nearby area, definitely stop by.  It will be going on pretty much all day, from 10A-6P.  Check out their website for more details.  

I will try to put out a full review of the festival by early next week.  

Venice Whole Foods Market is finally OPEN

The Venice Whole Foods is now open for business and it is huge. With a wine tasting bar, make your own peanut butter section and an in-store smokehouse, there are a lot of new and exciting foods to get from this store. But the real question is - how local is it?

For me, the ultimate local aspect is the store itself. It is about a 10 minute walk and will hopefully soon increase my walkscore (check out how walkable your neighborhood rates). Lets get down to the products. The sign BUY LOCAL was in almost every aisle, but you had to keep your eyes peeled. Here are the ones that stood out to me.

Produce: Everything from apples to greens to fruit was local California. It wasn't all organic, but there were plenty of local options.

Fish: Based on their signage I saw NO local fish. I'll have to stick to the Farmer's Market or Santa Monica Seafood for that.

Meat: Mary's Free Range (Fresno) chickens could be purchased whole or by the part. There were also prepared chickens.

Wine: An entire section of the wine department was dedicated to local wine. Some were from wineries I had been to in Santa Barbara, such as Beckman Vineyards. Among many brands they sold San Antonio Winery (Napa Valley) and Red Truck (Sonoma). The price of wine seems to stay consistent and only goes up in price because of quality not origin.

Dairy: Straus Family Creamers is sold in most Whole Foods Markets around here and comes direct from just 60 miles north of San Francisco. Plus the glass bottles are reusable - $1.50 deposit. And there is a local option for eggs: Chino Valley Ranchers.

Frozen Pizza - Full of Life (Los Alamos) Flatbread uses all local organic ingredients within a 400 miles radius. And I found a new company, Vicoli. They come from Hayward, CA. I haven't tried their product, but it looks tasty.

Cheese - One of my personal favorite items in the store. There are a bevvy of local options including, Cypress Grove (Arcata), Winchester Cheese Company (Winchester), Vella Cheese (Sonoma), and Point Reyes Farmstead (Point Reyes Station). As you can see, just like wine all of these local options are from North of Los Angeles.

Condiments - Alexander Valley Pickles (Healdsburg) look tasty and are packaged in recycled plastic containers. There were several dressings/marinades/sauces that were local vendors, but unfortunately none of them were made with local ingredients.

Honey - Honey Pacifica (SoCal) sells several flavored honey varietals, along with the classic that comes in a pour bottle.

Aside from their products the VWFM is doing a lot for the local community. If you shop on September 10th, 5% of your grocery purchases go to the Venice Family Clinic. Also before it opened I was invited to tour the store. Once on the tour I found out all of the local Venice non-profit organizations had been invited. WFM is not looking to take over our community, but instead they want to be welcomed in and give back. It might sound a little cheesy since it is a big corporation, but the idea is in the right place. Hey, even the guy who runs the Venice Farmer's Market was on the tour.

The only downside - the whole neighborhood got the memo. Donny and I went the first night it opened and the bike stand was packed. I couldn't believe how many people were walking around, but it just goes to show how much we needed/wanted it.

Fast Food

The other night I was listening to The Tim Conway Jr. radio show on 97.1 Free FM. Arsenio Hall was his guest. They were discussing the recent ruling that bans further development of fast food chains in South Central LA. Tim was preaching that any restaurant should have the right to build where they choose, especially if the demand is there. He also thinks it is unfair to gentrify an area that is currently low-income and put a Whole Foods there, for example. He believes that it is forcing people to pay more money for food. He doesn’t think they “want” any other food, except that which is already available and believes that this whole issue is about race.

I think it is astounding. People have a demand for is something that is cheap and easy. They don’t want to drive 10 miles to get to a Whole Foods if they aren’t committed to it, but they just might if there is one around the corner. Also, to say that people demand fast food is ridiculous. Our appetites and food preferences are mostly nurtured from a young age and you need to condition yourself differently if you want to change that. It’s not necessarily about education or how you were brought up, but more about what you get used to. I don’t mean to get up on a soap box right now, but I think it is unfair to say that low-income residents choose fast food because they like it so much more than well-prepared home cooked meals. They choose fast food because they can walk across the street and in less than 5 minutes get fried chicken in a bucket for $5. Arsenio Hall actually disagreed with Tim Conway, but did not voice his opposition that loud. I am glad there is a ban on further development because it gives a chance for the people in that area to explore other options. Of course the language of the ban is also up for discussion because apparently 7-eleven isn’t considered fast food, but Subway is. I’ve blogged about fast food in the past and it's hard for both me and Donny to give up In-N-Out, but people just need options. We're getting excited about the new Whole Foods coming to Rose & Lincoln and I'm guessing every type of person in Venice will shop there, not just the rich white folk.

Take a listen for yourself.