Events: June 11: 5th Annual SLEE Dinner

My beautiful friend Amy has been working for months to help organize this event! I'm donating a dozen vegan cupcakes, and will likely be attending as well. This is a wonderful event that supports a great cause, and $40 is truly a tiny amount if you consider how much you'd spend on a normal evening out! Find out more about Community Alliance for Global Justice and what they do here!

“Strengthening Local Economies, Everywhere”
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Happy Hour 5:00 – 6:30
Dinner 6:30 – 9:30
Same great location: St. Demetrios Church in Montlake: 2100 Boyer Avenue East
Buy your tickets now at Brown Paper Tickets!

Sliding scale $40-$75: Please be generous in your support! We want to make this event accessible to everyone while also recognizing the need for us to raise crucial funds. Paying at the $75 level will support a farmer/food worker! This gives you entry and also ensures that a local member of our food economy can be an honored guest at our event!  Kids are only $10! If you are unable to afford a full-price ticket, please contact us for solidarity tickets! Limited amount available! Email: volunteer@seattleglobaljustice.org

This year’s Keynote will be given by Aba Ifeoma, Organizer with Detroit Black Community Food Security Network. Aba will speak about the resurgence of urban agriculture and bee-keeping in Detroit! DBCFSN was the winner of the 2010 Food Sovereignty Honorable Mention Prize. You can learn more about their important work in this video showing Aba accepting the prize at the Community Food Security Coalition Conference.

Get involved! Help CAGJ organize our annual celebration of the food justice and food sovereignty movements! Contact us at volunteer@seattleglobaljustice.org

Whidbey Island Daycation

The plan to go morel hunting this past weekend was unfortunately spoiled by flooding and a serious lack of actual mushrooms. Never one to be phased by bad weather or last minute planning- the bff found us a camp site on Whidbey Island, and we drove out on Friday after work. We somehow managed not to plan a single thing- by the time we got to the campground it was pitch black, we had no firewood, and only the light of a dying head lamp. We managed to set up our tent without too many issues, eat a well balanced dinner of hummus and cheese, and crashed out by 10:30.

The next morning we took off and found ourselves a sweet little farm with a creamery and a cafe. I'd be happy to eat pie for breakfast forever.

From there we headed towards Deception Pass, but (of course) found ourselves at a farmers market and Friends of the Library book sale.

I forgot how calm and mellow farmers markets can actually be. Once we finally made it to Deception Pass State Park we spent a good two hours just walking down the beach. It's been way too long since I've done that.

We have another mushroom hunting trip scheduled in a few weeks, so I'm hoping to get at least one trip in before spring is over.

Food, Lately

Clockwise from top left: Popped amaranth salad with summer veggies and fresh goat cheese; upside-down tomato tart; grilled sockeye, arugula, and re-fried black beans with leeks and white wine; frozen Discovery Park blackberries.

I realized the other day that I barely post recipes anymore.  This isn't due to a lack of cooking- I am in my kitchen cooking from scratch almost every single day.  The problem is that I forget that it's exciting and new.  It's just dinner- who cares, right?  Most of my cooking is about using up the things that we have in our fridge and cupboards, and more often than not- I don't have a clue how much of what I put into a dish.  That popped amaranth salad is actually from a few months ago, and I was so excited about sharing it- but then I never did.  It seemed so simple, and so obvious that I felt a little like I might be insulting some of you by posting it here!  I forget that everyone thinks and cooks differently, and often we don't think to change our routines unless prompted.  My cooking style is unique to me, and my recipes are too.  The recipes that I get the most excited about are the ones that use ingredients that I already know and love- but put them together in new (to me) ways. 


I'm working on writing things down, taking more pictures, and remembering to share.

Farmers Market Haul

Let's play a little game, yeah?  Take a look at that picture for a minute (click on it twice and blow it up nice and big!)  Look at everything in it, and calculate how much you think each item cost.  Tally that up, keep the number in your head, and then scroll down.  And for the record, this is:

1 huge bunch of basil
1 small bag full of braising greens (not all of it fit in the bowl)
2 Walla Walla sweet onions
2 types of zucchini
2 purple sweet peppers
1 green hot pepper
1 pound of tri-colored green beans (yellow, purple, and well... green)

All of this is organic and locally grown.  All of this is seasonal, picked within the past 24 hours, and all of this I bought three blocks from my house, most of which was directly from the farmers who grew it.

Okay ready to scroll down???

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We spent $11.50.  Eleven dollars, and fifty cents.  I will tell you right now that if we had gone to the grocery store half a mile away and bought all of this, it would have easily cost us close to $20 and the quality would have been far inferior.  If we had bought eggs this week the difference wouldn't have been much different.  One dozen organic, free range, certified humane eggs at the grocery store costs $4.50.  They cost $5 at the farmers market, and I trust those statements far more when I can talk to the farmer face to face.

I know that not every community has access to farmers markets.  If yours does- do you shop there, or elsewhere?  Why or why not?  Bonus points (yeah, I'm counting!): leave me a comment and let me know how much you thought this all cost before you scrolled down!

Summer Love

U-pick flowers, mint, and lavender in Sequim, WA.

Farmers market green tomatoes, hand picked mint, blue cheese. 
It all went into a green tomato pie!