Practice Exchange

Last Thursday I was scheduled to give a talk on Starting a Late July Garden at Greater Goods. This was good because it was late July and bad because in late July not a lot of people are around, but good because my talk was turned in to a round table in which we all exchanged practices…

A Practice Exchange makes so much more sense to me than a talk. The latter requires someone to assume the hierarchical position of expert with information descending upon their listeners. Lets face it, I can only be an expert on My practice and for me to pretend otherwise would just be foolish. This does not mean I should not share my experiences, in fact quite the opposite–I share with others in order to encourage a dialogue, an exchange.

Three Things I learned last Thursday:

1. DC is giving out rain barrels at 10% of their cost
2. The contact of a Bee Keeper who can help us get started–we hear the Fairmont Hotel has a Hive on their roof, we plan to do the same…
3. That the DC government is testing the soil on all community gardens–very interesting that this is a priority, However I am curious to the results and hope they are shared.

The three thing I think I was able to contribute to the conversation:

1. Planting lettuce should not be thought of as ‘precious’, plant seeds closer together (like grass). Plan on harvesting your crop of lettuce, digging up the roots, amending the soil and reseeding often.
2. You can plant most things you planted in the spring for a fall crop as well as traditional fall vegetables such as root vegetables, cabbage, brussel sprouts...today we planted sorrel, parsnips and caraflex cabbage seeds. Herbs are always a great place to begin for a new gardener.
3. If you are having trouble getting chard started, try soaking seeds before planting. I learned from some Amish Farmers that Johnny's Seeds are a great resource.

Most of all Water, Feed and Weed

"It's My Own Invention"

After a while the noise seemed gradually to die away, till all was dead silence, and Alice lifted up her head in some alarm. There was no one to be seen, and her first thought was that she must have been dreaming about the Lion and the Unicorn and those queer Anglo-Saxon Messengers. H o w- ever, there was the great dish still lying at her feet, on which she had tried to cut the plum-cake. "So I wasn't dreaming after all," she said to herself, "unless — unless we're all part of the same dream. Only I do hope it's my dream, and not the Red King's. I don't like belonging to another person's dream," she went on in a rather complaining tone; " I've a great mind to go and wake him, and see what happens."

Lewis Carrol, Through the Looking Glass

My Grandmother, a Russian immigrant, ran a Catering Company on the Southside of Philadelphia. My Mother owned and worked a Catering Company in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC. I went to law school, passed the Pennsylvania bar and now pretty much run a Catering business.

When we do our Home Restaurants my ten year old, Martin Lane, works with us. We have done five now and she has begun to fall into a rhythm, choosing jobs she likes. “I’m going to bubble the water now…” as she grabs the penguin shaped water sparkling machine, click, press, squeak… Her enjoyment seems to come from knowing what she is doing and getting a thing done before being asked or worse someone telling her what to do. She takes on authorship of everything she creates for better or for worse, and like Alice through the Looking Glass, we feel her not wanting to belong to anyone else’s dream, so she makes it her own dream.

Martin Lane has made cornbread for our last three Home Restaurants. We use a recipe given to us by John’s Mom, that has changed over the years. John’s family is from Georgia and will tell you that only Northerners put sugar in the cornbread. ML is psyched to cook her Grandmother’s recipe even if she will not eat any.

ML and I are both Vegan so I have changed this recipe when we are eating. However, in the Home Restaurant, we have been making the “authentic”, that is to say with buttermilk and amazing Farm Fresh eggs and butter. At the last dinner we wanted to make the cornbread extra crusty and super moist as it was being served as the protein of a dish with summer salad (another southern favorite of marinating tomatoes, cucumbers, and onions all from the garden in vinegar). The Bread had to be perfect in order to pull off such a simple dish. Martin Lane mixed an Amazing batter and when it hit the hot cast iron skillet that had been heating in the oven for over an hour, you could tell it was going to be a good one.

It is fun to watch ML cook and experiment with food–even foods she does not eat. She seems to take more care with things like eggs. She is pretty much fearless in the kitchen and if she does not like something she will let you know!

We began a discussion the next day on whether the Vegan Cornbread was better than the “Authentic”. We decided to have a taste test to find out exactly what the differences were, of course with John doing the tasting…

He said the Vegan was much more meatier or bouncier and maybe even moister while the “Authentic” was cakier, not dry at all… The big difference was the crust… the non-vegan made an amazing dark golden brown crust. John said he would be happy with either one of these slices-–However we must keep in mind this recipe comes from his Mama and these cornbreads as he says are his “Proustian Madeleines-–In Search of Lost Time AND Remembrance of Things Past…a little of both, please.”

Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1 egg beaten
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 oz melted butter (plus about 1/2 oz. extra set aside for pan)

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place heavy bottom 9 inch skillet (preferably cast iron in the hot oven for at least 20 minutes to heat thoroughly).
2.Combine all ingredients and wisk until they are thoroughly incorporated.
3.Pull hot skillet out of the oven and working quickly so skillet stays hot add 1/2 oz butter and coat the bottom of the pan. Immediately pour batter in skillet and place back in the oven. Bake until golden brown and is slightly springy to the touch, about 20 minutes.
4.Remove from oven and remove from pan. Cornbread is delicious hot just out of the oven or at room temperature.

Vegan Cornbread

1 cup cornmeal
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups almond or soy milk
1/4 cup pureed silken tofu
1 1/4 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 oz melted non hydrogenated margarine such as Smart Balance (plus about 1/2 oz. extra set aside for pan)

1.Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place heavy bottom 9 inch skillet (preferably cast iron in the hot oven for at least 20 minutes to heat thoroughly).
2.Combine all ingredients and wisk until they are thoroughly incorporated.
3.Pull hot skillet out of the oven and working quickly so skillet stays hot add 1/2 oz of margerine and coat the bottom of the pan. Immediately pour batter in skillet and place back in the oven. Bake until light golden brown and cornbread is slightly springy to the touch, about 20 minutes.
4.Remove from oven and remove from pan. Cornbread is delicious hot just out of the oven or at room temperature.

Last Night

Last night 11 people ate dinner in our home... Old friends introducing New–Some who have eaten our food for years although we have never personally met AND some New Friends who are leaving for big adventures AND some who are staying right here...

This time of year all produce comes from either our garden or local farms. Beef and beautiful Poussins are delivered by Bev of Eco Friendly Farms. We get a whole lot of help from Tom of Potomac Selections in the wine pairings–The Tissot Cremant du Jura Indigene NV for the final courses was a DC premiere–Delicious, enhancing the sweet courses. Music was a mix of Prince and David Bowie that highlighted their similarities as well as their Rock and Roll singularities, pairings like “Kooks” by Bowie next to “Starfish and Coffee” by Prince–Happy to find Minnesotans in our group appreciate a Purple Ziggy mix. Enthusiasm is contagious…Thank You!

PASS

Home Ground Mini Burger with Bread and Butter Pickle and Rhubarb Ketchup on Sesame Buns (Veggie Burgers for the two vegetarian guests)
Basil Yukon Gold Mashed Potato
Wild Alaskan Salmon Roe on Zucchini Fritter with Chives

Lavender Martini
Chateau de Roquefort, Cotes de Provence Rose Corail 2008

SEATED

Beet Soup with Poached Path Valley Egg with Horseradish Greens
Poppy Seed Onion Bread

Gilles Fevre Chablis 1er Fourchaume-Vaulorent 2006

Summer Salad with Cornbread

Domaine Du Carrou, Sancerre

Poussin with Leeks, Fennel, Chard, Wild Chantarelle Mushrooms and Black Barley (Royal Trumpet Mushrooms with Walnut in lieu of the Poussin for the Vegetarians)
Salted Baguette

Tissot Arbois Poulsard Sans Soufre 2005

Tome de Couserans with Nut Cracker and Arugula Sprouts

Raspberries with Shaved Maccha Ice

Tissot Cremant du Jura Indigene NV

Frozen White Peach with Chocolate Torte and Chocolate Torte

Cornmeal Rosemary Cookies, Chocolate Mint Rosemary Drops, Tiny Lavender Cakes

Photos by Jacqulyn Maisonneuve from a few Home Restaurants ago...

Giving The Finger Bowl

Tired after a long day of cooking. Gratified by the enthusiasm and sheer wonderfulness of our guests–we sit at the kitchen table, again. Thankful that our hard work will lead to more hard work. Our conversation surprisingly turns to the only non-food course we served tonight–the finger bowls.

We used finger bowls for the first time in our 15-year collaboration. I don’t know why we haven’t before; we have always encouraged diners to eat with their hands. Our hesitation was probably based on a fear that we would run the risk of being tagged pretentious. Eating with your hands is of course fine but to offer a bowl of water with scented flowers to wash fingertips would certainly be criticized.

Tonight our guests loved the finger bowls we served! I put lavender, hydrangeas and rose pedals in glass bowls I found in upstate New York.

Here is the thing­–we never offered finger bowls during our eight year stint at Rupperts Restaurant. We were catching so much attention for describing at length everything on the menu. And although John’s experience in restaurants would assume finger bowls we couldn’t waste our diner’s attention on describing one more non-food related thing.

At the home restaurants I am afforded the luxury of explaining every course as it sits in front of the guest and being that we are in my home everyone is happy to listen. We served poussin tonight, a chicken younger than 28 days from Bev’s Eco-Friendly farms. John suggested that he would much prefer to roast the chickens whole and then split them in two. He has always preferred to cook the chicken with their bones in that the flavor is much richer in a chicken roasted with bones. Also to allow the guests to chew on and even partake in the marrow of the bones. We decided that if we let the diners know before hand, at the presentation of the birds, that there would be finger bowls after their main courses they would be free to eat with their hands–pick it up!

Because of the finger bowls and the forum to explain them, we were able to cook chicken better than we would have if constrained by the need to conform to just a knife, fork and napkin. John said that the poussin tonight were the best he had ever cooked. As chefs not only are we concerned with taste but also in how something is going to be eaten and the eaters comfortability with in the eating. This non-food pause, intermission or should we say interaction opened up possibilities for us tonight that resolved a long standing dilemma of how to better serve something that we have been serving for 15-years.

Cooking in small quantities on our home turf has unlocked many things for us. We have guests who are amazingly happy to be here and we are comfortable adapting to specific needs and trying new things. We are doing pretty much what we began 15 years ago, finding the best ingredients and doing as little as possible to let the food shine, only this time with out a lot of the pressure of being in the public eye and in return we may have let go of a certain amount of self-editing or self consciousness. If we run the risk of being called “pretentious”, so be it–we are enjoying feeding people too much to care...

We googled “finger bowls” and found these two items, One is a New York Times Article from 1909–hilarious, you have to read it and the Other is a video of a professor of etiquette from George Washington University, who we want to try and get for a dinner lecture here…

Basic Table Manners - Using a Finger Bowl

Locavore's Dilemma

Photo by Martin Lane Cochran

Locavore is the name of an eater who chooses only locally grown food. I wonder how rigid a practice one would have to adhere to in order to accept this tag? Do you leave behind coffee, chocolate and the various oils and vinegars that are grown by artisan farmers around the world? This time of year I try and gather most of my fruits and vegetables either from my garden or a local farmer. An exception I make (along with young coconuts, coffee, chocolate…) is Lemons. The reason I make this exception IS because the local veggies are so good and lemon vinaigrette compliments the fresh garden flavors without over powering. Balsamic, rice wine, sherry vinaigrettes are fantastic–I am a vinegar fanatic and in the Off-Season I will need their help exciting palettes, being that I will be cooking with locally grown turnips and other seasonal root vegetables. However in the summer in what would seem to be the optimal time to experiment with locavorism, I am not giving up lemons.

Locavorism of course leads to larger political, ethical and ecological questions. The question is really one of moderation and excess. How far does one take a perceived duty in a fanatical adherence to a chosen “vorism”? Is one really solving any problems or just creating more of the same in the single approach solution? AND Is that fanaticism actually sustainable for the individual or would one burn out on turnips in January?

I think that Sarah Murray’s book Moveable Feast does a wonderful job in pointing out that there are many things to consider along with the Proximity of where your food comes from. She seems more concerned with a kind of ethical as well as ecological cost benefit analysis that takes into consideration that we actually do live in a globalized world. Sarah Murray encourages us to think in terms of ecological “best practices” that take into consideration many of the poverty stricken areas that benefit from exporting food. She makes the point that shipping maybe be more ecologically advantageous than growing green house tomatoes and driving them into an urban area.

At a recent TED talk, Louise Fresco lays out the problems with financially advanced nations abandoning globalization in the immediate aftermath of forcing globalization. There are ethical issues to address and if we develop a protectionist approach as a by product of eating practices in the name of Sustainability, then at one point we are going to have to ask the question: What are we sustaining? The earth? Humankind? Our immediate surroundings? Problems?

Ultimately what led to our current crisis, be it ecological or economical or epidemical is the idea that we can locate problems and then solve them. That is to ignore that the solution is already built into the problem and that solution will only cause more or the same problems. “I knew an Old Lady who swallowed a dog. She swallowed the dog to catch the cat…” Our very approach to crisis and problems may be the problem.

The idea of problematizing a problem would not be politically expedient for politicians but to play with a problem and turn it inside and out to the point of discovery, that is to say something that has not been thought, something external to the problem and its solution. Practices that experiment with demands and desires separate from solving problems lead us outside of endless loops. (See Seoul Day Lighting)

In the meantime, Nothing beats an mélange of baby vegetables lightly roasted and tossed with fresh greens just picked. I don't want to disrupt these flavors–I want to accentuate them and nothing does this better in the summer than a Lemon Vinaigrette with a touch of mustard and fresh herbs like basil or chives…

And needless to say: look for a lemon grown with the “best practice” possible…

Lemon Vinaigrette

2 tablespoons Lemon juice
2 tablespoons Dijon style mustard
6 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper

Making Senses

Photo by Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

We don’t use butter or cream in any of the savory dishes we prepare. This was a decision based on the idea, that if you found the best ingredients, you would not need to mask any flavors or textures with heavy sauces. This decision was also based on the premise that if one ate less dairy one felt better and the aesthetic as well as the nutritional experience was heighten.

Cream and butter are often used as flavors, as something you enhance a dish with, maybe even a vehicle for other more seasonal ingredients. This never made sense to us, that is to say, we always felt seasonal ingredients did not need the mellowing or tamping down that butter and cream offer, in the finishing, of lets say, soups or sauces. We have always enjoyed the greenness, the freshness of so-called unfinished soups or sauces and in this we developed our own style.

Using Cream, as a main ingredient itself is something we do and with an idea of moderation, we have always enjoyed serving ice cream incorporated into, lets say, a fruit dessert. It’s interesting because even as a vegan, I see no Inconsistency with this practice, that is to say there is a level of purity that we adhere to when discovering and using raw ingredients. The same goes for eggs, as we will be serving a poached egg as a main ingredient Saturday night.

However to not use Butter and Cream in our starters and mains allowed us to slip away from the traditional continental cooking that John had been trained under in Michelin Starred establishments in Europe. The collaboration of John and I gave us the opportunity to Experiment. We were into the purity of ingredients but not the purity of a particular cuisine. This tension of purity and experimentation maybe the thing that generates our creations more than anything. The leaving behind of authenticity and the moving toward a experimenting with purity helps us to think aesthetics and nutrition not divorced from one another, not mutual exclusive but as a non-dual truth, that is to say something that is apparently distinct while not being separate.

Aesthetics as an awareness of the senses seems fair enough, however nutrition as an awareness of the senses seems a stretch to many. We would say that if you feel bad after eating then no matter how good the food tastes the aesthetic experience did not end with the tasting and that the feeling afterwards counts as much. We would also say that to divorce sense from nutrition would leave us in a place of only being able to gauge our health through reason and not experience. Most of the time our greatest nutritional allies are our senses. The thing is, nutrition is gauged by how our body reacts to affects and aesthetics are gauged by how our mind reacts to affects, we would say that this dualism needs to be collapsed and that there is no separation of body and mind And To listen to how your body feels in the rational decisions to enjoy food is a learned process.

Brooklyn and Manhattan

We have been asked a few times this summer to send along some recommendations of restaurants/shops in NYC that influence, inspire or make us think and play...here are a few of our favorite places and let us know what we are missing. These are only shops and restaurants we will do a post soon of our favorite art spaces, parks...

Marlow and Sons is the only place to eat in Williamsburg…

http://marlowandsons.com/

Pure Food and Wine a fantastic Raw Restaurant…also check out the carry out around the corner, One Lucky Duck...

http://www.oneluckyduck.com/

Punjabi–Great Veggie Place, Pakistan Food–where the cabbies go!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/punjabi-grocery-and-deli-new-york

Eli's on third and Vinegar Factory on 91st, Eli Zabar’s kingdom in the Upper East Side– a food lover’s haven…

http://static.elizabar.com/stores-locations/index.htm

Murrays Cheese in West village the best, we used to buy from them when we had Rupperts…

http://www.murrayscheese.com/

Difara's pizza, people line up for hours, a great place–way out, almost in Coney Island definitely a food safari expedition…

http://www.difara.com/

Dual Speciality Store spices, great place to stock up on hard to find ingredients and spices

http://www.dualspecialty.com/

Vanessa's Dumplings is always our first stop! Do not miss the Sesame Pancakes! Only go to the one in the Lower East Side...

http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2008/07/dumplings-and-sesame-pancake-sandwiches-vanessas-dumpling-house-chinatown-nyc.html

Caracas Arepas–check out the take away next to the Bar...

http://www.caracasarepabar.com/manhattan.php

Zaragoza, a grocery/taqueria on Avenue A between 13th and 14th Sts. Has amazing pig ear tacos! But no website...

Kajitsu in East Village--The purity is inspiring in this Japanese Vegan Cuisine…

http://www.kajitsunyc.com/

Stogo Vegan ice cream in east village...

stogonyc.com

Roberta’s Pizza in Bushwick...

http://robertaspizza.com/

Hangawi–Korean Vegan, we are here every Christmas Night...

http://www.hangawirestaurant.com/

North East Kingdom in Bushwick nice out of the way restaurant…

http://north-eastkingdom.com/

Kosars Bialy in Lower East Side stay away from the bialys and go for the sesame sticks!

http://www.kossarsbialys.com/

The Pickle Guys in Lower East Side–great on-line ordering as well...

http://www.nycpickleguys.com/

Babycakes Lower East Side–vegan cupcakes always our second stop after Vanessa's Dumplings!

http://www.babycakesnyc.com/

Flea Market in Brooklyn Sat and Sun, DUMBO indoors on Sunday—Outdoors in Fort Greene on Saturday with great food..favorites–Central American, portable pizza guy and the Raw Chocolate Sorbet...

http://www.brownstoner.com/brooklynflea/

Gimme Coffee--in Williamsburg and Soho...

http://www.gimmecoffee.com/

Joes Coffee near Washington Park...

http://www.joetheartofcoffee.com/

9th street espresso in East Village!

http://www.ninthstreetespresso.com/

Oslo Coffee...

http://www.yelp.com/biz/oslo-coffee-brooklyn

La Esquina–great set up--use of space–have to see!

http://www.esquinanyc.com/

Casa Mono near Union Square–Tapas with a ham bar next door…

http://www.casamononyc.com/home.cfm

Blue Stocking Indy Book Store–good guerrilla gardening section...

http://bluestockings.com/

St. Mark’s Book Shop, independent Book Store in East Village...

http://www.stmarksbookshop.com/

Eleven, an amazing second hand store in NOLITA...

http://www.misterblistershop.com/vintage1.html

Assembly in LES–the store is much different than the website–fashion store great setting...

http://www.assemblynewyork.com/

IF, if Dries Van Noten and Martin Margiela appeal this is your store, and yes they have Mens!

http://nymag.com/listings/stores/if/

Nom de Guerre…underground feeling, worth seeing fashion for men...

http://www.nomdeguerre.net/

Takashimaya only reason besides Bryant Park and Eli’s to go past 14th street…

http://takashimaya-ny.com/

Jutta Neuman–They make things–shoes!

http://www.juttaneumann-newyork.com/

Muji, only because we don’t have one in DC, yet!

http://www.muji.us/store-info/

Kinokuniya, Amazing Japanese Bookstore with teashop on second floor...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/26/books/26kino.html

Upcoming Greater Goods Talk, Thursday July 16

Photo- Jacqulyn Maisonneuve

My joy from the garden comes through the many variables, watching a slug eat a leaf as much as finding the first ripe tomato of the summer. I am intrigued by the fact that one year we have more eggplant than we can use and the next year we get 5 eggplants total. Success is in the enjoyment of the process rather than measuring the yield. This time of year our work is informed by our garden. While cooking and arranging flowers there are continual trips with scissors both to the front and back yard to gather additional ingredients. This continues somewhat throughout the year. Mid-winter we can still cut rosemary to add to something we are cooking or a stalk of bay leaves to add to a flower arrangement but right now the possibilities seem endless. Wandering outside I might find a branch from a blueberry bush that finishes a flower arrangement or a few leaves of borage that enhance a salad.

In Washington July is the mid-point of the productive garden season. Sometimes around this time of year I experience some garden fatigue which is diminished by the discovery of the first cucumber, harvesting lemon grass from the front yard or watching the birds eat the first ripe figs of the season. Mid-summer can also be overwhelming in the garden…the neat rows that were planted in the spring may not be distinguishable. Holes start to appear once the early summer crops finish their productive cycle. There is still lots of potential left and a large variety of crops that can be planted now and for the next few weeks from seed for late summer, fall and early winter harvest. I will be planting salad and cooking greens, cabbage, brussel sprouts, carrots, beans, parsnips, onions and some fall squash that I started a few weeks ago. I am particularly excited about a variety of cabbage called Caraflex that is tear dropped shaped. I need to get the seeds ordered from Johnny's Seeds and get them in the ground in the next few weeks.

On Thursday evening at 8:00 I am giving a talk at Greater Goods about July in the garden. I am going to discuss what I am doing in my garden and the other gardens we planted this spring. Yesterday I got a call about planting a late summer vegetable garden and we will start next week…it is not too late! This list helps orient me when I am trying to figure out how to proceed in the garden this time of year.

1.Make an assessment. What is working? What is not?
2.Make a plan for the rest of the season.
3.Order seeds if necessary or contact local plant stores to see what they have and will be getting in.
4.Fertilize- top dress crops that are growing or work organic material into soil where you are replanting.
5.For crops that will continue to produce throughout the summer treat problems such as bugs eating leaves, not enough water, not enough sun….
6.Weed and water!
7.Monitor closely so you do not miss ripe vegetables. Certain vegetables such as cucumbers seem to go from immature to over ripe in a matter of hours.
8.Make certain that tall growing vegetable plants have enough support, Stake up or provide support with lattice.
9.Keep track of what works in your garden, varieties that thrive and those that do not…I can never remember year to year what was successful unless I write it down.
10.Enjoy the process and don’t concentrate only on the yield enjoy the experimentation and the many variables.

Fishing Mission

Jim Chambers wants to spread the word! He will tell you he is on a mission and like missionaries he has pamphlets to pass out: Blue Ocean Institute Guide to Ocean Friendly Seafood.

He moseys up and plops down on a kitchen stool. “Did you know it takes 4 pounds of wild Salmon to raise one pound of farm Salmon?” Jim immediately takes on the Salmon farm fishing industry. He lays out the immorality of farm fisheries and when we get to level six, causing cancer, after moving from the immediate pollution problems of the farm (same as pigs) to the destruction of the entire species of salmon by farm escapees watering down genes in the wild, we make the mistake of asking, “What kind of Cancer?” “THE KIND THAT KILLS YOU! What do you mean what kind of cancer?” The last thing he wants is to get mired in an anthropocentric conversation about cancer–there is an ocean to be saved!

We jump to a conversation on how Grouper change from female to male and how these fish use the tide and moving water to keep the coral reef from devouring their eggs. There is an aggressive Male that watches over the flock–the fishermen know this, pluck him and you have the whole flock…Jim has a MA in fishing science from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and worked for thirty five years in the federal government at the National Marine Fisheries Service. His job was to protect marine wildlife, as he says, from the Army Corp of Engineers. "They would propose an oil rig in the Chesapeake Bay and then we would have to convince everyone just how stupid this was." It seems for Jim things are very simple and humans complicate things with their great ideas and self importance, you can feel him convey a message of keep it simple, things are bad but they are going to be OK. In the mean time enjoy some WILD fish.

Jim retired from the federal government in 1999 and opened Prime Seafood five and a half years ago. He started working with Robert Wiedmaier of Marcel’s and then had the chef introduce him to some of his cheffing buddies… Jim wants you to know that being a Locavore when it comes to seafood may not be such a good idea, For 350 years we have been depleting the Eastern Atlantic water of fish and besides the regulating of Wild Rockfish we have not been careful about it. “Look not to eat Alaskan WILD Salmon when they are in season would just be a mistake.” It’s a no brainer!

Jim tells of a Cobia farm off the shores of Panama and plans of his to start an importing business that flies fish from the Atlantic coast of Nicaragua–a deal that was done until the economy crashed… How does Jim stay in business in the summer: “follow the golfers, it took me five years to learn this” as if to say I study people now and their migrations and we need to change some of their habits. Just like that Grouper on the coral Jim is looking after his flock.

He brought us fresh Georgia shrimp with the heads on–this past Home Restaurant we grilled them up with just lemon juice and fresh herbs from the garden.

The Practice of Readymades

Around about the same time the NGA showed an exhibition on Dada we bought a bottle dryer much like the one Marcel Duchamp showed as part of his ongoing experiments with what he called readymades. John had just finished a MFA in sculpture and we were all somewhat obsessed with this show and the thoughtful presentation of the effects of war and the critical stance of Dadaism.

We go to this place in Frederick Maryland that imports wonderful everyday objects from around the world that seem exotic to us here in the States. We have bought a beer house table from Germany that I work on. I plant in old English terra cotta pots–Also many Chinese boxes I use for flower arrangements. Currently we keep cooking-wood in an egg basket they imported from Eastern Europe. I find useful things there, as I am always looking to do flowers in unusual containers.

On one trip John became obsessed with the bottle dryer explaining the sculptural aspect, the Dada symbolism and the relationship of the 1990's to the period in between the two World Wars when Dadaism thrived. John will tell you, you can learn a whole lot more from Duchamp than you can from Plato … I have to say we were all pretty excited about this object in that we thought we had bought a meaningful piece of art for our house. Until recently this object languished in the basement.

The thing the readymades and what Dadaism did so well as a movement was to point to the visual beauty, the ridiculousness, the prosaic and the violence of everyday life. That is to say: it is what it is and isn’t that wonderful and horrible at the same time. The readymades have been described as "an ordinary object elevated to the dignity of a work of art by the mere choice of an artist."

In an absolute nostalgia for something that never existed for us we expose our post modern tendencies. For us to relate to a bottle dryer as an everyday object was silly. This was an everyday object of Duchamp's France. We were relating to the symbolism of a something that could never be everyday for us. We were relating to a (non)political art movement of the past. Marcel would be laughing at us. For us an everyday readymade object from our surburban Maryland upbringing, (as Jeff Koons exhibits) would probably be something like an upright vacum cleaner...

However as we started Home restauranting and making twice as much kombucha, we have discovered we need this bottle dryer. We reuse wine bottles and mason jars and NOW have a place for them to hang elegantly and dry. Unlike the Artist who peed in Duchamp's urinal a few years ago, our gesture is not symbolic but necessary. We may be getting that last laugh although for our 10 year old, Martin-Lane, this bottle dryer will be an everyday object…

12:32 AM

We are sitting at the kitchen table, the last plates are being washed–a few sheet trays being put away, we congratulate one another for not breaking any glasses—Martin Lane is sound asleep after receiving applause for her efforts… Our bodies are exhausted but there is an exhilarating feeling of a past that can never be present and a future that will never exist… Washington can be a very difficult city to live and work and quite frankly for many a relentlessly thankless place to be–this weekend the Washington we experienced was contrary to the cynical DC we sometimes know… Two Wonderful nights of guests who seemed to be where they wanted to be and were open to letting us take care of them… thank you!

Jackie Maisonneuve is a Corcoran Shool of Art student working on her Senior Thesis in Photo-Journalism. Jackie spent the weekend shooting us working in our home/studio. Here are her efforts:

Practical Application of Twitter

Twitter? I did not think anyone would be interested in what I am doing hourly or for that matter would take the time to read. However, after my third post of what I thought was a mundane picture of Sally Jackson’s goat cheese I received a tweet to keep them coming.

We started with the idea that diners could follow dinners we were specifically preparing for them. It also turns out that wedding parties can follow the production of their flowers. Hopefully we sprinkle in tips and information that others can use. I know I have made new connections that have led to an interview for an Indian publication.

Early this week someone I am cooking for emailed after a tweet of gorgeous eggplant: “Don’t kill me I am allergic to eggplant.” So I guess the practical application of Twitter, for us, is an interaction that rules out a lot of the guessing. When people who you are creating an aesthetic experience for get a glimpse of where you are going and what you are doing, both literally and figuratively, it is inevitable that you will receive feedback. However is it really feedback if the experience has not happened, maybe feedforward… I realize that we are not at the level of interest of Lance Armstrong or the importance of the Iranian situation but we do hope we encourage a few to eat healthy and maybe even plant a garden.

Composting Compost

We wanted to start composting but we had to take into consideration that there are a lot of rats in our neighborhood. Washington DC was built on a swamp and there are many underground creeks and small water ways. So much so that when the DC government began to build the convention center near our house it was suggested to us that we get flood insurance.

Where there is water there are pests and where there is rotting or not rotting food you will find pests. It seems everyone who lives in DC for a long enough time has a 'Rat Story'. Here is ours: When our daughter was still breast feeding one night she was in bed with us and I woke up to slight clatter in the room. I shook John and said there is something in the room. He turned on all the lights and assured me that nothing was there... We have had some recent intruders (rodents) so we were a little on edge. He assured me so we turned off the lights and in about as long as it took for him to say "don't worry" a RAT jumped on his head! He sprung up and chased that rat down the hall throwing books from the night stand in the direction of the beast. When John returned we determined that there were no funds to spend the night at the Four Seasons and the morning was coming soon, our restaurant was going to need us. So we barred the door, put a towel between the threshold and the door and slept with the lights on. When we woke the next morning we were horrified to see where the rat had given birth in the TV room and after talking to the exterminator we found out that the Mama rat was hungry and was interested in the smell of breast milk. This was very creepy but made sense to us in that we had no food in the house for we had a restaurant full of food at that time and there was no need to stock the larder at home. The beast had chosen the wrong house. John and the exterminator convinced me that it was only a mouse but now I know otherwise. About four years ago we had the side of our yard dug up and sheet metal put in–never to see a rat indoors since.

So when we became more serious about our garden we wanted to start composting. Our concern was directed to the quality of life issue of getting pest free sleep. We discovered an incredibly fun solution in the worm farm. A worm farm is a multi layered housing unit about the size of a milk crate. Fill it with rich deep dark soil let your large juicy supple worms go and feed them the peelings or compostable waste from your kitchen. The worms eat the kitchen waste and create castings which are the richest compost available. There is a spigot on the worm farm so you can drain out the juice into a watering can and pour the concentrated nutrients onto your plants. Easy, fast, effective method if space is an issue.

More recently we took over the abandoned lot next door to grow tomatoes and greens for our neighborhood. Encouraged by this our neighbors asked us to think about the larger lot behind us on Marion St. (more about this in an upcoming blog post). SO more compost is necessary, we went to Greater Goods on U street near 17th street and bought a Sun–Mar 200 Garden Composter. The neat thing about this composter is that it is a barrel hooked up to an apparatus that allows the thing to spin on its side. This means that the usable compost accumulates in a center compartment giving you the option to use how ever much or little you need–you don't need to use the whole batch or wait for the whole batch to be ready. And yes it is sealed so it will not attract rats!

We are having fun stuffing this contraption with garden, kitchen and flower waste and spinning the barrel. Making compost is a lot like making bread, that is to say that the similarities lie in the marrying of raw ingredients in order to let them rise/ripe into a substance that cultivates a metamorphoses and that product is food.

By the way I am giving a talk that I will post later at Greater Goods titled: July is Not Too Late to Plant a Garden!

Pulling Corks

Our wine guy, Tom Kiszka, dropped by this afternoon with his selections for a private Home Restaurant and a Nomadic Restaurant (in a home in Great Falls) we are doing this weekend. We have people drop by all the time delivering flowers, wine, fish, beef–the great thing about our situation is most of the people we work with are experts in their field. Lucky for us we deal with small business so it is usually these experts who deliver the goods. Some days our home is like Mr. Rogers Neighborhood where everyone from astronauts to bakers to shoemakers show up to share their knowledge–only at our place it's a marine biologist, a scientist, an Eco-farmer, an occasional Amish farmer with driver, and Tom–an oenologist.

Tom is wearing Merrell sandals, jeans and a polo shirt. There is no pretension with Tom and unless you engage him, he is in and out–He is busy! He walks in the kitchen and we immediately thank him for the wines he sends us–making us look so good! Our last dinner consisted of five selections, one for each course, where only one was red. We tell him how the guests were raving about the wine and how most would have never chosen a white if they were left on their own. He says that is great, that is what he hopes for, stretching others experience. Strangely enough he says he has to force people to try whites all the time. He uses phrases like 'Pull Corks' and 'they are really out there' when describing winemakers, retailers or restaurants who are pushing the envelope. "Indie Stores NO chains, if my clients find these wines in the usual places they are pissed!"

You definitely get the feeling that Tom likes being apart of something underground, but something underground that has been going on for hundreds of years: "Small Artisan Wine is what we do". He uses terms like bio-dynamic, beyond organic, viticulture and we start to feel like we are talking to our farmer friends. The language is that of gardeners and farmers involved in a high stakes game with everything from government regulation to large corporations slowing them down–sound familiar.

Once we got Tom to sit down–he tells stories. One of a patch of chalk in the region of Champagne that grows Chardonnay for large producers, one day this grape grower figures that he is sitting on something special that's being wasted in some respect--this guy starts to produce his own domain by saving the best grapes for himself and sending all the rest to large Champagne makers--Jacques Lassaigne, Les Vignes De Montgueux is what we served with a cherry pie at our last dinner. Another story is of a winemaker who in the mid nineteen seventies adopted a Bio-dynamic approach after doctors told him pesticides were killing him. Most thought he was crazy, but thirty five years later, this winemaker is extremely healthy and his land has no rot or fungus and the wine is amazing.

Tom says you learn these stories by visiting the vineyards and then begin to understand why a wine is the way it is–when for example the maker explains the reasons why grass is grown in between the vines you are seeing and tasting–things start to make sense. When you experience these artisans in their habitat, when you can smell the soil, you realize that winemakers have always been Farmers. Tom brings the small farmer's work to us way before anyone knew who Michael Pollan was.

Tom is an importer and a distributor, his clients are retailers and restaurants, "my clients travel with me and the best wine stores pull corks--educate! French and Italian labels are difficult..." He says the first thing you should do if you want to get into wine, is find a good retailer. A good retailer pours wine and teaches varietals and regions. How comforting to hear a wine expert tell you that a label is difficult! "You need to taste!" he says and the only way to demystify is to let go of all the inhibition and taste–practice.

We asked: Do you think there is a disconnect between wine AND food within the way Americans practice wine drinking? "If you pop open a Cabernet with 16% Shiraz and you down it before dinner, I don't know how you taste anything. Look, I don't open wine just to drink and when you visit good wine makers and do tastings, there is always food." His basic point is that wine "shows" best with food and is best enjoyed incorporated into a practice of eating and drinking, not separated.

What Tom does for us is match our food with his wine. We asked him to walk us through this process "the first thing I do is look for an ingredient that point towards a varietal–mushrooms and Pinot Noir–greatest match–if no other ingredient cancels–difficult when ingredients are at odds" but Tom likes this challenge and seems to have an eye for singularities and the tensions that create complex flavors yet are simple enough to stand on their own. The absolute singular encounter of a wine maker AND a vineyard AND a year AND an ingredient AND another ingredient...Tom wants to demystify the practice of drinking wine, through education and an understanding of the process, that wine making is an organic process and most of all that wine and food are a practice that are learned...

We plan on having Tom join us this fall for a dinner or two at our Home Restaurant...We are sure it will be interesting.

Places you can find Tom's Potomac Selections:

Arrow Wine, Arlington, Va
Chesapeake Wine, Baltimore, Md
Cork Wine Bar, Washington, DC
Barrel Thief, Richmond, Va

Wood Burning Grill

Photo: Martin-Lane Cochran

About 15 years ago Johns father gave us this amazing wood burning grill from The Grillery. He had ordered it from the J. Peterman Catalog before the current online incarnation of the formerly well drawn catalog. We didn't know what we had, this quirky stainless steel box with the contraption mechanics of a gopher trap. You build a wood fire in the bottom grate, then you crank the grilling surface up away from the fire or down towards the heat. There is also a rotisserie attachment that is ideal for poultry. A primitive effective technology. The cranks look like something from an old submarine or something you would find on a firetruck and there are piano like wires that guide the grilling surface near and away from the fire. Really the perfect way to control heat while cooking on an open fire: proximity! More importantly as soon as you have fire you can start cooking--No waiting for coals to get just right.

This fourth we grilled kobucha squash, corn and small onions that cooked in tin foil. We used hickory wood that wasn't too strong for our veggie burgers made of shelling beans from our garden, kidney beans and bulgar wheat. I was very concerned that the burgers would stick but Not only did they not stick we got gorgeous grill marks as the burgers crisped up yet stayed moist inside.

When we had the restaurant we where so into the purity of everything and controlling variables that I think we may have resisted a few technologies that could have been helpful... Some even sitting in our backyard.

The Grillery will make it's first Professional appearance at a sold out home restaurant we are doing this Saturday July 11...