I hope that all of you enjoy Fall Vegetables as much as I do. What’s fun about the change of seasons is that we are forced into creative ways to cook with the new bounty of the season. In this way, your food is never boring and you don’t get stuck eating the same foods day in and day out.

Here are 3 recipes and buying tips featuring some fall vegetables:  beets, parsnips and pumpkin.

Roasted Beet salad in Orange Dressing

A zero waste salad where every bit of an ingredient is used. Not only do I love the beets deep red hue, and their sweetness, but I really get a kick out of using the whole vegetable, root and the greens. In this salad the beets along with the greens are used and for the dressing, the orange zest along with the oranges are used as well.

You can forgo boiling beets by roasting them in foil and avoid the mess that comes with the red staining on the pots.

Buy beets that are firm with smooth skins and tops attached. They should have a deep, rich purple-red color. Choose small to medium beets as they are usually sweeter and more tender. Beet tops should be fresh looking and dark green, not wilted or slimy.

Adapted from Bon Appétit, January 2004

Ingredients

6 medium beets with beet greens attached
2 medium oranges
1 small red onion, finely diced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
Sea salt to taste
Freshly ground pepper

1      Preheat oven to 400°F. Cut the greens from beets. Remove and discard stems. Chop the leaves coarsely and set them aside. Wrap each beet in foil. Place beets directly on oven rack and roast for about 1 hour, until tender when pierced with fork.

2      Let beets cool. Peel beets and then cut each into 8 wedges. Place beets in medium bowl.

3      Cook beet greens in large saucepan of boiling water just until tender, about 2 minutes. Drain and cool. When greens are at room temperature, squeeze them to remove excess moisture. Add greens to bowl with beets.

4      Zest the orange, then cut peel and white pith from oranges. Working over another bowl and using a paring knife, cut between membranes to release segments (this is called supreming).

5      Add orange segments and onion to bowl with beet mixture.

6      Whisk oil, garlic, orange zest in small bowl to blend; add to beet mixture and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour. Serve.

Maple Roasted Parsnips

The parsnip is a root vegetable that is a relative to the carrot, although much paler they do resemble each other. Typically parsnips are part of the main ingredient in a soup base or roasted for a richer flavor. For this dish the parsnips are roasted into a caramelized deliciously sticky texture, which makes them so moreish. You will not be able to resist them.

Choose parsnips that are firm, unblemished and small or medium in size (about 8 inches long). Large parsnips may have woody centers but, unlike carrots, broad tops are not an indication of woody cores. Parsnips range in color from pale yellow to creamy white. Avoid limp, shriveled or blemished parsnips with moist spots or a lot of tiny hairlike roots.

Ingredients

2 pounds parsnips, peeled and sliced

5 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons maple syrup

2 tablespoons wholegrain mustard

Salt to taste

Serves 4

1       Preheat oven to Roast at 375F

2      Parboil parsnips in a stockpot under a medium high flame for 4 minutes.

3      Drain, then put in an ovenproof dish, and toss with olive oil and salt. Roast 45 minutes.

4      In a bowl, mix maple syrup and mustard together, and pour over parsnips when done. Roast for another 5 minutes more to set the taste.

Pumpkin Soup

The original recipe for this soup was made famous by the Jerusalem Ramada Renaissance Hotel, however I added more depth to this by adding some warming ingredients like cinnamon so that it would be more suitable for the Northeast climate.

Choose pumpkins that are heavy for their size and free of blemishes.

Ingredients

2 large yellow onions, diced

1 inch fresh ginger, grated

4 tablespoons vegetable oil

7 cups water

1 ½ pounds pumpkin, cubed or 1 ½ 15- ounce cans of pumpkins

1 medium white potato, peeled and cubed

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

½ cup apple sauce

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon vegetable soup mix (Gluten Free)

1 tablespoon salt

¼ teaspoon white pepper

½ cup half &half creamer

pine nuts for garnish, optional

Serves 10

1. In a stainless steel pot under medium high flame, sauté onions in oil until golden.   Then stir in ginger.

2. Add the water, pumpkin, potato, applesauce and sweet potatoes. Bring to a boil. Cover, lower heat, and simmer for about 35 minutes. Let it cool.

3. With a hand blender, puree vegetables until smooth.

4. Add soup mix, salt, cinnamon, pepper and maple syrup and continue simmering for an additional ten minutes.

5. Stir in creamer and remove from heat. Serve sprinkled with pine nuts.

Photos: Lauren Krohn

The last time I hosted a vegan Shabbat dinner for friends, I planned it a couple of weeks in advance. Although I only came up with the idea of hosting this past Friday’s dinner four days earlier, there was still an “agenda.” First, I wanted to rely chiefly on produce purchased at the Union Square farmers’ market earlier in the day. Second, I wanted to use some red, white, and blue foods, as Independence Day was just two days away.

The week before the dinner, I attended a “Cooking With Seasonal Vegetables” class at B’nai Jeshurun, a synagogue in Manhattan. Event organizer Melissa Tapper Goldman explained, “I wanted to help support the members of BJ’s new Hazorim CSA [community-supported agriculture program] to transition into CSA living: learning to cook flexibly with the bounty of the season. This is different from supermarket (or even farmers’ market) cooking because the variety and quantity are set by the land and the farm rather than by your preferences.” Victoria Sutton, who runs the company Catering by Victoria, led about 10 people in making a mixture of roasted and cubed red and golden beets, a dish involving the beet greens (the edible leafy greens that are on the end opposite the beet bottoms), and quinoa.

On Friday, I found that the greens from the two different types of beets were surprisingly different from each other in texture and color. I made a stir-fry that included both varieties of beet greens, seitan, green pepper, onions, and garlic. It was probably the centerpiece of the meal, and the leftovers have long since been devoured.

I had never cooked beets before, but the roasted beets came out great. I actually only thought of my red, white, and blue plan after I’d done my shopping, so I thought it’d be nice to present the beets over a bed of thinly sliced, baked “chips” made from blue potatoes. It turned out that the juice from the red beets interfered with the color scheme I had in mind, but the cubed beets and the chips still turned out well individually.

I thought the raspberries and blackberries would complement the red and white beets for the red, white, and blue collage pictured above. Of course, had I thought of the color scheme prior to shopping, I would’ve purchased blueberries instead of blackberries!

I also served dal (using lentils, onions, and garlic I still had left over from my friend’s Veggie Conquest 4 adventure), charoset (made legendary by my Veggie Conquest 3 adventure), carrot salad with scallion microgreens and parsley, and wild rice. I decided to use store-bought pita instead of homemade challah, as the latter just didn’t come out too great in my last few baking attempts.

I managed to make a scrumptious vegan Shabbat dinner that relied heavily on fresh produce from the farmers’ market, getting more mileage out of beets than I would’ve thought possible. It goes to show that vegan meals don’t need soy foods to get by. Why have “Killer Tofu” when The Beets rock so much?

Cross-posted to heebnvegan

This article is crossposted to Gothamist and was written by Zoe Schlager.  Red Jacket Orchard often donates apples to Hazon events.

Since 2005, the Department of Health has been developing an initiative to provide fresh produce and low fat milk to neighborhoods that rely on the nutrition-devoid wares of their local bodega. Progress has been slow, and while the low fat milk initiative was deemed a success in 2008, the produce side of things has been anything but. Finally, the Healthy Bodegas Initiative [pdf here] is gaining some real momentum, thanks to the NY state farmers that have begun to revitalise the project.

One such farm is Red Jacket Orchards, located in the upstate Finger Lakes region, which has had a presence at NYC greenmarkets with their apples, juices, and just about everything fruit-related for years. They’ve been working with the DOH but have taken it a step further, hoping to not only bring their fruit stuffs to the underserved neighborhoods in East and Central Harlem, the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn, but also outfit them with proper refrigeration. Those beer fridges just don’t do the job when it comes to produce. We spoke to Justone Bossert, the director of the orchard’s greenmarket goings-on, to see where the initiative is headed.

Tell me about your involvement with Red Jacket Orchards, and with the Healthy Bodegas project. How did you get started? My involvement with Red Jacket Orchards stems from my own family’s farming history, a now-defunct dairy farm in New Hampshire, that had a bigger impact on me than I realized growing up. When fate led me to Red Jacket Orchards it connected in a deep way.

Red Jacket Orchards is a 3rd generation farm located in Geneva, NY owned and farmed by the Nicholson family. I’ve been working for the Nicholson family for 7 years now and I currently run our farmers market operations here in New York City. Farmer markets are a big focus for the farm because they allow us to connect directly with the customers that eat our food. We are currently at over 30 farmers markets in NYC and we really pride ourselves on our relationship with NYC customers. To make our NYC operations work, we’ve had to create new infrastructure to support and extend local food systems, which we also use to help other local farmers reach customers in NYC.

Our Healthy Bodegas Project started when Michael Hurwitz of Greenmarket and Donya Williams of the Dept. of Health of NYC approached us to help solve the problem of the lack of healthy food access in under-served communities. We are a small family farm, but we have a unique capacity in NYC and we began discussions on how to use that to help battle the inequities of our food system. Our Healthy Bodegas Project is what came from those conversations.

I see you guys at Union Square Greenmarket all the time, and in McCarren Park this past weekend. How long have you guys had a presence in the city? What’s your best-selling product? I love your juice, by the way. It’s great to hear you’re a fan. The McCarren Park Greenmarket is one of our most popular. It is every Saturday and it goes year-round. We have been attending markets in the city since 1992 and unlike most farms, when we chose to commit to the Greenmarket program we also chose to become a part of NYC. We established a hub in Greenpoint and began to hire NYC-based staff so that we could become a part of this community that has given us so much support. Our best-selling product varies with what we have available as the seasons change, but some perennial favorites are our apricots, Honey Crisp apples, and our 100% Fuji apple juice.

How receptive have you found bodega owners to be to stocking the fresh fruit and using the refrigerators, when they may be taking up real estate in the store for the prepackaged products that they may initially sell more of? We are just getting started, but overall the bodega owners have been extremely supportive and excited to be involved. Many of the bodega owners want to serve healthier food but they are limited in what they are capable of doing. Beverage companies give them free refrigerators but then limit what they are allowed to put in there. If they want to sell healthy food, many of them don’t have the refrigerator space based on their agreements with the larger companies that push the unhealthy stuff. Additionally, the distributors that supply the bodegas normally don’t have healthy options and so some bodegas have gone so far as to buy fresh produce at retail and then resell it in their communities. The outcome of this is that people in these neighborhoods are paying more money for lower quality foods.

Our goal for this project is to create a sustainable and viable distribution model that will allow bodegas to sell healthy local options. A large part of this is to create a model that allows the bodega owners to profit while still creating affordable options. We want to copy the methods that have worked for junk food companies and use them for healthy local food.

How do you choose which bodegas to partner with? Our program is partnered with NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene of NYC’s Healthy Bodegas Initiative. They have done a lot of great work over the years reaching out to bodegas but unfortunately don’t have the ability to actually supply them with products. Our part of it is to create a new distribution system to pick up where they left off.

The Department of Health has an extensive network of bodegas and they act as our matchmaker, finding the best bodegas to be involved with our program. We are just starting the program but we already are working with a dozen bodegas. Our goal is to have it grow much larger. We’d like for it to be a scalable model to connect farms to food deserts in NYC and elsewhere. We need support to get it there.

How much of this initiative relies on the bodega owner, once they agree to stock the fresh product?The bodega owner has to be interested in supplying healthier food. Thankfully many of the owners we have spoken to are interested. But it has to make financial sense, so we help them with signs, display, informational handouts and storage, and we work to get the word out to the community to let them know that these bodegas have healthy food for sale. The bodega owners are the ones selling the product on a day-to-day basis, but we try to offer them education and support so that are able to better do it.

Are you reducing the prices of your fruit and juice to make them comparable to the prices of the less-healthy products that are already in the bodegas? In addition to the investment we are making in getting the program up and going, we are lowering prices as much as we can to make this work, but for this to be a viable option in the future we can’t create a price that relies on outside funding. The goal is to prove that this model can bring the good food movement to those communities that have been left out of it thus far. If this is something that we want other people to adopt and adapt around the country it has to become self-sufficient at some point.

As far as comparable pricing with cheaper stuff, like junk food, that’s why the program is starting with apples. Apples are a cheap, snack-ready fruit that can compete on price with a lot of the processed stuff.

How are the customers of these bodegas reacting to the presence of new produce? Are they hesitant or receptive? Does it ever feel like a lost cause in regards to some of the customers? It has been challenging for sure, but already we’ve had quite a few success stories. Sometimes it’s a challenge to get customers to try something new; however, once a person tries fresh picked, tree-ripened fruit the “Wow” factor is huge; combine that with it’s high nutrient density and it’s the best value in the store. People notice things like that in any neighborhood. There may be some people who don’t seem interested, but there are even more who are grateful to finally have access to good food. It’s definitely not a lost cause.

Once people learn that their bodegas have healthy options, customers are reaching out to their friends and family to let them know and that is the key. If this program is going to succeed we need everyone in these communities who want fresh local food to be available to come out and support it now that it is.

Has the presence of your fruit caused demand for other produce in the bodegas? Bodega owners are excited to have a distribution route dedicated to getting them fresh local produce. Right now, it is just Red Jacket products, but we plan to grow to include other produce from our neighbors’ farms. We need to build up our capacity to get there, but the interest is there and we plan to build to meet it.

How much will you be relying on volunteers, if at all? Right now, we do not have any volunteers. While getting the program going we have been maximizing our current capacity, and many of our people have donated a lot of their time to help because this is something we all believe in. We would be open to volunteers to help get the word out in the community and do cooking demos at the bodegas.

If there are people interested in supporting this project, we need people to get the word out about ourKickstarter campaign so we can raise the funds we need to make this a success. We will be announcing the bodegas we are working with on the Kickstarter campaign website and people can shop there to show their support.

How successful would you say the city has been with the Healthy Bodegas project? And with healthy food promotion in general? They’ve done very well considering their limitations. We are very pleased that this inequity is being addressed at some level by the city government.

Your Kickstarter video talks about getting proper refrigeration to these bodegas. That sounds expensive. Will that be donation-based or will it be out of pocket for you guys? It is expensive, but it is necessary. The produce is only as good as its handling and that’s part of the reason why we need to raise funds to get this program launched. If we really want to get healthy food to these underserved areas then we also need to get the tools to keep the food healthy and fresh. Healthy, natural food needs to be refrigerated. Since most of the current refrigeration is sponsored by soda and beer, that’s what you find in them.

So long as the food is handled and stored correctly it will always win people over who try it. That is how good food has made a comeback, by winning first on pleasure with good health as a most welcome bonus.

Tell me how you envision this project in 5 or 10 years. My hope is that we will raise the money we need to get the program expanded to the point where it becomes self-sufficient and then use it as model for other places.

In five years I would like to see Red Jacket’s own program grow to include food deserts in all five boroughs. The next neighborhood we are targeting after Bushwick is East New York and the Department of Health has identified bodegas we could work with in Harlem and the Bronx as well.

By the time ten years have passed I would hope there is a national discussion and consensus on how to get a vibrant local food system in every neighborhood in the country. All Americans should have access to food that will nourish not only their bodies but their communities and environments as well.

Related:

- Food Stamps and Farmers Markets

So you promised your boss you would go to work 1/2 day Monday, but you haven’t finished your shopping for the big night.  It’s Chicago.  It’s winter.  OK technically it’s Spring, but we’re all still wearing parkas and fantasizing about the sun returning.  And most importantly, the farmers’ market season in Chicago doesn’t really being until April.

Or does it?

A little-known gem is thriving right under your L stop in downtown Chicago!  Chicago’s Downtown Farmstand, located at 66 E. Randolph Street, is practically under the Randolph/Wabash stop, across from the Millenium Metra Train station, and open 6 days a week ALL YEAR.

I had to move back to my hometown after living in Santa Monica, CA for 9 years and the first culture shock was the absence of farmers’ markets from November-April.  In my sluething, I was directed here.  However “here” was embarrassingly difficult to find.  Meaning- when I finally found it, I gave myself the requisite thump on the head because it’s not terribly hidden – but I’ve since learned I’m not the only one who spent many weeks driving/walking past it without noticing it.  It’s part of a larger structure of community galleries, meeting rooms, etc.  So stick to your guns and remember “66 E. Randolph” and you’ll notice the lovely neon sign calling you into the little magical wonderland inside…

The mission here is to carry produce, meat, and baked goods grown, raised, baked within 250 miles of Chicago.  And it works.  I can get a full week’s worth of groceries here due to the variety offered.  And being vegetarian, I’m excluding some of the vendors.

So- what’s good for Passover?  Each week I get BEAUTIFUL greens for salads from Living Water Farms.  Add on onions, mushrooms, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes – the expansive vendor list can be seen online here: CDF Vendor List

Need vanilla?  How about some coffee extract? Rose Water?  You can find a solid variety of vanillas, sugars, extracts from the incomparable Waukegan-based, Kosher, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas.  They even have stacks of recipes at their display in case you are looking for an excuse to buy that Rose Water but have no clue what to do with it (like me).

More kosher yummy can be found in the front refrigerated section – top shelf – Futters Nut Butters. I can’t stop raving about their amazing chocolate nut butters – wow.

Some of my favorite items at this farmstand come from Nicole’s Divine Crackers.  Not kosher, but healthy, unleavened, organic and – wow – I just met her last week (more on that later) – this woman and her business partner “Little Grace” have a lot of chutzpah starting a new bakery/career when they were in their late 50′s (Nikki is now approaching 85).  Get some of Nicole’s “In Your Wildest Dreams” crackers (cranberry & pepper!) to munch on before sundown and then come back next week for more!

So – stop by this hidden year-round farmer’s market during your lunch break or on your way home Monday.  I’m sure you’ll find goodies to add local, organic love to your seder.  And if you need any help, the staff there is friendly, knowledgeable, and passionate about their farmers, their produce, and you.

…during the winter

…on a day other than Saturday

Those of us organic, sustainable foodies in Chicago are keenly aware of the famous Green City Market which stays open year-round by moving into the Nature Museum November-April.  But for us who observe Shabbat, the Saturday-only schedule they keep in the in winter months is sad news indeed.

So I finally kvetched – kvweeted? – to all the Chicago farmers market Tweeps I follow about how Jews are blocked from farmers market goodness in the winter.

The good people at The Local Beet promptly directed me to 2 markets, The Downtown Chicago Farmstand (open daily) and The Logan Square Farmers Market (Sundays 10am-1pm).  So I ran- ok I took 2 buses- to Logan Square last Sunday.  Tucked away in the Congress theatre at 2135 N. Milwaukee Avenue (just north of Armitage), here is what I found-

First I found none of the baked goods nor meats were kosher – so this won’t be your stop for Passover matzah, lamb, cheese, or macaroons if you adhere to rules of kashrut.  But the produce is fresh, organic, and local.  The baked goods are created using local ingredients.  Everything is grown, stirred, canned, and baked with love. So here we go…

First stop? Logan Square resident, Sarah Marino, from Oak Park’s Reform synagogue, B’nai Abraham Zion.  She stood behind a table directing shoppers where they could find each item for their seder.  Brilliant!

Next? Mushrooms! wow- beautiful, healthy, gorgeous mushrooms compliments of River Valley Ranch.

Across the way, the incomparable Paula Jeremias of Tiny Greens is juicing wheat grass and clipping fresh sprouts- sunflower, broccoli, arugula (yum!), onion, alfalfa… any of these turn a bowl of mixed greens into a gourmet entree.  Not to mention sprucing up that seder plate – something other than parsley would be a nice change, no?

Moving on…past the artisan cheeses, french baguettes, herbal teas, macaroons (more on these later)… Apples! Baskets and baskets and baskets of beautiful, apples from Hillside Orchards in Michigan.

Next stop? Free Range eggs from chickens fed organic greens while living at Tempel Farms.

Across the way, is the lovely Anne Kostroski of Crumb with her homemade matzah made with eggs and honey from this market!  Sadly it is not kosher for Pesach – she explained to me this is something she’s made for her family seders for years, and finally this year she decided to bring it to the market.  It’s the BEST matzah you’ll ever eat, I promise. 1/2 dozen pieces are $4, Dozen is $8.  If you’d like to learn more about Anne and her matzah, check out Brad Moldofsky’s article This is NOT your Mother’s Bread of Affliction.

Next to Anne is the Elgin-based, Dennanne Farms.  They have the most extraordinary soaps- seriously, get your clean on at with Denny & Anne Bukala while grabbing yummy honey to make your own homemade matzah.

After the sweet, is the savory of Herbally Yours.  I picked up a bottle of their Rosemary Garlic vinegar and have enjoyed the best salads all week.  Their Basil Oregano Vinegar is ridiculous (and award-winning).  And, of course, these herbs and more can be purchased from them sans vinegar.  Just ask.  He LOVES his product and the herbs and will insist you taste everything he’s got.  And it’s all amazing.

So that’s all that’s safe for Passover – not counting the matzah – but I wonder if the love and care put into this matzah could possibly be considered worthy of kosher status – just minus the official man officially supervising the love and care…so I had to mention it.

One more worth mentioning, but not kosher for Pesach, Macaron Chicago – Beth Jacob handcrafts these little lovelies and ohhhhh that Mayan Chocolate one is out of this world delight.  When shopping Sunday morning, stop by, grab a box or two (or 5), to munch on while cleaning and prepping Sunday night and Monday afternoon.  You will be so happy you did!

So this was late posting- sometime technology gets the better of me (like spilling soda on my dear little mac – thank goodness for the computer fix-it saints in that basement shop around the corner from me).  Hopefully you’re reading this as you sip your morning coffee Sunday thinking “gosh I wish I could go to a farmers market this morning instead of Whole Foods”.  Go! Enjoy!

Check out this great article in the L.A. Times about the Progressive Jewish Alliance organizing a tour of food deserts in Los Angeles. Here’s an excerpt from the article:

“Jewish community groups aim to broaden the growing local and national campaigns to attract more supermarkets to poor neighborhoods, where limited access to healthful food has been linked to obesity, diabetes and other diseases. Programs are sprouting up in Louisiana, New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania.”

Read more here.

Here in Portland we’re fortunate to have a year-round farmer’s market, and I’m always on the lookout for interesting, tasty, off-the-beaten-path things to make for Pesach. I love serving fresh asparagus at my seder, but it’s not in season yet, so I was looking for an alternative. Our local mushroom purveyor, Springwater Farm, offers a great variety of mushrooms, but they also sell other wild/foragable foods, including fiddlehead ferns and bags of stinging nettles. Here’s a link to some fiddlehead fern recipes.

The fiddleheads can be served in lieu of asparagus; just blanch them in boiling water and saute in garlic with a little salt.

Despite their sting, nettles are a great thing to eat (once you cook them, the sting goes away). Nettles have been a staple of traditional medicines for centuries, but they’re also amazingly (for a vegetable) high in protein, and a delicious way to get some greens in your diet during the winter. Here’s a great recipe for nettle mushroom soup (it might be good with matzah balls, you never know), posted with permission from its creator, chef Kathryn Yeomans:

Nettle Mushroom Soup

1/2 lb young nettles
2 oz. butter, or olive oil
1 lb. potatoes
a pinch of chile flake
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 lb mixed wild and cultivated mushrooms
2 qt good quality meat, chicken or vegetable stock
sea salt & black pepper to taste

Bring a pot of water to a boil.  Carefully add the nettles and cook until the stingers have softened, about a minute or two.  Drain the nettles, refresh them under cold water until cool enough to handle.  Squeeze them slightly to remove some of the water and chop them.  Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a soup pot over a medium flame.  Add the sliced potato and cook, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes have started to take on some color (10-15 minutes).  Add the chile flake and sliced garlic.  Cook for 1 more minute, break up potatoes slightly with a potato masher or wooden spoon, and then add the stock.  Bring to a boil.  Meanwhile, saute the mushrooms in additional oil.  Add them to the soup.  Season with salt and pepper.  Simmer the soup for 20 minutes, then add the nettles.  Warm through and serve.

Photos by Phil Mansfield

Every once in a while I feel sorry for myself because my kids won’t eat my lovingly prepared meals; for comfort, I seek out one of my fellow mom’s, specifically those with teen-agers. Invariably they look at me with a withering ‘well let me get you the violins and a stiff drink fast, your poor thing’ stare, reminding me that I am a mere amateur at kitchen rejection. When I hear their tales of trying to feed their teens, my load somehow seems lighter, more manageable. Snarky, picky, and sometimes downright nasty, it is no easy task to manage teens at the table.

Enter Rozanne Gold and her new book, Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs. I sat down with the author and discovered that the book’s appeal to teens is as organic as its recipes. Gold recently adopted a teen-ager and for the past few years they have been coming together as a family, in and out of the kitchen. Her daughter was one of five teen chefs engaged to prepare and test each recipe. Their collective industry and obvious enjoyment is evidenced throughout the book with hands-on pictures depicting their efforts.

“Something a little quirky is that everyone, everyone is talking about childhood obesity and overeating and diabetes and getting back to the table – no one wrote a book. Someone forgot to write the book.” She correctly assessed that the literature includes many books about cooking, kids, and healthy eating, but few if any that feature well known chefs who have cross referenced their work with a nutritionist in order to serve the teen audience. This gap as well as her family changes prompted her to write the book and have nutritionist Helen Kimmel review and validate the recipes. Coupled with her teen chefs’ participation and stamp of approval, the book has a tremendous sense of leading-edge authenticity.

“I like being the first to do things”, says Gold. A food pioneer, she graduated  from Tufts and and did graduate work at NYU. With no formal culinary training, Gold beg, borrowed, and stole experience, and at 23 became the Executive Chef at Mayor Koch’s Gracie Mansion. “I catered the first seder ever at Gracie Mansion. It was a great experience. The Mayor told me to put Perrier (instead of seltzer) in the matzo balls which I had never done before. I did a traditional seder for his family. Holiday favorites included anything with garlic, as well as brisket with vermouth, onions, and a bay leaf.” Many books and restaurants later, she has become a well known force in the food world.  Just this week, she broke boundaries by having her book referenced in the New York Times Health blog, as well as featured in the Science section for its unique approach.

Gold does admire others in the industry attempting to improve school and home meals for children, including Bill Telepan, Ann Cooper , and Lynn Fredericks. But for this book, she felt she had to pave a new path.  “Setting criteria for what eating fresh food means was a process. Working with the nutritionist, we definitely decided not to go the route of calories or counting, but to come up with some broader way of expressing healthy food. The original title was Ketchup Ain’t A Vegetable.”, laughed Gold.  “I’m not doctrinaire about this at all. There is so much discussion about good food and bad food. My solution, my definition is eat fresh food. Which is also a way of saying no processed food or very little processed food. That became my benchmark. The basis of every recipe is that a vegetable or a fruit has to be the star of the dish. You will find this in every recipe. That is my bottom line. The fact that there is very little meat in there is cognizant of the fact that kids are serious about wanting to be vegetarians; 80 – 90% of the book is suitable for vegetarians.”

Gold is very interested in sourcing.  As a restauranteur (The Rainbow Room) as well as a home cook, she is very aware of the power of purchasing. “I am interested in local but fresh is more important. We had the best peach we ever had in our life 2 years ago in March from Costco. I don’t know where it came from, I don’t know how it got there, but it was extraordinary. I’m not sure that is a bad thing. I understand the eco-system of farmers and sustainability and fresh, and we need to be very supportive of that. But I shop in a variety of places. I shop at Key Foods sometimes out of necessity. We have a wonderful farmer’s market here on Saturdays, and we’re always there buying wonderful things. And I am always in the city on Wednesday at the Union Square market.”

“It’s really exciting to be there at the farmer’s markets; if you are interested in trends and what’s happening, that is where the trends are happening today. That is so different than 20 years ago when trends happened from fancy chefs and from kitchens. Today, trends are happening by what you see at the farmer’s markets and that’s fabulous. Just to see the micro-greens…what the farmers are doing now, that’s where most of the creativity is coming from. I remember just a few months ago I walked by one of the stands at the farmers market and there were 10 different colors of radishes. 6 different colors of carrots. It was just breathtaking. Chef’s are very inspired by it.”

That being said, she also recognizes the challenges of urban life and trying to grow your own food.  “I do have a window box. It is hard to run a kitchen and run your garden. If a home cook has land to grow a garden, that is wonderful. I always grew up in and around the city, so it was never practical. I remember once when I was in college I was at my boyfriend’s house and I looked out the window and said, ‘Look, someone threw an eggplant out the window.’ Little did I know it was growing in his mother’s garden! I knew nothing about farming or sustainability – it was not the language at the time. I think it is exciting that it is now.”

The majority of recipes in this book are vegetarian, but there are few vegan offerings.  I asked Gold for her perspective on the movement. “I believe in culinary history and gastronomy.  My religion is much more in classic cuisine and less about anything doctrinaire. I believe in doing everything and eating everything and trying everything. In balance. Vegans would have to work really hard to have a well-balanced, nutritious, healthy diet. And that’s OK because they believe in something else like not eating animals of any kind – that is a different belief system.”

The book reads nicely with lush photography. It includes interesting and fun recipes such as sweet carrot jam, ginger scallion brown rice with scallions, fish tacos, and mac and cheese with cauliflower and red pepper sauce. And of course olive oil chocolate chip cookies, below for you and your teens’ enjoyment.  Who knows, you might end a meal with a smile, or at least a nod.

Want to win a copy of Eat Fresh Food: Awesome Recipes for Teen Chefs.? Leave a comment below about cooking for/with teens. Last date to post comments is 12/21/09. The winners will be notified on 12/22/09.

Courtesy of Rozanne Gold. All rights reserved.

Olive Oil Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes 24

2 cups self-rising flour
2/3 cup sugar
2 extra large eggs
½ cup olive oil
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
½ teaspoon pure almond extract
6 ounces miniature chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
2. Put the flour and sugar in the bowl an electric mixer. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, olive oil, and vanilla and almond extracts. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and mix until a smooth dough forms. The mixture will be slightly crumbly and a little oily.
3. Knead several times on the counter. Form into 24 balls and then shape into small ovals that are 1 ½ inches long and ¾ inch wide. Roll the tops in miniature chocolate chips. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper or use a Silpat pad. Place the cookies 1inch apart. Bake for 25 minutes or until firm to the touch. Remove from the oven and let cool on the pan. Remove with a spatula.

I love cooking big dinners especially when they come with interesting dishes or new culinary challenges.  Thanksgiving has been a favorite of mine for a long time, since I have in part not been celebrating the Jewish food holidays for all that long.   Even when I was college I was whipping up elaborate meals despite limitations to space (one year it was a dormitory kitchen in the basement of the building) or even supplies (I forgot to buy aluminum foil so I improvised by covering my chicken, not a turkey, in applesauce, which by the way kept the meat moist and gave it a slightly sweet flavor).

Living in New York City poses its own set of advantages and challenges.  I mean in New York, you can get anything and usually get it delivered (at least in Manhattan).  I’ve found that mostly to be true – that was until I tried to serve venison for Thanksgiving.

A couple of years ago I decided that Thanksgiving was all about traditions.  Whether or not the legends of Pilgrims and Indians was anything like what we used to represent out of construction paper, glue and paper bags, my Thanksgiving table was going to be full of indigenous and local produce.  That was remarkably easy to procure in New York City.  I ordered my Heritage Turkey at The City Bakery and gathered my veggies at farmer’s markets.  But venison is hard to find in NYC and the clock is always ticking.

Perhaps here is where I should point out that I start planning for this holiday weeks in advance.  I am totally a list maker and once the menu is set, I plot and plan on where and when I will procure what is required.  I dash around the City often picking up specialty items from various locations.  My grocery list is set by date and location.  But even with the best of planning there are always obstacles.

I had previously found venison at the 125th Street Fairway market, but around Thanksgiving they don’t restock specialty meats (like game) in favor of more room for turkeys.  This year, I played phone tag with “Raymond” the Meat Department manager for a week until he rudely told me no, they didn’t carry venison and would not special order for me despite previously telling me that he would do so if I would only call back later.  Apparently this is a stressful time of the year for Meat Department managers.

Not having much luck with any other grocery store I called, I made my case to the next obvious choice – Facebook.  “Mia Rut still needs venison. Fairway has been giving me the run around for a week only to hang up on me now. Very annoyed,” said my status update.  Remarkably there were some good suggestions including my uncle, who as a hunter apparently has a bunch of venison tucked away in his freezer.  Too bad he doesn’t live any closer.

So the search continues.  Time is running short, my money is running out and I think that our menu may have to be adjusted.  However, despite the lack of deer meat on our table, we have a slight variation to our theme this year.  We typically host a Thanksgiving Shabbat dinner, foregoing a big meal on Thursday in favor of a more communal Friday night (friends often share Thanksgiving with family, but will come over for Shabbat dinner the next night).

This year we are shaking things up by using traditional Thanksgiving ingredients placed into a traditional Ashkenazi Shabbat dinner – traditional flavors presented in surprising ways.  So instead of matzo ball soup and gefilte fish we are starting out with fish consume.  I even started testing out the more experimental dishes, and thus far they have had rave reviews.  Everything is homemade, even the cranberry pasta for the kugel (use cranberry juice concentrate instead of water) which was another feat of scouring the city for a pasta machine (that didn’t cost an arm and a leg). But feel free to weigh in how this menu sounds:

Corn Bread Challah
Fish Consume
Cornish Hens Roasted in Acorn Squash
Butternut Squash Gravy
Seared Venison Sashimi
Cranberry Sauce Kugel
Chestnut and Sage Stuffing in Baked Apples
Roasted Pumpkin in Soy and Crushed Sesame
Green Bean Gelee
Mashed Japanese Sweet Potatoes with Kimchi
Tzimmis Sorbet
Shoo-Fly Pie
Chocolate Cake

The Crossroads spirit was with me on Sunday. At 6 a.m., I headed down to the starting line of Washington D.C.’s Marine Corps Marathon decked out in my Crossroads Farmers Market shirt and fortified by a well-wishing card from the market’s director. (For anyone interested, my tummy was fortified by some organic coffee and a PB & J on sprouted grain bread–what I’ve found to be an excellent pre-race snack).

I went into this knowing that the campaign to rejuvenate the Crossroads’ Fresh Checks program for low-income shoppers through writing articles about it and running 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) had not actually reached its goal. My attempt at a charitable and world-healing act–an act of tikkun olam–had raised awareness and monetarily netted just shy of $700 ($698 to be exact) in donations. My goal was $1,000, but I was pretty sure I had reached my limit. The market managers had sent the ask to their supporters and shoppers, too, so together we had tried the best we could.

This seemed okay, just as I figured it was okay that I had never run more than 8 miles—never hit a milestone like 10 miles or a half marathon like many of my active pals had. I divided my athletic pursuits among a few sports, and wasn’t particularly good at or passionate about any of them.

When the race got underway, I started running with my friend Ellen as she began her first full marathon, and before I knew it, my original target distance had flowed under our feet. I don’t know if it was the rock music pumped in along the route, the water stations with their cheerful volunteers, or a fan club that shouted encouragement and ran with me and Ellen for portions of the course, but I just kept going.

How far did I go? I passed 8 miles, hit 9 and 10 and 12, and continued all the way to the halfway point of the marathon at 13.1 miles. This was 5 miles farther than I’d ever run before and 7 miles beyond my goal. Later, I joined Ellen again and ran the last 3 miles with her.

We crossed the finish line together—me clocking a total of 16 miles that day, and Ellen completing 26.2 miles. We celebrated with hugs, high-fives, and hydration. We also ate the most delicious pizza I’ve ever experienced.

I’m not sure if I’ll turn into a long-distance runner any time soon, but I have been inspired to continue to raise funds for Fresh Checks until the final market on October 28.

From this day, I think I’ve learned a lesson: The confluence of community support and good food can really work wonders, whether it be the wonders of running farther than you ever have in your life or putting healthy food on low-income families’ tables.

Read more about the successful but imperiled Fresh Checks program in The Washington Post and in my farmers market column. To give online, go to the Crossroads website and click on “Donate”.

Photo: Ellen, the marathoner (left), and the author after the marathon.