Supporting North Fulton Community Charities

As the weather gets cold and our thoughts turn to holiday giving, I wanted to take a moment and give attention to North Fulton Community Charities. For 30 years NFCC has supported families in need through out north Fulton. Not only do they run the theft shop on Elkins Road, but they organize a food bank, emergency assistance, winter coat drive and sponsor individual families for holidays. They even have a job assistance program. With federal benefits programs like SNAP being cut recently, needy families are counting more than ever on organizations like NFCC for help.

So what can we do to help? Here at Northside Foods Amalgamated Industries, we are frequent patrons of NFCC. Any time I clean out a closet, I set aside items we don't need anymore to donate to their thrift shop. We also shop there for deals on stuff that can be up cycled, like furniture and clothing.  When we have extra canned goods, they go to the food bank there. It's not much, but a little help is better than none, right?

NFCC anticipates serving over 1300 families in Roswell, Alpharetta, Johns Creek, Milton and Mountain Park this holiday season. These could be our neighbors, friends or co-workers. You never really know who needs a helping hand in our community. I'm setting a goal for myself of donating a few items every week to NFCC between now and January 1st.

NFCC is just one of many food banks and community assistance programs. Even if you aren't in my neighborhood, please consider supporting them.

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Easy Turnip Greens and Poached Egg Recipe

So I've been a little obsessed with poached eggs lately. We've been eating them in spicy mole sauce over rice, with toasted sourdough bread and over some fresh turnip greens. Yup, over greens.

A blogger that I've been following for awhile (The Slow Cook) eats sauteed greens for breakfast with a fresh poached egg on top. Well, if he can eat that for breakfast, I can eat it for dinner alongside some roasted sweet potatoes, beets and carrots. The turnip greens are so tender right now that they barely require any time in the pan to soften. Just a little bacon and chopped garlic and they are ready. 

Fresh eggs poach better than old. I've been using fresh eggs purchased from Little Red Hen Farm in Concord, GA. Chris Wernau collects his the day before he sells them at the Roswell farmers market and labels them with that date. It's hard to get fresher than that.  

Fresh Turnip Greens

Two strips bacon

1 pound turnip greens, rinsed, and chopped

two cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 cup chicken broth

Cook bacon until crispy. Remove from pan to cutting board to cool. Drain excess grease from pan. Add chopped greens and garlic. Add salt to taste. Move it around in the pan to let it wilt a bit. Add chicken broth and then cover the pan.  Remove from heat and let greens finish cooking. Chop cooked bacon and then crumble it over greens. To serve, mound it up on a plate and add a poached egg. Garnish with a sprinkle of kosher salt and a couple cracks of fresh pepper.

The greens will soak up the runny egg yolk, which I think we all agree is the best part of a poached egg. But don't let that discourage you from scooping up a bit on a piece of toast too.

Video of the Week: Eggs!

So eggs have been in the news quite a bit lately, what with the salmonella recall and all. Food borne illness is a serious problem in our day and age. With so much of our food now being produced in large, centralized factory farms and distributed nationwide, one farm's sloppy practices can mean serious illness for Americans all over the country.  One of the ways you can protect yourself is to never consume raw or undercooked eggs. But where's the fun in that?

Another way you can protect yourself is by purchasing your eggs from a small producer that you know and trust. This is definitely not an option for everyone. These eggs are harder to find and usually at least  twice as expensive. Small flocks are less likely to be contaminated with salmonella. I buy farm fresh eggs when I can from different sellers at the Riverside Farmer's Market in Roswell. So far, I haven't had a bad egg from any of the sellers.

And of course, if you live in a place that allows it, you can always try your hand at raising your own laying hens.  You'll have to check your local laws about it. And please, think of your neighbors. Chickens can be noisy and smelly. Your neighbors might not appreciate your feathered friends.

And this isn't even getting into the differences between cage free, humanely raised, organic, or omega-3 enhanced eggs, which is a discussion for another time.

There are other benefits to farm raised eggs, which are covered pretty well in today's video link from Simply: Home Cooking. Liza posts a great run down of fresh egg options in her city (Ann Arbor, MI) and gives us a great video that vividly illustrates the differences between conventionally produced eggs and the ones you get from a farmer. So click through to the article and enjoy the video.

Holiday Links

I think this nice, in between time between Christmas and New Years is my favorite part of the holidays. I'm off from work, but everything is done. There's no presents to buy, no cookies to bake, nothing that needs decorating. My husband has some time off, so we get to see movies together and have leisurely, late breakfasts of hot rolls and baked oatmeal. Usually I start futzing around for New Year's Eve celebrations at our house right about now, but my friend Diane is taking that on for us. So I get a nice, quiet week to catch up on housework and other projects.

In the spirit of that, here are some holiday appropriate links.

On the subject of brunch, I read two really great articles about preparing easy holiday brunches. Smitten Kitchen writes what I consider to be the definitive guide to holiday brunching. Her thesis? Easy, make ahead recipes that you can prep ahead of time, then throw in the oven the morning of while you shower. Gayle, of Grocery Cart Challenge fame, also submits some breakfast casserole recipes for holiday brunching in her weekly The Daily News column. While her recipe offerings tend to be a little heavy on the processed foods for my taste, two of these rely on fresh or frozen ingredients, which make them winners in my book.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I've seen some interesting links about holiday food drives that I thought I'd share. The first was a recent NYT article about the secret preference that food banks won't tell you about: Cash. But if you think about it, it makes sense. What on earth can they do with three cans of pickled artichoke hearts and a cellophane package of ditalini? We feel good taking cans out of our own pantry to give to those in need, but I think too many use it just as an excuse to dump unwanted food guilt free. There's a really good discussion on Chowhound regarding donations to food banks, that I found to be worth skimming.

For myself, I just cleaned out my pantry on Monday and set aside some cans for donating to the North Fulton Community Charities, a non-denominational non-profit that helps families in North Fulton meet their basic needs. What am I donating? Cans of green beans and creamed corn. Our tastes have shifted after eating farm fresh vegetables all summer and canned veggies just taste like mush to us now. So I have about a dozen or so cans bought before, that are neatly boxed up and waiting for a chance to deliver them. Or it may be time to help my students organize another canned food drive.

And to round things out a bit, here's a couple links from online humor site, Cracked.com. First up, is a great discussion of tipping on the Cracked forums. Personally, I always try to tip at least 20 percent when I go out. I have far too many friends and family who work in food service and rely on tips to be comfortable otherwise. And one of today's feature articles is an examination of useless kitchen gadgets, some of which I'm sure were given or received as gifts this year. I've been mercifully gadget free in my kitchen the last few years, but it's only a matter of time before someone decides I just *need* an automatic donut machine. (Though I will say those pizza scissors look pretty sweet...)

Riverside Market & Dragonfly Farms

I just got a VERY welcome email from Sunni at Dragonfly Farms, one of my favorite sellers at the Riverside Farmer's Market here in Roswell.

Hello All!

Hope you have had a great Thanksgiving and holiday season so far. Riverside Farmer's Market will be having a holiday market on Saturday, December 12th, from 9am until 1pm. I'll let you know what produce we'll have closer to the date. We will be selling our nature photography: some matted photos, some unmatted, some framed, as well as packs of notecards and bookmarks. There will be a cooking demonstration as well as live music. It should be a lot of fun. Hope to see you there!

Sunni Williams
Dragonfly Farm, LLC

I plan to be there nice and early so I can get my pick of seasonal produce. I can't wait to see what's been growing.

To get on the Dragonfly Farms email distribution list, send an email to dragonflyfarmga@gmail.com and they'll put you down for their latest updates.

Rainy Day Links

I don't know about the rest of you, but rain like we've had this week makes me sluggish and sleepy. I did manage to hit the Alpharetta Farmers Market and host a bridal shower yesterday, but today has been spent either reading or surfing the internet. I didn't even have to cook yesterday, as there were ample leftover finger sandwiches and mini-quiches for all. When I finally rouse myself this evening to cook, it'll be a nice hearty bowl of chicken veggie soup.

Anyways, since I'm trying to keep a regular update schedule around here again, I thought I'd share some of what I've been reading.

Eat Me Daily recently posted some of the ads for the Sydney International Food Festival. These really appeal to the social studies teacher in me, as it's food shaped like flags. Seriously, check them out. And in a related note of coolness, a friend showed me The United Steaks of America, which is a gallery of steaks cut to resemble...you guessed it, the United States.

Gale over at Grocery Cart Challenge posted her incredibly easy looking cheesecake recipe this week. I'm tempted to try it, as I've got all the ingredients sans the graham crackers in my kitchen already. But if I did that, then I'd be missing out on this also incredible looking cheese cake marbled brownies that Smitten Kitchen posted. Both of these sound OMG amazing. Maybe its a good thing I'm knee deep in purple frosted butter cookies right now. Otherwise I'd be happily smeared in chocolate right now and my husband frowning over the mess I've made of the kitchen again.

Here's an interesting article from TIME about the social aspect of obesity. Apparently you eat more with friends or with other overweight people. I believe it. I'm always catching myself thinking "I should order a salad now, so these people won't think I'm fat." Completely ignoring that they can just LOOK at me and see I'm fat. My ordering habits won't change their opinion.

Speaking of ordering the salad, Creative Loafing reposted an article claiming that the presence of salads and other healthy sounding options on menus makes you more likely to order the unhealthy options. Interesting. I haven't noticed that behavior in myself, but it's not outside the realm of possibility.

Woah!

I just checked my referral logs and realized that I've been named Site of the Week by the ladies over at Atlanta Dish. I'm very flattered! In case you're curious, this is what they have to say about me:

Click on Northside Food and see what’s waiting for you on the up-side of Atlanta’s perimeter. This blog knows its demographics. For locavores -- farmers markets and local produce drop-off spots, specialty food shops and local products. For hurried parents -- links to recipes for “A Year of Crockpotting” and packing vegan lunch boxes. For nights out -- restaurant review sites and personal favorites on the top side of town. And for staying home -- book suggestions and info on how to write your congressional rep about food safety issues. Link, look, grab the GPS and go!

Thanks Atlanta Dish!

A real update coming soon, I promise...

In the mean time, one of my friends, who is a local food producer herself, forwarded this me. It also went out on the Moore's Family Farm mailing list this week as well. If you're passionate about locally produced, non-industry food, it would be a good idea to read up on this issue and make your opinion known to your representative. The representative for the 30076 ZIP code is Tom Price.

I rarely send political messages, but there’s a bill that went to the floor of the house today that will directly affect Athens Locally Grown, to the point of possibly making us stop what we do. -eric

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE!
URGE THEM TO SUPPORT THE
KAPTUR-FARR FOOD SAFETY PROPOSAL

There is no question: our food system needs to be safer. But Congress is currently debating food safety legislation (Food Safety Enhancement Act – H.R. 2749) that could hinder beginning, sustainable, and organic farmers’ access to markets, require expensive fees, and lead to the dismantling of important conservation practices and wildlife habitat.

HR 2749 is scheduled to go to the floor of the House TODAY under a suspension vote, which means limited debate and no amendments, but a requirement for a two-thirds majority for passage. With negotiations still underway, however, it seems reasonably likely that a vote could be pushed to Thursday.

Representatives Marcy Kaptur (OH-9), Sam Farr (CA-17), Maurice Hinchey (NY-22), Jesse Jackson Jr. (IL-2), Peter Welch (VT-at large), Chellie Pingree (ME-1) and Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) last week submitted a letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee with specific proposed changes to HR 2749 that addresses many of the concerns raised by the sustainable and organic agriculture community.

At the same time, the House Agriculture Committee majority concluded negotiations with the sponsors of HR 2749 that secured one of the changes proposed in the Kaptur-Farr et al request – namely, a greater role for USDA in all the farm-related portions of the bill. That was helpful as far as it went, but it did not directly address other critical concerns.

It is important that you call your Representative TODAY and ask them to join the effort to protect small and mid-sized family farmers, the environment, and consumer choice by supporting the provisions in the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749.

PLEASE CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE IMMEDIATELY!

It’s easy to call. Please call or fax your Representative’s office and ask to speak with the aide that works on agriculture. If you don’t know your Representative’s name, please click here http://www.house.gov and enter your zip code in the top left-hand corner of the screen. Then call the Capitol Switchboard and ask to be directly connected to your Representative’s office: 202-224-3121.

The message is simple. “I am a constituent of Representative___________ and I am calling to ask him/her to support the Kaptur-Farr proposal to HR 2749, the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009. I am also asking him/her to vote against HR 2749 unless the proposals included in the Kaptur-Farr letter are included in the final bill.”

It's Carrot Tops, but without the 'roid rage.

From blog

Tonight's salad? Tomatoes, cucumbers, romaine lettuce, arugala, swiss chard and ...carrot tops.



GAH!! Not that kind! Not that kind!

I bought my carrots this week from Floyd Keisler at Moss Hill Farms, in Milton. While I was selecting my bunch, Floyd was nice enough to explain some other uses of carrots for me. Not only can you eat the root, like we all know and love, but apparently the stems and leaves are also edible. Chop the leaves up fine and add them to salads. They taste just like carrots. Apparently, the stems also have nutritional value if you decide to chew them, but they are too woody to actually eat. That sounds rather gross to me, so I'm sticking to just the roots and leaves for now.

If you're interested in buying organic produce from Moss Hill Farm, you can find them each Saturday at the Riverside Farmers Market in Roswell. Or you can email him to arrange a pick up at his farm in Milton during the week.

Emily G's Jam of Love

Things have been crazy busy here lately, so I haven't had much time to sit and write a proper post.

However, I do want to take a moment and point you in the direction of this great profile the AJC did last Thursday about Emily G's Jam of Love, a local home based jam company. We picked up several jars of their jam this summer when they were at the Roswell Farmers Market. Our favorites were the Triple Berry and Watermelon jam. In fact, I think we still have some Watermelon in the fridge...Yum.

I've had a link up on my site to them for awhile, just because I think their jams are so tasty. Definitely pick up a jar if you can.

ZOMG!

I’ve assembled a blogroll of the best local food and dining blogs from regular folks, irregular media and a couple of public relations firms that do more than just promote their clients.

Check out John Kessler's blog roll. The Kes is linking to me. For those of you reading this outside of Atlanta, Kessler was the local fishwrapper's restaurant critic for many years, followed by a weekly column that I read religiously until it ended a few weeks ago. I have enormus respect for him as both a writer and foodie.

I suppose I better update this more than once a week now.

Homemade Bacon?

I frequent several forums, on a variety of topics. Some of the most interesting food conversations actually pop up on the non-food forums. This happened a few weeks ago on the forums at Cracked.com, when someone started a thread detailing how to make your own bacon. Yes, your own, home smoked bacon. I love making things from scratch that other people think only come out of a can, but I admit bacon never popped into my head as something to try. But after seeing this detailed tutorial, complete with pictures, I'm tempted to give it a shot.

So with the permission of the mysterious man known only as "The Iron Colonel", I bring you The Bacon Chronicles: Legend of the Homemade Bacon My comments in that thread are posted under the handle "Kathana" if you're looking for me. There's several other bloggers posting in that thread too, but since I'm unsure of whether or not they'd like their Cracked identities too closely linked to their blogs, I'll leave it alone.

I should also warn you. It's, uh, Cracked. It's a comedy site. Humor is subjective and occasionally offensive. They recently put up an article called "Five Astounding Advances in the Science of Getting Drunk". I only say this so none of you can come back to me later and complain that I forced you to read swears against your will.

And while I'm here...

I'd like to thank Suzanne Taylor at Examiner.com who recently reviewed my blog. It's nice to know someone besides my mom is reading this.