Sustainable Sunday Walk and Dine March 21st

Join Slow Food Cincinnati, the Miami Group of the Sierra Club and other local foodies for Sustainable Sunday starting 11 a.m. Sunday, March 21 at Park + Vine, 1109 Vine Street. Plan on a leisurely 3- to 5-mile stroll with a stop at Coffee Emporium before heading up the steps of Mt. Adams to The Rookwood Bar and Restaurant for lunch. The walk ends around 2 p.m. or so at Park + Vine. Vegan options abound.

Space is limited to 25. Pay as you go.

RSVP 513-721-7275 or info@parkandvine.com before March 20.

Gardening Clinic at St Susanna Church, March 4

Slow Food Cincinnati board member Brigitte Cordier will be talking about Slow Food and presenting two 25 minute "cooking with herbs" demos at 7:30 and 8:30 PM. Sessions on "composting", "container gardening", and "worm bins" will also be presented between 7 and 9 PM.

For questions, contact miriam at m.jackobs@gmail.com

Location:
St Susanna Church Undercroft,

616 Reading Road in Mason

As promised here are the recipes from our 2010 kickoff meeting:

Curried Parsnips:

• 1.5 lbs parsnips, peeled and chopped
• 2-3 tbsp butter or canola oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 2 apples, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
• 1 tsp curry powder (but I used at least twice this much)
• 1/4 cup yogurt
• 2 tbsp chopped cilantro
• salt and pepper
• Steam parsnips until barely tender, about 7 minutes. Melt butter in a medium skillet and saute onion and apple with the curry powder over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes. Add the parsnips and season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes more. Turn off heat and add yogurt, chutney and cilantro and serve with Dried Fruit Chutney.

Dried Fruit Chutney:

• 1.5 cups whole dried apricots, chopped
• 1/2 cup golden raisins
• 1/4 cup currents
• 1/4 cup dried cherries or cranberries
• 3.5 cup apple juice or water
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp minced fresh ginger
• 1/2 tsp fennel or anise seeds (I ground all spices, but you could also add whole)
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
• pinch salt
• balsamic vinegar to taste
• Put everything but the balsamic vinegar in a heavy saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer until the fruit is soft but not mushy and the liquid is reduced to a syrup, about 45 minutes. Stir in 1/2 tsp or so balsamic vinegar to taste. Can store in the refrigerator for many weeks.

Chard, Shiitake Mushroom, and Brown Rice Salad

• 4 heads of Chard, stems removed, 1/2 inch julienned
• 1 pound Shiitake Mushrooms
• 4 cups of cooked brown rice
• 1 1/2 cups sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 1/4 cup pure olive oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup shoyu soy sauce
• 1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 T freshly grated ginger
• 1 T chopped garlic
• 3/4 cup sliced scallions
• red pepper flakes tt
• salt tt
• black pepper tt

-In mixture pure olive oil and sesame oil, saute shiitake mushroom, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, red pepper flakes, season lightly with salt, and pepper tt
-Toss cooked mushrooms in with chard and scallions. Add the cooked brown rice
-Season to taste with soy sauce, honey, rice wine vinegar. Add more sesame oil, pepper flakes, sesame seeds, etc. if needed. Enjoy!

Parmesan Crackers
by Mark Bittman

• 1 cup all-purpose flour, more as needed
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/2 cup finely grated fresh Parmesan cheese
  
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  
• 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half, more as needed
  
• Coarse salt, pepper, sesame or poppy seeds or whatever you like for sprinkling (optional).

Heat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or lightly dust with flour. Put flour, salt, cheese and butter in bowl of a food processor. Pulse until flour and butter are combined. Add about 1/4 cup cream or half-and-half and let machine run for a bit until a dough forms. If it doesn't come together, add teaspoon of cream at a time until it comes together. Make sure it isn't too wet or sticky.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface until 1/2-inch thick or even thinner, adding flour as needed. Cut the crackers at preferred size; I cut mine to 1 inch squares with a pairing knife, docked each cracker with fork, sprinkled ground pepper and bake them 1 inch apart on the prepared baking sheet.

Bake until browned, 10- 12 minutes. Cool on a rack; serve warm or at room temperature. Crackers can be stored in a tin for few days.



Local Food Sources:
Fab Ferments: Kombucha and Kraut
Blue Jacket Dairy: Silverlake Chevre and Arrowhead herbed goat cheese
Claddagh Farms (at Findlay Market): Blackberry Jalapeno preserves (was together with the cheese)
Snowville Creamery: for the cream in the parmesan crackers
Backyard Orchard: Apples for applesauce
Turner Farms: Parsnips
Dojo Gelato: Custom 5 spice gelato with orange zest

Kick-Off Thank You

Just a quick thanks to everyone involved with the kick-off party tonight. Thank you to Park + Vine, who graciously hosted us, to Switch Lighting and Design, who muscled in a gigantic light in a pinch, to everyone who helped make and supplyfood and drink for our crowd, and to all the great people who showed up to connect with good food in our fair city.

We were really glad to see so many people together and excited about supporting a great food culture here. Some of the conversations that were facilitated were great and exactly what we need. We will be posting and sending out some follow-ups about discussions at the meeting, but we just wanted to say thanks again for making the event a success.

2010 Kickoff Meeting for Slow Food Cincinnati

Sorry about the short notice, but to those who didn't get the evite we are having an event and we want you to come:

When: Wednesday, January 27, 6:00PM

Where: Park + Vine
1109 Vine Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202

Please join Slow Food Cincinnati for our 2010 Kickoff Meeting at Park+Vine downtown! We are excited to meet Slow Food Cincinnati Members and food enthusiasts alike for an evening of delicious local food and beverages, conversation, and information about our group. The event is free of charge, however we welcome any donations to offset the costs of refreshments.

Please bring your appetite, ideas, and interest in supporting good, clean, fair food. We look forward to seeing you soon!

For more information on becoming a registered Slow Food member, please visit www.slowfoodusa.org. We welcome both Slow Food members and non-members to this event.

RSVP here:
Facebook Event Page

Fresh Screening at Civic Garden Center January 17th

On Sunday January 17th at 2PM
the SW chapter of OEFFA (Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association)
will be showing "Fresh", a movie that details "new thinking about what we're eating", followed by a panel discussion with local growers , with local popcorn, microgreens and cider being served.

OEFFA members free, $3 for non-members
RSVP by Friday, 1/15/10
Contact: Sally Godschalk at turnerfarm@zoomtown.com or 561-7400

The Civic Garden Center is located at 2715 Reading Rd., Cincinnati, OH. 45206
Across from the old Bethesda Oak Hospital

Learn more about the film Fresh at http://www.freshthemovie.com/

Terra Madre Day Event

Thursday December 10th,
Slow Food Cincinnati will be hosting a locally based food reception to the Segoe Symposium on Smart Growth at the University of Cincinnati. It will feature a panel discussing the formation of a Food Policy Development group in Cincinnati, and then PhD Kami Pothukuchi will speak on her experiences with sustainable food systems in the SEED program in Detroit.













The event starts at 5:30PM, with our reception following the final speaker (probably around 7:30). We're planning on small bites and local wines. It will be held in the Niehoff Urban Studio just off campus at:
2728 Vine St.
Cincinnati, OH 45219

The event is free, but please RSVP to: foodproj@ucmail.uc.edu

Come and help us celebrate Terra Madre Day!
http://www.slowfood.com/terramadreday/

Thanks Giving

Hey, just a quick post to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I wanted to recognize it as one of the few really great American food traditions. It seems like the holidays are when all these great heritage recipes flood back to us, and we concentrate on the making of really good food and the enjoyment of that food with the people we love. That's what Slow Food is all about, but in all times beyond just the holidays.

Remember to keep it good, clean, and fair this thanksgiving, and show those local farmers some love. I'm thankful that we have a great community of citizens here in Cincinnati who care about their food and hope that we can become a solid partner in fostering our food connections in the area through the coming year.

Slow Food Miami

So we just found out that Miami University has a Slow Food chapter that is active now. Its exciting to see more people getting involved with and caring about food in the region.

Also a little short notice on our parts, but they are screening Food Inc. on Miami's Campus Thursday (tomorrow), November 19th. Here's the info:

Event: Showing of Food Inc
Time: 8pm, Thursday November 19, 2009
Place: Shideler 115 (on Miami's campus)
Cost: FREE and open to everyone
movie website: www.foodincmovie. com

So if you haven't seen the movie yet, or just wanted to get up to the Miami campus and talk food, this is a good chance.

Slow Food Update

Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to let everyone know that we are still around and actively planning if you are out there searching for us on the web. We are about to launch a new website and will keep you posted on when it will launch.

In the meantime we are planning a few more events. We are looking at hosting a Slow happy hour event to get all the members together and maybe one or two more planned events before the New Year. We are looking to create a local event based on the Terra Madre Day supported by Slow Food national, a day to celebrate local food (Dec. 10th) and the 20th anniversary of the Slow Food movement:


This is also coming off the back of our involvement in the first annual Farmers' Fair at the end of September, which was a big celebration of local food in Covington featuring farmers, chefs, demos, a petting zoo, and educational activities. Take a look at the photos and why you should join us again next year.