Food = Art

I've been a fan of Baltimore's own Chef Chad Wells, Executive Chef at Alewife, since I heard he was sauteing snakeheads in an attempt to eradicate the invasive fish and working with the Department of Natural Resources to promote menu items centered around local seafood species. Turns out his sustainable initiatives aren't limited to the sea.

Earlier this month, Chef Wells teamed up with Joe Squared at Power Plant Live to host a "Campfire Dinner" in conjunction with the new monthly event promoting local talent called Food = Art. The inspiration for January's event was to take people camping by using food you can kill yourself - all cooked in a way that can be duplicated deep in the woods - with limited local ingredients, cast iron pans, smoke and fire. And boy did they pull it off!

The constant-campfire vibe of the event, which included an all-evening performance of folky, old-timey, American awesomeness from The Manly Deeds, was authenticated with each family-style entree arriving in foil and with a single utensil per diner - a fork. If that weren't enough, several people at our table were involved with the meal on a personal level. Mike Naylor, the DNR's Chief of Shellfish Programs, foraged the morels that accompanied the trout dish. Austin Murphy, Pro-Staffer for Whackfactor Outdoors, "harvested" the main ingredient in the venison stew in Flint Hill, Virginia.

So in case you haven't heard: wild game dinners are the new black. Here is the full menu for those of you anxious to recreate the deliciousness with your own circle of hunter-gatherers:

Hot Mulled Cider, Honey Comb Infused Bourbon

Hickory Smoked Trout, Pan Fried Wild Morels, Roasted Beets

Wild Duck Cast Iron Mac and Cheese, Two-year aged Grafton Cheddar, Grana Padano, Duck Confit

Fire Roasted Quail, Sweet Potato, Chorizo and Granny Smith Apple Stuffing, Smoked Pork Belly BBQ Baked Beans

Venison Stew, Dutch Oven Chipotle Corn Bread

Smore Dessert, Graham Cracker, Dark Chocolate, Marshmallow, Candied Bacon

To keep up with Food = Art events, 'like' them on Facebook. Most photos displayed in this post, with the exception of a few, are from the artistic view of Sean Scheidt See more of his images from the event here.

Disappointed in Paula Deen?

Me too.

In case you haven't heard, Paula Deen, Food Network star and Southern cook, has now confirmed reports that she was diagnosed with type-2 diabetes nearly three years ago. I have to admit that I know very little about Paula Deen apart from the fact that she has been criticized for promoting the type of high-fat and high-sugar diet that leads to weight gain and other 'western diseases' and that she chose to keep her diagnosis a secret for years. What I do know is that during her appearance on the Today Show yesterday, she announced her spokesman-ship deal with Victoza, a pharmaceutical company and dodged discussion about diet. Here's the footage:

Her announcement happened to correspond with Michael Pollan's talk last night at the Baltimore Speaker Series in which he addressed Paula Deen's decision to partner with the Victoza. He pointed out the larger "fork in the road" this exemplifies. We could go one direction towards a nation of acceptance and complacency regarding the epidemic of diet-related health problems (Deen's direction), or another - more active and change-effecting direction - towards reformation of the food system, our understanding of it, roles within, and conscious involvement in its evolution towards something healthier.

Can you imagine the positive impact Paula Deen could have on the American diet if she were to re-frame this?  As disappointed as I am, I'm not going to give up hope. Turn it around, Paula. Sacrifice a little pride for the greater good of your fans and followers.

Eating Invasives

Earlier this year, I was invited to dine on a Canada goose and Maryland deer (pictured right) hunted, prepared and cooked by my hosts and long-time friends: Heather and Michael Havlik. Although the menu wasn't suited for a traditional vegetarian (which I am often mistaken for), it was ideal for an exercise in local, sustainable eating. Not to mention, the meat was so tender and full of flavor I nearly forgot I was eating animals.

Throughout our often holiday-therefore-dinner-party-centered relationship, the subject of what we eat, don't eat and why has often been debated. Michael Havlik, like most hunters, fishermen and outdoors men, is a conservationist at heart. His wife Heather will stalk over-populated deer and shuck local oysters with the best of 'em. Years ago, they opened my eyes to the dangers of non-native birds and helped shape my current respect and admiration for hunters - particularly those who set their sites on species that threaten the local eco-system. This year, they ignited my curiosity and taste for another level of eco-eating: dining on invasive species.

While the adorable waddle of Canada geese and smile-inducing relationships between mother and fawn prevent me from going forest-to-table alongside the Havliks, the newest "invasivore" movement in town, aimed at eradicating the snakehead fish, is one almost all of us can endorse without remorse.


Alewife Executive Chef and sustainable seafood steward, Chad Wells (pictured), has made it his mission to get these creatures out of the waterways and into the kitchens of environmentally conscious restaurants locally and nationwide. He recently told The Baltimore Sun, "We've proved time and again, the best way to destroy something is get humans involved."


The aggressive and predatory snakehead fish, well-known for their canine-like teeth, are thought to have entered U.S. waterways via aquarium owners and the live fish food market. The fish reproduce rapidly and, during all of their life stages, compete with native species for food. If left to their own devices, the snakeheads could drastically effect biodiversity and forever disrupt the ecological balance of native aquatic systems.

This Tuesday, August 23, 2011, Chef Chad Wells is teaming up with fellow chefs and conservationists Dave Newman of Brewer's Art, Joe Edwardsen of Joe Squared, and Brian Strumke of Stillwater Artisinal Ales for an official snakehead dinner kicked off by a talk from Steve Vilnit of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources fisheries service.



I have the honor of an invitation to the dinner and am as excited about Steve Vilnit's talk as I am about being a part of  snakehead eradication. There has been some debate in the scientific community as to how and why we, as human beings, get to designate plant and animal species as invasive. In an article published in the Boston Globe in July, The Invasive Species War, Leon Neyfakh highlighted various movements and opinions both popular and scientific. After reading the article, Brian Knox, President of Sustainable Resource Management, Inc and co-snakehead-diner this coming Tuesday, pointed out the importance of distinguishing between non-native species and invasives.



"We have loads of non-native plants everywhere," Knox explained. "Any plant can become a problem if it spreads aggressively and pushes out diverse native vegetation replacing it with a monoculture desert. It is important to remember that ecosystems are dynamic and will change naturally over time (succession) but many invasives (mile-a-minute, kudzu, autumn olive, bittersweet, etc) spread at a speed only matched by developers on bulldozers."

Luckily, there isn't much debate about the environmental dangers of snakeheads however Chef Chad Wells doesn't intend to stop his crusade at the river bank. He is currently experimenting with invasive plants like Kudzu for an upcoming event with Baltimore's Food = Art.

Proof of a growing interest in invasive eating graces the pages of the September-October issue of Mental Floss magazine in The Joy of Cooking Invasive Speicies: Recipes for American Cannonball Jellyfish, Nutria, Kudzu, Lionfish and Canada Geese. Snakehead fish, and an accompanying recipe for it, is noticeably absent from the Mental Floss feature but Wells' new recipe is due to publish in an upcoming issue of Maryland Natural Resource Magazine and will most certainly be raved about on this blog after Tuesday's tasting.



For more information about invasive species in Maryland, check out the DNR's Invasive Speices Resource Center. For further reading on our relationships with and interest (or lack-thereof) in eating animals, I recommend Hal Herzog's Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat and Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals.

Onions + Cake

I knew this day would come. A fatty-food concoction - as appetizing to me as the KFC Double Down is to my meatatarian contemporaries - has surfaced on the Internet. Red Velvet Battered Onion Rings. Maybe I can convince my girl over at Adventures in Container Gardening to try out this recipe if we grow the onion?

New Web Series: Foodies

The new series from the creative mind of Japhy Grant will begin mocking self-proclaimed "culinary enthusiasts" on March 9th. Too funny. Read all about it on Eater.

Chive Talkin'

This is just a quickie post pending a longer segment on the progress of the garden. For dinner tonight we made a mixed garden salad - one of the healthiest and easiest salads to make. Lettuce, bits of carrots, sliced mushrooms, onion slices, radishes, sweet red peppers and to top it off: Homemade Ranch Dressing.

Homemade sounds like work but I assure you that this recipe is easy and far healthier than the store-bought variety. Here's whatcha need:

1/2 cup of mayonnaise

1/2 cup of non-fat sour cream

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

A few tablespoons of milk or cream or half and half (almost any dairy product that you have on hand will work)
And one more important ingredient: Fresh Chives

Fresh chives are a terrific addition to many dishes and are the easiest - and I mean easiest seasoning to grow. Chives themselves are a sort of half and half - halfway between a veggie and an herb - since they grow and are flavored like onions but only the green shoots are used in cooking. Just snip some off the top and chop or dice. Not only is integrating them into your cooking easy, but the growing part is pretty easy too. Chives are a perennial meaning that once planted they will essentially grow forever. Even if you cut off all of the shoots to use (not that you would ever need that much) they will grow back rather quickly.

Mmmm... can't wait to dig into that salad!

Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution

A sneak peek of Jamie Oliver's new television series set in Huntington, West Virginia: Food Revolution, will air tonight at 10:00pm EST on ABC. The show follows Oliver's efforts to get an entire community cooking again. Born and raised in the restaurant business and interested in fighting the obesity epidemic by getting  everyone back in the kitchen and cooking with fresh ingredients as opposed to flavor packets, Oliver will be preaching his methods and lessons to local families and school lunch staff.

The network news promoted the show on Friday night and although the clips of Jamie arguing with frustrated school lunch ladies seemed more like a reality show than an inspirational series, I have faith that his tough love will turn this community and their food system around for the better. Think of it as a slightly more aggressive, Michael Pollan-ated type of initiative.

Apart from tonight's preview/premiere, episodes will air on Friday nights at 9:00PM EST.

Apples to Apples, Pizza to Pollan

Last night, JustSaying had a delicious homemade pizza party in honor of an MP food rule that we found particularly fun: "Eat all of the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself."

We made four fantastical pizzas (with a little help from Trader Joes dough). Four people. Four pizzas. Not kidding. Here's what we learned in the process:

- There is no such thing as too much olive oil or too much fresh buffalo mozzerella, but there is a chance it will get a little messy in the oven.
- If caramelized onions are involved, start that process right away because it takes at least 30 minutes (but it is totall worth it - particularly in combination with pears and gorgonzola).
- Don't put the fixins on the dough until the dough is on the pan or pizza stone.
- 99 cent dough from TJoes goes a long way.
- A little egg on the crust goes a long way.
- The "perfect pancake" maker tube makes a fine rolling pin in a pinch.
- You will burn some of those carbs and calories in the process: fanning smoke away from the detector, rolling dough, slicing, dicing, checking and double checking and triple checking the pizza you worked so hard on, clean up, etc.
- Apples to Apples = fun tiimes in a box.

Cooking... Come Back!

If you haven't already, I highly recommend reading Michael Pollan's latest manifesto, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch: How American Cooking Became a Spectator Sport and What We Lost Along the Way.

In his usual observant and conversational manner, Pollan examines the evolution of cooking, mealtime, feminism and health in relation to the changes in our food culture that have brought us from "The French Chef" to "Iron Chef."

I wish I could highlight exceptional points from the article but the truth is, there are too many fantastic topics to choose from.

This is a must read, folks.