Old Ideas for a New Year

Sometimes the best new ideas are the ones that aren't new at all, but rather a rediscovery of methods and means whose wisdom has been known for ages. When it comes to cooking, this idea is heralded repeatedly by those who advocate for slower, more local eating. The Slow Food movement, in addition to working toward food that is "Good, Clean, and Fair," points us back to vanishing cooking styles and heirloom ingredients, along with the increasingly uncommon practice of sitting down to enjoy a meal we've prepared with family and friends. Michael Pollan, one of the most prominent voices in the local food movement, tells us: "Don't eat anything your grandmother wouldn't recognize as food." Simple enough, and an easy way to navigate around the many processed food-ish creations that inhabit our modern supermarkets. Mark Bittman, cookbook author and writer for the New York Times, is also a voice for more planet-friendly eating, and as part of theTimes' New Year's section on sustainability offers an alternative to the countless diet crazes that emerge at this time of year: "Chop, Fry, Boil: Eating for One, or 6 Billion."

The concept is easy to embrace: three simple recipes--stir fry, rice and lentils, and a chopped salad--that can form the foundation of a lifetime of healthy cooking and eating. As Bittman states, they are techniques as much as recipes. Once mastered, they can be adapted to fit any locale or time of year, incorporating local, seasonal produce and whatever personal flourish the chef desires. Also important, they can all make for full meals without meat, an element that can be difficult to find in planet-friendly form. For so many of us who have fallen away from cooking in our daily lives, these easy, classic meals provide a re-entry point into a healthy, fulfilling relationship with our kitchen, one that can be passed on to our children during the evening hours in place of so much excess screen time.

Personally, I'm going to start with the rice and lentils. For years now I've been swayed from such dishes by my bean loathing husband, but maybe with a little extra flair I can win him over...full report to follow in the coming weeks.

Click here for the stir fry recipe, here for rice and lentils, and here for chopped salad.

Happy New (Old) Eating!

A Willing Foot Soldier

Ever since I read The Omnivore's Dilemma last year, I have made it my mission to read every word written by Michael Pollan.  His knowledgeable but never preachy perspectives on the state of food culture and agriculture in the United States are as inspiring as they are informative, and I'm grateful every time I see one of his books on the front table at the big-name bookstores.  I take this to mean that his books are selling well, which in turn must mean his readership is growing, which, I hope, can only mean that many people are coming to the same realizations that I have come to in the past few years:  that moving toward sustainable food practices--including everything from how we raise livestock, to using real ingredients, to buying locally--is a necessity if we want to preserve our environment, our bodies, and the place that food has long held in our lives as social beings.

Thus, when I received an e-mail from Food Democracy Now urging me to "Join Michael Pollan's Army," I did not have to think twice.  I have already been pounding the pavement, urging friends and family to read his books, and regularly loaning out my copy of The Omnivore's Dilemma.  Food Democracy Now is aiming a little higher with their efforts, with the new Obama administration in their sights.  The goal:  let this administration know that, among the many options for changing up "business as usual," building a sustainable USDA is something that matters to the average citizen, and that it should matter to our government as well.  The petition that they've created to this effect also offers up some excellent sustainability-minded candidates for undersecretary positions at the USDA.  As of this writing, 81,467 people have signed on.  Will you be one more?  Visit www.fooddemocracynow.org to add your name to the list!