Stock and Wasted Food

One of the more interesting panels at Edible Institute this year was all about recent non-fiction food books. Three authors, Barry Estabrook, Terry McMillan and Jonathan Bloom were all there to talk about their experiences.

Estabrook, who wrote Tomatoland (affiliate link) and maintains the blog Politics of the Plate mostly asked questions of McMillan and Bloom, but did put in a few words of his own.

McMillan wrote The American Way of Eating (affiliate link) and does not appear to maintain a blog. ETA, 3 April 2012: It turns out she does, but the way I looked for it didn’t turn it up. Anyway, she blogs here.

Bloom wrote Wasted Food (affiliate link) and maintains a blog of the same name.

I’ve read Tomatoland, and it was fascinating and educational.… Continue reading →

Quickie Post – 5 Things I Learned at Edible Institute 2012

I was speaking to Krysti yesterday via instant messanger, and was telling her how difficult I found writing up Edible Institute. It’s been tough. Last year, I took some notes and got a solid, single post out of it. This year, I found I took no notes, but probably have at least two posts to put up.

Of course, the Keynote Speaker, Nikki Henderson, gets a single post all by herself. That’s part of the issue.

That said, I didn’t want to leave you all (especially those of you not on Twitter) with the feeling that I just went to California and sat on the beach drinking beach cocktails all weekend. So I figured I do a quick (maybe) post on 5 random tidbits I learned while at Edible Institute.… Continue reading →

I’m going to Edible Institute again this year.

Last year, in late January, I attended the second Edible Institute conference. I posted that I would be going, and why, here.

Well, the organizers seem to have decided that hosting in late January is a misery, because it’s been moved to March. This upcoming weekend, in fact.

I appreciate this, as last year I got stuck for an extra day in California due to a huge January/February blizzard in Chicago.

Just as I was last year, I’m very excited to be going this year. I’m going to see a few friends I made last year. I’m very much looking forward hearing Mirra Fine and Daniel Klein of The Perennial Plate speak1. I’m hoping I’ll get a chance to meet them2.… Continue reading →

Where I’ve been and where I’m going.

Reading, writing and thinking about food―and cooking food!—are such a significant part of my life now that it’s hard to believe I’ve only been sharing recipes and food thoughts here at MetaCookbook for eight months. The importance of food and food issues have been a long and slowly simmering topic for me (kind of like an excellent pot of chili), and one of the sources of this interest was “the 2001 Discover article on Gary Nabhan and his quest to eat locally sourced foods to save the planet.”:http://discovermagazine.com/2001/may/feateatlocal

Nabhan’s views, as presented in the article, started the process of challenging how I thought about food and how I eat. I will come right out and say that reading the article didn’t change my food habits right away―but Nabhan’s ideas and experience lodged themselves in my brain.… Continue reading →