Green Eats

Cecelia Thompson of Mod Meals on Mendenhall, photo by Bert VanderVeen

Tomorrow is the one year blogiversary of my friend (and fellow Elon alum) Cecelia’s great food blog, Mod Meals on Mendenhall. Based out of her gorgeous home in Greensboro, Cecelia whips up food that never fails to get me salivating. Surf on over to her blog, check out her recipes and photos, and tell her Matt sent you!

Grilled Asparagus and Smoked Mozzarella Pizza, from MMoM

I’ve recently been turned on to the idea of Meatless Mondays from Chapel Hill mother-daughter food bloggers Pattie and Allie and their blog Bramasole…to yearn for the sun. I did a little digging and found the official Meatless Monday website, and from this Monday forward I am planning on going meat-free for all of my Monday meals. From the Meatless Monday website:

“Meatless Monday is an international movement to help people reduce their meat consumption by 15%, in order to improve personal health and the health of the planet. We are a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
The tradition of Meatless Mondays began in WWI, when the FDA encouraged the rationing of meat, wheat and other staples to help the war effort. The campaign was relaunched in 2003 as a public health campaign to help individuals reduce their saturated fat intake.”

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Happy Monday. In case your day got off to a bad start, enjoy this video of piglets at Circle Acres Farm.

Head on over to the News & Observer website to read N&O Food Writer Andrea Weigl’s great profile of Phoebe Lawless, owner and operator of the recently opened (and much lauded, including here) Scratch Bakery in downtown Durham.

Celebrated baker starts from scratch in Durham, by Andrea Weigl

(Ego boost – my name is mentioned in the first paragraph. But who’s keeping track?….)

Sir Mix-A-Lot himself would have to bow down to Big Bundts & More, the creation of Chapel Hill’s Kristen Benkendorfer. Every Saturday I arrive at the South Estes Farmers Market and make a bee-line for the Big Bundts tent to get my daily fix of Kristen’s culinary creations and a cup of coffee (or lately, Agua Fresca de Pepino, a deliciously refreshing lime-cucumber water). Over the course of the past few months I’ve had slices of Lotta Lemon, Banana Caramel, Blueberry, Guinness Chocolate Stout, and (my favorite) Key Lime bundt cakes. Kristen is always ready with a welcoming smile and an enthusiasm for her cakes and for the market that never ceases to energize me. Her bundt cakes are her signature, but she also does scones (the Rosemary scone was to-die-for), cupcakes, and delicious brownie bundt bites. Additionally, she sources many of her ingredients from other South Estes Farmers’ Market vendors, making them truly LOCAL bundts!

Brownie Bundt Bites

If you shop at South Estes Farmers’ Market and you haven’t tried some of Kristen’s bundt cakes yet, well, what are you waiting for!? That goes for those who don’t normally shop at SEFM as well – Big Bundts & More is worth the trip alone!

You can special order your very own bundt cake at the Big Bundts & More website, or visit Kristen every Saturday morning (and some Tuesday afternoons) at the South Estes Farmers Market. Click through for more photos of some truly delicious bundt cakes.

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Literally and figuratively. This past Saturday three intrepid South Estes Farmers’ Market customers gathered to put their culinary skills to the test in an Iron Chef-style battle for the ultimate prize, a professional Wusthof knife set donated by Kitchenworks. I put together the event in my capacity as a member of the Friends of the Market Committee and the Community Representative on the Board of Directors, with LOTS of help from SEFM Market Manager Andrea Wood. I’ve done lots of events in my life, but this was my first time doing a cooking competition and needless to say I was a little stressed! Luckily everything worked out wonderfully, and I’m happy to say that SEFM customer Jennie Heck wowed the judges and walked away with the grand prize! Click through for the photos and a link to the winning recipe.

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Civil Eats has posted a great interview with Jennifer Curtis, principal of Curtis Consulting and Project Director for CEFS NC Choices program. Jennifer has been an integral part of North Carolina’s local food movement since the 1980s, and most recently has begun working on the issue of getting sustainable meat into larger markets.

Read the interview here.

Sustainable agriculture’s number one cheerleader, author Michael Pollan, has launched a new website that serves as a one-stop clearinghouse for all of his books, articles, interviews, and more. The site is definitely the place to go for all things Pollan, but what I enjoy most is the “Today’s Link” section, a blog-like forum where he shares a link to various stories and happenings in the world of sustainable agriculture. Head on over and check it out – www.michaelpollan.com

Central Carolina Community College, nationally recognized for its Sustainable Agriculture program (in which I am currently enrolled), will be offering two new programs this fall – the Natural Chef culinary program and the Sustainable Technology program. Both programs will be housed in the college’s new, LEED-certified Sustainable Technologies Center, along with the current Sustainable Agriculture, Biofuels, Ecotourism, and Green Building programs. The addition of these two new programs puts CCCC in the forefront of sustainable education in the United States, a claim that few other colleges or universities can make. Check out the college’s Sustainable Technologies website for more information on the various programs.

Renowned farmer and sustainable agriculture advocate Joel Salatin (of Food, Inc. and The Omnivore’s Dilemma fame) will be giving a seminar at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro on June 30th. The seminar, entitled “Local Food to the Rescue”, will be hosted by CCCC’s Sustainable Agriculture and Natural Chef programs along with the NC Tobacco Trust Fund and the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association. This free event will begin with a tour of the CCCC student farm at 5:30pm and refreshments at 6:30pm (the farm has a brick pizza oven!); Salatin’s seminar will begin at 7pm. I plan on being there to support my program and to meet Joel Salatin, and I hope that you will be able to join me!

Central Carolina Community College is located at 764 West Street in Pittsboro, about a mile west of the traffic circle.

Hat tip to Carrie & David of Crumb for the heads up, via the Western Wake Farmers’ Market website.