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Moutoux Orchards

Kojo had a guest host that day and she was interviewing Monica Bhide, author of several cookbooks, including her latest, ‘Modern Spice’.  I had a lot on my mind that day and was debating turning off the radio and zoning out.  But there was something about Monica’s self-deprecating and engaging manner that kept me listening for my entire drive home…and listening after I parked my car in the garage.  As a novice foodie, I’m excited about developing my food palate and learning how to use and pick out spices in food.  However, I’ve been intimidated about where to start and up until listening to the interview, had not been incredibly adventurous in my cooking, though I can certainly throw in a good dose of salt.

The interview was fascinating for several reasons.  First, Monica explained her round-about career path to becoming a cook and cook book author.  She started out as an engineer and was quite frank about the difficulties she faced when she decided to leave a well paying job to follow her passions—financial difficulties, family confusion, etc.  It was an inspiring story to hear—I admire those who are able to buck society’s many pressures and follow their hearts and passions.

Second, she was so easy going about navigating spices and experimenting in the kitchen.  She recognizes that traditional Indian cooking takes forever and has an element that is simply not ‘teachable’ (as she said, her grandmother used to just throw in a little of this and a little of that, and she had no idea what was happening).  Her goal was to make a cookbook where the flavors of Indian cooking came through in an accessible and delicious way.

After listening to this interview, Justin and I immediately went through all of our spices, threw out the incredibly old ones, and bought Modern Spice.  Since purchasing the book, we’ve tried four different recipes and already feel more comfortable with using curry, fennel, coriander, and cumin.  We were also lucky enough to meet Monica at the Penn Quarter Farmer’s Market last week and try a few additional recipes from Modern Spice.

Our dinner tonight included Roasted Cauliflower with Fennel.

If you are an aspiring foodie interested in cooking more adventurously, I highly recommend this cookbook.  I would love to find a cookbook as accessible as Modern Spice for Asian cooking.

Blueberry Muffins

After we felt somewhat satiated, we picked up some broccoli and green onions for a stir fry.   The garlic they were selling was perfectly shaped!

Perfect Garlic

We also grabbed some peaches and snap peas (mmm, stir fry) from another farmer and eggs from yet another farmer.  We  bought a bunch of beautiful purple zinnias from Wollam Gardens, an outdoor grower of cut flowers, located in Jeffersonton, Virginia.

We completed our Farmers Market rampage with delicious bacon from the Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s Red Apron Butcher.  Besides at Farmer’s Markets, Nathan Anda sells his hand cut and cured meats at both Planet Wine’s shop and as part of Buzz’s delicious paninis.

We have already cooked the bacon and scrambled the eggs:  a perfect start to a holiday weekend Friday!

Red Apron's Pepperoni and Soppressata

The loofah sponges are bio degradable and unbleached.  They hold up surprisingly well.  I don’t need a bright blue and purple sponge—just one that does its job and I feel comfortable throwing away after I’ve destroyed it!

]]> http://cheeryobservations.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/twisting-away-waste/feed/ 0 meaghin twist_logo_tm Bamboo-cloth loofah_new http://cheeryobservations.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/making-a-necessary-errand-greener/ http://cheeryobservations.wordpress.com/2009/06/25/making-a-necessary-errand-greener/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:17:19 +0000 meaghin http://cheeryobservations.wordpress.com/?p=576 ]]> Oh, dry cleaning.  Every time I pick up clothes from the drycleaner, I wince.  Not just because of the bill—the bill I can ‘stomach’, most of the time.  It’s the waste:  horrible wire hangers, each item individually bagged.  Bags that are unusable in another form, except as a ‘must be supervised toy’ for my cat.  She loves dry cleaning bags, but I am not in agreement!  The frustrating thing about most dry cleaners is that even if you take something in to be tailored-not dry cleaned-it ends up in a plastic bag.

I am planning on purchasing a ‘Dry Greening’ tote and then convincing my dry cleaner to use it.  The purchasing is the easy part; the convincing might take a bit more work!

The totes are sturdy, water-repellant, and ultimately recyclable (when they wear out, of course).

So, you put your articles of clothing in the bag, drop it off at the dry cleaner, and then in theory, the dry cleaner flips the tote inside out into a bag.   Happy customer, happy environment?  One can certainly write an entire article on why dry cleaning is bad for the environment.  However, when something has to be dry cleaned, this can at least alleviate a bit of waste.  It’s not an earth shattering step, but progress comes from each individual making small adjustments.

The event took place far out in Loudoun County, VA (practically West Virginia) at Moutoux Orchards.  I am somewhat familiar with a few local farms, but was unfamiliar with Moutoux before this event.  Their orchards and farm were the perfect venue!  Moutoux Orchards is a family run operation and pride themselves on growing their fruit and vegetables without pesticides.  Peaches, strawberries, and a variety of grains (wheat, spelt, and rye) are their main focus, however apples, cherries, plums, and pear trees were recently planted and should be bearing fruit within several years.  If you are local, you can check out Moutoux at the Vienna fruitstand and Arlington and Dupont Farmers’ Markets.

We are frequent guests at all of the Neighborhood Restaurant Group’s restaurants (in fact, Buzz Bakery is making our wedding cupcakes!).  We’ve been to several of their other events (OctoberFest and Neighborhood Cookout) so we knew we couldn’t miss this event!

After waking up to torrential rain, I find it unimaginable how perfect the late afternoon and evening weather was.   The night started with passed appetizers:  housemade sausage with vegetables, grilled summer squash, beets (!) and an amazing sparkling Viognier from Horton Vineyards.   There were 4 bluegrass musicians playing nearby and we were able to wander around the farm and visit the chickens.

We walked about a half mile further into the farm to a massive table set up in the field, near lush swiss chard and wheat blowing in the wind.  Each course came with a wine pairing from Horton Vineyards.  Highlights of the meal were ‘This morning’s deviled eggs’, the best crabcake I have had locally, and chevre cheesecake (as light as air).  We sat near two of the farmers working at Moutoux and some local foodies.  It was a refreshing and authentic night and the perfect way to start summer:  supporting sustainable farming and a community restaurant group!

I saw the movie Up on opening weekend a few weekends ago.  It was a wonderful, poignant film.  Pixar found the ‘magic’ formula:  Up is a movie children will find hilarious and a movie adults will find touching.  This movie serves as a reminder to live life in the present and that joy comes from unexpected sources.

One of the beauties of Up is that the first 15 minutes of the movie, which contain very little dialogue, captured my heart in a way that many full feature non-animated movies have not.  In these 15 minutes the viewer sees the relationship between Carl and Ellie Fredericksen, one a yin to the other’s yang.

As children, Carl is quiet, timid, and bashful and Ellie is loud, brash, and unafraid.  They fit each other like well matched puzzle pieces, as each is looking for an adventure partner (and each desperately desires a trip to the lost world in South America).  Through a sweet instrumental soundtrack, the first part of the movie gracefully shows Carl and Ellie marrying and starting their life together.  The clips of Carl and Ellie going on picnics and dreaming of their South American adventure gradually become moving understated clips of Carl and Ellie being told that they lost their unborn child.  The clips continue with the couple growing older together, each working their respective jobs at the zoo, sitting harmoniously together in their reading chairs, and keeping the memory of their desired trip alive.  Their savings jar for their trip is used for life’s unexpected expenses (car and house repairs) and by the end of the montage, Ellie and Carl have lived a long, happy life together, but never took the trip.  Ellie passes away.

The movie then switches gears and shows Carl as a grumpy old man, set in his ways.  If the movie started with this scene, Up would have lost its sentimental value and would have just been an amusing cartoon about a cranky man.  But because I, the viewer, saw the caring man he was throughout his life, I had a much greater empathy for his situation (being alone) and his desire to finally go on that trip to South America, despite great barriers.

The rest of the movie becomes fast paced and funny, with less time spent on poignant moments.  However, due to the first 15 minutes, I left the movie feeling very moved.  Up reaffirms the value of a loving relationship and of not having ‘rigid’ dreams.  Carl thought he had failed by not making it to South American with Ellie, but in reality, Carl and Ellie’s adventures were the everyday moments spent together—moments that never could have been dreamed of.  I think life’s best moments are moments one can’t predict.  I think freedom and happiness comes from being open to the unexpected and treasuring the adventure that your current life already brings.

I can see these working well with children who have a) already learned proper mealtime behavior and b) need to be creative in everything they do.  Or of course the kid who won’t eat, UNLESS they can play with their food (leading to problems in future school cafeterias, but we don’t have to tackle that one!).

This quote from the article provides a good summary:

“The Sustainable Endowments Institute, a research organization that tracks environmental practices at the 300 colleges and universities with the largest endowments, said that 126 of them had curtailed use of trays, some of them banishing trays only from certain dining halls, and some introducing, for example, “trayless Tuesdays.” Such moves are often part of a larger push to embrace environmentalism that includes hiring sustainability coordinators, introducing solar panels, composting dining-hall waste and encouraging students to turn off lights with catchy sayings like “Do It in the Dark.”

This trayless policy, as the article goes on to say, saves gallons of water (from washing trays), money (due to less food waste) and students’ figures/waste lines (and self esteem?  Perhaps a stretch!).  Going trayless means that students must put the food they’re interested in one plate, instead of grabbing everything they may want to eat and putting it all on one tray (guilty!).  This forces the student to think about what they’re eating instead of mindlessly taking anything and everything.  It also helps curtail a student’s desire for unnecessary seconds.   A negative of this is that lines *may* be longer, but honestly I would say in most dining halls that effect is minimal (as the lines are already long!).

Working in an elementary school has reminded me of how much waste exists in everyday life.  It’s too disheartening to really wrap one’s mind around for too long a stretch of time because then the mind just multiplies all the waste seen in one elementary school to all other elementary schools in the district, to middle schools, to high schools, to the tri-state area (ETC…).  And then it’s easy to use those thoughts as a jumping off point for almost any business!

Besides the ‘obligatory’ paperwaste that is bound to happen, especially with old technology floating around, the food waste and every waste associated with the cafeteria is really mind boggling.  The students at my school all have styrofoam trays:  styrofoam–aka that tray won’t decompose for 2 billion years (slight exaggeration)!  I also usually see about half the food end up in the trashcan, and don’t get me started on the plastic bottles that have one sip taken out of them and then are chucked.

Certainly what colleges are doing with plastic trays is not feasible in an elementary school setting.  Most kids can barely balance their milk with their slice of pizza, much less have everything on one plate.  But reading the article made me hopeful that when these students move on to higher education, there might be even more environmentally friendly policies in place.

My post isn’t about Nemacolin, because while it was fun, it was too confusing to be a ‘cheery observation’.

I instead choose to write a bit about Wright’s Falling Water and Kentuck Knob homes.  Recently re-opened for the season, they were both stunning for different reasons.

Falling Water was a weekend home commissioned by the Kaufmann family (owner of the Kaufmann department store) at a time when Frank Lloyd Wright had few commissions:  it was like a fresh start to a slightly stale career (at that stage) and he truly took a risk and went all out.  The Kaufmanns had wanted a weekend home with a view of the waterfall.  Frank gave them a home on TOP of the waterfall.  Finished in 1937, Falling Water is a home that fits with nature.  Whatever is happening on the outside is felt in the home—there is really no barrier to the outside world.  The house is designed for clear views of the water and of the trees; if one wants to see the sky, they have to go outside. This visual effect makes being inside disorienting.

The home starts with a huge main living space with wall-to-wall windows and stairs down to the river and the first of many decks.  The living quarters were designed to be more separate—each room’s main function is to look at nature and each room has an outdoor ‘deck’ bigger than the room itself.  The ceilings in these rooms are low, designed to draw your eye out.  The use of space is spectacular:  small bathrooms tucked in nooks, bookshelves and built in desks.  Wright constructed the home from all local materials–when I think about all of the cement in the building and the lack of modern cement mixers, I am baffled!  Wright took a risk and created a one-of-a kind home, a home that is a National Historic Landmark and is on the list to become a World Heritage site.

Kentuck Knob was built about 20 years after Falling Water and is still a private residence.  Originally built for the Hagan family, the house is now owned by Lord Palumbo.  The house has unadulterated views into the surroundings woods and valleys.  The house is centered around a hexagon shaped kitchen, with small hallways leading to the living quarters and the huge main living space.  The ceilings are taller than Falling Water and the inside feels a bit like the inside of a yacht.  In my opinion, the most stunning aspect of Kentuck Knob is the deck that lines the entire back of the house:  the ceilings skylights are shaped in octagons allowing interesting patterns of light to come in; the deck allows for stunning views.

Both homes are harmonious with nature and quite different from your ‘typical’ American home built today OR in that time period. While Falling Water is anything but typical, Kentuck Knob was built as a full time residence and was never meant to be overly extravagant.   When one is in either home, one feels a sense of peace, calm, and acceptance.  The homes force you to be a part of nature; this is so unlike the majority of my life, be it in my office or apartment building, where it’s easy to have no idea what the outside world is like! The interiors of Wright’s home are made from natural ingredients with a focus on need, not want.  Wright did not want excess closet space or storage space.  I admire this style of architecture and the focus on harmonious living with nature.  Falling Water was literally built on top of a waterfall; Kentuck Knob was built into the side of the hill:  a peaceful collaboration.