Cookin' in the 'Cuse

I'm stumped and I need your help!

This blog has been my vehicle to discover and write about great, local, food sources in Syracuse and Central New York.  I'm not sure why, but with my fondness for sweets, it has only recently occurred to me that I haven't written much about dessert places.  I mean, really good desserts, baked from scratch. 

It isn't that I haven't searched for them.  But given my love of baking, my default position has always been to make my own desserts--like this coconut cake I baked up for my husband's birthday in November.  There are, of course, those times when I'd just like to pick something up--but I really don't know where to go.  The cupcake bakery and dessert cafe scene hasn't hit Syracuse yet.

So tell me--where do you go to pick up dessert?  I'm willing to drive anywhere in the Syracuse, Fayetteville, Dewitt, Manlius, Cazenovia area and points north and west, but I don't want to go as far as Skaneateles if I can help it.  (Yeah, I know about the Patisserie and if i could just get one of their bakers to open up a place in Syracuse...hint, hint.) 

I'll post the list from your comments at a later date.  In the meantime, if you still haven't figured out yesterday's photo, I'll have the answer for you later tonight or tomorrow.

Archive Alert:  On this date in 2006 I was bemoaning advertising on my Chinese Food.

Any guesses...

...as to what these are?

Archive Alert:  On this date in 2007 I was musing on the Gospel According to Joel Salatin.

New and Yet Familiar

I love Green Turtle Cay--a small island in the Abacos of the Bahamas that feels so familiar and yet is like nowhere else I know.  This photo is taken from a hill in New Plymouth--the village where the main ferry dock is located.  There are shops, museums, and restaurants here.  This photo is taken looking down a hill into New Plymouth--the other direction leads to areas with views of the Sea of Abaco and Black Sound.  The Green Turtle Club resort is located on the other end of the Cay.

What I love about this view is that it felt so much like home to me.  Then it it me--with the view down the hill, colorful rooftops below and the sliver of aqua blue sea just beyond, I was reminded of the San Francisco Bay Area.  In fact, this view reminds me most of the view from El Cerrito--the East Bay city where I lived while in seminary.  I used to run the hills religiously (if you will) and the rewards for all the tough climbs were views like these.  But on Green Turtle Cay there are no freeways, no San Pablo Avenue, no traffic jams.  What, with only one road, few cars, and a whole bunch of golf carts to get around, it is pretty much paradise.

Common Thread Community Farm

It was a sad day when the news was released that Green Rabbit Farm in Madison County was packing it in.  But good news abounds--Common Thread Community Farm is up and running on Green Rabbit's former site.  Common Thread is currently taking orders for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) shares and even plans on having pick up sites in Syracuse.  Folks closer to Hamilton will have the option of picking up shares on the farm and there is even a Pick Your Own program to harvest seasonal crops--how cool is that?   They also plan to be regulars at the Hamilton Farmers' Market. 

To get more information about signing up for a CSA share and to learn more about Common Thread and farmers Chris and Amy (and Ellie their Border Collie) check out their website here.  And be sure to give them a warm welcome to Central New York--we are so glad they are here!

Archive Alert:  On this date in 2006 I was undergoing an Oxtail Conversion.

Slow Food Events in our Area

I still have hopes that we'll get a Slow Food convivium going here in Syracuse but until we do, there are several activities happening nearby that are worth checking out:

Event Hosted by the Central Leather Stocking Slow Food Convivium (Madison County)

Showing of "King Corn"
January 30 and February 1
Directed by Aaron Woolf, 2007, United States, Not Rated, 88 minutes. Showtimes are 2 and 7:30 pm each day.
For directions to the MWP Institute, click here.

A feature documentary about two friends, one acre of corn, and the crop that fuels our fast-food nation. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from Yale, move to the heartland. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their harvest into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we farm and how we eat. King Corn recalls such groundbreaking documentaries as Super Size Me and Richard Linklater's fictionalized Fast Food Nation in its indictment of a food production system gone horribly awry.

Hosted by the Rochester Slow Food Convivium

3rd Annual Chocolate Dinner & Tasting
Join us Tuesday, February 5th for the 3rd Annual Chocolate Dinner at Max of Eastman Place.  The menu will be a surprise.  There is no doubt that Tony Gullace and his staff will have fun with this idea once again.  Following the dinner, Jennifer Posey of Hedonist Chocolates will talk about her chocolate creations and offer samples of about ten different truffles.  Participants can chose both the dinner and tasting which are priced separately, or just one of them.  Visit www.HedonistChocolates.com for a preview or see their display case in Equal Grounds on South Ave.!

Date:  Tuesday, February 5, 2008 at 6:00pm (dinner served at 6:30pm)  Chocolate tasting at 7:30pm
Dinner Price:  $48 inclusive for 3 courses (equivalent to about $37 plus tax & gratuity)  Wine & dessert are not included.
Menu:  Surprise, vegetarian option if requested at time of reservation
Chocolate Tasting/Presentation:  $10 for members of Slow Food, $15 for non-members.  It will be more great chocolate than you can (probably) eat!
Reservations:  Please call or email Michael Warren Thomas (328-8300 or [email protected])

Raw Milk Action Alert

This is what I love about the blogosphere.  I find out about the endangerment of raw milk access by reading a blog based in California.  Tana at I Heart Farms alerted me to the work that Meadowsweet Farm (based in Lodi) is trying to mount to keep raw milk accessible to the public.  You know Meadowsweet--you can get their pastuerized milk from the Co-op and the CNY Regional Market.  Currently, there is limited access to raw milk in New York State and even that is threatened to decrease if the government doesn't hear different voices.  So, if you have time tomorrow, attend the hearing in Waterloo and let them know you how you feel.

Below you'll find an excerpt from Tana's blog and you can hear the moo straight from the farm by checking out the Meadowsweet site here.

NEW YORK
Michael Ruhlman alerted me to Meadowsweet Farm in Lodi, New York, about an hour and a half southeast of Rochester. Meadowsweet Farm, owned by Steve and Barbara Smith, no longer sells raw milk products to the public, but to members of its LLC, a form of community supported agriculture that allows them to bypass the bureaucracy and mindless, uninformed restrictions that the state of New York would impose on them if they were doing business with the public.

The Smiths write: "Since March 2007, the New York Department of Agriculture and Markets has been trying to pressure us and Meadowsweet Dairy LLC out of business. For example, they have conducted numerous inspections, seized products, ordered the destruction of 260 pounds of raw dairy products, attempted to search our house, issued letters threatening fines and penalties, and have now issued an order requiring us and Meadowsweet Dairy LLC to show cause why the Department of Agriculture and Markets should not shut down the operation and levy fines. That show-cause order is now set for a hearing and a show down looms over whether the State’s police power extends to a group of private citizens who produce and consume their own food of their own choice."

January 22, 1:30 PM
Seneca County Court
48 West Williams Street
Waterloo, NY

Coming out of a bout of the blogging blues

What can I say?  I haven't felt like blogging lately and haven't been sure what to do about it--hence the silence.  Of course the holidays took up most of my attention and next week I'll be on vacation in the Bahamas and not able to blog either.  But after a too long absence, I'm getting a bit blog hungry again.

I don't think I can underestimate the effect that the closing of Hawley Green Bistro and Essentially Bread has had on my psyche.  I never really blogged about Essentially Bread which was a fantastic bakery in Elbridge--a good 30 minutes from Syracuse.  They had the best European style breads I've found in this area--they helped me to forget my beloved Acme Bread from Berkeley, CA.  Anyway, I struggled with whether there is anything to new to say about the Syracuse area food scene.

But...yesterday I had tea at Roji Tea Lounge in downtown Syracuse and was reminded of what an incredible place that is.  While there I had a conversation with a friend who was all fired up about learning the delights of organic and local food.  The topper though, was walking into Fins and Tails to pick up some salmon only to be overwhelmed by the delicious aromas of the prepared foods for sale and, a few minutes later, to be captivated by fishmonger Tom Farmer in a conversation about the difference between the salmon he carries and the stuff I purchased recently at a local supermarket--I hope to post on that tomorrow.   

Then in perfectly-timed glimmer of hope, Jill emails me to tell me, among other things, about some new eateries back near the Hawley Green neighborhood. 

So Cookin' in the 'Cuse will be back around the 22nd of this month.  I'll be refreshed from some much needed time away and will be looking forward to another year of discovering the delights of the 'Cuse.