Last week we learned how food trucks are found and built. This week, Danielle and Monte meet for the first time.

A Mobile Support System
When navigating a new adventure, it helps immensely to have guidance from someone who has walked a similar path. When she first toured My Chef Lynn, Danielle had no inkling of the role Lynn and Tony Rhen would play in bringing Monte into her life. They became her surrogate truck parents, eager to help through every step of the process. Tony made it his personal mission to find a truck and began chasing down leads. Finally, just a few weeks ago, he struck gold in the form of an 18’ used laundry truck. It was love at first sight, and not just for Danielle. “When I was ready to pick him up, My Chef Lynn was sitting right there, and Monte was sitting right there, and that’s when we realized there was definitely some food truck love going on.” 


_{photo by Julie St. Clair / Fullbelly Productions}

Monte Before
I like to imagine Monte during his days as a laundry truck--a humble beginning, dreaming of the day he could serve grilled cheese to the hungry Seattle masses, a vehicle's version of the classic American Dream. It has to be a happier tale than Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Fir Tree”, right? A diesel with 250,000 miles of road experience, Monte is imposing—majestic, even, like he's the once and future king of food trucks. He is both a little wider and a little taller than most food trucks and, as we learned last week, those few extra inches will make all the difference when it comes to outfitting Monte and making him ready for service: there is very little that will need to be removed from his interior. The best part? Monte has a fiberglass roof, allowing for a lot of light and making Danielle’s dream of an open, light, and bright vehicle closer to being a reality.

Where is Monte Today?
After adopting Monte from Evergreen Ford, Danielle took him for a spin, straight down to Portland, where he had a date with Gino of Northwest Truck Repair. Think of it as a boot camp for food trucks. Monte will undergo a tune-up because, as Danielle told me, “Nothing like a 180-mile drive to figure out what works and what doesn’t on your brand new used truck.” Gino will work his magic, turning Monte into a blank slate, ready for Northwest Mobile Kitchens to outfit him with all the bells and whistles needed to make Monte’s grilled cheese hopes and dreams come true.
 

[editor’s note: at the rate Monte is developing a personality, we look forward to future interviews directly between him and our intrepid reporter.]

Special Extra: Watch the video to learn more about how Danielle and Monte met.

Last week, Danielle introduced us to Monte Cristo, her mobile grilled cheese baby. This week, we learn how Monte began to take shape.

Builder of Dreams
Finding a builder is the first step in the process of turning a food truck dream into reality. Surprised to learn the builder comes before the truck? I was, too. But when I thought about the work and compromise that goes into turning a mobile truck idea into something tangible, especially when I considered the attachment Danielle has already formed with Monte, the importance of finding the right builder, one who understands that bond, made perfect sense.

Danielle needed someone to help design and outfit Monte, a builder who could respect her vision and help it take shape. She contacted Labor and Industries since they'll do the final inspections, ultimately giving Monte the green light, and asked if they had any local builders they could recommend. Their answer was swift: Northwest Mobile Kitchens. Danielle called, and when she asked for a list of references, Rich pointed her in the direction of My Chef Lynn, the new sliders, soup, and sandwich truck of Issaquah, helmed by Lynn and Tony Rehn (more on them next week) and built by NMK. Lynn and Tony raved about the work and invited Danielle over for a tour. After spending a frigid winter afternoon examining every detail of their new truck, Danielle knew NMK would be the perfect fit. A relationship was born and Monte was one step closer to the streets of Seattle.

A Mother-Trucking Puzzle
Since the idea of a food truck first entered her mind, Danielle had specific ideas about what Monte would and would not be. She found the lack of windows in most food trucks to be isolating, resulting in a lack of connection between the chef and the customer. Her vision for Monte is open, light, and bright. “I want accessibility to my customers, a lot of windows, an open-kitchen feel, as much as you can have with a truck.” Her ideas present certain challenges. Building a food truck is like putting together a mobile culinary puzzle. Picture an 18’ step van. Rip out one wall and turn it into a service counter. Now add an industrial hood, equipment storage, and propane tanks. Also you’ll need plumbing and a few windows. Oh! I forgot to mention that each change affects the structural integrity of the vehicle. Pulling your hair out yet? Danielle learned quickly that some sacrifices would have to be made. Northwest Mobile Kitchen is working with her every step of the way to make sure Monte will be the food truck of her dreams.

Next week: Danielle finds Monte. Also, Monte falls in love . Stay tuned!

When you look at the farm-to-table restaurant movement in Seattle, it becomes apparent quickly that all roads lead to Quillisascut School of Domestic Arts. Here we have a short list of folks who found the school to be life-changing; it's a companion piece to Tara Austen Weaver's story on Quillisascut that appears in the May/June 2012 issue of Edible Seattle. 

Quillisascut alumna Zephyr Paquette is hosting a dinner on May 21st, prepared by several fellow alumni at her new restaurant, Skelly and the Bean. The chef list: Kären Jurgensen, Sean Dominiski, Tara Ayers, Sarah Wong, Lucy Damkoeler and Zephyr Paquette. More information and tickets can be found at brownpapertickets.com.

Amy Pennington was working for local restaurateur Tom Douglas when she attended Quillisascut. “It was a huge eye-opening experience,” she says, one that tapped into her childhood spent on a Long Island farm. “I came home and made life changes. I started planting again.” Pennington now runs Go Go Green Gardens and Urban Garden Share, a website that connects garden seekers and those with unused yards. She has also written two books, Urban Pantry and Apartment Gardening: Plants, Projects, and Recipes for Growing Food in Your Urban Home.

Chef, teacher, and writer Greg Atkinson was on the staff of Seattle Culinary Academy when he first visited Quillisascut. “All the things I believed about good stewardship of resources were played out beautifully on the farm,” he says. He recently returned for another visit, in preparation for opening his own restaurant, Marché on Bainbridge Island. “The time at the farm reaffirmed my belief that doing things with integrity is always worth the extra effort.”

Pastry Chef Autumn Martin was head chocolatier at Seattle’s Theo Chocolates when she spent time at Quillisascut. “Going there solidified the need to focus and pay attention to where our ingredients come from,” she said, “and how important it is to keep Northwest farmers alive by buying Washington products.” She currently applies those lessons to sourcing decisions for her new dessert café, Hot Cakes Molten Chocolate Cakery on Ballard Avenue.

When private chef Becky Selengut was at Quillisascut, she realized people don’t always know when products are in season. As a result she created Seasonal Cornucopia, a website to educate and inform buying decisions. Selengut later wrote the critically acclaimed cookbook Good Fish: Sustainable Seafood Recipes from the Pacific Coast, and coauthored the Washington Local and Seasonal Cookbook. “What crystallized for me at Quillisascut is that I really care about education and teaching people,” she says. “I left there so inspired.”

Buzz Hofford says the simplicity and frugality of the experience at Quillisascut made an impact on him. “Nothing was wasted, everything was reused and recycled.” As regional manager for Bon Appétit food service company, Hofford’s team feeds 10,000 customers a day. The company sources a certain percentage of produce locally, follows Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch guidelines, and recently announced an initiative to purchase humanely raised meat and eggs. “We try to educate our customers, and also apply our purchasing power to effect change,” he says.

In Which We Are Introduced

The only math I’m willing to do involves food. Get out your pencils and see if you can solve this equation. What do you get when you add an incredibly talented chef, gourmet cheese and a truck? Besides deliciousness on the go, you get Monte Cristo, Danielle Custer’s latest project and first foray into the world of mobile food.

When we first got word of Danielle’s newest venture, we had a million questions for her. What does it take to build a food truck? How soon will you be open? Will you please make us a grilled cheese, immediately? Can I get tomato soup with that? From these questions and many more, a new feature on the Fresh Sheet blog was born: Diary of a Food Truck. Each week, I will sit down with Danielle to discuss the process of opening Monte Cristo, find out what is happening, and report back here. 

This week, Danielle told me the story of how her truck, which she affectionately calls Monte, came to be.


photo credit: fullbelly productions

An Ooey, Gooey, Melty Idea
To know Danielle Custer as a chef is to know her passion for cheese. Early in her career, she had fantasies of becoming a cheesemonger, opening her own cheese shop, perhaps with a daily grilled cheese special. This daydream was the earliest incarnation of Monte, though she didn’t know that at the time. She was just a young chef with dreams. As her career took her from Seattle to Dallas and back again, from her position as Executive Chef at 727 Pine to her position as a Director within Bon Appétit Management Company, the idea of a cheese-specific concept hovered in the back of her mind. Three years ago, she and Brian Wilbur, her direct supervisor at Bon Appétit, were discussing a planned corporate cafe near downtown. There was a cute little brick building nearby and, offhandedly, Brian mentioned it would be a good place to make her grilled cheese dreams come true. The pipe dream took root and started to become a reality.

Mobile food was just starting to take off. Danielle began to think about how a food truck could work within the Bon Appétit organization. She saw a lot of opportunity and mentioned her idea to Fedele Bauccio, CEO, asking him what he thought of Bon Appétit doing a gourmet grilled cheese food truck. His response? “Build it!”

What’s in a Name?
Around 18 months ago, Danielle was enjoying one of her monthly girls’ nights with Rebecca Staffel, owner of Deluxe Foods (Kurt B. Reighley wrote a terrific story about Rebecca for us in January). Staffel was just starting her jam business, and Danielle was deep down the rabbit hole of her truck idea. “As we were discussing grilled cheese sandwiches and jam, either Rebecca or I said, ‘Oh, like a classic Monte Cristo!’ And as soon as the name went out into the universe, I knew that was the name of the concept. From that moment on, whenever I referred to the grilled cheese idea, I referred to it as Monte Cristo. And I just said it over and over; I gave it a name, an identity. It became real.”

Monte’s Future
Now that the basics—the name, the decision to make it mobile, and the funding—have come together, Custer hopes to have Monte on the streets of Seattle by early fall. In the next diary entry, she will explain the arduous process of finding and securing a truck, seeing Monte take physical shape and become real. We hope you’ll join us as we follow Danielle on this exciting journey, which will result in tasty grilled cheese for all—with sandwich sneak peeks, videos, and a few other fun extras along the way.

You might be thoroughly innundated with notes from organizations you already support that are participating in this year's GiveBIG day of fundraising sponsored by the Seattle Foundation. Why is May 2 so important? Because the Seattle Foundation will provide fund matching on all donations made today. There are 1300 organizations participating, which is huge. And the way that the fund matching works is sort of on a sliding scale--the more donations are given, the larger percentage of the fund matching pool will go to them. 
What we did was combed through the list of all those organizations to pull out a short list our readers might be particularly interested in. The categories we looked at: Farming/Farm Communities; Gardening/Horticulture; Hunger Relief; Land Trusts; Urban Agriculture; Watershed Protection & Education...and four that don't quite fit under any of these categories. We've put an asterisk next to an even shorter list of groups. These are the ones we've written about over the years, and feel good about giving them an extra little hurrah of attention. This in no way means the others are less good--we just haven't gotten around to them yet!

Four That Don’t Quite Fit in Any Other Category
*Auction of Washington Wines
*Bastyr Center for Natural Health: the Clinic of Bastyr University
*Burke Museum
*Farestart

Farms/Farming Communities
*21 Acres
*Cascade Harvest Coalition
*Greenbank Farm
*Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance
Sprague Horizons Community
*Sustainable Connections

Gardening & Horticulture
Arboretum Foundation
Bellevue Botanical Garden Society
Bridle Trails Park Foundation
E. B. Dunn Historic Garden Trust
Kruckeberg Botanic Garden Foundation
Kubota Garden Foundation
*Master Gardener Foundation of King County
Meerkerk Rhododendron Gardens
Plant Amnesty
Seattle Chinese Garden Society
Seattle Parks Foundation
The Friends of the Conservatory
*Washington Native Plant Society

Hunger Relief
Arlington Community Food Banks
Ballard Food Bank
Emergency Feeding Program of Seattle & King County
*Emergency Food Network
Community Lunch on Capitol Hill
Family Works
Feed Washington
*Food Lifeline
Gifts from the Heart Food Bank
Hunger Intervention Program
Issaquah food and Clothing Bank
Kent Food Bank and Emergency Services
Maple Valley Food Bank and Emergency Services
Miracles Food Bank and Outreach
Mt. Si Helping Hand Food Bank
Meals Partnership Coalition
Northwest Harvest
North Kitsap Fishline
Operation Sack Lunch
Pike Market Senior Center and Food Bank
Rainier Valley Food Bank
Seashare (Seafood Food Bank Meals)
ShareNet Food Bank
Teen Feed
The Cove 
The Food Bank @ St. Mary's
Tukwila Pantry
University District Food Bank
Vashon Maury Community Food Bank
Washington Food Coalition
West Seattle Food Bank
White Center Emergency Food Association 

Land Trust
American Farmland Trust
Homestead Community Land Trust
Jefferson Land Trust
Lopez Community Land Trust
Methow Conservancy
Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust
North Olympic Land Trust
OPAL Community Land Trust
*PCC Farmland Trust
P-Patch Trust
San Juan Preservation Trust
South of the Sound Community Land Trust
The Trust for Public Land
Vashon-Maury Island Land Trust
Village Green Foundation
Whatcom Land Trust
Whidbey Camano Land Trust

Urban Agriculture
Alleycat Acres
Backyard Barter
*City Fruit
*GroundUP Organics
*Marra Farm Coalition
Seattle Tilth

Watershed Protection/Education
American Rivers - NW Regional Office
Friends of the Cedar River Watershed
Friends of the Hidden River
Friends of the Issaquah Salmon Hatchery
Coastal Watershed Institute
Duwamish River Clean-Up Coalition
Feiro Marine Life Center
Hoh River Trust
Long Live the Kings
Northwest Straits Marine Conservation Foundation
Pacific Marine Research
*People for Puget Sound
Puget Sound Restoration Fund
*Puget Soundkeeper Alliance
River Network
Save Habitat and Diversity of Wetlands
Save Lake Sammamish
Save Our Wild Salmon
Salish Sea Expeditions
Society for Conservation Biology
Sound Salmon Solutions
*Stewardship Partners
Washington Water Trails Association
Washington Water Trust
Western Rivers Conservancy
Whidbey Watershed Stewards
Wild Fish Conservancy

Amidst odd looks and some concern from the people in my household, I have taken to artfully arranging and photographing my food. Our home is primarily governed by a neurotic control freak (otherwise known as me), so grocery shopping for us is a very strictly planned and organized event which takes place, as it has for years, on Mondays between 1 and 2 pm. This is preceded by the week's dinner menu planning, which occurs on Sunday. Each week's dinners usually consists of a chicken meal, a fish meal, a veggie meal, and a pork or beef meal, with varying international themes. This routine is only slightly altered in the spring and summer months when occasional trips to the produce stands are added.

 

Delaney Lane Daughtry, Wallingford, two adults, one child (13), and regular random drop-ins.
Dairy: whole milk, butter, sharp cheddar cheese, almond milk
Meat/protein: one whole chicken, 1 1/2 lbs Sockeye salmon, frozen sausage, canned tuna, turkey lunch meat, eggs, raw almonds
Produce: tomatoes, bananas, apples, yellow squash, celery, asparagus, strawberries, raspberries, pears, zucchini, carrots, basil
Condiments: salad dressing, peanut butter, jelly
Snacks: pita chips
Other: rice, boxed mac 'n' cheese, cereal, bread, tortillas, bagels, oatmeal, butternut squash soup, spaghetti

Not Shown:
1) Try as I might, my strange addiction to compressed meat circles usually leads to an emergency bologna run midway through the week.
2) One PMS-fueled cheeseburger massacre.
3) Early morning coffee and scone date with the ladies.

Things I have learned during this little experiment:
1) I really dig food.
2) Our household goes through an excessive amount of bread products.
3) Round produce is extremely difficult to balance for photographs (they roll around too easily).

Organic Valley recently recognized their Gold Dairy Quality Award winners for 2011, and we applaud the Washington dairies on their list. George Simeon, Organic Valley's C-E-I-E-I-O (really, he's the C-E-I-E-I-O!) said, “Annual meeting is an opportunity to celebrate the farmers who set the bar for quality in the organic community this year. Again and again, our farmer-owners demonstrate their commitment to organic and make this cooperative what it is today.”

Bravo to those dairies recognized, and thank you for all you do to improve the food we have available to us and the food systems that produce it!

Organic Valley’s Gold Dairy Quality Awards for 2011, Washington

Walter and Irene Abplanalp, Ethel
Peter and Dorene Dykstra, Hopewell Farm, LLC, Everson
Randy and Kimberly Peterson, Arlington
Joseph Andrew and Linda J. Styger, Chehalis
James and Ronald Austin, Austin Family Farm, LLC, Oakville

The results are in, and we'd like to extend an enthusiastic congratulations to the winners of the 2011 Local Heroes! We had more than 3 times the votes this year from last, and it warms our hearts to know all of you are so passionate about Washington's incredible food producers. Some races were tight, but six food heroes came out on top. Here's the list of winners, and a few links to what our writers have had to say about them in past issues of the magazine. 


Market: Chimacum Corner Farm Stand

Beverage artisan: Finnriver Cidery 
We're looking forward to warm afternoons with Finnriver's Sparkling Cider Methode Ancestrale thanks to Jill's BINGE column on Washington's hard ciders.

Food artisan: Kurt Timmermeister (Kurtwood Farms)
Kurt talked about his early career and his Vashon Island farm with Amy Pennington in July 2010. 

Chef/Restaurant: Mark Bodinet at Copperleaf
The Executive Chef of Cedarbrook Lodge's restaurant told Rebekah Denn last July that his favorite ingredient is "what's the best."  

Farmer: Nash Huber 
Tara Austen Weaver wrote about "Sequim's Resident Idealist" in our January/February 2012 issue.

Non-profit: City Fruit
Abra Bennett visited with Gail Savina of City Fruit last October to talk about the organization closing the gap between Seattle's unused fruit and its hungry citizens.

Congratulations again to the winners, and thank you to everyone who voted as a way to express your gratitude to your favorite food heroes!

A few months ago, everybody in my life bought a juicer. Evidently juicing is A Thing now: insta-health for the time-crunched. Instead of wasting minutes cooking veggies, you can chuck them all into a machine and poof, it’s a tiny miracle. All the vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients, you can handle, in one commuter cup.
When I buy produce this time of year, it’s likely to be potatoes, which will be served layered with infinite cheese and heavy cream. Thankfully, some genius invented the juice bar. Spurred by the juicing trend (and a recent, slightly disturbing personal addiction to health and running) I set out to find the best juice bars Seattle has to offer.


Best for the Beginner: Central Co-Op (formerly Madison Market)
Central Co-Op is one of my favorite local grocery stores. This member-created, member-supported organization boasts as much local produce as possible (up to 75% in the summer season). Their juices are made entirely from certified-organic fruits and vegetables. I stopped in after a run and tried the Taxi Cab, a refreshing blend of beet, carrot, and apple. A gorgeous red from the beet component, the flavors blend together perfectly, the apple and carrot adding a mild sweetness. This juice is perfect for the novice juicer, sure to be a gateway juice to more serious blends.





Best for the Locavore: Thrive

Located at 65th and Roosevelt, Thrive’s Organic Cafe is bright spot of sunshine on a cloudy Seattle day. Thrive’s motto is, “Pro Bliss. Pro Joy. Pro Shine.” With a juice menu offering 85% local PNW produce, you can juice to your heart’s content and feel good about yourself in the process. Try the Refresh blend -- celery, cucumber, kale, and spinach combine to create a vibrant mix of greens. Pro-tip: ask your server to toss in a bit of apple to cut the bitterness from the concentrated greens.






Best for the Hardcore Health Nut: Chaco Canyon Cafe
When I do something good for my health, I like to tell everyone I know so I can feel smug and self-satisfied. Chaco Canyon Cafe offers a versatile and in-depth menu of juices that allows me to do just that. Chaco takes their juices seriously and the Green Cleanse is the juice-equivalent of wearing an “I Voted” sticker. Made from cucumber, celery, kale, parsley, spinach, and lemon, this drinkable salad will leave you feeling clean and alive, glowing from your good decision. If you want something more mellow, go for the Zen Calm, my very favorite juice (so far). It combines apple, orange, spinach, and mint to create a blend that is sweet and refreshing.

Finally, if you need to take baby steps into the juicing craze, or perhaps have reservations about the whole concept of drinkable health food, may I suggest a simple way to add fresh juice to your diet? Juice your favorite produce, add a mess of tequila and voila! Spirited-juicy deliciousness. Head to Tini Bigs and ask them to show you the way ().

There you go, Seattle. You have your mission; get out there and get juiced.

When it comes to cooking, I have very little confidence. I am a baker, comfortable with butter, flour, sugar, and leavening. Cooking is an entirely different monster. I’m the type of girl who will shop for a recipe, begin cooking, and realize I forgot an ingredient (or three). Instead of forging onward, I panic and turn the entire mess into a salad.

Enter Amanda Hesser and Food52, perhaps the greatest website for the home cook I’ve ever seen. Hesser (and her partner, Merrill Stubbs) launched Food52 in 2009 as a way to crowd-source their cookbook. What formed was a community for the sophisticated (or, in my case, wannabe sophisticated) home cook. Members participate in recipe contests, contribute to an extensive database of tested recipes, and offer immediate guidance on the site’s hotline, in case you are in the middle of making dinner and find yourself missing a key ingredient.

Amanda Hesser is the author of The Essential New York Times Cookbook, winner of a James Beard award and a New York Times bestseller. She will be in Seattle on Thursday, March 8th as part of Seattle Arts and Lectures at Benaroya Hall. The busy food writer, editor, cookbook author, and mother of 5-year-old twins took the time to speak with me about her love for the home cook, Food52, and how to raise adventurous eaters.

Have you spent much time in Seattle?
I’ve been there twice now for brief book events, so I’m not an expert. I really liked Sitka and Spruce. My friend Shauna [Ahern, aka Gluten-Free Girl] recommended it.

What was the biggest surprise since launching Food52?
I think the thing that surprised us, which shouldn’t have, was that we built the site with this very specific project in mind [making this cookbook in 52 weeks] and we didn’t think, “well, if people are going to come together to share recipes and vote on recipes, they are going to want to hang out and a community would form.” That was one of the initial surprises, like, “oh, right, we have a community on our hands.” One concern we had is that we wanted it to be a bridge between the more experienced cooks and the people who are just getting started.

What is your advice for a home cook just starting out?
Keep at it because when you are just learning to cook and you see people who know how to cook, you assume it’s a natural gift but it’s not. It takes practice, like learning to play an instrument. Continue to make mistakes in the kitchen. The beauty of cooking is even if you know how to make a dish, it’s always slightly different every time you make it. It makes cooking fun and interesting. When you are learning to do something, you should never expect perfect results. Think of it as a process that will evolve over time. It’s not binary, not right or wrong. A dish improves by degrees every time you make it because you will observe something new, make a mental note, fix it next time. It’s funny because 10 years ago I thought I was a pretty experienced cook and I’m even more experienced now. You never really master cooking.

Are the twins into cooking with you at all?
The twins like cooking, cleaning, washing dishes, wiping up and mixing and grating cheese; things like that. My son is obsessed with cucumber right now. They both strangely like salad.

Salad? What is your secret for getting kids to love salad?
I have a great secret for getting them to eat anything. You serve them what you are eating so they don’t think what they eat should be different. Serve a lot of variety and only offer one option. If they don’t think there are other options, they eat what is in front of them because they are hungry. That doesn’t mean I’ll keep serving things they don’t like; I want them to like food so I pay attention to what they like the most. It’s a little bit of tough love in the initial introduction.

What will you be covering in your lecture?
I’m going to talk about the evolution of recipes and food writing and where it’s going.

What is your favorite book and what are you reading right now?
My favorite book is Watership Down. I just love those rabbits. I am reading The American Way of Eating by Tracie McMillan. She worked at Wal-Mart and Applebees and on an industrial farm. It’s a very captivating narrative.

Amanda Hesser will be speaking at Benaroya Hall on Thursday at 7:30pm. Tickets are still available; adult pricing starts at $15/person. You won’t want to miss this lecture so buy your tickets, tell your friends, and we’ll see you there.

Jess Thomson wrote up her family's week of food as part of our Hungry City project, continuing into early June, to coincide with the Hungry Planet exhibit at the Burke Museum. We've exerpted from the full essay, which was posted at her fabulous blog, Hogwash. 

A few weeks ago, I indulged myself in a visit to Seattle’s Burke Museum, where an exhibit called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, modeled after the Time Magazine “What the World Eats” photo gallery and Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio’s book Hungry Planet, features photos of what families from around the world eat in a week. Now there’s a way to feel guilty, right? Not so. As I strolled through with Jill Lightner, my editor at Edible Seattle, and Angela Murray, the magazine’s social media editor, we balked and gawked and giggled and talked and made guesses at what various packages with foreign words on them actually contained. We loved how many bread rolls the German family ate, and marveled at how beautifully packaged the Japanese strawberries were, and pondered how that Ecuadorean family who walks their own root vegetables three hours each way to sell them at the market could cook so! many! plantains in one week. More than anything, I was shaken not by images of poverty, but of wholesomeness.

Taken as a whole, the photos left me with one overarching impression, which was that first-world countries eat a lot of packaged shit. There seemed to be an indirect correlation between the wealth of the family and the freshness of their food. The American family’s weekly grocery pile had an astonishing number of boxed items, grouped with more soda than my house sees in a year and many, many stops at fast food joints. We stared, quietly, each (I think) wondering what her own guilty pleasures were. Together, the three of us schemed. Even though none of us usually shops weekly—not for everything, anyway—we gathered up our weekly foodstuffs, and took photos. (Click here for Jill’s week.)

Pawing through the photographs, I expected to be horrified by my purchases. I buy macaroni and cheese for my toddler, and before last August, I usually shared it with him. Yes, I also buy him fish sticks, only Trader Joe’s, where I shop about once a month, was out of them this week. Yes, I made it to the farmers’ market this week. No, I don’t always. I rarely buy what I define as my “favorite” milk, Fresh Breeze, more than two weeks in a row, because my shopping habits aren’t that reliable. I let my two-year-old pick out our yogurt based on the packaging, but for whatever reason, I only only only buy beets at the farmers’ market. I expected to learn from my photos, but I didn’t expect to be particularly pleased.

Here’s what gathering this big pile of food taught me immediately:

We eat a shit ton of food.

I’m not writing any books or big projects right now, which means this is probably a minimum of the food we go through in a week.

Having the luxury of buying food in tides is huge. This week, I didn’t buy spices or even any “ethnic” foods, really, but I bought a lot of snacks. Next week, I’ll need cumin and pepper and fennel and coconut milk, but because of one thing or another, we’ll be eating out much more, so the pile will be smaller. But it’s a crapshoot.

Having a two-year-old means we eat much more fruit.

I am brand-conscious, but not very brand-sensitive. I prefer cheese X but will often buy cheese Y if it’s convenient.

I stink at planning meals and following the plan, but excel at using whatever’s in the fridge.

I love how impulsive our cooking habits are. I bought Bisquick mid-week because my son spotted it at Target, but he also learned to shell peas and eat them raw. I’ll take both over neither.

But you know what? Looking at this pile of grub, I don’t feel the least bit guilty. I was thrilled to see how much produce I brought home, and now, a week later, at the fact that we’ve eaten it, and also the extra load of produce I nabbed at the market midweek.

I wondered whether I’d purchased less meat than usual, because my perception is that we eat more than I would choose to in the best of all possible worlds, but the chicken breasts are still frozen and the bacon is thawing as I type. We ate a whole chicken this week, and some sausage, and that’s it. Not bad, compared to my own assumptions.

I was also thrilled to see that as a whole, my kid’s snacks are relatively healthy. Sure, I buy kiddo Clif bars for the car, and handfuls of hippie fruit leathers, but there are no cookies or candies or boxes with cartoon characters on them. I’m pretty proud of that.

This is how we eat. If it had been a pop quiz, sure, the photo might look different. Then again, maybe it would have looked the same.

I encourage you to do the same. One Sunday, shop for the whole week. For kicks. Put everything out on your dining room table, then look at it. Take photos, and post them, if you’re into that sort of thing.

Then, open your eyes. See what you find.
 

Below is a list of what we eat in a week. To participate, post your link below and on Edible Seattle’s post, and we’ll include you when we compile links! Remember to include where you live (even if it’s outside Seattle), who’s in your household, and a list of what you purchase.

Jess Thomson
Phinney Ridge, Seattle
2 adults, 1 2 1/2-year-old

Meats: 1 pound bacon, 1 whole chicken, 1/3 pound salmon fillet, 1 dozen eggs, 1 pound chicken breasts, 8 ounces salami, 8 ounces sliced roasted chicken, 1/2 pound sausage (not pictured)

Dairy: 1 pound sharp cheddar, 8 ounces feta, 8 oz shredded mozzarella, 6 ounces goat cheese, 4 ounces grated Parmesan, 6 4-ounce yogurts, 6 8-ounce yogurts, 10 ounces sliced Havarti, Spinach and Kale Greek Yogurt Dip, Greek yogurt – quart, Tapioca pudding, 2 quarts whole milk (only one pictured), Quart 2% milk, String cheese, Butter – 1 lb

Produce: 2 onions, 3 shallots, 2 lg fennel, 1 pound carrots, 2 beets, 2 sweet potatoes, 1 l b Yukon gold potatoes, clementines, 5 grapefruit, bunch leeks, 
4 bananas, 1 apple, small bunch broccoli, 1 pound trimmed kale, 1 pound peas, 1 pound bag broccoli/cauliflower, 1 english cucumber, grape tomatoes, 
2 pounds shelling peas (not pictured), 1 pound lacinato kale (not pictured)

Dry goods: meusli, polenta, GF flour, garbanzo flour, brown rice, dried apricots, corn pasta, rice pasta, quinoa, rice cakes, 2 jars olives, 3 cans garbanzo beans, 28-ounce can diced tomatoes, pistachios, hazelnuts, chicken broth, sugar cookie mix, 3 boxes mac & cheese, crackers, 1 pound coffee, 1 pound chocolate, premade polenta, 4 snack bars, 2 kids’ snack bars, 8 fruit leathers, 1 box Bisquick (not pictured)

Drinks: orange juice, 6 pack beer, 3 bottles wine

Breads: 2 bagels, loaf seedy bread

Didn’t buy but usually buy: cream cheese, sour cream,  apple juice, any Asian/ethnic products, any spices, any baking materials, Out of season fruit, 
sweeteners, tea

Ate out: 2 lattes (usually more, weird week), sushi, frozen yogurt, dinner at Bastille, breakfast at Portage Bay, 1 matcha latte

Just when you thought you knew where the best pizza in Wallingford was, SHAZZAM!, Zaw Artisan bake-at-home pizza appears on the corner of 46th and Stone Way. Now, I know it feels like you can't take two steps in this town without running face-first into a business claiming to be "artisan", but let me assure you, this shop’s claim is legit. I observed these pizzas being lovingly hand-crafted by a staff who appeared to be not only true food artistes but to take a great amount of pride in their work.

Zaw's owners, Greg Scott and Greg Waring (both Pacific Northwest natives), grew up in similar families, where meals were a social event and the ingredients were straight out of the garden. This appreciation for good food definitely carries through in Zaw's strict adherence to only the finest ingredients, as stated in their mantra: "If it doesn't have a bit of S.O.U.L., then it doesn't go into a bite of Zaw" (S.O.U.L. stands for Seasonal Organic Unique Local). From Alvarez Organic Farms in Yakima for fresh vegetables, to Billy’s Organic Gardens in Tonasket for herbs, to Mt. Vernon’s Draper Valley Farms for free-range chicken, they have continued to develop strong relationships with local farms. Since opening their first store in late 2008, t­hey have even been known on occasion to spend a day at the farmers markets, making pizzas and mixing it up with the vendors.

In addition to great toppings, such as that roasted free-range chicken and fresh organic apricots, Zaw also offers vegan cheese, gluten-free crust options, and get this, a full selection of Northwest wines, microbrews, and small-batch sodas. (Pizza descriptions are helpfully paired with wine and microbrew suggestions). And for those of you who are fans of Autumn Martin’s Hot Cakes Confections, Zaw now features her infamous Dark Chocolate Decadence molten lava cake, another bit of bake-at-home greatness. Large, medium, and kid-size pizzas are made to order and bake in about 10-14 minutes. I’ve found that 11 minutes is the perfect amount of time for immaculately crispy crustiness.

I ingested several of these delightful pies in the name of research and strongly recommend the pig-n-pear (thin sliced prosciutto, pears, and crumbled gorgonzola), and the shroomfest (sauteed portabella, button, and crimini mushrooms, roasted red onion, fresh thyme and garlic, and asiago cheese), in both cases paired with a nice frothy porter. All six Zaw locations can be found at zaw.com
photo courtesy Zaw. 

We've been hearing about some special Valentine's dinners and events planned for the coming weeks. If February gives you visions sexy cocktails, multi-course meals and fancy romantic desserts, read on. 

Dining

For early celebrations with your sweetie, try Portfolio Restaurant at the Art Institute or Salish Lodge and Spa. Portfolio is adding a Valentine's Day inspired dessert menu from February 8-10, including raspberry and chocolate ganache lollipops. Salish Lodge and Spa is offering chocolatey spa treatments and special lodging packages in addition to a 5-course dinner featuring Oregon elk and lamb, and desserts made with the honey the lodge produces on site. Their Valentine's menu is available February 10, 11, and 14.

A few of Ethan Stowell's restaurants are offering Valentine's Day dinners. Staple and Fancy starts with plates to share like shigoku oysters on the half shell (mmm... delicious shigokus...) and pork belly with apples, walnuts, and arugula. Diners choose pasta, main, and dessert courses. $80/person. Anchovies and Olives is serving a multi-course seafood focused menu for $80 per person, and for an additional $15 guests can add three oysters and a glass of Prosecco to their amuse. At How to Cook a Wolf, $80 gets you four Italian-inspired courses including cured escolar with fennel, orange and black olive, and gnocchi with wild mushroom ragu and cavolo nero. 

Ericka Burke has a lovely dinner planned at Volunteer Park Cafe. The five-course meal begins at 7pm and features fondue for two and meyer lemon risotto with a sea scallop. Lots of sweets are available to take home, even a Valentine's treat for your pooch. 

Fresh Bistro's Aphrodite in Love dinner is 4 courses including braised beef short rib en croute with scallops, and passionfruit molten chocolate cake. The price is $75 per couple, with wine pairings available for an additional $30. Reservations are recommended. 

Poquito's Valentine's menu will feature the delicious flavors of Mexico with such dishes as beet and chayote squash salad and a surf and turf plate of two tacos - one lobster and one beef. Their regular menu will also be avaiable, and lunch and happy hour will be on the regular schedule. 

Wineries

Wine and chocolate are Valentine's Day classics, and wineries on both sides of the Cascades are pairing them up for visitors. 

On February 11-12 and 18-20, head to the peninsula for the Olympic Peninsula Wineries Red Wine and Chocolate Tour where eight wineries invite visitors to experience wine and chocolate pairings. Get directions and find the list of wineries on their website. 

The weekend of February 18-19 is the annual Red Wine and Chocolate event in the Yakima Valley. Buy a $30 pass (before February 10 - $35 after that date) and visit any of 50 wineries serving up tastes of their wines paired with fine chocolate desserts. This tour is open to pass holders only. Get your tickets and read more about what each winery has planned here. 

Celebrating at Home

For an romantic evening at home, swing by Melrose Market for some cheese from Calf and Kid, a couple dozen fresh oysters from Taylor Shellfish, and a bouquet of flowers from Marigold and Mint. Marigold and Mint is an organic, sustainable flower farm and retail space, growing many of their own flowers and sourcing others from Floret farm in the Skagit Valley. They are currently taking orders for Valentine's bouquets which you can pick up or have delivered, and have a selection of unique hand-colored cards.

For cocktails at home, these two from Elliott's Oyster House sound cozy and delicious, and take advantage of the artisinal, infused liqueurs of broVo Spirits. 



Elliott’s Oyster House Venus 

3/4 oz broVo+RG Rose Geranium Liqueur
2 tsp Campari
1 tsp Rothman and Winter Crème de Violette
4 oz Chilled Prosecco 

In a champagne flute, combine broVo liqueur, Campari and crème de violette. Top with chilled Prosecco and gently stir. Garnish with an orange twist.




Elliott’s Oyster House Persephone
 
1 1/2 oz Metaxa 5 Star Brandy
3/4 oz X-Rated Fusion Liqueur
3/4 oz Fresh Lime Juice
1/2 oz Aperol
1 tsp Agave Syrup
Mango Fruit Caviar (optional garnish, recipe below) 

In a chilled cocktail glass, add 1 Tbs Mango Caviar and set aside. In a shaker tin, add remaining ingredients, shake and strain into chilled cocktail glass with Mango Caviar. 

Mango Fruit Caviar

In a sauce pan, combine 1 cup mango juice and 2 tsp Agar Agar. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly.  Reduce to a simmer and continue whisking until Agar Agar is dissolved, about 3 to 5 minutes. Allow to cool for a few minutes and pour into a syringe or squeeze bottle. Gentle squeeze drops into about a cup of vegetable oil. Allow to sit for 1 minute. Strain out oil and gently rinse fruit caviar with apple juice.  Pour fruit caviar into about a cup of apple juice and keep chilled for up to 3 hours.

A couple weeks ago, I went with Jess Thomson (our recipe maven)  and Angela Murray (our social media editor) to a preview of the current exhibit at the Burke Museum, called Hungry Planet. You might already be familiar with some of the images, from the Time Magazine "What the World Eats" photo gallery that's been online for a couple of years. Seeing it in person--really lovely supersize prints, nicely curated--is well worth it. Even better: a curator at the Burke worked with some local Salish folks to do a fascinating companion exhibit about our local food traditions. And PCC is sponsoring a pile of regular events, including health-related discussions and food traditions around the world--that list of events and dates is here. 
The main photos of Hungry Planet are very simple: the idea was to capture what food a family eats each week somewhere in the world. As you might imagine, what makes up a family unit (and their weekly food supply) varies greatly from the US to urban China to the Andes. Some families--like Japan-- have everything in tidy little packages. Others, like Ecuador, have only a giant burlap bag as packaging. One in particular (guess who) includes a lot of fast food from various global brands. 

As Jess, Angela and I wandered around looking at photos and reading the signs, we got inspired to try a little project ourselves; some Burke employees have signed on as well, and I'll be pestering some of our regular contributors to participate in the coming weeks. I thought it only fair that I kick it off myself. What we wanted to see is what Seattle eats in a week, the same way that the exhibit shows--with a photo, and a list of what the ingredients are. As it turns out, arranging a photo of a week's worth of groceries was nearly impossible for me. There are only two people in my household, and we don't do a "weekly" grocery event. I have a pantry filled with dry goods, and a freezer filled with meat from my buying club and frozen fruits from last summer's garden and market. With no kids to plan for, we tend to eat on the fly. And, not surprisingly, we eat out some.

What's not shown in this photo? A birthday celebration dinner at Kingfish and a night out with friends at El Pilon. Two working lunches with contributors--one at Eltana and one at Five Fish Bistro. Three separate coffee dates for me, all of them at the Columbia City Tutta Bella, each with an 8-ounce latte. There are also small portions of things--spices, leaveners for baking, dabs of mustard and hot sauce--that aren't on display.
 
What's overly represented here? Well, my husband and I will not drink the entire half gallon of milk or a quart of half-n-half or the whole bottle of cider vinegar in one week. We will not eat the full 5-pound bag of flour or box of butter or slab of Parmesan cheese. I will turn some of the ingredients into a batch of cookies, and some into a loaf of bread; I will add bits of whole grain flours from the freezer into those recipes. I will eat a pickle or two from our homemade pickle supply. At some point, I am likely to buy a bar of perfectly terrible candy, like a Snickers. I didn't try to estimate how much tap water we'll drink--it's many gallons. 

But even with all these caveats, it's interesting. It looks like so much food for two people! Granted, half the pile is fruit or vegetables, which is pleasing. And again, some of the packaged goods represent more volume than will actually be eaten. But the pile covers about 3/4 of our kitchen table. I'm glad that with the packaging, all but the baking chips have either recyclable or compostable wrappers. I'm glad that all the proteins, almost all the produce, and all beverages but the calamansi juice are WA-grown. 

I've tried to list the ingredients in a way that's similar to what you'll find at the Burke exhibit; I chose to not include my husband and myself in the actual photo, which is different than the exhibit. 

Jill Lightner, Columbia City (Seattle), 2 adults
Dairy: 2% milk, half and half, unsalted butter, cheddar cheese, Parmesan cheese, whole milk Greek yogurt
Other beverages: ESB beer, white wine, pear hard cider, calamansi juice, black tea
Meats: ground beef, canned salmon, eggs*
Condiments: cider vinegar, olive oil, peanut butter, raspberry jam, honey, sugar cubes
Produce: bananas, apples, onion, lacinato kale, carrots, grapefruit, lemon, crimini mushrooms, canned tomatoes, salad greens
Pantry goods/baking: unbleached white flour, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, semi-sweet chocolate, brown and white sugar blend
Snacks: 1 bag Halfpops

*I include eggs are part of meat because I've always found it absurd that grocery stories include them in their Dairy section. Eggs have exactly nothing to do with dairy products! 

I'll be posting more photos from other folks in the coming weeks--the exhibit extends into early June. If you'd like to participate, we're looking into setting up an online gallery via Flickr, but for now, you're welcome to send images to me at editor @ edibleseattle.com. Be sure to include a list of what's pictured, what neighborhood or city you live in, and how many adults and children are in your household.

Amy Pennington's been a regular in our pages since our very first issue back in 2008. Along the way, she's also written two terrific books (Urban Pantry and Apartment Gardening; the former was an inspiration of her column with us, Modern Pantry), launched Urban Garden Share, designed and labored in countless food gardens, done numerous canning demos around town, been featured in Gwyneth Paltrow's newsletter on two separate occasions, and been a generally wonderful person to have in our corner. Now our favorite queen of condiments is busy getting famous--she's got a new urban gardening column at Food52, was recently interviewed by the Wall Street Journal and--drum roll--has signed on to be the hostess (with the absoute mostest) of Check, Please, a new restaurant show coming to KCTS. 

We're not certain when, if ever, she gets around to sleeping. Along with being crazily talented and the hardest working girl in town, she's a complete smart-ass, makes delicious Italian-via-Long-Island red sauce, and has some of the oddest food likes (raw oats) and dislikes (cheese) of anyone in the industry. She's just enough of a bad influence to be fun to have dinner with, and just enough of a good influence that she'll get you to yoga class the morning after that indulgent dinner. 

We hope our wonderful locavore readers will apply to be on the show. We know you'll have a blast with Amy, and we think it'd be splendid to see some of our dedicated farm-to-table restaurants on television.

As we prance merrily into 2012, one New Year’s Eve discovery still lingers in the recesses of my mind: vodka. Specifically, vodka with bacon in it. Where, do you ask, does one find this genius elixir? And who are the geniuses at work? 

In 2007, three handsome Seattle gentlemen, Stefan Schachtell, Chris Marshall and Sven Liden, embarked on a journey which began--much to the amusement of his wife--with 15 jars of cooked meat floating in various liquors in Sven’s kitchen. After two years of rigorous testing, Black Rock Spirits was born. With a perfected infusion of high quality potato vodka and everyone’s favorite breakfast meat, they brought us “Bakon Vodka” in 2009. 

With a name like Black Rock Spirits, one might assume that these fellows have some origins in a certain fire festival in the desert, and one just might be right. It is with just that Burning Man type of skill set and ingenuity that they set forth to produce their first batch of 140 cases. What started as a tiny Seattle company will soon have their product distributed in 41 states as well as Germany, Denmark, Canada and Japan. 

When asked how one suddenly decides, “hey, I would like to put pork in some booze,” Chris Marshall says, “Well, you know how everyone has that one friend that always brings 3 pounds of bacon camping? Well, we all know that camping leads to drinking, and drinking while camping leads to morning bloody marys and bacon, and well, the rest is history.” He also assures me that, “Bakon Vodka is not another sugary flavored vodka, but has a complex and peppery taste, fit for even the most refined palate.” I would tend to agree.

Bakon Vodka retails for about $29.95 for a 750ml bottle, and can be acquired at your local liquor store, as well as bars and restaurants in your area. Their web site bakonvodka.com is a fun little jaunt through the history of the company, and includes a stack of cocktail recipes. Your bloody mary won’t know what hit it.

Wherever you are in the city, if you want to spend your New Year's Eve eating delicious food and enjoying some tasty beverages, we figure these special dinners are a great bet for welcoming the new year.

West Seattle
Fresh Bistro's Lucky New Year's Eve Dinner is based around six major cultural categories of "lucky foods." The four-course prix fixe menu features a trio of appetizers, choice of Curry Lentil Soup or Waldorf Salad, your choice of Vegetable Torta, Crispy Sole Almandine, Pan Roasted Pork Chop, or a Grilled Painted Hills Tender Beef Loin, and a choice of seasonal desserts. Join them for brunch the next day for a little hair of the dog with $3 bloody marys and mimosas.

Belltown
If bubbles are your thing, Mistral Kitchen boasts one of the cities biggest collections of sparkling wines with around 35 on their list. More then half of their bubblies are Grower Champagnes, small productions in France where the grapes are grown and the wine bottled on the estate, with an emphasis on the region's distinctive terroir. The casual side of the restaurant will offer a New Year's Eve 3-course meal for $75 as well as the ala carte menu, or head to the more formal Jewel Box for a 7-course meal for $125. Wine pairings also available.

Bellevue
Dance in the new year at Pearl Bar & Dining's New Year's Eve Ball. The restaurant is serving a 3-course prix fixe menu for $55, and wine pairings are available for another $30. Dinner service is from 6-8pm at which time the space will transform into a dance floor with a champagne toast at midnight. Tickets for the nightclub event are $30 from Brown Paper Tickets or $40 at the door.

Ballard
Bastille's chef Jason Stoneburner has created a celebratory menu of caviar inspired dishes, duck pate, roasted rib eye, and lots of small plates including gougeres and braised beef cheek, and the Wine Director will be pouring Grower Champagnes. Diners will be treated to a sparkling wine toast at midnight. Reservations highly recommended!

Near the Airport
Copperleaf Restaurant at Cedarbrook Lodge  will be serving a 7-course dinner including such delicious dishes as a cauliflower soup with bartlett pear, pinenuts and pickled red onion and Anderson Ranch Lamb Saddle with Full Circle Farms parsnips, Brussels sprouts, and black truffle beat jam. Dinner is $75 with wine pairings available for an extra $35. Call 206-214-4282 for reservations.

Capitol Hill
At Volunteer Park Cafe, chef Erica Burke is planning a 5-course meal for $75, with wine pairings an additional $20. The menu looks delicious, particularly the prawn and blood orange salad with shaved fennel, watercress and pomegranate seeds, and the meyer lemon chevre cheesecake. There's only one sitting at 7pm, and reservations are required! Reserve your place at the table here.

When looking for a new and interesting cookie recipe to make a name for yourself at this year's holiday party, consider this: chocolate chips and bacon, together as one. This marriage of rich creamy sweetness and salted meat is decidedly not made in heaven—if food can be sinful, then these cookies cover all the seven deadlies in one bite.  I happened upon this recipe thanks to my good friend Jade Owen, mother and baker extraordinaire. Although she admits to “borrowing” the original idea from another lovely woman known simply as “The Mouth from the South”, she believes she has adapted it and made it her own.
According to Jade, this is a surprisingly easy undertaking. She recommends that when first attempting it, you “baby the butter,” watching it carefully, and making sure to take into account that it will continue to brown for a bit after being removed from the heat. Also, larger bacon hunks are apparently the way to go, but note the unsalted butter and lack of additional salt in the cookie dough—bacon is plenty salty enough on its own.

Jade also tells me that since discovering this amazing treat she has developed a severe addiction to brown butter and finds herself making excuses to add it to everything that she eats.  You have been warned.

Browned Butter, Bacon, and Chocolate Chip Cookies
Makes about 18 cookies | start to finish: 35 minutes 

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 slices bacon
14 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 cup dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Mix flour and baking soda and set aside.

In a heavy skillet set over medium heat, fry the bacon as crisp as possible without burning it. Chop the crisp bacon into 1/4” pieces.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt 10 tablespoons of butter and cook, stirring constantly, until the solids have toasted a light brown. Pour into a large mixing bowl, then add remaining 4 tablespoons butter and stir to melt. Whisk in sugars, salt and vanilla until well blended. Add egg and extra yolk and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula. Let the mixture stand for 30 seconds, and repeat twice more, to make sure the sugar dissolves in the hot butter. Stir in flour until just incorporated, and fold in the chocolate chips and bacon chunks. Take care to not over-mix.

Form dough into mounds of about 1 1/2 tablespoons, and arrange about 2” apart on lined baking sheets.  Bake 12-14 minutes, until the edges are light brown and the centers are set.

My how time does fly, doesn't it? It's that time of year again when we ask you to show some love for your favorite Washington food producers and advocates. The voting begins today for Local Food Heroes 2011! It's easy - just click the survey link and type in the names of your favorites. The categories are farm/farmer, non-profit organization, beverage artisan, food artisan, chef/restaurant, and food shop. 

Here's a look at previous winners:

2008
Farm/Farmer: Skagit River Ranch
Chef/Restaurant: Maria Hines
Food Artisan: Estrella Family Creamery
Beverage Artisan: Rockridge Orchards
Nonprofit: Cascade Harvest Coalition

2009
Farm/Farmer:  Willie Green's Organic Farm
Chef/Restaurant: Tom Douglas
Food Artisan: Secret Stash Salts
Beverage Artisan: Sweetbread Cellars
Nonprofit: Farestart 

2010
Farm/Farmer: Tonnemaker's Farm
Nonprofit Organization: PCC Farmland Trust
Beverage Artisan: DRY Soda
Food Artisan: Mt. Townsend Creamery
Chef/Restaurant: Seth Caswell, Emmer & Rye
Food Shop: Metropolitan Market

Voting closes on January 15, and we'll deliver the awards in March. We'd love to have as many people vote as possible this year, so be sure to recruit your friends and neighbors to chime in as well! Only four weeks of voting, so don't put it off - we really want to know, who are your local food heroes?