On December 15th, 2009, come view documentaries and help celebrate a handful of filmmakers, whose films illustrate their unique and thought-provoking messages on many of today’s urgent food issues.  Speakers include food activists Francis Moore Lappe (author of the groundbreaking Diet for a Small Planet, and her daughter Anna.

I’ll be there! For more details, click here.

Photo by Lorna Sass

I created these irresistible, chewy cookies for the new Nature’s Path Gluten-Free Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise Cereal.  They offer the delicate sweetness of anti-oxidant blueberries and a bonus of sunflower seed crunch. They vanish fast and freeze well, so you might want to double the recipe.

Makes 18 2 1/2-inch cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 c. Nature’s Path Crunchy Vanilla Sunrise Cereal
• 1/2 c. packed light brown sugar
• 2 tbs. cornstarch
• 1 tbs. tapioca flour
• 1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/8 tsp. ground cardamom (optional)
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 c. (4 oz) butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 1/3 c. dried blueberries
• 1/3 c. raw sunflower seeds

Directions:

1. Set rack in middle of oven and preheat to 375F. Line a large cookie sheet with baking parchment.
2. Place cereal in bowl of food processor and grind to a medium-fine flour. Add sugar, cornstarch, tapioca flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, cardamom (if using), and salt. Pulse a few times to combine.
3. In a liquid measuring cup, beat egg. Blend in butter. With motor of processor running, pour egg-butter mixture through feed tube into flour, and process just until combined. Transfer batter to a bowl and stir in blueberries and sunflower seeds.
4. Shape heaping tablespoons of dough into balls. (If dough is sticky, chill for 30 minutes before shaping.) Set balls 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheet and press down gently with fingers to flatten slightly.
5. Bake until lightly browned around edges, 9 to 10 minutes. Slide parchment paper onto cooling rack.
6. When cookies are room temperature, gently peel off parchment. Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 3 months.

Fun, amazing, strange, scary…and just heard that it might snow over the weekend…

This fall I’ve become enchanted with berries and, knowing that I’m watching out for them, berries seem to be appearing everywhere I look.  Honestly, I never paid attention to berries before.  If you’d asked me a few months ago if berries were all round, I’d have said “yes,” but now I know differently.

Today along the west side of the Reservoir, I saw berries so darkly blue that they were almost black.  I didn’t have my camera, but hope to snatch a photo before the birds eat them or they fall to the ground.

On second thought, it’s possible that birds don’t like black berries. I put some cut branches of orange winter berries in my window boxes and a cardinal appeared to check them out.  He took one bite and spit it out.  I wonder what color berry he prefers.

Now, have a look at the berries below.  Have you ever seen anything like them? I’m glad the birds don’t gobble them all up before we get a chance to appreciate their splendor.

My friend Kerry Trueman, food activist and Huffington Post blogger, stands a really good chance of winning the contest to be the HuffPo’s reporter at the Climate Change conference coming up in Copenhagen.  You couldn’t ask for a more passionate and competent representative.

Please take a look at her U-Tube video, below and I hope you’ll decide to click on VOTE NOW!  Once you’ve seen the video, click on the points you give her and cast your vote. It means a lot to her to be there, so I hope you’ll give her a 10.  Thanks for considering.

VOTE NOW!

I filmed my video on the banks of the Hudson River because, to me, it represents renewal and the power of grassroots activism. This river was an ecological disaster a few decades back, but the tireless efforts of a few passionate citizens have substantially restored it, and it continues to heal. Climate change is the most daunting environmental challenge of our lifetime. Can we muster the political will to curb our collective carbon footprint? The most powerful change we can make is to rethink the way our food is produced, because agriculture is unequivocally the largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions. Send me to Hopenhagen and Ill do my best to get food issues a place at the table, along with renewable energy and mass transit. Citizen activists brought the Hudson River back from the brink. We can put the brakes on greenhouse gas emissions, too.

On Sunday, the Sweetie and I made our waydowntown to check out The New Amsterdam Market, a buy-direct-from-farmers, locavore’s paradise with over forty purveyors of wine, cheese, grass-fed beef, produce and lots more.

The market is in a gritty location on South Street under the FDR Drive and just in front of the historic Fulton Fish Market building–but with magnificent views of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Lots of samples were offered and everyone was bustling around happily nibbling.  Perhaps it’s because I just saw the magnificent new print of The Red Shoes, but the whole scene reminded me of the historic Covent Garden marketplace in London, so beautifully documented in the film.

Lamenting the loss of the old fish market, photographer Barbara Mensch was selling her evocative photo essay book SOUTH STREET.  Cookbook author Louisa Shafia was proudly displaying advanced copies of her beautiful new book LUCID FOOD:  Cooking for an Eco-Conscious Life.

I loved seeing purveyors I don’t normally encounter at farmer’s markets around town.  Hudson Valley Seed Library was displaying and selling their gorgeous new heirloom, native seed packets:

Another booth was devoted to selling sea vegetables harvested off the coast of Maine.  There were fresh oysters and Anne Saxelby’s superb artisinal cheese.

But surely the most unusual display I saw was a real live truck garden.  This display of gorgeous vegetables growing in the back of a truck was there to promote a Wicked Delicate film and food project.  To quote the sign on the truck:  “Using green roof technology organic compost heirloom seeds + a small solar-powered timeplapse camera, we are creating a living story about growing food in the big city.  Check out their website for short excerpts of the film and harvest updates posted monthly.

Shake it up, Classie!

Last night I had a ball–or should I say a Ball jar?– at a free workshop called Preserving Your Harvest with Canning.

The class was sponsored by Just Food and Green Thumb, two terrific organizations that promote and support community gardens.

The teacher, Classie Parker–who I’m convinced has a secret life as a vaudevillian–kept us entertained while teaching the basics.

“Canning brings the community together,” proclaimed Classie, who hails from South Carolina where she learned to can at her grandmother’s knee when she was five and has been preserving the harvest ever since. “We’re the can-can girls, a hot mess,” she added with a twinkle in her eye and a swivel of her hips.

Classie invited volunteers from the audience to come up and do some canning.  They all cut up carrots, onions, peppers, and cucumbers and stuffed them into sterilized jars along with whole green beans and some fresh dill and a few cloves of garlic.

“Pack love in those jars,” ordered Classie as the volunteers pressed the vegetables down hard until the first rim. Then Classie poured a boiling hot pickling liquid over the vegetables.  “It’s just 1,2,3–as easy as that,” she said, “1 cup vinegar, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, and 3 cups water simmered together for about 20 minutes.”

Then the seal got pressed into place and the lid screwed on tight. After a giving it a good shake, the jar went back into the boiling water for another 20 minutes, then it was cooled to room temperature.  It must be stored for at least 30 days before you can dig in.

“And don’t tell anyone where your pantry is,” Classie warned, “’cause once people hear about your preserves, they’ll steal your jars!”  Having said that, she promptly began plopping precious spoonfuls of her own red pear preserve onto crackers to share with the crowd.

After the delicious nibbles, representatives of Green Thumb and Just Food handed out free canning equipment to those who have community garden plots.

I don’t have a plot to grow on, and I was jealous on many counts!

Here’s what it looked like from the front row:

Turnips by Charles Jones from PLANT KINGDOMS, copyright Sean Sexton, 1998.

I have long wanted to write a blog post about Charles Jones, a humble Victorian gardener whose black-and-white photographs capture the essential beauty of vegetables more than any others I know.

I tried to photograph vegetables in the unadorned way that Jones did, but I couldn’t come close to the perfection of his composition.

If you are curious, you can find some of his photographs on the web, or look for a copy of the book PLANT KINGDOMS and witness one man’s appreciation of the magnificence of vegetables as you turn the pages.

Here’s to you, Charles Jones!

In the leafy, bloomy profusion of spring and summer, the Central Park Ramble looks and feels quite bucolic.  When there, it’s often easy to forget that I am in the middle of the city.

But now that so many leaves have fallen, the buildings along Central Park West are often visible, even when I’m in the innermost heart of the Ramble.

I marvel at both experiences, but the interface of buildings and trees probably best represents my own particular ever-changing blend of urban nature girl.

Here are the building treescapes I saw today.  The first picture is taken from the path, shortly after entering the Park at Hunter’s Gate on W. 81st St.  The other two are taken from within the Ramble.

A HUNGRY MALLARD IN THE CENTRAL PARK LAKE

Yesterday I was meandering through the Shakespeare garden in Central Park and did a double take.  Was I really seeing rosebuds in New York City on November 17th?  Very beautiful, but sad evidence of global warming…

About six months ago, I rescued a spathiphyllum that someone had thrown onto the street.  It was straggly but showed no signs on disease (unlike the ficus I recently rescued that turned out to be covered with mealy bug) and I repotted it, adding some soil I’d reserved from a plant that died (bad idea),  and put the newcomer in indirect light in my bedroom.  I removed the browned leaves, and it quickly became a happy plant, growing lots of new leaves and even blooming for me to show its gratitude.

Whenever I went to water it, I noticed some white fungus on the top of the soil and scraped it off.  The plant was growing happily, so I didn’t fret.  Two days ago I spotted 1 large and 3 small mushrooms growing in the soil!  I’m not planning to eat them, but what a kick to have mushrooms growing in my bedroom.

“A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera.”

That’s certainly been my experience.

It was dumb luck that I ended up living 1/2 block from Central Park.  Back in the late sixties when I was looking for an apartment, the park was much too dangerous to roam around in, so its proximity didn’t enter into my decision to rent a studio on West 83rd Street.  What won me over was that the studio was cheap at $100 a month, and I was a graduate student on a very skimpy budget. (I have since moved to a larger apartment on the seventh floor, but that’s another story.)

For the first ten years or so, the words “THE SHARKS” were spray-painted in large black letters on my building, a reminder that my neighborhood was indeed only about 15 blocks north of the presumed scene of West Side Story.

It took about a decade for me to set foot in the Park.  In fact, I always took the bus across to Fifth Avenue–even though it was a mere 10-minute walk.

Now I’m in the Park almost every day.

Even after all these years, I take joy in having it as my backyard and feel very lucky about my dumb luck. Here are some reasons why.

Photo courtesy of MarthaStewart.com

On Monday, November 9 at 3 pm, I’ll be on the Martha Stewart Radio Show called “Living Today,” with host Mario Bosquez.  We’ll be talking about–guess what?–COOKING UNDER PRESSURE.

I’m hoping that Mario will give me a few of his favorite Mexican recipes to try in the “pc.”

There is a lively group on Facebook discussing pressure cooking.  I am honored by the name they’ve given it:

Lorna Sass is my Homegirl–Pressure Cooker Users Unite.

Years ago, after I did a “pc” demo in Seattle, a man came up and told me that he’d named his pressure cooker Lorna.  He said that he’d come home at night and say to his partner:  “What’s Lorna going to cook for us tonight?”  I was delighted!

The 20th Anniversary revised edition of COOKING UNDER PRESSURE is being released today!

Can you believe two decades have gone by since it first appeared?  I can’t.

While there are pressure cookers in kitchens all over the world, it’s sad that so many Americans are still afraid of using them. Will all of you “pc”enthusiasts please spread the word about how great they are–on Facebook, Twitter, and any place else? As you already know, the “pc” makes it possible to get healthy food on the table fast–not to mention the fuel efficiency aspect. OK, I’ll get off my box…

Let’s celebrate with one of my favorite recipes from the book.

RISOTTO WITH SUN-DRIED TOMATOES AND SMOKED MOZZARELLA

Risotto in under 10 minutes with only a little stirring at the end?

Enjoy this 4-minute risotto from COOKING UNDER PRESSURE. It has become one of my standard company dishes because it’s made with ingredients easily kept on hand and everybody loves it. Serve it with a tri-colored arugula, radicchio, and endive salad for a complete meal.

SERVES 6 AS AN APPETIZER, 4 AS A MAIN COURSE

• 4 MINUTES UNDER HIGH PRESSURE

1 tablespoon sweet butter

1 tablespoon oil from sun-dried tomatoes

1/2 cup finely minced onion

1 1/2 cups Arborio rice

3 1/2 to 4 cups vegetable broth

1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes packed in oil, drained and coarsely chopped

1 cup tightly packed, grated smoked mozzarella (5 ounces)

Salt to taste, if desired

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil or 2 tablespoons minced Italian parsley (optional but pretty and delicious)

Heat the butter and oil in the cooker. Sauté the onion until soft but not browned, about 2 minutes. Stir in the rice, making sure to coat it thoroughly with the fat. Stir in 3 1/2 cups of the broth (watch for sputtering oil).

Lock the lid in place and over high heat bring to high pressure. Adjust the heat to maintain high pressure and cook for 4 minutes. Reduce pressure with a quick-release method. Remove the lid, tilting it away from you to allow any excess steam to escape.

The risotto will be fairly soupy at this point. Set the cooker over medium-high heat and boil uncovered, stirring vigorously every minute, until the mixture thickens and the rice is tender but still chewy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add a bit more broth if the mixture becomes dry before the rice reaches the desired consistency. When the rice is ready, turn off the heat. Stir in the tomatoes and mozzarella, and add salt to taste and basil, if you wish. Serve immediately.

Yes, that’s me on www.cookstr.com! Click and you’ll see me smiling at you.

Take a peek.  It’s a nice site for finding some terrific recipes. Happy cooking!

10/20 9 a.m.

10/20 11 a.m.

10/21 8 a.m.

10/21 3 p.m.

10/22 3 p.m.

10/23 10:15 a.m. VOILA!

The mosaic eyes that line the white tiled walls of the Chambers Street Station have always seemed strange, but since the fall of the twin towers, they seem downright weird.

It’s difficult enough to get off at this stop and experience the inevitable torrent of sadness.  Why do we have to deal with these eyes?

At first glance, the eyes appear quite alike.  But these close-up photographs reveal that each is casting a unique glance, some kindly, some questioning, others petulant.  What are they doing here?  What do they see?

Any day I visit the Conservatory Garden on Fifth Avenue and 105th Street is a good day.  Since the garden changes with the seasons and every season sports different plantings, I never know what I’m going to find there.

Yesterday the north garden was a riot of mums, but not your ordinary hardy mums that show up in every florist shop and window box.  These were Korean mums, kinda like daisies with an attitude.