Although I try my hardest to buy my food from local farmers, there are several items I simply cannot live without.  In the New York tri-state area, we have everything from apples to mackerel, and I'm lucky enough to be within a mile to a farmer's market at all times but sometimes that just doesn't cut it.  Occasionally, I need to make a mental trip via my taste buds to the French countryside or the hills of northern Italy.  Here's how:


1.  French Wine - NY wines are very slowly growing on me but I'll never stop drinking Sancerre or red Burgundy
2.  Cheese - life is not worth living if I can't splurge on La Tur from Italy or Valdeon from Spain every so often.
3.  Lemons - they are in too many recipes to not have them around and hold the key to making any food taste better because of their acidity.
4.  Chocolate - specifically, Nutella.  I often find myself in need of a heaping spoonful straight out of the jar.
5.  Coffee - there is no way I could make it through the day without this.
6.  Sea Urchin - No. Explanation. Needed.
7.  Pomegranate - the best come from Israel.
8.  Olive Oil - Using butter can only get you so far.  Olive oil is a necessity.

What types of items can you not live without?

Thousands of years ago, appetizing veggies were hard to come by.  Our ancestors did not have access to the type of nutritionally rich greens we do today and also, unlike today, vitamins were not added to their food (enriched unbleached flour, anyone?) So, how did they get their Omega-3s and stay healthy?

Organ meat!  Waste not, what not; they consumed every part of the animal they hunted.  It went sort of like this - the bison ate the grass (loaded with antioxidants), man hunted and killed bison, all bison meat consumed.  The advantage of eating organ meat is that the organ meat was then enriched with the antioxidants from the grass.

In an attempt to eat more antioxidants during the colder months when vegetables are hard to come by, I decided to cook beef heart.   I did some research online to find a good beef heart recipe.  They all require a lot of extras that I didn't have, so I figured I could just marinate, cut up and saute the heart and just add it to a plate of pasta for tonight's dinner.  I marinated the meat in some olive oil, garlic, onion, salt and pepper, nothing fancy.

My husband, an extremely picky eater, was not informed of the "cut of the beef" he was eating.  So, I received his honest opinion.  According to him, the beef was tough but still pretty good.  I agree, the beef was tough, so cutting it up before cooking is a must, and it just tasted like regular beef.  I tasted the blood (sorry to be so graphics, vegetarians!) and sort of just like a steak.  

The reason why this meat was a little tougher is because it is a cut from a grass-fed cow.  Grass-fed animals tend to be a little tougher.  I purchased the meat from Elk Trails Bison, a farmer at the Saturday Union Square Greenmarket.  The farmer is probably the sweetest and most friendly person I have ever met - a true farmer with the overalls and all.  For all of those New Yorkers out there, check out his stand.

My next affair with beef heart may be one in which I follow a recipe or perhaps I'll find out what the Elk Trails Bison farmer recommends.  Either way, I plan on purchasing beef heart in the future and perhaps venturing to other organ meat soon!

 

Heat wave in New York!  Right now, it is probably about ten degrees warmer than what it is supposed to be in this thriving metropolis.  What should I eat?

As a New Yorker I am, of course, unprepared for 90 degree weather in May.  My air conditioner is not sitting in the window quite yet so the heat is a little overwhelming.

Using the oven is not really an option this week as the mercury climbs, so I need ideas.  The salads I usually make can get a little boring and raw foods are tough to digest.

What do you eat to cool off??