Seeking comfort in cuisine Comfort food, the hot trend in these stressful times, became positively iconic in January when a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs was on the cover of Gourmet magazine. No wonder, since it's a dish that even the other trendsetters -- newbie cooks -- can accomplish with some basic skills. Or, they can take advantage of a company that also has its eye on comfort food. For years, Noodles & Company's signature Wisconsin mac-and-cheese has been its number one seller, accounting for one in five orders. Now the "fast-casual" chain is offering spaghetti and meatballs in Minnesota. Carbs will get us through this.
Seeking comfort in cuisine
Wedge spreads some lettuce The Wedge Co-op, a Minneapolis natural and organic food cooperative with almost 14,000 member-owners, has given $50,000 in grants to 13 community organizations whose work combats hunger, promotes food safety and fosters renewable energy and sustainable communities. They include: the Emergency Foodshelf Network, Cornucopia Institute, Youth Farm & Market Project, Farmer's Legal Action Group, Universal Healthcare Action Network of Minnesota, Great Plains Windustry Project, Community Design Center of Minnesota, Southside Family Charter School, Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy, Local Fair Trade Network, Gardening Matters, Women's Environmental Institute at Amador Hill and Urban Arts Academy. The Wedge has been awarding such grants since 1997 to community non-profits whose work aligns with the cooperative principle that co-ops "work for the sustainable development of their communities."
Cherimoyas in the stores We don't know if this is a comfort food, but anything described as having "a rich, sweet custard-like flavor" has to be in the running. Cub Foods has gotten in a big stock of cherimoyas, a fruit native to Ecuador and Peru (Peruvian food also is on trend lists for 2009). The fruit is about the size of a softball and looks rather "dinosaurish" with a skin that's green, leathery, scaly. Its flesh, though, is creamy-white flesh with large black seeds. No less than Mark Twain once called it "deliciousness itself."
Keeping track of safe food Comfort is one thing, safety is another. Ideally, they coexist, but it's not always easy when it comes to refrigerated leftovers. A free 50-page pdf download of food storage tips is available from U.S. Department of Agriculture. Go to www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/Kitchen_Companion_Single.pdf. Now that you know, what's safe, check out Timer Tags, seven tags for each day of the week that let you label any container with perishable food. The tags are brightly colored anodized aluminum and fit in the recessed lid of container. They're reuseable, with a 10-year warranty. A seven-tag set is $10.75, with one dollar of every sale going to "Feed America," a non-profit food bank formerly known as Second Harvest. Go to www.timertags.com. Order a second set for your underwear drawer!
Text by KIM ODE