Edible Tulip

Cookbook Review: I Am Grateful, Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude

Disclosure: I live in Toronto, Ontario. I do not have access to the abundant harvests available year round in places like California. It is also early spring in Toronto; we’ve only recently caught sight of the sun. Preparing food with raw ingredients that are organic isn’t always a possibility for me with items like nuts, avocados, strawberries, fresh coconut, and Irish moss from the coast of Jamaica. And while I love and source and eat fresh and raw foods daily, I cannot for my own well being even contemplate eating full time a raw food diet, both because of my geographic locale and because in the Ayruvedic spectrum I am a vata which means I am supposed to avoid uncooked foods! I ate once at the live food restaurant in Toronto, Live Organic Food Bar located on Dupont Street, and ordered the vegan sushi. It was an enormous serving beautifully plated and crafted out of untoasted nori filled with chopped vegetables and in lieu of cooked rice, blended parsnip. Let’s just say that about an hour after my meal, the 48 parsnips it probably took to fill the rolls had me doubled over in agony. Apart from all of that, I am a strong advocate of local and organic foods – I eat seasonally and I eat as low on the food chain as possible and as freshly as is reasonable given my climate and physical temperment.

I Am Grateful by Terces Engelhart with Orchid

Terces Engelhart has had a hard life. That much is obvious in the introduction to her cookbook I Am Grateful as she shares with the reader a personal saga involving two sexual molestations, 20 years struggling with anorexia and bulimia, three marriages and three divorces, one domestic violence situation, and three children. She refers to herself as a Hero and she has a dream where “Jesus came to me and asked me to serve at the Last Supper”, she encourages the employees at her restaurant, Cafe Gratitude (recipes from I Am Grateful were adapted from the restaurant menu), to train themselves in choosing their thoughts and she names the items on her menu things like I Am Loved or I am Adoring (and the staff won’t let you get away with pointing at a dish on the menu) and when your meal come it is placed before you with the pronouncement “You Are Loved” or “You Are Adoring” or whatever it is you ordered. Thus you ARE what you eat. If you order I Am Responsible then You Are Responsible, and so on. You have to ask for it by name thereby, in the view of Terces, you are practicing saying something new and affirming about yourself. But before you reject this book as out of hand vegan voodooism (which I almost did), let me tell you what I came away with once I’d put my own judgements aside: as a way to kick the ass of an eating disorder, the author starts a food business; she supports local farmers, sustainable agriculture, and environmentally friendly products; rather than give over to addiction and discouragement as a result of her difficult life, she chooses to create her environment around living, organic foods which reflects a commitment to self sustenance and the nurturing of others. These are all reflective of the way restaurants have come to treat their food/their menus as a value-based commodity.

Book: The Curosities of Food

Anyone who has ever had a glimpse at my bookshelves will know that there is no rhyme or reason to the eclectic array of subject matter to be found there. The history of sand in the form of a desert? The social life of insects? Myths, fables, spells and hermit lore? How to make moonshine and tie a hog? Poetry, plays, dictionaries of languages I'll never learn, short stories, long stories, true stories and made up stories, one could say there's not much missing but then every time I enter a bookstore I find much that I'm missing. Including this gem.

"The Curiosities of Food" or "The Dainties and Delicacies of Different Nations Obtained from the Animal Kingdom" is written by Peter Lund Simmonds with an intro by Alan Davidson, author of The Oxford Companion to Food. Originally ublished in 1850 in London England, it's a culinary travelogue (long long before they were popular and ubiquitous!) discussing nearly everything and anything that walks, swims, crawls, slithers or flies and has at one time or another been ingested.

It's not reading for the faint of heart (modes of cooking monkeys, the delicacy of dog meat, how to bake elephants paws, African haggis - hippo flesh and fat, penguin livers and hearts, larvae and spider recipes all feature in various chapters), but it sure makes for interesting scholarship.

Christmas Gift Idea for the Disenfranchised Among Us

I'm posting this because it's silly but fun and for me and my friends who have all held down a ludicrous number of jobs over the past 15 years it's assuring that we weren't the only losers out there who misread job ads. I am giving this little book, bought at The Spotted Zebra giftstore on Yonge Street, as my secret santa presend under the tree at my annual workplace Christmas luncheon. There's a lot of complaining that goes on around my office at this time of year and I think it's good perspective for everyone to read about those who work on conveyor belt lines, or in fish factories, or inspecting chickens, gravedigging or grading garlic for 12 hours straight. It's a well written little tome and rather sassy.

All Stirred Up

Often I find myself engrossed in projects at work, eating my tupperware lunch at my desk, reading the paper, scouting online for new and compelling stories to read, glancing over the newspapers, fussing with papers and telephone calls, grabbing a book or 3 from my shelving unit, when the inside compression of hot air and the lack of clarity suddenly hits me and I know "I MUST GO FOR A WALK" now.

I work in the Annex neighbourhood of Toronto which is a find and dandy place to spend my days since it's only a hop skip and a jump from my apartment and it's handily in walking distance from Bloor Street, Yonge Street, Kensington Market, Hazelton Lanes, the Ave and Dav flower markets and only a few blocks from where my sister teaches and my nieces go to daycare/nursery school. Soon my office will move but for now, even on the coldest winter day, I will put on my fur hat and my wrap around scarf and head out for errands, shopping, browsing, banking, flower gazing, baby visiting, fresh air fun.

The other day I walked over to Indigo Books on Bay Street just south of Bloor. It's a good time for a book worm to go book browsing in the big box stores because they are clearing out their holiday merchandise and putting the overflow on rock bottom discounts. I found a book called "All Stirred Up - Over 150 of the Best Recipes from the Women's Culinary Network" marked down to $4.99.

First a run-down on the Women's Culinary Network. Nettie Cronish is the chair and herself, Marilyn Bentz Crowley, Heather Epp and Elaina Asselin started the culinary network back in 1990 when they all worked together at the King Ranch Spa. The objective: to meet and work with other women in the food industry in a mutually supportive and goal-oriented environment. The network now has over 250 members including chefs, food consultants, cooking teachers, food writers, cookbook authors, home economists, product developers. I've been meaning to join the network (it costs around $70 per year which includes newsletters, access to their website, quarterly meetings, etc) and I've printed up their membership pamphlet every year for the past 3 years but never sent it in. Maybe now. The book's contributors are all well-known Canadian foodies: Naomi Duguid, Elizabeth Baird, Miriam Katz, Dana McCauley, Anne Lindsay, Christine Cushing, Regan Daley, Dufflet Rosenberg, Bonnie Stern, Daphna Rabinovitch... Each entry is prefaced by a short introduction by the author/about the author, a story that relates to the food, and then a few recipes; some are in thematic form i.e. preserves, but most are in an informal menu set up. The ingredients are accessible since the book was published in Toronto. It's not "The Joy of Cooking" with a whack of intimidating ingredients; the recipes are simple and straightforward. It's a great addition to any shelf of cookbooks.

My snapshot of cucumbers was not inspired by the cookbook itself or any of its recipes. I have not been taking many photos of my food lately because it all looks like mush - lentil dahl, chicken curry, tofu/shrimp coconut stew - none of it photogenic. I do however hate sacrificing anything fresh and crispy during the winter months so I'll usually side a main dish with something as simple as peppered slices of cucumber under a dash of tarragon vinegar. Just for the tantalizing effect it has on my dormant tastebuds.

Chelsea Green Publishing

Chelsea Green Publishing is one of my favourite publishing houses. They're based in New England and focus on sustainable living with books covering these vast topics: Green Building (sample books are "Timber Framer's Workshop" or "The Passive Solar House" ), Renewable Energy (sample books are "the New Independent Home" or "Wind Power"), Gardening & Agriculture (sample book is "Edible Forest Gardens" with a lot of other books covering permaculture, organics, and composting in depth), Food & Health (books on farmstead cheese, the slow food movement, and food politics), Nature & Ecology, Politics and Social Justice, and Sustainable Living.

This is their own blurb from their site outlining their philosophy: "Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for effecting cultural change. While continuing our twenty-year commitment to green building, organic growing, and renewable energy—the practical aspects of sustainability—we are also publishing for a new politics of sustainability. Our aim is to publish hard-hitting works by major writers, thinkers, and activists exposing the global governmental and corporate assault on life. We seek to promote better understanding of natural systems as a global commons. We seek to empower citizens to participate in reclaiming the commons, to serve as its effective stewards, and to help mitigate worldwide social and environmental disruptions." It's admirable, I think. And the books are very inspiring especially with our current oil and gas global issues not to mention environmental concerns. Even if you don't have a country property or plan to build anything extraordinary, there are opportunities to implement small but important changes in your own home without huge structural work. Or why not put up a yurt or a tepee in the backyard?