family farmed expo

tomato mountain had a table last year via tammy green's photostream.

a few months ago a friend approached me about helping out on the social media for a three-day conference of sorts held in chicago called the family farmed expo. since late january, i've been doing just that. and the expo? it begins today.

looking back on the early posts of this blog, long before i had a business and did much more on twitter than scratch my head at the short and blabbering tweets that came from my own account, i never would've dreamed to be working on an event that billed itself as "a three day conference, trade show, and food festival for farmers, businesses, the trade, individuals, and families." the joke internally is that it's sort of like the SXSW of local food. but it's the 5am hour, i'm awake, and soon enough i'll be down at the expo doing my social media thang, live tweeting my little fool heart out. what a thrill for me to be working so closely with local foods, artisan food makers, and family farms.

i'm hoping i'll have moments to pause and reflect, even report, on the expo and the incredible programming that will run the next three days—but to be honest, i just don't know what to expect. this might be three days of marathon training for all i know.

in the meantime, follow along as i work my way through the schedule with @grantkessler and @localfoodwisdom while the three of us put our heads together and converge to bring as much live content to the @familyfarmed twitter handle as we possibly can.

and let's hope we serve the expo well, huh?

826chi guest post series: meat tostadas

bean and chicken tostadas from stef noble's photostream.

this is it. the last post from the 826 kids before i jump behind the bar and make a fool of myself tomorrow night—which, having mardi gras like i will, should make up for the embarrassment, yeah?

pablo closes the series out with thoughts on meat tostadas. it's been great to see the culture that comes through these pieces, even in foods as simple as rice and beans or ceviche. it shows the importance of cooking at home, and how easily these stories and recipes and memories are passed from one generation to the next. "they are special," pablo says, "because we can all be part of this tradition, too."

thanks for following along with the kids, and here's hoping i see you tomorrow night. who knows, i might even be in an extra good mood and buy everyone a round... no promises.

Meat Tostadas
Pablo C. 

It’s almost dinner time and I am hungry. I smell the yummy smell of the meat tostadas. It makes me feel warm. It makes the kitchen smell good but different. It makes me feel happy in a strange way. 

What’s in these tostadas is the sweet avocado, lettuce, and tomato. It has cheese (chihuahua) also. How I help prepare it is I put the tomato, cheese (chihuaha), and avocado, and then serve it. This food tastes like a meat bowl. 

This food is special to me because it’s a carried tradition from my family. This food came from my great grandma, who made this food every Sunday to honor the church’s time for us. My mom still makes it every Sunday, but still makes it on weekdays because it’s good. I help my mom make this food because I want to help her and be part of the tradition. They are special because we can all be part of this tradition, too. 

This food describes me by telling that I am traditional and it reminds me of my ancestors. This food is something I will never forget and I will try to keep it in my family for my whole life long, and show it to my kids to stay in tradition forever so they can learn how food can also be part of our traditions.

826chi guest post series: i love rice!

rice and beans with corn via the boastful baker's photostream.

the third in a series of guests posts from a group of kids that visited the 826 chicago headquarters and wrote about food.

the whole point to this guest series was to get more voices than my own telling short stories about foods that have a familial connection. with the last post i shared, i wrote about a connection between the two stories. and we see it again here with thoughts on rice and beans.

this all started because i'm guest bartending at prairie fire to raise money for 826 chicago, and i asked if 826 would like to share any of the kids' stories on the blog. when you read something like "rice tastes like little people in your mouth screaming to get out" from aaliyah c., you start to feel pretty damn good about asking for these stories. that's a heavy metaphor for a kids' writing exercise. awesome stuff.

a bramble via ian l grundy's photostream.

and since my bartending gig was cancelled last month because of snowpocalypse, we rescheduled for next tuesday—which happens to fall on mardia gras. so i've changed my cocktail to "the bramble" to bring a little cajun color to the night (maybe i should have beads, too...). it's a classic louisiana drink, layered on the rocks with bourbon, lemon, currant liqueur, and soda—even a non-whiskey drinker would keep ordering more and more of these they're so good. i'll be serving the drink from 6-8pm on tuesday, march 8, and any money raised for the night will be matched to hopefully give 826 chicago a decent chunk of change.

and finally, here's aaliyah, on rice and beans...

“I love Rice!” 

By Aaliyah C. 

The reason I chose rice and beans is because my family and I love rice. It is part of my culture. We like to make rice with different things, like rice with beans, rice and plaintains, and many many things. We make something different every day. Rice tastes like little people in your mouth screaming to get out. Rice smells like whole grain things. When I touch the rice it feels weird but I still eat it anyway. When I see it I wanna gobble it down. It sounds like nothing. Sometimes on special occasions we make it extra special to me and extra good, yummy. My family and I love rice and I hope we don’t stop making it!