Organic Tomato Tart

Tomatoes are finally in season again and paired with a shallot, garlic, some good olive oil, a little sea salt, basil and whatever cheese you have laying around that needs to be used and some puff pastry purchased from Whole Foods.....well you have a completely delicious dinner at hand within 30 minutes.

There are a couple of tricks to this amazing tart however. If you follow them, it will yield a tart with a crisp and buttery "crust" and perfectly chewy, intensely flavored tomatoes. The recipe, and the tips follow. Please, even though it is warm, please don't run out to some fast food joint right now! Take my word for it....this is an easy recipe. It is worth the 30 minutes.

Organic Tomato Tart with Cheese

1 purchased sheet of puff pastry, defrosted and pricked top to bottom

2 pints of organic cherry tomatoes, washed and halved

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 clove of garlic, smashed and finely chopped

3 TBSP good olive oil

Sea salt, to taste

Black Pepper, freshly ground

Fresh mozzarella cheese, thinly sliced

Parmegiano Reggiano, grated coarsely

Basil, torn or julienned

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Put all the tomato halves, shallot, garlic and olive oil together on a cookie sheet. Toss to coat, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Bake until slightly shriveled and fragrant. Notice if most of the liquid is gone from the tomatoes. This is the perfect time to remove from the oven and cool. About 15 minutes time total.

Top the defrosted and pricked puff pastry sheet with the thinly sliced mozzarella, placed along the tart being careful not to put too much, as too much filling with make the tart soggy. Layer the seasoned, oven roasted tomatoes atop the cheese, spreading around evenly. Top with grated reggiano.

Bake at 45o degress until edges are puffed and really brown. About 10-15 minutes, depending upon your oven. If the tart puffs too much, stick the tip of a knife into the puffed part to release the steam.

Remove from the oven. Cut into 8 slices and top with the julienne of basil and a sprinkling or coarse sea salt.

Serve hot or cold.....great picnic food!

Pop Up General Store

Pop-Up General StoreTUESDAY, MARCH 2ND FROM 5-7 PM

Hi there! We wanted to let you know that we'll be popping up next Tuesday, March 2nd from 5-7pm. We hope you'll be able to swing by!

Please note that this is a departure from our previous Wednesday markets.We'll be making Boudin Blanc Sausages, Tuscan-Style Arista Pork Loin, Ragù Bolognese and Hand-Torn Straccetti Pasta.

We are also excited to have new offerings from several of our friends: e.b.c.b., Stacie Pierce, Melissa Fernández, Anthony Tassinello, Mary Jo Thoresen and Blue Chair Fruit!

Pre-order your items using this form, then come visit our pop-up location in the historic Temescal streetcar depot that houses Grace Street Catering.

We'll be there next Tuesday, March 2nd from 5pm to 7pm awaiting your arrival! We'll have lots of extras (including Chris's salami and coppa, as well as Goulash's Handmade English Muffins) for sale, so feel free to pop in even if you don't place an order!

Stop in for a taste!Please use this order form to place an order by Sunday, February 28th at 10am.

Become our fan! Click here to become our fan on Facebook and help spread the word about Pop-Up General Store!

WHAT: Pop-Up General Store selling handmade sausages, pasta, sweets and more!

WHEN: Tuesday, March 2nd from 5pm to 7pm

WHERE: 4629 Martin Luther King, Jr. Way (corner of 47th and MLK) in Temescal, Oakland (click for map of location)

HOW: Pre-order by Sunday, February 28th at 10am using this form and come ready with cash or check, as we are unfortunately unable to accept credit cards
Forward email

Pop-Up General Store 4629 Martin Luther King Jr. Way Oakland CA 94609

Deliciously brought to you by Samin Nosrat http://ciaosamin.blogspot.com/ and Chef Christopher Lee, both formerly of Eccolo on 4th St in Berkeley.

Organic Milk=Grass Fed Cows

A decade after such regulations were proposed, the USDA has passed new requirements for organic dairy farmers. New rules specify that cows must be allowed to graze on open pastures for at least 120 days of the year and get a minimum of 30 percent of their nutrition from fresh grass for their product to qualify as organic.

The decision marks a victory for organic food advocates, who have vigorously lobbied for the United States to revamp organic milk requirements.

School Breakfast and Lunch

This is what my kids at Seneca Center had for breakfast today. Homemade Orange Marmalade Buttermilk Pancakes, Saggs Chicken Apple Sausages, and fresh warm fruit.

As many of you know, I have been working with the Slow Food folks on the School Lunch Initiative and awareness about this upcoming legislation coming before Congress in March this year. I guess you could say, it has become my passion to get all of my friends, family and acquaintances to lobby Congress that we need change across the board in school food. A move to healthier, more localised food....prepared daily for our kids by people like me who care.

It boggles my mind when I think of the slop my Husband Troy's daughter is served at school in Benicia. This is one of the Bay's wealthiest suburbs....lovely waterfront homes, a historic downtown and a safe town to raise your kid in with highly acclaimed schools. But what do they have for lunch? Steamed hamburgers out of wrappers. Soggy deep fried stuff. Canned fruit and vegetables or when the fruit is fresh....it has been sitting around for a very long time.

Why? Well like many school districts around the state of California and our great country...it is because we spend less per week on our kid's school food than we do FOR A SINGLE VENTI LATTE at Peet's.

Yes.......you heard me correctly. We spend less than $5 a week per child for breakfast and lunch for our kids. No wonder today's children are stressed, unhealthy, and hard to control! They have no nutrients in their little bodies to run them and their minds efficiently!!! This is not rocket science folks! What we put in.....we get out. We are creating an unhealthy future for our children and habits that will put them in the running to die before we do (for the first time in history). 1 in 5 children in this generation will have insulin dependant diabetes by the time they are 15. If you know any one with diabetes....you know that they can lose mobility, eye sight, and in the worse cases, people with uncontrolled diabetes can lose their limbs! Did you know that people with diabetes cannot get life insurance? Did you know that people with diabetes pay higher medical premiums? Did you know that automatically, many MDs will put people who have diabetes on blood pressure and cholesterol meds too? Did you know that all this medicine and the things that go with it can cost upwards of $200 a month?

Yes.......I have first hand experience. My sweet husband Troy is diabetic. He has learned about the damage to his body all too late. I know what this horrific disease can do and it is the food that we are choosing and the food that our government is choosing to feed our children everyday that is creating this epidemic.

But it can be stopped. WE can stop it. YOU can stop it!!! Demand from Congress that our schools get just $1 a day more for each student for nutritious, healthy, local, largely organic and sustainable food. Just a dollar a day more, can change everything.

It is up to you and me. If you would like to join me in lobbying Congress for just a dollar more for our kids.....for good, clean and fair food for everyone. Please click on the link below and let your voice be heard!

http://capwiz.com/ffff/utr/1/JGZUMAABWG/JUPUMAALPC/4652622756

Kindergarden in the garden!

Today was the realization of a dream for me.  Our daughter Lucia, started kindergarden in Berkeley.  Two years ago, we started looking to move to Berkeley.  It became evident that we probably would not be able to afford a home of our own in the hot real

estate market that is Berkeley, but we are renting a really beautiful home with room to have a vegetable garden, great neighbors,

walkable to Acme Bread, 900 Grayson, the new Berkeley Bowl, great parks, good local coffee, Cafe Fanny, 4th Street shops, and of course, LuLu's school.  

When I started researching schools, I found out that while many school districts are suffering under budget cuts and recession, the folks that are lucky enough to own homes in this area, keep voting to send a large portion of property tax revenue to support school programs.  For their money, our children get arts, music, sports, good after school care, locally grown scratch meals, libraries and computer labs at all schools, organic gardens and cooking programs and science labs.  For the garden/cooking  and school lunch program alone I would count my child lucky to be in a Berkeley school. For a Mom and a Slow Food Chef,  I just can't imagine it gets any better than this for my child and for all children.

Thank you Alice Waters, for having the vision that Berkeley schools could be special and so much more, thank you to all the parents, staff,  and the administrators who have taken these innovative ideas and the tax payers hard earned cash and made 

this happen.  My child and so many others will be excited to be at school everyday, challenged and inspired.

WOW! I DO LIKE BRUSSELS SPROUTS

Okay, so my Husband likes these little cabbage balls. I have always felt bad, because I don't and I never really had made an effort to find a truly great preparation because they were not one of my favorites.

So while at Whole Foods on Friday, I saw a cute little bag of the little cabbage heads and decided to really make an effort. This is what ensued.

Sausage Sage Brussels Sprouts

1/2 lb of country style ground sausage
1 small yellow onion, chopped finely
6 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
Salt and Pepper to taste
julienne Sage leaves, fresh
3 TBSP cooking sherry
2 TBSP good olive oil
2 lbs brussels sprouts
1/2 cup finely shredded Pecornio Toscano cheese

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a large sautee pan, brown the sausage...when it is brown on the outside and pink on the inside still, add onions. Turn down the heat, add salt and pepper to taste, and let mixture carmelize...occasionally using a pancake turner to cut up the sausage into ground pieces.

Add garlic, let warm thru to release the aroma. Add the cooking sherry, sage, then the olive oil. Remove from heat.

Cut each sprout in half. Toss with sausage mixture. Cook in the oven for 20 mins. After the time has elapsed, remove the brussels sprouts from the oven, and top withe the pecornio cheese. Return the mixture to the oven for 5 mins. more.

Serves 4 people as a side dish.


WOW! My Husband Troy, loved this so much we ate the whole thing for dinner. I must admit, it was pretty good and I definately expanded my Winter vegetable repetoire!