Posts by author: Danielle

Time flies when you’re having fun and Good.Food.Stories. is officially one year old. (GFS, like me, is a Leo.)

This all got started with a simple desire to share our love for food. Casey was regularly answering emails from friends requesting restaurant recommendations and all sorts of cooking advice. I was always snooping around looking for unusual places to eat and an outlet for my never ceasing curiosity. A few emails were bounced back and forth, we picked a name, bought a domain and our chronicle of delicious conversations began.
>> More of Good. Food. Stories.’ greatest hits after the jump. >>

Every year my good friend Stevie plans an extravaganza around his birthday. He makes it clear that he doesn’t want gifts or cards, only the participation of his wide group of wonderful friends. Years ago, we rented out part of a club and danced till dawn. Last year it was karaoke and bowling. Two years ago, we had a simple, cheap dinner in Chinatown which ended around 11pm. But the party didn’t really begin until we were escorted to a plumber’s van which drove us to a roller rink on the southern tip of Staten Island.

This year, Stevie rented a house near Hudson, New York for a week of reading, swimming, singing, throwing the ball around the yard, hammock sleeping, star-gazing, and of course, eating. I love Stevie. He cultivates pleasure and then shares it generously.
>> Click here to read about zucchini that looked like bacon!>>

I spent the holiday weekend in the Hudson Valley at the home of a friend who recently planted a lush, beautiful kitchen garden. Every time the breeze blew, the scent of cilantro, basil, and dill would waft through the backyard. Though I consider myself content in the big city, I seriously envy the ability to maintain such a kitchen garden. Oh, to step outside my door and pick fresh mint for lemonade!

Given it was the 4th, our group felt it would be un-American to eat anything but grilled burgers, though we also wanted to take advantage of all the fresh herbs. Rather than go potato salad crazy, I decided to put a large mixture of herbs in the burger meat.
>> Read on for the best herb-flecked burger this side of the Mississippi. >>

Two weeks ago, Justine van der Leun, author of Marcus of Umbria: What an Italian Dog Taught an American Girl about Love, wrote an amazing guest post for GFS about the life lessons she learned from eating locally in Italy. Today, I’m happy to share my review of Justine’s book which is rich with stories about food, farming, and Italian traditions.

The story begins in New York where Justine, in her mid-twenties, is struggling to find her place. She’s got the magazine job she always wanted, and a boyfriend who seems perfect on paper, but she yearns for something different, mainly because she understands that she is different. Enter a handsome Italian gardener she meets on vacation in Umbria and boom, Justine packs up her Brooklyn apartment and moves to the 200-person farming village of Collelungo. The bloom is quickly off the rose with the gardener, but Justine becomes deeply enmeshed with his family. Justine also finds a neglected, nameless English pointer living alone in an outdoor pen.
>> Click here for the verdict on Marcus of Umbria >>

My participation in the local neighborhood CSA has completely changed the way I buy and use vegetables. This is how it works: In late winter, I purchased a share in the summer crop of Windflower Farm, located in between the Hudson River and the Vermont border. Every Tuesday the farmers brings the week’s bounty to two spots here in Washington Heights where CSA members gather to pick up their share.

If the crop does well, we get a ton of vegetables. If, like last year, there is tomato blight, well…we get less. But most importantly, our urban neighborhood is able to support local farming and organic practices with little effort and great reward. The best part is that I’ve been introduced to vegetables I never otherwise would have considered, which is why GFS is proud to present a new regular feature….Farm Friday!

One share feeds a family of four, so I split the share with my friend and fiction writer Melissa Swantkowski. (She also has a famous pug named Gus, who will be turning up in future posts.) Today, we welcome Melissa to the GFS family as she shares with us her creative use of one weird lookin’ vegetable.

>> Click here to find out what to do with the purple monster. >>