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Posted by: Matthew
20 Reasons to Appreciate Making Maple Syrup
You can wear your favorite lumberjack outfit
If there is late season snow, your dog can create a path into the woods for you.
Its a good way to find a quiet place to think.
When you realize you need more professional equipment, you also learn that it is hiding in a shed which is buried behind a snow drift.
You may get to use your snowshoes.
Working together is a bonding experience.
Well...
You begin to feel real nourishment coming from the tree.
When the first bucket is filled, there is a great sense of accomplishment (a false one, I might add)
Maple sap tastes great.
Dogs become more camera friendly in the woods.
There are plenty of WWF matches to watch while you wait.
Warm days in the snow remind you of Spring skiing.
The few mechanical requirements may actually make you feel like you have skills.
All that sap is so promising once it is collected.
Reducing the sap warms up your house.
You finally understand...
..why maple syrup is so expensive.
Posted by: Matthew
Every so often, an exciting project appears and has the opportunity to bring a new dimension to its genre. Dara Prentice and Mandy Canistelle formed a vision for 105degrees that is the first of its kind, not only in Oklahoma City, but in the world. Born out of their passion for raw and living cuisine, the idea was to develop a forward thinking raw cafŽ, living foods culinary academy and retail boutique, all housed in one location. I am grateful to be a member of their team and to be involved in a project of such scale and creativity. There are many who have made this incredible project possible, including the talented architect, David Kraszewski. Mandy is a chef and living foods teacher, with a large following in Oklahoma City. I recently attended one of her classes and was extremely impressed with her meticulous attention to detail and teaching skills. Dara is an attorney with extensive experience in a number of areas, now business owner, and is bringing her impeccible skills to the management of a multitude of large details that are required to bring such a venue to life.
105degrees has 3 major components, all working in sync with one another. The Cafe at 105degrees will be designed around a completely modern open kitchen. Designed with sustainability in mind, it will have a 15 seat bar, 65 seat dining room and approximately 30 seats on its patio. The academy, one of our most distinguishing aspects, will offer two professional courses, Fundamentals of Raw Cuisine and Advanced Raw Cuisine, running for 1 and 3 months, respectively. The academy will also offer numerous courses for the community and visitors. The Shop at 105degrees will be both an e-commerce business as well as a store within our “glass box”, which will be located between the cafe and academy. The shop will feature our unique brand of retail items, packaged foods, supplies for the home and many more unique sustainable and organic products.
105degrees will address raw food preparation from a classical perspective, building on a number of bases, sauces and techniques that run parallel to French culinary methods. Our menu will be modern, globally influenced and cutting edge, and will change in its entirety on a seasonal basis. As I work on the menu with Mandy now, our goal is to develop raw cuisine at a new level, with an emphasis on lightening dishes without compromising full flavor and richness.
All of the components of 105degrees will launch in September, just a month after we complete construction and training. Our first “Fundamentals” class will be taught in the fall, and “Advanced”, open to all graduates of Fundamentals, will begin in January 2010.
105degrees will be located in a new development, Classen Curve, which is owned by Chesapeake Energy. I look forward to sharing many more details of 105degrees in the very near future.
www.105degrees.com
Posted by: Matthew
The beginning of each New Year brings on a flurry of gastronomic predictions by food writers, chefs, journalists and diners. Some of these ideas do foreshadow reality, and more often than not, they reflect the personal wish list of the author. This year, the climate is more complex, given the unusual marriage of a slow economy, paired with a culinary landscape in America that is unparalleled. The breadth of restaurants, specialty products, books and food education is currently at its peak, and yet, the economic crisis threatens to curb the rapid progress we have seen in recent years. It appears that some journalists, rather trying to crystallize a formula out of such complicated circumstances, have taken a more lighthearted approach, while others have held to the tried and true suggestions that typically accompany a shrinking economy. Reading all of these, I could not help but consider what my own
Posted by: Matthew
One of my favorite films, The Sheltering Sky, is based on the novel by Paul Bowles. A brilliant writer who spent a great deal of his life in Morocco, he was often able to capture in his work, the life experience of his readers and viewers, and thus offer experience on two planes simultaneously. The following quote, which I have included in the introduction to the chapter “SPICE” in Entertaining in The Raw, is one I often think of when making daily choices:
Remembering
Because we do not know when we will die
we get to think of life as an inexhaustible well
and yet everything happens only a certain number
of times and a very small number really.
How many times will you remember a certain
afternoon of your childhood, an afternoon that
is so deeply a part of your life that you can’t
even conceive of your life without it. Perhaps
four or five times more? Perhaps not even that.
How many times will you watch the full moon rise,
perhaps twenty, and yet it all seems so limitless.
It sounds so obvious – and it is. We have numerous opportunities to embrace life and yet, our days are so full, our pace so quick, we frequently let them pass. With that sentiment in mind, while watching the first true snow of the season fall in Maine, I set aside my work and went outside to savor the afternoon.
Posted by: Matthew
Although I travel frequently, I’m still not much of a tourist. When I arrive at my destination, I am more interested in learning about how people live, their artistic and food culture, and understanding the day to day rhythm of a new place. After a summer in Maine, where life is mostly outdoors, mornings begin at sunrise and sleep is just a few hours after dark, Madrid was a sharp contrast. This was my second extended visit this year, but I’m still far from accustomed to the schedule there, and I’m only a little closer to understanding the lifestyle than I was before I first visited.
Everyone appears to be very social, streets are packed with pedestrians, Vespas, motorcycles and cars. Cafes, bars and shops seem to be bustling during the afternoons and later evenings. There is a sense of casual openness wherever I went and yet, the city still exudes a great deal of mystery to me. Much of it lies in the elaborate architecture, the narrow labyrinth of the cobblestone paved streets and the almost silent early mornings. At first glance, one sees mostly a jovial, almost party like atmosphere, but I’ve come away from both visits with the same contrasting feelings about the city.
Like other older and beautiful cities that I have learned to enjoy, such as Marrakesh and Istanbul, Madrid takes some time to know. I do at least start off on the right foot – although my flight usually arrives early in the morning and I haven’t slept more than a couple of hours, I usually head to a café for a cortado, the short dark coffee that is immensely popular and very easy to drink. And before taking a long nap, I always pick up some fresh manchego, crusty bread and a bottle of Albarino, my favorite white wine. After a rest, I’ll head to the restaurant I’m working with, La Mucca, and spend a few hours in the kitchen – they are a great team, very efficient and upbeat, with a few amateur singers among them. The atmosphere is a warm and inviting one.
After a couple of very productive weeks, I’m ready to leave and the city still eludes me. I’m unable to fully grasp what it is about Madrid that creates this feeling, but it is partially summed up by doors. They entrances to residences, shops and cafes are varied, colorful, exotic, flamboyant and stately. More than anything, they reflect the various impressions the city makes on me, as well as shed a little light on what I am not seeing, what likely appears only to those who live there for some time. Here are a few of those ‘doors’ that spoke one message or another to me.
