Newsletter

Welcome back to the Slow Food Boulder Newsletter!

And, please welcome our new Newsletter editor, Sarah Keeyes. Sarah is a chef, aspiring food writer and beekeeper. Her hobbies include recipe development, reading and bookbinding. She lives in North Boulder with her husband, Jon, three dogs and two cats.

Our goal is to publish the newsletter quarterly (Jan., Mar., Jun. and Sept.). This issue is a bit off schedule, but we wanted to get the first one out as soon as we could.

We'd like to keep the articles and newsletter brief and interesting, so you'll enjoy the read. The bulk will be about Slow Food - with events front and center. As space allows, we'll add other appropriate tidbits we think would be of interest to our members: Like-minded websites, links to interesting articles, non-Slow event info, recipes and more. We'll forgo "want ads" or "advertising", unless most of you tell us you want those.

We'd love to have your feedback, now or down the line, so please don't hesitate to contact Sarah at
sarah@highlandmyst.com.

Best regards,
Laura Bloom
Slow Food Boulder "Right Hand Woman"

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Thirty enthusiastic Slow Food Boulder members gathered at the Culinary School of the Rockies on January 27 for our annual Open House Pot Luck. As always, the wonderful food and wine set the stage for conviviality and conversation. The discussion started with Elizabeth Perrault, our SFB leader for the past several years, announcing that she was resigning her leadership role, and that Brodo member Pamela Stewart was taking the helm. At that point, we dove into introductions of all members present as well as Brodo members and their roles. Creative juices flowed with the wine and food, and members offered numerous suggestions for events throughout the year: Convivium a Casa events featuring Moroccan theme, homemade ravioli, and Dinner and a Movie nights, with Ratatouille getting thumbs up from everyone; restaurant wine dinners and events at local purveyors such as cheese making at Haystack Dairy. Great food for thought and another great gathering of Slow Food members to kick off 2008!

RECIPE TESTING PARTY – Convivium a Casa (CAC) - Members Only

The call went out and Slow Food Boulder responded! Cooks, food stylists, food writers, and just plain food lovers, all members of Slow Food Boulder, gathered February 24 to prepare and share dishes based on recipes from some of Colorado’s leading food purveyors.

The rules were simple: Select from the list of more than a dozen recipes, make you dish at home or right at the party, note any special circumstances (extra long cooking time, unavailable ingredients, and so on), prepare your dish for its close up with the food photographers, and then share a bountiful, small-plates meal with fellow food lovers. In addition to an abundant course of salads and starters, main course of lamb, pork, trout and chicken, the cooks shared knock-out desserts – sticky toffee pudding, chocolate cake, and lemon-rosemary cake to name a few. Wines paired with each dish were expertly selected by Wayne Belding, Master Sommelier and owner of Boulder Wine Merchant.

The food stylists and food writers in the crowd were unfazed by preparing and presenting their dishes for the camera and coached some of the cooks with less experience in the presentation of their dishes. But everyone learned something about working to a recipe, sourcing ingredients, showing off the finished masterpiece, and finding time to sample all the dishes and provide feedback to the cooks.

The Scotch Tasting – was more than just Scotch. It was a cultural event complete with kilts, blessings, songs, and fascinating stories about the people and the land known as Scotland by our wonderful presenter, Buz Dabkowski. Maps and descriptions of the regions of each Scotch helped us understand the terroir of the varied Scotches that we tasted. Thanks to our co-hostesses Hilary Boslet, who master-minded the event and put in lots of leg-work, and Sandra-Leigh Serio who opened the doors of her beautiful home and provided home-made biscotti and coffee to end the evening.

Slow Food Reads came together on March 16 for an enlivening discussion and delicious local food potluck based on the recipes in the book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver.

Asparagus and morel bread pudding, spring potato salad, and rhubarb crisp were just a few of the delicious dishes prepared with an eye toward local, organic ingredients. Thanks to Susan Donohoe and Mark Law for hosting SFR and welcoming us into their home.

The recipes can all be downloaded from http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com

PEACH BLOSSOM FARM TOUR AT ELA FAMILY FARM IN HOTCHKISS
(Non-Slow Food Event)

This walk through the blossoming peach orchards with Steve Ela and his family will give you a unique insight into not only where they work and how it feels to walk among the fragrant trees, but also how they train each variety and work with the elements to nurture such great-tasting fruit. They will talk about tree training, insect and disease control, grafting, variety selection, thinning, harvesting and, ultimately, how they get your fruit directly to you.

For more information visit slowfoodboulder.org

or contact Steve Ela, (970)872-3488 or info@elafamilyfarms.com

(Non-Slow Food Event)
We have learned about two upcoming benefit dinners sponsored by the Buffalo Field Campaign, a cause that may be of interest to Slow Food Members. The BFC has been working for over a decade to ensure that our nation's Wild Bison Herds are protected and encouraged to flourish in their native range. Go to www.buffalofieldcampaign.org to learn more.

• 3rd Annual Benefit Dinner for the Buffalo, Alice's Restaurant at Gold Lake Resort, 3317 Gold Lake Rd, Ward. Sunday, April 20th, 6pm: 3 course meal featuring organic foods, wines/beers from local merchants, silent auction celebrating mountain artists and businesses. Sliding scale with suggested donation of $100.
• Black Cat Restaurant, 1964 13th St, Boulder. Event information still to be determined. Summer 2008.

For more information on both events please contact Justine Sanchez, BFC Board Member at 303.459.0209 or phatmansanchez@hotmail.com.

OLIVE OIL TASTING AT OLIV YOU AND ME - Convivium a Casa - Members Only

Patti Scott of Oliv You & Me is offering an evening of Olive Oil tasting exclusively for Slow Food Boulder members on Sunday, April 27th from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The first hour will focus on learning about olive oil and the impact of terroir on its characteristics. Followed by a taste of olive oil “in action,” paired with bread, cheeses, greens, and meat. After all that work, the wine will flow and the evening will finish, relaxed and well-oiled.

Space is limited to the first 15 people who RSVP to Donna Fellman at donnafellman@comcast.net then mail your check made out to Slow Food Boulder for $20 per person to:

202 S. Jefferson Ave.

Louisville, CO 80027

BUTTER, BUTTER, BUTTER!!! - Slow Food Reads and Butter Extravaganza - Members Only

Butter. That's the title of the March issue of Saveur magazine, the topic of The Great Big Butter Cookbook (von Glahn, ed.), and a favorite ingredient of Julia Child's.

Slow Food Reads will be coming together Sunday June 22 from 4 to 7 pm at the home of Karen Dunivan, to celebrate the return of Butter (if you ever gave it up.) You will learn how to make butter in Karen's butter making workshop (she even has a churn!), experience a variety of butters in our butter tasting, and enjoy butter in every form, from flavored spreads to baked goods, to sauces, to main courses at the potluck.
So read anything and everything you can about butter. Bring a stick of unflavored butter (Your favorite? Most unusual? The one with the prettiest label?) for the butter tasting. Then make something that is better because of butter and bring it to Karen's house. It can be anything from flavored spreads to baked goods, to sauces, to main courses. It's up to you.

Please RSVP to Karen Dunivan, kldunivan@aol.com

June 25

Attention all Garden enthusiasts!! The Growing Gardens/Cultiva! program is hosting its popular “Breakfast in the Garden” event on Wednesday, June 25 from 8-10 a.m. Location is the Growing Gardens located in the Community Gardens off Iris Avenue. Slow Food members are invited to visit, mingle, have a light breakfast and tour the accomplishments of the program in living color. More information to come!

*Amuse Bouche*, a little something extra

A few links that may be of interest:

* Great new restaurant site for many cities in the country. For Denver,
anyway, they seem to list the truly good restaurants, not just the
ones that pay to be listed, buy advertising, or are popular with
diners with average taste buds.

http://wherethelocalseat.com

*This is an interesting graphic that shows how big corporations are swallowing up small organic producers.

Click on the graphic to launch the animated version (I had to do it a few times before it moved)
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/when-big-business-eats-organic/

*Food Fight is a documentary that takes a look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century. In particular, how the California food movement, led in part by Alice Waters, has created a counter-revolution to big agribusiness.