Have you heard about this controversial “sandwich” known as KFC’s Double Down?

Nutritionists Plea to KFC: http://bit.ly/bPDMlY

Today on Chicagoist I discussed a few (certainly not all) environmental benefits of choosing grass-fed animal products. Read my post here: http://bit.ly/bv3LNg

Food Labels: Facts Behind the Health Claims
http://chicagoist.com/2010/03/18/food_labels_the_fact_behind_the_hea.php

Tofu: The Top 5 Myths Dispelled:
http://www.womansday.com/Articles/Food/Tools-Tips/The-Truth-About-Tofu-Top-5-Myths-Dispelled.html

Last night I had the enormous pleasure of donating and serving up a pot of homemade Chickpea Lentil stew for “Soup and Bread“, a free weekly soup dinner organized by Martha Bayne at the Hideout in Chicago. Both soup and bread are free, but donations are  collected to benefit the Greater Chicago Food Depository and other local food pantries.

From the Soup and Bread website, here’s the basic gist of the event:

“Each week we round up a handful of Hideout staff and regulars, plus local musicians, writers, artists, and — yes — professional cooks to donate pots of homemade soup. We heat them up in crock pots and serve them in the finest thrift-store china, along with fresh bread and the occasional muffins, pie, or cookies baked by enterprising participants. All are welcome, and we serve till the soup runs out or the late-night jazz guys kick us out. It was designed to be an easy, low-key way to get folks out of the house and socializing in the dead of darkest winter — because, seriously, have you been to Chicago in January? Not to mention, when we started this up in 2009 our friends were losing their jobs left and right. At times this past year it’s seemed the entire city could use a nice hot bowl of soup.”

Last night our soup spread garnered record-setting donations for the Lakeview Pantry.   If you live in the neighborhood, Soup and Bread will continue to run every Wednesday from 5:30pm-8pm through March 31st 2010. Kids are welcome! If you’re not local, be sure to check out the official Soup and Bread Cookbook here. It’s a sweet, and very useful, collection of 52 soup recipes and 8 bread and baked good recipes from the 2009 run of Soup and Bread at the Hideout.

Below, here we are serving up our hot soup last night. Such a great time! From left to right…Tamiz Haiderali, chef/owner of the fantastic restaurant Treat at North & Kedzie (where I’ve eaten the most amazing curried gnocchi on earth), Chicagoist Food and Drink Editor Chuck Sudo, Lost in the Supermarket’s Allison Stout, the multi-talented Luke Joyner, and myself.

photo by Sofia Marcovici

We celebrated two birthdays in my house over the past week.  I often approach my own birthday with a bit of quiet reflection.  While I can’t quite wrap my mind around the idea of aging, the awareness of how quickly a year goes by always makes me sigh.  And it seems that the older I get,  the more deeply this can be felt.  Many of us groan and lament each passing birthday, as one step closer to an end.  Yet I contemplate the rationality of this thinking.  Are we not fortunate to simply be able to grow old?  Of all the people who lose their opportunity to age,  is it nothing short of a miracle to keep living?  And to live to be 80 or 90 years old?  That is true luck.

For our birthday celebration, we enjoyed some amazing, slightly indulgent, homemade foods….these come straight from Bon Appetite.

Here is Jason’s version of Garlicky Black Pepper Shrimp with Black-Eyed Peas…he added some tasty smoked salmon.

…and my version of Apple Ginger Pie with Cider-Bourbon Sauce.  I tweaked this recipe slightly by using coconut oil instead of shortening. And it really ought to be eaten with vanilla ice cream, or mypersonal fave Ciao Bella Gelato.

A very worthwhile labor of love

Happy birthdays and holidays to you all...

I always thought so. But here I am finishing my first half marathon in Nashville in 2008.  Since that day, I’ve managed to complete two more.  A couple years ago I relocated from Cleveland to Chicago and, shortly thereafter, met a nice fellow who inspired me to embrace strenuous physical activity and stop thinking of it as a chore. He exercised regularly and seemed to do so out of genuine enjoyment and desire to take care of his health, not simply for the sake of vanity. He also did a good job of shushing my inner self-doubting voice. When I said “Maybe I’ll try to run a 5k?”, he responded “Why not go big and try a half-marathon?”  Running seemed to be fairly do-able because, well, most of us learned how to do it by the time we’re two years old, right?  So as a long, dreary, Chicago winter approached, I impulsively signed myself up to train for a half marathon with the Chicago Area Runner’s Association.  Training commenced 3 months later, prior to which I had not run an inch beyond 1 mile without stopping for a break. The night before the first 7am, four-mile training run  I was on the verge of tears.  Absolutely CERTAIN I could not run four miles and would end up bailing on my training crew. Fast forward 24 hours and I was hyper with excitement over the ease at which I had run those four miles.  And thanks to my group’s swell pace leader, Chuck Aron, that chilly run was, dare I say, enjoyable. Ever since I started running my confidence and state of mind improved, and so did my health.  My “good cholesterol” levels improved and my “bad cholesterol” levels went down. And the only thing I did differently (because I’ve always eaten a fairly healthy diet) was run.

This photo provides a little self-inspiration when I’m confronted with the all-too-frequent lulls in my exercise routine.  The lulls that result when my life’s responsibilities intensify and I push exercise to the bottom of my priority list.  I’m experiencing one right now. The day just feels too short. I can’t squeeze in a trip to the gym.  And without fail I’m a restless malcontent, once again reminded that exercise is not expendable.  This photo reminds me of how utterly awesome I felt after crossing that finish line and accomplishing something I previously thought impossible. That moment has a firm spot in my top 5 greatest of all time, right next to scrubbing in to the operating room to watch a major surgery (full of intestines, blood and gore), jumping out of a rusty, rickety airplane with my friend Lori amidst the mountains of southern Arizona, and the birth of  the angelic Will Hyatt, the son of my dear friend Jenny. I proved to myself that Ican run, and therefore I can do more than my mind often tells me,  and that awareness has  influenced other aspects of my life in countless ways ever since.

Tempted update: Pasta with Butternut Squash and Kale. Yum! http://megantempest.com/blog/?p=1118

My thoughts on Winter squash: http://bit.ly/1C0lC8

My nutrition advice and unkind words about Chicago deep-dish incites debate: http://bit.ly/P00ct