Farmers Market Tour

By Andrew Hunter

Last month we wrote about Dirt to Dish and the importance of teaching our boys how their food gets from the farm to their plate. Ben and Nick are urban kids, but they’re old enough to understand the basic principles of sustainable food, planting seeds, harvesting fruits and vegetables, and the idea of cooking and eating without wasting.

So we’ve decided this will be a summer of farmers’ market tours. We plan on hitting all the local markets from the west side to the east side. The first stop of our tour is the Santa Monica Farmers Market on Main Street.

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Cheese Plate on the Fly

By Andrew Hunter

All this week, Special Fork bloggers will be sharing recipes for vacation cooking. And to celebrate summer vacations, Special Fork is giving away a beautiful, English-style picnic basket fitted with service for four by Picnic Time. It’s easy to enter the sweepstakes.

We love going on vacation, though we can typically only steal away for a couple of days here and there. Ten minutes west is Santa Monica and an hour up 101 is Santa Barbara. Both quintessential California beach towns are vacation destinations for travelers around the world. Since we don’t have to buy plane tickets or even much gas to vacation in these locales, we justify our splurging on nice hotel rooms and delicious local food.

The other great thing about vacationing close by is friends can pop in for an afternoon play date or even to spend the night. We know where all the great food shops are in each town for picnics and snacks. My favorite snack by far is a casual cheese plate; a variety of soft and hard cheese, olives and fresh fruit all on a quick and easy platter – leave your design aesthetic at home, the goal here is assemblage not presentation.

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Jen’s Cinco de Mayo Kentucky Derby Celebration

By Andrew Hunter

A few weeks back my cousin, Jenifer, posed a challenge: “Cinco de Mayo AND Derby Day on the same day?!? Might I beg...er, politely request, Andrew, that you post a few menu suggestions and recipes on Special Fork? Keep in mind, we don’t expect to be 100% sober on this magical day that honors both margaritas and mint juleps. :)”

So Jen, this one’s for you. No confusion or crazy fusion, just accommodation of both celebrations, side by side. Here are two of my favorite drinks and dips for your table this Saturday. Spiced Margaritas served with chips and Pineapple Pico de Gallo, and Mint Juleps served with Benedictine, crackers and crudités.

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Planting Seeds

By Andrew Hunter

Seeds need to be planted in fertile ground, then loved, nurtured and fed until they grow into hearty plants that bear fruit of their own. In this way, seeds and children are the same. On April 22nd, Earth Day, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of Jackson’s death in the best way we knew how; we went to a co-op farm in Malibu with dear friends to plant seeds in fertile ground.

I know celebration seems like an odd word for a father to use when commemorating the death of his first child. Vivid memories make Jackson’s death seem like yesterday, but ten years’ time dulls the painful edges of grief. So this celebration wasn’t somber but a bittersweet tribute to life and love, family, friends, grief and perseverance, and above all the memory of sweet Jackson. We used to say Jackson sang with perfect pitch because he sang with pure joy, especially when there was a little red box of raisins clenched in his hand.

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Kettle Corn Style Pistachios

By Andrew Hunter

I remember as a kid eating pistachios by the sacksful. In those good old days, my fingers, palms and face would be as red as the pistachios. It simply didn’t dawn on me that pistachios weren’t naturally red. Now I know that in fact red pistachios should be avoided like the plague. Why, because inferior and even moldy nuts are dyed to hide any number of impurities.

Recently, we were wandering around a farm in Northern California and got lost in the pistachio groves. The nuts hung in bunches with split creamy beige shells exposing the tender green and rosy hued kernels, waiting to be shaken from their branches, roasted and sold at farm stands and country markets along the roadways.

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