Drink, Eat at Corks and Crayons and Support Purple Asparagus

Photo Credit, Artisan Events

Imagine a class full of children swearing that they hate vegetables. Not hard to envision, right? Come back in an hour and watch them swarm the teacher’s desk for any leftovers from their veggie tasting. Believe that? I’ve witnessed this transformation on hundreds of occasions while teaching in the Chicago Public Schools for the non-profit that I founded and run, Purple Asparagus.

Purple Asparagus educates children, families and the community about eating that’s good for the body and the planet. Every year, we present Delicious Nutritious Adventures, our cornerstone education program, to thousands of parents and children throughout Chicago at schools, community centers, and farmers' markets. Delicious Nutritious Adventures invites families to explore the foods we eat in an entirely different way. We teach about the farmers who grow the food, the places it comes from, what’s good about food grown close to the earth, and how to prepare healthy, delicious recipes. Combining nutrition education, food literacy, cooking, and fun, our highly popular hands on classes celebrate farm fresh fruits and vegetables.

Obesity is a national crisis, one that’s hit Chicago particularly hard. Overweight and obese children are at greater risk for diabetes, hypertension, increased risk of heart disease, and poor self-esteem. The issue is particularly prevalent in the underserved communities where good food is in short supply. Purple Asparagus is working to combat this issue in these communities by taking a new approach to healthy eating.

While teaching kids about healthy choices is a priority to Purple Asparagus, we’re sneaky about that message. Everything about our classes (even our name) is fun. Kids are more willing to try “healthy” foods when they’re not presented as such. A first grade boy will surely turn up his nose at a chickpea when told that it’s high in fiber and protein. Explain instead that its Italian name comes from its resemblance to a wart on a famous Roman’s face and he’ll climb all over his classmate’s to try it. Describe mint as a gum plant and a child’s resistance to the green leaves will melt. We explore food in a way that’s interesting and fun that makes kids happy to try new foods.

In the 2010-11 school year, we provided 250 hours of free educational programming to schools, community centers, farmer's markets, and health fairs in Chicago serving roughly 2,500 students in over 30 Chicago neighborhoods on a shoestring budget with an all volunteer staff. We also served as a lead partner with Healthy Schools Campaign on the largest coordinated response to Michelle Obama's call to chefs, Chefs Move to Schools. Through this program, we trained over 175 chefs who visited close to 200 schools reaching 8,000 children.

All this is great, you say, but how can I help? It couldn’t be a better week to ask this question. Purple Asparagus’ annual fundraiser, Corks & Crayons Benefit at Uncommon Ground, 1401 W Devon Ave, Chicago, on Sunday, August 28, 2011 from 3-7 p.m. The family-friendly event that brings foodies old and young together to celebrate the joys of family meals and healthy eating all for a good cause. The event will include a mini farmers’ market sponsored by Harvest Moon Organics farm, live music from Old Town School musicians, the Kohl Foundation Storybook Bus as well as Truck Farm Chicago, a traveling mini-farm exhibit connecting kids to food and health.

If you cannot attend, please consider bidding on our online auction. We have some terrific auction items to buy now as well as some new items coming on in the next few days - even for out of towners!

Chefs Move to Schools Chicago

Video of Chefs Move to Schools Chicago in McAuliffe Elemenary School by WCIU.

A little less than a year ago, Michelle Obama created the Chefs Move to Schools. Launched on the White House lawn, the program pairs individual chefs and schools with the intent that these chefs will help improve the state of the school’s food and nutrition education. After I attended the launch with 700 plus other chefs, my organization, Purple Asparagus, partnered with Healthy Schools Campaign to organize the largest single coordinated response to Mrs. Obama’s call to action. On a single October morning, approximately 75 chefs visited Chicago Public Schools armed with bagfuls of vegetables and a curriculum that I wrote entitled “Little Pea’s Dessert.”

Little Pea, a children’s book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, is a story of a happy little pea. He loves going to school, playing with his friends, and when his dad, Papa Pea, comes home and flings him high in the air from a spoon. But there is one thing that Little Pea does not like and that’s his dinner. Every night, Little Pea has to eat candy for dinner. If he eats three bites of his dinner, he can have dessert: spinach!

After reading Little Pea, We asked each of the chefs to organize a vegetable tasting. See kids don’t need much encouragement to eat sweet things, so a fruit smoothie or a fruit, yogurt and granola cup may seem like good options for cooking with kids, they don’t take much effort to introduce. We asked the chefs to challenge themselves and the kids. Some prepared a salad with their class; one even staged a scene from Little Pea using vegetables! Being in the midst of harvest season, I went straight up veggie tasting bringing the freshest and best produce from my favorite farmers’ market, Green City Market. One class of third graders and one of kindergarteners learned about and tasted veggies such as cucumbers and broccoflower.

Our second Chicago Chefs Move to Schools day will take place on April 5. Given that the farmers’ markets will have far less available for purchase, I’m selecting a smaller assortment of vegetables and helping each of the kids make a yogurt sauce, which can be used as either a dip or a dressing. This is a pretty simple “cooking” project that can be done in the classroom by chefs and teachers alike and gets kids excited about trying new vegetables.

• Give each kid 2 sturdy plates, a sturdy plastic knife, a small bowl, and a fork (we have reusable kid size utensils for this purpose)
• Introduce vegetables one by one, explaining how each is grown, what nutrients they contain and providing some fun facts about each (these facts can be found in on the Internet, just type in the name of the veggie and “fun facts”)
• Give each child a piece of the vegetable and, if appropriate, ask them to cut it into smaller pieces on one of the plates
• Ask them to try a bite and reserve the remainder of their vegetables on the second plate until they’ve made their dip/dressing
• Once the veggie tasting is done, scoop 2 tablespoons of plain low fat yogurt into each bowl. Add ½ teaspoon each of finely chopped green onion and canola oil mayonnaise
• Hand each child a small leaf each of parsley and basil. Ask them to tear the leaves into small pieces and add to the yogurt bowl
• Pass around a small bowl of kosher salt and ask each child to take a very small “kid-sized” pinch to add to their bowl
• Ask each child to stir the dip/dressing with their fork or a carrot stick
• Enjoy as a dip or dressing for the reserved veggies

This entry was originally posted on Kiwilog.

How Cool Is That? Purple Asparagus on Rachel Ray's Yum-O

Meet Beckham, the newest addition to our family. At 9 weeks, he’s just a tiny fur ball. He joined our family yesterday afternoon and, as of now, he seems to be a delightful puppy, playful, yet mellow. He’s a little nibbly, but with vigilance, I hope that it won’t cause any lasting damage to my carpets. Mid afternoon today, I figured that the highlight of my weekend was the fact that the little beast slept through the night. Then I opened my email.

I’d met Andrew Kaplan (“Kappy”), the director of Rachel Ray’s Yum-O foundation at the Chefs in the Classroom day on which Purple Asparagus worked with Healthy Schools Campaign. After this, I’d checked out the Yum-O site where I learned about the Featured Non-Profit section. What a great idea, I thought, to highlight grassroots organizations doing work in the communities. I made a mental note of it and told myself that we should submit a profile for Purple Asparagus.

The problem with emerging non-profits, as I have painfully learned, that you get so busy doing the work, that you don’t have a chance to promote it. While that may not sound like such a big problem, it is for funding purposes. If people don’t know what you’re up to, the money needed to support your efforts doesn’t come in.

I’m guilty of this – since 2009, we’ve gone from providing regular programming in 3 schools to 15. Fifteen! Without staff. And this doesn’t take into account our programs with the City, CLOCC (Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children), or at community centers, farmers’ markets, and other venues. Fortunately, I love it and we’re really blessed to have a terrific team of volunteers, some of whom have begun to take the lead on our programs. Nevertheless, as the “Head Spear,” most of the educating is still done by me. So, while the mental note did make it into an actual item on the to-do list, I hadn’t gotten to putting together that profile.

Thus, the email I got from Kappy was a very pleasant surprise. We are the friggin’ featured non-profit on Rachel Ray’s Yum-O! Holy EVOO, we got featured. I cannot express how gratifying this news was to me. Put a little extra skip in my step, which I certainly need to keep up with the little monster pictured above.

Chefs in the Classroom and the Washington Post

It's been a good few weeks for publicity. As I mentioned, last week, you may have seen me on page 3 of last Tuesday's Chicago Tribune, seeming as if I were accepting the celery root award. Today, if you live in DC or scope out other city's food sections, you'll see my mug surrounded by some chef hatted munchkins in the Washington Post, a picture accompanying a terrific article by Jane Black about Chefs Move to Schools. It describes Monday's Chefs in the Classroom event for which Purple Asparagus provided a curriculum focused on children's book Little Pea, written by Chicago author, Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

To see a bunch of adorable kindergarten kids chomping on veggies, check out this video.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Pie: Warning - Not for the Faint of Heart

As I've mentioned before, our street has to be one of the friendliest in Chicago. From progressive dinners to impromptu cocktails and playgroups on the street, there always seems to be something going on and Halloween is no exception. After the trick-or-treaters have gone home to admire their loot, the adult treats come out in a meal contributed by multiple households, including ours.

With a benefit for Healthy Schools Campaign on Thursday night, a tour of school lunch programs on Friday, and the Evanston farmers' market Saturday morning, I needed a relatively simple dish to make (or so I thought).

I had a left over pie crust and some Concord grapes from Wednesday's farmers' market. I remembered that Martha Stewart's book Pies & Tarts had a Grape pie recipe. I've had the book for years and all of recipes I've made have been simple and delicious.

Returning home around 2:30pm, I pulled out the book. Going through the recipe, it seemed easy enough. I've got all the ingredients: grapes, sugar, cornstarch and a pie crust. I rolled out and crimped my crust, leaving extra dough for garnish. Then, I turned my attention to the filling instructions. The recipe starts out telling me to halve and pit the grapes. Now anyone who's worked with Concord grapes knows that they aren't like olives or cherries. They don't have a single pit, but several. Moreover the flesh is soft and gooey, making it difficult to extract the pits. Ugh. There's no way that I wanted to spend any afternoon pitting grapes, much less Halloween. Had I not already made the crust, I probably would have bailed on this folly and brought some cheese or something. Everyone loves cheese.

Deep breath, let's proceed. I roughly chopped the grapes in the food processor and strained the grape juice. In doing so, I got about 1/2 cup of grape juice. Heating that up, I whisked in 3/4 cup cornstarch and boiled it for about 4 minutes until thick. So far, so good.

I stuck the pot in a ice bath to cool it quickly. I then scraped it into the baked and cooled crust. The color is gorgeous, deep purple and glistening. Taste is pure grape. One itty, bitty, tiny problem, it only came up about half way up the pie crust. What to do?

Sitting down, I think about what stands up to the mighty Concord grape? Why peanut butter, of course. How about a peanut butter mousse? I recalled a recipe from another of my favorite cookbooks, The New Basics. I reviewed it, the ingredients are peanut butter, cream, cream cheese and sugar, simple enough. Mix them together. I add a touch of salt. My son tasted it and gave an enthusiastic thumbs up. Spreading it in the pan, I garnished it with the grape cluster that I've made with the extra dough, complete with pastry tendrils.

Not for the faint of heart, this was a pie meant for tiny slices. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the individual slices, but our crowd scarfed it down before I had the opportuntity.

Pie Dough
Makes 2 crusts

2 ½ cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon granulated sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
¼ - ½ cup very cold water

Mix the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly, like coarse cornmeal. Pour the water through the feed tube and mix until the mixture just comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour or freeze.

Preheat the oven to 400 F. Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness. Fit it into a 9-inch pie tin. Crimp the sides. Reserve the scraps for garnish. Prick the pie crust with a fork. Cover with aluminum foil and set another pie tin, pie weights, or dried beans on top. Bake for 8 minutes. Remove the weights and foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes or until the crust is golden. Let cool on a rack.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Pie
For 10-12 generous servings

1 9-inch pie crust
1 quart Concord grapes
½ cup granulated sugar
¾ cup cornstarch
1 pinch kosher salt
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup heavy cream

Chop the grapes in a food processor. Push through a strainer. Discard the seeds and skins. Strain the resulting juice through a fine mesh strainer. You should have about 1 ½ cups grape juice. Pour the juice into a large saucepan. Add sugar and cornstarch. Bring the juice to a boil, whisking constantly. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and set the pan in a bowl of ice water until the grape filling comes to room temperature.

Mix together cream cheese, peanut butter, sugar and heavy cream in a stand mixer until smooth.

Fill the cooled crust with the grape filling. Slather the peanut butter mousse on top. Refrigerate for 2 hours or until cold and set.

Kids' Cooking Tips
There's little that kids can't help with in this recipe. Measuring, mixing, pressing, rolling and spreading. Sticky fingers galore!

Provenance
This recipe is neither for the faint of heart nor the true locavore, but delicious nonetheless.
Butter and cream from Organic Valley (WI)
Grapes from Klug (MI)
Sugar from Wholesome Sweetener
Peanut butter from Skippy
Cream Cheese from Philadelphia Brands (in honor of those going up again the Evil Empire. Go Phillies!)

Time For Lunch

Tomorrow from 11:30am to 1:00pm, join Purple Asparagus in Daley Plaza as we participate in Slow Food's Eat-In to demonstrate our support for getting good, healthful food into our schools.


Sounds great, but what does this mean and why now? Is it because school's right around the corner? While the timing seems right in terms of focusing our attention to this issue, but there's more to it. At the end of September, the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act, which authorizes all of the federal school meal and child nutrition programs, will expire. Does this mean that children will go hungry if Congress does not reauthorize the law? Not exactly.

The School Breakfast, National School Lunch, and Special Milk Programs are authorized permanently. However, many of the other programs such as the Child and Adult Care Food program, Summer Food Service Program, Afterschool Snack and Meal Program and Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women Infants and Children (WIC), the WIC Farmers' Market Nutrtition Program and the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program are not and would expire without further Congressional action.

Given the surging interest in local, sustainable foods, and the interest we've seen from the White House about this subject, we may finally have an opportunity to improve the foods supplied by the existing programs. We also should advocate for the National Farm to Table Program to finally receive funding. Congress established the Farm to Table Program in 2004, the last time that the Child Nutrition Act was reauthorized, gave it a $10 million authorization but never appropriated any funds to it. It may go without saying to those who read this blog that farm-fresh foods taste better. If the lunches taste better, it's pretty likely that participation in school lunch programs will rise among paying students and adults. Increased participation rates among paying customers means more money for school food services improving the financial viability of the programs.

Improving school lunches isn't just about giving more fortunate children an option to brown bagging it. This programs funded by the Child Nutrition Act make a real difference in lives of many in at-risk communities. According to the latest USDA data, 12.6 million children lived in households facing a constant struggle with hunger. During the 2006-07 school year, 8.1 million low-income children received free or reduced-price breakfast and 17.9 million free or reduced-price lunch. Getting better food in the schools to these children could make a lasting public health change.

If you care about these issues, speak out. Come to the rally tomorrow to join forces with other individuals and organizations who care about these issues. For more detailed information about tomorrow or to order your lunch beforehand, visit Slow Food Chicago's website

If you can't make it tomorrow, consider hosting your own Eat-In on Labor Day. To learn more, visit Slow Food USA's site.

Also, you can support Purple Asparagus's grassroots, on-the-ground programs in the schools by attending our annual fundraiser Corks & Crayons or participate in our online auction. For more details, visit our website. Finally, come to Cooking Up Change on October 29 at Salvage One to show your support for Healthy Schools Campaign, a national advocacy group working on all issues related to health in our schools.

To learn more about the Child Nutrition Act or the Farm to School Initiatives in Reauthorization, visit the Community Food Security Coalition to sign up for their listserv.