The real question with antibiotics and livestock

Happy Cows at BN Ranch

There are so many things in our country that if "We The People" knew, we would stand in protest, or that's what we would like to think. We continue to smoke, over 25million of us, even though we know and fully understand the potential outcome. And, that list goes on and on with our addictive and destructive habits. I'm by no means a saint or perfect, but when some things just slap you in the face when you become a little older and (hopefully) wiser you shift your priorities and values. Such is the case with me regarding antibiotics being abused for the raising of livestock. There are numerous reports and leading scientists that warn against the abuse of antibiotics even in humans and the reasons and possible outcomes are as scary as any sci-fi or horror movie you will ever see. But, a large majority of us seem to not be asking the right questions. We get caught up in the "he said she said" bullshit, or we make it a political game to dodge the issues. 

Or we just ignore it. Hell, that's so much easier!

Recently there was an article published in the National Agricultural Library where the USDA commissioned a report on the antibiotics used in the raising of livestock. Here is the link to the article in Mother Jones. Ironically the article just vanished last Friday once the watchdog groups got a hold of this powerful document. For me it's not about the occasional use of anything in particular it's the abuse and cover up and lack of transparency that concerns me greatly. So I ask you to ask yourself this question "if something goes against the natural order of things, is it worth the risk of continuing?" It's really that simple and apparently it is that simple to Sweden because 20 years ago they banned the "routine" use of antibiotics in raising livestock and European Union thought the same as well because they followed suite in 2006.Hat's off to Europe, well done.

Just to clarify I'm not saying we should never use antibiotics in raising livestock, but there is no reason to routinely add small doses of antibiotics their feed for no apparent reason other than the "if they get sick"excuse. Vote with your fork, educate yourself and understand where your food source comes from. Your life just might depend on it.

The photo above was taken at BN Ranch in Bolinas, CA. Where Nic & Bill NEVER use antibiotics and their cattle live free on hundreds of acres of land.

Chopbiscuit daily links: Grubbin' with a sunset

10 Best U.S. Restaurants to watch a sunset
Most of us normally consider two things when picking a restaurant. First, how good is the food? Second, how much does it cost? But sometimes setting is more important. Sometimes you want décor, ambience, or a sense of place to be what's memorable. And when it comes to the perfect setting during dinner, what's more awe-inspiring than a sunset? (I've visited two so far - looks  like a need a few more road trips)

Making Gâteau St. Honoré
Every so often a pastry comes along that makes even the most jaded sweet-eater throw down his fork, stomp his foot and shout out loud: my GOD that’s good. Gâteau St. Honoré is that pastry. Yes, you may think you know what it tastes like: cream puff dough, pastry cream, meringue and caramel. But I’m telling you friends, until you actually prepare and serve one of these you won’t understand the impact that all those components can have when they’re delivered together. The uninitiated are always, always stunned.

10 Blueberry Dishes to Savor Before the Season's Over
If you're as mad for blueberry season as I am, then you'll be dismayed to know that there are only a few weeks of it left, as the fruit is at its best between May and August. So while there's still time, buy up all the wild and cultivated varieties you can find, and eat these puppies until you're, well, blue in the face. Need some inspiration? Here, are 10 recipe suggestions.

Digital Menu Boards will change restaurant industry
To begin I would like to state I am not stupid enough to believe the development of digital menu boards or digital signs are nearly as important as the development of computers. However, I do believe it is valid to make some comparisons.

Are you serving flextarians?
After a decade of intense meat worship, chefs are procuring, preparing and serving vegetables with the same love and attention they previously reserved for Ossabaw pork or grass-fed marrow bones.
If you're not vegetarian or carnivore, what are you? The term "flexitarian" is catching on, although author and all-around food guru, Mark Bittman, likes the term "smartly thought-out omnivore." His most recent books, Food Matters and The Food Matters Cookbook, arose from his own vegan-by-day/carnivore-by-night lifestyle. Lately, we've seen consumers looking to flexitarianism to cut out meat during the day to save calories or cut back on it during the week to save money or wear-and-tear on the planet.

Pizza Week
The ladies at Fromscratchclub are doing a homage to pizza with their classic little spin. These girls get down with dem flatbreads!

Chopbiscuit {at home} dining review: The Farmhouse at Top of the World - Lake George, NY

Welcome (again) to another delightful ad hoc Chopbiscuit inspection of some of the USA's most frequented saloons, dining halls, dive bars, food trucks, in-room dining and high end bistro's. At least one of your humble contributors is on the road virtually every week and luckily have the opportunity to dine at some of the finest institutions and loathsome watering holes known to man. Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, some deity would permit us to be pirates and savage our nutriment.

We like eating. It fascinates us. We sit and look at the food for hours. We often eat while laying down in my hotel room with a bib in my lap and my outlook calendar open. Eating is our tweeting, except it's much cooler. Food is often made into the celebrity of carnage, which makes us appear to be pompous and scarce in regards to the act of eating itself. You eat because you fuel. We eat because we're hungry. We eat because it's our job. We go out to these establishments to consume their lineups with arrogance.

I then judge it. (Poncho Sinatra style)

 

The Farmhouse Restaurant
441 Lockhart Mountain Rd
Lake George, NY 12845
(518) 668-3000

If you want a truly Farm To Table restaurant experience just north of the Capital Region in New York - get yourself to the Farmhouse at Top of the World in Lake George, NY. We had the opportunity to visit this amazing place this past weekend and it was one of my best restaurant experiences in sometime. The Farmhouse gets 100% of it's menu from it's local farm (Top of the world) and regionally located farms nearby. The menu changes often and is focuses on what's in season and appropriate.

Situated on a few acres on the backside of the mountain, Top of the World Farm grows sustainable and all-natural produce to be used to offer the freshest and highest quality products for the restaurant. The chef, Kevin London uses his experience to craft regional dishes showcasing only the freshest seasonal ingredients. Menus are frequently evolving, inspired by the organically-grown vegetables and herbs coming from our organic farm.

What I ingested

Can I get a little foul mouthed on here? This meal was one of the best effing meals I've had in the past 6 months. For all of you that shun the farm to table freshness movement as one for hippies and elitists - suck it. It's simply better and tastier when the chef knows the ingredients point of freshness and capitalizes on minimal processing. It's just simply better, period. I started out with an amazing green gazpacho with goat cheese crema. It was nicely balanced with a sweet mix of sweet and savory. I chose the farmer ground polenta w/ squash and chevre, romesco (seen above) .This was a top five dish of my summer. The nice, creamy polenta was cooked to perfection with some additional heat and bold flavors. I'm not going to say anything about the desserts - I will just let the visuals make the case. Amazing.

 

Concept & Design

The restaurant boasts a 19th century Adirondack dining room.  You will find the Adirondack style warm and informal  with wholesome cuisine and professional service that matches up to the interior.   Every Thursday they do a Harvest Dinner at 7pm which  is a 7 course dinner served family style on their community table.The view from the dining room shows the Eastern mountain range and picturesque landscape of the beautiful Lake George region. A great place to relax in the Adirondacks with an amazing view.

Chopbiscuit Daily Links: Get your market farmin' on!

{Weekend Reading} Local Edition
The gals over at FromScratchClub always do a great job promoting the regional farmer's markets and events related to good, local eating. Make sure you go check out their blog - it's the female roller derby of food blogs.

One for the road: Vodka Bars
Pick just about any bar in the country, and it's bound to have at least one vodka. It is, after all, America's most popular tipple. But many establishments go well beyond that, offering bottling from around the world and tasty cocktails made with the spirit. Here are five of our favorites.(Remember, Vodka is a great way to make shady, innapropriate decisions)

Brown Butter Brown Sugar Muffins
(Say that five times fast) Muffins are usually studded with berries, speckled with chocolate or laced with generous amounts of spices. They are rarely left plain because, well, plain muffins can be pretty boring. These muffins look plain and don’t have anything like berries or coconut or chocolate mixed into the batter, but when you take a bite you’ll discover that they are far from a plain muffin. These Brown Butter Brown Sugar Muffins pack an unexpected burst of flavor from both brown sugar and browned butter.

Bruegger's intros Ciabatta panini options
Bruegger's has announced the addition of a new lineup of sandwiches made on artisan ciabatta bread, adding to its expanding chef-inspired menu items. Bruegger’s will add artisan-style ciabatta to its daily selections, as well as two new panini creations, which will pair with the ciabatta bread. Among Bruegger’s new panini options, guests can choose from either a Turkey, Artichoke and Mozz sandwich or a Chicken Aioli Melt. (This looks eerily familiar to another concept?)


Consumers prefer organic food, survey says
A new Thomson Reuters poll found that the majority (58%) of consumers prefer organic food to conventional food. This preference is particularly strong with those with a higher education, and those of a younger demographic. Sixty-three perfect of respondents under age 35 choose organics when possible.

Since I'm feeling a little extra chipper today, check out this guy in San Luis Obispo, CA offering free hugs. Hug it out brotha!

Chopbiscuit {at home} dining review: The Cupcake Lab - Saratoga Springs, NY

Welcome (again) to another delightful ad hoc Chopbiscuit inspection of some of the USA's most frequented saloons, dining halls, dive bars, food trucks, in-room dining and high end bistro's. At least one of your humble contributors is on the road virtually every week and luckily have the opportunity to dine at some of the finest institutions and loathsome watering holes known to man. Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, some deity would permit us to be pirates and savage our nutriment.

We like eating. It fascinates us. We sit and look at the food for hours. We often eat while laying down in my hotel room with a bib in my lap and my outlook calendar open. Eating is our tweeting, except it's much cooler. Food is often made into the celebrity of carnage, which makes us appear to be pompous and scarce in regards to the act of eating itself. You eat because you fuel. We eat because we're hungry. We eat because it's our job. We go out to these establishments to consume their lineups with arrogance.

I then judge it. (Mark Mcdonough style)

Great BLT from The Cupcake Lab

The Cup Cake Lab in Saratoga Springs, NY is one of the hidden jewels that you hope you find no matter what city you happen to travel to, or in my case,  live near. Over the last few months I have gotten to know Mike and Liz and I can tell you that out of all the cities and restaurants I visit - this dynamic duo get it!

They understand the connection that they have to the community as well as the connection to the food that is produced around them. Not all of the ingredients they serve fall into the 100 mile locale mantra,  but instead they put quality above all else and in some cases it just so happens that some pretty great food is produced in the counties surrounding our little nook here in Saratoga Springs. Such is the case with my lunch yesterday.

What I ingested:

I met up with my blogging partner Poncho to catch up on some work and see our friends at The Lab. As always, the specials of the day were nothing short of amazing.  Spicy Andouille Potato Soup, Smoked Salmon BLT with Locust Grove black pepper bacon (pictured above), tomato mozzarella and arugula on homemade freshly baked ciabatta.  And, what can you say about the cookies.  Liz had baked some great cookies as she does everyday, but yesterday on the special board was Oatmeal Butterscotch & coconut. Slap me and call me Sally. (Sorry, I'm a country guy from Memphis) The options threw me into an hunger fit,  but I narrowed it down to the miso soup and the BLT.

All I can say is that I think Poncho was "talking shop",  but all I could do was nod and smile between thoughts of how incredible my soup and sandwich was. So, the next time you find yourself hungry in Saratoga Springs get your butt over here and enjoy some great food & beverages in an inviting and warm space.

*Also, don't forget about the coffee. Poncho knows coffee and he'll tell you it's the best coffee from here to NYC.

Chopbiscuit Daily Links - Is your city fast food friendly?

The ten cities that spend the most on fast food.

They say that apple pie is the quintessential image of America, but if you wanted to take that image further, you could say that nothing is as American as the rectangular apple pie sold in little cardboard boxes at McDonald's.

Food truck names that should be banned

Me so hungry, Shrimp Pimp, Shrimpin' ain't easy are just a few to make the list.
 

My experience at the Food Network studios

Recipe extraordinaire and food blogger, Joanne over at Fifteenspatulas recently got a chance to film a demo at the studios.

10 craft beers to try right now

You may or may not have noticed, but we are suddenly in a golden age of beer consumption, the likes of which this country has not seen since around the time the light bulb was invented.

How did you celebrate the Wienermobile's 75th birthday?
Between 1,000 and 1,500 college seniors apply for the 12 posts piloting Oscar Mayer’s six Wienermobiles. Hopefuls have been applying for the position since 1988.


Parents, don't let your kids drive the wienermobile after too many wieners.

Chopbiscuit at home recipes: Mark's Spicy Peanut Sauce

Spicy Peanut Sauce and Chicken Skewers - Whoot!

A couple of years ago while attending the Fancy Food Show in New York,  (yes, it's actually pretty fancy) I discovered the BEST PEANUT BUTTER in the world. Let me introduce you to  Peanut Butter & Co.  Lee Zalben created the company years before I tasted it, but none the less no one takes peanut butter to the level that Lee does.  Lee started Peanut Butter & Co in 98' on west 3rd in Greenwich Village and they have lot's of great flavors including the one I'm blogging today "The Heat is on". This jar packs a kick ass punch of heat and just enough to keep eating it right off the spoon.

So, I've had this jar on Spicy Peanut Butter in my cupboard for a month and all I've done with it is grab a spoon and eat it. A few weeks ago Sharon and I were craving Thai and didn't feel like going out and that jar of P-nut Butter jumped into my mind and the heat was on - Don Henley style. I wanted to create a spicy peanut sauce for the chicken satay we were having for dinner.

Below is the super easy, minimum ingredient Spicy Peanut Sauce for your eating pleasure:

Heat is on Peanut Butter 2 Tablespoon
Nama Shoyu 1 Tablespoon (don't just use soy sauce)
Water 1 Tablespoon 
Agave nectar 2 teaspoon (don't just use honey or sugar)
Mirin 1 teaspoon

Mix together the ingredients and use for dipping sauce

*A quick tip from Mark - If you really want great food, you have to use great ingredients and allow them to speak for themselves. This will also allow you to use fewer ingredients. You should never have flavors trying to compete with each other but rather flow harmoniously together.

Chopbiscuit at home: Coffee Review - Ethiopa Kilenso Mokonisa {Counter Culture}

Every morning when I'm not on the road, prior to performing 100 one-handed push ups (Jack Palance) style,  and acrobatic worthy somersaults,  I make my cup of morning Joe. Generally, I have a new blend from one of the many favorite joints and roasters I've seen throughout my years on the road. Lately, I've been ordering most of my coffee (mail order) from Counter Culture. For me, it doesn't get any better than this. These guys and gals eat, sleep and breathe coffee and all the nuances around it.


This month's shipment featured selection: Ethiopia Kilenso Mokonisa - Sidama

(Via: CounterCulture)

Since before recorded history, Ethiopians have been picking coffee cherries and simply drying them in the sun before husking, roasting, and brewing. A beautiful rendition of that natural sun dried tradition comes to us in the form of Kilenso Mokonisa, which offers notes of blueberry, raspberry, and cocoa in the cup.

If you like any hint of dried fruit or berries in your coffee - this sun dried bean is your best bet. Lot's of complexity and hints of strawberry make this a bright, interesting cup of coffee. As always, I'm completely and utterly (I enjoy saying completely and utterly) dumbfounded by the folks at Counter Culture's passion around coffee. Make sure you go over here and check out slideshow they put together on this bean. This is such a great cup - that I'm going to use this as my gold standard for any coffee that has notes of fruit and berries.

I also enjoy fruits and berries in this context as well - Just let your soul glo!

Sometimes food is just charming....

Hey Diabetes Type II,  I want you to come here and meet some one. His name is The Sheboygan. I figured you two would get along well together.

I've never been to the city of Sheboygan - but I'm thinking about stopping by. You know how I like "The Cheese Curd".

Chopbiscuit at home recipes: Mary had a little lamb {Lamb Burgers}

Lickety Splickety!

My wife Sharon has been craving lamb burgers ever since she ate a fantastic LB a few weeks ago at one of our favorite local spots Tallulah Bistro in downtown Glens Falls, NY. And, since my In-Laws were in town I thought I would break down and make a Gyro style lamb burger with goat cheese from Vermont Butter & Cheese Creamery.

I began with 2 lbs.of organic ground lamb and added the following ingredients:

garlic cloves, minced - 2 medium cloves

garam masala - 1.5 teaspoon
black pepper cracked - 2 teaspoon
sea salt - 2 teaspoons
cumin, whole cracked - 1 teaspoon
worcestershire sauce - 2 teaspoon
oregano, fresh chopped - 2 tablespoon

Grab your burger buns and  butter and drizzle with olive oil - we love the Italian Sesame Seed Soft Rolls baked by the Mastroianni Brothers in Rotterdam, NY. Mash it all together and divide into 4 large burgers (I made ours into 5 but 4 would have been better)

Next, start your fire. You want to give the burgers a little time to begin to absorb some of the flavors - but not too long because the salt will begin to draw out moisture and this is No Bueno. With fires, I use the old chimney starter method because we really don't care for propane cooking.

Now that your fire is kickin' ass and your grates are hot,  place a little olive oil on a paper towel and rub across each grate and place the burgers on the grill and close the lid. Let it be and relax. Give it 4-5 minutes depending on the amount of heat, but you want some charring before you flip'em. Wait another 4-5 minutes and slap on the goat cheese mixture (recipe below) give it another 2 minutes and remove from the heat. Place the buns on the fire and do not move, don't get distracted or you will be making a nice salad with balsamic vinaigrette to place the burgers on because you just burnt them. For the goat cheese spread, mix approx 4 oz of goat cheese with 2 tablespoons of sour cream.

Make someone happy today and enjoy some lamb burgers