SDCYD Fundraiser for Patrick Finucane

On March 7, the executive board of the San Diego County Young Democrats hosted a fundraiser for Patrick Finucane, a Young Dem who is running for San Diego City Council. For the fundraiser, we chose a "Taste of District 2" theme, which featured small bites and alcohol pairings. Here is the menu:

Soft Pretzels & Weiners/PBR: Petco Park

Fish Tacos/Tecate: Beaches

Garden Salad/Chardonnay: Farmer's Markets

Vegetable Lasagna/Merlot: Little Italy

I was especially proud of my salad, which included mixed greens, beets, maple roasted walnuts, goat cheese, and an organge balsamic vinagrette. The entire salad was organic, expect for the goat cheese because organic goat cheese is obscenely expensive.

Anyhow, despite various mishaps with the board members, all of the food was fantastic! (Oh, and I think we raised some money for Patrick too.)

This is our President making homemade salsa for the fish tacos. He also made TWO different types of white sauce. So yummy. Now every time I go to Bryan's, I want fish tacos. Seriously.

La Milpa Organica Farm

Last night, Rose, Audrey and I went to La Milpa Organica Farm for the Spring Equinox pot luck dinner. I put together a big bowl of my wasabi coleslaw and packed a bag with plates and forks. We climbed into the car with our jackets and scarves and drove north on the 15 in search of our organic adventure.

The evening totally reminded me of the potluck dinners I attended in my friends' yards when I lived in Utah. What a wonderful feeling of fellowship! The meal at dusk had all of the neccesary components: delicous homemade food, beautiful gardens and friendly people. There was even an outdoor wood fire pizza oven, which brought back fond memories of my Haylapa experience.

The night concluded with the showing of an outdoor film, Fresh. Fresh is a documentary about food security, and as to be expected, it contained all of the classic, stomach-turning footage of poultry, pig, and dairy farms. There is no reason to eat commercial meat, people. It just is not worth it.

La Milpa Organica Farm holds potlucks on the third Saturday of every month, and I am sure that we will be attending more. If you want to come along, just let me know!

Thursday Night Dinner - Gnocchi with Fresh Greens, Tomatoes, and Walnuts

Recently, I have received some requests to add more food-related posts. Seeing as I eat food multiple times every single day, I doubt that this request will be too difficult to fulfill. And so we have this evening's dinner:

Gnocchi with Fresh Greens, Tomatoes, and Walnuts

I know this isn't a great picture, but I cooked dinner after Pilates class, so it was like 8pm, I was wicked hungry, and I wasn't very patient or willing to try for photography perfection. Anyhow, this recipe came from the book " The Vegetarian 5-Ingrediant Gourmet" by Nava Atlas. I was introduced to this book by my friend Katie B during my June trip to Utah. Katie has been a creative-cooking vegetarian for as long as I've known her (since September 1995) and has been my inspiration to try a number of new dishes.

This is a very simple meal. Basically, you do the following:

1. Cook gnocchi according to instructions on the package.

2. Saute garlic and oil for about 2 minutes.

3. Add greens (I used kale, but you can also use spinach or chard) and cover. Steam for about 1-4 minutes depending on greens used (Kale takes a little longer). Add tomatoes and cook until heated. The recipe didn't call for it, but I also added walnuts to the mix. This was primarily with the intention of including protein to the meal, however, it also added some depth to the flavor as well as a nice nutty crunch.

4. Combine gnocchi with greens mixture. I topped it with shredded parmesean cheese (which you can't see in the photo because I hadn't added it yet).

Of course, the kale and tomatoes came from my CSA and the cheese, oil, garlic and walnuts are organic and from the co-op. Admittedly, the gnocchi is a commercial brand from Trader Joe's. What can I say? I'm not perfect in my organic-ness, people.