TWO GUYS AND A SUSTAINABLE KITCHEN

2 GUYS AND A SUSTAINABLE KITCHEN

Saturday, May 18

The two guys in hats, Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms and Chef Ray Garcia of FIG Restaurant

PRESENTED BY A SUSTAINABLE KITCHEN AND EDIBLE WESTSIDE

Join us when we welcome two sustainable stars and good friends, chef Ray Garcia of FIG Restaurant and Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms, to collaborate with A Sustainable Kitchen. They will be showing off some of the best Weiser Family Farms has to offer this Spring. There will be two recipes, one chef's choice and one farmer's choice.
We will be getting weekly updates from Alex on what will be coming from the Farm and posting them on our Facebook page!
We can hardly wait to see what they will be cooking up! You know it will be delicious.

This is one of our free public out reach events so please come early for the best seats.

www.facebook.com/events/288198591312689

WHEN:
Saturday, May 18, 2013, 11am-1pm

WHERE:
The Test Kitchen 
in Surfas Restaurant Supply and Gourmet Food
8777 W. Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA

It's Chowder Time

10 CHEFS, 10 LOCAL FISHERMAN, THE FRESHEST SUSTAINABLY CAUGHT SEAFOOD, YOU PICK THE WINNER.....

Come visit ASK at the sustainability table. 

This time we are literally "bringing good ideas to the table". 

Joining us will be:

 Edible Westside with current and back issues of the magazine

 Alex Weiser, sustainable farmer extraordinaire, from Weiser Family Farms

 SEE-LA (Sustainable Economic Enterprises) with the latest farmers market news

Burkhard Organics will be sampling their amazing organic navel oranges 

U.S. Green Building Council - LA Chapter with information on the LEED Platinum rated building right on the Aquarium's grounds.

So join us for a delicious afternoon and support Seafood For The Future!

Join Us ! Chowderfest is March 9th !

Fabulous Friday + Tip for the Event Tomorrow

Greetings Sustainable Kitchen Friends !

Tomorrow is the Spiny Lobster Cooking Demo, please arrive early as we know there will be quite a crowd coming thanks to the shout-out from Tasting Table yesterday. Consider taking Metro, the Culver City stop is very close to Surfas.

Yes, we know the pic is not a Spiny Lobster... the devil is in the details.

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 Saturday, 2/2, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Free

Whole-Lobster Love

Join chef Ray Garcia of Fig for a lesson on cooking California spiny lobsters at Culver City’s Surfas. The crustaceans’ sweet and succulent flavors, along with their rosy hue, make them ideal for Valentine's Day. Surfas, 8777 Washington Blvd., Culver City; 310-559-4770 or surfaslosangeles.com

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Sign Up for the Class

If Everyone Lived Like Me, We'd Need 5 Planet Earths

I'm taking an online course offered at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 12,000 others along with me have just finished week one of Introduction to the U.S. Food System. Did you know that through Coursera you can take classes for free that are taught by the world's leading minds at Universities all over the world?  

A tool I want to share with you is this ecologic footprint calculator. Choose your country and answer questions about your diet, driving habits, and household to find out how many planet Earths we would need if all 7 Billion people on the planet had your lifestyle. You might be surprised ! I drive a Prius, shop locally and organically but we'd still need 5 planets to sustain us if everyone had my habits. Time to make some changes !

 

What happens when 
A Sustainable Kitchen 
brings together Chef Ray Garcia of FIG Restaurant, Sea Food For The Future and Edible Westside?

It's California Spiny Lobster Time!

Chef Ray Garcia (photo by Rebecca Reams, thanks to Edible Westside)


On Saturday February 2, join us for a celebration of an under appreciated California native, local and sustainably caught Spiny Lobster. This delicious native does not have claws, but makes up for it in sweetness and texture.
Sea Food For The Future's Kim Thompson will be there to explain the importance of this California Native, to the environment, sustainability, the local economy and the fishermen who catch them. 
Watch and learn as Chef Ray Garcia demonstrates his recipe for Spiny Lobster that graces the cover of the current issue of Edible Westside.

When: Saturday, February 2, 2013, 11am-1pm

Where: The Test Kitchen, Surfas Restaurant Supply and      
            Gourmet Food
            8777 W. Washington Blvd.
            Culver City, CA

Theodore Payne's 10th Annual Native Garden Tour April 6th & 7th

Do not miss the 10 year anniversary event ! Visit 35 gardens over two days and celebrate the gardens of the past, present, and future.

Garden in Altadena. Photo © Saxon Holt/PhotoBotanic

The Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour is a unique adventure: a two-day self-guided journey through 35 or more of the Los Angeles region’s most beautiful and inspiring home landscapes. At each location, you’ll meet garden owners, designers, knowledgeable docents and fellow gardeners.

Planning Your Tour

The gardens are divided into two groups—one group open Saturday, April 6, and a second group open Sunday, April 7, 2013. Tour hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day.

Saturday gardens are located inland, with destinations in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys and around downtown L.A., along with one high-elevation garden in Acton (near the Antelope Valley). Sunday gardens are primarily on the Westside, with locations from Santa Monica to the South Bay, with two stops in Oxford Square (near West Adams).

See the complete list of gardens for an overview of features, including slopes, edibles, recycled hardscape materials, child-friendly design, and more.

How to Attend

Tour tickets are $10 per person for members, and $15 per person for non-members. Tickets are available in our online store, by phone at (818) 768-1802, or at our Sun Valley headquarters.

Each ticket includes admission for a single visitor to all gardens across both days, and a printed color guide with addresses and driving directions. The tour is self-guided so you can make your own itinerary and go at your own pace. Guides will be sent to ticketholders via postal mail beginning late March 2013.

Join Us on Feb 2nd for the Spiny Lobster Cooking Demo With Rising Star Sustainability Chef Ray Garcia

Andrew Reitsma

 

from Contributing Editor, Kim Thompson

SEAFOOD FOR THE FUTURE

JANUARY 2, 2013

This February Seafood for the Future (SFF) is collaborating with Chef Ray Garcia, executive chef at FIG Restaurant at the Fairmont Hotel in Santa Monica, as well as A Sustainable Kitchen and Edible Westside to highlight local and responsibly harvested California spiny lobster.

Chef Ray Garcia

People associate lobster with the image of the bright red crustacean with giant claws and a side of melted butter. Over the course of the summer, coastal communities all over Southern California celebrate these American or “Maine” lobsters from New England in a series of festivals. Meanwhile, the clawless spiny lobster native to California is less well known.

California’s spiny lobster fishery is a well-managed trap fishery with minimal bycatch and strict limits on how many fishermen can catch the clawless crustaceans. The California Department of Fish and Game is in the process of creating a Spiny Lobster Fishery Management Plan to further the sustainability of this local fishery. The majority of spiny lobsters harvested are shipped overseas.

On February 2 Garcia will perform a cooking demonstration at Surfas Culinary District in Culver City. He will highlight the mild and sweet flavors along with a freshness that can only come from lobsters caught in the Pacific adjacent to our coastline. Garcia will also feature a spiny lobster dish at FIG Restaurant Santa Monica in February. Check the FIG Restaurant website for details.

Garcia is committed to using fresh, local, and sustainable ingredients. In addition to responsible, local seafood, Garcia works with local California growers such as McGrath Family Farms and Weiser Family Farms. He even grows some of his own herbs and peppers in the FIG garden. Under his leadership, FIG’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond food to other aspects of the operation, including recycling and composting and turning fryer oil into soap. Garcia was recently awarded the Rising Star Award in the Sustainability category by StarChefs.com.

Learn more about the California spiny lobster fishery and recreate Chef Ray Garcia’s recipe in the winter issue of Edible Westside.

A Very Special Class, Join Us for a Holiday Workshop on 11.24

FROM A SUSTAINABLE KITCHEN

A HOLIDAY WORKSHOP

gifts from the kitchen

gift wrap and packaging

holiday decorations

In between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, join us for a special 'Holiday Workshop' class.

Let us help you take some of the stress out of the holiday preparations.

You will learn to make ornaments and decorations out of recyclable and recycled materials that are appropriate for all the winter holidays, easy elegant gifts from your kitchen that everyone will want and enjoy, and get great ideas for making wrapping and packaging part of the gift, all beautiful, all sustainable.

(Oh, also snacks and surprises!)

Saturday, November 24, 2012, 10:30am-12:30pm

Surfas, Culver City

$75.00

For details, more information and to register for the class: 

http://eventbrite.com/event/4733204141

Great Photos From The Chili Demo

Here are some awesome photos to hold you over. They are from the 'FIRE-IT-UP' CHILI-FEST with Alex Weiser we did in the Test Kitchen at Surfas Restaurant Supply and Gourmet Food. Can we say a "Hot" time was had by all?

Some of the raw material we had to work with. All shapes and temperatures, including Bishop's Caps (hot), all from Weiser Family Farms.

Candied Bishop's Caps, pretty but hot! One attendee did require milk.

"Putting-up" some of the fire roasted chilies.

Annette and Katheryne having a silly moment.

The Results! A warm salad of pan seared duck breast, farro with carrots poached in chipotle honey, fire roasted chilies, dried Persian mulberries, and sweet red onion, topped with a quick pickle of sweet peppers and a mulberry dressing.

All the produce is from Weiser Family Farms, everything else is from Surfas.

And for dessert...cinnamon gelato with Weiser late season peaches topped with chili caramel sauce and toasted chili threads.

We also had a great smoked cheddar top with chipolte infused honey and a cocktail made from a heavy simple syrup infused with Bishop's Cap chilies, lime, white port, topped with tonic and garnished with the candied chilies shown above.

Both were curated by David Rozansky, Surfas' amazing cheese monger. Thanks David!

We bet after seeing this, you wish you had been there!

(note: we want to thank Nick and Katheryne for the photos!)

Avoid Carmageddon ! Volunteer at a School Near You This Saturday

Did You Pick Your School For The Green Apple Day of Service?

 

Visit mygreenapple.org to find a project near you or sign up for either of these projects !

Environmental Charter High School: Green Apple Day of Service Project Kick-Off and Work Day (Help Us Out)
9am - 12pm Service Work Day 10am Press Conference and Kick Off presentation   

Environmental Charter High School with USGBC-LA will Kick-Off the National Green Apple Day of Service. 

Campus work activities, green demonstrations from composting to bike repair plus a plant sale will bring the community together and show our commitment to healthy spaces for all our children.   ECHS is excited to announce their partnership with the World Is Just A Book Away, USGBC-LA, and ANEW. The first of fifteen school libraries that the group is facilitating in Chihuahua, Mexico was just dedicated on September 21st. ECHS hopes to serve as a role model for that school and its students in Mexico as they grow their libraries and green spaces. A press conference, campus presentations and activities will demonstrate our community coming together to be of service.     

Featuring:   Worm Composting demos    Bike-powered cistern pump for watering gardens   Bike shop - bike repairs   Student and Volunteer Workday - planting, pruning, watering, green beautification   Mural painting and bench painting   Paper-making demos and workshop
 

93rd St Elementary School Garden Project
(Take It Outside)
Please join the USGBC-LA Chapter Green Schools Committee and The Kitchen Community in building a wonderful instructional Learning Garden for the kids of 93rd Street Elementary School.  Volunteers will install raised beds and fill them with soil and plants.

Why Is This Man Smiling ??

...and holding chilies?

It's Alex Weiser of Weiser Family Farms and he is doing a free demonstration with A Sustainable Kitchen on Saturday, October 6th

A SUSTAINABLE KITCHEN

presents

'FIRE IT-UP' CHILI-FEST

with

ALEX WEISER OF WEISER FAMILY FARMS

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2012, 11am-1pm

SURFAS RESTAURANT SUPPLY AND GOURMET FOOD

8777 W. WASHINGTON BL., CULVER CITY

Join Alex Weiser and A Sustainable Kitchen at Surfas and 'Fire it-up' for Fall, when a little bit of Hatch, New Mexico will be coming to Culver City.

Alex Weiser, of Weiser Family Farms, will be fire roasting his sustainably grown chilies outside of Surfas. Meanwhile inside in the Test Kitchen, Annette Eason and Katheryne Phillips of A Sustainable Kitchen will show you how to use Alex's chilies in everything from a cocktail to dessert. Included will be some great sustainable gift ideas. It is never too early to think about holiday gifts from your kitchen. Alex (we hope) will also demonstrate how to make a chili ristra. Come celebrate the Fall and follow the scent of fire roasted chilies to Surfas, when a little bit of the Southwest comes to Culver City.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

If you would like to register, here is the link:

http://facebook.com/SurfasLA

or

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4292332482

Green Apple Day of Service- Join Us September 29th

The first annual Green Apple Day of Service, hosted by the Center for Green Schools, brings together advocates from around the world, including students, teachers, parents, USGBC chapters and community members in support of healthy, sustainable schools through service projects in their communities.

Visit mygreenapple.org to find or start a project in your community, show your support for our movement, connect with others who are already taking action and share your story with us.