demo day two - cooking something new

demo day two assignment for making food, making media

1. go to a farmer's market, select a vegetable or fruit you have never cooked with before, purchase it, and bring it home.

2. cook a delicious dish or meal using your vegetable or fruit. you can cook it alone, in a pair, or in small group.

3. eat and enjoy the meal.

4. create a recipe of your dish. the recipe can take any form you want. be creative.

5. within your recipe, be sure to include something about where your food comes from.

6. when finished but certainly before class on thursday, march 5, tweet your recipe.

important point: on thursday, march 5, bring your recipe or bring a device that can represent your recipe to class. for example, if your recipe is written on paper or painted on canvas, bring it to class. if it's a video on youtube, bring a laptop to class. if it's a series of photos on instagram, bring your phone. in other words, bring what you need to be able to demo your recipe to the rest of class.

rules and suggestions:

a. follow all directions.

b. if you have no work to demo for thursday's demo day, do not come to class.

summer squash sauté

now that the front yard squashazoid is going crazy, i'm searching for new squash-centric recipes. here's my favorite so far.

summer squash sauté

2 lbs summer squash and/or zucchini, cut into coins or slices
1 tsp salt plus more
1/4 cup sliced almonds
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, sliced
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
black pepper
fresh herbs, including marjoram, parsley, and tarragon (optional)

1. place squash in a colander over a large bowl and add 1 tsp salt. mix gently. let stand for 10 minutes.

2. toast almonds in a large dry skillet over medium heat, teasing occasionally, until they are lightly browned, about 3 minutes. transfer to a plate and let cool.

3. heat oil in skillet. add garlic and red pepper flakes. cook, stirring often, until fragrant but not browned, about 2 minutes.

4. add squash and cook, tossing occasionally, until crisp and tender, about 5 minutes.

5. fold in parmesan and season with salt and pepper.

6. fold in almonds.

7. top off with fresh herbs (optional)

serve immediately. consider serving over fresh garlic bread or a baquette!

garden salad with herbed vinaigrette

lunch project for green media

garden salad with herbed vinaigrette

1. from a garden, a farmer's market, or a grocery store, select some greens for a salad. remember: the more diverse your ingredients, the more delicious your salad. for this salad, i harvested a selection of mixed mesclun lettuce, arugula, and (for the vinaigrette) some fresh herbs.




2. wash and rinse greens and herbs and set aside.


3. get your ingredients for the herbed vinaigrette ready. this includes: red wine vinegar, dijon mustard, olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, a shallot, and fresh herbs.


4. in a small bowl, put 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar. add 1-2 pinches of salt and whisk. add 2-3 shakes of ground black pepper. whisk.

5. add 2 cloves minced garlic and/or 1 diced shallot.

6. whisk in 1-2 teaspoons of dijon mustard.

7. whisk in, a tablespoon at a time, 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil.


8. optional but highly recommended - add 1-2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh herbs. depending on season and access, consider using any or all of the following: basil, marjoram, oregano, parsely, savory, tarragon, and thyme. whisk.

9. place the herbed vinaigrette at the bottom of a large bowl. place the lettuce greens over the vinaigrette. place anything else - diced avocado, chopped hard boiled egg, walnuts, you name it - over the greens and mix your salad.


10. if possible, eat your salad outside with others.


11. when making the vinaigrette, consider doubling or tripling the recipe - sealed in a jar and placed in the fridge, the vinaigrette can dress a week's worth of salads.

bake yer own bread - 9 delicious bread recipes from the students in green media

last week in green media, the students and professor baked bread. although the assignment included some readings on bread-making, it included no hands-on instructions. "bake bread," i told my students, "and if you don't know how, learn."

in class on friday, we broke bread. we sampled each other's creations and shared tips and suggestions.

(2nd pic: erin venables)

as usual, students were required to make and share their recipes. together, the students created an online cookbook. enjoy.

Marco Abellera's Making Bread: Focaccia
Daniele Dominguez's How to Make Sourdough Bread
Kate Greenspan & Sophia Lorenzi's Soph's Loaf of Chocolate Banana Bread
Christina Hammill's No-Knead Bread
Samuel Hernandez & Peter Thoene's rosemary rock salt focaccia
Michael Kao's Bread Noobie
Kelli McCloskey & Joseph Montana's Bread Making
Erin Venables' Rosemary Garlic Bread
Joel Weston's Mama D's Italian Bread

rules and recipes from green media's breakfast project

the ground rules for green media's first project, breakfast project, were fairly straight-forward:

1. cook a delicious meal for breakfast.

2. bring the meal to class on friday, february 12. also bring some kind of serving utensil. share your meal with others.

3. also bring to class your favorite bowl (or plate) and fork (or spoon) so that you can sample other people's meals.

4. have a delicious (and collective) breakfast in class.

5. using multimedia, make a recipe for your meal and share it online via the platform of your choice.

6. once finished, and certainly before sunset on sunday, tweet about it. be sure to include a link to your recipe.


here's our breakfast recipes:

Marco Abellera's Pancakes
Daniele Dominguez's Vegan Lemon Scones with Lemon Glaze
Christina Hammill's Mixed Fruit Salad with Feta and Mint
Sam Hernandez's Grapefruit In The Morning
Michael Kao's Corn Beef Hash
Sophia Lorenzi's Cinnamon Rollz
Kelli McCloskey's Bagels
Joe Montana's egg & cheese souffle
David Silver's fresh salad with a mustard vinaigrette
Peter Thoene's A Light Breakfast
Joel Weston's Blueberry-Lime Poundcake


our next project, lunch project, will require us to research and cook seasonal, regional meals from ingredients harvested from our garden plot. stay tuned.

breakfast project - fresh salad with a mustard vinaigrette

for class on friday, green media students and professor were required to make a breakfast meal, bring it to class, and share it with others. we were also required to post online our recipes. here's mine.

fresh salad with a mustard vinaigrette

1. put a few cups of water in a sauce pan and bring to boil. place 2 eggs in boiling water and let cook for 15 minutes. take eggs out of water to cool.

2. get 1 large bunch or 1 big bowl full of lettuce. instead of using one kind of lettuce, consider using multiple varieties. for this salad, i used arugula, spinach, green leaf, romaine, and mustard greens.


3. wash salad greens in a bowl. use a salad spinner to dry the greens. if you don't have one, use a clean cloth towel to hand-dry the greens. you want your greens to be dry.

4. with your hands, tear the greens in half or in thirds and place in a large bowl.

5. for the mustard vinaigrette, you'll need the following:


6. pour the red wine vinegar in a small bowl. add a pinch or two of salt and pepper and stir until dissolved. add minced garlic (and, optionally, minced shallot). add dijon mustard. now add olive oil. whisk! taste it - does it need more salt? a bit more vinegar? experiment until the dressing is nothing less than delicious.

7. peel the hard-boiled eggs, cut them in small chunks, and add to the salad.

8. add the vinaigrette dressing to the salad and mix it all up. serve immediately.