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Together – We Can Make It Happen!
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We went exploring to discover how all of us can help put Healthy Food on Every Table. This is what we discovered:
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Who is Leading the Way?
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Farmers – who want to share their farm products and make healthy products available to everyone.
Small Business Owners for Healthy Products – producing high quality products
Experimental Station – working to increase the affordability and accessibility of nutritious foods for everyone, providing educational and vocational opportunities for youth, providing farmers’ markets with the LINK UP program and the incentive supplement of SNAP (Food Stamp) benefits.
Good Food EXPO in Chicago – organized @ FamilyFarmed – free samples; chef demonstration; farm, business, and food information.
FamilyFarmed – organization that works to promote Good Food and develops regional, sustainable food systems.
You – the Consumer – buys food that is fresh, in – season, organic and local.
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Country Recipes with a Twist
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Oven Fried Deviled Egg Chicken with Brioche Waffles
A winning idea for a fantastic breakfast or brunch
About the Recipe: What a perfect recipe for a special brunch, lunch or supper! It combines three great ideas, deviled egg flavor, crunchy chicken, and mini waffles. Arrange individual plates with chicken strips, spinach and small waffles dotted with blueberries. Garnish with broken pecans and serve along with maple flavored ranch dressing. Since the chicken can be served chilled and the purchased brioche waffles only take 1 to 2 minutes to warm, it’s easy to make this for breakfast or brunch.
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Blushing Beet Hummus
It’s a two-fer! Serve it plain or make it blush with roasted veggies!
About the Recipe: Bread pudding is a popular comfort dish. This side-dish is savory, filled with spinach, mushrooms, and pieces of smoked ham. Layered with peppered cheese and a creamy broth, it has a light peppered flavor that melts into the creamy sauce. Bread Pudding with your main course – How wonderful is that!
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Shroom Spinach Bread Pudding Casserole
Serve a savory side dish with your Sunday dinner
About the Recipe: Bread pudding is a popular comfort dish. This side-dish is savory, filled with spinach, mushrooms, and pieces of smoked ham. Layered with peppered cheese and a creamy broth, it has a light peppered flavor that melts into the creamy sauce. Bread Pudding with your main course – How wonderful is that!
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French Consulate Dinner – Chicago
We learned about the Experimental Station when we purchased tickets to attend the “Gout de France” Dinner. This type is dinner is celebrated all over the world, and chefs prepare a special French-style dinner that showcases local farmers, produce, and focuses on socially responsible, environmentally sustainable cuisine.
The dinner we attended was conducted by The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Chicago with food prepared by Chef Erling Wu-Bower at Pacific Standard Time restaurant.
Guillaume Lacroix – Consulat de France and Connie Spreen Executive Director of Experimental Station are pictured above. The Experimental Station, its Food Education and Food Access Program, was the beneficiary of this event and this is where we heard Connie Spreen tell us about the innovative educational and cultural programs, small business enterprises and community initiatives happening at Experimental Station on Chicago’s South Side
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Good Food Expo – University of Illinois/Chicago – Forum
Good Food EXPO in Chicago – organized @ FamilyFarmed – free samples; chef demonstration; farm, business, and food information which was held at the University of Illinois/Chicago in the Isadore & Sadie Dorin Forum
Attendees sampled foods/products and talked directly with suppliers about new and cutting edge products that are healthier alternatives.
Chef-Partners Tony & Cathy Mantuano – from Spiaggia Restaurant in Chicago demonstrating the simplicity of the Italian hand made pasta at the Good Food Expo.
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Experimental Station – Chicago
In 2002, Connie Spreen and Dan Peterman founded the Experimental Station as a not-for-profit incubator of innovative cultural, educational, and environmental projects and small-scale enterprises.
Photo Courtesy: Experimental Station
When we visited the Experimental Station, we were amazed at the amount of people working at a Blackstone Bicycle Works, where an “earn and learn” bicycle mechanics curriculum teaches participating youths on-the-job training in mechanics, repair, customer service, management, and peer-education.
Connie Spreen Interview
We asked this question…
Why Do You Like Farmer’s Markets?
Here are just a few reasons that were shared with us:
- Opportunity to enjoy shopping with friends and family
- Lower prices
- Better taste
- Really fresh products
- Variety of products
- Maintain healthy lifestyle
- Try something new
- Enjoy some delicious samples
- Buy garden plants
- In-season products
Photo Courtesy: Experimental Station
Experimental Station – working to increase the affordability and accessibility of nutritious foods for everyone, providing educational and vocational opportunities for youth, providing farmers’ markets with the LINK UP program and incentive supplement to SNAP (Food Stamps) benefits.
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Country Recipes with a Twist
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Deviled Egg Party Pizza
A fun way to serve those popular deviled eggs
About the Recipe: Did you ever wonder what to do with those extra eggs, leftover from a holiday celebration? Try this – Make a Deviled Egg Pizza. Use a pre-made dough crust; make up the deviled egg yolk mixture; chop the whites and toss with pepper cheese; bake until melty; add toppings and serve warm in wedges. It’s perfect for breakfast, lunch, or snack. Enjoy!
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Smoked Sliced Ham with Hot Peppered Berry Compote
An easy-to-make hot glazed ham with savory mixed fruit compote
About the Recipe: This mouthwatering ham is easy to make since it is already cooked, sliced, and styled for a smaller party. Add a light hot glaze and team it with a savory berry fruit compote. The fresh berries add a light spring touch to that holiday ham dinner.
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Crispy Smashed Potato Salad
Crunchy yet tender potatoes with a creamy herb dressing
About the Recipe: The potato salad is filled with smashed potatoes, tender inside and crispy outside. Serve this with healthy watercress, red slivers of red onions, and toss with a slight sweet cream dressing. This recipe is fancy enough to serve on a platter for your elegant parties and yet perfect to combine in a big bowl for a casual get-together potato salad.
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Roasted Beet Hummus Dinner Salad
For an Easy Prep, use previously prepared hummus
About the Recipe: Hummus is so delicious and popular. I thought it would make a healthful and tasty main dish salad, so I prepared plain hummus and turned part of it into beet hummus by simply adding a roasted red beet. It looks beautiful with light butter green lettuce that is topped with red and gold beet slices, glazed walnuts, sunflower seeds and bits of creamy goat cheese.
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Braised Hearty Tuscan Kale
Farm to Table healthy side dish
About the Recipe: This side dish is easy to prepare and takes only about 40 minutes from start to finish. Add any leftover smoked meats from that holiday dinner, and fresh seedless grapes highlight the flavor of the kale.
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Farmers’s Cheese Dumplings with Garden Fresh Veggies
Easy to make dumplings mixed with fresh zucchini and tomatoes
About the Recipe: Some older ethnic recipes might call these lazy dumplings but in Eastern European countries that really means that they are easy to make. The mild cheese dumplings are light, flavored with chives, and coated with butter. Fresh zucchini and tomatoes make this a great vegetarian supper dish or first course.
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Swirled Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
Natural red coloring gives these a red velvet swirl
About the Recipe: Red velvet cake bars are always popular to serve. This recipe combines three ideas together, red velvet, brownies, and cheesecake. With this combination, the dessert is a sure flavor winner.
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Grandma’s Easy Pastry
Pastry cookies with fresh buttery goodness and fruit topping
About the Recipe: Kolacky, old world favorites pastries of Czech and Slovak, are topped or filled with fruit fillings or cheese. This recipe is very easy to make and the puffy cream cheese pastry is delicious topped with our favorite fruit filling and sprinkled with a dusting of confectioners’ sugar. Eastern European families loved to make these cookies for special holidays.
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Funny Bunny Joke
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