Local Food Cookbook Giveaway: Serving Up Sustainable Cuisine for Travelers

Facebook Farmstead Chef Cookbook Giveaway

In the coming weeks (April 1st - April 27th, 2012), you'll have an opportunity to enter a Facebook contest* on TIES Facebook page, for a chance to win a free copy of Farmstead Chef (New Society Publishers). Farmstead Chef, authored by Lisa Kivirist and John Ivanko (co-owners of Inn Serendipity Bed & Breakfast) shares recipes and stories to nourish and inspire, showcasing the local, organic, seasonal and fresh ripeness of the ingredients used. As footloose family farmers, Ivanko and Kivirist penned 150 recipes in the cookbook that are influenced by their global journeys and the cultural melting pot of the United States.

Every Thursday in April, the Farmstead Chef authors Kivirist and Ivanko will post a question related to fresh food, local farming and sustainable living on TIES Facebook page, and you can post your comment to be entered into a drawing for a copy of this sumptuous new cookbook.

*This contest is open to residents of Canada and the USA only.

>> Read more about the book: "Farmstead Chef: Reclaiming the Kitchen and Gardens"

Farmstead Chef Sample Recipes

The following recipe is excerpted from Farmstead Chef, serving up recipes for homegrown and homemade cooking and tips on preserving the harvest and stocking the pantry, all while seeking to bring Americans back together again around the kitchen table. The cookbook could just as easily guide a restaurant, food services department or resort operator on their quest to provide better tasting, healthier meals for their guests.

Credit: John D. Ivanko/farmsteadchef.com

Vegetarian Nori-Wrapped Sushi

Creatively rolled layers of nori, a super-nutritious dried seaweed paper, plus rice and vegetables, make an amazing visual display. This veggie sushi travels well, though it’s best eaten within the first five hours, as the rice dries out and may harden over time.

Ingredients: 2 cups cooked sushi rice, cooled; ½ cup carrots, julienned (1/8-inch-thick "matchsticks"); ½ cup sugar snap peas; ½ cup lettuce, shredded; ½ cup spinach, shredded; 4 sheets (standard size) nori; ¼ cup soy sauce (for dipping)

Directions: 1. Cook rice and cool. 2. Place nori on a flat surface. Arrange approximately ½ cup rice and ½ cup vegetables on long edge of nori. Use carrots, sugar snap peas, lettuce, spinach or any preferred combination. 3. Gently roll nori, starting with the rice/veggie side. 4. Using a serrated knife, slice nori into 1-inch pieces. Slicing on a diagonal makes attractive pieces. Serve as a vegan appetizer with soy sauce on the side. Yields 6 servings.

Credit: John D. Ivanko/farmsteadchef.com

Pumpkin Mousse Cheesecake

Pumpkin and mousse seem like dance partners from different dessert planets. Drop a pumpkin on your toe and it will hurt. A mousse, by its culinary definition, whips air bubbles into something to make it light and fluffy. Try this recipe and you'll never return to that flat and heavy traditional pumpkin pie again.

Ingredients: 1 graham cracker crust, pressed into springform pan; 1 c. whipped cream, for topping; Cream cheese layer ingredients (8 oz. cream cheese, softened; 2 eggs; 3/4 c. sugar); Pumpkin layer ingredients (3 eggs, separated; 2 c. cooked pumpkin purée; 1/2 c. sugar; 1/2 c. milk; 1 t. cinnamon; 1 t. nutmeg; 1/4 c. sugar; 1/4 t. salt).

Directions: (1) Prepare graham cracker crust, taking about 10 Homemade Graham Crackers and crush them in a food processor. Keep crumbs in food processor and mix in 1/4 c. sugar. Drizzle in 1/3c. melted butter until crumbs clump together. Press into a lightly oiled 9-inch pie pan or other pan as needed. (2) Prepare the cream cheese layer. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in eggs and sugar, one at a time, until well blended. (3) Spread cream cheese mixture over crust and bake at 350 degrees until firm. Cool completely. (4) For pumpkin layer, separate the three eggs. In a saucepan, mix egg yolks with pumpkin and cook over medium heat until thickened. To that pumpkin mixture, add 1/2c. sugar, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Turn off heat and let sit on burner for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and cool completely. (5) In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff. Add remaining 1/4c. sugar and beat until well blended. Fold egg whites into pumpkin mixture and pour this pumpkin layer over the cream cheese layer. Bake at 350 degrees until set. (6) Cool completely and chill overnight before serving. Yield: 12 servings.

Why Farmstead Chef? By Authors Kivirist and Ivanko

Over the past decade operating our small bed & breakfast, we've explored recipes that use fresh, seasonal ingredients, mostly harvested from our organic growing fields. For ingredients we don't grow, we look to our local community of cheese makers, beekeepers, brewers and food artisans - or for coffee, tea and cocoa, to fair-trade certified, organic cooperative producers, like Equal Exchange. Our experimentation led to the development of 150 recipes found in our recent cookbook, seeking to make serving up more sustainable meals more accessible to all, regardless of where you live.

Our recipe trials reflect our quest to eat what we call "farmsteadtarian": eating as much as possible from our own gardens, community and, when necessary, from carefully selected sources as close to the farmers, ranchers, food artisans, cheese makers, brewers or growers as we can. It's about being able to name your farmer, beekeeper or butcher. 

The fantastic growth of urban farms, rooftop or community gardens and farmers' markets reflect the food revolution underway. Many of us are getting an appetite for the taste of fresh, seasonal cuisine found in abundance right in our backyards or community. And when traveling, more of us are asking the waitstaff what ocean the fish on the menu were caught. Or who raised the strawberries (and how) that are used in the strawberry shortcake special. In short, we're looking to get a taste of the place we're visiting, to eat like the locals, and not at McDonald's.