Buffalo Rising Online

Spring is in the air! It’s time for Sunday Suppers, brought to you in coordination with Slow Food Buffalo, in order to provide you with easy and delicious ways to feed yourself, your family or your friends by offering recipes from local chefs, utilizing local ingredients.

This month, Sunday Suppers will reflect the soon-to-arrive plethora of vegetable garden delights with a nutritious and delicious recipe from Trudy Stern of tru-teas on Elmwood. There, the Grain Bowl graces the daily menu, a dish that combines quality ingredients in a simple way that nourishes both the body and the soul.

Trudy’s Grain Bowl is chock full of ingredients that can be easily found at the Lexington Co-op, located directly across the street from her adorable little shop. If you haven’t visited tru-teas before (located in The Neighborhood Collective), you probably don’t realize that they offer…

Finding an inexpensive lunch in Buffalo is an easy stroll down Main Street. You can smell the hot dogs cooking, or pop into one of the local sandwich shops for a lunch special. But where do those with discerning palates on a shoestring budget go for dinner?

The Lexington Co-op offers not only fresh, organic produce, dairy and meats; they also have an incredible selection of prepared foods ranging from sandwiches and pizza to sushi. For around $8 you can have a fresh and unique meal on the go.

The real draw that pulls me back to the Co-op a couple times a week is their hot bar. For only $6.99 per pound, customers have an ever-changing selection of meal options. On any given day, the hot bar may include dishes that are Asian, Indian or All-American. Most have a gourmet sensibility, and there are always vegetarian and vegan-friendly options as well. Chef Joe George, the new pr…

When I moved into my first apartment, I brought with me the belongings most twenty-year-olds would bring: books, records, clothes and--this will come as no surprise to those that know me-- pots, pans, dishes and wine glasses.

After I moved in and unpacked, my major focus was on the one thing I could not live without. I believed that the only thing that would make my cozy little nest feel like home was my very own spice rack. So I set out on a crusade to find the dried herbs and spices that I was most familiar with and a few of the more exotic with which to experiment. Pleased to have found all that I was looking for, I headed back to my humble abode, carrying packages filled with my prized seasonings.

It was quite a shock to learn how much money I had to spend that day to fill my spice rack. I could not stop myself from buying; I wanted everything and I bought it all! While …

Its game day, folks, and if there’s anything that Americans love as much as football, it’s probably the food that accompanies it. For many, Superbowl provides welcome relief from the rigorous diet and exercise that many have committed themselves to since their New Year’s resolutions were made. (Might I suggest that they allow themselves another day or two of freedom, as Mardi Gras is only two days away?) For others, it’s a chance to really strut their stuff when it comes to casual entertaining.

I like to keep it simple. Hearty, one-pot, American fare is the way to go as far as I’m concerned. I decided to cook up a pot of chili this year, nothing fancy, just good. It seemed like a good opportunity to try out one of our city’s coolest products: Growing Green’s Amazing Chili Starter.

Growing Green is a…

On a recent trip to the Lexington Co-op I ran into Barbara, the store's cheesemonger and a former co-worker of mine. Barbara's passion for cheese was recently featured in a Buffalo News article, and since then the cheese-vending area of the Co-op has seen a drastic increase in sales.

I like to chat about cheese, and so does she, so there we found ourselves immersed in cheese talk at 8:30 in the morning. As we began to say good-bye she pointed out a few new cheeses that she thought I might be interested in. On a previous visit I was drawn to a very iconic, Nordic-style display for a cheese called Ski Queen Gjetost. I had never heard of it before, and the somewhat intimidating appearance of the cheese--that of peanut butter-- was none too appetizing, to say the least.

Barbara told me that the product has attracted a lot of attention. It seems that it is difficult to find but…

Pop just one of these babies into your mouth and you'll see why they're one of the Co-op's most popular bulk items. These organic cocoa dusted almonds from Sunspire Natural Chocolates are sublime. Each fresh, crunchy almond is dipped in chocolate and dusted with bittersweet cocoa. We enjoy these at home on special occasions and we've found that they make a fantastic gift when packaged with a little flair. Packaged in small quantities, they are a simple way to get through the school bake sale.

At Christmas time they are especially popular; I've arrived at the Co-op as early as 10 days before the holiday to find their niche sadly nutless. But with a shelf life of six months, there's plenty of opportunity to stock up now. In fact, they happen to be on sale during the month of…

In Italian, “pepato” simply means peppery. An Italian sheep's milk cheese, Pecorino Pepato is a classic pecorino speckled with whole black peppercorns. Pepato is salty and sharp and the bite of the occasional peppercorn only adds to its intensity.

Pepato is not a protected name, which means that any pecorino producer can add peppercorn to their cheese and call it Pepato. I suggest that you look for a piece that has some age, something firm that can be cut into paper thin slices, which is my favorite way to use pepato. Shaved into a salad with a good olive oil, over eggs, fava or white beans, asparagus, or cauliflower, Pepato is a real winner. It's also a nice addition to mashed potaotes or pasta.

A younger, softer Pepato is milder and less salty and therefore more suited to snacking, especially with olives or cured meats. Even in its milder state, it can easily o…

Considered leaders in WNY’s CSA trend, Native Offerings Farm was established in 1997; the first CSA in Erie County. Stew and Deb Ritchie, who run the farm with their three young children, received certification as a “naturally grown” farm two years ago.

Continuing their progressive approach, they offer a variety of shares. There’s the traditional summer and winter vegetable shares, but there is also a July Start share (a version of the summer share that starts later), a fruit share, a four season share, and pork and beef shares. The vegetable shares are offered in three different sizes: feeding anywhere between one and six people.

The meat shares work differently than the typical produce share. According to Stew, members purchase either a whole or half pig (125 lbs. or 63 lbs. respectively), or a quarter or half cow (125 lb…

Jo'el Drajem's husband, Bruce, is full time military. While he's away she takes care of their children (ages 1 and 6), keeps up on the usual demands of running a household, and also manages the family business. That alone is impressive, but did I mention that the family business is a naturally raised livestock farm?

The Drajems raise Lowline Angus cross beef, Tamworth and Old Spot hogs, and chickens. Their mission is to naturally raise their animals from birth to finish; the animals are raised outside in a pasture, fed grain, and cared for without the use of hormones, steroids, or antibiotics. As they say at Blossom Hill, “We raise our animals the way nature intended.”

In fact, that's the inspiration behind Blossom Hill Farm; Jo'el and Bruce are both college graduates with successful careers (border agent and accountant/Military, respectively) but when they started learnin…

It’s been a while since I’ve tried my hand at a YUM post, but I was asked to fill in for this Labor Day Monday spot. When I first found out that I was going to be contributing I decided to prowl around to see what was new and exciting on the city’s food front. Of course when I ask people that know me about food news they immediately think about a couple of my favorite types of food… sushi being one of them. And that’s how I got my lead that there was a new sushi preparer in our midst.

The Lexington Co-op has joined the ranks of sushi shops. Two weeks ago they dedicated a corner in the prepared food department to rolls, pieces and a special or two. That sounded pretty exciting to me, and even though I normally save my sushi experience for a bar with sake, I couldn’t help but make a trip to The Co-op to see whom the knife wielding, sushi-slinging chef was.

Our chef t…

Tomato season has fully hit its stride, and fresh, locally grown examples of the fruit can be found everywhere. Two weeks ago, Elena Buscarino, BR’s Editor, told me of her home garden, lush with heirloom tomatoes grown from Richard Price’s Faerie Seeds, purchased earlier in the season from Urban Roots. She gushed about their beauty and variation in color and flavor. As an apartment dweller with a thumb boasting only a tinge of green, I am without such a crop, something I lament by mid-summer every year. Then, last week, dinner at Torches resulted in the consumption of a beautiful caprese prepared with Early Girl tomatoes from the garden of one of Torches’ dedicated guests. It was fantastic, but also a bit of salt in a fresh wound.

“Heirloom”, in terms of seeds and produce, basically means that the seed comes from a variety that is many years old and that has been …

Hanova Hills Farm, an earth friendly Forestville, NY farm, is so esteemed by beef cognoscente, that its fine cuts of meat are carried at the prestigious Lobel's, a premier butcher shop that has provided Manhattan with exceptional meats since 1840.

Hanova, arguably one of our area's best kept secrets, brings its bounty to the Elmwood Farmer's Market every week. Those that aren't able to visit the market on one of Buffalo's sunny Saturday mornings can sometimes find Hanova's products at the Lexington Co-op, just a few blocks down the road.

Hanova's beef, a truly delicious alternative, incomparable to the options available at supermarkets and local butchers, is derived from hormone free cows raised in green pastures and fed a healthy diet of hay and corn.

Happy and well cared for animals make for happy taste buds. Hanova Hills' beef is particula…

I love a nice wedge of Morbier. When I was at Lexington Co-op the other day, this little beauty called to me from their well-stocked and more than adequate cheese department, and I’m so glad she did.

Morbier hails from the village of Morbier in the Comté region of France, also the home of delicious Gruyère de Comté. It is a semi-soft raw cow’s milk cheese with a full (yet not overpowering) flavor, slightly bitter aftertaste and fantastically stinky aroma. Morbier is most easily discerned by the thin layer of ash that runs through its center.

Yes, ash. Don’t let it unnerve you. The use of ash in cheese making is an ancient technique, a natural way in which farmers were able to not only preserve their product from pesky insects but to also inhibit the development of a hard rind.

In the case of Morbier, the layer covers not only the outside of the cheese, but als…

Named for the mountain range in South Wales where it is produced, Black Mountain cheddar cheese is a rich and flavorful semi-soft white made with cow's milk. The complex taste comes from the addition of white wine, garlic, and herbs, and is quite striking.

This cheese, purchased at the Lexington Co-op, shines as a stand-alone snack or appetizer with some hearty bread or crackers. Semi-soft white cheeses also pair well with amber and brown ales- try it with a glass of Newcastle Brown Ale for a hearty snack.

Because of the interesting flavor profile of the cheese, cooking options are pretty limited. It would make a great addition to a grilled cheese sandwich, blended with another cheddar. It can also be shredded and used as a topping with certain dishes (soup, for example).

The Lexington Co-op has a great selection of organic cheeses, including