 by Christi Lazar @Bazaarlazarr, Contributing Editor to
www.UglyProduceisBeautiful.org I was all set to write an article about shopping local and in season. I even had my pictures from the farmer’s market shot and ready to go. However, as I was scrolling through my Instagram feed, I saw the announcement on @UglyProduceIsBeautiful that Jonathan Bloom had joined the board of advisors for Ugly Produce Is Beautiful. This post contained a quote by Bloom, “If you’re looking for it, you see food waste everywhere – at restaurants, in large portions and even in your own refrigerator.” At first I continued scrolling, but my scrolling slowed, and much like Cher in the movie Clueless, I realized I was in love with Josh. Or, in this case, had more of a food waste problem in my own refrigerator than I was comfortable admitting. Being a foodie with a passion for cooking has led me to try all sorts of recipes. Some of them work (see Instagram), and some of them don’t (will never see the light of day). While I try to scale back recipes, it’s hard to take a recipe for 8 and make it a recipe for 2. Thus, food waste. Whether it’s extra produce, or simply leftovers that don’t get eaten fast enough, eventually the trash bag fills up. Of course this realization snowballed into taking stock of my entire kitchen the other night (imagine spices, jars, cans and the contents of my refrigerator strewn everywhere) in an effort to see what I was about to waste. The result, is what I’m calling my perfect summer salad called the Heirloom Tomato, Watermelon and Prosciutto Salad, which contains the following kitchen finds:
The moral of this story, aside from the creation of a refreshing summer salad, is that you can be contributing to food waste even if you buy organic and support your local growers. An important part of our food waste problem stops when we become aware enough to only buy what we need. And yes, I’m still trying to piece my kitchen back together! Join UPIB and follow @UglyProduceIsBeautiful and @bazaarlazarr on Instagram.
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 by Ryan and Adam @HusbandsThatCook, Contributing Editors to
www.UglyProduceisBeautiful.org There’s nothing like a tall glass of ugly apple juice on a hot day. It is just as tasty and refreshing as “beautiful” apple juice made from “pretty” apples. In fact, if you did a blind taste test, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two. From childhood, it is instilled in us that outward appearances aren’t important; that true beauty comes from within. This also applies to fresh produce, but over time we have forgotten these universal rules. We have become discriminatory toward the fruits and vegetables we buy, ignoring the imperfect ones with spots and wrinkles, which end up being thrown in the garbage even though they taste exactly the same. Every year, nearly 3 trillion pounds of food is wasted—more than enough to feed all 800 million people worldwide who suffer from hunger. That means 40% of all the food in the US is going directly into the trash. So what can we do? Sarah Phillips created an informative website called www.UglyProduceIsBeautiful.com where you can learn more about these issues, and helpful solutions to fix them. When she contacted us last month asking if we would like to contribute a recipe to her site, we felt it was important to help spread this message and thought it would be fun to create something beautiful and delicious with ugly produce. So we rescued some ugly apples from our local market and with just a few simple ingredients and a couple easy steps, turned them into delicious Apple Rose Pastries. Flaky and buttery, rich with caramelized brown sugar, and swirled with delicate slices of sweet apples, these elegant pastries prove that even the most homely fruit can be the start of something beautiful. Simply made with pink lady apples, brown sugar, butter, and a splash of lemon, these Apple Rose Pastry miniature desserts taste like homemade apple pie! The fresh apple slices soften as they bake, melting into the sweet filling inside the flaky crust. For the first round of recipe testing, we experimented with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, but those flavors tasted more like autumn potpourri than a classic pie. Once we simplified the ingredients and stripped everything back, it allowed the pure flavor of the apples to truly shine. This particular variety works perfectly here as these ladies are celebrated for their pleasantly tart flavor and satisfyingly sweet finish. Seasoned with melted butter and brown sugar that caramelizes between the delicate pink and white apple petals, these blushing flowers make a beautiful and tasty bouquet! The Apple Rose Pastries are easy to prepare despite their intricate design. If you own a mandoline, you can slice the apples in seconds. If you don’t, it will take just a few extra minutes to slice them by hand. Once the apples are prepped, you place them on the puff pastry dough with some butter and brown sugar, roll it up like a sleeping bag, then bake it in the oven! In just forty minutes, these golden pink roses glowing with caramel are sizzling and ready to be dusted with a puff of powdered sugar. Since we’ve been shamelessly eating them like popcorn around here, we’ve learned that these addicting treats also make a wondrous breakfast. A Mother’s Day brunch blessed with a platter of these stunning edible roses will win everyone’s heart at the table. And of course, they make a true spectacle of a dessert as well. Basically, you can eat them all day just like we do! Look for ugly apples at farmers markets and encourage your local grocery stores to carry them. There is so much you can do with them: ugly applesauce, ugly cider, ugly apple fritters… The choices are endless, and all of them are beautiful. Join UPIB and follow @UglyProduceIsBeautiful and @HusbandsThatCook on Instagram. |
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November 2016
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