EA Co-op

Some of you know that I’ve gotten involved with the East Aurora Cooperative Market, which is still in the forming stages here. They have a board and are working on growing their member base before moving onto the next step, such as working on selecting an actual space for the store and raising money.

Yikes! Totally did not notice the woman in the tie-dyed spandex shorts when I was taking the photo…

Anyway, with my writing/PR/photography background and interests, I’ve joined the “media/communications” team of volunteers, mostly in a photographing and blogging capacity. The first thing I’ve gotten involved with is the mural project.

Alix Martin, above left and center, is a local artist who owns a gallery and has also gotten involved with the co-op. She volunteered to paint a mural on the outside brick wall of the co-op building. She’s been recruiting youngsters, some her own and some from other members of the co-op, to help with the project.

What I’ve done is document the mural on the EA co-op’s blog. I’ve really enjoyed meeting new people through the co-op and delving more into photography and blogging, although I STILL have yet to really teach myself how to use Andrew’s camera. With school now, I’m not sure I see that happening any time soon…

But, thankfully my new friends at the co-op don’t think my lack of photography skills is a show-stopper, so I’ll keep on clicking away, both at the camera and the keyboard. In fact, I have another project to start working on: being their FOOD BLOGGER!

I cannot tell you how excited I am to do this. The more I think about it, the more perfect it seems to me. I love blogging about food, but thefrozenpineapple isn’t just about food; it’s about everything that makes me, well, ME. I’ve struggled a lot with how to “define” this blog (not that it’s necessary to do so, by any means) and I’ve never felt like an ‘exclusive’ food blogger, because there is just so much more to this than food.

Which is why being the food blogger for the co-op will be a fantastic complement to what I’m doing now!

I’ll write a weekly “food column” of sorts that will focus on seasonal, local produce with information and recipes. I’m going to try to come up with as many recipes on my own as I can for this “column,” which I’m looking forward to and see as a bit of a challenge. I’m highly recipe-driven, not because I’m not creative, but because I enjoy actually USING the cookbooks I’ve bought and really, these cookbook authors know what they’re doing. Anyway, I’ll try to come up with recipes on my own, but depending on lots of factors (my school work and time, ingredients, creativity), I may have to resort to promoting some of my favorite chef’s recipes as well.

I’m starting with a promo for the “Locavore Challenge,” which is run by the Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, and is something the co-op is helping to promote. It’s a month-long campaign to both educate and encourage consumers to buy/grow/eat local, organic food. In just perusing the list of ways to be involved, I realized I already do a bunch of them already, shopping at a farmer’s market, growing a backyard garden, buying local honey and composting kitchen scraps. One of the things to do for the challenge is to either host or attend a potluck in the month of September that features local, organic food. The co-op wants to get the word out and give members ideas on what to make for their potluck, which is where I come in!

My post on that should be out this weekend, so I’ll let you all know when that goes live. So exciting!

If you’d like to follow me and my “food column,” (I’m trying to come up with a short, catchy “name” for it to differentiate it from other posts I do for the co-op, like the mural project or other “newsy” items) stay tuned to the EA co-op’s blog to see what they’re up to and what I come up with for them. I’ve linked to their blog on my blogroll, which is in the lower right of your computer screen.

we love rick’s

Rick’s on Main. It’s fantastic. We LOVE it. We’ve been three times since “moving” here, which averages out to about once a month. It’s certainly a splurge, but it’s so worth it. The food really is THAT good, and you cannot beat the atmosphere, especially if you sit outside (like we did) on a nice night. We were celebrating the meeting of my weight-loss goal and me going back to school. And we won’t have many more chances to sit outside around here, as the weather will cool off in less than a month…

We started out the evening on a mission: to take a new photo for my blog “gravatar,” which is the photo of me you see on the right. So, I got all dolled-up (Rick’s is nice, so I would have dressed up anyway, but I pulled out all the stops thinking my image last night might be posted on the internet for the world to see) and we started by taking some shots in Andrew’s parents; yard before leaving.

This is the best photo we got, and I wasn’t even smiling! Drat. Better luck next time. The lighting just wasn’t right.

We arrived at Rick’s and got a table outside. The temperature was in the upper 70s and beautiful. I ordered a glass of the Concannon Chardonnay, which the server said was only slightly dry, buttery with oak-y undertones. The last time I was at Rick’s I got a glass of the Lotus Chardonnay, which is crisper and fruiter. While I’m no wine expert, or even very knowledgeable for that matter, it was neat to taste a difference between the fruity, crisp wines I normally drink and the Concannon. It was incredibly smooth, and, well, buttery. It lacked the “bite” I’m used to, and I think I learned that I do prefer the crisper, fruitier wines. Next time: Lotus!

To start, we split the Pepper and Onion Stack. It was a fried yellow bell pepper bottom, topped with a fried poblano pepper ring (middle), topped with a fried onion ring. All this sat on tomatoes and fresh mozzarella drizzled with a balsamic reduction, which I ate most of. YUM. Inventive yet tame enough for Andrew.

We also split the Fall Creek Salad, which was Andrew’s choice. It was full of blueberries, strawberries, mandarin oranges and dried cranberries. My half also had feta, and this was served with three tiny wontons filled with cream cheese.

For dinner Andrew ordered the Espresso-dusted tenderloin, topped with fried shitake mushroom strips and sweet potato fries. I love that he likes sweet potato fries.

I was in the mood for salmon (I usually am at nice restaurants) and ordered the wild Coho salmon with yellow tomato and olive “relish”, atop a creamy garlic and asparagus risotto. INCREDIBLE. After our appetizer and salad, I wasn’t very hungry anymore (grrr), so I took much of this home. And the salmon fillet was GIANT. So, I’m looking forward to that for dinner tonight!

After dinner I was thinking about ice cream (Andrew had mentioned it earlier), why I’m not sure since I was FULL TO THE BRIM. Seriously, what is wrong with me?? Thankfully, Fowler’s is on their fall hours now, so they weren’t open, and Andrew suggested we walk to Taste for some late-night tea and coffee. He got a latte and I enjoyed a cup of warm ginger peach tea.

The jacket above is one of my best Goodwill finds; a Gap almost-brand-new navy blue blazer. LOVE IT.

pineapples and mangoes…all the way from texas!

Someone in Texas loves me 🙂

My dear friend, Heather, sent me a little care package filled with all sorts of yummy things that remind her of me. Actually, she had a CD she needed to mail to me, so she thought she’d include some goodies…except that she forgot to put the CD in there! That is so Heather 🙂

It was a pineapple/mango-themed box with a few other goodies. Can you believe she sent a two-liter of soda?? In a box. From Texas. Apparently it’s big down there. Well, everything is big down there.

I’ve already tried the “Just Mango” bits in a cup of tea. Neat!

Lemon Bars…ahh, this is a joke between Heather and myself that WILL. NEVER. GO. AWAY. In a nutshell: in a rare moment of imperfection (ha!), I had to throw away a WHOLE BATCH of from-scratch lemon bars I’d made for her and my joint going-away party. I just had to re-do them! I thought I’d figured out what I’d done wrong, but after peeking in the oven at the second attempt, found that the same tragedy was about to occur! Heather and I quickly grabbed the sheet pan and hurriedly started fixing the still-hot shortbread crust with our bare hands! The memory should sting, but it doesn’t, and I grew up on these Krusteaz-brand goodies (my mom was a fan). So yes, I’ll give the box a try next time.

The note says, “My princess, you are purrfect.” All I can think about when I see the cover of this card is Antonio Banderas’s voice as Puss in Boots from Shrek, saying that phrase in a sultry way to the white cat. I love it.

Aww, she doesn’t want me to get sick! I agree, the Emergen-C powder drink packets are awesome. They come in all sorts of flavors now, but I used to have the orange and raspberry stashed away.

Yes, Heather does know me well. I LOVE off-the-wall grains for cooking. Hello amaranth and teff flours!

Boy, does she know me well! What could be better than mango jam? PINEAPPLE and mango jam! I cannot wait to try this stuff…

Thank you, Heather, for all my goodies! Give my love to Margaret and Silas–we miss all three of you so much!