The Rake Magazine

I've been thinking about the ride home, post dinner party. I think I've come up with the perfect parting gift.

I imagine my guests, driving away after a full evening of good food and good wine, inevitably deconstructing the night and sort of relishing the fact that they won't have to do dishes when they get home. Sometimes, if they've had enough wine over the course of the evening, they'll sit in the car with that rather stale mouth-feel, not really wishing for more food, but for a different taste.

That's why I'm sending everyone away with brownies.

Dessert at my table isn't usually an elaborate affair, most of the pomp and circumstance go into the dinner. After a very simple dessert course, there's usually more wine or port or scotch or sometimes cheese. You never leave my house with that overly sticky, sweet feeling you get after many giant restaurant desserts.

So just one square of these densely moist brownies should do the trick. With the help of some seasonal spices and a gentle cayenne kick, they easily cut through the staleness and give one last, perfect bite.

Brownie Bites
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 cup Dutch processed cocoa
4 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, slightly beaten
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350º. Whisk all dry ingredients together in mixing bowl. Add oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir well. Pour into greased 13x9x2 pan and bake on middle rack for about 35 minutes. Tester knife should come out clean. Let cool and dust top with powdered sugar and cinnamon.

This is the week to check out the Midtown Global Market ... I know you've been meaning to get back there.

Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday:
Anyone can give out Snickers or Double Bubble, don't you want to be the cool Halloween House that gives our Chupa Chups or Pocky sticks? Check out the global candy selection and treat your little tricksters to tamarind candies or spicy chile sweets from Fiesta in America. Show up on Wednesday with your tots and trick-or-treat the shops or get in on the pinata action.

Thursday - Sunday:
Now that the silly holiday is over, you can turn your attentions to the proper planning of the Feast. Lori Callister's Farm in the Market is celebrating their expansion. Sign up for your fresh turkey, check out their new deli and cheese section, register for prizes and sample local meats, cheeses, deli salads, crepes, wine and beer! Saturday will feature cooking demos by Mike Phillips of Craftsman (11:30 - 1pm) and Ken Goff (1pm - 2:30), formerly of The Dakota.

Driving in any direction out of Minnesota, witnessing the endless rows of swaying stalks, it's easy to get the feeling that corn is ubiquitous. You have no idea.

The other night I got a sneak peek at a movie that will change how you feel about that drive. King Corn is a documentary film about one acre of corn ... and destiny.

Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis are two college chums who, during some typical post-college introspection, realize their mortality and how it may be linked to what they, and their generation, eat. So they pull up their East Coast stakes and move to Iowa to farm one acre of corn.

From planning to planting to harvesting, the two guys ponder the impact of corn on our country: its dominance as a subsidized crop, its influence on the price of food, its prevalence in fast food, even its effect on the farmers that grow it. Some of what they find shocked me, like the fact that corn-fed cattle are responsible for 70% of the total antibiotic consumption in the US. I personally identified with their efforts to find food free of high fructose corn syrup (a hillarious scene when they try to make HFCS at home). Michael Pollan fans will not be disappointed.

Coincidentally, both Cheney and Ellis have an ancestral link to Greene, IA, the small farming community that plays host to the film and the single acre of corn. To their credit, they never belittle the farmers or town-folk. Instead they invest themselves in the community, trying to find their own roots through local relatives and the honest work of raising a crop.

While this film will be compared to Spurlock's Super Size Me, I think it runs deeper. Instead of a sweeping and snarky attack of a corporate giant, Cheney and Ellis take the fight home, raising the hardest questions first with themselves. These aren't preaching hippies out to condemn corn farmers, they're burger-lovin' college kids who actually care about the crop they've raised and where it ends up. They just have questions, and hopefully you will too.

Right now, King Corn is in limited release around the country, but there are efforts afoot to bring it to the Twin Cities. The timing couldn't be better, or more obviously planned, as congress is due to debate the Farm Bill for the first time in seven years.

This from Patty Brand, the Maven of the Friends of the St. Paul Farmers' Market:

Many of you may know that there was a groundbreaking ceremony for the Indoor Market Hall/Market Flats Project in mid September. Since then work has progressed on digging the hole. We have waited considerable time for this to happen and now we can watch as the building is constructed. The Market should be ready for the growers/producers of the St. Paul Farmers' Market in time for next fall and the coming years.

But that doesn't mean you should forget the market until next Fall ... from now through December you can find onions, potatoes, carrots, brussel sprouts, cauliflower, squash, pumpkins, apples, lettuce, cabbage, poultry, chocolates, breads, cheeses, leeks, beef, pork, lamb, wild rice, beef jerky, flowers, eggs, honey, jams, maple syrup, and more! Doesn't that sound like a Thanksgiving round-up?

Now through Nov 17th ... Saturdays, 6am - 1pm
Wed Nov 21 ... 12 noon - 6pm Turkey delivery date (you can still order your fresh turkey, it's not too late!)
Dec 1 through April 19th ... Saturdays, 9am - 12 noon

As the winter descends, chillier mornings will drive some of the producers inside Jim Golden's Deli just West of the market across Wall St.

Shop on!

big shoulders and good hot dogs

I'm feeling old. I'm headed down to Chicago with some of my brood for a college visit/tour. My daughter is looking at Loyola and University of Chicago and I have to go along and ask all the right questions: how recently was the dining hall renovated? can she access ice cream and Froot Loops 24/7? how close is the nearest pizza place? what's the average distance from dorm to coffee shop?

Post-tour, it's up to me to figure out where to eat. Do we go to my favorite Mia Francesca's and fight for a table just to eat the world's best beef carpaccio? Or do we hit the slightly more kid-friendly and vogue Hot Doug's for a serious dog?

At the very least we should drive by the Green City Market, so she knows there's a reason to cook in the city. And locating the best cheese shop will be essential to survival.

Though the city is famous for its deep dish pizza, my girl happens to be a Punch employee, and thusly a thin-crust snob. We might check out Spacca Napoli just to see their massive oven.

I can't say how I feel about the schools, but I am rooting for the city.